Shared posts
04 Sep 15:49
Gabe: We Made a Mistake Removing Dickwolves Merch
by Rosie
Update: Mike Krahulik has published a response to folks upset by his comment. See bottom of post for brief comments. I have also written a follow-up post. For anyone who thought that Penny Arcade and their lovable firebrand Gabe had learned anything from Dickwolves, Tentacle Bento, Gabe’s most recent outburst, or anything ever at all, […]
03 Sep 22:19
Just Delete Me Is a Massive List of Links to Close All Your Accounts
by Thorin Klosowski
Removing yourself from the internet is not always an easy task and the biggest problem is tracking down all your online accounts so you can delete them. Just Delete Me is a site that provides you with direct links to doing just that.
    
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Thomas.friis.poulsen, Steffan likes this
03 Sep 16:36
Lovecraft sketch shows the author's vision for Mountains of Madness
by Meredith Woerner
Still trying to wrap your head around H.P. Lovecraft's mysterious Elder Things and collection monsters who lived below the ice of the Antarctic? Well, now you can see exactly what these mysterious beasts looked like from the author's point of view, thanks to a few pages of recently discovered doodles right out of Lovecraft's notes.
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acboehm likes this
03 Sep 15:52
The mainstream media has finally realized that climate change is real, and that including deniers in
by Annalee Newitz
The mainstream media has finally realized that climate change is real, and that including deniers in their "balanced" coverage is the same thing as including flat-Earthers in an article about globes. So says Phil Plait over at Slate.
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29 Aug 23:09
Enormous canyon discovered lurking beneath Greenland's ice sheet
by Annalee Newitz
If the ice sheets on Greenland ever melt, this is what you'll see. It's an enormous canyon cutting through the center of the island, the size of the Grand Canyon. Scientists recently discovered it with ice-penetrating radar.
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29 Aug 17:38
Looking for a Conservative Phoenix
by David Brin
I have long yearned to see a rising by old-style American Conservatives against the hijacking of their movement (even its zombification) by the cynical murdockian cabal, a process that Barry Goldwater, William F. Buckley and Billy Graham all saw in early phases and denounced.
It has become clear that this rising of conservative adults won’t be happening soon, to any degree that actually matters. Amidst Phase Three of the American Civil War, the side that stuffs ballot boxes and gerrymanders in order to stay in Congress will go down in flames, as did the Confederacy, and decent conservatives will then have their chance -- rebuilding from the ashes.
In contrast, conservatives react to nagging with hackles. They find the constant hectoring to improve things aggressive and often rude. They have a perfect right to feel that way. Meddlesome chiding (justified or not) truly is rude. But that emotional response blinds them to the simple fact that liberals have been correct in nearly every improvement campaign that they’ve raised for 80 years. The world does need saving and the proper role of conservatism is not to obstruct with volcanic fury.
Delta, United and American Airlines have all announced plans to upgrade their business-class seats for cross-country and transcontinental flights. Then there’s Emirates, which now sells first-class suites — complete with a shower — that go for a tidy $19,000 on the New York-Dubai route. At the other end of the economic spectrum, low-cost airlines that re-create the thrill of traveling in steerage are thriving, too. The new business model, apparently, is to shrink the seats, charge extra for everything and offer nothing for free. Elsewhere I have discussed what all this means (See Airline Deterioration and the new Elite). When the rich abandon a mode of transport, or can truly divide castes of travel, that mode goes to hell.
I've discussed elsewhere the problem of High Speed Trading or HST, which allows a cartel of "seated members" of stock exchanges to game the system, exponentially augmenting their already unfair advantage over other traders (like you and me.) Now see how institutionalized this unfair practice has become, as the New York Attorney General reveals that Thomson Reuters would allow you access to the Consumer Confidence data a full two seconds earlier than the rest of its subscribers… if you pay them thousands per month.
The appalling poor taste of Rolling Stone - a journal I generally admire - in putting the face of the surviving Boston Bomber on their cover - had the Net roiling with anger. My simple reaction? Refer folks to my Salon Magazine piece proposing a solution. That we "re-name" people who are decisively proved guilty of heinous deeds. It's called the "Herostratos Effect" and it has compelling logic. We deserve the right to shun those who harm us grievously, denying them the attractive "immortal fame" that derives (in a sick mind) even from infamy.
=== Oh… the hypocrisy! ===
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz To Renounce Canadian Citizenship. Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta, on Dec. 22, 1970. His mother was born in the U.S. and his father was a native of Cuba. And all of a sudden that's just fine for a fellow who's blatantly already running for president in 2016.
Um really? Seriously? All of the sudden having an American citizen mother is more than enough, even if you were born overseas? Um…. birthers? Does your hypocrisy know no bounds?
== The Deadly "smoking gun" memo? ==
If this is even ten percent true, then you have to conclude that the world's master connivers are nowhere near as smart as they think they are, since the only possible place for this to lead is tumbrels. "The Memo confirmed every conspiracy freak’s fantasy: that in the late 1990s, the top US Treasury officials secretly conspired with a small cabal of bankers." The less this mess is attributable to conspiracy, the more it has to be stupidity.
A process that none of us could have imagined would go as far as it has, with all of the GOP members of the U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee deliberately and vociferously proud to be anti-science.
Elsewhere, I describe the sort of thing that's called for. Something akin to what liberals and democrats did in 1947, when they decisively cut themselves off from the mad-communist left, and thereby saved the relevance of their movement. Alas, while millions of U.S. conservatives do express discomfort with the transformation of Buckley's intellectualism into a know-nothing mob, few on the American right have roused to do anything about this tragedy for the republic. (And let's be clear -- it is tragic if we're compelled to look only to one party for a semblance of sanity. I prefer a competitive marketplace.)
