Edward Gorey Illustrations from a 1960 edition of War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, published by Looking Glass Library.
Yes. That’s right, you heard me right the first time.
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26 Feb 19:30
elvisomar: Edward Gorey Illustrations from a 1960 edition...
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26 Feb 19:30
Page 3 of Checkmate 2, art by Jesus Saiz.
Page 3 of Checkmate 2, art by Jesus Saiz.
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26 Feb 18:03
SDSU running back Adam Muema disappears after leaveing Combine
by Jeff Gray
firehosestill missing
Those close to the former San Diego State running back, who said he was "following God" by leaving the NFL Combine, have been unable to reach him in recent days.
Former San Diego State running back Adam Muema warned he would be laying low after abruptly departing the NFL Combine for religious reasons, but those close to him didn't expect him to go off the radar completely.
Coaches at San Diego State and others helping him prepare for the NFL Draft have not heard from Muema since he left Indianapolis on Sunday, and there is growing concern over his whereabouts and well-being, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
"I have no idea where is," a source close to Muema told the Union-Tribune. "[San Diego State coaches] have been trying to track him down, too. Every time they do, his phone is off. ... It's a frustrating deal."
"It's a big mystery," said Lou Farrar, Muema's high school football coach. "At this point, we just hope he's safe. As long as he's safe. That's all that really matters."
His closest family member declined to comment on the matter, according to the Union-Tribune.
The difficulty in tracking Muema down isn't entirely unforeseen given his comments at the Indianapolis International Airport on Sunday.
"[God] told me to sit down, be quiet and enjoy the peace," he said.
Muema did not partake in combine events on Friday and Saturday and told reporters he was "following God" when he left on Sunday. He claimed he was told by God that if he did not work out in Indy, his dream of playing for the Seattle Seahawks would be fulfilled.
An anonymous teammate described Muemas as "always really religious," but said his recent behavior is still puzzling.
"He talked about how close he was with God," the ex-teammate said, "but [what happened] was a little bit of a surprise."
At the time of his departure from Indy, Muema, who is rated the No. 28 running back prospect by SB Nation, was still expected to participate in San Diego State's pro day in March.
26 Feb 18:03
Despite Harold Ramis' death, Ghostbusters 3 is still moving forward
by Rob Bricken
firehoseUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Hollywood has refused to give up on the idea of a new Ghostbusters sequel for decades now. But even the recent passing of original star and screenwriter Harold Ramis hasn't derailed the project, as director Ivan Reitman is reportedly meeting with Sony to discuss how to adapt the script following Ramis' death.
    
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26 Feb 18:02
Newswire: Guy arrested for running a meth lab while wearing a Los Pollos Hermanos shirt
by Marah Eakin
A suburban Chicago man was arrested for running a meth lab while wearing a Los Pollos Hermanos shirt. Daniel Kowalski, 21, was nabbed yesterday despite already being on electronic monitoring for running a lab last summer, meaning he was not only tempting fate with his choice of t-shirt and favorite show, but also that he was just kind of dumb. Police in LaGrange, Illinois charged Kowalski with two counts of possession of a controlled substance, possession of methamphetamine manufacturing materials, and possession of materials needed to produce methamphetamines, all felonies and all charges both Walter White and Gustavo Fring managed to avoid.
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26 Feb 17:39
Astros coach shows us scary new way to pose for photos
by James Dator
firehoseKing Cake Baby autoshare
This is one way to pose for a team photo, not a good one... but it's a way.
A full-tooth grin is kind of Craig Bjornson's thing. The Houston Astros' bullpen coach routinely flashes those pearly whites for team photos, but in 2014 he took it to the next (and terrifying) level.
Photo via @barryap1
What emotion is that exactly? Fear, shock... maybe this is his scary face? Let's go in for a closer look.
Oh, goodness.
Alright, we've seen just about enough here.
TOO CLOSE, TOO CLOSE. ABORT
Hold our calls, we're going to need the rest of the day off.
P.S. We're very sorry.
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26 Feb 17:38
You won't believe your eyes when you see these statues move
by George Dvorsky
firehoselol don't blink lol
Beijing artist Li Hongbo's freaky flexible sculptures have been attracting a lot of attention lately, but now you can see them like never before — in glorious slow motion.
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26 Feb 17:36
Uber kept new drivers off the road to encourage surge pricing and increase fares
by Ben Popper
Andrew Lane is a regular Uber customer with some fond memories of the service. Last year on President's Day he was the lucky rider selected for an "Ubercade" upgrade. "They sent over a free limo with secret service agents and everything. I got my girlfriend and we cruised by her ex-boyfriend's place. It was awesome."
