firehose

A new report by the Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg, the dean of the Guantanamo Bay media corps, estimates that the United States spends a little under half a billion dollars per year to maintain the prison facility there. That comes to roughly $2.7 million per prisoner.

TMZ (who else) obtained the dashcam video of George Zimmerman being pulled over and informing the police that he has a gun in his glovebox.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf stuff you should read

This game has inspired a lot of interesting articles lately! Read them:

• JC’s piece on "How Animal Crossing’s loneliness creates friendships"
• "The Slow Lane: Macrotransactions and Game Design in Animal Crossing" at The GIA — really great article on why New Leaf wouldn’t work as a freemium title
• Jenn Frank’s excellent review/essay on New Leaf’s appeal
• Intriguing piece from Drew Mackie: "Why I Had To Quit Animal Crossing"

Oh and if you want to visit Pendleton Ward’s (Adventure Time creator) home in the game, apparently this is his dream code: 4500-2305-5279. Shout-outs to Nookling for the pic!

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

I don’t have a favorite Doctor, the Doctor is just one man with different faces and…

Nine. Nine in every way possible by miles.

A generation of girls fought in Liberia's brutal wars. What they tell their own children about the past will inform the country's future.

A new paper out today in Nature offers some good news and bad news about volcanic eruptions. First, the bad news.

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swdyw:

funkysafari:

basiliscus plumifrons

by Joachim S. Müller

Interesting cute guy seems untrustworthy and scheming though

New York Times reporter Michael S. Schmidt has followed up an article published Thursday revealing that Major League Baseball was buying up documents from the Biogenesis clinic, racing against "at least one player linked to the clinic [who] has purchased documents from a former clinic employee in order to destroy them." Schmidt has now identified that player as Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez denied the allegations through a spokesman.

alphadogg writes "An Android tablet brought back from North Korea by a tourist has provided a glimpse at some of the restrictions placed on IT users in the famously secretive country. The Samjiyon is the third tablet to have gone on sale in North Korea. It was unveiled at a trade show in the capital, Pyongyang, last September and received some coverage on state television, but few westerners have had a chance to see it up close. The tablet was likely manufactured outside of North Korea and the hardware itself is fairly unremarkable, but the software and the usage restrictions placed on the device provide some insights about life in the country."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Silverman, 36, is technically still married -- to Cowell's close friend Andrew Silverman, a real estate mogul in NYC. She plans to leave her estranged husband to be with the father of her child.

Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

I'm a cat person and even I know that a beloved cat would be a mere whim away from murdering an entire household with nerve gas, had they the power. All the more reason, according to our testing robot, to subject them to a rigorous series of tests, to record their reactions to face scritches, sunny patches, and pieces of tuna. At least, that's what she's been saying ever since we let that small, furry visiting researcher install a new personality core.

We talk a lot on The Mary Sue about how much of a boy's club Hollywood is both on the screen and behind it, where female directors and writers tend to get the short end of the stick. It's the same on the business end of things: Only one major studio has a female head, for example. But sometimes a piece of good news on the subject of gender and Hollywood crosses our path. That was the case today, when the Academy announced they'd elected Cheryl Boone Isaacs as their President.

anticonfluentialist:

The best of #foxnewslitcrit, Twitter’s response to the mortifying Fox interview with Reza Aslan (author of the new book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth)

It’s the tale of an adorable baby camel in Mongolia, completely shunned by his mother after a tough birth. For much of the movie, the baby stands by himself and wails. It breaks your heart.

The movie’s supporting stars are the herders, fretting about their fractured camel family. It’s very clear that if the camels aren’t happy, neither are the owners; the human-camel connection is intense. They end up traveling many miles through the desert, looking for a music teacher to perform a camel-healing ritual.

We wanted to know more about what it’s like to tend camels in the Gobi desert, one of the world’s most rugged, punishing landscapes. We tracked down Badamsuren (Mongols only go by one name), a Mongolian herder in his mid-50s, for a few questions. His responses have been translated into English.

