firehose

As more and more media outlets from all over the world continue to report on the Snowden documents, it's harder and harder to keep track of what has been released. The EFF, ACLU, and Cryptome are all trying.

None of them is complete, I believe. Please post additions in the comments, and I will do my best to feed the information back to the compilers.

EDITED TO ADD (12/4): Here's another compilation. And this mind map of the NSA leaks is very comprehensive.

If we knew then what we know now, we never would have doubted Russell Wilson.

You were wrong about Russell Wilson.

It's OK. We all were, really. Even the Seahawks passed on the Wisconsin quarterback twice before taking him off the board with the No. 75 overall pick in the third round of the 2012 draft.

It's a shame, too. Wilson's only crime as a prospect was his height. No quarterback could stand at 5'11 and compete with the best quarterbacks in the NFL. We didn't care about his compact throwing motion, rocket arm or uncanny ability to sense and avoid pressure in the pocket while keeping his eyes downfield. What does any of that matter? He's short, remember?

If we only knew then what we know now, maybe we wouldn't have been so shallow. Maybe we would have looked beyond the measuring stick and realized that a future star was sitting right in front of us. It's not like he was hiding. Wilson played for Wisconsin, albeit for only a season after transferring from N.C. State, where he was stuck behind the much taller Mike Glennon. Wilson was in the spotlight.

Not only were his obvious passing tools on display in one of college football's biggest conferences, but so to was his charismatic personality and leadership qualities. His relentless attitude on the field was there, too. He attacked every area of the field with his arm and made defenses pay with his legs.

But when it came time to evaluate Wilson as an NFL prospect, he was too short. He didn't fit the mold of traditional pocket passer. That was the end of the story. Drew Brees, after all, was the only short quarterback to reach the coveted "elite status" in the NFL. Nobody considered that Wilson could succeed at a similar level. Nobody considered that in just his second season, Wilson would be better than Brees.

On Monday night, the Seahawks blew out the Saints, and Wilson outplayed Brees. It wasn't close. The Seahawks scored 34 points to the Saints' seven. Wilson threw for 310 yards and three touchdowns to Brees' 147 and one. Wilson even added 47 rushing yards to go with it. This was all against a Saints defense that came into the game ranked in the top five in yards per game.

At this point, Wilson has moved on from the 2012 NFL Draft class. By every measure, he's been better than Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III and the other three quarterbacks taken ahead of him in that draft. It's true he has been put into a dream situation with one of the best defenses in the NFL to help him win games. But the defense has nothing to with Wilson's passer rating, which is the third best in the NFL over the last two seasons behind only Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers. He also is the only quarterback from the 2012 class averaging more than 8 yards per attempt for his career. You have to go back to 2010, when Wilson was at N.C. State, to find a Wilson-quarterbacked team that lost a game by more than seven points.

It's tough for people to admit it, but Wilson belongs in the argument with Manning, Brees and Tom Brady, not Luck, Griffin or other second-year quarterbacks. The problem is, he's not like those other quarterbacks. Even Brees can't claim to be like Wilson, who has the ability to be a productive rushing option in his offense and avoid enough hits to stay healthy. If he were four inches taller, he would have been a first-round pick, some say.

Every argument you can think of to knock Wilson has already been debunked by Kenneth Arthur of Field Gulls. He's better than every second-year quarterback in just about every statistical category. He's done it all with receivers that are no more spectacular than what others are dealing with and are, in fact, quite ordinary. He has Marshawn Lynch at his disposal in the backfield, but without Wilson's ability to run the read option, Lynch wouldn't be nearly as productive as he is. Wilson has even played behind a banged up offensive line for most of 2013.

Just face it, you were wrong about him. You didn't think a 5'11 quarterback would ever be considered one of the best in the NFL. You didn't think he would enter the league and help the Seahawks win 10 games by more than 15 points, a number only bested by Manning and the Broncos. And you certainly didn't think, out of all the talented quarterbacks in the 2013 class, that Wilson would be the one making a case to be the NFL's Most Valuable Player in just his second season.

But he's doing just that. It will be tough for him to overtake Manning, who has 4,125 passing yards and 41 touchdowns this season. Wilson has over 3,000 combined yards and 23 touchdowns, though. Not to mention, his team is 11-1.

