Prettocraig

Sometimes a politician says something so racist, sexist, or otherwise terrible that it could (or should) ruin their career.

But for that to happen, somebody’s got to be there to get it on tape — and it's not an easy gig.

Zach Wurtz has been working as a political “tracker” in Washington state for almost a decade. Most of his work involves driving for hours to tape local politicians giving speeches. Sometimes he ends up at massive ballroom events with rich Republican donors, other times at tiny gatherings in community centers.

If his “target” shows up to give a speech in public, Zach shows up too, camera in hand, ready to capture every word and send it back to his client. (Zach primarily works for Democrats.)

He’s a bit like a spy, except he’s so famous in Washington political circles that everybody knows who he is — and none of them want him at their events.

VICE News rode along with Zach to find out what life as one of the most-hated people in politics is really like.

This segment originally aired March 28, 2018 on VICE News Tonight on HBO.

This article originally appeared on VICE News US.

Should parents be required to use car seats on commercial flights? Would they disrupt travel or make flying safer for young kids? Transport Canada wants to hear what you think.

An active shooter is reportedly at YouTube’s headquarters in San Bruno, California, police have confirmed. Videos from aerial helicopters and social media show people being evacuated from the building and heavily armored police entering.

Some YouTube employees are using social media to describe what’s happening inside the building.

"I looked down and saw blood drips on the floor and stairs. Peaked around for threats and then we headed downstairs and out the front. Police cruisers pull up, hopped out with rifles ready and I told them where the situation was as I headed down the street to meet up with a couple team members," YouTube product manager Todd Sherman, who said he is safe and on his way home, tweeted.

Screenshot via Snapchat

This article originally appeared on VICE News US.

We’re not sure what’s more audacious, the aggressively chiseled and angular bodywork of the Karlmann King SUV or its nearly $4 million dollar price tag. In either case, despite its stealth visage, the specialty automaker’s design is meant to be noticed.

Billed as the world’s most expensive SUV, what’s really underneath all that faceted carbon fiber and steel clad-work (available in an optional bulletproof version) is a Ford F550 commercial cab chassis.

Imagine architect Kengo Kuma and origami artist Coco Sato given the proverbial keys to design an SUV for likes of Bruce Wayne – unhindered by any modicum of self-constraint and directed by harried visions of the apocalypse – and the 13,000 lbs Karlmann King might be the eventuality.

The audacity of the exterior is only exceeded by the ostentatious finish of its interior – a “Night at the Roxbury” outfitted affair that takes opulence to an unprecedented level: reclining lounge sheets, individual air-conditioning systems for the front and rear passengers, an air purification system, starlight-simulating LED ceiling, Nespresso coffee machine, flat-screen TV with Apple TV and PlayStation 4, storage safes, refrigerator, and the option to customize colors with the zeal of a Las Vegas casino or Dubai resort interior decorator.

If you ever see one of these Karlmann King SUVs on the road, snap a photograph, because they’ll be rather scarce. Just nine will be hand built, the product of over 30,000 hours of manufacturing in Italy under the watchful eye of Italian design director Luciano D’Ambrosio.

About 2,000 people dressed in rainbow garb descended on Vice President Mike Pence’s conservative hometown of Columbus, Indiana, this weekend for a wild gay pride parade.

“It's crazy. It's awesome,” Erin Bailey, the 18-year-old who organized the event, told the Indy Star. She planned the event as her senior project, but her efforts quickly turned into much more than that — Columbus, a town of 45,000 people that cast twice as many votes for Donald Trump as for Hillary Clinton, had never hosted a gay pride parade before.

“I want others in Columbus to know it's an accepting place,” Bailey told Teen Vogue. The festival is for members of the LGBT community . . . more so than it is for people like Mike Pence or people who are intolerant.”

The city’s parade gained national attention because of Pence’s long history of opposing LGBT rights as the governor of Indiana, and now, the vice president. He pushed to keep marriage between a man and a woman while he was governor, as well as “license to discriminate” bills as both governor and vice president. Pence also reportedly drafted Trump’s policy banning transgender personnel from the military.

In a statement to USA Today, Pence's spokeswoman Alyssa Farah said the vice president commends Bailey for her activism and “engagement in the civic process.”

“As a proud Hoosier and Columbus native, he’s heartened to see young people from his hometown getting involved in the political process,” Farah said.

While Pence didn’t attend himself, Mike "Hot" Pence did. The impersonator, Glen Pannell, complete with a white wig, blue hot pants, and a rainbow tie, took donations for Indiana Youth Group, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit that supports LGBT youth.

