firehose

Watch the video if you can find a way. It’s very good. (It keeps getting removed from video sites, although that’s more likely because of ARD takedown notices, not a government censorship conspiracy.)

There’s more coverage by The Guardian and The New York Times.

Edward Snowden is a national hero and a true patriot. History will not look kindly on the government’s actions during this time. This will tarnish President Obama’s legacy much more than an overloaded website.

Snowden’s cause is still news, and it must continue to be news. As it develops, it’s getting even scarier. This is a massive scandal that will tarnish the United States’ long-term reputation even more than the entire George W. Bush administration. We can’t let our never-ending supply of frivolous news bury this with public apathy and indifference.

∞ Permalink

Marvin Gaye’s 1964 passport discovered in album bought for 50 cents

Blackbeard, the notorious pirate, had captured two vessels more than twice the size of his own—a feat described here for the first time. He could not have known that these would be the last prizes of his career and that in just three months he and most of his crew would be dead.

Last Monday, when Katya Romanovskaya left her Moscow apartment for work, she discovered that her car had a giant phallus strapped to it with a metal chain.

Strange but true. South Korea runs a kimchi deficit. And it’s getting bigger.

South Korean exports of the pungent cabbage dish fell 16.3% in 2013 to $89.2 million. (The weaker yen, which makes Korean kimchi more expensive in Japan was to blame.) And imports, fueled by cheap Chinese kimchi, rose 5.9% to $117.4 million. The result? A culinary cabbage shortfall of $28.1 million.

In fact—with the exception of 2009—Korea has been in the red on kimchi every year since 2006. If you want to, you can see this as bad news, another sign that global trade spats are rising rapidly, exacerbating traditionally difficult relations between neighbors in east Asia.

And you’d have to be blind not to acknowledge that the Abenomics experiment in Japan—and the resulting weak yen—has been tipping the scales when it comes to global trade. (Just today, Toyota forecast a record profit thanks in part to a weak yen, which boosts the profitability of its exports.)

But if South Korea is running a deficit in kimchi, the fact remains that the country continues to enjoy giant trade surpluses. (Even if January’s numbers were a bit weaker than expected.)

And those trade surpluses—as well as a healthy inflow of foreign capital into investments such as South Korean stocks—have helped drive the country’s current account surplus sharply higher. (The current account is the best big picture measure of how much a country borrows or saves. Surplus = saving. Deficit = borrowing.)

The upshot? Korea’s kimchi deficit might seem like a blow to Korean pride. But the truth is that the country’s exporters are involved in much more profitable pursuits. And those in turn produce plenty of, er, cabbage.

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

costumecommunityservice:

prince-ichi:

I’m really glad I found this blog oh gosh you’re like a godsend

I really struggle with figuring out how to draw armor, this was my first mock up of a character that has a more or less important role in act one of a webcomic I’m working on. She’s a general, and I’m more or less trying to pin down something more or less pretty basic in terms of her armor. She’s only going to be shown in armor a few times. (I’ve included her more prominent outfit. The king’s color is royal purple.)

This is already a few months old, and absolutely atrocious now that I’m looking at it again (the pauldron and cuirass and wow everything)…especially now that I need to start actually working on her because she’s going to be showing up in pages soon. 

Could you maybe steer me in the right direction for something that’s not ungodly boring to look at? (and feasible?)

I’d gladly take any suggestions on the other outfit, too. 

Hope this helps!

[full size]

I dedicate this reblog to askarthurgabriel, who also asked for a critique on a female armor design he’s preparing.

My reply is going to be published later today!

This is a very neat thing that I think you guys might like!

babesinarmor:

Motivational poster:

Female Armor can look just like male armor. What matters is protection. (And yes, there’s a woman in there.)

!

The moon of Ogurusu in Yamashiro


Cao Cao on the Yangtze River looking at the rising moon over Mount Nanping


a fox on Musashi Plain


Fujiwara no Yasumasa playing the flute to ward off a bandit


Minamoto no Tsunemoto shoots a deer


Ono no Komachi seated on a gravemarker


Emperor Kazan fleeing to a Buddhist temple


Chang'e, a figure from Chinese mythology, flees to the moon


Ariko no Naishi weeps as her boat drifts in the moonlight


the monk In’ei with the moon's reflection

unhistorical:

_{One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (1885-1892) ukiyo-e series, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (click through for descriptions)}

_{more in this series}

It’s midnight and I suddenly feel like… looking out the window

Earlier this week we broke the news that Ben Wheatley's adaptation of J.G. Ballard's High Rise would be set in 1975 (the same time the book was published). And now we have even better news: Tom Hiddleston will be star in this horror feature. Amazing.

Read more...

French hamburger consumption has surged since 2000, according to research by French restaurant consulting firm Gira (link in French.) Nearly one out of every two sandwiches sold in France last year was a hamburger, up from one out of every seven in 2007, and one of every nine in 2000. In all, nearly one billion hamburgers were sold in the country in 2013, according to Gira’s estimates.

The vast majority of hamburger sales—over 67%—are happening at fast food chains like Quick and McDonald’s. The American burger giant has found particular success in France with its double cheeseburger. “You look at a market like France, they’re hitting on all cylinders,” CEO Don Thompson told investors back in 2010. But more trafitional French cafes and restaurants are putting the beef patties on their menus, too. Three-quarters of French restaurants have at least one burger offering, according to Gira. And people are buying them. Restaurant hamburger sales have jumped by 40% since 2011, Gira CEO Bernard Boutboul told Le Monde.

Sochi has the perfect attitude for an imperfect Olympics.

Russia tells biathlon spectators trudging uphill: "These are the Winter Olympics, so we need to be tough!" pic.twitter.com/XdxvpgldM3

— Ollie Williams (@OllieW) February 5, 2014

Enhance! Here's a closer look.

The sign is meant to encourage hiking biathlon spectators but really could apply to the entire Sochi experience.

* "Very dangerous" water? "We need to be tough!"

Water restored, sorta. On the bright side, I now know what very dangerous face water looks like. #Sochi #unfiltered pic.twitter.com/sQWM0vYtyz

— Stacy St. Clair (@StacyStClair) February 4, 2014

* Tiny beds? "We need to be tough!"

Crosby could have to sleep in one of these beds. No frills for Canada men's hockey: http://t.co/ismTHD9s6h pic.twitter.com/5e7sWrYSSK

— Stephen Whyno (@SWhyno) February 4, 2014

* Overrun by stray dogs? "We need to be tough!"

Day 1 #Sochi impressions: Russians aren't a smiley people but very helpful & kind! and I've already seen 3 stray dogs I want to take home

— Liz Clarke (@lizclarketweet) February 3, 2014

Sochi 2014: WE NEED TO BE TOUGH!

(via FTW)

The police are forbidden from conducting searches and seizures without a warrant or probable cause. So they just ask for your permission to conduct a search. But "consensual encounters" with an armed stranger who can arrest you very seldom feel consensual.

For $10, you can look at Matt Stairs and animals for 365 days a year. Seems like a solid deal to me.

This is old, considering we're a month into 2014, but it's always, always, always relevant. Matt Kemp, beloved Wonder Hamster, has a calendar. It's a glorious calendar. Apparently, Stairs has five dogs, six cats, and a rabbit. He would like to remind of this all year. For charity.

My family and our dogs posing for the SPCA calendar. Didn't have room for our 6 cats and rabbit pic.twitter.com/VxRCGEQ5jX

— mstairs12 (@mstairs12) December 11, 2013

That's a solid range of pooches, from the d'aww pup on the left, to the li'l thing with the bow, to the mutt, to the portly retriever, to the stuck-up little thing on the right that was busy judging the photographer

Just one of the pictures in the SPCA calander we did up for charity pic.twitter.com/ZTSBOtkktX

— mstairs12 (@mstairs12) December 10, 2013

I like it. One dog's going one way, one hamster's going the other way, and the ring's like, hey, whaddya want from me?

This was the first picture of the calendar I saw, and for five seconds -- not an instant, but five seconds -- I thought Stairs was in a hospital bed, his arm in traction, surrounded by six cats. I thought, boy, that's artsy, dark, and beautiful. Instead, it's Matt Stairs with six cats, and I'm almost certain they can beat up Tony LaRussa's cats.

Oh, man. Too bad Stairs isn't much of a fielder. He's going to drop that cat and trip over the glove, and we won't even be allowed to laugh. Don't sleep on cover boy Diesel in the corner.

(Photos by Paul Day, Facebook)

Honest question: Wouldn't your life be better if, say once or twice a year, Matt Stairs came through your doggie door and gave your pups a skritch? You'd be milling about, getting dinner ready, there'd be commotion, and when you checked it out, it'd just be Matt Stairs through your doggie door, loving your dogs. Your dogs would love it. You would love it.

I would like to live in that world. As a consolation for not living in that world, I would like one of these calendars.

Here's the Fredericton SPCA's Facebook page, and here's the page that mentions the calendar. There's no way to buy it directly, though. Off to eBay.

charleypollard:

i want female villains whose backstory don’t revolve around men breaking their hearts or wanting to be more beautiful than another girl  i want female villains who are evil for the fun of it and i want female villains with tragic backstories that don’t revolve around men i want female villains with backstories and motives just as diverse and complex as male villains i’m so sick of female villains who are only motivated by men and girlhate

mattfractionblog:

portland moms on a playdate

It’s been 10 years this month since “upgrade from tcsh to bash” was placed on my to-do list. It’s starting to look hopeless.

On Monday, Lego responded to Charlotte with a mea culpa of sorts. "LEGO play has often been more appealing to boys," read the statement, "but we have been very focused on including more female characters and themes that invite even more girls to build, and in the last few years, we are thrilled that we have dramatically increased the number of girls who are choosing to build." It continued: "While there are still more male characters than female, we have added new characters to the LEGO world to better balance the appeal of our themes." Lego says it's had female characters including “a warrior, a surgeon, a zoologist, athletes, extreme sports characters, rock stars and a scientist,” but its current offerings don’t seem to include the role models Charlotte and others are seeking.

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throren:

Don’t mess with Gimli

"It was like making a music video in front of a gazillion people."