Monthly Archives: November 2023

These Are My Favorite Black Friday Sales of the Year

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Black Friday deals are in full swing even though it doesn’t officially start until Friday. Most of the deals you’ll find today are already the best they’ll be, so there’s no reason to wait. I price-checked the best deals from Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and Target, so you don’t have to. The following deals are guaranteed to be the best prices you’ll find, without any tricks or price hikes (you’d be surprised how many “deals” I found designed to trick you). Here are the best deals for TVs, laptops, speakers, headphones, vacuums, video games, Apple, security cameras, and kitchen appliances.

The best Black Friday TV deals

If you’re looking for the best TV deal, Best Buy’s Samsung 85” Class CU7000 takes the throne. It is $897.99 (originally $1,299.99) after a $402 discount. This brings this UHD 4K smart Tizen TV to its lowest price yet, according to Honey’s price history.

The best Black Friday laptop deals

The best laptop deal is Best Buy’s Lenovo Yoga 7i laptop is $549.99 (originally $849.99) after a $300 discount. This 16″ WUXGA tablet hybrid laptop has an Intel Core i5, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. You can save an extra $50 with a My Best Buy Plus or My Best Buy Total membership. This brings this laptop to its lowest price yet, according to Honey’s price history.

The best Black Friday speaker deals

The best Bluetooth speaker deal goes to Walmart’s JBL Charge 4 going for $89 (originally $179.99). This portable speaker is the lowest price it has been, according to Honey’s price history. This 5.75-pound speaker is water resistant with an IPX7 rating and can connect up to two smartphones or tablets at the same time. You can get up to 20 hours of playtime with this speaker.

The best Black Friday headphone deals

If you’re looking for a great deal on noise-cancelling earbuds, look no further than Best Buy’s JBL Reflect Mini, going for $59.99 (originally $149.99) after a $90 discount. These wireless in-ear earbuds with seven hours of battery life are currently matching their lowest price yet, according to Honey’s price history.

The best Black Friday stick and robot vacuum deals

The best stick vacuum goes to Walmart’s Shark IZ362H, currently 43% off at $199.99 (originally $349.99), which is the lowest price it’s been, according to Camelcamelcamel’s price history. This vacuum gives you 40 minutes of running time after two-and-a-half hours of charging. One of the best features of this vacuum is its self-cleaning brush roll, which is great for picking up pet hair and keeping hair rolls from forming at the brush head. You can turn this vacuum into a hand-held vacuum with a longer nozzle to reach high areas in your home. You’ll also have an LED light to see debris more easily on the floor.

The best Black Friday video game console deals

The best console deal comes, perhaps surprisingly, from Dell. They currently have a Nintendo Switch OLED deal with a $75 gift card. Although the price for the OLED model from Dell is not discounted from its usual $349.99, the $75 gift card makes it the best deal available. With the gift card, you can buy any of the games available and still have some money left over. The best game bundle for the basic Nintendo Switch is and has been the Mario Kart bundle for at least three Black Fridays. I have yet to see a better deal from Nintendo on their basic console since its release. You can get the bundle for $299.99 at Best Buy, Target, GameStop, Walmart, or Amazon.

The best Black Friday security camera deals

All these security camera bundles are great. What is best will depend on what you’re looking for.

The best Black Friday smartwatch deals

The best smartwatch deal goes to Walmart’s Apple Watch SE, 2nd Gen (GPS, 40mm), currently going for $179 (originally $249). This is the lowest price this smartwatch has reached, according to Honey’s price history.

The best Black Friday monitor deals

Best Buy wins the best monitor deal award with the Samsung Odyssey Neo G7, currently going for $499.99 (originally $999.99) after a $500 discount. This 43″ 4K UHD smart gaming monitor with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro is the lowest price it has ever been, according to Honey’s price history.

The best Black Friday Amazon product deals

The third-generation Echo Show 5 is currently matching its lowest price at $39.99 (originally $89.99), according to Camelcamelcamel’s price history. You can get it with a free smart light, or, for $10 more, you can get the bundle with the Blink Mini camera instead.

The best Black Friday tablet deals

The Amazon Fire HD 10 Plus tablet is $94.99 (originally $179.99), and that’s the lowest price it’s ever been, according to Camelcamelcamel. This is the Plus version of the 2021 model and is $15 more than the 2023 Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet for an extra GB of RAM.

