firehose

From Space.com‘s Calla Cofield:

It’s a blast from the space-age past: A poster from 1965, featuring a space explorer traversing a distant world, was unearthed from the National Archives and posted online on Feb. 26.
The awesomely retro print is dated Feb. 26, 1965, and it captures the aesthetic of space-based art at the time — it looks as if it could be the cover of a 1960’s science fiction novel.
The poster is advertising NASA’s traveling space-education program “the Spacemobile.” These mobile outreach units would travel to schools and events to tell students and members of the public about space sciences and the work being done by NASA.

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hannibalhannibal:

stand-up-comic-gifs:

Hannibal Buress Teaches a Valuable Lesson About Bike Security (x)

I killed that dance at the end of this.

As you've probably read on Morning Rush or seen on Black Twitter, Starbucks has launched a race initiative. The chain is asking its baristas across its 12,000 United States stores to spark dicussions about the thorny topic of race with customers by writing the words "Race together" on their cups.

According to the corporation's "newsroom," CEO Howard Schultz sowed the seeds for the initiative in December by distributing a letter to all U.S. employees about how he was watching "with a heavy heart" the "tragic events and unrest" connected to white police killings of black victims including Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

At an all-staff meeting that month at its Seattle headquarters, employees "representing various ages, races and ethnicities passed a microphone and shared personal stories" with Schultz, who has said, "We at Starbucks should be willing to talk about these issues in America. Not to point fingers or to place blame, and not because we have answers, but because staying silent is not who we are."

Starbucks says it held subsequent "open race dialogues" in Chicago, L.A., New York City, Oakland and St. Louis. The company claims that baristas in some of those cities took it upon themselves to write "Race Together" on their customers' cups. Corporate picked up the tactic, took out a full-page ad in the New York Times, and partnered wtih USA Today to create special supplements about race. 

Talking about race is what we're all about at Colorlines. While we can appreciate individual conversations, we believe that systemic change is crucial. So we decided to take a quick look at how Starbucks does the very basic concept of racial diversity.

At press time Starbucks' media relations team has not responded to e-mail and phone messages. So we gathered outside information about what Starbucks' executive team looks like, what CEO Schultz is paid, what its workers look like and how much baristas reportedly make. If Starbucks wants to talk about race, its diversity--or lack thereof in the case of executives--may be a good place to start. 

Original Script Text

Ha. No, not where I was going.
If you get in the way of us becoming a thing…
…then, uh, I would be, well, very sad.
Oh.
So do you, um?
[BOTH SPEAK IN ITALIAN]

Despite being a rookie drafted in the third round, linebacker Chris Borland was an important part of the 49ers defense last season, even starting eight games. With Patrick Willis retiring and Justin Smith reportedly considering the same, the 49ers will rely on Borland even more heavily this season. Or, were going to. Outside the Lines is reporting that Borland, 24, has told the 49ers that he is retiring "because of concerns about the long-term effects of repetitive head trauma."

In a cryptic official statement referencing “threats of violence and harassment,” DC Entertainment announced last night that it would no longer be publishing that controversial Batgirl variant cover:

We publish comic books about the greatest heroes in the world, and the most evil villains imaginable. The Joker variant covers for June are in recognition of the 75th anniversary of the Joker.

Regardless if fans like Rafael Albuquerque’s homage to Alan Moore’s THE KILLING JOKE graphic novel from 25 years ago, or find it inconsistent with the current tonality of the Batgirl books – threats of violence and harassment are wrong and have no place in comics or society.

We stand by our creative talent, and per Rafael’s request, DC Comics will not publish the Batgirl variant.

Many followers of #CHANGETHECOVER took DC’s statement to mean that Albuquerque himself was the target of harassment, with some fans even showing their support for the artist with “Je Suis Rafael Albuquerque.” But as Albuquerque explains:

Ill talk more about it tomorrow but I was never threatened. just to make it clear.

— Rafael Abuquerque (@rafaalbuquerque) March 17, 2015

Batgirl co-writer Cameron Stewart was able to offer a little more clarity:

Something to clarify, because DCs statement was a little unclear. @rafaalbuquerque did not get threats. People OBJECTING to the cover did.

— Cameron Stewart (@cameronMstewart) March 17, 2015

I stand behind Rafael as an artist and a friend, and think he made the right decision.

— Cameron Stewart (@cameronMstewart) March 17, 2015

In his full statement, Albuquerque wrote:

My Batgirl variant cover artwork was designed to pay homage to a comic that I really admire, and I know is a favorite of many readers. ‘The Killing Joke’ is part of Batgirl’s canon and artistically, I couldn’t avoid portraying the traumatic relationship between Barbara Gordon and the Joker.

