Philip.paulssonLOL
CINCINNATI—While insisting they always tried to follow the facility’s policies as best they could, workers at Helping Paws, a local no-kill animal shelter, told patrons Friday they couldn’t promise them there wouldn’t be any, shall we say, unfortunate accidents. “We do our best to give every animal a safe and happy…
Philip.paulssonHah!
THE HEAVENS—Sighing with despair as He read through His fourth rejection letter from the high-IQ society, God, the Divine Creator of the Universe, reportedly became frustrated Wednesday after once again failing to receive a test score high enough to qualify for membership in Mensa. “Man, I really thought I was gonna…
Philip.paulssonHah! I never could get into these battle royale games... too much dicking about with no action, and then when there is action it's instadeath from a 12yr old sniper eight miles away.
Jesus, gamers. We were looking to play a few rounds of something fun and low stakes, so we decided to boot up Fortnite, and wow, let’s just say, we were not prepared for what we found. Since the last time we played, which was only two weeks ago, mind you, Epic has apparently added stretch limousines, panini presses,…
Philip.paulssonWTF is an internet celeb? Doesn't Justin Bieber count?
Philip.paulssonLOL thanks facebook/andrews! This is why I switched to Signal. (which tomorrow I'll see an article on how it's bought by Apple or some shit)
Enlarge / The security of Facebook's popular messaging app leaves several rather important devils in its details. (credit: WhatsApp)
Yesterday, independent newsroom ProPublica published a detailed piece examining the popular WhatsApp messaging platform's privacy claims. The service famously offers "end-to-end encryption," which most users interpret as meaning that Facebook, WhatsApp's owner since 2014, can neither read messages itself nor forward them to law enforcement.
This claim is contradicted by the simple fact that Facebook employs about 1,000 WhatsApp moderators whose entire job is—you guessed it—reviewing WhatsApp messages that have been flagged as "improper."
This snippet from WhatsApp's security and privacy page seems easy to misinterpret. (credit: Jim Salter)
The loophole in WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption is simple: The recipient of any WhatsApp message can flag it. Once flagged, the message is copied on the recipient's device and sent as a separate message to Facebook for review.
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Philip.paulssonOh, this must mean I'm able to actually buy a PS5 for retail now, right?
Checks internet: Nope. Of course not. UGH.
Enlarge / Sony's new standardized cross-gen upgrade cost will be $10 for all first-party games slated to release on both PS4 and PS5. (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images | PlayStation)
Sony announced last week that players will be able to upgrade any version of Horizon Forbidden West from the PlayStation 4 to the PlayStation 5 for free—but that game is the last first-party release that will include this option.
In a September 4 post on PlayStation.Blog, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan confirmed that every new first-party, cross-generation release in the future will offer players a paid current-gen upgrade path option for $10. This list includes the next God of War, Gran Turismo 7, and any other Sony-published games slated to appear on both systems, only exempting Horizon Forbidden West.
The publisher reversed course on the Forbidden West preorder plans it announced two days earlier because it had offered no way, paid or otherwise, for players to upgrade the game’s bare-bones PS4 editions to current-gen. Instead, the convoluted pricing structure required anyone interested in owning Horizon Forbidden West on both consoles to choose from multiple high-cost deluxe editions, a move that sparked significant backlash from fans.
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Philip.paulssonHah!
Philip.paulssonNeato
Firefly Milky Way over Russia
It started with a pine tree.
The idea was to photograph a statuesque
pine
in front of the central band of our
Milky Way Galaxy.
And the plan, carried out two months ago, was successful --
they both appear prominently.
But the resulting 3-frame panorama captured much more.
Colorful stars,
for example, dot the distant background, with bright
Altair visible on the upper left.
The planet Saturn, a bit closer, was captured just over the horizon on the far left.
Just beyond the
Earth's atmosphere, seen in the upper right, an
Earth-orbiting satellite
was caught leaving a streak during the 25-second exposure.
The Earth's atmosphere itself was
surprisingly visible -- as
green airglow
across the image top.
Finally, just by chance, there was a
firefly.
Do you see it?
Near the image bottom,
the firefly blinked in yellow several times as it
fluttered before the rolling hills above
Milogradovka River in
Primorsky Krai,
Russia.
