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The mayor of Mississauga, Canada is a badass. via

Hazel McCallion, everbody.

92 years old,

34 years in office,

$0 in debt

$700 million in reserve

Eight prime ministers

One truck.

But women aren’t strong leaders… OH WAIT.

Now I’m sure somebody’s gonna tell me something but

• supports a Palestinian state
• supports Aids CHarities
• told her city well if we cant get money y’all need to pay taxes and maintains a 76 approval rating
• nick named Hurricane Hazel
• and is so boss lady that she don’t run she’ tells  folks to give that money to charity

“A new generation of parents is now taking solutions from the workplace and transferring them home. From accountability checklists to family branding sessions, from time-shifting meals to more efficient conflict resolution, families are finally reaping the benefits of decades of groundbreaking research into group dynamics. The result is a bold new blueprint for happy families.”

- Run Your Family Like a Business - WSJ.com

Location: Online
Specialty: Peel and Stick Solid Wood Planking
Price Range: ($$) Mid-Range


Plan. Peel. Stik. Made from real wood (reclaimed or sustainably harvested), Stikwood is a peel and stick solid wood planking system. While it is not intended for floors, it can be applied to most flat surfaces including: walls, doors and furniture.

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Last year Harris Interactive listed Apple at the top of its 13th annual Reputational Quotient survey, with Google right behind and Amazon in fourth. It's all change this time around, however, with Jeff Bezos' online giant claiming the crown of the most respected company among American consumers. Apple is now second on the list, and Google has dropped down to fourth place behind the Walt Disney Company. Johnson & Johnson rounds off the top five, Microsoft ranked 15th, and, following its IPO last year, Facebook made its first appearance at 42. The results come from online surveys answered by over 14,000 people.

Apple's placing last year represented the highest ever "RQ" score that Harris Interactive had ever recorded, but the company has dropped over three points to 82.54 in 2013. Amazon scored 82.62 to take this year's top spot by a narrow margin, and Google managed 81.32; while both improved on their 2012 scores, neither would have beaten out Apple's record of 85.62. Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Robert Fronk of Harris Interactive attributed Apple's lower score to its dropping stock price.

Harris Interactive calculates reputation across six "dimensions," and we see different tech companies performing well in different areas. Amazon was the number one brand in emotional appeal and products/services, whereas Apple is the leader in vision/leadership and financial performance — despite its falling stock. Google, meanwhile, ranks highest in workplace environment, and at number five was the highest-placed tech company in social responsibility. Overall, the technology industry appears to have the best reputation of any among consumers, garnering a 79 percent positive rating.

• Via Apple Insider
• Source Harris Interactive (PDF)Yahoo Finance
• Related Items survey ranking respect harris interactive consumer reputation quotient reputation Google Amazon Apple

You’ve heard that the US could, in the coming decade, produce more oil than Saudi Arabia. In his State of the Union speech, Barack Obama asked the country to act more like big oil producers such as the Saudis and Norwegians by skimming off some of that oil money and investing it in programs to bolster prosperity when the oil is gone. To wit,

The Energy Security Trust proposal, which is funded by revenue from oil and gas development on federal lands and offshore, has broad non-partisan support, including retired admirals and generals and leading CEOs. It is focused around one achievable goal: shifting our cars and trucks off oil. The trust will support research into a range of cost-effective technologies—like advanced vehicles that run on electricity, homegrown biofuels, and vehicles that run on domestically-produced natural gas.

Saudi Arabia is already investing billions in efforts to prepare for an oil-free future and extend its existing reserves, including multi-million dollar partnerships with US universities that some say are biasing research toward the Saudis’ agenda—and away from inquiries into touchy subjects like climate change. It makes sense that the Obama administration would want to get in on the race to take advantage of America’s top-flight universities and generate more funding for research in the United States.

This doesn’t reach as far as the full kit of energy-exporter best practices, which would include an oil-financed Sovereign Wealth Fund to make long-term investments with some of the country’s natural resource wealth. We’ll see if Obama can wring some research money out of the petroleum industry before we take bets on an investment fund, though.

