Mrwhosetheboss made a down-and-dirty holographic projector for a smartphone using a plastic jewel case and special video files. Try it yourself! Read the rest
It's an age-old complaint about video games and films: bad graphics make them suck. But plenty of classic entertainment holds up even if the effects don't. RocketJump Film School examines the issue in a brisk overview. Read the rest
The Matchstick, a Firefox-OS-based Chromecast-style device, kickstarted on the promise of bringing open, user-rights-respecting video to our homes -- then they decided to add DRM.
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“I shouldn’t have to point this out, but I guess I do: abortion is not funded by the government, by law. Saying “abortion should not be funded by the government” as an argument for forbidding women to get health services from Planned Parenthood is like saying that because some supermarkets sell beer, food stamps shouldn’t be able to to be used at supermarkets, even though food stamps can’t be used to buy beer. I promise you that Jeb Bush knows this perfectly well.”
“We need to say that women have sex, have abortions, are at peace with the decision and move on with their lives. We need to say that is their right, and, moreover, it’s good for everyone that they have this right: The whole society benefits when motherhood is voluntary. When we gloss over these truths we unintentionally promote the very stigma we’re trying to combat. What, you didn’t agonize? You forgot your pill? You just didn’t want to have a baby now? You should be ashamed of yourself.”
“This is a smear campaign pursued with all the obsession of a small child or a serial killer - yet it’s influential enough that Congress launched a full investigation into the claims. When one of the most powerful political bodies in the world can be swayed by a group with so little credibility, how can anyone take it seriously? Jaded politicos might interject at this point to say that no one does.
But of course, this was never really about ‘dead babies’. It’s about vilifying an organisation that provides affordable healthcare to women – contraception, cervical cancer screenings, breast exams and, yes, abortions.
Abortions, which take up just 3% of Planned Parenthood spending, none of which is federal. But presidential hopeful Rand Paul vowed to use ”all legislative vehicles at his disposal“ to force a vote, while Ted Cruz pledged to “eliminate” its state funding.
This is just one in a long line of assaults on women’s reproductive rights – from the Texas bill so famously filibustered by Wendy Davis to the attempt to limit abortions to six weeks in North Dakota. Meanwhile, thanks to the Hobby Lobby ruling, private firms can opt not to offer contraception in workers’ health plans under Obamacare on religious grounds.
This explains why so many senators seem able to overlook the screaming irony that family planning services prevent abortions, and that more restrictive abortion policy laws aren’t associated with lower abortion rates.
But when has evidence mattered? Not in the past, and as the latest vote shows, not now.
It was only ever about ideology. It’s about restricting women’s right to choose what to do with their bodies, and it’s about winning presidential primaries. And with the election circus in sight, there’s more of this to come.”
This is why we can’t have nice things. On Saturday, vandals in Philadelphia destroyed a hitchhiking robot from Canada named HitchBot, two weeks into its U.S. trip. Designed as a social experiment, HitchBot could talk to humans and upload photos to social media. If you found it, HitchBot would tell you where it wanted to go and ask for a ride. Worry not though, HitchBot may get a happy ending.
The false-positive rate is 99%. Public reaction to them bleeds from disinterest to violent hostility. They don't reduce the likelihood of your car being stolen, and are easily circumvented. But still they remain abundant.
It’s weird how so many people have been more certain than me about my potential family life, even though I’ve held consistent opinions on it for about 2 decades. As I’m getting older, firmly in the ‘sweet spot’ for when I should be getting pregnant, people become increasingly certain about insisting that ANY MOMENT NOW I will realize that the very thing I want out of life is an occupied uterus.
I’ve always been open to the fact that my views might change. I’ve changed a lot since I was 10, thank goodness. As an adult, I interrogate these goals and opinions fairly regularly, because I want to make sure that I’m giving myself the life I deserve. So I look forward in my life and imagine what I want. While I’m sure a future with children would have joy and fulfillment, when I think about that future I also think of a future that is undercut by regret.
It is currently impossible for me to get pregnant, thanks to a lack of partners with sperm and excellent birth control. But if I somehow found out I was pregnant today, my first call tomorrow would be to an abortion provider. This has been true for as long as I have been an adult. It would be a decision I make with certainty. Why is it so hard for everyone else to honour my certainty?
