CDC confirms 2nd MERS case in US WAVE SATURDAY, May 3, 2014 (HealthDay News) - Despite public health recommendations that women consume omega-3 fatty acid supplements while pregnant, new research suggests that offspring don't gain any mental health benefit. More >>. SATURDAY ... and more » |
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CDC confirms 2nd MERS case in US - WAVE
Nintendo UK's online store stocks merchandise, turns Brits into goomba-heads
Comics A.M. | Marvel, Yen Press caught in Amazon/Hachette feud
DUMB.domains, An Amusing Website That Randomly Generates Web Domain Ideas
DUMB.domains is a website by programmer Glen Maddern that randomly generates a new web domain using the recently expanded list of top-level domains for hilarious results like “penis.voyage” and “literally.glass” among others. The website also lists a price for the domain generated and a link to a hosting provider where it can be purchased.
Christopher Columbus's Flagship, The Santa Maria, Has Been Found
Motorola’s Moto E runs KitKat, resists scratches, costs $129 unlocked

There's a new Android phone on the block. It's got a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, a five megapixel rear camera, 4GB of internal storage, single-band 802.11n Wi-Fi, and a 4.3-inch 960×540 display. No, you didn't pass out and wake up in the year 2011—these are the specs of the Moto E, Motorola's latest play for the budget smartphone market. It costs $129 unlocked, $50 less than the cheapest Moto G. The phone will be available in "more than 40 countries" in "the next few weeks."
Like the Moto G, it looks like the Moto E wants to provide a decent user experience despite its lowish specs. It includes the same lightly modified version of Android 4.4.2 seen on the Moto G and the Moto X, and it will get "at least one update" to another version of Android. Most phones in that approximate price range can't say the same—they often run Android 4.0 or 4.1 out of the box, and there's little-to-no chance that you'll ever get even a single software update. Look at the phones available at this price from a provider like Straight Talk and you'll see the kind of competition the Moto E is up against.
The body of the phone is also similar to the Moto G and X. The back is all smooth plastic with an indentation for the Motorola logo and a cutout for the (apparently flashless) camera lens. The phone's speaker appears to be mounted on the front of the device, since there's no cutout for it on the back as there is on the more expensive models. The buttons are on the right side, and the headphone jack is centered on the top—it's easy to tell that all three phones are related, which isn't always the case across a company's entire lineup.
Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Canadiens fans display Boston hatred with trash, donuts and a noose
firehoseCanadians are nice all the time because they get it all out through hockey

We already talked about how Canadiens fans carried a bear skin through the streets after their big 4-0 win on Monday, but that was just the start.
1) Nobody eat the Boston creme donuts!
This is the Tim Hortons inside Bell Centre during Game 4. Sold out of basically everything ... except the Boston creme.

2) Give Milan Lucic a garbage shower

3) Hang Zdeno Chara in effigy

Montreal takes the Stanley Cup playoffs very, very seriously.
via Reddit & @PeteBlackburn
Will Barton saves the Blazers from a Spurs sweep
firehoseat least we didn't get swept, but I don't think we're going to sweep the rest
The Portland Trail Blazers are still alive thanks to an unlikely force buried deep on their bench for most of the season.
PORTLAND -- He's known around Portland as "The People's Champ," but perhaps fans in Rip City should start referring to second-year guard Will Barton as who he really is: The man who saved the Blazers' season.
Barton exploded off the bench for 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting Monday, creating some much-needed bench production against the San Antonio Spurs in a 103-92 victory in Game 4 . The seldom-used guard looked confident and smooth as he faced off against the NBA's best regular-season team. Lucky, too, since Barton's crucial involvement in Game 4 wasn't planned.
"I never got that word," Barton chuckled. "Sometimes it just happens that way."
Barton combined with forward Thomas Robinson -- who finished with nine points to go along with five rebounds, a steal and a block -- to lead the charge off the bench. Robinson set solid picks and moved well without the ball, and Portland's offense finally seemed to click for the first time in the series.
"To be honest, we had no clue that tonight was going to happen like that," Robinson said. "We stayed ready."
The unexpected explosion was more than welcome. The Blazers' bench had been outscored 140-43 in the first three games of the series, all easy Spurs wins. With backup point guard Mo Williams out with a groin injury, Portland desperately needed Barton and Robinson to get into the mix.
In addition to increased bench production, the Blazers made several major adjustments for the first time in the series. Notably, All-Star guard Damian Lillard had his best game of the series against the Spurs, scoring 25 points on 11-of-21 shooting.

