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At a unique zoo in Hesse, visitors can get up close and personal with deadly reptiles such as crocodiles and alligators. But on Thursday a court judge denied the zoo's appeal to be allowed to continue with these practices for children. Crocodile Zoo in Friedberg, Hesse, has faced troubles recently as its maverick way of bringing visitors closer to its animals has been deemed too dangerous by regional conservation authorities. In the zoo, visitors can touch, feed and even swim with the crocodiles without barriers or protection, as long as they are accompanied by an experienced guide. But on August...

More than a year after ending its free Windows 10 upgrade program, Microsoft is getting ready to shut down the last official free upgrade extension. The news wasn't exactly shouted from the rooftops. If you've been waiting to claim your free Windows 10 upgrade using the "assistive technologies" exception, you need to act soon. In a quiet change to an obscure web page, Microsoft announced this week that those exceptions will end on December 31, 2017. On July 29, 2016, Microsoft officially ended the Get Windows 10 program, which offered free Windows 10 upgrades to anyone currently running a supported...

Yesterday, people posted photos of a badly burned Reliable Carriers trailer holding the remains of what appeared to be three 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demons. At first, there were rumors that the cars were not production units, but test cars. We have since learned that these charred Dodge Demons (two red, one yellow) were intended for paying customers.

This photograph taken on October 19, 2017 shows Fragment Room employees smashing bottles during a demonstration in a 'rage room' in Singapore. (AFP/Roslan Rahman) Bad day at the office? In high-pressured Singapore there is now a solution -- a "rage room" that lets stressed-out people take a baseball bat to items ranging from glass bottles to televisions. The "Fragment Room" consists of a bare, cell-like space with concrete walls, where customers pay to indulge in an unusual form of destructive stress relief. After being given overalls, helmets, gloves and shoes, people proceed to smash up items ranging from plates to...

Earlier this week, Netflix indefinitely suspended production of the sixth and final season of House of Cards. Now, CNN has a report in which eight people corroborate accusations of sexual misconduct by Kevin Spacey on the set of the show. None of the people, who have worked on Cards in the past or at present, provided their names for fear of retaliation, but one former production assistant says Spacey assaulted him during an early season of the show. That PA describes the actor’s behavior as a “predatory,” and said the assault he suffered took place after he was tasked with...

"Someone get her help. Seriously." Note to news broadcasters everywhere: trying super hot foods probably isn't going to end well. Yesterday (October 25) saw the brave/foolish team of KWGN's Daybreak show attempt the One Chip Challenge from Paqui Chips, who have created a tortilla chip called Carolina Reaper Madness, flavoured with the world's hottest pepper. As some of the team took it in their stride, the heat really affected Natalie Tysdal, who made the decision to try and wash it down with coffee. Bad idea. As Natalie appeared to be sick behind the desk, one of her co-anchors got quite...

Thanksgiving is a time when people don’t seem to want ‘new’ - they want ‘traditional’, the food they’ve always associated with the holiday. But it’s also an opportunity to slip in at least one new and different dish, to perhaps broaden your guests’ gustatory horizons – and give the cook a little diversity in the annual labors ;-) My first introduction to anything vaguely ‘Indian’ was this Hot Curried Fruit that my Aunt used to make for Thanksgiving or Christmas. It seems to be a somewhat traditional ‘thing’ in Virginia and parts South; and whenever I’ve made it for office...

On January 4, 1968, the first Hot Wheels car rolled off a Mattel production line. It was a 1/64-scale, dark blue 1968 Camaro RS with black roof and redline tires. 15 other models would soon join the Camaro, and the lineup became known as known as the “Original Sweet 16.” The rest, as they say, is history. These tiny cars with wide wheels and low-friction axles flying around on orange tracks soon became omnipresent in the bedrooms and dens of kids around the world. Since 1968, well over four billion Hot Wheels have been built, far exceeding the production of...

The San Francisco 49ers weighed in on the national firearms debate Thursday, announcing their $500,000 donation to push for more gun control and a ban on bump stocks. The team is partnering with local and national law enforcement in an effort to create a “safer America,” by banning silencers and and armor piercing rounds, according to ESPN writer Nick Wagoner.

"KDE Edition In continuation with what’s been done in the past, Linux Mint 18.3 will feature a KDE edition, but it will be the last release to do so."

