firehose

What is a flat white? It turns out this is not a universally agreed-upon definition, and Starbucks baristas in the U.S. should be prepared to expect some bickering — especially from visiting Aussies, Kiwis, and Brits — about what they’re serving up.

fussybabybitch:

usatoday:

Is there anything better than Free Slurpee Day?

Access to basic health care

As far as oddball strategic reserves go, Canada’s Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve is a perennial favorite. (America’s National Helium Reserve and China’s strategic pork hoard are usually up there, too.)

But it should be said that Canada’s maple syrup stockpiles aren’t a government undertaking. They belong to the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, a cooperative marketing group that includes all large-scale syrup producers in the French-speaking province. As Quebec produces roughly 70% of the world’s maple syrup, the Federation—which has been around since 1966 and opened the reserve in 2000—is the OPEC of the syrup world. The group uses the syrup reserve, consisting of three separate facilities in Quebec, to stabilize prices by socking syrup away when prices are low and selling its sticky inventories in order to add supply when prices are too high.

The cartel system is just one type of structure that’s developed over the years to try to manage the volatile price swings in commodities markets. (One need only look at the tremendous collapse of oil prices in 2014—brought on by surging supplies of US oil and weakening global demand—for a refresher course.)

In the US, volatile swings in commodities such as oil were answered, historically, with corporate attempts to control everything from production to retail pricing. (John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil was just that, until a 1911 antitrust decision from the Supreme Court splintered the companies into 34 separate concerns.)

There have been other types of approaches, too. For instance, when overproduction imperiled the US oil and gas business in the early 1930s with the discovery of massive oil fields in east Texas, state and federal government authorities stepped in by helping to create the Interstate Oil Compact, a cartel-like organization of states that more or less enforced oil production quotas aimed at lifting prices.

Of course, the age-old problem with cartels is making sure everybody adheres to the terms. And Quebec’s syrup producers are no different. As Canada’s Globe and Mail reports in a piece on the syrup reserve:

All Quebec producers using containers more than five litres have to sell through the system. A small band of outliers still refuses to take part, and the federation is suing them.

“Basically, they are free-riders,” [Federation president Simon] Trépanier says, adding that, even if they do not want to be involved, the dissenters benefit from the system.

Photo: Toyoko Line Strip Map, Shibuya Station, Tokyo

Lovely clarity with this strip map for the Toyoko Line in Japan (the name is a portmanteau of Tokyo and Yokohama, the two cities that the line runs between).

There are four route lines, each clearly showing which stations the different service types stop at. From top to bottom, these are Local, Express, Commuter Express and Limited Express. Interchanges with other lines – regardless of operating company – are also shown, and it’s bilingual as well!

My only quibble is this map’s placement halfway down a stairwell, which seems bound to cause problems at rush hour.

Source: nicolasnova/Flickr

Labor has been silent so far about Patrick Lynch, the police union leader who is publicly campaigning against Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Japanese Volcano Maps

See: All years gone by.

itwbennett writes Nearly all of the roughly $370 million in bitcoin that disappeared in the February 2014 collapse of Mt. Gox probably vanished due to fraudulent transactions, with only 1 percent taken by yet-to-be-identified hackers, according to a report in Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, citing sources close to a Tokyo police probe. The disclosure follows months of investigations by police and others into the tangled mess surrounding the disappearance of the 650,000 bit coins.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

What questions will be answered when the first attempt at vortex making turns into a wormhole+Mass?     Who wouldn't want to witness the greatest event on earth...so far.        EL.E.X. takes us along for the journey when two siblings discover that their ideas of creating a Vortex in the A.G.chamber turn into a solid wormhole which ushers in a whole new level of technology.  These college freshmen redefine our understanding of the world in which we all live.

British techno-satire Black Mirror is now streaming on US Netflix, and everyone should watch Charlie Brooker's thoughtful, funny, taut, and terrifying anthology series if you haven't already.

Read more...

jessicalprice:

Remember, when dealing with random strangers online or offline:

You’re allowed to set your own personal boundaries for under what circumstances you’ll engage with someone, with whom you’ll engage, what you consider over the line, what you consider attractive or acceptable, and so on.

You’re allowed to change those boundaries as you see fit, whenever you feel the need to.