The best Black Friday kitchen deals

The KitchenAid 5.5 Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer from Best Buy is $249.99 (originally $449.99) after a $200 discount. This is the lowest price in the past four months, according to Camecamelcamel’s price history.



Source: LifeHacker – These Are My Favorite Black Friday Sales of the Year

Former OpenAI CEO: My Job Here Is Done

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For 55 hours and 32 minutes, Emmett Shear steered the world’s leading artificial intelligence company, OpenAI, through its largest crisis ever. That chapter of Shear’s life and OpenAI’s history has now come to a close. It seems that no one listened to the former Twitch CEO’s concerns about AI safety, and returning CEO…

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Source: Gizmodo – Former OpenAI CEO: My Job Here Is Done

Lenovo seeks halt of Asus laptop sales over alleged patent infringement

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A marketing image for Asus' Zenbook Pro 14 OLED, which Lenovo is accusing of patent infringement.

Enlarge / A marketing image for Asus’ Zenbook Pro 14 OLED, which Lenovo is accusing of patent infringement. (credit: Asus)

Lenovo filed a lawsuit against AsusTek Computer Inc. and Asus Computer International, claiming that Asus’ laptops infringe on four of Lenovo’s patents. Lenovo is seeking damages and for Asus to stop selling Zenbook laptops and other allegedly infringing products in the US.

The lawsuit [PDF] filed November 15 in the US District Court for the Northern District of California says Lenovo’s looking for a jury trial and “damages, including lost profits, caused by the alleged patent infringement.” On Tuesday, Lenovo announced that it filed a patent infringement action against Asus with the US International Trade Commission (ITC).

Four patents

The lawsuit centers on four patents. The first, entitled “Methods and apparatus for transmitting in resource blocks” was issued in 2021 and relates to minimizing the delay experienced during an uplink package transmission by reducing the number of steps for a wireless device to upload data.

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Source: Ars Technica – Lenovo seeks halt of Asus laptop sales over alleged patent infringement

HW Electro’s solar-powered Puzzle will bring microvan cuteness to the US in 2025

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Japanese EV automaker HW Electro (HWE) says its delightfully boxy Puzzle will come to the US in 2025. More “kei van” than kei car, the electric vehicle has rooftop solar panels and equipment for commercial disaster relief (including a crowbar!). But it could be equally appealing for those wanting an EV with maxed-out charm and a minimal environmental footprint. It’s on track to be HWE’s first vehicle available in the US market.

HW Electro CEO Xiao Weicheng said that the Puzzle “embodies HWE’s core values of sustainability, connectivity and social contribution.” Its solar panels mean owners could perhaps drive it for much longer than typical EVs without plugging in. It also includes emergency features like power outlets, photovoltaic panels, built-in WiFi, USB ports, a first aid kit and a crowbar. Notably, these features are all on the vehicle’s exterior.

As reported by The Independent and Electrek, HWE unveiled the Puzzle micro-van at the 2023 Japan Mobility Show before teasing 2025 US availability this week in New York. “With Puzzle, a new world begins,” Weicheng predicted.

The EV, currently still in the concept stage, has a two-person cabin and looks strikingly smaller than the gargantuan EVs Americans are growing accustomed to. The Puzzle aligns with Japan’s regulatory definition of a kei car, ideal for tight or crowded roadways and cramped parking spots. The vehicle has 15-inch wheels, and it’s over six feet tall, nearly five feet wide and over 11 feet long. It has a cargo capacity of 770 lbs and sliding rear doors for easy cargo management. Its sole passenger seat folds down to boost its hauling capacity (and can double as a work surface when not in use).

HWE hasn’t yet revealed the Puzzle’s price or max speed. Auto Evolution reports that its lithium iron phosphate battery will offer a 125-mile range.

It’s hard to predict what America’s EV market will look like by the time the Puzzle arrives in 2025. Although sales are growing, consumer demand has fallen behind auto industry projections, leaving room for uncertainty as the world tries to avoid climate change’s most catastrophic scenarios.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hw-electros-solar-powered-puzzle-will-bring-microvan-cuteness-to-the-us-in-2025-202326474.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – HW Electro’s solar-powered Puzzle will bring microvan cuteness to the US in 2025

These Are Amazon’s Best Black Friday Deals on Board Games

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Black Friday is the best time of the year to buy a board game or two. Not only are they on sale, they’ll arrive just in time to take advantage of the hours of lazing around the holidays bring. So this year, give the gift of board games and be a hero to your family and friends.

