cold fjord writes "The Washington Examiner reports, 'Oregon ... signed up just 44 people for insurance through November, despite spending more than $300 million on its state-based exchange. The state's exchange had the fewest sign-ups in the nation, according to a new report today by the Department of Health and Human Services. The weak number of sign-ups undercuts two major defenses of Obamacare from its supporters. One defense was that state-based exchanges were performing a lot better than the federal healthcare.gov website servicing 36 states. But Oregon's website problems have forced the state to rely on paper applications to sign up participants. Another defense of the Obama administration has attributed the troubled rollout of Obamacare to the obstruction of Republican governors who wanted to see the law fail as well as a lack of funding. But Oregon is a Democratic state that embraced Obamacare early and enthusiastically.'"
The great irony is that we got what we wanted from the stream: a way to read and watch outside the editorial control of editors, old Yahoo-style cataloging, and Google bots. But when the order of the media cosmos was annihilated, freedom did not rush into the vacuum, but an emergent order with its own logic. We discovered that the stream introduced its own kinds of compulsions and controls. Faster! More! Faster! More! Faster! More!
I’m not on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or SnapChat. I’m on Twitter.
Twitter used to be fun, but it’s not fun anymore and it’s never going to be fun again.
Years ago Twitter was the street corner where we all hung out. Craig Hockenberry and Loren Brichter — Twitter app developers — would pull up on their skateboards and show us cool new tricks.
We felt like it wasn’t just a thing-to-do: we felt like we were on to something. There was something new to discover.
It took years for me to learn that the feeling of being on to something is a pretty easy illusion to create. I stopped reading Twitter several months ago and haven’t missed it. I still pay attention to mentions and sometimes I reply — because I don’t want to be a jerk, and I think it’s important for people who make things to be accessible.
The 140-character stream is where things not worth saying, and not worth reading, thrive. It’s where things actually worth saying get over-simplified and then get lost, if they get said at all.
via Russian Sledges I hope it smells like the inside of a Target
It all started with a conversation at Guts and Glory; If Helvetica was a perfume, what would it smell like? In unison, they decided that it would smell like nothing. So, Guts and Glory set out to embrace nothingness in a perfume form, Helvetica, The Perfume
"Bottles printed in real 24K gold inks and black on black letterpressed boxes were the appropriate expression of this idea, drawing on the opulent cues of the perfume industry, further fetishizing the idea of Helvetica. We love the provocative nature of the statement: The scent of nothing. This is a design object rooted in super nerdy design humor (which we love.) It's an idea and a point of view, not a real perfume in the traditional sense."
We feel that Guts and Glory have embodied the packaging industry, "the power of design to create desire as well as poking fun at ourselves and the industry we work in."
"While Helvetica The Perfume is an homage to a typeface loved (and hated) the world over, we think the idea of a perfume inspired by nothingness is bigger than recontextualizing a typeface. What does nothing actually smell like? We hope that this product makes people think about everything from the concept of nothingness to the beautiful absurdity of the perfume category.
We are graphic designers who specialize in branding and we are leveraging the power of design to create desire as well as poking fun at ourselves and the industry we work in. It is, after all, just packaging. But as designers we see the beauty and art in packaging. We are collectors and catalogers of these objects which are essentially meant to be tossed after opening"
Why Helvetica:
"Helvetica is one of the most ubiquitous fonts in use. It was designed with very specific cultural reasons in mind: to create a highly legible and completely neutral expression of the Modernist design movement. Helvetica was to have no intrinsic meaning, allowing the content to convey the message. We wanted to explore those reasons and the love/hate relationship with Helvetica by putting it into an entirely different, and quite honestly, amazingly absurd category of perfume. It is in this spirit that we created the ultimate Modernist perfume–a scent distilled down to it's purest and most essential elements to allow you, the content, to convey the message with utmost clarity.
Target audience:
"Our target is anyone who appreciates design and art objects. Font lovers, collectors, culture makers. This is an object for fetishizing, it is a manifestation of an idea that we found both provocative and also quite funny."
For the 2012 Paragon Annual Holiday Mailer, Paragon opted to design a collectible, entirely custom deck of playing cards.
"The goal was to incorporate the symbolism and philosophies surrounding the Classical Greek Elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water and once we began digging into the rich history of these concepts, we decided the only way to do it right was to allow each traditional kingdom to represent the corresponding elements. Earth took Diamonds, Air Clubs, Hearts became Fire and Spades Water.
Traditional icons were incorporated into the face cards as well as new embellishments like Latin text and the complex visual language of the elements. The backs of the cards featured a graphic pattern created using our logo mark. Both the deck and custom box were printed on Shine paper appropriate for the Holiday Season."
