Well, provided that your New 3DS isn’t an XL/LL and was purchased in Europe/Japan/Oceania. Columbus Circle is building the Retro Plate & Watch with functions for a clock, an alarm, a timer, and a thermometer.
Amazon Japan will begin selling this at the end of September with a list price of ¥2,970, or around $24 (note that only comes with the top cover plate, and that it requires a separate coin battery, which is included). We’ll let you know if it pops up at import shops. Props to @gosokkyu / NintendoTweet for the link!
The possibilities are these: [Sandra] Bland died from an untreated head injury after State Trooper Brian Encinia bashed her head against the pavement and police staged her suicide; Bland died from an epileptic seizure (recall that Encinia’s response to Bland telling him she had epilepsy was “Good”) and police staged her suicide; Bland was killed or died in some other way in police custody and her sucide was staged; or Bland indeed took her own life, after she informed police of previous suicide attempts and they utterly failed to prevent another while she was in their care.
There is no version of events where police are not culpable for Sandra Bland’s death.
And all because Officer Encinia was angry that Sandra Bland knew her rights and was exercising them. No matter how she died, she is dead because that man became enraged that a black woman wouldn’t unquestioningly submit to him.
And it’s worth remembering that even if she had been suicidal or violent, the police were responsible for her safety as soon as she was taken into custody. That’s true of everyone. When any person dies while in police custody they are culpable for it - we entrust them with the power to incarcerate people with the understanding that those people will be safe and unharmed for the duration and we have been failing miserably for decades to hold police accountable for that.
so, every time a Black person is killed by a white person, a buncha people go out of their way not to care by googling Black on Black crime so they can convince themselves there’s no problem.
Kinky Boots - Less sexuality, more gender identity and performance. I heart it so much.
And these two are next on my list (somebody come at me if I’m wrong about the happy ending thing):
Saving Face - A Chinese-American lesbian and her traditionalist mother are reluctant to go public with secret loves that clash against cultural expectations.
I love you Phillip Morris - A cop turns con man once he comes out of the closet. Once imprisoned, he meets the second love of his life, whom he’ll stop at nothing to be with. (EDIT: I have been told this does not end happily - DAMMIT!)
If anyone has any other additions to add to this list, PLEASE DO. I need ALL of the happy ending queer movies!
Hi, Clair. I’d like to come in and talk with you. Would that be all right?
This is the Batman we need to see more often. The one who remembers what it was like to be a scared child, one who knows how to handle situations delicately.
One of the reason why I love batman so much. He is portrayed as a very careful and guarded man. But he is probably the most human out of anyone. It’s why he is the knight that gotham deserves.
Re: that last panel -
Batman, when he’s written correctly, is an extremely compassionate person.
I always feel the need to reblog this because it’s definitely something I feel was lost in the Nolan films.
It wasn`t lost, it was left at the door and not picked up.
New York Magazine has been hit with a DDoS attack that has downed their site shortly after they published a massive story about Billy Cosby’s numerous accusers; ironically, the hacker behind the attack alleges that he attacked the site for unrelated reasons. The perpetrator, who goes by “ThreatKing,” intended to target “stupid people at [sic] New York,” including the staffers and readers of New York Magazine, as well as the rest of the city.
The selfishness of attacking a journalistic outlet, particularly one with a recent story devoted to telling a story that has been repeatedly buried, betrays the immature intentions of this would-be vigilante. It would be nice to be able to laugh at such a cowardly and pathetic move on the part of this “ThreatKing” character, but given that his impulsive actions have successfully silenced such an important story, it’s hard to crack a smile about it. Here’s hoping that New York Magazine‘s website gets back on its feet soon, and that their cover story becomes available once more.
i want all my tax dollars to go towards paying the production team of bob’s burgers to work around the clock. produce 100 more seasons of this show. reroute the entire united states’ defense budget towards more bob’s burgers episodes.
