firehose

Google Education requires kids to sign up for Google accounts:

Requires all students to have a Google Account — the teachers can pick an app and instantly install on all the kids’ tablets.

Google tells Dartmouth to switch to Google Apps:

Just in the US, 7 of 8 Ivy League schools use Google Apps. “For those of you from Dartmouth, you may want to start nudging your IT administrators.”

assgod:

“your move”

lord-kitschener:

god jesus stop trying to send me dick pics

rosalarian:

Angelina Jolie had a double mastectomy, in case you hadn’t heard. How dare she remove those ticking time bombs from her chest, amiright? Like, hasn’t she learned by now that her body is public domain and we all get to vote on what she does with it? Sheesh, how selfish can ya get.

ilymorgannn:

 

wombat riding turtle

the animal kingdom is a strange and beautiful place

One of the most delightfully flamboyant characters in sci-fi is the radio star in The Fifth Element, Ruby Rhod. He wears a headpiece to hear his producers as well as to record his own voice. But to capture the voices of others, he has a technological staff that he carries.

Function

The handle of the device has a microphone built into it. Because of the length of the staff, his reach to potential interviewees is extended. The literal in-your-face nature of the microphone matches Ruby’s in-your-face show.

To let interviewees know when they’re being recorded, a red light in the handle illuminates. This also lets others nearby know that the interviewee is “on air” and not to interrupt.

Ruby also has a single switch on the handle. It’s a small silver toggle. It’s likely that he can set this switch to function as he likes. The one time we see it in action, he has set it to play back an “audio cut,” (the sound clips morning radio talk show hosts insert into their programs) in this case an intimate recording of the Princess of Kodar Japhet. He flips the toggle to play the cut, and flips it back when it’s done.

Here, a different input would have worked better. The toggle switch is too easy to bump and kind of ruins the design of the handle. Better would be a billet button. This sort of momentary button sits flush with a bezel, which prevents accidental activation from, say, a finger laying across it, or resting the button against a flat surface. If Ruby wants the recorded sound to play out completely, and the button press only starts or stops the playback, it would be good to know the state of the playback, and using a billet button with a LED ring would be best.

We also know that Ruby is a performer. He would be happier if he had more than a play button, but a way to express himself. His hand is already in a grip to hold the staff, so the control should fit that—If you could outfit the billet button with directional pressure sensitivity, he could assign each direction to a control. So, for instance, while he was pressing the button, the audio would play, and the harder he pressed up, the volume for each echo would increase. Or pressing down could lower the sample in tone, etc. This would allow him to not just play the audio cut, but perform it.

Fashion

To work as a device that the character would want to carry, it has to match his sense of style. I mean this first in a general sense, and the device does that, with its handle of ornately carved silver. Ruby’s necklaces, bracelets, and rings are all silver, and they work together. The staff also works in his hand like a drum major’s baton, augmenting his larger-than-life presence with an attention-commanding object.

It has to fit his daily fashion as well, and the staff does that, too. The shaft can change appearance. I don’t know if it’s an e-ink-type surface, replaceable staves, or fabric sleeves that change out, but when Ruby’s in leopard print, the staff is in leopard print, too. When Ruby’s decked out in rose-adorned tuxedo black, the staff matches.

Though this is more a portable than a wearable technology, the fact that it can change to match the personal style of the wearer makes it not only functional, but since it fits his persona, desirable as well.

Watch Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston breathe into each others mouths as sexy vampire rock gods. If vampires really were alive, we have no doubt they would look just like this.

Read more...

Still falls the rain

 

 

Ewwwww these taste like crap…I just cannot believe that this is real. I mean poopers.  HAHAHHAAHAHH I laughed so hard!!

Google announces image format that can replace animated GIFs:

With Fewer Trash Pickups In Portland, Dirty Diapers Pile Up In Recycling Bins » News » OPB:

It’s not unusual for Far West Fibers to find trash in the recycling material collected from Portland’s curbside bins.

