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Tech of the Day: Microsoft Has Developed an Algorithm to Turn First Person GoPro Videos Into Awesome Hyperlapses




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Multitasking of the Day: Guy Performs His Song as a One Man Orchestra

You’ve seen a one man band, but how about a complete symphony orchestra?

Ben Morfitt, a composer from England, recently created in a music video of one of his new, original songs, in which he plays every instrument while also acting as conductor.

The piece was written for a new cartoon he created called “Pegul,” which he describes in the video’s caption.

You could say he is a man of many talents.

Watch the video above, and you can check out more of his music on SoundCloud.




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Can't Say We Expected This Kind of Impression to Come Out





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'What exactly do you want from my husband?': Entitled Karen shopper grabs tall guy at grocery store to help her, tall guy's wife intervenes and calls her out

Most people want to be left alone when they're running their weekly errands. If you're tall and shopping at a grocery store, then you have probably been asked to help grab something from the top shelf on more than one occasion. In most of those scenarios, a decent human being would indulge the short shopper; that is, so long as they have been decent to you. 

Here, we have an entitled Karen shopper who had the audacity to grab a tall stranger by his arm and drag him to where she wanted him to help her. The tall shopper tried to tell her to ask one of the several employees who were within earshot because he was worried that the item she was asking him to retrieve was too heavy and would cause a mess. This was all to no avail, of course. 

At this point, the tall shopper had no choice but to get his wife to come over, and that was what got the entitled Karen to back off for good. Keep scrolling below for the full encounter. For more, check out this post about a 16-year-old's stage mom.




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'She didn't actually quit': CEO fires assistant after she spends $2k on fake farewell party with company funds

There's something universally awkward about office parties—whether it's the forced mingling, the questionable food choices, or that one coworker who takes "open bar" a little too literally. Most of us just try to blend into the crowd, avoid making eye contact with our managers, and hope the night ends without too many cringe-worthy moments. But for one unfortunate team, a party to celebrate an employee's resignation was nothing more than a "social experiment."

It's one thing to make a grand exit when you're moving on to bigger things, but this employee decided to throw herself a farewell bash complete with company-funded catering, decorations, and a custom cake... all while the CEO was on out of the office. The CEO returned from a conference to find her assistant had announced her departure in a company-wide email and threw a party on the company's dime, just to admit she was never really leaving in the first place. 




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'Did they think they were gonna make money from their wedding?': Newlyweds "devastated" after only gaining $3k from wedding instead of the $10k they expected

This newly-married couple is going to be in a world of debt after throwing a lavish wedding that didn't exactly pay off. 

Weddings these days are a bit different than they were 50 years ago. Besides the obvious changes in decorum and decoration, there's a whole new tradition around gift-giving. Many couples choose to live together before marriage these days, which can be quite beneficial. You can learn if you are compatible with someone before legally declaring it forever. However, if you live with someone for a few years before marriage, you'll have to buy everything for your house in the meantime. In the past, couples were just starting out, and would move in together after marrying. Their gifts would often include cookware, baby items, furniture, or other presents designed to start a new couple off in their home. 

Nowadays, you may as well give the newlyweds some cash. They probably have a lot of furniture and pots and pans already. But they might be going severely into debt to pull off their dream wedding, just like the couple here. It's an eye-opening read, as shared by @kaylajohnsonatl. Commenters debated the state of gift-giving these days–check it all out below. 

After that, this interviewer lamented that "[It] is just really tacky" after noticing that a job candidate did something that gave him pause. 




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New hire gets fired 10 minutes into their shift after boss claims they were ‘not being proactive’, coworker reveals it was not the first time this happened: ‘I was the 4th person they hired’

Everyone remembers their first real job, the place that kickstarted their career and made them who they are today. And since everyone remembers that experience, no matter how much time passed, it shouldn't be hard to be nice to those who are just starting out.

If every boss would recall their first week at their job, they would remember how stressful it is to prove themselves, and they would remember how important it is to have the right guidance, to have someone who can train you and help you get the ropes of the job on those first days. 

