Big Brother is Listening

Long-Tailed Macaque Shawn Allen

Google Voice, which will email you transcripts of your voice messages and provide other services, is either a phenomenally attractive management system, or one of the creepier and more intrusive things I've ever heard of. As of now, there's no clear way that Google is going to monetize this, besides charging for long-distance calls. I'm going to guess it'll be targeted ads, but what form would that come in? Other voicemails?

Also in today's links: celebrating Pi Day, cleaning monkey teeth, Pluto, and more.

• Actually, this is the creepiest thing I've ever heard of. And possibly also the most awesome. A Canadian filmmaker plans to shoot a documentary using a camera concealed in a prosthetic eye, that he can wear in his eye socket since one of his eyes was removed several years ago.
• Take some time to run around in circles tomorrow, or practice memorizing digits out into infinity. Saturday is Pi Day, thanks to a resolution by the House of Representatives. Get it? It'll be 3/14. Bonus points if you celebrate at 1:59 a.m.
• A type of monkey teaches its babies to clean their teeth by slowing down and exaggerating their motions when they see the little ones watching them floss with the human hair they've yanked out of visitors' heads. Yep. Long-tailed macaques who live near a Buddhist shrine in Thailand yank out hairs from the heads or worshipers, then floss with them. Ow. And ew.
• According to an Illinois decree, Pluto is a planet today, in honor of the Illinoisian who discovered the dwarf planet.