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29 Oct 22:14

Crime spree suspect allegedly bragged to police after capture - Boston Globe


Boston Globe

Crime spree suspect allegedly bragged to police after capture
Boston Globe
When Gregory J. Lewis was arrested by police in New York State Tuesday night, the alleged child rapist who was the subject of a nationwide manhunt boasted about his notoriety, police said. “Don't you know who I am?” Lewis repeatedly told officers, Fort ...
Fugitive Massachusetts child rape suspect who cut off GPS is caught after driving ...U.S. News & World Report
LIVE: Mass. State Police on Gregory Lewis ArrestNECN
Man accused of sexual assault at Portland airport hotel arrested in New YorkThe Oregonian - OregonLive.com
New York Daily News -MSN News
all 366 news articles »
29 Oct 22:14

Scott Walker limps toward 2016 - Politico


Politico

Scott Walker limps toward 2016
Politico
MILWAUKEE — In the glow of his recall election victory two years ago, Scott Walker looked like a conservative superhero — a soft-faced Midwestern man who stripped public unions of their negotiating powers then crushed their campaign to oust him in a ...

and more »
29 Oct 22:06

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29 Oct 22:05

Historical Map: Chicago Surface Lines (Streetcar) Transfer...



Historical Map: Chicago Surface Lines (Streetcar) Transfer Ticket (date unknown)

A tiny little map of Chicago with streetcar lines and the underlying street grid printed on the obverse of a transfer ticket. It seems to be mainly used for indicating the time and place that the transfer was issued, rather than for any attempt at navigation of the system.

If I’m reading the clock face at the top of the ticket correctly, this transfer was issued at 3:35 (or 7:15) on July 2nd by a conductor on the Archer Avenue line. Note that this line is highlighted in red, and the zone that the transfer was issued in is also punched out on the map.

I’m presuming here that the road grid is the basis of the “zones” that the rather stern directions on the reverse of the ticket refer to. My favourite part is “Reverse riding will be subject to the questioning of the conductor.” Busted! I’m also thinking that the red “NE” and “SW” at the top right of the ticket indicate the initial direction of travel to make the conductor’s task easier in this regard. This makes sense, because then all the information that’s related to the Archer Avenue line itself is printed in red on top of the standard green ink… a clever cost-saving printing method.

I don’t have a date for this ticket, but it can’t be later than 1948, as that’s when the Archer Avenue line was abandoned. It certainly has a late 1930s-early 1940s feel to it.

Source: Metropolitan Planning Council (who erroneously label it as an “old CTA map”).

29 Oct 22:01

70sscifiart: [Space 1970]

Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

29 Oct 21:56

Op-ed: No, the South Isn't a 'New Frontier' for LGBT Rights | Advocate.com

by hodad

The South is not a “new frontier” to be explored and conquered by special interest groups, no matter how good the individuals’ intentions may be or how often this storyline is repeated in mainstream news sources.

It is certainly easy to become doe-eyed when national and even international organizations open offices in or direct resources toward Southern states like Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. It is tempting to adhere to this ubiquitous storyline when those organizations are working on progressive issues such as LGBTQ rights, where these states lag behind their counterparts on the East and West Coasts.

In fact, the “new frontier” narrative is so pervasive that we would even go so far as to call it “mouthwatering” to journalists and activists alike. So much so that most don’t stop for a moment to consider the toxic ingredients baked inside before taking that first juicy bite.

If you need evidence that this is how our story is framed, just read, “Dealt a Victory in Court, Advocates for Gay Rights Focus on a New Frontier,” which appeared October 8 in The New York Times. It tells the story of local queer advocates who have been hosting meetings to talk about their personal experiences in the context of the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear marriage cases from Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

See also, “Gay Rights Group, After Recent Victories, Turns to a New Frontier: The South,” a lengthy Washington Post story from September 10 about the Human Rights Campaign’s new office in Mississippi as part of its Project One America campaign.

These national spotlight pieces rarely, if ever, discuss the organizations and coalitions that already exist in the South and have for some time. These pieces miss the work put in by LGBTQ-affirming religious coalitions, safe schools coalitions, and state equality groups to slowly but surely change their communities, their places of worship, and their state and local policies. It seems that more national news is made highlighting the blatant and egregious examples of bigotry that happen in our region.

