6. Interesting Reads
“Sneaking a look at the mirror while on your way to the shower, putting on a little makeup before a hot date, uploading fifty different photos of your utterly ordinary visage to Instagram. What is life without a little narcissism? Thankfully for us self-involved monstrosities from hell, 2017 has been the year of the selfie apps. First, we had Meitu, the Chinese photo-editing application that turned photos of even the huskiest of alpha males into a cute little anime pixie. And now we have FaceApp, the “revolutionary” selfie filter that apparently uses deep neural networks to make subtle changes to your facial appearance.”
(Forbes)
“The founder of online encyclopaedia Wikipedia has announced plans for a crowd-funded news website offering stories by journalists and volunteers working together, an initiative he hopes will counter the spread of fake news. Jimmy Wales said the new platform, Wikitribune, would be free to read and carry no advertising, instead relying on supporters to fund it, while the accuracy of its articles would be easily verifiable as source material would be published. “The news is broken, but we’ve figured out how to fix it,” he said in a promotional video posted on the website’s homepage, which does not yet carry any news stories. The page indicates the platform will go live in 29 days.”
(Reuters)
“In one critical way, Samsung’s Galaxy S8 may end up smoking the iPhone 8. The Galaxy S8 is the fastest phone when it comes to tapping into cellular network speeds. That’s because it includes Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor or, in some markets, Samsung’s own Exynos 8895 chip — both of which can work with an advanced form of 4G wireless tech called Gigabit LTE. Gigabit LTE will be a signature feature on many high-profile, premium phones this year. Yet Apple’s next iPhone, which is still months away from becoming an official product, may not be one of them. Apple designs its own processor and uses modems from Qualcomm and Intel. But Intel’s latest commercial-ready modem won’t hit Gigabit LTE speeds, which could force Apple to slow down the Qualcomm version to ensure all iPhones are on the same footing.”
(CNET)
“You may not realize this, but your fingers, wrist, and hands are most fragile parts of your body, although they are compiled of 27 bones each and there are 6 easiest ways to break your finger, hand or wrist with little pain. Growing up as an athlete, involved in a number of very different sports, I’ve had my share of broken bones. I remember being a kid and thinking it was so cool to have a bright colored cast to show off at school. However, I never really considered the pain of a broken bone that required that “cool cast.” That is until, I broke my wrist while roller skating at a friend’s birthday party when I was 8 years old. To be honest, I don’t remember much of the pain, but I do remember that it hurt a lot and it was a dull, numbing pain.”
“If you’re looking to strengthen your brain, you should check out these online problem-solving games for adults.
As an adult, my biggest problems are usually financial or work related, which I supposed are hand-in-hand in some regard. They’re very solvable problems, but I wish someone would do it for me. With regard to work, can someone else figure out how late I can sleep in the morning without being late? Sometimes 6 a.m. just comes way too early for me. Problem-solving activities used to be fun and exciting, but now they come in the form of Sudoku, stress, and sleepless nights. As adults, we’re constantly busy and don’t tend to take the time to focus on games or other activities, but it’s important.”
“Google is demoting misleading and offensive content in its search by updating algorithms and offering users new ways to report bad results. The change follows increased attention to flaws in top search results, including the promotion of fake news, and deliberately misleading or false information formatted to look like news, during the 2016 presidential election. Google said it has updated its algorithms to better prioritize “authoritative” content. Content may be deemed authoritative based on signals such as affiliation of a site with a university or verified news source, how often other sites link to the site in question, and the quality of the sites that link.”
(Recode)
“If you’re a yoga enthusiast, you might be interested to know about the most successful yoga teachers in the world. All my friends are hippies, so I’m really familiar with yoga and I think it’s a really great practice. Yoga soothes the soul and also stretches your muscles. I tried yoga a few times when I was in high school and college, but I have a hip injury that made it a little difficult. I have a friend who told me I should try yoga more to make it better, but I’m too lazy to even attempt it at this point. I love the idea of it, though. I think people who are really into yoga tend to be much more serene and relaxed. There’s a really cool trend now that’s called goat yoga where people do yoga with goats wandering around the room and climbing on their backs. I’d be interested in trying that just for the goats.”