Six Penn students committed suicide in a 13-month stretch, and the school is far from the only one to experience a suicide cluster. Some students blame the pressure to appear effortlessly perfect.
It's like Brazil exists in an alternate universe — it's as if Betamax beat VHS, as if Samsung flipphones outshone iPhones. The story of how Sega came to dominate is part historical accident, part savvy marketing and part slap in the face to the idea that globalism has erased all regional differences in taste.
The latest entry in China’s booming $19 billion competitive gaming industry is hardware for the country’s hundreds of millions of game players that monitors them just like professional runners, bikers, or team sports players.
Li Xiaofeng, aka Sky, is a former professional gamer in Blizzard’s real-time strategy game Warcraft III, who won China the country’s first championship at the World Cyber Games in 2005. Last week, he introduced his “Taidu mouse,” which comes with a smart chip to measure players’ heartbeat and gamers’ actions per minute, at a launch event (link in Chinese) in Shanghai. “Taidu” literally means “Titanium degree,” but sounds like “attitude” in Chinese.
The “e-sports mouse that knows Chinese gamers best” records users’ data and beams it, via bluetooth, to a smartphone app that comes with the mouse. Li’s plan is to eventually translated gamers’ data into a so-called “professional index” that will evaluate which video game players are the fastest, and the coolest under pressure.
(Taidu)
The mouse has a 32-bit ARM processor, which Taidu advertises as “far better” than MCU processors in regular mice. Right now it is on preorder at 299 yuan ($48.15), about the average price of gaming mice from brands like Razer and Logitech in China. Gaming mice are made to be more accurate and responsive than mice for work and other personal computer use.
Li Xiaofeng, 2005 and 2006 WCG champions, at the launch event. (Taidu)
“Entrepreneurship has always been my dream.” Li, 30, told state-run digital publication The Papers (link in Chinese) in an interview. “Just like [Chinese gymnast] Li Ning and [Michael] Jordan have created their own brands, I’d like to take the same path.” Li added on his Twitter-like Sina Weibo (registration required) that “mice are the medium for people to dialogue with games.”
A Taidu spokesman told Quartz on Monday the company has raised over $1.6 million in funding but wouldn’t disclose how many pre-orders they have so far. He said the “Taidu mouse,” which is the first of its kind in China, could be the first step in “the future of eSports,” where players’ athletic data are collected and analyzed to help them improve their performances—just like in traditional sports.
“Quantified gaming” is an idea that has already been floated by western startups, but Taidu has already raised more cash. Mionix labs launched a Kickstarter campaign in December 2014 to raise money for NAOS QG, a gaming mouse that tracks gamers’ body reaction including heart rates, galvanic skin response and actions per minute, which will be displayed as a transparent overlay on the player’s screen. Mionix claims NAOS OG is “the first mouse that provides deep insights into your gaming.” So far the startup has raised over $100,000 on Kickstarter, but hasn’t start producing the mouse, according to their latest update on July 21.
The Taidu spokesman told Quartz that they’ve noticed plans for gaming mice overseas, but they didn’t borrow the idea from others.
eSports, or organized professional online gaming, was recognized as an official sport in China in 2009, and China’s teams are winning titles in global tournaments of Multiple Online Battle Arena (MOBA) games like League of Legends and Defense of the Ancients. China’s total game revenues reached $18.5 billion in 2014, up 37.7% year-on-year. Even retired players can earn over $800,000 a year streaming part-time.
While most people these days can tell their cappuccinos from their americanos, they may not be quite as familiar with the differences between aeropress, chemex, V-60, and cold-drip coffee. These are all different brewing methods, often found in the independent, specialty coffee shops which are part of a growing phenomenon: the “third wave” of coffee.
The first wave began at the turn of the 20th century, when coffee consumption grew significantly with the appearance of instant coffee, which made the drink a household staple. The second wave came with the rise of coffee shops and growth in popularity of large coffee chains such as Starbucks that we are now so familiar with.