Is not the same as forgiveness, tolerance or being a doormat. It’s not letting people get a free pass.
It’s realising that even arseholes are scared. It’s realising that the worst criminals in history still had people who loved them. It’s realising your enemy is probably just doing the best they can in a world that makes no sense. (That’s why, incidentally, they’re adherents tof toxic ideologies and practices, andrefuse to interrogate them; such things provide them with fucking security blankets. They give them a sense of agency.)
We have to be kind to each other, even if it’s thrown back in our faces. Why? Because we’re all here together, for such a terribly short time, and contrary to popular belief WE. ALL. NEED. HELP.
He signed his letters Dionysos and “the crucified one” - why?
Because he realised we are all that horse, and also the people beating it.
Please, be kind. It’s the only way anything will change permanently. Be angry, rise up all you need to, but be kind to each other as you do it.
I know it’s hard, nearly impossible in fact, but it’s the only way we’re going to survive - as a species and as you and your friends and family. I’m not inherently kind, not at all. But all the good things I ever had, and have? I got them by being kind, by letting the bullshit flow past, letting the crap of the world pass by and focusing on the importance of trying my best to help other people, as they helped me.
Call me a hippy if you want - it’s not true. I’m a grumpy bastard who really would rather be a misanthrope. Maybe I can’t be kind to everyone, but I’m going to be kind to those I can be. And if they ask me why, I tell them this: Because it’s infinitely preferable to the alternative.
Because it’s not a war, it’s a rescue mission. It’s descending into the dark to find light that you can share with others, to help them learn how to heal and be whole. If I have to bleed to do it, if I have to pour my heart out with words of storm and fury, fire and ice and black bird’s carrion calls, so fucking be it.
And you’re going to help. You have already. So many of you have already, in small unnoticed ways, but you have and will
Consider this a reminder then. Consider this a voice in your ear. An act of memory.
I found it hilarious that a grown adult thought babies grow in a woman’s stomach, so I retweeted it and played along with a pretty decent baby-eating (and baby-pooping!) joke:
Sweetheart, if a baby ends up in my stomach, I'll know how he got there, and I'll also know how he's getting out. https://t.co/rWVypjO4sm
Then I muted him and moved along, because I have a life.
This morning, I found that my baby-eating Tweet had apparently caught the attention of the other anti-abortion folks, and judging from their reactions, I’ve realized that “nate_dogg1620″ isn’t just an outlier: there’s an entire hoard of people who want to force women to give birth but have no idea what that entails, down to the very basic fact that fetuses are carried in the uterus, not the stomach. In part, I blame the anti-abortionists’ use of euphemisms for nearly everything, to engender the most amount of emotional attachment and the least amount of scientific accuracy. In particular, the use of the word “womb” seems to have confused people who don’t realize it means “uterus,” as opposed to “magical place in the midsection of a woman where the stork delivers the baby.”
Here’s a selection of responses for your amusement/horror:
@rebeccawatson but let me guess, you are appalled at the killing of Cecil… Only up side you recognize exactly what it is… A baby!
Yesterday we showed you a video by a truly horrible, despicable human being defending the baby chop shop Planned Parenthood, and the overwhelming majority of folks who read the piece agreed the lady was sick and twisted.
Well, for those who might’ve been on the fence about how evil this girl is will no doubt jump on over after seeing this truly horrific tweet she posted to her account.
Seriously, this is demented.
Sweetheart, if a baby ends up in my stomach, I'll know how he got there, and I'll also know how he's getting out. https://t.co/rWVypjO4sm
That’s strange. She calls the unborn child who would be in her uterus a baby and not a clump of cells.
Looks like deep down this monster actually knows what she supports is the murder of innocent children.
It’s hard to believe there are people as disgusting as this chick in the real world, but lo and behold, here’s the proof of her existence.
This is a prime example of the twisted evil progressive ideology and culture produces, and believe it or not, there are many others like her out there. If we’re going to win the fight to preserve the right to life for the unborn, we’re going to have to confront this darkness both out in public, and privately in prayer.
While I’m so angry at Watson I could scream, and reading what she posts makes me want to slam my head against the wall — actions I wouldn’t advise anyone taking — deep down my heart aches for her.
She’s so consumed by darkness and selfishness she’s blind to depth of her own evil. This woman is headed down a road to destruction, both in this life and the one to come.
