Is the world funny? Let Groucho and Buckley settle the matter once and for all on Firing Line (1967). From the same year: Timothy Leary and William F. Buckley, Jr. in conversation:https://youtu.be/BnoCHlybAnU

In her spare time, University of California, San Diego engineer Janelle Shane trained a neural network to generate recipes for new dishes. Informed by its reading of existing recipes, the neural network did improve over time yet it's clearly not quite ready for Iron Chef. Here are two recipes from her Tumblr, Postcards from the Frontiers of Science: Pears Or To Garnestmeammeats¼ lb bones or fresh bread; optional½ cup flour1 teaspoon vinegar¼ teaspoon lime juice2 eggsBrown salmon in oil. Add creamed meat and another deep mixture.Discard filets. Discard head and turn into a nonstick spice. Pour 4 eggs onto clean a thin fat to sink halves.Brush each with roast and refrigerate. Lay tart in deep baking dish in chipec sweet body; cut oof with crosswise and onions. Remove peas and place in a 4-dgg serving. Cover lightly with plastic wrap. Chill in refrigerator until casseroles are tender and ridges done. Serve immediately in sugar may be added 2 handles overginger or with boiling water until very cracker pudding is hot.Yield: 4 servingsThis is from a network that’s been trained for a relatively long time - starting from a complete unawareness of whether it’s looking at prose or code, English or Spanish, etc, it’s already got a lot of the vocabulary and structure worked out. This is particularly impressive given that it has the memory of a goldfish - it can only analyze 65 characters at a time, so by the time it begins the instructions, the recipe title has already passed out of its memory, and it has to guess what it’s making. It knows, though, to start by browning meat, to cover with plastic wrap before chilling in the refrigerator, and to finish by serving the dish. Compare that to a recipe generated by a much earlier version of the network:Immediately Cares, Heavy Mimupe, chips3 dill loasted substetcant1 cubed chopped whipped cream3 unpreased, stock; prepared; in season1 oil3 cup milk1 ½ cup mOyzanel chopped½ teaspoon lemon juice1 ¼ teaspoon chili powder2 tablespoon dijon stem – minced30 dates afrester beater remainingBake until juice. Brush from the potato sauce: Lightly butter into the viscin. Cook combine water. Source: 0 25 seconds; transfer a madiun in orenge cinnamon with electres if the based, make drained off tala whili; or chicken to well. Sprinkle over skin greased with a boiling bowl. Toast the bread spritkries.Yield: 6 servingswhich bakes first, has the source in the middle of the recipe directions, mixes sweet and savory, and doesn’t yet know that you can’t cube or chop whipped cream."The Silicon Gourmet: training a neural network to generate cooking recipes" (Thanks, Toshi Hoo!)

Shia LaBeouf's new movie Man Down grossed just $26 during its UK run which, in fairness, was only playing at one theater once each day. But still. From the Hollywood Reporter:"I think we've sold three tickets in total," the cinema manager told the Hollywood Reporter, adding that she hadn't "experienced anything like it before."The manager said Man Down would end its weeklong run in Burnley's Reel Cinema this Thursday, "highly likely" without any further purchases being made, a move that would see the film's U.K. theatrical total max out at £21 ($26.20), rather less than the $454,490 it earned following a limited theatrical run in the U.S. last December.

I have been enjoying this bendable iPhone lightning cable. It is great for keeping the phone where I can see it. Using it with a 20000mAh USB battery as a base works well too.Not rigid enough to work as a stand in my car.COMROLL Cable Charger Holder Flexible Holder Stand Up USB Desk Charging Sync Data for iPhone 5S 6 6S 7 Plus 50cm via Amazon

Last year, according to a recent study by Oxfam International, just eight people owned as much wealth as half of the world’s population. That's bad. Many people suggest Universal Basic Income as a way to help solve that problem. My friend and Institute for the Future colleague Marina Gorbis suggests that we need something more -- Universal Basic Assets. From her provocative essay on Medium:The answer may be in the concept of Universal Basic Assets (UBA),​ which​ in my definition​ is​ a core, basic set of resources that every person is entitled to, from housing and healthcare to education and financial security...In designing Universal Basic Assets we take into account access to traditional physical and financial assets like land and money, as well as the growing pools of digital assets (data, digital currencies, reputations, etc.). We also recognize and assign value to exchanges we engage in as a part of maintaining the social fabric of our society but that do not currently carry with them monetary value (caring, creative output, knowledge generation, etc.).In essence, we need to look at the concept of assets in its broadest sense, considering three classes of assets: private, public, and open.‘Universal Basic Assets’: A new economic model that could save the other 99%

