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22 Jan 20:34

Operations and Engineering at full speed

by sharhalakis

image by uaiHebert

22 Jan 20:32

Kiev, in foucus

22 Jan 20:30

Best, Most Original Idea Man’s Ever Had Returns 114,000 Google Search Results

firehose

aka my free time

CENTRALIA, PA—After excitedly sitting down at his computer this morning, local man Joshua Liptak discovered that the all-time best, most original idea he has ever conceived of returned upwards of 114,000 Google search results, sources confirmed.
    






22 Jan 20:30

Under The Hood Of The All-Emoji Programming Language ⚙ Co.Labs ⚙ code + community

by djempirical
firehose

ffro

Artist/coder Ramsey Nasser’s latest creation is a programming language written entirely in emoji. It's called Emojinal, and he designed it in collaboration with Addie Wagenknecht, with whom he presented it at the recent Emoji Art and Design Show at Eyebeam last month.

Original Source

22 Jan 20:28

Casey, Dalrymple, Farinas, Fiffe, Fox, Mahfood, Marra, Rugg And Willumsen To Relaunch Kirby's 'Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers' At Dynamite

by Caleb Goellner
firehose

BUT STILL NO OMAC

Captain VictoryJack Kirby

One of Jack Kirby‘s most celebrated (if short-lived) post-DC creations is once again getting an all-star treatment from its latest publishing home at Dynamite Entertainment. Coming this July is a new Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers series from writer Joe Casey and an army of artists including Farel Dalrymple, Ulises Farinas, Michel Fiffe, Nathan Fox, Jim Mahfood, Benajmin Marr, Jim Rugg and Connor Willumsen.

“Joe’s vision is incredible, and the creators he’s bringing to the table really does take the series to the next level,” wrote Dynamite Publisher Nick Barrucci in an official press release.

The new series follows Dynamite’s six-issue 2011-2012 Kirby: Genesis – Captain Victory series by writer Sterling Gates and artists Wagner Reis, Steve Scott, Dennis Calero and Joe St. Pierre. The two books won’t be connected continuity-wise, but the new series will similarly feature the same New Gods-style characters and concepts introduced by Kirby in his original 14 comic book issues published by Pacific Comics and later by Topps circa 1981-1984 and 1994, respectively.

Preview art for the series hasn’t been made available by Dynamite yet, but considering the lineup, we’ll be keeping approximately nine eyes out for some.

captainvictory092413_cropped

22 Jan 20:27

Historian Says Kirk Reeves Too Immediate and Too Portland To Earn Transit Bridge Honor

by Dirk VanderHart
firehose

'Do people living in Tualatin, Tigard, Hillsboro, Beaverton, Aloha, Gresham, Oregon City recognize the name now'

if that's your barometer, you're fucked for any name but "Cascadia"


Still non-plussed by the four names being floated for Portland's forthcoming transit bridge? Flummoxed that the most-popular choices—bridges named after deceased street musician Kirk Reeves and the rainbow bridge to Asgard in Norse mythology— didn't get the nod?

Chet Orloff, a local professor and director emeritus at the Portland Historical Society, toiled on the committee that selected the four finalists. And he's evidently sensitive enough to questions about the names that he's offering an explanation this morning on TriMet's web site.

"First and foremost, this has never been a popularity contest," Orloff wrote. "We are not naming a bridge merely by numbers."

The criteria for bridge names, he noted:

• Origin of name
• Meaning of proposed name
• Is it inspirational? If so, why?
• Does it reflect how bridge connects people? If so, how?
• Historical significance (if any)
• Biographical info (if commemorative)
• Any special cultural meaning?
•What will it mean 100 years from now?
• Spelling
• Pronunciation
• Sound/ring/flow
• Regional perspective (being Clackamas, Washington, and Multnomah counties)

Orloff didn't address Bifröst, that Norse rainbow. But he did explain why he feels Reeves, the people's champion, would not make a suitable bridge muse.

Several people advocated, for example, that the bridge be named after Kirk Reeves. For those of us who were familiar with him, Kirk’s name is closely associated with the Hawthorne Bridge in Portland. Do people living in Tualatin, Tigard, Hillsboro, Beaverton, Aloha, Gresham, Oregon City recognize the name now and what it means? What will be Kirk’s historical and cultural significance to all of us in our region in 25, 50, 150 years? Yes, he may have represented a certain type of individual—artist, independent soul, etc.—that we like to recognize. But, so was the case with all the other individuals and couples the committee considered. I, for one (and writing as a former Regional Arts and Culture Council commissioner), would love to see Kirk’s memory celebrated with a piece of public art, perhaps a sculpture of him near where he used to play, with music emanating from it. That would manifest his memory and relate to the particular place within the city where he made his own impact.

But, when it comes to naming such an icon as a regional bridge, I believe we want a name that represents, in substantial and substantive ways, something to us all, historically, now, and in the future.

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

22 Jan 20:26

Protesters show up at the doorstep of Google self-driving car engineer

by Cyrus Farivar
firehose

hey Overbey

specifically, "his spearheading a new condominium development in downtown Berkeley. Protestors say this development is linked to a design firm that has done work for the US military."

This image was distributed by the group Counterforce, protesting Google engineer Anthony Levandowski.

Protests against tech giants and their impact on the San Francisco Bay Area economy just got personal.

According to an anonymous submission on local news site Indybay, an unknown group of protesters targeted a Google engineer best known for helping to develop the company’s self-driving car.

After arriving at the Berkeley home of Anthony Levandowski on Tuesday morning, the protesters distributed a flier (PDF) complaining of his role in developing Google Street View and, more recently, his spearheading a new condominium development in downtown Berkeley. Protesters say this development is linked to a design firm that has done work for the US military.

Read 16 remaining paragraphs | Comments

22 Jan 20:26

Why Delaying "Superman/Batman" Until 2016 is a Good Thing

CBR explains why the delay of the "Man of Steel" sequel is actually a good thing for one of the most anticipated movies of all time.
22 Jan 20:19

Black Widow looks even better when The Avengers go anime

by Meredith Woerner
firehose

weird teamup, but THE GODDAMNED CAPTAIN MARVEL THO

The first trailer for the anime version of the Avengers is out. And Black Widow looks amazing.

Read more...


    






22 Jan 20:07

America’s love affair with cheese is made of cheddar and mozzarella

by Roberto A. Ferdman
Extra cheese

America’s cheese consumption has tripled over the past 40 years, from under 10 pounds a person in 1970 to nearly 25 pounds in 2010, according to Modern Farmer. Other dairy products, like milk, have gone in the opposite direction.

Screen Shot 2014-01-20 at 2.14.39 PM

But not all cheeses are created equal. Mozzarella and cheddar are far and away America’s favorite fromages, according to the USDA. Together they account for over 60% of the cheese available on supermarket shelves, in sandwich joints, and at restaurants around the country.

America-s-favorite-cheeses-Per-capita-cheese-availability_chartbuilder

The explanation for mozzarella’s popularity is, of course, pizza. The US now consumes some 3 billion pizzas per year, or roughly 10 per person. And each of those pizzas tends to be served with more cheese than ever before. For instance, Dominoes Pizza appeased its customers in 2010 by adding 40% more cheese to its pizzas. Pizza Hut found last year that young customers have a weakness for cheese blends.

The downside to the country’s long-held love affair with cheese is its implications for the nation’s waist-line. Over 70% of the US is now overweight or obese. Back in 1970, that number was less than 50%.

Obesity/Overweight US

22 Jan 19:58

Will Women Bring Down The NFL?

firehose

what a weasel-worded summary, digg

from the link: 'NFL wives became frontline diagnosticians and legal advocates for their husbands. They were the primary activists who aligned with doctors to identify their husbands’ symptoms, to provide a long-term narrative to explain the transformation in former players and convincingly argue that symptoms were related to their husband’s injuries incurred from football. For their husbands, whose executive function and voices were rendered silent, the wives had to speak on behalf of the retired players as they demanded entry to players' union meetings and held press conferences. They made these efforts in spite of the NFL’s attempts to disenfranchise them. In essence, the wives were left to pick up the pieces.'

Missing is the recognition that crucial to unearthing the nature and extent of the concussion cover-up in football was women: a female doctor armed with science, wives of the players and a female judge on the bench.
22 Jan 19:48

The Tragic And Scandalous Life Of Mrs. Oscar Wilde

firehose

'The pair had two children immediately after their wedding, but as Constance labored hard through her second pregnancy, Oscar began to reconsider the romantic and sexual nature of their life together. He wrote to a friend:

"There are romantic memories, and there is the desire of romance—that is all. Our most fiery moments of ecstasy are mere shadows of what somewhere else we have felt, or what we long someday to feel…Sometimes I think the artistic life is a long and lovely suicide, and am sorry that it is so."

