firehose

Do you know exactly how many women have written for Doctor Who since 2008? None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. You know who else knows that? Neil Gaiman. And he’s not impressed.

Responding to an Ask from Tumblr user GuyPlayFair, Gaiman laid down the sarcasm hard. Slay, Gaiman. Slay ‘em all.

(via e-mail tipster Proi)

Previously in Doctor Who

• Doctor Who recap: “Kill The Moon”
• Robert Downey Jr. talks Who
• New trailer and photos from “Mummy on the Orient Express”

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Devil possession, ca. 1640

English woodcut on the Great Plague of 1665

Brain food

HughPickens.com writes: Carolyn Johnson reports in the Boston Globe that in recent years, the position of postdoctoral researcher has become less a stepping stone and more of a holding tank. Postdocs are caught up in an all-but-invisible crisis, mired in an underclass as federal funding for research has leveled off, leaving the supply of well-trained scientists outstripping demand. "It's sunk in that it's by no means guaranteed — for anyone, really — that an academic position is possible," says Gary McDowell, a 29-year old biologist doing his second postdoc. "There's this huge labor force here to do the bench work, the grunt work of science. But then there's nowhere for them to go; this massive pool of postdocs that accumulates and keeps growing." The problem is that any researcher running a lab today is training far more people than there will ever be labs to run. Often these supremely well-educated trainees are simply cheap laborers, not learning skills for the careers where they are more likely to find jobs. This wasn't such an issue decades ago, but universities have expanded the number of PhD students they train from about 30,000 biomedical graduate students in 1979 to 56,800 in 2009, flooding the system with trainees and drawing out the training period. Possible solutions span a wide gamut, from halving the number of postdocs over time, to creating a new tier of staff scientists that would be better paid. One thing people seem to agree on is that simply adding more money to the pot will not by itself solve the oversupply. Facing these stark statistics, postdocs are taking matters into their own hands, recently organizing a Future of Research conference in Boston that they hoped would give voice to their frustrations and hopes and help shape change. They ask, "How can we, as the next generation, run the system?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I’m one of those people with EMF sensitivity, especially around the elevator in my condo. So, I was quite amazed to find this dress on Hackaday. It was created by Afroditi Psaraa, an artist in residence on board the Station Messchiff Eleonore in Linz, Austria. That’s right — we are talking about a floating lab! Her project was part of
The Soft, the Hard and the Wet, curated by Shu Lea Cheang (one of my fave artists).

Afroditi calls this piece Divergence and it falls under the “soft” part of the exhibit as a soft circuit wearable. Here’s the artist’s description of the piece.

It is inspired by sci-fi aesthetics and real physics and questions the way we perceive our surroundings. In particular, it deals with the question of how to create physicality in order to demonstrate and sense the invisible forces that surround us. For that reason, this project proposes the creation of a wearable Electromagnetic Field detector that provides the human body with the ability to feel and hear the electrically and magnetically charged particles that propagate around us in the form of waves.

The dress utilizes a variety of electronics, with the base being a FLORA microcontroller. The wearer experiences haptic feedback from a small vibration motor in the chest, and sonic feedback from variable tones in the headset. The zipper of the dress provides a low pass filter to cut noise and also adjusts volume. One of the interesting features of this dress is the strips of fabric leading to embroidered coiled copper antennas on the cuffs. They are as beautiful as they are practical.

We live in a world surrounded by EMFs and artists and scientists are already working on visualizations. Making the invisible visible is a great first step in understanding a growing issue. In the spirit of open source, Afroditi has already posted photos, schematic and code of her project on her site, so you can make your own EMF sensing wearable. Where will you place your antennas and how will you create them? Do you want your speakers to be audible for the public, making people wonder about their surroundings? What will you discover in your home and workplace? Start your journey with an intro to our FLORA microcontroller, and you’ll be set for your inquiry. I wish soft circuits had been around when I needed to do a science project!

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Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!

tiny-letter-tools:

Miscellaneous tools for doing things with TinyLetter mailing lists.

Including a script that lets you subscribe to lists as RSS.

Apple Gallette & Calvados Whipped Cream

(via Beth Dooley: APPLES OF MY EYE - FOR PIE)

Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

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hodad

Grass green. Sky blue.

