Photo by Danny Pardoe

Andrew W.K. has posted on his website an official statement about his cancelled trip to the U.S. embassy in Bahrain. He addresses some of the factual questions about the trip, explaining that he "was personally invited to take this trip by the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Embassy in Bahrain over a year ago."

"They came to me," he continues. "The first email they sent me is dated September 13th, 2011 asking me to give a motivational lecture in Bahrain. I was overjoyed and accepted their invitation immediately. We moved forward and completed their extensive approval process, background check, booked all the flights and travel, and had numerous phone calls with the U.S. Embassy Public Affairs Office in Manama, Bahrain, who were handling the details."

W.K. claims that just hours after receiving his official itinerary for the trip-- which was scheduled for December 1-- he "received an urgent telephone call informing us that the entire trip had been canceled, due to some higher level controversy."

(I cannot possibly be the only one writing a fan-fictional subplot for this season of "Homeland" right now.)

"We couldn't get any more information or answers as to why this was suddenly canceled at the last minute," he added. "When I was originally invited by our contact, it seemed everyone was aware of what I stand for with my positive attitude."

Positive attitude, indeed. Andrew W.K. closes off the statement with, "I still would love to go and I vow to continue partying, and working everyday to unite our human race through the power of positive partying.”

Watch Andrew W.K. in a recent installment of Pitchfork.tv's "Weekly":

Editor’s note: In February, our friends at NPR Digital Services told you about an experiment they were trying to localize content on the network’s Facebook page, which has a massive 2.5 million fans. Today, NPR’s Eric Athas and Teresa Gorman are sharing some findings from that experiment.

When you come across a story about your town, city, or state, what makes you want to share it?

That’s a question we’ve been asking here at NPR Digital Services. There are hints about what causes sharing — we know emotion and positivity play roles. We know the headline can make or break a story’s potential. But we want to know specifically about local content. What is it about certain local stories that make them more social than others?

To answer this, we conducted a study to define what types of local content cause the most sharing and engagement.

Background

Earlier this year we told you about an experiment where we geotargeted local content on the NPR Facebook page. In that experiment, we posted stories created by Seattle member station KPLU. We geotargeted that content so that only people in Seattle could see it on their Facebook News Feeds.

We measured success using this metric: Of the unique people who see each post, what percentage like it, share it, or comment on it? We found that the geotargeted posts were six times more successful than posts that were shared to the global NPR Facebook following.

The experiment helped KPLU earn record site traffic and confirmed that the NPR Facebook following is eager to engage with and share local content.

In July, we expanded our project. We are now geotargeting content from five member stations in five different regions — KQED in San Francisco, KUT in Austin, WBUR in Boston, KPCC in Southern California, and still KPLU in Seattle.

Since expanding, we’ve found continued (and often greater) success from all five stations. Geotargeted stories continue to register a high success rate and gain an average of 223 combined likes, shares, and comments per post.

But early on in the project, we noticed something that’s probably familiar to any news organization with a Facebook page — certain stories took off, accumulating hundreds of shares, likes, and comments on Facebook and jolting the Chartbeat meter. Other stories fell flat.

So rather than geotargeting just any news story that a station creates, we are selective and calculated with the types of local stories we post. Content must have compelling headlines. It must be locally relevant and meaningful. And locals should be likely to share it, like it, and comment on it. The editors with whom we’re working closely with at KPLU, KQED, KUT, WBUR, and KPCC are terrific at identifying and creating content that meets these standards.

But…what does that actually look like? What types of content will locals be more likely to engage with on Facebook?

That brings us to our study, which aims to answer those questions and pinpoint the kinds of content that locals are compelled to share, like and comment on.

We looked at every story we geotargeted during the months of July, August, and September 2012, focusing on the ones that the localized NPR Facebook following liked, shared, and commented on at a high rate. From this group of successful stories, we identified similarities which allowed us to create nine distinct content categories. We then dissected each successful story to decide which category it fell into.

