We’re not entirely sure the sheet mask is the answer to everyone’s skincare dreams—it’s a paper mask (masque?) drenched in some allegedly salubrious liquid that you stick to your face while you let the serums sink in and Instagram a picture of yourself looking alarmingly similar to Jason from Friday the 13th. Does it…
Source: LifeHacker – Get Super-Fancy SK-II Sheet Masks on eBay for Way Less Than Sephora
theodp writes: Computer Science Teacher Alfred Thompson wonders how other high school CS teachers use textbooks. “It’s not a conversation I hear much about,” he writes. Indeed, many teachers apparently don’t rely on CS textbooks much at all. In fact, the highly-touted new AP Computer Science Principles (AP CSP) course does not require a CS textbook for students (sample College Board AP CSP syllabus), albeit to the chagrin of some. Some of the bigger providers of AP CSP curriculum — e.g., BJC and Code.org, both of whom partner with Microsoft TEALS — don’t require a traditional CS textbook. But with teachers being recruited to teach Computer Science even if they don’t have a CS background, should students learning CS have a textbook? Or is the high AP exam pass rate enjoyed by AP CSP students proof that no-more-books works?
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – High School Computer Science: Look Ma, No Textbooks!
I went to university in Bournemouth and remember fondly (and not so fondly) queueing for overpriced bars with housemates and other trainee journalists. Every Monday night was the same — I would stand outside in the freezing cold, slowly shuffling fo…
Source: Engadget – Bournemouth bars have begun accepting a smartphone app as ID
While Samsung is dominant in the chip and Android smartphone game, it’s lagged behind in the social networking world. But based on a trademark application filed in the EU, it looks like Samsung could be working on some sort of location-focused messaging app—called “Uhssup.”
Source: Gizmodo – Apparently Drowsy Samsung Files Trademark for Social Network Called ‘Uhssup’
In addition to really smart car chargers, Nonda makes premium charging cables for your devices too, and they’re on sale today just for our readers. Each cable is wrapped in nylon, reinforced on the inside with aramid fiber, and comes with a lifetime warranty, so if you do manage to break it, you can get a new one.
Source: LifeHacker – Save a Few Bucks On Nylon-Wrapped Charging Cables With Lifetime Warranties [Exclusive]
Netflix’s production of House of Cards is back on track. The streaming service has resumed production on the political drama’s sixth and final season roughly four months after a series of sexual harassment allegations against co-star Kevin Spacey le…
Source: Engadget – Netflix resumes ‘House of Cards’ production without Kevin Spacey
This is a short Instagram video of BMX biker Daniel Bungay standing up a pile of carefully arranged parking cones with a little hop off a handrail. Smooth moves. Unfortunately, when reached for comment about Daniel’s stunt, six motorists were getting their right-front tires replaced after driving into an unmarked pothole.
Keep going for the video in case the gif wasn’t good enough for you.
Source: Geekologie – Mad Skills: BMX Biker Stands Up Pile Of Parking Cones With Hop Off Handrail
The well known FIO benchmark saw a +244% improvement in read bandwidth for one test case as a result of one change to be found in Linux 4.16…
Source: Phoronix – Linux 4.16 Can Be A Lot Faster For Small I/O Activity
Last year, we brought you some exciting news concerning the Commodore 64 Mini, which is a retro console that will be released by Retro Games. When it was first announced, Retro Games said that the Commodore 64 Mini would be available in early 2018. Well, 2018 is here and Retro Games has announced the official launch date: March 29th.
Given
Source: Hot Hardware – Retro Games’ Commodore 64 Mini Gets An Official March Launch Date
Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, a former OBGYN, was appointed as Director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by Donald Trump in July. Barely six months later, she announced her resignation today following a damning report by Politico that revealed her purchases of tens of thousands of dollars in stocks…
Source: Gizmodo – Trump’s CDC Director Resigns After Being Caught Buying Tobacco Stock While in Office
(credit: Mike Mozart)
Comcast customers in Washington state should check their bills for unwanted charges, State Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in a consumer alert issued this week.
Ferguson filed a $100 million lawsuit against Comcast in August 2016, accusing the nation’s largest ISP of misleading customers in order to tack $5 onto their monthly bills for an unnecessary Service Protection Plan (SPP). (Comcast has since raised the fee to $6 a month.)
With that lawsuit still pending, Ferguson says his office has received new complaints.
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Source: Ars Technica – “Check your Comcast bill for unwanted fees,” new consumer alert says
Why does anyone actually build with this stuff?