"We didn't activate new drivers to make earnings even higher this weekend."
But this Valentines day, while traveling through San Diego in an Uber car, Lane heard something that disturbed him. "The driver had a Ford Sync system, and it read his text messages out loud." The message, which came wedged between numerous texts about a promotion for free roses, said, "UberX is very close to SURGE. It's Valentine's Day! People will be out all night and we didn't activate new drivers to make earnings even higher this weekend."
Uber’s surge pricing has been a controversial feature of the company’s business for some time. It uses an algorithm to raise and lower the price based on demand. At extremely busy times, especially holidays, rates can be as many as seven times the normal price. The company's CEO, Travis Kalanick, has been front and center defending this model.
"Surge pricing only kicks in in order to maximize the number of trips that happen and therefore reduce the number of people that are stranded," he told Wired in an interview. Kalanick has always maintained that Uber is a neutral party, a technology platform that helps to most efficiently connect drivers and riders. "We are not setting the price. The market is setting the price. We have algorithms to determine what that market is."
"We are not setting the price. The market is setting the price."
When Lane heard the Uber text message, he understood it to mean that the company was keeping current drivers off the road, limiting the supply to raise rates. To Lane it seemed Uber was favoring drivers over riders. "It made me angry, you know," says Lane. "Basically they are trying to rig the system to jack up fares on customers like me."
A law professor briefed on the text message says it may be suspect, given the company’s public framing of surge pricing. "This certainly sounds deceptive," says Arnold Rosenberg, assistant dean at the California Western School of Law in San Diego. "Something like this violates state laws around unfair business practices as well as Section 5 of the FTC act."
Uber says the whole thing is a misunderstanding
Uber confirmed the text message, but says the whole thing is a misunderstanding. The company did not artificially restrict the number of drivers who were able to come on to the system on Valentine's Day — a particularly busy day for Uber rides — says spokesman Andrew Noyes. He explained the text simply noted that Uber did not onboard as many San Diego drivers as they could have that week because in the two weeks prior, a very large number of new drivers were added to the system. Earnings had been low, and the company wanted to reward new drivers with a strong holiday paycheck.
In other words, this wasn’t Uber specifically tweaking the number of drivers at a given time to tip things over into a surge. It was a big-picture strategy to make their new drivers happy. Noyes points out that during the week of the 10th, when this trip took place, only 5-6 percent of the trips on the Uber network were affected by surge pricing.
"That is a slap in the face to customers."
Regardless of when and why the additional drivers were withheld, the larger tension still stands: Uber insists that it's a marketplace, a neutral technology platform that works solely to connect drivers and riders with maximal efficiency. But it is also a business, and so may sometimes tilt the scales to keep drivers, its employees and contractors, happy.
The company’s explanation didn’t sit well with Lane. "Honestly it feels worse. Uber specifically withheld supply on a busy holiday weekend even while it predicted that doing so would create significantly higher prices," he said. "Best-case scenario it’s fleecing customers to enrich drivers, worst-case scenario it’s fleecing customers to enrich the broker (Uber). That is a slap in the face to customers."
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26 Feb 17:35
saddestblogger: "hey i’m really full do you want the rest of my-"
"hey i’m really full do you want the rest of my-"
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26 Feb 17:33
Square tests Pickup app for ordering ahead from local restaurants
by Ellis Hamburger
Square wants you to know that that it's more than just a register. The company has begun beta testing Square Pickup, a new service that lets you order food and other items from local Square merchants. Pickup only works at a handful of San Francisco restaurants, Priceonomics reports, but could roll out more broadly if the test is successful. You'll need a special code to download the Pickup app, which is separate from the company's Wallet and Cash apps. It's not yet clear if the company will bundle the service into Wallet if and when it launches to the public.
Square already tested a version of pickup at Bay Area Uniqlo stores earlier this month. Customers could visit Uniqlo's Square Market website, order a few items, and then pick them up one hour later at a local store. While a great variety of services like Seamless and OrderAhead already offer pickup services, Square's attempt is notable because of how quickly its tens of thousands of retailers could adopt it. These retailers have already inputted their menus into Square's systems, after all, so adding pickup — and perhaps someday, delivery services — should likely take just a few additional clicks.
- Source Priceonomics Square Pickup
- Related Items square square pickup delivery food mobile payments seamless grubhub orderahead
26 Feb 17:33
Make it work: what should fashion look like in the age of connected devices?
by Valentina Palladino
Asher Levine wants me to wear a jumpsuit. At Tech In Motion's Wearable Tech Fashion Show, the young American designer is wearing a onesie the color of caution tape with zippers running down the front. He tells me it's not one of the pieces being shown tonight among all the wearable fashion technology — he just made it for himself. "I think everyone should wear jumpsuits," he says as we walk out of the crowd.
