On the 8 Spot

Except for the fact that he is at the top of his niche I think this is repeatable in many other context!

“I mean,” Vicki said, “what’s the hook?”

Now, the Great Zucchini was eating toilet paper.

“I mean, are you that desperate?” she asked.

On the floor in front of us, the kids — 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds — were convulsed in laughter. Literally. They were rolling on the carpeted floor, holding their tummies, mouths agape, little teeth jubilantly bared, squealing with abandon. In the vernacular of stand-up, the Great Zucchini was killing. Among his victims was Trey, who, as promised, had indeed been re-transitioned into his own party.

The show lasted 35 minutes, and when it was over, an initially skeptical Don Cox forked over a check without complaint. The fee was $300. It was the first of four shows the Great Zucchini would do that Saturday, each at the same price. The following day, there were four more. This was a typical weekend.

Do the math, if you can handle the results. This unmarried, 35-year-old community college dropout makes more than $100,000 a year, with a two-day workweek. Not bad for a complete idiot.

If you want to understand why the Great Zucchini has this kind of success, you need look no further than the stresses of suburban Washington parenting. The attendant brew of love, guilt and toddler-set social pressures puts an arguably unrealistic value on someone with the skills, and the willingness, to control and delight a roistering roomful of preschoolers for a blessed half-hour.

That’s the easy part. Here’s the hard part: There are dozens of professional children’s entertainers in the Washington area, but only one is as successful and intriguing, and as completely over-the-top preposterous, as the Great Zucchini. And if you want to know why that is — the hook, Vicki, the hook — it’s going to take some time.

via The Peekaboo Paradox – washingtonpost.com.

from here:

Mac hacked in under 10 seconds at PWN2OWN E-mail

by by Davey Winder

So just how secure is your Apple computer now that Mac hacker supremo Charlie Miller has broken into a MacBook in less than 10 seconds?

The annual CanSecWest PWN2OWN competition is always guaranteed to grab a few headlines and spark off another OS Wars flame. Last year security researcher Charlie Miller managed to hack a Mac in a rather astonishing two minutes flat.

This year he pulled off the same feat to win the contest, the MacBook he hacked and a US $5000 prize. Well the same feat but a lot quicker: how does Mac hacked in under 10 seconds grab you as a headline?

Although full extent of what the hack entailed remain a little sketchy, with Miller refusing to reveal the vulnerability details at this time, it is known that both the MacBook and the version of

The reason for that lack of detail would appear to wrapped up in the fact that the cash prize also took the form of a payment from the competition sponsor,

Obviously the whole cracked in 10 seconds thing is worrying, but just how worried should you be if you are a Mac or Safari user? Truth be told, I am not convinced that this is as big a deal as it sounds.

Yes, any vulnerability needs investigating. But the under 10 seconds thing was only achieved because Miller simply provided a

Miller says that he provided the link, the judges clicked it and he then showed them he had full control of the MacBook concerned.

via

The problem is not waiting but actually not knowing how long the waiting would be. I think the doctor could actually try to implement gathering of patient statistics. I imagine that when you get appointments you already have a reason to go. The doctor could aggregate patient data on how long it takes per procedure and the variance with respect to each patient. This would help the doctor in estimating more accurately how feasible is the appointments for the day.

I agree with ML(17) and Saumya. I would like to add that if the waiting room was designed to have activities that were well suited to how long the average waiting time is. They need to make waiting rooms more activity centered rather than waiting/magazine reading centered!.

Is the Waiting Room Necessary?

By Daniel Hamermesh

I spent 40 minutes waiting to begin diagnostic tests preparatory to seeing my ophthalmologist. What a waste of my valuable time! And my calculations from data from the American Time Use Survey suggest that this is a standard problem: the average adult American spends four hours per year waiting for medical or dental care, with each wait averaging around 45 minutes.

Pricing this time out at even half the average wage rate, the cost amounts to about $5 billion per year. Seems like a lot, and very inefficient, but what is the alternative?

The only way that every medical provider could ensure no waiting would be for the provider to have downtime herself, in order to have unutilized resources, both of her time and the services of the capital stock used in the practice. I’m not sure what’s the right mix of provider and customer waiting; but as annoying as my waiting is, the current system may be economically efficient.

via Is the Waiting Room Necessary? – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com.

from freakonomics blog at nyt:

“He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much; who has enjoyed the trust of pure women, the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who has left the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who has never lacked appreciation of earth’s beauty or failed to express it; who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best he had; whose life was an inspiration; whose memory is a benediction.”

via Quotes Uncovered: Did Emerson Define Success? – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com.