Seriously. Life can be stressful. Unless you’re actively saving someone’s life, your job isn’t so important that you can’t take a three-minute break. This is cool, and relaxing, and mesmerizing, and all of those other types of adjectives.
[via TheSlowmoGuys]
Donald Trump is the latest Twitter personality to feel the sting of a successful hacking. Earlier today, Trump’s account tweeted out a rap lyric to his 2 million+ followers.
“These hoes think they classy, well that’s the class I’m skippen,” said the tweet.
The lyrics come from Will.I.Am’s “Scream & Shout (Remix),” but are actually rapped during Lil’ Wayne’s verse. Either way, Trump was not amused:
My Twitter has been seriously hacked— and we are looking for the perpetrators.
Trump took the opportunity to relate his scenario to the future of Twitter:
Twitter will soon be irrelevant if lowlifes are so easily able to hack into accounts.
Some Twitter accounts (notably Burger King and Jeep) have fallen victim to hacks this week. In response, Twitter released a friendly reminder about password security, instructing users to use a strong password, watch out for suspicious links, and make sure they have up-to-date malware protections.
Twitter will soon be irrelevant if lowlifes are so easily able to hack into accounts.
@realDonaldTrump worry not, your tweets have never been seen as relevant anyway.
Eddie the geriatric sea otter, other than being really cute, also likes to play a bit of basketball. The Oregon Zoo had to find some way to get Eddie to work those arthritic elbows, and they thought what better way than with a little bit of b-ball.
You won’t see Eddie hooping during exhibits. This is just for medical purposes. But thanks to the power of the internet, you can watch this little guy do something that I’ve wished I could do since I was six years old: Slam dunk a basketball.
A KFC employee has been canned after Facebook photos showed her licking a large heap of the fast food restaurant’s mashed potatoes.
The photos in question were brought to the attention of WJHL in Johnson City, Tennessee. They posted the photos to their own Facebook page and received thousands of shares and hundreds of comments. Eventually, the photos were linked to a particular KFC restaurant.
Shortly after, the tater-licker has been fired. So was the person who took the photos.
KFC Spokesman Rick Maynard said that there photos were taken after-hours and that the licked potatoes weren’t actually served to any customers.
“Nothing is more important to KFC than food safety. As soon as our franchisee became aware of the issue, immediate action was taken. The franchisee’s investigation confirmed the photos were taken after the restaurant was closed and none of the food was served. The employee involved was immediately terminated. Today, KFC Corporation is sending representatives from our Operations and QA teams to the restaurant to reinforce and retrain on KFC’s high operating standards,” said Maynard.
Reminder: No picture you ever take has even an iota of a chance of staying private anymore. Don’t be an idiot.
A petition to make unlocking cellphones legal again has crossed the signature threshold on the White House’s We The People petition site, meaning that it will receive an official response.
Back in January, unlocking new cellphones became illegal via decision from the Library of Congress. It’s still legal to unlock phones purchased before January 26th, but doing so on any device purchased after that cutoff mean you could run afoul of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The basis for the reversal of U.S. federal policy was that only software owners (mostly Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc.) shoudl have the rights to unlock handsets.
Of course, many consumers strongly disagree and feel as though it’s their right to do whatever they want with a device once they’ve made the purchase. And that’s the feeling behind the petition.
Here’s the full petition, simply titled “Make Unlocking Cell Phones Legal”:
The Librarian of Congress decided in October 2012 that unlocking of cell phones would be removed from the exceptions to the DMCA.
As of January 26, consumers will no longer be able unlock their phones for use on a different network without carrier permission, even after their contract has expired.
Consumers will be forced to pay exorbitant roaming fees to make calls while traveling abroad. It reduces consumer choice, and decreases the resale value of devices that consumers have paid for in full.
The Librarian noted that carriers are offering more unlocked phones at present, but the great majority of phones sold are still locked.
