During a cruel presidency where many people are in desperate need of hope, the inflatable frog stepped into the breach. Everyone loves the Portland Frog. The juxtaposition of a frog (and people in other inflatable character costumes) standing up to ICE covered in weapons and armor is absurd, and that’s part of why it’s hitting so hard. But the frog is also a practical piece of passive resistance protest kit in an age of mass surveillance, police brutality, and masked federal agents disappearing people off the streets.

On October 2—just a few minutes shy of 11 PM in Portland, Oregon—a federal agent shot pepper spray into the vent hole of Seth Todd’s inflatable frog costume. Todd was protesting ICE outside of Portland’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office when he said he saw a federal agent shove another protester to the ground. He moved to help and the agent blasted the pepper spray into his vent hole.

Todd was unmoved. “I’ve definitely had spicier tamales,” he told the Oregonian. 

“I got maced in the air vent. Essentially, I coughed a little. Noticed a small hint of peppermint and just continued to be in my frog costume for another hour,” Todd told KATU in a different interview. “I’m doing well. I’m doing fine. It wasn’t as bad as it looks, although quite immature and unnecessary and really excessive. But I think I’m doing OK.”

Symbols are important to protests. The frog and other inflatable costumes have caught on, but the best protest symbols also have a practical strength. During anti-authoriatarian protests in Hong Kong from 2014 to 2019, the people in the streets used yellow umbrellas to signal their solidarity. The umbrella doubled as a means of disrupting pepper spray and warding off small thrown objects. It is important to remember that these are inflatable costumes, but, of course, real human protesters are inside the costumes, risking themselves to push back against ICE’s terrorization of our cities.

The symbolic power of the frog costume is great, but it also kept the bulk of the pepper spray out of Todd’s face. Goggles and a gas mask can do a lot, but it’s hard for ICE to hit you in the eyes with spray if they’re not even sure where your face is. Being a frog at a protest also serves a privacy purpose, makes it more difficult for surveillance cameras and facial recognition systems to identify protesters. Police are using AI powered camera systems to identify people who appear at protests and protecting your identity in a crowd is key. Covering your face with sunglasses and a mask can work, but it also makes you look like the faceless law enforcement officers of the other side. Protesters have embraced practical whimsy by becoming frogs, dinosaurs, and Pikachus.

It’s been almost two weeks since a cop pepper sprayed Todd the frog. Typically that kind of viral image fades from public memory as fast as it took root. But not Todd. He’s kept appearing at protests and been at the center of other incredible moments. A photo journalist for Getty captured an image of him squaring off against a line of thuggish federal authorities, also wearing masks. The frog is passive, his hands down at his sides, staring forward into a line of black masked cops. It was another powerful image. People painted it. They’re selling it on T-Shirts.

And that’s the other bit of genius about the inflatable character protesters: The optics.

Others have joined in, showing up to Oregon protests in their own frog costumes or dressed as unicorns, bears, and dinosaurs. They frolic outside of detention centers and show that Trump’s assertion that the city is filled with violent, black clad antifa activists bent on destroying democracy is outlandish. 

On October 7, DHS Secretary Krisit Noem visited Portland for a photo-op. She stood on the roof of an ICE facility and, according to right-wing influencer and known plagiarist Benny Johson, she stared down an “army of Antifa.” The crowd was small, a little more than a dozen. Most of them had cameras and might have been onlookers. There was one guy in a chicken costume wearing an American flag like a cape.

As Sarah Jeong explained in The Verge, American politics has collapsed into a war between aura farmers, normal people, and shitposters. “Politics in the second Trump era can be mostly defined as people Posting adversarially in public,” Jeong said. “The politics that get covered in the media are mostly aura farmers fighting other aura farmers — people posturing at each other in an accelerating arms race that inevitably justifies violence. Punching Nazis is aura farming. Military parades are aura farming. Sending in the National Guard is the penultimate exercise in aura farming.”

Next to a frog, the self-seriousness of ICE agents and a military that has been turned into an occupying force against the nation’s own people is shown for what it is: absurd. For people who’ve been pointing out how horrifying and absurd Trump is for a decade, there’s something about the frog among the police that makes people see it. It’s a meme that renders everything about our current political moment down into a single image, a hieroglyph that explains the first year of the second Trump presidency.

Todd the frog is not the first person to go viral while wearing an inflatable costume, he’s not even the first in the United States. Over the summer when protestors in Los Angeles clashed with federal forces, one person showed up in a blue inflatable dinosaur costume.  Pikachu is another popular choice. In March, people took to the streets of Turkey to protest the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. Video of the protests showed a surprisingly nimble Pikachu fleeing Turkish police. 

In Chile, a pre-school teacher turned political activist donned an inflatable costume and became Tía Pikachu during protests in 2019. The people elected her as a member of an assembly charged with writing a new constitution and she showed up to the proceeding in costume. 

