firehose

“Life is what happens when you’re busy misquoting John Lennon” - Shut up, Mike...

Arkansas Online

O'Reilly rebuts poke at his war reporting Arkansas Online In this Oct. 28, 2013 file photo, political commentator Bill O'Reilly attends the National Geographic Channel's "Killing Kennedy" world premiere screening reception at The Newseum, in Washington. The Fox News Channel host O'Reilly is contesting ... Bill O'Reilly Lies–but Some Lies Matter More Than OthersFAIR (blog) Watch Bill O'Reilly Defend War Reporting Claims, Take Aim at “Guttersnipe” CriticsSlate Magazine (blog) Bill O'Reilly Defends War Reporting Claim, Slamming 'Far-Left' MediaHuffington Post all 389 news articles »

Chinese New Year is the latest holiday to fall prey to a labor dispute between west coast US shipping companies and a major dockworker’s union, as US-bound ships full of sticky rice, mung beans, and ceremonial lai see envelopes for exchanging cash gifts have been stuck at port due to a protracted slowdown.

“Our Chinese New Year is totally ruined,” Taylor Chow, who owns a cooking supply business in California’s Bay Area, told the San Jose Mercury News. The holiday usually generates double or triple his company’s typical monthly sales. US retailers that import Chinese new year goods may be stuck with excess year of the sheep items that arrive late—and the next year of the sheep doesn’t come around until 2027.

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, a shortage of US-grown tangerines and oranges, traditional New Year’s gifts, frustrated holiday shoppers, the New York Times reported (paywall). US apple and pear farmers, who rely on Chinese New Year exports for their peak sales months, have also reported aggravating shipping delays.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents ship owners, both say an agreement is near after a nine-month deadlock, but it won’t come in time to salvage the year of the sheep festivities. US labor secretary Thomas Perez visited San Francisco over the weekend to try to mediate the disagreement.

Chinese New Year isn’t the only holiday that has gotten pinched by the labor dispute: A few months ago, Hong Kong experienced a Christmas tree shortage, as US exports languished in the Port of Tacoma, Washington.

Some importers are making alternate arrangements to ship goods from east coast US ports, which are not affected by the work slowdown, but rerouting ships via the Panama Canal adds time and money. Air cargo shipments are another option—one that McDonald’s Japan relied on to relieve its french fry shortage—but as the Times points out, some holiday items like the custom-made New Year lion dance costumes are simply to bulky to ship via air.

January imports are down 21% from a year ago at the port of Seattle, and are down 24% in Long Beach, California. The union and the ship owners have agreed on some contentious issues such as health care, but still can’t see eye to eye on pay and arbitration.

Let’s hope they figure it out quickly or US Independence Day on July 4, when the US imports some $200 million in fireworks from China, may be a distinctly quiet affair.

vgjunk:

Shadowgate, NES.

illustruction:

ARCHIEVANGELION 1.1134244
YOU CAN (NOT) HAMBURGERS

I have been thinking about this for months

elloellenoh:

Actual question received about the WNDB short story contest:

"I came across your anthology contest this evening. It was posted on of the boards for my M.F.A. program. I must say, at first I couldn’t help but think what a great theme to go for in an anthology. I immediately began to think of stories I had that would be a perfect fit for you.

Until I kept reading and found out that in your quest for diversity you achieved only discrimination.

You see, I am straight, white, and male. The only combination that is disqualified from your contest. Yes, despite it having nothing to do with the diversity in my story, or the inspiration I could bring to children of all backgrounds, I’m not allowed to submit because of the singular combination of my race, gender, and sexual orientation.

This is the very definition of discrimination.

Imagine if it were changed so that everyone could apply except homosexual Chinese females (random)? The blatant wrongness would be blasted by all as horrific practice, yet that is exactly what you have done to straight white males.

If you truly want to teach children a lesson about diversity and acceptance, I urge you to change your submission rules so that they include all people, regardless of background.”

We urge you to recognize the enormous amount of privilege you reveal in your statement.

snowpi:

problematicweeb:

the news is gr8

I just watched this on tv

brian williams reading it adds a whole new level

gladtoseayou:

Jeff Jackson, a young Democratic NC State senator is the only senator in the general assembly today due to the snow.