Now, people are seeking to understand more about the origin of their brew, and have begun to treat coffee as an experience, rather than a commodity. In this third wave, coffee is seen as an artisan or craft product, like fine wine. As with grapes, the way that coffee beans are grown, harvested, roasted, and brewed are all considered important processes, when creating the perfect cup of coffee.
A growing industry
Today, around one in five people visit a coffee shop on a daily basis in the UK—up from one in nine in 2009. This is in part due to the rapid expansion of global coffee chains, and the movement of other food retailers into the coffee market, such as McDonalds with their McCafe range. But there has also been a significant rise in the number of independent coffee shops. The coffee shop industry is big business, estimated to be worth £7.2 billion ($11 billion) in revenue for 2014. Last year, there were more than 18,000 outlets across the UK—a number expected to grow to over 27,000 by 2020.
Right now, the UK market is still dominated by the big three: Starbucks, Costa, and Caffè Nero. But there has been a significant growth in the number of specialty coffee shops, indicated by the increasing number of independent coffee house guides, including in London, the South West and the North. This in turn has fuelled the growing popularity of a number of coffee festivals (the London Coffee Festival, Cup North, and the Edinburgh Coffee Festival are just some examples).
Skilled-up baristas
At the heart of the third-wave coffee shops are the baristas, and their ability to use a range of tools and equipment to make a coffee that is acceptable to even the most knowledgeable connoisseur. For an independent coffee shop, having skilled baristas is key to producing premium, artisan coffees. The most skilled baristas even compete at various international festivals such as the London Coffee Festival’s Coffee Masters competition.
The skills of the barista are key to unlocking the world of third-wave coffee, and providing the customer with a huge new variety of choices; from beans to brewing method. Many coffee shops will source their beans from their own preferred independent roaster: examples include Origin, Square Mile, Volcano Coffee Works, or Ancoats. And many roasters will have one or two stores of their own, as well as supplying others.
When it comes to third-wave coffee, the brewing method is as important as the coffee itself. Options include the aeropress (a device which involves forcing coffee through a filter using a plunger), chemex or V-60 (both containers where coffee is poured through a filter), or cold-drip coffee. Baristas must also carefully control the quantity and heat of water and milk used in each cup.
Coffee, consumption, and city life
Coffee shops in the UK have a rich history dating back to the 18th century, providing spaces for conversation as well as consumption. Coffee shops are now ubiquitous on the UK’s high streets, and form an important component of urban centers. They have been recognized as significant economic drivers, boosting local economies by between 2% to 4%.
But perhaps most importantly, coffee shops are becoming social venues. Increasingly, they are used not just as spaces of consumption, but as “third spaces”: an alternative to both work and home.
This week WordPress released the latest edition of its recurring transparency report, revealing 43 percent of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown requests it received have been rejected in the first six months of 2015. It's the lowest six-month period shown in the report, though it only dates back to 2014. However, WordPress said this headline figure would be even higher if it "counted suspended sites as rejected notices." That change in calculation would bump the WordPress DMCA denial rate to 67 percent between January 1 and June 30, 2015.
In total, the publishing platform received 4,679 DMCA takedown requests as of June 30, identifying 12 percent of those as "abusive." The top three organizations submitting these requests were Web Sheriff, Audiolock, and InternetSecurities. "Not surprisingly, the list is dominated by third party take down services, many of whom use automated bots to identify copyrighted content and generate takedown notices," WordPress noted. The company wrote at length about this practice in April, both explaining and condemning the general procedure.
"These kind of automated systems scour the Web, firing off takedown notifications where unauthorized uses of material are found—so humans don’t have to," WordPress wrote. "Sounds great in theory, but it doesn’t always work out as smoothly in practice. Much akin to some nightmare scenario from the Terminator, sometimes the bots turn on their creators."
