If the sticker is missing, so is the phone number to report that the sticker is missing. Someone working for the state of Florida is a closet Situationist. How else can you explain this self-referential sticker, which seems to have no purpose? I'm sure there is another explanation, but I don't want to know what it is.
[via]
The Associated Press is reporting today that U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter will soon announce a historic change: The military will open all combat jobs to women.
"Hey babe do you like the Porsche I am driving right now? Uh, you like that Porsche? Keys... obviously I'm the driver. Look..."
Jamie Lee Sharp, 25, filmed himself stealing a Porsche "Boxer" in Gloucester. He immediately crashed it into a wall and got trapped inside, making it easy for police to pick him up.
The Guardian reports that "Sharp was jailed for four years by a judge at the city’s crown court after pleading guilty to burglary, aggravated vehicle taking, driving while disqualified, drink-driving and driving without insurance. He was also disqualified from driving for three years."
Got one of Google’s Cardboard VR headsets and an Android phone handy?
Google has something new for you to play with this morning. Read More
While Google has been slowly working on bringing Android apps to Chrome OS, another company has had those apps up and running on the desktop for several years now. That company, BlueStacks, is today launching the second version of its Android emulator for Windows, adding in the ability to run multiple apps at the same time.
The Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X have really good camera hardware, and for the first time the logic that processes the photos is also pretty darn awesome. There's no doubt that all this makes for the best camera to ever grace a Nexus phone, and (surprisingly) it also means your Nexus has one of the best cameras on any smartphone in 2015.
One place where things still need a little work for some of us is the app that drives the whole thing. The Google Camera app isn't bad — it's light, it's quick and it's included by default — but it can be lacking when you go looking for features.
Google Play has you covered.
After Monday night's brief teaser, fans now have the latest trailer for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. And the Holy Trinity itself — Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman — have finally united onscreen.
This trailer is a series of confrontations between Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne, leading all the way up to an unexpected fight. The first involves Clark facing off against Bruce in talking about the return of the so-called Bat Vigilante. That's quickly followed by explosions going off between the two superheroes. But it's not long before the real threat is shown to be Lex Luthor, and the beast (almost certainly Doomsday) that he's released — and it's Wonder Woman's job to lead the heroes into battle.
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice...
YouTube is looking to secure the rights to TV shows and movies to stream on its new YouTube Red subscription service, The Wall Street Journal reports, a move that could allow it to build up a catalog of on-demand video to rival competitors Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Instant Video. YouTube executives have met with movie studios and production companies in recent months, the WSJ says, as part of early efforts to review pitches and hammer out potential deals for content that could be streamed on the $9.99-a-month service.
After we realized that Merlin Mann had tricked us into adopting Getting Things Done as Boing Boing's operating manual, we started using the CIA's Simple Sabotage Field Manual (1944) and are getting more things done than ever before!
Organizations and Conferences
Managers
Employees
Our parents warned us about it, but it’s hard to understand until you experience it first hand: as you get older, time seems to fly. It catches you off guard, probably because it’s such a powerful and bizarre concept. You can’t add more time to the clock, but by understanding how this phenomenon works, you can at least try to make life seem like it’s passing by a little slower.
There are different theories about why our perception of time changes as we age. For one, we perceive time relatively, and that means an hour at age 5 is different than an hour at age 55.
http://lifehacker.com/this-interacti...
When you’re a kid, you haven’t been alive very long, so one year is a huge percentage of your overall life. When you’re an adult, however, you’ve already experienced many years. So one measly year feels much smaller.
This interactive timeline sort of helps you visualize this concept (theorized by philosopher Paul Janet), but the basic idea is: we perceive time relative to the total time we’ve experienced life on the whole.
The older we get, and the more of the world we’ve seen, we start to develop a routine. The days start to blend together, and time seems to pass us by.
