firehose

historicaltimes:

Aboriginal North Japanese warrior from the tribe of the Ainus, 1904

Yes!  The Ainu!  An awesome picture, an awesome beard.  Click here to read their wiki article.

The pixelated multiplayer madness of Crawl makes it stand out as the one to watch from Steam Greenlight's newest batch of approvals. The Windows, Mac, and Linux dungeon crawler combines retro-inspired action-RPG gameplay with a frenzied multiplayer...

“Knowing how to read and not reading books is like owning skis and not skiing, owning a board and never riding a wave, or, well, having your favorite sandwich in your hand and not eating it. If you owned a telescope that would open up the entire universe for you would you try to find reason for not looking through it? Because that is exactly what reading is all about; it opens up the universe of humour, of adventure, of romance, of climbing the highest mountain, of diving in the deepest sea.”

- Chuck Jones

CNN

Neighbor who heard screams, shots to testify again in Oscar Pistorius trial CNN Pretoria, South Africa (CNN) -- A neighbor who rushed to the home of Oscar Pistorius the night the track star shot his girlfriend will be back on the witness stand Friday, a day after he described Reeva Steenkamp's mortal wounds and the shock and ... Dramatic Testimony Highlights First Week of Oscar Pistorius Murder TrialVoice of America Pistorius trial hears Steenkamp injuries detailWashington Post Oscar Pistorius murder trial: Live updates from Day five of the Blade Runner's ...Mirror.co.uk The Independent -Independent Online -NEWS.com.au all 1,454 news articles »

moniquill:

angelclark:

How To Read A 223-Page Novel In Just 77 Minutes 

Spritz is a company that makes a speed-reading technology which allows you to get through a mass of text, reading every word, in a fraction of the time it would take if you were turning the pages of a book or swiping through a Kindle.

The basis of Spritz concept is that much of the time spend reading is “wasted” on moving your eyes from side to side, from one word to the next. By flashing the words quickly, one after the other, all in the same place, eye movement is reduced almost to zero. All that’s left is the time you take to process the word before the next one appears.

The company is selling licenses for other companies who might want to use the technology in operating systems, applications, wearables, and websites. Obviously, the tiny screen of a smart watch instantly springs to mind.

But the real revelation of Spritz is in trying it yourself.

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Now this is interesting…

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MojoKid writes "Microsoft has been loudly and insistently banging a drum: All support and service for Windows XP and Office 2003 shuts down on April 8. In early February, faced with a slight uptick in users on the decrepit operating system the month before, Microsoft hit on an idea: Why not recruit tech-savvy friends and family to tell old holdouts to get off XP? The response ... was a torrent of abuse from Windows 8 users who aren't exactly thrilled with the operating system. Microsoft has come under serious fire for some significant missteps in this process, including a total lack of actual upgrade options. What Microsoft calls an upgrade involves completely wiping the PC and reinstalling a fresh OS copy on it — or ideally, buying a new device. Microsoft has misjudged how strong its relationship is with consumers and failed to acknowledge its own shortcomings. Not providing an upgrade utility is one example — but so is the general lack of attractive upgrade prices or even the most basic understanding of why users haven't upgraded. Microsoft's right to kill XP is unquestioned, but the company appears to have no insight into why its customers continue to use the OS. "

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Wellge’s Birdseye Map of Niagara Falls (1882)

Wellge's Birdseye Map of Niagara Falls (1882) Wellge's Birdseye Map of Niagara Falls (1882) Date: 1882 Author: Henry Wellge Dwnld: Full Size (19.08mb) Source: Library of Congress Print Availability: See our Prints Page for more details pff This map isn't part of any series, but we have other maps of New York that you might want to check out. How awesome is this Henry Wellge birdseye of Niagara Falls? I...

the BIG Map Blog - Interesting maps, historical maps, BIG maps.

The Cleveland Browns are going to make the color brown "cutting edge." Really.

The Cleveland Browns are going to undergo a change in uniform ... in the future. Team president Alec Scheiner gave the news on Tuesday, saying that the Browns were going to roll out new uniforms before the 2015 NFL Draft. In other words, that means it's not going to happen in time for next season.

Scheiner was being asked about the new uniforms unveiled by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and said that he doesn't want to speak about those, but that he's really excited about "our direction." He went on to say that the team has been working with the NFL and Nike "for almost a year now."

Most importantly, Scheiner claimed that the uniforms would be "cutting edge," and that they would "link back to our history." This means that Scheiner actually believes the Browns will attempt to take the colors brown, orange and white and somehow coax you into saying "cutting edge" while looking at them.

