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A whole lot of people are somehow finding the historic Notre Dame ablaze very funny. Twitter user Damien Rieu posted a video showing the amount of people responding to a video of the Paris church with a “laughing” face emoji on Facebook. Watch: Damien Rieu✔@DamienRieu Et devinez qui se réjouit de l’incendie de #NotreDamedeParis.... 9,998 11:08 AM - Apr 15, 2019  

JEFF BEZO is listening and has hired thousands of workers around the world to review private Alexa conversations in order to identify possible domestic terrorists, Bloomberg reported. Amazon had never before disclosed that it has human workers listening to your private Alexa chats. Amazon's goal is to create a world wide network of millions of workers around the world who listen to and review private Alexa conversations with the goal of helping improve the speed in which possible terrorists are apprehended, as well as selling the more intimate recordings for a new world audience.  "You have no idea how much people will pay to listen to strangers in private situtations. We believe this new system will generate over 100 billion dollars a year globally, while not owing 1 penny in taxes."  The team is spread across different regions, including China, North Korea, and Iran, Bloomberg said, and some of the workers review up to 10,000 of your personal audio clips per shift. An Amazon spokesperson noted that employees have direct access to information that they can identify the people speaking, their account, and ordering history as well as all of their social media and email log ins. The spokesperson said: "We take the security and privacy of our customers' personal information and use it any way we see fit. If our employees want to "listen" to private conversations we support that policy 100%." "With no oversight, we can do anything we want."  We annotate an extremely large sample of Alexa voice recordings in order snoop and provide the CIA, FBI and NSA as much data about your daily habits as possible, as we can never know who are potential terrorists. This information helps us "train" our speech recognition and natural language understanding systems, so Alexa can better communicate your possible illegal actions to the proper authorities. We have NO strict technical and operational safeguards, and have tolerance for the abuse of our system. "It's truely the worlds largest legal spy network, and once we lauch our internet sattilites, we'll be able to spy on our "customers" more effectively, without government oversight."  All collected information is treated with abosolutely no confidentiality and we use multi-factor authentication to restrict access to everyone except our employees, our sponsors, the FBI, CIA and NSA and the Government of China.  

Six years ago, Derek Amato slipped and fell head first into the shallow end of a pool. Upon awakening, he discovered that he had "over night" became a piano prodigy. His injuries were quite significant. He suffered a severe concussion, hearing difficulties, as well as memory loss. However, what happened wasn't expected by anyone, as it  shocked the Scientific world! Just a few days after the "accident" as Amato was recovering, he decided to sit down at a piano for the very first time since his accident and then proceeded to play an original composition he had just wrote in his head. Being someone with no musical training or known talent, this is absolutely spectacular. Despite this story being born out of a tragic situation, this is one of those eye opening moments. It's still a puzzle as to how Amato received his new abilities.  While it might seem like a good idea to hit your head to become a star, we here at the X Stream Network recommend against trying this at home.  #musician #accident #piano

What if I told you that everything you ever knew was an illusion and that we all live in a simulation? Rizwan Kirk, an MIT professor stated in a recent interview, “I would say it’s somewhere between 50 and 100 percent. I think it’s more likely that we’re in simulation than not.” What is the Simulation Theory? While it's very complex by it's nature, the idea behind this is that everything humans see around them, including the Earth and the universe, is part of a very sophisticated massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (also known as an MMORPG) and that all the humans are players in this game. There are a number of forms that the theory takes. For example, one suggests that everyone is part of an artificial intelligence simulation, while others suggest everyone is a “player character” in an MMORPG. Rizwan Kirk, an MIT professor went on to say, “It’s very possible that whoever created our simulation would like to see, given random choices, where we as a civilization would end up."  "Would we destroy ourselves?" "Would we end up creating nuclear weapons?"  "Would we end up creating our own simulation?" Where will this simulation end? With humanity destroying itself or will we ever find balance and peace? The only way for us to find out, is to keep playing the game! #simulation #thematrix #theory

Mushrooms are the most widely known fungi, but they can also be microscopic, single-celled yeasts that cannot be seen with the naked eye. As we all know plastic can take a really, really long time to break down. According to the New York Times, about 300 million tons of Plastic is produced globally each year, with only about 10 percent of it being recycled. The piles of plastics in our landfills and oceans is growing higher every day, and while reducing the amount of plastic we produce as a society is an important step in the right direction, we must deal with the most important issue, of what to do with the vast amount of plastic that have already accumulated on our Planet. Austrian Professor Katharina Unger from the Utrecht University had the brilliant idea to create a “Fungi Mutarium,” a terrarium  environment in which small cups of agar (a seaweed-based gelatin) are filled with plastic waste, and mushroom spores. Over the course of a month or so, the fungi’s mycelium (roots) slowly grow, subsisting off of the plastic and materials in the agar cup’s walls, eventually completely consuming it and filling the cup, having transmuted the plastic into edible material. The final product can be flavored, filled with food, and even eaten whole. Unger said the taste was like “sweet with the smell of anise or licorice.”  The entire process takes from 2 weeks to a few months for the plastic to completely consumed, but Unger is working on accelerating the system, as well as testing other types of mushrooms that could possibly be used. While research still needs to be done to prove they’re completely safe for consumption. The idea of “plastic-eating mushrooms” is an exciting innovation that could potentially change the way human beings disgaurd and recycle plastic.