Psychologist William James concluded as much in Principles of Psychology. He explained that, compared with childhood, adulthood has fewer new and memorable experiences. We often measure time by firsts—our first day our school, first kiss, first home, first child—when we run out of firsts, James says “the days and weeks smooth themselves out…and the years grow hollow and collapse.”
When our memories are detailed, the moment seems to last longer. Here’s what Neuroscientist David Eagleman said in a profile in the New Yorker:
“This explains why we think that time speeds up when we grow older,” Eagleman said-why childhood summers seem to go on forever, while old age slips by while we’re dozing. The more familiar the world becomes, the less information your brain writes down, and the more quickly time seems to pass. “Time is this rubbery thing...it stretches out when you really turn your brain resources on, and when you say, ‘Oh, I got this, everything is as expected,’ it shrinks up.”
So when we get caught in dreaded autopilot mode, we’re racing through the day with no real detail of our surroundings. It’s like when you have a long commute to work—sometimes, you get to your destination with no real memory of even driving there.
http://lifehacker.com/5802583/why-ne...
In a study published in Ammons Scientific, researchers asked subjects how quickly the felt time was passing, from very slow to very fast. They also asked them to rate the accuracy of statements used to describe how quickly time was passing. Long story short, they found that most subjects reported that time passes by so fast because we have so much to do and not enough time in which to do everything.
Researchers called this “time pressure,” and it goes hand in hand with stress. It makes sense considering the other theories, too. The more stressed we are, the less likely we are to be focused and present on the moment—we’re just trying to get through the day as quickly as possible. When we do that, we don’t have time to take in our surroundings and build detailed memories. Thus, our perception of time flies.
If the theory that we experience time in relation to our years alive carries any weight, it makes sense that a way to curb it might be to stop comparing our present time with our entire life.
In other words: live in the moment. When you’re focused on the present, you’re thinking about the absolute, not relative, value of time. And there are a few ways to go about this.
http://lifehacker.com/the-power-of-n...
Meditation can help you slow down and focus (and it comes with gobs of other scientifically-backed benefits, too). And you don’t have to be deeply spiritual or religious to meditate, either. It’s as simple as finding a quiet spot, counting to ten and focusing on your breath. I “meditate” while I do the dishes.
Focusing on the present is all about being more mindful. “Mindfulness” is a buzzword you’ve probably heard a lot lately, but it’s a pretty cool idea that involves being more present in the moment and being aware of your thoughts, feelings, and actions. Aside from meditation, here are a few ways to harness mindfulness, as suggested by our own Melanie Pinola:
A simple way to get started is to set up triggers or cues to pull you back into the present when your mind inevitably starts to wander throughout that day. For example, while eating, remember to savor each bite every time you put your fork down. At work, you can set an hourly chime or other reminder to pause in the moment. Pausing before you respond to children—or adults—can also help you become more mindful in your relationships. More (deceptively simple) practices include practicing appreciation and letting go of control.
Like a lot of people, I tend to be more “present” when I’m on vacation. The very idea of being on vacation is about being present: you leave behind your stress and worries and just focus on relaxing, exploring, and enjoying life. There are a few practical habits I try to practice to make my everyday life feel more like vacation:
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-make-yo...
Being present helps with that whole time as a percentage thing. You’re more focused on the here-and-now, absolute value of time.
Ditching your comfort zone can make a big difference, too. If James is right and time flies because we have fewer “firsts,” the best way to combat that is to add some novelty in your life: meet new people, visit new places, and try new things.
http://lifehacker.com/do-uncomfortab...
If you’ve gotten overly comfortable with life, try saying “yes” more often. As our own Thorin Klosowski put it: “It’s surprising just how many new experiences present themselves throughout the day when you start paying attention.”
This can be as simple as trying a new restaurant or taking a weekend trip to a part of your city you’ve never visited. Part of my resolution this year was to do one thing every week that forces me out of my comfort zone. As a result, I went to my very first conference, spoke at an event, and wrote about topics I was afraid of writing about. They were challenging, but they were new, and when I think back on them, the past 10 months seem like a long, packed year.
