Random News Stories

[Leo Enticknap]

The conclusion to the Santa Monica big cat flap was pure Laurel and Hardy / Keystone Kops. An official found the mountain lion, fired a tranquilizer dart at it, but missed, whereupon kitty promptly disappeared for another 2-3 hours, before eventually being located, curled up and asleep, in someone's front yard a couple of blocks from 14th and Montana.

Another cat story: a stray cat literally upstaged the stars of a ballet performance of (I'm guessing Prokofiev's, though this is unstated) Romeo and Juliet in Izmir, Turkey. Video here, but the site won't let me embed it.

It reminds me of one of my favorite early British films, Mary Jane's Mishap, in which a cat is clearly the star of the show; but many people see it without even noticing that the cat is there.

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[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Bobcats are spotted in Nashville quite frequently. A few years back one was sleeping in someone's front yard just a few miles from me. It was tranquilized and then relocated. There are many rivers and lots of hills around here, and Bobcats seem to prefer that.


https://www.wsmv.com/2026/05/15/bobc...-neighborhood/

[Leo Enticknap]

Source.

Kylie Minogue and Quentin Tarantino spotted filming in Welsh seaside town

June 22, 2026, 9:46 a.m. ET

Locals were left rubbing their eyes in disbelief when they saw pop superstar Kylie Minogue and Hollywood legend Quentin Tarantino filming a movie in several locations at the seaside.

The singing star and directing icon were spotted in Porthcawl shooting scenes of a funeral at Newton Church and a wake at the Saltwater Inn for a new movie directed by Jamie Adams, starring a Welsh cast alongside the famous leads.

Kylie, who has relatives in nearby Maesteg, was seen filming with the Pulp Fiction director at the seafront bar and restaurant, where they laughed and sang together.

The film is being helmed by Welsh director Adams who recently worked with the Oscar-winning director on the movie Only What We Carry, in which Tarantino acted alongside comedy star Simon Pegg and French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg.

A number of well-known Welsh actors took part in the Porthcawl shoot including Siwan Morris, William Thomas, Julian Lewis Jones and Karen Paullada.

Porthcawl Male Choir were also invited to take part in the shoot.

Choir member Chris Evans posted in the Porthcawl Community Facebook group: “The PMC were asked to provide extras for the day and assist with the singing in the church and at the wake in the Saltwater Inn. It was an absolutely fantastic day.”

On Friday evening Hollywood royalty Tarantino was spotted at a hotel in Cardiff, where he happily chatted with those who stopped him to talk.

BBC Wales reported: ‘The 64-year-old American was seen enjoying a drink with a film crew in the Parkgate Hotel as the venue hosted several parties and events on Friday night.

In an interview with US entertainment bible Variety magazine about his movie Only What We Carry, Welsh director Adam spoke about how he reached out to Tarantino with an outline and personal letter. He said he didn’t expect a response, but then two weeks later, Tarantino’s agent requested a Zoom.

“Then you hear his voice,” told the US magazine. “It’s like Disneyland for filmmakers.

“Tarantino proved to be an exceptional actor. He was wonderful. Curious. Collaborative. He loves actors. He loves cinema history. Being in France making something that felt inspired by Eric Rohmer excited him.”

The film was shot entirely in Deauville, a seaside town in Normandy. Adams described the atmosphere as “summer camp,” with no egos and a collaborative spirit across the six-day shoot. Because filming took place at the end of summer, the town was unusually quiet. “It almost felt like a studio backlot. The town square looked like a set. It felt magical,” said Adams who has recently directed movies starring James McAvoy and Martin Freeman.

The preparation must have been quite hard, learning the Welsh for every R-rated expletive in the dictionary!

[Leo Enticknap]

Here. My emphasis.

Moviegoer on drunken rampage in cinema showing The Odyssey arrested after bursting into crowded auditorium looking for his vape

By ALEXA CIMINO, US REPORTER
Published: 11:19 EDT, 26 July 2026 | Updated: 11:19 EDT, 26 July 2026

A drunken moviegoer went on a wild rampage at a Florida cinema showing The Odyssey, bursting into an auditorium as he searched for his missing vape, deputies said.

