technology

Longfellow once said,
"in character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity."
And Emerson stated,
"nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great."

So, hard to disagree that the 140-character limit is Twitter’s signature, and Twitter’s legacy.

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Twitter’s 140 characters - It’s staying. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square and CEO of Twitter, speaks during an interview with CNBC following the IPO for Square Inc., on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange November 19, 2015.

Twitter Inc's 140-character tweets are here to stay, Chief Executive Jack Dorsey said on Friday, ending speculation that the microblogging site might abandon one of its trademark features for a 10,000-character limit.

"It's staying. It's a good constraint for us and it allows for of-the-moment brevity," Dorsey said on NBC's Today Show.

In January, technology news website Re/code reported that Twitter was building a new feature that would allow tweets as long as 10,000 characters.

Twitter has declined to comment on the feature directly. But Dorsey tweeted the day of the report that the company had seen more screenshots of text posted as a way to get around the 140-character limit.  read more »

Primary school students play the board game "Go", known as "Weiqi" in Chinese, during a competition.

Fan Hui makes a move against AlphaGo in DeepMind’s HQ in King’s Cross

AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol match - Go moves 1-99; moves 100-199; moves 200-211:

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March 7, 2016 Recall chicken nuggets: pieces of plastic Applegate Naturals is recalling some of their chicken nuggets because there may be pieces of plastic in the product.

February 23, 2016 Plastic in Snickers bar prompts Mars recall in 55 countries Mars Inc has recalled chocolate bars and other products in 55 countries, mainly in Europe, due to choking risk after a piece of plastic was found in a Snickers bar in Germany.

15-Feb-2016 McCain Foods recalled 25,215 pounds of bacon fritter Frittered: McCain issues recall after customer complaint.  read more »

Captain Eric 'Winkle' Brown discusses Luftwaffe Aircraft - Published on Apr 23, 2014

Readers' comments -
"A great man he was the Last of a rare breed"
"Capt.Brown, a classic sort of guy"
"An amazing man. Superb achievements in pretty much every aspect of his career."
"Thanks for the video. It is good to see the Pilots telling their stories in what they did in the second world war. The real warriors of the sky and the planes they fly."

Vedio: Capt. Eric 'Winkle' Brown: the first Mosquito carrier deck landing, Published on Jul 16, 2015

In March 1944 the De Havilland Mosquito undertook carrier deck landing trials on HMS Indefatigable in the Irish Sea, giving the then Lieut. Brown the chance to make the first deck landing of a British heavy twin-engine aircraft. In this video the Patron of The People's Mosquito talks about the aircraft and the challenges he faced when presented with the task of landing it on deck.

Reader's comment: "Capt Eric 'Winkle' Brown truly is one of the finest examples of the Greatest Generation. What an honour to watch this video."

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Captain Eric Brown was friends with astronaut Neil Armstrong

Update with BBC vedio: "Story of Captain Winkle Brown"

Readers' comments:
"Bow in Respect!! I kept Saluting him during the Documentary. Blessing!!!"
"What a human being, RIP Captain Brown. A true Scots old school hero."
"He is probably the greatest man that I ever heard about. R.I.P Mr Eric Brown:')"
"An interviewer once said he made James Bond seem boring. RIP great man."
"Will we ever know the FULL story, I wonder? What an astonishing man, what an astonishing career. I salute you, Sir. RIP."
"Would love to meet this gentleman. The word hero is overused but in this case it's spot on?"
"I had some friends from Scotland when I attended Arizona State University. They were fearless rugby players. Captain Brown is a true Scot. Best pilot, and one of the greatest humans the world has ever known. Honest and true. God bless you Sir!!!"

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Pilot Eric "Winkle" Brown holds two of the most startling records from the world of flying. He has flown 487 different types of aircraft. Today's test pilots average fewer than 100 flights. "Over 50 is deemed a large number. We can't imagine in this day and age how dangerous his job was." Captain Brown has piloted 2,407 aircraft carrier landings. That's just a part of his extraordinary life. Brown's exploits run through some of the most momentous events of world history. He was at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, he interrogated Hermann Goering, helped liberate the Belsen concentration camp and by chance managed to sing with the Glenn Miller band.  read more »

Glitch's prank. this guy's luck. Google-operated domain service on 29 Sept 2015 sold google.com to MBA student Sanmay Ved, charged his credit card for $12, emailed him the transaction confirmation. For a glitch-created historical minute, a guy owned google.com beyond Google.

Washington Post - Max Schrems, left, and his lawyer Herwig Hofmann, right, at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg on Oct. 6, 2015. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

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For just $12, he bought Google.com - Babson College student, Sanmay Ved, briefly owns Google.com
For just one brief but unforgettable moment, a Babson College student owned the internet domain for the world's most heavily trafficked website. For just $12, he bought Google.com. Sanmay Ved is getting his MBA, but he used to work for Google. He was playing around with the website registration service, Google Domains. For fun, he entered "Google.com."

"I put in Google.com and it showed it was available," he said.
Much to his surprise, the domain he presumed would be unavailable, actually was. "I thought it was a mistake or something that should not happen, Google.net, is unavailable, but...(shows paperwork) as you see, Google.com is showing as available," he said, referencing screenshots.  read more »

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Texting while driving is a growing trend, and a national epidemic, quickly becoming one of the country’s top killers. Drivers assume they can handle texting while driving and remain safe, but the numbers don’t lie.

Texting While Driving Causes:
1. 1,600,000 accidents per year – National Safety Council
2. 330,000 injuries per year – Harvard Center for Risk Analysis Study
3. 11 teen deaths EVERY DAY – Ins. Institute for Hwy Safety Fatality Facts
4. Nearly 25% of ALL car accidents

Texting While Driving Is:
1. About 6 times more likely to cause an accident than driving intoxicated
2. The same as driving after 4 beers – National Hwy Transportation Safety Admin.
3. The number one driving distraction reported by teen drivers

Texting While Driving:
1. Makes you 23X more likely to crash – National Hwy Transportation Safety Admin.
2. Is the same as driving blind for 5 seconds at a time – VA. Tech Transportation Institute
3. Takes place by 800,000 drivers at any given time across the country
4. Slows your brake reaction speed by 18% – HumanFactors & Ergonomics Society
5. Leads to a 400% increase with eyes off the road

A lot of times, we often wear our technology addictions as a badge of honor. Many people say “Oh, I’m so addicted to my phone. I can’t live without it. It’s like air.”

Here are several reasons why you shouldn’t be addicted to your phone.  read more »