samhexum

Currently, DWE refers to Driving While Eating for me. Hopefully, it's a good many years before it also stands for Driving While Elderly.

Scientists know a lot about Mars, at least when it comes to what it looks like. Sound, on the other hand, is a lot more challenging and it’s not like we have high-powered microphones listening to the wind sweep across the Martian plains. Now, researchers from Anglia Ruskin University and the University of Exeter in the UK have created an interesting piece of music that wasn’t just inspired by Mars but was actually composed by a computer algorithm using a Mars sunrise as data. The result is a surprisingly pleasing piece of music and you can listen to it yourself. So how was it created? Anglia Ruskin University describes its creation as follows: Researchers created the piece of music by scanning a picture from left to right, pixel by pixel and looking at brightness and color information and combining them with terrain elevation. They used algorithms to assign each element a specific pitch and melody. As you might assume, the quieter notes and flowing background sounds come from the dark area surrounding the sun in the image. Higher-pitched notes are brighter pixels near the bright orb in the center. “We are absolutely thrilled about presenting this work about such a fascinating planet,” Dr. Domenico Vicinanza, one of the scientists involved in the project, said in a statement. “Image sonification is a really flexible technique to explore science and it can be used in several domains, from studying certain characteristics of planet surfaces and atmospheres, to analyzing weather changes or detecting volcanic eruptions.” The piece will actually be “performed,” so to speak, at the SC18 supercomputing conference in Dallas on Nov. 13. Audience members will hear the song through traditional speakers as well as “vibrational transducers” that will let them feel it. Pretty neat.

Scientists know a lot about Mars, at least when it comes to what it looks like. Sound, on the other hand, is a lot more challenging and it’s not like we have high-powered microphones listening to the wind sweep across the Martian plains. Now, researchers from Anglia Ruskin University and the University of Exeter in the UK have created an interesting piece of music that wasn’t just inspired by Mars but was actually composed by a computer algorithm using a Mars sunrise as data. The result is a surprisingly pleasing piece of music and you can listen to it yourself. So how was it created? Anglia Ruskin University describes its creation as follows: <i>Researchers created the piece of music by scanning a picture from left to right, pixel by pixel and looking at brightness and color information and combining them with terrain elevation. They used algorithms to assign each element a specific pitch and melody.</i> As you might assume, the quieter notes and flowing background sounds come from the dark area surrounding the sun in the image. Higher-pitched notes are brighter pixels near the bright orb in the center. “We are absolutely thrilled about presenting this work about such a fascinating planet,” Dr. Domenico Vicinanza, one of the scientists involved in the project, said in a statement. “Image sonification is a really flexible technique to explore science and it can be used in several domains, from studying certain characteristics of planet surfaces and atmospheres, to analyzing weather changes or detecting volcanic eruptions.” The piece will actually be “performed,” so to speak, at the SC18 supercomputing conference in Dallas on Nov. 13. Audience members will hear the song through traditional speakers as well as “vibrational transducers” that will let them feel it. Pretty neat.

Weird Al Yankovic to perform with the Queens Symphony Orchestra in Forest Hills next summer A new show has been added to the Forest Hills Stadium that will bring some “mandatory fun” to the performance. On July 20, 2019, “Weird Al” Yankovic will take the stage at the Forest Hills Stadium for his new “Strings Attached” tour but with a twist – his back-up band will be a symphony orchestra. “I wanted to follow up my most bare-bones tour ever with my most elaborate and extravagant tour ever,” Yankovic said. “We’re pulling out all the stops for this one.” Yankovic, known for his parodies of popular songs such as “Eat It,” “Smells Like Nirvana,” “White & Nerdy,” “Tacky” and “The Hamilton Polka,” will perform with the Queens Symphony Orchestra. The show will also include props, costumes and a video wall as he performs his high-energy rock set. Yankovic’s 14th studio album “Mandatory Fun,” which was released in 2014, was the first comedy album to hit the number one spot on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart, making it the first comedy album to reach the top of the chart in over 50 years. Tickets will be available starting on Nov. 16 at 10 a.m. For more information, visit foresthillsstadium.com.

