Free information, as great as it sounds, will enslave us all.

This is probably one of the most important articles I have ever read.

While people are created equal, computers are not. When people share information freely, those who own the best computers benefit in extreme ways that are denied to everyone else. Those with the best computers can simply calculate wealth and power away from ordinary people.

To demand that things be free is to embrace an eternal place for poverty.

http://qz.com/87795/free-information-as-great-as-it-sounds-will-enslave-us-all/

brookhavenlab:

The winners of the 2012 Global Particle Physics Photowalk were announced a little while back, and the selected photos show off the stunning and strange beauty of facilities around the world. Keep in mind that these incredible instruments are all designed for groundbreaking discoveries — the beauty is pure bonus.

Brookhaven invited amateur photographers to participate in the Photowalk last September and two images from the Lab — the tunnel of our Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and its STAR detector — made the Top 3 in the People’s Choice category!

To view the Top 39 photos submitted by laboratories worldwide, visit the InterActions Flickr gallery. Your eyes will thank you, we promise.

Analyze your Social Network

Wolfram Alpha will analyze your Facebook data and show you interesting statistics like words you use most frequently, the times you post most frequently, as well the how your friends fit into your social network (are they a “social insider”, “social gateway”, “social neighbor”, “outsider”). I always thought this should be built into Facebook.

Could be used by sales to determine who the “social gateways” are. (as long as people have their profiles set to public). Maybe if this worked with LinkedIn:

http://www.wolframalpha.com/facebook/

thisistheverge:

‘Who Owns The Future?’ Jaron Lanier thinks Google and the government should pay for your data
How the web killed the middle class and what’s coming next

What People Talk About on Facebook

expectlabs:

image

It’s more than you ever wanted to know, but also, everything you ever wanted to know. Stephen Wolfram’s recent analysis of over a million people’s Facebook data from the Wolfram|Alpha Personal Analytics for Facebook program, is unbelievably thorough. The analysis covers topics such as how people friend each other, how people change with age, and how Facebook land compares to the real world. Our Facebook behavior has never been scrutinized like this before.

Read More

“Five years after Wall Street crashed the economy, not one banker has been prosecuted for the reckless and fraudulent practices that cost millions of Americans their jobs, threw our cities and schools into crisis, and left families and communities ravaged by a foreclosure crisis and epidemic of underwater mortgages.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2013/05/20/occupy-wall-street-challenges-doj-on-foreclosure-crisis/

“Five years after Wall Street crashed the economy, not one banker has been prosecuted for the reckless and fraudulent practices that cost millions of Americans their jobs, threw our cities and schools into crisis, and left families and communities ravaged by a foreclosure crisis and epidemic of underwater mortgages.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2013/05/20/occupy-wall-street-challenges-doj-on-foreclosure-crisis/

Big Nicks’s pizza

Big Nicks’s pizza

Tax Loopholes

There are no medals for companies that decide not to take advantage of tax loopholes or tax-free havens. The law is black and white. You are either fulfilling your legal tax obligation or you’re not. I applaud Apple for stretching the loopholes to their legal limit. They are making it obvious how incompetent our government is in their inability to pass a law. If the government wants more revenue, then close the loopholes, instead of wasting Tim Cook’s time by dragging him down to Washington.

Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/business/apple-avoided-billions-in-taxes-congressional-panel-says.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

jerrylieveld:

As screens get increasingly getting cheaper and more ubiquitous, are we going to keep counting them?

Not too long ago, I was asked to give a presentation on the state of digital media and how well brands are intersecting the worlds of marketing and technology. Prior to my closing keynote,…

Tags: mobile

erica-scourti:

“if this indeed sounds to you like a “scary encroachment of technology,” Wasik’s word of assurance offers little consolation. The fact that the gadgets are unseen, activities are automated, and cloud intelligence saturates our environment means that the encroachment will be…

Tags: philosophy

Can never get too old for Star Wars.

Can never get too old for Star Wars.

Can you spot the sunbathers?

Can you spot the sunbathers?

Even funnier with Hebrew subtitles

http://youtu.be/35HhF7MRVVQ

Even funnier with Hebrew subtitles

http://youtu.be/35HhF7MRVVQ

"Where I feel the most productive and engaged is when I’m buried in code, buried in some project, tweaking some designs,” he said. “I’m certainly introverted."

David Karp
Tumblr Founder

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/technology/david-karp-quit-school-to-get-serious-about-start-ups.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&hp