MTV's Teen Wolf will enter its final season this year. Series creator Jeff Davis made the announcement here at San Diego Comic-Con, much to the consternation of the show's swooning fanbase. The show has been on the air for five years, drawing in millions of viewers to its dark and complex mythology.
I've never once watched Teen Wolf. I attended today's panel completely by accident, right alongside Polygon Entertainment Editor Susana Polo, who's probably more confused than I am. I don't know what Dread Doctors are. (They sound terrifying!) I don't know whether or not it's important that Stiles is single. (He's attractive!) But I do know that Tyler Posey, who plays Scott McCall, loves Flashdance. And pouring water all over himself.
Marvel's Luke Cage is set to debut this fall on Netflix, so it's about time fans saw something new from the series. Here at San Diego Comic-Con, attendees got a fresh look at what Cage, one of Marvel's toughest superheroes, has been up to since leaving Hell's Kitchen last year. Here, he takes on a gang of goons before facing off against Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes (Mahershala Ali), assuring him that he's only getting started.
The My Hitch, much like Crocs and those people who talk with their phones on speakerphone in public, is out to destroy the civility and general decency that our society needs to survive. My Hitch is a device that resembles a giant shoehorn which allows you drag your suitcase through an airport... with your butt.
Yes, you are supposed to attach this device to the back of your pants and make your way through the airport like you're doing something completely normal (not like the person who is dragging luggage linked to your ass). Let's not even get into what may happen when you pass your gate while looking at your phone — because why else would you buy this if you aren't looking at your phone — and abruptly...
Ever wonder what you would look like with long, wavy hair? I think you’d look great. But how can you try on a few looks without spending a fortune at the salon, or hours in photoshop? I’m glad you asked. All you need is a selfie and Dreambit, the face-swapping search engine. Read More
Divergent: Allegiant hit theaters earlier this spring, and may be the series' last appearance on the big screen. Variety revealed that Lionsgate is repositioning the franchise for television with plans to release the final installment, Divergent: Ascendant, as a TV movie followed by a spinoff series.
Based on the book series by Veronica Roth, the Divergent series takes place in a dystopian society where citizens are sorted into five different affiliations based on their personalities. It follows Beatrice Prior, who’s labeled a "divergent" — someone who can think independently and who is seen as a threat to the stability of society.
Divergent was supposed to be the next big YA franchise
When it first hit theaters in 2014, Divergent was...
by Beth Skwarecki on Vitals, shared by Andy Orin to Lifehacker
Cats may not chow down on garbage like dogs do, but they get into their share of people food, houseplants, and other weird things. Here’s why certain ordinary-seeming items are dangerous to cats, and what you can do about them.
We’re assuming that you already know not to give your cat obvious poisons: medications, drugs, alcohol, cleaning chemicals, and anything with “poison” in the name (like rat poison). Even if a drug has a mild effect on people, that doesn’t mean it’s harmless to pets. For example, antidepressants and cold medicines are in the top ten cat poisons according to the Pet Poison Helpline.
Lilies and Daylilies
What’s the danger? Cats who eat lilies and daylilies can end up with kidney failure. An unknown toxin in the plant causes kidney cells to die off, and without prompt treatment this can be fatal.
The first signs of a problem occur within three hours of eating part of a lily leaf or flower: salivation, vomiting, and depression. After about six hours, the cat seems to recover, but signs of kidney damage, beginning with excessive urination, won’t show up for another 12 hours or so. If you can get your cat to a vet while they’re still feeling okay, they’ll receive IV fluids to prevent kidney damage.
Just to keep things confusing, a lot of plants are called lilies. The ones that are dangerous to cats are the true lilies, which include Easter lilies, Asiatic lilies, and stargazer lilies; and their distant relatives daylilies. There are other flowers with with the word “lily” in their names that aren’t related. Some, like lily of the valley, are unsafe for cats but for other reasons. Others are just fine; check this list when you go plant shopping.
How much is a problem? A fatal dose can be as little as two leaves, or part of a single flower. A smaller amount might still be enough to make your cat sick. Vets consider every part of the plant to be poisonous, even the pollen. If you think your cat has eaten even a small part of a lily plant, call the vet right away. Your vet needs to know exactly what your cat ate to choose the right treatment, so save a part of the plant if you’ll need help identifying it.
