Philip.paulssonPigpen!
Though it’s long been understood that trillions of bacteria live on and in the human body, researchers have found that each human emits a unique “microbial cloud” of their own bacteria, one so distinctive that these clouds might be sufficient to identify the person from whom they emanate. What do you think?
Philip.paulssonHaha so weird.
Downloading games directly to your smartphone and playing them immediately is convenient, I suppose. But this ephemeral, bloodless process is missing a familiar tangibility gamers might remember warmly from the last millennium: that comforting, solid, life-affirming feeling of jamming a game cartridge into a console slot.
Enter Pico Cassette, a Japanese outfit that says it's bringing back "the next retro" with tiny game cartridges that plug in to a smartphone's headphone jack. The tiny "cassettes" (the general Japanese term for cartridges) are built on PlugAir technology, which uses a specially designed iPhone or Android app to draw power from the headphone jack and send data using specially modulated audio signals.
Those coded sound waves are then used to unlock access to content that's stored in the cloud, according to a PlugAir explanation video. That would seem to remove one of the main conveniences of the physical cartridge format—namely, distributing and storing data permanently without an Internet connection—but there's nothing technical preventing the actual game data from being stored on the cartridges as well. In any case, there's something about the simplicity of being able to share a game with a friend simply by handing them a physical thing that plugs in to the phone (though the need for a special app is a bit of an impediment to immediate ad-hoc sharing).
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Philip.paulssonHehe
“Are you friends with Drake?!”
Kat Angus/BuzzFeed Canada
Kat Angus/BuzzFeed Canada
Kat Angus/BuzzFeed Canada
Kat Angus/BuzzFeed Canada
Philip.paulssonThat *IS* hilarious!
Today, I found out my 7-year-old son has been pimping some girls in his class to the boys, charging them a quarter for kisses. This came to light after the girls complained to their teacher that he wasn't giving them their share of the money. My husband thinks it's hilarious. FML
Philip.paulssonLOL
Today, I heard a noise outside in the middle of the night, so I went out for a look. I'm also pregnant and can't stop farting. I get 2 steps outside and accidentally let a huge one rip, then, from the shadows I hear "Oh my god!" and then running in the opposite direction. I farted away a prowler. FML
Philip.paulssonAs books, LOTR. As movies, Star Wars.
Today, my boyfriend and I got in a fight about which is better: Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. We aren't speaking. FML
Philip.paulssonHahah
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Philip.paulssonPerhaps it's time to get back into this game, I'm seeing lots of praise for this expansion. Just tough to spend another $40+ on a game that I didn't like very much to begin with.
Editor’s Note: This set of impressions does not discuss a major part of The Taken King’s end-game content, the King's Fall raid, which will release as part of the expansion pack later today.
Each time I discovered something new in Destiny's latest and largest expansion, The Taken King—a cutscene I had never seen, a new piece of loot, or some quality-of-life tweak I had missed in the patch notes—a single repeating thought rippled through my synapses: why wasn't it like this before?
That's my question for Bungie. Over the last year, Bungie's divisive, loot-driven shooter—the product of a 10-year plan for a sweeping, sci-fi opus to supersede Halo—is a punch line to many. The setup: a galling dearth of content and punishingly poor drop rates on gear. The punchline: a level of grinding gameplay on par with games that offer a whole lot more to do.
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Philip.paulssonYES!!!!!!!!
“You’re welcome” – Canada
BuzzFeed Canada / Giphy / Via giphy.com
Philip.paulssonI don't normally read Jezebel, but this article is pretty spot on. So much stupid in the GOP.
For every elected official who carefully educates themselves on the facts and research prior to making an informed decision, there are a dozen more who have no problem shooting their mouths off on talking points they do not understand. As we learned last night in the second Republican presidential primary debate, many of the frontrunners for the Republican Presidential candidate belong firmly in the latter group. Let’s review.
Last night, candidates focused on attacking Planned Parenthood, an organization that offers life-saving cancer screening, STD and HIV testing, contraception, and, yes, abortion, to millions of Americans each year.
Carly Fiorina managed to slip in her personal perspective on abortion, looking at the camera with mournful eyes and imploring viewers, “As regards Planned Parenthood, anyone who has watched this videotape, I dare Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama to watch these tapes. Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.”
This was the point in the evening when I started muttering to my empty living room. “Is that really what she thinks happens during an abortion? Because that is not what happens during an abortion,” I informed my coffee table. The coffee table was unmoved. So, apparently, were CNN’s debate moderators.
