Thoughts of A Technologist

thisistheverge:

Inside TED: the smartest bubble in the world

Joshua Topolsky takes a week-long journey into a temporary utopia.

Imagine, if you will, a snow globe. Wait, the snow globe is in California — Long Beach to be exact. It’s really sunny in this particular snow globe. There’s a beach. Okay, thinking of a west coast snow globe? Good.
What’s inside the snow globe? Buildings — say, the sprawling, mid-century Long Beach Convention Center, the Long Beach Arena, four hotels, maybe an aquarium down the road — streets, cars. A few Teslas even. People — lots of people. And of course snowflakes. The snowflakes (for our purposes) should represent ideas in this snow globe, and they rise and fall, are shaken up, vibrate if you will, in harmony with the people. From the people. People and ideas, vibrating, exchanging, walking, talking, eating — all together, all inside the snow globe. For a week. One week only.

nevver:

“Your life isn’t a work of art - it’s a thirdhand Victorian whatnot shelf, complete with someone else’s collection of seashells and hand-carved elephants.” — Kurt Vonnegut

motherjones:

MAPS: Did Your Congressmember Vote Against The Violence Against Women Act? (List continues here.) 

My @simplify card is finally here. / on Instagram instagr.am/p/WSRCGtyXRd/

Hands down the best reporting I’ve read in the last five years. 

parislemon:

Lance Hosey for NYT:

Certain patterns also have universal appeal. Natural fractals — irregular, self-similar geometry — occur virtually everywhere in nature: in coastlines and riverways, in snowflakes and leaf veins, even in our own lungs. In recent years, physicists have found that people invariably prefer a certain mathematical density of fractals — not too thick, not too sparse. The theory is that this particular pattern echoes the shapes of trees, specifically the acacia, on the African savanna, the place stored in our genetic memory from the cradle of the human race. To paraphrase one biologist, beauty is in the genes of the beholder — home is where the genome is.

Memory that transcends an individual and is embedded in our DNA. Fascinating thought.

Mini Chimis / on Instagram instagr.am/p/VuPRNnSXS9/

Justin Timberlake feat. Jay-Z — Suit & Tie (Official Music Video)

/ on Instagram instagr.am/p/VnFGBlSXQb/

No caption needed.

Justin Timberlake’s new song entitled ‘Mirrors’ off his new album, The 20/20 Experience, available March 19th.

New Mailbox / on Instagram instagr.am/p/Vcb0PpyXSO/

The Crowning Achievement of Humanity.

When Calacanis makes statements expressing his belief that there is no race-barrier against minorities in the tech industry, or tells Anil Dash — A person of color — he didn’t experience what he said he did, it shows his incomprehension for the situation is on par with the moronic male congressmen and senators  who believe they should be the ones making decisions about a woman’s reproductive rights.

Ravens win!!