Nathan

detect and export seamless animated GIFs from videos  

here's one I just generated for Alice in Wonderland  

incredible work by Sam Lavigne [via] 

Codename: SPENCH

Over the years metal fans have proven their devotion to the genre in numerous ways, one of which involves exhaustively mapping the genre’s origins and sounds. A couple years ago a map surfaced, displaying the number of metal bands per capita across the globe, but now The Atlantic’s City Lab has extrapolated on it, positing that the countries with the most metal bands are also the wealthiest. Considering that Scandinavia has the highest density of metal bands—and that Sweden, Denmark, and Norway are considered to be in the top-five for quality of life for their constituents—it only furthers that the black metal bands that persist in those countries are not influenced by the economic state of their homelands, but by their grim, frostbitten winters. Such a development leaves other lingering questions, such as: “Does this influx of metal bands result in increased revenue for the metal-spike ...

The host of several TV food shows has had his latest show pulled (at least for now), possibly because of a social media tirade that he went on.

The Washington Post is reporting that Adam Richman of "Man v. Food" fame has had his new show "Man Finds Food" pulled by the Travel Channel, with the show no longer being seen on the network's schedule. The article indicates that the postponing of the show could be in response to an Instagram rant where Richman was called out for using the hashtag #thinspiration, which the XOJane site says is popular in pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia circles. When this was brought up to him, Richman responded with a number of expletive-filled posts on Instagram, at least some of which have since been deleted. The TV host subsequently delivered an apology to ABC's "Good Morning America," stating that "I'm incredibly sorry to everyone I've hurt."

At this point in time, it is not known if or when "Man Finds Food" will be shown the Travel Channel. (It was supposed to have had its debut on July 2.)

Thanks to Eater National for initially bringing this to our attention.

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Having only recently recovered from the unnerving spectacle of Chicks With Steve Buscemi Eyes, America must now confront the perverse and often baffling phenomenon of Guys With Zooey Deschanel’s Eyes, thanks to a new, single-purpose Tumblr. Since May 20 of this year, Guys With Zooeyes has given its readers an assortment of crudely but effectively Photoshopped images of notable male actors, rappers, and TV personalities with their own eyes replaced with the crystal blue, eyeliner-bedecked orbs of quirky multi-hyphenate Zooey Deschanel. Starting, as it must, with Nick Offerman, the Tumblr has altered the countenances of such notables as Guy Fieri, Hulk Hogan, and the cast of Duck Dynasty.  Though still young, Girls With Zooeyes has already garnered a tweet of approval from Ms. Deschanel herself. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this project is that the addition of Zooeyes does not have a homogeneous effect on its subjects. While ...

1.

"The Tortured History of Entertainment Weekly." As the magazine continues to decline, firing one of its founding film critics and crowd-sourcing articles to unpaid writers, Anne Helen Petersen of The Awl remembers a day when it was well funded, and culturally a very big deal.  

“The idea for the magazine was straightforward. Just as People had been borne of the "People" section of Time, the new magazine would function as the "Picks and Pans" section of People, with Jarvis's own television reviews as a model. Like Time and People, Entertainment Weekly was aimed at "busy subscribers" (read: middle-class people) and trumpeted its "quick-read, 1-stop guide" to "whatever's noteworthy" in media. Put differently: The plan was highly digestible reviews intended to keep the bourgeoisie in touch. [...] They wanted to assist 'the aging baby boomers who still wants to be plugged in,' using a scale (A to F) that reflected the 'universal experience' of school grades. If you read EW, the logic went, you were saving yourself from your own bad decisions: The magazine's pitch for subscribers even asked potential readers to weigh the $50-dollar yearly rate against 'the cost of a bad evening's entertainment.'”

2.

"Francis Ford Coppola Sees a 'Live' Future For Film." For Deadline, David Robb summarizes one of Coppola's more intriguing predictions about the future of cinema—and bear in mind that he's made quite a few over the decades.

