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11 Feb 11:21
clarawebbwillcutoffyourhead:What Portland is like These are...
firehose and -1 others like this
10 Feb 07:11
Georgia sees first confirmed measles case since 2012 - NewsOK.com
firehose'An infant with measles entered the country last week from Kyrgyzstan and is now being treated in Atlanta'
TIME |
Georgia sees first confirmed measles case since 2012 NewsOK.com ATLANTA — An infant with measles entered the country last week from Kyrgyzstan and is now being treated in Atlanta, state health authorities said Monday. The child represents the first measles case in Georgia in nearly three years. The baby's parents were ... Stay Away From 'Measles Parties' Docs Warn ParentsABC News Overnight Healthcare: Lawmakers dive into vaccine debate amid measles ...The Hill This could be stock of decade: Bill MillerNBCNews.com CIDRAP -Outbreak News Today -KOLO all 494 news articles » |
10 Feb 07:10
Jeb Bush's tech hire can't delete his 'slut' tweets fast enough - MarketWatch
firehoseamputate Florida and SV
“College female art majors are sluts; science majors are also sluts but uglier,” and “most people don’t know that ‘halloween’ is German for ‘night girls with low self-esteem dress as sluts,” are two of the more colorful examples of Czahor’s Twitter pronouncements.
But slamming women, and female science majors in particular, wasn’t enough: “When I burp in the gym, I feel like it’s my way of saying ‘sorry guys, but I’m not gay,’” he wrote.
Drunk driving? Sure, why not? “I saw a sign that said ‘drunk driving kills’ but that’s not logically correct — it should be ‘having accidents while drunk driving kills.’”
And he rounded off his collection of off-color tweets with this missive: “I know Lindsey Lohan is supposed to die soon, but I’d sure like to sleep with her before that happens.”
MarketWatch |
Jeb Bush's tech hire can't delete his 'slut' tweets fast enough MarketWatch Ethan Czahor just nailed down a job as Jeb Bush's chief technology officer to assist the former Florida governor as he prepares to make a run at the White House, according to Time. It didn't take him long to get a hefty dose of life in the public eye. Of course, a ... and more » |
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10 Feb 07:07
Woman who claims she flew without airline ticket arrested - The Daily Progress
ABC News |
Woman who claims she flew without airline ticket arrested The Daily Progress MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Authorities are investigating if a woman with a history of boarding airplanes without a ticket stowed away on a flight from Minnesota to Florida. The Nassau County Sheriff's Department says Marilyn Hartman was arrested Sunday after ... Serial plane stowaway busted again for taking 'free' trip to FloridaNew York Post Serial stowaway arrested again after taking flight to FloridaABC30.com Serial stowaway bustedwwlp.com all 157 news articles » |
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10 Feb 07:04
Jon Stewart Skewers Media Hypocrisy In Brian Williams Coverage - Yahoo TV
by gguillotte
As Stewart put it, pointedly, referencing Williams, “Finally, someone is being held to account for misleading America about the Iraq war.”
10 Feb 07:04
Saints Billionaire Loses Control of Texas Assets for Now - Bloomberg Business
by gguillotte
firehosediet sounds fine to me
The heirs question whether it was Benson’s decision to cut ties or whether he’s being manipulated by his third wife and suffering from health problems exacerbated by a diet of candy, ice cream, soda and red wine.
10 Feb 06:53
unfollower: why does lays even hold these flavor competitions...
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10 Feb 06:50
How Rape Makes Women Poorer
by Barry
firehosevia Lori
This cartoon was inspired by “Yes means yes” is about much more than rape, by Amanda Taub.
Transcript:
The cartoon is in flow chart form.
Panel 1 is labeled “START HERE,” and shows a fashionable hipster man talking on a cell phone. He has a Van Dyke beard.
VAN DYKE: Come to the city and stay with me for the conference! You’ll meet important people!
An arrow labeled “If you’re a girl go this way” leads to a panel showing a young woman on the phone thinking “Should I go? I barely know this guy.” There are two paths leading from this panel: “YES, GO” and “DON’T GO.”
“DON’T GO” leads to a panel marked THE END, where we see an IMPORTANT PERSON IN A SUIT AND TIE speaking to VAN DYKE.
IMPORTANT PERSON: Whatever happened to her? I thought she was talented.
VAN DYKE: I tried helping her, but she’s SO standoffish.
THE END!
“YES, GO!” leads to a panel of the young woman and Van Dyke in a bedroom. He is grabbing her and she’s trying to fend him off.