The Hans Christian Andersen classic, The Snow Queen, is a quick and enjoyable read, made all the more so with printmaker Sanna Annukka’s gorgeous illustrations. You’ll likely recognize the textile designer’s aesthetic from Marimekko and, not surprisingly, many of her illustrations make full use of her bold, geometric patterns through the characters’ dress. Her landscapes look like fabrics, too. A panel that shows a wintry countryside looks like it could be a weaving and I wish I could buy another, a garden in full bloom, by the bolt. The story itself is not what I had expected. In many ways, the titular character is a minor player. The heroine is a young girl, Gerda, who journeys bravely and earnestly, escaping numerous villains by virtue of her devotion to her young friend and playmate, Kay, who has been lured away by the Snow Queen. Kay first fell victim to the heart-numbing trickery of the devil himself, who had accidentally broken an evil mirror crafted to reflect and amplify only the most wicked and ugly things in the world. When the mirror breaks, pieces “smaller than a grain of sand” are sent flying around the word, one of which sticks in Kay’s eye, and another which pierces and chills his heart. As the Snow Queen further freezes Kay’s heart with a kiss, Gerda braves witches, haunts, thieves, and icy winds to save her friend. Maybe it’s because I’m a mom who is worn out on Frozen, the Disney smash hit (which refuses to die, despite every parent’s best efforts) that was loosely based on the fairy tale, but I wish that the movie more closely echoed the actual story. The Snow Queen is a story about the good and strength inherent in children, in which a young girl saves a young boy for a change. Though the movie maintained some of this (and, of course, the “love thaws a frozen heart” moral), I think it did an injustice to the young audience who could have seen themselves, as they can in the book, in a persistent heroine their own age.The Snow Queen: A Tale in Seven Stories by Hans Christian Andersen (Illustrator), Sanna Annukka (Illustrator), Jean Hersholt (Translator)Ten Speed Press2016, 88 pages, 5.0 x 0.6 x 9.0 inches, Hardcover$16 Buy on AmazonSee sample pages from this book at Wink.

Brandeis physicist Daniel Perlman modded a wine bottle so wine wouldn't dribble when it was poured. Why didn't the wineries figure this out a couple of hundred years ago?Perlman studied slow-motion videos of wine being poured. He observed first that drippage was most extreme when a bottle was full or close to it. He also saw that a stream of wine tends to curl backward over the lip and run down the side of the glass bottle because glass is hydrophilic, meaning it attracts water.Using a diamond-studded tool, Perlman, assisted by engineer Greg Widberg, created a circular groove around the neck of the bottle just beneath the top. A droplet of wine that would otherwise run down the side of the bottle encounters the groove, but can’t traverse it. Instead, it immediately falls off the bottle into the glass along with the rest of the wine.

This never gets old.

This amazing Gibson is for sale, a mere $11,999USD. Beautiful, but my guitar addiction syndrome has been cured. Via Reverb:Freakishly clean 1908 Style U harp guitar in near mint all original condition, serial number 8618 batch number 1004 with original hand tooled rear loading leather case. By far the cleanest century old Gibson instruments we've seen. Purchased originally by the school teaching matriarch of a homesteading family from the Southwestern United States to entertain her students. The size was too much to deal with and the instrument sat unmolested at home in her closet, on her dresser until the death of her only son from old age. The caregiver attending to the dying needs of the now elder son claimed she was gifted the guitar before his death and that the conversation went something like this. Dying son says "what about my Moms' guitar? Caregiver says, what guitar? Dying man points to the closet and she sees the case on top of the dresser, that's for you, you take it." She sold it to me a few days’ later, perfect provenance, perfect guitar and perfect deal. It’s slightly difficult to covey how clean and original this instrument is, there will probably not be another of these, this nice ever. Spectacular varnished finish displays perfectly normal varnish shrinkage, patterned in a way only varnish does when not French polished out. A better example cannot be found for sale anywhere. All instruments are examined, cleaned and set up before selling. No modifications or repairs, no cracks or breaks. Fast and free same day safe shipping, USPS Priority fully insured by Heritage Insurance. Comes with original case, thanks. $11999. VGALet us know if you pick it up!

