“A única forma de realizar um bom trabalho é amando o que você faz.”
—Steve Jobs.
O cofundador da Apple completaria hoje, 24 de fevereiro, 60 anos de idade. Confira a seguir um infográfico com a trajetória completa da sua vida, baseada na biografia de Walter Isaacscon. Feliz aniversário, Steve. [Funders and Founders]
Have you heard of the “moron in a hurry test“? It’s a legal test for trademark infringement. Basically, if you can successfully argue that “only a moron in a hurry” could confuse your product with another, you can get away with slightly ripping offsomebody else’s design. But you’d have to be a real dingbat to confuse this gallery of 30 knockoff toys for the real things!
This collection of bizarre, slightly disconcerting and downright blatant rip-offs comes courtesy of the knockoffbootlegs Tumblr, a veritable treasure trove of copyright infringements from South America and China (mostly). Let’s see what horrors are lurking on toy store shelves, waiting to trap confused parents who don’t know their Furbys from their Phoebes!
▼ This creepy cowboy from something called “Space Boys 3″ appears to have some strange form of gigantism affecting only his lower limbs.
▼ These turtles sure don’t look that amicable to us!
▼ It’s Jamaican Pokyman!
▼ Power Man? Looks more like Scorpion Man… or Pineapple Man
▼ Speaking of pineapples… Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Poping-Spongy CANDY!
▼ Who also goes by his other name, “Tooly I am King!”
▼ Remember back when everyone wanted a PikaBoy 2? Good times.
▼ Hey, two franchises in one! Now that’s cost-effective!
▼ Toy Special 3’s Dud Lightbeer can see into your soul…
▼ Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a squat plastic ripoff with a dodgy cape.
In 1982, the much-loved and sadly now defunct BBC TV show Tomorrow's World took a look at "one ordinary finger and one rather extraordinary TV screen." The result are touching, in more than one sense of the word.
Marvel, as this chap's finger renders ASCII text onscreen before your very eyes (QPR, for what it's worth, are the initials of an English football club). In fact, as is explained in the video, this was one of the first IR touchscreens, which measured where your finger was using beams of light rather the resistance or capacitance within the screen. Remember them? Things get even weirder when he gets to possible applications, though—but I won't ruin that surprise (spoiler: it's not an iPhone). [BritLab]
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Pixomondo is one of the digital imaging companies working on Game of Thrones' stunning visual effects. Among other things, they are responsible for bringing Khaleesi's terrifying dragons to life. Here's how they do it.
Prior to learning about Mighty No. 9's existence, I was unaware of 8-4's (Fire Emblem Awakening and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate's localization) existence. Silly enough, the group known as Press Start have released a video called 8-4: Ninjas of the Games Industry, which features the localization groups main crew talking about the important aspects that make up a good translation. Prior to their 8-4 video, Press Start made a segment about Splash Damage (Brink's Developer), along with one about E3's offerings outside of video games.
Aside from covering localization, 8-4's key members show the viewers the video game titles and merchandise that are displayed in their office, which mostly consists of the titles that they've localized in the past. In a way, it serves a quick way to catch people up on the company's previous work.
Overall, it's great to see that Press Start did a video about 8-4, since it gives more people the chance to be more familiar with the group's work. That, and any video that shows Monster Hunter-related goodies is always a plus.
But it’s bad news if you’re a hipster desperate to get your lips around a cup of black stuff from the latest trendy coffee shop in Tokyo.
The lines at Blue Bottle Coffee (“the Apple of the coffee shop world”) are so huge there are reports that people were waiting up to three hours just to get in on the first day on February 6th. Let’s be exact here; this isn’t a night club or a restaurant. It’s a small coffee bar in a slightly run-down part of Tokyo (Kiyosumi).
It begs the question: How far can the hipster coffee shop boom go in Tokyo?
From the faux warehouse feel of Cream of the Crop Coffee to the curated vintage of Fuglen, the watered-down diner serving watered-down beverages that is On the Corner in Shibuya, the chic uber-minimal Omotesando Koffee, the you-cannot-relax fussiness of Obscura in Sangenjaya and the IMA Concept Store in Roppongi, and the despised snobbery of Bear Pond Espresso in Shimokitazawa — haven’t we now had enough of these places?
Is there room for any more in this crowded market?! Judging by the anticipation on Blue Bottle Coffee’s first day, it would seem yes!