By dividing his devotion to marriage with his romantic pleasures, Oscar and Constance experienced a partnership that expanded the definition of what it meant to be independent, and what it meant to be alone. Constance became a champion of dress reform, and a figurehead of Oscar’s new women’s magazine, in which he advocated that “we should take a wider range, as well as a high standpoint, and deal not merely with what women wear, but with what they think, and what they feel.” Less generous admirers saw Constance as a fanatic, dipping her toe into whatever cause was fashionable, from votes for women to spiritualism.

Perhaps her interests were wide-ranging because unlike a conventional married woman of the time, she didn’t simply live one life, with one devotion to house and home. Oscar taught her the ways of a divided love, as freeing or as painful as that might be. In his second book of fairy-tales, Constance was surprised to read Oscar’s dedication to her:

"To you the Cathedral is dedicated. The individual side chapels are to other saints… The candles that burn at the side altars are not so bright or beautiful as the great lamp of the shrine which is of gold, and that has a wonderful heart of restless flame."

Constance lived at the edge of what was fashionable and what was acceptable. A champion of women’s rights, she used her place as the queen of London’s literary society to accomplish social and political reform. When she died in exile in Italy at the young age of forty, she was separated from Oscar and living under a pseudonym. Her grave had no mention of her famous husband until many years later, when her brother added the no-longer-tarnished title, “Wife of Oscar Wilde.”'

Constance Lloyd was a driven, creative, passionate, humorous, and fiercely modern woman, both when she wed Wilde and when she separated from him.
22 Jan 19:46

Why the 1% don’t want Learjets anymore

by John McDuling
firehose

tl;dr: Not as many people are able to be rich enough for a LearJet, and the people who are rich enough for a LearJet have gotten rich enough for even more expensive jets

Out of fashion?

The Learjet has been the standard-bearer for small, luxury private and business aircraft since the 1960s. It was once considered the ultimate status symbol. Countless companies—and celebrities like Frank Sinatra—have owned versions of the iconic planes over the past fifty years.

But the Learjet, the latest version of which costs a cool $21 million, has encountered turbulence lately. Its owner Bombardier announced this week that it would lay off 600 workers from the plant in Kansas where the planes are assembled. That coincided with news that Learjet deliveries were down 25% last year.

“The global economy has remained persistently sluggish, and with its recovery taking longer than originally anticipated, 2013 continued to be a challenging year for aviation,” said Guy Hachey, president and chief operating officer of Bombardier Aerospace.

Yet other segments of the business aviation market aren’t suffering from sluggish demand. Gulfstream is adding staff amid rising orders for its latest, more expensive aircraft, the G650, which seats eight passengers and costs a reported $65 milion. General Dynamics, which makes the Gulfstream jets, said today it has experienced a “better than expected recovery” in jet aviation last quarter.

The rise of fractional aircraft ownership schemes like Warren Buffet-backed Netjets might be one factor, as they make it possible for the very rich to access ultra-luxury private aircraft that were once reserved for the ultra rich. Planes like the Gulstreams also have longer flying ranges and more comfort. (You can’t stand up in a Learjet, after all).

And when Netjets placed a massive $9.6 billion order with Bombardier in 2012, it was mainly for the more upscale Challenger brand, not Learjets. Even FlexJets, a rival to NetJets previously owned by Bombardier, is reportedly poised to order its first Gulfstream aircraft as it diversifies its fleet into longhaul planes.

To be fair, Learjet is suffering from problems at the level of its parent company. Montreal-based Bombardier is laying off another 1,100 jobs in Canada. Together with the Learjet layoffs, the move is designed to preserve cash after delays to the completion of its CSeries aircraft, which are for commercial use, and designed to compete with Boeing’s 737 and Airbus’s A320 models.

But the rise of the ultra-wealthy doesn’t appear to be helping its cause, either.

22 Jan 19:45

The Most Popular NYT Story Of The Year Was Written By An Intern

firehose

the dialect quiz

Be nice to your interns—you never know when they might bring you traffic.
22 Jan 19:44

Meet the Bourdains: Anthony and Ottavia on MMA, radioactive monkey colons, In-N-Out vs. Five Guys, the world's best beef, and 'bro-food'

by Steph Daniels
firehose

burrrrrried lede: "I can tell you here that we're actually going to do a second Get Jiro!, a prequel."

Social media's impact on the world has been monumental. It has allowed for the generation gap to be bridged in a most efficient fashion, demonstrating that fifty-somethings can stay in tune with twenty-somethings with some degree of ease.

Anthony Bourdain was capable of bridging that gap long before social media was a thing.

187622944_medium(Getty Images)

Anthony Bourdain was capable of bridging that gap long before social media was a thing, though. His ability to keep a finger on the pulse of society seems to be something that he has always been adept at, and a gift that just might have been passed down from his mother and father, who worked for the New York Times and Columbia Records, respectively.

Bourdain is a jack of many trades and a master of all of them. As an accomplished chef who rocketed to fame with the publishing of his restaurant exposé in 2000, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, he has gone on to see major success in a variety of other outlets. Bourdain has released a multitude of books, several successful television shows (with the most current being Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown for the CNN network) co-written a comic for Marvel Comics, started his own publishing line and had a television show modeled after his life.

His most recent endeavor is martial arts. At the age of 57, Bourdain has already earned the first stripe on his white belt under the tutelage of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, Renzo Gracie. It's actually a very impressive accomplishment considering his hectic travel schedule. His wife, Ottavia, has been an avid jiu-jitsu practitioner for several years under Gracie and maintains a highly active schedule on the competition circuit. It was her passion that inspired Anthony to pick up the discipline seriously, and he too hopes to take part in an age appropriate division competitively.

Anthony is kind of like the Indiana Jones of the culinary world, constantly in search of the rarest and finest cuisine. He's an adventurous traveler that was once forced to hole up in a hotel in Beirut for days due to unexpected conflict. He and his crew were carefully led to safety by the U.S. Marines and a "cleaner" whom he called Mr. Wolf after the Pulp Fiction character. He has traveled the world, has seen conflict and corruption in some of its worst forms. However, he states that the greatest threat he has ever faced was shady transportation. Rickety automobiles and planes have been part-and-parcel of his travel experiences in the more exotic locales, something that is still an unsettling part of the job.

Anthony's accolades are numerous and most recently include an Emmy award in 2013 for Parts Unknown. He's even been featured in the hit animated comedy Archer. To put it quite simply, he's a cultural icon. Ottavia is a very accomplished jiu-jitsu player, a laundry expert (her own words) and a very good writer herself. The Bourdains keep company with a variety of society's standouts that include actors, rappers, several world class chefs, martial artists, UFC commentators (Joe Rogan), musicians and more. Dos Equis beer has a commercial that features The Most Interesting Man in the World. I believe that man was miscast. Anthony Bourdain holds that title, and his wife Ottavia just might be the most engaging, friendly woman in martial arts.

I recently interviewed Anthony and Ottavia together in a joint interview just two days before Christmas. It was my second interview with them, and it was even more enlightening and entertaining than the first. Several topics were discussed, including their martial arts journey, his stance on seal hunting, take on Paula Deen, the downfalls of television cooking shows, philanthropy and the extreme care with which their holiday meals are planned. Here's your chance to get to know them both a little better.

* * *

Bourdain_medium(Courtesy of Ottavia Bourdain)

How often do you two roll together now?

Ottavia: I let him use me as his grappling dummy, and we drill. We don't really roll because we had a bad experience [laughs].

Anthony: No, we had two, and both rolling experiences have ended really, really badly. I caught an elbow to the face the first time, and I did something to her shoulder the second time. I'm too clumsy and large, and she's too dangerous. It's just a bad mix.

Ottavia: We can drill techniques, but we learned our lesson with trying to roll.

What's your favorite submission?

Ottavia: I love triangle chokes, so that's probably my favorite. I've been changing my game a little bit over the past couple of months and have started learning leg locks, so I'm really loving kneebars, toe holds...all that good stuff I wouldn't be able to do in any IBJJF competition.

It's just so much fun. It's a different universe once you learn a submission. You only learn submissions on the legs when you're a brown or black belt, but I started taking a lot of classes and doing privates with John Danaher, and I'm loving it.

When you're training, especially now that you've been doing the tournament circuit, is it hard being married to a guy who's in love with food?

Anthony: Our interests coincide enough. I mean, it's not that much of a challenge to stick with a 100 percent meat and protein diet in the lead-up to a competition.

Ottavia: Unless I'm coming off an injury where I can't do cardio, I don't have to lose that much weight. It's usually just four or five pounds, so it's not that hard.

