firehose

Whee!

dol001:

Japanese Odama packaging for the Gamecube

(Vivarium/Nintendo - 2006)

It’s a monopoly, fueled by government kickbacks.The FCC says it’s fixing the problem, but things still look bleak.

The black-nationalist Department of Homeland Security employee who was placed on leave almost four months ago for running a website that espouses the mass murder of whites has still not been fired.

Fifteen years ago, pocket-sized characters known as Pokemon arrived on American shores from Japan. The cute creatures were suddenly everywhere: television, video games, card games and a movie. And they're still everywhere.

mask.of.sanity writes "A New Zealand researcher has detailed ways that UAVs can be crashed using cheap tools like Herf guns and GPS jammers, and could even be downed by flying drones with more powerful radio. The attacks (podcast) interfere with the navigation systems used by flying drones and are possible because security was not designed into the architecture of some machines."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This item has been corrected.

Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, the owner of the Brooklyn Nets, walked into the middle of geopolitical dispute over the world’s most sought-after pink salt and left with a $3 billion stake in a global mining company. If all goes as expected, Prokhorov will also walk away with a ticket to freedom for the company’s CEO, who was thrown into jail by a post-Soviet autocrat this summer.

The company at the heart of the dispute is Uralkali, which produces a fifth of the world’s potash, an important ingredient in fertilizers needed to make farms more productive and feed the world’s growing population. Until July, the company was partners with Belarus’s state-owned potash company, Belaruskali, in an informal cartel that kept prices high. It then abruptly broke up the arrangement, ensuring that prices would fall, allegedly because its partner was striking secret side-deals.

In response, the prime minister of Belarus lured Uralkali’s CEO, Vladislav Baumgertner, to Minsk, and threw him in prison.

This elevated a boardroom dispute to a diplomatic clash between Russian president Vladmir Putin and Belarus’s own autocratic ruler, Alexander Lukashenko, whose country’s economy is heavily dependent on both potash exports and Russian largesse. Belarus apparently demanded new ownership for Uralkali, and that’s where Prokhorov came in. Onexim, the investment fund he founded, purchased 21.7% of the company from the former majority owner and fellow billionaire Suleyman Kerimov. The price was not revealed, but at its current market capitalization the shares are worth $3.3 billion. The second largest owner? China’s sovereign wealth fund.

With new ownership in place, Belarus is reportedly planning to allow Baumgertner, who was released to house arrest in Minsk after a month in prison, to be extradited to Russia as long as he is charged with a crime there. Once out of Belarus, those charges may be dropped, and there has been some speculation that the company may seek to re-establish the joint marketing relationship.

Prohkorov, whose net worth is estimated at $13.2 billion, made his fortune as a mining investor during Russia’s wild west industrial privatization, purchasing major stakes from the government at dubious prices. In 2012, he ran against Putin for Russia’s presidency; other candidates alleged Prohkorov was trying to split the opposition’s vote as a favor to Putin. His purchase of the Uralkali stake likely came with the tacit approval of the Kremlin.

In the US, Prohkorov’s biggest claim to fame is his ownership of the Brooklyn Nets professional basketball team, a franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and, ironically, also a cartel.

Correction (Nov. 20): An earlier version of this article incorrectly named the CEO of Uralkali as Felix Baumgartner, not Vladislav Baumgertner.

The shaded pink background is the "Core Type Area".


Two approaches to labels for a vertical route line


Labels for a horizontal route line using the "Core Type Area"

Tutorial: Station Labels Using the “Core Type Area” - Part 1: Horizontal and Vertical Route Lines

A lot of transit maps that I’ve seen and reviewed on this blog are badly let down by their labelling. Sometimes it seems that the labels have been applied without much forethought or planning, or just slapped on at the end and placed wherever they will fit. But labels are arguably one of the most important parts of a transit map: it should always be immediately apparent which station marker a label belongs to, and labels should be applied according to a consistent set of rules.

