North Korea threatens to resume nuclear and ICBM testing

Kim Jong-un says his country is developing a new 'strategic weapon', but leaves room for US talks.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2ssI5uj

Big rush for UGC-NET in Kashmir

Despite an internet clampdown, Jammu and Kashmir registered 83.5% attendance of candidates registered in the UGC-NET December 2019 exam, second only to 84% in Kerala, and also recorded a 10% qualification rate as against the national average of 8.2%.

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/2QDSX06

F.D.A. Plans to Ban Most E-Cigarette Flavors but Menthol

By BY SHEILA KAPLAN AND MAGGIE HABERMAN from NYT Health https://ift.tt/2FbfqMQ

Australia fires: More than 200 homes burn down on coast

Australia's fires have killed at least three in recent days and left hundreds homeless or displaced.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/39DEnia

What year is it?

While lots of people are celebrating the start of 2020, it's a different year altogether for some.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2FcfLPi

The story of the aeroplane house in Nigeria's capital Abuja

Said Jammal has spent 20 years building the family's unusual home in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/36qn6qo

Are your friends bad for your health?

We tend to copy the way our friends and family behave, potentially leading us to put on weight or even divorce.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2MIDkDu

Why mature dating apps are coming of age

An increasing number of older people are turning to dating apps for mature people, in a quest for love.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/36dW9q9

What does it mean to be a black traveller?

Four millennials on being the first black person some people meet, and other issues for black tourists.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/37uoJnn

The region which legislates who you can love

LGBT activists are mounting legal battles against the Caribbean's colonial-era homophobic laws.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2sBFJcu

'Ban PFI for violence during anti-CAA stir'

The Uttar Pradesh police has written to the state home department seeking a ban on Popular Front of India (PFI), a “radical” Islamic outfit with notable pockets of influence in western UP and which is accused of being behind incidents of violence and vandalism during recent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/2uagT3V

After Ayodhya, Rafale verdicts in '19, SC to decide on CAA & J&K this year

At a time when dissent gets traction among intellectuals and social media, the Supreme Court in 2019 achieved the unexpected by rendering a unanimous verdict on the 70-year-old Ayodhya land dispute and putting stamp of approval on the deal to purchase 36 fully-loaded Rafale jets from France.

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/2QecOV2

Happy New Year 2020: Images, quotes, GIFs and more

Another year has gone by and a new year awaits us. To help you start your New Years with love and motivation, we give you a range of inspirational quotes, along with greeting cards, pictures, Gifs that you can send to your near and dear ones

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/36eAiyN

From P Chidambaram to Pilatus, a busy year for ED

It was a hyperactive year for Enforcement Directorate in 2019 when the agency had in its custody some of the most high profile persons like former finance minister P Chidambaram, former Karnataka minister D K Shivakumar, Fortis Healthcare promoter Malvinder Singh and Religare CMD Sunil Godhwani in various cases.

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/2ZKwwKX

Protect Veterans From Fraud

By BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/36oXN8x

Texas Churchgoers Welcomed the Poor, but Sensed This One Was Trouble

By BY DAVE MONTGOMERY, ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS AND RICK ROJAS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/37mK6XF

Al interior de un tribunal de guerra estadounidense: la ropa y la cultura en Guantánamo

By BY CAROL ROSENBERG AND WENDY MACNAUGHTON from NYT en Español https://ift.tt/2uaRjvL

Science Panel Staffed With Trump Appointees Says E.P.A. Rollbacks Lack Scientific Rigor

By BY CORAL DAVENPORT AND LISA FRIEDMAN from NYT Climate https://ift.tt/356WYj6

After 5-mnths, Kashmir to get back SMS from today

Jammu & Kashmir administration on Tuesday said SMS will be activated in Kashmir from midnight on Tuesday, after a gap of nearly five months. There is no word of restoration of internet services though.

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/2SGWKwz

Don’t let Kalapani fester: Nepal

The disputed Kalapani area belonged to Nepal and the issue must be addressed soon to prevent irritants in bilateral ties, Nepal’s ambassador to India Nilambar Acharya told TOI on Tuesday as Kathmandu mounted pressure on New Delhi to resolve the boundary issue soon.

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/2ZFh0QB

For 4th time in a row, Indore is cleanest city

Indore was ranked India’s cleanest city for the fourth time in a row while Kolkata and Howrah came at the bottom of the heap among cities with a population of more than 10 lakh in the quarterly Swachhta survey, announced on Tuesday.

