Boing Boing

Assembling a truly autonomous smart home is getting closer and closer to reality every day. But for every new smart bulb, thermostat, home security system and appliance we set loose within our walls, there are still probably a half dozen “dumb” items we’d still love to replace.But whether they’re too costly or too big a hassle to swap out, there are also new alternatives for making dumb items smart. The AXIS Gear is one of those new smart accessories, turning old-school blinds and shutters into window coverings that do what you want when you want it.Indiegogo backers got the Gear off the ground, a smart device that allows you to control your existing window shades from your phone. After a quick 5-minute installation, your blinds are suddenly motorized.Compatible with any window shade that has a beaded chain, the AXIS Gear syncs with the free smartphone app so you can raise or lower your blinds at the touch of your phone. With Gear, you can also set custom schedules to raise or lower your shades so you can always make sure they’re closed each night, then open in the morning, then closed again during the heat of the afternoon.Right now, you can save $25 off the purchase of the AXIS Gear, only $224.99 with this offer. Read the rest

"I'm not only the Hair Club president but I'm also a client." If those words ring a bell, then join me in celebrating a man brought much happiness to others. I'm talking about Sy Sperling, founder of Hair Club for Men, who rose to fame when he starred in his own television commercials. In addition to founding a successful hair restoration company in 1976, Sperling went on to become an active philanthropist.From NBC News:Sperling's family said he was "most proud of his charitable contribution in the form of Hair Club for Kids, in which Hair Club for Men provided hair free of charge to children under 18 who lost their hair from chemotherapy."He acted as the honorary chairman for City Relief, which provides "Meals on Wheels" for the homeless. He also fought for animal rights and lived a "devout" vegan lifestyle, his family said."Colleagues, friends, and family recall Mr. Sperling as a visionary with an immense passion for business, innovation and helping others," said a statement from Hair Club. "We continue to live by his words 'Live life to the fullest, take chances and risks, and believe in yourself.'"Image: YouTube Read the rest

A contestant on the Romanian edition of Survivor lost a challenge, became angry, then punched and headbutted another contestant, apparently breaking his nose. An article in Gazeta Sporturilor reports that the woman, an MMA fighter named Ana Maria Pal, was kicked off the show.Machine translation:Ana Maria Pal, MMA fighter, shocking gesture on TV: hit a colleague in the mouth!Ana Maria Pal, an MMA fighter, was the star of a shocking gesture at the TV show Survivor Romania. Ana Pal hit the head in full figure Andrei Ciobanu, the competitor in the opposing team, and was eliminated from the competition transmitted by Kanal D.Pal has an interesting life story, becoming a mother at just 19 years old. Ana Maria took refuge in MMA, a tough contact sport, in which she was able to unload her nerves. Read the rest

“We are desperate — desperate — for more people,” Donald Trump cabinet member Mick Mulvaney said in a recording obtained by The Washington Post. “We are running out of people to fuel the economic growth that we’ve had in our nation over the last four years. We need more immigrants.” More from the Washington Post:“We are desperate — desperate — for more people,” Mulvaney said. “We are running out of people to fuel the economic growth that we’ve had in our nation over the last four years. We need more immigrants.”The Trump administration wants those immigrants to come in a “legal fashion,” Mulvaney said, according to the recording.Mulvaney’s remarks appear in contrast to the public position of several top figures in Trump’s White House — especially that of senior policy adviser Stephen Miller — who have been working to slash both legal and illegal immigration via a slew of policies that aim to close off the U.S. border to foreigners. They have insisted that the steady arrival of newcomers depresses wages for the blue-collar U.S. workers whose votes helped lift Trump to the presidency in 2016.Read more:Mulvaney says U.S. is ‘desperate’ for more legal immigrants Read the rest

A leaked demo has bright red and orange marks on 'harmfully misleading' tweets

'Colobus monkeys live in families with several females sharing in the care of newborns, a behavior called allomothering'

Residents of the Ocean Park neighborhood in Santa Monica, California are angry that adult film performer Ellie Eilish and a colleague allegedly filmed a porn movie inside the local public library. The video apparently turned up on PornHub where, according to the Santa Monica Daily Press, "library porn is not uncommon." From the SMDP:The video, which was posted three weeks ago, shows 19-year-old entertainer Ellie Eilish exposing herself while walking around Ocean Park, outside of the John Muir Elementary School and Santa Monica Alternative School House campus, and inside the Ocean Park branch library. Eilish then performs sex acts inside the library with a man, whose face is not shown...The city of Santa Monica issued the following statement Monday afternoon:“We are deeply disturbed to learn about this video. Sex in public spaces is against the law and the Santa Monica Police Department will be looking into this incident.”image credit: Santa Monica Public Library (CC BY-SA 3.0) Read the rest