I never thought this was a sentence I’d ever say, but I think I have a new favorite state senator.

leadhooves:

totallyfubar:

I have a physics textbook from before the electron was discovered and they just sound so frustrated it’s hilarious

SOMETHING is doing this, but fuck if we know what the fuck it is. GodDAMN

sourcedumal:

mlkrecords:

MUSIC NEWS.

music fanatic Janelle Monae has now launched her record label 

Wondaland Records. 

Truly is empowering seeing women run their own music record labels in a predominately male business. I cant wait for all the music her and her team create. Watch out, Monae’s getting the MuNny 

YASSSSSSS BOO.

GIVE US ALL THE CAREFREE BLACK ARTISTS JANELLE

Send us a picture of your pet, we’ll send you a Cuddle Clone.

Cuddle Clones is an online company that seeks to “capture the emotional connection between people and their pets” by creating plush replicas of a person’s pet with photos uploaded to their site. Because the plushes are custom-made, people are able to choose ear and tail position along with any distinguishing features their pet might have. The cost for a each plush is $199 for dogs, cats and larger animals, $129 for hamsters, mice and smaller animals and orders placed now will be delivered July 2015.

We make soft, adorable, customized stuffed-animal versions of people’s pets called Cuddle Clones. All you have to do is submit at least one picture (although several are preferred) and choose a few customization options (eye color, ear position, tail position) and we’ll send you your very own Cuddle Clone. A portion of each Cuddle Clone purchased goes to pet-related causes to help our furry friends get the care and love they deserve. So you can get a really cool product for yourself or a pet-loving friend and feel warm and fuzzy knowing that your purchase has helped better, and in some cases save, the lives of animals everywhere.

images via Cuddle Clones

via Bored Panda

Hottest Brooklyn Startups – Business Insider.

GoTenna is a pocket-sized device that promises to let you communicate anywhere, regardless of the availability of WiFi and cell phone service The goTenna device pairs up with your phone to let you communicate by sending messages over radiowaves.

Cofounders Daniela and Jorge Perdomo came up with the idea for goTenna in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. Months later, Daniela had created physical prototypes for a gadget to help people communicate even when they don’t have cell phone service. GoTenna has raised $1.8 million in seed funding.

USA TODAY

FDA knew devices spread fatal 'superbug' but does not order fix Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. health regulators have known since at least 2009 that the medical devices at the center of the "superbug" outbreak at UCLA can transmit lethal infections but have not recommended any new safety requirements, a lapse that ... Questions, Concerns Continue To Grow After Nearly 200 Patients Exposed To ...CBS Local 'Superbug' outbreak raises questions about medical toolTulsa World Deadly Superbug Detected At A Los Angeles HospitalThe Monitor Daily TIME -Scientific American -Press & Sun-Bulletin all 989 news articles »

Fox News

Venezuela protests arrest of mayor on anniversary of unrest The Globe and Mail Police broke into Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma's office and carted off the longtime critic of Venezuela's socialist government, adding to tensions on the anniversary of the outbreak of protests that paralyzed the nation a year ago. President Nicolas Maduro ... Caracas Mayor Arrested Over 'Coup Plot'Voice of America Mayor Antonio Ledezma arrested and dragged out of office 'like a dog' by police ...The Independent Opposition Caracas mayor arrested in violent police raidDeutsche Welle all 379 news articles »

Original Source

Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

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Harris Wittels, one of the executive producers of "Parks and Recreation" died at his home Thursday from a possible drug overdose ... TMZ has learned. According to law enforcement sources ... Wittels was pronounced dead around 1 PM. We're told the 30-year-old was found lying on his couch ... and there was drug paraphernalia in the house. There were no signs of trauma to his body.

When Norris visited the Goodwill store on Thunderbird Road in Phoenix, he came across a watch that caught his attention. Priced at a mere $5.99, the diving watch was what he discovered to be a rare 1959 Jaeger-LeCoultre — one of only 900 ever made.

Zuckerberg’s topical choice is a deliberate one. “The science is completely clear,” he writes. “Vaccinations are important for the health of everyone in our community. This book explores the reasons why people question vaccines, and then logically explains why the doubts are unfounded and vaccines are in fact effective and safe.”