Will Barton slams home an alley-oop from Nicolas Batum.
Lillard noted before Game 3 that San Antonio had made it difficult for him to operate in the lane. In Game 4, Lillard took quick, rhythm shots off the pick-and-roll, which opened up drives for him later in the game. It also helped that Nicolas Batum -- who finished just two assists shy of a triple-double at 14 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists -- took some of the pressure off Lillard to create.
"I thought with Nico playing the way he plays, the game came a lot easier," Lillard said. "He was attacking, he was making plays. I didn't have to bring the ball up a lot."
Coach Terry Stotts experimented throughout the entire game, at one point throwing out a lineup that didn't include Lillard or backup Earl Watson. Portland took what the San Antonio gave it , allowing Robinson, Barton and Robin Lopez to take jumpers when open rather than try to pound away with Lillard or LaMarcus Aldridge on the low block. To everyone's surprise, it worked.
Oddities aside, neither team was too up or too down about its situation after Game 4. In the Blazers' locker room, a sense of calmness returned, but very few were excited about having won their first game in a tough playoff series.
"We felt embarrassed being down 3-0," Robinson said. "We don't want to lose like this. We don't want to lose, period."
A sense of relief, bolstered mostly by pride, was palpable from Portland. San Antonio had crushed it in the first halves of the first three games. Both Aldridge and Lillard, though they tried their best, were unable to pull back their simmering contempt for their team's performance after each loss.
"I was embarrassed about how they won the [first] three games," Lillard said. "I thought tonight we played our basketball, we competed and we showed why we've been able to get to this point."
On the other side, the Spurs' letdown at failing to close out the Blazers was noticeable. Coach Gregg Popovich was in such a hurry to get out of the Moda Center on Wednesday night that he started his press conference before most of the media had arrive to ask him questions. Point guard Tony Parker was similarly upset.
"The energy was weird tonight," Parker said, giving frustration-tinged short answers to waiting reporters. "It just didn't happen."
Now, the series returns to San Antonio. Portland not only faces the team that claimed the best regular season record in the NBA, but the weight of 68 years of NBA history without a team coming back to win a playoff series after falling down 3-0.
Maybe the Blazers found a bit of the magic they left on the court in the Rose City when they beat the Rockets. If they expect to win Game 5, they're going to need it. Next time, The People's Champ might not be enough.
Space Oddity - YouTube
firehosehuh; downloaded it
Canonical Announces The Orange Box $12k USD Ubuntu Cluster Suitcase
firehoseThe Intel NUC equivalent of a Mac mini cluster: 10 4-core i5 NUCs connected via an internal gigabit switch, 3TB of storage (10 120GB SSDs and a 2TB HDD), 160GB aggregate RAM. About 21.5" long and 8.3" tall.
Square's new digital comment cards let you rate your barista
firehoseboo
Today Square announced Square Feedback, a new feature that lets merchants add interactive comment cards to their receipts. For $10 per month, the feature adds a "How was your experience?" section to the top of every Square digital receipt, at which point the consumer can press a smiley face or sad face to indicate their satisfaction. These buttons pop the user out to a web page, where they can add more details if they want to, like what they were dissatisfied about. The entire interaction is anonymous — the seller only sees the user's review and receipt contents.
"How was your experience?"
"The ability to work things out one-on-one is something really powerful," a Square spokesperson told The Verge. "That [customer] might have gone and put that experience on Yelp or tweeted it to their friends." Feedback is marketed as a way for any Square seller to add "instant customer service" on the fly, but what's more important is how Feedback is priced. The feature is the first subscription service for Square, which ordinarily makes money by taking a small piece of each credit card transaction. Square can't build a big business on top of these tiny margins, many have theorized, but Feedback, priced at $10 per month, operates on top of the credit card system. Merchants who buy Feedback create a new monthly revenue stream where Square's in control of the margins.

