While the Marvel heroine Valkyrie has been rocking it in Defenders comics off and on for over 40 years, the Norse warrior goddess has so far been absent from the Marvel movie-verse. But as this new concept art reveals, Brunnhilde almost made her debut in Thor 2: The Dark World!

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This BuzzFeed video runs through some questions that San Franciscans hate being asked. Highlights include: “Do you know anyone looking for a roommate?” and “Why don’t you move to Oakland?”

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

Our Linux hardware review today is of the Western Digital VelociRaptor, an enterprise-grade HDD that Western Digital claims is the "Fastest SATA Hard Drive On The Planet." The Serial ATA 3.0 disk drive spins at 10,000 RPM, but how's its Linux performance?

Original Source

“

Rape culture is when I was six, and
my brother punched my two front teeth out.
Instead of reprimanding him, my mother
said “Stefanie, what did you do to provoke him?”
When my only defense was my
mother whispering in my ear, “Honey, ignore him.
Don’t rile him up. He just wants a reaction.”
As if it was my sole purpose, the reason
six-year-old me existed,
was to not rile up my brother.
It’s starts when we’re six, and ends
when we grow up assuming the natural state of a man
is a predator, and I must walk on eggshells, as to
not “rile him up.” Right, mom?

Rape culture is when through casual dinner conversation,
my father says that women who get raped are asking for it.
He says, “I see them on the streets of New York City,
with their short skirts and heavy makeup. Asking for it.”
When I used to be my father’s hero but
will he think I was asking for it? (will he think)
Will he think I deserved it?
Will he hold me accountable or will he hold me,
even though the touch of a man - especially my father’s -
burns as if I were holding the sun in the palm of my hand.

Rape culture is you were so ashamed, you thought it would
be easier for your parents to find you dead,
than to say, “Hey mom and dad,”
It wasn’t my fault. I didn’t ask for it.
I never asked for this attention, I never asked
to be a target, to be weak because I was born with
two X chromosomes, to walk in fear, to always look behind me,
in front of me, next to me, I never asked to be the prey.
I never wanted to spend my life being something
someone feasts upon, a meal for the eternally starved.
I do not want to hear about the way I taste anymore.
I will not let you eat me alive.

Rape culture is I shouldn’t defend my friend when
an overaggressive frat boy has his hand on her ass,
because standing up for her body “makes me a target.”
Women are afraid to speak up, because
they fear their own lives - but I’d rather take the hit
than live in a culture of silence.
I am told that I will always be the victim, pre-determined
by the DNA in my weaker, softer body.
I have birthing hips, not a fighter’s stance.
I am genetically pre-dispositioned to lose every time.

Rape culture is he was probably abused as a child.
When he even has some form of a justification
and all I have are the things that provoked him,
and the scars from his touch are woven of the darkest
and toughest strings, underneath the layer of my skin.
Rape culture leaves me finding pieces of him left inside of me.
A bone of his elbow. The cap of his knee.
There is something so daunting in the way that I know it will take
me years to methodically extract him from my body.
And that twinge I will get sometimes in my arm fifteen years later?
Proof of the past.
Like a tattoo I didn’t ask for.
Somehow I am permanently inked.

Rape culture is you can’t wear that outfit anymore
without feeling dirty, without feeling like
you somehow earned it.
You will feel like you are walking on knives,
every time you wear the shoes
you smashed his nose in with.
Imaginary blood on the bottom of your heels,
thinking, maybe this will heal me.
Those shoes are your freedom,
But the remains of a life long fight.
You will always carry your heart,
your passion, your absolute will to live,
but also the shame and the guilt and the pain.
I saved myself but I still feel like I’m walking on knives.

Rape culture is “Stefanie, you weren’t really raped, you were
one of the lucky ones.”
Because my body wasn’t penetrated by a penis,
but fingers instead, that I should feel lucky.
I should get on my hands and knees and say, thank you.
Thank you for being so kind.
Rape culture is “things could have been worse.”
“It’s been a month, Stefanie. Get out of bed.”
“You’ll have to get over this eventually.”
“Don’t let it ruin your life.”
Rape culture is he told you that after he touched you,
no one would ever want you again.
And you believed him.

Rape culture is telling your daughters not to get raped,
instead of teaching your sons how to treat all women.
That sex is not a right. You are not entitled to this.
The worst possible thing you can call a woman is a
slut, a whore, a bitch.
The worst possible thing you can call a man is a
bitch, a pussy, a girl.
The worst thing you can call a girl is a girl.
The worst thing you can call a guy is a girl.
Being a woman is the ultimate rejection,
the ultimate dismissal of strength and power, the
absolute insult.
When I have a daughter,
I will tell her that she is not
an insult.