Roger Stone, political operative and longtime confidant of President Trump, is sentenced to 40 months in prison by a federal judge who condemned his lies to Congress, witness tampering, and obstruction.The judge in Roger Stone's case said 7 to 9 years' imprisonment was too harsh, but probation also "insufficient."Judge Amy Berman Jackson laid down the law. Roger stone gets more than 3 years.Will he be pardoned in under 3 days?Will Trump respect the rule of law?[Broadcast news live screengrab: CBS NEWS via]Roger Stone leaves the courthouse after being sentenced to 40 months in prison. A few discordant chants of “pardon Roger Stone” pic.twitter.com/d2bPykOLOW— Lauren Gambino (@laurenegambino) February 20, 2020Roger Stone is met with yells of "lock him up!" as he exits the courthouse following his sentencing pic.twitter.com/hc5vxb0qpj— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 20, 2020Leaving courthouse, Stone does not speak to media.— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) February 20, 2020DOJ/Mueller team had recommended 7 to 9 years before Barr’s interference. If Trump and critics thought that was excessive, 3+ years seems clearly fair & appropriate. Trump now has no pretext to pardon or commute. Just corrupt and faithless execution. https://t.co/RFEKJSXRmg— Jed Shugerman (@jedshug) February 20, 2020Snapshot of Judge Amy Berman Jackson's remarks before sentencing Roger Stone, who, she said “was not prosecuted for standing up for the president; he was prosecuted for covering up for the president.” pic.twitter.com/Bu6xqyY3Vy— Andrew deGrandpre (@adegrandpre) February 20, 2020"The truth still exists. The truth still matters" in official government proceedings, Judge Amy Berman Jackson said. Read the rest

Learn about "Nook Inc.’s Deserted Island Getaway Package" in Animal Crossing: New Horizons for Nintendo Switch, which is coming out on March 20, 2020.Image: Nintendo Read the rest

The Amsterdam city council released plans to possibly move much of its infamous red light district into an indoor erotic complex with a hotel, sex club, theater, and cafes. From The Guardian:Amsterdam’s mayor, Femke Halsema, has vowed to clean up the city’s red light district as her staff complain that throngs of tourists, often drunk and rowdy, “disrespected both prostitutes and residents”.Halsema also wants to fight a new trend, a “major increase in unlicensed underground prostitution” around the city centre’s Wallen area, near the central station, for centuries the haunt of sailors and sex workers...“Sex work is a normal job and the idea is not to chase prostitution from the city,” the council said.The erotic centre will not just cater to pleasures of the flesh but also house a beauty salon, a hair dresser and a tanning studio.image credit: Bjarki Sigursveinsson (public domain) Read the rest

• U.S. State Department blames Russia for cyberattacks that hit neighboring Georgia in October 2019• By identifying Russia's digital assaults on neighbors, US hopes to raise awareness of ongoing GRU attacks on USAndy Greenberg at WIRED reports today on a State Department announcement identifying Russia as having been responsible for online military attacks against its neighboring nation, Georgia, last October. From the WIRED story:For more than a decade, Russian hackers have tormented the country's neighbors, bombarding Estonian websites with junk traffic and even triggering blackouts in Ukraine. As long as Russia has kept those relentless, disruptive cyberattacks within its own region, the West has mostly turned a blind eye. But as the US seeks to head off any digital meddling in its own upcoming election, the State Department is trying something different: Calling out Russia for a broad-scale act of digital sabotage that hit the country of Georgia last fall.State Department officials today issued a statement blaming the Russian military intelligence agency known as the GRU for cyberattacks that hit Georgia in October. The onslaught took down or defaced thousands of websites, and even disrupted the broadcasts of two television stations. Specifically, administration officials tell WIRED that US and allied intelligence agencies have attributed the assault to the GRU's Main Center for Special Technology, or GTsST, which the State Department also explicitly linked for the first time in its statement to the notorious Russian hacker group known as Sandworm. The US had previously tied that same group to the destructive NotPetya worm that spread from Ukraine in 2017, causing $10 billion in damage, and the Olympic Destroyer malware that sabotaged the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Read the rest

Above, a visit to a building in Liuyang, China where stacks of roman candle tubes and pop-its cover the floor. This is a fireworks machine trade show, where companies purchase contraptions for cranking out explosions of all kinds. Liuyang is commonly known as the fireworks capital of China. Here are some of the captivating machines that make (or break) July 4th and New Years Eve in the US.(Props to Tasick Media on YouTube)And as a bonus, here's a video of another machine that was used for manufacturing M-80s before they were outlawed in the US in 1966 (unless you have a license):(Credits go to displayfireworks1 on YouTube) Read the rest

The Defense Information Systems Agency, which calls itself a combat support agency of the Defense Department on its website, employs 8,000 military and civilian employees.The DIA, which is responsible for secure White House communications, said Social Security numbers and other personal data its network held, was likely compromised, reports Reuters, citing a letter sent to compromised individuals.U.S. agency responsible for Trump's secure communication suffered data breach: letter https://t.co/NDqi9zJgYE— Chris Bing (@Bing_Chris) February 20, 2020From reporting by Chris Bing at Reuters:The letter, dated Feb. 11, 2020, says that between May and July 2019, personal data may have been compromised “in a data breach” on a system hosted by the Defense Information Systems Agency.The White House did not immediately answer a request for comment and the letter provided few further details. For example, it did not indicate what specific part of DISA’s network had been breached or identify which other individuals may have had their data compromised.The agency says it “provides direct telecommunications and IT support to the president, vice president, their staff, and the U.S. Secret Service.” Read more:U.S. agency responsible for Trump's secure communication suffered data breach: letter[reuters.com] Read the rest