Nickolas Vanderplate, 21, allegedly ran screaming in front of a screen at Regal Royal Palm Beach, which was showing Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster The Odyssey that night, before ripping an emergency exit door from its hinges on Wednesday, July 22.

The Loxahatchee man then tried to climb a tree, scaled a chain-link fence and hid on the roof of a neighboring building, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.

The chaos began near the cinema bar, where staff said Vanderplate appeared heavily intoxicated and struggled to remain standing, CBS 12 reported.

He leaned on another customer for support, knocked over the moviegoer's drink and slurred his words, according to staff.

The situation spiraled out of control when theater managers approached Vanderplate and attempted to help him.

Vanderplate bolted across the lobby, slipped and crashed into a wall before charging into auditorium two.

He ran in front of the screen and began screaming as he frantically searched for his vape, staff told investigators.

Vanderplate then raced out of the auditorium and slammed into a locked emergency exit at full speed, according to deputies.

The impact ripped the door from its hinges and broke it away from the frame.

Theater management estimated that replacing the destroyed door would cost approximately $2,000.

Vanderplate fled the cinema and attempted to climb a tree before scaling a nearby chain-link fence, deputies said.

He then climbed onto the roof of a neighboring building in an apparent effort to hide.

Deputies found Vanderplate on the building, and cinema employees identified him as the man responsible for the disturbance.

The highly anticipated adaptation of Homer’s ancient Greek epic opened in theaters on July 17 and earned a staggering $264.1 million worldwide during its first weekend.

The $250 million production stars Matt Damon as Odysseus alongside Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o and Charlize Theron.

Nolan’s first movie since his Oscar-winning Oppenheimer follows Odysseus on his treacherous journey home after the Trojan War.

The movie earned $124.5 million in the US and Canada alone, delivering Nolan’s strongest global opening since The Dark Knight Rises in 2012.

Vanderplate was taken into custody and transported to Palms West Hospital for medical clearance because of his level of intoxication and the falls he suffered during the rampage.

He was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail after being discharged from the hospital.

Vanderplate was charged with criminal mischief causing more than $1,000 in property damage.

Daily Mail has reached out to Regal Cinemas and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office for comment.

If I remember my high school classics lessons correctly, breaking the fourth wall and addressing the audience directly was a big part of ancient Greek theater, so maybe he was just trying to get into the spirit of it...

[Frank Cox]

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/bill-oliver-ai-speech

Canadian politician repeatedly reads out AI prompts in speech: 'Here’s a more natural flowing version'


In the New Brunswick legislative assembly, MLA Bill Oliver read out a line from a prepared text that started: ‘Here’s a more natural flowing version of that section that reads like a legislative speech...’
A New Brunswick politician has chalked up a dubious world’s first for Canada by apparently reading out AI prompts in an official speech.

In a June 9 speech to the legislative assembly, Progressive Conservative Bill Oliver read out the following line from a prepared text: “Here’s a more natural flowing version of that section that reads like a legislative speech rather than a series of short points.”

While it’s certainly not the first time a politician has been caught using AI to write a speech, this does appear to be the first time that the politician in question didn’t bother to remove the telltale signs of the act before reading the speech into the public record.

See the gaffe (and others like it) in the video above, or read the transcript, below.

This is Canadian politician Bill Oliver.

“Here’s a more natural flowing version of that section that reads like a legislative speech rather than a series of short points.”

This is from a June 9 speech delivered in the New Brunswick Legislative Assembly. And it seems to be Oliver reading out the prompts from an AI engine.

What’s more, he did it several times throughout the speech. Three times, to be precise. Here are the other two.

“This version should … here’s a more developed and flowing version of the section.”

“This section ends roughly …”

And, since we can now assume at least some of the speech was written by an AI engine, it does indeed carry many of the hallmarks of AI-generated copy.

One classic trait of AI-written content is that it’s repetitive, and often relies on formulaic bullet points. And there’s a lot of formulaic bullet points in this speech.

