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S-O M-U-C-H F-U-N J-A-N

Certain corners of Tumblr and the Internet at large have erupted this week after artist Katie Woodger posted this image and explained that an image she created, featuring Lewis Carroll's heroine Alice, appeared on cosmetic bags being sold by Disney—and Disney never asked for her permission to use the image. So how does a piece of uncredited, unlicensed artwork end up on Disney's merchandise?

Read more...

In this segment from episode 2 of the BBC program Victoria Wood’s Nice Cup of Tea, British comedian Victoria Wood sits down for a cup of tea with Morrissey, a self-described “tea-aholic.” The two discuss the role of tea in the British pysche as they drink weak Ceylon from the Italian teapot that Morrissey travels with. The segment was shot in Manhattan at Tea & Sympathy.

Thanks David Klass!

Historical Map: Circular London Underground Map Sketch, Harry Beck, c. 1964

For those who thought that the two circular London Underground diagrams I featured earlier this year — by Jonny Fisher and Maxwell Roberts — were a completely modern twist on an old classic, here’s a reminder of just how forward-thinking Harry Beck really was.

This is a sketch, dated to 1964 at the earliest (due to his adoption of Paul Garbutt’s dot-in-a-circle device for main line interchange stations), that presents the Circle Line as a perfect ellipse. Quite a stunning contrast to his usual rigidly rectilinear diagrams, if perhaps ultimately not a huge improvement — much as the two modern maps are exercises in design, rather than a replacement for the original. Note also that this beautiful sketch is entirely hand-drawn: not a computer to be seen in it’s creation.

(Source: Scanned from my personal copy of Mr. Beck’s Diagram by Ken Garland, Capital Transport Publishing, 1994)

By Megan Farokhmanesh on Apr 14, 2013 at 10:30a

Free-to-play is "just another model" in the gaming industry and will face dire consequences in three to five years, Mythic co-founder and Camelot Unchained creator Mark Jacobs told VG247 during a recent interview.

According to Jacobs, free-to-play will "hold its special place" within the industry as other models have done, but will face a fall in a few years that "will be a bit of an apocalypse."

"You're going to see a lot of developers shutting down, and you're going to see a lot of publishers going, ‘Oh yeah maybe spending $20 million on a free-to-play game wasn't the best idea ever,'" Jacobs said. "That's part of the reason, but the other reason is equally as important, that if you go free-to-play, you really have to compete with every other free-to-play game out there."

Jacobs said that though the model works well in the short term, it won't "work out all that well for anybody" as a long-term plan.

Jacobs recently launched the Camelot Unchained Kickstarter with City State Entertainment. The project is currently about halfway to its goal with 18 days left to go. If funded, the MMO will be subscription-based.

Cuisine:

• Most doctors do not recommend subsisting entirely on worms. They are not considered part of a balanced and nutritious diet.

Link

Instead of setting your beer on a table, the ground, or just about anything else, why not wear a 6-pound belt buckle that turns you into a table? (Make sure you click thru to see the manufacturer’s other picture: a man attempting to look cool as he wears a beer like a codpiece.)

I had lunch a couple of weeks ago with Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo. They're just three stops south of me on the A train. We should do this more often, political bloggers and tech bloggers getting together to share a meal and talk about what's possible.

At one point in the conversation Josh asked me what new technology they should be looking at. I didn't hesitate -- I had an answer prepared. This is what I suggested.

1. Let's ask your readers for their OPML subscription lists.

2. Read the lists into a database and rank the feeds, figure out which are the most popular.

3. Then let's start a river with those feeds. Let it run for a few days so all the feeds update a few times, and see what we've got. My bet is that we'll have a pretty fantastic and totally unique news service.

4. Give it some space on TPM and let it live and breathe. We'll all read this river, and get ideas for more feeds to add to it. You'll learn about other, smaller, political blogs, and they'll get exposure to a wider audience. Win-win. (You'll also run links to stories from Politico and Buzzfeed, so oddly it'll be the place people come to find out what's new on your competitors' sites.)

5. Make deals with them Josh. Ask them if they want to run some TPM ads. Share revenue.

This is a way to build community in new directions. Encourage people to step out from the discussion boards and start their own pubs. It would instantly make TPM the technology leader in the political blogosphere.

I promised I would write it up so that the idea could be presented to those people in their community who are RSS-savvy.

