firehose

Via hyperallergic:

Late at night in Great Britain’s National Museum of Computing in Bletchley Park, some of the world’s oldest computers awoke from mechanical slumber. Composer and sound artist Matt Parker made 126 recordings from seven decades of historical machines to preserve their endangered sounds and transform them into music.

“For preservation sake, often the objects of our past become confined to clear perspex boxes to keep prying hands off of them,” Parker told Hyperallergic. “It means that all we can do is look at these peculiar objects through a box and read the adjacent text.”

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31p04 is a post from: The Adventures of Dr. McNinja Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad could be here, right now.

31p04 is a post from: The Adventures of Dr. McNinja

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad could be here, right now.

News broke this weekend that the Australian government was concerned about Indigenous communities using Vegemite to brew alcohol. The government even floated the idea of banning the spread in some places where alcohol was already banned. Can you really brew alcohol using Vegemite? In short: No.

Read more...

In late 1962, with the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation approaching, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his 15-year-old nephew, offering advice and caution as to what he, as a black man in America, could expect in his days to come. The following year, the letter was included in Baldwin's book, The Fire Next Time, along with a personal essay examining race, religion, and systemic violence against black people. Reading Baldwin's work now, what's striking is not how far we as a country have come since then, but just how little things have changed.

Between the World and Me, the new book by Atlantic correspondent Ta-Nehisi Coates, follows Baldwin's lead. It is an intimate and candid letter, written by a black father to his teenage son, in a society where blacks are killed with such regularity and impunity that people need to form a movement and wear t-shirts and wave placards to remind the rest of the country that, yes, black lives also matter.

Between the World and Me, which takes its title from a Richard Wright poem, was originally slated for September publication, but was released last month. Christopher Jackson, editor at publisher Spiegel & Grau, explained this decision to the Wall Street Journal, saying, "It spoke to this moment." But this book is no more urgent now than it will be a month or two or three from now; it speaks to this moment no less than it would in 1962 or 2062. Racism and systemic violence against blacks has endured for so long, and will endure as long as Americans continue to hold onto the concept of "race."

CONTINUE READING>>>

Remember when NASA decided to hire Boeing and SpaceX fly commercial astronauts to that agrarian orbital paradise, the International Space Station?

Well, that idea has taken another beating: NASA now says (pdf) that because Congress has underfunded the scheme by some $1 billion over the last five years, the development programs for SpaceX’s Dragon 2 and Boeing’s CST-100 may run out of money by the summer of 2016.

“Boeing will not speculate on any potential budget impact nor will we speculate on final budget allocations,” a spokesperson told Quartz in an e-mail. “Boeing strongly supports an increased top-line budget for America’s space programs so that NASA can successfully implement the robust space strategy it has been entrusted to accomplish.”

SpaceX declined to comment on the budget debate; CEO Elon Musk has said in the past that it will develop its spacecraft regardless of public funding delays.

NASA had been hoping that Congress would fully fund the commercial crew program in 2016, but instead the space agency is facing a $332 million shortfall. That means the US government just had to re-up its embarrassing contract with Russia to take astronauts to the ISS—a $66 million extension through 2017, for a total cost to US taxpayers of $490 million.

Yes, that’s almost half a billion dollars the US government is paying the Russian government, even as their geo-political relationship has gotten increasingly testy. Congress has banned Boeing and Lockheed Martin’s joint space venture, United Launch Alliance, from purchasing some $300 million worth of rocket engines from the Russian government, for that very reason.

Part of the problem for SpaceX and Boeing is that recent failures by some of NASA’s commercial partners—including SpaceX this summer and Orbital ATK in October 2014—have made lawmakers more concerned about relying on the new public-private model of space enterprise.

But some critics also see parochial interests at work: The chairman of the Senate committee that controls NASA funding is Richard Shelby of Alabama, where NASA has a major production facility. His budget proposal would direct $522 million more than NASA requested to the Space Launch System, a new mega-rocket being developed in Alabama. If commercial space efforts succeed—particularly SpaceX’s in-development Falcon Heavy, a direct competitor with SLS—they may jeopardize traditional NASA development programs.