To identify a story’s category, we asked a series of questions. Why did people share this story? What reaction did people have when they shared it? What is the story actually delivering to people — an explanation, a video, a hard news story?

We repeated this exercise several times for each piece of content until we were confident placing it into a category.

Before we get to the results, we should point out a few things. First, we aren’t implying that the nine types of content below are the only kinds of content that exist or matter. Rather, we’re articulating data-backed trends we discovered in an analysis of content geotargeted to four cities (KPCC joined the project after the measurement period) over a span of three months. Finally, as you look at examples, you might notice that there is overlap. Some stories fit into multiple categories. We placed stories into categories based on their primary defining characteristics.

Here are the 9 types of local stories that cause engagement:

UPDATE: See an infographic showcasing all 9 types →

Place Explainers

Every city has traits, quirks, and habits that are begging to be dissected. These characteristics are well known to locals, but no one ever stops to explain why they even exist in the first place. Place Explainers investigate, answer, and explain these questions. In our project, KPLU tipped us off to this content type with its I Wonder Why…? series, which explores the “endearing, odd, even irritating” attributes of the Pacific Northwest. For example, why does Seattle have so few kids and so many dogs? A story by KQED pointed out the 26 signs you’re in Silicon Valley and a KUT piece listed what draws people to Austin and what drives them away.

Crowd Pleasers

We all love to brag every once in awhile about the area we call home. Crowd Pleasers zero in on that feeling of pride. These stories provide an opportunity to celebrate everything from beautiful weather in the Pacific Northwest to the athletic prowess of California athletes who won 93 Olympic gold medals. When Austin was ranked by Bloomberg Businessweek as the eighth-best city in the country, Austinites cheered on Facebook with comments such as “Yaaay!! GO Austin!” and “Whether Austin ranks 1st or 100th, I still love living here :)” That’s exactly the type of reaction you’ll get from Crowd Pleasers.

Curiosity Stimulators

You know those stories you come across that you can’t turn down? The ones that have you hooked at the headline? Curiosity Stimulators get that a lot. It’s the type of story that captures a geeky and quirky side of a city. And after people click through and read a Curiosity Stimulator, they often feel compelled to share it because they get the sensation of stumbling upon a local gem. The Curiosity Stimulator is a 4,000-pound spider-robot named Stompy. It’s a woman who married a corporation. It’s the discovery of a hidden video game city.

News Explainers

Event-based stories chronicle the news of a city. This bill was passed. This person was hired. That person was fired. News Explainers make sense of the news. Rather than just telling you what happened, News Explainers dissect why or how it happened. For example, here’s what people in Washington should consider before possessing legal marijuana. Now that Austin has declared support for same-sex marriage, here’s what happens next. Here’s why it’s been unusually chilly in San Francisco. Leading up to the 2012 election, ballot question guides such as this one by KQED were perfect examples of News Explainers. They took complex local topics and made sense of them for people.

Major Breaking News

Cities are saturated with everyday news stories such as traffic jams and fires. But Major Breaking News has a much bigger impact on a city or a region. Massive storms are an easy example of this because they tend to make life difficult for entire regions. But Major Breaking News doesn’t happen often — a few examples from this project include the coffeeshop shooting in Seattle, Hurricane Sandy, and the approval of legal recreational marijuana and same-sex marriage in Washington.

Feel-Good Smilers

Think “awww,” think “awesome,” think “hilarious.” Most of all, think positive: this category is made up of happy stories. A Feel-Good Smiler is a 10-year-old girl who convinced Jamba Juice to stop using foam cups. It’s the birth of an animal that locals love (Seattleites, apparently, are obsessed with orcas). It’s a nighttime Austin marriage proposal that found its way to Reddit. And is there anything more feel-good than warm cookies delivered by bicycle to your door? Humor, which tends to make people feel good, also plays a role in Feel-Good Smiler content. Cue Seattle’s Colonel Meow.

