Updated at 9:44 a.m. ET on November 12, 2018.

At least 31 people have been killed by wildfires raging across California as the state battles its deadliest fire season in decades.

Firefighters are warring with blazes up and down the state. In the north, the so-called Camp Fire has become the deadliest, largest, and most destructive fire in state history, killing at least 29 people and consuming 111,000 acres. In its trail of ash stand the smoldering ruins of Paradise, California, a city of 26,000 people until this week.

The Camp Fire is only about a quarter contained, and it still threatens the edge of Chico, the largest city in Butte County. At least 228 people remain unaccounted for, according to the local sheriff. The Camp Fire got its jolly name by a fluke: Most western wildfires are named after the place they started, and the Camp Fire began on Camp Creek Road.

In the south, firefighters are battling the Woolsey Fire, which has grown with the help of hot, howling Santa Ana winds. That fire has killed two people and devoured more than 85,000 acres, destroying buildings across Ventura County. It’s only 15 percent contained, and the Santa Anas were expected to pick up again on Sunday afternoon. (The same winds worsened last year’s fires as well.)

The Woolsey Fire has prompted the evacuation of Thousand Oaks, the same city menaced by a mass shooting on Wednesday that left 12 people dead.

“Right now families are in mourning, thousands have lost homes, and a quarter-million Americans have been forced to flee,” said Brian Rice, the president of the California Professional Firefighters. He was responding to comments from President Donald Trump, who threatened to withhold disaster relief for the state because of its “gross mismanagement of the forests.” (Most timberland in California is under federal control.)

While this California fire season has been particularly destructive, it is only the latest stage in what the climate scientist Daniel Swain calls “an astonishing multi-year fire siege.” Three of the state’s five largest fires on record have occurred in the past three years, all of them in Northern California. Millions of people have gotten used to living near big fires—sniffing the smoke when they open their door every morning, seeing the somber pink circle of sun in the sky every evening. A smaller number have fled homes in the middle of the night or driven through a storm of embers.

Yet the worst is probably still to come for much of the state. The California fire season usually ends with the first rains of fall. In recent years, these rains have been arriving later, and precipitation has concentrated in the darkest winter months. California’s hilly scrubland is at its driest—and most fire-prone—right before the rains arrive, so their delay can lengthen and intensify the fire season. Climate change appears likely to push the rains to even later in the year.

Insurance companies in particular have started to fear the worst. A recent RAND study found that home-insurance premiums have risen in the state’s most fire-prone areas compared with its less fire-prone areas. Some high-risk homeowners have switched to higher-deductible policies. The same study estimated that as the climate changes, the number of acres burned annually in the Sierra foothills will double in the next 30 years. If humans continue emitting carbon pollution at current rates, the number of acres burned will quadruple by 2100.

Climate change has already made fires worse. A 2016 study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that climate change has doubled the number of acres burned across the American West since the 1980s.  

Fires are not the only disasters that climate change will make worse—though they are among the most dramatic. Heat waves are the deadliest natural disasters in the United States, and they, too, are becoming more frequent and intense as a result of human greenhouse-gas pollution. They prove particularly deadly for senior citizens and infants. Forest fires might be seen as the particularly horrific edge of a sword that is coming for us all.

Depending on whether you ask a technological optimist or pessimist, we might see early versions of consumer-ready self-driving vehicles in the next few years, or not for another couple of decades. But no matter where you fall on that spectrum, it’s likely that the first generation of autonomous driving AI will be ferrying people around within your lifetime.

As an AI enthusiast, you’re likely frightened or excited by this thought. The techie consumer in you is likely thrilled by the idea of commuting to work hands-free thanks to your robotic autopilot, or taking a nap on a long road trip. But the skeptical coder in you might be worried that simple regression and pattern recognition algorithms may not be enough to keep you truly safe.

Plus, there’s the universal pattern of software (and tech) development that usually unfolds; the first generation of a given tech product is usually terrible, due to rushed schedules or an inability to foresee future issues.

So is it smart to trust first-generation self-driving vehicles?

The Marketplace

First, you might consider the economics of your decision. A first-generation self-driving car is going to be far more expensive than later generations of the same technology, and probably far more expensive than a manually driven alternative. In just a few years after the initial release, you’ll probably be able to find a much better deal on a used self-driving car on a marketplace like Swap Motors. For that reason alone, it may be a better idea to wait for subsequent generations of autonomous vehicles.

The Rush

We also have to consider the competitive rush most companies are in. Consider the internal memos leaked from within Uber, where former Uber executive Anthony Levandowski is quoted as saying, “we need to think through the strategy to take all the shortcuts we can find,” and “I just see this as a race and we need to win, second place is the first looser [sic].”

A few months after those documents were released, an Uber self-driving car killed a pedestrian—the first fatal accident attributable to an autonomous vehicle. If companies are so hell-bent on being the first to get to market, they’re likely to cut corners and neglect the QA testing that all AI needs to be consistently successful.

