[QUOTE=rogue;381846]But did you read the reviews:

"Purchased this TV for my island retreat. Use it to primarily watch comedies like "The Shrinking Middle Class", "Income Inequality" and "The Ever Widening Wage Gap." Have to say, wow what a picture! Watching the 99% struggle with this level of clarity is amazing. It's like I'm right there beside them but thankfully I am not. No need to see that suffering firsthand, I can watch it in crystal clear 4K from a safe distance. Thanks Samsung!"

"I gave serious consideration to this tv. To be honest, I was torn between this and buying the movie theatre that is up for auction less than a mile from my house. The theatre is a little run down, but for the money, i could have had 7 theatre screens all to myself vs one very large tv. Unfortunately, the maintanence costs of a movie theatre combined with the required improvements made the theatre unfeasible. I decided to buy Nicaragua instead. So far, I have been happy with my decision. The rebel fighters are annoying, but they make a mean margarita."

And there are more.[/QUOTE]

"I sold my firstborn child's soul to the devil in exchange for five of these suckers (frameless). What a deal! I made a box out of them in my basement and never have to go outside again! Perfect!"
:devil:

[QUOTE=ixfd64;381845][url]http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-UN110S9-Framed-110-Inch-Ultra/dp/B00L403O3A[/url]

The price is not a typo.[/QUOTE]

But ... free shipping!

For the bargain-minded, there are several budget-priced smaller versions listed a few scrolls down the page -- can anyone explain to me the 4x price difference between [2] and [3]? (Note also the huge difference in number of reviews):

[1] Samsung UN105S9 Curved 105-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz 3D Smart LED TV
4.3 out of 5 stars (13)
$119,999.99

[2] Samsung UN85S9 85-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz 3D Smart LED TV
4.2 out of 5 stars (1,647)
$39,997.99

[3] Samsung UN85HU8550 85-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz 3D Smart LED TV
4.2 out of 5 stars (90)
$9,997.99

.

[url]http://imgur.com/a/ADY6u[/url]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;382061][URL]http://imgur.com/a/ADY6u[/URL][/QUOTE]
This is how I found out that my company blocks that site, dunno why. :surprised

[QUOTE=LaurV;382063]This is how I found out that my company blocks that site, dunno why. :surprised[/QUOTE]

Not every picture posted there is safe for work.

[QUOTE=LaurV;382063]This is how I found out that my company blocks that site, dunno why. :surprised[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Mark Rose;382064][COLOR="Magenta"][understatement][/COLOR]Not every picture posted there is safe for work.[COLOR="magenta"][/understatement][/COLOR][/QUOTE]
This site: [url]http://www.transitcommandments.com/[/url] looks innocuous, but it turns out that is running on tumblr. I clicked on the link at work and got the angry corporate firewall claiming that I was trying to look at pr0ns (tumblr is considered by them to by a naughty site.)

Growing Pressure on Obama to Do Something Stupid
 

-by Andy Borowitz
[QUOTE]Arguing that his motto “Don’t do stupid stuff” is not a coherent foreign policy, critics of President Obama are pressuring him to do something stupid without further delay. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) led the attack on Thursday, blasting Obama for failing to craft a stupid response to crises in Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine.
[/QUOTE]
[url]http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/25695-growing-pressure-on-obama-to-do-something-stupid[/url]

Why can we see things when light is travelling at the speed of light (duh) when things moving at the speed of light are supposed to not travel forwards in time at all to the observer, so it should never move.

Confusing.

[QUOTE]Confusing.[/QUOTE][QUOTE]I went to a job interview the other day, the guy asked me if I had any questions , I said yes, just one, if you're in a car traveling at the speed of light and you turn your headlights on, does anything happen? He said he couldn't answer that, I told him sorry, but I couldn't work for him then.

-- Steven Wright[/QUOTE]:mike:

[QUOTE=legendarymudkip;382333]Why can we see things when light is travelling at the speed of light (duh) when things moving at the speed of light are supposed to not travel forwards in time at all to the observer, so it should never move.

Confusing.[/QUOTE]You appear to be confusing time as measured by a "stationary" observer with time as measured by something moving relative to the observer. Another variant of the twins paradox.

Alternatively, consider something moving arbitrarliy close to the speed of light as measured by an observer. Relatisitic contraction means that it moves an arbitrarily short distance [b]from its point of view[/b] to move a fixed distance from the point of view of the observer. Time dilation and relatistic contraction are two ways of looking at the same phenomenon and are a consequence of the unification of space and time in relativity.


Paul

[QUOTE=xilman;382372]You appear to be confusing time as measured by a "stationary" observer with time as measured by something moving relative to the observer. Another variant of the twins paradox.

Alternatively, consider something moving arbitrarliy close to the speed of light as measured by an observer. Relatisitic contraction means that it moves an arbitrarily short distance [b]from its point of view[/b] to move a fixed distance from the point of view of the observer. Time dilation and relatistic contraction are two ways of looking at the same phenomenon and are a consequence of the unification of space and time in relativity.


Paul[/QUOTE]That sort of makes sense, thanks.

[QUOTE=legendarymudkip;382333]Why can we see things when light is travelling at the speed of light (duh) when things moving at the speed of light are supposed to not travel forwards in time at all to the observer, so it should never move.

Confusing.[/QUOTE]

Well, perhaps 110 years ago it was indeed confusing.

