Whoa, this is so neat, like a preview of what we’ll be playing 10-15 years from now on our Nintendo HoloScreens. Of course, by then we’ll find some excuse to complain about our dissatisfaction with it.
You can fiddle around with a 3D version Brendan Bottomley made that lets you view it from different angles here. S/o to @brandonnn for the link.
BUY Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL consoles, upcoming releases
Shredded Wheat, shredded sleeves, shredding the Basket.
Though it seems hard to believe, Earth’s gravitational pull is not the same everywhere you go. And as these gorgeously detailed maps now show, these variances are much greater than we thought.
    
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A few days ago, the world thought Chinese real estate magnate Wang Jianlin was worth a mere $9 billion, based on Bloomberg Billionaires estimates. Scratch that, though—Bloomberg recounted and discovered that Wang, head of Wanda Group, is now worth at least $14.2 billion, making him China’s richest person, and the 66th richest in the world.
Where did that $5.2 billion come from? A lot came from the fact that Bloomberg (and its competitor, Forbes) had previously neglected to count the several billion dollars in Wanda Group’s department stores, apparently only counting Wang’s property holdings toward his net worth.
But even if it missed Bloomberg’s tally, that business was already well established. The big thing that Wang Jianlin’s empire has gained this year that it didn’t have last year is income from America’s movie business.
Only in September of 2012 did Wanda spend $2.6 billion to buy AMC, the US’s second-biggest cinema chain. The investment looked a little unwise at the time considering AMC was hemorrhaging hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
However, in the first half of 2013, AMC brought in $1.3 billion, putting it on track to beat the $2.5 billion AMC earned in 2012 ticket sales. Wanda also said that after it instituted an incentive systems and better information management, AMC’s 2012 net profit was more than $50 million.
Was that reason for Wang to gloat? Why, yes, it was. “This explains that Wanda isn’t just capable of going international, it also is capable of managing businesses that Americans failed at” (link in Chinese), he said in his report on Wanda’s first half.
American theaters are a big boon to Wang’s business, and so are his theaters in China. Wanda Cinema 5 Studios made around $320 million in revenue in the first half of 2013, a 63% increase on the same period in 2012. That puts it on target to bring in its goal of $523 million in revenue this year, which would give Wanda as much a 20% share of China’s theater market.
US movie studios are helping with that. Pacific Rim, for example, has so far grossed $103 million in China as of August 18, with the blockbuster Fast & the Furious 6 bringing in $66 million. In fact, China’s proving to be a growth market for US flops like Pacific Rim, which is nipping the heels of Iron Man 3′s $121 million in China, a 2013 record.
The US movie business adds to other foreign investments that are lining Wang’s pockets. He recently invested $10 billion in a British yacht company and a series of luxury hotel and apartment complexes along the Thames in London. Imagine the untold billions that could add to Wang’s net worth when Bloomberg Billionaires adds those to the tally.
MELVINS, HONKY
(Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell) Anyone who's interviewed or read interviews with Melvins frontman Buzz Osborne knows he can be a prickly son of a bitch. Intense might be a better word for it. But that intensity is likely what has kept the Melvins making heavy rock that's still vital and challenging after three decades, without selling their souls. And they're as productive as ever. In the last year and a half, the band has released a five-song EP, a full-length as Melvins Lite, another EP with original drummer Mike Dillard, and a covers album. And they're all good. As the Melvins celebrate 30 years, we should cerebrate the importance of this band. Let's cherish these fuckers. MARK LORE
SUMMER SLAUGHTER TOUR: THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, ANIMALS AS LEADERS, PERIPHERY, CATTLE DECAPITATION, THE OCEAN, REVOCATION, AEON, & MORE
(Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE César E. Chávez) The annual Summer Slaughter tour is putting an end to another br00tal summer and capping off this year's run at the Hawthorne. The mathcore stalwarts in the Dillinger Escape Plan headline this year's installment, and the band's recently released One of Us Is the Killer continues to introduce songier songs into the band's otherwise hyper-technical catalog. The rest of the lineup isn't lacking in chops, either, with Animals as Leaders, Cattle Decapitation, Revocation, and Aeon bringing the fretboard wizardry and full-blast assaults. The Ocean offers their post-rock/metal amalgam, while Periphery should appease the mall metal sect. MATTHEW W. SULLIVAN
Now every time I talk to someone it’s like
You've heard, but novelist Elmore Leonard died today at the age of 87. As the celebrated author of Get Shorty, Glitz, and Be Cool—and whose works were adapted into great movies and TV such as Out of Sight and Justified—Leonard was hands down one of our greatest crime thriller writers. So let's not miss this opportunity to recall his "Ten Rules of Writing" which was originally published in The New York Times, and carries a ton of good advice (some of which I'm afraid I'll never learn). Check it out.
1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
Very good advice (especially numbers 1, 8, and 9), although i think I'll consistently continue to break numbers 3 and especially 5. What can I say, I really love exclamation points!!!! R.I.P. Elmore Leonard... you will be missed!!!
In this video from Poland a couple rides a Sociable, a unique side-by-side bicycle built for two.
video via marcin zakrzeski
While the upcoming Kitchen Sink knowingly winks at genre mash-ups with its story of a human-vampires-and-zombies alliance against invading aliens, the fact remains that it obviously wants to laugh at its genre cake and eat it too. (“You’re stupid, genre cake!” it says, before gleefully devouring it anyway.) Still, knowing that Bob Odenkirk and Patton Oswalt are in it definitely gives credence to claims it’s more of a comedy than anything that might accidentally also make a lot of money, telling the story of a group of awkward high-school teens just trying to survive the pains of adolescence, in addition to the pain of maybe getting eating by a zombie.
It’s not yet known which roles Oswalt and Odenkirk are taking in the Oren Uziel-scripted comedy—a Black List honoree that was originally tipped to be executive producer Jonah Hill’s directorial debut, but is now being ...
Read morefirehosefuck your bookselfie
Bookshelfies is a Tumblr blog dedicated to collecting selfies that people take in front of their bookshelves and providing links to those books on Amazon. Find more shelfies over at Bookshelfies.
images via Bookshelfies
via swissmiss
firehose"Playing as Bigby — the human form of The Big Bad Wolf — players walk in on the Woodsman from Little Red Riding Hood hitting the mysterious woman. She's bruised."
this is to establish that this is a "confronting grim world"
grimdark is so edgy and exciting
grimdark everything
grimdark my keyboard oh shit the spacebar stabs a woman everytime I hit it oh no I should be careful about my actions beceaues his keyboard is so grimdark oh no noes~
Within the first five minutes of The Wolf Among Us, players witness a violent scene between a man and a woman. The scene isn't gratuitous, and the writers at Telltale Games have re-worked it over and over again so it conveys the point of the scene without being outright gross. But it's still confronting to see, even if most of the violence is implied.
Playing as Bigby — the human form of The Big Bad Wolf — players walk in on the Woodsman from Little Red Riding Hood hitting the mysterious woman. She's bruised. It's a tense and uncomfortable moment — as it should be, and it feels heavy — as it is. But players aren't powerless. In The Wolf Among Us, the player is Bigby — the sheriff of Fabletown, a Fable whose reputation precedes him. He is feared. The player is feared. In the confronting grim world where The Wolf Among Us takes place, it pays to not play as yourself. It is far more interesting and effective to be Bigby.
Based on the comic series Fables by writer Bill Willingham, The Wolf Among Us is Telltale's five-episode series, which is intended to be canon and takes place before the comic series begins. As sheriff of Fabletown, Bigby is in charge of keeping the peace between other Fables that have found their way into the modern world. In The Wolf Among Us, he is tasked with investigating a grizzly murder.
When Polygon recently spoke to the game's lead writer, Pierre Shorette, he said that one of the things that makes the game special is that players aren't necessarily playing with a character as much as they're playing with the power that character has. He cites this as a key difference between The Wolf Among Us and Telltale's previous episodic series, The Walking Dead.
"Bigby's relationships to other people are what matters. You want to be him as much as you want to help the people around you."
"What's unique about what we're doing with The Wolf Among Us is Bigby's an established character. In The Walking Dead, Lee could basically be your Lee. You could project yourself onto him," Shorette said. "Now we have a character that exists within the world, so it's more about role-playing as a character who has power, and the use of that power is what you really control."
According to Shorette, when players take on the role of a character like Lee in The Walking Dead, the game is about survival. "You're kind of just tumbling down this hill, doing the best you can, grabbing as many roots as you can just to try to stop your fall," he said. Playing as Bigby in The Wolf Among Us, players find themselves in a position of power, and the choices they make will affect their relationships with all the other Fables in Fabletown.
During a hands-off demo with the first episode in the series, we got to see the different ways Bigby can use his power to affect how other characters view him and, subsequently, how the story plays out. Early on in the episode, Bigby is called to a motel run by a Toad to resolve a violent dispute. Upon seeing Toad in his non-human form, players have the option to berate and threaten him for not appearing in human form, or show compassion that he cannot afford a transformation. These are choices that the characters will remember and will affect their future interactions with Bigby.
Further into the first episode, players witness the confronting act of violence between the Woodsman and the mystery woman. Players can choose how involved they want to get in the situation and how quickly they want things to escalate by choosing certain dialog trees. In the dialog tree we chose, the Woodsman ended up with an axe in his head.
The game also offers players lots of subtle decisions to make and, while our limited time with the first episode meant we didn't see the results play out, the nuances of the characters — from the dialog to their facial expressions — suggest that all the characters in Fabletown remember every interaction with Bigby.
Shorette told Polygon that what he cares most about, and what he believes players care most about, is their character's relationships with others.
"With Bigby, I don't think it matters so much that players can't project themselves onto him," Shorette said. "Bigby's relationships to other people are what matters. You want to be him as much as you want to help the people around you."
While role-playing as Bigby, players will also learn about the class structure that exists within Fables. Shorette said that when most people think of fairytales, they think of characters living happily ever after. Fables flips this on its head. By playing the role of a sheriff who has to involve himself in others' lives, players will gain insight into the powerplay between the classes in Fabletown.
"You explore the haves and the have nots, and you're someone who has to have relationships with people from both ends of the spectrum," Shorette said. "You have to navigate that while trying to investigate this murder. I think it's an interesting sort of social aspect we're tapping into over the course of the story."
firehosevia Russian Sledges; attn: saucie
Ryan and Kaitlyn Lawless have re-created the 50 of the United States as interlocking porcelain trays for anyone to ‘bake, serve and style with pride’. Basically, they did this by cutting out prototypes on a CNC router for precision, which is then translated into plaster molds to create the cast for liquid ceramic to be poured into to create the porcelain plates.
The plates are then fired in an electric kiln, glazed and high-fired again before the undersides are sanded and smoothed. Wonder if we’d need a get a bigger dining table to hold all the states…
The post United Plates of America: Interlocking porcelain trays of all 50 states appeared first on Lost At E Minor: For creative people.
firehoseagain, not grounded in any data or anything
fuck Papa Murphy's
Thrillist first created “Red, White, and Booze,” a map focused solely on regional beer and liquors in the United States. They’ve now made “Red, White & Food” which maps the biggest chain restaurants from or based out of each state “with a heavy lean towards fast food.”
submitted via Laughing Squid Tips
firehoseYES
YESSSSSSSSS
I don’t know much about this project. I spotted it earlier today on Twitter, where all I had to go on was this:
I have a friend named Dave; Dave is a genius. You all need to check out his latest project (feat. @Raspberry_Pi ) at http://t.co/Juj4F8nK16
— Matt LaFave (@Ubercoat) August 20, 2013
So I clicked on the link, which took me to YouTube – and I found this. Matt’s right. His friend Dave is a genius.
What you’re seeing and hearing here is the music and sfx from Mario, Mario 2, Mario 3 and Zelda, played on a player piano and robotic percussion, all mediated by a couple of Raspberry Pis. In the “About” section under the video, Dave says:
The piano and percussion play live during actual gameplay, mirroring the sounds that would normally be created electronically by the NES. All audio, including music and sound effects, is translated in realtime so that it is produced by the instrument most closely resembling the characteristics of the original electronic sound.
