thehappysorceress:

Question 3 by Chris Kasmar

Neat!

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I would rather have played Han Solo. When I first read the script I thought that's the part to be, always wry and sardonic. He's always that. I feel like a lot of the time Leia's either worried or pissed or, thank God, sort of snarky. But I'm much more worried and pissed than Han Solo ever was, and those aren't fun things to play... I had a lot of fun killing Jabba the Hutt. They asked me on the day if I wanted to have a stunt double kill Jabba. No! That's the best time I ever had as an actor. And the only reason to go into acting is if you can kill a giant monster. -- Carrie Fisher to an audience at the Hay arts festival in Wales. I'd wager there's a significant number of us who'd like to be Han Solo, so Fisher is not without friends in this area. And as for a desire to kill giant monsters, well. I think that's pretty universal as well. She also spoke about how nice it was to see her old costars again for the filming of Star Wars: Episode VII, and confirm that they all look "a little melted" by time; and had a great, biting answer for the question about whether she still has that gold bikini. You can read highlights of the talk here at the Guardian. Previously in Carrie Fisher

Hey, you! Violence-lover! With the video games! Put that controller down and listen to me, if you can curb your insatiable blood-lust for five seconds. Yes, I can hear you scoff already. Bah! This fool thinks that just because I enjoy video games, I am a violent person! Fancy book-learnin’ people say this is not true! Howsoever that may be the case, let’s talk, you and I. Let’s talk about power in video games. Because you as well as I know the feeling.

The Wrap:

An actor in a Santa Clarita, Calif. production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” was fired Saturday after physically removing a heckler in the audience who lobbed anti-gay slurs at the cast for nearly half of the show. John Lacy, who played Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams’ classic play that tackles homophobia among other themes, was fired after jumping off stage and physically confronting an audience member who repeatedly made noise and yelled “fag” during emotionally tense scenes, according to audience members’ accounts of the incident on Facebook. The show apparently continued following the confrontation and concluded to a standing ovation. Lacy was apparently not let go until after the performance.

One of the show's leads resigned in solidarity with Lacy—but other actors in the Repertory East Playhouse production took to Facebook to defend his firing. One actor stated that Lacy put the entire cast and audience at risk: "What if this guy had a weapon?” Welcome to America, where we must defer to bigoted idiots at all times because our bigoted idiots tend to be armed. Another actor outed herself as something of an idiot:

Fellow actress Emily E. Low, who plays the female lead, agreed that violence should not have been the answer, adding that part of acting is accepting criticism from the audience. “As actors we must take the positive audience responses with the negative. It's not always about cheers and standing ovations,” she wrote in the same Facebook thread. Low added that Troy's character, Brick, is gay, suggesting that the heckler's anti-gay slurs may have been appropriate. “And, the truth is, Brick is, after all, a gay man,” she wrote.

So it's cool to scream "faggot!" during a play if there's a gay character on stage. Good to know.

UPDATE: Actress Emily Low wrote in to debate Dan's interpretation of events. Her letter is after the jump.

You have reported false facts about me in your article regarding Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. I NEVER suggested that the anti-gay slurs were appropriate. In fact quite the opposite. I NEVER said what the hecklers did was okay. I said that this play's subject matter elicits a strong audience reaction and we need to be prepared as professional actors to deal with the negative and positive audience responses. I don't feel violence is the proper way to deal with it. I never ever said the use of the word "fag" was okay. It's not. It's disgusting. Please adjust your facts.

Kindly,

Emily Low

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A new flaw has been discovered in the GnuTLS cryptographic library that ships with several popular Linux distributions and hundreds of software implementations. According to the bug report, "A malicious server could use this flaw to send an excessively long session id value and trigger a buffer overflow in a connecting TLS/SSL client using GnuTLS, causing it to crash or, possibly, execute arbitrary code." A patch is currently available, but it will take time for all of the software maintainers to implement it. A lengthy technical analysis is available. "There don't appear to be any obvious signs that an attack is under way, making it possible to exploit the vulnerability in surreptitious "drive-by" attacks. There are no reports that the vulnerability is actively being exploited in the wild."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This post was originally a Facebook note that I wrote and shared on my page on April 1st, 2013. An update paragraph has been included at the end.

That number is the total dollar amount in medical costs I have amassed in just over five months. ER visits, a week long inpatient hospital stay, numerous appointments with my neurologist and my primary care physician, lab work, and so on. If you do the math, that number is equal to about 6.5 years of gross pay for me at my current wage. Luckily, I am only responsible for $7,000, which I just have in my couch since I work a part-time retail job! (I just rolled my eyes so hard they fell into my skull.)

My Rebif (an injectable disease-modifying drug I take to treat multiple sclerosis) isn’t even included in the above number. It costs $58,626.48 a year. I guess I am lucky to only pay $60 a month for it. That is $5 a shot (I take it three times a week).

