firehose

what if there was a teenager on the supreme court

potatofarmgirl:

anotherbrittneywilliams:

Since I basically disappeared in December, I thought I’d upload a ton of stuff to make up for my absence!  After working on what has now become The Daily Planet Files since May of 2013, I’m finally happy with the designs and what this has developed into. Who know what surprises 2014 holds for these guys;)…

I’d  like to wish my super cool followers a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year!

I hope this gets to be an official comic.

html-xml-utils:

A number of simple utilities for manipulating HTML and XML files.

Including the incredibly handy hxpipe, which converts HTML to a line-by-line format that plays nicely with awk, grep, sed, &c.

NB: see this Hacker News thread if you’re having trouble building on OS X.

For the last two years, I’ve been selling weekly sponsored link-posts, much like Daring Fireball’s, and they’ve done very well during most of that time, earning more than Amazon referrals and the Deck ads combined.

They were always very easy to sell, staying booked solid for months ahead of time. But in the last few months, sponsor interest vanished, despite my traffic and subscriber numbers remaining high.¹ I asked around, and they all said the same thing: they stopped seeing enough clickthroughs.

I have some theories. Maybe I lost a lot of reader attention in the post-Google Reader fragmentation, or some of the Reader replacements make people less likely to click sponsored links. Maybe I’ve saturated the audience with repeat sponsors. Maybe so many similar sites started offering sponsored posts in the last couple of years that our readers are burning out on the format. But it’s probably just me and my site. Whatever the reason, they stopped working.

Saving them would probably require:

1. Adding substantial value, such as by doubling the number of posts (one at the beginning of the week and one at the end). But I don’t have enough post volume to support that without being annoying to readers, the chances of making a meaningful difference are low, and this is the sort of thing you can never really roll back.
2. Reducing the price by a lot. But booking, invoicing, coordinating, editing, and publishing them all have opportunity costs, and if I need to significantly reduce the price, that time is better spent on other projects.²
3. Doing more proactive selling, such as by posting more often here and on Twitter about selling sponsorships. But that’s really just more reader annoyance, it takes more time, and I’m just not comfortable doing it.

The cost of saving my sponsorships is too high for my tolerance and the nature of this site, so I’ve decided to stop selling them. Thank you to all of my former sponsors for supporting this site so well for the last two years.

Generally, sponsored links have made a shockingly high amount of money compared to other ads, affiliate links, paywalls, paid memberships, and donations. (Probably combined.) I don’t expect to replace their income, but I still make decent money from the other sources,³ and I’m fortunate that I have multiple jobs. In fact, I’m looking forward to losing the tedious job of selling sponsorships: it will give me more time for Overcast and my actual writing here.

Regardless of money, I’ll continue writing this site for the same reasons, and at the same frequency, that I always have: I love writing, and I must write. This is a creative outlet first and a business second.

A few days ago Valve open-sourced their Direct3D to OpenGL translation layer. While there was some hope that it would benefit Wine, that doesn't appear to be the case...

Contactmusic.com

Chris Brown Jailed After Being Thrown Out Of Rehab Centre Contactmusic.com Chris Brown is in police custody again after he was thrown out of the rehabilitation centre he has been in for the past four months. Chris Brown - Chris Brown meets fans at Brooklyn Projects. Picture: Chris Brown and Guest - Chris Brown attends a meet and ... Chris Brown Booted From Rehab, Sent To Jail ...Music Times Chris Brown Going To PRISON: Rapper Arrested After Getting Kicked Out Of ...Design & Trend Chris Brown Incarcerated IndefinitelyGuardian Liberty Voice In Touch Weekly all 516 news articles »

How did Warner Bros. screw over the people who made the Veronica Mars movie happen? One word: Ultraviolet.

I was one of those people who giddily donated to the Veronica Mars Kickstarter on its first day, and despite the issues I've had with the campaign (from the decidedly minor, like the increasingly self-satisfied backer updates, to the decidedly less minor, like Warner Bros.' precedent-setting manner of exploiting crowdfunding to gauge fans' interest and save themselves millions of dollars), I'm still looking forward to seeing the movie in a theater this weekend.

Why am I paying it to see it in a theater instead of watching it for free at home, since one of my Kickstarter rewards was a digital version of the film? Oh, right: Because it turns out one of my rewards wasn't a digital version of the film that anyone could actually use. Instead of giving backers a downloadable file, or a code to download the film via iTunes or Amazon, or an easy streaming option, Veronica Mars was released to the people who made it happen using Ultraviolet, a studio-backed streaming system that's a huge pain in the ass and never, ever works.

Never heard of Ultraviolet? That's because nobody fucking uses it, because it fucking sucks. But studios are terrified of piracy, so they make constrictive things like Ultraviolet; not coincidentally, Ultraviolet is so constrictive that anyone with half a brain realizes, roughly five seconds into trying to use the thing, that it's both easier and faster to either (A) buy whatever they're trying to watch on iTunes or Amazon, or, more likely, (B) pirate whatever it is they're trying to watch.