The company handles three-quarters of the curbside recycling for the city of Portland, and 2.5 percent of what it takes in ends up going to a landfill: Fake flowers, wigs, window shades and garden hoses are a few of the garbage items dumped off by trucks hauling supposedly recyclable materials to the Far West Fibers sorting facility in Northeast Portland.

But the piles of dirty diapers – about 120 pounds per day – are new.

“It started when the city went to every other week garbage pickup,” said Far West Fibers President Keith Ristau. “Prior to that you’d get a dirty diaper maybe once a month. Now we get 60 pounds per shift. It’s not pretty.”

When the city of Portland launched its curbside composting program in October 2011, it simultaneously reduced trash pickups from once a week to once every two weeks. But recycling and compost bins are still emptied weekly.

In the following year, the volume of garbage collected from residential curbsides dropped by 38 percent, but the city also sent reprimanding letters to 3,000 households that were caught putting trash in their recycling bins.

Sixty pounds of dirty diapers per 10-hour shift at Far West Fibers is actually an improvement over the 90 pounds of dirty diapers per shift the company was sorting out before the city started working with recycling haulers to tag the carts with diapers and other garbage in them.

Last March, the city started sending letters to people who were putting trash in their recycling bins – presumably because their garbage cans were full and weren’t scheduled to be emptied for another week.

Everything that comes into the Far West Fibers sorting facility goes onto a series of conveyor belts, where large cardboard is separated from smaller items and employees pluck out plastics, glass, aluminum cans and garbage.

“In the grand scheme of things, the amount of dirty diapers we get is an extremely small percentage, but it’s by far the most disgusting percentage,” said Ristau. “It’s never a good idea to expose your employees to dirty diapers. It’s nothing I ever thought I’d have to do, nor do I want to keep doing it.”

Michael Armstrong, senior sustainability manager for the city of Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, said the city switched to every other week garbage pickup in part to control costs as the curbside composting program started up and in part because weekly pickup wouldn’t be as essential if the smelly food scraps were being picked up every week.

Overall, he said, the switch to curbside composting and fewer trash pickups has been a success, with a major drop in garbage going to landfills and a major increase in compostable material being recycled.

“There have been some issues, and the increase in contamination that Far West Fibers has experienced has been one of them,” he said. “We can see people adjusting to the new program. They want that to go away, so they put it in the can that’s going to get picked up every week.”

The amount of trash in recycling and compost bins has decreased since the city started working with haulers to notify non-complying households.

“We do not want those diapers in there, for sure,” said Armstrong. “I know it can be kind of striking to see – Oh my God, that’s a dirty diaper – but as a percentage amount it’s very, very small. It’s a small problem, but it’s one that we take seriously.”

The city has also provided free upgrades to larger trash cans for people who have medical conditions that cause them to create more garbage, such as adult diapers.

A varied selection of retro SF and Fantasy book art. Sci-Fi-O-Rama was pretty much built upon the back of posting forgotten book and games art, so with a renaissance in blog activity what better than to revisit the archives and excerpt another sampler.

What’s fascinating with each of these examples is that though they might not always fully hit the mark there’s always something of interest or worthy of reference. This then might be a style of colouring, a technique in rendering, the choice and application of a typeface, or even something as obscure as the design of a motif. In short, even the most subtle fragment of detailing can flick a creative switch, it’s all about your own imagination. That isn’t, however, to say that every Sci-Fi book cover has merit – au contraire – they most certainly do not. But that’s what we’re here for, to filter and serve only the very finest…

In putting this (abridged) selection together we’re go revisit several of the artists featured at Sci-Fi-O-Rama before, people who defined and shaped the genre such as David Pelham, Dean Ellis, Ian Miller and others perhaps slightly less well known such Adrian Chesterman or Peter Tybus. The majority of covers here have come via my Flickr favourites feed and prior to that a Flickr group I’ve mentioned before, the simply titled ‘Sci-Fi Books‘ pool. Of course, these days with Tumblr and Pinterest and the ever-evolving Google image search there is a multitude of ways to sophistically search for this kind of art, but I would say the crowd sourced ‘Sci-Fi Books’ collection still represents the best entry point. As such I recommend that as the first stop on the road for further research.

