For almost a year, my chamber group worked on a piece meant to be performed in complete darkness. When the coronavirus put our plans on hold, our mentor told us we would keep growing even though the world would never be the same.

Lawmakers need to be grown-ups to avoid a global economic crisis.

[jump to video]

Long story (not very) short? One night in 2003--after killing it in front of audience of about 30 lucky people in Oakland--The Long Winters needed a place to crash, and my wife and I were happy to oblige. 

So, they drove their Big Stinky Blue Van over the bridge, slept on our floor, and by breakfast the next morning, it'd become clear to me that I'd provided lodging to a man who was not only very likely a member of my karass--he was also one of the smartest bullshit artists I'd ever met. 

Almost eight years later, although I don't see him nearly as much as I'd like, I still count the guy as one of my best pals ever.

That's John Roderick. And, I think you need to know about him.

John doesn't read this site--he's more of a Twitter person--so I don't risk feeding his astounding excess of dignity by saying he's one of the most gifted writers and bon vivants of our generation. He's just the best. In large part because he's congenitally incapable of suffering bullshit.

This was never more apparent than the Saturday morning in 2007 when we sat in my back yard and talked about a lot of stuff. Playing guitar, advertising on the web, the evil work of promoters, and why everyone is always trying to shortchange everyone on copper pipe. 

That talking became a four-part interview I ran on the late and occasionally lamented The Merlin Show, and, to this day, it's one of my favorite things I've been lucky enough to post to the web.

So, y'know how I'm definitely "not for everyone?" Well, John is really "not for everyone."

He's opinionated and arrogant and undiplomatic and unironically loves Judas Priest--meaning everyone will find at least one thing not to like about him. Despite being hairy and enjoying laying on your bed, John is not exactly a teddy bear. 

But, John's also right a lot. And, he never sands off the edges of his personality or opinions to make you theoretically "like" him. Which, it will come as no surprise to you, is a big reason I love the guy more than a free prime rib dinner. 

So, why the jizzfest about that awful jerk, John Roderick?

Because, as I noted the other day on the Twitter, in our first episode of Back to Work I misattributed a line that should have been credited to John. Which in itself is unimportant, except inasmuch as finding that link to correct the error got me watching our 50-some minutes of chatting again. I also received some at-responses and emails that reminded me how much people enjoyed our chat. 

But, really it made me realize how much that rambling morning in my back yard still resonates so much with stuff I care a lot about. Independence. Agency. Directness. And, never apologizing for wanting to get paid. Also, guitars and talkative hippies.

So, anyway. John. 

I edited all four parts of the video into one big (streamable/downloadable) movie that should make it way easier to watch at a sitting. Should that interest you. Which it may not. Which, as ever, is totally fine, and kind of the point.

But. If you like Dan and my new show (and, seriously—God bless you magnificent bastards who helped briefly make B2W the most popular podcast in the world [gulp]), I think you'll really like this interview a lot too. I hope so, anyway.

Thus, submitted for your disapproval, permit me to present my four-year-old visit with the acerbic, opinionated, and reportedly unlikeable bullshit artist whom I respect and adore more than just about anybody. 

Meet Hotrod.

• Vimeo Page
• Direct Download Link (589 mb, requires login)

An extraordinary strings crossover performance by erhu master Xu Ke and the Tokyo String Quintet will be held in December.

Heralded as the Paganini of the erhu world, Mr Xu is currently a guest professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Japan.

Presented by the Leisure & Cultural Services Department as part of the Music Delight Series, the concert will be held at Tsuen Wan Town Hall on December 14.

Tickets are available at URBTIX.

Click here for details.

When you read in a BigQuery table, the length of string variables might be longer than the length specified with the MAX_CHAR_LEN= option when running your SAS software   with UTF-8. By

Gaoxiang Jia, Xinlei Wang, Qiwei Li, Wei Lu, Ximing Tang, Ignacio Wistuba, Yang Xie.

Source: The Annals of Applied Statistics, Volume 13, Number 3, 1617--1647.

