firehose

sciencehabit writes "How old is the binary number system? Perhaps far older than the invention of binary math in the West. The residents of a tiny Polynesian island may have been doing calculations in binary—a number system with only two digits—centuries before it was described by Gottfried Leibniz, the co-inventor of calculus, in 1703."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

jones_supa writes "An interesting bug regarding update dependency calculation has been found in Windows XP. By design, machines using Windows Update retrieve patch information from Microsoft's update servers (or possibly WSUS in a company setting). That patch information contains information about each patch: what software it applies to and, critically, what historic patch or patches the current patch supersedes. Unfortunately, the Windows Update client components used an algorithm with exponential scaling when processing these lists. Each additional superseded patch would double the time taken to process the list. With the operating system now very old, those lists have grown long, sometimes to 40 or more items. On a new machine, that processing appeared to be almost instantaneous. It is now very slow. After starting the system, svchost.exe is chewing up the entire processor, sometimes for an hour or more at a time. Wait long enough after booting and the machine will eventually return to normalcy. Microsoft thought that it had this problem fixed in November's Patch Tuesday update after it culled the supersedence lists. That update didn't appear to fix the problem. The company thought that its December update would also provide a solution, with even more aggressive culling. That didn't seem to help either. For one reason or another, Microsoft's test scenarios for the patches didn't reflect the experience of real Windows XP machines."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Urban Outfitters has earned a reputation for pushing boundaries with its controversial designs, which have been accused of everything from being anti-semitic to promoting underage drinking. But one of its latest efforts, a bizarre denim and tutu combination unearthed at a Long Island, New York store, was almost too much for analysts at Goldman Sachs.

As you can see from the above, Goldman said in a research note released on Monday, Dec. 16,  it had some “incremental concern” that the company might be ”too aggressive and fashion forward” with its products.

But after checking out the numbers being churned out by its other brands,  Free People and Anthropologie, the investment bank cum fashion expert said it was less concerned. Either way, it is confident the retailer’s merchandise issues will only be transient and resolved by the spring.

Urban Outfitters has struggled this year, but not as badly as some of its peers in the teen retail sector.  Its shares have fallen about 9% in 2013 (compared to a 34% decline for Abercrombie and Fitch and a 31% fall for American Eagle Outfitters).

Despite the fashion faux pas, Goldman upgraded its recommendation on Urban Outfitters’s shares to “buy,” describing the company as ”as a baby thrown out with the specialty retail bathwater.” Basically, it likes the stock because of the company’s strong brand and the fact that it has less square footage than other retailers (less of a risk of having too many physical stores as more consumers move online).

ten-roses-in-the-impala:

losed:

A CROW TRIED TO GO IN OUR CLASSROOM AND HE HAD A PEN

he just wanted to learn

revoltingchild:

ahh yes my favorite time of year

Paris n’existe pas

Elisa Ferrari


Elisa Ferrari


Elisa Ferrari


Elisa Ferrari


Elisa Ferrari

The way of the Sámi

therearecertainshadesoflimelight:

Always reblog.  Always reblog.

"Thank you for making me a part of this."

