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Ice-T Law & Order SVU Part II

No surprise that Cars 2—a naked toy ad—is at the bottom. But placing Brave next to it ("textbook Idiot Plot movie … dumb slapstick") seems a little rough. Up ("completely overshadowed by the heartbreaking preamble") barely sneaks into Tim Grierson and Will Leitch's top ten.

All 15 Pixar Movies, Ranked From Worst to Best [via Kottke]

Mass shootings sadly seem to be almost a routine part of American life — as do the post-shooting rituals. As we mourn the nine people killed Wednesday night in Charleston, South Carolina, the conversation has already turned to politics and gun control. Most Republicans don’t want to talk about it. Some Democrats, most notably President Obama, do. In the end, public opinion and congressional politics will probably keep gun control legislation from becoming law any time in the near future.

Americans have turned against gun control over the past 25 years. We can see this clearly in Gallup’s data since 1990 and the Pew Research Center’s data since late 1993.

Americans clearly wanted stricter gun control during most of the 1990s. Even through 2007, a majority of Gallup respondents always answered yes to “more strict” gun control. Since that point, however, the position in favor of gun control failed to get a majority in every poll except one, a survey conducted after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Pew’s polling shows the same trend: Through 2008, a majority of Americans said it was more important to control gun ownership than protect gun owners’ rights. The only majority since then for controlling gun ownership came after Newtown.

You’ll note that there was also a clear rise in the percentage of Americans in favor of curbing guns after the Columbine High School shooting in 1999 in Colorado. What made Columbine and Newtown different from other mass shootings? There were a lot of deaths of young Americans at an elementary or high school, and the media paid much more attention to those massacres. As George Washington University’s Danny Hayes has pointed out, media mentions of “gun control” rose after Newtown to an extent they didn’t for other recent tragedies.

After a while, though, the media moves on, and the long-term trend against gun control continues. We saw this clearly after the Newtown mass shooting.

Still, after Newtown, Congress made a serious attempt at passing anti-gun legislation. Could Charleston have a Newtown-like effect on media coverage and public opinion, making it possible for a gun control bill to pass Congress? Obama seems ready to use his bully pulpit, as he was after the Newtown shootings. He argued Thursday that the United States was unique for its mass shootings and that “it is in our power to do something about it.”

Yet, Obama has tried to use his bully pulpit before without success. In 14 previous statements after mass shootings, Obama has called for taking action half the time. Four of the 14 times (and Newtown was not one of them), he specifically mentioned gun control.

DATE OF STATEMENT	MASS SHOOTING	OBAMA CALLS FOR ACTION	MENTIONS GUN CONTROL
11/5/09	Fort Hood
11/10/09	Fort Hood
1/12/11	Tucson	✓	✓
7/20/12	Aurora
7/22/12	Aurora	✓
8/5/12	Oak Creek
8/10/12	Oak Creek
12/14/12	Newtown	✓
12/16/12	Newtown	✓
9/16/13	Navy Yard
9/22/13	Navy Yard	✓	✓
4/2/14	Fort Hood II
4/9/14	Fort Hood II	✓	✓
6/10/14	Troutdale/Isla Vista	✓	✓
6/18/15	Charleston	✓	✓

We didn’t see a shift in national opinion after the shootings in Tucson, Arizona; Aurora, Colorado; Fort Hood, Texas; the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., or Isla Vista/Troutdale in California and Oregon.¹² In other words, whether Obama talks about gun control is not a good barometer of public opinion or congressional action.

Even if we saw a Newtown-style public opinion spike for more gun control, the political realities would make it nearly impossible for such legislation to go anywhere. The Senate is now firmly in Republican control; Democrats controlled 55 seats during their failed attempt to pass gun legislation in 2013. The House is even more impossible: Democrats hold just 188 seats out of 435. (And again, many Democrats haven’t and won’t vote for a bill that curtails guns.)

The 2013 vote is instructive. Almost every Republican voted against the highest profile piece of gun control legislation, an amendment proposed by Sen. Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, to institute national background checks. Background checks had overwhelming public support nationally. And yet, a handful of Democrats also voted against the measure. Those Democrats represented red states, where gun ownership rates are high. Most of the nation’s pro-gun-control sentiment is centered in cities, but the nature of House districts and the structure of the Senate give disproportional power, in terms of population, to rural areas that tend to oppose new gun restrictions.

Try as he might, Obama doesn’t have much of a chance of persuading Congress to pass any gun control package. And without Congress, there isn’t a lot the president can do. Obama himself acknowledged as much. After saying it was within Washington’s power to pass gun control legislation, Obama added, “I say that recognizing the politics in this town foreclose a lot of those avenues right now. But it would be wrong for us not to acknowledge it.”