He didn't give any more details on how things might look, but said that he would be "very surprised" if fans didn't love the new-look uniforms, and that the Browns are "headed down a really cool path." Finally, he said they don't exactly know when they'll be unveiled.

So if you needed to catch up on that, the Browns will have new uniforms at some indeterminate point in the future that very probably will be before the 2015 NFL Draft. We don't know any other details about them beyond that, save that owner Jimmy Haslam was talking about changing the uniforms back in 2013, after taking over the team.

At the very least, it's interesting to note Haslam was talking about something like that so soon after taking the reins. Clearly, he feels strongly about this, though it is worth noting the involvement of Nike. They've redesigned the uniforms of five teams since 2012, and will put far more influence into the new design than Haslam.

But what is there to expect at this point?

Well, first we need to take a look at the changes the Browns' uniforms have gone through over the years. Cleveland's uniforms actually haven't done that much changing. From 1975 through 1983, the team went with brown jerseys and orange pants with a brown stripe down the side. In 1985, the team made a change that would last another decade, making the orange and white sleeve stripes smaller and eliminating the orange pants entirely.

They were replaced with white pants that had brown and orange stripes down the side, and wore the same pants for away games as before. Those are the two most popular iterations of said uniforms. The team added throwback jerseys here and there, and a rather hideous orange number in 2005 that included an orange jersey with brown and white stripes. That was not well-received in the slightest.

Earlier on, the team went with white jerseys. That happened through much of its early history. The orange jersey only surfaced in 2005, thankfully. The lettering hasn't changed too much over the years. There were Brown pants introduced in recent years, but they weren't used until 2009, and only in the preseason and for road games. This past season, they used the brown jersey and brown pants -- the brown-on-brown -- in the regular season.

Full disclosure: I actually liked the brown on brown but I've been informed by those with better taste and with balanced brain chemistry that I am, in fact, a dirty peasant with no taste.

As to what they can change ... it's honestly hard to be terribly inventive. They've been working on this for a year and have another year ahead of them -- there's plenty of time to come up with something. But they don't have much of a logo to work with, and then there's just the colors, of course. With the Browns, it will all be about the color combination and, at this point, the lettering.

We've already mentioned Nike a couple of times and for good reason. Nike has done a lot of ... different things with uniforms in recent years. Samuel Lam did note one trend on four of the five redesigns they've been in charge of: asymmetry. With the Seattle Seahawks, Minnesota Vikings, Jacksonville Jaguars and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, there are multiple aspects of asymmetry used in the designs.

When it comes to the Browns, it will be interesting if that kind of thing shows up again and if it does, what form it will take. There's not an easy logo for the Browns to slap on a portion of the jersey, so we'll likely see the text logo of either the team or city name. One thing you'll also notice on the examples from Lam's piece: the lettering/numbering is widely varied. One way the Browns could look to distinguish things would be to establish uniqueness in that aspect.

Then again, most of the jerseys designed by Nike employ different methods of matte shading, so perhaps we'll end up with a brown jersey and ... slightly darker brown sleeves. Cutting edge!

Airpnp is a service from “entrepeeneurs” Max Gaudin and Travis Laurendine that allows businesses and residences to rent out their toilets through a mobile web app.

The service is aimed to provide a legal alternative to urinating in the streets during large public events and the like. Given that both Laurendine and Gaudin were born in New Orleans, Louisiana, they specifically had Mardi Gras in mind. The service currently only lists a relatively few toilets for rent, and a large number of the United States rentals are in New Orleans.

image via Airpnp

via The Next Web

The Blinky Doll Eyes Glasses by Archie McPhee are plastic frames that look like doll eyes that shut and open back up, when you tilt your head. They are available to purchase online.

Use them to convince someone you’re paying attention while you secretly take a nap. Or just look really, really cute.

images via Archie McPhee

American Airlines has announced that as a result of its merger with US Airways, it will end its policy of offering low-cost bereavement fares to customers flying across country due to a death in the family.

