firehose

cutecutie:

!!!!!

redletterdave writes "In trying to solve the 'mechanical mismatch' between humans and electronics — particularly wearables — special projects chief Regina Dugan unveiled two new projects currently in development at Google's Motorola Mobility centered on rethinking authentication methodology, including electronic tattoos and ingestible pills. Of the pill, which Dugan called her 'first superpower,' she described it as an 'inside-out potato battery' that when swallowed, the acids in one's stomach serve as the electrolyte to power an 18-bit ECG-like signal that essentially turns one's body into an authentication token. 'It means my arms are like wires and my hands are like alligator clips [so] when I touch my phone, my computer, my door, I'm authenticated,' Dugan said. 'This is not science fiction.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

As if running out of toilet paper wasn’t indignity enough, Venezuela is now proving itself incapable of supplying yet another staple of life: sacramental wine.

The country’s Roman Catholic churches are now being asked to ration their dwindling supplies. The wine shortage, much like the country’s recent toilet paper, sugar, coffee, and wheat flour shortages, is a consequence of the government’s shortsighted economic policies. Local suppliers of the sacramental wine used for Mass suffered a bad harvest this year. Imports that could have made up for the shortfall are out of reach due to currency controls that have made dollars scarce.

According to an internal church memo, the Catholic church has given permission to use non-sacramental wines in cases of “extreme necessity.” But sacramental wine isn’t just any wine; it has a higher alcohol content, which, all jokes aside, allows it be stored longer without refrigeration. So while using the more expensive “good stuff” may sound like a treat, it’s actually doubly expensive.

It’s a tough break for a country that is over 90%  Roman Catholic—especially given that Venezuela’s wheat flour scarcity has also caused a shortage of altar bread. Soon, the Catholic Church claims, the body and blood of Christ may be in such short supply that it won’t be able to perform mass at all.

CBS News

Keating: Russians provided detailed information about Tsarnaev Boston.com MOSCOW — When Russia's domestic intelligence service notified the FBI and CIA about Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011, it provided a detailed warning that the Cambridge resident intended to join an Islamic insurgency in Dagestan, US Representative William ... Share via e-mailBoston Globe Rep. Bill Keating: Russia insists US could have averted Boston bombingsWashington Times Al Qaeda terror mag celebrates Boston Marathon blasts - warns more attacks to ...New York Post CW39 NewsFix -International Business Times -My Fox Boston all 155 news articles »

iGNANT - INSTA FAVS #29: Ilya Mikhaylov

The toy’s music can reach decibel levels that exceed ASTM F963 standard, posing a hearing damage hazard.

After a decade-long run, Camino is no longer being developed, and we encourage all users to upgrade to a more modern browser. Camino is increasingly lagging behind the fast pace of changes on the web, and more importantly it is not receiving security updates, making it increasingly unsafe to use. Fortunately, Mac users have many more browsers to choose from than they did when Camino started ten years ago. Former Camino developers have helped build the three most popular – Chrome, Firefox, and Safari – so while this is the end of Camino itself, the community that helped build it is still making the web better for Mac users. Thank you to all our loyal users, and to everyone who contributed in countless ways over the years to make Camino what it was.

Cambridge — Dressed smartly in a top hat and wielding a ceremonial scepter, Middlesex Sheriff Peter Koutoujian demonstrated he was still the law in town when he intervened in an assault and battery after the Harvard University commencement, Thursday, May 30.

The most famous Cumberbatch is Benedict Cumberbatch, the actor. Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch starred in the film Amazing Grace in which he played William Pitt The Younger. Pitt was elected as Prime Minister at the age of 24, William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806) is credited with encouraging Wilberforce to lead the abolitionist movement through political means. Pitt fell under the abolitionist movement. Wilberforce, however, disagreed and thought it beneficial to attempt peace with France. The pair reconciled within a few months and remained friends until Pitt's death in 1806, just one year before the slave trade was abolished. Benedict's paternal ancestors were sugar plantation owners on Barbados. His ancestors are why all of us with black ancestors called Cumberbatch inherited this surname. Put simply Benedict's ancestors owned mine. ///// Benedict says about his Cumberbatch surname: ''When I started, I just assumed I couldn't be called Benedict Cumberbatch,' says the 30-year-old actor in a pub near the play's rehearsal rooms. His father, an actor, had been persuaded by an agent to become Timothy Carlton, and so the son initially carried on the family stage name. 'But then, one day, I told someone in the business what I was really called and they said, 'That's great, that's something you can use to stand out.''' Because acquaintances, interviewers and immigration officers tend to ask about it, the artist formerly known as Ben Carlton wishes that he had done more research into the derivation of Cumberbatch. He knows only that the clan was originally German and later became prominent in the Caribbean, where they were slave traders. He drew on this part of his DNA in the BBC adaptation of William Golding's novels To the Ends of the Earth (he played Edmund Talbot, an opportunist sailing to the West Indies to make his fortune); he says, half-jokingly, that his role as William Pitt in the abolitionist film Amazing Grace was a sort of apology.' The Guardian, Tuesday 29 April 2008.