In "Documentary Now!" Fred Armisen and Bill Hader take the piss out of serious documentary films. (more…)

You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news. Today we’re focused on the news in Charleston, South Carolina, where nine people were killed by a white man at a historically black church Wednesday night. The alleged shooter was captured Thursday, and his actions are being investigated as a hate crime.

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Florence Priscilla, an English socialite and activist, received this Autoped as a birthday present from her husband. She used it to commute to her office in London. From Mashable's gallery of vintage scooter photos.

The media titan ran the company like a family business while enjoying access to titanic quantities of capital from investors who were denied access to the decision-making apparatus. Read the rest

Apple Cabin Foods No.10

"Born Like Stars" (2011) by Brent Hoff. (more…)

In a 2009 Chicago Reader story, I noted that the best-case scenario for the Bloomingdale Trail elevated greenway would be a 2016 opening, in time for the Olympics, if then-mayor Richard M. Daley succeeded in winning the games. We all know what happened with the Olympic effort.

But here it is, only 2015, and thousands of Chicagoans of all ages and walks of life were already hanging out, strolling, jogging, biking, skating, and parading on the 2.7-mile path, last Saturday as part of the trail’s joyful opening celebration on a gorgeous spring day. The rails-to-trail conversion and the construction of several adjacent access parks never would have happened without tireless advocacy and activism from neighbors, particularly the grassroots nonprofit Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail.

We also need to give some credit for the speedy delivery of the trail to current mayor Rahm Emanuel. In July of 2009, the city announced its choice of the contractor to design the trail, but when Daley left office nearly two years later, the contract still hadn’t been awarded. “The project was really creeping along,” acknowledged Chicago Department of Transportation deputy commissioner Luann Hamilton at the Saturday opening. She has been involved with discussions on converting the rail line since 1987.

After he was elected in 2011, Emanuel announced his intention to open the trail within four years, which seemed next-to-impossible at the time. However, soon after he took office, the design contract was awarded, and not long after that the city lined up $50 million in federal funding to build the $95 million project. The Trust for Public Land was recruited to manage the project and raise the additional money through private donations.

The opening was originally scheduled for fall of 2014, but the opening was pushed back after a brutal winter delayed construction. However, it was surreal to see the nearly completed path and parks filled with revelers on Saturday. “Mayor Emanuel galvanized support for the trail,” Luann said.

The Bloomingdale is still a work in progress – the east end near Ashland Avenue is largely a construction site, and unfinished handrails on the California Avenue access ramp created a potential hazard. TPL still needs to raise $20 million more to fund additional landscaping, public art, and other amenities, and Governor Bruce Rauner has frozen some of the state funding for access parks by the eastern and western trailheads.

Many residents of the largely working-class neighborhoods by the western half of the Bloomingdale have expressed concerns that, by raising property values and taxes, the trail will accelerate the process of less wealthy people being priced out of the area. The Reader, the Chicago Tribune, and RedEye, have covered the gentrification issue in depth.

You’ve also probably heard plenty of comments about the pedestrian traffic jams on the Bloomingdale during the busiest hours of the opening that made biking on the path a tricky endeavor. However, Saturday was surely far more hectic than the path will typically be. Trail-sharing issues will likely improve as people get used to the facility. Signs asking pedestrians to walk on the right side of the path and reminding cyclists to ride at slow or moderate speeds would be helpful.

However, even curmudgeons must acknowledge that the Bloomingdale is a spectacular new facility that will provide access to nature, relaxation, transportation, and healthy recreation for many, many neighbors, people from other parts of the city, and visitors. Some 80,000 people – a quarter of them children – live within a ten-minute walk of the trail, as evidenced by the multitude of cute kids in strollers and on foot, bikes, skates, and scooters last Saturday.

The day started with twelve simultaneous ribbon cuttings at the various access ramps, with 20 to 50 people at each one, many of them young children. This was followed by a massive bike parade on the trail led by West Town Bikes, featuring cycles decorated to look like a train, a unicorn, and other fanciful designs.

“[The Bloomingdale] is an alternative transportation corridor, a park, and a living work of art,” said Beth White, head of TPLs Chicago office, during the main ribbon cutting at the westernmost ramp. “That’s a pretty tall order, but I think we pulled it off.” The crowd responded with thunderous applause.

Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail president Ben Helphand noted that the rail embankment was built 100 years ago to exclude people by separating them from freight traffic, but residents have been reclaiming the dormant line for recreation for several decades. “When you go up there today, you still feel that sense of exploration,” he said. “You’re only 16 feet, 17 feet up in the air, but you see your community all around you with new eyes… I’m looking forward to the next 100 years of people exploring the Bloomingdale Trail.”