Fiorina took a huge leap of faith here that no one has actually watched the video she described. In reality, the (heavily edited) recording consists of Planned Parenthood employees discussing the voluntary and completely legal donation of fetal parts. There is no kicking, crying fetus on the table. There is no mad scientist cackling and demanding we keep it alive for brain harvesting purposes. Dr. Frankenstein is a fictional character and The Walking Dead’s zombies are characters in a graphic novel. Neither works for Planned Parenthood.
Donated fetal tissue is responsible for many critical advancements in medicine, including vaccines and treatment for degenerative diseases. In fact, the current rules for legal donation of fetal tissue for research were developed in part by the Fetal Tissue Transplantation Panel, established by the much beloved Ronald Reagan. No fetus is “kept alive” for this donation post-delivery. No fetus is terminated for the express purposes of being donated. No brains are harvested from living babies.
For the record, the CDC estimates that 92% of abortions in the United States are performed within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, with 65.9% occurring in the first eight weeks. Abortions at this stage are either medical (induced with a combination of oral or vaginal medications) or surgical. The earliest age of viability (when a fetus can survive outside of the mother, in this case with an incredible amount of medical intervention and a high risk of later complications) is 22 weeks. Living, viable, kicking, crying babies are not birthed and then cruelly murdered for the purpose of dastardly scientific experiments.
Carly Fiorina is either a deliberately manipulative liar or an uninformed bonehead. In either case, she has no place in the discussion of reproductive health or abortion rights, possession of a uterus notwithstanding.
Ben Carson was given the easiest question of the night, hands down: “A backlash against vaccines was blamed for a measles outbreak here in California. Dr. Carson, Donald Trump has publicly and repeatedly linked vaccines, childhood vaccines, to autism, which, as you know, the medical community adamantly disputes. You’re a pediatric neurosurgeon. Should Mr. Trump stop saying this?”
The answer is “yes, because Donald Trump is wrong.” Or, any one of a number of variations on the theme of “yes, people should stop saying that because it is shoddy science that was disproved almost two decades ago and children are literally dying because you are continuing to propagate this misinformation.”
Multiple studies have thoroughly debunked the idea that vaccines cause autism. Vaccines do not cause autism, they are not associated with increased rates of autism, they do not have anything to do with autism. The apparent increase in rates of autism in the United States is a result of the change in diagnoses of the disorder and increased awareness. Not vaccines (which have remained fairly constant while the rates of autism increase, the argument debunking itself).
Instead of doing the responsible thing and correcting Trump’s dangerously wrong views, Dr. Ben Carson briefly mentioned that there is no proven correlation before parlaying it into a talking point on big government. When pressured by moderator Jake Tapper to answer the question, Carson said “(Trump) can read about it if he wants to.” A health care professional given a platform in front of millions of people to comment on the dangerous myth that vaccines cause autism said “He can read about it if he wants to.” Then he ceded the science stage to Trump.
After leading with the fact that he thinks vaccines are important, Trump added, to emphasize how moderate and reasonable he is, that we should be spacing vaccines further out. Dr Carson backed him up, adding in his soothing, NPR-worthy tone that “...it is true that we’re giving way too many in too short a period of time. And a lot of pediatricians now recognize that, and they’re cutting down on the number and the proximity.”
That right there? That is Ben Carson betraying his training and the health of the American people on the off chance that the relatively small but vocal group of anti-vaxxers in this country will elect him president.
The current immunization schedule was developed to protect children when they are most at risk of infectious disease, with doses and timing to best develop a child’s immune system. The schedule is endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, among other respected medical organizations, and is backed by several medical studies verifying that the current spacing of vaccines is safe.
Then Rand Paul, also a doctor, added his two cents to this trumped-up (pun intended) “bunched up vaccines” fear and wraps it up with the admittedly excellent line: “I’m all for vaccines. But I’m also for freedom.”
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee attempted to steer the conversation elsewhere, opining: “sure there’s a controversy about vaccines but let’s turn our attention to something else entirely, the cost of other medical issues.” Perhaps he didn’t realize the irony of his segue; the 2011 measles outbreak in California, started by an unvaccinated child and affecting 107 children, cost taxpayers up to $5.3 million dollars.
On a stage featuring someone who doesn’t believe in evolution, another holding steadfast to a 17-year-old debunked study on vaccines, and another who believes that abortion is something done by mad scientists for funsies, I expected a strong showing here.
