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A truer-words-never-spoken woven label to sew into your crafting projects. (via Making Light)

Actor Harrison Ford, who brought to life characters like Indiana Jones and Han Solo, sustained injuries this afternoon after a small plane he was piloting crash-landed on a golf course in Los Angeles. Around 2:30PM PT the actor's plane crashed at the Penmar Gold Course near Venice, California. In audio obtained by TMZ, you can hear Ford report "engine failure" to the Santa Monica Airport control tower, announcing "immediate return."

According to NBC News he suffered lacerations to the head and potentially fractures, but authorities are now characterizing his injuries as "fair to moderate." Ford's own son Ben posted his own update to Twitter, saying his father was "Battered, but ok!"

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James King writes of his year working in the Daily Mail Online's newsroom. It sounds as vile as you could imagine. Read the rest

Song recognition app Shazam wants to recognize more than just audio. A report from Reuters says the app is planning on expanding its search function to the visual realm too, letting users identify items such as DVDs and groceries with their phone's camera.

"We want to expand the universe of what you can Shazam," chief executive Rich Riley told the news agency. "The famous blue button that our users love will remain on the home screen but will be able to do much more."

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Today, Google announced that it will be adding mixed drink recipes to search results. You can ask Google how to make a number of mixed drinks and Google will give you a list of ingredients and preparation instructions.

The cards appear in both mobile and desktop versions of Google search and don't require any update. The data seems to be pulled from sources like Wikipedia, but Google says it's vetted every card that appears in the Knowledge Graph. Though, it doesn't seem like it could be vetted too well, as it suggests the proper way to make a martini is to stir it, and this is clearly not correct.

Google

We know that it's important to walk away from work every now and then. Taking a break can help you regain focus and make you more productive. But it also matters how you take a break. For a more effective break that will truly revive your brainpower, avoid any activity that puts a demand on your attention.

Farnam Street explains that some breaks actually still require quite a bit of our attention. Walking in the city, for example, often requires you to be sharply aware of everything going on around you. The problem with that is, you don't fully disengage your attention, allowing that part of your brain to recharge. They point to the book Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, in which author Daniel Goleman points out that letting your mind wander is important to "attention restoration."

Such restoration occurs when we switch from effortful attention, where the mind needs to suppress distractions, to letting go and allowing our attention to be captured by whatever presents itself...a walk through a park or in the woods puts little such demand on attention. We can restore by spending time in nature— even a few minutes strolling in a park or any setting rich in fascinations like the muted reds of clouds at sunset or a butterfly's flutter. This triggers bottom-up attention "modestly," as Kaplan's group put it, allowing circuits for top-down efforts to replenish their energy, restoring attentiveness and memory, and improving cognition.

When I take a "break," it often just means walking away from my computer to talk a walk, sit outside, etc., but my attention is still on work problems. Sure, a change of scenery is helpful for certain tasks. But to truly bounce back from cognitive fatigue, the idea is to give in to distractions and allow your thoughts to wander in whatever direction they like. According to attention restoration theory, this lets you restore your cognitive abilities and get back to work at full speed.

Read more about it at the links below.

Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence | Daniel Goleman via Farnam Street

Photo by Mike Sinko Photography.

It's hard to tell who's chasing who, but we could watch this video of a cat chasing a turtle chasing a cat pretty much forever. (more…)

Something was clearly amiss with Marvel Studios' new Avengers: Age of Ultron YouTube trailer, almost to the point of being unwatchable. It seems there was a bizarre stabilization filter on that's warping every frame — and causing the black bars to bounce around like crazy throughout the clip. (Update: It's fixed now, thankfully — all verb tenses updated from present to past).

Here's Iron Man, for example:

It wasn't intentional (although it does make for some trippy art). Marvel is aware, however, and is working to fix it (update: it's fixed — see above). This is Executive Editorial Director of Digital Media Ryan Penagos (aka "Agent M"):

For those pinging me about the new Avengers trailer on YouTube, I know. Their system won't...

