Concepts for “The Lord of the Rings Online” by Wesley Burt.
I’m in love with these!
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Shared posts
02 Oct 04:48
urjabhi: Concepts for “The Lord of the Rings Online” by...
Russian Sledges, firehose likes this
02 Oct 04:48
Keiji Inafune's Mighty No. 9 has ceased asking for donations on Kickstarter, managing to secure over $3.8 million in a month's time. That's beyond some of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns yet, including Double Fine's $3.3 million for the Broken Age adventure game, $1.2 million for Massive Chalice, and the close to $2.3 million pulled in by Cryptozoic Entertainment's Hex.
That $3.8 million figure is just counting Kickstarter donations, though. With additional pledges through Paypal, which Comcept says make up $186,380, the final amount is $4,031,550.
Mighty No. 9 is perhaps best described as Inafune's spiritual successor to the Mega Man series. It's a retro-inspired action-platformer starring a robot boy named Beck who must battle a series of robot bosses infected with a mysterious virus. The game is planned for launch sometime in the spring of 2015 for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, PS Vita, 3DS,Wii U, Mac, Linux and PC.
Mighty No. 9 concludes funding with over $4 million
by David Hinkle
That $3.8 million figure is just counting Kickstarter donations, though. With additional pledges through Paypal, which Comcept says make up $186,380, the final amount is $4,031,550.
Mighty No. 9 is perhaps best described as Inafune's spiritual successor to the Mega Man series. It's a retro-inspired action-platformer starring a robot boy named Beck who must battle a series of robot bosses infected with a mysterious virus. The game is planned for launch sometime in the spring of 2015 for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, PS Vita, 3DS,Wii U, Mac, Linux and PC.
Mighty No. 9 concludes funding with over $4 million originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 01 Oct 2013 20:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
02 Oct 04:46
CERN Launches Line Mode Browser Emulator
by Soulskill
itwbennett writes "As part of the project to preserve the world's first website and all of the accompanying technology, CERN last week launched a line mode browser emulator. To make the browser experience authentic, the developers recreated how terminals would draw one character at a time by covering the page in black and then revealing each character by erasing a character-sized rectangle from that cover, one-by-one, line-by-line. They also recreated the sound of typing on older keyboards, specifically an IBM RS/6000 keyboard, by using HTML5 audio elements." 
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Ronald.phillips, firehose likes this
02 Oct 04:32
New MacBook Pro and Air firmware update addresses battery issues
by Andrew Cunningham
Andrew Cunningham
Apple has just released a minor update for some of its recent MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs that should address "rare issues" in which a laptop's battery abruptly stops working. The MacBook Pro SMC Firmware Update 1.8, the MacBook Pro Retina SMC Update 1.2, and the MacBook Air SMC Update 1.9 all share the same release notes:
This update addresses rare issues where the battery unexpectedly stops functioning, the system does not recognize the battery, or the system hangs when the battery charge reaches less than one percent.
The SMC update doesn't appear to have any impact on battery runtime, and this isn't an issue we've encountered in our own usage or on Apple's support boards before. If you've got one of the affected systems (a 2012 MacBook Pro, either the 13-inch or 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro, or any 2012 or 2013 MacBook Air), grab the new firmware via Software Update or from one of the Apple support pages above.
Read on Ars Technica | Comments
    
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02 Oct 04:30
Collection of Jim Henson Puppets and Props Donated to Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
by Rusty Blazenhoff
Elmo and Fozzie Bear
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. recently received over 20 Henson puppets and props on the anniversary of Jim Henson’s birthday. The donations include characters from The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, and Fraggle Rock. According to the museum’s blog, the collection won’t be on display immediately as they need to be repaired in the museum’s textiles conservation lab. The museum’s senior costumes conservator, Sunae Park Evans, and executive director of The Jim Henson Legacy, Bonnie Erickson, are collaborating to make these crucial repairs. Behind the scenes photos from the collection are available to view at the museum’s Flickr page.
“Grover’s tag identifies him as “Old Grover.” The tag also notes that this Grover, from 1967, is the “wrong color.” Today, Grover has blue fur and a pink nose.”