Regardless, SLS won’t be ready to launch anything until 2018: The craft intended to ride that rocket—the Orion space capsule NASA tested last year—is waiting for a critical component being developed by the European Space Agency that has already been delayed once.

So unless something changes, the US government will still be dependent on Russia for manned space access until at least 2018.

Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Doctor Popular, a talented artist and good friend of Laughing Squid, has submitted his concept for “Glitch Socks” currently being voted on in the Betabrand Think Tank. Each pair represents common computer errors (BSOD – Windows), video game hiccups (lvl 25 6 – Pac Man) or coding-related designs (Houndstoof and Errgyle).

We often don’t think about everyday things, until they break. When a screen crashes or a pixel is out of place it catches our attention and reminds us that everything we use comes from somewhere. This series is a mix of original patterns and glitches, along with some classic crashes like the Windows Blue Screen of Death. …When things break we get a peak behind the curtain. Broken pixels and glitched screens are reminders that things aren’t magic. They were created by people just like ourselves. Glitch Socks explores the beauty in watching things fall apart and reminds us that everything has an origin story.

If the the idea receive enough votes, Betabrand will then choose the three most popular designs and raise money through crowdfunding. If the set goal is met, Betabrand will the begin building prototypes.

images via Betabrand

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

Lee Miller Taken by Man Ray


Lee Miller Taken by Man Ray


Lee Miller Taken by Man Ray


Lee Miller Taken by Man Ray


Lee Miller Taken by Man Ray


Lee Miller Taken by Man Ray


Lee Miller Taken by Man Ray


Lee Miller Taken by Man Ray


Lee Miller Taken by Man Ray

Pictures in a frame, Lee Miller by Man Ray

Read 14 remaining paragraphs | Comments

and my roommate snapped this photo on her commute. How on earth do you manage to drive your car on B-way Bridge path? pic.twitter.com/mXAdA2lYEx
— Aaron Brown (@ambrown) August 10, 2015

The Broadways Bridge is supposed to be open to only people on bikes or on foot for the next week, and this city's driver's just will not accept that.

Cops have arrested a man after he refused to countenance the closure signs at around 9:45 am, hopped the curb (presumably taking out some of the traffic cones that are out there corralling cyclists) and tried a sneak maneuver into the Pearl. This cannot have been a mistake—there is nothing ambiguous about the Broadway's bike/ped path.

One of the more surprising things about this, actually, is how close the driver came to succeeding. What if the bridge had been closed for minor electrical work and elaborate scaffolding wasn't taking up half of the bike/ped path? This guy would have cruised.

No one's been hurt, so this stunt will get some guffaws, but stuff like this is happening with bizarre frequency on the city's bridges this year. In June, a driver experiencing what cops called a "medical event" (but what was really choking on soda) ran up on the Burnside Bridge walkway and killed 36-year-old George Ben Harrison.

In late April, a suspected carjacker overturned on the east end of the Hawthorne Bridge, tumbling the car onto a roadway below.

And, of course, mayhem occurs away from Portland's bridges all the time, which is one of the reasons why activists have been increasingly vocal, of late, and Portland officials jumped at the chance to adopt "Vision Zero" earlier this year.

Exactly what that adoption leads to is still an open question.

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Every other Monday, our team of blacksmiths and craftsman will be building some of your favorite weapons, and some weapons that you've never seen before. This week, we forge the killer Daedric Axe from Elder Scrolls.

Follow Us ►► http://facebook.com/awemechannel
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Tell us in the comments below which weapon you'd like to see us build next!

