Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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07 Jan 19:48
Twister: The Fully Decentralized P2P Microblogging Platform
by Unknown Lamer
New submitter miguelfreitas writes "I'd like to offer for discussion with Slashdot readers this new proposal: twister is the fully decentralized P2P microblogging platform leveraging from the free software implementations of Bitcoin and BitTorrent protocols. This is not being pushed by any company or organization, it is the work of a single Brazilian researcher (me). The idea is to provide a scalable platform for censor-resistant public posting together with private messaging with end-to-end encryption. The basic concepts are described in FAQ while more in-depth technical details are available from the white paper. The twister network is running already: the client can be compiled for Linux, Mac, and Android. 2500 usernames were registered in the first 6 days."
07 Jan 19:48
A Whole Bunch Of People Threw Boiling Water In The Air To Watch It Freeze And Burned Themselves
With a “polar vortex” bearing down on the U.S. and plunging much of the country into the lowest temperatures in 20 years, people have gotten creative in how they experience it.
firehose likes this
07 Jan 17:42
Watch Dennis Rodman melt down live on CNN
by James Herbert
In the middle of a widely publicized and widely criticized visit to North Korea with numerous other ex-pro players, Dennis Rodman screamed at CNN host Chris Cuomo.
Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman had a screaming fit on Tuesday during an interview on CNN. In Pyongyang, North Korea with his "All-Star team," Rodman was questioned by host Chris Cuomo about whether or not he and his group of ex-pro players should be traveling there. Rodman and co. are supposed to play an exhibition game on Wednesday, the birthday of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un.
When Cuomo brought up American citizen Kenneth Bae, who is being held captive in North Korea, Rodman became defensive, suggesting that Bae had done something wrong but not getting into any specifics. From CNN's story:
Growing angry with Cuomo and jabbing his finger toward the camera for emphasis, Rodman said, "Kenneth Bae did one thing ... If you understand what Kenneth Bae did. Do you understand what he did in this country? No, no, no, you tell me, you tell me. Why is he held captive here in this country, why? ... I would love to speak on this.
…
"I don't give a rat's ass what the hell you think. I'm saying to you, look at these guys here, look at them ... they dared to do one thing, they came here."Fellow player Charles D. Smith tried to calm the discussion but Rodman carried on, becoming increasingly agitated.
"Ain't no shill ... let me do this," he said to Smith, shaking his hand from his arm. Addressing Cuomo, he continued, "Really? Really? I want to tell you one thing. People round the world, around the world, I wanna do one thing.
"You're the guy behind the mic right now. We're the guys here doing one thing. We have to go back to America and take the abuse. Do you have to take the abuse that we're gonna take? Do you sir, are you going to take the abuse?
Throughout the interview, Rodman deflected questions about North Korea's actions and said that he and his group were trying to do a positive thing. Smith tried to help by speaking calmly, downplaying Rodman calling Kim a "friend" and apologizing for "the storm that has been created by our presence."
This is Rodman's fourth trip to North Korea as part of his "basketball diplomacy" project.
More from SB Nation NBA:
• NBA Power Rankings: Can the Warriors join the league's elite?
• The Hook: Kobe, Bynum and the death throes of LA's mini-dynasty
• Prada: Streaking Golden State Warriors blending old with new
• Dennis Rodman's North Korea dream team roster is spectacular
• Rick Carlisle blasts New York media in support of Mike Woodson
firehose likes this
07 Jan 16:38
Nimona creator is writing a comic about monster-flighting girl scouts
by Lauren Davis
firehose!!!!!!!!!
Noelle Stevenson's Nimona is one of our favorite webcomics, a hilarious tale of a not-so-evil supervillain and his pushy, shapeshifting sidekick. Now Stevenson is headed into Buffy territory with a new print comic about girls at scout camp who fight monsters.
    
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dvillarreal, firehose likes this
07 Jan 16:35
Alex Trebek rapping on Jeopardy! is everything
by Michael Katz
There are sports here, too, but that's not what's important.
Look, THE GOD ALEX TREBEK RAPPING is more than enough, but we also got a little sports-related treat in here.