This is something I talk about all the time with news people who will listen. You never should have let Google own the news distribution system. But now that they're evacuating, hurry up and fill the void, before another tech giant owns the space. News publishing is something news publishers should at least have a say in.

Also see my pitch for River of News. We need some updated technology here. My River2 software can be a start, but we've figured out how to do it more efficiently since then, with JavaScript and JSON. I don't have the bandwidth now to do the development, at least not at this time, with Small Picture actively shipping new products. So there's an opportunity here for techies as well.

A damning take on Metacritic, and how review scores hurt games

firehose likes this - Google Search:

lol my shares

(via Doctor Who Remote Control Flying TARDIS - Underground Toys - Doctor Who - Remote And Radio Control Toys at Entertainment Earth)

1907

Le Cochon Danseur (in English, “The Dancing Pig”) is a French black and white silent film from 1907 which is based on a Vaudeville play. Sleep tight!

(via Duck Duck Gray Duck)

1926

Dorothy Gulliver in a publicity photo for The Collegians.

(via vintagegal)

“

Surprisingly, my poster and essay was selected from the top ten in the country and was test marketed in Washington, D.C. I was the original creator of the Woodsy Character, name and slogan. However, I had just a green hat and a red feather on the Woodsy character but in test marketing they put on more clothes on the character and created an anthropomorphic owl. I won the contest and received a congratulatory letter. I also received my certificate of completion for an all expense paid week at the Rushford Conservation camp in Rushford, NY.

Since I was only 12 years old my parents and I signed a contract with the US Forest Service and the US Attorney General so that the US Forest Service could use the Woodsy Character, name and slogan that I had created for the campaign (reference: contract, US Attorney General and US Forest Service,USDA) I was sponsored by camping group in Buffalo called Ken-Tonawanderers which is a group associated with the national camping group called National Campers and Hikers Associatio ( NCHA) which is now called Family Campers and RVers (FCRV) in which the national headquarters is in Depew, NY (near Buffalo,NY).

”

- Guys, the talk page for the Woodsy Owl Wikipedia article is full of conflicting, incoherent claims from multiple people who say they created Woodsy Owl and IT IS AMAZING (via joshreads)

Flat Buns campaign

In mid-August 2007, Carl’s Jr. introduced its “Patty Melt Sandwich” in a television ad. The advertisement, parodying Sir Mix a Lot’s ”Baby Got Back”,^[19] began with a teacher explaining how it was once believed the world was flat. And there are two young white males and they start rapping about “flat buns”, as the commercial was advertising how the Patty Melt Sandwich was on “flat buns”. However the rappers are talking about the teacher’s bottom when they are referring to “flat buns”. The lyrics in their rap contain somewhat sexual lyrics, and there is a glimpse of a butt drawn on a blackboard right before one of the rappers erases half of it to make it “flat”.

Link (Thanks, Sillstaw)

by midnightrider

Fuck Yeah Markdown:

bookmarklets to convert HTML to Markdown, often via Readability

“

“I thought if worst came to worst and the government brought down the world economy, I would still have something that was worth something,” Mr. Norstog, 67, says of his foray into gold.

Gold, pride of Croesus and store of wealth since time immemorial, has turned out to be a very bad investment of late. A mere two years after its price raced to a nominal high, gold is sinking — fast. Its price has fallen 17 percent since late 2011. Wednesday was another bad day for gold: the price of bullion dropped $28 to $1,558 an ounce.

”

- Gold, Long a Secure Investment, Loses Its Luster - NYTimes.com

An anonymous reader writes "That was quick. Mere hours after Facebook Home arrived on Google Play, the launcher has been modified to remove the device-specific limitation. This means you can use the latest Facebook service on any Android device. The brilliant hackers at XDA Developers have done it again. This particular hack was performed by XDA Senior Member theos0o; who provides details and download links."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Capcom's ongoing quest to make all of the original NES Mega Man soundtracks legally available in the US continues this week, with the release of Mega Man 2's official soundtrack over at the Capcom store. The 42 track album (!) is available digitally for $8.95.

Mega Man 2's soundtrack was composed by Takashi Tateishi, who also composed the music for the arcade version of Willow and U.N. Squadron, among other things. His work on Mega Man 2 was credited under the alias "Ogeretsu Kun," a practice which was not entirely uncommon for Capcom at the time. Additional contributions to the soundtrack were also made by Mega Man composer Manami Matsumae.