Kerry Stagmer - Swordsmith and Machinist
Matt Stagmer - Swordsmith
Ilya Alekseyev - Master Armourer and Engraver
Sam Salvati - Blacksmith
Lauren Schott - Goldsmith and Casting
John Mitchell - Fabricator

Filmed on Location at Baltimore Knife and Sword
http://www.baltimoreknife.com

Series Created & Directed by Andy Signore
http://twitter.com/andysignore

Series Produced & Episode Builds Directed by Brent Lydic

Line Producer - Phil Rogers
Production Manager - Benjamin Montague
Office Production Coordinator - Brendan Kennedy
Post Production Coordinator – Amanda Arellano

Crew:
Director of Photography – Marcus McDougald

Story Producer — Dave Cross
1st AC – Jason Remeikis/Joe Archard
Gaffer – Steve Scott
Grip - Danny Balsamo
Production Coordinator - Katelynn Zimmerman
Runner/PA – Gino Moscati
Red Cam Op – Sunil Devadanam
Set Medic – Celeste Bowe

Edited by — Chris Otwell
Lead Assistant Editor - Gracie Hartmann

Head of Post Production - Michael Gallagher
DIT – Jeremy Morrison

Stunt Coordinator / Stunts – Casey Kaleba

WASHINGTON—Seeking the customer service representative’s feedback on everything from his political platform to selecting personal anecdotes, South Carolina senator and Republican presidential candidate Lindsey Graham reportedly stayed up all night Monday running campaign ideas by a toll-free telephone operator. “Here’s a couple possible campaign slogans I came up with; I’d love to hear what you think,” said the 60-year-old legislator, who periodically waited on hold so the operator could attend to other callers, as he spent a total of five hours on the line sharing first drafts of stump speeches and potential tactics for public outreach. “Okay, let me just run a few more things by you. I’m thinking about purchasing a few TV spots and wondered if you had any strong opinions on good time slots and markets. Also, if I call back later, do I have to go through the whole menu thing ...

We asked comic creators at Boston Comic Con for their tips on dealing with negative feedback, whether it’s criticism from professional reviewers, messages from disappointed fans, or random haters who may not even be your audience. It may be tempting to read what folks have to say about your art, but most of the industry professionals that we interviewed offered the same advice: don’t.

In this video, you’ll hear from Laura Martin (colorist of A-Force), Michael Cho (illustrator of Shoplifter), Joelle Jones (illustrator of Lady Killer), Babs Tarr (illustrator of Batgirl), Ming Doyle (illustrator of Constantine: The Hellblazer), Adam Jack (illustrator of Skin the Kat), and Erica Henderson (illustrator of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl).

Here’s the transcript for “How Do You Deal with Negative Reviews?”

***

Laura Martin: I avoid it as much as possible.

Michael Cho: I don’t read ’em.

Joelle Jones: I have a drink.

Babs Tarr: I just try not to pay attention to it.

Ming Doyle: Well, sometimes I get really sad, and I tweet about it like a big sad-sack.

Joelle Jones: I try to avoid it as much as I can. Occasionally, people find me anyway.

Adam Jack: You read everything with a grain of salt. I mean, some people will have valid criticisms …

Michael Cho: The only review that I actually ever take seriously is one from my peers.

Babs Tarr: Of course if it’s valid, or whatever, we listen. And we correct it.

Laura Martin: Even if they’re good reviews, I appreciate them, but I have too much going on. I’ve got to get back to work.

Ming Doyle: Sometimes I’ve read stuff in there that has actually influenced me to change my own craft.

Erica Henderson: I’m not going to worry about people who don’t like it, because enough people like it that it’s not hurting me.

Ming Doyle: What bothers me the most sometimes is when people tweet directly at you with your name in the mention, and they’re like, “@MingDoyle is the worst at writing and art that I’ve ever heard of!” That’s just unnecessarily rude.

Adam Jack: You know, sometimes you just have to let it roll off your back.

***

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Times of India

Google CEO Sundar Pichai symbolizes the new India: IT industry Times of India BENGALURU | NEW DELHI: The Indian IT industry is upbeat over the appointment of Indian-born Sundarajan Pichai, 43, as chief executive of the world's largest search engine Google in the US. Elated over the meteoric rise of Pichai in Google, who will ... What Google learned from Warren BuffettThe Week Magazine Pichai joins illustrious Indian clubTimes of Oman Congress MPs write to Sundar Pichai, request him to omit Modi's achievements ...Firstpost (satire) Economic Times -Hindu Business Line -Mashable all 3,620 news articles »

Results of a study led by 15 Now Oregon were released today, and they confirm that a statewide increase of the minimum wage to $15 per hour is the only adequate way to self-sufficiency. What that means is that the bill to increase the state's minimum wage to $13 per hour, which was proposed by House Speaker Tina Kotek (D-Portland) last session, simply doesn't cut it.

