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24 Apr 18:10
Working to Make the World Stronger
Randy Laue, Rtersieva and 7 others like this
24 Apr 18:09
04/21/14 PHD comic: 'An Honest Methods Section'
| Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham |
www.phdcomics.com
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title:
"An Honest Methods Section" - originally published
4/21/2014
For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE! |
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RaptoR, Seth Koenig and 18 others like this
23 Apr 16:51
Draining reservoir after urination incident shows tenuous grasp of science
by Casey Johnston
Dallas Swonger, right, caught in the act by a security tape.
The city of Portland, OR will empty a 38-million gallon reservoir after a teenager allegedly urinated in it, according to the Associated Press. It's the second time in three years that Portland is flushing its Mount Tabor reservoir after a urine-related incident.
The reservoir is open-air and sits exposed to all of nature, leading many parties to question how necessary a draining would be, or how polluted 38 million gallons of water can really be by a single man's urine.
David Shaff, Portland's water bureau administrator, reserves a special disgust specifically for human urine. In 2011, when Shaff drained the reservoir following a urination, he reasoned to the Portland Mercury, "Do you want to be drinking someone's pee?… There's probably no regulation that says I have to be doing it but, again, who wants to be drinking pee?" This time around, Shaff wrote in a statement, "Our customers have an expectation that their water is not deliberately contaminated."
Tadeu likes this
23 Apr 15:30
Great Job, Internet!: This interactive Game Of Thrones map has everything
by Caroline Siede
Much has been said about the fact that our culture is experiencing an unprecedented era of nerd domination. Within this newfound hierarchy of nerd popularity, cartographers must rank pretty high; how else can you explain the huge influence of highly-detailed maps of fictionalized places that are slowly taking over the Internet? Lord Of The Rings’ Middle Earth got an interactive site, Hunger Games’ Panem was charted, and Doctor Who’s TARDIS popped up on Google Maps. While there’s already been a detailed breakdown of Westeros’ geological history, the Game Of Thrones setting now has its own interactive map that brings fictional cartography to a whole new level.
This highly-interactive fan-made site allows users to zoom into Westeros or zoom out for some perspective on the world of Thrones. Clicking on a town or city will conveniently send users to the Game Of Thrones wiki. The map has information about ...
Tadeu likes this
23 Apr 15:12
A lamp is spying on New Yorkers and tweeting their conversations
by Adrianne Jeffries
Wired tells the story of two artists, Kyle McDonald and Brian House, who wanted to experiment with surveillance. The pair installed simple Wi-Fi-enabled recording devices in lamps at McDonalds, a library, a bedroom, a bank, and in New York's Washington Square Park. The recordings are sent to Mechanical Turk workers, who have been transcribing and posting them to Twitter for almost seven months.
Most of the captured conversations are mundane: thoughts like "Socks, I need socks," and "How's the weather looking for today? Hopefully good after the last week of this." But occasionally the conversations sound like something you might be sensitive about if it were you. "I'm going insane being so cautious with money." "She sounds like a keeper, honestly. You just have to let her know you want it to be serious." "For the tenth time, it's because my boss doesn't like me, I've told you this already!"
The project is called Conversnitch, and it's meant to make people paranoid about being listened to. "What does it mean to deploy one of these in a library, a public square, someone’s bedroom? What kind of power relationship does it set up?" House tells Wired. "And what does this stream of tweets mean if it’s not set up by an artist but by the U.S. government?"
The source code for Conversnitch is public, so anyone can repeat the experiment — although you should probably get FISA approval first.
- Source Wired
- Related Items kyle mcdonald surveillance eavesdropping livetweeting conversnitch
22 Apr 15:32
Cosmos Explains Why Big Business Is Often the Foe of Science
by Jason Shankel
This week's episode of Cosmos tackles the Rock of Ages, the age of rocks and getting the lead out of our commitment to the environment. The episode takes the form of a fable, a cautionary tale about the dangers of letting any institution, but most especially science, fall into the clutches of the Argument From Authority and the ulterior motives of self-declared experts.
22 Apr 15:31
Kurt Vonnegut Urges Young People to Make Art and “Make Your Soul Grow”
by Ayun Halliday
Art not only saves lives, it casts ripples, as Kurt Vonnegut surely knew when he replied—at length—to five New York City high school students who’d contacted him as part of a 2006 English assignment. (The identities of the other authors selected for this honor are lost to time, but not one had the courtesy to respond except Vonnegut.)
Dear Xavier High School, and Ms. Lockwood, and Messrs Perin, McFeely, Batten, Maurer and Congiusta:
I thank you for your friendly letters. You sure know how to cheer up a really old geezer (84) in his sunset years. I don’t make public appearances any more because I now resemble nothing so much as an iguana.
