Predator defecation, Digital Distribution & Poor Accounting
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Predator defecation, Digital Distribution & Poor Accounting
Deviboy has gone missing. What nefarious act has the DJ performed? Where is our co-host? Don't worry, he isn't dead, just busy.
It's enough to make your butthole clench. Or it would be, if you were a frog. A species of beetle has been discovered that used predator defecation in order to escape being lunch. It's a bit gross, but points for style.
It's time to enter the future and go entirely digital, according to Take Two's CEO. DJ likes his feelies too much to stop buying physical collectors editions though. Maybe we could convince him with a VR house full of VR collectables?
If you need motivation to get your accounting in order, it turns out animators in Japan are being short changed by the incompetence of the studios' finance teams. Poor business skills in a highly in demand creative industry? Say it ain't so!
This week DJ did nothing of note while Professor hiked across Iceland with a baby.
The beetle now has a special power : predator defecation
Take Two CEO’s digital warning
Poor accounting = Low animator wages
Games Played
DJ
– DNP
Rating: 0
Dev-i-boy
– DEATH STRANDING -https://store.steampowered.com/app/1190460/DEATH_STRANDING/
Rating: 4/5
Other topics discussed
Donald Trump signs executive order effectively banning TikTok, WeChat in US in 45 days
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-07/trump-issues-tiktok-executive-order/12533938
Microsoft pushes ahead to buy TikTok after US President Donald Trump said he would ban the app in the US
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-04/tiktok-sale-to-microsoft-australia-us-impact-ban/12521546
Facebook launches its new TikTok clone, Instagram Reels
- https://www.engadget.com/instagram-reels-tiktok-rival-164624402.html
The Simpson : Homer is a giant
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_eRvJXw7b4
Wilson’s Flubber moment
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZhqwMmIBDY
Puffer Fish natural defense (The pufferfish's secondary defense mechanism, used if successfully pursued, is to fill its extremely elastic stomach with water (or air when outside the water) until it is much larger and almost spherical in shape. Even if they are not visible when the puffer is not inflated, all puffers have pointed spines, so a hungry predator may suddenly find itself facing an unpalatable, pointy ball rather than a slow, tasty fish.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraodontidae#Natural_defenses
The Simpsons – In the Belly Of The Boss (From treehouse of Horror 15)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQT5YtI9ecA
Acid Tolerance in Amphibians
- https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-abstract/35/4/239/225162?redirectedFrom=PDF
Take- Two Interactive (Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City and founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take-Two_Interactive
List of Take-Two Interactive games (It publishes games through 2K Games (Battleborn, BioShock,Borderlands,Evolve,Mafia, Sid Meier's Civilization, The Darkness, XCOM), 2K Play (Carnival Games), 2K Sports (NBA 2K,WWE 2K), Ghost Story Games, Private Division (Kerbal Space Program), Rockstar Games (Bully,Grand Theft Auto, L.A. Noire, Manhunt,Max Payne,Midnight Club,Red Dead) and Social Point (Tasty Town, Word Life).)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Take-Two_Interactive_games
Digital distribution of video games (In the video game industry, digital distribution is the process of deliveringvideo game content as digital information, without the exchange or purchase of new physical media.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_distribution_of_video_games
Cardboard disc included with Fallout 76 Power Armor PC edition
Playstation 5 : Digital Version vs Standard PS5
- https://www.pushsquare.com/guides/ps5-digital-edition-vs-standard-ps5-whats-the-difference
PlayStation Now (PlayStation Now (PS Now) is a cloud gaming subscription service developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The service allows members to stream PlayStation 2,PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4 games on PlayStation 4 and PC. PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 4 games can be downloaded to play locally on PlayStation 4.)
- https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/explore/playstation-now/
Google Stadia (Stadia is a cloud gaming service developed and operated by Google.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Stadia
Price increase for next-gen games is “justified”, says Take-Two CEO
The G2A Controversy: What Actually Happened?
- https://www.indiegamewebsite.com/2019/07/23/the-g2a-controversy-what-actually-happened/
Digital Right management (DRM) (tools or technological protection measures (TPM) are a set of access control technologies for restricting the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management
Denuvo (Denuvo Anti-Tamper, more commonly known as Denuvo, is an anti-tamper technology and digital rights management (DRM) scheme developed by Austrian software company Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH, a subsidiary of Irdeto.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denuvo
Doom Eternal removes Denuvo
GeForce Now (GeForce Now is the brand used by Nvidia for its cloud gaming service.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_Now
You can play with mods on GFN
- https://www.reddit.com/r/GeForceNOW/comments/f3ber7/psa_you_can_play_with_mods_on_gfn/
Hollywood Accounting ((also known as Hollywood bookkeeping) refers to the opaque or creative accounting methods used by the film, video, and television industry to budget and record profits for film projects.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting
Crunchyroll's Investigation - The Future of Anime Production in a COVID-19 World
Japanese Work Environment (Many both in and outside Japan share an image of the Japanese work environment that is based on a "simultaneous recruiting of new graduates" and "lifetime-employment" model used by large companies as well as a reputation of long work-hours and strong devotion to one's company.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_work_environment
Average Animator Salary in Australia
- https://www.payscale.com/research/AU/Job=Animator/Salary
Average Salary for Pixar Animation Studios Employees (Pixar Animation Studios pays its employees an average of $85,154 a year.)
- https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Employer=Pixar_Animation_Studios/Salary
Death Stranding is pretty much Iceland roaming simulator 2019
Heartman (Death Stranding character) (Heartman is a Bridges member who researches the Death Stranding.)
- https://deathstranding.fandom.com/wiki/Heartman
Die-Hardman (Death Stranding character) (Die-Hardman, born John Blake McClane, is the third and current President of the United Cities of America and Director of Bridges.)
- https://deathstranding.fandom.com/wiki/Die-Hardman
Deadman (Death Stranding character) (Deadman is a main character in Death Stranding. He appears to be involved in the medical field for Bridges. He is an artificial human, created from a combination of cadavers and stems cells.)
- https://deathstranding.fandom.com/wiki/Deadman
Batman: Arkham Knight PC port was a disaster
- https://www.pcgamer.com/au/batman-arkham-knights-launch-appears-to-be-a-disaster/
How to upgrade your PS4 Hard Drive
- https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/how-to-upgrade-your-ps4-hard-drive/
Blair (The Thing character) (Blair was the Senior Biologist of the U.S. Outpost 31. He is portrayed by Wilford Brimley.)
- https://thething.fandom.com/wiki/Blair
All-or-None Law for Nerves and Muscles explained
- https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-all-or-none-law-2794808
John Hinckley Jr. (American who, on March 30, 1981, attempted to assassinate U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hinckley_Jr.
John Hinckley’s release conditions (Hinckley was released from institutional psychiatric care on September 10, 2016, with many conditions. He was required to live full-time at his mother's home in Williamsburg, Virginia. In addition, the following prohibitions and requirements were imposed on him.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hinckley_Jr.#Release
Ricardo López (known as the "Björk stalker", was a Uruguayan-American pest control worker who attempted to kill Icelandic musician Björk in September 1996.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_L%C3%B3pez_(stalker)
Death of Garry Hoy (lawyer for the law firm of Holden Day Wilson in Toronto who died when he fell from the 24th floor of his office building in Toronto.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Garry_Hoy
The Lawmower Man (a 1992 science-fiction action-horror film directed by Brett Leonard and written by Leonard and Gimel Everett.)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lawnmower_Man_(film)
Scared Sh*tless Podcast (TNC Podcast)
- https://thatsnotcanon.com/scaredshitlesspodcast
Shout Outs
29 July 2020 – ‘Phantom of the Opera’ Closes in West End After 34 Years Due to Coronavirus Impact - https://variety.com/2020/legit/global/coronavirus-phantom-of-the-opera-london-west-end-1234719396/
“The Phantom of the Opera” is the latest victim of the coronavirus pandemic. After a 34-year run at Her Majesty’s Theater in London’s West End theater district, Richard Stilgoe and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical won’t be raising its curtains again, according to producer Cameron Mackintosh. However, Lloyd Webber appears to be more optimistic about reopening, tweeting on Tuesday: “As far as I’m concerned Phantom will reopen as soon as is possible” – ALW.
1 August 2020 – Wilford Brimley, ‘Cocoon’ Star and Quaker Oats Pitchman, passed away at 85 - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/wilford-brimley-dead-cocoon-actor-937941
Wilford Brimley, a portly actor with a walrus mustache who found his niche playing cantankerous coots in “Absence of Malice,” “The Natural,” “Cocoon” and other films has passed away. InCocoon (1985), directed by Ron Howard, Brimley portrayed Ben Luckett, one of the residents of the Sunny Shores retirement home whose health miraculously improves after a dip in the pool next door. In the 1980s and 1990s Mr. Brimley was a television fixture as a spokesman for Quaker Oats, gruffly telling viewers to eat the cereal because “it’s the right thing to do,” and Liberty Medical, a company selling diabetes-testing supplies. He died from kidney conditions in St. George, Utah.
2 August 2020 – SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spalshdown - https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/schools/spacex-brings-nasa-crew-back-to-earth-in-first-splashdown-in-45-years-121561
Two NASA astronauts returned to Earth on Sunday in a dramatic, retro-style splashdown, their capsule parachuting into the Gulf of Mexico to close out an unprecedented test flight by Elon Musk's SpaceX company. It was the first splashdown by US astronauts in 45 years, with the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to carry people to and from orbit. The last time NASA astronauts returned from space to water was on July 24, 1975, in the Pacific, the scene of most splashdowns, to end a joint US-Soviet mission known as Apollo-Soyuz. The return clears the way for another SpaceX crew launch as early as next month and possible tourist flights next year. Test pilots Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken arrived back on Earth in their SpaceX Dragon capsule named Endeavour, less than a day after departing the International Space Station and two months after blasting off from Florida. Discovery and Science Channel’s simulcasted coverage Sunday of the return of the Space X Crew Dragon spacecraft from its two-month stint at the International Space Station was watched by 4.3 million viewers on the cable networks, Discovery said. To keep the returning astronauts safe in the pandemic, the recovery crew quarantined for two weeks and were tested for the coronavirus.
3 August 2020 – William English, Computer Mouse Co-Creator, passed away at 91 - https://hackaday.com/2020/08/03/william-english-computer-mouse-co-creator-has-passed/
William English, the man who was a key engineer in co-creating a computer mouse and gave the users the facility of moving images on screen, has passed away. Around 1960, English had joined Douglas Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) to aid him in the development of a predecessor of what is today’s computer. Their version of the computer has a brown box with buttons or mouse which was a key piece of their model since it helped users control the objects on a screen interface. William’s mouse was utilitarian: a wooden block with two perpendicular wheels on the bottom, and a pair of potentiometers inside to interpret the wheels’ X and Y positions. The analog inputs are converted to digital and represented on the screen. The first mouse had a single button, and the cord was designed to run out the bottom, not the top. William had played an important role in the ‘mother of all demos’ in 1968, during which Engelbart had used a split-screen video to show side-by-side the movements of a hand-controlled mouse and the on-screen movement of the cursor. Engelbart said that he did not know why the device was called a mouse, as it had started that way and they just never changed. Bill designed all the audio-visuals for the demo, set everything up, and staged the 90+ minute presentation by speaking to Englebart and others through headsets. He died from respiratory failure in San Rafael, California, on July 26, 2020.
4 August 2020 – Frances Allen, first woman to win Turing Award for contributions to computing, passed away at 88 - https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/frances-allen-first-woman-to-win-turing-award-for-contributions-to-computing-dies-at-88/2020/08/06/7ea7d7a2-d7f0-11ea-930e-d88518c57dcc_story.html
Frances Allen, a former high school math teacher who became one of the leading computer scientists of her generation and, in 2006, was the first woman to win the A.M. Turing Award, considered the Nobel Prize in computing passed away. Renowned for her seminal work in optimizing the creation of computer software programs and high-performance computing systems, Ms. Allen earned her stellar reputation in the esoteric field of software compilers. Simply put, her efforts over a distinguished 45-year career at IBM helped software designers generate more-powerful and efficient code, which led to huge advances in the use of supercomputers and parallel processing, and eventually in all levels of computing. Her work, which set the tone for how people in the field think about compiler optimization, bridged the gap between how computers communicate and how people communicate, thus opening up the use of computers to scientists and engineers and others outside the glass-enclosed fortresses of the data centers. Allen became the first female IBM Fellow in 1989. She retired from IBM in 2002 but remained affiliated with the corporation as a Fellow Emerita. In 2007, the IBM Ph.D. Fellowship Award was created in her honor. She died from complications of Alzheimer’s disease in Schenectady, New York.
Remembrances
4 August 1875 – Hans Christian Andersen - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Christian_Andersen
Usually called H.C. Andersen, was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his fairy tales. Andersen's fairy tales, consisting of 156 stories across nine volumes and translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well. His most famous fairy tales include "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Little Mermaid," "The Nightingale," "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", "The Red Shoes", "The Princess and the Pea," "The Snow Queen," "The Ugly Duckling," "The Little Match Girl," and "Thumbelina." His stories have inspired ballets, plays, and animated and live-action films. One of Copenhagen's widest and busiest boulevards, skirting Copenhagen City Hall Square at the corner of which Andersen's larger-than-life bronze statue sits, is named "H.C. Andersens Boulevard." At the time of his death, Andersen was internationally revered, and the Danish Government paid him an annual stipend as a "national treasure". He died from liver cancer at the age of 70 in Østerbro,Copenhagen.
4 August 1977 – Edgar Adrian - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Adrian
Edgar Douglas Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian, English electrophysiologist and recipient of the 1932 Nobel Prize for Physiology, won jointly with Sir Charles Sherrington for work on the function of neurons. He provided experimental evidence for the all-or-none law of nerves. Continuing earlier studies of Keith Lucas, he used a capillary electrometer and cathode ray tube to amplify the signals produced by the nervous system and was able to record the electrical discharge of single nerve fibres under physical stimulus. (It seems he used frogs in his experiments) An accidental discovery by Adrian in 1928 proved the presence of electricity within nerve cells. A key result, published in 1928, stated that the excitation of the skin under constant stimulus is initially strong but gradually decreases over time, whereas the sensory impulses passing along the nerves from the point of contact are constant in strength, yet are reduced in frequency over time, and the sensation in the brain diminishes as a result. Extending these results to the study of pain causes by the stimulus of the nervous system, he made discoveries about the reception of such signals in the brain and spatial distribution of the sensory areas of the cerebral cortex in different animals. These conclusions lead to the idea of a sensory map, called the homunculus, in the somatosensory system. Later, Adrian used the electroencephalogram to study the electrical activity of the brain in humans. His work on the abnormalities of the Berger rhythm paved the way for subsequent investigation in epilepsy and other cerebral pathologies. He died at the age of 87 in Cambridge.
4 August 2014 – James Brady - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Brady
James Scott Brady, assistant to the U.S. President and the fifteenth White House Press Secretary, serving under President Ronald Reagan. In 1981, Brady became permanently disabled from a gunshot wound during the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. His death was ruled a homicide, caused by the gunshot wound he received 33 years earlier. On March 30, 1981, 69 days into his presidency, Ronald Reagan and his cabinet members, including Brady, were leaving the Washington Hilton Hotel when a gunman opened fire. The first of six bullets hit Brady. The gunman was 25-year-old John Hinckley Jr. Although Brady survived, the wound left him with slurred speech and partial paralysis that required the full-time use of a wheelchair. Kobrine, his neurosurgeon, described him as having difficulty controlling his emotions while speaking after the shooting, saying "he would kind of cry-talk for a while", and suffering deficits in memory and thinking, such as failing to recognize people. In 1996, Brady received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton, the highest civilian award in the United States. Brady died at at the age of 73 in Alexandria, Virginia. Four days later, the medical examiner ruled that his death was a homicide, caused by the gunshot wound which he sustained in 1981. Hinckley did not face any charges for Brady's death because he had been found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Famous Birthdays
3 August 1811 – Elisha Otis - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisha_Otis
Elisha Graves Otis, American industrialist, founder of the Otis Elevator Company, and inventor of a safety device that prevents elevators from falling if the hoisting cable fails. At the age of 40, while he was cleaning up the factory, he wondered how he could get all the old debris up to the upper levels of the factory. He had heard of hoisting platforms, but these often broke, and he was unwilling to take the risks. He and his sons, who were also tinkerers, designed their own "safety elevator" and tested it successfully. He initially thought so little of it he neither patented it nor requested a bonus from his superiors for it, nor did he try to sell it. After having made several sales, and after the bedstead factory declined, Otis took the opportunity to make an elevator company out of it, initially called Union Elevator Works and later Otis Brothers & Co. At the New York Crystal Palace, Otis amazed a crowd when he ordered the only rope holding the platform on which he was standing cut. The rope was severed by an axeman, and the platform fell only a few inches before coming to a halt. The safety locking mechanism had worked, and people gained greater willingness to ride in traction elevators; these elevators quickly became the type in most common usage and helped make present-day skyscrapers possible. He was born in Halifax, Vermont.
