firehose

Brontë

"Look, Charlie, let’s face it. We all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket. It’s run by a big eastern syndicate, you know.”

Team Coco has created this funny supercut video of news reporters saying “It’s Ok, you can admit it if you bought a Christmas gift or two, or ten, for yourself.”

Local news people agree: it’s okay to be a little selfish this Christmas. Just admit it!

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

The Guardian

School named after KKK leader will be renamed USA TODAY The school board in Jacksonville, Florida voted to change the name of a high school named for KKK leader Nathan Bedford Forrest. Loading… Post to Facebook. School named after KKK leader will be renamed on USATODAY.com: http://usat.ly/JEsMmf. Florida high school named after KKK leader gets new identityDetroit Free Press The Duval County School board unanimously voted to change the name of ...First Coast News KKK-named school finally getting rebrandedMSNBC Florida Times-Union -BBC News -Slate Magazine (blog) all 180 news articles »

The creators of the stunning Girl with the Dragon Tattoo title sequence were also the masters behind Thor: The Dark World's prologue battle. And now Blur Studio has unleashed a fantastic VFX that shows how the stunning battle between Malekith and Odin's father, King Bor. Watch the almost entirely CG creation come to life!

Read more...

Full disclosure: Google loaned me a Nexus 7 in the hopes I’d say this.

Google’s Nexus 7 tablet is one of those things of which I can say: This is the thing you want at the price you want it.

And contained in its low-priced wonderfulness are the seeds of Apple’s unraveling.

What tablets are for

I’ve never owned an Android anything. I was handed a review copy of a Nexus 7 at a Google press event. By necessity I’m an early adopter of (some) technologies, and when I was ready to buy a smartphone, Android was so immature that only people with an ideological aversion to Apple were on it. Apple locked me in early, and its first mover advantage in mobile is the reason the company continues to be a cash factory. Once you’ve bought into an ecosystem, whether it’s Google’s, Apple’s or (possibly) Amazon’s, there are strong incentives to stick with what you’ve got.

But tablets aren’t phones. For most of us, we’re not locked into anything in particular on a tablet.

I realize this depends on what you do with a tablet. But most of us are streaming movies, browsing the web and using a handful of apps to read things or check up on social media. Nothing mission critical, and mostly with apps that are free. Tablets are for those lean-back hours we spend consuming media by ourselves while our other family members are each in their own media bubbles, because that’s what this world comes to.

Unless you are hugely invested in your library of games or need a specific piece of productivity software that’s only on iOS, the notion that the iPad Mini is noticeably better for the tasks that we really use tablets for is absurd. The Nexus 7 has a gorgeous screen, as good or better than the one on the iPad Mini. And the Nexus 7 is more portable. For a walk down to the coffee shop, I can slip it into my back pocket and leave the man purse at home. It’s just big enough to display media as most of us would like. Yes, I realize some people like the larger screen of the Mini. But is it a deal-breaker?

The Nexus 7 is now less than half the price of the iPad Mini Retina

If you’re in the US and you live near an Office Depot, you can pick up a Nexus 7 for $180, while the iPad Mini Retina is $400. Even if you’ve never touched an Android device before, the $220 you’ve saved versus the iPad Mini Retina offsets many times over the few shekels you might spend buying apps for your new tablet. You could also buy a regular iPad Mini, but once you’ve become used to a high-resolution display for reading and watching videos, I suspect you’ll never want to go back.

What it all means for Apple

Android versus iOS really is PCs versus Macs all over again, only this time Apple’s foe is vastly more interested in user experience than Microsoft ever was. There are some subtle things I don’t like about the Nexus 7, including, for example, the seemingly imperceptible but actually important difference between Apple’s tablets and phones and Google’s in terms of responsiveness to touch.

But the gap has closed. Android is the equal of iOS in the one way that matters: It just works. Tech pundits can sit around stroking their beards and debating whether or not they prefer the aesthetics of iOS 7 or Android KitKat, but these distinctions are lost on the public. Apple continues to sell iPhones and iPads because that’s what people have bought so far. Google will rent you movies and sell you music and all the apps you care about are on both platforms and work equally well on either. Plus, if you’re a Google Apps user (gmail, calendar, etc.), the ability to mainline these on a Google-native device is a nice bonus.