Case in point: You can already watch a pirated version of Veronica Mars, as noted by Jason Bailey on Flavorwire. Bailey's piece—"Veronica Mars Digital Download Is a Clusterfuck for Kickstarter Backers"—is a must-read for anyone interested in how major studios are trying (and failing) to deal with the sort of digital accessibility that people who are comfortable with the internet—e.g., Kickstarter backers—have become accustomed to.

Or, as Bailey points out, maybe giving backers the film via Ultraviolet was part of a plan to make even more money off the fans:

When the time comes, we’ll probably end up punting the Ultraviolet option and just buying the damn thing on iTunes. And not to sound all conspiracy theory-minded, but I can’t help but wonder if that’s a not-unattractive side effect to Ultraviolet being so goddamn terrible; it allows the studios to make giving something away as difficult as possible, and some people aren’t going to go to the trouble. (Via.)

If that is the case, well... hey, it worked on me! I'll be seeing Veronica Mars—paying to see Veronica Mars, a movie which, technically, I already paid for—at the Living Room Theaters tomorrow night. On the upside, at least it's supposed to be good.

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It's a wonder no one's gotten hurt yet.

On February 26, Manu Ginobili planted his foot while shuffling defensively, only to find that his foot had shot through the bottom of his shoe, separating the upper from the sole:

His sneaker ended up looking like an anklet:

Just over a week later, the Warriors had to stop play while Andrew Bogut changed out of his ruined Nikes:

Again, the sole just ripped off the upper as if it had been held on with masking tape.

And now, a THIRD! Friday night, Philadelphia's Tony Wroten made a spin move. The sole of his sneaker did not come with him:

Here's the video from @cjzero:

We need better sneakers.

batgirlincorporated:

dynastylnoire:

lastrealindians:

Due to an extremely deadly winter here on the Northern Plains, a winter which has claimed the life of a tribal member, we are raising funds to deploy 20 home pilot projects to receive multi-fuel stoves to replace dependency on fossil fuels to heat our homes (namely propane). We will grow our fuel source and manufacture our own fuel sources in the immediate future to start this shift to renewables. We send our condolences to the family of the lady we lost to a home which could not afford to be heated. Google “Standing Rock propane crisis” for more info. email us at lastrealindians@gmail.com with any questions. We thank you genuinely. Lila wopila.

There are 7 days left to donate to the Heating the Rez campaign! You can still contribute here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/heating-the-rez

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOST

Fandoms have raised millions for individuals to make a videogame  (you know who you are) as well as fund movies and comics in a span of a few days. Let’s bring that kind of attention and readiness to people who actually need the help.

Boost it!

“

Rupert Thomson is the author of nine novels, including The Insult (1996), which David Bowie chose for one of his 100 must-read books of all time, and Death of a Murderer, shortlisted for the Costa Novel of the Year awards in 2007. His most recent novel, Secrecy, was hailed as “chillingly brilliant” (Financial Times) and “bewitching” (Daily Mail). According to the Independent, “No one else writes quite like this in Britain today.” Thomson has also been compared to JG Ballard, Elmore Leonard, Mervyn Peake and even Kafka. In short, he’s an established and successful writer with an impressive body of work to his name.

After working seven days a week without holidays, and now approaching 60, Thomson, you might think, must be looking forward to a measure of comfort and security as the shadows of old age crowd in. But no. For some years he has rented an office in Black Prince Road, on London’s South Bank, and commuted to work. Now this studio life, so essential to his work, is under threat. Lately, having done his sums and calculated his likely earnings for the coming year, he has commissioned a builder to create a tiny office (4ft 9in x 9ft 11in) at home in his attic, what he calls “my garret”.

The space is so cramped that Thomson, who is just over 6ft, will only be able to stand upright in the doorway, but he seems to derive a certain grim satisfaction from confronting his predicament. “All I want is enough money to carry on writing full time. And it’s not a huge amount of money. I suppose you could say that I’ve been lucky to survive as long as I have, to develop a certain way of working. Sadly, longevity is no longer a sign of staying power.”

Thomson is not yet broke, but he’s up against it. The story of his garret is a parable of literary life in Britain today. Ever since the credit crunch of 2008 writers have been tightening belts, cutting back and, in extreme cases, staring into an abyss of penury. “Last year,” said novelist Paul Bailey, speaking to the Observer in 2010, “was sheer hell”. Off the record, other writers will freely confide their fears for the future, wondering aloud about how they will make ends meet. Hanif Kureishi, for instance, recently swindled out of his life savings, told me how difficult his life had become. Never mind the money, the very business of authorship is now at stake.

”

- "From bestseller to bust: is this the end of an author’s life?"

Sean0michael writes "Recently I had a friend lose their entire electronic collection of music and movies by erasing a RAID array on their home server. He had 20TB of data on his rack at home that had survived a dozen hard drive failures over the years. But he didn't have a good way to backup that much data, so he never took one. Now he wishes he had. Asking around among our tech-savvy friends though, no one has a good answer to the question, 'how would you backup 20TB of data?'. It's not like you could just plug in an external drive, and using any cloud service would be terribly expensive. Blu-Ray discs can hold a lot of data, but that's a lot of time (and money) spent burning discs that you likely will never need. Tape drives are another possibility, but are they right for this kind of problem? I don' t know. There might be something else out there, but I still have no feasible solution. So I ask fellow slashdotters: for a home user, how do you backup 20TB of Data?" Even Amazon Glacier is pretty pricey for that much data.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

vgjunk:

Neon Genesis Evangelion, N64.

