In an in-depth article for The Atlantic, Brian Christian details his experience as part of the annual Turing test, where makers of computerized intelligences attempt to show how human their creations can be.

In two hours, I will sit down at a computer and have a series of five-minute instant-message chats with several strangers. At the other end of these chats will be a psychologist, a linguist, a computer scientist, and the host of a popular British technology show. Together they form a judging panel, evaluating my ability to do one of the strangest things I’ve ever been asked to do.

I must convince them that I’m human.

Fortunately, I am human; unfortunately, it’s not clear how much that will help.

It’s a long read, but it’s fascinating as well.

Over at Brick Testament, you can read the Bible the way God intended – accompanied by Lego illustrations and comic-style speech bubbles.

Hey, did you know that a lot of the Bible is actually pretty fucked up? Actually, it’s really fucked up.

Just over a year ago, we saw the first real-life version of something from Pixar’s film Up, in the form of Dug. National Geographic has now gone a few steps further, and created a real-life version of the floating house.

Read all about it, and see phenomenal pictures, with this The Daily Mail article.

When asked if he had a rule against a player coming out of a game and buying hot dogs at the concession stand, Red Sox manager Terry Francona warily replied:

“No…not if he shares.”

Apparently, Boston Red Sox all-star second baseman Dustin Pedroia put that to the test recently, ordering three hot dogs after leaving a game last week. Better still, no one recognized him, with the cashier only remembering him after she was told he’d paid with a $100 dollar bill.

While humorous, this story is also a perfect illustration of just how meaningless Spring Training is for the fans.

After paying the bill for his monthly insurance premium, Septimeo Murray Jr. received a threatening letter from his health insurer. The letter claimed that Blue Cross Blue Shield had not received payment and gave him 60 days to pay, before his coverage would be cut off. So what exactly was the problem? He had paid, so what had Murray done wrong that was going to leave him without health insurance if he didn’t act?

Apparently, Murray’s payment was ten cents short.

Back in October, 20-year-old criminology student Marisol Valles Garcia became the police chief of Praxedis Guadalupe Guerrero when no one else wanted the job. Now, five months later, she has apparently abandoned her post following threats on her life.

Local officials said Ms. Valles had asked for time off work to care for her sick baby, but had not returned on Monday as expected.

The mayor of Praxedis said attempts to contact her had been unsuccessful, and he would take over direct control of the police force.

Local human rights activists told the BBC that Ms Valles and her family had fled to the US after receiving threats.

When there was only one person willing to be the police chief, it was somewhat funny, in addition to being pathetic. When there’s no one, however, that’s just deplorable.

Here’s a weird one: Mazda is recalling 52,000 Mazda 6’s, due to a problem which can be caused by spiders weaving nests in the car.

Mazda dealers will inspect and clean up the canister vent line and install a spring to prevent this type of spider from entering the vent line.

I’m not exactly sure how that’s going to work, but I’m picturing some sort of fighter jet ejector seat thing, only sideways and much, much smaller.