Apple is now asking us to pay a 100% markup for a device that, for most people, simply isn’t all that different from the competition. The tablet and phone space has been conquered and commodified. Apple can remain a luxury brand, but considering how many other gadgets out there are worth putting your dollars toward, like a really great phone or a wearable that could change your life, it’s hard to see why we should spend more on a tablet. At this point, the differences between tablets just don’t matter that much—they’re the televisions of the mobile world. And the precipitous drop in Apple’s market share of tablets reflects that.

Coda: Today’s the day I switch off my review Nexus 7 and ship it back to Google. The fact that I’ll be buying one for myself—and that it’s the one non-Apple device in my personal tech ecosystem—tells you what I thought of it as an experience.

Even if the rent isn’t too damn high, it’s definitely higher.

Rising US rents were one of the few parts of today’s consumer price data that bucked the overall trend of soft price increases.

The key gauge of housing costs in the consumer price index is something known as “owners’ equivalent rent” or OER. Basically, this is an estimate of what it would cost homeowners if they wanted to rent the house they lived in. (In consumption data, homeownership is tricky because it’s something of a blend of consumption and investment.)

And this measure is on the rise, jumping 2.4% over the prior year in November. 

​

This is important. For one thing, OER is pretty influential in setting overall inflation numbers. (It accounts for about 32% of CPI, according to Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics.)

What does that mean?

It means the fact that OER is on the rise will likely give the Federal Reserve some comfort that while inflation remains quite low, we’re not likely to slip into outright deflation anytime soon.

And that could give the US central bank a bit more confidence that now is a good time to start easing up on its heavy-duty bond-buying program (i.e. the much-anticipated taper, which could theoretically be unveiled as soon as tomorrow at the conclusion of the monetary policy meeting the Fed is holding right now).

Interstellar Selfie Station ⊟

In case you didn’t see this blow up last week, Interstellar Selfie Station is a super cute app from Christine Love (Digital, Hate Plus) — Kill Screen calls it “Instagram meets Game Boy Camera”. Essentially it uses your computer’s camera to take photos/GIFs of you with lofi Game Boy-style filters.

Gonna post it here even if it’s late, though, because 1.) it’s coming to iOS/Android next Spring, and I want there to be an eShop version; 2.) I found that neat GIF from Drawings and Words; and 3.) this quote from Christine in a Daily Dot interview:

“What I like about the Interstellar Selfie Station is that it gives you just a little bit more control over how you look, and I’ve noticed this blowing up on my Twitter feed: Suddenly that makes people who are otherwise terrified to post pictures of themselves seem a lot more confident.

With my phone’s super-high resolution, high-colour 8-megapixel camera, it’s got enough detail to show all my pores and how uneven my complexion is and how messed up my hair is and whatever else.

Four colours isn’t enough for that. In four colours, every picture looks super flattering, and the weird outer-space colour schemes just add a little bit more distance, so there’s far less to worry about.”

Try it out here.

BUY Game Boy Camera, upcoming games, our holiday gift guide

China deserves all the congratulations in the world for landing its first spacecraft on the Moon. It's a big deal – both for China and humanity at large. But can somebody please explain why the background image at this exhibit for China's recently deployed Yutu Rover depicts a massive mushroom cloud over Europe?

Read more...

It's considered a Japanese national treasure, but the colors on an 8th century statue of the Buddhist deity Shukongojin have all but faded. Now, using computer graphics technology, a joint team from Tokyo has brought its vivid colors back to life.

Read more...

theodp writes "In another case of Microsoft's-loss-is-Google's-gain, GeekWire reports that Google has made a big hire from Microsoft, bringing aboard TED crowd-pleaser Blaise Agüera y Arcas, the well-known software architect and designer who was among the Redmond company's elite ranks of distinguished engineers. Known for his work on services including Photosynth and Bing Maps, Agüera y Arcas called the move 'the hardest decision of my life'. A stunning preview of Photosynth was released by Microsoft last week, and TED just released a video of Agüera y Arcas demonstrating the technology at a conference earlier this year."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Collin Donnell:

Without a way to try an app before purchasing, getting rid of app reviews entirely doesn’t make any sense. The 1–5 star rating part of reviews though? Kill it and leave these options for reviews:

• The ability to leave a written review with a title and subject.
• The ability to mark other reviews useful or not.