Weird Al Yankovic to perform with the Queens Symphony Orchestra in Forest Hills next summer A new show has been added to the Forest Hills Stadium that will bring some “mandatory fun” to the performance. On July 20, 2019, “Weird Al” Yankovic will take the stage at the Forest Hills Stadium for his new “Strings Attached” tour but with a twist – his back-up band will be a symphony orchestra. “I wanted to follow up my most bare-bones tour ever with my most elaborate and extravagant tour ever,” Yankovic said. “We’re pulling out all the stops for this one.” Yankovic, known for his parodies of popular songs such as “Eat It,” “Smells Like Nirvana,” “White & Nerdy,” “Tacky” and “The Hamilton Polka,” will perform with the Queens Symphony Orchestra. The show will also include props, costumes and a video wall as he performs his high-energy rock set. Yankovic’s 14th studio album “Mandatory Fun,” which was released in 2014, was the first comedy album to hit the number one spot on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart, making it the first comedy album to reach the top of the chart in over 50 years. Tickets will be available starting on Nov. 16 at 10 a.m. For more information, visit foresthillsstadium.com.

Colleen Rose Dewhurst (3 June 1924 – 22 August 1991) was a Canadian-American actress. She is known most for playing Avery Brown, the feisty mother of Candice Bergen's title character; this role earned her two Emmy Awards, the second being awarded posthumously. She married and divorced George C. Scott twice.

OY! You're as uninformed about TV trivia as Trump is about environmental issues. Who do you think Avery was named after? Hint... she's in this picture:

General Patton married Avery Brown twice. I laid it all out in pictures above.

DUH... and her brother is Charlie McCarthy.

You know his daughter is Murphy Brown, right? MARRIED (TWICE)

Utah man is state’s first rabies death in 74 years A Utah man who caught bats and let his wife play with them, died of rabies — the first death of its kind in the state in 74 years. Gary Giles, 55, first began having neck and back pain on Oct. 19 and doctors thought he’d just pulled a muscle. But the pain only got worse and turned to numbness and tingling. “Being touched, he felt like he had pins and needles all over his skin,” Giles’ daughter Crystal Sedgwick told Fox13. “He felt like his skin was on fire.” It wasn’t until Giles died on Sunday at Utah Valley Hospital that doctors realized he’d been infected with rabies, Sedgwick said. The state’s health department believe he contracted the deadly virus from bats, which literally hung around his home, but they’re still working to confirm the theory. “My mom has always thought that bats were really cute, so he would sit there and hold them for her and let her pet their heads, and they would lick them,” Sedgwick said. Sedgwick’s mom, Juanita Giles, said she didn’t realize the bats that infested their home could be carriers of the highly contagious ailment. “I had no clue,” she told KSL. “We would wake up in the night and they would be walking on our bed.”EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!! “I’ve always thought bats were kind of cute, but I had no idea the kind of risk we were at.” Since her husband’s death, Juanita said she and the rest of the family are getting vaccinated — just in case. The last time someone died of rabies in Utah was 1944. According to the CDC, there have only been 23 cases of human rabies reported in the US between 2008 and 2017.

California's Woolsey Fire destroys homes of singer Robin Thicke, reality star Camille Grammer (link) The Woolsey Fire currently ravaging southern California has claimed the homes of several stars, including singer Robin Thicke and reality star Camille Grammer. Also Neil Young, Gerard Butler (not to be confused with Jerry Butler, the late porn star and ex-Mr. Wednesday Addams)

Dorothy: Now look, all this nonsense has to stop, Rose. What we saw was not a UFO. Rose: Well, it wasn't a plane. Planes aren't that thin, or that bright. Dorothy: Neither is Oprah Winfrey, but that doesn't make her a flying saucer.

