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• 43.8% of lesbian women and 61.1% of bisexual women have experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner at some point in their lifetime, as opposed to 35% of heterosexual women.
• 26% of gay men and 37.3% of bisexual men have experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime, in comparison to 29% of heterosexual men.

After hearing about a domestic abuse case between two lesbians here in Portland, I had no idea that domestic violence in the LGBTQ community was so high – especially between female couples where the rates are almost double that of straight couples or gay men.

• https://ncadv.org/blog/posts/domestic-violence-and-the-lgbtq-community

I love mapping software, and the Google Maps teams has done some amazing work. It’s not just mapping and route-finding to more incredible things like Google Earth and Google Earth VR. They’ve got features that auto-update store hours, update street speed limits by reading the road signs, how crowded transit routes are, and trips. Now they’re adding a new immersive view.

Say you’re planning a trip to London and want to figure out the best sights to see and places to eat. With a quick search, you can virtually soar over Westminster to see the neighborhood and stunning architecture of places, like Big Ben, up close. With Google Maps’ helpful information layered on top, you can use the time slider to check out what the area looks like at different times of day and in various weather conditions, and see where the busy spots are. Looking for a spot for lunch? Glide down to street level to explore nearby restaurants and see helpful information, like live busyness and nearby traffic. You can even look inside them to quickly get a feel for the vibe of the place before you book your reservation.

It starts rolling out in Los Angeles, London, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo later this year with more cities coming soon.

There’s also a new Live View that has AR elements to help you orient yourself to destinations. What’s interesting is that people with vision problems are now finding it very helpful.

It’s a reminder that really innovative things can come from helping those with disabilities and re-affirming the value of their lives. That’s a fundamentally different approach than the alternative.

Links:

• Google announcement https://blog.google/products/maps/three-maps-updates-io-2022/
• Google planets: https://blog.google/products/maps/space-out-planets-google-maps/
• https://www.oxo.com/blog/behind-the-scenes/behind-design-oxos-iconic-good-grips-handles
• https://www.cbsnews.com/news/down-syndrome-iceland/

Scalping on tech items has been going on since people lined up outside stores for the first gaming consoles. It is not much different than ticket scalpers. But having the audacity to try and scalp items that are not even out of stock and available for immediate pickup is pretty out there. But here’s exactly one of these craigslist sales happening here in even lowly Portland.

I know, they’re probably counting on people not checking. I know they’re likely banking on the particular model selling out and grabbing a sale from a desperate person needing one that day. You only need to get one person to make money after all…

I’m not great a cutting onions – but man this guy sure is.

Senpai Kai walks you through all the different kinds of ways to make Michelin Star rated cuts and when you might use them. His other videos show you how to make other Michelin star versions of various dishes. It’s interesting to see how it is all made.

Gregory Cannon like’s Tetris. He recently wrote an AI that plays NES Tetris extremely well. It’s not perfect as it uses a search & heuristic approach, but boy can it play some Tetris.

Source code here: https://github.com/GregoryCannon/StackRabbit

He also wrote a Tetris trainer that lets you draw a particular Tetris board layout and then get an AI recommendation about the best play.

William Shatner played some big roles. Everyone knows him as Captain Kirk in Star Trek, or the panicky passenger in the Twilight Zone episode Nightmare at 20000 Feet, or his bizarre foray into cover songs. He also had some offbeat roles like Incubus – filmed entirely in the dead-on-arrival created language of Esperanto.

I recently watch The Outer Limits season 2 episode 2 titled “Cold Hands, Warm Heart”. He plays an astronaut – which is some real-life foreshadowing of his later roles. It’s also got some really good Shatner over-acting in it and definitely worth a watch for people wanting to see some of his early ultra-cheese.

Shopping on Black Friday is not as simple as “Buy it because it’s the cheapest price all year!” You have to actually do your homework to figure out which items are actually a good buy.

Here’s some great resources to help you figure it out.

Check out the Black Friday ads to make your plan:

The first thing you should do is be prepared for Black Friday before it comes. You’ll do this by starting a few weeks in advance by reading through the ‘leaked’ Black Friday ad scans and seeing if there is any deals you’re interested in.

• Slickdeals Black Friday page – Not only does it have all the ad scans, it also has the normal Slickdeals voting system so you can tell what deals are actually deals.
  • Black Friday sub-category

Check the reviews:

Sadly, it’s all too common for review sites to be purchased and largely just paid advertising. Anything endorsed by Twitch streamers, celebrities, or any online personality through Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc – are almost 100% guaranteed to be paid advertising. Websites that are reliable and accurate one year turn into paid promotion sites with shocking regularity. You need to check who owns the sites and see if the founders are still standing behind their reviews.

• Hardware Unboxed – Good rating site that’s probably best for its gaming monitor reviews
  • Monitors Unboxed – A dedicated subchannel of Hardware Unboxed that is just monitors.
• RTings – good for TV’s and monitors

Tools for reviews:

• CamelCamelCamel – check this historical price of any item on Amazon and see if it’s really on sale, or not. Just be aware that Amazon often changes the product links, serial numbers, and other tricks so you can’t get a long-term historical price on some items.
• FakeSpot – a website that uses AI to determine how fake the reviews of a product are. Sadly, too many products are subject to very easily manipulated fake reviews. Some utilize very sophisticated methods, other markets like the mattress review industry are almost fully controlled or owned by the mattress companies themselves.
  • Interesting article from Fast Company on how mattress companies bullied, coerced with lawsuits, and bought out review sites. This was from 2016, so you can be assured it’s become more standard practice.