When I spoke to you last year, you told me jiu-jitsu wasn't for you, that you weren't youthful enough physically to take up such a challenging activity on a regular basis. What changed your mind from then to now?

Anthony: Ottavia bribed me and a few friends into doing...I don't know, it was some knuckleheaded article [laughs]. Whatever it was, she bribed me—I won't say with what exactly—but it was fair compensation for what I thought was going to be a pretty unpleasant experience.

"I suck, but I didn't suck that horribly."

I went in, and I did an hour private, and I guess this happens to a lot of people. I came out of it thinking, ‘I suck, but I didn't suck that horribly.' I started thinking about it a lot afterward. I was proud of myself, and other than the pain part initially, I felt pretty good. I just kept thinking, ‘How could I do that better?' I figured, ‘Okay, let me try another one.' I enjoyed that one and it went a little bit easier for me. I just kept doing it, and now I'm hooked.

Today was the hardest session I've had by far, but there's a big difference as far as cardio goes. I had to take minimal breaks today, and they were short ones at that. I'm pretty happy with it. It's weird, I find myself in bed falling asleep, thinking about kimuras. I certainly didn't see that coming.

Ottavia: He used to complain about me watching the instructionals for hours on end, and now he's right there with me, mesmerized.

Anthony: Nobody has been more surprised than me. I've really been enjoying it. I try not to be annoying about it at home, because everybody else is obsessed with it, but the fact is, I'm thinking about it a lot more than I ever could have anticipated.

How often are you in the gym now?

Anthony: I train at every opportunity, every time I'm back in NY and not traveling. Sometimes, even when I'm on location. In fact, I was out in LA shooting this network show, and we had a guy come out and teach us some stuff at the studio. I got it bad.

What do you do when you're traveling to get your workouts and rolling in?

Anthony: I'm at the point now where I will start thinking about training regularly even when I'm on the road. I've been training three to four times a month now, and worst case scenario, once a month. I'm not like Ottavia, who's doing this three or four hours a day, or my daughter who goes five to six hours a week. Basically, I'm trying to keep up with my six-year-old [laughs]. I have reasonable ambitions as far as my jiu-jitsu career.

Are there any gyms you're interested in training at while you're on the road?

Anthony: When I'm home, I train exclusively at Renzo Gracie's gym. I'm pretty comfortable there. I haven't really thought about other places. When Ottavia travels with me, she scouts out the local gyms, though. I'm going to be doing a Brazil show in a couple of weeks in Bahia, and I'm thinking of doing a session there.

Who do you want having your back in a dark alley fight, Ottavia or hired security?

Anthony: Gee, I don't know. In a bar fight, I'd definitely like my wife around, because no one would see it coming, and all she would have to do is get within arm's reach, and it's pretty much over. A woman in seven inch heels slipping up behind you...yeah, definitely in a bar fight, if someone takes a swing at me, I'd like to have Ottavia around [laughs]. In a back alley, I'm a big believer in bringing a bazooka to a gun fight.

What are your thoughts on the WMMA boom?

Ottavia: It's fantastic. I was so thrilled when they added the 135-pound division to the UFC, I didn't even see it coming when they added the 115-pound division. I never thought this would happen so fast. I remember giving an interview two years ago, and I thought this was maybe going to happen five or six years out.

We'll be going to UFC 168, and we planned on going just to see Rousey v. Tate, then they added Weidman vs Silva. We just love the women's division and seeing them fight.

Anthony: This last season of The Ultimate Fighter was the best one yet. The women always bring it and it's super exciting to see them getting the spotlight.

Ronda took a lot of heat for her attitude. Did you get a different feeling about her after watching the show?

Ottavia: A lot of people talked shit about her, but for me, I kind of always knew there was something a little crazy about her, and that's why I like her. I don't think it's necessary to be crazy to become a champion, but I definitely think it helps. There's just something about her that has allowed her to reach the incredible level she's at.

"I don't expect anybody to be like a U.N. Ambassador. I expect them to fight well."

Anthony: Yeah, I don't expect anybody to be like a U.N. Ambassador. I expect them to fight well [laughs]. I don't know why people expect that. Are we going to ask Nick Diaz to be lovable? Of course not. I don't have any problem with Ronda being unpleasant or difficult on the show. The question is, does she deliver in the ring, which she does.

Ottavia: I like Miesha. She came to the academy and trained, and she's a lovely girl. Nothing against her, and it might be fun to see an upset...

Anthony: Not this time [laughs].

Who do you think is the next big female star?

Ottavia: I just saw Tecia Torres in Invicta, and she was amazing at 115. I was really, really impressed. I think she's going to be the one to lead the pack of 115-pounders, for sure.

Has training changed what you eat or drink?

Anthony: Uh, I'm thinking about it more now; I'm certainly not going to sit down and have a big bowl of spaghetti and white clam sauce or carbonara on Saturday if I know I'm training on Sunday, that's for sure. I do sort of eat strategically and I am thinking about what I'm going to be doing in training. I hate to admit it, but I have changed my diet a little bit, and I definitely plan for training.

I don't want to be crawling around on my hands and knees, gasping for air and struggling to not cough up my lungs. It feels good to make it through an hour of hard training in good order. It's satisfying, and I like that feeling. I'm taking it far more seriously than I could have ever been expected to.


Now that you've got the bug, has it opened the door for any other martial arts that might interest you?

Anthony: No, I like this. It's reasonable, and it's working out. We've been talking about amateur competitions, and I think my daughter might do the Pan-Ams. Can I compete in my age class?

Ottavia: Yeah, yeah. They have age-appropriate categories. I mean, nobody calls it ‘senior's category' or anything. I think they have different categories of masters, and the men have it easy because they have many age classes. You can definitely compete with people your same age.

"Maybe I could compete under my porn name, Vic Chenko or Mick Chenko."

Bourdain2_medium(Courtesy of Ottavia Bourdain)

Anthony: You know, I'm tall, so I will confess to harboring the secret, momentary fantasy of breaking some old dude's hip [laughs]. I mean, it's got to be the right old dude; he's got to be in really pathetic shape. Under the right circumstances, I would do competition. I'm certainly thinking about it, which is something that before, I would never have done. Maybe I could compete under my porn name, Vic Chenko or Mick Chenko.

Ottavia: He does like boxing, though.

Anthony: I do like boxing, but it's just something I wouldn't compete at. Look, I've got to be realistic. I'm 57 and not in great shape. If I hit somebody, it has to be a decisive blow, and in the first 20 seconds. I'm certainly not going to be duking it out for 60 seconds, much less three minutes, in an alley or a ring. That's just not going to happen.

Are you feeling and seeing the results of your training physically, aside from not coughing up a lung?

Anthony: Absolutely. It feels good, and I'm having fun. It's a family affair, a togetherness thing. I'm liking it, but I'm trying to be reasonable about it. My wife is serious about it. She's a competitor. I'm not. I'm a dilettante. I want to bring honor to my clan, but I have reasonable expectations. Let's put it that way.

Have you ever considered doing a Anthony and "friends" doing a jiu-jitsu video with Ottavia?

Anthony: Oh good lord, no. I'm sure others would find it hilarious, watching me get triangled by my wife, but I'm not so sure I'd like to have that video out there. I've already got to live it, I don't know if I want anyone else seeing it [laughs].

My daughter taps out our friends all the time. She likes to sneak up on them and slap on a rear naked choke, putting them into a shocked submission. I don't think I'd want that video shown around either.

[To Ottavia] Were you surprised when he finally picked up jiu-jitsu, or was this a process of you wearing away at his resolve?

Ottavia: I knew that he was going to like it once he tried it. For me, the hardest part was getting him to do the first thing, actually getting him to step on the mat. Because of the mental aspect of jiu-jitsu, I knew he would see it as a puzzle to solve, especially with all the things that go into a particular move. I just knew he was going to like it. Once I bribed him into doing it, and he actually liked it and decided to stick with it, I was not surprised at all.

Other than Urijah Faber, who are the fighters you usually pulling for?

Ottavia: Carlos Condit, Lyoto Machida

Anthony: I love the Korean Zombie. Ever since I saw him against Dustin Poirier, I've liked him. It was the most mechanical, precise dismantling I've seen in a long time. It was really exciting to watch.

Anderson Silva and Jon Jones are also favorites. Jones had kind of a close call with Vitor, and Silva finally got beat and is now in question if he'll be able to pull off the win over Weidman.  Things are so exciting now. These guys are so skilled and talented. They both have really exciting stand-up games and can beat you in so many ways. That's really fun, though obviously, I'm liking the ground game a lot.