We can count on these examples to be highlighted as if they define the South and its response to its LGBTQ people in its entirety. Southerners on New Ground, the first pride parade in Tuscaloosa, or LGBTQ people happily thriving don’t make the news because they don’t fit the narrative of the South being backward.

Do not mistake this constructive criticism as contrarianism. For starters, the folks sharing their stories are heroes, whether it’s a dozen people chatting over pizza, a trans woman boldly coming out to her entire state, a bi activist challenging the local government to take action, or a gay man holding a humorous protest sign. But there is no reason to infantilize them or their communities, and doing so is a disservice to the hard work that many of them have been doing for decades before this “new frontier” was discovered. In fact, there is no new frontier. There is only our doorstep. And we’re happy to invite you in when you knock.

This is a difficult conversation to have, because we Southern progressives do want groups like HRC here to do good work. And we would love to tell our tales to publications like The New York Times and The Washington Post. Please do visit our cities, experience our legendary hospitality, and savor our cuisine. We welcome you to join our conversations and march beside us in our movements.

But let’s be honest about the elephant in the room. One conspicuous reason the South is so far behind on issues like LGBTQ rights is precisely because we have been infantilized by national media and viewed as terrifying uncharted territory by advocacy groups.

For instance, Alabama receives an average of 1.6 cents in grant funding per LGBTQ person for every dollar New York City receives. The disparity in per capita spending is absolutely not because LGBTQ Southerners do not exist or that they do not need protections. Indeed, Mississippi is home to the highest percentage of same-sex couples raising children.

The Magnolia State also has the nation’s highest poverty rate, at over 20 percent. Now consider that the Williams Institute found that LGBTQ adults with kids are three times more likely to live near the poverty line than their straight peers.

The need is surely obvious, yet repeating stereotypes about the South, and more seriously, its people, is counterproductive and serves only to leave us further behind in the big picture push toward progress. The truth is scores of Southerners have been working toward progressive ideals for decades, work that is difficult no matter when or what part of the country it is undertaken.

Our aspirations are bold and broad: a South where lesbian, gay, bi, trans, and queer individuals are no longer bullied, marginalized, and rejected by friends, family, the church, and elected officials. It is tiresome for our homeland to be incessantly described as foreign, hostile, or any number of common Southern-state descriptors.

A challenge that has always faced queer activists is the tension between assimilation and liberation. And there are strengths to both sides of that debate. But one that often goes missing is the nuance of individual lives. Most people I know want both. The freedom to be oneself should never be at odds with the desire to be accepted, included, and loved. In fact, the two are inseparable. And so it is with the South too.

Those of us living in places like Alabama are often asked why we don’t just leave. The underlying assumption is the pernicious meme that the Deep South is a dreadful place for young queer activists to live and to prosper. We all answer in our own way, depending on who asked the question and why, but many of us say the same thing: We live here because we love it here, and we don’t need to justify that to anyone. The South is our home, our roots run deep here, and asking why we don’t leave reinforces the notion that one cannot be all of who they are and also Southern. This simply is not true.

The heroes who tell their stories to the press deserve better, whether their story is featured on the front page of The New York Times or hidden in the lifestyle section of the local ledger. We have to do better, or this tired trope will continue to perpetuate itself for generations to come.

History tells of a violent and dangerous legacy that happens on frontiers: a pattern of assimilation and cultural extermination. The South is not a new frontier for those of us who live and agitate for change here. Framing it as such shows just how out of touch the rest of the nation has been with us, not the other way around.

SARAH YOUNG is a social work doctoral student at the University of Alabama and an LGBTQ community organizer living in Tuscaloosa, Ala. She cofounded the Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition and is a former Equality Alabama board member.

MICHAEL HANSON is a communications consultant and LGBTQ rights activist living in Birmingham, Ala. He is a former Equality Alabama board member.