Emanuel congratulated the residents who originally pushed for the trail for never giving in and never giving up on their efforts. “This is your day, this is your park, this is your celebration,” he said. He said that, along with the riverwalk extension, the Big Marsh bike park on the Southeast Side, the renovation of Northerly Island, and a new nature preserve by Rosehill Cemetery, the Bloomingdale is part of his efforts to provide access to parks and trails for all Chicagoans.

Emanuel then strapped on a bike helmet and took a test ride on the trail. As he pushed his cycle up the ramp, a cop asked him if he rode regularly. “Yeah, I’m a big biker,” the mayor replied.

The day was packed with activities, including multiple art processions, nature activities, and craft-making sessions, as well as a street festival on Humboldt Boulevard, several blocks of which were completely pedestrianized for the occasion. Classes, demos, and concerts included a huge yoga class, capoeira bouts, a square dancing lesson, and performances by everyone from an East Indian-funk fusion band to a Puerto Rican cuatro ensemble to a jug band.

Residents I spoke to gave the Bloomingdale rave reviews. “I think this is a big, big win for the neighborhood,” said Juana Sanchez, a retiree who lives near the access ramp at Julia de Burgos Park, located between Whipple Street and Albany Avenue. “I like the beauty. I love openness and I love trees – I’m a tree hugger – and I think this is wonderful. I think this is a great venue for all races to come together and just enjoy the city.”

“The Bloomingdale Trail is great for our community,” said Ricky Flores, vice president of the Chicago Cruisers, a classic bicycle club with a mostly Puerto Rican membership, which was involved in the community input process for designing the path. The club wore t-shirts with an image of the path’s Milwaukee Avenue suspension bridge transformed into a cruiser bike. “People can really travel back and forth across the neighborhoods easily now,” Flores said. “It’s faster and it’s safer.”

Javier Silva, who usually uses a wheelchair to get around, was checking out the street festival on a handcycle. “This is a beautiful event today, with lots of nice people,” he said. “I’m having a great time with my wife.” He added that the trail and its gently graded access ramps work great for people with disabilities. I asked if he’s happy the city built a fully accessible new trail and park system. “Hell yeah,” he replied.

The overwhelming success of the Bloomingdale Trail will help get more Chicagoans on bicycles, and create political momentum to build more “eight-to-eighty” bike facilities, suitable for use by everyone from kids to seniors. Hopefully, we’ll see more advocacy for on-street protected bike lanes, as well as new rails-to-trails. One such project is the New E.R.A. Trail, a Bloomingdale-like elevated greenway that may be built in Englewood. The city currently has a request for proposals out for that path.

As a scenic, car-free multiuse path, the Bloomingdale will attract similar users as the Lakefront Trail, so the next logical step is to create a low-stress route connecting the two. From downtown, you can currently ride from the lakefront along the riverwalk to Dearborn Street. At that point, you can pick up an almost-uninterrupted series of protected and buffered bike lanes that takes you all the way to Milwaukee and Elston Avenues in River West, soon to be extended northwest to Division Street and Ashland Avenue in Wicker Park.

In the near future, the city should create a low-stress route from there to the Bloomingdale’s eastern trailhead. Wood Street, located two blocks west of Ashland, already has a neighborhood greenway for several blocks, so that could be extended north to meet up with the trail.

In the longer term, the Bloomingdale may be extended east to cross the Kennedy Expressway, perhaps as part of the redevelopment of the nearby Finkl Steel plant. From there, it would be ideal if the city could create a network of eight-to-eighty bikeways east all the way to the pedestrian bridge over Lake Shore Drive that leads to North Avenue Beach. It’s exciting to ponder the possibilities.

View more photos of the Bloomingdale Trail here.

Oh what a day, what a lovely day!

It's official: As of Friday morning, the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules became the law of the land when a federal court rebuffed a plea by Internet providers to block the regulation. Here's exactly what they do, and what you can expect:

First things first: Is my Internet experience going to change?

No, at least not right away. And that's the point: The government's rules are aimed at ensuring that you can keep getting to the Web sites you want to visit, watching the videos you want to watch and downloading the files you want to keep, all without interference from Internet providers.

What do the rules do?

There are a few parts to them. First are what the agency calls its three "bright-line" rules: No blocking. No throttling. No paid prioritization.

No blocking means Internet providers are banned from blocking legitimate traffic on their networks -- they can't stop you from visiting crazy tentacle porn sites, if you so wished. No throttling means Internet providers can't degrade your Web experience by slowing down your sites. And no paid prioritization means Internet providers aren't allowed to selectively speed up content in exchange for payments from Web site operators such as Netflix.

Whom do the rules apply to?

Anyone who provides Internet service: cable companies, such as Comcast, telecom companies, such as Verizon, and even wireless carriers, such as T-Mobile and Sprint.

You said that's just the first part.