What’s the danger? These plants, among others, contain oxalic acid crystals. Think of the crystals as microscopic needles: they cause irritation and burning around your cat’s mouth. You might see your cat drooling a lot, or pawing at their mouth, and their mouth might be swollen. In rare cases, the swelling can affect their breathing.
Otherwise, these plants aren’t fatal, but they can definitely cause pain and suffering. Some plants have oxalic acid that isn’t in needle-shaped crystals, but that’s dangerous, too: it can cause damage to their organs, including kidneys.
Elephant ear (above) is one of the most common plants that causes this problem, but oxalic acid exists in a lot of plants. There are too many to list them all, but pothos, philodendron, and peace lilies are some of the common ones. It’s best to check houseplants against lists like the ASPCA’s, above, or their searchable database. To make the job even more convenient, they’ve stuffed that database, plus a lot of other pet poison information, into their free app, available on iOS and Android.
How much is a problem? Since the crystals are an irritant, a mouthful is all it takes. For other plant-based poisons, the amount will depend on the plant.
What’s the danger? Onions and garlic can cause vomiting and diarrhea, but more importantly, even a small amount of onion can destroy red blood cells. The result, a rare form of anemia, can be deadly.
How much is a problem? Cats are very sensitive to onion poisoning, even more so than dogs. It only takes a tiny amount to start giving cats symptoms of anemia. If your cat is sick and you give her meat-flavored baby food, the onion powder in that food can be enough to start giving her symptoms of anemia after a few weeks. That’s probably not your cat’s regular diet, but onions are common in a lot of foods that cats might try to sample, like meatloaf.
Chocolate
What’s the danger? Chocolate can cause the same problems in cats as in dogs: hyperactivity in low doses, heart problems and death in high doses. Cats are slightly more sensitive to chocolate, but less likely than dogs to pig out on it. Cats’ pickiness makes this type of poisoning less common.
How much is a problem? As with dogs, it depends on what kind of chocolate your cat ate. Cocoa powder and baking chocolate are the most concentrated, and dark chocolate has more of the toxic components than milk chocolate. Just one ounce of semi-sweet chocolate chips is enough to cause vomiting, hyperactivity, and increased heart rate. This calculator is made for dogs, but should give you a ballpark idea of the dangers for cats.
String
What’s the danger? String tangled on the outside of your cat is cute. String tangled on the inside of your cat can be life threatening. If part of the string gets stuck, for example in the cat’s mouth, the other end can pull on the intestines, bunching them up and even cutting through the intestine.
How much is a problem? There isn’t a certain amount of string that’s agreed upon as okay or not okay; the question is whether the string is getting stuck anywhere it shouldn’t. If you see string in your cat’s mouth, or (ew) sticking out of her butt, don’t pull on the string—you don’t know how long it is, and you could be making matters worse.
What to Do If Your Cat Eats One of These Things
Call a vet! If your cat is vomiting, lethargic, or showing anything that you think may be a symptom of poisoning, get him to the vet right away. If he isn’t showing symptoms yet, but you know he ate something he shouldn’t, call and ask what you should do. Don’t try to induce vomiting or give any medications on your own.
Your veterinarian should be able to give you advice over the phone, but if you prefer to have a poison-specific number to call, try the Pet Poison Helpline (855-764-7661, costs $49) or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center (888-426-4435, costs $65). Both are available 24/7. Seek help before serious symptoms begin, because if the food is still in your cat’s stomach, it may be possible to remove it or make it less toxic (for example, with activated charcoal). In the case of lilies, a vet can give your cat plenty of IV fluids to stop the kidney damage before it occurs.
Cats have weird habits, and sometimes eat the things you least expected, so it’s hard to say exactly what to keep locked up and away from them. In researching this article, I read about cats eating just about everything, including rubber bands and pennies. Definitely try to keep these loose objects away from your cat if you can, and try to keep only safe species of houseplants and garden plants in areas where your cat might roam.
Melbourne, Australia's Transport Accident Commission commissioned an artist, trauma surgeon, and road safety engineer to imagine and design a human built to survive car wrecks. The result is Graham, seen above. From Road & Track:
"The truth is, our cars have evolved a lot faster than we have," says David Logan, a team member on the project and road safety engineer at the Monash University's accident research center. "Our bodies are just not equipped to handle the forces in common crash scenarios."