People starting queuing hours before the branch opened. At 10:30 in the morning the line was stretching down the road just to get into Blue Bottle Coffee, where a cup will cost you around ¥500. 200 people lined up patiently in the early February chill to get their hands on an individually brewed cup of coffee made from beans roasted for a full 48 hours, as Blue Bottle is famous for.
Blue Bottle was founded in California in 2002 and plans to open another Tokyo branch in March. No surprises that the second outlet will be in Aoyama.
About the opening CEO James Freeman said: “Tokyo has always been an inspiring place for me, from the architecture to culinary traditions. I’ve always hoped Blue Bottle would have a home here. Opening in Kiyosumi has been a wonderful collaboration between our new and dedicated team in Tokyo to the Bay Area transplants who have moved to Japan to help us brew delicious coffee.”
While the hipsters are waiting in line for their over-priced roasted beans, they could feast their eyes on the recent Japanese translation of the James Carr hipster satire comic: Hipster Hitler.
If you’re as addicted to your phone as we are, there’s a good chance you can draw 95 percent of the emoji you know with your eyes closed. Much to the chagrin of high school English teachers everywhere, it can sometimes seem that half of our communication is taken up by the colorful little faces. And it’s understandable–they can express quite a bit!
But thanks to a new site, anyone can freely combine emoji for a hundred times more expressiveness. That’s exactly what Kazuki Takakura, art director for a Tokyo theatre company, did–and the results are nothing short of spectacular! And slightly nightmarish.
▼Forget your paint palette, we have emoji!
With the evocative URL emoji.ink, the website presents users with every emoji available, as you can see above. After selecting an emoji, the user is presented with a blank canvas, upon which your chosen emoji can be placed. Clicking and dragging will paste a string of the images, like a paint brush. You can quickly select other emoji by pressing any key on the keyboard or change their size. With a bit of practice, you can get something like this!
▼He watches when you sleep.
Or, if you happen to be a real artist, unlike us, you can create something a bit more impressive.
But as impressive as the hip-hop art above is, things can always get…weirder. Especially when Kazuki Takakura, art director for Tokyo theatre company Hanchu-yuei, decides to get involved. While we’re sure that not all theater company art directors create bizarre works of emoji art, Kazuki has certainly gone a long way towards scarring us for life with stuff like Creepy Pikachu.
▼When you turn the lights off tonight, just remember: It’s under your bed.
▼The only explanation offered for this was “Robo.”
▼Sure, this might be a rooster. Or it might be the Devourer of Souls.
Japan has long held a reputation of being something of a paradise for smokers. Tobacco is, at least by Western standards, relatively cheap and people can still light up in many of the country’s restaurants and bars. In fact, before the turn of the century smokers could pretty much puff away on a cigarette anywhere.
There used to be little social stigma against smokers — they were accepted as a fairly ordinary part of society. People smoked near women who were pregnant or in close proximity to children. If others didn’t want their clothes or hair to reek of smoke, it was up to them to find a smoke-free space.
Within the past decade, the landscape has changed significantly. Many urban areas now prohibit smoking in public spaces on the streets, while a number of restaurants have either created segregated smoking and nonsmoking sections in dining rooms or introduced no-smoking rules during lunch hours. Hospitals and companies involved in public transportation, including taxis, have laid down a complete ban on smoking. The retail price of cigarettes has even increased a little.
Despite the progress, Japan still lags behind other industrialized countries when it comes to anti-smoking measures. Those who wish to create more smoke-free alternatives in society see the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as a rare opportunity to put the capital in line with global standards.
This, however, is easier said than done.
Politicians and businesses involved in hospitality have a vested interest in the tobacco industry, says former Kanagawa Gov. Shigefumi Matsuzawa. Kanagawa became the first prefecture to enact an ordinance to prevent smoking in public places in 2009. The ordinance sparked controversy because it not only banned smoking in public facilities such as hospitals and schools, it required large restaurants and hotels to either ban smoking altogether or segregate smokers from nonsmokers. The local government even handed out fines for those who flouted the rules.
“The resentment I faced was overwhelming,” Matsuzawa tells The Japan Times. “It was a constant political battle. It took me three years to dismantle the opposition of lawmakers who were backed by various industries that support smoking.”
The government has a unique relationship with the tobacco industry.
