‘Smart’ e-scooter thinks it can fix flaws with scooter-sharing

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By Sasha Lekach2018-12-04 23:53:47 UTC

An e-scooter is an e-scooter is an e-scooter. Right?

That’s what it feels like, at least. But as the scooter-share industry stays upright longer, it’s becoming clear that the motorized devices we’re riding around on are increasingly important. Thus, companies are coming in with new designs for the two-wheeled machines.

Behind the scooter scenes is Superpedestrian. This week it introduced its vehicle intelligence software system that the company wants to pair with a new rugged, “industrial-grade” e-scooter. It thinks it can take on fundamental flaws with scooters: overuse, quickly drained batteries, easily hackable, and more.

The new scooter comes as several operators out there admit to issues with the scooters themselves. Lime recently pulled certain scooters off the road after reports of battery fires and cracked baseboards. The bright green scooter company earlier unveiled its next generation machine that includes some smarter features, like a screen that displays no-go zones and parking rules.

Another scooter company, Bird, has been rolling out a steady stream of updated equipment, switching manufacturers and adding proprietary features and designs. Even Skip, one of two San Francisco scooter operators, introduced a new scooter design within weeks of launching with a permit in the city.

Bird then opened its platform to regular users to operate their own scooter-sharing fleets. Austin, Texas-based company Goat is trying a similar thing with its purple scooters.

Superpedestrian wants to put some “brains” into the scooter fleets out there. The same software system is already used for e-bike-sharing with Superpedestrian’s Copenhagen Wheel. Now the MIT lab spinoff company based in Cambridge, Mass., wants scooter companies to use their vehicles and operations platform to take care of these over-used and abused fleets.

CEO Assaf Biderman highlighted the scooters’ economic benefit for fleets in a recent conversation. “It’s built to survive in the streets a lot longer,” he said. He said it also has a longer life expectancy from nine to 18 months.

The sturdier design and wider wheel is designed to handle potholes and curbs. Then there’s the battery. The Superpedestrian scooter is supposed to last three to seven days. Biderman sees this as the biggest benefit for companies spending money collecting or paying independent contractors to charge scooters every night.

The operations software that tracks what’s up with all the scooters in real time in one handy platform is where Biderman sees the real savings coming in. Hardware problems like battery, sensor, or wiring problems, are flagged and risky vehicles are spotted. Remote software restarts can fix other issues. Complying with city regulations, like no-riding zones or speed limits can also be controlled through the software.

Instead of relying on users and chargers to flag device issues this system is all cloud-based. The fewer humans involved in fleet management, the cheaper it is. “[The scooters] can live longer because you can maintain them,” he said.

I took a quick ride in downtown San Francisco on the “smart” scooter and most noticeably the big, thick wheels made going over a curb or rutted SF street not as harrowing of an experience.

I haven’t started my own scooter operation yet, but for when I want to build my e-scooter empire a platform like Superpedestrian’s could be pre-fabricated way to maintain, organize, and attempt to actually make money off the scooter craze.

Also released on Tuesday was the Acton M Scooter Pro, an e-scooter with a 30-mile range on a single charge. Most of the scooters on the street have about 15 miles on a charge. It’ll be available in the start of the new year. The Bay Area-based company echoes a lot of what Superpedestrian says about scooters used for fleets.

In a release about the new motorized scooter, co-founder Peter Treadway said, “we noticed a gap in the market for a dependable, long-lasting, sustainable scooter.” He added, “It’s built like a vehicle, not a toy, to withstand the everyday wear and tear of commercial use.”

Playtime is over for e-scooters.

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Indonesia probes mass suspected killings in Papua

An Indonesian soldier has been killed while investigating reports that more than two dozen construction workers were shot dead by separatist rebels in the far-east province of Papua, officials said Tuesday.

If confirmed, the killings would mark the deadliest bout of violence in years to hit a resource-rich but impoverished region wracked for decades by a low-key armed battle for independence.

Citing local police, Indonesian media reported late on Monday that the workers were shot dead on Sunday in Nduga, a district in the centre of the region on the western half of New Guinea island, just north of Australia.

A joint police and military team was sent to the area on Monday when they came under rebel gunfire, with one soldier killed and another wounded, authorities said on Tuesday.

The employees of state-owned contractor Istaka Karya were building bridges and roads as part of efforts to boost infrastructure in Papua.

All construction work in the area would be temporarily suspended, the public works ministry said.

More than a dozen coffins were being readied in Wamena, the nearest major town to where the alleged killings happened.

“Some media are saying 31 workers are dead, some 24, so we really need to check ourselves,” Muhammad Aidi, Papua military spokesperson, said.

A team of about 150 personnel would delay its operation until Wednesday morning, fearing a confrontation with rebels at night, the military said later on Tuesday.

“We think they’ll be expecting us,” local military chief Jonathan Binsar Sianipar told the AFP news agency.

Four workers, including three suffering gunshot wounds, were among 12 civilians evacuated from Mbua district about 6.00pm (09:00 GMT) on Tuesday, the Indonesian military said.

The violence was reportedly carried out by rebels who have long fought against Jakarta’s rule and were angry at some workers taking pictures of pro-Papua independence activities.

Indonesia routinely blames separatists for violence in Papua.

Foreign media need permission to report from Papua and obtaining reliable information is difficult.

