firehose
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18 Jun 04:41
1977 BART Icon Redrawn Spent five minutes or so redrawing that...
1977 BART Icon Redrawn
Spent five minutes or so redrawing that awesome 70s BART icon in Illustrator, just because. Grab the Illustrator CS3 or SVG artwork file here if you like. For personal use only, please.
firehose likes this
18 Jun 04:20
lysolwipes: *during a job interview* "Why should we hire you?"
*during a job interview*
"Why should we hire you?"
Tertiarymatt, firehose and -1 others like this
18 Jun 01:20
Paul Wolfowitz & Scooter Libby to teach a class called "The War in Iraq: A Study in Decision-Making"
by djempirical
djempiricalThis is not satire
Some people have earned the right not to be listened to, as James Fallows suggests. Namely, the architects of President Bush's illegitimate and disastrous Iraq War.
Unfortunately, such individuals are not just being granted national airtime to talk about Iraq, credentialed by those mainstream media elites who love to hear from politicians who once had the reins of power.
No, some of them will also be teaching the five-day course pictured below at the Hertog Foundation's Advanced Institute, credentialed by their war crimes and abject failures.
This is not satire:
The Hertog Foundation is offering Wolfowitz and Libby as teachers for "those who seek to influence the intellectual, civic, and political life of the United States." And it is doing so with a straight face, despite the horrific and devastating effects of those decisions Wolfowitz and Libby helped to make.
"The Hertog Advanced Institutes are for individuals who seek to influence the intellectual, civic, and political life of the United States."
Which is why Fallows writes, with regard to the likes of Wolfowitz and Libby:
We now live with (and many, many people have died because of) the consequences of their gross misjudgments a dozen years ago. In the circumstances, they might have the decency to shut the hell up on this particular topic for a while. They helped create the disaster Iraqis and others are now dealing with. They have earned the right not to be listened to.Yes, please. Just shut the hell up already. --§--
18 Jun 00:53
Congress has asked Dr.
by Annalee Newitz
Congress has asked Dr. Oz to stop peddling weight loss "miracle cures" on his show. And the doctor has agreed, after admitting that there is no medical evidence verifying the efficacy of many supplements he promotes, including green coffee beans.
Bunker.jordan, firehose likes this
18 Jun 00:52
Caption: Papier-mache pandas, created by French artist Paulo...
Caption:
Papier-mache pandas, created by French artist Paulo Grangeon, displayed in the arrival hall of the Hong Kong airport on June 9, 2014. The installation arrived in the city on Monday, launching the month-long “1600 Pandas World Tour in Hong Kong: Creativity meets Conservation”.
Photo credit: Reuters/Bobby Yip, found at The Atlantic: InFocus
Russian Sledges, firehose likes this
18 Jun 00:51
Senate Confirms First Openly Gay Black Federal Judge - NBCNews.com
NBCNews.com |
Senate Confirms First Openly Gay Black Federal Judge NBCNews.com The Senate for the first time confirmed an openly gay black man to become a top-level federal judge. By a 98-0 vote Tuesday, senators approved President Barack Obama's choice of Darrin Gayles to join a district court in Florida. Senators also endorsed ... First black, openly gay man confirmed as US federal judgeReuters In a First, Senate Confirms Two Gay Federal JudgesAdvocate.com Senate OKs first openly gay black federal judgeWGEM all 73 news articles » |
Tertiarymatt and -1 others like this
18 Jun 00:51
IRS Lost Emails of 6 More Employees Under Investigation
by Soulskill
phrackthat writes with an update to Friday's news that the IRS cannot locate two years worth of email from Lois Lerner, a central figure in the controversy surrounding the IRS's apparent targeting of Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny. Now, the IRS says there are another six workers for whom the agency cannot locate emails. As with Lerner, they attribute the unrecoverable emails to computer crashes. Among them was Nikole Flax, who was chief of staff to Lerner’s boss, then-deputy commissioner Steven Miller. Miller later became acting IRS commissioner, but was forced to resign last year after the agency acknowledged that agents had improperly scrutinized tea party and other conservative groups when they applied for tax-exempt status. Documents have shown some liberal groups were also flagged. ... Lerner’s computer crashed in the summer of 2011, depriving investigators of many of her prior emails. Flax’s computer crashed in December 2011, Camp and Boustany said. The IRS said Friday that technicians went to great lengths trying to recover data from Lerner’s computer in 2011. In emails provided by the IRS, technicians said they sent the computer to a forensic lab run by the agency’s criminal investigations unit. But to no avail. 
