firehose

Republicans hope they've made a big leap toward closing the digital gap against Democrats, after getting their own ".gop" Internet address ending — a change they say will improve their brand and provide members with “a street address in the Republican neighborhood.”

These austerity-stricken years have been tough on the world’s winemakers. In the oenophile hubs of France and Italy, consumption of red wine has fallen 18% and 5.8%, respectively, since 2007.

That’s why China’s emergence as a wine-buying powerhouse has been a godsend for the industry. For each year of the last decade, Chinese wine consumption by volume surged roughly 25%, according to Vinexpo, a wine intelligence research company. (Its “China” data includes Hong Kong.)

Except, that is, last year. Chinese wine consumption dropped 2.2% annually in 2013, says Vinexpo. The main culprits? Importers cite president Xi Jinping’s anti-graft crackdown, says Vinexpo’s Anne Cusson, as well the slowing of the Chinese economy.

The crackdown theory seems to makes sense; after all, it’s done a number on the sales of Swiss watches and other fancy things. But Xi’s campaign is also the authoritarian regime equivalent of the weather phenomenon El Niño—a conveniently abstract catchall to blame for everything from weakening GDP to ebbing inflation (paywall). And a closer look at the data suggests Xi’s crackdown probably wasn’t to blame for China’s wine decline.

In 2013, Chinese consumption of domestic wines fell 4.9% from the previous year. Vinexpo said that import volumes were unaffected by that consumption slump, though it offered no data. But since imported wines make up 18.8% of the 155.4 million cases China consumed in 2013, wine imports should actually have increased in 2013—and by a healthy 12.7% to boot.

That’s still a drop. But if the ban on gift-giving and fancy banquets is behind it, a big dent in Bordeaux imports would be more likely than falling Great Wall sales. That’s because, as symbols of conspicuous consumption, domestic wines don’t pass muster.

That’s not for want of trying. China is now the fifth-biggest producer on the planet, ahead of Australia, Chile ,and South Africa. The biggest Chinese winemaker is China Great Wall Wine Company, a state-owned firm that’s been producing ganhong, or “dry red,” since the early 1980s (for various reasons, white wine’s unpopular.) The government made it the official wine of the Beijing Olympics, serves it to foreign presidents, and christened Great Wall and it biggest competitor, Dynasty Wines, state-recognized “famous brands.“

But though government taste tests find domestic brands equal in quality (link in Chinese) to imported vintages, others rank them just below “very cheap” French vin de pays. And since the overwhelming majority of these domestic wines sell for between 20 yuan and 80 yuan ($3-$12)—and import duties are around 15%—importers tend to market only premium vintages, with high-end bottles ranging from 255 yuan to 1,400 yuan.

That’s why China’s increasingly cosmopolitan consumers would spring for foreign brands, particularly French wines, when they want to impress potential business partners—and why you’d expect imported wines to have taken a bigger thrashing from the anti-graft crackdown than domestic sales.

But if Quartz’s calculation of Vinexpo data is right (we asked Vinexpo about it and haven’t heard back), Chinese consumers drank 362 million more bottles of fancy foreign wine last year than in 2012, while domestic sales volumes fell. That finding seems to square with the South China Morning Post’s report (paywall) that Chinese consumers now trail only Americans as the second-most willing to spend $10-plus per bottle.

True, the anti-graft crackdown probably contributed something to the drop in annual growth of Chinese wine consumption below its previous 25% rate. But the fact that domestic wine sales took a much bigger hit suggests either that Chinese wines have made huge strides in boosting their luxury bona fides—or that there’s a larger consumption trend at play.

CGP Grey has a knack for making complicated geopolitical situations easy for the rest of us to understand. If you’ve ever wondered why Hong Kong had its own Olympic team separate from China in 2008 or why a Chinese citizen needs a passport to visit both Macau and Hong Kong, your answers are here…

(via Laughing Squid)

Because Björk

Central Park, 1930

Hold me, Giant Carrot Body Pillow

Link

Here's one linebacker with a lot of pent up aggression against his former team.

Brandon Spikes got to experience the fabled "Patriot way" over four seasons and it sure doesn't seem like it had a good effect on him. On Wednesday he took to Twitter to spit HOT FIRE at his former organization, while throwing in a healthy dose of "MassHoles" at fans to finish his insult cake.

There's probably a lot behind the scenes we don't know, but Spike did Tweet this earlier. It may be relevant.