Holy Cow! Astronomers Agog at Mysterious New Supernova An event known as "Cow" that has rocked astronomy since June likely offers a close look at the birth of a neutron star or black hole https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/holy-cow-astronomers-agog-at-mysterious-new-supernova/

I don’t know if it's just that this was the slowest, most boring episode ever, or that the current cast is totally bland, or that I am just so sick of hearing and reading about sexual harassment, but I just cannot get through it. I started it Thursday night, resumed watching it twice yesterday, and still have 15 minutes to go. I don’t know if I’ll even bother finishing it. I’ve already deleted THE COOL KIDS from my dvr; any more episodes like this, and SVU will be next. That’s what Dick Wolf gets for allowing a former paramedic to direct a 20-year-old dinosaur.

A bit late to the party, aren't we? https://www.companyofmen.org/threads/300-400-now-the-norm.108820/page-7#post-1645680

These last 2 posts are just lovely

The Bucks Joined the NBA’s Elite Around the Time Giannis Blew the Warriors Off Their Own Floor How do you know when an upstart contender hits another level? It looks a lot like what Antetokounmpo did in Thursday’s second quarter at Golden State. There’s a moment when it all lines up—when what you’ve been imagining and theorizing about becomes real, and all that’s left is just to sit back and watch. It happened at Oracle Arena on Thursday, with about five minutes left in the second quarter. The Milwaukee Bucks held a slim 44-41 lead over the Golden State Warriors. Through the game’s first 19 minutes, the two heavyweights—in one corner, the sport’s dominant dynasty and the West’s top seed; in the other, a challenger with the East’s best point differential—had fought in a phone booth, with neither side able to get hot from behind the 3-point arc or create more than two possessions’ worth of separation. And then, with 5:01 to go in the first half, Giannis Antetokounmpo checked back in, and everything clicked: All of a sudden, that three-point lead ballooned to 15. The Bucks had just crushed the two-time-defending NBA champions in their own gym. By the end of the barrage, Antetokounmpo had totaled nine points, two rebounds, an assist, a steal, and a block in barely three minutes. On a court also occupied by two in-their-prime NBA MVPs, he was the best player—by far. An arena that’s grown accustomed to seeing the hometown team render the final period meaningless got to witness the visitors insisting on 12 minutes of garbage time. After the 134-111 pummeling, Antetokounmpo verbalized the message he and the Bucks had just sent: “We’ve arrived.” By now, you probably know the reasons for that arrival. New head coach Mike Budenholzer has overhauled the Bucks’ schemes, emphasizing spacing and 3-point shooting on offense, and trying to force opponents to take lower-value midrange jumpers on the defensive end. The early returns have been remarkable: Milwaukee ranks second in the NBA in points scored per possession and third inpoints allowed per possession, the only team in the league in the top five in both categories, and is off to its best start in 47 years. At the center of it all, as always, was Giannis. He’s not really the most natural fit in a five-out, shoot-it-as-soon-as-you-get-it offense—he is currently shooting a crisp 8.7 percent from 3-point range—but he’s the engine that makes it all go, because his presence induces defensive panic on every possession. Knowing that Antetokounmpo can get to the rim in two steps from virtually anywhere inside of half court, and that he is shooting 73 percent once he gets there, leaves even well-drilled and well-intentioned defenders cheating a step his way. That creates all the opening he needs to ping the ball around the perimeter, stay one step ahead of the rotations of scrambling defenders, and find great looks. Most nights, those looks come from outside, with Milwaukee ranking second in the league in 3-point attempts per game and first in makes. But as the Curry-led Warriors know better than anyone, when you stretch a defense out far enough, it snaps, and from there, you can get whatever you want: The Bucks scored a season-high 84 points in the paint at Oracle. “Very similar to four years ago here,” Curry told reporters on Wednesday. “A change of scenery sometimes helps. You get a little boost of energy, a little shift of focus and perspective, and that little bit of difference can unlock something.” So far, it looks like it’s unlocked Antetokounmpo, allowing him to be the most fully formed and devastating version of himself we’ve ever seen—one capable of not just snatching a game out of the hands of two of the five best players in the world, but doing it so stoically that how wild it is barely registers. . The Bucks have arrived. Giannis is here. The future is now.

