firehose

Coca-Cola's new campaign emphasizes that exercise is the path to weight loss, but is there any truth to that? What role does exercise really play in losing weight?

A Wal-Mart truck driver who hadn't slept in 28 hours failed to slow down despite posted warning signs and was responsible for a highway crash last year that severely injured comedian Tracy Morgan and killed another comedian, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.

(Permalink)

popular shared this story from Daring Fireball.

---

Samuel Gibbs, reporting for The Guardian:

Researchers from FireEye have found that data that could be used to clone a user’s fingerprint was stored as an unencrypted “world readable” image file on HTC smartphones.

Four security researchers discovered that the image file, which is clear replica of a user’s fingerprint, could be stolen by rogue apps or hackers.

“While some vendors claimed that they store user’s fingerprints encrypted in a system partition, they put users’ fingerprints in plaintext and in a world readable place by mistake,” the authors wrote. “On the HTC One Max X the fingerprint is saved as /data/dbgraw.bmp with a 0666 permission setting (world readable). Any unprivileged processes or apps can steal user’s fingerprints by reading this file.”

Bugs happen, but this is reckless by design. Clearly fingerprint data should never be written to world-readable storage — but in a properly designed system it should not even be possible to access fingerprint data.

popular shared this story from Wondermark.

---

NICE

DOVER, DE—Reminiscing about past online promotions for goods and services as he perused the internet Wednesday, area man Walter Delray, 32, reportedly grew nostalgic for a time when the advertisements targeting him were not quite so sad. “Back in the day, I used to get ads for vacation packages to Cancun or high-end digital cameras, but now when I go on Facebook, it seems like all the promoted posts in my news feed are for unscented cat litter,” said Delray, wistfully recalling the halcyon days of his youth before the promotions based on his demographic and behavioral traits were for CPA certification programs and bathroom sink accessories. “It would be kind of nice to see a few banner ads for Lollapalooza again. Frankly, it can be a little depressing when you go to a website and it’s covered in ads for 15 percent off wheel alignments.” At press ...

steven-stoned:

sosuperawesome:

sosuperawesome:

Glow in the Dark Solar System Apparel by makeitgoodapparel

Now ON SALE with 20% off Solar Underwear from makeitgoodapparel on Etsy

huffingtonpost:

Why We Need To Talk About White Feminism

Have you ever wondered what White Feminism is? Are you vaguely familiar with the term, but still unclear on what it actually means – and how it affects you?

WATCH the full video for give you a brief, basic introduction to White Feminism, and explain why we need to start talking about it more.

ineffective

Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Read 26 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Google to Reorganize as Alphabet to Keep Its Lead as an Innovator – The New York Times.

Google’s reorganization into a holding company called Alphabet, a step to get a handle on its sprawl of businesses, is intended to let the divisions be nimble by giving them room to make their own decisions.
In extended-hours trading, the stock is ahead 6 percent, or more than $10 billion in value, an instant endorsement. Google’s co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, will run the umbrella company, while Sundar Pichai, 43, will lead the Google subsidiary.

Read more, blog post and visit Alphabet. Pictured above is a chart by Business Insider that gives a lay of the land’ and an addition one from the WSJ and another via twitter.

Here are the SEC filings for the motivated.

On August 10, 2015, Google Inc. (“Google”) announced plans to create a new public holding company, Alphabet Inc. (“Alphabet”), and a new operating structure to increase management scale and focus on its consolidated businesses.  Under the new operating structure, its main Google business will include search, ads, maps, apps, YouTube and Android and the related technical infrastructure (the “Google business”).  Businesses such as Calico, Nest, and Fiber, as well as its investing arms, such as Google Ventures and Google Capital, and incubator projects, such as Google X, will be managed separately from the Google business.

In connection with the new operating structure and upon completion of the Alphabet Merger (as defined below), Larry Page will become the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Alphabet, Sergey Brin will become the President of Alphabet, Eric E. Schmidt will become the Executive Chairman of Alphabet, Ruth Porat will become the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Alphabet and David C. Drummond will become the Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary of Alphabet.  Larry, Sergey, Eric and David will transition to these roles from their respective roles at Google, whereas Ruth will also retain her role as the CFO of Google.  