Original Source

29 Oct 21:20

FBI cut hotel Internet access, sent agents to “fix” it without warrants

by David Kravets
Defendant Paul Phua

When the FBI applied for warrants this summer to raid three $25,000-per-night villas at Caesar's Palace Hotel and Casino, it omitted some key investigatory details that eventually resulted in the arrest of eight individuals, including an alleged leader of a well-known Chinese crime syndicate, defense lawyers maintained in Las Vegas federal court documents late Tuesday.

The authorities built, in part, a case for a search warrant (PDF) by turning off Internet access in three villas shared by the eight individuals arrested. At various points, an agent of the FBI and a Nevada gaming official posed as the cable guy, secretly filming while gathering evidence of what they allege was a bookmaking ring where "hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal bets" on World Cup soccer were taking place.

"If this Court authorizes this duplicity, the government will be free to employ similar schemes in virtually every context to enter the homes of perfectly innocent people. Agents will frequently have no incentive to follow the warrant procedure required by the Constitution," defense lawyers wrote the Las Vegas federal magistrate presiding over the prosecution.

Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

29 Oct 21:20

White House unclassified network hacked, apparently by Russians

by Sean Gallagher

The unclassified network of the Executive Office of the President—the administrative network of the White House—was breached by attackers thought to be working for the Russian government, according to multiple reports. The Washington Post reported that an investigation is ongoing, and White House officials are not saying what data, if any, was stolen from the computers on the network. “We are still assessing the activity of concern,” an unnamed White House official told the Post.

According to the Post’s anonymous sources, the breach was discovered in early October after a friendly foreign government alerted US officials. The network’s virtual private network access was shut down, and some staff members were told to change passwords. "We took immediate measures to evaluate and mitigate the activity,” the Post’s source at the White House said. “Unfortunately, some of that resulted in the disruption of regular services to users. But people were on it and are dealing with it.”

This isn’t the first time attackers, apparently sponsored by a foreign state, have targeted the White House’s network. In 2008 and 2012, Chinese hackers penetrated the White House’s network. On the first occasion, the attackers gained access to the White House’s e-mail server; in 2012, a phishing attack against White House staffers gave attackers access to the network, though officials said no sensitive data was exposed.

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29 Oct 21:16

Dangerous Vulnerability Fixed In Wget

by Soulskill
jones_supa writes: A critical flaw has been found and patched in the open source Wget file retrieval utility that is widely used on UNIX systems. The vulnerability is publicly identified as CVE-2014-4877. "It was found that wget was susceptible to a symlink attack which could create arbitrary files, directories or symbolic links and set their permissions when retrieving a directory recursively through FTP," developer Vasyl Kaigorodov writes in Red Hat Bugzilla. A malicious FTP server can stomp over your entire filesystem, tweets HD Moore, chief research officer at Rapid 7, who is the original reporter of the bug.

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29 Oct 20:42

KATU News on Twitter: "#breaking @MassStatePolice say accused rapist Gregory Lewis arrested in NY. He's accused of rape at Portland hotel. #LiveOnK2"

29 Oct 18:52

Jose Canseco's fiancée hops on his Twitter to solicit finger prayers

by James Dator

This is Leila . Thank you all for the kind words and prayers . Jose is in still surgery and will be ok. Please pray for his finger !!

— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) October 29, 2014

Jose Canseco was injured Tuesday night in an accidental shooting incident at his Las Vegas home while cleaning his gun. The former Major League outfielder is okay, but fiancée Leila Knight is asking that you keep him in your prayers ... your finger prayers.

Canseco is lucky to have someone in his corner through thick and thin, even when he calls her a "poop neck."

I'm with my fiancé poop neck Leila @ModelLeila watching botched . Don't know what this he/she is it's scary

— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) October 28, 2014

29 Oct 18:51

FA official says female referees 'belong in the kitchen,' gets suspended 4 months

by Kevin McCauley

John Cummings is the vice president of the Northumberland County FA, and apparently, very openly sexist. He's been suspended four months for saying that women belong in the kitchen and that they shouldn't be refereeing men's football matches.

Lucy May, a referee development officer, asked Cummings about the possibility of a woman officiating in Sunday League -- non-professional football. This was his response:

"Wouldn't be able to handle it ... It's nothing against you personally but all the time I'm alive, a woman will never referee in my league."

