firehose

theodp writes "Last July, Inside Higher Ed presciently predicted that 2013 would be the year of the Massively Open Online Camp. GeekWire's Blair Hanley Frank reports that O'Reilly-spinoff MAKE Magazine is partnering with Google to run Maker Camp, a 30-day online summer camp for kids who love DIY projects and learning about how things are made. Camp started Monday, but it's not too late to join the fun."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. The catch: They don’t know beforehand what roles we’ll ask them to talk about.

The actor: In Swinging London, Terence Stamp was the face of the ’60s, romantically linked with iconic model Jean Shrimpton and called “the most beautiful man alive.” But when the era ended, it almost took his career with it. He made only six films from 1970 to 1977, spending much of the time meditating in an Indian ashram. Then he got the call to play General Zod in Richard Donner’s Superman, and though he never regained the heedless momentum of his early years, he managed to turn up every few years to prove what he can do with those steely eyes and that booming voice. He’s also written several volumes of literary autobiography, including the most ...

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scalesofperception:

CONFUSION OF TONGUES: THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE TOWER OF BABEL via Socks Studio

The interpretation of the Genesis 11-1:9 narrative by generations of artists, notably from the Flemish school.

1 And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech.

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

3 And they said one to another: ‘Come, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.

4 And they said: ‘Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, with its top in heaven, and let us make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’

5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded

6 And the LORD said: ‘Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is what they begin to do; and now nothing will be withholden from them, which they purpose to do.

7 Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.’

8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city.

9 Therefore was the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth; and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

SoP - Scale of Representation

Google’s Android smartphone operating system uses source code contributed by the US National Security Agency. Especially in the post-Edward Snowden era, that’s a red flag for Beijing, and helps to explains why China has been so eager to encourage the growth of non-Android smartphones within its borders.

Security Enhancements for Android is one of several projects that the US spy agency contributes to open-source operating platforms. Ostensibly, the NSA’s addition to Android is designed “to raise the bar in the security of commodity mobile devices,” an NSA researcher told Bloomberg Businessweek. And indeed, anti-hacking protection is actually what the spy organization is supposed to be providing.

But you can bet that Beijing is dubious about the NSA’s stated aims, especially after news that the US agency hacked millions of Chinese SMS messages and is working closely with American technology firms. Even before Snowden’s leaks, China was directing stinging criticism towards Google and Android—used in at least three quarters of China’s mobile handsets—and accusing it of “commercial discrimination” against Chinese companies. Apart from security concerns, Beijing is also keen to promote its own fast-growing tech companies, some of which are chafing at Google’s dominance.

What can Beijing actually do about Android? The first hints were released in a government white paper in March that urged local Internet firms like Baidu, Huawei, Alibaba to develop their own operating systems or at least an independent variant of Android. But such offerings are probably years away.

In the meantime, NSA submissions to Android are in the public domain, and subject to intense examination by anyone who wants to look. So until China’s mobile OS is ready, perhaps its Ministry of State Security should start making its own Android submissions—it’s only fair that the People’s Republic contribute to the open source software it is using so heavily.

The first movie ever to be directed by a woman in Saudi Arabia, WADJDA tells the story of a young girl named Wadjda and her quest to purchase a bicycle by winning a school Quran memorization competition.  If the trailer above is any indication, the movie will be a funny and emotional look into women’s [...]

Quinns: Glass making! That's something we all have a passion for, right? I'm sure there isn't a child reading this who doesn't dream of growing up to make glass. Ah, the heat of the furnace! The otherworldy, suggestive nothingness of the... the glass. Where would we be without glass? We'd be sat in the dark counting our armpits, that's where.

Which is, of course, why the noble Uwe Rosenberg, designer of such crushing hits as Agricola and Le Havre, has announced his next game will be Glass Road: A game of supervising a glass workshop in 14th century Bavaria.

Now, I'll admit there's a small chance that you might not be excited by medieval glasswork. If that's the case, don't worry! Theme aside, this looks like a lovely game.

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Unwanted Backyard Chickens Turning Up At Animal Shelters » News » OPB

What happens when backyard chickens stop making you breakfast?

NBC News reports on an outcry from critics of the backyard chicken movement who say hundreds of unwanted chickens are being abandoned by their city-dwelling owners when they stop laying eggs or become too cumbersome to manage.

“Many areas with legalized hen-keeping are experiencing more and more of these birds coming in when they’re no longer wanted,” said Paul Shapiro, spokesman for the Humane Society of the United States. “You get some chicks and they’re very cute, but it’s not as though you can throw them out in the yard and not care for them.”

Hens lay eggs for two years but can live for a decade longer than that. They can rack up bills for veterinary care and feed, and they can attract rats and predators such as raccoons and coyotes.

Supporters say the cases of abandonment are rare and that the drawbacks of raising backyard chickens are overshadowed by the benefits of having a sustainable source of local food.

But NBC reports animal shelters are reporting an increasing number of unwanted chickens from so-called locavores. One rescue center in Minneapolis, Chicken Run Rescue, reports a jump in abandoned birds from less than 50 in 2001 to nearly 500 in 2012.

It’s certainly happening in Oregon as well, according to Wayne Geiger, president and founder of Lighthouse Farm Sanctuary southeast of Salem in Scio.

His farm animal shelter has around 80 birds right now, and he gets frequent calls with new requests.

“The majority of them are going to be backyard birds that have been either abandoned or dumped,” he said. “Usually, no one wants roosters, and the hens we get are usually spent hens. People don’t know what to do with their old hens. I’ve picked them up at apartment complexes, parks, or I get calls from the Humane Society or animal control.”

Sometimes people don’t even ask the sanctuary for help. The birds just show up unannounced.

“One day you’ll have one new rooster in the barnyard and two more running around the road,” said Geiger.

The sanctuary already has its fill of roosters, which are sometimes sold by mistake to people wanting hens because it’s hard to tell the sex of young chicks.

In theory, the unwanted backyard birds could be killed for food, Geiger said, but in reality “you can have ordinance problems with butchering in your backyard and what to do with the waste products.”

Geiger said he thinks people need to have more information before they take on the responsibility of raising backyard birds.

“I can certainly appreciate wanting to grow your own food, but the full picture on what to do with these birds just is not being provided,” he said. “If people did have all the information, they might choose to go to the grocery store.”

Just three months after launching its long-awaited brunch service, small-plates-and-cocktails spot 2nd Story has announced it'll close its doors before the end of July. Chef/owner Erin McBride announced via email that the restaurant's final day of service will be July 20. 2nd Story, whose name referred to the restaurant's location in relation to collaborators Jeremy Adams and Andrea Pastor's Cellar Door Roasters, opened in August 2011 and quickly earned the reputation of a solid date spot. Per the announcement:

After a pair of wonderful and crazy years, the current incarnation of 2nd Story will come to a close on July 20th. We have been truly bowled over by the great reception we've gotten from all our lovely customers these past two years. Happily, we've also been taken a bit by surprise by how busy Cellar Door Coffee has become in the same stretch of time. In order to maintain our high quality standards, we have decided to refocus some of our energy on providing more food and pastries on the first floor cafe. Erin will continue to bake all the goodies (blueberry buckle is back!) and will be adding several heartier breakfast and lunch options over the next few months.

2nd Story will serve out its "current menu" during dinner this Wednesday through Saturday, and brunch on Saturday and Sunday. The final three nights of dinner will be Wednesday the 17th through Friday the 19th.
· 2nd Story [Official site]
· All Previous 2nd Story Coverage [Eater PDX]

Image of 2nd Story courtesy Facebook

Macstories:

Ahead of the App Store’s fifth anniversary on Wednesday, July 10, Apple has launched a new promotion that includes five “groundbreaking” iOS apps and five “landmark” iOS games; these apps will be available for free for a limited time to celebrate the first five years of App Store. Apple has posted an official page with links to download the apps and games on iTunes.

Here’s the tweet from the official App Store Twitter account:

Get five innovative apps and five landmark games for free as we celebrate #5YearsoftheAppStore http://t.co/Z5HedfdWzo

— App Store (@AppStore) July 9, 2013

There’s something about seeing the words “innovative” and “landmark” in such close proximity to “free” that really brings home the fact that Apple just isn’t interested in enabling sustainable businesses on the app store. This celebration is not about developers; it’s about users getting treats for having adopted the platform.

To be clear, Apple has been public about this for a long time. David Barnard sent me this screen capture from the 2010 WWDC keynote when Steve Jobs introduced iAd:

As David wrote in the accompanying post

The pool of time users spend on smartphones is staggering and growing rapidly, but it is not infinite. The more time people spend with useful/entertaining free apps, the less need they have to actually pay for apps. That doesn’t mean people will never pay for apps — the market for paid apps has continued to grow alongside free and freemium apps — but users have been conditioned to expect more and more for less and less.

It seems they’ve been conditioned correctly; after all, every user just got “five innovative apps and five landmark games for free.”

ē

The post Apple Celebrates 5 Years of App Store With Free App Promotion appeared first on stratēchery by Ben Thompson.

MATILDE MOISANT
Early Flight (107)

Matilde Moisant was the second woman in the United States to receive a pilot’s license. Moisant learned to fly at her brother Albert’s Moisant Aviation School on Long Island, along with aviator Harriet Quimby, and earned her license on August 13, 1911. Together the two pioneer female aviators and friends joined the Moisant International Aviators. Moisant made her exhibition debut at the Nassau Boulevard Aviation Meet in September where she won the Rodman-Wanamaker altitude trophy by flying her 50 hp Moisant monoplane to an incredible 366 meters (1,200 feet). She beat both Quimby and French pilot Helene Dutrieu. Moisant flew in meets throughout the country and Mexico until the early spring of 1912, often flying at higher altitudes than most male pilots. Then bowing to the wishes of her family, still recovering from the fatal crash of her brother John in 1910, Moisant scheduled her last flight for April 14, 1912, in Wichita Falls, Texas. It was almost her last performance of any kind as her aircraft burst into flames upon landing, due to a leak in the fuel tank. Moisant was pulled from the wreckage with her clothes afire but fortunately her heavy wool flying costume saved her from serious injury. During World War I, she performed fundraising duties (on the ground) for the Red Cross.

(information compiled by D. Cochrane and P. Ramirez)

The drive from Tucson, Arizona, to Las Vegas, Nevada, takes approximately eight hours when travelling in a vehicle whose top speed is forty-five miles per hour. In Desert Bus, an unreleased video game from 1995 conceived by the American illusionists and entertainers Penn Jillette and Teller, players must complete that journey in real time.

According to a new interview with Mark Gatiss at Paris Comic Con, there could have been a live action Doctor Who episode, if 2005 to 2010 showrunner Russell T. Davies had followed through with the idea. Of course, the idea for a Tennant-era live episode never took off, and now we are left to contemplate what could have been.

Gatiss claims that he remembers Davies suggesting a live episode, like television shows from ER to 30 Rock have pulled off, while David Tennant was the Doctor. However, given the difficulty of attempting to pull together all the show's science fiction elements live, including the Doctor's confusing, wibbly-wobbly techno-babble, Davies gave up on the idea.

A very cool series of posters by Christopher Jones for CONvergence's “Costumes are not Consent" anti-harassment campaign. John Scalzi would be proud. (via EruditeChick)

An estimated 30,000 inmates in jails across California are participating in a hunger strike to protest against solitary confinement and other conditions they say amount to torture.

Rockstar Leeds, the studio that ported LA Noire to PC, listed a job opening for a graphics programmer "to help bring our latest titles to the PC platform," Rockstar Watch reports. The listing has since been deleted, but Pixel Enemy grabbed a screenshot before it disappeared into the ether.

The job post didn't specify which games Rockstar might be considering for PC porting, but its "latest" games would certainly include Grand Theft Auto 5, which is due out on September 17. Putting that on PC would be a crowd pleaser: A petition from fans to get GTA5 on PC is still live and has almost 200,000 signatures. (We got a look at GTA5's gameplay in a new trailer today.)

Previous Grand Theft Auto games eventually made their way to PC, along with most of Rockstar's catalog, albeit after a sizable delay.

