Month: May 2017

via Gizmodo
The Best Wiper Blade Is Bosch Icon

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For those of you who haven’t been there, Coke is a very powerful drug. No no no, not that coke, the other one – with the caffeine. Enjoy this cautionary tale in the four minutes of ardent animation and fluid (and true) storytelling from Dress Code.

via The Awesomer
Coke Habit

via Patent Law Blog (Patently-O)
PBS News Hour on Patent Trolls

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Peter shows off his fancy Stark Industries suit, beats up the Avengers, stares at his phone, and eats a churro in the latest trailer for Spidey’s big return. We’re just hoping that Marvel hasn’t decided that one-liners are more important than plot and character development.

via The Awesomer
Spider-Man: Homecoming (Trailer 3)

Our first good look at the next season of Game of Thrones is finally here, and it’s not just winter that’s coming to the Seven Kingdoms—it’s all-out war.

The new trailer sets up a dire time for Cersei and Jamie—surrounded on all sides by enemies old and new—Daenerys’ invasion, and Jon Snow’s rise to leading the North against oncoming deadly threat of the White Walkers.

Game of Thrones returns July 16.

via Gizmodo
The New Game of Thrones Trailer Is Here, and Everyone Is Doomed

During the presidential campaign, President Trump famously suggested going after the families of terrorists. That would be strong persuasion. The downside is that it is also a war crime. So Trump backed off on “going after the families.”

Or did he?

On his overseas trip, Trump demanded that the Palestinians stop paying the families of dead terrorists. The president is literally “going after the families” without firing a shot.

President Trump is also “going after the families” by branding ISIS as Evil Losers. You might be proud of your son for being a Jihadist, but the Evil Loser brand isn’t bringing anything good to the family name.

Let me give you a little thought experiment. Suppose our military found a terrorist bomb-maker who supplied bombs and training to terrorists but never did a terrorist act himself. Would we be within our military, legal, and ethical boundaries to kill that bomb-maker with a drone attack?

I think all of you just said yes.

In the context of a suicide bomber, the “bomb” is two parts. One part is the human being, and the other is the mechanical/chemical bomb. The bomb-maker made the mechanical/chemical part. But the family of the terrorist might have created the rest of the bomb, at least in some cases.

So here’s the thought experiment. In the specific case where a family radicalized their own kid, and also accepted payment after the suicide attack, is that really different from being a “bomb-maker”? After all, the kid is an important part of the bomb. 

In some cases, if not most, the family has no real control over the actions of an adult child radicalized on his own. If you attack that family, you are committing a war crime for sure. That would be evil. And it would be hard to determine how much the family did to radicalize the kid.

Realistically, there is no practical way to go after the “bomb-maker” families without accidentally killing some innocent people who were minding their own business. To avoid that situation, you would need some clear, objective standard for deciding which families are “bomb-makers.” One such standard might included the family accepting the money AND making a public statement supporting their terrorist kid’s actions. 

You probably don’t want to attack a family simply because they accepted free money when offered. In a poor region, people don’t say no to free money. But if the family also makes a public statement in favor of terrorism, they are literally attempting to create more (human) bombs by popularizing the concept. 

I’m not in favor of Americans committing war crimes. But I’m okay with killing bomb-makers. Apparently I can’t have both. 

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via Scott Adams’ Blog
Going After the Families of Terrorists

War, huh, good God, what is good for? Ratings and new HBO Now subscriptions, say it again. Finally, after six seasons of mere skirmishes, Jon Snow says “the Great War is here”. Excited for this, particularly because it appears to lack an aspect that plagued seasons in the past: Parliamentary Procedure with Daenerys Targaryen. (“Your dragon stole my goat! What shall we do about it?”) Anyway, excited for this!

Tags: Game of Thrones   trailers   TV   video
via kottke.org
Game of Thrones season 7 trailer

via TechCrunch
Judah vs. the Machines: SeuratBot is an artistic robot that knows art, but lacks purpose

Last month, IKEA launched its own line of low-cost smart lighting, called TRÅDFRI, and up until now, users have had to rely on a remote control or a proprietary app to use the product. But no longer.