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
ken.elwell and -1 others like this
17 Jun 23:08
Comedian John Oliver Interviews Theoretical Physicist Stephen...
Sofía Henao, Merijn and 8 others like this
17 Jun 23:05
6 Reasons Why "Sleep Dealer" Is The Most Underrated Sci-Fi Film Ever
by hodad
hodadNamedrop:
I’ve been living in Alex’s apartment for the past month while he was in LA making this re-release happen. If you haven’t seen it, check it out.
1. It’s a dystopian epic set in Mexico that deals with the horrors of migrant labor. What other sci-fi film does that?
In this terribly haunting dystopian future, the U.S. has found a way to obtain cheap migrant labor WITHOUT the migrant. Director Alex Rivera creates a gritty world that can only be described as a cross between Blade Runner and Children of Men.
In Sleep Dealer, the U.S. has closed itself off from the world with a fortified wall that makes migration impossible. Migrant workers in the U.S. have been replaced by robots, forcing would-be emigrants to work as robot operators from Tijuana, Mexico, “The City of the Future.” The film follows Memo Cruz, a young migrant worker, who’s forced to become a robot operator to make money that he can send back home to his family.
2. It’s one of the first films to tackle the controversial use of remote-controlled drone strikes.
Early on, Rivera paints a picture of a future in which drone strikes in Mexico are not only a common occurrence, but used for purposes of entertainment. Rudy Ramirez, played by Jacob Vargas, is a military drone pilot who destroys and kills from the comfort of a San Diego office.
Interestingly, the film, which went into production in 2007, “predicted the explosion in drone technology,” according to Rivera, who spoke to BuzzFeed via phone. “I was looking at two big changes happening in the world. One change is that technology was connecting the globe. We were becoming more and more connected by the minute. And yet, borders between places, like the U.S.–Mexico border as one example, were becoming more divided,” he said.
“So I thought of a world where borders were sealed shut but technology deleted all borders. And then you start to get this idea of a person controlling a machine somewhere else. That machine is a drone. Some drones works. Some drones fight. So essentially, you have this world where Mexicans work remotely in the U.S. and you have Americans who work remotely in Mexico. So you’re left with a world where people cross borders digitally. That may sound like a strange idea, but it’s based in the world that we [currently] live in.”
3. Luis Fernando Peña, from critically acclaimed films Sin Nombre and De La Calle, delivers a subtle yet powerful performance as the film’s hero.
Luis Fernando Peña plays Cruz, a Oaxacan in search of the “new American dream,” which means working at a “sleep dealer” factory in Tijuana, operating robot laborers in the U.S. He’s got an innocent charm that slowly erodes as he overworks himself in the factory. Memo Cruz is the migrant hero who’s trapped in this dark steampunk abyss of U.S. capitalism. Peña plays the role with a quiet intensity that draws you in from the second he appears on screen.
4. Memo Cruz is the Luke Skywalker of Sleep Dealer.
“There’s almost no Latinos in the future in film,” said Rivera. “I grew up in a family that was in the process of coming to the U.S. They were dealing with traveling across great distances, overcoming incredible challenges. So when I looked at heroes like Luke Skywalker, in a way I felt they were people like my family. Luke is an immigrant or a refugee. His home is destroyed, he goes on the run, he sneaks into the empire, etc. His journey is very similar to the journey that many of our family members go on when coming to America. But we never see that truth shown on film.”
5. Sleep Dealer is a film that speaks to everyone, from those interested in political affairs to sci-fi enthusiasts.
Even though the film incorporates a heavy sense of social commentary, there’s a lot that a hardcore sci-fi fan will appreciate. Like all great sci-fi films in history, Sleep Dealer asks pertinent questions about the human condition. The film asks the audience to reflect upon their use of current technology. Are we really connecting with one another? Are we losing our sense of human connectivity because of technology? Rivera paints us a future that’s very hard to dismiss as improbable.