Concurrently upon completion of the Alphabet Merger, Sundar Pichai, age 43, will become the new CEO of Google Inc. Sundar is currently the Senior Vice President of Products at Google and oversees product management, engineering, and research efforts for Google’s products and platforms. Since joining Google in 2004, Sundar has led a number of key consumer products which are now used by hundreds of millions of people and, prior to his current role, served as Google’s SVP of Android, Chrome and Apps.

Later this year, Google intends to implement a holding company reorganization (the “Alphabet Merger”), which will result in Alphabet owning all of the capital stock of Google.  Alphabet will initially be a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of Google. Pursuant to the Alphabet Merger, a newly formed entity (“Merger Sub”), a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet and an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Google, will merge with and into Google, with Google surviving as a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet.  Each share of each class of Google stock issued and outstanding immediately prior to the Alphabet Merger will automatically convert into an equivalent corresponding share of Alphabet stock, having the same designations, rights, powers and preferences and the qualifications, limitations and restrictions as the corresponding share of Google stock being converted. Accordingly, upon consummation of the Alphabet Merger, Google’s current stockholders will become stockholders of Alphabet.  The stockholders of Google will not recognize gain or loss for U.S. federal income tax purposes upon the conversion of their shares in the Alphabet Merger.

The Alphabet Merger will be conducted pursuant to Section 251(g) of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware, which provides for the formation of a holding company without a vote of the stockholders of the constituent corporations.  Effective upon the consummation of the Alphabet Merger, Alphabet will adopt an amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws that are identical to those of Google immediately prior to the consummation of the Alphabet Merger, except for the change of the name of the corporation as permitted by Section 251(g).  Furthermore, the conversion will occur automatically without an exchange of stock certificates.  Stock certificates previously representing shares of a class of Google stock will represent the same number of shares of the corresponding class of Alphabet stock after the Alphabet Merger. Following the consummation of the Alphabet Merger, shares of Class C Capital Stock and Class A Common Stock will continue to trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “GOOG” and “GOOGL” respectively.  With respect to Alphabet stock, Larry, Sergey, Eric and their respective specified affiliated entities, as well as Alphabet, will be bound, without any modification, by the same restrictions, undertakings and obligations that are imposed under the Transfer Restriction Agreements, related Joinders and other documentation entered into in connection with the prior settlement of the litigation relating to Class C Capital Stock.   

Upon consummation of the Alphabet Merger, the directors of Alphabet will be the same individuals who are the directors of Google immediately prior to the Alphabet Merger.  

Wow, that’s tough to follow, subsidiary of a subsidiary then becomes/merges with, and becomes, the parent, eventually, that’s an interesting move.

---

What do we think? Some random notes as we digest … They’re separating the moneymaking businesses from the high risk “moonshots” – the hardware company, Nest, is on its own with Tony Fadell leading it. We think Boston Dynamics is still in google X? It will be interesting to see how much each units spends, loses, makes going forward since they’re separated out. From a high level, this seems like a way to have companies in the umbrella to compete with some of the interests google (alphabet) may have: Amazon AWS, Apple, Uber, Elon Musk… AND have more opportunities for multiple CEOs to lead the groups. On the other hand this could have been a proactive way to avoid being broken up in an anti-trust? Or just straight up slimming down after tons and tons of growth. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if Microsoft did this back in the day as the internet was coming along, Xbox, mobile phones and more.

Here are all the google acquisitions and mergers.

Related:
Google Creates New Company Called Alphabet, Restructures Stock – Bloomberg.
The Tech Behind Each Letter In Google’s Alphabet – Techcrunch.
Google Shares Spike 6% After ‘Alphabet’ Restructuring – Techcrunch.

Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

To paraphrase Splave again, he comments that the thermal paste (TIM)o n his Skylake is certainly worse than that of Devil's Canyon. If the extra mass on the IHS is coming from a taller heatspreader (by virtue of the smaller package substrate), then more TIM is needed otherwise there will be substantial air bubbling of the TIM between the CPU and the heatspreader. By replacing his own thermal paste and resecuring the heatspreader, he saw an 18°C drop in temperatures at his highest air overclock with the old paste (5.1 GHz at 1.48 volts) - from 96ºC that overheated to 78ºC on the warmest core. An 18°C drop is immense. Under those conditions, and based on rough testing not published in our Skylake review, it could equal another 100-400 MHz depending on the quality of the processor. PCWatch confirms that switching out the paste with CoolLaboratory’s Liquid Pro (a liquid metal adhesion interface) reduced temperatures at 4.6 GHz from 88ºC to 68ºC