Surprisingly, Rubio, Christie, and Walker all essentially conceded that climate change exists. They just don’t want us to do anything about it. And at this point, I’m not actually sure what’s worse—denying the evidence or just flat out saying that the economy is more important than, say, the survival of our planet.
Tapper robbed us of hearing Rand Paul’s thoughts on the matter, cutting him off after “If you want a skeptic — if you want a skeptic, Jake, I will happily jump into that briar patch...”
It’s OK though; I’m sure we will learn of what I assume will be his “Jesus take the wheel” approach to rising sea levels soon enough.
(quotes are from the Washington Post transcript of the debate)
Caroline Weinberg has previously written about science and health at Eater, Vice Motherboard, Aeon, the Washington Post, and a few dry academic publications. You can find her on twitter @ckw583.
Image via AP/ Illustration by Bobby Finger.
Philip.paulssonNow that's a contest I can get behind.
If you like to fill your pie hole with Big Boxes from Taco Bell, you could leverage your habit for a new console. Starting September 24th, the fast-food chain is giving away 6,000 limited-edition gold PlayStation 4 bundles. For a chance to win, tho...
Philip.paulssonHaha nice.
Every fall, the Swedish Academy of Sciences determines which researchers have produced work worthy of a Nobel Prize. Usually, my first warning that this time of the year is approaching is the announcement of the Ig Nobel Prizes, handed out in Boston "for achievements that first make people laugh, then make them think."
The Nobels must be coming soon, as the Igs were handed out last night in a traditionally lavish and mildly deranged ceremony. As is typical, almost all of the winning research teams had a representative present. One of the two exceptions sent a video acceptance; the only group that did not acknowledge its win was the Bangkok Metropolitan Police Force. We'll go through the awards below, starting with the ones that are also awarded science Nobels, and then moving into some of the more flexible categories before wrapping up with Economics and Literature.
Physics: The fluid mechanics of urination. The team that won this award was interested in what they call "a universal phenomenon that has received little attention"—the physics of urination. To get a sense of how urination operates on different scales, the researchers hauled a video camera to Zoo Atlanta and filmed animals relieving themselves. "Our findings reveal that the urethra is a flow-enhancing device," they concluded, "enabling the urinary system to be scaled up by a factor of 3,600 in volume without compromising its function."
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Philip.paulssonYou gotta tell your kids which bottles are ok to pilfer from, man!
Today, my son had a secret party. At first I was mad, then I had a complete and total Incredible Hulk meltdown when I realized that he had opened a bottle of very expensive whiskey, originally bottled by my great great grandfather in Scotland, and used it as a mixer with fucking Pepsi. FML
Philip.paulssonNice.
Luc Jamet / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"The total solar eclipse of 20 March 2015 seen from Svalbard – one of only two habitable locations that were able to witness totality – just 16 seconds after it began. The image shows totality about 100 metres above the large valley of Sassendalen situated on the only permanently inhabited island of the Norwegian archipelago. Venus can also be seen in the photograph, as a bright spot in the upper left of the image." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
Matt Robinson / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"Taken on 7 July 2014 from Seaburn Beach, Sunderland, in the north of England. The photographer had seen nightly displays of noctilucent clouds for up to seven days prior to taking this shot – his first attempt at astrophotography – of the most vibrant display he witnessed. Noctilucent clouds are the highest clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere and form above 200,000 feet. Thought to be formed of ice crystals, the clouds occasionally become visible at twilight when the sun is below the horizon and illuminates them. They are usually bluish or silver in colour, but sometimes appear orangey-red or red when they are on the horizon, as seen in this photograph." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
Martin Campbell / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"Positioned 3,000 metres above sea level for a night of stargazing with a difference, the photographer captured the Milky Way, boasting star clouds and nebulae, expanding over towering peaks in the Hautes-Pyrénées." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
Jamen Percy / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"Taken in Abisko National Park in Lapland. The photographer had all but given up on seeing the aurora after spending many hours atop a mountain waiting to catch a glimpse of them. As he stumbled down the hill he saw the green reflection of the aurora in the snow and captured this breathtaking shot of the piercing blue light show coursing through the night sky." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
Kolbein Svensson / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"A little after midnight, when the nights in central Norway begin to get really bright, the photographer captured a phenomenal vision of greens and purples dancing across the sky above him, contrasting with the tangerine glow of the sunset towards the bottom of the image." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
Arild Heitmann / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"The vivid green aurora swirls across the night sky, countering the stillness of the Lomaas River and the snowy trees aligned on its banks. The photographer went the extra mile to achieve the beautiful shot, immersing himself in the river for over two hours in waters of a temperature of -15 degrees [celsius]. Upon exiting the river his wet waders froze almost immediately causing him to ‘waggle’ over to his car like a sumo wrestler and inspiring the name for this photograph." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
