firehose

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transporteconomics:

This is an aerial view of surface public transport routes in Budapest, Hungary – the idea came from the work of Taylor Gibson posted on transitmaps.tumblr.com.

Following the general convention in Budapest, bus lines are blue, trams are yellow, trolleys are red, and suburban railways are shown in green. As for the direction of the image, the Danube flows approximately from the north (upper right corner) to the south (lower left corner). Elevation is shown with a vertical distortion factor of 2.0.

There are a few notable elements in the picture. First, there are three tram lines that go up the hills in the upper left corner – the middle one is actually a cog-wheel railway, now classified as a tram by BKK, the operator. Second, the two suburban railway lines going southward are not connected: there is about only 500 meter between the two, and while the connection has been planned for many years, there is no timeframe set for the completion. Third, notice that trolleybuses are only running on the Pest side of the city. While there used to be a line in Buda, it was destroyed in the second world war. New lines in Pest were opened in late forties and early fifities, then more were added in the 70’s and 80’s, mostly replacing old tram lines which ran in the narrow streets of Pest.

The extensive night bus system of the city is not shown in this image.

Nice work! The radial nature of transit here is immediately evident, and the lack of trolleybuses on the “Buda” side of the river is fascinating.

The folks at Archie McPhee have created Meat Parade, a fun 7″ vinyl album that looks like a “beautifully marbled ham steak.” It plays two meaty singles, “Meat March” and “Slab o’ Meat.” Only 1000 were produced, each is hand-numbered, and this is the first time in the company’s 30 year history that they have ever created a record. They also carry a Meat Parade Lunchbox and a Meat Parade Wrapping Paper Book.

Bring me your meat pies! Bring your sausage! Let them take part in the Meat Parade
Imagine there was a meat holiday. A day, once a year, when all the best meats in the world gather together to celebrate their meaty heritage with a Meat Parade. This single represents the meat carols from that holiday…

Update: Rob has now added a “NOOBS Lite” option to the downloads page. NOOBS Lite is a minimal 20MB version of NOOBS with no local OS images; images are downloaded from our repository at install time.

Alex has produced a new Raspbian release, which integrates a number of recent improvements. Along with kernel and firmware updates, highlights include:

• Sonic Pi is preinstalled so you can jump right in to learning to program while creating your own music.
• Significant performance improvements to Scratch thanks to Tim Rowledge and Ben Avison.
• A build of PyPy 2.1 is now included to allow you to try out this high performance Python JIT compiler. See here and here for some background on our work on PyPy.
• Python libraries required for interfacing with Pi-Face are preinstalled. Once you enable the SPI kernel module in raspi-config you can leap right in.
• The Oracle JDK is preinstalled – see yesterday’s announcement.

Due to the addition of Java, the standalone SD card image now requires at least a 4GB SD card, as with 2GB there’s not enough free space left to be useful. The image itself is sized at 3GB to reduce the time it takes to dd it.

But that’s not all!

Following last week’s successful beta test, NOOBS v1.3 has also been released. This is a major upgrade from v1.2, and realizes many of our ambitions for the system. Highlights include:

• The ability to install multiple OSes on a single card.
• Support for network installation of OSes from our repository.
• Multiple “flavours” of Raspbian, including the ability to boot directly into Scratch.
• Improved integration of language, keyboard and display settings between NOOBS and guest operating systems.

See the beta test announcement for an exhaustive feature breakdown. Thanks to Rob, Floris and Gordon for putting this release together, to Liam and Pete at Mythic Beasts for the recent comprehensive overhaul of our image hosting infrastructure, and of course to the 2,000 participants in the beta test program.

cameos:

alone on a friday night? god youre pathetic

september 2013

"

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–JGL on The Colbert Report

Original Source

tapdancers:

Keeping The Same Tabs Open For 9 Days Straight Because They Contain Information Relevant To Tasks You’re Too Lazy To Complete - A novel by me

Daenerys Targaryen is the only lady who gets to wear a dragon on her shoulder.

