firehose

mortalityplays:

I jerked a city

original

In a surprisingly rational move on her part, Amanda Palmer has suggested that Morrissey use Kickstarter to fund his next record. Said record hasn’t found a label yet—definitely not because Morrissey is a control freak who's impossible to work with—so, in an open letter published by Salon, Palmer urged the ex-Smith go the crowdfunding route. She also encouraged him to get on Twitter.

In the letter, Palmer surmised that if 500,000 people pre-bought Morrissey’s new record for $5 measly dollars (which would never happen, because Morrissey wouldn’t let himself be devalued like that), the crooner would make a cool $2.5 million. Palmer also pointed out that Moz would own all the material and could choose whether or not to tour, something that might be important to him given his recent health troubles.

Always willing to lend a helping hand, Palmer offered her ...

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#ouroboros

Hi @ATodd — where’d the RSS feed links go (so you can subscribe to public feeds outside of R2K)?

Original Source

Original Source

Posted by BRANDiD on April 28, 2013 08:04 pm

May 21st is the day we’ll know for sure, but rumor has it the "Xbox Mini" is a real product. I think the idea itself is more exciting than Durango. Here’s the info I’m excited about:

As the market builds around these entertainment streaming boxes like the Apple TV, Roku, Boxee Box, etc. I believe Microsoft is in the unique position to capture this market and be a leader. I think they can do this by bringing TV/Cable integration and gaming to the table.

Gaming

Shrinking down the Xbox 360 to a package as small as an Apple TV would be an incredible achievement. Microsoft could (ignoring how they decide to structure Live/gold in the future) offer all the content and services of it’s competitors with the golden ticket of a dedicated console gaming experience. Without a disk drive the Xbox Mini would be limited to Arcade, Indie, and Games on Demand content, but that’s more than enough.

TV

I have no idea what Microsoft could be planning here. This is a market that is begging for something new and I feel all Microsoft has to do is provide something slightly compelling alongside an "Xbox Mini". Bing search from the Xbox implemented to work across your TV/Cable and other video apps would be enough for some people. I don’t doubt they’ll use the opportunity to push their "metro" design language on to another screen and whatever social networking features that come along with the next Xbox, could also be integrated here as well.

Aesthetically I think Microsoft is trying to unifying it’s family of products in both hardware and software. They’ve already incorporated the "metro" design language into the Xbox dashboard, but the hardware has always been more gamer centric. The Xbox Mini wouldn’t be a dedicated gaming machine, but a product the whole family is interested in using. I tried to pick some out visual cues from their product line to guide me towards a hardware design. So here’s what I made, just for fun, but to illustrate my excitement for the potential of a product like this to exist in the market.

I'd like to hear people's thoughts on a device like this. A lot of attention is given to the Durango, but I think this product could be Microsoft's big seller if done right.

**I moved this post from gaming.**

A new report from the Economic Policy Institute suggests tech CEOs', lobbying groups', and senators' claims that immigration reform is needed to fill an abundance of open highly-skilled jobs in the US may be inaccurate. The group believes that there are more than enough qualified US workers to meet employers' demands, but that those workers may be looking to other industries because of wage concerns. It found that industry wages have remained flat for years, and that now only half of all US college graduates who studied science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are finding jobs in their field.

---

One way or the other, jobs need to be filled

The EPI believes that the proposed immigration reform would further alienate US workers from the jobs. When adjusted for inflation, it found that current STEM industry wages are around where they were in the late 1990s — enough to attract plenty of guest workers, but too low to attract domestic workers. Thanks in part to current immigration laws, tens of thousands of those jobs remain unfilled anyway. However, the outcome of the study shouldn't come as a surprise: the EPI is funded in large part by unions and takes on a pro-labor agenda, so its findings are right in line with the group's broader stance.

Nevertheless, tech leaders may soon get the immigration reform that they're looking for. A group of senators introduced a sweeping reform package earlier this month that could double the number of available visas for highly-skilled workers. This would would help to fill industry jobs — even if it may suppress wages to the disadvantage of the domestic workforce, as the EPI suggests.

