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Bargain hunters kick off Black Friday on Thanksgiving - NY Daily News
A year of Bitcoin as a payment option @bitcoin #bitcoin #makerbusiness
Here’s what the last year of bitcoin sales have looked like at Adafruit in chart form, we haven’t seen any company share any info about sales have been going if they accept bitcoin, so we thought we’d post this to show the general direction. We launched bitcoin as a payment November of 2013, a year ago. We launched at peak bitcoin, we’ve seen a few bumps up and then back down. Was it worth it? Heck yes! We picked the right time to add it, the community loved it and we learned a lot. Tomorrow is Bitcoin black friday, we’ll likely see a sales bump in 24 hours. See you at the sale
Bitcoin Black Friday is a holiday shopping extravaganza just for Bitcoin users. Starting on the 26th, through Black Friday on the 28th, and until Cyber Monday, hundreds of merchants selling everything from web hosting to organic beer will offer special deals to anyone paying in Bitcoin.
The best part is some folks made bitcoin miners with parts from Adafruit, following our tutorial, mined some coins and then spent them on Adafruit, that’s really neat.
The Great Police Violence Cover-Up
Someone's Trying To Build A McDonald's In A Church To Woo Christians
PD James, Queen Of Detective Fiction, Dies Aged 94
The Economics Of An Indie Band Tour
You Can Almost Finally Buy That Keyboard-Shaped Waffle Maker
firehose:D
The Oil Lobby's Conspiracy To Kill Off California's Climate Law
Dorkly Shows Us How People Reacted To The Phantom Menace Trailer In 1998 - "It's going to be incredible!"
In anticipation of tomorrow’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer premiere, Dorkly takes us all the way back to 1998, to see how people reacted to the release of the Phantom Menace trailer. Including gems like this:
Ah, 1998. A more innocent time.
(via Dorkly)
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The New Creative Team On New 52 Wonder Woman Turns The Comic Into An Utter (Sexist) Disappointment - She carries around a teddy bear for comfort. So.
firehoseaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
The following was originally written for DoomRocket, and has been republished here with permission.
As someone who has read Wonder Woman for as long as I have (since I began reading comics, in fact), I can very much understand that certain nerdy compulsion to follow a character’s comic book despite whatever creative team may be at the helm. For over a decade, DC has (mostly) made sure to keep Wonder Woman under the guidance of A-list talent. In the decade I’ve been reading, Phil Jimenez, Greg Rucka, Allan Heinberg, Adam Hughes, Gail Simone, Terry and Rachel Dodson, and most recently Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang (two well-noted favorites of mine) have all created stand-out stories of the Amazon Princess, and did a fantastic job in continuing to challenge and redefine the character. Because of this, for a long, long time I’ve been able to rely on each successive issue of Wonder Woman to be an enjoyable read. But, as even a demi-god must learn, all things must come to an end.
Azzarello and Chiang finished off their thirty-five issue run – one of the longest in DC’s New 52 so far – as cleanly and elegantly as possible, leaving plenty of open room so that the next creative team could freely move around. That team was announced in June with artist David Finch and his wife, writer Meredith Finch taking creative reins. And while I wanted to be hopeful that one of my favorite characters might continue to have a story worth reading, the Finches’ gaffes in initial promotional interviews threw up some red flags. Remarks from David included “…we want her to be a strong – I don’t want to say feminist, but a strong character. Beautiful, but strong…” and, “…I’m really very visually attracted to Wonder Woman. She just looks great on the page.” And from Meredith, we got “…women tend to react in a different way, and I can bring some of that reactionary (thinking), going from your heart sometimes more than from your head.” Reading such ignorant comments before the book had even seen release was cause for more than a little trepidation on my part.
The comic begins with five pages of narration about the nature of water that culminates with, inexplicably, a sequence of Diana bathing. (Strangely, in 35 issues, Azzarello and Chiang didn’t feel the need to once show Wonder Woman in a shower scene.) That level of lechery is indicative of what’s contained in the issue itself: it’s empty, pointless, and what’s more, it freely panders to the male gaze at every turn.
Previous works illustrated by David Finch have featured women drawn like bobble-headed blow-up dolls, positioned uncomfortably (if not impossibly) with glassy stares and open mouths. This continues in Wonder Woman #36, throughout the entire issue. Diana is drawn as though she is constantly on the verge of bursting into tears, with breasts as big as her head, and a waist thinner than her thigh. When shown standing or sitting next to any of her fellow male Justice League members (also penciled so absurdly as to border on the Liefeldian), she looks like a tiny, petulant teenager.