Perhaps people are not particularly educated in some subjects they are interested in, so they ask questions.

[QUOTE=legendarymudkip;382505]Perhaps people are not particularly educated in some subjects they are interested in, so they ask questions.[/QUOTE]It was a good enough question. It made me think about what I know and don't know. Also, I was not confident enough to answer directly. So to me, it was not a waste of time as I lurked to see what others would say.

[url]http://www.sfgate.com/sports/ostler/article/NFL-shouldn-t-have-needed-video-to-do-the-right-5742772.php[/url]

Record 1-day rainfall in Arizona
 

[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/heavy-rain-snarls-morning-commute-in-phoenix-area/2014/09/08/15e1827a-3758-11e4-a023-1d61f7f31a05_story.html[/url]

From famine to feast ... wonder if any significant amounts of that made it into parched reservoirs?

Here in CA, SoCal got some of that, but in NoCal where I live we are heading towards our 200th straight day sans significant (>= 0.1") rainfall.

[QUOTE=LaurV;382063]This is how I found out that my company blocks that site, dunno why. :surprised[/QUOTE]


Just found out that my work blocks the Guardian. Or least the Book reviews section. (security risk? like existential thought?)

[QUOTE=chappy;382552]Just found out that my work blocks the Guardian. Or least the Book reviews section. (security risk? like existential thought?)[/QUOTE]

Well, as has been said recently hereabouts, liberal in the States is moderately conservative over there. By extension, the Guardian, though centrist in UK terms, might be too flaming liberal for corporate "guardians" over here.

That's how rain always falls in the deserts. The problem is that the landscape hasn't been maintained to capture the rainfall through features such as [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swale_(landform)]swales[/url].

[url]https://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change[/url]

In some places people are starting to clue in and are beginning to pulse cattle through the landscape, and the fertility is returning to those areas. It'll take many decades to heal the deserts of the south-western US, but it can be done using sustainable practices.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;382541][url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/heavy-rain-snarls-morning-commute-in-phoenix-area/2014/09/08/15e1827a-3758-11e4-a023-1d61f7f31a05_story.html[/url]

From famine to feast ... wonder if any significant amounts of that made it into parched reservoirs?

Here in CA, SoCal got some of that, but in NoCal where I live we are heading towards our 200th straight day sans significant (>= 0.1") rainfall.[/QUOTE]

this got me thinking of

[URL="http://news.yahoo.com/texas-mad-mexico-wont-share-rio-grandes-water-191339569.html?bcmt=comments-postbox"]Texas Is Mad Mexico Won't Share the Rio Grande's Water[/URL]

[QUOTE]What's worse, the race for water in the region doesn't show any signs of stopping. The American Meteorological Society predicts that the likelihood of a decade-long drought impacting the southwestern United States this century is at over 90 percent. [/QUOTE]


I'll admit I made stupid comment :

[QUOTE] guess they could flood a square mile 9 chain deep or 49.5 fathom deep I guess.[/QUOTE] since that the amount of water owed by the agreement

[QUOTE]Since 1945, The United States and Mexico have abided by a water utilization treaty,[/QUOTE]

Note that the balance of power was tilted far more in favor of the US when this treaty was signed. Also, take into account that some of the largest users of irrigation water in the Rio Grande Valley are sugar cane growers. They not only get a lion's share of the water, but their crop is heavily subsidized, in spite of a glut of sugar worldwide.

In general, it is a much more complicated situation when everybody is experiencing drought.

[url]http://www.texasobserver.org/on-the-border-a-struggle-over-water/[/url]

The Texas Observer is the long-time progressive magazine in the state.

.

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;382656].[/QUOTE]

"Sons of Confederacy" ... the US Civil War one or the "of Dunces" one?

[YOUTUBE]mdMW-ht9wrc[/YOUTUBE]

That is a clever demonstration of resonance! Are those flip flops he's playing with?

[QUOTE=kladner;382819]That is a clever demonstration of resonance! Are those flip flops he's playing with?[/QUOTE]

Yep.

I guess that's what happens when an Aussie plumber gets bored. Pretty damned awesome if you ask me.

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;382816][YOUTUBE]mdMW-ht9wrc[/YOUTUBE][/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=kladner;382819]That is a clever demonstration of resonance! Are those flip flops he's playing with?[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Mark Rose;382836]Yep.

I guess that's what happens when an Aussie plumber gets bored. Pretty damned awesome if you ask me.[/QUOTE]

The Blue Man Group has been doing that for years.
2006[YOUTUBE]8TrvKg1Xb2k[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]0iFBXjRbVl0[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]DQ8WMScV4KY[/YOUTUBE]

[url]https://www.khanacademy.org/about/blog/post/95208400815/the-learning-myth-why-ill-never-tell-my-son-hes[/url]

[url]http://diply.com/trendyjoe/30-famous-logos-that-have-a-hidden-message/49939[/url]

[QUOTE=ixfd64;382985][url]http://diply.com/trendyjoe/30-famous-logos-that-have-a-hidden-message/49939[/url][/QUOTE]

Interesting. But I have a few comments:

o Baskin Robbins: Ah, see, I thought the "31" was a reference to 31 being simultaneously a Mersenne prime (31 = 2^5 - 1) and the exponent of a Mersenne prime (2^31 - 1), a kind of subliminal "I scream, you scream, we all scream for Mersenne primes" viral marketing campaign. Looks like I may have been overthinking this one.