VAN DYKE: Aw, c’mon, don’t tease!
WOMAN: Get OFF!
There are two routes out of this panel: “STAY IN HIS APARTMENT” and “FLEE HIS APARTMENT.” “STAY IN HIS APARTMENT” leads to a black panel labeled “HE RAPES YOU.” “FLEE HIS APARTMENT” leads to a panel of the young woman sitting on a sidewalk, shivering, in the dark, labeled “you’re broke on the streets of a strange city.” Whichever path you choose, they both lead to…
A panel marked “YOU GET BLAMED.” Fingers point at the young woman.
FINGER 1: She must have wanted it!
FINGER 2: What did she expect to happen?
The “YOU GET BLAMED” panel leads to an arrow marked “TIME OFF TO HEAL,” which in turn leads back to the THE END panel.
Going all the way back to the “START HERE” panel, there’s one more route in this flow chart. From “START HERE” (“Come to the city and stay with me for the conference! You’ll meet important people!”) choose “IF YOU’RE A BOY, GO THIS WAY.” A young man on the phone says “Thanks! I’d love to go!” We then see him at a party in the city, with lots of networking going on; the IMPORTANT PERSON is saying to him, “we should collaborate.” An arrow marked “YEARS LATER” leads to a panel of the now less young man, clearly now an important person himself, giving a speech at a podium.
YOUNG MAN: I never benefited from sexism… I just worked harder than my rivals!
10 Feb 05:36
Annie Lennox Rocks the Grammys at 60
by gguillotte
Given Lennox’s age, last night may have been the first time an entire generation of music fans were introducted to the 80s icon.
10 Feb 04:25
mzhaze:darkproverbs: knowledgeequalsblackpower: burntpicasso:ic...
firehoselol "Bum of the Year" crop
Reactions to Beck winning Album of The Yeari have tears in my eyes.
BOYYYYYY
Why are they surprised? A Black person hasn’t won Album of the Year since 2005 (Ray Charles… and he had just passed away). So… in an entire decade, the peoples who invented popular music in America, haven’t been able to produce a great album according to the Grammys.
I am kim lmao. Who the hell is this Beck person
I was furious.
10 Feb 04:23
#Ferguson: Six Months After the Killing of Michael Brown
by Anita Little
firehosevia Rosalind
Protestors in front of Mayor Slay’s home
Michael Brown was gunned down by police in his Ferguson, Missouri, neighborhood six months ago today.
Trayvon Martin, killed by a self-appointed “vigilante,” would have turned 20 years old last Thursday.
Also last week: the 16th anniversary of the death of Amadou Diallo, who was shot at 41 times by NYPD when reaching for his wallet.
To be a person of color in America means to constantly have these birthdays and anniversaries flitting in and out of your mental calendar. To constantly be reminded of how institutional racism snuffs out black lives.
As Crunk Feminist Collective co-founder Brittney Cooper explores in the upcoming issue of Ms., a new civil rights movement is emerging from the police killings of black youth. And unlike the ones of decades past, this revolution will not only be televised but Facebooked, Instagramed, tweeted–all with the hashtag that became the emblem of a movement: #BlackLivesMatter.
Created by black women activists Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi, #BlackLivesMatter has become both an epitaph and a battle cry.
And it isn’t going anywhere.
The lack of police indictments, the hijacking of justice, has only further galvanized activists–especially women and young people of color. They are increasingly pushing for overdue changes that will add accountability to policing. Changes that include an end to “hot-spots” policing (which often leads to racial profiling), a program that allows officers to blow the whistle on other officers without fear of retaliation and a requirement for officers to reside in the neighborhoods they police.
A critical solution–one that’s overlooked and rarely mentioned in the press–is requiring police departments to mirror the demographic makeup of their communities. That means not only hiring more officers of color, but more women. As the executive editor of Ms., Kathy Spillar, points out in the new issue of Ms., “women officers are less authoritarian in their approach to policing, rely less on physical force than men do, possess better communication skills and increase police response to violence against women.”
The powers-that-be are facing mounting pressure to create lasting change in how communities of color are policed.
Early this morning in St. Louis, protestors assembled in front of the home of Mayor Francis Slay. They planted mock tombstones in his yard and marched around his block carrying a fake coffin that they left at his doorstep before they dispersed.
