firehose

New submitter natarnsco writes "The Dallas, Texas police chief has used an unusual weapon in his arsenal to announce firings and other disciplinary measures in the Dallas police force: Twitter. 'Dallas Police Chief David O. Brown has fired or disciplined 27 officers and employees in the last year. And every time he brings down the hammer, he announces it on Facebook and Twitter, specifying exactly who the men and women are and what they did. On Dec. 30, it was five officers and a 911 call operator.' The article goes on to say, 'Chief Brown is, as far as we know, unique among police chiefs in his use of social media. "I'm unaware of anyone else doing this," says Lt. Max Geron, who handles media relations at the Dallas Police Department. "If we weren't the first, we were one of the first." We checked out the Twitter profiles of various departments around the country as well and couldn't find a similar situation. The social media posts aren't an official policy of the DPD, but rather a "push for transparency" initiative, in Lt. Geron's words. "[It comes from] a desire to be more transparent and to get our message out to the greater community," he says.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

NOAA reports a X1.2 Xray flare 18:04/18:34/18:58 UT from AR 11943
at location [S15, W11]. Increased proton flux in +100 MeV with particles
+50 MeV above Solar Storm levels.

The observation of this event is considered ‘GOOD’. This CME is determined a FRONTSIDED event.

Images and movies and time/height information for this event is available on the web at:

http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/lasco/observations/halo/2014/140107/

Not so easy, eh?

Winter Sun

Monopoly before Monopoly | Socks Studio

“The landloard’s game” was the precursor of the world famous board game “Monopoly” and it was invented in a claim for social and economic justice by a Quaker woman named Lizzie J. Magie.

Lizzie J. Magie (1866–1948) was the member of a movement of followers of political economist Henry George, which supported a specific theory: that the renting of land and real estate produced an unerned increase in land values that profited a few individuals (the landowners) rather than the majority of people (the tenants). To prove her point she designed and get a patent for the board game “The Landlord’s Game” which was supposed to prove the validity of the theory and to propose the introduction of a single federal tax based on land ownership to discourage speculation and encourage equal opportunity. In Magie’s words the game was to be a “a practical demonstration of the present system of land-grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences. It might well have been called the ‘Game of Life,’ as it contains all the elements of success and failure in the real world”

The original game featured a board with the familiar circuit of increasingly pricey neighborhoods crossed with railroads and utilities. The corners read “Go to Jail“, “Public Park” and the jail itself. The fourth corner included a drawing of the globe encircled by the words “Labor Upon Mother Earth Produces Wages.”

Egypt’s recent arrest of four Al Jazeera journalists, right before the new year, forced me to admit something I had been reluctant to acknowledge: the Egyptian revolution has failed. As a Pakistani-American, I have seen the harshness of military dictators followed by the power vacuum and uncertainty that ensues when a autocrat is dethroned. I’ve also seen the chaos that surrounds fledgling attempts at democracy.

I had higher hopes for Egypt. The last year has proven me wrong.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) named Egypt one of the world’s top 10 jailers of journalists in its annual census released on Dec. 1. CPJ went on to name Egypt as one of the top three deadliest places for journalists to work in 2013. Ironically, prior to the Arab Spring in 2011, there had only been one work-related journalist death in the country since 1992.

Its latest actions are particularly frustrating given the potential the country had in establishing an open press environment. The Arab Spring, after all, came about through the efforts of media outlets—Al Jazeera, in large part—to circumvent censorship through ingenious scrambled satellite signals and the unfettered use of social media to provide a window to the world. But the creeping press censorship that emerged under the elected, and then deposed, Islamist president Mohamed Morsi has taken on a new fury under the army-backed government.  And Al Jazeera has received the brunt of the new government’s ire.

The recent press crackdowns, particularly targeting Al Jazeera journalists, by the government are particularly disturbing because they too closely mirror the tactics used by Hosni Mubarak’s authoritarian regime.  Under the Mubarak regime, the media was highly censored and manipulated. And journalists whose reports were deemed critical of the government were jailed on defamation charges. Mubarak had a particular fear of the Muslim Brotherhood and his much hated State Security Agency aggressively arrested and tortured Islamists and other dissidents, often without any charge.

With that in mind, it is frightening to see the same treatment being doled out to journalists doing their jobs. The four Al Jazeera journalists arrested on Dec. 29 are still being held without formal charge, but the interior ministry in a statement accused the journalists of broadcasting news that is vaguely “damaging to national security” and news accounts stated the four men were part of a media terror cell. The bizarre nature of the last accusation prompted one commentator to opine that Egypt is giving the satirical  Onion a run for its money.

