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Prisma’s art filters can turn your videos into moving paintings

A Prisma for videos doesn’t sound so enticing now that Prisma itself has begun supporting the format. The popular app can now apply filters to videos and spit out 15-second snippets that look much more artistic than their source. Even better, it can process files even if you’re offline , which the team made possible by optimizing the algorithm. The bad news? Only the iOS version of the app supports videos for now, but the team is working on bringing the feature (along with offline processing) to Android. If you’ve ever used the app, you know that it can take some time to pass images through its filters, so you may be wondering how much longer videos take. It all depends on your device: it will take iPhone 7 up to 30 seconds, iPhone 6s a full minute and iPhone 6 two minutes to reveal your 15-second masterpiece. At the moment, videos only work with nine filters, but the developers plan to add more until all their filters can be applied to both photos and videos. While the app sounds more useful now, this still isn’t Prisma’s final form: the company promises to add support for GIFs “very soon, ” so you can give those reaction GIFs the artistic touch they deserve. Source: iTunes

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Prisma’s art filters can turn your videos into moving paintings

Terrific history of Benguiat, the ‘Stranger Things’ font

Typeroom looks back at ITC Benguiat , the font that so embodied its time that it’s now canonical for late 1970s to early 1980s. Turns out its designer and namesake Ed Benguiat was motivated by a potential big payoff: Inspired by Times New Roman and Bodoni, “he wanted to create a design that was pretty and readable in order to garner as much commission and licensing fees as possible. Back then, it was much harder to access different fonts so there was a larger incentive to have a typeface take off”. • How Ed Benguiat’s vintage font became the most hyped of the year (h/t Calpernia Addams )

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Terrific history of Benguiat, the ‘Stranger Things’ font

‘Rogue’ Algorithm Blamed for Historic Crash of the British Pound

The British pound suffered a “flash crash” earlier this morning in which it plummeted six percent against the US dollar within a matter of minutes. All signs point to high frequency stock trading as the culprit—and possibly a single algorithm. Read more…

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‘Rogue’ Algorithm Blamed for Historic Crash of the British Pound

Welcome to the machine—Yahoo mail scanning exposes another US spy tool

Enlarge (credit: Aurich / Thinkstock) Imagine a futuristic society in which robots are deployed to everybody’s house, fulfilling a mission to scan the inside of each and every residence. Does that mental image look far-off and futuristic? Well, this week’s Yahoo e-mail surveillance revelations perhaps prove this intrusive robot scenario has already arrived in the digital world. Days ago, Reuters cited anonymous sources and reported that Yahoo covertly built a secret “custom software program to search all of its customers’ incoming e-mails for specific information.” Yahoo, the report noted, “complied with a classified US government directive, scanning hundreds of millions of Yahoo Mail accounts at the behest of the National Security Agency or FBI.” Reuters then followed up, saying Yahoo acted at the behest of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Not to be outdone, The New York Times   reported Yahoo used its system designed to scan for child pornography and spam to search for messages containing an undisclosed “signature.” The Times said a FISA judge found probable cause to believe that this digital signature “was uniquely used by a foreign power.” The scanning has ceased, the report noted, but neither of the news agencies said how long the search lasted and when it began. Read 13 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Welcome to the machine—Yahoo mail scanning exposes another US spy tool

Cops arrest hundreds of people allegedly involved in IRS phone scam

Enlarge (credit: Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images News) Hundreds of people in Mumbai, India have been detained in relation to a massive telephone scam where fake callers “from the IRS” targeted Americans. In said calls, scammers tried to convince recipients that they were from the IRS in order to con victims into forking over thousands of dollars payable via prepaid credit cards. According to The Guardian , 200 Indian police officers raided nine locations across one of India’s largest cities. “Seventy workers have been formally arrested and around 630 others are being investigated,” Paramvir Singh, the police commissioner of Thane, told the British newspaper. “We expect that many more people will be arrested.” Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Cops arrest hundreds of people allegedly involved in IRS phone scam

Microsoft Allows Users To Remove Some System Applications in Windows 10 Insider Preview 14936

