firehose

Magicians are not supposed to reveal their secrets. But what if that magician is a machine? Recent experiments at Queen Mary University of London show that it's not only possible to teach a computer program how magic tricks work, but that these systems are capable of designing new and superior versions that can be performed by humans.

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mirandaadria:

the-goddamazon:

cubebreaker:

The Rethink Homelessness campaign aims to dispel stereotypes and remind us that the circumstances which lead to living on the streets could happen to each and every one of us.

Because a lot of people—mainly motherfuckers who don’t really understand struggle—think all homeless people are alcoholic drug addicts…especially Black homeless people.

And yet there’s not a single black person in this entire photo set, and only ONE black person in the accompanying video. *sigh*

firelordzuko:

cosmo tip 666: while making out, suck the life out of him. just suck the fucking life out of him.

HughPickens.com writes Gurvinder Gill writes at BBC that Ayan Qureshi is the world's youngest Microsoft Certified Professional after passing the tech giant's exam when he was just five years old. Qureshi's father introduced his son to computers when he was three years old. He let him play with his old computers, so he could understand hard drives and motherboards. "I found whatever I was telling him, the next day he'd remember everything I said, so I started to feed him more information," Qureshi explained. "Too much computing at this age can cause a negative effect, but in Ayan's case he has cached this opportunity." Ayan has his own computer lab at his home in Coventry, containing a computer network which he built and spends around two hours a day learning about the operating system, how to install programs, and has his own web site. Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) is a certification that validates IT professional and developer technical expertise through rigorous, industry-proven, and industry-recognized exams. MCP exams cover a wide range of Microsoft products, technologies, and solutions. When the boy arrived to take the Microsoft exam, the invigilators were concerned that he was too young to be a candidate. His father reassured them that Ayan would be all right on his own. "There were multiple choice questions, drag and drop questions, hotspot questions and scenario-based questions," Ayan's father told the BBC Asian Network. "The hardest challenge was explaining the language of the test to a five-year-old. But he seemed to pick it up and has a very good memory."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hot on the heels of recent cyber attacks on NOAA, the USPS, and the White House, the New York Times Reports that the U.S. State Department has also suffered an online security breach, though it's not clear who to blame. “This has impacted some of our unclassified email traffic and our access to public websites from our main unclassified system,” said one senior State Department official, adding that the department expected its systems to be up soon. ....The breach at the White House was believed to be the work of hackers in Russia, while the breaches at NOAA and the Postal Service were believed to the work of hackers inside China. Attributing attacks to a group or nation is difficult because hackers typically tend to route their attack through compromised web servers all over the world. A senior State Department official said the breach was discovered after “activity of concern” was detected on portions of its unclassified computer system. Officials did not say how long hackers may have been lurking in those systems, but security improvements were being added to them on Sunday.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

FnordMetric:

FnordMetric allows you to write SQL queries that return SVG charts rather than tables.

Laughing Squid has a post on this incredible circular keyboard from Lady Gaga’s keyboard player.

The PianoArc is an electronic keyboard created by Roland that is made up of 294 keys, which are formed into a perfect circle, completely surrounding the keyboardist. The circular keyboard, which combines three 88 key keyboards and a 30 key control section, was developed for Roland by Lady Gaga keyboard player Brockett Parsons.

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RefMe looks really convenient for students. Scan book barcodes to create bibliographic references. There are more sophisticated tools out there to create bibliographies and I'm always suspicious of free tools with no apparent business model, but hey, seems good for people on a budget at school.

NEW CANAAN, CT—Driving up from the city after learning that the family’s regular patriarch would be out of town filming a special assignment, NBC News anchor Lester Holt filled in for Brian Williams Monday during his family’s nightly din...

The Sacrifice of Isaac, 1517

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Janet Califf recently posted a video of an amazing handcrafted barbecue smoker built by “Illinois Slim” in the shape of a train engine. Illinois Slim gives a tour around the train to show off its smoke release valves, a large dinner bell, and the chicken he’s cooking. According to reddit user DrewCIL, the labor of love took a few years to complete.