Japan Tobacco Inc., the nation’s only tobacco manufacturer, was a government-run monopoly until 1985 when it was privatized. JT’s cigarette products account for more than 60 percent of the domestic market.
Article 1 of the Tobacco Business Law, which was enacted to coincide with the privatization of JT, says the objective of the legislation is to “ensure the sound development of the tobacco industry in Japan, thereby contributing to fiscal revenue and the sound development of the national economy.”
Related legislation under the Japan Tobacco Law obliges the government to own more than one-third of JT’s listed shares. The Finance Ministry had owned more than 50 percent of shares in JT until as recently as 2013, when the government sold some of its stocks to finance the reconstruction of Tohoku in the wake of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The government currently owns 33.35 percent of JT.
As a result, the Finance Ministry has received dividends worth tens of billions of yen in addition to more than ¥2 trillion in tobacco tax every year.
Every step in the production process and sale of tobacco in Japan is overseen by the Finance Ministry. Changes in cigarette prices must be approved by the ministry and the 1984 Tobacco Business Law requires JT to buy all of the nation’s tobacco crop in order to protect the livelihood of the farmers. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party receives plenty of support from those involved in each step of the process, from tobacco farmers to retail outlets.
“The Finance Ministry basically overseas a socialist system,” Matsuzawa says. “Everyone stands to lose if there are stricter tobacco regulations because they all have vested interests in the industry. That’s why Japan can’t regulate smoking.”
Tobacco prices are still relatively cheap in Japan, at least compared to other industrialized countries. After the consumption tax hike in April last year, one box of 20 cigarettes is currently priced at around ¥450, with tax accounting for about 65 percent of the cost. Prices are steadily on the rise, but they are more affordable than packets of cigarettes in countries such as Norway, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia, which typically cost the equivalent of more than ¥1,000.
Bungaku Watanabe, who heads the Tobacco Problems Information Center, says tobacco prices are kept stable because the Finance Ministry wishes to control the tax revenue cigarettes generate. “(In other countries), a ministry or agency in charge of public health oversees tobacco and alcohol, but Japan is the only country in the world where tobacco is supervised by the Finance Ministry,” Watanabe says. “We even have a law that supports the development of our nation’s tobacco industry to secure a steady tax revenue.”
Few restrictions have been placed on tobacco advertising in Japan. The Tobacco Institute of Japan, an industry body comprising manufacturers, has created a set of self-imposed regulations to allow messages such as “Smoking causes lung cancer, worsens emphysema and increases the risk of a heart attack or a stroke” to appear on cigarette packets.
However, such warnings are nothing like the graphic images included on cigarette packets in other industrialized countries. “Smoking causes fatal lung cancer,” reads the warning on a packet in the European Union, which also features a photo of a healthy lung alongside a cancer-ridden lung.
“This is what dying of lung cancer looks like,” reads the warning on a Canadian cigarette packet that also depicts a bald woman with hollow eyes lying in a hospital bed. Her name and age are also printed.
Watanabe says such graphic images are effective but unlikely to be introduced in Japan.
“Graphic images and illustrations that warn smokers about the harmful effects of cigarettes are used in about 50 countries worldwide but I think it will be difficult to introduce here as long as the Finance Ministry controls policy,” Watanabe says.
Tobacco companies typically refrain from advertising cigarette products on television and radio. However, JT often runs etiquette campaigns to promote the “harmonious coexistence between smokers and nonsmokers,” urging smokers not to puff on a cigarette while walking or discard butts on the streets.
Watanabe, however, argues that this is essentially advertising disguised as a public service announcement, which violates the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
The convention, which came into force in 2005, calls on member parties “to protect present and future generations from the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke.” Article 13 stipulates that the states should “undertake a comprehensive ban of all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.”
“Foreign and health ministry officials know that these (JT) advertisements are a violation of the convention … but instead of telling the truth, they cower to the Finance Ministry and bury it,” Watanabe says. “The lack of measures Japan is taking despite being a signatory member of the convention is shameful. There is no other country that contradicts itself in the same way that Japan does.”
Watanabe, 77, used to smoke 60 cigarettes a day before he began his anti-smoking activities in the late 1970s. Those were the days when there was only one nonsmoking car on the Kodama bullet train and more than 70 percent of all Japanese men smoked.
The managing editor of a monthly magazine called “Kinen Jānaru” (“No-smoking Journal”) for 25 years, he coined the term bunen (segregated smoking) in Japanese. He says there was a time when Japan needed to promote bunen, but now the time has come to go further and institute a complete ban on smoking in public.