Michael Van Doorn / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"Lying approximately 3 million light years away, M33 – often named the Triangulum Galaxy after the constellation it can be found in – is the third largest member of the Local Group of galaxies behind the Andromeda Galaxy and our very own galaxy, the Milky Way. It is one of the most distant permanent objects in the night sky that can be seen with the naked eye in optimum conditions." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
Rolf Olsen / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"Discovered in 1785 by William Herschel, the Antennae Galaxies are a pair of interacting or colliding galaxies (NGC4038 and NGC4039) whose gravitational fields have disturbed one another. Resembling the antennae of insects, the galaxies came to fame through the Hubble Telescope’s close-up images of them, but here they have been captured by an earthbound telescope and camera that has gathered 75 hours of exposure over the course of 38 nights from January to June 2014." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
Marcus Davies / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"NGC253, more commonly known as the Sculptor Galaxy and sometimes referred to as the Solver Coin or Silver Dollar Galaxy, is what is called a starburst galaxy, and is currently experiencing an era of intense star formation, and has created several super star clusters. The Sculptor Galaxy is one of the brightest galaxies in the sky, and can therefore be seen by just using binoculars in optimum conditions." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
András Papp / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"An arresting shot of the Earth’s natural satellite is captured with the lunar terminator – the division between light and dark – cutting it almost exactly down the centre of the image. The dark side of the moon is subtly illuminated by the faint glow of the reflected light from Earth, contrasting starkly with the clearly defined detail photographed on the sun-drenched side." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
Daniel Fernández Caxete / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"The International Space Station crosses the face of the moon and the lunar terminator, travelling at approximately 28,800 kilometres per hour. Towards the top of the image the rugged mountain range Montes Appenninus can be seen, with some peaks reaching over 5,000 metres. At the opposite end of the image, the photographer has captured Rupes Recta, a linear fault on the moon that is often a popular target for amateur astronomers." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
Phil Hart / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"An orange-hued moon as seen during the total lunar eclipse of 8 October 2014, taken from Lake Boga in Victoria, Australia. A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes through the Earth’s shadow and in this image our natural satellite has been completely immersed in the Earth’s shadow. Despite its name, during a total lunar eclipse, the moon doesn’t disappear entirely from view, but instead becomes a deep red. The brightness and colour of the moon will depend on the condition of the Earth’s atmosphere during the phenomenon, as it will be lit by light that has passed through our atmosphere and been bending towards the surface on the way." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
Paolo Porcellana / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"A massive, searing hot loop of plasma radiates from the edge of our local star – the sun – in a phenomenon known as a solar prominence. Emanating from the outer of the sun shell from which light is emitted, also known as its photosphere; the photographer has captured this prominence extending to the corona, which is the aura of the plasma surrounding it, as it detaches from the gaseous body. During the process of detachment the prominence reached a length of over 700,000 kilometres – a length roughly equal to the radius of the sun itself." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
David Wrangborg / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"An arresting image of the total solar eclipse of 20 March 2015, taken just after totality occurs and depicting the moments after the sun begun to emerge from behind the moon following approximately two minutes of coverage. Photographed from the Norwegian territory of Svalbard, which was one of only two habitable locations to experience totality." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
Chris Bakley / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"A photograph taken without the use of a cutting-edge camera. This image portrays six months of the sun’s movement across the sky of New Jersey in the USA, using the photographic method of solargraphy, in which a fixed pinhole camera is used to expose photographic paper for a significant amount of time." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
Chap Him Wong / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"Campers shelter from the wind next to old stone cottages looking up to Sunset Peak, the third-highest mountain in Hong Kong, standing at 869 metres tall. Above the mountain and at an even further distance from the campers, the stars appear to flash across the night sky leaving trails in their wake but are in fact portraying the movement of the Earth on its axis." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
Yuri Zvezdny / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"Our galaxy, the Milky Way, arcs over the Atacama Desert, Chile, as a lone astrophotographer basks in the glow of the stars, poised to capture the scene from below." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