Silva is pushing 40 and still talented. Jones is pretty much the most exciting guy out there, as far as I'm concerned. You pretty much never know which part of his body he's going to end up beating his opponent with.

I just saw the rerun of the fight Silva had with the American Psycho, Stephan Bonnar. My God, what a total destruction that was.

Who are you guys picking to win in the Silva/Weidman rematch?

Anthony: This is a house divided now.

Ottavia: Chris has been training a lot at Renzo's, so I'm rooting for him. He's part of the family, so I'm not going to go against him. Same way I never went against Georges St. Pierre or Frankie Edgar.

Anthony: Ottavia will bet and pick with her heart, whereas I don't think like that. In this case, I'm going to root for the old dude [laughs]. I also think the old dude is going to win in this case.

There was an article last year on Fightland where you invited a bunch of restaurant owners to try a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class. Did any of those people continue training after their first taste of it?

Ottavia: Other than my husband, Doug from Big Gay Ice Cream came for a second time, and is willing to come for a third time, but of those people, none have done anything regularly since. We have other friends that have tried it out and are still doing it.

Would you like to continue writing more on jiu-jitsu or other topics?

Ottavia: If something interesting in my life happens, I'll write about it. I'm not going to be an MMA reporter or anything like that, though. I like to talk about myself too much [laughs]. My favorite subject is myself.

Maybe you could write about how to do X amount of laundry loads a day?

Anthony: Actually, the gi always gets priority in this house. We have this big pile of gis that go right to the front of the line. No waiting on those.

My wife is also a germophobe, so whenever I come back from somewhere, Mexico or the Amazon...wherever, she's convinced that my clothes are teeming with some bacteriological time bomb, so those also get priority, and go right in.

Bourdain3_medium(Courtesy of Ottavia Bourdain)

When you travel with Anthony, is it hard to stay on your strict all-meat diet in the sketchier parts of the world?

Ottavia: In the past year I've kind of been relaxing my diet a little bit. I eat a lot, but it's mostly proteins and vegetables, but I haven't been as strict lately. Like this month, I don't have any competitions and he's home, so I've been eating a little bit of everything.

I pay a price when I eat carbs, especially when I eat wheat [laughs], it's inevitable flatulence around the house. I enjoy myself a little more now, and I've been cutting myself some slack; a little more sweets and a little more pasta.

With all the scientific findings about the dangers of red meat, cured meats, and basically ingesting too much meat, does that factor in to your consumption, or do you not consider it, because these days, just about everything is unhealthy?

Anthony: Consider your answer very carefully.

"I don't care if it's like radioactive monkey colons in my hamburgers. Does it taste good? If so, I eat it."

Ottavia: [Laughs] I'm very picky about my meat. I don't want to be a pain in the ass, but I try to stick with humanely raised, organic, antibiotic free meat from ranches I know personally. Since I did my two-week vegan experiment a few months back, I was really surprised, because I thought I was going to die without meat, but I actually survived fine. I don't know, I kind of feel that I do eat less meat these days than I did previously.

Anthony: You scare me [laughs].

Ottavia: Oh you know this stuff. Sometimes I order from the vegan restaurant, and my husband picks up the order, utterly horrified.

Anthony: I don't care if it's like radioactive monkey colons in my hamburgers. Does it taste good? If so, I eat it.

Out of morbid curiosity, when is the last time you guys went to a McDonald's drive thru?

Ottavia: We've never done that.

Anthony: Never, especially since my daughter was born. In-N-Out Burger is a whole other story.

Ottavia: I don't think we've ever been to a McDonald's at all, inside or drive thru.

Anthony: In-N-Out Burger actually pays their workers and treats them decently. They source their meat through their own supply chain. It's decent meat and they cook everything to order. It's not some piece of pre-cooked frozen cardboard, sprayed with beef flavor to make it taste like a burger. In-N-Out is real, fresh ground beef that's cooked to order. I think that makes a big difference. It's not only better for you, it's just a much more delicious eating experience.

Being in New York, do you eat Five Guys Burgers?

Anthony: No, I'm a Shake Shack guy. I have nothing against Five Guys, but I love Shake Shack.

Ottavia: It's right across the street from us.

Anthony: Yeah, that helps.

What are your best and worst habits?

Ottavia: My best habit...I do laundry a lot [laughs]. I'm struggling to come up with something here.

Anthony: Your best habit is abusing taxi drivers with threats of violence in a thick, Italian accent. Your worst habit is—

Ottavia: No! No! [Laughs] I have so many bad habits. I'm a mess. I leave a mess everywhere.

Anthony: Except laundry. She keeps current with the laundry. The rest, it's pretty much like somebody blew up a landfill. She likes cats and puppies. So did Hitler [Both laugh heartily].

Ottavia: I was doing a routine yesterday when he came home from Mexico. The cat and I rehearsed a welcome home routine, but he totally didn't appreciate it, and I'm really sad about that.

Anthony: I was a little frightened.

My best habit is that I'm always on time. I'm punctual to a fault.

Ottavia: That's true. I have the same habit. We are both always on time or early.

Anthony: Worst habit, I don't know, I'm a little over-organized. Christmas dinner, I've written a list a month in advance. I'm a little Type A when it comes to planning meals and recreational activities. If you would imagine Ina Garten, but sort of psychotic, that would be me.

Ottavia: That's not really a bad habit except for the people close to you, because it annoys the shit out of us.

Anthony: I'm a pretty tidy guy, too.

Ottavia: You're super tidy. Really, annoyingly tidy [laughs].

Anthony: Yeah, I keep lists, and if I see a wrapper on the ground, it really eats at me until it gets picked up. Some people would find those good habits, others would find them really annoying.

Ottavia: I actually love those habits because he is after me, cleaning up my mess left and right.

Anthony: Well, if not, it would be a quick descent into Hell.

What was the one thing you saw Tony doing on No Reservations that really stood out to you as a moment you wished you could've shared?

Ottavia: Hmmm...I think when he was in Bali. It was just so beautiful.

Anthony: Saudi Arabia. You know you wanted to rock a burka.

Ottavia: Not a burka, a bahia. I've been to Rio with him and to Japan, so I don't know. I think I'd like to go to the Middle East with him, for sure. I would like to see Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, but because of the political situation, I wouldn't feel comfortable taking my daughter with me, or leaving her behind, but eventually, it's a place I would like to go.

Does your daughter have an interest in cooking?

Ottavia: Oh yeah, she and Anthony cook together all the time. It's the cutest thing. I leave the house to go train and they stay behind to cook. When I come back, there is a nice meal waiting for me.

In your comic Get Jiro! you present a food war between internationals and hyper-locals. If there were no middle ground available, which side would you be a part of?

Anthony: That's a tough one. Probably the locals. I guess my sympathies are toward the local model. I like to think that I would be more local minded, but in real life, practical terms, I'd probably be one of the international dudes.

I can tell you here that we're actually going to do a second Get Jiro!, a prequel.

If you were a ronin like Jiro, what would your food medium be?

Anthony: In much the same way that I can only hope to ever get my blue belt, I can only hope to make sushi the way one should. That's seven years just learning how to do the rice. Obviously, that's something that appeals to me. I'm in real awe of the masters, the artists, the craftsmen that really know how to make sushi. I think it is a beautiful and admirable thing.

What was it like doing voice-over work for Archer?

It was so much fun. I mean I love Archer, it's one of my favorite shows. I'm friends with Aisha Tyler, so I basically hounded them to do the part. I half-jokingly told them I would write for the show for free. Anything to do with the show, I was happy to do. I just think it's brilliant. They called me up and said that they'd written a part for me and would I do the voice-over. It was a whole Hell of a lot of fun. Everybody on that show is funny. I'm in a position where I can collaborate with people I really respect and have a good time while doing it.


Tell me about the time you took Alton Brown to the strip club.

Anthony: That was one of my prouder moments. I managed to convince Alton to come out to the Clermont Lounge in Atlanta. It's not just a strip club, it's the lost luggage department of strip clubs. It is truly an amazing place, so I'm really proud of that moment [laughs]. I think the average stripper's age was like 55 or something. His discomfort was exquisite.

I saw your comments on the current trends for TV chefs and it seems kind of bleak. What would be your ideal vision for the way TV chefs are put across for public consumption?

Anthony: I don't even know at this point. I'm sure that whatever my vision is for that would not sell and people would hate it. I think my version would look like Taxi Driver [laughs]. That would be perfect, a cooking show based on Taxi Driver. Bleak, dark monotone psychotic hero with mass murder at the end. I'd watch that show.

What one dish do you think everyone needs to try before they die?

Anthony: For me, a really good, high quality bowl of Vietnamese pho. I think that's an essential experience. Everyone should try that, and everyone should know how to cook an omelet. Then the world would be a better place.