To deal with these forces, the team came up with Graham. Protecting his brain is a much larger skull intended to absorb forces and fracture upon impact. His face, concave and fatty, is less likely to be damaged. Instead of a silly wobbly neck, he doesn't really have one at all, reducing the potential for spine and back injuries. His skin is also thicker to prevent lacerations, and his ribs have a layer of external air sacks for maximum protection
Whether it’s reading up on the origins of Justice League or enjoying a reboot like Invincible Iron Man, we all love our heroes and villains and there’s nothing more thrilling than flipping through your favorite comic when the battle is on — THWACK!
Last year, Google Play made it easier to find and read your favorite comics on your phone or tablet, including a new vertical scrolling experience. We wanted to use our superpowers, like machine learning, to improve the digital comics experience even further. Machine learning is the technology that makes the digital things in your life more useful, like finding the right image in Google Photos by searching for “hugs” to “dogs.” So what happens when we bring our machine learning capabilities to the world of comics?
At San Diego Comic-Con 2016, we just announced Bubble Zoom: a new way to read digital comics on phones and tablets. Using the same technology to recognize objects in photos, we trained our system to identify speech bubbles in comics. Bubble zoom expands the speech bubbles of a comic one-tap-at-a-time, making them super easy to read on your mobile device. It’s much easier to read digital comics one-handed as Bubble Zoom automatically identifies and expands each speech bubble for readability. No more compromising the full-page experience or getting lost while panning around.
“Justice League (2011) Origin - Vol 1.” and “Invincible Iron Man Vol 1.” read using Bubble Zoom
Bubble Zoom will be available on the latest version of Google Play Books app for Android as a technical preview with all Marvel and DC collected volumes supported. We’re also celebrating this preview with a 50% off sale on select DC Comics and Marvel comics in the Google Play Store — just use the code SDCC2016 by July 24th, 2016.
Rolling out today, you can upgrade Play Books and provide feedback on supported comic volumes in the app as this exclusive experience is only the first step. As we continue to teach our machines to read more comic book styles, our goal is to eventually bring Bubble Zoom to all the comics and manga ever made.
So stay on the lookout for Bubble Zoom and by Odin’s beard…go read some comics!
Posted by Greg Hartrell, Head of Product, Google Play Books
Do you read comic books from the Play Store? if not, you might want to start. Google just announced a great new feature at San Diego Comic-Con 2016 that changes the experience of reading comic books. It's called Bubble Zoom and it quite literally makes speech bubbles leap off the page. Each blob of text is identified and sequentially pops up with the press of a volume button or a tap at the bottom-right of the screen.
Exiled NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and legendary hardware hacker Andrew bunnie" Huang have published a paper detailing their new "introspection engine" for the Iphone, an external hardware case that clips over the phone and probes its internal components with a miniature oscilloscope that reads all the radio traffic in and out of the device to see whether malicious software is secretly keeping the radio on after you put it in airplane mode.
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Mohamed Ahmed Radwan had boarded a plane in Charlotte, North Carolina and the flight attendant went to the tannoy and said: “Mohamed Ahmed, Seat 25-A: I will be watching you.”
The employee made no other announcements about any other passenger. Mr Radwan asked the employee why she had made the announcements. She reportedly responded that he was being “too sensitive” [and] was told he must leave the plane as he had made the first air stewardess “uncomfortable”.
The company's response: "We thoroughly reviewed these allegations and concluded that no discrimination occurred."
The same way bad police use "felt threatened" as an excuse for beatings and killings, bad airlines have settled on "felt uncomfortable" as their lawyer-approved all-bases-covered method of booting Muslims from flights.
Visions of the future of medicine often involve digital sensors that constantly monitor patients, but not many people imagine that these sensors could be stitched directly into us. But that's the suggestion of a team of researchers from Tuft University, who have developed prototype "smart stitches" that can be used to close wounds — but also send real-time data on tissue health to doctors.
Police in Greater Manchester, UK report that an 86-year-old woman withdrew cash from an ATM before entering a supermarket where she was confronted by a mugger.
"The lady then defended herself by repeatedly hitting the female offender over the head with a packet of bacon," according to a GMP Trafford South post on Facebook. "The offender then retreated and made off from the supermarket."