Burger King employee goes viral for helping elderly customer Now that’s some good customer service. A Virginia Burger King employee is going viral for her act of kindness. Nineteen-year-old Alexis Easter, who works at the fast-food chain in Mechanicsville, was photographed escorting an elderly customer to his car. The man, known to Easter as Mr. John, is a regular at the restaurant. “When he’s done, I help him to the car because he has a terrible back. When we get to his car, we talk and I make sure he’s safe,” the employee told WTVR. Easter’s simple act caught the attention of a passerby, who snapped a photo of the young woman and her customer, which she shared on social media. “Shout out to the cashier at the Mechanicsville Burger King, making this world a little brighter,” Elizabeth Chandler wrote on Facebook. Chandler said she was so impressed by what Easter was doing for the man. “Seeing her help this gentleman was so heartwarming. It’s so seldom to see people going out of their way for others and expecting nothing in return. Since posting this I learned that Alexis is only 19 and does this on a regular basis for any customer in need,”Chandler told Yahoo. Easter always tries to do what she can to provide the best customer service. “Always go out of your way to help others,” she told WTVR. Chandler, who also frequents this Burger King, said Easter isn’t the only employee who goes above and beyond their job description. “That’s the culture at that Burger King. Every employee I have ever seen goes so far out of their way for everyone. Another employee named Monica hands out plaques to those going through hard times, including my grandmother when she was going through treatment for cancer,” she told WTVR.

Sordid evidence emerges in case of castrated dead soccer star When handsome 24-year-old footballer Daniel Correa Freitas joined the throng of family and friends celebrating the 18th birthday of a friend, he had little idea of the horror that lay in store. A champagne-fueled evening in a local nightclub had culminated early in the morning at an impromptu party at the family home of Allana Brittes. It was here, at 8 a.m., that Freitas sent a series of selfies on WhatsApp showing him lying in bed alongside Allana’s mother, Cristiana. “I’m going to devour the birthday girl’s mom…and the dad is here,’’ a grinning Freitas wrote to friends. One replied: “That guy is going to beat you up.” Little could the friend have known the extent to which this casual, jocular prediction would come true. Just hours after that exchange Freitas was dead, his body dumped in bushes in a nearby town — he had been castrated and nearly decapitated. Revenge attack after ‘rape’ The gruesome discovery in the southern Brazilian city of San Jose dos Pinhais has made headlines around the world, not in the least because of the bizarre events that have unfolded in its aftermath. Three days after Freitas’ body was found, Allana’s father, Edison Brittes Jr., a well-known businessman, admitted to killing him, claiming it was a revenge attack after finding Frietas attempting to rape his wife, Cristiana. The murder investigation has been full of twists and turns, and among the issues puzzling detectives now are toxicology reports showing the amount of alcohol in Freitas’ bloodstream. Yet, while Edison insisted he acted alone, police have also arrested both Cristiana and Allana on suspicion of helping to cover up the soccer star’s murder – and they are still looking for another three people they believe may have been involved in his death. The soccer player on the cusp of stardom The claims and counterclaims in the shocking case have transfixed the Brazilian public, who are still coming to terms with the shocking death of a boy who played in their equivalent of the English Premier League. Freitas, who was signed by leading club Sao Paulo two years ago, was tipped for a glittering future. A popular figure among teammates, his soulful eyes and athletic frame meant he had no shortage of female admirers — among them Allana, whom he met in 2017 while playing on loan for her home city of Curitiba. This week, she insisted to police that their yearlong friendship was purely platonic, although it was strong enough for Freitas to make the two-hour journey from Sao Bento, where he was based, to join her intimate 18th birthday celebration. Only 20 people were invited to the party in a Curitiba nightclub on Oct. 26. The party eventually ended in the early hours of the 27th at the family home. ‘I’m going to devour the birthday girl’s mum … and the dad is here’ Exactly what happened next is the subject of the ongoing police investigation, but at some point after 8 a.m., Freitas sent a series of WhatsApp messages to friends in which he claimed he was about to have sex with Cristiana. Accompanied by a selfie showing him lying in bed alongside either a sleeping or possibly unconscious Cristiana — still wearing the dress she wore to the party — the grinning footballer wrote: “I can sleep here. There are several women sleeping all over the house.” In a subsequent message, he took things further: “I’m going to devour the birthday girl’s mum … and the dad is here.” He followed it up with another message 10 minutes later, which read simply: “I ate her.” He was found dead by passers-by, practically beheaded with severed genitals hours later. In the immediate aftermath, Edison did his best to appear normal, even calling a friend of Freitas to commiserate over his death. In a recording, obtained by Brazilian news outfit Globo News, he called Freitas’ death “a tragedy,” offering to help and insisting that the victim had left the family’s house alive. “Man, we don’t know what happened. He has not left (his) cellphone, he’s gone,” he said. “Allana is in shock, man. God, I had to try to soothe (her) down.” ‘He was beaten and killed cruelly’ His daughter, meanwhile, was also at pains to suggest she knew nothing. In a series of text message exchanges with Freitas’ anguished mother and aunt she too insisted that Freitas had left her home alone at around 8 a.m. “He just said goodbye, got up and left,” she wrote in one message to Freitas’ mother, adding, “Let’s have faith. It will be all right.” When his mother sent a subsequent audio message saying that Freitas was dead, Allana responded that she did not believe it. “Tell me it’s a lie,” she wrote. A day later, she posted a picture of herself with Freitas on Instagram suggesting she was upset that he had not sent her a birthday card. “This year you did not send me one,” she wrote, alongside a crying emoji. Murder confession and screams from the bedroom Two days later her father was arrested on suspicion of murder – a murder to which he quickly confessed, claiming to have acted in a “moment of madness” after hearing his wife’s anguished screams from their bedroom. In a televised interview with a Brazilian television station, he described smashing down the master bedroom door down to find the soccer star lying on top of his wife. “She was screaming and begging for help,” he said. “What I did was what any man would do, because the woman that was there was not my wife, she was every woman in Brazil. “It could be your daughter, sister, mother or wife. At that moment it was my wife, Cris, who I have been married to for 20 years.” He added: “When I threw him off my wife, I threw him on the floor and stopped her being raped by that monstrous scumbag. I hit him a lot, a lot and took him out of the house. I don’t know if he was awake or unconscious or if he had just closed his eyes. “I wasn’t thinking of anything. I had a knife in the car, a small knife, which was with the tools in the trunk. I did not know I was going to do that, I was desperate, besides myself with rage. I looked in the trunk and saw what was there.” More than one attacker? Adding that he had put the soccer star’s body in the trunk of the car, he insisted that while his friends had helped him take him out of the house they had tried to stop him from committing the crime. “But they could not do it,” he insisted. His version of events was apparently backed up this week by both Allana — who told police she too heard screaming from her mother’s bedroom – and Cristiana herself, who in a statement to detectives claimed she woke to find the player rubbing his penis against her before her husband stabbed him. “Cristiana confirms that she suffered sexual abuse without penetration by (Freitas) who rubbed his penis on her,” her lawyer Claudio Dalledone Jr. revealed this week. “She was drunk, asleep and thought it was a dream. She saw him on top of her and started screaming.” The police are not yet convinced this is the truth, as investigator, Amadeu Trevisan, made clear this week. “The facts don’t add up,” he declared, emphasizing that it had not yet been proven whether Freitas had had sex with the suspect’s wife – and, moreover, that police believed that three more people participated in the soccer star’s beating. “We are identifying who was in the house with the main suspect on that night. We believe three people entered the room with (Edison) and the player (in order) to kill Daniel. “Regardless of what happened between Daniel and the wife of the main suspect, the reaction of the aggressor was disproportionate. He was beaten and killed cruelly.” Of that there is no doubt. Yet on Thursday night, as they prepared to question Cristiana, Edison defiantly continued to insist that he committed the crime on his own – hinting that he would do the same again if he had to. “Rumors always get started but the truth will come out,” he said. “I know I did what I did. I want everybody watching to think what they would do to keep the moral integrity of your family and help a small and fragile woman.”