firehose

conspiracytheorist79:

RT @Nick_Anderson_’s #EditorialCartoon “Doublespeak…”
‪#‎HobbyLobby‬ ‪#‎SCOTUS‬

1984.

archiecomics:

USA TODAY reveals ARCHIE’s NEW superhero line DARK CIRCLE COMICS! More information here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2014/07/10/archie-comics-dark-circle-superhero-exclusive/12483965/

With good writers!

hodad

#SOUNDSTUDIES

Updated

Every now and then a scholarly journal retracts an article because of errors or outright fraud. In academic circles, and sometimes beyond, each retraction is a big deal.

Now comes word of a journal retracting 60 articles at once.

The reason for the mass retraction is mind-blowing: A “peer review and citation ring” was apparently rigging the review process to get articles published.

You’ve heard of prostitution rings, gambling rings and extortion rings. Now there’s a “peer review ring.”

The publication is the Journal of Vibration and Control (JVC). It publishes papers with names like “Hydraulic engine mounts: a survey” and “Reduction of wheel force variations with magnetorheological devices.”

The field of acoustics covered by the journal is highly technical:

Analytical, computational and experimental studies of vibration phenomena and their control. The scope encompasses all linear and nonlinear vibration phenomena and covers topics such as: vibration and control of structures and machinery, signal analysis, aeroelasticity, neural networks, structural control and acoustics, noise and noise control, waves in solids and fluids and shock waves.

JVC is part of the SAGE group of academic publications.

Here’s how it describes its peer review process:

[The journal] operates under a conventional single-blind reviewing policy in which the reviewer’s name is always concealed from the submitting author.
All manuscripts are reviewed initially by one of the Editors and only those papers that meet the scientific and editorial standards of the journal, and fit within the aims and scope of the journal, will be sent for peer review.  Generally, reviews from two independent referees are required.

An announcement from SAGE published July 8 explained what happened, albeit somewhat opaquely.

In 2013, the editor of JVC, Ali H. Nayfeh, became aware of people using “fabricated identities” to manipulate an online system called SAGE Track by which scholars review the work of other scholars prior to publication.

Attention focused on a researcher named Peter Chen of the National Pingtung University of Education (NPUE) in Taiwan and “possibly other authors at this institution.”

After a 14-month investigation, JVC determined the ring involved “aliases” and fake e-mail addresses of reviewers — up to 130 of them — in an apparently successful effort to get friendly reviews of submissions and as many articles published as possible by Chen and his friends. “On at least one occasion, the author Peter Chen reviewed his own paper under one of the aliases he created,” according to the SAGE announcement.

The statement does not explain how something like this happens. Did the ring invent names and say they were scholars? Did they use real names and pretend to be other scholars? Doesn’t anyone check on these things by, say, picking up the phone and calling the reviewer?

In any case, SAGE and Nayfeh confronted Chen to give him an “opportunity to address the accusations of misconduct,” the statement said, but were not satisfied with his responses.

In May, “NPUE informed SAGE and JVC that Peter Chen had resigned from his post on 2 February 2014.”

Each of the 60 retracted articles had at least one author and/or one reviewer “who has been implicated in the peer review” ring, said a separate notice issued by JVC.

Efforts by The Washington Post to locate and contact Chen for comment were unsuccessful.

The whole story is described in a publication called “Retraction Watch” under the headline: “SAGE Publications busts ‘peer review and citation ring.’”

“This one,” it said, “deserves a ‘wow.’”

Update: Some additional information from the SAGE statement: “As the SAGE investigation drew to a close, in May 2014 Professor Nayfeh’s retirement was announced and he resigned his position as Editor-in-Chief of JVC….Three senior editors and an additional 27 associate editors with expertise and prestige in the field have been appointed to assist with the day-to-day running of the JVC peer review process. Following Professor Nayfeh’s retirement announcement, the external senior editorial team will be responsible for independent editorial control for JVC.”

Note to readers: Thanks for pointing out my grammatical error. No excuses.

Original Source

In spite of protests and petitions from over four thousand concerned patrons, the Singapore National Library Board is moving ahead on plans to pulp three picture-books that depict non-traditional families–all at the urging of a single bigot.

The National Library Board’s official statement says that the three books in question were not “age appropriate,” stating “NLB’s understanding of family is consistent with that of the Ministry of Social and Family Development and the Ministry of Education” in Singapore, where gay sex is illegal. The “age inappropriate” picture books in question are And Tango Makes Three, the true story of two male penguins in the Central Park Zoo that are given “an egg in need of nurturing,” The White Swan Express: A Story About Adoption, “objectionable” for its portrayal of gay adoptive parents, and Who’s in my family?, in which different families come together for a day at the zoo. 

