An off-duty cop got into a fight with a group of children who walked on his lawn, dragged a 13-year-old unarmed boy into his yard, pulled his firearm, then fired a shot. Thankfully, he missed. The incident in Anaheim, California, was captured on camera and has already led to protests.
Christian alleged in the video that the off-duty cop called a girl a "cunt" when telling her to get off his property, and then tackled him first when he stood up for her.
The verbal exchanges led to the off-duty cop dragging the kid towards some bushes. It's unclear from the tape if he ever identified himself as a police officer. "I'd understand if you were a cop, but you're not a cop," Christian told the off-duty officer at one point during the video. One teen came in to shove the man over the bushes after the impasse. Another took a swing but missed. That's when the off-duty cop reached into his waistband and pulled out a gun. The surrounding youth started backing off—and then a shot rang out.
The kid was charged with battery on an officer. KTLA has other footage.
The officer responds that the teen had said he was going to shoot him, and the teen denies that, saying, “I didn’t say that. Why you lying? I said, 'I’m going to sue you.'”
Then the pair tell each other to “get your hands off me.”
“I’m only like 13,” the teen says.
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We've all seen the uncanny, not-quite-there art produced by new AIs. Why Matt Reynolds reports on an area computers might be expected to excel at creatively: programming themselves. And this one's doing it the same way humans do, by stealing and remixing.
DeepCoder uses a technique called program synthesis: creating new programs by piecing together lines of code taken from existing software – just like a programmer might. Given a list of inputs and outputs for each code fragment, DeepCoder learned which pieces of code were needed to achieve the desired result overall.
“It could allow non-coders to simply describe an idea for a program and let the system build it”
One advantage of letting an AI loose in this way is that it can search more thoroughly and widely than a human coder, so could piece together source code in a way humans may not have thought of. What’s more, DeepCoder uses machine learning to scour databases of source code and sort the fragments according to its view of their probable usefulness.
DeepCoder, make me a point-and-click adventure game featuring Rosicrucians, billionaire perverts and the complete dissolving of all culture by internet-mediated telepathy. Read the rest
Daniel Dopps, a chiropractor, has invented a vaginal glue applied with a lipstick-like device. The idea is to glue one's vagina shut during menstruation, thereby obviating the need for sanitary pads or tampons: he claims that the glue will dissolve and menses thereby released during urination, after which one's vag glue can be reapplied. His product has the rather spectacular name "Mensez," lady consumers are not impressed by any of it, and Dopps is therefore having to explain it to them until they understand.
The superficially feminine stock art over masculine sales concepts really pulls it together. CONTROL IS THE SECRET. LEAKAGE. INFECTION. COMFORT. Read the rest
This is doing the rounds invariably attached to the remark "not photoshopped," which leads me to think it must be. Surely old Bill isn't that unselfware? Read the rest
Andrew Huang created a MIDI unicorn: a short musical piece that appears as a unicorn when represented in linear musical notation. You can download the MIDI file itself. Read the rest
The machine knows what cat parts are and knows where they go, and can glue them together to fit drawings of cats that you provide. Whether the results charm or horrify you might depend on whether you, yourself, are part of the simulation. The Next Web interviews creator Christopher Hesse. Read the rest
Remixers start your engines: "Who knew Alex Trebek could flow?" Read the rest
The Acoustician performs excellent acoustic, instrumental guitar covers of classic rock songs. See the solo training videos too.
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Punkt's MP01 is a minimal treat for people wanting a simple but flawless phone—and willing to pay top dollar for a few details done very well. Read the rest
Since the astounding success of Antsy Labs' Fidget Cube, clones have sprung up everywhere, such as the $3.78 Chirisen cube. I can report that one will last the weekend without springing an anxiety leak. A pack of six is $13.39, just two bucks and change for each one.
Update: readers point out not only that the Kickstarter original is still directly available from the inventor, but that the generic ones are likely to be Antsy Labs' own manufacturers ripping them off. So I've replaced the link to theirs with one to the real thing.
Richard Stack writes: "I have an actual FidgetCube and someone bought me a knock off for Christmas. The original is much much nicer."
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Marketed to engineers and carpenters, Incra's rulers have tiny stenciled holes for every fraction to make it impossible to mess up length markings. I got one to make puzzle boxes, but it's now on my office desk as my daily driver and will probably outlive me. The
standard 12" model comes in at $25 and I can vouch for it, but there's
a knockoff by General Tools that's just $10. I assume it's basically the same thing, but if you look closely on the product photos, the holes are somewhat larger.
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Doesn't look like they thought they were pranking him.
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There's something so uncanny and futuristic about
Falcon 9 landing that it triggers the part of our brains trained to be on the lookout for computer graphics. The overcast sky and haze of fog gives it a
Simon Stålenhag vibe.
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It's easy to generate random words, or even ones that seem patterned on a particular language. But there's something just right about the words that emerge from Soybomb.com's Nonsense Word Generator: each is marvelously silly, yet seems to have meaning and history.
This page generates nonsense words based on a frequency list of phonemes as they occur in legitimate English words. Occasionally an actual word may show up but it should mostly generate pronounceable gibberish.
It reminds me a lot of Adams, Lloyd and Cantor's Meaning of Liff: if ever they ever run out of odd place names to assign to experiences and things for which we have no words, this will surely come in handy. Every time I reload it it gives me a word I want to assign a definition to:
Cremplications noun
The results of attempting to communicate in a foreign language one has not learned.
Snughlin noun
A fluffy garment that looks cosy when ordered from the internet or a catalog, but turns out to be made of nylon insulation.
Physion noun
A subatomic particle found in branding consultants.
Remember them old IRC games where a bot would pose a challenge, everyone would have to answer it in a minute, and then vote on the best response? That, but for this! Read the rest
Le Bouche à Oreille is a perfectly decent working class diner in Bourges that'll feed you a slap-up meal for €10. La Bouche à Oreille, though, is a brilliant €48-course restaurant in Paris. Only one of them should have been awarded a Michelin star, but don't tell that to the posh sorts descending en masse upon an overwhelmed greasy spoon.
The Michelin Guide apologised, saying it had confused the café with a more refined establishment of the same name near Paris. The listing was changed on its website, but not until two days later.
Véronique Jacquet, who runs the café, said it had a regular clientèle of local tradesmen. “Suddenly, we were rushed off our feet. Reporters were coming in and then my son phoned me from Paris, where he lives. He almost died laughing.”
Three cheers for the diner's chef, Penelope Salmon: “I put my heart into my cooking.” Read the rest
Via John Aravosis: "Does no one in that White House do any advance work at all? Look closely. They're just sloppy." Read the rest
Anna Hezel just saved us from an inadvisable couch purchase with her horrifying article, Why Does This One Couch From West Elm Suck So Much?
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