This me !! 👌👌👌👌👌 pic.twitter.com/liwM4XRhwE

— BrandonSpikes51 (@BrandonSpikes51) April 9, 2014

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, Polygon as an organization.

This is the second worst thing than can happen to a pyrotechnics operator after losing a hand.

If you happened to be at Turner Field on Tuesday night you were treated to a good old fashioned flag burning, courtesy of the Atlanta Braves.

A mishap with the team's pyrotechnics caused the flag to ignite when they were launched from the "Braves Vision" screen. The Braves are said to be adjusting their fireworks so this won't happen again and will install a new flag.

The season is off to a great start!

h/t Deadspin

It’s snowed in Tokyo.

It’s snowed a lot in Tokyo.

It’s snowed a lot in Tokyo for two  weekends in a row.

It sucked.

Tokyo is located in a sub-tropical climate, which is defined as a climate with “hot and humid summers and cool winters where cold is seldom seen.” So basically, the fact that the city has gotten, like, 30+ centimeters of snow in two weeks is some rich motherfucking bullshit. (Although, despite my anxiety and paranoia about climate change, such storms are not entirely unheard of, and should only become something to fret about if they become the new normal here.)

Tokyo is ill-suited to deal with winter storms, which makes sense. The city typically only gets about 11 cm of snow a year, which is a third of what it’s gotten in a month this year. With such a deluge of icy hell, I’m surprised it hasn’t just devolved into widespread anarchy on the street. Actually, maybe it would if people knew how to walk in the snow here.

You see, when I say that Tokyo is ill-suited to deal with extreme winter weather, I mean that in every way you could possibly imagine. I don’t just mean the city doesn’t own salt trucks or plows, I mean the people don’t own shovels or ice scrapers. They look at a substantial accumulation of snow the same way a small child reacts to seeing Santa for the first time – with a combination of awe, fear and confusion.

On more than one occasion, I’ve seen a Tokyoite run on the snow only to slip and fall, and then be surprised at the fact that heavy snow is a little slippery. Of course, that’s nothing to the number of…let’s just say…innovative ways I’ve seen various people try to remove snow for the sidewalks in lieu of winter shovels. These include garden shovels, trowels, rakes, plywood boards, dustpans, indoor brooms, trashcan lids and (my personal favorite) spraying the sidewalk with water to make the snow go away.

I want you to think about that last one for a second.

As bad as the snow was two weeks ago (something like a 40 year record) the storm we had last week was even worse. Although it didn’t snow as much, about halfway through the 12+ hour downpour, it slowly got warmer and the snow turned to sleet, and then rain. That meant that the roads and sidewalks were all completely covered with a thick, disgusting layer of icy, messy slushy sludgy hell.

And you know what’s worse than having to walk in a slushy mess? Having to work in a slushy mess while wearing a suit and dress shoes. The bottom of my street was basically one giant puddle, a freezing cold, ankle-deep puddle. I thought my feet were going to fall off by the time I made it to work. And, of course, nearly half of my clients cancelled because of the weather, so my insane commute was mostly for naught in the first place (at least I got paid).

Although these past two weeks have been hell on the roads, the sidewalks, and my poor feet, I will say that I am at least a little glad that I got to see it. Because Tokyo sure looks beautiful in the snow. And the beauty is made even more impressive by the number of incredible snow sculptures that the people of Tokyo made during both storms. For a people who don’t see snow a lot, they sure know how to make the most of it.

I saw more snowmen the day after that first storm than I think I ever have in my entire life. Funnily, Japanese snowpeople are only two snowballs tall, as opposed to us westerners and our giant three snowball people. I don’t know the reasoning behind this, but it sure made them cuter.

They weren’t always smaller though, this nearly went up to my neck, and since I’m about 2 meters (6’6″) that’s pretty damned impressive. But, Japan being Japan, most people here focused on making their snow creations as small and adorable as possible.

I MEAN C’MON.

There were a few scary ones out there though…

 

I’m glad I didn’t see that in the middle of the night.

 

WHY DOES IT HAVE A CHICKEN IN ITS MOUTH IS IT GOING TO EAT ME NEXT?!

From now on, when people ask me “What’s the weirdest thing about Japan?” I’m just going to show them that picture and give no explanation.

Snow in Tokyo, when it happens it’s a mess, but at least it’s never boring.