Now, I have seen my news feed flooded with stuff about how bad the Affordable Care Act is and why it needs to be repealed. For someone like me (and for a whopping one in TWO Americans) with a pre-existing condition, this number could be astronomically higher due to insurers being allowed to deny those with pre-existing conditions. Should I really be denied insurance because of a health condition that I did not ask to have? I say NO, and so does the Affordable Care Act. By 2017, pre-existing conditions, even for the highest risk insurance customers, will be eliminated completely. As Mike McCready, lead guitarist of Pearl Jam and a sufferer of Crohn’s disease, said in a YouTube video, LIFE is a pre-existing condition.

If you were denied insurance coverage because of your health, would YOU be able to afford that number above, and possibly more?

My reason for this post is more than just a steroid-induced state of being extremely tired yet wide awake at the same time. (I am on a Medrol taper right now. Steroids are hell.) I am enraged by all this “repeal Obamacare” drivel on my news feed. Adequate, affordable access to health care is treated as a privilege for few nowadays, instead of how it should be: a RIGHT for ALL.

So, no matter how much you hate “Obummer” and the “libtards,” while those posting these anti-Obamacare articles and memes may be lucky enough to live a life relatively free of any health issues that would make them need access to medical services on a regular basis, some of us don’t have that luxury. Please remember that.

It is now a year after this post was originally written for Facebook, and my health care costs have indeed gone down. I am not enrolled in any of the healthcare.gov plans, but my coverage through my employer has gotten much better. My pre-tax contributions to my insurance did not go up as they have in the past, and my out-of-pocket maximum went down by $1,000.

Thanks, Obama!

Original Source

djempirical

love it

Because every word the man has ever uttered must be quoted.

Original Source

David Shrigley, Potato Skull, 1999

Art practice eness built this incredibly cool LED dance floor featuring 265 LEDs.

Dance like Billie Jean on this new MINI interactive dance floor. A collaboration with Vice Australia to launch the car along the east coast. This floor pays homage to the 2014 MINI LED dashboard, and if you look closely the spiral-graphic design is all formed out of a single MINI Logo. There are 265 unique addressable LED tiles that burst in colour to your moves and the music.

Read more.

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Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!

yopatrick:

Some good tips about comic lettering from Nate Piekos of Blambot.com

It looks like Amy Poehler's autobiography, Yes Please, is going to be completely awesome. But you already knew that. What you didn't know is that the magical wizarding powers of Jon Hamm can help relieve stress.

Read more...

Continue reading…

“Except you can’t show a topless woman on TV - and you can’t defibrillate a woman in a bra. So victims of heart attacks on TV are always male. Did you know that a woman having a heart attack is more likely to have back or jaw pain than chest or left arm pain? I didn’t - because I’ve never seen a woman having a heart attack. I’ve been trained in CPR and Advanced First Aid by the Red Cross over 15 times in my life, the videos and booklets always have a guy and say the same thing about clutching his chest and/or bicep.

And people laugh when I tell them women are still invisible in this world.”

-

distractedbyshinyobjects

re: feministing - for women, heart attacks look different

Things I did not know, but should.

(via elfgrove)

wormwoman (via alex-v-hernandez)

We didn’t know until the early 90s that women experience heart attacks differently than men because all the studies were on men.

Art student Raffael depicts a male Tomb Raider in the poses and attire customarily adopted by Lara Croft. In other news, Robert Pattinson is allegedly going to be the new Indiana Jones.

The last time I was here, Donald gave me a gift, the video game developed here in Poland that's won fans the world over, The Witcher. I confess, I'm not very good at video games, but I've been told that it is a great example of Poland's place in the new global economy. And it's a tribute to the talents and work ethic of the Polish people as well as the wise stewardship of Polish leaders like prime minister Tusk.

submitted by andelocks [link] [134 comments]

Puget Sound App Day, which was put on by Seattle Public Schools, gathered nearly 900 students from throughout Washington State for a day of coding. For many of the students, this was their first guided exposure to coding apps and programs. From GeekWire:

“Our grand vision was to have some formula where we take kids that don’t have coding experience and get them exposed to it,” said Michael Braun, a lead organizer and computer science teacher at Rainier Beach. “Having a forum like this really allows them to both learn some basic skills, plus get mentorship.”

Another notable part of App Day were the students themselves, many of whom come from low-income households.
“Once you get the concept of coding, it can really fuel you being a change agent,” Braun said. “You can affect your local community and solve problems that haven’t been addressed. These students, wherever they come from, all have local issues. Once they have the power and understand the tools to code, they can create software and programs that make a big change.”

Read more.

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Each Tuesday is EducationTuesday here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts about educators and all things STEM. Adafruit supports our educators and loves to spread the good word about educational STEM innovations!

The inertia hardest to overcome is that of perfectly good seconds. ~Martin H. Fischer

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1889 – The first long-distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, running 14 miles (23 km) between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon.

