Donald Trump started off his Saturday morning with a mean-spirited and racist attack on Congressman Elijah Cummings and the West Baltimore district he represents. CNN’s Victor Blackwell wasn’t having it.

The president singled out Cummings — who notably chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, one of several investigating Trump’s conduct — in a string of morning tweets. He called the Congressman “a brutal bully” and labeled his district as a “rat and rodent infested mess” where “no human being would want to live[.]”

Even for a president who seems to savor stepping over the line, the harsh and offensive language Trump leveled at an American city where actual Americans live — not to mention the Congressman who represents them — struck a nerve. Nowhere was this more evident than on CNN. Read more…

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Cat burglars? Out. Bear burglars? In.

One sneaky bear proved the lengths to which its kind would go to get some sweet sweet noms. A Colorado couple affixed a bird feeder to their backyard shed, in a kind move for birds. They knew that bears were prevalent in their area, so they also attached a bell to the feeder in the hopes that the noise would dissuade any non-bird creatures looking to feed. 

The bell was not enough. The couple (seemingly from safely within their home) captured one bear’s feats on film, in which it performs some seriously impressive acrobatics to get its big ol’ paws on that bird food.  Read more…

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News alert: your Siri voice recordings may not be entirely private.

According to The Guardian, Apple hires contractors to listen to Siri recordings in order to improve the accuracy and quality of the voice assistant.

These contractors “regularly hear confidential medical information, drug deals, and recordings of couples having sex, as part of their job providing quality control, or ‘grading,'” the report claims.

Like Amazon and Google, both of which also employ humans to review some recordings from their respective Alexa and Assistant, Apple doesn’t disclose that real people review Siri recordings, either.  Read more…

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It might be time to accept that the city of Las Vegas is now lost to us humans. It belongs to the grasshoppers now.

Swarms of the winged insect have overrun the Nevada city in the past week, making parts of Sin City look like they’ve been inflicted with a Biblical plague. But these aren’t locusts; they’re desert-native pallid-winged grasshoppers, and they’re behaving normally.

That’s what Nevada’s state entomologist Jeff Knight told CNN. The insect’s numbers grow following wet winters and springs, and those increased numbers are in evidence when they make their annual migration. 

“We’ll have flights about this time of the year, migrations, and they’ll move northward,” Knight said. Read more…

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Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10 won’t be arriving by its lonesome self.

In addition to the new stylus-equipped Android smartphone, Samsung will likely also announce a new smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch Active 2, at its Unpacked event on Aug. 7.

Images and details of the unreleased Galaxy Watch Active 2 were published by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and uncovered by Droid Life.

Like the first-generation Galaxy Watch Active, the second-gen version will sport a round display with Samsung’s signature Tizen OS designed for circular displays.

More about Samsung, Wearables, Fitness, Smartwatches, and Unpacked

Google Chrome might be the most popular browser, but it has one extremely annoying bad habit: constantly asking if you want the website you’re visiting to be able to send you notifications.

These intrusive pop-ups are not only annoying as hell (I can confidently say I have never wanted any website to send me useless desktop notifications), but incredibly disruptive. 

If you’re sick of these notifications, there is an easy way to make them go away for good — if you know where to look. 

1. Launch Chrome’s settings menu

Start by launching Chrome’s settings menu, which you can find in the menu next to the address bar. Scroll to the bottom and select “Settings.” Read more…

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Mashable bites into a creamy, nutty, gooey, and sometimes stinky world during our fist-ever Cheese Week.

Melted cheese over potatoes, cured meats, crusty bread, and other vegetables and delectables. What’s not to like? In the Instagram age, raclette is the perfect food to capture the gooey goodness of cheese. 

Looking on Instagram, raclette is a hit. In Europe last year it was one of the most Instagrammed foods. Here in the U.S., it’s popular throughout the country, especially with millennials and women, according to social media analytics company TalkWalker.

The rise of raclette is connected to the power of social media and the liking masses hungry for gooey cheese. The online appeal of the cheese preparation is crucial to its growing popularity. It looks good on a curated feed, perfectly melted and organized just so with its trays, individual roasting tools, and layers of goo cascading over food. And it’s easy to make, literally you just heat it up.  Read more…

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Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein feels like something totally out of the blue, a bizarre little gift bestowed upon millions of unsuspecting Netflix subscribers around the world. But if its creator has its way, there could be more where that came from.

Speaking over the phone to Mashable, writer John Levenstein revealed that the 32-minute special had initially been conceived of as an anthology — and that he hopes it could launch one still. 

“We would love to do more different kinds of plays. Not more Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein, but we’d love to do more plays at some point,” he said. Read more…

More about Netflix, David Harbour, Frankenstein S Monster S Monster Frankenstein, Entertainment, and Movies Tv Shows

If FaceApp’s mega-viral age filter has taught us anything, it’s that the right selfie effects can take on a life of their own.

Now, Instagram may be testing a new augmented reality feature that essentially puts you in front of a green screen. 

The feature was uncovered by app researcher Jane Manchun Wong, who has a solid track record of digging up unreleased features in Instagram. 

The feature, which appears to be called “background,” allows you to select an image from your camera roll that you can then use as the background for the Stories camera. After you’ve selected a photo, your actual surroundings are replaced by the image, according to screenshots shared by Wong. Read more…

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A viral video of uncooked flesh making a run for it could be pulling your leg. 

The video, which was originally posted in a Facebook group and on the Chinese social media platform Weibo in June before making its way to YouTube and American media, shows a plate of raw meat at what appears to be a hot pot restaurant. Dubbed the “zombie chicken,” one of the pieces still moves in the video, and manages to pull itself off the plate and convulses to the floor while the person recording shrieked. 

It’s pretty freaking unsettling. 

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