If your child is constantly glued to a tablet swiping away at birds or fruit, you're probably wistfully wishing for the days when kids liked playing with actual toys. Well, Lego just might have the perfect solution for you and your offspring. Today,...

The history of Android: The endless iterations of Google’s mobile OS | Ars Technica

i’d pay money for this.

via: https://twitter.com/jcutroni/status/477422038496194560/photo/1

Just because they’re supposed to be non-contact workouts this time of year, it doesn’t make them safe. The latest injury could be in Giants OTAs, though there’s no word yet on the severity. Via Mike Garafolo of FOX Sports, Giants middle linebacker Jon Beason was carted off the field to the locker room. Beason re-upped…

We have said it numerous times before and now we'll say it again: Google Now is easily one of the best things to happen to mobile devices in the past few years. The service unburdens us by doing much of the thinking for us when it comes to the various events of each day.

What will the weather be like? What time should I leave for my meeting? Is my flight on time? When is the Keyboard Cat t-shirt I ordered finally going to arrive in the mail? These are all questions that Google Now answers before we even ask them — and now, Google's eerily brilliant virtual assistant service is getting even smarter.

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The Giants were hoping for the best on linebacker Jon Beason’s injury yesterday. They didn’t necessarily get it. According to Kimberly Jones of the NFL Network, the Giants middle linebacker suffered a sesamoid fracture in right foot which will require surgery. His recovery is estimated at 12 weeks. That makes the next question for the Giants…

If you sell a voice-activated console, it's probably wise not to have people in your advert uttering the key phrase. Someone at Microsoft missed that point when they asked Aaron Paul to bark "Xbox on" at his TV to promote the Xbox One. More than a...

With Google I/O just two weeks away, anything and everything Google is beginning to leak. The latest leak comes from Forbes and deals with something that we’ve expected from Google and haven’t yet seen. Google Fit is reportedly Google’s foray into the world of health, aiming to help you track and aggregate all your fitness data in one single spot. That means everything collected by your fitness trackers, health apps and monitors could be synced into one cloud-based system to get a better look at your fitness.

This approach is the same thing that Apple showed off WWDC recently. Apple’s HealthKit is a collection of APIs to aggregate health data. Google Fit is said to function in the same way, allowing developers to quickly plug in the necessary code for the service. The move seems obvious with today’s trend towards physical fitness and wearable technology. With Android Wear coming into existence, Google Fit could be an important part of the service, allowing consumers to easily monitor their health with a series of devices and software.

Google Fit is reportedly being planned for launch at Google I/O where several partnerships with fitness companies are said to be announced.

Does a service like Google Fit interest you?

You like fighting crazy demon-robot hybrids, right? Boy do we have some news for you: video of the new Doom surfaced today. There isn't much to see at the moment aside from some smoke and grisly Hell-flesh, but there should be more details at id's...

Alien: Isolation, for those who have survived the Xenomorph buffet so far, is a first-person survival horror game using Ridley Scott's 1979 movie a spingboard. The game will be available on the flustercluck day of October 7. Here's the trailer Sega...

We’re only using stills since the show was rebooted in 2005, as otherwise this quiz would be frankly impossible for most of us to solve.

Giants quarterback Eli Manning struggled through a miserable 2013 season in which he led the league with a career-high 27 interceptions. But it was offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride, not Manning, who took the fall. Now Manning is learning the system of new offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo, and former Giants quarterback Phil Simms thinks that’s good…

If you were hoping that Apple would announce big improvements to its Maps application on iOS 8 last week, you came away sorely disappointed since Apple barely bothered to mention the oft ridiculed mapping application at all. Now TechCrunch's sources inform us that there was a reason for that: Apple Maps is apparently still too much of a mess to even warrant a mention at Apple's big developers conference.

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Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski is only doing individual work for the Patriots right now, but that individual work appears to be going well enough to create some optimism about his chances of getting on the field for the start of the regular season. Ben Volin of the Boston Globe reports that Gronkowski was “bursting,…

Oh jeez.

This surrender.

instagram.com

This polite amendment.

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This mac & cheese variety.

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This vending machine.

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Many people have tried to explain why Apple needed Beats, speculating that the Beats Music subscription is the most relevant Beats business to Apple; that Apple is interested in Beats hardware; that Apple needs the Dre-Iovine duo for future music deals, or a combination of these factors. Apple said that it wants Beats both for its hardware and software businesses, giving both Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine position within the company. But it was iTunes management's arrogance and ignorance that forced Apple to spend $3 billion on the company, BuzzFeed has learned from sources familiar with Apple’s iTunes business.

