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24%  
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Forum: Smoky Backroom

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  • Nokia hasn't made a phone in over a decade, and it's still making billions from every one sold

    08/18/2026 7:49:33 PM PDT · by algore · 7 replies
    Microsoft's purchase of Nokia's Devices and Services unit broke down to about $4.4 billion, while a patent license came in at around $1.9 billion, according to reporting by NBC News at the time. The deal included the transfer of about 32,000 Nokia employees to Microsoft, as well. Unfortunately, Microsoft's purchase didn't really pan out for the company. It wrote off $7.6 billion related to the acquisition in 2015, according to TechCrunch, admitting defeat within a year. Nokia, though, kept its name, its patents, and its network infrastructure business (the bit that keeps making money today), while it handed off the...
  • ELO - Don't Bring Me Down Remix w/ Beautiful shuffle girls - Music Video

    08/18/2026 9:29:24 AM PDT · by Pol-92064 · 27 replies
    Youtube.com ^ | 08/01/2019 | ELO
    "Don't Bring Me Down" by Electric Light Orchestra extended remix version with beautiful girls dancing to the shuffle, all in HD.
  • India built the world's biggest digital payments miracle. Now comes the bill

    08/17/2026 5:26:27 PM PDT · by algore · 12 replies
    For most Indians, paying by Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has become almost absurdly routine. Scan a QR code, tap a few buttons and the money moves instantly. There is no card machine, no cash, and - most importantly - for the user, no visible fee. That may be about to change. India has paved the way for banks and payment companies to charge merchants a fee on UPI transactions, potentially ending a decade-long experiment in free digital payments. The government has yet to decide the rate or exactly where it will apply, but proposals under discussion include a merchant discount...
  • P!NK - Try (The Truth About Love) Music Video

    08/16/2026 9:48:28 AM PDT · by Pol-92064 · 24 replies
    Youtube Music Video ^ | 01/01/2013 | Pink
    P!nk's official live video for 'Try'
  • Jew Made President of Catholic Biblical Association, Will Edit Antisemitic Bible Verses

    She denies Jesus is the Messiah, believes abortion and homosexuality are fine, and thinks Christians have bore false witness about the Pharisees, promising to rehab their image. The Catholic Biblical Association of America has spent nearly ninety years shaping how American Catholics read the Bible. It publishes the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, supplies scholarship to seminaries, helps train the people who train priests, and is well within the institutional machinery Rome uses to teach Scripture to Catholics. Last month, they acquired a new president. Amy-Jill Levine became the first Jewish scholar elected to lead the Catholic Biblical Association. Levine joined the...
  • ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ was canned by Warner Bros. But 3 years later, that’s not all folks

    08/13/2026 3:31:20 PM PDT · by algore · 37 replies
    NEW YORK (AP) — Before it was dubbed “the funeral screening,” it was just when Will Forte was going to see the movie. “Coyote vs. Acme” was finished. Director Dave Green, inspired by “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” had completed the editing on the Looney Tunes blend of cartoon and live action. The whole project, which takes an Ian Frazier “Shouts and Murmurs” column from The New Yorker as its source material, was an audacious comic gambit that seemed to be paying off. Hopes were high. Audience test scores were good. But days before Forte, who stars as Wile E. Coyote’s...
  • California police department caught 'passive monitoring' hotel pool

    08/07/2026 11:02:35 AM PDT · by algore · 21 replies
    A small California city came into national view this week after a late-night host publicized its police department’s widespread surveillance network and questioned why its cameras had recorded a hotel property and its pool “for hundreds of hours.” In response, the spokesperson for the police department in Rialto, an Inland Empire city east of Los Angeles, downplayed concerns, saying the footage was only “passive monitoring.” John Oliver, host of “Last Week Tonight” on HBO, delivered a segment on police surveillance technology on Sunday. The comedian took jabs at several systems that have proliferated across the Bay Area, including Flock, the...
  • Wild-eyed boy, 15, dressed as CLOWN went door-to-door in chilling ring video before allegedly murdering elderly neighbor, 78: 'I've got a gift for you'