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There's a new Google app in the Play Store today—the Google PDF Viewer. You may be wondering why that exists seeing as Google Drive already opens PDFs. It's that same basic thing, but you don't need Drive. This app is intended mainly for Android for Work, but anyone can install it.

The Google PDF Viewer includes all the capabilities of the Drive-based viewer like printing, search, and copying text. This app is completely independent of the Drive app, so it's redundant to install it on most devices.

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Google Releases Standalone PDF Viewer App Primarily Aimed At Android For Work was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Android/iOS: When I came home from my knee surgery, I suddenly had a ton of medications to take and exercises to do, all on different schedules. And when one of your drugs is an opioid, your brain isn't exactly up to the task. Here's the app that came to my rescue: Dosecast.

Available for Android and iOS, Dosecast keeps track of your medications, but it does more than just ping you when it's time to take the drug. It also keeps track of how many doses you've taken—important for drugs that have a daily limit—and understands schedules that are "as needed" or dependent on previous doses: for example, it can remind you to take a dose of Tylenol 4 hours after your last dose.

It's a free app, but the $2.99 upgrade buys you access to a database of drugs, so you don't have to enter all the details manually. Either way, you can also enter custom "drugs", which I used to remind me to do my exercises and TENS machine sessions.

Here's one more tip for when you're laid up on the couch: since you'll want to keep meds nearby, but many can be dangerous to children or pets, keep your pills in an inexpensive coin bank safe. The combination lock will keep out curious animals and toddlers, and you can even write the combination right on the safe, assuming your children and pets can't read.

Dosecast (Free) | iTunes App Store

Dosecast (Free) | Google Play Store

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Vitals is a new blog from Lifehacker all about health and fitness. Follow us on Twitter here.

 Yesterday, Google announced a well overdue revamp of its Google Contacts service which introduced a redesign and a handful of new features, and today Yahoo is following up with some contacts-related news of its own. The company is now rolling out new “Contacts Cards” in Yahoo Mail, which are small cards that pop up when you hover over a person’s name in a message, showing… Read More

A wedding is a time to celebrate, and that means lots of dancing. If you feel like you have two left feet, but still want to cut up a rug at an upcoming event, these are the moves that can help make you look like you know what you're doing.

Dancing is really about doing whatever movement brings you joy, but some folks want to make sure they look good when they boogie down. This video from YouTube and dance instructor Alan Watson demonstrates three tiny moves that you can combine into the easiest "I kind of know what I'm doing" dance there is. Start with a little reach down and step up like you're putting on your pants, move hips back and forth a little, add a little "karate kid," and you'll be groovin' like you've never grooved before. Don't sit out during all the fun and give these dancing tricks a go.

Three Tricks to Make You a Better Dancer | YouTube

Physical pain can be intimidating. Whether it's a soreness after waking up, a sports injury, or an unexpected twinge, pain can be scary if you aren't mentally prepared to deal with it. We spoke to a few experts to learn how you can deal with—and prepare for—physical pain without feeling overwhelmed or freaked out.

Laugh to Keep From Crying

Sometimes distracting yourself from pain is the best way to tolerate it. Replace the emotions of turmoil, anxiety, and despair with the complete opposite: humor. "Humor therapy" exists because humor and laughter have proven effects. A small set of studies, published by The Royal Society, discovered a correlation between social laughter and an elevated pain threshold. While the studies seem more exploratory than conclusive, the researchers tested this hypothesis through several different experiments. Lead researcher Robin Dunbar explains in an interview with The New York Times that, "The causal sequence is laughter triggers endorphin activation."

Ideally, you'd be laughing with other people or in a social setting (statistically speaking, you're more likely to laugh in the presence of others—this study, published in Ethology, claims that you're 30 times more likely to laugh with others than by yourself).

We approached physical therapist Jim Irvin (PT, MPT) for an expert's opinion. When I spoke to him, he agreed, "Absolutely laughter and humor can help to reduce pain. It also provides a great endorphin release. It also takes the patient's mind off of their pain."

