firehoseBrian Blessed beat
“Succeed On!” - Brian Blessed fronts campaign for ASB Bank in New Zealand
I love this campaign. The premise is that New Zealanders are too bashful, so Brian Blessed visits and shouts at us to “be not so humble”.
Worth watching to hear him coin “reticent whoopee cushion” as a thing.
YES, BIGGIE!
This is delightful.
firehosefuck wayne
Follow the Mississippi River south from Memphis, Tennessee until it hits the Gulf of Mexico and you'll wind up in New Orleans. I took that trip a couple times during my brief tenure in the South, and it was the richest musical education a man could ever ask for. My first night, sitting down for dinner, a second line band marched off the street and right through the restaurant, into the kitchen, and out through the back yard. Infused with the melodies and rhythms of French, Spanish, and African peoples, New Orleans is a long simmering musical gumbo, home to many of my all-time favorite artists. The French Quarter Festival kicks off this weekend, so we're bringing a taste of the Crescent City right into your home.
“Is Photoshop Remixing the World?” by PBS Arts: Off Book takes a look at the many ways Photoshop has changed visual culture, from fashion photography to online memes.
Photoshop has completely revolutionized our visual culture. Artists now use Photoshop to create complex imagery that would have been impossible 20 years ago. It has also profoundly changed the art of photo retouching, turning a labor intensive process into an artful and often controversial digital workflow. But possibly the most current and expressive influence can be seen in meme culture online. With the ability to alter any image in the media landscape, everyday people now have the means to critically comment on culture and spread their ideas virally, leveling the playing field between traditional media creators and consumers. Photoshop has changed the way we communicate, the way we express ourselves, and the way we view the world and each other.
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firehosewhite people
no more rap only rap parody
firehoseCYPPERPUPK
By Alexa Ray Corriea on Apr 12, 2013 at 8:40a
China-based indie developer Onipunks launched Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight campaigns today for it's roguelike real-time strategy game C-Wars.
The developer describes the game as a "cyberpunk apocalypse roguelike" mashed up with real time stratetgy-style combat and a touch of action role-playing game "essence." The game features detailed pixel art and fully animated sprites made on Onipunk's in-house engine, ONI-engine.
The game is set in the distant future after mankind has colonized the moon. One of the moon's largest cities is infected by creatures called "crystal mutants," which then spread to a second city. The government decides to use nuclear weapons to wipe out these two locations, with players taking on the role of the area's field commander on a mission to find a way to save them.
Players will head into combat on a battle grid similar to the Fire Emblem games, and will summon soldiers into battle for backup. According to Kickstarter, depending on the choices players make while exploring the infected cities, the game will have different endings.
Onipunks is asking for $32,000 to fund the game for publication on Windows PC. At the time of writing C-Wars is sitting at just below $1,000. Check out the video above for a look at C-Wars in action. Download and play the latest version of the game's alpha here.
I don't read music so it's difficult for me to say how useful this is, but the folks behind Hummingbird claim their new system of music notation is "easier to learn, faster to read, and simpler for even the trickiest music".
Roll over, Beethoven. (via @veen)
Tags: design music
KUNG-FU SQUIRREL IS HAVING NONE OF THIS
firehoseSlovakian German-style fencers
It's been apparent for several years now that the Arctic is melting. But it's melting much faster than most studies previously predicted. As early as 2020 and no later than 2050, it will be almost completely ice-free, according to a new paper out this week. "It's pretty scary how rapidly all this Arctic change is happening," said James Overland, lead author of the new study, and a research oceanographer with the US National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). "The Arctic is a real indicator of global change here, that's why we wrote the paper," he told The Verge.
"It's pretty scary how rapidly all this Arctic change is happening."
Specifically, Overland explained that the loss of the majority of Arctic sea ice during future summer melt seasons will have three major impacts: it will open the door for drilling and shipping in the region, it will ruin the habitats for polar bears and marine mammals, and eventually, it could cause more extreme weather events for us who live down in the more southern latitudes. "It's hard right now to say that 'this particular snowstorm two years ago was caused by what was going on in the Arctic, or that the path of Hurricane Sandy was caused by Arctic changes, but there are indications we will see more extreme weather as the Arctic warms up."
Graph of sea ice loss maximum and minimum from 1979 through 2013, from the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
It's important to point out that the Arctic is likely to still always be covered by a little bit of ice, according to Overland and his colleague's projections, and other future models of Earth's temperature. "Ten to fifteen percent will still be there during the winter," said Overland. Every year, large areas — hundreds of thousands of square miles across — of Arctic sea ice melt during the summer and refreeze each winter, part of a naturally occurring seasonal process.
"There are indications we will see more extreme weather as the Arctic warms up."
But the amount of sea ice lost in the summer has been exacerbated in recent years by global warming, which Overland and others have linked to a rise in human produced greenhouse gas emissions. Last year saw a record amount of sea ice melt, according to NOAA. And overall, the trend is going way down. "We've already lost three fourths of the sea ice volume since the 1980s," Overland said.