Tommy Eliassen / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"An engrossed stargazer stands in the spotlight of a brilliant display of the Aurora Borealis in Norway, seemingly about to be beamed up into space." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
Lefteris Velissaratos / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"A coincidental alignment shows the Comet C/2014 E2 Jacques travelling just below the famed Heart Nebula in the constellation of Cassiopeia. However, this fantastic shot is slightly misleading as the two objects are not quite as close as they appear to be, with the comet actually journeying within our solar system at a distance of several million kilometres from Earth, whilst the Heart Nebula lies much further away at a distance of 7,500 light years from our planet." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
András Papp / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"The instantly recognisable planet Saturn and its rings. The second largest planet in the solar system, Saturn has a surface diameter approximately 83 times more than Earth’s and its most familiar features are its planetary rings that extend from 6,630 kilometres to 120,700 kilometres above Saturn's equator and average approximately 20 metres in thickness." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
Eric Toops / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"A depiction of the conjunction of Mars and the Moon, captured on 6 July 2014 in Georgia, USA. A conjunction occurs when two astronomical objects – in this case the Moon and Mars – appear very close to each other in the plane of sight as observed from Earth. Here, our neighbouring planet Mars is dwarfed by the moon, but in actual fact Mars is about twice the size of the moon in diameter." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
Ignacio Diaz Bobillo / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
"The globular cluster Omega Centauri is a dense orb of approximately 10 million stars, many of which are redder, cooler, and even older than our sun. The cluster can be found 15,800 light years away from Earth and has a diameter of 150 light years." – Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
David Pye / Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015
Philip.paulssonHah!
CAMBRIDGE, MA—Saying their findings pertained to every denomination of banknote, researchers at Harvard University released a study Friday confirming that the majority of paper currency in the United States has been in direct contact with at least one financial executive’s nude body at some point during its circulation. “Our data suggest that, for any given piece of U.S. legal tender, there is a 64 percent chance it has touched a portion of a Wall Street CEO or CFO’s naked flesh, likely when the executive gleefully rolled their nude body around in a large pile of money or dumped a bucket of bills over their head and let the currency cascade over their bare skin,” said professor of economics Robert Barro, noting that several dozen of the $10 bills his team randomly tested contained traces of DNA from every executive-level officer and board member at Goldman Sachs ...
Philip.paulssonI wonder if it took into account comments like "You know who else liked to blah blah blah" which are direct references to Godwin's Law...
An internet adage says that the longer a conversation goes on, the likelier it is that someone will glibly mention Hitler. But is it true? One redditor found out.
In 1990, long before there were trolls to haunt your mentions or poison Facebook comment threads, there was Usenet, a sort of proto-Reddit that predicted much of the promise of the social web — and, as regular user Mike Godwin observed, many of the pitfalls of networked interaction. "The Nazi-comparison meme," he recalled of Usenet's early days in a 1994 essay for Wired, "had gotten out of hand." Inside Usenet's discussion groups, he wrote, "the labeling of posters or their ideas as 'similar to the Nazis' or 'Hitler-like' was a recurrent and often predictable event." To Godwin, who came to be deeply moved by the plight of Jews during World War II, casual comparisons to Nazis were thoughtless and reckless, dangerous language that served to immediately halt debate, not to mention liken any difference of opinion to an episode of monumental human suffering. "I wanted folks who glibly compared someone else to Hitler or to Nazis to think a bit harder about the Holocaust," he later wrote.
The phenomenon Godwin observed in that essay quickly became crystallized as an internet truth, now known as Godwin's Law: The longer an online discussion grows, the more likely it is that a comparison to Nazis will be made, thereby derailing and ending online discussions. At more than two decades old, Godwin's Law has been a trope almost as long as the modern web has existed. But is it true? Do all web conversations inevitably descend into historically shallow Nazi analogies?
That's a difficult question to answer, one that would require a massive dataset of web comments, spanning a variety of subjects over time. It's a good thing, then, that a redditor named "u/stuck_in_the_matrix" downloaded every comment on Reddit (it only took 10 months!) — and then, that a curious-minded redditor and physics Ph.D. named Travis Hoppe saw in that comment dump the opportunity to put Godwin's Law to the test.
"The really important part about this whole study of Godwin's Law is it's not a study of finding Nazis or Hitler on the internet," Hoppe told BuzzFeed News. "And it's not a study to make light of the atrocities of WWII and the genocides. It's really a study about how we treat each other on the internet."
Hoppe analyzed every one of the more than 100 million posts on Reddit — and then he examined the 1 billion comments those posts generated. He found that out of all the submissions, nearly 200,000 invoked Nazis, Hitler, or some variation ("feminazi", "obamaisliterallyhitler," islamonazi") at least once.
