firehose

wiredmikey writes "Israeli security officials at Ben Gurion airport are legally allowed to demand access to tourists' email accounts and deny them entry if they refuse, the country's top legal official said on Wednesday. Details of the policy were laid out by Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein in a written response to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), the group said in a statement. 'In a response dated April 24, 2013, the attorney general's office confirmed this practice,' ACRI said, quoting sections of the document which said it was only done in exceptional cases where 'relevant suspicious signs' were evident and only done with the tourist's 'consent'. 'Allowing security agents to take such invasive measures at their own discretion and on the basis of such flimsy "consent" is not befitting of a democracy,' commented Lila Margalit from ACRI."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

“Seth Jones is the prize of the 2013 NHL Draft, and the top-rated player in Central Scouting’s final NHL Draft rankings. The Portland Winterhawks defenseman has everything you want in a top prospect: Size, physicality, two-way skill, a right-handed shot and the ability to log big minutes.
He’s also an African-American hockey star and the son of a former NBA player, which makes him immediately marketable in the U.S. in ways that other top draft prospects haven’t been.”

- Jay-Z wants NHL Draft top prospect Seth Jones for Roc Nation Sports agency

Should you be in the market for an awesome pirate ship, one of Capt. Tim’s custom-built and fully appointed Gypsy Rose ships has recently been listed for sale on Craigslist in the St. Louis, Missouri area. If you’re not looking to purchase a pirate ship at this time, you can opt to take a day cruise aboard a newer version of the Gypsy Rose.

Built on 50′ 1988 Gibson houseboat. Brand new twin 454s, Kohler generator, V drives. Holds 30 people, looks like a Hollywood set! Great as a live aboard…and an AWESOME party boat! 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. Just surveyed for $110,00, will sell for $79,000 – trades considered.

image 1 via Gypsy Rose website, images 2,3 via Craigslist

video via St. Louis Magazine

Thanks David!

Sometimes the Onion is not fiction:

You—folks who think the Second Amendment is outdated, the families of various shooting victims, and the President of the United States—are the losers. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I absolutely fucking walloped you.

Disgustingly accurate. Anyway, what time are the militia drills?

A great Kickstarter from Zach Braff. Just sit and watch the money pour in. It went up by $60K in just the few minutes it took me to watch the video. Oh, that video. It's good.

I grabbed one of the $100 backer spots. There's 30 days left and it's 1/3 funded, so I guess I will be headed to NY in 2014 for a special advance screening.

And yes, I used the most link-bait title I could find from the Kickstarter video.

Let me to pitch a TV show idea to you. It's the 1960s and the smartest people in the country are sending rockets into space. A group of journalists are hustling to catch a break in covering the Space Race, and the country is on edge as the Cold War appears to be hurdling towards a real war. And everybody is drinking a ton of scotch.

A peculiar branding ploy with Nike may be the first signs of an Instagram profit strategy.

thefluffingtonpost:

Cat Roomies Save Space With Bunk Beds

It may seem a little juvenile, but bunk beds are all the rage for young professionals with a high cost of living. Chester and Conrad share a one-bedroom apartment on New York City’s Lower East Side, but they maximize their space with stackable mattresses.

“There’s no way they could afford a two-bedroom on cat salaries,” says Shelly Tegan, a resident in the same building. “Not in this neighborhood anyway.”

Via Solid_Wife.

Perfection.

Ever since the recession hit in late 2007, Americans have been driving less and less.

Train Like an Ancient Hindu Warrior

blameaspartame:

wrof

By Tracey Lien on Apr 23, 2013 at 8:00p

Players of Maxis' SimCity are reporting that patch 2.0, which released yesterday, is introducing new bugs to the game and, in some cases, causing the game to crash.

Patch 2.0 is the first major update to SimCity since the game's launch, and it aims to address issues such as the inexplicable fluctuation of tourists, delays in receiving invitations and the playing of phantom audio. Since the patch's release yesterday, players have taken to EA's forums and Reddit to point out new bugs that may be caused by the patch.

Among the problems reported include sewage overloads, cities reverting to old saves, cities being overrun with taxis, pollution being magnified, production slowness in Cheetah Mode, road textures disappearing and phantom noises coming from objects, such as trees making siren noises. An extensive list collated by Reddit user Imidazole0 can be read here.

Similar problems are being reported on EA's official forums, with some players noting that, since the patch was installed, firetrucks aren't putting out fires, buildings burn but never turn into rubble and workers are able to enter buildings that have turned to rubble.

