Fighting for America

I've spent the last couple of weeks trying - and mostly failing - to test Ikea's new Matter-over-Thread gear. These highly anticipated smart home devices include programmable buttons, smart bulbs, plugs, and temperature and motion sensors - all of which should work with any smart home platform and start at just $6.

But I've hit several walls trying to connect them to any smart home platform, and I'm not alone. The Tradfri subreddit is filled with Ikea customers sharing similar frustrations, reviews on Ikea's website point to issues, and colleagues at The Verge have also been having problems.

Of the six devices I've tried to connect, I've …

Read the full story at The Verge.

By Sam Zeff

On Oct. 21 the entire Lenexa, Kansas police patrol division was hunting Canyen Ashworth.

At 1:50 that afternoon, the department issued a BOLO — police shorthand for “be on the lookout” — for the 28-year-old information technology consultant and sometimes writer.

There were two problems. They didn’t have a charge, and he was the wrong man.

“The first emotion that comes to mind is, is jarring for sure. And then I think after that comes being pissed off,” he said after KCUR informed him of the criminal probe.

A KCUR investigation discovered that Lenexa city officials linked two vastly different events that led police to wrongly suspect Ashworth of an unspecified crime.

The first was pasting posters on city property near Lenexa City Hall and the city recreation center just off 87th Street Parkway.

The second was a guest column critical of Lenexa Police that Ashworth wrote for the Kansas City Star.

The department issued the BOLO three weeks after the column published.

“I really don’t know how else to interpret that, other than somebody didn’t like what I said. So, they started looking for reasons to get me in trouble,” Ashworth said.

Micah Kubic, the ACLU of Kansas Executive Director, called the investigation a wanton and disgraceful abuse of power by Lenexa police.

“George Orwell told us about thought crime as a cautionary fable, and this instead seems like an attempt to put it into action,” he said.

The “Paper Hanger”

Emails obtained by KCUR using the Kansas Open Records Act show Lenexa police’s interest in Ashworth started Sept. 26, four days before his Star column, with a completely unrelated event.

At 7:37 that morning, then-Police Chief Dawn Layman sent an email to several city staff members. The subject line said “Poster ‘Paper Hanger’ Update.” She attached a photo of a poster pasted to a light pole. It showed a federal agent wearing a vest with “Police ICE” and “Kidnapping Taskforce” on it and the words “remember when we killed fascists.”

City Manager Beccy Yocham responded eight minutes later to say the city was removing that poster and other similar ones.

Six minutes after that, Lenexa police responded to the recreation center. The report, obtained through the Kansas Open Records Act, said four posters were discovered “around the civic campus in violation of Lenexa city ordinances.” It did not cite the specific ordinance. Posters about lost pets and community events were generally not removed.

The email from Layman also suggested a criminal investigation was underway.

First Amendment attorney Bernie Rhodes said a city can have rules about posters in a public place, for example, to make sure they don’t obstruct drivers’ vision. But those rules must be “content neutral.”

Removing posters that offend some city officials is not allowed.

Rhodes has represented KCUR in past reporting, but not for this story.

“The idea of putting out, the equivalent of, an all-points bulletin, BOLO, on an individual for putting up posters is both a rejection of the First Amendment, and a really ridiculous misuse of resources,” said Kubic, from the ACLU.

None of this had anything to do with Ashworth, at first.

“Is everyone really welcome here?”

On Sept. 30, the Star published his op-ed that was somewhat critical of the Lenexa police.

Ashworth took the department to task for investigating former city councilwoman Melanie Arroyo’s citizenship and having advance warning of a July ICE raid even though they did not assist federal agents.

He wrote the police and city “must ensure policy and practice embody their stated values and hopes of fostering greater inclusion and trust if those values are to be meaningful.”

“I don’t think that that’s an extreme of a statement,” Ashworth told KCUR.

But former police chief Layman — who now leads the Breckenridge, Colorado department — apparently disagreed.

The morning the column published, the department’s public information officer distributed it to the command staff.

An hour later, Layman sent the email, obtained with an open records request, to Lindsey Calvillo, a department crime analyst. Calvillo is a seasoned investigator who works with the Kansas City Metro Squad and is a vice president with the International Association of Crime Analyst, according to the IACA website.

Layman was leaning toward a criminal investigation into Ashworth.

The investigation was handed off to Meagan Laffey, another Lenexa crime analyst.

At some point, the department linked Ashworth to the “Paper Hanger.”