Way back in 2017, during the first “Science March” protest against Trump, there were a handful of inflatable dinosaurs. But that early protest didn’t have the stakes of masked men snatching people off the streets and out of their homes. The early dinosaur protesters didn’t quite endure. Perhaps Portland’s inflatable characters will.

An attorney in a New York Supreme Court commercial case got caught using AI in his filings, and then got caught using AI again in the brief where he had to explain why he used AI, according to court documents filed earlier this month.

New York Supreme Court Judge Joel Cohen wrote in a decision granting the plaintiff’s attorneys’ request for sanctions that the defendant’s counsel, Michael Fourte’s law offices, not only submitted AI-hallucinated citations and quotations in the summary judgment brief that led to the filing of the plaintiff’s motion for sanctions, but also included “multiple new AI-hallucinated citations and quotations” in the process of opposing the motion. 

“In other words,” the judge wrote, “counsel relied upon unvetted AI — in his telling, via inadequately supervised colleagues — to defend his use of unvetted AI.”

The case itself centers on a dispute between family members and a defaulted loan. The details of the case involve a fairly run-of-the-mill domestic money beef, but Fourte’s office allegedly using AI that generated fake citations, and then inserting nonexistent citations into the opposition brief, has become the bigger story. 

The plaintiff and their lawyers discovered “inaccurate citations and quotations in Defendants’ opposition brief that appeared to be ‘hallucinated’ by an AI tool,” the judge wrote in his decision to sanction Fourte. After the plaintiffs brought this issue to the Court's attention, the judge wrote, Fourte submitted a response where the attorney “without admitting or denying the use of AI, ‘acknowledge[d] that several passages were inadvertently enclosed in quotation’ and ‘clarif[ied] that these passages were intended as paraphrases or summarized statements of the legal principles established in the cited authorities.’”

Judge Cohen’s order is scathing. Some of the fake quotations “happened to be arguably correct statements of law,” he wrote, but he notes that the fact that they tripped into being correct makes them no less frivolous. “Indeed, when a fake case is used to support an uncontroversial statement of law, opposing counsel and courts—which rely on the candor and veracity of counsel—in many instances would have no reason to doubt that the case exists,” he wrote. “The proliferation of unvetted AI use thus creates the risk that a fake citation may make its way into a judicial decision, forcing courts to expend their limited time and resources to avoid such a result.” In short: Don’t waste this court’s time.

In the last few years, AI-generated hallucinations and errors infiltrating the legal process has become a serious problem for the legal profession. Generally, judges do not take kindly to this waste of everyone’s time, in some cases sanctioning offending attorneys thousands of dollars for it. Lawyers who’ve been caught using AI in court filings have given infinite excuses for their sloppy work, including vertigo, head colds, and malware, and many have thrown their assistants under the bus when caught. In February, a law firm caught using AI and generating inaccurate citations called their errors a “cautionary tale” about using AI in law. “This matter comes with great embarrassment and has prompted discussion and action regarding the training, implementation, and future use of artificial intelligence within our firm,” they wrote.

Lawyers Caught Citing AI-Hallucinated Cases Call It a ‘Cautionary Tale’

The attorneys filed court documents referencing eight non-existent cases, then admitted it was a “hallucination” by an AI tool.

404 MediaSamantha Cole

The judge included some of the excuses Fourte gave when he was caught, including that his staff didn’t follow instructions. He seemed less contrite. “Your Honor, I am extremely upset that this could even happen. I don't really have an excuse,” the decision says the lawyer told Cohen. “Here is what I could say. I literally checked to make sure all these cases existed. Then, you know, I brought in additional staff. And knowing it was for the sanctions, I said that this is the issue. We can't have this. Then they wrote the opposition with me. And like I said, I looked at the cases, looked at everything; so all the quotes as I'm looking at the brief — and I thought it was a well put together brief. So I looked at the quotes and was assured every single quote was in every single case, but I did not verify every single quote. When I looked at — when I went back and asked them, because I looked at their [reply brief] last week preparing for this for the first time, and I asked them what happened? How is this even possible because, you know, when you read the opposition, I mean, it's demoralizing. It doesn't even seem like, you know, this is humanly possible.” 

When the defendants’ lawyer attempted to oppose the sanctions proposed for including fake citations, he ended up submitting twice as many nonexistent or incorrect citations as before, including seven quotations that do not exist in the cited cases and three that didn’t support the propositions they were offered to, Cohen wrote. The judge said the plaintiffs found even more fake citations in the defendants’ opposition to their application seeking attorneys’ fees. 

The plaintiff asked that the defendant cover her attorney’s fees that came as a result of the delay caused by untangling the AI-generated citations, which the judge granted. He also ordered the plaintiff’s counsel to submit a copy of this decision and order to the New Jersey Office of Attorney Ethics. 