But wait, it gets worse! Here's what he reportedly told FA investigators after they decided to look into the origin of these comments.

"It's a standing joke with me. I mean, a woman's place is in the home and everything so what difference does it make saying it in front of all her colleagues? She should obviously realise it's a joke."

Ah yes, the usual response.

At this point, it's pretty amazing that dinosaurs like Cummings still exist. Sian Massey has been a linesperson in the Premier League for a few years now and is widely regarded as one of the best in England. German referee Bibiana Steinhaus has been an official in fully professional men's football since 2007. It should be fairly clear, even to Cummings, that women are perfectly capable of officiating in professional men's matches.

29 Oct 18:20

NASA down to one commercial supplier to ISS

by gguillotte
The Antares rocket's failure leaves SpaceX as the only U.S. company able to fly cargo to the orbiting laboratory for the near future, raising the stakes of SpaceX's next launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., which is planned no earlier than Dec. 9.
29 Oct 14:15

Newspaper outraged after FBI creates fake Seattle Times page to nab suspect

by Joe Mullin
firehose

'“We are outraged that the FBI, with the apparent assistance of the US Attorney’s Office, misappropriated the name of The Seattle Times to secretly install spyware on the computer of a crime suspect,” said Seattle Times editor Kathy Best. "Not only does that cross a line, it erases it."'

In 2007, the FBI wrote a fake news story about bomb threats in Thurston County, Washington, and then sent out e-mail links "in the style of the Seattle Times."

The details have now been published by that very same newspaper, which today carries a story including outraged quotes from a Seattle Times editor. The FBI put an Associated Press byline on the fake news story, which was about the bomb threats in Thurston County that they were investigating.

“We are outraged that the FBI, with the apparent assistance of the US Attorney’s Office, misappropriated the name of The Seattle Times to secretly install spyware on the computer of a crime suspect,” said Seattle Times editor Kathy Best. "Not only does that cross a line, it erases it."

Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

29 Oct 14:13

dagwolf: We shouldn’t be surprised that as public libraries vanish, the demand for specialized...

dagwolf:

We shouldn’t be surprised that as public libraries vanish, the demand for specialized knowledge increases. Knowledge is being privatized for a reason. Our current capitalist social paradigm depends on it. One means to destabilize this kind of power is to develop public discourse that relies more on everyday language and common experience to illustrate complex relations and concepts. Whereas we should fight for public libraries and free literature, we should also be willing to destabilize our reliance on the academy to illustrate understanding.

29 Oct 13:54

[3DS] Fantasy Life. It's Like A Tiny Skyrim In Your Pocket

by CyanideBreathmint
firehose

'gameplay-wise it reminds me much more of, say, Legend of Zelda meets Skyrim'

otters I will see you on the other side. rest in peace

Plus, much less buggy.

So, when I heard about it coming out the Nintendo E3 presentation my gut response was "Oh, it's a little life sim, how cute." Then I found out about the dev staff involved, and that it's a Level-5 product, and I went from "cute" to "MUST HAVE".

I preordered the dang thing and ran straight to the Gamestop to get it, and now that I've finished the main storyline (at the not-so-impressive level of 30) I can probably talk about what it feels like.

A lot of the comparisons coming out were to Animal Crossing. Which I guess is sorta-accurate, inasmuch as you get to make furniture for your home with the Carpenter class, and then go deploy it in your home, but gameplay-wise it reminds me much more of, say, Legend of Zelda meets Skyrim.

Basically the game centers around the fact that you can choose your Life out of 12 options. 4 are combat classes, 4 are crafting classes, and 4 are gatherer classes. You can finish the storyline with one Life, easy. I did it, with a little dabbling at the side. However the real fun in it, I feel, is being a cheapskate, getting yourself set up for all the Lives, and then running around being basically a one-person force of environmental destruction.