"Regardless of where you live in Oregon, the current minimum wage of $9.25 is grossly inadequate to support a family," the study says. "The proposal to raise Oregon's minimum wage to $15 gives all working Oregonians—both rural and urban—the opportunity to earn a wage that allows them to be self-sufficient."

The study advocates for a living wage—an hourly wage high enough to allow a person to live without needing to rely on public assistance—for all Oregonians and cites data indicating that there is no urban-rural divide: It's not just people living in cities that need $15 per hour.

READ MORE ABOUT THE STUDY AFTER THE JUMP

Here's some math:

If a single mother makes $15 per hour and works 40 hours per week, her gross monthly income is $2,600. If that mom spends more than 30 percent of her income on housing, she's considered "cost burdened" by rent. That means she and her family should pay $780 per month for a two-bedroom unit. I don't know about the rest of the state, but as a single mom who just tried to find housing, I can say there's no chance I'd find a habitable place at that price point.

But don't take my word for it.

A recently-released report by Our Oregon and RAise the Wage concluded "that $13.50 per hour is enough to make a single parent self-sufficient in most of Oregon’s rural counties," according to the 15 Now Oregon report. "15 Now Oregon agrees with the finding that there are rural counties where $13.50 might be enough. However, after running the numbers from the studies in the Our Oregon report, The 15 Now Oregon report found that the main conclusion of the report, $13.50 is not enough for most of Oregon."

Here are some other facts included in the report:

• A single adult in Oregon needs to earn $15.96 per hour to be self-sufficient, according to the Alliance for a Just Society's 2014 Job Gap report.
• A single mom in Oregon needs to earn at least $16.61 per hour in order to afford adequate housing, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach 2015 report.
• A single mom in Oregon needs to make an average of $15.57 per hour to be self-sufficient, and in at least half or Oregon's 36 counties, single mom's need at least $15 per hour to be self-sufficient, according to the University of Washington Center for Women's Welfare.
• Of the nearly 740,000 working Oregonians who make less than $15 per hour, nearly 200,000 receive public assistance.
• A raise in wages to anything less than $15 per hour leaves workers with less money each month after losing their benefits, according to an analysis of the "benefits cliff" by Oregon's non-partisan Legislative Revenue Office.

Unarmed teen #ChristianTaylor trended on Twitter over the weekend, as people asked why he was shot and killed by a Texas police officer.

Patrick Willems, the indie filmmaker behind “What If Wes Anderson Directed X-Men,” has returned with another gift for cinema studies nerds: a Werner Herzog-inspired parody of Ant-Man. The aching slowness of this adaptation manages to bridge the gap between self-serious goofiness and true existential dread. The premise, which borders on Kafka-esque, supposes that Scott Lang has gotten stuck in his ant size indefinitely … and that he has really lost his sense of humor about it.

In a short clip after the video, Willlems encourages viewers to suggest more potential style parodies in the comments; suggestions may inspire his next project. According to one of the comments from Willems, a Cronenburg-inspired Fantastic Four “almost” happened already, but the budget got too big. Too bad!

(via Indiewire)

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“To the Center of the Bedding” is a unique bed set by The Land of Nod that represents the different geological layers of the Earth. Each layer of the quilt is made of a different material for a mix of colors, patterns, and textures.

photos via The Land of Nod

via Geekologie

Welcome to A Huge Dog. You're probably wondering, what the heck is this place? Well, Jon's here to explain.

i don't know it's a site

alright, later

A VIrginia judge ruled that the state does not have to allow an image of the Confederate flag on its specialty license plates.

suricattus:

unforth-ninawaters:

kitteno:

roachpatrol:

iguanamouth:

kept getting requests for gryphons so heres a bunch of them At Once

YESSSSSssssss

I need that last one framed and on my wall please.

fireun

Not gonna lie, I kinda want the PatooLas Cat.

dollsahoy:

princessparadoxical:

ladyattercop:

Not another Rats-In-Basement quest!

derinthemadscientist for you :)

Reblogging for Husband…and others…

On Sunday evening, Sen. Bernie Sanders became the second Democratic candidate for president to release a comprehensive plan addressing police brutality, serious criminal justice reforms, and other issues specifically tied to racial justice. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley released his own plan addressing serious systemic reforms in the justice system about a week prior to Sanders.