Abstract:
Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples have great potential for biomarker discovery, retrospective studies and diagnosis or prognosis of diseases. Their application, however, is hindered by the unsatisfactory performance of traditional gene expression profiling techniques on damaged RNAs. NanoString nCounter platform is well suited for profiling of FFPE samples and measures gene expression with high sensitivity which may greatly facilitate realization of scientific and clinical values of FFPE samples. However, methodological development for normalization, a critical step when analyzing this type of data, is far behind. Existing methods designed for the platform use information from different types of internal controls separately and rely on an overly-simplified assumption that expression of housekeeping genes is constant across samples for global scaling. Thus, these methods are not optimized for the nCounter system, not mentioning that they were not developed for FFPE samples. We construct an integrated system of random-coefficient hierarchical regression models to capture main patterns and characteristics observed from NanoString data of FFPE samples and develop a Bayesian approach to estimate parameters and normalize gene expression across samples. Our method, labeled RCRnorm, incorporates information from all aspects of the experimental design and simultaneously removes biases from various sources. It eliminates the unrealistic assumption on housekeeping genes and offers great interpretability. Furthermore, it is applicable to freshly frozen or like samples that can be generally viewed as a reduced case of FFPE samples. Simulation and applications showed the superior performance of RCRnorm.

Adriana Coutinho, Rodrigo Lambert, Jérôme Rousseau.

Source: Bernoulli, Volume 26, Number 3, 2021--2050.

Abstract:
We investigate the length of the longest common substring for encoded sequences and its asymptotic behaviour. The main result is a strong law of large numbers for a re-scaled version of this quantity, which presents an explicit relation with the Rényi entropy of the source. We apply this result to the zero-inflated contamination model and the stochastic scrabble. In the case of dynamical systems, this problem is equivalent to the shortest distance between two observed orbits and its limiting relationship with the correlation dimension of the pushforward measure. An extension to the shortest distance between orbits for random dynamical systems is also provided.

Researchers shared a video of this massive siphonophore, one of the longest of its kind ever recorded

The Dallas String Quartet will deliver its passionate fusion of classical and contemporary music to the Community Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 19.

Additional victims encouraged to contact Consumer Protection Unit The Delaware Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Unit today announced three indictments, including separate criminal charges against two brothers, in a series of home improvement frauds targeting older Delawareans. Isaac K. Lovell, 44, of Bear was indicted on July 8, 2019 on charges including Racketeering, Conspiracy to […]

The DGCA has mandated that all aircraft need to be equipped with hand sanitisers, soaps and universal precaution kits to protect crew members who assist people.

rpc.pcnfsd suffers from a syslog related format string vulnerability. IBM AIX versions 6.1.0 and below, IRIX 6.5 and HP-UX versions 11.11, 11.23 and 11.31 are all affected.

Patch for the xine/gxine CD player that was found susceptible to a remote format string bug. The vulnerable code is found in the xine-lib library that both xine and gxine use. The vulnerable versions are at least xine-lib-0.9.13, 1.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2 and 1.1.0.

This Metasploit module exploits a vulnerability on the lrFileIOService ActiveX, as installed with HP LoadRunner 11.50. The vulnerability exists in the WriteFileString method, which allow the user to write arbitrary files. It's abused to drop a payload embedded in a dll, which is later loaded through the Init() method from the lrMdrvService control, by abusing an insecure LoadLibrary call. This Metasploit module has been tested successfully on IE8 on Windows XP. Virtualization based on the Low Integrity Process, on Windows Vista and 7, will stop this module because the DLL will be dropped to a virtualized folder, which isn't used by LoadLibrary.

Minister Senzo Mchunu says various public servants will be returning to work during Level 4 of the lockdown, but stringent measures should be in place to ensure the safety of workers.

Hong Kong’s police chief has reacted with fury over the “dishonour brought to the force” by the arrest of 18 officers for various offences over the past three weeks, including nine detained on Friday in connection with actions against street sleepers.Commissioner of Police Chris Tang Ping-keung said the behaviour of the officers concerned had brought disgrace to the force and dealt a severe blow to its credibility and nullified efforts achieved over the years.“As commissioner, I am not just…

A piece of string found in a cave in France is the oldest ever discovered and shows that Neanderthals knew how to twist fibres together to make cords

Title: Health Tip: Prevent a Pulled Hamstring
Category: Health News
Created: 4/28/2007 2:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/30/2007 12:00:00 AM

All our hopes and dreams for the next generation of consoles now have a fitting container! Aside from that, Mewtwo misplaces his tail and it...