Slay seems to have found all this amusing, tweeting this out shortly after:
The group leading the demonstration, the Artivists, decided to come to the mayor’s home after he repeatedly barred them from protesting at City Hall. They will continue going to the homes of city officials, dubbing the protests as “Monday Mournings.”
A sign left on the mayor’s yard quoted a Mexican proverb: “They tried to bury us, but didn’t know we are seeds.”
With funerals for people of color lost to police brutality feeling commonplace, America has a lot of buried seeds. Seeds that–thanks to the work of activists like Cullors, Garza and Tometi–are sprouting into an intersectional and resilient struggle.
To read more on the Black Lives Matter movement and the push to end police violence, get the latest issue of Ms. in your mailbox or inbox!
Photos of today’s St. Louis protest from Twitter user @AaronWBanks
Anita Little is the associate editor at Ms. magazine. Follow her on Twitter.
Tertiarymatt likes this
10 Feb 03:35
The Rich Man’s Dropout Club
firehose'For Mr. Gu and other members of that first class of fellows, their experiences have been neither as dire nor as dramatically successful as observers on both sides predicted. While many fellows say they appreciate what college gave them, they also didn’t feel they needed a credential to pursue their dreams. And while they agree that dropping out isn’t the right choice for many students, they hope they’re proof that there’s not just one path to success.
Indeed, while higher-education experts debate his philosophy, they agree that Mr. Thiel has succeeded in getting more Americans to ask what college provides that the working world cannot.'
...
'Ms. Full is something of exception in that many of the fellows no longer work on the idea that won them the fellowship in the first place, sometimes ditching it after their plans proved unworkable.
One early success story ended in a company’s collapse. Airy Labs, an educational-gaming company started by Andrew Hsu, who had been studying neuroscience in a doctoral program at Stanford, secured venture capital and expanded to more than 20 employees. But within a year the company was undone by poor management, according to a 2012 article in TechCrunch. (Mr. Hsu declined an interview request, but the Thiel Foundation says he is working on a new company with another fellow.)
Other fellows had early setbacks, although not as dramatic.
Mr. Friedman and Mr. Gu quickly abandoned their e-commerce idea after they realized they weren’t ready to run a business. Mr. Friedman went on to intern at a venture-capital firm and learn about coding and product development, which helped him and a new partner start a company, Thinkful, that offers courses in web development.
David Luan discovered that biotech companies weren’t willing to invest in the kind of costly system he envisioned to automate their research. He used his training in robotic perception to develop instead a service, called Dextro, that analyzes the content of photographs and videos. He also returned to Yale to finish college while his co-founder completed his graduate degree.
One fellow, John Marbach, left the program after his first year. One of the younger participants, he felt out of step with the others. "The Thiel Foundation said, ‘Oh, we’d be happy to introduce you to VCs and CEOs and coaches,’" he recalls. "But there was no, like, ‘Oh, we could introduce you to some normal friends.’" He returned to Wake Forest and will graduate this year.
Despite their struggles, most fellows interviewed say they are glad they pursued the fellowship. Even Mr. Marbach says he recommends it to others, now that it has more of a built-in support system.'
Whatever happened to the teenage entrepreneurs whom Peter Thiel paid to forgo college?
firehose likes this
10 Feb 03:31
Angelina Rumored To Have Been Approached To Direct Captain Marvel - But will Chewie be involved?
by Sam Maggs
firehosepass
Okay, it’s a completely unfounded rumor at this point, so let’s not get too excited; but Marvel may have approached Angelina Jolie to direct the Captain Marvel film coming our way in 2018.
According to SpoilerTV, Marvel loved Jolie’s 2014 film Unbroken and have offered her twenty million dollars for the super-job. Their source says that “having a female director is a priority” for Marvel, and that Jolie feels that “to be courted by Marvel after the Sony fiasco is a huge pat on the back.” If true, Captain Marvel would be Jolie’s sixth feature film, having previously also directed the documentary A Place in Time and In the Land of Blood and Honey, and being signed on for 2015′s By the Sea and 2016′s Africa.
While I think Jolie would be an interesting choice for the film, I wonder if a female director with a more action-oriented background might not be a better fit for the film. Marvel has a history of making particularly smart choices for their directors, even if they’re not always well-known; in this case, I’m thinking of Game of Thrones‘ Alan Taylor for Thor: The Dark World or Community’s Russo brothers for Winter Solider. Before Michelle MacLaren signed on for Wonder Woman, we made a post of lady directors we thought would be great for the film, and I still think a lot of those choices apply to Captain Marvel. I’d be most interested in Lexi Alexander or the Soska sisters – though we hear Ava DuVernay might be interested.