Generally, the idea is to give yourself new memories and new experiences so that you can get out of autopilot and change your perception of time. Based on my own experience, I can attest that this works pretty well.
When you embrace new experiences, you learn a lot about yourself and the world around you, and, naturally, you evolve. Change can make a big difference in how you perceive time. Think back to when you were five or ten or twenty-one. Depending on your age, that probably seems like a lifetime ago. You’ve grown and learned so much since then, and that’s likely part of the reason why it seems like a lifetime ago.
When you’re constantly learning—reading about new subjects, trying out new skills, practicing new languages— you are, in a way, experiencing new things. And that novelty should help you get more out of time, thus curbing that feeling that it’s passing you by.
Our perception of time is a funny thing. While it’s probably impossible to slow it down to a point that we’re experiencing time in the same way a 5-year-old might, there are a few things we can do to at least keep it from feeling like it’s going by so damn fast.
Illustration by Fruzsina Kuhári.
Google has finally published the official Android Phone and Contacts apps on the Play Store this morning, though predictably only devices that have these system apps preinstalled can actually install them.
This means you can probably expect to start seeing updates to these apps that add features or fixes directly from the Play Store instead of being stuck inside system updates, which is good.
Read MoreGoogle Has Published The Phone And Contacts Apps On The Play Store - Dialer Finally Gets Call-Blocking, Plus More was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
The music wars are afoot, Google is consolidating its weaponry. Beginning today, Songza users will be notified that the Songza website and mobile apps are being fully folded into Google Play Music as of January 31, 2016. Google bought Songza back in July of 2014 for an undisclosed sum and has continued to integrate pieces of the technology into Google Play. With so many Songza features… Read More
Hot peppers can make you feel like your mouth is on fire. The American Chemical Society explains the science behind that burn and why drinking water is one of the worse things you can do to ease that pain.
The chemical compound responsible for the burning sensation you can get when eating spicy foods is called capsaicin. It binds to pain receptors in your mouth, which then can trigger a reaction like your eyes tearing up or your nose running. The video explains that capsaicin is a non-polar molecule and dissolves in other non-polar molecules, so drinking milk, which contains non-polar molecules, will give you relief. (No wonder that Thai and Indian cuisines, often so spicy, incorporate a lot of dairy into their meals.) A few other ingredients can help you cool your mouth after eating spicy foods.
Water on the other hand? It’s a polar substance and it will just spread the capsaicin around your mouth making the heat even worse.
So until you’ve built up your spicy food tolerance, reach for some milk and not water to help handle the heat.
Why Are Hot Peppers So Hot? (And How Milk Helps) | YouTube
[See update below] The corruption reported in this news release is so vile it's hard to know where to begin. The Alabama Justice Project reported that it has documents revealing that a district attorney in Alabama covered up a Dothan police department internal investigation that found that a "group of up to a dozen police officers on a specialized narcotics team were found to have planted drugs and weapons on [nearly a thousand] young black men" since the mid-1990s.
Some of these wrongly-convicted men are still in prison.
The Alabama Justice Project says the police officers who reportedly planted the drugs and guns are part of a Neoconfederate organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center labels “racial extremists.”
The leaders of the narcotics team, Steve Parrish and Andy Hughes, currently have high ranking positions in Alabama law enforcement. Parrish is the Dothan Police Chief and Hughes is the Asst. Director of Homeland Security for the State of Alabama. Both men are pictured above at a Sons of Confederate Veterans meeting with other narcotics officers. The district attorney is still in office. From Henry County Report:
The documents shared reveal that the internal affairs investigation was covered up to protect the aforementioned officers’ law enforcement careers and keep them from being criminally prosecuted.
Several long term Dothan law enforcement officers, all part of an original group that initiated the investigation, believe the public has a right to know that the Dothan Police Department, and District Attorney Doug Valeska, targeted young black men by planting drugs and weapons on them over a decade. Most of the young men were prosecuted, many sentenced to prison, and some are still in prison. Many of the officers involved were subsequently promoted and are in leadership positions in law enforcement. They hope the mood of the country is one that demands action and that the US Department of Justice will intervene.
