matthew j weaver

Christian Gingras-  The Man Who Fixed Robotron

Bank of America Bot Cares About You | This page intentionally left ugly

sosuperawesome:

How to Make a Baby by photographer Patrice Laroche and Sandra Denis, the mother of his new baby daughter Justine.

Reuters photographer Carlos Barria spent time documenting Mongolian neo-Nazi group Tsagaan Khass, one of several ultra-nationalist groups that have expanded in the country. The 100-plus members of Tsagaan Khass have recently shifted their focus from activities such as attacks on women it accuses of consorting with foreign men to environmental issues. The group is rebranding itself now as an environmentalist organization fighting pollution by foreign-owned mines, seeking legitimacy as it sends Swastika-wearing members to check mining permits. [16 photos]

Ariunbold Altankhuum, founder of the Mongolian neo-Nazi group Tsagaan Khass, walks through a lingerie store as he leaves the group's headquarters in Ulan Bator, on June 22, 2013. The group has rebranded itself as an environmentalist organization fighting pollution by foreign-owned mines, seeking legitimacy as it sends Swastika-wearing members to check mining permits. (Reuters/Carlos Barria)

ryannorth:

In 2010, David (Wondermark), Matt (all the stories) and I (Adventure Time, To Be or Not To Be, Dinosaur Comics) put out a book called “Machine Of Death"! It was a crowdsourced collection of short stories written by a bunch of awesome people we’d never met, all based on the same premise originally proposed by T-Rex: what if there was a machine that could tell, from just a sample of your blood, you how you were going to die? It was a crazy book that nobody wanted to publish, so after a few years of trying we just straight-up published it ourselves.

The book became the #1 bestselling book on Amazon.com the day it launched. It ended up on a bunch of “best books of the year" lists. It was a super awesome story!

In one week we’ll be launching the sequel, called This Is How You Die. It’s going to be great: legit better in every way, with tons of awesome stories in a variety of genres (YES there is a choose-your-own-path Machine of Death story, OF COURSE there is). We went through almost 2000 submissions to select the 31 stories in this book. We’re all SUPER proud of it. But what can you do to top becoming the #1 bestselling book on Amazon?

You try to make every one of authors in the book a New York Times Bestselling Author, by getting the book on the NYT bestsellers list.

This will be especially awesome since, like the first volume, this will be the first publishing credit for most of the authors in the book. We honestly don’t know if this idea is possible. But we know it’s possible to try.

Every sale from today onwards counts towards our NYT status. If this book sounds at all interesting, and you think you might like reading inventive and memorable stories curated by a dude whose comics you maybe like, then why not head over to Amazon.com (or .ca or .co.uk) and get the book? They’ve got it on sale for 30% off retail.

This book is gonna be insane. I can’t wait for you to read it! And check out thisishowyoudie.com for more information, including some free stories from the book and a SWEET VIDEO :o

Ralph Graf

In The Desert Of Brandenburg

From The Traveller exhibition

[via Free York]

"The device comprises of a GPS unit for receiving the car’s position, an RF transmitter for relaying your location to the interested authority (aka the FBI), and a set of sweet D-cell batteries that power the whole enchilada. But we didn’t stop there, of course. Read on to find out exactly what components make this secretive device tick."

Tracking Device Teardown - iFixit - Teardown of an FBI car-tracking device, linked to Battle Brews Over FBI’s Warrantless GPS Tracking | Threat Level | Wired.com.

“iFixit becoming the medium for technological literacy" - Timo. 

Today’s SFAM is about the horrible, horrible news. All of it. Wouldn’t it be nice if all the news was good news about kitten adoptions?

Okay, time for you to buy my new book. You will enjoy it! I insist.

Carlo Farneti

Illustration for a 1935 edition of Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil) by Charles Baudelaire

From the collection of Richard Sica

[via 50 Watts]

Fractured by internal conflict and foreign intervention for centuries, Afghanistan made several tentative steps toward modernization in the mid-20th century. In the 1950s and 1960s, some of the biggest strides were made toward a more liberal and westernized lifestyle, while trying to maintain a respect for more conservative factions. Though officially a neutral nation, Afghanistan was courted and influenced by the U.S. and Soviet Union during the Cold War, accepting Soviet machinery and weapons, and U.S. financial aid. This time was a brief, relatively peaceful era, when modern buildings were constructed in Kabul alongside older traditional mud structures, when burqas became optional for a time, and the country appeared to be on a path toward a more open, prosperous society. Progress was halted in the 1970s, as a series of bloody coups, invasions, and civil wars began, continuing to this day, reversing almost all of the steps toward modernization taken in the 50s and 60s. Keep in mind, when looking at these images, that the average life expectancy for Afghans born in 1960 was 31, so the vast majority of those pictured have likely passed on since. [35 photos]

Picture taken in 1962 at the Faculty of Medicine in Kabul of two Afghan medicine students listening to their professor (at right) as they examine a plaster cast showing a part of a human body. (AFP/Getty Images)

Twitter / AFP: "Egyptian protestors direct laser lights on a military helicopter flying over the presidential palace in Cairo."

The two programs violate both the letter and the spirit of federal law. No statute explicitly authorizes mass surveillance. Through a series of legal contortions, the Obama administration has argued that Congress, since 9/11, intended to implicitly authorize mass surveillance. But this strategy mostly consists of wordplay, fear-mongering and a highly selective reading of the law. Americans deserve better from the White House — and from President Obama, who has seemingly forgotten the constitutional law he once taught. The administration has defended each of the two secret programs. Let’s examine them in turn.

rdreamwalker:

asilookatthemoon:

The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog.

I feel like I’ve been preparing for this image all my life.

The internet is over, everyone can go home

It’s just as beautiful as I always imagined.

My life is complete.

Life is over as we know it

Turkish drone shooting heralds a new age of civillian counter-surveillance | News | Geek.com

“A quad-rotor RC drone of the type available all over the internet was recently shot down by police in Istanbul during one of the city’s many recent protests.”

1) From your homework, what energy transfer and plasma chemistry processes do you think are important for the XeCl laser? Discuss.

By artist Arthur Berzinsh.