4 August 1834 – John Venn - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Venn
English mathematician, logician and philosopher noted for introducing the Venn diagram, used in the fields of set theory, probability, logic, statistics, competition math, and computer science. In 1866, Venn published The Logic of Chance, a ground-breaking book which espoused the frequency theory of probability, offering that probability should be determined by how often something is forecast to occur as opposed to “educated” assumptions. Venn then further developed George Boole's theories in the 1881 work Symbolic Logic, where he highlighted what would become known as Venn diagrams. He built rare machines. A certain machine was meant to bowl cricket balls. The machine was so fascinating that when Australian cricketers were visiting Cambridge, the machines were used to entertain their arrival. The bowl cricket ball machine that Venn built actually bowled out the top ranked player of the team four times consecutively. He was born in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire.
4 August 1975 – Andy Hallet - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Hallett
Andrew Alcott Hallett, American singer and actor who became known from playing the part of Lorne in the television series Angel (2000–2004). He used his singing talents often on the show, and performed two songs on the series' 2005 soundtrack album, Angel: Live Fast, Die Never. After moving to Los Angeles, Hallett worked as a runner for an agency and then as a property manager. He eventually became a personal assistant to Kai Cole, wife of Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon. When the couple and their friends saw Hallett singing at the "B.B. Kings" lounge at Universal City Walk, Whedon conceived a new character for his new show Angel: Lorne, an anagogic demon who reads the hearts and futures of his guests as they sing in his karaoke bar. Hallett was invited to try out for the part, and won it after three auditions. The character of Lorne was featured as a recurring character in 45 episodes before Hallett was added to the title sequence as a series regular for the last nine episodes of the fourth season, and all of the fifth; in total he appeared as Lorne in 76 of the show's 110 episodes. The character's demonic visage involved extensive prosthetic makeup and detailed coloring of his face, neck and hands, leading to early calls for at least two and a half hours of makeup before Hallett's filming day could begin. He was born in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Events of Interest
4 August 1936 – Jesse Owens wins long jump—and respect—in Germany - https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/jesse-owens-wins-long-jump-and-respect-in-germany
On August 4, 1936, American Jesse Owens wins gold in the long jump at the Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. It was the second of four gold medals Owens won in Berlin, as he firmly dispelled German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler’s notion of the superiority of an Aryan “master race,” for all the world to see. Owens would win his third gold medal and set his second Olympic record of the games in the 200 meters the next day. On August 9, he followed that up by helping his team set a new world record—39.8 seconds—in the 4 x 100 meter relay. Owens and Metcalfe replaced two American Jews, Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, originally scheduled to run the relay that day. Later, the U.S. team was criticized for the move, which was thought to be an appeasement of Hitler and the Nazi party, who would likely have been even angrier to see Jews, already a frequent target of Nazi hate and harassment, bring home a medal.
4 August 1944 – Anne Frank captured - https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/anne-frank-captured
Acting on tip from a Dutch informer, the Nazi Gestapo captures 15-year-old Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family in a sealed-off area of an Amsterdam warehouse. The Franks had taken shelter there in 1942 out of fear of deportation to a Nazi concentration camp. They occupied the small space with another Jewish family and a single Jewish man, and were aided by Christian friends, who brought them food and supplies. Anne spent much of her time in the so-called “secret annex” working on her diary. The diary survived the war, overlooked by the Gestapo that discovered the hiding place, but Anne and nearly all of the others perished in the Nazi death camps. In 1947, Anne’s diary was published by Otto in its original Dutch. An instant best-seller and eventually translated into more than 70 languages, The Diary of Anne Frank has served as a literary testament to the nearly six million Jews, including Anne herself, who were silenced in the Holocaust.
4 August 1995 – Virtuosity premiered theatrically - https://www.scifihistory.net/august-4.html
Actor Denzel Washington has made a few quality stabs at Science Fiction. One of his earliest -- Virtuosity -- premiered theatrically on this day back in 1995. Virtuosity had an estimated budget of $30 million, but only made $24 million at the domestic box office. Here's the plot summary: "A virtual-reality serial killer manages to escape into the real world."
Intro
Artist – Goblins from Mars
Song Title – Super Mario - Overworld Theme (GFM Trap Remix)
Song Link -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GNMe6kF0j0&index=4&list=PLHmTsVREU3Ar1AJWkimkl6Pux3R5PB-QJ
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