mattfractionblog:

cosplayingwhileblack:

X

Character: Storm

Series: X-men

SUBMISSION

attn shumph et al

madhackrviper:

holy shit how did they get away with this

A video that claims to have spotted a shapeshifting reptilian or alien member of the secret service during Barack Obama’s speech at the 2012 APAIC policy conference has gained traction on YouTube. Though the individual’s unusual appearance is likely the result of shadows and camera artifacts, National Security Council chief spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden responded to Wired’s Danger Room about the conspiracy theory. “I can’t confirm the claims made in this video, but any alleged program to guard the president with aliens or robots would likely have to be scaled back or eliminated in the sequester,” Hayden commented. “I’d refer you to the Secret Service or Area 51 for more details.” The best part of the entire situation is the White House’s lack of a flat denial. Perhaps this strange-looking agent really is a reptilian alien from outer space, or maybe it’s just Voldemort.

via Danger Room

Russian photographer Vitaliy Raskalov and two friends Vadim Mahorov and Marat Dupri sneaked to the top of the Great Pyramid of Giza — risking between one and three years of jail time — to snap some breathtaking photographs. The trio took an ordinary tour of the pyramids, and began hiding at around 4pm. After waiting five hours for the cover of darkness, they successfully avoided guards, climbed the pyramid, took an amazing set of photographs, and escaped without getting caught.

photos by Vitaliy Raskalov and Vadim Mahorov

via PetaPixel

Toronto Star

Iran, North Korea, Syria block UN arms trade treaty Reuters By Louis Charbonneau. UNITED NATIONS | Thu Mar 28, 2013 10:15pm EDT. UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran, Syria and North Korea on Friday prevented the adoption of the first international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade, ... UN Treaty to Control Arms Sales Hits SnagNew York Times UN Arms Treaty StalledVoice of America UN arms treaty blocked by Iran, North Korea and SyriaTelegraph.co.uk BBC News -The Australian -USA TODAY all 101 news articles »

A plague is striking Chinese officials in the southeastern county of Shuangfeng. One by one their photographs are being nabbed from government websites, their faces cut out and then pasted into pornographic movie stills.

“I know what you’re thinking. Why did we wait this long to make Bacon Condoms? And you’re right – we’re sorry.”

In 2011, the bacon-flavoring experts at J & D’s Foods released Baconlube, a bacon-flavored water-based personal lubricant. Today they announced Bacon Condoms, a box of Baconlube-lubricated prophylactics said to “make your meat, look like meat.” Heeb notes that the condoms are 100% certified kosher. With April Fool’s Day around the corner, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were pulling a prank, however they are listed for sale at their site BaconCondoms.com. They are apparently also working on a Sriracha Lube.

Made in America of the highest quality latex. Every Bacon Condom has been rigorously tested to help ensure reliability and the utmost safety for when you’re makin’ Bacon. As an added bonus, J&D’s baconlube™ ultra premium water based meat flavored personal lubricant has been generously applied inside and out for an even more hot pork experience.

Mascots

images via Justin Esch & J & D’s Foods

via hypervocal, Heeb

While the offline models are less comprehensive than their online equivalents, they are perfect for translating in a pinch when you are traveling abroad with poor reception or without mobile data access.

So go out and explore another language or another culture without worrying about Internet access. There’s a whole world offline out there.

Posted by Minqi Jiang, Associate Product Manager

By Christopher Grant
on March 28, 2013 at 11:00p

And that's the Ouya. It's an early product full of potential energy.

On July 10, just one week after announcing the project and less than eight hours after putting it on Kickstarter, Ouya reached its $950,000 goal.

A few minutes later it broke the million dollar mark, only the eighth project in Kickstarter history, not to mention the quickest to do so. In that short window, it introduced more than just a interesting device; it introduced the world to the idea that mobile hardware and mobile software can be used to create something that isn't mobile, but rather something closer to what we'd call a video game console. And it could be yours for just $99.

Now, just a little over seven months from the end of its record-breaking Kickstarter tear, the team behind the Ouya is ready to share the diminutive device with the world, bringing it to the Game Developers Conference just ahead of shipping units to Kickstarter backers.

The hardware

The hardware

"They'll get a first look at Ouya, including the UI, the storefront and games," Ouya creator Julie Uhrman told Polygon earlier this week, discussing the early backers who will receive these first units. "They will be with us as we continue to evolve the software in Ouya leading up to our launch on June 4."

Like most software platforms we use today, from phones to game consoles, the Ouya is designed to be updated. The hardware, however, is finished.

"Our hardware is baked, it's complete, it's done," she said. "But the software will continue to evolve. It'll get better every single day, week, month and year. We'll get more games every single day."

"Our hardware is baked, it's complete, it's done."

