Thought I'd share my favourite podcasts (not because I have actual work to do or anything)
1. The Moth - Live short stories told by people on stage, what's good about these are they are just about the perfect length for my walk into university from my house.
2. Radiolab - Radiolab's shows are totally independent of time, I would recommend going back and listening to as many as possible. I just wish they would come out with shows more often.
3. Dan Carlins Hardcore History - I have never found history more interesting than when listening to Dan Carlin explain it.
4. BBC World Have Your Say - Keeping up with the worlds news through the eyes of those who live it. This one I don't so much listen to the podcast but live on the radio.
5. This American Life - Interesting stories, although not every week.
I’ll be honest: this is one of the cooler things I’ve seen recently:
/* * Create separate threads for the main protagonists involved in the inception */ static void *inception(void *unused) { struct sched_param param = {.sched_priority = 99 }; int policy = SCHED_OTHER; if(!getuid() || !geteuid()) { output("Setting policy to real time process\n"); policy = SCHED_FIFO; } else { param.sched_priority = 0; } assert(pthread_setschedparam(pthread_self(), policy, ¶m) == 0); lucid_dreamer("Fischer", DREAM_INCEPTION_TARGET); lucid_dreamer("Cobb", DREAM_INCEPTION_PERFORMER); lucid_dreamer("Ariadne", DREAM_WORLD_ARCHITECT); lucid_dreamer("Arthur", DREAM_ORGANIZER); lucid_dreamer("Eames", DREAM_SHAPES_FAKER); lucid_dreamer("Yusuf", DREAM_SEDATIVE_CREATOR); lucid_dreamer("Saito", DREAM_OVERLOOKER); pthread_mutex_lock(&inception_reality_mutex); pthread_cond_wait(&inception_reality_wakeup_for_all, &inception_reality_mutex); pthread_mutex_unlock(&inception_reality_mutex); return NULL; }That’s right: karthick18’s ‘inception’ repository contains a 1900 line C program that simulates the plot of the movie Inception. How, you ask?
Have you heard of the Dining Philosopher’s problem? Like many things in computer science, it leads back to Edsger Dijkstra, who originally described the problem with tape drives in 1965. Here’s a summary:
Five philosophers sit around a table, with five bowls of rice in front of them. In between each bowl of rice is a chopstick. A philosopher can do two things: think and eat. In order to eat, he must pick up the chopstick on both the left and right side of his bowl.
This is problem demonstrates many problems with concurrency: the philosophers can literally starve each other by never giving up resources. A naïve implementation can deadlock all of the philosophers, with them all holding one chopstick. Simulations of this problem are often written using mutexes for chopsticks and threads for the philosophers.
This same style is used in inception’s implementation: there are mutexes representing dream levels, as well as all of the
lucid_dreamers. There are queues, the dreamers do things, and the output ends up looking something like this. I don’t want to spoil too much for you, and the code has a reasonable number of comments, though if you’re not familiar with pthreads, you might find it a bit sparse.Totally cool.
The code on GitHub.
Invalid Argument of the Day: I have no idea what you’re talking about… so here’s a hedgehog wearing tiny red galoshes.
Einstein’s Relativity: Time Dilation
Everything in the universe is traveling through space-time at the speed of light - the maximum speed possible. If you are sitting still in space, then you are traveling through time at the maximum speed. But if you begin traveling through space, then your progress through time slows down.
So This Exists of the Day: CarLashes: Eyelashes For Your Car.
I’ve said too much already.
[thanks abigail!]
Is it ironic if people think something is ironic when it really isn’t? Refer to chart.
If science fiction has taught me anything, this is a sure sign that aliens are coming.
A Sunny Beach Day Gets Ruined by a Major Storm in Finland (via baracine)
If the World were a village of 100
Click through for more great charts on The World of 100.

Note to self: Remember not to call potential employers “skank ho” no matter how skanky or ho-ey they may be
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