Let us begin with the art and notes, starting with the header image….

**

‘Nightmare Blue’ Art by Justin Todd 1975 (top of post)

As is customary I always load the post head with the most arresting image of the pack, so what to say about this one? Hmmm… Well, how about for starters it’s bloody mental. Supremely sinister and rendered in an unusual very idiosyncratic style, this is the work of British Artist Justin Todd. Something about it is strangely very contemporary, but in fact, it dates from 1975 and so is actually slightly older than your site author.

Todd, an artist I’ve only just come across, is a classically trained illustrator he lectured Illustration at Brighton University in the 1960’s alongside Raymond Briggs (The Snow Man, When The Wind Blows). Someone I’ve earmarked to revisit, for now you can read a little more on him here at arts.brighton.ac.uk.

The story, by the way, revolves around a highly addictive drug ‘Nightmare Blue’ whose users die without another hit… I’ll just point out I haven’t actually read any of the books featured here, so I’ll add a little snippet like this with each cover.

‘Cinnabar’ Peter Goodfellow 1978

This is one of those slightly abstract airbrush type covers so popular in the 70’s,  the indeterminable sense of scale and swathes of cobalt blues lend an appropriate otherworldly theme. This is English artist Peter Goodfellow’s depiction of Cinnabar, a city at the centre of’ time.

The book is actually a collection of short stories based around this would be futuristic utopia, I believe some which may have been printed in the legendary OMNI magazine which I’ve posted about way back when. Interestingly after forging a career Illustrating book covers, Goodfellow would move to become a highly regarded landscape painter in Scotland, that future path perhaps hinted at here by the covers distant snowcapped mountains.

Read a little more about Peter Goodfellow here.

‘Frankenstein Unbound’  Art by Paul Bacon 1975

The cover of Brian Aldiss’s ‘Frankenstein Unbound’ comes complete with an appended $1 mark scrawled on the monster’s temple. Ignoring the graffiti then, and this slick inked illustration is the work of American graphic designer and Illustrator Paul Bacon. Love the subtle shift in hues and the way the grained texture of the heavy watercolour paper comes through. This style is in fact very reminiscent of Micheal Foreman, who illustrated the original Erik the Viking book, that was featured here a little while back.

Again somewhat embarrassingly this was the first I’d actually heard of Paul Bacon, although I’m not entirely sure how as I am familiar with some of his work. Perhaps you are too? Bacon created the iconic first edition covers for some of the 20th century’s most important novels including Ken Kesey’s ‘One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest‘, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s ‘Slaughterhouse-Five‘ and the legendary ‘Catch 22‘ by Joseph Heller (love that book). Read a little more about Paul Bacon at Wikipedia.

A quick story synopsis: Time travelling 21st American Joe Bodenland finds himself with Byron and Shelley in the famous villa on the shore of Lake Geneva. More fantastically, he finds himself face to face with a real Frankenstein. Sounds pretty good, and indeed in 1990 was adapted to the big screen with no other than Roger Corman at the helm, the undisputed heavyweight champ of cult cinema. Frankenstein Unbound stars staring John Hurt, Bridget Fonda and Raul Julia check it at IMDB.

‘ The Incandescent Ones’ – Adrian Chesterman

This sinister looking chromed robotic figure is the work of Adrian Chesterman another artist who’s popped up here before. Chesterman, an American artist produced a series of these somewhat warped airbrushed covers for Penguin Science Fiction during the late 70’s and Early 80’s. It’s a look that’s quite distinguishable being characterised by exceptional costume styling and rendered with just the right amount of highlighting sheen. Above is a fine demonstration of these traits, and as with all Chesterman’s covers is underpinned by a deep love for the subject matter.

Also of note is that despite being a (one assumes) being from the future, it’s also impossible to escape the influence of the present or what is now the past. As such Chesterman’s work contains subtle visual clues that reflect the times; a touch of Disco here, a splash of ‘Simon Says’ and of course the inevitable Starwars references.

