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ABC News

Ferguson: More online donations for officer than Mike Brown Atlanta Journal Constitution Nikki Jones, of Spanish Lake, Mo, holds a button Thursday, Aug. 21, 2014, in support of Michael Brown while visiting the community in the apartment development near where he was fatally shot by police in Ferguson, Mo. (AP Photo/Atlanta Journal ... Ferguson raises some deeper issuesDigiNews Shifting Demographics Lie Beneath Racial Tensions in FergusonVoice of America Ferguson mourns for Michael Brown, among peaceful protestsDaily Digest Examiner.com -Daily Beast -U.S. News & World Report all 4,145 news articles »

A gorgeous long-haired black Persian cat named Yuri very patiently demonstrates to his human, Alexandre de Matos, the best way in which he prefers to be petted.

via Daily Picks and Flicks

Clarkson summed up the trip with his long-held opinion: “Don’t go to America!”. The team would later return to America in Series 12, Episode 2, the 2010 US East Coast Road Trip and Series 19, Episode 2.

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Donatello Game Boy ⊟

To quote Juicy J, “All this green in my pockets, you could call it turtle power.” Fitting tributes to the best turtle from the arcade game. The fanart comes from Thomas Mikkelsen, while the Game Boy mod is from Balkani.

BUY Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles junk, upcoming games

Yes, yes, he carries Glamdring, too, but shh. Shh. (via Geeks Are Sexy)

• The achievements for Alien: Isolation have leaked. I couldn’t help but notice there’s a no-kill achievement, which is the best news I’ve had all day. It’s like the cherry on the stealth game sundae. (via Uproxx)
• Lori Petty — aka the woman whose appearance caused my partner to scream “TANK GIRL!” while I was watching my favorite Netflix series — will be returning to Orange Is The New Black next season. (via Digital Spy)

Behold this edible wonder, created by Tattooed Bakers. (via Between the Pages)

• A selfie taken by a crested black macaque is currently at the center of a copyright dispute. Who owns a photo taken by a monkey? (via Tech Times)
• Time Magazine notes that though Game of Thrones ended in June, approximately 300,000 pirated downloads of the series take place every day.

She may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts, kid. And by “it,” I mean “soft plushy filling.” On sale at ThinkGeek, alongside X-Wings and AT-ATs. (via Boing Boing)

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YouTuber waterskizone has a pet macaw named Vito that loves to fly. But where another parrot might be perfectly content to stretch its wings circling above a field, Vito, it seems, has a distinct preference for the open road – especially when his owner comes along for the ride.

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"A hickster is just a hipster who decides to become a hick, who finally gets driven out of the city by high rents and relocates to the countryside. And then he thinks about starting a restaurant."

Recognizing the value in its aggregated data, Strava — one of the better-loved activity tracking apps — recently made the decision to sell its data to city governments looking to know more about how residents move through their streets.

mucholderthen:

Our Favorite Orbits Are Getting Crowded With Space Junk
And scientists aren’t sure what to do about it
The Atlantic  ||  Josh Kramer

Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

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Big Dumb Skulls is a blog with a simple but brilliant concept. Guided by the mysterious Council of the Elders of the Skull ("a nine-man cabal nestled in an underground bunker somewhere in Luxembourg"), each day the Friars Wagner and Johnsen unveils a new skull cover, takes a look at the artwork, and gives a quick review of the music.

The writing is often hilarious and the put-downs are legendary ("This fucking band. God damned DevilDriver"). The Friars share a deep love of metal, and have a keen eye for some of the dumber clichés associated with it. I'm working my way through the Skullection from SKULL1, learning about metal albums I never ever want to hear, and the often tragic plight of the skulls adorning them. Like SKULL459 below.


The skull:
Let this be a lesson to sleepy skulls everywhere: no matter how tired you are, DO NOT lie down for a nap in a drippy limestone cave. You drift off for a couple decades of well-deserved rest and when you wake up, you’re fucking fossilized to the ground, with nothing to do but wait for some asshat paleontologist to show up and dig you out. And if one of your skull buddies finds you while you’re sleeping, you can be sure when you wake up there’ll be a dick drawn on your dome, in Sharpie no less. You’ll never live that shit down.