Amazon has a ton of interesting board games on sale for Black Friday this year: everything from classics like Catan to future-classics like Mysterium, so no matter what kind of player you are, there’s a board game for you, and it’s probably cheap as hell. Check out the best board games on Amazon for Black Friday below.

Ticket to Ride

This game about building railways across America is best-of-all-time tier for family game night. It’s simple enough for little ones to grasp, but interesting enough to engage adults. A game can be finished in about 45 minutes, give or take, so even the short-attention-spanned will dig it. It’s $27.47 too, half off the regular price. 

One Night Ultimate Werewolf

I’m a huge fan of deduction-based party games, and Werewolf is a classic. It’s a game for people who are good at social skills like deception and deduction instead of strategy. While you could play a basic game of Werewolf with just some paper and a pen, Ultimate Werewolf has added game elements and an app so that no one has to act as referee. It’s on sale for $19.96, a 20% saving.

Mysterium 

If you want to make the holidays a little spooky, check out Mysterium. This cooperative ghost-hunting game casts one player as the spirit of a murder victim and the rest as psychics, with everyone working together to solve the mystery of Warwick Manor. If you remember the mystery-solving fun of Clue fondly, Mysterium seriously blows it out of the water.

Herstory: The Board Game of Remarkable Women

If you take a look at Herstory and think “Oh, great, an educational game,” then stop limiting yourself: Herstory is that rare game that will teach you something and is also very fun. It combines strategy, engine-building, and set collection in delightful ways, and you’ll learn something about historically important women, too. It’s $19.19, too, less than half the normal price. 

Catan

Catan is one of those “you will always go back to it” board games—it’s among the best resource-gathering strategy games ever made. Catan can be learned in minutes, but it’s deep enough that you could play it for years and still not master it, and It’s half-off at $27.47. If you’re already a fan of the base game, check out an expansion or two. They’re on sale too. 

Pandemic

Is it too soon to play a game about a global pandemic? Whatever; do it anyway. Pandemic is a cooperative game in which players work together to save humanity from a rapidly spreading disease. If you like pitching-in to solve problems, Pandemic is a great game, and a steal at $28.49 (down from 39.99.)

Wavelength

Wavelength bills itself as “The Party Game Show in a Box,” and I don’t disagree. This is an hilarious social game where players try to read each others’ minds and figure out unexpected connections to arrive at the answers to puzzles. It’s hard to explain, but trust me: it’s among the best party games ever. 

Avalon Hill Axis & Allies 1942

Some families and friend groups are about socializing and carrying-on, but if your peeps are about quietly thinking through complex strategies, you can’t go wrong with Axis & Allies, the classic war game that re-enacts World War II. It’s complicated–the rule book is like a novel! There’s a million pieces! It takes hours to play! (That’s all fun to some people). It’s $50.99, a 30% saving. 

Diplomacy 

If you’re like, “Axis and Allies is for dirty casuals;” give Diplomacy a try. It’s ridiculously complicated, and it’s interminable—a typical game takes more than four hours to complete. Set in the geopolitical nightmare of pre World War I Europe, Diplomacy’s focus on betrayal and skulduggery ensures that at least one friendship will end each time you play it. All that for only $29.49. 

Cat in The Box Deluxe Edition

This card game’s twist is that cards don’t have suits until you play them, so it’s like Schrödinger card game! A cool twist on classic card dynamics with really attractive and cool looking designs, Cat in the Box is only $16.99. That’s 43% off the regular price. 

Codenames: Duet

If you’re in a family of two, and you don’t like competition, this clue-giving game is perfect. Codenames Duet takes the four-player co-op fun of Codenames and retools it for a couple. It’s the kind of game that rewards creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. 



Source: LifeHacker – These Are Amazon’s Best Black Friday Deals on Board Games

Dave Filoni Is Right Where Star Wars Needs Him to Be

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There has been a great disturbance in the Force. As if, somehow, millions of voices suddenly cried out “what if Dave Filoni got a promotion?” and were suddenly answered. But while the ascension of the Clone Wars and Rebels producer to the upper echelons of Lucasfilm may give Star Wars fans tired of his particular…

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Source: Gizmodo – Dave Filoni Is Right Where Star Wars Needs Him to Be

Huzzah! Steam Finally Embraces Sony's DualSense Game Controllers

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Huzzah! Steam Finally Embraces Sony's DualSense Game Controllers
It’s one of the arguments of the age: like Coke vs. Pepsi, Apple vs. Samsung, or Nike vs. Adidas, the choice of Xbox or PlayStation is a highly contentious one. There are a lot of factors that fans take into account, but arguably the biggest one is simply your choice of controller layout; where Xbox pads have the left stick far and the right

Source: Hot Hardware – Huzzah! Steam Finally Embraces Sony’s DualSense Game Controllers

Nvidia’s earnings are up 206% from last year as it continues riding the AI wave

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Nvidia's AI-accelerating GPUs are driving its revenue numbers to new heights.

