The pangolin is the only known mammal with scales. Pangolins are beautiful, precious little creatures, often likened to an artichoke with legs. According to NPR, they’re also the world’s most trafficked mammals. Luckily for these little cuties, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, has officially banned commercial trading of pangolins.
Source: Gizmodo – Pangolins, Earth’s Most Beautiful and Trafficked Creatures, Finally Get Protection
Out of all the ways to ingest THC, oil concentrates are far and away the messiest, stickiest and most irritating method. Unlike shatter, crumble or even wax, all of which maintain their shape and texture to some degree, oils have a knack for getting…
Source: Engadget – The Pax Era aims to be the Keurig of vaporizers
Aside from a hands-off display at New York Comic-Con, we haven’t seen or heard much about the upcoming, mini-sized NES Classic Edition since its first announcement in July. Now, new information is coming from Nintendo itself and from journalists at a recent hands-on preview event. They bring both good and bad news for retro Nintendo fans.
On the good side, the NES Mini apparently does have a few graphical options to play with. A recently updated promotional page now highlights three different visual modes: “pixel perfect” (i.e. square pixels), 4:3 (i.e. cathode ray tube ratio), and “CRT filter” (i.e. simulated scan lines on your HDTV). Nintendo also notes that you can create four “Suspend Points” for each of the 30 games on the system. You can lock any of those points so they don’t accidentally get saved over.
Hands-on reports from journalists also confirm what we first surmised from an earlier NES Classic Edition trailer: that the emulated graphics and colors on the NES Classic Edition’s 30 built-in games are much more faithful to the original games than Nintendo’s previous Virtual Console releases. Wired’s Chris Kohler notes that “the whites are sparkling white, and everything pops in bright color” on the new HDMI-powered system.
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Source: Ars Technica – NES Classic Edition sports tweakable graphics, very short controller cord
New submitter OWCareers writes: Yahoo today announced its latest open-source release: a model that can figure out if images are specifically pornographic in nature. The system uses a type of artificial intelligence called deep learning, which involves training artificial neural networks on lots of data (like dirty images) and getting them to make inferences about new data. The model that’s now available on GitHub under a BSD 2-Clause license comes pre-trained, so users only have to fine-tune it if they so choose. The model works with the widely used Caffe open source deep learning framework. The team trained the model using its now open source CaffeOnSpark system.The new model could be interesting to look at for developers maintaining applications like Instagram and Pinterest that are keen to minimize smut. Search engine operators like Google and Microsoft might also want to check out what’s under the hood here.The tool gives images a score between 0 to 1 on how NSFW the pictures look. The official blog post from Yahoo outlines several examples.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Yahoo Open Sources a Deep Learning Model For Classifying Pornographic Images
Earlier this week, we opened hailing frequencies and asked you, our beloved readers, about the books, comics, movies, games, and shows that you never expected would give you a sudden dose of the feels. We’ve compiled your responses, and here are the moments that made you the most verklempt.
Source: Gizmodo – The Series That Broke Your Hearts Out of Nowhere
This is a short Instagram video from Ripley’s Aquarium of Gatlinburg of Koko the penguin getting excited for Halloween by strutting around in a piggy costume. Why he didn’t put the hood up is debatable, but I suspect it has something to do with not wanting any potential mates to actually mistake him for a pig and blow his chances of getting to do the cold and nasty.
Keep going for a video then send it to your boyfriend/girlfriend with a “We need a penguin.”
Source: Geekologie – Halloween Ready: Penguin Strutting Around In Pig Costume
If you swap between a Western and a non-Latin keyboard layout on your Mac, like Hebrew, Chinese, Kannada, or others, you’d usually need to do so by clicking an option in the menubar. MacWorld points out you can set the Caps Lock key to easily swap between keyboards.
Source: LifeHacker – Swap to Non-Latin Keyboard Layouts in macOS Sierra With the Caps Lock Key
Enlarge (credit: Getty | Joe Raedle )
Starting today, the Drug Enforcement Administration is free to list a popular herbal supplement called kratom as a Schedule I controlled substance. This would put kratom in the same lineup as heroin and make its sale and use a felony. But, in statements to the press, the agency said it has no timetable for officially listing kratom—it could be next week or longer—leaving users on the edge of their seats.
Since the DEA announced its plan to ban kratom at the end of last month, thousands of users have frantically sought to reverse the decision, as well as buy up as much of the drug as they can. Users claim kratom, or Mitragyna speciosa, a tree in the coffee family, is effective at treating chronic pain, as well as depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other ailments. The main active ingredients in kratom are mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, which can interact with opioid receptors in the brain. While the data to back up medical use of the plant is scant, users are adamant that it’s a lifesaver, allowing them to kick deadly and all-too-common opioid addictions.