Topical Buzzers

A Topical Buzzer is the story of the moment that everyone’s talking about locally. When the Space Shuttle Endeavor flies overhead, a Topical Buzzer shows you photos of it. When the mayor of Boston writes an epic memo to Chick-fil-A, a Topical Buzzer tells you about it. When Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis serve coffee at a local cafe (and mobs of locals pack the streets to catch a glimpse), a Topical Buzzer rides the viral coattails of the story. The key to deploying a Topical Buzzer on your site: knowing when something is beginning to buzz.

Provocative Controversies

Have you ever come across a story about your city and you could feel your blood beginning to boil? That’s usually what happens when people encounter a Provocative Controversy — they get ticked off and highly opinionated. In Washington, when state officials killed a pack of wolves, locals had a lot to say about it. KQED’s story about the California State Parks Department sitting on a $54 million surplus for 12 years has dozens of comments. In Boston, a story about a doctor refusing obese patients elicited Facebook comments such as “SOOOO ANGRY !!!!” and “Shame on them.”

Awe-Inspiring Visuals

“Whoa…” You know that feeling? It’s the feeling you get when you see a killer whale catching air in Puget Sound. When you’re spooked by the images of a 75-year-old L.A. hotel wing. When you look into the cold dark eyes of sharks swimming in Cape Cod. When you’re haunted by a people-less time-lapse of Seattle. We already know people like to gaze at beautiful images. People love to goggle at beautiful images of their city. Awe-Inspiring Visuals capture that wonderment through photos and videos.

Graphic by Russ Gossett. Cross-posted from the NPR Digital Services blog.

“Hello Wildcats…”

Steven Reed stars in “Weber Cooks,” a series of microwave cooking videos created for students at Utah’s Weber State University. Reed (who reminds of Tard the Grumpy Cat) has made videos to learn how to make chili & cheese nacho dip, a rice dish (Rice-A-Roni), spaghetti (“noodles”), and potatoes and creamed style corn. He might very well be described as the ‘Bob Ross’ of microwave cooking.

via Nothing to do with Arbroath and Gawker

OnSale offers the Samsung 256GB 830 Series Serial ATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Internal SSD, model no. MZ-7PC256B/WW, for $164.99 with free shipping ($0.64/GB). That's $5 under our Black Friday mention and the lowest total price we could find for this drive now by $34. It features read speeds of up to 520MB/s and write speeds of up to 400MB/s. Deal ends December 1 at 12 pm ET.

Some updates from the AP style folks:

man-made (with a hyphen - however, popular usage without the hyphen is starting to overrun this)

landline (without a hyphen) Raising the question, how long before this term becomes obsolete?

phobia - AP's adopted the stance that phobia, as "an irrational, uncontrollable fear, often a form of mental illness," should not be used in  political or social contexts such as homophobia or Islamophobia. While I like the concept, good luck with that. "-phobia" has become one of those utilitarian phrases people like to glom onto things to create neologisms. I think this is like trying to stop sand in the desert, and I doubt it will be long before we see it on AP's wires, having gotten past some eagle-eyed editor who has heard the phrases in widespread use. (John McIntyre has a longer post on the futility of this, and here's the Slate article he references quoting the clinical psychologist who popularized "homophobia.")

froufrou - in case you're into the fussy, frilly stuff.

"ethnic cleansing" - yes, the quotes are required (I assume unless the term is already inside another quote) by the ever-cautious wire service. (Unless, of course, you are in Yugoslavia in the 1990s or some troubled African countries today - then I suspect the imperative for the quote marks might lessen as the number of slaughtered bodies rises. As so many recent commentators have noted, sometimes you have to call 'em as you see 'em.)

There are some other smaller changes, too. Check the electronic stylebook near you.

[Updated] Jane McGonigal, author of bestseller Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Happy and How They Can Change the World, was one of the more vocal developers on Twitter. She told GamesBeat, “Twitter was the perfect medium for something like #1reasonwhy to happen. On one hand, it feels brave to speak out on Twitter, because you are standing publicly behind your story. It’s not anonymous or behind closed doors. You’re putting your social and professional reputation on the line. There’s a face, there’s a name, your real-life friends and colleagues are going to see your testimony.”

