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An old daguerrotype is identified as an image of Phineas Gage, who survived a huge iron tamping rod through his frontal lobe. Image identified via Flickr – raises issues about whether the historical picture of Gage post-accident was accurate.
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Spinvox, a speech to text firm, claims they use human callcenters to train algorithms. Former workers claim that the process is entirely manual, outsourced to South Africa and the Phillipines. Interesting privacy, machine learning implications
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A Cuban version of Craigslist – fascinating to watch this evolve, clearly a useful space for people selling smuggled technical goods
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Backgrounder on Boko Haram, group in Nigeria that's organizing against western education, and attacking more moderate Islamic and Christian groups.
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Chicago property management company sues a woman who used Twitter to complain about mold in her apartment for $50,000. Company spokesman: "We're a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization." Now THAT's sure to generate good PR for the company.
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Lova Rakotomalala outlines the ways in which media in Madagascar has become more partisan, more scared and less free in the wake of this year's coup.
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The soft US economy and strong commitments to technology in India and China means that some very smart engineers are leaving the US for greener pastures.