“I’m not going talk about internal communications within our department, especially if it has an investigative matter to it,” Lenexa Police Chief Eric Schmitz told KCUR. Schmitz was named chief in December and was deputy chief during the Ashworth investigation.

He said the “Paper Hanger” investigation had nothing to do with Ashworth’s critical column in the Star.

“This is a case where some posters were attempted to be permanently affixed to the building. This wasn’t like somebody used Scotch tape,” he said. ”They’re gluing them to the side of the building. That’s why they’re being removed, because they’re doing damage the building,” he said.

Lenexa Mayor Julie Sayers said she knows nothing about the police investigation into Ashworth. “I do not have any information or knowledge about the details of the criminal investigation,” she said in an emailed statement.

She also said the “Paper Hanger” posters had the potential to damage municipal property.

“It was readily apparent to City staff that the adhesive had the potential to damage the City property it was affixed to, which it did,” her statement said.

“Make your own case”

On Oct. 21, Laffey sent the BOLO email to all patrol officers, dispatchers and commanders. “A suspect has been developed in the case of the City Center Posters,” it began.

That suspect was Canyen Ashworth.

The email contained a screen grab of a man in a black hoodie, black pants and black sneakers. It was from surveillance video of the “Paper Hanger.” A photo of Ashworth’s car showing the rear license plate was paired with it.

The department had been tracking Ashworth’s movement around Lenexa using the city’s license plate reader system.

The email also said the car was parked at his apartment “as of this afternoon,” indicating an officer had checked to make sure he was home.

“He doesn’t get out much; he last hit a week ago today and appeared to come from McKeevers,” Laffey wrote. McKeevers is a market just south of 87th Street.

“This is MYOC,” Laffey said.

In Lenexa police parlance, MYOC is shorthand for “make your own case.” With no arrest warrant for Ashworth, police were looking for any reason to stop him.

The case seemed to hinge on shoes. “If you contact him (Ashworth) please note his shoes, as the suspect has only worn the ones pictured below,” officers were instructed.

Chief Schmitz described MYOC this way: “You need to build your own probable cause, your own reasonable suspicion. It’s pretty much that, make your own case.”

Kubic, from the ACLU, is especially worried about that.

“The idea that you can essentially just make something up to throw against the wall and see if it sticks to be able to go after someone, is a really chilling and dangerous thing,” he said.

Rhodes said it is much worse than an attempt to merely chill free speech.

“I would say that this is subzero,” he said.

Rhodes also called it a misuse of police resources by the former police chief.

“She’s using the city’s license plate readers not to combat a wave of armed robberies, but to track down the everyday movements of an everyday citizen who dared to write the Kansas City Star and express their opinion,” Rhodes said.

Posters and police

Mayor Sayers said the city does not have a formal policy about posters on city property. 

“It stands to reason that a single, small poster or flyer affixed with something like Scotch tape about a lost dog or garage sale may not be reported or removed as quickly as numerous larger posters designed to attract attention,” she said.

All of this happened while Layman was interviewing for the job in Breckenridge.

The town announced her hiring on Oct. 29, and she took over the department on Dec. 1.

“Dawn Layman brings a wealth of experience, innovative leadership, and a strong community-focused philosophy that aligns perfectly with Breckenridge’s values,” Shannon Haynes, Town Manager of Breckenridge, said in the announcement.

Ashworth isn’t so sure about her values.

“I’m thinking, okay, if I wrote this one article and I got people that pissed off to where they were trying to criminally indict me or charge me with something, what the hell are they doing to other people that don’t have what I have?” he said.

Ashworth says he likes Lenexa, and will continue to write and speak out.

“I’m a little bit more scared now,” he said, ”but if anything, I’m also more pissed off because they shouldn’t be doing that. And they should know that.”

As KCUR’s metro reporter, I hold public officials accountable. Are cities spending your tax money wisely? Are police officers and other officials acting properly? I will track down malfeasance by seeking open records and court documents, and by building relationships across the city. But I also need you — email me with any tips at sam@kcur.org, find me on Twitter @samzeff or call me at 816-235-5004.

Archeologists in Germany have unearthed a mysterious underground tunnel built centuries ago within a prehistoric burial ground, marking a “very special” discovery according to a recent release from the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology (LDA) of Saxony-Anhalt.