Ottavia: I think seared Otoro sushi. It's one of my favorite things to eat, so I think everyone should try it.

Anthony: The big piece of the fatty underbelly of an endangered fish?

Ottavia: Absolutely.

"Any time you're talking about bro-food, you're lurching into the Fieri zone, and that doesn't reflect well on the male species."

185180264_medium(Getty Images)

What is the most overrated food trend in America?

Ottavia: Are they still on about that truffle oil, because I hated that.

Anthony: That's not a trend, that's an airborne toxic event.

I think ‘bro-food' is something I'd definitely like to see the end of. I don't even know what it is, but I'd like to stop it. I hate that whole idea that there's male food and female food. Any time you're talking about bro-food, you're lurching into the Fieri zone, and that doesn't reflect well on the male species.

What is the most underrated?

Anthony: Well, Korean is awesome. People know of Korean food, but soon it will be just as popular as Italian or Mexican or French food, as it richly deserves. It's been an obsession lately, and not just for me, but for a lot of chefs. It's sort of a date night or family night for us, as well. Korean BBQ is a regular event.

With many dishes or food, the first bite is the best. Which food or dish is the best example of an incredible "first bite"?

Anthony: Uni. Sea urchin roe sitting on top of some perfect, crumbly, fresh-made sushi rice with some perfect tokido lightly toasted seaweed. That's about the best single mouthful you could ever imagine.

Ottavia: You read my mind. When I was a kid, we would find them on the beach in Sardinia. We would open it and eat it with a spoon, fresh. Just delicious.

Which food or dish gets better as you eat it?

Anthony: I don't know, that's more of an alcohol-related thing [laughs]. When you've got a really good wine, it just gets better and better.

What would be your last meal request if you were on death row?

Anthony: I would like for Jiro Ono from Sukiyabashi Jiro in Tokyo to come over and do a full omakase menu of sushi for me. After that, you could pretty much shoot me in the back of the head, hang me, give me a lethal injection, I wouldn't care. You could pretty much bludgeon me to death after that and I'd be pretty pleased.

Ottavia: For me, it's my dad's spaghetti with lobster. It was my favorite thing to eat when I was a kid and it would be the last thing I'd want to eat before I die.

What 'delicacy' actually tastes disgusting?

Anthony: The rotten shark, Hákarl in Iceland is one. You know, I've eaten a lot of rotten food to be polite, but really, if you examine what goes into a chicken McNugget, what actually goes into it, I think you'd have a really hard time finding anything more disgusting.

There have been times when I'm in places where the food is so bad, for so long...you know, badly cooked, stanky goat, every day. I'm cold and lonely and miserable. Then I end up on a transfer at an airport in Germany or someplace, and there's a KFC. Oh man, I am all over that. Are you kidding me? I'm like weeping with joy.

If there was no stigma attached to it, would you ever try human flesh?

Anthony: Not knowingly. I mean, I'd really like to avoid that, but look, if we're in a lifeboat, and you're not pulling your weight out there, and we're three weeks at sea, I've got no problem [laughs].

What's the best way to cook a steak and which countries have the best beef?

Anthony: The United States of America has the best beef, without a doubt. You want a mix of organic, grass fed, up to a point, but then finished with grain to make it nice and fatty. You want it hung for about 30 days.

To cook it, you want a perfect, smoldering coal barbeque, or in a searingly hot pan, just rubbed with salt and pepper. You want to cook it medium rare or rare, remove from flame and allow it to rest, so that the internal temperature carries over cumulatively, bringing it to a point where it's medium rare. Resting a steak is the most important thing to do.

There's no improving on that. Bleu cheese, truffle oil, sauces will almost never ever improve on a good steak. Salt and pepper is the only way to go. I would go with a rib cut, like a ribeye is the perfect piece of meat, in my opinion.

What do you think of the trend to cook steaks sous-vide style?

Anthony: I'm old school. I like the texture and the flavor of the pan. I like that sear, whether it's obtained from a pain or over wood or coal or just over gas. I like the taste you get from flame or searing from hot metal. I think those are actual components of the flavor.

In traditional Chinese cooking, the chefs talk about wok hei, which is the residual taste from the wok itself. It carries over into the food. I think it's the same with a steak. Sous-vide cooking give a nice texture, but that style is not what represents a pleasurable steak eating experience for me.

Ottavia: I like it raw [laughs].

Bourdain4_medium (Courtesy of Ottavia Bourdain)

What was it like when you were filming in Beirut with a war going on literally right outside your door?

Anthony: It was more heartbreaking than it was frightening. It was so surreal. I think I was most worried about communications completely failing, that I would be completely out of touch with family and with Ottavia. It was not so much terrifying as it was discouraging and heartbreaking. To see a wonderful place like Beirut, pounded back 20 years for what I thought was not a particularly good reason. I've been in far scarier places.

Would you mind elaborating on those?

Anthony: Libya is a place, when I was there, where everything is going fine until it's not. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is another place where everything is fine and then all of the sudden, it's really, really bad. Both of those are places where multiple times a day, you find yourself in positions of real uncertainty.

Have you ever genuinely feared for your life while you've been filming?

"That's the closest I've actually come to death."

Anthony: Yeah, sure. Generally though, those are driving experiences. That's the closest I've actually come to death, being driven around Vietnam, or mountain roads in Punjab. Some of the flying machines we've been in have been pretty dicey, as well.

There have been roadblocks and drug militias and things like that. If I'm honest with myself, it was probably a lot more dangerous to drive Highway 1 in Vietnam.

When are we going to see an Action Bronson collaboration with you, a cook-off or something?

Anthony: He was on my show, The Layover. That's been on my mind actually, and I'm definitely looking for an opportunity to do something like that with him. He was on the show much too briefly. I like him very much; he's a very funny guy. We should do something together, for sure.

Last year when I interviewed you, you gave your opinion on Paula Deen's dishonesty to her fan base regarding her diabetes. What are your thoughts on her about face with her honesty about some racist terms she used in her past?

Anthony: Well, testifying under oath tends to do that, make you tell the truth [laughs]. It was a legal deposition, you know.

Honestly, I thought the whole thing was pretty horrendous. The same people who were enabling her two minutes earlier, suddenly dropped her like a rock. I may not like her act, I may not think much of her, but I thought the way that everybody was so happy to be doing business with her one minute, and then to see the mob fall upon her and kick her in the street, so to speak, it's not pretty. I thought it was pretty ugly, and it gave me no satisfaction at all.

I'd really like to hear your thoughts on the seal hunting situation in Canada.

Anthony: If you find the seal hunt repellent, don't buy seal products. Demonstrate against them, or whatever. People of conscience can have different opinions. What I do object to here, is a bunch of cynical activists convinced a bunch of well-meaning chefs to boycott the entire Canadian seafood industry. A seal isn't even seafood. By putting pressure on the many, they extorted from the few. I just thought it was in extraordinarily poor taste.

Look, these are people who live far from the situation. I just think there was a lot of dishonesty and misrepresentation in the process. I saw good-hearted chefs being used to ill purpose. I think there's plenty of room for honest people to disagree on this issue, I just really didn't like the way it was done. I'm not an advocate for seal hunting, but I'm definitely against the cynical use of my former colleagues to extort honest fishermen who have absolutely nothing to do with the issue, especially when it's done by people that are far away from the situation. If these numbnuts want to stop some animal cruelty, let them go after the Colonel.


What's your favorite vacation destination not named Brazil?

Ottavia: [Laughs] Japan. It's one of those places, especially when I was in Tokyo, where I just didn't want to leave. I was ready to abandon everything and just move there permanently. I've always been a fan of everything Japanese. I think there is even a name for that, Wopanese. I've been obsessed with Japan since I was a little girl.

I'm a big fan of Manga, Anime... I have toys, dolls, magical wands. I just found myself surrounded by people who didn't think my obsession was weird. I love it, and I could live there, for sure.

I love the food, and the people, and their culture. I would live in Tokyo, I think. I found a great jiu-jitsu school that's affiliated with Rickson Gracie, so that's it. I don't need much else.

Since both of you are writing now, do you find it difficult to put time aside to just write, or is it something you have to do on the fly when the moment presents itself?

Anthony: I'm not a man of regular habits, so if I have to write, it's mostly writing voice-overs and writing for the shows. I wake up in the morning and I do it first thing. I just do it until it's done.

Ottavia: I enjoy writing if I have something interesting to write about. I don't like to have an assignment and I don't like to do things on a regular basis. If it's not fun for me, it's just a struggle. If I have a fun, interesting story, then it just flows.

You told me last year that you like oddball foods and will try almost anything. Have you taken to any new strange delicacies?

Ottavia: Um, not really, that I can think of.

