firehose

humoristics:

 

teenage-vices:

ieuanlee:

Opal formation in fossilized wood.

Omfg

Rap Genius is ditching the "rap" part of its name. The company that started as a website where users could annotate and explain hip-hop lyrics is about much more than music these days. It's now a platform (or "knowledge project" in the words of its bumptious co-founders) that lets visitors share their interpretations of poetry, current news headlines, and a growing list of "everything else." So its creators have decided that it's time for a name that mirrors their ambitious focus.

"Genius does for everything what Rap Genius did for rap," Ben Horowitz, an early Rap Genius investor, said in a statement today. Describing the internet as "the greatest store of knowledge in human history," co-founders Tom Lehman and Ilan Zechory claim that people often gloss over the web's content "without ever diving in." Thats where Genius and its annotations come in, apparently. "We believe that an internet that is Genius-powered will help us all realize the richness and depth in every line of text." The company wants to see "Genius" morph into a verb used between friends in the same way "Google" did.

Embeddable annotations are coming

As part of that push to create a full-on platform, Genius will soon allow other websites to embed its technology and build annotatable pages of their own. A good demonstration of how those tools work can be seen at Business Insider, which just published an inside look at Genius and its rocky road getting to this point. The company has endured a brush with Google over questionable SEO practices, and in late May Lehman and Zechory fired fellow co-founder Mahbod Moghadam after he published tone-deaf annotations regarding the manifesto of mass killer Eliot Rodger. But now the company says it's ready to push forward. True to their signature style, Lehman and Zechory were a bit more emphatic about it.

Rap Genius, founded by lovers, began as but a woeful ballad to Cam’ron’s eyebrow. But the intervening years have morphed us into soldiers, full of strange oaths, and that is how we stand before you today, ready to pursue our mission of global annotation with renewed vigor.

Critically acclaimed comic book series Locke & Key has had a surprisingly difficult time making the leap to anything other than a comic book, but it’s usually a good sign that a project is actually going to really happen once a writer is brought on board. OK, it could easily still fall apart like every other attempt at a Locke & Key adaptation, but let’s not think about that.

As revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, Universal has hired Henry Poole Is Here writer Albert Torres to put together a screenplay for its movie version of Locke & Key. Torres doesn’t have too many credits on his IMDB page, but THR says he worked on a draft of the ill-conceived Akira remake that Hollywood seems to think people want for some reason. Thankfully, though, Locke & Key already takes place in America, so there’ll be no reason to inexplicably change its ...

Never thought it would really happen after all the bitterness when he left, from the infamous Gilbert letter to the videos of burning jerseys.

But its happened. And now that it has, Cleveland's future looks insanely bright. Lebron james still in his prime, one of the best young pg's in the game in Kyrie Irving, and a ton of young assets and picks including the last two number one picks. Word is there may be a Kevin Love for Wiggins trade in the works--and a Lebron-Love-Irving trio would be an even stronger title contender than Miami was back when Lebron first went to South Beach.

This also kicks off a crazy domino effect. In addition to Love, Bosh will likely jump to Houston, and Melo may even reevaluate coming back to New York.

This also sets up a shitload of Return of the King/King in the North jokes.

By Alec Meer on July 11th, 2014 at 3:00 pm.

Our ancient, titanic oak doors have creaked open once again, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun very much wants to give somebody a job. Yes indeed – we are in search of one brave soul to send to the heart of the sun on a one-way mission to save our solar system. Is that you?

Oh, well, we’re also looking for a new junior reporter for the site. Is that you?

We want to add a writer to our ranks, you see, in a full-time, paid, entry-level position. Someone who offers a new, fresh voice. Someone to train in the ways of RPS righteousness. Someone to post news and Wot I Thinks and features and interviews and all sorts (and perhaps even dabble in some video). Someone with enthusiasm for and insight about a wide variety of PC games. Someone who will develop and grow as a writer during their time on the site.

We have no idea what that person looks like, sounds like or smells like, or what their origin story is. That’s why this is exciting for us: there could be anyone out there. Fluency in English is vital, but other than that we’re pretty much open to anything.

If you’d like to apply, this is what you need to do.

1. Write a brief covering letter saying who you are, how to contact you, what you’ve done previously (if relevant), what sorts of PC games you’re into and what types of writing you think you could do for the site, plus links to any relevant previous writing. Please bear in mind that this part of the application is to tell us about you, not to show off your writing skills

2. Include your CV/resume, but don’t fuss too much about previous jobs if they’re not relevant. Brevity is a virtue.

3. Write an article of no more than 300 words in length about a PC game or PC gaming. This should be a new article, and appropriate for Rock, Paper, Shotgun, not something pre-existing.

Email all that to this address by July 25th 2014. Then wait patiently.

Please be aware that failing to follow one, some or all of these instructions means we’ll immediately dropkick your application into the nearest ocean. No excuses.