And then his jumpsuit starts beeping. Levine has outfitted it with a TrackR sensor, like he's done with many of his recently designed handbags and jackets. It's telling him that he's walked too far away from his cell phone — and now his bag is going off, telling him the same thing. It's one of his Grenade bags that will be featured in tonight's show, made of rubbery material molded to resemble the wrinkled exterior of a grenade while also looking like the skin of an extinct reptile.
Until now, we've mostly heard about tech companies and how they are dealing with fashion. Is the Pebble Steel's design the best for a smartwatch? Is Samsung's new Gear Fit what all fitness bands should look like? Will Google Glass ever look normal? But while everyone is focusing on technology companies, the fashion industry has been slowly approaching technology from the other side. Designers now have an overflowing toolbox of technologies to experiment with, and as they do so, they're reforming fashion's new identity literally before our eyes.
Levine, who has dressed the likes of Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, and Rita Ora, is one of the few designers leading this revolution with fashions that are inspired by, created with, and want to be new technology. In the past he's made nanotech-inspired fabrics that shift from a tighter, waterproof state to a relaxed, breathable state. He also recently worked with the software company Phone Halo to embed those customizable Bluetooth TrackR microchips into pieces of clothing and accessories.
"Fashion is still stuck in its archaic cycle — even with the way things are made."
His latest ideas have him working with the bioengineering company Modern Meadow to create hybrid leathers "grown" and "printed" in a laboratory. The hybrid leathers satisfy the science nerd in Levine, letting him make bags and vests with muscle-like striations as patterns. Levine says he sees it as part of his job to work with companies and figure out how to take their technologies and make them modern and sexy.
It's part of a revolution in fashion that, while still in its infancy, is stepping away from classic styles and making a name for itself by being different, digital, and right now, a little weird. "Fashion is still stuck in its archaic cycle — even with the way things are made," Levine says. "Now it's important to be curious, and I translate my curiosity with the clothing into something that's utilitarian and sexy."
"Sometimes I'll put the printer on overnight, and in the morning, there's a shoe."
Most of the designers featured in Tech In Motion's Wearable Tech Fashion Show are, like Levine, fighting against fashion's antiquated methods and aesthetics with new weapons. Mary Huang, founder of Continuum Fashion, focuses on 3D printing shoes that are both stunning and actually wearable. Many of her designs could only be produced with a 3D printer due to the fluidity of the designs, and while her work allows her to play with new forms, she says it's also an experiment to see how the medium can revolutionize the manufacturing of shoes. According to Huang, if fashion companies used 3D printing for more than just prototyping in the future, it could save the industry money by removing arduous and expensive production processes, like molding, for shoes. This could render everything based on digital documents, which could even be sold to people to print their own footwear. "Sometimes I'll put the printer on overnight, and in the morning, there's a shoe," she says. "I'm always trying to see how close I can get to just pulling a shoe off the printer."
3D printing might be an obvious method for fashion designers to embrace, but technologies from all different fields are inspiring designers to rethink the way they see and do things. Take Sensoree's Mood Sweater — it uses sensors to detect a certain kind of sweat in the palms of your hands that varies depending on your emotional state, and then translates it into multicolored light emitted by LEDs. Kristin Neidlinger created the sweater for her MFA design research at the California College of the Arts, but mainly as a practical device. It was developed for people who have conditions like autism or sensory processing disorder as a way to help them see how they are feeling and project those feelings to others around them. While Neidlinger says she thought of it as strictly a therapeutic device, the fashion industry started to notice it for both its technical and stylistic creativity.
While the Mood Sweater is a totally foreign-looking object, fashions like the classic businesswear from the MIT-born Ministry of Supply take a more conservative, utilitarian approach. Inspired by mountain-climbing gear, its dress shirts and pants use fabric with heat-mapping technology that acts like a battery to absorb excess heat from the body and release it when needed in cooler atmospheres. CEO Gihan Amarasiriwardena tells me the company wants to make really comfortable clothing that doesn't just function for an office environment. "Clothing is a very intricate part of our day," Gihan says," and we often overlook how much its performances affects our abilities during the day. People don't just have a day life or a work life — you live one life, and these technologies allow you to interact with the different environments you're constantly moving in and out of every day."
Currently, technology for fashion is both a means to an end and the end itself. Redefining fashion is about doing things that haven't been done before, and technology gives designers the tools to do this. Things like Sensoree's Mood Sweaters are weird and functional in ways fashion currently isn't, and that's a huge step forward towards the future identity of the industry. But at the same time, ways of integrating technology into fashion that are less obvious, like special fabrics and modernized production methods, will drastically change the ways things are done as well as how they look.