The Ouya is an impressive box. The diminutive device was designed by Yves Béhar, the founder of design concern Fuseproject, and it strikes an impressive profile. Equipped with micro USB, ethernet, USB and HDMI ports, the Ouya is well equipped.

During its PlayStation 4 reveal last month, Sony now famously shared its latest DualShock controller and not the actual PS4 box. "The console is just a box," Sony's Shuhei Yoshida said. Ouya, on the other hand, has always put the focus on its tiny console while the controller underwent a series of public revisions based on backer feedback.

"You'll see a lot of changes to it that came from our early developer backers," she said. "The d-pad has changed from a disc to a cross; the buttons have OUYA on them; the triggers will feel a little bit different from the developer console based on feedback."

Uhrman calls the controller a "love letter to gamers" and says the team wanted to create "the most precise, accurate, responsive controller out there." Unfortunately, what we played failed to live up to those goals.

While the shape of the controller feels good in the hand, the wireless Bluetooth gamepad — extras sell separately for a not insignificant $49.99 — has a few design decisions that could be improved upon. The Ouya controller's shoulder buttons, for example, are constructed of a glossy black plastic that matches its top panel, but doesn't feel great to rest fingers upon.

The controller's analog sticks have a good feel in their movement, with the right amount of tension — they're neither too loose nor too tight. The d-pad and face buttons, on the other hand, feel mushy, giving the sensation that they require too much force to move.

The most worrisome aspect of the Ouya controller, however, is the current state of its input lag. Playing a game of Canabalt or Stalagflight, arcade-style games that demand split-second accuracy, the controller's delayed response does a disservice to the experience. It's less noticeable in games like Wizorb or Save the Puppies, and could be addressed in future software updates, but stood out as a glaring problem during our hands-on time with the device.

Using the controller's touchpad will take some getting used to. It was a welcome optional means of navigating menu screens. Speaking of, a double tap of the Ouya "Home" button below the touchpad serves as a shortcut to the system's main menu.

Despite some quirks, the overall feel of the controller is solid, in part due to the fact that there are no inputs and no headphone/headset jack. Everything's enclosed. Getting to the controller's batteries requires popping off a plastic panel on each side of the controller. They're a bit challenging to pull off, but snap right back into place, thanks to magnetized pegs.

Ouya's controller, at this stage, feels less refined than a gamepad commanding its price point really should. It's not yet at the level of similar controllers from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo — who have obviously had more time to iterate on their offerings — but hopefully its creators can work out some of these kinks in software. As for the hardware issues? "There are always opportunities to improve it and roll it into production," Uhrman said. "But for right now it is baked. It's done."

The Interface

The Interface

The Ouya's menus are "simple, direct, minimalistic," Uhrman says, and she's not wrong. After booting, users are greeted with just four options: Play, Discover, Make and Manage.

Play: This is where your games live. Unfortunately, the list of games isn't organizable and, with the platform's "free to try" market, we can imagine this list becoming cluttered very quickly. "I like that idea," Uhrman said, when asked. "So that won't be ready for June 4, but it's something I'll talk to the team about."

Discover: This is the storefront, where you find new games to play. "You'll see categories that are merchandized and curated by us," Uhrman said. "You'll have your genre lists. You'll notice that our genres are a little bit different." Some of those channels will be curated by game designer Kellee Santiago, "but there's the potential to have anyone come in as a guest," Uhrman said.

Make: This is where games go before they make it to the Play section. "We want to be the most developer-friendly platform," Uhrman said. Before a game gets promoted to Play, it enters the Sandbox. "This is where you'll find the newest releases, the most recent games uploaded to Ouya," she said. Once a game is "liked enough" it "will come out of the Sandbox and will be discoverable through our genre categories."

Manage: This is where the settings live. If you're familiar with Android's settings menus, you know what to expect here.

"...the developers aren't finding many of the players who would love to play their games, and the gamers aren't aware those games exist."

The Games

The Games

The handful of games on display included familiar names like Final Fantasy 3, the original "endless runner" Canabalt, the Unreal Engine-powered The Ball, and familiar indie names like Saturday Morning RPG and Wizorb. Everything in the store is "free to try" with various monetization strategies at play. "We've seen games with a demo and a fully paid version, like Final Fantasy 3," Uhrman said. "We've seen games that enable micro transactions." One of the team's favorites is Stalagflight, which has a "donation-based system" that asks users to buy the developers a slice of pizza for $0.99 while cautioning that doing so "won't change the gameplay in any way."

Being a self-described "open" platform based on Android, it should come as little surprise that users will be able to sideload apps and games onto the Ouya, bypassing the store entirely. Many of those apps probably aren't optimized for controller input, not to mention a 16:9 high definition television display. The team at Ouya is focused on native ports, and not on creating layers like button-mapping software to help facilitate the use of un-optimized apps.

