Archive - Jun 2018

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SCOTUS rejects warrantless cellphone location tracking in Carpenter v. United States.
In a blockbuster 5-4 decision issued today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that warrantless government tracking of cellphone users via their cellphone location records violates the Fourth Amendment. "A person does not surrender all Fourth Amendment protection by venturing into the public sphere," declared the majority opinion of Chief Justice John Roberts. "We decline to grant the state unrestricted access to a wireless carrier's database of physical location information."

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Photo courtesy reason.com

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One father-son duo took a trip down memory lane in light of Father’s Day this year. Officer Andy Gould with the Auburn Police Department and his son, Michael, recreated a 20-year-old photo.

In 1998, the pair smiled for a photo, which shows Michael sitting on his father's lap inside of a patrol car. "When I get bigger I’m going to be my Dad’s partner and catch bad guys and burglars," the caption on the original photo reads.

On Sunday, the two re-created the moment -- though as the police department noted on Facebook, it was a “hard squeeze” with his son’s 6’7” frame.

Michael is a sheriff’s deputy with the King County Sheriff’s Office, according to Fox25.

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Photo courtesy Auburn Police Department, Washington

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Simon Cowell confessed he switched off for the sake of his mental health
In an astonishing confession, the television mogul revealed he had become so distracted and irritated by his phone that he made himself uncontactable for the sake of his mental health and happiness.

He told The Mail on Sunday: 'I literally have not been on my phone for ten months.

'The difference it made was that I became more aware of the people around me and way more focused.

'The thing I get irritated with is when you have a meeting everyone's on their phone - and I was probably in that place too. You can't concentrate.

'It has been so good for my mental health. It's a very strange experience but it really is good for you and it has absolutely made me happier.'

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Photo courtesy REX / Shutterstock

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June 1, 2018 (formatted as 1/6/18 in many parts of the world) is Phi Day, a date that matches the first four digits of the golden ratio.

Represented by the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet, the golden ratio, which comes out to roughly 1.618 when rounded, is the number you get when you divide a line into two parts so that the longer part divided by the smaller part is the same as the total length divided by the longer part (or simplified: When the smaller is to the larger as the larger is to the whole).

The Pyramids at Giza, Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man," nautilus shells, sunflower seed heads, and spiral galaxies all feature the golden ratio.

The golden ratio is also closely related to the famous Fibonacci sequence. In this series of numbers beginning with zero or one, each subsequent number equals the sum of the previous two (i.e., 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, etc.). The ratio of any two successive numbers in this sequence comes very close to the golden ratio. Shapes made with Fibonacci dimensions are considered pleasing to the eye, which is why they so often appear in art, either unintentionally or by design.

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Image courtesy MSN / iStock