These excellent minimalistic remakes of famous movies were created by Russian animation studio 420.https://youtu.be/PZp2-5fGtmchttps://youtu.be/K03TTJB38Pkhttps://youtu.be/2bMDC7P_y5ohttps://youtu.be/NZzCMEWufbMhttps://youtu.be/03N1jCsPBnE[via]

The Trump Administration claims Bannon was placed on the council to oversee fired National Security Director and Russian pattycake player Michael Flynn. Today the famous white supremacist was removed from the council, reputedly never having attended a meeting.Via Bloomberg:Under the move, the national intelligence director, Dan Coats, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, are again "regular attendees" of the NSC’s principals committee.Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News, was elevated to the National Security Council’s principals committee at the beginning of Trump’s presidency. The move drew criticism from some members of Congress and Washington’s foreign policy establishment.A White House official said that Bannon was placed on the committee in part to monitor Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and never attended a meeting. He’s no longer needed with McMaster in charge of the council, the official said.Trump fired Flynn on Feb. 13 for not disclosing to the president or to Vice President Mike Pence the extent of his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, before Trump’s inauguration.

Jannis Hermanns built a lovely little Macintosh Classic from Lego and brilliantly integrated a 2.7" e-ink display controlled by a Raspberry Pi Zero. He kindly posted his build plans right here.

Simply willing your projects to completion might be enough for those of you well-steeped in the mind-hacks of Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret. For the rest of us chronic pessimists, doing the actual work in a logical fashion is probably going to yield more success. Planning out large projects can be supremely difficult without proper organizational methods, which is why Aeon Timeline 2 was created to help ease some of the pain of staying on track.This Windows- and Mac-friendly app helps manage the complexity in everything from creative writing projects to legal cases. The virtual timeline is ideal for fiction writers that need to keep track of key events and character growth over time, and for students mapping out major essays. Project managers can use its powerful task assignment, grouping, and nesting features to keep their teams flexible without losing sight of the bigger picture.Aeon Timeline 2 gives you the freedom to juggle abstract goals, research materials, and concrete deadlines within a single interface. Usually $50, you can get it here for $22.99.

I've got an editorial in this month's Wired magazine about the relationship between the science fiction stories we read and our real-world responses to disasters: Disasters Don’t Have to End in Dystopias; it's occasioned by the upcoming publication of my "optimistic disaster novel" Walkaway (pre-order signed copies: US/UK; read excerpts: Chapter 1, Chapter 2; US/Canada tour schedule). (more…)

A presentation by Igor Soumenkov at Kaspersky's Security Analyst Summit reveals that the method behind a rash of mysterious ATM heists that left behind no evidence of hacking -- only a single small hole drilled by the machines' PIN pads -- were likely accomplished by using the hole to insert a $15 connector that allowed thieves to hijack the ATMs and order them to spit out all their money. (more…)

R Martin bought a Garadget -- a device that lets you verify whether your garage door is closed using a mobile app -- and couldn't get it to work and left an intemperate 1-star Amazon review for the product. (more…)

Snarge: "The residue smeared on an airplane after a bird/plane collision. The snarge is generally all that is left of the bird. See if you can use it in casual conversation today! (via Dan Hon)

Tizen is Samsung's long-touted OS to replace Android and Israeli security researcher Amihai Neiderman just delivered a talk on it at Kapersky Lab's Security Analyst Summit where he revealed 40 new 0-day flaws in the OS, and showed that he could trivially send malicious code updates to any Tizen device, from TVs to phones, thanks to amateurish mistakes of the sort not seen in real production environments for decades. (more…)

The latest crayon-scrawled, unconstitutional, sure-to-be-challenged plan from the Trump White House for America's borders would require visitors to the US to reveal their social media passwords so CBP officers could read their private messages and look at their friends lists; they will also have to answer questions about their political beliefs -- the plan would cover visitors from all over, including countries in the US Visa Waiver program. (more…)

