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So last night cops arrested 7 protesters, then turned to the rest of the protesters and told them “we’ll release them without bond if you leave (stop protesting)”
They literally turned their own dubiously legal arrests into a hostage situation. They took hostages. Ferguson PD is a terrorist organization and they aren’t even trying to hide that fact any more.
Look at this
Local women Susie Lee and Katrina Hess have designed Siren, a dating app aimed at making the online singles scene more inviting to women. lt faces fierce competition.
Seattle Times staff reporter
Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times
Susie Lee, right, with the help of Katrina Hess, has developed Siren, a new online dating app. The women, who developed a lot of the software on their laptops, pose for a portrait in Hess’ Sodo studio space, which has an exposed tub.
Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times
Susie Lee, background, with Katrina Hess, created the Siren app. “I want to see more men right away,” says Hess, as they discuss tweaking the “Question of the Day.”
Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times
Hess shows the start-up screen for Siren, the new online dating app. The swirling ink cloud was photographed in a tank right in Hess’ studio.
Sarah Z. Wexler, a Portland writer, recalls one of the funniest and worst messages she ever received on a dating website, OKCupid: “Girl, let me get up on dem buttcheeks.” She laughed. “I couldn’t believe that this was the first contact this man initiated with me — to think that that would ever work.”
Surprise. It didn’t. But that doesn’t stop thousands of men from inundating women with messages in dating apps — today’s virtual version of a singles bar — that are by turns gross, hilarious, objectifying and just plain sad.
In her years of dating, Wexler, who edited the book “Awful First Dates: Hysterical, True, and Heartbreakingly Bad,” has also been the recipient of “the carpet bomb” — the impersonal, copied-and-pasted form letter sent to hundreds of women at a time; the cheesy pickup line; and numerous illiterate greetings like, “Sup, gorgus.”
And there was the time when one guy used Google’s Image search function to cyberstalk her.
“[He] wrote me, ‘Hello, Sarah Z. Wexler.’ He knew where I went to college,” she said. “It felt like a big violation that I was potentially semi-anonymous and my name and professional stuff was something that someone could find by having access to my picture.”
No wonder Susie Lee, a Seattle-based visual artist turned tech entrepreneur, created Siren, a dating app designed to protect women from scenarios like the ones Wexler experienced.
Lee, who’d never signed up for a dating site until she began researching the competition for Siren, was unnerved after receiving messages fetishizing her Asian ancestry. She partnered with Katrina Hess, a designer she had met on another project.
“I didn’t feel safe on these sites. I felt really exposed,” said Lee, who is Korean American. “Especially as an Asian woman, you put your picture up there and suddenly like ‘Asian fantasy’ would come up.”
Online dating is now virtually free of the stigma it once had, and Americans are taking to it in droves. According to “Dataclysm,” the new book by OKCupid’s co-founder, Christian Rudder, more than 55 million have registered for a dating site in the last three years. Of course that means more and more creeps are online, too. A 2012 experiment by Jon Millward, a data journalist, found that women were messaged 17 times more than men; the best-looking woman received 536 messages in four months, while the best-looking guy received only 38.
With Siren’s unusual features, Lee hopes to change the nature of the messages and put women in the driver’s seat, which is what Siren was originally going to be called. The free iPhone app, currently launched to a select market in Seattle in August (with an Android release coming shortly), allows women to peruse men’s pictures and their answers to the “Question of the Day” (“You found a magic lamp and get three wishes. What are they?”) and view their Video Challenges (“Show us a hidden gem in Seattle”). If a woman is suitably impressed by a man’s answers, she can make herself visible to him. Only then can he see what she looks like.
It’s a far more thoughtful — and cautious — approach than the one taken by the dating app of the moment, Tinder, which is effectively a “hot or not” game, with little information beyond a few photos, age and volunteered biographical tidbits. And the implicit notion that it’s a “hookup” app can be uncomfortable for some women.
Other, more traditional dating sites like OKCupid can also leave women unwittingly exposed. At a round-table discussion about women and online privacy in September at the Project Room on Seattle’s Capitol Hill, Lee said: “In 2014, it’s very hard for a woman to be both professional and sexual.”
Teachers, politicians and women in power are particularly sensitive to revealing, personal details being made public. For instance, OKCupid’s questionnaire posits, “Once you’re intimate, how often would you and your significant other have sex?”
You don’t have to look far to see examples of women’s online vulnerability. Even high-profile actresses such as Jennifer Lawrence who often pose provocatively on the covers of magazines are subject to public shaming when their private, nude photos are hacked and posted on the Internet.
Wexler is still disturbed by her reverse Googler: In such a situation, Siren’s built-in privacy features could be helpful, she said. “You are sort of metering out who gets what information about you.”
Women as app creators
Lee, 41, is an unusual candidate for an online-dating tech entrepreneur. A visual artist who works with sculpture, digital technology and video, with a master of fine arts degree and a background in science (she has a bachelor of science degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale), she’d only just gotten her first iPhone in summer 2013 and had an “aha” moment after playing with Scruff, a gay male dating app on a friend’s phone.
Curious, she signed up for dating sites like Plenty of Fish, OKCupid and Match, and was appalled by their tacky designs: “If you have any taste at all, how can you be on this thing?” she laughed.
And OKCupid’s lengthy profile creation bored her. She wanted to make something that wasn’t an eyesore or laborious to join. Indeed, Siren’s slick opening screen is a sensual drop of dark ink floating in water; the profile creation is short and sweet.
She began working on it in earnest last year after meeting Hess, 37, who became the app’s lead designer and chief operating officer. The duo are now close friends who finish each other’s sentences. Sitting at Ada’s Technical Books and Café, Lee sports a chin-length bob and angular, arty glasses; Hess has a bubbly, impish personality and an affinity for knock-knock jokes.
Lee and Hess (and by extension, Siren, which has another woman on the team of five) are an anomaly in the dating-app universe. Nearly all dating websites, including Tinder and Snapchat, are created by men, with a few exceptions (one is Coffee Meets Bagel, created by three sisters). This might explain why so few dating sites consider the privacy and safety issues that women experience.
Hess drew an analogy to the tech world and fashion. “It reminded me of fashion houses, actually, and how most of these haute couture dresses are made by men for women to wear.”
Indeed, the industry is riddled with charges of sexism. Women hold less than 25 percent of all jobs in the science, tech, engineering and math (STEM) professions, according to a 2011 report by the U.S. Department of Commerce. This year, one of Tinder’s co-founders, Whitney Wolfe, sued Tinder and InterActive Corp, its parent company, alleging sexual harassment. (The case was recently settled out of court.)
Competition is tough
Lee and Hess are only just finding out if Siren’s unique methodology works. Four hundred early adopters were invited in August; there are now 1,200 users, Lee says.