Some voices of protest have risen, now and then, e.g. on the pages of the American Conservative, decrying how Rupert Murdoch’s takeover of the Republican Party (assisted by the Koch brothers, radio shock-jocks and the Saudi Royal House) has systematically reversed dozens of hallmarks of the Goldwater-Buckley era, especially the notion that grownups engage in debate, not hysteria, with the aim of negotiating pragmatic solutions in a complicated world. That conservatism's natural skepticism vs "activist-meddling" should not mutate into rage against everything in the last lines of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
Still, there are such men and women out there, making sincere efforts to at least talk about the problem, offering hopeful manifestos for what the conservative phoenix might look like. Take this one by Andrew Bacevich in the Imaginative Conservative. I highly recommend that you read it…
… especially if you are a liberal or progressive! Because you, above all, need to begin parsing what a sane conservatism would look like. Because half of your fellow citizens do ascribe to a conservative worldview, and that is not going to change. You will achieve more by pointing them toward a more adult version than by ridiculing them in blanket terms. Let me reiterate that: I hope all of you liberals do read Bacevich's article.
Consider the following passage: “Conservatives, therefore, are skeptical of anything that smacks of utopianism. They resist seduction by charlatans peddling the latest Big Idea That Explains Everything.”
I believe that (putting aside the "charlatans" snark) he hits it on the head, here. That conservatives will always – by personality and nature – be wary of externally imposed and frenetic “improvement campaigns.” And this trait will always make them inherent opponents of meddlesome, gotta-save-the-world liberalism. They will have this trait, even when Goldwater-sanity in restored. Moreover, in this reflex they will not always be wrong.
Progressives – driven by a manic need to solve this problem right now(!!!) … and that problem and that one(!) … naturally drive half their fellow citizens batty. And liberals’ inability to recognize that visceral response is one reason the Koch-Murdochs have been able to nurse resentment into fierce political power. In other words, liberals, Fox is partly your fault.
The crux: progressives see a world that needs saving and many things that desperately need improving. They are correct about this… but often insane in their mania and inability to listen. Their worst crime is often refusing to admit that many past progressive measures actually worked! Refusing ever to give the citizenry a pat on the back for past, partial victories against racism, sexism, prejudice, and environmental blindness. By emphasizing guilt trips and chiding … and only sanctimonious chiding… many progressives have been Sean Hannity's favorite people and the source of much of his power.
In contrast, conservatives react to nagging with hackles. They find the constant hectoring to improve things aggressive and often rude. They have a perfect right to feel that way. Meddlesome chiding (justified or not) truly is rude. But that emotional response blinds them to the simple fact that liberals have been correct in nearly every improvement campaign that they’ve raised for 80 years. The world does need saving and the proper role of conservatism is not to obstruct with volcanic fury.It is to act as the voice of skeptical reason, demanding proof and reality checks and evidence. To insist, as Buckley and Goldwater did, that “solutions” always contain as much as possible of the element most in need of preservation from would-be meddlers -- a generous helping of old-fashioned free will. That is what conservative negotiators would be insisting upon right now... if conservatism still negotiated. If it were still sane.
When you read Bacevich, you get the sense of a fellow who would take up that latter role, as Barry Goldwater did. A role that would serve us all well… even when you deem it retro, overly recalcitrant or overly nostalgic.
Sure, when you read his essay, you will find much of it rather old-fogey. Tough. You must learn to converse with folks like this. Learn to talk Fox-watchers into veering away from the Hannity-Limbaugh hate fest and listening instead to folks like Bacevich.
You will never make the conservative personality go away! (If you dream of that, then you are a would-be tyrant.) But you can try understanding it better, so you can ease your neighbors’ pain. The dread and fury that has transformed them from debate-worthy fellow citizens and estimable opponents into rage-drenched soldiers in the New Confederacy.
=== Can you hear the tumbrels? ===
Delta, United and American Airlines have all announced plans to upgrade their business-class seats for cross-country and transcontinental flights. Then there’s Emirates, which now sells first-class suites — complete with a shower — that go for a tidy $19,000 on the New York-Dubai route. At the other end of the economic spectrum, low-cost airlines that re-create the thrill of traveling in steerage are thriving, too. The new business model, apparently, is to shrink the seats, charge extra for everything and offer nothing for free. Elsewhere I have discussed what all this means (See Airline Deterioration and the new Elite). When the rich abandon a mode of transport, or can truly divide castes of travel, that mode goes to hell.What does it all mean? Harold Myerson of the Washington Post lays it out in A Hard Landing for the Middle Class: "The upgrading of business and the downgrading of coach present a fairly faithful mirror of what’s happening in the larger economy: the disappearance of the middle class. As University of California-Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez has documented, between 2009 and 2011, the incomes of the wealthiest 1 percent of American families grew by 11.2 percent while those of the remaining 99 percent shrunk by 0.4 percent. Median household income has declined every year since 2008. Profits, meanwhile, have risen to their highest share of the nation’s economy since World War II, while wages have sunk to their lowest share."
I'll let Myerson have the last word: "The U.S. economy has not stagnated over the past four decades, but so much of its wealth has been claimed by the very top that most Americans have experienced it as a zero-sum game in which they’ve lost ground. As tax rules favored the wealthy, as employees lost the power to bargain for their wages, as globalization reduced the incomes of millions of workers, the rich grew richer at everyone else’s expense. That’s the reality that today’s air travel illustrates, as the comfortable standard seat that once was the norm goes the way of the dwindling middle class."