“Speaking before an overflow crowd at the closing of the Producer Guild‘s 'Produced By' conference, Coppola said he sees a future in which movies will be presented 'live' to audiences all around the world at the same time. With the digital revolution, he said, 'movies no longer have to be set in stone and can be composed and interpreted for different audiences that come to see it. Film has always been a recorded medium,' but live cinema remixes might be '30 percent pre-recorded as the actors do it live. You can do anything and you can do it live.' Coppola said he might even essay such a 'live' movie himself.”

3.

"'Last Week Tonight' and YouTube: When Pay Cable Content Turns Free Online." For HitFix, Alan Sepinwall writes about why HBO, an ad-free premium cable service you have to pay for, is putting chunks of one of its new shows on the Internet mere hours after a new episode premieres.

"'Last Week Tonight' isn't quite like anything else on HBO, with the possible exception of "Real Time with Bill Maher." It's competing for buzz with the likes of 'The Daily Show,' 'The Colbert Report' and the various broadcast network late night shows, all of which at a minimum make the best segments from their shows readily available online in the hopes that they'll viral. If Oliver were to disappear behind HBO's paywall, it wouldn't make his show less funny, but he would disappear from a lot of cultural conversation."

4.

"Why Deny the Obvious? Hollywood's Backward Stance on Abortion." For The Daily Beast, Teo Bugbee writes about 'Obvious Child,' "...the movie that Hollywood should have been making 40 years ago, the second that the Supreme Court legalized abortion with the landmark Roe v. Wade decision." 

"Obvious Child is not 'the abortion movie' that its own marketing and reception might lead you to anticipate. [writer-director Gillian] Robespierre and star Jenny Slate have made a movie about a woman, not an abortion. There are no impassioned speeches about women’s rights, no bad guys protesting outside the clinic, and no after-the-fact breakdowns. Donna’s life does not revolve around her choice, and neither does the movie. It is at every turn more relaxed, more confident, and more rewarding than what we as an audience have been conditioned to expect from this kind of movie—the kind with a capital-I “Issue” at its heart. Maybe the most political thing about Obvious Child is that it makes abortion feel as if it isn’t an issue at all."

5.

"Game changer: FDA Rules No Wooden Boards in Cheese Aging." By Cheese Underground Lady, of Cheese Underground.

"A sense of disbelief and distress is quickly rippling through the U.S. artisan cheese community, as the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week announced it will not permit American cheesemakers to age cheese on wooden boards."

Image of the Day

An image by Blanchard Jerrold and Gustave Dore, commissioned for the first edition of Charles Dickens' final (unfinished) novel 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood.' There's another at the top of this page. To see more, see Hilary Kelly's short article 'This is What Dickensian London Really Looked Like." 

Video of the Day

Stanley Kubricks Boxes from JAVARING on Vimeo.

this sounds so much like me as a kid, it hurts  

Today’s beer consumers are often heralded as smarter than they’ve ever been. Nevertheless, a new report from Demeter Group suggests the difference between craft and what the investment firm refers to as “pseudo” craft continues to elude a sizeable portion of the population.

The conclusion drawn from Demeter’s new report, “Protecting Craft Against Pseudos,” is that “consumers do not differentiate craft and craft-positioned pseudos.”

What is a “pseudo” craft brand exactly? According to Demeter, brands like the MillerCoors-produced Blue Moon and Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Shock Top fit the bill because neither falls under the Brewers Association’s definition of craft, despite being marketed as higher end products.

Of the 650 men the firm surveyed through Google Consumer Surveys, 39.9 percent considered Blue Moon (a so-called pseudo) to be craft. Comparatively, 39.2 percent identified Samuel Adams, which does fit the BA’s definition of craft, as such.

Demonstrating the confusion that consumer face, five other brands, some that are BA-recognized and some that are “pseudos” — Lagunitas, Sierra Nevada, Redhook, Pyramid and Shock Top — were also perceived as “craft” by consumers, albeit less frequently.

Lagunitas and Sierra Nevada (BA approved) were considered craft by just 25.4 and 26.7 percent, respectively, of those surveyed. Similarly, Redhook – part of Craft Brew Alliance, which is partially owned by A-B InBev and also deemed a “pseudo”by Demeter – was considered craft by 25.4 percent of survey participants; Pyramid, which is owned by North American Breweries, tallied the same figure. Shock Top, with the lowest number, still garnered craft approval of 24.2 percent.

