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Thank God it’s Frida

Großartig: Eine Reminder-Liste von der besten Freundin einer Dame, die bei ‘nem Behandlungsfehler ihr Kurzzeitgedächtnis verloren hat. Unbedingt die Kommentare lesen, superinteressant:

ARE YOU GUYS OR GIRLS!?: We’re both female, and use bro jokingly. Sis doesn’t have the same ring. […]

HOW ARE YOU NOW?: She has hearing loss and still struggles with short term memory. For the most part, you would probably meet her and just think she’s really forgetful. Her life is a lot of lists, alarms, and calendar dates so she can always know whats going on, and when. […]

YOU’RE A GREAT FRIEND: Aw jeez. I did fuck with her though. I told her the same series of jokes, tweaking them each time so they were funnier and funnier. Every five minutes, I was A COMEDY GOD.

This is the letter my best friend made me when I was in ICU with short term memory loss. (via Gawker)

As Nobel-prize chasers search for a cure to HIV, and Bill Gates squanders his fortune on new and innovative vaccination methods, one topic has remained unexplored: why do gamers insist on drawing dicks in videogames? Kotaku's Stephen Totilo tackles this question head-on in a newly-published investigative report titled Why Do People Love To Draw Dicks in Games? Totilo argues that dick-drawing has long been engrained deep within our culture, providing the pre-18th century Cerne Abbas Giant and an ancient petroglyph as evidence. The writer sought help from the scientific community to back his theory, and was told that, just as animals may use an erect penis to assert dominance over others, human males (in particular adolescents) draw them as a declaration of status. The topic was the subject of some disagreement, but psychologist Nando Pelusi gave perhaps the most reasonable answer, stating:

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"Usually, penises get covered or sheathed, otherwise males tend to feel very self-conscious; I think that shame evolved as adaptation to social forces that had real consequences for most of human history where punishment and group cohesion could mean life or death, especially for males establishing their status, so graffiti is usually done secretly and anonymously. Few people are indifferent to an erect penis, because it is either a challenge, or come-on, or declaration of status. Males do most graffiti, and pubertal males are most interested in their newfound obsessions; anything relating to status, making your mark — sometimes literally."

We highly recommend heading over to Kotaku for the full and graphic report.

• Source Kotaku
• Related Items video games gaming dick phallus penis schlong phallic illustrations

Metro Map, Pyongyang, North Korea

An interactive metro map from North Korea’s secretive capital. The green buttons across the bottom of the map represent all the stations: press one and the path from your current station to your destination lights up. With just a handful of stations on two lines (and only one interchange), I hardly think many people are going to be overwhelmed by the system’s complexity.

Wikipedia’s article on the Pyongyang Metro is actually a very interesting read: the stations are mostly named thematically (Comrade, Enlightenment, Three Rejuvenations, etc.), while accounts vary as to exactly how many stations foreign visitors to the city can visit – whatever the final number, it seems that they’re mostly limited to the newer, more impressive stations.

(Source: Claude1688/Flickr)

A Kickstarter project for an indie game called Kaiju Combat: Giant Monsters has been put on hold, due to a trademark disagreement with game publisher Wizards of the Coast. Soon after raising $112,513 for its $100k goal, developer Sunstone Games received an infringement notice from Wizards of the Coast. The notice claimed the name of Sunstone's game violated Wizard's "Kaijudo" trademark, which refers to a collectible card game based on a Hasbro TV show.

Sunstone says its lawyer contacted Wizards last December to argue that "Kaiju" (a Japanese word that means "monster") had nothing at all to do with "Kaijudo," and they believed the matter had been settled. But this past week Wizards took the matter to Kickstarter directly, which took the project offline, claiming it was "the subject of an intellectual property dispute."

Sunstone's owner Simon Strange says he's working as quickly as possible to get the project reinstated. Going through court costs, he says, would be prohibitive on the company's "limited development budget." Strange adds he's "hopeful" that Sunstone won't have to change the game's name.

Kaiju Combat Kickstarter on hold over Wizards of the Coast trademark dispute originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 22 Mar 2013 01:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cynic writes "Inspired by an earlier Slashdot story about Finnish teachers and students writing a math textbook, I pitched the idea of writing our own much cheaper/free C++ textbook to my programming students. They were incredibly positive, so I decided to move forward and started a Kickstarter project. We hope to release the textbook we produce under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license and sell cheap hard copies to sustain the hosting and other production costs."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

By Jenna Pitcher on Mar 22, 2013 at 8:31a

The Witcher 3: The Hunt developer CD Projekt Red plans to expand to the U.S. in addition to releasing REDkit to modders and developing three smaller titles based on its brands, according to the company's four year strategy document.

