firehose

flyer for Pyros (Taito - arcade - 1987)

Determined to bring a sense of realism to his Freak Show, Ryan Murphy has followed up the recent casting of the world’s smallest woman in the next season of American Horror Story by adding Matt Bomer, a man whose face has been hideously disfigured by handsomeness. To those whose iron fortitude allows them to gaze without nausea upon his perfectly symmetrical features, Bomer has been seen on White Collar, the USA drama about a man whose dangerous comeliness puts him under the close watch of government handlers. He’s also been seen in Magic Mike, as a creature from some oily lagoon from whom shirts flee in terror, and in an Emmy-nominated turn in Murphy’s AIDS drama The Normal Heart, playing a reporter afflicted with the cruel disease of being really good-looking. Now those twisted qualities will be put to use in American Horror Story as a character ...

dutchster:

when you try to flick away a bug but it comes towards you instead

Gnarly aftershock, bro. Tremor to fakie.

Early Sunday morning, there was a 6.0 earthquake that shook northern California. The epicenter was just south of Napa, causing plenty of damage to buildings and roads.

Some local skateboarders are taking it in stride, however. (via NBC Bay Area)

When life gives you earthquake, make skateboardade. I think that's how that goes.

Meadowbrook Lane in Napa-- skaters finding upside to quake damage. Photo from #nbcbayarea photog Jeremy Carroll pic.twitter.com/aoSh1SWfLT

— vicky nguyen (@vickydnguyen) August 24, 2014

The Timbers Army normally have some of the best tifos in MLS, but they out-did themselves against the Sounders on Sunday.

The Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders have some of the best support in MLS and also the best rivalry, so the spectacles they put on when they play each other is always amazing. And that includes the tifo.

So it's no surprise that the Timbers Army's massive tifo on Sunday was a sight to behold.

The Timbers Army went with a "There's No Place Like Home" theme, which was appropriate because Dorothy set fire to the Emerald City. So, naturally, the tifo has Dorothy on the yellow brick road, with Seattle in flames behind her.

The Timbers have gotten hot of late, playing themselves back into the playoff race and, while the Sounders have struggled, they're still one of the best teams in MLS and chasing the Supporters' Shield. This match had the stakes to go along with the hate and the Portland fans started lining up outside the stadium three days early for it.

They also made sure their tifo game was on point.

And as awesome as the Timbers' tifo was on Sunday, the Sounders will counter with one just as good next time Portland is in Seattle. There's a reason the rest of MLS looks forward to these Cascadia Derbys.

The Seattle Sounders have had as good of a season against the Portland Timbers as they could have possibly hoped for. After drawing away to Portland earlier in the season, then beating them in both their home league game and U.S. Open Cup, the Sounders have defeated the Timbers 4-2 at Providence Park.

There was plenty of action from the start, with both teams hitting the woodwork inside the first 15 minutes. Diego Valeri nearly got a lucky break off a free kick into the wall, but his shot eventually hit the crossbar and bounced away harmlessly. Not long afterward, Clint Dempsey nearly scored a beautiful opener when he hit the inside of the post from 12 yards.

Seattle drew first blood in the 18th minute through Obafemi Martins, but the setup was prettier than the finish. Brad Evans both started the move and finished it off, receiving a gorgeous nutmeg pass from DeAndre Yedlin before surging down the right flank, then squaring for Martins to tap into the back of the net.

The rest of the first half continued to belong to the Sounders, who would go into the locker room up by two goals. Dempsey should have scored in the 21st minute, but blazed a shot from close range over the crossbar. He redeemed himself 13 minutes later, though, and in spectacular fashion. Martins found him at the end of an 80-yard run during the counter, and Dempsey hit a perfect chipped finish past Donovan Ricketts.

Portland got off to a strong start in the first half and almost pulled one back in the 53rd minute, with Will Johnson forcing Stefan Frei into an excellent save. They never turned their positive play into an early goal, though, and Seattle eventually went up by three.

Chad Barrett came into the game as a substitute and didn't take long to score. He wasn't closed down in the box after picking up a pass from Dempsey, and had all the time in the world to line up his shot and score his seventh goal of the year in MLS.

The Timbers were able to make things interesting three minutes later through two substitutes. Rodney Wallace found Fanendo Adi for an excellent volleyed finish from 6 yards, but Portland were only in the game for three minutes after that.

