firehose

Digital artist Zack Dougherty adds pulsating, morphing, and moving objects to photographs in his curiously mesmerizing animated GIFs. In some of the GIFs he chooses an object in the photo to manipulate, in others he adds absurdist objects like giant black orbs to otherwise ordinary photos. Since 2011 he has posted hundreds of his curious GIFs on his Tumblr blog.

via iGNANT

With his series "Zombiescapes" artist George Pfau takes scenes from zombie movies and TV shows and makes them classy (well, classier) by illustrating them as impressionist paintings. Apart from the inherent coolness of mixing a classical art technique with something so relatively recent as our fascination with the brain-eating undead, the way Pfau's art takes scenes of gore and death and abstractifies them interesting on a conceptual level. What a pretty field, where things look so nice and peaceful. But you know what's really happening. Braaaaaains. (via: io9; see the rest on Pfau's website)

What was rumor last week is today announced as truth, Saffron Burrows will be appearing on next week's episode of Agents of SHIELD, "The Hub," as Victoria Hand. Hand first appeared in comics as right, uh, hand woman to Norman Osborn when he used is power as new director as SHIELD to form a group of less than savory Avengers, but she's also a prominent gay supporting character in Marvel comics. Burrows, as well, identifies as an out member of the LGBTQ community (albeit as bisexual where Hand is lesbian), and so it will be interesting to see when and how the show chooses to give the first gay character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe some sexual orientation exposition. They'd be opening themselves up to a lot of criticism not to. Marvel.com says that next week will be her "debut," so I hope that means we will be seeing Ms. Burrows and Victoria Hand for more than one episode.

On the last morning, before the waffle irons went cold and the pictures came down, before the lock refused to lock, before the claw crashed through the roof, the old man paced.

In a world where budgets are tight, and bottom lines daunting, it makes sense that governments around the world have to do more with less, or they just have to do less. Surprisingly, one part of the state apparatus that most countries seem happy to outsource is one of its most fundamental—security.

“[F]or the first several years the SAT was offered, males scored higher than females on the Math section but females achieved higher scores on the Verbal section. ETS policy-makers determined that the Verbal test needed to be “balanced” more in favor of males, and added questions pertaining to politics, business and sports to the Verbal portion. Since that time, males have outscored females on both the Math and Verbal sections. Dwyer notes that no similar effort has been made to “balance” the Math section, and concludes that, “It could be done, but it has not been, and I believe that probably an unconscious form of sexism underlies this pattern. When females show the superior performance, ‘balancing’ is required; when males show the superior performance, no adjustments are necessary.” “”

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“Gender Bias in College Admissions Tests”, FairTest.org

And then people urge me everything is fine, of course it is, when you’re ignoring statistics that is.

(via cwnl)

Fun fact: SAT tests predict college performance pretty well for men, but they strongly underpredict college performance for women. http://spp.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/12/20/1948550612469038.abstract

HMMMM

(via brute-reason)

I think I’ve reblogged this before, but that study needs to be shared.

(via conjecturesandconversations)

hahahaha more women go to college than men still so joke’s on you

(via kubotits)

And colleges lower the qualifications for admission for men as well if they dont deliberately favor men over women in admissions in an effort to “balance the scales”. 

(via arcadiasilver)

I say this over and over again: men, if colleges weren’t PRACTICING A FORM OF PREFERENTIAL ADMISSION IN ORDER TO GET “BALANCED” CAMPUSES, you would not be getting in as much. So shut up about affirmative action. 

Also, standardized tests don’t just disadvantage women - they also tend to highly disadvantage POC and other marginalized groups. My mother once fought really hard to get a PhD candidate with shitty GRE scores admitted to her program, because she knew that GREs tend to disadvantage black people. The candidate got in, got her PhD, and is now teaching at an Ivy League School. 

(via feministbatwoman)

rjmarvin writes "Sources have confirmed that Microsoft has narrowed down its search for its next CEO to five external candidates and at least two internal candidates. Rumored frontrunner Stephen Elop, former Nokia CEO, and Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally are reportedly in contention, along with Microsoft's Skype head Tony Bates and their cloud and enterprise chief Satya Nadella. The other external candidates who've emerged from the approximately 40 rumored names swirling around since August have not yet been revealed."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

First they came for the librarians. Soon after the passing of the US Patriot Act in 2001, FBI agents bearing national security letters began visiting librarians. These letters compel recipients to turn over information—such as the reading and internet-surfing records of a library-user—and can be issued without a court order. Moreover, the letters bar anyone who gets one from telling anybody else about it, except for lawyers or people needed to comply with the letter’s requirements. That means its hard to argue with one and impossible to start a debate about it.

Librarians responded to the perceived subversion of due process by putting up signs in libraries that read, “The FBI has not been here (watch very closely for removal of this sign).” The signs were meant both as a warning to visitors and as a means of protest. Cory Doctorow recently advocated in the Guardian for more people to use this tactic in response to such letters. Yet not everybody is convinced. One online service provider describes Doctorow’s idea as “cute”—in other words, nice in theory but naive in practice. When it comes to tech firms, lawyers dissuade their clients from making such moves.

Apple leads the way

Last night, Apple became the first major tech company to adopt this practice. “Apple has never received an order under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. We would expect to challenge such an order if served on us,” reads the last line in its report on government information requests (pdf). Section 215 is a ramped-up version of a national security letter, and allows the government to demand huge volumes of information under a gag order (though it requires a court’s approval). That’s how Verizon and others were forced to hand over phone call data.

Apple’s is a risky strategy. There are two main reasons tech companies do not use this tactic. The first is that nobody knows just how legitimate a move this is. Could a court order a company to continue publishing such a statement even when it ceases to be true? It seems unlikely. But the theory has never been tested. And no company of Apple’s stature has ever tried to find out before. Leading the way is a risky proposition.

The other reason is a practical consideration. Companies receive requests on a regular basis. It’s in their best interests to maintain cordial relationships with law enforcement agencies. Moreover, large companies have a procedure for what to do in these cases: Someone trained to handle such requests is available around the clock and lawyers are instantly summoned. Companies don’t comply with letters without scrutinizing them first (though standards of what requires compliance vary from firm to firm). Smaller companies have no such luxury, nor necessarily the experience. Government agents, after all, might suggest that companies’ lawyers need not be present. Or the police may conduct dawn raids in search of information. Putting up a petulant sign invites intimidation. That could destroy a small company and is an unwelcome burden for big ones.

A warning

So why did Apple do it? The second part of Apple’s notice may be more important than the first. By saying the company “would expect to challenge such an order,” Apple has given a clear indication that it will not submit quietly. That alone should force law enforcement to think twice about making unnecessary requests; it’s one thing for a law enforcement agent to get a court to agree to issue an order, it’s another to get the boss to sign up to a large legal bill. Apple certainly has the money for such a fight. It has just shown it also has the stomach for it. Still, it’s worth keeping a close eye on Apple’s next transparency report.

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Totally normal married couple Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer took a break from their newlywed lifestyle in 2011 and played six west coast dates. The lengthy shows involved the intermingling of each partner’s fans, and was ultimately released to fans via a 3-CD set available exclusively on Kickstarter. That record, The Evening With Neil Gaiman And Amanda Palmer, is finally being released to the general public Tuesday, Nov. 19, and A.V. Club readers can get an exclusive preview of one of the tracks, “Judy Blume” included on the monster release.

The record is available for pre-order now. Especially enthusiastic fans can drop major coin and pick up a deluxe bundle that includes the record, two mugs, a t-shirt, a poster, a journal, a teapot, and a tea towel. 

Read more

tastefullyoffensive:

Portals to Hell by hrmphfft

Some people have called anxiety the Disease of the 21st Century; and on an anecdotal level, it's easy to understand how someone might think anxiety worthy of the title. We've all experienced it at one time or another – that horrible feeling when the whole world seems to be crashing down on us. But is humanity truly in the grips of an anxiety epidemic?

Read more...

sandiegoairandspace:

Two unidentified ladies within the USS Macon (ZRS-5) as it is being constructed c.1932. The USS Macon was far the largest airship to be built in the US, it saw admirable service before it crashed in 1935. The crash was deemed operator error after it was improperly navigated through a storm following incomplete repairs.

The image from a recently digitized photo album donated by Glen W. Bates, showing airship activity in America in the late 1920s to early 1930s. The USS Macon and USS Akron are heavily featured.  

Reblogging for later reference. #symbiosis

Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

marielikestodraw:

parisldn:

johnlockedness:

sallydonovan:

"man i miss sherlock so much"

THAT FUCKING MUG HAHAHAHA

Took me a few seconds to realise it WASN’T the official promo still. Whoops.

DYING

(grin) Yeah, this was more or less inevitable. :)

frenums:

im so tired

noxidanamchara:

that’ll attract me for damn sure

Artist Olafur Eliasson used a laser cutter to make a model of his house in the pages of a book for his sculpture, “Your House.” The house’s interior is modeled across 454 pages, with each page representing a 2.2-centimeter section of the actual structure. The book was produced in 2006 in a limited edition of 225.

via not shaking the grass, Visual News

photos via not shaking the grass

thenightlymirror:

Respect slacker ladies and woman-children. They are geniuses and poets too.

laughterkey:

jacksgettingfitter:

This is my nephew. Just in case it escaped your attention, he is dressed as Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

Yesterday I was out for lunch with some of my family, including my nephew who I hadn’t seen for a few months. He was very excited to see me and I was him.

As soon as we sat in the restaurant, he started pulling out some princess figurines (which he had amusingly named Rihanna and Gaga), and he was explaining to me how beautiful they were. He told me he wished he could be as beautiful as them even though he was a boy.

This kind of comment was nothing new for him.

After we all started eating, I noticed he was facing away from us. He turned around with a tear rolling down his cheek and refused to say what was wrong. This was very out of character for him. He was usually so attention seeking and theatrical, and incredibly intelligent for his age.

After a while he put his head into his arms on the table and started crying a lot more. I leaned into him and asked what was wrong again.

He whispered really quietly to me “I don’t want to be weird.”

I responded to him saying “Weird? I’m weird. Weird is good, weird is different!”

"But I don’t want to be different, it’s wrong," he replied through tear-stained fingers.

Angry, I started “Let me tell you what’s wrong. You are five years old and people are already telling you what you should and shouldn’t say. Or what you should and shouldn’t wear. You’re crying because somebody decided what boys are supposed to do and what girls are supposed to do, and nobody should differ from that. Well, let me tell you a little something about normal…

It used to be normal to laugh at people because they had different coloured skin. It used to be normal to bully somebody if they were a boy and they loved another boy, or a girl who loved another girl. It used to be normal to pick on someone for being too fat or too skinny. It used to be normal to pick on different, and the worst part is that a lot of that stuff is still going on.

Why would you want to be normal, you’re extraordinary! If anybody tells you that you can’t be a beautiful princess, you put on that fucking dress because you are beautiful and you are a little weird, but nobody normal ever made a fucking bit of difference in the world. You wear whatever the hell you want, and like whatever the hell you like, because it’s people like you that are going to make a real, lasting change.

The world needs a lot more weird and a lot less normal.”

And he understood exactly what I meant. He lunged in for a hug and kissed me on the cheek before uttering under his breath “What does ‘fucking’ mean?”

I love that kid more than I’ve ever loved anything. Don’t make his generation fight our battles.

Shaming of every variety needs to end now, we should be celebrating different, not condemning it. Not just for society as it is now, but for society as it will be.
How many more tears do we need our children to cry?

“Don’t make his generation fight our battles.”

wnyc:

Mother Jones: Voter ID Laws in Action

Uh-oh. Those voter ID laws accidentally disenfranchised a white guy in Texas. That law is clearly not working as intended.

RICHLAND HILLS, Texas -- The American Humanist Association, an atheist rights advocacy organization, has sent a complaint letter to a Texas school district, claiming that administrators violated a student's First Amendment rights when they suspended him for tearing Bible pages in school.

MEXICO CITY -- Lawmakers in Mexico's western state of Jalisco have approved a change in the state's constitution that legalizes same-sex civil unions.

In an updated list of threatened species released today in 2011 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, The Western Black Rhinoceros has been declared extinct. The black rhino subspecies was last seen in western Africa in 2006. From an article updated today at CNN.com, which is making the rounds anew:

The IUCN warns that other rhinos could follow saying Africa's northern white rhino is "teetering on the brink of extinction" while Asia's Javan rhino is "making its last stand" due to continued poaching and lack of conservation.

[CNN]