Who is this center? Some guesses.
*Chris Mihm
*D.J. Mbenga
*Travis Knight
*Stephen A Smith's pronunciation of Sla. Va. Med. Ve. Den. Ko.
*The Staples Center
*Kwame Brown
*Brian Grant
*Horace Grant
*Your neighbor's kid, Grant.
*That one year of Dwight Howard? (2013)
*That one year of Dwight Jones? (1982)
*Vlade motherf-----g Divac
Nope, dammit. It was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. We should have guessed, because of rhyming.
firehose likes this
07 Jan 16:32
Beamdog and Overhaul Games' Enhanced Edition of Baldur's Gate 2 isn't too far away from reaching the iPad finally, after being stuck in Apple's review process for the last month. According to a tweet posted yesterday by Beamdog Creative Director ...
Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition should roll onto iPad 'soon'
by Sinan Kubba
Beamdog and Overhaul Games' Enhanced Edition of Baldur's Gate 2 isn't too far away from reaching the iPad finally, after being stuck in Apple's review process for the last month. According to a tweet posted yesterday by Beamdog Creative Director ...
07 Jan 16:32
Evil Hat Announcing the Fate Patreon Campaign
by RPGnet News
firehosePatreon is blowing up in the indie/small press games community, video or otherwise
For a long time, weve really wanted to tackle more Fate adventure supplements, because who doesnt like having an easy-to-deploy adventure in their back pocket for last minute gamery? But adventures are tough to support cost-wisethey tend to fall in the red for a lot of reasons that Fred will speculate on at length if you get him going. Which is one of the many reasons we think hes pretty awesome. And amusing. And amusingly awesome, but all of these things are beside the point. The point is that weve been searching for a way to produce a steady stream of quality adventure content.
Its with this in mind that were super uber mega hugeola excited to announce the Fate Patreon (Fatereon?) campaign. Patreon offers an easy subscription service that will give you a steady stream of Fate adventures from some Evil Hat names you know and love and a few new talents youll want to see more of. To start out with, weve got a cyberpunk/superhero mash up from Brian Engard, and you can see more of our sekrit plans for world domination (or adventure production) on the Patreon page.
Patreon offers an easy subscription system to fit any budget. You can get each new adventure (produced every two or three months or so) for about as much as a cup of coffee, which seems like a pretty blinking good deal to us. Also, subscribing gives you an advance look at our materials, and can even give you the opportunity to make requests. Have you always wanted to see a murder adventure set at an alien carnival? This is your chance to ask for it, and then taunt all your friends with your kewl insider info.
If you cant subscribe just yet, dont cry. You can always opt in later. And all of the adventures will be available later on a Pay What You Like basis, but without all the bragging rights and insider info, which are priceless if you ask us.
Anyway. We hope youll check out our Patreon campaign and learn all the exciting details we don’t have space for here. Were pretty excited about the possibilities, but what we really want to know is what YOU think. (And this is not one of those things that were saying to be polite. We really do want to know.) What do you think of this idea? Is this a direction you think Evil Hat should be moving? As always, your input makes us better, so what are your ideas? Were ready to take notes and everything. And we’re pretty psyched.
(Original RSS Post)
Its with this in mind that were super uber mega hugeola excited to announce the Fate Patreon (Fatereon?) campaign. Patreon offers an easy subscription service that will give you a steady stream of Fate adventures from some Evil Hat names you know and love and a few new talents youll want to see more of. To start out with, weve got a cyberpunk/superhero mash up from Brian Engard, and you can see more of our sekrit plans for world domination (or adventure production) on the Patreon page.
Patreon offers an easy subscription system to fit any budget. You can get each new adventure (produced every two or three months or so) for about as much as a cup of coffee, which seems like a pretty blinking good deal to us. Also, subscribing gives you an advance look at our materials, and can even give you the opportunity to make requests. Have you always wanted to see a murder adventure set at an alien carnival? This is your chance to ask for it, and then taunt all your friends with your kewl insider info.
If you cant subscribe just yet, dont cry. You can always opt in later. And all of the adventures will be available later on a Pay What You Like basis, but without all the bragging rights and insider info, which are priceless if you ask us.
