Ben Plowman

Good and evil.

i love how the god species and/or endstate of human progression is perfectly white and hairless.

4gifs:

Dog obedience competition.  [video]

cannot get enough

mapsontheweb:

Anthropogenic excrement sightings in San Francisco by Jennifer Wong (via) 

shoutout

um

historical-nonfiction:

T.H. White, author of The Once and Future King, shared his lonely life with a beloved Irish setter, Brownie, whom he called his child, wife, and mother, “myself with melting eye.” “It is a queer difference between this kind of thing and getting married,” he wrote, “that married people love each other at first (I understand) and it fades by use and custom, but with dogs you love them most at last.”

In late 1944, Brownie died, and after sitting up with her for two nights, White buried her himself in a basket. He could not bear the thought of going through the same pain again in twelve years time. He would never get another dog. He wrote later, “I have found … that the people who consider too close an affection between men and animals to be ‘unnatural’ are basing their prejudice on something real. It is the incompatibility of ages. It is in Lucretius. He says that centaurs cannot exist because the horse part would die before the man part. All I can do now is to remember her dead as I buried her, the cold grey jowl in the basket, and not as my heart’s blood, which she was for the last eight years of our twelve. I shall never be more than half a centaur now.”

historical-nonfiction:

Until the late 1800s, many Russian peasants in the Pskov region ‘hibernated’ for much of the winter, waking only once a day for some dry bread. So, almost hibernating?

carudamon119:

は～やん

@crazykohei0123

【愛媛】巨大イノシシ親子の稲わらアート　１１月下旬まで公開【乙事主】

ehime-np.co.jp/news/local/201

Nov 10, China President Xi Jinping and his national idol wife Peng liyuan were in the spotlight again as they received leaders from APEC countries in a gala held in the Water Cube. It is normal for the remarkable two to wear Chinese characteristic clothes when receiving guests, but interestingly, the guests also arrive in the Water Cube in unified style, the co-called New Chinese Uniform specially designed for APEC 2014 reception.

Without further delay, let’s see how country leaders break their new Chinese look as they walk down the red carpet.

(Source: Netease)

too many

it’s illuminati man

The 2014 APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) is a big deal for Beijing, since it is the first international economic organization that China takes part in. To make sure that CEOs and leaders of the region have a nice stay in Beijing, a series of new approaches are put in place.

The most significant objective is to recreate the blue sky that Beijing has long lost. In order to get rid of the embarrassing smog, factories in Beijing and nearby cities are ordered to suspend production during the conference; all construction sites in Beijing stop working. Farmers and residents living in 50km away Huairou District have to stop cooking with woods and make do with natural gas for a while. During Nov 3-12, cargo trucks, three-wheel truck, tractors, motorcycles, and buses that don’t meet the emission standard are forbidden to enter Beijing’s 6th Ring Road or further within. Car drivers have to observe the odd-even license plate rule that was invented in 2007 for Beijing Olympic Games with the same purpose, i.e. during these 10 days they can drive on the road only if the last number of their license plates match the parity of the date. An interesting result is that Beijingers won’t be able to drink fresh milk first thing in the morning as milk delivery trucks are not allowed to run on the roads until after APEC conference.

Beijing is also trying to clear people out of the city. Companies in Beijing have 6 days APEC holidays to their employees to let them go travelling, but not in Beijing, since many tourist spots in Beijing such as the Bird Nest, the Water Cube, the Olympic Forest Park are either completely closed during APEC or open only on selective days. Worry not, the Beijing Railway Bureau has increased several lines destined to Shanghai, Hefei, Zaozhuang and Hangzhou City. Think twice if you want to travel by plane though, as it is required to check-in 5 hours ahead. Besides the push, there is also pulling efforts made by nearby cities to get people out of Beijing. Many tourist areas out of Beijing will give half price or even free tickets for tourists from Beijing; hotels and inns are also offering discounts.

Beijing not only encourages people to get out of the city, but also makes some odd rules to minimize traffic and trouble inside the city. For example, marriage registration services and passport application office are closed during APEC; senior economist exam will be postponed until after the conference.

(Beijing on Oct 24, 2014)

(Beijing in early November 2014)

The effect is immediate and astonishing, Beijing has been seeing miraculous blue sky and clear air in November. But everybody knows by heart that this is just temporary and there is still a long way to go to really hold on to such luxuriously clean air. As a matter of fact, netizens have corned this phenomena as "APEC Blue", and use it to refer to something that are beautiful but doom to be short-lived. For instance, "he is not that into you, it is just APEC blue."

(Source: Netease)

Too Many Cooks | Adult Swim

nirak:

Oh come on

Further evidence of a dramatic slowdown in patent litigation activity in the United States is provided today in data published by Unified Patents, the entity whose business is based on helping SMEs fight frivolous patent suits. According to the research, which covers the third quarter of this year (June to September),  there was a 23% drop in the number of suits filed compared to the second quarter, and a 27% year-on-year reduction.

The findings come just weeks after data released by Lex Machina showed that there had been a 40% fall in patent suits in September 2014 as compared to the same month in the previous year. Commenting to IAM on the reasons for the decline, Lex Machina founder Professor Mark Lemley claimed that much of it could be attributed to the Supreme Court’s Alice v CLS decision. The Alice judgment was handed down towards the end of June.

More here.

Alice has made a difference as well as the cheaper post-grant challenge procedure in the AIA. Once the first software patents make it through, however, there will be an uptick as people learn the new system. Still this is good news especially for software patents but we have a way to go on the larger issue of IP, including copyright.

Here is the updated “Tabarrok curve“.

gifsboom:

NASA Antares Rocket Explosion ** video **

:(