Keeping the Faith →

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What Apple has accomplished with Maps is an example of the kind of grind-it-out innovation that’s happening all the time at the company. You don’t hear a lot about it, perhaps because it doesn’t support the enthralling myth that innovation comes in blinding flashes that lead to hitherto unimaginable products. When critics ding Apple for its failure to introduce "breakthrough" devices and services, they are missing three key facts about technology: First, that breakthrough moments are unpredictable outcomes of ongoing, incremental innovation; second, that ongoing, behind-the-scenes innovation brings significant benefits, even if it fails to create singular disruptions; and, third, that new technologies only connect broadly when a mainstream audience is ready and has a compelling need. "The world thinks we delivered [a breakthrough] every year while Steve was here," says Cue. "Those products were developed over a long period of time."

Keep the faith. I know it's hard, but when it's ready, you'll know and once again, be in awe.

Robbing Home Runs

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If you ask me about the most memorable play I ever made, it’s probably going back-to-back home runs. But my best play? That happened at the 415-foot mark, just below the Tiger Stadium overhang. If I close my eyes, I can still feel the ball rolling back into my palm.

Still one of my favorite players. What a beautiful article and medium that The Players' Tribune has become.

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Pokemon Go Conspiracy →

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It’s hard to imagine what the government really thinks of Pokémon Go and there’s little indication the app is actually an organized plot to turn users into surveillance drones, ready-to-be-deployed as a zombie swarm.

Even the location profile from the app seems rather useless, given that people are exploring areas and walkways that they would otherwise ignore. If the app is directing the user, how much does the data really tell us about the user? Not much.

Seriously though. Just go outside and try it out. I've seen people all around the country playing this game and a lot of friends going out on field trips. It's definitely stimulated a different kind of gaming.

Benghazi - A 28 Month Investigation →

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At two years and four months, it was longer than Congressional probes into 9/11, Watergate, the JFK assassination and Pearl Harbor.

Four Americans died at the U.S. embassy in Libya.

28 months into an investigation that one party is calling overkill and the other party calling for prison time. I just don't understand how any politician with this much ongoing background checks can get a security clearance or even run for the highest office of the United States of America. Like her or not, the case has all actions / in-actions of an individual who did not do their job.

Read it for yourself please before you make any comments. Here's a video if you're even that lazy.

Android’s Full-Disk Encryption Has Holes →

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Beniamini's research highlights several other previously overlooked disk-encryption weaknesses in Qualcomm-based Android devices. Since the key resides in software, it likely can be extracted using other vulnerabilities that have yet to be made public. Beyond hacks, Beniamini said the design makes it possible for phone manufacturers to assist law enforcement agencies in unlocking an encrypted device. Since the key is available to TrustZone, the hardware makers can simply create and sign a TrustZone image that extracts what are known as the keymaster keys. Those keys can then be flashed to the target device. (Beniamini's post originally speculated QualComm also had the ability to create and sign such an image, but the Qualcomm spokeswoman disputed this claim and said only manufacturers have this capability.)

"That's significantly different than how iOS works," Dan Guido, an expert in mobile device encryption and the founder and CEO of security consultancy Trail of Bits, told Ars. "What it means is that now you trust a second party, you trust somebody who built the software that holds the key. Maybe people didn't realize that before, that it's not just Google that can mess around with the software on your phone, but it's also [Google partners], and it's in a very significant way."

So, essentially if you are wondering why some users have turned to Apple as of recently, it's because of the broken promises that Google once offered and has failed on thus far. Of course, if you have nothing to hide anyways, use Android or Apple doesn't matter, but don't go saying that you use Android and stay away from Apple because it's more secure. 

49,700 Milligrams of Sodium in 10 minutes →

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A Nathan's Famous Hot Dog, with the bun, has 710 milligrams of sodium. According to Goldberg, someone with heart problems should shoot for fewer than 1,500 milligrams daily, or 2,000 milligrams if you're healthier. When Chestnut trounced Kobayashi, he ate roughly 46,860 milligrams of sodium in his winning meal.

That was from his 66 hotdog championship over Kobayashi in 2007. Yesterday's new world record, Joey "Jaws" Chestnut hit 70 hotdogs in 10 minutes. Salt lick anyone?

Durant Chooses the Golden State Warriors →

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The primary mandate I had for myself in making this decision was to have it based on the potential for my growth as a player — as that has always steered me in the right direction. But I am also at a point in my life where it is of equal importance to find an opportunity that encourages my evolution as a man: moving out of my comfort zone to a new city and community which offers the greatest potential for my contribution and personal growth. With this in mind, I have decided that I am going to join the Golden State Warriors.

A thoughts of a real man making a very personal decision.

Diamonds Are Done

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reputational headaches have been compounded by a glut of diamonds caused by a slump in consumer demand in China. That has dragged prices of top-quality cut diamonds down from about $12,000 per carat to $7,400 in five years, according to Rapaport-RapNet Diamond Trading Network, a price index.

Against this backdrop, a technological challenge is also emerging that could make it harder for the industry to win over the millennial customers on whom future sales depend. From China to California, boffins are improving their ability to cultivate diamonds in labs. They are looking beyond the billions of carats of synthetic diamonds produced under high temperature and pressure that are used in industries such as oil drilling. Now they are perfecting gem-quality stones for jewellery.

Only fitting that these narcissistic rocks that people have associated with wealth are finally coming into their own worthlessness. Jewelry means nothing against the backdrop of origin and acquisition.

And here's a wonderful video explains why diamonds are dumb.