“Participation is not the same thing as decision-making. Representation is not the same thing as authority. Advocacy is not the same thing as the power to alter rates.”
Article content

“Affordability is the defining issue of our time. Seniors. Families. Small businesses. It affects farmers. It affects young people trying to purchase their first homes.”

AI engines are also notorious for writing copy that is technically correct — at least in an orthographic sense — but doesn’t actually have any real substance.

That’s true of a lot political speeches, I guess, but there’s a whole five minute section in which Oliver just outlines how governments work.

“The reality is that every decision made by government carries a cost. Every office requires resources. Every organization structure requires support. Every new administrative body regardless of how well-intentioned not only to establish itself, but to sustain itself.”

Oliver, a Progressive Conservative, sits in the opposition benches. And the whole point of this speech was to criticize a bill that would create a new government position known as the energy sector consumer advocate.

But several sections of it become extremely ironic given that we can now assume it was probably created by a computer.

At multiple points, Oliver expounds about his solemn duty to do his work as a legislator. Rather than, say, outsourcing it to an AI engine.

“Our duty is to look beyond the press release, beyond the talking points, and beyond the title of the bill itself.”

Also, this is a key point: Oliver doesn’t seem to be aware that he’s reading out AI prompts. And neither is anybody else in the Legislative Assembly.

He’s delivering a speech to whole rows of rival politicians who would benefit greatly from making him look foolish, and they’re apparently so tuned out to what he’s saying that not a single one of them caught it in the moment.

It wouldn’t be until weeks after the fact that this would be brought to public attention largely thanks to a post on the New Brunswick subreddit.

Now unfortunately, this has rapidly become one of the most widely circulated pieces of parliamentary discourse in New Brunswick history, if not Canadian history.

Clips of Bill Oliver reading the AI prompts have been viewed millions of times all over the world, and been featured in viral posts by tech websites such as Ars Technica and Futurism.

And according to ArsTechnica, this is a dubious Canadian world record of sorts. Plenty of politicians, including Canadian politicians, have been caught using AI to write speeches or campaign literature.

But this is history’s first known instance of a politician reading out the AI prompts in a public speech without even realizing they were doing it. There will probably be many more.

The boldface above is my emphasis.

It was several weeks after this so-called speech before a random member of the public noticed this and posted it on reddit.

*boggle*

[Frank Cox]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-heavy-metal-concert-bruyere-health-9.7289670

The Scepter put on a show to remember at Bruyère Health
Hospitals aren't the usual venue for a high-energy hard rock concert, but that's exactly what took place at Ottawa's Bruyère Health last week, helping one longtime patient live out his dream of attending a heavy metal show. The Scepter put on a show to remember at Bruyère Health


Jenna Legge · CBC News · Posted: Jul 31, 2026 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 8 hours ago






Tim Berry lived out his rock 'n' roll fantasy by attending a concert by Ottawa heavy metal band The Scepter at Bruyère Health, where he's a patient. (Bruyère Health) Hospitals aren't the usual venue for a high-energy hard rock concert, but that's exactly what took place at Ottawa's Bruyère Health last week, helping one longtime patient live out his dream of attending a heavy metal show.
With a colourful light show, hair-blowing fans and aggressive headbanging, a board room at the hospital was transformed into a rock club last Tuesday after 27-year-old Tim Berry expressed his wish to rock out there.
Roshene Lawson, a clinical chaplain at Bruyère Health, said she was visiting Berry after he'd received some bad health news and was dwelling on the things he'd missed out on.
"I said, 'Well, we can talk about all the stuff you've lost, or we can talk about how you want to live for however much longer you're around," Lawson said.


The Scepter performs for patients at Bruyère Health on July 21. (Bruyère Health)
What Berry wanted was to attend a heavy metal show. Lawson called Scott McClinton, owner of hard rock venue the Dominion Tavern in the ByWard Market, who in turn recruited local band The Scepter.
"It was a quick yes, and then he reached out to The Scepter, and they gave a quick yes," Lawson told CBC’s All In A Day. "All of a sudden, people in heavy metal outfits with guitars and stuff are asking where the chaplain is."
Berry's condition was deemed too fragile to leave the hospital, so the crew decided to bring the show to him. With Berry’s approval, it turned into a full-blown event for patients at Bruyère Health on July 21, coming together within a week.