Anthony: These big bags of frozen, microwaveable cauliflower that stink out the entire apartment.

Ottavia: I also eat a lot of squash. I order it from the vegan restaurant around the corner. I eat pounds and pound of it while I watch TV.

I know you guys issued a challenge to chefs to roll, but have you also considered getting Renzo, Igor and any of the other jiu-jitsu guys to cook for an episode on Anthony's show?

Ottavia: Oh yes!

Anthony: We've been talking about that for a while. I definitely think I'd like to collaborate on that. Renzo and I have talked about it over Twitter, about us doing a feijoada.

Ottavia: The school just had our annual Christmas dinner at the Brazilian steakhouse, and those guys just love to eat.

Anthony: More and more chefs are doing [Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu], too. Dave Chang is doing it and Mark Vetri rolls now. I think I might have gotten Ludo Lefebvre interested, so I suspect we'll be seeing more chefs involved.

You compared your holiday meal planning to the taking of the beach at Normandy. Describe that in a little more detail.

Anthony: We're totally squared away. I have a plan and plenty of prior preparation. I take that beach and I take it well. Everything will go perfectly.

"I make a stunt turkey, okay? I'll roast a whole turkey just for presentation, so when I pull it out of the oven, everyone will go, ‘Ooooh, look at the nice turkey.'"

I make a stunt turkey, okay? I'll roast a whole turkey just for presentation, so when I pull it out of the oven, everyone will go, ‘Ooooh, look at the nice turkey.' In fact, I've already prepared another turkey, taken it off the bone, and it's sitting there in breast and thigh and drumstick sections, waiting for me to slice into perfect, paper thin domino slices, shingled across a mountain of stuffing, which has also been cooked separately and pre-positioned. I basically attack my home holiday dinners like I did when I worked in restaurants on Thanksgiving or Christmas. Old habits die hard.

Ottavia: And I'll be cleaning. He cooks like he was in a restaurant kitchen.

Anthony: I'm used to underlings.

Ottavia: But there is a dishwasher there. He's throwing stuff around, and at the end of the day we have to clean the ceiling and everything. He cooks with the abandon of someone who knows there is a dishwasher ready.

Anthony: I need somebody mopping my brow like a surgeon, periodically.

With the holidays right around the corner, do you both make the menus, or is "taking the beach of Normandy" strictly an Anthony project?

Ottavia: Oh no. That's his thing. I wake up Christmas morning, go to the academy and train. I come back, shower, set the table and eat. I don't even want to see what he's doing there.

Anthony: My daughter and I will be taking charge of this operation.

How did you come to be involved with the Live To Fight charity?

Ottavia: I was doing a seminar for the late Frank Edge at Renzo's. Kristen Brown, who is the CEO of Live To Fight came by, and when she heard what we were doing, she was very enthusiastic and wanted to help. We kind of bonded, and she had this idea and wanted to know if I would like to get involved. Her enthusiasm was contagious, so of course I said yes. We got together with a bunch of other people; Chris Weidman is on the board of directors. She created Live To Fight with our help. Right now we have an IndieGoGo campaign going now with some great perks.

People have been very reactive, UFC fighters and people in the MMA community in general. We are here to help people in the MMA community that are suffering from life-threatening illness. Fighters, training partners, families, children...it's great. More and more people are asking for our help, so we really hope more people will be willing to help us to help those in need.

What's something we can look forward to in 2014 from the two of you?

Anthony: [Laughs] I hope I can get my second stripe on my white belt before 2014 is up.

Ottavia: I'll keep competing. I just started going back to Muay Thai again, and I'm doing both now. I might take a Muay Thai fight just for fun.

I started watching a lot of kickboxing with Glory. I missed a little bit of the show the other night because my husband came home from Mexico. I watched both live shows in New York. It's a fantastic production and it's such an entertaining, fast paced, knockout filled event. It kind of made me want to go back and do a little bit of kickboxing, and maybe, maybe, maybe I will take like an ammy match just for fun.

Obviously, my main focus will always be on jiu-jitsu, and I'll be competing at the Pan-Ams in March. Then I'll just see what happens and take it from there.

Anthony: I'd also like to mention that Mark ‘Fightshark' Miller's first book, his memoir titled Pain Don't Hurt, will be coming out from my imprint, Bourdain Ecco Books, sometime early in 2014.

You can follow Anthony via his Twitter account, @Bourdain and Ottavia via her Twitter account, @OttaviaBourdain


Producer: Chris Mottram | Editor: Spencer Hall | Copy Editor: Asher Kohn
22 Jan 19:41

Hilarious comics prove O'Brien had the crappiest job on the Enterprise

by Lauren Davis

Hilarious comics prove O'Brien had the crappiest job on the Enterprise

We know that Miles O'Brien had a lot more fun serving aboard Deep Space Nine than he did aboard the Enterprise, and these ennui-filled comics help explain why. Hanging out alone in the transporter room all day is bound to drive a fellow a bit mad.

Read more...


    






22 Jan 19:33

"Soccer" vs. "Football": Another Great YouTube Comment Recreation!

by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey
firehose

these slay me every time

Here's another of the great YouTube Comment recreations, in which two aged Shakespearean actors exactly recreate a battle between commenters on YouTube. Today: What begins as a battle between the definitions of "soccer" and "football" turns into a scathing debate on the vagaries of intellectualism! WHO WILL WIN? (Spoiler alert: You.)

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

22 Jan 19:26

California can keep its pool boys; we've got snow shovelers

by OnlyMrGodKnowsWhy

Best snow-related Craigslist post of the year, no matter how real it is:

Mommy seeks 3 sexy young shovelers for all night, $300. pay (braintree)

Be 18 -21, all night pay is 300 dollars plus a good tip, hot chocolate, hot tub, will be shoveling all night, driveway is 110 feet long. I have a plow and 3 snow blowers. send a shirtless pic , plow driver must have license.

Original Source

22 Jan 19:25

sharoncarter: stealth cosplay week day three || M.O.D.O.K....

firehose

yo I'm sorry but stealth cosplay is about the dumbest fucking thing in the world

I think I need a sharecation



sharoncarter:

stealth cosplay week day three || M.O.D.O.K. (feat. the most professional photoshop laser ever)

22 Jan 19:06

Master online dating by thinking like an economist

by Rachel Feltman
firehose

shared for hed; didn't read

#Winning.

Economic theories can really help you up your dating game. Promoting his recent book “Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Economics I Learned from Online Dating,” Paul Oyer wrote on how economic theories can be applied to the world of online dating. Here’s our take, borrowing from Oyer’s insights:

1. Market thickness: Move to the city 

When the ratio of buyers to sellers is a constant, research shows (pdf) that the probability of successful matches between the two is significantly higher when there are more of both. In the job market, employers and employees are more likely to be successfully matched if there’s a wider pool. After all, even if you have a 1:1 ratio, odds are not everyone in the employee pool will be perfectly suited to one company. If you increase the pool size, it follows that more of your job candidates will be suited—if not perfectly suited—to a company looking to hire.

It’s the same with dating: For a better shot at what you’re looking for, you have to enter as large of a pool as possible. Of course, in most cases you won’t be lucky enough to get a 1:1 ratio of people interested in dating each other, but you can always move to a city or neighborhood that’s skewed in your favor. Because nothing says “adulthood” like moving across the country to find more single ladies. A simpler suggestion from Oyer is to pick the biggest dating site you can find.

2. Adverse Selection: Maybe free is best

This is all about the buyer having more information than the seller. In the insurance world, adverse selection means that a smoker will get more value out of insurance, making them more likely to opt into it, raising premiums for everyone. That makes non-smokers less likely to opt in. Consider premium dating services: Those who feel incapable of meeting a partner (in person, or even on a free dating website) for one reason or another are more likely to pay a monthly fee. But if you end up with a high ratio of unattractive, mean or uncouth individuals, the available pool of singles in your dating service will scare away all the good ones. Since online dating can’t have a forced opt in (thank goodness), maybe it’s best to keep trying your luck for a bit longer in the free pool—it might be where all the good ones are.

Or, as Oyer says, you could consider adverse selection when deciding what to disclose to potential partners. Adverse selection means you should “beware of hidden information” and expect your dating prospects to do the same. Be careful how you word the tidbits you disclose right away. “Your idiosyncrasies will be cute to your significant other someday,” he writes, “but they are negative stereotypes to people who don’t know you yet.” Hide those Star Wars action figures before you take your profile picture; take them back out on date three.

Just kidding. Your Chewbacca lunch box is awesome.