As long as you have this quilt by Candy Coated Quilts you can say you're sleeping with Sir Patrick Stewart and it will only kind of be a lie. (Nerd Approved)

The 52-year-old has revealed a secret struggle with autism, which she was diagnosed with as a child, and says she has spent her entire life battling a "debilitating shyness" as a result of the disorder.

darecrowavis:

simsgonewrong:

So one of my sims died, and the grim reaper turned up to do his business, but then another of my sims went into labour and the grim reaper started freaking the hell out 

"THIS IS NOT MY JOB. THIS IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF MY JOB."

Dawn Kawamoto writes "IBM reached a settlement with the Justice Department over allegations it posted discriminatory online job openings, allegedly stating a preference for H-1B and foreign student visa holders for its software and apps developer positions. The job openings were for IT positions that would eventually require the applicant to relocate overseas. IBM agreed to pay $44,400 in civil penalties to the U.S., as well as take certain actions in the way it hires within the U.S. The settlement, announced Friday, comes at a time with tech companies are calling for the U.S. to allow more H-1B workers into the country."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

this is for everyone whos staying up late

sharkchunks:

This may be the greatest facial expression ever captured on film.

An anonymous reader writes "A group of Montreal MBA students took home this year's million-dollar Hult Prize, winning a competition for socially innovative business ideas that calls itself 'one of the planet's leading forces for good.' But now the ethics of the winners and the prize committee are being called into question. McGill PhD researcher Jakub Dzamba says that after he supplied the idea and design behind their pitch, products of years of development work, the team reneged on its promises to make him a partner and is instead taking credit for his work. Apparently, Hult knew about the issue before it awarded the prize." Yes, these are the students whose win garnered $1 million awarded by Bill Clinton.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The better technology gets, the more likely it is to give you a headache or make you throw up. The trend is inescapable: Whether it’s videogames, Apple’s latest mobile operating system, 3D movies and television, or Google Glass, a portion of the population—basically, anyone predisposed to motion sickness—is going to spend their sunset years, when this kind of technology is ubiquitous, in serious discomfort.

And if you think you can escape it simply by avoiding sophisticated but optional entertainments, think again—the latest example is people experiencing motion sickness as a result of Apple’s new iOS 7, which uses a parallax effect to make its interface look 3D. (If you haven’t experienced iOS 7 yourself, this video is a good illustration.)

A world full of simulations is a world full of simulation sickness

While people encountering these effects for the first time compare them to motion sickness, what they’re experiencing has a more specific name—simulation sickness. The US Army has known about the problem for decades, since it often uses simulators to train soldiers. Motion sickness arises when our inner ear senses movement but our eyes don’t perceive any, whereas simulation sickness is the inverse: We see motion that should indicate we’re moving when we’re not. The exact incidence of these disorders is hard to pin down: motion sickness occurs in between 25% and 40% of the population, depending on the mode of transit, and simulation sickness occurrs in between 13% and 90% of the population, depending on how immersive and convincing is the virtual environment. (pdf)

We get sick, goes the classic hypothesis about the origins of motion sickness, because in our evolutionary history, a disconnect between our equilibrium and our visual cues indicated we’d probably ingested something poisonous, and the thing to do next is vomit. (Other explanations exist—such as, that some of us are just worse at adapting to confusing sensory cues.)

Pioneers in virtual reality wondered as early as 1992 whether simulation sickness would limit adoption of the technology, not realizing, perhaps, that eventually just about every interface humans might use would take on elements of virtual reality.

A tidal-wave of head-spinning tech

As the technology to generate and display 3D environments and effects has become less expensive, it is making it into pretty much everything with an interface. Some are more egregious than others. Oculus Rift, which only sounds like the clinical term for the disorientation it inspires, is a virtual reality headset that one reviewer said “is amazing until it makes you want to hurl.” The company that makes it, Oculus, says one issue is that there’s a subtle lag between users’ head movements and what they see in their headsets. Oculus is working on the problem, but the company says it may never go away.

Three-dimensional displays have their own issues, and for different reasons. Normally, our eyes must each aim slightly inward at an object coming toward us, in a process called convergence. Meanwhile, the lenses of our eyes bend to maintain focus on an object, which is called accommodation. But 3D displays force our eyes to converge but not to accommodate (because the object is still displayed on an unmoving, flat screen) which gives some people headaches.

And yet this technology is cropping up everywhere—in 3D hand-held gaming systems like Nintendo’s 3DS, 3D movies, 3D televisions and, eventually, in smartphones made by Amazon. Pioneers of wearable computing have warned that Google Glass may induce headaches for similar reasons, and I have experienced it myself, after only a few minutes of using Glass.

Compounding the effect by combining the means of confusion

A 3D smartphone with a 3D interface might induce headaches and motion sickness, or at least heighten the effects of the latter. Wearable computers like Google Glass will only improve in their ability to project high-resolution interfaces directly into our field of view, making nausea-inducing interfaces physically unavoidable. I get headaches at 3D movies and motion sick at the slightest provocation, so it’s no surprise I found Google Glass unpleasant, and I expect that a few minutes with Oculus Rift would have me writhing on the floor. The thought of combining the two into a hypothetical “augmented reality” gives me hives. If your constitution is as delicate as mine, the 21st century is going to be one you’ll want to spend hiding from just about every kind of innovation in human-computer interfaces.

As its parent company commands, Converse is just doing it.

The 105-year-old brand has grown at breakneck pace since Nike rescued the company in 2003, two years after it filed for bankruptcy. Since its cultural heyday in the ’80s, the hip sneaker has experienced a rebirth.

On Thursday, Converse posted an 18% increase in revenue over the past three months, a shining star on an overall impressive balance sheet for Nike. From now on Converse will report its earnings separately, heralding the brand’s standalone success.

In 2002, the flailing company reported just $205 million in revenue. Since, Nike has transformed the brand into a $1.4 billion business—and this year’s revenue is on pace to surpass that number. Converse has seen the strongest growth in the North America, China and the UK, where it’s made significant investments over the past several years.

How was Converse able to turn around?

It transformed a basic canvas sneaker into a designer’s canvas. From black leather-studded sneakers by John Varvatos to woolly bright hightops by Hudson Bay, there are endless options across the fashion spectrum.

The original Converse All Star, created for basketball players, was the ultimate sports sneaker in the 1970s. In the ’80s, Converse became the quintessential casual footwear before the sneakers were made famous by musicians like Kurt Cobain in the early ’90s. The Converse website describes this transition best: “We started on the court and got adopted on the street.”

Converse leveraged this change at the right moment by dropping its original all-American message in favor of an image that would appeal to millennials: individuality and independence. Their 2008 “Connectivity Campaign” played up the brand’s counter-cultural appeal, featuring images of rebellious icons of past decades, such as Brit-bad boy Sid Vicious, and American idols Janis Joplin, James Dean and Billie Joe Armstrong. The campaign extended globally into 75 countries, each customized with area-specific celebrities, and helped the brand post a 29% increase in year-over-year revenue.

“Our whole mission is to inspire originality and be an advocate and catalyst for creativity,” said Converse CMO Geoff Cottrill, in an interview with AdWeek.

If the recent quarter’s revenue is any indication, the latest ad campaign,”Shoes are boring. Wear sneakers,” is maintaining that edgy appeal.

The consistent, targeted approach to advertising, and the addition of new retail stores, have helped the sneakers gain a foothold around the world. Nike reported that 42% of sales, including Converse, were driven by the US market, leaving huge growth potential for Converse internationally. Nike opened its first specialty store in Beijing, which featured some of the city’s hippest icons: indie musician Peng Lei, designer Vega Wang, and Chinese top model Bonnie Chen.

But Converse All Stars are 11% more expensive today than they were two years ago. They face growing competition from both Vans and Keds, which have lower price points. Consumers haven’t pushed back yet and likely won’t as long as Converse remains the coolest kid on the block.

We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com. 

Boudreau Bitters was another chance for David Cole Creative to work with Canon Seattle's famous Jamie Boudreau – award winning bartender,...

Click to read more... »

Following the culmination of a long-running class action lawsuit, AT&T and Apple are set to pay out $40 to customers who were affected when AT&T ended its unlimited data plan for the iPad 3G back in June of 2010, reports GigaOM.

In a ruling issued this week in San Jose, California, US District Judge Ronald Whyte signed off on a plan that will see Apple pay $40 to everyone in the US who bought or ordered an iPad 3G before June 7, 2010. In addition, those who did not sign up with AT&T will get a $20/month discount on the carrier’s 5GB monthly plan for up to a year.

Prior to June 2010, AT&T offered a no-contract $29.99/month unlimited data plan for iPad owners, replacing it with a 2 GB for $25/month plan. While AT&T grandfathered in users who had the unlimited plan before June of 2010, the company did began throttling its unlimited users in October of 2011.

In addition to accusing Apple and AT&T of baiting-and-switching customers by selling iPads that had advertised unlimited data, the lawsuits also suggested that without the prospect of an unlimited data plan, consumers had overpaid for their tablets.

The deal is subject to final approval in February, and Apple will begin sending out checks after that date. While AT&T is required to offer customers a $20 discount on the $50/month 5 GB data plan, the deal is only available to customers who do not have another data plan with AT&T due to no-class action provisions in their contracts.

Included with the new "Super Deluxe Edition" of Nirvana's In Utero is a proposal letter that legendary audio engineer/musician Steve Albini wrote to the band before signing up to produce the album. It's fantastic and quintessential Albini. (I also appreciated the Jerky Boys reference.) You can read the whole thing below.

Pixar’s The Wire

The below graph from Conor Sen, an armchair demographer in Atlanta, has been making the rounds this morning in my Twitter feed. It neatly reflects a political phenomenon we've written about before: Yes, cities generally tend to lean more Democratic, and rural states more Republican, but the fine-grained relationship between politics and population density is actually quite remarkable.

This scatter plot looks at congressional districts, which are ranked according to the Cook Parisan Voting Index. That measure essentially reflects how Republican or Democratic a district leans (by percentage of voters, not ideological purity) relative to the national average. A Democratic district shown above as +10, for example, gave the Democratic candidate in the last two presidential elections on average 10 points more of the local vote (say, 63 percent compared to 53 percent) than the nation-wide vote.

Sen compared that data with Census data on population density by congressional district. Here is how a smarter person than me interpreted the resulting picture:

If you live near other people, you're probably a Democrat; if your neighbors are distant, Republican. pic.twitter.com/AEt6UMqBTD HT @conorsen

— Justin Wolfers (@justinwolfers) September 27, 2013

But you may also be struck by the shape of that trend line (Sen is quick to note, by the way, that he's not a statistician). It roughly suggests a political tipping point somewhere around a population density of about 800-1,000 people per square mile. That's actually a number that we've seen before. Here is a different take on the same question, looking at presidential votes by county in the 2012 election, via Dave Troy:

Troy concluded that, "at about 800 people per square mile, people switch from voting primarily Republican to voting primarily Democratic." Richard Florida looked in more depth at that finding last November with a broader conversation on what this trend really says about our differing political preferences and needs in crowded cities and leafy exurbs.

Feel free to weigh in below on why you think your politics may be tied to the proximity of your neighbors (or maybe they're not?). Sen is a bit more zen about what all of this portends for the state of the country in an email: "The big realization I had a couple years ago was if the last era (call it 1982-2007) was driven by debt, the next one (2008-??) appears to be driven by demographics, and I'm trying to get ahead of the curve."

Counsel & Heal

Krokodil reportedly used in Arizona Washington Post Written by Max Ehrenfreund. E-mail the writer. A poison control center in Phoenix has treated two people who apparently were using krokodil, KPHO reports. The homemade opiate is commonly used in Russia. If confirmed, the cases would be the first known ... Krokodil is here: Deadly, flesh-eating drug arrives in U.S.Mother Nature Network all 119 news articles »

The Big Bang Theory receives a lot of negative criticism, justified and not, but Robert David Sullivan’s TV Club 10 published yesterday details exactly why this series has remained a TV juggernaut over six seasons. Sure, the multi-camera sitcom formula is repetitive and the series loves to play into stereotypes, but the characters are well defined and the writers have consistently made improvements to tighten the relationships and expand the scope of the show. The addition of Amy and Bernadette was the first big change, and the latest occurred at the end of last season when Raj’s muteness around women was finally cured after six seasons of the same joke. It can be hard to track character growth on a show where things stay relatively the same on the surface, but the first two episodes of the seventh season show how far this group has come and how ...

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