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/35gCxAe

Every year, govt to roll out one N-reactor: DAE

To boost the commercial use of civil nuclear energy in the country, the Modi government has decided to commission a nuclear reactor every year. A 700-MW pressurised heavy water reactor at the Kakrapar nuclear plant in Gujarat is likely to be commissioned by April, an official said.

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/2FdD3Eo

Macro Photography With Industrial Lenses

Line scan cameras are advanced devices used for process inspection tasks in industrial applications. Used to monitor the quality of silicon wafers and other high-accuracy tasks, they’re often outfitted with top-quality optics that are highly specialised. [Peter] was able to get his hands on a lens for a line-scan camera, and decided to put it to work on some macro photography instead.

Macro image taken with the hacked lens.

Judging by the specs found online, this is a fairly serious piece of kit. It easily competes with top-shelf commercial optics, which is what piqued [Peter]’s interest in the part. Being such a specialised piece of hardware, you can’t just cruise over to eBay for an off-the-shelf adapter. Instead, a long chain of parts were used to affix this lens to a Sony AIII DSLR, converting from threaded fittings to a Nikon mount and then finally to Sony NEX mount.

Further work involved fitting an aperture into the chain to get the lens as close as possible to telecentric. This improves the lens’s performance for certain tasks, and makes focus stacking macro shots more readily achievable – something we’ve seen [Peter] tinker with before.

You never know what you might find when sorting through surplus industrial gear, could could score some high-performance hardware if you know where to look. It’s always great to see a cheap find become a useful instrument in the hacker toolbox!

from Hackaday https://ift.tt/2SSFswH

Thousands told to jump into the ocean as Australia's raging fires approached

The sun didn't rise on New Year's Eve. The summer morning in a small beach town on the east coast of Australia looked like a winter's night. 

That black sky soon gave way to a blazing, eery orange as the flames approached. At least 4,000 people were told to jump into the ocean. Gas cylinders could be heard popping like fireworks as they exploded. 

The town of Mallacoota looked apocalyptic on Tuesday local time as it became the latest victim of Australia's out-of-control bushfires.

It was too late to evacuate. 

"We are one road in, one road out. That road's been blocked for hours and hours and hours," Francesca Winterson from Mallacoota Community Radio told News Breakfast, a national TV broadcast.  Read more...

More about Australia, Bushfires, Science, and Climate Environment

from Mashable https://ift.tt/2u61pxO

U.S. Population Makes Fewest Gains in Decades, Census Bureau Says

By BY NEIL VIGDOR from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2QEwLDs

Uber and Postmates File Suit to Block California Freelancer Law

By BY NOAM SCHEIBER from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2ZB7BcG

2019 in news: The alternative end-of-the-year awards

From the ridiculous to the more ridiculous, the weird stories that caught the eye this year.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/39ndZch

Citizenship Act protests: Why fear has gripped Muslims in this Indian state

The Muslim community in Uttar Pradesh is living in fear after a new citizenship law came into effect.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/36bjZ5V

China internet: Top talking points of 2019 and how they evaded the censors

From rebellious numbers to state-backed trends, China's internet was a noisy place in 2019.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2QyXMbi

Africa's year in pictures 2019

A selection of the best photos from across Africa this year.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2SHG1ZY

Tech 2019: Our biggest technology stories

Social media scandals dominate the list of the most-read news stories by the Tech desk this year.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/359u169

'Man on the Moon' moment - the year's big breakthroughs

The year of treating the untreatable: 2019 breakthroughs that could transform medicine.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/35dMvSS

Data Breach at Wyze Labs Exposes Information of 2.4 Million Customers

By BY SANDRA E. GARCIA from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2Q8mCzD

Reliance starts kirana-led retail venture Jio Mart

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/36bacg9

Huawei: 'Survival will be our priority' in 2020

The firm admits life will be "difficult" after the Trump administration banned the firm in the US.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2SBkm5L

UK and US considered Nigeria naval blockade over Saro-Wiwa execution

The UK and US considered an oil embargo after activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged, document reveals.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2tfGc3Z

The digital links of 2019's global protests

Protests in Hong Kong, Chile and the Middle East all shared an online presence which helped connect the movements.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/37oZNO1