The group of officers requested they be granted anonymity, and shared hundreds of files from the Internal Affairs Division. They reveal a pattern of criminal behavior from within the highest levels of the Dothan Police Department and the district attorney’s office in the 20th Judicial District of Alabama. Multiple current and former officers have agreed to testify if United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch appoints a special prosecutor from outside the state of Alabama, or before a Congressional hearing. The officers believe that there are currently nearly a thousand wrongful convictions resulting in felonies from the 20th Judicial District that are tied to planted drugs and weapons and question whether a system that allows this can be allowed to continue to operate.
UPDATE: Dothan Police Chief Steve Parrish issued the following statement via Facebook:
"In today’s social media driven society, many individuals take what they read on the internet as factual. While I am not in the habit of responding to misinformation published online by bloggers, accusations made concerning the credibility of the men and women of this agency shall not go unanswered.
An attempt has been made to not only discredit me, but the Dothan Police Department; the 20th Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office; and past employees of this agency by accusing members of this agency of criminal activity and others of covering up such activity. While the photo-copies of the documents posted online from Mr. Carrol appear to be authentic in nature they are arranged and redacted in a way to promote his agenda. The specific incident he is illustrating involving a former officer was addressed and handled in accordance with applicable laws and department policy when it occurred back in the late 1990’s. The officer involved in his illustration has not worked at this department since that time. It is also important to note that the accusations against the officer were for the improper storage of evidence and not the “planting of evidence.” To my knowledge, there had never been a single complaint filed against that officer during his entire career for the planting evidence on anyone. There are simply too many outright lies and fabrications in the blog to address individually but his “opinion” has apparently been taken by many as “fact”.
The members of this department are proud and loyal servants to our citizens and guests. We strive continually for excellence and are among only 5% of police departments who are nationally accredited through CALEA. We maintain our stance on transparency and our doors are open to any Law Enforcement entity tasked with investigating claims of impropriety. We welcome the Department of Justice; the US Attorney’s Office, State Attorney General’s Office or any independent appointee by such an agency to investigate any allegations brought fourth concerning this agency.
I would also like Mr. Carrol to put his money where his mouth is and provide any evidence he has that police officers have planted evidence on anyone in the past 30 years."
The "child safeguarding" office of the London Borough of Camden sent parents a brochure listing warning-signs for "radicalisation" (code for "incipient terrorist recruit"). Some signs: your kid objects to government policy, especially foreign policy; "mistrusts mainstream media reports" and switches their screen quickly when adults approach. (more…)
Google Now can do a lot of interesting things. It surfaces relevant information when you're most likely to need it and answers your questions and requests as efficiently as it can. But one thing it couldn't do before was read text messages aloud to you. Its competitor Siri could, but Google Now was still returning search results when you asked it to show or read your SMS. That has changed, uhm, at some unknown point in the past. Some users report it working for over a month at the very least, others say they tried it last week and it didn't work.
Read MorePSA: Google Now Can Read Your Last Five Text Messages Like An Answering Machine And Let You Reply To Them was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Google has steadfastly refused to add a reboot option to the power menu in stock Android over the years. In fact, it removed everything other than "power off" from that menu in Lollipop. Users have been asking for a reboot option forever, and now Sony is asking for it too. Sony has opened a bug tracker issue and submitted a patch to add it, but Google does not appear to be biting.
Read MoreSony Is Trying To Push A Power Menu Restart Option To AOSP As A Developer Setting was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
The EFF is asking for a federal investigation into whether Google broke a pledge to honor student privacy with its educational tools. Today, the group filed a complaint with the FTC, alleging that Google for Education collects a broad range of data on students' browsing habits and gives administrators too much power to enable that collection. "We are calling on the FTC to investigate Google's conduct, stop the company from using student personal information for its own purposes, and order the company to destroy all information it has collected that's not for educational purposes," said EFF staff attorney Sophia Cope in a statement.