The festival ended with a drag show — the first in Columbus, which is located about 45 miles south of Indianapolis.

Many of the people in attendance were teenagers and peers of the organizer, the Indy Star reported.

While this festival took the national stage with its close connection to the vice president, the vibe and trappings hewed to other gay pride parades: Bubbles, rainbow flags, balloons, and face paint were abundant.

This article originally appeared on VICE News US.

Donald Trump tweeted Thursday that he had “never said when an attack on Syria would take place” and that such an assault might come “not so soon at all” – less than 24 hours after warning Russia to “get ready” for an attack on its ally.

The president’s latest Twitter outburst clouded the timing over the anticipated U.S.military response against Syria to punish it for an alleged chemical attack on civilians over the weekend, following days where Trump had signalled such a move was imminent.

His apparent backpedalling may have been prompted by the widespread criticism that yesterday’s tweet ignored his own advice, in the years before he was president, where he publicly lambasted the Obama administration for tipping its hand ahead of military action.

Trump’s comments came as British and American officials met Thursday to further discuss a response to Saturday’s alleged chemical attack in the Syrian town of Douma, which observers say killed dozens and affected hundreds of others.

READ MORE: Trump wants to send Assad a message – but his options are all bad

British Prime Minister Theresa May called ministers to an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the British response, although it was unclear whether she would seek parliamentary approval for a strike. Citing unnamed sources, the BBC reported that May was prepared to act without seeking the consent of lawmakers, despite calls from the opposition of members of her own party to put the issue before parliament.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that his government had proof that Syria had used chemicals – “at least chlorine” – in the attack on Douma, a town in Eastern Ghouta, just outside the capital Damascus.

Asked if France would join in the military response against Syria for the attack, he said: "We will need to take decisions in due course, when we judge it most useful and effective.

He continued: "France will not allow any escalation that could harm the stability of the region as a whole, but we can't let regimes that think they can do everything they want, including the worst things that violate international law, to act."

The comments came as the Russian military claimed Thursday that Syrian forces had taken control of Douma. If confirmed, the victory would mark the return of the key rebel stronghold of Eastern Ghouta to complete government control after more than five years of fighting rebel forces.

Douma was the last rebel-held town in Eastern Ghouta, a strategic pocket on the fringe of Damascus that was once home to about 400,000 people, where more than 100,000 have fled in recent weeks amid a ferocious Syrian government assault.

Russian state media reported that Syrian troops had raised the government’s flag over the town, in what Major-General Yuri Yevtushenko, head of the Russian military mission in Syria, called “a landmark event.”

“The raised state flag over a building in the town of Douma… has heralded the control over this area and therefore over the whole Eastern Ghouta.”

The military said Russian military police had been deployed to the town to provide law and order. Syrian state media announced Sunday that the Islamist rebel group in Douma had agreed to evacuate, but has not yet officially announced its capture of the town.

Cover image: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, in the Oval Office at the White House, on April 10, 2018 in Washington, DC. President Trump has announced that he canceled his upcoming trip to the 8th annual Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru. Credit: Mark Wilson / Pool via CNP - NO WIRE SERVICE - Photo by: Mark Wilson/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images

This article originally appeared on VICE News US.

The following post is brought to you by JennAir. Our partners are hand picked by the Design Milk team because they represent the best in design.

JennAir, the appliance gurus with the recognizable and trusted name, just underwent a rebellious brand revival that aims to get people excited about a new era in luxury kitchens. JennAir wants everything a consumer thinks about the kitchen to fall by the wayside so it can be rebuilt with provocative design, fresh innovation, and extraordinary performance not typically found in the appliance world these days. Just like JennAir’s founder, Lou Jenn, achieved in the early days with his downdraft ventilation invention, the brand is ready to start a new kitchen rebellion that will make you re-think everything you thought you knew or could imagine for the kitchen with their newly unveiled Bound By Nothing campaign.

From Jon Hall, Product & Brand Marketing Director for JennAir says “The Bound By Nothing campaign was born out of consumer insight that showed the luxury category had become stale and stagnant, yet the super-premium audience craved more – personalization, uniqueness, and something they can truly call their own. The Bound By Nothing campaign and brand relaunch will bring 70+ new products across two design expressions, in addition to an overhauled brand identity rooted in the progressive spirit of founder Lou Jenn and today’s tastemaker lifestyle – breathing new life into the very meaning of luxury.”