“This actually did happen to a real person, and the real person was me. I had gone to catch a train. This was April 1976, in Cambridge, U.K. I was a bit early for the train. I’d gotten the time of the train wrong.
I went to get myself a newspaper to do the crossword, and a cup of coffee and a packet of cookies. I went and sat at a table.
I want you to picture the scene. It’s very important that you get this very clear in your mind.
Here’s the table, newspaper, cup of coffee, packet of cookies. There’s a guy sitting opposite me, perfectly ordinary-looking guy wearing a business suit, carrying a briefcase.
It didn’t look like he was going to do anything weird. What he did was this: he suddenly leaned across, picked up the packet of cookies, tore it open, took one out, and ate it.
Now this, I have to say, is the sort of thing the British are very bad at dealing with. There’s nothing in our background, upbringing, or education that teaches you how to deal with someone who in broad daylight has just stolen your cookies.
You know what would happen if this had been South Central Los Angeles. There would have very quickly been gunfire, helicopters coming in, CNN, you know… But in the end, I did what any red-blooded Englishman would do: I ignored it. And I stared at the newspaper, took a sip of coffee, tried to do a clue in the newspaper, couldn’t do anything, and thought, what am I going to do?
In the end I thought, nothing for it, I’ll just have to go for it, and I tried very hard not to notice the fact that the packet was already mysteriously opened. I took out a cookie for myself. I thought, that settled him. But it hadn’t because a moment or two later he did it again. He took another cookie.
Having not mentioned it the first time, it was somehow even harder to raise the subject the second time around. “Excuse me, I couldn’t help but notice …” I mean, it doesn’t really work.
We went through the whole packet like this. When I say the whole packet, I mean there were only about eight cookies, but it felt like a lifetime. He took one, I took one, he took one, I took one. Finally, when we got to the end, he stood up and walked away.
Well, we exchanged meaningful looks, then he walked away, and I breathed a sigh of relief and sat back. A moment or two later the train was coming in, so I tossed back the rest of my coffee, stood up, picked up the newspaper, and underneath the newspaper were my cookies.
The thing I like particularly about this story is the sensation that somewhere in England there has been wandering around for the last quarter-century a perfectly ordinary guy who’s had the same exact story, only he doesn’t have the punch line.”

- Douglas Adams  (via colourfulmotion)

Finally! Nightcrawler reunites with his teammates in this preview of "Amazing X-Men" #3, by Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness!

Comedy Central’s Key and Peele spares no one with its unfettered humor. Now in their third season, stars Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele have taken on Dominican baseball players, Mafia hit men, vampires, DEA agents and interracial couples. A classic … more »

WebODF is a new open-source projet that allows ODF document files to be displayed within a web-browser. WebODF is used by the new OwnCloud release for its collaborative, web-based ODF file editing...

Smartphones: In the US, they’re everywhere, right? Not quite, suggests a new interactive map assembled by mapping company Esri, based on data from consumer research firm GfK MRI.

People who live in cities are way more likely to have smartphones. Darker counties represent higher smartphone ownership. As you’d expect, the Northeast corridor is one gigantic, fused block of smartphone owners.

The same is true of southern California.

But some parts of America don’t have any smartphones at all. Here’s an odd hole in the middle of Nebraska where rates of smartphone ownership are abysmal.

It’s a visual reminder that smartphones are still only 64% of the phones in the US. If you’re an American, you may not have seen a feature phone in a while. If so, that’s probably because, like 80.7% of your countrymen, you live in a city.

First time accepted submitter cranky_chemist writes "MOOC provider edX plans to abandon a program that allowed companies to mine their massive open online courses for talent after a pilot program in which none of 868 students were hired failed. edX cited HR departments for the program's demise, stating 'Existing HR departments want to go for traditional degree programs and filter out nontraditional candidates.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Portland actor Chris Murray—you've seen him onstage at Third Rail, PCS, Artists Rep... etc—is starting a new theater company called Whizz-Bang, and tonight, to gin up some excitement for the new company, he's producing a free staged reading of Dominic Finnochiaro's The Lucky Ladies at Artists Rep (1515 SW Morrison, 7:30 pm), in partnership with Artist Rep's FlashReads series.

The Lucky Ladies is a dark comedy about female contestants on a reality TV dating show. The cast is excellent—Val Landrum, Christy Bigelow, and Amy Newman—and it's directed by the tremendous Gretchen Corbett, who, holy shit, have you read this woman's Wikipedia page? If these names are meaningless to you, trust me when I tell you that they're all top-notch. (Amy Newman is Noises Off at Third Rail right now, and she's great in it.) So... interesting script, A+ cast and director. Interest successfully ginned!

I asked Murray via email about why he's starting a new company and what he thinks is missing from the local scene. I got back a fairly amazing tirade about the busted state of contemporary theater and the artistic paucity of a business model that relies on keeping rich old people happy. (Coff.) I can't believe he wrote it on his phone. It's definitely starry-eyed—as he notes, he's a few years out from producing his first full production, so the reality of keeping the lights on and the heating bill paid is still hypothetical—but I'm gonna post it in full here because he brings up some great points.