She added,”I think it was freeing to just be able to say one thing, just one reason why. You don’t have to document a whole history, you don’t have to consider every angle. You can just share one thing that is true for you. That made it for me, certainly, feel suddenly it was more possible to participate in this conversation. And watching it pick up so much steam — all it takes is to see one friend or colleague speak the truth about their own experience, and you feel empowered and inspired to do the same.”

[Original story] Women in the gaming world are expressing through Tweets why there are so few females in the industry.

Luke Crane, who works as the games project specialist at crowdfunding site Kickstarter and self-publishes role-playing games, asked, “Why are there so few lady game creators?”

This sparked a wave of replies (via the hashtag #1reasonwhy) from women in the industry, with their first-hand accounts of sexism they have encountered in the business.

Here are just a few of the Tweets we read:

#1reasonwhy Because even at the director level I was told that “women in this company aren’t allowed to drive alone at night”

— Heather Powers (@sillypsyche) November 27, 2012

#1reasonwhy Because a company celebrated their launch party w/pole dancers as “a display of feminine strength,” not, ya know, weightlifting.

— Carol Pinchefsky (@CarolPinchefsky) November 27, 2012

#1reasonwhy RT @br: The trolls better bring their A-game. You can’t be worse than some producers I’ve worked with.

— Anna Eve Cail (@G33kGrrly) November 28, 2012

Because too many women are scared to speak up when they are harassed/assaulted because they fear the impact on their career #1reasonwhy

— Jen MacLean (@jenmacl) November 28, 2012

Because we can’t even complain about sexism in the gaming industry without men complaining that we’re complaining. #1reasonwhy

— Tarryn van der Byl (@nxtrms) November 27, 2012

#1ReasonWhy because men dont see this as their fight too. Even the “good” ones wont stand up and say something

— Sarah R. (@SarahTheRebel) November 27, 2012

Because too many industry events feature half-naked women as eye candyfor “networking”. #1reasonwhy

— Jen MacLean (@jenmacl) November 27, 2012

RT @janetharvey because I’d like you to ask my opinion as a designer, not only ask me what I think when you want to “pink it up” #1reasonwhy

— SwitchKnitter (@SwitchKnitter) November 27, 2012

When announcing MY new game, an industry publication referred to me in the headline not by my name but as John Romero’s wife. #1reasonwhy

— Brenda Romero (@br) November 27, 2012

Interestingly, that last Tweet led to an apology by the person who wrote the article. He explained that he felt that John Romero’s name resonated more with gaming fans.

There is also a hashtag for #1reasontobe. It consists mostly of women in the industry explaining why they work in the games business:

#1reasontobe Because most men in the industry are accepting/inclusive/supportive. Don’t let the bad apples dissuade you from going for it.

— LM Lockhart (@missdoomcookie) November 27, 2012

#1reasontobe I stayed at #BioWare so long (6 years) was because I had the best boss in the world. A woman named Shauna Perry.

— Steve Sim (@banffdriving) November 27, 2012

#1reasontobe Games are the most inspiring and imaginative projects you will ever work on, with the most creative people

— Jessica Martin (@jessicaemartin) November 27, 2012

My #1reasontobe is meeting and working with inspiring people and creating things that bring joy to others – the games industry is my home =)

— Holly Pickering (@ZOMGitsBC) November 27, 2012

Because no one is going to take my dream away. #1reasontobe

— Andreia Gaita (@sh4na) November 27, 2012

#1ReasonToBe in the games industry? I can’t think of a better use of my time than working toward more diversity and inclusivity.

— Jill Murray (@codejill) November 27, 2012

#1ReasonToBe Because all the trolls in the world won’t spoil the awesomeness of working with amazing people on equally amazing games.

— Andy (@Greenfaery) November 27, 2012

#1reasontobe Because, hey, if you want it to change, you’re going to have to be part of that change – no one else will do it for you.

— Cassandra Khaw (@casskhaw) November 27, 2012

Then, there were a fair share of trolls. Like the one below:

@nxtrms Complaining never changed anything. #1reasonwhy

— Menno Gouw (@Madmenyo) November 27, 2012

Perhaps not but raising awareness can.

Gaming, both in the industry and as a pastime, is mostly dominated by men. The booth babes of the Electronic Entertainment Expo game-industry trade show not only help reaffirm that but also lend to the stereotype of that single, girl-hungry male gamer.

Regardless, there is a lot more sexism going on than I think any of us were ever aware of.

Filed under: Games

Filed under: Video, Humor, Animation, Parting Shot

A little more than a year ago, Don Cheadle shed the responsible side he's known for as James Rhodes/War Machine in Marvel's Iron Man movies to play a power-mad version of Ted Turner's Eco crusader Captain Planet. We weren't sure if the first video ... Read more

 

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“Christmas”

Amateur rapper Krispy Kreme has recently released a music video for his song, “Christmas” which humorously outlines his Christmas wish list. The video co-stars Money Maker Mike as Santa. Krispy Kreme and Money Maker Mike merchandise is available to purchase online.

Here’s a few of Krispy Kreme’s previous music videos:

“The Fight”

“The Baddest”

“Haters Wanna Be Me”

Partner OregonMusicNews interviews Portland's hometown Asian rock band.

Pixel Academy, a New York City-based company founded by former Lead Game Designer at Nickelodeon (Mike Fischtha) has been conducting workshops for children ages 8-12 all over the city at locations such as homes and public libraries. These workshops teach children video game design, 3D printing, Arduino fashion design, and other fun technology based courses.

read more

Posted by Phil Sharp, Product Manager

Since Google Drive launched in April, millions of people have started using Drive to keep, create and share files. Starting today, it’s even easier to share with others: you can insert files from Drive directly into an email without leaving your Gmail.
Have you ever tried to attach a file to an email only to find out it's too large to send? Now with Drive, you can insert files up to 10GB -- 400 times larger than what you can send as a traditional attachment. Also, because you’re sending a file stored in the cloud, all your recipients will have access to the same, most-up-to-date version.

Like a smart assistant, Gmail will also double-check that your recipients all have access to any files you’re sending. This works like Gmail’s forgotten attachment detector: whenever you send a file from Drive that isn’t shared with everyone, you’ll be prompted with the option to change the file’s sharing settings without leaving your email. It’ll even work with Drive links pasted directly into emails.
So whether it’s photos from your recent camping trip, video footage from your brother’s wedding, or a presentation to your boss, all your stuff is easy to find and easy to share with Drive and Gmail. To get started, just click on the Drive icon while you're composing a message. Note that this feature is rolling out over the next few days and is only available with Gmail's new compose experience, so you'll need to opt-in if you haven't already.

America might run on Dunkin', but that doesn't necessarily mean their coffee's any good. Boston-based coffee empire Dunkin' Donuts' petitioned to trademark the phrase "best coffee in America," but the U.S. Patent Office rejected the claim, saying it's "merely laudatory and descriptive," not patent-worthy (perhaps the office's staff prefers Starbucks?). The Dunkin-deprived folks at the Los Angeles Times also note that "insiders" can order the coffee with flavor shots, but those in New England realize that the proper way to order a DD coffee is "regulah," with sugar and cream. [LAT]

Read more posts by Kara Baskin

Filed Under: rejections, coffee buzz, dunkin donuts, the chain gang

[The FAQ category]

What are your opinions on the quandary of downloading scans of comics due to a Trade Paperback’s lack of back matter. I recently bought a copy of the original 1997 Helix comics single of Transmetropolitan and loved your essay in the back. The TPBs lack this and I want to read them all. I hate illegal downloading, but lust after your mouth-words. Guide me.

nickgonzo

Is this something I really have to have an opinion about?  If I’d wanted that stuff in the trades, I’d have had them put in there.  They were just ephemera for the monthly readers, for as long as we had use of those editorial pages.  But I certainly can’t stop you from downloading scans, and would really have no interest in doing so.  I don’t police my readers.

So long as you’re not making new money off me, I won’t track you down and have eels violently introduced into your innards through whatever human portal presents itself.  How’s that?

The new book, Gun Machine, is rather short for a novel at 320ish pages. Crooked Little Vein wasn’t all that long either. Has this been a conscious decision on your point to write shorter books or have you found, so far, that this has been the appropriate length to get your stories on paper?

genziel

GUN MACHINE came out around 85 to 90 thousand words long, which is almost 40,000 words longer than CROOKED LITTLE VEIN.  I’ll never be Neal Stephenson (in a great many ways).  I tend towards concision.  They end where they want to end.  I suspect the one I’m currently writing will be about as long as GUN MACHINE.  I dream of (being able to afford to spend several years) writing a huge meandering doorstop like AGAINST THE DAY, but I seem not to be that kind of writer.

(Also: I think I’d actually question “rather short for a novel.”)

Greg Rucka had an interesting further comment on this:

ruckawriter said: 90K novel is not “short.” I’ve read 60K novels that read as if they’re three times as long, and that’s not a good thing. Over 120K, in my experience, and the publisher gets nervous. And raises the price, to boot.

I’m not racist, I just feel safer around white men than I do around black men.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have announced details of their 15th (!) studio album: Push the Sky Away will be released in February (18 in the UK, U.S. date TBA UPDATE: It's out February 19 in the U.S.) That's the artwork above. The first single to be taken from the follow-up to 2008's Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, "We No Who U R", will be available from December 3. Watch a tense trailer for the album below, featuring footage of the band recording. "This is one of those nasty ballads!" Cave exclaims at one point.

Push the Sky Away is, according to a release, the most "subtly beautiful" of all the Bad Seeds' albums. It was produced by Nick Launay and recorded at La Fabrique, a studio ensconsed within a 19th century mansion in south France. "Well, if I were to use that threadbare metaphor of albums being like children, then Push the Sky Away is the ghost-baby in the incubator and Warren's [Ellis] loops are its tiny, trembling heart-beat," wrote Cave.

The Bad Seeds are Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey, Thomas Wydler, Jim Sclavunos, and Conway Savage. Check out the album's tracklist below, followed by the trailer.

Push the Sky Away

1. We No Who U R
2. Wide Lovely Eyes
3. Water's Edge
4. Jubilee Street
5. Mermaids
6. We Real Cool
7. Finishing Jubilee Street
8. Higgs Boson Blues
9. Push The Sky Away

Reign of Winter Mittens

Friday, November 23, 2012

Winter's almost here—are you ready? Warm mittens are a vital part of adventurers' gear, protecting hands from the cruel cold that nips at fingers and blackens bare skin. To help you survive with enough fingers left to grasp a sword, I hereby present to you the Reign of Winter Mittens!

When I heard about this Adventure Path, I immediately started wrestling with charts and experimenting with patterns. The cozy mittens that are the final result are decorated with motifs representing the Reign of Winter Adventure Path's key elements: a large snowflake representing Baba Yaga, smaller snowflakes representing the 14 queens of Irrisen, the date on Golarion (and on Earth) when the AP begins, and of course the Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga itself. Happy knitting!

Download the Reign of Winter Mittens Knitting Pattern - (102KB zip/PDF)

Judy Bauer
Editor

Tags: Pathfinder Adventure Path, Reign of Winter

I thought I’d just drop into Planetside 2 on Sunday afternoon. Four hours later…

(more…)

1991: Monster Magnet - Tab

by Marcos Hassan on 11-27-2012

Monster Magnet are a joke, at least to most people who remember them nowadays. Thanks to their attempt at becoming a commercially successful band, they released a song that is perceived as a novelty hit. “Space Lord,” in the parlance of its time, is pretty wack.

Talk to any fan of stoner rock and they will tell you a different story. Monster Magnet is one of the big ones, up there with Kyuss and Fu Manchu. Their first three full-lengths (Spine of God, Superjudge, and Dopes To Infinity) are among the best rawk metal albums of the early 90s, a collection of riff heavy songs with blazing solos, singalong choruses and a psychedelic bend. Having said that, their crowning moment might have been intended as a one-off.

Tab is billed as an EP but it’s almost 49 minutes long, spanning only three songs. The title track is a slow, repetitive 32-minute tune. It’s clear that their closest reference to the spacey, effect and drug-heavy sound was Hawkwind, yet it’s laid back character, hushed vocals, and minimalist percussion suggest Dave Wyndorf, John McBain, and the others spent their share of bong sessions and acid trips playing Spacemen 3 and Loop records. It’s an interesting sound for a band rooted in hard rock.

The results are mind blowingly good. While their regular albums are fantastic – inspired affairs of no-frills, headbanging, and triumphant-shouting rock – Tab feels like something original and transcendental, like they really hit on something special. This is perhaps their most inspired sound. In it, you can hear something similar to Sleep when they decided to shed the rules of genre to write Dopesmoker.

You don’t have to be high to enjoy Tab. Furthermore, I think that misses the point. Monster Magnet did something pretty brilliant – they made head music that can evoke the other-mindedness, numbness, and insight of a heavy drug with just sound. Not bad for some one hit wonders.

Dupple writes "When a cellphone is reported stolen in New York, the Police Department routinely subpoenas the phone's call records, from the day of the theft onward. The logic is simple: If a thief uses the phone, a list of incoming and outgoing calls could lead to the suspect. But in the process, the Police Department has quietly amassed a trove of telephone logs, all obtained without a court order, that could conceivably be used for any investigative purpose. The call records from the stolen cellphones are integrated into a database known as the Enterprise Case Management System, according to Police Department documents from the detective bureau. Each phone number is hyperlinked, enabling detectives to cross-reference it against phone numbers in other files."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Brand identity style guides from around the world.

"And ideally, you'll grant me access to your bedroom so I can be a witness to the moment your baby is conceived." Artisanal Baby Naming, by Bob Powers.

Maria Popova on a timeline of future events as predicted by famous novels. Sweet.

Just in time for the holidays, the Acme Catalog.

Haha. Yeah, Garry knows what to do. I’ve posted videos of his Kinect experiments below, and you can see exactly why the infamously aberrant Half-Life 2 mod actually needs Kinect support by watching those. Readers with memories will recall that we talked to Garry about his plans for the mod earlier in the year.

The Kinect support will apparently arrive “this week or next”.
(more…)

Guys. GUYS. Octopus Pie is BACK! And will be updating 3x a week for the forseeable future. I have finished drawing Marceline & the Scream Queens and it feels wonderful to return to my webcomic. I hope you enjoy this next story!

concealment writes "It's widely believed that Google search results are produced entirely by computer algorithms — in large part because Google would like this to be widely believed. But in fact a little-known group of home-worker humans plays a large part in the Google process. The way these raters go about their work has always been a mystery. Now, The Register has seen a copy of the guidelines Google issues to them."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Filed under: DC, Movies, News

From Drew McWeeny at HitFix comes this tantalizing rumor: Joseph Gordon-Levitt is "absolutely" going to play Batman in Warner Bros. forthcoming Justice League film based on the DC Comics superheroes. Citing unnamed sources, the report also ... Read more

 

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Do we get our own GOOP now?

Yesterday we went out on a limb and speculated that the Boston "Babbopizzeria" gleefully tweeted about by Molto Mario over the weekend would probably actually be another branch of New York's Otto. Of course, there are already a few indie Otto pizzerias right here, operated by guys from Portland and quickly poised to take off where Upper Crust got burnt. A Batali rep tells us that she'll have more solid information within the next couple of weeks, and Boston Business Journal says that reports about Batali signing a lease at 320 Summer St. in Fort Point contain "misinformation," also per a rep. Hmm.

The Herald, meanwhile, also reports that Batali is in negotiations to sign a lease at the address and that the restaurant indeed would be a third location for his Otto Enoteca Pizzeria. It'll also be a roomy 6,500 square feet, says a source.

Seems like it's almost for real. Are you psyched to see Batali arrive in the Seaport? We've heard everything from (a) "Hooray! OMG Mario!" to (b) the Seaport is turning into a celebrity chef ghetto to (c) Does this mean Gwyneth will do a GOOP Boston edition?? We say, if the pizza is delicious, we'll happily eat it.

Chef Batali Baking Up Seaport Plan [Herald]
Mario Batali to Open Otto Pizzeria [BBJ]
Mario Batali Calls Otto D Bags and Thieves [EB]
Earlier: Mario Batali Is Boston-Bound
Is Otto Pizza the New (Kinder, Gentler) Upper Crust?

Read more posts by Kara Baskin

Filed Under: coming soon, empire building, mario batali, otto, rumor mill

Sparrowvsrevolution writes "You may remember a vulnerability in four million keycard locks presented at the Black Hat conference in July. Hacker Cody Brocious showed he could insert a device he built for less than $50 into the port at the bottom of the common hotel lock, read a key out of its memory, and open it in seconds. Two months later, it turns out at least one burglar was already making use of that technique to rob a series of hotel rooms in Texas. The Hyatt House Galleria in Houston has revealed that in at least three September cases of theft from its rooms, the thief used that Onity vulnerability to effortlessly open rooms and steal valuables like laptops. Petra Risk Solutions, an insurance firm focus the hospitality industry also reports that at least two other hotels in Texas were hit with the attack. Onity has been criticized for its less-than-stellar response to a glaring vulnerability in its devices. The Hyatt says Onity didn't provide a fix until after its break-ins, forcing the hotel to plug its locks' ports with epoxy. And even now, Onity is asking its hotel customers to pay for the full fix, which involves replacing the locks' circuit boards."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We’ve had loads of questions about the upcoming Minecraft: Pi Edition over the last couple of days. We sent Daniel Bates, one of the University of Cambridge PhD candidates who volunteers for Raspberry Pi, to Disneyland Paris to join Mojang for their announcement at MineCon on Saturday. He got back yesterday with some video and more details about what you’re going to see when a download’s available. Over to Daniel!

What do you get when you combine Mickey Mouse, some game developers from Sweden, and an inexpensive educational computer? Good news all around! I was at MineCon in Disneyland Paris this weekend where we unveiled an early version of Minecraft: Pi Edition.

This new version is based on the Pocket Edition of Minecraft, which you may have seen running on mobile phones and tablets, but has one key difference: you can program it. All you have to do is set up a network connection to the running game, and then you can send text commands to control the world. This makes is possible to program in any language which supports network connections, and you can access the game from any computer which is connected to the Pi. One possible setup is to have a Python prompt and the Minecraft window side-by-side on the Pi.

Minecraft: Pi Edition has been in development for less than a week, but already Daniel and Aron from Mojang have got it running really smoothly. It runs on all versions of the Raspberry Pi with no overclocking necessary. Liz interjects: Daniel F from Mojang emailed me yesterday to say they’re seeing 40fps with a 256MB Pi, although the development work was done on a set of 512MB boards. (They say they want to optimise it more, but I couldn’t detect any slowness in my time with the game.) There’s currently the ability to place any block at any location, ask what type of block is at any location, and keep track of events such as player movements, with more features planned.

We see this as a very exciting way of drawing children into programming. The game can be played with no programming at all. Then, basic programming can be used to place large numbers of blocks in particular patterns to speed up the building process – the audience burst into applause when Daniel wrote a simple loop which simultaneously changed the position and type of blocks being placed, which soon resulted in lava cascading from mid-air and setting fire to the wood below. The more creative programmer will only be limited by their imagination. Want to build a digital clock into the wall of your house which displays the real time? Easy. Want to get back at a friend who stole your precious diamonds? Remove the floor from underneath their feet and let them fall into a pit of lava. The possibilities are endless.

The goal is to release Minecraft: Pi Edition before the end of the year, free of charge. We hope that this will further advance the Raspberry Pi’s aims of getting children excited about computing.