To kick off the revolution, JennAir is launching two state-of-the-art product lines this fall, RISE and NOIR, that are going to make you want to take a bulldozer to your outdated kitchen. The new suites offer a modern aesthetic and groundbreaking technology that will forever change how you look at the kitchen and how you use it. These days, we stay connected to the digital world with our smartphones never far from our grasp, so just imagine how cool it would be to have appliances you can interact with the same way… Genius, right?

Mr. Hall also explains that the new line was created from over three years of consumer and industry research. “First, we dug really deep on who our consumer is,” he explains. “Through a combination of major home appliance consumer segmentation quantitative data, category usage behaviors, and luxury qualitative and quantitative macro trend analysis, JennAir developed a very deep understanding of an emerging growth consumer – the modern luxury consumer. It led us to our founding consumer insight that common experiences are not good enough and from there, the new line of more than 70 products in two design expressions RISE and NOIR were born.”

JennAir’s digital platform will land in late 2018 giving users a heightened and seamlessly integrated experience with their appliances. Consumers will be able to connect and control their appliances remotely, get real-time notifications, contact the JennAir call center, reach out to specialists, get recipe help from Yummly, and more.

RISE is a series of inspired and powerful appliances that aim to encourage designers to create out-of-the-box custom kitchens with their limitless options. The second collection is NOIR, a minimalist suite merging sensuality, clean lines, and structured angles, complete with intriguing details consumers will want to reach out and touch. Both suites include column refrigerators, built-in refrigerators, professional ranges, rangetops, cooktops, wall ovens, dishwashers, coffee makers, and much more, with launch dates later this year.

Along with the two product suites, JennAir revealed three new limited edition offerings to transform your appliances into custom works of art. Cuts wraps the column refrigerator in high-end Italian leather for a custom look, much like a custom upholstered sofa. A bevy of leather columns will be available, complete with hand-selected hardware, to appeal to just about any discerning consumer.

Smoke and Brass decks out the 48-inch professional-style range with a hand-applied finish that shows a distressed mix of light and dark tones. A machined handle completes the bespoke, handcrafted look and if you’re interested, only 50 will be made available to consumers later in 2018, but can be reserved now right here.

The Burlesque refrigerator takes you inside to a sexy burgundy hued interior inspired by deep reds often spotted in luxury cars and the soft velvets used inside antique jewelry boxes. Only 13 of these are being made, three of which have already been reserved, and they come with a $30,000 price tag for those looking for the ultimate luxury appliance.

To learn more about JennAir’s Bound By Nothing campaign and their new collections, visit boundbynothing.jennair.com.

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“Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli almost lost it all when he was convicted of multiple counts of securities fraud in August 2017. As part of his sentencing, prosecutors asked the federal court to order Shkreli to forfeit $7.3 million, but he was “cash-broke” at the time. So they asked for a few substitutes, including the $5 million bail he posted and a one-a-kind, unreleased album by the Wu-Tang Clan, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.

Ahead of Shkreli’s sentencing on March 9, a federal judge finally ordered him to forfeit those assets, including the famed album. If Shkreli did, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin would become U.S. property and fall into the hands of the Department of Justice (and maybe even Attorney General Jeff Sessions). But Shkreli hasn’t turned over the album, according to the DOJ, and he might never have to.

“The Wu Tang album is not in our possession,” a senior Justice Department official told VICE News on Tuesday. “Forfeiture has been stayed in the Shkreli case pending his appeal of the conviction. And we may never seize the album if, after he loses his appeal, he writes a check to cover his forfeiture obligation.”

Shkreli is currently spending 7 years in prison. If he wins his appeal, he won’t need to follow the judge’s order to hand over the album. And if he loses, he could just pay off his dues — if he has the money.

Shkreli, who reached peak villain when he raised the price of an AIDS drug by 5,000 percent, might still have the album. It hasn’t been seen since 2017, when Shkreli placed it for sale on eBay. The bidding started at $1 and went all the way up to a winning bid of $1,025,100. But the deal was never completed.

People close to the Wu-Tang Clan have raised questions about the album’s authenticity, and therefore, its value. If the album isn’t what Shkreli says it is, it would be worth little-to-nothing. Last year, Shkreli’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said the album was “probably worthless.”

Still, many people — including Wu-Tang Clan cofounder RZA and Matt "M-Eighty" Markoff, who worked with the group — have attempted to buy it back from Shkreli. Those deals never went through either.

When asked whether Shkreli had the album, Brafman responded, “no comment.”

The Wu-Tang Clan released exactly one copy of the album in 2014 and placed it in a silver and nickel-plated box with a 174-page leather-bound book. Shkreli bought the album for $2 million at an auction in 2015; he could do whatever he wanted with it, as long as he didn’t release it commercially for 88 years. All he did was play a bit of the album on a livestream after President Donald Trump won the presidential election, as promised.