The biggest hurdle Siren faces is getting enough money and users to go viral. A tiny startup like Siren (seeded with funding from friends and family and Lee’s own savings account, amounting to about $400,000) faces incredibly stiff competition. Many of the largest sites, like Chemistry, OKCupid and Match — even Tinder, which presents itself like a startup — are owned by IAC, a huge company worth $4.2 billion.
Siren is also up against people’s innately shallow behavior: With only one photo for the profile picture, the app de-emphasizes the visual, in favor of wit and intelligence.
“If you only pick out cute guys, you’re gonna have the same problem on any other site,” Lee said. “The question is how do you actually unlearn that and actually do the thing you do in real life?”
New York City online dating consultant Steve Dean, of Dateworking.com, isn’t sure Siren’s approach, while noble, will really work. “Tinder has proved that both sides are equally superficial,” he said. And he praised Tinder’s unique messaging protocol (users can correspond only if they both “like” each other): “Even though you see a lot of crap on the Internet about Tinder founders, the Tinder app itself is actually revolutionary. It was one of the first apps that put women fully in control,” he said.
Still, Lee and Hess are betting that men are less shallow and want more repartee. And they know that women want a little more flirtation than crude references to buttcheeks. After all, Siren’s motto is “Charm Someone’s Pants Off.”
“Before the ‘pants off,’ it’s more about charming someone,” said Hess. “Be charming.”
Tricia Romano: tromano@seattletimes.com
firehosetl;dr: Jerry Seinfeld is an asshole
I needed a new cell phone and service plan, so I visited a nearby Verizon store. I had previously suffered through two unattractive, free phones with my other plans, so this time I decided money was no object and aesthetics was everything. After a prolonged period of touching, feeling, holding, grasping, opening and closing the many models on display, I chose a cute flip-top Samsung. What a sweet piece of modern technology.
Now that I had chosen the perfect phone, it was time to choose a number. I couldn't pick the exact digits, but I could accept or refuse the random, available numbers the computer spit up for me. After rejecting the first three, I could sense the saleswoman's patience was wearing thin. When the fourth number came up, encouragingly she said, "You're gonna like this one, really, you will." She was right. I liked it. So I took it.
I finished at Verizon and returned to my apartment. I was reading through the manual, new phone beside me, when all of a sudden it started to ring. Granted, a ringing cell phone is nothing out of the ordinary, but since I had yet to give anyone my new number, who possibly could be calling me? The Caller ID said "Restricted" which wasn't any help.
Bewildered, I picked up the phone and questioned, "Hello?"
"Is Chris Rock there?" the caller asked.
Chris Rock? That's absurd. Of course not!
I assumed the guy was joking around with a friend, and somehow had called my new number by mistake." No," I replied, "you've got the wrong number."
Two days later, I was upstate, cruising around a parking lot looking for a space (thrilling, I know), when my cell phone rang. A number I didn't recognize appeared on the Caller ID.
LAURA: Hello?
CALLER: Is Chris there?
LAURA: [Puzzled, curiosity piqued] Uh, Chris... who?
CALLER: Chris Rock.
LAURA: Chris Rock? As in, the Chris Rock?
CALLER: Yeah, the Chris Rock.
LAURA: That is so funny! You're the second person who's called asking for Chris Rock. I just got a new cell phone and this is my new number.
CALLER: [Laughs] Well, you'd better get a different one, because I know for sure that this is Chris Rock's number. Oh, wait -- I remember Chris saying something about changing his number....
When we got off the phone I was struck with the realization that: Omigod! I have Chris Rock's old cell phone number! But it's not that old, because people are still calling. What a crazy, random thing to have happened to me!
And then I thought, If I got two calls already, I'm probably going to get some more. This could be really fun, and really crazy, and... who knows? Okay, I'm ready. Bring 'em on, baby, bring 'em on!
The following weekend I helped Tim, my old boss, move a carload of stuff from his city apartment to a storage space upstate. It was a two-day project that required a sleepover in a hotel on Saturday night.
Around 8:30 on Sunday morning, I was in my room watching a little telly before going down to breakfast when my cell phone started to ring. Who could be calling so early on a Sunday morning? I picked up my phone and saw "Restricted" on the Caller ID.
LAURA: Hello?
CALLER: Is Chris there?
LAURA [Politely inquires]: Who's calling?
CALLER: It's Spike.
LAURA: [Assumes the obvious, that it's Spike Lee, but feeling a bit mischievous, innocently inquires] From...?
CALLER [Annoyed, blurts out]: It's Spike LEE.
LAURA [At a loss of something jaunty to say. Pauses, then replies]: Uh... well... actually... you have the wrong number---
SPIKE: [Click]
LAURA: [Thinks, Oh, those movie-star directors -- no sense of humor at all.]
After the Spike Lee call, I realized my "Chris Hot line" was a live wire. Other celebrities would probably be calling. "You have the wrong number: was such a boring thing to say -- I wanted to have an appropriate number to give to future callers. Through a Google search I located Chris's management agency, and spoke with a guy there about my "unexpected" situation. He said he would contact Kali, Chris's assistant, and ask her to get back to me with a number I could give out to future callers.
The next day my cell rang, with "Restricted" once again appearing on the Caller ID. I had a feeling the call was not gonna be for me.
LAURA: Hello?
CALLER: Hi, I'm calling from Jerry Seinfeld's office. Jerry would like to get two tickets to Chris' show in LA this weekend. Would that be possible?
LAURA: Sorry, you have the wrong number.
I know it was a lame response, but I had yet to hear from Kali. I wanted to be more helpful, but there wasn't much else I could do.
I called my contact at Chris's agency. "Jerry Seinfeld's office just called. I really need that number!" This time he gave me Kali's cell, a number identical to mine except for the last digit, and told me I could give that out when I received additional calls. I was a tad disappointed -- I was hoping they would give me Chris's number instead of his assistant's. Oh, well.
Good thing I got Kali's number, because the calls kept coming. I averaged about five a week. My new cell phone became a portal into the celebrity/entertainment world at large. When it rang literally anyone could be on the other end of the line.
To have a bit of harmless fun, I devised this game to play with the Chris-callers: In my most proper executive assistant manner, I would try to get their full name, what company they were calling from, and the reason they were calling, all the while not letting on that they were in fact talking to a random NYC girl (me) who was in no manner, shape or form associated with Chris Rock, his staff, or his entourage.
After getting the info, in a polite and helpful manner I would then say, "There's actually someone else you need call who can help you with this matter. Her name is Kali, and her number is 917---" The caller would then graciously thank me for my help. See, I told you my fun was harmless.
I was puttering around my apartment one evening when my cell phone started to ring. I picked it up and saw a number beginning with "310." Hmm, California. I bet this is another... you know what.
