Weekend Thoughts - 4.16.16

Image by Andrea Kirkby, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. Catching automobile drivers who have been texting while driving is fairly difficult now, but a proposed New York law may rely on making it possible to identify offenders. A device dubbed the "textalyzer" would scan cell phones owned by people involved in crashes for recent activity, and those who refuse to submit to the scanning process could potentially lose their license, akin to the penalty for refusing to submit to Breathalyzer tests. The technology is supposedly not able to see specifically what the cell phone user was doing on the device—just if it was recently active. Police would need a warrant to determine whether an on-the-road conversation was actually occurring prior to the crash. This proposed law raises several issues—such as the device's level of accuracy and the ability to obtain other data from cell phones without the owner knowing about it. This will definitely be something to keep our eyes out for.

2. The arrest of this Guy Fawkes mask-wearing man while sitting silently during a hearing at the Arizona Capitol might be disturbing for some, but it is worth viewing and sharing. The nonviolent man was handled roughly by police – presumably solely for wearing the "Anonymous" mask on top of his head – including a period of time while they choked him, before being forced to leave the building. He now faces criminal charges including trespassing, resisting arrest, and aggravated assault of an officer. The hearing was held to discuss suspected election fraud that occurred during the Arizona Democratic primary, which included wait times of up to five hours, missing candidates on polls, and the premature announcement that Hillary Clinton had won the state—hours before voters had finished casting their ballots.

3. For those of us who use ad-blocking applications to experience a decluttered version of the world wide web, a new web browser called Brave has the potential to replace third-party ads with its own privacy-friendly ads on media sites while sharing 70 percent of the revenue with publishers. However, publishers are not having it, threatening to sue Brave Software for a copyright violation called "republication".  There is little legal precedent for the case, and if it does see its day in court, there is no telling what the ruling will be.

4. An Italian artist named Gianluca Gimini spent the past seven years collecting improvised drawings-on-the-spot depicting bicycles drawn from the memory of friends and random strangers. The collection of photos demonstrated some trends in peoples' inabilities to remember the basic construction of bicycles, and Gimini rendered photo-realistic models of many of of them, which are simply amazing to look at.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 4.9.16

Image by Paralog, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. If you're feeling a bit off today, check out this compilation of meditation and yoga-related apps in an article titled "Meditation Apps That'll Keep You From Losing Your Mind". Some of the apps featured include Headspace (one of my favorite meditation apps), Whil, Stop, Breathe & Think, and Mindbody.

2. It seems that the more educated people are about civil asset forfeiture, the less likely they are to support it. In fact, nearly 1 in 10 people polled in Utah and Florida knew someone personally who had property or cash stolen legally by police without being charged with any crime. For those of you interested in learning more about asset forfeiture, check out this resource. And bear this in mind next time you see a cop—in almost all cases, they have the ability to rob, shoot, or kill you with only the slimmest chance of facing any legal repercussions for their actions.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 4.2.16

Image by Narayan G. Maharjan, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. Fellow Mario fans and technology nerds rejoice! This amazing Mario glitch allows the game to be turned into Flappy Bird. The technical jargon may be a bit much for you, as it was for me, but it's a pretty cool to watch nonetheless.

2. I was slightly disturbed by the actions of a black student at San Francisco State University who earlier this week assaulted a white teen because he has dreadlocks. The black student insisted that dreadlocks are a hair style that are only culturally-allowed to be worn by black folks, and that the white student was stealing her culture by choosing to wear them. First of all, following up an accusation of cultural appropriation with violence is poor form. But perhaps most importantly of all, dreadlocks are not exclusively part of black culture. It turns out that dreadlocks have roots in places like Greece, Egypt, India, and more. So not only was the black student out of line with her violent actions, but she was also perpetuating a false myth. The article and video are certainly worth a look.

