Life is colorful for this Amazonian parrot. Freddy Krueger managed to escape from three life threatening situations. Recently, Freddy was abducted by armed thieves, shot at, and bitten by a snake (thankfully not venomous). Two days later, he returned to the zoo bloody and mangled ... but alive.
Visit the Guardian to know more about Freddy’s exciting adventure.
(Image Credit: Kevin Rushby/ The Guardian)
After the US airline industry was deregulated in 1978, suddenly everyone wanted to own their own airplane. Through the 1980s, small companies with a few planes sprung up like dandelions. Many were existing companies that has nothing to do with flight, but figured since they already had a brand, they could exploit it to make it in the passenger transport business. Like Hooters.
Hooters is best known as America’s original “breastaurant” chain, with waitresses wearing revealing clothes and regularly enduring sexual harassment from customers. In 2003, the restaurant tried to move their business to the skies, launching Hooters Air.
The Hooters brand ambassadors weren’t certified as flight attendants so their role was limited to drink and food service. Supposedly known for their wings, Hooters Air didn’t serve their signature dish, just soft pretzels and pigs in a blanket.
At its peak, Hooters Air flew to 15 different cities, many of them smaller markets like Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Columbus, Ohio.
Alas, Hooters Air only lasted three years. But it was far from the only bizarre airline born in the '80s. Read about some other mind-bending erstwhile airlines at Paleofuture.
Insurance companies rely heavily on data to predict future risk. A recent experiment by Łukasz Kidziński at Stanford University in California and Kinga Kita-Wojciechowska at the University of Warsaw in Poland tested predictive algorithms for auto accidents by collaborating with an unnamed Polish auto insurance company. Data from 20,000 insurance customers had already been mined thoroughly by the company, using demographics to predict future accidents. Could the researchers find a better way?
To find out, the researchers entered each policyholder’s address into Google Street View and downloaded an image of the residence. They classified this dwelling according to its type (detached house, terraced house, block of flats, etc.), its age, and its condition. Finally, the researchers number-crunched this data set to see how it correlated with the likelihood that a policyholder would make a claim.
The results are something of a surprise. It turns out that a policyholder’s residence is a surprisingly good predictor of the likelihood that he or she will make a claim. “We found that features visible on a picture of a house can be predictive of car accident risk, independently from classically used variables such as age or zip code,” say Kidziński and Kita-Wojciechowska.
When these factors are added to the insurer’s state-of-the-art risk model, they improve its predictive power by 2%. To put that in perspective, the insurer’s model is better than a null model by only 8% and is based on a much larger data set that includes variables such as age, sex, and claim history.
While the results are impressive, and somewhat uncanny, they are also disturbing. Who is looking at your house now? And what can they predict from (in my case) a 12-year-old Street View picture taken before I moved here and remodeled? Read about the research at MIT Technology Review. -via Digg
(Image credit: Google Maps)
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Though admittedly, there's much more happening in Las Vegas than just the glitz and glamour, fun and booze which people associate with it and the popular Vegas Strip where it all happens. It's not all sin city.
Allison Sanchez from Uproxx gives us another size of Vegas that many tourists might not know. Here are ten things that you can do in Vegas apart from the stereotypical casinos, luxurious hotels, and everything else Vegas is known for.
(Image credit: Daniil Vnoutchkov/Unsplash)
Some of the greatest and timeless music worthy to be included in a canon of music in history are said to be inimitable because they are so unique and ingrained in our memories that only the original artist or band can truly bring out everything special about the song.
But inevitably, even in this artistic aspect of life, AI begins to invade. With the use of deep learning software and just a few snippets from songs, computers can now recreate and create songs.
Dadabots is an AI band created by CJ Carr and Zack Zukowski using deep learning software. Real snippets of music by death metal band Archspire are fed through the SampleRNN neural network to create Relentless Doppelganger, a constant, livestreaming aural assault that is actually pretty listenable. If you like death metal.
You may hear a sample of the music that Dadabots created on Cult of Weird.
(Image credit: Franck V./Unsplash)
Warning! Mother's day is Sunday, May 12th. Are you prepared!
It's not too late to get your sharp witted, scientifically minded, hardworking, and cookie loving Mom something fabulous to wear from the NeatoShop. We know this is a shirt that she sport more than periodically.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great gift ideas. New items arriving weekly.
We specialize in curvy and hard to find sizes. We carry size inclusive apparel from infant size 6 months to adult size 10 XL. We believe that fun and fabulous people come in every size.
