Joshua Goldberg has created Full Screen Mario, an HTML5 remake of the original Super Mario Bros. video game that you can play in your browser. Players can choose between levels, generate random maps, or create their own levels.
image via Full Screen Mario
via Nerdcore
via Public library of Cincinnati
Messy Nessy Chic has posted a collection of historical photos that delve into the early history of the bookmobile. The photos mainly document American bookmobiles from the early to mid 20th century, but also include some choice examples from Europe and farther afield.
photo via BiblioBussen
photo via BiblioBussen
photo via via Crossett Library
via Messy Nessy Chic
Two more patients have checked into a Chicago-area hospital after developing skin lesions from using a drug they thought was cheap heroin. The substance turned out to be krokodil, doctors told Fox News 32, a nasty street drug typically made from codeine and lighter fluid. Injecting the mixture causes the skin to become yellow and hard, before developing lesions and falling off. "When I walked in the room, all you could smell was rotting flesh," says Dr. Abhin Singla, director of addiction services at Presence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, Ill.
Krokodil is cheap, potent, and highly addictive, but it was mostly thought to be a moonshine drug. The recipe is available on the internet, so desperate junkies can make it at home. However, five users in Joliet say they bought the drug thinking it was heroin for around $8 a hit. This suggests that the drug is now being sold in addition to being cooked at home, which could cause it to spread faster. Local police were unaware of krokodil, which is typically injected but is reportedly also available in capsule form.
"All you could smell was rotting flesh."
Earlier this week, three middle-class white women checked into Presence Saint Joseph with symptoms of krokodil use; two left against doctor's orders because of fear of prosecution. The third had injuries covering 70 percent of her body, with open wounds as deep as the bone, according to a hospital spokesperson, but will be released soon. The two patients who checked in yesterday, both men, had lesions on their upper arms.
Reports of krokodil have been popping up around the country since the first two patients surfaced last month in the Phoenix area. The Drug Enforcement Administration says it is keeping an eye on the drug, but is not taking any action yet because its usage seems to be isolated. That may change if the drug continues to move as quickly as it has in Joliet.
There's no hardware as cool as space hardware. And there's nothing cooler than watching astronauts and scientists testing out equipment to take us off-world — even equipment that was never used. Here are our favorite images of NASA testing its equipment on Earth.
    
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After receiving her father’s old calligraphy pen, designer Cristina Vanko decided to brush up on her penmanship by sending handwritten messages in lieu of text messages for a period of one week. The project, which she dubbed “Modern Day Snail Mail,” required her to have a pen and paper handy at all times so she could write the messages before photographing and sending them with her iPhone. Vanko reports that during her experiment her messages improved noticeably in thoughtfulness, grammar, and spelling.
submitted via Laughing Squid Tips
Update 5:55 PM: Michael Lewellen, VP for communications of the Trail Blazers sent this statement a few minutes ago, in response to my question to him this afternoon:
“The Portland Trail Blazers are in support of the Freedom to Marry and Religious Protection ballot initiative. We do so as believers in individual choice as a fundamental right of all people.”
The Trail Blazers are now the biggest pro sports team, apparently the first from a big four pro league, to formally endorse a marriage equality ballot measure.
Original post: You've probably got a good reason or two, or at least a bunch of bad ones, if you're one of the few people in Portland who've never been out to watch the Timbers or Thorns with your own eyes. Maybe you're just a casual soccer fan. Maybe you hate soccer. Or maybe it's just simple, stupid inertia. Whatever.
But here's one to get you going—even if you think soccer is dumb. (It's not; I just said that for the sake of argument.) The Portland Timbers and the Portland Thorns FC, in a major first for American professional sports, have formally declared their support for a ballot measure next year that would bring marriage equality to Oregon.
And, look! They made a video!
The endorsement follows recent nods from groups like the Portland Business Alliance and the Oregon Business Association—evidence that the ballot measure's main backers are working methodically to build a broad base of high-profile and diverse supporters ahead of any right-wing Christian jihadi counter fundraising push.
A statement from Oregon United for Marriage, the coalition running the campaign, says 91,114 signatures have been gathered, as yesterday, in support of putting the Freedom to Marry and Religious Protection Initiative on the ballot next November. The measure would undo a discriminatory state constitutional amendment, approved in 2004, that banned same-sex marriage.
The campaign says it's the first time any major U.S. professional sports teams have endorsed a same-sex marriage ballot campaign. Give 'em credit. Most sports teams (hi, Seattle Seahawks!) would prefer to ignore the subject as much as possible.
“We are proud to support Oregon United for Marriage and its efforts to secure the freedom to marry for all Oregonians next November,” Timbers owner Merritt Paulson said in a statement.
I'm looking at you next, Trail Blazers. Time to make your name mean what it sounds like.
Space combat sim Skyjacker to include full co-op play, mission creation suite originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 11 Oct 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Deadline reports that Lifetime is developing Red Brick Road, "an edgy, Game Of Thrones take" on the classic Wizard Of Jesus Peter Dinklage hula-hooping Christ, how many Peter Dinklage hula-hooping times do we have to do this?
This marks the fifth dark reimagining of Peter Dinklage hula-hooping in the past three months. The show imagines what if Dorothy, along her journey down the Yellow Brick Road, discovered there were also some red bricks that she Peter Dinklage hula-hooping. Peter Dinklage hula-hooping.
PETER
DINKLAGE
HULA
HOOPING.
Welp, it's about time to crack open a nice, cold Peter Dinklage hula-hooping. TGIPDHH, right?
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firehoseWANG CAMANDAAAAAR
EAT SHIT AND DIE, GATO
EA games 60% off on GOG this weekend originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 11 Oct 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
firehosegamedev in education beat: "Justin DeVoe, a literature teacher who also designs games, said he uses video games to encourage children to read and write. DeVoe told an anecdote about a student who helped him bridge the gap between video games and learning — the student, who wasn't a big reader, was able to remember places and events in Skyrim. DeVoe was inspired to make his class create a video game. The students created a post-apocalyptic zombie game, and became heavily invested in its development."
A group of game makers and educational instructors held a panel at New York Comic Con this week to discuss how games can be used as educational tools — as well as how instructors can improve the way they use games to teach.
David Lord and his company Jump Star Games is currently working on an educational game based on the popular animated film How to Train Your Dragon. The company wants to lend big brands like the film to educational games. School of Dragons will teach children the scientific method — which they must master before they can get into the meat of the game. Using a popular brand will hook children and bring them to the game, essentially leading them to learning.
Justin DeVoe, a literature teacher who also designs games, said he uses video games to encourage children to read and write. DeVoe told an anecdote about a student who helped him bridge the gap between video games and learning — the student, who wasn't a big reader, was able to remember places and events in Skyrim. DeVoe was inspired to make his class create a video game. The students created a post-apocalyptic zombie game, and became heavily invested in its development.
"We need more forward thinking schools and forward thinking people to not think that the mobile phones thing is not so bad anymore," DeVoe explained. "We don't use them for nothing. And in a world where the administration in constantly against you [regarding games], a little push in the right direction goes a long way."
Institute of Play game designers Claudio Midolo and Liza Stark discussed how sandbox games create "powerful spaces" for learning. According to Stark, sandbox games have "fluid rules and goals" that allow for flexibility and experimentation — no constraints, no outside expectations. Players will approach these systems differently when they enter them with more wiggle room to explore and find their own solutions. Midolo used Minecraft — "the king of sandbox games" — as an example of an excellent sandbox game for instructional purpose.
"We feel that as players of Minecraft and designers as well, it's creative, a familiar space for kids, powerful as a modern environment and increasingly a social game," he explained. "We wanted to give kids a more experimental [experience]."
Midolo had his students build rollercoasters in Minecraft to specific mathematical specifications, with determined slopes for hills, angles for turns and heavy mathematical calculations involved. The experimentation allowed the students to produce the desired product but with more freedom of creativity.
Sandbox games, Midolo said, allows players to pick any entry point into the game and play any way they want to. Students are exploring a system rather than in participating in one when they play sandbox games, and are allowed more agency over what they produce. Students will adapt the game experience to their own knowledge level and interest.
"The game fades into the background and becomes a creative tool. You can see it in Portal, Team Fortress, Minecraft — every good, successful sandbox game becomes a tool for artistic expression."
Sue Parler, a video game design teacher, explained that games encourage students to take risks and learn something they otherwise wouldn't if they didn't take the leap. Video games also provide a safe space for experimentation without real-world consequences. Games allow for multiple failures — so long as you don't quit, you still win.
"This is done in a virtual environment where risk won't end up in a real mistake," she said. "Education must be conceived as a continuing reconstruction of experience. Isn't that a game?"
Google is moving even more money through a shell corporation in Bermuda—reaching a total of €8.8 billion ($11.91 billion) in 2012, 25 percent more than it did in 2011. By employing a legal yet ethically questionable practice, Google is saving itself billions in taxes worldwide.
The new figures were first reported by the Financial Times on Friday, citing “[recent] filings by one of Google’s Dutch subsidiaries.” This widespread strategy of moving money around involves two specific tactics known as the “Dutch Sandwich” and the “Double Irish.” (Ars obtained a copy of this filing, dated September 27, 2013, from an anonymous source.)
As the Times concluded, these disclosures mean “that royalty payments made to Bermuda—where the company holds its non-US intellectual property—have doubled over the past three years. This increase reflects the rapid growth of Google’s global business.”
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By Katie Drummond on October 11, 2013 04:41 pm
There is simply nothing more irksome than a corpse that won't decompose. Especially for Norwegian funeral directors, who are now dealing with a rather macabre predicament: thousands of plastic-wrapped dead bodies that are occupying precious real estate in the country's graveyards.
Over a 30-year period following World War II, Norway wrapped dead bodies in plastic before burying them. But the country also frequently reuses grave sites in an effort to save space — and corpses shrouded in plastic don't readily decompose. Since laws prevent plastic-wrapped bodies from being disturbed, the phenomenon has led to overcrowded cemeteries with little room for expansion. As The Wall Street Journal explains, desperate local officials are now relying on a chemical elixir that catalyzes decomposition while keeping graves intact. "You may say," one noted, "[that] wrapping people in plastic was the result of some pretty poor planning." Indeed.
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firehosevia Matthew Koch
firehosevia Rosalind
look it's our insane boozeaholic dog
firehoseFRIZ
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QUADRATA
Black Flag founder Greg Ginn has lost the initial round of argument in his lawsuit against Keith Morris’ spin-off Black Flag act, FLAG. Ginn was suing FLAG members Morris, Chuck Dukowski, Dez Cadena, Bill Stevenson, and Stephen Egerton, in addition to Henry Rollins, saying that there could only be one Black Flag, and that he held the rights to that name. Ginn called for the dissolution of FLAG, as well as some sort of restitution from Rollins, who he claims has been attempting to use and abuse the legacy of the group. According to Ginn, both Morris and Rollins have, at some point, manufactured and sold bootleg Black Flag records and T-shirts.
Given that who is or isn’t in Black Flag at any given point has always been a bit fluid, the courts weren’t exactly too sympathetic to Ginn. The judge ruling against him found that SST Records ...
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