Invasive test-taking software has become mandatory in many places, and some companies are retaliating against those who speak out. As a privacy-minded computer science student preparing to start his first year at Miami University, Erik Johnson was concerned this fall when he learned that two of his professors would require him to use the digital proctoring software Proctorio for their classes. The software turns students’ computers into powerful invigilators—webcams monitor eye and head movements, microphones record noise in the room, and algorithms log how often a test taker moves their mouse, scrolls up and down on a page, and pushes keys. The software flags any behavior its algorithm deems suspicious for later viewing by the class instructor. In the end, Johnson never had to use Proctorio. Not long after he began airing his concerns on Twitter and posted a simple analysis of the software’s code on Pastebin, he discovered that his IP address was banned from accessing the company’s services. He also received a direct message from Proctorio’s CEO, Mike Olsen, who demanded that he take the Pastebin posts down, according to a copy of the message Johnson shared with Motherboard. Johnson refused to do so, and is now waiting to see if Proctorio will follow up with more concrete legal action, as it has done to other critics in recent weeks.

Hollers are sort of like the yodels of the American South.

Over the past week, Trump declined to commit to a peaceful, orderly transition of power, no matter who wins the 2020 presidential election, declaring at one point: “We’re going to have to see what happens.” To horrified voters, onlookers, and the Democratic opposition, it was another clear instance of the sitting president openly telegraphing his plans to seize power, something some administration officials fear will soon take form within the federal government and among major party organs. But to Trump, it was… funny as hell.

The augmented reality startup was undone by profligate spending and its own hype. Investors finally lost patience when the pandemic struck.

We live in a complicated world. A lot of different things have been going on, including just in the last few months. But if you have to really summarize the drift and the shift of the last 40 years, it’s been a war on taxation. And it’s been a massive redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top of American life through taxation. Since the ’80s, the top 1% has , and the bottom half of Americans have lost $900 billion of wealth on average — and much of that was prosecuted through the tax code.

The medal awarded on Friday lauded the “lifesaving bravery and devotion to duty” for work detecting land mines in Cambodia. Its recipient: a rat named Magawa. Magawa is the first rat to receive the award — a gold medal bestowed by the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals, a British charity, that is often called the “animal’s George Cross” after an honor usually given to civilians that recognizes acts of bravery and heroism. Not since the fictional Remy of the 2007 Disney-Pixar film “Ratatouille” has a rat done so much to challenge the public’s view of the animals as creatures more commonly seen scuttling through sewers and the subway: Magawa has discovered 39 land mines and 28 pieces of unexploded ordnance, and helped clear more than 1.5 million square feet of land over the past four years. “Magawa’s work directly saves and changes the lives of men, women and children who are impacted by these land mines,” said Jan McLoughlin, the director general of the charity, which bestowed the award in an online ceremony. “Every discovery he makes reduces the risk of injury or death for local people.”

Last week, President Donald Trump said he was “counting on the federal court system to make it so” that whatever preliminary tally is complete on Election Day will be validated as the final vote count, meaning states would not have the opportunity to count the anticipated record-high numbers of mail-in ballots. This would functionally end American democracy. And it appears that other Republicans are going all in on the idea that we should just not count actual votes.

Two elderly women in small towns in Wisconsin voted by mail during April’s presidential nominating contests. Both were sheltering in place as coronavirus surged across their state.

First came the Never Trumpers, and I did not speak out, because they stood against Donald Trump. Then came the Lincoln Project, and I did not speak out, because their videos went viral. Then came the Chamber of Commerce, and by then it was too late.

Two years ago, Reddit had the internet’s biggest QAnon problem. Today, that problem is gone—but the company can’t really explain why.

“I promise you as a Republican, if the Supreme Court decides that Joe Biden wins, I will accept the result,” Mr. Graham added. “The court will decide, and if Republicans lose, we’ll accept the result.”