When I have a daughter, she will know how to fight.
I will look at her like the sun when she comes home
with anger in her fists.
Because we are human beings and we do not
always have to take what we are given.
They all tell her not to fight fire with fire,
but that is only because they are afraid of her flames.
I will teach her the value of the word “no” so that
when she hears it, she will not question it.
My daughter,
Don’t you dare apologize for the fierce love
you have for yourself
and the lengths you go to preserve it.

My daughter,
I am alive because of the fierce love I have
for myself, and because my father taught me
to protect that.
He taught me that sometimes, I have to do
my own bit of saving, pick myself off the
ground and wipe the dirt off my face,
because at the end of the day,
there is only me.
I am alive because my mother taught me
to love myself.
She taught me that I am an enigma - a
mystery, a paradox, an unfinished masterpiece and
I must love myself enough to see how I turn out.
I am alive because even beaten, voiceless, and back
against the wall, I knew there was an ounce of me
worth fighting for.
And for that, I thank my parents.

Instead of teaching my daughter to cover herself up,
I will show her how to be exposed.
Because no is not “convince me”.
No is not “I want it”.
You call me,
“Little lady, pretty girl, beautiful woman.”
But I am not any of these things for you.
I am exploding light,
my daughter will be exploding light,
and you,
better cover your eyes.

”

-

slk

Rape Culture (Cover Your Eyes)

That this Peter Gabriel covers record is actually coming out is a minor miracle. The collection was originally due out in 2010 as a counterpart to Scratch My Back, which had Gabriel covering songs by artists such as David Bowie, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, and Paul Simon. As envisioned, And I’ll Scratch Yours would have featured those same musicians covering Peter Gabriel songs. Naturally, things didn’t go quite as planned: Although a handful of these re-dos saw the light of day in 2010, the full album didn’t materialize until now, and several of the Scratch My Back cover-ees (notably Radiohead, Neil Young, and David Bowie) aren’t present.

Despite those absences, it’s hard to complain about an album that begins with David Byrne on a squealing electronic tangent (the downtown disco squelch “I Don’t Remember”) and ends with Paul Simon reimagining the poignant, political “Biko” with majestic acoustic guitar and strings. As ...

Much as no trip to the movies is complete without surveying the opinions of your fellow, farting moviegoers in a crowded multiplex bathroom, a year in cinema is only half-finished until Armond White yells something at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards. The man who uses his breadth of film knowledge to create the most impressively researched versions of “U mad bro?” in the realm of movie criticism spent 2013, as he has every year, heckling the world of cinema from the cheap seats of his CityArts column, awaiting the annual day when he could do it live and get the negative attention he craves.

And so, as we have every year, we play right into it by dutifully reporting that at last night’s NYFCC Awards, Armond White yelled out some shit. This time at 12 Years A Slave’s Steve McQueen, whose acceptance speech for Best Director ...

Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek continues to lose his mind while reading more crazy Jeopardy! clues in Volume 10 of the Conan show’s ongoing series, Alex Trebek Has Gone Insane.

The ‘Jeopardy!’ host has plunged headfirst into the murky waters of madness.

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

Here is the list of referees assigned to each Divisional Round game this week.

The referee assignments for the 2014 Divisional Round have been decided. Either one of these four crews will go on to work the Super Bowl this year. There aren't as many familiar names as football fans are used to, but some of the refs have been involved in some memorable incidents, for better or worse.

Here is the list of ref assignments, via Football Zebras. The full officiating crews have yet to be announced.

Saints vs. Seahawks -- Terry McAulay

13th year as referee, 13th playoff assignment

McAulay served as the ref for Super Bowls XXXIX and XLIII. He's also the coordinator of officials for the American Athletic Conference. McAulay was the ref during the infamous Bottlegate incident in Cleveland in 2001.

Colts vs. Patriots -- Pete Morelli

12th year as referee, 14th playoff assignment

Morelli was a field judge during Super Bowl XXXVI. As referee, he has seen his fair share of playoff controversy. Morelli reffed the 2006 AFC divisional game between the Colts and Steelers, in which he determined that Troy Polamalu did not make a crucial interception. The NFL refuted his call the next day. Morelli was also the ref in the 2009 NFC Championship Game between the Vikings and Saints, where an illegal hit below the knees on Brett Favre was not flagged. That play was later used as evidence in the Saints' bounty scandal.

