Non-IT News Thread
-
FTC’s first case over fake paid Amazon reviews targets dodgy diet pills
Company paid $1,000 for fake reviews, admits there's no evidence for diet claims.
The maker of a supposed fat-blocking weight-loss pill that didn't help much with weight loss paid for fake Amazon reviews to push its false and misleading claims, the Federal Trade Commission said in a lawsuit announced yesterday.
It's the first time the FTC has filed a lawsuit "challenging a marketer's use of fake paid reviews on an independent retail website," the agency said. The FTC complaint was filed against Cure Encapsulations, Inc. and its owner, Naftula Jacobowitz, in US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The defendants have agreed to settle the case, pay a $50,000 fine, and notify past customers that there's no scientific evidence backing up the weight-loss claims. Customers may get refunds, but it's not definite.
The FTC said its complaint "alleges that the defendants made false and unsubstantiated claims on their Amazon product page, including through the purchased reviews, that their garcinia cambogia product is a 'powerful appetite suppressant,' 'Literally BLOCKS FAT From Forming,' causes significant weight loss, including as much as twenty pounds, and causes rapid and substantial weight loss, including as much as two or more pounds per week.
-
The advent of cheap, renewable hydrogen is nigh
As the price of wind turbines tumbles, the hydrogen fuel cell revolution is nigh.
Hydrogen gas has been the pipe dream fuel of clean-energy advocates for decades. Splitting electrons from H2 molecules creates electricity and a waste product: pure H2O. It has the added benefit of being storable (albeit at high pressures or low temperatures), and it can refuel a car or a generator in minutes, as opposed to batteries, which can take hours to recharge.
Unfortunately, most of the hydrogen that is mass-produced today is made by synthesizing it from natural gas (more specifically, methane, or CH4). But it's also possible to make hydrogen using electricity and water, using an electrolyzer. If that electricity is renewable electricity, hydrogen can be nearly carbon neutral in its lifecycle.
-
@scottalanmiller renewable hydrogen because of wind? Maybe.
-
Alphabet subsidiary trained AI to predict wind output 36 hours in advance
Intermittent power supply is a problem for the grid, and predicting it has value.
-
TikTok: Record fine for video sharing app over children's data
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47396767 -
Ridley Scott’s Alien will finally be released in 4K HDR for its 40th anniversary
The new Blu-ray will include both the theatrical cut and the director's cut.
20th Century Fox and partners embarked on an effort to remaster the film in 4K last year, under supervision by Pam Dery and director Ridley Scott. Alien was originally shot on 35mm film, and the remaster was made using the original negative.
-
Momo challenge: The anatomy of a hoax
Following a flurry of scare stories, some schools have warned parents about the "momo challenge" - but fact-checkers say it is a hoax.
Earlier this week, versions of the momo story went viral on social media. They attracted hundreds of thousands of shares and resulted in newspaper articles reporting the tale.
According to the false story, children are contacted on WhatsApp by an account claiming to be momo. They are supposedly encouraged to save the character as a contact and then asked to carry out challenges as well as being told not to tell other members of their family.
-
@mlnews said in Non-IT News Thread:
Momo challenge: The anatomy of a hoax
Following a flurry of scare stories, some schools have warned parents about the "momo challenge" - but fact-checkers say it is a hoax.
Earlier this week, versions of the momo story went viral on social media. They attracted hundreds of thousands of shares and resulted in newspaper articles reporting the tale.
According to the false story, children are contacted on WhatsApp by an account claiming to be momo. They are supposedly encouraged to save the character as a contact and then asked to carry out challenges as well as being told not to tell other members of their family.
i swear that picture is an actual 3d art sculpture in Japan.
-
@LilAng said in Non-IT News Thread:
@mlnews said in Non-IT News Thread:
Momo challenge: The anatomy of a hoax
Following a flurry of scare stories, some schools have warned parents about the "momo challenge" - but fact-checkers say it is a hoax.
Earlier this week, versions of the momo story went viral on social media. They attracted hundreds of thousands of shares and resulted in newspaper articles reporting the tale.
