Poor Pluto

It's no longer a planet.

Perhaps the most useless application of Linux, ever

Computer-controlled cat feeder.

The robots are taking over

The Financial Times reports that computers are generating breaking earnings stories for Thompson Financial and Reuters. My gut reaction, of course, is one of pure terror.

But on second thought, I don't know a single reporter who enjoys pounding out these boilerplate pieces. During my first year at IBD, the most mind-numbing part of the job was the quick-turnaround earnings shorts. In fact, my colleague and I used to refer to ourselves as highly trained monkeys every time earnings season rolled around. With standardized earnings reports, there's no reason why this "who" and "what" and "where" aspect to journalism shouldn't be at least partly automated. Reporters' time would be much better spent digging into the financials and asking the all-important "why" and "how" -- much harder questions.