49ers vs. Panthers -- Carl Cheffers

Sixth season as referee, eight playoff assignment

A relative newcomer to the officiating ranks, Cheffers joined the NFL in 2000 and has yet to work a Super Bowl. His refereeing career has been largely without incident so far.

Chargers vs. Broncos -- Clete Blakeman

Fourth season as referee, third playoff assignment

Blakeman has also yet to work a Super Bowl yet. He was involved in one of the more controversial games of 2013 between the Patriots and Panthers. On the final play of the game, Tom Brady threw an interception, but Luke Kuechley got flagged for a potential pass interference. After an official conference, the flag got picked up, sealing the win for the Panthers. Mike Pereira believes that the penalty should have stood.

More from SB Nation NFL

• SB Nation's 2014 NFL playoff coverage and brackets

• SB Nation's NFL awards: Peyton Manning, Robert Quinn lead list

• BCS title game: Tre Mason and other draft prospects who shined

• How would expanded playoffs look in 2013?

• 2014 NFL mock draft: Offseason planning begins for 20 teams

The National Department of Poetry

Feelers are out

Modern Middle East Map

100 years of Rock (view in entirety)

The website Thrillist recently figured out which countries offer the cheapest beer in the world, using crowd-sourced data. It made us wonder: In which cities can you find the cheapest beer? What if it’s on tap at a restaurant, or in the bottle at a market? And what if it’s an import or a domestic beer? Here’s what we found:

The cheapest pour to be had is in Guangzhou, China, followed by Manila, Philippines. It’s no surprise that two developing countries with two thriving beer economies have cities that top the list of cheapest beers worldwide. Beer consumption per capita is among the highest in the world in China, and cheap beer is especially popular. In the Philippines, the beer market is highly mature, and almost 100% of it is produced locally.

More puzzling is the high ranking of Saudi Arabia, where alcohol consumption is banned. Its placement is likely based on prices for non-alcoholic beer, which is popular in the country and cheaper to produce. It would be hard to fathom alcoholic beer being that cheap under prohibition.

Similarly, in Ukraine, low-alcohol beers (which are cheaper to produce than their boozier brethren) have been taking off.

Now that we’ve gone through the cheapest beers around the world, let’s look at the most expensive:

Note that alcohol is illegal in both Libya and Kuwait, though in Kuwait, the illegal booze trade is so developed that at least one website has published a list of reasonable alcohol prices. In Qatar and the UAE, alcohol is not illegal, but consumption is heavily restricted, and you can only get a beer on tap from certain international hotels, so it makes sense that beer would be pricey.

As for Scandinavia, well, it’s just an expensive part of the world in general.

An anonymous reader writes "At CES 2014 today, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced the McAfee brand name will be phased out and replaced by 'Intel Security,' which will identify Intel products and services in the security segment. The rebranding will begin immediately, but the transition will take up to a year before it is complete." The BBC reports that John McAfee is happy with the decision: "'I am now everlastingly grateful to Intel for freeing me from this terrible association with the worst software on the planet. These are not my words, but the words of millions of irate users. ... My elation at Intel's decision is beyond words.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Sapporo has relationships with several cities worldwide: Portland, Oregon, United States, since 1959

I had the healthiest childhood imaginable. And yet I was sick all the time.

John Legere, who was recently called the most exciting telecom CEO ever, was booted out of AT&T’s CES party after showing up to see Macklemore perform.

A unique style of headwear was present during newly-seated Pomfret Town Council member Christopher Schaeffer's oath of office Thursday afternoon, but it wasn't intended to keep his head warm.

I appreciate the sensitivity with which you've brought this issue up, but this is not a rule change that I would support making. The vast majority of our customers are cisgendered, heterosexual adults. This is because the vast majority of PEOPLE are cisgendered, heterosexual adults. I don't think in a light-hearted parody game that we need to cover every possible gender/orientation possibility. Your group already has come up with the solution I would have proposed -- ignore the rule and do what seems more fun for you -- and I hope you'll understand our position that in a game such as Munchkin, we don't need to explore all the possible complexities of human sexuality. As for the art: if we think John goes overboard on a picture, we'll ask for changes. But part of his style is that some of his women are buxom, and we wouldn't be true to him or to the game itself if we edited them out every time. Some women ARE buxom, after all, and more so in the fantasy art adorning the games we parody.

Oh man are the folks at Fox News going to go apoplectic over this one: The transcript of Seattle Council Member (and proud Socialist) Kshama Sawant's inauguration speech yesterday:

My brothers and sisters,

Thank you for your presence here today.