That's a staggering amount of Hitlers and Nazis in various forms, but it's still a relatively low frequency — 1 out of every 1,500 submissions — which Hoppe believes discredits Godwin's Law. But a few other findings surprised him: Hoppe found that comments on a Reddit post typically peak within hours of an item's submission, regardless of whether or not they fall victim to Godwin's Law, and that Nazi references often crop up early in the commenting lifespan of a post. "What this means is that conversations keep going," he said. If playing the "Hitler card" in an online conversation really does effectively end it, as Godwn's law assumes, Hoppe's analysis should have shown that Reddit's Nazi references come toward the end of a thread. Instead, he found the opposite.
Either redditors are learning to ignore offensive, Hitler-mentioning trolls, "or, here's the super interesting hypothesis," Hoppe said: Nazi references aren't just a given — they're a measure of how controversial a topic is, suggesting it's something people want to discuss. "There seems to be a correlation between the Hitler-trolls, if you will," Hoppe said, "and something that's interesting to talk about." Hoppe made clear that this theory is unsubstantiated, but he said it seems to be supported by the data. Another explanation, considering Reddit's white power contingent, is that conversations continue but are colored by hateful speech. Hoppe anticipated this point. But he isn't sure how to create a reliable, automated way to classify bigoted language without depending on humans to flag content. It's not clear if Facebook or Twitter know how to do that either.
This kind of project — that is, studying enormous amounts of information spit out by web platforms — is a hobby for Hoppe. He presented his Godwin test at this month's Hack and Tell, a Meetup event in Washington, D.C. where hackers show off their cleverly manipulated datasets in a sort of Homebrew Computer Club for dataphiles. Earlier this year, in a novel take on machine learning, Hoppe created a bot that successfully generated dozens of popular posts for a subreddit called Today I Learned.
To improve on his latest experiment, Hoppe is eyeing platforms beyond Reddit, ones with more diverse demographics. (As far as Godwin's Law is concerned, is Reddit pathological or representative of the broader web?) Another question Hoppe is considering: Even if conversations continue after a Godwin's Law invocation, is the content or the tone altered for the worse? And do these types of mentions concentrate around specific topics — say, politics? Hoppe said a glance at the content had Godwin-type analogies frequently attached to Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. But it may be that these mentions are distributed across noncontroversial topics too. (Hoppe wonders how long it takes for other keywords to show up, like "Jesus" or "puppies.")
In the meantime, though, Hoppe's understanding of forums like Reddit has deepened. "Much of the the good stuff on the internet is conversations — be it words, art, code," he said. Godwin's Law may not turn out to be airtight as the kind of scientific laws it's wryly named for, but it illuminates something real about the trials of talking online, and the ease with which conversations can turn sour. At a moment when many online communities (most notably Reddit) struggle to negotiate their relationships with their less-than-savory users, the connection between vigorous debate and virulent hatred that Hoppe's experiment appears to have made is as entangled — and as important to consider — as ever. "Even if Godwin's Law is not true," Hoppe said, "it causes us to think about the times it is true."
Philip.paulssonLOL
Philip.paulsson#3 and #7
Hey hungry, I’m dad.
Thinkstock / BuzzFeed
Thinkstock / Getty Images / BuzzFeed
Universal Pictures / BuzzFeed
Thinkstock / BuzzFeed
Philip.paulssonAwwwwwwww
Four-legged bonds are the strongest.
On Monday, they got a call from a community member saying that a "reddish" dog matching Tillie's description had come up to their property and then quickly headed back to a ravine.
Volunteers with VIPP went to the property hoping the dog described was Tillie. When they got out to the site they saw something that was truly touching.
So with a needle in the haystack hope we made our way into the ravine and after a bit of searching, finally heard that sweet sound we have been waiting for all week.
A small one-woof response when we called out "Tillie." A few minutes later we found her laying beside an old cistern with her head resting on the concrete wall. Heart sinking...we knew that meant Phoebe was inside the cistern and every breath was held and every doggie prayer offered that the peek over the rim would somehow find her safe.
And gratefully... this time we have a happy ending with dear Phoebe found perched on some concrete rubble that held her out of the water. For nearly a week Tillie stayed by her side with the exception of the few minutes of each day when she went for help.
Philip.paulssonHm.
The brand famous for its creamy, black stout is going hoppy to compete with America’s craft brewers.