Original Source

Masonic Register, Lithograph by Strobridge & Co., 1876

caitmonster42:

greasercreatures:

All new Patron Saint candles now available in my Etsy shop!
Only $6.99 each!

www.etsy.com/shop/GreaserCreatures

The Tom Waits one is fantastic.

nm, found 'em

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Democrat-backed gender pay gap bill fails on test vote Fox News A Democrat-backed bill aimed at curbing paycheck discrimination against women failed to clear a key Senate hurdle on Wednesday, as Republicans blocked the measure amid concerns from business groups. The bill fell short on a 53-44 vote. It needed 60 to ... and more »

House panel refers ex-IRS official to Justice Dept Washington Post WASHINGTON — The House Ways and Means Committee has voted to refer a former Internal Revenue Service official to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution in the agency's tea party controversy. Committee investigators say they have ... and more »

Next time you’re riding in a New York City taxicab, try this hack: Even before reaching your destination, you can tap the fare on the television screen and swipe your credit card ahead of time. No need to conduct the transaction if you’re in a rush at the end of the ride.

It’s not quite Uber-level convenience, but it will save a little time and make you feel like a champion New Yorker. The feature, for some odd reason, is completely hidden. Here’s how it works.

1. At any point in the ride, tap the fare on screen

Try to ignore the food on the cab’s floor.

2. Swipe your credit card

It doesn’t say you can swipe your card, but you can.

3. Select a percentage tip

You can enter an amount instead of a percentage, if you must.

4. Say if you want a receipt

5. Sit back, and enjoy the rest of your ride

You can cancel the swipe before you arrive at your destination. At the end of the ride, you’ll simply be asked to confirm the fare and process the transaction.

Hat tip to Jon Steinbeck for revealing this magic.

Originally Posted Here

Recently I commented that JBE is stepping away from developing for Pathfinder on a regular basis. Sure, we will be doing a Pathfinder release when we believe that there's a significant contribution to be made, but we are not going to release a Pathfinder product every two weeks just to keep our place in the market. But the single biggest reason I personally am stepping back from the game is because Pathfinder is no longer fun for me. I do this after I get home from the day job so this is what I do for fun. And when it is as enjoyable as the day job, I have to reevaluate what I am doing.

So most of my time lately has been involved in some 13th Age but mostly Traveller. JBE started out with Traveller and it is great to get back to the company's roots. But I am having far more fun these days then I have been for a long time with Pathfinder for one simple reason: I am devoting much of my Traveller design work these days to Foreven Worlds as an unofficial part of the Third Imperium setting. It is just SOOOOOO NIIIIIIICE to be able to have a Zhodani bad guy or a Vargr thief or to just say the The Third Imperium.

More than anything else, Jon Brazer Enterprises is known for the Book of the River Nations. Why did we call it the River Nations? Because we couldn't call it the River Kingdoms. We had to get as close as possible so that most people would figure that it was *nudge, nudge, wink, wink* the same place. But then we had to explain to others over and over again that we "cannot legally call it the River Kingdoms so this is as close as we could get," "are not lazy designers, are aware that it is really called the River Kingdoms but we can't call it that legally," "designed it this way on purpose so that you would know it would work in your game," and on and on. It really was a tiring, never ending battle of explaining that every product that had "River Nations" on the cover was not a mistake, not us being lazy or underhanded, or outright malicious before a person will consider looking at the release. Mind you, that is after the tiring effort of making sure there is not a single other reference to any other Pathfinder setting location is in the product to begin with.

This is not just limited to Pathfinder, mind you. We are experiencing the same issue with 13th Age. The idea of icons is OGL but the icons themselves are not. So I can't say, the High Druid. Instead I have to say the Great Druid. And again, we got called "lazy designers" for "messing up the name of the icon." As such, our releases with 13th Age have been limited.

Now, compare that with the Foreven license for Traveller. I can define the area all I want and make all the adventures in that section of space as I desire, calling a Vargr a Vargr instead of an "Uplifted Canine Alien" without getting in legal trouble. And no one has yet to call me a single name for doing so. Infact the two reviews for our first release have been glowing. The less glowing review, his chief complaint boils down to him wanting more because he really enjoyed what was there so much. Plus, setting development is just more enjoyable then system development. All of this translates to me having MUCH MORE FUN designing for this then just about anything else I have worked on for Pathfinder.

