SwiftKey reveals 'Flow Through Space'

Happy National Day, United Arab Emirates! {explored}

Happy National Day, United Arab Emirates! {explored}, a photo by Charn High ISO Low IQ on Flickr.

Guillemins 10

Guillemins 10, a photo by twan-k5 on Flickr.

Magnificent CME Erupts on the Sun - August 31

Magnificent CME Erupts on the Sun - August 31, a photo by NASA Goddard Photo and Video on Flickr.

Touch

Touch, a photo by Jason A. Samfield on Flickr.

A human touch upon emotive technology.

Ron Finley: Food Forest

Europe and its nightlights, seen from the ISS

Europe and its nightlights, seen from the ISS, a photo by europeanspaceagency on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Europe at night, captured by ESA astronaut André Kuipers onboard the ISS. In shot is the Soyuz TMA-03M module that carried André to the ISS in December 2011, and a Russian Progress freighter.

André is onboard the ISS as part of ESA's long duration mission, PromISSe. For further information on the mission, please visit: www.esa.int/SPECIALS/PromISSe/index.html

Credits: ESA/NASA

All Alone in the Night - Time-lapse footage of the Earth as seen from th...

The Ghost in the Machine

Everyone freaks out that Facebook or Google or whoever knows too much about them through their liking, posting, sharing, commenting, updating, viewing, et cetera, but I beg to differ.


The intent, the reasons, the reasoning, the intensity and caliber, and the type of relationship that the user perceives via the Like or +1 or favoriting features is not ascertained by the company.


Facebook doesn't know why I like something or how much I like it or whether I just want to follow it versus actual enthusiasm about said product, service, or entity.


Yes, a vast majority of actionable knowledge can be gleaned from the interlaced information that I provide, but it is not complete, nor 100% accurate nor even potentially true.


So, go ahead Facebook, Google, and others, try and prove to me that you know me or understand why I pressed those virtual buttons of yours.  For all they know, it could have been a complete accident.  I might not even be a real person!  They might be tracking the infamous ghost in the machine.

Typical Weather Could Return Across Nation

Cornell's Robotic Arm Picks Up Anything, Lacks Fingers

Schrödinger's Cat

Piracy

Instead of just hating on SOPA and PIPA, can the tech community have a meeting of the minds and make valiant attempts at innovating a way to reduce piracy in a "free Internet" in the same vein that the legislators are attempting to do so with these bills?

It seems to me that everyone just dislikes the bill without really considering any other option. I heard vague statements from Wikipedia's founder on television and other vague disdain for the bill without stating exactly what is so bad about the bill other than it will bring down the free Internet or change it permanently. Censorship among other topics were the biggest concern with all of the black-out protests, but what will be censored. I don't really see how any speech will be censored. I only saw illegal content on the chopping block which seems reasonable, if you are one to adhere to the law. The only thing that I found particularly damning was the action against a company without due process and such. So, with that said, if certain parts were removed and or changed, would the tech industry support it? Is there any amount of legislation or more specifically stronger legislation that the industry would support?

Piracy is already against the law, so why is there seemingly a demand for a stronger law? Has the tech community really done enough to stave off piracy? Or has it essentially turned a blind eye to it so to speak and thusly deserved the SOPA bill fight on capitol hill because of its lackadaisical stances? I guess I feel that this bill wouldn't be on capitol hill if the tech industry had done its part to reduce piracy in coordination with the content creators who are drumming the support for stronger laws.

Breakingviews: China between rock and hard place with Iran