Guinness
Guinness may be synonymous with the creamy, black stout from Ireland, but the struggling brand has been branching into new territory in the U.S. After introducing Blonde American Lager last year, the brewer is now launching an India pale ale to compete with the country's growing craft brewers.
The new Nitro IPA, a "hop-forward" beer brewed with five kinds of hops in Dublin, is canned with the same little nitrogen-filled ball (which they call a "widget," pictured above) found in regular Guinness that the company says helps to create a thick, creamy head. It will be launching in the U.S. this month.
Guinness
The IPA is a product of the Brewers Project, a group of Guinness brewers "charged with exploring, inventing and perfecting new beers." So far, they have released Dublin Porter, West Indies Porter, and a lager called Hop House 13.
This group of experimenters represents Guinness' efforts to look beyond its classic products for new avenues of growth. Ad Age reported this summer that Guinness will support Brewers Project beers in the U.S. with television and digital ads.
American consumers seem interested in trying new varieties of Guinness. According to Diageo, the London-based beverage company that owns the brand, Guinness sales globally were flat, but in the U.S. sales increased 3% in the fiscal year ending June 30 — due to strong sales of the new Blonde American Lager. It was a turning point for the brand, which had suffered negative sales in North America the two years before that.
Yet sales of regular Guinness Draught in the U.S. remained weak in the last year due to competition from craft beers. The decline is not something Diageo could ignore — the U.S. represents about 16% of Guinness' global sales by volume, reported the WSJ.
Guinness is clearly pursuing the craft beer drinker with its new IPA. Already, IPA is the most popular style of craft beer, accounting for for 21% of volume sales of craft beer last year in 2014 after growing 47%, according to data from the Brewers Association.
Philip.paulssonLOL This headline was better than the Ars one.
For all of those times when "liking" a pal's Facebook post just doesn't seem appropriate, it seems you'll soon have another option. During a Q&A session today, Mark Zuckerberg revealed that the social network is indeed working on a "dislike" bu...
Philip.paulsson"We wrapped"? Did they wrap things?
Also, he didn't know any movies she was in. LOL!
The thought of having seniors intern at a fast-paced fashion internet startup run by a staff of twenty- and thirtysomethings might sound slightly insane, but that's exactly what happens in the new heartwarming comedy The Intern. Anne Hathaway stars as Jules, the founder of an online fashion site (which brings back some Devil Wears Prada feels) who forms an unexpected bond with Ben, her new 70-year-old intern played by Robert De Niro. By the end of the film you'll laugh, cry, and become infinitely more obsessed with both of the Oscar-winning stars.
When we got the chance to sit down with Anne and Robert, we put them to the test to see how well they really know each other. As you can probably guess, it was pretty damn hilarious.
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Anne wrote, "My mind went blank." Robert wrote, "Who is this guy?!?"
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Anne wrote, "Complaining about something incessantly." Robert wrote "VERRY TEMPERMENTALLLL!!!!"
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Anne Hathaway: You don't know any of my movies. This is so awkward.
Robert De Niro: What's the one you told me about?
AH: [Writes down a new answer.] I decided to change my mind.
Anne wrote "Ella Enchanted. (Duh.)" Robert wrote "INTERN!!"
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Anne wrote, "Analyze This or Taxi. Or The Intern or The Godfather II. Or Raging Bull or Deer Hunter." Robert wrote, "Cape Fear???"
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AH: [Laughs] That's the only one I haven't put on!
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Anne wrote, "Texting or emailing or on the phone." Robert wrote, "Sitting and reading until have to shoot!"
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Anne wrote, "Pretzels that I stole from Bob." Robert wrote, "Cheeze Wiz??"
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Anne wrote, "We wrapped." Robert wrote, "Singing!!"
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RDN: Oh yeah, right!
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Anne wrote, "Bob." Robert wrote, "I would I guess! At least now."
Yes, you guys got this one!
AH: We're 1 for 80.
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Anne wrote, "CERN." Robert wrote, "Fashion?"
AH: CERN, it's where they have the Hadron Collider.
RDN: In Switzerland.
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Anne wrote, "Cage fighting." Robert wrote, "Astrophysicist."
RDN: Oh, yeah! That's another interesting one.
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Anne wrote, "Be annoying/Be in choir." Robert wrote, "Most well liked!"
AH: Aww! That's so nice! Yours is so nice!
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Anne wrote, "Be a LEGEND who is also a straight up wonderful guy." Robert wrote, "Try to be the best at what I try to do!"