They truly haven't a clue what they are doing. History shows where this leads. I even tried to warn them, in Existence.
=== High Speed Trading Redux ===
I've discussed elsewhere the problem of High Speed Trading or HST, which allows a cartel of "seated members" of stock exchanges to game the system, exponentially augmenting their already unfair advantage over other traders (like you and me.) Now see how institutionalized this unfair practice has become, as the New York Attorney General reveals that Thomson Reuters would allow you access to the Consumer Confidence data a full two seconds earlier than the rest of its subscribers… if you pay them thousands per month.There are three levels to this: (1) The insider trading aspects are intrinsic to human nature and all we can hope for in transparency, wary regulators and whistle blowers. (2) This is made far, far worse by the cartel of seated exchange members. Even if this generation does nothing about it, a future one will, so the brightest cartel members should start looking for ways to benefit from helping us. (3) HST offers a potential for a true doomsday scenario. One akin to TERMINATOR. I mean nothing less. See my article for reasons to fear.
=== Political Miscellany ==
As Congress braces for a possible government shutdown next month and the fresh danger of default before Thanksgiving, there is a surprising exodus of senior GOP staffers that has worried people in both parties.
The appalling poor taste of Rolling Stone - a journal I generally admire - in putting the face of the surviving Boston Bomber on their cover - had the Net roiling with anger. My simple reaction? Refer folks to my Salon Magazine piece proposing a solution. That we "re-name" people who are decisively proved guilty of heinous deeds. It's called the "Herostratos Effect" and it has compelling logic. We deserve the right to shun those who harm us grievously, denying them the attractive "immortal fame" that derives (in a sick mind) even from infamy.Here's a link to the offensive cover, which has drawn hundreds of marriage proposals from deeply sick women who seriously ought to enter the Darwin Awards contest... as (thank heavens) The bomber clearly has.
Okay. Got to include this: 35 Founding Father Quotes Conservative Christians Will Hate.
The Boehner-led Congress has been the least productive since record keeping began, in 1940. And yes, that includes their stated goal of reducing government or repealing laws… they've done less of that than any democratic-led Congress.
Communist Party cadres have filled meeting halls around China to hear a somber, secretive warning issued by senior leaders. Power could escape their grip, they have been told, unless the party eradicates seven subversive currents coursing through Chinese society. These seven perils were enumerated in a memo, referred to as Document No. 9, that bears the unmistakable imprimatur of Xi Jinping, China’s new top leader. The first was “Western constitutional democracy”; others included promoting “universal values” of human rights, Western-inspired notions of media independence and civic participation, ardently pro-market “neo-liberalism,” and “nihilist” criticisms of the party’s traumatic past.
Lawrence Kotlikoff has been doing yeoman work drafting legislation for which he has now lined up significant bipartisan support in Congress. This bill would require congressional budgeting offices to actually state the long-term fiscal impact of current legislation on future generations. He also has support of 12 Nobel laureates and over 500 economists. I urge you to go to http://www.theinformact.org/ and sign up yourself and pass the word to your friends and associates.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz To Renounce Canadian Citizenship. Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta, on Dec. 22, 1970. His mother was born in the U.S. and his father was a native of Cuba. And all of a sudden that's just fine for a fellow who's blatantly already running for president in 2016.
Um really? Seriously? All of the sudden having an American citizen mother is more than enough, even if you were born overseas? Um…. birthers? Does your hypocrisy know no bounds?
== The Deadly "smoking gun" memo? ==
If this is even ten percent true, then you have to conclude that the world's master connivers are nowhere near as smart as they think they are, since the only possible place for this to lead is tumbrels. "The Memo confirmed every conspiracy freak’s fantasy: that in the late 1990s, the top US Treasury officials secretly conspired with a small cabal of bankers." The less this mess is attributable to conspiracy, the more it has to be stupidity.
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...a collaborative contrarian product of David Brin, Enlightenment Civilization, obstinate human nature... and http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/ (site feed URL: http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/atom.xml)
29 Aug 17:08
Giphy Embeds GIFs on Facebook, Is Mankind's Greatest Achievement
by Whitson Gordon
When a simple photo doesn't cut it, you need an animated GIF. Giphy, the GIF search engine, can now embed GIFs on Facebook just like you can videos.
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Gates Sucks likes this
29 Aug 17:08
Time For The Grandest Grand Theft Auto V Trailer Of Them All
by Mike Fahey
28 Aug 23:46
First Word: Ethan Stowell to Open 'mkt.' in Tangletown
by Julien Perry
Another Ethan Stowell restaurant is just around the corner. Stowell announced today that he's bringing his smallest restaurant to date to Tangletown. It's called mkt. (pronounced "market"), and at just 600 square-feet will seat about 28 people, including five seats looking into the kitchen — undeniably the star of this new operation.
mkt. will be located in the Keystone Building, which currently houses Elysian Brewing's Tangletown Pub and Mighty-O Donuts. It was formerly the original studio of photographer Chase Jarvis, who lives down the street. Says Stowell:
Chase and (his wife and business partner) Kate had been trying to get a restaurant in there at some point, and it just fell into the realm of what we want to do. Our goal is to take restaurants to neighborhoods and it kind of fit and it seems to make sense. It's a small neighborhood and it's a small space. It's us definitely branching out from doing Italian — something people will see more of from us.