Twitter's indecisive approach to dealing with trolls, harassment and general abuse—suspected by the paranoid as a symptom its need for growth and reach—confounds users to this day. But the blind eye enables more interesting phenomena, too, such as bot armies pushing fringe stories into the trending tags list. Joseph Bernstein:MicroChip, who operates behind a VPN (a special secure network that obscures his location), is an object of fascination and fear, even among some of his political and ideological fellow travelers, who hope not to end up on the wrong side of one of his Twitter campaigns. One conservative observer of the alt-right, who spoke to BuzzFeed on the condition that his name not be used, claimed he once hired private investigators to trace him. ... MicroChip said the truth, both about his identity and the method he developed for spreading pro-Trump messages on Twitter, is far more prosaic. Though he would not divulge his real name or corroborate his claim, MicroChip said that he is a freelance mobile software developer in his early thirties and lives in Utah. In a conversation over the gaming chat platform Discord, MicroChip, who speaks unaccented, idiomatic American English, said that he guards his identity so closely for two reasons: first, because he fears losing contract work due to his beliefs, and second, because of what he calls an “uninformed” discourse in the media and Washington around Russian influence and botting.The alt-right botmaster describes himself a "staunch liberal" who was "redpilled" by Islamic terrorism, then figured out how to automate Twitter trends. The techniques sound mechanically obvious—retweet calls put out to "50-person direct message groups" and Google Scripts bots. But there we find ourselves back at Twitter's level of interest in doing much about it. He reports tweeting 1000 times a day on Adderall. This is the kind of data point that I don't think many people want to accept as the truth of social media politics: the sheer level of play, and just how total and all-consuming it has become. No-one has ever invested as much in the idea that the Internet is real life as much as these guys.Why come forward now? 'Cause the Russians are getting credit, and he has big plans.https://twitter.com/WDFx2EU95/status/849092448165007362

Amy Robertson was set to be the $93,000-a-year principal of Pittsburg High School in Kansas. But she quit before her first day after the student newspaper found that her Masters' degree and Ph. D. were from a diploma mill.“She was going to be the head of our school, and we wanted be assured that she was qualified and had the proper credentials,” said Trina Paul, a senior and an editor of the Booster Redux, the school newspaper. “We stumbled on some things that most might not consider legitimate credentials.” ...Pittsburg journalism adviser Emily Smith said she is “very proud” of her students. “They were not out to get anyone to resign or to get anyone fired. They worked very hard to uncover the truth.”Students journalists published a story Friday questioning the legitimacy of the private college — Corllins University — where Robertson got her master’s and doctorate degrees years ago. U.S. Department of Education officials, contacted by The Star, confirmed student reports; the federal agency could not find evidence of Corllins in operation. The school wasn’t included among the agency’s list of schools closed since 1986. Robertson earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Tulsa.Robertson insisted "all three of my degrees have been authenticated by the US government," whatever that means, and that she would not respond to students' questions about he credentials "because their concerns are not based on facts.”You'd think "look them up on Google" would be part of the hiring process, but no!

Louis CK regrets comparing Donald Trump to Hitler. But on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert tonight, he says he won't take it back, and has some ripe new words for President Trump. (more…)

Kim Dotcom says he's launching a Bitcoin payments system for users to sell content uploads, or charge for streaming live video. (more…)

North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile into the sea off its east coast today, just before the Trump administration's summit with Chinese leaders. Pyongyang's arms program is one of the topics Trump and China's Xi Xingpi are expected to discuss. (more…)

Well played, IMGURian Scrump Diddley. (more…)

Abuses in my youth have left me in a lot of pain. Robin McKenzie's Treat Your Own Back helped me more than any doctor. I was desperately searching for an option other than letting doctors I do not trust operate on my spine. In response, a friend sent me a copy of this book. Spine, neck and lower back expert Robin McKenzie's Treat Your Own Back delivered enough information to let me hold off on the surgery and return to a fairly functional life.Treat Your Own Back gives a lot of information about why the pain is happening, and what posture can do to alleviate it. Simple exercises that'll help relieve pressure on nerves, and build core strength. Common sense approaches to dealing with back pain, rather than running right for surgery.Someday I think I'll end up under the knife. I have some good friends who have had wonderful success with it. Until I find I really need it, and I've run out of self-care options, however, I'm going to keep looking for books like this one.Treat Your Own Back by Robin McKenzie via Amazon

My friend and Burning Man campmate Bruce Tomb built the greatest art car I've ever seen: Maria Del Camino, made from the body of a '59 El Camino perforated by thousands of hand-drilled holes, which form a pointillist portrait of Maria, the robot from Metropolis, on the hood; connected via a hydraulic arm to the tanklike body of an industrial grader. (more…)

How does the President of the United States respond to news that the Syrian government of Bashar-el-Assad has just gassed its own people, leaving untold scores of innocent people dead? That's right. Donald Trump blames The Black Guy. Again. (more…)

Amazon has a Gold Box sale right now for these battery powered LED light bulbs. You get two for $8. They take 3 AA batteries and have two brightness settings.