We ask that the White House ask the Librarian of Congress to rescind this decision, and failing that, champion a bill that makes unlocking permanently legal.
The petition currently has 101,000+ signatures, which means that the White House is required to respond. In mid-January, the White House upped the signature threshold to 100,000 from the previous 25,000, in the hopes of weeding out “joke” petitions and make the process a little more credible.
Before this move, there were dozens upon dozens of petitions that hit their goal but were sitting in limbo, waiting for responses.
A new Facebook hoax that’s circulating around the network suggests that users need to upgrade to a “Gold” level membership status in order to avoid having their private info leaked for all to see.
Hoax-Slayer first spotted the hoax. Here’s the message that some users are seeing:
It’s official. Communication media. FACEBOOK has just published its price. fee of $? ($ 9.99), to become a member of “gold” and keep your privacy as it is. If you paste this on your wall will be completely free. Otherwise, tomorrow all your documents can become public. Even those messages that you have deleted or photos that you have not authorized …… not cost you anything, copy and paste
Of course, there’s the part at the end about simply sharing the status in order to make all the problems go away. That’s the number one mechanism that scammers use to spread viral hoaxes on any social network – because how hard is it to just copy and paste it, you know, just in case?
In reality, this hoax isn’t exactly new. It’s a mashup of a couple different hoaxes that have been floating around for years. First, there’s the Facebook “Gold” scam. Hoaxes suggesting that Facebook will soon make people pay to use the service have been going around for years, and the particular one involving a $9.99 Gold membership was spotted as early as 2010.
This has the added bonus of a privacy scare, suggesting that users must pay or share a status in order to avoid public humiliation. Privacy on Facebook is a scary subject for many users, so this simply plays into some people’s base fears.
Another Facebook hoax currently making the rounds implies that users could be lock up in “Facebook Jail” if they send too many friend requests that get rejected. There is a tiny bit of truth to this hoax, in that Facebook will temporarily suspend your friend-requesting abilities if you send out too many unfulfilled requests. But the hoax suggests that this could lead to a sudden and irreversible termination of your whole account, which is simply untrue.
As always, if it sounds ridiculous, it is ridiculous. Facebook is never going to make you pay to use the service and they are never going to make all of your private information public – at least not on their terms.
Pi has currently been calculated to over 10 trillion (10^13) digits. But really, 39 is all you need, as the following video demonstrates.
“You only need 39 digits of pi to be able to measure the circumference of the observable universe within the width of one hydrogen atom.”
Whoa.
[Numberphile via Gizmodo]
Google Glass is slowly working its way into the general public’s hands, as Google has begun the process of letting average people strap on the device for personal use. Googlers (especially Sergey Brin) can’t seem to find a time where they think it’s inappropriate to advertise Google Glass. The Project Glass wave is coming, but one big question remains.
Will people actually want to walk around all day wearing Google Glass? I mean, Google’s Eric Schmidt even had his doubts way back in 2010, saying, “I’m not sure you really want to walk through town with these odd glasses on, you know, looking like an airforce jetfighter or something,”
It looks like Google is very aware of this possible roadblock. In order to make the glasses a little more stylistically acceptable, Google is apparently in talks with Warby Parker, the online startup that sells affordable, trendy glasses and sunglasses. The New York Times cites two anonymous sources that say Google is looking to Warby Parker help make Google Glass a bit more fashionable.
Earlier this week, Google opened up a contest of sorts that allows people to plead their cases on why they should be one of the first people in the world to get a pair for personal use. Google asks that interested parties apply via Twitter or Google+ with the hashtag #ifihadglass. It must be a short application (50 words or less) and can contain photos and even a short video. If selected, applicants will receive an invitation to become a “Google Glass Explorer” and will be given the privilege of pre-ordering the new smart glasses for $1,500.
Google also unveiled an impressive new Google Glass video called “How It Feels [through Glass],” which features POV shots of the various uses of Google Glass.