Politico

Here is the latest Minnesota news from The Associated Press NECN ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Jim Graves is halting his campaign for Congress. The Democrat had been planning for a rematch against Republican Michele Bachmann, who announced yesterday she won't seek re-election. Graves says his goal of getting ... Graves drops out of race to replace BachmannMinnesota Public Radio Why Michele Bachmann's Democratic challenger quit, tooThe Week Magazine With Michele Bachmann out of congressional race, Democrat gives up tooLos Angeles Times NBCNews.com -The Hill (blog) -Washington Times all 143 news articles »

An anonymous reader writes "A new study based on observations last September by the Curiosity rover on Mars has confirmed that pebble-containing slabs of rock found on the Martian surface were part of an ancient streambed. The work provides some of the most definitive evidence yet that water once flowed on Mars. '[The pebbles'] smooth appearance is identical to gravels found in rivers on Earth. Rock fragments that bounce along the bottom of a stream of water will have their edges knocked off, and when these pebbles finally come to rest they will often align in a characteristic overlapping fashion. ...It is confirmation that water has played its part in sculpting not only this huge equatorial bowl but by implication many of the other landforms seen on the planet.' According to NASA, 'The stream carried the gravels at least a few miles, or kilometers, the researchers estimated. The atmosphere of modern Mars is too thin to make a sustained stream flow of water possible, though the planet holds large quantities of water ice. Several types of evidence have indicated that ancient Mars had diverse environments with liquid water. However, none but these rocks found by Curiosity could provide the type of stream flow information published this week. Curiosity's images of conglomerate rocks indicate that atmospheric conditions at Gale Crater once enabled the flow of liquid water on the Martian surface.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

New Ace Attorney 5 trailer

Along with that awesome artwork of Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata as Phoenix Wright, we got a new four-minute trailer for Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies (plus these GIFs from Shahadan!). It’s all in Japanese, but you’ll spot the return of characters like Pearl and Klavier. Watch the Nintendo Direct video after the break:

BUY Ace Attorney games, upcoming releases

Each week, Big Issues focuses on a newly released comic-book issue of significance. This week, it’s X-Men #1. Written by Brian Wood (Conan The Barbarian, Star Wars) and drawn by Olivier Coipel (Thor, House Of M), it’s the debut issue of the first wave of Marvel Now! titles and another success for the remarkable publishing initiative. 

When it comes to female characters, no superhero franchise can touch the X-Men. Jean Grey, Storm, Rogue, Polaris, Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost, Psylocke, Dazzler, Jubilee, Rachel Summers, Dani Moonstar, Karma, and Magik are just some of the X-heroines created more than 20 years ago that are still regular presences on comic-book stands, and that’s not including any of the villains or more recent additions to the mutant ensemble. There are so many X-titles because that’s the only way to give all the characters ample panel time in 20-page installments, and ...

Read more

By Sgt. Towser, Police Dog, 38th Precinct

NEW YORK—In the wake of NBA center Jason Collins and U.S. soccer midfielder Robbie Rogers coming out as homosexual, reports revealed Friday that the National Hockey League has in fact had hundreds of openly gay athletes throughout its history. Sourc...

phantomfive writes "Some countries are worried about the privacy implications of Google Maps, but Lithuania is using them to find tax cheats. 'After Google's car-borne cameras were driven through the Vilnius area last year, the tax men in this small Baltic nation got busy. They have spent months combing through footage looking for unreported taxable wealth. ... Two recent cases netted $130,000 in taxes and penalties after investigators found houses photographed by Google that weren't on official maps. ... "We were very impressed," said Modestas Kaseliauskas, head of the State Tax Authority. "We realized that we could do more with less and in shorter time."' The people of Lithuania don't seem to mind. 'Authorities have been aided by the local populace. "We received even more support than we expected," said Mr. Kaseliauskas.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

taylorton147:

kiss-through-the-veil:

lurkerviolin:

meeshburgas:

You guys.

Ohmygod, you guys…

I found out where those gifs came from.

…I was not ready for this

Oh great, I’m on the weird side of tumblr again.