Joliet Police Department officers' lawsuits are among at least 12 current federal complaints against the agency. The men say their civil rights lawsuits are part of a decades-long history of discrimination. When Lionel Allen joined the Joliet Police Department in Illinois in 1989, he knew that it had a reputation for being hostile to Black officers. Around the same time, the department, which patrols a small city about an hour southwest of Chicago, was placed under a citywide affirmative action plan demanding the hiring of more Black officers. But Allen didn’t expect that the battle to reform the department would take decades—or involve him personally. As he rose through the ranks, Allen watched the department endure multiple scandals, including officers accused of using racial slurs and allegedly harassing a Black female officer. In 2018, Allen sued the department in federal court for race discrimination. He retired the following year after three decades on the force. In his federal complaint, Allen says the Joliet police tried to fire him for complaining about, among other things, white officers pepper spraying Black children and making fun of Black people while on duty. In November 2019, another Black officer, David Jackson, sued the department in federal court, claiming that he was retaliated against for defending Allen in interviews with local media.

What makes a pee-pee go poot-poot?

A Massachusetts construction worker’s love of black licorice wound up costing him his life. Eating a bag and a half every day for a few weeks threw his nutrients out of whack and caused the 54-year-old man’s heart to stop, doctors reported Wednesday. “Even a small amount of licorice you eat can increase your blood pressure a little bit,” said Dr. Neel Butala, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital who described the case in the New England Journal of Medicine. The problem is glycyrrhizic acid, found in black licorice and in many other foods and dietary supplements containing licorice root extract. It can cause dangerously low potassium and imbalances in other minerals called electrolytes.

Ann sat behind a mess of paperwork on her kitchen table, attempting to prepare a lesson plan for her next batch of second graders as best she could. The school year was starting in August — just under two months away. Stressful as it was to try and figure out how to teach kids over Zoom, the task oddly proved to be a good distraction from the crumbling state of the world. Until her retired 82-year-old father called from California. Immediately, Ann’s stomach dropped; she sensed something was wrong. Living a state away in Nevada, the staunchly liberal 58-year-old had spent the last several months listening to her conservative father argue that the coronavirus was nothing more than the flu, a Democratic hoax designed in a lab to undermine President Trump. As much as she begged her dad to take the pandemic seriously, she felt powerless against “the barrage of information coming out of Fox News” that he spent his days consuming. Not long after the pandemic began, her dad started traveling and going out to eat without a mask on. Unsurprisingly, he quickly became sick — so sick he was too weak to eat or drink water. Yet he remained in denial that it was COVID, and refused to get tested or go to the hospital. Ann did all she could from out of state and checked in with him multiple times a day, seeing to it that he hydrated and ate something when she did.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death also felt like the end of a series of myths about American politics.

“The one way in which the ending of Lend-Lease really hits me is by producing a shortage of detective mags in this country. […] [I]f the U.S.A. won’t give us detective mags we can’t give them philosophy, & so America will be the loser in the end.”

Paunchy former New Jersey governor Chris Christie once threatened to sit on Mike Bloomberg — during a bizarre, jealous rant involving the Queen of England.

Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested on Thursday that Florida could create a “bill of rights” to protect college students who face expulsion for attending parties under the strict Covid-19 guidelines schools are attempting to enforce. Calling the policies “incredibly draconian” at a public health event, the Republican governor said the state is exploring its options for students without going into much detail. The idea comes as school leaders in Florida and beyond threaten stiff penalties for breaking social distancing rules in an effort to keep coronavirus transmission low and campuses open throughout the full semester.

HIGHLAND COUNTY, Ohio (WKRC) - A man who escaped from the Highland County Courthouse during his sentencing remains on the run Thursday. Nickolaus Garrison, 34, got away Tuesday. Caption: Nickolaus Garrison escaped the Highland County Courthouse during his sentencing on Tuesday. (Highland County Courts) Garrison was in the Highland County Common Pleas Court for sentencing on a felony meth possession charge. He faced up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.