My dad spent three years building this Train BBQ Smoker and is hoping his video goes “venereal.”

via reddit

Amy Adams is, more often than not, a delightful addition to any movie, bringing a certain effervescence coupled with grounded and impressive character work. This is evident in her rather meteoric rise not only to fame but also to critical acclaim, amassing five Academy Award nominations since 2005, a feat rivaled only by Meryl Streep. However in the Amy Adams filmography there exists one glaring stain, a time when her presence in a movie was not merely bad but completely unnecessary; that film, Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia, attempted to find parallels between the life of Julia Child and that of a New York blogger cooking her way through Child’s Mastering The Art Of French Cooking. It is a film that stands proudly as a relic of the go-go 2009’s, when a blog could become a movie and a Twitter-feed could become a television show, and that ...

New at the Topatoco shop, it’s a selection of fun whiteboards!  For people who understand the power of a good quote, or like Queen Elizabeth to be reciting their grocery lists.  

Bishops with bob cuts and magnificent bosoms for every parish! Hooray!

Back in July of this year, the Church of England’s General Synod voted to officially allow women as bishops, previously a position only held by men. Now the Synod has finally approved the legislation required for such a change in policy and will officially rewrite the wording of “Canon 33″ to say that “a man or a woman may be consecrated to the office of bishop.”

This latest step forward for the Church is the result of years of campaigning and debate led by existing female clergy members and other gender equality advocates. Women were first permitted by the General Synod to become deacons in 1985 and priests in 1992; a previous ballot on female bishops was struck down by only six votes back in 2012. (It’s also worth noting that Churches in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland already had the legislation in place to appoint women as bishops, but that they have yet to appoint any.)

The Synod has yet to appoint any women as bishops yet, of course, given that the decision was only recently finalized. Bishop James Langstaff, who helped to steer this important legislation through the Synod, told BBC Radio 4 on Sunday that female priests would be given extra training to ensure that they’re just as prepared as the male candidates who’ve already familiarized themselves with the bishop selection process.

“What we are doing is some affirmative action rather than discrimination,” he said, “in that some real efforts have been made and are being made to make sure that those women who now may be candidates are able to be, as it were, on the level with their male colleagues who have been looking at this for some time.”

But what happens when women do finally get appointed to the position sometime next year as most onlookers are speculating? Now that the legislation is official, hopefully nothing too drastic, Reverend Rose Hudson-Wilkin said to BBC News. “We do not want to force people to accept women as bishops—they’ll just get on with their job. Though I think they’re going to need an extra dose of the Holy Spirit in order to sustain the weight of everyone’s expectations.”

Okay, but here’s the most important question: d’ya think Dawn French and Richard Curtis will make good on their word to relaunch Vicar of Dibley with Geraldine as a bishop? Because that would be pretty rad, admit it.

(via BBC News and The Telegraph)

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unbear:

santanico-pansamonium

New York Daily News

Dropkick Murphys' tour bus strikes, kills pedestrian on Texas highway New York Daily News Massachusetts punk band Dropkick Murphys canceled a stop in Tulsa, Okla., after their tour bus struck and killed a pedestrian late Saturday outside Austin, Texas. The veteran Celtic rockers were done with a show in San Antonio and headed toward the ... Man dies after being hit by Dropkick Murphys bus in Round RockAustin American-Statesman Dropkick Murphys cancel show after fatal bus accidentBoston Herald Dropkick Murphys tour bus involved in fatal accidentWFAA Boston.com -KVUE -San Antonio Current (blog) all 15 news articles »

naamahdarling:

adventurotica:

I am laughing unreasonably hard at this.

I am ASHAMED that it took me nearly one full minute to get it.

The fate of a little-noticed ballot measure in strongly Democratic Oregon serves as a warning to President Barack Obama and his party about the political perils of immigration policy.

Johann Daniel Mylius, Philosophia Reformata, 1622