For the meantime, however, it looks like the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare will continue to fight a losing battle against passive smoking as long as the Finance Ministry continues to hold shares in JT. For a long time, the only legal framework that existed was Article 25 of the 2003 Health Promotion Law, which states that “efforts must be made to prevent passive smoking” at schools, hospitals, restaurants and other facilities used by a large number of people. The legislation, however, is completely toothless and lacks punitive consequences. In June last year, the government tried to improve things by revising the Industrial Safety and Health Law to oblige employers to take steps to protect their staff from passive smoking.
Surprisingly, anti-tobacco campaigners are not the only lobby group that is calling for JT to become independent of the government.
“In order for JT to grow as a global company, it needs to be able to compete on an equal footing with other global tobacco companies,” JT spokesperson Dmitry Krivtsov says. “For this reason, we desire the removal of the requirement of government ownership under the Japan Tobacco Law.”
According to 2009 data included in the 2012 Tobacco Atlas, Japan was the fifth-highest consumer of tobacco in the world, following China, Russia, the U.S. and Indonesia. The overall number of smokers in the population, however, is declining every year, dropping from 27.7 percent in 2003 to 19.3 percent 10 years later, according to figures from the health ministry. As a result, the number of tobacco farms in operation is also falling, from 20,938 farms in 2002 to just 6,124 a decade later.
In the U.S., by comparison, the number of smokers dropped from 20.9 percent in 2005 to 18.1 percent in 2012, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Do these figures signal the beginning of the end for the tobacco industry? Is it even conceivable that Tokyo could become smoke-free in the same vein as New York and Paris by 2020?
Krivtsov acknowledges that smoking rates are falling owing to a number of factors, including tobacco tax hikes, tightening of smoke regulations and growing health consciousness.
“Our goal is to meet adult consumers’ needs by providing quality products. At the same time, we aim to create a society that is comfortable for both smokers and nonsmokers, where both can coexist in harmony,” Krivtsov says, adding that JT is actively promoting the segregation of smoking and nonsmoking areas.
But Hiroshi Yamato, a doctor and expert on smoking at the University of Occupational and Environmental Health in Kitakyushu, opposes such segregation because the policy doesn’t protect employees in the hospitality industry who work at restaurants, bars and izakaya.
“People only tend to focus on the customers, but employees are in a much more serious situation,” Yamato says. “The amount of secondhand smoke they inhale at work everyday is significant.”
Many restaurant and bar owners are reluctant to adopt anti-smoking measures because they are afraid they might lose customers.
Yamato, however, points to academic papers that suggest otherwise.
The 2009 handbook issued by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, for example, says “methodologically sound research studies from developed countries consistently conclude that smoke-free policies do not have an adverse economic impact on the business activity of restaurants, bars or establishments catering to tourists.”
Yamato has also conducted extensive research on a family restaurant chain that had introduced both nonsmoking restaurants and ones that had segregated smoking sections. Examining sales over a period of five years and comparing the figures posted two years before the policy change against the most recent total, Yamato and his colleagues found that sales had increased significantly in the smoke-free facilities.
“When you think about it, 80 percent of the population doesn’t smoke and the more space there is for nonsmokers, the more customers are likely to be seated,” Yamato says, adding that nonsmoking customers are more likely to frequent places that adopt a no-smoking policy.
In November last year, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Japan Inc. released the results of a survey it conducted among foreign residents on their views on smoking in Japan. About 60 percent of the 400 people who responded thought it was easier to smoke in Japan compared to their home countries and 42 percent said they thought Japan had little awareness toward passive smoking.
What’s more, 72 percent said the municipal government needed to pass legislation to prevent passive smoking in Tokyo before the 2020 Olympics.
“No-smoking policies have become the norm worldwide,” Yamato says. “We are worried that athletes and tourists will come to Tokyo in 2020 and be shocked at how smoky the city’s restaurants and bars are. We risk severely damaging the country’s reputation.”