Martins answered by scoring one of his best goals of the season on a brilliant individual run. He stumbled, but powered through an individual run that beat a half-dozen Timbers defenders before he hit a shot past Ricketts from 12 yards, recording a potential goal of the week candidate.

Adi scored his second of the game in stoppage time with a poacher's effort, set up by fellow sub and former Sounder Steve Zakuani, but his goals ultimately made no difference in the match.

With this convincing and dominating win, Seattle have gone top of the Western Conference and Supporters' Shield race. It's tough to see them dropping out of contention on the back of this.

Sounders: Frei, Gonzalez, Marshall, Scott, Yedlin, Pappa (Barrett 63'), Pineda, Alonso, Evans (Neagle 78'), Dempsey (Rose 80'), Martins

Goals: Martins (18', 76'), Dempsey (34'), Barrett (70')

Timbers: Ricketts, Harrington, Ridgewell, Paparatto, O'Rourke, Chara, Johnson, Nagbe (Zakuani 80'), Fernandez (Wallace 67'), Valeri, Urruti (Adi 71')

Goals: Adi (73', 90')

Sam Bradford suffered his second torn ACL in as many seasons and the Rams will now have to adjust without their starting quarterback.

Sam Bradford was once again forced from a game due to injury when he took a hit on his left knee during St. Louis' preseason game on Saturday. ESPN's Adam Schefter reported initial tests on Bradford's knee came back negative, and that the Rams may have "dodged a bullet".

Bradford and the Rams may not be completely out of the woods, though. ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported that the first exam was considered "inconclusive" and will require Bradford to undergo an MRI to find out the extent of the damage, if there is any.

Bradford was looked at by trainers after twisting his knee awkwardly following a sack by Cleveland Browns' defensive end Armonty Bryant, as reported by Fox Sports 1's Mike Garafolo. The injury is to the same knee he tore the ACL in last season.

The fifth-year quarterback out of Oklahoma has looked promising at times during his career, but has struggled to stay healthy. Bradford was replaced by Shaun Hill, a 13-year veteran out of Maryland, who would likely start in Bradford's place if he were to miss any extended time.

Reign get goals from Kim Little and Megan Rapinoe to score another come-from-behind win.

They weren't as dominant as they were in the regular season, but the Seattle Reign were good enough to beat the Washington Spirit 2-1 on Sunday and qualify for the NWSL Finals. They will face FC Kansas City, which beat the Portland Thorns in the other semifinal on Saturday.

The Reign, as they've done so many times this year, overcame a deficit to score win in front of their home fans. Kim Little got the equalizer on a penalty that she was forced to retake, Megan Rapinoe scored the eventual game-winner and Hope Solo made it stand up with a penalty save.

Veronica Perez had given the Spirit the initial lead in the 65th minute, finishing a close-range attempt off a pass from Diana Matheson. But the lead was short-lived.

Just six minutes later, a Spirit defender was called for a handball on a Sydney Leroux shot. Although the ball struck her arm, it looked very much like a class ball-to-hand situation. Questionable or not, though, NWSL Golden Boot winner Little stroked her penalty into the back of the net only to be forced to retake it when Jess Fishlock encroached. No matter, Little simply finished the next attempt.

Seemingly intent to even things up, the Spirit were awarded an even more questionable penalty in the 77th minute when a ball bounced off Kendall Fletcher's head and struck Reign defender Kate Deines' arm. Solo, though, guessed correctly and dove to her right to save Matheson's well-struck effort.

With momentum clearly on their side, the Reign seized the opportunity in the 82nd minute when Rapinoe got behind the Spirit defense and beat Spirit goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris inside the near post.

Zimbabwe's dictator Robert Mugabe unleashed a storm of brutal, genocidal violence after losing the 2008 elections -- and now we know that it was funded by western hedge-funds and banks, led by Och-Ziff Capital Management, the largest publicly traded fund, with assistance from Blackrock, GLG Partners, and Credit Suisse, who raised $100M for Mugabe's weapons and torture-chambers in exchange for a sweetheart deal on the country's platinum mines. Read the rest

“[BRDG019] HiDM2_9” is a trippy, glitchy music video by Japanese artist Yasuyuki Yoshida and musician umio for Tokyo “visual label” BRDG. The video is primarily comprised of swirling visual graphics, with some real world footage tossed in of things like a woman destroying an iMac with a baseball bat.

via Kotaku

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T-Mobile US CEO John Legere.

