Chris.d.woo

So all the components are in for the great “Upgrade the 5-year old macbook pro so that it isn’t so slow any more” project. That’s a slot-loading blu-ray player up top, 16GB of ram, and a 1TB SSD (!!!). Also a battery because my current one holds like 60% of original charge. I’m deciding whether to start the upgrade immediately or wait until Sunday (I’m going to another Giants game Saturday).

This is just pretty.

superheroesincolor:

Mohawk Storm Statue by Bowen Designs

God I hope that isn’t expensive because I may have to get my own.

remedyriot:

bajablastthirstblog:

If anyone ever questions the credibility or necessity of the Girl Scouts of America just show them these merit badges.

Girl Scouts are raw as fuck.

raw as fuck

That is way more hardcore than the BSA’s Totin’ Chip:

archiemcphee:

Today the Department of Beguiling Book Art is delighted to share the marvelous creations of Latvian artist Aniko Kolesnikova, aka Mandarin Duck, who uses polymer clay to sculpt fantastic journal covers featuring bird, animal, fantasy and nature-based themes. Each one-of-a-kind, hand-crafted cover is highly detailed with vibrant paint, as well as metal, crystal and resin accents.

Kolesnikova also enjoys teaching others how to make their own decorative book covers, so she started a YouTube channel where she shares video tutorials.

“On my Youtube channel I really try to teach people how to make their own beautiful things, so that they don’t spend a lot of money, develop their skills, gain new abilities and discover new hobbies and materials. I honestly think that a handmade gift is worth a million since it contains that precious energy of love of a person that made it. So basically I teach people to gift love to other people and I think it’s great!”

In addition to her beautiful book covers, Kolesnikova also makes jewelry, small cases, decorative sculptures, and vases. Visit the My Mandarin Ducky Etsy shop to check out more of her exquisite creations. She also takes custom orders via her website.

[via Beautiful/Decay and Bored Panda]

WOAH.

I’ve talked several times before about the wonderful webcomic “Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage” by animator Sydney Padua and today I’m going to do so again because a hardcover version of the comic just hit stores and I got my hands on a copy.

It’s probably one of the best put together books I’ve seen. It’s got a great dustcover, wonderful glued-on art on the hardcover, and a great compilation of pages and endnotes direct from the website. It also includes two appendixes that did not appear on the web: (1) some humorous primary source documents from Padua’s research and (2) a primer on Babbage’s Analytical Engine, including some great drawings of how the machine would operate.

I definitely recommend picking it up if you get a chance. The comics alone would be worth it, but the bonus material makes this a must purchase.

space-pics:

I love her. Period.
http://space-pics.tumblr.com/

source:http://imgur.com/r/space/BFvk2Yl

Okay here’s the best part: she posted it with the title “ ‘There’s coffee in that nebula’…ehm, I mean…in that #Dragon.” Which is a great Voyager quote but also that Dragon is sending up an Italian espresso machine to the ISS! So it’s like super relevant too!

alexhchung:

The Force Awakens Exhibit at Star Wars Celebration.

Check out more of my SWCA photos here!

So I was futzing around Amazon when I found this, which is a slot-loading Panasonic Bluray writer/player that can be allegedly installed in my MacBook Pro. At $79.99 (list: $299.99), I’m really tempted to do this upgrade. Along with a new battery (mine apparently only holds 70% of the original charge), memory, and an SSD are just a number of upgrades I’m thinking about doing in the near future.

digg:

dailydot:

This isn’t a Miyazaki film. It’s a gorgeous homage by a French animation student.

Glenn Germain spent five months crafting this beautiful homage to Studio Ghibli for his final project. The French animation student’s work has gone viral in Japan. We think Miyazaki would approve.

BEAUTIFUL

“Lobsters are mermaids to scorpions” and “Surely if tomato is a fruit then that makes ketchup a jam” really hit deeply.

coconutcafe:

baijara:

onlyforsaaf:

singlegrape:

emmett-trill:

A traditional Indian wedding with no Indian people #stopwhitepeople2k15

me after eating chicken tikka masala for the first time

Urrrrr

this makes me so mad

each ritual of an ‘indian’ wedding has symbolic meaning but these whites threw together a lame ass excuse for a baraat and some indian clothes and called it “bollywood boogie and bling”. like the ignorance in this is astounding 

Wait…this is actually a thing people are doing? I was just talking with some friends of mine about such a hypothetical thing earlier today.

jimllpaintit:

Dear Jim,

Can you paint Dennis Nedry deciding to fuck Jurassic Park off and get some KFC instead. Unfortunately for him the KFC employee who serves him is an angry dilophosaurus.