    08/06/2026 7:34:01 PM PDT · by algore · 63 replies
    Terrifying doorbell camera video showed how a wide-eyed masked teenager dressed like a clown appeared to go door-to-door before being arrested in connection with an elderly neighbor's murder. The Illinois State Police said officers had responded to an intersection in East St Louis on Monday shortly after 10pm after reports of a body in the road. A 15-year-old, whose identity was not disclosed, was taken into custody on Tuesday as part of a homicide investigation. He was later charge with first degree murder. The victim was identified as John Wesley Allen Sr, 78, by the St Clair County Coroner, according...
  • Hair salon broke law by warning transgender customers to stay away and go to a DOG GROOMER instead

    08/02/2026 9:37:46 AM PDT · by algore · 25 replies
    A Michigan hair salon broke state law by telling prospective transgender customers to stay away and visit a dog groomer instead, officials have ruled. Studio 8 Hair Lab in Traverse City declared that anyone who did not identify as a man or woman was 'not welcome' in a Facebook post published in 2023. 'If a human identifies as anything other than a man/woman please seek services at a local pet groomer,' salon owner Christine Geiger wrote. 'You are not welcome at this salon. Period.' Geiger also warned that staff might refuse to use customers' preferred pronouns and instead call them...
  • Furious transgender mob lashes out at woke Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings for pettiest reason imaginable

    07/31/2026 11:27:27 AM PDT · by algore · 64 replies
    Woke Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings has been condemned by an online transgender mob for playing one of The New York Times' online games. Jennings, 52, came under fire after he admitted to playing the Spelling Bee word game in a post he made on BlueSky, the left-wing alternative to X. 'My wife and I have a game where we try to invent the day's grossest-sounding word on NYT Spelling Bee,' Jennings wrote, with a screenshot. But a transgender BlueSky user calling herself Gwen Pepperoni was soon on the attack. She was seemingly outraged that Jennings would admit to subscribing to...
  • Concern over study visa refusal rate for Gazan students [Ireland]

    07/27/2026 7:30:46 PM PDT · by Olog-hai · 10 replies
    RTÉ News ^ | Tuesday, 28 Jul 2026 00:00 | Emma O’Kelly, Education Correspondent
    Concern is growing in Irish universities over a high rate of refusal of study visas to students in Gaza who are due to take up college scholarships in Ireland this September. RTÉ News understands that upwards of 20 Gazan students, who have all been accepted onto fully funded scholarships for third-level courses, have had their visa applications turned down by Irish immigration authorities. Others are awaiting outcomes. Sources within the universities say the refusal rate this year is in marked contrast to last year, when more than 80 Gazan students were granted visas and left Gaza in an evacuation organized...
  • Diarrhea parasite spreading in 41 states - with suspected cases topping 11,000... as officials continue to scramble to find the source

    07/24/2026 9:21:42 AM PDT · by algore · 66 replies
    The 'explosive diarrhea parasite' cyclosporiasis is running rampant across the US, with thousands of additional cases pushing the outbreak to a record high. Some 4,173 laboratory-confirmed cases have been reported across 41 states, the CDC confirmed on Tuesday. However, officials warn the true toll could stretch past 11,000, as more than 7,400 additional reports are still awaiting laboratory confirmation and investigation. Many of the newly reported cases have come from Michigan and Ohio, and local health departments are reporting more than 7,000 in those states alone. At least 308 people have been hospitalized. Despite the spike in cases, Health and...
  • I Reported on Flock’s Cameras. Now I’m One of the System’s Mistakes

    07/23/2026 12:11:44 PM PDT · by algore · 30 replies
    the drive ^ | Joel Feder
    Typically I report the news, but sometimes, rarely, I am the news. That time just came. Millions of people saw the story about my wife and I getting surrounded by the police after errors made by law enforcement and Flock Safety’s systems led authorities to believe I had performed grand theft auto with a $155,000 Range Rover. The body cam footage of the situation went viral. It was just weeks before my encounter with the law that we had an episode of The Drivecast featuring security expert and Ent.AI CISO Matt Hurewitz talking about how license plate cameras are tracking...
  • Alaska wants to seize a pilot’s plane over a 6-pack of beer. Supreme Court will decide

