firehose

dduane:

justlearningasigo:

JESUS DUMBLEDORE FUCKING CHRIST

I really do like this lady a whole lot. :)

I've been hearing a lot of praise about Deep Magic. And, there's a lot to like about it; after all, it contains the spell burning monkey swarm. Burning monkey swarm! I now realize what I've wanted to do all my life is make a sorcerer specializing in burning monkey swarm.

But, I do want to register my disappointment with how much of this book is closed content. I must admit, I half-expected something like this, but I was hoping for the best. Here are the relevant entries on the credits page:

Product Identity: The following items are hereby identified as Product Identity, as defined in the Open Game License version 1.0a, Section 1(e), and are not Open Content: All trademarks, registered trademarks, proper names (characters, place names, new deities, etc.), dialogue, plots, story elements, locations, characters, artwork, sidebars, and trade dress. (Elements that have previously been designated as Open Game Content are not included in this declaration.).

Open Game Content: The Open content in this book includes the spells in Chapter 2, bloodlines and mysteries in Chapter 5, and archetypes in Chapter 6. No other portion of this work may be reproduced in any form without permission.

The first paragraph I have very little problem with; some of the sidebars contain "crunch" game material, but otherwise it's all good.

Here are some examples:

• There's new Words of Power content. Awesome! But, it's in Chapter 4, which is closed content. This means that other publishers can't (freely/easily) use the material for their own work. And, if another publisher wants to expand on Words of Power, not only can't they use what's published here, but if they want to do something similar, they have to make their own version instead of using what's already available.
  
• Chapter 2 contains the spells animate dead i through ix. Good! But, the tables which tell you what the spells actually create are in Chapter 7, which is closed content. Oops?
  
• There's the Chaos Mage wizard archetype in Chapter 6. Good! But the Chaos School is in Chapter 1, so it is closed content. You don't actually need to use the Chaos School to use the Chaos Mage archetype, but it's so fitting that it makes it disappointing that the school is closed content.
  
• None of the feats, anywhere, are open content. Some are in sidebars, which makes them product identity.
  
• Any items, such as the ioun stones in Chapter 1, are closed content.

I'm hoping that most of this is an oversight, and can be rectified at the same time you're fixing (other?) typographical errors. Or maybe all other publishers have to do to use such content is request it, and permission will be freely granted. I guess I'll find out.

drugdoer:

redpilledbynabokov:

whiskey-wolf:

$2,500.00 Titanium and Gold Lip Pearl Linerlock

This knife is from Suchat’s New Diamond Edition. This liner locking folder features a carved Robert Calcinore Mosaic Damascus blade. The handle has carved titanium bolsters, carved gold lip pearl scales with pink/green/yellow stone inserts, carved matching Damascus rear bolsters, and carved and anodized titanium liners and back-spacer.

okay I never thought I’d be one of those bloggers that reblogs pictures of knives but holy shit please bear with me while I reiterate this image onto one more web page just to make extra sure it’s stashed in a cache somewhere forever

knives rule and appeal to every kind of blogger

asian:

Go home bus you’re drunk

onepanelthentheother:

David Lynch’s Dune by Ryochi Ikegami

(Via)

humanoidhistory:

The far side of the Moon, 20 July 1969.

The Lubok, Russian folk illustration, 19th century

Cyrus Farivar

Star Trek may be the series that bred fandom as we know it, but even among the Trekkies, Huston Huddleston is standing out: he's about to unveil the chair from where no one has gone before. Sort of.

Huddleston is a working screenwriter who, back in 2011, started on a journey to restore the signature modern Star Trek set piece—the entire bridge of the NCC-1701-D. The bridge was home to Capt. Jean-Luc Picard and his crew on The Next Generation, but it was actually destroyed during the filming of Star Trek: Generations, where the Enterprise crash-lands onto the surface of Veridian III. Following the conclusion of the show and its related films, only four replicas were made for Star Trek: The Experience, a theme park in Las Vegas that closed in 2008 after a 10-year run.