LAURA: Hello?
CALLER: Hi, is this Malaak?
LAURA: No, it's not. Who's this? [Note: I later did a Google search and "Malaak" was Chris's wife]
CALLER: It's Adam.
LAURA: Adam?
CALLER: It's Adam Sandler.
LAURA [Thinks, Ah, yes, there's no mistaking that distinctive voice of his]: Oh, hi!
ADAM: Hi!
LAURA [Suddenly overcome with a bit of punchiness]: So, are you calling Chris for business or pleasure?
ADAM [Laughs, taken slightly off guard, but still retains jovial attitude]: I'm calling Chris to say hello and chat. So, is he there?
LAURA [Knows it was now time to confess]: No, well -- he's not. You see, I'm actually this random New York City girl who happened to get Chris's old cell phone number.
ADAM [Lets out a big laugh]: Wow, that's really funny! That's great! You must be having a fun time with this!
LAURA: Yes, I am. And what also makes it fun is that coincidentally, I write true stories about my life in New York, and this will be another funny, true story to write about. Oh, I have a number you can call to reach Chris.
ADAM: That's okay -- I have his home number. Well, good luck, and sorry to have bothered you.
LAURA: No bother at all. Bye!
The next afternoon I was on a bus heading to Woodstock when my cell phone started to ring. I ruffled around my bag and located my cell. The Caller ID read "Restricted," the standard Chris-call tipoff.
LAURA: Hello?
CALLER: Hi, is Chris there?
LAURA: Who's calling please?
CALLER: It's Jack Nicholson.
LAURA [Nearly drops dead, but then thinks, Wait a minute. Adam Sandler sounded like Adam Sandler. I've seen The Shining and Easy Rider, and that did not sound like Jack Nicholson. In a brazen, skeptical tone says]: This doesn't sound like Jack Nicholson.
CALLER: I'm his assistant.
Although I kind of knew it wasn't really Jack, when I heard, "I'm his assistant" it was such a let down. So close, but no cigar. Can you imagine if it had really been Jack?
But getting back to the important matter on hand -- the nerve of that guy. You don't go around saying you're "Jack Nicholson" when you're Jack Nicholson's assistant. Didn't they teach him anything in celebrity assistant school?
Jack's ASSISTANT continued, "Jack has tickets to the Laker's game tonight, and he wanted to know if Chris is available to join him. Will Chris still be in LA tonight?"
Blasé, I replied, "There's someone else you'll need to call who can help you with that." I gave him Kali's number and we hung up. My heartbeat returned to its resting rate.
The Chris-calls came unexpectedly, at any time and place, and soon I became consumed with this newfound, pressing need to be on top of my cell phone at all times. One afternoon I visited the Museum of the City of New York. The security guard saw my cell phone and said, "Please turn your cell phone off." That sent a shockwave right through me. I can't turn my cell phone off! What if I miss an important Chris-call? To seem agreeable I turned it off, but as soon as I was out of his sight I turned it back on. This behavior had certainly come a long way from the days when my brother used to express annoyance at me for never answering my cell phone.
I was at a new temp job when my cell rang. The Caller ID showed a "603" area code, which I didn't recognize. I also didn't recognize the name of the caller: Ken Burns. After he told me his name our conversation went as follows:
LAURA: What's this regarding, please?
KEN BURNS: Stand up.
LAURA: Do you want to book Chris for something?
KEN BURNS: No. It's regarding a film we've been discussing doing together -- a documentary on the history of Stand Up.
LAURA [Feeling somewhat embarrassed for being nosy]: Oh, there's actually someone else for you to call....
A co-worker with an avid interest in my ongoing Chris-call accounts was standing near my desk when I got off the phone. I said to her, "I just got another call for Chris, but I never heard of the guy. His name was Ken Burns."
"Ken Burns! Oh, my God! I can't believe you just talked to Ken Burns! He's a great documentary filmmaker. Do a search on him and you'll see all the great stuff he's done." Yes, Google proved me ignorant, thank you.
We were still discussing the Ken Burns call when my cell rang again with "603" on the Caller ID. "Oh, no! He's calling back!" I was almost afraid to answer it.
"Answer it! Answer it!" she ordered.
LAURA: [Meekly] Hello?
CALLER: Hi, it's Ken Burns. I spoke with you a few minutes ago. I called the number you gave me and no one was there. I got the voice mail of someone named "Kali."
LAURA: Kali is Chris's assistant....
KEN: I left a message, but, do you think I could call Chris at his home?
LAURA: Uh, sure. You can try him at home....
Am I bad? Yeah, maybe a bit, I admit. But c'mon. If you got the number, would you pass up this great entertainment, ever so conveniently placed in the palm of your hand?
Uh, huh. I didn't think so.
* * *
I finished writing mthe preceding story on a Saturday afternoon. After posting the story, originally entitled "Crazy, Random Chris Rock Thing" on my website, I sent an e-mail to my notification list readers, notifying them of this new offering and providing a link to the story.
Over the years I had built up a decent-sized notification list, which was great because it enabled me to get immediate feedback on new material I posted. The first few e-mails I received regarding the Chris story were very positive: "That's a great story!" "Can I just say how brilliant this story is!" "Hilarious!" "Loved it!" I was pleased at the initial response.
On Saturday evening I visited my friend Nancy. I read the story aloud to her and we laughed throughout my reading of it. I mused, "I wonder what Chris would think if he ever read it?" We smiled and shrugged it off.
As soon as I woke up on Sunday morning I checked my e-mail. There were additional responses from "Notification List" readers who had enjoyed the story, but then there was also an e-mail from a guy who mentioned that he had seen the story on MetaFilter. I had never heard of "MetaFilter" so as a first guess I typed the obvious "metafilter.com" into my browser. Up popped their homepage. It was a discussion-forum type of website. To my surprise, at the top of the page it read, "Chris-calls! What if you received Chris Rock's old cell phone number and his celebrity friends kept on calling you?" Following was an extensive thread of comments on the story, and then comments on the comments. As I scrolled down the page I read numerous comments trashing the story. But not only did they trash my story, they also trashed me. Here's a sampling:
"It's too bad someone with no sense of humor got the phone."
"I kept thinking there would be an interesting or funny point to her story. I was wrong."
"She didn't know who Ken Burns is? Sheesh."
"Carrie Bradshaw she is not."
Another comment: "I'd swear this was a Jean Teasdale article." Oh, great, I thought, who's that? I assumed it was another put-down -- I was right. Through a quick web search I discovered "Jean Teasdale" was a fictional mock columnist in The Onion, described as "an overweight woman in a small town who loves her cats and Patrick Swayze," and was someone who "thinks she has a sense of humor but has very pedestrian tastes and a very humdrum lifestyle."
