firehose

itwbennett writes "You have to be 18 to qualify for PayPal's bug bounty program, a minor detail that 17-year old Robert Kugler found out the hard way after being denied a reward for a website bug he reported. Curiously, the age guideline isn't in the terms and conditions posted on the PayPal website. Kugler was informed by email that he was disqualified because of his age."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Supreme Court Declines To Hear Planned Parenthood Case RTT News The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear the case brought by the state of Indiana against Planned Parenthood. The state was seeking approval from the court to block the nation's largest provider of abortions from receiving federal Medicaid funding, reports NBC ... Justices decline to hear Planned Parenthood funding caseReuters US Supreme Court rejects abortion caseAFP Will Indiana decision derail Planned Parenthood cuts in Ohio?WKSU News KSRO -National Right to Life News all 59 news articles »

New submitter Unixnoteunuchs writes "Coming to a theater in Window Rock in the Navajo Nation on July 4, 2013, Star Wars Episode 4 dubbed in the Navajo language. This is the first time a major motion picture has ever been dubbed in a native American language. This effort will help the Navajo nation preserve its cultural heritage in its language, a complex and beautiful Athabaskan tongue heavily reliant on adjectives and compound words. Listen to this article and how 'computer' and 'droid' would translate."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Chinese government may finally be reining in the use of wealth management products (WMPs), the risky investment vehicles that held some $1.2 trillion in assets (largely households) at the end of 2012. China Real Time reports that banks issued 8.8% fewer WMPs in April compared with March, after the government cracked down on bank issuances.

This should help protect households from risky debt. But whether it gives the government more control over shadow banking is another story.

Overall loan growth continued to boom in April. That includes conventional lending and the types of debt that flow into what’s called “shadow banking.” Here’s a look at that:

If the banking regulator is successfully stamping out WMPs—which provide vehicles for financing these shadow loans—why the steep growth in shadow banking?

One possibility is that recipients of conventional loans—typically state-owned enterprises (SOEs)—are investing in real estate instead of their own businesses because of overcapacity. Anne Stevenson-Yang, founder of Beijing-based J Capital Research, explained this trend to Quartz recently.

In many areas 50% of plants sit idle, which “means when you take on debt you can’t pay through what you earn,” said Stevenson-Yang. “So as that started to happen, companies would take their cash…and put it into property. The property bubble was providing 30-40% returns for long time, and that masked bad things in the larger economy.”

Junheng Li, head of research at China-focused research firm JL Warren Capital agrees that SOEs are behind the rush into the real estate market. ”The estimate for corporate leverage ranges from 150% to more than 200%. Even the low end of the range suggests that China now has the highest corporate debt to GDP in the world, not to mention much of the debt is non-performing loans, predominantly borrowed to invest in real estate projects,” she tells Quartz, noting that if you add “accounts receivable,” payments that a business hasn’t yet collected, the number is more like 220%. “That [has] to be rolled over with new issuance of debt—a classic example of ‘extend and pretend’ or ‘delay and pray.’”

If so, the bad debt that many worry is plaguing Chinese banks is plaguing corporate balance sheets, too.

astronomy-to-zoology:

Pink Fairy Armadillo (Chlamyphorus truncatus)

Also known as the lesser fairy armadillo, the pink fairy armadillo is a unique species of small armadillo found only in Central Argentina. Pink fairy armadillos are the smallest known armadillo, with the largest individual growing to around 4 inches long. They are primarily nocturnal and burrow near anthills, as their main food item is ants, however they will eat worms, snails, plants and roots as-wells. Like a golden mole or a marsupial mole the pink fairy armadillo navigates its surroundings via “sand swimming” using its powerful claws to move through the sand as if it was water, its pink back/head plates shield it from debris. Although the pink fairy armadillo is listed as ‘data-deficient’ by the IUCN it suffers from habitat destruction as cattle farms are taking over its natural range. 

