Foxconn, the electronics manufacturer best known for making Apple’s iPhones and iPads (but who also manufactures electronics for Acer, Amazon, Asus, Intel, Cisco, HP, Dell, Nintendo, Nokia, Microsoft and Sony), plans to “hire” over a million robots in the next three years to replace the humans currently handling the “menial tasks”. MENIAL TASKS?! I’ll show you a menial task! *picking marshmallows out of Lucky Charms one by one* First reported in Chinese newswire Xinhua, Foxconn chairman, founder, and CEO Terry Gou apparently announced at a “workers’ dance party” on Friday that the robots will replace some of the routine tasks currently performed by humans, like spraying, welding, and assembling. Gou also said Foxconn already has 10,000 robots and that the number will increase to 300,000 next year and one million in three years. But according to the Financial Times, Gou’s message didn’t come out right. Although the implication was that robots would soon replace workers at the company, apparently Gou meant to communicate that the robots would relieve workers of menial tasks–in the past, Foxconn employees had complained of being treated like robots. A MILLION robots. Can you even imagine that? I can’t. Or, more specifically, I don’t want to. *begins sketching out sabotage plan on the back of a napkin* Also, WTF is a “workers’ dance party”? Because that sounds like a pretty shitty morale booster sweet political party. Dammit, I want a president who can breakdance! Report: Foxconn to Replace Humans With 1 Million Robots? [pcmag] and Picture Thanks to Bear and david, who [reference something really clever from Vonnegut's 'Player Piano' so everyone thinks you're smart].

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Foxconn (Electronics Manufacturer) To Hire A Million Robots Over The Next Three Years

This is a Coke billboard in the Philippines touting the company’s greenliness. How earth-friendly is Coke besides the billboard? I have no clue. Probably not very. Whenever I have to guess about something like this I always err on the side of “companies really don’t give a shit and will only do enough to give the appearance that they do.” Hey, I could be wrong though (except there’s no way because a Mountain Dew rep actually told me that). The 60 x 60 foot living billboard in Manila is made of thousands of Fukien tea plants surrounding the iconic curvy shape of a silver Coke bottle. The project with the CO2-eating plants was created in conjunction with Coca-Cola Philippines’ Live Positively sustainability program. Pots made from recycled bottles contain the 3,600 trees, which live off a mixture of organic fertilizers. Though they are currently in the first stages of growth, the plants are expected to grow quickly, completely taking over the billboard surface, absorbing a total of 46,800 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Who knows, maybe I’m just being cynical. Well — what’s your opinion? “It’d be cooler if that was ganja growing out of it.” OMG — so we could shoot flaming arrows at it and get high?! I WAS THINKING THE EXACT SAME THING! Coca-Cola Plant Billboard Absorbs Air Pollution [huffingtonpost] Thanks to Pat, who agrees the best technology is green technology. Wait like earth-friendly, or alien?

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Coca-Cola’s Iffy Pollution-Cleaning Billboard

A teen has filed a class-action lawsuit against Amazon for remotely deleting a copy of George Orwell’s ‘1984′ off his Kindle without his knowledge or the right to do so. Justin D. Gawronski, 17, “now needs to recreate all of his studies,” alleges the complaint filed Thursday in Seattle by the law firm KamberEdelson, LLC. Gawronski took copious notes using the Kindle that were linked to particular passages in the book, the court document says, and while those notes are still accessible, they are useless without the passages they reference. Amazon has apologized for remotely deleting copies of 1984 and another Orwell novel, Animal Farm, in mid-July without informing customers. Jay Edelson, the lead attorney in the lawsuit, said in a statement that the plaintiffs “appreciate Amazon.com’s new-found contrition, but words are not enough. Amazon.com had no more right to hack into people’s Kindles than its customers have the right to hack into Amazon’s bank account to recover a mistaken overpayment.” Now I’m not saying Amazon should have done that, but I am saying that Justin is pretty lazy for not just going back through the book and finding the passages again. Not that it matters anyways because I’m pretty sure this is just a sorry excuse for not having your homework ready on time. But seriously, one time my dog really did eat my homework. And by homework I mean weed. Amazon sued for wrecking teen’s Kindle work [msn] Thanks to Laura and Joemo, who would have just sent their teacher a corrupted file like a normal person.

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Teen Suing Amazon For Deleting Book From Kindle, Or, Why I Don’t Have My Homework