firehose

The founder of the Creation Museum in Kentucky says logic isn’t the way to finally debunk evolution because there is no scientific evidence that proves evolution is a lie.

Sheetsee:

Sheetsee.js is a JavaScript library, or box of goodies, if you will, that makes it easy to use a Google Spreadsheet as the database feeding the tables, charts and maps on a website. Once set up, any changes to the spreadsheet will auto-saved by Google and be live on your site when a visitor refreshes the page.

Despite its proven ability to bring people of all stripes together, in a melting pot of boiling hatred over its suckiness, Seth MacFarlane’s Dads has already been accused of being too racist to air. But unlike most racist dads—whom you can just ignore while reminding yourself not to complain about any crimes in your neighborhood—Fox’s racist Dads have become the target of the Media Action Network for Asian-Americans, which has taken the aggressive step of asking that the pilot be reshot. As many critics reported at the TCAs, Dads’ very first episode features numerous jokes that play off Asian stereotypes, from Brenda Song being asked to dress as “a sexy Asian schoolgirl” to woo a Chinese businessman, to Martin Mull referring to Asians as “Orientals.” Because he’s old.

In a letter to Fox, MANAA president Guy Aoki wrote, “[Mull] later warned his son that he ...

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Samantha Bee and Jessica Williams, two returning Daily Show correspondents, describe Oliver’s reign of bloody terror as worse than Paula Deen, the Titanic, and Detroit combined.

No idea what’s going on here; don’t care ⊟

I think this is from a recent issue of Japanese magazine CoroCoro? Whatever, it’s amazing. Credit to Ttersbu for the pic.

BUY Animal Crossing: New Leaf, AC:NL guide, upcoming games

Florida prison officials say a computer “glitch” may be to blame for opening all of the doors at a maximum security wing simultaneously, setting prisoners free and allowing gang members to pursue a rival with weapons.

The living are only a species of the dead

Team Coco created a supercut video of Harrison Ford angrily pointing at things in movies and aired it when the actor was a guest on Conan.

In April the Supportland/ADX collaboration Portland Made launched. It's a truly excellent, if complicated to explain, concept, so to quote myself back when my interview with Kelly Roy of ADX was still fresh in my mind:

It's an online hub that ultimately aims to include every single product that is manufactured in Portland (not just tea towels and stationary but mattresses, bikes, and eventually food products), where visitors to the site can browse maker profiles, connect with retailers, and even purchase items for later pickup. It's also a quasi-social networking service for its makers, designers, retails, and manufacturers to ask and field questions, pool resources, and form mutually beneficial partnerships... One of the most exciting things they are doing is pairing with researchers at PSU to create metrics tracking the job creation powers of local manufacturing, creating numbers that they can then bring to decision-makers in local and state government, with the idea of collecting evidence for the argument that the economic health of our community doesn't just live and die at the hands of biggies like Vestas and Adidas.

As you can see from my condescending bolding, that last bit is particularly tantalizing to me. But if you are currently occupied—as an individual or company—in making, manufacturing and/or retailing, registration is currently free. But it probably won't be forever, so...

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Neil Gaiman will be in Portsmouth, England, on Sunday as the city renames a road after his new novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane. The author’s first novel for adults since 2005′s Anansi Boys, the modern fairy tale follows an unnamed man who returns to his childhood hometown for a funeral only [...]

S/Suck it

“Stability” isn’t a term superheroes get to hear much. People die and come back, teams are constantly changing members, and new villains are always popping up. Heck, most heroes can’t even depend on their own bodies to stay constant, thanks to magic, mad scientists, and/or otherworldly rocks. Here are a dozen heroes who once changed for the worse.

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After some careful consideration atop their thinking trampolines, Paramount executives have made the difficult decision to push the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot by an extra two months to Aug. 8, 2014, in what is the first bit of negative buzz to emerge around the film that does not have anything to do with story, casting, or its mere existence. The delay was prompted by a desire to fine-tune the film in response to these pessimistic early reports, and a commitment to making it the most faithful iteration yet of the fiercely protected franchise and ensure it doesn't feel like yet another cheap cash-in on childhood nostalgia, but rather an organic and vibrant rebirth of a beloved intellectual property.

Just kidding: It was moved because otherwise it would have premiered against another Michael Bay toy movie, Transformers 4, as Deadline notes that “both of these have involved campaigns and ...

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Jon Bon Jovi might have already nabbed the title of “first rocker to own a professional sports organization” with the Philadelphia Soul, but that hasn't deterred KISS from buying its very own arena football team. The team, The L.A. KISS, will sport custom KISS-themed helmets, and season ticket holders will be treated to a private concert from their team’s namesakes/owners.

In a statement, KISS frontman/main marketing whore Gene Simmons said, “As a fast-paced, high-action band, this partnership with the AFL was an obvious fit for us”—because, you know, KISS, football, arenas, money, whatever. He went on to compare the experience of being at an arena football game with “a live KISS show,” claiming that both have “thrilling, heart-pounding action.” In the same statement, Paul Stanley said that KISS is working with the AFL rather than the NFL because that organization has become too interested ...