Enlarge / Nvidia’s AI-accelerating GPUs are driving its revenue numbers to new heights. (credit: Nvidia)

Most Ars readers still probably know Nvidia best for its decades-old GeForce graphics cards for gaming PCs, but these days Nvidia’s server GPU business makes GeForce look like a hobby project.

That’s the takeaway from Nvidia’s Q3 earnings report, which shows Nvidia’s revenue up 206 percent from the same quarter last year and 34 percent from an already-very-good Q2. Of the company’s $18.12 billion in revenue, $14.51 billion was generated by its data center division, which includes AI-accelerating chips like the H200 Tensor Core GPU as well as other cloud and server offerings.

And though GeForce revenue was a much smaller $2.86 billion, this was still a solid recovery from the same quarter of Nvidia’s fiscal 2023, when GeForce GPUs earned just $1.51 billion and were down 51 percent compared to fiscal 2022. Nvidia has released several new mainstream GeForce RTX 40-series GPUs this year, including the $299 RTX 4060. And while these more affordable GPUs aren’t staggering upgrades from previous-generation cards, Steam Hardware Survey data shows the RTX 4060 and 4060 Ti are being adopted pretty quickly, more than can be said of competing GPUs like AMD’s RX 7600 or Intel’s Arc series.

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Source: Ars Technica – Nvidia’s earnings are up 206% from last year as it continues riding the AI wave

Fire TV Streaming Device Deals Up To % Off Cook Up Big Savings For Black Friday

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Fire TV Streaming Device Deals Up To % Off Cook Up Big Savings For Black Friday
Amazon typically offers a wide array of excellent deals in the lead up to Black Friday, but it offers some of the deepest discounts on its own products. Such is the case with the family of Fire TV products that are marked down up to 50% off at the moment.

Kicking things off, we have the headline deal in this series with the Fire TV Stick

Source: Hot Hardware – Fire TV Streaming Device Deals Up To % Off Cook Up Big Savings For Black Friday

FreeBSD 14 delivers Major Upgrades for Cloud, Security, and Performance in open source operating system

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Linux isn’t the only open-source operating system (OS). There are also a number of Unix-like open-source BSD operating systems, including FreeBSD, that are still in active development. “FreeBSD 14 represents a combination of some new features and a lot of updates to various subsystems to improve performance, stability and security,” Ed Maste, senior director of technology for the FreeBSD Foundation, told SDxCentral.

Source: LXer – FreeBSD 14 delivers Major Upgrades for Cloud, Security, and Performance in open source operating system

Peacock Black Friday deal: Get one year of Premium for only $20

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A subscription to the streaming service Peacock is discounted this Black Friday to only $2 per month, down from the regular price of $6 per month. Peacock Premium gives subscribers access to over 80,000 hours of content and it will also include live sporting events and access to 50 always-on channels. To get the monthly discount, you have to enter the code BIGDEAL at checkout.

If you’re not interested in being tied to a monthly payment, you can instead pay $20 upfront for access to one year of the streaming service. Traditionally, to get Peacock Premium, you would have to pay $60 annually. To get the discounted yearly rate, you have to enter the code YEARLONG at checkout.

The codes are only valid between November 22 and the 27th. Since launching, Peacock has accumulated over 20 million subscribers and for good reason. It offers a variety of classics, from Dreamworks’ Shrek films, to hit reality TV shows like Love Island. The streaming service has been expanding its titles, with a new season of Dr. Death arriving in December and a prequel series to the Ted films from Seth MacFarlane set to premiere in the new year. Peacock has been trying to set itself apart from the competition with offerings like next-day streaming of Bravo shows. A subscription could be a holiday treat for yourself or a loved one — the flash monthly sale is hard to beat, especially with streaming prices rising as much as they have been recently.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/peacock-black-friday-deal-get-one-year-of-premium-for-only-20-194526885.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Peacock Black Friday deal: Get one year of Premium for only