After the International Olympic Committee awarded Tokyo the 2020 Games, anti-smoking lobby groups had high hopes the local government would look to adopt the IOC’s tobacco-free policy. They also noted that recent host cities all passed legislation to ban smoking in public spaces — including restaurants, bars and cafes — and dish out penalties for those who ignored the rules. Tokyo Gov. Yoichi Masuzoe even brought up the issue with reporters last summer, sparking heated opposition from Liberal Democratic Party members of the Tokyo Assembly. In September, Masuzoe received a letter stating that anti-smoking measures should be adopted “voluntarily,” and that such policies should ensure that both “smoking and nonsmoking people can live comfortably.”
Masuzoe created an advisory panel last October to examine the issue in more detail but the criticism forced the Tokyo governor to pour cold water on the idea by the end of the year. “There are considerations that make it difficult to enact legislation on penalties for smoking,” Masuzoe told reporters in December, adding that he wished to promote segregated smoking areas instead. “I haven’t completely given up on the idea of anti-smoking legislation but I will work on other policies first.”
Matsuzawa, the former governor of Kanagawa, isn’t surprised Masuzoe has backed away from the issue. He spent three years talking to ordinary residents, businesses involved in the hospitality industry and Kanagawa lawmakers in an attempt to convince them legislation was necessary.
He faced stiff opposition every step of the way, and even started receiving letters and phone calls from people who threatened to kill him. When that didn’t deter him, people turned their attention to his daughters. By the end of his term, Matsuzawa says he had two security men guarding him at all times. “I couldn’t back down,” Matsuzawa says. “I pledged to introduce no-smoking legislation during my election campaign and I had a duty to follow through on my promise. I ultimately had to compromise a bit but that can’t be helped — that’s the nature of politics.”
Hyogo Prefecture followed Kanagawa’s lead and became the second administrative district nationwide to introduce legislation that banned smoking in public places in 2013.
Matsuzawa, who is currently an Upper House lawmaker and secretary general of Jisedai no To (Party for Future Generations), believes lawmakers need to introduce anti-smoking legislation at a national level before the Tokyo Olympics. He has created a nonpartisan group of lawmakers that aims to hammer out legislation promoting a smoke-free Tokyo.
“We need to make the Tokyo Olympics a success but that won’t happen without anti-smoking legislation that is in line with global standards,” Matsuzawa says. “There will definitely be opposition from lobby groups with vested interests, but I know I will at least have the support of the international community.”
The war against tobacco in Japan is just heating up …
“Passive smoking disaster in Tokyo or Japan” essay contest
Foreigners living in Japan are invited to submit essays on their experience on passive smoking in Japan. The essays can be in either English or Japanese, and must be no more than two A4 pages. The deadline is April 30. The ¥50,000 first prize will go to two winners, five applicants will win ¥20,000 and 10 will receive ¥10,000. For further information, call Japan Society for Tobacco Control at 03-5367-8233 or email desk@nosmoke55.jp.
If you ignore search engines, social media, and shopping, the most popular content on the web is sports (espn.com), news (cnn.com, huffingtonpost.com, foxnews.com), and porn.
If you ignore celebrities like Katy Perry, the most popular stuff on Twitter is mainstream news sites (CNN, BBC).
If you look at what’s popular among The Old Reader users, you get a much different picture.
First off, you like comics. Really, really like comics. XKCD, Dilbert, and the Oatmeal dominate the list of most popular feeds on The Old Reader.
After comics, the majority of feeds are tech blogs and tech news sites. Then comes lifestyle stuff like Lifehacker. There is also a lot of longer form content like TED Talks or in-depth magazine reporting. We also see national news sites like nytimes.com and what might be considered local news sites, like Boston.com.
Interestingly, there is very little sports in our feeds. That might be because our users are just not sports fans. Or it might be that sports is easy to consume on Twitter.
Looking at all of the data, I’m starting to think that The Old Reader is like a newspaper. Our readers are using it to compile a single source of information, news, analysis, satire, and opinion. It’s a source of information that you would have to work really hard to get just going online or using social media.
In fact, I think that the popularity of comics on our list supports my theory. It seems to me that just like in the days of the newspaper, comics are the one thing everyone can agree on.
And as a comic fan, I’d like to point out that the comics you like are not childish entertainment. These comics are satire. Satire is only useful or interesting to people who have a good handle on what’s going on and are looking for a more subtle, sophisticated take- a way to make sense of the all the other stuff they read.
On the Internet or social media, most people don’t read much beyond the headlines on mainstream news sites. But judging from our most popular feeds, The Old Reader makes it possible to consume a broader range of stuff, from comics and satire to news and analysis, to blogs and feature-length content.