Many of the MetaFilter readers expressed disappointment with the story because they wanted me to have really pranked the callers. Well, I disagree. The way I figured it, the last thing a celebrity needs -- or any of us for that matter -- is another annoyance. By not annoying Chris's callers, I felt that translated into not annoying him. Yes, I had my little bit of fun, but throughout my dealings with the Chris-callers I always remained respectful, gave them helpful information (Kali's number), and in the end "wasted" a truly insignificant amount of their time. To me it was about being an ethical person and doing the right thing. In a way it can be likened to finding a wallet containing money and identification. Some would return everything, som would keep the money and return the rest, and some wouldn't return anything. It's happened to me before and I've returned it all. Would the snarky MetaFilter commenters return it all?
Throughout that day, I left a series of my own comments on the MetaFilter thread. When the online snarkfest subsided, I was put through the wringer, but things ended up in my favor, because at the time MetaFilter was a highly trafficked site. The exposure led to links on other sites, which led to more and more links. Before I knew it, my Chris Rock cell phone story was all over the Internet.
By Wednesday, I began receiving much more e-mail than usual: "I found your site through a link on Popdex," "I saw you on BuzzMachine," "Blogdex," "Crains Detroit News," "VH1," "USA Today," and many others. Also that day, I received e-mails from two radio stations requesting to interview me. At work, I snuck into a private conference room to conduct the interviews. No one had an inkling of what I was up to, which added to the fun of it.
Thursday was a very busy e-mail day, with more and more people discovering my site through various linkage of the story. It's still out there, linked all over the web.
In my apartment Friday morning before work, as I was drinking my coffee, my mind was thinking, thinking, plotting, planning, scheming. Instead of spending the next hour exercising, I sat down at my computer, whipped up an e-mail, and sent it to my "Notification List" readers. It told of the buzz going on with the story and my new idea: "What if we band together and launch a blitz to get the word out about the story everywhere we possibly can? Let's see how far we can make this thing go!"
By noontime response was pouring in. The fuel that had been added to what was already a fire succeeded in now making it burn like crazy.
Friday evening, in the midst of the e-mail blitz craziness, it was time to say, "Bye-bye New York, hello Savannah." I left on a ten-day excursion compliments of Tim. He had recently bought a house near Savannah and flew me down to help fix it up.
Excitement was in the air. I looked forward to getting out of bustling NYC to visit a beautiful Southern city I had never been to before. I was also looking forward to spending time with Tim and his partner Warren, which was always a lot of fun. And not that I needed another reason to be excited, but there was one: my Chris Rock story was jumping all around cyberspace. Who's living room would it end up in next?
Whenever I fly, I prefer a window seat. I got one that night on my flight to Savannah. Face pressed to the window like a little kid, with wide eyes I gazed out at the intricate web of amber-toned electrical illumination below me. I watched as it became sparser as we flew farther away from the intense concentration of Manhattan Island. It made me think about how interconnected our whole world is.
Electricity and the Internet reaching all of these houses... I wonder if my website made it into any of these tiny speck-of-a-houses down there?
Late afternoon on Saturday, we headed to the home of one of Tim's friends for cocktails before dinner. Riding in the backseat en route to the gathering, I was admiring the elaborate moss dripping from the trees (a common sight for Southerners; a novel sight for a Northerner like me), when my cell phone went a' ringy ring ring. The Caller ID it displayed an area code I didn't recognize.
LAURA: Hello?
CALLER: Hi, is this Laura?
LAURA [Surprised, assumed the caller was going to ask for Chris]: Um, this is Laura.
CALLER [Very enthusiastic]: Hi! This is Gayle, Chris' mother-in-law. I read your story about getting Chris' old cell phone number and I absolutely loved it. I thought it was one of the most hilarious things I had ever read. I wanted to call you and say hello -- and then I realized I already had your number.
LAURA: I'm so glad you liked my story. Thanks so much for calling and letting me know! Do you think you might be able to... pass the story onto Chris?
GAYLE: Sure, definitely. But he's on tour now, and when he's on tour he's really busy, so I don't think he'd be able to get to it for a while...
When I had mused to Nancy, "I wonder what Chris would think if he ever read the story?" the notion of him reading it seemed pretty far-fetched. But now, a mere week later, it didn't seem far-fetched at all!
Mid-afternoon on Sunday, we headed to Tim and Warren's new house to start our fix-up work. Tim's chosen task was bricking up an interior wall. Warren and I were going to do some painting. I chose this wall adjacent to the second floor outdoor porch. I was wearing my tres chic painter's outfit of pants that were too small in the waist so the waistband was rolled down and the zipper was left not fully zipped, a faded purple bra top, and shoes I had mummified with blue painter's tape.
The three of us took our posts and began our work. I was painting for all of ten minutes when my cell phone started to ring. Sorry Tim -- duty calls. I put down my paint-sopped roller and walked over to my phone. I saw "Restricted" on the Caller ID.
LAURA: Hello?
CALLER: Is this Laura?
LAURA: Yes, this is Laura.
CALLER: Hi, it's Chris Rock.
With all that had been going on lately this wasn't the hugest, most out-of-left-field surprise, but still -- my first instinct was not to believe it. I thought I was being pranked. (Or "punked" as they say.) By whom I didn't know, but punked/pranked nonetheless.
I wasn't familiar enough with Chris's voice to identify it, so for the first few minutes of our conversation I wasn't sure it was really him. But as our conversation continued, I began to settle into the fact that yes, it really was Chris.
We had a very nice chat. He was friendly and genuinely interested in me. (What do you do? Where do you live? How old are you?) We talked for a while about a bunch of things.
When Chris had asked, "What do you do?" I mentioned my website and writing. For my "day job" I said I was an Executive Assistant: "Kind of like Kali, you know executive/personal assistant."
"For a celebrity?"
"No, for an executive in an office."
"We have to get you out of that! I'll give you the name of my literary agent - he's one of the best agents in the city. You can say I referred you." Chris also gave me his new cell phone number. My thoughts flashed back to yet another of the snide MetaFilter comments:
"My favorite part of Laura's essay: 'I was a tad disappointed -- I was hoping they'd give me Chris's number instead of his assistant's.' Yeah, that's what they were gonna do: give the weird phone stranger their boss's direct number."
"Weird phone stranger" -- is that what you think I am? Well, obviously Chris doesn't share your sentiment.
Continued exposure of the story caused my Inboxto be flooded for the next week. All kinds of interest poured in. Of particular note: the National Post, Canada's national newspaper, asked if they could run the piece and pay me for it [that ended up happening], an indie writer/director in LA was interested in my material, [I never followed up with him] and this guy thought my story would be good for a new reality show his production company would be pitching to HBO [that never materalized]. Most importantly, many new people were introduced to Laura's NYC Tales, which encouraged me to pursue the idea of turning my many tales into a book.