“Frozen Fortress” by Michael N. Sutton and Julian Tryba is a short film that reflects the stunning frozen beauty of the Ice Castles light show in Lincoln New Hampshire, where the filmmakers spent over 4 hours a day in sub-freezing weather to capture the show’s magnificence.

Ice Castles are a magical collision of ice caves, frozen waterfalls and glaciers, formed into towering archways, caverns and tunnels. Guests can explore this glacial wonderland by day or by night when lights embedded deep within the ice change to the rhythm of inspiring music.

images by Julian Tryba

gif by Beckett Mufson

via Creators Project

laughhard:

Peanuts vs Plain nuts

After Hurricane Katrina charged through the southern US in 2005, inflicting damages worth an estimated $108 billion, Alabama-based Signal International hired some 500 Indian workers to help with repair and rebuilding in the wake of the storm.

These workers reportedly paid $10,000 each to a recruitment agency that hired on behalf of the marine fabrication company—and were promised well-paid jobs and even green cards.

After they arrived in 2006, the workers found themselves forced to live in guarded labour camps at Signal’s shipyards in Mississippi, and paid $1,050 every month to live in 1,800 square feet units that were shared by two dozen men.

By 2008, workers began filing the first of the 11 lawsuits that would be launched against Signal International.

“For more than one year, hundreds of Indian workers at Signal International have been living like slaves,” a former Signal worker Sabulal Vijayan said during a March 2008 protest. “Today the workers are coming out to declare their freedom. This trafficking needs to end.”

On Wednesday (Feb. 18), a New Orleans jury heard the first of those cases and awarded five workers $14 million. That’s the largest amount ever awarded by a jury in a labour trafficking case, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

And while that’s a sizable compensation for the plaintiffs—Jacob Joseph Kadakkarappally, Hemant Khuttan, Andrews Issac Padaveettiyl, Sony Vasudevan Sulekha and Palanyandi Thangamani—scores of workers still await their turn for receiving justice after suffering some truly harrowing conditions.

In 2011, American journalist Dan Rather investigated the issue and obtained secretly recorded footage showing exactly how these hundreds of Indian workers lived.

Here is an excerpt from Rather’s investigation:

This article is a part of Quartz India. For more, follow this link.

What happens in Vegas…is apparently fair game for an earnings conference call.

MGM Resorts International unintentionally outed Vice Media CEO Shane Smith’s ridiculously expensive $300,000 dinner at the Bellagio casino’s Prime Steakhouse in January. Asked yesterday about spending levels at the company’s casinos, MGM CEO James Murren bragged about the tab to Nomura analyst Harry Curtis: “$300,000 for dinner at Prime. That’s a pretty good check. You would have liked the wine, Harry.”

Murren didn’t identify the person who ran up the six-figure bill, but Bloomberg reporters quickly connected the dinner to Smith, who at the time of the meal was in the midst of a hot run at the blackjack tables, which was apparently witnessed by the late New York Times media columnist David Carr:

The Times’ Dealbook blog later reported that Smith’s gambling winnings exceeded $1 million, citing anonymous people who attended the dinner.

With accounts of the guestlist ranging from 12 to 30, it’s hard to imagine how the outspoken Smith and his guests ran up such a stupendous tab without buying some monumentally expensive booze. A 28 oz. bone-in rib eye, Prime’s most expensive dish, sells for $85, pan-roasted Dover sole will run you $66, and a lobster tail goes for $62—but the steakhouse’s wine list includes bottles that sell for more than $20,000.

A Vice spokesman did not respond to requests for comment. The media company recently secured a $500 million funding round that values it at more than $2.5 billion.

Smith also has yet to comment on the dinner. Perhaps he thinks MGM has already said enough.

Packing a beloved pet into a box for an airline flight can be a traumatic experience, but pet owners may find comfort in knowing that the chance of Fido being hurt or dying on an airplane are quite low—one in 50,000, according to 2014 data, just released.

Seventeen pets died in-flight and 26 others were injured last year, according to a report from (pdf) the US Department of Transportation. That’s out of the over 2 million pets that fly in the US every year. Being cooped up in a small box is not exactly first-class flying (or even coach flying), but your dog, cat, or Guinea pig will most likely make it from point A to point B unharmed.

The number of pet incidents climbed slightly from 2013, but it fell basically in line with other years.

