Flutterby™! From 2013-05-01 to 2013-05-21

Question as to whether iPhone apps support "both orientations": I reject your Apple-imposed gender preference binaries. #waitwhat?

[ related topics: Apple Computer iPhone ]

Kosher Switch® very carefully sets up a mode with random failures so that observant Jews don't have to find a goy to flip light switches on the Sabbath:

Uncertainty through two random failure probabilities. In each of the switch’s cycles, there are two chances that things will fail and that the attached fixture will stay unaffected. This creates two safeiks (Halachic uncertainty): the first, whether or not the light pulse of the Light Pulse Pair will fail; the second, whether the switch will fail in triggering the circuit based on the results of the Light Pulse Pair. There is no way of predetermining how many cycles would be required to overcome for both of these safeiks.

Fascinating application for intentionally flakey hardware.

[ related topics: Religion Theater & Plays ]

Only Sonic.net and Twitter get all six stars on the EFF's user privacy protection table.

It should be noted that there are a number of cases in which there are gag orders and assorted legal wrangling where none of the parties can tell you who the ISP is. Given that the EFF is involved in those cases, one might think that this is an information leak of sorts...

[ related topics: Privacy Free Speech Law Furniture ]

All the Lamar Smith (R-TX) news is making me realize that I have a problem distinguishing NSF from NSFW.

[ related topics: Current Events ]

Stop the OTHER War on May Day, Too!

Back in the century which I most often inhabit, May Day was about dancing, drinking, erecting ludicrously phallic May-poles, bedecking every bedamned thing in town with flowers, and sneaking off into the woods to have sex–for the sheer fun of it and for the added delight of really annoying the Puritans who hated the phallic symbolism, the pagan origins, the public intoxication, the illicit sex…and just about everything about May Day.

References Robert Herrick: Corinna's Going A-Maying.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture History ]

Wall Street Journal: The Diploma's Vanishing Value:

Think a community-college degree is worth less than a credential from a four-year college? In Tennessee, the average first-year salaries of graduates with a two-year degree are $1,000 higher than those with a bachelor's degree. Technical degree holders from the state's community colleges often earn more their first year out than those who studied the same field at a four-year university.

(Via, Via)

To be fair, there are all sorts of reasons this data could be skewed, but I think the higher ed bubble is real.

[ related topics: Work, productivity and environment Chattanooga Community Education Economics ]

The Verge: I'm still here: back online after a year without the internet. Guy spends year disconnected from the internet, discovers that the internet is so entwined with life that he was missing out, and it didn't help him accomplish the things he thought it was keeping him from.

As a one-time Waldorf kid, who spent a good amount of growing up in a community that avoided technology and the popular culture, I've spent some time thinking about this, and come to similar conclusions.

[ related topics: Sociology California Culture Net Culture Community ]

Guy finds bug in video poker game, is now charged as a federal hacking case:

“I’m being arrested federally for winning on a slot machine,” he said. “It’s just like if someone taught you how to count cards, which we all know is not illegal. You know. Someone told me that there are machines that had programming that gave a player an advantage over the house. And that’s all there is to it.…

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Games Software Engineering Law Video Gambling Real Estate ]

Ars Technica: Uh-oh: AT&T and Comcast are ecstatic about the FCC’s new chairman: AT&T calls new chairman an "inspired pick," seeks end to "outdated" regulations.

Yep, the president who said "I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over" has just handed the FCC over to one.

[ related topics: Invention and Design ]

RT Rita J King @RitaJKing:

Today in US: Boy, 5, kills sister, 2, with special kid rifle. Accident. Girl, 16, does science experiment, nobody hurt, charged as felon.

First incident, Second incident (more, more).

And tracking down those articles, I also realized... anyone else notice the skin color of those involved in the two incidents?

[ related topics: Weblogs Movies Current Events Law Enforcement Pop Culture ]

Uh oh: More cultural awareness that I don't have and would probably enjoy catching up on: the 1978 novel The House of God includes the laws of the House of God which I'm seeing quoted by medical professionals. Number 13 is "the delivery of good medical care is to do as much nothing as possible".

[ related topics: Religion Quotes Sociology Real Estate Government ]

From this Slate quick review of a number of books, in the section about The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime by Adrian Raine:

... there’s a stronger correlation between lower resting heart rate and antisocial behavior than between smoking and lung cancer.

My resting heart rate is sub 60, and I can kick all y'alls asses.

[ related topics: Drugs Books Spam Nature and environment Monty Python ]

Oh, if you have not picked up the latest copy of Wooden Boat Magazine and seen the glorious spread on Makoto, I highly recommend it.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Boats Machinery ]

Minocycline, a microglial inhibitor, reduces ‘honey trap’ risk in human economic exchange:

The results show that trusting behaviour in male participants significantly increased in relation to the perceived attractiveness of the female partner, but that attractiveness did not impact trusting behaviour in the minocycline group.