The fact that you engage in conversation/debate/discussion with someone doesn’t mean that you’re required to do so with everyone, or that you’re required to continue the conversation, or that you’re required to engage with the same person on a different subject. You can be willing to talk politics with one person and not with another. You can be willing to talk politics with one person but not religion. You can be willing to have debates with one person and only non-oppositional discussions with another. You can begin a debate, and if you’re feeling uncomfortable or trapped or unhappy, you can walk away from it.

You can tell someone you’re only willing to talk with them if they don’t use particular language while talking with you. 

You can also tell someone you’re not willing to talk with them if you don’t get to use particular language. 

You can be okay with a particular type of humor from one person and not from another. You can find a particular type of flirting attractive from one person and not another. 

Your presence in a public place, or on social media, does not mean that you’re required to engage with everyone who tries to engage with you. You can choose to whom you respond.

I am writing this because I wish I’d realized it when I was younger.  I spent a lot of time in conversations with strangers who made me uncomfortable, or who were stopping me from enjoying the book I’d brought to a coffee shop to read, or who made my bus ride home from college miserable, or who sucked away my time and energy on the internet, because I’d been socialized into believing that shutting down a conversation was rude (and therefore unacceptable) and that other people’s comfort trumped mine. I felt, without really realizing it, like I needed permission to disengage, or to choose not to engage in the first place. 

You don’t need permission to disengage from a conversation, or to choose not to have it. Or rather, you have all the permission you need to do either: your own. 

People may think you’re being unfair. That’s okay. People may think that you’re being rude. That’s also okay. They get to think that. They have a right to their feelings and opinions. However, their feelings and opinions don’t give them a right to trample all over your personal space, whether that space is physical, mental, or emotional.

And ask yourself: so, what if those boundaries aren’t fair? Why do personal boundaries need to be “fair”? Is it even possible for something subjective like personal boundaries, and personal comfort levels, to be “fair”? Who gets to determine what “fair” is anyway? And why is “fairness” a higher priority than your comfort, feelings of safety, emotional reserves for interacting with other people, or level of enjoyment with engaging? Why is it more important to be fair to others than it is to be fair to yourself? Why should someone else’s desire to talk to you trump your desire not to talk to them? 

Sometimes you have to put your own emotional well-being, your own energy levels, your own enjoyment first. And that’s okay. 

People may tell you you’re missing out. That might be true. There’s a super-slim chance that that stranger at the bus station might drop life-changing wisdom on you. But you know what? If you’re emotionally drained or not in a social mood or whatever, the chances of you actually taking whatever they say to heart are pretty slim. And here’s the thing about wisdom: it hardly ever comes around just once. You’ll hear it from someone else, or have that insight on your own, at some later point when you’re ready to hear it. 

"I don’t feel like talking to this person," is a perfectly legitimate reason not to talk to them. You don’t have to be rude in declining to engage: you can tell them you’re not really in the mood to talk but it’s nothing personal and you hope they have a lovely day. But you’re not required to keep talking to them, and if they keep pressing you to engage, they’re being rude or worse.

And you can enjoy talking to strangers at Starbucks or a bus stop one day and not want to engage the next. That’s okay. You get to feel differently from day to day. You may relish a political debate on Twitter one day and not feel like responding to random strangers in your mentions the next. That’s also okay. 

You don’t owe people explanations of why your boundaries apply to them or this situation. 

You don’t owe people a debate. 

You don’t owe random strangers engagement, period. It’s something that you can choose — or not — to do as you see fit. 

vgjunk:

New shirt design in the shop today. I think it speaks for itself, really.

vgjunk:

Typing of the Dead, PC.

Original Source

“I’m not sure the millennial generation has the patience to watch twelve, thirteen episodes of an hour-long show—even a half-hour show.”

-

Ynon Kreiz, the president of Maker Studios (The New Yorker)

I am really incredibly sorry for the dumb shit adults say, kids.

(via imaginarycircus)

not only can we do it but we’ll do it in one 24 hour period

(via alltheladiesyouhate)

Here’s the thing I find really funny (and by funny I mean pathetic) about this assumption that younger, digital-savvy generations today have no attention span. The thing is, yes, we will tune into a thing for five minutes and then flip away to another channel. We will turn to our phones for entertainment during commercial breaks and if we’re not interested in what we’re looking at we’ll go look at something else. This might be interpreted as a short attention span.

The thing is, what we have right now is what a lot of us and the generations before us didn’t have: a metric fuck-ton of choices. Sure, there’s a growing market for short, self-contained forms of entertainment: short stories and webisodes and other types of serialized fiction that you can consume in small doses, while you’re on your lunch break or taking your morning train. And that’s great. I love that stuff. Again, it gives you another choice, tailor-made with modern life in mind (but not exactly new, either; plenty of popular fiction used to be serialized in magazines and newspapers).

