firehose

"Supernatural" writer Robbie Thompson chats with CBR News about "Silk," his Spidey spinoff series that explores the past and future of Cindy Moon.

New York Comic Con is now the largest pop-culture convention in North America, with producer ReedPOP reporting it sold tickets for this weekend’s event to 151,000 unique individuals. Comic-Con International has been forced to cap attendance at about 130,000 due to the capacity San Diego Convention Center, leading organizers to turn to nearby hotels and […]

skeleton warriors - Guardian Heroes (Treasure - Saturn - 1996)

On October 24, 2012 a Predator drone flying over North Waziristan came upon eight-year-old Nabila Rehman, her siblings, and their grandmother as they worked in a field beside their village home. Her grandmother, Momina Bibi, was teaching the children how to pick okra as the family prepared for the coming Eid holiday. However on this day the terrible event would occur that would forever alter the course of this family's life. In the sky the children suddenly heard the distinctive buzzing sound emitted by the CIA-operated drones - a familiar sound to those in the rural Pakistani villages which are stalked by them 24 hours a day - followed by two loud clicks. The unmanned aircraft released its deadly payload onto the Rehman family, and in an instant the lives of these children were transformed into a nightmare of pain, confusion and terror. Seven children were wounded, and Nabila's grandmother was killed before her eyes, an act for which no apology, explanation or justification has ever been given.

This past week Nabila, her schoolteacher father, and her 12-year-old brother travelled to Washington DC to tell their story and to seek answers about the events of that day. However, despite overcoming incredible obstacles in order to travel from their remote village to the United States, Nabila and her family were roundly ignored. At the congressional hearing where they gave testimony, only five out of 430 representatives showed up. In the words of Nabila's father to those few who did attend: "My daughter does not have the face of a terrorist and neither did my mother. It just doesn't make sense to me, why this happened… as a teacher, I wanted to educate Americans and let them know my children have been injured."

The translator broke down in tears while recounting their story, but the government made it a point to snub this family and ignore the tragedy it had caused to them. Nabila, a slight girl of nine with striking hazel eyes, asked a simple question in her testimony: "What did my grandmother do wrong?" There was no one to answer this question, and few who cared to even listen. Symbolic of the utter contempt in which the government holds the people it claims to be liberating, while the Rehmans recounted their plight, Barack Obama was spending the same time meeting with the CEO of weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

Selective memory

It is useful to contrast the American response to Nabila Rehman with that of Malala Yousafzai, a young girl who was nearly assassinated by the Pakistani Taliban. While Malala was feted by Western media figures, politicians and civic leaders for her heroism, Nabila has become simply another one of the millions of nameless, faceless people who have had their lives destroyed over the past decade of American wars. The reason for this glaring discrepancy is obvious. Since Malala was a victim of the Taliban, she, despite her protestations, was seen as a potential tool of political propaganda to be utilised by war advocates. She could be used as the human face of their effort, a symbol of the purported decency of their cause, the type of little girl on behalf of whom the United States and its allies can say they have been unleashing such incredible bloodshed. Tellingly, many of those who took up her name and image as a symbol of the justness of American military action in the Muslim world did not even care enough to listen to her own words or feelings about the subject.

As described by the Washington Post's Max Fisher:

Western fawning over Malala has become less about her efforts to improve conditions for girls in Pakistan, or certainly about the struggles of millions of girls in Pakistan, and more about our own desire to make ourselves feel warm and fuzzy with a celebrity and an easy message. It's a way of letting ourselves off the hook, convincing ourselves that it's simple matter of good guys vs bad guys, that we're on the right side and that everything is okay.

But where does Nabila fit into this picture? If extrajudicial killings, drone strikes and torture are in fact all part of a just-cause associated with the liberation of the people of Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere, where is the sympathy or even simple recognition for the devastation this war has caused to countless little girls such as her? The answer is clear: The only people to be recognized for their suffering in this conflict are those who fall victim to the enemy. Malala for her struggles was to be made the face of the American war effort -  against her own will if necessary - while innumerable little girls such as Nabila will continue to be terrorized and murdered as part of this war without end. There will be no celebrity appearances or awards ceremonies for Nabila. At her testimony almost no one even bothered to attend.

But if they had attended, they would've heard a nine-year-old girl asking the questions which millions of other innocent people who have had their lives thrown into chaos over the past decade have been asking: "When I hear that they are going after people who have done wrong to America, then what have I done wrong to them? What did my grandmother do wrong to them? I didn't do anything wrong."