Source: TreeHugger – Building science expert says we should prepare for the coming Stucco-Pocalypse
Nokia has been playing on our nostalgia with recent phones like the 3310 3G. Apparently, it’s been working well for them because the company is now introducing a 4G version of the phone in China. According to CNET the device will be available in Febr…
Source: Engadget – ‘Nokia’ is introducing a 4G version of its old-timey phone
Enlarge (credit: Getty | Matt Morton)
Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald has resigned as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention following a report by Politico that she bought shares in a tobacco company just months into the job. The report also noted that she invested in drug, health insurance, and food companies.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar accepted her resignation this morning, according to a statement by a spokesperson for the department.
“Dr. Fitzgerald owns certain complex financial interests that have imposed a broad recusal limiting her ability to complete all of her duties as the CDC Director,” the statement read. “Due to the nature of these financial interests, Dr. Fitzgerald could not divest from them in a definitive time period. After advising Secretary Azar of both the status of the financial interests and the scope of her recusal, Dr. Fitzgerald tendered, and the Secretary accepted, her resignation.”
Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Source: Ars Technica – Director of anti-smoking CDC resigns after tobacco investments revealed
Enlarge / A view of the skyline of the Waikiki neighborhood of Honolulu on December 31, 2014. NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images (credit: Getty Images)
The employee who sent out the false “incoming ballistic missile” alert to the state of Hawaii in mid-January has been fired, and Vern Miyagi, the administrator for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA), has resigned.
The incident, which left Hawaii residents in a panic for 38 minutes thinking a ballistic missile was bound for their state, was initially blamed on bad software—HI-EMA said that an employee had accidentally selected the wrong choice in a menu of confusing choices. The governor’s office circulated two different mockups that illustrated the design that employees had to navigate to effectively work the system.
But then on Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission released a preliminary report saying that the employee actually thought the internal announcement of an “exercise” was the real thing because the employee claimed not to have heard the “exercise” portion of the recording, which was followed by another recorded message stating “this is not a drill.” The FCC admitted it couldn’t vet the credibility of the employee’s claim, because the employee refused to be interviewed by the FCC.
Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Source: Ars Technica – Hawaii EMA fires missile alert sender; confusion over test wasn’t new
It was only a matter of time before more sophisticated fake porn videos surfaced online. But a crackdown on this super-realistic fake porn is already beginning.
Source: Gizmodo – The Purge of AI-Assisted Fake Porn Has Begun
What would happen if Alexa lost her voice? According to Amazon’s Super Bowl commercial for 2018, the company would bring in famous people to fill in the gaps. The new Alexa spot features Jeff Bezos hesitantly approving a plan to substitute in celebri…
Source: Engadget – Amazon’s Super Bowl ad tries subbing celebrities for Alexa
Mark Wilson writes: Judges have ruled that the UK government’s digital surveillance program — known variously as the Snooper’s Charter and the Investigatory Powers Act — is illegal. In the case brought by human rights group Liberty, appeal judges found that the preceding Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014 (DRIPA) — which ultimately became the Snooper’s Charter — failed to offer adequate protection to people’s data. Of particular concern was the fact that private data could be shared between different agencies without sufficient oversight. Further reading: The Intercept.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Judges Say the UK’s Digital Surveillance Program Snooper’s Charter Is Illegal
While on the face of it, Rutgers’ “4D printing” may not seem like that big of a deal, but this type of technology could pave the way for manufacturing “living” structures in human organs and tissues, soft robots, and targeted drug delivery. If you would like some experience with a non-4D printed hydrogel, you have to look no further than the Jello snack pack in your refrigerator.
The engineers learned how to precisely control hydrogel growth and shrinkage. In temperatures below 32 degrees Celsius (about 90 degrees Fahrenheit), the hydrogel absorbs more water and swells in size. When temperatures exceed 32 degrees Celsius, the hydrogel begins to expel water and shrinks. The objects they can create with the hydrogel range from the width of a human hair to several millimeters long. The engineers also found that they can grow one area of a 3D-printed object – creating and programming motion – by changing temperatures.
The smart gel could provide structural rigidity in organs such as the lungs, and can contain small molecules like water or drugs to be transported in the body and released. It could also create a new area of soft robotics, and enable new applications in flexible sensors and actuators, biomedical devices and platforms or scaffolds for cells to grow, Lee said.
Insert your own, “Do you want shrinkage, because that’s how you get shrinkage,” meme here.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – Rutgers Pioneering 4D Printed Controllable Hydrogel
Sales have dropped in the past year, as young buyers show a preference for less specialized, more versatile items.
Source: TreeHugger – Millennials are buying less outdoor gear