Electric-power transmission is the bulk transfer of electrical energy, from generating power plants to electrical substations located near demand centers. This is distinct from the local wiring between high-voltage substations and customers, which is typically referred to as electric power distribution. Transmission lines, when interconnected with each other, become transmission networks. The combined transmission and distribution network is known as the “power grid” in the United States, or just “the grid”. In the United Kingdom, the network is known as the “National Grid”.

Read more.

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1965 – The launch of Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew. Ed White, a crew member, performs the first American spacewalk.

Gemini 4 (officially Gemini IV) was the second manned space flight in NASA’s Project Gemini, occurring in June 1965. It was the tenth manned American spaceflight (including two X-15 flights at altitudes exceeding 100 kilometers (54 nmi)). Astronauts James McDivitt and Edward H. White, II circled the Earth 66 times in four days, making it the first US flight to approach the five-day flight of the Soviet Vostok 5. The highlight of the mission was the first space walk by an American, during which White floated free outside the spacecraft, tethered to it, for approximately 20 minutes. Both of these accomplishments helped the United States overcome the Soviet Union’s early lead in the Space Race.

Read more.

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2010 – Adafruit introduces our real time order map.

We saw the Zappos “real time order map” and fell in love with the idea so we made an Adafruit order map. We do not have a TV so we have this on the screens on the computers here – a fun way to see where folks are ordering in the world at the moment.

Leave this page open – What you are watching latest order placed on the Adafruit website, from all over the world, coming in and being mapped to the location the order is being shipped to, in real time. The item is a random product from the latest order placed.

Orders on map are based only on (general) USA postal zip code or international city. Addresses and any other personal information is never made available.

Click here to view the map!

Pay Homage To Classic Arcade Games With8 Bit Gaming Roller Blinds. via English Blinds

Made to Measure 8 Bit Gamer Blinds
If you’re a fan of classic arcade games, an old school gamer or just love that geeky pixel look, this new collection of digitally printed roller blinds created by the team at English Blinds offers a great way to add some retro gaming fun to the windows. Prices will start from £95 and they’ll be available to buy online shortly.

These retro chic blinds pay homage to classic games of the late 70’s and early 80’s such as Space Invaders and Pac Man and are perfect to give your pad that 8 bit look. With a choice of alien characters and classic game action dressing the windows has never been some much fun!

Read more

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Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!

Is this the new Valve VR head set? Details & more images here (Valve HMD’s at Boston VR Jam)…

postcardsfromspace:

twentypercentcooler:

comicsalliance:

SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON DOESN’T WANT TO ADDRESS ITS HARASSMENT PROBLEM BECAUSE PEOPLE MIGHT THINK IT HAS A HARASSMENT PROBLEM

By Chris Sims

San Diego’s Comic-Con International has a problem that it doesn’t want to address. See, a few weeks back, a group called GeeksForCONsent launched a petition urging Comic-Con to adopt a formal harassment policy in place of the broad, basically unenforceable “code of conduct” that’s currently in place. Like many conventions, SDCC has a huge problem with women — particularly women cosplayers — being harassed by other con-goers and dubious media “professionals”, and the present policy offers victims little recourse.

Comic-Con’s existing policy, which can be found in its 200-page programming guide and on the event’s website, is as follows:

Attendees must respect common sense rules for public behavior, personal interaction, common courtesy, and respect for private property. Harassing or offensive behavior will not be tolerated. Comic-Con reserves the right to revoke, without refund, the membership and badge of any attendee not in compliance with this policy. Persons finding themselves in a situation where they feel their safety is at risk or who become aware of an attendee not in compliance with this policy should immediately locate a member of security, or a staff member, so that the matter can be handled in an expeditious manner.

GeeksForCONsent’s petition asks that Comic-Con amend the policy thusly:

• A harassment reporting mechanism and visible, easy to find on-site support for people who report harassment.
• Signs throughout the convention publicizing the harassment policy and zero-tolerance enforcement mechanisms.
• Information for attendees on how to report harassment.
• A one-hour training for volunteers on how to respond to harassment reports.

As a response to the petition, David Glanzer, Comic-Con’s director of marketing and public relations — someone whose actual job is to talk to the media about this sort of thing — gave a remarkable interview to CBR‘s Albert Ching where he suggested, astonishingly, that instituting a more explicit anti-harassment policy would be a problem in and of itself, because people in the media and the attendee base might think that Comic-Con has a problem with harassment.

…because we’re really an international show, and have 3,000 members of the media, I think the story would be harassment is such an issue at Comic-Con that they needed to post these signs around there. Now, people within the industry, and fans, know that isn’t the case, but the general public out there, and I think the news media, might look at this as, “Why would you, if this wasn’t such a bad issue, why do you feel the need to single out this one issue and put signs up about it?” I think that’s a concern.

That’s not really how rules work.

READ MORE

Sadly, my references to SDCC as a “nightmare hellscape” run by “goofballs” were cut out of the final draft.

I think that’s because most of us take those things as read by now.