Phylogeny

Animalia-Chordata-Mammalia-Cingulata-Dasypodidae-Euphractinae-Chalmyphorus-truncatus

Image Source(s)

	rachel shared this story from Library Ink Stamps:
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theartofgooglebooks:

Throughout An Almanack for the Year of our Lord 1657 by S. B. (1657). Original from Indiana University. Digitized August 9, 2011.

hutsell writes "On May 19th, Daniel Hughes spoke to BBC News live from the world's highest peak using his smartphone, making it the first live broadcast from Everest. (The actual video — showing the importance of oxygen along with his panoramic view — on the BBC page, is bookend with talking heads and a front-end advert.) However, since he and his team failed to get a commercial broadcast permit (costing about 2 grand) without the Nepali Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Aviation's knowledge, officials want to impose the penalty of having them banned from obtaining climbing permits for 10 years or from entering the country for 5 years. From the article, a quote from Dipendra Poudel, an official of the Ministry's mountain branch: 'The mountaineering rules say if you want to make a live telecast from the mountain, which is a restricted area, you have to get a permit first and inform us early about what you're going to do.' Those protesting against the decision feel the intent of the law is being misinterpreted; it's failing to keep up with the recent fundamental changes in technology. A permit that was meant to deal with ecological repercussions, doesn't seem to apply in this case. If it doesn't, is it really about disrespect, money, a tourism copyright angle, or all of the above? Then again, should the Nepal government ignore outsiders questioning their motives?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Six decades after it was conquered, mountaineers complain that the summit of Mount Everest has become virtually gridlocked with climbers. How did the world's highest mountain become so congested?

New York City's new bike share program opened this week, so the New York Times celebrated by racing the program against other traditional forms of transportation.

I've had some bad luck recently with the SSD in my Macbook. So bad, that I needed it to be recovered at the Genius bar. They tell me my disk is still ok but, to be honest, I don't buy it.

So I setup a scheduled Keyboard Maestro macro that runs every morning at 3:30am and does a basic check of my disk.¹

UPDATE: While I was messing with the macro for screenshots, I misplaced a flag for the sudo command. Thanks to Michael in the comments for pointing it out.

That blurry bit after the echo statement is just my sudo password.²

The macro posts to Notification Center when it starts and when it finishes.

It's a basic sanity check and does identify when the disk starts to go sideways. I've already proven this once.

LOST IN TRANSACTION: GREEK PROPERTIES by Patrick van Dam

This photo series will take its audience to different Greek islands where the development and sales of villa’s and hotels have been postponed because of the economic crisis. These concrete, bone-like structures are far from being completed and some have already waited years for financial aid or to be bought. Which most likely will not happen in the years to come. Forcing owners and developers to abandon their property and leaving them empty handed.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has been conspicuously quiet during Myanmar’s worsening ethnic crisis, as violent Buddhist-on-Muslim riots killed hundreds of people, the country’s Rohingya Muslims were forced into refugee camps, and Buddhist families from Bangladesh were resettled in the Rohingya’s abandoned neighborhoods.

On Monday Suu Kyi finally broke her silence, denouncing a plan by western Myanmar officials to reinstate a two-child limit on Rohingya Muslim families, formerly in place during the long decades of military rule. Buddhist families are not subject to the rule. “That kind of discrimination is illegal. It’s not in accordance with human rights,” Suu Kyi said.

She was elected to Parliament in 2012 after years of house arrest under the military junta that ruled Myanmar, also known as Burma, that turned her into a human rights icon. But as she prepares for a possible presidential run in 2015, she has drawn international fire for her failure to speak out against the abuses committed against the ethnic minority Rohingyas, whom many Burmese consider to be illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh rather than fellow citizens.

As Buddhist-on-Muslim violence mounted in late 2012, Suu Kyi called it a  “huge international tragedy,” but also said: “Don’t forget that violence has been committed by both sides. This is why I prefer not to take sides.” Her spokesman has questioned whether the Rohingya ethnic group even exists. 

The two-child-per-family rule—with its ominous implications of ethnic cleansing—seems to have finally moved her to speak out. She also used it as an opportunity to criticize the President Thein Sein’s government for failing to move quickly enough on establishing the rule of law, saying that “only a desire for change is not enough.”

That’s a good line from a politician, which is now clearly Suu Kyi’s primary role. But fulfilling the ideals of the Nobel Peace Prize will require a much stronger stance—even if it might cost a future presidential candidate some much-needed votes.