And ultimately, while it’s wonderful news that Marvel is aiming for a female director, I think for Captain Marvel it’s equally if not more important that they sign on a female or feminist writer. The current Carol Danvers would be nothing without Kelly Sue DeConnick’s voice behind her; we don’t want the script getting left to some David S. Goyer wannabe who throws together something reductive and insulting—because even if the female director makes certain we’re not treated to exploitative ass shots, we’d still be getting a weak superheroine. I know Joss Whedon wants to step away from the Marvel universe for a while after Ultron, but is it too much to hope that he might at least take a pass at the script?
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10 Feb 03:27
Hooray! The Lady Sif Returns For Another Agents of SHIELD Episode - "Miss me?"
by Victoria McNally
firehose:/
And the good news is that it probably won’t be another creepy gross mind control plotline! Because it’s actually going to be another overused TV trope instead. Yaaay? (Spoilers, friends!)
TV Insider is reporting that Jamie Alexander is back when the show returns on March 3rd, and her guest appearance will feature prominently in the midseason’s second episode… where she will have amnesia after the SHIELD team finds her in the aftermath of an epic battle. Yup, AMNESIA. Luckily it’s only short term—she’ll remember her childhood and her heritage as an Asgardian, but according to executive producer Jeffrey Bell, not much else beyond that.
“Sif has no idea who Thor is or that she serves a king, and we’re going to have fun with that,” Bell said, making sure to keep the villain’s identity secret. “It’ll give us some much-needed humor in a season that’s been full of betrayal and death. Sif can’t even recall who she came here from Asgard to stop, but Agent Coulson and his team will try to help her figure all that out.”
As wacky as poor Sif’s memory loss will be, it’ll also tie into the overarching plot of this season as well. “We’ve been dealing a lot with space aliens and Inhumans in our last few episodes—things our Earth-bound heroes just don’t know much about,” Bell also noted. “They need help understanding what’s really going on. Sif’s memory—what’s left of it—will come in very handy.”
What do you think, SHIELD fans?
(via Eric Bouchard)
Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?
firehose likes this
10 Feb 03:24
ad deliquium, adv.
firehose'With reference to a bloodletting procedure: to the point at which the patient feels faint or faints (from loss of blood).'
10 Feb 03:03
NBC Might Save Constantine By Moving It To Syfy
by Rob Bricken
firehosewhere he can probably smoke and be bi
File this under "rumors," subdivision "things we desperately hope end up being true": Word is that while Constantine isn't doing well on NBC's Friday night programming block, the network believes in the show enough that it's considering moving it to its little sister network Syfy!
10 Feb 02:40
Newswire: Cinnabon giving Better Call Saul fans free taste of sadness today
by Sean O'Neal
In the opening moments of last night’s Better Call Saul premiere, it’s revealed that Bob Odenkirk’s Saul Goodman has fulfilled his bleakest self-prophecy by ending up the manager of a Cinnabon in Nebraska. The ignobility of Saul’s circumstances and the drudgery of his days are laid out for the viewer like a thick blanket of dough. Saul’s consignment to an eternity in an anonymous shopping mall is presented as a sticky purgatory—a limbo where the days loop on and on into each other like a particularly bitter cinnamon roll, and Saul feels trapped under enormous weight and full of regret, like someone who ate at Cinnabon. And now Cinnabon invites Better Call Saul fans to experience that desolation firsthand.
Today, Feb. 9, at all Cinnabon locations from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.—Cinnabon’s most shame-filled hours—you can get a free ...
firehose likes this
10 Feb 02:39
Eerie Photos of Snow Blanketing the Interior of an Abandoned Shopping Mall in Akron, Ohio
by E.D.W. Lynch
firehoseSnow 4 Dead
The interior of an abandoned mall is covered in a blanket of snow in these eerie photos by Cleveland-based photographer Seph Lawless. Lawless took the photos recently at the Rolling Acres Mall, a sprawling shopping center in Akron, Ohio that was shuttered in 2008. In 2014 we posted about Black Friday, Lawless’ photo book on abandoned shopping malls, in which the Rolling Acres Mall is featured.
photos by Seph Lawless
via PetaPixel
Luke.stirling, bernot and one other like this
10 Feb 02:39
Why Dingoes Could Be The Solution To Australia's Feral Cat Problem
by George Dvorsky
firehosebou no
Feral cats are a huge problem in Australia, feeding off more than 400 of Australia's animal species. A new study has discovered that tiny, endangered animals fare better in areas populated by dingoes, suggesting these canine cousins could be used as effective conservation tools.