T-Mobile

Now that Sprint and T-Mobile US are no longer planning to merge and may also be prevented from teaming up to purchase spectrum, the companies are focusing on a new tactic: competing against each other.

Sprint announced new 20GB family plans last Monday and then on Thursday unveiled a $60-per-month unlimited data plan, calling it "a $20 savings compared to T-Mobile's $80 per month unlimited plan." While that's true, the Sprint plans do not include personal hotspot service and thus could end up costing more than T-Mobile for customers who intend to share their phones' Internet connections with other devices.

The $60 unlimited plan is for new or existing Sprint customers who bring their own device, buy one at full retail price, or pay on Sprint's Easy Pay two-year installment plan.

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There is an explanation! It's a good one.

Last week, some astute folks in the MASN control rooms discovered that Bryce Harper was using a Yasiel Puig-model bat. This was good for a few yuks, and it didn't make a lick of sense.

It does now, however. The Washington Post got Harper to explain:

Harper collects the bats not as artifacts, but as experiments. He likes to switch between bats to find out what feels best to him at a given time, or even against a given pitcher. When he finds a bat he likes, he’ll order their model with his name on it. He has no problem swinging a bat with another player’s name on it.

It's worth remembering that Harper is basically a zygote, still. He's at an age where he probably shouldn't be used to swinging wood bats at all, so the experimenting makes sense. Also, there's a touch of strategery mixed in there, too:

The other day, he used Puig’s bat because it is 34½ inches long, a half-inch longer than the model he typically uses. Against Wade Miley’s slider, which broke away from him, it gave him an extra inch to reach the pitch. He also used it for the same reason against Trevor Cahill, whose sinker breaks big away from a left-handed hitter.

Different pitchers get different bats. I don't know if I've ever heard that before. Baseball players are usually supposed to be the model of consistency, eating the same enchiladas or fidgeting with their batting gloves in exactly the same way, every time. Harper, though, thinks there are square pegs for square pitcher-holes and round pegs for round pitcher-holes.

Makes sense from here. Just don't wander into the comments.

Honestly, this might shed some light on what's so great about Anthony Rendon - the kid just plays. Harper might be thinking just a bit too much.

Dammit.

On August 6, the Rosetta probe rendezvoused with Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Now comes the hard part: picking a suitable location for the spacecraft's Philae lander. The site must be chosen soon because, as the comet gets closer to the sun, its icy surface will begin to change.

Read more...

SPOILER: It's because of their crappy old seats!

But first, Cinema 21 owner Tom Ranieri wants you to know everything's going great at NW Portland's long-standing, long-loved arthouse theater, which last year expanded from one screen to three.

"Feedback has been really strongly positive," Ranieri says of the expansion. "It's working out the way we wanted it to."

Since the expansion, Cinema 21's had a lot more flexibility with their bookings—and as a result, has become an even more integral part of Portland's film scene. Letting the scope of Boyhood wash over me in Cinema 21's big, original auditorium is one of my favorite filmgoing experiences of this past year, but so was seeing Obvious Child in one of the newer, smaller auditoriums—where just about every single joke hit big thanks, in part, to the more intimate, low-key setting the room provided.

But Ranieri says those two new auditoriums have had an unexpected side effect: They made Cinema 21's original, 88-year-old auditorium look run-down in comparison. While the picture and sound in that big auditorium are fine, Ranieri says, the older, decidedly less comfortable seats have become a problem both for audiences and for the representatives of film distributors, who keep an eye on the conditions of the theaters showing their movies. And continuing to constantly repair the seats isn't feasible, Ranieri says: Cinema 21's current seats are over 50 years old, which means replacement parts are tough to find whenever hinges snap or springs break.

As hard as it might be to believe when one's trapped in a theater alight with iPhone screens, Ranieri says distributors "are mindful of what the theatrical experience is" and want audiences "to see their products in the best light." That goes for literal light—as in, if the projector and screen are bright enough—as well as for sound, cleanliness, and comfort. And seats—which, Ranieri says, distributors who've been by to check out Cinema 21's new auditoriums were less than impressed by when they saw the original auditorium.