85 years of the Academy Awards in under 4 minutes. In preparation for Sunday’s Oscar broadcast, relive all of the Best Picture winners – from Wings to The Artist. It’s a fun ride filled with some great films (and some not-so-great-films). You can be the judge of what’s what.
[Nelson Carvajal via JoBlo]
The award for best use of a bunch of stock footage goes to NYC indie band Darwin Deez and their frontman Darwin Smith, who has created a mini-masterpiece by implanting himself in various stock scenes. Darwin holding a horse with a bride on it? You got it. Darwin standing in the background as woman smiles with earmuffs on? Yep.
Check out the video for “You Can’t Be My Girl” below:
[via reddit]
First off, nobody is here to bash porn. Like plenty of drugs, everything in moderation, right?
And that’s the simple fact about porn. It is a drug. Well, at least it acts like a drug on your brain. AsapSCIENCE‘s newest three-minute video tackles the very real problem of pornography addiction. If you find yourself in a vicious porn-watching cycle where real life never seems to measure up to what you’re imagining in your head, well, this is the reason.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is still an evangelist for Apple products. But he thinks that Apple needs to keep its place on the cutting edge of tech in order to stay at the top of the food chain.
In recent interview with Bloomberg, Wozniak said that Apple is “kind of losing” that “cool” factor.
“We used to have these ads, I’m a Mac and I’m a PC, and the Mac was always the cool guy,” he said. “And ouch, it’s painful, because we kind of are losing that.”
He does think that Apple still has a devoted user base who will jump at the chance to snatch up a new product – and Apple is good at setting standards with new devices.
“[Other companies like Google and Amazon] have great ideas, but sometimes you need a critical mass of loyal users that will instantly buy and go this direction,” he told Bloomberg “Apple is really good at setting a standard with a new device. Apple still has its halo in that regard.”
One thing that could help would be an Apple smartwatch, or “iWatch.” Earlier this month, report emerged that Apple has a team of over 100 designers working on such a device. It would presumably work seamlessly with other Apple iDevices, and could possibly “fill a gaping hole in the Apple ecosystem,” according to one former Apple employee.
He also has a suggestion for Apple: Open up the ecosystem.
Apple should consider opening up its ecosystem, for instance by allowing buyers of mobile devices running Microsoft Corp. or Google Android to use the iTunes media-management software, Wozniak said. Without features to outclass competing devices, Cupertino, California-based Apple is having to rely more on its appeal as a premium brand, he said.
Do you think Apple is still cool? Would an standard-setting new product like an iWatch help?
Today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, his wife Priscilla Chan, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Biologist and businesswoman Anne Wojcicki (Brin’s wife), and investor Yuri Milner have announced a brand new yearly prize that rewards “excellence in research aimed at curing intractable diseases and extending human life.”
It’s called the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. Apple Chairman Art Levinson with chair the new foundation.
“Our society needs more heroes who are scientists, researchers and engineers. We need to celebrate and reward the people who cure diseases, expand our understanding of humanity and work to improve people’s lives. That’s why Priscilla and I are honored to partner with Sergey Brin, Anne Wojcicki, Art Levinson and Yuri Milner to create the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. At $3 million per prize, it’s the largest prize for this work in the world. I’m hopeful this serves as a blueprint for prizes and philanthropy in other fields as well,” said Zuckerberg in a Facebook post.
“Curing a disease should be worth more than a touchdown,” added Sergey Brin.
The inaugural winners have been announced as well, and here’s the full list:
Cornelia I. Bargmann
Torsten N. Wiesel Professor and Head of the Lulu and Anthony Wang Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior at the Rockefeller University. Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
For the genetics of neural circuits and behavior, and synaptic guidepost moleculesDavid Botstein
Director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics and the Anthony B. Evnin Professor of Genomics at Princeton University.
For linkage mapping of Mendelian disease in humans using DNA polymorphisms.Lewis C. Cantley
Margaret and Herman Sokol Professor and Director of the Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medical College and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
For the discovery of PI 3-Kinase and its role in cancer metabolism.Hans Clevers
Professor of Molecular Genetics at Hubrecht Institute.