While separatists have often been blamed for carrying out attacks, Indonesia’s human rights commission has also urged President Joko Widodo to end rights violations by security forces in Papua.

Since coming to power in 2014, Widodo has pledged to hasten development and open up access to the province, including through the Trans Papua road project to link remote areas in the province.

Widodo on Tuesday ordered the military to guard construction workers in Papua and pledged infrastructure construction in the area would continue, according to comments on the website of the of office of the cabinet secretary.

Authorities would “chase these criminals wherever they are”, said national police spokesperson Muhammad Iqbal.

“But we need to check whether it was really (the rebels) or not,” he added.

The suspected killings could be the worst outbreak of violence in a “very, very long time”, according to Sidney Jones, director of the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC).

“Every time we have had a significant incident that has involved military deaths, even though the main victims here were civilians, it is followed by massive retaliatory response,” she added.

The suspected killings came as more than 500 activists were arrested in a nationwide police crackdown that coincided with rallies on December 1, a date many Papuans consider their anniversary of independence from the Dutch.

Papua declared itself an independent nation on that date in 1961, but neighbouring Indonesia took control of the region by force in 1963. It officially annexed Papua in 1969 with a UN-backed vote, widely seen as a sham.

Jakarta keeps a tight grip on the resource-rich region, which experienced several spasms of violence this summer, including the killing of three local people, allegedly by rebels.

The deaths followed a gunfight that saw a small plane carrying police officers – sent to oversee the local elections – shot at as it landed at Nduga.

Some of the violence has been centred on protests against a huge gold and copper mine operated by US-based firm Freeport McMoRan – a frequent flashpoint in the local struggle for independence and a bigger share of the region’s resources.

In April, an Indonesian soldier and at least one rebel were killed near the mine.

In August, authorities arrested Pole Jakub Skrzypski in Papua for alleged links to separatists and he could face life in prison if convicted. His trial date has not yet been set.

Indonesian security forces have for years been dogged by allegations of widespread rights abuses against Papua’s ethnic Melanesian population including extrajudicial killings of activists and peaceful protesters.

Papua: Neglect threatens remote Indonesian tribes

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GOP hit with election fraud claims after using issue as rallying cry

Elections

The results in North Carolina’s 9th District haven’t been certified after allegations against a contractor for Republican Mark Harris.

Fighting voter fraud has been a Republican rallying cry for years. But the GOP now finds one of its own candidates at the center of the biggest alleged election fraud in recent memory.

North Carolina’s board of elections has postponed certifying election results in the state’s 9th Congressional District, where Republican Mark Harris holds a 905-vote lead in the current count over Democrat Dan McCready — and a contractor working for Harris’ campaign has been accused of collecting and filling out hundreds of voters’ absentee ballots.

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The allegations run counter to longtime complaints from President Donald Trump and Republicans about supposed Democratic voter fraud, and they come at an especially awkward time for the state GOP in North Carolina. The party just championed a voter-ID referendum approved in November, and Republican state legislators are currently pushing to approve language implementing the referendum during a lame-duck session, before they lose their veto-proof majorities in January.

“I think you should wait and see if there was actually fraud here. [But] if voter fraud was committed by Republicans, then yes, that would be ironic,” said Carter Wrenn, a Republican consultant based in North Carolina who is not affiliated with either campaign.

Another North Carolina Republican operative, granted anonymity to speak candidly, acknowledged that there’s “a bit of a role reversal going on here.”

On Friday, the State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement called for an evidentiary hearing by Dec. 21 to consider “claims of numerous irregularities and concerted fraudulent activities” during the campaign, particularly over absentee ballot collection. That day, the Associated Press also retracted its call that Harris had won, adding that it was “treating the board’s action as if the race has proceeded to a recount.”

Incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday that House Democrats would not vote to seat Harris until that investigation “is resolved.”

“The House has, as you know, the authority over the propriety of the election,” Hoyer said. “He has not been certified yet, they have refused to certify him. So at this point in time he is not eligible for being sworn in to the House.”

The state board could even vote to order a new election, setting up a rematch between Harris and McCready in 2019, depending on the outcome of its investigation. Leslie McCrae Dowless, the “independent contractor who worked on grassroots for the [Harris] campaign,” denied any wrongdoing, The Charlotte Observer reported.

But Republicans have argued that any irregularities are not widespread enough to make a difference in the ultimate outcome of the race. However, the board hasn’t publicly disclosed how many ballots are in question.

“The board needs to have a public hearing and lay out what they have, and unless they meet the standard of a substantial likelihood, numerically, that the outcome of this race was changed or could have been changed, then they need to certify Mark Harris as the winner and prosecute the offenders,” said Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the North Carolina GOP Party. “Certifying the race is not related to continuing a criminal investigation or multiple criminal investigations, which are obviously going to need to continue.”

At issue are absentee ballot returns in Bladen and Robeson counties in rural eastern North Carolina. An analysis by Catawba College’s J. Michael Bitzer found that McCready won lopsided majorities of absentee ballots in seven of the eight counties that comprise the 9th District, except in Bladen County. Harris won 61 percent of the mail-in ballots there, even though registered Republicans accounted for 19 percent of the county’s accepted absentee ballots.

The North Carolina Democratic Party filed a half-dozen affidavits from voters in the area, who described handing over their ballots, some of them incomplete, to people who said they were assigned to pick up ballots in the area.