Laws and Regulations

Thankfully, there are safeguards in place. Autonomous vehicle laws vary by state, but currently, no fully autonomous vehicles are allowed on American roadways. Most states allow for some kind of limited self-driving car features, or self-driving car testing, but lawmakers are cautious not to expose consumers to any more risks than necessary. Should this attitude continue, it may be enough to counteract executives’ push to get cars to market as quickly as possible; automakers will have to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that their AI is capable of safely transporting passengers.

When First-Generation Is Second-Generation

By the time we get a fully functional, consumer-ready self-driving car, developers will have already had many years to perfect their algorithms and test them out in live environments. Consider the fact that Waymo has been testing its vehicle since 2009, and in that span of time its fleet has driven more than 7 million miles—a length that would take an average driver 300 years to finish. In addition to that, Waymo is testing its cars virtually, with more than 2.7 billion virtual test miles in 2017 alone.

Taking this into consideration, the “first” generation you have access to could be more appropriately described as the second generation of autonomous vehicle.

The Benefits

We should also consider that even a suboptimal AI algorithm will probably be safer and more efficient than a comparable human driver. For example, there are more than 40,000 vehicular fatalities every year, and more than 90 percent of all traffic accidents are attributable to human error. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) would prefer to wait until autonomous vehicles are twice as safe as human drivers until they’re fully allowed to drive on public streets. But even if they’re only 10 percent better than the average human driver, they could save 4,000 lives a year.

Without intricate knowledge of the code responsible for piloting self-driving cars, you’ll have to use your assumptions and baseline judgments to decide whether or not to purchase a self-driving vehicle. There are certainly risks, compounded by the desperate eagerness of corporations to get autonomous vehicles on the road as fast as possible, but all it would take is a marginal increase in efficiency and safety to justify the jump. Keep learning and watching for new developments, and try to keep your overly optimistic and overly skeptical sides in balance before making the final call.

Sente saudades de um tempo que já se foi? Não sabe explicar para o seu filho por que o coleguinha tem dois pais ou duas mães, e não uma família como deve ser? Lamenta que pobres e negros possam entrar nas universidades, concorrendo a vagas que sempre foram suas? Cansado de ser chamado de reacionário por uma gente maluca que quer mudar coisas que para você estão ótimas? Pare de se chatear. Seus problemas acabaram!

Volte a viver em um tempo em que todos sabiam o seu lugar: o da mulher, na cozinha; o do negro, na senzala; o do gay, no armário; e o do pobre, bem longe de você! Agora isso é possível, com a nova Retro-Machine.

Desenvolvida pela Status Quo S.A. especialmente para você, a Retro-Machine permite que você viaje no tempo e volte para a época em que todos os privilégios eram seus e não era  preciso se preocupar com manifestantes querendo mudanças, já que seriam todos recebidos na porrada.

Usar a Retro-Machine é muito fácil: entre na elegante cabine projetada para todos os tamanhos e ajuste a data desejada no painel. Quer viver em uma sociedade onde mulheres que não seguiam a moral e os bons costumes eram queimadas em enormes fogueiras? Fácil! Gire o indicador do tempo para trás, até o painel mostrar o ano de 1450. Não quer se preocupar em dividir seu lugar na sociedade com negros? Ajuste o indicador de tempo para mostrar o ano de 1540.

A viagem é confortável e dura apenas alguns minutos. Você também pode acionar a função Ab-Shaper da cadeira para definir o seu abdômen e perder algumas calorias sem fazer esforço enquanto viaja. Não é incrível? O melhor é que, depois de usar, basta dobrar a Retro-Machine e guardar debaixo da cama. É super compacta!

Pare de perder tempo tentando converter gays e volte para um tempo em que eles não tinham coragem de se assumir. Adquira já a sua Retro-Machine e livre-se do incoveniente de lutar contra as mudanças da sociedade!

Viaje para a época em que a igreja tinha a última palavra, ou para o tempo em que mulheres não tinham voz. Viva em um mundo sem cotas para isso ou para aquilo, onde quem fazia as regras eram coronéis e fazendeiros! Ou ainda explore os ajustes pré-definidos como “Bons Tempos da Ditadura”, “A Terra Não É Redonda”, “Só Homens Ricos Sabiam Ler” e o incrível “Catequize e Escravize um Índio”. Você vai adorar o século XV! Aproveite e fique por lá. Para sempre.

Ligue agora e peça a sua Retro-Machine. Os dez primeiros que ligarem receberão inteiramente grátis uma palmatória de 60 cm para usar em crianças indisciplinadas e o Guia do Reacionário Atemporal, com mais de 2 mil receitas para manter o status quo da sua época preferida. Frete grátis para todo o Brasil.