But if creators and network executives are looking at their audience and deciding that the audience isn’t paying attention to what they’re producing because “these kids today and their attention spans,” I’ve got a news flash for them: you’re not losing their attention because they’re not capable of giving it to you. You’re losing their attention because what you’re producing isn’t good enough and they’ve got better more interesting things to do with their time. They’ve got options. You want to capture their attention? Step up your fucking game and produce something that isn’t fucking garbage.

(via thewinterotter)

popular shared this story from kottke.org.

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Software developer and free software advocate Richard Stallman lists several reasons why using Uber is not a good idea. Stallman is definitely a hardliner¹, but I agree with several of his points here. (via hacker news)

1. Indeed, all iOS and Android apps run afoul of some of Stallman's points, particularly those that use location services or store user data.↩

Tags: Richard Stallman   Uber

On tap

Wednesday is New Year’s Eve. In years past, that may have meant ending the night waiting around in the cold for a cab. In 2014, it means dialing up a ride instantly on your phone. But how do you avoid a nasty surge price?

Mars rover Opportunity, which has been exploring the Red Planet for more than 10 years, is suffering from memory problems, NASA said.

kukashkin:

sourcefieldmix:

i’m gonna touch the japanese dog

i wouldn’t

Oregon Ice Cream CIO Alden Gleason posted some mesmerizing video of the assembly line in Eugene, Oregon that packages Julie’s Organic Ice Cream bars and pints.

image via Gizmodo Sploid

via Gizmodo Sploid

Tokyo

Cities are transformed into eroding terrains in the map art series Flowing City Map by Geneva-based artist Chaotic Atmospheres (previously). The artist created the images by processing city maps in World Machine, a 3D terrain software. The software is normally used to create realistic 3D terrains, but Chaotic Atmospheres used it to add erosion and natural landforms to maps of Beijing, New York City, Paris, and other cities around the world. The series is on display at the It’s LIQUID art show in Venice through January 12, 2015.

Tokyo detail

New York City

Rio de Janeiro

Paris

Venice

Chaotic Atmospheres

via Colossal

For children of the 70's and 80's, Kenner's Star Wars lines are some of the most iconic toys ever made. A lot of what made them so memorable were the Kim David McNeill Simmons' (and earlier Roy Frankenfield's) photography which graced every box - and now you can see the High-Res original photos online.

Read more...

gerardwaythebae:

If it does not infuriate you that Leelah Alcorn will be buried in a suit, with the wrong name written on her gravestone, unfollow me this fucking second.

inkdefense:

banquos—ghost:

mrmeriwether:

yeahbanero-bells:

wolvensnothere:

Whoa.

I read this out loud to boyfriend and he just went “ohhhhhhhhh” 

CEOs all runnin around terrified of blue shells from the homeless

Yes.

Two of the three divisions with multiple playoff teams this year are the NFC North (Lions and Packers) and the AFC North (Steelers, Bengals, and Ravens). Not so coincidentally, those are also the two divisions that got to play all four NFC South teams. Five of the eight NFL teams that got to play the NFC South in non-division play made the playoffs. Those five teams went 15-4-1 against the NFC South. The three teams that clinched wild-card spots in the playoffs (Bengals, Ravens, and Lions) went 10-1-1 against the NFC South and 21-15 against all other teams. The AFC North, which produced half of the AFC playoff teams, had the added bonus of playing all four teams from the AFC South this year. According to FiveThirtyEight's numbers, the 2014 AFC South was the 16th-worst division in sports history. The two worst NFL divisions since 2010 are this year's NFC South and AFC South, and the Bengals, Steelers, and Ravens got to play eight games each against them. It's not just that the 7-8-1 Panthers took a playoff spot away from a more deserving team, it's that the mere existence in the NFC South created a scheduling imbalance that affected who made and missed the playoffs. Would the Chiefs have made the playoffs if they got to play the Bucs, Panthers, Saints, and Falcons instead of the Seahawks, Cardinals, 49ers, and Rams?

Visitors are encouraged to feel the same emotions of homesickness and sexual desire as seamen are faced with when they are at sea for months on end and staying in unfamiliar ports.

kansama:

weavemunchers:

i wonder if china has fancy plates called america