When I asked if Square would consider adding more new features as paid subscriptions, a Square spokesperson said "Yes, definitely." But perhaps not always. Square recently added inventory management to its feature set, but made the feature free, like all of its point-of-sale and analytics features up to that point. It's not yet clear how Square will choose to price upcoming features — paid or free — but one thing is certain. As Square looks to create new revenue streams that don't rely on tiny interchange fees, it will have to think more about paid services. Square originally marketed itself as a beautiful, functional middleman between companies like Visa and consumers, but as time has gone on, the credit card companies (and other services like PayPal) have caught up.
Meanwhile, Square's Wallet payments app was recently shut down, and the company's free Cash person-to-person payments solution is in all likelihood losing money. Square has the unique ability to create modern, fully-integrated payment experiences, but has offered most of these services for free thus far. As a cash crunch looms, Square's going to need to ask someone to pay up.
- Related Items square square feedback comments commerce ecommerce
Apple's iPad will reportedly add split-screen multitasking with iOS 8
Apple may finally be bringing legitimate multitasking to the iPad. The well-connected Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac is reporting that starting with iOS 8, users will be able to run two apps simultaneously on the tablet's screen. For years, iOS has allowed only one app to be displayed on screen at any given time. Apple's competitors including Samsung and Microsoft have latched onto this restriction and repeatedly bashed the company for adhering to the rule for so long, particularly with the 9.7 inches of screen real estate offered by the iPad. Sworn rival Samsung has been particularly vicious with its marketing campaigns, and Microsoft has also relied on multitasking as one of the chief differentiators between the iPad and its Surface tablet line.
To this point, Apple has clearly favored simplicity over the flexibility offered by running two apps at once. And it's hard to fault the company for this strategy, as the iPad still remains the most popular consumer tablet on the market. Ease of use has long been a huge selling point of iOS, and Apple is likely taking care to avoid making things overly complex with its split-screen multitasking. But perhaps the company is finally getting tired of claims that competing devices have grown "more productive" than its iPad. 9to5Mac also reports that iOS 8 will allow apps on screen to interact with one another; you'll be able to drag and drop content between them, for example. Apple is likely to unveil iOS 8 at its WWDC event in early June. Apple's focus with multitasking reportedly centers around the iPad Air, and 9to5Mac says it's unclear if the smaller sized iPad mini will offer support for the feature.
- Source 9to5Mac
- Related Items ipad multitasking split-screen multitasking ios 8 ios
US Navy Develops World's Worst E-reader
firehose"the uncomfortably backronymed NeRD, or Navy e-Reader Device"
I've been reassuring my editing client that their hackneyed military sci-fi back/acronyms aren't immersion-breaking, so, thanks Navy
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Microsoft announces a $399 Xbox One without Kinect
firehoseHA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
My house is my gas station (and so is yours)
firehose'The city of LA placed "Electric Vehicle Charging Station" signs on most of the major freeways throughout the city years ago, but when I went to investigate one off Interstate 10 I found that the charger was actually a single 240v plug on the top floor of a parking lot reserved for Paramount employees.'

Life in an electric vehicle
By Trent Wolbe on May 13, 2014 10:30 am

A wise man once said the future has already arrived, it’s just not yet widely distributed. Usually, that future-present is the most fun sometime between the “early adopter” and “mass consumption” phases. That’s where we’re at with the electric car. It’s like Facebook in 2007. All your internet friends were poking each other, but your grandma hadn’t joined yet so you could still post raunchy vids without worrying too much about her de-friending you IRL. The Nissan Leaf may not be too crass, but there’s something still risqué about it.
Pretty cheap for an electric vehicle, with an effective price of $18,000, the 2013 Leaf brought that future-present-perfect to car ownership. In 2012, the EV world was still an early-adopter exclusive, with Chevy’s $35,000 Volt leading sales in the USA. There are a lot of things that make driving electric in May 2014 feel unmistakably utopian, but it’s a utopia that has not yet arrived for all.

