firehose

DETROIT—Pledging to do all he can for the sickly metropolis, Tigers first baseman Prince Fielder reportedly promised Detroit, a city with a debilitating terminal condition, that the next home run he hits will be for the brave Michigan town, sources ...

San Francisco Examiner

Former Amazon executive Joy Covey killed in Peninsula bike collision San Jose Mercury News WOODSIDE -- A bicyclist killed in a Wednesday collision with a van in rural San Mateo County was Joy Covey, a groundbreaking tech executive who was chief financial officer of online retailer Amazon.com at the time of its initial public offering. California ... Bicyclist Killed on Bay Area Mountain Road Identified as Ex-Amazon CFO Joy ...NBC Bay Area Joy Covey, Amazon's First CFO, Steered an Emerging Giant's Torrid GrowthBusinessweek Bicyclist Killed on Skyline Was Former Amazon CFO Joy CoveyPatch.com all 22 news articles »

tinycartridge:

OMG, Game Center CX 2's fan translation is really happening, and it's happening quick ⊟

With the combined forces of Aaron Chmielowiec and Xvirus’ fan translation team, progress on the resurrected Game Center CX 2 project is going much faster than I expected or ever could have hoped for.

The group has been tearing through the translation, creating script editing tools, and creating English graphics. Aaron estimates that they’re now halfway through the translation, and posted this long video to show off how far they’ve already come. I can’t believe this is all happening…

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In case you weren't aware, the NFL qualifies as a 501(c) nonprofit organization. This is absolutely ridiculous.

Hey there, I was commissioned by BuzzFeed to do some redesigns of lady superheros.

Gentlemen, we need to chat. Because — real talk — you seem to have only the vaguest concept of how clothing functions. Many thanks to Celeste Pille for bringing these designs to life!

I love a cute leotard, but if I were to actually send these women out to fight evil, I’d make sure they have proper breast support, flesh protection, and no clothing that rides up the butt. 

You can check ‘em out here and click the <3 if you’re so inclined

Time Travel Mart has released a handy dandy line of Time Travel Era Kits with everything you need blast back to the American Revolution, or return to 2011. Proceeds from Time Travel Mart go to 826LA, a non-profit writing and tutoring center in Los Angeles.

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

Much as Uwe Boll’s movies are a searing, provocative satire of the very idea of movies—from the idiots who would ensure their competent execution to the idiots who idiotically demand they be watchable—Boll’s methods of financing those movies can also be read as social commentary, specifically on the idiotic loopholes of German tax laws that give him the money to make his idiotic movies for idiots. So it’s perhaps inevitable that a man so dedicated to mocking the audience for whom he feels such contempt would eventually turn to Kickstarter, where he can more directly implicate them in the production of Postal 2, thus making the point that the entire movie business is terrible and also something about Osama Bin Laden.

Unfortunately, Boll’s campaign to create “the most offensive film of all time”—which is a sequel to his 2008 attempt to create the ...

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Earlier this month, a reporter spotted a new version of Google’s logo buried in the code of the company’s Chrome browser. That, alas, qualified as news in the tech industry, especially because the new logo was two-dimensional, or flat, which is the hottest trend in web design right now.

So we called up Google on Sept. 9 to ask about it.

The person who answered our questions asked to be identified as “someone familiar with Google’s brand guidelines.” As it turns out, “familiar” was a bit of a stretch.

We were told that Google had used the flat version of its logo in print for years, which is true, but that Google had no plans to use the logo online—”not at all,” said someone familiar with Google’s brand guidelines. It would be inaccurate, we were told, to say that Google had a new logo.

That, we just learned, was not true: Google unveiled a redesign of its flagship search product today, and it is replacing the old beveled logo with that new flat one.

We called back up someone familiar with Google’s brand guidelines. Yes, the person confirmed, Google has a new logo.

“What I did not know at the time was that we would be rolling out that logo as part of a separate initiative,” someone familiar with Google’s brand guidelines said, recalling our earlier conversation. “The logo was a very small part of that launch, and I hadn’t heard about it.”

Essentially, Google is so big that often one foot doesn’t know what the other foot is doing. Thus, in a span of 10 days, the company’s logo went from new to old to new again.

Siraj Datoo contributed reporting.

Stephen King is gearing up for the release of his sequel novel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep, and naturally doing a few interviews. It's no secret the author never really cared for director Stanley Kubrick's version of his classic novel but we've never heard this one before. 

From 2003 to 2010, landscape artist Charles Jencks developed this amazing project entitled Cells of Life. It was completed as part of Jupiter Artland, a privately-owned sculpture park in Edinburgh. The project includes eight landforms and a connecting causeway developed within the incredible outdoor space.

The foundation for Jencks' creation was based on the concept of the life of a cell, as well as the cell division process called mitosis. He sculpted hill formations into layered spirals, merged sections of land together with bridges, and organized the complete layout so that from overhead, it "presents their early division into membranes and nuclei, a landform celebration of the cell as the basis of life."

Founded by Robert and Nicky Wilson, Jupiter Artland is committed to nurturing artists by offering them opportunities to create sculptural work along the Wilson's 100-acre span of land. A visit to the site is a creative adventure and the website explains, "The artworks are landmarks, events, confrontations on a journey of discovery." So, although visitors are provided with a map of the area upon arrival, they are encouraged to explore and discover the land, and the art, with great anticipation of what might present itself around that next grassy knoll.

Charles Jencks' website
Jupiter Artland website
via [The Weird Girl Paradigm]

“I’ve actually read that it’s disrespectful to dimple your tie at a funeral, as it’s not an occasion to be decorative (same reason for forgoing a pocket square at a funeral). Mind you, this info comes from a Japanese manga about a super tailor.”

- A Styleforum Dude

Brad Neely brings the Professor Brothers and Baby Cakes back to Adult Swim for a second season of "China, IL," and SPINOFF spoke with him and executive producer Daniel Weidenfeld about what viewers can expect.

Illustrator Leigh Lahav has created “Marvel Meets DC,” an animation about humanized versions of Marvel and DC Comics who meet up and talk about old times. Previously, we’ve written about other great animations by Leigh.

I love both Marvel AND DC, and their creations. This video is ONLY a humoristic response to all the latest DC scandals.

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

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Is it just laziness, or does the daily struggle to rouse yourself stem from something more serious?

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Digital Foundry finds noticeable streaming issues with the PSN digital edition of Grand Theft Auto 5, as compared with the PS3 retail edition. Major issues include pop-in geometry and delayed textures and shading, mostly prevalent during full-speed drives through Los Santos' congested city streets. The digital version's opening sequence also has lagging textures.

Before launch, Rockstar warned Xbox 360 players to not install the second "Play" disc to the console's hard drive, and Digital Foundry found that doing so results in missing objects and pop-in textures. The PSN version's problems "aren't as nefarious" as the Xbox 360 dual-install method, but they're still noticeable, the site reports.

"It must be stressed that pop-in to this level isn't a constant, and only hits in at full force when traveling at breakneck speeds through the busiest streets - and it is largely absent when driving around less built-up areas and almost completely non-existent during on-foot action," the site says. "Also, this isn't to say the disc-based release is entirely exempt from pop-in; minor objects like boxes and telephone booths can fade in during synchronized high-stress runs on the very same street, but it's fair to say the disc version never reaches the same level in these worst-case scenarios."

Digital Foundry also encountered issues downloading GTA5 via PSN, receiving multiple errors before a successful download - which then took three hours, and another hour for installation. GTA5 generated $800 million in sales in its first 24 hours on shelves, so it seems a lot people previously decided retail was the way to go.

Report: GTA5 PSN version stutters compared with PS3 retail copy originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 19 Sep 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I got a lifetime ban from biggest TEDx in my Country. Why?

Because I publicly said this “inventor” is a scammer:

Ivan Jakobović with his “water-powered car”.
Because gas is so expensive, he modified his car to run on water.

Ivan Jakobović and his “orgonic launcher”.
It fires “orgon” into air and cleans the air above the city.

Amusing? I was also laughing until this one:

Ivan Jakobović demonstrating his “ozonic exhaust” on TEDxZagreb stage.
Mounted on a normal car, “ozonic exhaust” converts 45% of CO2 to oxygen (ozone).

You see, I don’t like TED. I absolutely adore TED. TEDx are independently organized but follow the same rules as big TED. No pseudoscience.

Before I saw speaker list I was really happy to go. I purchased my ticket ($20) right from the invite e-mail. Only later when I checked speakers bios on the event page I noticed: “Ivan Jakobović – inventor of the water engine”. I got absolutely furious.

On Facebook event page I commented on announcement:

Great, I purchased the ticket. But I don’t like this one:
Ivan Jakobović – inventor of the water engine
He is a charlatan who uses TEDx for own promotion, here is the list of similar ‘inventors’:
Wikipedia: water-fuelled cars
Wikipedia: List of water fuel inventions (C.Frazer patented one in 1918!)
Mythbusters Free Energy “Busted”

Enough said. Why would I list arguments when Wikipedia and Mythbusters had done such a great job?

Some guy commented that it is not against TED spirit or TEDx rules. I researched some more and replied with this:

TEDx rules explicitly forbid such themes, this is from TEDx blog (search for “Free energy” section). Because of pseudoscience TEDxWestHollywood lost its license.

Black on white, Chris Anderson and his team were smart enough to anticipate this situation and provide detailed guidelines. Before going to sleep, I also sent above links to Karlo (event organizer), as I was not sure if he was reading FB comments.

Next morning I received Karlo’s reply:

Ivan Jakobović will not talk about water engine, but about his inventions. There are many water engines but Ivan’s water engine is patented and that means something. He is a serious inventor with more than 70 patents, too serious to brag about something he didn’t do.

Notice that second link I sent to Karlo listed bogus patents on water engines. But at least we were having a normal discussion over e-mail, so I decided to research the patents.

Google Patents (USA and EU): 0 patents
Croatian patent office: 1 patent
PATENTSCOPE: 0 patents

So, I was wrong, Ivan Jakobović is an inventor. He has one patent in Croatia, for moonshine distiller. That explains some things. Notice that patent application is hand drawn.

Before writing back to Karlo, I decided to check FB. It was mayhem. On two separate threads, people were either liking my post or calling me a Nazi. More than 50 replies, and one of them was directly from Ivan Jakobović! And then I got a call from Karlo.

“How could you write that? You are ruining our event!”, he shouted.

“I gave arguments why I think he is a scammer. Event is in two weeks, you can just remove him from speaker list.”, I replied.

But I had a feeling that will not happen. Nobody was reading Wikipedia links, organizers were only seeing that I am calling “their” speaker a scammer. My explanations that I don’t have anything against Karlo or against TEDx content team were vain – they already took it as ad hominem. I asked Karlo if he ever checked speakers for TEDx event, I vividly remember his voice:

Ivan Jakobović achieved more in his life than you ever will.
I was at his place and I saw water engine working with my own eyes!
And because of publicly criticising him, I have no option that to remove YOU from the event!

Exactly what happened next:

1. TEDxMaksimir team deleted negative comments from their FB page.
2. They removed speaker bios from event page, and posted names of the talks instead (no mention of “water engine”).
3. They refunded $20 back to my credit card and posted the following announcement:

Mr Zeljko just got a phone call he will be refunded entrance fee.. ..We need to protect speaker reputation.. ..Ivan Jakobović will speak about his rich experience as an inventor.. ..one of the inventions Mr Zeljko is criticizing (ozonic exhaust) was already presented by Ivan on our first TEDx event in 2010.. ..that invention was sold and is successfully produced in Canada.. ..Thank you Mr Ivan Jakobović for sharing your rich experience with us and for honoring us again.. Karlo Matić, TEDxMaksimir license holder

There it is, public support from TEDx for Ivan. Mentioning Canada success of ozonic exhaust is funny, because Ivan Jakobović with all his profitable international inventions was working as technician at high school for agriculture. Don’t worry, he is not teaching, because he never finished college. Don’t get me wrong, many great inventors didn’t have formal education. But I am surprised a man with such credentials wasn’t checked before speaking engagement.

And exactly tomorrow, on Sep 20th 2013, Ivan Jakobović will deliver his second TEDx talk titled “Innovations. Motivations. Complications”.

If you think that is kind of unfair, please share this.

Original Source

Metro

Hiroshi Yamauchi, Who Helped Drive Nintendo Into Dominance, Dies at 85 New York Times TOKYO — Hiroshi Yamauchi, who transformed his great-grandfather's playing-card company, Nintendo, into a global video game powerhouse, died on Thursday in Kyoto, Japan. He was 85. Enlarge This Image ... Hiroshi Yamauchi, Man Who Built Nintendo's Gaming Empire, Dies at 85Wired Nintendo visionary, Hiroshi Yamauchi, who gave the world Mario, Donkey Kong ...The Independent Nintendo exec from '40s past Donkey Kong diesUSA TODAY BBC News -Telegraph.co.uk -Washington Post all 219 news articles »

It all started with a 3 a.m. visit to a goat barn.

The NFL has reportedly been waging a secret legal battle with M.I.A. over the rapper’s Super Bowl swear fest. For those who (understandably) might not remember, while performing during the 2012 Super Bowl halftime show with Madonna, M.I.A. both gave the camera the middle finger and visibly mouthed the words, “I don’t give a shit” during “Give Me All Your Luvin’.” While the British rapper (again, understandably) thinks it’s bullshit that this was a big deal, the NFL doesn’t, secretly entering into arbitration against the rapper in March of 2012. And the league is still seeking $1.5 million from M.I.A. for allegedly breaching her performance contract, while also tarnishing the innocent reputation of a game based around grown men violently hitting each other.

While M.I.A. wasn’t actually paid for the performance—the exposure is believed to ...

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Twitter was able to confidentially file for an IPO because it qualifies as an “emerging growth company” under rules enacted last year. But even people who wrote the new law don’t understand why Twitter is taking advantage of it.

The filing came under the JOBS act, which loosened regulations in an effort to help young companies raise capital. (To qualify, a firm must have less than $1 billion in annual revenue.) The provision that allows for confidential IPO filings was intended to benefit young companies deciding whether to go public, raise more private funding, or perhaps sell themselves to a larger company.

“This is the biggest issue in entrepreneurs’ minds: my employees, my competitors, my lenders, my customers, get to know my numbers, [but] I can’t talk about them,” said Kate Mitchell, co-founder of Scale Venture Capital, who helped design and lobby for the JOBS Act. She notes that only 25% of companies that file for an IPO end up going public.

By filing in secret, the firm and its investors can test the waters for an IPO without committing to going public. If the water is cold, they can revoke the IPO without anyone knowing or ever seeing the documents that were filed. But Twitter isn’t testing the waters: It’s definitely going public, and that’s been clear for at least the past year. If Twitter thought it might back out of the IPO, it wouldn’t have disclosed last week that it had made a confidential filing.

“They know they are going public,” said a congressional aide who helped draft the JOBS Act. “I don’t see the logic in doing a confidential filling, especially given the potential for negative publicity.”

Indeed, Twitter’s disclosure last week led to tons of speculative media coverage. That seemed to rebut the idea, as James Suroweiki argued, that filing confidentially would delay a “flood of media coverage and investment punditry.”

“We didn’t expect companies would do that,” Mitchell says of Twitter’s announcement, noting that only about 10% of confidential filers publicly announce their decision. “Twitter is a more mature company than we’re trying to encourage. We hope more companies go out earlier.”

Twitter’s decision might be motivated by the feedback it received after the filing, or out of fears that the company’s employers or investors would leak the news before the company was ready.

In any event, Twitter will have to make its IPO filing public—and disclose any revisions it made on the advice of the US Securities and Exchange Commission—soon enough. That has to happen at least three weeks before Twitter starts its “road show” to market the IPO to potential large investors.

There’s something admirable in the JOBS Act’s attempts to give small companies an easier path to consider their funding options and potentially go public, sharing the benefits of their growth with a broader swath of investors without taking uneeded risk. But Twitter, with its eight rounds and $1.16 billion in fundraising, isn’t one of these companies. It just happens to qualify as one.

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A new San Francisco-based video game studio called Campo Santo has formed, and is composed of former Telltale Games and Klei developers.

Namely, The Walking Dead designers and Idle Thumbs Podcast hosts Jake Rodkin and Sean Vanaman joined Mark of the Ninja lead designer Nels Anderson and artist Olly Moss on the team. Vanaman noted in the studio's announcement blog that Campo Santo's first game will be "both backed by and made in collaboration with" Portland design studio Panic, Inc.

Campo Santo studio formed by former Telltale Games, Klei developers originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 19 Sep 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A pair of prosecutors, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, have been pressing Apple for months over a rash of thefts of mobile devices, including iPhones and iPads. Gascón in particular had been pushing for a 'kill switch' that could permanently disable stolen iOS devices.


Today, Gascón and Schneiderman praised Apple's release of the Activation Lock feature in iOS 7, calling it the "world's first attempt to implement a technological solution to the global smartphone theft epidemic".

"After months of pressure from a global coalition of elected officials and law enforcement agencies, we are pleased that Apple is set to release a new mobile operating system that includes a theft deterrent feature called Activation Lock. This is an important first step towards ending the global epidemic of smartphone theft.

“In the months ahead, it is our hope that Activation Lock will prove to be an effective deterrent to theft, and that the widespread use of this new system will end the victimization of iPhone users, as thieves learn that the devices have no value on the secondary market. We are particularly pleased that – because Activation Lock is a feature associated with Apple's new operating system as opposed to a new device – it will be available to consumers with older phone models who download the free upgrade.

The release goes on to note that while Activation Lock is a "step forward", it is ultimately too early to tell if it will cut down on the so-called "Apple Picking" crimes.