In related news, the music from Dr. Wily's castle is still the hottest jam.

Mega Man 2 OST now available through Capcom originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Inspired by old mugshots taken in Australia, artist Jason Mark finally answers the question, "What would the Joker look like in the Prohibition era?"

redletterdave writes "TechNet, the trade association representing and led by dozens of prominent technology companies including Google, Apple and Facebook, has formally come out in support of CISPA, sending a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives. The letter said: 'We commend the committee for providing liability protections to companies participating in voluntary information-sharing and applaud the committee's efforts to work with a wide range of stakeholders to address issues such as strengthening privacy protections. As the legislative process unfolds, we look forward to continuing the dialogue with you and your colleagues on further privacy protections, including discussions on the role of a civilian interface for information sharing.'" The White House won't support the bill in its current form, but they plan to work with legislators on a compromise. The current text of the bill is available online.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

FC Kansas City vs. Portland Thorns FC: Final score 1-1 as history is made in first ever NWSL match - SBNation.com:

Kansas City did not disappoint in their first home-game and NWSL debut as they held off the Thorns from equalizing for 66 minutes.

Bitcoins.. you can't create a currency out of thin air without feeding another currency into it. (i'm not an economist and it prob shows)

— Nathaniel Blanchard (@ACloakedFigure) April 10, 2013

In the age of Cypriot banking terrors, BITCOIN $1000 and OMG OBAMACARE, the most amusing Twitter search is "I'm not an economist" and the like.

I'm not an economist but seriously a currency that shoots up in value like 500% over the course of a month is on the verge of exploding

— Dennis N. Santana (@WyattSalazar) April 10, 2013

I'm not an economist or politician but I am a very informed person, and I think Obama Care will collapse under its own weight.

— Evan Russell (@evansbeast101) April 8, 2013

When will we get some actual economists on Twitter.

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Great news from GitHub! Taking a look at this new option, and considering projects like Gary Hodgson’s Githubiverse templates, it is reasonable to expect that GitHub might well be on its way to being the place where many of us develop and share our 3D printing works-in-progress, particularly for procedural and parametric design files that benefit more from Git versioning than massive meshes.

Having seen how successfully Sketchfab has been integrated into Kickstarter, this new development over at GitHub speaks to how we expect to experience our design files online.

Will this prove a benefit for the existing social/repository model sites such as GrabCAD, 3D Warehouse, and Thingiverse as code-savvy designers develop and iterate their designs within their accounts on Github before publishing more share-worthy documents to their repository of choice?

From the GitHub blog:

Here at GitHub, we’re always excited to see people using GitHub to collaborate on all sorts of things, code or non-code. Today, we’re adding a third dimension by making it easier to view some 3D models, specifically STL files, on GitHub.

You’re able to spin the model by clicking & dragging, zoom in/out by scrolling, and change the view modes with the links at the bottom. This viewer is powered by Three.js and uses WebGL when available, but will fall back to the slower canvas renderer. If you have further questions, check out the help article.

There are a bunch of awesome 3D projects on GitHub, and more every day. We hope you enjoy a new way of viewing these complex files!

Read more.

And here, for those who haven’t seen it before, is a screenshot from Gary Hodgson’s Githubiverse project:

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Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!

Welcome to the inaugural post of our new feature profiling African foods and drinks (plus other gastronomical related subjects); and the people on the continent and in the diaspora that are defining and reshaping our ideas and tastes of these. We’ll call it “Africa is a Kitchen”. To kick off the series, we will be speaking to a Chef in the diaspora who is defining African cuisine both on the continent and in the diaspora. Pierre Thiam is a chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author. He was raised in Dakar, Senegal. Thiam moved to New York in the late eighties and started working in various restaurants in the city. In 2003, Thiam opened his first restaurant, Yolele, a visionary African bistro and his second restaurant, Le Grand-Dakar Restaurant, opened in 2004 in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Thiam now runs a catering and gastronomy consultancy: Pierre Thiam Catering. In addition to his work as a chef, Thiam gives lectures and cooking classes at venues such as the Institute for Culinary Education (ICE) and the International Culinary Institute. A very busy man indeed being a food ambassador for Africa all over the globe including South America and Europe. So we were lucky to catch him for this small chat.

Hello Pierre. Thank you for this opportunity to speak with you. To start off, please tell us a bit about your background and how you got started in the culinary field. Did it involve a mentor or attendance of a formal culinary school?