Having information and being informed are not the same thing. Our users are looking to be informed. The paradox of our time is that you can have all of the information in the world available and learn less. There are more sources of information, but you need new literacy skills to decode messages in the way news and information are presented.
Most of us don’t have the time or mental energy to really analyze everything coming at us. But if you use it right, I really believe The Old Reader can help you get a better handle on a complicated world.
Google is launching a new, Youtube-branded streaming music service, with the cooperation of the Big Four labels, who got to negotiate the terms of their participation -- unlike the indie musicians, who have been told that they will be exiled from Youtube altogether unless they make it their most-favored-nation distribution service, without the possibility of holding back tracks for backers on services like Kickstarter or Patreon.
Zoe Keating, who runs her own microlabel, has summarized the conversation she had with her Google rep. As JWZ says, it's "the same strategy they used with Google Plus: instead of creating a new service and letting it compete on its own merits, they're going to artificially prop it up by giving people no choice but to sign up for it."
For what it's worth, I predicted this in my book Information Doesn't Want to Be Free: as copyright laws have tightened, requiring new Youtube competitors to set up multi-hundred-million-dollar infrastructure like Content ID, the competition for Youtube has all but vanished, meaning that they are now essential to any indie artist's promotion strategy. And now that Youtube doesn't have to compete with other services for access to artists' materials, they have stopped offering attractive terms to indies -- instead, they've become an arm of the big labels, who get to dictate the terms on which their indie competitors will have to do business.
* Participation in the new service requires that your entire catalog be available for streaming, at high resolution.
* Participation requires that you not release your music elsewhere earlier, e.g., no early releases for fans or backers.
* You no longer get a choice of whether to do nothing, block a video, or run ads. Ads are mandatory.
* Five year contract.
* If you don't participate in the new service, then the option to obtain Content-ID ad revenue from the free version of Youtube no longer exists.
* If you had previously been getting Content-ID ad revenue and choose not to participate in the new service, your channel will be deleted and all videos using your music will be blocked.
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It's something that most players wouldn't even think is possible: playing a game in a certain way that jumps you completely to the end, without beating its final battle. But there it is, just executed in Super Mario World.
A new video by YouTuber Minecraft SethBling shows him executing a set of moves, which as he explains it, effectively rewrites the game's code in real time as he plays. The fact that this is allegedly happening on a Super Nintendo console—and not on any kind of emulated software—makes it even more impressive. In addition to his speedrunning, SethBling is someone already known for an impressive depth of knowledge in the Minecraft world. The amount of knowledge needed to suss out this glitch and the exacting nature of its execution (discovered by Twitch streamer JeffW356 and explained in depth here) is simply incredible. It shows off just how important the work of speedrunning and hacking/modding communities can be insofar as opening up the possibilities of what's able to be done with video games. You need to know how the game was written and the effect that player actions have on the way that the console and the game talk to each other. Just amazing.
Note: SethBling's pulled off an even faster time of 4:49.8 with the glitch, making it an incredibly fast completion performance for SMW.
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Three things about cats that everyone knows: they are super cute, incredibly contrary, and love to play League of Legends.
Er… Nope, we didn’t know about that last one either! But as this video of a kitty in South Korea fighting with his owner for screen time shows us, there may be (adorable) downsides to cat ownership we’d never even considered. It turns out, some cats love touchscreen games as much as humans do!
YouTuber Dave from The World of Dave got this tiny rescue kitten from a shelter a few months ago.
He loves to play with toys, chase around pieces of string…and to get between Dave and League of Legends.
▼ “No no no no no no no no…”
▼ HELP!
▼ Wait, is that not what “multiplayer” means…? Perhaps we’ve misunderstood again.
They may look like fitness models, but they aren’t.
They’re everyday people — office workers, programmers and mothers who took the chance to try something they had never done before.
Liz, Mother of 3
“When people saw the photos it was a lot of shock and awe. I didn’t even think I looked like that.” — Stephanie
People often look up to the superstars in magazines, marveling at how amazing they look without realizing that they too can look the same.
Armed with $20,000 of lighting equipment and a homemade rain machine, I wanted to prove to them how amazing they looked, straight out of camera.
Chris, 61 year old grandfather of 12
Great Lighting. No Photoshop.
“Hollywood-level lighting” makes a huge difference.
Once set up properly, anyone can look absolutely phenomenal straight out of camera. Muscles beautifully defined, faces perfectly lit.
