Flip Over a Muffin Tin to Make Delicious Ready-to-Fill Cookie Bowls [Food Hacks]
Sep 28, 2011 (3 days ago)
Baby pandas need a nap
Giant panda cubs lie in a crib at Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, Sichuan province September 26, 2011. (REUTERS/China Daily)
10:45 PM (7 hours ago)
Don't forget to take the sun into account in your design
"Hey look, Mommy! Spaceships!"
Sep 30, 2011 (yesterday)
Floppy Drive Imperial March
Popout
The nerd quotient of Silent’s project is nearly off the charts.
The nerd quotient of Silent’s project is nearly off the charts.
The sound created by movement of the head, which is moved in steps with sufficient frequency. Interface description can be found, for example HERE. Simply activate the station by providing a low-to DRVSB0 or 1 (depending on whether we have the tape from the cross and to which the plug is connected to the station) and choose the direction of head movement (low \ high on DIR) and the trailing edge of the head movement will cause STEP one step. ATMega microcontroller controls the whole.(Google translated from Polish) [Via Hacked Gadgets]
Sep 30, 2011 (yesterday)
Smart Tip: Peel an Entire Head of Garlic in 10 Seconds Saveur
I know what you're thinking: I already know the trick involving smashing a garlic clove with a knife to quickly remove its skin. Well this is a new, and rather incredible trick. And you don't even need a knife! Read Full Post
Sep 28, 2011 (3 days ago)
FACEBOOK & YOU
FACEBOOK & YOU
if you’re not paying for it, you’re not the customer. You’re the product being sold.
Sep 29, 2011 (2 days ago)
Woodgrain Post-it Stack: How the Heck Do You Think They Made This?
It never occurred to me that if you printed a woodgrain cross-section on a piece of paper, and the ink bled enough to appear on the paper's edges...
...and you stacked those sheets into a solid brick, you'd then see woodgrain along the sides. Making this one nifty Post-it pad.
It still raises the question of how they generated a slightly different cross-section for each sheet. If they were all the same, the sides would just have straight lines running down them, but as they've executed this the grain seems natural. Do you think they scanned the cross-section of an actual block of wood, then shaved a hair off, scanned it again, sanded it again, and so on?
(more...)
Sep 29, 2011 (2 days ago)
The Cutting Board App Is Very Expensive
But it guarantees you’ll be ready for the new iPad the second it comes out.
~NSHA
Submitted by: Unknown
Via: Worth 1000
Sep 29, 2011 (2 days ago)
Fresh Start for Vintage Suitcases: Pet Furniture from Atomic Attic
By combining upcycled, vintage and hand-made, Oregon-based Atomic Attic has created fantastic furniture for your favorite pets. Vintage suitcases and TVs were transformed into fascinating pet furniture that add color and style to your pet’s favorite corner of the house. Made from different suitcase – like a Bright Red American Tourister Vintage Suitcase, a Bright Baby Blue Samsonite Vintage Suitcase or a Off-White Lady Baltimore Suitcase – or even vintage office chairs – like the round one seen in the photos below- these pet beds come with “removable, triple stitched, machine washable fluffy cushion for cleaning convenience“. Reinforced bottoms and metal or wood legs turn the classy suitcases into fabulous pet furniture items. The inspiration for these fresh pet beds and furniture came from the benefit of living with “a small army of kids and cats“. If you ever found yourself in need for a beautiful, charming and colorful pet bed, visit Atomic Attic’s Etsy shop.
Click here to connect with Freshome on 
or on 
Sep 30, 2011 (21 hours ago)
How To Land A Tech Job at Apple, Google and Facebook
By EconMatters
With 14 million Americans unemployed, it is difficult to fathom that there are companies that can not find qualified candidates to fill job vacancies. Oil industry has had a chronic skilled labor shortage dating way before oil hit an all-time high of $145 in 2008. Nowadays, working at McDonald's at the Bakken oil shale in North Dakota fetches about $25 an hour, while truckers get $70,000+ a year vs. $40,000 elsewhere.
But the talent crunch is now hitting the technology sector fast and furious spreading beyond the Silicon Valley in California and central Texas Austin, into cities as disparate as Indianapolis and New York, according to MarketWatch. The article described how more than two dozen start-up tech execs flew from Austin for two days to try to poach Silicon Valley talent and ended up leaving empty handed.
MarketWatch article also quoted CareerBuilder.com that
“Tech and engineering jobs are one place we’re really feeling a worker shortage..... job openings are there for software developers, systems engineers, product managers, mobile-app developers and database administrators."
Indeed, you can't automate job functions such as software development which still requires human brain skill and insight. And the tech worker crunch is set to get worse. According to CIO.com, more and more corporate IT executives are looking to pull the plug on outsourcing (i.e. insourcing) due to a number of factors including poor service quality, desire of more control over the future direction of the IT function, etc.
Moreover, MercuryNews noted that even the $60 billion IT outsourcing industry of India is hiring "thousands of expensive engineers and business development specialists in Silicon Valley and [the U.S.] nationwide," due to the growing complexity of outsourced work, and since the best Indian engineers are hired away by American giants such as Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), IBM and Accenture, Indian outsourcing companies instead are finding U.S. employees a much more attractive option.
So as dismal as the U.S. employment outlook seems to be, tech sector led by innovation is one of the very few bright spots left. When one in four young professionals consider working for Google their dream job, this timely infographic highlights some facts and tips on what you may need to land a gig at Silicon Valley. Of course, a college degree would definitely better the odds particularly in the science and tech field.
(See also Top 10 Recession Proof Jobs infographic)
Created by: Masters Degree
Sep 30, 2011 (17 hours ago)
Photography by Shah Altaf
Shah Altaf, or Mendhak, as you may know him on Flickr, is a programmer from London UK. He doesn’t claim a specific photography ‘style’, but observes others’ work and experiments with what he learns. This could be anything, such as selective coloring, HDR, tilt shifts, props, and spray and pray techniques. Some of his results are appalling, but others, as you will see below, are very appealing. On top of all this, he does everything with a Nikon D90 and a 18-200mm lens.
To see more of Shah Altaf, view his photography website, Github, and Flickr Photostream.