Bitzer also noted that Bladen and Robeson counties had unusually high percentages of requested absentee ballots that were never returned. In Robeson County, nearly two-thirds of the ballots were not returned, while Bladen had 40 percent that were not sent back. Those are high rates of non-return, as no other county exceeded 27 percent.

“There was either a massive push to get voters to request those mail-in ballots and the voters just didn’t respond, or there was some other event that precluded the returning of those ballots,” Bitzer said. “If people were going around and collecting the ballots, and the ballots were not secured and either manipulated or done away with, then that might, potentially, be part of it.”

Outgoing GOP Rep. Robert Pittenger, who lost to Harris in a May primary, acknowledged in an interview with Spectrum News North Carolina last week that “there’s some pretty unsavory people, particularly in Bladen County, and I didn’t have anything to do with them. Let me just leave it at that.”

Andy Yates, a general consultant on Harris’s campaign, told The Washington Post that Harris “was aware” of his firm’s “relationship with Mr. Dowless and believes like I do that Mr. Dowless operated within the bounds of the law.”

The state board of elections, charged with conducting the investigation, is also in turmoil. On Saturday, Andy Penry resigned from the chairmanship, after he came under fire for posts on social media, including criticism of President Donald Trump. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper elevated a new chairman on Monday to lead the investigation, as well as appointing Robert Curdle to the board’s vacancy, triggering further accusations of partisanship.

“Per usual, Governor Cooper takes a bad situation and makes it worse by continuing to erode confidence in the neutrality of the board,” said North Carolina GOP Chairman Robin Hayes in a statement released Monday.

The board, appointed by the governor, is made up of four Democrats, four Republicans and one non-partisan member. It voted 7-2 last week to investigate the vote in the 9th District.

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8 Hanukkah apps to celebrate the Festival of Lights

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Every product here is independently selected by Mashable journalists. If you buy something featured, we may earn an affiliate commission which helps support our work.

By Jake Krol2018-12-04 23:14:44 UTC

The Festival of Lights is upon us.

Revelers are frying latkes and lighting candles at sundown for eight nights to celebrate Hanukkah through Monday evening.

They’re also playing dreidel — a four-sided top spun as a holiday game — in AR and texting Hanukkah-themed stickers thanks to a boatload of apps themed for the Jewish holiday.

Here are a few of our favorite Hanukkah apps to download this week:

Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel I spun you with AR

iGevalt is a free App for iOS and gives you the bare bones dreidel experience. You can’t keep score or have multiple players since there’s no built-in profile settings. Even so, it’s still a fun and entertaining experience. While some AR apps are limited as to where they work, in my testing, iGevalt worked on both a physical table and my closed laptop lid on the train.

Those looking for a full dreidel game experience need not worry. In the aptly named, Dreidel ARena, a circle of silver coins becomes your virtual playspace as you spin the dreidel. You can challenge a computer AI or additional friends by passing the phone around. Plus, there are some other game experiences like trying to keep as many dreidels spinning as possible. Those looking for fancier dreidels can buy them in-app.

Gelt and dreidels as seen in Dreidel Arena.

On Android, the AR Dreidel market is bleaker. Digital Dreidel is a simple 3D playing experience that will work, but there are no frills. You just digitally spin a dreidel for a one-player experience. Dreidelit doesn’t have a fancy user interface and is pretty barebones On the plus side, you can customize the dreidel color and swipe to spin it.

Light the menorah digitally

Just one of the many digital menorah lighting experiences.

While the candelabra with nine candle holders is technically called a Hanukiah — a menorah is a popular, but general term for candelabras used any other time of year — app developers have stuck with the more well-known term. Jews light candles on each night of Hanukkah, adding one more to the candelabra as the eight-night holiday progresses. But if you happen to be traveling or stuck on a subway train or in an Uber during sundown, there are apps that can simulate the candle lighting experience.

If you’re willing to shell out 99 cents, Smart Menorah for iOS includes stellar graphics, a countdown timer, and the blessings one chants while lighting. Menorah – Chanukah (also iOS) is more of a how-to guide for lighting the candles, including a visualization of where to start. Plus, it is free and offers multiple language support.

The Android Play Store has many more options, but not all perform that well. Menorah Deluxe costs $1.99 and lets you customize the candle color in addition to a burn duration. My Menorah 4 Chanukah also allows you to light a digital one for free. Available for iOS and Android, My Menorah 4 Chanukah, is a fully interactive experience to celebrate the holiday. It features a talking menorah and colorful candles. You can also spin a dreidel in the same app. It claims to teach some Hebrew skills and the history of the holiday, too.

Hanukkah Stickers

The Hanukkah Stickers app for iOS gives you some fun iMessage graphics for free, although unlocking them all costs money. Still, it’s an excellent way to add some flair to your group texts. Remember, if you don’t want to download stickers, Android, and iOS have a built-in menorah emoji: .

Whichever app you prefer and no matter how you spell it, have a happy happy Hanukkah.

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Samsung caught using stock photo taken with DSLR to showcase Galaxy A8 camera

False advertising is not a good look, Samsung.

Photographer Dunja Djudjic is accusing the world’s largest smartphone maker of using one of her photos and presenting it on their website as a photo taken with its Galaxy A8 Star phone.