With a range of about 90 miles and an average charge time of 21 hours, the Leaf’s limitations mean most Americans will need to fundamentally change how they think about driving before they bite the electric bullet. But Los Angeles isn’t most of America, and for my LA-based family of three, the transition has been a challenge — but a challenge that feels more like playing Tetris than being on Survivor. Sometimes it feels like the Leaf has more in common with a cellphone than it does with a Camry. The "key" is actually a proximity fob — I almost never take it out of my pocket. You push a button to start the car, and instead of the clunky turning over of a gas engine, you hear one of three user-selected startup sounds — sort of like the soft Apple "dong," though Nissan’s sound design feels more Pokémon than Brian Eno. Here’s the one I chose:
And then: nothing. The first thing you’ll notice about driving a Leaf is how silently it runs. The dash displays the charge level and computes the number of miles remaining on the charge, which can change depending on how aggressively you drive and how much you use the A / C. Shifting into reverse on the Prius-style knob triggers a friendly warning tone, a sort of consumer version of the annoying beeping you hear when a big commercial vehicle is backing up. Without the purr of a gas engine, it’s often difficult for passersby to hear that an electric vehicle is even on.
The second thing you’ll notice about driving a Leaf is how normal it feels. You turn the steering wheel, you hit the "gas," you use your turn signals, you hit the brakes. It’s a car. The biggest difference in acceleration: EVs only have one gear, and when you floor it you can hear an electric hum and feel an incredible amount of torque right off the starting line. If you’ve ever chosen the Leaf as your vehicle in Gran Turismo, you’ll know that it can go from 0 to 60 in seven seconds flat. As a result, getting on the 110 freeway gives me the dual pleasures of tree-hugging and getting all Fast And Furious at the same dang time.

But "flooring it" in a Leaf isn’t without its consequences. The in-dash accelerometer is a series of 14 dots — 10 white dots indicate the level of power you’re pulling from the battery, and a heavy foot will light all of them up. When you let up on the gas, the white dots disappear and four green dots blink on, indicating that the centrifugal force of the car is being harnessed to send power back to the battery. It’s an elegant way to monitor the real-time efficiency of your driving behavior — every second behind the wheel turns into a resources-management game. On a recent trip up the mountainous Angeles Crest Highway, I used a ton of white dots to propel the Leaf up a long, steep slope. But on the way down it was all greens, and by the time we were at the base of the mountain the battery had regenerated most of the energy it had used on the ascent. Achievement unlocked, my gamer-brain whispered at the end of the trip. This Leaf Climbed Bear Mountain...and Lived To Tell the Tale.

Plug politics
There are currently three types of chargers available for most EV owners, and understanding them is as important as understanding why you shouldn’t fill your petroleum vehicle up with diesel. Every Leaf comes with a trickle charger. Just like a cellphone adaptor, one end plugs into a grounded three-prong 120v outlet and the other end plugs into a socket on the nose of the car. This is the most widely distributed way to charge, as it essentially turns any electrical outlet into a gas station — but with current technology it takes almost 21 hours for a fill-up.
The next step up is to use a 240-volt supply; if you have an electric clothes dryer you already have one installed. This cuts the charge time down to around six hours, and it’s relatively easy to get a 240v line installed at any residential or commercial property. Many public parking areas offer free 240v charging: the ones in EV-only parking slots at the Whole Foods in Pasadena are covered in sellable ad space, which is a smart way for the high-end grocer to recoup some of the money it loses to increased energy bills. At other high-visibility locations, like the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the chargers are visibly sponsored by Nissan. At shopping malls like the Americana in Glendale, a commercial venture called Blink offers charging for a dollar an hour. The semi-wide distribution of EV owners means that there’s usually at least a free space or two available to charge. In order to keep up with rising EV sales, more of these will need to be installed in coming years to avoid long lines at the pump.
But for a peek into the not-so-widely-distributed future of EV charging, you’ll need to find a big, honking 480v power supply. Unlike getting a 120v or 240v line, a 480v installation is an expensive and complicated procedure that requires a big investment of time and money. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power places a premium on high-voltage delivery, and the charging stations themselves are serious machines. The whole package costs around $30,000. In 2013, incentives from the federal government and from Nissan itself brought the cost down to around $10,000, but that money is hard to come by now. Finally, the port itself it about twice as big as the 240v socket — it’s a technical spec called CHAdeMO, an add-on that tacked $1,300 onto the price of our Leaf. While the big chargers are commonplace in Japan, you’ll usually only find them at Nissan dealerships in the USA.