Cheers,

Martin Vine

Awesome!

Color e-paper smartwatch with up to 7 days of battery and a new timeline interface that highlights what’s important in your day.

The refresh rate on this thing’s color e-paper display is ridiculous.

destroycomics:

Star Wars Trilogy by Paul Pope

Those are the most hardcore jawas I’ve ever seen.

smithsonianlibraries:

Happy Lunar New Year! 新年快樂!
Whether you call it year of the sheep, goat, or ram (they’re all fluffy 羊 you can knit sweaters with) may it be prosperous.

Ram illustration from Gessner’s Icones animalium 

Remember these?Well, they’re back. Sort of.JNCO, the clothing brand best known for its many varieties of extremely baggy jeans that looked like giant wearable tree trunks made of denim, is prepping for a relaunch. According to Wo…

I am laughing my ass off…

universityofhyrule:

tavington:

You guys may remember the work I mentioned I was doing for a big company around Christmas/New Year. (No prizes for guessing what it was for!)

Unfortunately my designs were not approved for use but I wanted to share with you all the work I had done (with permission of course!)

The Link pillow was the most time-consuming. Consisting of around 12-13 hours applique work, it was starting to turn me slightly insane! It was a great pillow to practise new techniques though, such as my free-motion quilting and layering. Shading with thread isn’t an easy task!

This was a very fun project and I’ve been told my work catches the eyes of people in its current location. It’s nice to be able to bring a smile and awe to someone’s face :)

Happy Majora’s Mask Day!

Oh my, they look amazing !

Fuck that isn’t an iron-on? Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

Fresh Off the Boat isn’t the greatest show in the world but Constance Wu is on point. A lot of her scenes are definitely ones that I relate to a lot.

asylum-art:

 Titus Kaphar’s “Drawing the Blinds” and “Asphalt and Chalk” at Jack Shainman Gallery

Titus Kaphar. The Jerome Project (my loss), 2014. Oil, gold leaf and tar on wood panel. Diptych Approximately 6 feet x 5 feet each panel. ©Titus Kaphar. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

Titus Kaphar appropriates the visual language of American and European history painting and in doing so, takes the Eurocentric view of world history to task while illuminating injustice. The New York-based artist currently has two solo shows on view at Jack Shainman Gallery’s separate locations in Manhattan. His dual exhibition touches upon the human rights abuses of the colonial era as well as the current fight for racial equality in the US. Haunting yet visually alluring, Kaphar’s work tells stories of the African diaspora through imagery with a visceral, emotional impact.

The first part of the exhibition, “Drawing the Blinds,” presents a series of altered portraits of European nobility. Kaphar shreds canvases, obscures figures, and peels away layers to reveal hidden images. The artist couples his depictions of white aristocracy with portraits of black subjects in servile positions. His depictions of noblemen, who look like the subjects of portraits we’d unquestioningly encounter in a museum, become sinister when Kaphar juxtaposes them with evidence of the brutal exploitation that enabled such opulence to exist.

Via: hifructose

Damn, man, that first one…

Look at these heroes…

adr0itness:

ericaleshai:

revolutionary-mindset:

The media is romanizing this “couple” as the new “Bonnie and Clyde” but failing to point out that this guy is 18 and the girl is only 13. Why isn’t he being called a pedophile and this being called a kidnapping? ☕️

Funny how 12 year old Tamir Rice was referred to as a man tho

Wtf is this world.

So they apparently caught these two…but the headlines are still calling the male a “teen” despite being eighteen.

kateoplis:

Microsoft’s head-mounted holographic computer

“Project HoloLens’ key achievement—realistic holograms—works by tricking your brain into seeing light as matter.”