In a post on DIY Photography, Djudjic explains how Samsung is using her photos, taken with a DSLR camera, to showcase the Galaxy A8’s portrait mode. The photographer made the discovery after noticing one of her pictures uploaded to the photo community EyeEm was sold through its partner, Getty.

Excited to see who purchased the photo and find out how they were using it, Djudjic executed a reverse image search. That’s when she discovered the image being used on the Samsung Malaysia website, presented as a photo taken with the Galaxy A8 Star.

Djudjic notes the bad photoshopping displayed on Samsung’s version of her image. The biggest difference between the two is the background in the photo, which was completely swapped out with a new pic. This change was likely due to the fact that Samsung was using Djudjic’s image to showcase its phone’s portrait mode, which can blur the background in a photo. The background in Djudjic’s photo was already out of focus, leaving Samsung with no way to show the before and after effect for portrait mode, resulting in the photoshopped image.

Even worse, it’s not the first time Samsung has been dishonest with its customers. Earlier this year, the company used stock photography in a social media campaign and presented the images as samples of the Galaxy A8’s camera.

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Nats’ $140M Patrick Corbin Deal Forms Super-Rotation for Post-Harper Era Surge

Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Patrick Corbin works against a San Diego Padres batter during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, Sept. 28, 2018, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Gregory Bull/Associated Press

The Washington Nationals have opened one door for a new ace. Simultaneously, they’ve likely closed another on a franchise icon.

Their new starting pitcher is Patrick Corbin, formerly of the Arizona Diamondbacks. According to Jon Heyman of Fancred, the left-hander is joining the Nationals on a six-year contract worth $140 million.

The complete price for the 29-year-old goes beyond that. This is a team that paid the luxury tax in 2018 signing a player who declined a $17.9 million qualifying offer. The Nats must therefore forfeit their second- and fifth-highest picks in the 2019 draft, plus $1 million in international bonus money.

The Nationals can justify all this because they still want to win now despite getting an 82-80 reality check in 2018. They’re not wrong to think that a pitcher fresh off a 3.15 ERA and 246 strikeouts in 200 innings can help them do so.

And yet, there’s an elephant the size of the theoretical Twinkie from Ghostbusters in the room: What of Bryce Harper?

In all probability, his days as a National are over.

Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press

It feels weird to say that, given all that Harper and the Nats have been through.

He was the organization’s No. 1 pick in 2010. He was the National League Rookie of the Year by 2012, and MVP by 2015. He was an All-Star for the sixth time this past season, in which he ran his career OPS to .900 and his career home run count to 184. Amid all this, the Nats went to the postseason four times.

And yet, it does feel like Harper left unfinished business behind when he became a free agent last month.

Though he helped lead the Nationals to four postseason appearances, the franchise is still sitting on zero playoff series victories. The man himself left behind a frustrating disparity between his superstar reputation and his superstar reality. To wit, he was worth less than two wins above replacement for the third time in 2018, per Baseball Reference.

Per Heyman, it’s still possible that Harper will return to finish this unfinished business:

Jon Heyman @JonHeyman

nats have basically replaced salaries of wieters (11M), gio (12M) and madson (8M) with Corbin (23M) and Gomes (8M). so while other teams are wondering whether Corbin signing means they are out on Harper, the belief is that they are not necessarily out.

If the Nats find a way to bring Harper back, they’ll have pulled off the perfect offseason and positioned themselves as perhaps the team to beat in the National League, if not all of Major League Baseball.

It’s a longshot, however.

The Nats could try and sign Harper to a backloaded contract in which the big money wouldn’t kick in until after Corbin, Max Scherzer and/or Stephen Strasburg are cleared from their books. But that wouldn’t matter for the luxury tax, which only considers average annual value.

To this end, Roster Resource has the Nationals projected about $10 million below the $206 million threshold for 2019. Even if the Nats got Harper to agree as something as “low” as $30 million per year, they’d still be flirting with more severe penalties that come from going over $226 million.

That’s one reason to believe Harper is as good as gone. Then there’s the other: the Nationals are already past the point of needing him back.

While most teams around MLB have been taking it easy so far this winter, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post points out that the Nats have been busy bees:

Chelsea Janes @chelsea_janes

Nationals before the Winter Meetings and Harper’s Bazaar begins:

Trade for reliever Kyle Barraclough
Sign reliever Trevor Rosenthal
Sign catcher Kurt Suzuki
Trade for catcher Yan Gomes
Sign starter Patrick Corbin

Not waiting around.

Yes, Corbin does come with bust potential. But he’ll enjoy two benefits in Washington that made a difference for him in Arizona. The Nationals are set to return most members of a defense that ranked eighth in efficiency in 2018. And he’ll mainly be throwing to Yan Gomes, who was one of baseball’s top framing catchers.

Meanwhile, Corbin comes with an extreme ability to miss bats that fits perfectly at the top of Washington’s rotation. In him, Scherzer and Strasburg, the Nats now have three of the NL’s 12 best contact avoiders from 2018, including both of the top two:

Data courtesy of FanGraphs

Though things could be better at the back end, the front three alone makes Washington’s rotation one of the very best in the Senior Circuit.

The Nationals should also have a better bullpen in 2019. When healthy, Sean Doolittle is an under-the-radar contender as the best relief pitcher in MLB. He’s now joined by Kyle Barraclough and Trevor Rosenthal. The former has an 11.5 career K/9. The latter had a 12.0 K/9 before undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2017. He should be fully recovered from that come Opening Day.