Today, the Swedish retailer announced that their IKEA Home Smart products will respond to voice commands from Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant starting this summer. Additionally, the product line will integrate with Apple’s HomeKit. "With IKEA Home Smart we challenge everything that is complicated and expensive with the connected home. Making our products work with others on the market takes us one step closer to meet people’s needs, making it easier to interact with your smart home products," said IKEA Home Smart’s business leader Björn Block.

Traditionally, smart lighting systems are pricey. Take Philips Hue, perhaps the best known smart lighting system. The Philips Hue Bridge 2.0, which supports 50 Hue lights, costs $60. In comparison, IKEA’s Smart Lighting System’s TRÅDFRI Gateway is half that price — just $30, though the number of lights it supports is unclear. Hue provides more choice in bulb types, from floodlights to spotlights, but IKEA wins on price — their standard bulb is priced at $12, compared to Hue’s $15. A $3 difference may not seem like much, but when you’re replacing every bulb in your house, that seemingly small gap can add up quickly.

Smart lighting systems may have once been a quirk for those with too much money on their hands, but with their arrival at IKEA, it looks like they’re here to stay. IKEA’s aggressive pricing makes smart, voice-controlled lighting more accessible to a wider range of potential buyers.

Source: Ikea

via Engadget
IKEA’s affordable smart lights will dim with your voice

Sometimes we wonder if we’re getting through to younger generations when it comes to common sense.

This week, The Learning Channel has been sharing each of the ten essay winners of their Fourth Annual Editorial Contest and man, did today’s posted winner show that there’s hope for them yet!

15-year-old Daina Kalnina’s winning essay, ‘Stopping Bullets With Locked Doors and Silence Is Already Pulling the Trigger’, knocks out the active school shooter protocol “run, hide, fight”. Kalnina not only shared what it’s like to be a student in today’s schools but gave insight into why she feels students should, and could, do more to stop an active threat.

It has become very familiar for high-school students to practice the infamous level-three lockdown. In all cases, we all share the semi-nervous chuckle of “wow, maybe we get Swiss-cheesed today” and sit in a corner, stare at our phones and text our friends. Only very recently, after a vivid dream — moreover a nightmare — of a school shooting, did I realize that sitting in the dark and stopping bullets with locked doors and silence is the exact opposite of what one would want to do. It wasn’t until I stumbled upon the fact that the “people shot and killed in the Columbine library sat there for five minutes before the shooters entered and shot them.” My school is full of able-bodied kids, and surprisingly, a great chunk that has had experience with self-defense and even marksmen training. So why sit and wait?

To say that the drills today are relevant is a mistake. They do more than just offer very little protection; they also endanger students and teachers more so than ever before. The lockdowns I’ve been taught over and over again, sitting in the dark, actually tell future active shooters exactly where we’re going to be — cornered. More so, in The New York Times article, “In Shift, Police Advise Taking an Active Role to Counter Mass Attacks,” studies conducted by law enforcement in the Virginia Tech shooting showed that “the students and teacher blocked the door with a heavy desk and held it in place, [the shooter] could not get in, and everyone lived,” compared to those that tried to “hide or play dead,” in which almost all were shot or died. It is shown more clearly here than ever by making the vital choice to barricade and move as a means of security will utilize finite time better and save lives.

Many educators and parents have questioned the authenticity and have begun to develop alternatives for active-shooter lockdowns. The ALICE project is one such adaptation. Developed by a former SWAT officer Greg Cane, ALICE stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evacuate. It provides specialized tactics for K-12 and higher education schools. Fundamentally, a moving target is harder to get an aim on than a stationary one. That same difference marks ALICE’s method from the old one; it encourages movement, distraction and most importantly, it encourages direct action from students and teachers. This significantly decreases the number of lives lost and helps me sleep a little bit better at night knowing that if the time ever comes, I’m not idly waiting to become Swiss cheese.

It’s unnerving that the students of this country must learn how to cope with active shooters.

It’s even more unnerving that current procedures say that they should sit, wait and die.

Well said, Daina! Let’s hope more students, parents, faculty, and politicians pay attention to the common sense idea that to act like a victim only serves to ultimately make you a victim.

The post Editorial Contest Winner Knocks Out Run, Hide, Fight Protocol in Schools appeared first on Bearing Arms.

via Bearing Arms
Editorial Contest Winner Knocks Out Run, Hide, Fight Protocol in Schools