Rumor: Rockstar Leeds seeks coder to put 'latest' games on PC originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Jul 2013 22:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ikari no Yōsai / Operation Logic Bomb (K.K. DCE/Jaleco - SNES - 1993)

vgjunk:

At the big VGJunk site today: Robot crabs, a beloved flamethrower, more robot crabs, the pinnacle of cyborg hair and dear lord so many robot crabs - it’s Jaleco’s SNES shooter Operation Logic Bomb! Check it out here!

The Last of Us aspires to be an interactive, mixed-company version of “The Road,” in this case the story of the relationship between an older man and a 14-year-old girl as they try to survive in an oppressive and deadly wasteland. Almost throughout, however, it is actually the story of Joel, the older man. This is another video game by men, for men and about men.

ludicrouscupcake:

zerogdragon:

marrymejasonsegel:

Hilarious teen magician

Seriously watch this, I laughed so hard.

This guy is like god took all the sarcasm in the world and condensed it into one person

oh my god i feel like my humor spleen just ruptured everywhere.

Hey guys! We have some exciting news - we're writing an Adventure Time miniseries titled Adventure Time: Candy Capers! Finn & Jake are missing, so Princess Bubblegum deputizes Peppermint Butler & Cinnamon Bun to protect the land of Ooo! It will be in stores July 17th -- check out one of the covers and the official press release below:

BOOM! STUDIOS GETS SWEET WITH ADVENTURE TIME: CANDY CAPERS #1

BOOM! Studios is proud to announce the newest addition to the Adventure Time comic book family! Based on the hit Cartoon Network series, ADVENTURE TIME: CANDY CAPERS #1, an all new standalone mystery series set in the Land of Ooo, will arrive in stores this month. 

A SUGARY WHO-DONE-IT IN THE LAND OF ADVENTURE TIME! Something rotten is afoot in the Land of Ooo, and someone’s gotta sniff out what it is! When Finn and Jake are suddenly kidnapped, Princess Bubblegum deputizes two of her most trusted citizens…Peppermint Butler and Cinnamon Bun?! The crime movie homages come hard and fast in the Candy Kingdom that never sleeps!

ADVENTURE TIME: CANDY CAPERS is written by Yuko Ota and Ananth Panagariya (JOHNNY WANDER) and drawn by Ian McGinty. It ships with main covers by Josceline Fenton and Magnolia Porter as well as incentive covers by Rebecca Mock and Tessa Stone.

ADVENTURE TIME: CANDY CAPERS #1 ships with a retail price of $3.99 and is available for order under the Diamond Code MAY130954. The debut issue is scheduled to arrive in comic book stores on July 17th, 2013. Not sure where to find your nearest comic retailer? Use comicshoplocator.com or findacomicshop.com to find one! Subscriptions for the entire series are also available at boom-studios.com.

We're super excited! I'm slowly reblogging the covers that other folks have posted over on tumblr - check them out! 

The US coast guard confirmed today that a well in the Gulf of Mexico is leaking light oil and natural gas. The oil has reportedly formed a sheen about four miles long and three-quarters of a mile wide on the surface of the Gulf. Five workers on the well platform, Ship Shoal Block 225 Platform B, which is owned by Energy Resource Technology, were safely evacuated.

Oil accidents in the Gulf are of course a sensitive topic ever since BP’s Macondo disaster in 2010, which is now the subject of a bitter dispute about compensation claims. The specific causes of the leak are unknown, but the Coast Guard described it as a “loss of well control.” According to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), which requires that all such incidents be reported to it, they have become less common than they used to in the Gulf of Mexico of late, but still happen three to four times a year:

A loss of well control doesn’t necessarily mean any oil is spilled, and when it is, the quantities may be tiny. In 2011 and 2012, all the reported loss-of-well-control incidents combined spilled just over 30 gallons of oil into the sea, according to BSEE’s data.

There is no information so far on how much oil has been spilled in today’s episode. According to the blog Fuel Fix, the workers were plugging up the well and preparing to abandon it permanently after 15 years of inactivity when the leak was discovered.

This might he our favorite supercut to ever grace our computer screen. Slackstory has compiled every single coffee and/or pie scene from the great Mark Frost and David Lynch series Twin Peaks. It's all just so wonderful.

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