Even if the Department of Justice did have the album, Sessions wouldn’t spend much time listening to it — he prefers other music, more relevant to his role.

“While the Attorney General generally enjoys listening to Gilbert and Sullivan (see Policeman’s Song), this example highlights the importance of our forfeiture policies because we all agree fraudsters who can afford to buy $2 million albums aren’t going to beat the rap by selling them on eBay,” Sarah Isgur Flores, Director of Public Affairs for the Department of Justice told VICE News.

Cover image: Martin Shkreli arrives at federal court in New York, for the fifth day of deliberations at his securities fraud trial. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

This article originally appeared on VICE News US.

Egyptian internet users who accessed the porn site Babylon-X.com in recent years might’ve noticed their computers slowing down or overheating while taking in the entertainment. It wasn’t because Babylon’s videos were too high-definition, or that there were too many ads stifling the load times.

Nope. The slowdown was actually a result of the Egyptian government secretly hijacking its citizens’ computers “en masse” in order to mine the cryptocurrency monero.

Egypt’s manipulation of its country’s porn users is just one form of the growing trend of cryptojacking, where a computer’s processing power gets co-opted by outside forces (read: hackers) who use the extra computing energy to mine cryptocurrency either purposely or surreptitiously.

The practice has exploded in popularity — among both criminal and legitimate enterprises — in recent months along with the exponential rise in the price of bitcoin and other digital currencies. According to a report by Symantec published last week, there was an 8,500 percent surge in cryptojacking attacks in the final quarter of 2017. Researchers called the surge “a modern-day gold rush for cybercriminals.”

And nearly 25 percent of all attacks were detected in the U.S., which is more than the next three countries combined — Japan (9.4 percent), Germany (6.4 percent) and France (5.9 percent), according to the same report.

Unsurprisingly, criminals have been the quickest to capitalize on the new trend. It began when criminals started hacking millions of PCs and smartphones to plant malware that secretly mined cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. But more recently criminals have turned their attention to hacking websites, where they secretly inject code that captures the processing power of visiting PCs or smartphones, exponentially growing their web of power sources.

The process

Mining is the process of solving complex mathematical equations in order to verify transactions on the network. The computer that solves the problem is rewarded with freshly minted coins.

As David Gerard, author of the book “Attack of the 50-Foot Blockchain,” explains: “It's literally a computer guesses a number, billions and billions and trillions of times a second, hoping to win the lottery. That's actually how cryptomining works.”

The more processing power you use, the better your chances of winning the lottery each time. Translation: Mining bitcoin is an enormously energy-intensive process, which can only be conducted by powerful and specialized machines.

This is why criminals look to co-opt as many computers as possible. And it partly explains why the vast majority of cryptojacking focuses on a lighter digital coin called monero, which for now can still be mined using laptops, smartphones, and PCs.

But hackers are also thinking outside the box, hacking servers controlling power stations and even home fridges in search of the energy they need to mine more popular cryptocurrencies.

The crypto craze and dwindling ad sales

But it’s not just criminals who think cryptomining is a way to make money. Some in the online media industry also see it as an alternative revenue generator that reduces their reliance on ads.

There are two recent high-profile examples of companies trying to use cryptomining for legitimate ends.

The first was Bail Bloc, the brainchild of the online publication The New Inquiry and the nonprofit Bronx Freedom Fund. The project saw people download an app onto their computers in order to mine the digital coin monero, which would then be converted into dollars and used to pay for the bail of those who can’t afford it.

“Maybe this can help.”

Four months later and the project’s stats page says it has mined $4,955 — though that figure hasn’t budged in the last two weeks. Several attempts to find out if the money had been used to pay for anyone’s bail went unanswered.

The other high-profile effort is from liberal website Salon. In February, the media company launched its own attempt to get in on the crypto action by offering its visitors the option to give the site some of their CPU processing power to mine monero.

The company points to the rapid adoption of ad-blocking technology and the subsequent loss of revenue as one of the main reasons it’s wading into the cryptojacking trend.

“Maybe this can help,” Salon Media Group CEO Jordan Hoffner told VICE News about the site’s new initiative.

But a lot of questions remain, and not everyone is convinced cryptomining is the solution for declining ad revenue. “I do think it is all rubbish, but I can see people continuing to try because journalism is desperate for anything to fund it,” said Gerard.