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You've seen 32-25, 24-17 and 16-9 -- now here are the elite eight of World Cup kits! -Shop for World Cup kits in the FC Store 8. England The Expert: ...

Either way, they’re hoping to round the bases.

Jared Wickerham / Getty Images

The Rangers' jerseys are unique in sports for their look and lettering.

After years of waiting, Apple has finally brought support for third-party keyboards to iOS. Inside iOS 8, keyboards like Swiftkey and Swype, which have enjoyed huge usage on Android, will have system-wide access to all apps and services on your...

Apple's annual developer conference is well underway, and it just revealed what could be a seismic shift in the iOS world: Third-party apps will soon be able talk to each other. Historically, applications on iOS have lived in their own silos, without...

Apple on Monday at WWDC 2014, unveiled iOS 8 at WWDC 2014, its next major mobile operating system. One of the iOS 8 features highlighted during the keynote was apple’s new QuickType, which finally brings smarter keyboard features to iPhone and iPad.

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They're likely to be underdogs either way.

Weak effort by Montreal in Game 6.

But push the Rangers to the brink and he'll step up.

Superior. Get it??

Because there's nothing better than walking to the edge of a lake dock.

Kendall Rittenour / Via Shutterstock

(Except for jumping off one.)

Monkey Business Images / Via Shutterstock

Because it's a BAD idea to tube in the ocean. You will die.

The salt spray alone would ruin you. Lakes, on the other hand, are meant for this.

AZP Worldwide / Via Shutterstock

Because you can get a little lake water in your eyes and mouth and still be happy/okay.

Subbotina Anna / Via Shutterstock

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There have been plenty of iPhone diehards who have tried making the switch to Android over the years, and while some of them liked what they've seen, others haven't been able to last even a single day. UI design expert Hillel Cooperman, a former Microsoft user experience expert and cofounder of user experience design consulting firm Jackson Fish Market, falls squarely into the latter category. Cooperman recently decided to put down his iPhone and pick up an HTC One just so he could get an understanding of Android's user interface and he seemed to dislike everything about both HTC's flagship phone and Google's mobile platform.

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Beautiful compositions can originate at airports that are nothing special at ground level.

We know the IRS loves churches. We know this because on Pulpit Freedom Sunday back in 2012, more than 1,500 churches openly defied the law and endorsed a candidate for President.

The IRS sat back and did nothing about it.

Why not? Bureaucracy. There was no one in the office who had the authority to initiate the audits, they said. And they were in no rush to find someone to fill that position, either.

In November of 2012, the Freedom From Religion Foundation sued the IRS over this. They said that Douglas Shulman, the IRS Commissioner, was violating the Establishment Clause of the Constitution by not doing his job and enforcing the “you can’t endorse a candidate from the pulpit” rule. (They also said Shulman violated their Equal Protection rights.)

The preferential tax-exemption that churches and other religious organizations obtain, despite noncompliance with electioneering restrictions, amounts to more than $100,000,000,000 annually in tax-free contributions made to churches and religious organizations in the United States.

In other words, if churches are taking in so much money, tax-free, they should not be allowed to break the law and endorse political candidates. It was the IRS’ job to make sure that happened, and even when the churches flaunted their violations of the law, the IRS pretended like nothing was happening.

A month later, American Atheists also sued the IRS, but for a completely different reason: They said Shulman was giving preferential treatment to churches and religious organizations.

Essentially, what they argued was that religious groups (including churches) are tax-exempt, just like all non-profit groups. Usually, groups that are tax-exempt have to submit an application to receive that benefit or pay a large fee. Religious groups don’t have to do that.

Furthermore, churches don’t have to tell the IRS what they do with the money they take in. So are they doing things that actually benefit the public and, thus, warrant a tax-exemption? Who knows. Other non-profit groups, on the other hand, have to file that paperwork meticulously.

Churches also get other special benefits the rest of us don’t: Pastors, for example, can deduct the cost of mortgage payments and homeowners insurance from their taxable income. Churches don’t have to withhold income tax from salaries paid to pastors. There’s no limit to the size of these deductions, either. Considering how many pastors there are who live in multi-million dollar mansions, it’s pretty obvious a lot of churches take advantage of this rule.