We have contacted EA for comment and will update this story as more information is available.

I am sharing this POS article in full so you all don’t have to click through and give this blog your traffic.

TL;DR from WBUR’s Facebook page: “Matlack says that … the issue of “an increasing alienation of an entire gender” needs to be addressed. Do you agree with his assessment?”

Since September 11, 2001, the most heinous crimes on American soil have not been carried out by politically motivated foreign operatives. They have been carried out by young men: Adam Lanza in Newtown; James Eagan Holmes in Aurora; and Jared Loughner in Tucson to name a few of a depressingly long list.

Sure, the two young men who allegedly committed the Boston Marathon bombings were born overseas — but they lived here for a decade. And the younger of the two, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was a U.S. citizen.

In her book “The End of Men,” author Hanna Rosin explores how far men have fallen behind women — in college graduation rates, as well as in employment and advancement in the high growth service sectors of the economy.

Two million American men are in prison and half a million are suffering from post-traumatic stress and brain injury from service to our country. Male illiteracy and dropout rates are rising. Economic inequality between a privileged few and the great mass of working poor continues to broaden.

Of course there are many young men who are faring well in our country. Statistics do not tell the whole story, but they point to trends that tell a broader truth: many are struggling, and some are turning to violence as a last ditch, desperate solution.

Rational gun control would certainly be helpful. But frankly, it doesn’t address a kid who is determined to go into an elementary school and blow away 5- and 6-year-olds. Nor brothers who turn pressure cookers into homemade IEDs. If there is any conclusion I can draw from the chaos in Boston, it’s that the problem goes deeper, that there is an increasing alienation of an entire gender.

As founder of the Good Men Project, I’ve spent the last four years visiting boys’ schools and talking to young men. What I hear is frustration and isolation. Boys are pounded by macho images about modern manhood, but have no one to talk to about what it all means.

We need to be paying closer attention to our boys.

My plea is for a more open discussion about our outdated expectations of boys. We have to recognize that men of the next generation are facing huge challenges that we can’t will away by closing our eyes. We need to change the way men are portrayed in popular culture. We have to listen to what our boys are saying about their lives and be courageous enough to talk to them about the most uncomfortable topics. We have to make sure that far fewer of them are left behind.

The wars we have fought overseas have obscured the one we should be fighting at home, against the cauldron of anger and dissatisfaction among many of our young men that has tragically become a breeding ground for domestic terror.

Hopefully it won’t take another Boston, Newtown, Aurora or Tucson to see that our boys are in trouble.

Original Source

(via TopatoCo: 2 Kawaii 4 U Shirt (TEAL))

NEWS.com.au

Minaret destroyed at 12th-century Syrian mosque on World Heritage list CNN (CNN) -- Both sides in Syria's civil war were in rare agreement Wednesday: The minaret at a 12th-century mosque in Aleppo has been obliterated. Unclear, however, was who destroyed the tower at the Great Umayyad Mosque, which has witnessed the march ... Ancient minaret falls victim to Syria's bitter warSydney Morning Herald Shelling destroys famed Aleppo minaretThe Australian Minaret on a Storied Syrian Mosque FallsNew York Times USA TODAY -The Guardian -BBC News all 42 news articles »

niknak79:

This cat knows how to relax

That looks strangely enjoyable.

“

For every anonymous source anxious to talk about Abramson’s mood swings, and absences, there could have been a counterbalancing one to talk about how Abramson is more present on the news floor than a number of her predecessors. For every person who talks about the exhausting nature of her management style, there is another who might point out that the news operation is the strongest it has been for a long time. You might even find people who think there is more than a whiff of sexism apparent in the building, and the critiques. None of this, however, feeds the story of a woman in charge who tells people what to do in a manner they don’t like.

If one redacts ‘Jill’ from Politico’s piece and replaces it with ‘Jack’, the absurdity and sexism becomes all the more obvious:

“It’s frustrating because he is such a smart person. When Jack is on his game, he is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met,” one staffer said. “But he’s not a naturally charismatic person – he’s not approachable.” You see? When was the last time the approachability of a male editor made for copy?

”

- Emily Bell in the Guardian: “Jill Abramson and the wholly sexist narrative of the woman in power”

Two days ago, dev studio RubiqLab found themselves the subject of much scorn, thanks to the unseemly resemblance between their game SkyFar and Vlambeer’s long-ago-announced Luftrausers. They responded to their critics by saying that they’ve been working on SkyFar for a year and cited U.S. copyright law. Now, RubiqLab is accusing Vlambeer of copying.