Washington Post

Facebook, Instagram delete illegal gun sale posts MSNBC After intensifying calls from gun control advocates seeking stricter regulation and oversight on firearm sales on the social media platform, Facebook announced Wednesday significant policy changes on illegal gun sales. Over a million users will no longer be ... Facebook and Instagram introduce new gun regulations to curb online salesThe Verge Facebook bans gun-sale ads not requiring background checks: PolitiFact OregonThe Oregonian Facebook Cracks Down on Illegal Guns PostsWall Street Journal Guardian Liberty Voice -KOAM-TV -The Denver Channel all 374 news articles »

https://twitter.com/tedgeoghegan/status/441209712424792065/photo/1

Original Source

Inspired by a a year in Tokyo, Los Angeles resident Carlos Wong is looking to bring a Japanese style cat café to downtown Los Angeles. Calling it “Catfe”, Carlos has put together the business plan, created the logo and got the okay from both the Los Angeles Department of Health and Los Angeles Animal Services with the proviso that the cats and food remain separate. He is now taking the next step of raising the funds through KickStarter to realize this dream. Similar places are already coming to both San Francisco and Oakland, so the demand for cat cafés is certainly there. In fact, Laughing Squid’s good friend in LA, Tara Tiger Brown, is very much in support of it.

I have visited a Kitty and Bunny Cafe in Tokyo and am so excited that someone is finally trying to bring one of these delightful establishments to LA. I am also very glad to hear that you want to partner with shelters and help cats find their forever homes. My hope is that you setup shop in Downtown LA. It’s accessible to the westside and eastside and is becoming a hip ‘hood in its own right.

The aspect of humans and cats helping each other is a very important part of Carlos’ mission.

Catfe serves to create something more than just a place to come and enjoy your time with cats and coffee. Because of the unique nature of this establishment, we seek to take full embrace of it and create a stronger community through it.We want Catfe to be a hub where we can spread the awareness of pet health and safety, hold adoptions from nearby shelters, have animal therapy sessions with local non-profits that are specifically geared towards children and the elderly, the possibilities truly reach far!

Carlos is looking to raise $350,000 by March 31, 2014. He explains why he is looking to raise so much money.

We want to have the funds to have a great location, both for our guests and our cats, and enough to cover all of the expenses that are required to open a regular cafe, plus all of the expenses required to have everything we need to keep the cats happy and healthy(Toys, food, vet visits, etc.) Plus enough of a cushion just in case there come any unexpected costs, we realize that is totally possible because this is such a new concept to LA, and permits and licensing fees may pop up where they were not expected.

Once he meets his fundraising goals, Carlos hopes to open Catfe within six months. We wish him well.

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

After suffering a broken nose, Miami Heat forward LeBron James returned to the court last week sporting a black protective mask some compared to those worn by Batman and Bane. However, it was hot and uncomfortable, leaving him in search for alternatives. “I’ve been talking to Marvel Comics for the last couple of days, and […]

“

The urge writers have to try to discourage people who tell them that they want to be writers is based in the same kind of reaction they would have on seeing someone about to embark on a career in sewer maintenance. It is difficult work, often unpleasant, usually lonely, often ineffective no matter how hard you work at it, frequently disruptive to family life, usually poorly paid for many years, hard to explain rationally to other human beings whether you’re enjoying it or not, almost always misunderstood by them, and even at the best of times, equivocal as to results. In these ways, writing as a career is missing almost all of the things most people seem to look for in their work.

We try to talk people out of it because we see the prospect of them going through what we went through, and possibly — about nine times out of ten — not being able to hack it, and putting themselves through a lot of anguish and hair-tearing for nothing. We would like to spare them that, if possible, and so we try to tell them what it’s like.

Not that they believe us, as a rule…

”

-

The poster, in one post of a long- ago discussion on alt.fan.pratchett. (Oh, for the long lost days when PTerry would wander in and out of the newsgroup just posting stuff…)

(And the rest of this, which didn’t make it into that posting:)

I go to a fair number of conventions in a given year, and when the subject comes up in conversation — it always does — the phrasing of a given person’s inquiry usually pretty clearly indicates their intent.  About ninety percent of the people who bring up the subject usually say,  “I want to be a writer.” Now, this frequently indicates trouble.  Investigation almost always shows me that the person is concentrating on what I consider the sidelights of writing, the perks:  lots of money (they think!), an “easy” lifestyle where you get to work at home and “be your own boss”,  autograph sessions, paid travel to conventions, book tours, etc etc…   They don’t see (and in many cases have never even given a moment’s consideration to) the dreadful hours, the frustration (even if you’re successful), the endless battle with the daily world to get the work done despite endless interruptions, the difficulty explaining this tenuous lifestyle to your family (I married another writer and am fortunately spared this business at home…but the rest of his family, except on publication dates, still wonder when we’re going to grow up and get real jobs…), and all the rest of it.  I try to explain the discomforts of writing to these people. Ever so occasionally I get through.  Most of the time they walk away nodding their heads and thinking to themselves that I just don’t want their potential competition and am trying to keep them out of the business.  I sigh:  I did what I could.

