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As far as Valentine's Day gifts go, the standard choices usually include things like chocolates, a bouquet of roses, or a stuffed animal holding a heart that says "I Love You." (Yawn.) You can do better. Combine the idea of a stuffed animal and flowers by snagging an arrangement composed entirely of plushies.

SEE ALSO: Gift ideas for people in long-distance relationships

You read that rightPlush bouquets are now totally a thing on ThinkGeek, and we're digging them. Each themed arrangement features different sets of plushies for whatever your boo is into. From a wiggle of Corgis to a kindle of kittens (yes those are their proper collective nouns) and even an arrangement of cuddly unicorns, these make a unique Valentine's Day gift that you won't have to worry about watering.  Read more...

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Where do you get a giant plane-sized treadmill that goes 100 mph? Good question. I'm going to answer a different one.


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Plus: "Meltdown" madness, a 787 breaking a speed record, and the Logan Paul-prompted YouTube reckoning.


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Another billionaire has some harsh words for Facebook.

Speaking at a dinner at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, George Soros delivered a scathing speech in which he said Facebook and Google were a "menace" to society and called for increased government regulation of both companies.

"The internet monopolies have neither the will nor the inclination to protect society against the consequences of their actions. That turns them into a menace and it falls to the regulatory authorities to protect society against them," Soros said, according to a transcript published on his website.  Read more...

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As if we needed more proof that monetary value is arbitrary and capitalism is based on a lie we all choose to believe, a digital Pepe the Frog trading card was just sold at an IRL auction for some serious cash.

The one-of-a-kind Homer Pepe sold to the auction's lucky winner for 350,000 in the digital currency PepeCash. At the time of sale, that amounted to freaking $39,000. 

Homer Pepe is just like Homer Simpson. But, ya know, frighteningly green with a Pepe smile. To top it off, the beloved cartoon character turned monster is positioned on a background of Simpson clouds!

More about Memes, Bitcoin, Blockchain, Digital Art, and Pepe The Frog


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The Midwest and East Coast endured a record cold end to 2017 and start of 2018. Residents there should get ready to do it again, while those living in normally cold places, like the Arctic and Alaska, should prepare to see their weather flip back to much above average temperatures, along with the havoc wreaked by melting ice and snow at this time of year. 

To get a sense of weather conditions in the long range, meteorologists use ensemble models, which consist of a computer model that is run many times with varying initial conditions each time. Those models now show a remarkable consensus between the ensembles of two major computer models that forecasters use, the Global Forecast System, or GFS, and the European Model, known as the ECMWF.  Read more...

More about Climate, Polar Vortex, Extreme Weather, Cold, and La Nina


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German shepherds are well known for making great guard dogs, but sometimes, they're a little too effective at protecting their owners from harm. 

YouTuber Pomegranate Sunshine uploaded a clip to their channel on Tuesday of their protective pup barking away in the yard. Upon further investigation, the man discovered that their dog was barking at a lonely bird feather. 

"Whatchu got," he asked the dog. "Is it a robber?"

Nope. Just a feather.

Hey, maybe the dog didn't like how the feather smelled, or maybe it just really hates birds.  Read more...

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Ford is getting experimental. 

It acquired two companies to jumpstart an incubator for transit ideas called Ford X.

The new team (with a name reminiscent of Google X) will look into new products and services with a focus on mobility businesses like Chariot, the ride-sharing shuttle service it bought in 2016.

As part of this focus on experimenting in mobility services, Ford announced Thursday it had acquired vehicle connectivity platform Autonomic and TransLoc, a software company that provides real-time data for riders and transit systems. Read more...

More about Startups, Ford, Chariot, Incubator, and Public Transit


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The artificial intelligence that crops your Twitter photos is getting a lot smarter. 

In a new blog post, Twitter machine learning researchers Zehan Wang and Lucas Theis describe the company's new approach to cropping your photos into preview thumbnails.

Twitter has been working on this tool for a while, but the post is the first detailed description of researchers' methods and process. The feature is currently rolling out to all Twitter users, and aims to put an end to awkwardly cropped thumbnails. 

Previously, when deciding which part of your images to display as the preview image, Twitter looked for the most prominent face. For pictures containing no faces, Twitter displayed the center of the image. If you've ever seen an awkward thumbnail of a cat's neck or a white wall, that process was responsible.  Read more...

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February 4 and that big football game we all know and love is in just two short weeks. Yes, January is somehow almost over. If you don't have tickets and are staying home to throw a watch party (and sob over not being there) at least do it in high def. 

