Category: Culture

Culture

Yosemite National Park officials tell videographers to leave their drones at home

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As reported on The Verge. By Dante D’Orazio Officials want to make sure your next visit to Yosemite National Park isn’t marred by a drone buzzing overhead. On Friday, the National Park Service issued a statementinforming visitors that unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are banned inside the park’s 1,169 square miles of land in California. The Park Service pointed to existing federal conservation regulations in justifying the ban. The regulations prohibit “delivering or retrieving a person or object by…

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Culture Mobile

NYC inks deal to put train tickets on smartphones

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As reported on Engadget. BY ALEXIS SANTOS Part of New York City’s train system is set to get a 21st-century kick in the pants. Digital tickets that live on commuters’ smartphones will soon be introduced thanks to a deal inked between the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) Board and Masabi, one of eleven companies that offered to build such a system for the city. The pact follows a — presumably successful — trial conducted between Masabi and the…

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Business Culture Random

High rollers: Las Vegas is poised to become the Disneyland of weed

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As reported on The Verge. By Lessley Anderson Cannabis entrepreneurs fight to stake their pot leaf in the world’s biggest tourist destination They won’t have neon signs, drive-thru windows, or 24-hour wedding chapels attached to them. But Las Vegas marijuana dispensaries will be massively profitable tourist attractions that could deepen the entire nation’s relationship with weed. At least that’s the hope of the 109 applicants who entered the heated competition for Vegas’ first medical marijuana dispensary…

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Culture Engineering

IBM’s Watson supercomputer will soon be your personal shopper

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As reported on Engadget. BY MARIELLA MOON Watson had been a doctor, a geneticist, a game show contestant and even a chef in the past. But now IBM’s supercomputer has a new career: personal shopping. IBM has partnered with digital commerce firm Fluid to develop a cloud-based app called Expert Personal Shopper (XPS), which uses Watson’s brains to answer buyers’ highly specific questions. In short, the computer with many hats now plays the role of a sales associate when you’re shopping online.…

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Article Culture

You might also like this story about weaponized clickbait

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As reported on The Verge. By Casey Newton Sleazy tabloid links have taken over the web — but their days may be numbered Reading news online over the past year, I came to realize that more or less every story now includes a beautiful woman. Tucked into modules with names like “around the web” or “you might like,” there she is, demonstrating her bosom or backside or pearly-white smile. Often she is a celebrity, talking about…

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Apple Culture Engineering Environmental

New Apple Campus 2 Video Shows Eco-Friendly Aspects Of The “Mother Ship”

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As reported on TechCrunch. by John Biggs The company will supply 1,000 shared bicycles at the new HQ and will use 30% less energy than the typical office building. It will also include solar and other renewable energy sources. Built in the “fruit bowl of America,” the new 2.8-million-square-foot space will house 13,000 engineers and be finished in 2016. Below are some more shots of the amazing new space.  

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Culture

High as balls: live from the Cannabis Cup

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As reported on The Verge. By Trent Wolbe Here’s a fact: humans love to get wasted. Long before there were laws, long before there was beer, there was marijuana — a drug that had fallen out of legal favor in America completely by the 1930s. Alcohol had a similar falling-out with the Federal Government in 1920, but by 1933 legislators realized that the benefits of legalization and taxation would far outweigh the consequences of continued prohibition. It’s taking…

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Culture

50 years ago today, the public got its first taste of video calls

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As reported on Engadget. BY TERRENCE O’BRIEN It seemed like the inevitable future at the time, we’re sure. On April 20th in 1964, Bell Telephone showed off the Mod 1 Picturephone — a precursor to the Skype and Hangouts video calls that have become a standard but under-utilized feature of modern communications. The demonstration was part of the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, visitors were able to step into a booth and have a conversation with a person thousands of miles away…

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Culture Story

#Love: Thanks, Porn

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As reported on TechCrunch. by John Biggs As a modern married male, the times spent alone with my computer and a box of tissues are, in some ways, the best times. That is not to say the manifold pleasures of family life and the wild menagerie of mere existence aren’t amazing, but a body likes to be alone. For this I thank porn. While there is no doubt that there are dark corners of this industry…

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Culture Legal Security

White House has had legal talks with Samsung about that presidential selfie

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As reported on Engadget. BY TIMOTHY J. SEPPALA It isn’t quite the selfie-retweeted-’round-the-world, but that hasn’t stopped the White House from answering questions about David Ortiz’s impromptu snapshot with the president. Obama’s senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer made an appearance on Face the Nation to talk about serious matters like the state of the Affordable Healthcare Act, but didn’t shy away from host Bob Schieffer’s questions about the above picture (those start around the 5:47 mark). Pfeiffer said that the president didn’t…

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