#MannequinChallenge
Have you heard of the Mannequin Challenge yet? It’s the newest Internet sensation where people act like mannequins. Think of a crowd of people freezing in one position and not moving for a prolonged period of time just to capture it on video. Where does the Internet come up with this stuff?! With a simple search of #MannequinChallenge on Twitter or Facebook. You can see people from celebrities to sporting teams standing still while hip hop duo Rae Sremmurd’s new song “Black Beatles” blares in the background as the unofficial anthem for the #MannequinChallenge. Flashback to planking anyone? (Source: The New York Times)
Dongle Prices Get Cut
Remember the odd move Apple made when they decided to say “peace out” to the iPhone headphone jack? Well, other Apple products like the MacBook Pro laptop are not compatible with current device accessories as well, as they only have USB-C and Thunderbolt ports. Cue needing an adapter to do anything involving Apple products, but buying these adapters adds up. So in response to critics complaining about the cost, Apple decided to cut down on pricing for their dongles. And for those skeptics saying WTF is a dongle, Google terms it as a “small device able to be connected to and used with a computer, especially to allow access to wireless broadband or use of protected software” – AKA adapters. Tim Cook thought this would be a great idea to bring to the table. Watch this hilarious video here of a former Apple worker explaining why the idea came about in the first place. (Source: CNN)
Let’s Get Medical
Imagine having a heritable genetic disease like cancer. But, then imagine being able to snip that bad guy out of your genome so it never has to be passed to your children. The discovery of CRISPR holds this promise for being able to radically change our genetic code. CRISPR stands for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats,” but for those without a medical degree that just means CRISPR inserts “spacers” where virus’ want to make a home so an immunity is created against that virus. Then CRISPR can go back and snip out undesirable codes, replacing it with different DNA.
As you can imagine this is causing controversy, because it’s kind of like “playing God.” Individuals are questioning where this could eventually lead, such as choosing your eye color or making your children genetically stronger and better looking than others. Some have even gone as far as put the idea of the rich dominating the world with their superior genes. But of course scientists have stated they won’t let it go this far, and it’s purely for the cause of protection against harmful diseases. (Source: TechCrunch)