Google's educational initiative encompasses versions of its various web services, as well as Chromebook...
The UK's digital spy agency, GCHQ, has admitted for the first time in court that it hacks computers, smartphones, and networks in the UK and abroad. GCHQ's use of hacking — known in official parlance as computer network exploitation or CNE — has been an open secret since the Snowden revelations in 2013, but a legal case brought by Privacy International and seven ISPs has confirmed the agency's methods. The case was initiated in May last year and alleges that GCHQ's use of hacking lacks oversight and breaks both domestic laws and the human rights act.
Now you can watch your next opera from the comfort of your couch. The Google Cultural Institute today announced that it is partnering with 60 global performing arts institutes to bring live, 360-degree performances to desktop and mobile users worldwide. Partners include the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Royal Shakespeare Company in the UK, and the initiative should help make the arts available to those who would otherwise never have the opportunity to see such great work.
The new partnerships are an extension of Google's current effort to showcase visual works and "world wonders." People can already tour such locales as the Palace of Versailles and Pompeii in 360 degrees from home. Now they can watch live orchestras — like the...
Flash is dying of a slow, painful death. Adobe, the company behind Flash, just made clear once again that Flash isn’t the future by renaming one of its apps. Adobe Flash Professional is now called Adobe Animate CC. Read More
When you need to find an image, you probably head straight to Google image search. And if you need to find that image again... you probably do the search again. Well, maybe not anymore. Google has added the ability to "star" images and organize them for easy access later.
First things first: this feature is currently only available in mobile browsers, not the Google app itself. Also, it's only rolled out in the US so far.
Read MoreGoogle Image Search On Mobile Now Allows You To Star Images And Organize Them Into Collections was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so.
Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.
Today's roundup is presented by DigiCal Calendar & Widgets from Digibites.
Read More18 New And Notable Android Apps From The Last 2 Weeks (11/18/15 - 11/30/15) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
In an effort to curb online piracy, early last year the movie and music industries reached agreement with the UK’s leading ISPs to send ‘warnings’ to alleged pirates.
Under the new system copyright holders will monitor illegal P2P file-sharing activity with a strong focus on repeat offenders.
The warning program is part of the larger Creative Content UK (CCUK) initiative which also includes an educational component. Though various PR campaigns the coalition hopes to change people’s attitudes towards piracy.
CCUK was launched after years of negotiating and the plans were widely discussed in the media. However, when the first campaign launched a few weeks ago there was a remarkable silence.
The first education campaign is called “Get It Right from a Genuine Site.” It encourages people to stay clear from pirate sites and use licensed services instead, so that copyright holders and industry employees are properly compensated.
The campaign was promoted alongside an ad which aired during the UK version of The X-Factor and elsewhere late October. In the high-profile advertising spot, which isn’t cheap, viewers were encouraged to duck dodgy sites and go legit.
“Get the stuff you love from genuine sites and support creativity. Download or stream from dodgy sites and contribute nothing. It’s your choice,” it says.
Get It Right from a Genuine SiteCCUK is encouraging the public to use the hashtag #genuine to promote the initiative. However, thus far the response has been rather underwhelming with only a handful of tweets, mostly from industry insiders.
Today, the hashtag is mostly used in totally unrelated tweets and on other social media the project isn’t really taking off either. The official Facebook page of the campaign has only 114 likes.
The only Facebook comment responding to the campaign ad is not very encouraging either. “It’s not 2003. No one’s getting pirated music from IRC or whatever,” it reads.
In addition to the ad, CCUK is also backing a large street art project. It’s not entirely clear how this offline project relates to online piracy, but perhaps it’s an effort to appeal to the target audience.
TorrentFreak asked CCUK who informed us that they are happy with the progress they’ve made thus far.