You don't have to say he's better than Manning. You don't have to concede the MVP race to him, either. Just admit you were wrong about him. Admit you were wrong about Russell Wilson.

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New York Times

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Instant Corbusier

Maximumble

18th century meets 23rd

aliemlicious:

my-edits-have-no-remorse:

Sir Ian had to act to these stands with the actors’ faces pasted on them. It’s hilarious. xD But at the same time, my heart also goes out to Sir Ian.

now this is neat

Now this is a professional.

Happy Birthday Jean-Luc Godard

richardsilverphoto.com


richardsilverphoto.com


richardsilverphoto.com

Looking up

_{Katharine Hepburn and Nissa the leopard in a promotional photo
for Bringing Up Baby (1938)}

teatraybat:

Got my dog a new tag…he is not amused. 

mazeon:

8-Bit Cabinet
Shown at 1000 percent.

submitted by CosmicGame [link] [2 comments]

Read: Joe Jonas: My Life As A Jonas Brother:

We were just kids. That’s the reality. We were frightened little kids. So you got all this responsibility that’s foisted upon you and you’re expected to be perfect. I went through media training, and I hated it. They’d teach you how to change the subject, whenever you were asked an uncomfortable question, by saying something like, “Oh, that reminds me of my dog! I have a great story about my dog!” Playing dumb is the best way of getting out of anything. We also had a strategy for who would take which kinds of questions. If it was a serious question, Nick would answer it. If it was lighthearted, Kevin would. Nick and I took questions related to our music and explaining what certain songs meant. We even did a Good Housekeeping story with our mom where we were wearing these horrible pastels. It makes me cringe just to think about it.

Read: The Dangerous Life of Instagram’s Playboy King

Read: Ask Reddit: What piece of stand up comedy (10 minutes or less) has successfully made you cry with laughter?

Read: Icelandic policeman kill a man in an armed police operation for the first time.

Read: The 5 Most Badass Medics in the History of War

Read: The Incredible Twitter Meltdown to End All Incredible Twitter Meltdowns

Read: Fast & Furious 7 will proceed despite Paul Walker’s death.

Look: The CIA’s Secret, Bizarre “Intelligence Art” Collection

Pic: Reddit, here’s the Amazon link.

Archie McPhee recently released a thoroughly disquieting giant latex Crow Mask–perfect for fixing people with a beady-eyed, incomprehensible stare.

Our Crow Mask is the best way to dress as a crow or we’ll eat… well… crow. It’s perfect for dressing as a bad omen or eating roadkill without being judged. This realistic, latex mask cries out for you to scare old people feeding stale bread to birds in the park. Buy a Crow Mask for all your friends and form a murder! (A group of crows is called a murder. Do not actually murder people. It is wrong.)

images via Archie McPhee

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

"It ended up coming off like we were being coy. We were just trying to not ruin the thing. The truth is that after one screening everyone knows whatever it is. The idea was that for the first hour of the movie the characters in the movie don't know, and it felt like if there were articles about KHAN! it would take away from the story. The truth is I think it probably would have been smarter just to say upfront ‘This is who it is.’ It was only trying to preserve the fun of it, and it might have given more time to acclimate and accept that’s what the thing was. The truth is because it was so important to the studio that we not angle this thing for existing fans. If we said it was Khan, it would feel like you’ve really got to know what Star Trek is about to see this movie. That would have been limiting. I can understand their argument to try to keep that quiet, but I do wonder if it would have seemed a little bit less like an attempt at deception if we had just come out with it."— J.J. Abrams, admitting that all that secrecy surrounding the Cumbervillain was maaaaaaybe a bit much. But it's the studio's fault, because who do you think he is? An A-list director who has some degree of control over these things and is also notoriously obsessed with secrecy? Pssht. BRB. Eyerolling into the final frontier. (via: Badass Digest) Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?

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(see it larger)

Atlas Obscura has posted a map of the many monsters that have been reported in America’s lakes, including the Honey Island Swamp Monster and the fearsome Eel Pig of Herrington Lake. The map was created by Michelle Enemark.

Eel Pig of Herrington Lake. Illustration by Dylan Thuras

OnlyMrGodKnowsWhy

Whoops, #everythingisterrible again

• 9879

   
• 
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•  9879

Three African-American students who were waiting for a school bus in Rochester, New York were arrested on Wednesday morning when police officer told them to “disperse,” even though witnesses said they did nothing wrong.

