firehose
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12 Nov 21:15
There is a Predator-themed house for sale in Sweden, and it looks crazy
by James Whitbrook
You know what this house needs? More fictional alien trophy hunter masks. It really ties the whole place together, don't you think?
12 Nov 20:45
Joseph Wright of Derby, The Old Man and Death, 1773
Joseph Wright of Derby, The Old Man and Death, 1773
Randy Laue, firehose and -1 others like this
12 Nov 19:59
Seahawks are selling fans watered-down beer
by James Dator
Ever been to a game at CenturyLink Field and thought your beer didn't taste quite right? Your taste buds didn't deceive your ability to taste Buds, because it turns out the Seahawks have been watering down their beverages.
Komo News in Seattle tested six beers from the stadium and found the following:
Stella Artois:
5.0% advertised ABV
4.8% tested
Bud Light:
4.2% advertised
3.9% tested
Redhook Brewery No Equal:
5.2% advertised
4.8% tested
Shocktop:
5.2% advertised
4.7% tested
Bass Pale Ale:
5.1% advertised
4.5% tested
Budweiser:
5.0% advertised
4.4% tested
Maybe this is larger part of a plan to stop fans from getting too drunk, but it seems like a pretty bad way to treat the 12th Man.
firehose likes this
12 Nov 19:14
socialjusticekoolaid: princesszangiev: socialjusticekoolaid: ...
As the nation waits for possible charges to be brought against Darren Wilson, the police officer who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., Brown’s mother may be facing charges of her own.
Leslie McSpadden has been accused of leading others to attack and steal money from a group selling “Justice for Mike Brown” merchandise. If charged, McSpadden could face felony armed-robbery charges, reports the New York Daily News.
One of the people included in the group that was attacked was McSpadden’s former mother-in-law, Pearlie Gordon. Gordon claims that she was knocked down by the group that McSpadden led. In total, roughly $2,000 in merchandise and cash was taken by the group.
“You can’t sell this s—t,” Gordon claims McSpadden told her during the altercation.
The Ferguson, Mo., Police Department is currently investigating these claims and will then decide whether to bring charges against McSpadden.
This whole story seems rotten and manufactured as hell, but I swear to god, if they arrest Mike Brown’s mother before Mike Brown’s killer, I’m going to lose my shit. #staywoke
And unlike how they let Darren Wilson leave the state, she wouldn’t be able to travel to Geneva while this was being “investigated.”Right! You mean less than a week after it’s announced that Lesley McSpadden is traveling to Geneva on her son’s behalf, there’s all of a sudden an investigation that would prohibit such a trip? Suspect and disgusting.
12 Nov 19:08
@voidfiles_is_reading: Tactile chess set, c. 1931, Perkins School for the Blind. Perennial favorite. http://t.co/NIdPUI3VtM http://ift.tt/1B4XUnt #feedbin
Tactile chess set, c. 1931, Perkins School for the Blind. Perennial favorite. http://t.co/NIdPUI3VtM http://ift.tt/1B4XUnt #feedbin
12 Nov 19:07
poc-creators: medievalpoc: Fiction Week! Fantasy Fiction by N....
Fiction Week!
Fantasy Fiction by N. K. Jemisin
The Inheritance Series:
- The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
- The Broken Kingdoms
- The Kingdom of Gods
- Coming soon: The Awakened Kingdom
The Dreamblood Series:
- The Killing Moon
- The Shadowed Sun
- The Narcomancer (short story)
The Broken Earth (coming 2015):
The Fifth Season is set in a world which has suffered frequent, repeated Extinction Level Events for millions of years, and all life (and magic) in this world has adapted to it. Hundreds of years might pass between these events—easy, plentiful years in which great cities rise, and people have the leisure for art and science and rapid advancement—but then, again and again, the cities fall. The world is littered with the detritus of these times of plenty, and this cover hints at them: past ages of decadence, now decaying; stone that endures beneath flaking gilt.
*SOUNDS TRUMPET FANFARE*
firehose likes this
12 Nov 19:06
Nexus 6 review—The “premium” price still comes with compromises
by Ron Amadeo
firehose'the Nexus 6 was slower than the Nexus 5. Apps took longer to launch, tasks took longer to switch, and sometimes—particularly during heavy multitasking—our Nexus 6 liked to get stuck and pause for a few minutes while it thought about things. It would often "chug" during our normal usage and in general felt like a slow device.
While you could place the blame on Lollipop, we think we've got the problem nailed down: the sequential read speed on the Nexus 6 isn't up to the level of its competitors and is even slower than the Nexus 5. Sequential read speeds are mostly going to affect load times, which backs up what we see in the video—opening things just takes longer. While you might have a faster frame rate in a game thanks to the SoC, the storage is going to be a bottleneck.'
it's also worth noting that:
'The Ambient Display and the new notification panel is another feature that changes user behavior. When your phone beeps, you can just look at it. There's no need to turn it on and unlock it. It's a real time saver.'
has an equivalent feature built into CM12. It doesn't take advantage of a low-power screen state, but there's something built into Android 4 designed for dock modes that CM and a few other builds unlocks for whenever you want.
