Burly.Thurr

johnpolidori:

Accidentally writing “pervy shelley” instead of percy shelley

Or maybe just one of those rare occasions when the truth slips through?

h/t @RussianNavyBlog

You have to give credit to the creator of this for being an equal opportunity flamebaiter…

[Via: Tickld user hikergirl]

[blaine gibson]

Web: Whether you're designing a website or making your resume look better, the right fonts can take it to a new level. Typ.io makes it easy to learn which fonts complement each other. But it's difficult to know which fonts complement each other. Typ.io wants to make that easy.

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Artist Thomas Leveritt recently setup a special UV motion camera in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park with the intent of filming random passersby. Ultraviolet rays have the ability to expose not-yet-visible changes to human skin, namely freckles, that turn even the most unblemished faces into dark explosions of dots. Leveritt installed a monitor above the camera so people could instantly see the results, and then to heighten the effect, supplied them sunscreen in a vivid demonstration of why you should probably never again step outside without it. (via Laughing Squid, Co.Create)

Every living thing comes from another living thing. But billions of years ago, nothing was really alive: the Earth just had a bunch of chemicals on it. So where did life appear from? This lovely animation from New Scientist explains just that in perhaps the nicest way we've ever seen.

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I spend 10+ hours per week commuting, 40+ hours wearing headphones at work (open-plan office: boo!), and ANOTHER 5+ hours wearing headphones at the gym. As such, I plow through an absolutely obscene volume of podcasts. I'd like some recommendations for more (lest I be forced to spend even a single second alone with my thoughts). To help you get an idea of my preferences, here are a few lists:

Podcasts I Fervently Love:
- Radiolab
- Snap Judgment
- Risk!
- KCRW's Strangers
- Savage Lovecast
- Welcome to Night Vale

Podcasts I Like Fairly Well:
- Judge John Hodgman
- TLDR
- This American Life
- The Moth Radio Hour
- Sawbones

Podcasts I DO NOT Like:
- Audio Smut (too "oh, we're sooo subversive and EDGY, maaaan!")
- Oh No Ross And Carrie (too heavy on banter and light on actual content)
- 99% Invisible (too dry and, I dunno, "slight"?)
- Stuff You Should Know (too high filler-to-killer ratio, not a ton of interesting info)
- Thrilling Adventure Hour (failed to "grab" me, didn't care for format)
- Comedy Bang! Bang! (too in-jokey)
- APM's The Story (I haaaaaaaated the hosts' interview style)

TLDR: ... I like TLDR! But I loooove personal storytelling, sex/relationship advice, pop science, medicine, etc. I do NOT like listening to the hosts' incessant "um"-ing and/or giggling. I don't like "wackiness". Thanks in advance for your recommendations, Hive!

Around the world, American schools' long summer break is viewed as an anomaly, and the long summer seems to be getting shorter. While most American primary and secondary schools used to start after Labor Day, more and more of them now open sometime in August (and that's not counting the ones that have gone to a year-round schedule). Some of my younger relatives started a new school year last week (in Indiana), while Baltimore schools start later this month. Both Seattle and Portland's kids have until after Labor Day (with start dates of the 3rd and 4th of September, respectively). The 4th is also the start date for students in New York City's public schools, the country's largest district. Colleges more often start in September, but some get a jump start in August, especially with required seminars or orientation programs for new students. Whether you're in school, out of school, or back in school by proxy (packing lunches or paying tuition), what time does (or did) your school-year start? Would you prefer that your local public schools run all year round, if they're of the long-summer variety? (And conversely, if your local schools give short shrift to summer, whether that's in the U.S. or anywhere else, do you think that's a good idea?)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Climatologists such as the one above are not mincing words after a huge blow-hole appeared in the Siberian tundra. The deep cavern, they believe, was caused by the venting of methane. Via Salon:

The study concerns the large deposits of methane (CH4) — a greenhouse gas over twenty times more potent than CO2 — known to be buried beneath the Arctic. Stockholm University researchers found that some of that methane is leaking, and even making it to the ocean’s surface. They called the discovery “somewhat of a surprise,” which, according to [Jason] Box, doesn’t quite communicate its importance. “The Arctic is our most immediate carbon concern,” Box said, referring also to the CH4 escaping from the melting permafrost. But the sentiment can be expanded to all of climate change: “We’re on a trajectory to an unmanageable heating scenario, and we need to get off it,” he said. “We’re fucked at a certain point, right? It just becomes unmanageable. The climate dragon is being poked, and eventually the dragon becomes pissed off enough to trash the place.”

