Over it

As if we needed further proof that Hollywood's utterly out of stories, Sony's about to make a movie centered on ... emojis. No word on what, exactly, the title characters -- literally, characters -- will do. But I mean, if it's written by the guy who did the Kung Fu Panda sequel, you know it'll be good. (Thank you to Mark Berman for passing along this v. important piece of Hollywood news.)

1. What happens when the Internet's moderators don't, well -- moderate. If Reddit's mods actually cared about "community" or cooperation or stewardship, we never would've had crap like r/FatPeopleHate.

2. Meet the people "possessed" by machines. Researchers at the London School of Economics have devised a way to test AI sans the distracting screens. By fitting a real person with a chatbot-connected earpiece, they've created experimental "echoborgs" -- basically, robot brains with human bodies.

3. Where's the spam filter for everyday life? Spam email is at an all-time low ... but other types of unsolicited, distracting messages have arguably hit their all-time high.

over it

Postscripts: How Instagram chooses which hashtags to ban. What breaking up does to the brain. Proof that red is the best flavor and 3D printers are insane. Towards theories of subtweeting and Internet comments. Your landlord probably Googles you, and the New York Times is ON it. Weekends make us happy; stalking exes makes us sad. When robots break the law, who exactly takes the rap? Last/not least, I'm kind of loving this Instagram-celebrity-endorsement list. Like: Did you know Britney Spears is stumping for MateFit?

Until tomorrow!
@caitlindewey

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