Original Source

Seattle will roll out a new bike share program on Monday using a Portland-based bike supplier, despite the fact that bike-sharing in Portland has been spinning its wheels.

“When I think about the president, for me, it’s about both halves. If Barack Obama had not been president of the United States we would not have a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Period. I’m completely convinced of that. And I go through the details in the book, and I could tell them to you. But he was the one who refused to throw the agency under the bus and made sure that his team kept the agency alive and on the table. Now there was a lot of other stuff that also had to happen for it to happen. But if he hadn’t been there, we wouldn’t have gotten the agency. At the same time, he picked his economic team and when the going got tough, his economic team picked Wall Street.” ... “They protected Wall Street. Not families who were losing their homes. Not people who lost their jobs. Not young people who were struggling to get an education. And it happened over and over and over. So I see both of those things and they both matter.”

As the federal government frantically works to combat the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and as it responds to a second diagnosis of the disease at home, one of the country's top health officials says a vaccine likely would have already been discovered were it not for budget cuts.

The comic book world offers a useful lesson in Bad Journalism 101.

At China's ‘coming-out party’, the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the popular theme tune was a song called “Beijing Welcomes You”, with words by a renowned Hong Kong lyricist, Albert Leung. Mr Leung’s latest work, however, is unlikely to be music to the ears of the leadership in Beijing.

censxrship:

priorities

meme4u:

great advice

MiamiHerald.com

Review site Yelp battles against extortion claims San Jose Mercury News SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — First the chefs of a small Italian restaurant got mad at online review site Yelp. Instead of trying to get better reviews, they decided to take a different approach: get terrible ones. The campaign helped Botte Bistro get a rating of one out ... Despite appeals court ruling in Yelp's favor, company still battles against ...Minneapolis Star Tribune all 37 news articles »

In France, autumn is the time for the chestnut harvest; in India, it’s Diwali, the festival of lights. Here in New York City, where Quartz’s office is located, it’s pumpkin spice everything. I decided I could do better this year by borrowing a seasonal specialty from Japan.

Deep-fried maple leaves are a popular autumnal snack in Japan’s Minoh Park, a tree-covered valley and tourist destination on the Northern outskirts of Osaka. Minoh Park is famous for its foliage in November, when the momiji, as Japanese maple trees are known, are a splendid red. That’s also when shops and restaurants in the park sell momiji tempura, a snack that reportedly tastes crispy and sweet and not at all leaf-like.

Momiji are a revered cultural symbol in Japan, much like the cherry trees that bloom in the spring. Leaves from maple trees are poisonous to horses, but they’re fine for humans. Like most deciduous tree leaves, however, they are awfully chewy, packed with undigestible cellulose. (When scientists figure out how to convert cellulose into a digestible carbohydrate, tree bark and leaves might become attractive solutions to food insecurity around the world, according to NPR, but we’re not there yet.) For traditiional momiji tempura, the leaves are cured in salt for a whole year before they’re fried.

There are plenty of Japanese maples in the US, and we do eat syrup made from our sugar maples. So what’s stopping Canadians and Americans from selling crisp-fried maple leaves alongside roasted chestnuts at snack stands?

Here in New York City, once the distinctive five-pointed leaves finish their cycle of green to gold, they tend to just become debris, clogging gutters and clinging to galoshes. As Manhattan’s maple trees began their seasonal show of color, it seemed worth trying to turn them into something more. So, in the spirit of Quartz’s complete guides, I set out to learn how to make my own momiji tempura.

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I recruited a friend and headed straight for the Japanese maples on the south end of Central Park, in the shadow of the Plaza Hotel, but their leaves were still green—and they weren’t stiff enough, we suspected, to hold up to being battered and fried. We plucked crispier, colored ones from a sugar maple instead, resigned to the impossibility of truly recreating Japanese momiji tempura.

The recipe that follows is decidedly American.

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After finding the leaves, we had to figure out how to make the perfect tempura batter. The first source I consulted was the only one that specifically mentioned momiji tempura: Blogger James Wong, who made up his own recipe, mixed plain flour, cornstarch, and ginger beer together to coat the leaves. We did that, too.

Traditional tempura batter is supposed to contain egg yolks, flour, and cold water, but carbonated beverages, such as club soda or ginger beer, are a genius trick to make the batter light and airy.

We also threw in some sesame seeds, since it looks like that’s what the momiji tempura pros do:

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For deep-frying, the oil (canola in our case) needs to be around 350 degrees Fahrenheit—the way to gauge this without a thermometer is to drop a small piece of food or batter in the oil. If it sinks briefly before popping up to the surface, you’re ready to fry.