(Bandai - 1999)

“

On February 20th (2014) I wrote a post on wanting a level playing field as a writer of science fiction and fantasy (who happens to be female).

The response to it was pretty amazing.

I wanted to let you know about what’s been going on since then.

After I wrote that post I wrote a private letter to Waterstones. It felt like the courteous thing to do. They responded and we’ve discussed the matter in calm and polite correspondence, which delights me in this age of internet rage.

After some discussion between us I’m delighted to let you know that the issue has been discussed at length with the SF & F buyer at Waterstones and they are going to raise internal awareness of the visibility of underrepresented authors and will ask booksellers to bear these issues in mind when choosing displays.

”

- From Emma Newman. Click through, read the rest: it’s encouraging.

It is a marshmallow made ​​a hint of cassis orange cocktail.

queencaro:

tearyourheadoffdaniel:

sansastark:

so TMZ posted a video reporting that we irish must not know who beyonce or jay z are we didn’t fucking harass them when they went for a walk in a public park in dublin. also, we apparently have jay z to thank for ‘putting dublin on the map’. an irish dj left this voicemail for TMZ in response

queencaro Caro, I thought of you

Kiran is a good friend.

As was pointed out to me, expecting TMZ to be smart is like expecting ribs in a McRib Sandwich and I know we have people here who are as ill-informed about other countries, but to have people say that we don’t know who Jay Z and Beyonce are because nobody hassled them in the Phoenix Park, after Beyonce doing four nights in the O2 arena in Dublin that sold out is just so fucking annoying. You just want to say, stop judging us by your own low standards. 

And that Irish guy on the show needs a good kick in the arse. 

ETA: George Takei had a similar experience along the Not Being Mobbed lines when he was over here for the Trek convention in Malahide some years back. We stopped by his breakfast table after it was clear he was finished to see how he was doing (we were sort of doing the Native Guide thing for him when he wanted to go out about town) and he said to us in some confusion, “I’m just sitting here with my paper but no one’s coming near me. Is there a problem?” “No, George,” we said, “it’s just that people are letting you be because they can see you’re having your breakfast and reading your paper. Put your paper down and they’ll come over.”

And he did: and they did. We got a sense he doesn’t get a lot of that kind of common courtesy when he’s out at the big media conventions in the States. Which is a shame, really…

Sophie the English Bulldog doesn’t want to run down the hill. She wants to roll. And in a hoodie, no less.

This is just ridiculous. Wonderfully, wonderfully ridiculous…

(via Laughing Squid)

“To fear is not to be a coward. I’ve been told that the samurai who has never died is apt to run and hide in decisive moments.”

- William Dale Jennings, The Ronin

“When I heard it [was Philadelphia], I was just happy. They could have traded me somewhere where I didn’t want to be. So I was real happy about it.” Happy enough to sign a two-year contract extension Friday that potentially removes the one-year rental tag and could keep Sproles with the Eagles through 2016.

Yesterday, Toei Animation made a website for the immensely long-awaited reboot of the Sailor Moon anime franchise with an 8-day countdown clock. Then someone hacked it, and discovered the show will be called Sailor Moon Crystal, premiere worldwide in July, and look like this.

Read more...

肉球マシュマロ CafeCat

zohbugg:

orangeyouellis:

jojostuck:

pizzaforpresident:

Lupe Fiasco draws excellent parallels between blackface comedy and  entertainers like Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne.

this is some of the realest shit i’ve ever seen

LUPE. FUCKING. FIASCO.

I’m including the fbomb because THIS SONG GOOD LORD. I almost cried. Thank you Lupe, for giving me a song I can proudly show my mother as an excellent example of what rap can be, and an exquisitely depressing expose of sexism and racism in the 21st century.

Lupe Fiasco…

Last month we were briefly introduced to a new secondary companion for Peter Capaldi's 12th Doctor, Danny Pink, a fellow teacher at Clara Oswald's Coal Hill School. Now, the BBC has given us a look at the design for a new villain character, played by Death at a Funeral's Keeley Hawes.

Just in case you needed more reasons to fear Toxoplasma, here's another. It infects that most adorable of charismatic critters, the giant panda.

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KIRKSVILLE, MO—Saying they’re trying to tighten their belts where they can and cut back on costly erotica expenses, local couple Christopher and Ellen Landstrom told reporters Friday they have been able to save money by making their own porn a...

People pay thousands of dollars to have lasers shot at their eyes so they don’t have to wear glasses. People put little pieces of plastic right on their eyes so they don’t have to wear glasses. People hate glasses.

We've seen the character designs for the Michael Bay-produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, but these new action figures have revealed a few secrets of their own. Here, take a look...

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A new study by a UC-Berkeley graduate student has surprised a number of experts in the criminology field. Its main finding: Private prisons are packed with young people of color.