firehose

Here on Earth, it’s easy to take things for granted. Drinking a cup of coffee, for example, is a shockingly simple act when you’re affected by gravity, yet it’s infinitely more difficult once you leave Earth’s atmosphere.

"WE MUST REPORT THE FINDINGS OF THE INVESTIGATION TO OUR COUNTRY" - Prehistoric Isle in 1930 (SNK - Arcade - 1989) 

dhysis:

Well I was trying to spawn 200 cabbages but I guess M’aiq the Liar works too.

The marvel that you're observing here is a 607-foot, 14,000-square foot "candy carpet" created by artist duo Craig Redman and Karl Maier to promote a shopping center in Chengdu, China. It took 2,000 volunteers five days to put together.

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it-a:

 I emailed this to my graphics art teacher before he quit and sometimes i ponder if this is the reason why he did

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@ToplessRobot Thanks for reaching out. This was created with unauthorized use of our branding. The people responsible are being dealt with.

— Domino’s Pizza (@dominos) January 28, 2015

Jill would like you all to know that when she first saw this tweet, she thought Domino’s was doubling down and making a badly worded joke about dom-style punishment. Turns out, that’s not really their thing after all!

Despite our… excitement? horror? at what appeared to be Domino’s latest BDSM-inspired Sriracha pizza ad, it turns out that Domino’s never actually authorized the ad to ever go to print, and is now doing hella damage control to ensure that everybody knows it.

The ad was actually the brainchild of the Israeli offices of McCann Erickson, who reportedly pitched it to the Domino’s independent chain there according to the brand’s Twitter account.

@Cosmopolitan Yes, it was created & pitched by McCann Erickson Tel Aviv to the independent franchise in Israel.

— Domino’s Pizza (@dominos) January 28, 2015

@Cosmopolitan It never “officially” appeared anywhere. — Domino’s Pizza (@dominos) January 28, 2015

How it surfaced on the Internet is anyone’s guess—we’re guessing a leak from the agency, probably—but when it showed up on Ads of the World a few days ago, the copy underneath suggested the ad had been published in December 2014, which is most likely what led many of us to believe that the ad was in print somewhere. But even if it was never authorized, it was still pitched, which in and of itself is baffling.

Still, barring any “dealing with” from Domino’s, it appears to have paid off in lots of publicity for the agency—this is the most anyone’s talked about McCann Erickson since that time they got namedropped on Mad Men. Good job, team. I hope you don’t get fired too much.

Ah well. At least we still have our pizza condoms.

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Marshawn Lynch is a man of few words. In the week leading up to the Super Bowl, the star running back for the Seattle Seahawks is making more news for his hostility toward the NFL press corps than for what he's put on the record. His refusal to play ball with sports media (and a few epic crotch-grabs) has earned him $120,000 in fines and a stern warning from the league's headquarters. But it's also made him one of the most enigmatic players in the NFL.

Lynch has made his share of missteps: he's been arrested for driving with a concealed gun and for driving under the influence. Because he skips press events, refuses to answer the media's questions or he responds to them with some variation of "I'm here so I won't get fined, boss," Lynch has been wide open to some of the most outrageously racist criticism the sports world has seen in recent years. Take this column by CBS New York's Jason Keidel wrote last winter. He paints Lynch as both an uppity prima donna and an "ornery" ghetto brute who is only out to collect a check. He even uses Newark, where the press conference is taking place, to define the running back. A sample:

[He] did little on Media Day to change the perception of him. His testy, truncated responses -- all ending with a caustic "Boss!" -- was the story out of the Prudential Center, which, ironically, is in downtown Newark, as violent a city as any in America.

...If anyone can relate to a city that has surrendered to the violence and galling poverty of the ghetto, it's Lynch.

Lynch comes from an appalling part of Oakland, flanked by drugs, gangs and guns, the template commerce of the ghetto. A major network recently ran a special on Lynch, and lifted the curtain on the reticent star's life. ... He's been arrested several times since entering the public domain, and he's vowed to rebuild his image as someone who left the 'hood, but the 'hood never quite left him.

Perhaps his biggest mistake is being unapologetically black and rebellious in a league business that depends on military-like obedience. That's the subtext that runs through a lot of the criticism aimed at Lynch. Even ESPN's Stephen A. Smith insinuated as much when he said that Lynch's actions "sadden and disappoint me." "Marshawn Lynch seems to me to be a very authentic brother," Smith said. "He is a brother that could have some things to say that could have a profound impact on a lot of young minds out there because he is serious about his business, he is hardcore, and he is real." The point? Lynch is a role model for many young black football fans, and he should leverage that reality to do more.