Lily's Pads
A Cup of Light
The Walker
Paternoster Square Tilt Shift
Why have you abandoned us?
Cumulo Artistus (An Artist's Clouds)
Two Hundred Years Ago
Use the what?
A burst of Spring
The Photographer
To see more of Shah Altaf, view his photography website, Github, and Flickr Photostream.
Lily's PadsA Cup of LightThe WalkerPaternoster Square Tilt ShiftWhy have you abandoned us?Cumulo Artistus (An Artist's Clouds)Two Hundred Years AgoUse the what?A burst of SpringThe Photographer
Sep 28, 2011 (3 days ago)
The NSA Wants Its Own Smartphone
"Troy Lange might work for one of the more secretive spy agencies in the United States, but he is happy to talk about his work. He is the NSAs mobility mission manager and he has been tasked with creating a smartphone that is secure enough to allow government personnel who deal with highly sensitive information to take their work on the road. The NSA takes the threat of compromised mobile devices (and compromised operatives) very seriously; NSA facilities have strict policies in place to govern the handling of information...."
Sep 28, 2011 (3 days ago)
No Comment: Proof that Samsung shamelessly copies Apple
Argue the merits of Apple's "look and feel" lawsuit against Samsung all you like, but other than wagging our fingers at Samsung, this gets a well-deserved "No Comment."
No Comment: Proof that Samsung shamelessly copies Apple originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 20:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | CommentsSep 28, 2011 (3 days ago)
Acting Like Animals: Rescue Me!
Who says humans are the only animals capable of pulling off daring and dangerous rescue missions? When no other member of her pride was willing to help rescue her cub, this courageous lioness took matters into her own paws.
See the rest of this rescue mission after the jump!
Source: The Daily Mail
Sep 28, 2011 (3 days ago)
Super Sushi
The Umewaka Restaurant in Anjo City, Japan serves the “Generous Roll”, a futomaki that weighs more than 13 lbs. and has a diameter of almost 8″. The cost? About $200. Itadakimasu!
Related posts:
Sep 29, 2011 (2 days ago)
Lego Tower of Orthanc Breaks Seven Feet Tall
The builders of the nascent OneLUG have come together to build the Lord of the Ring’s Last March of the Ents in epic proportions. More accurately, they’ve built the battle in minifig scale, resulting in a display eight feet in diameter, and over seven feet tall.
The battle rages between an army of more than one hundred Orcs, and a force of over twenty-five Ents. The group started design and building in February of 2011, and have finished it in time to unveil it at Brickcon, this weekend in Seattle. They estimate that there are more than 22,000 bricks in the display, which weighs over 145 pounds. The tower itself is built almost entirely with studs not on top techniques, in order to capture the sculptural details of the movie version.
I’ve always enjoyed this scene in the movie, and it’s great to see it done justice here. They’ve included all of my favorite details, like the Ent partially consumed in fire, and caught the deluge from the burst damn in action.
The battle rages between an army of more than one hundred Orcs, and a force of over twenty-five Ents. The group started design and building in February of 2011, and have finished it in time to unveil it at Brickcon, this weekend in Seattle. They estimate that there are more than 22,000 bricks in the display, which weighs over 145 pounds. The tower itself is built almost entirely with studs not on top techniques, in order to capture the sculptural details of the movie version.
I’ve always enjoyed this scene in the movie, and it’s great to see it done justice here. They’ve included all of my favorite details, like the Ent partially consumed in fire, and caught the deluge from the burst damn in action.
Sep 29, 2011 (2 days ago)
Parmesan Cheese Pencils and Shaver
Germans love making weirdo goods. Check this Parmesan cheese sharpener from Kolle Rebbe for The Deli Garage. 500 units of the set were produced (and instantly sold out). Inside each package, consumers discovered truffles, pesto and chili parmesan flavored pencils with a special shaver sharpener and more. Awesome.
More looks after the click.
(...)
Read the rest of Parmesan Cheese Pencils and Shaver (1 words)
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Post tags: parmesan cheese, pencils, shaver
Sep 29, 2011 (2 days ago)
HIV Vaccine Trial Shows 90% Immune Response
fergus07 writes "Researchers at the Spanish Superior Scientific Research Council (CSIC) have successfully completed Phase I human clinical trials of a HIV vaccine in which 90% of volunteers developed an immunological response against the virus. The MVA-B vaccine draws on the natural capabilities of the human immune system and 'has proven to be as powerful as any other vaccine currently being studied, or even more,' says Mariano Esteban, head researcher from CSIC's National Biotech Centre."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Sep 29, 2011 (2 days ago)
Wikipedia Unveils Probably the Coolest QR Thingy Ever Made
Wikipedia today introduced a program called QRPedia, a QR code creation service that lets users snap a picture of a QR code and be automatically directed to a linked mobile Wikipedia entry in whatever written language their phone uses. If there's no article in their language for the designated topic, the program directs them to the most relevant related article that is available in that language. If you don't have a QR reader on your phone, I use the Google iPhone app, myself.I dare you to find a cooler example of QR codes in action than QRPedia. Originally built at England's Derby Museum and Gallery (by the museum's Wikipedian in Residence!) the service is now available to anyone online. Multiple museums around the world have already put it to use, posting QR codes on the wall next to items on display. That's what the Internet is for, people, for taking the reality we're standing in front of and exploding it with a world of additional information available on demand.
Sponsor
PopoutThis is sci-fi stuff. In the movies there would be a button on real world objects that you could click, and then a projected 3D Princess Leia or whatever would offer you a lecture about everything humanity knows about the object you're in front of, and everything that's related. In whatever language you speak. Instead, it's here now and it's on our phones. And it's Wikipedia.
I sure hope this catches on all over the place. Its adoption may be limited by the bravery required to point people to the collective consciousness, publicly editable discussion online about yourself or your organization.
Do people use QR codes? Outside the US they do and have for years. Inside the US, I believe it's becoming increasingly common. Last week for example, I was in New York City and saw a real estate company with a big poster of its listings in its front window, with QR codes for each home you could buy. Passers by could snap that code and save the particular listing on their phones, to learn more and follow up. Imagine if that same display included a QRpedia code for the neighborhood each home was in. There are lots of possibilities.
