Wow! Noise is a secret killer of performance. A 10db noise increase (from a dishwasher to a vacuum) drops productivity by 5% - but most people don't notice since it impacts cognition, not effort. Also, note that noise is greater in poorer neighborhoods...

I can’t stop laughing at this.

Big news! Keybase acquired by @zoom_us . Our post about it:

If this lede doesn't get you, I don't know what will. @davidmcswane's latest:

via Health News - The New York Times https://nyti.ms/2WLL65m

Who framed Roger Rabbit? Talking about Software Development in companies is about using frames. The prevalent frame is the that of the 'Backlog'. Thinking in this frame defines success as finishing the backlog. The pressure of throughput leads to engineering cutting corners and makes developers unhappy. Thinking in an 'Impact' frame leads to more successful company and happier developers. Stephan Schmidt

All your questions about the pandemic, answered. Sort of. Mr. Eggers is a novelist and journalist. via Pocket

Collection of list-style-type examples and the code to display them.

The Pandemic Is the Time to Resurrect the Public University via Instapaper https://ift.tt/3dsBHFd

By now I understood that the story I was telling about Val Kilmer, which I’d thought had been about a man’s relentless faith and optimism, was really about reconciliation: the squaring of two opposing things into something we swear is true despite all evidence to the contrary. Your beauty can sentence you to misery; Val Kilmer uses a tracheostomy tube, but he can talk; his brother is dead but only to our senses. Mark Twain despised Mary Baker Eddy, until you can will him into a dream where he doesn’t. God is good, and there are no ventilators. My beautiful friend has cancer, and the treatment exists, but it’s unavailable to her right now.

It seems many people are breathing some relief, and I’m not sure why. An epidemic curve has a relatively predictable upslope and once the peak is reached, the back slope is also predictable.

via Health News - The New York Times https://nyti.ms/2WLL65m

Do. The. Work.

sparks - A typeface for creating sparklines in text without code.

The 1977 Zork source code is on GitHub, courtesy the MIT Libraries Department of Distinctive Collections! It’s written in MDL for the PDP-10.

Sure, the Velociraptors Are Still On the Loose, But That’s No Reason Not to Reopen Jurassic Park

You’re in luck if you love Miss Phryne Fisher, TV’s elegant lady detective.

More than 140 years after its premiere, Carmen remains one of the world’s favourite operas, continuing to inspire contemporary music, fashion and film.

The splash-hit West End stage production SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN comes to the Sydney Lyric Theatre in July with a star-studded cast to win all hearts.

Rivalling One Direction-ers in devotion, Australian fans of the musical maestro André Rieu are set to again be wowed at the cinema screenings of his 2016 Maastricht concert.

(United States Federal Circuit) - Vacated a patent noninfringement judgment based on an erroneous construction of the patent's language. The sole issue on appeal concerned a patent pertaining to energy efficient lighting apparatuses and what precisely was meant by the words attachment surface. Because the district court had adopted an erroneous construction of those words, the Federal Circuit vacated the judgment of noninfringement and remanded for further proceedings.

(United States Federal Circuit) - Affirmed that tribal sovereign immunity could not be asserted in a patent proceeding. A pharmaceutical company involved in a dispute over an eye medication patent transferred the title of its patent to a Native American tribe, which then moved to terminate the patent proceeding on the basis of sovereign immunity. Concluding that tribal sovereign immunity cannot be asserted in inter partes review, the Federal Circuit affirmed the denial of the Tribe's motion to terminate the proceeding.

(United States Federal Circuit) - Affirmed the trial court's decision which had denied Plaintiff's challenge to the Patent Board’s denial of its patent. The government sought to recover costs and attorney’s fees under section 145 of the Patent Act. The trial court held that costs may be recovered under section 145, but not attorney fees.

(United States Federal Circuit) - Reinstated a patent infringement claim relating to a design for a portable animal kennel. The patent owner insisted it should not be estopped by prosecution history from asserting its infringement claim against a competitor. Agreeing that estoppel did not apply, the Federal Circuit reversed the district court's judgment on the pleadings and remanded for further proceedings.

(United States Federal Circuit) - Dismissed an appeal from an inter partes review decision on grounds that the patent challenger lacked Article III standing. The challenger asserted that the patentee's claims for a motor vehicle drivetrain were invalid. On appeal, the Federal Circuit held that the challenger lacked standing because it had not established an actual injury; in particular, it had no product on the market or any concrete plans for future activity that would likely cause the patentee to complain of infringement.

(United States Federal Circuit) - Affirmed that a veteran's surviving spouse who had litigated over certain benefits was not entitled to an award of attorney fees. The spouse of a deceased World War II veteran argued that she had prevailed on her benefit claims and thus was entitled to recover her attorney fees pursuant to the Equal Access to Justice Act. On appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, the Federal Circuit held that she had not obtained a sufficiently successful result to qualify as a prevailing party for purposes of the attorney fee statute.