But if you look past the non-interviews, it's not too hard to find reasons to admire Lynch, both on and off the field. On it, he's a dominant running back, arguably one of the most powerful runners the league has ever seen. Off it, he's a goofball who's fiercely protective of his hometown -- Oakland-- and still deeply involved in it. Here are a few facts about the man behind the myth.

He loves "The Town." Lynch was born and raised in predominantly black North Oakland and he was a legend at Oakland Tech High School, which he graduated from in 2004. Tech is where he earned his nickname, "Beast Mode." ("You find out what's in you and it just comes out," he said by way of describing how to go into "beast mode.") The city is also enmeshed in his style of play: "Growing up, being from where I'm from, a lot of people don't see the light," Lynch said of his spectacular run against the New Orleans Saints during the 2012 NFL playoffs in an ESPN E:60 segment. "I didn't see the light on that play. I guess you could say it's symbolic of where I'm from." 

 

He's still an Oakland school kid. Lynch is notoriously media shy, but that didn't stop him from making a cameo in a video for the Oakland Unified School District ahead of the 2013-2014 school year to promote school attendance. Check him out dancing with kids to a remix of Rihanna's "Please Don't Stop the Music."

 

He gives back to his commnity. "I'll be damned if somebody from Oakland say that Marshawn don't come back and be in his community," Lynch told ESPN. Through his Fam 1st Family Foundation, Lynch has helped raise funds to build a youth development center in Oakland that also hosts an annual four-day event for young people in The Town that includes a bowling night. "Oakland, it done taught me a lot," Lynch told reporters. "I mean, Oakland has really just taught me about life, and I feel that I'm proud of my city and I feel like [without it] I wouldn't have been the man who I am today. I'd had ups and downs and I've been able to overcome 'em, just because I feel like being from Oakland I had to overcome so much. The reason I feel I've been able to bounce back from that is because of the strong backbone that I have, and that I represent Oakland."

He's embraced his sweet tooth. Lynch is an avid Skittles fan, and one of few players to receive an endorsement from a candy company. Skittles have become a staple of touchdown celebrations at Seattle's CenturyLink Field. Lynch even staged a mock Skittles press conference to poke fun at the media's frustration with him.

After serving three years in jail, 34-year-old Marissa Alexander went home yesterday and is now on house arrest. A judge denied the prosecutor's request for an additional two-year sentence in the case of the Florida mother who in 2010, and nine days after giving birth, fired a gun near her abusive husband and allegedly his children. Alexander subsequently used Florida's "stand your ground" law as her defense. No one was injured but a jury, MSNBC reports, convicted her in 12 minutes. Alexander was initially sentenced to Florida's minimum, 20 years, and could've faced 60 years in prison. The outcome for Alexander, an African-American woman, provided a stark contrast to that of George Zimmerman, a white Hispanic male, who in a 2013 trial also used the "stand your ground" law in, ultimately, a successful defense in the killing of unarmed 17-year-old African-American, Trayvon Martin. Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, passed in 2005, has been widely criticized for excusing vigilantiism and uneven application but it remains on the books.

Alexander read a prepared statement as she left the Duval County courthouse yesterday. It said in part:

"Today, after the sentence given by Judge Daniel, my family and I will be able to move on with our lives. Although the journey has been long and there's been many difficult moments, I could not have arrived here, where I am today, without the thoughts, many thoughts and many prayers of so many people who voiced their support and encouragement. Words can never express my gratitude for those who stood beside me, including my children and family. I am also grateful that Judge Daniel approached this case with such care and diligence."

Alexander's estranged husband, Rico Gray, according to First Coast News, "said he is happy that the case is over and that everyone can move forward -- especially the children. [He] is happy that she has finally accepted responsibility [but] has concerns about whether she is really remorseful."

For the next two years Alexander will be monitored by ankle bracelet. Supporters, according to News4Jax, have raised money to cover the associated fees and local pastors are offering a job in one of their ministries.

Magic: the Gathering canonizes trans woman warlord:

“The Truth of Names,” official fiction by James Wyatt, formerly of the Dungeons & Dragons team:

… She had been so different—only sixteen, a boy in everyone’s eyes but her own, about to choose and declare her name before the khan and all the Mardu.

The khan had walked among the warriors, hearing the tales of their glorious deeds. One by one, they declared their new war names, and each time, the khan shouted the names for all to hear. Each time, the horde shouted the name as one, shaking the earth.

Then the khan came to Alesha. She stood before him, snakes coiling in the pit of her stomach, and told how she had slain her first dragon. The khan nodded and asked her name.

