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At some point or another, we’ve all stepped away from a pot for a few minutes, only to come back to a burnt mess. Next time this happens to your enameled cookware, there’s a simple way to get it back to mint condition.

The Kitchn offers a nifty trick for cleaning burnt enamel pots and pans, and it doesn’t require hours of scrubbing. All you need is baking soda and water:

Let the water come to a boil, add the baking soda, and give everything a good stir. After a few minutes of simmering, use a wooden spoon (no metal on that enamel surface, please!) to nudge off the burned-on bits. Just like that, all that yucky stuff will release from the pot, minimal elbow grease required.

You can also do this with laundry detergent, but we love the idea of using baking soda, an ingredient many of us already stock in the kitchen.

How to Clean Burnt Stains Off Enameled Cookware | The Kitchn

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 Rookie smartphone company OnePlus has removed the need for an invite to buy its One smartphone and announced a date for its follow-up device. Read More

San Francisco-based BitTorrent Inc. already has a few popular applications in its catalog, including uTorrent and Sync. However, with its new “people-powered” browser it hopes to spark another revolution.

Project Maelstrom, as it’s called, is still in the early stages of development but the company has decided to push a Beta out to the public so developers can start building tools and services around it.

In short, Maelstrom takes Google’s Chromium framework and stuffs a powerful BitTorrent engine under the hood, meaning that torrents can be played directly from the browser. More excitingly, however, Maelstrom also supports torrent-powered websites that no longer have to rely on central servers.

By simply publishing a website in a torrent format the website will be accessible if others are sharing it. This can be assisted by web-seeds but also completely peer-to-peer.

For example, earlier this week Wikileaks published a controversial archive of documents and emails that leaked after the Sony hack. If the hosting provider was forced to take the files down they would disappear but with Maelstrom-supported sites, users would be able to keep it online.

The same is true for torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay, which suffered weeks of downtime recently after the site’s servers were raided.

BitTorrent powered page

At the moment there are very few websites that support Maelstrom. There is an early WordPress plugin and others are experimenting with it as well, but wider adoption will need some time.

That said, traditional magnet links work too, so people can play video and audio from regular torrent sites directly in the browser.

BitTorrent Inc. informs TF that the main goal is to provide a new and open publishing platform. It’s now up to developers to use it to their advantage.

“We believe in providing an alternative means for publishing that is neutral and that gives ownership back to those publishers. But one of our biggest goals with this release is just to get it out and into the hands of developers and see what emerges,” Maelstrom’s project lead Rob Velasquez says.

And in that respect momentum is building. BitTorrent Inc. says that a community of more than 10,000 developers and 3,500 publishers has already been established, with tools to bring more on board now available via Github.

While Maelstrom can bypass Internet censors, it’s good to keep in mind that all shared files are visible to the public. Maelstrom is caching accessed content to keep it seeded, so using a VPN might not be a bad idea. After all, users leave a trail of their browsing history behind.

On the upside, Maelstrom can be more private for publishers as they don’t have to share any personal details with hosting companies or domain registrars.

“The BitTorrent protocol remains the same, but it does mean that you no longer have to hand over personal, private data to domain registrars or hosting companies to put up a simple website,” Velasquez notes.

The idea for a BitTorrent-powered browser is not new. The Pirate Bay started work on a related project last year with the aim of keeping the site online even if its servers were raided.

It will be interesting to see if Maelstrom can get some traction. There’s still a long way to go, but the idea of an open and censorship-free web does sound appealing.

With a Mac version still under a development, Project Maelstrom (beta) can be downloaded for Windows here.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and anonymous VPN services.

Roman Nurik, a Design Advocate at Google, launched the DashClock Widget back in early 2013. It's an extremely versatile, modular widget that - by default - supports things like time, weather, unread Gmail messages, and alarms. But its modular nature is the real selling point. Users can add extensions for apps they're already using, allowing a lot of information from disparate and unrelated apps to be displayed in one handy widget.

Read More

DashClock Is Back With New (Materialized) Beta was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Tucker the Corgi and Beau the baby human. (more…)

A 57-year predator study will likely be forced to shift directions as early as next year because the wolf population it studies is nearly extinct. Since 1958, scientists have tracked the ebbing wolf population on Michigan's Isle Royale, an island in Lake Superior. Now the study is down to only three predators, and that number may reach zero by as early as next year, according to a report in Nature.

When the study first began, the Isle Royale wolf population neared 50, but it has been declining for some time now. A decade ago there were just 30 wolves on the island, and a Nature report last year had that number down to ten.

The last male wolf joined the pack in 1997

In the 1940s, three Canadian gray wolves walked across the ice on Lake...