It took three years and several thousand dollars, but Huddleston now has what he believes is the most accurate representation of Picard's throne in existence. And actually, it took four chairs to get there. The captain's chair that Huddleston originally rescued (a replica to begin with) was in such bad shape that it couldn't be restored. The seat had to be remade from scratch, but it later turned out that this design was wrong too. Remake 2.0 was sold off. Huddleston now hopes he has the definitive and final version.

Read 48 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Don't mock the Mayor Jim Ardis of Peoria as you just might be jailed and fined.

Peoriagov.org

Illinois police seized computers and mobile phones while raiding a house whose owner was suspected of parodying the town mayor on Twitter.

In all, five people following the Tuesday evening raid were taken to the Peoria Police Department station for questioning, local media report.

"They just asked me about the Twitter account, if I knew anything about it,” Michelle Pratt, 27, told the Journal Star.

Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

radicalrebellion:

jessehimself:

 

Wooooooow

actressesofcolor:

This is not about an actress of color, but please vote against David O. Russell being included in #TIME100. If you are unaware, he admitted to sexually assaulting his transgender niece, and does not deserve any sort of praise or recognition. Reblog to spread the word!

rashaka:

gender-fucking:

goldenheartedrose:

neurowonderful:

(Image description: A partial screenshot of a blog post. The title reads “How I reduced screaming and verbal stimming in my child with autism”, and below that is a colour photograph of a hand holding a rectangular plastic “clicker” device.)

I think I may have mentioned this blog post, and the sadness and confusion I felt when I came across it, in one of my videos. This screenshot is from the blog of an “autism parent”. Yes, that is a clicker. Yes, she is encouraging the use of animal training methods on Autistic children. Yes, she considers any kind of vocal stimming, not just screaming, to be a “bad behaviour”. To top it all off, her blog banner reads, “Discovering SOLUTIONS to the Everyday Problems of Living with AUTISM”. Here is an excerpt from her tutorial on how to train your disabled child like a dog to have a “Quiet Mouth”:

Third, I sat back and watched my child. Since he was making bad noises, I decided to reinforce Quiet Mouth (i.e., lips together, no sound). Whenever he had a split second of Quiet Mouth, I immediately tagged (made a click-sound with the device) and handed over a treat. Every time his mouth was Quiet, I tagged (clicked) and treated. Soon there was much more Quiet Mouth behavior. When doing this it is important to ignore and pay no attention to vocal stims or screaming. Do not look at the child, do not speak to him/her or explain. Just say nothing, and immediately tag and treat as soon as there is even a split second of Quiet Mouth. You can also tag and treat a child for any appropriate vocalizations. If he/she says a nice word, or makes an appropriate comment, then tag and reinforce that. Your goal is to increase Quiet Mouth and appropriate vocalizations.

And sadly, as bad as this attitude and treatment of Autistic children is, this is a relatively tame example when compared to the other unethical treatments, therapies, and methods of discipline that Autistic children are being subjected to every day (all in the name of making them appear less obviously Autistic). This is why we need Autism Acceptance Month and not the fear-mongering, negative, misinformed “awareness” that Autism Speaks and its allies are pumping out this April.

We need acceptance because Autistic children should be loved and accepted wholly and completely for who they are, not hurt and mistreated in their parent’s frantic search for a “cure”. Because Autistic people deserve to be treated with respect and listened to, not silenced and forced or coerced to conform to an ableist, non-disabled ideal. Because Autistic children need accommodation and understanding to live healthy, happy lives, not sketchy “treatments” and intensive, soul-crushing “therapies” to try to make them appear more neurotypical and less Autistic.

For more information on ASAN’s Autism Acceptance Month, see the about page on the website here: http://www.autismacceptancemonth.com/about/

I want to cry. The aim of this is no better than the autistic kid who had their vocal cords cut. Like. Just NO.

THAT IS LITERALLY A GOD DAMN DOG CLICKER. YOUR. CHILD. IS. NOT. A. DOG. YOU DON’T NEED TO FUCKING TRAIN THEM LIKE AN ANIMAL YOU FUCKING PEICE OF SHIT.

at first i thought the article was saying you should give the child the clicker so they have something to focus on, similar to pulling a rubber band on your wrist.

i didn’t realize until i read it that they meant TRAIN the child with word-association

got-avengers:

Baby Avengers Assemble!!!!