"Alesha," she said, as loudly as she could. Just Alesha, her grandmother’s name.

"Alesha!" the khan shouted, without a moment’s pause.

And the whole gathered horde shouted “Alesha!” in reply. The warriors of the Mardu shouted her name.

In that moment, if anyone had told her that in three years’ time she would be khan, she just might have dared to believe it. …

EDIT: Improved the tags. I apologize for using outdated and offensive terms.

spigot: FOLKS THE ONLY MEASURED, LOGICAL RESPONSE IS A JERKCITY CARD GAME WITH A BIG THICK HARDCOVER RULEBOOK RIDDLED WITH INCONSISTENCIES AND IMPOSSIBLE TO FOLLOW OR PLAY CORRECTLY
deuce: PSST THOSE ARE MOST CARD GAMES
spigot: PLEASE DON'T CONTRADICT ME IN FRONT OF THE WEB CARTOONISTS

We are excited to announce the new iteration of the feedly Power Search: it is Google-fast, indexes the entire history of all your feeds and lets you slice up results using filters and operators. For the first time, you can also search for stories, podcasts and videos beyond your feedly.

 
With Power Search, you can search across 40 million sites, magazines and blogs and find the best content related to your industry, a brand or a product. We index 50 million new article every day, organize them by topics and keywords and sort them by engagement on feedly and social networks. It is the fastest way to find relevant content and boost your marketing and research projects.

Here is an example:

• Help me find stories about “Windows 10”

Let’s refine things:

• Show me stories which had the most engagement on social networks
• Show me stories which include a video
• Show me stories referencing “Windows 10 AND Cortana”
• Limit the search to The Verge

If you are an existing feedly user, you can go even further and apply these searches to your existing collections, your saved stories or your tags.

Our goal is to evolve Power Search into Google for Stories so that content creators, researchers and marketers can find the content that matters to them faster. The new Power Search is a step in that direction.

Happy Searching!

/Edwin

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Over the past 40 years, Americans have become increasingly likely to deny an affiliation with a religion. The graph below shows that people with “no religious preference” rose from about 5% of the population in 1972 to about 20% today. Overall, however, Americans do not report a corresponding decline in the a belief in God, life after death, or other religious ideas. What’s going on?

Sociologists Michael Hout and Claude Fischer — the guys who made the graph above — argue that the retreat from religious affiliation is essentially, a retreat from the political right. Religion has become strongly associated with conservative politics, so left-leaning people are choosing, instead, to identify as “spiritual but not religious.”

Here is some of their evidence. The data below represents the likelihood of rejecting a religious affiliation according to one’s political views. The more politically liberal one is, the more likely they have come to reject religion.

Using fancy statistical analyses, they explain: “generational differences in belief add nothing to explaining the cohort differences in affiliation.” That is, people haven’t lost their faith, they just disagree with religious leaders and institutions.  Hout and Fischer conclude:

Once the American public began connecting organized religion to the conservative political agenda — a connection that Republican politicians, abortion activists, and religious leaders all encouraged — many political liberals and moderates who seldom or never attended services quit expressing a religious preference when survey interviewers asked about it.

Democrats have wondered how to break the association of the right with religion and claim a little bit of moral authority for themselves. It looks like they may not need to or, even, that having failed to do so has a surprise advantage.

Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College and the co-author of Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

(View original at http://thesocietypages.org/socimages)

http://thebobsburgerexperiment.com/?og=1:

A cooking blog dedicated to Bob’s Burger of the Day… and also Louise’s awesome ideas. I take the punderful name from Bob’s Burger of the Day chalkboard, and I come up with a recipe for it. Then I…

Bart the cat was much-beloved by his family—which is why it was so tragic when he passed away after being hit by a car. Or so we all thought.

The one-and-a-half year old cat was struck by a car this month in Tampa, and owner Ellis Hutson asked his neighbour to bury the poor little guy. Dusty Albritton, said neighbour, dug a shallow grave, and left Bart to his rest.

Until, five days later, Bart emerged from the ground, beg-meowing for brains.

Or Purina, or whatever.

“All I knew was this cat was dead and Pet Sematary is real,” said Albritton, watching Bart return to life with a broken jaw, ruptured eye, and injured face.

In all seriousness, Bart was not actually dead, and we must recommend taking your maybe-dead cat to the vet to verify this next time, Hutson. Tampa Bay’s Humane Society successfully repaired his jaw and removed his injured eye, and in six weeks the little guy is going to be just fine. Bart’s medical costs are being covered in part by the Save-A-Pet Medical Fund.

We do, however, suggest Hutson keep a steady supply of mouse brains on-hand – just in case.