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"Rescue dog" is a synonym for "weird behavioral tics," and I know this because I am the proud caretaker of one. But it's also a synonym for "unconditional and fierce love."

[via Reddit]

A recently rescued Grey-Headed Flying Fox enjoys gorging on grapes. All of the grapes. (more…)

A few weeks ago, Google showed us a host of new Chrome hardware as well as a few upcoming tweaks to the underlying Chrome OS software, including a new app launcher that brings Google Now information to the forefront. Now, that latest software update is beginning to roll out to all Chromebooks through the stable Chrome update channel. Assuming Google hasn't changed things from what we saw last month, the app launcher button in the lower left side of your screen will now bring up a window that closely resembles Google's homepage. Search is at the forefront, and your most recently used apps are listed below. You can then click through to get your full app list or scroll down to pull up Google Now info. Google Now has been integrated into...

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To photographers light is the most important thing above all else. It is the ultimate prize to come home with a photo with “good light”.

One type of light that is truly ethereal is the phenomenon of rays of light. It is only possible for light rays to be visible in an image when certain atmospheric conditions exist; there must be some kind of particle suspended in the air for the light to bounce off such as dust, fog, or smoke.

Here are 28 images of light rays that have a certain glow about them. Enjoy!

The post 28 Ethereal Images of Light Rays that Glow by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Earlier this year I shared the story of a group of police torture survivors and their supporters who have been fighting for reparations from the City of Chicago. Read the rest

Writer S.E. Smith points out a hypocrisy in modern American society Read the rest

The 20 Best Hollywood Comedy Movies of All Time 

 Google’s mobile search results on Android will now prompt you to install mobile apps that feature content relevant to your search query. This essentially turns Google’s mobile search results page into an app discovery service and will likely be a major boon for mobile developers. Read More

 Google Cardboard has been a surprise hit among early adopters, giving an intentionally cheap, approachable device that opens the door to more people having their first virtual reality experience. Providing affordable hardware for optics and input and a software layer that ties into the tools app and game developers already use has made Android a major destination for those looking to experiment… Read More

We're still eight months away from the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but a new trailer just premiered at the Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, and it gives us our first look at a few of the original cast members: Han Solo, Chewbaca, and what appears to be a hooded Luke Skywalker.

Overall it's a much deeper look at The Force Awakens than we got back in November. That 88-second glimpse was all about introducing us to new characters played by John Boyega and Daisy Ridley, as well as a shadowy figure with an unusual lightsaber.

Developing...

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Today, Wikileaks published a database of all of the data leaked from Sony Pictures in last year's hack, comprising 173,132 emails and 30,287 separate documents. The documents contain private legal opinions as well as sensitive conversations between executives, many of which were the subject of reports in the wake of the hack. "This archive shows the inner workings of an influential multinational corporation," Assange said in a statement. "It is newsworthy and at the centre of a geo-political conflict. It belongs in the public domain. WikiLeaks will ensure it stays there."

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Last year, New York University came under fire for the treatment of laborers building its campus in the United Arab Emirates, a country where labor can look a lot like indentured servitude. In response, the university appointed an independent investigator, Nardello & Co. Its report is out today, and it found that approximately 10,000 workers who built the Abu Dhabi campus lacked the labor protections NYU had stipulated. Perhaps most disturbing, many workers, including those covered by NYU’s labor guidelines, had their passports taken and held by their employers, impeding the ability of the mostly foreign workforce to leave.

Many did not relinquish their passports voluntarily

NYU has faced criticism for its Abu Dhabi campus since it was...

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Slowly but surely, IKEA’s getting into the electronics business. The Swedish furniture giant will start selling wirelessly charging furniture this spring. Don’t want new furniture? No sweat. IKEA makes it incredibly easy to install its new inductive charging device in any piece of furniture.

If you’ve been thinking about getting in the wireless charging game, IKEA just made it a no-brainer. Later this spring, you’ll be able to buy the Jyssen wireless charger for just $30. It’s designed to fit in the cord management hole of the Micke and Stuva desks, but for an extra $5, IKEA will sell you a special drill bit so that you can cut the perfect slot in literally piece of furniture you already own.

Want a wireless charging station on the kitchen table? No problem. How about a charging pad for your dresser? That’s a five-minute job. What about the garage? If you drill the hole, you can charge your phone.

Of course, you could always just opt for the easier, prettier, and slightly less expensive Nordmärke wireless charging pads. Those are $28 for the single pad and $65 for the triple. If your phone doesn’t already support wireless charging—the Qi standard can be hard to find—IKEA is also selling iPhone and Samsung Galaxy cases that add the functionality for$15 to $25.