The big question is whether the Nats will hit as well without Harper. But there’s still Anthony Rendon, who’s typically good for a .900 OPS. They also have Juan Soto, who put up a .923 OPS as a 19-year-old in 2018. There’s also Adam Eaton, Trea Turner and Ryan Zimmerman, each of whom is a productive offensive presence when healthy.

Lastly, there’s Victor Robles. Though he hasn’t yet proven equal to the task of filling Harper’s shoes, he’s MLB.com’s No. 4 prospect for a reason. He’s a 21-year-old with power, speed and a feel for hitting. He could be Washington’s very own Ronald Acuna Jr.

It’ll be even easier to fawn over the Nats have on paper if they find a way to bring back Harper. But according to FanGraphs’ early projections, what they have on paper right now is good enough to make them the favorites in the 2019 NL East race.

That picture will change as the Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets check items off their hot stove shopping lists. But in any event, the Nationals are already ready for life after Harper.

That may not make it any less jarring to realize that Harper likely played his last game for the Nationals on Sept. 30. But better this than the Nats being left to scrounge for scraps after losing him unexpectedly.

Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus.

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Stone pleads the Fifth to snub Senate document request

Congress

Longtime Trump ally Roger Stone is under scrutiny in special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

President Donald Trump’s longtime political ally Roger Stone invoked his Fifth Amendment protection as he declined to share documents and testimony with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to a letter posted Tuesday by the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

“Mr. Stone’s invocation of his Fifth Amendment privilege must be understood by all to be the assertion of a Constitutional right by an innocent citizen who denounces secrecy,” Stone’s attorney, Grant Smith, said in the letter, dated Dec. 3.

Story Continued Below

Stone is under scrutiny in special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election, in part over allegations that he had foreknowledge of WikiLeaks’ October dump of Clinton campaign emails. Stone has denied any advanced knowledge, despite a series of tweets foreshadowing the contents of the emails, which he attributed to educated guesses and indirect information provided through an intermediary with WikiLeaks.

Stone told POLITICO on Monday that he doesn’t have a pact with Trump’s legal team to share defense strategies, unlike former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who is in jail after being convicted of tax and bank fraud. But Stone has largely aligned his public messaging on Mueller with the president’s, frequently bashing the special counsel’s tactics.

Stone’s approach earned him a supportive tweet from Trump this week, when the president praised Stone’s “guts” for refusing to testify against him.

In his letter to Feinstein, Stone’s attorney said his client simply wants his information aired in public, and not subject to selective leaks that marked his closed-door testimony to the House Intelligence Committee last year. Stone had asked for that appearance to be public but the committee declined and instead interviewed him privately.

Smith also said Feinstein’s request for documents was “far too overbroad, far too overreaching, far too wide ranging.”

“Mr. Stone respectfully declines to produce any documents and declines the invitation for an interview,” Smith wrote.

Smith noted he expects Stone’s House Intelligence Committee testimony to be posted publicly in the next few weeks.

Robert Buschel, another Stone attorney, told POLITICO that his client’s decision to spurn Feinstein’s request was not a reflection of increasing legal peril from Mueller. Rather, he said, it’s because the Senate Democratic minority “leaks too much.”

“The Ranking minority member tweeted out Mr. Stone’s letter without as much as contacting his counsel to discuss. This proves Mr. Stone’s point,” Buschel said.

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9 Shocking Celeb Moments From 2018 That Came Out Of Nowhere

Getty Images

For all of the oh-so-predictable things that happened in 2018 — of course Black Panther was a smash, of course Harry and Meghan’s royal wedding was stunning — there were as many that shook us to our cores. From surprise pregnancies and surprise albums, to feuds ending and others reaching a boiling point, this year had no shortage of celeb moments that seemed to come out of nowhere. Revisit nine of them below, and brace yourself for what 2019 may hold.

Lest you’d forgotten, Justin began the year coupled up with Selena Gomez — the two had rekindled their romance in November 2017 and spent the winter hopping from church services to hockey practices until finally calling it quits around March. He and Hailey then revived their relationship that summer, news of their engagement broke in July, and they confirmed they’d tied the knot in November. Mr. and Mrs. Bieber certainly move fast, but at least there’s now one less lonely girl in the world.
Much like Justin, Ariana’s 2018 commenced with her in another relationship — she and Mac Miller were together until May, the same month she rebounded with SNL comedian Pete Davidson. She and Pete got engaged after just a few weeks, but unlike Justin and Hailey, they never made it down the aisle. The couple broke up in October, after a summer filled with matching tattoos, flirty Instagram comments, a pet pig, a new apartment, and a diet of lollipops and Starbucks. Don’t cry for Ari, though — her attitude about the whole thing is a gracious but dismissive “thank u, next.”
Keeping an entire pregnancy a secret is a remarkable feat for anyone, let alone for a member of the most famous family on the planet. Sure, news of Kylie’s pregnancy leaked to the press back in September 2017, but it went unconfirmed for months, as the lip kit mogul never commented on it and stayed largely out of the public eye. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, she shared the bombshell news that she and boyfriend Travis Scott welcomed a baby girl named Stormi on February 1. If Kylie ever decides to abandon reality TV and her makeup empire, she could totally have another career in being a master spy.
The pop stars’ longstanding beef ended in May with a literal olive branch that Katy sent to her frenemy on the opening night of the Reputation Tour. The Witness singer also wrote a note about wanting to “clear the air,” and Tay accepted the apology with her public Instagram Story post. And thus ended a four-year feud — played out over multiple subliminals and diss tracks (“Bad Blood” and “Swish Swish”) — that makes the pop world a little more of a peaceful place. And yet…
For months, Cardi and Nicki dismissed rumors that there was bad blood between them, but the truth emerged when the two got into a heated scuffle at a New York Fashion Week party in September. A shoe was thrown, Cardi was escorted out of the party with a gnarly bump on her temple, and she later asserted that the fight started because someone had said something about her newborn daughter. Nicki denied that accusation, saying on Queen Radio that the altercation was “mortifying and humiliating.” Both parties claim to want to put the drama behind them, but Nicki released a music video last week co-starring two of the women currently suing Cardi… so this drama appears to be far from over.
June 16 began like any Saturday: the World Cup was happening, the MTV Movie & TV Awards were about to tape, the sun was shining and the birds were chirping. And then, Bey and Jay decided to drop the musical equivalent of a nuclear bomb by unceremoniously releasing a joint album, Everything Is Love, under the name The Carters. The nine-song album celebrating love, family, and legacy premiered exclusively on Tidal (duh), and arrived alongside a Louvre-set video for standout single “APESHIT.” Just another day for music’s first couple.
Drake