The Texas Rangers selected Wilson in the Triple-A phase of the Rule 5 draft, taking him after the Colorado Rockies organization left him unprotected in their minor leagues.
"An account in good standing must have no strikes against its name for community guideline or copyright infractions, and must not have had any videos blocked by YouTube's own Content ID within the last six months"
An account in good standing must have no strikes against its name for community guideline or copyright infractions, and must not have had any videos blocked by YouTube's own Content ID within the last six months. In addition to live streaming sports, news, and video games, users who fulfill these criteria will also be able to stream a Google+ Hangout on Air on YouTube directly. Where before Hangouts on Air were only shown on Google+ itself, they can now be launched through YouTube's events manager, and their broadcasts replayed in the future on the video site.
These changes bring YouTube's streaming policy closer to rivals such as Ustream and Twitch, which allow new users to sign up and stream. For more information, and streaming strategy, YouTube points users to its Creator Playbook.
"a bourbon-esque air of sophistication that clashes (positively) with the deadpan expression of the big-ass, blue horse"
Big Lex Gets Promoted
Best known as the Horse Capital of the World, Lexington, Kentucky is a booming city with a small population of less than half a million, a stable economy, a high degree of education, technology companies within, bourbon, the 28,000-plus-student University of Kentucky, and, yes, horses — Wikipedia explains that "Lexington has been known as a major center for Thoroughbred breeding since the late 18th century due to the high calcium content in the soils of the Inner Bluegrass Region, which leads to stronger bones and greater durability in horses." In charge of promoting the city is the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau that in 2009 began the effort of increasing the city's brand presence with the help of Pentagram, who introduced the idea of Big Lex, a blue horse taken from a popular painting (shown below), as the city's icon. Building on that project, Covington, KY-based BLDG has evolved the Big Lex into a formal identity that will anchor the name change of the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau to VisitLEX.
The Edward Troye painting that drives the work.The starting point.
We developed a new identity with the desire to create a cohesive look and feel that would make the brand instantly recognizable and bring the experience to life. The new name helps drive consistency and communicates the brand purpose in a strong, engaging and more approachable way.
This is an interesting project because it's not a straightforward "design-me-something-cool" brief. Rather, it comes with a pre-existing big idea — Big Lex from Pentagram — two or three years of somewhat inconsistent use of it, with the additional identity of the Convention and Visitors Bureau also in play. I recommend taking a look at BLDG's case study, as it helps paint the picture. Big Lex now comes in two flavors, painterly and flat, which gives the identity a good range of flexibility for multiple uses. As a logo, it's not your typical city logo but it sure is memorable. Paired with a very unassuming sans serif, Big Lex does all the heavy lifting.
Stationery.Other identity materials.Print material samples.Tote bags.iPhone cases.Poster.Prototype print ad.
In application, a lovely serif has been added that gives all the applications a bourbon-esque air of sophistication that clashes (positively) with the deadpan expression of the big-ass, blue horse. Some tweedy patterns have been developed that also add a welcome flavor to the identity. And a moody use of photography paints the city as a place you want to be. Overall, a very tasteful and modestly playful identity.
'This is mostly a terrific improvement and a good example of how Google frequently outperforms its competitors in offering security improvements such as always-on HTTPS Web encryption, SSL certificate pinning, and two-factor authentication. Unfortunately, Google made another move on Thursday that largely blunts those good works. By default, Gmail will no longer hide remote images. That means that unless users make changes to their default settings, it will be possible for senders to confirm whether a message sent to a Gmail address has been opened. ... E-mail marketer Mail Chimp posted a blog post that supported Moore's findings. Google support pages also warn: "senders may be able to know whether an individual has opened a message with unique image links." Unfortunately, the significant caveat is missing from the blog post Google published Thursday.'
The widespread takeaway from today's announcement that Google will start caching all remotely hosted images sent to Gmail users was that the move will hinder e-mail marketers and other nosy senders by preventing them from seeing recipients' personal information. But less reported was this: the move also promises marketers—and, indeed, other types of shady senders—a major silver lining.
That's because of two ways Google has gone about implementing the change. First, Gmail will begin displaying Web-based images by default, reversing the years-long practice of automatically hiding them unless a user clicks a button. And second, according to preliminary tests, the Google server that temporarily stores the image contacts the Web address where the image is hosted only after a user opens the message. And sometimes Google servers request the image each time the message is opened. That means for the first time in years, Gmail by default will allow senders who embed a unique image address in each message they send to know which ones are ignored, which ones are opened, and how many times they are viewed.
