Shared posts

18 Nov 17:21

How Sandy Clean-Up Brought Day Laborers Out Of The Shadows

When Sandy hit last October, the Northeast shoreline seemed to freeze. But the paralysis wasn't total—the area began buzzing immediately with invisible workers.
18 Nov 17:21

Photo



18 Nov 17:20

Photo



18 Nov 17:20

hotdiggitydogblog: REALLY YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE





hotdiggitydogblog:

REALLY YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE

18 Nov 17:16

gailsimone: This formatted weird, it looked like it was one post from me, but it was a direct...

gailsimone:

This formatted weird, it looked like it was one post from me, but it was a direct message and a one line response from me. Tumblr, your unpredictability is not fun at all.

But here is a direct message I just got:

"Everyone thinks The Hawkeye Initiative is so brilliant because depictons of male characters in stereotypically feminine poses are hilarious and absurd due to the comic industry’s standards for female posture and composition.  BUT what if it’s hilarious and absurd simply because men and women have different bodies and therefore different clothes and also different physical postures and dimensions?  I can’t help but think the feminist notion that there is social injustice if men and women can’t be completely interchangable without comedy ensuing to be a bit confused… you don’t seem to be taking into account things like human anatomy.  Maybe men and women are just DIFFERENT."

This is difficult to respond to because holy shit, I can’t believe it.

It’s not nature that poses a woman so that you can see her vulva and her nipples and her ass at the same time, it’s an artist, it’s an editor that allows it, it’s a publisher that publishes it, and yes, it’s a consumer that buys it.

The Hawkeye Initiative, which sometimes wanders into uncomfortable territory, is still at its core about the DELIBERATE choices creators make when portraying female poses. Women in combat don’t go into combat with their asses stuck up in the air like red-butt baboons presenting during mating season because their bodies are so ‘different’ from men, they go because some creators make it happen, because they know some consumers will be titillated.

You are assigning deliberate choices with motive to random happenstance and nature, and it’s completely silly. Believe me, I work in this industry. Professional artists know what they are drawing. Publishers know what they are selling.

It’s not an accident.

Seriously, Gail’s seemingly endless patience with some of these clueless dingbats astonishes me.

18 Nov 17:15

Interview: Ask Limor Fried About Open-Source Hardware and Adafruit

by samzenpus
firehose

"With her signature pink hair, MIT engineer Limor Fried has become a force in the maker movement"
fuck you slashdot
more like
"With her bootstrapped company selling tons of stuff she and her team designed, built, and/or manufactured"

With her signature pink hair, MIT engineer Limor Fried has become a force in the maker movement. Last year she was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year by Entrepreneur Magazine, and her company, Adafruit Industries, did $10 million in sales. Limor has agreed to take some time away from soldering and running a new company to answer your questions about hardware, electronics, and Adafruit. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one question per post.

Share on Google+

Read more of this story at Slashdot.








18 Nov 17:14

"We’ll bully you, meow!" - Madou Monogatari (Compile -...



"We’ll bully you, meow!" -

Madou Monogatari (Compile - Super Famicom - 1996)

requested by adventurerhedgehog

18 Nov 17:09

Bitcoin-powered assassination market targets Obama, Bernanke, and others

by Russell Brandom
firehose

"the site is primarily motivated by hostility to overreaching government, offering bounties ranging from 40 bitcoin for President Obama to a whopping 124 bitcoin for outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke. At current bitcoin rates, that would add up to over $70,000."

Bitcoin has long been accused of , but today it's been implicated in a more grisly business: assassination. In Forbes, Andy Greenberg details a site called Assassination Market, which offers up crowdfunded bounties for the murder of public figures. As previously reported in The Daily Dot, the site is primarily motivated by hostility to overreaching government, offering bounties ranging from 40 bitcoin for President Obama to a whopping 124 bitcoin for outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke. At current bitcoin rates, that would add up to over $70,000.