o McDonald's: I admit I was oblivious to the "Mickey Dee's as the Russ Meyer film of fast food franchises" angle asserted by the brand-psychologist fellow. Thanks for keeping us abreast of that, dude. But how does that square with their no-milk shakes?

o Mistubishi: Of course the symbol has nothing whatsoever to do with the image of the propellor on the WW2 Mitsubishi Zero. ("Make Bonsai, not Banzai" is our unofficial corporate logo, if you must know).

o Northwest Airlines: I always saw the triangle as being of the "pointing down" kind like elevators use, and embodying "the trend in our service quality over the years".

o Amazon: See, I *told* you it wasn't a curvy-banana phallic symbol.

o Google: Ah ha, ha, you guys are so freaking clever! Now please fuck off already, and keep your creepy paws off our private data and your creepy "smart devices" out of our homes, cars and bodies, OK?

o Tostitos: "Two priests of the high church of chemo-starchology celebrating mass".

o Elefont: OK, I admit that one is cool. And being monochrome-minimalist, I bet it only cost peanuts...

o Toblerone: Da Bearsssss! Wish they came in extra-dark, though. (Maybe they do, but not at the local stores I visit that carry them). To ask for that in German, just say "Könnte ich bitte eine Dunkelsckokoladenbärchendreieckstafel kaufen?" And they say German is hard to learn...

o Pepsi: Talk about overthinking things ... hey morons! It's *still* just fizzy colored overpriced sugarwater!

o IBM: Some companies being more equal that others, naturally.

o Spartan GC: Cute, but I get the feeling the real Spartans wouldn't have thought much of golf. "Looks like Leonidas is going to use a 6-iron to brain this next par-3 troop of Persian mercenaries ... but he needs to watch out for that pothole bunker guarding the back left of the green..."

o Unilever: Ouch, that hurts my eyes to look at. And shouldn't it be "Multilever"?

o Toyota: I guess "heart-shaped" doesn't mean what it used to.

o BMW: Unlike Mitsubishi, the Bavarians are not afraid to "embrace their inner propellorhead".

o Sun Microsystems: If they'd only put as much thought into their business model as they did their logo. (Yeah, I'm lookin' at you, Jon "my ponytail gives me limitless geek cred" Schwartz).

o Wendy's: Oh gawd, not another "Mom, apple pie and a nourishing pair of mammalian protuberances" deal." (BTW, Russ Meyer called, he wants to know if he can supersize those).

o Bronx Zoo: Youse short stuffs like dis logo here?

o Coca-Cola: If you look hard enough, I bet you can see that it also contains the name of the prophet written upside down and backwards, which is blasphemy. Can we get a media stunt for that, too?

o FedEx: If they're so forward-thinking, shouldn't the arrow be pointing, well, forward?

o Presbyterian Church: "There is no 'I' in 'Presbyterian'! Oh,wait..."

o Eighty20: Hey guys - byte me.

o LG: And don't forget the fuzzy-wuzzy huggable bunny-wunnies!

o Adidas: Ah, see, I thought the 3 thingies represented the metaphorical thrust-faulting subduction zone of the sports gear marketplace. Learn something new every day.

o Häagen-Dazs: I always thought the name was Danish for "Gratuitous Umlauts 'R' Us".

o NBC: "Yeah, it's a peacock, but did you ever wonder why it has so many colors?" Um, because real peacocks have many colors in their famously colorful iridescent plumage? Nah, that couldn't be it...

o Audi: You mean it's not a reference to the 4-opera Ring Cycle by that Robert Wagner dude?

And make sure to click on "awesome clickbaity stuff you may have missed" when you get to the end of the Sekrit logo stuff!

[url]http://www.kpho.com/story/26533935/ex-lawmaker-pearce-resigns-arizona-gop-post-over-remarks[/url]

[QUOTE]I shared comments written by someone else and failed to attribute them to the author.[/QUOTE]

:digging:

[url]http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/Workshops/OEIS/announcement.html[/url]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;383131][url]http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/Workshops/OEIS/announcement.html[/url][/QUOTE]

Wonder how far CRG's office is from my old one? (414 Glennan).

=================

Just made a routine appt with my GP - used Yahoo maps to examine her new address (several-blocks-away move since my last visit), and found something rather funny. For business addresses involving office complexes Yahoo maps produces an "also at this address" overlay for the basic map. Check out the other tenants (Dr. Austen is my GP) in this case:

[QUOTE=ewmayer;383054]

o Toblerone: Da Bearsssss! Wish they came in extra-dark, though. (Maybe they do, but not at the local stores I visit that carry them). To ask for that in German, just say "Könnte ich bitte eine Dunkelsckokoladenbärchendreieckstafel kaufen?" And they say German is hard to learn...

[/QUOTE]

[URL]http://www.toblerone.ch/produkte/toblerone-dunkel/toblerone-tafel-100g-und-400g?c1=1219&c2=1347&p=2072[/URL]

Thanks, I'll bug the local store to stock those.

We took this picture on our motorcycle ride today.

We are puzzled by the message.

Al? tough!

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;383266]We took this picture on our motorcycle ride today.
We are puzzled by the message.[/QUOTE]
Are you sure is not a [URL="http://www.says-it.com/churchsigns/"]generated banner[/URL]? :smile: Those things are so clever they can make any sign and place it in any surroundings. :wink:

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;383266]We took this picture on our motorcycle ride today.