However, instead of providing that guidance to new hires, bosses insist on doing the exact opposite, while some go as far as firing people if they don't show the right 'initiative' on their first days. Much like the boss in this Reddit story, who fired their new hire 10 minutes into the shift simply because they thought it would be wise to wait for instructions, and not act on their own.

Keep scrolling to read the full story, and let us know in the comments down below what you think of the situation. After you are done, check out this story of a parking dispute between two store owners.




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Blowouts CAN Happen!

Never hold in farts.





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See What Happens When They Don't Listen To The Lady?

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I TOLD those scientists they should be finding a cure for breast cancer instead of playing around with that atomic energy nonsense, but NO....





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Field Test Review: 2025 Specialized Stumpjumper 15 Alloy



The alloy Stumpy packs a punch for the price, and you can run a cable-actuated derailleur.
( Photos: 7, Comments: 125 )




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10 best winter hiking holidays in Europe for snowshoeing, winter sun and mountain climbs

From trekking the foothills of Mont Blanc to snowshoeing in Oulanka National Park, here are some of the best European trails to tread this winter




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Connor McGregor tells court sex with rape accuser was consensual

Irish mixed martial artist Conor McGregor claimed to have had consensual sex with a woman who is accusing him of rape, a court has heard.




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Gary Lineker steps down as Sports Personality host

The news comes a day after confirmation that he will leave the BBC's Match of the Day.




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People smuggler convicted of £1.5m small boats operation

Pistiwan Jameel described migrants as "pigeons" or "sticks" as he facilitated illegal crossings.




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Daniel Khalife denies asking Iran for help after prison escape

The former soldier has pleaded guilty to escaping from prison but still faces other charges.




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The Rising Star Scaffolding Guide: Supporting Young Children’s Early Spelling Skills

Encouraging pre-kindergarten children to write affords teachers the opportunity to provide scaffolds to improve spelling development. Teachers, however, tend to provide more support than necessary to guide children's early spelling, which may stifle children's opportunities to engage in important thinking that helps them to grow in their literacy knowledge.




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Top 3 prospects among Rockies' NRIs

Infielder Brendan Rodgers, the Rockies' top-ranked prospect, headlined the 19 players announced as non-roster invitees to Major League Spring Training on Wednesday.




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Murphy's experience could key Rockies' run

With new faces on the team, Spring Training is a time for excitement, but the Rockies had October in mind with their one big offseason signing: Daniel Murphy for two years and $24 million.




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Predicting the Rockies' Opening Day roster

Here's an early look at how the Rockies' 25-man roster could shape up on Opening Day.




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Familiar faces open Rockies spring camp

Familiar sounds of encouragement and needling filled a practice field at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick on Monday as Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story and the infielders took grounders and Charlie Blackmon and the outfielders gathered their bats and spikes. Only a few faces that always seemed to be around are missing as Spring Training begins.




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3 pitchers competing to be Rockies' ace

If German Marquez, Kyle Freeland and Jon Gray want to battle it out for tops on the staff, that's perfectly fine with Rockies manager Bud Black.




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Prospects who should vie for a roster spot

The 30 prospects below all are getting very long looks this spring with an eye toward breaking camp with the parent club. Even if they start the year in the Minors, they all should get the chance to contribute at some point in the very near future.




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Rockies trio competes for final rotation spot

Having two pitchers of notable accomplishment and one of immense promise is a luxury for the Rockies. But it creates a decision nonetheless for manager Bud Black.




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Anderson hopes to build off healthy 2018

Given a difficult injury history, one of Rockies left-hander Tyler Anderson's biggest accomplishment in 2018 was his wire-to-wire availability.




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Rockies' Top 30 Prospects list

Who do the Rockies have in the pipeline? Get scouting reports, video, stats, projected ETAs and more for Colorado's Top 30 Prospects on MLBPipeline.com's Prospect Watch.




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McMahon hopes adjustment leads to 2B job

Ryan McMahon and the Rockies hope the struggles of 2018 lead to an immediate payoff. McMahon is a prime competitor for regular starts at second base, and those will come his way if he realizes potential for power and run production.