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The data only includes large US domestic airlines, those that account for at least 1% of scheduled passenger revenue. But a DoT spokeswoman tells Quartz that starting this year, all US carriers that operate scheduled service and have at least one aircraft with more than 60 seats will be required to report animal incidents to the government. Animals being shipped by breeders didn’t count, either. That, too, will change with the new rules.

Looking at the data since May of 2005, 213 of the deaths (pdf) were dogs, 39 were cats, and the rest included birds, guinea pigs, and one ill-fated monkey.

American and Delta, the two largest airlines in the US by passengers and fleet, saw hardly any incidents involving pets last year. United’s 19 total incidents should be considered in the context of the more than 100,000 pets who fly with them each year.

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The airlines on the chart above vary dramatically in size: United flew 140 million passengers last year, behind only Delta and American. Alaska, on the other hand, flew only 30 million passengers, but the airline says it flies up to 80,000 pets per year, perhaps because the isolated state offers few alternatives to shipping pets long distances.

Many of these incidents are not in airlines’ control. Some injuries are self-inflicted (pdf) by pets unaccustomed to flying. Other times, the cages supplied by owners are inadequate, or the pets are just too sick or old to fly. Flying can be especially dangerous for some dog breeds, including those with short snouts (they are prone to breathing problems and overheating, even in temperature-controlled cargo areas).

On a United flight last year, a dog died mid-flight (pdf, pg. 1) because a piece of gauze that had been left in its abdomen after a surgery, which caused a lethal case of peritonitis.

And sometimes, pets just really, really don’t want to fly (pdf):

Description of Incident: After acceptance by Delta and clearance by the TSA a Staffordshire Terrier travelling with its family to Tampa FL was able to escape by pushing on the door of its kennel. The dog was later spotted by airport personnel and video surveillance for several minutes. It is believed that the dog was able to escape the airport perimeter. The dog is still missing.

Courtney shared this story from BLDGBLOG.

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[Image: The skyway-to-nowhere while it still spanned the street; photo via the Star-Tribune].

Continuing our irregular look at oddities in real estate, you might be interested to know that you can now buy a skyway.

The 280,000-pound steel structure was originally designed by architect Ed Baker, a man apparently also known as "the father of the skyways," according to Greg.org, and as a "skyway visionary," as suggested by his 2006 obituary in The Journal.

The structure itself is still intact, although it no longer spans a street or sidewalk; rather, it sits empty in a nearby lot, devoid of both purpose and context, like an architectural prosthetic discarded, half-forgotten, by the city.

But it's no ordinary skyway.

[Image: The skyway sitting in its dusty lot; photo via the Star-Tribune].

“It is a piece of Minneapolis history,” architect Ben Awes of CityDeskStudio told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “To demolish it would be a significant waste of resources, the waste of an object that is both extremely practical and has tremendous creative potential.”

The back-story is complex:

The saga of the grounded skyway, which once ferried shoppers in climate-controlled comfort over S. 5th Street between the J.C. Penney and Powers stores in downtown Minneapolis, began more than a decade ago when the Powers store was demolished, leaving the abandoned skyway perilously projecting over 5th Street.

When work began on the 5th Street LRT line in 2002, the University of Minnesota bought the skyway to nowhere for $1. Plans to repurpose the elegant network of zigzagging steel tubes and trusses never materialized, and in 2006, CityDeskStudio bought it for $5,000 at a blind auction and wheeled it to a weed-strewn field near the U’s Twin Cities campus.

And it has sat there ever since.

When CityDeskStudio bought it, they initially envisioned transforming the structure, in one, architecturally coherent piece, into a modern lakeside cabin somewhere in the wilds of Minnesota. Until the economy got in the way.

[Image: The skyway as lakeside retreat; rendering by CityDeskStudio].

Technically speaking, the thing is not even for sale: in fact, CityDeskStudio will pay you to take it away from the site. But the moving costs, insurance, and whatever other associated site-preparation fees you might face before planting it in the woods somewhere could be quite considerable.

Any takers?

(Spotted via Greg.org. Previously on BLDGBLOG: Buy a Fort, Buy a Lighthouse, Buy an Underground Kingdom, Buy a Prison, Buy a Tube Station, Buy an Archipelago, Buy a Map, Buy a Torpedo-Testing Facility, Buy a Silk Mill, Buy a Fort, Buy a Church).