According to the false story, children are contacted on WhatsApp by an account claiming to be momo. They are supposedly encouraged to save the character as a contact and then asked to carry out challenges as well as being told not to tell other members of their family.
i swear that picture is an actual 3d art sculpture in Japan.
It is.
-
@mlnews said in Non-IT News Thread:
Momo challenge: The anatomy of a hoax
Following a flurry of scare stories, some schools have warned parents about the "momo challenge" - but fact-checkers say it is a hoax.
Earlier this week, versions of the momo story went viral on social media. They attracted hundreds of thousands of shares and resulted in newspaper articles reporting the tale.
According to the false story, children are contacted on WhatsApp by an account claiming to be momo. They are supposedly encouraged to save the character as a contact and then asked to carry out challenges as well as being told not to tell other members of their family.
While the recent reporting of contact may be a hoax, then entire momo challenge thing was not. Bad article title is bad.
-
New ToeJam & Earl game, 8Bitdo controller get Genesis nostalgia right
Sega wasn't involved with game or controller, but its Sega Ages line gets a shout, too.
The result has been a solid few days back in my early-'90s childhood, as if I were firmly planted in front of a massive CRT TV with some of my favorite games of the era. (If you're wondering: this '80s-kid author absolutely had a lengthy "Genesis does what Nintendon't" phase.) My recent feeling may have emerged, in part, because Sega's current handlers left Genesis fans out to dry during the tiny-console fad. The less said about the AtGames Genesis Flashback—an atrocious cash-in that followed the NES Classic—the better.
-
Why arcade Pac-Man players literally grabbed onto the game
Investigating the "cabinet grip" that wore down the sides of Pac-Man arcade cabinets.
Did you ever notice that the left-side panel of classic, unrestored Pac-Man arcade cabinets tend to have a distinct wear pattern on their outer finish? Arcade researcher and historian Cat DeSpira did, and she's written a wonderfully detailed examination of the distinct and largely unremarked-upon arcade playing stance that led to this relatively consistent pattern.
-
People wonder why I support the initiative to tar and feather ALL politicians...
-
@RojoLoco said in Non-IT News Thread:
People wonder why I support the initiative to tar and feather ALL politicians...
I don't think all need to be tar and feathered. One a year as a sacrifice to get the others to fall in line should suffice.
-
@mlnews said in Non-IT News Thread:
Momo challenge: The anatomy of a hoax
Following a flurry of scare stories, some schools have warned parents about the "momo challenge" - but fact-checkers say it is a hoax.
Earlier this week, versions of the momo story went viral on social media. They attracted hundreds of thousands of shares and resulted in newspaper articles reporting the tale.
According to the false story, children are contacted on WhatsApp by an account claiming to be momo. They are supposedly encouraged to save the character as a contact and then asked to carry out challenges as well as being told not to tell other members of their family.
Update A Lot of LDS people here have gone into hysteria about this to the point of removing youtube off their kids phone.
-
@DustinB3403 said in Non-IT News Thread:
@RojoLoco said in Non-IT News Thread:
People wonder why I support the initiative to tar and feather ALL politicians...
I don't think all need to be tar and feathered. One a year as a sacrifice to get the others to fall in line should suffice.
One per year after all the current ones have been rehabilitated, as a maintenance dose.
-
Scientists Just Took a Major Step Towards Injecting Eyes With Night Vision
An incredible new nanotechnology could one day enable us to see in the dark. It works on mice, and there's little to say it wouldn't be equally effective on other mammals. The only drawback - how are you with needles to the eyeball?
-
What a time to be alive.
-
A new triple-A Star Wars game will be announced at Celebration Chicago in April
The studio behind CoD: Modern Warfare and Titanfall is working on a Star Wars game.
Respawn Entertainment's key people were responsible for many of the most influential first-person shooters over the past several years, from Medal of Honor: Allied Assault to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and even the critically acclaimed but not widely played Titanfall 2. The studio went through a public and ugly breakup with publisher Activision before stepping out on its own to develop Titanfall.
-
@mlnews Sounds very interesting