Retro-Machine. Porque algumas pessoas não pertencem a este tempo.

godblessgig-emandhooah:

babywarrior5:

mccunt:

stangefruitandwildthing:

Geraldine Hoff Doyle, was a 17 years (in 1942) while she was working at the American Broach & Machine Co. when a photographer snapped a pic of her on the job.

That image used by J. Howard Miller for the “We Can Do It!” poster, released during World War II. 

Oh shit, that’s the real “Rosie the Riveter” ?

BAMF

BAMF INDEED. This woman deserves all the respect in the universe!

Beyond awesome. Much kudos to you, ma’am.

Infelizmente, a Comic Con de Nova York deste ano não tratou só dos assuntos superheroicos, amor entre furries e acordos históricos entre dorkwads e gaywads. Não, como costuma ser o caso, toda vez que há um grande grupo de humanos, há um punhado de imbecis que sentem a necessidade de agir de maneira inapropriada porque ninguém nunca os amou. Triste. :(

No caso, um grupelho de beócios se aproximou de Mandy Caruso, 23 anos, que estava participando do evento vestida de Gata Negra, da Marvel, e perguntaram se poderiam entrevistá-la. Ela, sendo humana e animada com a possibilidade de aparecer na televisão (O SONHO AMERICANO), alegremente concordou.

A entrevista foi mais ou menos assim:

Ele: Porra, legal! Bem, deixa eu fazer uma pergunta importante, então… qual o tamanho do seu sutiã?
Eu: (sorriso de apresentadora de tevê) Isso não é da sua conta.
Ele: Ah, acho que ela é 42, então.
Eu: Na real eu não tenho peito algum, o que você está vendo é toda a gordura da minha cesariana puxada até meu colo e segurada por um corselet. É bastante desconfortável, não sei por que faço isso.
Ele: (para a plateia masculina) Ah, vamos lá, o que vocês acham? 42? – alguns caras começam a gritar tamanhos de sutiã enquanto eu fico pasmando para esse cara porque ele só pode estar de brincadeira, aí olho para a multidão e vejo que nem um pingo de espirituosidade nem de mau humor vai tornar isso menos imbecil. Era obviamente uma estratégia para pegar mulheres cosplayers para conseguir que elas fizessem insinuações sexuais e flertassem com esse babaca e o deixassem humilhá-las só porque elas estão fantasiadas e são atraentes. Esteja eu em um collant de gato ou não, eu sou uma profissional em tudo o que faço e não preciso me fazer de legal pra esse idiota.
Eu: Isto não é uma entrevista, isto é degradante. Acabou. (Saio andando)

Nossa.

O lado bom? Mandy postou a conversa em seu Tumblr e gerou mais de 20 mil reblogs de pessoas no mundo todo elogiando sua coragem, esperteza e força. Porque, caramba, ela mandou muito bem. A gata saiu por cima, mandando de volta respostas daquelas que você gostaria de ter dito um dia.

Claro, isso mostra a questão do assédio em convenções em geral, o que, de acordo com o Daily Dot, é um problema.

Assédio sexual em convenções de fãs tem se tornado um assunto crescente nos últimos anos, e participantes tem começado a alternadamente implementar regras de abuso, ou serem criticados por não possuírem regras para esses abusos. Grupos como o Con Anti-Harassment Project surgiram para ajudar as pessoas a pesquisar regras do tipo antes mesmo de frequentar esses eventos.

Infelizmente, a Comic Con de Nova York não possui uma norma acessível, mas talvez isso possa mudar por causa do incidente Gata Negra: Ascenção do Tumblr.

E como Mandy está lidando com tudo isso, após todo amor e apoio que recebeu via Tumblr? Muito bem:

Mandy falou ao Daily Dot que preferiria não revelar o nome do grupo que a entrevistou porque “eles teriam atenção/acessos no youtube/ cliques no site demais”, e disse que a reação ao seu post no Tumblr foi “linda pra caralho”.

“Estou muito orgulhosa pela comunidade por se levantar e espalhar o assunto e dividir suas histórias, e se eu consegui iniciar uma discussão sobre igualdade de gêneros e consciência, eu me sinto honrada e grata. Podemos ser heróis!”, ela disse.

Às vezes a internet pode ser um lugar legal, capaz de incitar uma revolta via blog. Podemos ter esperança de que essa enxurrada de apoio será traduzida em um chamado de ação para os organizadores da Comic Con de Nova York, porque esse tipo de merda não pode acontecer. Arrasou, Tumblr. Arrasou, Gata Negra. Vamos comemorar com um pouco de Janet Jackson.

Black Cat cosplayer sexually harassed at comic con becomes Tumblr hero [Daily Dot]
original Tumblr post [beautilation]

I went to the mall, and a little girl called me a terrorist. 