Save or Splurge: The Best Essential Tech You Can Buy at Any Budget

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There’s nothing more satisfying than buying a new piece of tech, whether for yourself or a loved one. However, you might not always be in a position to splurge on the top-of-the-line. Luckily, there are plenty of fantastic gadgets out right now at lower price points. Here’s our curated list of high-end and…

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Source: Gizmodo – Save or Splurge: The Best Essential Tech You Can Buy at Any Budget

Bard Can Now Watch YouTube Videos For You

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Bard, Google’s AI chatbot, has steadily been getting more useful after a lackluster introduction. Now the bot’s YouTube integration is getting a handy upgrade so it can analyze individual videos to surface specific information for you — like key points or recipe ingredients — without ever pressing play. From a report: That’s potentially a hugely useful tool, but could spell more worry about generative AI for creators. To try it out, I turned Bard on a YouTube video I regularly reference for spiritual guidance: America’s Test Kitchen’s recipe for an Espresso Martini. Seriously, it’s really good. I often find myself in my kitchen with half the ingredients in a cocktail shaker trying to remember how much Benedictine I’m supposed to add, then re-watching the video to find out. But with Bard on the case, all I have to do is type a few prompts and viola — I have the full list of ingredients and some step-by-step instructions.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Bard Can Now Watch YouTube Videos For You

Elon Musk Shares Mysterious Letter About Sam Altman

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Elon Musk tweeted a link to a strange letter Tuesday, supposedly written by former OpenAI employees detailing “a disturbing pattern of deceit and manipulation by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.” Altman and Brockman, OpenAI’s CEO and president, were fired and then rehired in a dramatic failed coup that played out over…

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Source: Gizmodo – Elon Musk Shares Mysterious Letter About Sam Altman

Thousands of routers and cameras vulnerable to new 0-day attacks by hostile botnet

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A stylized human skull over a wall of binary code.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Ars Technica)

Miscreants are actively exploiting two new zero-day vulnerabilities to wrangle routers and video recorders into a hostile botnet used in distributed denial-of-service attacks, researchers from networking firm Akamai said Thursday.

Both of the vulnerabilities, which were previously unknown to their manufacturers and to the security research community at large, allow for the remote execution of malicious code when the affected devices use default administrative credentials, according to an Akamai post. Unknown attackers have been exploiting the zero-days to compromise the devices so they can be infected with Mirai, a potent piece of open source software that makes routers, cameras, and other types of Internet of Things devices part of a botnet that’s capable of waging DDoSes of previously unimaginable sizes.

Akamai researchers said one of the zero-days under attack resides in one or more models of network video recorders. The other zero-day resides in an “outlet-based wireless LAN router built for hotels and residential applications.” The router is sold by a Japan-based manufacturer, which “produces multiple switches and routers.” The router feature being exploited is “a very common one,” and the researchers can’t rule out the possibility it’s being exploited in multiple router models sold by the manufacturer.

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Source: Ars Technica – Thousands of routers and cameras vulnerable to new 0-day attacks by hostile botnet

AMD EPYC Genoa/Genoa-X & Bergamo vs. Intel Xeon Sapphire Rapids On Ubuntu 23.10

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While Ubuntu 23.10 isn’t a long-term support (LTS) release and thus won’t see too much exposure in the enterprise space, it’s worthwhile today looking at the AMD EPYC and Intel Xeon server performance. It’s interesting for a look ahead being just a few months until Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and with Ubuntu 23.10 incorporating GCC 13 that will also be the default compiler of Ubunu 24.04 among other close software package versions, the kernel not too far off from what will be in this next LTS release, and with Ubuntu 23.10’s Linux 6.5 kernel bringing some nice performance optimizations. So with that said I recently wrapped up some fresh benchmarks looking at the current generation Intel Xeon Scalable Sapphire Rapids performance against AMD EPYC 9004 Bergamo, Genoa, and Genoa-X processors.

Source: Phoronix – AMD EPYC Genoa/Genoa-X & Bergamo vs. Intel Xeon Sapphire Rapids On Ubuntu 23.10

Ten Clever Ways to Put Up Christmas Lights With Less Stress

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Whether you want to put up a big, showy light show or a modest display for the holidays, getting your Christmas decorations put up can be stressful. Deciding how to attach things without damaging your home, making lights look the way you want them to, and having time left over for celebrating are all challenges of putting up a great display without having an emotional breakdown. Luckily, there are some simple things you can do to make the decorating process simpler and faster so you can have more time to enjoy your holiday times with friends and family.