Pompeo to Meet With Ukraine’s Zelensky in Kyiv

By BY EDWARD WONG from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2QBrqwz

Judge Dismisses Lawsuit by Ex-Trump Aide Subpoenaed in Impeachment Inquiry

By BY CHARLIE SAVAGE from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2F9n62h

Schumer Demands Witnesses Be Called at Senate Impeachment Trial

By BY ERIC LIPTON AND MAGGIE HABERMAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2ZCv39z

Double the Federal Minimum Wage

By BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2SIqNUv

After Death From Falling Debris, Violations Found at 220 Buildings

By BY AZI PAYBARAH from NYT New York https://ift.tt/36acVGp

'Coaches of all trains to get CCTV cameras by 2022'

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/2QxTmRV

5 senior J&K politicians freed from detention

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/2QbEVUC

RBI OKs more options to add FASTag cash

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/2SH6u9Y

36C3: SIM Card Technology From A to Z

SIM cards are all around us, and with the continuing growth of the Internet of Things, spawning technologies like NB-IoT, this might as well be very literal soon. But what do we really know about them, their internal structure, and their communication protocols? And by extension, their security? To shine some light on these questions, open source and mobile device titan [LaForge] gave an introductory talk about SIM card technologies at the 36C3 in Leipzig, Germany.

Starting with a brief history lesson on the early days of cellular networks based on the German C-Netz, and the origin of the SIM card itself, [LaForge] goes through the main specification and technology parts of each following generation from 2G to 5G. Covering the physical basics, I/O interfaces, communication protocols, and the file system located on the SIM card, you’ll get the answer to “what on Earth is PIN2 for?” along the way.

Of course, a talk like this, on a CCC event, wouldn’t be complete without a deep and critical look at the security side as well. Considering how over-the-air updates on both software and — thanks to mostly running Java nowadays — feature side are more and more common, there certainly is something to look at.

from Hackaday https://ift.tt/2QL92BB

The Smart Home Gains An Extra Dimension

With an ever-growing range of smart-home products available, all with their own hubs, protocols, and APIs, we see a lot of DIY projects (and commercial offerings too) which aim to provide a “single universal interface” to different devices and services. Usually, these projects allow you to control your home using a list of devices, or sometimes a 2D floor plan. [Wassim]’s project aims to take the first steps in providing a 3D interface, by creating an interactive smart-home controller in the browser.

Note: this isn’t just a rendered image of a 3D scene which is static; this is an interactive 3D model which can be orbited and inspected, showing information on lights, heaters, and windows. The project is well documented, and the code can be found on GitHub. The tech works by taking 3D models and animations made in Blender, exporting them using the .glTF format, then visualising them in the browser using three.js. This can then talk to Hue bulbs, power meters, or whatever other devices are required. The technical notes on this project may well be useful for others wanting to use the Blender to three.js/browser workflow, and include a number of interesting demos of isolated small key concepts for the project.

We notice that all the meshes created in Blender are very low-poly; is it possible to easily add subdivision surface modifiers or is it the vertex count deliberately kept low for performance reasons?

This isn’t our first unique home automation interface, we’ve previously written about shAIdes, a pair of AI-enabled glasses that allow you to control your devices just by looking at them. And if you want to roll your own home automation setup, we have plenty of resources. The Hack My House series contains valuable information on using Raspberry Pis in this context, we’ve got information on picking the right sensors, and even enlisting old routers for the cause.

from Hackaday https://ift.tt/2Qv5IKz

Gay in Nigeria: 'Everybody sees me as an abomination'

Five years on from Nigeria's Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, discrimination seems to have worsened.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2MzPSNF

Envoy to Austria brought back to Delhi amid talk of 'irregularities’

India’s ambassador to Austria, Renu Pall, has been transferred back to Delhi amid allegations of financial irregularities against her. A 1988 batch IFS officer, Pall had not yet completed her tenure as ambassador in Vienna. Official sources here ruled out suggestions that she had been recalled abruptly, describing it as a case of transfer.

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/2F38NMz

December footfall at Taj dips 36% this year

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/2SACwVa

Kim Jong-un calls for 'positive and offensive' security policy

The North Korean leader was speaking to senior party officials at a meeting in Pyongyang.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2SCROIQ

Autism diagnosis: 'I want 40 years of my life back'

People diagnosed with autism in adulthood describe growing up believing they were "bad" or "alien".