Twenty-five experts have issued a warning about the potentially cataclysmic consequences of the rapidly shrinking insect population, reports The Guardian.In a two-part article for Biological Conservation, the scientists wrote: “The current [insect] extinction crisis is deeply worrisome. Yet, what we know is only the tip of the iceberg.We know enough to act immediately. Solutions are now available – we must act upon them.”From The Guardian:The researchers said solutions were available and must be implemented immediately. These range from bigger nature reserves and a crackdown on harmful pesticides to individual action such as not mowing the lawn and leaving dead wood in gardens. They also said invertebrates must no longer be neglected by conservation efforts, which tend to focus on mammals and birds.Photo by Neenu Vimalkumar on Unsplash Read the rest

With so many manufacturers out there these days, it’s tough to know who to trust in the ultra-competitive wireless earbuds market. If you’ve never heard of LinearFlux, you may soon. That’s because it’s a company with a stellar pedigree whose co-founders were two of the engineers behind the original success of two audio houses you likely have heard of: Beats by Dr. Dre; and Monster Products.They struck out on their own to start LinearFlux and created the HyperSonic Lite True wireless earphones. These ultra-powerful, yet ergonomically comfortable earbuds are on sale now for $59.99, 25 percent off their regular price.As you’d expect from seasoned engineers, sound quality is job no. 1 with the Hypersonic Lites. Sporting Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, these headphones offer extended range without the dropouts you find in competing models. Meanwhile, these buds also feature LinearFlux’s exclusive DL02 Immersive Sound Engine, which connects the unit wirelessly to all the popular streaming music services. All you’ve got to do is turn on and tune in to listen to your favorite Apple Music, Spotify or Pandora channels.Of course, great sound always starts with a proper fit. The HyperSonic Lites’ lightweight design is reinforced to withstand sweat and water, and crafted with soft ear tips to allow comfortable listening for up to eight hours on a single charge.The HyperSonic Lite earphones are currently $20 off retail, down to just $59.99. Read the rest

In this video, Claude Debussy's Clair de Line is presented on a modular synthesizer. The accompanying Haiku says all:from the modular,a landscape a wee sterile,just a reflection ~The performer is ann annie, who can be found on Instagram and Bandcamp. There are only a few other recordings on YouTube, but they're all wonderful. Here's "North Wind": Read the rest

Sega Arcade: Pop-Up History [Read Only Memory] is a beautifully-illustrated hardcover book about six classic Sega "body sensation" arcade cabinets – Hang-On, Space Harrier, Out Run, After Burner, Thunder Blade and Power Drift – complete with pop-up cardboard models. Accompanying this 3D showcase is a written history from Guardian games writer and best-selling novelist, Keith Stuart, punctuated by specially restored production artwork and beautifully reproduced in-game screens. The book features contributions from arcade game innovator Yu Suzuki, who offers first-hand insight into the development of these groundbreaking games and the birth of the Taiken cabinet phenomenon.The book's £35 and shipping now. Read the rest

In this video, Xenos moutoni are carefully extracted from hornets. Xenos parasites, in the order Strepsipsera, live their entire lives in the abdomens of wasps and similar insects, altering the host's behavior. Here's a story about Xenos vesparum, which parasitizes paper wasps. And here's a scientific paper about Xenos myrapetrus, which lives within swarm-founding wasps.The infected wasp begins to suffer nutritionally, then flies to meet with other infected wasps. The male parasite exits the wasp's abdomen and mates with the female parasites which stay inside their host. Wasps infected with the male parasite die. Wasps infected with the female parasite then fatten themselves up much like queen wasps do. They then fly to meet with other uninfected queen wasps. Then when the parasite is mature, the infected wasp flies to mingle with other uninfected wasps, thereby spreading brood and larvae into new environments. Tiny tweezers and a steady hand. Read the rest

Two-thirds of American adults drink coffee every day. On average, they’re each drinking about three cups per day, which works out to nearly 400 million cups downed each and every day.We don’t have stats on what percentage of those cups are God awfully bad, but you have to assume with so many ways to screw it up, lots of Americans are draining bad brews just to get through the day.The Ratio Six Coffee Maker is a home brewing system funded by a Kickstarter campaign that wants to bring a world-class cup of joe with each and every pour.Consistency and convenience without compromise are the Ratio Six rallying cry. Just add your water and grounds, then push the button. That’s it. The meticulously handmade unit kicks into action, simulating the pour-over technique of a skilled barista. Hot water is slowly dispersed over the bloom with sharp precision, offering more evenly extracted grounds and an excellent cup of coffee.Brewing up to 40 ounces at a time, the Ratio Six looks as good as it brews, cutting a sleek stainless steel profile that helps it fit in on any countertop. The Ratio folks are also backing their quality machine with a 5-year warranty, so you know that it’s built to last.The Ratio Six Coffee Maker is just now rolling out to Kickstarter buyers, but you can still get one now at $35 off the regular price, just $310.99. Boing Boing readers can save an additional 10% when using code RATIO10 at checkout. Read the rest

