Thursday, January 30, 2014

Link roundup

1. "How Silicon Valley's most celebrated CEOs conspired to drive down 100,000 tech engineers' wages"

2. The NY Times looks at the stunt players used for motion capture in Madden football:
Though the likenesses of quarterbacks like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning fill the video game, N.F.L. players do not portray themselves because of the risk of injury. The stunt players are journeymen like Mr. Nazel, who have collegiate and some professional experience, if not in the N.F.L. They are paid $1,000 a day and expenses for a one-week shoot; EA Sports organizes up to four shoots a year, so many stunt players act in movies and commercials to make ends meet. Some, though, hope their Madden NFL experience will catapult them into the N.F.L. 
“Everywhere I go, they call me the Madden Man,” said Kenny Bell, 33, a wide receiver and kick returner for Hofstra University, who has been a stunt player since 2003. “Why not put me in? You know what that would do? It will make history.”
3. "It takes 53 gallons of water to produce a single egg." And that's nothing compared to a bar of chocolate.