More oddities spotted in the news

[robkelk]

Why fly when you can ride in a car?

This hummingbird failed to fly south for the winter, so it got a car ride instead

[robkelk]

Why you shouldn't let a bot access the internet.

KFC bot urges Germans to mark Kristallnacht with cheesy chicken

[Jinx999]

Why you shouldn't let a bot access the internet.

KFC bot urges Germans to mark Kristallnacht with cheesy chicken

I've seen this being discussed elsewhere. For added disaster, mixing meat and dairy is extremely anti-kosher.

[hazard]

Easy solution; grab the national/regional holiday calendar and ask the locals what those days are about, and then give the bot a yes/no marker for those dates/events.

But that'd take foresight, thought, and consideration.

[robkelk]

Students in Gander are lining up to get cafeteria food.

Sweet potato fries and stuffed pretzels, as part of a nutritionally-balanced and inexpensive meal? Lucky students...

[Dartz]

Mahogany Hurls. Africa goes hard

Ireland is, of course, exporting it's culture. By exporting cultural touchstones such as the GAA it establishes a memetic foothold. Soon, there will be St Patrick's days and Irish Dancing and shebeens. (Edit: There are already shebeens in South Africa)

But generally, culture is one of those exportable things that gives people positive impressions which makes the governments of those people more amenable to dealing with you on friendly terms and makes diplomacy so much easier.

Not being assholes is our international schtick.

[robkelk]

Ever wonder where meme GIFs come from, to begin with?

[robkelk]

This is not a feel-good story.

This is the exact opposite of a feel-good story.

Which is why it's spoilered.

Spoiler

An Alberta paramedic responded to a car crash. She only learned later the dying victim was her daughter

[robkelk]

The annual list of common passwords is up. If you see your password in this post, change your password.

Top 200 most common passwords

Worldwide, it's topped by those perennial favourites "password", "123456", "123456789", "guest", and "qwerty".

The UK top five are "password", "123456", "guest", "liverpool", and "qwerty".

The US top five are "guest", "123456", "password", "12345", and "a1b2c3"

The Canada top five are "123456", "password", "54321", "123456789", and "guest"

The Japan top five are "123456", "password", "1234", "12345678", and "akubisa2020". (And "sakura" is seventh.)

The Denmark top five are "123456789", "123456", "12345", "1234", and "password"

With the exception of "liverpool" and "akubisa2020", every password listed here in a particular country's top five is in the worldwide top fifty.

So... If you must create your own password so that you can remember it, make sure it's at least 12 characters long (eight isn't long enough any more), with at least one upper-case letter, at least one lower-case letter, at least one digit, and at least one non-alphanumeric character. And substituting "a" with "@", "i" with "!", or other LEET-speak tricks, isn't going to slow down the hackers at all any more.


EDIT:
* robkelk looks at top ten movie-based passwords

"Alien Maverick Psycho Terminator" would be a good name for a rock band...

[robkelk]

Yes, this is the actual headline.

Ideal penis size is on the rise in fine art, and this change is accelerating: study

[hazard]

*snip*

Netherlands not surveyed, unable to check.

[robkelk]

*snip*

Netherlands not surveyed, unable to check.

The entire world was surveyed (save for regimes that don't share data). I'm guessing there wasn't enough data for the Netherlands. Or Ireland, for that matter.

[Bob Schroeck]

There are some things from anime that don't need to be recreated in the real world:

The founder of Oculus claims that he's created a VR headset that will kill you if you die in a game. He explicitly credits Sword Art Online for giving him the idea.

[robkelk]

Judge away: A cover can actually tell you a lot about a book

[robkelk]

No amount of alcohol is safe, says new report from Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction

Needless to say, the beer and liquor industries hate this report.

[robkelk]

Opinion/analysis, with some history that I wasn't previously aware of:

It's been 230 years since British pirates robbed the US of the metric system

[robkelk]

Madonna Bought This Painting 30 Years Ago. A French Town That Once Owned It Is Asking for Its Return on Loan (NSFW because the article starts with a photo of the painting)

The painting, thought to have been destroyed during World War I, is called Diana and Endymion. (The comedy-news-panellist show where I heard about this already made the obligatory Sailor Moon joke.)

[robkelk]

There is now just a single, solitary coal-fired power plant in the US that would be more economical to not replace with renewables

[robkelk]

Marie Kondo Admits Her Home’s A Mess Now

She's finally realized that family comes first.

[hazard]

Bit of a misleading byline there, Rob.

[robkelk]

Bit of a misleading byline there, Rob.

Blame HuffPost - it was theirs to begin with.

[Inquisitive Raven]

There is now just a single, solitary coal-fired power plant in the US that would be more economical to not replace with renewables

Maybe we should keep those coal plants in operation using a different sort of renewable.

[Bob Schroeck]

Jimmy Choo Unveils Major Collaboration With Sailor Moon

In collaboration with Naoko Takeuchi, they're creating a line of shoes and accessories inspired by or incorporating the manga. And apparently one of the things you can get now is a custom-made pair of Sailor Moon's boots embellished with Swarovski crystal.

[robkelk]

And apparently one of the things you can get now is a custom-made pair of Sailor Moon's boots embellished with Swarovski crystal.

Like a rhinestone senshi
Heading out late at night into a moonlit Tokyo
Like a rhinestone senshi
Protecting my home town for people I don't even know
From youma comin' out of the 'zone...

[robkelk]

Cat pictures - saviour of Twitter?

Cat saves 'good bots' from Twitter API purge
Account posting pics of pet returning home convinces Musk to chill about access rules