Should other websites follow Salon’s lead, then the process will run into more problems, because the more people who are using the system, the harder their CPUs will have to work, and the less return they’ll get, Gerard warned.

“With bitcoin, every two weeks it checks how fast blocks are being mined. If they are being mined too fast, it alters the algorithm to make it harder. Monero and ethereum use the same process,” Gerard said.

The new script

Browser-based cryptocurrency mining has been around since 2011, but few had actively exploited it until last year, when a company called Coinhive released its new mining script last September.

Coinhive is a secretive German organization that created a piece of code administrators can embed in their websites and which uses the processing power of visitors’ computers to mine for cryptocurrency. Specifically, it mines monero, which is gaining traction on the dark web for its privacy features and relative ease of mining.

Coinhive offers its code for free but keeps 30 percent of all the coins mined for itself — and that includes any criminal use of its script. According to source code search engine PublicWWW, there are currently more than 30,000 websites actively using the script.

An unnamed Coinhive spokesperson told VICE News in an emailed interview that it has 180,000 customer accounts, and at any given time, somewhere between 2 million and 3 million people are actively mining monero using its service.

While Coinhive offers its services to legitimate business, criminals have used its code to illegally mine monero.

The company would not say how many people it employs, who founded the company, or how it is funded. It also refused to reveal the value of the cryptocurrency its script has help mine to date.

“Cryptomining is a huge area of concern.”

But a recent investigation by investigative journalist Brian Krebs found that Coinhive emerged from a German-language image-hosting and discussion forum pr0gramm.com. Krebs’ report claims that even when it shuts down illegal uses of its script, the code actually keeps running and the company scoops up 100 percent of the coins mined.

Any website can use the piece of JavaScript, and they can even embed it on their site and not tell their visitors — though Coinhive says it actively dissuades customers from doing this.

The threat

Cryptojacking is now so competitive that one criminal group created malware that would kill off any competitors it found on the systems it was infecting.

As cryptocurrencies only grow more popular, bad actors from hackers to criminal enterprises to corrupt governments are exploring ways to conduct massive campaigns, which risk compromising tens of thousands of computers and millions of smartphones along the way.

That alone is cause for concern among cybersecurity experts, but hackers are also exploring more extreme ways of stealing computing power.

Security company Radiflow recently discovered a European water utility had been compromised and its servers had been altered by criminals who were mining monero. And though that may not sound like too dangerous a hack on its own, the reality is that cryptojacking risks overpowering a CPU, causing it to crash. When that computing system controls critical infrastructure like water, electricity or gas, the consequences can quickly become very real.

Dan Gunther, principal threat analyst at cybersecurity firm Dragos, said that hacking tools stolen from the NSA and leaked online had led to huge vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure systems around the world.

“Because a lot of utilities have not locked down that protocol from the outside, we have seen the success of cryptomining attacks,” Gunther said.

“Cryptomining is a huge area of concern,” he added.

Cover image: Racks with crypto mining farms. Moscow, Russia. Vladimir Astapkovich/Sputnik via AP

This article originally appeared on VICE News US.

The following post is brought to you by Aquatica. Our partners are hand-picked by the Design Milk team because they represent the best in design.

You truly haven’t taken a bath until you’ve soaked within an ofuro – the short, steep-sided wooden bathtubs occasionally still found in Japanese homes and ryokans. These short and deep tubs deliver an incomparable sensory experience compared to the shallow styles generally found in American bathrooms. They envelop bathers in a relaxing, neck-deep experience enhanced by subtle aromatics scents released with the addition of hot water. Luxury bathtub manufacturer Aquatica recognizes the traditional design as a perfect template to deliver a technologically and ergonomically advanced update to the body’s call for rejuvenation.

While the Aquatica retains the recognizable aesthetic and dimensional attributes of the traditional soaking tub, the True Ofuro Tranquility Heated Japanese Bathtub is no mere replica. Taking cues from a heating device known as an oidaki, the True Ofuro recirculates water through an integrated heater and ozone disinfection system via an ultra-quiet pump engineered to keep bath water perpetually clean and at a constant temperature of 104 degrees Fahrenheit, eliminating the need for refills during extended soaking sessions, saving water and energy.

And how many bathtubs come equipped with their very own integrated Bluetooth stereo audio system, complete with a Class D amplifier rated for 300W peak low distortion output? Bathtub karaoke, anyone?

As if having your own integrated wireless sound system wasn’t enough, the Aquatica also equips the True Ofuro bathtub with a mood lighting system designed to illuminate bathers in a rainbow of underwater chromotherapy light.

