Huffington Post: “As a record number of Americans tuned in to Monday night’s presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, one major pornographic website saw its traffic sharply drop. Compared to an average Monday, Pornhub.com reported that its traffic fell by 16 percent at 9 p.m. Eastern time this Monday ― the moment the televised debate kicked off. Traffic then recovered to normal levels as the debate wrapped up.”
If the Willis Tower (1,729 ft) was placed into Russia’s Mir Mine, the tip would only stick out 7 feet past ground level. (All images via Kevin Wisbeth)
College student Kevin Wisbeth, creator of the Youtube series “A Quick Perspective,” puts size in layman’s terms for those who might not be able to conceptualize the true width of a B-2 Bomber’s wings, or understand the immense depth of Russia’s largest mine. Wisbeth digitally composes manmade structures and natural wonders to put into context each of their sizes, seamlessly fitting the world’s largest oil tanker into New York’s Central Park and hovering the M-1 Rocket motor just above a Smart Car.
If the Seawise Giant (1,504 ft), the largest oil tanker ever produced, was placed into the main lake in New York City’s Central Park, it would only have 350 feet of extra room in the front and back of the tanker.
The Burj Khalifa is currently the tallest standing structure in the world (almost measuring 2,722 feet tall). If placed in New York City, it would stretch almost 1,000 feet past the One World Trade center and almost 1,300 feet taller than the Empire State Building.
If the Titanic (882 ft) was placed on the deck of the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan, the ship would have 210 feet of deck room left.
The B-2 Bomber is one of the most advanced and most expensive airplanes in the world. The wingspan of a B-2 is 172 feet, which is 12 feet wider than an NFL football field.
Prehistoric bugs were larger than average day bugs due to the higher oxygen levels. The Pulmonoscorpius kirktonensis was a species of scorpion that grew to 24 inches long, or the size of a normal house cat.
The M-1 Rocket motor was designed back in the 1950s for the NASA space program and would have been the biggest motor ever built had it been constructed. It’s designed diameter was 14 feet, or wide enough to fully cover a Smart Car with 2 feet to spare on either side.
The Death Star’s estimated width is around 99 miles across, or around 1/4th the length of Florida.
Por ser escritor, vira e mexe dou entrevistas e participo de conversas com leitores. Em 20 anos de bate-papos, raríssimas vezes não me perguntaram como eu lidava com "a ditadura do politicamente correto" ou se não concordava que, por conta da "patrulha das minorias", o mundo estaria ficando cada vez mais chato.
Costumo responder que sim. O mundo tá ficando chato há séculos, desde que o iluminismo veio desaguar nessa xaropada de "liberdade, igualdade e fraternidade". Bom mesmo era na época de Genghis Khan: você podia sair galopando pelas vastidões asiáticas sem dar justificativa de nada a ninguém, empalando livremente seus inimigos, pilhando seus vilarejos, raptando suas filhas e esposas! Bons tempos! Mas aí o pessoal começou com: ah, não pode mais matar! Ah, não pode mais pilhar! Ah, não pode mais raptar! Toda essa chatice chamada civilização.
Deu no que deu: no século 21 não dá mais pra fazer uma piada com negro, zoar um gay e o pessoal já chia. Tá chato, mesmo. (Geralmente, paro por aí -e, caso ainda reste alguma dúvida, explico que estava sendo irônico, que empalar os inimigos, embora possa parecer divertido para muitos, não é um programa que eu subscreva.)
Não faço uso da ironia por achar, de forma alguma, que a liberdade de expressão seja assunto irrelevante. Um mundo em que qualquer parte ofendida por uma piada, uma ideia, uma manifestação artística pudesse calar o ofensor seria terrível. Mas o que nós vivemos no Brasil é exatamente o contrário.
Assista a meia hora de comédia stand-up nacional no YouTube, assista às propagandas de cerveja na televisão ou ouça quase qualquer propaganda de rádio (a mulher é uma idiota com um problema, o homem aparece com a solução) e fica claro que quem está em risco aqui não é a liberdade de expressão, mas as minorias. No entanto, em 20 anos conversando com jornalistas e leitores, nunca me perguntaram: "O que você acha das piadas racistas ou machistas ainda terem tanto espaço no humor brasileiro?"
