firehose

i made a few more gifs of famous russian paintings — check ‘em out here.

There’s a more important point behind this though: Chrome OS has blown right through the sort of market penetration that Apple's Mac OS was getting in the 90s and Microsoft thought of that as a threat and quite rightly too.

At least 70 journalists were killed on the job around the world in 2013, including 29 who died covering the civil war in Syria and 10 slain in Iraq, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

NASA's jet propulsion lab has been experimenting with interesting ways to control robots. Case in point: marrying Oculus Rift with Kinect to control a robotic arm. By using the Oculus Rift for head-tracking and first-person view, and by using the ...

dcblogs writes "U.S. government contracts often require bidders to have achieved some level of Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI). CMMI arose some 25 years ago via the backing of the Department of Defense and the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. It operated as a federally funded research and development center until a year ago, when CMMI's product responsibility was shifted to a private, profit-making LLC, the CMMI Institute. The Institute is now owned by Carnegie Mellon. Given that the CMMI Institute is now a self-supporting firm, any requirement that companies be certified by it — and spend the money needed to do so — raises a natural question. 'Why is the government mandating that you support a for-profit company?' said Henry Friedman, the CEO of IR Technologies, a company that develops logistics defense related software and uses CMMI. The value of a certification is subject to debate. To what extent does a CMMI certification determine a successful project outcome? CGI Federal, the lead contractor at Healthcare.gov, is a veritable black belt in software development. In 2012, it achieved the highest possible Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) level for development certification, only the 10th company in the U.S. to do so."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The writing and plotting shortcomings of Doctor Who have been so glaring for the past couple of years that the 50-year-old BBC sci-fi show’s growing popularity in the United States (even as its ratings have sagged a bit in the U.K.) has to be attributable to something other than the stories. Most notably: the energy, charisma, and likability of the show’s leading man. After his somewhat stretched-out three-season-plus run, Smith tends to come in second in “Favorite Doctor” polls, behind his immediate predecessor, David Tennant. But, provided with meatier material from showrunner Steven Moffat, Smith might well have made a far stronger bid for the top spot out of the 13 men who have canonically played the role.

‘Look, you wait until they get to be 20 years old, the only picking that’s going to take place is your pocket,’ Robertson says. The 2009 footage has emerged after uproar over the reality TV star’s comments in a GQ magazine interview that likened homosexuality to bestiality.

Matt Smith has been one of the most engaging actors ever to play that ageless time traveler on Doctor Who — but if he'd been given better, weightier material to work with, he might have been the best Doctor of all, argues a new article in The Atlantic.

Read more...

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Abdul-Baki Todashev is calling for justice for his son, the Tamerlan Tsarnaev associate who was killed by the FBI in Florida.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em in Colorado, use the more socially comfortable locker room in California, and still do not even think about cuddling in Wisconsin.

Video of one of the train explosions near Casselton. Amazingly no injuries have been reported at this time.

francavillarts:

BEST (& GROOVIEST) COMICBOOK OF 2013? (that didn’t happen)

BATMAN 1972
Concept/story/art by Francesco Francavilla 

Reblog this if you agree :)

Cheers,
FF

“Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.””

- Jane Smiley (via inspired-to-write)

Dear PS4, Last night was dope. http://t.co/f9IrqBSrPQ

— Nathan Fillion (@NathanFillion) December 21, 2013

DISCLAIMER: Calling Nathan Fillion a "fake geek boy" is a joke. It is impossible to be a fake nerd. As with the Fake Nerd Boys tumblr, the headline of this post is a satirical swipe at the way women in nerd/geek spaces are disproportionately judged based on their physical appearance compared to men.  See: The "Fake Geek Girl" myth. Get it? Got it? Good. If I catch any flak for calling someone a fake nerd, I swear to the Force.... (via: Geeks Are Sexy) Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?

In case you missed it over the weekend, something really great happened. Writer/director Kevin Smith asked his fans to "lose the f*$#ing misogyny." Unfortunately, something bad had to happen first. 

It's a real nature documentary. With David Tennant, robot spy turtles, and dolphins that get high by bothering puffer fish. Oh, sure if you want details you can go read them at Geekosystem. But I'm perfectly happy just knowing that this exists in the abstract.

Melissa Shang is ten years old and she has more American Girl dolls than I ever had (read: none). But she's not satisfied. Shang, who has Muscular Dystrophy, would love for Mattel to create an American Girl doll who uses a wheelchair.

The Seahawks defensive coordinator could be a hot commodity with two teams already requesting permission to interview him.

Seattle defensive coordinator Dan Quinn will be a sought-after coaching candidate, with the Vikings and Browns already requesting permission to interview him for their head coaching vacancies, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.

Quinn is in his first season as Seattle's defensive coordinator. He took over the job after Gus Bradley departed for Jacksonville. The Seahawks were excellent last season under Bradley, but were even better this year. Seattle led the NFL in points allowed, yards allowed, passing yards allowed and interceptions. He also spent two seasons as the defensive coordinator for the Florida Gators. Although he has limited NFL coordinator experience, Quinn has been around the league with stints in San Francisco, Miami and with the New York Jets to go along with two separate stints in Seattle.

Seattle has a first-round bye in the playoffs, so Quinn will be able to interview for jobs beginning on Jan. 5. He is one of several candidates connected to the Browns. Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, Broncos offensive coordinator Adam Gase and others also were mentioned as possible candidates. He is the first candidate connected to the Vikings' opening.

Cleveland fired Rob Chudzinski on Sunday after one season. The Vikings fired Leslie Frazier on Monday, following a 5-10-1 season. Quinn's defensive background would be a shift from Chudzkinski's offensive pedigree in Cleveland. Quinn would follow Frazier as a defensive coach in Minnesota. He would also be reunited with defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd, whom he coached at Florida.

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This one caught my eye as quite a bit unusual. It is spirits with added mushrooms, sea lettuce, parsnips and other root vegetables. It is Durt-brand spirits, produced by Melkon Khosrovian, and is not to be confused with Root-brand spirits. I don’t see much on the label or on the web to suggest what it tastes like, or how it is to be used, except where the label says “packed full of the umami flavor.” Wikipedia explains that umami is one of the five basic tastes along with salty, sweet, sour, and bitter, and “can be described as a pleasant ‘brothy’ or ‘meaty’ taste with a long lasting, mouthwatering and coating sensation over the tongue.”

Not to be left out of the umami-fest, here is a beer with plenty of umami, and a wine/sake “bursting with umami goodness.”

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submitted by dzizy
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Marvel has reportedly stopped distributing its periodical comics to Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million.

Rumors over the weekend link Denzel Washington to Green Lantern John Stewart in "Man of Steel" sequel.

prettyarbitrary:

fuckyourwritinghabits:

swegener:

Speaking of different body shapes. These are all basically peak human bodies. 

How come 99% of them don’t conform to what the entertainment industry tells us is the perfect body?

Time to bring back this body reference sheet!

One of the better body references I’ve ever seen.  All of these people are ridiculously fit, operating in the top echelons of their sports world-wide.  But there’s a vast array of body types, and types of fitness.

I know this is off point, but Table Tennis dude is my favorite. 

People get angry at Glass. They get angry at you for wearing Glass. They talk about you openly. It inspires the most aggressive of passive aggression. Bill Wasik refers apologetically to the Bluedouche principle. But nobody apologizes in real life. They just call you an asshole.

Toronto's team might be donning black and gold uniforms in 2015-2016.

The Toronto Raptors are reportedly considering replacing their red and white color scheme with a black and gold one as a part of their re-branding, via Doug Smith of the Toronto Star:

Now, I'm not suggesting it's a done deal and a lot of different people and companies are coming up with a lot of different looks and styles but I was told on the weekend that black and gold is definitely something being considered.

The Raptors announced the plan to re-brand the franchise at the end of September at a press conference, where it was also announced that the 2016 All-Star Game will be held in Toronto and Drake would serve as the team's global ambassador. Drake was said to be heavily involved in their rebranding efforts, and black and gold is the color scheme of Drake's OVO record label. The franchise considered renaming the team, but decided that they would simply change the color scheme, logos and uniforms.

The changes won't take place until 2015-2016, and they will coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Raptors' inaugural season.

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cold fjord writes "The Independent reports, 'Being pulled into the world of a gripping novel can trigger actual, measurable changes in the brain that linger for at least five days after reading ... The new research, carried out at Emory University ... found that reading a good book may cause heightened connectivity in the brain and neurological changes that persist in a similar way to muscle memory. The changes were registered in the left temporal cortex, an area of the brain associated with receptivity for language, as well as the primary sensory motor region of the brain. Neurons of this region have been associated with tricking the mind into thinking it is doing something it is not, a phenomenon known as grounded cognition — for example, just thinking about running, can activate the neurons associated with the physical act of running. "The neural changes that we found associated with physical sensation and movement systems suggest that reading a novel can transport you into the body of the protagonist," said neuroscientist Professor Gregory Berns, lead author of the study. "We already knew that good stories can put you in someone else's shoes in a figurative sense. Now we're seeing that something may also be happening biologically."'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The USB-powered astronaut light is a fully-adjustable table lamp that will brighten up any desk space. The light, which can be turned on and off with a simple flip of the helmet’s visor, is available to purchase online from ThinkGeek.

Space is a fantastic place, and the astronauts that explore it for us are brave, smart, and really, really cool. Now you can have a tiny astronaut of your own, who can plug into your computer, hub, or any USB port and light up what you need lit. The 11″ plug-in cable is adjustable and posable.

images via ThinkGeek