3. Signaling: Know your worth, and prove it fast 

When you message someone on a dating site, you know how desirable you are as a partner—or you think you do, anyway. But the person you’re pursuing has no way of knowing whether you’re a keeper or not. To benefit from your skills, it takes more than just having them. You also have to convey them credibly and quickly. When you’re applying for a job, you attempt to signal your worth to a company with education and previous work credentials, as well as by showing them your best stuff in an interview. So when you have your first face-to-face with an online prospect, pull out all the stops and make a great first impression. Doesn’t that go without saying? If you think so, you’ve been out of the dating game long enough to forget how easy it is to make a terrible first impression. In fact, when mathematician Chris McKinlay used data mining and analysis to narrow online dating prospects down, he still had trouble finding “the one” until he made rules for himself—no drinking, no concerts or movies (being distracted from his date didn’t make for a good time), and no letting the meeting trail on after conversation had gone stale.

4. Search theory: Don’t wait too long

It can be hard to make the choice to settle down with someone, especially if you live in an area where the ratio of singles is skewed to favor your sex and orientation. But in Oyer’s book, he cautions against being too picky. “At some point,” he writes, “stop and love the one you’re with.” You need to search long enough that you understand the distribution of offers (don’t settle!) but once you feel like you know what’s out there, try to be realistic. And when you’ve got a good thing going, don’t let it go on the off chance something better will come along.

22 Jan 19:06

Jack Kirby sent these cartoons to the New Yorker when he was just 14

by Lauren Davis

Jack Kirby sent these cartoons to the New Yorker when he was just 14

Young Jacob Kurtzberg would grow up to become the hugely influential comics artist Jack Kirby, but by age 14, he was already a fairly skilled cartoonist, even submitting his black-and-white cartoons to the likes of the New Yorker.

Read more...


    






22 Jan 19:05

Photos: Glass panel shatters at Apple's flagship store in NY - USA TODAY

firehose

lots of cracked iPhone screen jokes

dear journalists
if you can't afford a case for your iPhone
or to get your iPhone screen replaced when it inevitably breaks
you can't afford an iPhone

ps you're journalists so of fucking course you can't afford an iphone, morons


E! Online

Photos: Glass panel shatters at Apple's flagship store in NY
USA TODAY
There may be something much worse looking than a cracked iPhone screen. A 32-foot glass panel of Apple's flagship store in New York City is shattered but still standing after a snowstorm. MORE: Northeast digging out of massive snowstorm.
The Iconic Apple Cube at the New York Store Shattered (and Now They Know ...E! Online
Apple Store in NYC Might Need to Pay $450000 To Fix Shattered Glass Cube ...Headlines & Global News
Photos: Fifth Ave Apple Store Glass Shatters, Possibly Due To SnowblowerGothamist
ABC News (blog) -Huffington Post -Macgasm
all 27 news articles »
22 Jan 19:04

Newswire: Rashida Jones will star in Steve Carell's new cop sitcom for TBS

firehose

dafuq

Rashida Jones' exit from Parks And Recreation is imminent, but she's wasted no time jumping back into the game. First, she sold innumerable TV comedies to various networks via her Le Train Train production company. And now, after declining to star in any of those, she's agreed to star in Tribeca, the single-camera comedy created by Steve Carell and wife Nancy Walls that they recently sold to TBS.

As previously reported, Tribeca is a comedy set at a police station—an idea that Carell's former Office boss, Michael Schur, also had recently. Though Carell's variation on the theme sounds a bit sillier, as Jones' character heads up the LAPD's "Really Heinous Crimes Unit," a team that will "refuse to rest until justice has been served... sort of." Yes, the show is set in L.A., as "Tribeca" refers not to the trendy New ...

22 Jan 19:03

Newswire: NBC wisely bends to Angela Lansbury's will and shelves Murder, She Wrote reboot

firehose

on one hand, it was a dumb reboot idea
on the other hand, poor Octavia Spencer

Realizing, like so many past network executives and gardeners buried in shallow graves, that one simply does not make Angela Lansbury cross, NBC has quietly abandoned its plans to reboot Murder, She Wrote with Octavia Spencer. The network refused to say that the concept was entirely dead, blithely ignoring the obvious like the residents of a quaint coastal town whose boats can barely break past their harbors for all the floating corpses. Instead, it simply suggested it might someday “try approaching it in a different way, possibly with a new concept”—such as one where they don’t call it Murder, She Wrote, and Angela Lansbury doesn’t have to suddenly “solve” the slayings of a bunch of people she happens to know.   

22 Jan 18:59

Faker Module for Python [Link]

by Gabe

Faker generates a wide variety of fake filler data. It's not just Loerm Ipsum. It can generate fake addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, MD5, dates, etc. You can also use a seed option if you want to always get back the same "random" result. It works from the command line too.

$ python -m faker address
968 Bahringer Garden Apt. 722
Kristinaland, NJ 09890

This is wonderful.

22 Jan 18:59

Speech recognition hack turns Google Chrome into advanced bugging device

by Dan Goodin
firehose

continued

Users of Google's Chrome browser are vulnerable to attacks that allow malicious websites to use a computer microphone to surreptitiously eavesdrop on private conversations for extended periods of time, an expert in speech recognition said.

The attack requires an end user to click on a button giving the website permission to access the microphone. Most of the time, Chrome will respond by placing a blinking red light in the corresponding browser tab and putting a camera icon in the address bar—both indicating that the website is receiving a live audio feed from the visitor. The privacy risk, according to a blog post published Tuesday, stems from what happens once a user leaves the site. The red light and camera icon disappear even though the website has the ability to continue listening in.

In this demonstration video, a site given permission to access the microphone continues to record all sounds within earshot of the computer with no clear indication of what's happening. From there, Israeli researcher Tal Ater said, the audio is sent to Google for analysis before being sent to the site that made the request. Once permission has been granted, Chrome can be programmed to begin recording only after certain keywords—say, "Iran" or "National Security Agency"—are uttered.

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22 Jan 18:59

Build-your-own-Dropbox service AeroFS releases iOS app for private clouds

by Andrew Cunningham
AeroFS has long lacked mobile apps, but the company is beginning to address the problem today.
AeroFS

It has been a while since we last checked in with AeroFS, but the company has been busy. For those of you who don't remember, AeroFS bills itself as a Dropbox-equivalent for the privacy-minded—it allows you to sync files between multiple computers, using the AeroFS servers for authentication only. All of your data stays on your computers and is encrypted in transit, eliminating the risk that a hacked server (or an inadequate privacy policy) will compromise your control over your data.

Since exiting beta last April, the company has launched a new business-focused product called the Private Cloud. Like the Hybrid Cloud, it lets your users share data between multiple systems without ever touching a central server, but it allows you to use private servers and directory systems for authentication, keeping the entire system behind your firewall and never touching AeroFS' servers. Today, the company is announcing an iOS app for Private Cloud users, the first step toward addressing a longstanding criticism of the service—that it just isn't available in all of the places that public cloud services like Dropbox or Google Drive are.

AeroFS Private Cloud users will need to download the app from the App Store, log in to their Private Cloud accounts on their computer, and scan a QR code to configure the iOS app. After that, it looks and works much like the Dropbox app for iOS—except for the part where it uses public servers to store your data.

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22 Jan 18:57

"Name Names!" Quentin Tarantino is Pissed, You Guys

by Bobby Roberts

You can only take a man's presents out from under the Christmas tree so many times before he decides to cancel Christmas, and yesterday, film fans were told that Santa can go fuck himself. Quentin Tarantino called up Mike Fleming over at Deadline to tell him that upcoming western of his? The one called The Hateful Eight? You can forget about seeing that in a theater any time soon. Why? Because people keep leaking his scripts. This happened with Inglorious Basterds, it happened with Django Unchained, and the leaking of Hateful Eight was the last straw.

Let Tarantino tell it:

I’m very, very depressed. I finished a script, a first draft, and I didn’t mean to shoot it until next winter, a year from now. I gave it to six people, and apparently it’s gotten out today. I gave it to one of the producers on Django Unchained, Reggie Hudlin, and he let an agent come to his house and read it. That’s a betrayal, but not crippling because the agent didn’t end up with the script. There is an ugly maliciousness to the rest of it. I gave it to three actors: Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, Tim Roth. The one I know didn’t do this is Tim Roth. One of the others let their agent read it, and that agent has now passed it on to everyone in Hollywood. I don’t know how these fucking agents work, but I’m not making this next. I’m going to publish it, and that’s it for now. I give it out to six people, and if I can’t trust them to that degree, then I have no desire to make it. I’ll publish it. I’m done. I’ll move on to the next thing. I’ve got 10 more where that came from.

The article goes on to point out that Tarantino thinks it was someone at CAA, who represents Bruce Dern, but CAA has gone on the record as vehemently denying the accusation, and then pointing out that Tarantino didn't watermark the script anyway, which makes it a hell of a lot easier for such things to get out.