According to Boing Boing, the books’ destruction appears to be largely the work of Teo Kai Loon, an “activist” involved in “We Are Against Pinkdot In Singapore,” a Facebook group that protests the LGBT community. On July 8th, Loon posted a since-deleted comment on Facebook in which he quoted chief librarian of the NLB Ai Cheng as saying the library takes “strong pro-family stand in selecting books for children,” and “when library visitors like yourself [Teo] highlight to us any conflicting content within books, we review such books thoroughly and withdraw them from circulation.”

In the post, Loon then called for other members of the hate group to “continue to scrutinise the catalogue and not allow such children books to go under the radar screen,” saying the NLB acts on complaints “within two days.” If Loon is as responsible as he claims for the books’ destruction, then his call for others to join the homophobic crusade is a scary indication of what the near future of the NLB might look like–and while I’m tempted to react to Loon’s victory with gratitude that I live in a country where the “understanding of family” is generally more inclusive, And Tango Makes Three is also on the American Library Association’s list of most-protested books.

If anyone has a Night Vale librarian available to sic on Loon and anyone else that spends their days censoring the children’s section of their local library, now’s as good a time as any.

(via BBC)

Previously in leave! books! alone!

• City shuts down free library built by nine-year-old
• Judy Blume reminds us all to read whatever we want
• China arrests 20 slash fanfic authors for writing homosexual content

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designboom:

mandy smith + hal kirkland paper cut participants with guillotine

experience history’s most famous death apparatus here.

A bill signed into law on Wednesday finally declared that a two-block stretch of West 121st Street was named George Carlin Way. But it was supposed to be only one block — and not the one once home to Mr. Carlin, and still home to the Corpus Christi Church.

Christina Farr’s Reuters article is pretty bad, as helpfully detailed by John Gruber. Apple’s accessibility support leads the industry by a mile.

But the actual issue, buried in the sloppy article, is legitimate:

But when apps don’t work, life can grind to a stop. Jonathan Lyens, a San Francisco city employee, who is legally blind, has a hard time browsing jobs on professional networking site LinkedIn.

“The app is insane. Buttons aren’t labeled. It’s difficult to navigate,” said Lyens. When it comes to social media apps, new problems arise with every release, he said. “I get nervous every time I hit the update button.” …

Now, Apple and Google both have developer guidelines on how to make features accessible, such as labeling buttons that can be read by Apple’s VoiceOver software.

But they don’t require accessibility, in contrast to other strictly enforced rules, such as a ban on apps that present crude or objectionable content. Nor do they offer an accessibility rating system, which some disabled advocates say would be a big help.

Apps with standard UIs get most accessibility for free, Apple doesn’t reject apps for inaccessibility, and most customers don’t rely on accessibility tools, so most developers never hear about accessibility problems.

In the rush to get apps and updates out the door, it’s easy to forget to test every UI change with VoiceOver. I’ve certainly forgotten many times.

But while accessibility problems only affect a small percentage of an app’s userbase, their impact can be extremely damaging or fatal to those customers’ ability to use the app.

Accessibility failures should be embarrassments to all developers because they’re usually very easy to fix. For most problems, you just need to add label text to a custom control or image button. Rare “complex” issues are usually less than an hour’s work.

I try hard to get accessibility right… when I remember to. My triple-tap home-button shortcut is always mapped to VoiceOver so I can easily test. I include VoiceOver users in betas whenever possible and had an extremely valuable and insightful accessibility review in the WWDC labs this year. But I still occasionally ship unlabeled buttons, hidden-view clutter, or inaccessible custom views.

Poor or broken accessibility is exactly the sort of problem that Apple’s App Review team should check for: many developers forget to test it, it’s easy for Apple to quickly test when reviewing each app, and it’s easy to fix.

It’s even more clear when considering the customers’ point of view. App Review assures customers of minimum quality and security standards so they feel comfortable buying apps, and we all benefit from it. The App Store Review Guidelines are quite clear on the basics:

2.2 Apps that exhibit bugs will be rejected

2.3 Apps that do not perform as advertised by the developer will be rejected

Of course. Customers should know that they’re getting what’s promised.

But those rules aren’t applied to accessibility. For a customer who uses VoiceOver, rows of unlabeled buttons and inescapable screens are “bugs”, and an app with inaccessible features certainly does not “perform as advertised”.

This sucks for everyone: Apple, developers, and most of all, customers relying on accessibility aides who unknowingly pick a bad app, can’t do what they need, and now can’t trust the App Store with future purchases.