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/353DXhz

The Syrian town with more cats than people

The few remaining inhabitants of a bombed-out Syrian town take comfort from hundreds, perhaps thousands, of cats.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2MFNvJ9

The best space images of 2019

With some blockbuster space missions underway, 2019 saw some amazing images beamed back to Earth.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2SCCSuA

'We can give a lot of the power back to the fans'

How two friends created an online storytelling platform with more than 80 million global users.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/39qsBHx

Hunting the missing millions from collapsed cryptocurrency

On the trail of almost half a billion dollars lost when the Wex exchange collapsed in 2018.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2QtHsIO

Medieval combat: A Chinese knight fights for his dream

A Chinese teacher with a passion for medieval combat hopes to take his hobby to the next level.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2SBtszl

The Decade We Changed Our Minds

By BY CHARLES M. BLOW from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/364Bgxo

Airtel hikes cheapest plan for prepaid users by 40%

Airtel on Sunday increased the cheapest entry plan for its pre-paid customers from Rs 35 to Rs 49, moving it up by up to 40% at a time when the company battles heavy losses and huge payment outstandings. The tariff hike comes in immediately and will be applicable for nearly 95% of the company’s nearly 300 million customers.

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/356KaJq

MOTD2: Should offside be included in VAR? Keown & Wright can't agree

Match of the Day pundits Ian Wright and Martin Keown discuss changing the offside rule in light of recent VAR controversies in the Premier League.

from BBC Sport - Sport https://ift.tt/2svKyUE

Eagles Overwhelm Giants to Clinch a Playoff Berth

By BY BILL PENNINGTON from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/2ZxWKAe

EU’s wines, cars may get cheaper

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/2QvYh5W

Barack Obama Reveals His Favorite Books, Movies and TV Shows of 2019

One of his favorite TV shows is Fleabag, but Obama declined to specify his favorite scene.

from Slate Magazine https://ift.tt/2rCwjgf

Giuliani Involved in Shadow Negotiations With Venezuela’s Maduro Amid Crisis

The move appears to be another example of how Giuliani has been using his clout as the president’s lawyer for his lucrative private consulting work.

from Slate Magazine https://ift.tt/2u2NI2E

Hackaday Links: December 29, 2019

The retrocomputing crowd will go to great lengths to recreate the computers of yesteryear, and no matter which species of computer is being restored, getting it just right is a badge of honor in the community. The case and keyboard obviously playing a big part in that look, so when a crowdfunding campaign to create new keycaps for the C64 was announced, Commodore fans jumped to fund it. Sadly, more than four years later, the promised keycaps haven’t been delivered. One disappointed backer, Jim Drew, decided he was sick of waiting, so he delved into the world of keycaps injection molding and started his own competing campaign. Jim details his adventures in his Kickstarter campaign, which makes for good reading even if you’re not into Commodore refurbishment. Here’s hoping Jim has better luck than the competition did.

Looking for anonymity in our increasingly surveilled world? You’re not alone, and in fact, we predict facial recognition spoofing products and methods will be a growth industry in the new decade. Aside from the obvious – and often illegal – approach of wearing a mask that blocks most of the features machine learning algorithms use to quantify your face, one now has another option, in the form of a colorful pattern that makes you invisible to the YOLOv2 algorithm. The pattern, which looks like a soft-focus crowd scene rendered in Mardi Gras colors, won’t make the algorithm think you’re someone else, but it will prevent you from being classified as a person. It won’t work with any other AI algorithm, but it’s still an interesting phenomenon.

We saw a great hack come this week about using an RTL-SDR to track down a water leak. Clayton’s water bill suddenly skyrocketed, and he wanted to track down the source. Luckily, his water meter uses the encoder receive-transmit (ERT) protocol on the 900 MHz ISM band to report his usage, so he threw an SDR dongle and rtlamr at the problem. After logging his data, massaging it a bit with some Python code, and graphing water consumption over time, he found that water was being used even when nobody was home. That helped him find the culprit – leaky flap valves in the toilets resulting in a slow drip that ran up the bill. There were probably other ways to attack the problem, but we like this approach just fine.