For describing the role of Wnt signaling in tissue stem cells and cancer.Titia de Lange
Leon Hess Professor, Head of the Laboratory of Cell Biology and Genetics, and Director of the Anderson Center for Cancer Research at the Rockefeller University.
For research on telomeres, illuminating how they protect chromosome ends and their role in genome instability in cancer.Napoleone Ferrara
Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Senior Deputy Director for Basic Sciences at Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego.
For discoveries in the mechanisms of angiogenesis that led to therapies for cancer and eye diseases.Eric S. Lander
President and Founding Director of the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. Professor of Biology at MIT. Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School.
For the discovery of general principles for identifying human disease genes, and enabling their application to medicine through the creation and analysis of genetic, physical and sequence maps of the human genome.Charles L. Sawyers
Chair, Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
For cancer genes and targeted therapy.Bert Vogelstein
Director of the Ludwig Center and Clayton Professor of Oncology and Pathology at the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
For cancer genomics and tumor suppressor genes.Robert A. Weinberg
Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research at MIT and Director of the MIT/Ludwig Center for Molecular Oncology. Member, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.
For characterization of human cancer genes.Shinya Yamanaka
Director of Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, Kyoto University. Senior Investigator, Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco.
For induced pluripotent stem cells.
Although the inaugural winners total 11, there will only be 5 winners per year moving forward. Each winner receives a $3 million (U.S.) prize. Winners will be selected with the help of previous year’s winners. It will also be a transparent process, allowing for online nominations. There are no age restrictions when it comes to who can be nominated and ultimately win the prize.
First Lady Michelle Obama is bringing her healthy-eating and fitness message to Google+.
Google has just announced that the FLOTUS will be the next member of the White House team to host a Google+ Hangout, cleverly dubbed as “Fireside Hangouts.”
In the last few weeks, both President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have participated in their own Hangouts. The President’s occurred a few days after his State of the Union Address and Biden’s was all about guns.
“Three years ago, the First Lady launched the Let’s Move! initiative to unite the country around our kids’ health and create real support for families to live healthier lives. Since then communities across the United States have worked together to share, collaborate on and create ways to improve the health of our nation’s children. This year, the First Lady is using Google+ to celebrate the anniversary of Let’s Move! and to connect with communities on Google+ who are passionate about healthy eating, fitness and parenting,” says Google.
The Hangout will take place on March 4th at 11:10am ET. She’ll be joined in the Hangout by Kelly Ripa.
If you want to be one of the one’s asking the FLOTUS questions during the Hangout, you can submit your ideas to the Let’s Move YouTube Channel by February 28th.
For more info on her Let’s Move campaign, check here.
With 765,000+ followers, Rob Delaney is one of the most popular, retweetable, and absurd comedians on Twitter. He’s a writer and sometimes actor, but it’s Twitter where he’s made his biggest mark as a comedian. Often cited as one of the funniest people on Twitter, he’s one of the main comedians showing that Twitter can be used as a serious comedic platform.
Last night, he was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and it only made sense that Kimmel would do a segment that involved Delaney’s Twitter personality.
Presenting “Old People Read Rob Delaney’s Tweets”:
Quentin Robinot is better at table tennis than you are, and here’s the proof.
I love that all his opponent can do is clap. Oftentimes, that’s all you can do.
[H4ks3IR via Clip Nation]
To help new and existing businesses get started with their transactions system, Square has unveiled a brand new package deal that starts at just $299.
It’s called the “Business in a Box” and it’s “all the hardware you need to run Square Register on your counter.”
For $299, you’ll receive two Square Readers, a Heckler Design WindFall iPad Stand, and an APG Vasario 1616 Cash Drawer. That’s the paperless route. If you want to add the receipt printer to your package, it will force the price up to $599.
Of course, everything works wirelessly with Square Register.