In a new response sent over Facebook, RubiqLab says that Luftrausers itself isn’t that original:

The Game luftrauser is cloned by ( SKYSTRIKE , JETSTRIKE & many more )
And your game also came under pixel art.
Earlier games likes SkyStricks & Jetstrike also were in pixel art.
SO WHAT DO YOU SAY IS THAT REALLY YOUR OWN IDEA ?
We dont think so.

please publish this msg over your page..
Thankyou

As best as I’m able to figure, RubiqLab appear to be accusing Vlambeer of copying from older games like Skystrike and Jetstrike. It’s true that aerial dogfight games have been around almost as long as video games themselves. Who knows what role–if any–older games may have had as inspiration for either. But Vlambeer went out of their way to have their game look and feel a certain way, first in a browser version and then in the one being prepped for release. It would be an awfully convenient coincidence if RubiqLab had incredibly similar looking and feeling ideas at the same time.

Remember when you couldn’t buy a high-end phone without an infrared (IR) port? If your exposure to smartphones only starts with the iPhone’s appearance in 2007, you might not. But if you've been using smartphones for longer, you may recall that many of the Palm, Symbian, and Windows Mobile devices that once comprised the market were equipped with infrared transmitters and receivers. (Nokia even put IR blasters on its dumbphones years before smartphones were in the picture.) These were used for very basic — and slow — file transfers between devices, but some enterprising developers did write apps to let you control your television and entertainment consoles.

While IR transmitters were by no means absolute necessities on a mobile device, they did offer cool functionality if you wanted to take advantage of it. Then, when the IR-less iPhone hit shelves in 2007, other device manufacturers swiftly dropped the feature from their list of included specs, as they raced to create thinner devices with larger displays and throw in other, newer technologies like NFC.

---

This year, both HTC and Samsung have embraced the IR blaster

But this year, the IR blaster has made a surprising return — at least for high-end Android smartphones. Flagship devices from Samsung and HTC now include transmitters and apps to let you control your entertainment center (kudos to HTC for neatly building the IR blaster into the power button on the One). While the infrared port has been missing from spec sheets of phones for a good five years or more, it seems to be a "must have" feature for high-end Android devices in 2013. The irony is hard to miss when smartphone hardware has gotten simpler in design (with a few exceptions, most phones don't have removable batteries or expandable storage), one of the nerdiest features from yesterday has made a bit of a resurgence.

Granted, not everyone is a fan of the IR blaster and the clunky and cumbersome receivers that usually go along with it (The Verge's own Nilay Patel is a notorious hater). However, the functionality offered by today's smartphones doesn't require a clumsy receiver to talk to your TV or cable box — and setup with the vast majority of entertainment systems is a painless process that takes less than five minutes to complete. I've been using HTC's bundled TV app on the One smartphone and I've really liked it for basic things like changing channels and adjusting volume. Likewise, David found the remote app on the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 and Galaxy S4 to have similarly useful functionality. I'm the type of television viewer that constantly has his smartphone or tablet in hand while watching shows, so having quick access to remote control functions is great. None of these apps will replace a proper remote — there are always extra functions that set-top box and TV manufacturers include on their own remotes, and the tactile feel of real buttons is not something to be ignored — but as a secondary device for quick changes, they work well.

IR blasters are more useful now because entertainment is more social

And that really speaks to why these IR blasters and remote apps are so much more useful today than they were five or six years ago, at the cusp of the smartphone boom. Television watching is frequently becoming a more and more social experience, especially for live events like the Super Bowl or awards shows. I can't recall the last live event or major TV show premiere I watched where I didn't have my smartphone in hand to keep up with all of the color commentary coming from my Twitter timeline (and to add a few quips myself). Bundling my television control scheme into the same device that I use for my social interactions just makes sense, even if it feels like a superfluous feature at first glance.

That isn't to say everything is great with today's setups. Both HTC and Samsung have included apps (built by Peel) designed to recommend television shows and movies on their devices, and in the case of Samsung, even push that content to your TV — provided you have a compatible Samsung television, of course. These apps don't quite live up to that promise just yet — while they can provide reminders of when your favorite shows are on and even tell you the name of the episode and what channel it's on, they don't have all of the features of my cable service's proprietary app such as proper DVR management or live streaming. What's more, Samsung's ambitious feature to "push" video content to your TV from your device doesn't work nearly as well in practice as it does in Samsung's demonstrations.