"We have to get it up to the level where not only the distributors but also the public are expecting [it to be]," Ranieri says. Since Portland theaters often compete to get first-run movies (films that play at Cinema 21 might just as easily end up at Living Room Theaters, Fox Tower 10, or the Hollywood Theatre), if a distributor feels a theater isn't up to snuff, they'll likely let other theaters book their films until the one needing improvements either shapes up or goes out of business.

While it's relatively easy for massive chain theaters to keep their auditoriums in good shape, it can be trickier for indie theaters, which scramble not only with chains but also with other indies to book films and make profits. In convincing distributors that a particular theater is the best fit for a certain film or a certain market, "theatrical experience" plays a major role. Ranieri hopes replacing the seats in the original auditorium will not only help the auditorium "speak to the whole" with the rest of the expanded theater, but make Cinema 21's old auditorium as attractive to distributors as its new ones.

It won't be cheap. Unlike the Hollywood Theatre, which lucked into a bunch of old Regal seats (and asked for help from patrons to install them), there aren't a slew of unwanted seats just lying around for Ranieri to gather up.

Hence the Kickstarter. For just the lower part of Cinema 21's main auditorium—not counting the balcony—Ranieri's estimating $70,000 will be needed to purchase, ship, and install the theater's new seats, which he adds will be "a little wider," rock back and forth, and feature cup holders—in other words, the kind of seats that patrons at most theaters have become accustomed to. "That number is daunting to me," Ranieri admits, before dropping an even more daunting number—that to renovate the auditorium's balcony as well, it'd be "well over $100,000." That's why, he says, this Kickstarter is only targeted at renovating the original auditorium's lower section.

As for why Ranieri's turning to Kickstarter, it comes back to those new auditoriums: Last year's expansion was expensive, Ranieri says, and after going all-in on the new auditoriums, he and his partners feel it would be "imprudent to increase our depth."

"I wish we could have done it all at once, but we couldn't," Ranieri says. And waiting to save up the money, he adds, isn't an option—the longer the old seats in the main auditorium stay, Ranieri says, the more movies Cinema 21 could miss out on.

"Some of it goes against my natural unwillingness to ask for money," Ranieri says. But at the same time, he notes his "period of stewardship" of Cinema 21 has lasted since 1987—and right now, he's focused on how to get Cinema 21 get to its 100th birthday. "What does it take to get there and beyond?" Ranieri asks. "Can we leverage all that goodwill into something that will help the theater exist and thrive in the future?"

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CNN says Hillary Clinton was asked to comment on Ferguson after a book signing on Sunday.

After signing more than 700 books at Books & Books in Westhampton Beach, Clinton was asked by two reporters for her reaction to the controversy.

Clinton ignored both questions and left the bookstore.

Clinton has yet to make any sort of a statement on Ferguson. CNN has posted a Vine of Clinton ignoring a Ferguson question, because apparently Vines are something that CNN is doing now.

But Clinton's not officially running for president yet. Why, you might ask, should she have to make a statement on Ferguson? Because Ferguson matters. Because Hillary Clinton has more influence over the media than just about anybody in America right now. All eyes are on her, and everything she says—hell, everything she doesn't say—gets repeated in news stories for weeks afterward. What's more, the fact that Clinton isn't currently holding office means that she can say things that, for instance, President Obama can't say about an ongoing investigation. A statement of support from Clinton would mean a lot to people in Ferguson, but Clinton, apparently, can't be bothered.

Some people agree with Clinton's decision. Here's one person who wants Clinton to remain silent:

As a general rule, we really do not need to hear from absolutely everybody in the political class each and every time that something dramatic happens. If Hillary Clinton wishes to pronounce upon the topic, I’m sure she will. If she doesn’t, then she doesn’t have to. Either way, there’s no particular reason we need to hear her take. She’s not an elected official. She has no authority over Ferguson, Missouri. She has no more information than anybody else. She is, for now at least, a citizen of the United States. Nothing more, nothing less.

Who's urging Clinton to be silent in the above quote? That's Charles C. W. Cooke, of the conservative National Review. As a rule, I find that if National Review agrees with you on something, you should immediately investigate your decisions, because you're probably being an asshole.

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no satan only corg