Make a “reachy stick”

Christmas lights pole and hook
Reachy pole in use
Credit: Becca Lewis

Rather than hauling a ladder or step stool around with you, you can use what I refer to as a “reachy stick.” For the purposes of hanging lights, garlands, and wreaths, this is a pole with an upside-down hook taped to it. If you don’t have a hook, you can use the hook side of a wire hanger or similarly shaped object. Once you have this set up, you can use it to drape lights and garlands over hard to reach areas without getting on a ladder. Keep it for when the season is over so you can get things back down easily.

Pre-attach your hanging hooks

Pre-attach an “s” hook for simpler access. If you’re hanging lights on the edges of your gutter, or along another edge, you can use an “s” hook pre-taped with electrical tape to your strand of lights every few feet. Using your “reachy stick,” you can push the hook up and land it on the edge of the gutter without needing to climb or attach anything permanently to the gutter. To avoid scratching the gutter, you can wrap the hook in electrical tape or choose one with a rubber coating.

Light in swaths, not spirals

When adding lights to a tree or wreath where they will need to be removed at the end of the season, you should lay the lights on the surface of the boughs rather than wrapping them around. For a tree, beginning at the top of the tree, running one strand all the way to the top and then working your way down, laying lights out on the branches as you go will allow you to spread the lights more evenly, have more of the lights per strand be visible, and also remove the lights more easily later on.

Label your lights

Labeling your light strands as you add them to your display can help you chase down any problems, count the number of strands per circuit, and keep your lights organized as you put them away for next year. Using a letter then a number if you have multiple circuits going at the same time can help you sort everything out and keep your counts accurate. The other benefit to labeling strands is that it can help you eliminate problems as you go. If you have an issue with one strand—say, A-3—you can circle back to it later, knowing exactly which strand of lights you’re looking for from the label, and solve the problem or decide to take the strand out of commission. If you don’t want to number the strands, you can also mark a problematic strand with a colorful tape flag so you can easily identify it later.

Pre-light your decor

Light your decorations before you put them up. For wreaths and garlands, adding lights and then hanging them means less time on a ladder, fiddling with light strands. Test the lights on the ground before you start hanging things up so you can troubleshoot from the comfort and safety of a table or the floor. You can use Velcro straps, reusable ties, or electrical tape to attach lights firmly and also avoid damaging them. For tall trees, you can also choose to begin attaching lights to the top portion of the tree before you stand the tree up.

Use smart timers and strips

Using a smart power strip or a smart controlled timer to plug your lights in will give you control over switching them on and off without needing to access the outlet that the lights are plugged into. This can be especially helpful if you want to conceal your power strips and cords behind furniture or in other hard-to-reach locations. Using your phone or smart home hub to control your lights will make turning them on and off much easier.

Store lights without damaging them

Store lights by wrapping them around a bucket, a garden hose reel, or even around the outside of the box they came in. Using a larger object to wrap lights will help prevent them from getting damaged. This method will also help keep lights from getting tangled, which is often how the bulbs get pulled loose, causing the whole string to go out.

Keep connections snug

Keep plugs from getting pulled apart by taping the connections with electrical tape or using a Velcro wrap. This will not only keep your display shining brightly, but can also help reduce the risk of fire from partially connected cords. Keeping the plugs snugly joined will keep your mind at ease, knowing that a loose extension cord isn’t slowly heating up somewhere behind the couch.

Use solar options

For outdoor displays, consider using solar pathway lights with color changing bulbs in them, solar fountain lights, and solar lanterns to add to your overall look. Solar lights don’t need batteries or cords, so they’re a low-maintenance option for adding a pop of colored light to your yard.

Hide your sins with bows

Use ribbons and other embellishments to hide any huge, obvious hooks, plugs, battery packs, or other things you don’t want to include in your display. Make festive bows that match your garlands and wreaths and attach them in places where hanging hardware, Velcro ties, or cord connections are obvious. You can add some ribbon to garlands or other decor before you put it up so that you don’t need to fuss with it on a ladder.