We are puzzled by the message.[/QUOTE]
This is a quote from Lamentations 3:32.
It seems to be talking about how God does punish his people he also has compassion on them.

Lamentations was five poems in the original Hebrew. The first four of which were acrostic. This helps explain the slightly odd language.
It is thought that it was written around the time that Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians.
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Lamentations[/url]

[url]http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-b-1b-bomber-that-got-put-up-for-sale-as-is-no-war-1636448597[/url]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;383572][url]http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-b-1b-bomber-that-got-put-up-for-sale-as-is-no-war-1636448597[/url][/QUOTE]

@The author: Low miles? Any ordnance? Prospective buyers want to know these things.

"Help your item sell faster by offering free shipping." (Air express in this case.)

Cow / fly tipping
 

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29316479[/url]

Fly tipping, of course, is the small-scale variant of cow tipping.

Re. "the art of proper tipping":

Back in college I worked one summer in the Alaska fisheries. We did a fair bit of "halibut tipping", which is very challenging when said oversized-flounder bottom feeders are fresh and eelishly slippery. Frozen one can grab onto them much more easily and stack them like cordwood. Smaller frozen ones on a wet warehouse floor make for fun games of halibut hockey.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;383697]Back in college I worked one summer ... Smaller frozen ones on a wet warehouse floor make for fun games of halibut hockey.[/QUOTE]
That's one hell of a summer. In winter, the real fun begins. :smile:

[url]http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/09/24/hundreds-colorado-students-protest-proposed-history-curriculum-changes/[/url]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;383799][URL]http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/09/24/hundreds-colorado-students-protest-proposed-history-curriculum-changes/[/URL][/QUOTE]

Right On! :tu:

prime numbers mentioned on NOVA
 

[url]http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/rise-of-the-hackers.html[/url]
tonights NOVA on PBS
they stated the largest known prime has 17 million digits
meaning M(57885161)
full episode will probably be on website in a few days

[url]http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/09/25/boston-lion-head-copper/16196805/[/url]

An NC reader describes this story as "Big Brother, unsafe at any speed":

[url]http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/dealbook/2014/09/24/miss-a-payment-good-luck-moving-that-car/[/url]
[quote] As the ignition devices proliferate, so have complaints from troubled borrowers, many of whom are finding that credit comes at a steep price to their privacy and, at times, their dignity, according to interviews with state and federal regulators, borrowers and consumer lawyers.

Some borrowers say their cars were disabled when they were only a few days behind on their payments, leaving them stranded in dangerous neighborhoods. Others said their cars were shut down while idling at stoplights. Some described how they could not take their children to school or to doctor’s appointments. One woman in Nevada said her car was shut down while she was driving on the freeway.[/quote]

A fun way of understanding Einstein's General Theory of Relativity
 

[URL="http://phys.org/news/2014-09-fun-einstein-theory-relativity.html"]http://phys.org/news/2014-09-fun-einstein-theory-relativity.html[/URL]

[QUOTE]That looks like this: 7,760,000,000,000,000,000 or roughly 7.8 septillion Joules of energy.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_large_numbers"]Quintillion 10^18 10^30 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓[/QUOTE]

someone needs to review there numbers before describing relativity.

millions 10e6, millards 10e9, billions 10e12 , billiards 10e15 , trillions 10e18 , trilliards 10e21 , Quadrillions 10e24, Quadrilliards 10e27, Quintillions 10e30...
wait what?

[quote]Thus, concluding our little mind experiment we find that just one human being is roughly the equivalence of 1.86 MILLION kilotons of TNT worth of energy. Let's now put that into perspective, just to illuminate the massive amount of power that this equivalence really is.[/quote]
Uh, no - the way the author figures things, one human being is exactly the equivalence of one human's-weight of TNT worth of energy, no more, no less.

(Hey, if he's gonna be cavalier about 'what form of energy release are we talking about?', so am I.)

Also, he could've at least given a passing mention to m being *relativistic* mass, which at least gives a hint as to why the formula is not incompatible with the known fact that massless particles have nonzero energy. (Even if one must use an alternate equation to compute said energy in that case).

[QUOTE=ewmayer;383849]An NC reader describes this story as "Big Brother, unsafe at any speed":

[url]http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/dealbook/2014/09/24/miss-a-payment-good-luck-moving-that-car/[/url][/QUOTE]And just why are people letting their cars be remotely accessed? Oh yeah, for their protection from terrorists and paedophiles of course. Think of the children. :loco:

[size=1][color=grey]I bet they allow their computer to be remotely controlled with JS/Flash/Active-X/Java also. Suckers![/color][/size]

This is a growing phenomenon. Wait until you can't choose to service your car at your local garage anymore (keeping money in the local economy) but are forced to go to one which pays a large subscription to the manufacturer in return for engineering level access to the computer controlling all the car's functions.

[YOUTUBE]8sXLwLRXkEs[/YOUTUBE]

[QUOTE=ewmayer;381832]Re. crazy headwounds, check out the late Mr. [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage]Phineas Gage[/url]. Yes, the dude survived -- in fact he was walking and talking almost immediately after the accident. The Wiki article is fascinating reading.