Great idea.

Five-star ratings have been dysfunctional since long before the “Rate This App” annoyance plague (not just at Apple — Amazon’s and Netflix’s don’t work, either), and written comments are much more helpful when comparing or evaluating apps. It’s important that the reviews still be sorted first by descending app version, though, to prevent ancient reviews from effectively being pinned to the top forever (like we see in iTunes reviews for podcasts).

This wouldn’t kill “Rate This App” dialogs, though — they would just change to “Review This App”. But it would make it harder for fraudulent or solicited ratings to appear substantial or have a strong effect on sales.

∞ Permalink

The first ever Stumptown Comics Festival took place in 2004, at the Old Church in downtown Portland. Around 150 people reportedly attended. In the nine years since, the festival has grown exponentially, playing host to hundreds of comic book creators and thousands of fans, and moving from PSU and the Doubletree to ultimately land at the Oregon Convention Center.

It's also seen its share of controversy—last year, I wrote an article identifying some of the festival's major problems, including poor planning and outreach and a seeming lack of coherence around the festival's overall identity. Though it was founded as a "creator focused" festival (meaning that the emphasis is on writers and artists, rather than media companies and celebrities), there also seemed to increasingly be an appetite for a more pop-culture minded show, attracting people more likely to dress up in a Spider-Man unitard than to seek out obscure small-press titles. (The two audiences are not mutually exclusive, of course. Erik Henriksen is both.)

It's not particularly surprising, then, to learn that Stumptown Comics, Inc—the festival's organizing body, which attained nonprofit status last year—has cancelled the Stumptown Comics Festival, and is folding its activities under the umbrella of Rose City Comic Con, a big new pop culture show with ties to Seattle's Emerald City Comic Con. (Got that? After only two years, Rose City has both successfully partnered with Seattle's beloved show, and gobbled up a local rival. Impressive.) According to a press release, Stumptown will be "moving its panel programming and the annual Stumptown Comic Arts awards to Rose City Comic Con in September while the group's board of directors works on a new schedule of Stumptown community events to debut in 2015."

Stumptown Chair Shawna Gore cites cost as a major reason for ending the festival, along with difficulties in finding the right venue. (I've heard this complaint time and time again from local event organizers—everyone hates the Convention Center, and no one can think of a better option for big to mid-sized events.)

"After trying for years to make a convention-style presentation work for us, we realized we were locked into a model that has prevented us from making progress toward our other goals," Gore explained. "We can either keep doing what we've been doing all along, or we can take a break to shift and try to find a model that works better for us. But with our small, all-volunteer board (six people total, two of which have largely been serving on a consulting-only basis) and tiny budget, we can't do both."

When asked for specifics on what the organization's future will look like, Gore said, "We're beginning to explore other models of presenting programming outside of convention-style events; one possibility, for example, would be a guest lecture series, similar to what Portland Literary Arts does. We also want to talk to educators at all levels (grade school through college) to try and form new partnerships in local schools to bring comics education directly to students." (Per their mission statement, Stumptown is a "a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to fostering a wider appreciation of the artistic, cultural, and educational value of the comics art form, through public events, educational workshops, and other activities.")

I asked Gore how she thought Stumptown would fit in with the more pop-culture minded Rose City, and if she thought it would be possible to preserve Stumptown's identity in the absence of its own festival. "Rose City Comic Con has a much wider reach than Stumptown does, but it includes our core audience of comics readers and creators," she said. "As a convention we chose to emphasize a creator focus because we wanted to be clear that the Fest wasn't a place where attendees would be meeting celebrities involved with comics properties, but rather the people who actually make comics. Rose City's attendance for the 2013 show was nearly ten times Stumptown's — so we can only gain from that. I firmly believe that comics is growing increasingly inclusive as both an arts medium and a hobby; for the most part, people who read and create indie comics also like sci-fi TV shows, so I don't think we're turning our backs on anyone."