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Call for a review of services for people with neurological disorders




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US drug costs are rising faster than overall health spending, officials report




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Australian neuroscientist given two year suspended sentence for falsifying Parkinson's research




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South Dakota illegally placed disabled people in nursing homes, federal investigation finds




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This is the Blue Jays prospect to watch in camp

The countdown to pitchers and catchers reporting is down to single digits for all 30 MLB clubs, but as exciting as it is to see the return of Major League stars, it's also a time to dream about the next wave of baseball talent.




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Jansen among biggest prospect bargains

Considering the players that get the big bucks often get most of the attention when they are signed and drafted, let's take some time to look at the other end of the spectrum. Here are the biggest steals on the Top 100 Prospects list.




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Inbox: Who are Blue Jays' sleeper prospects?

What unheralded prospect could break out in 2019? Beat reporter Gregor Chisholm answers that and more in this edition of the Inbox.




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Blue Jays' hope for 2019 lies in the future

The Blue Jays spent the past two years clinging to the past. Now, they're embracing the future.




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Predicting Blue Jays' Opening Day roster

The start of Spring Training is almost here and it's time for the annual tradition of predicting the Blue Jays' 25-man roster. MLB.com will revisit these projections midway through camp, and then again at the end of Spring Training to see how close we came.




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Prospects who should vie for a roster spot

The 30 prospects below all are getting very long looks this spring with an eye toward breaking camp with the parent club. Even if they start the year in the Minors, they all should get the chance to contribute at some point in the very near future.




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Roster in transition as Blue Jays open camp

Charlie Montoyo is about to embark on the first spring of his managerial career, and based on the number of decisions he has to make, it's going to be a challenging six weeks.




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Sanchez impresses in first spring bullpen

Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo was so impressed with Aaron Sanchez's first bullpen session of the spring that it would have been almost impossible to wipe the smile off his face afterwards.




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Blue Jays' Top 30 Prospects list

Who do the Blue Jays have in the pipeline? Get scouting reports, video, stats, projected ETAs and more for Toronto's Top 30 Prospects on MLB Pipeline's Prospect Watch.




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Cardiovascular disease: Just one in 12 eligible people had health check last year, watchdog finds

The current system for delivering NHS cardiovascular disease (CVD) health checks is not working effectively and must be reviewed to ensure that it reaches people with the highest risk, the National Audit Office has said.1In a review of the commissioning, delivery, and performance of CVD health checks the watchdog found that just over one in 12 people (8.8%) who were eligible attended a health check in 2023-24—which, if maintained, would equate to a five year coverage of 44%.Health checks were first introduced in 2009, with the aim of reducing ill health from CVD by offering everyone aged 40-74 without a pre-existing heart condition a check-up every five years. However, problems have arisen since the responsibility for commissioning these checks was transferred to local authorities in 2013, said the National Audit Office.The move led to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) losing its ability to influence local authority performance,...




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Behavioral and Neural Mechanisms of Face-Specific Attention during Goal-Directed Visual Search

Goal-directed visual attention is a fundamental cognitive process that enables animals to selectively focus on specific regions of the visual field while filtering out irrelevant information. However, given the domain specificity of social behaviors, it remains unclear whether attention to faces versus nonfaces recruits different neurocognitive processes. In this study, we simultaneously recorded activity from temporal and frontal nodes of the attention network while macaques performed a goal-directed visual search task. V4 and inferotemporal (IT) visual category-selective units, selected during cue presentation, discriminated fixations on targets and distractors during the search but were differentially engaged by face and house targets. V4 and IT category-selective units also encoded fixation transitions and search dynamics. Compared with distractors, fixations on targets reduced spike–LFP coherence within the temporal cortex. Importantly, target-induced desynchronization between the temporal and prefrontal cortices was only evident for face targets, suggesting that attention to faces differentially engaged the prefrontal cortex. We further revealed bidirectional theta influence between the temporal and prefrontal cortices using Granger causality, which was again disproportionate for faces. Finally, we showed that the search became more efficient with increasing target-induced desynchronization. Together, our results suggest domain specificity for attending to faces and an intricate interplay between visual attention and social processing neural networks.