When you do find one — and when it’s not already in use by another Leaf owner — using a CHAdeMO charger is one of those experiences that makes you feel like you’re already living in the future. The big white boxes look like slimmer gas pumps, complete with LCD displays and a bank of four exhaust fans that cool down the high-current circuitry inside, which brings you up to an 80 percent charge in about 20 minutes. The big socket and heavy cord feel a lot like a gas pump, and sitting inside the Leaf as it charges feels kind of like sitting on top of a nuclear power plant. Which feels awesome.
But 99 percent of the time, charging our car is a much less dramatic affair. On a normal day we don’t drive more than 40 miles. The trickle charger is permanently plugged into a socket inside the house. I park the car, pop open the charging port, and snap in the handset. The next morning, I walk to the car, unplug the handset, and replace the cord in its holster. When I turn the car on, the indicator reads 100 percent. The whole process takes about 20 seconds. The result? I never visit the gas station. My house is my gas station. This subtle paradigm shift is probably the most rewarding part of Leaf life. I can safely say that I’ll never buy a gas car again.
Potholes on the green road
Okay, confession time! I still own a gas car — a 2007 Honda Fit — and can’t envision life without it anytime soon, simply because we often take road trips outside of LA County. Although mapping apps like PlugShare can help to find far-flung outlets, there simply aren’t enough charging resources to make long-haul trips practical in the Leaf. The city of LA placed "Electric Vehicle Charging Station" signs on most of the major freeways throughout the city years ago, but when I went to investigate one off Interstate 10 I found that the charger was actually a single 240v plug on the top floor of a parking lot reserved for Paramount employees.

And it’s not like I’m charging my car with green rainbows and California sunshine — like you, my electric power is generated by a nasty cocktail of burnt coal and natural gas, with a dash of solar and hydro mixed in for a hint of renewable flavor. I pay 13.92 cents per kilowatt-hour to the LA Department of Water and Power for that privilege. My bill has doubled since we bought the Leaf, from 165 kWh a month to 330 kWh. But that’s just a $23 difference, which pales in comparison to the hundred or so bucks I used to spend every month on gas. There’s also the added eco-benefit of using the grid’s static distribution structure to power my car, which saves the money and emissions that would be used to transport gas from god-knows-wherever to Southern California.
The LADWP does offer a 2.5-cent-per-kilowatt-hour discount for EV owners, but the process of getting it proved to be a logistical and economic nightmare. In an effort to green my driving, I enlisted the services of Elon Musk’s SolarCity to bring solar power into my energy equation. But getting the panels on my roof proved far too expensive to be practical and I was disqualified from their massively popular zero-down installation. So the entire EV equation isn’t as earth-friendly as I had originally anticipated, but it’s unambiguously a step in the right direction. While Tesla brought the EV future to a privileged few with its $70,000 Model S, Nissan’s democratizing economies of scale have created a new class of people who are dependent on an infrastructure that doesn’t exist across America. But Leaf life seems to be spreading like hay fever, at least out here in what was once Prius country. Since the price drop in 2013, there are Leafs everywhere in Los Angeles. Instead of being eco-pioneers, we’re now part of a larger —and more economically persuasive — group of regular drivers.