Chart of Arctic sea ice minimum and maximum from 1979 to 2012, from the National Snow and Ice Data Center
Previous studies have projected that the Arctic could see its first ice-free summer sometime between 2015 2100. The new meta-study (a study of 36 previous computer models used by the UN and others to predict Arctic climate change) published this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, indicates that the answer is likely right in-between those extremes. The study attempted to narrow the discrepancy between previous ones by looking at more recently observed data. "Eighty percent of the [previous] models are too slow to start with, and probably more than that." Overland told The Verge.
firehosearchiving beat
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firehoseall carriers suck forever
In addition to the dour news that Verizon will be strictly enforcing a 24-month upgrade cycle, the company is extending a small olive branch. Customers who want to get a new phone before their contract is up (or, presumably, anytime) will be able to do so without paying the full device cost up front. Instead, Verizon will let consumers sign up for a "Device Payment Plan" that will break up the full retail price into monthly payments over the course of a year. A Verizon spokesperson tells The Verge that smartphones and tablets costing more than $349.99 will be eligible, but there's also a $24 "finance charge, billed at $2 each month."
The plan was originally leaked by Droid-Life earlier today, and it's mainly an extension of a program Verizon already offered for tablets. As Engadget notes, the plan is completely separate from the device subsidy costs built-into Verizon's standard contract costs. That makes Verizon's device payment plan a different beast entirely from T-Mobile's "Uncarrier" plans, which separate device subsidies from plan costs. Still, it could make upgrading early a little easier (if a little more expensive in the long run) for those who don't want to pay full retail price at the register.
firehose"I had to do this once with Privateer II: The Darkening. It gained a bit when he said “I bet you didn’t play it through, I bet somebody just told you how…” and I was able to smile gently and say “God, possibly, since I wrote the game.” And plainly the Deity was with me that day, as I happened to be carrying docs from my UK agent (who’d done the deal) that showed not only that I was the writer, but the five-figure sum I had been paid."
also, holy shit, Clive Owen, John Hurt and Brian Blessed were in Privateer 2?
This made me laugh so dang hard.
that’s almost too cruel
almostbeautiful
I had to do this once with Privateer II: The Darkening. It gained a bit when he said “I bet you didn’t play it through, I bet somebody just told you how…” and I was able to smile gently and say “God, possibly, since I wrote the game.” And plainly the Deity was with me that day, as I happened to be carrying docs from my UK agent (who’d done the deal) that showed not only that I was the writer, but the five-figure sum I had been paid. …It was a happy day for me. Not so much for him. I’d never had a referent for the word “slink” for a full grown male before. As in “slink away in utter dejection.” I smiled for at least three days without stopping. And am smiling now… I had completely forgotten about this.
(ETA: you have to understand that I felt, and still feel, very possessive about that game. It wasn’t my first [Star Trek: The Kobayashi Alternative was] but it was the first time I worked with a really big team [all of whom I liked] and it gave me the opportunity to write for the most amazing cast: Clive Owen, David Warner, John Hurt, Brian Blessed, many other lovely people. [Try getting them all in a movie now.] For this work, though, I got to suffer the pains of Hell in that I spent nearly six weeks [in a couple of tranches] away from Peter, immured near EA UK in a Holiday Inn in Slough. [“OH LOVELY BOMBS COME FALL ON SLOUGH”, etc.] It was fun and happy work, but I missed Peter like oxygen. And then — remembering the pains that work cost me — to have some snotnosed baby-boy gamer in a shiny suit and a cheap tie come try to tell me that I did not understand the game structure that I can still remember whiteboarding for Erin Roberts and the rest of the team…? I. Think. Not.)
firehoseFUCKING STOP TAKING EVERY FREE AGENT, SHIT
 Yahoo! Sports |
USA TODAY The Seattle Seahawks continued their run of defensive acquisitions this offseason when they agreed to terms Friday with Antoine Winfield. The former Minnesota Vikings cornerback will sign a one-year deal with the Seahawks, Winfield's agent Ashanti Webb ... Antoine Winfield signs deal with SeahawksSI.com Antoine Winfield, Seattle Seahawks strike contractNFL News Former Viking Winfield Headed to SeahawksNorthland's NewsCenter FanSided -SB Nation -The Seattle Times (blog) all 27 news articles » |
Google has made its latest purchase: Behavio. The company works on recording and analyzing all of the data that smartphones are capable of keeping track of: location, speed, nearby devices and networks, phone activity, and much more. It uses this information to make predictions, and presumably, with more and more data its algorithms would become even more accurate. Behavio created Funf, an open source framework that allows developers to leverage this data on Android. There is little information available about the company joining Google, but Behavio says that it will be shutting down its private alpha in light of the news — though it will continue maintaining Funf. The team says that it will be working with Google to develop improvements centered on the belief "that our digital experiences should be better connected with the way we experience the world."
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