So really, the only reason to update to stock Google Lollipop is for yet another round of arbitrary, inconsistent UI changes, and the only reason to get a GNex6 is to have a Nexus 4 with a bigger, more awkward screen that costs twice as much.
| Specs at a glance: Google Nexus 6 | |
|---|---|
| Screen | 2560×1440 5.96" (493 ppi) AMOLED |
| OS | Android 5.0, Lollipop |
| CPU | 2.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 805 |
| RAM | 3GB |
| GPU | Adreno 420 |
| Storage | 32GB or 64GB |
| Networking | 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.1 |
| Cellular Bands |
Americas SKUGSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHzCDMA: 0/1/10WCDMA: 1/2/4/5/8LTE: 2/3/4/5/7/12/13/17/25/26/29/41CA DL: B2-B13, B2-B17, B2-29, B4-B5, B4-B13, B4-B17, B4-B29 Rest of world SKU GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHzCDMA: not supportedWCDMA: 1/2/4/5/6/8/9/19LTE: 1/3/5/7/8/9/19/20/28/41CA DL: B3-B5, B3-B8 |
| Ports | Micro USB 2.0, headphones |
| Camera | 13MP rear camera with OIS, 2MP front camera |
| Size | 6.27" × 3.27" × 0.4" (159.26 x 82.98 x 10.06mm) |
| Weight | 6.2 oz. (176g) |
| Battery | 3220 mAh |
| Starting price | $249 with two-year contract, $649 unlocked |
| Other perks | NFC, wireless charging, "turbo" charging, Ambient notifications, always-on voice commands |
Another year, another Nexus phone. Google's flagship devices are the fast track for the newest software, but they've typically been devices of compromise. A bad camera, no LTE, or a poor battery—there's always something. The compromises were usually easy to forgive thanks to the incredible—probably subsidized—pricing scheme that Google has used in the past.
This year, Google has tapped the newly Lenovo owned Motorola to build a massive, 6-inch monster of a phone with a 1440p screen. It has nearly doubled the price up from $350 for the Nexus 5 to a whopping $650 for an unlocked Nexus 6. Google says they're aiming for more "premium" devices this year, and the company is working with all four big US carriers to offer the phone with a two-year contract.
The price is well into the range of flagship devices from other companies, and it makes us less forgiving of any faults we might come across. The Nexus 6 is still not really expensive for what it is, though. Consider that an unlocked Galaxy Note 4 costs around $800 and has a smaller screen, and you're still getting a deal on Google's giant phablet.
Read 47 remaining paragraphs | Comments
12 Nov 19:01
umbralillium: hungryhungryhenderson: lethalitycomplex: thedemo...
i’m pretty sure you created tron
*DAFT PUNK INTENSIFIES*
Welcome to the grid
Greetings, Programs!
Markku.lempinen, firehose and -1 others like this
12 Nov 19:01
Family of Texas Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan settles with hospital - Los Angeles Times
ABC News |
Family of Texas Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan settles with hospital Los Angeles Times Relatives of Thomas Eric Duncan announced Wednesday that they had settled all legal claims against the Dallas hospital where the Liberian man was treated and died of Ebola last month. They said the agreement with Texas Health Presbyterian of Dallas ... Financial settlement for family of Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan leaves out ...New York Daily News Late Ebola Patient's Fiancee Gets Nothing in SettlementWLS-TV Ebola victim's family, hospital make 'outstanding' dealUSA TODAY The Hill -Fort Worth Star Telegram -MSNBC all 238 news articles » |
12 Nov 18:59
The Most Hilarious Proofreading Mistake in a Scientific Paper Ever
by George Dvorsky
This is an actual quote from a scientific paper, published recently — and apparently without editing. Apparently the authors didn't think much of one of the papers they were citing. And their publisher didn't bother to edit out their pre-publication snark.
Jarrod Keone Montoya, Luke.stirling and one other like this
12 Nov 18:59
A Detailed Explanation of the Two-City Process Behind the Creation of Grey Goose Vodka
by Lori Dorn
In October 2014, Potluck Video travelled to Grey Goose in Cognac, France to get a detailed explanation of how they create their vodka, a process that starts in Picardy in the north of France and then makes its way south to Cognac to be finished.
The creation of Grey Goose Vodka begins with the finest soft winter wheat grown by three local farming cooperatives in the Picardy region of France. The wheat is sent to a dedicated mill and distillery where it is transformed into a high-proof spirit. This wheat spirit is perfectly blended with spring water from an exclusive well in Gensac-la-Pallue in the Cognac Arrondissement (region) where the water is naturally filtered through limestone.