Take the Forgotten Realms Map for a moment (click on the link for a image). You see several continents with nothing defined on them and others with not everything defined. Even Faerun isn't fully detailed. It was first published in 1987 and is arguably the most developed RPG campaign setting in the world. Can anyone give me a single competent reason why a continent that has nothing defined on it to date cannot be opened up to other publishers on an unofficial basis? Or even just one country in the undefined parts of Faerun? Or take the Pathfinder Campaign Setting. Paizo didn't start defining the setting in a major way until 7 years ago when Rise of the Runelords was released. Even if you ignore all the D&D 4E Forgotten Realms material, that setting has 21 years of development to Pathfinder's 7. So if the Pathfinder Campaign Setting is still going strong 14 years from now (2028), will it be as defined as the Forgotten Realms is today? If you take a look at the FR map, that still leaves lots of room for Paizo to grow the Pathfinder CS if they reserve one country or even one continent for other publishers.

Now the real question would be: why on earth would a publisher want to open up part of their campaign setting, even on an unofficial basis, to other publishers? Easy answer is this: money. Lets say Paizo allowed other publishers to make material for the area just south of Geb. No country is defined there so odds are Paizo hasn't even considered planning a single product there. So it costs Paizo nothing to release if another publisher created an adventure path set there (we'll call it South of Geb to make life easy). Now compare that with someone playing in the Cross of Fire Adventure Path from LPJ Design (which I am looking forward to reading, btw). What does Paizo sell to a GM running in the two APs? Cross of Fire: more PFRPG hardcovers and that's it; South of Geb: same PFRPG hardcovers, Inner Sea Gods, if Paizo released a Geb campaign setting book, that would probably would be bought as well, plus a number of other campaign setting books/players guides to help the GM get a full understanding of the surrounding region and the organizations involved, plus some stand alone adventures of Paizo's incase the players go off the rails (since they take place in Paizo's world, they are easier to move to a different country then to a different setting). How about players? Cross of Fire: a few copies of the player focused hard covers (so no Bestiaries) that the player didn't already own and that's it. South of Geb: those same player focused hard covers plus Inner Sea Gods (possibly the full campaign setting as well), a players guide for the race the player is playing, another player's guide that covers the class, and several more. So for both players and GMs, Paizo sells more products to them.

If all of this sounds familiar, it is because it is the basic ideas behind the OGL to begin with. This, however, takes it to its next level. The campaign setting material is not invalidated because the group did not change settings. There's a reason why Wizards stopped supporting all their 2e campaign settings once they were bought by Wizards and went to 3e. If it had a Forgotten Realms label on it, gamers didn't feel it was useful in their Greyhawk game. So those gamers didn't buy it. So Wizards consolidated the number of campaign settings they supported during their 3e days: Forgotten Realms and Eberron. Paizo took that same idea and made a single setting that could encompass just about every possible style of d20 play. But now the areas that are not being developed much (like Psionics) are getting support from other publishers who, because they can't touch Paizo's setting, are making their own setting, with a corresponding adventure path (also really enjoyable and highly recommended). So a desire maintain a tight control on the number of campaign settings has actually resulted in more campaign settings, a kind-of return to the 2e days.

Now I'm sure that Wizards is not going to do this and I wonder if Paizo will. But what about 13th Age? Can Pelgrane Press honestly say that they will have the world beyond the Dragon Empire detailed as much as Golarion is today in 7 years? Or how about other settings? If we all took a lesson from Traveller and opened up part of our campaign settings for unofficial development, maybe the setting would get more development and more players.

And designers like me would have more fun.

Be sure to check out all of Jon Brazer Enterprises' downloads for Pathfinder, Traveller, and 13th Age at the d20PFSRD store today. Be sure to visit the JBE blog at d20PFSRD.com for more musings and ramblings.

Share your thoughts below.

The number of transgender persons in India who are registered with the Election Commission under the category of “others.” The Election Commission introduced this category in 2012, but this will be the first national elections where transgenders can use this option.

Source: How India Lives, a company founded by journalists, which seeks to increase the access and search of public data in India.

DorianGre writes: "I'm working on a new independent project. It involves iPhones and Android phones talking to PHP (Symfony) or Ruby/Rails. Each incoming call will be a data element POST, and I would like to simply write that into the database for later use. I'll need to be able to pull by date or by a number of key fields, as well as do trend reporting over time on the totals of a few fields. I would like to start with a NoSQL solution for scaling, and ideally it would be dead simple if possible. I've been looking at MongoDB, Couchbase, Cassandra/Hadoop and others. What do you recommend? What problems have you run into with the ones you've tried?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Meet Jasper. He’s like Siri, but much better, in that it’s open-source and completely customisable. All you need to set up your own is a microphone, a speaker, and a Raspberry Pi.