More from an Australian news outlet:

Siberia’s Yamal region contains some of Russia’s largest gas reserves. It’s little coincidence that the first vent hole appeared about 40km from the nation’s largest gas field — Bovanenkovo. Since then another crater has been identified nearby. This one is smaller: Some 15m in diameter. Locals first found it in September last year, but it has only now come to the attention of authorities. A third — this time only 4m wide — was found several hundred kilometres away on the Taymyr Peninsula. Russian scientists examining the first blowhole found it to be 60-80m wide and some 70m deep. It runs into the permafrost of ice and mud. There is an icy lake at its bottom. Methane. It’s the lasting remains of an event which happened some 50 million years ago. An outbreak of a tiny green weed transformed the Earth from a virtually lifeless greenhouse by sucking the carbon out of the air and pumping oxygen back into it. It was a process which took millions of years to create the world as we know it. But the methane left trapped under the Arctic permafrost is a ticking time bomb — set to send the world into a mass extinction and set the climate clock back by millennia. “We have been too long on a trajectory pointed at an unmanageable climate calamity; runaway climate heating,” Dr Box writes.

Despite never actually bowling in The Big Lebowski, Jeff Bridges wouldn't let facts get in the way of a good story. The actor bowled the ceremonial first pitch this weekend at a Los Angeles Dodgers game.

Plugging his upcoming movie The Giver, which we wrote a bit about here, Bridges took the mound sporting a Hawaiian shirt beneath his jersey. Looking more and more like Kris Kristofferson each day, Bridges rolled the Rawlings to home plate to the delight of the crowd.

The Los Angeles Dodgers gave the Dude his moment. Thanks guys! http://t.co/gsr0yyRknN

— Jeff Bridges Actor (@TheJeffBridges) August 2, 2014

He eventually threw a real first pitch which, despite being just a bit high (another homage to Lebowski), made it home. The only thing missing was the Vin Scully call.

Here's the footage:

In the past few days, after the sixth Israeli strike on a Gaza UN shelter for Palestinians fleeing the fighting, the Obama administration has had sent some pretty harsh words Israel's way. The attack on the UN facility in Rafah was "indefensible," according to Senior Adviser to the President Valerie Jarrett, who added that you "can't condone the killing of all of these innocent children." UN Ambassador Samantha Power called the Rafah strike "horrifying;" a longer State Department statement named it "disgraceful."

It's hard to imagine a clearer signal of administration outrage with Israel at the Gaza campaign, short of a personal statement from the president. The US is clearly upset with Israel, which isn't all that rare, but this level of public criticism is very unusual. Given the US's strong commitment to supporting Israel, the Obama criticism probably does not augur any substantive change in that pro-Israel US foreign policy. But it could still matter by impacting domestic Israeli politics, which are highly sensitive to fears of "losing" American support.

American policies toward Israel likely won't change much

A pro-Israel rally in Chicago. Scott Olson/Getty Images

As harsh as the administration's language has been in the past few days, it's hardly been backed up by any meaningful public action pressuring Israel. On July 31st, for instance, the US agreed to an Israeli request to resupply its grenade and mortar round stockpiles. There's zero indication that the US is going to take tangible steps to punish Israel, either by limiting defense cooperation or letting through a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel's conduct in the Gaza war.

This isn't very surprising. For strategic and political reasons, the United States will likely maintain its policy of remaining very, very close to Israel for the foreseeable future. America's deep commitment to the US-Israel relationship means America's leverage over Israel is pretty limited. It usually applies what pressure it can bring to bear in cases where direct American interests are at stake — keeping Israel out of the Gulf War, for instance, or limiting Israeli arms deals with China. That's not perceived to be the case in Gaza.

This sort of public criticism, then, isn't the beginning of a major Obama attempt to change US foreign policy toward Israel over Gaza. In a very immediate sense, the criticism is exactly what it looks like: the Obama administration is upset about Israel hitting a UN facility, and wants to publicly condemn from the events.

Still, the statements could have a real impact within Israel

"Just so we're clear: I wanted the other guy to win." Epix/Getty Images

Israelis value their relationship with the United States — for fairly obvious reasons. The main concrete way that harsh US criticism of Israeli conduct could matter, absent any more material American actions, is by leading Israelis to believe that their government is endangering their relationship with the American president and the United States.

Netanyahu is usually seen as the poster child for this theory. Netanyahu is his country's Grover Cleveland: he was defeated after his first premiership in 1999, and only won a second term later, after several years out of the prime minister's office. There's a theory that his 1999 defeat was a result, at least in part, of his super-tense relationship with the Clinton administration, during which Netanyahu resisted American pressure. Israeli voters panicked over Netanyahu's very public spats with Clinton over the peace process, and elected Ehud Barak, whose views on the peace process meshed better with Clinton's.

'Israelis are more concerned over losing their strategic alliance with the United States than they fear an Iranian nuclear bomb'

This theory is not perfect. For one thing, Clinton had all but endorsed Netanyahu's rival Shimon Peres earlier, in 1996 — and Netanyahu won then. And in 1999, a plurality of Israelis prioritized domestic issues over foreign affairs in pre-election polling. "In 1999 there were more immediate reasons for his defeat than the lack of rapport between Jerusalem and Washington," Ha'aretz writer Anshel Pfeffer wrote in September 2012, before the 2013 Israeli elections. In other, the US wasn't the decisive issue.

