firehose

It turns out that Disney’s bizarre tendency to animate female characters with minor variations of the same doe-eyed, button nosed template extends far beyond "Frozen."

A safeword makes it possible for a submissive to say “No” or “Stop” and pretend as much as he or she wants without really meaning it while still having a safe way of indicating they seriously need the scene to stop. In theory a safeword is usually a word that the person would not ordinarily say during sex, such as pineapple, velociraptor, or Lindsay Lohan. With the range of safewords in common use it is important that the safeword be negotiated beforehand.

Link (thanks, rubenluthman!)

Flickr Tab is a simple but clever new Chrome extension from Flickr that brings big, beautiful images to the Google browser each time a new tab is opened. The curated shots are pulled from the Flickr community, delivering a different image each time.

images via Flickr

magictransistor:

El Lissitzky. Had Gadya (A Single Kid). Kultur-Lige. 1919.

El Lissitzky illustrated this avant-garde version of the Passover song “Had gadya” early in his career, while immersed in the Jewish cultural renaissance that flourished in Russia from roughly 1912 to the early 1920s. Lithographs with Yiddish text, this is one of only a few copies known to exist. -Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

OED Word of the Day: proem, n. An introductory discourse at the beginning of a piece of writing; a preface, preamble

As part of our ongoing Women’s History Month coverage today we celebrate Joyce Jacobson Kaufman, chemist.

Joyce Jacobson Kaufman is a Jewish American chemist. In 1972 she introduced the concept of conformational topology and applied it to biomedical molecules. Kaufman also published a landmark paper in 1980 in which she described a new theoretical method for coding and retrieving certain carcinogenic hydrocarbons. She was invited by NSF to use the Cray X-MP (1985) and YMP (1989) supercomputers at the San Diego Supercomputer Center.

Kaufman knew she wanted to be a chemist at age eight after reading a biography of Marie Curie. That year she was chosen to attend a summer course at Johns Hopkins University for gifted children in math and science. In 1945, she was admitted as a special student to Johns Hopkins University, which did not grant women regular student status until 1970. Kaufman earned her B.S. with honors in Chemistry from Johns Hopkins University in 1949.

She then worked as a technical librarian and later a research chemist at the Army Chemical Center. In 1952 she returned to Johns Hopkins as a researcher in the physical chemistry lab of her former professor, Walter S. Koski, who later became her second husband. Kaufman received her M.A. in 1959 and her Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1960. Koski was her adviser and mentor. In 1962, accompanied by her mother and her young daughter, she went to Paris, where she became a visiting scientist, receiving a doctoral degree in theoretical physics from the Sorbonne the following year.

Later Kaufman came back to Johns Hopkins as a principal research scientist, a position which she held until her retirement. She also held a joint appointment in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine as associate professor of anesthesiology and later of plastic surgery, but she never received tenure or promotion to full professor, possibly due to discrimination against her as a woman.

Kaufman is noted for carrying out the first all-valence-electron, three-dimensional quantum-chemical calculations, and for research on the clinical effects of tranquilizers and narcotic drugs.

Read more.

mgros shares a 3d printed castle!

via: 3dprint.com

download the files on: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:723226

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Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

George Clooney is one of the biggest movie stars of today, but it’s crazy to imagine him as a ’90s heartthrob.

“I remember a moment where I was eating a bunch of butterfly shrimp and getting paid a lot of money to do that" during a Popeyes commercial, the actress recalled during the Los Angeles Times’ third annual Young Hollywood roundtable on Friday night. “I was living in Queens and I had no money, and I remember thinking, ‘I think I could do this. I’ll just do stuff like this.’ ”

LOWELL, MA—Noting how he piled on yet another healthy practice to his perfectly goddamned balanced lifestyle, exasperated friends confirmed Wednesday that annoying, well-adjusted 32-year-old Ryan Miller is even fucking meditating now.

photo by budwik

Dicks by Mail is a new service that will anonymously mail a bag of penis-shaped gummy candy along with a note that reads in bold type “EAT A BAG OF DICKS” to anyone the buyer chooses, much like the popular Ship Your Enemies Glitter service. More information about the service, including suggestions for recipents and how to send a mouthful of phallic sweets to your target, is available at their hilarious FAQ, though they don’t answer the question of whether a hard candy version will be made available.

We have a long history of sending dicks to people. Starting in middle school with those folded notes, that unfold to a big veiny cock. Moving to texting ‘8===D’ to random people in high school all the way to snapchatting below the belt pics to ladies from the bar/church. But now it’s on to bigger and better things; now it’s on to Dicks by Mail.

image via Dicks by Mail

photo by budwik

photo by budwik

via Pixable

Dyshawn Pierre needs a tighter waistband:

He was totally ready for this occasion, though. Cuffed the ball, pulled 'em up, and dribbled away like nothing happened. He was even still pulling them up while he dribbled.

Watch the cheerleaders and band, too:

So what's the deal here? Sloppy drawstringing? Rapid weight loss? A prank? Guerilla marketing for Nike compression shorts!?!?!

Original Script Text

Gum would be perfection.
Could’ve said, “Gum would be nice.” “I’ll have a stick.” But, no.
For me, gum is perfection.
I loathe myself.

submitted by badwolfpyro [link] [6 comments]

submitted by PC-LoadLetter [link] [38 comments]

Obama: I Should Have Closed Guantánamo Bay on Day One Mediaite During a Q&A session following his speech on middle class economics to the City Club of Cleveland Wednesday afternoon, President Barack Obama revealed on thing he would do differently if he could start his presidency over knowing what he knows now. and more »

He hit 100 MPH, WHEEEE

Some random motorcyclist in California was in a hot pursuit with police Wednesday night. So, instead of pulling over or anything, he blessed the world with some awesome motorcycle tricks:

His speeds were reaching 100 mph during the chase. That's a lot:

He eventually pulled over and surrendered in a gas station. Thank you, motorcycle guy.

Remember Hatsune Miku, that vocaloid hologram that performs pop music and is hugely popular in Japan? Now you can make your guitar make those same bizarre, hysterically funny sounds.

You have done well, Internet. You have done well.

Two weeks ago, the good folks in charge of the Double-A team moving to Hartford asked the Internet for help. We at SB Nation offered our help, suggesting the Yard Goats as the only reasonable option.

We are proud to announce there is going to be a minor league team named the Hartford Yard Goats. We did it.

The announcement was made via a live stream from a high school gym that included:

• confetti
• goats
• people distracted by goats
• other goats

Like this:

This is one of the greatest day in the history of baseball-goat crossroads. They say that "yard goats" is old railroad slang, but we know they're really talking about goats. In a yard.

Just like that. I am so proud of you, Internet. Please vote in the important poll.

Poll

What kind of mascot should the Yard Goats have?

The Southern

Capitol Hill Buzz: Reid thanks Paul for medical advice The Southern FILE - In this March 17, 2015 file photo, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nev. speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. Reid thanked likely Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul of Kentucky for dispensing "expert advice" on Reid's ... and more »

DrinkTanks, an Oregon-based company that makes a variety of double-walled growlers, is currently raising funds through Kickstarter for the Juggernaut, a new product that holds 128 ounces of liquid and easily converts into a personal keg with the addition of their new Kegulator keg cap system and CO₂ cartridges.

In 2013, DrinkTanks launched a campaign to release the game-changing 64 oz Classic Growler. It was more successful than we could imagine and connected us with new friends and passionate beer connoisseurs from around the world. The design incorporated both double wall vacuum insulation to keep beverages cold and our revolutionary dual-bail cap system that is leakproof and preserves carbonated beverages, exceedingly longer than any screw cap system. We are hard at work on two incredible new products. We are excited to announce the newest additions to our lineup – the 128 oz Juggernaut Growler and our Kegulator, an Auto-Regulating Keg Cap. These offer the same beer-preserving technologies as our 64 oz Classic Growler and Keg Cap, but with twice the fun!

photos via DrinkTanks

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

I almost wanted to title this article “How Better Level Design Ruined Mario”. But that sounds much too harsh (and desperate for traffic). Still, that was my initial reaction after watching the latest video from Mark Brown, about the level design philosophy of Super Mario 3D World, summarized in this Kotaku article. The idea is that the last few iterations of Super Mario games (Galaxy 1/2, 3D Land, and 3D World) were developed with an increasingly structured approach by applying kishōtenketsu, a classic 4-part Chinese narrative structure. In this structure, each level breaks down into 4 parts, an introduction, a development, a twist, and a conclusion. And while I  think this is a fantastic way of developing a level, my initial reaction was that this structure was exactly why I have been enjoying Mario games less and less.