“When attorneys fail to check their work—whether AI-generated or not—they prejudice their clients and do a disservice to the Court and the profession,” Cohen wrote. “In sum, counsel’s duty of candor to the Court cannot be delegated to a software program.” 

Fourte declined to comment. “As this matter remains before the Court, and out of respect for the process and client confidentiality, we will not comment on case specifics,” he told 404 Media. “We have addressed the issue directly with the Court and implemented enhanced verification and supervision protocols. We have no further comment at this time.” 

In the Laurentians of Quebec, where maple groves cascade down the slopes toward Lac Franc (Franc lake), a residence appears less like a built object and more like a natural extension of the land itself. La Cadrée Perchée, designed by L’Empreinte Design Architecture for its founder, Pier-Olivier Lepage, is a home where everyday living and the surrounding environment work peacefully together.

Perched among the treetops in Morin-Heights, the 2,100-square-foot home was conceived as both a workplace and a retreat. For Lepage, who spends long stretches working from home, the aim was to dissolve the usual distinction between interior and the natural world outside. Every space within the house is designed to direct attention outward: floor-to-ceiling walls of glass frame views of the outdoors as light, the sky, and landscaping evolve over time. “I spend a lot of time working from home,” says Lepage. “However, I concentrate better when I feel connected to the outdoors. Otherwise, I am distracted by thoughts of going out to enjoy the outdoors.”

The building’s orientation faces east and west allowing Lepage to enjoy the sunrise and sunset, with the interior layout carefully considered as not to obstruct the views. At certain times, one can feel suspended above the cascading treetops, while at others, protected by the shade they provide.

Inspired by the principles of a radiator, the home’s form amplifies the sun’s presence without overwhelming its occupants. Wooden frames and its exterior walls increase the diffusion surface allowing for a balance of heat absorption and light reflection, while giving the illusion of a home filled with sunlight. This careful consideration responds not only to environmental conditions but also to the psychological benefits of light – supporting focus, calm, and seasonal well-being.

Even in summer, the home finds balance. Solar control strategies, paired with natural ventilation, maintain the interior climate, allowing the home to remain comfortable without concealing the nearby landscape that surrounds it.

Inside and out, wood is the key material used. Its raw, textured surfaces mimic the bark of surrounding maples, while its warm tones give nod to the leaves. Even the ceiling, composed of simple furring strips, results in an economical yet bespoke solution. Minimalist interventions – like recessed furniture, a low-profile kitchen, and storage consolidated into central volumes – let the residence breathe and leave the forest as the home’s true ornamentation.

The palette is kept deliberately muted. Bleached concrete floors add brightness and continuity throughout, white surfaces mirror the snowy landscape in winter, and mullion-free glass opens wide, leaving nothing to distract from the views.

Though compact in footprint, the residence offers spaces tailored to both solitude and gathering. A sunken living room, inspired by Japanese kotatsu, encourages maximum enjoyment for get togethers around the fire. The bedroom – equipped with a desk, soaking tub, and expansive window wall – becomes a multifunctional retreat designed for productivity, rest, or relaxation.

Two outdoor terraces carved into the facade provide protected spaces to step outside year-round. In warmer months, they act as shaded spots for reading or dining, while in winter, the continuity of wooden ceilings and walls blurs the line between indoors and outdoors, inviting residents to inhabit the crisp air without leaving the warmth of home.

For more information about La Cadrée Perchée by L’Empreinte Design Architecture, visit lempreinte.ca.

Photography by Pier-Olivier Lepage, courtesy of v2com.

Jetzt ganz sicher nicht die gewöhnlichste Art elektronische Musik zu produzieren, aber eben möglich, wie Switch Angel hier beweist.

(Direktlink)

Aboringday ist nicht der Erste, der kaputten Beton mit 3D-Druck repariert, aber vielleicht der Erste, der ihn so interaktiv gestaltet. So verbaut er benutzbares Spielzeug in die Lücken. Haben alle was von.

(Direktlink, via The Awesomer)

Kurze Zeitreise in den Sommer 1995, in dem die Loveparade noch auf dem Kudamm stattfand. Ich konnte das damals nicht sehen, weil ich selber mitten in dem Getümmel steckte und danach auf einem Rave in Weißensee inklusive Afterhour versackte. Es war der Sommer, in dem ich Liptons Pfirsich-Eistee für mich entdeckte. Keine Ahnung, wie genau ich da jetzt drauf komme.

In diesem Fernsehbeitrag aus dem Jahr 1995 wird eine Zusammenfassung der Liveübertragung der 7. Love Parade auf dem Kurfürstendamm in Berlin gezeigt. Die Sendung, moderiert von Anne Will, gibt einen Einblick in die damalige Atmosphäre und vermittelt einen Eindruck vom großen Ausmaß der Veranstaltung.

(Direktlink)