After my original story was written, I received a few additional calls of interest. I'm usually not a name-dropper, but allow me please to drop a few here: I also talked with Damon Wayans (friendly and cool), Peter Farrelly (the director of "There's Something About Mary," who was great), and Jerry Seinfeld. Ah yes, good ol' Jerry Seinfeld. We had such a lovely little chat, now didn't we Jerry?
LAURA: Hello?
CALLER: Is Chris there?
LAURA [In her pleasant executive assistant voice]: Who's this?
CALLER: Jerry.
LAURA [Immediately thinks, Oh geez, it's Jerry Seinfeld! Acts unfazed. Politely and innocently asks]: Jerry--?
JERRY [Snippy and demanding]: Who's this?
LAURA [Taken aback, yet standing her ground]: Well, who's this?
JERRY [In a startlingly nasty tone]: This is a DUMB GAME. Is Chris THERE or NOT?
LAURA [Choked up]: Um, um....
JERRY: [Click]
The interaction left me aghast and distressed. So nasty! Would Jerry Seinfeld really have been that rude? Isn't he the quintessential funny nice guy like Adam Sandler? The "Jerry" I spoke with never did say his last name, so in all fairness there was a chance it wasn't in fact Mr. Jerry Seinfeld himself.
After work that day I went to a Nancy's apartment. Her TV was on when I got there and coincidence had it that an "Seinfeld" rerun was playing. I paid attention with a curious interest. In the skit, Jerry started arguing with George. The minute I heard Jerry's nasal, kvetchy bickering, I thought, Yup, it was Jerry Seinfeld all right.
My opinion of the "Seinfeld" we all know and love has been forever tainted. But all things considered, it was a small price to pay.
firehosewhy the fuck is it so hard to understand that "apple pie spice" = "spice you put on apple pies"
People lost their damn minds when they learned Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL) did NOT contain pumpkin. As it turned out, the key part of the Starbucks PSL is pumpkin spice, which is known as pumpkin pie spice in your market’s baking aisle. As many already knew, pumpkin pie spice is spices sans pumpkin.
What spices? McCormick’s pumpkin pie spice contains cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice. I’m sure you’re thinking what I’m thinking…
What about apple pie spice?
…and your apples
Apple pie spice doesn’t contain one scintilla of apples.
check out the ingredients on the back of my jar of apple pie spice
True story. McCormicks’ apple pie spice is spices sans apples. In fact, apple pie spice is pumpkin pie spice minus the ginger.
I know, right? It’s almost too much truthiness.
It's been one week since researchers discovered a vulnerability in the Bash Unix shell, exposing millions of devices to remote-code attacks by exploiting the same common chunk of code. By now, patches have been issued and most of the major systems have been secured. The bug even got its own Heartbleed-esque moniker: Shellshock. But there's still a lot that isn't clear about the bug, and what went on in the brief window in which attackers could exploit the public vulnerability on unpatched systems. Given a dangerously large window of opportunity, how much damage did Shellshock do?
The web-optimization company CloudFlare has been tracking exploits closely, and as of last night, the company says it had blocked roughly 1.1 million Shellshock attacks. More than 80% of the attacks were reconnaissance attacks designed to compile a list of vulnerable machines. Since servers using Cloudflare were protected, the chain stopped there, but it's reasonable to assume that unprotected networks were exposed to much more extensive attacks once the reconnaissance was successful. Strangely, the vast majority came from French IP addresses, although it's difficult to say whether the attackers were located there or the traffic was simply being routed through.
"We have not seen [an attack]... that would make the average Macbook user hackable."
OS X also uses the Bash shell, leading to concerns that Apple hardware might be attacked en masse — but a week later, those fears have not panned out. When Shellshock emerged, Apple said that "the vast majority of OS are not at risk," and so far the research has confirmed that claim. "We have not seen proof of any attack at this time that would make the average MacBook user readily hackable," says FireEye research scientist James Bennett. "Although Bash was vulnerable, the public was not aware of any way OS X exposed Bash to attacker-supplied input with its pre-installed software." Of course, someone might still discover a vulnerability that would provide an easy way in, but with the patch already published, it's unlikely to do much damage. In the wild, the vast majority of attacks have been against web-facing servers, which were vulnerable to easily executed HTTP-based attacks. Macs didn't offer any obvious points of weakness, which seems to have convinced most attackers to focus on the servers.
The most damage came from unexpected lines of attack, like a novel attack discovered by FireEye that used Shellshock to sidestep traditional computers entirely. Instead, the attackers targeted Network Attached Storage devices (NAS), essentially a large, networked hard drive. Since the NAS devices used Bash to communicate across the network, attackers were able to access any data on the device, and append their own SSH key to the "authorized_keys" file, building in a backdoor that could be exploited later. It's an unexpected line of attack but as networks become larger and more varied, growing to include more embedded devices, it's an attack many experts expect we'll see over and over again.
The most alarming aspect is that, for successful attacks, it's hard to say how far the damage reached. For every ten reconnaissance attacks stopped by CloudFlare, there's at least one that got through, and researchers are still piecing out the net effect of all those harvested credentials and compromised systems. We may have stopped the vulnerability within a week, but the damage will likely be playing out for months or even years to come.
firehose'Puno said some participants did not even eat their cookies — they just wanted to take pictures of them. Cookies decorated with the Instagram logo were so popular among photographers that Puno required “purchasers” to give their fingerprints, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers and their driver’s license information. Many still agreed. “They wanted to hold it against the sky with the bridge in the background,” she said.
She was also surprised to find that people would give her more data than they actually needed to earn a given cookie. “That to me was baffling,” she said. “If I were thinking about giving away my information, I wasn’t giving away more than I had to.” '
Image: Talisman Brolin/Courtesy of Risa Puno
This story was co-published with ProPublica.
In a highly unscientific but delicious experiment last weekend, 380 New Yorkers gave up sensitive personal information — from fingerprints to partial Social Security numbers — for a cookie.
“It is crazy what people were willing to give me,” said artist Risa Puno, who conducted the experiment, which she called “Please Enable Cookies,” at a Brooklyn arts festival.
The cookies — actual cookies — came in flavors such as “Chocolate Chili Fleur de Sel” and “Pink Pistachio Peppercorn.”The cookies — actual cookies — came in flavors such as “Chocolate Chili Fleur de Sel” and “Pink Pistachio Peppercorn.”
To get a cookie, people had to turn over personal data that could include their address, driver’s license number, phone number and mother’s maiden name.
More than half of the people allowed Puno to take their photographs. Just under half — or 162 people — gave what they said were the last four digits of their Social Security numbers. And about one-third — 117 people — allowed her to take their fingerprints. She examined people’s driver’s licenses to verify some of the information they provided.