Definitel a favourite of mine, check out the complete set of Adrian Chesterman cover’s over at the excellent Penguin Science Fiction website.

A quick note the on the book itself and this one sounds perhaps targeted towards a younger adult demographic. A young art student receives a cryptic message that is to lead him on to a series of startling adventures…

‘Times Last Gift’  Art by Peter Tybus  1975

A rainbow coloured somewhat fauvist cover from Peter Tybus this one dating from 1975. The story, if you hadn’t of guessed revolves around time travel.

Tybus is something of a Sci-Fi-O-Rama enigma, and there is little or no digital footprint of him beyond a series of magazine and book illustrations dating from the 1970s. Indeed the top search result listed by google is in fact a Sci-Fi-O-Rama’s past feature on him. Anyway there’s always alot of love here for his iridescent style that’s also reminiscent of the work of  David Pelham, of course, also a Penguin Sci-Fi Cover illustrator.

If you do have more info on Peter Tybus do let us know, it’d be great to one day run an expanded feature…

‘R is for Rocket’ cover art by Ian Miller

A collection of Short Stories penned by Ray Bradbury. This cover is the unmistakable work of British illustrator and blog favourite Ian Miller, featured a good few times before. Millers work is a demonstration in ornate crafting finished with laser guided precision and is juxtaposed into chaotic compositions swathed with wild gothic stylings. This is the definition of frenetic, never a moment will your eye rest upon Ian’s work, such is demonstrated above. Also take note of a hawk-eyed passion for architectural and geometric detailing.

Miller doesn’t really do Sci-fi or Fantasy, the work is simultaneously both and neither, and of course is all the better for it. If you are unfamiliar with his work and intrigued (you should be) why not have a browse back through past entries or check his official website ian-miller.org.

‘The Menzentian Gate’ (Year Unknown)

The Menzentian Gate is a fantasy novel, penned in 1958 and is part of whats known as the Zimiamvian Trilogy. The saga fact loosely linked to Eddison’s more famous work ‘ The Worm Ouroboros‘ featured here way back in 2008.

The cover is by Barbara Remmington an American artist and Illustrator most famous for her Ballatine Books first edition covers for Lord of the Rings. It’s a colourful style of work reminiscent perhaps of that Bayeux tapestry  mode of visual storytelling, and busy composition loaded with clues and character. Certainly captures the ethos of what a fantasy book should like, and the Dragon/Serpent looks fantastic.

‘Der Himmel über Pern‘

From the dragon that devours its own tail to one that shrouds an astronaut. Let’s not beat about the bush here, this cover is tarnished by some feeble typesetting. But lets clone stamp that out of the way and concentrate on the artwork. Judging by the creatures sinister almost demonic appearance I’m guessing this could be the work of Wayne Barlowe or possibly Chris Achilleos, both masters in the art of fashioning evil looking winged reptilian beasts. It may well be however that it’s the work of someone else entirely, please post if you know. Also are dragons actually reptilian?  If I ever see one I’ll be sure to ask.

The German title translates as ‘The Skies of Pern’ a science fiction novel by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey. The story is just one of a series set on the mythical world of Pern and the concept of Dragon Rider’s, hence the cover art.

‘Gillis Bonde från Ham’ (Farmer Giles of Ham) – 1970 by Rolf Lagerson

Another Dragon here and a swerve towards decidedly lighter material. This is cover for a 1970 Swedish edition of the  J. R. R. Tolkien children’s book ‘Farmer Giles of Ham’. Tolkien originally wrote the story of Farmer Giles and his encounters with the wily Dragon Chrysophylax (great name) back in 1939 but it wasn’t to be published until 1949.

Lovely illustration from Rolf Lagerson which I came across by chance whilst pin-balling around various Pinterest boards. Drilling through to source to uncover Laura Ottina‘s wonderful Illustration blog ‘Animalarium‘. Animalarium put simply is a a vast resource of illustrated animal imagery, best summarised by it’s own simple strapline: “Animals as an endless source of creative inspiration”.