Try Relaxation and Visualization Techniques

Even though you might roll your eyes at words like "relaxation" and "visualization", many patients have had some degree of success through them. For example, visualization reduced chronic pain in this woman's thumb. If your pain ever gets bad, and you're waiting for the doctor or for treatment, put your skepticism aside and try a visualization exercise. Even if it doesn't remove the pain, at least it helps distract you from the pain.

There's a school of pain management called "Mind Body Therapy" which consists of treatments that use the mind's ability to affect the functions and symptoms of the body. You could try to relax with simple techniques like progressive muscle relaxation. We have some more tips to help you relax here. When you're in pain, try breathing exercises. Many women use various breathing exercises to get through labor (which has been described as the worst type of pain—I wouldn't know, but I wouldn't doubt it). It's possible you can better tolerate pain by modifying your breathing. Irwin recommends this simple breathing exercise to relax:

I like the 8-8-8 breathing technique. Breathe in for 8 counts, out for 8 counts, and repeat this process 8 times. This will usually decrease the tension in the body by improving oxygen flow to tissues and slow down neurotransmission (decreasing pain conduction).

New York University Langone Medical Center and Bellevue Hospital pediatrics resident Brian Steiner shares this story of how regular meditation affected a woman's chronic pain in The Atlantic. Sometimes, mental exercises can alter the physical pain you're facing.

Reduce Anxiety with Knowledge

Even physical pain is filtered through our mind, which is why mental techniques can influence it. Unfortunately, we can also overthink it.Pain can lead to fear and anxiety (e.g., "What's causing this? Will it get worse?"). Anticipating pain can be just as bad—or worse—than actually feeling it.

A study published in PLOS showed that a lot of us prefer to get pain out of the way as soon as possible so we can avoid the dread and anticipation. When you're in pain, do your best to dim anxiety and dread as much as possible. Remember the words of Mark Twain, "I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened."

Here are some questions Irwin asks his patients to realistically assess their pain, which you can also use:

Well, for starters I find out the extent of their pain. How much is it limiting their daily routine? Are they doing anything that could be making it worse? I try to find out the extent of the injury before I can really educate them about their pain. In some instances, pain is a natural part of the healing process (especially after surgery). It is used as a protective mechanism. In the case of a broken leg, the pain will generally keep you from walking on it and doing further damage to it. So, if I can, I tell them that pain is normal.

If you're feeling anxious, finding out more information about the pain can lessen the mystery of it. Primary care physician Dr. Dan Weiswasser says:

Lack of understanding, which underlies much fear, can be addressed by education. I find that, when people know what to expect, an anticipated procedure is much less stressful and perhaps even less painful. As you well know, there's a lot of misinformation on the web, so one has to choose sources carefully.

Weiswasser recommends sources like WebMD and Mayo Clinic, as well as anything from the federal government (e.g., the CDC, MedlinePlus, healthfinder.gov). He also recommends sites like familydoctor.org and aap.org. We've also looked at ways how to find accurate medical information online and medical websites that you can trust.

Be Patient and Wait for the Tincture of Time

Physical pain can drain you of hope. Even if you're feeling overwhelmed, remember that your body can be surprisingly smart and resilient. It might be possible for your body to heal as time passes. Dr. Weiswasser says:

I am also a big fan of "tincture of time"; our bodies have an amazing ability to heal themselves and many issues improve with time (although this can be a hard sell in a society used to fast results and immediate gratification).

Patience is the last thing in the world that comes to mind when you're in pain, especially if it is taking over your life. Keep a little ray of hope alive, even just in the back of your mind. Remember, it's possible that the tincture of time might alleviate your pain.

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None of these techniques will make physical pain a walk in the park, but it might make things just a smidge more bearable. Distract your mind by laughing, and trying visualization and relaxation techniques. Reduce your anxiety with knowledge, both by educating yourself and talking to healthcare providers. Stay hopeful and know that it's possible for your body to heal itself with time.