"The games that are great are the ones that are optimized for Ouya," Uhrman said. "Most of the games that are on Ouya today are either TV exclusives or Ouya exclusives; people are really optimizing for Ouya."

So while Minecraft will run as a sideloaded application, it's not an ideal solution. "We want all games to be optimized and designed for Ouya," she said. "Minecraft has our development kit. We've been talking with them, and we hope to know more about Minecraft coming to Ouya by the time our launch happens in June."

Perhaps more notably, the Ouya will also support emulators. "We will support emulators if they adhere to our content guidelines," Uhrman said. "You cannot submit an emulator with content." So Uhrman and company are taking a hands-off approach when it comes to using the Ouya to enable playing classic games on the television through an emulator.

"We're an open platform, and we'll accept content that adheres to our content guidelines," she said.

Turning an idea into a pitch and then that pitch into a product, in less than a year, is dizzying

That platform won't include Ouya-wide features like leaderboards, achievements, friend finding and matchmaking by the June launch, however. "That's something we're building now and will release this year," Uhrman said.

As the first Android-powered gaming console, one created by a Kickstarter-backed upstart no less, it's impressive that the Ouya even exists. Turning an idea into a pitch and then that pitch into a product, in less than a year, is dizzying. And what we played felt early because … well, because it is. User feedback will hopefully improve the console's software leading up to its June launch and the storefront will grow and the curation will help surface interesting games and …

And that's the Ouya. It's an early product full of potential energy. The same potential energy 63,416 backers saw during the project's month-long Kickstarter. It's a product at the intersection of cheap mobile hardware, a ubiquitous open-source mobile operating system, multi-platform development tools, and a new wave of independent game development.

But converting that potential energy into kinetic energy is elusive because it's hard to do. What if the console's software isn't improved? What if the developers don't show up? What if the controller is never improved and remains mushy and unresponsive, a deal breaker in and of itself? The early backers bought into the vision and may well expect things to come in hot, but the team at Ouya only has a couple months before the official launch in June to answer those questions.

Additional reporting by Michael McWhertor.

Watch the slow creep of spring as it pushes the cold hand of winter back to the frigid north … only to succumb again next year, of course.

NASA’s MODIS imager senses Earth’s reflection of both visible and longer wavelength near-infrared light. Plants, full of chlorophyll, absorb most visible light (except for green, of course) and reflect near-infrared. By combining this with the reflection of snow, NASA can watch the yearly cycle of vegetation springing back and falling away.

I made a higher-res GIF here, and you can watch the full three-year animation here.

Ubisoft Toronto is collaborating with Ubisoft Montreal on an Assassin's Creed game coming after AC4: Black Flag. and has plans to be involved with the development of four other unannounced games. Speaking with Polygon, managing director Jade Raymond said the studio, involved with Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Rainbow Six: Patriots, has plans set for five further games in total.

"We have two big collaborations coming that we're not talking about, on two of the biggest franchises at Ubisoft. We also have two new IP," Raymond told Polygon, noting that the fifth project is a Splinter Cell game.

Raymond's comments follow on from the intentions she laid out in 2010 to eventually have five triple-A projects going on at Ubisoft Toronto at the same time, with a staff of some 800 people involved. In other words, Ubi Toronto's plans for world domination are beginning to surface, and we should call the authorities immediately.

Ubisoft Toronto working with Ubi Montreal on another Assassin's Creed originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Obey

Killing hippies

Knock loud, I’m home.

Pantone

Paul Williams is probably best known as a rock critic who started the groundbreaking magazine Crawdaddy! as a teenager and sang with Timothy Leary on John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Give Peace a Chance." But Williams, who died yesterday after a battle with dementia, also has a major place in science fiction history, including as Philip K. Dick's friend, literary executor and biographer.

Read more...

I bet you don't remember that both William Shatner and Isaac Asmiov were pitchmen for PCs. Well, people who had "home computers" back in the 1980s do. Here's a collection of insanely great (and greatly insane) computer ads from the days of WarGames and Tron.

Read more...

[Cyber Explorer] recently ditched his collection of physical computers acting as servers by virtualizing the lot of them. But with every change there’s a drawback. Although it wasn’t too hard for him to set up the virtual machines, he did end up spending quite a bit of time trying to improve the bandwidth. Luckily he posted an article chronicling all of the VM tweaks he used to improve the system.

The experience involves both a Windows 8 machine, as well as a some Linux boxes meaning there’s something here for everybody. At each step in the process he performs some throughput tests to see how the boxes are performing. Tweaks are numerous, but include trying out different Ethernet drivers, making sure all modules are up to date, squashing at least one bug, and giving jumbo-frames a try.

[Thanks Omri]

Filed under: Network Hacks

““Yuck! That stuff had floaters in it and all kind of stuff inside the bottles. … I don’t think it would even be safe to drink,” said John W. Saunders, 63.”

