firehose

OMAHA, NE—Calling Edward Snowden both a “TRUE PATRIOT” and an “AMERICAN HERO,” Tony Dewitt, 32, reportedly voiced his unflinching support for the NSA whistleblower Tuesday by using only capital letters in the comment section ...

In a gasp-worthy ending you never saw coming, M. Night Shyamalan has revealed that he ghost-wrote She’s All That, the 1998 teen romance starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook. Shyamalan dropped the prom bomb to both MTV and Movies.com recently, saying he wrote the movie while also writing The Sixth Sense and Stuart Little, all of which helped “add to the breadth” of his then-burgeoning career.

There’s not a ton more information out there now about Shyamalan’s Pygmalion-adapting past, but really, the revelation has raised so many questions. Did he write in that dance sequence at the prom? What about Prinze Jr.’s hacky-sack performance art piece? And, seriously, did he (and the makers of the movie, of course) expect us to believe that Prinze Jr. could fall for Cook just by taking off her glasses? 

Read more

Following years of turning video and board games into movies you watch passively, conserving your energy for snacks, 20th Century Fox is now looking to a more primitive form of interactive entertainment in adapting Choose Your Own Adventure. The long-running book series—which used forked narratives to allow readers to determine its protagonists’ fates, then immediately go back and pick a better one after discovering they’d died—is now being developed into an appropriately twisty “crossplatform four-quadrant action-adventure franchise.” As of now it’s still figuring out what narrative form that will take, given the many different story genres, time periods, locales, and character types the series covered.

If you express cautious optimism in this project anyway, turn to page 6.
If you want nothing else to do with this, turn to page 9.

Page 6
        “One ticket for Choose Your Own Adventure please,” you say to the man ...

Read more

Under the hood, iOS7 appears to be one of the biggest updates Apple has ever released for the iPhone. Unfortunately, the paint job is pretty disappointing to me.

Take a look at these icons:

Now ask yourself, seriously, if you were browsing the App Store and came across the Notes, Compass or Weather icons in a list of apps, would you even bother reading the descriptions? Take all of that interface in. Top shadows, no shadows and bottom shadows. They feel like placeholders.

I know I come from a different perspective. I'm from the camp of people that zoom into the TextEdit icon to see what's written on that tiny sheet of ruled paper. I've grown to love those details. They've come to signify an unusual attention to craft.

Don't get me wrong, green felt and leather are not my cup of tea either. Ripped paper on a digital calendar feels comical. But those are extremes I hoped Apple could gracefully back away from. That's not what I see in iOS7. I see huge technical advancements in iOS7 with a huge step backward in design.

I like what I saw inside the apps and the rest of iOS7. Parallax is nice little trick to demo. The frosted glass effect will be an attractive nuance I look forward to. But, I'm left wondering if the flat icon design exists to emphasize the parallax effect, not because it helps to differentiate apps. But, answer me this, which button in this screenshot is active:

So, I'll put it on the line prematurely. I think the flat design will cause a huge amount of confusion for new and existing users. I suspect Flat-gate is right around the corner.

I'll probably regret writing this. I hope I do. This is probably a knee jerk reaction by a backwoods blogger. I'll probably love it a year from now. But right now, it feels like Apple designed the iOS interface to trick Samsung into copying it.

"Surprise! We were just kidding."

While I'm excited to use iOS7, I'm just not excited to look at it.

The Sonic Fabric Necktie is made out of recycled audio cassette tape and will actually play sound if placed on a tape head. The neckties are handcrafted in New York City out of Sonic Fabric, a material woven from 50% audio tape and 50% polyester thread. The audio tapes are salvaged from the audio book industry and are re-recorded with collages of sound before they are made into fabric. Sonic Fabric was invented by artist Alyce Santoro and the neckties were designed in collaboration with Julio Cesar.

via DesignTAXI

[Vincent] plays around with remote control tanks, and even though his current model is a WWII-era armor piece, he’d still like modern accoutrements such as a fire control computer and laser sighting for his main gun. His latest project did just that (French, Google translation) with the help of an Arduino, a few modifications to the receiver, and an IR rangefinder.

The stock RC tank includes servos to move the turret and the requisite electronics to fire an Airsoft gun. The precision of the mechanical movements inside the turret weren’t very precise, though, so [Vincent] had to gear down the servos to turn large movements into slight adjustments. After that, he installed an IR rangefinder and laser diode onto the barrel that allowed the gun to sight a target and read its distance.

After some experimentation with the rangefinder and laser, [Vincent] plotted data from firing a few BBs at a whole bunch of distances and targets. The graph came out fairly linear, and after plugging this into a graphing calculator, he was able to find an equation that took into account the distance and angle so the Arduino-powered fire control computer would hit its mark.