Kanye West was one of several performers to take the stage at the Pan Am Games closing ceremonies Sunday night. Some Canadians were pretty mad that was going to happen because West isn't Canadian, but by most accounts it was a great, simple medley set lasting over 10 minutes. One problem:
While Kanye was doing "Good Life," his mic cut out -- in person, but evidently not on the broadcast. So what appeared on TV like West interrupting a pretty gentle, upbeat song by heaving his mic in the air appeared to almost 40,000 people in the crowd like West dancing silently for a few minutes before heaving his mic in the air.
UConn has sold naming rights for Rentschler Field at Pratt & Whitney, and the new full name of the stadium will be Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field.
Acronym of UConn Huskies' new stadium name: Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field is PAWS ARF h/t Johnny Mac
NASA: We are humans, broadcasting to any life forms in the galaxy. We come in peace.
Alien: Hey humans, you sound nice.
NASA: Haha thanks. You should come over :)
Alien: Uhhh, what? Our technology isn't advanced enough yet. But we can just talk for a while.
NASA: Aww damn. SO what are you doing?
ALien: Ummm, just like... operating our technology to contact you I guess? Translating your language?
NASA: But what would you be doing if I was there haha ;)
Portland's only globally focused market, Lents International Farmers Market Provides fresh, affordable, and culturally distinct produce to the diverse East Portland community. - 6/17 - (Kai Hayashi / KATU.com)
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Portland may be known for fashionable hipsters, devotion to public transit, locally sourced chickens and artisanal food carts. But a part of this city by the river counters the narrative of livable, weird, predominantly white 'Portlandia.'
Long-overlooked by visitors and many locals, East Portland stretches far from downtown, on the city's eastern edge. It's ethnically and racially diverse, houses a large percentage of the city's children, low-income families and immigrants, and lacks many of the amenities of 'cool' Portland.
Here, shabby apartment complexes, fading strip malls, wide avenues and fast-food chains are the norm. But with a quarter of Portlanders now calling it home and rising costs pushing residents out of the inner core, East Portland has become hard to ignore.
In recent years, city officials have recognized East Portland's neglect, promising change and implementing improvements. But a group of residents says it's too little, too late. And in neighborhoods where sidewalks and parks are scant and crime is high, they're organizing to get greater representation.
A ballot measure filed earlier this month would overhaul Portland's at large elections and commission form of government in favor of a strong mayor and nine council members elected by district. Most council members would have to live in the neighborhoods they represent, which proponents say would mean better representation for East Portland and areas with less political clout.
"There's a magical line around the city, and the core gets all the money and all the special stuff," said Collene Swenson, an East Portland resident and the ballot measure's chief petitioner. "If we don't fix it, we're all in deep trouble."
Portland is the rare large American city that still elects leaders via citywide elections; most cities with 500,000-plus residents elect candidates by district. In recent years, lawsuits across the nation have targeted at-large elections, saying they prevent minority residents from electing candidates of their choice.
But Portland officials say a change isn't needed.
Once a stretch of berry fields and orchards, East Portland was unincorporated for years, with modest homes on large half to one acre lots, garages and vacant tree-filled land dotting the landscape.
Its reliance on septic tanks and cesspools led city, county and federal officials to push for annexation. Though East Portland residents opposed it - they even tried to form a city of their own - the area was annexed during the 1980's and 1990's.
Afterward, large swaths were rezoned as multi-family and commercial use. Haphazard, cheaply designed development followed, residents say. Apartment complexes and mobile home parks multiplied. Scores of newcomers moved in, attracted by lower housing costs.
But city-promised upgrades such as roads, sidewalks and parks never materialized. Over the years, housing stock deteriorated, schools ballooned with children (40 percent of the city's students live in East Portland), and mounting crime rates prompted the exodus of long-time residents.
"There's a lingering indignity," said activist Arlene Kimura. "You promised us all those things, and now you're surprised we're angry that it didn't happen."
In 2009, the City Council adopted the East Portland Action Plan, a blueprint developed by the community with more than 260 actions, from upgrading housing to promoting businesses.