The music:
When I started spinning this disc, I was immediately reminded of Meathook Seed’s excellent, underrated debut, Embedded, which was built on weird, slinky riffs, jarring transitions, and a sort of willful inexactitude. No one ever made another album like Embedded, and I’m not saying that Cauldron Black Ram finally have. Nor am I suggesting that Cauldron Black Ram were influenced at all by that one odd Mitch Harris side project, but they have clearly arrived at a similarly strange notion of death metal (minus the keyboards and drum machine, though). Without sounding deliberately old fashioned, Cauldron Black Ram have made an album that evokes the spirit and dare I say curiosity that used to animate at least some small sliver of the death metal scene. Unquantized, only as tight as you can get from rehearsal, and defiantly mid-gain, Stalagmire is death metal freed from the horse-race demands of brutality, speed, and technicality that have nearly ruined the genre in the last decade. If it’s not as good as 2014′s leading contender for death metal album of the year, Morbus Chron’s Sweven, there’s also no shame in that second place finish. Cauldron Black Ram have been around forever, but I’d never heard them before now, and for sure I’ll be working my way backwards to determine when it was they got so good.
— Friar Johnsen

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who love delving into history and those who prefer to focus on the present and future. (Of course, I don’t really believe that there are only two kinds of people, but it is such a convenient saying.) My problem is that I am forever wanting […]

AsiaOne

Birthday bash for US National Zoo panda cub Bao Bao AsiaOne Bao Bao, a 44-pound female panda bear cub, is seen in the panda exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington August 23, 2014. Bao Bao celebrated a rare 1st birthday with a special cake and traditional Chinese gifts at the Smithsonian National ... TOP PHOTOS: August 23, 2014San Angelo Standard Times Bao Bao the Panda turns 1KTXL National Zoo celebrates panda's first birthdayWashington Post all 130 news articles »

New York Daily News

Man shot dead backstage at Wiz Khalifa concert in California New York Daily News A man was fatally shot backstage at a Wiz Khalifa concert in California, police said. The unidentified 38-year-old victim was shot multiple times during a confrontation backstage at Mountain View's Shoreline Amphitheatre around 11 p.m. Friday. He died at a ... Rapper Wiz Khalifa Terminates California Concert Subsequent to Serious ...iStreet Research all 250 news articles »

While we eagerly await tonight’s premiere of Doctor Who Season 8, Peter Capaldi is here to tide you over with a chat about his favorite Who villains and his absolute love of the show.

[Spoilers only if you haven't already heard which villains are showing up this season, or don't want to know.]

While speaking during a press conference on the Doctor Who World Tour’s NYC stop, Capaldi was asked about his previous appearance on the show (in “The Fires of Pompeii”) and if he was, at that time, thinking about being the Doctor.  His answer revealed his inner fanboy.

I wasn’t thinking about being the next Doctor. I mean, I was just delighted to be in the show because I love the show. I just remembered the other day when I turned up and I met David [Tennant], I knew him before – but when I went to the set I said, “Where’s the TARDIS?” I was really [laughter] excited, where is the TARDIS? He said it’s over there and it was a great cloth in this – because we were in a Roman chamber. I just went over and I remember touching it. You know, the box, the police box. And I thought this is, and I got a little bit teary looking at it! But that’s because I love the show. I never really thought, I mean, first of all, I was surprised even to be in that episode. Because although I had enjoyed Doctor Who when it came back, I hadn’t really worked with the people who were involved with the show, and I didn’t really feel that it was something that I would ever be in, in any way, shape, or form. So I was thrilled to be in that episode. And I always thought anyway, you know, I was always interested when they were changing Doctors. But I never really thought they would come to me. It seemed to be something that was not a direction they would be going in.

But now, the reality has hit him. “Every day it’s like, it’s full of moments that you go, ‘Oh wow, I’m The Doctor, this is amazing.’ But think of the first time you make your escape through a ventilation shaft! [laughter] It’s quite special.”