According to WROC, basketball coach Jacob Scott had arranged for a school bus to pick up the boys to take them to a scrimmage on a day when school was closed.

A police report claimed that the boys were blocking “pedestrian traffic while standing on a public sidewalk…preventing free passage of citizens walking by and attempting to enter and exit a store…Your complainant gave several lawful clear and concise orders for the group to disperse and leave the area without complaince [sic].”

But the students and the coach dispute the police version of events.

“We didn’t do nothing,” student Raliek Redd explained. “We was just trying to go to our scrimmage.”

“We was just waiting for our bus and he started arrested us,” student Wan’Tauhjs Weathers added.

Daequon Carelock, who was also arrested, lamented that anyone could be “just downtown, minding your own business, and next thing you know, anything can happen.”

Coach Scott arrived just as the boys were being handcuffed and was also threatened with arrest.

“He goes on to say, ‘If you don’t disperse, you’re going to get booked as well,’” Scott recalled. “I said, ‘Sir, I’m the adult. I’m their varsity basketball coach. How can you book me? What am I doing wrong? Matter of fact, what are these guys doing wrong?’”

“One of the police officers actually told me, if he had a big enough caravan, he would take all of us downtown,” he noted.

Scott called the incident a “catastrophe” for the boys and witnesses who were traumatized by the arrest.

“These young men were doing nothing wrong, nothing wrong. They did exactly what they were supposed to do and still they get arrested,” Scott remarked. “I’m speaking to the officers with dignity…and still and yet – they see me get treated like nothing.”

Rochester school board member Mary Adams expressed her outrage at the arraignment last week.

“I think the charges should be immediately dropped and I think the district attorney’s office should be stepping in and looking at these kinds of matters,” she said.

“I’m very concerned about a pattern of young people being abused by police authority,” Adams told WHEC. “To me, this seems like a really clear case, part of a pattern.”

A trial for the three students is scheduled for December 11.

Watch this video from WROC, broadcast Nov. 29, 2013.

Watch this video from WHEC, broadcast Nov. 29, 2013.

(h/t: Gawker)

Original Source

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Though Microsoft has said every retail Xbox One can be used as a game development kit, the company is recommending against consumers enabling an early developer mode on their consoles through the settings menu.

In a statement to Engadget, Microsoft says the sequence of buttons that unlocks additional menu options in retail consoles does not necessarily turn the Xbox One into a developer's console. "Changing the settings in this menu is only intended for developers for Xbox One, and this alone does not turn the console into a development kit. We strongly advise consumers against changing these settings as it could result in their Xbox One becoming unusable. Customers who have put their consoles into this developer setting can revert by restoring factory defaults under Settings / System, select Restore Factory Defaults."

Microsoft has previously stated we'll see the first self-published Xbox One games, through the ID@Xbox program, sometime early next year. The ID@Xbox program will support any and all payment models available on Xbox One, including free-to-play, premium pricing and micro-transactions.

Microsoft advises consumers against enabling dev mode on Xbox One originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 02 Dec 2013 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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eddiemercer:

Forgot the blackbook and ran out of paper to sketch on one day, so I decided to sketch in an old map book. Last sketch had something to do with the fact that both major NYC airports were in Queens.

Director Tim Miller at Blur Studio created a glossy black sea monster to create a big impression for rum brand The Kraken. (The Bobby Darin music takes a bit of the edge off.) If the black-on-black style seems a bit … more »

Good way to get your first NFL touchdown: letting the ball hit your teammate in the face.

The Seahawks can't stop scoring touchdowns against the New Orleans Saints, and they're inventing new ways to do it.

Russell Wilson's pass was intended for Kellen Davis, who, luckily for the Seahawks, was too inept to get his hands in front of his facemask before the ball doinked off of it. Luckily, fullback Derrick Coleman was just chilling a few yards away from him, happy to pick the ball up and lunge towards the end zone for a touchdown.

There was some question about whether or not Coleman was inbounds, but, sure enough he was, giving the UCLA alum -- who, by the way, is essentially deaf -- his first ever NFL touchdown. If he just keeps hanging around about 10 feet away from his comically clumsy teammates, he'll grab a few more.

That makes the score in this beatdown 34-7, just like we expected out of a matchup of the top two teams in the NFC, right?

submitted by Grimes
[link] [81 comments]