Volunteers Kierra Chante and Michaela Triche prepare to cut plywood as New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity hosts a Pride Build on Tennessee Avenue in New Orleans on Friday, June 23, 2023. Pride Build brings together local members of the LGBTQ community and allies to help build a home for a local family. The home will be purchased at a no-interest mortgage by a hard-working single mom. In lieu of a cash down payment, the homebuyer has worked more than 250 volunteer hours helping others become first-time homeowners. (Photo by Brett Duke, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
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I totally changed my body by doing pilates – people can’t believe my photos are taken only 3 months apa… The US Sun
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A few years ago, a hardware designer named Kyle Buzzard watched a viral video of a seagull that had stolen a GoPro and taken photos of itself looking into the camera.
“That started wonder and the questions, how can we do that and automate it?” recalls Buzzard, who incidentally has the perfect name for his avian interests.
Buzzard and his associates envisioned an AI-powered smart bird feeder that could identify and snap photos of 1000 species of birds that might visit your backyard.
But there were two immediate hurdles they had to overcome.
“First, to try and get up close and personal high-quality images of birds without disturbing them,” explains Buzzard. “Second, to be able to recognize the species easily. Both are very challenging to do and have the bird remain in place long enough. How many times have you reached for your camera or bird book only for the feathered friend to have flown off?”
Buzzard’s design pedigree helped them accomplish their goals.
Bird Buddy launched its first Kickstarter in November 2020, raising $5 million, which according to the company, put them in the top 1% of all Kickstarter campaigns and was the most-funded campaign in Kickstarter’s gadget category.
The result was an ingenious bird feeder that is sort of PokemonGo meets the Ring.
How it works: A feathered friend flies to the feeder, and an AI-powered camera notifies you, identifies the species, takes photos, and organizes them into a collection.
Related: People Keep Licking a Rare Toad in U.S. National Parks. The Reason Is a Real Trip.
Nature calls
Buzzard hopes the device helps people connect back to nature. “Unfortunately, many of us have developed a passive relationship with the natural world,” he says. With technology capturing most of our attention, we fail to look up and see the beauty surrounding us. He hopes Bird Buddy can help solve that by putting the natural world in the palm of your hands.
“We wanted to allow nature to have its chance in our digital lives,” Buzzard says.
For a fun look at the best photos captured by Bird Buddy users, check out the my bird buddy portal.
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This story originally appeared on Business Insider.
Grant Johnson was living in a 19-foot trailer in Utah when, in 1995, he was presented with the opportunity to purchase 40 acres of land in the state’s rugged wilderness.
Johnson was told the site was abandoned by a 1970s cult, but it was the perfect setting for him to achieve a long-held dream: transforming a boulder on the property into his home, using dynamite and his own two hands.
Johnson, who worked in Utah’s uranium mines and as a backcountry guide, was inspired by the Moab Desert’s famous “Hole N” The Rock” attraction, a family home carved out of a sandstone cliff.
He spent $25,000 and the next 20 years perfecting his new abode — and now anyone on Airbnb can rent a bedroom in the special space for about $350 a night and the whole three-bedroom cave for about $1,000 a night.
@airbnb this stay is as solid as a rock thanks to host grant ? #airbnbpartner #airbnb #boulder #utah ♬ original sound – airbnb
Johnson’s property is located in southern Utah, about a four-hour drive north of the Grand Canyon and near the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, known for its cascading rock formations.
Johnson lives in the cave with his partner when they’re not renting it out, and they also run the property as a homestead and grow tomatoes, peppers, garlic, and corn, some of which they sell.
Johnson even raises horses, cows, pigs, and turkeys — and is planning to build them a cave barn of their own.
“It’s a lifetime art project,” he told Insider.
He carved the walls by hand using light and sound as guides
Johnson purchased dynamite from a contact through his mining work, who trusted him to use the equipment properly.
“That was in the 90s, so I was able to buy dynamite and just sign a paper. Now it’s a lot more difficult,” he said.
The first blast came in the winter of 1995. Johnson returned to the site for the next eight years to hollow out the space he wanted, eventually landing at around 5,700 square feet.
His first time stepping into the cave he created, he couldn’t help but be in awe.
“Nothing has been in this space since the dinosaurs,” he said. “It’s a 100-million-year-old rock.”
An instrument in Johnson’s music room, left, and Johnson on the 40-acre property. Grant Johnson
In 2005, Johnson employed a pro-builder friend to help finish the project. Together they poured the cement flooring and installed giant sheets of tempered glass that closed the cave off from the wilderness.
There are six openings in the boulder, all facing different directions, that had to be sealed before the space could be inhabitable. The last sheet was installed in January 2014, which is when Johnson moved into the space.
During that time, Johnson also molded the walls and doorways of the cave himself. He used a technique where he would drill parallel holes and tie them together with a perimeter cord, which cracked the rock in the desired shape.
“It’s a lot of acrobatics, which is truly difficult,” he told Insider.
During the sculpting process, he played with the light and sound of the space. During the winters, he’d sometimes sit in the space, during sunsets or especially during the equinox, and observe how the cave refracted the sunlight.
“I’d just sit down and if I noticed something that didn’t fit or that wasn’t curved right, I would get the drill,” he told Insider.
While he was carving, he’d also play a harmonica and adjust his plans based on the best pitches he could find. It’s paid off. Since moving in, Johnson has hosted many musicians, concerts, and even a group of Tibetan monks in the space.
“They did their throat singing and that sound has never left,” he said.
One of Johnson’s musician friends has even named different rooms after different keys. The living room is “E.”
You can rent the property on Airbnb for $1,000 per night
The cave now even welcomes visitors on Airbnb. The “west end” room, with its own staircase leading up to a private balcony, rents out for $350 per night. For $1,000, guests can rent out the entire three-bedroom property, and Johnson and his partner will vacate and stay in a cabin nearby.
A view onto Johnson’s remote property. Courtesy of Grant Johnson
Guests of the Airbnb are invited to climb on the cave outside and use a rope swing in front of the property. The listing also indicates that sense of adventure extends inside, where guests should be aware of “rugged rock stairs” connecting the rooms of the cave.
The cave runs off-grid and uses water to power things that are plugged into sockets, though the listing makes a point to note that hair dryers and pancake griddles, particularly, are too much for the hydro-electric system to handle. Also one major thing to note: There’s no WiFi.
“The desert holds special energy and this space resonates with it. This is where you come to disconnect from the rest of the world,” one Airbnb user wrote in a May 2022 review. “The comfort, cleanliness and beauty of it far exceeded any expectations those in our group had.”
The guest’s parting advice: “Drive a 4WD. Bring some extra water. Cherish your time there. Unwind. Go hike. Unplug and appreciate the space.”
Johnson said he loves to watch guests marvel at the unspoiled natural surroundings and hear how they feel more connected to nature by staying in the cave. He recommends every guest climbs out to the patio on the west end at night, and watch the still, desert night.
“You can’t ask for more dark sky. You can’t ask for more quiet,” he said.
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YADKINVILLE, N.C. (WGHP) — A car went through the roof of a home in a crash on Friday morning in Yadkinville, North Carolina, according to the Yadkinville Volunteer Fire Department.
Firefighters say that a man was driving down the city’s Suagartown Road when he lost control of the car at around 2 a.m., went up a parked car in the driveway like a ramp and crashed through the roof of a home.
Two adults and two children were in the home and were not injured in the crash, according to the YVFD. Two people were in the car when it crashed and were taken to the hospital for treatment.
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No, it isn’t your WiFi.
Twitter was down on Monday afternoon after hundreds of users started reporting that hyperlinks and images were not working on the site.
The social media platforms redirect link service, t.co, is thought to be the cause of the outage.
Wow is Twitter down for anyone else all the likes are so wonky no idea how thats happening haha
— PFT Commenter(DC Defenders 3-0) (@PFTCommenter) March 6, 2023
Back around the beginning of the year, there was a lot of overheated talk that Twitter was about to break down. Welp, it took about three months for the first truly massive tech failure.
— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) March 6, 2023
You can’t post images on Twitter right now, likely because the site’s URL shortener/redirect service (https://t.co/lxSJ4DFhQA) is down. Don’t want to be controversial, but I don’t think this is good for https://t.co/KFR89a1fA2.
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) March 6, 2023
The company confirmed the issues via the Twitter Support account just past noon EST on Monday and chalked up the outages to an “internal change that had some unintended consequences.”
via Twitter
According to DownDetector, 8,378 users had reported issues with the social media platform as of 11:57 a.m. EST.
Users clicking on links in Tweets received API error messages telling them that their ‘API Code does not include access to this endpoint’ and have been unable to access external content.
Twitter did not specify what exact issues it was referring to via the Twitter Support account.
“Since Twitter,” “Oh Twitter,” and #TwitterDown were all trending globally on Monday.
Twitter also crashed in February when users tried to create new posts and got an error message that said: “You are over the daily limit for sending Tweets.” At the time, other users noted they were no longer able to follow new users or see an updated list of their followers.
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Woman Proves How Easy It Is To Fake ‘Before And After’ Weight Loss Photos YourTango
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