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Apple's leader probably had a little-known disorder that psychiatrists now refer to as obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, or OCPD. Is this a case of psychiatric overreach, in which any human quirk is declared a dangerous pathology? Or did Jobs' undeniable success at Apple — perhaps the most imaginative and successful company of the 21st century — cost him his happiness, his family and even his health?

Robin Thicke, T.I., and Pharrell Williams have preemptively countersued Marvin Gaye’s estate and Bridgeport Music, the owner of some Funkadelic compositions. The two entities have reportedly been seeking money from all three artists, claiming “Blurred Lines” is an unsanctioned copy of both Gaye’s 1977 track “Got To Give It Up” and Funkadelic’s “Sexy Ways.” In their countersuit, the three artists are claiming that, while they were obviously influenced by the cowbell-driven groove in “Got To Give It Up,” they didn’t sample anything, arguing that their composition is wholly original. They also point out that Gaye’s family is claiming “Blurred Lines” copies the “feel” of Marvin Gaye’s work—and "feel" isn't something that’s able to be copyrighted. “Gaye's defendants are claiming ownership of an entire genre, as opposed to a specific work,” the suit argues, adding that “the intent in producing ...

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Bat Grrrl

le Bat

On two separate occasions in 1981 and 1983 the Dayton Daily News switched the captions for The Far Side and Dennis the Menace, resulting in a whole new interpretation of each comic.

via Salon, reddit

Laura Prepon’s given an excellent performance on Orange Is The New Black as Alex, the former lover of the main character, Piper (Taylor Schilling), who convinced her to mule drug money, an act that long after their breakup landed Piper in prison. But as Kate Aurthur reports, Prepon’s role in the second season will be limited:

Laura Prepon has gotten fantastic reviews for her portrayal of Alex in Orange Is the New Black — but she will not be a series regular in Season 2, according to sources close to the show.
Prepon will come back for a limited number of episodes in the show’s 13-episode second season in order to resolve her story. And the door will be left often for her to return in the future. But the actress did not sign a contract tying her to the show for the upcoming season.

As much as I’ve enjoyed watching Prepon work–and frankly, as much as I think, if this is her decision, it’s a nutty one considering the other material she’s worked with recently–I actually wonder if wrapping up Alex’s storyline might be a wise decision for Orange. Series creator Jenji Kohan’s been frank about the extent to which her decision to adapt Piper Kerman’s memoir, and to focus on Piper herself, was a strategic decision, a calculation that Piper’s character would give her an opportunity tell the stories that she found more interesting. Kohan explained to NPR that:

In a lot of ways Piper was my Trojan Horse. You’re not going to go into a network and sell a show on really fascinating tales of black women, and Latina women, and old women and criminals. But if you take this white girl, this sort of fish out of water, and you follow her in, you can then expand your world and tell all of those other stories. But it’s a hard sell to just go in and try to sell those stories initially. The girl next door, the cool blonde, is a very easy access point, and it’s relatable for a lot of audiences and a lot of networks looking for a certain demographic. It’s useful.

It’s a tough assessment of the television industry’s priorities. But it would also be impressive if Kohan backed it up. Piper’s character was never on a particularly long sentence. And as Piper Kerman has written, using the occasion of a show to further her prison reform advocacy, prisoners are frequently transferred to new facilities, often at considerable cost to their families and their relationships with their children. It would be creatively audacious, a gentler version of lopping off Ned Stark’s head, to run through Piper’s story, to transfer Alex to another facility, and turn Orange‘s focus to the other prisoners on the show, and to add new prisoners who aren’t as immediately relatable. This would give the women of color who are part of Orange‘s outrageously talented cast more space to work, and Kohan the opportunity to tell different–and more common–prison stories.

Orange Is The New Black is already a game-changing show. But a willingness to make it a lightly anthologized series in the vein of American Horror Story, and one that focuses more on incarcerated women of color than on white main characters could make it an extraordinary exception to the normal rules of television.

The post Could Laura Prepon’s Departure Make ‘Orange Is The New Black’ A More Interesting Show? appeared first on ThinkProgress.

odditiesoflife:

The Stunning Wilhelmshöhe Palace & Park

Wilhelmshöhe Palace & Park is a stunning castle and unique landscape park in Kassel, Germany.  The area of the park is 2.4 square kilometres (590 acres), making it the largest European hillside park, and second largest park on a mountain slope in the world.

Construction of the park began in 1696 at the request of the Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel and took about 150 years. Originally laid out in the Baroque style of the Italian garden and the French formal garden with water features running downhill in cascades to the Wilhelmshöhe castle, it was later re-arranged into an English landscape garden with water features added in 1714.

During the summer, from May until October on every Wednesday and Sunday afternoon, visitors can watch the magical water show. Additionally, every first Saturday of the summer months this event takes place during the evening with different colored lights illuminating the water, the fountain and the different monuments (picture 2).

Visitors can follow the water’s way as it runs down the cascades, the Steinhöfer’s waterfall (pictures 1), the devil’s bridge (picture 4), until it tumbles down the aqueduct before finally arriving at the lake of the Wilhelmshöhe castle where a fountain of about 50 meters ends the spectacle (picture 3). This system has been in place for more than 300 years. In June, 2013 it was proclaimed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site which guarantees its preservation and elevates the site’s status as one of the many fascinating man-made structures on our planet.

sources 1, 2, 3

hodad

#nodads

What if we asked male authors the questions that are generally reserved for female ones? What if, instead of questions about books we focused on the character of the writer, his figure and his family?

WHACK: So Chuck, I know you have a toddler at home. What are you doing to deal with your Post baby body?

Chuck Wendig: I…I feed it tacos. You know I wasn’t the pregnant one, right?

W: Stephen, Do you feel pressure to have children before it’s too late?

Stephen Blackmoore: My species procreates by asexual budding three, four times a day. So at this point it’s a real struggle to not give in to those “baby urges” or, in my case, “cloned nightmare terrors of unimaginable evil urges”. But with the right diet, the freshly churned souls of the damned, I should be able to stave that off for another few centuries at least. It also helps that I devour my critics feet first after unhinging my jaw like a snake so they can get the full experience of slowly being eaten alive. Because I’m a giver.

W: Chuck your books are sorta racy. You are known for your potty mouth and books that feature characters that are well I’ll just say “easy” and lots of violence. What do you think your children will say about that?

CW: Well. My kind right now says “choo-choo” a lot, so, probably that.

W: But in reality you have a sort of ho-hum, boring life with a wife and a kid and a dog. Do you think you are living a vicariously slutty life through your characters?

CW: I am, yes. Who told you that? I just want to be a big manslut!

Chuck Wendig.

W: Stephen, you are pretty private about your home life but I know you do a lot of events at bars in LA. It’s safe to assume you aren’t living the life of the chaste and pure.

SB: I am, actually. I live in an underground bunker with my wife and two dogs and we make only occasional forays into the radioactive wasteland of Los Angeles for supplies. There’s not much time to party when you’re fighting off packs of ravenous mutants who want to use your head as a bongo drum.

W: You both have ….interesting… characters populating your books. Would you be friends with those people?

CW: No. God, no. Do I have to be? Is that a requirement? Shit.

SB: Most of my characters are assholes. They’re either narcissists or psychopaths. So, you know, pretty much all just me. And I hate myself. So, no, I wouldn’t be their friend. And you shouldn’t either. Seriously, they’re jerks. Just like I am.

Stephen Blackmoore.

W: Your beard gets a lot of attention. Do you ever feel like you are using your beard to get people to pay attention to you?

CW: Yes. I exploit my beard like a Bangladeshi climate change refugee. My beard makes Apple iPhones. It is a lush, rich, robust beard and I work it, work it. I twerk it, twerk it. EYES UP HERE, LADIES. Jeez. The female gaze, am I right?

W: Now Stephen, there aren’t a lot of photos out there of you. Is there a reason for that? Is that a statement about not wanting to be judged by your looks?

SB: I actually have no looks. I died in 1847 in a freak goat / train accident and am now nothing but a shade who roams the moors wailing in the fog and lamenting all those lost goats ground beneath the wheels of the train, their bleating like the cries of burning children and pain so much pain and horror and the blood everywhereohgodsomuchblood and THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR BRINGING UP THAT PAINFUL MEMORY.

W: How do you balance writing and touring with out feeling like you are abandoning your family?

CW: I basically just abandon them because, as a father, I am expected to make the money but also be a jerk so on the rare occasion I am seen with my child in public I can be called a hero and high-fived for basically not being a completely absent figure.

W: From the outside you seem really disconnected from the world. Don’t you want a family?

SB: Though it’s true that I’m disconnected from much of the world, mostly because of limitations in my programming that require that I not interact with anything outside my 3’x3’ box for at least 15 hours every day, family is extremely important to me. Family is key to a healthy, happy life. Because really, who better to frame for a triple homicide in Reno while strung out on trucker meth than someone who has an almost exact genetic profile?

W: What makes you feel pretty?

CW: Wigs, Lee Press-On nails, and a very special sundress.

SB: I like to pamper myself by trying on different looks by hunting people down and wearing their skins like a suit.

W: Ideal relaxation day?

CW: Hunting deer. Or a spa day. Or hunting deer at the spa. Some combination of “deer” and “spa.”

SB: Orchestrating an elaborate museum heist full of close calls, double-crosses and a good montage, preferably with a Bon Jovi soundtrack.

Original Source

Google’s “20% time,” which allows employees to take one day a week to work on side projects, effectively no longer exists. That’s according to former Google employees, one who spoke to Quartz on the condition of anonymity and others who have said it publicly.

What happened to the company’s most famous and most imitated perk? For many employees, it has become too difficult to take time off from their day jobs to work on independent projects.

This is a strategic shift for Google that has implications for how the company stays competitive, yet there has never been an official acknowledgement by Google management that the policy is moribund. Google didn’t respond to a request for comment from Quartz.

Original Source

Growing up outside of Chicago, one of my favorite places in the city was The Museum Of Broadcast Communications. They’ve got an extensive collection of old commercials—I’m talking black-and-white Alka Seltzer ad old—that you can watch in little viewing cubicles. It’s definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area, but if you’re not, there’s [...]