Check it out: www.theanimalarium.blogspot.co.uk. Also worth a look a collection of Rolf Largerson’s Illustration at Flickr.

‘The Tar-Aiym Krang’ art by Dean Ellis 1972

Back up to Sci-Fi and here’s another taster from a prolific genre Illustrator, the late Dean Ellis. I believe this is the seventh appearance on Sci-Fi-O-Rama of an Ellis Illustration, all are characterised with a highly distinctive almost classical style, similar in many ways to the work of space art pioneer Chesley Bonestell. Beautiful renderings of distant worlds and the inky black star-fields the lay within, Ellis’s work is awash with soft hues and subtle shading.

If it’s your first time viewing a Dean Ellis cover I certainly recommend taking the time to study more
www.sci-fi-o-rama.com/category/artist/dean-ellis

The book itself; ‘The Tar-Aiym Krang’ sounds like classic space opera fare and focuses on young orphan and thief  known as ‘Flinx ‘ who comes cross a fabled star map…

‘Empire of The Atom’ 1974 (Designer Unknown)

An interesting typographic solution with smart colour schemes forms the cover for a 70’s edition of Van Vogt’s 1957 novel. Empire of the Atom caused something of a stir at the time due to similarities with Robert Graves’s Claudius stories. Having read neither, I couldn’t possibly pass judgement! Slick graphics though proving minimal jacket sleeves such as these can have just as much impact…

***

Well once again, what started out as mini post idea and a brief scan through Flickr has completely snowballed out of control into another creaking behemoth type article. This one is playing out like a Sci-Fi-O-Rama Who’s Who, and there’s, of course, many more artists I can and will feature. However, I’m slightly conscious of post length and attention spans, not least of which my own! so I’m going to sever the post here and conclude with a Part 2…

In the Meantime, be sure to check out the following resources…

The Art of Penguin Science Fiction

Sci-Fi-O-Rama Flickr Favourites

Flickr Sci-Fi Books Pool

Back soon…

1st Tropical Depression of Pacific Season Forms - ABC News:

The eastern and north Pacific season began Wednesday and runs through Nov. 30.

Portland airport stripper spends five hours in federal court for 15 minutes of nudity | OregonLive.com:

A federal courtroom sprang to life Tuesday when legal teams, witnesses and members of the public and media spent nearly five hours focused on 15 minutes when John Brennan took off his clothes.

Disney World Scheme: Entitled Families Hire Disabled Guide to Bypass Lines, Says Report | Parenting - Yahoo! Shine:

urban mothers have asked Divamoms website operator Lyss Stern how they might make their children appear handicapped in order to gain special disabled access. “I never understood how parents could have a clear conscience doing this,” Stern told the Post. And one parent, Matt Montesi of Atlanta, added that, after his 11-year-old with ADHD was granted a three-day Disney handicapped pass with a doctor’s note, he was tempted to sell it on Craigslist. “People will pay bucks to circumvent the lines,” he noted.

Documents suggest caffeine could show up somewhere even farther from the coffee cup: your toothbrush.

clairefox35:

dickdickdickdickdickdick:

Step I; Open this
Step II; Open this
Step III; Have fun for hours

Live from the Google I/O 2013 keynote - The Verge (Android):

Networks' reasoning for passing on various pilots will mostly just make you dislike NBC more | TV | Newswire | The A.V. Club:

NBC passed on Mulaney because though it was liked by “comedy geeks,” NBC executives didn’t like it. Why? Well, EW suggests because NBC is going for a “family theme” in its comedies and “moving away from smarter-narrower-snarkier titles.” This despite the fact that that worked so well for the network last fall. Then there’s the case of The Sixth Gun, based on a popular comic book, which NBC passed on because the network “felt it played too much like a geeky Syfy show and not enough like a big broadcast network show.” This despite the number one drama on TV being about zombies.

History repeats itself in both video games and colas it seems. Years after releasing the original Karateka, Jordan Mechner revised the formula, giving the world "new" Karateka. Some people liked the new flavor - others, not so much. Hearing the demand of fans everywhere, Mechner has announced that Karateka Classic is coming back, specifically to iOS and Android.