12 Nov 18:57
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Android 5.0 Lollipop review
by Dieter Bohn
firehose'Just like Apple overreacted to its old design on the iPhone, Google has decided the colors should be splashed in lots of different places. App menu headers are bold reds and blues greens, but there's no logic to the system of colors to match the logic of animation. Even those animations can get a little overbearing. It's great when you first start using Lollipop, but once you get your bearings, you kind of wish they'd go a little faster.
Actually, that’s part of one more similarity between iOS 7 and Lollipop: various failures to address some of the details. As David Pogue pointed out a couple weeks ago, there are lots of places where it's hard to tell what's happening. For example, in settings, text can be a number of things: a button to take you deeper into a menu, a heading that does nothing, a button that toggles a switch off to the right, or a button that activates a pop-up menu.
I am mortified to find that Android still seems to offer different interfaces for text selection and cut/copy/paste in different corners of the OS — to say nothing of the fact that the icons are still vague and the widgets for selecting text are frustratingly small (oh, and vary in color depending on the app).'
You are not in Kansas anymore
Google has been on a mission to redefine itself as a design-focused company for some years now. With the release of Android 5.0 Lollipop on the new Nexus 6 phone and Nexus 9 tablet, that mission has reached an apotheosis. It's a sudden, jarring change from the Android we've known, now combined with a torrent of tweaks and features. It's easily the most important update to the world's most-used mobile OS in several years. It's a big deal.
It's hard not to get metaphysical when talking about the design for Lollipop. That's because the philosophy behind the new look is based on something Google calls ." You also can't talk about the design changes in Lollipop without comparing it to the equally bold design changes Apple made with iOS 7 last year. Both attempt to remake nearly every corner of the OS, both make heavy use of layers, and both have high-concept ideas about how those layers interact with each other.
Jony Ive’s mission at Apple was to get rid of skeuomorphism, where digital things imitate real-world objects. In doing so, he created a beautiful but cold crystal palace of colorless, translucent planes. Android designer Matias Duarte at Google, on the other hand, has built the Emerald City. Lollipop has more skeuomorphism than ever before, except the reality being imitated here isn't real at all. It's like waking up in Kansas and discovering that everything is still in color and your slippers are still very much a deep shade of ruby red.
Like I said, it's hard not to get metaphysical. Let's channel Dorothy and stay pragmatic as we go down the Yellow Brick Road. (Let's also studiously avoid "Lollipop Guild" puns, no matter how apropos they may be to Android and Google's culture.)
This is Google’s vision for the future of computing.
Those fuzzy concepts about how an OS should look and feel do have practical effects. Android 5.0 looks virtually nothing like the Android that you're familiar with. All the shades, tinted glass, and neon effects have been replaced with subtly textured whites and bright (sometimes too bright) colors. Previously incoherent and random animations have turned into a simple suite of rules for the way things move and relate to each other on the screen.
If you've used Android before, you don't need to worry about being lost. The core elements of an app panel, a notification shade, a lock screen, and a home screen for widgets and Google Now are still here and still work essentially the same way. But for newcomers, the list of UI concepts and their relation to one another can be daunting. Lollipop's main job is to make them less so, and it works.
The best part might be the animations, which are so fluid and prevalent that they're practically a middle finger to the Android of a few versions ago. Transitioning from the Overview (formerly known as the recent apps switcher, or multitasking) to the home screen to the app pane to the notification shade isn't exactly a symphony of movement, but it is at the very least more harmonious than it's ever been.
The best part might be the animations
It's also, at times, garish. Just like Apple overreacted to its old design on the iPhone, Google has decided the colors should be splashed in lots of different places. App menu headers are bold reds and blues greens, but there's no logic to the system of colors to match the logic of animation. Even those animations can get a little overbearing. It's great when you first start using Lollipop, but once you get your bearings, you kind of wish they'd go a little faster.
Actually, that’s part of one more similarity between iOS 7 and Lollipop: various failures to address some of the details. As David Pogue pointed out a couple weeks ago, there are lots of places where it's hard to tell what's happening. For example, in settings, text can be a number of things: a button to take you deeper into a menu, a heading that does nothing, a button that toggles a switch off to the right, or a button that activates a pop-up menu.
I am mortified to find that Android still seems to offer different interfaces for text selection and cut/copy/paste in different corners of the OS — to say nothing of the fact that the icons are still vague and the widgets for selecting text are frustratingly small (oh, and vary in color depending on the app).
But those are mostly minor, solvable quibbles. Lollipop is ambitious; it's easily the most ambitious update Android has seen in several years. The fact that the new design works as well as it does even in this first iteration is a very good sign.