For me, it was just a creepy cover that brought up something from the character’s past that I was able to interpret artistically. But it has become clear, that for others, it touched a very important nerve. I respect these opinions and, despite whether the discussion is right or wrong, no opinion should be discredited.

My intention was never to hurt or upset anyone through my art. For that reason, I have recommended to DC that the variant cover be pulled. I’m incredibly pleased that DC Comics is listening to my concerns and will not be publishing the cover art in June as previously announced.

With all due respect,

Rafa

Not surprisingly, DC and Albuquerque’s decision was met with typical dude-bro whining and a ComicGate hashtag protesting “censorship” (in quotation marks because that’s not how censorship works) and “reverse sexism” (in quotation marks because that’s not actually a thing), with the cover cancellation being compared to the presumed lack of ethics in video game journalism, concerns over sexism in STEM fields, and the recent deadly terror attacks on Charlie Hebdo. Thankfully, common sense prevailed elsewhere:

Oh COME ON guys. The Batgirl cover was a misfire for the people who read that book. Wrong tone. Pulling it was a very reasonable decision.

— Joe Hill (@joe_hill) March 17, 2015

It ain’t censorship, it’s not an outrage, it’s the right choice – every aspect of a book should be working for the story and the audience.

— Joe Hill (@joe_hill) March 17, 2015

Variant covers don’t necessarily show a story moment from inside. Nor do regular covers, these days. But all covers are still about…

— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) March 17, 2015

…reaching out to the audience you want to attract to a book. Welcoming an appropriate audience and making them want to sample the book.

— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) March 17, 2015

Props to DC (and Albuquerque!) for considering the cover’s problematic implications and dissonance with the new Batgirl, taking online threats seriously, and for making this variant cover their Twitter header photo:

(via Comic Book Resources)

Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?

"Space," beloved science-fiction author Douglas Adams famously wrote, "is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is." In fact, space is so big that scientists at NASA and their equivalents around the globe often have a hard time identifying and recording all the different stuff floating around in it.

Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock resigns Tuesday, less than 12 hours after POLITICO raised questions about tens of thousands of dollars in mileage reimbursements he received for his personal vehicle.

"They asked him if he had any final thoughts and he said: 'Let's do it'. I didn't like 'Let’s do it' so I just changed it to 'Just do it'."

nickisverseinmonster:

thisiseverydayracism:

trebled-negrita-princess:

17mul:

unite4humanity:

micdotcom:

Starbucks wants you to know it cares about racial inequality. It cares so much that it’s asking its “partners” — employees, to the layperson — to write the words “Race Together” on everything you buy to get you to talk about racial equality with your friends this week. This is a good thing — there’s just one problem.

Since they care so much about race, please ask Starbucks about this. micdotcom 

lmsig

But people don’t believe me when I say the number one indicator of gentrification is a fucking coffee shop in the middle of the hood. How many black folk you know that even BUY COFFEE OUT THE GROCERY STORE let alone a high ass corporate operation….

Your daily reminder that white people are spawns of the devil.

not to mention their appropriated logo

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If it's over 500 years old, it's a cafe now


This guy knows what's up


If i could show everyone in Germany pictures of this nephew i would


don't ask comics artists to endorse their own work they are terrible at it


comic shows are notorious for sad breakfasts


the painted pegasus above the hot tub sealed the deal


2nd appearance


yes it is a good thing


I don't know anything


don't poop in there

I was in Germany promoting my translated book by Zwerchfell Press!  So here are some travel sketches 

[X]

The only place in Leipzig open at 9am is the torture museum LET’S GO 

[X]

finance.yahoo.com

Ben Roethlisberger To Be Honored With Statute

The New York Police Department has anonymously edited and tried to delete Wikipedia pages about police brutality victims, Capital New York has discovered. Edits coming from 1 Police Plaza headquarters targeted pages for Eric Garner, Sean Bell, and Amadou Diallo.

NYPD IP addresses were used to edit the Wikipedia page on the “Death of Eric Garner,” who was killed by police chokehold and inspired massive nationwide protests in the fall. Capital New York found that the department changed “Garner raised both his arms in the air” to “Garner flailed his arms about as he spoke,” and added the sentence “Garner, who was considerably larger than any of the officers, continued to struggle with them,” among other changes.

Someone at the NYPD also tried to delete the article on Sean Bell, an unarmed man who was gunned down by officers firing 50 bullets in 2006, arguing that “no one except Al Sharpton cares anymore.” The user wrote, “The police shoot people every day, and times with a lot more than 50 bullets. This incident is more news than notable.”