It's likely we'll continue to see devices with IR ports hit shelves

Of course, the IR blaster likely won't gain a lot of traction or mindshare with average consumers unless Apple decides to include one on the iPhone or iPad, and chances are that won’t happen any time soon. But chances are pretty good that we will continue to see the lowly IR transmitter listed in the ever-expanding spec sheets of high-end Android devices going forward. While its purpose has changed from what it was intended for ten years ago — these days we have a plethora of better technologies for transferring data and content between devices — the core technology is essentially the same. What long-forgotten feature will be resurrected for next year's top-shelf devices? Let's just say that I won't complain if the camera shutter key makes a triumphant return.

• Related Items entertainment remote infrared ir blaster transmitter Galaxy Note 8.0 Galaxy S4 One (2013) Samsung Peel HTC Cellphones

Following last October's Congressional report stating that Huawei’s networking equipment poses a national security risk, the business group in charge is announcing plans to back out of the US market, reports IDG. On Tuesday, carrier business group CTO Li Sanqi announced that "apparently, due to whatever the geopolitical reasons, we are not focusing on the US market." Huawei’s critics have cited the possibility that the equipment could enable some in Huawei’s home country of China to listen in on network traffic, although a probe into the issue ordered by the White House didn’t turn up any evidence of spying.

---

"Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to get into the US market."

Sanqi guesses that the US represents about 30 percent of the world’s carrier business and stresses that Huawei would love a piece of the action, if it was possible. "Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to get into the US market," he explained, while pointing to opportunities in growing markets like China. Concerns about Huawei networking equipment surfaced again late last month, when the US government reportedly demanded to oversee equipment purchases by Sprint and SoftBank in the US as a precondition for their proposed merger.

It’s not clear what the implication of the withdrawal is for Huawei’s consumer business group, which is responsible for smartphones like its new Ascend P2. When we spoke with the group’s CEO Richard Yu in January, he explained that the company "needs some time for the US carriers to accept high-end [products] from Huawei," but seemed hopeful, saying "the product is good enough… we need some time to get trust" while noting that the US government "is also an influence." Meanwhile, in Europe, Huawei announced that it's working to regain market share as it reels from a staggering 90 percent drop in its number of smartphone partners, reports Engadget.

• Via SlashGear
• Source IDG (PC World)
• Related Items huawei networking equipment Ascend P2 Huawei Cellphones

“Beck said he had received a document he called a 212 3(B) report, named after its reference in the Patriot Act. The document said that a Saudi national with the same name as the person questioned in the hours after the bombing is an “exact match” to someone on a no-fly list and that derogatory information on him is “sufficient to request visa revocation.”
A copy of the alleged document posted online by Beck’s web site The Blaze also noted that the person in question “has One (1) prior event,” though there was no indication what, or how serious, that event was.
Wow, I mean, this does not look good, does it? Twitter has exploded with comments about how important this is, and how it presages the exposure of the conspiracy, which probably involves everyone up to the level of the Oval Office, and perhaps beyond.
But Bret Baier had this piece of paper already. On Tuesday, he talked with US officials about it, and got a different story.
First off, Baier said the wording of the paper was indeed somewhat dire.
“Anyone looking at this would say this is a bad guy, this means they had a lot of stuff on this guy,” he said.
But officials told him it was simply an automatic piece of customs paperwork triggered when police went to question the Saudi in the hours after the bombing.
To make sure he did not somehow get on an airplane before they could talk to him, they put him on a no-fly list. That automatically meant he was subject to visa revocation. The other language, including the reference to an “event,” followed from that.”

- Glenn Beck conspiracy theory: What’s his evidence? - Yahoo! News

Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-Kun SP

Arc System Works and Million have yet another 3DS project on the way from the Kunio-kun/River City Ransom series — Siliconera translates its title as Hot Blooded Tough Guy Kunio: Fighting Concerto.

It’s scheduled to release in Japan on August 8, with the retail version coming packed with a soundtrack CD. According to Polygon, the 3DS game has Kunio fighting a new gang of high-school punks who’ve taken over the streets of eastern Japan:

“New features include a city map you can freely travel around, side quests that you can take from citizens to earn extra money, and the ability to punch out NPCs — in addition to the game’s ‘real’ enemies — sort of make the game a retro-Grand Theft Auto, maybe. Attacking non-combatants will reportedly lead to unexpected story developments, not to mention the occasional police foot pursuit.

Kunio-Kun SP also lets up to four people duke it out with each other using a single game card. Two games are available: A battle-royale fighting mode, and a dodgeball game where you can build teams from a pool of 36 players and whip the snot out of each other out in the schoolyard.”