    07/20/2026 1:55:56 PM PDT · by algore · 75 replies
    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to review an Alaska bush pilot’s claims that state authorities have tried to illegally seize his $95,000 airplane after a passenger brought a six-pack of beer on a flight bound for a dry village. The pilot, Kenneth Jouppi, sued to block his plane’s seizure after he was convicted of an alcohol-related misdemeanor charge. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled in the state’s favor that Jouppi’s plane was subject to criminal forfeiture laws. On Monday, however, the nation’s highest court agreed to hear Jouppi’s case. He argues that taking his 1969 Cessna would violate...
  • Remand reform would help solve 'prison overcrowding crisis', report says [Ireland]

    07/20/2026 10:33:15 AM PDT · by Olog-hai · 9 replies
    RTÉ News ^ | Monday, 20 Jul 2026 14:15
    The bail system in Ireland is “operating in an opaque, haphazard manner” which risks eroding the rights to liberty and to a fair trial, the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) has said. The IPRT has argued that reforming current bail systems and reducing the number of people on remand in prison would help solve the prison “overcrowding crisis overnight”. It said a reliance on pre-trial detention for minor offenses is putting “unnecessary strain” on Ireland’s overcrowded prisons as it called for the establishment of an “adult bail support scheme” modeled on a youth justice scheme of intensive supervision which saw...
  • George Thorogood - One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer | Live at Capitol Theatre (1984)

    07/19/2026 5:32:26 PM PDT · by Pol-92064 · 32 replies
    Youtube.com ^ | 01/01/2008 | George Thorugood
    Explore the sound of George Thorogood with “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer -
  • Ireland unlikely to end new HIV transmission by 2030 - report

    07/15/2026 12:01:32 PM PDT · by Olog-hai · 9 replies
    RTÉ News ^ | Wednesday, 15 Jul 2026 19:16
    There has been an increase in the number of new HIV cases in Ireland recently, with the number of new cases back to pre-COVID levels. HIV Ireland says that the country now has the second highest transmission rate per capita in Europe. A new report by the organization, which was developed with clinicians, researchers, advocates and people with lived experience from across Ireland and the UK, said that Ireland is unlikely to achieve its objective of ending new HIV transmission by 2030. […] Professor Yvonne Gilleece, a consultant in HIV medicine, has said that Ireland needs to increase testing rates...
  • You may actually like eating bugs

    07/15/2026 10:12:18 AM PDT · by algore · 72 replies
    Insects are not typically considered food in Western society, and many would probably balk at the idea of chowing down an insect bar (though gym bros might be excited at the idea of a new low-fat source of protein). However, the participants in a recent study were actually more likely to prefer an insect protein bar over a cereal bar. “Insect-based food, a potential solution for the escalating global food demand, faces consumer acceptance challenges in some regions,” a team wrote in the Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics study. “This article aims to understand the physiological reactions to an...
  • Former GOP Champion Bill Kristol: ‘Abolish ICE Now’

    07/14/2026 7:55:35 PM PDT · by Olog-hai · 95 replies
    Breitbart ^ | 14 Jul 2026 | Neil Munro
    William Kristol, the NeverTrump icon and supporter of President George Bush, wants to destroy the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency that protects Americans from nation-changing, wage-slashing mass migration. “Abolish ICE. Now,” Kristol posted on Monday, prompting a vigorous response from ordinary Americans […] On Tuesday, Kristol celebrated the news that the Department of Homeland Security has temporarily halted the detention of migrants in vehicle stops, following the second fatal shooting of an illegal migrant driver:If ICE is telling the truth here, the lesson should be not be to declare victory (ok, take one minute to enjoy the victory), but to...
  • Teacher admits to having sex with boy, 16, as she gets sweetheart deal, splits from hubby

    07/14/2026 6:47:16 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 95 replies
    New York Post ^ | July 13, 2026 | Chris Bradford
    A Washington teacher has admitted having sex with a 16-year-old boy in a sweetheart deal that drastically cuts any time behind bars — as it emerged she is divorcing her husband, who first exposed her twisted behavior. Mackenzie Naught, 25, had faced five years in prison after being charged with sexual misconduct with a minor for romping with the teen from a neighboring school in her truck — soon after she started her job teaching first grade at St. John Elementary School. But the now-fired teacher pleaded guilty Friday in a deal that means she now faces a maximum of...