RDN: Oh, thank you.
AH: You're OK. Don't let it go to your head.
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Anne wrote, "All of them." Robert wrote, "What do you think?"
RDN: Yeah! That's a good answer.
Philip.paulssonI thought for sure this was going to be about Kerbal Space Program....
You thought the carrier landing stage in Top Gun was a nightmare to pull off? Then get ready to scream obscenities you didn't know you knew at MIT Media Lab's SpaceX Falcon 9 Lander. This 8-bit web-game combines all of the pulse pounding excitement...
Philip.paulssonLOL
WASHINGTON—Saying she had proven herself to be a formidable contender worthy of respect, GOP leaders announced Thursday that Carly Fiorina had been officially promoted to a male candidate after her strong showing in last night’s primary debate. “Given her steady rise in the polls and her consistent performance on the national stage, we have determined that Ms. Fiorina’s skills as a speaker and compelling ideas about foreign and domestic policy merit her recognition as male,” said Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, adding that the former Hewlett-Packard CEO had impressed GOP officials with her breadth of knowledge, her confidence, and her ability to doggedly attack both Democrats and her primary opponents, and therefore deserved to have the label of “female” removed entirely. “We are pleased to be able to offer Ms. Fiorina the increased respect and media coverage that come with being a male candidate. Allow me ...
Philip.paulssonEeep:
Indirect sexual partners:
8,918,476
(click through to take the survey yourself! It's short)
Find out how many sexual partners you’ve been exposed to indirectly.
First, enter how many people you’ve slept with in each age group:
Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) are on the rise, and many of these infections are symptomless. Here at LloydsPharmacy’s Online Doctor, we have decided to raise awareness about this worrying truth by illustrating the exponential effect of sexual contact.
Our Sex Degrees calculator is based on the theory of “Six Degrees of Separation” – which is the sociological idea that we are all connected to each other by only six connections. Using this principle we take the number of partners you’ve had and what age they were when you last slept together, we multiply this by the number of partners they are statistically likely to have had, and by the partners of those partners, and the partners of those partners, (and so on) for six stages, or “degrees”, to estimate how many indirect partners you could have been exposed to sexually.
This calculator is not a diagnostic tool but it highlights how exposed you can be to STIs, and how this risk increases with each new partner. It’s not just your direct partners that you have to worry about, but your partners’ partners, and their partners’ partners, and so on. Obviously if you are not sexually active or have only one sexual partner who hasn’t had sex with anyone else, you will avoid sexually transmitted infections.
However, even if you use condoms you are still exposed to several types of STI; including genital warts and herpes which can also be transferred through skin-to-skin contact, oral sex, and even sex toys. So the key message is to practice safe sex, but also to get regularly tested for STIs. If you’re concerned about your sexual health, you can either talk to your local GP, GUM clinic, or you can order a discreet test via LloydsPharmacy’s Online Doctor service.
LloydsPharmacy’s Online Doctor provides safe and reliable prescription treatments and services to anyone in the UK and Ireland. Our team of UK-based doctors have treated over 1 million patients in Britain and are constantly developing new ways to provide remote healthcare in a convenient and safe way.
Amongst its many online services, LloydsPharmacy offers a discreet and convenient sexual health service which includes STI home testing kits and prescription treatments for the most common infections.
Our tests can be ordered online and are sent in a plain unbranded package to the customer’s chosen address. Should any results return positively, then treatment may also be ordered online if it is clinically appropriate. We offer treatment for chlamydia, genital herpes and genital warts online, along with support and advice.
Alongside all of these, LloydsPharmacy’s Online Doctor offers a direct doctor support service allowing customers to talk to a GP via messaging, Skype or telephone. For a list of all our treatments visit: onlinedoctor.lloydspharmacy.com/uk/all-treatments.
Fraser Wood
Philip.paulssonI thought they were barclay's bikes?
If there's one universal truth, it's that everything is better with lasers: sharks, dinosaurs, Facebook, and now... Boris bikes. Under a new safety trial, Transport for London has fitted 250 of the capital's pushbikes-for-hire with a laser-projection...
Philip.paulssonSilly dog, don't play with your food!
Babe irl.
This video of the two of them was uploaded by Kirsten Drysdale who told BuzzFeed that Herby belongs to her sister, Bridget. "She's been begging her husband for four years for a pet pig... they got married 3 weeks ago and he finally caved in and bought it for her as a surprise belated wedding present." Kirsten says Herby immediately bonded with Murphy.