Heavy metal band The Scepter quickly accepted the invitation to put on a show at Bruyère Health. (Bruyère Health)
"He had tears and I joked with him, I said, 'Are the tears because it's so bloody loud?'" Lawson said. "And he laughed and he said, ‘No, I'm happy'"
Lawson said even the "tough heavy metal guys" had tears in their eyes, too.
"It was absolutely emotional," McClinton recalled. "I never thought I'd cry during a metal show, but that definitely happened."

[Leo Enticknap]

Here.

Door Ripped Off Boeing 787 Dreamliner at One of the World’s Most Remote Airports Leaving Engineers Flummoxed

One of the main cabin doors of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by South American airline LATAM has been ripped clean off the fuselage during a mishap at one of the most remote airports in the world… And now, engineers have to work out how they are going to fix the airplane with only limited tools available.

The 12-year-old Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner flew from Santiago de Chile to Mataveri Airport on Easter Island, located 3,759 km off the coast of South America in the South Pacific Ocean, on Friday, May 29, and has been grounded ever since.

Mataveri Airport handles just one or two flights per day and has very limited resources. There isn’t a heavy engineering base at the airport, and carrying out repairs of this magnitude is going to prove incredibly challenging.

As the airport does not have jetbridges, the plane was parked up on a so-called remote stand, and a set of mobile airstairs was attached to the second main cabin door on the left-hand side of the aircraft.

It’s not quite what happened next, but it appears that the aircraft rolled back while the airstairs were still attached. The door was ripped off the frame of the airplane and ended up sitting atop the airstairs.

The 12-year-old plane (registration: CC-BBD) has been grounded on Easter Island ever since, while engineers formulate a plan to try to get it fixed.

The repair work required will depend on whether any structural damage has been caused to the carbon composite fuselage of the plane, although this isn’t the first time this type of accident has occurred to a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and in past incidents, repairs have been fairly straightforward.

The issue is more with the limited resources available at Mataveri Airport.

There has been speculation that LATAM could try to get the aircraft back to Santiago without a cabin door attached, flying the plane unpressurized at low altitude.

Such a plan would require careful coordination with Boeing to ensure that the airplane has the structural strength to withstand a more than five-hour flight over a vast distance of ocean.

There is also speculation that a temporary plug could be installed, allowing this ‘ferry’ flight to take place without any structural integrity issues. The final option would be to fly out a replacement door, specialist engineers, and other equipment to carry out the repairs on Easter Island.

In any case, it appears that this particular Boeing 787 could be grounded for some time.

When an airline has all the necessary equipment at its disposal, however, these types of incidents can be easily remedied. In April, for example, the main cabin door of a China Airlines Airbus A350 was partially ripped off its hinges when it rolled back with the jetbridge still attached at Melbourne Tullamarine Airport.

The plane was only grounded for six days before positioning back to its home base in Taipei, Taiwan, and then returning to commercial service the following day.

In 2023, an American Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner was grounded at Dublin International Airport after Door 2L was completely sheared off when the jetbridge unexpectedly dropped while attached to the plane.

No passengers or crew were onboard the plane when the accident happened… and thankfully, no ground staff were standing below the plane when the door came crashing down onto the tarmac below.

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Annoyingly, the photo appears to show the side with the latches (which would not have been damaged if the door was open when the accident happened), not the hinges, making it impossible to see how much (if any) damage there is to the actual airframe. If the door sheared from the hinges cleanly, I wouldn't have thought that the repair would be too difficult. But if the hinge assemblies pulled and distorted the actual door frame, that is not going to be a simple fix, and will be a serious and pricey challenge in a location like that.

[Leo Enticknap]

Here.

Man builds fire-spouting propane pipe organ
It sounds as metal as it looks.

