homehome Home chatchat Notifications


Italian Wikipedia blanked out temporarily in protest of SOPA, whole Wikipedia considers the same thing

A few months ago, the Italian Wikipedia blanked out temporarily in protest to SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), a misleading titled act which, if passed, will change the face of the internet as we know it, maiming numerous sites – Wikipedia included. So Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder made a public poll to see how people feel […]

Mihai Andrei
December 13, 2011 @ 8:05 am

share Share

A few months ago, the Italian Wikipedia blanked out temporarily in protest to SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), a misleading titled act which, if passed, will change the face of the internet as we know it, maiming numerous sites – Wikipedia included.

So Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder made a public poll to see how people feel about this; this is not strictly politically for them, this is about self preservation for the world’s largest encyclopedia. You can check out all the talks here and have your say. You can also (and I encourage you to) have your say here – because we’re really curious how you feel about this. This also affects ZME Science, although we are not residents of the US, but the reasons we would like to oppose it is that it is misleading and wrong on many levels, and will bring nothing but a short leash for the government to track whoever they desire, with or without reason, empowering big corporations to take control of the internet – the only medium where they start (almost) on a common ground with anyone else; and it will also affect you – drastically limiting the freedom you will have on the Internet.

share Share

The 400-Year-Old, Million-Dollar Map That Put China at the Center of the World

In 1602, the Wanli Emperor of the Ming dynasty had a big task for his scholars: a map that would depict the entire world. The results was a monumental map that would forever change China’s understanding of its place in the world. Known as the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu (坤輿萬國全圖), or A Map of the Myriad […]

Ozzy Osbourne’s Genes Really Were Wired for Alcohol and Addiction

His genome held strange secrets: a turbocharged alcohol gene, rewired brain chemistry, and a slow-burn caffeine receptor.

The World’s Most "Useless" Inventions (That Are Actually Pretty Useful)

Every year, the Ig Nobel Prize is awarded to ten lucky winners. To qualify, you need to publish research in a peer-reviewed journal that is considered "improbable": studies that make people laugh and think at the same time.

The Real Singularity: AI Memes Are Now Funnier, On Average, Than Human Ones

People still make the funniest memes but AI is catching up fast.

A Lawyer Put a Cartoon Dragon Watermark on Every Page of a Court Filing and The Judge Was Not Amused

A Michigan judge rebukes lawyer for filing documents with cartoon dragon watermark

Meet the Indian Teen Who Can Add 100 Numbers in 30 Second and Broke 6 Guinness World Records for Mental Math

The Indian teenager is officially the world's fastest "human calculator".

This Polish radio station fired all its journalists and replaced them with AI hosts -- and people are furious

"It is a dangerous precedent that hits us all," said fired journalists.

A timeline chart of SciFi predictions that eventually became true

I pride myself on being a science fiction buff. Asimov, Clark, Wells, Jules Verne — there’s a reason why we’ve all come to love these classics. What makes people so fond of science fiction, though? One may argue that it’s these novel’s uncanny ability to dwell the human mind and foresee things that are yet […]

Your spreadsheets probably suck — 94% of business spreadsheets have errors in them

Here's one productivity hack no one talks about: check your spreadsheets.

You've heard of Doomscrolling, but have you ever tried Hopescrolling?

Algorithms have been manipulating you for a while. It's time to manipulate them back to find positivity and happiness.