Aksys, the primary publisher for most recent Kunio games in North America, still hasn’t brought over Renegade 3DS or Riki Densetsu, so I wouldn’t expect to hear a localization for this. :o( Like, at least put these bad boys on the eShop or somethin’. Did River City Soccer Hooligans and Super Sports Challenge really bomb that bad?

BUY River City Hooligans, River City Sports Challenge, upcoming games

“The man who found Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hiding in his boat—a boat subsequently riddled with bullets during a dramatic standoff with police—doesn’t want donations for a new one. Instead, the Watertown, Mass., resident would like the money to go to the marathon’s victims. “They lost limbs,” David Henneberry told Boston’s WCVB-TV. “I lost a boat.””

-

Man who found Tsarnaev on boat doesn’t want donations for new one

thank you

fucking internet donators

The fun and games at Zynga are truly over. The social games company behind such hits as FarmVille and Words With Friends reported revenue of $263.6 million in its Q1 2013 earnings today, a drop of 18 percent year-over-year, as Polygon reported. Even worse, adjusted before-tax earnings (EBITA) were $28.7 million for the quarter, down a whopping 66 percent from the same quarter in 2012, and earnings-per-share were just $0.01 (one cent) for this quarter. The earnings did manage to beat Wall Street analysts' low, low expectations, but that's not saying much, especially since the fourth quarter of 2012 saw alarmingly bad earnings, too.

---

Here's Zynga's revenue chart from Q1 2013:

But perhaps most worrisome of all for Zynga, its investors and supporters, are the latest metrics on users. Daily active users have continued their slide to 52 million, the lowest amount in the past nine quarters. Monthly active and unique users aren't looking much better, at 253 million and 150 million, respectively — among the lowest in the past two years.

Zynga's Q1 2013 earnings call is going now, and we'll update with important information as it proceeds.

• Via Polygon
• Source Zynga
• Related Items zynga games social gaming facebook earnings wall street investors

nicoosuxx:

#WHATS HAPPENING #F WE’RE MOVING#JESUS MARY AND JOSHEPH WHY ARE WE MOVING #WHAT IS THIS SORCERY #I THINK I’M GONNA PUKE THE CATNIP

More FUNNY POST here!

By analyzing the flocking behavior of heavy metal concert goers in mosh pits, Cornell University researchers discovered that their collective actions closely approximate the way particles work in a two-dimensional gas.

Read more...

“It’s not tough to use a computer!”

Everything is Terrible recently featured a video of chopped up VHS footage taken from an early 1990s educational series of training tapes titled The Komputer Tutor. The show’s first tape is called “Komputer Kindergarten” and it’s hosted by its creator, Kim Komando, who teaches the finer points of Computer Basics, DOS 6.0, and Microsoft Word. To this day, Phoenix-based Komando is still very active in tech instruction and is host to The Kim Komando Show, described as “America’s Biggest Syndicated weekend talk radio show about everything digital.”

Kim’s weekly three-hour call-in talk radio show is heard (via her own national radio network called WestStar) on over 470 stations. In addition, she does a Digital Minute radio feature five days a week; has written ten books about life in the digital age; sends out close to 10 million e-mail newsletters weekly; and authors a widely syndicated newspaper column, which also runs in USA Today.com. She does all of this, while raising a son and operating a growing media empire, with her husband and associate, Barry Young.

image via dallastexas8 on ebay

video via the DeeprUnderstanding collection

Triangle Tree has created an edible spoon made from corn flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, eggs, separated milk, spices, and herbs. The biodegradable spoon comes in three flavors — plain, spicy, and sweet — and is intended as a tasty and environmentally-friendly replacement for disposable plastic spoons.

images via Triangle Tree

via Lost at E Minor, Foodbeast

The perfumers at California-based start-up company Commodity have developed Whiskey & Gin eau de parfums, premium custom-tailored fragrances for men that presumably smell like whiskey and gin. Both can be pre-ordered at the Commodity site along with other scents like Wool, Dew, Mimosa, Tea, Paper, Cloth, Book, Gold, Ivy, and Oak.

We’re not about hiding behind a wall of overpowering cologne (or cologne ads)—just the opposite—the right scent is a subtle way to reveal the best aspects of your personality. It doesn’t matter if you’re an architect, a barista, or an astronaut—you need a scent that’s as stylish and hard-working as you.

via Esquire, Refinery29, Incredible Things

BETHESDA, MD—According to a new study released Monday by the National Institutes of Health, for the 25th straight year, violent wolf attacks remain the leading cause of death in the United States.