wayout

I remembered this thread and just had to add something after having some landscaping work done today. A crew was here doing some work in my backyard for a full day and there was this delectable ginger, just perfectly aged and built for my tastes....I couldn't help myself but be out on the deck and watch him as much as possible pretending to do misc things like watering plants, sweeping the deck, etc without appearing to be gawking. The only negative thing was that it was a very mild and somewhat overcast day so he didn't go shirtless. But I still enjoyed myself thoroughly and am thinking what other projects I need done

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/viewable-for-the-first-time-ne/27352068 For the first time ever, a debris field of the newly discovered Comet LINEAR will pass through Earth's atmosphere, sparking a new meteor shower for sky-watchers primarily in the Northern Hemisphere. "The peak will occur from Friday night into Saturday morning," AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Mark Paquette said, adding meteors can still be seen a few days before and after, but the main grouping of meteors will occur at that time. The new meteor shower, Camelopardalids, is a result of Comet 209P/LINEAR which was discovered in 2004, he said. "It's brand new," he said, referring to the opportunity to view the shower this week. The best viewing conditions will be areas across most of North America. "Generally it will be best (due to clearer skies) across the West, the Great Lakes, mid-Atlantic and eastern Gulf Coast," Paquette said. The best states for viewing include California, Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina. Areas hindered by clouds will include much of New England, the Plains, southern Rockies and Pacific Northwest. Early predictions indicate an average of 100 meteors per hour, which constitutes an average meteor shower. "Meteor storms and meteor showers are different, a shower is generally anywhere from 40 or 50 to 100 meteors per hours," Paquette said. "A meteor storm is usually 1,000 per hour." Another issue for viewing meteor showers is the lunar phase, Paquette added, but the night that the meteor shower peaks, a waning crescent will be present. "The moon shouldn't be a huge deal for this event," he said.

I learn something new every day......I'll try not to freak out this time http://finance.yahoo.com/news/software-glitch-1970s-could-suddenly-212943079.html This Software Glitch From The 1970s Could Suddenly Affect Every Computer On The Planet In 2038 Reuters Remember how panicked we all were about the Y2K crisis back in the year 2000? Everyone freaked out because computers only used two digits to represent a year in their internal clocks, so Jan. 1, 2000 would also be 1/1/00 — the same apparent date as Jan 1. 1900. In 1999, this problem looked as if it might derail modern life, as computers reset themselves as if it were the beginning of the century and not the end. Now there's a new, even bigger global software coding fiasco looming: A huge amount of computer software could fail around the year 2038 because of issues with the way the code that runs them measures time. Once again, just like in 1999/2000, every single piece of software and computer code on the planet must now be checked and updated again. That is not a trivial task. In 2000, we bypassed the Y2K problem by recoding the software. All the software — a fantastically laborious retrospective global patch. Although Y2K was not a disaster, it was a massive disruption to the tech industry at the time. Virtually every company on the planet running any type of software had to locate their specific Y2K issue and hire someone to fix it. Ultimately, Y2K caused ordinary people very few problems — but that's only because there was a huge expenditure of time and resources within the tech business. The 2038 problem will affect software that uses what's called a signed 32-bit integer for storing time. For those who aren't well-versed in computer science, bits are how memory is stored; they are how computers save documents. When a bunch of engineers developed the first UNIX computer operating system in the 1970s, they arbitrarily decided that time would be represented as a signed 32-bit integer (or number), and be measured as the number of milliseconds since 12:00:00 a.m. on January 1, 1970. (For instance, the value "919642718" is 919,642,718 seconds past that date in the 1970s — or Sunday, February 21, 1999, at 19:18:38 ET.) UNIX time coding has since been incorporated widely into any software or hardware system that needs to measure time. This system makes a lot of sense when you need to see how much time has passed between two dates. The problem arises because 32 bit software can only measure a maximum value of 2,147,483,647 seconds. This is the biggest number you can represent using 32 bit system. To understand this, consider that the biggest number you can represent with one digit is 9. The biggest number with two digits is 99. The number system we're used to uses a base of 10. So two digits can represent all of the numbers up to 100, or (10 x 10)-1, which equals 99. And three digits can represent numbers up to 1000, or (10 x 10 x 10) -1 = 999. The binary system that computers use works the same way, but with a binary base of two, instead of 10. And since we're dealing with signed integers — positive or negative — you need one extra digit to indicate that. So for a 32-bit system counting in binary base of two, the highest number it can represent is (2 to the power of 31) -1, which equals ... 2,147,483,647. On January 19, 2038 — 2,147,483,647 seconds after January 1, 1970 — these computer programs will exceed the maximum value of time expressable by a 32-bit system using a base 2 binary counting system, and any software that hasn't been fixed will then wrap back around to zero, thinking that it's 1970 again. To learn more about this problem, we checked in with Jonathan Smith, a Computer and Information Science professor at the University of Pennsylvania. According to Professor Smith, this is a real problem that will affect a specific subset of software that counts on a clock progressing positively. "Most UNIX-based systems use a 32 bit clock that starts at the arbitrary date of 1/1/1970, so adding 68 years gives you a risk of overflow at 2038," he explains. " Timers could stop working, scheduled reminders might not occur (e.g., calendar appointments), scheduled updates or backups might not occur, billing intervals might not be calculated correctly." Thankfully, though, the solution isn't technically difficult. We just need to switch to higher bit values like 64 bits, which will give a higher maximum. In the last few years, more personal computers have made this shift, especially companies that have already needed to project time past 2038, like banks that need to deal with 30-year mortgages. In reality, the 64-bit system just pushes off the problem to a later date when the new maximum is reached, but they do extend the maximum date to 292 billion years from now — which seems like a pretty good deal. Apple claims that the iPhone 5S is the first 64-bit smartphone. But the 2038 problem applies to both hardware and software, so even if the 5S uses 64 bits, an alarm clock app on the phone needs to be updated as well. (If it's using a 32-bit system in 2038 it will wake you up in 1970, so to speak.) So the issue is more of a logistical problem than a technical one. The problem does not seem too urgent — we have 24 years to fix it it! — but its scope is massive.To give you an idea of how slowly corporations can implement software updates, a majority of ATM cash machines were still running Windows XP, and thus vulnerable to hackers, until April of this year even though Microsoft discontinued the product in 2007. And the Y2K fiasco suggests that the tech industry will, by and large, ignore the 2038 issue until it becomes too expensive not to — i.e. the very last minute.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/22/world/asia/thailand-martial-law/index.html?hpt=hp_t1 Hope everyone is safe....