No tummy tucking or Photoshop funny business needed, only the small tweaks: light, contrast & colour.
Stephanie, 24 year old Front Office Executive
Hours of Trial and Error
Great results take time. And time is money.
We took 2000 shots in a single day in order to produce fewer than 20 final photographs. Each person had to try out a variety of different poses before even beginning to perfect the one that worked.
Shandrew, 37 year old — Director of operations
It starts with believing in yourself
Good lighting and great equipment is only a small part of making people look their best.
Getting them to believe how amazing they looked, was the true magic ingredient behind the creation of these shots.
Watch them transform in front of your eyes:
“I’m a 62 year old grandma. And still, somehow, he manages to make me look great!” — Toni
Toni, 62 year old grandma
This year, give yourself the gift of self-confidence.
Entertainment news source Variety reported on Monday that Scarlett Johansson has signed on to star in Dreamworks‘ adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. Deadline reported in October that the actress was offered the role, but she was still undecided at the time.
The film has not yet been greenlit for production, but Variety notes that Johansson’s involvement should make production more likely.
Deadline noted previously that Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) would direct the proposed Ghost in the Shellfilm off a script by William Wheeler (Hoax, The Reluctant Fundamentalist). Avi Arad (formerly of Marvel Studios as well as of the Spider-Man and X-Men movie franchises), Seaside Entertainment’s Steven Paul, and Mark Sourian (The Ring Two) are producing.
Variety reported in 2008 that Universal and Sony also negotiated for the rights, which the Production I.G anime studio was pitching for the manga’s original publisher Kodansha. What turned the dealmaking inDreamworks‘ favor was co-founder Steven Spielberg‘s enthusiasm for the project. The entertainment trade newspaper quotes the acclaimed director and producer: “Ghost in the Shell is one of my favorite stories. It’s a genre that has arrived, and we enthusiastically welcome it to Dreamworks.”
The American arm of the manga’s original Japanese publisherKodansha began reprinting the manga in 2009 after Dark Horse Comics had the license. Kodansha also launched two new manga series based on director Kenji Kamiyama‘s Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex television anime series that year. In addition to Oshii’s two films and Kamiyama’s two Stand Alone Complextelevision series and spinoff feature, the Shirow’s manga also inspired the current Ghost in the Shell Arise prequel anime.
Isn’t there some way we can just let Tiny Fey run Twitter? I mean, we have all this quote-un-quote democracy lying around — you know; rallies, petitions, some sort of president — but all of a sudden we can’t put it to good use? As Fey says in the recent Twitter-focused mini-episode of Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, if she was in charge then there’d at least be some control over who gets an account.
"You would give me ten samples of what you thought you might wanna talk about," says Fey calmly, politely, completely reasonably. "And I would talk to you about whether that was something we all needed to know." Or, as Jerry more succinctly sums it up: "What kind of asshole goes on Twitter?"
The thermal spas in Budapest [are] one of the favorite activities of Hungarians, especially in winter. We were fortunate to gain special access to shoot in the thermal spa thanks to our tour guide, Gabor. I love the mist, caused by the great difference in temperature between the hot spa water and the atmosphere. It makes the entire spa experience more surreal and mystical.
Honorable Mentions
Photo and caption by Peter Franc.
I was up at an ungodly hour to make it to the Tsukiji Fish Market, in Tokyo. With so many amazing things to see in the city, I had hardly slept, and managed to get off at the wrong station. Wave after wave of people kept coming through the station passageway. I spied a coffee shop with a vantage point and managed to snap a free shots, camera resting on the ledge. After the caffeine kicked in, i was ready to brave the river of people...
Photo and caption by Sergey Ponomarev.
Birds fly over the destroyed houses in Khalidiya district in Homs, Syria. In the vast stillness of the destroyed city center of Homs, there are large areas where nothing moves. Then, suddenly, wind blows a ripped awning, or birds fly overhead.
Photo and caption by Aytül AKBAŞ.
During I was taking photo with my nephew, the storm came and I caught this beautiful moment.
Nature category
Winner
Photo and caption by Nicole Cambré.
Jump of the wildebeest at the Mara River.
Honorable Mentions
Photo and caption by Archna Singh.