The accuracy of the gun is very impressive, all things considered. [Vincent] is able to accurately fire BBs downrange and hit an 8×12 cm target at five meters. You can check out that action below.

Filed under: Arduino Hacks, toy hacks

Sushi Yasuda, an upscale restaurant in New York City, is attracting attention for its decision to get rid of tips for waitstaff. Instead of a line for diners to write in a tip amount on their receipts, Sushi Yasuda has printed the following statement: “Following the custom in Japan, Sushi Yasuda’s service staff are fully compensated by their salary. Therefore gratuities are not accepted.”

An anonymous reader writes "Several UK Internet providers have quietly added a list of new sites to their secretive anti-piracy blocklists. Following in the footsteps of Sky, the first ISP to initiate a proxy blockade, Virgin, BT and several other providers now restrict access to several torrent site proxies. The surprise isn't really that proxies have been added to the blocklist, but that the music industry and ISPs are failing to disclose which sites are being banned."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

zestyoranges:

He’s been there this whole time

watching

l e a r n i n g

eridave:

[ REVVING INTENSIFIES ]

Animal Crossing villager and Mega Man in Smash Bros.

Wii U/3DS, 2014. DAAAAAAAAAAANG

BUY Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL consoles, upcoming games

''It has no place in an athlete's body. Play by the rules,'' Harbaugh said of substances prohibited by the league. ''You always want to be above reproach, especially when you're good, because you don't want people to come back and say, 'They're winning because they're cheating.' That's always going to be a knee-jerk reaction in my experience, ever since I was a little kid. We want to be above reproach in everything and do everything by the rules. Because if you don't, if you cheat to win, then you've already lost, according to Bo Schembechler. And Bo Schembechler is about next to the word of God as you can get in my mind. It's not the word of God, but it's close.''

Via OMS: “Weather.com forecast for southern Ontario: Eye of Sauron.”

Original Source

Here, via Vice, is "pretty much every single Black Flag flyer designed by Raymond Pettibon," which is pretty much all you need to know. #TeamKeith.

Read more...

Despite the bipartisan support for the legislation, Durbin was doubtful the Obama administration would sign it into law. "I think they are going to eventually turn us down," he added, regarding the White House's response to declassifying FISA court opinions. "They are [just] going to say no," he added.

JSDB.io is a database of JavaScript libraries. Umm. That's a lot of libraries. Like, all of them.

dawn-potentia:

Qinni: Creepshots is back. And they have migrated to Tumblr.

theroguefeminist:

fatfemmefatale:

peechington-marie:

lilacscreams:

themanwiththebluebox:

This needs to fucking stop.  This is an absolute invasion of women, this is disgusting, and this Tumblr needs to go away.

We need to report both the Twitter and the Tumblr.

Creepshots is a website for men to take “sexy” pictures of unsuspecting women, and from their ‘About Us’ section it states: “Creepshots are CANDID pictures.  If a person is posing or aware that a picture is being taken, then it is no longer a creepshot.”  

These men take pictures of women who are unaware and post them.

 And then under their rules for getting the pictures removed?  One of the two options is to “appreciate” the fact that some fucking gross man took a picture of you.

Signal boost.

I’ve sent a report to tumblr and you should too.

To report a blog to tumblr, you need to email the full URL and name of the blog to tumblr.

Let’s get it taken down!

PLEASE SIGNAL BOOST

WE NEED TO REPORT THEM HERE’S HOW

there’s two ways-it’s more effective if you do both:

1) Block them here and then report for harassment.

2) You can also email tumblr at abuse@tumblr.com and tell them to ban creepshots. Provide them with the url to the blog (creepshots.tumblr.com) and explain why they should be banned. If you’re too lazy to write out an email, you can use mine:

Hello tumblr staff,

Please remove/ban the blog creepshots.tumblr.com. They post demeaning, humiliating and objectifying pictures of women (typically their asses and breasts and even under their skirts) that they take without their permission on the street and in public. These guys were banned and deleted from reddit. Can you really say that tumblr is less of a safe respectable place than reddit?

What they are doing is wrong. Many, many users on tumblr feel violated and unsafe by this blog’s presence in the tumblr community. These men are violating the privacy of women everywhere. They specifically state in their about me: “Creepshots are CANDID pictures. If a person is posing or aware that a picture is being taken, then it is no longer a creepshot. A true creepshot captures the natural sexy, embarrassing or funny aspect of the subject mater/person without their knowledge.” They specifically state that only accept pictures of people whose privacy has been violated (source: http://creepshots.tumblr.com/AboutUs).

Please do something to show that you care about the safety and dignity of women, particularly the women in the tumblr community. If you don’t care about that, can you at least ban/delete them in the name of protecting yourself from legal liability? because there’s a strong likelihood that some of those pictures are of underaged girls. Given that these men are taking pics of young women they don’t know, how can they know their ages for certain? All it takes is one concerned parent or adolescent seeing their picture on that site, and if you don’t take it down, legal action could be taken against you.

So please, in the name of what is ethical and right and even legally responsible and smart, delete creepshots. Thank you.

Sincerely,

________ (tumblr username/name)

If we use both methods, we’ll be more successful. LET’S FLOOD THE TUMBLR EMAIL WITH DEMANDS THESE FUCKERS GET TAKEN DOWN. WE CAN DO THIS.

I know this is not much related to RHA, but this disturbs me way too much. I figured if I share it here, more people will know about it. Signal boost! (Also I bolded the text, I hope no one minds)

rachel shared this story from Menswear Dog.

---

Hamptons Hound

Linen Jacket: Uniqlo | Dress Shirt: Thomas Mason for J.Crew | Tie: Topman (The Tie Bar alternative) | Fox Pocket Square: DIBI

not shown:White Jeans: Ralph Lauren | Brogues: Grenson | Belt: Prada | Sunglasses: Warby Parker| Watch:Omega Seamaster

rachel shared this story from Feministing.

---

Trevor, who is really good at flirting, likes to get women’s attention by flashing them:

The woman Trevor texted this time was not having it, though.

Trevor doesn’t see the big deal, and starts insulting this woman he’s apparently trying to hit on. The conclusion of their conversation is after the jump – for the full exchange check out Happy Place. Spoilers: she forwards it all to Trevor’s mom. New technology means new places to harass people, but it’s also given us new ways to fight back. Because dick pics are forever. This woman rocks.

Story and images via Happy Place.

Pretty much every movie you ever heard of is getting remade. They're doing an R-rated Weird Science reboot, which sounds like a terrible idea. But what's the one movie that absolutely must not be remade — either because it's too great, or because it's too awful?

Read more...

The immigration bill that aims to solve America’s unauthorized immigration problem and clogged visa system is almost through the Senate. The only thing left to do is hand out jobs and cash to the contractors who will secure the US-Mexican border with round-the-clock high-tech surveillance.

Today the bill overcame its first procedural hurdle: a vote to bring it up for debate, which passed 82-15. That comfortable margin suggests the bill, after amendments, should muster the 60 votes it’ll need in the Senate to proceed to the consideration of the more skeptical House of Representatives.

The main focus this week is an effort by Republican senator Marco Rubio to make the border security measures in the bill tougher. That will be key to attracting conservative lawmakers, who are leery about giving unauthorized immigrants already in the US a path to legal residency while also expanding and reforming temporary worker visas. Another senator, John Cornyn of Texas, is preparing amendments with even stricter security standards, which many of the bill’s supporters see as an attempt to scupper the bill by making it impractical.

Ultimately, the winners of this race to beef up security are defense contractors. The bill is already filled with plans to buy $1.5 billion of fencing, and spend several billion more to install ground radar systems and cameras, buy new helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, and develop the capability to fly drones along the border literally 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These measures are designed to provide real-time surveillance of the entire 1,950-mile (3,200 km) border, with contractors including Boeing, Northrup Grumman, Raytheon and General Dynamics pitching the Department of Homeland Security about how they can play a lucrative role.

“It’s huge, you can’t station enough people on the border,” New York senator Chuck Schumer said, explaining how new technology gives the government the ability to apprehend or turn back nine out of ten unauthorized border crossers. “With these drones, you can see every single person who crosses the border day or night, and you can follow their path, so they can be apprehended when they’re ten, twenty, twenty-five miles inland.”

This might not be the best time for the government to be talking up the creation of a virtual panopticon on the border, but that is what the legislation envisions. And if the border security goals aren’t met in five years, an additional $2 billion of funding will be provided in an effort to guarantee that the United States’ southern border becomes one of the most surveilled places in the world.

French blogger and musician PV Nova has covered Daft Punk’s hit “Get Lucky” as a fantastic re-imagined song that spans chronologically through the decades of 1920 to 2020 in his music video “Evolution of Get Lucky.”

via Blame it on the Voices

Thanks Kelly!

(Click here for the full post)











See more »

They are Charles and Mary Ann Strange, the parents of a Navy SEAL who was killed along with 37 others, when his helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan in 2011. Several of the families of those lost in the attack have questioned the Defense Department's official story of the incident — one of the deadliest single events of the entire war for American troops — and they specifically blame President Obama's polices for leading to those deaths. Among their many complaints: that Afghan forces working with the Americans may have set them up; that because many of those killed that day were members of the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden, publicizing their role in the earlier mission made them targets for retaliation; and that rules of engagement prevented the helicopter and the men on it from fighting back. They also claim that a Muslim cleric was invited to speak at the funeral, who then insulted the dead servicemen in Arabic, although there's little evidence to support that charge.