What I had to say to you, moreover, would not take long, to wit: Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.
Seriously! I mean starting right now, do art and do it for the rest of your lives. Draw a funny or nice picture of Ms. Lockwood, and give it to her. Dance home after school, and sing in the shower and on and on. Make a face in your mashed potatoes. Pretend you’re Count Dracula.
Here’s an assignment for tonight, and I hope Ms. Lockwood will flunk you if you don’t do it: Write a six line poem, about anything, but rhymed. No fair tennis without a net. Make it as good as you possibly can. But don’t tell anybody what you’re doing. Don’t show it or recite it to anybody, not even your girlfriend or parents or whatever, or Ms. Lockwood. OK?
Tear it up into teeny-weeny pieces, and discard them into widely separated trash recepticals [sic]. You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learned a lot more about what’s inside you, and you have made your soul grow.
God bless you all!
Kurt Vonnegut
Vonnegut’s kind wishes and Yoko Ono-esque prompt have been widely disseminated on the Internet, which is no doubt where students at Hove Park School in Brighton, East Sussex caught the scent. Working with a professional production company that specializes in narrative-driven work, they literalized the assignment in the video above, and while I might have preferred a sneak peek at the poems and drawings such a task might yield, pre-shredding, I loved how they acknowledged that not everyone heeds the call. (The casting of that one could have gone either way…wouldn’t be surprised if you told me that that boy has a punk band that would’ve ripped Vonnegut’s ears off.)
via Kate Rix
Related Content:
Kurt Vonnegut Diagrams the Shape of All Stories in a Master’s Thesis Rejected by U. Chicago
“Wear Sunscreen”: The Story Behind the Commencement Speech That Kurt Vonnegut Never Gave
Kurt Vonnegut’s Eight Tips on How to Write a Good Short Story
Kurt Vonnegut: Where Do I Get My Ideas From? My Disgust with Civilization
Ayun Halliday is spending tonight’s Night of Vonnegut in Los Angeles rather than her hometown of Indianapolis. So it goes. Follow her @AyunHalliday
Kurt Vonnegut Urges Young People to Make Art and “Make Your Soul Grow” is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don't miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs.
The post Kurt Vonnegut Urges Young People to Make Art and “Make Your Soul Grow” appeared first on Open Culture.
22 Apr 10:10
Demetri Martin
"I bought a cactus. A week later it died. And I got depressed, because I thought, Damn. I am less nurturing than a desert."
22 Apr 10:09
Otro más, qué triste... por @HumorAbsurder
Albener Pessoa, Adam Victor Brandizzi and 3 others like this
19 Apr 23:45
At Google, Talking To Coworkers Can Get You Fired
At Google, Talking To Coworkers Can Get You Fired:
Here’s the story, according to Wilson: outside of regular Googlers and the occasional contractors, there are a number of workers, who are hired to digitze books for Google’s massive Books effort to scan and put online every book. These workers are identified by yellow badges, start at 4am, have their own building and have none of the privileges of regular Googlers (the awesome cafeteria, the shuttles, etc) or even contractors like Wilson. Apparently, these workers even have an instruction on the back of their badges to talk to a manager if anyone tries to talk to them.
Anyway Wilson, who is “interested in issues of class, race, and labor”, noticing these peculiar employees filing out of the building at the same time every day (and noticing that they’re apparently all of color…), asks (and gets) an ok from his manager to film them and go talk to them out of general curiosity.
Since these workers are not allowed to talk to other people, cue a general freakout by Google and by the company employing Wilson (who fear that Google will cut them off if their employees go around doing stuff like that). Long story short, despite apologizing profusely and promising not to do it again, Wilson gets fired.
The guy made a short film about it here
our technofuture
cant wait for eric schmidt and justine tunney to save america
Whoa.
Jagripino and -1 others like this
19 Apr 23:42
Fan-made Morrowind restoration will feature two hours of original music
by Owen S. Good
Skywind, the fan-made project rendering the world of The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind with the engine from The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, has renamed itself the The Elder Scrolls Renewal Project, and released this second development video detailing the progress made so far.
The video discusses how crafting (and the tailoring customization option) will be introduced into Skywind, as Morrowind (released in 2002) did not feature crafting. The development team also is seeking volunteers to help rewrite dialogue, and is looking for voice actors with suitable talent and equipment to record lines to make characters less robotic. Volunteer composers have also created more than two hours of original music to form Skywind's soundtrack.
To see the team's first developer diary, released in January, see here. Other, shorter videos have covered the rendering of the Ashlands and the preview of a quest.