What believers save for their suffering

LENT ends today, Holy Thursday. After 40 days of fasting and reflecting, the world's 1.2 billion Catholics can prepare for Easter—and finally sink their teeth into a chocolate bar, light up a cigarette, quaff a coffee or pour themselves a well-deserved single malt. Though the faithful give up life's material luxuries for spiritual purposes, their wallets also benefit. Looking at the most common items that people eschew—like alcohol, cigarettes and fast food—Catholics living in Dublin will have saved the most, around $780 if they resisted all the vices in our index. Cutting out 20 cigarettes a day makes up the bulk of the savings, $468. Meanwhile in Lisbon, where the prices of similar goods are less, Catholics wouldn't even save that amount if they gave up all the daily treats. In Nigeria, where around 15% are Catholic, those in Lagos would save most by denying themselves fast food. Wine and beer save believers the most cash in São Paulo, Brazil, the country home to the most Catholics in the world.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Last week, NASA astronaut Steve Swanson sent the first Instagram from space. It was a selfie, naturally, taken before the ISS cupola. But what caught our eye wasn't Swanson's handsome mug or the view of Earth. It was Swanson's shirt, which features a familiar spacecraft and the words: "Shipping & Logistics: Everything's Shiny."

Read more...

Here on this corner of the internet, we see a lot of abandoned places. For some of them, we can even understand how circumstances might have led their abandonment. This however, is a head-in-hands kind of moment.

The Castello di Sammezzano is a show-stopper, a jaw-dropper. Hidden away in the Tuscan hills of Northern Italy, this electrifyingly beautiful Moorish castle was built a whopping 400+ years ago in 1605, but for more than two decades, it’s been sitting empty, neglected, vulnerable to vandalism and to the elements.

(c) Massimo Listri

There are 365 rooms in the Castello di Sammazzano, one for every day of the year. The Moroccan-style palatial villa is a labyrinthe of exquisitely tiled rooms, each one intricately unique. Originally built by a Spanish noble, Ximenes of Aragon in the 17th century, it wasn’t until the 19th century that the castle would find its arabian identity and be transformed into the etherial palace it resembles today.

(c) Dan Raven

(c) Martino Zegwaard

(c) Darmé

This is all owed to its inheritor, Marquis Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes, a largely forgotten but key cultural, social and political figure in Florence when the city was the capital of Italy. Ferdinando, who lived and died at the property, spent 40 years planning, financing and realizing this exotic castle that would become the most important example of orientalist architecture in Italy– only to be left to ruin at the hands of modern-day investors.

After the Marquis’ death at the end of the 19th century, there was a period of uncertainty for the property and historical records appear to be rather patchy. During the war, the Germans came looting, stealing mainly from the castle’s surrounding park that had once been considered the largest and most exotic in Tuscany. They took many important statues and fountains of Moorish style, as well as an entire bridge and a grotto featuring a statue of Venus. When the war ended, the castle became a luxury hotel, restaurant and bar.

Unfortunately there appears to be no photographs of the villa during this period, I couldn’t even get the name of the hotel, which reportedly closed its doors in 1990. For a decade, it stood without a master of the house until 1999, when a British company ceremoniously bought the Castello di Sammezzano at auction. But still, the castello would remain unoccupied; it’s vaulted rooms and archways empty and unappreciated.

The plan for Sammezzano called for an 18-hole championship golf course and a large sports facility and clubhouse. But construction hadn’t yet begun when the investment company ran into “economic issues” and the castle was forgotten, left to fall into an extreme state of disrepair. The exterior damage by vandals and the weather is fairly evident. On the inside, many windows were broken, railings cut, chandeliers and rosettes stolen.

