3. Waiting for Godot, auto-generated movie edition.

"I recently discovered Plotagon, a bizarre and fascinating tool for auto-generating movies from dialogue and simple direction. Here is the first 5 minutes of Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett, performed by some of these virtual robot actors. The actors can be given lines, simple acting direction for the dialogue (afraid, angry, arrogant, bored etc), and instructions for non-verbal expressions between the lines (bow, caress, clear throat, cry, laugh etc)."

4. On super-agers and what they can teach us about getting old.

"Exceptional longevity isn’t a reward for healthy living; it’s more like a winning lottery ticket, coded into the genes of a lucky few — only 1.73 of every 10,000 people in the U.S. have it. The remarkable longevity of centenarians, in other words, is a fluke, the consequence of rare and unique gene combinations passed from parents to children to grandchildren. That’s the bad news. The good news is that researchers like Barzilai and other colleagues have recently identified something else, something totally unexpected, in the cells of these oldest living humans, and it could radically transform old age for the rest of us."

5. A comprehensive look at the implementation of a very successful IT solution... ticketing at superstar chef Grant Achatz's Chicago restaurants.

"Despite bugs, website propagation issues, and everything else that could possibly go wrong on a software launch – on the very day of the Next opening – tickets went on sale. So many people logged on and bought tickets so quickly that I simply couldn’t believe it... 'There are 8,432 people on the system hitting the refresh button right now chef. As soon as you unlock one, it sells. Here, look.' I opened another window with our credit card processing transactions listed. $57,293 in sales in the first hour of the system. $ 358,483 in the first 24-hours. Two days later $563,874 of revenue was in our bank."

Today's 1957 American English Usage Tip

Boxing day. Brit. The first weekday after Christmas, on which Christmas boxes [tips] are given to servants &c. A legal holiday. Nothing to do with boxing matches.

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Bow, Caress, Clear Throat, Cry, Laugh Etc