Testing
IndieWeb baby steps
Testing
NBC’s Head of Research Reveals Data About Online Viewing & Argues that More People Are Watching ‘Parks & Recreation’ Than the Ratings Indicate – Ratings | TVbytheNumbers.Zap2it.com
For the past few years, networks have been touting the point-of-view that Live +Same Day ratings are now less than important than Live +Seven and that Nielsen ratings do not adequately measure the rapidly changing ways that viewers are consuming television. At the network’s TCA panels, NBC’s President of Research & Media Development Alan Wurtzel made a compelling case that far more people watch NBC programming than the current ratings reflect.
Five years ago, eighty three percent of television programs were watched live. Today, only sixty one percent are. That’s not a surprise, given the proliferation of DVRs. Wurtzel pointed out that lots of viewers watch previously recording programs during primetime. In fact, DVR playbacks average a 1.4 adults 18-49 rating during primetime, meaning that DVR playback is essentially an invisible additional broadcast network.
via NBC’s Head of Research Reveals Data About Online Viewing & Argues that More People Are Watching ‘Parks & Recreation’ Than the Ratings Indicate – Ratings | TVbytheNumbers.Zap2it.com.
Good friends are hard to find – and even harder to keep | Tim Lott | Commentisfree | The Guardian
I do not know what I am doing right to have kept such good friends for so long, but it is certainly worth pointing out that none of them have got to the present point without negotiating moments of crisis. In each of my closest friends there have been moments when the friendship has nearly foundered – but we somehow came through them to a relationship that was stronger than it was before the crisis.
The nature of friendship changes, and you have to change with it. Once, hopefully, I fascinated my friends and charmed them. After 40 years, I am sure I often bore them – and that is inevitable. A good friendship, like a good marriage, ceases after a while to be a mutual entertainment society and becomes instead a sorority or fraternity of battle-scarred veterans. We are still here, we still enjoy being around each other, and we treasure our shared histories. This is something precious, even if it isn’t always a laugh riot.
Is there a secret to long friendships? Simply this – an absence of pride. Too many falter on stubbornness or the determination to hold on to offence. Successful ones rely on humility and the recognition of human fallibility. These are not merely useful attributes. They are the heart and soul of friendship.
via Good friends are hard to find – and even harder to keep | Tim Lott | Commentisfree | The Guardian.
Robin Williams and Why Funny People Kill Themselves | Cracked.com
You ever have that funny friend, the class clown type, who one day just stopped being funny around you? Did it make you think they were depressed? Because it’s far more likely that, in reality, that was the first time they were comfortable enough around you to drop the act.
The ones who kill themselves, well, they’re funny right up to the end.
By now you know that Robin Williams has committed suicide, but I’m not here to talk about him. He’s gone, and you’re still here, and suicidal thoughts are so common among our readers and writers that our message board has a hidden section where moderators can coordinate responses to suicide threats. And in case you’re wondering, no, that’s not a joke — I remember the first time John tracked down a guy’s location and got an ambulance dispatched to his house. Then we all sat there, at four in the morning, waiting to hear if they got there in time (they did).
Because Cracked is driven by an army of aspiring comedy writer freelancers, the message boards are full of a certain personality type. And while I don’t know what percentage of funny people suffer from depression, from a rough survey of the ones I know and work with, I’d say it’s approximately “all of them.” So when I hear some naive soul say, “Wow, how could a wacky guy like [insert famous dead comedian here] just [insert method of early self-destruction here]? He was always joking around and having a great time!”, my only response is a blank stare.
That’s honestly the equivalent of, “How can that cow be dead? She had to be healthy, because these hamburgers we made from her are delicious!”
via Robin Williams and Why Funny People Kill Themselves | Cracked.com.
NASA: New "impossible" engine works, could change space travel forever
Shawyer’s engine is extremely light and simple. It provides a thrust by “bouncing microwaves around in a closed container.” The microwaves are generated using electricity that can be provided by solar energy. No propellant is necessary, which means that this thrusters can work forever unless a hardware failure occurs. If real, this would be a major breakthrough in space propulsion technology.
Obviously, the entire thing sounded preposterous to everyone. In theory, this thing shouldn’t work at all. So people laughed and laughed and ignored him. Everyone except a team of Chinese scientists. They built one in 2009 and it worked: They were able to produce 720 millinewton, which is reportedly enough to build a satellite thruster. And still, nobody else believed it.
Now, American scientist Guido Fetta and a team at NASA Eagleworks—the advanced propulsion skunkworks led by Dr Harold “Sonny” White at the Johnson Space Center—have published a new paper that demonstrates that a similar engine working on the same principles does indeed produce thrust. Their model, however, produces much less thrust—just 30 to 50 micronewtons. But it works, which is amazing on its own. They haven’t explained why their engine works, but it does work:
Test results indicate that the RF resonant cavity thruster design, which is unique as an electric propulsion device, is producing a force that is not attributable to any classical electromagnetic phenomenon and therefore is potentially demonstrating an interaction with the quantum vacuum virtual plasma.
