- When DaughterGeeding came home from school yesterday she rushed upstairs to my home office and excitedly showed me that she lost her first tooth. I was actually a bit sad, melancholy I guess. That darn girl is growing up on me, faster than I’d like. Before bedtime, she was telling me and her mother how she couldn’t wait to put her tooth under her pillow to see what the tooth fairy would bring. She then followed that up with a whisper, “But I really know it’s just you, Mom and Dad.”
- BoyGeeding had his second blastball (tee-ball) practice yesterday. Last week just focused on baserunning, this week he learned how to scoop up a grounder and took his first swing at the tee. His father never had any formalized coaching when it came to anything baseball related, so I’m learning a few things myself. Parents were asked to participate helping the kids learn how to scoop up the ball. I jokingly told WifeGeeding that I didn’t want to, there was a reason why I’m paying for someone else to play with our kid. I could tell some parents were getting frustrated with their child not getting in front of the ball, scooping it up properly, or being able to throw it back. My approach was just to work on the bare basics and make sure BoyGeeding was having fun but paying attention.
- GeedingManor got pounded by marble-sized hail last night, though a neighbor tweeted a picture of some near golfball size. Roofers will be knocking on our neighborhood doors non-stop for the next few weeks.
- WifeGeeding’s nephew’s birthday is approaching and he wants one of those LED adhesive strips that you can plug in and attach to a surface and change it to any color you want by remote. I started a search for “LED strip” on a few merchant websites and was surprised at some of the results. I didn’t consider “strip” could possibly result in some mature content. Oy vey. Que sera, sera.
- I like my chiropractor and have seen her only a few times this year. When I check out, she always tells me her billing person is behind and not to worry about anything and I just go ahead and pay my copay. But yesterday I got the bill in the mail from her, the first one all year, and she handwrote and signed, “Please send payment ASAP.”
- Prairie View women’s coach fired for kicking off players for dating – Brown removed two of her players during the season for dating each other. Brown’s rule stated that players may not have non-professional relationship with each other, coaches, managers, trainers or any others affiliated with the team.
- Man Invents Biodegradable Algae Water Bottles As A Green Alternative To Plastic – It keeps its shape until it’s empty and then it begins to decompose.
- Buzzfeed – Obama Does The Tango In Argentina – CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller posted this image after the president’s tango, in which he says the dancer is reassuring First Lady Michelle Obama that it “was just a dance.” But she didn’t sit on the sidelines. Michelle Obama strutted her stuff on the dance floor, too
- This is the look of a man enjoying retirement – Buzzfeed – David Letterman Is Bald, Bearded, And Happy As Hell
- Buzzfeed – Drive-Thru Baristas Pray With A Woman Who Just Lost Her Husband And It’ll Make You Weep
- The war on Christmas starts early in Nebraska – Millard school board member wants winter break called Christmas break, says atheists who disagree can ‘crawl back into their hellhole’
- North Carolina news – Man arrested for not returning ‘Freddy Got Fingered’ VHS from 2002
- Today’s dose of ‘MURICA! (Image, language warning)
- Whenever I hear a celebrity is about to become a parent for the first time, I often wonder what that experience must be like not having to worry one iota about finances regarding health care, day to day living, college, and retirement.
- Read this as Maxwell Smart would say this, “Missed it by ONE block.” – Company tears down wrong tornado-damaged home in Rowlett
- I had no idea they had a luxury brand – Hyundai’s upstart luxury brand Genesis — think Lexus to Toyota or Acura to Honda — has unveiled its next car. It’s a sports sedan called the New York Concept and, refreshingly, it actually looks rather special. – That’s one funky looking steering wheel that will never make it to market.
- Less than 1% of users are keeping the entire mobile game industry afloat
- The Trucker Chapel photo caught my attention – The Winners of the Smithsonian Magazine’s 2015 Photo Contest
- Today is Maundy Thursday, and in case you ever wondered what it is, it focuses on two important events that occurred the day before Jesus’ crucifixion:
First, Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with His disciples and thereby instituted the Lord’s Supper, also called Communion (Luke 22:19-20). Some Christian churches observe a special Communion service on Maundy Thursday in memory of Jesus’ Last Supper with His disciples. Second, Jesus washed the disciples’ feet as an act of humility and service, thereby setting an example that we should love and serve one another in humility (John 13:3-17). Some Christian churches observe a foot-washing ceremony on Maundy Thursday to commemorate Jesus’ washing the feet of the disciples.The word Maundy is derived from the Latin word for “command.” The “Maundy” in “Maundy Thursday” refers to the command Jesus gave to the disciples at the Last Supper, that they should love and serve one another.