My name is Ela.  I am seventeen years old.  I am not Muslim, but my friend told me about her friend being discriminated against for wearing a hijab.  So I decided to see the discrimination firsthand to get a better understanding of what Muslim women go through. 

My friend and I pinned scarves around our heads, and then we went to the mall.  Normally, vendors try to get us to buy things and ask us to sample a snack.  Clerks usually ask us if we need help, tell us about sales, and smile at us.  Not today.  People, including vendors, clerks, and other shoppers, wouldn’t look at us.  They didn’t talk to us.  They acted like we didn’t exist.  They didn’t want to be caught staring at us, so they didn’t look at all. 

And then, in one store, a girl (who looked about four years old) asked her mom if my friend and I were terrorists.  She wasn’t trying to be mean or anything.  I don’t even think she could have grasped the idea of prejudice.  However, her mother’s response is one I can never forgive or forget.  The mother hushed her child, glared at me, and then took her daughter by the hand and led her out of the store. 

All that because I put a scarf on my head.  Just like that, a mother taught her little girl that being Muslim was evil.  It didn’t matter that I was a nice person.  All that mattered was that I looked different.  That little girl may grow up and teach her children the same thing. 

This experiment gave me a huge wakeup call.  It lasted for only a few hours, so I can’t even begin to imagine how much prejudice Muslim girls go through every day.  It reminded me of something that many people know but rarely remember: the women in hijabs are people, just like all those women out there who aren’t Muslim. 

People of Tumblr, please help me spread this message.  Treat Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, Taoists, etc., exactly the way you want to be treated, regardless of what they’re wearing or not wearing, no exceptions.  Reblog this.  Tell your friends.  I don’t know that the world will ever totally wipe out prejudice, but we can try, one blog at a time.  

I was reading about vim the other day and found out why it used hjkl keys as arrow keys. When Bill Joy created the vi text editor he used the ADM-3A terminal, which had the arrows on hjkl keys. Naturally he reused the same keys and the rest is history!

Here is how the hjkl keys looked:

ADM-3A keyboard's hjkl keys with arrows.

And here is the whole terminal that vi was created on:

Lear Siegler's ADM-3A computer terminal.

Since vim is derived from vi, it uses the same hjkl keys.

And while we're at it, notice where the ESC key is positioned:

Lear Siegler's ADM-3A computer terminal's full keyboard.

That's why the ESC is used to change between vi modes! Because it's so close and easy to reach.

Also ever wondered why home directory is ~ in UNIX? Look at the HOME key in upper right corner!

HJKL T-Shirt!

I just got a deal with Teespring for a hjkl t-shirt! Teespring is like kickstarter for t-shirts. If at least 30 people commit to buy the shirt the deal goes through and everyone gets the shirt. Otherwise nothing happens.

Get your limited edition hjkl t-shirt now! (Ships worldwide in 4-8 days.)

Extra Discussions!

My post has generated a lot of awesome responses, see hacker news, osnews, and reddit discussions (two of them on /r/programming and /r/vim).

Follow me!

If you enjoyed my post, subscribe to my blog, follow me on twitter, google+ or github. Thank you!

Comentaristas de site de grandes portais de notícias: você é/já foi/conhece algum? Deixando as críticas de lado, o comentarista de portal é um tipo muito comum e ao mesmo tempo muito particular na internet nacional. Ele sempre está disposto a opinar rapidamente sobre tudo o que surge, mas talvez de uma forma mais revoltada com o veículo do que os comentaristas de Twitter, por exemplo. Ele se dispõe a registrar seu desprezo contra o site com rapidez. Ou — por que não? — dialogar com o personagem e assunto em questão, buscando um quê de originalidade entre os demais comentários. Isso pode acontecer com qualquer notícia, sobre qualquer coisa. QUALQUER.

Tomemos como exemplo este texto publicado hoje no G1 e que fala sobre uma mulher que foi flagrada no começo desta manhã tomando banho nua na orla da praia do Flamengo, na Zona Sul do Rio de Janeiro. Seria possível tecer comentários que ligam este fato com a corrupção dos políticos brasileiros? Sim. Simplesmente porque este tipo de comentário surge em qualquer post.

Aqui, apresentamos tipos clássicos de comentaristas de portais de notícias e algumas de suas derivações, tendo como objeto de estudo a notícia da pelada da praia do Flamengo. Você pode compará-los com outros grupos de comentários em outros sites e analisar suas evoluções.

24 — Comentarista E o Sarney Continua Lá

23 — Comentarista Somos Todos Palhaços (ou a derivação do E o Sarney Continua Lá um pouco mais irônica)

22 — Comentarista O Interior É Pouco Explorado

21 — Comentarista Que Conversa Com O Personagem da Matéria

20 — Comentarista Posso Fazer Melhor — Edição Miss Goiás

19 — Comentarista Que Dá Um Contraponto Com Base Em Casos Famosos E Que No Fim Termina Com E o Sarney Lá

18 — Comentarista Que Lembra das Mortes Por Causa do Crack

17 — Comentarista E Se Fosse Tua Mãe Lá

16 — Comentarista Antes Isso Do Que

15 — Comentarista Antes Isso do Que — Edição Pelada Com Decência

14 — Comentarista Taí, Curti!