Take it away, Murray:

"Whizz-Bang is my answer to the current, tired, subscriber based theatre model that is choking the life out of this country. Portland theatres are really innovating, compared to the national average, but I still want to change the model.

Theatre seems produced largely through fear. Fear of the subscriber, the donor, the audience, the squeaky wheels. In most performance houses in America, it's an old crowd that patronizes theatre. Portland has a ton of hip seniors who love theatre (thank fucking god), but there can nevertheless be a lack of excitement and funding for live entertainment that doesn't fall into the standard category of theatre.

During a talkback of A Bright New Boise, an audience member asked what the ending of the play meant, and what happened to the characters. Tim True responded, 'We're not sure because the playwright didn't write the show with the talkback in mind.'

We all got a good chuckle out of it, but he was absolutely right. People do not want to be challenged by an ambiguous ending, by magic, by unexplained phenomenons. They want a 'well-made play' with a beginning, middle, and end.

We all SAY we want [to be challenged], but when push comes to shove, sometimes we get cranky. We get cranky because we just want to have a little chat about the play, go home, and die in our sleep.

So the problem is we have this huge national theatre machine that exists with no way of paying for itself. You've read the numbers. Donors and grants and individual donations account for roughly 70% of a theatre's take.

So obviously we care what these people think. They are our backbone. If someone is a doctor for 38 years and now gives to a theatre, why would her input be requested? Why would we grin through clenched teeth nodding away at her ideas for programming next season? Because we need her.

Fuck me if that's not the rub. And I am going to have to deal with this at some point, so I am not saying I can transcend the model.

We exist in this place over here. On the 'grown up' side of the line. We toil and work our asses off making some really great theatre, and we're so desperate that people "get it" that we forget that art is made to change people, not reinforce their beliefs.

On the other side [of the line], there are people silently selling 100% of their house. There are comedy producers and musical producers and even event programmers that laugh in the face of our 30% ticket intake.

They don't have the luxury of grants and donors. They sell ad space, they hustle logos on posters. And they wouldn't do business if the margins were that bad.

The 'theatre' public largely poopoos these producers, calling their offerings less than artistic. The community shuns them, citing their low pay for actors and their drastically reduced rehearsal time.

And yet the audiences keep coming. Young people. Twentysomethings that nobody knows. A house full of strangers. The fucking dream of a theatre company.

My plan is to meld these two extremes. I want to be fun, irreverent, not taking my company too seriously, and occasionally producing comedy, sketch, movie adaptations, and musical serials. But I want to attack the work with amazing teams of artists, talent running all the way through, from the director to the design team, to the actors. I want pros. And I want to pay them a living wage.

Finally, I want to keep the ticket cost down. I want to actually compete with movies and live music. I want people to feel like they can take a chance on a new work without getting fucked in the wallet.

Lofty goals, no? Well that's where this starts. I am years away from my first production. I need to fundraise, I need to make a lot of friends, and I need to take the temperature on what this city actually wants to see.

That is why I am so excited about the reading of The Lucky Ladies tonight. Because I now get to share what I love with everyone else.

My relationship with playwrights is what started this company idea. Playwrights get the fucking shaft in this country, which makes no sense, because without them, we have no play to toil over.

I want to be their champion. I want their weird little plays that the other producing companies in America have soundly passed on. I want those. I don't want them to kill their darlings, I want them to send them to me. I want to nurture them, feed them, and give them an amazing production.

I won't be able to pay a playwright what the other guys can, but I will make sure them, and their plays get the kind of attention they deserve.

You asked me what companies inspired this kind of theatre. The answer is all of them. Third Rail, Artists Rep, Portland Center Stage, CoHo, Vertigo, PETE, Anon it Moves, PSP, Fuse, Bag and Baggage, Third Floor, all of them.

The biggest influence though has to be JAW. JAW throws Portland center stages doors wide and says, this is going to be a little weird, very new, and totally free."