Marc Levit, an associate with Demeter, said the co-mingling of craft brands and so-called “pseudo” brands in the retail tier makes it difficult for consumers to differentiate between the two.

“When you’re looking at these craft beers or these pseudos, it’s really difficult for the consumer to tell the difference when the retailer is putting all the brands right next to each other,” he said. “It’s really difficult to tell what’s being made by Anheuser-Busch and what’s being made by the local guy down the street.”

He said retailers could stand to benefit from more help in distinguishing the two, but to levy the entire responsibility on them would be unfair.

“I don’t think it’s the supermarket’s responsibility, that’s putting a lot of the onus on them.”

Despite the apparent overlap in perception of craft and “pseudo” craft, Levit said he does see the consumer still becoming increasingly aware of who manufactures the beer they drink.

“I’m starting to see Shock Top ads everywhere I go,” he added. “I think consumers are starting to see some of this advertising on a macro level. I think they’re starting to question how a brand that we thought was kind of small and local and craft can have such a large advertising budget.”

Despite this apparent differences, the report also counts on the continued growth of BA-recognized craft in the marketplace. It projects the category’s retail dollar share to grow to 25.3 percent by 2020 (up from 14.9 percent now), assuming a yearly increase of approximately 2 percent.

Still, by positioning products as artisan, small-batch, or historic, the report adds that distinguishing craft from “pseudo” will remain a murky task.

But asked whether a clearer distinction between craft and the so-called pseudo brands is necessary, Levit said that would be best left up to the people who put their “heart and passion” into brewing.

“Is it right to tell someone that their beer fits or doesn’t fit in a definition?” he questioned.

Twitter account summarizes the articles behind linkbait headlines  

Signs

ESCONDIDO, CA – Grab a phaser, dust off your Gunstar, fire up the Batmobile and join Stone Brewing Co. in San Diego for Hop-Con 2.0: The w00tstout Launch Festival on July 23 at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station. 

In 2013, Stone CEO and Co-founder Greg Koch invited actor and overall geek idol Wil Wheaton and Fark.com creator Drew Curtis to co-brew a massive yet seductive imperial stout dubbed Drew Curtis/Wil Wheaton/Greg Koch Stone Farking Wheaton w00tstout. With Koch on sabbatical, Curtis called on longtime friend and multitalented actress, comedian, homebrewer and gamer geek Aisha Tyler to join the group of unconventional brewers for this year’s special edition brew. In addition to a new brewer, the collaborators added a new ingredient—stone-ground chocolate—to the beer, augmenting the wheat, rye, pecans, and rich bourbon flavors derived from barrels shipped in from Kentucky. Together, the eclectic trio brewed Stone w00tstout 2.0, which will be available in 22-ounce bottles and on draft at select Southern California retailers, restaurants and bars beginning the week of July 14.

Last year, Hop-Con, a festival of geekery, both craft-beer and standard varieties, was thrown to celebrate the collaboration, and it proved to be an epic blast for guests and worthy of a second episode. Hop-Con 2.0: The w00tstout Launch Festival will be held at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station (2816 Historic Decatur Road, #116, San Diego, CA 92106) on Wednesday, July 23, from 7 to 10 p.m. Wheaton, Curtis, Tyler and Koch (who will have surfaced from his around-the-world travels), will be in attendance to meet, mingle and rub elbows with fans. Hop-Con 2.0 is about celebrating all things geeky in a relaxed festive atmosphere with great food and awesome craft beer.

Admission to the celebratory fest is $62.06 (including service fee) and may be purchased at brownpapertickets.com/event/680025. Tickets include 10 four-ounce beer samples, a commemorative Hop-Con 2.0 glass, delicious edibles, and a lineup of Stone year-round and specialty brews that will satisfy any beer geek’s (or just plain geek’s) palate. Special beers to be offered include:

• Stone w00tstout 2.0
• Stone w00tstout 2.0 on cask (available only at Hop-Con 2.0)
• Drew Curtis/Wil Wheaton/Greg Koch Stone Farking Wheaton w00tstout  (2013 vintage)
• Stone Cali-Belgique IPA aged in White Wine Barrels
• Evil Twin/Stillwater/Stone “The Perfect Crime” Black Smoked Saison aged in Red Wine Barrels
• 2012 Dogfish Head/Victory/Stone Saison du BUFF
• Ken Schmidt/Iron Fist/Stone Mint Chocolate Imperial Stout
• 2010 Double Bastard Ale aged in Bourbon Barrels
• Three secretively collaborative and suitably nerdy yet-to-be-announced Liberty Station beers

For a $30 donation, Dave Gibbons, famed comic artist and co-creator of the “Watchmen” series, will sign a lithographic print of the Stone w00tstout 2.0 label he designed. At the request of the artist, Stone is also donating the label-design commission fees he would have received to The Hero Initiative, a charity organization providing retirement funds for golden-age comic book artists.

For more information about Hop-Con 2.0 or to purchase tickets to the event, visit stonebrewing.com/hop-con/.

About Stone

Known for its bold, flavorful and largely hop-centric beers, Stone Brewing Co. has been brewing in North County San Diego since 1996. Founded by Greg Koch and Steve Wagner, Stone is the 10th largest craft brewer in the United States—a position it achieved without paid advertising, discounting or compromising standards. In addition to brewing, Stone owns two eclectic farm-to-table restaurants—Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Escondido and Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station—and Stone Farms, an organic farm located near the brewery that grows produce for the restaurants. Stone also operates Stone Distributing Co., which distributes more than 30 craft beer brands throughout Southern California. For more information on Stone Brewing Co., please visit stonebrewing.com or the company’s social media sites: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, YouTube and The Stone Blog. 

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Location: Home 

*Senia points towards Juarez's testicles*

FUND THE POLICE  

It’s no great revelation to say that our lives have become so dependent on technology we’re helpless without it. Who among us hasn’t lost his or her shit when the wi-fi went out for a few hours? But not all technological glitches are catastrophic, even by first world standards. Some are downright comical, like the bug Washington, D.C.-based computer programmer Bob Lannon discovered on his TV’s Netflix app. The bug causes the last sentence of a program summary to be switched with the last line of the next program’s summary, resulting in such jarring third-act shifts as “Director Sophie Fiennes and philosopher Slavoj Zizek journey into the epicenter of ideology through their interpretations of a need to battle the Green Goblin.” Netflix has yet to address the error, but that’s all the better for Lannon, who collects the amusing glitches on his ...

If you’re a morning person, you face a daily dilemma: Eventually, you’re going to run out of morning (also, everyone you know secretly or openly hates you for being so damn perky at 8 a.m.). A new website called Global Breakfast Radio might be able to help you (at least, with the first part of your problem), by stretching the morning out a little longer. The site aggregates streams from more than 200 radio stations and 120 countries, allowing listeners to eavesdrop on whatever people happen to be listening to when it’s 5 a.m. in Morocco, Kazakhstan, Greenland, or anywhere else sunrise is happening. Developed by author Seb Emina and audio artist Daniel Jones, it’s basically morning methadone, and makes for a fascinating window into what the start of the day sounds like across the globe.

 

make your own!  

doing it right  

Please to enjoy this giant-ass Star Wars rant disguised as a comic or a chart or whatever.
COMMENTERS: Please share your least favorite silly or overtly evil character names from fiction in the comments.

I’ve been operating at a bit of a comic deficit  since I went to Calgary, and have been backdating comics in the archive to fill in the gaps for the my promised “3 comics per week,” but since this one is at least 3 times the size of a normal comic and took me the better part of 2 days to create, I’m going to date this one May 4th, (as in “May the Fourth have nothing to do with Midichlorians from now until time eternal.”) and call it even. Then I can focus on making some new HE comics for this week.

Why not go check out all the sweet prints and posters I have in my store? They’re signed and everything.

I’m glad most of you seem to be enjoying the FANEURYSM comics. I don’t want to go back to full blast pop-culture comics all the time, but it was nice to blow off a little sci-fi steam. I’ll figure out where FANEURYSM fits into the update schedule in the coming weeks. Maybe between HE updates, or on the weekends. Or perhaps if we hit the next Patreon Milestone, I’ll make a FANEURYSM comic the 4th comic of the week.

Tags: star wars