Shared posts

20 Jul 02:48

Weekly update: July 15-21

image
(from The Art Of Manliness via Trending page)

This week we are happy to announce a number of various apps integrated with The Old Reader API:

Also, check out the Toggle Sidebar bookmarklet by Chas J. Owens. We love how our apps page is growing and are looking forward to see the first Windows Phone application join the club.

And good news everyone: the Paypal button on our Donate page is back. Thank you all for your support and incredible patience. Again, a friendly reminder: if you are on a tight budget, don’t send us anything.

Maintenance alert: The Old Reader will be unavailable for some time this Saturday. We will be migrating to a different storage system that will allow us to have much, much more data on the same number of servers. This means that we will be able to increase the number of posts we store for each feed, and make the inactivity period longer, which has been voted the most wanted feature by you, our users.

We will start working at 18:00 UTC, and we expect this maintenance to take about 6-8 hours (data, data everywhere). We have chosen the time with the lowest traffic to affect as few of you as possible. Please enjoy this Saturday break; your RSS feeds will be waiting for you on Sunday morning.

Spoilers! If everything goes as planned, we will be deploying lots of fixes and some new features shortly. See you next week!

20 Jul 02:28

Two gay couples apply for, denied marriage license - Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal


San Francisco Chronicle

Two gay couples apply for, denied marriage license
Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal
From left, Robert Dashti and Michael Smith of Tupelo prepare to fill out a marriage application at the Lee County Justice Center as Lee County Circuit Clerk Joyce Loftin goes over the document before they fill it out. TUPELO – Two gay Mississippi couples ...
50 Percent Of Virginians Support Gay MarriageOn Top Magazine
Survey essentially shows reverse of June 2012 pollRichmond Times Dispatch
Some gay-rights activists regret focus on marriagePallTimes.com (subscription)

all 78 news articles »
19 Jul 17:29

The ESPYs Turned Into The PTSDs

After 9/11 many people developed PTSD symptoms due the incessant replays of the tragedy on TV. So when ESPN produced a piece on the Boston Marathon bombing during the ESPYs on Wednesday night, why did they include gruesome footage of the attack with absolutley no warning?
18 Jul 22:23

Film: Newswire: Woody Allen and Louis C.K are talking about making a movie together

by Kevin McFarland

Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine is set to open in a few weeks, and he’s already in production on his next film with Colin Firth and Emma Stone. But in the press leading up to his most recent film, Allen and Louis C.K. have both started talking about another possible future project together, one that came about during C.K.’s three-day shooting stint on Blue Jasmine.  First The New York Times ArtsBeat blog talked to Woody Allen about casting C.K., whom Allen was interested in after seeing him in a lurid Louie promo sketch with Bobby Cannvale. After originally having him read for the part that eventually went to Andrew Dice Clay, Allen hired C.K. and quickly realized he'd like to team with him on another comedy, one he expresses vague hope about making in the near future.

Following up, today ArtsBeat talked with ...

Read more
18 Jul 22:22

Music: Great Job, Internet!: Pick your next party host via the hilarious glamour shot Tumblr Posing DJs

by Kevin McFarland

Having a pool party this summer but not satisfied with just setting that iPod on shuffle? Putting together a wedding on a low, low, low budget? Posing DJs has exactly what you’re looking for to get the party started. The amazingly awkward Tumblr collects all the terribly posed promo pictures DJs post on their websites, whether they're setting their records on fire to putting their turntables in the snow or sitting on a barbecue. These guys will do just about anything to make them look like the consummate professional you want playing your little darling’s Bar Mitzvah party. The greatest find on the site is DJ Chef, who has been featured on plenty of local news programs and even has pictures with Bret Michaels, Guy Fieri, Adam Richman, Gordon Ramsey, and even Snooki and Ronnie from Jersey Shore on his website. There’s a reality show in ...