It wasn’t until 2013 that a local non-profit committee was founded to help raise awareness of the increasingly decaying castle. They have no ownership of Sammezzano but they help to arrange and promote public openings. And while the Comitato FPXA (after the initials of Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes of Aragon) has been doing their part, the property has been quietly sold to the global developer, Palmerston Hotel & Resorts.

On their website, the developer’s to-do list includes several worldwide projects, including the Castello Sammezzano, which they intend to develop into a “luxurious sporting resort, incorporating a boutique hotel, apartments, spa and country club with golf, tennis and various sporting amenities”. They have obtained all necessary planning approvals and claim redevelopment is scheduled to commence in 2014.

Another luxury hotel development might not be the fairytale ending we were necessarily waiting for, but here’s hoping this arabian castle will finally be restored to its former glory– and maybe they’ll let us come round for a mint tea under those otherworldly ceilings.

Stay tuned for updates on the Comitato FPXA facebook page. 

Images by urban exploration photographers Dan Raven / Darmé / Martino Zegwaard

angryampersand:

angryampersand:

I’m really glad people are opening up and talking now, because the degree to which people think shit like this is acceptable is ridiculous. Industry professionals need to make huge changes, but so do consumers and fans. We just all need to be better than this. Jesus Christ. 

Adding these last tweets too because it illustrates perfectly how this stuff goes even beyond “internet harassment” to creating a culture where women don’t feel safe doing their day to day lives because of  the way that men get away with this shit ( and without being challenged or silenced!). 

My biggest hope from all these conversations is that they will not just go away, like so many previous ones, and that things will start to change, because. I mean how many other ways are there to say this? Unacceptable and abhorrent in every way. 

Yesterday, I learned that GoDaddy released personally identifiable information about me to a spammer troll. You see, it all started way back in August of 2011 2012 (edit: I was mistaken on the date of the original incident) when I got a dodgy-looking email from someone I didn’t recognize that said only “Transcendental Argument for the existence of God (17:36)” and a link to a website that I did not click on for fear it would download all sorts of creepy crawlies on my computer. The email went to me and a bunch of other people I do not know whose names also start with “J.” In other words, it was quintessential spam.

I noticed that the email address it came from as well as the link went to a GoDaddy registered domain. I figured I should report it, so I forwarded the email along with headers to GoDaddy’s abuse department. I then immediately forgot about it because I can only worry about a piece of spam for so long.

Yesterday, over 2 years after the original spam incident, I began to get emails from friends of mine forwarding a piece of creepy-looking spam they received that contained my name. All emails said the following:

if you go to:

<website redacted>

4/14/14

 

you can read a 1-page word.doc

featuring Jamie Bernstein of Skepchick.

 

neither her name, nor your organization’s name

appear anywhere in the story … only Jamie’s picture

Clicking the link brought me to the same late-90s-geocities-reminiscent Skeptic website that almost 3 years ago I thought was going to give my computer a bunch of sketchy viruses. There at the top of the page was a photo of me with the following:

Cute, huh?

 

(click the picture to read a 1-page word.doc)

 

For anyone considering dating this person

I would recommend that you first google the mating habits of …

 

The praying mantis

 

If someone is already married to this person, the only advice I can offer is …

Drink heavily and smoke constantly … it can’t last forever.

Clicking the photo downloads a word document, the title of which contains my full first and last name.

The document then says that in 2011 he sent an email to “hundreds of atheists” with a link to his website and that I had reported him for violating GoDaddy’s policies against spam. He was supposed to pay a $200 fine or risk the suspension of his domain. Instead, he argued with GoDaddy’s customer service until they agreed to waive the fine as long as he promised never to send spam again.

He ended the document with the following:

When I was threatened on my talk show by neo-Nazis (“I’m going to kill you and your family”), I didn’t “run to mommy” and try to get them in trouble – I handled it myself, like a grownup. Compare my response to physical threats to the complainer’s response to merely watching a video about science/religion.

 

This person needs to grow up. But more importantly, this person needs to make some serious adjustments to their moral code.

 

(an anger management class wouldn’t be such a bad idea either)

In other words, he sent out a spam email that clearly violated the rules of his server. Then, he turned around and retaliated against the person who reported him.