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has opened an investigation into a former Google employee’s pregnancy discrimination case, CNBC reports.Chelsey Glasson worked as a former user experience researcher with Alphabet’s Google for five years. She wrote an internal memo that went viral in the summer of 2019 called “I’m Not Returning to Google After Maternity Leave, and Here is Why.” This newest investigation adds to a growing pile. Google is facing a number of federal probes and widespread employee dissent, reports Jennifer Elias for CNBC:In [“I’m Not Returning to Google After Maternity Leave, and Here is Why”], she alleged her supervisor made discriminatory remarks about pregnant women. She also claimed that the company retaliated against her with poor performance ratings and unfairly denied her a leadership position.Glasson told CNBC in December that Google’s human resources department did not investigate her complaint until after she hired an attorney, adding that she was never interviewed by HR before Google said it did not find her claims credible. At the time, Google didn’t respond to requests for comment. Glasson filed a complaint with the EEOC late last year with the allegations, which had more detail, including that one of the alleged supervisors was on the Google Cloud team.The company responded to the EEOC complaint in January, saying it found no evidence of discrimination and that it didn’t make Glasson a manager due to insufficient headcount, according to materials viewed by CNBC.The agency transferred Glasson’s case to the EEOC’s investigation division Wednesday, where the Seattle field office will take it on. Read the rest

Post-Brexit, Google plans to move UK user accounts out of the control of European Union privacy regulators, and will place them under U.S. jurisdiction instead, where privacy protections are weaker, reports Joseph Menn at Reuters.Excerpt:The shift, prompted by Britain’s exit from the EU, will leave the sensitive personal information of tens of millions with less protection and within easier reach of British law enforcement. The change was described to Reuters by three people familiar with its plans. Google intends to require its British users to acknowledge new terms of service including the new jurisdiction.Ireland, where Google and other U.S. tech companies have their European headquarters, is staying in the EU, which has one of the world’s most aggressive data protection rules, the General Data Protection Regulation.Google has decided to move its British users out of Irish jurisdiction because it is unclear whether Britain will follow GDPR or adopt other rules that could affect the handling of user data, the people said.Read more:Exclusive: Google users in UK to lose EU data protection - sources.@google never has to follow any government regulations because they are more powerful than any government.Good luck, UK. https://t.co/Dd6oazD5Cd— Sleeping Giants (@slpng_giants) February 19, 2020“The shift, prompted by Britain’s exit from the EU, will leave the sensitive personal information of tens of millions with less protection and within easier reach of British law enforcement.” https://t.co/Y4b1GoWfnf— blmohr (@blmohr) February 19, 2020Sure, we lose data protection but BLUE PASSPORTS! Read the rest

Back in 2017, the new EPA Director Scott Pruitt -- a fantastically pampered shill for corporations whose income is proportional to the noxious effluvia they eject into our air, soil, and water -- passed a policy barring scientists from participating on the EPA’s Scientific Advisory Board if they had ever received a grant from the EPA.This sneaky-clever move was clearly designed to create the illusion that it was “draining the swamp” by preventing any potential conflicts of interest between scientists and money. Except that most academic scientists rely on EPA (and other) grants. Which limited the pot of scientific advisors on the scientific advisory board to scientists who worked for corporations. Who … somehow … didn’t have any conflicts of interest between their money and their science?It was, as the NRDC put it, a “pernicious scheme to stack the deck in favor of big polluters by trying to shut out the voices of scientists—all to pump more pollution into our lives.” They added:Pruitt claimed that his 2017 directive reduced bias on the EPA’s nearly two dozen advisory panels, which offer scientific expertise that then guide policy decisions on environmental pollutants, such as industrial chemicals or airborne particles from power plants. But unsurprisingly, Pruitt’s rule was not extended to scientists and consultants with ties to chemical or fossil fuel companies, allowing the agency to soon fill some open seats with industry insiders who disputed the known harm of pollutants, like ozone and PFOA.Fortunately, Judge Denise Cote of the U.S. Read the rest

Have you heard of the Goblin? It's a likely dwarf-sized planet named that because it was discovered around Halloween, 2015. The Goblin travels in a 32-thousand-year orbit around our sun. It is currently 7.5 billion miles away, somewhere in the mysterious Oort Cloud area of the solar system. The Goblin is one of the farthest known objects within our solar system.Image: YouTube Read the rest

Personal information for more than 10 million former guests of MGM resorts has been posted on a hacking forum. Among the notable data breach victims: Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey. The leaked data includes home addresses, and is said to only affect guests who stayed at the hotel chain's properties before 2018.MGM Resorts says the security incident took place in the summer of 2019, and that impacted guests were told last year. Catalin Cimpanu reporting for ZDNet:According to our analysis, the MGM data dump that was shared today contains personal details for 10,683,188 former hotel guests.Included in the leaked files are personal details such as full names, home addresses, phone numbers, emails, and dates of birth.ZDNet reached out to past guests and confirmed they stayed at the hotel, along with their timeline, and the accuracy of the data included in the leaked files.We got confirmation from international business travelers, reporters attending tech conferences, CEOs attending business meetings, and government officials traveling to Las Vegas branches.MGM told ZDNet:"Last summer, we discovered unauthorized access to a cloud server that contained a limited amount of information for certain previous guests of MGM Resorts," "We are confident that no financial, payment card or password data was involved in this matter."Read more:Exclusive: Details of 10.6 million of MGM hotel guests posted on a hacking forum[via techmeme.com, Catalin Cimpanu for Zero Day | February 19, 2020 -- 23:27 GMT] Read the rest