Luke.stirling, firehose and -1 others like this
10 Feb 02:38
Facebook Will Tag Every Photo Ever Taken Of You — Whether You Like It Or Not
firehosegreat
Facebook is getting smarter at faces — a lot smarter.
10 Feb 02:33
corgis-everywhere: Hiccup’s brother giving Mama Chalupa a...
firehoseno satans only corgs
firehose and -1 others like this
10 Feb 02:31
The Real Story About That Wheel Of Time Pilot That Aired Last Night
by Charlie Jane Anders
firehose'In a nutshell, Winter Dragon, which aired early this morning on FXX, was not actually FXX programming. It was "client-supplied programming," according to an FXX spokesperson — which I believe means that someone rented time on FXX to show it. Similar to a late-night infomercial.
So what gives? We spoke to Rick Selvage, CEO of Red Eagle Entertainment and the executive producer of Winter Dragon, who told us "it was more of an [issue of] getting it on the air."
Selvage had to be very careful about what he told us, but reading between the lines, it sounded as though his company has the rights to make a Wheel of Time TV series — but those rights were about to expire, unless they got something on television by a certain date. '
The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan is one of the most popular book series of all time. So you'd think the first episode of a TV version would air with massive fanfare... so why did the pilot air in the middle of the night instead ? We reached out to the producers and found out why. Now updated with more info!
10 Feb 02:16
AMBER
firehosehmm
AMBER:
Amber is an open source tool for website owners and administrators to safeguard the promise of the URL: that information placed online can remain there, even amidst network or endpoint disruptions. By automatically storing a mirror of every page linked to on a website, Amber gives visitors a fallback option if links go dead.
These mirrors are stored directly in the local storage space of the website or server. If one of the pages linked to on this website were to ever go down, Amber has stored and can provide visitors with access to a mirrored version.
Via Macworld.
firehose likes this
10 Feb 02:13
Sexism and consequences at TechCrunch’s annual award show
by Nitasha Tiku
firehose'If AOL was concerned with making women feel welcome, Miller's history of sexist jokes is easy to find. Blaming Miller distracts from all the cringe-worthy, if not offensive elements at the Crunchies that were not "startling" in the slightest.
For example, at some point in the evening, the succession of men on stage started to look like a parade of lawsuits. Between Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel; the co-founders of YikYak; Sean Rad, the former CEO of Tinder; and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, there were three allegations of stolen co-founder titles from close friends, one sexual harassment lawsuit, and one suit for defamation. Arrington filed the defamation suit, against his ex-girlfriend Jenn Allen for alleging that he physically abused and raped her. Arrington was giving out the Crunchie for "CEO of the Year," which went to Marc Benioff, the Salesforce CEO and philanthropist who encouraged other companies to join him in his 1 + 1 + 1 pledge. Describing Benioff on stage, Arrington said: "Sometimes somebody is so good you want to punch him in the face."
You could see the myth-making that smooths away those rough edges happen over the course of the evening. In his acceptance speech for "VC of the Year," Jim Goetz from Sequoia Capital gestured at the "group of Southern boys that are building a herd," referring to the co-founders of YikYak, the anonymous gossip app that recently secured a $400 million valuation. "A year ago we were just two Southern boys playing ping pong," they said when YikYak accepted the Crunchie for "Fastest Rising Startup."
The unofficial prize for the most ongoing lawsuits, of course, goes to Kalanick, who is currently facing a potential class action from drivers who allege they have been denied the rights of full-time employees. If the Crunchie voters were being real, they would have given Kalanick "CEO of the Year," too. He’s the executive everyone in Silicon Valley wants to be.'
For the past eight years, TechCrunch has hosted a bizarro tech world version of the Oscars called the Crunchies. The industry gets all dolled up, walks the "green carpet," and watches Silicon Valley insiders present trophies for categories like "Best On-Demand Service" and "Best Overall Startup." At the eighth annual Crunchies last Thursday, the best startup award was handed to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, while outside demonstrators protested Uber’s privacy violations, treatment of its drivers, and distaste for the rule the law. One sign said, "UBER DESERVES A HIGH KALANICK."