As thrilling as may be in 2014, driving electric is getting more banal every day. A subtler and infinitely cooler thrill will arrive in the next few years as electric motors become the silent majority, whirring down highways everywhere in an always diminishing sea of internal combustion engines.
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Pope Francis Says He Would Definitely Baptize Aliens If They Asked Him To - The Wire
During his weekly homily on Monday, Franics said that aliens — which he imagines could be "Green, with that long nose and big ears, just like children paint them" — should be baptized just like anyone else who asks for it, because it's not up to any human to decide who should receive the Holy Spirit.
The Good Project Manager [Link]
firehose"If you put the time and effort into getting to know your team and creating a plan with them, everyone will buy in."
I can feel saucie's blood pressure rising from here
Exclusive: Found after 500 years, the wreck of Christopher Columbus’s flagship the Santa Maria - Archaeology - Science - The Independent
More than five centuries after Christopher Columbus’s flagship, the Santa Maria, was wrecked in the Caribbean, archaeological investigators think they may have discovered the vessel’s long-lost remains – lying at the bottom of the sea off the north coast of Haiti. It’s likely to be one of the world’s most important underwater archaeological discoveries.
“All the geographical, underwater topography and archaeological evidence strongly suggests that this wreck is Columbus’ famous flagship, the Santa Maria,” said the leader of a recent reconnaissance expedition to the site, one of America’s top underwater archaeological investigators, Barry Clifford.
“The Haitian government has been extremely helpful – and we now need to continue working with them to carry out a detailed archaeological excavation of the wreck,” he said.
So far, Mr Clifford’s team has carried out purely non-invasive survey work at the site – measuring and photographing it.
Tentatively identifying the wreck as the Santa Maria has been made possible by quite separate discoveries made by other archaeologists in 2003 suggesting the probable location of Columbus’ fort relatively nearby. Armed with this new information about the location of the fort, Clifford was able to use data in Christopher Columbus’ diary to work out where the wreck should be.
moider, v.
firehose"To confuse, perplex, bewilder; to exhaust, overcome, stupefy"
"One whose intellects are rendered useless, by being in the habit of taking spirituous liquors to excess, is said to be moidert."
Digital Collections to Get Lost In
First I'd like to point you towards (surprise!) our very own Dartmouth Digital Collections. Our fantastic library staff has done wonderful work creating a diverse and fascinating collection of materials for digital browsing. My personal favorite picks are the ever-expanding Photo Files collection, and the wonderfully quirky 19th century comic The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck (you can read more about Obadiah Oldbuck in this post I wrote way back in 2012).
| The Dartmouth Boxing Club, donated by a Dartmouth Alumni class of 1871 |
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| Obadiah Oldbuck: "Raising himself, Mr. Oldbuck perceives his ladye-love. She is not alone! Duel between Mr. Oldbuck and his rival. |
| Pages from a 1914 land auctioneering pamphlet |
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| Tobacco Project: Red Book by Xu Bing |
Look What Happens When STEM Professors Teach Writing #makereducation