Risa Puno, the artist who gave out free cookies in exchange for personal data.
Image: Lois Beckett/ProPublica
When people asked Puno what she was going to do with their information, she refused to say. Instead, she referred them to her terms of service, a full page of legal boilerplate displayed in tiny print, which gives her the right to display the information and share it with others.
Puno’s performance art experiment highlights what privacy experts already know: Many Americans are not sure how much their personal data is worth, and that consumer judgments about what price to put on privacy can be swayed by all kinds of factors.
While most people will say they value privacy, there’s a clear dichotomy between “what we say about privacy and what we do,” said Alessandro Acquisti, a Carnegie Mellon privacy expert.
A study published last year by Acquisti and other researchers found that people’s willingness to pay for privacy depended on whether they perceived that their data was already protected. In one experiment, one group of people were given a free $10 Visa gift card and told their spending would be anonymous. Another group was given a $12 gift card and told their purchases would be tracked. The groups were then given an opportunity to trade gift cards. It turned out that the vast majority people with the higher-value but tracked card were not willing to give up $2 for privacy. But only about half of the people who started out with the higher privacy, lower-value cards wanted to keep them.
“The answers to questions such as ‘What is privacy worth?” and ‘Do people really care for privacy?’ depend not just on whom but how you ask,” the authors wrote.
Because the Brooklyn data giveaway was part of a performance art piece, Acquisti said, participants may have felt that “it was very low-risk to provide information.” The giveaway was part of a game; it would seem fun to play along, and also seem unlikely that the data would be abused.
“Traded all my personal data for a social media cookie,” one participant tweeted, along with a photo of a cookie frosted with the Facebook logo.
Puno said some participants did not even eat their cookies — they just wanted to take pictures of them. Cookies decorated with the Instagram logo were so popular among photographers that Puno required “purchasers” to give their fingerprints, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers and their driver’s license information. Many still agreed. “They wanted to hold it against the sky with the bridge in the background,” she said.
While she’s happy with the response to her project, the 33-year-old artist was shocked that people seemed very comfortable giving away the kind of data that’s often used in security questions: pet’s name, mother’s maiden name, place of birth, the name of your first teacher.
People called those questions “easy points,” she said. “They didn’t recognize them as security questions, or they didn’t care … but that’s how people ‘hack’ into celebrity iClouds, by guessing their security questions.”
She was also surprised to find that people would give her more data than they actually needed to earn a given cookie. “That to me was baffling,” she said. “If I were thinking about giving away my information, I wasn’t giving away more than I had to.”
Puno still won’t say what she’s going to do with the data. She says she’s considered destroying it. On the other hand, she said, the disclosure forms are also “precious artifacts of what people are willing to do. I kind of want to hold onto them forever.”
Reddit recently closed a whopping $50 million round of investing that brought in money from sources that varied from initial Reddit supporter Sam Altman to Jared Leto and Snoop Dogg—er, Doggy Dogg—er, Lion? I’m not up on his current name status. The investment money brings with it many questions, like how soon before we can expect an animal-centric renaming structure for Reddit?
The news came by way of a Reddit blog post that really did a good job at burying the lead and talking about main investor Sam Altman’s long-time involvement in Reddit and how he has an interest in what’s best for the site’s future instead of the fact that Snoop Dogg and Jared Leto are now co-presidents of the site. Or they’re not. It’s possible that I don’t understand a lot about how investing works. That would explain why president Reggie Fils-Aime over at Nintendo of America never takes my calls.
But what the money will do is allow Reddit’s staff to expand and more quickly respond to user requests for features and fixes. It’d be nice if that also means that they’ll be able to respond faster than a week next time someone steals something like, say, private photos and posts them on the Internet.
The blog post also says that they’re trying to figure out a way for investors to return about 10% of the shares they bought to the Reddit community in the spirit of the site’s user-supported nature, but they’re still working out the details on that one. See? Investing is complicated, okay? That’s why they need Snoop Dogg to teach them how to keep their minds on their money and their money on their minds.
(via The Daily Dot, image via Jason Persse and our edits)
Previously in Reddit
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firehosevia Rosalind
still #nevergo
TAMPA, Fla. — Hillsborough County commissioners on Wednesday voted unanimously in favor of expanding the county's human rights ordinance to cover sexual orientation and gender identity. The 7-0 vote reversed a former board’s action in 1995 to strip gays and lesbians from the groups protected under the ordinance...
The maps J.R.R. Tolkien drew to accompany his tales are their own form of story, sketching out the boundaries of his imagined worlds. But could our own, real cities be just as dramatic a fantasy setting? The answer is yes.
firehose"It was the second trial for Michael Dunn, a 47-year-old South Patrick Shore software developer who was accused of shooting 17-year-old Jordan Davis the day after Thanksgiving 2012 in the parking-lot argument of a Jacksonville gas station.
Another jury had failed to reach a unanimous verdict on the first-degree murder charge at Dunn's original murder trial in February.
That jury did convict Dunn of three counts of second-degree attempted murder and one count of shooting or throwing deadly missiles for firing at Davis' three teenage companions inside a red Dodge Durango. Dunn faces at least 60 years in prison on those charges. He has not yet been sentenced."
Fox News |
Loud music killing: Michael Dunn found guilty of first-degree murder Fox News Sept. 27, 2014: Michael Dunn looks towards the legal representative sitting with his parents as his trial ends for the day in the Duval County Courthouse in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP/The Florida Times-Union). JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Florida man who opened fire ... Florida Man Who Killed Black Teenager Over Loud Rap Music Is Convicted of ...Slate Magazine (blog) 'Loud music' shooter found guilty of murder in second trialWashington Post all 293 news articles » |
The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered airlines to replace cockpit displays in over 1,300 Boeing aircraft that may go blank when interfered with by Wi-Fi signals. The screens at issue are used to display airspeed, altitude, and other navigation information to pilots, which the administration says could lead to a crash should it happen during takeoff, approach, or landing. The displays are made by Honeywell, and it turns out that they don't meet the FAA's required tolerance levels for Wi-Fi.
The flaw seemingly shouldn't be troubling
Though the issue sounds troubling, it seemingly isn't that huge of a deal: the administration is giving airlines with one of the Boeing planes five years to fix or replace the displays. On top of that, the issue has been known about since 2012, at which point Boeing and Honeywell switched over to new hardware. Speaking to Reuters, Honeywell says that the issue has so far only been seen in on-the-ground tests, and Boeing says that it made the recommendation that airlines change the displays back then — now it's just being made mandatory to do so.
Honeywell also thinks that the order is somewhat unnecessary, particularly given that airlines can chose not to use Wi-Fi devices inside the cockpit, thus mitigating the risk. The FAA disagreed with its argument, however, and felt that it was appropriate to mandate the changes for safety reasons.