News organizations in Germany are reporting at this hour that an estimated 8 people are dead and at least 5 more injured following a mass shooting in Hanau, Germany. At the time of this blog post, reports indicate the gunmen are still at large.Reports indicate that the shooting(s) took place neat at least one hookah (shisha) bar, and a second location. This is a breaking news story, and will change as more information is confirmed by authorities. Here is the original report at BILD.Below, the earliest, possibly original source videos I could find on Twitter, plus early news reports from verified sources.Schüsse in #Hanau und leider auch Tote. Ob im folgenden Video der Täter gefasst wurde, kann ich nicht sagen. Folgendes Video wurde oft geteilt. Stay safe pic.twitter.com/nt7V1s06RD— Didar☀️ (@Didar_____) February 19, 2020part 2 pic.twitter.com/bAW7l2jrQ8— Didar☀️ (@Didar_____) February 19, 2020part 3,andere Perspektive. #Hanau. mutmaß. Täter womöglich gefasst. Alles boch Spekulation. Kraft denen, die heut Abend Freunde oder Verwsndte verloren haben.https://t.co/LhdH0T2Seu— Didar☀️ (@Didar_____) February 19, 2020die mutmaßlichen täter wurden in lamboy festgenommenein freund bzw bekannter den ich seit meiner kindheit kenne ist unter den todesopfernbin erstmal weg. #hanau (video nicht von mir, quelle unbekannt) pic.twitter.com/Ol7wwBXRAM— denerfun (@dnerfunboss) February 19, 2020Es gab offenbar eine Festnahme nach den Schüssen in #Hanau. Ob dies der Täter war, ist nicht bekannt. (Dieses Video ist wahrscheinlich keine Primärquelle, sondern nur ein Repost) https://t.co/OSSr3uu1Hd— Jan-Henrik Wiebe (@jan_wiebe) February 19, 2020Tatverdächtiger flüchtig - Mehrere Tote nach Schüssen in Hanau! Read the rest

E. Jean Carroll, who has written an advice column at ELLE magazine for three decades, and last year accused President Donald Trump of raping her in the mid-1990s, today said she was fired from her longtime editorial position as a direct result of Trump's public debasement of her character.“Because Trump ridiculed my reputation, laughed at my looks, & dragged me through the mud, after 26 years, ELLE fired me,” Carroll wrote on Twitter. “I don’t blame Elle. It was the great honor of my life writing ‘Ask E. Jean.’”Trump denies her rape accusation, as he has with all the other countless sexual discrimination, harassment, and abuse allegations, over these many decades.From NBC News:Carroll's announcement of her termination from ELLE follows her lawyers' move to block a request from Trump that her suit be delayed.“Our client filed this lawsuit to prove that Donald Trump lied about sexually assaulting her and to restore her credibility and reputation. From the very beginning, Trump has tried every tactic lawyers can think of to halt this case in its tracks and keep the truth from coming out," wrote Kaplan in a statement. "His latest effort — a motion to stay our client’s case until the New York Court of Appeals decides the Summer Zervos case likely after November 2020 — is yet another obvious delay tactic that is not grounded in the law and, like his previous attempts to stall this case, will be rejected by the court.” Read the rest

Larry Tesler, the Xerox PARC computer scientist who coined the terms cut, copy, and paste, has died.Born in 1945 in New York, Tesler went on to study computer science at Stanford University, and after graduation he dabbled in artificial intelligence research (long before it became a deeply concerning tool) and became involved in the anti-war and anti-corporate monopoly movements, with companies like IBM as one of his deserving targets. In 1973 Tesler took a job at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) where he worked until 1980. Xerox PARC is famously known for developing the mouse-driven graphical user interface we now all take for granted, and during his time at the lab Tesler worked with Tim Mott to create a word processor called Gypsy that is best known for coining the terms “cut,” “copy,” and “paste” when it comes to commands for removing, duplicating, or repositioning chunks of text.Read the rest of his obit on Gizmodo.[H/t Jim Leftwich]Image: Yahoo! Blog from Sunnyvale, California, USA - Larry Tesler Smiles at Whisper, CC BY 2.0, Link Read the rest

Alexandra Kopytova accepted the proposal at the barrel of a gun. Or 16 guns, technically, which were attached to a fleet of T-72B3 Soviet Battle Tanks that her now-fiance, Lieutenant Denis Kazantsev, brought in as part of an elaborate military maneuvering drill to ask his beloved's hand in marriage. From RT (because of course it's from RT):Though Valentine’s Day is not really a Russian tradition, the spirit of the day was not lost on Kazantsev’s commanders, who gave the go-ahead for the mission at the Alabino testing grounds, southwest of Moscow. On Thursday morning, 16 tanks rolled onto the range for a maneuvering drill in which they formed two columns and lined up in a heart formation.The mission’s success, however, hinged on the approval of one person who was neither a major nor a general. With her eyes covered, 19-year-old Alexandra was led into the middle of the formation by Denis, 23. When she opened her eyes, she saw Kazantsev kneeling with a bouquet of red roses."I postponed the proposal for about one month to organise all this so it would be unforgettable, once in a lifetime," Kazantsev told the Daily Mail. "It was not easy but with time my commanders agreed to let me do this."This awkwardly-sweet-in-a-distinctly-Russian-way fairytale gets even weirder when you realize that Koptyova and Kazantsev were … actually already married. He had previously proposed on New Year's Eve 2017, at a time when they were living in separate cities, and got to enjoy a whole two weeks of marriage in St. Read the rest

