A top futurist at Google says it’s going to be possible by the year 2045: In just over 30 years, humans will be able to upload their entire minds to computers and become digitally immortal – an event called singularity – according to a futurist from Google. Ray Kurzweil, director of engineering at Google, also […]
Tech
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President Obama: “You Can’t Have 100% Security, and Also Then Have 100% Privacy and 0 Inconvenience.”
In a press conference this morning, President Obama addressed the NSA surveillance programs, saying “we’re gonna have to make some choices as a society” to examine how we deal with privacy issues and terrorism. Here’s the whole exchange:
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Supreme Court Says DNA Testing of Arrestees Is “Reasonable”
Steve wrote about this in Good Morning News, but this story deserves your attention, so I’m going to highlight it in its own post: A narrowly divided Supreme Court ruled Monday that police can collect DNA from people arrested but not yet convicted of serious crimes, a tool that more than half the states already […]
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Introducing Yahoomblr?
On Monday, Yahoo is holding a press conference, according to TechCrunch. This comes after the company’s recent buying spree, and it closely follows rumors that Yahoo is considering spending a billion dollars to buy Tumblr: On Monday, it seems that we may get a better sense of what Yahoo plans to do with all these […]
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Playing Russian Roulette With Your Online Social Presence
TechCrunch has the story of Social Roulette, which launched on Saturday. Like indicated by its name, Social Roulette claims that by playing it, you have “a 1 in 6 chance of deleting your account, and a 5 in 6 chance that it just posts ‘I played Social Roulette and survived’ to your timeline.” From the […]
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Is Lifelogging Stupid?
My Twitter was a-hootin’ and a-hollerin’ about the fact that there’s a newly released lifecasting app called Saga. Here’s the description: Saga records your real life story, as told by the places you visited, and what you did there, automatically. We make it easy and fun to look back on where you’ve been, what you’ve […]
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YouTube’s Pay Channels Are Here
YouTube’s new paid content service has gone live, and it features fitness channels, a couple of movie distribution companies (including mockbuster manufacturer The Asylum), a Cuban channel, and something called “Fix My Hog Premium,” among others. Deadline explains: Sesame Street and Young Turks are among 30 YouTube services that, beginning today, will offer content to […]
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And Now a Poll Just for the “Asocial” People
Google’s “wearable computer” (AKA Google Glass) made the NYT yesterday in this article which discusses the device’s advanced technology… AND how it can totally spy on you in public… AND how you feel about that. For example: A pair of lens-less frames with a tiny computer attached to the right earpiece, Glass is promoted by […]
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Here’s a Job for You… in Seattle. But Still! A Job!
Look… I don’t want you to leave! On the other hand, I’d be a real jerk if I didn’t tell you about a sweet job at our sister paper The Stranger in Seattle. (Hey, at least they have fluoride, right?) Here are the deets: Stranger Tickets, aka The Stranger, is hiring for a new position […]
Posted inBooks
It Took Us Centuries to Invent the Emoticon
Megan Garber at The Atlantic has published a very interesting history of the smiley emoticon. It stretches back further than you’d think: “We were just nerds, goofing around,” Fahlman, now a research professor at Carnegie Mellon, told me. “This was not meant to be a serious invention.” But the smiley and its cousins succeeded where […]
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Weezer Is Playing the Damn Mall
Taking its cue from Apple, or possibly Hot Topic, Microsoft is opening retail stores across the country, and one is coming to lucky, lucky Portland. The Portland Microsoft store opens at Pioneer Place Mall (in the former space of the Macaroni Grill, RIP forever and ever) with a celebration on Thursday, June 20 and Friday, […]
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Text Prank Yer Mom!
If you haven’t watched comedian Nathan Fielder’s verrrrry funny Comedy Central show Nathan For You… watch it! It’s verrrry funny. And now Nathan’s being even more funny by asking his Twitter followers to play the following prank on their parents: Experiment: text your parents “got 2 grams for $40” then right after “Sorry ignore that […]