Andrew Paul

Published Aug 6, 2026 4:05 PM EDT

Pipe organs generate their sound thanks to fluid dynamics, but the “fluid” that makes the music is up to whomever builds the instrument. A traditional organ usually blows air through their pipes, while a calliope relies on heated steam.

Does this mean someone could hypothetically construct a version using propane? Absolutely. Would that make their creation ridiculously flammable? Definitely. Did somebody know all this and intentionally design a propane-powered, flame-belching pipe organ? Yes, of course they did.

YouTuber Sam Bartle, aka Look Mum No Computer, has documented these outlandish musical projects for over a decade. Some produce more conventional results like synthesizers, while others harness vintage Furby toys to surreally serenade listeners. Bartle has intermittently provided updates on his “fire organ” for months, showcasing a trial-and-error approach to designing and building the oddball instrument.

The flames that burst from each copper pipe aren’t responsible for generating the organ’s tones. That honor goes to compressed liquid propane. Igniting the fuel as it leaves the pipes is purely a pyrotechnic flourish, but it certainly leaves an impression.

A previous version of Bartle’s fire organ relied on pilot lights to spark the propane, but those frequently broke and also wasted too much fuel. The current instrument now uses standard spark plugs and ignition coils like those in car engines. Because they’re linked together, Bartle is able to program his MIDI signal to control the gas valve and the ignition, which means each note is paired with its own spout of flame.

A demonstration of the organ’s musicality (around video’s 16:47 mark) reveals why instrument makers have preferred air for centuries. The fire organ certainly works, but it also sounds pretty demonic. Then again, maybe that’s appropriate for this type of invention.

“I know to some, that was an absolutely awful rendition of ‘Toccata and Fugue,’Bartle notes in the video following its performance. “But to me, that shows potential. Serious potential.”

Fast forward to 16'15" to hear it playing - though it's probably best not to if you actually like organ music...

[Harold Hallikainen]

That reminds me a bit of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3oItpVa9fs . I saw this in the USL Engineering Conference room with DTS immersive sound driving maybe 20 speakers. It was great!

[Leo Enticknap]

Here.

Students Skinned a Bear in a Dorm. Cornell Realized It Should Ban That.

After two Cornell University students skinned a black bear in a communal kitchen last year to make a meal, the school changed the rules.

By Miles G. Cohen
Aug. 7, 2026

One Saturday last September, two Cornell University students plopped a bear carcass on a table in a communal dormitory kitchen and began to carve it up. They planned to make “black-bear pastrami,” as one of them described their plans later.

But soon after they put the raw meat in the freezer, a picture of the animal laid out on a camo-colored tarp with its hide stripped began to circulate on social media.

A complaint was lodged against the students and a police report was filed, yet they were cleared of all wrongdoing by the police and the university. Both had hunting licenses and the bear was killed legally, according to state officials.

Now, ahead of another school year, Cornell has expressly banned the processing of wild game in residential kitchens on campus.

Lindsey Knewstub, a spokeswoman for the university, said in a statement that the new policy was meant “to provide clarity regarding what is or is not appropriate to do in a communal kitchen space.”

There have been no other known instances of wild animals being processed in residence halls, Ms. Knewstub added.

For those students who would like to hunt, she said, “there are many certified vendors near and around campus who can work with hunters to process game.”

The school has not identified the two students, but Aaron Chin said he was one of them on a podcast. He did not respond to requests for comment.

Last year on Sept. 5 — the day before the beginning of black-bear hunting season — Mr. Chin said he and his friend, both Cornell students, packed their rifles and drove about two hours east of campus, located in Ithaca, N.Y., to scope out the countryside.

“We were like, ‘Tests aren’t going too crazy, academics are pretty chill — let’s get her done,’” Mr. Chin said on “MeatEater,” a hunting and outdoors podcast, a few weeks after their meat processing had gone viral.

The morning after their initial expedition, the pair shot a bear weighing 120 to 200 pounds near a pine grove in roughly the same area, according to state officials. They hoped to bring the carcass to a friend’s house near campus and make “black-bear pastrami,” Mr. Chin said on the podcast.

But on the drive there, they learned that their friend’s place was unavailable. So they settled on the communal kitchen at Ganędagǫ: Hall at Cornell — but not before reading through the school’s rules and regulations, Mr. Chin said on the podcast.

“We were really diligent,” he said. “We made sure we did everything by the book. We knew we’d be under scrutiny.”

As Mr. Chin and his friend carved up the bear in the first-floor kitchen, some of their peers were studying at nearby tables. Other students walked by and took pictures.

“Most people were really curious,” he said. “Like, ‘Hey, we’d love to try some.’”

“We were just explaining, like, ‘Hey, none of this goes to waste,’” Mr. Chin said.

When they finished packaging the meat, they wrote their names on the bags and stuck them in the community freezer, Mr. Chin said.

The next day, Sept. 7, the university received the complaint and the police report was filed, according to Ms. Knewstub.

Soon afterward, the picture of the bear with its hide stripped started appearing online. Several news reports followed.

“We thought we’d get yelled at by an R.A., maybe,” Mr. Chin said on the podcast, referring to resident advisers at dorms. “But we didn’t expect it to blow up to the extent which it did.”

On Monday, as classes resumed, Mr. Chin said a member of the administration reached out to check on him amid the onslaught of news. Later that day, maintenance employees worked to “fully sanitize” the kitchen and reopen the communal space, Ms. Knewstub said.

The university later determined that Mr. Chin and his friend had not violated the student conduct code or Cornell’s community living standards, and the police did not file charges.

Black-bear hunting season will begin again in some parts of New York on Sept. 12, but Mr. Chin said last year that he had no plans to bring another wild animal to campus.

“I don’t want part two happening. I was kind of asking for it,” he said on the podcast. “We’d probably do it in the woods next time.”

"There have been no other known instances of wild animals being processed in residence halls, Ms. Knewstub added."

There are to me.

This is an almost exact repeat incident of one I was involved in as a student in the fall of 1994. In my final year, I was what the school called a "senior resident student" - in other words, someone who took rota duties to be the first responder to minor incident calls for help or disciplinary issues (noise complaints and smoking triggering detectors, mainly) in exchange for reduced rent. During one otherwise quiet weekday evening there was a knock on my door from a first year girl, visibly shocked, who described "a sort of screaming" and other commotion coming from the corridor opposite hers in the hall of residence.

When I got to the corridor, the first thing that struck me as somewhat unusual was that it was covered in feathers. The campus backed on to common land that included a large lake. To cut a long story short, the residents had decided to catch, roast, and eat a duck from the lake (the instigator came from a farming family and routinely did that at home), and were in the process of doing so when noise this created alarmed their neighbor.

Exactly the same process played out as did at Cornell in this incident. The head of student services went through the college's very thick rule book, but could not find any rule that had actually been violated. One was immediately written, and within a couple of days every student had been sent a letter notifying them of the fact.

However, these guys did not try to get a 120 to 200lb object into their kitchen. The logistics of that must have been quite a challenge.

[Frank Cox]