Karateka Classic recreates the Apple II experience - right down to the disk drive noises - and offers a range of "monitor" choices, including color CRT, green or amber display. There are a couple of new additions, including gameplay tips and a rewind feature that can be earned, allowing players to reverse their mistakes.

Karateka Classic arrives on iOS and Android tomorrow for $0.99.

Karateka Classic coming to iOS and Android tomorrow originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 15 May 2013 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aaron Swartz was not yet a legend when, almost two years ago, I asked him to build an open-source, anonymous in-box. His achievements were real and varied, but the events that would come to define him to the public were still in his future: his federal criminal indictment; his leadership organizing against the censorious Stop Online Piracy Act; his suicide in a Brooklyn apartment. I knew him as a programmer and an activist, a member of a fairly small tribe with the skills to turn ideas into code—another word for action—and the sensibility to understand instantly what I was looking for: a slightly safer way for journalists and their anonymous sources to communicate.

There’s a growing technology gap: phone records, e-mail, computer forensics, and outright hacking are valuable weapons for anyone looking to identify a journalist’s source. With some exceptions, the press has done little to keep pace: our information-security efforts tend to gravitate toward the parts of our infrastructure that accept credit cards.

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After years of pushing for environmental legislation as governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger has finally decided to take real action against pollution by negotiating to star in a remake of The Toxic Avenger. It’s the first movement on the project since 2010, when we first heard about efforts from Hot Tub Time Machine director Steve Pink and producer Akiva Goldsman to remake the Troma film about a mutated nerd bent on grisly revenge, and turn it into a family-friendly, PG-13 comedy about “a green superhero for these environmentally conscious times,” when we’re all about recycling and scrubbing out R-rated, B-movie toxins.

Now Pink’s own environmental consciousness and ’80s fetishism could lead him to add Schwarzenegger as a character named "The Exterminator," a former black ops agent who helps the Toxic Avenger take on evil polluters, and helps Arnold Schwarzenegger fill 10 minutes of DVD commentary explaining how ...

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“We were in L.A., but we all hated glam,” says Slayer’s Jeff Hanneman in the new book Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History Of Metal. “I was listening to a lot of hardcore, but I still loved classic metal like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. Kerry [King, also a guitarist in Slayer] was more into the metal. So when we started writing songs, we combined the best of both.”

Louder Than Hell comes out this week, but Hanneman won’t get to see it. He died on May 2 at the age of 49, his trailblazing career cut short by liver failure. The book’s authors, Jon Wiederhorn and Katherine Turman, surely had no idea that Louder Than Hell would serve as one of many eulogies for Hanneman. Yet that’s partly what it is. Instead of waxing grandiosely about Hanneman’s innovations and songwriting, though, Wiederhorn ...

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Original photo

Restored photo by unhi (reddit)

Redditor Steven Withey (aka “stevieboy1984“) acquired a damaged Navy photo of his Grandfather Derek and sought help on reddit to try and get it repaired. Derek is an 87 year-old World War II veteran (he was only 20 years-old in the photo) who served in the Royal Navy. Through many acts of kindness from the post that Steve created on reddit, a user named Dave Humphreys (aka “unhi“) stepped up (among many others) and spent 3 hours of his evening restoring the image to its former glory.

I was blown away by the selfless dedication of the people on that thread. They expected nothing in return, yet spent hours of their day working on the photo, it was truly heart-warming and I was excited to share it with my Grandad, as he had no idea any of this was going on.

Here is a wonderful video from Steve showing his Grandfather’s gracious reaction after seeing, for the first time, all of the restorations made by Dave Humphreys and other kind folks on reddit.

I headed over to his house with my girlfriend to give him the photos. I asked my girlfriend to record him receiving it on my phone. We went in and said hello. The reason I wanted to video it was to show the people that had worked on the image how appreciated their efforts were. He absolutely loved the photos and I uploaded the video to YouTube that afternoon.

images and video via Steven Withey

via The Huffington Post