Hello. I came to New York in the late 1980s. Prior to that, I was a Physics and Chemistry student at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar. Unfortunately, the late 80s were marred with strikes in the Senegalese school system so I obtained a US student visa for Baldwin Wallace college in Ohio. My goal was to become an engineer but fate decided that I would stay in New York and that my first job would be in the restaurant industry. That first job triggered a passion that was sleeping within me. Cooking is chemistry. It has been over twenty years now and I am still cooking.

Being from Senegal, it never occurred to me that a man could consider cooking as a career. In Senegal, there is a general acceptance that the kitchen belongs to women. Ha! In fact, growing up, I knew only one man to ever step foot in the kitchen. That was my Godfather who was of Vietnamese origins. He was part of the Vietnamese community that migrated to Senegal after the French Indochina war. He was an excellent cook, combining Vietnamese and Senegalese flavors. He used to grow his own vegetables and herbs. He is my great inspiration.

What is your overall cooking style? How truly continental is your style and which regions of the continent have been featured in your cuisine? What are your favorite ingredients and spices to cook with at any given time?

I would not call it a style but I like to cook intuitively, preferably with jazz music in the background. By cooking intuitively, I mean I tend to be really present in order to communicate with the ingredients around me and sometimes be dictated by them. Africa is my main source of inspiration and the influences in my cooking have been very diverse, from northern Africa all the way to West and Southern Africa. I am a big fan of the intensity of flavors in our food. The fermented ingredients used in West African cuisine (i.e. netetou in Senegal or Dawadawa in Nigeria), the dried salted fish, the Yeet (fermented conch), the smoked catfish, etc. I also love using our spice mixtures like the Hausa’s Kankankan or the Moroccan Charmoula. All these layers of flavors are what makes our African cuisines unique.

I have always wanted to ask an expert this question, what makes a cuisine ‘African’? History, methodology, ingredients or spices? Is ‘African cuisine’ a misnomer? Do we need an “African food” historian or anthropologist? Why does there seem to be a dearth of famous female African chefs in the diaspora?

“African cuisine” is indeed a misnomer. The continent is so rich in its cultural diversity, in addition to the immense variety of ingredients from one region to another. It is therefore insulting to try to categorize African cuisine into one box. I also do not think the definition of African cuisine should be simply geographical. “African cuisine” transpires through the diaspora. That is where the food anthropologist (or historian) you mentioned might play an important role. African captives, during slavery, have influenced Brazilian, Southern American, Latin American cuisines. In Spain, the Moors brought rice to Valencia; today the national dish of that country is paella. Food is constantly evolving. Our food has also received foreign influences. Africans brought new ingredients like rice, okra, eggplant or black eye peas to the new world. Other ingredients also arrived to the continent through the Columbian Exchange (Cassava, corn, sweet potato, pepper, etc.). The genius lies in how we embraced these new ingredients and made it our own.

The dearth of female chefs is not particular to Africans only. One reason professional cooking is dominated by men is because it can be very physical. Especially during the early stages of the chef’s career. It requires long hours on one’s feet, heavy lifting, enduring cuts and burns. African women are often great cooks, the challenges are the steps one has to go through before becoming a chef. That can be the deterrent factor.

Speaking of continental style, you have a luncheon and book signing at NYU in New York City this coming Friday, please tell us more about that and your previous writings. And why do you not have a food column in the New York Times yet?

Hahahaha! The New York Times has not offered me a column yet. Friday, the 12th of April at NYU will be the culmination of an event that begins today (April 11) around a conference on food and economics. The idea of the conference is the brainchild of Dr. Yaw Nyarko (professor of economics at NYU). He will be joined in the panel discussion by my friend Jessica Harris, a renowned food historian who wrote extensively about African cuisine. Also in the panel will be Mexican scholar, Dr. Marco Hernandez De Cuella whose body of work comprises essays on the influence of African cuisine in Mexico. It will be an opportunity to sign my book Yolele! Recipes from the Heart of Senegal.

Are there other African food chefs we should be looking out for on the continent and in the diaspora? In addition, when should we be expecting the next restaurant venture from you in NYC?

Fortunately, there are many African chefs to look out for globally. Here in New York: Chef Abdoul Gueye at Abistro in Brooklyn, Ivorian chef Samuel Beket (Hill Cafe), another Ivorian chef, Morou Ouatara, to name a few. Of course, there is the Swedish-Ethiopian celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson at Red Rooster.