• Via The Atlantic
• Source Economic Policy Institute
• Image Credit Money from Shutterstock
• Related Items immigration reform stem it industry job high-skill computer science engineering mathematics

It’s nice to have an excuse to put Kim Holm’s artwork on our site again. Up above is the piece he created for the song “Æra”, which appeared on the magnificent 2011 album by Iceland’s Sólstafir, Svartir Sandar. ”Æra” is on my mind because Sólstafir have just released an official video for that song. It’s a live performance at the 2012 Eistnaflug Festival in Iceland using footage shot by about a dozen camera wielders.

I’ve loved this song from the first time I heard it. The beat, the riffs, the vocals . . . all good. Always thought the hammering parts of the song would be a sure-fire mosh trigger, and it’s nice to see it happening in this video.

I really, really need to see this band on stage, someday, some way. The video is after the jump.

https://www.facebook.com/solstafirice

“The truth is that even collections of ordinary books distort space, as can readily be proven by anyone who has been around a really old-fashioned second hand bookshop, one of those that look as though they were designed by M. Escher on a bad day and has more staircases than stories and those rows of shelves that end in little doors that are surely too small for a full-sized human to enter. The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read.”

- Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards (via ekimsal)

“Join Pixel Arts for a celebration of its volunteers, milestones, and community! We will be hosting a free screening of Indie Game: The Movie, followed by a short intermission and tournaments for Samurai Gunn, Super Hexagon, and BLOODBALL. Winners in each of these indie game tournaments will receive prizes! This event is free, all ages, and open to the public. Film and games are not rated. “Pixel Arts is a non-profit association that open sources social change through videogames. By creating safe environments and resources for youth and adults invested in maker culture and videogames, we serve the belief that shared creation and education provides value to our community.” We will be announcing the Game Education and Creation Initiative including our first game camp for July 2013 at Portland Youth Builders and our maker program map to build STEM partnerships with educators, researchers, and community groups. For more information about Pixel Arts and its services, community, and volunteer opportunities, visit http://pixelartspdx.wikispaces.com/”

-

Pixel Arts Screening and Indie Game Tournament - Portland Games for Change (Portland, OR) - Meetup

meanwhile, in Portland

The Hindu

Wave of bombings further tests Iraq's stability Washington Post BAGHDAD — A wave of car bomb blasts tore through Shiite areas south of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 36 people and deepening fears that Iraq is rapidly spiraling back out of control. The attacks capped a week of turmoil that is posing the greatest ... Iraq watchdog suspends 10 TV channels for inciting violenceReuters 4 Iraqi soldiers killed at Sunni checkpointLos Angeles Times Iraq: Deadly car bombs hit Shia provincesBBC News Bloomberg -Xinhua -CNN all 160 news articles »

Here's the percentage of female members in superhero teams by decade in one nice chart.

After winning at chess and "Jeopardy," IBM is taking advanced artificial intelligence into the kitchen to tackle the apex of human thought: creativity.

Daily Beast

CIA Gives Karzai Bags of Cash Daily Beast For over a decade the CIA has been delivering money to the offices of Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, in the shadiest ways possible: suitcases, backpacks, and plastic bags full of cash. The New York Times reports that tens of millions of dollars have ... and more »

Colorado ad bought by local residents has upset Native Americans.

Irish Independent

Irish Supreme Court rules paralyzed woman cannot legally commit suicide with ... Washington Post DUBLIN — A paralyzed Irish woman who wants to die cannot legally commit suicide with her partner's help, Ireland's Supreme Court ruled Monday in a case that moved some in the courtroom to tears. The seven-judge court said nothing in the country's ... Marie Fleming appeal on assisted suicide rejectedIrish Times Marie Fleming loses right-to-die appeal in Republic of IrelandBBC News Ireland court rules paralyzed woman cannot get help to commit suicideNBCNews.com (blog) Irish Independent -Irish Examiner -Newstalk 106-108 fm all 119 news articles »

kiva-la:

“hi i’m sailor mars welcome to jackass”

tastefullyoffensive:

[via]

spellbound-one:

London 1908

Yahoo's bid for a controlling stake in video portal Dailymotion has ended after the French government raised objections to the deal, according to reports. The collapse of the talks is a blow to Yahoo, which has been fighting the perception it is irrelevant by acquiring up-and-coming talent and releasing well-regarded new apps. It also deprives them of a new distribution channel for original programming and the advertising that will run alongside it.

