Artist Paolo Curcio craves tiny bas-relief sculptures into coins—a traditional art form known as the hobo nickel. Curcio’s coins feature intricately detailed hobos, skulls and a variety of pop culture characters. Plastic castings of his works are available online. Here’s our previous post on Skull Nickels.
photos via Paolo Curcio
via Colossal
💙 | via Tumblr on We Heart It. http://weheartit.com/entry/76503938?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=image_share&utm_source=tumblr
Looking for a pair of stockings to give you that stylish bionic touch? Vancouver-based Mitmunk has released a set of bionic-themed printed leggings that will get the job done.
    
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firehosewhoa
search engine results didn't even make the top 10
what a fall from grace for search engine results
ONE THING THAT SETS AMERICA APART FROM OTHER COUNTRIES IS OUR LOVE OF RESULTS. Whether it’s a hotly contested football game or the latest scientific research, we’re all about the final score, the takeaway, the endgame … the RESULTS. It’s why we flip to the last page of our novel to find out how the story ends; it’s why we want to know the RESULTS of our medical tests; it’s why we like to read our grandparents’ last will and testament — because once you know the RESULT, you can decide whether anything is worth doing.
Don’t believe America loves results? Take a look around: we’ve got the RESULTS to prove it! Take a look at the Hoover Dam. Take a gander at that American flag on the moon. Take a glance at the hottest American cars and trucks on the highway. Take a gaze at the American landscape … all you see is RESULTS after RESULTS after RESULTS. We get things done, and we have the results to prove it.
There were many results in 2013. From elections to Pope decisions to TV contests, it seemed every American conversation was about results this year. And so now, without any further dilly-dallying, here are the results (ha!) of my list of the TOP TEN RESULTS OF 2013:
10. Pleasant results
9. “Ooh, I like that result!”
8. Loose ends tied up perfectly
7. Unexpected result that turns out, upon reflection, to be preferable to the expected result
6. Scientific results
5. (TIE) Funny results (i.e. “Look at the pancake batter on your mustache!”) / Serious results (i.e. “My calculator gave me this result”)
4. Everything wrapped up with a big red bow on top
3. Unambiguous results
2. “You always get the coolest results and that’s why I love you”
1. The greatest results of all time
IN 2013, WHEN WE WANTED TO HAVE FUN WITH WORDS, WE REACHED FOR OUR PALINDROMES. Palindromes (words or phrases that sound the same no matter which way you say them) are a uniquely American way to celebrate our language … and our lives. There’s nothing more fun, more distinctly “USA R A US,” than describing a current event using a custom palindrome you thought of down at the corner bar with your friends. And the best thing about palindromes is: THEY’RE FREE! The only limit is your “imaginationoitanigami.”
It was a great year for palindromes; nobody can deny that. So let’s kick back, put our feet up, and enjoy this trip down memory lane with the TOP TEN PALINDROMES OF 2013.
10. Madam I’m Adam 2013
9. No Mars Rover’s over on Mars, son
8. Ragtag dude’s a dud on guitar (this was about Bob Dylan)
7. Papal pups lap up a slap
6. Elon Musk car: Noel, scum
5. Ice caps warm Mr. Aws, is space, ci! (say in Italian accent)
4. Obama, man, web .gov sux (health), the lax us .ov be wan o mama!
3. Sal, la le goog, wears awe Google Glass.
2. Pope = Pop
1. Sweater weather
"How do I look?" -
Hyakuju Sentai GaoRanger (Natsume/Bandai - PSX - 2001)
Voice of America |
California man pleads guilty to terror charge Fox News LOS ANGELES – A California man pleaded guilty Friday to a federal terrorism charge after admitting he attempted to assist Al Qaeda by providing weapons training, the U.S. attorney's office said. Sinh Vinh Ngo Nguyen, 24, of Garden Grove entered the plea ... California man pleads guilty to terror countWSET Southern California Man Pleads Guilty to Attempting to Assist al QaedaImperial Valley News all 96 news articles » |
Mr. Shark from the animated classic Toy Story appears to rap the rapid-fire lyrics to “Rap God” by Eminem in this funny video edited by ManWithShutterShades.
via Doobybrain
Philly.com |
US military sex assault reports jump by 50 percent krqe.com FILE - In this June 4, 2013 file photo, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, center, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing investigating the growing epidemic of sexual assaults within the military. Military sex assault reports jump by 50 percentWTOV Steubenville all 79 news articles » |
firehose"Should lawmakers re-extend unemployment benefits?"
YES
NEXT FUCKING QUESTION
San Francisco Chronicle |
Emergency Unemployment Compensation cut off for thousands in Imperial Valley Imperial Valley Press Israel Alvarez recently had his unemployment benefits cut off unexpectedly. Although he only received $95 every two weeks, that extra money made all the difference for him. Alvarez is not the only one who recently lost his benefits. More than 3,500 people in ... Unemployment Benefits Lapse Severs Lifeline for Longtime JoblessBusinessweek Bipartisan bill pushed to extend for jobless benefitsWashington Post Unemployment benefits expiring: Should special help continue beyond 26 ...Christian Science Monitor New York Times -BBC News all 963 news articles » |
firehosevia Osiasjota
first-ballot eternal autoreshare hall-of-famer
firehose"McDowell and his crew persuaded the state legislature to pass laws that make it harder for the former spouses of wealthy people and their children to access assets hidden in South Dakota"
"They exempt dynastic trusts from federal inheritance taxes and income taxes, allowing generations of heirs to collect money tax-free"
"the state is also a net taker from the federal government, which supplies almost half its budget, even as its trusts drain perhaps billions of dollars from federal coffers and hundreds of millions from states where the beneficiaries of these trusts actually live"
It’s not a coincidence that places marked by strenuous efforts to attract outside money by abandoning any pretense of taxation or transparency are often small, with small populations.
They are tiny European states (Malta, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg) and offshore islands (Jersey, the Caymans, Bermuda) and the least-populated US states (Delaware and South Dakota, which each have fewer than one million residents).
That’s because it’s easier for financial interests to capture a smaller government and for societies to clamp down on those that wonder if the deal is really all that good for them, as chronicled extensively by the journalist Nicholas Shaxson. You often find figures like Feargal O’Rourke, the Irish tax lobbyist for offshore interests who is plugged into Ireland’s insular political class as the son of a former prime minister and cousin to a recent finance minister.
Today, Bloomberg found such a man in South Dakota: Pierce H. McDowell III, president of the South Dakota Trust Co., which manages $15 billion in client accounts directly and provides South Dakota addresses and advice to trusts worth an additional $75 billion. (There are $121 billion in trust assets in the whole state.) That’s a lot of money for a place where real GDP last year was $35 billion.
Most recently, McDowell and his crew persuaded the state legislature to pass laws that make it harder for the former spouses of wealthy people and their children to access assets hidden in South Dakota. That’s just the gravy, however, on laws that attract everyone from the billionaire Pritzker family to the heirs to the Wrigley fortune: They exempt dynastic trusts from federal inheritance taxes and income taxes, allowing generations of heirs to collect money tax-free. South Dakota was one of the first states to make such a law, but now almost a dozen others are following it in a race to the bottom.
Is it worth it? The South Dakotans cite around a hundred jobs created by the trust industry, and figure that’s enough. But the state is also a net taker from the federal government, which supplies almost half its budget, even as its trusts drain perhaps billions of dollars from federal coffers and hundreds of millions from states where the beneficiaries of these trusts actually live.
firehoseTW: institutionalized sexism, rape
' "Hipster sexism", as it's been dubbed by various media outlets, thrives on irony, on that knowing repetition of age-old cliches, spoken in a drawling tone dripping with nonchalance and clove-flavoured fags. Hipster sexism, the post-post-feminism of Terry Richardson and American Apparel and Robin Thicke with his "big dick" that will "tear your ass in two": sex in sweatbands, with added spunk and sarcasm.
It's tongue in cheek, the manager said. (But whose tongue in whose cheek?)
I assume that around 50% of the restaurant's customers are women, and that almost all of them will have nipped to the loo at some point, so I'm wondering just how many of us have found ourselves confronted with the wall-to-wall surprise filth. Of course, some perhaps couldn't care less about the cartoon porn, while some might care much, much more.
Not that what any of us feel really matters, because it's all so achingly ironic and edgy, the sweaty, glorified street food and the rock'n'roll macho misogyny.
I am so, so sick of it. And you can call me humourless or Victorian or both, but I don't care. I want my hypothetical daughters to be able to eat out and shop and live in peace, without the unsolicited company of violently penetrated vaginas, and that includes the two-dimensional ones.'
firehoselol
While touring in Seoul, South Korea for a local sports fair, chess grandmaster and 13th World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov took to Twitter to weigh in on eSports, which has become one of the most popular gaming activities in the region.
Kasparov — who is also chairman of the Human Rights Foundation — became the youngest undisputed World Chess Champion at age 22 in 1985 and held the official World Chess Foundation (FDIE) title until 1993. That year, he set up a rival chess organization, the Professional Chess Association, after a dispute with the FDIE.
After learning about League of Legends and StarCraft while at Seoul's Youth Mind Sports Fair, Kasparov tweeted that eSports, or "multiplayer computer game competitions," are currently more popular in Korea than chess and the board game go. However, he does not believe this will always be the case.
"Tough for chess to overtake League of Legends, the most popular game here, but I don't think they'll play that in 100 years," he tweeted. "Chess, yes!
"People get bored with a computer game as soon as a new one comes out with slightly better graphics," he added. "Chess has captivated us for centuries."
Kasparov added that his knowledge of video games comes from his son, who is "a big expert" in Warcraft, as well as through conversations with game developers over the years. He added that narrative conceits and graphics age quickly, which makes board games without them, like chess, more likely to withstand the test of time.
"I am in no way dismissive of e-sports or video games," Kasparov wrote. "Many offer rich environments and strategic decision-making, not just cool pictures.
"Point was that the strategic purity of chess (or go, e.t.c.) is timeless for a reason," he added. "No storyline to tire of, no expansion packs to buy!"
Check out the Kasparov's feed for his other thoughts on eSports and his attendance at the Youth Mind Sports Fair.
firehose"he can now pick up hot things without getting burned, and doesn’t have to worry about accidentally slicing his fingers"
Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames.
Chef Eduardo Garcia lost his left hand after being electrocuted in a hunting accident in 2011, but has since gotten a Bluetooth-activated bionic hand. Though he’s still getting used to its 25 different functions, Garcia says the prosthetic comes with a few benefits to his trade — he can now pick up hot things without getting burned, and doesn’t have to worry about accidentally slicing his fingers. In a live cooking segment on Good Morning America, Garcia talked about his experience and made some French toast.
Here’s another segment about Garcia by CNN:
photo by Andrew Geiger via People, video via SuperNovaPlus
via People, The Braiser, Gothamist
Same-sex couples shatter marriage records in Utah Washington Post SALT LAKE CITY — In the week since a federal judge overturned Utah's ban on same-sex marriage, the number of weddings in the state has skyrocketed, shattering records and accruing thousands of dollars for Utah's 29 counties. As of close of business ... and more » |
firehoseback and forth
Philly.com |
Target says some PINs stolen but confident data secure Washington Post BOSTON — Target said PIN data of some customers' bank ATM cards were stolen in a massive cyberattack at the third-largest U.S. retailer, but it was confident that the information was “safe and secure.” The stolen PIN data was “strongly encrypted” when it ... Target: Customers' encrypted PIN data was stolenDetroit Free Press Target confirms encrypted PINs stolen in data breachNBCNews.com Target Says Its Customers' Credit Card PINs Have Been Stolen — But Don't ...Seattle Post Intelligencer Businessweek -KFOX El Paso -Green Bay Press Gazette all 592 news articles » |
firehoseRPG.net moderation is often A+ would forum again
If I'm reading this correctly, this is a permaban against Jim Raggi, the publisher of Lamentations of the Flame Princess, for an aggressive comment against another user _on a promotional thread of his own products_
firehoseaww
Hello Friends of the One Page Dungeon Contest.
I feel that I’m most likely not going to run a contest in 2014. What about you? Would you consider it? Let me know. Leave a comment or contact me directly.
I have some pointers if you’re considering it.
– Alex
Update: I just got mail from the Random Wizard:
I would like to submit my name as candidate for running the one page dungeon contest. I love the contest and would hate to see it languish!
firehosevia GN
firehose"12/26/13 - See update and postscript at the end of this article regarding iA's statement that it will abandon its patent applications."
Software patents don’t protect innovation. They destroy it.
Big companies like Google and Apple have defensible reasons to accumulate lots of patents: they need them for defense. This is horrible, dysfunctional, and wasteful, but they at least are justified in arming themselves in the same game that the other big guys are playing: a large portfolio is likely to have something to throw back at any non-troll attackers (who actually produce anything) to help neutralize and settle large suits initiated against them.
But when a small company or independent developer files for a small number of patents, there’s no defensive value — they can only be used for offense.
I see no reason to support any small developers who file for patents.
Fuck iA and their products. I’m glad I never bought iA Writer or iA Writer Pro — now I never will.
firehose'environmental and food safety groups are seeking to overturn the EPA’s green-lighting of neonicotinoids in a series of lawsuits that for the first time invoke the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) to protect the bees. “EPA inadequately considered, or ignored entirely, sulfoxaflor’s harm to pollinators and the significant costs that harm will impose on the agricultural economy, food security, and natural ecosystems,” attorneys for the nonprofit Center for Food Safety and other groups argued in a legal brief (PDF) filed in December in litigation aiming to revoke the approval of sulfoxaflor.
Another lawsuit filed in March in federal court in northern California by the Center for Food Safety asks a federal judge to overturn the EPA’s approval of two widely-used neonicotonioid pesticides called clothianidin and thiamethoxam.
Both cases argue that the EPA violated the ESA by failing to adequately consider the impact of the pesticides not just on honey bees but on a host of imperiled wildlife listed as threatened or endangered under federal law—from the Ohlone tiger beetle to the Quino checkerspot butterfly.'
As scientists race to pinpoint the cause of the global collapse of honey bee populations that pollinate a third of the world’s crops, environmental groups have indentified one culprit: US authorities who continue to approve pesticides implicated in the apian apocalypse.
Case in point: The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) conditional approval in May of sulfoxaflor, a type of agricultural pesticide known as a neonicotinoid. The European Union has banned neonicotinoids for two years in response to scientific studies linking their use to the sudden death of entire beehives, a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Over the past six years, CCD has wiped out an estimated 10 million beehives worth $2 billion. Bee colonies in the US are so decimated that it takes 60% of the nation’s bee population to pollinate a single crop, California almonds. And that’s not just a local problem; California supplies 80% of the world’s almonds.
Now environmental and food safety groups are seeking to overturn the EPA’s green-lighting of neonicotinoids in a series of lawsuits that for the first time invoke the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) to protect the bees. “EPA inadequately considered, or ignored entirely, sulfoxaflor’s harm to pollinators and the significant costs that harm will impose on the agricultural economy, food security, and natural ecosystems,” attorneys for the nonprofit Center for Food Safety and other groups argued in a legal brief (PDF) filed in December in litigation aiming to revoke the approval of sulfoxaflor.
Another lawsuit filed in March in federal court in northern California by the Center for Food Safety asks a federal judge to overturn the EPA’s approval of two widely-used neonicotonioid pesticides called clothianidin and thiamethoxam.
Both cases argue that the EPA violated the ESA by failing to adequately consider the impact of the pesticides not just on honey bees but on a host of imperiled wildlife listed as threatened or endangered under federal law—from the Ohlone tiger beetle to the Quino checkerspot butterfly.
The ESA could prove a powerful weapon to wield on behalf of the bees. The law prohibits government agencies from taking any actions that could harm a protected species, requiring them to first consult with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). In the bee cases, environmental groups cite government records to show that the EPA did neither. “For at least one neonicotinoid insecticide, FWS scientists are on record stating ‘EPA is ignoring their duties with respect to consulting with FWS,’ ” the lawsuit states.
If the courts agree, approval of the pesticides could be at least temporarily revoked while the EPA consults with the wildlife agency and conducts a scientific study of the pesticides’ potential impact on protected species. The EPA maintains it properly approved the pesticides. But in August, the agency acknowledged the potentially deleterious impact of the pesticides when it said it would restrict the use of some neonicotinoids around bees.
The litigation also puts a human face on the bee story. Several of the plaintiffs are longtime beekeepers who have seen their decades-old businesses collapse alongside their beehives.
Colorado beekeeper Tom Theobald, for instance, is losing as much as 60% of his bee colonies annually to CCD, while a Florida beekeeper, Bill Rhodes, lost 80% his 9,000 beehives one year.
firehoseeven Google wants to #nevergo to Texas
Rockstar Consortium, a patent-holding company formed from the bankrupt Canadian telecom company Nortel, sued Google and manufacturers of Android phones over patents almost two months ago.
Since Rockstar is part owned by Apple and Microsoft, the move looks like a major escalation of the patent wars that have brewed over Android.
This week, Google filed its counter-attack seeking to invalidate Rockstar's patents. That's a normal step for a defendant in a patent suit. But notably, Google didn't file in the East Texas court in which it was sued. Instead, in a play for venue, Google has sued Rockstar on its home turf in Northern California.
Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments
firehoselooks like the word "drone" is covering all remotely-controlled and autonomous robots and vehicles
Drones will revolutionize transportation. Driverless cars are expected to be on the streets by the end of the decade, and as discussed ad infinitum this month, Amazon wants to deliver products to your doorstep using unmanned aerial systems.
Now, the British engineering group Rolls Royce wants unmanned, remote-controlled ships to transport freight and goods across the seas.
“The idea of a remote-controlled ship is not new, it has been around for decades but the difference is the technology now exists,” Rolls Royce’s head of marine innovation Oskar Levander, told the FT in an interview (paywall). ”It is happening in other industries so it is only logical that it should happen in marine.”
When it comes to predictions about the adoption of new transformative products, technologists have been repeatedly and spectacularly wrong. But that’s usually due to them being too conservative, rather than unduly optimistic. That’s as good a reason as any to believe the drone hype.
Still, there are plenty of hurdles that need to be cleared before drones can crack the mainstream. There’s a long list of reasons why it will be difficult for unmanned aerial drones to be used for residential product deliveries (especially by 2015, which is Amazon’s hopeful start date), including prohibitive costs and strict regulations.
Drone cargo ships face their own obstacles, including inordinately complex international maritime laws. Yet the prospect of significant cost savings and fewer accidents might be enough to entice the industry to continue to pursue the idea.
Ships with no human crew would appear to be highly vulnerable to attacks from pirates. One way to protect them? More drones. The US has been deploying unmanned surveillance planes to ward off pirates off the coast east Africa for years. There are now even drone boats designed specifically to hunt down pirates.
firehose'In Cumberbatch It!, the object of the game is to guide the brooding star through eight levels of increasingly improbable roles. Maybe Cumberbatch will turn heads as a plucky backup quarterback who wins the big game against all odds, or maybe he’ll take on the lead role in a Georgia O’Keeffe biopic. You’ll never know until you Cumberbatch It!'
Part of the young Play The Year tradition is a fanciful interlude featuring games that we wish could exist. Our Play The Year developers worked to transform a few of the year’s events into playable form. (UPDATE: And one of them is still working—the last game has been delayed.) But illustrator Nick Wanserski chooses to live in the realm of the hypothetical, and he has whipped up concept art for four games inspired by the pop culture of 2013. These are the Games That Might Have Been.
Batman: Affleck Origins
It’s the casting choice that launched a thousand furious Internet screeds! In Batman: Affleck Origins, you play as a rogue casting director who must sign the beloved Gigli star to play the world’s most popular superhero, no matter the cost. Run a brutal gauntlet of unrelenting genre fans, each armed with their comprehensive lists of who would make ...