Stowell is shooting for a mid-September opening.
Heading up the kitchen will be Joe Ritchie, who has been spending time recently cooking and working on recipe development inside the growing empire that is Ethan Stowell Restaurants (this will be Stowell's eighth restaurant, including Ballard Pizza Co). He also spent more than six years working with Jerry Traunfeld at both The Herbfarm and Poppy and was recently involved in the re-launch of Ray's.
Many of the dishes will be cooked on a wood-fired grill using apple wood, and the menu will be divided into four categories, and could very well look something like this:
Snacks
Zucchini fritters with lemon thyme pesto $9
Dinah's cheese with walnuts and tomato-honey preserve $8
Pumpernickel with cured salmon, dill crème fraîche $11
Fish
Albacore ceviche with citrus-cucumber ice, coriander, pickled red onions $14
Dungeness crab salad with tart apple, tarragon, endive $13
Seared halibut with braised artichoke hearts, chanterelles, chrysanthemum greens, dried chilies $22
Meats
Grilled rabbit, frisee, bacon salad, savory, juniper $12
Fried quail with spicy dates, pickled mustard greens $15
Grilled lamb tongue, baby beets, horseradish, grilled bread $13
Vegetable
Summer vegetable tagine with rosemary, olive oil, preserved lemon $12
Raw porcini mushroom salad with parmigiano-reggiano $11
Smoked wild mushrooms, duck egg, crispy barley $11
mkt. will be open daily from 5 to 10 pm and until 11 pm on Friday and Saturday. The place is already taking reservations: (206) 812-1580.
UPDATE: Just kidding! Stowell's camp says the new restaurant is not quite ready to take rezzies. Soon, though.
· Ethan Stowell Restaurants [Official Site]
· All Ethan Stowell Coverage [~ESEA~]
28 Aug 16:11
Kickstarter Games Accused Of Scamming The System
by Luke Plunkett
Company offers to double the money a game makes on Kickstarter in exchange for exclusivity. What could possibly go wrong?
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kewing.darksun likes this
28 Aug 16:08
50 Things a Geek Should Know
by Casey Chan
To be considered a true geek in today's geek friendly world, you can't just be smart. You have to dedicate yourself to the right movies and TV shows. You have to be curious about all kinds of computer and technology. You need to know which video games to play, which superhero to root for, which quotes actually matter. But probably most important of all, you need to know how to Internet.
27 Aug 18:54
Some interesting news today in the classic movie world. Rialto Pictures has announced a newly restored director's cut of the cult classic The Wicker Man will open at the IFC Centre in New York City before moving onto Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and other cities throughout the fall.
This new, 92 minute, 35mm print was discovered earlier this year at the Harvard Film Archive after Studiocanal, the rights holder, started a campaign via, of all things, Facebook to recover the missing 35mm material. Director Robin Hardy has said that this newly restored version, being dubbed the "Final Cut," fulfills his vision. Hardy, now in his 80s, released a sequel a few years ago titled The Wicker Tree ( [Continued ...]
THE WICKER MAN Celebrates 40 Years With Restoration and Final Cut!
Some interesting news today in the classic movie world. Rialto Pictures has announced a newly restored director's cut of the cult classic The Wicker Man will open at the IFC Centre in New York City before moving onto Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and other cities throughout the fall.This new, 92 minute, 35mm print was discovered earlier this year at the Harvard Film Archive after Studiocanal, the rights holder, started a campaign via, of all things, Facebook to recover the missing 35mm material. Director Robin Hardy has said that this newly restored version, being dubbed the "Final Cut," fulfills his vision. Hardy, now in his 80s, released a sequel a few years ago titled The Wicker Tree ( [Continued ...]
27 Aug 18:49
LEGO Ghostbusters. Yes Please.
by Luke Plunkett
JmicalIn the words of Molly Bloom: YES YES, OH YES!
LEGO. And Ghostbusters. Two things that should have come together officially long ago, but for some reason, never have. Ah well. That's where talented fans come in. And enough passionate ones to convince LEGO that Ghostbusters LEGO should actually get made.
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Alessander, kewing.darksun likes this
27 Aug 18:45
Simon the Sorcerer is now on Android.
by András Neltz
Simon the Sorcerer is now on Android. Adventure Soft's classic 1993 point-and-click title can now be experienced all over again on Android phones and tablets, with (optional) modern features such as upscaled graphics and a remastered soundtrack. Note that there's also an older iOS port, though by different developers.
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Alessander likes this
26 Aug 21:48
Fall Tracking: 11 of Seattle's Most Anticipated Fall Restaurant Openings
by Julien Perry
Seriously, September? With the end of August quickly approaching (Saturday), fall is just around the corner, marking another windfall of restaurant openings — some of which will miss their expected summer opening mark by an inch.
Eater National already came out with their list of the 40 most anticipated fall openings across America. Now, it's time to get Seattle specific. Here's an alphabetical list of 11 of the city's most eagerly awaited openings, followed by a poll: Which restaurant are you most anticipating?
Altstadt: The plan is for Brendan McGill of Hitchcock to bring his new beer and brats concept to Pioneer Square sometime before Oktoberfest is over. Says McGill: "We're calling it Altstadt, which means "old town." The idea is like the Hofbräuhaus in Munich — a hall where you can drink beer and eat brats." The menu will be composed of a handful of items based around platters of sausage, kraut, crispy Belgium frites, crusty bread and housemade mustard.