(This is a review of the entirety of season four of Arrested Development. If you’d rather discuss individual episodes in detail—and we know you would—Erik Adams and Noel Murray’s weekly reviews of two episodes per week will begin on Wednesday. This review is spoiler-free outside of one marked paragraph and the stray observations.)

How much you like the fourth season of Arrested Development will depend on just how quickly you can accept that it’s a show that looks a lot like Arrested Development and shares most important elements in common with that show but is also another series entirely, something more like Mitch Hurwitz and the cast of that earlier show got together to make a bunch of loosely intersecting short films about the characters from the earlier project, each with its own tone and point-of-view. It’s an occasionally hilarious, sometimes boring, always bloated ...

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Susan O’Connor has been a games writer for almost 10 years, working on high-profile projects such as BioShock, Far Cry 2, and the recent Tomb Raider reboot. She is also a tireless advocate for all games writers, having launched the Games Writers Conference, now a staple of the annual Games Developers Conference. O’Connor has produced numerous talks and articles about the process of writing for games—including a piece that walks a hypothetical studio through adapting Breaking Bad into a console game—making her one of the leading thinkers in the field. As it turns out, her thinking had reached critical mass when I spoke to her, and she was sensing roadblocks that kept her from doing her best work within the industry. O’Connor spoke candidly to The Gameological Society about her desire to integrate writers more deeply into development teams, the challenges and pleasure of working ...

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Unfollowing spree begins.

Economic Times

Confidential report lists US weapons system designs compromised by Chinese ... Washington Post Designs for many of the nation's most sensitive advanced weapons systems have been compromised by Chinese hackers, according to a report prepared for the Pentagon and to officials from government and the defense industry. Among more than two ... US report says major weapons designs compromised by ChineseChicago Tribune Pentagon report: Chinese hackers accessed F-35B and other advanced US ...Engadget Chinese hackers 'access sensitive US weapons systems'Telegraph.co.uk Seeking Alpha -UPI.com -Newstrack India all 21 news articles »

What is the bizarre pleasure in looking at art in banal rooms? Is it the economic disparity between the blue-chip objects and their more middle and lower class surroundings that make them interesting? Maybe this unexpected contrast emphasizes that context is everything in the realm of modern and contemporary art. Well, presenting Great Art in Ugly Rooms.

Outside of the white box, do these works lose a little of their power to inspire? It amazes me that Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2″ (1912) looks surprisingly at home in a wood-paneled room, or that the Barnett Newman easily blends into the bargain store surroundings by visually being transformed into a generic super graphic. Some of the art does look out of place, like the work by Jean-Michel Basquiat, which is far too edgy and busy for a typical fast-food chain.

If you’re ever seen a great work of art in someone’s home, you know that paintings often hang crooked in private hallways or sculptures can be blanketed with dust because cleaning staff are told not to touch them. These are the lives of works outside of museums, auction houses, galleries, and Architectural Digest spreads. Maybe these photos are fascinating because we know they are impossible. “Great” art should be inaccessible, many of us secretly believe, even if it is the opposite of what we say to the world. Recently, a Michelangelo went on view at an Italian prison, but the reason that decision made headlines was because the concept seemed odd. What would great art be doing there?

 

Photo: Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano-Reggiano

You'd expect to find gold bullions inside the vast vault of The Credito Emiliano bank in Italy, but instead, you'd find something else just as valuable: Parmesan cheese.

Oddity Central explains:

Cash-for-cheese sounds more like a joke that a serious financial agreement, but in some regions of Italy it’s a reality. The famous Parmesan is so precious that some banks are willing to keep the cheese as collateral against loans to local producers.

The Credito Emiliano bank has hundreds of branches and thousands of employees around central and northern Italy. Its central offices look like those of any other banking institution, with cameras watching every angle, security doors to lock down the place and even a big vault in the back. Only you’re not going to find too many diamonds or hard cash stored in there. Instead, there are hundreds of thousands of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese wheels, neatly placed on giant shelves. The bank takes the Parmesan from local producers in exchange for a cheap loan, and charges a 3% interest as well as a fee for looking after the cheese and making sure it matures properly in the air-conditioned, humidified vault. It might seem strange, but Credito Emiliano treats Parmigiano-Reggiano like other banks do gold. And for good reason, as the mountains of cheese locked away in its secured vault are worth around $200 million.