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260811052857.htm

Ordinary WiFi can now identify you with near-perfect accuracy

WiFi signals could potentially be used to identify people and map their surroundings without relying on cameras or requiring the person being observed to carry a connected device.
"By observing the propagation of radio waves, we can create an image of the surroundings and of persons who are present," says Professor Thorsten Strufe from KASTEL, KIT's Institute of Information Security and Dependability. "This works similar to a normal camera, the difference being that in our case, radio waves instead of light waves are used for the recognition," explains the cybersecurity expert.
Because the technique analyzes radio waves moving through a space, a person does not need to have a phone, smartwatch, or other WiFi enabled device with them. "Thus, it does not matter whether you carry a WiFi device on you or not."
Even turning off your own device would not necessarily prevent the system from working. "It's sufficient that other WiFi devices in your surroundings are active."
Ordinary WiFi Routers Could Become Surveillance Tools
The researchers say the findings reveal a potentially serious privacy risk because WiFi networks are already widespread in homes, offices, restaurants, and public spaces.
"This technology turns every router into a potential means for surveillance," warns Julian Todt from KASTEL. "If you regularly pass by a café that operates a WiFi network, you could be identified there without noticing it and be recognized later -- for example by public authorities or companies."
There are currently simpler ways for intelligence agencies or cybercriminals to monitor people, Felix Morsbach notes. Those methods can include gaining access to existing CCTV systems or connected video doorbells.
"However, the omnipresent wireless networks might become a nearly comprehensive surveillance infrastructure with one concerning property: they are invisible and raise no suspicion."
That possibility makes WiFi based monitoring especially notable. Unlike a visible security camera, a wireless network normally gives people no obvious indication that its radio signals could potentially be used to recognize who is nearby.
No Special Surveillance Hardware Is Needed
Earlier approaches to sensing people through wireless signals have often relied on specialized equipment or more complex measurements. Some techniques, for example, use LIDAR sensors, which measure distances by sending out light and analyzing the reflected signal.
Other WiFi based approaches use channel state information (CSI). This refers to measurements showing how a wireless radio signal changes as it travels through an environment and reflects from walls, furniture, people, and other objects.
The new technique does not require that kind of specialized hardware. According to the researchers, a standard WiFi device is enough.
The method takes advantage of normal communications produced by legitimate users connected to a WLAN. WLAN is another term for a wireless local area network, essentially the WiFi network operating within a home, office, café, or similar location.
Connected devices routinely send information back to the router to help optimize wireless communication. These signals, known as beamforming feedback information (BFI), are transmitted without encryption, meaning that anyone within range can potentially read them.
By analyzing that information, the system can generate images of people from multiple viewpoints. Those images can then be used to determine a person's identity.
Once the machine learning model has already been trained to recognize individuals, the identification process takes only a few seconds.
Researchers Achieved Almost 100% Identification Accuracy
The team tested the technique in a study involving 197 participants. Their system was able to infer people's identities with almost 100% accuracy, regardless of the viewing perspective or the way a person walked.
"The technology is powerful, but at the same time entails risks to our fundamental rights, especially to privacy," emphasizes Strufe.
The researchers are particularly concerned about how such technology could be used in authoritarian countries. They warn that WiFi based identification could potentially be applied to monitor protesters or other groups without the obvious surveillance infrastructure associated with conventional cameras.
Because wireless networks are already so common, the researchers argue that privacy protections should be built into future WiFi technology before these capabilities become easier to exploit at scale.
They are therefore calling for protective measures and privacy safeguards to be incorporated into the forthcoming IEEE 802.11bf WiFi standard.

[Harold Hallikainen]

Interesting! With MIMO antennas and beam forming, it DOES appear a WiFi access point could act as a radar (assuming it can switch from transmit to receive very quickly). A Google AI QSO says we reflect a large portion of incident WiFi signals ( https://share.google/aimode/CpQAucibaFfQRVE6P ).

This reminds me of something I read years ago about using broadcast stations in radar. Instead of sending out a pulse in a specific direction and waiting for its return, the broadcast station "illuminates" a large area and a directional antenna (probably a few small antennas with software beam forming) compare the reflected signal with one received directly to detect objects. Remember the "ghosts" on analog television when a plane flew by?

[Leo Enticknap]

Cat videos beat Harry and Meghan at the box office

How a 74-minute collection of online cat videos beat an Anthony Bourdain biopic and Meghan and Harry’s cookie doc

Published Aug. 11, 2026, 9:45 a.m. ET

While Spider-Man and Odysseus ruled movie theaters over the weekend, one surprise film that snuck in at No. 10 at the box office was “CatVideoFest 2026.”

The 74-minute collection of online cat clips even outperformed A24’s new Anthony Bourdain biopic, “Tony,” (which, to be fair, only opened on six screens) and a Meghan Markle and Prince Harry-produced Girl Scouts documentary, “Cookie Queens” in theaters.

“CatVideoFest 2026” hails from Seattle-based filmmaker Will Braden, who combs through over 15,000 kitty clips online to curate the collection. (Even the movie’s IMDB page says the film stars, “a bunch of cats.”)

