firehose

showslow:

Hollis Brown Thornton on Flickr.

staceythinx:

Wine-o-saurs from The Back Pack Shoppe on Etsy

Cully Hamner’s designs for Renee Montoya as the Question.

PG&E criminally charged in fatal pipeline blast Greenwich Time SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Pacific Gas and Electric was charged on Tuesday with federal felony counts involving safety violations linked to a 2010 natural gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people in the San Francisco Bay Area. The indictment charges ... and more »

America, China And Saudi Arabia Among The Few Remaining Countries That Executed Anyone In 2013:

Image credit: Amnesty International

By Ian Millhiser, at ThinkProgress.

Only 22 nations that are not currently experiencing military conflicts carried out executions in 2013, according to a report by Amnesty International. Moreover, while the United States — with 39 executions in 2013 — ranks fifth overall in total executions, the death penalty is an increasingly regional affair within our nation’s borders. Only nine states, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas and Virginia executed a person in 2013. Notably, Texas killed 16 of those 39 people, which is more than 40 percent of the total number of American executions.

Chase was a charismatic leader, says former Zipcar engineer Greg McGuire, but she had a hard time infiltrating the boy’s club that governs the venture capital world. "It’s almost exclusively males," he says, "and it’s difficult to break into that." When Chase’s successor Scott Griffith took over, the funding immediately started coming in. "It kind of seemed to me like the VPs involved were withholding closing on that round [of funding] until they were able to execute the changes they wanted," McGuire says. "My feeling was that Robin was never given a chance — they just orchestrated a take-over and that was that."

This morning, a few dozen housing and inequality activists from Heart of the City surrounded a Google shuttle. What followed was a unique bit of performance theatre that might just be the most San Francisco protest ever.

"When I heard that my 21-year-old son, a student at Harvard, had been stopped by New York City police on more than one occasion during the brief summer he spent as a Wall Street intern, I was angry. On one occasion, while wearing his best business suit, he was forced to lie face-down on a filthy sidewalk because — well, let's be honest about it, because of the color of his skin."

yougottahaveseoul:

whoreshiip:

Someone spilled their dunkin donuts coffee in the school lobby so this kid got out his dunkin donuts uniform and started directing traffic around it saying things like “Ma’am watch out, this is a DUNKIN DONUTS MATTER”

when a security guard walked up to him to ask what he was doing the kid told him to stand back he was just doing his job

Calling a trick play in an NFL game is a move that takes some guts. To call a trick play in the Super Bowl verges on insanity. Yet that's just what the Pittsburgh Steelers did in Super Bowl XL when they called "Fake-39 Toss X-Reverse Pass," where wide receiver Antwaan Randle El would fake like he's running a reverse, only to pull up and chuck the ball deep to Hines Ward. Granted, this wasn't the first time this play had been called. Pittsburgh scored on it earlier in the season against the Cleveland Browns. But this was the Super Bowl, and this was the play that put the game on ice for the Steel City and sent Jerome Bettis away from the NFL as a champion.

Champ Bailey is finally making noise on th visiting with the New Orleans Saints, according to a report.

Former Denver Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey is visiting with the New Orleans Saints, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN. Bailey has made little noise in free agency since being released by the Broncos earlier this offseason. This visit with the Saints is the first reported visit.

Bailey already has another visit lined up with another team, though the report does not specify which team. The visit depends on how things go with the Saints, likely meaning that Bailey wants to wrap this up sooner rather than later, provided the two sides can come together on something that's mutually beneficial.

At 35 years of age, Bailey isn't going to break the bank with a contract, but he's still played at a very high level in recent seasons. Despite a significant foot injury, he played well when active for the Broncos last season. Unfortunately, Bailey's camp have since suggested that he should probably have sat out all of the season due to said injury.

Bailey only managed to play in five games last season, and he did not record an interception -- the first time that's happened in his career, and that's with 15 seasons under his belt. He's shown incredible longevity for a player at his position, which typically looks to move on to younger players at around age 30.

If Bailey can stay healthy, then he can start or play some kind of role in the NFL. Whether or not him staying healthy is likely is anybody's guess, but the Saints are doing their due diligence by bringing him in.

Fox's "Fantastic Four" reboot appears to have its primarily villain, with a report saying 31-year-old Toby Kebbell is close to a deal.

The fake dome of Church of the Jesuits, Vienna

An 8.2-magnitude earthquake has struck roughly 60km off the cost of Chile. Its depth was approximately 20.1km. A tsunami has been generated, and evacuations have been ordered along the coast near the strike. Tsunami warnings were also issued for Peru and Ecuador. According to the Associated Press, "Coastal residents of northern Chile evacuated calmly as waves measuring almost 2 meters (6 1/2 feet) struck ahead of a tsunami that was expected to come ashore later. ... Chile's emergency service reported some roads blocked by landslides caused by the quake, but said no injuries had been reported so far."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

EA Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore has tweeted a necessarily brief apology to Nintendo of America and its fans, distancing all parties from an unapproved, "unacceptable" and "stupid" joke that made the rounds earlier today. The handlers of an...

submitted by masterminder [link] [58 comments]

A major earthquake of magnitude 8.0 struck off the coast of Chile on Tuesday, near the mining area of Iquique, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It said the quake was very shallow, only 6.2 miles below the seabed, which would have made it feel stronger. It was centered 53 miles northwest of Iquique. It was not immediately known if the quake sparked a tsunami alert, but quakes of that size in the water near the coast usually do.

A fruity look at unrelated variables

NOTHING rankles data mavens more than analysing two things that ought not be compared. Cricket and baseball. Basho and Proust. Christmas and April Fools' Day. So The Economist cannot but embrace considering the paragon of such irresponsible associations, the classic apples and oranges. Doing so is surprisingly fruitful. Oranges were more popular for decades, but in recent years apples have squeezed ahead. Chinese expansion was the core reason for the deciduous drive. The government’s call for healthy living and serving the Russian and the Middle Eastern markets led to more apple production. In contrast, orange production has plateaued, due in part to a decline of orange juice consumption in America—around 40% less over the past 15 years. Close to the equator, oranges are more popular than apples, whereas farther north apples are more appealing, perhaps reflecting their ease of growth. To be sure, it is unfair to contrast both fruits. But it makes for juicy comparisons.

1968.

The Infamous Windsors.

Today as part of an April Fool's prank, Google updated Google Maps for iOS and Android to include Pokémon . Let's try to find all of them!

Read more...

When Marlene Yazar's husband Kemal experienced a psychotic episode, she was so scared for her safety and the safety of her children that she called 911. A paramedic arrived on the scene, but fled after Kemal threw a Bible at him. The paramedic called the police, and Harris County, TX Deputy Brady Pullen arrived on the scene. Ten minutes later, he and a colleague shot Kemal ten times, killing him. Then, he sued the Yazar family, naming Kemal's mother-in-law (who wasn't at home when the episode took place) because, according to him, the family were negligent in describing the threat the dead father, husband and breadwinner presented. Now, the family must not only mourn the passing of their dead loved one -- they have to defend themselves against a $100,000 lawsuit brought by the police officer who shot him dead.

firehose shared this story from The Conversation.

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