"I'm curious about what isn't there," Levine says. "And I think people should think about that — it could give them the inspiration to create what isn't there." Creating something that's never existed is both difficult and exciting. The revolution is just beginning, but fashion has the tools to redesign not only clothing but the process of making it. The things that made fashion fashion until this point are fading, and while traditionally designers have been plagued with the age-old question of form versus function, the next generation of designers will be asking a whole new question: why not both?
Photography by Dante D'Orazio
26 Feb 17:13
Lewis’ Map of the Louisiana Territories (1805)
by the59king
Lewis’ Map of the Louisiana Territories (1805)
Louisiana Lewis' Map of the Louisiana Purchase Territories in 1805 Date: 1805 Author: Samuel Lewis Dwnld: Full Size (5.32mb) 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 exploration that you might want to check out. A map of the Louisiana Purchase territories, as prepared by British atlas maker Samuel Lewis --...
the BIG Map Blog - Interesting maps, historical maps, BIG maps.
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26 Feb 17:05
elle-est-aimee: ask-ickle-mod: rasec-wizzlbang: revereche: ro...
A conversation between a Raven and a Snowy Owl.
It looks like the raven really wants the owl to leave and is trying to intimidate it, but the owl doesn’t care because it knows the raven is all bark and no bite. Or all squawk and no peck. Erm…
Actually, it looks more like the raven is curious about the funny bird and wants to sit next to it, and the owl doesn’t wanna be friends :[ The raven’s body language isn’t aggressive at all — it’s backing down appropriately when the owl displays aggression. Notice the way it’s careful to draw back every time it gets too close to the owl. This is an animal that’s trying to establish it isn’t a threat.
Keep in mind there’s a huge intellect disparity here — ravens exhibit novel tool use and complex communication, whereas owls aren’t even as smart as ducks. We’re sort of trained to view crows and ravens as villainous, but really they’re very playful animals.
"HI YOU’RE PRETTY WANNA BE FRIENDS??"
"HISSS"
This is so cute ‘cause I can imagine the crow being the talkative, friendly one and he’s just like “hi gosh wow you’re pretty I’ve never seen a white crow before! How’d ya get your feathers so white? Do you eat a lot of marshmallows? I eat a lot of marshmallows! This human lady feeds me marshmallows—” and on and on and the owl’s probably just like “What no go away”
Rebageling here because it’s my art blog *shrug*
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26 Feb 16:51
Out-Cumberbatch Benedict Cumberbatch with your own Cumberbatchian name
by Abraham
firehoseoblig.
Want your own ultra-English moniker so you too can be as awesome as Benedict Cumberbatch? Look no further than the Benedict Cumberbatch Name Generator…
Here are some samples…
Now go get your own. Being without a high-class appellation as magnificent as Mr. Cumberbatch’s is the only thing that’s holding you back in life.
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26 Feb 16:50
Life Hacks: A Netrunner Story
by susd@pretend-money.com (SU&SD)
firehoseA surprisingly touching story about learning disabilities, social anxiety, and gaming as a transformative experience.
--
'“Netrunner is… it’s pretty mathsy,” he warned me.
“I don’t care, I can do it,” I said. “I can do anything.”
Three days later I’d be crying in my room, wondering what was happening to me, and feeling very much like I was not an adult.'
...
'It was Netrunner that crystallized for me the uncomfortable fact that in real life I’ve always run away from any space I couldn’t see completely, from any challenge I might not be able to win, and from any situation where I struggled to succeed.
At a Christmas party with friends everyone is surprised I’ve taken up dorky, mathsy cards. When I first moved to London someone I met said I “looked trendy” and that is not a compliment here. Clinging to my drink, I explain that I’m “hacking my personality” (whiskey laugh) through Netrunner.
“No, really,” I say. “It’s totally good for me. It’s the first time I’ve ever applied myself to something that’s so, like, antithetical to my interests. I have, like, so few of the skills it takes to be good at it that I figured it had to be good for me. I want to learn not to freak out when I’m losing, and to work hard at things even if they grind me down.”
I explain about my perfectionistic childhood and the weird self-directed learning program I attended as a child, where I’d pitch tantrums to avoid having to learn math, which I hated, especially long division. “I’m not sure if it came so hard because I have an undiagnosed learning disability to do with numbers - I mean, I still count on my fingers as an adult,” I say, “or whether I just learned early on to try to stay away from anything that made me feel stupid.”
People nod attentively, even warmly, and I feel uncommonly vulnerable, paranoid. I know nice people. I’m pretty sure none of them think I’m ridiculous. But even knowing this a wild panic crawls along my scalp. Even talking about the part of me that unravels when faced with the challenge of newness, of inability, triggers a fear of looking ridiculous.'
[Our own Leigh Alexander has been learning Netrunner, which we reviewed here. She found the experience pretty important, and we arrived at this. A long collaborative feature, with comments from Quinns and art from Jesse Turner. Enjoy, everybody.]
Leigh: “I can’t,” I say, and my voice sounds small and far away.
“Yes, you can,” says Quinns across the table. “Just think. You just have to stay calm.”
I have to stay calm, I think, but my body revolts. My guts secede, and warm fingers of shame crawl up my cheeks. Panic knocks gently but insistently at my breastbone. “I can’t,” I say, and it feels true. “I just can’t.”
“Look,” he says, gently. “You can get through this.”
“How,” I say, and there is a genuine tremor, an unhinged note I hear in my own voice and it makes me even angrier.
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26 Feb 16:49
Jason Collins will debut his new jersey #98 Wednesday in Portland. The number is in honor of Matthew Shepard, who was killed in a 1998 anti-gay hate crime.
firehose!
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submitted by kellenbrent [link] [30 comments] |
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26 Feb 16:46
Trash, rats overrun Springwater Corridor
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submitted by gorilladust [link] [56 comments] |
Tertiarymatt likes this
The Daily Edge.
26 Feb 16:09
Thanks to the good folks over at Pitchfork, you can now stream...
firehosevia Toaster Strudel
Thanks to the good folks over at Pitchfork, you can now stream the ENTIRE soundtrack to Wes Anderson’s upcoming film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, right here.
"Anderson co-produced the soundtrack with longtime music supervisor Randall Poster. It features original music by composer Alexandre Desplat (who worked with Anderson on Moonrise Kingdom and Fantastic Mr. Fox) as well as Russian folk songs and performances by the Osipov State Russian Folk Orchestra."
26 Feb 13:24
What’s causing the huge spike in earthquakes in...
firehose'This startling graphic, from The Rachel Maddow Show Tuesday, shows a massive spike of 2.5-magnitude or larger earthquakes, starting last year (the yellow portion of the last bar represents earthquakes that took place between Maddow’s shows on Monday and Tuesday)'
presumably the striped bars are extrapolating the pace of earthquakes
'Scientists have drawn links between earthquakes and wastewater injection wells used for oil and gas production, including fracking. Researchers say the toxic wastewater, stored thousands of feet underground, reducing friction along fault lines, which can trigger earthquakes. The ongoing fracking boom has led to a growth in national demand for disposal wells, according to Bloomberg.
Nicholas van der Elst, a post-doctorate research fellow at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, says the “most reasonable hypothesis” to explain Oklahoma’s spike in earthquakes is they’ve been triggered by injection wells used for oil and gas production. “The burden of proof is on well operators to prove that the earthquakes are not caused by their wells,” van der Elst told The Nation.
A 2011 study, published in the journal Geology, found that liquid injection triggered a sequence of earthquakes in Oklahoma, including the largest quake ever recorded in the state, which injured two people and destroyed fourteen homes. StateImpact reports that Oklahoma is home to more than 4,400 disposal wells. (The website is a great resource on this issue.) Researchers have also found connections between injection wells and earthquakes in Arkansas, Colorado, Texas and Ohio.'
bonus:
'CORRECTION (02/19/2014): An earlier version of this post stated that there have already been more than 150 earthquakes in Oklahoma this year. In fact, there have been more than 500 earthquakes in Oklahoma this year and 150 last week.'
26 Feb 13:15
pleatedjeans: Quite possibly the best music video of all...
firehoseschnell bitte bitte bitte compliment schnell
Quite possibly the best music video of all time.
If you scroll past this, you’re an idiot.
26 Feb 11:52
US science reporter Miles O'Brien says arm injury required partial amputation of ... - Calgary Herald
Calgary Herald |
US science reporter Miles O'Brien says arm injury required partial amputation of ... Calgary Herald This 2010 photo released by PBS shows NOVA correspondent Miles O'Brien. O'Brien says his left arm was amputated above the elbow following after an apparently minor injury turned serious. In a blog post posted Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014, and verified by ... PBS reporter Miles O'Brien recounts amputationNew Zealand Herald all 24 news articles » |
26 Feb 06:33
Survey about hard cider- please take if you drink cider or know much about it! (for a marketing class)
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submitted by hotpinkhearse [link] [10 comments] |
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