Under the Protecting Data at the Border Act, devices "belonging to or in the possession of a United States person" (a citizen or Green Card holder) could no longer be searched at the border without a warrant. Agents would no longer be able to deny US persons entry or exit on the basis of a refusal to allow such a search (but they could seize the equipment). (more…)

As mobile tech has shrank considerably in recent years, it’s also become much harder to repair. Moreover, computer equipment manufacturers are constantly pushing against legislation that gives consumers the right to fix their own devices. Instead of submitting to the endless cycle of regular device upgrades and relying on expensive repair services after shattering your phone screen, you could just fix your own stuff.With this toolkit from the device-teardown gurus at iFixit, you can perform DIY repairs and replace parts on everything from smartphones to desktop towers. It includes all of the odd screwdrivers needed to get inside device casings, as well as plenty of other specific tools to aid in tasks like battery and screen replacements, hard drive swaps, and even household fixes. iFixit even has a library of step-by-step guides on their website to make sure you know exactly what you’re doing.Taking care of your own electronics isn’t hard, as long you have the proper equipment to do it. Get this iFixit Essential Electronics Toolkit here for $19.95.

This episode of "Lessons from the Screenplay" analyzes how the Breaking Bad pilot set up the show to be so, er, addictive.

Computers in your fingernails. Temporary tattoos laden with sensors. These are some of the new wearable technologies that UC Berkeley engineer and artist Eric Paulos is developing with his colleagues in the Hybrid Ecologies Laboratory. Mark Frauenfelder and I interviewed Eric about Cosmetic Computing in this episode of For Future Reference, a new podcast from Institute for the Future:

Montage of pure unexpectedness...I wish this was longer. Anyone have the source video?[via]

Our friend Ariel Waldman is a space enthusiast extraordinaire. She made a video about "the five weirdest, oddball, mysterious moons in our solar system.Check out Ariel's wonderful book, What's It Like in Space?: Stories from Astronauts Who've Been There.

In protest of the current political climate, where alternative facts are the norm and the media is the enemy of the people, nearly 200 theaters across the country are screening the dystopian movie 1984, based on George Orwell's novel of the same name. It will only be showing today, April 4, the date that 1984's protagonist, rebel Winston Smith, begins writing in his forbidden diary.According to UnitedStatesOfCinema.com:Orwell's portrait of a government that manufactures their own facts, demands total obedience, and demonizes foreign enemies, has never been timelier. The endeavor encourages theaters to take a stand for our most basic values: freedom of speech, respect for our fellow human beings, and the simple truth that there are no such things as 'alternative facts.' By doing what they do best - showing a movie - the goal is that cinemas can initiate a much-needed community conversation at a time when the existence of facts, and basic human rights are under attack. Through nationwide participation and strength in numbers, these screenings are intended to galvanize people at the crossroads of cinema and community, and bring us together to foster communication and resistance against current efforts to undermine the most basic tenets of our society."Here is a list of participating theaters nationwide, as well as in the UK, Sweden, New Zealand, Holland, and Croatia.

https://youtu.be/l7xRXIWexHY?t=8sThe convenience stores in Japan are wonderful. They are clean, have seating, the prepared food is very tasty, and they are everywhere you look. The 7-Elevens are one of the few places (besides post offices) with ATMs that dispense cash for US travelers with debit cards. This video takes a look at Japanese convenience stores, called konbini (コンビニ).Image: Flickr/Yuwa Tamai

Whenever I’m drinking rum, which is fairly often, I imagine myself living in a Shag painting. Josh Agle, better known as Shag is a pop art master. His paintings are highly sought after, and for good reason. The brightly colored scenes of Shriners, swingers, tiki, and the surreal is always evocative and entertaining. I’m lucky enough to have a few prints of his, and dream of one day having my whole house filled with Shag art. This book is the most comprehensive collection I’ve seen, including details about his past, his process, and how his art has changed over the years. I could, and probably will, spend hours paging through this book, enjoying each one of his paintings, prints, and merch. That’s one thing I love about Shag, is that there always seems to be something new to find in his paintings. It’s also really interesting to see how his work has evolved over the years. From his early days creating album covers, to his most recent utopic scenes, you can really see how his style and tone has changed. This is a must have for any mid-century obsessive, tiki deviant, or pop art lover. Display it proudly on your coffee table or liquor shelf.SHAG: The Collected Works by Josh AgleAMMO Books2017, 192 pages, 9.0 x 0.8 x 12.2 inches, Hardcover$26 Buy on AmazonSee sample pages from this book at Wink.