Anyway. We hope youll check out our Patreon campaign and learn all the exciting details we don’t have space for here. Were pretty excited about the possibilities, but what we really want to know is what YOU think. (And this is not one of those things that were saying to be polite. We really do want to know.) What do you think of this idea? Is this a direction you think Evil Hat should be moving? As always, your input makes us better, so what are your ideas? Were ready to take notes and everything. And we’re pretty psyched.
(Original RSS Post)
07 Jan 16:31
Krebs on $9.48 Credit Card Fraud
by Gabe
I love what Krebs does with these investigative articles.
If I had to hazard a charitable guess about what is going on here, I would say some ambitious “affiliates” associated with these moneymaking schemes were abusing the system and pushing through charges on stolen credit cards. But it is difficult to escape the conclusion that this is little more than an elaborate (and probably successful) scam set up to steal little bits of money from lots and lots of people.
07 Jan 16:31
This is Making Time, a column about the games we've always wanted to play, and the games we've always wanted to play again.
We all have to start somewhere. Yoshinori Kitase has been, more or less, the man in charge of the Final Fantasy series since ...
Making Time: Final Fantasy Adventure
by Anthony John Agnello
firehoseSaGa
This is Making Time, a column about the games we've always wanted to play, and the games we've always wanted to play again.
We all have to start somewhere. Yoshinori Kitase has been, more or less, the man in charge of the Final Fantasy series since ...
firehose likes this
07 Jan 16:30
The Internet's Network Efficiencies Are Destroying the Middle Class
by Unknown Lamer
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Joe Nocera writes in an op-ed piece in the NYT that the same network efficiencies that have given companies their great advantages are becoming the instrument of our ruin. In the financial services industry, it led to the financial crisis. In the case of a company like Wal-Mart, the adoption of technology to manage its supply chain at first reaped great benefits, but over time it cost competitors and suppliers hundreds of thousands of jobs, thus gradually impoverishing its own customer base. Jaron Lanier says that the digital economy has done as much as any single thing to hollow out the middle class. Take Kodak and Instagram. At its height, 'Kodak employed more than 140,000 people.' Kodak made plenty of mistakes, but look at what is replacing it: 'When Instagram was sold to Facebook for a billion dollars in 2012, it employed only 13 people.' Networks need a great number of people to participate in them to generate significant value says Lanier but when they have them, only a small number of people get paid. This has the net effect of centralizing wealth and limiting overall economic growth. It is Lanier's radical idea that people should get paid whenever their information is used. He envisions a different kind of digital economy, in which creators of content — whether a blog post or a Facebook photograph — would receive micropayments whenever that content was used. 'If Google and Facebook were smart,' says Lanier, 'they would want to enrich their own customers.' So far, he adds, Silicon Valley has made 'the stupid choice' — to grow their businesses at the expense of their own customers. Lanier's message is that it can't last. And it won't." The micropayments for content idea sounds familiar. 
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Ronald.phillips and -1 others like this
07 Jan 16:30
Scibor takes to the field with a new Dwarves Fantasy Football Team available over in their webshop. Source From the website: You’ll find 10 unpainted resin miniatures and 10 round scenic bases in the blister.
New Dwarves Fantasy Football Team available from Scibor
by Polar_Bear
firehoseetc.
Scibor takes to the field with a new Dwarves Fantasy Football Team available over in their webshop. Source From the website: You’ll find 10 unpainted resin miniatures and 10 round scenic bases in the blister.
firehose likes this
07 Jan 16:02
How to Open a Can of Food with Your Bare Hands
by Kimber Streams
firehoseRussians
A Russian man demonstrates how to open a can of food using only your bare hands in this 2013 video. Even though he’s explaining the process in Russian, his demonstration clearly communicates the proper method.
video via Grigoryi1
07 Jan 16:02
Cold Comes the Night, An Upcoming Crime Thriller Film Starring Bryan Cranston and Alice Eve
by Justin Page
Cold Comes the Night is an upcoming crime thriller film directed and written by Tze Chun starring Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Alice Eve (Star Trek Into Darkness), and Logan Marshall-Green (Prometheus). The film is set to be released in theaters and video on demand January, 10th, 2013.