"But 2012 is very different," Pfeffer wrote. "Surveys show that Israelis are more concerned over losing their strategic alliance with the United States than they fear an Iranian nuclear bomb." Netanyahu lost ground in the January 2013 elections just after Obama — with whom the Israeli premier has a famously poor relationship — was reelected in November 2012.

But Netanyahu only lost seats in the Knesset; he did lose his job. And once again, it's not obvious that US-Israel relations were a cause, let alone a principal one, of Netanyahu's setback. The bottom line, though, is that there's at least some evidence that publicly poor US-Israel relationships can make political headaches for Netanyahu, which is a real if indirect form of pressure — even if the US won't actually punish him over Gaza.

Biotech startup Rebiotix has raised $25 million in capital to fund clinical trials of its fecal-transplant technology. The Roseville-based company raised the funding from individual investors, CEO Lee Jones said. Rebiotix transplants bacteria from healthy stool into patients suffering from C. difficile, a bacterial infection that’s typically acquired during hospital stays. In addition to clinical trials, the recent round of funding will go toward research and development and working capital,…

pineplapple:

This is hands down the best parody twitter ever

The NBA isn't the only professional sports league in the States getting serious about accurate stats accounting. With some help from Zebra Technologies' location system, 17 NFL stadiums will use receivers and RFID (radio-frequency identification)...

willsmiff:

kayleyhyde:

We all know that feeling, vending machine

#i am also full of snacks and darkness

I Drank a Cup of Hot Coffee That Was Overnighted Across the Country

Last week, Thermos overnighted me a cup of hot coffee from Minneapolis to Washington, D.C., to see if it could. It was a bald-faced PR stunt. It succeeded in both senses: The coffee was still hot by the time it reached me, and I am writing about it now.

Now you’ve been warned: This is an article about a PR stunt. It was, however, an extraordinary PR stunt—well-executed, conceptually simple, and bubbling with zeitgeist. And I accepted the hot coffee for reasons beyond my love of roasted arabica.

Pretty cool article that just went up today at The Atlantic.

aaeds:

yungvenuz:

sixpenceee:

Mayflys are a winged insect that have a short lifespan. They mate in such a way that all of them mature in the exact same time. The will die out soon, but for the time being Wisconsin looks like something straight out of a horror movie. 

SOURCE

nnnnnnuh

That’s…not too far south of where I live. 

I’m pretty sure this is accurate. Comments on Facebook.

Earlier this week, Bill Ackman said he would give "the most important presentation" of his career, promising to deliver a "death blow" to health systems company Herbalife. Well, the presentation has come and gone, and while some tears were shed, Herbalife is still standing. In fact, their stock had a nice increase after Ackman's presentation. 

Ackman, head of Pershing Square Capital Management and self proclaimed activist-investor, put together a 250-ish slide deck about Herbalife. Pershing Square spent $50 million on the investigation, infiltrating 240 of Herbalife's health clubs. His investigation and presentation set about proving Herbalife is running a pyramid scheme with no real customers, only "phantom, fictitious customers."

While Ackman heavily attacked the Herbalife clubs, where representatives attempt to sell their products, and in turn, sign up more representatives. His attack went after this process, which he said required the reps to sign up for classes before distributing products, spending much of their own money without being able to earn anything for a long time. He said their recruitment process "creates this tendency to want to stay, because you're almost going to make it."

As for the people who are signing up, Ackman said, "It's a tragedy because they don't know they're being defrauded." He also accused the clubs of violating labor laws, again linked to need do lots of work for no pay at first setup.

Then, later on, the tears started. Ackman began discussing the "American Dream," saying "I'm a huge beneficiary of this country. [Herbalife CEO] Michael Johnson is a predator ... It's criminal. It's time to shut [Herbalife] down." He was certainly choked up and maybe shed a few tears, according to those in attendance:

Ackman tearing up (crying) using all the tricks in his bag.

— DennisM (@newsagg) July 22, 2014

This is all part of Ackman's $1 billion bet against Herbalife, which he made in December 2012. At that time, he publicly launched an attack on Herbalife, saying he was shorting their stock. Of course, this spurred other investors to go long. Carl Icahn, with whom Ackman has had a long, but now resolved feud, went long and now holds 17 percent of Herbalife's stock.

Herbalife also offered a strong statement, responding directly to Ackman's attempt to ruin them: 

Once again, Bill Ackman has over-promised and under-delivered on his $1 billion bet against our company. After spending $50 million, two years and tens of thousands of man-hours, Bill Ackman further demonstrated today that the facts are on our side.

We will continue to focus on our mission of bringing good nutrition and economic opportunities to communities across the globe. We recognize that he is running out of time to make good on his bad bet against Herbalife, with the equivalent of 25.7 million shares in put options that expire on January 17, 2015. Today is evidence that Bill Ackman will not succeed.

According to a recent study commission by the company, 87.5% of nutrition club operators feel good about the money they earn and 92% want to continue with their club. We are confident that the facts are on our side and look forward to fighting back."

The company is being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission, so perhaps the $50 million investigation was not all in vain. But for now, Herbalife is up 25.45 percent today.

 

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