See a wolf? Kill it, pick up its hide and XP. Trees? Chop them down for XP. Fish? Fish them up. Beautiful mineral clusters? Pickaxe them into shards and stuff them in your pockets. Pick every flower you see, every herb you find, every mushroom, shake down all the fruit trees, leaving behind you a swath as bare and as raw as *insert highly inappropriate figure of speech here*.

Then teleport back to town, because the devs were kind enough to give you that functionality right out, make a pile of stuff, and then hand it out to finish quests, or sell it for more pocket change, and start buying up the local new estate, because your Silent Adventurer is going to wind up in a majority share of the Reverian real estate market.

Basically, it's TOTALLY my kind of game, and it helps that everything is cute and colorful. I'm really, really sick of the Brown and Bloom end of graphics, and Skyrim can be a bit bleak unless you go hang out in the warmer areas, like Riften. (Which has its own problems.)

Most importantly though, its main storyline is a force of love, acceptance and making the world a better place. A scientist who seems wicked, and who seems to want to immure the princess of the realm turns out to be a pretty reasonable guy, just with bad people skills, and he just wants to make sure the princess doesn't run off into a boss fight alone.

A Dark Kingdom of Dark Knights and Dark Magicians turn out to be pretty cool folks, and a seemingly evil, domineering mother turns out to be afraid for her son's future, because her husband isn't around.

An isolationist stereotypical forest village learns that the outside world is okay, and that the deities of the setting do love and care for them too.

And the most important thing is, when the world is faced with an enormous crisis, everyone just calms down and decides to work together. And it's all because of YOU, the PC. You pretty much fix every problem in the game singlehandedly, and they actually acknowledge it in the game by having monarchs fling large amounts of Dosh (ingame currency) at you when you complete chapters. (That Dosh goes straight into real estate, of course.)

Summation: It's adorable, and it's really cute, it's quite fun and it's the least depressing thing I've played in a good while. Plus some of the English translation seems to be sneaking stuff under the radar a la Animaniacs, so that's a plus for it.

- Mel
29 Oct 13:45

shadraquarium: zodar: konkeydongcountry: brook: montypla: Gamer gate has been trying to use...

shadraquarium:

zodar:

konkeydongcountry:

brook:

montypla:

Gamer gate has been trying to use Bayonetta as a rallying point, and criticism of it as proof of a “feminist agenda” in reviews

They’ve been trying to get Hideki Kamiya, creator of Bayonetta, to support them

Well, he tweeted this today.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

image

image

image

the salt is so fucking real

image

THE DEVASTATOR

flawless

29 Oct 13:42

Slavoj Žižek and Jean-Pierre Dupuy will be giving a speech (for free!) at PSU this Friday. This may be your only chance to see Žižek in Portland.

firehose

what the fuck is up with Portland and Halloween scheduling

'Friday, October 31
at 5:00pm - 7:00pm in PDT

Smith Memorial Student Union
1825 SW Broadway, Portland, Oregon 97201'

29 Oct 12:38

dazzlingone: Gina Torres closes The Huntress Spring 2015 Show...

firehose

baller masterclass







dazzlingone:

Gina Torres closes The Huntress Spring 2015 Show with Irish Wolfhounds

Are you serious right now.

29 Oct 08:11

Giants lose, take credit for giving America a World Series Game 7

by Michael Katz
firehose

this dumb sport

Game 7 tomorrow at 5:07pm You’re welcome, America pic.twitter.com/EOmTOnWrNj

— #OctoberTogether (@SFGiants) October 29, 2014

Despite losing Game 6 to the Royals, the Giants were p chill about the whole thing.

"Tonight was their night. Game 7 of the World Series is a gift. It's special" @HunterPence #SFGiants pic.twitter.com/bp8ZE37htq

— #OctoberTogether (@SFGiants) October 29, 2014

Seriously, these bros just love baseball.

"Game 7 of the World Series, it doesn't get much better, it's pretty special for baseball" - @BusterPosey pic.twitter.com/qwBq34V5OZ

— #OctoberTogether (@SFGiants) October 29, 2014

29 Oct 08:10

16-Teraflops, £97m Cray To Replace IBM At UK Meteorological Office

by Soulskill
Memetic writes: The UK weather forecasting service is replacing its IBM supercomputer with a Cray XC40 containing 17 petabytes of storage and capable of 16 TeraFLOPS. This is Cray's biggest contract outside the U.S. With 480,000 CPUs, it should be 13 times faster than the current system. It will weigh 140 tons. The aim is to enable more accurate modeling of the unstable UK climate, with UK-wide forecasts at a resolution of 1.5km run hourly, rather than every three hours, as currently happens. (Here's a similar system from the U.S.)