Along with the new design, there are a lot of new features to talk about. They can be more or less sorted into a few categories, but the set of improvements that makes the biggest difference comes around notifications. Android was already the leader among modern operating systems for notifications: on an Android device, you can use the notification shade as a kind of virtual homescreen, triaging messages and directly acting on emails.
Android still does notifications better than anybody
With Lollipop, you can now do all that right on the lockscreen. But putting those notifications front and center means they need a few more controls — so Google is providing them. You can set apps to be private, so they won't show their content on the lock screen, and you can more easily disable notifications altogether for any given app. Both options are accessible deep in Android's settings or via a simple long press on an active notification. Incoming calls don't take over the whole screen anymore, appearing instead as a small alert at the top.
The biggest change is a "Priority Mode," which you can quickly toggle anytime you hit the volume buttons. It's essentially the same thing as Do Not Disturb on iOS, but with an emphasis on making it easier for you to choose which notifications can still come through. There's also a simple "None" mode, which shuts everything down, including alarms. Both modes have convenient buttons for setting a time-out so you don't leave your phone bereft of Twitter replies because you forgot to change your settings.
Alongside the improved notifications is a new attempt to make a coherent Quick Settings panel. Google messes with these toggles in every iteration of Android, usually to middling effect. It's the same story here. Instead of just giving us the option to customize the settings ourselves, Google says that it automatically tries to guess which settings you want to flip and shows you those. What I want is "Mobile Hotspot." What I get instead is "Invert Colors," with no way to manually change it. Maddening. The same "we'll reorder it for you" philosophy applies to the sharing menu, but there at least it seems to work better.
In the same way that Lollipop took Android's notification strength and made it stronger, so too has it done quite a bit with multiple user accounts. They're available on phones now too, but the real innovation is "Guest Mode." You can toggle it on at any time, and your guest can do pretty much whatever they want — including signing in to their own Google accounts — before burning that guest account in a puff of digital smoke. It’s a private browsing mode for your phone, and if you've ever had to lend a phone or tablet to somebody for more than five minutes, it's a godsend.
You can also turn on a "Pin" feature for apps, which prevents a user from exiting the active app without a passcode. iOS has had a similar "Guided Access" feature for awhile now, but on Android the giant "Pin" icon is much more intuitive, and it’s perfect for handing your tablet to a kid who just wants to play a quick round of Cut The Rope.
The pin appears in the "Overview" stack, which replaces the tiny multitasking thumbnails with bigger screenshots in an infinite vertical stack. It's very pretty and usually very fast, but, more importantly, some apps can make better use of it. Gmail can put in a new card when you hit "Compose," for example, so that you can toggle between an email you're writing and an email you're referencing. Chrome can put multiple tabs in there as well (though only on phones, not on tablets, oddly).
It's an idea that is great in theory but can be hard to think through in execution, especially when it comes to keeping track of your Chrome tabs. At the risk of sounding like a curmudgeon, I'll say that Duarte did a better job at Palm with this idea way back in 2009 with webOS, where you could spatially arrange your apps and group them.
Various apps have seen updates: Gmail now works with any email address, not just Gmail. (There’s inexplicably still an icon for Email, but it just tells you to go to Gmail.) Google brought back the "Messages" SMS app for those who don't want it integrated with Hangouts. Calendar has some very pretty new views. Many of Google’s new apps have been given tablet-optimized views that work great on the Nexus 9 but don't show up in landscape on the Nexus 6 despite its generous size, which is disappointing.
The list of clever and helpful features goes on. Some were seemingly lifted straight from Motorola or HTC: smart lock lets you set a Bluetooth device as trusted so your phone stays unlocked. Ambient Display shows notifications on an AMOLED display (currently only the Nexus 6 is supported) without turning the whole screen on. You can say "Ok Google" and have the command work even with the screen off. The Nexus 9 lets you double tap the screen to wake it up, while the Nexus 6 activates its screen based on small accelerometer movements.
One new feature that's pure Google: if you use Face Unlock, it now just works in the background while you're messing about with notifications on your lock screen. Unfortunately, in my testing, it's not any more reliable than it used to be — which is to say, not much.
Google has borrowed a ton of ideas from its partners
Google is also touting "Tap and Go," which uses NFC to transfer account information from one phone to another. It works, but in my tests, all is actually does is transfer over your Google accounts and a list of apps to install. If you don't use it, there is a new setup process that lets you pick and choose which apps you'll install during setup. It's much better than before, which involved a crapshoot of wondering which apps would appear, but it's still nowhere near the phone-replacement experience on iOS. I had been hoping that default full-device encryption (another Lollipop feature) would mean we'd get full phone backups and restores: accounts, logins, and all. Nope.