QRPedia codes can be generated now at QRPedia.org. Maybe you should go print up a thousand of them about the neighborhood you live in on stickers and stick them around on the street. Imagine visiting from another country and finding those. If I ever get to visit another planet with life on it, I hope I find something like this there.
Discuss
Sep 30, 2011 (yesterday)
Single dose of 'magic mushrooms' hallucinogen may create lasting personality change, study suggests
A single high dose of the hallucinogen psilocybin, the active ingredient in so-called "magic mushrooms," was enough to bring about a measurable personality change lasting at least a year in nearly 60 percent of the participants in a new study, according to researchers.
Sep 29, 2011 (2 days ago)
What Doctor Octopus Wore; so dapper!
When I saw this suit and bow tie combo on ebay I knew he had to have it. It's so not fun to put on since they're real buttons, not snaps or velcro. But it, clearly, is so worth it. I might have even gotten a little teary eyed looking at him all snazzy like this. Just wait til I have human children someday ai yi yi! The glasses and hat are from the doll section in craft store. All the doll accessories are kitty sized! I cant wait to look at other craft stores for more "doll" clothes.
Hope you're having a fabulous day!
xoxo!!
Sep 27, 2011 (4 days ago)
The Best Of The 2011 Surf Dog Competition
This past weekend was about legends. It was about honoring the old guard and celebrating one sport’s superstars. As you can obviously tell from the banner image, that sport is dog surfing. On Saturday, the 6th annual Surf Dog Surf-A-Thon competition took place in Del Mar, California, and the event, hosted by the Helen Woodward Animal Center, raised more than $100,000 for orphaned pooches. And I like to imagine that they all live in a really cool surf academy called “Surf’s Pup!” because that would be awesome.
The star of the weekend was Buddy, the 14-year old Jack Russell terrier, who not only became the first dog inducted into the Surf Dog Hall of Fame, but also won his fifth Surf-A-Thon title. He’s like the Boston of dogs.
“That last heat was probably the best of Buddy’s life,” Bruce Hooker, Buddy’s owner, said during the ceremony.Adding: “But it still wasn’t as good as the heat he got from those poodles after the event, AMIRIGHT?” Who doesn’t love a good dog sex pun?
(Via Ohmidog)
Other highlights included the first-ever dog surfing world record, which was set by Australian Kelpie Abbie’G when she rode a wave 65-freaking-yards, as well as a failed attempt for most dogs on one surfboard. Better luck next year, adorably terrified dogs!
(Images via Getty and Reuters.)
Sep 29, 2011 (2 days ago)
Digital Storm gaming computer to be won at GeForce LAN 6
Do you love racing simulations like DiRT 3? Have you ever played a racing sim in a $30,000 full motion racing simulator before? And would you like to win a brand new gaming computer while you’re at it? Well, the folks over at Digital Storm have announced a contest where you can do the aforementioned activities. DiRT 3 is the game of choice, and you get to play it on the very expensive full motion racing simulator that’s hooked up to a Digital Storm PC.
The event that takes place at NVIDIA’s GeForce LAN 6 event which will be taking place on the USS Hornet, October 14-16 2011, will give the racer that has the fastest lap time on DiRT 3 a brand new Digital Storm ODE gaming computer. If you think you have what it takes, you can head over to the GeForce LAN website to sign up for the event, where you can also participate in other tournaments and contests held on that weekend.
Digital Storm gaming computer to be won at GeForce LAN 6, By Ubergizmo. Top Stories : Epic 4G Touch Review, Droid Bionic Review,
Sep 28, 2011 (3 days ago)
Wednesday Aircraft Porn: The Ekranoplan
Happy Wednesday (evening), I thought I’d post these awesome pictures of the Soviet Union’s Lun-class Ekranoplan rotting in a shipyard in the Russian town of Kaspisk on the Caspian Sea. Seeing the vessel laid up like this feels like I’m looking at some some sci-fi tale documenting the remains of what was once a technologically advanced empire…oh wait.
The 240-foot long Lun-class vessels were designed to skim just over the surface of the sea at up to 340-miles per-hour while carrying six, P-270 Moskit guided missiles meant to take out NATO ships. Rumor has it that Russia may try to put the aircraft back into production.
These pics have been out there for a while but a friend reminded me of them today and they’re still fun.
Click below for some of the best images and a link to the collection.
For more, go here.
Sep 28, 2011 (3 days ago)
Happy Ganymede Day!
It’s finally here! Ganymede officially hits stores – and e-readers, and online retailers – today! And I do very much hope you’ll take a chance on this, my fourth Clockwork Century novel,* set in my alternate history universe with a drawn-out American Civil War complicated by a peculiar form of zombie uprising!
I have more fun with these books than should frankly be allowed, and if you’re interested in diving into the series, this is as good a place as any to get started. Would it be somewhat helpful to have read the others first? Sure, I guess. But each of these stories is written to let people read along without feeling too lost.
This is a franchise more than a series, so please don’t be put off by the prospect of not being all caught up with the other stories yet. If you dig pirates, airships, Victorian submarines, espionage, zombies, and ass-kicking … this might well be the book for you!
Here – allow me to provide you with links, for your clicking pleasure:
- Find Ganymede at an independent retailer near you through IndieBound
Nab Ganymede from Amazon.com
Acquire Ganymede via Barnes & Noble
Pick up Ganymede at Books A Million
Purchase Ganymede courtesy of Powell’s
To read Ganymede on a Kindle click here
To read Ganymede on a Sony E-Reader click here
To read Ganymede in other digital forms visit the listing at Macmillan
Man, I dipped into the exclamation marks again. Well, can you blame me? I’m so terribly excited about this one! Now I just have to run around all over the internet, updating my websites and widgets and information, oh my …
Thanks for reading, everyone, and if you take a chance on this weird little book, I do hope you enjoy it!
* Counting Clementine, a smaller project that was released through Subterranean Press. If you’re wondering why it’s so hard to come by as of late, click here.