Those tax deductions we’re not getting from the religious world cost our country an estimated $71,000,000,000 a year.

That, AA claims, is discrimination:

… American Atheists was forced to undergo expense to apply for 501(c)(3) tax exempt status that churches and most religious organizations are not forced to undergo.

… American Atheists is forced to expend time and money making accurate annual filings with the IRS each year or risk losing tax-exempt status or being subject to other sanctions for non-compliance. Most religious organizations and churches are not.

…

It would violate the sincerely held belief system of American Atheists to seek classification as a “religious organization or church” from the IRS. It, therefore, files its informational return each year while enduring discriminatory treatment.

Thus, American Atheists is forced each year to disclose information about its employees, volunteers, and donors — members of the most hated minority in America today that is subjected to great prejudice and discrimination — whereas churches and many religious organizations need not make such disclosures.

Overall, AA argued, the IRS gave unfair preferential treatment to religious groups and discriminated against atheists.

That also prevented AA from getting donations larger than $5,000 because they would then have to disclose the donors’ names, something churches don’t have to do, giving churches a “fundraising advantage.”

The filing fees to retain 501(c)(3) status are expensive — something churches don’t have to pay but atheist groups must.

Atheist groups have to pay their staff more money since they can’t deduct anything for housing expenses like churches can.

AA was asking the Court to rule that all tax codes treating churches differently from other non-profit groups were unconstitutional.

…

On Monday, a Kentucky federal district court threw out the entire case arguing that American Atheists didn’t have proper standing and, furthermore, they didn’t suffer an injury or represent other taxpayers or a broader group of organizations. Judge William O. Bertelsman said that AA didn’t apply for the tax exemptions as religious organizations or churches, and so they were never rejected as they claimed to be, and so the law was never really violated.

If the Atheists are arguing that they are a church or a religious organization and the IRS has discriminatorily applied the above-referenced provisions of the I.R.C., then the Atheists’ assertion is pure speculation because they have not actually sought classification as a church or a religious organization. If, on the other hand, the Atheists are arguing that they are not a church or a religious organization and the IRS is discriminating by only applying the challenged I.R.C. provisions to churches or religious organizations, then the Atheists have not stated a claim under the Equal Protection clause. More specifically, the Atheists cannot establish that they have been treated disparately as compared to similarly-situated organizations.

It seems like the court is subtly asking AA to apply to the IRS for designation as a church so that if they get rejected, they can actually have the standing to sue. But AA has said they don’t want to do that because it would “violate [their] sincerely held belief system.”

Plus, it would just be weird.

It’s a disappointing defeat. It may be legally sound, but it still gives churches an upper hand that they really don’t deserve. All AA is asking for is transparency — that churches be treated the same way as other non-profits with the same level of public accountability. The churches can’t be trusted to do the right thing and the courts and legislators aren’t putting enough pressure on them. I’m just not sure where this issue goes from here. But Christians are breathing a sigh of relief that their special benefits aren’t about to be taken away.

(via Religious Clause. Large portions of this article were posted earlier. The title has been changed to better reflect the judge’s decision.)

Note: Picture unrelated, clearly somebody else's wife knows what's up. A man in Sweden recently took out an ad selling his massive 661-pound LEGO collection for $11,500 because his wife was threatening to leave him. Then go! But you're never going to find another man with a LEGO collection like this one. You're gonna wind up settling for some derelict with a half dozen Lincoln Logs.

You can make a difference! Save my marriage. The old bag said last Friday 'now get this shit out.' I don't know if it was me or the Lego she was talking about but I think it was the Lego. The loot comes in dozens of containers and includes 300 kgs of bricks, 20 kgs of instructions, 44 kgs of wheels and "a practically complete collection of the Lego space range."

Ahahahhahahha @ "The old bag said." Well it's a relief to know the romance isn't dead in their relationship. Ol' Saggintitties over here told me I had to get rid of my LEGO collection. And you know what I told her? I said, 'Now you listen here...' then I accidentally farted and she just walked out of the room laughing at me. So you know what I did? I put a laxative in her bedside water then scattered LEGO blocks between her side of the bed and the bathroom. "You're sick." Plus as many as I could stack on the toilet seat. Thanks to AMY, who agrees any man who owns "a practically complete collection of the Lego space range" deserves better than this.