firehose

“Hello, This is Jack diversity from the city of Somerville with important no emergency information for Monday, March 18th, based on current weather forecast. The City will be declaring is no emergency effective at 6 o'clock P. M on monday. School has been canceled for Tuesday March 19th, during snow emergency is parking is a lot on the odd numbered side of the street only, unless otherwise noted, cars not moved from the even numbered side of the street by ten o'clock P. M on Monday night may be subject to take getting and telling President unable to find a parking space on the odd numbered side of the street may park in any municipal or in designated school parking. For up to date information, please visit the city website facebook pages, and twitter feed, or call 311 with any questions. Thank you for your cooperation as we continue to work to ensure our roads are safe and clear this one.”

This game board is used to fight the War of the Ring from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books. If you know the books, the map will be immediately recognizable.

The game is often played with painted or unpainted miniatures — such as Frodo and Sam, who here have just cast the One Ring into Mt. Doom, thus saving Middle Earth and winning the game.

It seems like the Dark Lord of the Sith and his small Stormtrooper retinue got a bit lost on their way to Tokyo Disneyland's Star Tours event. The trio wander about Tokyo and the nearby countryside, enjoying the sites, listening to a little shamisen music, and, uh... getting attacked by fresh fish. And is that Darth Vader tanning? Because that... seems somewhat unnecessary.

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As if Hobbit homes weren't small enough, check out this fantastically detailed bonsai created by English artist Chris Guise.

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Shut up, all of you. Go away. You are complicit in one way or another in a giant crime containing many great crimes. Atone in secret. Wash the blood off your hands in private. Because there were people who got it right. Anthony Zinni. Eric Shiseki. Hans Blix. Mohamed ElBaradei. The McClatchy Washington bureau guys. Dozens of liberal academics who got called fifth-columnists and worse. Professional military men whose careers suffered as a result. Hundreds of thousands of people in the streets around the world. The governments of Canada and France. Those people, I will listen to this week. Go to hell, the rest of you, and go there in silence and in shame.

Submitted by: sevillaej
Posted at: 2013-03-18 14:15:50
See full post and comment: http://9gag.com/gag/6841009

Submitted by: ggutierrez
Posted at: 2013-03-19 01:11:55
See full post and comment: http://9gag.com/gag/6846274

via http://www.yayhooray.com/thread/107338/Infopornographic!-Datagraphic!-Diagramatic!?page=4#end

via http://cani.tumblr.com/

Well, in that case!

A checkup for the game industry. ...

From Science Based Medicine blog:

In conclusion, atherosclerosis was common in four preindustrial populations, including a preagricultural hunter-gatherer population, and across a wide span of human history. It remains prevalent in contemporary human beings. The presence of atherosclerosis in premodern human beings suggests that the disease is an inherent component of human ageing and not characteristic of any specific diet or lifestyle.

And later...

Some advocates of “paleo” will claim that they are not at all advocating that humans should eat what their paleolithic ancestors ate but that we should use what they ate as a template to figure out what to eat today. That’s a distinction without a real difference because the assumptions upon which the Paleo Diet are based (e.g., that atherosclerosis didn’t exist in hunter-gatherers and that hunter-gatherers were “almost always healthy, lean, fit, disease-free, strong people” and that 10,000 years is too short a time period for humans to have evolved to accommodate a grain-based diet) are more the product of wishful thinking and the “noble savage” myth than anything else. At the very least, Thompson’s study suggests that this assumption is overblown and that there has long been a certain “baseline” level of atherosclerotic disease among humans that is an inevitable part of aging.

This isn't a "take-down" post. It's an even tempered assessment. The hypothesis is that diet effects health but some baseline disease level has been associated with the human condition as far back as we have data. This idea that humans have not adapted to an agricultural lifestyle over 10,000 years is not supported by scientific evidence. It sells books though.

So five people from Pixar start a game studio, and no, that's not the beginning of an off-color joke. Steel Wool Games was founded by Sequoia Blankenship, Andrew Dayton, Jonathan Hoffman, Joshua Qualtieri and Jason Topolski, all of whom work at Pixar by day and now develop games by night. Steel Wool's first game, Flyhunter, is due out in 2013 from PC and PlayStation publisher Ripstone.

"We have an internal phrase that we use to describe our style: 'Grimsical,'" says Dayton, Steel Wool's executive producer. "It's our fundamental principle as a company. We create worlds that are funny and whimsical but dipped in gritty tones." That certainly sounds like Pixar.

Steel Wool has an additional team of 12 working on Flyhunter and all things grimsical, so while it's an after-hours studio for the founders, this is a full-time operation.

Continue reading Pixar artists form Steel Wool Games, Flyhunter due out in 2013

Pixar artists form Steel Wool Games, Flyhunter due out in 2013 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 19 Mar 2013 19:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tenya Wanya Teens is a new game from Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy creator Keita Takahashi and his wife Asuka Sakai. Their studio, Uvula, is creating Tenya Wanya Teens in collaboration with UK outfit Wild Rumpus and indie game site Venus Patrol, the latter which describes the game as "a coming-of-age tale about love, hygiene, monsters and finding discarded erotic magazines in the woods."