Last (for this rundown, anyway) but certainly not least, Google has also borrowed the idea of a Battery Saver mode from its manufacturers, which limits background data when you start running low on power. It turns the menu bar and button bar into an aggressive shade of orange and can be set to turn on automatically when you run low on power.
Google has also made back-end improvements, most of which will be invisible to the end user. They promise better performance and battery life, but it's much too early to say for sure. We haven't been able to do side-by-side comparisons on identical hardware, and the versions we've been using so far aren't final. I will say that on both the Nexus 6 and the Nexus 9, the performance story is mixed. Moments of pure speed and smoothness are interrupted by inexplicable pauses. Battery life is very difficult to pin down, too. Android 5.0 is very much a "Dot Oh" update — and that means bugs.
Unfortunately, a new version of Android is always accompanied with questions: will existing devices get an update? When will new devices begin shipping with the new OS? As ever, there aren't clear answers, and as they do become clear, they probably won't be what you want to hear. It's possible that this year could be better than usual, as several manufacturers have already announced immediate plans to update their flagship phones.
Welcome to Oz
For the past few years, my advice to people agitating to get the update was to chill out because the changes were really rather minor. This year, my advice is the same, but for a different reason: the changes are huge, but there are still some bugs that need to get ironed out. I'm also hopeful that app developers will push out Material Design-inspired updates quickly, but we'll see.
Either way, soon millions of Android devices are going to look like this, and I think that's great. Grab your little dog and a basket, and be ready to stare wide-eyed at the bright colors. Because as soon as Google finds a way to fend off some of those flying monkeys, this land of Oz is going to be a wonderful place to live.
The Breakdown
More times than not, the Verge score is based on the average of the subscores below. However, since this is a non-weighted average, we reserve the right to tweak the overall score if we feel it doesn't reflect our overall assessment and price of the product. Read more about how we test and rate products.
- Design 9
- Features 9
- Performance 8
- Ecosystem 9
firehose likes this
12 Nov 18:54
echoes-of-the-fall: lady-redrum: wasthatnotsideblog: just gonna say this: if someone has social...
firehosevia ThePrettiestOne
just gonna say this: if someone has social anxiety and they ask you something akin to ‘are you mad at me’ or ‘do you hate me’, it isn’t because they don’t trust you, it’s because their brain literally tells them that all the time
it’s not a personal slight, it’s insecurity caused by mental illness
thanks
TAKE NOTE.
yes this
12 Nov 18:53
How Is Greg Benson Still Getting Into Comic Conventions When He is Literally Hitting Cosplayers in the Face?
by Jill Pantozzi
firehosethis fucking guy
This is the title card of Mediocre Films and Greg Benson’s latest “comedy” video. Think it’s funny? We don’t.
There’s often heated debate over what constitutes comedy and more to the point, being offensive simply to be offensive. But considering the currently climate of harassment in the geek community, patience is thin.
Enter Greg Benson of Mediocre Films. From his “about” page on Facebook:
Greg Benson has created or directed many viral videos & web series, including Retarded Policeman (viewed over 100 million times), Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show (distributed by Sony) and The Guild (Best Series winner in the Yahoo, YouTube & Streamy awards). His latest projects include Yeshmin Blechin, Excellent Questions, Gay Leprechaun and Celebrity Sock Puppet Theatre. MediocreFilms has been one of YouTube’s all-time most subscribed channels since 2007.
You may also remember Benson from such “comedy” videos as, what our friend Marlene likes to call, “Cosplay Creep.” We wrote about it briefly in a larger piece on harassment but at San Diego Comic-Con in 2013, Benson produced a video in which he spoke in a sexual manner (innuendo or explicitly) to women in costume without warning.
We don’t want to give his YouTube account more views, but in the latest video titled “Hitting COSPLAYERS in the FACE! – ComiKaze 2014,” (with “How to hit people in the face and get away with it!” in the about section) Benson hits those he’s interviewing in the face with his microphone. Repeatedly.
Most of the cosplayers react with nervous laughter, which is I’m sure how most human beings would respond when they think an accident like that has occurred. But he pressed on, editing together just over two minutes of footage of himself hitting attendees in the face over and over.
Stan Lee’s Comikaze, like more and more conventions each year, has a great harassment policy which includes: “We do not tolerate harassment of convention participants in any form.” We reached out to inform the organizers of the video and received the following statement:
We are very disappointed that Greg Benson decided to hit Comikaze cosplayers in the face in a failed attempt at comedy. His video was solely dependent on making inappropriate and unwanted physical contact with our Cosplayers, which is a violation of our Harrasment Policy. It’s also a curiously poor decision for someone who has been involved with the geek community through his work on “The Guild,” especially in light of the recent wave of harrassment of women.
It’s also just not a funny video, which in and of itself is offensive to us.
Mr. Benson was given a professional badge as a guest of another professional.
