Tag: var-current

Traditional Japanese-style Starbucks opens in Kyoto

A Starbucks like no other is opening tomorrow in Kyoto. Unlike the other nearly 24,000 Starbucks cafes in the world, this one requires customers to take off their shoes before entering. It has tatami rooms with low tables and cushions on the floor for seating. The usual Starbucks sign outside is replaced with a simple dark sea green banner that displays the logo. And most fascinating of all, no lines are allowed. In other words, they will only allow a certain amount of customers in at a time and everyone else must scram in order to keep the cafe peaceful for those jacking up on caffeine. According to Japan Times : Starbucks Coffee Japan said a two-story Japanese home built more than 100 years ago will be used for the shop, and it will be located near the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Kiyomizu temple, a popular tourist destination… The shop will face Ninenzaka, one of the popular streets leading from Kiyomizu temple to Kodaiji temple, which is lined with traditional shops. The house was used until 2005 and previously hosted traditional entertainers such as geisha. https://youtu.be/0xP09hsgyCQ

View original post here:
Traditional Japanese-style Starbucks opens in Kyoto

Fresno cops find $1m worth of stolen bees in "beehive chop shop"

The Fresno, California Sheriff’s Department raided a “beehive chop shop” and uncovered $1m worth of bees stolen in “great beehive heists” that have taken place across the bee-starved state. (more…)

Continue reading here:
Fresno cops find $1m worth of stolen bees in "beehive chop shop"

Contraption to shoot mosquitos with laser beams

In development for several years, the Photonic Fence is an anti-mosquito laser weapon that’s apparently now being tested in a real world situation. I hope when it hits the market it still looks like a crazy contraption from a 1960s science fiction film! From the company site : One potential use of the Photonic Fence is to create a virtual fence that detects insects as they cross its plane. When an invading insect is detected, our software is able to estimate the insect’s size and measure its wing beat frequency. Using this method, not only can the system distinguish between mosquitoes, butterflies, and bumblebees, but it can even determine whether a mosquito is male or female. This is important to know because only female mosquitos bite humans. Once the software establishes that the insect is a valid target, it tracks the mosquito in flight, runs a safety check to ensure no innocent bystanders are in view, and then activates a laser to zap the mosquito. The Photonic Fence could be set along the perimeter of clinics or other strategic areas to control mosquitoes without endangering humans or other animals. From Wired UK : When Intellectual Ventures co-founder and former Microsoft chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold came up with the idea of a bug-killing fence in 2010, the intention was to use it to improve public health in Sub-Saharan Africa. Now, however, the Photonic Fence has become a commercial project with a particular target: the Asian citrus psyllid. This insect invader has reduced citrus production in Florida by at least 70 per cent over the last 15 years. The device has been installed on a US Department of Agriculture site in the state for its first real-world test. If all goes to plan, Intellectual Ventures aims to market the Photonic Fence to farmers protecting crops from a multitude of other pests.

Read the original:
Contraption to shoot mosquitos with laser beams

Ransomware crook’s email provider shuts down account, so now no one can pay their ransom

Yesterday’s massive ransomware outbreak of a mutant, NSA-supercharged strain of the Petya malware is still spreading, but the malware’s author made a mere $10K off it and will likely not see a penny more, because Posteo, the German email provider the crook used for ransom payment negotiations, shut down their account. (more…)

Link:
Ransomware crook’s email provider shuts down account, so now no one can pay their ransom

China orders mobile app stores to remove VPN apps

Starting July 1, the official Android and Apple App stores will no longer allow Chinese users to download the VPN apps that Chinese people rely upon in order to get around the Great Firewall of China, which censors information in China and surveils Chinese peoples’ use of the net. (more…)