New England fares extremely well by just about every measure. At best, states in the region are among the highest in the country and at worst they're still above average. The Midwest scores fairly well as well, too. The Pacific Northwest is a good but not great place to live, by the OECD's measure. The Southwest is surprisingly underwhelming.

And if OECD's rating system is to be taken seriously, everyone might be better off living somewhere other than the South.

Original Source

https://twitter.com/JamesUrbaniak/status/519746026014375936

Original Source

djempirical

I guess that’s why they have that butthole in their logo.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to eliminate health insurance coverage for some of its part-time U.S. employees in a move aimed at controlling rising health care costs of the nation's largest private employer.

Wal-Mart told The Associated Press that starting Jan. 1, it will no longer offer health insurance to employees who work less than an average of 30 hours a week. The move affects 30,000 employees, or about 5 percent of Wal-Mart's total part-time workforce, but comes after the company already had scaled back the number of part-time workers who were eligible for health insurance coverage since 2011.

The announcement follows similar decisions by Target, Home Depot and others to completely eliminate health insurance benefits for part-time employees. It also comes a day after Wal-Mart said it is teaming up with an online health insurance agency called DirectHealth.com to help customers shop for health insurance plans.

"We had to make some tough decisions," Sally Welborn, Wal-Mart's senior vice president of benefits, told The Associated Press.

Welborn said she didn't know how much Wal-Mart will save by dropping part-time employees, but added that the company will use a third-party organization to help part-time workers find insurance alternatives: "We are trying to balance the needs of (workers) as well as the costs of (workers) as well as the cost to Wal-Mart."

The announcement comes after Wal-Mart said far more U.S. employees and their families are enrolling in its health care plans than it had expected following rollout of the Affordable Care Act, which requires big companies to offer coverage to employees working 30 hours or more a week or face a penalty. It also requires most Americans to have health insurance or pay a penalty.

Wal-Mart, which employs about 1.4 million full- and part-time U.S. workers, says about 1.2 million Wal-Mart workers and family members combined now participate in its health care plan. And that has had an impact on Wal-Mart's bottom line. Wal-Mart now expects the impact of higher health care costs to be about $500 million for the current fiscal year, or about $170 million higher than the original estimate of about $330 million that it gave in February.

But Wal-Mart is among the last of its peers to cut health insurance for some part-time workers. In 2013, 62 percent of large retail chains didn't offer health care benefits to any of its part-time workers, according to Mercer, a global consulting company. That's up from 56 percent in 2009.

"Retailers who offer part-time benefits are more of an exception than the rule," says Beth Umland, director of research for health and benefits at Mercer.

Wal-Mart has been scaling back eligibility for part-time workers over the past few years, though. In 2011, Wal-Mart said it was cutting backing eligibility of its coverage of part-time workers working less than 24 hours a week. And then in 2013, it announced a threshold of 30 hours or under.

Taking into account the latest move, Wal-Mart declined to say what percentage of total part-time workers will not have company-sponsored health care coverage starting next year.

Wal-Mart, like most big companies, also is increasing premiums, and out-of-pocket costs that employees pay, to counter rising health care costs. Wal-Mart told The Associated Press that it's raising premiums for all of its full-time and part-time workers: For a basic plan, of which 40 percent of its workers are enrolled, the premiums will go up to $21.90 per pay period, up from $18.40, starting Jan. 1.

Wal-Mart employees and their dependents will pay slightly more out-of-pocket for their care next year because the retailer has lowered the percentage of the bill it will cover for doctor visits, tests, and other services to 75 percent from 80 percent after the deductible is paid. But Wal-Mart spokesman Randy Hargrove also noted that the company hasn't changed the maximum amounts that people will have to pay out of pocket annually.

Original Source

submitted by binaryecho [link] [7 comments]

submitted by chubbychic [link] [23 comments]

cuteanimalfamilies:

(via 500px / Yeah, Yeah………. Loud And Clear by Harry Eggens)

YELL AT A SNOW AND SNOW DOES NOT WARMPUP ATALL I DISAGREE OF A WEATHER

Francis added at the time that he couldn't wait to be a dad to his daughters. "I believe people will finally understand my love, respect, and admiration for women," he said. "I love girls."