The NYPD also edited entries about the police force’s stop-and-frisk policy deemed unconstitutional in 2013, as well as a number of unrelated articles, including “Four Loko,” “Sailor Moon,” and “Croissant.”

The edits and deletion attempts reflect the NYPD’s sometimes clumsy response to the increased scrutiny in the wake of controversies over stop-and-frisk, their treatment of Occupy Wall Street activists, and most recently, the crackdown on #BlackLivesMatter protesters.

The NYPD has long had a testy relationship with the press, punctuated by threats and arrests of journalists who document police misconduct. Lately, the nation’s largest police force has tried to circumvent the media to control its public image — with mixed results.

The department started writing and posting its own “good arrest” stories directly to its Facebook page last summer extolling heroic officers. In one instance highlighted by Gothamist, the NYPD reported on Facebook, “A rookie Bronx cop on a footpost this morning chased down and arrested a gun-toting 17-year-old who, moments earlier, fired four shots into another man and left him for dead on a Mount Eden street.”

The NYPD even cracked down on an artistic mural calling the police force “murderers,” even though the property owner had approved it. When the artist declined police requests to remove the mural, NYPD officers painted over it themselves.

Other efforts to improve the NYPD’s image online have backfired repeatedly. The ill-conceived hashtag #MyNYPD, on which Twitter users were invited to share positive interactions with police, was quickly dominated by stories of abuse and harassment. Yet the NYPD broached Twitter again after its officers ducked charges over Eric Garner’s death, using the hashtag #WeHearYou to promise to rebuild trust. That hashtag was soon swamped with criticism.

The post NYPD Caught Editing Wikipedia Entries About Police Brutality Victims appeared first on ThinkProgress.

Make a cocktail dispensing robot controlled with WiFi to mix your drinks. via seancarney

Description

The Barbot is a cocktail dispensing robot which allows users to order cocktails from a webpage. The robot hosts a wireless access point which local users can connect to, or it can plug into a wired network which allows it to be accessed remotely over the Internet. The webpage lets the user input the liquor they have on hand and a list of potential cocktails is generated. The webpage then allows users to order cocktails and also rate the cocktails they’ve enjoyed.

Hardware

The device is based on a BeagleBone Black with a USB WIFI adaptor. The BeagleBone takes inputs from 5 sets of switches, one to toggle the pumps and another to select the direction of flow, which allow the user to prime and purge the pumps. The pumps are standard peristaltic pumps which are driven by a H bridge for direction control. The control buttons and pumps are all set in a laser-cut plexiglass control panel. The control panel and other plywood panels are all mounted on a sturdy angle iron frame.

Software

The BeagleBone Black runs Ubuntu 13.04 with Apache2, MySQL, PHP, bind, and dhcpd installed. Apache2, MySQL, & PHP are used to host the web interface and bind & dhcpd are used to create a captive portal for WIFI users. The web-server directly controls the pumps by using PHP to write into the GPIO sysfs files.
A web based interface allows users to order and rate drinks. A list of drinks is available, which shows their ingredients and current ratings by other users. Configuration tasks are also accomplished over the web; such as selecting the liquor for input, enabling and disabling the physical prime & purge switches, and restricting access by function (browse, order, rate, configure) to certain users and groups.
Additional detail on the software configuration is available.

Try it Out Yourself

A publicly available mock-up of the web interface is available at http://barbot.seancarney.ca.

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Each Tuesday is BeagleBone Black Day here Adafruit! What is the BeagleBone? The BeagleBones are a line of affordable single-board Linux computers (SBCs) created by Texas Instruments. New to the Bone? Grab one of our Adafruit BeagleBone Black Starter Packs and check out our extensive resources available on the Adafruit Learning System including a guide to setting up the Adafruit BeagleBone IO Python Library. We have a number of Bone accessories including add-on shields (called “capes”) and USB devices to help you do even more with your SBC. Need a nice display to go along with your Bone? Check out our fine selection of HDMI displays, we’ve tested all of them with the Beagle Bone Black!

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None of the top MVP candidates stood out this week, so we still have James Harden at No. 1.

The NBA MVP race remains as close as last week, although none of the top players were able to make major moves. Excellent performances were mixed in with poor ones, so nothing much has changed.

1. James Harden (Last week: 1)

Harden's perch atop these rankings was ripe for the taking after two poor performances in consecutive losses for the Rockets. But nobody stepped up quite enough to wrestle it away from him, and it helped that he finally got over whatever spell the Clippers had on him in previous games.