A struggling motel owner and her daughter are taken hostage by a nearly blind career criminal to be his eyes as he attempts to retrieve his cash package from a crooked cop.
Director Tze Chun also painted a wonderful series of alternate posters for Cold Comes the Night with art direction, poster layout, and design by Jeremy Cox:
video and images via Cold Comes the Night
submitted via Laughing Squid Tips
07 Jan 16:02
Kanye serves Coinye with cease and desist, alleging infringement
by Russell Brandom
Kanye West may not be as easygoing as you thought. On Monday, lawyers working for West delivered cease-and-desist papers to the coders responsible for Coinye, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The letter demanded the group stop distribution and promotion of the Bitcoin-style cryptocurrency, alleging that Coinye's cartoon image of West constitutes a form of infringement. "Given Mr. West’s wide-ranging entrepreneurial accomplishments, consumers are likely to mistakenly believe that Mr. West is the source of your services," the letter reads in part.
The currency is set to be released to the public on the 11th, giving West less than a week to prevent the launch. One the code is public, the original coders will be unable to prevent its use, forcing West's legal team to prosecute every instance of Coinye individually. "We want to release this to the public before the man can try to crush it," one of the coders told the Journal in a Skype interview. "They’ll still come after us, but that’s OK."
- Source The Wall Street Journal
- Related Items kanye west coinye cryptocurrency infringement
firehose likes this
07 Jan 15:57
City of Portland Declares Labor Impasse with 1,600 Workers
firehoseWW
The DCTU represents more than 1,600 city workers, ranging from janitorial employees to police staff. The city and the union coalition have clashed over the contract language that would let the city contract out jobs the unions say should go to its members.
Those outside contracts include deals with the county jail and state prisons—programs that union leaders described as "slave labor" to WW in September.
Wheaton says outside contracting is the main sticking point in talks.
"This isn't about wages and benefits," he says. "It's all about contracting out."
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submitted by plannersrule [link] [comment] |
07 Jan 15:47
Have you heard about the plan to depower Wonder Woman and redo her origins for the Man of Steel sequel? Do you have any thoughts on this to share with us?
As far as I know, this is some guy on a fan website who completely imagined this possibility. It’s not a ‘rumor,’ it’s some guy who had a fan theory. There’s nothing factual he’s based it on, there’s no inside knowledge. But people are treating it as though it is leaked information.
On the other hand, it’s a pretty awful idea, so I am certainly hoping the guy’s theory is wrong.
firehose likes this
07 Jan 15:47
One last one, an actual question this time. What is your take on Amanda Waller being skinny in the 52?
I hate it.
firehose likes this
07 Jan 15:46
State of Pop
by dorothy
firehosevia saucie
Top Artists: Billboard. Median incomes and population density: U.S. Census. Definition of rural, suburban and urban by population density: U.S. Department of Defense. Ages and hometowns: Wikipedia. For bands with more than one member, the lead singer was used.
Doug Wibby and -1 others like this
07 Jan 15:42
reservoirdoggedness: Some snippets from all the truth being...
firehosevia Rosalind
Some snippets from all the truth being spoken in the #WhatIsBlackPrivilege hashtag on Twitter right now
Tertiarymatt, firehose likes this
07 Jan 15:22
"Chicagoans who choose to turn bus cards into bank cards will be socked with hidden fees: $1.50 every..."
firehosevia Rosalind
war on poor beat
“Chicagoans who choose to turn bus cards into bank cards will be socked with hidden fees: $1.50 every time they withdraw cash using your bus-card-cum-bank-card from an ATM,$2.95 every time they add money using a personal credit card. Two dollars for every phone call with a service representative (or, oops, each “Operator Assisted Telephone Inquiry”). Two bucks for a paper copy of their account. An “account research fee” of $10 an hour.
At which point, learning about all that, they might cry,Help! Let me out of this “deal”! Well, that’ll cost them $6—a “balance refund fee.”