But the reality of the situation is far from funny. McClatchy reporter Nancy Youssef, who went undercover at Tora Prison to meet with arrested Al Jazeera English bureau chief Mohamed Fahmy, described him as appearing “haggard and confused” and complaining that he has yet to receive treatment for a shoulder injury he received during the arrest. She added that Fahmy told her that he is “being held in solitary confinement in Tora, with no light and with ‘insects.’”

It is a sobering smack in the face for journalists that had high hopes after the fall of the Mubarak regime. Three years ago this month, journalists captured the downfall of a despot that held information hostage to preserve his control. It appears Egypt has truly made a revolution—right back to where it started.

We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.

gamewiregirl:

This is Princess Dead Pool. My 3 year old told me EXACTLY how she wanted the costume to look and walked me through the entire thing, bossing me around. It was so much fun.

4gifs:

Dog tries to play with shadow [video]

New submitter amasad writes "This post describes building a JavaScript virtual machine and an in-browser stepping debugger using the latest JavaScript generator feature. It's called debug.js. 'For the past few years I’ve been working on creating tools to help people learn programming on the web. I’ve worked on repl.it and open sourced the underlying technology which powered a few learn to code websites and until recently lead product engineering at Codecademy. Through all that, one thing I really wanted to see are the tools to make it possible to visualize code execution and step through code in the browser. To catch glimpse of what an ideal interactive learning environment would be you should check out Learnable Programming by Bret Victor. In addition to the educational benefits of such a tool, if matured it could be also useful for code instrumentation, web IDEs, and creating a foundation for writing other VMs on top of JavaScript (having the pausable machine state let's you not worry about the non-blocking environment). Ever since I've read about the ES6 Generators proposal, I’ve been toying with this idea in my head but it wasn't a real possibility until Ben Newman's Regenerator brought generators to the browser.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

And we're back! Hope everyone had a nice holiday!

I just wanted to take a moment to mention that Magnolia Porter just put her first webcomic on Gumroad! The Good Crook precedes Bob White and Monster Pulse. Mags is great - I got to work with her on Namco High and it was a blast, she's a great writer!!! I'm going to pick up a copy of the Good Crook myself and it'd be great if you did too!

aljazeeraamerica:

Russia reverses blanket ban on protests around Sochi Olympics

Russian President Vladimir Putin has rescinded a blanket ban on demonstrations in and around the site of the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Sochi, in a possible attempt to quell the growing unrest around Russia’s human rights record.

An order published on the Kremlin’s website Saturday says that meetings, gatherings, demonstrations, marches and picketing that are not connected with the games may be held in spaces or along routes approved by the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of the country’s police.

Putin last year ordered a ban on any demonstrations in Sochi not connected with the games from Jan. 7 to March 21. The move was widely criticized by human rights organizations.

Read more

Photo: Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images 

i have the flu, so no new GIF today. in the meantime, i made this for this.

jothelibrarian:

Pretty medieval manuscript of the day is another example of the strange places medieval manuscripts end up. This one, clearly seen as a piece of waste at the time, has been recycled and used in the binding of an early modern book.

Image source: Miami University Libraries. No known copyright restrictions. Image accessed via the Commons on Flickr.

Historical Map: Tokyo Metro Map on a Passnet Fare Card, 2005

Certainly solves the problem of having to read a map over someone’s shoulder on a crowded train (or resorting to wearing one on your tie).

Passnet was a magnetic-stripe fare card in use in the Kanto region from 2000 to 2008: it’s since been replaced by the contactless Pasmo card.

(Source: Rob Ketcherside/Flickr)

virginiagentlenerd:

comixology:

We’ve got a Stumptown sale going on right now if Greg Rucka is your kinda guy!

OH MY JESUS BUY THIS FUCKING BOOK. Seriously. You like crime stories? Buy it. Well developed female protagonists? Buy it. Diverse casts? Buy it. Portland? You’re weird, but buy it. One of the best books I got turned onto this year (Thank you Matt Southworth!), I splurged for BOTH hardcovers. I NEVER buy hardcovers. 

Of course today - TODAY - is the day that I don’t look at tumblr or anything or even know about this or anything but hey Matthew Southworth art!

mrthorinton:

clarabosswald:

so i saw this photo of a harpy eagleand i thought “woah what a noble beast” so i searched for more photos and i just

even the babiesi mean

this goes with almost all predator birds 

like look at this bearded vulture

such a majestic creature

but then it’s like

or this scretary bird like woah so beautiful

nope

even good old bald eagle

like wow so regal

what

it just looks confused

wow rude

Back in 2011, Robert Downey Jr. used an award acceptance speech to ask people to forgive Mel Gibson — and now, rumor has it, he's pushing hard to get Gibson and their friend Jodie Foster into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Read more...

Donald Rumsfeld's successor has penned a book that includes some sharply honest takes on his former colleagues.