Tenya Wanya Teens was originally set to be unveiled during GDC, as a party game for two players using massive 16-button controllers. Game designer Robin Hunicke posted this image of the prototype controllers onto Instagram recently, and Wild Rumpus is currently working on the final controllers that will be unveiled alongside the game next week. Plans are also in motion for an actual release to the gaming public at large, ridiculous controller and all.

Katamari creator Takahashi meets the Tenya Wanya Teens originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 19 Mar 2013 19:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dungeon Crawler Fantasy Miniatures:

Pre-painted and unpainted durable plastic miniatures made for play with D&D and Pathfinder table-top RPGs.  Featuring the Kraken and impressive 8x8 base “miniature”!

In testimony to be delivered to Congress today, Google's legal director Richard Salgado says the 1968 Electronic Communications Privacy act was good when it was enacted but that now "the law fails to preserve the reasonable privacy expectations of Americans today."

Modern video games are showing signs of morphing into other, still more subtle and complicated forms; among other things, they’re becoming an increasingly sophisticated vehicle for storytelling.

Elixr is an iPhone app and social network that “celebrates the pleasure of sharing a great drink, like a cocktail, spirit, beer, or wine, with friends.” With it you can post where you are and what you’re drinking, rate your drink, discover places your friends have been and drinks they’ve enjoyed, and then share the information on Facebook and other social services. It was created by Marc LaFountain, Jeff Rock, and the team at Mobelux. It is available to download at the iTunes store.

via MG Siegler

“

Both Lynch and Philip Schiller, Apple’s worldwide marketing head, worked briefly together at Macromedia —which was acquired by Adobe in 2005. Adobe described Lynch’s official duties thusly:

Focuses the company’s technology innovation across three vectors: multiscreen, cloud and social computing (and) oversees Adobe’s Research and Experience Design teams

Each of Lynch’s primary areas of focus are directly applicable to Apple’s work. Last year, CEO Tim Cook told Bloomberg Businessweek that Apple is “marrying hardware, software and services.”

”

- Adobe’s Flash Evangelist, Kevin Lynch, Jumps To Flash-Hater Apple – ReadWrite

World War Something

$50 off Neo Geo x Gold (now $150)

The Neo Geo X handheld, console, and arcade stick bundle (as shown in this photo taken by Ryuichiro Ban) is now available with a 25 percent discount, making it only slightly more expensive than the $130 that the handheld by itself will go for starting April.

If you need more convincing to pick this up, lose yourself in this GIF extravaganza. Also: the system has been hacked.

BUY Neo Geo x Gold, upcoming games

Satoru Iwata’s killer Mother 2/Earthbound jacket

Before we get into this amazing piece, here’s a real quick follow-up to yesterday’s Japanese Mother 2 interview — someone’s translating it! They’re translating the interview, that is, not localizing the Wii U Virtual Console release. Just want to make that clear.

Anyway, Nintendo’s CEO and president tweeted this photo last night of a special gift he (and the rest of the Mother 2 team) received after working on the RPG. As you can imagine, this is an extremely rare item, but one actually showed up in an online auction a few years ago!

I’m envisioning Iwata spending the evening cruising through Shinjuku streets, wearing this jacket and a pair of leather gloves to complete the Ryan Gosling/Drive image. Iwata’s giving you a night call to tell you how he feels.

BUY Mother 3/Earthbound, Hobonichi Techo 2013

Mega Man x Monster Hunter by Justin Cyr

You can find more of Justin’s awesome sprite work in games like Tribute’s Wizorb and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game. I think it was Personasama who once mentioned to me that the Scott Pilgrim team was crazy about the Monster Hunter series, with some members putting hundreds of hours into the games.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is out today! Both JC and I should be getting our preorders soon (probably tomorrow), and we intend to resurrect our legendary and universally feared guild for online play, Garfield & Friends.

We have several openings in the group that we are currently looking to fill — right now we’re seeking proactive and enthusiastic individuals, preferably an elite few who know how to play Monster Hunter and don’t mind teaming up with noobs who have a million questions (e.g. just putting this out there, how exactly do you hunt monsters).

Oh, and you need to watch this Monster Hunter Shopping Network promo.

BUY Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for 3DS & Wii U

What Would a Rational Gryffindor Read? | Measure of Doubt

The original creators of the infographic were designing for an audience that couldn't read. Today, many people just don't want to.

TMZ.com

Voice of Elmo Sued -- Allegations of Crystal Meth Sex Parties TMZ.com Kevin Clash, the longtime voice of Elmo, has been sued by a man who claims ... when he was a minor, Clash lured him to engage in lurid, crystal meth sex parties. Sheldon Stephens says he was 16 when he met Clash at a social networking function for actors ... and more »

KOMO News

Supreme Court rules against publisher on copyright protections Chicago Tribune WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Tuesday said U.S. copyright holders cannot block the resale inside the country of products they make elsewhere, a major case affecting the annual importation of tens of billions of dollars of gray market goods. Yard sales, resale shops, eBay account holders rejoice; Supreme Court ruling ...KY3 SCOTUS upholds first-sale doctrine on foreign-made goodsExaminer.com Statement on the Supreme Court Decision in Kirtsaeng and the US Position on ...International IP and the Public Interest Home Media Magazine -Corante all 62 news articles »

When the San Francisco 49ers' new stadium opens for the 2014 NFL season, it is quite likely to have the best publicly accessible Wi-Fi network a sports facility in this country has ever known.