firehose

Brett Leonard, The Lawnmower Man, 1992

These designs by Kunihiko Morinaga block cell phone signals while your phone is in your pocket, so you’ll reach for it less frequently. Odd origins in gum marketing, on FastCo:

The project was actually commissioned by the gum manufacturer Trident, which was worried that gum was starting to disappear along with human contact. “Gum no longer seems to fit in daily rituals the way it did before mobile technology and social media took over,” says Masashi Kawamura, a creative director at PARTY, the agency that dreamed up the project. “We wanted gum to gain relevancy and start a conversation with emerging adults who are too distracted to even notice.”

The dresses, jackets, and shirts that Morinaga created use fabric that blocks electromagnetic waves, so once you slide your phone into a pocket, it’s effectively off. If someone tries to call, the phone won’t ring.

OUT TODAY!!!!!!!!

Rocket Girl #5, front and back covers. This issue wraps up the first story arc. Give it a read and tell us what you think!!!

We’ll start back up with issue 6 in September!  The trade comes out July 9.

100 pages into Rocket Girl…this feels so good.  Thanks to all of you for helping make it a reality.  There’s nothing I’d rather be doing right now.

Universal — using face-replacement technology and the late Paul Walker's brothers to finish the film — is in a tense negotiation to get reimbursed as the costs soar past $250 million.

Documents obtained by a gay-rights group offer new details about the views that drove the federal government’s sometimes-obsessive effort to identify and fire gays in government jobs.

~Kathi Weeks

Gillian Jacobs will play a recurring character in the fourth season of Girls, reports TVLine. The publication says Jacobs will first appear in episode five and is apparently playing a character named “Mimi-Rose.” (Fittingly, episode five is also called “Mimi-Rose,” and maybe the show will just be all about Gillian Jacobs doing stuff now?) Jacobs is the first cast member of Community to score a major role in the aftermath of that series’ cancellation, and she’s, oddly enough, the second Community cast member to appear on Girls, after Donald Glover’s two-episode stint back in season two. Should Community somehow find itself resurrected—however unlikely that may be—Jacobs would theoretically still be free to continue to play Britta on that show, as Girls’ shooting schedule shouldn’t overlap much with any potential sixth season filming. But, really, this is just the first of many Newswires on Community cast ...

New Mexico “eco-artist” Basia Irland creates and distributes “ice books,” ice sculptures made of frozen river water with seeds embedded inside, which are placed into bodies of water throughout the world, distributing the material as the ice melts away.

Receding/Reseeding emphasizes the necessity of communal effort and scientific knowledge to deal with the complex issues of climate disruption and watershed restoration by releasing seed-laden ephemeral ice sculptures into rivers. I work with stream ecologists, biologists, and botanists to ascertain the best seeds for each specific riparian zone.

photos via Basia Irland

via My Modern Met

Superman will be on the hood of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s car this weekend at Charlotte.

It's unknown whether Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Chevrolet will prove "faster than a speeding bullet," though NASCAR's most popular driver is proclaiming it "more powerful than a locomotive."

As if it wasn't obvious enough, the references are in relation to a Superman inspired paint scheme Earnhardt will carry on his No. 88 car this weekend in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The special design was unveiled Wednesday.

Made the front page of the Daily Planet! @NationalGuard @DCComics pic.twitter.com/ACdXnMeoyh

— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) May 21, 2014

Earnhardt will also utilize the paint scheme June 15 at Michigan International Speedway, the same race where to great fanfare he has run Batman and Superman schemes the previous two years. He snapped a four-year winless streak at Michigan in 2012 with a Batman "Dark Knight Rises" car.

The Superman livery on the No. 88 is the first of what will be a series of specialized paint schemes featuring DC Comic superheroes on the stable of Hendrick Motorsports cars.

pic.twitter.com/SdxWBhNBwk

— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) May 21, 2014

Hendrick and Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment announced a three-year last week, which among other marketing initiatives will see the cars of Earnhardt and teammates Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson occasionally feature the likes of Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, the aforementioned Superman and other characters from the cavalcade of characters.

Does this count?

The City of Boston and its mayor, Marty Walsh, have lived up to their bet with Montreal and its mayor, Denis Coderre, after the Bruins lost to the Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

There is a Habs flag flying in front of Boston City Hall.

As promised, Maire @DenisCoderre, the Habs flag is up at #Boston City Hall #NHL. pic.twitter.com/Ax6QnpWOi7

— Mayor Marty Walsh (@marty_walsh) May 21, 2014

Just a slight problem with that, though. (And no, it's not that the mayor's intern took the picture sideways.)

That might be the smallest flag in the history of flags.

Janelle Monáe’s Australian tour has been derailed due to a mystery “sudden illness.”  The R&B star has been forced to cancel a pair of dates, including last Saturday's show at Melbourne’s the Forum where the band was already set-up and the room was full. Monday night’s scheduled show at Sydney Opera House Concert Hall has also been canned. Indeed, she never made the trip to Sydney.

firehose shared this story from Kotaku.

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bird talk - Wagyan Paradise (Namco - Super Famicom - 1994) 

Artist Marie Rime has conjured a way to literally put on a game face with these fantastic masks made from various card and board games.

Read more on MAKE

Why does the man behind 'Doctor Who' and 'Sherlock' still have a job?:

bookshop:

smaugy-poo:

viewovermerryton:

stopitsgingertime:

Steven Moffat’s dismissive attitude toward women somehow seems to help his career.

this article is so so important please read it

holy shit, though. wow.