The buried tunnel measures about two-feet wide and four-feet high, and was likely constructed anywhere between 800 to 1,100 years ago near the town of Reinstedt. Archeologists found pottery that dates to about the 13th or 14th century in the chamber, and also discovered a separate cavity that contained a horseshoe, a fox skeleton, and some small mammal bones. A layer of charcoal in the tunnel suggests that fires were once lit in this space. 

The tunnel is just one of hundreds of similar structures, known as erdstalls, that have been  discovered across Europe. Fascinatingly, nobody knows what function they served, with the debated possibilities including use as hideaways or sites for cultic activity. Erdstalls are “man-made underground tunnel systems, sometimes with chamber-like extensions,” said Jochen Fahr, an archaeologist at LDA who organized the excavation in an email to 404 Media. “Around a dozen such findings are known from the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, which means that the density of these structures is lower in our region than it is in others. Their function has not yet been clarified and may also vary from case to case.” 

“Possible interpretations include hiding places in case of danger or storage cellars,” Fahr continued. “A cultic-religious function could also be possible, as a kind of Christian chapel. The interpretation of these structures is made more difficult by the fact that the examples known to us contain little or no archaeological finds, which makes it very difficult to draw any firm conclusions on their function.”

Researchers initially set out to survey this site last year before the construction of wind turbines in the area. The site was already known as the location of a trapezoidal ditch that was used as a burial ground by the Baalberge people, who lived in Saxony-Anhalt during the Neolithic period of prehistory 6,000 years ago.  

“In the course of the site‘s further investigation and documentation, the erdstall was discovered,” Fahr explained. “It had been dug into the southern part of the trapezoidal ditch thousands of years after the ditch‘s construction. Initially, the erdstall appeared as a well-defined elongated oval pit, about two meters long and up to 75 centimeters wide, which cut the older ditch almost at right angles.” 

“This led to the assumption that it could be a burial—but the fact that the finding then turned out to be something completely different, that it was in fact an erdstall, was an unexpected surprise that caused fascination and excitement among the team,” he added.

The team speculated that the people who dug out this passageway may have deliberately selected the ancient burial ground as a secret hideaway. The area may have been “generally avoided by the population due to its special nature—perhaps a pagan burial site—and was therefore particularly suitable as a hiding place,” according to the press release.

Hundreds of erdstalls have been found across Europe, and they are often associated with local folklore passed down across generations. Because the tunnels are normally extremely narrow, some legends cast erdstalls as home to dwarfs, goblins, and other diminutive mythical creatures, which is why they are known as Schratzlloch (goblin holes) or Zwergloch (dwarf holes) in some regions.  

Some of the most famous examples include the Beate Greithanner erdstall, a passage that was discovered in 2011 after a dairy cow fell into it. The Ratgöbluckn erdstall in Austria is one of the rare passages that is big enough to safely accommodate tourists.  

The new erdstall found at Reinstedt deepens the mystery of these structures, which have intrigued archeologists for decades and still remain largely unexplained.  

“The excavation has been completed, the team is currently in the process of evaluating the findings and finds,” Fahr said. “In this context, my colleagues are also in the process of delving deeper into the topic of the erdstall, based on the latest literature on the subject, for example. A scholarly publication is planned.” 

“It is also hoped that further findings in the future will help us to better understand the phenomenon of erdstalls and, in particular, to further clarify their function,” he concluded.

 

From the collection of the Met, an Egyptian artist’s sketch of a sparrow circa 1479–1458 BCE. Much of the art that filters down to us from ancient civilizations was used for official purposes (state, religion, commerce); it’s nice to see something simpler like this drawing. Archaeologist Alison Fisk:

This may have been a practice drawing of the sparrow hieroglyph which was used for words meaning ‘small’, ‘poor’, or ‘bad’

The Egyptian artisans who decorated tombs and temples, drew sketches and jotted down notes on the plentiful limestone flakes which were by-products of temple and rock-cut tomb construction. Egyptologists refer to them as ‘ostraca’ (singular: ostracon). More info: ancientegyptonline.co.uk/ostracon/

From that link about ostracon:

The word “ostracon” is derived from the Greek “ostrakon” (meaning a piece of pottery used as a voting ballot). When a vote was held on whether to banish a person from society these shards were used to cast votes. This is the origin of the word “ostracism” (literally meaning “to be voted out”).

Tags: Alison Fisk · archaeology · art · Egypt · language · Met Museum · museums

💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Haven’t watched this 90-minute video yet, but I’ve seen so many recommendations for it that I’m posting it as a to-do list item for myself: You are being misled about renewable energy technology.

💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →