firehose

Exactly what I’ve been looking for.

If all of the Google Reader replacements you've tried are too bloated or weighed down with features you don't really use, Newsvibe may be a solid alternative. It's fast, free, and sparse—which means it's just you, your feeds, and your starred articles.

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“Speaking as a retailer, there is not a single book that has been ‘kickstarted’ yet that went on to sell a meaningful number of copies at retail for me.” – retailer Brian Hibbs, describing a troubling relationship between Kickstarter success and retail success. He sees two reasons for this. I’m sort of putting words into [...]

“Simple-minded backwaterman” Alan Moore has made an appeal on Kickstarter to fund “His Heavy Heart,” the final installment in a series of short films known as Jimmy’s End. It’s written by Moore, directed by Mitch Jenkins, and produced by Lex Projects. As the acclaimed comics writer explains in the video (below), the five shorts form [...]

I know she’s a TV series character, but she is pretty durn cool

Prank collective Improv Everywhere (IE) collaborated with the BBC America series Copper to transform Brooklyn, New York’s Black Rabbit Bar into an establishment straight out of the 1860s to surprise random folks. IE’s Charlie Todd writes, “The bar was completely lit by candles and kerosene lanterns and was filled with actors in period dress. Beer cost pennies, and music was provided by a live band.” Using hidden cameras, they captured the surprise of two men who came in for a drink and ended up finding “themselves in the middle of an old-fashioned bar fight.” More of the story can be found at Improv Everywhere. The new season of Copper premieres Sunday, June 23rd at 10/9c.

“Agents Brian Belcinski (the cop) and Matt Adams rehearse the fight earlier in the day”

“Dede Ayite tries out options for Agent Cody Lindquist”

video and photos by Improv Everywhere

My kid trying on her brother’s Batman costume for the first time. He was a robber who stole some moneybags, but he didn’t get far with Batman on the loose.

An anonymous reader writes "Parental filters for pornographic content will come as a default setting for all homes in the UK by the end of 2013, says David Cameron's special advisor on preventing the sexualization and commercialization of childhood, Claire Perry MP. Internet service providers will be expected to provide filtering technology to new and existing customers with an emphasis on opting out, rather than opting in."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Free donuts

Economic Times

Obama does not feel Americans' privacy violated: chief of staff Reuters WASHINGTON | Sun Jun 16, 2013 2:51pm EDT. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama does not believe the recently disclosed top-secret National Security Agency surveillance of phone records and Internet data has violated Americans' privacy ... McDonough: Iran election 'potentially hopeful sign'Politico (blog) White House: NSA programs don't violate Americans' privacyWashington Examiner McDonough: Iranian election a 'potentially hopeful sign'The Hill (blog) all 42 news articles »

mattfractionblog:

bendiswordsforpictures:

The visual linguistics of a comic book page

Inside Science recently wrote about the study by UCSD’s Neil Cohn, Navigating Comics, which looks at the underlying structure of the comics language:

People who read the English written word scan text from left to right. Once our eyes hit the end of the page, we stop. Then ding!, like an old-time typewriter, our eyes shift downward and snap back to the left to start reading the next line. This is known as a “Z-path,” as our eyes whip about like the end of Zorro’s sword.

But that linear track gets derailed in comics with complex layouts and Cohn wanted to know if experienced readers had strategies to follow along.

Cohn rustled up 145 participants at the 2004 Comic-Con International, a comic book convention held in San Diego. Participants had varying experience with reading comics, ranging from “never” to “often.”

Each participant was given a booklet containing 12 pages of blank panels. Each page was independent of the rest and used different design techniques.

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I met Neil Cohn outside of the old Comic Relief; Rory Root introduced us. Neil had literally just come from getting his monograph EARLY WRITINGS ON VISUAL LANGUAGE back from the printer. He gave Rory and I a copy each — we spoke on the street for a few minutes and I walked away with a head full of stars. That book, along with Ben Saunders’, Charles Hatfield’s Kirby book, and a few others I’m sure I could think up if I paused to stop typing long enough, are must have, must read, must learns if you’re a comics-obsessed, form-and-function-obsessed, process-obsessed maniac like me. That he’s continued to explore the way we read comics — and writes about it on his blog — delights me to no end. He has no reason to remember the meeting, but it was one of those chance street encounters that changed my life.

Thanks, Neil. And, once again — thanks, Rory.

(EDIT: the essay referred to in the link above is here)

The whistleblower behind the biggest intelligence leak in NSA history is currently answering questions.

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about genderswap cosplay, it’s the major differences in the tone of a cosplay depending on the gender of the cosplayer. Most of the pictures I see of women dressing as male characters are played perfectly seriously: their cosplay is intended as translation. As much of the character’s original personality, costume, and badassness (the stuff that would make you want to be that character in the first place) is preserved as possible. When I see male to female genderswap cosplay pictures trending, however, the cosplay is usual one of parody (with some notable outliers such as the male cosplayers in the Genderswap Justice League and other similar endeavors). A group of dudes who rented some Disney princess outfits and wigs, or a heavily bearded guy in a Chun-li costume are the ones most prominent in my mind. In these cosplays, the fact that it’s genderswap seems to be used as a joke, a self effacing one to be sure (ha ha, I’m such a hairy/muscley/paunchy guy, isn’t it a weird juxtaposition to see me dressed like a lady character?), but still one that enforces the idea: a woman dressing as a man is taking a stronger archetype and making it her own, a man dressing as a woman must be having a laugh at his own expense because he certainly isn’t gaining any confidence from pretending to be a female character.

Which is why I love this father/daughter cosplay. Look at that guy. His little girl likes Wonder Woman, and dammit, that makes Wonder Woman awesome. He’s not dressed as Wonder Man, he’s Wonder freakin’ Woman, and it’s not a joke. How could he joke about his little girl’s favorite superhero? Why wouldn’t he want to be her hero? Not a different version of her hero, but her hero. Ahg. They’re even standing in front of a giant Wonder Woman #1 banner. It’s just too awesome.

(Amy Ratcliffe via DC Women Kicking Ass.)

Original Source

The CG anime Captain Harlock movie has a new trailer out, and it's somehow even more phenomenally badass than the first two. I honestly don't know what I can say about this thing that I haven't said already, other than it may be the best scifi flick of 2013.

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fuckyeahdementia:

yup. they fucking will.

Lewis and Clark in the Rocky Mountains (1990)

Robert A. Saindon's (for the U.S. Forest Service) map of the Lewis and Clark expedition in the Rocky Mountains. Made in 1990. Map of Lewis and Clark in the Rocky Mountains Date: 1990 Author: Robert A. Saindon Dwnld: Full Size (9.7mb) Print Availability: See our Prints Page for more details pff This map isn't part of any series, but we have other featured maps that you might want to check […]

the BIG Map Blog - Interesting maps, historical maps, BIG maps.

First time accepted submitter steve_mark66 writes "Australian archaeologists using remote-sensing technology have uncovered an ancient city in Cambodia that has remained hidden for more than a millennium under dense jungle undergrowth. The discovery of Mahendraparvata, a 1,200-year-old lost city that predates Cambodia's famous Angkor Wat temple complex by 350 years, was part of the Hindu-Buddhist Khmer Empire that ruled much of Southeast Asia from about 800 to 1400 A.D., during a time that coincided with Europe's Middle Ages" The Age has a story of its own, with video.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Dean Hall is focused on launching the PC version of his zombie-infested baby, DayZ, but he's talked with both Sony and Microsoft about the PS4 and Xbox One, too. Nothing's set in stone, but Hall "absolutely" likes Sony's approach to indies; he's turned off by Microsoft's ban on self-publishing and history of charging thousands for game updates.

"Sony lets you self-publish and they don't make you pay for updates," Hall told Eurogamer. "Microsoft requires you to have a publisher. They have no digital distribution strategy and they require you to pay $10,000, or whatever it is, for updates."

Hall mentioned potential console releases for DayZ back in April, and said he'd already met with Sony in particular. Sony was "obviously interested," Hall said, though he didn't mention next-gen at the time.

Last week Hall said that once the PC version is good to go, a PS4 iteration is "definitely" something he'd look at. "But we have to do the PC version first," he said. "Once we get the alpha out, that's a good time for us to run it up on a [PS4] dev kit and see what happens."

Hall isn't counting Xbox One completely out, but he still has some unanswered questions about developing for Microsoft's console: "I like what I saw on the Xbox in a lot of cases as well. I'm not shitting on them. I'm kind of hopeful that Microsoft has just forgot to talk about its indie support. Maybe I'm being a bit naive."

Last we heard, the DayZ alpha was scheduled for June (that's this month) at the earliest.

DayZ creator considering PS4, Xbox One after PC, has an early favorite originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 16 Jun 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The mysterious comings and goings of our feline friends just got a little less mysterious. Researchers at the Royal Veterinary College loaded a group of cats in Shamley Green, Surrey, with cameras and GPS trackers to figure out how roaming house cats spend their days.

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Best Dad Ever

Me: Oh, hey whoa, this shower is occupied.
Spider: Omg man I didn't see you there.
Me: We cool?
Spider: Yeah, yeah, we're cool. I'm just coming down to scope out the tub.
Me: Oh, that's legit. Hey, you might wanna move over some--you're descending right into the shower stream and I don't want you to drown.
Spider: Hey thanks, bud. I'll be careful.
Me: So...can I get out now?
Spider: Sure, sure! Sorry I'll just move over here.
Me: Thanks. You have a nice night. Don't come into my bedroom, okay?
Spider: Nah, that's your space. We're cool. Have a great evening.

tastefullyoffensive:

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