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29 Oct 08:09

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29 Oct 08:07

Google Fit: An effortless, comprehensive view of your fitness.

by Unknown
firehose

'Google Fit uses sensors already built in to your Android phone to automatically detect walking, biking and running'



When it comes to improving our fitness, every little effort counts. That’s why we’ve created Google Fit – a fitness app that helps you to start tracking your activity effortlessly and become more active, aware and motivated.

Google Fit uses sensors already built in to your Android phone to automatically detect walking, biking and running. And you can set and monitor your fitness goals based on your activity levels. It’s a great tool to discover how active you are and check in on your progress as you work on your fitness goals. In fact, you can check in just about anywhere, including your phone, the web, tablet and Android Wear devices.



You can also connect your favorite fitness devices and apps like Strava, Withings, Runtastic, Runkeeper and Noom Coach to Google Fit and we’ll surface all of the relevant data in one spot, giving you a clear and complete view of your fitness. No need to check one app to see your weight and another to review a run – with Google Fit, that data will all be surfaced in one, simple place.

Just keep your Android phone with you and we’ll make sure your activity counts – whether you’re cycling up steep hills, going for a morning jog or walking the dog.

Google Fit is available starting today on Google Play for devices running Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich and above.

Sabrina Ellis, Director, Product Management, Android 
29 Oct 08:07

Broncos fan who disappeared during game found safe - Yahoo News

by gguillotte
Denver Police Sgt. Steve Warneke said Paul Kitterman, 53, was found Tuesday night in Pueblo, about 100 miles south of Denver. Warneke did not have any information about Kitterman's disappearance, but he said no criminal charges are expected. "All we were trying to do was make sure he was unharmed, and he was," Warneke said. "So at that point, we're finished."
29 Oct 08:06

Officer Darren Wilson Is Missing His Court Dates - Yahoo News

by gguillotte
Magee told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that a case dismissed on Monday was  the "sixth low-level drug case connected to Wilson to be dropped in recent weeks," though details of the first five closed cases are unknown. This most recent case, brought against Christopher Brooks who was arrested in 2013, was a felony drug charge. This particular arrest, noted the Post-Dispatch, "had led to a commendation for Wilson in front of the City Council earlier this year." Brooks, however, claimed Wilson had beat him during the arrest while he was handcuffed and helpless.
29 Oct 08:06

Connecticut has the most mandatory Ebola quarantines in America - Yahoo News

by gguillotte
According to state health officials, there are eight people currently under involuntary quarantine in Connecticut, including Ryan Boyko, a Yale graduate student who was isolated after returning from Liberia earlier this month despite testing negative for Ebola. "I'm outraged and very upset about the impact that this policy and the subsequent policies in other states will have on the actual fight to contain Ebola in West Africa," Boyko, a Ph.D candidate in the School of Public Health’s epidemiology of microbial diseases department, told the Hartford Courant.
29 Oct 08:06

Tahoe Officials Banning Bear Selfies, Rightly So

by gguillotte
“We’ve had mobs of people that are actually rushing toward the bears trying to get a ‘selfie’ photo,” Lisa Herron, spokesperson for the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, told the Reno Gazette-Journal. “It is presenting a safety issue. We are afraid someone is going to get attacked.”
29 Oct 08:06

Iraqi Tycoon Builds White House Replica - Yahoo

by gguillotte
Hozeph would not identify the owner other than to say it was a prominent Kurdish businessman.
29 Oct 07:03

Reviewed: New Logo, Identity, and Packaging for Glenfiddich by Purple

by Armin
firehose

now 50% hornier

'the product basically sells itself'

12-point Stag

New Logo, Identity, and Packaging for Glenfiddich by Purple

First produced in 1887 by William Grant in Dufftown, Scotland, Glenfiddich — which means "Valley of the Deer" in Scottish Gaelic — is one of the most well-known single malt Scotch whisky brands in the world. (It helps that it's sold in every airport duty free store.) Independently-owned, Glenfiddich offers 12- to 18-year-old whiskies broadly and issues limited editions of up to 50 and 64 years old. This month, in order to further establish the premium standing of its product and standardize its presence, Glenfiddich introduced a new global identity designed by London-based Purple.