Thomas Eric Duncan, a man with Ebola who traveled to the United States from Liberia, died Wednesday morning at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, the hospital said.

How to use chopsticks. [via]

One of Oregon’s largest corporations says it has met its job creation obligations, under a tax law legislators approved two years ago. Oregon officials confirm that Nike has added more than 2,000 jobs — four times the jobs it needed to create under the 2012 law.

Twitter user @Aubi_chon asked the “B---h Bad” rapper if he thought “one day Islam would be the world’s religion and conquer the world,” and Lupe gave him a simple, one-word response, “Yes.” Lupe also offered his opinion on women’s place in Islam, in America and how they are viewed globally. After an inquisitive follower asked Lupe the “serious question” about women being considered equals to males in Islam, Lupe got political and shot back with: “Depends. Where are women equal anywhere though?” He followed up those comments with a question of his own: “Depends on the women…Is Secular American more advanced morally than say Saudi Arabia?” Lupe asked.

beatonna:

Pathetic Autumn 

classictrek:

In order to assure continuity in the actors’ actions, the production team of Star Trek: The Motion Picture created a “Flight Manual” for the cast, explaining how the various controls on the ship were supposed to work. You can see the whole thing at Cygnus-x1.net.

msniiina:

internet needs me

"A Dakota girl has earned her right to the endearing title of ‘duck.’ While crossing the river near Valley City, her canoe upset. She tied the canoe to her ankle and swam ashore. Another young woman of the same territory has advertised for a husband as follows: ‘I mean business. If there is any young man in this county who has as much sand in him as a pound of plug tobacco I want to hear from him. I have a tree claim and homestead, am a good cook, and not afraid to work, and willing to do my part. If any man with a like amount of land, and a decent face and carcass, wants a good wife, I can fill the bill."

~From The South East Texan-Newsboy, October 6, 1882

djempirical

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A7Gw217EJ4&feature=player_embedded

Crazy footage of a magpie attacking a cyclist near Wollongong is a timely reminder swooping season is still upon us.

Trent Nicholson captured the magpie swooping him as he rode along Shellharbour Rd, Shellharbour on a head-mounted reverse-facing GoPro camera.

The bird aggressively dive-bombed him six times in 13 seconds as he rode along the busy main road.

Moments earlier the bird had locked onto him from across four lanes of traffic and swooped down on him with a worm in his mouth.

From there he had to hold his nerve and weather the blistering attack on his helmet.

Boxing kangaroos filmed having it out in suburban street

Fortunately there were no cars passing as he amazingly stayed on his bike and managed to escape serious injury.

“Quick clip of a lone Magpie at Shellharbour NSW Australia during swooping season (note the worm in his mouth 1st attack),” the YouTube clip’s description reads.

“For most of the year magpies are fascinating and endearing native birds. However, during breeding, a small percentage of them can be aggressive, swooping at passers-by in their territory.

“Just avoid the known area for a couple months is my best advice.”

Mr Nicholson told the Illawarra Mercury that ‘‘he had a worm in his mouth and he was still prepared to come down and get me. I love his commitment.’’

Magpie Alert, a website devoted to tracking magpie attacks, has had 273 attacks reported to it in NSW this year. Unreported cases are bound to be much higher. 83 per cent of attacks recorded by the website were on cyclists.

WIRES bird carer Kim Strong said magpies become a little hot under the collar as they breed between June and December.

“Magpies are territorial and basically what they’re doing in breeding season is protecting the chicks in the nest so their defence is attack,” she said.

“If anyone comes too close into that zone of territory around the nest they will swoop to protect.”

A female will sit on her eggs for 20 days until they hatch. It then takes another four weeks for the chicks to develop their feathers and start jumping out of trees to learn to fly.

It is in those seven weeks that you should stay the hell away from them.

But if like many people the bird-of-your-nightmares is right outside your house then wear a hat or carry an open umbrella to shoo them off.

“If you do get swooped then keep walking because they’ll stop once you’re out of that territory zone,” Ms Strong said.

“They’re an Australian native protected species by law so there are offences if you hurt or injure or remove them and there’s jail time or a fine.”

Originally published as Psycho magpie slams poor cyclist

Original Source