So it's time to stop thinking of Stumptown Comics as synonymous with "Comics festival," and start keeping an eye on how Stumptown Comics, Inc, chooses to define itself in the next few years. And all is not lost for fans of small/indie shows—there's the Projects, the great show organized by Floating World Comics' Jason Leivian, and we'll have details on another exciting new comics-related venture later this week.

*Tee hee, couldn't resist. I AM SO BAD I KNOW

**Update: In an email, Gore clarified that "Stumptown remains an independent organization, and we are not merging operationally with Rose City.... We don't want to give the impression that we are merging our overall organizations. " So don't get that impression! Stumptown will be doing programming at Rose City, and Stumptown Comics, Inc, will continue to operate as an independent entity.

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djempirical

HIT ME WITH YOUR OFFERS

Hello,
I have well over 100+ crates of great records ranging from Micheal Jackson Off the wall all the way to The Beatles,Elvis Presley,The Rolling Stones, The Game, SWV, Tank, 2PAC, and MORE.....

I am a lover of records
Combine all the records I have Its well over $100,000+ worth of vinyl records.

I am looking for great trade offers long as its fair
I have done trades both trading up and trading down BUT ONLY FAIR TRADES
I have also sold up and sold down BUT ONLY FOR THE RIGHT PRICE
I am willing to sale my collection for $65,000 cash also will do OBO

My past record collections have be used for all types of different uses LIKE: ART PROJECTS (sold for $350,000), DJ USE (sold for $78,000), MUSIC CLASS Sold for $40,000), AND MORE (sold for $500,000)

My Interest of trade is Property (BEAUTIFUL HOUSES), Beautiful CARS/Trucks, OR WHAT EVER YOU HAVE TO OFFER

Hit me with your offer

LETS MAKE A DEAL
HIT ME WITH YOUR OFFERS

Original Source

kenshiro28:

gentlemanbones:

gamefreaksnz:

Reddit user Auir2blaze made this graphic showing how much classic consoles would cost in today’s dollars.

From this standpoint, 599 US DOLLARS doesn’t seem like a big deal anymore. But wow is the Wii a solid purchase.

Oh my god dat 3DO price I remember hearing it was a rip-off but fuck

slvs-shll-srv:

Behemoth - Blow Your Trumpets, Gabriel

Mike Doughty found fame as the frontman for Soul Coughing, releasing a bunch of great records in the mid-'90s before splitting as Y2K approached. Doughty quickly jumped into a solo career, and didn't do much looking back until recently: This year, Doughty revisited his Soul Coughing days by re-recording some of the band's albums solo-style for an album with an incredibly long title. For Holiday Undercover, Doughty grabbed a song that we thought would have been covered here ages ago: Run-DMC's classic "Christmas In Hollis." Doughty has dub plates made for his solo shows, and this one fit the song perfectly. (Check out the interview about "Christmas In Hollis" that we did with DMC last week, too.) Enjoy, and happy holidays.

In a year spent learning programming code, I internalized a new logic, a different way of looking at information.

Apple just posted their holiday iPhone commercial:

This is what I’m talking about. It’s not about specs, it’s not about thinness, it’s about what those physical properties make possible for real people.

Now please do the same for the iPad (which has always been harder to advertise).

Previously:

• Whither Liberal Arts link
• The Magical iPad link
• Whose iPad Life link

---

UPDATE: While reaction around the web is largely positive, I’ve also seen a fair bit of snark along the lines of “Apple is promoting recording your family over actually spending time with your family”, or something to that effect. And, I suppose it is true that it’s advantageous from Apple’s perspective for incessant iPhone use to be seen as a good thing.

But I think that’s a touch too cynical, and misses the impact of this ad. What make this ad so powerful is that it is so, so real. Oh sure, the perfection of the recording and the happy coincidence of the grandparents having an AppleTV is perhaps not so plausible, but the idea of a teenage son being disconnected, yet ultimately, deep down inside, still caring, will touch the soul of parents – and young adults – in a way few ads ever will. This shot captures it:

There are countless moms and dads out there who desperately want to connect with their children, who fear the best days are already past, and worry about the kind of person they are becoming.