Requiring all apps and games to be completely accessible is probably infeasible. But that’s not the only option. My proposed fix:

1. Allow developers to opt into accessibility testing for each submission in iTunes Connect. Put it on the screen that asks about cryptography so all developers must answer it and are made aware of it.

2. Show a small badge on each app’s page in the Store that passes accessibility testing. This helps customers make buying decisions for their needs.

   Passing requires all advertised functionality to be accessible, all accessible controls to have accurate labels, and no navigational traps such as inescapable screens or stuck states.

3. If a user has VoiceOver enabled while downloading an app that has not been tested for accessibility, or while updating a previously tested app to to an untested version, show a warning dialog and ask them to confirm whether they still want to proceed. This helps them and gives developers a good reason to opt into accessibility testing.

There’s definitely more Apple can do to address this very real problem, and a system like this would make a huge difference.

Okay, to be fair: We probably should have seen this coming. But we didn't. In this week's Mercury, Elinor Jones reviewed A Brony Tale, a documentary about bronies. I recommend reading the whole review, but it's the last part of it that's earning the ire of bronies:

Sure, most of the bronies we meet in the film are sincere nerds who love being a part of something that promotes kindness and friendship, and part of me feels like a little bit of an asshole (and maybe Ashleigh is one, too) for having dismissed bronydom the second I heard of it.

HOWEVER—big however—if the purpose of A Brony Tale is to show us that bronies are somehow not weird, it doesn't work. The inherent ick factor is unavoidable, even though A Brony Tale touches on it only briefly—as one guy recounts how judged he feels by mothers of daughters when he hangs out in the little-girl aisle of the toy store. Like it's the mom's problem that he looks out of place. Dude. No. Get that you are a visitor in a space that is not meant for you, and don't be surprised if a mom doesn't want to let you talk to her daughter about tiny sparkled horses.

That seems totally fair to me—but I'll also be the first to admit I'm not particularly well-versed in brony culture. But as someone who likes a lot of things that most people think are for kids—comic books, Harry Potter, videogames—I can imagine that if you're a grown man who's passionately in love with My Little Pony, it probably gets a little tiring to always get made fun of.

And while I'm normally inclined to say, "Just let people like what they like, and remember that pretty much every person is into something that everybody else thinks is incredibly stupid," I can totally see why a mom wouldn't be comfortable with a grown man wanting to talk to her little girl about My Little Pony. The comments on Elinor's offer a range of brony perspectives; they are also making me think way more about bronies than I thought I would today. Or ever.

We have the furious criticisms, from "otaku4242":

you know, I created an account JUST so I could call you out on the huge amount of STUPIDITY you have. Seriously, what the FUCK is wrong with you, how dare you say such horrible things about us bronies.

you know, normally I would love and tolerate the shit out of you, but considered you had to post an ENTIRE ARTICLE, no, I give no forgiveness to sexist haters like you.
have you even SEEN brony statistics? do you know ANYTHING about us? HAVE YOU EVEN SEEN THE SHOW?

no, of course not, because you don't do your research, because you judge entire fanbase based on a few bad apples. guess what, EVERY FANDOM HAS BAD APPLES!

and if you are truly, TRULY man enough to reply to this upon reading it, I expect an apology, because NOONE likes people like you, NOPONY wants to go to equestriadaily and be reminded that there are IGNORANT SNOBS like you out there.

GOOD DAY SIR! (Via.)

And we have the calmer ones, from "adkscherch":

I liked this documentary, and I don't mind seeing a negative review of it. People have different opinions, and I respect that. That said, I'm disappointed at the statements used both by some of my fellow bronies in the comments as well as by the author in her final paragraph.

To the author: I don't have a problem with people still feeling off about bronies. It certainly looks odd from the outside, depending on your level of open-mindedness to the idea. One of my best friends still hates bronies, but when it comes to a review in a publication I see no reason for why you needed to use the phrasing you did. Your last few statements sound much more like a personal attack on the guy telling him to stay in his "proper place". There are other ways to express your distaste for the idea than trying to make a personal attack on one of the interviewees.

To some of the bronies here: I get it's frustrating to read some parts of this article, but shouting out your anger and throwing harsh words around doesn't help our case. We can express disagreement without yelling and being super angry about it. Let's not try to make our public image any worse. (Via.)

Anyway: Bronies! All you ever wanted to read about them is here.

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

LeBron.com won't help you ... unless you're hiring.

