firehose

Jennie Breeden is the creator of the autobiographical webcomic The Devil’s Panties. She has a BFA in Sequential Art from Savannah College of Art and Design.

There is a board game called Settlers of Catan. That is what I play. I am so embarrassed. My girlfriend plays. My parents, my siblings, they all play. But (Colts left tackle) Anthony Castonzo and his girlfriend know how to play. And then some of the guys I went to Stanford with. There are a fair amount of guys on the team that play it, you know the trainers and such. So we are trying to get a big tournament. It's embarrassing.

No action movie star in the business today moves like Lee Marvin. Marvin was a panther. He was fast and brutal and because he didn't care if he looked cool, he was the coolest man in any movie. Marvin knew that not talking was scarier than talking, that grunting was better than bragging, and that you punch with your whole body if you want someone to go down hard. He knew these things because he lived them: He was a Marine in World War II, he had an anger problem, and when he drank, he got aggressive (and he drank all the time.) I sure wouldn't have wanted to be his friend, but watching Marvin transform his inner demons into movie tough guys is a huge cinematic pleasure.

Dwayne Epstein's biography Lee Marvin: Point Blank is a fairly adoring look at the actor. It's not a myth-making book—Epstein notes that Marvin liked to exaggerate in his interviews to sound more like a tough guy—but it does take Marvin's side. It's a great life story, ranging from the battlefield to the barroom and packed with bad decisions. Marvin was a plumber who got into acting almost as a mistake (he stayed in the plumber's union his whole life, in case the acting thing fell through) and suffered from PTSD for his entire adult life. He screwed over loved ones and he got in over his head a whole lot. These are the kinds of lives you want to read about.

Point Blank opens with an account of Marvin storming out of Lee Strasberg's famous Actor's Studio while bellowing "fuck you!" and it continues in that way through the very last page. Marvin finds success in TV shows, but he gives such honest interviews about his intentions in promotional interviews that it's a wonder he doesn't get fired: "Cops and robbers series sell. You don't make TV shows for fun—you make them for money." And this:

When asked if the show had a message or a purpose, he said, "The purpose is to enable me to get rich so I can quit the show in three years knowing my wife has a paid-up insurance policy of $100,000 and my kids are taken care of. Then I'll go to Tahiti, take it real easy, and do the Gauguin bit with the paints. As for the message, I have only one—watch the show!"

Epstein's writing is clear and simple. There aren't any sentences that will stop you with their beauty, but there aren't any huge clunkers, either. The research is sound, the chronology is breezy, and the subject is world-class. Lee Marvin may have been an asshole, but he was a unique asshole, and in Hollywood, that makes all the difference.

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vamhazkrt:

kerdezzfelelek:

igotnastyhabits:

"Orbán Viktor kései vacsoráját fogyasztja Budapesten"

tapsvihar!

Ez!

caitlynvevo:

Waking up and realizing you have leftovers in the fridge

ilikecomicstoo:

crow821:

adrixu:

Lil Pokemon friends by itsbirdy

I don’t even like pokemon, but this is adorable.

I love Pokemon and I find this adorable!

VexFlow:

VexFlow is an open-source online music notation rendering API. It is written completely in JavaScript, and runs right in the browser. VexFlow supports HTML5 Canvas and SVG.

For scores written in VexTab, a plain text notation format.

Thanks, zoolnotes!

Calca is a powerful symbolic calculator that gives you instant answers as you type. It solves equations and simplifies complex expressions… It’s also a rich Markdown text editor so that you can explain your ideas alongside your calculations.

For iOS, OS X and Windows.

App Store / Mac App Store

paperandwords:

Okay, maybe I am the only one who notices this, but Benedict is wearing the skull tie.

Moriarty wore the Alexander McQueen skull tie………… With the Vivienne Westwood suit………

San Jose's getting money and Google is getting, in effect, its own private airport.

Here's how to keep the social network usable without abandoning it entirely.

Like many children's movies, this Apple holiday ad is actually a lot darker than you might think.

For all the usual complaints—such as “I hate dealing with this company” or “These guys are the worst at customer service”—about the usual suspects from the ranks of cable and Internet providers, airlines, and banks, it turns out they just don’t have much incentive to care.

Using her database of 250 case studies, including 70 "resisters," Druffel has ascertained 9 techniques that witnesses use to ward off alien entities and even break off abductions in progress. And perhaps even more astonishing, this evidence points to the possible true identity of the greys and their link to the abducting entities of myth and folklore.

The life of a budding American lawyer isn’t what TV shows like “L.A. Law” once made it out to be.

Fresh numbers from the American Bar Association show US law school enrollment tumbling 11% over last year to 39,675. That’s the number of full-time and part-time students who started law school studies in the fall of 2013. Overall, enrollment is down 24% from the 2010 peak.