Illustration by Tina Mailhot-Roberge. Photos byBowy Gavid Bowie Chan, Nattu, Mandroid, and Seattle Municipal Archives.

 It’s been a good week for game developers. Unreal Engine 4 went free. Unity 5 came out, and a massive chunk of its once premium features went free. And now: Valve has just announced Source 2, the next generation of their Source game engine… and sure enough, it’s “free to content developers”. Best known as the engine that powers games like Half-Life 2, Team… Read More

CSI: Cyber is the fourth series in the popular CSI franchise.

The police drama, starring Emmy Award winner Patricia Arquette, revolves around the FBI’s Cyber Crime Division which investigates illegal activities on the Internet, including piracy.

The new show is set to premiere tomorrow night but cyber criminals have spoiled the exclusive for CBS.

Ironically, or perhaps fittingly, leaked copies of the first episode surfaced on various pirate sites during the past day. The leaked footage comes from a high quality copy and doesn’t have any visible watermarks.

The leak appears to come from the P2P group “PMP” and is titled “CSI-Cyber-S01E01-HDTV-x264-PMP.”

Leaked CSI Cyber Episode 1

Interestingly, however, the episode isn’t spreading through the usual torrent sites. Instead, it appeared on various streaming services and cyberlockers first, which is quite unusual.

There are no traces to the video source. It may have come from a promotional screener, or perhaps the leak itself is a promotion? If so, it wouldn’t be the first time that a TV-series has been intentionally leaked to gain traction.

From reading the comments of early viewers the pilot is getting mixed reviews. Some love the concept of a cyber CSI, but others are more critical of the various technicalities.

“Wow. Not a good first effort at all. Did they hire any real hackers or anyone with any real working knowledge of hacking,” one cyber ‘criminal’ commented.

Whether CBS plans to alert the FBI’s real “CSI:Cyber” to hunt down the leakers is unknown, but for now they remain on the loose.

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

We've heard time and time again that boredom is a necessity for creativity, and musician Dan Deacon really drives that point home with the above quote from in an interview with NPR.

The whole interview is worth a read, but the above quote comes when Deacon's talking about anxiety and stress:

I very much was a person who was motivated by stress; I would use a deadline as a motivator. I think a lot of people do that, where they're like, "I'll just wait until the last minute, and that'll light a fire underneath me and I'll get it done." And I just kept thinking, "Well, that's a terrible way to live. Why am I building a house and lighting a fire in the basement just to see if I can finish the roof before it burns down my whole house?"

I started realizing how important it is to truly relax, and in relaxing, to be bored. You have to be bored. If you're not bored, your mind is never gonna wander, and if your mind never wanders, you're never gonna get lost in thought, and you're never gonna find yourself thinking things you wouldn't have otherwise thought.

Head over to NPR for the full interview.

'You Have to Be Bored': Dan Deacon on Creativity | NPR

Photo by Cristiano Betta.

Google is offering up a preview of the new version of Google Contacts today. Contacts gets a big visual overhaul to make it easier to manage your contacts and see everything you've been talking about.

The new design makes it a lot easier to get rid of duplicates and it makes sure contacts are kept up to date by tapping into their Google profile. Likewise, you can now see your most recent emails and meetings with a person right in their contact card. You can try out the new Contacts by heading to contacts.google.com/preview.

The new Google Contacts: Bringing everyone together | Official Gmail Blog

The Ferguson Police Department violated the constitutional rights of the city's black residents for years, says a Department of Justice report expected to be released tomorrow. Federal investigators found that, well before the shooting death of Michael Brown last year, police activity in Ferguson, Missouri, was fueled by racial discrimination against the predominantly black population, resulting in unjustified traffic stops, arrests without probable cause, and the use of excessive force.

Investigators in Ferguson conducted hundreds of interviews and reviewed 35,000 pages of police data to determine definitively if racial bias was at the root of the tensions between officers and the black community. The findings show that, despite...