With rumors swirling that LeBron James' next career move may be reported at his personal website, LeBronJames.com is struggling. Meanwhile, LeBron.com is alive and well. Go ahead, visit it. If for some reason you can't click the link, here's what one finds at the domain containing the first name of a world-class athlete:

Yup, a golf-loving internet entrepreneur (RateMyProfessors.com! Great website! Thanks!) from Baltimore named Patrick Nagle bought that domain and rerouted it to his LinkedIn page like a CHAMP. His interests include:

Indeed. Hire this man.

(hat tip: J.D. Hastings)

You got your American football in my rugby! You got your rugby in my American football!

See, this is what happens when you allow an American to play rugby. They start passing the damn ball like they're a bunch of hopped-up quarterbacks or something.

Yes, this is a clip from last year. But the incredulity of the broadcast team is TIMELESS.

"Well, what's -- What on earth was ... "

[laughter]

"Well, it's worked!"

You see that, rugby nerds? American football: it works.

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

McGruber writes In a letter to the U.S. Federal Communication Commission and the Department of Justice, Senator Al Franken warned that letting AT&T acquire Direct TV could turn AT&T into a gatekeeper to the mobile Internet. Franken also complained that AT&T took inappropriate steps to block Internet applications like Google Voice and Skype: "AT&T has a history of skirting the spirit, and perhaps the letter' of the government's rules on net neutrality, Franken wrote."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

A cosplay challenge that comes up regularly is how to make non-metallic surfaces look like metal. There’s always paint or covering foam with metallic spandex, but it’s hard to get a mirror finish that looks exactly like metal. Designer Kay Pike recently shared an idea that makes perfect sense though: auto body vinyl wrap. The material is incredibly shiny, and since it’s thin, the vinyl wrap can be applied to any surface. It works on fabric, thermal plastics, clay, etc. You only need the vinyl car wrap (which comes in a wide variety of colors), scissors, and a heat gun to shape the wrap around whatever you want to look metallic.

See more information about using the material on Facebook.

via Geek x Girls

princelesscomic:

tut557:

towritecomicsonherarms:

professorthorgi:

I just have to say what’s so great about this sequence. For years the reason I heard people saying Storm couldn’t be given her own book was because her powers couldn’t exactly be used in a fight. I heard people saying her powers work well more for support, or just to hit really big targets, and this sequence is so great because it just disproves all of that in one page. Not only does it show off that Storm is indeed a skilled martial artist, skilled enough to take out Calypso and Cyclops with just good old fashion hand to hand combat, but she then uses her powers to flip a freaking tank and take out an army. This sequence disproves every complaint that I heard about a possible Storm series over the years and I can’t wait to read it. 

yup yup

I always thought she was awesome and could do anything she wanted! For god’s sake she controls the fuking weather. Anoying vilan?.. bumm thunder. Annoying Army? Bum hurricane! Since when that is suport?

Storm’s only real restrictions are the creativity of her writer and artist.

muspeccoll:

What’s the oldest item in Special Collections? You’re looking at one of them.

This is a composite image that shows all sides and edges of a tablet we refer to as MULC 3 (for lack of a better name).  It dates from around 2100-2000 BCE.

This is an administrative tablet - which basically means that it’s a receipt!  This one details a transfer of livestock, including goats, sheep and cows, received by “Ilībani, dog herder.”  How amazing is it that we know the name of this shepherd who lived 4,000 years ago?

For a translation and transcription, take a look at the tablet’s page in UCLA’s Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative.

#reblog

Police arrested a 26-year-old high-priced call girl from Georgia on Friday after she shot heroin into a Santa Cruz tech executive on his yacht and fled when he overdosed.

Someone made a supercut of all the footage of the Autobots and Decepticons actually battling each other in the first three of Michael Bay's Transformers films. It's a nice highlight reel, but the real story is this: These movies contain less than 5% of giant robot-on-robot action.

Read more...

Awesome singer-songwriter Neko Case got together with Kelly Hogan to make the song "These Aren't the Droids" for the 2776 comedy/music benefit project. A lot of the sight gags are great, but the "geek stuff is for boys" message is a little ... outdated.

Read more...

On July 7, New York became the 23rd US state to legalize medical marijuana. But New Yorkers can’t light up a celebratory joint yet. Indeed, many of those who for years pushed for medical marijuana legalization are complaining that the new law falls far short of what the state’s thousands of patients seeking the drug need.