J.P. Grosse, Scooter, and the Swedish Chef
“Red Fraggle, Boober Fraggle, and Traveling Matt”
images via National Museum of American History
via National Museum of American History, My Modern Metropolis
firehose and -1 others like this
02 Oct 04:29
Greatest Country In World Unable To Keep William H. Gross Stamp Gallery Open
WASHINGTON—Following Congress’ inability to hammer out a last-minute budget agreement, the federal government earlier today entered into a partial shutdown under which the greatest country on the planet—that shining example to all other ...
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firehose likes this
02 Oct 04:29
Ricky Williams lives in a college dorm, has Spider-Man sheets on his twin bed
by gguillotte
Monday through Thursday, Ricky Williams sleeps in a dorm room at the University of Incarnate Word with Spider-Man sheets and an Avengers comforter.
firehose likes this
01 Oct 22:45
Pentagon wants more workers exempt from furloughs - Fremont Tribune
AFP |
Pentagon wants more workers exempt from furloughs Fremont Tribune Pentagon and administration lawyers are looking for ways to expand the number of Defense Department civilians who are exempt from furloughs, amid worries that the government shutdown is damaging U.S. credibility among its international allies, Defense ... Shutdown hurts military credibility with allies: US defence secyHindustan Times Pentagon chief says shutdown hurts US credibility with alliesReuters India Hagel blasts 'irresponsible' US shutdown threatAFP Voice of America all 97 news articles » |
01 Oct 22:41
A computerized beer machine takes the legwork out of home-brewing
by Casey Johnston
firehoseA less-sexy Brewbot, but almost identically developed (Arduino prototype, custom heating system, commercial prototypes already in play in the PacNW) with a more open XML-based recipe format, no iPhone requirement (onboard panel and web interface), and lower price.
The PicoBrew Zymatic automates some steps of beermaking, but it's not cheap.
Home-brewers who may have dreamt about harnessing the power of Arduino to automate their process may find something to envy in the PicoBrew Zymatic, a project posted to Kickstarter Monday. The machine's makers purport to automate the process of home-brewing from beginning to end; owners simply add their ingredients and come back in a while to processed beer and an easy clean-up solution.
Brothers Jim and Bill Mitchell, the latter a former Microsoft executive, constructed the first prototype in 2010 using, among other things, an Arduino controller and a custom heating loop. The two teamed up with Microsoft software architect Avi Geiger in the fall of 2011.
More recent versions of the PicoBrew machine moved to custom AMTEGA controller boards and a number of custom parts, some rendered by Geiger himself. With the level of specificity provided by the PicoBrew, the founders state that users should be able to turn out recipes “precisely on spec.” The machine can also import BeerXML-formatted recipes and translate and scale them to the PicoBrew’s setup.
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01 Oct 22:37
New router combines your home and mobile networks into one faster pipe
by Jon Brodkin
firehoseclickthrough to find out all of the logistic problems with client-only MPTCP
Combine them all!
Multipath Networks
Are you struggling to play Netflix on a 2Mbps Internet connection? A new cloud-connected router using the same type of multipath technology that Apple put in the iPhone might solve your problem.
Launched this week on Indiegogo, the $199-$289 system from Multipath Networks in Ireland combines connections such as DSL, cable, 3G, and 4G into one pipe. Up to four connections can be used at once.
The idea of aggregating mobile and wired signals in the home is an old one. But it certainly hasn't become commonplace, and Multipath Networks takes advantage of the new Multipath TCP protocol that's used in the iPhone to let Siri switch between Wi-Fi, 3G, and LTE quickly and seamlessly.
Read 20 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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01 Oct 22:35
Jeff Bezos officially takes over as owner of The Washington Post today
by Nathan Ingraham
Two months ago, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos surprised the newspaper by announcing he planned to purchase The Washington Post for about $250 million. Now, as of today, the transition is complete — Bezos formally took over as owner today, ending the 80-year reign of the Graham family at one of the nation's most prominent newspapers. Bezos now has his work cut out for him — like much of the newspaper industry, the Post has been losing readers and money for several years. At the time of Bezos' announcement, the Washington Post Company reported an operating loss of $49.3 million in the first six months of 2013, compared to a $33.2 million loss for the same period a year earlier.
