Archive for November 5th, 2011
Pictures: Mock Mars Mission “Returns” to Earth
After nearly a year and a half, the crew of a European mission to “Mars”—including these two, pictured testing Russian space suits last summer—returned home this morning, stepping out of their capsule to much fanfare in Moscow.
In reality, the six men never left Earth. They’ve spent the last 520 days in a mock spaceship in the Russian capital as part of an experiment to study the psychological effects of deep-space voyages.
The Mars500 crew members were physically cut off from the rest of the world and faced with a simulated 20-minute communications delay, to mimic the expected conditions of a real human trip to Mars.
(Related: “Why Did 400 People Volunteer for a One-Way Trip to Mars?”)
The “astronauts” had plenty to do during their voyage: In addition to reading and playing video games, the crew had to conduct experiments on their minds and bodies, repair equipment, and even respond to simulated emergencies-including performing CPR on a mannequin.
Confessions of a Car Salesman – Print Friendly
What really goes on in the back rooms of car dealerships across America?
What does the car salesman do when he leaves you sitting in a sales office and goes to talk with his boss?
What are the tricks salespeople use to increase their profit and how can consumers protect themselves from overpaying?
These were the questions we, the editors at Edmunds.com, wanted to answer for our readers. But how could they really know that our information was accurate and up-to-date? Finally, we came up with the idea of hiring an investigative reporter to work in the industry and experience, firsthand, the life of a car salesman.
We hired Chandler Phillips, a veteran journalist, to go undercover by working at two new car dealerships in the Los Angeles area. First, he would work at a high-volume, high-pressure dealership selling Japanese cars. Then, he’d change over to a smaller car lot that sold domestic cars at “no haggle” prices.
We invite you to read the following account of Phillips’ day-to-day experience on the car lots. Doing so will broaden your understanding of the dealership sales process. It will also cast a new light on the role of the car salesman. And, finally, it will help you get a better deal — and avoid hidden charges — the next time you go to buy or lease a new car.
Read, learn and enjoy.
Oh No They Didn’t! – thirteen movie poster trends that are here to stay and what they say about their movies
I am told ONTD has used these images which are the work of Christophe Courtois. I have ammended this post to point to the ARTISTS website and not ONTD.
These movies are always sappy dramas. Do not allow you to be mislead by the trailer or calibre of the people involved into thinking otherwise. The protagonist/his little brother/father and/or love interest is very likely to end up dead. You probably should keep your tissues handy because you’ll cry tears of sorrow, tears of joy, tears because you just wasted 13 dollars on this movie. This sort of poster is inevitably used for anything that involves Nicholas Sparks
Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview Heads for Theaters | Underwire | Wired.com
Steve Jobs ripped Microsoft a new one back in 1995, when former Apple employee Robert Cringely interviewed his old boss for a PBS special. Fewer than 10 minutes of that crucial videotaped conversation made it into Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires, but the rest — believed to be lost in shipping — is now heading for movie theaters Nov. 16 and 17.
Billed as Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview, the 70-minute feature repurposes a copy of the full interview, which Triumph of the Nerds director Paul Sen discovered in his London garage last month when he went searching for the tape after Jobs’ death.
“The tape is PAL-VHS, dubbed on professional equipment from a D1 master, but VHS is still VHS, which is to say crappy,” Cringely said on his blog in a post about the discovery. “Yet video technology has come a long way since 1995, so we’ve been throwing resolution-enhancement voodoo at that tape.”
lt’s a remarkable rediscovery, even though the quality of the source material, which gathered dust for more than a decade, leaves a little to be desired. The content of the decade-old interview offers a candid look at the tech world’s most successful leader, as caught between Jobs’ stints at Apple. In the clip above, an excerpt from the original PBS broadcast, Jobs describes the Eureka moment when he saw his first graphical user interface during a visit to Xerox PARC.
via Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview Heads for Theaters | Underwire | Wired.com.
Today I was on the front page of reddit, looking like a dork. AMA : IAmA
As Friday reached its end, I pulled up the reddit home page only to find that my old roommate has posted this
AMA
Proof
Some highlights:
EDIT, my new favorite highlight
EDIT~2 After now making the front page for the second time (!!!), it is time for me to call it a day. All you east coasters and basement dwellers can sprinkle on more upvotes while I sleep with all these new internet meme groupies. I’ll be back soon.
via Today I was on the front page of reddit, looking like a dork. AMA : IAmA.