Here’s why:

Only 10% of patients who could use medical marijuana have the right diseases to qualify for it

There is no consensus amongst scientists, researchers and medical professionals across the country on just how many diseases can be treated with medical marijuana. However, researchers at the Center for Medical Cannabis Research at the University of California-San Diego say that patients that suffer from chronic pain most benefit from the use of medical marijuana.  In the New York Compassionate Care Act, only a few of these chronic pain diseases are approved: cancer, HIV/AIDS, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), Parkinson’s Disease, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord tissue damage, epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease (including Crohn’s Disease, neuropathies and Huntington’s Disease).

According to the Marijuana Policy Project, a national organization focused on marijuana policy reform in the United States, only a tenth of patients—an estimated 5,070 New Yorkers with rare diseases—will be eligible under these restrictions. The New York State Department of Health says that estimate is premature, since the department has the authority to add more diseases to the list.

“The reasons we chose those diseases was because those diseases there is scientific and anecdotal evidence that medical marijuana is beneficial for treatment,” said Dr. Howard Zucker, New York State Commissioner of Health. “We need to start at some point. As we move forward on this, we will conduct more research to see what new diseases we can add and we will modify accordingly.”

New York state can gouge patients on the price 

The law gives the New York State Department of Health the power to establish the bill’s core guidelines, most notably the pricing of the drug, which the state will tax at 7%.

“The New York state law is the first medical marijuana law in the country where the state will have control of the pricing,” says Karen O’Keefe, State Policies Director for the Marijuana Policy Project. “That could waste a lot of money on oversight and possibly create an unfair pricing structure.”

Finding a convenient local weed dispensary won’t be easy

Under the new law, the Department of Health will select five private companies to open up to four dispensaries each. That’s far from enough, says O’Keefe.

“Just five producers is a very small number for such a big state,” she tells Quartz. “Arizona has a population of 6 million but has 98 dispensaries. New York, on the other hand, has a population of 19.5 million and will have 20 dispensaries, creating the lowest per-capita dispensary-population ratio of any medical marijuana state in the country.”

Commissioner Zucker dismisses the criticism that the state’s dispensaries won’t cope with demand.  “We’re working on where we can grow,” he says. “We have to look at the demographics to determine where… If we notice that there’s an area of the state that’s not being well served, we’ll go back to the drawing board.”

It will take a lot of time and paperwork to get a dose of medical marijuana

The law could take up to 18 months to implement. Additionally, the health department will issue registry identification cards to eligible patients and to caregivers who submit valid applications, written certifications and fees of up to $50. Patients will need to renew these cards every year, unless they have a terminal illness. Those without these cards are granted no legal protection.

Patients won’t be able to smoke the stuff

Patients will only be allowed to consume marijuana through food, oils, pills and vapors—not through what users say is the cheapest and most efficient way to consume the drug (as well as the most traditional): smoking it. Advocates say this will force patients who require instant pain relief through inhalation to either risk smoking it illegally or purchase a vaporizer that can often cost hundreds of dollars. Governor Cuomo has said that such provisions were necessary for the bill’s “balance” of risks. The only other US state that allows medical marijuana but prohibits users from smoking the drug is Minnesota.

Zucker says that legalizing more smoking, in any form, was a non-starter for him and for Gov. Cuomo. “We have spent, as a nation, billions of dollars and decades to do everything possible to stop smoking,” he says. “It goes against the ethos of public health to allow smoking when the active ingredient can be provided in other mechanisms. I feel very strongly about this.”

Your doctor may be afraid to prescribe it 

Under the new law, physicians could be charged with a felony for prescribing marijuana to patients who don’t fit the state’s narrow list of eligibility requirements. O’Keefe offers this example of how she fears this could play out: A patient who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, deemed eligible by the state to purchase, could request medical marijuana from their doctor to alleviate the high anxiety that comes from living with the disease. If the doctor then prescribed the medical marijuana for anxiety—and not specifically for the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease—that doctor could be charged with a felony and possibly lose his state license to practice medicine.  “It could create a chilling effect,” O’Keefe says.

It could easily go back to being illegal again

In a state where 83% of voters support medical marijuana, advocates have complained that lawmakers have been slow to act. The bill was the sixth piece of medical marijuana legislation written in recent years, but the only one passed by both houses in the New York state legislature, and that’s only after Gov. Cuomo added last-minute amendments. Among those changes is the governor’s executive power to completely disband the program at any time. Additionally, either Commissioner Zucker as head of the state’s department of health or the New York State Police Superintendent can recommend the program’s end if either deem it a risk to public health or safety.

“But,” Zucker says, “ultimately we believe in the program’s success. The first priority is setting up the regulations to determine what is safe for patients. And as we move forward, we will continue to listen to them and get feedback from them and advice. There’s a little bit of an art to the practice of medicine, and the communications aspect plays a very important part to crafting a law like this.”