So limerence is a disease that can be kept at bay with antibiotics.

[ related topics: Nature and environment California Culture Economics ]

Anatomy of a latte.

Via.

David Rumsey Map Collection - Cartography Associates:

Digitization of the collection began in 1996 and there are now over 38,000 items online, with new additions added regularly. The site is free and open to the public. Here viewers have access not only to high resolution images of maps that are extensively cataloged, but also to a variety of tools that allow to users to compare, analyze, and view items in new and experimental ways.

[ related topics: Invention and Design Maps and Mapping ]

Wierd that there's enough economic waste for a company to buy Facebook ads and then sell the resulting leads to 5 or 6 contractors or mortgage brokers, rather than those brokers trying to reach consumers more directly.

[ related topics: Consumerism and advertising Economics ]

Apparently Dodge is testing to see if their trucks float, up in Humboldt County. And drove a Jeep Cherokee to get there... http://lostcoastoutpost.com/2013/may/1/dodge-rocks/

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Boats Machinery ]

Mitt Romney at Southern Virginia University graduation speech: Quick, get married, make a bunch of babies.

Mother Jones similar story.

[ related topics: Weblogs Sociology Education Marriage ]

Sexual revolution pioneer John Williamson, co-founder of Topanga Canyon's Sandstone Retreat, dead at 80

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Current Events ]

Best paragraph of the day, from Grist.org: There may be terrifying predatory land-walking fish in Central Park:

On the plus side, snakeheads don’t eat people or animals. That said, if you were sitting in the Sheep’s Meadow smoking a joint, drinking a microbrew, and trying to go to second with a 24-year old publicist and a four-foot air-breathing snakefish ambled up, you would NOT be happy. So, if you catch one, follow the directions!

Via MeFi: Basically, treat it like you just caught a zombie.

[ related topics: Drugs Interactive Drama Food Skating Real Estate ]

Watch Dora the falcon take out a duck in mid-air, from a wing-mounted camera (YouTube).

Via MeFi.

[ related topics: Photography Movies ]

Because Charlene and I are considering our options: a Philip Greenspun comment thread on dishwashers.

About freakin' time: NIMH: Transforming Diagnosis, in which the National Institute of Mental Health announces that DSM-5 is coming out in a few weeks, and the NIMH is abandoning the DSM:

... The strength of each of the editions of DSM has been “reliability” – each edition has ensured that clinicians use the same terms in the same ways. The weakness is its lack of validity. Unlike our definitions of ischemic heart disease, lymphoma, or AIDS, the DSM diagnoses are based on a consensus about clusters of clinical symptoms, not any objective laboratory measure. ...

Via.

If you had to pick one major "what could be done right now to improve mental health services and treatment", I think this'd be it. Applause from this sector.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Health ]

Institute for Mexico Competitiveness: Rule of law & security: Possible impact of legalizing marihuana in the U.S.:

... United States is currently a net importer of marijuana. But in terms of legality created in one or more states could meet most of its domestic demand with domestic production. In this scenario materialize, would be facing the largest structural shock suffered by drug traffickers in Mexico since the massive arrival of cocaine in the late eighties. There is considerable uncertainty about the effect a substantial loss of income might have on the behavior of Mexican criminal organizations and, therefore, on the security environment in Mexico. ...

Rand: Reducing Drug Trafficking Revenues and Violence in Mexico: Would Legalizing Marijuana in California Help?:

If marijuana is smuggled from California to other states, it could undercut sales of Mexican marijuana in much of the U.S., cutting DTOs' marijuana export revenues by more than 65 percent and probably by 85 percent or more. In this scenario, the DTOs would lose approximately 20% of their total drug export revenues.

You wanna make Mexico more secure and a better neighbor, and work towards building a trading partner rather than a supplier of undocumented labor? Legalize marijuana.

Via.

[ related topics: Drugs Interactive Drama Weblogs Health Nature and environment Theater & Plays Work, productivity and environment California Culture ]

Alaska Dispatch: Spare us the overblown, overwrought tales of how scary Iditarod is to outsiders.

[ related topics: Alaska ]

elr on MeFi writes about gender:

So I looked at the kid and told him that I was a dude and she was a chick and a look of realization came over his face and he proclaimed, "Oh I get it, y'all are some ROCKERS!"

Which remains my gender identity to this day.

[ related topics: Bicycling ]

Paper Cruiser - Paper models of Toyota Land Cruisers and 4×4 trucks

[ related topics: Machinery Real Estate ]

Sigh. More and more, the most prophetic SciFi of my generation appears to have been Idiocracy.

4H Chickenque is about celebrating achievement and learning... And cake eating contests...