Continued here:
China orders mobile app stores to remove VPN apps

Ozzy Osbourne’s favorite metal albums

Rolling Stone magazine asked the Prince of Darkness to list his ten favorite metal albums. Here are five of Ozzy’s sure-shots: AC/DC, ‘Highway to Hell’ (1979) “I love Brian Johnson but to me my good friend, the late Bon Scott, was the best singer AC/DC ever had. This album was like an addiction to me.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l482T0yNkeo Guns N’ Roses, ‘Appetite for Destruction’ (1987) “One of the greatest debut albums of all time. There’s not a weak song in the bunch. I never get tired of hearing it.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1tj2zJ2Wvg Led Zeppelin, ‘Led Zeppelin IV’ (1971) “I’ve always been a huge Led Zeppelin fan. All of their studio albums are classics but this is one of my all-time favorites.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyivczZI5pw Metallica, ‘Master of Puppets’ (1986) “I took Metallica on tour with me after the release of Master of Puppets. The album was a milestone for the band and for heavy metal.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVR4bkyMykA Motörhead, ‘Ace of Spades’ (1980) “The album that put Motörhead over the top. The title track “Ace of Spades” is Motörhead’s “Paranoid.” It’s one of the great metal anthems and, to me, a band hasn’t made it until they have their own anthem. This is theirs.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWB5JZRGl0U Ozzy Osbourne: My 10 Favorite Metal Albums (Rolling Stone)

Read More:
Ozzy Osbourne’s favorite metal albums

Salvador Dali’s corpse to be exhumed

A judge in Spain has ordered the exhumation of artist Salvador Dali’s body for genetic testing, so that a paternity lawsuit may be resolved. Dali died in 1989; Pilar Abel believes the painter is her father, from an affair he reportedly had with a maid in 1955. From Agencia EFE: Una juez de Madrid ha ordenado la exhumación del cadáver del pintor Salvador Dalí y la obtención de muestras de su cuerpo para la práctica de la prueba biológica de determinación de la paternidad de Pilar Abel, una gerundense que presentó una demanda para ser reconocida como hija del artista. Según indica en un auto la juez encargada del caso, “es necesaria la prueba biológica de investigación de la paternidad de Maria Pilar Abel Martínez respecto de D. Salvador Dalí Domenech”, al “no existir restos biológicos ni objetos personales sobre los cuales practicar la prueba por el Instituto Nacional de Toxicología”.

More:
Salvador Dali’s corpse to be exhumed

Nintendo’s SNES Classic will cost $80, comes with 21 games

Coming on September 29, the Super Nintendo Classic. It will cost $80 and include 21 built-in games, including Super Mario World, Earthbound, Final Fantasy III, Link to the Past, Secret of Mana, Donkey Kong Country, and Super Mario Kart . From Ars Technica : Unlike the NES Classic, which sold $10 controllers on top of the $60 base package, the SNES Classic comes packaged with two controllers. Even so, only five of the included titles include true simultaneous multiplayer gameplay, with a handful of others allowing for two players to alternate play. The Classic Controller and Classic Controller Pro designed for the Wii and Wii U will also work on the SNES Classic Edition, much like its predecessor. Of the 21 included titles, a full 14 were published by Nintendo itself. Three games from Capcom, two from Konami, and two from Square Enix round out the package.

View the original here:
Nintendo’s SNES Classic will cost $80, comes with 21 games

A ‘Roomba’ for weeds

The inventor of the Roomba robot vacuum, Joe Jones, has come up with something new: a solar-powered weeding robot called the Tertill. It will patrol your home garden daily looking for weeds to cut down. How does it know what’s a weed and what’s a plant? Tertill has a very simple method: weeds are short, plants are tall. A plant tall enough to touch the front of Tertill’s shell activates a sensor that makes the robot turn away. A plant short enough to pass under Tertill’s shell, though, activates a different sensor that turns on the weed cutter. Get your own weed-killing robot for $249 through the Tertill’s Kickstarter . ( Business Insider )

See the original article here:
A ‘Roomba’ for weeds

A Chinese vitamin MLM cult is replacing healthcare for poor Ugandans

Uganda is so poor that few can afford medical care, giving it one of the lowest life-expectancies on the planet — this toxic combination made the country ripe for infiltration by Tiens, a Chinese Multi-Level-Marketing “nutritional supplements” cult whose members set up fake medical clinics that diagnose fake ailments and proscribe fake medicines, then rope patients into becoming cult recruiters who convince their friends to sign up for the cult. (more…)

Read this article:
A Chinese vitamin MLM cult is replacing healthcare for poor Ugandans