confirmed he has a son.

Drake and Pusha T, who may or may not moonlight as a private investigator, reignited their long-simmering beef in May, with the Daytona MC going all in on Drizzy with “The Story of Adidon.” Pusha brought up Drake’s absentee father on the brutal diss track, and accused the rapper of similarly abandoning a child named Adonis: a rumor that Drake shockingly confirmed on his June album, Scorpion. With the closing track, “March 14,” Drake devoted an entire song to “the harsh truth” — he’s a father who’s barely seen his own child. As fans processed that bombshell, Drake shrewdly kept quiet about it, only discussing it in length on an episode of HBO’s The Shop that aired in October. “I’m just excited,” he said of fatherhood, explaining that he’s been drawing on “all of the things I’ve learned from my father and the incredible things I’ve learned through my mother about patience, about unconditional love.”
Maybe we should have seen this one coming. After all, 5H’s trajectory looked remarkably like One Direction’s for the bulk of their time together, all the way up to Camila Cabello pulling a Zayn, leaving the group to make one last album as a foursome. And yet, when 5H announced their hiatus in March after six years together, it still shocked fans and cut deep. Thankfully, the girls have kept Harmonizers happy with a slew of promising solo moves: most recently, Normani released new tunes with 6LACK and Calvin Harris, Lauren Jauregui and Dinah Jane dropped sultry videos for their respective debut singles, and Ally Brooke debuted a Christmas cover and announced a memoir. 5H may be over (at least, for now), but these ladies aren’t going anywhere.
Where to even start with this dude? This year alone, the ever-polarizing rapper managed to: change his name to just “Ye,” meet with President Trump at the White House, claim slavery was “a choice,” try to make “MAGA” hats happen, repeatedly deactivate and reactivate his social media accounts, and insist he was writing a philosophy book on Twitter. Ultimately, his “shocking” behavior became more and more numbing to the point where it… actually wasn’t that shocking at all. In fact, perhaps the most surprising thing about Kanye’s year is that, amidst all the controversy and drama he fueled, he also had an incredibly productive run in the studio. G.O.O.D. Music released five Kanye-produced albums over the summer, including a collaborative project with Kid Cudi and his solo effort Ye, which became his eighth straight No. 1 album. Even so, the rapper’s 2018 was marked by a public consensus that maybe someone should grab the mic from his hands and tell him not to finish.

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18 warm gifts for the person in your life that’s always cold

Winter is here and so are the holidays, so it’s the perfect time to help out your friends and family members who are cold no matter what the temperature outside is with gifts to keep them toasty and snug.

Whether it’s in an air conditioned office in June or in a radiator-rattling apartment in the dead of January, there’s always someone who’s complaining about the temperature. And apparently replying, “Why don’t you just build a fire then” is an unacceptable answer.

So here is a list that will hopefully get you on the right track so that everyone can stay at their preferred temperature throughout the entire year.

1. The Snuggie

A patriotic snuggie is very on-brand for America.

Image: Snuggiestore.com

OK, this may come off as a little passive-aggressive but 2008’s most popular novelty gift is ageless, really. Is it a blanket with sleeves? A backwards bathrobe? Whatever it is, it’s genius and it’s perfect for both the office and home, enveloping you in warmth while also giving you the ability to continue carrying on your tasks. Best of all, after 10 years, there are some great designs for extra festiveness.

Price: $14.99 – $19.99 at Snuggiestore.com

2. Space heaters

Spreading warmth in a small personal space.

There are almost as many types of space heaters as stars in the sky and prices can range from “very affordable” to “who do they think I am, the Monopoly Man?” How much you want to spend is up to you, but there are plenty of great options at great price points, like the Vornado Personal Vortex Heater pictured above. The compact fan promises to keep your chill pal warm while not blasting hot air everywhere else to make you sweat.