Despite the difficult financial situation, the employees of the Post appeared energized by their new boss when he met with them in September — particularly when he noted that the paper likely couldn't survive further layoffs. Instead, Bezos plans to provide a "financial cushion" while the paper experiments to try and find a successful strategy. It looks like the arrival of Bezos has investors energized, as well. The Washington Post Company's stock closed the day at $628.54, up 2.8 percent, marking a five-year high. As for Bezos' future in the newspaper business, he told The Verge last week that he wasn't interested in purchasing any additional papers beyond the Post.
- Source The Washington Post
- Related Items the washington post jeff bezos bezos purchase owner newspaper Amazon
01 Oct 22:34
Listen to a story told in a 6000-year-old extinct language
by Maggie Koerth-Baker
English — along with a whole host of languages spoken in Europe, India, and the Middle East — can be traced back to an ancient language that scholars call Proto Indo-European. Now, for all intents and purposes, Proto Indo-European is an imaginary language. Sort of. It's not like Klingon or anything. It is reasonable to believe it once existed. But nobody every wrote it down so we don't know exactly what "it" really was. Instead, what we know is that there are hundreds of languages that share similarities in syntax and vocabulary, suggesting that they all evolved from a common ancestor.
Of course, that very quickly leads to attempts to reconstruct what said ancestral language might have sounded like. In the track above, you can listen to University of Kentucky linguist Andrew Byrd recite a fable in reconstructed Proto Indo-European. Archaeology magazine helpfully provides a translation:
A sheep that had no wool saw horses, one of them pulling a heavy wagon, one carrying a big load, and one carrying a man quickly. The sheep said to the horses: "My heart pains me, seeing a man driving horses." The horses said: "Listen, sheep, our hearts pain us when we see this: a man, the master, makes the wool of the sheep into a warm garment for himself. And the sheep has no wool." Having heard this, the sheep fled into the plain.
Obvious, right? So how does one produce a scholarly mashup of English, Hindi, Urdu, and more, while accounting for six millennia of invention, sharing, and remixing?
There are a couple of different techniques. In the comparative method, researchers take two or more languages and start lining up their features side by side. What sounds do they share? What words sound similar? What rules do they have in common? Then you use what you know about the history of those languages to look at which ones descended from others, and to weed out words that were borrowed completely from unrelated languages thanks to trade or travel. Following the lines of descent, you can get an idea of the sounds and alphabets that the parent language originally had to work with.
The other technique, internal reconstruction, basically takes a single language and starts trying to work it backwards in time through itself. How did English distinguish itself from older Germanic languages and how has it changed since AD 500.
When you put information that you gather from both these techniques together, you can start to get a handle on what some really ancient, never-heard-by-anyone-living languages might have sounded like.
'For instance, Wikipedia has a chart showing two different versions of the Proto Indo-European numbers. If you speak one of the languages descended from Proto Indo-European, these will likely look or sound familiar.
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Baz Kaz, J.w.dillow and 5 others like this
01 Oct 22:30
Asteroid 4942 Munroe
by xkcd
Whoa. There’s an asteroid named after me!
Amazing xkcd readers Lewis Hulbert and Jordan Zhu noticed that the International Astronomical Union—the organization in charge of official astronomical naming—was taking suggestions for what to name small Solar System objects. They submitted my name for asteroid (4942) 1987 DU6, and it was subsequently renamed 4942 Munroe.
I’m really touched. I spent all weekend telling everyone who wanted to listen (and probably some who didn’t) about the asteroid.
The first thing I did was try to figure out whether 4942 Munroe was big enough to pose a threat to Earth. I was excited to learn that, based on its albedo (brightness), it’s probably about 6-10 kilometers in diameter. That’s comparable in size to the one that killed the dinosaurs—definitely big enough to cause a mass extinction!
Unfortunately Fortunately, it’s in a fairly stable circular orbit between Mars and Jupiter, so it’s unlikely to hit the Earth any time soon.
4942 Munroe (!!!) is large enough that it would have noticeable gravity, although not much. If you were walking on the surface and you tripped and fell, it’d take you a minute to hit the ground. You could get into orbit around it by traveling at jogging speed, and might even escape its gravity entirely with a good jump.
Thank you so much. This is the coolest thing.
Zizibaluba, Gilgamez and 8 others like this
01 Oct 22:27
What She Said
by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey
firehosePortland altpress loves them some Liz Warren
“This is a democracy, and in a democracy, hostage tactics are the last resort for those who can’t win their fights through elections, can’t win their fights in Congress, can’t win their fights for the presidency, and can’t win their fights in the courts. For this right-wing minority, hostage-taking is all they have left — a last gasp of those who cannot cope with the realities of our democracy.” —Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaking on the Senate floor, Sept 30.
What she said. Watch her entire speech here.
01 Oct 22:25
TEACH ME HOW TO BAG IT
by ThePEOPLEOFMB
firehoseMarket Basket culture
Do you ever feel like you need some baggers to watch this?
01 Oct 22:21
Hugs Need To Be Stopped
firehoseSlate, natch
In theory, a hug sounds nice. In practice, it can turn even the simplest hello into a logistical nightmare. But the most pernicious aspect of the act is the false sense of intimacy it imposes over all human relationships.
01 Oct 22:20
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn pushing Tim Cook for a $150 billion buyback of Apple stock
by Nathan Ingraham
Now that billionaire "activist investor" Carl Icahn has stopped trying to defeat the $25 billion Dell buyout (that finally became official today), he's turning his attention fully to one of the biggest companies in the world: Apple. Last month, Icahn revealed that his firm had made a significant investment in Apple, and today he took to CNBC and Twitter to reiterate his desires for the company to enact a major stock buyback. "Had a cordial dinner with Tim [Cook] last night," Icahn casually tweeted earlier this morning. "We pushed hard for a 150 billion buyback. We decided to continue dialogue in about three weeks."
Icahn went into more details in an interview on CNBC and made it pretty clear that he wasn't planning on leaving Apple alone any time soon. "I can't promise you the stock will go up and I can't promise you they will do the buyback," Icahn said. "But I can promise you that I'm not going away until they hear a lot more from me concerning this." He went on to call his proposed $150 billion stock buyback a "no-brainer" and said that "makes no sense for this company... not to do a major, major buyback." The stock market appears to be responding to Icahn's remarks, just as it did back in August when he first spoke out about Apple — as of this writing, the company's stock price is up 2.35 percent today.
- Via 9to5MacReuters
- Source Carl Icahn (Twitter)CNBC
- Related Items tim cook stock investment buyback carl icahn Apple
01 Oct 22:19
Though the Wii stands as Nintendo's top-selling console, it appears that the device is not long for this world.
Nintendo of Japan revealed the news on its official Wii website (courtesy Kotaku translation), stating that Wii "manufacturing is scheduled to end soon." It offers no firm date after which the company will cease building Wiis, nor any official word on whether this move is exclusive to Japan or if it applies globally. We've reached out to Nintendo for clarification.
As Engadget points out, this decision should come as little surprise. Nintendo released the Wii's successor nearly a year ago, and has long since turned its PR efforts toward the new machine. Further, the Wii U has been able to play Wii games since day one. Its most recent update even allows players to enjoy Wii software on the new system's portable GamePad screen.
Wii production shutting down soon
by Earnest Cavalli
Though the Wii stands as Nintendo's top-selling console, it appears that the device is not long for this world.Nintendo of Japan revealed the news on its official Wii website (courtesy Kotaku translation), stating that Wii "manufacturing is scheduled to end soon." It offers no firm date after which the company will cease building Wiis, nor any official word on whether this move is exclusive to Japan or if it applies globally. We've reached out to Nintendo for clarification.
As Engadget points out, this decision should come as little surprise. Nintendo released the Wii's successor nearly a year ago, and has long since turned its PR efforts toward the new machine. Further, the Wii U has been able to play Wii games since day one. Its most recent update even allows players to enjoy Wii software on the new system's portable GamePad screen.
Wii production shutting down soon originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 01 Oct 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
01 Oct 22:19
'UnskewedPolls' Founder: Barack Obama Is 'Actually' Gay
by Igor Bobic
firehosevia Russian Sledges
The conservative activist who gained fame during the 2012 election for "unskewing" polls favorable to Barack Obama explained this weekend his newest revelation: the president is "actually" gay.
Dean Chambers, founder of UnSkewedPolls.com wrote in the Examiner that Newsweek got it wrong when it ran a cover praising Obama for his evolution on gay marriage last year. Obama was not "basically" the nation's first gay president for his progressive stance on the issue, but actually so.
"I do believe that Barack Obama is in fact our first gay president," he wrote. "But I believe this for entirely different reasons. I believe the man actually is gay. Don't tell me his marriage to Michelle and having two children disproves that he's gay."
In the article, Chambers cites various conspiracy theories claiming to show Barack Obama's closeted life in Chicago as a state senator. He takes it even a step further, however, in defending Obama's Christian faith by arguing that people of Muslim faith "are known to stone someone for being gay."
"Would you be a Muslim if it put you as risk for being killed because of your lifestyle choices?" he asks.
h/t Political Wire
firehose likes this
01 Oct 22:05
Report: Logitech making a gamepad for iPhone
by Alexa Ray Corriea
Stay Connected. Follow Polygon Now!
By Alexa Ray Corriea on Oct 01, 2013 at 4:45p
Logitech may be working on a dedicated gamepad for the iPhone, according to an alleged photo of the device tweeted by EvLeaks.
The photo shows Logitech's controller seems to snap onto the iPhone. The controller features four face buttons, a direction pad and shoulder triggers and adds length to the iPhone.
In June, Apple announced that iOS 7 will feature standardized support for third-party add-on game controllers, but no official product from the company has been announced at this time. In September, ClamCase revealed the GameCase, its own controller solution for use with iPhone and iPad.
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01 Oct 22:04
Natalie Portman and Marvel team up to get girls into science careers
by Rob Bricken
firehoseThe list of mentors is at http://dep.disney.go.com/ultimatementoradventure/data/List_Of_Mentors.xls. With email addresses, which seems like a bad idea?
Of the 78, 36 are at UL (Underwriter's Labs). Seven are at USC, four are with Disney (one is Liz Heron at Disney Interactive, the only person repping video games; another is a sysadmin at Pixar). I worked with one of the people on the list, Rita King, when I was at 3D Squared. Most are either engineers of some stripe, or in a life sciences field. Space X has an avionics engineer representing.
One lists a STEM field of "Homeland Security" and has no bio.
Natalie Portman and Marvel are joining together in hopes of inspiring an entire generation of Jane Fosters. The Ultimate Mentor Adventure is a program/contest that wants to connect girls 14 and up to meet, work with and learn from the most successful women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
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Emma likes this
01 Oct 21:58
Dark Horse Books Enters Sales & Distribution Agreement with Random House
firehoseWHOA SHIT! FUCK DIAMOND!
"Diamond Book Distributors, our current book market distributor, has been a great partner for us for nearly a decade, but it’s now time for a new approach, one we think helps us as we expand our prose and general book categories in traditional bookstores. While we are moving a portion of our business, we know that Diamond will continue to be a strong and valuable partner in the comics specialty market.”
aka LOL FUCK U DIAMONDDDDDD U SUCK
WE WANT TO SELL TO THINGS THAT ARE NOT WHITE 30-YOS
FUCK UR COMICS STOOOOORRRRRE
01 Oct 21:47
Lamar picked me up from Los Santos International Airport early this morning, as I exited the "create-a-character" menu in Grand Theft Auto 5's online mode. GTA Online went live today as a free update on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
According to Franklin's fast-talking, hustler buddy, he's been chatting it up with my online avatar on LifeInvader - the game's Facebook parody - for too long and it's about time I've made my way down to Los Santos. Here's where dreams are made, he promises, dropping names like anchors in water that are meant to impress but only stop me dead in my tracks. Names like Simeon, a notorious "bullshit artist" whose credit scams bring Michael's life crashing into Franklin's.
First order of business, though, is protection. Lamar has me covered, handing over an untraceable handgun as a welcoming gift.
"There's all kinds of opportunities in Los Santos," Lamar says. "I mean, that's if you got the nuts to pull 'em off." This is the promise of Grand Theft Auto Online.
Beginning my life of crime in Grand Theft Auto Online
by Xav de Matos
firehose'To decide your character's physical appearance, you must select their heritage. You select from an assortment of grandfathers and grandmothers on both sides of your family. Using a slider, you select whether your mother and father more resemble their pre-made mom or dad. My process was made slightly easier, by being able to select John Marston as my father. I have no idea why that's an option.'
This is the first in what we hope are many entries exploring the online component of Grand Theft Auto 5. For details on the game, read Joystiq's review.
According to Franklin's fast-talking, hustler buddy, he's been chatting it up with my online avatar on LifeInvader - the game's Facebook parody - for too long and it's about time I've made my way down to Los Santos. Here's where dreams are made, he promises, dropping names like anchors in water that are meant to impress but only stop me dead in my tracks. Names like Simeon, a notorious "bullshit artist" whose credit scams bring Michael's life crashing into Franklin's.
First order of business, though, is protection. Lamar has me covered, handing over an untraceable handgun as a welcoming gift.
"There's all kinds of opportunities in Los Santos," Lamar says. "I mean, that's if you got the nuts to pull 'em off." This is the promise of Grand Theft Auto Online.
Continue reading Beginning my life of crime in Grand Theft Auto Online
Beginning my life of crime in Grand Theft Auto Online originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 01 Oct 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
01 Oct 21:34
Apple is sitting on 10% of all US corporate cash
by Christopher Mims
Don’t be surprised if the next rumor out of Cupertino is that the new gold iPhones are forged from the company’s own melted-down ingots: Apple is richer than ever. It is holding onto $147 billion, which amounts to 10% of all corporate cash.
Non-financial companies are collectively holding onto $1.48 trillion, up 81% from $820 billion in 2006, reports the Wall Street Journal, drawing on analysis from Moody’s.
Apple’s pile has grown 9.5% since December 2012, even as the company initiates stock buybacks.
Collectively, the tech companies in Moody’s list of the top 1,000 companies by cash hoard hold $515 billion, or more than a third of all the cash held by non-financial corporations.
Moody’s notes that the amount of cash corporations are sitting on is expected to grow unless countries all over the world start taxing corporations at higher rates. Many technology companies set up their European headquarters in Ireland in order to avoid taxes.
01 Oct 21:31
FTC won't interfere with Google's $1 billon purchase of Waze
by Nathan Ingraham
firehosenatch
FTC won't interfere with Google's $1 billon purchase of Waze | The Verge
By Nathan Ingraham on October 1, 2013 03:58 pm
Google purchased Waze, one of the more popular mobile mapping and navigation apps around, back in June — and the FTC quickly indicated that it would review the purchase for potential antitrust violations. However, it's now looking like the purchase should go through as planned without any challenges. Bloomberg is reporting that the FTC won't move to block the sale and has no concerns that Google's purchase of Waze would hurt the competition, according to unnamed sources. If the deal goes through as expected, it should prove to be a nice boon for Google's already-dominant mapping services — rolling Waze's crowd-sourced traffic and travel data to its own service could certainly help the company extend its strong position in the market. While some believe the purchase was a defensive move, either way it's clear Google saw significant value in the company — while the final purchase price hasn't yet been confirmed, it's believed to be north of $1 billion.
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01 Oct 21:31
Timothy Leary's 'Neuromancer' video game could have been incredible
by Adi Robertson
firehosefollowup
Author, researcher, and psychedelic pioneer Timothy Leary could have added another title to his name: creator of an amazing, incredibly weird take on William Gibson's Neuromancer showcased by Wired. Since acquiring Leary's archives in mid-2011, the New York Public Library has been uncovering and publishing details about Leary's work, including fragments of Leary's plans for scrapped computer games. In 1985, he helped develop and publish Mind Mirror, a psychoanalytic game that let players build and role-play personalities — Electronic Arts, which put out the title, reportedly sold 65,000 copies in the two years after release. But according to material that the library released to researchers last week, he also had far more ambitious plans.
Among the archives, NYPL discovered a handful of shots of Neuromancer: An Electronic Mind Movie, meant to be a tie-in video game for a film adaptation of the novel. If it had ever been developed, the game would have had an extraordinary pedigree: artist Keith Haring had signed on to contribute visuals and have his image used for protagonist Henry Case; Helmut Newton was supposed to provide photography, Devo would score the game, and William S. Burroughs — one of Gibson's influences — would contribute writing. Here's how Haring's work was described:
PSYBERSPACE imagery will use the work of KEITH HARING. Diki and Kevin will produce special-effects never seen on a computer screen. Since CYBERSPACE is INFO-SPACE, the spinning clusters of forms will swirl into data-symbols.
According to the NYPL, Neuromancer was one of three "mind movie" titles under consideration; Leary's studio Futique also listed adaptations of Herman Hesse's The Glass Bead Game and an adaptation of Blade Runner — though it's not totally clear whether it would have been based on Ridley Scott's movie or William S. Burroughs' entirely unrelated screenplay.
Unfortunately for Leary, the Neuromancer film never got off the ground, and neither did the game. What remains are a few screenshots and pieces of art, reproduced by Wired earlier today. The shot above shows then-Talking Heads frontman David Byrne in an inexplicable circuit-based coat. Another captures singer Grace Jones as Case's partner Molly, and screenshots of the game itself show dialog trees with fragments of Gibson's original text.
The whole project was described as a kind of choose your own adventure novel, with four separate "tracks" in which completely separate actors would "play" the characters — Haring's Case and Jones' Molly would only have been two of several options, and they could have shown up as other people in different tracks. Each track would also have given the characters different personalities: a memo describes Case's girlfriend Linda Lee as a "lower-class-fun-girl" in one track and a "wise-cracking trollop with a Ph.D. in cyber-psychology" in another. Unfortunately, not much more seems known about the project. But Leary was ultimately instrumental in getting another Neuromancer adaptation made, this one an adventure game developed by Interplay, scored by Devo, and published in 1988.
- Source WiredNYPL
- Related Items william gibson neuromancer mind mirror mind movie timothy leary video game psychedelics
01 Oct 21:30
On November 5, 2013, I’ll be releasing my third full-length studio album, The Middle of Nowhere.
by djempirical
firehoseWarrock beat; DJ Empirical beat (literally)
djempiricalI produced music on this folks. I’m excited.
On November 5, 2013, I’ll be releasing my third full-length studio album, The Middle of Nowhere. Available at adamwarrock.com. Cover art by Bruce McCorkindale.
GUEST VOCALS BY
MC Frontalot, Louis Logic, Schaffer the Darklord, int80 of Dual Core, Tribe One, Amy Gregory.
PRODUCTION BY
Rocky O’Reilly (Oppenheimer), Greg Alsop of Tokyo Police Club, Danny Baranowsky (Super Meat Boy), c64 of Dual Core, Vince Vandal, Mikal kHill, JFX316, DJ Empirical.
AND A SPECIAL INTRODUCTION BY James Urbaniak…
Tracklisting to be posted up in the coming weeks. First single and music video October 21.
GET EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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01 Oct 21:29
The Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club to Bring Shuffleboard to Brooklyn
by EDW Lynch
firehose"Floridian cocktails"
never go
The Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club is an upcoming shuffleboard nightclub now under construction in a 17,000-square-foot Brooklyn warehouse. The club will feature ten regulation shuffleboard courts, Floridian cocktails, and indoor food trucks. Club founders Ashley Albert and Jonathan Schnapp are raising funds for the project on Kickstarter. The club is scheduled to open in late fall 2013.
01 Oct 21:29
Veteran journalist George Will joins the FOX News team - Fox News
firehosenatch
TheCelebrityCafe.com |
Veteran journalist George Will joins the FOX News team Fox News NEW YORK – FOX News Channel has hired noted political columnist and author George Will as a contributor. Will, who served most recently as a panelist for ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," will offer analysis and commentary across Fox ... Fox News Poaches ABC's George Will as ContributorHollywood Reporter ABC News: 'Geography' Played Role In George Will DepartureHuffington Post all 23 news articles » |
01 Oct 21:29
The End Of The Power User
firehoseit'll be fun to find out what happens when there are no more early adopters
How tech companies gave up on the ones that love them most.