Judge tosses lawsuit over 1-star review for overfeeding pet fish

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A local Texas judge is tossing a $1 million lawsuit brought by a Dallas pet-sitting business that sued the owners of a pet fish for giving the company a 1-star Yelp review that complained that “Gordy” was overfed.

Among other allegations, Prestigious Pets claimed (PDF) that a Plano couple violated its non-disparagement clause and defamed it on Yelp in last year’s review. The Dallas County suit alleged that Michelle and Robert Duchouquette’s review about the overfeeding of the tiny betta fish amounted to libel because overfeeding is akin to animal cruelty and a crime.

“I am thankful to have a ruling that supports our right to free speech. We should all have the opportunity to express our opinions without the fear of a lawsuit,” Michelle Duchouquette said in a statement.

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Source: Ars Technica – Judge tosses lawsuit over 1-star review for overfeeding pet fish

These Are Your Five Favorite Desktop Computer Speakers

Nearly 200 of you sounded off in the nomination round
to help us find your five favorite computer speaker systems. But there can only be one, so check out the nominees, vote at the bottom of the post, and turn up the volume in the comments to stump for your pick.

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Source: LifeHacker – These Are Your Five Favorite Desktop Computer Speakers

Life on Earth Emerged Millions of Years Earlier Than We Thought

Researchers working in Greenland have found traces of microbial life in our planet’s most ancient rocks. The discovery pushes back the oldest evidence of life on Earth by about 220 million years, showing just how habitable our planet was during its earliest stages.

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Source: Gizmodo – Life on Earth Emerged Millions of Years Earlier Than We Thought

Filming for the live-action Fullmetal Alchemist adaptation has wrapped up, Crunchyroll reports.

Filming for the live-action Fullmetal Alchemist adaptation has wrapped up, Crunchyroll reports. Will the Italy-shot Warner Brothers film do justice to one of the best anime of all time? We’ll find out next year.

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Source: Kotaku – Filming for the live-action Fullmetal Alchemist adaptation has wrapped up, Crunchyroll reports.

How a Hillbilly Delivery Man Is Trailblazing Our Cyborg Future

After losing his left arm to cancer in 2008, Jonny Matheny’s life changed radically. The self-styled West Virginia hillbilly, formerly a retail bread sales and delivery man, started traveling to medical research facilities around the country to volunteer as a test-subject for advanced prosthetics and experimental surgeries. Today, Matheny is something of a Model T for cyborgs, wielding one of the most advanced mind-controlled prosthetics ever built.

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Source: Gizmodo – How a Hillbilly Delivery Man Is Trailblazing Our Cyborg Future

Turns out the signal astronomers saw was “strong” because it came from Earth

Ars was among the first news outlets to report on discussions among astronomers about observations of an intriguing “signal” that may have originated from a distant, Sun-like star. We cautioned readers that, because the signal was measured at 11Ghz, there was a “significant chance” it was of terrestrial origin, likely due to some military activity.

Well, it apparently was. First, astronomers with the search for extraterrestrial intelligence downplayed the possibility of an alien civilization. “There are many other plausible explanations for this claimed transmission, including terrestrial interference,” Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer with SETI, wrote.

Now the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences has concurred, releasing a statement on the detection of a radio signal at the RATAN-600 radio astronomy observatory in southern Russia. “Subsequent processing and analysis of the signal revealed its most probable terrestrial origin,” the Russian scientists said. (Maybe it was really Steve Martin and his hair dryer?)

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Source: Ars Technica – Turns out the signal astronomers saw was “strong” because it came from Earth

R.L. Stine Would Probably Love New Text Adventure The House Abandon

Choose-your-own-adventure Goosebumps novels were so frustrating. Some fancy has me kicking open the locked door (it was locked for a reason) only for a thrashing beast to tear me down. Flip back to page 37. But the relief of finding the truest route was worth every false start. Today, I played a classically-styled horror text-adventure game like that: The House Abandon.

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Source: Kotaku – R.L. Stine Would Probably Love New Text Adventure The House Abandon

Hackers Stole Account Details for Over 60 Million Dropbox Users

The Dropbox hack is more severe than we expected. Motherboard has the details: Hackers have stolen over 60 million account details for online cloud storage platform Dropbox. Although the accounts were stolen during a previously disclosed breach, and Dropbox says it has already forced password resets, it was not known how many users had been affected, and only now is the true extent of the hack coming to light. Motherboard obtained a selection of files containing email addresses and hashed passwords for the Dropbox users through sources in the database trading community. In all, the four files total in at around 5GB, and contain details on 68,680,741 accounts. The data is legitimate, according to a senior Dropbox employee. Security expert Troy Hunt has corroborated on Motherboard’s claims, and has updated Have I Been Pwned website where you can go and see if you’re among one of the victims.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Hackers Stole Account Details for Over 60 Million Dropbox Users

How I Transformed My $3000 Mercedes S-Class Into A Cross-Country Tow Rig

For those who haven’t yet had the pleasure, moving day is a life milestone that tests your patience, your wallet and your sanity. Chucking all of your stuff in a truck and transporting it across town is hard enough, but when you don’t have a truck and are staring down the barrel of a 1,000 mile journey, your only choice is to get creative.

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Source: LifeHacker – How I Transformed My 00 Mercedes S-Class Into A Cross-Country Tow Rig

Are You Okay?: Brutal UFC-Style Knight Fight KO

knight-fight-knock-out.gifNobody slays my dragon!

This is a video from a M1-Medieval full combat fight of a rare knock-out (apparently it’s difficult with your opponent wearing so much armor) during a one-on-one knight battle. Sir Moans-A-Lot really takes a beating, and eventually gets knocked out. I think it was all those shield blows to the head. Obviously, there will be no fair maiden in his immediate future, although if he’s lucky he can summon Miracle Max to feed him one of those magical chocolate balls and bring him back from mostly dead.

Keep going for the video, then let’s make cardboard armor out of printer paper boxes and beat each other with sticks during our lunch break.

Source: Geekologie – Are You Okay?: Brutal UFC-Style Knight Fight KO

Stranger Things Season Two Will Add New Characters, New Settings, and Sequel Sensibility (UPDATED)

Today, Netflix made it official. Stranger Things will return for season two, continuing the stories of Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, and their adult counterparts. Now, the show’s creators, the Duffer Brothers, have revealed a few additional details about the second season.

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Source: Gizmodo – Stranger Things Season Two Will Add New Characters, New Settings, and Sequel Sensibility (UPDATED)

Stranger Things Season Two Will Add New Characters, New Settings, and Sequel Sensibility

Today, Netflix made it official. Stranger Things will return for season two, continuing the stories of Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, and their adult counterparts. Now, the show’s creators, the Duffer Brothers, have revealed a few additional details about the second season.

Read more…



Source: io9 – Stranger Things Season Two Will Add New Characters, New Settings, and Sequel Sensibility