The Hateful Eight should show up on bookshelves soon, as Tarantino says he'll be meeting with publishers. There's some speculation as to whether it'll stay a screenplay, or become a novel. There's also, of course, speculation as to which actor is responsible for the leak, Dern or Madsen.

You know it's Madsen.

Look at him.

Better yet, look at his agent/management. Bruce Dern's management just got him a career-reviving role in Alexander Payne's highly-praisedNebraska. Madsen's guy? Made sure to get him top billing in Dirty Dealing 3D a drama about casino employees raising money for cancer kids with a sexy casino calendar. The film co-stars C.Thomas Howell.

Lets settle this with a completely scientific internet poll. Put the power of uninformed conjecture to work for the greater good!

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22 Jan 18:56

Edward Snowden on Claims That He's a Russian Spy

by Eli Sanders
firehose

'Snowden gave money to Ron Paul, as a lot of people already know, and allegedly (under a chat room username) pined for a return to the Gold Standard, spoke of his "NRA compatriots," and suggested he wouldn't mind if Social Security disappeared.'

"Absurd," Snowden told Jane Mayer of The New Yorker yesterday. Also:

It won’t stick…. Because it’s clearly false, and the American people are smarter than politicians think they are.

It's not just certain politicians who are pushing for a different narrative around Snowden. In The New Republic, Sean Wilentz looks at Snowden's political beliefs (and at the beliefs of Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange) in an attempt to suggest that people don't really know who they're cheering for.

Among the items in Wilentz's dossier: Snowden gave money to Ron Paul, as a lot of people already know, and allegedly (under a chat room username) pined for a return to the Gold Standard, spoke of his "NRA compatriots," and suggested he wouldn't mind if Social Security disappeared. But, Wilentz writes, none of these old chat room posts depict "a man with a master plan." The master plan, he suggests, came when Snowden linked up with Greenwald and Assange—whose "connections to Putin’s regime," Wilentz contends, "would appear to have something to do with... how and why Edward Snowden came to seek asylum in Russia."

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22 Jan 18:41

WWE Royal Rumble 2014: Guessing the surprise entrants

by Marc Normandin
firehose

Jake "The Snake" Roberts 'has worked hard to get back into shape and sober up -- with the help of Diamond Dallas Page and his DDP Yoga regimen'

DDP Yoga is a real thing people can pay for: http://www.ddpyoga.com/

yitb to the maxxx

Every year, the Royal Rumble contains a number of surprise guests, returning heroes and shocking participants. We run down who's most likely to make us leap out of our seats this time around.

There are a few things we know for sure about Sunday's 2014 Royal Rumble. Dave Batista, who will star in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy this summer, has returned just in time to enter himself in everyone's favorite gimmick match. CM Punk, embroiled in a feud with the McMahon-based Authority stable of the WWE, will begin the Rumble at the #1 spot to lessen his chances of realizing his dream of main eventing Wrestlemania. Besides those specifics, we're mostly left with a list of a little more than half of the Rumble's entrants, with no real hints given as to when they will enter the last man standing event.

With that in mind, let's see if we can guess who some of the surprise entrants in the Rumble are. The expected often happens every January in the Royal Rumble -- long-term story lines can help you suss out some of the match's details -- but the unexpected gives plenty of opportunities to make a lasting impression on fans, and can even lead to something larger for the entrant, depending on who they are and where they are in their career.

The Part Timers

Rob Van Dam

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Van Dam has been out of the WWE since losing a World Heavyweight title shot in October at WWE's Battleground pay-per-view, but it's believed the part-time wrestler will be back in action for Wrestlemania season. He hasn't reemerged as of yet with just a few months to go, however: the place to get the biggest pop from the crowd in the lead-in to WWE's most significant event would certainly be at the Rumble.

Excitement should be higher for Van Dam this time around, too (with cynicism maybe a little lower): when he rejoined the WWE in 2013, he still had the stench of his TNA on him, making it shocking that he was as entertaining and high-energy in the ring as he was. It's unclear just what the plans for him would be, since he spent most of his last stint with WWE fighting for the World Heavyweight title that has since been merged with WWE's primary championship, but he could certainly play the role of Chris Jericho by helping to put over up-and-coming superstars simply by working programs with them.

Chris Jericho

Speaking of Jericho, he has spent the last couple of months denying that he's returning to the ring, as he is instead busy with writing another book as well as touring and recording with his band, Fozzy. With that being said, Jericho's Royal Rumble appearance (and subsequent six-month stint with the WWE) were absolute shocks to everyone, even some of those within the company itself, as Jericho and the WWE managed to keep a secret by having him drive to the event and hide until right before he was set to enter the Rumble match.

Chris_jericho_fozzy_jpgToo busy singing to wrestle? Hmm. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Considering all of that, Jericho might be full of it when he says he's not coming back just yet. It could very well end up being RVD or Jericho appearing, though, since they seem to serve similar roles at this stage of their career.

New Blood

Alexander Rusev

The Rumble is also an excellent place to debut a brand new talent, depending on the talent in question. WWE failed to generate much interest in one of their newbies, Bo Dallas, last January, but that's because Dallas has a somewhat complex character that takes constant exposure to work: a quick appearance in a match loaded with other superstars and spectacles isn't the place to debut someone like that. Alexander Rusev is much simpler to understand: he's about 300 pounds of pure strength and has monster heel written all over him. Once he throws a few veterans over the ropes, everyone is going to understand his character in a hurry.

Rusev is part of WWE's developmental program, NXT, and his whole gimmick at the moment is that he is a Bulgarian beast who has taken on (and taken out) multiple visiting WWE superstars. There are unlikely to be many debuts of brand new superstars like Rusev at this month's Rumble, but he's one who can easily use the match as a springboard to a story line in the WWE, and therefore has the best shot of anyone at NXT to make an appearance this coming Sunday.

The Forgotten Injured Superstars

Sheamus

No, Sheamus did not hurt his shoulders by staying out in the sun too long. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Getting injured isn't a positive in and of itself, but separating the Irish brawler from television for a significant length of time was probably in Sheamus' best interests. He'll seem fresher when he returns from his shoulder surgeries -- which could be as soon as this Sunday in order to create an additional credible threat to win the whole thing -- and might even get a heel turn somewhere along the way, which fits his character much better since he's kind of a jerk bully as a face anyway. A change like that would make his character even more relevant and new, and also make it easier for him to work against the likes up up-and-coming superstar Big E Langston, the current holder of the Intercontinental title and likely a significant piece of WWE's future.

Christian

Sometimes, if WWE doesn't have a story line for a wrestler who has missed time with injury, they just sit and wait for the right moment to bring them back. That seems to happen often with Christian, who took time off at first for injury but then, by his own (rare) admission, for the birth of his child. It's been months and months since he appeared in the ring, however, and the Rumble, which by WWE's reckoning is the first step on the Road to Wrestlemania, makes all kinds of sense for his return.

Christian won't challenge for the unified titles, but it's easy to picture him coming back and working in the rejuvenated tag team division a la another Attitude Era star, Goldust, or getting involved with the Intercontinental Championship, which the WWE seems to be trying to repair all the damage they've done to over the years. That, or Christian will continue his reign as the guy creative has nothing for, and will sit backstage at shows for a while longer.

The Old Timers

Jake "The Snake" Roberts

Admit it, you marked out a bit when Jake Roberts showed up at the end of Old School Raw with snake in tow. Roberts has worked hard to get back into shape and sober up -- with the help of Diamond Dallas Page and his DDP Yoga regimen -- and while it's hard to imagine him returning to the WWE for a singles match or anything like that at age 58, seeing him come to the ring to deliver his signature DDT to someone like Dean Ambrose would make all kinds of sense for both characters.

Sting

Spoilers, I guess? Sting's contract with TNA is reportedly up, and it's been no secret for years that the WWE wants to get a hold of the biggest star of the modern era that has never wrestled for their company. While Sting is certainly not the guy he used to be in the 90s when he faced off against the nWo, he still has the name, and at a time when the WWE is launching the WWE Network, which will include every WCW match -- pay-per-view or otherwise -- that the Stinger participated in. Getting him on board heading into Wrestlemania 30, around the same time as the network launch, is a way to print money via t-shirts and the like, and not just because this iteration of Sting needs to wear a shirt to the ring to hide the fact he's in his mid-50s.

Whether the eventual plan is to have him wrestle the Undertaker, or just to get him in the ring on a part-time schedule for a year leading into Hall of Fame induction, is unknown. He's their white whale, though, so it wouldn't be a surprise at all if he finally lands on WWE television before the month is up.