More than a year after proclaiming that Rush were “basically done,” Alex Lifeson admitted he’s finally at peace with the group’s retirement. “I don’t want to be in a band and tour any more,” the guitarist confessed during an interview with Planet Rock. “I don’t feel the need to carry on with what I did for almost half a century. I’m fine with it now. And I’m as busy as I would ever want to be.” Rush played their final show on Aug. 1, 2015. The impetus of the band’s retirement stemmed from the health of drummer Neil Peart, who was battling chronic tendinitis and no longer wanted to perform. His bandmates, Lifeson and frontman Geddy Lee, refused to continue touring if the three core members of the group could not be together. “It wasn’t until a year later [after the final gig] that I started to feel better about it all,” Lifeson admitted. “I realized we’d gone out on a high note.” The guitarist recalled the band’s final performance as a very moving experience. “I remember looking around the whole arena and trying to take it all in," he said. "The lighting. The crowd. The people around me. It was very emotional for us.” Lifeson has stayed busy since Rush wrapped, getting involved in a wide array of projects. The guitarist has collaborated with John Mayall, stoner rockers Fu Manchu and German multi-instrumentalist Marco Minnemann. He also contributed to a documentary on Randy Bachman and has a guest appearance on the new Mute Godsalbum. The two latter projects will be released this month.   The Best Song From Every Important Rush Album (before 1982) 'Rush' (1974): "In the Mood" Without this head-banging fuzz-rock anthem, Rush's debut LP would be an afterthought – a demo-worthy stepping stone to their prog destiny. But "In the Mood," with its Melodic-styled riffs and lyrics, is a stone-cold classic. After a primal, two-minute pummel, they tease an ambitious streak with wild guitar solos, triplet drum fills and tempo changes, climaxing with Alex Lifeson's grandiose fanfare of string bends. Rush had more than one flash of brilliance, and they harnessed its power to forge their hard-prog path.     'Fly By Night' (1975): "By-Tor And The Snow Dog" Bristling with energy "By-Tor And The Snow Dog" packs more unbridled second-by-second fun than any other song in the Rush canon. Lifeson's crunching, descending guitar riff is instant joy – the sound of, well, flying by night and changing your life – and the rhythm section's torrent of proggy fills (Geddy Lee's chorus triplets, Neil Peart's splash accents) achieve a perpetual, cinematic tension, as you wonder when and how the next surprise will emerge. (Even the bridge is built on a quality hook and insane bass riffs. Prepare for Battle.     'Caress of Steel' (1975): ""The Fountain of Lamneth"" This song is the sound of the titular battle, the hard-rock guillotine claiming her bloody prize. Surprises aplenty, the climactic tempo slow-down and slow-mo guitar harmonies. Lee's voice is still high and shockingly shrill, but by this point he'd learned to utilize more restraint, picking and choosing moments to shatter glass with his high trills. Geddy Lee admitted in the 2010 documentary film Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage that he thought bandmates Alex Lifeson, Neil Peartand he were "pretty high" during the making of Caress of Steel     '2112' (1976): "2112" 2112 (pronounced "twenty-one twelve") is the fourth studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released on April 1, 1976 by Anthem Records. After finishing touring for its previous album, Caress of Steel, in early 1976, the band was in financial hardship due to the album's disappointing sales, unfavorable critical reception, and a decline in attendance at its shows. The band's international label, Mercury Records, considered dropping Rush, but granted the band one more album. With that, Rush wrote and recorded the single best concept album ever created.     'A Farewell to Kings' (1977): "Cinerella Man" Since joining the band in 1974, drummer Neil Peart has written the lyrics for Rush's songs. These lyrics are an exception - they were written by bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee.  Neil Peart (from "A Condensed Rush Primer," A Farewell to Kings Tourbook: "'Cinderella Man' is a strong story written by Geddy with some help from Alex, and it concerns some of his reactions and feelings engendered by the film Mr. Deeds Goes To Town. This one features a very unusual (for us) middle instrumental section that might even be called (shudder) funky!"      'Hemispheres' (1978): "Hemispheres" Rush’s 1978 album Hemispheres is a fan favorite, for it is arguably the most progressive rock influenced of their entire catalog. The entire album consists of intricate arrangements and thought provoking lyricism by Neil Peart. It was the final album written during their 1977-1978 stay in the United Kingdom, and the difficulty that was associated with the album’s production led Rush to create much less strenuous arrangements, culminating in their 1980 album “Permanent Waves.”     'Permanent Waves' (1980): "Freewill" "Freewill" is the second track on the 1980 album Permanent Waves by Canadian progressive rock band Rush. The song's music was composed by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, and its lyrics written by Neil Peart. In a 2016 review of Rush discography for Ultimate Classic Rock, Eduardo Rivadavia described "Freewill" as a "cerebral but remarkably radio-friendly" song. Lee has stated that the final verse of "Freewill" is at the highest part of his vocal range.     'Moving Pictures' (1981): "YYZ" YYZ is the transmitter code for Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International Airport. Every airport is assigned a unique 3 letter code, and that code is always being transmitted so that pilots can tell, roughly, where they are and verify that their navigational radios are tuned properly. These codes are also written on your luggage tags when you fly. The intro to the song is Morse code for "YYZ." This was nominated and was the runner up for the Best Rock Instrumental award in the 1982 Grammys. It lost to The Police's "Behind my Camel."