(via Yahoo, image via allison_dc)

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On Tuesday it was, "I'm just here so I don't get fined," now Marshawn Lynch has a new one-sentence answer to every inane question thrown at him: "You know why I'm here."

Marshawn wasn't scared off by reports the NFL might fine him for wearing his signature "Beast Mode" hat, and he certainly isn't kowtowing to media members who are endlessly whining about how he won't answer questions instead of walking 25 yards to the next player who will.

You keep doing you, Marshawn. People like you just the way you are. When asked what he'd say to his fans for not answering questions he just said, "They know why I'm here."

Yes we do, Beast Mode. Here's the full video of his interview session:

`

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Have you ever spent hours on end thinking about keybindings?  Do you have a nearly inexplicable fascination with the minutiae of interface configuration?  Has anyone ever described an element of your personal computer as artisanal?  Maybe you and Tyler, who has thoughts on keybindings, would get along:

I’m not sure when, exactly, it became clear that I was going to spend as much time as necessary perfecting my keyboard configuration. It’s one of those things that you know you can make absolutely perfect—given enough time and energy. On Linux, when you spend enough time bashing your brain into a topic, you often find your effort rewarded manyfold. This is the hallmark of a professional tool: a tool with which your efficiency increases with your proficiency.

The way many people first experience a computer is through a point-and-click-style mouse interface. While there are professional tools that prefer a mouse interface, and there is healthy debate about the most appropriate tool for computer interaction, the fact remains: most professional computing and programming is done with a QWERTY keyboard.

I can tell I’ll be working my way through this one for a while.

If you spent any time on the internet last year you would know that there’s an enormous  (and quite strange) subculture that exists around video games. And like other corners of the entertainment world, the gaming business, estimated to be worth more than $15 billion a year in the US alone, is undergoing a dramatic, internet-led transformation.

Physical games for consoles are quickly being replaced by alternatives as gamers shift their focus to mobile devices, where free versions of games can be downloaded (and new features and levels can be unlocked for a price).  It’s reminiscent of the music business, where CD sales and digital downloads are on the decline, amid the rise of subscription-based, online streaming services.

Or so we thought.

Electronic Arts, one of the biggest video-game companies—it’s behind the popular FIFA and Madden franchises—reported quarterly results late yesterday (Jan. 27), and they were stronger than expected. EA has been an astoundingly good investment lately, mainly because it has been managing this transition well. It’s stock has more than doubled over the past year and is today flirting with its highest levels in seven years.

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What is fascinating about EA’s above-forecast quarter is that it actually was better-than-expected physical sales that drove the strong result, with “packaged goods” (versus digital sales) accounting for a little more than half of total revenue. What’s more, it was actually sales of games for older consoles (not the newest versions of the X-Box and PlayStation) that performed the best. “It’s not what people would have expected a year or two ago,” Macquarie Securities analyst Ben Schachter tells Quartz.

EA’s digital revenue also was stronger than expected, driven more by downloads of games and extra content for console games, rather than mobile products, which actually underwhelmed, he says. “The packaged disc is doing better than expected,” Schachter notes.  “And once people are buying that disc they are also downloading additional content.”

Is old-school video gaming experiencing its vinyl moment? The analogy to the revival in record sales is not perfect, since physical video game sales haven’t collapsed anywhere close to the extent that record sales had before their recent resurgence. That said, nostalgia is definitely a thing in gaming.

Schachter says strength in sales tied to older consoles has a lot to do with pricing. Newer consoles such as Xbox One and Sony’s PS4 cost around $400. Discounts on older games and older consoles “might have brought new buyers into the market that didn’t exist before,” EA’s CFO, Blake Jorgensen, told the Wall Street Journal.

Nevertheless, analysts expect EA’s digital revenue to overtake packaged goods revenue at some point this fiscal year.

Award-winning bartender Taktumi Watanabe demonstrates how to gracefully craft a gorgeous neo-classic “Smoked Rum Martinez” utilizing a simple recipe of two parts rum, one part maraschino liqueur, one to two dashes cherry vanilla bitters, and wood smoke.

Stir with ice, strain into smoke-filled decanter, swirl, then strain into cocktail coupe. Before stirring with ice, mix ingredients and taste. Adjust Maraschino until you can detect its flavor in the drink. The Smoking Gun from PolyScience can be used to generate the smoke. Recommend a wood smoke instead of a tea smoke with this drink. Smokiness of the drink will vary based on the amount of time in the decanter – a few quick swirls is sufficient. Smokiness of the drink will start strong, but mellow as the drink sits.

via Digg