Are your flex PCBs making you cry? Friend of Hackaday Drew Fustini sent us a tip on teardrop pads to reduce the mechanical stress on traces when the board flexes. The trouble is that KiCad can’t natively create teardrop pads. Thankfully an action plugin makes teardrops a snap. Drew goes into a bit of detail on how the plugin works and shows the results of some test PCBs he made with them. It’s a nice trick to keep in mind for your flexible design work.

from Hackaday https://ift.tt/356XwW3

Whipping up nationalism has a shelf life: Nath

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/2ZBshl6

John Lewis, Congressman and Civil Rights Icon, Has Pancreatic Cancer

By BY EMILY COCHRANE from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2Q8dTO8

Bill Barr Thinks America Is Going to Hell

By BY KATHERINE STEWART AND CAROLINE FREDRICKSON from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2SBnazG

The Presidential Nominating Process Is Absurd

By BY DAVID LEONHARDT from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2MFgEEt

Talking points in sports in the year 2019

Indian grapplers, boxers and shooters led from the front in the year 2019, achieving several firsts during the year. Ace shuttler PV Sindhu also had her date with history at the World Championships in Basel. TOI takes a look at the talking points of 2019.

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/2Zzw02A

China sends 5L Muslim kids to boarding schools

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/2Q6aQ8Y

Subterranean Uses for LIDAR: Cave Surveys

LIDAR has gained much popularity as a means for self-driving cars to survey the space around them. At their most basic, LIDAR is a surveying method that uses lasers to paints the space around the sensors and assembles the distances measured from reflected light into a digital three-dimensional representation. That’s something that has quite a number of other applications, from surveying ancient ruins and rainforests from a bird’s eye view to developing 3D models of indoor spaces.

One fascinating use of LIDAR technology is to map out the routes inside caves, subterranean spaces that are seldom accessed by humans apart from those with specialized equipment and knowledge of how to safely traverse the underground terrain. [caver.adam] has been working on his Open LIDAR project for a few years using an SF30-B High Speed Rangefinder and laser device for a dual-system atop a gimbal with stepper motors for cave scanning.

Originally an entry in the 2016 Hackaday Prize, [Adam] has continued to work on the project. The result shown in the video below is a cheaper 3D LIDAR setup that works by rotating the laser distance module on 2 axes with a sensor centered at the center of rotation. It works for volumetric calculations, detects change over time, and identifies various water patterns and rocks on a surface map. Compared to notebooks, tape measures, and compasses, it’s certainly a step up in cave surveying technology.

Check out some other past underground surveying projects, such as Iowa City’s beer caves scanning projects and National Geographic’s 2014 expedition of the Titan Chamber in southern Guizhou Province in China.

from Hackaday https://ift.tt/39p8aL9

Why international rock stars are flocking to India

U2, who recently performed in Mumbai, are one among many bands lining up to tour India.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2Q6vGoP

Mary Kom wins ill-tempered bout against Zareen

MC Mary Kom on Saturday sealed her spot for next year's Olympic qualifiers with a 9-1 verdict against flyweight (51kg) Nikhat Zareen, who had publicly demanded a trial for the race to Tokyo. Refusing to shake hands with Nikhat after the bout, she said, "Why should I? If she wants others to respect her, she should first respect others..." Nikhat reacted saying, "I expect seniors to respect us too. I felt hurt but that's okay..."

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/350z88A

Blog: How BJP changed India’s political landscape

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/2MBGCIQ

How crowds toppled communism's house of cards in 1989

The BBC's John Simpson recalls witnessing the communist bloc's collapse in three revolutions.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2Q4GNON

Why Canada's cannabis bubble burst

Justin Trudeau legalised cannabis in Canada. So why are people still breaking the law?

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2ZvDHqe

China and Twitter: The year Chinese diplomacy went social

This year saw a marked changed in tone from China, as more diplomats began using Twitter.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2Qzdmno

Joe Burrow Threw 7 Touchdowns. And That Was Just L.S.U.’s First Half.