13 — Comentarista E Se Meus Filhos Virem Esta Vergonha

12– Comentarista Ombudsman — Edição Isto É Falta de Notícia

11 — Comentarista Ombudsman — Edição Imprensa Feat. Polícia

10 — Comentarista O Brasil É Ridículo

9 — Comentarista A Culpa É Das Novelas

8 — Comentarista Ah Se Fosse Na Europa

7 — Comentarista E O Flamengo Está Na Pior — Edição Bela Bunda

6 — Comentarista Spammer e Comentarista Que Comenta o Spam

5 — Comentarista Caps Louco

4 — Comentarista Caps Louco — Edição Corinthians-Ronaldo-Travesti

3 — Comentarista Visionário-midiático

2 — Comentarista Que Joga Um Veículo Contra o Outro

1 — Comentarista Normal

Curadoria de comentários: @burgos. Foto do destaque: Alessandro Buzas/Futura Press/Estadão Conteúdo.

Leia mais...

Fallingwater is the name of a very special house that is built over a waterfall. Frank Lloyd Wright, America’s most famous architect, designed the house for his clients, the Kaufmann family. Fallingwater was built between 1936 and 1939. It instantly became famous, and today it is a National Historic Landmark.

See more

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Pandora today revealed some very interesting numbers regarding how much it pays the artists behind the content available on its online radio service. It turns out that the automated music recommendation service is shelling out quite a bit of money for many popular artists: anywhere between $10,000 to $3 million to be exact.

Pandora Founder Tim Westergren gives the specifics:

For over two thousand artists Pandora will pay over $10,000 dollars each over the next 12 months (including one of my favorites, the late jazz pianist Oscar Peterson), and for more than 800 we’ll pay over $50,000, more than the income of the average American household. For top earners like Coldplay, Adele, Wiz Khalifa, Jason Aldean and others Pandora is already paying over $1 million each. Drake and Lil Wayne are fast approaching a $3 million annual rate each.

Basic math ($10,000 * 2,000 + $50,000 * 800 + 4 * $1,000,000 + 2 * $3,000,000) shows us that Pandora is shelling out at least $70 million annually, but given that we took the lower estimate in all the cases mentioned above, and taking last years numbers into account, the figure is easily well over $100 million. That’s impressive.

Unfortunately, without play counts for the songs belonging to these artists, it’s difficult to gauge how well the artists are being paid. As we pointed out last month, artists are making less than a cent on both iTunes Match and Spotify.

Still, the raw figures are nothing to scoff at, as Westergren notes:

It’s hard to look at these numbers and not see that internet radio presents an incredible opportunity to build a better future for artists. Not only is it bringing tens of millions of listeners back to music, across hundreds of genres, but it is also enabling musicians to earn a living. Since Pandora accounts for just 6.53% of all radio listening in the U.S., it seems fundamentally unfair that other forms of radio that represent much larger shares of U.S. radio listening pay substantially less to artists.

Pandora of course wants to grab a larger market share of all radio listening in the country, and it wants to point out that artists benefit as the service grows.

See also: Meet the Internet Radio Fairness Act, a law that could be a massive financial boon to Pandora and Pandora clocked 1 billion listener hours and 51 million active users in March

Image credit: Tracy Olson

Everyone’s favorite ebook bundle charity online sale thinger is back and you have 13 hours to grab eight sci-fi books from folks like Neil Gaiman, John Scalzi, and the Craphound himself, Cory Doctorow.

This bundle has sold more than 18,000 units already and you can download the books in DRM-free epub, mobi, or PDF format. You can also send them directly to your Kindle. The bundle is worth $52, but the average donation has been $11 so far, which means you can receive the Scalzi book and a the Gaiman graphic novel for $12.

Books include Pirate Cinema, Pump Six and Other Stories, Zoo City, Invasion: The Secret World Chronicle, Stranger Things Happen, and Magic for Beginners.

The sale supports the Science Fiction Writers of America, the EFF, and Child’s Play. Plus a little (or a lot, your choice) goes to the authors.

A vintage Mutual of Omaha insurance company ad from 1951, lovingly scanned and shared in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool by v.valenti.

For years, Neil Young has waged a rhetorical war on digital audio formats such as MP3. Lambasting their diminished sonic quality, the rock icon has advocated the development of a new high-resolution format more sonically akin to the analog sources of yesteryear. Now, after years of complaining, Young is turning his gripes in action.

