firehose

The home secretary has confirmed that she was given advanced notice of the decision by the police to detain David Miranda, the partner of the Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, at Heathrow airport. As part of an offensive by the government to justify the detention, the home secretary praised the police action on the grounds that Miranda possessed sensitive documents which could help terrorists and "lead to a loss of lives".

Amtrak recently made it a bit easier to take your bike along when riding the Amtrak Cascades train. The railroad and the Washington State Department of Transportation announced recently that they've added more bike racks in the baggage cars of all Amtrak Cascade trains. Each train now can accommodate up to 10 conventional bikes. According to a news release, the racks must be reserved in advance. They allow Amtrak staff to hang and secure the bikes on the walls of the baggage cars.

“Muffin Tops” are silicone molds that look like tiny pairs of jeans to make individual cupcakes and muffins. They are available to pre-order at the Foodiggity Shop.

Actual muffin tops are wonderful. But when the term ‘muffin top’ is used to refer to that bulge over your jeans, it’s unfortunate. Muffin Tops Cupcake Molds combine the literal with the figurative, with molds that create a midsection bulge of deliciousness.

via Foodiggity

Upland, California-based sound engineer Nick Galvan of Dethpop Videos has created a song where he transitions through 26 different genres of heavy metal music alphabetically. Nick rips through everything from Alternative Metal to geeky Zelda Metal. He was heavily inspired by the “A to Z” 26 genre song from Andrew Huang and David Brown.

via Daily Picks and Flicks

Composite:

Composite… automatically connects to your Photoshop documents and converts your mockups into interactive prototypes in seconds

App Store

The 3rd Gender, at the New York Fringe Festival, is advertised as a futuristic exploration of gender and sexuality. But what I actually saw was a dull anti-abortion lecture, full of clunky plot devices. Spoilers ahead...

Read more...

Nate Hallinan has been working the past few months (not weeks, as I earlier wrote. My bad) on Medieval Era X-Men. If you like what you see, go check out his art page, or his Facebook, or order some prints.

Read more...

scuttlebuggy:

confusedtree:

Adults who mimick baby-talk back at their infants are interesting because you’re essentially mocking a new human for not picking up your language through sheer absorption fast enough. That’s awesome. What other shit can we make fun of babies for not getting right. Walking. Algebra. Heavy machinery. Racketeering. Babies don’t know shit about bass guitar

WAS THIS INTENTIONAL LINGUIST BAIT

i really tried not to make this post. i really did. im sorry.

parents ‘mimicking baby-talk’ is actually referred to as motherese and has nothing to do with mocking a baby. 

motherese is essentially exactly the tone and patterns of speech that gets  an infant to listen to you. it exaggerates the tones and patterns of the language, emphasizing things like vowels or the words children often learn first.

the most astounding thing about language acquisition is that you dont have to teach a child the proper way to say things, or how to put a sentence together correctly. they will do it all on their own. in amazing situations where there is a severe poverty of stimulus (lack of language examples to follow) children will still pick up language.  because- and heres the kicker- we are all hard wired for language. we build our own language. we just follow the examples of the people around us. 

motherese is a register that gets babies attention. it emphasizes the things they need to start building english/spanish/thai/etc. and pretty much everyone will do it- mothers, fathers, siblings, random strangers. its affectionate when done towards infants, breaking down your own rapid, fluent speech patterns, almost unconsciously, to aid this small human in starting to build the language of the community. 

im so sorry i know this was supposed to be a joke post and i made it nerdy i just cant help myself i love linguistics so much you make a comment and suddenly you have all this information you never gave a fuck about and im over here getting emotional over humans building language ugh

buy this print
Or share on: facebook reddit

ndelphinus:

owlapin:

owlapin:

owlapin:

MICROSOFT WORD HAS A FUCKING “INSERT CITATION” BUTTON WHY THE FUCK DID NO ONE EVER TELL ME THIS IS SIGNIFICANT INFORMATION FUCK THE SCHOOL SYSTEM THIS IS MICROSOFT WORD 2007 I SHOULD HAVE BEEN MADE AWARE OF THIS IN HIGHSCHOOL WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK I HATE EVERYTHING

you can fucking log your sources into your document and then at the end press a fucking button and it makes a bibliography page for you im

im not even lying im so mad

…People didn’t know that?

Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

ethicalbutchering:

ohfreckle:

ladysmaragdina:

derpalicious:

moon-cunt:

pizzabuttsss:

catchyoneliner:

syllablesongs:

abolished-your-mythology:

Hurt myself laughing

oh my god

My therapist showed me this video

holy shit.

OH MY FUCKING GOD

The funniest video I’ve ever seen in my life

I can’t remember the last time I laughed this hard holy shit

My cat would sign this. 

LIKE SISYPHUS I AM BOUND TO HELL

Alexandria Stack of Fenton, Michigan captured a crazy Vine video of a pickup truck with a utility trailer flying over a guardrail right as it happened. She captioned it, “Did I just fucking witness this no fucking way.” Yes way (the man driving the truck is expected to fully recover).

via Lansing State Journal, Deadspin

Is this an actual thing that's being sold or just a fictional concoction invented by a Pacific Rim fan with access to a bottle of booze, some graphic design know-now, and a liquor store in which to snap a photo? On the one hand, Pacific Rum is in violation of copyright, so I'm not sure many stores would sell it. Plus the label underneath the bottle clearly doesn't say Pacific Rum. On the other hand... Portland. If Pacific Rum will exist anywhere, it'll be there. Or maybe Austin. I don't really care, to be honest. Pacific Rum exists in my heart, and you cannot take that away from me. Now let's go get smashed and built giant robots. (via: /Film) Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?

You know you've made it once you have an action figure, right? Even though we won't see the finished product for a while, you can already pre-order the Peter Capaldi 8-inch Doctor Who toy. Previously in Doctor Who

In this video, a tiny boxing robot desperately tries (over and over) battling a laid back Munchkin kitten named Luna.

video via StudioSinga

via Tastefully Offensive

theatlanticcities:

"Norman Sper was an engineer of sorts who dabbled in PR and whose Internet existence seems solely tied to this one ridiculous proposal. Reputedly concerned about traffic and housing congestion in Manhattan, Sper devised a plan to dam up the Hudson and divert its flow through a deeply dredged Harlem River into the East River. Then, for what he estimated to be a cost of $1 billion, he would build a virtual second city on top of the empty riverbed, complete with skyscrapers and an underground network of train tunnels, a four-lane highway, and pedestrian crossings. Bamn – right there is 10 square miles of virgin real estate. Who would even miss the old river?"

Read: How to Ease Congestion in Manhattan? Pave Over the Hudson River

[Image: Modern Mechanix]

Some arts news for your Tuesday:

• The Portland Center for the Performing Arts announced a massive rebranding yesterday: The five performance spaces managed by the organization (the Newmark, the Winnie, and the Brunish theater, which share one big building on Broadway, as well as the Keller and the Schnitz) will no longer collectively be known as PCPA; instead, per yesterday's press release, we're to call them "Portland’5 Centers for the Arts, or Portland’5."

...WHAT, WHAT?

Rebranding PCPA makes perfect sense—many people don't realize that there are five separate theaters under its umbrella—but this little "the 5 looks like an S" gimmick is a terrible idea. Am I literally supposed to say "Portland five centers for the arts"? Because that is not going to happen. I am going to continue to say "PCPA." Is the 5 sometimes a 5, but sometimes an S? How am I supposed to google "Portland'5"? (Try it; you get a five-day forecast.) Not to mention, Milepost5 already exists, so *that's* confusing. The new website is great. The new name—not so much.

• In happier news, Oregon Public Broadcasting announced yesterday that their new arts and culture show, hosted by April Baer, is in production now and will debut in the fall. It's called State of Wonder, which is also the name of a decent Ann Patchett novel, but never mind that. Baer is best known as an OPB reporter and the former local host of Morning Edition, but I recall being impressed with her hosting at a Live Wire! taping I attended a few years back. (Sidenote: Rereading that review, from 2008, really drives home how much *better* Live Wire! has gotten since then, in that I am no longer actively embarrassed by their jokes.) OPB bulking up its arts programming is great news for local arts organizations, who will likely see print arts coverage decline once the Oregonian's layoffs take effect.

Which brings us to...

• Last night's Technology and the Arts panel at Imago. It was, largely, a frustrating evening, during which arts writers, artistic directors, and a marketing director circled big questions about reaching new audiences, the value of criticism, and the future of arts coverage in Portland, without getting a chance to go too in-depth on any of those questions. A few moments stood out; these quotes are paraphrased.

Third Rail's Slayden Scott Yarborough on theater critics: "What I want from criticism is advocacy for the art form. I'm fine with getting raked over the coals—what I want is why."

He also raised what I thought was an interesting question, or at least I was interested that he phrased it so bluntly: "By pursuing new technologies, are we ignoring the people who establish the foundation of theater audiences?"

Oregon Arts Watch editor Barry Johnson continues to be one of Portland's most articulate and outspoken advocates for arts journalism: "The thing [arts journalists] share with all the theater companies is a desire for theater to succeed, because we believe that local culture is crucial... As long as we're talking about theater, we're not talking about Lindsay Lohan." (At this point someone on the panel—I forget who—tried to feign fashionable ignorance about what LiLo is up to, and was promptly corrected by the audience. It was funny.)

And soon-to-be-fired Oregonian critic Marty Hughley addressed the question that many people are wondering about: "It's not clear yet what the Oregonian theater coverage will be, where it will be, [who will be doing it]."

Personally, I was more interested in conversations I had with the Willamette Week's Rebecca Jacobson and Oregon Arts Watch's AL Adams before and after the panel than I was in the panel itself. But us broads were relegated to the kids table—er, the audience—last night, in more ways than one. You'd be forgiven, after that panel, for getting the idea that there are only three outlets in town that cover theater: Oregon Arts Watch, the Oregonian, and KBOO. (Jacobson did get a backhanded nod from Hughley, who noted that the WW used to have comprehensive theater listings, but he's not sure if they still do because he doesn't read it anymore.)

For all my complaints about the panel itself, I was pleasantly surprised by how well-attended it was: Apparently there's an appetite for these sorts of events, and I'd love to see more public conversations that dig into these questions with a tighter, more focused approach.

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Designer Merve Kahraman has designed the “Seduction Series,” wearable glassware and serving accessories that are “intended to sensitize people to the expectation of complex olfactory experiences by using specific gestures.”

The “Seduction Series” is a new experience emphasizing the aromas distinctive to Remy Martin…The service will be exclusive to private events and parties and it brings a youthful way to celebrate the exceptional aromatic profiles of Remy Martin.

via DesignTAXI, Foodbeast

The week-long music and arts festival in the Nevada desert known as Burning Man has released instructions for attendees who wish to fly drones and full sized UAVs. The drones will add to the kites, balloons, remote control helicopters and even skydivers that currently fill the Black Rock City airspace.

Traditionally, vehicles that resemble standard street vehicles are banned from the Nevada event, in an attempt to allow free and easy movement for pedestrians and cyclists. Only “mutant vehicles” are permitted and people have to apply to the appropriately-dubbed Department of Mutant Vehicles for a license.

It’s become yet another way for Burning Man attendees to express their creativity. Participants have designed vehicles made from furniture or have even reverted to using boats or trains to get around (for more on that, check out this or this). The only people who are allowed to use normal street vehicles are staff, those with disabilities and service vehicles.

In preparation for this year’s Burning Man, the Department of Mutant Vehicles has released instructions for those who wish to fly drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at the event, presumably due to growing interest from participants, some of whom probably wanted to bring vehicles but were restricted by the number of licenses allowed for this. Burning Man’s website states that “[if] the convenience of personal transportation is your primary goal, please rethink your intent. A primary factor driving your urge to drive should be the sharing of your creation with the rest of the community.” Any participant can bring a drone without a license but pilots of more sophisticated UAVs, which have a more complex controls and monitoring systems, will need to request permission.

But drones may turn out to be more of a nuisance than a creative addition, giving the challenges of restricting their activity among the festival’s cap of 60,000 attendees (as of 2012). For example, drones that have cameras attached have been warned not to record footage of people (due to the difficulties of getting their explicit consent). Drones and UAVs are not permitted to be flown over large crowds where crashing could cause injuries. They are also banned from being flown within the main circle during the “day of the Man burn,” when an effigy is burnt, due to safety precautions.

After assertions by ex-Googlers that 20% time is effectively dead, and rejoinders by Google employees that the situation is a bit more nuanced, a spokesperson from Google has finally weighed in: 20% time at Google is “alive and well.”

Google, it seems, is a place where engineers are encouraged to work on projects outside their main focus. And while the growing size of the company and its tighter focus under CEO Larry Page may mean that it’s more challenging for employees to carve out time for those outside projects, the company is continuing to put out products based on engineers’ extra-curricular efforts.

Recent products of Googlers’ 20% time include both Google Now and Google’s Transparency Report, notes Google’s spokesperson. Here’s how Andrew Kirmse, an engineer at Google, describes the genesis of Google Now:

Google Now started when a few of us on the Maps team thought there was some really useful information we could show you on your phone based on where you are, and so we started working on it in our spare time, as a 20% project (as many projects at Google start). The further we got on the project, the more compelling it became, and everyone saw the potential of it.

Surveying all that’s been said on this subject—and there has been quite a lot of back and forth about it in the past week—it seems that Google continues to make its vast computing resources and stores of data available to its engineers for any project they might care to launch. However, in a work environment as demanding as the one at Google, it can be challenging to carve out the time to launch projects outside of an engineer’s “day job.” Perhaps it’s simply the case that, as the joke at Amazon goes, work-life balance is for people who don’t like their work.