Nightly Open Thread
Let’s get this party started right:
Best outcome from a rejection letter...ever.
Okay, now that you’re all high on baby giggles (seriously, man, those are the good stuff)…
Intel will now run McAfee as a subsidiary
Interesting for a couple of reasons. One, Intel is trying to position itself & its new acquisition to start dealing with security in the mobile space. But scuttlebutt I’ve heard around Slashdot and elsewhere hints that Intel also wants to start looking at how to respond if a chipset-targeting (rather than OS-targeting) threat ever emerges. Putting a top-tier A/V company into its bag of tricks would certainly better position Intel to start researching and preparing to counter that sort of threat.
What to do if your Facebook/Twitter account gets hacked
Switched follows up on their decent article about email account security.
The last surviving American veteran of the First World War — Frank Buckles — has passed away at the age of 110.
Tonight’s post brought to you by curling…epic, epic curling:
Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
I just watched over six minutes of curling and I have no idea what happened. I was waiting for something exciting, or a funny fail – perhaps a lady falling on her face and being slid into the circle instead of her stone -, but all I got was curling. CURLING. A sport that even Leslie Nielsen himself failed to make funny or interesting in the film Men With Brooms.
A couple of things that struck me while observing the video:
1) Why do they need a separate women’s division for curling? The sport requires athleticism just sub of what it takes to play shuffleboard. Can we not just integrate at this point?
2) If we have to have a women’s league for curling, why aren’t they in bikinis? Okay, the obvious answer is “did you see the women in that video?” But I figure that if you make the uniform a bikini, then the players with the appropriate body type will follow. Sort of like how I am sure there are some less than beautiful chicks who play beach volleyball very well, but if you tune in to a game of beach volleyball on the telly you won’t see them.
Okay, Handshakes…did you not SEE the last shot that the green team made? And then the epic choke that the red team made with the last rock of the game? A perfect shot followed by a shot that went horribly wrong…phenomenal! (Though I will grant that there is a subtlety to curling that not everyone can appreciate.)
As to why there’s a womens’ league…most sports at the professional level are still sex-segregated. This tournament serves to determine who the next Team Canada (that is, Olympic) curling team will be, as well.
And as to the uniforms…have you ever curled? It’s not exactly warm in those rinks…the ice does stay icy, after all.
And as to the players themselves…I’ll see your comment and raise you Team Ontario.
I stand corrected. They are absolutely ready for bikinis.
WtF,
You explain the scene as though it was Kasparov narrating a check mate in a exciting epic 3-hour-long chess match.
About the uniform, they could use those you posted in another NOT post. After all, it’s the Canadian league. At least this game would get more interesting to watch than Bocce.
Hehehe… just kidding.
Kobra,
Curling, despite being centered around the down-ice heaving of heavy rocks, is actually a very delicate game involving no small amount of strategy. Minor variations in angle, pressure, spin, and velocity can make the difference between victory and defeat, between ideal position and a clumsy exit.
As this video demonstrates!
No small amount of strategy? Minor variations in angle, pressure, spin, and velocity? Uh huh.
On a related note, I used to play this game called Tiddleywinks. To the casual observer it may seem like a child’s game wherein you flip little discs into a bowl, but don’t be fooled: Tiddleywinks is the ultimate game of diplomacy and skill. Minor variations in squidger pressure will dramatically alter the flight pattern of the wink, and can spell the difference between a master tiddler, and a hopeless tiddling fool.
Sometimes, after a night of masterful tiddlewinking, I would go on to play other seriously strategical sports like Pop-O-Matic Trouble (subtle differences in popping pressure can change the trajectory of the inner dice, marking the difference between lining up all your pieces or being sent back to start), or Hungry Hungry Hippos (wherein some serious mind games are played out between the participants).
Heh. Hah, even.
Well, let’s see you put it on the button like that, Handshakes. Three tries; beer’s on me if you nail it. 😉