"To create Project HoloLens’ images, light particles bounce around millions of times in the so-called light engine of the device. Then the photons enter the goggles’ two lenses, where they ricochet between layers of blue, green and red glass before they reach the back of your eye. “When you get the light to be at the exact angle,” Kipman tells me, “that’s where all the magic comes in.” …

Another scenario lands me on a virtual Mars-scape. Kipman developed it in close collaboration with NASA rocket scientist Jeff Norris, who spent much of the first half of 2014 flying back and forth between Seattle and his Southern California home to help develop the scenario. With a quick upward gesture, I toggle from computer screens that monitor the Curiosity rover’s progress across the planet’s surface to the virtual experience of being on the planet. The ground is a parched, dusty sandstone, and so realistic that as I take a step, my legs begin to quiver. They don’t trust what my eyes are showing them. Behind me, the rover towers seven feet tall, its metal arm reaching out from its body like a tentacle. The sun shines brightly over the rover, creating short black shadows on the ground beneath its legs.

Norris joins me virtually, appearing as a three-dimensional human-shaped golden orb in the Mars-scape. (In reality, he’s in the room next door.) A dotted line extends from his eyes toward what he is looking at. “Check that out,” he says, and I squat down to see a rock shard up close. With an upward right-hand gesture, I bring up a series of controls. I choose the middle of three options, which drops a flag there, theoretically a signal to the rover to collect sediment.

After exploring Mars, I don’t want to remove the headset, which has provided a glimpse of a combination of computing tools that make the unimaginable feel real. NASA felt the same way. Norris will roll out Project HoloLens this summer so that agency scientists can use it to collaborate on a mission.

WIRED

This looks pretty cool…

yellow-fr3ak:

glenn-griffon:

demnewswire:

President Obama has achieved incredible progress for the United States.

Just imagine what he could have accomplished if the republicans had let him do his fucking job.

^^^

When Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner John Koskinen took over the reins of the embattled agency last year, he acknowledged that a loss of confidence in the agency was a challenge, telling an audience at the National Press Club:

In moving the IRS forward, one of the most important things we have to do is restore public trust in the agency…

I think about the idea of confidence and trust in our government a lot but especially on this day each year. While Commissioner Koskinen has emphasized the importance of the nation’s top tax agency “serving the American taxpayer in a fair and impartial manner,” not all taxpayers have been given that regard by all taxing authorities. Years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King’s leadership in the civil rights movement resulted in constant harassment by government officials – including state and local tax authorities.

Investigations into Dr. King’s finances were not new: he was investigated in two states (Georgia and Alabama) on numerous occasions. In 1960, he made news as being the first person ever criminally charged in the state of Alabama on tax fraud.

After his indictment, Dr. King was asked by a reporter, “Have your income tax returns been investigated before?”

He replied, “Oh yes, they have been investigated two or three times before. This is nothing new.” (You can see the interview with Dr. King on this WSB-TV news film clip .)

The case would eventually go to trial.

To honor today, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as I do always, I am reposting an article (unedited) that I wrote a few years ago about that trial and the legal profession. You might have seen it before: it remains one of my favorite posts to this day. Enjoy!

—

I’ll be frank. I don’t always love being a lawyer.

When I was a little girl, I used to watch Perry Mason with my grandfather on TBS. That constituted my entire legal experience before entering law school. And it was flawed.

You see, on TV, none of the lawyers lied to Perry Mason over the phone about being amenable to a continuance and then told the Clerk of Court differently. Nobody faxed Perry Mason a witness list the day before a hearing along with evidence that they “forgot” to send prior. A lawyer didn’t claim proper service on Perry Mason and then fail to deliver the notices to his law offices. You never saw a lawyer represent clients who had sent Perry Mason death threats via email in an attempt to assert that Mr. Mason was the one being unreasonable. You didn’t see cases drag on for years and years (yes, plural) because counsel just couldn’t get it together enough to resolve the matter. On TV, no matter how dire, how dramatic, there was ultimately justice.

The law is supposed to be about justice, about finding the truth. And increasingly it feels like it’s not. It’s more about touting your wares, putting yourself on commercials during daytime television standing in front of legal books shouting about maximizing money, about doing anything to get paid. And that is sad.

A few months ago, I attended a hearing that made me question my role in the law. You’re probably assuming that the hearing somehow didn’t go well. That isn’t true. It went remarkably well. Our client was an excellent witness. The judge was fair and very accommodating. We walked out of the hearing knowing that we had done a good job. The thing was, I felt relieved that it was over. I was happy for my clients. But I wasn’t happy for me. Truth be told, I hated every minute of preparing for the case. Well, not every minute. The theory, the strategy? That I didn’t mind. Our strategy was simply to tell our story. And we somehow felt that should be enough. In the end, I think it was.

But the getting there? The games? The complete lack of professionalism exhibited by opposing counsel? Lying about continuances? Surprise witnesses? Last minute evidence? Maybe that seems exciting on TV but in real life, it’s not exciting. It’s sickening. It’s stressful. It’s not fair to good lawyers who spend their time crafting a case. It’s not fair to clients who don’t know what to expect in the court room. And yet somehow, month after month, this behavior doesn’t seem so unusual.

And as opposing counsel sat at her chair in her too tight blouse with the clickety-click of her little heels on the floor, the same counsel who called my clients’ claims frivolous, the same counsel whose supervising partner at Big Law Firm once commented to me that she didn’t understand why a small firm like mine would go up against a big firm like hers, I thought about why we were all at that place, how it all happened that we were in the same room believing two different versions of the truth. I couldn’t explain it.

Later that same day, while reaching for my Moscow Mule (yes, my favorite cocktail du jour, even before Rachael Ray put it in her magazine last month – grr) at the Union League, I understood why the partner at my former firm kept a bottle of wine in his desk: the pressure of being a lawyer, the pressure of having to win, it’s a lot to take in. And while other professions can often look to each other for reassurance, we don’t really have that in the legal profession with few exceptions. It is, by its very nature, adversarial. It is competitive. It is cut throat. And me? I am not. Of course, I like to win. I like to think that I am good at it. And then maybe I think that’s not something to be particularly proud of.

So, over the past few weeks, which have been professionally difficult, I have tried to remember why it is exactly that I became a lawyer – and what about it I used to love. And I was reminded of my favorite scene in the movie Philadelphia. The one where Andrew Beckett sums up what’s actually good about the law:

Joe Miller: What do you love about the law, Andrew?

Andrew Beckett: I… many things… uh… uh… What I love the most about the law?

Joe Miller: Yeah.

Andrew Beckett: It’s that every now and again – not often, but occasionally – you get to be a part of justice being done. That really is quite a thrill when that happens.

And so I tried to think of when that happened last – when justice was actually done. Not when I won a case or when I got a client out of trouble – that happens often enough. But remember, winning and justice aren’t the same thing. I had to think for awhile.

Later, I was preparing to write post about Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I figured I’d just put up a copy of his famous “I Have A Dream” speech and call it a day. But as I researched, I found part of his autobiography which, I will confess, I have never read in full. And I saw something interesting: I knew that Dr. King had been arrested several times for various accusations, but I didn’t realize that he had been on trial for tax evasion.

Yep. On February 17, 1960, a warrant was issued for the arrest of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on charges of tax evasion. He was accused of allegedly falsifying his Alabama income tax returns for the years 1956 and 1958; he was the only person ever prosecuted under the state’s income tax perjury statute. It seemed like an inevitable victory for the government.

In his autobiography, Dr. King described the trial like this:

This case was tried before an all-white Southern jury. All of the State’s witnesses were white. The judge and the prosecutor were white. The courtroom was segregated. Passions were inflamed. Feelings ran high. The press and other communications media were hostile. Defeat seemed certain, and we in the freedom struggle braced ourselves for the inevitable. There were two men among us who persevered with the conviction that it was possible, in this context, to marshal facts and law and thus win vindication. These men were our lawyers-Negro lawyers from the North: William Ming of Chicago and Hubert Delaney from New York.

And something quite remarkable happened. On May 28, 1960, only after a few hours, Dr. King was acquitted by an all white jury in Montgomery, Alabama.

Dr. King said about his trial:

I am frank to confess that on this occasion I learned that truth and conviction in the hands of a skillful advocate could make what started out as a bigoted, prejudiced jury, choose the path of justice. I cannot help but wish in my heart that the same kind of skill and devotion which Bill Ming and Hubert Delaney accorded to me could be available to thousands of civil rights workers, to thousands of ordinary Negroes, who are every day facing prejudiced courtrooms.

And it dawned on me: no matter how many slick-haired, silver-tongued attorneys do their best to make a quick buck at the expense of the reputation of the profession, you can’t dispute that justice is attainable. And justice is good. And justice is important. And even if it is infrequent, it’s worth it when it happens.

…assuming centaurs were real and had their own civilization and technology, how would they build seats and seatbelts for their equivalents of cars, planes, and spacecraft?

Wow.

Snapshots, by Jason Love.

(View original at http://thesocietypages.org/socimages)