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Computers have as much consciousness as cars or concrete. This will not change. They’re machines. They can be programmed to follow directions and calculate certain kinds of solutions within those directed parameters. That’s it. That’s the beginning and end of the story. Why do some technocrats believe computers will gain actual consciousness? They think a) the brain is a machine that expresses consciousness via information processing, and b) information processing is all the consciousness there is. To sum up, technocrats are high-IQ idiots. You can assemble all the information in the world and cross-reference it 100 billion different ways; you...

For many people who didn’t grow up in or around New York City, there are a few things that come to mind when they hear the name “Brooklyn.” Many automatically think of hipsters and indie rock concerts. Some think of artsy lofts and farmers markets. Others think of “brownstone Brooklyn,” where one can potentially afford a cute home and raise a middle-class family without the distance and suburban-like qualities of Queens. What people typically don’t think about are the underprivileged communities that exist here, many of which have become home to people priced out of their old homes in brownstone...

It sounds like something from a science fiction plot: so-called three-dimensional printers are being used to fashion prosthetic arms and hands, jaw bones, spinal-cord implants -- and one day perhaps even living human body parts. While the parts printed for humans so far have been fashioned from plastic, metal and other inorganic materials, researchers in California and elsewhere also have begun printing living tissue, with the goal of eventually employing these "bioprinters" to create customized kidneys, livers and other organs for people needing transplants. What's particularly attractive about the technology, according to its proponents, is that 3D printers can produce...

Apple just made $18 billion in 90 days, more than 435 firms in the S&P 500 each made – in total – since 2009 Submitted by WorkerAnt#11, on January 27th, 2015 Share0 Tweet0 0 Share0 Apple shares rose 45% over the past 12 months and grew 15% since $AAPL introduced the iPhone 6 NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Apple Inc. is set to report first-quarter earnings after the market closes on Tuesday. The Cupertino-based company has continued to impress Wall Street with stronger-than-expected sales of its higher-margin iPhone 6 Plus. Quarterly earnings per share and revenue estimates have risen an average...

Last Tuesday evening during the State of the Union address, President Obamapledged “to protect a free and open Internet, extend its reach to every classroom, and every community, and help folks build the fastest networks.” Obama is calling on the Federal Communications Commission to challenge a wave of state laws blocking the construction of municipal broadband networks, which are high-speed Internet services run by local communities. Here’s what you need to know about the president’s proposal and what it might mean for consumers. Why Can’t Cities Just Build Their Own Broadband Networks? Although there are about 300 municipal broadband networks...

Rob Lowe can't believe that Obama won't meet with Netanyahu, but will meet with YouTube star. How is it that a woman famous for eating cereal in a bathtub can get an audience with US President Barack Obama, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to do so? asked Rob Lowe on Twitter. Among the Hollywood actorÂ’s famous roles, is that of Deputy White House Communications Director in the television show The West Wing. On Friday Lowe entered a real-life diplomatic drama, when he weighed in on one of the most serious crises in the often infamous series of political battles...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Scoring a presidential interview is a distinction coveted by White House journalists, anchors and network bookers alike, but today the honor is being given to three diverse, wacky YouTube creators -- Bethany Mota, GloZell Green and Hank Green. Their expertise ranges from putting together “comfy and cute outfits” to completing zany challenges like inhaling massive amounts of cinnamon spice and eating cereal out of a bathtub (while still in it). It’s the kind of stuff you honestly can’t make up. And today, they will get to direct questions from their followers to the president of the United States....

A Chinese company has successfully 3D printed a five-storey apartment building and a 1,100 square metre villa from a special print material.While architectural firms compete with their designs for 3D-printed dwellings, one company in China has quietly been setting about getting the job done. In March of last year, company WinSun claimed to have printed 10 houses in 24 hours, using a proprietary 3D printer that uses a mixture of ground construction and industrial waste, such as glass and tailings, around a base of quick-drying cement mixed with a special hardening agent. Now, WinSun has further demonstrated the efficacy of...

Not all snipers, he’s quick to add. The ones shooting at our guys are pretty cool. I’m too lazy to sift through his archives on Iraq to see if he ever claimed “I support the troops but not their mission,” but if he did, it sounds like he’s past it now. Michael Moore ✔ @MMFlint My uncle killed by sniper in WW2. We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot u in the back. Snipers aren't heroes. And invaders r worse 2:40 PM - 18 Jan 2015 Michael Moore ✔ @MMFlint But if you're on the roof of your home...

The other day at work I was working on Windows 7 and opening an XML document by right-clicking on the mouse and going to the menu to choose “Windows XML reader” and then, once it was open, to save it to Excel. At some point during the process, I noticed a menu item appear that read “Use SnagIt.” I thought this was interesting since the last time I had used SnagIt, was when it was a proprietary stand-alone application. And I thought to my self, first, “Hey, that’s great! I’m glad it’s available”...and then, coming to, “Hey! Wait a minute!...

Uber chief Travis Kalanick said he wants to expand operations in Europe and, in the process, create 50,000 jobs and take 400,000 personal vehicles off the road. Kalanick said the ride-sharing service isn’t opposed to regulation, but wants “progressive regulation” that promotes safe and affordable rides and generates tax revenue without limiting competition. Cities around the globe have been going after Uber and other services, using a mix of existing regulations and new laws. “We want to make 2015 the year where we establish a new partnership with (European Union) cities,” Kalanick said, speaking Sunday at the DLD Conference in...