Source: LifeHacker – Ten Clever Ways to Put Up Christmas Lights With Less Stress

Join the hunt for the ancient capital of Kush on Lost Cities Revealed with Albert Lin

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NatGeo Explorer Albert Lin sits on the edge of a cliff in Peru

Enlarge / NatGeo Explorer Albert Lin sits on the edge of a cliff during his quest to find the lost city of the Cloud Warriors in Peru. (credit: National Geographic/Disney/Rochio Lira)

National Geographic Explorer Albert Lin is something of a modern-day Indiana Jones, traveling to remote locations all over the globe to take part in a variety of archaeological missions. His most recent expeditions are chronicled in the new NatGeo documentary series, Lost Cities Revealed with Albert Lin, premiering on Thanksgiving Day. The episode (“The Warrior King”) follows Lin as he navigates a sacred mountain and a flooded tomb underneath a pyramid in the Sudanese desert, hunting for the lost capital of the Kingdom of Kush.

A California native, Lin holds a PhD in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He subsequently founded UCSD’s Center for Human Frontiers, which focuses on harnessing technology to augment human potential. So it’s not surprising that he first made a name for himself by combining satellites, aerial remote sensing (drones), and Lidar mapping with more traditional ground exploration to hunt for the missing tomb of Genghis Khan in 2009.

The Valley of the Khans Project also successfully employed crowdsourcing (via more than 10,000 online volunteers) to help analyze the resulting satellite and aerial photography images, looking for unusual features across the vast landscape. That led to the confirmation of 55 archaeological sites in the region, a 2011 NatGeo documentary,  and a 2014 scientific paper detailing the benefits of so-called “collective reasoning” to archaeology.

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Source: Ars Technica – Join the hunt for the ancient capital of Kush on Lost Cities Revealed with Albert Lin

How to Disagree About Politics Without Ruining Thanksgiving

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For many families, arguments over politics is as much of a Thanksgiving tradition as your Aunt Norma’s “special” green beans. Far-flung relatives who have spent the year steeping in their echo chamber of choice are all but guaranteed to show up to dinner ready to make their opinions forcefully known. But that doesn’t mean this year’s holiday meal has to devolve into a screaming match.

Even in our balkanized political culture, it’s usually possible to disagree respectfully. It isn’t easy, but it’s possible, according to Utah Governor Spencer Cox and Colorado Governor Jared Polis. Polis, a Democrat, and Cox, a Republican, are the co-heads of Disagree Better, an initiative from the National Governors Association aimed at finding a way for Americans of different political beliefs to work together. Their focus is mainly on public policy, but the pair also have practical advice for regular people to share conflicting political views without anyone throwing the cranberry sauce on the floor.

“

There’s no reason that your MAGA uncle and your woke niece can’t sit down together around the table and have a conversation.

”

“There’s no reason that your MAGA uncle and your woke niece can’t sit down together around the table and have a conversation,” Polis said at a recent event held at Colorado State University. “We have a holiday coming up, Thanksgiving, a national day of gratitude, and I think around most extended family dinner tables [there are] people of all different political persuasions. It’s a good opportunity to be curious, ask questions, and be civil. I think too often we treat politics as something that can’t be discussed without toxicity, but that’s kind of giving up on what it means to be [in a] Republic.”

One “magic question” to diffuse heated political conversation

According to Governor Cox, there is a “magic question” that you can ask to reach common ground with just about anyone: “Tell me more about why you feel that way.”

“That question does two things: it calms me down, and it shows I’m interested in the other person,” Cox said. “If you ask it enough times to get through to the ‘why,’ you’ll find you have something in common with them. Because it almost always comes down to them loving their country, their family, and their community.”

The worst thing you can do in a political discussion: attack

Whether your goal is to change people’s minds or just make it through the pumpkin pie course without tears, the worst rhetorical tactic you can take in a political discussion is attacking.

“We always think, ‘This time it will work. If I just tell them how stupid they are this time, they’ll change their mind.’ But it never works,“ Cox said. “No one has ever changed anyone’s mind by attacking them.”

Instead of attacking, approach with humility. According to Cox, internally maintaining the idea that you could be wrong is a useful approach to any potentially confrontational political disagreement. Cox says that you don’t need to think you’re probably wrong, just be open to the possibility that you might be wrong. If you do this, you’ll have a much better conversation.

“It gives the other person permission to think they might be wrong as well,” Cox explains.

Identity and politics: addressing the causes of our divisive political rhetoric

One of the key points both Polis and Cox stressed was that our current political climate is not normal.