Sep 30, 2011 (18 hours ago)
Guy chokes a kid after being made fun of in Black Ops, we're ... upset
It's a grim story, and simply inexcusable. A grown man attacking a child like this turns our stomachs and should turn the stomach of any responsible, caring human. This is the end of our post on the matter, and it in no way continues after the break.Continue reading Guy chokes a kid after being made fun of in Black Ops, we're ... upset
Guy chokes a kid after being made fun of in Black Ops, we're ... upset originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 30 Sep 2011 11:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Sep 28, 2011 (3 days ago)
Repurpose Lego Sets with Rebrickable
Brand new site Rebrickable has done the formidable, admirable, and unthinkable task of cataloguing loads of Lego sets and creating a database that can tell you what else you can build with them. Got a Rebel Trooper Battle Pack, the Mobile Police Unit, and the Quidditch Match set? Enter them into Rebrickable and see what new items you can build.Read Full Post
Sep 30, 2011 (18 hours ago)
The due-process-free assassination of U.S. citizens is now reality
(updated below)
It was first reported in January of last year that the Obama administration had compiled a hit list of American citizens whom the President had ordered assassinated without any due process, and one of those Americans was Anwar al-Awlaki. No effort was made to indict him for any crimes (despite a report last October that the Obama administration was "considering" indicting him). Despite substantial doubt among Yemen experts about whether he even had any operational role in Al Qaeda, no evidence (as opposed to unverified government accusations) was presented of his guilt. When Awlaki's father sought a court order barring Obama from killing his son, the DOJ argued, among other things, that such decisions were "state secrets" and thus beyond the scrutiny of the courts. He was simply ordered killed by the President: his judge, jury and executioner. When Awlaki's inclusion on President Obama's hit list was confirmed, The New York Times noted that "it is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing."
After several unsuccessful efforts to assassinate its own citizen, the U.S. succeeded today (and it was the U.S.). It almost certainly was able to find and kill Awlaki with the help of its long-time close friend President Saleh, who took a little time off from murdering his own citizens to help the U.S. murder its. The U.S. thus transformed someone who was, at best, a marginal figure into a martyr, and again showed its true face to the world. The government and media search for The Next bin Laden has undoubtedly already commenced.
What's most striking about this is not that the U.S. Government has seized and exercised exactly the power the Fifth Amendment was designed to bar ("No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law"), and did so in a way that almost certainly violates core First Amendment protections (questions that will now never be decided in a court of law). What's most amazing is that its citizens will not merely refrain from objecting, but will stand and cheer the U.S. Government's new power to assassinate their fellow citizens, far from any battlefield, literally without a shred of due process from the U.S. Government. Many will celebrate the strong, decisive, Tough President's ability to eradicate the life of Anwar al-Awlaki -- including many who just so righteously condemned those Republican audience members as so terribly barbaric and crass for cheering Governor Perry's execution of scores of serial murderers and rapists: criminals who were at least given a trial and appeals and the other trappings of due process before being killed.
From an authoritarian perspective, that's the genius of America's political culture. It not only finds ways to obliterate the most basic individual liberties designed to safeguard citizens from consummate abuses of power (such as extinguishing the lives of citizens without due process). It actually gets its citizens to stand up and clap and even celebrate the destruction of those safeguards.
* * * * *
In the column I wrote on Wednesday regarding Wall Street protests, I mistakenly linked to a post discussing a New York Times article by Colin Moynihan as an example of a "condescending" media report about the protest. There was nothing condescending or otherwise worthy of criticism in Moynihan's article; I meant to reference this NYT article by Ginia Bellafante. My apologies to Moynihan, who rightly objected by email, for the mistake.
UPDATE: What amazes me most whenever I write about this topic is recalling how terribly upset so many Democrats pretended to be when Bush claimed the power merely to detain or even just eavesdrop on American citizens without due process. Remember all that? Yet now, here's Obama claiming the power not to detain or eavesdrop on citizens without due process, but to kill them; marvel at how the hardest-core White House loyalists now celebrate this and uncritically accept the same justifying rationale used by Bush/Cheney (this is war! the President says he was a Terrorist!) without even a moment of acknowledgment of the profound inconsistency or the deeply troubling implications of having a President -- even Barack Obama -- vested with the power to target U.S. citizens for murder with no due process.
Also, during the Bush years, civil libertarians who tried to convince conservatives to oppose that administration's radical excesses would often ask things like this: would you be comfortable having Hillary Clinton wield the power to spy on your calls or imprison you with no judicial reivew or oversight? So for you good progressives out there justifying this, I would ask this: how would the power to assassinate U.S. citizens without due process look to you in the hands of, say, Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann?
I was on Democracy Now earlier this morning discussing the Awlaki assassination and presidential due-process-free killings:
It was first reported in January of last year that the Obama administration had compiled a hit list of American citizens whom the President had ordered assassinated without any due process, and one of those Americans was Anwar al-Awlaki. No effort was made to indict him for any crimes (despite a report last October that the Obama administration was "considering" indicting him). Despite substantial doubt among Yemen experts about whether he even had any operational role in Al Qaeda, no evidence (as opposed to unverified government accusations) was presented of his guilt. When Awlaki's father sought a court order barring Obama from killing his son, the DOJ argued, among other things, that such decisions were "state secrets" and thus beyond the scrutiny of the courts. He was simply ordered killed by the President: his judge, jury and executioner. When Awlaki's inclusion on President Obama's hit list was confirmed, The New York Times noted that "it is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing."
After several unsuccessful efforts to assassinate its own citizen, the U.S. succeeded today (and it was the U.S.). It almost certainly was able to find and kill Awlaki with the help of its long-time close friend President Saleh, who took a little time off from murdering his own citizens to help the U.S. murder its. The U.S. thus transformed someone who was, at best, a marginal figure into a martyr, and again showed its true face to the world. The government and media search for The Next bin Laden has undoubtedly already commenced.