OH.MY.GOD. it has EVERY QUOTE. WITH A LINK. this article must’ve been burning in this writer’s mind for ages…well done.

True story: when I initially pitched this article, my editor thought I was joking and squelched it, and I went back and screamed at him a lot until he understood there is NOTHING FUNNY ABOUT THE RAGE-INDUCING EFFECTS OF STEVEN MOFFAT and let me write it, haha.

(Also, since a lot of people have been questioning the veracity of the quotes, I just want to say that everything in “” in the article is a word-for-word quote that comes from either a video/radio or print interview by Moffat, or a tweet from his now-deleted twitter, or a line one of his characters says. Every other link is tied to arguments about the narratives of his series, so yes, it’s all as verified as we could possibly make it.)

Last night, a podcast called Scriptnotes interviewed a panel of screenwriters before a live audience. "The Summer Superhero Spectacular" panel included Andrea Berloff (The Legend of Conan), Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), and David S. Goyer (Man of Steel). Podcast hosts John August and Craig Mazin asked the screenwriters a few questions on how they approached the genre of superheroes and mythical warriors. As expected, Goyer answered some questions but avoided giving away spoilers on his upcoming projects bringing the DC Comics Universe to live-action. But it's the way he spoke about a Marvel Comics hero which got our attention. 

Not only is Hugh Jackman shying away from his Wolverine retirement plan, the actor already has his eye on joining another superhero team.

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Read on Ars Technica | Comments

Meetings, and recurring meetings in particular, are the bane of the corporate world. They take up a surprisingly massive amount of a company’s time and energy.

Peter Deng, Facebook’s former director of product management and Instagram’s head of product, offered a simple solution in a talk written up at First Round Review: Get rid of every recurring meeting, and start fresh. It was one of the first things he did after joining Instagram.

“Momentum is a really powerful force, and at first it’s fed by all of these meetings,” Deng said. “But then you have all of these routines and habits that form, and before you know it, you’re just going through the motions, assuming what must come next.”

Deng offers a reminder to constantly think about whether employees’ time could be used better. He’s not suggesting a permanent elimination of meetings, but a reset. Some particularly essential meetings might come back.

In his experience at Instagram, the space that got freed up created time and space, Deng said, which fueled the company’s growth. After the reset, a profusion of meetings at Instagram that were essentially status updates got boiled down into just one 30-minute meeting at the beginning of the week where every team runs down the top three things they’re working on. This also served to boost accountability, since the meeting was an opportunity to check whether the three things mentioned the previous week had been done.

Instead of treating meetings like an obligation, Deng suggests, treat them as active solutions to specific problems.

Boston Globe

Prosecutors seek evidence from tattoo artist who worked on Hernandez Boston Globe Suffolk County prosecutors are searching for a tattoo artist who did work on Aaron Hernandez, the former New England Patriots star who is now charged with killing two men in Boston in 2012 and a third man in North Attleborough in 2013. In a statement ... Tattoo tales: Prosecutors seek details on ex-NFLer Hernandez' arm inkReuters Authorities investigating Aaron Hernandez in killings ask for help from tattoo artistsFox News Aaron Hernandez murder case: Investigators seek tattoo artists' helpSI.com Thegardenisland.com all 66 news articles »

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Just one reason to root for the Green Wave this season.

Mike Huguenin of NFL.com reports that Aaron Golub, a high school long snapper from Massachusetts, has been offered a preferred walk-on spot from Tulane University. He also happens to be legally blind.

He is completely blind in his left eye and only has a tiny bit of vision in his right. From Golub's coach, Chris Rubio:

"For reference, close one eye and then make a fist with a hole (the) size of a dime and put the opening to your eye. That is Aaron's continuous view."

Here's a clip of Golub in action:

You can read more about Golub at NFL.com.

The notoriety of global causes on Twitter

"Learn to recognize these vehicles!" WPA infographics

United States Planes in World War II. Illus by Herbert Townsend, from America, the Story of Our Country, 1951

Barobot is an open source cocktail mixing robot that uses the 12 bottles that can be attached to its frame to create over 1,000 cocktail recipes out of alcohol and mixers like soda. Users simply place whatever they want in the frame and then direct the robot via tablet or smartphone on what kind of drink they’d like. Barobot comes in two versions, one that requires assembly and another that’s more of a “plug and pour” option.

The company behind the device is currently raising funds via a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign.

images via Barobot

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

Hayato Kisaragi and Seiji Kanai released an interesting experiment in card game publishing last year called Lost Legacy. The game itself is what you might expect from Kanai, the designer of the hit microgame Love Letter. Lost Legacy is a 2-4 player deduction game designed around a deck of sixteen cards, with some slight twists in the endgame that set it apart from Love Letter.

Where Love Letter is a standalone game, Lost Legacy is designed with expansions in mind. Each expansion has its own set of sixteen cards which means they can be played as their own game. You can also combine the base game with expansions under certain rules, ultimately making your own custom sixteen card deck to play.

In essence, Kisaragi and Kanai have combined the wildly successful "microgame" format with the commercial appeal of Fantasy Flight's "Living Card Game" format. Each set remains a fun and affordable standalone game for casual players, while die hard fans and completists can chase each new expansion.

I was mulling with this idea in Suspense last February. The idea was to release a set of "thirteenth cards," each could replace the thirteenth card in the deck. It's a model that really lends itself to the print-on-demand distribution model. (Similarly, Coup has an Interrogator who replaces the Ambassador.)

So what do you think? Do microgames, LCGs, and POD form the ultimate Voltron for card games?