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A Prefrontal->Periaqueductal Gray Pathway Differentially Engages Autonomic, Hormonal, and Behavioral Features of the Stress-Coping Response

The activation of autonomic and hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) systems occurs interdependently with behavioral adjustments under varying environmental demands. Nevertheless, laboratory rodent studies examining the neural bases of stress responses have generally attributed increments in these systems to be monolithic, regardless of whether an active or passive coping strategy is employed. Using the shock probe defensive burying test (SPDB) to measure stress-coping features naturalistically in male and female rats, we identify a neural pathway whereby activity changes may promote distinctive response patterns of hemodynamic and HPA indices typifying active and passive coping phenotypes. Optogenetic excitation of the rostral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) input to the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG) decreased passive behavior (immobility), attenuated the glucocorticoid hormone response, but did not prevent arterial pressure and heart rate increases associated with rats’ active behavioral (defensive burying) engagement during the SPDB. In contrast, inhibition of the same pathway increased behavioral immobility and attenuated hemodynamic output but did not affect glucocorticoid increases. Further analyses confirmed that hemodynamic increments occurred preferentially during active behaviors and decrements during immobility epochs, whereas pathway manipulations, regardless of the directionality of effect, weakened these correlational relationships. Finally, neuroanatomical evidence indicated that the influence of the rostral mPFC->vlPAG pathway on coping response patterns is mediated predominantly through GABAergic neurons within vlPAG. These data highlight the importance of this prefrontal->midbrain connection in organizing stress-coping responses and in coordinating bodily systems with behavioral output for adaptation to aversive experiences.




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Deciphering Peripheral Taste Neuron Diversity: Using Genetic Identity to Bridge Taste Bud Innervation Patterns and Functional Responses

Peripheral taste neurons exhibit functional, genetic, and morphological diversity, yet understanding how or if these attributes combine into taste neuron types remains unclear. In this study, we used male and female mice to relate taste bud innervation patterns to the function of a subset of proenkephalin-expressing (Penk+) taste neurons. We found that taste arbors (the portion of the axon within the taste bud) stemming from Penk+ neurons displayed diverse branching patterns and lacked stereotypical endings. The range in complexity observed for individual taste arbors from Penk+ neurons mirrored the entire population, suggesting that taste arbor morphologies are not primarily regulated by the neuron type. Notably, the distinguishing feature of arbors from Penk+ neurons was their propensity to come within 110 nm (in apposition with) different types of taste-transducing cells within the taste bud. This finding is contrary to the expectation of genetically defined taste neuron types that functionally represent a single stimulus. Consistently, further investigation of Penk+ neuron function revealed that they are more likely to respond to innately aversive stimuli—sour, bitter, and high salt concentrations—as compared with the full taste population. Penk+ neurons are less likely to respond to nonaversive stimuli—sucrose, umami, and low salt—compared with the full population. Our data support the presence of a genetically defined neuron type in the geniculate ganglion that is responsive to innately aversive stimuli. This implies that genetic expression might categorize peripheral taste neurons into hedonic groups, rather than simply identifying neurons that respond to a single stimulus.




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Neural Predictors of Fear Depend on the Situation

The extent to which neural representations of fear experience depend on or generalize across the situational context has remained unclear. We systematically manipulated variation within and across three distinct fear-evocative situations including fear of heights, spiders, and social threats. Participants (n = 21; 10 females and 11 males) viewed ~20 s clips depicting spiders, heights, or social encounters and rated fear after each video. Searchlight multivoxel pattern analysis was used to identify whether and which brain regions carry information that predicts fear experience and the degree to which the fear-predictive neural codes in these areas depend on or generalize across the situations. The overwhelming majority of brain regions carrying information about fear did so in a situation-dependent manner. These findings suggest that local neural representations of fear experience are unlikely to involve a singular pattern but rather a collection of multiple heterogeneous brain states.




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Youth experience persecution

OM teaches East London youth about the persecuted Christians in the world, as well as trains them in street ministry.




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Without a vision people perish

Participants of a poverty simulation activity hosted by AIDSLink International discover that it’s very different to minister to the poor than to be the poor.