Read more
18 Jul 21:56

paratactician: marthur replied to your post: Finally, a little quiet time to settle down with… I...

paratactician:

I think I’ve read that smutfic

Idomeneus stabbed Erymas in the mouth with the pitiless
bronze, so that the brazen spearhead smashed its way clean through below the brain in an upward stroke, and the white bones splintered, and the teeth were shaken out with the stroke and both eyes filled up with blood, and gaping he blew a spray of blood through the nostrils and through his mouth, and death in a dark mist closed in about him.

Homer’s editor sat back in her desk chair, pinched the bridge of her nose, and sighed. ‘Homer,’ she said tentatively, ‘I’m not sure you’ve really understood blowjobs.’

   Flailing about in complete helpless laughter.        

18 Jul 21:55

thighhighs: You’ve probably never heard of Jackie Ormes and...











thighhighs:

You’ve probably never heard of Jackie Ormes and that’s a goddamn tragedy. But it’s not surprising—there is no “Jackie Ormes Omnibus" available on Amazon.com, no “Collected Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger," no “Essential Torchy Brown." She won no awards, can be found in no hall of fame, and is usually treated as “an interesting find" by comic historians. She’s become a curio, a funny little facet of history, undiscovered, even, by today’s wave of geek-oriented feminism.

Jackie Ormes was the first African-American woman cartoonist. Yeah. That’s who we’re ignoring. Her work for the Pittsburgh Courier and the Chicago Defender—both incredibly influential African-American newspapers—was utterly groundbreaking and remains unique, even in the context of modern comics. Her first work, Torchy Brown in Dixie to Harlem, featured the adventures of the titular Torchy, a stylish, intelligent young African-American woman who (feigning illiteracy) boards a whites-only train car to New York City and changes her life. Torchy’s story is a great, irreverent window into the migration of Southern-born African-Americans to the North, a movement that defined 20th-century America—but it is also the story of a girl on her own, living her own life and making her own choices. Torchy was an incredible aspirational figure, the likes of which barley exists in modern comics: an independent, optimistic, fashionable and adventurous black woman. Ormes would later revive Torchy’s story in Torchy in Heartbeats, a strip that introduced international adventure into the heroine’s life. In Heartbeats, Torchy traveled to South America, dated idealistic doctors, battled environmental exploitation and confronted racism at every turn. She was, frankly, awesome

And then there was Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger, her most successful and longest-running work. Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger was a single panel gag strip, like Family Circus—an illustration with a caption beneath it. Ginger was a beautiful, stylish young woman always accompanied by her little sister Patty-Jo, a clear-eyed, sardonic kid who spent most strips calling out the bullshit they endured on a daily basis as black women. Ormes’ talents shine through especially well in these little stories: her canny wit, the absolutely gorgeous clothes she drew her women in (seen also in her Torchy Togs paper dolls) and her skillful, succinct way of imparting to the reader just how goddamn stupid our society can be about gender and race. Patty-Jo is never shamed or taken down a peg for being an intelligent, outspoken little girl—in fact, she was made into a highly popular doll that wasn’t an obnoxious Topsy-style stereotype. She preceded Daria, Emily the Strange, Lian Harper, all those wry little girls we celebrate today—and yet, I see her on no t-shirts, can find her in no libraries. Patty-Jo is celebrated only in doll-collecting circles at this point, as the cute little symbol of a bygone age.

At Jackie Ormes’ height as a cartoonist, her work reached one million people per week. In the 1940s and 1950s, she reached one million people per week. She didn’t just surpass barriers—she leapt merrily over them. She introduced the general populace to a voice that had always existed, but was seldom heard—a voice that is still smothered today. She created African-American women who unapologetically enjoyed glamour, who pioneered their own futures, who refused to keep silent about the walls they found themselves scraping against every day. I haven’t even covered the half of it: Ormes was also an avid doll collector, served on the founding board of directors of the DuSable Museum of African-American history, and was targeted by the McCarthy-led witchhunts of the 1950s. Remember Jackie Ormes. Celebrate Jackie Ormes. Visit The Ormes Society and support the essential work they do. Keep her memory alive so that we may enjoy a million more Torchys and Patty-Jos in our comics—instead of the paltry handful we are offered today.

(First in a series on women in the comics industry.)

18 Jul 21:35

Music: Great Job, Internet!: And now there’s a metal cover of Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky”

by Kevin McFarland
firehose

no new music

It has now become the point in the summer where Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” has become Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” and every band under the sun is deciding to cover or remix it. Wilco performed its version live at Solid Sound a few weeks ago, and now a metal version is floating around. Charlie Parra del Riego, the guitarist for Canadian heavy metal band Kobra And The Lotus, brought along Swedish singer Tommy Karevik—known by his stage name PelleK—to sing the Pharell vocal line. It’s not as hard of a metal version as some listeners may want—it's a little too clean and pretty and it doesn't really add any bite to the disco guitar melody— and Karevik can’t quite hit all of the notes at a full-bodied soar. But get used to this, since the summer of “Get Lucky” is sure to ...

Read more
18 Jul 21:32

Stone Farking Wheaton W00tstout, A Stone Brewing Beer By Wil Wheaton & Fark’s Drew Curtis

by Rusty Blazenhoff
firehose

nerds buy anything

Beer

Greg Koch of Escondido, California-based Stone Brewing Co. teamed up with actor and homebrewer Wil Wheaton and Fark.com founder Drew Curtis to make a Russian Imperial Stout called Stone Farking Wheaton W00tstout. This nerdy collaboration sports a whopping 13% ABV and is available for a limited time only. Blogger Jim Galligan tells the story of how this special brew came about on TODAY Money.

Brewed with rye, wheat malt and pecans and partially aged in Bourbon whiskey barrels, this viscous yet silken brew erupts with an oaky, nutty bouquet and rich flavors of vanilla, toast and bitter chocolate. Enjoy now or cellar this celebration of nth degree passion and geekery applied most gracefully to the craft of brewing and collaboration-Drew Curtis/Wil Wheaton/Greg Koch Stone Farking Wheaton w00tstout!

photo by Jim Galligan via TODAY Money, video by Stone Brewing Co.

via Drew Curtis

18 Jul 21:32

La science contre le crime

18 Jul 21:31

Photo

Courtney shared this story from Scripturient:
best.







18 Jul 21:31

Colorado town proposes $100 'drone bounty'

by Russell Brandom
firehose

"The ordinance would also require a drone-hunting license"

Normally, if you shot down an aircraft owned by the federal government, you'd be in trouble. But a small Colorado town named Deer Park is looking to carve out an exception, proposing a $100 bounty to any hunters who shoot down unmanned drones that appear to be "owned or operated by the United States federal government." The ordinance would also require a drone-hunting license, issued after a background check and a $25 fee.

The resident who drafted the ordinance, Philip Steel, was quick to say he doesn't expect many to cash in on the bounty. "This is a very symbolic ordinance," Steel told local reporter Amanda Kost. "Basically, I do not believe in the idea of a surveillance society."

But while Deer Park hasn't seen any confirmed drone traffic yet, the idea is hardly far-fetched. The FBI has already admitted to using drones over U.S. soil, and Customs & Border Protection service recently stepped up its drone missions over both the Mexican and Canadian borders. Beyond federal agencies, the FAA has cleared 300 local agencies for drone use.

Even if Deer Park doesn't end up with many drone sightings, the ordinance could still work as a tourist stunt. The town clerk has even proposed a drone-themed skeet-shooting festival as a way of drawing in local visitors. Otherwise, it's sure to make drone pilots a little more wary of steering crafts over the town. As Steel told a reporter, "They fly in, they get shot down."

18 Jul 21:30

sandandglass: woop there it is

Courtney shared this story from Scripturient:
/























sandandglass:

woop there it is

18 Jul 21:29

chead: designislaw: beautravail: very proud of helping to...

firehose

background/context:
http://fucknohugoschwyzer.tumblr.com/
http://hellnohugo.tumblr.com
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/02/exile-in-gal-ville-how-a-male-feminist-alienated-his-supporters/252915/
http://arewomenhuman.me/2012/02/21/on-hugo-schwyzer-accountability-not-silencing-dissent/
http://persephonemagazine.com/2012/10/15/deconstructing-hugo-2/

tl;dr:
'Schwyzer, a professor of gender studies and male feminist personality….has written prolifically, and controversially, about recovering from sex and drug addictions, his now 13-year sobriety, and his ”pre-sobriety” predatory behavior towards younger female students – including, at one point, sleeping with four students on a class trip he was chaperoning. The current backlash against him, set in motion by yet another article recounting this troubling history, took on unprecedented intensity after the resurfacing of a post, originally written a year ago [which Schwyzer has now redacted to protect himself from legal consequences], in which Schwyzer admitted to nearly killing a former girlfriend in a drug-fueled* murder-suicide attempt.

The subsequent outcry and campaign against Schwyzer has, for the first time, resulted in concrete consequences for him: the pulling of his writing from Scarleteen, a well-respected resource on teen sexual health, and his departure from Healthy is the New Skinny, an organization co-founded and directed by Schwyzer, dedicated to addressing body image issues in teen women and the beauty and fashion industries. Schwyzer did not fully inform either organization of his history.'

Courtney shared this story from ~(*cute erotic hell*)~:
THIS HAPPENED.



chead:

designislaw:

beautravail:

very proud of helping to drive hugo schwyzer off the internet. but my trolling was hardly unprecedented - many female writers, often women of colour, have made more sustained and damning attacks. he creeped on my friend emily for writing one earlier this week! i was maybe particularly unsparing, that’s all. it’s so characteristic, not to mention hilarious, that schwyzer cared only about other straight white men even when deciding to flee from public.

Good riddance.GOOD FUCKING RIDDANCE.

Yes YESSS

!!!!!!

18 Jul 21:20

Google earnings clipped in mobile headwinds - USA TODAY

firehose

womp womp


Wall Street Journal

Google earnings clipped in mobile headwinds
USA TODAY
SHARE 48 CONNECT 48 TWEET 4 COMMENTEMAILMORE. SAN FRANCISCO -- With Google's business under pressure from mobile advertising prices, CEO Larry Page talked up the potential for none other than the Internet giant's mobile businesses.
Google Results Show Struggle With MobileNew York Times (blog)
Falling ad rates, Motorola losses dent Google resultsReuters
LIVE: Google Q2 Earnings Fall Short, Shares Down As Mobile Ad Prices Keep ...Forbes
Wall Street Journal -Businessweek -Los Angeles Times
all 141 news articles »
18 Jul 21:20

Photo

firehose

via Snorkmaiden





18 Jul 21:19

[video]

firehose

via Vjuliao

18 Jul 21:08

Detroit Files For Bankruptcy

Detroit on Thursday became the largest city in U.S. history to file for bankruptcy, as the state-appointed emergency manager filed for Chapter 9 protection.
18 Jul 20:52

mydrunkkitchen: fuckingrecipes: fireandrage: veganmovement2012...



mydrunkkitchen:

fuckingrecipes:

fireandrage:

veganmovement2012:

This is interesting. After reading this, you’ll never look at a banana in the same way again.

Bananas contain three natural sugars -sucrose, fructose and glucose combined with fiber. A banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy.

Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout. No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with the world’s leading athletes.

But energy isn’t the only way a banana can help us keep fit. It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.

DEPRESSION: According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND amongst people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana. This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.

PMS: Forget the pills - eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood.

ANEMIA: High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anemia.

BLOOD PRESSURE: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it perfect to beat blood pressure So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit’s ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.

BRAIN POWER: 200 students at a Twickenham school ( England ) were helped through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packe d fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.

CONSTIPATION: High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.

HANGOVERS: One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.

HEARTBURN: Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.

MORNING SICKNESS: Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.

MOSQUITO BITES: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.

NERVES: Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system..

Overweight and at work? Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and chips. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.

ULCERS: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.

TEMPERATURE CONTROL: Many other cultures see bananas as a ‘cooling’ fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand , for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.

So, a banana really is a natural remedy for many ills. When you compare it to an apple, it has FOUR TIMES the protein, TWICE the carbohydrate, THREE TIMES the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals.. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best value foods around So maybe its time to change that well-known phrase so that we say, ‘A BANANA a day keeps the doctor away!’

image

PARTY-ROCKERS WANT A SNACK? SHOVE THIS DELICIOUS BULLSHIT INTO YOUR FACE!

I COMPLETELY AGREE

18 Jul 20:49

Public Shaming - Baseball Fans SUPER ANGRY Hispanic American Superstar Sang ‘God Bless America’ at All-Star Game

by OnlyMrGodKnowsWhy
firehose

lol of course one of these idiots is a guy with a last name of Sonnier and a LSU Twitter background
thanks bro for the extra couple of feet of shit I've gotta dig myself out of every time I say "I'm from Louisiana", real fucking helpful

8d2cc425146099670fad12b892654e24
OnlyMrGodKnowsWhy

My bad — everything is still terrible!

Last night was the 2013 MLB All-Star game. Ah, America’s pastime! Who doesn’t love a good baseball game? And what better way to open up America’s game then with a heartfelt rendition of ‘God Bless America’?

And…wait, a minute. Who is this guy coming out to sing God Bless AMERICA?

image

image

image

image

image

wow! Who is this unAmerican Spanish Mexican spic illegal foreigner terrorist singing ‘God Bless AMERICA’ at a game of baseball, our AMERICAN pastime?

Why, it’s New York born, United States citizen of Puerto Rican descent, Marc Anthony!

image

Look at this 100% American grammy award winning recording artist sing ‘God Bless AMERICA’ at the All-Star game. Absolutely disgusting. And the All-Star game was at Citi Field in NYC borough of Queens too! We can’t let this happen in Queens, the most ethnically diverse urban area in the world!

image

image

image

Spanish people!? Heartbreaking! We cannot let America become some sort of melting pot!

image

image

Yeah! Shouldn’t you be FROM America!? Like, sorry, New York City just doesn’t cut it.

image

image

image

Yeah, America! CLEAN. IT. UP. And “it" being anyone who LOOKS foreign!

image

image

But, Marc Anthony IS an American artist…

image

haha. Silly me. That doesn’t matter. HE MAKES A LIVING SINGING SONGS IN SPANISH. The devil’s language! And making a living from such a thing? A crime in the good ole’ U.S. of A!

image

And why get someone who makes money off of singing in some foreign language when you can get a true patriotic American…like Ke$ha!

image

image

image

Yeah! Mexicans, Castro, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Marc Anthony…they’re all the same anyway!

image

image

image

"Marc Anthony? Unamerican! Marc Anthony is Spanish!"

And there lies the real issue. The fact that Marc Anthony is an American citizen born in the United States does not matter. The point here is someone who is “NOT LIKE US" (white males) can not be a REAL American!

image

You see. Marc Anthony is from New York…but he doesn’t LOOK like it. I assume the last time Josh here has been to New York was about 100 years ago. But, what is the world coming to now-a-days!

image

And you can see here again. Being of Puerto Rican descent means you’re not a TRUE American. I mean, what do you think? It isn’t like Puerto Rico’s a part of the United States or something!

But hey, at least there’s one racist out there who sees the irony in this all…

image

God Bless Spain Mexico Puerto Rico AMERICA! Let’s play ball!

Original Source

18 Jul 20:27

Liz Cheney Pledges to Stamp Out the Last Remnants of Compromise in Congress

by Elspeth Reeve, Atlantic Wire
firehose

via multitasksuicide

Cheney has said she will obstruct the President's policies and agenda.
18 Jul 20:26

The American Royal Couple. At least they shaved that morning.

firehose

via multitasksuicide



The American Royal Couple.

At least they shaved that morning.

18 Jul 20:21

VLC media player returns to the iOS App Store after 30-month hiatus

by Casey Johnston
A selection of videos on VLC 2.0 running on an iPad.
VLC

After disappearing the better part of three years ago, the VLC media player app for iOS has made its triumphant return to Apple’s App Store. Its version number has been bumped to 2.0, and the app now includes features like Wi-Fi and Dropbox syncing as well as the ability to download files from the Web.

A version of VLC created by the company Applidium first made its debut on the App Store back in November 2010, but it was pulled in January 2011 due to a licensing dispute. All versions of VLC were then open-source and licensed under GPLv2; the App Store imposes its own licensing and DRM restrictions on apps. One of VLC’s original developers, Rémi Denis-Courmont, claimed that the licensing policies did not mesh and filed a complaint against the app. It was shortly removed.

VLC 2.0 for iOS is licensed under both the Mozilla Public License v2 as well as the GNU General Public License v2 (or later). “The MPLv2 is applicable for distribution on the App Store,” Felix Paul Kühne of VideoLAN told Ars.

Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

    


18 Jul 20:21

Left 4 Xed? Check Out This Alien Swarm FPS Mod

by Craig Pearson
firehose

Alien Swarm is fun. Not sure about this, but hey, mods

By Craig Pearson on July 18th, 2013 at 8:00 pm.

Better than Colonial Marines
3761 AD. Seattle. A line of tourists is snaking around a wrecked skyscraper. If we listen closely, we can hear their guide: “… this is the cupboard where they found the ‘test heads’, and this is where they arrested Robin “Mad Hatter” Walker, who admitted to 243402 counts of decapitation. That’s the rebuilt Dota 2 annex. The war where the Dota 2 team attempted to secede from the union in 2103 caused a brief civil war, but it turned out their tactics when applied to a real world conflict just got them all killed. We don’t know what this place was: a cupboard where we found the skeleton and a crowbar. Just a handyman, maybe? Moving on to one of the more remarkable finds: a PC that was found in the rubble, still running a copy of Alien Swarm. And beside it was this Steam Greenlight page for a mod that turned it into a first-person shooter. What was Greenli…”

Present day. Craig’s front room: Ooh, a mod that turns Alien Swarm into an FPS. Neat. It’s not out, yet, but there’s a Greenlight page for it. This isn’t just the previously known console commands that shifted the viewpoint and didn’t add much else. No, the modder will be adding new models and animations, ceilings (think about it), a jump button (in the top-down version, there is only rolling), and maybe even Oculus Rift support. Hooray for Valve being not evil, and allowing this sort of thing. It is proof that they will never commit any crimes or acts of war. Here’s one of many trailers for the mod.

Yup, that’s first-person Alien Swarm alright. I’d recognise it

18 Jul 20:00

Being more uppity is helping Hermès beat a luxury slowdown

by Lily Kuo
No one will have this but me.

The numbers: Better than expected. The French luxury goods maker’s sales grew 12% in the second quarter, to €910.4 million ($1.2 billion). The company said it expects revenue to grow by more than 10% this year. The Paris-based company’s shares were up 2.1%.

The takeaway: The very rich are still shopping. The upper reaches of the high-end goods market—the “absolute luxury” segment as some like to call it— isn’t hurting as much as the rest of the industry. Hermès, which went from making harnesses and saddles to selling leather bags and scarves in this elite retail class, has seen its quarterly revenue grow between 13% and 22% over the past two years. That’s compared to LVMH’s quarterly growth of 6% to 15% over the same period, at constant exchange rates.

What’s interesting: Luxury shoppers in Asia, namely in China, are moving away from high-end brands like Louis Vuitton that have reached a mass audience and lost their prestige in China in favor of more exclusive wares. That’s been good for Hermès, which boasts a limited supply of Kelly and Birkin bags that go for thousands of euros. Sales in Asia, not including Japan, rose 16% for the quarter. (Sales in America were also up, at 22%.) The company reports results for the first half of 2013 in August. Here’s how it has done over the past few years:

hermes half year revenue


18 Jul 19:53

Snowden's Dead Man's Switch

by Bruce Schneier
firehose

" I would be more worried that someone would kill me in order to get the documents released than I would be that someone would kill me to prevent the documents from being released."

Edward Snowden has set up a dead man's switch. He's distributed encrypted copies of his document trove to various people, and has set up some sort of automatic system to distribute the key, should something happen to him.

Dead man's switches have a long history, both for safety (the machinery automatically stops if the operator's hand goes slack) and security reasons. WikiLeaks did the same thing with the State Department cables.

"It's not just a matter of, if he dies, things get released, it's more nuanced than that," he said. "It's really just a way to protect himself against extremely rogue behavior on the part of the United States, by which I mean violent actions toward him, designed to end his life, and it's just a way to ensure that nobody feels incentivized to do that."

I'm not sure he's thought this through, though. I would be more worried that someone would kill me in order to get the documents released than I would be that someone would kill me to prevent the documents from being released. Any real-world situation involves multiple adversaries, and it's important to keep all of them in mind when designing a security system.

18 Jul 19:50

Ford sued over how horrible its MyFord Touch system is

by Carl Franzen
firehose

even stupid infants can use a touchscreen UI beat

The Ford Motor Company has been making some big plays lately to bring the automobile up to speed with consumers used to touchscreens and on-demand content. But one of its flagship efforts in this regard, the MyFord Touch dashboard system introduced in new Ford and Lincoln cars starting in 2011, has not had a smooth ride so far — plagued with glitches and freezing menus, which Ford tried to fix with UI updates and a return to some analog buttons. But it's about to get worse. MyFord Touch is the target of a class action lawsuit filed against Ford in California earlier this week. The lawsuit, which was brought to our attention by Automotive News, alleges that MyFord Touch "has been an unmitigated disaster for Ford" and accuses the company of "unfair, deceptive, and/or fraudulent business practices" and "failure to disclose defects in the MyFord Touch system" that led auto owners to "[suffer] losses in money and/or property."


"Failed or locked up on no fewer than 27 separate occasions."

The lawsuit goes into fairly vivid detail of one incident in particular, of a Ford auto salesman who allegedly convinced the plaintiff, a representative from a nonprofit group known as the Center for Defense Driving (CDD), to lease a 2013 Ford F-150 Lariat in February. The lawsuit claims the salesman extolled the virtues of the MyFord Touch system without ever telling the plaintiff about problems customers encountered while using it, which Ford had previously publicly acknowledged. As the complaint puts it: "shortly after the launch of the system in 2011, Ford’s CEO, Alan Mulally, in numerous interviews, admitted that MyFord Touch suffers from numerous problems." After CFD leased the car, here's what supposedly happened: "between February 22, 2013 and July 1, 2013, Plaintiff’s MyFord Touch unit has failed or locked up on no fewer than 27 separate occasions."

The lawsuit goes on to recount the painfully slow and unhelpful Ford tech support process that followed. The amount of damages CDD is seeking on behalf of its and other customers' problems with MyFord Touch remains to be determined, but the complaint says it will be in excess of $5 million. Ironically, Ford itself previously contributed grant money to the CDD. The company declined to comment to Automotive News, citing pending litigation.

18 Jul 19:42

alexandraerin: the-milk-eyed-mender: dragondicks: flusschen: ...

Courtney shared this story from cabulous rhymes with "fabulous":
oh god, plug & play



alexandraerin:

the-milk-eyed-mender:

dragondicks:

flusschen:

meanwhile in 1997 these cutting edge internet themed crayons were born

WWW.PURPLE

aawww, www.purple is trying really hard

I know they’re alphabetical, but www.purple being right after world wide web yellow just makes it funnier. Like purple couldn’t think of anything so just repeated a slight variation on what yellow said.

Seriously, I want this for my birthday.

18 Jul 19:07

"Inside I cried. But if I cried at every insensitive act that goes on in the name of safety,..."

firehose

I knew something was nagging me about the Questlove piece beyond the whole "why is he going on and on about how hot this woman is" bit

Courtney shared this story from drinking miller high life on the ferris wheel:
This is EXACTLY how I feel about that Questlove article getting passed around.