Wonder Woman’s infantilization in this comic goes further than just that visual. We spend two pages with her and Aquaman (flying in a jet that the King of Atlantis is piloting, of course) while Diana whinges about how difficult balancing the different aspects of her life are, all while she clutches an actual teddy bear. It’s a curious thought as to how she came across that teddy bear; did she carry it with her onto the plane, along with sword and shield, in front of all the boys? Or does she keep it on the jet to cuddle when they hit turbulence? Maybe the Finches are confused, and think they’re writing a Wonder Girl comic; it’s the only reasonable explanation for this that I can think of.
The additional lack of any coherent plot and the severely onerous dialogue (Swamp Thing uncharacteristically asks Wonder Woman “What is your problem?” after she attacks him) calls into question why the new writer for DC Comics’ First Lady has only three previous writing credits to her name - Zenescope Entertainment’s Tales from Oz and its 2014 Swimsuit Special being two of them (careful clicking on those links by the way, they’re slightly NSFW).
Aside from the final two pages, Diana is away from Themyscira and involved in Justice League business throughout the whole plot. Whether this was a creative or editorial choice, Diana is once again pulled out of her own province and typical surroundings and plopped into a story that isn’t really hers. Azzarello and Chiang did a great job of giving Diana her own agency and autonomy, and keeping the problems she fought her very own. Never once did a Justice Leaguer need to fly to her assistance during their thirty-five issues, nor did she need the help; this issue makes it seem as though goings-on in the greater DC Universe will be of greater import than of those at home. Why bother having aWonder Woman comic if it’s just going to be a veiled extension of Justice League and Superman/Wonder Woman?
In their misguided attempts to “humanize” Diana (Meredith has been quoted as saying, “…she’s ultimately a human being, she can’t be everywhere at once, and it’s incredibly stressful…”) the Finches seem to have forgotten that Wonder Woman is not a human being. She is a demi-god, the natural-born daughter of Zeus and the Amazon Queen Hippolyta; and, more recently, the God of War. Instead of a regal and imposing Wonder Woman, we now get a moody, teddy-bear-hugging, boobalicious and blank-eyed Diana, who seems to prefer to be seen and not heard when at Justice League gatherings. Everything about this take rings entirely false.
Wonder Woman is now drawn by someone who shies away from calling her a feminist, and is written by someone with so little grasp of her character they have her carrying around a plush toy on the Justice League jet. Of late, DC has had so many successful relaunches and new titles aimed at us ladies, and it breaks my heart that the Amazonian matriarch of female superhero comics could now be so very, very far off the mark William Moulton Marston made back in 1941. Wonder Woman has featured in some stirring works that will stand the test of time, but now – after over a decade – I’m going to take Wonder Woman off my pull list. Thankfully, the idiotic pointlessness of this issue gives merit to the fact that I won’t be missing much of anything anyway.
Molly Jane Kremer (occasionally MJ) grew up obsessing about Star Wars, Tom Clancy novels, Jurassic Park, and Disney movies. Over ten years ago she read Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and thus her love of comics began. She has been in book and comic book retail since 2001, and currently works at Challengers Comics + Conversation in Chicago. She reviews comics and television shows for DoomRocket.com, is a member of The Valkyries (an organization of women in comics retail), a Chicago “Captain” in the Geek Girl Illuminati (an organization to help promote “safe” places for women in geekdom), is a volunteer for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the First Amendment rights of comics), and tries to go to as many comic book conventions as her office day job allows.
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pvtleonardchurch: jack-baraatwat: Being friends with me...
Being friends with me consists of me sending you bad jokes at 2:47 in the morning
listen up you motherfucker
Photo
firehoseunanimous first-ballot eternal autoreshare hall-of-famer
white adults: kids these days don't care about anything that's going on these days. they need to be more politically involved
white adults: no not like that
missmayadenise: bishopmyles: anothercleverjedimindtrick: Raci...
Racism in its PUREST form.
My favorite thing about this was Lamont’s response.
"As do you.You know, you actually look like a cocaine user.”wow
Never forget!
jetgreguar: blacksupervillain: fish-dinner-connoisseur: -imagi...
Something I’m working on for the craziness in #ferguson, thinking of adding more heroes….#blaqzart #dccomics #marvel #blackheroes
This is so dope!
this is the only dc/marvel crossover i ever wanna see
this legit hits me
damn
National Dog Show 2014 results: Nathan the Bloodhound wins Best in Show
firehoseImportant sports news
Nathan the Bloodhound won at the 2014 National Dog Show.
It was a very jowly Thanksgiving, as Nathan the Bloodhound took home best in show at the National Dog Show.
Nathan licked pretty much everybody possible, including NBC's Mary Carillo. He had won Best in Group at the Westminster Dog Show, but hadn't taken the top prize. He's a rare winner from the popular breed, as the bloodhound had never won at the National Dog Show and still has yet to win in the 100-plus years of Westminster.
