DigPhilly Speaks Out Against Fictional Programs

Yesterday, NBC 10/DigPhilly’s Teresa Masterson reported on a pretty creepy new Google technology: Google Body, which will attempt to scan the body of every living thing on Earth. Google said they’ll be able to help companies know where to spend their research dollars and help match up organ donations. There is a way to opt out.

I don’t like to use strong language in writing, but there is no other way to describe it: This is fuuuuuucked up.

The project, known as Google Body, sees the company partnering with public transportation systems, libraries, and motor vehicle departments to place scanners in highly trafficked areas, doorways, etc., that will scan every person’s body in order to make it available to anyone.

The best part? If you don’t want people to be able to google your ass, (and yes, I mean your ass in the literal sense) you need to wear a yellow and black headband in public. I really wonder if this is a joke. I’m praying that this is a joke. But it’s not. It’s insanity masked as innovative technology.

You may have guessed it already, people: The original article on Wired’s website was a joke.

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Warning: This Post Contains Strong Language

Hey, remember that smoking ban everyone was all up in arms about for a while? Well, yeah, it looks like it’s not gonna matter at all! The Pennsylvania Senate yesterday pretty much decided the state is going to have a smoking ban, but there will be tons of exemptions. Oh, and it overrides all local laws, so Philadelphians will indeed be free to smoke in parts of casinos.

The bill’s exemptions are for restaurants where food makes up less than 25 percent of sales, cigar bars (probably the most sensible exemption), a quarter of casino floor areas and, of course, “charitable fund-raisers where cigars are sold.”

This was quite a reasonable debate, of course, with the head of the ACS in Pennsylvania saying legislators were murdering thousands of people while legislators decided to come out against the bill with strong words.

Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Allegheny, called the exemptions “disgusting gobbledygook,” and Sen. Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia, said the changes were like “a pig in lipstick” being billed as a beauty queen.

Yes, that’ll show ‘em.

Senate acts to curb Phila. smoking ban [Inquirer]
Weaker Pa. version would override city’s smoking law [Metro]