“Inside I cried. But if I cried at every insensitive act that goes on in the name of safety, I’d have to be committed to a psych ward. I’ve just taught myself throughout the years to just accept it and maybe even see it as funny. But it kept eating at me (Well, I guess she never watched the show … My English was super clear … I called her “ma’am" like I was Webster … Those that know you know that you’re cool, but you definitely know that you are a walking rape nightmare — right, Ahmir? Of course she was justified in not saying her floor. That was her prerogative! You are kinda scary-looking, I guess?). It’s a bajillion thoughts, all of them self-depreciating voices slowly eating my soul away.”

-

-Questlove, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/07/questlove-trayvon-martin-and-i-aint-shit.html

(Long rambling about rape culture below. Because I’m a lady on the internet, so that’s, like, my job, right?)

This essay is really compelling to me because it touches on something that I spend a lot of time thinking about. In our oh-so-charming rape culture, there is no woman I know who hasn’t likely felt scared by a man alone in an elevator late at night, regardless of ANY of his characteristics beyond “appearing male." It’s the result of being taught that being raped is a problem of not being safe enough, that our words/actions could cause an attack, that we could do something to deserve it (like, you know, be in an elevator while being a woman). And it’s a result of the simple fact that 1 in 4 women are raped and not only by obviously scary rapist dudes in obviously unsafe locations. I read this story and despite the description of how safe a building Questlove describes, I wouldn’t even blink if someone used the same setting to tell another story about how a tenant raped another tenant inside their superlux apartment. Rapists live in hard-to-get-into condos too.

Now, is it possible that, consciously or not, the woman in that elevator, or any woman, is disproportionately scared of Questlove because he’s Black and our society, along with all the rape culture bullshit, is also institutionally racist and teaches us to see Black men as violent? Absolutely. And that’s not okay because it’s not true and Black men are not any more likely to rape a woman in an elevator than any other man (I haven’t done any research but I feel comfortable with this assumption). So I see his point and I see that it feels hurtful. I sympathize with him. But, I still can’t help but empathize with that woman.

I walk home at night alone a lot. Most nights. Often pretty late. And because of all the aforementioned stuff, I spend most of those walks monitoring the people around me, waiting for someone to catcall or tell me to smile or say something that might even be charming if I weren’t so anxious (a la Questlove’s “flirting"), or worse. I usually cross the street if I’m about to walk near a man walking alone and I’ve even gone into a vestibule other than my own to wait for a guy behind me to pass my apartment. If you’re not a woman, ask a woman you know & she’ll confirm this is not just a me thing- it’s pretty universal. So I’m walking home, and I live in a relatively diverse neighborhood for this town, and every time I cross the street because I see a man alone coming towards me and he happens to be Black, I start thinking about this question. I’ve probably made someone feel the way Questlove feels in his story- like he ain’t shit because there was no danger and I just crossed the street because I felt unsafe because of something about him. And I always want to somehow explain that it’s not about him, or what he looks like, or something he did; it’s just about not feeling safe, ever.

So this essay is sticking in my brain for reasons unrelated to what it’s trying to say and why it’s being posted everywhere. Questlove is very eloquently trying to explain what it’s like to be a Black man in a racist society, one that specifically paints Black men as a threat. But he uses an example that I can’t help but see as part of what it means to be a woman in a rape culture that says women are responsible for preventing assaults on their body. And I understand his larger point and I sympathize, but I can’t get past the circumstance of the specific example. Not because it’s that the way the woman felt, the way I so often feel, is worse than how he felt. But because it’s easiest to identify with the person closest to you in a given story, I guess. And because I don’t know how to solve for x here given the variables we have- without racism then I could just argue that in our culture men need to understand that women never feel safe and they all, including Questlove, need to behave accordingly; without rape culture, I could assume that lady was being kinda racist, stay with the point of the piece and feel like Questlove deserves better. But with both, with what we actually have in the real world, we’re all just stuck there in that elevator, no simple solution, everyone feeling like crap.

18 Jul 19:04

mikchan1511: Rose of Versailles Eye Make up Collection ♪...

by villeashell
firehose

via otters





















mikchan1511:

Rose of Versailles Eye Make up Collection ♪ (☆^ー^☆)