The easiest approach to adding wireless charging to your life would be to buy a piece from IKEA’s new wireless charging furniture. We’ve known for a few weeks that these items were on the way, and IKEA just announced that everything will go on sale in late spring, just like the Jyssen kit.

It’s worth pointing out that wireless charging probably isn’t the best thing for the lifespan of your device’s battery. (It generates excess heat.) But it sure is convenient.

[IKEA]

Amazon's running another one of their signature Android app giveaways, highlighted this time around by the likes of Plants vs. Zombies, Wolfram|Alpha, Runtastic PRO, and Osmos HD. If you own an Android device, take a minute to check out the full list and download anything you might want before the deal ends. [Amazon Appstore]

One you're done, be sure to check out our App Deals post for more deals on iOS and Android.

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Commerce covers the best products on Kinja Gear, finds you deals on those products on Kinja Deals, and asks you about your favorites on Kinja Co-Op, click here to learn more. We operate independently of Editorial and Advertising, and if you buy something through our posts, we may get a small share of the sale. We want your feedback.

Send deal submissions to Deals@Gawker and all other inquiries to Shane@Gawker

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— Kinja Deals (@KinjaDeals) June 9, 2014

What do you do when a competing movie studio is about to steal the world's attention with a little movie going by the name of Star Wars? Apparently, if you're Warner Bros., you don't just let Disney have its moment: you try to grab a bit of the spotlight first. Director Zack Snyder just tweeted out confirmation that the teaser trailer for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice will be debuting at IMAX theaters this Monday, accompanied with some fleeting glimpses of Superman and Batman's costumes. It's not much, but it should be enough to remind everyone that there's more to the movie universe than just J.J. Abrams and Star Wars — but the real splash will come when Snyder releases the new teaser online. If you live in the US, you can snag...

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Scribd has struck a deal with Penguin Random House to add over 9,000 of the publisher's audiobooks to its subscription book service. It's a big grab for Scribd that gives its subscribers access to audiobooks for some of the publisher's most popular titles, including A Game of Thrones, Gone Girl, and Fifty Shades of Grey. There are also some recordings for literary fans to dig into, with titles from Alice Munro and Junot Díaz. This is Scribd's second direct audiobook deal with a major publisher, its first being HarperCollins.

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 Why’s Wall Street so excited about flat revenues and an earnings miss? Netflix reported that its subscriber base grew to a total 62.3 million. That figure includes 2.3 million new domestic subscribers, and 2.6 million non-domestic subscribers. Read More

This video made me lose my gangsta. (more…)

The most effective way to learn a foreign language is to immerse yourself as much as possible in it . Readlang is a webapp and Chrome extension that helps you learn by translating web sites and creating flashcards and word lists for you.

In the webapp, you can paste in text or upload a book or article in the language you're studying. In Readlang's minimalist reader, you can then click on words or phrases you don't know to translate them back into English or your native language. There's also a selection of public texts and videos shared by other Readlang users you could use to study from, with filters for difficulty level and word length.

The Chrome extension works similarly, translating phrases on web pages to English or another language through Google Translate.

Readlang is similar to previously mentioned Language Immersion , but is more robust and works as a standalone website. You can customize a dictionary and synchronize YouTube videos to transcriptions. Perhaps the most helpful parts of Readlang are the word list and flashcard features. The app keeps track of the phrases you've translated and creates flashcards (with spaced repetition algorithm) for you to practice with.

Over 50 languages are supported, and Readlang works on all devices.

Readlang via All My Faves

The European Union has formally accused Google of illegal, monopolistic practices, stating that the American company abused its position as market leader by prioritizing its own services in search results and diverting traffic away from its competitors. The company could be fined up to 10 percent of its yearly earnings or as much as $6 billion. The EU also announced today that it was launching a further investigation into the Android operating system which could result in additional fines.

"In the case of Google I am concerned that the company has given an unfair advantage to its own comparison shopping service, in breach of EU antitrust rules," said EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager. "Google now has the opportunity to...

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The European Commission has been examining Google’s Android operating system for nearly three years, and it is now ready to launch a formal investigation into claims of unfair app bundling. Google services and apps like Maps, Chrome, and YouTube are often bundled with Android devices, and competitors have complained that it’s giving Google an unfair advantage. Regulators previously questioned telecom companies and phone manufacturers, to see whether Google forces them to bundle apps or services at the expense of competitors.

"The investigation will focus on whether Google has entered into anti-competitive agreements or abused a possible dominant position in the field of operating systems, applications and services for smart mobile...

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