Sunday, July 24

From Around the Web

So, I've been bookmarking stuff I meant to post about, and decided that some of them (while fascinating) didn't need whole posts of their own. Ergo, please enjoy today's roundup of weird/scary/strange things I ran into online:

1. The Bizarre Realities of Internet Mapping. You know how your computer has an I.P. address? Turns out that due to the vagaries of internet provider mapping processes and data limitations, arbitrary points are sometimes used as a destination 'assigned' to oodles of individual I.P. addresses that can't be more specifically pinpointed. Guess what? If your home/property happens to accidentally end up one of those amalgamated points, things can get all kinds of crazy very, very fast.

2. Food and Dating. This link I'm posting just because it strikes me as positively bizarre to think that someone might pass up on meeting the love of their life over dietary restrictions. I mean, I get it to a degree... we all have to eat every day, and things like Paleo and gluten free will therefore impact you every day for the rest of your life if you choose a spouse with eating restrictions. But, seriously? Would you really not date/marry someone who was perfect in every other way just because they had (usually through no fault of their own) an allergy to something or other need to avoid certain foods? Talk about a hundred and one ways to unnecessarily be unhappy and alone forever!

3. Fitbit Data is Admissible in Court. This qualifies as sci-fi showing up in real life, in my opinion. And/or a prime case of "hey, maybe you should have thought this through first..."  Short version: someone accused someone else of rape. Her Fitbit (fitness tracker) info was downloaded and submitted as evidence in court. It showed her version of the story didn't mesh with recorded data, and her case got thrown out. Cue the next "ripped from the headlines" Law & Order episode!!

4. What Happens When You're Both Too Drunk to Consent?  I'm not even going to try here... just go read it. Then ask yourself what kind of lunatic world we have to live in for this to be a thing. Then ask yourself what would have happened if the girl had chosen a guy who had two more drinks in him and couldn't remember any more than she could... can you sue each other for rape and both legally be right? What exactly is the resolution for that? (Aside from everyone getting something more than Hutt slime for brains...)

Let's end on a good note, shall we?

5.Verbing. Aka, how to make a word when the word you need doesn't technically exist in the form you need. Not going to lie, I do this ALL the time... I just didn't know it was such a formal, well thought out thing!