firehose

Level Up | Yah-Chuen-Shen | Via

‘Level up’ as reality is reconstructed into an immersive, augmented video gaming experience; where both the audio-visual language and the interaction processes associated with them connect players and their bodies to the physical plane even if their minds are overwhelmingly allured during playtime in virtual space. With the spread of online role-playing games, this hybrid space transcends traditional gaming experiences; allowing the players to live out new dimensions and alternate characters without limits. The project is situated at the beginning of spaces that emerge from the superimposition of the physical and the virtual, which constitute themselves through the convergence of ‘technology’, ‘space’, and ‘community’

DAYUM, it’s sad that this sold and there’s only one of it.

(sigh) Happy memories of Sean Connery in a ponytail and a loincloth, running around eastern County Wicklow with a big gun…

Zardoz Belt Buckle

Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

Talking shit

WASHINGTON—Saying that any further endeavors of technical skill and imagination were pointless, experts at the Smithsonian Institution reportedly questioned Monday why new art was still being produced after the pinnacle of aesthetic and creative potential was reached in 1990 with Megadeth’s fourth studio album, Rust In Peace. “As the unquestioned apex of the entire history of the creative arts, Rust In Peace is the finest and last necessary piece of human expression—but it’s almost as though current so-called artists are completely oblivious to Dave Mustaine’s blistering, transcendent guitar work on ‘Hangar 18,’” said Smithsonian curator of contemporary art Joanna Marsh, gesturing dismissively in the direction of a massive self-portrait by photorealist Chuck Close, completed in 2000. “It’s not just incredibly disrespectful to keep making art; in many ways, it’s actually quite sad. The deluded people churning out this worthless garbage just can’t ...

Golden Rice, often touted as a shining example of the benefits of genetic engineering, might not be as golden as originally thought.

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has issued a retraction to a 2012 paper on Golden Rice because of insufficient evidence of consent from the parents of the children involved in the study, The Ecologist reports. And, perhaps more significantly, the retraction provides the opportunity to re-raise another question regarding the validity of the AJCN trial: The diets fed to the children in the trial were, according to critics, unrealistically high in fat. (Because vitamin A, the primary benefit of Golden Rice, is fat soluble, the body needs fat to absorb it.)

Golden Rice, first introduced in a 2000 study in Science, is genetically engineered rice that’s extra high in beta-carotene, a precursor to vitamin A. It was developed as a potential solution to vitamin A deficiencies in children around the world, especially those in highly populated, impoverished areas. In 2005, a paper in Nature Biotechnology introduced Golden Rice 2, which had 23-times more beta-carotene than its predecessor. In the 2012 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study, the beta-carotene in Golden Rice 2 (now just Golden Rice) was found to be as effective as pure beta-carotene in a capsule, and even more effective than spinach in providing children with vitamin A. Golden Rice was the golden child of pro-GMO interests.

Even though the private sector was involved in the development of Golden Rice, and companies including Syngenta and Monsanto have proprietary rights in it, they emphasize that they do not make money from the marketing or sale of Golden Rice, and the efforts are coordinated not by them, but by the International Rice Research Institute.

Golden Rice’s real value to these companies is in publicity. Though there have been protests about its use from environmental groups like Greenpeace, the nutritional qualities of Golden Rice have overshadowed the complaints.

All that may now come into question if the study’s validity is challenged beyond the consent issue. The children in the trial ate meals that were 20% fat by calories, and included both pork and egg—foods not usually available in large quantities, if at all, to the target population of poor children. Without it, much of the vitamin will go to waste. (The AJCN did not include this critique in its decision to retract the paper.)

Syngenta did not immediately respond to request for comment. Monsanto directed inquiries to industry group BIO, which declined to comment.

tastefullyoffensive:

(photo by melsu)

Original Source

OnlyMrGodKnowsWhy

(Full disclosure: #buyACopyToday)

The analogy is most obvious in the case of an American civil rights law itself. Uber has ignored advocates for the blind, and other disabled persons, when they claim Uber’s drivers discriminate against them. In response to a lawsuit by the National Federation of the Blind, Uber bluntly asserts that it’s merely a communication platform, not the type of employer meant to be covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Some judges and regulators accept that reasoning; others reject it. But the larger lesson is clear: Uber’s aggressive efforts to avoid or evade disability laws are nothing less than a form of corporate nullification, as menacing to the rule of law as defiance of civil rights laws in the days after courts ruled against racial segregation in the US.

Original Source

Mobstr

22-year old Nick Pourfard, a full-time student and self-taught woodworker in San Francisco, has married his love for skateboarding and music with Prisma Guitars an incredible line of handcrafted guitars and other accessories crafted from recycled skateboard decks. The company launched in early 2015 with a short promotional video.

In February, Pourfard was given the rare opportunity to craft a custom bass for Steve Harris of the legendary band Iron Maiden, a task he took quite seriously.

I took every detail of his playing style and aesthetic into consideration. The bass has an off-white painted alder back with skate top featuring colors as close to West Ham as possible. I laser cut a custom mirror pickguard and bound the whole body in black and white to pay homage to his classic original bass. I threw on a Badass II bridge with his custom strings and Seymour Duncan pickups to top it off. Then it was off to London!

In June, Troy Braunstein of The Hollow Suns tested out a beautiful Prisma guitar.

Additionally, the band Walk Off The Earth featured a Prisma guitar in their video for their song “Rule the World”

images via Prisma Guitars

via Contemporist

What’s across the ocean from you when you’re at the beach (larger)

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Argentina's Primera Division was home to the most delicious form of heckling over the weekend when Racing fans threw a cheeseburger at Belgrado goalkeeper Juan Olave mid-match. It's unclear what the cheeseburger was supposed to symbolize, maybe it was just the most readily-available object to throw? Either way, Olave picked the dang burger up, took two bites and thanked the crowd.

I played goalie in a rec league last year. I got a stitch from drinking too much water. This dude is out here eating cheeseburgers. Meanwhile the commenters on YouTube are afraid for his safety.

You know what has to happen ...

h/t Dirty Tackle

Stomacher

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Chungking Express (Wong Kar-wai, 1994)

#1