This is a realization I had upon reflecting on Watson’s video, and it hit me that this woman needs us to do more than just expose the darkness, though that’s certainly needed.
She needs us to pray for her and share the truth with her, both on abortion and the gospel of Jesus Christ, because only Jesus has the power to change her heart.
He’s sort of in the business of redeeming and changing monsters. After all, He did this for me.
Let’s hope all of this sinks in and she’s freed from her hate of the unborn.
When I meet other people my age and tell them what I do for a living (only after unsuccessfully avoiding it), after the usual what kind of music, name of the band questions, etc., things turn to my thoughts on the merits or lack of in today’s pop music. Sometimes I think they want me to reassure them that they are not just turning into old assholes. Saying the same things old assholes said about them and their music. In order to determine if you’re turning into an old asshole, you have to accept the fact that the rate at which a society progresses can be measured by the rate at which it’s old assholes die or accept their irrelevance. Since we can’t change your life expectancy let’s focus on relevance.
Why was your music all that anyway? If you’re thinking “because they played their own instruments” you may be becoming an old asshole.
Why?
Ted Nugent plays an instrument. What is he? You guessed it. I was even young enough once to think he had something meaningful to offer the world.
Basically every generation deserves a chance to get it wrong! And if you think the one coming up is going to get it any more wrong than yours did; congratulations!
This is a very interesting read on the open web. One of the core ideas here is something that we think and talk about a lot, which is that social media and private networks are killing the open web that blogs played such a huge role in creating.
“Blogs gave form to that spirit of decentralization: They were windows into lives you’d rarely know much about; bridges that connected different lives to each other and thereby changed them. Blogs were cafes where people exchanged diverse ideas on any and every topic you could possibly be interested in.”
And this conclusion:
“New, different, and challenging ideas get suppressed by today’s social networks because their ranking strategies prioritize the popular and habitual.“
I’ve always believed that, given time, people will float back to the decentralized web. Technology moves so quickly these days that I’m really not even convinced that internet providers, social networks, or congress can prevent the open sharing of information.
I gave up Facebook several months ago after reading a few studies about the negative impacts of Facebook on happiness. I was concerned that my real friends would think I was shunning them or that I’d be out of the loop. But none of those things have happened. In the end, the only difference is that I’m spending those precious minutes online reading more blogs. It’s inspiring and enriching and I’m grateful to have made the change.
"We had a large group with a large number of bags to be checked and because of a certain item in those bags there was additional screening necessary," said Bill Begley with Hobby Airport.
A spokesman for the airport says the sorority members were apparently given thick booklets at the convention that could be mistaken for explosives when packed into checked bags. The booklets forced TSA officials to hand check most of the luggage.
"Our souvenir booklet, apparently it's too thick and because of all the colored photos in it, it appears to look like some sort of plastic explosive," [Cassandra] Tomes said.
Books can be dense (no pun intended) and so can look to an X-ray-machine operator like a block of something potentially scary. This happened to me once some time ago, back when I carried paper books, apparently not just because of the book but because I had also thrown some computer cords into the suitcase. So, okay—a big opaque block in some guy's suitcase, apparently with wires sticking out of it, that I understand. But if hundreds of people show up with the same book on the same day, once our Last Line of Defense gets a few dozen looks at it I'd assume they would, you know, communicate with each other and understand it's not a threat.
Of course, I suppose it's not impossible that ISIS coordinated an attack plan with the annual Delta Sigma Theta convention. But the chances of that are sufficiently close to zero that I'd feel safe waving these ladies through.
Oh—"In addition, a few TSA machines broke. That combined with the sheer volume of travelers created the perfect storm for delays." Yep, it was the perfect storm all right. Again we are subject to the whims of a capricious Universe. What can one do?
Just a reminder that there’s a new Patreon level. For pledges of $15 or more, you get a signed copy of Kenan Malik’s monumental “The Quest for a Moral Compass: A global history of ethics”. There are now four copies left.
Jobs that are more likely to be held by women are the same jobs that are least vulnerable to automation. Read the rest
The false-positive rate is 99%. Public reaction to them bleeds from disinterest to violent hostility. They don't reduce the likelihood of your car being stolen, and are easily circumvented. But still they remain abundant.