Though Steven Moffat though he knew exactly when Capaldi’s Whovian self came out:

Moffat: I know the moment, Peter, I know the moment when you felt it, it was, I think –

Capaldi: What was that?

Moffat: Just from watching the rushes is when you go, “Cyberman!” [laughter] Oh yes, this man is happy.

Capaldi added another experience, with a different villain:

I have to say, the moment when the Daleks – when I heard my first conversation with a Dalek was extraordinary. Because you sort of think you know all about Daleks and you’ve watched them since you were a kid, and also the guys – it’s not giving anything away to say there’s a man inside a Dalek. [laughter] And also there’s another man with a little control box controlling all the lights and then there’s another man who does the voice who stands around the corner, and you think they’re sort of all over the place here and and the man who’s inside the Dalek, Barnaby, who’s our top Dalek man, who like most of our monster people – they tend to be ex-dancers. So they have an elegance about them, “Would you like to run the scene?” He said. And I would say, “Yeah – but there’s no Dalek here.” And he said “No, but my eye is at the exact same height as the Dalek’s eye, so if you look into my eyes, you’ll be looking into the eye of a Dalek.” [laughter] So I looked into his eye and we did this – so that was great. But then finally they brought the prop and Nick who’s a sort of amiable big nice man got this microphone out and then the man started off the switch. And so they went, “DOCTOR!” like that.

“It was really something,” he continued, “I thought – wow. I actually swore with delight. [laughter] It’s pretty amazing when it comes together. And then it goes off and it bumps into the wall. [laughter]”

“There’s a comedy beneath the scenes, I think,” added co-star Jenna Coleman. “You call it and then you’re just taking to the alien, like, “So plans this weekend?”

Then Capaldi shared one last humorous tidbit about working with super serious aliens. “The monster once was very tall and very, very scary. And I said, “What have you been doing recently?” And he said, “I’m a White Walker from Game of Thrones.’ I go ‘Wow!’ [laughter] I said ‘Tell me about that.’”

(image ©BBC AMERICA/Amy Sussman)

Previously on the Doctor Who Tour

• The Doctor Who World Tour Stopped in NYC and We Spoke With Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, & Steven Moffat
• Steven Moffat Discusses the Good and the Bad of Online Fandom on the Doctor Who World Tour
• Peter Capaldi Appears on The One Show, Answers Jenna Coleman Exit Rumors

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Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

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Peter Schorsch, a blogger

A new meta-analysis published in Psychological Science throws a bucket of cold water on the "10,000-hour rule" – the idea that "deliberate practice" of any skill for 10,000 hours is sufficient to make you an expert at that skill. Fiona Rutherford breaks down the results over at NewStatesman.

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The Inquisitr

St. Louis Cop Dan Page Suspended After Video Of Racist Rant Emerges The Inquisitr St. Louis Police Officer Dan Page, who gained notoriety for pushing Don Lemon during a live broadcast from Ferguson, Mo. last week, has been relieved of duty after video emerged of a speech he gave in which he railed against African-Americans, the LGBT ... and more »

Kari Byron, Tory Belleci and Grant Imahara of the hit Discovery Channel series “MythBusters” will not be returning for a 2015 season. Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman made the heartbreaking announcement at the end of their episode on Thursday, Aug. 21, to confirm that the trio is leaving the science entertainment program.

The whole movie consists of shiny hot rods and dick wounds, like an 11-year-old and his grumpy grandpa playing GI Joes together.

Oakland, California, has lifted its long-standing ban on pinball machines, making it legal to play pinball in the city for the first time in almost 80 years. Oakland's ban stretches back to the 1930s, when several cities in the United States adopted...

White hat hacker Ben Caudill is halfway through his sandwich when he casually reaches over to his iPhone, swipes the screen a few times, then holds it up to me. “Is that you?” he asks. A few minutes ago I gave Caudill my personal e-mail address, and that was all he needed to discover my secret in the middle of a Palo Alto diner, while eating a BLT.