My first common rule is to make sure that there’s enough space between the route line or station marker and the text: I see way too many maps where the labels are jammed right up to the line (often in a vain effort to save a little bit of space).

That said, let’s take a look at how I like to approach labels on my maps. The first image shows a sample label: I chose the name “Washington” simply because it has a good mix of letters that work well as an example: importantly, it has both ascending and descending letters. I’ve marked out the four main vertical typographical elements: these are the cap height, the x-height, the text’s baseline and the descender line.

Behind this, I’ve shaded an area in pink that I like to call the “Core Type Area” — the height from the baseline up to the cap height. I use this Core Type Area to determine how to align labels to other elements of the map. I discount the height of the letters below the baseline simply because sometimes a word doesn’t have any descending letters at all. This becomes important when setting up labels that sit above a horizontal route line, as we’ll see below.

The second image is an animated GIF that shows two different ways to align labels to station markers on a vertical route line. It shows magenta guides indicating the Core Type Area and thicker cyan guides that simply indicate that all the labels are a consistent difference away from their station marker. I’ve shown the two most common types of station marker: dots and ticks.

The first and third sets of labels centre the type vertically using the baseline and the x-height, while the second and fourth use the height of the Core Type Area. Both of these approaches produce good results, although I personally believe that the Core Type Area method looks slightly better regardless of whether the label is to the left or the right of the line.

The last GIF shows how using the Core Type Area gives consistent results when placing labels above and below a horizontal route line. As you can see, the cyan guides are the same length each time, but though we align labels beneath the route line to the cap height (the top of the Core Type Area), we align labels that are above the route line to the type’s baseline (the bottom of the Core Type Area), not the descender line. That’s because a lot of words don’t have any descenders in them: in these cases, the label would look as if they were too far away from the station marker in comparison to labels that are below the line. The trick here is to make sure you’ve got enough space between the descender line and your station marker/route line to ensure that they don’t touch or overlap.

Next time, we’ll tackle labels on diagonal route lines.

Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

submitted by jonjacobmoon [link] [27 comments]

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Senate has voted to raise the state's minimum wage from $8 to $11 per hour by 2016 and tie subsequent increases to inflation.

The bill, approved by a 32-7 vote Tuesday, would increase the wage for the state's lowest-paid workers in increments over the next three years, starting in July 2014.

After 2016, future increases would be linked to the Consumer Price Index for the Northeast. There are currently 10 other states that index their minimum wages to the rate of inflation.

The bill now heads to the state House. Gov. Deval Patrick has expressed general support for the idea of increasing the state's minimum wage.

The state's minimum wage has not changed since 2008 and isn't automatically adjusted for inflation. The legislation also would require the state's minimum wage to always be at least 50 cents higher than the federal minimum, which is $7.25 per hour.

During the debate, senators approved an amendment that would raise the minimum wage for tipped employees to half of the minimum wage for other workers. The minimum wage for tipped employees like waiters is $2.63 per hour in Massachusetts.

Backers of the higher wage point out that an individual earning a minimum wage and trying to support a family often has to rely on federal benefits like food stamps to help make ends meet.

"Hard working people working full time and being paid our minimum wage now are living in poverty," said Sen. Dan Wolf, D-Harwich. "Raising the minimum wage is an important step to rebalancing our top-heavy economy."

Senate Republicans said they backed some increase, but said the minimum wage can't be taken out of context.

They said other actions are needed including lowering the cost of health care, easing up the cost of unemployment insurance for businesses, and increasing training opportunities to help workers get better-paying jobs.

"We are continuing to take a myopic view of how to help low wage workers," said Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester. "We shouldn't hold the minimum wage up as a thing to aspire to."

Business groups have warned that the higher wage might force employers to pass on the cost to consumers or cut worker benefits.

Those opposed to the increase also said it could inadvertently hurt teenagers trying to land summer or part-time jobs, effectively pricing them out of the labor market.

Critics of the increase in the minimum wage for tipped workers said it could harm the owners of restaurants that typically operate on narrow profit margins.

The vote comes a day after a group backing proposed ballot questions that would increase the state's minimum wage and require all workers be given earned sick time said it has collected about 270,000 signatures from Massachusetts residents, nearly four times the number needed to put the question before voters next year.

Massachusetts currently has the third highest minimum wage in New England behind Connecticut ($8.25) and Vermont ($8.60).

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley and state Treasurer Steven Grossman — both of whom are running for the Democratic nomination for governor next year — said they also support increasing in the minimum wage.

Original Source

#asyoudo

Internet cafes across the developing world are reporting dwindling numbers of customers as smartphones make the mobile web ubiquitous. After all, why pay for web access on someone else’s creaky old PC when you can peruse Facebook on your Android device from anywhere you like?

In Rwanda, a cafe owner told the New Times last month that he once had 200 customers per day; now he sees about 10. Internet cafes in India are also suffering—some in the southern city of Mysore have opted to sell stationery or sweets instead of web access, while others have diversified their offerings to include flight bookings, mobile phone top-up cards, and accessories for various gadgets. Cafes in Thailand seem to be facing similar challenges when it comes to customer volume, and even cyber cafes in Myanmar, where mobile penetration is just 4%, say visitors have fallen sharply.

Even more developed markets, like those in East Asia, are seeing fewer people flock to venues that cater to immersive online gaming, which one might assume to be immune from the PC to mobile shift. The number of these facilities in South Korea fell to 15,800 last year from 19,000 in 2010, a 17% drop, according to Allison Luong, managing director of gaming industry consultancy Pearl Research. The number of cafes in China, meanwhile, dropped 7% to 136,000 in 2012 from the previous year, she told Quartz.

Some argue, however, that smartphone adoption doesn’t necessarily mean consumers can surmount the digital divide and tap the Web’s full potential. A five-year study released by the University of Washington in July found that Web users in some developing countries continue to rely on public venues like cafes and libraries for Web access even when smartphones are available. “One technology doesn’t replace the other,” the University’s Chris Coward told the global development site Humanosphere. Mobile phones “will not solve the access problem.”

The internet practically burst into applause on Tuesday with the launch of an interactive video for Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” which lets viewers flip between channels on a virtual TV to watch a celebrity-studded group of lip-synchers. But it’s the only latest in a string of attention-grabbing videos from Interlude, a Tel Aviv-based start-up that is run by Israeli musician and self-professed tech geek Yoni Bloch.

When he started Interlude, Bloch was already a well-established guitarist and singer in Israel, where he made a series of interesting videos using methods like stop motion animation:

Interlude—which scored a $15 million round of funding earlier this year from venture capital firms including Intel Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Google Chairman Eric Schmit’s Innovation Endeavors—made its name with “choose your own adventure” web videos that let users navigate through a decision tree of plot choices, winning awards for innovation from MTV and Intel. A video on Bloch’s own site, for example, prompts viewers to guide him through a house party, handing off a set of headphones to different guests.

The company also offers tools to let users create their own interactive videos, but the company’s real business opportunity—and likely the selling the point for its recent venture capital round—is its ability to work with advertisers. The company’s website carries examples of work for Madewell, Subaru, MAC, Goldfish, and Shell. After all, Bob Dylan may have been accused of selling out when he went electric with “Like a Rolling Stone,” but for an ambitious start-up, that’s no insult at all.

Much like Batkid, Hawaii has found its own superhero. Except that instead of protecting the powerless from harm, he roams the streets with a sledgehammer and looks for homeless people in order to literally smash their possessions.

popular shared this story from Fuck Yeah Fluid Dynamics.

---

Italy’s Mount Etna is erupting again, producing a series of beautiful vortex rings. Like a dolphin’s bubble ring or a vortex cannon, the volcano's rings are formed when gases are rapidly expelled through a narrow opening. Such formations are extremely common but are generally not visible to the eye. In this case, steam has gotten entrained into the rings to make them visible. Vortex rings can maintain their structure over substantial distances. The photographer of these rings noted that they lasted as many as ten minutes before dissipating. (Photo credit: T. Pfeiffer; via NatGeo)

Prisoners Denied Medical Care, Told To Pray Instead:

Arizona’s prisons deemed ‘death yards’ in new report.

robotfists:

thatnerdygamergirl:

scumtriumphant:

it’s the christmas you always dream of

The Christmas we deserve.

*ugly sobbing*

Durham, North Carolina-based Organic Transit is currently shopping for office and warehouse space in Portland.

The company is known for their "ELF" solar and pedal-powered vehicle (which stands for Electric, Light and Fun) which they bill as the "most efficient vehicle on the planet." The company is the brainchild of Rob Cotter, a former engineer who worked on racing projects for Porsche, Mercedes Benz and BMW. Cotter then moved into the human-powered vehicle scene in the late 1980s as a race promoter and vice president of the International Human Powered Vehicle Association. As CEO and founder of Organic Transit, Cotter steered his latest invention into a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign last year that raised over $225,000 from 547 backers.

With proof of market validated the company is now at the front end of a major growth curve.

Organic Transit currently makes the ELF in downtown Durham but they're looking to set up regional warehouses for manufacturing, assembly, distribution and sales. With Portland seen as a "key market" for the ELF, Cotter has hired former president of (now defunct) Kinesis USA/Mountain Cycle Michael Nover to set up the local operation. Nover tells BikePortland that the company hasn't found a Portland location yet and they're open to working with partners who might be able to help them fill out a larger manufacturing facility.

ELF production has been going on in Durham since March and Nover says the company has sold a few hundred of the units thus far. The need for regional manufacturing and shipping hubs is due to the relatively high cost of shipping (an average of $1,500 per unit) and the ability to customize builds based on the needs of each market.

The appeal of the ELF, according to the company's marketing materials, is that it offers the perfect blend of benefits between a bicycle and a car. "The spacious interior keeps you out of the elements and in view of other drivers," reads their website. "It’s the perfect vehicle for people who want to reduce their car usage but want more than a pedal bike can offer... Our vehicles are designed to make bike commuting accessible and affordable for everybody."

The ELF ($4,995 base price) fits on bike paths and sidewalks and it's also at-home in standard vehicle lanes. Its 750 watt motor has a 14 mile range and can power up via solar panels or from an electrical outlet. You can also pedal it with 100% human-power. The ELF weighs 150 pounds, can carry 350 pounds of cargo, can go up to 20 mph.

Learn more via the video used in their Kickstarter campaign (pasted below) or read this detailed profile of Organic Transit and Rob Cotter in Indy Week newspaper.

If you'd like to connect with Michael Nover of Organic Transit drop him an email at michael [at] organictransit [dot] com.

schwit1 writes "Some drivers along a busy Fort Worth street on Friday were stopped at a police roadblock and directed into a parking lot, where they were asked by federal contractors for samples of their breath, saliva and even blood. It was part of a government research study aimed at determining the number of drunken or drug-impaired drivers.The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is spending $7.9 million on the survey over three years, said participation was '100 percent voluntary' and anonymous. The 'participants' hardly agree."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

 

boston accent basket

This year, I gave a talk at PRACTICE (more on that later) and I had a pretty good time in general. I think now (a) I am slightly more patient with board games (b) I love Nordic LARP even more (c) I have more respect for the depth of thought that goes into a lot of games that I will never ever play ever. Someone asked me what I thought the overall theme of the conference was, and I think a lot of it was about game developers honing our "awareness" of each other. The schedule was diverse:

I watched talks on breakdance competitions and maintaining authenticity; the spatial mathematics of roguelike movement; the simulated story physics of Roman political intrigue; a weekend-long Battlestar Galactica themed roleplay game on an actual decommissioned destroyer; how League of Legends thinks about readability in character design, and much more... and I think generally everyone was reasonably earnest about listening deeply to each other, which is probably the most important requirement for good conversation. There was relatively little fundamentalism going on, which pleasantly surprised me. Almost everyone recognized that everyone had something useful to share.

They did lower the price of a pass this year, but I still think the price is quite high (base cost: $350) which makes attendance cost-prohibitive for the many people who would've wanted to attend but instead preferred to pay rent or eat food. I hope the conference organizers continue to lower the price next year as well.

I attribute some of PRACTICE's evolution to the earlier influence of Different Games this year, a completely free games conference that focused on inclusivity and acknowledging alternate experiences. Maybe Different Games has changed the terms of how a games conference (or at least ones in NYC) can continue to operate while claiming to be in the public interest of starting a public dialogue -- who gets to participate in this dialogue, and how do we listen to each other? And even if you don't actually care, then at least you must pretend to care? Norms are changing for the better.

Like, I doubt Warren Spector has ever played a Twine game. (It's okay if he doesn't like them. I'm talking about whether he's even aware of them.)

Now, here in the NYC games scene, if you haven't played at least a few Twine games, then you are pretty out of touch and kinda irrelevant... specifically, Warren Spector came across as pretty out of touch and kinda irrelevant. He answered questions that no one asked. He posed "emergence" as a compelling quality of games (no, really?) and posed Dishonored as a "player-driven" game -- a game whose defining quality is giving you a choice between not shooting men or shooting men or shooting men up-close. Has he ever played League of Legends, or Go, or Poker, or football, or breakdance battles, or Sleep No More, or vogue balls? Dishonored is a fun game, but it is not much of a break from Deus Ex in 2000, more than 13 years ago. The mechanisms running through those games are well-understood and accepted... now what? What else can you bring to games today? It made me and many others wonder: perhaps Warren Spector isn't actually an authority on games anymore, assuming he ever was? Maybe the only thing that Warren Spector is an authority on is Warren Spector?

That realization lead to a sort of strange consensus among many attendees. I was prepared to go to war against formalists and simulationists and board game geeks, to defend the value of personality and fleeting feelings and small love poems, against people who think the entire gamut of human experience is best represented as a payoff matrix with graphics.

But war was made impossible when we glared at Warren Spector -- when we set this spectacled strawman aflame and basked in the warmth of countless glowing embers. So instead, we roasted s'mores over the sizzling corpse and shared ghost stories. We were too hungry to argue.

If anyone's got a few bucks to throw around, it's Nike. Sometimes, that money goes toward appalling third-world abuses. Other times, toward human rights initiatives on the home front.

Today, at least, the news involves the latter. Nike's given $280,000 to Oregon United for Marriage, the group pushing a constitutional amendment legalizing same sex marriage for the November 2014 ballot. A newly created Nike Equality PAC (political action committee) reportedly snagged donations of $100,000 and $180,000 from the company and its executives, respectively.

The contribution, which doesn't yet appear in online campaign finance records, amounts to more than half all the other money the group's raised to-date. The donation also isn't much of a surprise. Nike supported last year's same-sex marriage push in Washington State, and signed onto two briefs in the Supreme Court case that defanged the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8.

Nonetheless: Good show.

From a news release:

Nike has a long history of supporting equality. It was one of the first companies nearly 20 years ago to extend benefits to partners of either gender. In 2000, the company extended those benefits to the dependents of domestic partners.

In 2005, Nike was a national business trailblazer in supporting Oregon’s groundbreaking legislation to secure employment non-discrimination for the LGBT community and civil unions for same sex partners. In 2007, Nike built an Oregon business coalition to help successfully pass the state-level non-discrimination and civil unions legislation.

Nike has been a long-time supporter of federal employment non-discrimination legislation, and was also one of the lead companies to sign onto the business community amicus brief earlier this year before the US Supreme Court supporting the end of federal marriage discrimination and enabling recognition of same-sex civil marriage at the U.S. federal government level.

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]