Aragona: Spinasse's Jason Stratton will be steering his new Four Seasons adjacent restaurant in the direction of Spain. Opening in the former Thoa's space sometime in October, Stratton promises an equally alluring bar, a strong seafood focus, and (finally!) another nice lunch option downtown. Carrie Mashaney will head up the kitchen, while making her debut on the upcoming season of Top Chef.
Barnacle: The new restaurant and bar adjacent to Walrus & the Carpenter is close to being done. Renee Erickson says Barnacle should be ready to open in early September, offering an extensive selection of wines by the glass, house made charcuterie, interesting seafood offerings, delicious tartines, rich cheeses, ice cold beer and old world cocktails.
Brimmer & Heeltap: Partners Jen Doak and former Revel chef Mike Whisenhunt have taken over the old Le Gourmand space and are transforming it into an English pub-inspired neighborhood hangout. Says Doak: "We're describing it as a gastropub, but we both realize there are stereotypes associated with it (comfort food) and we'd like to brighten it up, add a vibrancy not necessarily associated with the term." The two hope to be open before the holidays.
Hollywood Tavern: Josh Henderson hasn't even officially opened Westward yet, and already eyes are on his next project up in Woodinville. Sure, it's not in Seattle proper, but you know folks will be commuting to wine country just to check out Hollywood Tavern. The new project will be an overhaul of the original tavern (formerly Mabel's), which dates back to the 1930s. In addition, Woodinville Whiskey is opening up a huge new distillery on the same grounds. Latest word is that the place is on track for an early October opening.
La Bodega: Chef Manuel "Manu" Alfau has singed a lease for a storefront at 100 Prefontaine Pl. S. to house his current pop-up, La Bodega. The Dominican food store, expected to open sometime this fall, will offer sandwiches, pasteles, empanadas, and other traditional recipes inspired by chef Alfau's childhood meals in the Dominican Republic. Most of La Bodega's menu will be available as takeout to serve the local business community.
Le Petit Cochon: Newcomer Derek Ronspies, who has spent the last year-and-a-half co-cheffing at his brother Dustin's Art of the Table, is now branching out on his own and opening the snout-to-tail, farm-to-table Le Petit Cochon in the former Showa space in Fremont. He's shooting for a September opening.
Liam's: Kurt Dammeier of Beecher's, Pasta & Co., Bennett's and Maximus/Minimus is currently in the process of getting his U-Village restaurant off the ground. Liam's will be part of a new five-story parking garage complex. The 48-hundred square foot restaurant will have about 150 seats and a huge bar. Of the menu, Dammeier says: "We'll serve all Northwest wine and our basic food I describe as 'upscale homestyle' — mostly dishes that are familiar or reasonably familiar to a suburban crowd, but made better." He says he expects Liams' to open in early November.
Loulay: Not much is known about Thierry Rautureau's post-Rover's venture, except that it will be somewhere near 6th and Union. He told the Puget Sound Business Journal back in June: "It will be French contemporary in an urban setting. All the nuts and bolts are not together yet." November has been tossed around as a possible opening date.
Miller's Guild: Crush's Jason Wilson is partnering with Portland's top restauranteur, Kurt Huffman, to open a steakhouse in Hotel Max sometime before the holidays. The 3,200 square-foot Miller's Guild will replace Red Fin and will feature a menu largely comprised of food cooked in a game changing wood-fired grill called the Infierno.
Roux:Matthew Lewis of Where Ya At Matt says his New Orleans-inspired restaurant will open in the old Buckaroo space in Fremont shortly after Labor Day. The space is coming right along. So is the beer. You can expect Roux to be open sometime around mid-September if all goes according to plan.
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26 Aug 18:13
Carefully Arranged Collections (10 Photos)
by Amy Wolff
Cassette collection. © Jim Golden
Portland-based photographer Jim Golden’s series of photographs of collections are artfully-arranged labors of love. The only commissioned image from the series is the cameras. Golden’s client Nike commissioned that photograph, which is made up of nearly 200 cameras and required a 14-hour day to shoot. The 10′ x 8′ print hangs in the entrance to Nike’s photo studio. Some articles within the collections are Golden’s or stylist Kristin Lane’s personal effects, but Golden told PDN via email, “for the cameras I emailed about 40 local people to participate and we got a slew of stuff…. Now I’m being contacted all the time with weird stuff – thimbles, pencil sharpeners, car parts, bikes, every Star-Wars figurine ever made, etc. I want to keep it rolling, [continue it as] a long term project, and would LOVE to make a book.” Golden runs a tight ship, working only with Lane, and sometimes an assistant or two. All of the images are composed in camera, and as Golden says, “it’s very gratifying to take the time to craft a beautiful image.”
Camping collection. © Jim Golden. Styling by Kristin Lane.
Camera collection. © Jim Golden. Styling by Kristen Lane.
Instruments collection. © Jim Golden. Styling by Kristin Lane.
Beachcombers collection (collection of Kristin Lane). © Jim Golden. Styling by Kristin Lane.
Scissors collection (collection from Golden’s friend Rob Roy). © Jim Golden
Firearms collection. © Jim Golden. Styling by Kristin Lane.
8-Tracks collection. © Jim Golden
Locks collection (collection of James Rees). © Jim Golden
Housewares collection (personal collection of Kristin Lane). © Jim Golden. Styling by Kristin Lane.
26 Aug 17:01
Can we make a national heritage site on the moon?