Thank you, we look forwards to hearing from you, and good luck.

My wife is a big pinball fan; particularly the Addams Family table, which she spent many hours playing in her youth.

Well, she just ran into the room to tell me that the news she's been waiting for for a long time have finally broken out: The guys at Pinball Arcade have sorted out the necessary licensing legalities and will be soon releasing a Kickstarter to fund a virtual Addams Family table for Pinball Arcade!

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2014/...ita/#sf3673679

I thought there may be some fans here who will rejoice as well. :)

Warning: This video contains disturbing imagery.

"This is not just jabs, they are hooks. Those are lights-out punches. Those aren’t like taps. You see it, you heard it. It was like ‘thump, thump, thump’ and then you see her head bouncing ‘bam, bam’ on the concrete. Then you hear her screaming, ‘No, don’t, stop.’ Then you even—at the end where she has her hands up like this—when it’s clear there is no more resistance, he takes another four or five shots."

That's how motorist David Diaz described the incident he recorded with his phone of a homeless African American woman being beaten by a white California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer alongside a Southern California highway.

The assault—which has generated millions of hits on YouTube and elsewhere—has prompted protests seeking justice, politicians demanding a federal inquiry, threats of lawsuits, and outrage against the CHP. The reaction virtually aligns with what happened in the immediate aftermath of the taped beating of Rodney King in 1991, when King's attack by Los Angeles Police Department officers went viral via a different means: the television.

Seinfeld is not without its share of controversial episodes, chiefly by design. But one episode that was conceived in late 1990 was deemed too dark to even film by the show's cast, leading to it being scrapped at the last minute. The story behind that never-made episode, "The Bet," was first recounted by the cast and writers on the DVD commentary for season two. More recently, the writer of the episode, Larry Charles, and its would-be director, Tom Cherones, reminisced about what went wrong to ScreenCrush.

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As Charles explains, the episode's central storylines centered around Elaine buying a gun to defend herself and Kramer telling Jerry and George he joined the "mile high club" with a flight attendant. The titular "Bet" was one between Jerry, who believed Kramer's story, and George, who did not. Charles said that during the course of the episode, Kramer's first name was revealed to be "Conrad," not the "Cosmo" that was exposed later on.

But the most incendiary scene — the one that had both Julia Louis-Dreyfus and director Cherones vocally objecting to filming the episode at all — was one in which Dreyfus's character Elaine would have pointed the gun at her head in various places, mimicking shooting herself while referencing Presidential assassinations such as "the Kennedy." To this day, both Charles and Cherones disagree about whether or not Seinfeld ever could have gotten away with an episode poking fun at gun ownership in such fashion. Luckily for the series, the episode that was hastily written to replace this one — the series ninth — was the beloved one "The Phone Message." Read the full story behind the story at ScreenCrush.

YouPorn put out feelers today to see if any Dota 2, League of Legends or Hearthstone eSports teams are interested in being sponsored by the free, video-sharing porn site.

"Do we have any competitive LoL, DOTA2, or HeartStone [sic] players following us? What do you think about YouPorn sponsoring a team?" the official YouPorn Twitter account (NSFW) tweeted.

Dozens of YouPorn's Twitter followers responded with encouragement ("DO IT!"), disapproval ("hell no") and disappointment that the offer didn't extend to Blizzard Entertainment's real-time strategy game, StarCraft 2 ("No SC2? WTf...").

Dota 2, League of Legends and Hearthstone tournaments have been known to attract millions of viewers, many of whom tune in from around the world via live video streams. The League of Legends finals famously sold out the Staples Center in Los Angeles last year, with more than 10,000 people attending the tournament. The prize for first place was $1 million.

Valve's The International Dota 2 world championship is currently taking place and you can follow Polygon's coverage of the tournament.

We have reached out to YouPorn for comment.

One gaming's most enduring tunes, the Super Mario Bros. theme reaches heretofore unknown heights of groove and danceability in the hands of DJ Jazzy Jeff and Questlove. Jeff challenged electronic artist Jeremy Ellis to a beat duel on the classic song at Philadelphia's Welcome America Jam last week.

Let us know who you think came out on top in comments, but until we see Uncle Phil repeatedly tossing Ellis out of his Bel Air mansion, Jeff will always be tops in our hearts.

Free Webinar - Do Young White Men Fit the Label "Old Boys Club"?

Join us as we explore the generational changes that impact dominant white male culture and diversity and inclusion efforts. Bill Proudman will lead the webinar. He'll be joined by Noah Prince of Symbiotic Concepts and Joseph Rich of Rockwell Automation. 
 
Wednesday, April 9, 8:00 a.m. pacific/10:00 a.m. central/11 a.m. eastern

Register in Advance, Free to Attend.Contact Cynthia Nielsen 503-502-2478 or cynthianielsen@wmfdp.com