The winners of each group were:
Hound group: Bloodhound
Herding group: Bearded collie
Working group: Samoyed
Terrier group: Smooth fox terrier
Toy group: Affenpinscher
Sporting group: Gordon setter
Non-sporting breeds: French bulldog
For the most part the dog show went off without a hitch... except for the one part where a miniature pinscher got away from its handler and made a run for it. We've never seen that one before, and the handler did not exactly handle it well.
‘Sailors in Your Mouth’, An Animated Music Video for ‘Bob’s Burgers’ Featuring The National Singing About Gravy
“Sailors in Your Mouth” is an animated music video for the television show Bob’s Burgers that features The National singing a Thanksgiving song about gravy. The 2013 music video is part of a series of animated music videos featuring songs from the show being covered by other artists.
The song was originally performed by characters Gayle and Linda as part of the fourth season episode “Turkey in a Can”, which aired in the United States on November 24, 2013.
jerfreyy: Kim Jong Un Would Really Hate For You To Watch This,...
firehoseTW: everything
Sailor Moon Newbie Recap: “Let’s Become a Princess: Usagi’s Bizarre Training” - Everybody got their frisbees ready?
firehose'Usagi finds out about the Princess Seminar at Rose Mansion (another Ohtori Academy front, no doubt)'
This week’s youma has clamshells on her boobs that open and shoot wax. And that’s all I’m going to mention of the matter because I don’t really want to think about it much.
Now that Usagi’s definitely the moon princess, it’s time for her to start acting like one. Or maybe just to start learning to use the Legendary Silver Crystal? You know, for all that everybody’s moaning on about how important it is that she harness its power, nobody’s, like, lining up some cans on a fence and taking her out for target practice.
Fortunately, Usagi finds out about the Princess Seminar at Rose Mansion (another Ohtori Academy front, no doubt), and Naru is right there to provide all the exposition.
Pause for cute friends moment.
The Seminar is taught by Countess Rose, a “famous aristocrat” from England, and rich people send their daughters there to learn princess stuff like how to sit quietly, eat quietly, and dance. I mean that’s what we get to see them doing, but lets call a spade a spade: it’s a finishing school. Usagi has a fantastic daydream about being a princess… which she is… so I guess it’s about commanding the respect of a princess, which she uses to get out of homework and, what else, dance with Tuxedo Mask. She resolves to embrace her princess responsibilities so she can dance with Tuxedo Mask. Who says Usagi has trouble focusing?
But what is everybody else doing this episode? Well, Kunzite and Tuxedo Mamoru Endymion. I’m just going to call Evil!Tuxedo Mask/Mamoru Endymion. Kunzite and Endymion are refusing to work together as a team, which is totes fine with Queen Beryl, and let’s face it, if the Dark Kingdom worked well as a team, the Sailor Senshi would have died like twenty episodes ago. In the real world, we finally find out who the man behind the curtain is in the videogame arcade that Luna’s been visiting for her marching orders.
It’s Artemis.
Man, Artemis, your role as resident awkward killjoy combined with being the only dude in a supportive all-female group is not endearing you to me.
Back to Usagi, who has decided to sneak into the grounds of Rose Mansion and spy on the seminar from a tree.
This is the tree entrance. It is only for trees.
Despite Usagi generally acting like a crazy person and talking to cats, Countess Rose says that it would be nice to have a “unique” “unskilled” person around the other girls, and welcomes her into the seminar. There’s something fishy about this operation and it starts with all of the girls having to be proficient in the not-so-princess-y art of throwing a frisbee. But, as Kunzite explains to his youma helper (at this point, do I even need to mention that the “new thing of the week” is a Dark Kingdom plot?), Sailor Moon is really good at throwing her tiara, but is also really clumsy. So their seminar is bound to turn up a girl who fails at the princess arts and is great at throwing a frisbee around. And that’s how they’ll capture Sailor Moon.
“But, like, what if Sailor Moon sees through our trap?” asks youma Shakokai. “Oh, she won’t,” answers Kunzite.
HEY NOW—Yeah, okay, that’s pretty accurate.
But at least the other Senshi are better at recognizing a Dark Kingdom scheme, right? …Eh. The princess’ guardians stand around the shrine without Usagi, as she’s shirking Senshi time for the princess seminar. Ami points out that this is actually a sign of positive growth for Usagi, taking her role as the princess seriously. Which leads Minako to start questioning the validity of Artemis’ rigid definition of feminine perfection, in a moment I was honestly not really expecting. With all these big events it feels like ages since the last time the show said something definitive about the expectations placed on young women, but I guess it hasn’t been that long.
“What’s wrong with the way Usagi is now,” Minako asks, and Artemis’ answer is that she has to start behaving like a princess. Upon further question he can only insist further that only a “proper princess” can wield the Silver Crystal. The Sailor Senshi don’t have time for your bullshit limited notions of femininity, Artemis!