Now, turning your bus card into a bank card is optional—a program supposedly intended to help Chicago’s underbanked poor. I liked this observation, however, from aTribunearticle last March: “It may be a tough sell, some experts said. Many low-income individuals are cash-centric in their spending habits because they are wise to the way of credit-card charges.” But not to fear, if you’re a Master of the Universe investing in one of the participating multinational banking concerns—Mastercard,First Data, orMetaBank—backing the play. Even though Chicago’s impoverished might not make ready marks for the scam, Chicagoans who don’t choose the banking option will suffer hidden charges. There is, for instance, a $7 “dormancy” fee if you don’t use your transit card for eighteen months, with another $5 charge tacked on for every dormant month after that.
Note that I said hidden fees. How hidden? Well, the only reasons Chicagoans learned about them was that theChicago Tribune pored through over 1,000 pages of legal boilerplate (for more on how impossibly complex user contracts rip off consumers generally see my reporting here) and discovered them.”
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At which point, learning about all that, they might cry,Help! Let me out of this “deal”! Well, that’ll cost them $6—a “balance refund fee.”
Now, turning your bus card into a bank card is optional—a program supposedly intended to help Chicago’s underbanked poor. I liked this observation, however, from aTribunearticle last March: “It may be a tough sell, some experts said. Many low-income individuals are cash-centric in their spending habits because they are wise to the way of credit-card charges.” But not to fear, if you’re a Master of the Universe investing in one of the participating multinational banking concerns—Mastercard,First Data, orMetaBank—backing the play. Even though Chicago’s impoverished might not make ready marks for the scam, Chicagoans who don’t choose the banking option will suffer hidden charges. There is, for instance, a $7 “dormancy” fee if you don’t use your transit card for eighteen months, with another $5 charge tacked on for every dormant month after that.
Note that I said hidden fees. How hidden? Well, the only reasons Chicagoans learned about them was that theChicago Tribune pored through over 1,000 pages of legal boilerplate (for more on how impossibly complex user contracts rip off consumers generally see my reporting here) and discovered them.”
-
holy shit, the mass transit Ventra card thing in Chicago is massively more fucked up than I even imagined it would be and I already had imagined it would be catastrophic and evil so….
Highly recommend reading the whole story, it’s mind blowing
(via hungryghoast)
I live in Chicago. Everyone here hates Ventra. EVERYONE. even so, we still hate it less than the parking deal. Our city is a perfect warning to others about how shitty “privatization” is.
Also, for those that don’t know, before ventra we already had a transit card that worked absolutely fine with no problems at all.
(via pockmarkedmoon)
firehose likes this
07 Jan 14:56
okashido: I CAN’T STOP LAUGHING
firehosevia Rosalind
Tertiarymatt, firehose likes this
07 Jan 14:55
School is really important: Reading, writing, arithmetic. But...
firehosevia willowbl00
School is really important: Reading, writing, arithmetic. But what they tend to do is teach you reading, writing, arithmetic…then teach you reading, writing, arithmetic again. Then again, then again, just making it harder and harder just to keep you busy. And that’s where I think they messed up. There should be a class on drugs. There should be a class on sex education. No, REAL sex education class, not just pictures and illogical terms…There should be a class on scams, there should be a class on religious cults, there should be a class on police brutality, there should be a class on apartheid, there should be a class on racism in America, there should be a class on why people are hungry, but there’s not, their class is on…gym….Their class is like Algebra. we have yet to go a store and said, “Can I have X Y + 2 and give me my Y change back, thank you.” You know?…Like foreign languages. I think that they are important, but I don’t think it should be required. Actually, they should be teaching you English, and then teach you how to understand double talk, politician’s double talk. Not teaching you how to understand French and Spanish and GERMAN. When am I going to Germany? I can’t afford to pay my rent in America! How am I going to Germany?
—Tupac, Age 17 On the Topic of Education, 1988.
Rosalind and -1 others like this
07 Jan 14:54
waxwendingo: Thranduil, ruler of the hick elves of Mirkwood.
firehosevia Russnork Sledgemaidens
07 Jan 14:52
me on a date
by villeashell
firehosevia Russian Otters
me on a date
Tertiarymatt and -1 others like this
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