Presently I am enjoying this time away from the demanding restaurant activities to work on projects which involve lots of traveling. I am also consulting on a couple of food concepts in NYC and abroad. I have a few pop up restaurants lined up including a recent one in San Francisco and an upcoming one on Mount Kilimanjaro as part of charity events.

Your best cooking tip for a novice just getting into the culinary business, be it operational or entrepreneurial?

Passion. Love is key in this business. It is not always as glamorous as it appears. It requires lots of patience to succeed in the culinary business.

Have you ever cooked for any “famous” Africans with “interesting” gastronomical pleasures? Would you ever consider becoming a presidential chef (what are those by the way)?

Through cooking, I have met many incredible personalities indeed. Last week, I cooked for Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, who I hope will be the next president of South Africa. No, I am not interested in being a presidential chef and have my food being constantly scrutinized by the secret service.

Let’s shift gears a bit … from 30 April to 5 May, you are organizing an African food festival in Dakar. Do share more about this festival. And why in Dakar?

The festival, “AfroEats”, is a celebration of our cuisine: its past and its future. It has the ambition to become a movement to promote our rich food culture but also to encourage healthy eating. The goal of the festival is to offer a platform to all the artisans of food transformation as well as chefs and food entrepreneurs. Dakar was chosen for this first AfroEats because of its ideal location. It is easy to get to Dakar (only 7 hours from NYC and 6 hours from Europe).

It is a crucial battle that we are facing. Many of our ingredients are being threatened with extinction. It is our responsibility to save and preserve them. There are no other options, to give up is to accept that what we eat will be dictated by corporations.

What is your favorite meal to cook for others? And for yourself?

I do not have a favorite meal to cook per se. It depends on my mood, the season, the person, and several other factors. The goal is to try to be in the place where the food I am cooking at the moment is my favorite to cook. That’s perfection! I have not been very successful at it yet.

Last but not least, could you share a recipe of yours with our readers (hopefully something they can make easily at home)?

BLACK-EYED PEA PUREE WITH SAUTÉED EGGPLANT WRAPPED IN BANANA LEAVES (ABALA)
Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
2 cups dried black-eyed peas, soaked
2 tablespoons palm or canola oil
1 small onion, diced
2 Japanese eggplants, cubed
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large banana leaf, cut into 6 (6- to 8-inch) squares

Procedure
1. Peel the soaked black-eyed peas by rubbing them vigorously between the palms of your hands to remove the skin. Alternately, drain the peas and place them in a blender or food processor. Add enough water to cover the peas and briefly pulse a few times, to break the skin free. Do not attempt to make a paste of the peas. Place the broken peas in a bowl and fill with more water. Then pour the water out through a strainer (the skins, lighter than the peas will pour out with the water, leaving the cleaned white peas in the bowl).
2. Return the peeled peas in the blender and process to a thick puree (adding a few drops of water to facilitate the process). It should have the consistency of hummus.
3. Heat the palm oil in a sauté pan, over medium heat, and sauté the onions until soft. Add the eggplant and cook until cooked through and eggplant is soft. Season with salt and pepper. Allow to cool.
4. Fold the eggplant mixture into the pea puree. Adjust seasoning.
5. Place 2 tablespoons of the mixture in the center of each banana leaf square. Close the leaf by folding the ends over. Secure with toothpicks or kitchen twine.
6. Place the packets in the top of a steamer or a hot grill and cook for 10 to 15 minutes (turning once). Can be served with a spicy tomato sauce or a tomato relish.

TOMATO RELISH
Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
1 red onion, finely julienned
2 firm ripe tomatoes, chopped
½ cup fresh lemon juice
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 habanero pepper, seeded and finely chopped
¼ cup peanut oil

Procedure
1. Place the onions and tomatoes in a salad bowl along with the lemon juice, salt, pepper and habanero. Stir well. Gradually add the peanut oil while still stirring.
2. Can be served with Abala or grilled seafood.

jrnl:

jrnl is a simple journal application for your command line. Journals are stored as human readable plain text files - you can put them into a Dropbox folder for instant syncing and you can be assured that your journal will still be readable in 2050, when all your fancy iPad journal applications will long be forgotten.

jrnl also plays nice with the fabulous DayOne and can read and write directly from and to DayOne Journals.