Playlist:
0:00 - Mario
0:53 - Mario 2
2:59 - Mario 3
4:06 - Zelda
6:02 - Mario 2 (End Theme)
For those interested in the technical details, both the piano and the percussion use solenoids to drive their player mechanisms. The piano uses Yamaha’s Disklavier system to strike keys, and the percussion uses a custom solution to strike the drum sticks. Both the piano and percussion are each controlled by Raspberry Pis which have custom software to control each instrument. The software is responsible for translating the NES audio to instructions which ultimately define which solenoid should be actuated. In full disclosure, there is normally a half-second audio delay that was removed in editing, but it’s still very playable live. The piano is controlled through the Disklavier’s MIDI interface, while the percussion’s solenoids are directly controlled through the Pi’s GPIO interface.
Dave, we thought this was amazing. Get in touch when you see this; we’d like to know more about who you are and what else you’ve been doing with your Pis!
Edit to add: Dave mailed me. He’s David Thompson from Detroit, MI, and doesn’t have a personal website at the moment, but assures me that he’ll send a link when he does. As well as being a musician, Dave is also a hobbyist photographer and has some ideas up his sleeve for some more Pi projects: I hope we’ll hear from him again soon. Thanks Dave!
firehoseeffectively a reimplementation of man with fewer features
cheat allows you to create and view interactive cheatsheets on the command-line. It was designed to help remind *nix system administrators of options for commands that they use frequently, but not frequently enough to remember.
firehosetl;dr the abstract: "blood levels of SAT1 (spermidine/spermine N1–acetyltransferase 1), the top biomarker identified by us, at the time of testing for this study, differentiated future as well as past hospitalizations with suicidality, in a live cohort of bipolar disorder subjects, and exhibited a similar but weaker pattern in a live cohort of psychosis (schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder) subjects. Three other (phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), myristoylated alanine-rich protein kinase C substrate (MARCKS), and mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase 3 (MAP3K3)) of the six biomarkers that survived Bonferroni correction showed similar but weaker effects. Taken together, the prospective and retrospective hospitalization data suggests SAT1, PTEN, MARCKS and MAP3K3 might be not only state biomarkers but trait biomarkers as well."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
firehosegrimdark your popcap games
By Samit Sarkar on Aug 20, 2013 at 10:40a
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, the upcoming third-person shooter set in the Plants vs. Zombies universe, will allow players to take on the role of zombies and include a new Xbox One exclusive Boss Mode, developer PopCap Games announced today at Electronic Arts' Gamescom 2013 press conference.
A video showcasing zombie gameplay included the undead shooting football guns, construction workers with plumbers cracks, manual laborers tossing grenades, a scientist with diabolical weapons and a sports fan with an exploding hardhat made of dynamite.
In Boss Mode, which is exclusive to Xbox One, players control Doctor Zomboss or Crazy Dave. In a video narrated by the doctor himself, he revealed the Zombox, a device that allows players to beat plants "without touching dirt." Using Smart Glass and Kinect, players will be able to direct the destructive hordes across maps.
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare pre-orders are now live, and the game will debut first next year on Xbox 360 and and Xbox One for $39.99.
Check out Polygon's EA Gamescom 2013 StoryStream for more on the company's upcoming games.
Developing...
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firehosethis guy again
Sisaket, Thailand-based father Noppakun Trirojporn (aka “bugyean“) recently performed an amazing one-handed metal core drum cover of the song “Americans” by This Or The Apocalypse. What makes it even more impressive is that he performed the cover with three of his children strapped to his body.
My daughter Zoe (2 yrs) with Twin boy Hudd & Hans (8 months)
Here is Noppakun rocking out two more great one-handed drum solos to Avenged Sevenfold and Slipknot:
videos via bugyean
via HyperVocal
firehosevia Toaster Strudel
“There was a tacit understanding between them that ‘liquor helped’; growing more miserable with every glass one hoped for the moment of relief.”
— Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter
firehoseamercia