During a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman last week, Young showed off a prototype of Pono, a forthcoming portable music player that plays files in a format with the same name. The project has won the attention and praise of many within the music industry, according to a recent article in Rolling Stone. 

By definition, MP3 files are of lower quality than audio files stored on recording studio hard drives. Storing those original, gigabyte-scale files on a portable player simply isn't practical, so instead we store data-reduced (a.k.a compressed or lossy) versions. When we stream from places like Spotify, SoundCloud and Rdio, the quality often drops further. Even the highest-quality MP3s contain less data than the same files would on CD, not to mention the theoretically infinite number of bits required to ideally digitize the old-school vinyl that Young so enthusiastically prefers. High-quality MP3s and lossless formats like FLAC and ALAC are an improvement over the 128kbps MP3s fans once grabbed from Napster, but in Young's eyes, even the best digital formats leave much to be desired. 

Enter Pono. The high-capacity music player will hold lossless files with a dramatically higher sample rate and bit depth than CDs allow. Instead of 16-bit tracks sampled at 44.1kHz, Pono players will be packed with music encoded in 24 bits and sampled at 192kHz, equal to the DVD-Audio spec.

Yet Another Format?

The imminent arrival of Pono in the marketplace raises a few questions. For one, do we actually need this? The digital audio quality issue has long been a matter of intense debate among audiophiles and music fans. It's certainly true that newer formats contain less data than analog sources, but does the average consumer care? Most songs on Spotify, for example, are compressed to a mediocre standard (premium users can unlock higher-quality streams), but services of this variety have managed to attract millions of users. For most of that audience, it appears, listening to music at less-than-CD quality sufficient. 

But then again, Pono isn't intended for everybody. It's geared toward audiophiles and purists. After all, high bit-rate MP3s and similar formats don't sound terrible to the average person's ear. It's just that some of the details are lost or may sound slightly distorted. 

This raises another issue: Is there enough market demand to support a new music player and format? The industry can hardly get people to cough up $0.99 for a track on iTunes, let alone shell out for a premium-priced music player and super-high-quality files to play on it.

That said, there's a reason vinyl has seen a resurgence in the last few years. Young's idea may seem counterintuitive given the misfortunes of the music industry over the last decade, but maybe he's onto something. 

American Apparel has an offer you can’t refuse.

For once, I can say I’m interested in a model for more than her face. Not that I don’t appreciate a girl with a good head on her shoulders, but I like to keep it within my own species.

Thanks Gillian! Once you see the disaster (closely look at the horse) in this one, you won’t be able to not see it.  You can see the original on the AA site.

The post American Apparel: Sarah Jessica Parker Ad appeared first on PSD : Photoshop Disasters .

Essa mini-lua que mais parece um brinquedo é, na verdade, um bolo de sorvete criado pelos designers Nipa Doshi e Jonathan Levien para a Häagen-Dazs.

A lua branca é recheada com lascas de macadâmia, merengue, sorvete de creme, tem uma base de biscoito de pistache e cobertura de sorvete de framboesa. Já a alaranjada possui uma base de chocolate crocante, camadas de sorvete de nozes e caramelo, e uma cobertura de sorvete de baunilha.

Os designers explicam que se inspiraram no filme Viagem à Lua, de George Méliès; nos trabalhos do artista armênio e surrealista Léon Tutundjian; em uma canção infantil de Bollywood; e naquele jeitinho tradicional de servir sorvetes de bola. Para eles, esse é o melhor protótipo que já inventaram, afinal, é comestível!

O post Lua de comer apareceu primeiro em Marketing na Cozinha.

Que tal um cama completa para seu animal de estimação?

Essa tem até criado mudo, fiquei querendo muito comprar (ou fazer) algumas dessas para meus felinos.

onde comprar

A few years ago, crows mesmerized scientists and TED talkers when it became clear the birds knew how to produce and use tools, both in captivity and in the wild. A new study suggests another high-level cognitive skill in the avian toolkit: The New Caledonian crow may possess the power of causal reasoning, previously believed to exist only in humans. Discover’s 80beats blog offers a nice summary of how researchers tested for the elusive skill: They designed an experiment in which crows came to associate the presence of a large curtain with a threatening stick poking around near the their food box; when the birds were allowed to see a human leaving the curtain, they relaxed, indicating they were able to infer a human’s presence was responsible for the stick’s activity. The authors of the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, say that this is the first time an animal has been shown to “make inferences about hidden causal mechanisms.” It joins a list of several recent discoveries of animals performing eerily human-like functions, like the birds that conduct “funerals” for their dead peers, the apes that enjoy slapstick humor, the birds that produce art for art’s sake, and the chimpanzee that conducts rigorous studies of primate behavior. (OK, that one’s from the Onion.)

Sometimes, you hear something from someone that sounds like it would make sense if you take some time to think about it.