How Apple Deconstructs an iPhone For Recycling
True innovation means considering what happens to a product at every stage of its life cycle. Liam disassembles your iPhone when it’s no longer functioning, so the materials inside can live on.
Real-time Face Capture and Reenactment
We present a novel approach for real-time facial reenactment of a monocular target video sequence (e.g., Youtube video). The source sequence is also a monocular video stream, captured live with a commodity webcam. Our goal is to animate the facial expressions of the target video by a source actor and re-render the manipulated output video in a photo-realistic fashion. To this end, we first address the under-constrained problem of facial identity recovery from monocular video by non-rigid model-based bundling. At run time, we track facial expressions of both source and target video using a dense photometric consistency measure. Reenactment is then achieved by fast and efficient deformation transfer between source and target. The mouth interior that best matches the re-targeted expression is retrieved from the target sequence and warped to produce an accurate fit. Finally, we convincingly re-render the synthesized target face on top of the corresponding video stream such that it seamlessly blends with the real-world illumination. We demonstrate our method in a live setup, where Youtube videos are reenacted in real time.
Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, March 23, 2016
- DaughterGeeding is in kindergarten. One of her homework assignments this week is to memorize sections of the introduction and preamble of the Declaration of Independence, something I think that was assigned to me in the seventh grade. You know those parts, “When in the course of human events . . . . We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created, equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
- Mapping Consistently Partisan Counties – When it comes to recent presidential elections, geography — at least in some stubborn places — is destiny.
- Cruz and Trump going after each others wives is silly, but sure is entertaining. Though the group responsible for the ad featuring Trump’s wife doesn’t appear to have any connection with the Cruz campaign.
- I don’t think a new reality TV judge should be nominated until we have a new president so we can let the people decide – Sarah Palin to host reality show as TV judge – The former Alaska governor, who does not have a law degree, signed a deal with Montana-based production company Warm Springs for a reality court show that would premiere next year if it’s picked up by stations, according to Howard Bragman of Fifteen Minutes PR, which represents the production company.
- I know most of my readers aren’t a fan of President Obama and are critical of him attending a baseball game in the wake of the Brussels attack, but I side with Obama on this one for several reasons though I can see how he can appear remote and impassive, he’s called “No Drama Obama” for a reason. If the attack was domestic, he certainly should have returned back to Washington. It’s not like he didn’t care when he heard the news and I think he’s correct in saying we can’t let terrorists disrupt our daily lives and quoting David Ortiz that terrorists can’t dictate our freedom. And finally, it’s not like he stayed the whole game, he just stayed for three innings.
- Baylor student pulls gun during armed robbery during armed robbery – A Baylor student pulled his own gun and foiled an armed robbery attempt after meeting with two men late Tuesday afternoon in a South Waco park to complete a Craigslist deal to sell a cellphone, a PlayStation and an iPad, police said.
- GIF – Some of you may wince at this – Cracking knuckles under a fluoroscope
- Amazon’s new NFL reality series follows one team for an entire season – First up: the 2015 Arizona Cardinals
- The Disturbing Events That Inspired the Red Wedding in ‘Game of Thrones’
- Buzzfeed – This Invention Will Make Peeing While Wearing A Wedding Dress Way Easier
- Buzzfeed – Police Had To Break Up A Fight Between Two Bald Eagles Because America
- 7-Eleven is debuting a Slurpee donut – The Wild Cherry Slurpee Donut is a cake donut with wild cherry-flavored icing, covered in sugar crystals that Brand Eating theorizes are intended to give the treat an “ice-like crunch.”
- Craig Sager says doctor gave him diagnosis of 3-6 months to live – In an interview that will air Tuesday [yesterday], Sager revealed that doctors told him last month the cancer had returned, and gave him “3–6 months” diagnosis to live.
- When Brad Stevens left Butler to coach the Celtics I thought he might be in over his head, but I’m glad I appear to be wrong.
- I hear good things about The Royale Magnificent Burgers in Plano. My Canadian readers will be happy to hear they serve poutine.
- Alabama teachers may soon receive training on not having sex with students