- Scottdale judge delays hearing as defendant claims he never downed vintage booze worth $102K | TribLIVE

Scottdale police Chief Barry Pritts said DNA the thief left on the lips of the empty bottles matched a DNA sample taken from Saunders last year.

When police questioned him after the empty bottles were discovered in March 2012, Saunders said the old liquor had “evaporated.” He repeated that explanation Wednesday, maintaining the whiskey would not have “been any good.”

18 obsolete words, which should never have gone out of style:

nilamarthiel:

thetruthyness:

knottahooker:

Snoutfair: A person with a handsome countenance — “The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten” by Jeffrey Kacirk

Pussyvan: A flurry, temper — “The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten” by Jeffrey Kacirk

Wonder-Wench: A sweetheart — “The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten” by Jeffrey Kacirk

Lunting: Walking while smoking a pipe — John Mactaggart’s “Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia,” 1824

California Widow: A married woman whose husband is away from her for any extended period -John Farmer’s “Americanisms Old and New”, 1889

Groak: To silently watch someone while they are eating, hoping to be invited to join them

Jirble: To pour out (a liquid) with an unsteady hand: as, he jirbles out a dram —www.Wordnik.com

Curglaff: The shock felt in bathing when one first plunges into the cold water — John Jamieson’s Etymological Scottish Dictionary, 1808

Spermologer: A picker-up of trivia, of current news, a gossip monger, what we would today call a columnist — “The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten” by Jeffrey Kacirk

Tyromancy: Divining by the coagulation of cheese — “The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten” by Jeffrey Kacirk

Beef-Witted: Having an inactive brain, thought to be from eating too much beef. — John Phin’s “Shakespeare Cyclopaedia and Glossary”, 1902

Queerplungers: Cheats who throw themselves into the water in order that they may be taken up by their accomplices, who carry them to one of the houses appointed by the Humane Society for the recovery of drowned persons, where they are rewarded by the society with a guinea each, and the supposed drowned person, pretending he was driven to that extremity by great necessity, is also frequently sent away with a contribution in his pocket. — “The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten” by Jeffrey Kacirk

Englishable: That may be rendered into English. — John Ogilvie’s “Comprehensive English Dictionary”, 1865

Resistentialism: The seemingly spiteful behavior shown by inanimate objects —www.ObsoleteWord.Blogspot.com

Bookwright: A writer of books; an author; a term of slight contempt — Daniel Lyons’s “Dictionary of the English Language”, 1897

Soda-squirt: One who works at a soda fountain in New Mexico — Elsie Warnock’s “Dialect Speech in California and New Mexico”, 1919

With squirrel: Pregnant — Vance Randolph’s “Down in the Holler: A Gallery of Ozark Folk Speech”, 1953

Zafty: A person very easily imposed upon — Maj. B. Lowsley’s “A Glossary of Berkshire Words and Phrases”, 1888

RESISTENTIALISM

THE SEEMINGLY SPITEFUL BEHAVIOR OF INANIMATE OBJECTS

okay we need to bring this one back right now

I hope to never be with squirrel good gracious

clockwork-dingos:

How to paint gold tutorial by *ConceptCookie

And I found this very helpful just by looking at it. I was never good at coloring gold.

discoverynews:

Why a Mars Comet Impact Would be Awesome

...the aftermath of a cometary collision would be a scientific smorgasbord. If we ever needed to be “pushed” to send a manned mission to the surface of Mars, I can think of no better time than in the years after a massive comet strike.

Way more in the full article.

constellationsofthoughts:

omg stop.

(roaring with laughter) OH WHY WOULD SOMEONE DO THAT.  :)

havingbeenbreathedout:

Is this like, Tilda Swinton dressed in Madame Grès, in an attempt to take me completely out of commission for the foreseeable future? Because: mission accomplished.

And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen: the caryatid who walked away from the Acropolis in Athens, saying “Screw this, you can hold up your own damn portico. I’m ready for a photoshoot.”

…This makes a kind of horrible sense.

petermorwood:

An awesome Peterson Type I Viking sword made by Jarkko Niskanen in Finland: the blade has a pattern-welded core, with plain carbon-steel edges added on; the guard and pommel have copper and silver wire inlay, the pommel itself is of historically-accurate construction, not one casting but two sections riveted together.

Now the Really Awesome part: “This viking age sword I made as my thesis work in North Karelia vocational college crafts and design.” And not long ago, because according to his bio information he’s just 22 years old…!

What sort of work will he be producing when he’s 32?

Yeah.

Smartphone apps have created a new digital underclass of low-paid and highly monitored workers. We're all to blame.

New police documents were released today from the ongoing investigation into the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, including search records that reveal shooter Adam Lanza had amassed a gigantic home arsenal.