"Based on his antler points, the current stag is 8 years old, a young male within a herd. We wanted to turn him back into a royal stag — a majestic 12 pointer, which denotes the alpha male, masculinity, power, confidence and maturity. […] We re-drew the stag's face to make him more anatomically correct — the antlers were too small for his body and the face looked slightly feminine. We also wanted to elevate the icon's status — to ensure it wasn't recessive within the overall brand logo."

Provided press release / Gary Westlake, Founder and Creative Director of Purple

New Logo, Identity, and Packaging for Glenfiddich by Purple
Stag icon detail.
New Logo, Identity, and Packaging for Glenfiddich by Purple
Logo evolution.

I had never paid much attention to the stag icon, it was just a quick association to make between animal of choice and whisky brand. It's one of those things that if it had stayed the same for the rest of time it would have been fine and bottles of the liquor would have still been sold but now, seeing the difference, it's unquestionably a much better rendition. The whole bit above about the age of the stag and the shape of the antlers is awesomely nerdy and it reflects very well on the new icon. The insistence on a gradient takes away from the simplicity but it's a subtle gradient, so we'll let it pass. The thinner wordmark looks a hair thinner, so no comments there.

We wanted to create a story-telling, bespoke font, which gives depth and authenticity — one that was distinctive yet uniquely Glenfiddich. We immediately looked to William Grant, Glenfiddich's founder, as the epitome of the brand's pioneering spirit. We also went through the company archives, looking at much of William's early correspondence from his key pioneering years, all written by hand. [hellip;] We approached two separate graphologists to get two different and objective opinions, giving them minimal information about the man (age, date, nationality) and told them very little about the project, to ensure we got the most objective analysis possible. […] "Based on the insights from our graphologists, we endeavored to capture William Grant's personality in a type. We created two bespoke fonts, for future use on all creative communications. One will only be used for headlines (and is clean and modern) while the other has more personality, and will be used for body copy. Both are uniquely ownable — and available to all markets for free."

Ibid

New Logo, Identity, and Packaging for Glenfiddich by Purple
William Grant's writing.
New Logo, Identity, and Packaging for Glenfiddich by Purple
Analysis and development of Founder's Script.
On Founder's Script
"Like William Grant, this serif typeface is completely individual. Inspired by analysis of his handwriting, it captures and embodies our founder's unique script characteristics and personality traits, like dynamism, imagination, innovation and confidence. We added unique letterforms to make the font more expressive and to bring out the character of the founder more. We also created a large range of ligatures to help add a handwritten script feel.

We've called it Founder's Script. It is friendly, human, storytelling, timeless, adds vitality and has a unique penmanship quality."

Ibid

New Logo, Identity, and Packaging for Glenfiddich by Purple
Founder's Script custom type.
On Glenfiddich Modern
"A pioneering font fit for Glenfiddich now and into the future. Inspired by the Glenfiddich logotype, which has over 50 years of heritage, we've crafted a modern interpretation of its fine and sharp serifs and embodied it into a unique Sans Serif font. It is confident, clean, unique, premium and crafted. It has been inspired by the Glenfiddich logotype — using the recognizable serifs in a subtle way."

Ibid

New Logo, Identity, and Packaging for Glenfiddich by Purple
Glenfiddich Modern custom type.

For all the thought and research that went into these two custom type families the results are rather underwhelming. Glenfiddich Modern looks like Gotham with flared serifs and Founder's Script is so far removed from the actual founder's script that you wonder why they even went through all the trouble. The latter is a little more ambitious than the first and does actually make a good job in giving the brand its own voice but the Modern… it's just kind of sad.

We chose a copper colour palette, which we called Pagoda Copper, inspired by the second-hand copper stills that William Grant bought in 1886, when he founded The Glenfiddich Distillery. We were also inspired by the constant care of their on-site coppersmiths, and the copper stag on the distillery's pagoda roof. Copper is ownable, distinctive and contemporary within the competitive set.

We also chose secondary colours of New Make White, which adds a fresh and contemporary feel, and Fiddich Stone, inspired by the slate and granite that was used on all of William Grant's original warehouses."

Ibid

New Logo, Identity, and Packaging for Glenfiddich by Purple
Color palette.
New Logo, Identity, and Packaging for Glenfiddich by Purple
Moodboard.

The color palette and moodboard are tasty as scotch, i.e., delicious.

New Logo, Identity, and Packaging for Glenfiddich by Purple
Almost before-after (top-bottom) comparison of bottles. The icon is still the old one, but the rest of the labels and graphics use the new language.
New Logo, Identity, and Packaging for Glenfiddich by Purple
Sexy shot.

The new bottle remains mostly the same as it does have very strong equity. Now taking notice of the new stag icon, you can really see how well it stands out on a smaller scale.

"Creating the graphic embellishments was a project within a project — we really liked the idea of creating a family of embellishments that captured the unique personalities of the brand, as well as individual single malt variants in the core range — from the 12 Year Old to the 21 Year Old. It gave us the opportunity to bring our family run idea and whisky stories to life."

The embellishments all highlight the unique features of each variant — whether the virgin oak of Rich Oak, or the unusually small stills used in the Glenfiddich 12 Year Old, which gives it a noticeably fresh and fruity flavour."

Ibid

New Logo, Identity, and Packaging for Glenfiddich by Purple
New Logo, Identity, and Packaging for Glenfiddich by Purple
Embellishments.
New Logo, Identity, and Packaging for Glenfiddich by Purple
Print brochure prototype.

The embellishments are an interesting secondary device. As patterns, some of them are quite stunning while others don't work so well, but it's a nice collection of items to have to play with.

New Logo, Identity, and Packaging for Glenfiddich by Purple
The stag, embossed and in copper.

Overall, this is a strong evolution that broadly considers all elements and how they play off each other. It's hard to make a premium brand more premium but it feels as if they have been able to do that successfully. It's not a groundbreaking design or evolution and the product basically sells itself but it's always interesting to see a subtle yet complex projects like this.

Many thanks to our ADVx3 Partners
29 Oct 06:38

Ghost Train Simulator: The Count Of Monster Disco

by Alice O'Connor

By Alice O'Connor on October 27th, 2014 at 2:00 pm.

Specdracula!

A dracula wants you to nip out in your ghost train to pick up a few supplies for his Halloween party. That’s a thing. That’s real. It’s 2014′s Halloween gag game from Train Simulator folks Dovetail, and far more extravagant than past ‘Trains vs. Zombies’ offerings. Its name alone deserves its own line:

Cor! That’s a name and a half all right. And if you aren’t already starting to do the Monster Mash in your seat (I heard it was a graveyard smash), seeing the dracula dance will… affect you.

The Count of Monster Disco is on Steam now, with a 50% launch discount bringing it to £4.99 until Halloween. Made by Skyhook Games, it’s an expandalone, not needing regular Train Sim to play.

Back to the important stuff. It’s set in the town of Trainsylvania (Trainsylvania!) on Halloween night, where the daffy Count needs you – the friendly local frankestein who drives the ‘Spirit of Halloween’ train – to run errands, picking up decorations, food, and guests over several missions. It looks and sounds absurd and the novelty probably wears off quickly, but isn’t that typically Halloweeny? Isn’t that why we have so many gimmicks, so many costumes, so many themed snacks and cocktails – to help stave off the point in the night when we’ll scavenge the dregs of a bottle of lukewarm whiskey and retreat to an armchair in the corner to hold court with admirers and pitiers?

Okay, now let’s watch the Count dancing again.

Dovetail Games, EXPANDALONE!, Skyhook Games, The Count of Monster Disco, Train Simulator 2015.