On the flipside, how many young people – including, I’d wager, many reading this blog – have parents who just don’t get us, who see technology as a threat, best represented by that “can-you-put-that-damn-thing-down-and-join-us-in-the-real-world!?” smartphone in our hands, without any appreciation that it’s that phone and the world it represents that has allowed us to find ourselves and become the person we know they wanted us to be? And that we do care, just in a way that makes sense to us and can’t they see that?

By letting go of tangible product features – and, by exploiting a brand promise developed over the last decade¹ – Apple is associating its flagship product with the happy resolution of that deep-seated longing on both sides, resulting in an emotion far more real than any possible articulation of a feature or spec.

This is advertising at its finest.

1. This is the necessary precondition that makes it impossible for most companies to pull off an ad like this

The post Misunderstood appeared first on stratēchery by Ben Thompson.

The European Central Bank will introduce a new €10 note next month. To spice up this rather mundane event, the bank—masquerading as a Frankfurt-based startup out to disrupt the banknote space—is turning to gamification. To familiarize buyers and sellers with the note’s new features, the ECB launched an online clone of the video game Tetris, in which achieving a certain score unlocks details about new security features.

It’s the latest in a surprisingly crowded field of interactive games produced by central banks. Most aim to teach young people about basic economic concepts—inflation, interest rates and the like. Although these games won’t trouble sales of the Xbox One or PS4, they fulfill a particular need—for those times when you wistfully scan the agenda of central bank conferences like “Heterogeneity in currency areas and macroeconomic policies” and crave a piece of the action.

Below is Quartz’s guide to the current crop of central bank games. Scores range from one to five gold bars, with five representing a rock-solid safe haven currency and one a flimsy fiat regime ripe for devaluation.

Strategy and puzzles

Escape from Barter Islands (Cleveland Federal Reserve)

Shipwrecked on the seemingly idyllic Barter Islands, you quickly realize that these windswept lands hide a terrible secret: The lack of a monetary system. This makes buying a replacement oar, sail and other equipment for your boat torture, as you scramble to trade a wide range of unrelated items with single-minded islanders to get what you want before the sun sets and markets close. Wouldn’t it be easier if we all just agreed on a common, portable medium of exchange? Yes, yes it would.

VERDICT: Nice animation, but lacking in atmospherics. Addresses a debate long since settled, even in the 8-13 year-old target market.
​ ​

Ten-euro note Tetris (European Central Bank)

A four-level Tetris clone, with each level corresponding to new security features in the upcoming revamp of the €10 note—finish a level and your reward is a factoid about banknote security. The highest 20 scores by Jan. 12 will get a special “VIP banknote” personally signed by ECB president Mario Draghi.

VERDICT: Tetris is fun, so this is fun. But it’s not as educational as other offerings, unless you work in the printing industry.

* * *

Role-playing and simulation

€conomia (European Central Bank)

The ECB’s entry in the you-be-the-chairman series, a staple of the genre, now in its second edition. Your goal is to set interest rates in order to keep annual inflation just under 2% over a period of eight years. An in-game dashboard lets you test your theories against projections for inflation, production and money growth. Unpredictable economic shocks, a fickle press and a squabbling board that often gives you contradictory advice make for a surprisingly realistic simulation of life as Mario Draghi. Also available for iOS.

VERDICT: It’s a pioneer of the central bank gaming genre and remains one of the best.

Euro Cash Academy (European Central Bank)

A Steely Dan-inspired tune puts a spring in your step as you stroll through an unidentified European town square, learning about the new features of the “Europa” series of euro banknotes. You are escorted, appropriately enough, by Europa herself, who is quite keen to tell you all about the finer points of serial numbers, watermarks and holograms. Careful reconnaissance pays off during the quiz round, in which you must answer six questions to win Europa’s favor. Or something. Also available for iOS and Android devices.

VERDICT: A free-roaming platform like Grand Theft Auto, but with less violence and more notaphily.

Fed Chairman Game (San Francisco Federal Reserve)

“Think you have what it takes to steer the country’s central bank?” this game asks at the outset. Well, do you? It’s a simple but effective simulation of running the Federal Reserve: Set interest rates in response to trends in prices and unemployment, aiming to keep inflation around 2%. Succeed over a four-year period and bask in the glory of reappointment as chairman.