Link

When life hands you too much cannabis you make pot infused bacon. 

Top Shelf Organics, a medical marijuana grower in Washington State, found themselves with a bit of a dilemma. What should they do with all those leftover stems, roots, and over-sized cannabis leaves? In true cooperative fashion they donated the cannabis waste to Bucking Boar Farm for pig feed. The result was win, win for everyone, but the pig. The pot grower reduced their waste costs, the farmer got free feed, and the consumer got pot infused bacon.

The pot infused meat was sold through BB Ranch Meats in Pike Place Market. 

The shop sold four pigs in various forms earlier this year, including with pot-infused bacon. The meat "tasted savory," von Schneidau said, adding that he has a small amount leftover that he's using to make into prosciutto.

Funny, I thought they would describe the meat as being more mellow. 

Lindsay Cohen of KATU has more: Link

I've debated writing this post for a little while now, but at this point I figure I've discussed everything from my OB-GYN visits to my bra size with you guys, so hey, why not?

[Note: Gentlemen, there is nothing in this post that speaks to your interests, unless of course your interests include a lady friend who suffers from menstrual cramps. You have been warned.]

So here's the deal: back when I last cosplayed as Lady Vadore, I was unfortunately right smack in the midst of my womanly miseries*. I've always struggled with severe cramps and PMS and all the joys that go with them, so you can imagine how I felt that morning when I crawled out of bed and contemplated the Dreaded Corset.

[*If you read that fast it looks like "womanly miniseries." Ha!]

I was already in pain, but I gritted my teeth, swallowed two Tylenol, and had John lace me in. (OOPH.) I did have him loosen it quite a bit, though.

Within minutes I was feeling much better, but of course I attributed that to the pain pills. 



That day I went about seven hours in costume, and I felt fantastic - no pain at all, even long after the Tylenol should have worn off. I was too distracted to think much of it, though, until we were packing up at the car to go home that evening. Since it's mighty uncomfortable to sit in a car that long laced in a tight corset, I swapped it out for a loose overshirt. 

Within approximately three minutes of removing the corset - perhaps sooner - it felt like a sledgehammer hit me right in the gut. I've never had such a sudden onset of menstrual pain in my life, as I literally went from feeling on top of the world to curling into a ball and sobbing in agony. 

Needless to say, this raised a few questions. Namely, does a corset stop cramps, and if so, how or why?

My internet research turned up lots of anecdotal evidence: plenty of ladies claiming corsets *do* stop or help cramps, but nothing more "official" or offering a medical explanation as to why. I also found a lot of links to scammy looking sites pimping something called a "premium beautiful corset" (yes, really) for menstrual pain. There was also a slightly less scammy-looking site selling a compression belt contraption for the same purpose, which seemed to support all the anecdotal evidence.

As to WHY a corset would relieve cramps, all I found were some dire-sounding warnings about corsets stopping menstrual bleeding all together, usually listed in articles bashing corsets as dangerous and unhealthy. On the other hand, there are just as many (if not more) sites defending regular corset-wear as perfectly healthy - assuming you wear them correctly, of course.

So, does compressing your uterus trigger it to stop shedding its lining, or does it alleviate the cramping for some other reason - maybe by just supporting the muscles/organs? Beats me. All I know is that it definitely works. 

How do I know? Well, for the last couple months I've been wearing a tight compression band on the days I start to cramp - and it really, really works, you guys. Happily you don't have to wear a corset, though, or even anything all that tight. All you need is one of these babies:


Those are underbust shapewear camisoles you can find almost anywhere - assuming you don't already have one in your closet - or you can order one off of Ebay for less than $7 with shipping. (I think I found mine at Ross for ten or twelve bucks.)

The one I had kept cutting into my underarms with those straps, so one day I got out the scissors and hacked 'em off. Now it's just a stretchy tube for my abdomen, and I tuck the top edge under my bra band to keep it in place. They also sell "slim belts," though, which are essentially the same thing:


This one is $9 with shipping on ebay. (Note: I know nothing about these sellers, so of course do your own comparison shopping.)

