Wow, this blew up and imploded and tried to disappear quickly and totally did not disappear at all. Read the rest

Thinking it was a really old bottle of alcohol, Antiques Roadshow expert Andy McConnell took a tiny drink of some brown mystery liquid in a 2016 episode. Repulsed by the taste, the glass expert said, "I think it's port - port or red wine... or it's full of rusty old nails and that's rust." In a new episode, the show's host, Fiona Bruce, has now revealed that he was partially right. There was rust, as well as urine, a single human hair, and a couple other things.

Independent:

"Inside were these brass pins, all of these dating from the late 1840s, and the liquid – urine, a tiny pit of alcohol and one human hair," explained Bruce.

"And a mysterious little creature called an ostracod, which is like a little cockle. So [this] was not a bottle of port or wine, but a witches bottle.

"So buried in the threshold of the house as a talisman against witchcraft, against curses, against misfortune coming into the home."

McConnell replied: "Yummy. Such good news."

screenshot via News 247 Live Read the rest

[The moral of this story is buy a Roomba, they last longer and have better software.]

A man and a woman in Forsyth County, North Carolina, called for help just after midnight when they awoke to loud noises and crashing downstairs, and hid in their closet to dial 911. Read the rest

“I can’t change my birth name for you?!” said one user.

In Chicago, a salt truck slid on the icy street right into Lake Michigan. Read the rest

When you need tacos, you need tacos.

Oh boy.

Donald's not going to like this one at all. Read the rest

Unsend, unsend, dammit.

Mangoes spilling from an overturned tractor trailer caused a messy morning commute on Maryland beltway. Read the rest

Updates are expected.

Physical security keys, like those sold by Yubico, Thetis and Kensington, are a great way to lock down your digital lives. They also tend to be wicked fast compared to the wait you have to put on while you're waiting for a 2FA password to arrive via SMS or typing in a verification code from an app like Google Authenticator.

Unless of course said security key is deeply, deeply borked.

From Engadget:

Yubico is recalling a line of security keys used by the U.S. government due to a firmware flaw. The company issued a security advisory today that warned of an issue in YubiKey FIPS Series devices with firmware versions 4.4.2 and 4.4.4 that reduced the randomness of the cryptographic keys it generates. The security keys are used by thousands of federal employees on a daily basis, letting them securely log-on to their devices by issuing one-time passwords.

The problem in question occurs after the security key powers up. According to Yubico, a bug keeps "some predictable content" inside the device's data buffer that could impact the randomness of the keys generated. Security keys with ECDSA signatures are in particular danger. A total of 80 of the 256 bits generated by the key remain static, meaning an attacker who gains access to several signatures could recreate the private key.

If someone reading this can school me on why anyone working at Yubico would think that keeping 'predictable content' on a device meant to secure highly-sensitive governmental systems and information, I'd appreciate it. Read the rest

Unless you are a Nazi, you probably don't want a pillow with Hitler's face and a swastika on it.

From the Fresno Bee:

When the Very Rev. Ryan Newman bought the pillow on walmart.com in November, he could see it featured large images of a bicycle and the Eiffel Tower, and the word “Paris.” What he didn’t see were Nazi party seals with swastikas, along with Hitler’s face on postage stamps with the German word “Reich” – referring to the Third Reich, the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945 – on the top near the pillow’s seams. The images cover several inches on each side.

Newman said he was dumbfounded, and then angry and upset.

“To me this is a symbol of hate,” he said. “This is a symbol of evil.”

But it really wasn't Walmart's fault.

A Walmart spokeswoman provided the following statement: “This pillow was listed by a third-party seller on our online marketplace and is in violation of our policy. We regularly scan our marketplace for these types of items, but, unfortunately, the offensive image wasn’t visible on the pillow’s photo and we were not aware of it until the customer reached out. We removed the item immediately and are reviewing the seller’s assortment.”

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Image: Screengrab from Fresno Bee video Read the rest

"After Gerry’s death, Quadriga’s inventory of cryptocurrency has become unavailable and some of it may be lost," said his widow.

"I meant to do that."

(digg) Read the rest

Beto O'Rourke was always a long shot running against incumbent Ted Cruz for Senate in the blood red state of Texas. But with a narrow loss of 51-48, O'Rourke kept it real and went out with a bang during his concession speech, telling his fans, “I want to thank this amazing campaign of people. Not a dime from a single PAC. All of you showing the country how to do this. I am so fucking proud of you guys.”

MSNBC later apologized for the not being quick enough with the censor button. "Sorry for the F-bomb. We have no control of what’s in the concession speeches,” anchor Brian Williams said.

Via Uproxx Read the rest

Russians, obviously. Read the rest

Fendi is taking a beating online after creating a pink scarf that resembles female genitalia, bush and all. Read the rest