One of the strangest contradictory sensations of the Trump era is the man's relationship towards and with the various U.S. intelligence agencies. In many cases, Trump's broad criticisms about the unaccountable and seemingly limitless scope of intelligence gathering are valid. Or would be, anyway, if the man actually cared about those issues for any reason beyond his larger tantrum over the way those agencies have undermined his ego. Or if he wasn't simultaneously trying to use that same wide jurisdiction to target his own political enemies.In other words, Trump's not necessarily wrong about the potential abuses of secret and/or warrantless surveillance (or "wiretapping" as he puts it). But he's only mad about those things because they can be used to threaten him and his friends, instead of reinforcing his hunches. Otherwise, illegal spying and invasions of privacy are totally fine with him—as long as they target the right people.There are moments, then, where it becomes a case of "My enemy's enemy is my friend" — except that "friend" is also an enemy of sorts, which further complicates the whole mess. Case in point: this recent Just Security post by Douglas London, a former CIA operative. In it, London talks about the way that the CIA's priorities have been forced to shift from general intelligence gathering to just kind of soothing Trump's ego, and retroactively justifying all of the man's random baseless instincts:The revealing and most disconcerting aspect of this episode was not that Pompeo presumed the worst from his workforce before getting the full story, nor his vicious dressing down of a dedicated senior official and decorated officer. Read the rest

The Fashion Institute of Technology has apologized for a "clearly racist" show where a black model was asked to wear giant red lips and black plastic ears. The model refused, but white colleages were photographed on the catwalk wearing the bizarre prostheses. The college's president is not sure if there was an explicitly racial comment being made, but is looking into it, reports the BBC:"Currently," its president Joyce F Brown said in a statement, "it does not appear that the original intent of the design, the use of accessories or the creative direction of the show was to make a statement about race."However, it is now glaringly obvious that has been the outcome. For that, we apologise - to those who participated in the show, to students, and to anybody who has been offended by what they saw."Amy Lefevre, the model who declined, talked to the New York Post and shared a test shot (above) taken before the show in which she wore the accessories.“I stood there almost ready to break down, telling the staff that I felt incredibly uncomfortable with having to wear these pieces and that they were clearly racist,” Amy Lefevre, 25, told The Post.“I was told that it was fine to feel uncomfortable for only 45 seconds.”The designer, Junkai Huang, is reportedly "from China" and unaware of the racial connotations of the mask. Richard Thornn, the producer of the show, is reported to have "screamed" at a student who objected before the show and has more explaining to do. Read the rest

For those with a writing flair, the thought of building a career as a professional copywriter should probably have some appeal. Thankfully, it’s also an in-demand job skill with the average copywriter making a healthy $60,000 a year for their efforts.But even if you have a way with words, you still need the industry training and background to get hired or even to start up your own thing as a freelance copy pro.Either way you choose, the training found in The 2020 Complete Digital Copywriting Master Class Bundle ($38.99, over 90 percent off) can help you get there, even if you’ve got no previous experience with how the whole business works.The package features 11 courses that can take the first-time copywriting student and begin building up your skills and knowledge to take on the pros.It all begins with The Business Writing Course, where 30-year content writer Alan Sharpe shows students the basics of the copywriting game. That training expands into greater depth with the 3-part Copywriting for Beginners courses, as students learn the seven vital questions surrounding any copywriting project, how to use headlines and openers to great effect, and the right buttons to push to persuade all manner of audiences to join your cause.In addition to training in crafting persuasive and profitable digital sales pages, there are also deep examinations on the 10 most common mistakes made by new copywriters as well as the biggest takeaways that still resonate today from one the “best ad campaign of all time,” the powerful 1960s and 1970s Volkswagen newspaper ads. Read the rest

I bought this solar powered LED illuminated street address sign earlier this month and am really happy with it. The light is is bright and makes it easy for people to find our house. It comes with several sheets of adhesive numbers that you stick onto a white plastic panel. It also comes with mounting screws, but I attached it to the side of a metal mailbox so I used outdoor mounting tape instead. My address has five numbers and I had no problem fitting them on the panel, using the included cardboard placement template.I paid full price for it, but the seller has a code 5UZYEDUV to let you buy it at a good discount. Read the rest

This "ultrasonic" pest repellent just has circuit to control LEDs inside from r/assholedesignThis Adtala ultrasonic bug and rat repellent device is advertised as having an "Upgraded Smart Chip." Reddit user SoggyMonsoon opened the case and found a circuit with 2 LEDS, 2 diodes, and three resistors, but no Upgraded Smart Chip. Does it even emit an ultrasonic tone? A commenter said: "this circuit WOULD emit ultrasonic sound. It looks like it would oscillate between the lights. Of course it would be extremely quiet since there is no amplification circuit here to the point that I highly doubt any living thing would be affected by it, but this circuit would in fact make 2 different pitches based on the light that was currently on / diodes in use. All electric circuits have a frequency. So along those lines any electronic device would be about as effective as this thing."Below, a video of a test with a Bell and Howell Ultrasonic Rodent Repeller. It didn't work. In fact, rats seem to be attracted to it:Image: Reddit Read the rest