It is not lost on TechCrunch that the founders and investors celebrated at the Crunchies are no longer starved for attention or validation. Perhaps to introduce a little more awareness of the bubbling absurdity, in recent years TechCrunch stopped using its own writers as emcees and hired comedians. You can watch the Crunchie intros get more caustic as the class tension rises. Last year, John Oliver told the audience: "You’re no longer the underdogs, it’s very important you realize that," and then riffed on ways they were "pissing off an entire city."
The Crunchies get more caustic as the class tension rises
The real joke, of course, is that a tech blog got Oliver to show up in the first place. This time, TechCrunch got T.J. Miller from HBO’s Silicon Valley, to host at Davies Symphony Hall. Twice, he referred to himself as a court jester. "That’s why you invited me here. That’s how fucked up all of you are," he said.
But the mood of the audience didn’t seem masochistic to me. Like Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes, Oliver and Miller were paid to hassle the audience just enough to allow everyone to enjoy an extended evening of self-congratulations with a clean conscience.
Then, mid-way through, Miller began to make the same missteps as Gervais. Within the span of a few minutes, Miller called a woman a bitch three times and casually threw out a racist remark. (You can watch the video here starting at about the 1:34:00 mark.) The first instance was when an audience member annoyed him by taking a flash photo.
Miller: That’s the perfect time to take flash photography. That shows how tech savvy you are. There’s three buttons you can choose: flash on, flash off, or auto, a.k.a. being kind of a rude bitch.
The audience groaned, and Miller encouraged their disappointment.
Miller: Whoaaaaah. I couldn’t wait to come to San Francisco, you guys are so cool about being teased. You’re not that precious here.
A few minutes later, Miller had another off-the-cuff interaction, this time with Gabi Holzwarth, a violinist who plays at tech parties and the girlfriend of Travis Kalanick. She piped up after Miller made fun of Kalanick and Shervin Pishevar, a venture capitalist invested in both Uber and Shyp, a delivery company where Holzwarth started working.
Miller: And the Crunchie for not constantly stepping in shit goes to Travis Kalanick. So does the Crunchie for constantly stepping in shit. Guys, if you’re worried they’re here, talk to Sherv, he’s down with it.
Holzwarth: [inaudible]
Miller: Is that Sherv? How are you doing, Sherv? Wait did a woman just say that’s me? Hey, look, Asians aren’t supposed to be this entitled in the United States.
The audience groaned again.
Miller: And that’s why you guys will never be as loved as Los Angeles. It’s all too precious, you can’t joke about it. She’s yelling that she’s Shervin Pishevar. Are you fucking nuts? That guy has seeded the most successful companies in the tri-state area and I’m talking about California, you bitch.
Holzwarth: Did you just call me a bitch?
Miller: I did not call you a bitch. I called Shervin Pishevar a bitch, but you seem to think you’re him.
Shortly after that, Miller spotted Holzwarth’s dog on her lap and asked her to explain how she got it into the venue.
Miller: Miss do you have your dog here? Is that real? Hold it up so everyone can see. [Cracks up] Oh my god, I’m going to ask you not to be funnier than the comedian tonight.
Then, he asked her to explain Shyp:
Miller: [to Holzwarth] You press a button? A physical button or a digital button? [to audience] What is this bitch from Palo Alto?
These are all examples of punching down, even if Holzwarth keeps interacting with him and there's some light-heartedness in between. Perhaps inured to it at this point, the audience just laughs.
The next morning, Katie Jacobs Stanton, Twitter’s vice president of global media, who was at the Crunchies to accept Twitter’s award for "Biggest Social Impact," wrote a piece on Medium called "My first and last time at the Crunchies." She mentioned the bitch incident (although the quote is a little off) and said she was thankful she hadn’t brought her daughter to the event. Ouch. Reports from Recode and Daily Dot also emphasized Miller’s remarks towards women.
By Saturday, AOL exec Ned Desmond had issued an apology, along with a rather patronizing history lesson implying that those who were offended just didn’t get the jokes. TechCrunch also confirmed that Miller would not be invited back.
If you were present, or watching the live stream, you might have been startled, if not offended, by some of the remarks that the host, standup comedian T.J. Miller made on stage. It’s also possible you found a lot of the show hilarious, which many people did.
There is no definitive line between funny and offensive. Comedy has a long history of being used as a tool for satire and commentary. Many at TechCrunch, however, feel badly about some elements of T.J.’s performance. The use of derogatory slang to refer to women or minority groups is unacceptable at any event TechCrunch runs, period. And we know many others feel the same way, even if it’s hard to find the words to say so. We’re sorry.
