For example, on the useful tip, if you want to survive a zombie apocalypse, and who doesn’t really, then you’ll need to know math. Michael Dhar, from Live Science, has everything you’ll need to know.
This equation could spell your doom: (bN)(S/N)Z = bSZ. That is, if you ever found yourself in the midst of a zombie pandemic.
That’s because the calculation describes the rate of zombie transmission, from one walking dead individual to many, according to its creators, Robert J. Smith?, a mathematics professor at the University of Ottawa who spells his name with a “?” at the end, and his students. Smith?’s work has inspired other researchers to create zombie mathematical models, which will be published with Smith’s work in the upcoming book, “Mathematical Modeling of Zombies” (University of Ottawa Press, 2014).
Though of course done tongue-in-cheek, Smith?’s study demonstrates why zombies are the viruses of the monster world. Their likeness to viruses makes the creatures ideal subjects for theoretical epidemiological analyses, which can be used to capture the public’s imagination as well as explore scientific principles, Smith? said.
So, cool, zombie math can help us survive other viral outbreaks. That’s good to know.
Also if not good then, at least, interesting to know is that nature may have provided proof that faster than light travel is doable. Charles Choi, also of Live Science, brings us that Einstein Universe shattering news.
The particles that make up light, photons, may live for at least 1 quintillion (1 billion multiplied by 1 billion) years, new research suggests.
If photons can die, they could give off particles that travel faster than light.
Many particles in nature decay over time. For instance, radioactive atoms are unstable, eventually breaking down into smaller particles and giving off energy as they do so.
Scientists generally assume photons do not break down, since they are thought to lack any mass with which to decay. However, while all measurements of photons currently suggest they have no mass, they might instead potentially have masses too small for current instruments to measure.
Last year I reported that scientists had come up with a mathematical construct that allowed for faster than light travel. It basically aped Gene Roddenberry’s, oft lampooned, warp drive. who knew old Gene was that visionary?
Speaking of visionary, I would be woefully remiss if I did not share the story written by Ramit Plushnick-Masti about the house made from beer cans.
A child of the Great Depression, John Milkovisch didn’t throw anything away — not even the empty cans of beer he enjoyed each afternoon with his wife.
So, in the early 1970s when aluminum siding on houses was all the rage, he lugged down the cans he had stored in his attic for years, painstakingly cut open and flattened each one and began to wallpaper his home.
“The funny thing is that it wasn’t … to attract attention,” said Ruben Guevara, head of restoration and preservation of the Beer Can House in Houston’s Memorial Park area. “He said himself that if there was a house similar to this a block away, he wouldn’t take the time to go look at it. He had no idea what was the fascination about what he was doing.”
Milkovisch passed away in the mid-1980s, but his wife, Mary, still lived there. Her sons would do work from time to time, replacing rusty steel cans with new ones and restoring a hurricane-destroyed beer wall. And when they feared for her safety because of the gawkers, they put up a privacy fence, embedding beer cans in that as well.
The neighborhood has rapidly transformed since Mary Milkovisch’s death in the mid-1990s, going from a working middle-class area to today’s condo- and loft-lined upper-class sector. But the home remains a well-known entity.
Determined to preserve this accidental piece of folk art, local nonprofit Orange Show Center for Visionary Art bought the property about 10 years ago, began a careful restoration of the house and opened it to the public.
“It shows the human nature of the individual is supreme. You can take the simplest thing, and it can actually affect a lot of other people,” said Houston resident Patrick Louque, who lived in the area when it was John Milkovisch’s pet project. “It’s totally grabbed me, and it’s probably totally grabbed the imagination of more people than I could possibly imagine.”
I can see that. Razor sharp edges and beer make for some fun times.
Nevertheless, since we are discussing frugality, let us turn out eyes to America’s second most glaring example of frugality at the expense of its employees, Mickey-D’s. Caroline Fairchild, of Huff Biz, writes about how University of Kansas undergrad, Arnobio Morelix, figured out that McDonald’s could double everyone’s salaries and barely need to raise prices.
McDonald’s can afford to pay its workers a living wage without sacrificing any of its low menu prices, according to a new study provided to The Huffington Post by a University of Kansas student.
Doubling the salaries and benefits of all McDonald’s employees — from workers earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour to CEO Donald Thompson, whose 2012 compensation totaled $8.75 million — would cause the price of a Big Mac to increase just 68 cents, from $3.99 to $4.67, Arnobio Morelix told HuffPost. In addition, every item on the Dollar Menu would go up by 17 cents.