We had no knowledge or reports of this harrassment. These are the types of incidents that we ask to be made aware of as it happens, so we can stop them immediately. As a convention we want to provide a safe and fun enviroment for all. We do not take harassment of any kind lightly, and want to take this opportunity to let attendees at any convention — not just Comikaze — know that if they are being harassed in anyway, including inappropriate contact, to please report it immediately to show staff and or security.
Regina Carpinelli
&
Keith Tralins
#BeExcellentToOneOther
So can we stop including Benson at fan conventions? Can we email organizers to let them know this is not acceptable behavior? It’s clear he’s there to make fun of attendees wanting to enjoy themselves and express passion for their fandoms. Is that the type of publicity you want?
Previously in Harassment
- Nonprofit Begins “Unprecedented” Partnership With Twitter to Reduce Gender-Based Harassment
- Blizzard CEO Opens BlizzCon 2014 By Condemning Gamergaters Like A BAMF
- #YesAllGeeks And Beyond: Talking About Bullying And Harassment At New York Comic Con
Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?
12 Nov 18:41
[sarahseeandersen]
firehosevia ThePrettiestOne
claudzim, Luke.stirling and 2 others like this
12 Nov 18:37
Carson the Jenga Dog Sets a RecordSetter World Record for the Most Treats Balanced on His Nose at Once
by Lori Dorn
A golden retriever named Carson aka “Jenga Dog“, has set a RecordSetter World Record for balancing 50 dog treats on his nose at once. The record was set in Cedar Park, Texas with the help of Alton Bollum, his faithful human.
Carson can also balance multiple treats on his chin.
He is also particularly adept at balancing treats while lying on his back.
submitted via Laughing Squid Tips
firehose likes this
12 Nov 18:35
Senate Democrats Hoping To Go Out In Final Blaze Of Glory By Passing One Last Neutered Bill
WASHINGTON—With the party set to lose control of the chamber following defeats in the midterm elections, Senate Democrats announced Wednesday that they are prepared to go out in a final blaze of glory by passing one last completely neutered bill. 
firehose likes this
12 Nov 18:29
Ashley Fure
by Alex Ross
firehosevia Matthew Connor
Until recently a student of Chaya Czernowin's at Harvard, Fure will be featured at a Dal Niente Party Concert on Sunday.
12 Nov 18:28
jessehimself: thinksquad: In Gretna, Florida, Juanita Donald...
In Gretna, Florida, Juanita Donald called the police to come assist her and get her 24 year old son to take his medication, as she had done in the past.
On Tuesday morning, around 9:30 am, she called the police to help her with her son Kaldrick Donald and one officer showed up, Sergeant Charles Brown.
Charles Brown ended up tasing Kaldrick Donald repeatedly, and then took him into the isolated bathroom in the family’s house and shot him multiple times, killing him.
Brown murdered Donald in the presence his pregnant sister and mother, and no one can even say why. He was completely unarmed, and somehow not completely sane.
His mother said “I heard my baby say, I want my mama after he shot him, and then I didn’t hear anything else.”
His mother said she was “expecting them to take him to the Apalachee Center like before”, but instead a single officer came and escalated the situation, murdering him in front of his family.
Juanita continued to say “It wasn’t but one officer. Instead of him calling for backup, he took things in his own hands and he goes in the house and he rush him and shoot him.”
She continued to say he “didn’t want to be bothered”, and that he simply walked away from the officer.
She says Sergeant Charles Brown “Just grabbed him and he tased him. Then when he grabbed him and tased him, he rushed my son off in the bathroom and I heard three shots. I was like, you shot my son and he was like, I had to. I said, no, you didn’t have to.”
Charles Brown is now on ‘administrative leave’, or paid vacation, and if this story doesn’t blow up then this officer surely will see no charges.
Luke.stirling, Rosalind and one other like this
12 Nov 18:06
Microsoft Launches Free, Unrestricted Version Of Visual Studio For Small Teams | TechCrunch
by gguillotte
The shift that’s happening here is Visual Studio is basically going freemium. Microsoft has now built a set of online tools around Visual Studio Online (which is also getting a number of updates today) that it believes people will pay for. The Visual Studio IDE is now the gateway into the rest of that ecosystem and the more developers Microsoft can get onto that platform, the more will also want to use the rest of the company’s (paid) toolset through subscriptions to MSDN and other channels.
The Express Edition will remain online for now, but Somasegar tells me that over time, the Community Edition will take over.
Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of the Cloud and Enterprise group Scott Guthrie also noted that the launch of the Community edition also means anybody can now use Visual Studio without having to enter a credit card or enroll in a special program. “Visual studio is universally praised, but if you talk to a developer in college or straight out of college, they don’t want to pay,” Guthrie jokingly noted. “We want to eliminate that friction and enable more developers to use it on a day-to-day basis.”