I think we’ve only ever done two or three things in a crock pot that really turned out well; my crock pot has gotten the most use as a way to carry to a party and warm up dishes that have already been cooked otherwise. But one of the things we’ve found that the crock pot does pretty well is pulled pork. (Don't laugh, Texans - we're currently apartment dwellers ;-) We’ve tried several recipes that turned out OK, but I wanted to make pulled pork in the crockpot like the Carnitas that we get at Chipotle (again, don't...

Windows 10's Fall Creators Update is full of changes, but one of the understated additions could make a big difference if you're a gamer. Microsoft has switched on its previously teased TruePlay feature, which promises to protect against "common" cheats in Universal Windows Platform games. Titles that take advantage of the safeguard will both run in a protected mode and trigger a background service that watches for typical cheating behavior. If they find anything amiss, they'll send data to the developer. You can switch off TruePlay if you're nervous about Windows transmitting your data, but companies can limit what you're...

With the release of Windows 10 Fall Creators Update last week, the "Controlled Folder Access" that Microsoft touted in June is now live for millions of users. As the name hints, the Controlled Folder Access feature allows users to control who can access certain folders. The feature works on a "block everything by default" philosophy, which means that on a theoretical level, it would be able to prevent ransomware when it tries to access and encrypt files stored in those folders. The benefits of using Controlled Folder Access for your home and work computers are tangible for anyone that's fearful...

Note: WSJ is pay-walled, meaning you need to subscribe to read the complete article. However, this ought to give you the gist of it... Microsoft's value is returning to tech-bubble peaks. The software giant closed with a market value of $600 billion Thursday for the first time since January 2000, according to the Journal's Market Data Group. Shares rose 0.4 percent to $77.91, setting a fresh all-time high. For the year, Microsoft shares are up 25% and on track for their best year since 2013, as the firm continues its rebirth as a force in cloud-computing. The firm is the...

Just a few days ago, Microsoft revealed details of the Surface Book 2 which is due to launch in November. But before the device is even available, it has been dealt a blow by Consumer Reports.Earlier in the year, the review group said that problems with reliability meant that it was impossible for it to recommend any Microsoft laptop or tablet. Now Consumer Reports says that this extends to the Surface Book 2, meaning that the device will not be recommended. While hardly the end of the world for Microsoft, this will still come as bad news. The company expressed...

Caneles (or Canneles) de Bordeaux are a traditional French pastry, soft and custardy on the inside, crispy on the outside, and flavored with rum. Traditionally, these are made with a special mold; and you can still do them this way, or make them in simpler, modern variations. Some sources indicate that the best molds to use for this are copper ones; but you can buy them now in other materials. Amazon has the traditional copper: as well as carbon-steel and silicone molds. You can also use small, oven-safe custard cups. For authentic canneles, the inside of the mold is coated...

Christian Thomas, aka Buddy Backpacker, finished the Continental Divide Trail on September 18, becoming the youngest person to complete all three of the nation's longest hiking trailsn September 18, nine-year-old Christian Thomas stood in front of Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park with his parents, Andrea Rego and Dion Pagonis. The family from Crested Butte, Colorado, had just finished a 1,200-mile section hike of the Continental Divide Trail, the last leg on their journey to say they officially walked its length. Having finished both the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail in 2014, this was the third long-distance...

It sounds like something from a comedy, but a British man who was believed missing for 10 years has returned after he said he hid in the woods to escape his nagging wife. Fox News reports that 62-year-old Malcolm Applegate left his wife of three years after she would argue with him over his increased work as a gardener. “For three years it was all right, we got on with one another and the gardening got too much for her,” Applegate told the Daily Mail. Applegate told the news outlet that his wife did not like the increased amount of...

Caveat: This is a Microsoft Marketing Announcement of Windows 10 Version 1709 "Fall Creators Update".This update __WILL__ be pushed out to ALL Windows 10 users, so those of you who run Win10 should pay attention because your computing experience is about to change. "Today, we deliver the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update offering breakthroughs in creativity – from bringing mixed reality and 3D to the masses, to faster broadcasting for gaming, to turning photos and videos into real memories, and so much more. The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update can be experienced on a wide variety of Windows 10 PCs...

What do you do to top Google's highly regarded first-generation Pixel phone camera? The same, only more. More HDR+ image processing. More chip power. More artificial intelligence. And more image stabilization. The result for photos: "All the fundamentals are improved," said Tim Knight, head of Google's Pixel camera engineering team. On top of that are new features including motion photos, face retouching and perhaps most important, portrait mode. In the days of film, a photo was the product of a single release of the camera's shutter. In the digital era, it's as much the result of computer processing as old-school...