That's right. The next part is a little more vague, because the government says it isn't sure what kinds of abuses Internet providers might try to engage in down the road — so it's preserving some flexibility.

The net neutrality rules set up a "general conduct" standard that basically warns carriers not to misbehave, or else. The standard can be used by the FCC to police Internet provider behaviors that it deems a threat to competition, innovation, free expression and the future of broadband deployment, among other things.

This gives the agency wide-ranging powers, and even advocates of aggressive net neutrality have reservations about this part of the policy. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has said that actually bringing a case under the general conduct standard would be an expensive process that only the wealthiest companies can afford, and the policy risks giving the FCC too much latitude.

The rules also set up a way to adjudicate disputes in a part of the Web that consumers rarely see, but bubbled to the surface when Netflix got into a nasty fight with Internet providers. The fight was essentially over whether Netflix had to pay to drop a growing amount of data at the doorstep of broadband companies. The FCC's net neutrality regulations make it so that these fights will happen less often, by offering a place for companies to file a complaint if they believe the private deals for "interconnection" are unfair.

If the FCC is asserting so much power, how does it justify these rules?

This is exactly the issue that Internet providers have raised with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. They argue that the FCC broke the law when it decided to classify broadband companies under Title II of the Communications Act — the same law the agency uses to oversee legacy telephone service.

By declaring Internet providers to be legally equivalent to telecom companies, the FCC gave itself the authority to apply strict bans on certain kinds of behavior. Internet providers say they have no plans to engage in the kind of activities covered under the FCC's bright-line bans. But last year, the D.C. Circuit agreed with the FCC that Internet providers have both the financial incentive and the technical capabilities to engage in such abuses.

What's going to happen in the long term?

Well, Internet providers are suing to have the rules overturned. Industry officials predict the court case will go to oral arguments in December or January. If they win, then the FCC is back at square one. If they lose, the rules will stand.

Congress may try to take another shot at replacing the FCC's rules with legislation. Some net neutrality advocates worry that a bill would be weaker than what's now on the books, while others say legislation is necessary to prevent a future FCC from deliberately undermining or rolling back the rules.

Opponents are arguing that the regulations will raise the cost of Internet service and reduce the pace at which they can roll out network upgrades. The FCC disputes this outright. Both sides claim to have numbers to back up their analyses, but really, it's just the industry's word against the government's — a big game of he-said, she-said.

But for now, one thing is clear: The government has stronger tools than ever to monitor Internet providers.

Scott C shares the step-by-step process for the recent Mad Max: Fury Road instalment of his Great Showdowns series.

Found by neha bhatia

An important list, the 50 Most-Read McSweeney's Internet Tendency Articles of All-Time.

By weird video humor expert Vic Berger. Read the rest

BREAK THE LASER BEAMS. THE FUTURE OF MUSIC IS NOW.

Magisterial. The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai, modified by Reddit users Put_It_All_On_Red and photosonny. (via @craigmod)

Tags: art   Katsushika Hokusai   remix   Sesame Street

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Shia Labeouf’s recently-released motivational speech is inspiring many online, but unfortunately for the actor, those most moved by the video have been bored internet creatives who are taking the opportunity to mock the actor in fantastically imaginative ways. Why? Two reasons: first, the video was shot entirelely in front of a green screen, meaning clever video editors can put Shia into a variety of hilarious situations and secondly, Shia’s speech contains an odd moment where he appears to lose his mind. His motivational screaming has lead to mashed-up internet gold, and here our a few of our favorites (Labeouf’s original video below). 

Shia on the Balcony

Shia Inspires Luke Skywalker

Hal vs. Shia

The Original

 

Starting today, Tumblr is introducing GIF search. The new tool can be found in the Tumblr dashboard.

The post Tumblr Finally Gives You the Power to Search for GIFs
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A snorkeler dragged in this 18-foot dead oarfish he found just off Catalina Island near Los Angeles on Sunday. Oarfish are rarely seen this large and usually found in deep open ocean waters. Read the rest

Found by Lee Zelenak

WE WILL RIDE THROUGH THE GATES OF VALHALLA SHINY AND CHROME! WITNESS ME! (more…)

Food Republic celebrates the true diversity of the hot dog with this style guide to wieners around the world.

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A masterfully edited surreal cut of newly resurrected presidential candidate Rick Santorum, from Vic Berger.

George Miller, director of Mad Max, Max Max 2: The Road Warrior, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and Mad Max: Fury Road, is a master of the POV shot. Read the rest

It just works. Read the rest

The Stylehunters of Soviet Russia.

In the latest episode of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast our panel discusses the greatness of "Mad Max: Fury Road."

The post Fury Road Is the Greatest Post-Apocalyptic Movie Ever appeared first on WIRED.