So, those two ideas seem a little incompatible. How can a design philosophy that creates such great levels hurt a game? It comes down to a change in structural scope. The kishōtenketsu structure originates in 4-line poetry, by nature small and self-contained. That makes the structure a natural fit for small pieces of a game, like a single level in a Mario game. Instead of levels being a combination of multiple themes and ideas, each one has a specific focus and a specific story to tell. This can be very rewarding to a player, because you constantly get to learn something new and demonstrate your ability.

In a positive sense each level is a mini-game in a shared world. This is great in the current gaming climate of mobile games making up a huge portion of the games industry. You can sit down and gain that feeling of achievement even if you only play through one level. It is perfectly suited to casual play, and I think Nintendo probably executes this better than anybody. You get a superbly crafted game experience in every single level. But there are drawbacks, too.

But there is also a negative sense that each new idea begins to feel like a “gimmick” rather than a game device. Because of that, parts of the recent Mario games felt more like a collection of mini-games than a cohesive whole. And while I still appreciate the craftsmanship on Mario levels, Mario games have lost a lot of their draw for me. When you need to wrap the idea up in a bow by the end of every single level, you lose a degree of continuity between them. The overall arc of the game is lost in the noise of so many little arcs.

    

For me, that means I’m less engaged in completing it, because I only care what I’m doing right now. In contrast, I prefer games that place more emphasis on the larger arc. Put a good story in there. Not necessarily a narrative plot, but an explanation and motivation of why I go from one level to another. “Because it’s there” isn’t good enough.

My go-to Mario games are Super Mario World and Mario 64. In Super Mario World, you levels continue to introduce new concepts as the game goes on, but the structure is more loose. Levels are assembled into worlds, on maps that give you a clear picture of how to progress in the game. They combine and recombine elements of the game into new levels over and over again. But instead of making you find a solution and then taking it away, the game builds in complexity on a larger scale. As you learn more about the game, you get better at applying the same solutions to increasingly complex  problems. It offers you the chance to decide how to pass through the level. And this is much more empowering to me as a player. Mario 64 does something similar, but literally makes you return to the same starting point to find a completely different solution to almost the same set of problems.

One of my favorite video game levels ever created is in Super Mario World. In SMW, you can skip huge portions of levels by flying over them with the cape. At the start of Cheese Bridge Area, there is a platform just long enough for you to take off from, daring you to fly. But if you try this while riding Yoshi, you gradually descend, and quickly realize there isn’t anywhere for you to land. But if you keep holding right, something amazing happens.

Just when you think you’re in trouble, you bounce off of a saw, and another, and another, allowing you to make it to a platform with a checkpoint, and Yoshi’s Wings [which can give your Yoshi an upgrade and automatically completes the level]. Sure, you could play the level the way it’s intended, riding moving platforms and jumping to avoid the saws, but if you take a bold leap, you’re rewarded for trying something different.

The difference between the two styles is a quilting approach versus a weaving approach. With a quilt, each piece can be complex but self-contained, but gets sewn together with the other pieces to make a larger design. With weaving, threads can run through the entire piece, occasionally coming in and out of the background as needed to create the design, creating complexity on a larger scale.

Mario doesn’t need to be the game that does this. Metroid is a much better vehicle for that, because it does away with individual levels. Metroid is about discovering something new, then applying the new idea to everything you’ve previously encountered. Get Bombs? Try blowing up walls you saw before. X-Ray Vision? Scan everything. Zelda falls between the two, with an open world and dungeons as distinct levels. And indeed, there is a similar structure in Zelda dungeons. You receive a new item, you learn to use it, then your skills are put to the test, and finally you use it to defeat the boss and bring the dungeon to a close. I’m playing Majora’s Mask for the first time, and the game does a great job of blending both levels of narrative. Each area and dungeon has that nice focused development, but the game also makes you combine multiple tools to solve increasingly complex puzzles.

Despite the cleverness of these puzzles, recent entries in the Zelda series have been getting criticism for is how formulaic they are. Yet, the Mario games have been following the kishōtenketsu structure in a practically formulaic way, but receive a lot of praise for a great player experiences. So there is clearly a double edged sword, as there is with any design structure followed so strictly.  Both routes have advantages and disadvantages, but it is always up to the designer to choose what type of experience to create. I prefer more long term structure when I design and when I play. It isn’t the right solution for every game. Mario games, however, are all about the levels. That design philosophy has helped them to produce some of the best video game levels ever, and should help them jump ahead as they enter the realm of mobile games.