Image from PCWatch

This throws up some questions - is this just a result of design decisions for cost, or is there a Devil's Canyon type processor coming later in the design cycle?
(Permalink)

This page is a gateway to a series of web pages for the interactive visualisation of cutting-edge geoscience datasets, all possible within freely available web browsers. Use the links on the left side of this page to access visualisations of:

The new version of the vertical gravity gradient derived from satellite altimetry
Plate tectonic reconstructions of gravity data created using GPlates
Dynamic surface topography maps based on simulations of mantle convection (Industry Sponsors Only)
The 3D visualisations are powered by Cesium - for general information on using how to use Cesium, and browser compatibility, click here
(Permalink)

After a long delay and plenty of resistance from corporations, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved in a 3-to-2 vote on Wednesday a rule that would require most public companies to regularly reveal the ratio of the chief executive’s pay to that of employees.

Representatives of corporations were quick to assail the new rule, which will start to take effect in 2017, saying that it was misleading, costly to put into practice and intended to shame companies into paying executives less.

But the ratio, cropping up every year in audited financial statements, could stoke and perhaps even inform a debate over income inequality that has intensified in recent years as the wages of top earners have grown far more quickly than anyone else’s.
(Permalink)

Affleck, an avid gambler, had initially asked Ouzounian to join him on a flight back to LA from the Bahamas — while his clueless spouse stayed behind with their three kids, a source said.

“He assured her it was OK. Technically, he was her boss,’’ the source told Hollywood Life.com.

“But along the way, he convinced her to go to Las Vegas with him for [a] poker tournament. They even stopped and picked up Tom Brady for the trip. While in Vegas, Ben hid Christine the entire time.

Here's her wearing Tom Brady's Super Bowl rings: https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/1381008640807639113.jpg
(Permalink)

This is a test. Please don't apply
Employer: pw
Location: NY, NY
Posted: 08/11/2015

Let’s Encrypt is a new Certificate Authority:
It’s free, automated, and open.
Arriving Q4 2015

First certificate: Week of September 7, 2015
General availability: Week of November 16, 2015
(Permalink)

The Jets’ 2015 season has officially begun:

Geno out 6 to 10 weeks becuse of an altercation in the locker room. Broken jaw. Requires surgery. IK Enemkpali hit him. Been released. #Jets

August 11, 2015
Head coach Todd Bowles announced today that QB Geno Smith will likely be out until October, after he was hit by LB Ikemefuna “I.K.” Enemkpali in a locker-room fight this morning. Bowles used the words “cold-cocked” and “sucker-punched,” and said Enemkpali has been cut. Enemkpali was the Jets’ sixth-round pick in the 2014 draft.

Smith’s broken jaw will need surgery. This means Ryan Fitzpatrick will be the Jets’ starting QB for at least the first month or so of the season.
(Permalink)

The country's second-largest city, famous for its car culture, has released its "aspirational" Mobility 2035 plan. The upshot: L.A. wants to be more like Portland.

And why not? Oregon's largest city -- 26 places below L.A. on the U.S. population list -- is a national model for urban transportation. Portlanders stopped the Mount Hood Freeway from being built in the 1970s and have led the way in automobile alternatives ever since. U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx hailed Portland's "bold vision" when he visited the city last fall. "You are building for today and the future," he said.
(Permalink)

You’ve never built Drupal sites this fast before.
(Permalink)

Elisa Long, a professor in Decisions, Operations, and Technology Management at the University of California, Los Angeles, was diagnosed with breast cancer. The Price is Right films a breast cancer awareness episode every August. Long wanted to get on that show. So she watched episodes during her 6-hour chemotherapy sessions to familiarize herself with games and rules, and most importantly, to maximize her odds of winning.

Long describes her thought process and probability calculations on her way to surviving cancer and winning it all on The Price is Right.

My goal in going on "The Price Is Right" was to play the best I possibly could given tremendous uncertainty about the outcome. The same was true for my breast cancer. The stakes were just higher.

Ah, the uncertainty of life.

Tags: cancer, game theory, probability, survival, The Price is Right