Aquatica’s catalog of bathtubs extends far beyond this single design, ranging from sculptural minimalist forms to wildly imaginative options. Curious to learn more about the company behind these innovative bathtub designs, we interviewed Aquatica’s Joseph Burnstein to gain further insight about the design development of these advanced luxury bathtubs.

Where are Aquatica bathtubs designed and manufactured?

Our design office and solid surface casting plant is located in Vinci, near Florence, Italy – near the birthplace of renowned renaissance era Italian scientist, architect, engineer and painter Leonardo da Vinci. We have one dedicated industrial designer and two product engineers. Aquatica is currently studying the feasibility of opening a manufacturing plant in the US.

Beyond the numerous technological features available, your team seems to have dedicated a significant amount of attention to ergonomics.

It might sound shocking but the vast majority of the bathtubs available in the market neglect ergonomics and the body’s relation to water depth. We’ve developed an interactive Body Positioner for this purpose; it’s an online tool that allows customers to virtually see how their body might fit inside any of our bathtubs and evaluate the water depth according to their body position. Anyone can try it out now by visiting one of our product pages. We’re currently working on an update which will render a life-like 3D model based upon gender, waist line, length, body type etc.

The 2016 American Institute of Architects Home Design Trends Survey shows accessibility features in the bathroom ranks high in consumer interest. How is Aquatica meeting this market trend for an aging population?

You’ll note the Aquatica True Ofuro is designed with a wide rim, making it easier to get in and out of the bathtub. The design is also ideal for shorter, older, and physically less fit people to sit comfortably or lean safely on the bath rim while getting in and out.

This year we also introduced our first walk-in bathtub, the Baby Boomer. It features a visually attractive transparent acrylic glass door with a modern overall design which is not seen in any other walk-in bathtubs on the market.

Before that, we created a low-step bathtub called Coletta, which was specifically designed for bathers who have troubles lifting their legs above the bathtub rim. We will keep introducing models prioritizing accessibility balanced with aesthetic designs.

How have materials such as acrylics and composites changed bathtub designs?

New composite materials like solid surface and polymerized concrete have enabled designers to overcome some of the depth and other dimensional restrictions formerly faced when manufacturing with older acrylic thermoforming machines. Our AquateX is an advanced solid surface material primarily composed of aluminum mineral derived from bauxite, a deeply weathered volcanic rock. It’s a durable and high performance cast stone material specifically, suitable for high-end bathroom applications.

What’s on the horizon for Aquatica?

We’re making efforts towards reducing the amount of water necessary to enjoy our bathtubs. The idea is to eventually engineer a range of small, yet luxurious relaxation bathtubs with spa-like integrated water filtration and disinfection systems that would produce crystal clean water to reuse for many weeks instead of draining it after every use, the ultimate realization of Aquatica’s values: Function, Form, and Fashion.

The following post is brought to you by Aquatica. Our partners are hand-picked by the Design Milk team because they represent the best in design.

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr squelched any lingering hopes Sunday that Stephen Curry could play in the first round of the playoffs.

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter on Saturday criticized President Trump's negotiation skills after he signed the $1.3 trillion spending bill. 

Conflicts of interest have been cited as the reason, and the president is now left without a traditional criminal defense attorney.

Unlike the ever-nascent category of consumer-priced 3D printers, vacuum forming has a long and established history, with casting and moulding machines holding patents since the 1960s. The heat to plastic process doesn’t require knowledge of 3D modeling software, the materials required are cheap, and replicating three-dimensional objects into molds using sheets of thermoplastic is satisfyingly near instantaneous. But until now, vacuum forming machines were hulking, prohibitively priced, and definitely not intended for small-scale use. The Makyu FormBox has set out to change that.

Founded by Goldsmiths University of London graduates, Ben Redford and Alex Smilansky, the Mayku FormBox began as a successful Kickstarter campaign back in 2016. Advertised as an entry-level machine engineered to combine heat with the aid of an attached household vacuum cleaner, the FormBox was conceived as the most affordable and smallest prototyping and mold making vacuum forming machine.

Its primary target was designers, individual artists, professional chefs, and home business crafters – anyone who could conceivably benefit from the machine’s quick capability to convert objects into molds for easy reproduction. The machine has graduated from its crowdfunded roots to a $599 machine now available for order.

The FormBox operates by heating sheets of thermoplastics with a 200w ceramic heater with a range of 160c to 340c (compatible with ABS, Polystyrene, Polycarbonate, Polypropylene, and food safe PETg and Polyvinyl Chloride PVC), converting the material into a malleable state, which is in turn stretched to envelope another object with the assistance of a vacuum cleaner.