That other ten percent still gives me hope, though:  the ones who say, not “I want to be a writer,” but rather “I want to write.”  The immediate answer is, “Well, why are you standing here talking to me?  Go home and do it!”  And most of them get it, and grin, because we understand each other.  Writers write.  They don’t need me to encourage them.  They couldn’t stop if they wanted to.  No discouragement from me would stop them, either:  the real writers just grin and go home and write.

I speak from experience on this one, because David Gerrold did just this service for me — rolled his eyes when I told him I wanted to write, and said, “Oh Lord, not another one — “  and I was so furious and ready to prove to this smug insufferable bastard that I was not just another one that I went off and wrote a novel.  Which sold two weeks after its submission to a publisher, and got me nominated two years in a row for the Campbell.  Focused fury has its uses:  I thank David for the favor to this day.  Perhaps I will someday, inadvertently (I wouldn’t do it for this reason alone, mind you) do someone the same service:  perhaps someone will turn away from my advice about the wretchedness of writing as a career so infuriated with me that they’ll write a novel that sells immediately, and start off a fruitful career.  There is always more room for good writers.  Don’t be mistaken:  if you are one, or working on being one, you are not our competition.  You are what will make us, or others like us, more successful — for good new writers bring in good new readers, who will in turn read more books. This is another manifestation of what Melville once called “the Universal Thump”: the favor that gets passed around until it eventually makes its way back to you.

What there is unfortunately way less room for in this difficult market, is writers who aren’t sure what they’re doing, and writers who are uncertain of their craft, or their audience, or their vision.  Publishers will not buy their books.  Publishers are shorter of money than they ever were, and the market has shaken out, over the past six or eight years, many writers who were insufficiently strong to hold their audiences.  If you enter the field, know that it is a field littered with the corpses of some of these people’s careers, and you had best be aware of it.  Those of us fortunate enough to have survived this cull will tell you the market is tough right now, because it is. No good soldier permits future comrades to stumble out into a minefield without warning.

So if you can be discouraged, you should be, to spare you unnecessary suffering:  isn’t there enough of that on the planet already, for pity’s sake?  And if you won’t believe those of us who’ve been through it, then I don’t know what else to say to you.  But as far as I’m concerned, David is quite right about the occasional need to discourage the discourageable.  And if you can’t be discouraged, you’ll go ahead and write, and good luck to you. (I don’t mean that casually:  random factors can make a successful writer as easily as a good writing style.)  Just be aware of the dangers, and then enjoy acquiring and practicing your craft… because that enjoyment is the only result you can be guaranteed, the only one worth relying on; and success without that joy is not enough. Be happy, and love what you’re doing. Because once you’ve started to work out how to handle the difficulties, there’s a lot about writing to love. :)

It’s surprising how well that dates, for something written (originally) in 1994. Plus ça change…

Linda Nagata is the author of near-future military thriller The Red: First Light, which was recently shortlisted for a Nebula Award. It's the first self-published novel to ever be nominated. She's here today to answer your questions!

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opivybrah:

what a precious little ANGEL

firehose shared this story .

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Morristown Superior Court Judge Peter Bogaard appears to have agreed with an independent investigators' assessment of the home atmosphere: that the high school cheerleader and lacrosse player is “spoiled.” "Do we want to establish a precedent where parents live in basic fear of establishing rules of the house?" Bogaard asked when denying an emergency order that would have entitled the teen to $650 a week in child support and would have required the parents to pay for the girl’s private school tuition. The parents say their rebellious daughter refused to drop a dud of a boyfriend and failed to follow simple house rules such as doing chores and making curfew.

Turns out Scorpion was drunk all the time in Mortal Kombat. Now that Szarvas on Tumblr has put the character's various animations—and also the classic paintings in the background—in a new perspective, it's clearly visible.

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Google Trends for “world war 3”
http://daily-infographic.tumblr.com/

If you want to eat at a conveyor belt sushi (回転寿司 or "kaiten zushi") restaurant, kids in Japan need to have their parents take them. Not anymore! Soon, they'll be able get aboard the sushi train at home.

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comedycentral:

Click here for more on the Obama administration’s cuts to the defense budget from last night’s Daily Show.