Price: $29.99 at Bed, Bath, And Beyond

3. Game of Thrones wilding jacket

So maybe restraint isn’t your thing. Maybe you only want only the very best and most extravagant for your friend who is super into Thrones, man. If so, then feel free to drop a lot of pennies on this very accurate wilding jacket. In fact, Game of Thrones-inspired clothing is a pretty big thing on Etsy, so you have your choice of styles.

Price: $369.09 on Etsy

4. Heated seat cushion

Stay warm, get a small massage, and stay stylish.

Maybe you want to help your friend stay warm in more subtle ways. How thoughtful! Try out this seat warmer, another idea that can deliver personal warmth without disrupting anyone else’s temperature settings. Plus, that massage option is pretty sweet.

Price: $69.99 at Target

5. Heated Jacket

Extra warmth for your extra cold friends.

A sarcastic gift would be a jacket. Sure, that may give you a chuckle, but does it actually help? Maybe, but you can have your joke and help out your friends by giving them this heated, insulated jacket (available for both men and women) that delivers some extra warmth bundled up in the outerwear. It’s not a Snuggie, but it’s still pretty nice.

Price: $119.99 and up at Venture Heat

6. Hello Kitty Foot warmer

Toasty toes and Hello Kitty, quite a wonderful combination

OK, so $160 may seem like a lot for a foot warmer, but it’s Hello Kitty! There is a cheaper option that comes with an extra fleece if you’re not ready to drop so much money, so you’ve got that going for you.

Price: $160 at Amazon

7. Star Wars Porg blanket

Chewbacca and his porg pals will warm your body and your heart

Do you have a coworker or cousin who just sits there and mutters to themselves about how The Last Jedi just ruined the Star Wars franchise with those damn PORGS? Well, here’s your perfect revenge. Dare them to not use this blanket next time they feel chilly.

Price: $17.43 at Hot Topic

8. Emergency Survival Mylar Sleeping Bag

Whether in an emergency or just cold, the mylar sleeping bag will keep you warm.

This is may be just a bit over the top but also a perfectly cromulent gift for your family member that’s always complaining about being cold. It apparently retains 90 percent of body heat, is great to keep around in case of emergency, and is said to be made with “NASA designed material used in space exploration.” If it’s good enough for NASA, it’s good enough for anyone.

Price: $4.95 at Fire Supply Depot

9. NASA throw blanket

It might not be designed for the Space Station but it'll keep you plenty warm here on Earth. — It might not be designed for the Space Station but it’ll keep you plenty warm here on Earth.

While that mylar sleeping bag is inspired by NASA, you could also take the more conventional route with a real NASA blanket. It may not be the kind made for astronauts in space, but it’ll still keep you warm, it looks pretty soft, and it’s NASA! Available in a nice burgundy color, too.

Price: $44.95 at NASA

10. Electric Blanket

Electric blankets are a cold weather staple. Don't forget the classics! — Electric blankets are a cold weather staple. Don’t forget the classics!

Space heaters and electric blankets can run can range widely in price depending on size, make, and tons of other factors. But this Sunbeam brand blanket seems like a great bargain, is in the middle of the price range, and in the upper range in terms of quality.

Price: $71.99 at Kohls

11. Hand warmers

Hot Hands can keep more than just your hands warm.

Hand warmers can be shoved in pockets, socks, shoes, or anywhere on your person to keep the warmth going for a while. They’re also incredibly cheap, meaning you can buy them in bulk for the chilly pal in your life.

Price: $26.19 for a box of 40 at Industrial Safety Gear

12. Thinkgeek Unicorn Slippers

If you want to keep your feet warm and look good doing it, consider one of dozens of options on the animal slippers market. Rhinos, monkeys, and pigs are all great but nothing trumps the mighty, mythical unicorn. It adds a magical air to wherever you are, be it home or the office.

Price: $9.70 on Amazon

13. Verseo ThermoGear Rechargeable Heated Socks

More subtle than slippers, Verseo's heated socks can keep your toes toasty for hours. — More subtle than slippers, Verseo’s heated socks can keep your toes toasty for hours.

Maybe slippers are a bit too casual for your cold friend who needs to stay toasty in the office. Far more subtle are these rechargeable heated socks which can keep your lower body warm without having to add and entire extra layer. Plus, you can turn the heat from these socks off before you get too warm.

Price: $89.99 at Verseo

14. Sharper Image Heated Insoles

Heated insoles can keep feet heated inside and outside

What if you can’t go with the unicorn slippers and you’re a bit wary of having those heated socks directly on your legs? Then maybe it’s time to try heated insoles.

Price: $99.99 at Sharper Image

15. Jam band threads

Be it the Grateful Dead (left) or Phish (right), jam band threads can keep you warm whenever you need.

There’s nothing like a warm summer evening enjoying the soothing jams of bands like the Grateful Dead or Phish, am I right? So maybe all your chilly pal or family needs is something to bring them those warm memories.

Price: Grateful Dead Bolt Jacket: $45 at Dead.net Phish beanies: $25 at Phish Dry Goods

16. Smoko Panda USB Handwarmer

Maybe that friend of yours doesn’t dig unicorn slippers and you don’t have the money for that fancy Hello Kitty foot warmer. Split the difference with these fingerless warming gloves shaped like Pandas for a mix of the practical and whimsical. These USB gloves are perfect for keeping your hands warm in a cold office environment while showing a little bit of personality.