But, 9 out of 10 times, unsubstantiated rumors don’t even stand a chance of getting published by The Next Web or any other tech blog worth its salt – especially not the really juicy ones. This is not one of those times.

We’re hearing whispers from certain sources over here in Europe that Microsoft is presently in talks to acquire San Francisco-based digital music streaming, subscription and discovery service company Rdio.

We’re still digging, and our contacts within the two organizations are keeping mum on this for now, but we’re running the rumor because those talks are likely actually taking place, and because an eventual deal would make sense for both parties.

We tried to get a statement from Rdio CEO Drew Larner, who informed us that there “is nothing to talk about” and that he will not “comment on rumors”.

We’ve reached out to the Redmond software giant as well and got the stereotypical response:

““We’re not commenting on speculation around Xbox Music. What we can say is we’re excited for Xbox Music as our definitive music service. It’ll bring great new ways to enjoy, share and discover new music on all your Windows 8 devices, Xbox 360 console and Windows Phone 8. We’ll let you know when we have more information to share.”

But, think about this. Microsoft is currently trying to transform itself into what CEO Steve Ballmer calls a “devices-and-services company”.

The company operates the Xbox entertainment brand, and is planning to introduce a new (likely free and ad-supported) music streaming service called Xbox Music.

That service, which would effectively replace the late Zune, would reportedly run on the Xbox 360 gaming console, Windows Phone handsets and the many, many Windows 8 computers that will soon flood the market.

Microsoft has its own mobile operating system for smartphones, Windows Phone. It also has its very own hardware products in the works, one or more Surface tablet computers and very likely also a proper Surface smartphone.

Music is such a critical piece of the puzzle for any consumer-facing company that offers both hardware and associated software and services – just ask Apple, Google / Motorola Mobility, Amazon, RIM, Nokia, Samsung, Sony and HTC – that digital music streaming, distribution, download and discovery services are often coveted acquisition targets for the aforementioned CE giants.

Particularly when those providers have proven they can scale internationally.

Which brings us to Rdio.

Launched in 2010, the ad-free music subscription, sharing and discovery service now covers markets like the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Brazil, Australia, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway and New Zealand.

Available as a Web service, desktop apps for Mac OS X and Windows, and mobile clients for iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone devices, Rdio has already done much of the hard work of getting such a service off the ground.

Its catalog has swelled to over 18 million songs over the past two years. It just launched a new Artist Program, paying partnering musicians $10 for each new subscriber they attract.

However, Rdio is struggling to keep up with fast-moving rival Spotify (and its partner Facebook) on a global scale. A tie-in with Microsoft would instantly increase its reach substantially.

Know that Rdio was cooked up by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, the two Scandinavian entrepreneurs who famously started the likes of KaZaa, Joost, and of course, Skype. In case you’ve been living under a rock: Skype was acquired by Microsoft for $8.5 billion in 2011.

This made for an – ongoing – awkward situation, as Skype is also an investor in Rdio. Another investor in Rdio is Atomico, the venture capital firm founded by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom. And another investor in Rdio is Mangrove Capital Partners, who was one of the early backers of Skype.

Still with us? Because it doesn’t end there.

Another Rdio co-founder, Carter Adamson, was previously Head of Product at Skype. The music startup’s Product VP, Malthe Sigurdsson, helped create Skype’s brand and was formerly its Creative Director. Its VP Strategic & International Partnerships, Bagby, helped construct the commercial side of Skype.

Needless to say, there are more than a few connections between Rdio, Microsoft, Skype, Mangrove and Atomico.

Those connections aren’t new, obviously, so they are not necessarily a solid enough reason for us to believe this deal will happen. However, the links provide a very interesting backdrop onto which we can frame what we are currently hearing, concerning the talks between Microsoft and Rdio.

As a bonus aside: let’s not forget that it has also been rumored that Microsoft will offer video content under the “Xbox Video” brand, and that Rdio also has this thing called Vdio in the works.

It’s crystal clear that buying Rdio (and Vdio) would be an excellent way for Microsoft to beef up its Xbox music (Zune Music Pass, anyone?) and rumored upcoming video content streaming offerings, and bring in a lot of prized talent to boot.

If this deal happens, we wouldn’t be surprised at all.

But it bears repeating that this is nothing but an unsubstantiated, albeit juicy, hot sizzling rumor for now, and you should take it at face value.

If you have any more information, on or off the record, feel free to get in touch with us at any time. We’ll continue to dig until we learn more.

Top image credit: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

Bottom image credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

MEXEU COM O SARNEY MEXEU COMIGO! EU A-MO O SARNEY LIN-DO!

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So how do you light your home when you have no windows? Put the windows in the ceiling, of course! Or, at least, that’s what the Japanese architect Takeshi Hosaka opted to do in this house located in Yokohama, Japan.