He closes with this:

"Comedy is fun, don't be a fucking square.

Plays are fascinating, don't be a baby.

Whizz-Bang means a sudden and unexpected success.

Playwrights need love too. I don't want their hits. Send your hits to the big boys. I want your troubled, weird little four handers. We will take care of them."

~fin~

The Lucky Ladies, Artist Rep, 1515 SW Morrison, Mon Dec 16, 7:30 pm, FREE

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

PortlandFoodandDrink, meanwhile, floats the rumor that Curl's Belmont space will be transformed into the second location of her haute candy brand Quin, which debuted earlier this year. Reps have not confirmed that at press time; so stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

You don't even have to like baseball to love this Easter egg.

Baseball-Reference went all-in on this Rudolph the Reindeer profile page, and it is a real treat! Our favorite parts follow.

(1) The Delightful "Similar Batters."

(2) Age 2: "Not Allowed to Play in Reindeer Games."

(3) The "Would Buy On Etsy" Player Card.

Really every single word here is worth reading. So go read them!

(Thanks to @jonahkeri for the holiday cheer!)

I will reshare this every time the song comes up on Pandora

OnlyMrGodKnowsWhy

…

After taking a "sick day" to recover from a bout of racism, Megyn Kelly was back in front of the cameras on Friday to read off the statement penned for her by Damage Control.

Read more...

Original Source

OnlyMrGodKnowsWhy

We Need to Talk about Kevin

Warner Bros. / 20th Century Fox

Last month, on the occasion of both Elf and Love Actually celebrating their 10th anniversaries, we set about the task of deciding which one was Christmas-ier. Now that we're well in the thick of Christmas season, we thought we'd tackle the same task for even more holiday classics. Today, it's the home-invasion slapstick Home Alone and a different kind of home-invasion slapstick, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. 

Christmas Vacation (1989) is the holiday-themed entry in the Chevy Chase-starring series about a family of long-suffering parents and shape-shifting children, forever trying in vain to find a decent way to spend time away from work/school. Clark Griswold's hopes for an old-fashioned family Christmas at home are dashed by, among other things: inconsiderate in-laws; quirky electrical hook-ups; rude yuppie neighbors; more inconsiderate in-laws; an excess of sap; even more inconsiderate in-laws; raw sewage; and the unreliability of that relic of corporate life: the Christmas bonus.

Home Alone was the biggest box-office success of 1992 and spawned a giant critical backlash that is probably ongoing, though at this point, the children who grew up with the movie are now opinion-makers in their own right, so the film's reputation is a good deal sturdier than it once was. Macaulay Culkin was rocketed to fame with this one, enjoying a good few years of cinematic success before Michael Jackson videos and The Good Son sent him spiraling downward. 

The case for Christmas Vacation as the Christmas-ier movie will be argued by Esther, while Joe will stick up for Home Alone. 

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Now, let me start by saying that neither Christmas Vacation nor Home Alone are among my favorite Christmas movies, but in a competition for sheer Christmas-y-ness, Christmas Vacation has to take the cake. Why? Because it simply can't exist without Christmas. 

The story of a boy accidentally left home by his distracted parents could essentially take place any time of year, even though ornaments do provide good booby traps for little Kevin McAllister. However, the story of the Griswold clan's ill-fated holiday is intrinsically linked with the merry season. Really, there's not much in the way of plot in Christmas Vacation, it's just a series of Christmas-themed vignettes: Clark cuts down a ginormous tree; Clark does an insane number on the house lights; Clark accidentally kills a cat. 