This is the second apology for sexist remarks at a TechCrunch event made in as many years. It served Desmond well, conveniently turning the focus to Miller, who is representative of a certain breed of comedian, not the tech industry. I love the show Silicon Valley. I laughed at many of Miller's jokes that night, at least before he over-indulged in something backstage and turned the closing remarks into a dizzy loop-de-loop. If AOL was concerned with making women feel welcome, Miller's history of sexist jokes is easy to find. Blaming Miller distracts from all the cringe-worthy, if not offensive elements at the Crunchies that were not "startling" in the slightest.
The succession of men on stage started to look like a parade of lawsuits
For example, at some point in the evening, the succession of men on stage started to look like a parade of lawsuits. Between Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel; the co-founders of YikYak; Sean Rad, the former CEO of Tinder; and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, there were three allegations of stolen co-founder titles from close friends, one sexual harassment lawsuit, and one suit for defamation. Arrington filed the defamation suit, against his ex-girlfriend Jenn Allen for alleging that he physically abused and raped her. Arrington was giving out the Crunchie for "CEO of the Year," which went to Marc Benioff, the Salesforce CEO and philanthropist who encouraged other companies to join him in his 1 + 1 + 1 pledge. Describing Benioff on stage, Arrington said: "Sometimes somebody is so good you want to punch him in the face."
You could see the myth-making that smooths away those rough edges happen over the course of the evening. In his acceptance speech for "VC of the Year," Jim Goetz from Sequoia Capital gestured at the "group of Southern boys that are building a herd," referring to the co-founders of YikYak, the anonymous gossip app that recently secured a $400 million valuation. "A year ago we were just two Southern boys playing ping pong," they said when YikYak accepted the Crunchie for "Fastest Rising Startup."
The unofficial prize for the most ongoing lawsuits, of course, goes to Kalanick, who is currently facing a potential class action from drivers who allege they have been denied the rights of full-time employees. If the Crunchie voters were being real, they would have given Kalanick "CEO of the Year," too. He’s the executive everyone in Silicon Valley wants to be.
It is naive to expect much from an awards show. (It's an awards show!) Why would the Crunchies celebrate diversity or true technological innovation when the industry itself doesn't prioritize that? Making Miller a scapegoat helps mask deeper issues.
It's naive to expect much from an awards show (It's an awards show!)
This was not the year for self-awareness. This was not the year for fear about what happens if the funding dries up or the profits never materialize. They could invite Miller to make fun of them because nothing really stung. You may resent us, but you can't keep up with us. Miller's interminable closing bit was one long haymaker, spinning in circles and only punching himself. He said at least a handful of different versions of the sentence: You are shaping American culture and maybe global culture. The only difference I can put forth is starring in Garfield 3D. Oliver sung a similar tune in 2012, telling the Crunchies: "You’ve done companies that changed the world, I’ve voiced a Smurf."
The Crunchies reinforce the certainty that they've already made a difference, which may explain the lackluster response to the civics segment of the show. Angel investor and philanthropist Ron Conway, the white-haired "godfather of Silicon Valley" reprimanded the crowd like a disappointed principal for shirking their duties as a citizen of San Francisco or the South Bay (for him, the East Bay doesn’t exist). After Conway scolds the audience, he touts the achievements of Sf.citi, a civic group for tech companies, that's widely regarded to be a dud, despite his efforts. Last year, Conway took the podium with Mayor Ed Lee, a man-sized political puppet. This time, the local official was London Breed, the first female president of San Francisco's Board of Supervisors in 16 years.
Breed talked about growing up down the street in a public housing development in an apartment with five people that cost $700 per month. She appealed to the bootstrappers in the audience — the presenters for "Best Bootstrapped Startup" acknowledged that the days of self-sufficiency are over. "You have created new jobs and new revenues for the city," she said, "Yet right or wrong your success has also created tension." Breed acknowledged the protestors outside, and she almost had me until she added, "But to them I say, 'What is your solution?'"
Silicon Valley prides itself on a solutionist worldview. Founders are told to think of a problem and then build a company that solves it. They invent problems no one has just to say it's been fixed. She should have asked the auditorium.
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10 Feb 02:11
The Life of Cats in Historic Japanese Woodblock Prints
by Kelly
Cats. Art. History. Who could ask for anything more?
From Flavorwire.