Frozach Submitted

Only 10 days to go on The Science Kickstarter!

And speaking of science... did you catch me and Kelly's story on Story Collider?

New submitter kdryer39 writes "In an unexpected but kind-of-makes-sense move, chip-maker Intel has decided to delve into the TV world by creating a set-top box and a paid Internet television service. The box will contain an HD camera and microphone for various 'novel applications.' Intel expects to provide various live and on-demand content, as well as re-inventing the wheel by changing the way people search for content. How will they do this, and where will they get the content from? Unfortunately, we don't know...and apparently neither does Intel. Erik Hugger, head of the newly-created Intel Media group, has stated that negotiations with content providers are in process, but gave no specific details. Is this an effort for the company to re-invent itself? Perhaps, but either way, it'll be one of those things that will be interesting to follow as it develops." The "novel applications" for the on-board camera include identifying who's watching the TV and providing programming it thinks they'll like. At one point, Huggers said, "There's a scenario where the TV recognizes that it's you and says 'Hey, I know what you like. I know what you want to watch', versus the environment we're in today where the TV literally is not interested in you at all.' Maybe I'm getting old, but I like that my appliances aren't particularly interested in me. (Haven't they seen Maximum Overdrive?!)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Feb 12th 2013 By: Joseph Hughes

The history of superhero comics, from a cultural and racial standpoint, can be troubling. Sometimes it seems like we've either barely learned from our mistakes, choose to ignore them, or instantly get defensive whenever anyone brings them up. Then there are people like comic book artist Ty Templeton, who do their best to remind us of our history through humor. In a recent cartoon, Templeton took a look at some of the more troubling characters from "a different time," showing us who decides when and how they should return.

To put the strip in context, here's what Templeton had to say on his site:

Now, it's always a good thing to aim for diversity in your characters, and to reach out to communities not well served by the biz in general. And with the Mandarin starring in the next BIG BLOCKBUSTER from Marvel, these sort of characters are always POSSIBLE for a re-vamp.

Please, turn out well. I like DC Comics and want good things for them.

And I'm waiting for the YELLOW CLAW to come back.

madmarvelgirl:

It makes me sad that people don’t know this happened. Every night on tour for YEARS.

“In June 2008 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, a team of cosmetic surgeons suggested this experiment is making all of us happier. People with Botox may be less vulnerable to the angry emotions of other people because they themselves can’t make angry or unhappy faces as easily. And because people with Botox can’t spread bad feelings to others via their expressions, people without Botox may be happier too. The surgeons grant that this is just speculation for now. Nevertheless, they declare that “we are left with the tantalizing possibility that cosmetic procedures may have beneficial effects that are more than skin deep.” Maybe. But for all the Botox youthfulness plastic surgeons may want to think about, neuroscience raises a darker possibility. Making faces helps us understand how other people are feeling. By altering our faces we’re tampering with the ancient lines of communication between face and brain that may change our minds in ways we don’t yet understand.”

- Why Darwin Would Have Loved Botox | DiscoverMagazine.com

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama lauded the White House's efforts last year to create a 3D printing lab in Youngstown, Ohio, and announced the launch of three additional hubs. Obama says in his speech that 3D printing "has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything," and that "there's no reason this can't happen in other towns." To that end, he's calling on Congress to "create a network of 15 of these hubs and guarantee that the next revolution in manufacturing is made in America." The president says businesses within these hubs will partner with the Departments of Defense and Energy "to turn regions left behind by globalization into global centers of high-tech jobs."

Developing...

• Related Items obama state of the union 3d printing manufacturing jobs

Many terrorists work on a part-time basis, such as suicide bombers.

awkward-elevator:

Artwork by Awkward Elevator Contributing Artist Daniel Irizarri

I love it.  Also, Death By Design was awesome.

Having long ago destroyed all boundaries through unremitting pushing, James Franco must now establish his own geographical areas if he is to contain his ever-sprawling works. Hence, the transformation of the formerly quaint, provincial burg of Berlin into the far more exciting Gay Town, an entire city of art of which James Franco is both founder and mayor. Franco broke yet more ground by establishing Gay Town at the Berlin International Film Festival, claiming an unused patch of land in the name of Blowing Minds that he soon settled with brave pioneers in the form of James Franco’s paintings, as well as some cows. (All pioneers need cows.)

According to the press release, Gay Town’s mission statement is to explore “a variety of themes that are central to Franco's artistic practice, mainly issues related to adolescence, public and private persona, stereotypes and other societal concerns such as ...

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frank_adrian314159 writes "In an article titled 'Stop Pretending Cyberspace Exists,' Salon writer Michael Lind notes that 'Some ideas make you dumber the moment you learn of them. One of those ideas is the concept of "cyberspace."' He says that analogizing cyberspace as a real place leads to an inability to think logically about laws, rules, and how and when the governments could or should intervene to regulate the Internet. He states that such a debate is essential, but that an '[invasion of] a mythical Oz-like kingdom called cyberspace is just as dopey' when talking about governments and corporations taking a larger role in online communications. Is Lind right? Does the notion of cyberspace make the debate over its governance less fruitful?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

By Alec Meer on February 12th, 2013 at 8:00 pm.

The JJ Abrams Star Trek movie was alright! So the sequel due out later this year, starring Benedict Cumberbund as maybe-Kahn or maybe Some Other Guy, will probably be alright too! I know, I know, another controversial opinion about consumer entertainment products, eh?

There will also be a Star Trek game, and that probably won’t be alright, because licensed games so rarely are. But it’s got Sylar’s face in it, and Vulcan nerve pinches, and some spaceship corridors that look a bit like The Normandy, so maybe I’ll be proven ULTRO-WRONG.

Here’s lots of noise, an inappropriate soundtrack, a bunch of lizardy things and a Vulcan nerve pinch takedown:

I watched that and I felt nothing. No negativity, no positivity: just numbness, a blank lack of response. But enough about my morphine habit.

Star Trek: The Game is developed by Digital Extremes and willl be out in late April, shortly before Star Trek Into Doncaster or whatever it’s called arrives in the box office. I wish they’d make an HD version of Star Trek: 25th Anniversary instead:

“You’ve retrieved a sample of berries.” Yeah, dawg.

By Alec Meer on February 12th, 2013 at 6:00 pm.

No, it’s not the anniversary of when I started writing about games – this is in fact year twelve of my moaning about flashing pixel-based products, I’ll have you know – but instead the tenth birthday of satirical, stickman-based browser-kinda-MMO Kingdom of Loathing. It’s a game I spent an awful lot of time playing during the last couple years of my tenure on PC Format magazine, in between compulsively browsing eBay for vintage Transformers and repeatedly going to check if the snack machine had accidentally priced Kit-Kats at 5p again, so I am heartened by its longevity.

Perhaps a joke spawned in 2003 doesn’t deserve to still be receiving guffaws of approval today, but anything that uses meat as a currency remains approved in my book. Also, the activation code to remind me what my password for my ancient account is was ‘scentsmellhead’. And when I did log back in, I got an anniverary giftbox, among whose contents were spandex anniversary shorts and an anniversary chutney sculpture.

The game is still the game it ever was, though it has expanded in geography, items and puns over the years. It’s a big achievement for any game, let alone a weird indie thing about stickmen and Turtle Tamers and friendly mosquitos called Tonald. Devs Asymmetric Publications don’t seem entirely sure how to celebrate the anniversary, having settled on an open letter to their own game:

Hey, kiddo. Geez, you’ve gotten big! I still remember when you were just three zones and a handful of items. Now I hear you’ve got thousands of items and dozens of zones, and you’ve entertained millions of people over the years! I couldn’t be more proud of you.

Now, look here, kiddo, I know you just turned ten years old, or you’re about to turn ten years old — I gotta admit I don’t know for sure. Your old dad’s got a lot on his mind these days, but we both know that the exact date you turn ten isn’t the point, right? It’s that I love you, and I wouldn’t trade you for the world. And I know what you want most in the whole world is a brand new pony, so here’s what I’m gonna do: this year, I’m gonna give you three real Sacajewa dollars and a $5 gift certificate to Gopher Gary’s Pizza Palace. Remember when we used to go there? Well, I’m too busy to take you, but the gift certificate will remind you. Maybe you could go with some of your friends, eh? I mean, even if they don’t play with you much anymore, they could come back around and see how big you’ve grown!

And you know we’ve always liked the number eleven more than ten around here, right? So next year we can go for broke with the big party and the presents. I promise. Your old man’ll make it up to you next year. Happy Tenth Birthday, little Kingdom of Loathing. You’ve done your Pa proud.

Whatever any of that means, now seems like a fine juncture to return to KoL. Off you go: I really want to see your meat, people.

“Hello, This is Jackie Russ, Eddy from the city of Somerville with no emergency information for Tuesday, February 12th. This is City no emergency will be elected at 8 o’clock P. M today residence park to municipal lawful have until 10 PM this evening to move their cars. In order for plows a clear snow for those area. Please note, double parking on the even side of the street will be allowed. There must be at least 10 feet of passage for emergency vehicles, residents are ask to be particularly careful on secondary road that may still be narrow any cards potentially in feeding access may be subject to take a day and growing, additionally do to improve conditions city wide thanks to high temperatures and ongoing DPW work. Some herbal public schools will be in session on Wednesday February 13th. For more information on snow emergency policies. Please visit the city website facebook and twitter feed. We appreciate your support feedback and patients. Throughout the storm. Thank you.”

Netflix is trying to change the face of television, and it's the toast of the internet with successful, original shows like House of Cards and the upcoming season of Arrested Development. Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer at Netflix, is understandably pleased with all the attention.

He said today that House of Cards is "the most-watched thing on Netflix right now." He wouldn't give specific ratings, however, arguing that it was an "apples and oranges" comparison to networks. He believes that viewership of the show will only grow over time, too, despite it's unconventional release schedule. He says that even though Netflix put all of the episodes out at once, "it's still watercooler" chatter. It creates "a whole other etiquette" around discussing shows and potentially spoiling plot points. "We're not encouraging people to binge," Sarandos says, but thinks the show works better when watching one or two at a time.

Asked about HBO's decision not to drop an entire season in one go, Sarandos defended Netflix's decision. It means that there is less need for "exposition and catch-up and fake cliff-hangers" that provide context for viewers who haven't watched the last episode for a week. He compared the season to music albums or books, which are also released in a single spot. Sarantos says that he's not trying to "dismantle" television, but to evolve it. "What we're doing is radically different than any [other] kind of television, including HBO."

Mitch Hurwitz, the creator of Arrested Development and Will Arnett, one of the actors on the show, took the stage at Dive into Media, and described the process for bringing the show to Netflix. Hurwitz said that airing all the shows at once gave the show's producers more creative freedom — they're able to take shots from one episode's cutting room floor and use them in a later episode more easily, for example.

"In many ways, we are the poster child for Netflix," Hurwitz said. The ways that the show do small jokes and "twists on twists" work better for a dedicated audience who is paying attention, he argues. Getting the show back was difficult. After the show ended its broadcast run, the owners literally "sold the banana stand" along with the rest of the set and even the famous Segway from the show.

Arnett says that Netflix is good for actors, too. "They're allowing the creative community to do what they do best." He says it's more than just making shows "for the internet," because Netflix knows (and more importantly, has) Arrested Development's audience.

Developing...

• Related Items netflix dive into media arrested development house of cards

The White House must reply to an online petition requesting the removal of Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Heymann, who prosecuted Aaron Swartz before his death, after it reached the threshold of 25,000 signatures. The "We the People" online tool raised the number of responses needed to trigger a mandatory reply to 100,000 last month, but the move wasn't retroactive; the Steve Heymann petition was filed just a few days before the change went into place.

Petition filed just a few days before the threshold was raised

As such, the Obama administration may now wade into the controversial debate over Aaron Swartz's death and the heavy approach taken towards cybercrime prosecution in the US. It's worth noting, however, that this doesn't guarantee a swift response — the most popular petition on the site, demanding the classification of the Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group, has yet to be addressed despite reaching the 25,000 goal back in December.

The White House has also refused to comment on certain thorny legal issues raised by petitions. One such call to free alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, for example, was met with a pointer to the We the People terms of service, stating that "the White House may decline to address certain procurement, law enforcement, adjudicatory, or similar matters properly within the jurisdiction of federal departments or agencies, federal courts, or state and local government."

• Via Wired
• Source We the People
• Related Items steve heymann stephen heymann aaron swartz petition threshold responses we the people white house obama administration reply

As the manhunt for fugitive ex-LAPD officer Christopher Dorner appears to near a conclusion in Big Bear Lake, California, the San Bernardino Sherriff's Department has asked media in the area to immediately stop tweeting, claiming that tweets are endangering officers on the scene. It's not clear why police think tweets from media are putting officers in danger, and no explanation was given for how tweets could be impacting the standoff — though it's possible that Dorner is following events on Twitter.

The hunt for Christopher Dorner, a veteran of the US Navy and Los Angeles Police Department, resulted in violence today, and may soon come to an end; as The Los Angeles Times reports, Dorner was allegedly caught in a gun battle this afternoon that killed one sheriff's deputy and wounded another. The shootout reportedly occurred after Dorner allegedly broke into a home, restrained a couple and held them hostage, and then stole their pickup truck. After crashing the vehicle during a shootout with Fish and Wildlife officers, Dorner is thought to have retreated into a nearby cabin. Law enforcement is currently evacuating the Big Bear area, and has surrounded the cabin that Dorner is suspected to be hiding in.

Developing...

• Source Los Angeles TimesSan Bernardino County DA (Twitter)
• Image Credit ShutterStock
• Related Items manhunt christopher dorner dorner lapd sheriff san bernardino county

The White House is dropping more than the State of the Union on the American people tonight, it's also dropping the bass. The official White House YouTube account on Tuesday afternoon published a short trailer for the President's big speech and the soundtrack contains the unmistakable sounds of dubstep, the popular electronic dance music subgenre that includes Skrillex among its most famous practitioners.

We've reached out to the White House on who created the video and chose the soundtrack and will update when we hear back.

The White House doesn't just want Americans to vibe out to dubstep during the State of the Union, though. Viewers who turn into the White House's official apps for mobile or website will see an "enhanced" version of the speech with accompanying charts and graphs. Here's a preview of that experience.

It also remains to be seen whether the Republicans will be able to match this Democratic administration's appeal to a hipper demographic during this State of the Union news cycle.The GOP-led House of Representatives posted its own trailer for what it calls the "interactive Republican response," but the soundtrack is decidedly more traditional, featuring a tense string orchestra piece.

• Source YouTube
• Related Items obama politics president white house republicans democrats government dubstep

JOIN THE LIVE CHAT VISIT WHITEHOUSE.GOV

Speeches are the computer punch cards of communication. In a world where you can summon up an entire television series online, use interactive tools to understand trade patterns, and engage in multi-person video chats, reading a pre-prepared text of 7,400 words for over an hour, interrupted by applause every other paragraph, is just outdated.

The Obama team hopes to combat the anachronism of the medium with another edition of its “enhanced” State of the Union address, which combines the speech with prepared statistics, graphics, quotes, and social media chatter, in the hope that this mix of extra information and online interactivity will attract viewers the speech might not otherwise get. I’ll embed it here when it goes live; while the spin will be for Obama, I have the feeling it’ll be the most useful live coverage of the speech itself. At least you’ll be able to see the footnotes behind the rhetorical flourishes.

Of course, prime time on television is still nothing to sneeze at: Last year, 37.8 million people watched the State of the Union—though 48 million watched in 2010. Last year, according to the White House, 800,000 people watched the enhanced State of the Union live, and some 2 million viewers have seen it on YouTube. Given the surging demand for online news and the growing audience for online video, it’s no surprise that the tech-savvy Obama White House keeps putting out this product.

The tragic robber-hero. The mystical gunslinger. The cerebral crime-lord, drawn into events beyond his control. One of the most straightforwardly literal ways in which popular culture is able to challenge official ideology is in creating complexity and human drama around criminals that the state would rather have seen as villains whose only wish is evil. From Dick Turpin to drug-dealer hip-hop, from Waltzing Matilda to dacoity films, from Stagolee to The Last Tycoon, there’s a definite sense of resisting the most simple explanations, inherent in the depiction of criminals as human beings capable of  having complex motivations, heroism, mistakes, weakness and resolve. (Even in their most archetypal guises.) All of which definitely makes this hip-hop video from Somalia’s Waayaha Cusub all the more interesting.

Barely any group has been as de-humanised as much in recent history as the pirates in the Gulf of Aden. The news in blanket fashion depict them as a dark force of nature, without voices or obvious motivations. In the massive, 18,000-word Wikipedia article Somali pirates are treated almost like vermin to be rooted out; nowhere in this exhaustive text cares to mention even with a casual glance what could possibly drive them, nor solutions other than shooting, warfare and (possibly private, mercenary) invasion. (It is difficult not to compare to the power-play propaganda from yesteryear; intensely false images, like those propagated by the British in the 50s of Mau Mau as barbarian ghosts descending invisibly in the night to slit colonialists’ throats.)

This song and its video, on the other hand, is far from the stereotype. Instead, here is a lyric that’s an appeal: youth, do not become pirates, you’re worsening our prospects for peace and development! One fictional young pirate’s tale forms a centerpiece and a warning: his story of being shot at, almost drowning and slowly reaching shore is a pirate’s possible grim fate. And at the same time it’s got the pirates as gangsta-style hard men, and drapes itself in pirate iconography, and you get a sense of the intense appeal the lifestyle presents. The container ships that are the focus of all Eurocentric media depictions form just an ominous, hazy background, a reminder of world inequalities. And it has everything those de-humanising stories miss: a feel of the complexity, of the humanity, of the implied questions that should rightfully surround our understanding.

* Thank you to Amal Shair for translation help for this story.

After disasters (or to minimize expensive data use generally, and take advantage of available Wi-Fi), bypassing the cell network is useful. But it's not something that handset makers bake into their phones. colinneagle writes with information on a project that tries to sidestep a dependence on the cellular carriers, if there is Wi-Fi near enough for at least some users: "The Smart Phone Ad-Hoc Networks (SPAN) project reconfigures the onboard Wi-Fi chip of a smartphone to act as a Wi-Fi router with other nearby similarly configured smartphones, creating an ad-hoc mesh network. These smartphones can then communicate with one another without an operational carrier network. SPAN intercepts all communications at the Global Handset Proxy so applications such as VoIP, Twitter, email etc., work normally."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Much as our perception of life itself is like being chained to a wall, watching shadows in the form of Nicolas Cage—an allegory known as “Plato’s Cage”—so too is the illusion that movies are different when, in actuality, they are merely one Nicolas Cage movie. Fortunately, that self-deception crumbles with every new Nicolas Cage casting announcement like this one, confirming that Cage will star in Tokarev, a thriller about a former criminal searching for his daughter’s kidnappers. Cage reportedly “has long been interested in the role”—so much so that he already took it in last year’s Stolen, a thriller about a former criminal searching for his daughter’s kidnappers—because Nicolas Cage knows that, in a philosophical sense, there are only former criminals searching for their kidnapped daughters. These are the only shadows we can know, interrupted by the occasional flicker of non-criminals out ...

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