This city has made glittering fortunes for the super wealthy and for the major corporations that dominate Seattle’s landscape. At the same time, the lives of working people, the unemployed and the poor grow more difficult by the day. The cost of housing skyrockets, and education and healthcare become inaccessible.

This is not unique to Seattle. Shamefully, in this, the richest country in human history, fifty million of our people – one in six – live in poverty. Around the world, billions do not have access to clean water and basic sanitation and children die every day from malnutrition.

This is the reality of international capitalism. This is the product of the gigantic casino of speculation created by the highway robbers on Wall Street. In this system the market is God, and everything is sacrificed on the altar of profit. Capitalism has failed the 99%.

Despite recent talk of economic growth, it has only been a recovery for the richest 1%, while the rest of us are falling ever farther behind.

In our country, Democratic and Republican politicians alike primarily serve the interests of big business. A completely dysfunctional Congress DOES manage to agree on one thing – regular increases in their already bloated salaries – yet at the same time allows the federal minimum wage to stagnate and fall farther and farther behind inflation. We have the obscene spectacle of the average corporate CEO getting seven thousand dollars an hour, while the lowest-paid workers are called presumptuous in their demand for just fifteen.

To begin to change all of this, we need organized mass movements of workers and young people, relying on their own independent strength. That is how we won unions, civil rights and LGBTQ rights.

Again, throughout the length and breadth of this land, working people are mobilizing for a decent and dignified life for themselves and their children. Look at the fast food workers movement, the campaigns of Walmart workers, and the heroic activism to stop the Keystone XL pipeline!

Right here in SeaTac, we have just witnessed the tremendous and victorious campaign for fifteen dollars an hour. At the same time, in Lorain County, Ohio, twenty-four candidates ran, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as ‘Independent Labor’ and were elected to their City Councils.

I will do my utmost to represent the disenfranchised and the excluded, the poor and the oppressed – by fighting for a $15/hour minimum wage, affordable housing, and taxing the super-rich for a massive expansion of public transit and education. But my voice will be heard by those in power only if workers themselves shout their demands from the rooftops and organize en masse.

My colleagues and I in Socialist Alternative will stand shoulder to shoulder with all those who want to fight for a better world. But working people need a new political party, a mass organization of the working class, run by – and accountable to – themselves. A party that will struggle and campaign in their interest, and that will boldly advocate for alternatives to this crisis-ridden system.

Here in Seattle, political pundits are asking about me: will she compromise? Can she work with others? Of course, I will meet and discuss with representatives of the establishment. But when I do, I will bring the needs and aspirations of working-class people to every table I sit at, no matter who is seated across from me. And let me make one thing absolutely clear: There will be no backroom deals with corporations or their political servants. There will be no rotten sell-out of the people I represent.

I wear the badge of socialist with honor. To the nearly hundred thousand who voted for me, and to the hundreds of you who worked tirelessly on our campaign, I thank you. Let us continue.

The election of a socialist to the Council of a major city in the heartland of global capitalism has made waves around the world. We know because we have received messages of support from Europe, Latin America, Africa and from Asia. Those struggling for change have told us they have been inspired by our victory.

To all those prepared to resist the agenda of big business – in Seattle and nationwide – I appeal to you: get organized. Join with us in building a mass movement for economic and social justice, for democratic socialist change, whereby the resources of society can be harnessed, not for the greed of a small minority, but for the benefit of all people. Solidarity.

Needless to say, Sawant's speech was very well received by the packed house (except for a handful of grim-faced, well-dressed white people).

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Last month when SteamOS was publicly made available in beta form there were many surprised that Valve based their Linux distribution off Debian rather than Ubuntu, which they had been heavily promoting up to this point for Linux gaming. There was some speculation why Valve went with Debian, but Gabe Newell has now confirmed the reasoning for not basing their operating system off Ubuntu...

Kidnapping is booming. To help you to stay safe when you travel, we've mapped out the places where you face the greatest risk of getting scooped up by rebels, terrorists or even garden-variety bank robbers

alostastronaut:

space-tart:

NASA Astronaut Inspired Apron

In case you were out of reasons to be in the kitchen 24/7, Etsy user jordandene is selling this beautiful space-themed apron for $60 USD.

"Not everyone can go to space,
but everyone can wear this apron.”

DAAAAAMNNNN

“When inspiration becomes manipulation, inspiration becomes obfuscation. If you are not cynical, you should be skeptical.” A TED talk takes on TED… more»