12 Nov 17:57
Humanoid Atlas Robot by Boston Dynamics Performs the Crane Kick from ‘The Karate Kid’
by Brian Heater
firehoseSWEEP THE SERVO
The robotics lab at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition has created a video demonstrating the agility of the Atlas Robot (previously) by Boston Dynamics, posing the humanoid ‘bot in the iconic crane kick position from The Karate Kid.
12 Nov 17:56
DC Reveals Convergence Titles Including Gail Simone on Oracle, Greg Rucka on Renee Montoya, and Lots More - And Ryan Choi, and Wally West, and Lois and Clark are married, and...
by Susana Polo
firehoseheeee
"Greg Rucka will once again be writing Renee Montoya as The" shh. stop talking. i'm already there
I’m as cynical as any long-time comics fan can be, DC Comics. So when you announce the return of one of my favorite comics writers, to one of my very favorite comics characters, I have only two things to say to you.
I am only human. And good job.
Last week, we filled you in on DC’s announcement of their big spring crossover event of 2015, Convergence, which promises to showcase a number of fan-favorite characters and timelines and alternate universes that were left on the cutting room floor when the New 52 was put together in 2011. At the time I expressed some cynicism about the idea. For one thing, it felt a bit cheap: three years ago we were told that the multiversity concept and wealth of backstory and characters in the DC universe was too confusing for new readers and would have to be radically condensed, and now a major event is resting entirely on that fictional history. For another, without a promise that these characters (many of them lost examples of racial, gender, and sexual diversity from DC’s books) were coming back in a more permanent way, it seems like it could easily just be a bone thrown to readers who’ve been clamoring for the return of Hong-Kong-born Ryan Choi as the Atom, Asian-American Cassandra Cain as Batgirl, and the living-with-disability Barbara Gordon as Oracle. A minimum of commitment to readers salivating over their old favorites.
I’m still not convinced to give up my cynicism by today’s reveal of ten of the forty two-issue stories that will tie in to Convergence in April. But I’m finding it a lot harder!
Because these ten series, as revealed by Comic Book Resources, include Pre-New-52 Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and Catwoman teaming up to fight Captain Carrot; Wally West as the Flash; Ryan Choi as the Atom; a Stephanie Brown Batgirl tale featuring Cassandra Cain Blackbat; long-time Superman writer Dan Jurgens taking the reins on a story about Pre-New-52 married couple Clark Kent and Lois Lane; Gail Simone returning to the characters of Oracle and Nightwing for a wedding story; and last but not least, Greg Rucka will once again be writing Renee Montoya as The Question. (Check Comic Book Resources for all ten titles.)
It’s that last one that’s really trying my cynicism, personally. Renee Montoya is in a dead heat with Kate Kane for my favorite “Not Batman” comics character, and Greg Rucka not only shepherded her through years of character development ups and downs to the point where she took on the mantle of one of DC Comics’ great detective characters, he’s also one of my favorite comics writers.
Take deep breaths, Susana. It’s not like DC’s gonna just take all these characters and make them canon in the main universe again. We can shouldn’t can shouldn’t hope.
Previously in DC Comics
- DC Comics Announces Convergence, a Crossover Event to Bring the Multiverse Back to the New 52
- Gotham Gab: Share Your Thoughts on “The Mask”
- Margot Robbie and Jared Leto Might Be Harley Quinn and the Joker in the Suicide Squad Movie
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12 Nov 17:54
Bill Cosby’s Request For The Internet To Meme Him Did Not Go As Planned - Prayer circle for hapless social media interns.
by Carolyn Cox
firehose'According to some meme-makers, the words “rape,” “rapist” and “sex” began to automatically disappear in the generator late last night'
[Trigger warning for mentions of sexual assault.] Somewhere, someone is facing a long stretch of unemployment.
Yesterday afternoon, in a since-deleted tweet, Bill Cosby (or a member of the 77-year-old’s team), tweeted an invitation for the Internet to “meme him”using his website’s new meme generator:
Cosby (or his team) even made their own memes as an example of all the wholesome, family-friendly fare the comedian has made to mine from:
If you’re wondering how @BillCosby‘s team *thought* #CosbyMeme would go, these are the examples from his website. pic.twitter.com/skq3WC7sBM — dan barker (@danbarker) November 10, 2014
Of course, asking people to couple your image with text of their choosing is just inviting criticism, especially when you have a reputation for sexual misconduct. Thirteen women have come forward since 2002 to claim they were drugged and/or assaulted by the comedian; Cosby settled out of court in 2006. A biography published earlier this year, Bill Cosby: His Life and Times doesn’t mention the allegations, but Cosby and his team should have known the kind of criticism they’d receive in this new bid for relevancy. Here are some of the memes made on the Cosby generator within just a few hours of that initial tweet:
.@BillCosby This is fun! #CosbyMeme pic.twitter.com/O1ScpMBzqA — Matthew Bramlett (@matthewbramlett) November 10, 2014
.@russbengtson @BillCosby Top of the mornin to ya. pic.twitter.com/O09sZYbUQJ — Pete Forester (@pete_forester) November 10, 2014
According to some meme-makers, the words “rape,” “rapist” and “sex” began to automatically disappear in the generator late last night:
Cosby meme generator tweaked the text parser. Good for them. #cosbymeme #nomorerapejokes pic.twitter.com/7r1izxC4bW — Hendrik Busse (@Hendrik_Busse) November 11, 2014
The #CosbyMeme also inspired a discussion of the possible double standard evidenced in the Internet’s eagerness to skewer a black icon accused of sexual misconduct, instead of prominent white men who have faced similar charges:
#CosbyMeme Because it’s a thing. pic.twitter.com/bvggAP6Lnw — Kyle Baker (@KyleJBaker) November 11, 2014
Of course, the one thing we can say for sure: someone’s getting fired. But it won’t be Bill Cosby.
Someone’s getting fired. #cosbymemepic.twitter.com/GSMsNFcz1D — Adam Hammer (@AdamHammer) November 10, 2014
(Via Mediaite, screenshot via The New York Post)
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12 Nov 17:51
Newswire: Another movie inspired by the Boston Marathon bombing is in the works
by Kyle Daly
firehose'Andrzej Bartkowiak—a veteran cinematographer on Speed and Species, whose forays into directing have included no fewer than three movies co-starring DMX, as well as the video game adaptations Doom and Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun-Li—has signed on to direct Altar Rock'
Thanks to the entertainment industry’s conclusion that moviegoers and TV viewers are jonesing for nothing more than to relive the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013, there are now at least three projects in the works based on those events. However, the latest entry is poised to be a less literal interpretation than either Fox’s planned docudrama miniseries or the presumably heavily accented upcoming movie scripted by the screenwriters of The Fighter and starring Casey Affleck.
Variety reports that Andrzej Bartkowiak—a veteran cinematographer on Speed and Species, whose forays into directing have included no fewer than three movies co-starring DMX, as well as the video game adaptations Doom and Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun-Li—has signed on to direct Altar Rock, a movie “inspired by” the Boston bombing. In a video posted last year, co-screenwriter Kristin Alexandre explains that her movie is based on a novel she ...
12 Nov 17:38
A Simple Guide To Making Pour-Over Coffee
firehosesorry: it's Counter Culture
For some, coffee is a means to an end. For others, it's a morning ritual just as satisfying as imbibing the hot brown caffeine-laced beverage. Here's how to get started.
12 Nov 17:38
Woman Mistakes Reporter For A Lollipop
firehosemeanwhile, in Portland
For context: this took place outside of a party celebrating the passage of legal marijuana in Oregon.
12 Nov 17:07
Re-Enacting The Vietnam War
Each year in Oregon, a group of men gather to recreate a war that so many Americans have tried to forget.
12 Nov 16:57
Lead ESA Scientist Wears Shirt Covered in Gratuitous Sexy Chicks For Comet Landing Livestream - My eyes hurt now.
by Victoria McNally
firehoseaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
No RT @yannisp This is the scientific head of operations for the ESA’s rosetta project. Cool shirt for an engineer :) pic.twitter.com/DvlzxylBHR
— A Geek Mom (Shannon) (@ageekmom) November 12, 2014
This is Matt Taylor, the lead project scientist of the European Space Agency’s Rosetta project—which, if you’ll remember, involves soft landing a space probe that’s been in orbit for 10 years onto the surface of a comet for the first time in history. He is, presumably, very intelligent. He is also wearing a shirt covered in cartoonishly sexy women. So. You know.
Here, have a gander at the full ensemble:
Photo credit: C Carreau/Esa, via The Guardian
That is… a look. Specifically, it’s the “PG-13 rated version of Charlie Sheen’s signature look from Two and a Half Men” look. Seriously, he’s basically covered in pictures of that woman from the psychedelic drug-induced science fiction space western dream Kenny has in that one episode of South Park. You remember that episode! It was called “Major Boobage.”
Now, I could point out that one might be able to use this shirt as an example of how women in STEM fields might be made to feel indirectly uncomfortable in a male-dominated working environment despite no overt sexism or harassment being inflicted upon them. But I’m kind of too distracted by how tacky and outright terrible this shirt actually is. Like, seriously, dude. You wore that in public.
No no women are toooootally welcome in our community, just ask the dude in this shirt. https://t.co/r88QRzsqAm pic.twitter.com/XmhHKrNaq5
— Rose Eveleth (@roseveleth) November 12, 2014
Oh well. His Rosetta-themed tattoo is pretty cool, at least, right?
(via David Shiffman on Twitter)
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