Which brings to mind the obvious...Mormon missionary position

I agree that he doesn't really look that much like Harry. I have learned to never underestimate the bad taste of the public in their viewing pleasures so I wouldn't bet against this being a success....all I know is I won't be watching it.

Very effective presentation....I had no clue that there were so many. The last part is especially effective as it condenses the explosions by country over the time frame one country at a time.

For other weird candies that actually exist: http://www.weirdworm.com/8-weird-candies-that-actually-exist/

Breaking news on CNN about the "Serial Pooper" in Houston.....

That's great...watching it I was reminded of the Great Flydini

I have to think that there must be some movement by someone (whoever has authority or something like that) to make changes so that planes will be able to be tracked by emitting whatever signal will allow that anywhere on the planet (as well as altitude, etc) without anyone on board to have the ability to turn it off.

Maybe this will help visualize the head part...

If you look closely, you will find out this parrot is actually a human. It is created by Johannes Stoetter, who is an expert in creating these amazing detailed body art illusions.

I really enjoyed it also......still get sad thinking of the great talent lost at a relatively young age

I don't think I ever have had crawfish and I have to say they look very creepy and a bit scary to me

It is likely more about the channel and its history rather than the specific video...which I admit I could only get through about a minute and a half before I got bored with it. The channel has over 3 million subscribers so it has built up quite a following over time. I guess not every video hits a home run but I have no intention of watching any others to see if they are any better

Basically a short looped video segment presented like a picture (i.e. don't have to push play button...it just goes on its own). Example below (with apologies to zipperzone). More formal definition on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gif In regards to zipper's original post, I have also noticed more of them and I would say there are times I do find it somewhat annoying as well but not always. I typically just want them to be longer

No need to be sorry...they are definitely cute Almost every boy band I can think of (with at least 4 members) seems to always have one who is gay (usually closeted but eventually comes out). So, as this is a gay site, I don't think it is inappropriate for me to wonder out loud which one (or maybe even more than one) is gay. My gaydar is giving out some strong signals for two of them....but perhaps just wishing thinking And I am mesmerized by this audition and have probably watched it here 25 times or more so far....as Amanda said...Bloody Brilliant.

Correct...told you it was too easy (and I didn't notice the glove but certainly a dead give-away, lol). To be precise, it is a Cardigan Welsh Corgi

Probably too easy/obvious, but I have to do this one because my little mixed girl is part this

It looks very much like my neighbors dog when I was very young...an Alaskan Malamute (sp?)