What's most striking about this is not that the U.S. Government has seized and exercised exactly the power the Fifth Amendment was designed to bar ("No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law"), and did so in a way that almost certainly violates core First Amendment protections (questions that will now never be decided in a court of law). What's most amazing is that its citizens will not merely refrain from objecting, but will stand and cheer the U.S. Government's new power to assassinate their fellow citizens, far from any battlefield, literally without a shred of due process from the U.S. Government. Many will celebrate the strong, decisive, Tough President's ability to eradicate the life of Anwar al-Awlaki -- including many who just so righteously condemned those Republican audience members as so terribly barbaric and crass for cheering Governor Perry's execution of scores of serial murderers and rapists: criminals who were at least given a trial and appeals and the other trappings of due process before being killed.
From an authoritarian perspective, that's the genius of America's political culture. It not only finds ways to obliterate the most basic individual liberties designed to safeguard citizens from consummate abuses of power (such as extinguishing the lives of citizens without due process). It actually gets its citizens to stand up and clap and even celebrate the destruction of those safeguards.
* * * * *
In the column I wrote on Wednesday regarding Wall Street protests, I mistakenly linked to a post discussing a New York Times article by Colin Moynihan as an example of a "condescending" media report about the protest. There was nothing condescending or otherwise worthy of criticism in Moynihan's article; I meant to reference this NYT article by Ginia Bellafante. My apologies to Moynihan, who rightly objected by email, for the mistake.
UPDATE: What amazes me most whenever I write about this topic is recalling how terribly upset so many Democrats pretended to be when Bush claimed the power merely to detain or even just eavesdrop on American citizens without due process. Remember all that? Yet now, here's Obama claiming the power not to detain or eavesdrop on citizens without due process, but to kill them; marvel at how the hardest-core White House loyalists now celebrate this and uncritically accept the same justifying rationale used by Bush/Cheney (this is war! the President says he was a Terrorist!) without even a moment of acknowledgment of the profound inconsistency or the deeply troubling implications of having a President -- even Barack Obama -- vested with the power to target U.S. citizens for murder with no due process.
Also, during the Bush years, civil libertarians who tried to convince conservatives to oppose that administration's radical excesses would often ask things like this: would you be comfortable having Hillary Clinton wield the power to spy on your calls or imprison you with no judicial reivew or oversight? So for you good progressives out there justifying this, I would ask this: how would the power to assassinate U.S. citizens without due process look to you in the hands of, say, Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann?
I was on Democracy Now earlier this morning discussing the Awlaki assassination and presidential due-process-free killings:
Sep 29, 2011 (2 days ago)
Drinking Coffee May Help Lower the Risk of Depression in Women [Health]
Sep 27, 2011 (4 days ago)
Angry Birds Theme Park Opens In China [Video]
The Window of the World theme park in Changsha, China, opened a new section of their theme park, based on the popular mobile game Angry Birds. The Angry Birds section of the park allows guests to shoot stuffed birds via slingshot at pigs who are protected by small LEGO structures. Looks Cool!
BTW, Rovio, the company that developed Angry Birds didn’t gave permission for this activity.
BTW, Rovio, the company that developed Angry Birds didn’t gave permission for this activity.
Popout
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UwZbVCuf-Y
Sep 27, 2011 (4 days ago)
Kathryn Loves: Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward
Last week, Joanna posted this darling photo of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, and it sent me searching for more pics of the famous Hollywood couple.
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward wed January 29, 1958 in Las Vegas, and there are so many delightful photos of them together that seem to explain how they stayed happily married for 50 years.
Joanne: Sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, ah, now that’s a real treat…
I imagine if you’re reading Snippet & Ink, you love flowers and invitations and all the lovely details that go into a wedding. But if you’re anything like me, you’re even more inspired by what could only be described as true love. Sweet, romantic, silly, mundane love. Eating popcorn together and snuggling up with a cup of tea…
I adore these two – look at the way he looks at her!
This? This is the reason there are weddings.
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward wed January 29, 1958 in Las Vegas, and there are so many delightful photos of them together that seem to explain how they stayed happily married for 50 years.
Joanne: Sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, ah, now that’s a real treat…
I imagine if you’re reading Snippet & Ink, you love flowers and invitations and all the lovely details that go into a wedding. But if you’re anything like me, you’re even more inspired by what could only be described as true love. Sweet, romantic, silly, mundane love. Eating popcorn together and snuggling up with a cup of tea…
I adore these two – look at the way he looks at her!
This? This is the reason there are weddings.
Sep 28, 2011 (3 days ago)
Facebook Keeps A History Of Everyone Who Has Ever Poked You, Along With A Lot Of Other Data (Kashmir Hill/The Not-So Private Parts)
Kashmir Hill / The Not-So Private Parts:Facebook Keeps A History Of Everyone Who Has Ever Poked You, Along With A Lot Of Other Data — Your Facebook report might be 100s of pages long — Across the pond, European law grants citizens a “right to access,” meaning that companies have to provide a person with all of the personal data they have on them if they request it.
Sep 28, 2011 (3 days ago)
Free $2 Amazon MP3 Credit
Amazon.com is offering $2 in free MP3 credits1. Click here and click "Enter Your Code"
2. Enter code FALLMP3S to get the $2 credit
Sep 30, 2011 (18 hours ago)
Flip Over a Muffin Tin to Make Delicious Ready-to-Fill Cookie Bowls
Sep 28, 2011 (3 days ago)
RATP: Chicken
Talk at 86 decibels on a cellAdvertising Agency: Publicis Conseil, France
lose your secrets and your friend's as well.
Let's stay human on public transport
Chief Creative Officer: Olivier Altmann
Creative Director: Hervé Riffault
Copywriter: Olivier Dermaux
Art Director: Mathieu Vinciguerra
Assistant Art Director: Mélanie Pennec
Managing Director: Jean-Patrick Chiquiar
Client Service Director: Laurence Neveu
Account team: Emmanuelle Henry / Elodie Chicheportiche
Planner: Barberine Reyners
Production: Patricia Denis du Péage
Illustrator: Mr Remi / Mr Hyde
Photographer: Benoît Mauduech
3D: Hervé Lopez / M. Hyde
Head of art: Jean-Luc Chirio
Production: Elysian Field
Creative business card collection
Sep 27, 2011 (4 days ago)
Some Guy Threw 4,800 Messages in a Bottle Into the Atlantic Ocean and Got 3,100 Responses from All Over the World [Retro]
Sep 27, 2011 (4 days ago)
An abandoned but perfectly preserved Japanese school
Pretty much all haikyo that contain items related to the building’s past are interesting. On the odd occasion even empty structures are too. But while memory-filled houses and sorry-looking snake centres are fascinating in their own very different ways, there’s arguably something that little bit special about a long-abandoned school.