There was a famous article in [i]Science[/i] a few decades ago which did a computerized reconstruction of Gage's skull wounds. IIRC in House MD, House has a reproduction of that cover image on the shelf behind him as he sits at his office desk.[/QUOTE]Selection bias, but two audiobooks that I've listened to in the last two weeks have gone into Gage's story: [URL="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17737025-my-age-of-anxiety"][I]My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind[/I][/URL] by Scott Stossel, and [URL="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/353340.Happy_Accidents"][I]Happy Accidents: Serendipity in Modern Medical Breakthroughs[/I][/URL] by Morton A. Meyers.

The first is a better than normal medical survey by a layman on anxiety. He moves the book forward by interspersed episodes from his own life. Those incidents were a bit overwhelming and I felt it better to listen instead of read because I'm sure the turmoil would have led me to put the a book down. I found it easier to just let audio passively roll on.

The second is a paean to serendipity in quite a positive sense.

In fiction, I'm currently listening to Robert Rankin narrating his book [I]The Brentford Chainstore Massacre[/I]. He is like Douglas Adams but with quirky turned up to 11. I'm trying to decide if I like him.

[URL="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/malkovich-malkovich-malkovich-homage-photographic-masters-gallery-1.1951442"]Malkovich[/URL], [URL="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/24/john-malkovich-recreates-iconic-portraits-sandro-miller_n_5875008.html"]Malkovich, Malkovich[/URL]

Sagrada Familia
 

Thanks for the second link, Serge. I could not let a teaser on the page go unremarked.
[URL]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/26/sagrada-familia_n_5889282.html[/URL]

[YOUTUBE]luCo12YHdHA[/YOUTUBE]



[YOUTUBE]RcDmloG3tXU[/YOUTUBE]

Article worthy of a "pullet surprise", but alas the subject is a he-chicken, and only hens are eligible for PSes:

[url]http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/running-ponies/2014/09/26/meet-miracle-mike-the-colorado-chicken-who-lived-for-18-months-without-his-head/[/url]

Although, maybe there is a "how much more surprising could it be than for a she (pullet) to turn out to be a (headless) he?" loophole in the award criteria - do we have any poultry-journalists in residence who could clarify?

[url]http://www.google.com/maps/about/behind-the-scenes/streetview/treks/pyramids-of-giza/[/url]

[url]http://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/Assets/2014/10/Payday-Lending-Report/Fraud_and_Abuse_Online_Harmful_Practices_in_Internet_Payday_Lending.pdf[/url]

[url]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2782294/Dallas-Weekly-magazine-releases-horribly-ill-timed-cover-promoting-Taste-Africa-US-Ebola-case-diagnosed-Texas.html[/url]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;384627][URL]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2782294/Dallas-Weekly-magazine-releases-horribly-ill-timed-cover-promoting-Taste-Africa-US-Ebola-case-diagnosed-Texas.html[/URL][/QUOTE]

Oops. :davieddy:

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;384627][url]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2782294/Dallas-Weekly-magazine-releases-horribly-ill-timed-cover-promoting-Taste-Africa-US-Ebola-case-diagnosed-Texas.html[/url][/QUOTE]
Ebola isn't funny, but three coincidences lining up so perfectly is hilarious. If it were intentional, they'd owe an apology to Africa, but since it's accidental...

[QUOTE=jasong;384802]Ebola isn't funny, but three coincidences lining up so perfectly is hilarious. If it were intentional, they'd owe an apology to Africa, but since it's accidental...[/QUOTE]

Accidental is still up in the air, but up in the air is certainly how these cases became Occidental.

[YOUTUBE]xQ_IQS3VKjA[/YOUTUBE]

[url=themetapicture.com/people-kept-complaining-this-restaurant-sucked-look-what-they-found-out/]People Kept Complaining This Restaurant Sucked, Look What They Found Out…[/url]

Digital wankerdom has its price.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;385003][URL="http://themetapicture.com/people-kept-complaining-this-restaurant-sucked-look-what-they-found-out/"]People Kept Complaining This Restaurant Sucked, Look What They Found Out…[/URL]

Digital wankerdom has its price.[/QUOTE]
You can imagine some of the reviews being written. "I'm sitting in this restaurant now, and it's taken me five minutes to even get the hang of the restaurant's wifi. That's one bad point anyway. The menu looks colourful. Hang on, WTF, I'm in the middle of writing this and this waiter's already come up and asked if I'm ready to order. Seems pretty pushy to me. The food seems okay from what I can see on other tables, I'll upload a few of the photos which I've just been taking of other tables when I've finished this review. Anyway, I suppose the worst thing I notice about this restaurant is the slow service. I've already been here ten to fifteen minutes and my order still hasn't been taken. Clearly their staff need better trainiing."

No name of the restaurant, and no link to the Craiglist post where this transcript was supposedly posted. Seems legit.

Highway Guardrail May Be Deadly, States Say
 

.....so please try not to run into them? :huh: (Manufacturer altered the design without notice. Feds slow to respond.)

[URL]http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/13/business/highway-guardrail-may-be-deadly-states-say.html?[/URL]
[QUOTE]By last month, state transportation officials in Missouri said they had seen enough.
Federal highway officials had long insisted that guardrails throughout the state were safe. But some guardrail heads had apparently malfunctioned, in essence turning the rails into spears when cars hit them and injuring people instead of cushioning the blow, Missouri officials said.