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Pebble Time is the most funded project in Kickstarter history, and still has plenty of time to go.

Just last week, Pebble Time — the follow-up to the popular Pebble and Pebble Steel — took Kickstarter by storm. After blowing past their initial $500,000 goal, the campaign is now well over $13 million and still going strong. An additional boost has come from today's announcement of the Pebble Time Steel, a luxury version of the new smartwatch. The combined effort has pushed Pebble Time over the top, making it the most funded project in Kickstarter history.

Pebble Time builds upon what made the original Pebble great, adding in redesigned hardware, a "smartstrap" for third-party connectivity, a color display, and a new version of Pebble OS.

Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky had this to say:

We have so much gratitude for our community and the herculean support they've shown us — from the first Pebble Kickstarter campaign to today. We're inspired by the backers who believe in us, and our goal is to continue making them happy with amazing smartwatches that simplify our daily life and help us accomplish more. It's been an unbelievable ride, and there are still 24 days left!

Pebble Time will be shipping in May and is available in black, white and red. Pebble Time Steel will hit the mail in July and is offered in gold, silver, and black. Various backing tiers are still available for both devices.

If you haven't yet checked out Pebble Time, you can get in on the action via Kickstarter. There are still a few weeks to go, but don't think it over for too long.

"Are you having a big, breakthrough idea right now? A few hundred people around the world are probably having the exact same insight at the exact same time," writes Clive Thompson, author of Smarter Than You Think, over at Medium:

This is what’s known as the principle of “multiples,” which posits that genius breakthroughs in innovation, science, and the arts aren’t rare at all.

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Some days are harder than others. And on the harder days, you need GIFs.

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 Imagine never having to buy new and expensive hardware to upgrade your personal computer with more speed and storage space. That’s the vision behind Y Combinator-backed Paperspace, a new company launching today, which is building a full, personal computer that lives in the cloud, which you access from any web browser. Similar, to some extent, to enterprise-grade solutions like… Read More

Ermagherd!

Shot and shared by Holly Scott. [via 4GIFs]

Everyone Hated ‘The Sound of Music’: The Sound of Music premiered to horrific reviews in 1965. Now it’s the most beloved and popular movie musical ever. On its 50th anniversary, how did it climb that mountain?

The Breakfast Club is getting restored and remastered, marking 30 years since the John Hughes classic put five very different high school archetypes — a brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel and a recluse — in detention to teach them about friendship and other feelings.

The restored film will premiere on March 16th in Austin's Paramount Theatre, as part of the city's SXSW festival.Ally Sheedy and Molly Ringwald, who starred as The Breakfast Club's recluse and beauty respectively, will also be in attendance to answer questions from the audience. That'll be followed by a small theatrical re-release later this month — 430 screens across the US will the remastered edition, plus a bonus featurette with the cast and crew, between March 26th and...

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Microsoft first revealed its Internet Explorer successor at the company’s Windows 10 event in January. While the software maker revealed features like Cortana integration, inking support, and a new rendering engine, we haven’t seen the browser in action outside of Redmond. WinBeta, a Microsoft enthusiast site, has obtained a copy of Project Spartan, the codename for the Windows 10 browser, and created a video demo of the Cortana features.

Most of the Cortana integration is similar to what Microsoft showed back in January. Cortana bounces rapidly in the address bar when it detects a site it has further information on, including an address and opening hours for retail sites. The video demonstration shows how Cortana will provide...

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The particle-wave nature of light has fascinated researchers for more than 200 years, but a new experiment has allowed researchers to visualize it like never before. This image was taken by turning an electron microscope on a laser-charged nanowire. Light moved down the wire in both directions, creating a standing wave of photons, which the electron microscope was able to capture by focusing on the wire. The result is an image that captures both the wave and particle nature of light. A wave is clearly visible in the curves of the figure, but each data point represents a unique interaction between a photon and an electron, slowing or speeding the electron enough to be measured by the microscope.

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