As outlined in the document, written in Polish, CD Projekt's strategy for the year of 2013 includes opening a marketing and PR branch in the U.S., and release an open beta of its REDkit editor and provide support to community development modders.

For the period of 2014 to 2016, the developer plans to release two smaller "chart-topping quality titles supporting one of the product lines" of approximately 20 hours of gameplay each and a cross-platform game on mobile platforms based on one their brands.

For the same period, the company plans to release The Witcher 3: The Hunt, as previously announced, simultaneously across three platforms, including PS4 and Windows PC. The document notes that The Witcher 3 has 100 hours of gameplay is 35 times the size of The Witcher 2. It also notes its intention of long-term support for the title.

Also part of the three year plan, yet already revealed, is the 2015 release of futuristic thriller Cyberpunk 2077, which will feature tactical combat and diverse character classes associated with the plot.

In the three year time frame, CD Projekt wants to start selling REDengine licenses and release the full version of REDkit whilst providing development support for community modders.

Polygon has reached out to CD Projekt Red and will update this story as information comes to hand.

By Emily Gera on Mar 22, 2013 at 9:00a

Yogify, an iOS app that guides users through their daily yoga routine, is now available on the App Store.

The new app offers free sample classes made up of a variety of poses. In addition, users can choose from five class programs at increasing difficulty. Yogify features over 275 yoga poses with photo illustrations and audio cues, and is designed with over 30 hours of workout material and 50 classes.

Developed by EA Sports, Yogify can be accessed on iOS 6 devices or above. Individual programs can be bought for $1.99, an entire level for $3.99, while the entire collection is available for $9.99.

• Image Source
• Flickr user Go Interactive Wellness

Apple, Google, and Samsung are all rumored to be building their own smartwatches, and LG is the latest manufacturer to reportedly join the fray. According The Korea Times, LG is currently developing both a smartwatch and another wearable computing device described as something similar to Google Glass. It wouldn't be the first time that LG developed such a product — back in 2009, the company showed off a "watch phone," which came with a full GSM radio built-in for voice calls. This rumored new product would be more along the lines of the Pebble and other speculated smartwatches, with the ability to sync with your smartphone and check messages or other notifications.

The watch is reported to run on Android, which fits considering the company's heavy focus on Google's OS — but there's also a chance it'll run the new Firefox OS that was shown off in detail at MWC last month. While it would certainly make sense for LG to be exploring wearable computing options, the timing of this rumor helps put LG in the conversation alongside consumer technology's giants — smartwatches from Samsung, Google, and Apple are probably the biggest rumor in technology right now,

• Source The Korea Times
• Related Items rumor smartwatch android firefox os LG Google Samsung Apple

By Emily Gera on Mar 22, 2013 at 10:00a

The iconic London Underground map has been re-designed based on the art style of Super Mario.

Created by Reddit user Chris Evans, the image covers Zone 1 of London's underground transit system and features graphics from the retro world of Super Mario Bros. 3, pipes and castles included. It is inspired, at least in part, by a similar Super Mario map that recreates the famed Washington DC Metro Line.

The full image is available below:

• Source
• Chris Evans (Reddit)

Swiss artist Felice Varini creates large scale anamorphic illusion paintings in which geometric shapes and patterns are visible from only one vantage point. He began creating the works in 1979, starting with small paintings and relatively simple shapes. More recent works have covered entire rooms, buildings, and even a small town in the Swiss alps. To create the paintings, Varini first projects his designs over the space he wishes to paint. He then traces the projected image and begins painting. The finished painting can be viewed from the spot where he originally placed the projector.

via Gwarlingo, Visual News

Today British Airways in partnership with the United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union and the DNA (Decide Now Act) Summit announced UnGrounded, a hackathon that will take place at 30,000 feet on a flight from San Francisco to London. One hundred CEOs, founders, venture capitalists, and others chosen by the UnGrounded advisory board will be tasked with solving the “global misalignment of talent” — the idea that the number of available opportunities doesn’t always match the number of qualified individuals. The UnGrounded hackathon flight will take place this summer, and when participants land in London they will present their work at the DNA Summit on June 13th, 2013.

image via UnGrounded

via Ubergizmo

Sculptor Calvin Seibert has created a number of amazing geometric sandcastles over the past several years. Seibert says building the sprawling sandcastles is a challenge, “nature will always be against you and time is always running out.”