“You may think that this is what politics is, or this is the way it has to be, but it is not,” Polis said. “I do not accept that.”

Comparing the thoughtful discussion between Cox and Polis with the typical bombast from national political leaders highlights the commodification of political outrage that’s causing much of our current divide.

“If you want to get on cable news you have to say some pretty crazy stuff,” Cox said. “So we end up with a Congress full of performers, people who aren’t accomplishing anything, because that’s what we’re incentivizing.”

His remedy for regular people: turn off cable news.

“My wife and I just celebrated 11 years of not watching cable news, and our marriage is better, our family is better, and we’re happier [and] healthier,” Cox said.

Another issue the governors highlighted as a reason for political arguments: isolation.

“People are too lonely and so they’re finding their tribes [online.] Like, if I don’t have any friends, at least we can hate the same people together on Facebook.” Cox said.

According to Cox and Polis, incentivized political poison combined with loneliness has resulted in a population that aligns itself with ideological positions to an unhealthy degree. Part of how we can all do better, according to the governors, is to try to not define ourselves by our political affiliations.

“If you think of yourself first as a conservative or progressive or a liberal or whatever, then you’re doing something wrong,” Cox said. “Historically, our political identity was way down the list of how we defined ourselves. Growing up, we were Rams, we were Aggies, we were moms and dads, Americans, Coloradans, and eventually you get down to ‘I’m a Democrat’ or ‘I’m a Republican.'”

Talk about politics, but talk about other things too

While engagement and healthy discussion of current events is positive, at the end of the (Thanksgiving) day, there are a lot of things you can talk about that aren’t politics.

“We should be able to engage and have these conversations, but if that’s all you want to do, everywhere you go. you’re not going to have any friends,” Cox said. “So get real friends and talk about other things.”

“If the conversation starts to derail or get heated, turn on football,” Polis suggested. “The Rams are going to beat Nevada this weekend. We can all cheer for that.”

When you shouldn’t have a political conversation

With all respect to Governor’s Polis and Cox, their discussion centered on semi-normal people, but there are folks with whom it is not possible to have a useful political conversation at all, and some of them might be around your dinner table this Thanksgiving. A person who doesn’t recognize the humanity of others—transphobes, antisemites, sexists, racists of all kinds—isn’t expressing a view that’s worth considering or engaging with. Maybe the person behind the argument isn’t irredeemable, but their ideas are. You’re under no obligation to tolerate intolerance, and with levels of extremism rising in the United States, political arguments can lead to violence, especially if there’s drinking involved—and there’s always drinking involved at Thanksgiving.

Ultimately, if a hateful relative is attending a family dinner, you probably shouldn’t. Whatever sense of obligation you might feel to your family at the holidays shouldn’t override your safety, both physically and emotionally, so say “no thank you.” Offer an explanation if you think it’s best, or just say “I made other plans,” or “I have COVID.” You’re an adult, after all. You could also try the “If they are going to be there, I am not” approach, but don’t be surprised if you’re not the one chosen.

On the other hand, life is messy. Family dynamics can be complicated. Principles can be surprisingly malleable. You might have your own reasons to attend Thanksgiving dinner even though your racist uncle Carl will be passing you the mashed potatoes. Maybe it’s the last times you’re likely to see your grandmother, or maybe you don’t want to be written out of someone’s will. If you do put yourself in that situation, ignore Governors Polis and Cox’s advice. Saying, “tell me more about why you feel that way” while internally maintaining that you might be wrong is not a good approach to an argument about whether people should be murdered by the state for crossing a border or whether Democrats are actually Satanic child molesters.

As for how you should handle it, I don’t know if there’s a right answer. My own instinct (derived from my dysfunctional background, no doubt) is to avoid, deflect, and change the subject—anything to prevent a scene. But others say you should openly confront hatred in your daily life, maybe even if it ruins everyone’s Thanksgiving. If you have any answers, I’m all ears.



Source: LifeHacker – How to Disagree About Politics Without Ruining Thanksgiving

Disney's Robin Hood Is My Wife's Favorite Movie, But Far From Mine

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For 50 years, people all over the world have been falling for a fox. No, not Michael J. Fox. Not 20th Century Fox either. We, of course, mean Robin Hood from Disney’s 1973 animated film. The dashing fox with the British accent who robs the rich gives to the poor and looks damned good doing both.

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Source: Gizmodo – Disney’s Robin Hood Is My Wife’s Favorite Movie, But Far From Mine