Students suspended because teacher had topless pics on her iPad

iPads are great for education, and they’re only going to become more prevalent in the K-12 world. So it’s probably a good time to warn teachers that if you’ve got some “personal” pictures, you shouldn’t auto-sync your iDevice. Failing that, you could always suspend your kids for snooping through your tablet. That’s exactly what happened at Highland Middle School, in Anderson, Indiana.  Apparently, three students were playing a game on the teacher’s iPad, and a few accidental button presses led to the teacher’s bare torso available for impressionable eyes to see. The craziest thing is that the disciplinary action fell primarily on the students: all three were suspended. According to one of the little ragamuffins:

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Slapping someone for looking at Facebook is officially the best job

Here’s good work if you can find it–eight bucks an hour to slap another human being. Repeatedly. Writer Maneesh Sethi was disappointed with how much time he wasted looking at social media instead of doing work, and posted a Craiglist ad looking for a dedicated slapper. Every time he logged onto Facebook, he wanted someone to hit him. Considering there are lots of people who would slap me for free, it’s no surprise that his ad received 20 inquiries in the first hour. His ad, in full: (more…)

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Ant Ballet directed by a human

If you think that you have had enough of Swan Lake after watching numerous performances in the theater, perhaps it is time to expand your horizons and see a ballet performed by non-humans. In fact, the “folks” on “stage” would come with an extra pair of limbs compared to us humans. I am referring to the Ant Ballet by designer Ollie Palmer who hails from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, where this research project will reproduce the pheromones that ants use to communicate in order to have them shake their booty, so to speak.

This particular research project into paranoia, control systems, insects, and architecture, is split into four different phases, where Palmer did conduct thorough research into Linepthinema humile Argentine ants while using a robotic arm to dispense powder trails of synthesized pheromones (Z9:16 Ald Hexadecenal), resulting in the ants to move around in a way that is different from one’s natural foraging behavior. Next up, will we be able to see somersaulting ants so that there is an insect rendition of Cirque du Soleil?

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Google Maps increases new building footprints by 25 million

Google must have felt hurt with Apple rolling out their very own Maps app on the iOS 6 platform, ditching the traditional Google Maps solution along the way. Although Apple’s Maps app is far from perfect and still has plenty of work to be done for it to be remotely useful to the end user, Google is all too wary of the possibility that they remain complacent, hence the latest update to Google Maps saw an additional 25 million building footprints being thrown into the database for an even more detailed and comprehensive navigational experience.

The new building footprints were said to have been created by a computer, and this very same computer processed actual aerial imagery as well as rendered the shapes of buildings in the maps itself. User contributions are very much welcome as well, where they can help out by fixing inaccurate building footprints in Google Map Maker, in addition to assigning businesses to current buildings.Heck, one can even draw up the whole building footprints themselves. Would you contribute to Google Maps in your very own way?

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AT&T releases statement regarding Softbank-Sprint deal

When AT&T and T-Mobile announced their decision to merge last year, Sprint was the most vocal and opposed the idea. Well now that Sprint has a deal of their own – Softbank will be buying a 70% majority stake in Sprint – it seems that it’s payback time and AT&T has stepped forward and voiced their opinion on the matter. Granted it was carefully worded, it can be summed up by saying that AT&T thinks that this deal should not be allowed to take place. In a statement released by AT&T’s vice president, Brad Burns: (more…)

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Microsoft employees have donated over $1 billion to charity

For those who follow tech news, you would know that it has been some time since we have seen Bill Gates be the main star at a Microsoft press conference, but recently, he surfaced for a rather unusual event at Microsoft’s headquarters. Joining Chief Executive Steve Ballmer alongside a slew of other dignitaries, Bill Gates helped announce a milestone in the Microsoft employee giving program that kick started 30 years ago, surpassing the magical $1 billion mark. This employee giving program began after a nudge from Gates’ parents, where Microsoft has pledged to match employee contributions to nonprofit organizations while delivering direct corporate gifts.

Through the years, over 31,000 non-profit groups have benefited from the employee giving program, and Steve Ballmer has dubbed it as a “mind numbing” milestone, while dishing out words of thanks to the nonprofit “partners” who leveraged the donations while delivering an outlet for “our folks’ incredible desire to change the world.” Hey, now you know which organization to sign up with for your career if you’re generous at heart.

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This is what pumps for electric cars will look like

It’s really nice that almost all non-Apple smartphones use the same charger, which is the MicroUSB standard. Electric cars may be going the same way. Global engineering group SAE International has published a new standard for plug-in electric cars. It goes by the catchy name of J1772 Revision B. Although the convenience of a standard plug is by itself a huge improvement, the standard also includes a specification for “quick charging.” Quick charges uses high voltage direct current to charge your car in as little as 30 minutes–but you won’t be able to do it at home. So the new standard–nicknamed “Combo”–uses paired couplers, which means your car can use both AC and DC charging with the same plug.  (more…)

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Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal is out now

This is good timing–as the computing world braces for the wide release of Windows 8 next week, the Linux evangalists at Canonical have released a new version of Ubuntu. The version is numbered 12.10, and in line with Ubuntu’s naming convention, it’s called Quantal Quetzal. For those wondering, yes, a Quetzal is a bird native to Mexico and central America.  (more…)

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Google profits leaked, miss lofty expectations, stock tanks 10%

Earlier today, the Google filing to the SEC has been published early (an error from RR Donnelley, apparently) and the financial details for the 3rd quarter have been revealed: $14.1B in revenues for $2.18B in profits. While most companies would only dream about earnings like these, the stock market did not anticipate that Google’s profit margin would go down, and the immediate result was that Google’s stock (GOOG) went down 10% in minutes and trading had to be halted. (more…)

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16 crazy things we learned about Google’s data centers

Google’s data centers are secretive, massive locations filled with cutting-edge proprietary technology. So of course most Google fans will never get a chance to step inside one. But Google knows how amazing their data centers are, and so they recently put up a website with a complete Street View of its North Carolina data center and also spilled a whole lot of details to Wired reporter Steven Levy. Of course, no valuable trade secrets were disclosed. So what did we actually learn about Google’s data centers? (more…)

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