There are a ton of HDTV deals today from Samsung, LG, and TCL with that crisp-quality experience to make you feel as close to being at the game as possible without actually being there. If you're the only one in the house that cares about the Patriots or the Eagles, at least you can get a new Dell laptop and Bluetooth headphones to throw your own party. Read more...

More about Samsung, Smartphones, Football, Lg, and Oscars


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A very special total lunar eclipse will grace skies above the Western United States on January 31. 

That evening, a "super blue blood" moon will rise, giving millions along the West Coast of the United States a chance to witness a special kind of total lunar eclipse.

The full moon will pass into Earth's dark shadow in the early morning on Jan. 31, making the moon look at if it's glowing red, hence the name, "blood moon."

Totality should start at about 4:51 a.m. PT.  

“Weather permitting, the West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii will have a spectacular view of totality from start to finish,” NASA's Gordon Johnston said in a statement.  Read more...

More about Space, Science, Supermoon, The Moon, and Blood Moon


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OK, yes, the HomePod sounds great. After spending a good chunk of the afternoon with Apple's new Siri-controlled speaker, listening to tunes in the company's tiny Tribeca apartment meeting space, I'm more convinced than ever that Apple has built an aural triumph in its initial entry to the "smart speaker" space.

What I'm less convinced of, however, is whether customers will care. The success of the Echo Dot — Amazon's puck-shaped smart speaker that definitely de-emphasizes the second word of that description — tells me that anyone who's been won over by the category mostly just wants to get the power of voice command in more places. And audio? A glorified intercom will do. Or, hey, just connect your own speakers. Read more...

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After alluding to Jack’s death for 2 seasons, This Is Us fans witnessed the family home catch fire due to a faulty crockpot.

The final moments of Jack's life will be portrayed in the series' special post-Super Bowl episode airing on Feb. 4th. Read more...

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Bananacoin is a cryptocurrency that is linked to banana prices. It’s investing in Laotian banana farms in exchange for digital “tokens." One token based on Ethereum is equal to the export price of 1 kilogram of bananas. Investing in bananacoin could be for a good cause, considering the most common types of banana are endangered.  Read more...

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An anonymous "current or former Lyft employee" has alleged online that his or her colleagues had improperly accessed the ride history and account details of romantic partners, various celebrities, and, yes, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. 

So reports The Information, which broke the story Thursday afternoonLyft, for its part, is taking this claim seriously enough that it has launched an internal investigation. 

"The specific allegations in this post would be a violation of Lyft’s policies and a cause for termination, and have not been raised with our Legal or Executive teams," noted a Lyft spokesperson over email. "We are conducting an investigation into the matter."  Read more...

More about Privacy, Uber, Mark Zuckerberg, Lyft, and Ride Hail


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Apple is working on a major revamp of its iBooks reading app on iOS devices, Bloomberg reported Thursday. 

The iBooks app was renamed to just Books in iOS 11.3, which was recently released to developers, but the real changes are coming in the following months, according to the report. 

These will include a simpler interface, a look that resembles the App Store, a dedicated tab for audio books and a new section called "Reading Now". Read more...

More about Apple, Books, Redesign, Ibooks, and Tech


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Elephant seals really know how to unwind. Read more...

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To avoid a rather sizable puddle of rainwater, a Reddit user employed a helpful piece of Tesla technology, the "Summon" feature.

The video, uploaded Thursday, shows a Tesla Model X inching out of a mildly-flooded parking space and then opening its front door for the driver. 

The summon feature certainly isn't new — it was introduced in an early 2016 software update — but it's an instance of how Tesla's self-driving hardware and software are being used in a functional manner, though avoiding puddles is hardly a major solution to a pressing human problem.  Read more...

More about Tech, Tesla, Summon, Tesla Autopilot, and Tesla Model X


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 Google is rolling out a few new features to its Google Flights search engine to help travelers tackle some of the more frustrating aspects of air travel – delays and the complexities of the cheaper, Basic Economy fares. With the regard to delays, Google Flights won’t just be pulling in information from the airlines directly, however – it will take advantage of its… Read More


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The latest Google Chrome update, announced Wednesday, includes an update that allows users to mute super annoying autoplay audio on websites — forever. 

Previously, a chrome user could right click on a website's tab to reveal a menu that included "Mute Tab." With the update, right clicking on the tab now reveals "Mute Site."

This small update, however, will make a big difference. Many websites autoplay videos and blast us all with undesired sound. Now, any site (as opposed to a specific page within a site) can be permanently shut up.  Read more...

More about Tech, Google, Chrome Os, Blocking Tools, and Autoplay Sound


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