Both plans from Sanders and O'Malley are very comprehensive and address scores of the root issues at hand that plague people of color as it pertains to police brutality, the death penalty, sentencing guidelines, and so much more.

Of course, each candidate gets to tweak and improve what he or she sees released from the first candidate to take the step. In that sense, Bernie's plan is powerful because it uses a vocabulary that resonates deeply with activists and leaders. It starts out like this:

We must pursue policies that transform this country into a nation that affirms the value of its people of color. That starts with addressing the four central types of violence waged against black and brown Americans: physical, political, legal and economic.

PHYSICAL VIOLENCE

PERPETRATED BY THE STATE
Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Rekia Boyd, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, Samuel DuBose. We know their names. Each of them died unarmed at the hands of police officers or in police custody. The chants are growing louder. People are angry and they have a right to be angry. We should not fool ourselves into thinking that this violence only affects those whose names have appeared on TV or in the newspaper. African Americans are twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police.

Following this, Bernie goes on to detail other forms of violence faced by African Americans in a powerful nuanced manner, including political violence, legal violence, and economic violence. Beyond just hitting it correctly on tone, Sanders and his team got much of it correct on substance as well, with detailed solutions for each problem they enumerate.

The question is now being raised as to when and where Hillary Clinton will release such a plan.

Preschool assistance is SO important. You now have to make under $630 a month to qualify for help, can you imagine making $650 a month with CHILDREN and being told you're too rich? The old bar was at $2000, it's been absolutely gutted:

That’s because Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration has frozen admissions to the state’s Child Care Assistance Program and enacted new eligibility guidelines that will put the program out of reach for 90 percent of families who previously would have qualified.

Yes, I’ve been writing a lot about this topic. It’s important. Screwing up this program could have a negative ripple effect for months and years to come.

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I really do hope you read the first of Ella's Bisto Legs Diaries about her boyfriend's nasty blood cancer and share it all over social media, because I'm hoping a wolf-like super-agent will swoop in and snatch her up and make her very famous and out of our league and also find a perfect bone marrow match for Tall Man.

*

Read more Link Roundup! at The Toast.

Software company Adobe Systems Inc. said on Monday it is doubling the maternity leave it grants, making it the third company in the U.S. technology industry in a week to give new parents more paid time off. New mothers at the San Jose, California-based firm will receive 26 weeks of paid leave, up from 12 weeks, and primary caregivers and new parents will get 16 weeks of paid parental leave.

"We join an industry movement to better support our employees while striving towards increased workforce diversity," said Donna Morris, Adobe senior vice president of People and Places. The changes become effective Nov. 1.

Adobe has 13,500 employees globally, including 6,500 in the United States. About 30 percent are women. In an interview, Morris said the new leave program had been in the planning stages for a long time and was not in response to announcements by Netflix Inc. and Microsoft last week.

Related: Oh, Mama! Netflix to Offer 'Unlimited' Leave for New Parents

Netflix announced that its employees could take up to a year of paid maternity or paternity leave in the first year after the birth or adoption of a child. It also offered the flexibility of returning to work full or part time. The move was seen as a game-changer in the United States, which lags other developed countries in the amount of parental leave offered to employees. Paid maternity leave in the United States is usually about 30 days, according to Mary Tavarozzi, a senior consultant with benefit consultant group Towers Watson.

Related: Microsoft Sweetens Parental Leave Benefits, Following Netflix's Lead

Microsoft also announced last week it was increasing benefits for parents, extending its fully paid leave for new parents to 12 weeks.