Lambasting what he termed “a confusing cacophony of competing private providers,” President Obama called for government “to step in and simplify everything by consolidating all broad band service under one umbrella.” “Right now, consumers face the continuous burden of choosing which plan to purchase,” the President pointed out. “There’s always a fear of choosing unwisely. If we eliminate this necessity to choose, consumers will be freed from this task. Instead of being faced with a difficult dilemma of what to do if their current provider is unsatisfactory, all consumers will be enrolled in a standard, uniform service. No one would...

Perhaps you read the title of this article, and automatically assumed that we made a typo. After all, it sounds awfully similar to a story we did in the past about 3D Systems. If you have been following the 3D printing space for the past several months, then you know that 3D Systems has been working on creating a new 3D printing system that they say is based on a “racetrack architecture”. It is an assembly line of sorts, and is said to be able to fabricate objects up to 50 times faster than other printers currently available today. Now...

Barack Obama is going to be interviewed by GloZell Green. GloZell made it big on YouTube with this video… The Cinnamon Challenge … by GloZell and her Big Behind Earrings (VIDEO-AT-LINK)Here’s another video of GloZell in action. GloZell Diet Coke and Mentos Challenge–(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Maybe he’ll do the cinnamon challenge? The Daily Mail reported: After his State Of The Union address on Tuesday, the POTUS has confirmed, he will sit down for interviews with three YouTube stars – including GloZell. The Los Angeles-based vlogger, who characteristically wears green lipstick, starts each video with ‘Hello this is GloZell! Is you ok? Is you?...

Radical imam Anjem Choudary characterized investigators' disclosure that Cherif Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly—murderers of the Hebdo cartoonists—were frequent visitors to websites featuring child pornography as "a smear of their reputations." French detectives found five child porn photos on Coulibaly's laptop and 37 on Kouachi's PC. Kouachi's "favorites" folder included lurid pictures of young boys and girls involved in sexual acts with adults. "Just because Western culture declares relationships between adult men and pre-teens to be illicit doesn't make it so," Choudary complained. "The Prophet's (may peace be upon him) favorite wife married him when she was only six years old...

Facebook, Twitter, Google and the age of Islamic Terrorism Fresh back from what Daily Mail scribe Richard Littlejohn described as an event that looked as if the ‘world leaders’ in attendance “were about to break in to the ‘hokey-cokey’”, at Sunday’s “Je suis Charlie!” rally, British Prime Minister David Cameron is due in Washington, DC today where—incredibly—he is looking for security tips from the “hokey cokey” AWOL Barack Obama. Cameron is looking for security is all the wrong places. “David Cameron will seek Barack Obama’s support this week for a push to improve co-operation between intelligence agencies and technology companies...

The Internet is utterly scandalized.With a burgeoning primary comes Freedom of Information Act requests, and three reporters at Buzzfeed (three reporters), were apparently tasked with using FOIA to reveal the horrors of Ted Cruz's adolescent years. Pursuant to that mission, they came into possession of Cruz's 2003 application to be Solicitor General of Texas. In a shocking revelation from the documents that surprises absolutely no one who spent any fraction of their late teens in the company of other people in their late teens, it turns out Ted Cruz was once ticketed for possessing alcohol as a minor, after a...

The troubling implications of the Central Command social media hacking In a coincidence many Americans may see as emblematic of the administration’s approach to global terror, President Obama was addressing the nation regarding cyber security Monday while hackers claiming to represent ISIS assumed control over the media accounts of the U.S. military’s Central Command (CENTCOM). “ISIS is already here, we are in your PCs, in each military base. With Allah’s permission we are in CENTCOM now,” said one tweet sent from CENTCOM’s account. The hacking of the Command’s Twitter and YouTube accounts began Monday afternoon and lasted approximately 30 minutes...

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS CONTENT THAT MAY TRIGGER ANYONE WHO IS OFFENDED BY RACIAL SLURS AND ENJOYS MUSIC.If you don’t know who Azealia Banks is, there are only two explanations: 1.You’re a racist.2.Just kidding, that was it. She’s a rapper/singer/whatever who’s less known for her music than for her feuds, or “beefs,” with more popular and/or talented artists. She picks fights with people like Iggy Azalea, Eminem, Lady Gaga, and then a bunch of other people you’ve never heard of because of #1 above. Banks has been forced to do this for publicity purposes, because her music sounds like...

You don’t usually here denunciations of “deranged neocons” on the red carpet at the Golden Globes, but HBO star Lena Dunham uncorked this attack on her Twitter enemies to Ryan Seacrest on the E! Network. Seacrest noted that her show “Girls” began its fourth season on Sunday night, and he asked if she would be checking for online reaction:(VIDEO-AT-LINK)LENA DUNHAM: I deleted Twitter because I tried to create a safer space for me emotionally. RYAN SEACREST: Explain. DUNHAM: People threaten my life and tell me what I cow I am, so I decided....I check it occasionally but it’s not the...