Sorry if our posting has been a bit messed up and all over the place.We promise to make a schedule and stick to it.We hope to post once a week this month!
Elliot Tritto Staff Writer WELCOME FOOLISH MORTALS! As your eyes wander downward, you’ll see the bone-chilling, frightening and oozing delight of Halloween’s greatest tales. As we see blood, sweat and paranoia, we see into the minds of these victims in which they dare face these iconic villains. Can you handle the suspense? If you can, grab your trick or
Michael Gennaro North Bureau Chief October is the month of Halloween. That means pumpkin spice, candy, pumpkin-carving and–of course–scary movies. This October, thousands of thrill-seekers will head to their local theaters to watch horror movies like “Hell Fest” and “Halloween.” Thousands more will watch horror films at home using their Netflix or Hulu accounts. But are there consequences for
Elliot Tritto Staff Writer Ever since I was 5-years-old, I’ve been obsessed with Marvel’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Across all mediums, it cultivated me to become more attached into the entire “Spider-Verse.” One of those reasons why includes a plethora of original characters like the Punisher, Doctor Octopus and the bold and the beautiful, Venom. In 1988, Venom appeared in
Kayleigh may be new to the U.S. audience, but she's a familiar face in the UK. Having appeared originally on multiple seasons of Ex on the Beach, Kayleigh also competed on Big Brother. The Challenge house is home to two of Kayleigh's vendettas: ex-boyfriend Joss and former best friend Melissa, whom she hasn't spoken to in years. Will her domineering ways find her in deep trouble early on, or will she be able to make friends and prevail?
Kailah and Kayleigh first competed against each other on The Challenge: Vendettas. Their problems started when rumors flew of Kayleigh and Bananas hooking up. Kailah, in support of her friend and scorned-Bananas-lover Natalie, got together with Britni and Jemmye to throw all of Kayleigh's belongings over a balcony. Feeling alienated and bullied, Kayleigh decided to quit the game. But their beef continued on Twitter, where they exchanged insults, calling each other weak, delusional, and liars.
Kayleigh withdrew from the game after not feeling comfortable in the house following an altercation with Britni, Jemmye, and Kailah.
Recognizing these difficulties, I decided to proactively plan for this moment each day. As you might expect if you know me, my first step was to buy a whiteboard calendar and some more whiteboard markers. I wrote in the calendar dates and decided to record enough information to give myself a general temperature snapshot of the day as well as the results of those decision points. Accordingly, I wrote the temperature (using “feels like” temperatures to take into account wind) at four pre-determined times of day (8am, 12pm, 4pm and 8pm) when I might be outside. Then below that, I wrote what I should wear based on the median of those four temperatures, eventually settling on these breakpoints:
As you can see, this was especially useful a year ago in Cambridge, MA. We went from 60s on the 1st down to 20s two days later, stayed there until the 6th, and then went back up to the 50s on the 7th. There were so many wide fluctuations, by this point I had started adding exclamation points with any jump of 1 or more layer (20 F or more). In fact, in 2016, April was by far the most fluctuating month, either in terms of variance or simply the 50-degree swing in these daily median temperatures (between the 5th and the 22nd).
Still, this solution had some problems. First, I had to actually write down those forecasts in advance. Fortunately, I had (and still have) a to-do list app, Remember the Milk, to help me with that. To save time, rather than recording the upcoming forecast every night, I’d write out three days at once. But then the forecast would sometimes change by the time the day arrived; that rain that was on the forecast was pushed back or forward by a day, leaving me without an umbrella when I needed it or wasting my time bringing my umbrella around when I didn’t.
There was also still a memory aspect; I had to remember what “1.5 layers” and “3 layers” meant precisely. And it turned out that I wasn’t often outside precisely at the times I listed. This wasn’t a huge deal, but it would make a difference if it was super cold or rainy at 8pm but I wasn’t leaving home that evening. And finally, this didn’t really scale; the best advice I could offer someone else was to replicate my system with their own white board and markers. Grace wasn’t even really able to use it without a translation (we started using descriptors like “cold cold cold”), since she was most familiar with the Celsius scale.
Motivated to find a better solution, I’ve spent a few dozen hours over the course of the last month (March 2017) developing and testing a web app to solve this problem. Take a look here.
The app allows me to pick the times I’ll be outside, and it only pulls the temperatures and conditions at those times.
I’ve correspondingly switched from computing a mean to a median. The coldest and hottest temperatures matter, since I’ll actually be outside then.
The result now gives a list in words and icons of what clothing items I should wear. No more memory needed!
There is also an option (“Current” at the top) to just get my recommended clothing based on the current conditions.
And of course, anyone else can use it, too! The app pulls the location of your IP address (which actually was just built into the Weather Underground API), so it should apply wherever you’re at.
I hope this app can be useful to you as well! Here are some of the changes I’d like to add in the future:
Multiple profiles. This app is geared towards my particular wardrobe, developed through trial and error over the course of a year and a half. Some people would prefer to wear more clothes, while others like my brother prefer to wear shorts all but the coldest days of the year. (I also wonder how much that attitude is a different solution to the same problem: wear the same thing all the time and just live with the consequences.) Also, all of the clothes I depict are men’s clothing, and it’d be nice to have a few women’s profiles, too. Ideally, I’d essentially be able to cluster everyone into a small number of different profiles, and newcomers could just pick their favorite based on simple descriptions.
Making a mobile app. This would involve learning to code in a new language, but could allow for some personal features. While it would be instructive to learn that language as well (like I learned PHP to put this web app together), it’d be easier to team up with someone who is already experienced with mobile app development.
Incorporating feedback. Ideally users could adjust the default profiles to their preferences and wardrobes with simple feedback like “I was too cold” or “I wish I had brought an umbrella”.
Alternative locations. Currently, the app only lets you search for weather at the location of your current IP address; I figured this would be the setting most people would prefer. But if that doesn’t work for you, it’d be nice to give you the option to search from elsewhere. This would be the easiest change, but I’m not sure it’d be that useful at the moment.
Better umbrella exceptions. You’ll notice above that the app recommends an umbrella for a snowy day. This is because the only factor currently going into the umbrella recommendation is the maximum probability of precipitation (at the times listed). It’d be nice to build in an exception for snow as well as super windy days that would make umbrellas more work than they’re worth.
But I’m mostly curious to hear from you! Is this useful to you? What features would make it more useful? Would you like to help me develop it further? Contact me either here, on Facebook or through the website’s About page.
Finally, I’d like to give a shout-out to Tom Mullaly, part of the IT team at the MIT Math Department. I didn’t start this project knowing any of the relevant languages or even where to start, and Tom was able to answer all of my questions along the way, offering numerous suggestions for improving the app. (It was his idea to add the icons!) I couldn’t have done this without him, or at least it would have taken twice as long and ended up half as good. Thanks Tom!
You’re an Ultimate Nerd for thinking this through! I’d suggest adding a Tolerance category. For example, some of us can wear jeans, t-shirt, topped by a flannel long sleeve shirt over a 40-degree temperature range. Others keep a backpack full of adjustment layers with them at all times.
“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that rules his spirit than he that takes a city.” Proverbs 16:32
What a foe to one’s peace is one’s own spirit! And what shall I call it? It is often an infernal spirit. Why? Because it bears the mark of Satan upon it. The pride of our spirit, the presumption of our spirit, the hypocrisy of our spirit, the intense selfishness of our spirit are often hidden from us. This wily devil, SELF, can wear such masks and assume such forms; this serpent, SELF, can so creep and crawl, can so twist and turn, and can disguise itself under such false appearances, that it is hidden often from ourselves.
Who is the greatest enemy we have to fear? We all have our enemies. But who is our greatest enemy? He that you carry in your own bosom; your daily, hourly, and momently companion, that entwines himself in nearly every thought of your heart; that suggests well near every motive; that sometimes puffs up with pride, sometimes inflames with lust, sometimes inflates with presumption, and sometimes works under feigned humility and fleshly holiness.
Now this SELF must be overcome; for if SELF overcomes us eventually, we shall perish in the condemnation of SELF. God is determined to stain the pride of human glory. He will never let self, (which is but another word for the creature,) wear the crown of victory. It must be crucified, denied, and mortified; it must be put off, so that Jesus may be put on; that in the denying of SELF, Jesus may be believed in; and that in the crucifixion of SELF, there may be a solemn spiritual union with Him who was crucified on Calvary.
Now, are we overcoming SELF? Are we buffeted? What says SELF? “Buffet back.” Are we despised? What says SELF? “Despise back; retort angry look for angry look, and hasty word, for hasty word; an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” But what says the Spirit of God in a tender conscience? “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”
The way to overcome self is by looking out of self to Him who was crucified upon Calvary’s tree; to receive his image into our heart; to be clothed with his likeness; to drink into his spirit; and “receive out of his fullness grace for grace.”