Jasper already comes with modules to deal with things like time, weather, Gmail, playing your Spotify music, news (and what’s on Hacker News)…and knock knock jokes. You can build your own modules to add more functionality. We’re really impressed by how well-documented Jasper is; new developers should be able to get to grips with building on the platform very easily, and we’re looking forward to watching what you guys get up to with it.

djempirical

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1OlqditIsoM

Land Rover is showcasing a new concept that would give drivers a better view of the road through augmented reality. The Transparent Bonnet Concept utilizes cameras mounted in the car's grille to capture a view of the road that's usually obscured by the hood. This data is then fed to a heads-up display that shows the video in real-time at the bottom of the windscreen, overlaying where a driver sees their car's bonnet and effectively giving the impression that it — and the engine — are transparent.

Land Rover's development of the concept is clearly at an early stage, but the company envisions the system being a big help with climbing steep inclines and uneven terrain. The technology could also prove useful with visibility in tight urban environments, helping drivers to notice otherwise invisible obstacles. The Transparent Bonnet Concept will form part of a larger "design vision" to be unveiled later this month at the New York International Auto Show that Land Rover says will define the next generation of its popular Discovery (named LR in the US) SUVs.

Original Source

djempirical

Original Source

Two of my favorite things — typography and New York City’s history — rarely intersect. But the first post on a blog (hello!) is a special moment, so grab a composing stick and a knish!

I love old type specimen books. Any foundry, any period, it doesn’t matter. They will have me hypnotized. But I don’t usually linger at the title pages. Who would, really? All the fun and exciting stuff comes after that: the impossibly small text faces, the spectacular display faces, all the sample uses variously dowdy and natty. So a long time went by before I noticed a trend in specimens from New York foundries, particularly through the nineteenth century:

These addresses are pretty close together. No — they’re really close. Wait, some of these are less than a block apart. OK, hang on, stop. I need to figure this out.

---

I re-read Maurice Annenberg’s “Type Foundries of America and their Catalogs”, tracked down business directories of the period, and spent too much time in Google Earth. But I was able to plot out the locations for every foundry that had been active in New York between 1828 (the earliest records I could find with addresses) to 1909 (see below). All of the buildings have been demolished, and in some cases the entire street has since been erased. But a startling picture still emerged: New York once had a neighborhood for typography.

But why were they concentrated here, and not scattered throughout the city like the warehouses, the breweries, the stables and the rest? This wasn’t the old Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, all packed together at the end of the island. The city was two and a half miles long by the middle of the nineteenth century, with full development extending to 14th Street. Land would likely have been cheaper up north, and the business directories show other kinds of factories operating well uptown. But even as type foundries expanded or merged, they remained in this small area. What did they find so vital about this one neighborhood?

My guess — needing more research — is that they were following the newspapers. New York had dozens of newspapers back then, with most headquartered around Park Row, later nicknamed “Newspaper Row”. Crews composed and recomposed dozens of pages for every issue, with some papers publishing multiple editions throughout the day.

Hand-set type was cast in “type metal”, an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony. Lead’s low melting point made it easy to cast, while the other metals added hardness and stability. But despite all the precise chemistry, type would still wear out. And delicate Victorian letterforms at tiny sizes (six and seven point were common sizes for text) could not have resisted fatigue for very long. Each paper would have placed large and frequent orders to keep their composing rooms running and their issues printing. So the foundries would have been staying close to their best customers.

The newspapers were, in turn, huddled around their most frequent subject and adversary, City Hall. And for its part, City Hall had been built at the start of the century on “The Commons”, an open area then at the northern edge of the city. But that frontier was moving outwards so rapidly that City Hall was well inside the developed city when construction finished after nine years.

So it seems that New York’s “Type Ward” was placed here by the blind arithmetic of history. If the local government had sought its permanent home ten or thirty or fifty years later, City Hall would be somewhere else, with the newspapers and type foundries following.

---

Postscript

Roughly half of New York’s foundries joined the American Type Founders conglomerate (ATF) when it formed in 1892, and the remaining companies were bought out by 1909. ATF soon consolidated all of its operations in Jersey City, and the old Type Ward vanished. At the center of the upheaval was a young and rapidly growing foundry, across the river in Brooklyn.

But that’s for another post.