I rarely start with a plan, just a vague notion of trying to do something different each time. Once I begin building and forms take shape I can start to see where things are going and either follow that road or attempt to contradict it with something unexpected.

When they are successful they don’t feel contained or finished. They become organic machines that might grow and expand. I am always adding just one more bit and if time allowed I wouldn’t stop.

photos by Calvin Seibert

via enpundit, The Awesomer

In July 2010, bottles of beer were found in a 200-year-old shipwreck in the Aland archipelago and will now be replicated by Finnish brewery Stallhagen, the NY Daily News reports. The brewery plans to release the beer for sale in 2014.

“There is ever-increasing demand for specialty beer on the international market and we are convinced that our product is going to interest beer enthusiasts around the world,” Stallhagen’s managing director Jan Wennstroem said in a statement.

image via NY Daily News

via Digg

“Between” is a 2012 exhibit by artist Math Monahan featuring a collection of braided reference books that slowly unfurl back into ordinary tomes. The books are installed at the University of Michigan in the Penny Stamps Graduate Studio and the Hatcher Graduate library.

Between is an installation that explores the stillness in the space between places, powers and context. Using a system of braided books, I am attempting to create a structure that possesses its power and agency only when it exist between academic book and art object. By allowing the tension of the circle arrangement to hold the object together, without adhesives or restraint, the pages slowly unbraid themselves over time giving the installation the opportunity to become books, again, in their original form.

images via Math Monahan

via Visual News, Neatorama

A dog managed to photobomb every single picture taken by their owner for a Craigslist apartment listing in Chicago. The clever canine might have just helped that ‘pet friendly’ apartment sell a little quicker than expected.

via BuzzFeed

The photos in the series “In Pieces” depict typical scenes of Americana but with a curious twist—each photo features one or more LEGO sculptures hidden in plain sight. The series is a collaboration between photographer Dean West and artist Nathan Sawaya—Sawaya made the LEGO sculptures for the series and West created the digitally composited photographs and inserted the sculptures.

via My Modern Metropolis

Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog)

Groundhog death penalty sought Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) A weather-predicting rodent faces the death penalty after seriously botching what seems to be his only job. Fox 19, a TV station in Cincinnati, has the story. Prosecutor Michael Gmoser alleges in an indictment that “on or about Feb. 2, 2013 … Punxsutawney ... and more »

I work in a design firm with three other designers (and a single phone line).

Client: I need to speak to Howard, it’s urgent.

Me: I’m sorry, Howard doesn’t work Friday afternoons, can I -

Client: Well how the f—k am I supposed to know what day it is!?

He punctuated this question by hanging up the phone. 

Like a Rand Paul rally rendered in the style of Grand Theft Auto, Silver Circle engineers the perfect marriage of sub-par animation and sloppy thinking. It’s a year after the economic crisis of 2014, and the federal government (boo! hiss!) has taken control of the nation’s economy, outlawing hard currency in favor of what the movie’s heroes invariably refer to as “worthless paper money.” Rampant inflation caused by the Federal Reserve’s incessant minting of new bills has left most Americans broke: A beer costs $100 and change, a paperback book a cool $200. 

Fortunately, there’s a rebel underground, which former T-Man De’Lon Grant stumbles upon while investigating a suspicious fire at a housing development whose residents are being forced to sell their homes to the government. Sultry Philana Mia, whom he naturally falls into bed with at the first available opportunity, ushers him into ...

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Kristen Wiig’s supporting turn in Anchorman 2 won't be your only chance to watch her behave like a crazy person while Will Ferrell and Adam McKay are in the vicinity. The trio will reunite on the Ferrell and McKay-produced indie comedy Welcome To Me, with Wiig starring in the film, directed by McKay’s wife Shira Piven, as “a woman with dissociative personality disorder who wins the lottery and decides to spend her winnings on a cable access talk show about her life.” Said show will definitely get uncomfortable because of the whole “personality disorder” thing, but as The Hollywood Reporter notes in order to fill article space, “Recent films like Silver Linings Playbook have proved that comedy and mental illness could coexist and connect with theatergoers,” and so that is a trend now, apparently. "Get me three more scripts about mental illness—and don't forget the ...

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Prince has announced a run of West Coast tour dates, so grab those purple velvet suits and pick up some tickets when they go on sale next week. Each city on the tour gets four shows over two nights—one early and one late each night—making for 28 total shows. A full list of dates is below.

The news was confirmed last night by Prince’s backing band, 3rd Eye Girl, on a Prince podcast hosted by fan site Dr. Funkenberry.

Prince tour 2013
April 15-16—The Vogue—Vancouver (early and late shows)
April 18-19—Showbox—Seattle, Washington (early and late shows)
April 23-24—DNA Lounge—San Francisco, California (early and late shows)
April 26-27—The Joint—Las Vegas, Nevada (early and late shows)
April 30-May 1—The Marquee—Phoenix, Arizona (early and late shows)
May 3-4—Hard Rock Hotel—San Diego, California (early and late shows)
May 7-8 ...

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Justin Timberlake is probably going to sell a lot of copies of his new record, The 20/20 Experience. According to Billboard, music industry sources are estimating the album will sell somewhere between 750,000 and 800,000 copies in its first week. For comparison, Timberlake’s last record, FutureSex/LoveSounds, was released to a much sunnier economic climate in 2006, and only sold 684,000 copies its first week in stores.

While iTunes is leading the way in terms of actual sales, Target is coming in a close second thanks to its deluxe version of the CD, which contains two bonus songs: “Dress On” and “Body Count.” These figures are especially impressive considering—unlike a lot of other artists, including Lady Gaga—Timberlake didn't drop the cost of a download of his record to $5 on Amazon.

The last record to sell more than 750,000 copies its ...

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After the project has passed through filmmakers like Paul Haggis, Rupert Wyatt, and Nicolas Winding Refn, Sony may have finally found a director for The Equalizer who can stop futzing around with personal vision and just give Denzel Washington a gun already. Deadline says Antoine Fuqua is now in early talks to reteam with his Training Day star on the ’80s TV adaptation, noting the two have “been looking to work together ever since”—probably redundantly, seeing as Fuqua’s filmography in the intervening years has included undistinguished thrillers such as Shooter, Brooklyn’s Finest, and Olympus Has Fallen, with each passing mention of “From the director of Training Day…” in their previews turning ever more mocking. “Hey, remember that time we did something and you got an Academy Award? We should do something again sometime,” Fuqua has been hinting to Washington for over a decade now, until finally Washington ...

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By John Funk on Mar 22, 2013 at 10:50a

Blizzard Entertainment has released a behind-the-scenes dev diary regarding its recently-announced free-to-play collectible card game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.

"What we really wanted to prove to ourselves was that we could go back to those old garage programmer days," says Blizzard's chief creative officer Rob Pardo, "of a small team accomplishing something really fun."

Hearthstone is slated to come out this year and will be playable on the show floor at PAX East.

In a scientific discovery some five decades in the making, the findings of scientists and engineers at the Large Hadron Collider have confirmed the existence of the long-theorized Morgan Freeman. First hypothesized by physicist Peter Higgs in 1964, Freeman’s stately presence and velvety voice are said to be the sources of gravitas and dignity in films where such qualities wouldn’t otherwise exist. Freeman was one of the major quarries of the Hadron Collider, the massive particle accelerator located some 175 meters below the France-Switzerland border that was previously used to simulate the spontaneous creation of a six-part BBC nature documentary narrated by Richard Attenborough. Though not prepared to report their complete findings, officials for the European Organization for Nuclear Research are currently wondering if a less-expensive Shawshank Redemption joke could’ve been achieved with a hole in a wall and a big goddamn poster.

[photo by @grimkat; h ...

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While Seth Meyers missed his chance to fill the Regis Philbin void, his equivalently lightweight banter and body dimension maintaining the balance that prevents spring-loaded spikes from being launched into Kelly Ripa’s face, he may yet be used as an Indiana Jones-style sandbag in another, perhaps even more appropriate swap. The New York Post believes Meyers is now in line to take over the Late Night hosting gig once Jimmy Fallon usurps Jay Leno, since producer Lorne Michaels can apparently only use another former Weekend Update host to fill the position—this, as the ancient prophets foretold, after a go-nowhere anecdote about their dog. Michaels reportedly first went to Tina Fey, who graciously told him “she was too busy to do it” before mentioning that she’s starring in “movies” now, maybe he’s heard of them. And with Amy Poehler similarly booked and Charles Rocket regrettably dead, that ...

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When Apple removes a game or other app from the App Store it’s usually because one or more of the many rules has been broken. But in the case of Sweatshop HD, the game just made Apple uncomfortable, and it’s hard to argue your case as a developer against that.

In the 1970s, the dictatorship controlling South Korea stipulated the length of women's skirts. Now, due to a new law, some in South Korea worry that those days are returning.