Under an old procedure that gave away forest land as a ‘gift’ from the Imperial House — an antiquated practice that was eventually superseded by the National Forest system — the mountain village that surrounds the school began life back in 1907. The school, on the other hand, was apparently founded in the previous century, in 1873. Quite why it would have been built in such an out of the way spot really isn’t clear, but with the arrival of the village 34 years later, its location was ideal.
A tiny structure that was literally at the centre of community life. The place where village youngsters would have studied basic mathematics.
Why the school boarded up its doors though isn’t completely clear, but a typhoon that badly damaged much of the village more than likely marked the beginning of the end for the settlement, and eventually the school itself.
In fact, an earlier typhoon in 1959 destroyed what was possibly the original school building, but it was rebuilt the following year. A factor that could well account for its relatively good condition, along with the unusual practice by the local Board of Education of visiting once a year in order to maintain the school’s ‘temporarily closed’ status, rather than letting it officially become a haikyo.
Under an old procedure that gave away forest land as a ‘gift’ from the Imperial House — an antiquated practice that was eventually superseded by the National Forest system — the mountain village that surrounds the school began life back in 1907. The school, on the other hand, was apparently founded in the previous century, in 1873. Quite why it would have been built in such an out of the way spot really isn’t clear, but with the arrival of the village 34 years later, its location was ideal.
A tiny structure that was literally at the centre of community life. The place where village youngsters would have studied basic mathematics.
Why the school boarded up its doors though isn’t completely clear, but a typhoon that badly damaged much of the village more than likely marked the beginning of the end for the settlement, and eventually the school itself.
In fact, an earlier typhoon in 1959 destroyed what was possibly the original school building, but it was rebuilt the following year. A factor that could well account for its relatively good condition, along with the unusual practice by the local Board of Education of visiting once a year in order to maintain the school’s ‘temporarily closed’ status, rather than letting it officially become a haikyo.
Sep 27, 2011 (4 days ago)
Holy Shit
Above is a picture of Sherry Vargson, of Granville Summit, PA, lighting her tap water on fire, which she is able to do because it has been contaminated by fracking.
Not only does The Market not, in fact, solve everything, but wanton deregulation to allow the Invisible Hand to conduct a symphony of corporate chaos actually tends to create a whole lot of pretty spectacular problems for people like Sherry Vargson. And me. And probably you.
I am reminded of a post Mannion published approximately one hundred years ago (get off my lawn), in which he wrote:
Americans have a habit of talking about politics as something apart from the normal doings of our lives. Kind of strange of us, considering that the normal doings of our lives are only possible because of politics. Turning on the tap to get a drink of water is a political act if only because the water flows and is relatively clean because of decisions made by politicians who owe their jobs to political decisions made by us.And when we turn on the tap to demonstrate that our water is flammable, that is most certainly a political act, too.
Ultimately, this picture is less about fracking—although it's damn sure about that, too—than it is about the evident failure of the people elected to represent their constituents' interests to remember exactly who their constituents actually are.
Sep 27, 2011 (4 days ago)
FLOWCHART: Navigating NPR's Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books
Over the summer, NPR solicited the input of its listeners to rank the top science fiction and fantasy books of all time. Over 60,000 people voted for the top picks which were then compiled into a list by their panel of experts. The result? This list of 100 books with a wide range of styles, little context, and absolutely no pithy commentary to help readers actually choose something to read from it.
We at SF Signal have, once again, come to the rescue. This flowchart is designed to help you follow your tastes, provide context, and fulfill (indeed exceed!) any need for pithy commentary you might harbor.
Designer's Note: This is the mightiest flowchart I have ever encountered let alone tried to develop. There are (obviously) 100 end points and over 325 decision points. A chart of this size presents a number of readability challenges. For people with lower resolution monitors, netbooks, or tablets, this 3800 x 2300 image is going to a scroll-fest. But it's totally worth it.
Update: Those looking for a printable version of this flowchart will find happiness here. This is a 300 DPI bitmap version that should print nicely on 11x17 tabloid paper. Warning! The file is 26MB compressed and a whopping 173MB when unzipped.
Update 2: As Neil Gaiman so astutely pointed out, the novel Stardust, unlike the movie, contains no pirates. Turns out he's an authority on the subject. This egregious error has been corrected and we'd love to appeal @neilhimself's ruling of this being not quite the greatest flowchart in human history.
This is a blog post from SF Signal. Subscribe via RSS, Twitter or Facebook. 
We at SF Signal have, once again, come to the rescue. This flowchart is designed to help you follow your tastes, provide context, and fulfill (indeed exceed!) any need for pithy commentary you might harbor.
Designer's Note: This is the mightiest flowchart I have ever encountered let alone tried to develop. There are (obviously) 100 end points and over 325 decision points. A chart of this size presents a number of readability challenges. For people with lower resolution monitors, netbooks, or tablets, this 3800 x 2300 image is going to a scroll-fest. But it's totally worth it.
Update: Those looking for a printable version of this flowchart will find happiness here. This is a 300 DPI bitmap version that should print nicely on 11x17 tabloid paper. Warning! The file is 26MB compressed and a whopping 173MB when unzipped.
Update 2: As Neil Gaiman so astutely pointed out, the novel Stardust, unlike the movie, contains no pirates. Turns out he's an authority on the subject. This egregious error has been corrected and we'd love to appeal @neilhimself's ruling of this being not quite the greatest flowchart in human history.
[Click image for larger version]
This is a blog post from SF Signal. Subscribe via RSS, Twitter or Facebook.
Sep 28, 2011 (3 days ago)
The secret numerology behind the iPhone event invitation
It's been announced.Invitations to Apple's iPhone event on October 4th have been sent out, and we asked famed numerology expert Helmut Weltschmertz (see photo at right) of the Koblenz Institute of Numerology and Used Car Sales to tell us exactly what the numbers and symbols on the invitation meant. Here's what Dr. Weltschmertz was able to surmise for TUAW:
The Calendar icon -- "Here, Apple is telling us that there will be "tues" ("two" in some ancient foreign tongue lost in history) devices to be announced. The number 4 is below the word Tuesday, indicating that both new iPhones are 'raised above' or more capable than the iPhone 4. Some might say that this is indicating the date of the event, but there's much more to this icon than meets the eye."
The Maps icon -- "280 in the shield on this icon is an obvious indication that iOS 5 will be released and has 280 new or improved features. The meaning of the intersection of the yellow and orange lines is also obvious to anyone with half a brain -- it means that Apple's new products will come in two colors, orange and yellow. The red pin signifies that this icon might fall off of the web page and someone stuck a pin into it to keep that from happening."
The Phone icon -- "Ah, yes, the number 1. It can mean many things. One is the loneliest number, and its location on the upper right-hand corner of the icon has special meaning. That points to the northeast, and in the olden days of America, that's where witches were burned -- in the northeast part of the country. It is obvious to anyone that there is magic and witchcraft involved in the design of the new phones. The green pinstripes on the background portend an event where all of the Apple executives will be wearing suits. The white phone icon even has deep meaning. Note that it looks exactly like a silhouette of a fetus, which points to the birth of a new era of technology, cheap beer, and world peace."
Alrighty, then.
We thank Dr. Weltschmertz for his, uh, insights into the Apple event invitation.
The secret numerology behind the iPhone event invitation originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sep 29, 2011 (2 days ago)
The Gospel According to Lady Gaga
Okay, I'm going to get real vulnerable with you. Very confessional. At the risk of seriously damaging my reputation with some of you.I'm a bit of a Lady Gaga fan.
Here's how it happened.
Last Christmas I was reading a variety of end-of-the-year reviews about albums of the year. I don't follow music very closely so I use reviews like this to "catch up." I find well-reviewed albums and then listen to the song samples on iTunes. And if I like what I hear, I'll buy it.
One genre of music I like is dance and club music. I like the beat and the energy. Same reason I like rock. I like music that has a lot of energy.
So, last year a lot of people had Swedish artist Robyn's Body Talk as the best dance album of the year. I listened to it on iTunes, liked what I heard, and downloaded it. And listening to it both Jana and I decided we really liked the album.
So after a month or so, when you start to tire of an album, I started to look around for something similar. And everywhere I checked people were saying that Robyn was the Swedish version of Lady Gaga. This suggested to me that their sounds might be similar. So if I liked Robyn...
So I said to Jana one day, "Don't think I'm crazy, but I'm going to buy a Lady Gaga album." Jana was aghast. All we knew of Lady Gaga was her crazy persona. Odd hair, make-up and dresses. She clearly seemed to be a freak. But I said to Jana, "You know how you like that Robyn album? Well, a lot of people think she sounds like Lady Gaga. So I thought I'd see about that." That was enough.
So I bought Lady Gaga's Born This Way.
I listened to the album on the way back and forth from the prison bible study. It's about 20 minutes there and back, so I was able to listen to almost the whole album. And when I got back home I told Jana, "I've listened to the Lady Gaga album."
"What did you think?"
"Well, I loved it."
She was shocked. And so was I.
Here's my summary assessment: I think Lady Gaga is a pop genius. She is, in my opinion, very much like Michael Jackson and the early Beatles.
And what I mean by that is that Lady Gaga has an incredible ear for catchy tunes. Rarely have I listened to an album where I liked just about every song. I generally like about only 25% of the songs on albums I buy. Even artists I really like. But I like about 85% of the songs on Lady Gaga's albums. Song after song I say, "That's a great song. Turn it up."
Now, I have a lot of friends are who are music snobs. So this post is doing massive damage to my reputation. No doubt my blog readership among academics will plummet. But what can I say? There's no accounting for taste. No acounting whatsoever.
But my shame aside, I writing about Lady Gaga today for a more serious purpose.
During all my reading about Robyn and Lady Gaga I came across some stuff about Lady Gaga that I found interesting, theologically speaking. As I told Jana over the summer, "I'm sort of developing a theological curiosity about Lady Gaga." Jana asked, "How so?"
Well, Lady Gaga calls her fans "monsters." Or "little monsters." And by that she means freaks--the odd, the weird, the lonely, the rejects, the nerds, the castoffs. And you can't help but wonder, in light of the gospels, about that demographic. In my book Unclean I have a chapter on monsters. And I've written about the theology of monsters on this blog. Consequently, Lady Gaga's use of the label "monsters" caught my attention.
Because as I've written, the category "monster" is charged with ambivalence. On the surface the monster is a normative threat--a defilement, a degradation, a location of moral and communal harm. Thus, monsters are expelled from community. And yet, most monster stories suggest that the monster is often a scapegoat. That the monster is more victim than victimizer. Underneath, if we could but see it, the monster is one of us.
So it's theologically apt that Lady Gaga uses the category monster for her fans. Because she's targeting a group that has been cast out of society. Again, she's explicitly embracing the freaks, weirdos and social outcasts. But Gaga, like in the monster stories, has flipped this and made the label "monster" a term of affection, welcome, embrace, community, inclusion and hospitality. (The diminutive "little" signals the playful affection.) This parallels my own interests in Unclean--Can we show hospitality toward monsters? So I'm intrigued by Gaga's community of "little monsters."
More, Gaga's lyrics often explore and deconstruct, in good Girardian fashion, the scapegoating mechanisms at work in the lives of many of her fans. Take, for example, the song "Bad Kid" from Born This Way.
I’m a bitch, I’m a loser baby maybe I should quitI've worked with kids like these, as have many of you--the "bad kids." These kids are social and moral "monsters." But Gaga deconstructs the label "bad kid" in the song. These kids are moral monsters not because they are intrinsically evil but because "they don't know right from wrong." More, while on the outside these kids are an objective pain in the ass (that's my professional clinical diagnosis), inside their "heart is pure." Their deviance is due to more to insecurity ("don't be insecure") than depravity.
I’m a jerk, wish I had the money but I can’t find work
I’m a brat, I’m a selfish punk, I really should be smacked
My parents tried until they got divorced ‘cause I ruined their lives
[Chorus]
I’m a bad kid and I will survive
Oh I’m a bad kid, don’t know wrong from right
I’m a bad kid and this is my life
One of the bad kids, don’t know wrong from right
(This is my life)
Don’t be insecure if your heart is pure
You’re still good to me if you’re a bad kid baby
Don’t be insecure if your heart is pure
You’re still good to me if you’re a bad kid baby
A bad kid baby
(Don’t be insecure)
I’m a twit, degenerate young rebel and I’m proud of it
Pump your fist if you would rather mess up than put up with this
I’m a nerd, I chew gum and smoke in your face, I’m absurd
I’m so bad and I don’t give a damn, I love it when you’re mad
When you’re mad, when you’re mad.
[Chorus]
I’m a bad kid and I will survive
Oh I’m a bad kid, don’t know wrong from right
I’m a bad kid and this is my life
One of the bad kids, don’t know wrong from right
(This is my life)
Don’t be insecure if your heart is pure
You’re still good to me if you’re a bad kid baby
Don’t be insecure if your heart is pure
You’re still good to me if you’re a bad kid baby
A bad kid baby
(Don't be insecure)
I’m not that typical baby
I’m a bad kid like my mom and dad made me
I’m not that cool and you hate me
I’m a bad kid, that’s the way that they made me
I’m a bad kid I’m disastrous
Give me your money or I’ll hold my breath
I’m a bad kid and I will survive
One of the bad kids, don’t know wrong from right
Don’t be insecure if your heart is pure
You’re still good to me if you’re a bad kid baby
Don’t be insecure if your heart is pure
You’re still good to me if you’re a bad kid baby
A bad kid baby
In short, in this song Gaga is trying to get on the inside of these "monsters," to speak to their brokenness, sadness, loneliness and alienation. To society these are "bad kids." But Gaga sings to them "You're still good to me."
And I ask you, doesn't that sound a whole lot like Jesus?
Gaga calls out to the little monsters. And Jesus eats with with tax collectors, sinners, and prostitutes.
All this was, for me at least, profoundly illustrated by the recent suicide of Jamey Rodemeyer, a 14-year-old boy from Williamsville, NY, who took his life last week after years of school yard bullying because of Jamey's struggles with his sexuality.
Jamey was a "monster" on his school yard. A social outcast. A freak. A scapegoat.
But Jamey did find a place of community and welcome. And it wasn't at church. Jamey found a home with Lady Gaga and her little monsters as he recounted on his video for the It Gets Better Campaign.
After Jamey's death, Lady Gaga dedicated a song to Jamey, a sort of memorial service for Jamey with his fellow "monsters," in a recent concert. (The YouTube clips of this keep popping up and coming down so it might be hard to find it.) And while some have questioned the wisdom of her doing this, I think her motives were pure and I found the performance, and the love from the crowd, to be quite moving.
Okay. Is Lady Gaga a Christian role model? Do I agree with everything she stands for? Are the motives of advocate celebrities pure? For this post, I don't really care about those questions. Like all of us, Gaga is a mixed bag. But for this post I'd like to a keep a tight focus on one particular aspect of Lady Gaga, her passionate engagement with the "little monsters" of society, her attempt to welcome them and show them warmth, understanding, and respect.
And in this, I can't help but wonder if Lady Gaga isn't shaming the church. Because here's the deal. If kids like Jamey aren't being welcomed by churches or by their schools where are they supposed to go?
This is what I think. I think every Christ-following church should start talking to their youth groups, saying unambiguously: We want you to be a wall of protection for kids like Jamey. Seek out and protect--emotionally and socially--every weird, weak, nerdy, lonely, queer kid at your school. We don't care if they are a goth, or a druggy, or a queer. Doesn't matter. Protect these kids. Churches should train their youth groups to be angels of protection, teaching them to find these kids and say, "Hey, I love you. Jesus loves you. So no one's going to bully you. Not on my watch. Come sit with me at lunch." That's what I think. I think every Christ-following church should start Guardian Angel programs like this, teaching their kids to stick up for kids like Jamey. Not with violence. But with welcome and solidarity. Because it's hard to bully a group. So let's welcome these kids into a halo of protection and friendship.
That's what I think Christians should be doing to change our public schools. We shouldn't be fighting battles over stuff like school prayer. Because you know what I think God thinks about our battles regarding school prayer? I think God is shouting from the heavens, "Why don't you shut the hell up about school prayer and start sticking up for Jamey?"
And if you think my language is strong, sensitive reader, know that I'm just paraphrasing the prophets. Read how the prophets speak about prayer, song, and worship when the People of God allow injustice at the gates. You want God in our public schools? So do I. But guess what? God is already inside our public schools. Standing by kids like Jamey.
So the question isn't, why won't the School Board allow God in our schools? No, the question is, why aren't we joining God on the playground and sticking up for kids like Jamey?
We are a stiff-necked, disobedient and rebellious generation.
When Jamey Rodemeyer heard his peers, in person and online, say "Why don't you kill yourself you queer?" (a fair summary of the stuff he was dealing with) I can't help but assume that he thought that the Christian church supported and endorsed those sentiments. Because even if Christians weren't directly involved in the bullying we certainly were complicit, if only in our collective silence and apathy. "Let the gays protect gay kids," our collective silence declares, "and we'll take care of our own."
And that breaks my heart.
Who will protect the little monsters? Who will speak out for them? Who will welcome them? Who will weep for them?
I know Lady Gaga will.
What about the church?
Sep 30, 2011 (15 hours ago)
Free Portal 2 'Peer Review' DLC drops on October 4
"Peer Review" continues the cooperative exploits of Atlas and P-Body, the two beloved robot protagonists in Portal 2's co-op campaign. GLaDOS will also be featured as the two tackle a new co-op test track. However, the DLC will also include a Challenge mode for both co-op and single-player with full leaderboard support.
To help ease the pain of waiting for free stuff, Valve's offering, uh, free stuff! You can download the third and final group of tracks from Portal 2's soundtrack, Music to Test By, right now by heading on over to Valve's site here.Continue reading Free
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