(credit: Kratom March/ Youtube)
Since late August, more than 140,000 people have signed a petition asking the Obama administration to keep the DEA from banning kratom. On September 13, hundreds marched in front of the White House, hoisting signs that read “Kratom Saved Me” and sharing personal stories of how the drug got them off of opioid pain killers.
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Source: Ars Technica – DEA has kratom users holding their breath, lawmakers write more letters
Source: Engadget – Rosetta probe’s love affair with a comet ended predictably
Newsweek suspects that attackers took down its site for hours on Thursday in order to bury a story about a company that Donald Trump owned decades ago. The magazine claims that the company secretly did business in Cuba, even though that was illegal at the time.
Newsweek editor-in-chief Jim Impoco told Politico:
We don’t know everything. We’re still investigating. But it was a massive DDoS attack, and it took place in the early evening just as prominent cable news programs were discussing Kurt Eichenwald’s explosive investigation into how Donald Trump’s company broke the law by breaking the United States embargo against Cuba.
A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack came, the newsmagazine suggests, in response to its cover story, “How Donald Trump’s company violated the United States embargo against Cuba.”
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Source: Ars Technica – Did attackers take down Newsweek because of an anti-Trump story?
Disney is once again shuffling its properties around so that comics, movies, theme parks, and television shows share source material. But this time, showrunners Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters (Agent Carter) are involved, so we’re more optimistic than before.
Source: io9 – The Team Behind Agent Carter Is Making a Show Based on Disney’s Theme Parks
An ugly, dangerous storm is brewing out there. After a bout of rapid intensification last night, Hurricane Matthew has now achieved Category 3 status, packing 120 mph winds. It’s first major Caribbean hurricane since Sandy, and the strongest to develop in this particular region since 2008.
Source: Gizmodo – A Major Hurricane Just Developed Over the Caribbean
A new study published by the European Commission shows that online movie piracy hurts sales….except where it doesn’t. This is also assuming the 30,000 respondents in six countries answered a survey about piracy honestly. Seriously, who takes surveys?
This paper presents estimates of lost movie sales due to unpaid movie consumption. We are the first to provide estimates that are recent, representative of the internet-using population, and cover multiple countries. implications for copyright policy.
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Source: [H]ardOCP – Movie Piracy and Displaced Sales in Europe
The developer of a clever sticker pack for iOS has been told by Apple that he has to change how the stickers look and act or else the stickers will be pulled from the App Store.
Source: Gizmodo – Top Selling iMessage Sticker Pack Is Going Away Because Apple Hates Fun
Spammy follow-up email messages are turning off Amazon Marketplace shoppers. Shoppers who buy from Amazon’s Marketplace typically like the convenience and prices. But many are also unhappy about the barrage of emails that sellers send them after the purchase, notes Fortune. It adds: Sellers deluge often inboxes with requests for product reviews, inquiries about how the process went, and sales pitches for more stuff. Considering the comments on social media, feedback from friends and family, and in posts in Amazon.com’s customer service forum over the past two years, this problem is not getting any better. There appears to be no way to opt out of this email flood, which is odd, given Amazon’s self-professed zeal for great customer service. One shopper in Amazon’s customer forum thread posted a response from an Amazon service representative that apologized for the notifications and noted that the feedback had been forwarded to the company’s “investigations team.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Amazon Marketplace Shoppers Slam the Spam
Source: Engadget – What to expect to see from Google’s October 4th event
Android: Google’s rolling out an update to Google Maps on Android that integrates your Google Calendar events and Google contacts into Google Maps.
Source: LifeHacker – Google Maps Now Integrates Your Google Calendar Events
Presenting YAUGU (yet another urban grow unit).
Source: TreeHugger – Put a tiny garden in your house with Wall Farm
You probably own at least one USB battery pack to keep your phone and tablet charged up during long trips, but what about AC-powered electronics like your laptop, or your camera battery? As it turns out, there’s a battery pack that can charge those too, if you can find space in your bag.
Source: LifeHacker – Portable Battery Packs For Your Laptop Are Finally a Reality
The Department of Defense announced on Friday that it is investing $100 million in a drone base located in Agadez, in central Niger. The base will serve as a central surveillance hub in the fight against both Boko Haram and roaming militant groups li…
Source: Engadget – US builds a 0 million African drone base to fight Boko Haram