Philip.paulssonHeh
Philip.paulssonAhhh this also probably explains why our building's AC shut down overnight Sunday as well.
Late Sunday evening, half of New York City’s subway system shut down for five hours due to a power surge, stranding hundreds of passengers in the process. New York Governor Kathy Hochul called it an “unprecedented system breakdown” of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The Washington Post reports that the problems began when a power line went down. This triggered a voltage dip across the city, and two power plants and generators also went offline, forcing backup systems to come online. When trying to restore service, a power surge occurred. When this happened, the subway command center lost communications with 83 trains. The public address system also went down. Five trains with more than 550 people were stranded.
Part of the problem was the passengers themselves. While emergency personnel did evacuate as many people as they could, riders on two trains decided to leave cars on their own, a very dangerous act because tracks could be re-energized if a train was coming. Firefighters had to search the tracks to make sure there were no more remaining passengers before the subway could fully restore power.
After a phased “rolling restoration,” the system was finally back online at 1:30AM Monday morning.
Hochul has since ordered a deeper investigation into what exactly caused the surge as well as the other problems. So far, investigators have said there is no suspicion of terrorism or malicious actions.
Philip.paulssonWow, that is friggin insane.
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)
A county judge in Ohio has ordered a hospital in Cincinnati to administer ivermectin to an intensive care patient, a move raises questions about the role of the courts in the medical system.
“It is absurd that this order was issued,” Arthur Caplan, professor of bioethics at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, told Ars. “If I were these doctors, I simply wouldn’t do it.”
The order was spurred by a lawsuit filed by Julie Smith, whose 51-year-old husband, Jeffrey, is being treated in West Chester Hospital for COVID-19. The lawsuit was first reported by the Ohio Capital Journal. Jeffrey has been in the hospital since July 15, and as his condition declined, his wife Julie began investigating alternative treatments.
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Philip.paulssonLOL these are pretty great.
"skamtebord" ! Hahah
Philip.paulssonLOL! I'm 13-16yrs old and from the Northeast.
Philip.paulssonI hate when that happens!
Philip.paulssonThis show is SO GOOD. Tho in full disclosure I haven't started season 2 yet. Dani Rojas! Football is life!
LOS ANGELES—The popular Apple TV+ show Ted Lasso reportedly received an outpouring of critical acclaim Tuesday after the latest episode consisted solely of heartwarming stock photos of people hugging each other. “This is exactly the type of television show America needs right now,” said Alan Sepinwall, a critic for …
Philip.paulssonLOL I use inverted aiming controls.
Dear gamers, if there’s anything we value here at OGN, it’s humility. Although we may very well be the internet’s foremost voice in gaming journalism, we are human beings too, human beings who have flaws and imperfections, just like yourselves. When we get caught making a mistake, we want to own up to it as soon as…
Philip.paulssonLOL
NEW YORK—Shedding new light on the notorious killer’s life, researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice announced Tuesday they had uncovered evidence that the late Albert DeSalvo, better known as the Boston Strangler, was too chickenshit to strangle in a real city like New York. “We have authenticated…
Philip.paulssonLOL
BROOKLYN, NY—Scouring every cabinet and drawer in a frantic search for the remedy, a panicked Danny DeVito ran out of the anti-growth serum that keeps him under five feet, sources confirmed Friday. “Shit, shit, shit, where is it?!” said the alarmed actor as his body began to rapidly expand, sprouting six-pack abs,…
Philip.paulssonOMFG they picked a rich white guy? Are you fucking kidding me? After all the amazing hosts you've had standing in? Guess I'm not watching that anymore.
Enlarge / Mike Richards (right) will be the new regular host of Jeopardy! when it returns for its 38th season. The Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik will host "primetime and spinoff series." (credit: Sony Pictures Entertainment)
Sony Pictures Entertainment announced today that Mike Richards and Mayim Bialik would share hosting duties on Jeopardy! when the show returns for its 38th season later this year, with Richards hosting the regular version of the show and Bialik hosting "primetime and spinoff series, including the upcoming all-new Jeopardy! National College Championship."
The former co-host of Beauty and the Geek and the 2012 reboot of The $100,000 Pyramid, Richards has served as an executive producer of Jeopardy! since 2020 and will continue in those duties while hosting the show. Bialik is best known for her roles on The Big Bang Theory and Blossom, and she also has a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA.