Then all the Senshi decide to go join Usagi in Kunzite’s trap, saving her from a montage of being terrible at princess things (including politely offering someone coffee, important later) that’s capped off in a formal dance. Feeling pretty low about her potential as a princess, Usagi is overjoyed for her friends to show up and remind her through their own actions that you don’t have to be perfect to be loved, valued, and respected. Surprisingly enough, it’s the social outcasts Ami and Makoto who are most graceful on the dance floor, while Usagi, Rei, and Minako step all over their partners’ feet.
Meanwhile, the sinister Countess Rose circulates among the students, tapping the girls who passed this last test of grace (including Ami and Makoto) on the shoulder and inviting them into the next room for their graduation certificates. The graduation room is full of wax statues of girls, so that’s not great, and then it’s Youma O’Clock when Countess Rose reveals her bizarre clam covered form and turns the new batch of graduates into statues themselves.
Wait, so the evil plan is to trap and surprise-freeze the girls who are definitely not Sailor Moon, and then confront Sailor Moon to her face? Kunzite, I have some questions about your logic here, and this group of people behind me are all the parents of the girls who’ve passed your course and then never came home. They have questions, too. You really got this back to front.
Anyway, Shakokai heads back out to the ballroom, where the only failing students, Usagi, Rei, and Minako are waiting, and tells them all about the trap the Dark Kingdom set up and how she knows that one of them is Sailor Moon because they didn’t pass. And what’s hilarious is Minako and Rei’s totally blasé reaction to this.
“That makes sense!” Minako yelled, angrily.
Then Shakokai gets a face full of cat (+10 points for any episode where Luna and/or Artemis mess up a youma’s face), and the Senshi dash out of the room to transform. But as is so often the case these days, the usual powers don’t work on Shakokai’s laser targeted boob clams (I KNOW I SAID I WOULDN’T MENTION IT AGAIN). I know the Senshi get bigger, badder versions of their powers at some point, seems like now would be a good time. Cue Endymion, because even when he’s evil, Tuxedo Mask knows the rhythms of a Sailor Moon episode.
He tells Sailor Moon that if she gives him the Legendary Silver Crystal, he’ll let her live (against the orders of Queen Beryl, who wants the crystal AND Sailor Moon’s corpse). There’s a brief moment of indecision among the group until Kunzite shows up to countermand Endymion, and then all the confusion is on their poor youma helper as they shout conflicting orders at her.
Seriously look at these dorks.
Usagi distracts Shakokai by offering her a calming cup of coffee, and when the youma’s guard is down, Moon Healing Escalations her back into Countess Rose.
Usagi is shocked to find out that Countess Rose is a real person and not a total youma fabrication and SO AM I.
Endymion manages to get out of being Moon Healing Escalation-ed himself by… moving slightly. And then leaving. With the defeat of Shakokai, all the frozen girls turn back into their living selves, including Ami and Makoto, naturally. And we leave the episode with a final confirmation of its message:
Usagi doesn’t have to change who she is to be a laudable example of femininity.
Moon Prism Power… Wrap Up!
Between the reveal of Artemis being kind of an awkward secret keeper and his pretty consistent hardlining of Usagi’s development as a hero, I’m not sure whether the show is trying to make me dislike him, or if I’m predisposed to dislike him as the first male addition to an all female group. Maybe if the didn’t want me to see his presence as a the single naysaying one in a group of women, they should have had pretty much all the other Senshi on Usagi’s side for the past few episodes. It seems like Luna, Ami, Rei, Makoto, and Minako are all okay with the idea that a girl who found out that its her responsibility to save two worlds from destruction just as her true love was ripped from her and turned evil would need a bit of time to get used to the idea. CHILL OUT and be a better feminist ally, Artemis, is I guess what I’m saying.
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Tenvas Introduces World’s First 3D Printed Interchangeable Fashion Watches, With Over 120 Designs #3DxFashion #3DThursday #3DPrinting
firehoseFUTURESHRED
…Describing themselves as a “marketplace for designers and followers to create their own customized accessories and watches”, one of the company’s most reliable target customer appears to be the young adult who craves expressive accessory features (think backpacks, sneakers, ringtones, smart phone cases and you are on the right track). Tenvas has brilliantly cornered the market on 3D printed watches, but a cursory view of the company’s wide selection (with over 120 designs currently) shows that it won’t be just young people designing and/or purchasing these watches.
Tenvas’ vision to provide a “global web based platform to incubate personal time pieces” has far-reaching potential: think specialized watches to reflect the significance of unique once in a lifetime occasion and you are on the right track . (Your sister would love a watch design featuring her favorite colors and flowers for her 16th birthday!) You are also on the right track when you consider the functional and fungible elements of the Tenvas watch design, which provides customers the option of frequent design changes….
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! We also offer the LulzBot TAZ – Open source 3D Printer and the Printrbot Simple Metal 3D Printer in our store. If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!