Percebo essa mesma inversão na escala das preocupações ao comparar o peso da cobertura dos "black blocs" na imprensa à quase brandura das denúncias contra o vandalismo policial.
É evidente que o quebra-quebra dos mascarados e a agressão a policiais, jornalistas ou quem quer que seja devem ser divulgados e repudiados, mas achar que os inimigos mais perigosos da democracia, no momento, são 20 cretinos mascarados é mais ou menos como acreditar que os maiores culpados pela evasão fiscal no Brasil são os vendedores de maricas de bambu e Durepoxi na frente do Espaço Itaú de Cinema.
Em 2014, num protesto no Rio de Janeiro, um rojão lançado por dois manifestantes matou um cinegrafista. Naquele mesmo ano a polícia brasileira matou 3.022 pessoas. Só nos três primeiros meses de 2015 a PM paulista, então chefiada pelo secretário da Segurança Alexandre de Moraes, matou 185 pessoas, promovendo o trimestre mais sangrento em 12 anos.
Os responsáveis pelo rojão passaram 13 meses presos e, felizmente, estão sendo julgados. Já Alexandre de Moraes foi promovido a ministro da Justiça. É importante que a imprensa acompanhe os desdobramentos do primeiro caso. É incompreensível que a imprensa não se escandalize com o segundo.
2) why does he look like mustacheod Mads Mikkelson
III) what is happen
?) ARE THEY BOYFRIENDS?????
AHEM! *dons his lore cape*
This is Biggs Darklighter, Luke’s best buddy growing up on Tatooine. There was a big chunk of story cut from A New Hope where Luke looks up at the sky, sees the Star Destroyer and Princess Leia’s ship shooting at each other in orbit, and jumps in his landspeeder to tell his friends like an excited puppy.
He arrives at Tosche Station (from the infamous line “But I was gonna go to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!”) and is surprised to find Biggs there, who had just gotten his certification from the Imperial Academy (mentioned in the line “That’s what you said when Biggs and Tank left” when Luke was trying to coax Uncle Owen into applying). Luke drags everyone outside to look but by that time the two ships have stopped shooting, so they write it off as Excitable Dumbass Luke getting his dumb hopes up again and go back inside.
It’s worth noting that Biggs takes the first look through Luke’s binoculars and says it’s probably just a freighter refueling. Having been to the Imperial Academy he’d know damn well what a Star Destroyer looks like and that having one in orbit over Tatooine means Srs Bsns is afoot. But he doesn’t mention this and lies, probably in an effort to keep Luke from going “ZOMG ADVENTURE!” and trying to get involved.
When everyone else inside, Biggs and Luke go for a walk and Biggs lets Luke in on a secret: he and a bunch of other Academy grads are going to mutiny and defect to the Rebel Alliance the first chance they get. Luke basically goes “GEE WHIZ!” and Biggs shuts him up. He explains that this is stupidly dangerous and is going to make him a wanted man if he survives, so this is the last time the two are probably ever going to see each other. Luke still doesn’t Get It yet and is mostly envious of all the excitement and adventure Biggs is about to embark on.
Fast forward past: Luke discovering real and innocent people get murdered by the Empire (courtesy of Uncle Owen & Aunt Beru’s smoking remains), finding out that dashing rogues can really just be selfish, trigger-happy assholes thanks to Han Solo, and watching the man who opened his eyes to a bigger universe get killed by the monster who Luke thinks murdered his father. His boyish naivety has taken quite the beating. But as he gears up to help attack the Death Star, who should he run into but his best buddy Biggs! How bad can war be when your best friend is at your side?
… oh.
Biggs gave his life to protect Luke, physically blocking Vader from shooting his best friend for as long as he possibly could. Between that, the reassuring words of Obi-Wan, and the timely return of Han (who Chewie threatened to tear the arms off of if they didn’t go back), Luke learned a critical truth: the universe was a lot darker than he ever realized, but no matter what there is always hope.
Wow, that actually adds a TON of emotional depth to that sacrifice, too. I never knew that.
reblogging for this amazing commentary
There is something to be said for reading the novelisations of the movies because those were written after the scripts and contain those deleted scenes.
One of the reasons it’s cut is because it destroys the pacing of the opening (it comes interspersed into the opening action which is one of the most perfectly edited sequences ever without it) and because Biggs himself causes huge problems with the timeline as written.
In this scene Biggs tells Luke that he’s going to go AWOL at the first opportunity and join the Rebellion. This is why Luke is so excited when Threepio mentions the Rebellion later, btw. The problem is that this scene takes place basically three days before Luke himself leaves the planet. So in the same space of time that it takes Luke to rescue Leia from the Death Star, Biggs has shipped out, mutinied, found a Rebel recruiter, joined their starfighter squadron, proven himself trustworthy enough to be assigned to their top secret main HQ, and gotten enough of a reputation to convince the squadron leader to let Luke fly with them.
He’s had an even busier week than Luke has!
but look at that mustache
with a mustache like that, i can believe he can do anything in any time he wants
How do you tell when you’re sitting on a volcano? Ok, in some cases, it’s fairly obvious; when the mountain actually explodes, or a lava flow pours past you, it becomes pretty clear. Same thing if there’s a large cone constructed, pretty obvious. But those aren’t the only types of volcanoes.
2016 has been a good year for Iceland. There was their mighty football performance at Euro 2016 – the country’s population is smaller than that of Edinburgh! – with accompanying and now famous soundtrack, the Viking chant. More impressively, the Institute for Economics and Peace recently revealed its Global Peace Index poll finding Iceland to be the most peaceful country in the world. See if you can find your own country on the map of countries ranked here.
Iceland was already admired for its otherworldly natural beauty, for being the birthplace of Bjork and for having had a (former stand-up-comic) mayor for its capital Reykjavik who would not enter a coalition government with anyone who hadn’t watched The Wire. All more good reasons to explore The Colours of Iceland in greater detail, we felt. Using various tourism sites and two great Instagram accounts, what we’ve found are scenes that live up to the idea of all meanings of the word peace. Here are some of our favourite sights shown alongside some intriguing facts discovered along the way.
Image from The Official Gateway to Iceland
The landscape of Iceland is made up of waterfalls, geysers, volcanoes, black sand beaches, steaming lava fields and ice. Ice only covers just over 11% of the land, but the country still represents the largest glaciers left in Europe. Iceland is one of the youngest landmasses on the planet – formed about 25 million years ago – and is home to some of the world’s most active volcanoes. The island was formed by a volcanic hotspot created by a fissure in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates meet. The Silfra Fissure is a crack between these two continents and has some of the clearest water in the world making it one of the coolest – literally – and best scuba diving sites in the world.
Iceland’s highest peak is Hvannadalshnjúkur, which stands 6,852 ft over sea level.
Image from The Official Gateway to Iceland
Icelanders are proud of being connected to nature and being dedicated to preserve the natural beauty of their land through conservation. The 2016 Environmental Performance Index, which ranks countries’ environmental performances put Iceland at number 2 this year (after Finland).
Blue Lagoon, Iceland. Image from The Official Gateway to Iceland
The Blue Lagoon is a famous tourist hot spot in Reykjavik. Were you aware that you can also enrol in How to Avoid Hot Tub Awkwardness classes in Iceland which promise to guide you to become ‘relaxed and wrinkly like a local’? No, us neither.
Image from The Official Gateway to Iceland
With a lack of native trees on the island, grass and turf covered houses have become a popular architectural style – they were originally based on Viking longhouses and can be found dotted around other cold and northerly places in Scandinavia, Greenland, the Faroes and Scottish islands.
Image from Tvisongur
This is Tvisongur, a sound sculpture designed for its site by Berlin artist Lukas Kühne – his work regularly incorporates themes of space and frequency. Tvisongur is made from five interconnected concrete domes, each one a different size and with its own resonance corresponding to a tone in the Icelandic musical tradition of five-tone harmony. The domes naturally amplify sound. The sculpture, located next to a mountain and overlooking a fjord around 15 minutes walk from the town of Seydisfjordur, encourages visitors to come and sing or play music alone or in harmony, for an audience or not.
Endless landscape photos, scenes of nature and snippets of the local architectural style dominate on this Icelandic tourism account, the official instagram for Inspired by Iceland, whose website we’ve already recommended – it’s filled with advice and ideas for how to explore the majestic island.
Visit West Fjords Instagram
Is fresh water swimming your thing? It may become so after ogling the many images of people jumping into pools or standing beneath mighty waterfalls onVisit West Fjords instagram. This focuses on the part of Iceland that is just below the arctic circle – so you’d have to imagine those aforementioned bathers are quite hardy. Find the tourism site’s main website here.
[TWEET: @ryan_marsh: Can confirm. As a combat vet this is maddening. #BlackLivesMatter]
appetitusinvictus: “I was in Iraq and even in an actual theater of war, unless you were immediately fired on, we had several steps to go through before kill shots. We had rules of engagement and escalation of force cards my command made us carry on us at all times with those regulations.
Even when a car possibly carrying explosives was barreling down on us, we were taught to exhaust several steps of warnings before killing: hand signals, flags, pop smoke/flares, warning shots to the sides, disabling shots THEN kill shots.
So for the life of me I can’t figure out why on the streets in the United States of America, police officers go immediately to murder and people are just like ‘Well, in the heat of the moment…’”
It's a bit of "common wisdom" on the internet that you hear people repeat all the time, even though it's hogwash: the idea that people act trollishly online because they're anonymous. So many people want to blame the anonymity and demand real name policies. Yet, as we've been pointing out for many years, plenty of people troll under their real names -- and tons of valuable content is posted by anonymous users (including right here at Techdirt).
Results show that in the context of online firestorms, non-anonymous individuals are more aggressive compared to anonymous individuals. This effect is reinforced if selective incentives are present and if aggressors are intrinsically motivated.
Now, this is just one report on one dataset, and there may be a variety of other factors at play. But it certainly matches with our own experience here as well. The idea that people only act like jackasses because they're anonymous just doesn't fit with the pattern we've seen in the over 1 million comments we have on this site. Yes, sometimes there are anonymous jerks, just like there are sometimes named jerks. But on the whole, anonymity doesn't seem to magically lead to worse comments.
why is this cracker the main character of a movie set in CHINA
full offense but fuck this white guy lmao
“1700 years to build. 5500 miles long. what were they trying to keep out?”
the huns. they were trying to keep out the huns. the huns were what were being kept out of china via the wall that china built. that great wall, which was built by china, was made to keep out the invaders, known as the huns. it was the huns who were being blocked by the wall that china built, which was a great weall. it was the huns who
uh, no? it says on the poster Matt Damon. They were trying to keep out Matt Damon.
I know that after seeing so many egregious examples of whitewashing, it’s infuriating to see yet another movie featuring a white man as the hero in a land that is definitely not white. But let me tell you why The Great Wall is different.
Unlike The Last Airbender, Prince of Persia, Ghost in the Shell, Gods of Egypt, and Doctor Strange, The Great Wall is not inserting a white actor into a role meant for a non-white actor. This is an original story by Chinese director Zhang Yimou (famous for Hero and House of Flying Daggers), filmed in Qingdao, China, and featuring one of the largest Chinese casts ever.
Did you only see Matt Damon in advertising? That’s because the Chinese people involved with the film know that Americans will recognize an American actor. This is targeted marketing. If you actually look at the cast, Damon co-stars with Chinese actors Andy Lau, Jing Tian, Han Lu, and more.
The Chinese film industry is trying to break into the American market by featuring a prominent American actor. Don’t boycott The Great Wall for attempting to appeal to American audiences. Matt Damon’s entire purpose is to lure Americans into the theater for Jason Bourne and expose them to Chinese actors already well known in China.
A similar example to The Great Wall is the upcoming action-comedy film Skiptrace starring Jackie Chan and Johnny Knoxville. A Chinese actor and a white actor are co-starring and the film involves a road trip from Mongolia to Hong Kong. If you’re still displeased with Matt Damon, go see that.
Tl;dr if you want to support Chinese people in movies, watch The Great Wall (Feb 17, 2017) and watch Skiptrace (Sep 2, 2016).
If you do a little reading up on the film you’ll see that it’s fantasy based and there are monsters that they are fighting, this movie is not trying to rewrite history or tell fact, it’s just trying to tell a weird fantasy story rooted in China.
And the lead role was intended to be a white actor for story reasons, he’s an outsider, he was never meant to be Chinese, y’all need to chill and actually watch the films instead of getting all riled up about something you don’t want to see in the first place.