The cat video series has been coming out for years, but had its best opening over the weekend, with $568,414 from 255 screens for a robust $2,229 per screen average. (By comparison, Markle and Harry’s doc had a $735 per screen average on 446 screens for an opening of $327,797.)

The cat fest is distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories, the hip company created by late Beastie Boy Adam Yauch in 2008.

But why would audiences show up in droves to theaters to watch cat videos they can see on their phones?

“It’s a fair question,” the film’s director mused to us on Monday. “I’d love to say it’s all my curation: I do want to work hard for people to feel like it’s not just the algorithm clicking next, next, next.”

But Braden adds that when people see the cat clips communally, “They’re like, ‘I’m with my people.’ They can have a whole bunch of laughs, and raise money [some showings have a charity component]. It’s because the experience is unmatched. You have Radiohead on Spotify, but you don’t say, ‘Why see them in concert?'”

Theaters are even adding shows as the cat craze grows. International markets are also screening the movie as Hollywood studios continue to make few G-rated movies for all audiences these days. Says Braden of the decline, “It’s like Taylor Swift, Pixar and us.”

The film’s so popular, the director’s own cat, Nin, has learned to be desensitized to the sounds of meowing when the director combs through the clips.

A relative of mine has a ginger tom, Harry, and his medium haired calico sister, Meghan. We should have tried to get a video of them into that movie!

[Jim Cassedy]

We run this every year, and did so again this year on the 2nd weekend of August.
There was even a live event connected with the Sunday screening, so I had to go
in to do all the tech-stuff connected with that. Some customers were disappointed
that we only had about 3 showings this year, and all were in our smaller auditoriums.
I'm speculating it was because the bookers wanted to cram as many ODYSSEY and
SPIDERMAN shows in as possible that weekend. I stuck around and watched the
Cat Video Fest, and got some good laughs, but personally I enjoyed last year's
show better. ( IMO, it should have been nominated for an a-cat-emy award!)

[Ed Gordon]

Amazon Reportedly Leaked Jason Statham’s New Film ‘Mutiny’ on Prime

Someone at Amazon is having a very bad day.

By Tom Hawking Published August 19, 2026, 11:55 am ET

Jason Statham’s new film Mutiny is apparently a heartwarming fable an action-packed thriller about a billionaire being murdered. If it sounds like your cup of tea, you’ll be able to see it in cinemas from August 21—unless, of course, you just happened to be scrolling Amazon Prime Video earlier today, in which case you could have watched the entire film.

As per The Verge, the movie appeared on Amazon’s streaming service for reasons that remain unclear, and it was up long enough that the outlet’s writer could watch it from start to finish. It’s not available on Prime anymore, and it doesn’t immediately appear to have leaked any further. Still, the fact that a big-budget Hollywood movie was posted online in its entirety a couple of days before its release, and that the leak occurred on a big-name streaming platform, is a) mystifying and b) a screw-up of pretty spectacular proportions.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the whole affair is how and why Amazon had access to a cut of Mutiny in the first place. Access Hollywood reported back in 2024 that the film will be distributed via Lionsgate in the USA and Sky Cinema in the UK, and there’s no indication that either arrangement has changed. Neither of those companies has any direct affiliation with Amazon, but Lionsgate’s streaming service, Lionsgate+, is available via Prime Video in multiple countries, including the USA. The Verge’s report says that the film’s listing on Prime Video was “fully populated with the cast list, video thumbnail, and a blurb,” which suggests that the film was supposed to appear there at some point—just not, y’know, now.

In view of this, it seems most likely that the film was sitting on Amazon and/or Lionsgate’s servers, waiting until such time as it’s released for streaming via Lionsgate+, and somebody—who is presumably having a very bad day—accidentally posted it too early. But then again, maybe it was a rogue AI agent that decided unilaterally that the world was going to see the film right now, damn it, or an overzealous chatbot going above and beyond in response to someone’s request to book a ticket. Who can say? We’ve approached Amazon for comment and will update this post when we hear back.

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