“Leave any bigotry in your quarters; there’s no room for it on the bridge.” – Captain Kirk, “The Balance of Terror”
But while bigotry may not have a place on the Enterprise’s bridge in the 23rd century, here in the 21st it apparently has a place on the official Star Trek Facebook page, where a small number of very loud fans have decided to repeatedly share sexist, racist, and homophobic comments.
The page, which is run by StarTrek.com under the auspices of CBS Interactive, has over 3.4 million fans and is an important site for Trek fans like me to gather, discuss their favorite shows and characters, and get information from CBS about upcoming promotions and events.
(Trigger Warning for screencaps of sexist, racist, and homophobic comments, including rape jokes)
But all too often comment threads turn into something like what happened on August 13, when the page asked fans to “Describe Sulu in one word.” The top responses were “gay” and “Asian,” and many responses went further than that into outright homophobic and racial slurs. I am going to share a few examples because I think they’re necessary to illustrate the severity of the problem.
After seeing this I got together with another Trek fan I met through Tumblr, and we started documenting. We collected and categorized examples of more homophobic and racist comments, as well as sexist comments, particularly rape jokes, like this one about Star Trek VI‘s Valeris, played by Kim Cattrall:
If you want to feel horribly depressed you can find our full package of examples here—all are taken from a single two-week period. They range from horrible comments about Jennifer Lien’s (Kes from Voyager) weight, to jokes about Yar growing up running away from “rape gangs,” to comments about how Kira (DS9) is probably cranky because her tampons are made out of “Ferengi fur.”
The more I documented and shared with other Trek fans, the more I heard from others who felt just as concerned. Overwhelmingly people kept saying that there was such a big disconnect between the sexism, racism, and homophobia on the page and the vision of Star Trek, which values “infinite diversity in infinite combinations.”
So finally I decided it was worth approaching CBS and StarTrek.com, asking them via a Change.org petition to make the Facebook page welcoming to fans of all backgrounds. The petition calls on CBS and StarTrek.com to implement a comments policy that
I’ve also sent the request and examples of page comments and good existing comments policies (tons of other sites have them!) in a letter offering to answer any questions and provide any other support I can for these changes to be made. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, and the petition has prompted many people to share their feelings about the unwelcoming environment on the page.
“As a young woman, it is disheartening to see many fans having backward views of the many female characters. Female characters who are assertive are slammed as being b*tchy and annoying; some even go so far as to state that these characters should die—how can future Kathryn Janeways or Kira Neryses be born if such character traits are demonized?” one 20-year-old fan from Singapore wrote.
And here’s another testimonial I received:
“I’m an eighteen year old girl, and I Liked the page on Facebook to get updates on the Star Trek franchise (which is one of my favorite things). I do feel alienated pretty consistently by offensive comments, especially the rampant misogyny that pervades comments on posts like the one that went up today.
“I’m pretty pissed that the moderators of the page haven’t cracked down more on this sort of behavior, and also it’s pretty ironic that it is happening on posts about Star Trek, which is all about… well… not this. It takes too much energy to engage in these discussions, and the awful community on that page is really off-putting to me.”
Although the overwhelming response to the campaign has been positive, a couple of concerns have been raised. I want to take a minute to address them and hopefully preempt them being raised again in response to this article.
Concern 1: Why can’t the users who are offended just explain to people why they’re upset and try to talk it out?
Two reasons. First, it shouldn’t be the job of, for example, a person of color to wade through racist comments and spend time trying to educate the people making them. Women, people of color, and LGBT people shouldn’t have to brace for attacks just to get a chance to talk about Star Trek. Second, when we went through the page we found several examples (included at the end of our collection) where fans had tried to call out sexist, racist, or homophobic remarks and were subjected to harsh backlash and even threats. Expecting fans to moderate the page themselves without backup from an official page presence places unfair expectations on them and is just plain unrealistic.
Concern 2: These comments are awful, but things like this happen. We can’t take away freedom of speech.
As a feminist blogger and media commentator, I rely on freedom of speech. I take it very seriously. However, freedom of speech only applies to our right to say what we want in our own spaces without fear of government suppression; it does not give anyone the right to say anything they want in spaces (including online platforms) owned by someone else.
Just say, for the sake of argument, I believe and want to spread the following message: “Jonathan Archer is the best Trek captain ever, and if you disagree you’re an idiot!” (Don’t worry; I don’t actually believe that).
I have every right to say that in my house or on my own website. I can get a banner with a giant picture of Scott Bakula printed up and wave it at cars from the side of the road. I can hand out pro-Archer pamphlets. But I can’t make passers-by stop to listen if they don’t want to. I can’t grab a megaphone and stand on a box in the middle of a Starbucks and shout it at people. And if I barged into a Captain Janeway fan club meeting and started calling everyone there an idiot, they’d be totally in their rights to kick me out of their space.
Likewise, CBS and StarTrek.com (as well as Facebook) have the right to protect their brands and set terms of use for their online spaces.
What we have on the Star Trek Facebook page is not free speech; it is free reign for a small but loud group of users to spew sexist, racist, and homophobic comments and to troll and intimidate those who object. And that means many women, people of colour, and LGBT fans feel less free to speak up in that space.
It’s time to bring a little bit of Star Trek‘s vision and values into our fan spaces. Please take a minute to sign the petition and help make the official Star Trek Facebook page a more welcoming place for all fans. As Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry once said:
“Star Trek was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms. […] If we cannot learn to actually enjoy those small differences, to take a positive delight in those small differences between our own kind, here on this planet, then we do not deserve to go out into space and meet the diversity that is almost certainly out there.”
Jarrah Hodge is a feminist blogger from Vancouver, B.C. She runs the feminist blog gender-focus.com and analyzes Star Trek from a feminist perspective at trekkiefeminist.tumblr.com. You can also find her on Twitter @jarrahpenguin.
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firehoseHeadline is completely off. Clickthrough for a depressing, well-done longread about my ppl
firehosegreat
A huge asteroid crashing into the Earth and killing all life may be a pretty far-fetched scenario — but it's far from impossible. As such, agencies like NASA and the UN have spent time envisioning ways to mitigate the threat, with nuclear weapons becoming an increasingly popular choice. Last September, the US and Russia entered into an agreement to collaborate and investigate how nuclear weapons could be used to defend the planet against rogue asteroids, but now it seems the US is actively stockpiling weapons to be used if needed.
As noticed by The Wall Street Journal, aa 67-page Government Accountability Office report on the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said that some US nuclear warhead components that were scheduled to be disassembled by next year are in fact being kept whole to be used to defend the Earth against a potential asteroid impact. The report specifically states that some warheads "are being retained in an indeterminate state pending a senior-level government evaluation of their use in planetary defense against earthbound asteroids."