What the actual fuck.

twoheadedboy writes "When BT engineers set out to lay fiber broadband cables in remote areas in North Yorkshire, they didn't think they would have many issues. But they didn't see the badgers coming. They discovered badger setts along the planned route for a cable connecting 450 properties to the local exchange. As it is illegal to destroy or upset setts — badgers are considered an endangered species — BT has had to hold off putting down the fiber until it either gains permission from the National Trust or comes up with fresh plans."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Austria-based designer Francesco Morackini has created the Dildo Maker, a pencil sharpener-like device that will turn any object into the shape of a penis. Morackini suggests an “almost limitless choice” of objects to shape like popsicles, vegetables, candles, or even a stick of butter, but cautions that any soft object should be frozen before shaping it with the Dildo Maker.

In 2013 Francesco Morackini introduces the Dildomaker, from the “tools” serie. Playing around with the cliche: “Sex sales” The Dildomaker’s purpose is to provide the users what they really want: “Pleasure” and moreover “sexual pleasure”. The Dildomaker is just a tool which doesn’t give pleasure directely. The distance created here on purpose, tries to raise questions on our relationship between us and manufactured products.

images via Francesco Morackini

via Carlovely

In the last year, [Jeri Ellsworth] has been very busy. She was hired by Valve, started development of an augmented reality system, fired by Valve, and started a new company with [Rick Johnson] to bring her augmented reality glasses to the market. On the last Amp Hour podcast she spilled the beans on what went down at Valve, how her glasses work, and what her plans for the future are.

[Jeri] and [Rick]‘s castAR glasses aren’t virtual reality glasses like the Oculus Rift or other virtual reality glasses that cut you off from the real world. The castAR glasses preserve your peripheral vision by projecting images and objects onto a gray retro-reflective mat and allows you to interact with a virtual environment with an electronic wand. So far, there are a few demos for the castAR system; a Jenga clone, and a game of battle chess called Team For Chess, a wonderful reference to Valve’s hat simulator.

The electronics inside the castAR glasses are fairly impressive; new frames are drawn on the retro-reflective surface at 100 Hz, positioning accuracy is in the sub-millimeter range, and thanks to [Jeri]‘s clever engineering the entire system should be priced at about $200. Not too bad for an awesome device that can be used not only for D&D and Warhammer, but also for some very cool practical applications like visualizing engineering models of 3D prints before they’re printed.

Filed under: Virtual Reality

We shall enjoy it

The "Capote" star's startling fight against substance problems.

Thank God it’s Frida

The short film “FITZCARDBOARDALDO” by artist Robin Frohardt is an elaborate cardboard tribute to the 1982 film Fitzcarraldo by Werner Herzog. In Herzog’s film, an Irish man in pursuit of Peruvian rubber embarks on a foolish quest to transport a 320-ton steamship up a hill in the jungle—a feat that was actually recreated for the film without special effects in the famously difficult production. The film was the subject of a making-of documentary, Burden of Dreams by Les Blank. Frohardt also made a making-of documentary for “FITZCARDBOARDALDO” entitled “Corrugation of Dreams.”

via Archie McPhee’s Endless Geyser of Awesome

Photographer Paul Octavious has been matching Pantone color swatches to real world objects in his photos series #thepantoneproject. You can follow along on his Instagram.

via Complex

image via The Logo Company

The colors companies use in their logos, websites, and other properties has a profound impact on how customers think of and feel about those companies. The above infographic from The Logo Company shows which emotions people associate with different colors, and gives examples of the companies that tend to make use of them. Analytics company KISSmetrics also created an infographic that shows how different colors affect which customers will purchase a product.

image by KISSmetrics via Buffer

via Buffer, The Orange

mzseason:

sawsbuckler:

tastefullyoffensive:

Fluffy Cows

[via]

I think we all need to have a serious discussion about these magnificent cows.

just as good as fat birdies but in a different way

“I’m so sad it’s Friday. I wish it was Monday already!” Said No one in history ever. Time to enjoy some of this week’s featured printed items.

Gabe sculpted a ‘Genese Character’ in Mudbox and Softimage (both from Autodesk). The statue is about 8 inch tall, printed in polyamide and has an awesome spikey texture.

The Carapace ring from Noah Beasley is an alien ouroboros ring in gold plated polished brass.

Andreas Rittershofer from http://3ddecodetails.com designs great models to detail the roofs of your model railroad structures! Check out the amazing paint job he did on the cooling unit and air conduct in 1:160 (N-scale). Prime gray shows once more why it is an amazing material  for all kinds of scale models.

And last but not least, hailing from Australia, we have the CXB sheep wagon from Marbelup Models. Not just the wagon was printed (prime gray), also the sheep load (alumide). Both the wagon and the sheep (90 of them) were painted to add a realistic texture.

Don’t forget to put your own designs in the gallery to show your work to the world.