Any reasonably intelligent person can provide basic care for your dog while you are away from the home. But for dog walkers with a flair for creative writing, there are additional opportunities. Karin Bruilliard explains in the Washington Post (paywalled, sorry) that many dog owners appreciate and will pay extra for a dog walker who can leave detailed and amusing reports about their dogs' adventures:
In a nation where people lead ever more busy lives and increasingly view their dogs as family members, professional dog walking is flourishing. And along with it is what might be viewed as the unusual art of dog walker communication. Many of today’s walkers do not simply stroll — not if they want to be rehired, anyway. Over text and email, they craft fine-grained, delightful narratives tracing the journey from arrival at the residence to drop-off. They report the number of bathroom stops. They take artistic photos, and lots of them.
“For an hour-long walk, I send six or eight, depending,” said Griffin, 44, who holds a treat in her hand when shooting to ensure her charge is looking at the camera. “Then I give a full report that includes not only peeing and pooping but also kind of general well-being, and if the dog socialized with other dogs.”
[...]
When sending his monthly bill, Moraga said he always includes a handwritten note on custom stationery, telling a dog’s owner “what they’ve done through the month, what they’ve learned, what we’re planning on doing next month.”
Rover requires its walkers to complete a standardized “report card” that includes arrival and drop-off times, route and pit stops. But sections for adding photos and a written account are where “walkers can really shine,” said Jenna White, the company’s director of dog-walking operations. New walkers are shown examples of particularly strong narratives during training, as well as advice on photos, the best of which White said have good lighting and not too much motion. Shots taken at iconic local spots, like doggy senior portraits, are even better, she said.
-via Marginal Revolution
Chris Advansun is the master of a unique craft: telling stories that will put you to sleep.
Advansun calls himself a "sleep writer." Famous actors, including Matthew McConaughey, have recorded his stories into the app Calm.com. These stories are designed to hold your mild interest, but not get your heart racing in excitement. CBC News explains:
Advansun says the key is to get the attention of the listener and then "hold it gently" without ever jostling them awake. He maintains this is a tough balance to achieve … especially since Advansun is trained as a screenwriter (think plot twists, car chases and explosions).
"I certainly didn't set out to write stories that put people to sleep," he jokes. "I have sort of fallen into it, and I adore it. It's not only quite rewarding, it is a great challenge as a writer."
In the interview, Advansun describes what goes into a good bedtime story for adults:
My stories are mainly fictional stories that do have a character who goes on a journey.
The way I think about it is that it's not a riveting, gripping journey with wrenching twists and turns. It is not that kind of story.
I am taking traditional storytelling — where you are building things up, you are building up tension and stakes and conflict and inverting that.
So we start with a bit of a character problem, but it is not terribly dramatic. And I unwind the whole story, so by the end we have soothed the listener off to sleep.
-via Marginal Revolution
Never mind what Marvel and DC are up to! For the hottest, most exciting comics, you need to head over to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Three new thrilling comic books there explain monetary policy, the history of the Federal Reserve System, and banking.
You can download PDF versions from the site. Middle schools and high schools in the USA can also request 35 free print copies. These come with lesson plans, worksheets, and classroom discussion guides.
Instagram member pinksith snapped this photo of a cosplayer at Star Wars Celebration in Chicago this past April. George Lucas has modified his iconic jeans and blue plaid flannel shirt to suit his new role as Jabba's slave.
Yes, you’ve read it right. A pig cafe.
Japan’s first ever Micro Pig Cafe (Mipig) aims to change the perception of the people about pigs. Instead of viewing pigs as livestock, they would like to promote pigs as adorable pets.
Oh my piggies! They are super cute and cuddly.
Check out the awesome pictures and lovely videos at Sora News 24.
(Image Credit: Sora News 24)
Survival of the fittest. This is the law of the jungle. The very same tactic that is used by parasitoid wasps. The wasps zombify spiders and make them weave a special web. Then, the wasps use the web to suspend themselves before they finally kill their spider host.
William Eberhard, staff scientist emeritus at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Marcelo Gonzaga at the Universidade Federal de Uberlândia in Brazil have assembled wide-ranging evidence that 'zombification' involves hacking existing web-spinning mechanisms by hijacking the spider's own molting hormone, ecdysone.
In a new paper published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society they combined a review of all known reports of different wasp species known to zombify different spider species around the world; the results from a molecular study in Brazil; and new observations of Costa Rican spiders to demonstrate several previously unappreciated patterns that suggest that the wasp larvae use ecdysone.
It is really impressive how the wasps induce the spider to modify the design of the web. The net made by the controlled spider is forty times stronger than the conventional one thus becoming a stable home for the pupal cocoon.
(Image Credit: Marcelo O. Gonzaga)
This 4 minute epic production of stop motion and animation features delightful voice over acting and a charming story line. It appears to be a mix between the classic 1980's cartoon genre and anime all done with happy Lego babies. Enjoy!
The late great Queen frontman adored his nine cats. He lavished them with everything that they need. Here are some photos taken of Freddie Mercury with some of his cats. Most of the photos were taken by Peter Freestone and included in Freddie Mercury's memoir.
(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)