The result is an exact plastic mold copy of the original object’s exterior, perfectly suited for duplicating objects like hand soaps, small ceramics, candies, or chocolates. With the FormBox, every small object becomes the potential template for an easily and quickly reproducible assembly line of near copies. Hello, next level Jell-O shots, and strangely shaped chocolates to gift to friends and family.

One day we might all have objects instantaneously printed on a whim from the comforts of our own personal printing appliances, but for now the achingly tedious speed of additive printing seems an oxymoron if rapid printing and prototyping is the impetus for such investment. If one imagines 3D printing at its most basic as making something out of nothing, then vacuum forming could be considered making something out of another thing…a now simpler and more accessible concept offering a gateway entry for those curious about incorporating maker technology into their process.

A rare painting of an aquamarine-blue lake in British Columbia painted by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill has sold at auction for nearly $87,000.

Add co-working giant WeWork Cos. to the growing list of players looking to profit from Toronto’s booming office market.

The New York-based company aims to occupy at least 20 different locations in Toronto by 2020, up from three now, Dave McLaughlin, general manager for the Northeast at WeWork said in a phone interview last week. WeWork opened its first locations in the city last year, both of which were 98 per cent occupied within the first month. A third location was announced in January.

“The bottom line is, we don’t see any limit to demand,” McLaughlin said. “We’re definitely setting our sights high for the city and we think it is an amazing ecosystem for business.”

• Toronto notches seventh year of record commercial-property sales
• No corner office here: Space sharing puts building ownership, long-term leases on notice
• WeLive: convenient community or a dorm for adults? What life is like at shared-workspace housing

SoftBank Group Corp.-backed WeWork is among the richest private technology companies in the world, with about US$4.75 billion in funding. The company has profited off a global shift toward shared offices amid more contract and freelance work, growing to about 230 locations globally in eight years. In Canada, the startup has leased seven buildings in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto, where office vacancy rates are among the lowest in North America.

Beer, Art

WeWork’s appeals include everything from craft beer on tap to apps that connect its tenants, who the company refers to as members. Artwork in its first co-working space in Toronto includes a Drake-inspired neon praying-hand sign with the number six beside it. The piece marks the entrance to the sixth floor — and is a nod to Toronto’s 416 area code that the singer, one of the city’s biggest boosters, often references.

While these might be considered perks that would draw hip millennials, WeWork’s members include not just entrepreneurs but also big firms such as Royal Bank of Canada, Shopify Inc. and Equifax Inc that may be looking for temporary or spill-over space.

“Part of what we sell, and part of what’s so inspiring for people is the sense that they like coming in to work,” McLaughlin said. “That’s hard to capture, but it’s real and it’s essential to what we do and why people love what we do.”

WeWork charges an average of $1,000 (US$777) per month for one-seat offices in Toronto compared with US$700 to US$1,000 in Manhattan, while desks in Toronto can go for $450 to $700.

Dynamic, Alive

WeWork plans to open two more locations in the city in 2018, recently announcing 1 University Ave in the downtown core for a total of about 3,200 desks in the city. “The demand for that location has been really strong, and we’re seeing people already signing up,” McLaughlin said.

WeWork usually partners with office landlords for leases of about 15 years. Its affiliate, WeWork Property Advisors bought Lord & Taylor’s iconic building in Manhattan from Hudson’s Bay Co. last year for US$850 million. As part of the deal, WeWork will also lease some space in Hudson’s Bay department stores in Canada, including its flagship store on Toronto’s Queen Street.

While WeWork has no specific targets in Toronto, acquisitions are a possibility in the future, said McLaughlin.

“I can feel the energy and potential and activity that’s going on there. It feels so dynamic and alive,” McLaughlin said.

Bloomberg.com

An unidentified woman in a black and white group photo from a 1971 marine biology conference sparked an amateur sleuthing mission on Twitter led by a relentless Utah artist determined to learn more about the mysterious lone female in an otherwise male crowd.

Believe it or not, the original Luke Skywalker® Lightsaber® will be on display for a limited time between March 9–19 in Science World’s feature exhibition, The Science of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! presented by Save-On-Foods.

The post Luke Skywalker Lightsaber at Science World appeared first on Vancouver Blog Miss604.

The security clearance of White House senior adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner has been downgraded, significantly reducing his access to classified information, according to two people informed of the decision.

While putting together slides for my life course class I returned to BC Stats data on age-specific birth rates. It’s really nice data, broken down by local health area. I’ve played with data on the Total Fertility Rate before. This time I wanted to highlight a far simpler transformation in birth rates that I’ll call the Great Wait!