Price: $35.00 at Urban Outfitters

17. BedJet Climate Comfort System

Sure. BedJet is designed for a bed, but it could have plenty of other warm uses as well.

Sure, a BedJet is meant to help keep you comfy when you’re sleeping, a system designed to keep warm air flowing under the covers for the chilliest nights. But there’s nothing — NOTHING — that says you can’t use a BedJet to direct that flow under your office-approved blanket or Snuggie. Plus, the phone app-based controls make it easy to adjust settings from your desk. What’s not to love?

Price: $299 at BedJet

18. Zojirushi Stainless Steel Vacuum Insulated Mug

Hot tea, coffee, or hot chocolate are easy ways for people to stay warm regardless of the time of year. Even better? Keeping that warm liquid piping hot so the warmth starts in your stomach and spreads through your body.

Price: $23.99 at Target

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Teaching kids to be tech whizzes as early as elementary school (Paid Content by Amazon)

As early as elementary school

By Mashable Brand X

As early as elementary school

By Mashable Brand X

Today, technology receives more than just a casual mention in most parenting handbooks and mommy blogs. Parents of elementary school-age kids are in a particularly befuddling spot as their kids begin dabbling in digital devices both at school and at home. In some cases, parents report that their kids know how to navigate tech better than they can. At the same time, parents aren’t always sure how to introduce their kiddos to technology in a way that’s balanced, educational, and fosters growth and development.

Amazon and Mashable are exploring how technology affects modern parenting. Be sure to check out the article on infants (babies between 0-12 months) and useful parenting tech here, and continue reading the series with this article about how kids in pre-K and kindergarten can start exploring digital technology.

In this third installment of the series, we’re examining how tech factors into the education and development of kids ages 7 through 12, and helps them along the path toward becoming a digitally savvy grown-up.

Physical devices

By age 7 or 8, most kids feel comfortable using devices like smartphones — recent research puts the percentage of American kids between the ages of 10 and 12 who have their own service plans/smartphones at around 45%. Another survey found that 42% of U.S. children aged 8 or younger have their own tablet devices. The age you’ll want to introduce kids to devices like these understandably varies from family to family. Developing a “family media use plan” is one way parents can set appropriate limits for screen time — for every member of the crew (yup, that includes you, Mom and Dad).

Tech devices that are custom-tailored to kids, such as the Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition or an Amazon Fire Kids Edition Tablet, are a perfect introduction to digital devices, and with features like Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, a subscription service that provides access to hundreds of hours of fun and educational content, families can enjoy a breadth of exploration together.

Specifically, with Fire Kids Edition tablets you can set reading goals and track progress with FreeTime Unlimited and build up your child’s vocabulary with tools like Word Wise. This can help boost confidence and foster a love of reading. To reduce screen time, you can access more than 1,000 kid-friendly books narrated through Audible on the Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition.

The Echo Dot Kids Edition allows children to explore their creativity and strategic thinking through voice control. So kids can ask Alexa to play interactive games, like Nickelodeon’s “No Way That’s True” or National Geographic quizzes. Kids can test their knowledge with the whole family. For parents, co-viewing and co-playing with kids as they explore these features is a unique way to encourage family bonding. And you never know: Mom and Dad may even learn a thing or two.

Exploring the digital world

It’s a brave new world out there on the wide, open internet. Elementary school may be the time to start teaching kids about best practices for browsing the internet, engaging in forums or chat/messaging and using social media — even if you don’t plan to permit them to have a public-facing profile until a certain age. Establishing a healthy relationship with technology early on helps kids have an ingrained sense of appropriate online behaviors as they progress into their teenage years.

Common Sense Media.org offers a list of resources for kids starting to dabble in the world of social media and digital interaction. Careful monitoring of kids’ online activities — and setting parental controls through Amazon Parent Dashboard, which you can access through your Amazon account— allows parents to keep a close eye on kids’ digital behavior. With the Parent Dashboard, you can set daily time limits, review activity, or pause Alexa on the Echo Dot Kids Edition device and an Amazon Fire Kids Edition tablet.

Tech and elementary education

In one survey about technology in K-12 classrooms, nearly three-quarters of teachers say that tech helps motivate their students to learn. Educators today are using digital learning tools like interactive whiteboards, tablets, e-readers and e-textbooks, web-based educational games or activities, and online video, images, and articles. Seventy-five percent of teachers in the survey also noted that tech allows them to demonstrate concepts that they wouldn’t be able to accurately explain any other way.

In terms of tech milestones that elementary school-age kids should strive to reach, Rasmussen.edu recommends that kids work on skills related to creativity, collaboration, problem-solving, and coding. For instance, platforms like Tynker and littleBits can help kids get a grasp on the basics of programming, while interactive, online maps can help improve geographical knowledge — and show children parts of the world that are thousands of miles away from their own backyard.

Digital technologies are here to stay, and they’ll surely play a role in your kid’s (sometimes bumpy) journey toward teenage-dom and adulthood. With devices like the Echo Dot Kids Edition, school-age kids can get a kick start learning to use devices that will help them navigate through the world and modern society well into their later years.

Backpack boy with map |

Mashable composite; T. Tatsu/Shutterstock, Wikimedia commons
Mom and daughter on smartphone |

Mashable composite; Janine Schmitz/Photothek via Getty Images
Family baking |

Mashable composite; JOKER / Gudrun Petersen/ullstein bild via Getty Images

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