[ related topics: Photography Education Food - Cake ]

The popularity of a self-help book is based not results, but on how well its suggestions resonate with people who are already unfulfilled.

[ related topics: Books ]

Elizabeth Smart speaks on "abstinence only" sex education:

"I thought, 'Oh, my gosh, I'm that chewed up piece of gum, nobody re-chews a piece of gum, you throw it away.' And that's how easy it is to feel like you know longer have worth, you know longer have value," Smart said. "Why would it even be worth screaming out? Why would it even make a difference if you are rescued? Your life still has no value."

Via.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Erotic Sexual Culture Health Current Events Education ]

There is much furor over this CNN Transcript of Out Front interview between host Erin Burnett and Tim Clemente, in which Clemente asserts about telephone conversations that:

No, welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not.

Glenn Greenwald asks "Are all telephone calls recorded and accessible to the US government? A former FBI counterterrorism agent claims on CNN that this is the case" and suggests that

"All of that stuff" - meaning every telephone conversation Americans have with one another on US soil, with or without a search warrant - "is being captured as we speak".

Various people in the obligatory MeFi thread run through some of the logistics involved in this, but I'll take a slightly different tack here...

Many of y'all know that I work for Sonic.net. I don't work in the telecom side of things, I have been through some of the code to hit the DSLAMs with SNMP, but I'm over on the systems side of the world, writing code, not an active admin. Before I was an employee I was a customer, and part of the reason I like the company is that it takes a strong stance on customer privacy.

I have no particular inside information, but one can read between the lines of various EFF press releases and one might guess at which ISP is challenging "national security letters" for instance. This is beyond the aspects that everyone talks about.

So when Dane tweeted:

All domestic telephone calls recorded? I find that implausible, and I own a phone company, so I'd know, right? http://m.guardiannews.com/comm...ephone-calls-recorded-fbi-boston

I take that as a strong indication that "everything" is far over-stated.

But I also think that a good encrypted VOIP with a reasonable key distribution and verification system is something we should all use, on principle. And I should go back to trying to encrypt all of my email between people who have keys...

[ related topics: Privacy Free Speech moron Writing Law Work, productivity and environment Law Enforcement Cryptography Phreaking ]

We live in a sad time.

[ related topics: Theater & Plays ]

One of the problems I had with the arguments of many of those who proclaimed themselves part of the libertarian radical free market side of things, is that they seemed to be picking and choosing examples from places where, in fact, the market wasn't free.

Randall O'Toole of Cato.org wrote Free Markets for Free Parking, and Donald Shoup, author of The High Cost of Free Parking, responded in detail (PDF). If you're not into PDFs you can also read the same content as Shoup's response to O'Toole on the market for parking on Streetsblog, or Shoup's response to O'Toole on the market for parking on The Greater Marin.

In either case, it's a good look at how a simplistic argument falls apart when addressed in depth.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics Libertarian Weblogs Nature and environment Bay Area Law Economics ]

Damn. "The Harryhausen family regret to announce the death of Ray Harryhausen, Visual Effects pioneer and stop-motion model animator. ..."

[ related topics: Sociology ]

Patch blog headlined "Teen Rut". Difficult to change lifestyle routines was not my first thought. http://petaluma.patch.com/blog_posts/teen-rut

[ related topics: Weblogs Pop Culture ]

Larry points out a disturbing tale from a meeting between Joe Biden and Franklin Graham (son of Billy), from Politico: Biden: Gun control to wait for immigration:

Biden told Graham that there was “no restriction on the ability to do that, there’s no legal reason why they couldn’t” tax violent images, Clark added.

So Biden thinks the First Amendment is fair game.

[ related topics: Politics Games Content Management Weblogs Law Civil Liberties Guns ]

"apt-get install ruby-rvm" asks to install a whole bunch of Perl modules. I think I like it over rbenv already...

[ related topics: Perl Open Source hubris ]

DC Streetsblog: There Goes the Neighborhood: Why Homeownership Drags Down Employment looks at Does High Home-Ownership Impair the Labor Market?, David G. Blanchflower and Andrew J. Oswald (PDF):

We explore the hypothesis that high home-ownership damages the labor market. Our results are relevant to, and may be worrying for, a range of policymakers and researchers. We find that rises in the home-ownership rate in a US state are a precursor to eventual sharp rises in unemployment in that state. The elasticity exceeds unity: A doubling of the rate of home-ownership in a US state is followed in the long-run by more than a doubling of the later unemployment rate. What mechanism might explain this? We show that rises in home-ownership lead to three problems: (i) lower levels of labor mobility, (ii) greater commuting times, and (iii) fewer new businesses. Our argument is not that owners themselves are disproportionately unemployed. The evidence suggests, instead, that the housing market can produce negative ‘externalities’ upon the labor market. The time lags are long. That gradualness may explain why these important patterns are so little-known.

[ related topics: Invention and Design Economics Real Estate ]

LIFE Magazine: Hell on Wheels: LIFE With Mutant Bicycles:

To Webster a bicycle is “;a light vehicle having two wheels, one behind the other.”; Such a definition theoretically describes the contraptions [seen in the article], but fails to do justice to the imagination of the Chicago chapter of the National Bicycle Dealers’; Association.

By artfully applying welders’; torches to metal tubing, the chapter’;s members transform ordinary, utilitarian bicycles into traveling monstrosities. By far the most outlandish ideas have come from the Steinlauf family, who produced from their bicycle repair shop most of the oddities [shown in the article]. They are hazardous; generally at least one member of the clan is to be found in the hospital.

Great pictures.

[Via Shadow, looks like Wired has mirrored the photo set.]

[ related topics: Photography Sociology Law Enforcement Pedal Power Bicycling ]

when you realize changes were made in the production database that aren't in the source repo, so the testing environment was out of date.

[ related topics: Nature and environment Theater & Plays Work, productivity and environment Databases ]

• CNN anchors pretend they're having a satellite interview when they're actually in the same parking lot.
• The Definitive Collection of Thomas Friedman Takedowns

twoleftfeet on MetaFilter:

I actually solved this problem years ago. If P = NP, you can factor out the common factor of P from both sides of the equation, getting 1 = N. Since clearly 1 ≠ N, it follows that P ≠ NP.

Somehow my brilliant solution to this problem was never recognized by the "authorities", and I continue to toil away as a solitary genius, solving one difficult problem after another.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

"If there's something that screams "AMERICA" more than a huge flock of bald eagles attempting to destroy three Japanese cars in a grocery store parking lot, I don't want to know about it."

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Dan & Charlene's July 2003 San Juan Trip ]

http://computerengineer.co.il/ <- Turn on your speakers, enjoy the Hebrew, and the code on the screen. In Perl.

[ related topics: Perl Open Source hubris ]

So apparently you can buy back prison terms for about $4 million a year: Former Enron CEO Skilling in deal to cut prison term by agreeing to drop assorted challenges to $40 million being returned to Enron fraud victims.

Similar article: ABA Journal: Former Enron CEO will see his sentence cut by as much as 10 years in deal with prosecutors.

http://theonion.github.io/fartscroll.js/ - in case you wanted a quick and easy way to make your web page make fart noises when you scroll.

[ related topics: Law ]

John Manley, Ogilvy & Mather Chicago’s Executive Group Planning Director: Why Channeling Your Inner Weirdo Helps You Get Ahead At Work. Talks a little bit about Montessori, but I also think that this should be thought of in the context of Randy Nelson's "we're looking for people who are interested, not just interesting".

[ related topics: Work, productivity and environment ]

Spot of dust made me think the email subject was "disco online training". Good for networking, but leads to viruses.

Is your state's highest paid public employee a coach? Probably.

[ related topics: Work, productivity and environment ]

Whoah! @FestoolUSA just sent me a box of goodies! Cool! But my reviews of their amazingly awesome tools remain unbiased.

[ related topics: Festool ]

It's like waking up with a really killer hangover: GeoGuessr gives you 5 Google Street Views of some location, somewhere in the world, asks you to guess where each one is, gives you a score based on how close you are.

Hints: You can navigate the Street View, and zoom into the map before you make your guess.

Via MeFi. My results: 13961 points at http://www.geoguessr.com/#.UYwLQ96-fkY.gmail (Cyrillic is not my strong suit...)

[ related topics: Maps and Mapping ]

Hyperbole and a Half: Depression Part Two

If you aren't familiar with Hyperbole and a Half, it's the source of the "...all the things!" meme image

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Marketing ]

I've been watching the furor over the 3d printed plastic guns from "Distributed Defense" and laughing over the disaster drill it has created. Anyone that can afford a 3d printer, laptop, software.. and the skills to make it all work whose intention is to make untraceable firearms should be spending that money elsewhere. Like: LittleMachineShop.com or Northern Tool and making better weapons.

If you really want a good non-magnetic barrel, there are better choices than ABS plastic that will fire real (powerful) bullets.

After looking at some beautiful guns last week at the Fuller Gun Collection at the Chickamauga Battlefield, many of which were made with "crude" tools, I found myself thinking: These would be fun to replicate with modern materials.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Software Engineering Work, productivity and environment Graphics Pyrotechnics Guns Currency Model Building ]

High school student Jeff Bliss gives a lesson to his teacher at Duncanville, TX (YouTube)

"... because since I got here, I've done nothing but read packets. So don't try to take credibility for teaching me jack."

Thanks, Larry.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Weblogs ]

Sapping Attention: What years do historians write about?

The most interesting thing: What's with the huge increase in history dissertations overall in the 1990s?

Missing man found by RCMP Draganflyer Multirotor, VIDEO: Lost man found by RCMP mini-helicopter in Saskatoon region.

And these things are way cheaper to operate than human piloted aircraft.

[ related topics: Photography Aviation Video Aviation - Helicopters ]

14 year old Gianna Chien's science fair project shows that iPad 2 magnets can interfere with pacemakers

[ related topics: Current Events Television ]

Linux Foundation Training Prepares the International Space Station for Linux Migration. Keith Chuvala of United Space Alliance explains:

“We migrated key functions from Windows to Linux because we needed an operating system that was stable and reliable – one that would give us in-house control. So if we needed to patch, adjust or adapt, we could.”

Alt link.

[ related topics: Free Software Interactive Drama Microsoft Open Source Space & Astronomy Current Events Real Estate ]

Consumption of peppers associated with a reduced risk of Parkinson's Disease, the assumption is that the nicotine is the cause.

[ related topics: Food Current Events ]

Lunch-time conversation reminded me: "The Martian" by Andy Weir is recommended good sci-fi read.

OH: "It may be shenanigans, but it's really well tested shenanigans."

Liked Jeff Speck's Walkable City. Started reading The Smart Growth Manual, but 15 pages in, and so much grar...

Archive.org provides free and fast roof2roof internet in Richmond CA, tower with strong directional WiFi on the roof, if you get a directional WiFi setup and point it back, voila.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Net Culture ]

Got Tabula running. Maybe now we can liberate the tables in city budget PDFs? https://github.com/jazzido/tabula

[ related topics: Sports Furniture ]

For years conspiracy mongers have been after HAARP, an Alaska based DARPA program to bombard the upper atmosphere with microwaves to probe its secrets. It has been accused of causing Hurricanes Sandy, Katrina and Rita, the Haiti Earthquake, controlling people's minds, and of threatening to "capsize the world". Well, it turns out there was a huge conspiracy! Just not one everybody expected.

[ related topics: Earthquake Conspiracy Hurricane Katrina Personal Lubricant Alaska Government ]

http://idontwantyourfuckingapp.tumblr.com/

An interesting lead from BoingBoing: A list of English words commonly misused in official translations of EU documents. Apparently a dialect of EU English is being created, but the problem is that some English words don't mean what the non-Anglophones think they mean. One can see the problem in a system dealing with at least 23 different tongues, but the main problem seems to be between the three power languages, English, French and German. The comments are particularly interesting, with Euro-functionaries talking about racing to get the first version out so they can control the eventual translation. I also still wonder where in Brussels you can find somebody who is bilingual in Estonian and Maltese.

[ related topics: David Hasselhoff Interface issues Government ]

Woodworker porn on the day is a table that becomes a desk with subtle compartments and workings.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Furniture Woodworking ]

More of that Walnut bracelet locket

[ related topics: Photography ]

Even more of that Walnut bracelet locket

[ related topics: Photography ]

Even yet more of that Walnut bracelet locket

[ related topics: Photography ]

Moxie Marlinspike: A Saudi Arabia Telecom's Surveillance Pitch.

By the way, time to dig through and re-set up the infrastructure for encrypted email and do some key signing. I'm becoming aware of how much monitoring of net traffic there is, and how much of it is being done by nefarious entities in the guise of "anti-terror" activities.

[ related topics: Weblogs Cryptography ]

You have, at this point, seen astronaut Chris Hadfield singing David Bowie's Space Oddity on board the International Space Station.

Emm Gryner talks about the background and her involvement.

[ related topics: Movies Space & Astronomy ]

"½ of all serious head injuries happen inside motor vehicles. If you drive a car, wear a helmet".

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Automobiles ]

Justice Department obtains a broad swath of AP phone records:

The records obtained by the Justice Department listed incoming and outgoing calls, and the duration of each call, for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and the main number for AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP.

If you called the AP during April and May 2012, you might wanna retain a lawyer. Allegedly this is over a May 7 2012 story about an airplane bombing plot that was foiled in Yemen, but...

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics Invention and Design Aviation Law Work, productivity and environment Law Enforcement New York Real Estate Personal Lubricant ]

Search Google for "Atari breakout".

Any Android developers out there available for a before-Thursday paid gig? Should be fairly simple dots on screen stuff.

In 1946 there was a deep exploration of data mining, network privacy, internet porn, and all sorts of other details. No, I'm not talking about Vannevar Bush's As We May Think, this is A Logic Named Joe

.. She was blonde an' fatal to begin with. She had got blonder and fataler an' had had four husbands and one acquittal for homicide an' had acquired a air of enthusiasm and self-confidence. That's just a sketch of the background. Laurine was not the kinda former girlfriend you like to have turning up in the same town with your wife. ...

Via MeFi, the comment thread suggests that there's an audio version in the X Minus One singles.

[ related topics: Politics Music Erotic Privacy Sexual Culture broadband Net Culture Marriage ]

Some how I missed this via Violet Impudence and saw it via Medley:

Fan fiction is a way of the culture repairing the damage done in a system where contemporary myths are owned by corporations instead of owned by the folk. --Henry Jenkins

[ related topics: Content Management Sociology California Culture Woodworking ]

Toll records can be used in civil court cases, like divorce cases.

In four of the 12 states, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania, highway authorities release E-ZPass records only in criminal cases. West Virginia parkways authority has no policy.

Which means that the remaining 7 are happy to offer up your travel records for civil actions.

[ related topics: Invention and Design Current Events ]

This is fucking brilliant: Special Guest Edition: The Hawkeye Initiative IRL!:

I love my job. Our company in particular is great. Firstly, our game (HAWKEN) is beautiful and people love it. Secondly, half of our executive branch is female. Half of them are punk rock, and all of them are badassed. Our gender awareness standards, compared to the industry at large, are top shelf. We are talking Amelia Earhart in Atlantis, at a five star resort, getting a mani-pedi from Jensen Ackles. I have it good.

Except that the CEO has a framed piece of game promotion art, and... well... gets and graciously accepts a brilliant education in sexism.

[ related topics: Games Space & Astronomy Art & Culture Heinlein Education Aviation - Helicopters ]

So wait, was the infiltrator also the bomber (again)? Is this what the DOJ is pissed at the AP for revealing?

The Guardian has a rather average interview with Bill Gates, where he talks about his philanthropies and his relationship with Steve Jobs. What is interesting is the comments section, where the OS wars are still as hot as they were in 1999. One extremely long one considers Gates' attempts at curing malaria to be false, since he really should have been fixing Windows. Its rather amazing that these folks still talk about Bill in the same way they talk about Andrew Carnagie or John D. Rockefeller as complete predators, when Bill never had a striker shot, never evicted a widow from the company shack, or bribed a senator with watered stock. But I guess offending the fanboys is crime enough.

[ related topics: Apple Computer Microsoft moron Economics ]

Cotati California police kick down a door and taze occupant, on film (YouTube).

I'm a little pissed because I'm reading a narrative that I trust a whole lot about some pretty amazing police misconduct, when what should pop across my social media feed but cops two towns up kickin' down doors and tazing people.

Yay for more cameras recording!

[ related topics: Photography Movies Journalism and Media Law Enforcement California Culture ]

A Low-Cost Single-Pixel Thermographic Camera (PDF), or Poor Man's Thermographic Camera 2 (YouTube video).

A 160x120px thermographic camera runs over 10k Euros, this uses a pyrometer and a couple of R/C/ servos to create an 80x80px low frame-rate thermographic camera for about a hundred Euros.

[ related topics: Photography Movies Graphics Toys Video ]

Whoah. Facebook is telling me [married person you know] used Zoosk. I suspect it's exaggerating, but: careful out there, people...

[ related topics: Sociology Marriage ]

Nature: Polar wander linked to climate change:

Between 1982 and 2005, the pole drifted southeast towards northern Labrador, Canada, at a rate of about 2 milliarcseconds — or roughly 6 centimetres — per year. But in 2005, the pole changed course and began galloping east towards Greenland at a rate of more than 7 milliarcseconds per year.

Via /..

Two things I think are interesting here: The first is that GPS is now becoming the reference system by which earth's rotational axis is measured. The second: 6 centimeters. That's gonna get tossed in the face of the next person who claims to me that somehow more accurate location systems are the enabling technology for autonomous vehicles or local mapping.

[ related topics: Nature and environment Current Events Maps and Mapping Dogs Global Warming ]

Uberdata: Mapping the San Franciscome. Using data from the Uber car service to look at San Francisco travel patterns, by neighborhood, gender, and technology preference.

[ related topics: Weblogs Bay Area California Culture Automobiles Maps and Mapping ]

John Resig: Asm.js - the JavaScript compile target. A good overview of Asm.js, a subscript of JavaScript designed to be a virtual machine targetable from different languages. Google appears to be ready to support this, which means that we'll head even further towards Firefox and Chrome becoming portable VM+UI platforms.

[ related topics: User Interface Weblogs ]

Cannabis Induces a Clinical Response in Patients with Crohn's Disease: a Prospective Placebo-Controlled Study.

RESULTS: Complete remission (a CDAI score <150) was achieved by 5/11 subjects in the cannabis group (45%) and 1/10 in the placebo group (10%; P=.43). A clinical response (a decrease in CDAI score of >100) was observed in 10/11 subjects in the cannabis group (90%; from 330±105 to 152±109) and 4/10 in the placebo group (40%; from 373±94 to 306±143; P=.028). Three patients in the cannabis group were weaned from steroid dependency. Subjects receiving cannabis reported improved appetite and sleep, with no significant side effects.

Via

[ related topics: Drugs Weblogs Invention and Design Television ]

Fair warning so you can re-watch the first two: Before Midnight opens on the 31st at the Smith Ranch Road theater http://sonyclassics.com/beforemidnight/dates.html

[ related topics: Movies Theater & Plays ]

So down in Bakersfield, Sheriff's deputies beat a man to death, and then confiscated the cell phones onto which people had recorded video of the beating "for evidence".

Yep. Video on at least one of those cell phones has gone missing.

That's an F3, right? Bets on whether anyone ever is actually charged with that felony?

Later addendum: Take video? Upload it ASAP.

[ related topics: Law Current Events Law Enforcement Video ]

Auto-correct of the moment: ductaping became dictating. Yeah, that kind of works...

Newegg nukes “corporate troll” Alcatel in third patent appeal win this year.

Thank you, Newegg.

[ related topics: Intellectual Property ]

The Ethical Adman - This is how you do sex in advertising.

Highlighting a series of absurdist commercials from SLO Down Wines.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Ethics Consumerism and advertising ]

The Atlantic Cities - The Way We Build Cities Is Making Them Flood.

And, yes, on our list is tearing out the concrete patio in the back and replacing it with flagstone so that we have a more water permeable surface treatment in that space. Also something to think about as cities pursue higher densities...

[ related topics: Space & Astronomy ]

Asked "other side programmer" regardiing XML samples for a SOAP/XML interface.

He emailed back:

public errorObject[] ReadingChangedNotification(meterReading[] changedMeterReads, string transactionID) public errorObject[] CDStatesChangedNotification (CDStateChange[] stateChanges, string transactionID)

The say part is, I understand what he really means is part of this:

this but he doesn't differentiate the XML from the code that he uses to generate it.

[ related topics: Web development Content Management Software Engineering Fashion ]

Skype with care: Microsoft is reading everything you write

[ related topics: Humor Microsoft moron Current Events ]

Ezra Klein in the Washington Post: Everything you need to know about the IRS scandal in one FAQ

[ related topics: Politics History ]

Ah, the past, when elevated bicycle superhighways were the future of commuting: http://motherboard.vice.com/bl...the-future-of-california-transit

[ related topics: Weblogs History California Culture Pedal Power Bicycling Public Transportation ]

Journal of Adolescent Health: Middle and High School Drug Testing and Student Illicit Drug Use: A National Study 1998–2011:

Because the study design is observational and the data are cross-sectional, no strong causal conclusions can be drawn. However, there is evidence of lower marijuana use in the presence of SDT, and evidence of higher use of illicit drugs other than marijuana. Until further research can clarify the apparent opposing associations, schools should approach SDT with caution.

Sounds to me like if kids think they may get caught, they figure why not get caught for the hard stuff?

Via Student Drug Testing Programs Linked To Spikes In ‘Hard’ Drug Use by way of a Scarleteen tweet.

[ related topics: Drugs Children and growing up Interactive Drama Sexual Culture Health Graphic Design ]

Bacon Bacon aroma set to end. SF Bacon Restaurant Must Close Due to Aroma Issue.

[ related topics: Food Bay Area Current Events Food - Bacon ]

Drive Your Fat Ass To Work Day.

[ related topics: Work, productivity and environment ]

Alex Chousa: The Perfect Housewife (4 photos, may be NSFW). Via Violet Impudence.

[ related topics: Photography ]

CBS News: Officials on Benghazi: "We made mistakes, but without malice":

"We're portrayed by Republicans as either being lying or idiots," said one Obama administration official who was part of the Benghazi response. "It's actually closer to us being idiots."

[ related topics: Current Events ]

Soldiers' portraits, before, during and after war.

[ related topics: Photography History Current Events ]

This is what email would have looked like if it had been invented in the Web 2.0 era.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

I think that I can muster up a little soft shoe gentle sway, 'cause I feel like dancin'. All weekend. Off to Stumptown Stomp in Guerneville.

[ related topics: Bay Area Shoes ]

News reports say the board of Yahoo will meet Sunday night to ratify the purchase of Tumblr for some $1.1 billion. However, the signs were already out. Over on Erosblog they've been noting that all adult Tumblr sites have disappeared from Google and other search engines. Apparently tumblr inserted a script in all such sites to shoo off search indexing robots and make them harder to find. Speculation is that they were starting to clean out the property before Yahoo showed up. If you have NSFW material over yonder, back it up before Yahoo erases it.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Robotics Current Events Consumerism and advertising ]

ClippyJS:

Our research shows that people love two things: failed Microsoft technologies and obscure Javascript libraries. Naturally, we decided to combine the two.

Via MeFi.

[ related topics: Religion Humor Microsoft moron Television ]

The American Journal of Medicine: The Impact of Marijuana Use on Glucose, Insulin, and Insulin Resistance among US Adults

Of the participants in our study sample, 579 were current marijuana users and 1975 were past users. In multivariable adjusted models, current marijuana use was associated with 16% lower fasting insulin levels (95% confidence interval [CI], −26, −6) and 17% lower HOMA-IR (95% CI, −27, −6). We found significant associations between marijuana use and smaller waist circumferences. Among current users, we found no significant dose-response.

Via Sensible Erection.

[ related topics: Drugs History ]

Gay square dancing and I only get my ass grabbed once: Impressed with finely tuned gaydar, or disappointed that I'm not hot?

[ related topics: Sexual Culture ]

Due to the possibility of confusion, apparently "posse" is not a collective noun to use in groups of lesbians. I've been told...

[ related topics: Aviation - Helicopters ]

While replacing radiator in my truck yesterday, I ended up making a special wrench to remove the lower transmission cooler line easier. I ground the profile down so it would clear plastic mounting nubs around the fitting. Then I cut off the handle and welded it it at a 45 degree angle about in inch from the head. I'm sure there is a special socket/wrench doohicky at the Ford factory that does the same thing.

While doing this on a Sunday afternoon, grinding away, I was musing about the recent arguments about 3D printers, intellectual property, design, patent, copyright, "printing" guns and anything/everything else.

What I briefly laughed at was the idea of a constitutional amendment. Something like:

Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom to create, build, modify, tune, tinker any device or intellectual property withing our possession and ability.

Once upon a time, such a thing may have been possible. We are Americans and part of our culture and history has been the ability to create, improve (and sometimes destroy) "things" and "ideas".

I think it's going to end up more like:

SHOP TAX PAID and LICENSE GRANTED: 2013-05-01 # 910181816211 for 30 days, for the tools and equipment located at _________ until the next inspection due by 2013-06-15 to ensure no illegal items were manufactured, original manufacturer intellectual property rights violated, copyrighted designs copied or modified without the original owners permission....

Please log all tool and equipment use, consumables used in your logbook. Photographs of any item produced or modified with an estimated value over $20 USD required.

Consider using our "Global License" program, simple install one or more (depending on the size and layout of your shop) cameras and reduce the need for monthly visits and audits.

[ related topics: Intellectual Property Politics Photography Privacy Software Engineering Sociology Graphics Civil Liberties California Culture Automobiles Graphic Design Machinery Guns Fabrication Copyright/Trademark Government ]

Cthulhu meets LEGO. CthuGO? LEGlhu?

[ related topics: Lego Mindstorms ]

How to back up your (adult) Tumblr blog: http://www.erosblog.com/2013/05/20/how-to-back-up-your-tumblr/

[ related topics: Weblogs ]

Hey, Larry, regarding "looking for the next Tumblr", I found some of the observations about the new social graph in Medium.com: The Next Facebook kicked a few neurons.

[ related topics: Weblogs Invention and Design ]

So far as I can tell from my social media feed, Yahoo bought Ray Manzarek and a giant tornado wiped out Tumblr and Flickr.

[ related topics: Journalism and Media ]

Village Voice: Bail is Busted: How Jail Really Works. More on the asymmetry of the justice system, and how trial is for people who can both afford to and manage to get there:

But the really shocking revelation of the Freedom Fund experiment was this: More than half of the fund's clients eventually saw their cases either completely dismissed or knocked down to some noncriminal disposition. Not a single one ever went back to jail on the charges for which they were bailed out.

Without access to a bail fund, defendants in similar positions pleaded guilty to criminal charges 95 percent of the time. The fund's numbers made wincingly clear what everyone had already vaguely known: The current bail system has the direct effect of slapping criminal convictions on poor people who would otherwise win their cases.

Via MeFi

[ related topics: Privacy Law Enforcement Civil Liberties Woodworking Government ]

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner urges jury nullification in Federal medical marijuana dispensary case:

But that's not atypical of the former "Freedom Rider" who served two months of jail time in Mississippi during the early years of the Civil Rights Era.

"This is way overdoing it when local laws, state laws allow compassionate use of medical marijuana,” Filner told reporters at the downtown U.S. District Court complex Monday. “Someone should not be going through this stage of prosecution for trying to help people to have access to medical marijuana."

[ related topics: Drugs Privacy Law Current Events Civil Liberties Government ]

Woman brags about hitting cyclist, discovers police also use Twitter.

"I knocked a cyclist off his bike. I have right of way, he doesn't even pay road tax".

[ related topics: Politics Law Enforcement Bicycling ]

Readers expose a bike touring con man named "Ian".

[ related topics: Bicycling ]