Fox News reports that kids watched as a Wynnewood, Oklahoma police officer used a high-powered rifle, retrieved from his vehicle, to kill a dog after it "lunged at him" when he entered their gated, fenced property searching for someone who had not lived there in a decade.
The police chief said the officer was serving a warrant, which gave him legal authority to be on the private property. However, the Malones said they were never shown any warrant. They were only told the officer was looking for someone who had listed that address as his ten years ago...
“I respect what the police do, but this was senseless, but he didn’t show any remorse and didn’t even act like he was sorry or anything,” Malone told FOX 25.
The Malones believe the death of their dog could have been avoided either by the use of less-lethal force or by fact checking on the warrant.
The Wynnewood cops have already been caught in a lie: the chief claims the dog was shot "coming around the house" to attack the officer, but video shows that the dog was killed behind a closed gate in an expansive, open yard. "The police chief said he hasn't seen the video," reports Fox. "He said 'His officers have every right to shoot dogs if they feel in danger.'"
The first rule of modern U.S. police training is that you are a soldier. The second rule is kill the dogs.
Sheep in the remote Faeroe islands, between Scotland and Norway, have been fitted with cameras to provide a vast corpus of sheepcam footage. At Sheepview, you may soon be able to explore the windblasted heaths and crags as if you were yourself an ambling, grass-munching ruminant—and help Google to catch up and generate street-view imagery that islanders need.
As the sheep walk and graze around the island, the pictures are sent back to Andreassen with GPS co-ordinates, which she then uploads to Google Street View.
“Here in the Faroe Islands we have to do things our way,” says Andreassen. “Knowing that we are so small and Google is so big, we felt this was the thing to do.”
So far the Sheep View team have taken panoramic images of five locations on the island. They have also produced 360 video so you can explore the island as if you are, quite literally, a sheep.
Spire is a wearable and an app that work together to track your activity and breathing throughout the day. Using this info you can learn what stresses you out and what you need to do to keep calm.
When it comes to calm, Spire is your rock
We live in a world of wearables which track all sorts of data. But only one is concerned with your mindfulness. Meet Spire.
An inspired idea
Spire looks a stone from a Zen garden. It is a device and a platform that can de-stress and calm your life by encouraging mindfulness. Mindfulness is being in the moment and aware of all the stimuli around you and how it feels to your body. But who has the time to chill in the middle of a frustrating meeting with a co-worker or relax during a stressful run-in with someone who gets on your nerves? The Spire wearable tracks your daily activities breathing patterns and the Spire app reminds you when it's time to take a deep breath and relax.
Spire
$129.95
Spire is a wearable and an app that work together to track your activity and breathing throughout the day. Using this info you can learn what stresses you out and what you need to do to keep calm.
WhatsApp beta has just picked up an update to 2.16.189 with a litany of new features. First off is the ability to send a voicemail in case a voice call does not go through, or if the recipient declines the call. Earlier, you had to go back to the chat window to send a voice message, but that option is now available directly in the after-call menu, which also offers the ability to call the user back.
You can also send messages in plain text by adding the grave accent symbol (`) three times before and after the message. Doing so will remove all formatting from the message. If you're looking for further formatting options, you can send messages in bold by adding an asterisk (*) before and after the message, italics by adding an underscore (_), and strikethrough with the tilde symbol (~).
There's also the ability to reply to a specific message in a chat window, which was rolled out in the last update. To do so, you have to do is tap and hold a message, and hit the reply button. The changes are now available in the beta client of WhatsApp, and should be making their way to the stable version shortly.
Why did Tesla buy SolarCity? To make your solar panel roof battery power your self-driving electric pickup truck. Elon Musk just revealed the second phase of his “Master Plan” and we broke it down so you can see the future too. Read More
For those keeping tabs, one more big tech company built and operating in the UK has been snapped up by another company from abroad. Today, MasterCard Inc. announced that it has agreed to acquire 92.4% of VocaLink — the tech giant behind the UK’s ATM, direct debit, and major mobile payments networks — for $1.14 billion in an all-cash deal: £700 million ($920 million)… Read More
Today, AGTech startup Indigo launched a probiotic-covered seed called Indigo Cotton, which promises to reduce how much water a cotton plant needs by harnessing the power of microbes. Indigo also closed a $100 million Series C funding round and announced it will launch its next microbe-enhanced seed Indigo Wheat later this year.
