“Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”
– Abraham Lincoln
(quote)
The $120,000 Art Basel Banana, Explained
So, uh, whose banana is it?
Art Basel Banana is catchy, but it’s not actually the work’s name. Titled Comedian, it’s by Maurizio Cattelan. Cattelan is an Italian artist and an absurdist—in 2016 he replaced a toilet at the Guggenheim with a fully functioning gold one. He called the
(quote)
Meet America’s newest military giant: Amazon
The fatal flaw that could make AI weapons useless
AI-guided missiles could be blinded by adversarial data, and perhaps even steered back toward friendly targets.
Robots cannot replace the problem-solving, decision-making abilities of human cognition in “direct fire”
(unquote)
Image courtesy Pablo Delcan / Technology Review and Textron Systems
(quote)
The Chicago Public Library system has recently gotten rid of its late fees.
The number of book returns has since increased 240%, a library official says. It’s a big piece of evidence countering a major argument used by those arguing against ditching overdue fines for library books.
“The
Photo courtesy Matt McClain and Alla Sokolova / Siena International Photo Awards
(quote)
A Utah woman who needed her tire changed got a little help from a homeless man, who saw her in the parking lot and noticed she needed a hand.
“I’m old school. I believe in the Golden Rule,” Charles Logan, 56, told InsideEdition.com. “If a little lady needs her tire fixed, you go down there
(quote)
Endless federal red ink may doom Social Security recipients
According to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the average federal deficit is now expected to hit an eye-popping $1.2 trillion per year between 2020 and 2029—a total of $12.2 trillion over that period.
The new deficit figures
(quote)
The city of Augsburg, in Germany’s beautiful region of Bavaria, is a pleasant, affluent town, known for its 11th-century cathedral and stunning Renaissance buildings. The city grew up amid the commercial revolution of the Middle Ages, and quickly became established as an important trading hub.
In 1514, a new social housing project was born, the first
(quote)
A year after Toys R Us closed, tens of thousands of laid-off workers are getting a portion of the severance promised and then rescinded as the retailer unraveled.
While workers are getting $2 million, a fraction of the $56 million in fees awarded to Kirkland & Ellis, the law firm representing Toys R Us,
(quote)
More than 14,717,618,286 records have been lost or stolen since 2013 due to data breaches, and 3,353,178,708 records were compromised in the first half of 2018 alone. In 2017, 86 percent of all breaches worldwide occurred in North America, and in 2018 45.9 percent of data breaches in the US were in the business sector.
Web hosting comparison site HostingTribunal
(quote)
People are sick of drinking. Investors are betting on the ‘sober curious’
I ordered a carrot-and-ginger shrub and hoped it would be palatable. I was pleasantly surprised, drank the whole thing and, voila, was not even tipsy. Even more exciting: my bill. It was a mere $15 for two drinks and a bread bowl — to soak up the non-alcoholic
(quote)
Beautiful, bougie and all the other words Americans still can’t spell, state by state
Around the time 12-year-old Ananya Vinay of Fresno, Calif., triumphed with “m-a-r-o-c-a-i-n,” the people in her home state struggled with “b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l.” The following year, when 14-year old Karthik Nemmani of
(quote)
A Survey Found That 1 in 10 U.S. Airbnb Users Have Found Hidden Cameras
They could be anywhere.
Airbnb has been under fire lately after numerous reports of hidden cameras found in some of the rentals were brought to the public’s attention. As creepy and privacy-invading as it sounds, apparently it happens a lot more often than we
(quote)
Last week, Google announced that it had formed an AI Ethics committee to assist with the direction of its intelligent technology. This week came an update that few expected – the panel has already been dissolved.
Google has claimed that the committee “can’t function” as it wanted. Although, many believe that the reason for the sudden collapse of the panel
