On November 4, an earthquake shook the suburbs of Chicago. It was an incredibly rare event for the region, and now scientists say it was caused by human activity. Specifically, explosions in a quarry set off the quake — and could do it again.

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Apple is currently in talks to purchase PrimeSense, the original suppliers of Microsoft's Kinect motion-sensing technology, according to All Things D. The acquisition was first reported by Isreali publication Calcalist, which indicated that the purchase will amount to $345 million.

Founded in 2005, PrimeSense contributed its 3D sensing technology to the Xbox 360 version of Kinect. Microsoft since went with in-house developers for the latest iteration of the Kinect for Xbox One, the company's latest console set to launch this Friday. Apple may be allegedly targeting PrimeSense for the company's Capri technology, a newer form of its 3D sensing tech used in mobile devices such as Google and Samsung's Nexus 10 tablets.

Report: Apple in talks to purchase co-creators of original Kinect tech originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 18 Nov 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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sciencehabit writes "What is your beloved mummy going to eat for the rest of eternity? For some ancient Egyptians, the answer included meat. In King Tutankhamun's tomb, for example, archaeologists found 48 wooden cases of butchered cuts of beef and poultry. But unlike offerings of fruit and grains, which could last for quite a while once dehydrated and placed in dry tombs, pieces of meat required special treatment. After just a few hours in the desert heat, 'they will become a terrible mess if you don't take some steps to preserve them,' says Richard Evershed, an archaeological chemist at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. The solution? Mummify. Now, a team of researchers led by Evershed is shedding light on the embalming processes used to create these so-called meat mummies, including mummified beef ribs."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A California father is asking Google to remove a Google Maps image he says shows the body of his teen-age son, who was shot to death in 2009. Jose Barrera, of Richmond, California, said he discovered the image, visible on Google Maps' satellite view feature, last week.

Seattle will be without one of the team's top defensive backs moving forward.

Seattle Seahawks cornerback Brandon Browner will miss 4-6 weeks after head coach Pete Carroll announced he suffered a groin pull that included tissue damage.

Browner suffered the injury in a Week 10 game against the Atlanta Falcons. The Seahawks announced he would be inactive against the Minnesota Vikings, but didn't have any further injury updates until he underwent an MRI.

The injury will hurt a secondary entering a four-game stretch featuring the Saints, 49ers, Giants and Cardinals. Each team has big play potential using several wide receivers capable of catching deep passes. Few teams are better prepared to handle an injury at cornerback than Seattle. The Seahawks will transition to Walter Thurmond, who has played very well in a rotational role after starting two games early this season.

Browner dealt with a hamstring injury early in the season and now has this groin pull. Appearing in eight games he has recorded 10 tackles and an interception.

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Syd Field, author of the influential Screenplay manual, died at the age of 77.

Jim Belushi warns producers of John Belushi biopic against dangers of not replacing a Belushi with a Belushi.

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Changes:

archatlas:

The biggest change tumblr has implemented recently is not aesthetic but the quiet secret elimination of the curated tags. In truth they still exist, but suddenly it does not matter what gets featured in the tags because if you are not specifically looking for them you will never find them. They don’t come up when you search the terms (architecture, design, art, etc.) and you won’t find any tagged features on the radar. Don’t get me wrong, I like gifs and the artists on tumblr but suddenly tumblr has become an inward looking society, instead of all inclusive, all exclusive. So now, I don’t get to see anything that is not created and posted by someone with a tumblr account on the radar, and that in my opinion kind of sucks, and when I search architecture I see the same established blogs with enough followers to gather notes. Unfortunate, in my opinion, the sense of discovery of new artists and new blogs is gone to some degree. Architecture and design are all but banished from the radar. Can we find a balance? Am I the only one that feels this way?

[1] Why are people so willing to wait in line for good, but not life-changing meals?
We must be reaching peak brunch. We've tolerated lines for the simplest meal of the day far too long. Some people even seem to like waiting in line! Are we all suffering from Stockholmelette Syndrome?
Apizza Scholls is amazing, but it's not a pizza place. It's a day trip. There is no food better than pizza, but there's also no pizza worth waiting more than 15 minutes for. Salt & Straw is great. Really great. But I've never thought to myself, "I'd love to eat ice cream in two hours. Let's stand around outside and see what happens."

[2] What's the deal with that vitamin store across from Powell's?
It's an awesome location to have such a boring store. It can't be a cheap lease, and yet it's never crowded. Is it a drug front? Is the margin on placebos so high they can afford to sell almost none of them and stay open?

[3] Where are the rich people hiding?
There are several stores downtown that sell $900 Prada shoes. Where is the dance club with a bunch of women dancing around a pile of Prada shoes? You can't wear heels to work out at the MAC.

[4] Are there lots of conspiracy theorists here or just one with lots of stickers?
It seems like there are batshit crazy stickers all over the place. Like way too many for a city this size. Are we too tolerant of crackpots or just too good at silk screening?

[5] I've never heard one joke about how Couch St sounds like cooch. Not one.
I've been in the comedy scene in Portland for four years and it's like everybody got together before I arrived and decided to pretend we don't have a vagina street right through the Pearl. Obviously we'd get tired of them pretty quick, but I haven't heard one "It's really slippery out on Couch St today" or "There are so many fun things going down on Couch St." It's weird. Really weird.

If you can answer any of my questions or suggest other things you don't understand, I'd love to hear 'em.

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This will not end well

Over on the Mercury fashion/retail/style blog MOD, we've had a few of our contributors fly the coop. One moved to San Francisco, and another's got two new jobs and plans to move to London. So! I'm looking for some fresh voices to help chronicle all the bustling activity happening in this city on the independent design and style front, because there is so much to keep track of. (Including attending and reviewing fashion shows, profiling new designers and retailers, testing products and fitness endeavors, tracking street style...)

Interested in helping out? Ideal candidates will have a strong interest in promoting local design and independent business (and at least a general indifference toward big-box retailers), good writing skills, and a critical eye. If this sounds like fun, email me a resume, some samples of your writing, and a general idea of what sorts of contributions you'd be interested in making.

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Last week, Canadian courts released a 500-page dossier on Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, detailing all of his alleged illegal activities—including interviews with staff on his alleged drug use and his alleged offers/threats to eat out various women's boxes, right down to more harmless stuff, like routinely pocket dialing his coworkers while pissing.

Talking Points Memo, bless its heart, has read this entire document and summarized its six best anecdotes. I suggest you read them aloud to your children at bedtime, as a grim lesson on what it's like to be Canadian.

4) Ford 'Would Try To Get Out Of Doing Ethnic Media Events'

Though the documents include tales of Ford making surprise appearances in convenience stores, parties, and on public transportation late at night, they also detail the types of events Ford allegedly would never go to. Ransom told investigators Ford "would not do any media events before 1100 AM unless it was a very special event."

Ransom also said Ford "would try to get out of doing ethnic media events, meetings with international politicians and ambassadors." Sadly, the documents didn't go into detail about Ford's reasons for avoiding these "ethnic" events. After February, Ford apparently also could not be found at nighttime public events. In one of his interviews with police, Towhey said he "removed all evening events from the Mayor's schedule" after an incident where Ford allegedly showed up to a military ball intoxicated with his children in tow and was asked to leave.

Rob Ford continues to be the man of my dreams. (I dream in nightmare.)

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If you required further evidence the term "hipster" is bandied about too much these days, the Portland Police Bureau just sent it out in a press release.

Cops are looking for a guy they've dubbed "The Nerdy Bandit," but it's a misnomer. He'd absolutely be a lead candidate for the title "The Hipster Bandit," if that name weren't already used recently.

See, the "Hipster Bandit" rode a bike and robbed banks. Meh. But the "Nerdy Bandit," has been a scourge to clerks at American Apparels and Urban Outfitters throughout the city since early October. He likes to browse the racks casually for a number of minutes before slipping the cashier a note saying he's got a handgun. Then he either strolls away on foot, or dashes off full speed.

Fault for the naming travesty, it should be said, lies with you, the crime-witnessing public. Someone who saw one of the bank jobs was a little too trigger happy with the "hipster" descriptor. And I guess a witness said this latest perp was "nerdyish" (either due to a well-cultivated aversion to using the h-word, or because, as a client or employee of American Apparel or Urban Outfitters, he himself/she herself is a hipster. We'll likely never know).

Here's a sketch, with the full press release appended after the jump. For the love of god someone catch this nerdy, yellow-toothed hipster.

Portland Police Bureau Robbery detectives, in cooperation with Crime Stoppers of Oregon, are asking for the public's help in identifying a robbery suspect.

On October 4, 2013, at approximately 7:55 p.m., a suspect walked up to the counter at the American Apparel store, located at 3410 Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, and presented a demand note implying that he was armed. After obtaining an undisclosed amount of cash, the suspect walked out of the store and was last seen walking eastbound on Hawthorne.

On October 11, 2013, at approximately 8:34 p.m., investigators believe the same suspect entered the American Apparel store located at 1234 Southwest Stark Street and presented a demand note to the employee, who ran away from the register. The suspect then fled the store and was last seen running westbound on West Burnside Street. The suspect did not obtain any money in this robbery.

On October 13, 2013, at approximately 6:30 p.m., investigators believe that the same suspect entered the Urban Outfitters store located at 2320 Northwest Westover Road and demanded money from the employee, but this time the suspect was armed with a handgun. After obtaining an undisclosed amount of money, the suspect fled out the back entrance onto Northwest 24th Avenue.

In all three robberies, the suspect enters the store and browses for clothing for several minutes before committing the robbery.

The suspect is described as a white male, early 20s to early 30s, 5'8" to 6' tall, skinny build, brown hair, "nerdyish" (according to a witness), wearing a hat (different in each robbery), yellow teeth, and black-rimmed glasses.

A forensic sketch of the man is being released to assist the public in identifying the suspect.

Crime Stoppers is offering a cash reward of up to $1,000 for information, reported to Crime Stoppers, that leads to an arrest in this case, or any unsolved felony, and you can remain anonymous.

Leave a Crime Stoppers tip online at http://crimestoppersoforegon.com/submit_online_tip.php text CRIMES (274637) and in the subject line put 823HELP, followed by your tip, or call 503-823-HELP (4357) and leave your tip information.

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Original Source

Photo credit: AlisonSonOfaGun Tumblr

Original Source

Hollywood wants to make sequel to the holiday classic It's a Wonderful Life. FUCK THIS SHIT.

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PHILADELPHIA—Calling the contraction of the disease “not good,” and saying that not having the illness is highly preferable to having it, oncologists representing the American Association for Cancer Research urged the U.S.

For women starting a new job, it can be difficult to navigate a male-dominated office environment. Here are The Onion's tips for succeeding as a woman in the workplace.

You've got a bunch of permanent markers, five lines, and a serious craving for drawing a great butt. Now what?

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What might some of the rock 'n' roll era's greatest stars have achieved and what might they look like now, if they had not died before their time? To explore these tantalizing questions, Sachs Media Group partnered with photo restoration and manipulation company Phojoe to create this gallery of images. It is a heartfelt tribute to the memory of beloved artists who helped shape generations of music fans, in order to keep their memory alive for future generations.

From the folks at Range restaurant comes Third Rail, located in the Dogpatch area of San Francisco. The bar is scheduled to open in early December. "The thriving and revitalized Dogpatch area of San Francisco welcomes Range restaurant’s newest family member — Third Rail this December. The principals consist of Jeff Lyon, former bar manager at Range, and Phil West, Range’s owner and chef. Third Rail will focus on category-driven craft cocktails, local beers both on draught and in the bottle, and regional wines on tap. The design/build team from Paxton Gate has remodeled the former Retox Lounge space into a classic, comfortable urban neighborhood bar with mid-century touches and art deco motifs inspired by “old” and “new world” train stations." I got hold of the cocktail menu. I see: sherry, armagnac, and vermouth. SEASONAL Cold Snap Rittenhouse rye, Snap, calamondin, lemon, Peychaud’s bitters (rocks) Cheshire Cat Tito’s vodka, white guava, Genepy, falernum, lime (rocks) Harvest Moon Siete Leguas blanco tequila, asian pear, lime, absinthe (rocks) Cloven Hoof Gosling’s rum, Cerbois arnagnac, madiera, 7 spices (big rock) APERITIF Off the Cuff Perucchi dry vermouth, Gran Classico bitter, seltzer, orange (big rock) 601 Sutton Cellars vermouth, ginger, honey, lemon, prosecco (rocks)...

[Visit Alcademics.com for the full post.]

This BBC news piece has some bits 'n' bobbles on the Doctor Who 50th anniversary episode, including interviews with various actors and a few images we've not seen before now. If you're so inclined you can skip ahead to 1:29 for the crème de la crème: Ten facing off against a cute—or cute-looking—little bunny. But Rebecca, I hear you say. The Rabbit of Caerbannog is white, and the rabbit Ten threatens is grayish-brown. It regenerated. Duh. (via: Geekosystem) Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?

Not too long ago we learned David Tennant will be reprising his role as Detective Inspector Alec Hardy in Fox's Broadchurch remake (he'll also be playing an American). Now two more have been added to the cast, including Breaking Bad's Anna Gunn. While I'm not kean on Tennant playing an American in this remake, it seems to make sense considering the show's location. And that also means a name change for the series.

Roboexotica 2013, a festival for cocktail robotics, takes place December 5 to 8 at the Ragnarhof art space in Vienna, Austria. The 15th annual Roboexotica is presented by Monochrom, SHIFZ, and Bureau of Philosophy.

Until what seems almost recently, no attempts had been made to publicly discuss the role of Cocktail Robotics as an index for the integration of technological innovations into the human Lebenswelt, or to document the increasing occurrence of radical hedonism in man-machine communication. Roboexotica is an attempt to fill this vacuum. It is the first and, inevitably, the leading festival concerned with cocktail robotics world-wide.

poster by James Brothwell