Maria Klawe, President of Harvey Mudd College, has a piece in Forbes about an interdisciplinary course implemented at the college in 2009. The idea behind the course was to make writing a focus not only in the humanities but also in the STEM fields.
Our students major in STEM fields but also have a concentration in the humanities, social sciences and the arts (HSA). As a liberal arts college, we value students’ development as communicators, thinkers and scientists. Since our founding, we have focused on teaching our students to write, but this emphasis was centralized among HSA faculty. To communicate that writing is important across the STEM disciplines, we decided to try something new: engage faculty from all departments to teach WRIT 1, our first-year, half-semester introduction to college writing.
We launched the course in 2009. To date, nearly 40% of our STEM faculty members have taught the course, and WRIT 1 has become a favorite part of the new curriculum. As faculty members become involved in WRIT 1, they also become empowered to assign and respond to writing in their STEM courses.
Klawe speaks with Rachel Levy, an associate professor in Math, about the experience:
I never imagined that as a mathematics professor I would be allowed to teach writing. But even before the college implemented WRIT 1, mathematics courses emphasized communication. Some assignments have “style points” for clear writing, and students take pride in their homework. We have a required public speaking course for all mathematics majors. Communication skills are like a superpower. When students develop these skills, they gain tools that will serve them well beyond college. I was convinced to teach WRIT 1 when a chemistry professor told me that it would improve my own writing. It has; I used to avoid writing tasks, but now I find myself writing almost every day and enjoying it.
Each Tuesday is EducationTuesday here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts about educators and all things STEM. Adafruit supports our educators and loves to spread the good word about educational STEM innovations!
Portland: We think giving homeowners in SW PDX free sewer connections will increase their interest in complying with the required sewer upgrades.
| |
submitted by notjanejacobs [link] [2 comments] |
sixseasonsandamovie: I saw this conversation on facebook and...







I saw this conversation on facebook and thought the insight from two ex African American cast members from SNL was fascinating.
sailoraphrodite: gluttonyghost: DO HE GOT THE BOOTY From the...

DO HE GOT THE BOOTY
From the reactions to the people in the background it looks like he has something else.
Horse: Oh god man
Granny: Take me now
Lady: I mustn’t look
Baby: I want to be like you when I grow up
Mother: Don’t look children
Guy: *ded*
typeworship: Sign Painters Film, released today. A couple of...



Sign Painters Film, released today.
A couple of month ago, in London, I had the pleasure of seeing a screening of the Sign Painters film and today it is available on general release. The documentary celebrates the hand-painted sign profession and tracks the industry’s fortunes through interviews with talented, colourful characters from across the USA.
For me, the film follows in the footsteps of other excellent design related documentaries such as Helvetica and Linotype. It’s been filmed with real warmth and sensitivity and is often so palpable you can almost smell the paint. Watching that glossy liquid being swept so skilfully through each letter is enough to make any graphic designer wanting to pick up a paintbrush.
I had the opportunity to pose a few questions to Co-director, Faythe Levine:
What sparked off the idea that this subject might make a good film?
The concept for making a documentary about traditional sign painting was rooted in my youth. I have always been interested in cityscapes, letters and painting but it wasn’t until I was living in Minneapolis in the late 90’s when some friends started hanging out at Phil Vandervaart’s sign shop. That’s when I put the signs I had seen around my neighbourhood together with a person. Those friends went on to run full-time sign shops around the country (as well as Stockholm.) I went on with my art career and stumbled into making documentaries. After wrapping up my first film, I was surprised no one had tackled the subject; very little was available on the topic. As a documentarian adding quality content to a subject matter is ideal. Sam and I had collaborated in the past on many projects and knew we wanted to work on something larger, I approached him with the idea and we jumped in head first.
Do you think the film has helped reignite and interest in the industry?
Since the release of the companion book and the screening of the film we have seen a huge increase in younger folks being interested in the trade. I think our project’s timing was on point with a generational interest in old school methods and process. Sign Painters the book and filmhas been a jumping off point for many who have gone to look for information on the trade.
What was the biggest ‘wow’ moment in making the film?
Sam [Macon] and I thought we had a bit of an understanding about the industry when we began shooting. We had no clue what we were getting into. The entire experience has given me a new respect for folks who dedicate themselves to an obsession rooted in practice. There were also a few interviews where we left feeling like our brains had exploded by the incredible stories we heard. People are amazing and we were humbled by everyone who allowed us into their studios for interviews.
Le « père » d'Alien, le Suisse HR Giger, est mort
firehosevia Russian Sledges
martinlkennedy: Pages from the Star Wars Question and Answer...










Pages from the Star Wars Question and Answer Book about Computers (1983). I’ve learned that C-3PO is good at designing Joy Division album covers and that in the future there will be giant mechanical mice!
Images courtesy of Paxton Holley. You can see the full set here



