By BY ALAN BLINDER from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/2MCFIvQ

PDC Darts Championship: Gerwyn Price and Peter Wright into quarter-finals but Adrian Lewis out

Gerwyn Price moves into the PDC World Championship quarter-finals with a scrappy victory over Simon Whitlock.

from BBC Sport - Sport https://ift.tt/2rzTpUM

‘Gardening gives me a lot of peace’

Joanna is an urban gardener trying to reconnect with nature in Singapore.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2tVLB0l

Fred P. Graham, Legal Affairs Reporter and Court TV Anchor, Dies at 88

By BY ROBERT D. MCFADDEN from NYT Obituaries https://ift.tt/2ZvYU3i

US saw highest number of mass killings on record in 2019, database reveals

Researchers say 41 mass killings claimed 211 lives this year, even as the overall homicide rate fell.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2stFRuy

Outrage Grows as Wave of Apparent Anti-Semitic Attacks Hits New York

There have been at least nine apparent anti-Semitic attacks in Brooklyn around Hanukkah.

from Slate Magazine https://ift.tt/37sJqQH

LED Flame Illuminates the Beauty of Noise

Have you ever wrapped up a nice blinky project only to be disappointed by the predictability of the light or the color patterns? When it came to lighting this LED candle, so was [fungus amungus]. But there’s a better way, and it involves noise.

Perlin noise was created in the early 80s by Ken Perlin while he was working on the movie Tron. Frustrated by the current state of computer graphics and too limited on space to use images, he devised an algorithm for generating natural-looking textures. Basically, you generate a bunch of numbers between 0 and 1, then assign values to those numbers, such as a range of greyscale values from black (0) to white (1), or the values from the color wheel. The result is much prettier than random numbers because the neighboring values for any given number aren’t radically different. You get nice randomness with hardly any overhead.

[fungus amungus] is using the FastLED’s noise function to generate the numbers, but there’s a whole lot more going on here. As he explains in the excellent video after the break, if you want to animate these values, you just add another dimension of them. Although [fungus amungus] is using a Trinket Pro and a NeoPixel ring, we think a simplified version could be done with a Circuit Playground Express using the built-in LEDs.

If you want to do it the hard way, start by making your own NeoPixel ring.

from Hackaday https://ift.tt/365JaGZ

BBC sees ghost in BHU’s ‘Bhoot Vidya’, gets panned

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/356BWRJ

BJP member tries to ‘explain’ CAA in UP, thrashed

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/2ta3YOY

Sena fumes over scribbles on Maha CM’s bungalow

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/352guNt

Don’s daughter gets passport with fake papers, held

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/2Q7fALm

‘British informers now questioning Cong’s legacy'

from The Times of India https://ift.tt/39jWglP

Peter Siddle: Australia pace bowler retires from international cricket

Australia pace bowler Peter Siddle announces his retirement from international cricket.

from BBC Sport - Sport https://ift.tt/353OtFA

18 Movies Every Entrepreneur Should Watch

Whatever stage you are at in your business venture, there's a lot you can learn from these money-minded flicks.

from Entrepreneur https://ift.tt/2Niaac7

The Secrets of Jewish Genius

By BY BRET STEPHENS from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2Q3lvRO

Joe Biden Says He’d Defy Subpoena to Testify in Trump’s Senate Trial

By BY THOMAS KAPLAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/366eqpk

ISIS Affiliate in Nigeria Releases a Video Showing 11 Executions

By BY RUTH MACLEAN AND ERIC SCHMITT from NYT World https://ift.tt/2tcrGtD

The ‘Infinity War’ in the Streets of Hong Kong

By BY ROGER COHEN from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2ZsW6UC

India Citizenship Act protests: 'Our son was shot dead by police'

Muslims in India tell the BBC of police brutality, and why they fear losing their citizenship rights.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2Q17R1u

French government to scan social media for tax cheats

French court says government can comb profiles, posts and pictures for evidence of undeclared income.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2Q54dE2

Jeffrey Epstein case: FBI 'investigating Ghislaine Maxwell'

The British socialite and others are part of an inquiry into "people who facilitated" the financier.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2EZk1lq

Neal R. Peirce, Who Put Spotlight on Urban Innovation, Dies at 87

By BY KEITH SCHNEIDER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2Zurbr7

American Contractor Killed in Rocket Attack in Iraq

By BY JULIAN E. BARNES from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2MxXwrC

Russia Deploys Hypersonic Weapon, Potentially Renewing Arms Race

By BY JULIAN E. BARNES AND DAVID E. SANGER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2Zwuv5e

Arthur Singer Jr., Who Set the Stage for Public TV, Dies at 90

By BY SAM ROBERTS from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/2MBoP4B

The Patriarchy of Alcoholics Anonymous

By BY HOLLY WHITAKER from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/365eyVM

‘There Is No Excuse.’ Methodist Pastor, Accused of Sexual Harassment, Steps Down.