Rapid7 Chief Research Officer HD Moore sent several Gmail messages that contained Web-based images hosted on servers he controlled. Then he monitored the URLs of the images to see what happened. Each time, Google servers didn't download the images until after he opened the Gmail message and viewed the remote content. As Google promised Thursday morning, the new cached delivery system is safer and more secure, mainly because Web requests to view remote images are no longer made by the end-user computer. Having Google servers make the request instead prevents the image host from being able to see the receiver's IP address, browser version, or other system information.
Holy fucking shit! I worked with Trowe during an internship
Al Lowe, the man who created the Leisure Suit Larry series of adventures and who helped design the game's comeback via publisher Replay Games, quit the company.
Lowe told Kotaku his decision was partly based on a recent conviction of Replay's president Paul Trowe, who pleaded guilty to showing an explicit video to a minor. Trowe, who claimed he sent the video to the young woman without knowing her age, received two years probation and mandatory sex offender counselling in a Texas plea bargain, according to Kotaku.
Texas Department of Public Safety records show two arrests for Trowe, 42. State records show that Trowe pleaded guilty in 2007 to a felony charge of possession of a controlled substance. and received 10 years probation on that charge. The documents obtained by Polygon also show that Trowe was arrested in Austin on Oct. 11, 2012, for displaying harmful mater to a minor. He later pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor and was sentenced to two years probation on April 15, 2013, according to the document.
"There were many reasons for my departure, including that incident," Lowe said, in an interview with Kotaku. Positive quotes regarding Lowe's departure, released by Replay and published by Venturebeat were subsequently scored through, at Lowe's request.
Leisure Suit Larry games were popular in the early 1990s. They feature a luckless single man who, in seeking a partner, wanders into various mildly suggestive encounters. Last year Replay Games, along with Lowe, launched a successful Kickstarter to create Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded, which was released in the summer to generally underwhelming reviews. Polygon has contacted Lowe and Trowe.
Twitter has quietly changed the way blocking works in a move that means once-blocked trolls can once again interact with their old targets — but all of their interactions will remain hidden from their targets. Under a new policy that's already gone live, users will still be able to follow, and see new updates from public account holders, even if the follower's been blocked. Under the previous method, those same users wouldn't have been able to follow the account, or see the profile picture associated with it. In effect, Twitter's blocking tool is now more of a mute button, as Forbes notes — which means blocked users can't really tell they've been blocked.
Blocking now becomes muting
The changes have garnered some protest from users who blocked others in an effort to protect their public accounts, though without locking everything down by using Twitter's protected account options. A Twitter spokesperson told Forbes the company made the changes to cut down on retaliations that could arise when users found out they had been blocked by someone else, especially on a public account. "We saw antagonist behavior where people would see they were blocked and be mad," spokesman Jim Prosser says. "Twitter is public, we want to reinforce that content published in a public profile is viewable by the world."
DirecTV may not have ended up the victor in the bidding competition for Hulu — in fact, nobody won that battle — but that doesn't meant the company's not keeping a close eye on streaming video opportunities for younger customers that would rather do without cable and satellite subscriptions.
Speaking during the company's Investor Day webcast, CEO Michael White stated that DirecTV had been "very aggressive" when considering the Hulu purchase largely because of its ability to cater to a more cost-conscious segment of the market. Characterizing over-the-top streaming video services as an "opportunity," he said that DirecTV plans to announce more details about its own plans in that arena over the next year — while also cautioning that the concept holds some challenges that may not make it the quick fix some customers might like.
DirecTV is skeptical of the 'Intel model'
Digital rights deals are much more difficult to procure and can be more expensive, White said, one of the reasons why he said moving to an "Intel model" — a reference to that company's recently cancelled online TV ambitions — a bad idea for DirecTV. There's also the issue of infrastructure. DirecTV can already deliver video to consumers across the US, whereas it would need to "ride on somebody else's highway" if it were to focus on internet-based television. "As far as our core business is concerned, we continue to be committed to growing our pure-play video business," he said.
Where the company will be focusing is very specific "niche" opportunities that could appeal to more price-conscious customers. "And particularly for millennial cord-cutters, which is where we thought the Hulu opportunity might be, I do think there are some opportunities there," he said, noting that obtaining digital rights is a part of every negotiation DirecTV is a part of.
Google Maps' Street View mode can easily seem like an exercise in mapping indulgence. Is it really necessary to drive cars mounted with high-tech cameras around dozens of cities just so that people can view the front door of a local business? According to a profile of Google's mapping efforts in The New York Times Magazine, the feature is more than worth its money — it's actually become a core strength of Google Maps. “When we started, Street View was just some sci-fi idea,” Street View leader Luc Vincent tells New York Times Magazine, “but now, it’s the backbone.”