Space archaeologist Beth O'Leary has long advocated protecting the Apollo lunar landing site. Now there is a bill in the US Congress that proposes to do just that
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26 Aug 16:42
The Week in Dads: Leveling Up
by the Editors
“Level” by Lunarbaboon
From gaming to back to school to Modern Dads and seven things no kid needs, we recap the week in Dads & Families and present a comic from Lunarbaboon.
Lunarbaboon’s comic is especially poignant for all those back-to-school goodbyes this week and next. Dr. Kelly Flanagan offers a letter to parents on what their kids will always need from them.
Social media maven and mother Kate Bartolotta offers five tips on making back-to-school transitions less stressful.
Root Beer is OK but Las Vegas is not in 7 Things Your Kids Don’t Need from You by Jeff Bogle.
Being engaged parents might be the greatest thing we can ever give ourselves and our children, writes Dr. Josh Misner, who offers six simple steps to make it happen.
Dr. Neil O’Farrell reflects on what happens when children can’t make their own choices.
Science claims to have found that dads stress less than moms. Zach Rosenberg looks into why.
A&E has found four stay-at-home dads who embody Modern Dads, which airs on A&E on Wednesdays at 10:30 pm EST. Producer and GMP contributor Adrian Kulp discusses the reality show’s origins and trajectory.
Submissions are rolling. Keep ‘em coming.
Jmical likes this
26 Aug 16:35
Building A Space Colony Looks More Fun Than Blowing One Up
by Luke Plunkett
I wrote about indie space colony building sim thing Maia last year, but in the months since it's come along so nicely it's worth a second look today.
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26 Aug 16:07
My World and Welcome To It
by Jeff_Grubb
JmicalAbsolutely agree. I'm about 40% of the way through and everything Jeff says is true.
Playing at the World, by Jon Peterson, Unreason Press, 2012
If you are a roleplayer, or a gaming historian, or a fan of D&D, you have to read this book. That simple.
I don't say that lightly. In fact, the word "lightly" does not apply at all to this volume. It is a massive tome, two and half pounds of paper, exhaustive in its documentation, delving so deep into the weeds that even the author at points mentions that you might want to browse some sections and come back later with a native guide and a machete. It is a text that, having spent the past 9 months reading it, primarily because of its lack of portability, I enthusiastically endorse for the Kindle.
It is the history of roleplaying, from the dawn of time to about fifteen minutes before I showed up for my first GenCon. And it is detailed. Deeply so. This is no memoir of old gaming groups, or paeans to favorite games, or interviews with people twenty after the fact, after age and retellings had rounded the memories to smooth surfaces and convenient conclusion. Peterson uses primary sources of the age, digging through all manner of fanzines and communiques and promotional material to sculpt a reasonable and rational picture of how, through the confluence of a number of talented individuals and different fandoms, Dungeons & Dragons was launched upon the world, and what happened next.
The book is broken down (after an introduction discussing his methodology), into five major sections, the first and the last probably the easiest for readers to swallow, as it deals directly with the historical progress of D&D. The opening section tells the tales of the wargamers of the sixties and the seventies, the fertile soil into which D&D, through the Chainmail fantasy supplement, was first seeded. Here is the Castle and Crusade Society and the International Federation of Wargamers, the first GenCons and FitS, the Dungeon boardgame and the Blackmoor Gazette. It leads up to the spring of 1974 and the publication of three small books in a woodgrain box at the then-outrageous price of ten dollars - Dungeons & Dragons.
The next three sections break down the various components that contributed to the uniqueness and popularity of the game. First the fantasy setting, taking us on a tour through the pulps and weird tales and Tolkien, who was not a foundational author for Gygax, but whose popularity made the game easily understandable, and in reviewing this rich past puzzles out the various classes, monsters, and alignments of the game. Then an analysis of rules, looking at the history of wargames, from German Princes to HG Wells (who I knew about) and Robert Lewis Stevenson (who I did not), and detailing the history of taking and resisting damage. In the final part of this exhaustive middle bit, Peterson deals with the question of immersion, and includes the SCA, role-playing within postal games, the Rommel Syndrome among wargamers, and the almost-was of the original Midgard campaigns.
In the fifth section, all the deep history in place, Mr. Peterson rejoins the narrative of the creation of D&D with its rise to popularity, it conquering of the wargaming field as well as the influence of the science fiction and fantasy community of Southern California. Here appears Lee Gold's excellent Alarums & Excursions, and the schisms between early adopters. And here also appear the challenges that continue to this day - how to deal with others contributing their own creations? How do you maintain canon without sacrificing control?
Lastly, Peterson concludes with a short section that starts with the Satanic Panic of the late seventies and its concern of overwhelming character immersion, and then taking up the computer development of D&D style games, which seeks to create that very sense of other-worldly immersion.
This is a magnum opus, a great book, and one that should be on any respectable gamer's shelves (or in his Kindle). Peterson offers a concise and cogent definition of roleplaying ("A game in which anything may be attempted"), and, without taking sides, clearly defines the roles of the two founders in creation of the game (the short version is that without each other, there would be no D&D - Gygax was the ultimate collaborator while Arneson had the core concepts).
And here's the thing - I'm not in this book. This is before I showed up on the scene. I'm off to side, growing up and playing Diplomacy in Pittsburgh and learning Avalon Hill games before going to Purdue. My first GenCon was at Parkside, which gets a passing mention at the very end of the Epilogue. I not part of the story yet, nor are a lot of the people of my generation of gamers - Steve Winter and Tracy Hickman and Doug Niles. We came on the scene later, after much of the dust had settled and by which time certain things were just not talked about. Fellow former WotCite John Rateliff IS there, but because of his OWN magnum opus, The History of the Hobbit, which Peterson uses when examining the Tolkien/D&D connection.