They were brought to Japan on ships during the mid-sixth century to protect sacred Buddhist scriptures during transport, but quickly became a central element of Japanese life, appearing in art and folklore throughout the ages. Cats populate the ukiyo-e woodblock prints of the Edo Period (1615-1867). Japan Society Gallery will be presenting a selection of these historic prints, which include the longest-lasting image of a cat in Japanese literature and more. “Much that is fundamental to the Japanese character can be gleaned from these historic popular prints that feature cats in everyday life and lore,” notes Miwako Tezuka, director of the gallery.
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10 Feb 02:09
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See Curiosity's journey from high above the surface of Mars
by Sean O'Kane
firehosebless you, you invincible little turd
We've seen plenty of amazing images taken by the Curiosity rover since it landed two-and-a-half years ago. We've also seen some stunning pictures of the rover itself, like the ones of the damage it's sustained, or its many infamous selfies. But a new photo of Curiosity was released last week that offered, for many, an unfamiliar view of the interplanetary robot. It was taken from over 150 miles above the surface of Mars by a camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter called HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment).
HiRISE is just one of six scientific instruments on the orbiter, all of which have been very busy since entering Mars' orbit in 2006. The camera alone has helped scientists map out ancient lakes, make geological observations, and take beautiful images of the planet's surface. The images even helped us find the UK's Beagle 2 lander, a long lost spacecraft, which was thought to have crash-landed in 2003.
The HiRISE camera has followed Curiosity from the start
The new image of the rover is really just the latest of many taken by the orbiter's camera as it followed Curiosity's journey. The HiRISE team has been tracking Curiosity's movements ever since the SUV-sized rover made its daring descent to the red planet in August of 2012. Even from a great distance, it's captured everything from the rover's landing to its first few drives and beyond, watching over it like a big robotic sibling in the sky.
Hint: Use the 's' and 'd' keys to navigate
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August 6, 2012
Curiosity was captured by the orbiter's HiRISE camera for the first time before it even landed. When this image was taken, the rover still had one minute left in the "seven minutes of terror," a colloquial term used by NASA to describe the harrowing landing process.
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August 14, 2012
Days later, Curiosity was spotted at the Bradbury landing site in Gale Crater. The area around it was darkened by the blast of the rover's descent stage. This image is actually just a section of a massive mosaic made by the HiRISE team at the University of Arizona that shows the surface around Curiosity's landing site.
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August 31, 2012
The HiRISE camera helped tell the story of how well the complicated landing plan was executed. Released weeks after it landed, this image shows where the rover's heat shield, descent stage, parachute, and various debris came to rest.
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September 6, 2012
Just a month after the rover landed, the orbiter captured its metaphorical first steps. The rover team drove Curiosity forward about eight feet, rotated it 120 degrees, and then drove it about 15 feet in reverse. Since then, Curiosity has traversed more than five miles of Martian terrain.
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October 4, 2012
The images from the HiRISE camera are used to map out Curiosity's travels. This one details the two-month route to the rover's initial science destination, where it drilled into Martian soil for the first time.
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October 10, 2012
Two months after Curiosity's landing the HiRISE team released some 3D stereo anaglyph images, which are viewable with traditional red/blue glasses.
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April 3, 2013
This GIF shows Curiosity's descent stage and parachute. It was is made from HiRISE images taken over the span of five months, and shows how the parachute's position has changed multiple times because of the Martian wind.
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July 24, 2013
After 11 months on Mars, Curiosity can be seen almost a mile from the Bradbury landing site.
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January 9, 2014
Curiosity has traveled across some rough terrain, as is evidenced in this image from early 2014. In fact, the terrain was so troublesome at times that many of its wheels were heavily damaged, so the team back on Earth planned different routes in order to preserve them. In this image the rover can be seen in the lower left corner, and you can trace its tracks all the way to the top right.
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April 16, 2014
Some of the mission's most important science has been done here at "the Kimberley" location. Careful navigation through the multi-layered area of the Martian surface resulted in a number of twists and turns, evidenced by the donuts left in the tracks made by the SUV-sized rover.
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July 8, 2014
Curiosity was spotted crossing the edge of its "landing ellipse" almost two years into its journey. The ellipse is the four mile by 12 mile area in which the rover was projected to land. It faces more dangerous terrain outside of the ellipse as it heads toward Mars' Mount Sharp.
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February 4, 2015
Curiosity is currently exploring the diverse "Pahrump Hills" area of Gale Crater. In its time here the rover has found evidence of organic matter and has also provided team scientists with observations that indicate Gale Crater was once a massive lake.
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