The entire idea that we have found something that seems to go against the the principle of conservation of momentum just seems crazy to me. But the fact that it has worked for two independent parties can’t be denied. That’s the laboratory speaking. Then again, perhaps both labs made a mistake. I’m sure this will be tested by the Russians and the Europeans too, but at least I’m glad we are working on it.
But the fact that we may be witnessing something completely new, something that may push us forward into sci-fi territory once again, is very exciting.
via NASA: New “impossible” engine works, could change space travel forever.
Border failure rocks House GOP leadership | MSNBC
This is, of course, great news for Sen. Ted Cruz R-Texas, who now appears to have more influence over what happens in the House than the actual House Republican leadership team.But in the meantime, John Boehner’s Speakership is turning into something of a tragedy. How many times has he put together a bill, only to be betrayed by his own followers? A Democratic source on Capitol Hill recently sent around a brutal collection of bills Boehner asked his members to support, only to see his own House GOP conference reject his appeals: a grand bargain, a debt-ceiling bill in 2011, a payroll tax extension, a transportation bill, a farm bill, one fiscal-cliff bill, another fiscal-cliff bill, another farm bill, and then yesterday. I think my source might have even missed a couple, including the collapse of Boehner’s debt-ceiling bill in February 2014.We’ll have more on this later, but for now Boehner has to be asking himself about the value of a leader with no followers. As if we needed additional evidence, he remains the Speaker In Name Only.
via Border failure rocks House GOP leadership | MSNBC.
Surprising Trait At Google Of Best Leaders – Business Insider
Autonomy is the key to employee happiness and outsized performanceThe freedom that a consistent leader provides is a powerful force because having autonomy over one’s work is one of the most potent motivators of personal productivity.In 2004, psychologists, Edward Deci and Richard Ryan conducted a study of hundreds of associates at an investment bank on their job satisfaction. They found that the highest job satisfaction ratings came from employees whose bosses offered “autonomy support” — that is, acknowledgment, encouragement, and structure around getting work done as the employee determines, not the manager.The kicker is that Deci and Ryan also discovered that the employees with autonomy were not only the happiest, they were also the ones with the highest job performance.Great leadership is never about being a dramatic hero. It’s just not about you. Instead it’s about providing support to your team by being willing to be seen as boring and predictable.Provide information they need, work from their perspective, cultivate their performance by offering them the oxygen to succeed. Then they’ll have the breathing room and self-determination to shine.
via Surprising Trait At Google Of Best Leaders – Business Insider.
The life lessons school should teach you | Lauren Laverne | Lifeandstyle | The Guardian
Education University isn’t everything. But it is something. Everyone I know in fancypants media London claims they burned through their time at their alma mater like a packet of Rizlas, but I’m often the only person they know who didn’t go.
It’s OK to be a nerd If nerds ran the world there would be no wars. Only unconvincing battle re-enactments in meticulously correct period costume.
Love Never date anyone who is rude to waiters. (Knowing this in advance could have prevented the poisoning of five years of my life.)
Style Never buy anything to impress someone you don’t know. Never wear a T-shirt with a face on it that’s more attractive than yours. If you are ever going to wear a crop top, the time is now.
Socialising All the good bits of a night out happen before 2am. Don’t feel the need to stay up any later. Drugs have a terrible rate of return: they make you ugly, boring and ill, in that order. (The legal ones are the worst.) When talking to someone you like, don’t be nonchalant. Be complimentary. Everyone likes compliments, except dickheads, and it’s usually politic to identify them as quickly as possible.
via The life lessons school should teach you | Lauren Laverne | Lifeandstyle | The Guardian.
6 Things That Strong Leaders Inherently Do Different – Millennial CEO | Millennial CEO
While I believe that much about leadership can be learned, I have also come to find out that the practice of leadership is rarely successful via the application of textbook principles. As someone who has long studied, taught, and practiced leadership, trust me when I say there are thousands of leadership principles. Most of which can be found in what seems to be a million books and seminars that teach leadership and its surrounding ideology.
However, what it really comes down to isn’t the leaders in depth training and knowledge of leadership practices. Where the rubber truly meets the road are the inherent actions and subconscious beliefs of the leader. These make all the difference in the world and while there are countless things that individual leaders do drive performance and behavior, there are also some things that are more consistent among strong leaders. Here are 6 that I have identified so far.
via 6 Things That Strong Leaders Inherently Do Different – Millennial CEO | Millennial CEO.