Morelix’s research comes as fast-food workers across the country strike for a $15 per hour minimum wage. Workers are also protesting for the right to unionize without fear of retaliation. Protesters are holding strikes in seven cities over a four-day period, according to Salon.
Morelix looked at McDonald’s 2012 annual report and discovered that only 17.1 percent of the fast-food giant’s revenue goes toward salaries and benefits. In other words, for every dollar McDonald’s earns, a little more than 17 cents goes toward the income and benefits of its more than 500,000 U.S. employees.
Thus, if McDonald’s executives wanted to double the salaries of all of its employees and keep profits and other expenses the same, it would need to increase prices by just 17 cents per dollar, according to Morelix.
McDonald’s declined a request to comment from The Huffington Post.
Read that again. They can double the CEO’s salary to $17,000,000 a year at a minimal impact to consumers. If they kept their upper management salaries the same and just doubled the in-store workers, the cost to consumers would drop to almost nil. since the company is already under fire for its clueless look at what it takes to live in the real world (Hey! Just work 80 hours a week!), now might be a good time for them to reassess their positions.
Speaking of reassessing a position, I may have to rethink how much credit to give to terrorists. Often portrayed as wily geniuses who plot our destruction I am beginning to think they are more akin to your goofy Aunt Gladys with the tinfoil hat. Jane Sutton reports that the most popular book for imprisoned terrorists is 50 Shades of Gray.
The “Fifty Shades of Grey” series of erotic novels are the favorite reading material among “high-value” prisoners at the Guantanamo detention camp in Cuba, a U.S. congressman said.
Representative Jim Moran of Virginia was among congressional delegates who last week toured Camp 7, the top-security facility that holds more than a dozen “high-value” prisoners, including five men charged with plotting the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.
“Rather than the Koran, the book that is requested most by the (Camp 7 detainees) is ‘Fifty Shades of Grey.’ They’ve read the entire series,” Moran said in an account first published by the“I guess there’s not much going on, these guys are going nowhere, so what the hell.”
The guard tower stands at the entrance to detention facilities at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2012.
Moran, who favors shutting down the detention camp on the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, said he learned about the book’s popularity while touring Camp 7 with the base commander and deputy base commander, the head medical official and the officer in charge of that camp.
Ahem. There are a bunch of guys wearing robes reading this;
“Show me how you pleasure yourself … Keep still … We’re going to have to work on keeping you still, baby … Let’s see if we can make you come like this … You’re so deliciously wet. God, I want you … I’m going to fuck you now, Miss Steele … Hard … Come for me, Ana.”
No. You will never unsee that.
Anyway, nothing can take your mind of bad porn like good ice cream. At least that’s what I’ve been told. However, as Jonathan Stempel writes, you really shouldn’t mix the two.
A southern California pornography studio has reached an agreement with Ben & Jerry’s not to release DVDs and other X-rated products whose names pay homage to the company’s ice cream flavors.
The agreement made public on Tuesday resolves a trademark infringement lawsuit that Ben & Jerry’s filed last September against Caballero Video, also known as Rodax Distributors Inc.
It calls for Caballero to stop selling a variety of products including its “Ben & Cherry’s” film series, which included 10 titles such as “Boston Cream Thighs,” “Chocolate Fudge Babes” and “Peanut Butter D-Cups.”
Ben & Jerry’s had claimed that such titles were too similar to its ice cream flavors such as Boston Cream Pie, Chocolate Fudge Brownie and Peanut Butter Cup.
The agreement also covers labels, packaging and advertising that mimicked Ben & Jerry’s own. Caballero’s packaging featured puffy white clouds and grazing cows, and the slogan “Porno’s Finest.” Ben & Jerry’s uses the slogan “Vermont’s Finest.”
Ice cream porn or I SCREAM porn?
Yeah, that was low rent of me.
So there you have it. News you desperately needed to read all courtesy of the, self proclaimed, Segue King.
Rebecca Tun: Beautiful nightmare (NSFW) from Rollin' Rockstar on Vimeo.
Listen to Bill McCormick on WBIG (FOX! Sports) every Friday around 9:10 AM.
Visit us on Rebel Mouse for even more fun!
contact Bill McCormick