Except, there is a missing step here. You see, he would never have been able to retaliate had he not known who had reported him. The email in question went to a lot of people and there was no way for him to have known that I was the one who reported the email if GoDaddy had not released personally identifiable information about me to my spammer.

Now, I have an angry spammer who blames me for receiving a $200 fine and is retaliating by posting my name and photo on his website with gendered insults and then (ironically) sending out spam emails with the link to friends of mine that he has tracked down and who knows who else.

GoDaddy has put my personal privacy and safety at risk. And, in case you think this could have been a mistake, GoDaddy’s policy for dealing with abuse complaints contains the following:

We review all complaints for validity and will take appropriate action, and as part of our investigation it may also be necessary for us to corroborate your complaint with our customer.

Apparently “corroborate your complaint with our customer” means that GoDaddy provide their customer personally identifiable information that will allow him to stalk you on the Internet and harass you for having the gall to report him.

If you think I can now report to GoDaddy that someone on their servers is using their website for harassment, think again. Here’s what GoDaddy has under their sections of reporting harassment.

Go Daddy.com does not allow illegal content on our customer’s websites. However, as a hosting provider, it is not our place to determine if the site you have mentioned is actually engaging in illegal activities. If you suspect any of our customers are using their website to engage in any illegal activities, please help us by contacting your local law enforcement agency, and request them to investigate this situation. Please refer to our Universal Terms of Service Agreement for specifics on our policies.

So thank you GoDaddy. I helped you out by reporting someone who was using your servers in an illegal fashion. You responded by telling him that I was the one who reported him. Now he is harassing me, posting my photo and name online with sexist insults, and tracking down my friends in order to send them spam linking to his post about me. And, according to your own policy I can’t even report the harassment because it’s “not your place” to deal with customers who are using your services to harass and abuse.

GoDaddy gave my personally identifiable information to a spammer troll, violating my personal privacy and safety and resulting in me joining the the ever-growing group of women that are subject to online abuse.

Note: I am not linking to the spammer’s website because I don’t want to give him more attention. If you’re really curious, I’m sure you can find it yourself using some creative googling.

UPDATE: GoDaddy responded to my post in the comments with the following statement:

We understand a situation like this is very frustrating. While this may not resolve the issues of the past, we hope some context will help explain how we manage spam complaints and address allegations of defamatory content.

We have a “zero tolerance” spam policy and investigate all accusations of potential spamming on our network. We notify the complainant that it may be necessary for us to corroborate their claim with the person accused of spamming. A critical point in corroborating a spam complaint is confirming whether there was an “opt-in” email consent from the person who says they are being spammed. This is why we ask for an email address from the person filing the complaint. Without it, unfortunately there’s no way to determine if the accused spammer had “opt-in” consent. When proof of “opt-in” isn’t provided, we consider the activity a violation and take appropriate actions to prevent further spamming.

As for the website created after the spamming complaint was handled, we do not make determinations about whether content is defamatory. As citizens of the Internet, we recommend you contact law enforcement to register a complaint about any website material you deem defamatory. We do not remove content without a court order.

Again, we understand this doesn’t erase the issues you’ve experienced, we just wanted to provide some perspective on our policies and the issues we have to balance as an Internet provider. If you would like to discuss this in more depth, please shoot me an email and I’d be happy to speak with you directly.

Pam Bunn
Abuse@GoDaddy.com
Domain Services
GoDaddy

Original Source

Using data from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Movoto calculated the musical preferences of each region of the United States and arranged them in heat maps, showing which musical genres are most popular in each area of the lower 48 states.

Most people don’t think of Minneapolis or Seattle as having a rap scene or Las Vegas as a place that puts out country music. But they do.

There are sure to be other surprises as you peruse all 17 genres…

Alternative

Bluegrass

Blues

Country

EDM/Electronica

Folk

Gospel

Indie

Jazz

Latin

Metal

Pop

Punk

Rap & Hip-Hop

Rhythm & Blues

Rock & Oldies

Soul

(via io9)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.