Der Spiegel: Volkswagen is planning to write off over $300M it invested in Gett, as the Israeli startup struggles to compete with Uber, Lyft, Didi, and others — “Der Spiegel” reported that Volkswagen would write off its over $300 million investment in the Israeli taxi hailing company.
In an year of breaches, data leaks, and reports of starvation deaths due to faulty implementation, India's Aadhaar had its constitutional status upheld in 2018 — After almost a decade since its launch, India's controversial biometric identity programme, Aadhaar, finally got a measure …
Inside Uber's serious incident team for US where ~130 investigators deal with reports of crashes, physical altercations, sexual misconduct, theft, and stalking — There is space for scores of people in a section of Uber's office in downtown Phoenix but on a recent weekday morning only a handful …
Big players in autonomous driving like Uber, Tesla, and Waymo had a disappointing 2018, but several startups with a “minimum viable product” made good progress — Big companies struggled but small ones moved forward. — As 2018 dawned, expectations for self-driving vehicles were sky-high:
How Amazon is opening tiny stores, adding local language descriptors, and accepting cash payments to target the 800M people living outside India's big cities — The retailer is targeting hundreds of millions of new online shoppers in India's countryside by adding Hindi and videos …
In a formerly undisclosed memo from March, a top FTC enforcement official said Facebook wasn't at fault for Cambridge Analytica's abuses; FTC says probe ongoing — Last spring, soon after Facebook acknowledged that the data of tens of millions of its users had improperly been obtained …
AI image processing for computer vision, facial recognition, image generation, and other applications saw marked improvements in 2018 — Computer scientists have spent more than two decades teaching, training and developing machines to see the world around them.
Lawrence Roberts, who helped design the Arpanet and oversaw its implementation in 1969, dies at 81 — In late 1966, a 29-year-old computer scientist drew a series of abstract figures on tracing paper and a quadrille pad. Some resembled a game of cat's cradle; others looked like heavenly constellations …
Inside digital music piracy and sharing in the 2000s via P2P networks like Napster, LimeWire, Gnutella, as well as IRC and internet music service Audiogalaxy — A couple of decades ago - well before a $10 monthly fee would unlock access to virtually every song ever recorded through streaming services …
RBC Capital Markets: 41% of US consumers now own a smart speaker, compared to 21.5% in 2017; the growth was mostly driven by Alexa and Google Home devices — We already know Alexa had a good Christmas - the app shot to the top of the App Store over the holidays, and the Alexa service even briefly crashed from all the new users.
How Booking Holdings, formerly Priceline, is betting on China's online travel market with partnerships and more than $2B in investments in Chinese companies — Booking, formerly Priceline, is investing heavily in Chinese travel startups — Nearly two decades ago, Priceline.com …
Privacy International: popular Android apps like TripAdvisor, Kayak, Indeed, MyFitnessPal share data with Facebook without user consent, possibly violating GDPR — Some of the most popular apps for Android smartphones, including Skyscanner, TripAdvisor and MyFitnessPal …
The biggest challenges for US tech firms in 2019: GDPR-like privacy protections, large security breaches becoming routine, and anti-government employee protests — How privacy, security and employee protests will shape the year ahead for Silicon Valley. — Ms. Fowler is an editor in the Opinion section.
Sources: Amazon is planning to build and expand Whole Foods stores across the US to put more customers within range of its Prime Now two-hour delivery service — Expansion would widen tech giant's delivery reach — Amazon.com Inc. AMZN 1.12% is planning to build and expand Whole Foods stores across …
Malware attack on Tribune Publishing's network disrupts the printing and distribution of Saturday editions of LA Times, WSJ, NYT, and other papers — A cyberattack that appears to have originated from outside the United States caused major printing and delivery disruptions at several newspapers across …
How Facebook engineers keep Messenger from crashing on New Year's Eve, when more messages are sent than on any other day, through “graceful degradation” — Messenger's 1.3 billion users send more messages on New Year's Eve than on any other day of the year
As Alphabet tests Wing drone deliveries in a suburb of Canberra, some enjoy the convenience of orders arriving in minutes while others complain about noise — In one of the world's most advanced drone-delivery tests, sunscreen arrives in minutes—as do complaints
Profiles of Arab women influencers, like the recently murdered Tara Fares, who are pushing boundaries in conservative societies while facing death threats — Middle Eastern women like Tara Fares hustle for followers and brands like any other influencers — but they risk being killed for it
Bangladesh orders mobile operators to shut down high-speed mobile internet services to “prevent rumours and propaganda” ahead of national elections on Sunday — The country's telecom regulator say it ordered mobile operators to shut down 3G, 4G services until December 30 midnight.