‘Get it Right from a Genuine Site’ is a long term campaign which seeks to engage consumers across numerous channels about the wide range of legal sources available and help raise awareness of the value of creative content.”
“We are very pleased with the progress of the campaign to date and as awareness continues to build, we expect to see strong results for the creative sectors in the coming year.”
In the months to come CCUK will release additional campaigns as well as the piracy alerts program, where BT, SKY, TalkTalk and Virgin Media will notify pirating subscribers.
A CCUK spokesperson previously informed us that their ultimate goal is to bring down local piracy rates. During the months following the rollout the file-sharing habits of UK Internet users will be frequently polled to measure the impact of the campaign.
“The aim of Creative Content UK is to encourage greater use of legal content services and to reduce online copyright infringement. There will be regular measurements of legal and illegal consumption of content throughout the duration of the initiative, which will be compared with levels before the launch of the program,” CCUK told TF.
Considering the response and exposure thus far, there’s still a long way to go.
Update: added a response from CCUK
Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
When you’re drowning in debt, managing your personal finances probably seems downright impossible. You read all these headlines about investing and financial independence and you just want to give up, because you’re so far from that. But don’t be discouraged—it takes time to get your money in order.
I didn’t start doing all of this complicated personal finance stuff, like investing, all at once. At first, I was just interested in learning how to get out of debt. Then, I learned some tips for saving money on groceries and bills. After that, I learned about emergency funds. Then, I read up on 401(k)s and all of that.
http://twocents.lifehacker.com/you-learn-a-lo...
Getting control of my money happened one step at a time, but each step got me closer. Bearded Dragon Finance calls it a Game of Inches:
You never know when making a small adjustment will lead to progress, which in turn leads to more progress. Going with the football analogy, have you ever seen a running back pick up a few inches which gives their team a first down, and then the next play is a 50 yard touchdown pass? That touchdown never would have happened without the few inches picked up on the previous play....This is actually how many people go about getting their financial house in order, myself included. You start making small changes and, encouraged by your progress, you keep making more progress.
People don’t just wake up suddenly knowing how to manage their money. They gain a few inches, then gain a few more, and suddenly they are marching down the field picking up yards in chunks.
As the post points out, small achievements make a big difference. So if you’ve saved $20 a month on your grocery bill, think of it as one small step toward getting your finances in order. If you’re paying off your debt, think of it as investing for your future.
The full post is a great read, so be sure to check it out at the link below.
A Game of Inches | Bearded Dragon Finance
Photo by find-cat.
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is set to debut in just a few more months, so it's about time we saw some new footage. Airing during Gotham's fall finale this evening, this brief teaser shows Batman held prisoner in the desert moments before Superman comes and unmasks him. Just in case you didn't know, it was Ben Affleck the whole time.
A full trailer is due out on Wednesday during Jimmy Kimmel Live, so expect plenty of more action then. Batman v. Superman debuts on March 25th.
Swallowing pills isn’t always easy: up to 40% of American adults, and plenty of children, have difficulty. Special cups and techniques can help, tricking you into gulping the pill down with your drink.
One of these cups is the Oralflo, which looks like a sippy cup: you fill it with whatever drink you like, then drop your pill into a holder in the spout. Take a drink, and the pill comes along for the ride. If carrying a special cup around isn’t your style, try the Easy Flow Pill Swallowing Aid, which is just a pill holder that pops onto the top of a bottle.
What if you’re stuck without any special equipment? Here are a few other techniques that might work:
The problem is often mental, the New York Times reports: we just aren’t used to swallowing solid items without chewing them. In that case, pediatrician Tanya Altman suggests training yourself by rolling up a piece of bread into a pill shape. It’s soft, so the anxieties about swallowing a pill often don’t apply. From there, you can try bigger pieces of bread, or work up from small to large pieces of candy.
Can’t Swallow a Pill? There’s Help for That | New York Times
Photo by Carsten Schertzer.
Vitals is a new blog from Lifehacker all about health and fitness. Follow us on Twitter here.