The house has been dubbed “The Daylight House”. That’s because the roof is composed of a series of deep skylights, one right next to the other. The depth of the skylights filter the sun, providing a natural illumination that changes continuously throughout the day. The architect opted for this choice, since the home is located in a dense urban area filled with skyscrapers and commercial buildings. By moving the windows to the roof, the house retains ultimate privacy and quiet… in other words a perfect zen retreat.

Above is a view of what the skylights look like. Below, check out the bedroom and study:

And here an overall view of the space:

Here’s what the exterior of the house looks like:

And here’s a birds-eye view. Both pics above and below give you a better idea why the architect opted to put the windows in the roof, rather than on the sides of the structure.

Aside from the roof of skylights, the space successfully pulls in light by:

• Staying white and bright. A darker color on walls and floors would have made the space feel like a cave, rather than an open airy loft.

• Using reflective, light color flooring, Polished concrete floors bounce light around the space.

• Keeping furnishings to a minimum. The minimal look perpetuates the feeling of openness and light. There are no dark furnishings or carpets to absorb light.

This is a post from Home Design Find

Design Dilemma: What to do when you have no windows

The ongoing tug-of-war between musicians, record labels and digital content providers inched a little more towards artists this week with the introduction of an innovative paid-referral plan from streaming provider Rdio. The new program pays artists a flat $10 fee for every user they refer, a rare form of direct-to-artist revenue in the music streaming business. But it's only the latest move to renegotiate the flow of money in the world of digital music - and now even Congress is weighing in.

Rdio’s artist program is trying to play to both artists’ vanity and their pocket books. Not only will musicians get an immediate benefit for any new subscriber that joins Rdio, if they can help boost Rdio's current 10-million-user subscriber base to challenge Spotify’s reported 33 million users, that should also increase overall payments to artists from royalties down the road.

Of course, other than that up-front fee, Rdio’s royalty payments won’t provide much padding for musicians’ wallets, primarily because Rdio, like competing services Spotify and MOG, pays royalties directly to the record labels, not to the artists.

Where The Streaming Music Money Goes

All three of these services essentially negotiate their royalty rates with the record labels in the same way – directly – which can take forever. Royalty arguments actually delayed Spotify’s entrance into the U.S. market by two years, and according to Casey Rae, co-director of the Future of Music Coalition, the three major U.S. labels ended up taking an equity stake in Spotify to make sure they could squeeze every last drop of juice from the service provider.

Since these deals are private, it is not known how much each service has to pay to individual labels. It is estimated that Spotify pays anywhere from 70% to 97% of its subscription-based revenue to music distributors, depending on who you ask.

Pandora, on the other hand, handles things differently, Rae emphasized in a recent interview. “Pandora can play anything it wants,” he explained. “Their license is a statutory license that pays the artist directly.” The royalty is split down the middle with a music label if the artist is signed with one.

That rate, as the law proscribes, amounts to over 50% of Pandora’s revenue. As a non-interactive music streaming service, Pandora has to pay the highest rate bracket within the statute, far higher than satellite or cable TV providers have to pay for their music streaming services. Broadcasters, meanwhile, don’t have to pay anything, unless they stream their content on the Internet, at which point they have to pay the same rates as a service like Pandora or Clear Channel.

The Laws of the Land

Two bills now in Congress are set to adjust the rate schedule for these services toward what could be more fair treatment of the streaming services.

First is the Internet Radio Fairness Act of 2012, which would adjust the royalty rate that music streaming services have to pay down to match the levels that cable/satellite providers pay. Broadcast stations still pay nothing.

Second is the Interim Fairness in Radio Starting Today Act , which takes the opposite approach and would increase the cable/satellite provider rate to match that of the streaming providers’ - and remove the exemption for broadcasters.

Needless to say, artists and record labels are much more excited about the latter bill. The music industry already complains about how little it receives from streaming broadcasters, and undoubtedly would express outrage at any reduction in royalty rates.

The Last Song

A service like Pandora, which has to scale up its royalty payments as more subscribers join, is already dealing with the clash between revenues it generates and the royalties it has to pay. Without a reduction in statutory payments, it is not clear how long Pandora will continue to operate.

Rdio, Spotify and MOG, since they have negotiated deals with the content providers separately, would be unaffected by either of these bills passing into law. But they can’t take on much more royalty payments either. Spotify alone lost $57 million in 2011, even as it pulled in $236 million in revenue.

It's a complex, contentious issue, but unless the the royalty issues get worked out, the future of Rdio and its streaming music competitors is in jeopardy. If it costs more for them to license the music they stream than the revenue they can generate from it, they won't stay in business long. But if they raise prices dramitically to cover royalty payments, they risk losing subscribers who can't justify the higher fees. And as usual, you can bet that the artists, not the music companies or streaming services, will be last in line to get paid.

 

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

pintinho publicado nesta quarta no caderno “eleições 2012” da folha de s.paulo