Dailymotion is owned by France Telecom-Orange, in which France holds a minority stake. TechCrunch, building on an earlier report from Le Monde, reports that France's minister of industrial renewal did not want to see one of France's marquee Internet companies sold off to a U.S. tech giant. The minister, Arnaud Montebourg, pressed Orange to find another U.S. partner for Dailymotion, according to TechCrunch.

Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer hoped to use Dailymotion to fuel growth in video consumption overseas. The company planned to spend $200 million or more on Dailymotion, according to reports, in what would have been Mayer's most expensive acquisition since becoming CEO.

France Telecom pulled out of talks just as Yahoo invests more heavily in video programming. Last week, the company announced an exclusive deal for Saturday Night Live clips; today, it revealed six original programs to debut later this year and a new partnership with WWE. Dailymotion would have given the company a central place to distribute those shows.

France Telecom will continue looking for an American partner for Dailymotion, which the company sees as essential to helping Dailymotion succeed in the United States, according to Le Monde.

Yahoo and France Telecom have not yet responded to a request for comment.

• Source TechCrunchLe Monde
• Related Items yahoo video dailymotion marissa mayer france telecom-orange france telecom orange arnaud montebourg

There’s no shortage of places to store your files online, but that isn’t stopping mobile carrier Verizon from jumping into the mix. Today, the company is announcing Verizon Cloud for smartphones and tablets, a storage and syncing service that lets people save 500MB worth of text messages, call logs, contacts, music, and other files for free. If that’s not enough, you can also get extra space for prices that range from $2.99 a month for a 25GB plan to $9.99 for 125GB. Comparatively, the biggest plan gives you more storage than Dropbox’s identically-priced 100GB offer, but is roughly twice the price of 100GB plans from Google Drive and Microsoft’s Sky Drive, although the ability to easily save phone-specific data like text messages offers some extra utility.

So far, the service is available on the web and a handful of Android devices from Motorola, HTC, and Samsung, as well as desktop apps for Mac, PC, and Linux. But Verizon says more devices are on the way, including iOS devices, which it says will be "following soon." In the meantime, iPhone owners will have to resort to one of the other dozen cloud storage solutions out there.

• Source Verizon WirelessVerizon Cloud (Google Play)
• Related Items verizon app software cloud storage verizon cloud aplication Verizon

The DB City Rope Stripe 3.

David Bowie.

jrepin writes "The government of Spain's autonomous region of Extremadura has begun the switch to open source of it desktop PCs. The government expects the majority of its 40,000 PCs to be migrated this year, the region's CIO Theodomir Cayetano announced on 18 April. Extremadura estimates that the move to open source will help save 30 million euro per year. Extremadura in 2012 completed the inventory of all the software applications and computers used by its civil servants. It also tailored a Linux distribution, Sysgobex, to meet the majority of requirements of government tasks. It has already migrated to open source some 150 PCs at several ministries, including those for Development, Culture and Employment."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Like Lot delivered from the brimstone of Sodom, Angus T. Steakflower, paragon of godly virtue and reliable burlap, has at last escaped the “filth” that is Two And A Half Men—and he will never look back, lest he be made a pillar of salt shaped like a hilarious penis. Deadline reports that CBS has renewed the series for an eleventh season without Steakflower in a regular role, leaving the show without its half-man or his harrumphing counsel on their certain damnation. His co-stars Jon Cryer and Ashton Kutcher will remain on Two… Men, having each signed new one-year deals that cement them as television’s highest-paid actors—the wages of sin being death, as well as about $700,000 per episode for Kutcher.

But Steakflower has now been reduced to the occasional guest-starring appearance, freeing him to pursue entry into both college and Heaven. Or, as US Weekly has ...

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Continuing the same thought process that inspired Jay-Z to turn his sample of “Hard Knock Life” into a full-blown Annie remake in the first place, Jamie Foxx is now in talks to star in the Will Smith co-produced film as the new, updated Daddy Warbucks renamed “Benjamin Stacks,” because hip-hop. As The Hollywood Reporter helpfully explains, “You know he’s rich because his name literally means stacks of $100 bills, aka Benjamins,” and you know you’re watching an Annie that Jay-Z and Will Smith have made for the hip-hop kids of today's hip-hop streets, because slang like this says, "Annie is here to knock da boots, Big Willie style, no diggity." Foxx has already received an offer to take on the role of Benjamin Stacks—which presumably went through several rejected names such as “Cheddar Pile” and “Scrilla McHighyieldsavingsaccount”—and is currently negotiating to join already-confirmed star Quvenzhan ...

