Drone Ball Brings Real-Life Quidditch a Step Closer

HoverBall, a piece of drone-powered sports equipment under construction at the University of Tokyo, has the potential to change the face of sports forever. For the first time, a ball that goes up doesn't have to come down.

If their HoverBall prototype takes flight, researchers at the Rekimoto Lab say it could glide through the air or move around players all on its own. If that reminds you of something, you're probably thinking of the self-aware "golden snitch" seen in the main game of the Harry Potter universe: Quidditch

See also: Netflix's Drone Delivery Service Will Scare the Crap Out of You Read more...

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HTC Desire 316 appears on company's Chinese website

HTC's latest mid-range offering, the Desire 316, has popped up on HTCs Chinese website. The Taiwanese manufacturer's Desire series has been doing well in Asian markets, so don't be surprised if the Desire 316 is available only in the region. The phone packs a 5" 540 x 960 display, 5MP primary camera with a VGA selfie unit, a 1.2GHz quad-core CPU, 512MB RAM (shameful) 4GB internal storage with a microSD card slot, and a 1950 mAh battery. On the software side, the handset is packing Android 4.3. This particular model is a CDMA unit, and seeing the specs that it's rocking, don't expect it to break the bank. If the Desire 316 is cheap enough, it should probably do just fine in...

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Finland Not Psyched About Russia Conducting Military Drills on Its Border

The Finnish army has started a "24-7 live-monitoring" operation following a Russian military air-force drill that is occurring just 150 miles from the border between the two countries.

It has people asking: Is Finland the next Crimea?

After #Crimea, do we need to talk about #Finland and #Belarus? #Putin's former advisor Andrei Illarionov thinks so: http://t.co/hPnAJRBIKy

— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) March 31, 2014

The Finnish army's alertness comes after a former advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin said the ex-KGB agent might also want Finland.

“Putin’s view is that he protects what belongs to him and his predecessors,” Putin’s former chief economic adviser Andrei Illarionov told Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. "Parts of Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states and Finland are states where Putin claims to have ownership." Read more...

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Microsoft Office 365's New 'Clutter' Tool Streamlines Your Inbox

Microsoft unveiled a series of new features for Office 365's Outlook users, including an Android web app, and tools for decluttering your inbox and collaborating on documents.

Jeff Teper, the Redmond, Wash. company's corporate vice-president, revealed the changes on Monday at the Microsoft Exchange Conference in Austin.

See also: The Year in Microsoft: 10 Defining Milestones

Codenamed "Clutter," the feature aims to make it easier for people to go through their inboxes by automatically separating email based on importance.

"At its heart, it intends to remove as much unimportant mail, or clutter, from a user’s inbox as possible so that a user’s inbox can, well, become their inbox again," Steve Chew, a senior product-marketing manager in the Exchange group, said in a blog post. "Leveraging the intelligence of the Office Graph, clutter looks for how 'importantly' or 'unimportantly' you treat emails, and looks for patterns behind those behaviors." Read more...

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Arizona Police Investigating Video of Officer Attacking Woman

An online video of a police officer knocking a woman over, apparently without provocation during the calm aftermath of a NCAA riot in Tucson, has Arizona University students furious and the police department investigating the matter.

A crowd had assembled on University Boulevard in Tucson Saturday, following the school's loss to Wisconsin University in the National College Athletic Association men's basketball tournament. Beer bottles were thrown at police, who responded with pepper spray and rubber bullets.

See also: Police Turn to Social Media to Fight Crime, Dispel Rumors

But the riot had calmed down when the incident, below, was captured on video. Read more...

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Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segel Suit Up for 'Les Mis' Duet

Jason Segel might want to look into joining co-star Neil Patrick Harris on Broadway now that How I Met Your Mother has ended.

When fielding questions from students during a recent visit to Inside the Actor's Studio, the pair were asked to step into the tense "Confrontation" scene from Les Miserables.

See also: 14 Tips From Ted Mosby on Finding True Love

A far cry from their goofier HIMYM counterparts, Harris and Segel slip into the formidable roles of Inspector Javert and Jean Val Jean as if they played the dramatic characters for years. Fellow cast members Alyson Hannigan, Cobie Smulders and Josh Radnor joined the duo onstage and, likely from past experiences, knew to steer clear when the song reaches its chaotic peak Read more...

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32 Songs to Celebrate MLB Opening Day

With the Super Bowl long behind us and March Madness winding down, Major League Baseball's opening day offers a fresh start for sports fans around the nation. The first day of MLB play signals the arrival of spring, a new hope for each city's fan base, and for many, a great excuse to call in sick from work.

See also: Opening Day Advice From the Man Who Visited 25 Stadiums in 25 Days

But if you can't make it to your favorite team's stadium to ring in the 2014 MLB season today, we've done our best to recreate the stadium atmosphere for you, right here

We rounded up popular stadium anthems from all 32 MLB ballparks in this Music Monday playlist. So whether you're watching your team on TV, or sneakily checking the score at the office, our playlist will help you feel like you're singing along with the crowd during the seventh-inning stretch. Read more...

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Caught Insulting Allies, U.S. Diplomat Calls Taped F-Bomb 'Tactical'

Some call the leak a "new low in Russian tradecraft." Others "a wake up call about the way you do business."

But the State Department official caught saying "fuck the EU" in a bugged phone conversation about the future of Ukraine — which was promptly leaked to YouTube — has a new way of referring to the incident.

Assistant Secretary Victoria Nuland, who leads the State Department's Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs and had yet to comment on the diplomatic diss (aside to say she won't be commenting) before now, calls it "a tactical moment in time."

See also: 9 Essential Twitter Sources for Ukrainian Conflict News Read more...

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14 Tips From Ted Mosby on Finding True Love

It's the end of a — wait for it

For nine years, lovable goofball Ted Mosby has searched far and wide for his soulmate. Along the way, he's had his heart broken (thanks, Stella), made mistakes in the shape of butterfly tattoos and had curious incidents with pineapples

See also: Relive 'How I Met Your Mother' in 9 Legendary Photos

But at least he's gotten some good stories (and life lessons) out of it all

How I Met Your Mother ends its television run Monday night, which means it's finally time to see how Mosby landed the girl of his dreams

But before you say goodbye to the gang and MacLaren's Pub, suit up and see how Ted's love life can help you land your own mother — you know what we mean Read more...

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OkCupid to Firefox Users: Switch Browsers, Support Gay Marriage

OkCupid is asking its users to forgo using a Firefox browser as a form of protest against Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich, whose support of an anti-gay marriage ballot measure in California is creating a good deal of controversy for the company

On Monday, anyone who visited OkCupid on the browser made by Mozilla, Firefox, was greeted with a message that asks them to switch browsers. "Mozilla’s new CEO, Brendan Eich, is an opponent of equal rights for gay couples," the message reads. "We would therefore prefer that our users not use Mozilla software to access OkCupid."

See also: 12 Moments From England's Legalization of Gay Marriage Read more...

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Alleged specs and launch details of Samsung Ativ SE emerge

Purported specs and launch details for the upcoming Samsung Ativ SE made the rounds on the web. The Verizon-bound smartphone is rumored to launch at some point next month. The Samsung Ativ SE is tipped to feature Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC, 2GB of RAM, 5" 1080p display, and 13MP camera. The last two are already well-known from the Samsung Galaxy S4. Additional specs include 16GB of built-in memory and a microSD card slot. Curiously, the Samsung Ativ SE is said to be released with Windows Phone 8 out of the box. Windows Phone 8.1 will make its way to the handset at a later time....

Wil Wheaton Stands Up to Bullies With Incredible Advice

Bullies, back off. Wil Wheaton's not having any of your mean ways

The nerd culture guru's response to a little girl's question at Denver Comic Con last year has recently resurfaced thanks to a Reddit post. The girl asks Wheaton how to deal with being called a nerd by her classmates

See also: School Bans Bullied Boy From Wearing 'My Little Pony' Backpack

Wheaton responds by saying that "When a person makes fun of you, when a person is cruel to you, it has nothing to do with you." He also adds: "It’s not about what you said. It’s not about what you did. It’s not about what you love. It’s about them feeling bad about themselves." Read more...

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How 'The Walking Dead' Finale Lost to Kids' Choice Awards on Twitter

Could the Next-Gen iPhone Look Like This?

A designer has taken a sketch of the alleged iPhone 6 design specs that leaked last week, and turned it into a full-blown concept photo to highlight what the next generation Apple smartphone might look like

Alleged schematics of a 4.7-inch and 5.7-inch iPhone 6 were first published in the Japanese Mac magazine, MacFan. Those images were then republished in the Japanese Mac blog Mac Otakara and on MacRumors .

The schematics show off a thinner, slimmer iPhone that matches some of the design languages showcased in the iPad Air. The schematics dictate that the iPhone 6 — also referred to as the iPhone Air — would be 7.1mm thick, compared to the 7.6mm thick iPhone 5S. Its edges are also slightly curved, and instead of two buttons for adjusting the volume (the "+" and "-" functions), it will be baked into just one button Read more...

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'We Are Just Humans': Portrait Project Highlights Ethnic Diversity

Pantone is known for its color matching system, often used in fashion, printing and painting. But Angélica Dass is using the famous swatches for something even more exciting: creating a dialogue around ethnic diversity.

The Madrid-based photographer (pictured above) has been working on her project Humanae since April 2012, taking portraits of people and matching their skin tones to Pantone hues to show how wide-ranging the human spectrum really is. There are now more than 2,000 photographs on the project's Tumblr.

See also: How Diverse Are Your Social Networks?

"The inspiration for this project comes from my family roots," Dass tells Mashable. "I am the granddaughter of black and native Brazilians, and the daughter of a black father adopted by a white family. So, I am a mixture of diverse pigmentsHumanae is a pursuit for highlighting our true colors, rather than the untrue and clichéd red and yellow, black and white." Read more...

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