The site takes advantage of a feature that lets users encode information in a Bitcoin transaction. By predicting the date of the assassination in advance and encoding that information in a one-dollar donation, a user could verify she was responsible and thus claim the money. As Greenberg points out, it's similar to the assassination market model posited by cypherpunks in the 90s, but new site has put the idea into practice using modern anonymizing tools and is currently collecting real money, potentially attracting the attention of federal law enforcement.

It's doubtful that anyone will actually follow through on the hits, but the site serves as a reminder of how potentially destabilizing anonymous marketplaces can be. It's particularly poorly timed for Bitcoin, as the currency faces increased regulation in many states, as well as a hearing in the House of Representatives later today. It's also unclear whether the site can stay out of reach of law enforcement, after similar projects like Silk Road have fallen prey to minor slips in operational security. Forbes contacted the FBI and Secret Service for the piece, but both declined to comment, and its unclear how

18 Nov 17:04

The Legacy of the Painter José Clemente Orozco Is Revived - NYTimes.com

by hodad
77302ab1d83ab19dcc5841ff37e3cf2e
hodad

Here’s Orozco’s mural in the Dartmouth library. Guess what it means!

If he were alive, these kinds of disputes — and Mexico’s perpetual indifference — probably would not have surprised José Clemente Orozco. He had seen his work covered and destroyed before he died, and he wrote in his autobiography that egotism and the taste for wealth and power often undermined broader artistic and political ideals. Ultimately, he wrote, people crave the familiar.

Original Source

18 Nov 17:03

Penn State grandma gives a beer bong a whirl

by Bill Hanstock

Here's to trying new things! And to getting our senior citizens completely hammered.

18 Nov 17:02

Percy Harvin had appendectomy, tumor removed during time off

by Jeff Gray

Following his Seattle debut Sunday, the wide receiver revealed previously unknown operations he'd undergone since his last football action a year ago.

Percy Harvin returned to football Sunday afternoon, finally making his debut with the Seattle Seahawks after sitting out the first 10 weeks of the season following offseason hip surgery.

Hip surgery was not the only procedure the wide receiver underwent in his time off, he revealed in the aftermath of the Seahawks 41-20 win over the Minnesota Vikings. Harvin said he had an appendectomy in November 2012 and a tumor removed last offseason, according to Liz Matthews of ESPN 710.

Seahawks 41, Vikings 20

SB Nation's Seahawks blog, Field Gulls, recaps Harvin's return and Seattle's big win.

Harvin, who had one catch for 17 yards and an electric 58-yard punt return against his former team, told the media about the operations in the locker room after the game. His apendectomy -- the removal of the appendix -- occurred after he was placed on the Vikings' injured reserve last season. He did not elaborate on the tumor or its severity.

Sunday was the first action the fifth-year pro had seen since Nov. 4, 2012, when an ankle injury ended his season for the Vikings. He was shipped to Seattle in a blockbuster trade in March and was expected to become Russell Wilson's top target, but that plan was put on hold after he opted to undergo hip surgery in August.

Harvin's one catch of the night was a highlight reel one-hand snag. Expect his workload to increase as he continues to shake off the rust.

More from SB Nation NFL

NFL Week 11 updates, highlights and GIFs | Live scores

Perfect no more: Chiefs fall to the Broncos on Sunday night

Saints beat Niners on last-second FG

Jason Babin rips Andre Ellington's hair out | #Lookit

Breaking Madden: Pat McAfee, Destroyer of Worlds | More

18 Nov 17:01

knottybear: archiemcphee: Here’s an awesome little piece of...

firehose

autoreshare



knottybear:

archiemcphee:

Here’s an awesome little piece of history:

Archaeologists in the Burnt City have discovered what appears to be an ancient prosthetic eye. What makes this discovery exceptionally awesome is the striking description of how the owner and her false eye would have appeared while she was still alive and blinking:

[The eye] has a hemispherical form and a diameter of just over 2.5 cm (1 inch). It consists of very light material, probably bitumen paste. The surface of the artificial eye is covered with a thin layer of gold, engraved with a central circle (representing the iris) and gold lines patterned like sun rays. The female remains found with the artificial eye was 1.82 m tall (6 feet), much taller than ordinary women of her time. On both sides of the eye are drilled tiny holes, through which a golden thread could hold the eyeball in place. Since microscopic research has shown that the eye socket showed clear imprints of the golden thread, the eyeball must have been worn during her lifetime. The woman’s skeleton has been dated to between 2900 and 2800 BCE. 

So she was an extraordinarily tall woman walking around wearing an engraved golden eye patterned with rays like a tiny sun. What an awesome sight that must have been.

[via TYWKIWDBI]

Wow.

18 Nov 17:00

Sen. Chuck Schumer Seeks To Extend Ban On 'Undetectable' 3D-Printed Guns

by timothy
SonicSpike writes with this snippet from The Guardian: "As the technology to print 3D firearms advances, a federal law that banned the undetectable guns is about to expire. The New York senator Chuck Schumer says he is seeking an extension of the law before it expires on 9 December. Schumer said the technology of so-called 3D printing has advanced to the point where anyone with $1,000 and an internet connection can access the plastic parts that can be fitted into a gun. Those firearms cannot be detected by metal detectors or x-ray machines. Schumer says that means anyone can download a gun cheaply, then take the weapons anywhere, including high-security areas. The Democrat is pushing the extension along with Senators Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Bill Nelson of Florida. The effort was announced on Sunday."

Share on Google+

Read more of this story at Slashdot.








18 Nov 16:58

Gunman at Large in Paris - Wall Street Journal


Montreal Gazette

Gunman at Large in Paris
Wall Street Journal
PARIS—Police were conducting a frantic manhunt Monday for a gunman suspected in two shootings and a brief hostage-taking that stunned Paris and which authorities were treating as possibly terrorist-related. One man, a photographer's assistant, was in ...
French journalist shot atThe News International
Paris shooting is close to home for former Mexico correspondent (+video)Christian Science Monitor
Paris shootings: Liberation photographer shot 'on first day'BBC News
euronews -New York Times -Sydney Morning Herald
all 462 news articles »
18 Nov 16:56

So this is happening.

firehose

SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTT



So this is happening.

18 Nov 16:56

Downtown train


Enrico Natali


Enrico Natali


Enrico Natali

Downtown train

18 Nov 16:56

Photo

firehose

The Wire series synopsis



18 Nov 16:56

Portland Businesses Enter The World of Digital Currency

by Robert Ham
firehose

meanwhile, in Portland

Back in 2009, Gregg Abbott, the owner of Whiffies Fried Pies, was hanging with a bunch of tech enthusiasts outside his food cart, discussing the potential of a then-new online currency known as bitcoin. One of them, an early investor, offered Abbott 1,000 bitcoins for one of his handpies.

"I didn't say, 'No,'" he remembers. "I just got distracted and he wandered off. That was a $250,000 mistake. Silly me."

Abbott's story is emblematic of the strange world of bitcoin, a decentralized cryptocurrency that emerged in the digital market back in early '09. Using software created by a pseudonymous person or persons known as Satoshi Nakamoto, the actual “money” is just a long string of letters and numbers that contains each bitcoin’s value and owner.

At the time of its arrival, only a few people were picking them up, usually by "mining," which uses computers to guess at solutions to math problems. There was a value system embedded in this, however, with the problems getting more difficult as each new one was solved.

Four years later, there are nearly 12 million in circulation, with many of them being traded and sold like stocks through online exchanges. And like those assets, the value of bitcoins has ballooned at an exponential rate due to their scarcity (only 21 million will ever be made). At the time of this writing, one bitcoin is worth just over $200.

Unlike stocks, you can actually use bitcoins to pay for goods and services. The currency breaks down to increments up to eight decimal places (BTC .00000007, for example) and there is a growing list of websites like OKCupid and Reddit that accept it as payment.

Where things are getting interesting here in Portland is the brick and mortar spots that take bitcoin. It's a small and rather scatter shot list, but includes alternative health centers (Kaleidoscope Yoga and Healing Arts Resource Project); and restaurants like Madison's Grill, Papa G's Vegan Deli, and, yes, Whiffies.

"I guess I thought that in order to build currencies like this," says Abbott, "you need to have places where you can spend them. I thought my place was as good as any. And I thought that it would attract interesting people for me to interact with, which has been the case."

Whiffies uses a mobile app that makes the dollar to bitcoin conversion based on the most recent exchange rate. An added benefit: the payment system takes only 1/10 of 1% as a transaction fee, much lower than the 4% to pay with a credit card.

Abbott says that he’s sold about 200 pies to folks wielding bitcoins, letting the amount rack up in his personal digital wallet alongside some that he's purchased off and on over the last couple of years.

“I have quite a few now,” he says. “I cashed some of them out in the bank for fiat currency, and I’ve kept a bunch of them. I can’t tell you exactly what it looks like, but I have a lot of faith that they will be even more valuable than they are now.”

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

18 Nov 16:54

Google's Eric Schmidt announces new blocks on child porn

by Rich McCormick
firehose

'Google will use humans to review the images to discern the difference between "genuine abuse" and "innocent pictures of kids at bathtime." '

the new economy is awesome guys
look at the quality jobs Google is creating

Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt has outlined how his company is introducing new measures to block child pornography from appearing in its searches. Schmidt explained the changes to Google's search function in an op-ed in Britain's Daily Mail newspaper following a campaign of pressure from British politicians.


Eric Schmidt outlined Google's new measures in Britain's 'Daily Mail' newspaper

Schmidt broke the new measures down into sub-categories that included "cleaning up" more than 100,000 search results, and the introduction of new warnings that appear above more than 13,000 results that reiterate that child porn and child sexual abuse is illegal, and offer avenues for help. Despite these changes, Schmidt says in his op-ed that "There's no quick technical fix when it comes to detecting child sexual abuse imagery." Instead, Google will use humans to review the images to discern the difference between "genuine abuse" and "innocent pictures of kids at bathtime." Schmidt also details plans to send engineers to the UK's Internet Watch Foundation and the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, in addition to funding internships at both organizations.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron is in the midst of an attempted crackdown on pornography in general, with a particular focus on stopping search engines from showing child porn. Earlier this year, Cameron called for "Google, Bing, Yahoo, and the rest" to censor their search results, saying in July "If there are technical obstacles to acting on [search engines], don't just stand by and say nothing can be done; use your great brains to help overcome them." Google has previously shied away from censoring its results directly, choosing instead to develop an open database to which law enforcement agencies, charities, and relevant organizations could add the details of abusive imagery that could then be hidden or removed.

Google's new blocks have 'cleaned up' more than 100,000 search results

Schmidt's op-ed comes before a British parliamentary meeting today to discuss the clampdown on child porn. Google's new measures — and the fact one of its most public faces addressed the issue in one of the UK's most partisan papers — suggest the search giant is taking the issue very seriously.

But despite Google's best efforts, new search filters sadly won't remove child porn from the internet on their own. BBC News cites a report from Cameron's own Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre that explains most child pornography can't be found through Google or Bing searches, existing instead on peer-to-peer networks or on the "deep web," protected by anonymity software such as Tor. Without large companies such as Google acting as gatekeepers in these darker corners of the internet, Cameron will need to look elsewhere for "great brains" to continue his campaign.

18 Nov 16:52

Don't Wake Little Santos, The Ocelot Kitten!

by Andrew Bleiman
firehose

via Kara Jean

10804087063_daec46b86c_k

The nursery in Cincinnati Zoo's Children's Zoo has a brand new addition! Santos, the baby Ocelot, was born November 2 at the Abilene Zoo in Texas. He'll become a part of the Cincinnati Zoo's Cheetah Encounter Show in the summer of 2014.

Ocelots are native to much of South America and Mexico. They are expert hunters, and are fiercely territorial. They are listed as a species of Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

10865843886_8f47ec7802_k

10774137816_3a362dcaa1_k

10816114556_beecf78c45_k

10866006064_39a7cf9a38_h

Related articles
18 Nov 16:47

Foraged Flavor: All About Shagbark Hickory Bark

by Tama Matsuoka Wong
firehose

via Russian Sledges

20131117-foraged-nuts-far.jpg

[Photographs: Tama Wong]

Last month we gathered shagbark hickory nuts in abundance, and now that the leaves have fallen, the trees stand as silent wooden sentinels in a silvery grey forest.

I squirreled away the leftover shells and uncracked nuts, and now is the time to gather some hickory bark. I peel off the sections that hang off the sides of the tree like brittle old wooden house shingles.

The bark of a tree is its skin, protecting the tree layers from insects, disease, and the elements. Barks have their own unique eccentricities—some are smooth, grey, bumpy, brown-black, streaked, scaly, or furrowed, depending on the type of tree.

20131117-foraged-nutsclose.jpg

Just under the bark is a layer of living wood, containing phloem, a soft tissue that transports sugars from the leaves to the roots and other parts of the tree. If the bark is damaged or cut it can affect the phloem, injuring the tree. The great thing about the shagbark hickory bark is that it naturally exfoliates, so it's easily harvested without cutting into the tree.

American Indians boiled shagbark hickory bark and chips to make sugar, and also used the bark as a tonic for "general debility" and arthritis. The Cherokee used the hickory wood ashes to cure pork.

20131117-foraged-infusion.jpg

Infusing milk with shagbark hickory bark to make ice cream

Today, hickory is a common flavoring used to smoke or cure meats like ham. In smoking, the meat absorbs the hickory flavors from wet hickory chips or logs that are added to a fire in a chamber or smoker. You can also add hickory chips to barbecue grills, or even use a liquid processed hickory smoke flavoring. Here's a tasty recipe for smoked lamb using hickory chunks.

It's hard to imagine this incredible hickory smoke flavor as I sniff at the bark I just peeled. The bark just smells...woody, not much else. I admit I feel a bit doubtful. It's not until the bark and shells warm in the oven that I start to get a sense of the toasty, smoky flavor of real hickory.

20131117-foraged-icecream.jpg

Shagbark hickory bark ice cream

And then, when I boil the toasted bark with milk and leave it to infuse for hours, an amazing transformation takes place. I can't believe that this hunk of wood can exude a such buttery, nutty, smoky flavor, filling my kitchen like a holiday hearth. This infusion makes a remarkable base for desserts like panna cotta, or the unique ice cream detailed here, which wouldn't be out of place on your Thanksgiving table.

About the Author: Tama Matsuoka Wong is corporate lawyer turned professional forager who supplies wild plants to chefs in the New York City area and leads events across the country about the deliciousness of wild ingredients.

But wait, there's more! Follow Serious Eats on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest!

Get the Recipe!
18 Nov 16:45

Back to work

firehose

how I think I look when I'm js-ing

18 Nov 16:44

Kanye Stops By Harvard To Give A Speech About Design | Via "So...

firehose

"I believe that utopia is actually possible—but we’re led by the least noble, the least dignified, the least tasteful, the dumbest, and the most political."



Kanye Stops By Harvard To Give A Speech About Design | Via

"So after walking through here I decided that I wanted to make sure for anyone that didn’t have tickets tonight that you all could have tickets to the show. So anybody who wants to come tonight, you can have tickets for the entire office!

But I just wanted to tell you guys: I really do believe that the world can be saved through design, and everything needs to actually be “architected.” And this is the reason why even some of the first DONDA employees were architects that started designing t-shirts instead of buildings. But just to see the work actually be actualized.

I believe that utopia is actually possible—but we’re led by the least noble, the least dignified, the least tasteful, the dumbest, and the most political. So in no way am I a politician—I’m usually at my best politically incorrect and very direct. I really appreciate you guys’ willingness to learn and hone your craft, and not be lazy about creation.”

18 Nov 16:43

TOUCHY FEELY

by bubbaprog
firehose

numbness test?
still hilarious to watch during a football game

TOUCHY FEELY

ANIMATED: What, exactly, is going on here

18 Nov 16:41

OS X 10.9 Mavericks Benchmarks On The 2012 Retina MBP

firehose

mixed bag; some OpenGL regressions

For those curious how the performance is impacted for the 2012 "Ivy Bridge" Retina MacBook Pro when upgrading to OS X 10.9 Mavericks, here's some fresh open-source benchmarks comparing the 10.8.5 and 10.9.0 releases for this Core i7 laptop with Intel HD 4000 and NVIDIA GeForce graphics...
18 Nov 16:40

NASA shares satellite and climate data on Amazon’s cloud

NASA shares satellite and climate data on Amazon’s cloud:

Landsat, other satellite data, climate change forecasts now available to all.
18 Nov 16:39

Church Of Scientology Dedicates Massive "Superpowers" Headquarters In Florida

by Joe
firehose

via Russian Sledges

"fields/magnetic, sound direction, emotional state of groups, and perception of conclusions (past and present)"

Scientology is a prog rock album in real life beat

After 15 years of construction, the Church of Scientology has dedicated a massive new headquarters building in St. Petersburg, Florida. The upper floors of the building will be devoted to unleashing the dozens of superpowers that we all apparently possess.
“Super Power,” first unveiled by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, is one's ability to hone in on 57 senses called "perceptics." The original five senses — sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch — were found not enough. The Flag Building, nicknamed the "Super Power" building, will specifically feature exclusive programs on expanding one’s “perceptics.” Among its generally secretive program's features is an antigravity simulator, various exercise machines, and a gyroscope-like apparatus that spins blindfolded riders around, a scientologist previously told the Tampa Bay Times after attending similar courses in Los Angeles. The spinning contraption is said to improve perception of compass direction, one of the 57 "perceptics." Some of the other "perceptics" the programs aim to help members master are personal size, blood circulation, fields/magnetic, sound direction, emotional state of groups, and perception of conclusions (past and present).
One of those 57 superpowers has got to be creating an illusion of heterosexuality.
18 Nov 16:37

Cambridge Public Library declines offer of local author’s book, and then apologizes

by Steven M. Cohen
firehose

via Russian Sledges

“Being a well-known writer and longtime resident of Cambridge, Katherine A. Powers can be excused for expecting to find her latest book on the shelves of the local library. After all, the book about her father, the late writer J.F. Powers, has been widely reviewed, with words of praise appearing in The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe. (Powers wrote a column for the Globe for 20 years.) But after a recent visit to the Cambridge Public Library revealed that the book, “Suitable Accommodations: An Autobiographical Story of Family Life: The Letters of J.F. Powers, 1942-1963,” is not, in fact, part of the library’s collection, Powers offered to donate a copy. The library’s answer? Thanks, but no thanks. Citing a policy intended to discourage the public from dumping their unwanted volumes on the library’s doorstep, three employees of the library declined Powers’s offer.” (via Boston.com)

18 Nov 16:37

St. Vincent shares clip of new music, tour dates, covered Neil Young w/ Pearl Jam & Carrie Brownstein (video)

by brooklynvegan
firehose

via Russian Sledges

St Vincent

St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark), who spent most of last year and this year on her David Byrne collaboration, is finally looking like she's set to release the followup to 2011's excellent Strange Mercy. She just announced a European tour, and in the video for the announcement, there's a 30-second clip of new music. Check out the video and list of tour dates below.

Annie also teamed up with Pearl Jam and Sleater-Kinney/Wild Flag/Portlandia's Carrie Brownstein in Dallas over the weekend (11/15) to cover Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World." Check out a video of that (via Stereogum) below.

Neil himself will be in NYC soon for four nights at Carnegie Hall.

Videos and list of dates below...

Continue reading "St. Vincent shares clip of new music, tour dates, covered Neil Young w/ Pearl Jam & Carrie Brownstein (video)" at brooklynvegan

18 Nov 16:33

Photo

firehose

via Tadeu