This playful fight amongst two young sub adult Tigers was indeed a brilliant life time opportunity, that lasted exactly 4-5 seconds. The cubs were sitting in the grass as dusk approached when suddenly one of them sneaked up behind the other and what happened next is captured in this image. This playful fight amongst the siblings is what prepares them for their survival in the wild. The sheer power of the Tiger is beautifully captured in this image and portrays the sheer muscle power that these magnificent cats possess. May 5th, 2014, Bandhavgarh National Park, Madhya Pradesh, India.
Photo and caption by Maie Kirnmann.
Ice art on the window.
Photo and caption by Christian Miller.
On a windy day right after a Cyclone passed the far northern Great Barrier Reef i took some friends out to the reef. Never before i saw that many glass fish on this particular coral 'bommie' . Just when i setup my camera, this Napoleon Wrasse swam right through the school of fish building a living frame.
People category
Winner
Photo and caption by Brian Yen
In the last ten years, mobile data, smartphones and social networks have forever changed our existence. Although this woman stood at the center of a jam-packed train, the warm glow from her phone told the strangers around her that she wasn't really there. She managed to slip away from "here" for a short moment; she's a node flickering on the social web, roaming the Earth, free as a butterfly. Our existence is no longer stuck to the physical here; we're free to run away, and run we will.
Honorable Mentions
Photo and caption by Abdullah Alghajar.
Little discussion with a doll in a plastic box, not inherently beautiful. But with this slice of light, it looks like a bubble invented to dream in an imaginative world.
Photo and caption by Mattia Passarini.
The chef of Ramnami people in Chhattisgarh,India. Ramnami tattoo the name of the lord "Ram" on their body. Their entire focus is on the name of Ram, the name of God that is most dear to them. The Ramnami Samaj is a sect of harijan (Untouchable) Ram. Formed in the 1890s, the sect has become a dominant force in the religious life of the area. The tattoo is the result of their devotion and also, a gift and an acknowledgement from Ram.
Photo and caption by Adam Birkan.
A young girl throws a temper tantrum in a Bangkok shopping mall. June, 2014.
Traveler category
Winner
Photo and caption by Marko Korosec.
While on storm chasing expeditions in Tornado Alley in the U.S. I have encountered many photogenic supercell storms. This photograph was taken while we were approaching a storm near Julesburg, Colorado, on May 28, 2013. The storm was tornado warned for more than one hour, but it stayed an LP [low precipitation] storm through all its cycles and never produced a tornado, just occasional brief funnels, large hail, and some rain.
Honorable Mentions
Photo and caption by Evan Cole.
This photo of Moussa Macher, our Tuareg guide, was taken at the summit of Tin-Merzouga, the largest dune (or erg) in the Tadrat region of the Sahara desert in southern Algeria. Moussa rested while waiting for us to finish our 45-minute struggle to the top. It only took ten minutes of rolling, running, and jumping to get back down.
Photo and caption by sean Hacker Teper.
This photo, taken at the 'end of the world' swing in Banos, Ecuador, captures a man on the swing overlooking an erupting Mt. Tungurahua. The eruption took place on February 1st, 2014. Minutes after the photo was taken, we had to evacuate the area because of an incoming ash cloud.
Photo and caption by Marc Henauer.
Green Lake (Grüner See) is located in Tragöss Austria. In spring snowmelt raises the lake level about 10 meters. This phenomenon, which lasts only a few weeks, covers hiking trails, meadows, and trees. The result is a magical diving landscape.
If I had a Portal gun like these guys, I don't think using it for basketball trick shots would have been on the top of my to do list. But after watching this video, I may have to change my mind.
A young Jon Stewart when he played soccer at the College of William & Mary.
Deadline noted previously that Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) would direct the proposed Ghost in the Shellfilm off a script by William Wheeler (Hoax, The Reluctant Fundamentalist). Avi Arad (formerly of Marvel Studios as well as of the Spider-Man and X-Men movie franchises), Seaside Entertainment’s Steven Paul, and Mark Sourian (The Ring Two) are producing.
The American arm of the manga’s original Japanese publisherKodansha began reprinting the manga in 2009 after Dark Horse Comics had the license. Kodansha also launched two new manga series based on director Kenji Kamiyama‘s Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex television anime series that year. In addition to Oshii’s two films and Kamiyama’s two Stand Alone Complextelevision series and spinoff feature, the Shirow’s manga also inspired the current Ghost in the Shell Arise prequel anime.
Photo and caption by Adam Birkan.