Modern Farmer: Tell us a little about your life.

Badamsuren: I have four children; three of them live and work in Hanhongor. My wife is also a herder. We live in the town center during the winter but move our ger (a Mongolian yurt) to the countryside in the summer. I love to collect old buses and use the working ones to move my ger and family each summer.

MF: How long have you herded camel? 

B: I have been herding camels for about 25 years, other animals for longer.

MF: How many camels do you have?

B: About 45 camels of my own but I also herd other people’s camels. It is a common practice for people who are good at herding (and there is more skill involved than one might think) to herd other’s livestock for a cut of the profits. I, in turn, employ people to herd my animals at times when I am too busy.

MF: Describe a typical day.

B: I get up around 6 or 7 in the morning and work until 8 or 9 at night, depending on the season. Throughout the day I move the camels to different pasture areas, get them water (in the non-winter months), and check for injuries. Seasonal activities include castration, assisting with birthing, cutting off of wool, milking, inserting wooden sticks into noses for reins and butchering.

MF: Do the camels have very different personalities?

B: The camels range from difficult and temperamental to gentle and sweet. Sex of the camel doesn’t matter.

MF: Tell us about any poorly behaved camels. What do they do?

B: They don’t listen, they need correction, and in order to control them they often have to have wooden nose bits inserted.

MF: What is the hardest part of your job?

B: The hardest part of the job is in the summer. Since I herd in an area without open water, I must hand-pump water everyday for the herd. Each camel needs about 50 liters of water so that is at least 2250 liters of water (over 560 gallons of water) hand-pumped everyday.

MF: What is the best part of your job?

B: I love being outdoors and working with my family. And of course, spending time with the animals.

MF: Did you see the weeping camel movie? What did you think of it?

B: I thought it was very nice and true to life. My oldest son is one of the kids playing the morin khuur in the school when they go to find the music teacher.

MF: What are the different products you get from the camels?

B: From my camels we get wool which is used for clothing and rope, milk or hormag which is a popular summer time drink, often drunk warm with sugar. We also get other dairy products such as soft and hard cheeses and meat.

MF: If you weren’t herding camels, what job would you like?

B: I would still want to work with animals. My dream is to get some small-business funding to increase my herd and offer services such as trekking tourists around. A few years back I worked with a German group to make a book about a camel trek from the Gobi desert to Central Mongolia. I would like to do more like that, and always increase my own knowledge about camels.

Also, I am one of the four local government representatives for herders in the county.

The post Ask a Mongolian Camel Herder appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Aside from Pimm's, what drink could be more Brit than a gin and tonic? While spending a few weeks working in London, I got wind of gin being dispensed from a bike. With a little investigation, I discovered The Travelling Gin Company (TGC).

Ed Godden and Joe Lewis describe their venture as "a pop-up drinks project." The idea came about as a lark: On a cycling trip to Amsterdam, Lewis and his college friends suited up in what Lewis calls "old English gents' attire." Lewis, who was pedaling an old butcher's delivery bicycle, attached a spirit optic to the front of the bike frame and stacked the front basket with—what else?—that most English of tipples, gin. When they stopped for the evenings at various sites, he offered G & T's to his mates from his bicycle bar, and the business accelerated from there.

And accelerated it has. The Travelling Gin Company has been spotted at fashionable venues throughout the city and beyond: it has dispensed drinks at festivals, markets, parties, and weddings all over London, and at the happening Michelberger Hotel in Berlin. Read on for a recipe for their G & T alternative, The Foghorn.

Above: Joe and Ed, each sporting aprons from Labour and Wait. Joe wears the Waist Apron with Pocket; £32 and Ed, the Bib Apron; £42.

Above: A butcher's bike with basket and a fruit crate on the back for carrying supplies. An enamel utility pail serves as an ice bucket.

Above: Gin shots dispensed from a bottle attached to the handlebars. Ed tells us, "We try to mix up our service and use of products as much as possible to keep the concept fresh and interesting; we don't just use Gordon's and Schweppes for our mixers" (the original G & T combo). Their tipple of choice? "Sipsmith is really great, a very popular choice. We've really been getting into the Bathtub Gin from Master Of Malt, which we served at the London Festival of Architecture—it's made in limited edition batches so we try and get well stocked up." The VL92 is also on their radar.

Above L:  Tonic on ice in a metal bucket. Above R: Slices of lemon and lime are kept in jars.

Above: According to Ed and Joe, "The tonic water is as important as the gin in our view. A 50:50 mix can often be just right when using the right ingredients. Fentimans make an excellent tonic water."

Above: The Travelling Gin Company has lately been concocting drinks in honor of the World Cup. They also make a great Foghorn, a gingery alternative to a G & T: "It's a very simple cocktail, but we can't recommend it enough."

The TGC Foghorn

On ice:
Strong 40 ml shot of gin
10 ml fresh lime juice
Top with ginger ale (ginger beer works nicely, too)
Throw in a lime wedge to finish

Bottoms up!

More summer refreshment? Have a look at our 10 Easy Pieces: Summer Drinks Dispensers.

N.B.: This is the first in a series: every day this week we'll be spotlighting an inspired food or drinks business on wheels.

N.B.: This post is an update; the original story ran on July 23, 2012.

More Stories from Remodelista

• The Pond-Front Rental: The Cape Cod Modern House Trust
• The Seaside Rental: A Midcentury Beach House in the UK
• The Urban Rental: A Modern Houseboat in Berlin

baseballcardvandals:

With the publication of Mommy’s New Tattoo, Portland artist Levi Greenacres has merged his background in art and writing with his work as a tattoo artist. Find out what inspired him to write a children's book.

Just as the next season of Parks And Recreation was looking to be all sunshine and abs, Buzzfeed dropped the news (confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter) that Rashida Jones and Rob Lowe will be leaving the show this season, likely during the 13th episode timed for February sweeps. Official explanations for their departure haven’t yet been given, though both actors are obviously busy these days. Jones has a development deal with Warner Bros. Television, while Lowe has a starring role in National Geographic’s Killing Kennedy, and will surely remain in demand so long as there are murderers who need people to play them in miniseries.

And of course, seeing as last season spent much of its time on a plotline about their two characters trying to have a baby, it’s easy to assume that this year will finally see a resolution to that, as Chris and Ann ...

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Rena Dearden of Cottonwood, Arizona makes a variety of horns to attach to a horse or pony to instantly transform them into a unicorn. They are available to purchase at her Etsy shop, Rustic Horseshoe.

via Etsy

The illusion of change is the usual approach to mainstream superhero comics. It offers the excitement of change without losing the successful elements to actual change. It’s cynical but it’s smart from a corporate standpoint. Every once in a while, however, actual change happens. Or maybe change is just talked about. Some like it, some [...]

MINNEAPOLIS -- Dozens of Minnesota gay couples made last-minute preparations Wednesday for midnight marriages, determined to exchange vows at the earliest possible moment under a new state law legalizing same-sex marriage.

Todd Holland worked on Twin Peaks and Wonderfalls, and now he's just sold NBC a TV show about immortal humans, one of whom is a bounty hunter. He'll write and probably direct the pilot.

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fuckyeahpacificrim:

QWOPsy Danger made by captainlasky

Levi's is pimping their new bike-friendly Commuter line with a national tour of free local music showcases paired with also-free bike tune-ups/simple repairs/washing/valet, and tailoring, and the Portland stop is coming right the hell up on Tuesday at the Wonder Ballroom.

Whether or not you're interested in "performance fabric, functional details, and uncompromised style," the lineup is hella decent, and worth undergoing a little corporate soft sell: Pure Bathing Culture, Onuinu, and Magic Mouth will take the stage around 8, while the "bike shop" will be open from 5-9 pm. (Like I said, it's free, but you are supposed to RSVP/probably sign up for Levi's spam here.)

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