firehose

THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH. YOU’RE LIFE SAVERS. LITERALLY. 

I DIDN’T EVEN REALIZE THERE WAS A SWAMP OF SADNESS HERE UNTIL I WAS ALREADY IN IT. THEY’RE PRETTY TERRIBLE. IT’S A REALLY LONG STORY, BUT MY COUSIN ARTAX ACTUALLY DIED IN ONE OF THESE. WHICH IS LIKE, SO SAD TO THINK AB-

AH, DAMN IT.

_{[preorder the book]}

So here is one of the weirder rumors coming out of Mountain View we’ve seen in a while: as Google Operating System’s Alex Chitu reports, Google is apparently working on an app called Google Mine that is meant to help you share real-world items, such as CDs, cars, bikes, gadgets or clothes, with your friends. The service, which is apparently closely integrated with Google+, is said to be in private beta testing within Google right now.

According to Chitu, the service also allows you to catalog your belongings, review them (which could be cool for purchases) and send requests to borrow stuff from friends. There also seems to be something akin to a wish list and a feature that will allow you to share a list of items you don’t want to share but just want to give away. All of this sharing, of course, happens on Google+.

The service, the report says, is available on the web and through an Android app. The app also supposedly includes a 3D viewer that’ll show you your objects, though it’s not clear how you would get these models into the app.

Google is obviously not the only company interested in this kind of real-world tracking. Mine, a startup that launched last December and that probably doesn’t have the exact same name by coincidence, is also working on giving its users the ability to track the things they own, but with a focus on what they’ve bought online. This service, though, seems to be more focused on e-commerce than on the sharing economy.

We have contacted Google for a response and will update this post once we hear more (though chances are, the answer will be some variation of “we don’t comment on rumors”).

We made a difficult decision today. Earlier this month, Gone Home was accepted into the Indie Megabooth at the PAX Prime expo. The Megabooth is awesome– a huge area of the showfloor dedicated entirely to indie games. We’ve attended a … Continue reading →

Staffers at the Oregonian had a rough day today, but at least the drinks will be flowing after work.

Former Oregonian city hall reporter Ryan Frank is soliciting donations via Twitter for a bar tab tonight at Higgins Restaurant and Bar. As of 4 pm, Frank said he's collected more-than $700. He's shooting for over $1,000.

The changes announced today at the O —home delivery's being cut to four days a week, and the newsroom is moving out of its downtown digs—aren't as rough as some the nation's newspapers have seen, and it's been clear something's loomed on the horizon for some time. Still, it's a gut-wrenching thing to watch. Frank's at @rfrank_emerald if you feel like kicking in.

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Earlier this week, comedian Casey Malone wrote a blog post alerting readers to a Kickstarter project that was, essentially, a sexual assault manual. The author of this manual had previously published excerpts as dating advice on Reddit; Malone dug up some of that advice, which included suggestions like "Don't ask her permission, force her to rebuff your advances" and "pull out your cock and put her hand on it."

The post went racing around the internet like a Funny Car fueled by 300 proof liquid rage, and people, without even needing to be asked, started shouting at Kickstarter to yank the listing.

Kickstarter is no stranger to controversy, with more than a few thinkpieces being written about its metamorphosis from "Champion of the little guy" to "Savings & Loan for film studios", discussing whether said shift is ultimately a bad thing. But this was a different kind of controversy, landing in their lap the same day the project was closing, and they had all of two hours to make a decision as to whether to shut it down, or let it fly. They chose the latter, and the author's book was funded.

Today, Kickstarter apologized for that choice. They don't ask to be excused from their decision, only that users understand how they came to that decision, and why they realize that decision was a bad one.

They further went on to say their policies are being adjusted so that "seduction guides" will be prohibited from using the service going forward, and Kickstarter will donate $25,000 (almost $10,000 more than the book itself managed to raise) to RAINN, an anti-sexual violence organization.

But will this apology be accepted? Will Kickstarter earn back some lost goodwill, or is this a case of too little, too late? People on the internet are often great at shining spotlights on thoughtlessness, cruelty, and oppression, but not so good at saying "apology accepted." And sometimes, as in the case of Serena Williams' disingenuous PR fart regarding her Steubenville remarks, those apologies should be given the side-eye. Time will tell if this response from Kickstarter carries tangible weight.

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Russian president rejects billionaire US businessman's claim that he pocketed $25,000 diamond ring in St Petersburg in 2005

If Vladimir Putin ever takes anything from you, worry not: he will replace it with something bigger and better.

Addressing allegations that he stole a ring from billionaire Robert Kraft, awarded after the American football team he owns won the Super Bowl, the Russian president said: "You know, I remember neither Mr Kraft nor the ring."

"If it's such a valuable thing for Kraft and his team, then I have a proposal," Putin said in response to a question at an annual economic forum in St Petersburg. "I'll ask our firms to put together a really good, big thing, so everyone will see what an expensive thing it is, with good metal and a stone, so it will be passed from generation to generation in the team, whose interests are represented by Mr Kraft."

The owner of the New England Patriots told a US audience this month that Putin had pocketed the $25,000 (£16,000) diamond-encrusted ring during an awkward meeting in St Petersburg in 2005. "I took out the ring and showed it to [Putin], and he put it on and he goes, 'I can kill someone with this ring,'" Kraft said, the New York Post reported last week. "I put my hand out and he put it in his pocket, and three KGB guys got around him and walked out."

Kraft said the White House had convinced him to cover up the theft by claiming it was a gift. "I really didn't [want to]," he said. "I had an emotional tie to the ring, it has my name on it."

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has previously denied that Putin pocketed the ring and said he saw Kraft give it to the longtime president as a present. The ring is on display in a Kremlin library devoted to gifts.

The scandal has dominated coverage of Putin for more than a week, with analysts taking it as a sign of the leader's ruthlessness and love of luxury goods.

Continuing his sarcastic tone, Putin said he thought his proposal "would be the smartest solution partners can ever achieve while tackling such a complicated international problem".

You know how your app reads OPML so people can import subscription lists?

It would be even more cool if your app could subscribe to OPML lists! ;-)

That way, when a new feed appears in the list you would include news from that feed. And when one is removed, you would unsub the user from that feed, automatically.

This would allow new products to be developed that are collections of feeds.

I've wanted this feature widely supported for a long time. We had it in Radio UserLand, the reader that started all this michegas. It would be great if Feedly or Digg or one of the others picked up this idea and ran with it.

• BTW, the Wikipedia page for Radio UserLand could use an update to reflect that it was more than a blogging tool.

I happen to have a great tool for editing those lists, btw. ;-)

We had a wonderful day in development today, and the result is a great new feature for Fargo. It's the easiest way to do RSS feeds yet. 1-2-3. All writing. Look ma no hands! :-)

If you want to subscribe to my feed, it's here.

National Pollinator Week kicked off with a dark twist of irony Monday, when tens of thousands of bumblebees, honeybees, ladybugs and other insects were found dead or dying in a Target parking lot in Oregon. Now, early signs strongly suggest insecticides may be to blame.

Read more...

theartofanimation:

Sayaka Ouhito

I have spent the last few days interviewing people in Istanbul’s Gezi Park protests as well as hanging out in the park, observing, chatting informally with everyone ranging from journalists to visitors to the park and occasionally getting massively tear gassed. My lungs continue to burn as I type this morning.

For context, let me first explain that most everything you have been seen on TV has been from the Taksim square where the most of the clashes are occurring between the police and few protesters. Those are, for the most part, groups that were  not necessarily part of the Gezi Park protests, but have moved to the area as things developed. Hence, you are getting the wrong impression from TV feeds focused solely on Taksim Square. That is not the Gezi Park protest I have been observing. [Here’s an article from the BBC explaining what it looks like now and what the plans are] [The park itself is often quite crowded and has become a complete tent city, with thousands to tens of thousands people in it at any one point, and hundreds of thousands during the weekend.]

Here’s an aerial view of the area.

The park on the right is now a tent city, and that’s where the protest is taking place. It all started when the government announced it was going to tear down this area and build a replica of an Ottoman army barracks with a shopping mall potentially integrated into it. It’s one of the few remaining green areas in the popular Taksim neighborhood. The small group of initial protesters were attacked 5am in the morning, their tents burnt down, and trees started being uprooted. The news spread via social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, as well as SMS and phone calls, and people started congregating in the area in response. After massive clashes for about a day or so, the police withdrew and the area grew into a large tent city and a protest. (The police and the clashes returned yesterday). For most of my time there, it was a festival like space: loud and boisterous, with occasional breaks for tear gas.

This is what the inside of the park lookseed like before the police attack last night:

There are libraries (since destroyed by the police), food center, restrooms, theater, and lots of formal and informal activities within the park. It’s a lively, peaceful and colorful space. Here’s the library before:

Well, here’s what the library looked like after the police entered the park on June 11th:

During yesterday’s clashes, there were indeed a few people who threw  “Molotov cocktails” at the police in the square –which you may have seen on TV because that is the kind of visual that television stations like to put on a loop– but in my observations, the Gezi park protesters are very alien to that kind of behavior. In fact, during those very clashes they tried to form a human chain around the park and stop such violence from happening. They made calls via their megaphones for it to stop. I have walked most every inch of the park and spoke to a wide range of people. The protesters I spoke with expressed strong commitment to non-violence.

Here’s the human chain attempt to stop the clashes between police and the Molotov throwers (who were about six people) and to protect the park. The chain was dispersed with gas and water canons:

In fact, even the slightest scuffle is in the park calmed down immediately.  I observed this first-hand when a visiting youngster, about 14 or 15, tried to pick a fight with an older man claiming that he had looked at his girlfriend the wrong way. Dozens of people immediately intervened, calmed the youngster, took him away, helped his girlfriend, asked her if she was okay, and generally made sure it was all calm again. “Not here, no fighting, not here” is heard as soon as any tensions arise. People are very proactive. This is not a let-and-let-live space in those regards (though it is in many others).

There is also a campaign within the park, with many signs, asking people not to consume alcohol –yes, I know it’s ironic as government’s attempts to legislate lifestyle issues such as alcohol consumption are part of people’s grievances. However, people I talk to say that it’s very important that they keep the park clean, well-behaved, cooperative and non-violent. Signs everywhere say that “nothing is for sale in the park.” Food, masks, medical and other supplies, clothes, etc. are distributed free of charge. (There is also a burgeoning “street peddler” ring in the perimeter areas of the park, selling helmets, masks and, happily for me, fresh “simit”–Turkish sesame bagels.)

After talking to the park protesters for days here is a very quick compilation of the main complaints and reasons people say brought them to the park:

1- Protesters say that they are worried about Erdogan’s growing authoritarian style of governance. “He thinks we don’t count.” “He never listens to anyone else.” “Why are they trying to pass laws about how I live? What’s it to him?”

Erdogan’s AKP party won the last election (its third) and is admittedly popular with many sectors of society, including some who are now in the Park have voted for him. It has accomplished many good things for the country through a program of reform and development. Any comparisons with Mubarak and pre-Tahrir 2011 Egypt are misplaced and ignorant. The country is polarized; it is not ruled by an unelected autocrat who has alienated everyone.

However, due to the electoral system which punishes small parties (with a 10% barrier for entrance to the parliament) and a spectacularly incompetent opposition, AKP has almost two-thirds of the deputies in the parliament with about 50% of the vote. Due to this set up, they can pass almost any law they want. People said to me “he rules like he has 90%.”

So, that seems to be the heart of the issue. People have a variety of grievances, but concentrate mostly about overreach and “majoritarian authoritarianism.”

For example, Erdogan recently announced that they would be building a third bridge over the Bosphorus strait. Many people felt that the plan was not discussed at all with the public and concerns about environmental impact ignored. Then, he announced that they had decided the bridge would be named “Yavuz Sultan Selim”–an Ottoman king (“padisah”) famous for a massacre of Alevi (Turkey’s alawites) populations. Unsurprisingly, Alevis who compromise a significant portion of the Turkish population were gravely offended. In the predominantly “GAzi” (not Gezi) neighborhood, people have been marching every night since the Taksim protests began. Last night, they blocked the main TEM highway for a while before voluntarily dispersing.

 

I asked someone from the Gazi neighborhood (GAzi neighborhood is not GEzi park.) why they were so angry and why there were protests there every night. “Wasn’t there anyone else in all of Turkey’s history to honor with the name of that bridge?” the person said. “Doesn’t he have a single Alevi friend to ask? Why can’t they ever ask someone about anything before announcing their decision?”

During the protests, Erdogan called the protesters “riff-raff” (capulcu) which has now been adopted by the protesters–they jokingly call themselves the riff-raff party. They are offended but also decided that they will call just respond with humor. Such dismissive language, undoubtedly, helps polarize the situation. “Why can’t he let us even have one little park?” was a common refrain among the people I interviewed. “Why must everything be his way?”

2- A very common and widespread complaint is about censorship in traditional. It is, indeed, much worse than I had thought. I had already blogged about how the CNN Turkey was showing penguin documentaries while the initial major clashes were ongoing, and while CNN International had a live feed to the clashes.

In the square, I chatted with journalists and people who told me they were journalists but joining the protests after their shift ended. They told me, some in tears, that they are not free. They said that the stories they file are shelved. One told me of being told “why don’t you rewrite this column” after writing a sharp critique of Erdogan’s stance during Arab Spring versus his stance now towards the protests.

I watched last night as the governor of Istanbul was “interviewed” on television on CNN Turkey (it’s not the worst or only awful one, but it’s notable.) There were ongoing clashes all day, in the middle of the biggest city in Turkey. The governor had said in the morning that the park would not be attacked. I was in the park all day and was tear gassed on and off all day–this was thoroughly documented. (I left when things got much worse and I couldn’t breathe, or obviously do interviews anymore. I’m there to interview, not to be tear gassed beyond rhyme or reason).

Instead of asking him tough questions, or even things that could be considered any kind of questions, the “interviewer” lobbed phrases that were so non-questions that “softball” would be a compliment. The “interview” ended with the “interviewer” asking the governor that perhaps they should end by having him repeat his call to parents. Oh, yes, the governor said. That’s a good note: “Parents should tell their children not to be in the park anymore. It’s not safe.” That is what passes for an interview.

Also, the few channels who were broadcasting the protests live were JUST hit by large fines by Turkey’s regulatory agency, RTÜK, for “inciting people to violence.” The level of control over the public sphere via media is worse that I had thought, and I was already worried. The journalists I spoke with said to me that it’s not just intimidation by government–many media publishers are also large conglomerates and want to keep good relations with the government for their business interests.

Unsurprisingly, social media, especially Twitter and Facebook have emerged as key protest and information conduits. Turkey also has no equivalent to “Al Jazeera” which played a major role during the Arab Spring. Most protesters I talked with said that this just wouldn’t be possible without especially Twitter and Facebook. Most people heard of what was going on in the park during the initial police attack (when the protest was small, the police moved in, burned the tents and started cutting down the trees) via Twitter and Facebook and showed up to try to protect the park. They couldn’t have heard it on mass media because it was broadcasting anything but the news. Penguins have become a mock symbol of the protest.

3- The police actions are a common cause of complaint among the protesters. The use of tear gas is quick and massive. This is not the first protest that has been subjected to massive tear gas. In fact, it seems to have become a modus operandi and main style of policing of demonstrations. Yesterday, while I was in the park, tear gas volleys regularly landed in the park. My interview recordings are interrupted by “gas breaks”: a bang, coughing. I watched people convulse and throw up from tear gas. I witnessed tear gas being thrown into the park when it was very crowded, creating a dangerous situation as people tried to run away and risked trampling. The park is experienced, though. As people panicked, lots of seemingly experienced protesters, started yelling for people to calm down, opening exits, helping people.

One of the key demands of the protests is freedom as assembly and freedom from this kind of police intervention.

Also, protesters were hit with tear gas canister–what had also happened in Egypt and killed many people. I personally saw a young man bleeding from the head on a stretcher being rushed to the “field hospital” area–which also got attacked with tear gas later. After him, another man came sobbing through the area. “They are aiming the canisters at our head. Aren’t they human? Aren’t we human?” he sobbed.

Here’s a picture I took of person in stretcher–he was bleeding from his head, not captured in the photo:

Here are some pictures during the day when the tear gas was lobbed inside the park. I don’t have a picture for some of the worst clashes when the park was basically engulfed in massive amounts of gas partly because it was a difficult situation and also partly because some of the worst happened after I left. These pictures are from June 11th, when the governor said the park would not be attacked.

I did not take this picture but it shows you how it can get:

This one I took–one of the many tear gas volleys fired into the park while I was there on June 11th.

I personally think tear gas should be regulated internationally and be used only in truly and rarely dangerous situations. We need an arms control treaty on tear gas. Not only is it not non-lethal, it has become a way to deny freedom of assembly. I understand that there are some situations that the police do need to use non-lethal force. The situation, however, seems out of hand–instead of a high bar for use of this substance, it has become something that is just lobbed. Some of this also has been documented in my twitter feed (I can be found as @zeynep).

I know that now I am going to be criticized heavily by some people in Turkey. Let me end with some clarifications. I have friends who are and remain strong AKP supporters and they, too, are mostly aghast at what has been happening. I’ve always tried to explain that the government has popular support and remains popular; however in a polarized country.

Rumors of Internet shut-down are false. In fact, throughout the protests, I have been able to tweet, with pictures, from the park (some mobile operators brought extra repeater trucks to the area). I lost Internet only once–during the worst clashes– and I later learned that one of the repeater trucks was on fire, likely contributing to the problem as well as tens of thousands of people desperately trying to call out. However, I witnessed the ridiculous levels of media censorship first hand and I heard some stories directly from journalists.

Some people asked my why I don’t go interview AKP supporters and their use of social media? In fact, I’d be happy to, at some point. I study social movements and social media so it is natural for me to interview protesters. The notion that AKP supporters do not use social media is false. The idea that AKP is just behind the times with such technologies is also false. The prime minister did indeed call Twitter a menace (or curse) to society, but all his top lieutenants are on social media and very active. So are, as far as I can tell, large portions of AKP’s own public. AKP is a tech-savvy party full of competent people. There is simply no comparison to Mubarak’s inept misunderstanding of the new media ecology.

And that’s it for now. I am now going to go back to the battered, tired Gezi Park and continue doing interviews for as long as I can. I shouldn’t have to interview with a helmet, though, in fear of tear gas canister landing on my head. The governor keeps promising that the park won’t be attacked. Here’s me interviewing yesterday in the park, and here’s hoping to less tear gas.

 Note: Hastily written, sorry for typos and lack of more links. To be corrected later.

Adactio:

The official line from Twitter is that RSS is “infrequently used today.” That’s the same justification that Google has given for shutting down Google Reader. It reminds of the joke about the shopkeeper responding to a request for something with “Oh, we don’t stock that — there’s no call for it. It’s funny though, you’re the fifth person to ask today.”

kateordie:

kendra-p:

Hey I love Game of Thrones

(Inspired by lots of wonderful gifs and photo sets, thanks internet!)

PERFECTION

Microsoft is set to announce it will remove DRM restrictions on Xbox One games and the need for you to have the new Xbox "always online."

PROS:
- you can add folders by using a button that says “Add Folder” on it
- imports OPML with folders; tOR feeds came over in the same order and with the same folders
- supports subfolders
- can toggle sorting between oldest and newest first
- interface is clean, fast once the app is loaded, very readable
- shows changes in articles between feed retrievals, though this feature is not toggleable
- shows who shared and liked the item
- item rendering is better than tOR’s; more embeds work, styles are nicer
- @firehose works and links to my profile, even in item notes
- activity stream shows when people share, like, comment on my items, or @mention me on other peoples’ items

CONS:
- SERIOUSLY, NO SEARCH
- NO MOBILE INTERFACE. No app, no mobile web, unresponsive design.
- slooooooooowwww to load pages (minimum 3.19s to respond to initial HTTP request when hitting any URL on hivereader.com; compare to 1.85s on tOR, 1.19s on GReader, 1.10 on r2k)
- all shares are public, no privacy options, can’t block users. http://hivereader.com/u/firehose
- despite ^, THERE’S NO RSS FEED ON YOUR PUBLIC PROFILE PAGE, LOL
- collapsing folders in the reader is unintuitive (click the folder ICON)
- hiding feeds with 0 unread items from the list of subscriptions is unintuitive (click the unlabelled right-justified circle on the same line as the top level of Subscriptions. If the circle is full, you’re showing all feeds. If it’s hollow, you’re hiding feeds with 0 unread items.)
- it does that fucking minimalist UI thing where icon text only shows up when you mouse over an item in a feed, but doing so doesn’t actually save any space in the UI, so what the fuck man
- no tooltips on unlabeled UI elements. click them and find out what they do! (for instance, there’s a book icon on every item. I THINK it toggles the read/unread status, but there’s no label and it doesn’t change state when I click on it)
- difference between read and unread stats in list view: only the title of the item, and only about a 40% change in shades of gray
- shows _everyone_ that you shared or liked an item (no privacy options there either)
- there’s a nonsense max-width on the feed column of 780px. This isn’t bad for reading, but it’s terrible for embeds—several YouTube embeds are wider than this, and the interface cuts them off. One line of CSS fixes this using something like Stylish: .story { max-width: 100% !important; } Just change the percentage to any measurement you prefer.
- comments and notes don’t support any formatting. No bold, italics, not eeven line breaks. Even some punctuation marks get scrubbed if they’re too HTML-y.
- no comment view
- no active friendfinding at all. Can’t search by username, real name, email address.
- no comprehensive, on-demand list of keyboard shortcuts. A few show up on the home page.
- “All Unread Stories” doesn’t include unread shared items from friends
- refreshing a feed to get new items doesn’t appear to work; API call goes out and reports back that the feed isn’t updated (and when it was allegedly last updated), but the same feed updates immediately when refreshed in tOR. (Feed updates in general appear to happen more frequently in tOR.)

CONS, BUT WE’VE LEARNED TO LIVE WITHOUT THEM:
- no share-via-email function, only Twitter and Facebook
- no equivalent to “Note in Reader”, even without a bookmarklet
- no hashtags, no tagging at all
- activity stream is obfuscated (at the bottom of the Home page) and unsortable/unfilterable

CON, ONLY TO FIREHOSE:
- starring is S, sharing is Shift-S

COULD GO EITHER WAY:
- can’t view who follows other users. Makes discovery harder but is slightly more private.
- most links don’t open new tabs by default

lolzpicx:

Baby tries to eat cookies from a magazine

Thirty-five percent of women around the world have been raped or physically abused, according to statistics the World Health Organization released Thursday. About 80 percent of the time this violence occurs in the home, at the hands of a partner or spouse.

"For me personally, this is a shockingly high figure," says Karen Devries, an epidemologist from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “The levels of violence are very high everywhere."

Devries and a team at the WHO analyzed data from 141 studies in 81 countries. Their findings offer the first comprehensive look at domestic violence globally and give insights into how abuse hurts women’s overall health.

"The main message is that this problem affects women everywhere," Devries says. Because of the stigma associated with rape and abuse, “some of our findings may underestimate the prevalence."

When women are murdered, a partner or spouse is the killer 38 percent of the time, the study finds. By comparison, men die at the hands of a wife or partner only 6 percent of the time.

Domestic violence not only kills some women; it also leaves others with long-standing mental and physical health problems.

Abused women are twice as likely to report being depressed and having their own problems with alcohol. They are also 1.5 times more likely than women who haven’t been abused to have a sexually transmitted disease including, sometimes, an HIV infection.

The health impacts can even spill over into the next generation, says Claudia Garcia-Moreno, a physician from the WHO. A woman who has experienced violence has a greater chance of having a low-birth-weight baby. And children who were abused, or who witnessed abuse, are more likely to end up in violent relationships themselves, research shows. “Preventing child abuse is an important strategy for reducing these forms of violence," Garcia-Moreno says.

What else can be done to stop this global trend? Educate women and give them a chance economically, Garcia-Moreno says.

A few years ago, researchers in South Africa gave women small loans to start vegetable stands, tailoring services or other retail businesses. They also educated the women about domestic violence and gender equality. After two years, abuse among the women decreasedby more than half.

But Garcia-Moreno thinks the onus is on health professionals worldwide to turn the tide of domestic violence. “We want to see this issue integrated into the curriculum in the basic training for doctors and nurses," she says.

"There is no magic bullet, no vaccine or pill" for rape and abuse, Garcia-Moreno says. “But what we hear from women is that oftentimes, just having an empathetic listener who can provide some practical support and help her get access to some other services — that in itself is an important intervention."

via http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/06/20/193475321/who-finds-violence-against-women-is-shockingly-common?ft=1&f=1001

Apple Announcement Supercut: All the Adjectives (by BuzzFeed)

shared while walking someone through configuring port forwarding on an Airport Extreme

it needed an update and reboot before it would let her configure it

… … … … … … … … … … … … … …
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… . . _/ :,’ :/ :: :: :: : : :: :: _,-‘/ : ,-‘;’-‘’’’’~-, ;; ;; ;;,’ … … . .
… ,-‘ / : : : : : : ,-‘’’ : : :,—‘’ :|| /,-‘-‘—‘’’__,’’’ \ ;; ;,-‘ … … . .
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… . \/ /—-‘’’’ : \ #\ : :\ : : \ :\ \| | : (O##º : :/ /-‘’ … … … . .
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… . ‘ ) : : : :’’’’—„—„„„¯ \ \ :: ::—„_’’-„’’’¯ :’- :’-, … … …
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… . .,/ /|\| | :/ / : : : : : : : ,’-, :: :: :: :: ::,—‘’ :,-‘ \ \ … … . .
… . .\’|\ \|/ ‘/ / :: :_—„ : , | )’; :: :: :: :,-‘’ : ,-‘ : : :\ , … … .
… ./¯ :| \ |\ : |/\ :: ::——, :\/ :|/ :: :: ,-‘’ : :,-‘ : : : : : : ‘’-„_ … .
….| : : :/ ‘’-(, :: :: :: ‘’’’’~„„,’’ :: ,-‘’ : :,-‘ : : : : : : : : :,-‘’’\ … .
. ,-‘ : : : | : : ‘’) : : :¯’’’’~-,: : ,—‘’’ : :,-‘’ : : : : : : : : : ,-‘ :¯’’’’’-,_ .
./ : : : : :’-, :: | :: :: :: _„-‘’’’¯ : ,—‘’ : : : : : : : : : : : / : : : : : : :’’-,
/ : : : : : -, :¯’’’’’’’’’’’¯ : : _„-~’’ : : : : : : : : : : : : : :| : : : : : : : : :
. : : : : : : :¯’’~~~~~~’’’ : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : | : : : : : : : : :

(via @overbey)

Wedding gown made from fluorescent silks, designed by Yumi Katsura, shown in white and UV light. (Iizuka et al., Advanced Functional Materials)

Silkworms in a Japanese lab are busy spinning silks that glow in the dark. But these silkworms, unlike others that have been fed rainbow-colored dyes, don’t need any dietary interventions to spin in color: They’ve been genetically engineered to produce fluorescent skeins in shades of red, orange, and green.

Now, scientists have tweaked the silk production process and made it possible to turn these somewhat freakish threads into useable fabrics.

The resulting silks glow under fluorescent light, and are only ever-so-slightly weaker than silks that are normally used for fabrics, scientists reported June 12 in Advanced Functional Materials. Already, the glowing silks have been incorporated into everyday garments such as suits and ties, and Japanese wedding dress designer Yumi Katsura has designed and made gowns that glow in the dark.

Original Source

(Excerpted, but this is the bulk of it.)

But the authors dig themselves deeper.  After showing us pictures of charming, highly designed bus shelters in two wealthy communities that can afford them, they write:

In some cases, transit operators might do better by putting fewer buses on the street at times of low demand, and diverting the money they save into bus stop amenities and fleet facelifts.

This, urbanist friends, crosses a bright red line called upward redistribution of wealth.

This book appears at a time when many US transit agencies have been slashing transit service for the last five years, driving away legions of riders.  Portland, for example, has had its inner city grid network gutted -- mostly cut to 20 minute frequencies at which the connections on which it relies are almost impossible -- even though frequent transit service is a foundational element in the City of Portland's neighborhood development policies. 

Any "low-ridership" services that have survived all that carnage are serving popular and important non-ridership goals.  They are not going to be cut to build nicer bus shelters.  Doing so could also be illegal in the US if you're using Federal funds: US Title VI legislation (part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act) is designed to prevent exactly this kind of upward redistribution of the benefits resulting from public investment.  All US transit agencies that receive Federal funds must do extensive analysis to prove they are treating low-income and minority riders fairly in both service and infrastructure.

So if you follow this book's advice, and tell your transit agency they should cut service and reject lower-income people so as to build nicer bus shelters, it doesn't matter how noble your intentions are.  You will sound both elitist and clueless.  You will sound especially hostile to the burgeoning environmental justice agenda that is already embodied in civil rights legislation, and that has its own strong nexus with the ultimate outcomes that we call sustainability.  If you prevail in guiding the policy of your transit agency, that agency could be exposed to civil rights lawsuits as a result.  Do you really want this many enemies?

It doesn't help that in suggesting service cuts at "times [rather than places] of low demand," the authors are just repeating a common misconception.  Ridership at different times of day is interdependent, if only for the obvious reason that most transit trips are round trips.  If you cut service and thus reject a customer at one time of day, you'll likely lose their business in the other direction as well.  The most obvious "time of low demand," the late evening, is also a "guaranteed ride home," which means it affects the overall attractiveness of the product.

More important, a consistent pattern of all-day service (including "times of low demand") is a powerful tool for fostering lower vehicle ownership.  That's is why many transit agencies are now committing to a policy "Frequent Network" that guarantees service over a certain span regardless of trip-by-trip ridership.  (These policies, important in guiding true Transit-oriented Development at regionwide scale, deserved a mention.  Policies in the Portland and Vancouver BC regions could both have been cited.  Indeed, the book is silent on the urgent question of how to recognize a suitable site for TOD.)

I love distinctive transit shelters as much as anyone, but not if they are defined as an alternative to the sheer quantities of service that cities need and that ridership would reward.  (Canadian midsized cities, for example, generally have about twice the ridership per capita of similar US cities, not becuase their shelters are cuter but becuase they run about twice as much service per capita.)

Distinctive, adorable shelters can still come about in one of three entirely reasonable ways.  Either:

1. they have been paid for by developers, or by neighboring landowners who will profit most directly from any uplift in land values, or
2. they have been paid for by city governments, or
3. they are transit agency investments that are affordable and suitable for mass production, like the San Francisco shelters with the characteristic wave roofs.  

Developer-funding (also endorsed in the book) is often the purest nexus of all, but city funding is also a healthy trend.  Cities are much better placed than regional transit agencies to make investments that express civic identity and character.  Most US cities can also do improvement districts that focus the cost on the landowners who will most benefit.  Still, it's usually wealthier communities that can afford to do this, so it's deeply misleading to present these specialized shelters as realistic examples for cities in general, let alone to suggest that cash-strapped agencies should reject existing riders in order to pay for them.

Original Source

On December 21st, 2012, Catalyst Game Labs announced the Year of Shadowrun, the most ambitious release of games for Shadowrun in its almost twenty-five year history. The cornerstone of the Year of Shadowrun is the release of the Fifth Edition of the tabletop roleplaying game.

Catalyst Game Labs is extremely excited to announce that on July 11th the PDF of Shadowrun, Fifth Edition will go on sale for $20 (available both at www.battlecorps.com/catalog as well as www.drivethrurpg.com). Along with Harebrained Schemes’ release of Shadowrun Returns on July 25th, fans of the Sixth World will have more Shadowrun drek to leap into than you can shake a fist full of credsticks at!

Additionally, while stores have been able to pre-order Shadowrun, Fifth Edition for some time (and if you can support your local game store, please do!), that date will also see online pre-orders available for the print books, both the standard edition as well as the limited editions we’ll be offering (details surrounding the limited editions will be provided in a future post).

The print edition of Shadowrun, Fifth Edition will be available in stores come August.

We’ve been publishing a series of blog posts covering a host of topics surrounding the development of Shadowrun, Fifth Edition, as well as the other games in the works, at shadowruntabletop.com. Additionally, we’ve released five Shadowrun, Fifth Edition free preview PDF—including a brand new one today—to allow gamers a huge look at the new edition from all angles. We’ll release one more free preview PDF, covering the Matrix, in another week or two, leading up to the July 11th PDF release date!

See you then!

Check out shadowruntabletop.com and www.shadowrun.com to learn more about all that’s happening in the Year of Shadowrun!

Any news sites interested in reviewing the Shadowrun, Fifth Edition PDF please contact randall@catalystgamelabs.com.

Catalyst Game Labs

Catalyst Game Labs is dedicated to producing high-quality games and fiction that mesh sophisticated game mechanics with dynamic universes, all presented in a form that allows beginning players and long-time veterans to easily jump into our games, while helping fiction readers enjoy our stories even if they don’t know the games.

Catalyst Game Labs is an imprint of InMediaRes Productions, LLC, which specializes in electronic publishing of professional fiction. This allows Catalyst to participate in a synergy that melds printed gaming material and fiction with all the benefits of electronic interfaces and online communities, creating a whole-package experience for any type of player or reader. Find Catalyst Game Labs online at www.catalystgamelabs.com.

This is the custom cocktail style Donkey Kong arcade machine (although it plays other games too) built into an old wine barrel by ArcadeControls forum user griffindodd . I bet you I could sit there and play FOR HOURS. Also, I'm drinking whoever's beer that is. Finders keepers and all that. That's why you should always take your drink with you to the bathroom when you're at a bar. Backwash alone won't deter the determined. Hit the jump for a couple more shots.

chraystmaseve:

omgoswin:

kylesbogusjourney:

Female privilege is getting to claim a headache to avoid sex.

Female oppression is having to claim physical illness to avoid sex because men won’t take a simple fucking “no” for an answer.

Female oppression is men being so entitled that they think being denied sex is oppressive.

 #OOOO FUCKING OWND YOU GOT FUCKING SLAM DUNKED SON YOU’RE GONNA NEED LIKE TEN FEDORAS TO COVER THAT BRUISE FUCKNUTS

I’m going to be glad when the fedoras finally fall out of this particular dynamic, because the poor damn hats are innocent. (mutter)