3. In a previous edition of Weekend Thoughts from earlier this year, I linked to an article describing a court case that the FBI brought upon Apple in an effort to obtain information located on a suspect's iPhone. It turns out that the FBI has officially dropped its case against Apple after finding a way into the phone. There is a ton of excellent analysis in the tech community and media about this case and the FBI's true motivations, so I won't get into that here. I will simply say that although this particular battle is over, the war will certainly see another day.

4. You may find yourself wondering why the feds usually try to unlock phones. It turns out that it's to fight the War on Drugs, not the War on Terrorism. The article explains how the FBI has repeatedly lied about its intentions for breaking into locked or encrypted devices and provides evidence showing that a majority of times the FBI has requested help for obtaining information has been related to drug cases, not dangerous or violent crimes like terrorism, financial crime, child pornography, or counterfeiting. The War on Drugs has clearly our government the precedent to invade our privacy and the apparent belief that lying to its citizens is acceptable.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 3.26.16

Image by Stefan Rüdiger, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. As a creative person, I have often suffered from periods lacking in productivity. For fellow writers and artists, the feeling of writer's block can be a crippling and demoralizing experience. This article explains the history of writer's block and techniques that one can practice to overcome it. Having procrastinated on my creative projects during the better part of a decade after earning a Bachelor's of Arts in Communication (with a concentration in Print Journalism), I know the depression that can come from not producing creative work. If you find yourself in a similar situation, give the aforementioned article a read!

2. For a visual treat, check out this gallery of panoramic photos that experienced technical glitches. Some of them are disturbing, some funny, and some border on psychedelic.

3. An interesting analysis of the pitfalls of Internet media explores various ways that corporations and governments manipulate news via the mainstream media. Techniques such as favoritism in search engines, misleading and clickbait headlines, siloing and polarization, enforcing copyright laws only when they use copyrighted material in a way the copyright holder disapproves of, blatant Internet censorship, and paid commenters are just some of the methods that are used to sway public opinions, report misinformation, and essentially get away with lying to audiences. Always consider your source, be open-minded to information that conflicts with your own opinion, and do your own research!

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 3.19.16

Image by madaise, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. Our future will most likely involve computer-driven, autonomous vehicles. This article takes a look at the problems that we can expect to encounter and posits some solutions. For example, computer-driven vehicles will have a difficult time understanding a construction worker's hand signals to navigate through a work zone. Or detecting the color of a traffic light that has bright sunlight behind it. The problems are real, but not insurmountable. Just like our transition to trains, we will need to anticipate this change well in advance and plan accordingly. This article is one of the few that I have seen that offers up some potential resolutions—let's hope that more like it start churning out on a regular basis.

2. For fellow fans of color, Hindu culture, or festival celebrations, check out this article detailing the Holi Hai "Festival of Colors". There is a description of the tradition and plenty of beautiful color photographs to boot.

3. New smartphones have become fairly predictable in the past few years. Each year they're generally faster, more secure, and include some new features and updated operating systems. This article argues that the next stage of smartphones will include a lot of uncertainty, including how we interact with them. Similar to the Spike Jonze film Her (which is excellent, by the way), we may end up touching our screens less than we think. Could it be time for us to interact verbally with artificial intelligence software?

4. This article proposes two simple Buddhist techniques for amplifying positive feelings and softening negative moods. It includes a discussion about how aversion and attachment cause suffering, the differences between Western and Eastern philosophies, and suggests two visualization techniques that can be used during a meditation practice or even just when waking from sleep. There is a lot of great information and it may help those who are struggling with controlling their reactions to negative feelings. Plus, there is a funny picture of a laughing Buddha!

5. If you were wondering what the United States government would do if a zombie outbreak occurred, wonder no further. Through a Freedom of Information Act request, documentation outlining the official governmental response to a zombie apocalypse have been released. Information about how to handle various zombies, including "evil magic zombies", "space zombies", "vegetarian zombies", and "chicken zombies" (no, I'm not kidding) are detailed in the documentation. For the sake of all Americans, please read this information and plan accordingly.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.