Richards and Bialik will take over for longtime host Alex Trebek, who passed away in late 2020 following a pancreatic cancer diagnosis; his last episodes aired in January 2021. Throughout the rest of its 37th season, the show used a long list of guest hosts to fill in for Trebek at the podium, including Richards and Bialik but also former Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings, newscasters Katie Couric and Anderson Cooper, and book enthusiast LeVar Burton.
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Philip.paulssonLOL
ALBANY, NY—Demonstrating the potential pitfalls of rushing to conclusions, Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment scandal and subsequent resignation reportedly served as a somber reminder Tuesday that leaders who are bad at their job can have a dark side too. “You wouldn’t think someone who’s had accusations of corruption…
Philip.paulssonLOL
DEARBORN, MI—Touting that the new model would give customers even more of what they wanted in a pickup truck, Ford Motor Company promised Friday that the new 2022 F-450 would make the driver look every so tiny. “You will absolutely look like a weeny little baby sitting there in your driver’s seat, and we pledge that…
Philip.paulssonI didn't think this was funny until I started pronouncing them in my head. Then I giggled. Probably too much.
Philip.paulssonoh god no please no
Just ahead of World Emoji Day, Facebook has announced a new feature for Messenger: emoji with sound. With Soundmojis, you can annoy everyone else in your chats with short audio clips that are linked to a visual emoji.
The initial Soundmoji library includes sound cues for standard emoji including applause and a drumroll as well as evil laughter. There are also audio clips from artists such as Rebecca Black (it's hard to imagine which day of the week would be most appropriate for that Soundmoji) and movies and TV shows including F9, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Bridgerton. Facebook will add more sound effects and clips over time.
If you really want to risk the wrath of your friends and family by bugging them with Soundmojis, open a Messenger chat, then tap the smiley face followed by the loudspeaker icon. You'll be able to preview Soundmojis from the library before sending them. I wonder what an eyeroll sounds like.
Philip.paulssonAt first I thought they just made him say shit he never said... but since they used actual quotes from him that they just didn't have audio for, I can't immediately call this the worst fucking idea ever.
On July 16th, Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain will open in US theatres. Like many documentaries, the film pieces together archival footage, including interviews and show outtakes, to attempt to tell the story of its subject in their own words. It also includes words Bourdain never spoke to a camera before his death by suicide in 2018, and yet you’ll hear his voice saying them.
In an interview with The New Yorker, the film’s director, Morgan Neville, said there were three quotes he wanted Bourdain to narrate where there were no recordings, and so he recreated them with software instead. “I created an AI model of his voice,” he told the magazine.
It appears that was no easy feat either. In a separate interview with GQ, Neville said he contacted four different companies about the project before deciding on the best one. That company fed about a dozen hours of audio to an AI model. A lot of the work involved deciding the exact tone of Bourdain’s voice Neville wanted the software to replicate since the way the author and travel host narrated his writing changed so much over the years he was on TV.
Compared to some of the other ways we’ve seen AI and deepfakes used to trick people, this isn't the worst example, but the ethics of it are still questionable. The film, as far as we’re aware, doesn’t include a disclosure that AI was used to replicate Bourdain’s voice. “If you watch the film, other than that line you mentioned, you probably don’t know what the other lines are that were spoken by the AI, and you’re not going to know,” Neville told The New Yorker. “We can have a documentary-ethics panel about it later.” In his interview with GQ, he said Bourdain’s family told him “Tony would have been cool with that,” adding, “I was just trying to make [the quotes] come alive,”
Philip.paulssonThe Onion is consistently funny. The Onion cartoons are consistently not. I really don't get them.
Philip.paulssonHaha
FORT COLLINS, CO—Feeling panicked and bewildered by the unexpected deposit, local 30-year-old Dean Osterman was reportedly wondering Thursday if there was something he didn’t know about after a payment from the child tax credit program hit his bank account. “Wait, what? Oh jeez, no, but that’s impossible,” said…
Philip.paulssonLOL
LOGAN, UT—Employing state-of-the-art technology to recreate an authentic outdoor running experience, the exercise equipment manufacturer NordicTrack reportedly unveiled a new treadmill Friday that comes covered in dog shit. “For runners who want the thrill of dodging feces, litter, and broken glass from the comfort of…