We make a big deal about modern humans being smarter than Neanderthals, but, really, are we?

New documents raise questions over UNSW's investigation of its star cancer researcher, Levon Khachigian.

As the temperature drops in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, locals bundle up and get excited. While most wait for the first snow to cover the ski runs, others hold out for those first cold nights to freeze the area's waterfalls.

The day after British student Meredith Kercher was killed, her housemate Amanda Knox and the latter's Italian boyfriendRaffaele Sollecitowere spotted

Courtauld Institute student and arts writer Aindrea Emelife reflects on the current neglect of Surrealism in the art world – and considers what significance the movement might still hold for today’s young rebels  

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Business cannot expect emergency cash without sensible conditions

Reports in Brazil claim Tiago Ramos allegedly dated Neymar's personal chef Mauro and Brazilian actor Carlinhos Maia before becoming romantically involved with the PSG star's mother.

The pair met while filming the BBC gymnastics show, which ended in September, and pals claim the chemistry was evident long before they went on their first date.

The 39-year-old former WWE star posed in a tiny string bikini, on the beach in Mykonos, Greece on Wednesday

Jeffrey Epstein's 20-something companion, Julia Stepanova, spent months working for public relations powerhouse Peggy Siegal, 72 , as an intern.

President Trump touted his string of Republican primary victories Tuesday night, tweeting his thanks after state after state was called in his favor. 

Cindy McCain marked the one-year anniversary of her husband John McCain's death with a string of rebukes to Donald Trump and his leadership of the Republican Party.

The 25-year-old defender started the top-of-the-table Group J Euro 2020 qualifier against Finland at the Tampere Stadium. But left-back Emerson sustained the problem after just six minutes.

The 29-year-old has spent much of the year battling back from a serious wrist injury, and was disappointed with her results on her comeback at meeting in Birmingham earlier this month.

Social media was buzzing amid reports that Gigi Hadid was pregnant with on-again boyfriend Zayn Malik's child.

Sergei Skripal had been warned. He had been a double agent, and in 2010, when the Russians released him from jail in a spy-swap, Putin made his intentions clear: 'Traitors will kick the bucket.'

Rihanna, 31, looked absolutely stunning wearing a black lace matching set while promoting her brand's launch on Amazon, only for Chris to ruin the fun with messages to his ex.

The Belarusian Premier League, which includes clubs such as BATE Borisov and Dinamo Minsk, have signed a string of TV deals as fans around the world seek to fill the sporting void.

The I Feel Pretty actress recently told Vogue about how she's staying busy during isolation: 'For me, it's more of an emotional and mental battle of keeping my spirits up and staying busy.'

Violinist Rafael Todes, 53, a member of the Allegri String Quartet, his wife Helena Newman, 53, and children Isabella, 17, and Max, 18, were invited to perform at John's Hospice, North London for VE Day.

Sam Skinner has been ruled out of Scotland's World Cup plans following a recent injury picked up on international duty. The Exeter Chiefs second row had scans after limping off with a hamstring issue.

The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star, 23, looked incredible in a scanty bikini with a tiny top and bottoms which flashed her posterior and a mass of underboob

Neymar has been ruled out for four weeks with a grade two hamstring strain. The 27-year-old begun his recovery in Paris on Monday after picking up the injury against Nigeria.

The 35-year-old model, who is expecting her second child with husband Kevin Hart, modeled a string of vibrant ensembles from Fabletics at 20-weeks.

The England captain, fighting to get fit for Euro 2020, has flown to the Bahamas this week for a stint of warm-weather training. Kane posted a video update of some rope work.

Nadine Dorries attended a string of public events around Westminster, coming close to hundreds of people in the toxic two-week period where she may have been carrying coronavirus.

Demi Rose looked incredible as she posed in a string bikini in a throwback snap shared on Tuesday.

Joe Biden down played his age at Tuesday's Democratic debate as he baffled viewers with a series of gaffes and caught himself before he claimed he ended Roe vs. Wade.

The former Big Brother star has been enjoying a girls' trip in Bali since Sunday. And on Tuesday, Skye Wheatley embraced the island's tropical climate in a series of VERY skimpy bikinis.