Remember the PA system that blasted messages to every room in your elementary school? Yeah, Alexa is that now. 

You can now use Amazon’s voice assistant to broadcast messages to all the Echo devices in your house, and whatever unsuspecting souls happen to be near them. 

Amazon announced the new feature earlier this month, but it’s finally fully rolled out, according to the company’s newsletter. 

It’s pretty straightforward. Just tell your echo to “Announce” or “Broadcast,” followed by your important words. 

Unlike the Echo’s person-to-person calling, the audio isn’t live. Echo devices throughout your household will play a short chime, followed by a recording of your announcement (in your voice).  Read more…

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Timothée Chalamet is definitely having a moment, making waves with both Lady Bird and Call Me By Your Name — the latter of which earned him an Academy Award nomination

His next foray, Hot Summer Nights, is a coming-of-age film set in the ’90s. It finds Chalamet spending the summer on Cape Code, getting mixed up in weed, falling in love, and public bathroom make outs. The film hits theaters July 27th.  Read more…

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With Special Counsel Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein’s firings looking increasingly more likely, our great Congress is so far responding with a collective ¯_(ツ)_/¯.

Ah, checks and balances — we hardly knew ye!

Americans, on the other hand, are far more ready to mobilize if and when the moment comesMoveOn.org and over two dozen activist organizations from across the political spectrum have collected over 335,000 RSVPs for nationwide protests should Mueller or Rosenstein be fired.

While organizers have been planning protests for months, the number of RSVPs has grown in recent weeks, as Trump refuses to cooperate with the Special Counsel. Read more…

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After President Trump’s tweet describing former FBI director James Comey as a “slimeball,” Merriam-Webster dictionary says searches for the word are up by 60,000 percent.

The president called Comey a “proven LEAKER & LIAR” in a series of tweets improperly strung together on Friday morning. 

“He lied to Congress under OATH,” Trump tweeted. “He is a weak and untruthful slime ball who was, as time has proven, a terrible Director of the FBI.”

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Slouching at your desk isn’t the only way to ruin your back and posture. If you carry a backpack, you probably know that better than most. Carrying around a laptop, lunch, chargers, thermoses, and any other stuff you think you might need on a daily basis will definitely cause some strain on your back and shoulders.

According to the America Association of Neurological Surgeons, an estimated 75-85 percent of Americans will experience back pain throughout their lives. Having our bags weigh us down on the regular probably doesn’t help either.  Read more…

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Law enforcement agencies — despite protests from privacy advocates — have long lobbied to get access to your smartphone.

Now a mysterious U.S. startup called Grayshift — which reportedly has an ex-Apple security engineer on staff — is providing iPhone unlocking tools to cops, according to Motherboard.

GrayKey is a box that measures four by four inches wide, and features two Lightning cables at the front, as per a post by security software company Malwarebytes. 

According to Forbes, Grayshift claims the device only works with iOS 10 and 11, with iOS 9 compatibility slated for the future. Devices ranging from the iPhone X to the 6 are supported, as are various iPad models. Read more…

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About 64 pounds of plastic trash killed a young sperm whale that washed up in southeast Spain, according to scientists. 

The whale, whose body landed in Cape Palos on Feb. 27, most likely died because it couldn’t digest the plastic trash, fish nets, and garbage bags found in its digestive system. At 33 feet long, the whale only weighed 13,000 pounds. Adult sperm whales can weigh up to 120,000 pounds. 

According to officials in the Murcia region, scientists even found a plastic drum in the whale’s stomach. Unable to pass the garbage, the whale suffered severe inflammation called peritonitis until its death.   Read more…

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Uber keeps updating its app and adding features this week. Its latest announcement Thursday is all about safety.

Now within the ride-hailing app riders can pick up to five people to list as “Trusted Contacts.” For every ride those selected friends and family can be notified about your trip — or you can set it to send your travel information only for night rides.

A new 911 button on the app will connect you to police in case of emergency. Once clicked the button will show your real-time location to emergency operators. A driver version of the emergency button is coming soon.

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Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, and Nate were so destructive, no other hurricanes will be given the same names. 

The World Meteorological Organization announced Thursday that it’s retiring the names Harvey, Irma, Maria, and Nate from its rotation because of 2017’s devastating season. It’s replacing the names with Harold, Idalia, Margot, and Nigel instead.

WMO names each hurricane based on an alphabetical rotation of names, alternating between male and female names. The selection of names for each rotation is usually used every six years, so we won’t see Harold, Idalia, Margot, and Nigel come into use until 2023. If a hurricane is especially fatal and causes significant damage, its name is taken off the rotation and replaced with a different one. Read more…

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Tesla has been removed from the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into a fatal crash of a Tesla Model X in the Bay Area. 

The advisory group pulled the electric car maker from the investigation after Tesla continued to release information about the crash, including a post on the company blog confirming that the vehicle was in Autopilot mode. The NTSB said the removal was a rare move, but Tesla’s information releases “do not further transportation safety or serve the public interest.”

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