Today is the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Iwo Jima, when the US Marines and Navy invaded and captured the island from the Imperial Japan Army. Almost 7,000 Allied troops and 18,000 Japanese soldiers were killed. The University of South Carolina's Moving Image Research Collections is now helping the History Division of the Marine Corps digitize and make public mostly unseen film footage shot by marines in combat during the battle. There are 14,000 cans of film undergoing the digitization and preservation process. The videos above and below are barely a teaser of what's to come. From the University of South Carolina:From the beginning, Marine Corps leaders knew they wanted a comprehensive visual account of the battle — not only for a historical record but also to assist in planning and training for the invasion of the Japanese main islands. Some Marine cameramen were assigned to the front lines of individual units, and others to specific activities, such as engineering and medical units. Films from these units show the daily toll of the battle such as Marines being treated in the medical units or being evacuated off the island to hospital ships as well as essential behind-the-lines tasks of building command posts or unloading and sorting equipment on beaches....Another goal of the Marine Corps film project is to identify and label as much of the historical information in the films as possible, such as Marine Corps units and equipment. In addition to manually scanning the films for this information, Moving Images Research Collections has partnered with Research Computing and the university’s Computer Vision Lab, a research group within the College of Engineering and Computing, to use artificial intelligence to recognize text in the films to help identify units as well as individual Marines, airplanes and ships. Read the rest

News 24 reports that "No SA National Defence Force (SANDF) members were injured after a Rooikat light armoured vehicle hit a fence during a practice run ahead of the annual Armed Forces Day commemorations in Polokwane on Monday."Image: News24/YouTube Read the rest

Julian Assange's lawyer told a London court that Trump offered to pardon the WikiLeaks founder if he agreed to say Russia was not involved in the Democratic National Committee email hack, reports The Daily Beast.Edward Fitzgerald, Assange’s lawyer, said Wednesday that a message had been passed on to Assange by former Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.Fitzgerald said a statement produced by Assange’s lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, showed “Mr Rohrabacher going to see Mr Assange and saying, on instructions from the president, he was offering a pardon or some other way out, if Mr Assange... said Russia had nothing to do with the DNC leaks.”Image by Espen Moe - originally posted to Flickr as IMG_4739, CC BY 2.0, Link Read the rest

The latest episode of Two Minute Papers discusses a new video enhancement method called "Depth-Aware Video Frame Interpolation" to increase the frame rate of choppy videos. The breakthrough here is the way this neural network smoothly handles objects that appear from behind other objects.Image: YouTube/Two Minute Papers Read the rest

A fellow named Brett, aka "Slab," was having a beer with his buddies at the the Amble Inn in Corindi Beach, New South Wales, Australia, when he noticed a gecko in his mug. The gecko wasn't moving so Slab sprang into action, as seen in the video above. Yes, geckos do sometimes play dead as a defense mechanism. But either way, good on ya, Slab!(News.com.au) Read the rest

One of my favorite YouTube channels is Nippon Wandering TV, in which a guy walks and bikes around Japanese streets with a GoPro camera. In his latest video he bikes around Keisei Tateishi station in northeast Tokyo. and takes a look at an old neighborhood that is going to be plowed to make way for redevelopment. "Tokyo plans to redevelop this neighborhood and the retro street, old hidden bar izakaya will be all gone in the near future," he writes. "I miss these old alleys, but it can’t be avoided."Image: YouTube/Nippon Wandering TV Read the rest

Someone has been depositing pillowcases filled with live snakes outside of a fire station in Sunderland, northeast England. Last week, 13 pythons turned up and one has since died. The latest collection included 15 corn snakes and a carpet python. Fortunately, those snakes seem to be in decent health, according to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA). From CNN:"We were in the midst of Storm Dennis at the weekend when these snakes, who need heat and light in order to survive, were left outside in the cold with just a pillowcase to contain them," said (RSPCA inspector Heidi) Cleaver."It would have been very stressful for the snakes to be in such close proximity to each other as well..."The RSPCA has appealed for information about the mystery surrounding the snakes being repeatedly dumped in the area.images: RSPCA Read the rest

SpaceX and Space Adventures have partnered to offer space tourists a trip to orbit on the SpaceX Crew Dragon space capsule. They expect the first flight to launch in late 2021 or early 2022. Around $50 million will get you a seat. From Spaceflight Now: The mission would not dock with the space station, but would instead fly into an orbit above the station’s altitude of about 260 miles (420 kilometers) above Earth, according to Space Adventures, the Virginia-based company that arranged flights of seven wealthy space tourists on Russian Soyuz capsules between 2001 and 2009...Responding to a question on Twitter about a possible price tag of $52 million per seat, (Space Adventures chairman Eric) Anderson tweeted: “Per seat price for a full group of four not quite that much (not dramatically less, but significant enough to note). Definitive pricing confidential, and dependent on client specific requests, etc.”Anderson tweeted that the training regimen for the Crew Dragon flight will be “significantly less than the few months required for previous missions or ISS missions.”“Dragon in this profile allows up to 5 days,” Anderson tweeted. “3 days is probably ideal, 40-50 orbits or so.”image: SpaceX Crew Dragon (NASA, public domain) Read the rest

Burger King's switching to preservative-free ingredients, and chose to market this fact by showing what will now happen to its sandwiches if they are left out uneaten. Welcome to the intersection of advertising and earned media, puke bags are under the seats. Read the rest

The broken ASCII-art "FUCK EPIC GAMES STORE" wasn't placed intentionally by Steam to show up as the store's description in Google search results, but there it is, all the same. Google and its algorithmic gods picked the phrase, a comment left by a user of the site, for reasons known only to itself. [Rock Paper Shotgun] Read the rest

In the early 1800s, agents working for Thomas Bruce of Scotland, the 7th Earl of Elgin, conveniently “removed” about half of the remaining marble statues from the Parthenon, as well as a few other Greek sculptures, and brought them back to Britain in the name of art history cultural preservation colonialism. Bruce claimed to have permission from the Ottoman Empire to borrow these artifacts, but others have insisted that this is total bullshit. This has — understandably! — resulted in some strained tensions between the British Empire and the modern Greek government (post-Ottoman Empire) that’s gone on for about two centuries.Now that Britain has left the European Union, Greece has renewed their effort to reclaim the Elgin/Parthenon Marbles. From The Times:A draft negotiating mandate circulated among European governments in Brussels today hardened EU demands in key traditional trade areas, particularly fishing, but also included the unexpected “return and restitution” line.“The parties should address issues relating to the return or restitution of unlawfully removed cultural objects to their country of origin,” said a newly drafted text that will be signed off by EU governments next week.The Greek government has said that Brexit will shift the political balance within the EU to force Britain to return the fifth century BC marbles.Perhaps unsurprisingly, the British government is thus far refusing to cooperate. They seem to be under the impression that the marbles were legally acquired. I suppose this makes sense, on the grounds that the British government makes the laws by which the country abides, and thus, according to their own laws, they have acted in accordance with the law (that they made) in their decision to steal cultural artifacts from half the god damn world in the name of Imperialism. Read the rest

While we all love our iPhones and iPads, celebrating the releases of their latest and greatest versions, it’s amusing to consider how much we at the same time HATE the main item that keeps these little tech marvels powered up and working.No, Lightning cables don’t exactly inspire feelings of awe and wonder. It’s more like...anger and frustration. That’s because we all know that in a matter of weeks, and in many cases, just days, that freaking cable will get kinked, peeled, or frayed to the point of uselessness.Apple-approved cables are as fragile as eggs and like everything from Cupertino, not exactly cheap. Instead, try out this 10-ft cloth MFi-Certified Lightning cable now at over 60 percent off its regular price, only $14.99.Crafted from flexible, tangle-resistant cloth fiber, this cable is sturdy enough to survive real-world use while still delivering reliable power to your thirsty devices.These MFi-certified connectors can handle all the syncing and charging tasks you need to be handled. And thanks to its generous 10-foot reach, you’ll likely always have that extra little bit of cord needed to stay connected to your USB port or outlet even when it’s across the room.Regularly priced at $39.99, this $25 discount might make this a good time to stock up on a couple for all your various charging locations. Read the rest

Exhibit A: Boycycle, a music video by Vedran Rupic for Bosnian DJ Salvator Ganacci, who stars as the titular creature.Exhibits B1 through B3: Progressive Insurance's "Motaur" ad campaign, with a similar if less grossly-rendered motif. "Legs on the bottom, motorcycle on the top." Read the rest

Amusing yet unsettling and increasingly smooth, the deepfakes keep coming. Here's Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk's faces superimposed onto Star Trek's original 1965 pilot episode, with Bezos as the Talosian magistrate and Musk as Christopher Pike. It's by TheFakening, one of YouTube's deepfake masters.In the not too distant future Elon Musk will save us from the captivity of Jeff Bezos' Amazon illusion. Read the rest

In this security footage, three masked and armed robbers raid a pot shop in Everett, Washington, only to be confronted by an unexpected challenge: a blast of bear spray right to the face. The operator, Chris Vincent, told reporters that he was shutting up shop when the men ran in: "He was ordering me to open the register, but I couldn't. I noticed the guy was a little bit away from me so I grabbed the bear spray, I came after the second guy. They were so confused they couldn't even get the doors open."Vincent said it's the first time he's blasted someone with bear spray, which was apparently bought because pepper spray hadn't stopped the shop being knocked off in the past. It had been only eight days since the last robbery there, according to KCPQ News.The brand of spray he used was Frontiersman Bear Attack Deterrent [Amazon link], offered in 8oz canisters. Read the rest

The rich plan to ride out the plague in private jets, but there's a problem: there's not enough of them, and crews are leery of flying to China. The wealthy ones are turning to private jet operators to ask them to arrange flights, despite the huge costs.But the companies are having to turn them away due to travel bans and a lack of available planes and crews.Australia-based Darin Voyles, of Paramount Business Jets, said the firm had seen a ''considerable uptick'' in requests, but the majority can't be filled as they can't get the crew or planes. They resolved to leave means neither of ingress nor egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within. The jet was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve or to think. The CEO had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was SARS-CoV-2. Read the rest

The Financial Times, which is like The Wall Street Journal but with a three-digit IQ, has an amusing 404 Not Found page.Why wasn't this page found?We asked some leading economists.Stagflation The cost of pages rose drastically, while the page production rate slowed down. General economicsThere was no market for it.Liquidity trapsWe injected some extra money into the technology team but there was little or no interest so they simply kept it, thus failing to stimulate the page economy.Pareto inefficiencyThere exists another page that will make everyone better off without making anyone worse off. Read the rest