Street view images are turned into hard mapping data
By analyzing Street View data, Google is able to ensure that its actual maps and directions are accurate. Through the photos, it can reportedly verify turn restrictions, automatically pull out street addresses, or even match up Colonel Sanders with the location of a KFC. New York Times Magazine reports that Google employs a staff of 2,000 in Hyderabad, India tasked just with confirming that map data matches up with images in Street View.
So far, Google has reportedly mapped one-tenth of the world's roads and sees a billion regular users. But despite the success, there's a reason that Street View isn't slowing down: from OpenStreetMap to a series of mapping clones throughout Asia, Google has plenty of competitors keeping it sharp. New York Times Magazine has more on Google's ongoing mapping battle, including new uses of its Trekker backpack and how it's starting to apply the technology to self-driving cars.
TW: Deadspin "Nate Jackson played six seasons in the National Football League as a wide receiver and a tight end."
At the end of every season, NFL players are required to undergo a physical exam for legal purposes. Then they're forced to sign an affirmation of health, and never allowed to see it again. So one player sued to get his file. Here's what happened.
TV movie Descendants will revolve around the offspring of the main characters of Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Tangled, and Mulan, heading into prep school with the new kids: four children descended from Cruella De Vil, Maleficent, the Evil Queen (Snow White), and Jafar.
Let me repeat: Disney is making a high school AU based on the children of their most famous characters. And you better believe that if it does well it'll become a spinoff series.
I have so many questions.
The mother of the girl, Jade Masters-Ownbey, said that Hunter had tried to kiss her daughter "over and over" without her permission, and that she supported the suspension.
"Not once, but over and over," Masters-Ownbey wrote on Facebook. "Not with her permission but sneaking up on her."
"I've had to coach her about what to do when you don't want someone touching you," she told the Canon City Daily Record. "But they won't stop."
Hunter already had received an in-school suspension for kissing the same girl.
The Dec. 4 incident is now being classified as misconduct.
Twitter just updated their blocking policy and it’s a nightmare. According to a statement put out on Thursday evening this is the new blocking policy:
If your account is public, blocking a user does not prevent that user from following you, interacting with your Tweets, or receiving your updates in their timeline. If your Tweets are protected, blocking the user will cause them to unfollow you.
Previously, if you were being harassed or simply trolled by spam accounts, you could click the “Block” button which would forbid that user from ever following you and also remove them from your mentions and timeline. Now, even if you block someone who is harassing you, that person becomes invisible to you but they are free to follow you and RT you into their timeline.
It’s easy, fast and fun to add female characters, in two simple steps. And I want to be clear I’m not talking about creating more movies with a female lead. If you do, God bless and thank you. Please consider me for that role.
Step 1: Go through the projects you’re already working on and change a bunch of the characters’ first names to women’s names. With one stroke you’ve created some colorful unstereotypical female characters that might turn out to be even more interesting now that they’ve had a gender switch. What if the plumber or pilot or construction foreman is a woman? What if the taxi driver or the scheming politician is a woman? What if both police officers that arrive on the scene are women — and it’s not a big deal?
Step 2: When describing a crowd scene, write in the script, “A crowd gathers, which is half female.” That may seem weird, but I promise you, somehow or other on the set that day the crowd will turn out to be 17 percent female otherwise. Maybe first ADs think women don’t gather, I don’t know.
And there you have it. You have just quickly and easily boosted the female presence in your project without changing a line of dialogue.
Yes, we can and will work to tell more women’s stories, listen to more women’s voices and write richer female characters and to fix the 5-to-1 ratio of men/women behind the camera. But consider this: In all of the sectors of society that still have a huge gender disparity, how long will it take to correct that? You can’t snap your fingers and suddenly half of Congress is women. But there’s one category where the under-representation of women can be fixed tomorrow: on screen. In the time it takes to make a movie or create a television show, we can change what the future looks like.
KentuckyFC writes "During the Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union battled on many fronts to demonstrate their superior technical and scientific achievements. While the race to put a human in space and then on the Moon is famous, a much less well-known battlefront was the unconventional science of parapsychology, or psychotronics as the Soviets called it. Now a new review of unconventional research in the Soviet Union reveals the scale of this work for the first time and the cost: as much as $1 billion. The Soviets had programs studying how "human energy" could influence other objects and how this energy could be generated independently of humans using a device called 'cerpan'. The Soviets also had a mind control program similar to the CIA's infamous MKULTRA project. Interestingly, the Soviets included non-local physics in this work, such as the Aharonov-Bohm effect in which an electromagnetic field can influence a particle confined to region where the field strength is zero. And they built a number of devices that exploited the effect, although research in this area appears to have ended in 2003."