When we first heard about Indigo in February, it was promising to increase crop yields by replenishing the microbes that decades of industrial farming have stripped out of our most common crops. The Indigo team studied hundreds of plant species and employed machine learning to figure out which microbes found in heritage plants were missing from modern agricultural staples. Based on this, they developed a microbe...
Iron fillings and ferrofluids are really cool to play with — hold a magnet under them and you get amazingly intricate pillars of metal. This atmospheric short film Ferro puts this concept to the test. As the camera settles on a bank of silver snow, it becomes clear this miniature world is made to look like out own, though crafted from an alien-like material.
What’s most impressive with this video is the tiny snippet of a story that they inject it with: there’s the spooky atmosphere, a gunshot and a startled deer, all leading to a figure walking away from a tiny body in the snow.
Not all of this film is done with iron fragments — the deer and figures are computer generated. The team put together a short making-of video that...
The US Justice Department says it has successfully apprehended and charged the alleged founder and operator of KickassTorrents, the world's largest and most notorious BitTorrent distribution site. Artem Vaulin, a 30-year-old man from Kharkiv, Ukraine, was arrested today in Poland on behalf of the US, which has requested his extradition for crimes related to running the site. Vaulin now faces two counts of criminal copyright infringement, one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. All of the sites domains are in the process of being seized, while access to the site appears to have halted.
"Vaulin is charged with running today’s most visited illegal...
Argos and Anywhere SIM have teamed up to start selling SIM cards through the retailer in the UK. These SIM cards are unique by the fact they switch between O2, Vodafone and EE depending on which offers the strongest signal. The company plans to work hard at eliminating so-called "black spots" — locations where signal is hard to come by on specific networks. Should you travel to locations where it's difficult to enjoy a stable connection with your chosen UK network provider, you may wish to take a look at the Anywhere offering.
"It's handled by a clever bit of business and partnership engineering: the company is working with Manx Telecom, an operator based on the Isle of Man, and has a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreement with O2 in the UK. That deal is what allows you to have a UK mobile number. The other two networks -- as well as countless others scattered across Europe -- are handled with international roaming agreements. So apart from O2, you're always being treated like a holidaymaker abroad."
Once you've purchased an Anywhere SIM and are ready to rock and roll, the company will offer three different PAYG (Pay As You Go) plans. On Home you'll be able to place calls on O2, but are able to receive calls from all other networks (works just like you're with O2 itself). The UK plan will unlock access to Vodafone and EE to place calls, though the price of both a call and MB of data is 10p. Finally there's EU, which offers all roaming agreements signed by Anywhere, but bumps the price of calls up by a further 2p per minute.
4G, monthly plans and access to Three's network are in the pipeline. Even with these additions yet to be added to the company's solution, it's still worth the consideration. Be sure to be on the lookout for Anywhere SIM cards at your local Argos outlet or online.
eBay reported second quarter results after the bell on Wednesday and saw its stock rise over 5% in initial after-hours trading. The company beat expectations, posting earnings at an adjusted 43 cents per share, when analysts were forecasting 42 cents. The company also brought in $2.23 billion in revenue, compared to the $2.17 billion expected by Wall Street. Investors were also pleased to see… Read More
Ever wonder what you would look like with long, wavy hair? I think you’d look great. But how can you try on a few looks without spending a fortune at the salon, or hours in photoshop? I’m glad you asked. All you need is a selfie and Dreambit, the face-swapping search engine. 
Why did Tesla buy SolarCity? To make your solar panel roof battery power your self-driving electric pickup truck. Elon Musk just revealed the second phase of his “Master Plan” and we broke it down so you can see the future too. 
For those keeping tabs, one more big tech company built and operating in the UK has been snapped up by another company from abroad. Today, MasterCard Inc. announced that it has agreed to acquire 92.4% of VocaLink — the tech giant behind the UK’s ATM, direct debit, and major mobile payments networks — for $1.14 billion in an all-cash deal: £700 million ($920 million)… 
eBay reported second quarter results after the bell on Wednesday and saw its stock rise over 5% in initial after-hours trading. The company beat expectations, posting earnings at an adjusted 43 cents per share, when analysts were forecasting 42 cents. The company also brought in $2.23 billion in revenue, compared to the $2.17 billion expected by Wall Street. Investors were also pleased to see…