The way the leaves rose to the top made it necessary to flip them over during cooking to brown both sides.

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After cooking about 20 leaves, we fried some apples and squash for variety’s sake.

The squash fritters were rich and savory, and we might have taken the time to make a dipping sauce to enjoy them with if we hadn’t been so preoccupied with getting to dessert: maple leaf and apple tempura, drizzled with maple syrup and sprinkled with extra sesame seeds.

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Conclusion: This was oodles more fun than carving pumpkins, and only slightly more messy. The fried maple leaves looked beautiful, and tasted like fried dough, or funnel cake, albeit with an odd thin crispy layer at the center. We’d do this again for a house party, and serve the leaves immediately after frying them. After a few hours, they get soggy—though that didn’t stop a handful of Quartz and Atlantic staffers from devouring the leftovers in the office the next day.

With the caveat that the final product may well be nothing like Japan’s famous momiji tempura, we endorse deep-frying maple leaves as an autumnal activity—wherever in the world you may be.

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New York Times

Police lock rioting Arabs inside Temple Mount and clear site for visiting Jews Jerusalem Post Likud MK Moshe Feiglin was at the Western Wall on Monday morning and was preparing to visit the Temple Mount compound. Temple Mount. Police at al-Aksa Mosque, Temple Mount, Jerusalem, October 13, 2014. (photo credit:ISRAEL POLICE). Share on ... Israel PM blames clashes on Palestinian extremistsThe Daily Star Israel police raid Jerusalem holy site, block riotFox 28 all 81 news articles »

Sports!

Michigan is a school in Ann Arbor, Mich. Ohio State is a school in Columbus, Ohio. They hate each other.

Of all the reasons not to observe Columbus Day, this is certainly one of them!

(from our Ohio State blog Land-Grant Holy Land, via @NicoleAuerbach)

Certainly no one in Cleveland, anyway.

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When someone say "Man your Cowboys stink!!" I say "Yeah I know we do sitting at 5-1. Hahaha" #WeDemBoyz #StriveForGreatness

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A sled dog, tied to a whale rib, howls under the midnight sun in Alaska, 1969.Photograph by Thomas J. Abercrombie, National Geographic Creative

dermythosdessisyphos:

wewillavenge-it:

nickiminiall:

isn’t it weird that we pay money to see other human beings?

Are you talking about prostitution, the movies, or airplane tickets?

glasses

rfmmsd:

Artist & Sculptor:

Alastair Mackie

"Untitled (Sphere)"

Mouse Skulls, Wood, Glass

2010

This new footbridge in London’s Paddington Basin is an architectural wonder.

from designboom:

in london’s merchant square, a mixed-use waterfront site at paddington basin, a movable footbridge designed by knight architects has opened to the public. working alongside structural engineers AKT II, the cantilevered design spans 20 meters across the grand union canal connecting the development. using hydraulic jacks, the bridge is envisioned as a kinetic sculpture that opens in a way similar to that of a traditional japanese fan.

five fabricated steel beams form the deck of the structure, opening in a staggered sequence to achieve the required clearance height above the canal. shaped counterweights assist the bespoke mechanism and reduce the energy required to move the structure, with protected balustrades formed from twin rows of inclined steel rods. these handrails contain continuous LED downlighting that both illuminates the structure’s walking surface and presents a vibrant display of light

Read more.

First time accepted submitter flopwich writes Google used a camel-mounted camera to get a 'street view' of a stretch of desert in the United Arab Emirates. PETA's director Ingrid E. Newkirk is upset about it, saying they should have used jeeps. "These days, jeeps are in common use in the desert, as are light planes and even dune buggies, and satellite images could also easily have been taken instead," she said. "(Google) should leave camels out of its activites altogether."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Happy US Federal Holiday! Comic returns Wednesday. is a post from: The Adventures of Dr. McNinja

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

An elderly Los Angeles woman whose neighbors believed had died was instead found in a rundown shack in Maine, where according to authorities an unrelated family took her after gaining her confidence and selling her house.

Amongst the objects is a solid silver cross thought to date from the 9th or 10th century, a silver pot of west European origin, which is likely to have already been 100 years old when it was buried and several gold objects. "Experts have begun to examine the finds, but it is already clear that this is one of the most significant Viking hoards ever discovered in Scotland," Scotland's Treasure Trove unit said in a statement.

triphos:

prtejeda:

buckyayo50:

This has made me cry every time I’ve seen it for the last 9 years.

Oh god, so beautiful.

LIE

CHEAT

STEAL