Harden has been mostly a disaster against the Clippers since becoming a Rocket and he shot a combined 12-of-37 overall and 3-of-18 from three in the first three meetings this season. But in Sunday's fourth and final meeting, the shooting guard put up 34 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in a last-second victory. He shot 7-of-16 overall, 3-of-5 from three and a whopping 17-of-18 from the charity stripe in the victory.

2. Russell Westbrook (Last week: 2)

Westbrook continues to put up ludicrous numbers, but a few high-turnover games plus poor shooting in some losses keeps him from leapfrogging Harden for the top spot. Westbrook notched a wack double-double on Wednesday, putting up 24 points and 10 turnovers in a loss to the Clippers. He almost notched an actual triple-double, but the 10 turnovers is hard to look past. He was thoroughly outplayed by Chris Paul.

Westbrook followed that up with two brilliant performances in wins (including another triple-double that was almost a wack quadruple-double thanks to eight turnovers), but he faltered down the stretch in a loss against the Mavericks on Monday. Westbrook had seven more turnovers and tried to do too much without Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka in the lineup. That resulted in him fouling out in the game's final minute.

Westbrook could have a chance to make more MVP statements in the next few games with Durant and Ibaka out, although KD is supposed to be back soon.

3. Stephen Curry (Last week: 3)

Curry had a quiet week, sandwiching two sub-par performances around an evisceration of the lowly Knicks, which isn't much of an accomplishment. He also sat out a loss to the Nuggets for rest purposes, so he stays put at No. 3.

Yet even with a couple poor outings, Curry is once again shooting the lights out from three after the All-Star break. Prior to the break, he shot "only" 39.9 percent from deep. Since the break, he's knocking down 50.5 percent of his treys. Those that have followed Curry for a long time know this second-half surge is an annual tradition.

4. Anthony Davis (Last week: 4)

Davis played only one game over the last week, and what a game it was. In a double-overtime marathon, the 22-year-old played 50 minutes and notched 36 points, 14 rebounds, nine blocks and seven assists against Denver:

Unfortunately, Davis's big performance was all for naught, as the Pelicans lost and fell behind the Thunder again in the playoff race.

And now for your weekly check on Davis's PER: a whopping 31.69. That puts him pretty darn close to Wilt Chamberlain's NBA record of 31.82. I wouldn't put it past Davis to top that record.

5. LeBron James (Last week: 5)

James had 31 points, seven assists, five boards and a few daggers in the thriller against the Spurs, but Kyrie Irving was the star of that show with 57 points, so the four-time MVP doesn't get to move up based off that game.

James nearly racked up a triple-double in the demolition against the Magic, but he was outplayed by Dwyane Wade in a return to Miami on Monday. James had 26 points in a blowout loss to the Heat, but 16 of those points came in garbage time, and it was strange that Cavaliers head coach David Blatt had his star play nearly the entire fourth quarter in a rout. Maybe because it was in Miami.

6. Chris Paul (Last week: 6)

Paul was masterful against Westbrook last week, scoring 33 points and dishing out nine assists in an impressive win. The last two games weren't pretty, but his numbers in March still look fantastic. The point guard is averaging 21.6 points, 10.6 assists and 4.0 rebounds while shooting 49.6 percent from the field in March. Now Blake Griffin is back, and we'll see if the Clippers can find their groove again once Griffin gets acclimated.

7. LaMarcus Aldridge (Last week: 9)

Aldridge is one of the few players on this list who was consistently great over the last week. In four games since last Wednesday, the big man averaged 24 points and 11 rebounds on 58 percent shooting. Portland went 3-1 in those four games, including impressive wins over Houston and Toronto.

8. Marc Gasol (Last week: 7)

Gasol put together three nondescript performances last week, although he flirted with a triple-double in a win over Milwaukee. He also sat out a game for rest purposes. For those reasons, he drops a spot this week.

9. Jeff Teague (Last week: 8)

Teague had 23 points and six assists in a tight win over the Kings, but he rested against the Lakers and failed to reach double figures in both points and assists in two other games last week. So, yeah, nothing too exciting here.

10. John Wall (Last week: 11)

Are Wall and the Wizards back? After a prolonged slump, Washington has won four straight games and the point guard has really picked his game up. He averaged  22 points, 9.5 assists and six rebounds while shooting 57 percent overall and 60 percent from three in the last four games.

Next five: Damian Lillard, Klay Thompson, Kyrie Irving, Al Horford, DeAndre Jordan

this has been bopping around on the Twitts lately..

Shit --- - F. Cesari / Nature pic.twitter.com/8vlpksZZHc

— Sarah (@Drosophilista) March 10, 2015

bluekomadori:

A commission of Bulbasaur & its evolutions for Carlos Araujo. Thank you!! :)

BUBBA~