Not long after Bob Marley's death, Dan Rather heads to Jamaica, bringing with him the misinformed view of Rastafari that was common in the United States then (and, well, now).

Magician and magic instructor Evan Era of EvanEraTV demonstrates 10 easy toothpick tricks to impress your kids, your friends, or just yourself.

In this new video from The British Museum’s “Curator’s Corner” series, curator Tom Hockenhull digs into the history of the British suffragette movement and the tactic of defacing coins in protest. He even demonstrates the process in action.

In this new Vox video, Carlos Maza examines the ways in which comedians are better at covering Donald Trump than major news networks. As Maza puts it, “Political satire has something that TV news lacks: A really low tolerance for bullshit.”

To celebrate Cherry Blossom season in Washington DC, Southern Efficiency created a Japanese-themed pop-up bar. Cute video is starting to emerge of people who braved the long lines. (more…)

Dope. The labyrinth aquarium will set you back $6,500, from this vendor. (more…)

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The uniquely horribly named Svakom Siime Eye is an Internet of Things sex-toy with a wireless camera that allows you to stream video of the insides of your orifices as they are penetrated by it; researchers at the UK's Pen Test Partners discovered that once you login to it via the wifi network (default password "88888888"), you can root it and control it from anywhere in the world. (more…)

In the Olympics, there should be a medal for how impressive a synchronized swimming routine looks upside down and underwater.(via @ziyatong, thanks UPSO!)

Recomendo is my weekly newsletter that gives you 6 brief personal recommendations of cool stuff. It has almost 10,000 subscribers. You can subscribe here.p>Ten dollar watch:I wear a watch, not as expensive jewelry, but as a clock I find easier to inspect than a phone. I have four requirements for a watch: 1) Bold, easy to read numbers on an analog face. 2) Easy band. 3) Long battery. 4) Dirt cheap. The cheapest analog-faced wrist watch I’ve found is the Casio MQ24. It costs $10. I’ve worn most of the cheap ones (Swatch, Timex) and this one lasts the longest. (What usually gives out first on these cheapies is the winding stem for changing the time.) — Kevin KellyHealth:GUM Soft-Picks do a better job than toothpicks or floss for cleaning food and plaque from between my teeth. The soft green brush pushes out all the gunk without hurting. I buy the version that comes with the travel cases. — Mark FrauenfelderContacts without prescription:I recently went to the optometrist and got a new prescription for contacts, but for the last 7+ years I’ve been ordering my contacts without one from 1-Save-On-Lens. I’ve never had an issue. I ended up buying my new contacts through the same site because it was cheaper than what my optometrist wanted to charge me. — Claudia DawsonTravel tip:If you lose or forget to bring a cable, adapter or charger check with your hotel. Most hotels now have a drawer full of cables, adapters and chargers others have left behind, and probably have the one you are missing. You can often claim it after borrowing it. — KKLearning:If you’re wondering what you’re made of, BBC’s The Making of Me and You will tell you in a very fascinating way. Just put in your info and you’ll find out things like what your body is worth in dollars, how much bodily fluids you’ve produced so far, and if you’re DNA has enough data to max out a 1GB USB stick — mine doesn’t. — CDYouTube tool:Sometimes I want to watch a YouTube video one frame at a time. This website lets you enter any YouTube or Vimeo URL and it will display the video with buttons that advance or reverse the video one frame at a time. — MF

Is anyone surprised that Eric Prince, CEO of Blackwater, brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and familiar face around the NYC Trump transition office, held a clandestine meeting in the Seychelles with a close advisor to El Sr. Putin just days before the inauguration?Via the Washington Post:Prince was an avid supporter of Trump who gave $250,000 last year to support the GOP nominee’s campaign, records show. He has ties to people in Trump’s circle, including Stephen K. Bannon, now serving as the president’s chief strategist and senior counselor. Prince’s sister Betsy DeVos serves as education secretary in the Trump administration. And Prince was seen in the Trump transition offices in New York in December.U.S. officials said the FBI has been scrutinizing the Seychelles meeting as part of a broader probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and alleged contacts between associates of Putin and Trump. The FBI declined to comment.The Seychelles encounter, which one official said spanned two days, adds to an expanding web of connections between Russia and Americans with ties to Trump — contacts that the White House has been reluctant to acknowledge or explain until they have been exposed by news organizations.