What is the Great Wait? Basically, it’s the transformation in age-specific patterns of childbearing, whereby most women are having children later and later in the life course. When I was playing around with the BC Stats data I accidentally produced a chart illustrating the Great Wait, and I just thought it was too beautiful not to share.

Notice the gradual shift from peak childbearing in ages 25-29 (in 1989) to peak childbearing in ages 30-34 (in from 2003 onward). By 2005, more 35-39 year olds were having children than 20-24 year olds (so called “geriatric pregnancies” – which is like seriously a total FAIL in medical terminology). By 2010, the birth rates for 40-44 year olds began exceeding those of 15-19 year olds. We have fewer and fewer teen moms, and more and more new parents in their forties.

There are many interesting causes and implications of this shift. On average women are taking longer to develop their education and careers before having children than ever before, facilitated by improved contraception and assisted reproduction technology. It may also be that women just don’t feel as ready to settle down into motherhood as they used to – either because the alternatives remain too interesting or because they don’t feel prepared for the job of being a parent yet (I’ve explored this latter explanation with respect to the role of acquiring housing as a stage prop for the role of parenthood here in my academic work).

With respect to the implications, some of the childbearing delayed will inevitably be childbearing denied, as later-life pregnancies are biologically less certain for women, and some new risks are entailed. But on the whole, having children later means parents tend to be more committed and more prepared, with more resources at their disposal to help care for their children. Not a bad thing. On a technical note: the ongoing shifts in the timing of when women have children somewhat artificially inflate the magnitude of recent fertility declines. This is to suggest that 1.4 children (our estimate of the number of children women in BC have on average based on TFR measurement) is likely somewhat lower than the number of children the average of any given cohort of women will ultimately end up with. It’s kind of a demographer fixation.

It should have been a pure moment of triumph for James Franco. He collected one of Hollywood's top prizes at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, validating an untraditional...

Looking for a completely unique experience for you and your partner to share? Check into THE KRANE, a modern, minimalist hotel for two that’s located in an old coal crane on the Nordhavn harbor in Copenhagen. Owner Klaus Kastbjerg and architect Mads Møller from Arcgency retrofitted the crane so that it’s become a multi-sensory experience for anyone staying there. Plus, the raised crane offers panoramic views of the city, harbor, and sky, that are unlike any other.

THE KRANE also offers itself as a meeting room for anyone who wants to rent it out. That glass-enclosed space features light Dinesen wooden floors and black furnishings.

The interior is finished in all black as a way to not distract from the surrounding views. The architect worked with Dinesen for the black flooring, ceiling, and walls, which are all covered with Douglas planks that were finished with a special ‘megablack’ oil for its rich, saturated look.

They used high-end Danish brands to furnish the sparsely decorated hotel, all of which are also black.

The bathroom boasts a spa-like feel with two oversized bathtubs located right in front of the windows.

Photo by Rasmus Hjortshøj.

Uber is coming clean about its coverup of a year-old hacking attack that stole personal information about more than 57 million of the beleaguered ride-hailing service's customers and drivers.

Different types of alcohol can elicit different emotional responses in drinkers, according to a new survey out of the U.K.

Using a dangling carrot of extra days off for non-smoking employees is an “innovative” way to encourage those still using cigarette sticks to kick the habit, says a senior policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society.

NASA says the ozone hole over Antarctica shrank to its smallest peak since 1988.

Rapper and producer Sean Combs has changed his nickname once again.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that a former campaign aide thrust into the centre of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe 'has already proven to be a liar.'

Fellow nap enthusiasts Studio Banana are back with their latest nap accessory and we are here for it! The OSTRICHPILLOW® LOOP is a compact eye pillow that gives you a place to relax behind. The super soft, one-size-fits-all LOOP wraps around your head, covering your eyes for a comfortable, blackout rest.

LOOP is easy to travel with as it’s lightweight and smaller than their previous nap products. Filled with a microbead core and finished off with a smooth hook-and-loop fastener, the eye pillow even works with your headphones so you can go into complete isolation anywhere you are, whether you’re at work or on an airplane (you might have seen comedian Whitney Cummings rocking one of their previous designs, like the Light version, on her Instagram account!).

As with their previous products, they’re launching the LOOP on Kickstarter and it’s the first ever campaign to deliver the product before the campaign ends! So jump in and get napping with LOOP or you can always purchase one of their older nap accessories here.

It's also called Hunter's moon because that's the time of the year when deer are at their fattest, making them targets for human predators.