VERDICT: Not as rich an experience as €conomia, but serves the same purpose. Could use an update to reflect monetary policy in the age of quantitative easing and the zero lower bound.

Inflation Island (European Central Bank)

Similar to “Euro Cash Academy,” this is an open world ripe for exploration. Set the inflation gauge on anything from deflation to hyperinflation and see how the islanders react. Interestingly, the devastation and despair wrought by hyperinflation stands in stark contrast to the mild annoyance generated by deflation.

VERDICT: Dig the moody soundtrack and embedded historical videos from Weimar Germany, 1940s Hungary and other troubled economic episodes. The game play, however, is a little dull on anything aside from the sadistic “hyperinflation” setting.

* * *

Action and adventure

The Monetary Policy Balloon (Bank of England)

The Bank of England employs meteorological metaphors to explain price stability in this straightforward side-scroller. Keep your hot air balloon at or near a certain altitude—which corresponds with 2% annual inflation—as the economic winds try to blow you off course. The metaphors are a bit tortured—a busy factory generates smoke which heats the air and causes your balloon to rise—but effective enough.

VERDICT: Surprisingly tricky to keep that darn balloon steady—I don’t envy you, Captain Carney. Could use some background music to enliven the somewhat monotone narration.

Top Floor (European Central Bank)

The drama of this game is made clear in the opening splash screen: “The ECB’s Governing Council is meeting to decide on interest rates for the euro area. Your mission? Collect the seven briefing documents and deliver them to the Council.” Try to ignore your pounding pulse and answer a series of questions about the inner workings of euro zone institutions in order to collect the necessary documents and unlock new floors on the elevator. Photorealistic graphics and a touch of humor provide a touch of levity to this otherwise solemn mission.

VERDICT: Despite being the slickest of the central bank games,  it’s a bit too easy to resort to the elevator helpline phone for sure-fire hints to answer thorny questions.

Bitcoin may have its problems, but it is still a more solid alternative currency than one introduced in Finland today.

In a quaint Christmas promotion, Finnish long-distance bus operator Matkahuolto announced that passengers could exchange gingerbread cookies for a one-way ticket to travel today (link in Finnish). The only rules were that the cookie’s decoration needed to show the desired origin and destination, and it needed to be edible. Eager bus riders have been posting photos of their creations on Twitter under the hashtag #piparilippu (roughly, “cookie-ticket.”) The longest routes run into the hundreds of euros, so taking the time to bake your own ticket could represent a big return.

Demand fast outstripped supply. The bus operator boosted its initial allocation of gingerbread-swappable tickets from 500 to 1,000, but these too were quickly snapped up. Scores of lovingly baked cookies were turned away at the ticket window by early morning (video in Finnish). State-owned broadcaster Yle reported on the travails of one spurned passenger:

“I was up baking the Matkahuolto ticket until 10pm last night, and I woke up today at 6 so that I could get a free ticket to Helsinki,” Minna from Jyväskylä told the local Yle service. “Five people were in front of me when they put a note at the ticket desk. I am going to buy a train ticket to Helsinki as a protest.”

Disgruntled bakers-cum-bus riders are now taking to Twitter, dubbing the fiasco #piparigate, a strange amalgam of Finnish and Nixonian English terminology. Some put a lot of effort into their “tickets”—a few of the highlights are below. Despite the failure of Finland’s limited experiment with a gingerbread-backed monetary system, it did have one clear advantage over more established alternative currency regimes: You can’t eat a bitcoin.

Täältä lähettiin #piparilippu #matkahuolto #ekatalo http://t.co/IwRyRg4Yx8—
pentu (@pentune) December 17, 2013

Kollegamatkustajan taidonnäyte. #piparilippu #piparigate #pipari http://t.co/yziCHRt5Ed—
Noora Haapanen (@Noora_H) December 17, 2013

Pitäisköhän hakee Nooran kans #piparilippu Matkahuollosta tiistaina http://t.co/9h6EtKVzmg—
Eve (@liveve308) December 13, 2013

 

Metallica recently made history by performing a live concert in Antarctica on December 8th, 2013. After completing the concert, they became the first band to perform a concert on all seven continents in a single year. Metallica rocked out 10 songs under a small dome at the Carlini Station for their cold-weather concert, which the band titled “Freeze ‘Em All.” A large group of Coca-Cola Zero contest winners and scientists were in attendance and, to help prevent noise pollution, listened to the live music through headphones. Music from the “Freeze ‘Em All” concert is available to purchase from Metallica’s online store.