Activists formed a group, which Kimura co-chairs, to advocate for the plan. At its request, the city began tracking its budget by district - which showed that East Portland's per-user expenditures were below the city average for transportation, parks and housing.
The plan faced hurdles due to a lack of buy-in and limited funding, Kimura said.
"There's a reluctance to accept that the cost is going to be high," Kimura said.
But the work has led to changes, residents say, such as new parks, crosswalks and rehabilitation of some housing units. Data shows city expenditures in East Portland are up, though in some cases still not at equitable levels.
Others say changes are too slow. Many streets lack sidewalks, Swenson said, crime is rampant, drug addiction and mental health issues are at epidemic levels, and officials aren't doing enough to encourage new businesses.
"They're not investing in East Portland. They don't do anything for the taxes we pay," she said. "How about some real jobs that aren't vice, not strip clubs, pot shops, vape lounges and pawn shops?"
Earlier this year, Swenson and her neighbors filed a proposal to secede from Portland, but city staff determined the measure was flawed. The group now wants to change Portland's election format from citywide to district.
"If your council person isn't advocating for you, you can vote them out, because they're getting elected out of your neighborhood," Swenson said.
But Parks Commissioner Amanda Fritz said she's allocated more money to East Portland than a previous commissioner who lived there. She and others say the budget includes nearly $8 million for street improvements in East Portland. Rapid transit bus and new bus lines are planned.
"Nothing prevents council members from prioritizing East Portland," said Commissioner Nick Fish, who helped launch a biking trail project in the area.
Commissioner Steve Novick said he would support a switch. City-wide elections limit candidates to those who can raise lots of money, he said.
Regardless of their views on elections, city officials hope East Portland can become a mixed-income, walkable community. But Kimura fears improvements could push out the working poor and immigrants.
"Maybe city officials think it's going to happen in five years," Kimura said. "Well, I've got news for them, it's already happening."
In the New York Times last weekend Jeremy W. Peters wrote: "Mr. Trump is not, as many Republicans have suggested, merely a renegade agitator who sneaked up on the party establishment and threatens to spoil its plans for a tidy, civil primary. Rather, Mr. Trump has become the new starring attraction for the restless, conservative-minded voters who think the political process is in need of disruption."
We know that for a fact in Arizona. And we know as well that, as a strategy, it works.
Think about how many Arizona politicians have gotten elected by playing the role of a "renegade agitator."
Think about how many Arizona politicians have gotten elected by convincing us that the "political process is in need of disruption."
If playing that role works so well for an Arizona county sheriff, for state lawmakers, for congress members, for a U.S senator and for several governors, why wouldn't it work for Trump?
Still, the "experts" say Trump doesn't have a chance. CNN reported that a company using "an interactive data collection platform" says Trump has only a one percent chance of winning the Republican nomination for president.
James Fallows in The Atlantic says the odds are worse, writing, "Donald Trump will not be the 45th president of the United States. Nor the 46th, nor any other number you might name. The chance of his winning nomination and election is exactly zero."
I might believe the same thing if I still lived on the East Coast.
But I've spent 30-plus years in Arizona, where Donald Trump has been elected again and again and again.
by Mika McKinnon on Earth & Space, shared by Ria Misra to io9
Stop hoping that Pluto will regain its former designation as a planet. It isn’t going to happen. But the good news is, Pluto is something much cooler than a mere planet. It’s the largest dwarf planet we know, and one half of the first binary planet system. Pluto didn’t get demoted, it got promoted.
That’s it. I’m packing my bags, hitching a ride on the next rocket, and finding a way to skate on the icy nitrogen glaciers of Pluto. The latest flover animation from New Horizons data takes us soaring in the skies over the aching expanses of Sputnik Planum and the jagged teeth of Hillary Montes.
Avoiding touching an active outbreak site, washing hands frequently while the outbreak is occurring, not sharing items that come in contact with the mouth, and not coming into contact with others (by avoiding kissing, oral sex, or contact sports) can reduce the likelihood of the infection being spread to others.
Super Opinionated.