This is a major historical work, which sets the definitions and discussions for years to come. It is the serious analysis of the history of roleplaying and how all the parts came together. I don't agree with all within, and there are parts where I actually think he needed to talk MORE about, but there are also parts that showed what was happening when I was still growing into this industry. This is very much. "How I Met Your D&D".
Go get it, and make time to read it.
More later,
If you are a roleplayer, or a gaming historian, or a fan of D&D, you have to read this book. That simple.I don't say that lightly. In fact, the word "lightly" does not apply at all to this volume. It is a massive tome, two and half pounds of paper, exhaustive in its documentation, delving so deep into the weeds that even the author at points mentions that you might want to browse some sections and come back later with a native guide and a machete. It is a text that, having spent the past 9 months reading it, primarily because of its lack of portability, I enthusiastically endorse for the Kindle.
It is the history of roleplaying, from the dawn of time to about fifteen minutes before I showed up for my first GenCon. And it is detailed. Deeply so. This is no memoir of old gaming groups, or paeans to favorite games, or interviews with people twenty after the fact, after age and retellings had rounded the memories to smooth surfaces and convenient conclusion. Peterson uses primary sources of the age, digging through all manner of fanzines and communiques and promotional material to sculpt a reasonable and rational picture of how, through the confluence of a number of talented individuals and different fandoms, Dungeons & Dragons was launched upon the world, and what happened next.
The book is broken down (after an introduction discussing his methodology), into five major sections, the first and the last probably the easiest for readers to swallow, as it deals directly with the historical progress of D&D. The opening section tells the tales of the wargamers of the sixties and the seventies, the fertile soil into which D&D, through the Chainmail fantasy supplement, was first seeded. Here is the Castle and Crusade Society and the International Federation of Wargamers, the first GenCons and FitS, the Dungeon boardgame and the Blackmoor Gazette. It leads up to the spring of 1974 and the publication of three small books in a woodgrain box at the then-outrageous price of ten dollars - Dungeons & Dragons.
The next three sections break down the various components that contributed to the uniqueness and popularity of the game. First the fantasy setting, taking us on a tour through the pulps and weird tales and Tolkien, who was not a foundational author for Gygax, but whose popularity made the game easily understandable, and in reviewing this rich past puzzles out the various classes, monsters, and alignments of the game. Then an analysis of rules, looking at the history of wargames, from German Princes to HG Wells (who I knew about) and Robert Lewis Stevenson (who I did not), and detailing the history of taking and resisting damage. In the final part of this exhaustive middle bit, Peterson deals with the question of immersion, and includes the SCA, role-playing within postal games, the Rommel Syndrome among wargamers, and the almost-was of the original Midgard campaigns.
In the fifth section, all the deep history in place, Mr. Peterson rejoins the narrative of the creation of D&D with its rise to popularity, it conquering of the wargaming field as well as the influence of the science fiction and fantasy community of Southern California. Here appears Lee Gold's excellent Alarums & Excursions, and the schisms between early adopters. And here also appear the challenges that continue to this day - how to deal with others contributing their own creations? How do you maintain canon without sacrificing control?
Lastly, Peterson concludes with a short section that starts with the Satanic Panic of the late seventies and its concern of overwhelming character immersion, and then taking up the computer development of D&D style games, which seeks to create that very sense of other-worldly immersion.
This is a magnum opus, a great book, and one that should be on any respectable gamer's shelves (or in his Kindle). Peterson offers a concise and cogent definition of roleplaying ("A game in which anything may be attempted"), and, without taking sides, clearly defines the roles of the two founders in creation of the game (the short version is that without each other, there would be no D&D - Gygax was the ultimate collaborator while Arneson had the core concepts).
And here's the thing - I'm not in this book. This is before I showed up on the scene. I'm off to side, growing up and playing Diplomacy in Pittsburgh and learning Avalon Hill games before going to Purdue. My first GenCon was at Parkside, which gets a passing mention at the very end of the Epilogue. I not part of the story yet, nor are a lot of the people of my generation of gamers - Steve Winter and Tracy Hickman and Doug Niles. We came on the scene later, after much of the dust had settled and by which time certain things were just not talked about. Fellow former WotCite John Rateliff IS there, but because of his OWN magnum opus, The History of the Hobbit, which Peterson uses when examining the Tolkien/D&D connection.
This is a major historical work, which sets the definitions and discussions for years to come. It is the serious analysis of the history of roleplaying and how all the parts came together. I don't agree with all within, and there are parts where I actually think he needed to talk MORE about, but there are also parts that showed what was happening when I was still growing into this industry. This is very much. "How I Met Your D&D".
Go get it, and make time to read it.
More later,
23 Aug 18:57
This Comprehensive Map Traces 463 of the Bible's Contradictions
by Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan on Gizmodo, shared by Charlie Jane Anders to io9
No matter what your beliefs, it's hard to deny that the era in which the Bible takes place was a more, uh, brutal time, filled with plagues, salt pillars, and excessive murders—plus plenty of conflicting moral diktats from the man himself. Now, one designer has built a handy map to help us navigate the text.
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23 Aug 16:52
A Medieval poison ring used for political murders
by Rosella Lorenzi — Discovery News
Bulgarian archaeologists have unearthed a medieval bronze ring that might have been used for political murders some 700 years ago.