Here is footage of the hour-long live concert in Antarctica:

We made history as the first and only band to play on all 7 continents in the same year! http://t.co/QT5F9dU996 pic.twitter.com/cWtjSY4EEF

— Metallica (@Metallica) December 10, 2013

A sneak peek of tomorrow's venue in #Antarctica. #FreezeEmAll #TrappedUnderIce pic.twitter.com/FZ7xwR47uU

— Metallica (@Metallica) December 8, 2013

Setlist & pics are up from today's gig in #Antarctica! http://t.co/s128Md2sh8 #FreezeEmAll pic.twitter.com/L9pkuGIeKN

— Metallica (@Metallica) December 8, 2013

photos by Ross Halfin

videos via MetallicaTV, and AleX StorM

via Billboard

New Orleans might pull the plug on a man who once kicked it into a Super Bowl.

The New Orleans Saints are approaching their most important game of the season, and are thinking about benching kicker Garrett Hartley before it, according to ESPN.com.

With a game against the Carolina Panthers in the wings, coach Sean Payton is not too confident in the kicking game. When talking about Garrett Hartley's performance last week - in which he missed two field goals including having one blocked from short range - Payton was blunt. Per the piece:

"The kicking game, we can't kick a field goal. You know, we have one blocked, which was a low trajectory kick. The other one we just shanked to the left."

The former Super Bowl champion has struggled all season despite kicking inside the dome, missing eight of his 30 attempts. Earlier in the year the Saints brought in five different kickers to take a look at, including Shayne Graham and Neil Rackers. Ultimately none were signed, but still remain available in case New Orleans wants to revisit the situation.

Should the Saints beat the Panthers, they would lock up the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs. If they lose, they would need to win in Week 17 and hope for a Carolina loss.

More from SB Nation NFL

• Debrief: Brady and the Patriots run out of luck (for now)

• Seahawks shutout costs Washington car dealer $420,000

• Takeaways: Eliminations and collapses | 2014 NFL draft order

• Mike Shanahan walks out of press conference | Tom Brady, too

• NFL Week 15 updates, highlights and GIFs | Scoreboard

Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "The Washington Post reports that in Germany, Amazon's second-biggest market behind the United States, hundreds of Amazon.com workers went on strike just as pre-Christmas sales were set to peak, in a dispute over pay and conditions that has raged for months. Amazon, which employs 9,000 warehouse staff members in Germany plus 14,000 seasonal workers at nine distribution centers, says that 1,115 employees joined the strike at three sites. 'Amazon must realize it cannot export its anti-union labor model to European shores. We call on the company to come to the table and sign a global agreement that guarantees the rights of workers,' says Philip Jennings of the global trade union UNI. Verdi organized several short stoppages this year to try to force Amazon to accept collective-bargaining agreements ... The union says Amazon workers receive lower wages than others in retail and mail-order jobs and that other retailers pay overtime, but Amazon does not. 'What Amazon is doing is taking this American race-to-the-bottom roadshow to Germany and trying it out on our German brothers and sisters,' says David Freiboth. Amazon has defended its wage policies, saying that employees earn toward the upper end of the pay scale of logistics companies in Germany. Amazon also says it prefers to address employment issues with worker councils at individual sites rather than through negotiations with the union. Amazon says that there have been no delays to deliveries ... adding that Amazon uses its whole European logistics network during the Christmas period to ensure delivery times. A delegation of German workers was set to rally at Amazon's headquarters in Seattle along with U.S. unions. 'We're standing in solidarity with them. We are asking that Amazon respect the union there in Germany and negotiate in a way that is acceptable to Verdi,' says Kathy Cummings of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, which was also attending the protest in Seattle."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.