For more information on Skywind's progress, or how to volunteer, see the official site for the The Elder Scrolls Renewal Project.
firehose and -1 others like this
19 Apr 19:56
Surreal Photos of the Tatio Geyser Field in Chile by Owen Perry
by Christopher Jobson
Located within the Andes Mountains of northern Chile, El Tatio is the largest geyser field in the southern hemisphere and the third largest in the world. The field has over 80 active geysers and attracts tens of thousands of tourists each year who flock to see the incredible mineral formations and to bathe in hot geyser water. British Columbia-based interactive web designer and visual artist Owen Perry recently visited El Tatio and returned with these spectacular shots. Perry has a beautiful collection of travel and landscape photography you can explore over on Circa 1983. (via Colossal Submissions)
Damiani.guilherme, jvg312 and 4 others like this
19 Apr 14:10
Frame-by-frame — Why the kid taking a selfie was kicked in the head by the train engineer [17 pics]
by Joey White
Yesterday, we shared a video of a train engineer putting his boot to Jared Michael’s head when Jared tried to take a selfie as the train passed. There’s been a lot of speculation as to why the engineer did what he did. Sure, the kid even admitted he was stupid to be standing so close to the train, but two wrongs don’t make a right… Did the engineer really need to kick Jared in the head?
Frame-by-frame evidence from the video seems to indicate that the train engineer had a very good reason for kicking Jared. Redditor karolisalive pointed out an object that appears to be protruding from the train right where Michael’s head was…
If that’s not enough evidence to convince you that the engineer is a hero, here’s the complete frame-by-frame evidence. If nothing else, Jared’s transition from careless selfie to a ruined day is comical to watch…
Jared’s having a good day…
His earbuds are putting down a good beat…
The train he’s been waiting for is coming… What could go wrong?
What’s that? A train’s right behind him? You’d never know with that cool, calm, collected look…
Does Jared hear that horn blaring? Probably not… Those earbuds are cranked up a little too loud…
Is that a boot? Jared can’t see it, because Jared is still taking a selfie…
Jared still doesn’t realize there’s a boot connecting with his face…
Now he’s beginning to grasp the situation, though he still has no idea he’s being saved from the metal object protruding from the train…
And there go the earbuds…
Yep, he definitely feels the boot now…
The engineer’s ability to kick Jared’s head out of the way with a work boot while operating a moving train is actually really impressive…
At least Jared got a chance to show off that flow on top of his head…
Those are some impressive gymnastics from the engineer…
And just as quickly, the train is gone…
It’s even more impressive that the engineer was able to save Jared without completely knocking him out with the boot. That engineer is a hero!
Josh Shaffer, rnas and one other like this
19 Apr 04:54
Kids Can Swipe a Screen But Can't Use LEGOs
by Soulskill
SpankiMonki sends this news from The Guardian: "Children are arriving at nursery school able to 'swipe a screen' but lack the manipulative skills to play with building blocks, teachers have warned. They fear that children are being given tablets to use 'as a replacement for contact time with the parent' and say such habits are hindering progress at school. Addressing the Association of Teachers and Lecturers conference in Manchester on Tuesday, Colin Kinney said excessive use of technology damages concentration and causes behavioural problems such as irritability and a lack of control." 
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Damiani.guilherme, Tadeu and one other like this
19 Apr 04:53
Mentirinhas #619
by Fábio Coala
O homem e a garoupa.
O post Mentirinhas #619 apareceu primeiro em Mentirinhas.
Damiani.guilherme, firehose and one other like this
19 Apr 04:46
A tumblog of Greatness: Time is a Flat Circus
by Xeni Jardin
Tadeu, Peter Reid and one other like this
19 Apr 04:45
neilcicierega: emmyc: A lot of people are confused about how...
A lot of people are confused about how squash-and-stretch works in animation. It’s very simple! They are just exaggerated frames in-between the “alpha frames” that makes very subtle enhancements to the animation, thus creating the beautiful flowing movement in the animated gif we see above. This technique was perfected by Glenjamin Keen Disney
Tadeu, Christopher Lantz and 2 others like this
19 Apr 04:42
A Fascinating 1978 Information Brochure for ARPANET, The Network That Evolved Into Internet
by Rollin Bishop
A 1978 information brochure for ARPANET, the packet switching network created in 1969 that evolved into the Internet, provides a description of the project as well as policies and procedures governing its use. The brochure, which is hosted on the Defense Technical Information Center’s website, includes a number of fascinating diagrams and maps.
images via Paul Mison
via Matt Biddulph, Paul Mison, Buzz Andersen, Coudal Partners