The threat of a direct asteroid impact has gotten more attention in recent months after a huge meteor exploded over Russia in February 2013, injuring hundreds with its debris. Last year, NASA said that the Earth was sitting in the path of over 1,400 asteroids that could cause potentially significant damage, but said that none seemed likely to hit the planet — at least for the next 100 years or so. And even those asteroids coming "close" to the Earth are millions of miles away, but that isn't stopping the US from being prepared. Whether or not these nuclear weapons are kept to battle asteroids remains to be seen, but it's at least something the government is keeping in its back pocket in case of an Armageddon scenario.
firehoseall carriers suck forever
Verizon Wireless won't be throttling the LTE speeds of its remaining unlimited data customers after all. In an eleventh hour reversal, the largest US carrier has just announced that it's "decided not to move forward with the planned implementation of network optimization for 4G LTE customers on unlimited plans."
The plan to start slowing down the heaviest users of LTE data on unlimited plans was set to go into effect this month. Verizon stirred a ton of anger and unrest when it announced it would be expanding its network optimization (read: throttling) practices to cover LTE data in July. Apparently all that customer feedback — and harsh criticism from FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler — proved overwhelming and convinced Verizon to completely change its mind. The carrier's full statement follows below.
Verizon is committed to providing its customers with an unparalleled mobile network experience. At a time of ever-increasing mobile broadband data usage, we not only take pride in the way we manage our network resources, but also take seriously our responsibility to deliver exceptional mobile service to every customer. We've greatly valued the ongoing dialogue over the past several months concerning network optimization and we've decided not to move forward with the planned implementation of network optimization for 4G LTE customers on unlimited plans. Exceptional network service will always be our priority and we remain committed to working closely with industry stakeholders to manage broadband issues so that American consumers get the world-class mobile service they expect and value.
Archaeologists conducting restoration work at Tokat Castle in Northern Turkey say they discovered the dungeons where Wallachian Prince Vlad III—the inspiration for literature's most famous vampire, Dracula—was held captive in the early 15th century.
firehose'The chain has in fact already tried a kimchi doughnut in Korea and a yogurt-filled variety in Greece. “We get pretty adventurous with doughnuts,” Miller says. “I don’t know that you’ll see a kimchi doughnut [in the U.S.], but you never know. We try a lot of things in the lab.”
The more likely and far less daring application for pickling at the doughnut chain: sandwiches. That food category has become a heavy Dunkin’ focus these days, and Miller admits “it might be the most apt way to bring it into our menu.” '
Microsoft announced their latest operating system, Windows 10, at an event in San Francisco on September 30th, 2014. It is the first major Windows release since Windows 8 debuted in 2012. The new operating system will introduce new features as well as bring back features that were left out of Windows 8 like the Start Menu and the ability to run an application without it being full-screen.
The Windows 10 Technical Preview is available now for developers, but a public release date for the official version of Windows 10 has not been set.
The company released a short preview video with Windows Vice President Joe Belfiore discussing some of the features of the Windows 10 Technical Preview. There is also a longer video of the official Windows 10 product announcement event that gets more in-depth with the features of the Windows 10 operating system.
images via Microsoft
firehose#butts
when you and your friends see a fine booty
firehoseEclectic Method beat
Today’s charm bomb comes from Moombahton, and it explodes with a pulsating and infectious beat in tribute to Bob’s Burgers’ Tina Belcher. Of course, some of the best lines regarding Tina come from her little sister Louise, especially when she breaches the topic of sex saying, “STDs, Tina, have you heard of ’em? / Have you heard of herpes? / You could get yourself killed.” Gene also gets in on the family fun as a Belcher, “from the womb to the toes.” Tina manages to get the last word in though, reminding us of her often humble appeal, “I’m no hero. I put my bra on one boob at a time like everyone else.” It’s just one of the many reasons we love her.
firehoseyo is it
firehose"At press time, Obama was seen blocking knife blows with a legal pad as Pierson declared her intention to conduct a thorough internal review."
firehose'Gillette was also responsible for establishing some of the now-familiar traits associated with the famed detective, including his deerstalker hat, his curved pipe, the phrase “This is elementary,” his use of a violin, magnifying glass, and syringe, and just adding whatever you want to Sherlock Holmes, regardless of whether it’s considered “canon.” '
Solving a nearly 100-year-old mystery, a long-lost Sherlock Holmes silent film starring William Gillette has been discovered at the Cinematheque Francaise—no doubt after investigators issued a winding, cocaine-fueled monologue in which they deduced that the French are not very trustworthy. The 1916 film was directed by Arthur Berthelet for Essanay Studios, and it was the only one to feature Gillette, whose performances as Holmes on stage and the radio brought him worldwide acclaim. Gillette was also responsible for establishing some of the now-familiar traits associated with the famed detective, including his deerstalker hat, his curved pipe, the phrase “This is elementary,” his use of a violin, magnifying glass, and syringe, and just adding whatever you want to Sherlock Holmes, regardless of whether it’s considered “canon.”
The film is currently being digitally restored for a screening at the Cinematheque’s Toute la Mémoire du Monde festival in a January ...
firehosetrains~
YouTube user BNSFME posted a video shot by a GoPro camera placed on a railroad track. A speeding train rushes over the camera at 75mph as the track and railroad ties vibrate.
via reddit
firehosedude's real proud of his miniatures terrain
Detail of the frontispiece from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes, 1651
firehosefollowup; that dog is cute enough to sprain an ankle for
The Lions keep getting silly injuries, but this is the most adorable.
Dogs may be adorable, but they're also dangerous. Lions tight end Joe Fauria found this out the hard way.
Joe Fauria said he sprained his ankle after missing bottom two stairs while trying to stop his 3-month old dog from urinating in the house
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) September 29, 2014
Fauria had previously described the injury that kept him off the field this week as "a freak fall at home," but he hadn't fully described how freakish it was. We can't blame Fauria. First off, a peeing puppy requires immediate "NO NO NO NO NO"-ing and sprinting to where the puppy pee is happening. Second off, his puppy is ADORABLE:
Now I'm only concentrating on getting back on the field ASAP! Please no death threats to Lil' Rufio, he's just a pup! pic.twitter.com/Q1O5QM41RW
— Joseph Fauria (@BigJoeFauria) September 29, 2014
Fauria was trying to stop Lil' Rufio from urinating in the house when he misstepped & sprained his ankle at home. pic.twitter.com/djBc9XVjp5
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) September 29, 2014
Lil Rufio, a half-pom, half-husky actually has his own Instagram:
He's trying to train the pup!
As understandable as it may be, we can giggle about Fauria's injury. Of course, he's not the first Lion to get hurt in a strange way:
- Stephen Tulloch tears ACL thrusting hips a la Discount Double Check