“The device is not always performing as it is designed and intended,” a Missouri transportation official wrote of the problematic rail heads in an internal communication.
Because of its safety concerns, Missouri banned further installation of the rail heads on Sept. 24. It joined Nevada, which prohibited further purchases in January, and was followed six days later by Massachusetts. Lawsuits say the guardrails were to blame for five deaths, and many more injuries, in at least 14 accidents nationwide.
[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=axn;385018]No name of the restaurant, and no link to the Craiglist post where this transcript was supposedly posted. Seems legit.[/QUOTE]

It was deleted from craigslist.
[URL="http://web.archive.org/web/20140712154835/https://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/rnr/4562386373.html"]http://web.archive.org/web/20140712154835/https://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/rnr/4562386373.html[/URL]

[QUOTE=sonjohan;385151]It was deleted from craigslist.
[URL="http://web.archive.org/web/20140712154835/https://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/rnr/4562386373.html"]http://web.archive.org/web/20140712154835/https://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/rnr/4562386373.html[/URL][/QUOTE]

Still no name of the restaurant. Unfortunately, the fact that it was deleted from Craigslist actually makes it *even more* suspicious. Looks like drive-by trolling. If someone can point me to where an actual restaurant takes credit for this, I'll be convinced. Until then, I'll chalk it up to Social Etiquette Warriors (TM).

[QUOTE=axn;385156]Still no name of the restaurant. Unfortunately, the fact that it was deleted from Craigslist actually makes it *even more* suspicious. Looks like drive-by trolling. If someone can point me to where an actual restaurant takes credit for this, I'll be convinced. Until then, I'll chalk it up to Social Etiquette Warriors (TM).[/QUOTE]I'm skeptical too. Here is a skeptical write-up the day after it hit Craigslist:
[url]http://firstwefeast.com/eat/busy-nyc-restaurant-notices-diners-were-way-more-considerate-pre-iphones-writes-rant-on-craigslist-about-it/[/url]

[QUOTE]Take your best guess as to what restaurant wrote the rant (which we’ve posted in full, for your convenience, below). Let us know what you think in the comments section. We’re giving a iPhone 5s to whoever guesses correctly.[/QUOTE]

Here are some more links as it went viral. Nothing illuminating in the comments

[url]http://www.coloradonewsday.com/news/regional/68018-service-time-in-restaurants-has-almost-doubled-in-the-past-ten-years-and-customers-on-their-cell-phones-are-to-blame-claims-busy-nyc-restaurant.html[/url]

[url]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2690490/Service-time-restaurants-doubled-past-ten-years-customers-cell-phones-blame-claims-busy-NYC-restaurant.html[/url]

[url=rt.com/news/195996-google-glass-internet-addiction/]Hi-tech overload: First case of Google Glass addiction treated[/url]

[url]http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Baptist-pastor-sued-after-revelation-of-affairs-5823459.php[/url]

When Poodles Attack
 

Browsers may fall back to SSL 3.0 when retrying failed connections and then the plaintext of snooped authentication cookies can be calculated.

[URL="http://www.tomsguide.com/us/poodle-fix-how-to,news-19775.html"]'POODLE' Web Flaw: How to Fix Your Browser[/URL]
[QUOTE]An attacker snooping on your Wi-Fi traffic could use POODLE to capture the "cookies" that authenticate your secure Web connections, such as to Facebook or to a bank website, then re-use those cookies to take over your accounts, at least temporarily.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=only_human;385275]Browsers may fall back to SSL 3.0 when retrying failed connections and then the plaintext of snooped authentication cookies can be calculated.

[URL="http://www.tomsguide.com/us/poodle-fix-how-to,news-19775.html"]'POODLE' Web Flaw: How to Fix Your Browser[/URL][/QUOTE]

The recommended FF fix doesn't work for me - don't see anything like security.tls.version.min in the about::config list, not even a security.tls category.

And let's not forget to give credit where credit is due:
[quote]SSL 3.0 is still used because Internet Explorer 6, which shipped with Microsoft Windows XP and had a five-year reign as Microsoft's flagship browser, is still used. IE6 can't use SSL 3.0's successor, TLS 1.0. Hence, millions of Web servers keep SSL 3.0 alive just so that millions of Windows XP users who never upgraded to IE 7 or IE 8 can see those sites.[/quote]
Thanks, MSFT, first for giving us history's crappiest 64-bit OS rollout - the reason I insisted on XP in the Lenovo laptop I bought in 2008 and never considered upgrading - and for helping to promulgate an apparently unpatchable-in-situ security bug due to shitty crypto. If I didn't know better I might think MSFT is deliberately releasing such stuff to make life easier for its government-spook pals, but fortunately I'm not that cynical.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;385289]The recommended FF fix doesn't work for me - don't see anything like security.tls.version.min in the about::config list, not even a security.tls category[/QUOTE]My FF 3.6.28 has:

security.enable_ssl3

[QUOTE=ewmayer;385289]And let's not forget to give credit where credit is due:
[QUOTE]SSL 3.0 is still used because Internet Explorer 6, which shipped with Microsoft Windows XP and had a five-year reign as Microsoft's flagship browser, is still used. IE6 can't use SSL 3.0's successor, TLS 1.0. Hence, millions of Web servers keep SSL 3.0 alive just so that millions of Windows XP users who never upgraded to IE 7 or IE 8 can see those sites.[/QUOTE]
Thanks, MSFT, first for giving us history's crappiest 64-bit OS rollout - the reason I insisted on XP in the Lenovo laptop I bought in 2008 and never considered upgrading - and for helping to promulgate an apparently unpatchable-in-situ security bug due to shitty crypto. If I didn't know better I might think MSFT is deliberately releasing such stuff to make life easier for its government-spook pals, but fortunately I'm not that cynical.[/QUOTE]IE6 is actively causing harm and misery to the larger population. Eradicating it requires a Herculean effort like that of smallpox eradication. Perhaps we need a digital World Health Organization, border inspections upon crossing over to Microsoft, etc.

[QUOTE=retina;385301]My FF 3.6.28 has:

security.enable_ssl3[/QUOTE]
Our firefox version has a tickbox:
Edit->Preferences->Advanced->Encryption->Use SSL 3.0

[URL="https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2014/10/14/the-poodle-attack-and-the-end-of-ssl-3-0/"]Mozilla Security Blog: The POODLE Attack and the End of SSL 3.0[/URL][QUOTE]SSLv3 will be disabled by default in Firefox 34, which will be released on Nov 25. The code to disable it is landing today in Nightly, and will be promoted to Aurora and Beta in the next few weeks. This timing is intended to allow website operators some time to upgrade any servers that still rely on SSLv3.

As an additional precaution, Firefox 35 will support a generic TLS downgrade protection mechanism known as SCSV. If this is supported by the server, it prevents attacks that rely on insecure fallback.

Additional Precautions

For Firefox users, the simplest way to stay safe is to ensure that Firefox is configured to automatically update. Look under Preferences / Advanced / Update and make sure that “Automatically install updates” is checked.

For users who don’t want to wait till November 25th (when SSLv3 is disabled by default in Firefox 34), we have created the [URL="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ssl-version-control/"]SSL Version Control[/URL] Firefox extension to disable SSLv3 immediately.[/QUOTE]
Read the comments that follow this linked blog entry. Twiddling settings might not work that well. The SSL Version Control extention might be better. Also, the following link was in a comment for testing vulnerability:
[url]https://www.poodletest.com/[/url]

[QUOTE=Nick;385313]Our firefox version has a tickbox:
Edit->Preferences->Advanced->Encryption->Use SSL 3.0[/QUOTE]3.6.28 has this: Tools->Options->Advanced->Encryption->Use SSL 3.0 - but it is hard find with all that pointing and [strike]dicking[/strike] clicking around. So much easier to type ssl3 in the config page.

[QUOTE=retina;385301]My FF 3.6.28 has:

security.enable_ssl3[/QUOTE]

Thanks - I froze my FF version at 22 on my Mac due to the image-rendering-always-on "feature" introduced in v23 (and yes, I know there is an add-on to return image-on/off control to the user; I use that on my WinXP notebook, where I inadvertently upgraded from v22 to v30+ a few months ago), but v22 has the same menu option; toggled it to "false". But note:

[QUOTE=Nick;385313]Our firefox version has a tickbox:
Edit->Preferences->Advanced->Encryption->Use SSL 3.0[/QUOTE]

after toggling the above about::config item I also checked the status of this checkbox - it was still checked. In other words, either there are separate underlying bools at work here (which would be bizarre, but not unheard-of), or the checkbox does not properly "live update" its status based on the value of security.enable_ssl3. So I unchecked it just to be sure.

Thx for the tips, guys.

[QUOTE=only_human;385316]Read the comments that follow this linked blog entry. Twiddling settings might not work that well. The SSL Version Control extention might be better. Also, the following link was in a comment for testing vulnerability:
[url]https://www.poodletest.com/[/url][/QUOTE]

Turned image-rendering on, loaded the no-JS version of the latter page, but even after 2 solid minutes and a page reload, no image appeared. Ah, well. Testing dubious fixes for broken software with more broken software...

Edit: This alternate "test your Poodle vulenerability" site memtioned in the user comments for the above blog post works for me, and confirms "not vulnerable":

[url]https://dev.ssllabs.com/ssltest/viewMyClient.html[/url]

(It seems you must enable JS for this to work, though.)

.

Hehe, thanks for those files. Nostalgia of the pre-GPS era... Around NICT (Tokyo), the signal was so strong that the watches didn't need battery, for a quite long distance. They worked extracting "the parasitic" energy from the ~40kHz signal (LCD watches, not those with handles and coil inside). We used to produce some of those watches in China, for the Japanese market, in '98-'99. I remember a funny story in Romanian newspapers around 2003 or so. After the communism went down, many guys willing to get rich over night went west, or everywhere around the globe, and bought cheap "capitalist stuff" that couldn't (yet) be bought locally, and came back to sell it for higher prices. It took them a while (from 1990) to reach Japan, but eventually they did, and some of them brought back suitcases full of watches which "are always perfectly accurate, never slower, and never faster", thinking of making a lot of money by selling them. You could buy them for nothing in China and Japan. The drama was that the watches, when they woke up in Europe and put their nose out of the suitcase, didn't want to work at all. Mainflingen (the German counterpart) was too far (and anyhow the signal was 77kHz, not optimal to extract any energy from it) and in general there was no long-wave transmitters around, it was the time when (after the radio frequencies were opened to public use; previously under the communist government they were state-monopoly) every radio station in the country went short wave. [edit: with a 40kHz radio signal around, if you could make one in the lab, the clocks still could work, but they showed not very accurate times, as they couldn't "understand" the synchro part, only get the energy from the carrier signal].

I laugh for days imagining the guys with a suitcase full of small wrist watches which show nothing on the LCD...
One guy even wanted to sue the airline, because he thought that the watches suffered some damages during transportation. :rofl:

[url]http://www.rotten.com/library/conspiracy/press-your-luck/[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Larson[/url]

1959 Asimov paper written for DARPA about fostering creativity finally sees the light of day.

[url]http://www.technologyreview.com/view/531911/isaac-asimov-mulls-how-do-people-get-new-ideas/[/url]

[url]http://www.openculture.com/2014/10/what-happens-when-you-take-a-nobel-prize-through-airport-security-2.html[/url]
[quote]“They’re like, ‘Sir, there’s something in your bag.’
I said, ‘Yes, I think it’s this box.’
They said, ‘What’s in the box?’
I said, ‘a large gold medal,’ as one does.
So they opened it up and they said, ‘What’s it made out of?’
I said, ‘gold.’
And they’re like, ‘Uhhhh. Who gave this to you?’
‘The King of Sweden.’
‘Why did he give this to you?’
‘Because I helped discover the expansion rate of the universe was accelerating.’
At which point, they were beginning to lose their sense of humor. I explained to them it was a Nobel Prize, and their main question was, ‘Why were you in Fargo?’”[/quote]
In the late 1930s several nobelists working in Germany dissolved their medals in aqua regia in order to not fall afoul of the Nazi gold-confiscation laws. The medals spent the war as innocuous-looking black solutions in glass reagent bottles on the shelf of a chem lab. After the war the Nobel foundation recast them - the story does not say whether from the precipitated solutions or from "new gold" - and restored them to their owners.

Are we really so egotitsical?
 

[url]http://phys.org/news/2014-10-absolute-copper-cube-chillingly.html[/url][quote]... the coldest cubic meter in the universe for over 15 days ...[/quote]How do they know that? Did they visit every place in the universe simultaneously for a continuous period of 15 days? :no::alien:

[url]http://themetapicture.com/guy-receives-a-text-scam/[/url]

[QUOTE=retina;385713][URL]http://themetapicture.com/guy-receives-a-text-scam/[/URL][/QUOTE]

Priceless!

[QUOTE=retina;385713][url]http://themetapicture.com/guy-receives-a-text-scam/[/url][/QUOTE]

Maybe this one is better:
[url]http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/gumtree-user-conned-out-of-a-playstation-and-gets-revenge/story-fnjwnhzf-1226859078428[/url]

[url=http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/20/paul-mccarthy-butt-plug-sculpture-paris-rightwing-backlash]Paul McCarthy ‘butt plug’ sculpture in Paris provokes rightwing backlash[/url] | The Guardian
[quote]craazyman
[url=http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/10/links-102114.html#comment-2338714]October 21, 2014 at 12:49 pm[/url]

that inflatable butt plug doesn’t look like a “sculpture” to me. It looks like a cartoon tree from Scooby Doo — that fly by in the background when the gang is running from a haunted house with their arms stretched out and fingers waving, screaming “bwaaaaaaaaaa bwaaaaaaaaaa”.

What is that thing doing in Paris anyway? A sculpture shouldn’t be inflatable. You can have an inflatable butt plug (I wouldn’t know), but not an inflatable sculpture. A sculpture needs to be hard.

What would Rodin say if he saw that thing? Oh man. I bet they didn’t deflate it cause it’s a butt plug, I bet they deflated it because it’s an offense to the world of sculptury. Now, if the sculpture had made a butt plug out of chisled marble, something like Rodin could have done, everything would have been OK.

The hard part would be coming up with a proper artistic gesture for a butt plug to model into the sculpture. The live model has advantages that nature morte lacks, when it comes to sculpture. It would be an artistic challenge for sure. You could emphasize the shape and intended motion, but that would be sort of obvious. If somebody pulled it off, it would be worthy. worthy of Paris even. You’d see all sorts of hot art girls sitting around contemplating the butt plug. Writing essays for gallery publications. Speaking in hushed reverential tones about the sculptor’s control over the medium, the evocation, the ironical distancing, the metaphor for cultural issues too taboo to treat in accepted public discourse. They’d be proud. They wouldn’t want to give it back to America, or wherever it came from. Somebody would sit on it, no doubt. It would be a scandal.[/quote]
On first reading the headline I thought it said "Paul McCartney", figured maybe it was some kind of weird, kinky Beatles "replugged" (the opposite of unplugged, natch) reunion tour thing. On realizing my reading miscomprehension, I feel like a right [strike]butt plug[/strike] dildo. My sincerest apologies to Sir Paul and the rest of the surviving lads for the mistake.

Now, I have a mental image of Rodin studying alternate "sit on it" conceptions for [i]The Thinker[/i]. Would such sort of "alternate seating" be conducive to thinking? One wonders.

[URL="https://photomath.net/"]https://photomath.net/[/URL]

[QUOTE=retina;385712][url]http://phys.org/news/2014-10-absolute-copper-cube-chillingly.html[/url]How do they know that? Did they visit every place in the universe simultaneously for a continuous period of 15 days? :no::alien:[/QUOTE]

The average temperature of deep space is 450 times greater than the reported temperature.