These shapewear pieces are snug but extremely stretchy, so odds are you'll forget you're even wearing them. And even though the very LAST thing you want to do when you're cramping is put on tight-fitting clothing, believe me when I say this will absolutely alleviate some or all of the pain*.
[*Someone just pointed out I sound a little snake-oil huckster-y here; sorry! I should say I *believe* it will help you, but of course everyone is different and there are no guarantees.]

In fact, I've cut down drastically on the amount of pain pills I need each month - last month I think I even skipped them entirely, if you can believe it - thanks to this compression thingy and one other trick I stumbled across online: Magnesium supplements. I take one 200 mg tablet of magnesium citrate the second I start to feel the pain coming on, and then another with each meal and when/if I take any Tylenol, and I could swear it actually prevents the cramps from getting worse. (It looks like there's plenty of evidence to support this, too; here's one from the University of Maryland, for example, or just google "magnesium menstrual cramps" for more.)

You guys might recall that the last time I mentioned my uterus I was gunning for a hysterectomy - solely due to the pain each month -  so believe me when I say this is a HUGE improvement. Fingers crossed it lasts.

Oh, and the only negative side effect to magnesium is that it can be a diuretic/laxative if you take too much of it - but that's actually kind of a good thing for a lot of us around that time, am I right? JUST SAYIN'. (I'm so glad we can have these chats, you guys.) Magnesium is cheap, too, so if nothing else you've got very little to lose by giving it a try!

As with everything concerning your health, though, always do your own research and/or talk to your doctor if you have questions. I can only tell you what's worked for me, and while I don't think either of these suggestions can harm you, again, please do your own research.

Speaking of which, I know there are (at least) several doctors who read Epbot, so if any of you would care to weigh in on this in the comments, I'd love to hear from you! Ditto for any of you regular corset-wearers out there. Let us glory in all our glorious womanhood, my lady friends, and freak out the men-folk with our talk of chocolate-cravings and heavy flows! WOOT WOOT!

As part of Amazon’s plan to build a new corporate headquarters on three blocks of downtown Seattle, the company recently unveiled plans for a six story-glass structure composed of three giant conjoined spheres. Intended to be the centerpiece of the new campus, the spheres would allow Amazon employees to meet and work in an airy indoor environment filled with plants and trees. For more on the structure, see this proposal presented to a Seattle review board by project’s architect, NBBJ.

images via NBBJ

via The Seattle Times, GeekWire

A very well-trained bear plays the trumpet, dances, and even hula hoops in this video uploaded by AmazingLife247.

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

Every morning and every evening the fleet glides through the city, hundreds of white buses with tinted windows navigating San Francisco's rush hour. From the pavement you can see your reflection in the windows, but you can't see in. The buses have no markings or logos, no advertised destinations or stops.

MarkWhittington writes, quoting himself: "PETA is incensed over an article in the Huffington Post that details that organization's unsettling practice of euthanizing animals in a Virginia facility that many have assumed is a no kill shelter. According to the New York Post, PETA wants to sue some of the people who have left comments on the article. The problem is that, following the practice of many on the Internet, many of the comments are under assumed names or are anonymous. PETA is attempting to discover the true identities of their critics so that it can sue them for defamation."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The invasion has begun. 

San Francisco Chronicle

Thousands ordered to evacuate in Chile, Argentina over increased volcano activity Fox News SANTIAGO, Chile – Chilean and Argentine officials issued a red alert Monday for the increasingly active Copahue volcano bordering the two countries and ordered the evacuation of about 3,000 people. Chilean Interior and Security Minister Andres Chadwick ... Argentina and Chile order evacuation of Copahue volcanoBBC News Chile, Argentina order evacuation around stirring southern volcanoReuters Red alert out for volcanoGo Lackawanna Philly.com -Guardian Express -Voice of America all 28 news articles »

Cosmosnail on Behance - Belhoula Amir

It’s lonely being super

fuckedupsundays.tumblr.com


fuckedupsundays.tumblr.com


fuckedupsundays.tumblr.com

Ziggy