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23 Aug 16:50
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Will Retire in the Next Year
by Kyle Wagner on Gizmodo, shared by Evan Narcisse to Kotaku
Microsoft just announced that its CEO, Steve Ballmer, will retire within the next 12 months. He'll remain in his current position until Microsoft finds his replacement.
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Jonnylerner likes this
23 Aug 16:33
Astronomers Release Highest-Resolution Photos Ever Taken of Night Sky
by Robert T. Gonzalez
Hold on to your butts, space junkies. After more than twenty years of development, an international team of astronomers has unveiled a new telescope optics system that produces higher resolution images of space than anything else on the planet. Or off the planet, for that matter – this thing records visible-light images with more than twice the sharpness of those captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.
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22 Aug 21:32
Experience the number π as you never have before
by Robert T. Gonzalez
Jmical and -1 others like this
22 Aug 18:35
7 Things Your Kids Don’t Need From You
by Jeff Bogle
Jeff Bogle identifies a handful of seemingly harmless and common parenting decisions that don’t make much sense.
Soda
The corporate American stuff is basically poison in colorful cans. High Fructose Corn Syrup? Check. Caramel Color with the carcinogen 4-MEI? Check (although Coke has finally switched to another kind of caramel coloring not yet known to have potential health issues. Give it time.) No one should be drinking this swill, let alone children. If your kid needs to quench their bubbly water fix, take a look at Izze, sweetened with real fruit, and Maine Root, made tastier with fair trade evaporated cane juice. I use their Cream Soda to make homemade butter beer for the Harry Potter fans in my family.
A Trip To Las Vegas
Sure, it looks bright and super rad, but sin city is caked in the stench of desperation, empty sex, and out of the closet alcoholism. Vegas is the most electrifyingly depressing place in the country and is no place for a child.
To Be Hurried Through Childhood
What in the hell are we doing as parents? We seem to have willfully ushered in an age where being 6, 7, and 8 is less about being goofy innocent kids and more about prepping for adulthood and the dating circuit. Are we that stupid? You and your kids have a singular chance at childhood, don’t fuck it up by treating it like a speed bump on the way to becoming an adult.
Pop Music Over Kindie Music
This is not completely unrelated to the above: At least some of the brilliant modern indie kid’s music being made today should be in every family’s iTunes library. And I’m not talking just They Might Be Giants here. Try Recess Monkey, Justin Roberts, and Lucky Diaz. That’s a good start. Maybe then your little kids won’t ever twerk like a stripper to “Blurred Lines.”
To Be Overscheduled
You know the latest parenting method to get lots of buzz online this summer, CTFD? Well let’s adapt that a bit to Slow The Fuck Down. Frantic adults are a pain in the ass enough to deal with in life, kids shouldn’t be pulled in every direction either, going from one adult-led structured activity to another, missing normal meals, spending their days in the back of a van staring at a screen as they are shuttled from one thing after the next.
Prohibition From Life’s Simple Pleasures
You may not know it, but you’ve seen the kids who weren’t ever allowed an ice cream cone, screen time, or a good piece of chocolate. They are the teens and adults who now have no self-control, who began binging on the forbidden goodie as soon as they scored a bit of freedom from their warden parent(s). To deny absolutely is to set yourself, and your children, up for abject failure. Moderation, people. Embrace it, live it, teach it. Except for soda, see #1 above.
Forgetting to Say ‘I Love You’ Every Single Day
This seems blatantly obvious, I know, but there are many parents, too many!, who choose not to be affectionate with their children, or each other. Both are needed badly in this cold, hard, and often scary world. Kids, and not only little ones, need to know that they are loved and cared about. Every. Single. Day.
But wait, there’s more…A Bonus Boneheaded Parenting Move!
For You To Live Vicariously Through Your Kids
Hey sport, I know it sucks that you never made it to the big leagues, but if junior isn’t that into playing third base, and would rather, I dunno, spend his weekends building LEGOs all day, that’s gotta be okay. Ya know? His life is not yours, so stop trying to reclaim your past glory through your children. It’s selfish and kinda gross.
—photo by Eje Gustafsson/Flickr
22 Aug 18:34
Our exclusive interview with legendary fantasy artist Brom!
by Rob Bricken
Brom is only 48, which is pretty young to have his career summed up in a single book. But the recently released The Art of Brom does just that, from his humble beginnings (seriously, you have to see the dinosaur picture he drew when he was 5) to his reign as one of the fantasy world’s biggest artists to his more recent work as a writer and illustrator of his own fiction.
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22 Aug 16:56
How to Completely Anonymize Your BitTorrent Traffic with a Proxy
by Whitson Gordon
BitTorrent isn't the quiet haven it once was. These days, everyone's looking to throttle your connection, spy on what you're downloading, or even send you an ominous letter. If you use BitTorrent, you absolutely need to take precautions to hide your identity. Here's how to do that with a simple proxy.
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Thomas.friis.poulsen, Mark and 2 others like this
22 Aug 16:38
I Would So Play This Fake Pacific Rim Video Game
by Brian Ashcraft
Pacific Rim never got an 8-bit Nintendo game. Why? Because Guillermo Del Toro wasn't making big Hollywood movies during the 1980s, that's why. But what if he were...
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21 Aug 20:57
Jerry Gretzinger has been drawing a map of an imaginary world for over 50 years. To date, it is over 2000 square feet in size.
Reilly616:
Jerry Gretzinger has been drawing a map of an imaginary world...
Jerry Gretzinger has been drawing a map of an imaginary world for over 50 years. To date, it is over 2000 square feet in size.
Reilly616: