LOOK: Siri loads penis image in answer to inquiry on Trump age

Virtual assistant Siri surprised Apple users after it pulled up the picture of a penis when it was asked about US President Donald Trump.

The Apple virtual assistant made this mistake after vandals altered the image of Trump on the Wikipedia page, according to a website editor’s statement to The Verge.


The editor stated that the vandals have been blocked indefinitely.

A screengrab of the vandalized Wiki post also popped up on a subreddit called r/SiriFail dedicated to documenting Siri’s various mistakes over the years since it was released on the iOS.

Reddit user “u/Throwaway28536” shared the screengrab with a [NSFW] tag attached to it.

The incident had impeccable timing as well, since it occurred on the US Thanksgiving holiday, during which Trump pardoned the turkeys Peas and Carrots from being served for dinner as part of a White House tradition.  Alfred Bayle /ra

source: technology.inquirer.net

Thanksgiving: Turkey, parades and shopping deals

NEW YORK — Turkey, stuffing and a helium-filled Thomas the Tank Engine were on the menu as friends and families gathered across the United States to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Here's a look at how Americans prepared to celebrate Thanksgiving.

GIANTS IN THE SKY

The nationally televised Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade will include six new giant balloons including Thomas the Tank Engine, Paddington bear and the Red Mighty Morphin Power Ranger. The annual event brings out throngs of people along its midtown Manhattan parade route, ending in front of the store's flagship location.

On Wednesday, passers-by on the Upper West Side got a sneak preview, as the giant balloons were inflated with helium in the neighborhood around the American Museum of Natural History.

"It's really cool, they're huge," said San Francisco resident Ella Missan. Daisy Elliot of Boston, who said she's been coming to see the balloons since she was little, agreed. "It's really exciting for me to see the balloons year after year," she said.

The parade's executive producer, Amy Kule, said organizers were glad wintry weather that made sidewalks slick and travel treacherous on Wednesday was expected to be gone by Thursday.

"We're suffering through a little bit of this now but the end result is really going to be a beautiful parade," she said.

• • •

TRAVEL TROUBLES

Rain and snow on Wednesday made getting around on one of the busiest travel days of the year a chaotic experience for some. The sloppy mixture caused hundreds of flights to be grounded in the Northeast.

Some travelers tried to beat the storm by flying out earlier, and airlines tried to be helpful by waiving re-booking fees. But many flights already were filled, leaving travelers with few options.

The roads weren't much better. By midafternoon, the line between rain and snow went along Interstate 95, the major roadway connecting Boston to Washington, and accidents abounded. Snowfall totals were expected to be as much as 6 to 12 inches in the higher elevations west of I-95.

The AAA estimated that 41.3 million travelers would be on the road between Wednesday and Sunday. That's up 4.3 percent from last year.

• • •

HOLIDAY SHOPPING

To the delight of some and consternation of others, it's increasingly become commonplace to see stores open on Thanksgiving, as retailers try to entice shoppers inside and kick off the holiday shopping season a day earlier than the traditional Black Friday. Some of the stores open for at least part of the day on the holiday include Kmart, Target, Sears, Macy's and Wal-Mart. Other stores, like Neiman-Marcus, Nordstrom and Costco, are closed.

source: lassvegassun.com

THANKSGIVING AT DISCOVERY SUITES

From Nov. 24 to Nov. 30, 22 Prime will offer a delectable three-course menu comprised of a soup dish, pumpkin bisque with pancetta bacon chestnut and cinnamon foam, and apple pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert. Diners will have a choice between two main entrees, slow-roasted turkey roulade with sautéed Brussels sprout and truffle sweet potato purée or 22 Prime’s signature grilled USDA rib eye steak. The set menu with turkey roulade is priced at only P1,000 net per person while the set menu with rib eye steak is at P 2,000 net per person.

On Nov. 27, Thanksgiving Day, Restaurant 5 features an international lunch buffet with a soup and salad bar, a live pasta station, a variety of hot savories such as paella valencia, pan-roasted fish fillet, grilled chicken florentine, roasted beef with mushroom sauce, honey-glazed ham and USDA turkey. The dessert section features pumpkin pie, gingerbread cheesecake, espresso crème brule, and tropical fresh fruits. The buffet is available for lunch for only P895+.

For inquiries and table reservations, please call Discovery Suites at 02-7198888.

Discovery Suites, Discovery Country Suites Tagaytay, Discovery Shores Boracay, Club Paradise Palawan, and Discovery Primea (opening first quarter 2015) are managed by The Discovery Leisure Company Inc (TDLCI)

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

Protests, frenzy in US holiday shopping marathon

NEW YORK—The busiest shopping day of the year in the US drew frenzied crowds, worker protests and a little violence Thursday as the holiday rush toward Christmas began.

The mad dash extended across the Atlantic, where a woman was injured in Northern Ireland as shoppers rushed to get their hands on deals during a day of sales modelled on what’s known in the US as Black Friday.

In the United States, the crowds were mostly orderly, though a suburban Chicago police officer was dragged by a car driven by fleeing Thanksgiving Day shoplifting suspects, one of whom was charged with attempted murder.

Retailers have been pushing opening times earlier in recent years, so the early-morning Friday crowds now are seen the day before, on Thanksgiving night. The name “Black Friday” comes from the period when retailers traditionally turn a profit, or move out of the red and into the black.

Some workers’ rights groups had planned protests on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday because they opposed having retail employees miss family meals at home.

Some shoppers agreed, saying they believe the holiday is meant to be spent with family and friends.

That didn’t stop others from showing up at stores well before dawn.

“We like to shop this time of night,” said Rosanne Scrom as she left the Target store in New York state at 5 a.m. Friday.

About 15,000 people waited for the flagship Macy’s in New York City’s Herald Square when it opened at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving. It was the most ever, up from 11,000 last year.

In rural Virginia, a dispute in a parking lot turned violent, with one man throwing a punch and another cutting the man with a knife and brandishing a rifle. The fight outside a Wal-Mart sent panicked shoppers scattering.

The mayhem in Belfast occurred at the British supermarket chain Asda — owned by Wal-Mart — which had been advertising its Black Friday deals throughout the U.K. The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service said it took a woman with an arm injury to the hospital.

In Seattle, Michael Wiggins stood in a crowd of shoppers trying to sell a $2 newspaper that supports the causes of homeless and low-income residents. The 50-year-old once was homeless himself.

Wiggins said it was sad to see people spending to potentially put themselves in debt.

“How are you getting ahead?” Wiggins said. “Why are you killing yourself for a pair of underwear?”

Last year, sales on Thanksgiving were $810 million last year, an increase of 55 percent from the previous year as more stores opened on the holiday, according to Chicago research firm ShopperTrak. But sales dropped 1.8 percent to $11.2 billion on Black Friday, though it still was the biggest shopping day last year.

Sales figures for this year’s Thanksgiving and Black Friday will trickle out in the next couple days, but some big chains already were saying early Friday that the holiday shopping season had a successful start.

Store sales numbers won’t be available until Saturday. The National Retail Federation said 140 million people planned to shop during the four-day holiday weekend.

IBM Benchmark, which tracks e-commerce for 800 retailers, said online sales on Thanksgiving were up 19.7 percent from last year. Online sales on Black Friday rose 9 percent, based on preliminary data.

source: business.inquirer.net

Holiday storm hits US East Coast, but no disaster

RHODE ISLAND, United States — A wet and windy storm hit the US East Coast on one of the busiest holiday travel days of the year, but it wasn’t the disaster that many had feared.

Flight cancellations piled up at hubs such as New York’s LaGuardia Airport, Philadelphia and Newark, and by midday Wednesday around 250 flights had been canceled, according to the tracking website FlightAware.com.

But that was a tiny fraction of the nearly 32,000 flights that were scheduled to, from or within the U.S. on Wednesday, the site said.

And the weather in many places was improving as the day went on.

High winds could prevent giant balloons from taking flight this year at the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade on Thursday. Safety rules that specify wind speeds were enacted after a spectator was killed in 1997 in an accident involving an out-of-control balloon.

The storm, which developed in the West over the weekend, has been blamed for at least 11 deaths, five of them in Texas.

But as it moved east, it wasn’t as bad as feared.

“This is a fairly typical storm for this time of year,” said Chris Vaccaro of the National Weather Service. “Obviously, it’s ill-timed because you have a lot of rain and snowfall in areas where people are trying to move around town or fly or drive out of town.”

More than 43 million people are expected to travel over the long holiday weekend, according to the AAA automobile organization. About 39 million of those will be on the roads, while more than 3 million people are expected to fly.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

US embassy closed Thursday for Thanksgiving

MANILA, Philippines – The United States (US) Embassy will be closed on Thursday in observance of Thanksgiving, the embassy announced Wednesday.

“The US celebrates Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday of November each year.  The ‘First Thanksgiving’ in the U.S. is traditionally traced to the post-harvest feast by the American settlers and native American neighbors in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621,” the US Embassy said in an advisory.

“American families traditionally spend this holiday by getting together and sharing a special a meal where a roasted turkey is usually the major dish.  The period from Thanksgiving Day until News Year’s Day is often called the “holiday season” in America,” it said.

Thanksgiving day was officially proclaimed in 1863 by US President Abraham Lincoln, the embassy said.

The Embassy and all affiliated offices will resume service on Friday, it said.

source: globalnation.inquirer.net

Talking turkey

Many animated feature films are about weird creatures engaged in far-out activities and antics, but “Free Birds” strives to be more relevant and potentially significant by latching on to Americans’ traditional Thanksgiving feast and celebration for its thematic fulcrum and linchpin.

This savvy decision makes the movie less ephemeral, giddy and silly than other efforts, so the production is more consistently viewable.

Another plus factor is its decision to factor in a subplot that involves its feathered protagonist’s mission to prevent the extermination of native-American turkeys at the US colonies’ first Thanksgiving feast.

Miles Standish has had to be transformed into a villainous character to make this possible, but worse historical sins have been committed in the perverse name of cinematic entertainment, so what the hey—!

New colony

As this movie reimagines it, turkeys in a huge fattening “factory” choose a young “turk” to escape the facility with a few eggs to start a new colony of “free birds” elsewhere—but, their hero ends up a big zero when he loses hold of his cache of eggs!

He loses all hope of helping his beleaguered species—until he unexpectedly ends up as the token, symbolic bird that no less than the President of the United States ritually “pardons” every year at Thanksgiving, and is allowed to live forever—at the White House, yet!

Despite his cushy good fortune, however our feathered friend can’t forget his original mission—and is able to fulfill it after a series of amazing events—like, would you believe, stowing away on a revolutionary time machine that takes him all the way back to the first Thanksgiving feast, way back when?

It’s all fantasticating fluff, of course, but the Thanksgiving theme continues to keep the loopy storytelling on relatively even keel.

On his new adventure in the distant part, our hero meets a flock of other rebellious birds who bravely oppose Standish and his mangy and hungry cohorts.

Naturally, his new friends include a young “tomboy-princess” who not only makes him feel gooey all over, but eventually gets to lead her rebel army to victory! —How’s that for a politically correct denouement?

Rigorous challenge

Before that happens, however, the flick’s resident human villains are allowed to have the run of the place, to force our heroes to do their best to rise up to the increasingly rigorous challenge.

—Not to worry though, the film is decidedly rooting for the good guys—and birds—so “no animals were hurt (or baked) in the course of making this movie!”

In any case, this is an animated feature, so if any turkeys are shown meeting their Maker—don’t worry, they’re all of the digitized sort.

Now, about that big Thanksgiving feast at the end of the film: How did they pull it off without the usual baked and stuffed turkey treats? No spoilers here, but let’s just say that they were replaced by a more modern gustatory offering that involves—a delivery boy!

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Filipino versions of good ol’ US Thanksgiving turkey and Italian ‘porketta’

During my student days in the United States, I looked forward to the midterm breaks in Easter and Thanksgiving. That meant most of the students going home to various states to be with their families and experience a festive meal. But to us, foreign students, it meant we had the whole dorm to ourselves, and we, too, had our own special dinners.

For Thanksgiving, it meant a whole plump Roast Turkey with all the trimmings. I love how this almost boring-looking huge bird can be transformed into the center of attraction for the annual special American family gathering. The dish is so popular that some restaurants serve it all year round.

Many US celebrations have been adopted by Filipinos. And many homes also celebrate Thanksgiving, which I believe is on the fourth Thursday of November. In Canada, we would celebrate it sometime in October. But most people just want to celebrate without going through the trouble of preparing this heavy feast.

There are a few dining places that can save us from the agony of preparation. I remember a friend who made one of the best-tasting stuffings I have tried. Carla Reyes Tengco made her roast turkey and the stuffing with castañas or chestnuts. That is one turkey dish that jumps out every time I think of it.

Another is Bob and Ninay’s Roast Turkey. To me, the stuffing and gravy distinguish this dish. I love how it brings me back to the feast I would experience every year as a student. I have tried many versions, and this, to me, is what I crave for.

The bird is huge with a perfectly roasted crust, delicious stuffing and gravy that binds all these together. The gravy is made from the drippings and the insides of the turkey like the liver, gizzard, etc. Stuffing is either sausage cherry or chestnut apple. The dish is served with cranberry and mashed potato on the side. With creamy mashed potato, the turkey will take the diner to a whole new level. I am so hungry and craving for this roast. It’s cheaper than many restaurants that offer it.

Porketta

Another festive dish is Porketta. Ram Jorge makes the most delicious, crispy, moist, authentic Italian Porketta. He calls himself the Porketta Man, in fact.

The Italian dish is rolled-up pork belly or liempo, slow-roasted until the skin is so crispy it pops. What happens in this slow process is the fat between the crunchy skin and the tender and moist meat melts and drips all over the roast. The result is a dish I have seen and tried in many places, but never this level.

Seasoned perfectly, rubbed and stuffed with herbs, Porketta is a foodie’s dream. There is a salsa verde that goes with it. One way to serve it is sliced on grilled ciabatta bread with the sauce and eaten as a sandwich.

It is also okay to serve it with garlic rice. I would slice a piece, complete with the crunchy skin and the moist meat, and have it as is without the sauce. I enjoy eating it so much, I can’t stop. I hardly eat pork, but this Porketta is an exception.

As soon as I got this roast, I traveled from Rockwell to Katipunan because I wanted to eat it while it was still crunchy. But don’t worry; if it gets cold, you can preheat the oven at the highest temperature and put in the Porketta for eight to 10 minutes at the highest rack, uncovered, until the skin becomes crunchy again.

This coming Thanksgiving or even this Yuletide, check out these two dishes.

(Bob and Ninay’s Thanksgiving Turkey, tel. 9840065 or 0918-9098850; Italian Porketta made by “Porketta Man” Ram Jorge,  0917-8102218)

Charity food event

Tomorrow, I and other chefs and personalities will be at the NBC Tent in Bonifacio Global City for an event called “Lifestyle Network’s Around the Philippines in Small Plates.” We will be in our own booths serving dishes that will make you dance in satisfaction. This will be a charity dinner event for the benefit of ICanServe and survivors of Typhoon “Yolanda.” Trust me, you cannot imagine how delicious the food in the various booths will be. This happens Nov. 22, 7-11 p.m. See you there!

Visit sandydaza.blogspot.com; follow on Twitter @sandydaza.

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

Black Friday - Day Following Thanksgiving Day

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States of America. Walmart stores are opening at 10pm on Thanksgiving for discounts on home accessories, clothing, and toys on November 24, Thanksgiving Day and at 12midnight on Black Friday, November 25 for the Electronics like a $100 off an Xbox360 game console and a blue Nintendo Wii console for only $100.



There are 283 items in this years Walmart Black Friday ad and some examples of their deals this coming Black Friday sale:



A choice of four select Blu-ray discs for only -$20
HP 15.6" Laptop w/AMD E-350 Dual Core, 3GB RAM, 320GB HD - $248.00
HP 17.3" Laptop w/AMD E-450 Dual-Core, 4GB RAM, 500GB HD - $388.00
Samsung 40" 1080p 60Hz LCD TV - $428.00
Samsung 46" 1080p 60Hz LCD TV - $598.00
Toshiba 65" 1080p 120Hz LCD TV - $998.00

Walmart released it’s ad for Black Friday on Facebook and Walmart.com to help families plan their holiday shopping and have an early preview of its Black Friday sales.