European Commission to start offering bug bounties on 14 Free Software projects like Notepad++ and VLC that the EU institutions rely on — It's been a while since I last wrote about the Free and Open Source Software Audit project, FOSSA, so let me start with a quick recap that you can safely skip …
China approves the release of 80 video games, none of which are from Tencent, a week after lifting a nine-month freeze on approvals — SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China on Saturday approved the release of 80 online video games after a freeze on such approvals for most of the year.
How online hate and its long-term effects lingered for seven people in 2018, including a Parkland shooting survivor, a CNN journalist, and a track cyclist — It cost a school-shooting victim the safety of home. — It cost an athlete the joy of a victory. — It cost the family of a gay teen a battle with their community.
Who would win in a fight between Elsa from Frozen and Spider-man from the Marvel universe? What would happen if we made an entire planet out of legos? The internet has all the answers to such ridiculous but intriguing questions.
There are astrophysicists weighing in on things like how many calories superheroes burn. There are heated discussions between self-proclaimed experts on what the future holds, as well as what the past would have been like if history was a little different.
There are no silly questions here. Only amazing, crazy, ridiculous, madcap answers. Have fun.
The webcomic XKCD is tremendously popular among geeks, since creator Randall Munroe loves to deep-dive into scientific theories. “What If” is a book by Munroe as well as a web series where he tries to deliver scientific answers to weird questions.
In Munroe’s typical style, it’s a humorous and light-hearted take on the question. That said, the science behind it is well-researched and authoritative. Munroe also intersperses the answers with plenty of illustrations, making it easier to understand.
There are over 150 silly questions and answers available to read. You can also send Munroe your own questions, and if it’s interesting enough for him, you’ll get an answer. And feel free to jump into the XKCD What If message boards for further discussions.
What cool thing could be built if all seven billion people on the planet made something together? If we divided everything up equally among everyone, what is our “fair share”? If a person bit by a vampire turns into a vampire after they die, how long till the whole world is only vampires?
Astrophysicist Matt doesn’t shy away from such vexing questions that keep you up at night. The responses, usually about 500-1000 words, acknowledge the silliness of the question, and Matt is unafraid to have fun with it. At Quarks and Coffee, he uses math, science, research, and logic to come up with a plausible answer to just about anything you think of.
Quarks and Coffee isn’t updated as regularly as it used to be, but it still has plenty of great reads to go through.
We’ve all spent many hours discussing who would win a fight between two people we’re fans of. World Wide Web Fights’ (WWWF) Grudge Match is the internet’s original and favorite resource for silly matchups taken seriously.
The site shut down a while ago, but the 248 completed matches are classics. There are some ridiculously fascinating matches here, like Forrest Gump vs. Rainman, Tarzan vs. Aquaman, Scooby Doo vs. X-Files, and much more. Naturally, they’re hilarious and take the technicalities of each side far too seriously, but that’s part of the fun of it.
Grudge Match may have retired, but questions continue to trouble netizens. In this time of need, the Reddit community gathered together to discuss these problems at r/WhoWouldWin.
From simple one-on-one matchups to specific scenarios, you’ll find everything here. Be warned that there’s some offensive language and crude content here. That’s natural with the no-holds-barred approach to ridiculous questions like “Who would win in a fight between 12 average-sized 12-year-old boys and an adult male?”
As usual, it’s best to read the subreddit’s rules and etiquette before you dive in. Sort by “Top” of “All Time” for the most popular Q&As. And if you’re new to Reddit, we always recommend reading our awesome guide to Reddit.
One tiny change in history can have ripple effects across ages, and the world as we know it today may not exist. Or would it? Alternate History ponders what would happen if a major historical event played out differently.
Alternate History is the older of the two forums and encourages more detailed and thorough posts from its users. You will find entire timelines of major events, like what would happen if ancient Egypt survived until the present day.
The Finished Timelines and Scenarios sub-forum is better if you’re looking for fun reads without actively participating in a question. Otherwise, hop into the other parts of the forum to angrily discuss why you’re right and they’re wrong.
For an answer to almost any other question you have ever wondered about, head to one of the major “what if” subreddits. If it isn’t already answered, you can ask it. But chances are, someone else has already discussed it.
Of these, r/HistoryWhatIf and r/FutureWhatIf are the most active. The former discusses hypothetical events of the past, and the latter wonders how tomorrow will play out. The standalone r/WhatIf isn’t as active as the others, but it’s a fun place to discuss weird ponderings anyway.
If these sites haven’t given you enough of a dose of the weird and wonderful side of the web, fret not, there’s more. Whether you seek history, science, or humanity, there is a little for everyone.
Check out Wikipedia’s official unusual articles as well as other websites with funny, weird, and fascinating stories. It’s a guaranteed good time.
Read the full article: The Internet Answers Your Craziest Hypothetical Questions
Hello, my name is Srikanth. I'm interested in learning new things and sharing with everyone.
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