Until now, Microsoft restricted users from deleting many of the system applications on Windows 10. But it is finally giving users that option in the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview — 14936. From an article on Ghacks:If you open the Mail and Calendar application for instance, you will notice that the uninstall button is active now. This means that you can remove the system app from the machine without having to resort to Powershell or third-party programs to do so. Users who are on the stable version of Windows 10 cannot uninstall system apps using the apps & features menu currently. It seems likely that Microsoft will introduce the feature with the next feature update, codename Redstone 2, which will be out in 2017. Before you start jumping up and down in joy, note that some system applications cannot be removed. While you can uninstall Mail and Calendar, Calculator, Groove Music, Maps, and Weather, you cannot remove Alarm & Clock, Camera, Cortana, Messaging, and others. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Microsoft Allows Users To Remove Some System Applications in Windows 10 Insider Preview 14936

Mark Zuckerberg’s Absurd ‘Social VR’ Demo Was Brutal

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed off the company’s experiments with social virtual reality experiences that allow you to chat with your friends using avatars in headsets like Oculus’s Rift. It was really weird. The demo app allows you to chat with avatars of your friends, travel to places like Mars or Facebook’s Headquarters, and take virtual reality selfies to share to Facebook. Read more…

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Mark Zuckerberg’s Absurd ‘Social VR’ Demo Was Brutal

Rimac’s electric bike can go 150 miles on a single charge

Rimac has revealed a new electric bicycle that is just as impressive as its LaFerrari-killing , million-dollar Concept One supercar, in its own way. With a massive 3kWh battery, the Greyp G12H can go up to 240 km (150 miles) on a single charge, making it the longest-range e-bicycle out there. If you have a 10 mile round trip to work, each would cost 2.3 cents, making it one of the cheapest powered transportation options, too. “Cheap” is strictly related to energy consumption, however. The Greyp G12S, the company’s current model that has a shorter 75 mile range but is faster at 70 km/h (44 mph) costs €8, 380, or around $9, 400. That’s Lionel Messi money (he bought a custom version), and the new model isn’t likely to be cheaper, as the battery is double the size. That said, other long-endurance models like those from Optibike are in that ballpark too. The G12H and faster G12S both look more like motocross bikes than electric bicycles, and Greyp markets the latter as such (see the video, above). Given the 107 pound weight of the G12S model, in fact, the pedals are mostly for show, and the G12H should weigh at least that much. Other features include “Supernova” lights, a custom rack, and biometric sensor to activate the e-bike. There’s no word yet on availability or cost, but Greyp says the price tag and range will depend on the battery option you choose.

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Rimac’s electric bike can go 150 miles on a single charge

Surgeons complete first uterus transplants from live donors in US

A team of surgeons at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas have achieved something that hadn’t previously been done in the US. With the help of a Swedish surgical team, doctors performed the first uterus transplants from living donors . The experimental procedures took place between September 14th and 22nd with four total transplants. While the first three were unsuccessful, the fourth patient is showing positive results based on follow-up tests. The transplanted uteri were removed from those first three patients and they’re expected to resume normal activity soon. For the fourth patient, tests indicate good blood flow to the uterus with no signs of rejection or infection. “We are cautiously optimistic that she could ultimately become the first uterine transplant recipient in the US to make it to the milestone of uterine functionality, ” a statement from Baylor University Medical Center explained. 16 uterine transplants have been performed around the world thus far. In fact, the Swedish team that assisted doctors at Baylor are considered experts on the procedure. There have been five births following procedures they’ve completed. Following these most recent transplants, both surgical teams say they’ve gained valuable knowledge from the three unsuccessful cases that will prove beneficial to future operations. Changes will include updates to protocols and post-op management with special attention to the thickness of the uterine veins. Back in February, the Cleveland Clinic performed the first uterus transplant in the US. In that case, the 26-year-old recipient would have needed to have the organ removed after one or two pregnancies due to medications that kept her body from rejecting it. Due to compromised blood flow caused by an infection in the weeks that followed, the transplanted uterus was removed in March. Via: CNN Source: Baylor University Medical Center (1) , (2)

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Surgeons complete first uterus transplants from live donors in US