By BY JACK HEALY from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/357W2et

Drill Thrice, Solder Once

If you design printed circuit boards, then you will have also redesigned printed circuit boards. Nobody gets it right the first time, every time. Sometimes you can solder a scrap of 30gauge wire, flip a component 180°, or make a TO-92 transistor do that little pirouette thing where the legs go every-which-way. If you angered the PCB deities, you may have to access a component pad far from an edge. [Nathan Seidle], the founder of Sparkfun, finds himself in this situation, but all hope is not lost.

Our first thought is to desolder everything, then take a hot iron and tiny wires to each pad. Of course, this opens up a lot of potential for damage to the chip, cold joints, and radio interference. Accessing the pin in vivo has risks, but they are calculated. The idea is to locate the pin, then systematically drill from the backside and expose the copper. [Nate] also discovers that alcohol will make the PCB transparent so you can peer at the underside to confirm you have found your mark.

In a real, “fight fire with fire” idea, you can rework with flex PCBs or push your PCB Fu to the next level and use PCBs as your enclosure.

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Centre relaxes travel norms for OCI card-holders

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Cong unnerved by extremist outfits: Prasad

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1 crore houses sanctioned for urban poor

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Pep Guardiola: 'Liverpool's advantage is too big' for Man City

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says the Premier League title race is over after a 3-2 defeat at Wolves on Friday.

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Ruling Gives Boost to Sexual Assault Lawsuits in New York City

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Sue Lyon, Star of ‘Lolita,’ Is Dead at 73

By BY NEIL GENZLINGER from NYT Movies https://ift.tt/2Qp7tcj

N.Y.P.D. Steps Up Patrols After Reports of 8 Anti-Semitic Incidents

By BY ANDREA SALCEDO AND SEAN PICCOLI from NYT New York https://ift.tt/353dBfi

Mexican Police Chief Arrested in Massacre of Mormon Family

By BY ELISABETH MALKIN from NYT World https://ift.tt/2sq1QT7

Probation Officer Accused of Sexually Assaulting Parolees Is Arrested

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Behind the Cover: The Lives They Lived

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Haryana village says yes to love marriages and no to caste names

Haryana’s infamous khaps are known for condoning honour killings and telling women not to wear jeans or use mobiles. But in Barsola, the winds of change are blowing

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Boxer Sumit banned for a year, Tokyo dreams over

Former Asian silver medallist boxer Sumit Sangwan was on Thursday banned for one year by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) for failing a dope test. Sangwan, who competed in the 2012 London Olympics and formerly a 91-kg category boxer, was set to appear for the Olympic qualifier trials. But that will not be possible now as his suspension starts with immediate effect.

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Top 10: A New Year's, sans your favourite songs?

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For eclipse cure, 6 kids buried in compost pits

Six children with special needs were buried neck deep in compost pits in Kalaburagi district — nearly 590km from Bengaluru and considered one of the most backward in North Karnataka — on Thursday morning under the belief that exposure to sharp rays during solar eclipse will cure them of deformities.

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All forms of net suspended in Ghaziabad till 10pm

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TechM offers same-sex adoption leave

At Tech Mahindra, samesex couples are now eligible to get 12 weeks of paid adoption leave and three days of bereavement leave. The IT services firm has also built in greater flexibility in its work-fromhome policy for new parents and support groups for returning mothers, cancer patients and survivors.

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Baby Sonic sprints into our hearts in Japanese trailer for 'Sonic the Hedgehog'

Through the darkness of teeth, comes a beaming light — a light we shall call Baby Sonic. 

On Thursday, Paramount Japan dropped a trailer and poster for the upcoming release of Sonic the Hedgehog. The brief clip, voiced entirely in Japanese, gives audiences their first glimpse at Sonic's origin story, embodied by a little blue ball with a case of the zoomies. 

Exiting a year that gave us too many cute creatures to count, Baby Sonic is making 2020 look even brighter. But we have questions. Will Baby Sonic have teeth? Will they be regular teeth or baby teeth? Does Baby Sonic need my teeth? Here, take these teeth.  Read more...

More about Sonic The Hedgehog, Baby Sonic, Entertainment, Gaming, and Movies Tv Shows

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