It's also worth pointing out that, despite the ending where everyone stands together and sings (... the National Anthem, but still), Christmas Vacation is still quite a bitter movie. Clark, lest you've forgotten, is an unrelenting asshole with a wandering eye, and Christmas brings out the worst in him. And yet! Doesn't that, on some level, make it more perfect for the holiday? Christmas is often a mix of good cheer and aggravation, the fun of the presents and traditions sometimes muted by the arrival of annoying relatives. Clark's over-exuberance, perhaps, is a metaphor for bombardment of Christmas on our senses this time of year. Christmas Vacation shows that Christmas can be agonizing, and what's more truthfully Christmas-y than that? —EZ

Home Alone

Now, Esther. I know you don't want to get into a war of metaphors here. Home Alone wins all your Christmas metaphors. The Wet Bandits (Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern) are the epitome of turning the Christmas season into a joyless pursuit of "stuff." They are the capitalist nightmare personified, burglarizing neighborhoods and inflicting their greed for stereos and jewelry and priceless heirlooms upon their hapless victims. They're even using the timing of Christmas lights against these people! Not to mention co-opting the false security of the police state, when Joe Pesci dresses up like a cop to perform reconnaissance. The Wet Bandits are Black Friday. They're door-buster sales. They are ruining everything.

Enter Kevin, who manages to foil the Wet Bandits through thoroughly unsophisticated means. A a couple of old paint cans here, some saran-wrap there, his brother's pet tarantula. His entire setup with the mannequins that fools the Bandits into thinking there's a rollicking party happening at his house is both thoroughly implausible and also remarkably clever. Kevin's a DIY hero (in an age when DIY practitioners are more concerned with fancy book deals than D-ing IY). He's the home-security equivalent of a popsicle-stick Christmas ornament. You know that kind you made in second grade, with the excess gobs of Elmer's glue and the press-on googly reindeer eyes? Kevin is the triumph of an anti-commercial Christmas. What does he ask that tic-tac-dispensing, half-assed Santa to bring him for Christmas? No toys, just his family. Without the prominent Christmas themes, Kevin's just a sadist with an unnatural talent for rigging blowtorches.

Also, and even more importantly, we can't forget about the other half of the movie. The half that has increasingly become my favorite part of the movie: Catherine O'Hara's desperate attempt to get home from Paris to see her son. She haggles with travelers and wheedles French-accented Hope Davis at the airline counter and eventually hitches a ride with the delightful (and, it should be noted, Santa-esque, at least in terms of temperament and body type) John Candy and his polka band. By traveling across an ocean and half the upper midwest in order to make it home in time for Christmas, she actually out-vacations Vacation. 

Original Source

In January 2012, a subway rat went for an crazy ride running down the up escalator at the Civic Center BART station in San Francisco. The adventure was caught on video by Berkeley resident Jonathan Beiller, who also tried to help the rat off the escalator.

I offered the rat a book as a bridge, alas the rat was disinterested. I suspect that the rat was playing (note the ease with which the rat sprints forward three steps near the end of the video).

While this is quite the obvious metaphor for life’s frustrations, the hope is that the rat was indeed playing and he eventually made it off the escalator in one piece.

video by Jonathan Beiller

via Jezebel

Because ordering obscene amounts of french fries at McDonald's and sharing them among friends is apparently a thing kids are doing in Japan and Korea these days, a group of kids recently got kicked out of a McDonald's in Korea for ordering $250 worth of fries. According to RocketNews24, McDonald's has recently unleashed a promotion in Japan and Korea offering a large-size order of fries on the cheap, which naturally means that teenagers going in and order as many as possible. This particular group supposedly dropped 270,000 won ($250) on McDonald's fries, spreading them out across a large table on their trays. This, of course, caused a lot of delays at the restaurant and a whole lot of anger until "a McDonald's worker decided he had had enough of these shenanigans and told the kids, 'Stop causing trouble, you brats! Get out of here!'" But no, these french fry hounding teens are not been treated as the heroes they are. As it so happens, the Internet has apparently sided with the Man on this one, which some commenters writing that the kids should be reported to McDonald's headquarters and others writing, "I'd cry if this happened in my local store."

Well, damn.

Good f***ing point!

I will say though, I don’t consider myself a ‘champion of diversity.’ 

That sounds way too grand. That’s what you call someone who makes an actual difference. 

I do have a ton of characters at DC that I love that aren’t straight and/or white, but I have to admit that in my gut reaction, the names above are the ones that leapt to mind.