“Historically, business owners were forced to piece together multiple hardware components from various manufacturers, manage complicated contracts and pricing structures, and pay for expensive software licensing and service plans. Now, they can be up and running with Square Register in minutes,” says Square.
It’s an entire point of sale system in one box. The simplicity of it all is exactly what Square is marketing. Why mess around with traditional POS systems or try to piece the parts together yourself when you can get your iPad stand and cash register straight from Square? That’s the idea here.
If you’re interested, you can check it out or get started today.
There’s a life tip that exists, and it’s more important than any you’ll hear today. Forget an apple a day or beer before liquor. This one is tailored to the modern age.
Kids: If you beat the crap out of someone, don’t post a video of it to Facebook.
CBS News reports that the video shows 14-year-old GlennaLynn Marie Santos and 15-year-old Keanna Beaver hitting 13-year-old Jaden Sanders in the face. According to police, Sanders didn’t fight back and simply tried to protect herself/get away.
Sanders reportedly suffered bruises and a black eye.
The two teens took the video with a cellphone and then posted it to Facebook just 27 minutes after the incident occurred.
Strangely, the two teens willingly turned themselves in to police after contacting a KIRO 7 reporter on Facebook.
“We’re willing to do the time…We’re turning ourselves in because we know it wasn’t right,” said the young girls.
The two girls claim the the attack was a retaliation, but police aren’t buying it. Of course, they have the video evidence to support that feeling.
You can check out a portion of the video inside the local news broadcast below:
Last year, in a much more brutal but similar incident, three men were charged with first-degree murder after they beat a 62-year-old disabled man to death and then posted the video to Facebook.
An Alberta, Canada court has handed down an interesting ruling regarding detainees’ rights and how they run up against the modern world.
According to the ruling, police must provide the accused access to the internet so that they can initiate a Google (or Bing, I guess) search for legal counsel.
The case in question involved a 19-year-old man who was detained for possible driving under the influence. Since his cellphone was already in lockup, police offered him the phone at the station as well as the local Yellow Pages.
Also available to Christopher McKay was the 411 directory assistance, but according to court documents he didn’t even consider it a “viable search engine.” The court asked McKay how he would have found legal counsel if given the choice, and he said Google.
The court agreed that he should have been given access to a computer with internet access to aid in his lawyer search.
“The Crown says that the police do not have any duty in law to provide access to the internet for detainees when there is no specific request to access the internet. The Court disagrees. In particular case, the accused was actually directed to use the toll free number and he did so in ignorance of the potential to use other resources with which he might have been more familiar. In the Court’s view, in the year 2013 police providing access to the internet is part of a detainee’s reasonable opportunity to contact legal counsel. This is so even whether counsel of choice is not an issue and the accused is simply seeking general information from a source such as Google,” said the court.
The court showed that a quick Google search for “Calgary criminal defense lawyers” turned up plenty of viable options, and even came to the wild conclusion that the information of Google may even be more up-to-date and helpful than the information contained in the Yellow Pages or the like.
The court also noted that police are now routinely using the internet in order to assist with their investigations, so it stands to reason that they should provide the accused access to the internet to find a lawyer.
Basically, it boils down to the fact that plenty of young people have no idea what the hell 411 is, and Google is how they find information in their daily lives.
“There are sufficient numbers of individuals born post computer age who have no understanding of the paper world who have extensive knowledge and understanding of the virtual world,” said the court. “These individuals must be accommodated and the only way to do that is to ensure that detainees under arrest be given the opportunity to use the internet to call a lawyer in the same way that they can use a telephone book to call a lawyer.”
[via The Star]
“They look like they just smoked some dust”
“They’re dry-humping air.”
“This is an absolute mockery of what it was.”
These are actual quotes from actual residents of Harlem, said after watching Harlem Shake videos on the internet. You can keep doing your 30-second videos and throwing them up on YouTube, sure, but remember: you’re not really doing the Harlem Shake.