The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog points out that we’re back to 1977 enrollment levels, an era that predated the surging growth of lawyers during the 1980s. The jump in law school enrollment during that time was credited, in part, with the popularity of the television drama “L.A. Law.” As the New York Times wrote back in 1995:

The surge in applications in the late 1980s coincided with something else: the television show, “L.A. Law.” The hit program, which focused on a remarkably good-looking, diverse group of lawyers who led exciting lives in and out of the courtroom, was broadcast from 1986 to 1994, and increased interest in law schools in ways that recruitment brochures probably did not.

More recently, life at US law firms is more akin to the popular reality show “Survivor,” as the broader demand for legal services has never quite regained the pep it had before the Great Recession struck. That has meant real difficulties for those exiting law school. In July 2012, 12% of law school graduates from 2011 were unemployed, compared to 5.8% of students who graduated in 2007, according to research published by Moody’s Investors Service. And quite sensibly, fewer people want to get into the field at the moment.

Some heroes get all the attention. Batman's featured on TV and at the movies all the time, and has 10 comics a week. Even Aquaman had a pilot filmed. But which comic-book hero deserves more appreciation and exposure?

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Why Did 60 Minutes Let the Head of the NSA Fool Its Audience?:

Well, you know why, children. Because journalism is dead in our corporate-owned present.

CBS presented General Alexander’s highly misleading answer in a way that guaranteed viewers would be mislead.

In his question, Miller should have said is something like, “One of the Snowden leaks reported that the NSA intercepted data flowing between the foreign data centers of major Internet firms. Is that right?” The truthful answer would be, “Yes, that’s right.”

Instead, Miller said, “One of the Snowden leaks involved the concept that NSA had tunneled into the foreign data centers of major U.S. Internet providers. Did the leak describe it the right way?” That’s a terrible way to phrase the question if you’re dealing with an NSA employee intent on exploiting any loophole.

And Alexander’s answer still wasn’t totally responsive.

"No, that’s not correct," he began. What’s not correct? The NSA documents that Snowden leaked? The Washington Post story? Miller’s summary of it? It’s left unclear.

Read the article.

It’s not that they’re lying to us. I mean, I don’t like that they are, but I accept that the government is, by necessity, going to attempt to keep certain information from the people, sometimes as a matter of legitimate national security, more often not. I get that.

It’s the part where we’re being lied to when they’ve been caught at it and they’re still doing it. It smacks of repeating a lie over and over again so it becomes the accepted truth. It’s a Fox News move, and CBS is complicit in promoting the same.

Further, this is from 60 Minutes, which some of us remember as being the cutting edge of popular investigative journalism not so very long ago. Couple this with their shameful, intentionally misleading and verifiably inaccurate story about Benghazi, and it begins to look like this is deliberation, not negligence.

There’s this short piece for freepress.net about how CBS is the Poster Child for Conflicts of Interest.

samwanda:

♥ ♥ ♥

The 18-year-old who entered a Colorado high school carrying a pump-action shotgun, a bandolier of shotgun rounds, a machete, and three Molotov Cocktails and shot a classmate on Friday had scrawled a Latin phrase and his plan of attack on his body the day of the shooting, according to a press release from investigators.

Karl Pierson used an "indelible marker" to write the Latin phrase "Alea iacta est," which means "the die has been cast," on the inside of his forearm.

He also wrote five letters and numbers on his arms that correlate with the library where he killed himself and five specific classrooms located in that area. Investigators believe this indicates that he planned to attack areas of the school other than the library.

During a press conference Saturday, Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson said Pierson planned to harm more people than he did. He committed suicide in the school library after a school resource officer confronted him, according to NBC News.

Claire Davis, a 17-year-old student at the school, is in critical condition after Pierson shot her in the head.

Pierson's initial target was reportedly a faculty member at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colo., according to investigators. The faculty member was able to get out of the school after someone alerted him that Pierson was looking for him.

Pierson legally purchased the shotgun used in the attack in Colorado.

The full press release is copied below: 

ARAPAHOE HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING INVESTIGATION SHOOTER PLANNED TO ATTACK AT LEAST FIVE AREAS OF THE SCHOOL

On December 13, 2013, just before 12:33 P.M., a lone and armed individual entered the north entrance of the Arapahoe High School. The individual, armed with a .12 gauge pump action shotgun, immediately randomly fired the weapon upon entering the high school and then fired a second time, causing serious injury to 17 year old Arapahoe High School student Claire Davis. The shooter fired the weapon three additional times, without causing injury to students, faculty or staff. The shooter died as the result of a self-inflicted gunshot while inside the Library/Media Center of the high school. 

The investigation into The Arapahoe High School shooting has determined that the shooter entered the high school armed with a .12 gauge pump action shotgun, and made no effort to conceal the weapon from the view of others. In addition to the shotgun, the shooter also brought three (3) functional molotov cocktails, a machete in a canvas scabbard and more than one-hundred twenty-five (125) rounds of assorted types of (steel-shot, buckshot and slug) shotgun ammunition into the school. The shooter carried numerous rounds of shotgun ammunition in two bandoliers that were worn across his chest and waist, while the remaining items were carried in a backpack worn by the shooter. Although it currently appears that the shooter acted alone, the on-going investigation will include consideration of any individual who may have provided any form of assistance regarding the tragic incident.

While examining the shooter’s body, with the assistance of the Arapahoe County Coroner’s Office, investigators determined that the shooter had used an indelible marker to write a phrase in Latin on the inside of his forearm. The Latin phrase is “Alea iacta est,” which translates to English as “The Die Has Been Cast.” In addition to the Latin phrase, the shooter had also written five separate letters/numbers on his arm, numbers which correlate directly with the identification of the Library and specific classrooms located in the immediate area of Library/Media Center of the Arapahoe High School. The letters/numbers written on the shooters arm is an indicator to investigators of the shooter’s plan. Teams of Sheriff’s Office Investigators will attempt to determine the relevance of the list of numbers written on the shooter’s arm to specific classrooms, while closely evaluating if the occupants of those classrooms may have also been targeted for harm by the shooter. 

The investigation into the December 13, 2013 shooting at Arapahoe High School continues. The robust and on-going investigation into the Arapahoe High School shooting is being conducted in a deliberate and methodical manner. Additional investigative resources from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are assisting with the vast responsibilities associated with the complex investigation.

Additional information will be provided as details are available.

Join the conversation about this story »

The Freehouse, Minneapolis. [Photo: Katie Cannon / EAMPLS]

Here's one way to get customers to try a microbrew: Eater MPLS reports that The Freehouse opened its doors yesterday offering a menu with $7 tall boys of beers like Coors Light, PBR, and Bud Light while their own microbrews only cost $6. The pricey beers are listed in a section of the Freehouse menu called "Guest Cans," while "Guest Beers" (like Ommegang Three Philosophers and Stone Arrogant Bastard) are on tap at $8 for a 16 ounce pour.

[Screengrab: The Freehouse]

On Twitter, the co-owner of Freehouse Stephanie Shimp suggests a reason why the surprisingly high prices work for her brewpub: "Why would anyone even 'want' a National brand at a local brewery!" Of course, her logic leaves a question as to why her brewery included those beers on the menu in the first place. Still, it does seem like a novel marketing idea.

By way of comparison, a Minneapolis discount liquor store is selling 18-packs of Bud Light tall boys for $13.98 which puts the cost of a can at under a dollar. Not surprisingly, the inflated pricing is already drawing criticism. Local food website Heavy Table joined the Twitter fray, accusing Freehouse of bringing "Trendy NYC beer prices" to the Midwest. Twitter user @sextusmaximus did some mental math, claiming: "Kinda hungover after 12 cans of Coors Lights @FreehouseMpls last night. Only $84 plus tax and tip. Sorry kids, no Santa this year." As of publishing, the $7 prices are still live on Freehouse's online menu, and there doesn't seem to be any sign that the menu prices will change.

· The Freehouse Is Charging $7 for Cans of Coors Light [Eater MPLS]
· The Freehouse Drinks Menu [Official]
· All Beer Coverage on Eater [-E-]

Here's a useful graph to keep handy for the next time Fox News airs a report about food stamp users buying lobster with their benefits.

This month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics compared yearly spending between families that use public assistance programs, such as food stamps and Medicaid, and families that don't. And surprise, surprise, households that rely on the safety net lead some pretty frugal lifestyles. On average, they spend $30,582 in a year, compared to $66,525 for families not on public assistance. Meanwhile, they spend a third less on food, half as much on housing, and 60 percent less on entertainment.

These figures, drawn from the 2011 Consumer Expenditure Survey, don't capture all non-cash perks some low-income families get from the government, such as healthcare coverage through Medicaid. But they give you a sense of the kind of tight finances these families deal with.

Take the food budget: There were, on average, 3.7 people in each family on public assistance (I know, that sounds weird, but bear with me). So that $6,460 spent on food comes out to about $34 per person, per week. Not exactly a shellfish budget. 

(h/t Kate Gallagher Robbins)

Now it looks like Jay Z and Grimes have more than just being bad vegans in common. The rapper’s Roc Nation management company announced via tweet that the Canadian musician has been added to their roster. In a Tumblr post following the announcement, Grimes throws up an Illuminati hand sign (in a move that will fuel conspiracy theorists for years to come) and says that she’s “joined the x men.” Roc Nation is also home to fellow indie stars Haim, M.I.A., and Santigold. Grimes is currently working on the followup to 2012′s Visions.

Apparently negotiations between Snowpiercer director Bong Joon-Ho and producer Harvey Weinstein have broken down, because Playlist is reporting that Weinstein refuses to release the movie in North America at all unless he gets to give it what many in the industry call "the full Blade Runner."

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Is your sex life against the law? Better make sure. We've painstakingly compiled a map of all the most biarre and unnecessary laws regulating what you do, with whom, and where. Check out our complete map of all the weirdest laws regulating sex in America below.

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