6. Even though you may have never heard of this film, it’s an award winner and completely worth the watch.
The film won the Amnesty International Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Award and a screenwriting award at Sundance, and it also won Best Feature at the Neuchâtel International Fantasy Film Festival. The film was also nominated for Best Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards, Sundance, and the Chicago International Film Festival. In other words, this film is awesome.
Sleep Dealer is now available to watch on iTunes. Watch the trailer:
Damiani.guilherme, David Pelaez and 4 others like this
17 Jun 22:56
Enter to Win a A Limited Edition Collector’s “Package” of Penis Museum Documentary The Final Member - Competition will be stiff.
by Rebecca Pahle
Here’s the firm truth: The Final Member (trailer here) is a documentary about penises. Or, well, the world’s only penis museum. Even if you’re not into weird science (or, for that matter, penises), it’s still an excellent, surprisingly heartfelt film about identity, legacy, and obsession. It’s informative and funny to boot. And we’re giving away a copy of the “Collector ‘Package,’”, out on DVD and Blu-ray from Drafthouse Films today. In addition to the film itself, it includes “a signed certificate of authenticity, a penis donation form for the Icelandic Penis Museum and an actual bull penis preserved in a glass jar and sealed with wax.” Every apartment needs one.
To enter, tweet this and only this:
#TalkAboutStiffCompetition: @TheMarySue is giving away a copy of Drafthouse Film’s #TheFinalMember, & I want to win. http://bit.ly/1r2x5rq
with no changes or additions by this Friday, 6/20 at noon EST. You have to be following us on Twitter so we can get in touch with you if you win. We’ll be giving away one copy, DVD or Blu-ray (your choice), to a winner in the US or Canada only.
If “penis museum documentary” didn’t grab you already, here’s The Final Member‘s synopsis from its official site:
Paris has the Louvre, London has the Tate Modern, and New York the Metropolitan Museum. But Husavik, Iceland—a diminutive village on the fringe of the Arctic Circle—boasts the world’s only museum devoted exclusively to painstakingly preserved male genitalia. Founded and curated by Sigurður “Siggi” Hjartarson, the Icelandic Phallological Museum houses four decades worth of mammalian members, from a petite field mouse to the colossal sperm whale, and every “thing” in between. Lamentably, Siggi’s collection lacks the holy grail of phallic phantasmagoria: a human specimen. Siggi’s world changes dramatically when he receives generous offers from an elderly Icelandic Casanova and an eccentric American. However, as the competition for eternal penile preservation heats up between the two men, Siggi soon discovers that this process is more complicated than it initially appeared.
In their debut feature film, Jonah Bekhor and Zach Math follow Siggi on his dogged, often emotional quest to complete his exhibition in a peculiar, yet startlingly relatable, story of self-fulfillment and the value of personal legacies (both big and small).
Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, & Google +?
17 Jun 22:51
Tim Duncan Busy At San Antonio Zoning Office Planning Spurs Championship Parade Route
SAN ANTONIO—Having already filed a special event permit application with the city government, sources confirmed Tuesday that Spurs power forward Tim Duncan has been working diligently at the San Antonio zoning office to finalize the route of the tea...
firehose likes this
17 Jun 22:27
Free? Starbucks tuition program receives criticism - USA TODAY
firehose'Under the program, students must first complete 21 credits at ASU — or seven courses — before they are eligible for a payout.
...
Juniors and seniors will receive $2,420 per semester in this upfront scholarship, and Starbucks will reimburse the difference. Freshmen and sophomores will get a scholarship of $1,267 per semester with no Starbucks reimbursement, The Chronicle reported.
The scholarship represents 22% of tuition costs for freshmen and sophomores and 42% of tuition costs for juniors and seniors, Jaime Riley, Starbucks spokeswoman, said in an e-mail to USA TODAY Network.
The amount students must pay in advance will vary "depending on their major, their course load, the amount of federal financial aid, college financial aid and scholarships they get, if any," according to Riley's e-mail.
"For the majority of students, this amount will be covered by a student loan, so it won't impact their day-to-day cash flow," she said in the e-mail.'
USA TODAY |
Free? Starbucks tuition program receives criticism USA TODAY Starbucks' announcement that it's offering a free college education to all employees did not mention potential obstacles to getting reimbursed. The company said Monday that the program, offered to all 135,000 of its U.S. employees, would give full tuition ... and more » |
17 Jun 22:27
A New Species Of Water Bear Has Been Discovered In Antarctica
by George Dvorsky
Introducing Mopsechiniscus franciscae, a new species of tardigrade — one of the hardiest creatures known to science. It's the first time this genus has been discovered as far south as Antarctica, a find that hints at this remarkable animal's ancient roots.
Russian Sledges, firehose and -1 others like this
17 Jun 22:25
Last time we checked in on Michael Thomasson, the Guinness-certified owner of the world's largest video game collection, his attempts at selling his massive cache of gaming goods had attracted a top bid of $50,000. Now that the auction has ended,...
World's largest game collection draws over $750K at auction
by Earnest Cavalli
Last time we checked in on Michael Thomasson, the Guinness-certified owner of the world's largest video game collection, his attempts at selling his massive cache of gaming goods had attracted a top bid of $50,000. Now that the auction has ended,...
17 Jun 22:24
Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright for $32 ⊟ Two whole...
by 20xx
Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright for $32 ⊟
Two whole universes in one game for just $31.99! What savings! Both GameStop and Amazon have discounted pre-orders of the crossover courtroom game, due August 29.
This seems fairly unusual for a Nintendo-published game, but what isn’t unusual about the situation with this game… Image via Apolloterran, deal via @wario64.
BUY Nintendo 2DS & 3DS/XL, upcoming games
firehose likes this
17 Jun 22:20
Add and share any web page with The Old Reader!
firehoseSHUT UP
AND YOU ALREADY TOOK MY MONEY
We’ve received a large number of requests to add a bookmarklet feature to The Old Reader. Today we are excited to be launching this functionality for our premium users. We will likely roll this functionality out to all users at some point in the future, but do not currently have a timeline in place.
The bookmarklet is quickly and easily added to your browser bookmarks and allows you to send a copy of any web page to your TOR account. Those pages are saved in the new bookmarklets section and are also searchable and sharable.
We know a lot of our users will be excited to see this new functionality and we look forward to your feedback. Thanks for using The Old Reader!
Writerightforyou, Trisha.gao and 26 others like this
17 Jun 21:30
Oculus VR continues to snap up talent from other games industry fixtures, as Supergiant Games loses senior programmer Chris Jurney. "I'm joining @Oculus at the end of the month to help make VR awesome," Jurney wrote in a brief Twitter announcement....
Bastion senior programmer leaves Supergiant Games for Oculus
by Earnest Cavalli
firehoseugh
Oculus VR continues to snap up talent from other games industry fixtures, as Supergiant Games loses senior programmer Chris Jurney. "I'm joining @Oculus at the end of the month to help make VR awesome," Jurney wrote in a brief Twitter announcement....
17 Jun 21:29
Newswire: Taste the pleasures of the Hellraiser VHS that’s haunting London commuters
by Katie Rife
The actual act of riding the bus isn’t the only thing blurring pain and pleasure for commuters on London’s Old Kent Road, and they have Hellraiser to thank. A VHS copy of Clive Barker’s ode to sadomasochism and chains with hooks on them has been appearing atop the bus stop there since at least 2011, when people first started noticing—and tweeting about—the infernal tape.
Since then, the tape has disappeared, been replaced by a fresh copy, been briefly accompanied by a second Hellraiser VHS, disappeared, and reappeared again. Now a copycat VHS has been spotted at another bus stop, fueling speculation on Twitter that the tape is all part of a sinister ritual to open the gates of Hell and tear London’s collective soul apart. Via VHS tapes. (The guy who fell off his bike in front of the Old Kent stop, for one ...
17 Jun 21:26
wongtonz: Aaron Diaz ( creator of Dresden Codak and my...
bernot and -1 others like this
17 Jun 21:26
femfreq: In this episode we explore the Women as Background...
In this episode we explore the Women as Background Decoration trope which is the subset of largely insignificant non-playable female characters whose sexuality or victimhood is exploited as a way to infuse edgy, gritty or racy flavoring into game worlds. These sexually objectified female bodies are designed to function as environmental texture while titillating presumed straight male players. Sometimes they’re created to be glorified furniture but they are frequently programmed as minimally interactive sex objects to be used and abused.
Full transcript, links and resources available at FeministFrequency.com