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Not sure how we missed this news, but at long last, many of Ray Bradbury's amazing books and stories are available in electronic form. Including Dandelion Wine, The Illustrated Man, A Graveyard for Lunatics and many others.

Read more...

You may now get carpet in Minecraft and get Minecraft carpet. Sort of.

Jeff Springer, Quinn Costello, and I are making a documentary, Rodents of Unusual Size, about the legions of 20 pound swamp rats that are eating away the fragile coastal wetlands of Louisiana. These giant rodents, known as nutria, were imported from Argentina in the 1930’s for their fur by the guy who invented Tabasco sauce, among many others. But after a series of unfortunate events the nutria escaped into the wild and the nutria population exploded.

Since nutria are vegetarians at heart they have proceeded to feast on the roots of wetland plants and have transformed much of the Bayou into high salinity wastelands. These "dead zones" no longer provide a functional buffer against hurricanes and also threaten the biodiversity that supports migratory bird and plant life.

To do battle with this invasive species the Louisiana Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries has encouraged folks to do their part by eating these free-range rodents. Let’s say that, even with famed Louisiana chefs like Paul Prudhomme taking a stab at swamp rat sausages, tamales, jerky and other creations, people have been reluctant to embrace nutria for human consumption.

But while on location filming we kept hearing stories about the nutria’s delicious, low fat, high protein meat and coastal residents who celebrated the nutria as tasting “better than steak.” So we thought, gators like to snack on nutria, why not us?

After-all we are offering artisanally prepared nutria meat as one of the rewards as part of our Kickstarter fundraising campaign and we couldn’t unleash it onto the world without giving it a try.

The anticipation was huge. Would it be “better than steak” as one of our interviewees swore it would? Would it taste like a swamp rabbit? Would it even be edible?

You can check out our thoughts and impressions in our video review.

Some hearty hunters bagged 8 nutrias for us and we had them processed by a butcher who was legendary for his skills at making nutria not only palatable, but delectable.

Three ways to prepare the meat did battle in our scientifically rigorous taste test: Snack Stix, sausage on a bun (with a touch of Tabasco sauce) and nutria jambalaya.

Nutria Snack Stix - This curious item runs about 6” to 7” in length. They are basically like a thicker Slim Jim minus the snap. Overall, what you're going to notice on the first bite is a strong smoky natural meat flavor, but one that is well countered by the Cajun seasonings and a moderate amount of heat that builds up with each chew.

They have a fresh pepperoni like kick with an oily surface feel. The stix have some flexibility to them and don’t easily crack open with any amount of bending. Chewing was easy and there isn’t a high degree of saltiness.

We decided that the mixture of the flavors helped to make the nutria meat palatable but the addition of the spices seemed to be hiding the actual flavor of the meat. Our findings were inconclusive.

Nutria Cajun Sausage - These chunky links tasted wild and exotic. The slight garlic and cayenne flavors percolated on the tongue, but were quickly overwhelmed by a taste we have to describe as the flavor of the “swamp”. One of us thought it tasted like a morgue, while another tasted a hint of walnuts. You’re definitely in unique flavor country here as the true taste of the nutria meat really came out, for a perplexing culinary experience.

This item provides a nice real meat flavor for a medium grind sausage that can work well on the grill if its tended carefully, but given the meat’s natural leaness you have to watch that it doesn’t get too dry. If we were to try it again we’d choose to boil it in water or an Abita beer, bratwurst style.

Nutria Jambalaya - Like a film crew, the nutria meat seems to work best in collaboration. It really shined in this dish as it easily took on all of the spices & flavors associated with Louisiana cooking. The long simmer and slow cooking time resulted in a soft, moist meat and a jambalaya with a light tanginess and a smoky background in each bite.

We’re not convinced eating nutria meat will ever go mainstream, as heck look at those big orange teeth and long rat like tail. Nonetheless, nutria can be quite tasty. It truly is the other OTHER white meat.

If you are interested in scoring some nutria meat for yourself or checking out some clips from the film, you can visit the ongoing Kickstarter campaign for Rodents of Unusual Size here: