Finding Wonderful Things

Exclusive clip from new Russell Brand documentary

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 22:53:15 +0000

In this clip from the new documentary, Brand: A Second Coming, Russell Brand recounts the time he was at a protest in the streets of London. He climbed on top of a police van and took off his clothes. He was so alarmed by his "shrinkage," that he tried to "wank it to normal size."

Brand: A Second Coming chronicles actor / comedian / activist Russell Brand on his journey from addict, self-proclaimed narcissist and Hollywood star living in the fast-lane to his current, and unexpected, role as political disruptor & newfound hero to the underserved. Criticized for egomaniacal self-interest, Brand injects his madness in to the world and calls for revolution. He stays the course with an irreverent courage that inspires a new generation of activists to rise up against the ever-increasing world engorged in Consumerism.
Can Brand rise against the roar of criticism from the very system that built him? Does he have the fortitude, resilience and commitment to keep up the fight? Will he find true happiness which has eluded him since childhood? BRAND: A Second Coming takes audiences behind the scenes of this wildly complex man for an intimate look at what drives Russell Brand as he continues to be the consummate disruptor.
Brand: A Second Coming is a feature documentary produced, written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Ondi Timoner (Dig!, We Live in Public).

Fun Palaces: locally made art, science and play, for participants, not audiences

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 22:48:55 +0000

https://vimeo.com/107262132

The idea of Fun Palaces has been incubating among radical librarians for more than half a century, and now it's bursting open as a full-fledged movement. Every library in the Lambeth Borough of London will be a Fun Palace this Saturday, with a wide range of participatory activities ranging from zine and science workshops to participatory theater to kids' games from the amazing Code Club. (more…)

Oh Joy Sex Toy, the book, volume 2 [NSFW] [YAY!]

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 22:31:30 +0000

My favorite sex toy review/sex ed/reproductive health webcomic has just released its second collection, with 328 pages' worth of comics by Erica Moen and her guest-comics-creators. (more…)

Fun Panda Fashions

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 22:00:01 +0000

I know it's a brave thing to say in today's political climate, but I can't help but say it -I love pandas. Ok, I'm just kidding about the bravery thing as practically everyone loves pandas but how can you not love something that's black and white and cute all over?

If you feel the same, then you absolutely must head over to this great InventorSpot article where you can find 24 awesome panda-inspired fashions.

For those who prefer the red version of the panda, don't worry, there are plenty of fashions inspired by those cuties online as well -like this great scarf by RedPandaKnits. Either way, it's a great way to make sure your style is unbearably cute.

Hardware Is A Long Game—Let Me Give You The Playbook

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 21:51:40 +0000

Building products is hard. Building hardware products and taking them to market is nearly impossible. In the past three years of growing Wearable World, I’ve worked with more than 100 hardware entrepreneurs, and together we’ve stumbled through a dragon’s den of challenges unique to the hardware business.

As sensors and microprocessors have become cheaper and smaller, connected-device startups have been cropping up left and right, triggering a mad rush to get products to market. Entrepreneurs feel the pressure to get out in front of competition and retain more equity, so they turn to quick sources of cash like crowdfunding, then often struggle to produce a prototype that passes muster when it gets to manufacturing.

In light of this, I feel compelled to take what we’ve learned and add a bit of structure to the mayhem of bringing a hardware product to market. Along with my Wearable World team and a world-class partner, Jabil, we’ve created a framework that wearable and Internet of Things entrepreneurs can follow to avoid common pitfalls and streamline their go-to-market process, and we're holding a two-day conference on October 13 and 14 to help you learn about it.

Get tickets now: The e2e Conference, Oct. 13-14

We are calling this framework as well as the conference "e2e," for "end to end." It's the design-to-manufacturing process checklist for hardware products. So far we’ve come up with four major steps hardware entrepreneurs need to take to win at the hardware product game.

What You'll Get At e2e

After creating this process and pressure-testing it with Jabil and the hardware startups going through our incubator, we’ve designed an event to share what we’ve learned with the greater hardware community.

The e2e Conference, ReadWrite’s and Wearable World’s gathering for hardware innovators, is our chance to facilitate a deep dive into the framework and how it can help IoT entrepreneurs. (In the interest of transparency, I should tell you we have a commercial relationship with Jabil, which is currently sponsoring ReadWrite and providing resources to Wearable World to help make the e2e Conference happen at Jabil's Blue Sky Innovation Center in San Jose.)

Please join us for the event in person October 13 and 14 in the heart of Silicon Valley. And if you can’t make it—well, just keep reading ReadWrite, where we’re going to dive deeply into every aspect of the hardware innovation chain in the months to come.

Processed Ease

e2e is an integrated alternative to the common, disjointed approach in which entrepreneurs conduct each part of the product development process separately. They make the mistake of handing their product off to the next expert in line without effectively integrating best practices from each step.

Entrepreneurs and corporate innovators can avoid traps that make a product more difficult to manufacture and scale further down the line, by taking stock of as many challenges as possible from day one and continuing to revisit them and incorporate new information as the process unfolds. This helps them avoid expensive and time-consuming manufacturing delays, cost overruns, or embarrassing patches.

There are four steps involved in the e2e process of readying a product idea for successful full-scale production.

Design For Manufacturing
Value Engineering
Prototyping
Scaling

Design For Manufacturing

One of the biggest mistakes hardware startups make is ramping up production while they are still validating their design.

Many design houses worry that getting manufacturers involved in the initial design will confuse the process and stifle creativity. But if designers and manufacturers work together and provide feedback to each other throughout the design process, a stronger product will be created on a shorter timeline.

This approach helps entrepreneurs preempt problems encountered at the time of manufacture and scale. Rather than doing the CAD work and having a manufacturer point out issues raised by the design after the fact, this approach engages manufacturing experts from day one.

Say you have a molding issue. An industrial designer could devise a solution, but what if the solution affects your ability to source a key component from the manufacturer you had planned to use? Or what if that solution unexpectedly puts your bill of materials over budget?

It’s all about creating accountability from day one.

What to do: Engage manufacturing partners who have the talent and capabilities to provide valuable guidance in the design and prototyping process, and get them involved in design brainstorms. Some partners have research centers and advanced prototyping capabilities colocated in their manufacturing facilities. This way the manufacturer can build the first 500 units and address issues before attempting to scale.

Value Engineering

Once you start designing a product and considering manufacturing costs, very quickly the tradeoffs come. To balance the integrity of your design with a bill of materials that makes sense for your business goals you must get value engineers involved early in the process.

Value engineers look at use cases, anticipate costs, and offer solutions that balance efficiency with maintaining design integrity.

Hardware logistics decisions are largely driven by where you expect to sell your product. You should plan to scale it where it’s going to be sold, and to have designers who are familiar with the nuances of that culture. At scale, the effects of unexpected changes can add a great deal of cost, so it’s important to use tools to track data on everything from the cost of oil to the potential effects of a tsunami in the region.

What to do: Take time early on to determine who your target customer is and the price they’re willing to pay. And don’t forget that the customer isn’t Target or Amazon—it is the consumer who will use the product on a day-to-day basis. Then, consider options for lean assembly, packaging, and logistics. This reduces the number of cycles you have to run through to get your product to market and lets you focus on the next generation sooner.

Prototyping

When creating a prototype you must ask, “What problem am I solving and why this solution?” Without considering user experience and the real-world needs of potential customers, you risk creating a product that no one really needs. Google Glass is a great example of an objectively good product in search of a problem.

Creating prototypes for connected devices has opened up a Pandora’s box of new obstacles.

The Internet of Things is taking us into uncharted manufacturing territory. We are putting electronic components on plastic, 3D printing, and using conductive adhesives instead of the hot soldering process of traditional manufacturing—just to name a few.

With these increased demands and ever-present time constraints, it’s key to have access to a prototyping facility where manufacturing engineers and supply chain experts help finalize designs, find the best vendors and choose components to turn around prototypes in a matter of two to three days—without cutting corners.

Technical complexity can cause delays that may risk your product’s market success, which is why it’s critical to consider scaling when making a prototype. Some features or parts might make sense at the low-production prototype phase, but will you have the funding in place to produce them at scale? Will the materials be available long-term from qualified suppliers, so you can avoid hiccups when you go into volume production?

What to do: Have a dedicated, specialized team to do human-factor development, because in the world of connected devices, user interface and user experience is crucial. Get to know the majority of your use cases and build a prototype that addresses them.

Scaling

Though scaling comes after you’ve designed and built your product, it’s crucial to have the demands of mass production in mind throughout design, value engineering, and prototype building. If you’re building a product for, say, the Korean market, where will you source the parts, and what will that mean for shipping costs and time?

Consider that the size of your product can create issues in scaling. For example, an antenna can become an issue at smaller sizes. Even a decision that seems innocuous like shrinking your device can add a lot of time, cost and effort in scaling and bringing the product to market.

What to do: Try to colocate front-end design and back-end production within a unified team, in one place, if possible. This will reduce turnaround time on bill of materials validation, and will enable you to test the product, perform value analysis and supply-chain optimization, and design production-volume tooling for quick and seamless transfer to the production facility.

From Dreams To Market

Entrepreneurs and startups can enter this process at various stages. While some have an idea and are looking to find funding, others may already have backers, whether they be venture-capital firms or crowdfunding.

In either case, it’s crucial to find partners who understand the needs and requirements of bringing an IoT product to market. While sites like Kickstarter give people a chance to chase their product dreams, battle-tested partners, including the right investors, and a proven process give entrepreneurs a higher probability of turning these dreams into reality.

Crowdfunding proves a market for early adopters, but the money raised goes towards getting your initial orders out. How will you have the funds for a much larger, second run?

It’s absolutely critical to work with investors who are familiar with what it takes to source components, build a supply chain, control the costs of your bill of materials, and scale. This way you’re more likely to get the necessary time and funding to get it right, rather than rushing into ill-informed product decisions that produce a downward spiral of delays and disappointed customers.

The right partners, paired with a disciplined go-to-market process, not only help startups create the very best design, prototyping, manufacturing, and supply chain plans, but they can also lead them to the best investors.

While today’s hardware startups are born of inspiration and grit, they thrive on proven methods and carefully chosen partnerships. To learn more about where to seek advice and expertise on bringing a hardware product to market the right way, join us at the e2e Conference, October 13 and 14 at Jabil’s Blue Sky Innovation Center. Get your tickets now!

Photo by Todd Quackenbush

Why Amazon Kicked Out Apple TV And Chromecast

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 21:17:39 +0000

Both Apple and Google have television on their minds: The tech titans have updated their streaming devices, the Apple TV and Chromecast. But soon, neither will find a home on Amazon.com, where those devices had been selling like hotcakes.

According to Bloomberg, the retailer plans to effectively pull both devices off its digital shelves.

See also: Amazon's Power Play: Alexa Meets Fire TV, Plus A Slew Of New Devices

In a message sent out to vendors, Amazon cited the gadgets' lack of support for Amazon's Prime Video streaming service as the reason for their removal, Bloomberg reports.

Amazon doesn't appear to be favoring its own Fire TV set-top box—just its video service. Amazon will apparently still sell Roku streaming devices and Xbox and PlayStation consoles, which play Amazon videos.

But there could be other motivations that extend far beyond the living room.

TV's Just The Start

Last month, Amazon added Alexa voice controls to its Fire TV box. That update may offer additional context for the company's latest retail decision.

The Alexa voice technology is an integral part of Amazon’s smart speaker, which launched earlier this year as the Amazon Echo. The appliance wowed reviewers and early-adopting users. As far as smart technologies go, Alexa is pretty brainy.

Its voice features understand natural language, so users can speak casually to the cylindrical appliance, and it responds with the day's news, weather, traffic report, access to streaming services (including Amazon’s own, of course) and more.

That something “more” includes voice control over Belkin WeMo, Philips Hue, SmartThings, Insteon, and Wink smart home gadgets.

In other words, Alexa has become the intersection point for Amazon’s smart TV and smart home efforts. That’s a path that many expected Apple to take.

The Battle For The Living Room, Or The Whole House?

Apple's latest set-top box supports Siri voice functionality, so the iPhone maker could be laying down very similar groundwork.

See also: Apple TV Gets Voice, Touch, And Its Own Operating System, tvOS

Google has also been pursuing voice, TV and the smart home in a variety of ways, though it’s not yet clear how the company may connect those dots. It’s hard to imagine how the tiny Chromecast dongle could house a microphone, but the Google Cast technology it relies on also works for other devices.

Google's latest Chromecast

The product removal may be Amazon’s way of aiming a bazooka at a couple of major streaming hardware rivals, or it could be a first strike against its chief smart home competitors—before their efforts really crystallize. Or might be a combination of both.

Either way, it looks like the fight for the living room is only the beginning, as the battle for the whole home rages on.

Amazon was not immediately available for comment. We will update this post if the company responds.

Watch out for all things spooky in the Halloween version of Spot It!

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 21:01:39 +0000

Ghosts, witches and werewolves! Trick, treat and boo! This special edition of Blue Orange Games’ Spot It! is perfect for the days leading up to Halloween. Like the original Spot It!, the circular cards have several different pictures and words printed in bright colors and easy-to-read fonts. Also like the original, the fast-moving game comes with a booklet explaining five different ways to play and is packaged in a sturdy tin. This is a great addition to the game shelf for both fans and novices alike. Happy Halloween! – Joel Neff

Halloween Spot It!
by Blue Orange
Ages 7 and up, 2-8 players
$11 Buy a copy on Amazon

Parental Management

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 21:00:01 +0000

(Fowl Language/Brian Gordon)

Although the sibling wars and meltdowns seem to come out of nowhere, they're actually planned--sometimes days in advance. This is why it seems like the pointless battles happen at only the worst times and places. It's not by chance.

Stephen Colbert Asks ‘Big Questions With Even Bigger Stars’ With His Guest Tom Hanks

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 20:54:35 +0000

The Late Show host Stephen Colbert asks “Big Questions With Even Bigger Stars” with his guest Tom Hanks. The two men look up at the stars and ponder life’s big questions like what they would do with a time machine and what Santa Claus does in the summer.

‘Cool Dad’, A Rapidly Escalating Comedy Sketch About Parenting, Boundaries, and Bad Decisions

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 20:44:26 +0000

“Cool Dad” is a rapidly escalating comedy sketch by Lemonade Stand about parenting, boundaries, and bad decisions. The sketch stars Nick Skardarasy as the titular “Cool Dad” who repeatedly interrupts his daughter’s party with increasingly ridiculous attempts to prove how cool he is.

Essential Beer Life Hacks That Will Help Keep the Party Going

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 20:30:27 +0000

In their most recent video, Foodbeast shares eight essential beer life hacks that will help keep the party going. They demonstrate how to use a lighter as a bottle opener, use rubber bands to mark your beer bottle, make beer ice cubes, and more.

Lucy, An Intelligent Solar-Powered Mirror That Reflects Sunlight to the Same Spot All Day by Following the Sun

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 20:19:54 +0000

Lucy is an intelligent solar-powered robotic mirror that reflects sunlight to the same spot indoors or out by following the Sun and repositioning itself throughout the day. Lucy can provide a unique lighting solution for the home or office, even in places without power.

The device was developed by Diva Tommei, CEO of Solenica, who developed Lucy to combat seasonal affective disorder.

photo via Lucy

Thanks Shelby DeNike!

API Of The Week: The Dark Sky Forecast API

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 20:18:41 +0000

Guest author Kurt Collins is a developer evangelist for Built.io.

I fell in love in 2012. With an app. And I'm not ashamed to admit it.

I considered weather apps mere utilities, not something I should expend energy falling in love with. And then came Dark Sky by Forecast.io. The Dark Sky app is the perfect example of what an app should be. It does one job, and it does it well. It gives me extremely accurate predictions on when there's going to be precipitation. If you're not using it, then you're missing out.

When you see an app like Dark Sky, you have to wonder, how did they make that? The folks at Forecast.io have an answer for that, too: They've released the Dark Sky API, so anyone can put the same weather features into their apps.

Clear Skies For Developers

The Dark Sky API, like its namesake app, is simple and easy to use. You can register for a developer account with an email address and get a free API key. You can make 1,000 API calls per day. After that, you pay $0.0001 per call.

There are two main API endpoints:

https://api.forecast.io/forecast/APIKEY/LATITUDE,LONGITUDE

https://api.forecast.io/forecast/APIKEY/LATITUDE,LONGITUDE,TIME

With the first endpoint, all you have to do is make a call with the longitude and latitude of a given location. The API will return an hourly forecast (for the next 48 hours), a daily forecast (for 7 days), and a minute-by-minute forecast (for 1 hour, where available). With one simple API call you can have an up-to-the-minute forecast of the weather to use for whatever purpose you dream up. Imagine, for example, a travel app that detects the weather at your destination and, if it's raining, orders a car service to meet you at the airport.

The second endpoint is even more interesting, though. Using it, you can retrieve the weather as far as 60 years in the past or a forecast for up to 10 years in the future (where available). I obviously question the accuracy of a weather prediction 10 years in the future, but it sure is fun to play with. The last variable, TIME, is passed in either using Unix time or a formatted date/time string.

There are two important options you should know about when using this API. When using the TIME variable, you have the option of specifying timezones. The API has some sanity defaults and will automatically assume you're referring to the timezone of the location you've submitted.

Another important option is the capability to pass along a callback and return the API response as JSONP. JSONP allows you to make calls from Web browsers and return data from an API to JavaScript directly. JSONP is an end-run around the security policy most browsers have in place that states a script can only access data from other scripts and Web pages on the same domain.

Use this feature with caution as it involves taking some calculated risks with security. But it will make your life easier if you're just coding something quickly in JavaScript.

Good Weather For The Internet Of Things

There are certain types of data that are going to be fundamental in a world taken over by the Internet of Things. Weather data is one of those fundamentals. Your self-driving convertible car will need to predict the weather to close up the roof and roll up the windows before it starts raining—and also avoid streets that have a tendency to flood. Your connected thermostat will want to have some kind of weather feed in order to know what an optimal indoor temperature will be for that day. Your connected light bulbs should not only know when the sun rises and sets, but it should also know when it's cloudy and overcast outside.

Dark Sky has brought simplicity to the world of weather prediction. More importantly, it's brought granularity. The fact that they expose the weather forecast down to the minute with such simplicity is precisely what connected devices will need in the very near future.

Photo by betancourt

Editor's note: While Built.io is currently a sponsor of ReadWrite's Code section, Collins submitted this post independently through ReadWrite's established guest-post program. Editorial is separate from advertising.

Abused Pit Bull Without Ears or Teeth is Rescued, Becomes an Advocate for Her Breed

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 20:00:01 +0000

Nana, the adorable pit bull terrier pictured above, sadly suffered years of abuse by her former owners. Estimated to have given birth to as many as 15 litters of puppies, she was obviously viewed as a breeding tool and not much else. Nana's teeth were pulled and her ears were removed. The severing of her ears caused medical problems such as polyps and fungus. Nana is now deaf as a result of the necessary medical treatment. Eventually, the abusers dropped the dog off at an animal shelter; she was soon adopted by a selfless, compassionate woman named Stephanie Doris.

Once Doris came into Nana's life, the dog began to know love and tender care. Doris said in an interview with The Huffington Post,

"To this day, I cannot explain what sparked me to impulsively apply to foster her. What I do know, though, is that it was one of the best decisions I have made. Even though I will never understand why or how they could treat a dog like that, especially a dog as sweet, as innocent and as gentle as Nana, I am thankful they surrendered her. Otherwise, she would not be with me now. She has forgiven humans and, in a sense, I have forgiven, too."

See additional photos and read more about Nana's wonderful new life as a canine advocate for pit bull terriers everywhere on Facebook and Instagram.

Via The Huffington Post | Images: Facebook

Austin area magician reveals own trick

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 19:36:09 +0000

Outspoken Genii forum member Brad Henderson has this fascinating public video calling card. Brad reveals, via an "Explaination," the optical illusion behind his business card.

I find this curious as Brad apparently does not like it when others share interesting magical effects with the intent of driving interest in the art. I guess it is ok when it helps you book a gig?

If you are in the Austin area, we encourage you to see Brad perform! If his routine is half as passionate as his trolling, you are in for a great time!

Previously: The Genii Forums, where magicians keep magic secret in public

Moon Glass, A Ceramic Liquor Cup That Displays Different Phases of the Moon the More You Drink From It

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 19:34:50 +0000

The Seoul, South Korea-based design studio Tale Co., Ltd. has created the Moon Glass, a clever ceramic liquor glass that displays different phases of the moon as your drink from it. The glasses are available to purchase in sets of two small or large cups from their website.

images via Tale Co., Ltd.

via Japaaan Magazine, RocketNews24

1902 trading cards imagine the 'Women of the Future'

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 19:21:31 +0000

Way back in 1902, a French manufacturer released a set of trading cards designed by artist Albert Bergeret that imagined the "women of the future." The cards envisioned women stepping into roles that would have seemed fantastical to most ladies at the time: doctor, lawyer, politician, firefighter, even members of the military.

Although there's a pin-up quality to many of the images—they're showing an awful lot of arm, after all—there's something charming about this retrofuturistic attempt to expand the role of women in society, even if it was nothing but fantasy at the time. Indeed, fantasy and science fiction can often help us open our minds behind the limitations of the world we live in and imagine a better one instead. In the small and fashionable world of these cards, at least, women were given a more equal role in society, not to mention some spectacular hats.

Here are some of my favorites:

(Lawyer)

(Journalist)

(Master of Arms)

(General)

(Mayor)

(Firefighter)

Check out the full series of cards here.

13 reported killed in Oregon college shooting

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 19:03:19 +0000

At least 13 are reported dead at Umpqua Community College in southern Oregon after a gunman began shooting at about 10:30 a.m. Thursday. (more…)

Watch This Guy Combine Seemingly Random Syllables Into A Sweet Song

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 19:00:02 +0000

As a kid we're taught musical notes with a song about a needle pulling thread and a deer, a female deer, and these sing song syllables can be put together into a song that sounds good but doesn't really make much sense.

Hawaii-based Reggae musician Mike Love took the concept of stringing random syllables together and, with a little help from a sampler pedal, created something quite masterful- a song that sounds random at first but all comes together in the end.

(YouTube Link)

And in case you're wondering how the song looks broken down into syllables, here's the lyric sheet:

-Via Colossal

Hilarious Foreign Television Shows and Films Based On Popular Hollywood Movies

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 18:55:28 +0000

In a new video by Screen Rant, host Rob Flis takes a look at hilarious foreign television shows and films that were based on popular Hollywood movies. Flis digs up an Indonesian Lady Terminator film from 1989, a Japanese Supaidaman TV series from 1978, and more.

Fuerdai: Paris Hilton with Chinese characteristics

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 18:38:53 +0000

China's hereditary oligarchy is in its second generation, and the fuerdai -- rich kids born to rich kids -- are a national symbol for corruption and excess, splashing social media with evidence of their debauchery. (more…)

Best alien hoax ever

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 18:19:18 +0000

In 1958, this glowing extraterrestrial appeared on rural Michigan roads, freaking out drivers before vanishing without a trace. According to witnesses, the "little blue man" was just two feet tall, except when he was ten feet tall. And he "ran faster than any human."

After a police investigation began, Jerry Sprague, Don Weiss, and LeRoy Schultz, confessed to the prank. They had made the costume from long underwear, combat boots, a football helmet outfitted with flashing lights, and a sheet. They spray-painted the whole thing glow-in-the-dark blue, in homage to Betty Johnson's wonderful song "Little Blue Man." (Listen to it below!)

Police let the pranksters off with a warning.

(Hoaxes.org via Reddit)

https://youtu.be/hAbU6-Yuuy0

Apple removes Ifixit's repair manuals from App Store

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 18:03:16 +0000

Content-based App Store takedowns aren't just for drone killing anymore: Apple's also removed the Ifixit App, which offers you third-party manuals for fixing things you own, including your Apple products. (more…)

Custom Grills for Every Interest

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 18:00:01 +0000

Disc-It is a custom gas grill company in Albequerque, New Mexico. It makes the grilling experience very personalized by selling unique designs for every interest and speciality. The legs and base reflect individual design specs, and often the wok-shaped pans do, too. Each one is fueled by clean-burning propane.

-via Dude I Want That

The weird story behind Warhol's portrait of Barbie

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 17:50:14 +0000

In 1986, the year before his death, Andy Warhol painted a portrait of Barbie in the style of his famous paintings of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and so many other celebrities. But in Warhol's mind, it wasn't a painting of the doll but rather his dear friend BillyBoy*, a 23-year-old jewelry designer who had a collection of tens of thousands of Barbies. For an art exhibit, BillyBoy*'s dolls were dressed by famous fashion designers and he also designed two dolls for Mattel, "Le Nouveau Theatre De La Mode" and "Feelin' Groovy Barbie."

Warhol had asked to paint a portrait of BillyBoy*, who always declined, until one day he said, "Well if you really want to do my portrait, do a portrait of Barbie because Barbie, c'est moi." So Warhol did.

Last year, BillyBoy* sold his Barbie portrait at Christie's for more than $1 million. He's also turned his back on Barbie.

"I think Barbie is no longer touching on the zeitgeist of the moment," he told the BBC News. "If I had a daughter I would not give her Barbie dolls. I wouldn't want my child to be constantly obsessed with getting something, and that immense preoccupation with high-heeled shoes and clothes."

On the declining ebook reading experience

Jason Kottke — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 17:49:26 +0000

When reports came out last month about declining ebook sales, many reasons were offered up, from higher pricing to the resurgence of bookstores to more efficient distribution of paper books to increased competition from TV's continued renaissance, Facebook, Snapchat, and an embarrassment of #longread riches. What I didn't hear a whole lot about was how the experience of reading ebooks and paper books compared, particularly in regard to the Kindle's frustrating reading experience not living up to its promise. What if people are reading fewer ebooks because the user experience of ebook reading isn't great?

Luckily, Craig Mod has stepped into this gap with a piece asking why digital books have stopped evolving. As Mod notes, paper books still beat out digital ones in many ways and the industry (i.e. Amazon) hasn't made much progress in addressing them.

The object -- a dense, felled tree, wrapped in royal blue cloth -- requires two hands to hold. The inner volume swooshes from its slipcase. And then the thing opens like some blessed walking path into intricate endpages, heavystock half-titles, and multi-page die-cuts, shepherding you towards the table of contents. Behbehani utilitises all the qualities of print to create a procession. By the time you arrive at chapter one, you are entranced.

Contrast this with opening a Kindle book -- there is no procession, and often no cover. You are sometimes thrown into the first chapter, sometimes into the middle of the front matter. Wherein every step of opening The Conference of the Birds fills one with delight -- delight at what one is seeing and what one anticipates to come -- opening a Kindle book frustrates. Often, you have to swipe or tap back a dozen pages to be sure you haven't missed anything.

The Kindle is a book reading machine, but it's also a portable book store. ¹ Which is of great benefit to Amazon but also of some small benefit to readers...if I want to read, say, To Kill A Mockingbird right now, the Kindle would have it to me in less than a minute. But what if, instead, the Kindle was more of a book club than a store? Or a reading buddy? I bet something like that done well would encourage reading even more than instantaneous book delivery.

To me, Amazon seems exactly the wrong sort of company to make an ebook reader ² with a really great reading experience. They don't have the right culture and they don't have the design-oriented mindset. They're a low-margin business focused on products and customers, not books and readers. There's no one with any real influence at Amazon who is passionately advocating for the reader. Amazon is leaving an incredible opportunity on the table here, which is a real bummer for the millions of people who don't think of themselves as customers and turn to books for delight, escape, enrichment, transformation, and many other things. No wonder they're turning back to paper books, which have a 500-year track record for providing such experiences.

PS. Make sure you read Mod's whole piece...you don't want to miss the bit about future MacArthur Genius Bret Victor's magic bookshelf. <3

And it's a weird sort of store where you don't really own what you buy...it's really more of a long-term lease. Which would be fine...except that Amazon doesn't call it that.↩
And I still want an ereader that's great for more than just books. Which is now the iPad/iPhone I guess?↩

Tags: Amazon books Bret Victor business Craig Mod Kindle

Arse Elektronika San Francisco 2015: SHOOT YOUR WORKLOAD

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 17:44:40 +0000

The annual "Sex, work and tech" show comes back to San Francisco, Oct 2-4, at the Center for Sex and Culture, featuring "talks, performances, games, workshops, machines and systems." (more…)

Nest Weave Arrives To Connect The Smart Home (Dumb Appliances, Too!)

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 17:43:53 +0000

Google teased its smart home initiatives Weave and Brillo earlier this year at I/O, and now the tech giant's Nest division is pushing its own smart home standard out into the real world. Nest Weave, announced Thursday, is a protocol for Internet of Things gadgets that lets them communicate with Nest devices and each other, even without Wi-Fi.

It's actually been built into Nest products for several years, according to founder and head of engineering Matt Rogers. Battery power and device size can be pesky challenges for certain kinds of products, and being able to ditch Web access capabilities can make a big difference.

See also: Nest Weave Arrives To Connect The Smart Home (Dumb Appliances, Too!)

But perhaps the biggest benefit is that, with Nest Weave, appliances can communicate with, say, a Nest thermostat and other home gadgetry, even without an Internet connection.

"Nest Weave lets devices talk directly to each other and to Nest," said Rogers. "And because it’s reliable, compact and secure, it works great for all kinds of products—like a lightbulb that needs to turn on and off without any lag time, or a door lock that runs on battery power, or a security system that needs to work even if Wi-Fi goes down."

Nest says that developers and manufacturers will be able to incorporate Nest Weave into their devices from 2016.

Weaving The Nest

Weave lets any IoT device talk to a Nest gadget.

With Nest Weave, third-party devices can talk to the company's smart thermostat, smoke alarm and Nest Cam connected camera. It also allows "Dumb" devices without any Wi-Fi support to become part of Nest's "mesh network"—a hubless communications model that lets gadgets connect directly to each other.

Weave builds on its cloud API and its existing "Works with Nest" program. The ultimate aim is for smart home users to spend less time setting schedules manually—if a Nest Cam detects that no one's home, for example, it could turn off a smart light through Weave. According to Nest, 1 in 8 of its users already have some kind of Works with Nest device installed at home.

The local mesh network created by Weave is designed to be low latency, Nest says, so the devices can connect to each other quickly, without lag. They can also operate irrespective of where the home router is positioned.

Nest also announced a new camera API (Application Programming Interface), so developers can tap into the Nest Cam. The reason: to allow third-party devices to take advantage of the Nest Cam's motion and light sensing features.

That is, assuming developers are happy to adopt it while they're busy wiring support for Apple's HomeKit and Samsung's SmartThings into their products too. For startups looking to launch something on the crest of the Internet of Things wave, there are a growing number of "Works with..." programs to keep track of.

Devices that can talk to each other should mean more automation for consumers to take advantage of.

Nest is offering a sneak peek of one Weave-enabled product: A smart lock produced in partnership with Yale, due in 2016. It doesn't have Wi-Fi connectivity of its own, but it can piggyback on a Nest thermostat to get online and keep homeowners informed about what's happening. The lock is going to be part of a new Works with Nest store, which is "coming soon."

Nest Weave gives device makers the freedom to cut down on components and circuitry, as well as tighter integration and simpler automation with Nest products; at the same time Nest and Google get the opportunity to become the heart of millions of smart homes.

"Whether you want to make an app, hardware product or both, you can pick and choose whatever you need: An operating system, communication protocol, cloud services, user accounts, security and more," adds Rogers. "There’s a lot that goes into building a connected product, and we're here to help."

While Nest is a Google division now, it still operates pretty independently from the mother ship (though it did help out on some of its parent company's other smart home initiatives). How all of these pieces snap together, or whether they will, isn't entirely clear. But on its own, this looks like Nest's biggest play yet—and it's a comprehensive package. In other words, your move, Apple and Samsung.

Images courtesy of Nest

Newly disclosed Android bugs affect all devices

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 17:37:56 +0000

The newly released bugs are part of the Stagefright family of vulnerabilities, disclosed by Zimperium Zlabs. (more…)

San Francisco: Killer intimate shows at new music venue (Milo Green tonight!)

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 17:18:48 +0000

San Francisco's Swedish American Hall, a beautiful 1907 building on Market Street, has been totally renovated while maintaining its historic detail, and now our friends at Noise Pop are curating a marvelous lineup of intimate performances from some great indie and alt.music artists. Tonight is Milo Greene (video below), tomorrow is Widowspeak, Saturday is Villagers, and next week is a terrific show with The Mynabirds, The Dead Ships, and Bad Bad Hats. Lots more in the coming month as well, and I'm particularly stoked to see Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo on Friday, November 6!

Built in 1907, the Hall was designed by noted Swedish architect August Nordin, who designed over 300 buildings in San Francisco. This building has been used as a meeting place for many generations of Swedish Americans. After a year of renovations and a nomination to become a landmark by the city of San Francisco, the Swedish is back! Noise Pop will be selecting all programming at the Swedish in 2015 as the official curator of the venue. The bar and newly redesigned Café du Nord will be curated by The Bon Vivants of Trick Dog. The brand new street level restaurant Aatxe is programmed by the Ne Timeas Restaurant Group, of Central Kitchen & flour + water.

Swedish American Hall

https://youtu.be/zOoc3Dl5-GE

A Really Amusing Compilation of Some of the Most Memorable Things Tom Waits Said on Talk Shows

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 17:05:53 +0000

On the 30th anniversary of Tom Waits‘ seminal album “Raindogs“, the folks at Rolling Stone put together a really amusing compilation of the most memorable and brilliant things the performer has said over the course of his career on such talk shows as The Late Show with David Letterman, The Mike Douglas Show, Fernwood 2 Night and The Arsenio Hall Show.

images via Rolling Stone

1939 Electronic Speech Synthesizer

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 17:00:32 +0000

(YouTube link)

Introducing VODER (Voice Operation DEmonstratoR) from Bell Labs. From Wikipedia:

The Voder synthesized human speech by imitating the effects of the human vocal tract. The operator could select one of two basic sounds by using a wrist bar. A buzz tone generated by a relaxation oscillator produced the voiced vowels and nasal sounds, with the pitch controlled by a foot pedal. A hissing noise produced by a gas discharge tube created the sibilants (voiceless fricative sounds). These initial sounds were passed through a bank of 10 band pass filters that were selected by keys; their outputs were combined, amplified and fed to a loudspeaker. The filters were controlled by a set of keys and a foot pedal to convert the hisses and tones into vowels, consonants, and inflections. Additional special keys were provided to make the plosive sounds such as "p" or "d", and the affrictive sounds of the "j" in "jaw" and the "ch" in "cheese". This was a complex machine to operate. After months of practice, a trained operator could produce recognizable speech.

This device was demonstrated at the World’s Fair in New York in 1939 and at the Golden Gate International Exposition. Pretty amazing for the time, huh? -via Everlasting Blort

Mesmerizing slow motion beauty of tennis racket annihilating Jell-O

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:33:32 +0000

The Slow Mo Guys smash Jell-O with a tennis racket and the super slow motion footage is beautiful.

The Genetic Components That Determine Whether a Person Is an Optimist or a Pessimist

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:30:37 +0000

In a recent episode of AsapSCIENCE, co-creators Mitchell Moffit and Gregory Brown explain the genetic components that make some people optimists and some people pessimists, looking at the benefits and pitfalls of each.

An Animated Look at Various Reasons To Drink Coffee Every Day

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:23:40 +0000

In celebration of International Coffee Day today, animator and video editor Eva Hill of The Huffington Post created a fantastic animated short that takes a look at various reasons to drink coffee every day.

Feel free to drink all the coffee you want this National Coffee Day.

Young woman can't keep her hands off Katy Perry on stage

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:17:05 +0000

https://youtu.be/-Xqe-O5Vnqk

Katy Perry invited a KatyCat named Rayane to join her onstage in Rio, and the young woman couldn't help herself from squeezing, neck-kissing, and licking Katy, who handled the ecstasy-fueled gropiung with professional aplomb.

Art Garfunkel Joins ‘Black Simon & Garfunkel’ for an Acoustic Version of ‘I Can’t Feel My Face’

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:14:05 +0000

On last night’s episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, drummer Questlove and guitarist Captain” Kirk Douglas of “Black Simon & Garfunkel” were in the midst of performing an acoustic version of “Can’t Feel My Face” by The Weeknd, when they were joined by the real Art Garfunkel, who kindly lent his voice to the harmonies.

Five Basic Cable Sex Moves You Might Want To Try Out...Or Not

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:00:01 +0000

If basic cable movies have taught us anything about sex it's that the whole situation is either incredibly fantastic or incredibly awkward.

Things happen so quickly, with so many fast cuts your eyes can't seem to focus on one part of the body for long, that we are left wondering whether we should feel turned on or nauseous.

But some of these less-than-R-rated moves could be quite handy in real life, like a smash cut to the morning after when you're not enjoying the horrorshow going on in your bed, or leaving a bra on because support.

Take a peek at the 5 Super Hot Sex Moves From Basic Cable Shows, all of which were masterfully illustrated by Angelica Bamundo, and see if you learn any new moves! (Surprisingly SFW except for the "FX Guy Butt")

Margaret Cho and Bob Mould in email conversation

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:56:06 +0000

As part of California Sunday's "The Thread" series, I asked comedian/actress Margaret Cho and punk pioneer Bob Mould, who are old pals, to have an email conversation about whatever's on their mind. They talked about the changing face of San Francisco, marriage equality, and THC sex lube! From California Sunday:

From: Margaret Cho
To: Bob Mould
Hi Bob! Spending every major holiday together at the end of last year made me think that we’d continue into 2015 — but I realize I haven’t seen you at all! Let’s see, we did Thanksgiving and Christmas at your beautiful home in San Francisco — both occasions where I ate far more than I ever intended — then a fabulous New Year’s Eve show together in Chicago. It’s said that whatever you do on New Year’s Eve is what you’ll do for the entire year, and so I just assumed my year would include you, but it hasn’t!
I must say, I spent much more time with you in 2014, when our friend Jim Short made an animated film of Fred Armisen and me doing our best Bob Mould impressions and you giving your impressions of our impressions — and when we played “See a Little Light” in front of the Larkin Street Youth Center as part of my homeless outreach project #berobin, which celebrated Robin Williams, his philanthropy, and his love of street performance.
I didn’t see you in 2015, but I did see your band, Jason Narducy and Jon Wurster, whom I brazenly stole to back me for my new Showtime special, psyCHO. I had such an electric time performing with them at your tribute show at the Disney Concert Hall. Wasn’t that a crazy night?!!! All of us doing your songbook — Dave Grohl, Ryan Adams, The Hold Steady, No Age, and Britt Daniel — and I don’t know if you knew, but Neil Hamburger was also there to offer me emotional counsel because I was far too excited to sing “Your Favorite Thing” with Jason, Jon, and Grant-Lee Phillips. It’s the right song because you are my favorite rock star!
I hope everything is amazing, and I’d love to do Thanksgiving and Christmas again, but I’ll be on tour myself, all over the place — Honolulu to Warsaw! Perhaps New Year’s Eve?????
From: Bob Mould
To: Margaret Cho
Margaret! It’s been a while since we’ve been able to hang out! Yes, we certainly spent much more time together in 2014. I have the fondest memories of our holiday get-togethers. Christmas was a riot — many of my friends who were there still regale me with the stories you told. The most popular one was about a sensual lubricant that might have contained THC? I don’t think I was in the room when the story started, but I walked in for the end of it, which had something to do with analgesic qualities. I was also happy when you were reunited with an old friend (a new acquaintance of mine via my next-door neighbor). I guess that’s the way San Francisco used to be (and apparently still can be) — those random reunions that can’t be planned.
You and I have waxed nostalgic about “old” San Francisco, especially the punk rock days of the ’80s. I remember my first trip there in July/August 1981. I was a wild punk rock kid from Minnesota, touring around North America in a pimped-out van my late father drove out to me from my childhood home in northern New York State. My bandmates in Hüsker Dü and I spent two weeks camped out at Jello Biafra’s spacious apartment near Dolores Park. We lived on Biafra’s generosity and on food stamps that bought us lots of generic items at the Safeway on Market.
Fast-forward 34 years and things are so different in San Francisco. That van would look so out of place next to the gigantic, gleaming tech buses that pick up hordes of newly arrived tech workers in front of the Whole Foods that’s now across the street from that Safeway (which has actually been remodeled and feels a little suburban). All the clubs of that era (Mabuhay, Valencia Tool & Die, The Vats!!!) are long gone. You were there — what do you remember about those days? And what do you think of the incredible changes that are happening across the city?

The Thread: Bob Mould and Margaret Cho

Open Source: Billions Upon Billions Of Free

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:54:49 +0000

Just how much is all that free stuff worth?

That's the task the Linux Foundation set itself, releasing a new report that claims that the code it stewards is worth more than $5 billion. With projects ranging from Linux to Cloud Foundry to Xen, it's as impressive as it is plausible.

If the Linux Foundation projects add up to $5 billion, how much more would Apache Software Foundation projects—including Hadoop, Spark, Cassandra, and more—be worth?

See also: Big Data Depends On Big Community, Not Big Money

My guess? Even more.

Of course, the real value of software is not how much it would cost to replicate, but how much it transforms one's business. We talk about how software is eating the world. But that hostile metaphor isn't the right one for open-source software. It isn't consuming the world, leaving a void in its place. It's adding to the world, one line of code at a time.

It Costs A Bundle To Make Free Stuff

Estimating the financial value of code is tricky, with no perfect way of going about it. Still, the Linux Foundation's approach—count up the total lines of code, estimate how long it would take an average developer to write that code, and then approximate the value of her time to do so—is a reasonable one.

Using this approach, established by David Wheeler back in 2002, the report tallies up the following numbers:

The total lines of source code present today in Linux Foundation’s projects are 115,013,302;
The estimated, total amount of effort required to retrace the steps of collaborative development for these projects is 41,192.25 person years;
Put another way, it would take 1,356 developers 30 years to recreate the code bases present in Linux Foundation’s current projects.
The total economic value of this work is estimated to be more than $5 billion.

Despite the Linux Foundation's confusing name, the software the nonprofit oversees is much more than the popular Linux operting system. Current Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects include the AllSeen Alliance (Internet of Things), Cloud Foundry, Cloud Native Computing, Node.js Foundation, Open Container Project, R Consortium, and Xen Project, among many others.

Does Apache Have Linux Beat?

But if we want to start counting up projects, committers, and code, the Apache Software Foundation might actually have the Linux Foundation beat. With more than 300 projects; scads of developers writing oodles and oodles of code; and projects like OpenOffice, Hadoop, and more, Apache is a treasure trove of free and amazingly good code.

As for the volume of code, that's hard to pinpoint, since (so far as I can find), the ASF doesn't publish aggregate numbers.

The Linux Foundation's flagship Linux project has more than 20 million lines of code, while the Apache Software Foundation's Apache HTTP Server has only 1.7 million lines. Still, numerous code-heavy projects at the Apache Software Foundation would seem to favor it.

Not that it really matters.

The Freedom Not To Care

After all, when an organization determines to transform itself by embracing a new generation of data infrastructure like Apache Spark or Apache Storm, it really doesn't care how many lines of code are involved.

Ditto the business that determines to run Cloud Foundry on Linux, or the individual who chooses Android for her smartphone platform, or CERN uncovering the "God Particle" using MongoDB.

In no case is the person or organization in question thinking a millisecond about how much it would have cost to replicate the open-source software they're using. Instead they're just choosing the best software for a particular job. That software, increasingly, is open source.

Years ago, Peter Goldmacher, then a Wall Street analyst, separated three categories of winners in the Big Data gold rush. The biggest winners, he reasoned, would be those that harnessed data to create entirely new industries or business models: "[T]he dividing line between winners and losers in the business world over the next decade will hinge on a company’s ability to leverage data as an asset."

And given that all of the industry's top data technologies are open source, what Goldmacher was essentially arguing is that the biggest winners over the next decade will be those that learn to leverage open source software as an asset.

Not because it's free, but rather because it's awesome.

Police cars covered in bees

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:48:59 +0000

A big-rig containing millions of bees overturned on the highway, and the swarm promptly attached itself to the first responders. The officers decided to remain in their vehicles for the time being, according to reports. [KTLA via Arbroath]

This woman got mad that a restaurant doesn't serve dog meat so she read an angry script at steakhouse diners

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:48:47 +0000

The leader of this protest group walked into a restaurant in Toronto and asked the hapless restaurant hostess why "dog meat" wasn't on the menu. The flustered hostess didn't have an answer for her. The protestor then walked into the middle of the dining area and yelled to get the patrons' attention. (more…)

Increasingly Desperate Woman Attempts to Reason With a Wild Alaskan Black Bear Who Won’t Leave Her Kayak Alone

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:41:00 +0000

While on a solo kayak trip around Alaska, adventurer Mary Maley did her very best to try to reason with a wild black bear who took an interest in her Delta 15s Seakayak. Armed with pepper spray, the Melton loudly encouraged the bear to come towards her because she didn’t want the bear to “eat her kayak” or “break her things”. The bear just ignored her and continued on with the kayak, despite Melton’s escalating desperation and panic.

I had just carried my tent, food, and all my gear into the cabin to dry while I went on a 4 mile hike that begins just behind the cabin. I heard something outside as I ate my lunch, and well, I never got to go on that hike. This video is taken 5 minutes after the attack began, he continued to gnaw on it for another 5 or 10 after the video ends. Shortly after the bear left and I drug the kayak back to the cabin door step. Then I swam to the S/V anchored in the bay. They did not have their radio on and I feared I would be stranded! The German flagged S/v Caledonia took me and my things to Wrangell where I am trying to repair my kayak now.

via reddit

Bantha costume, for dogs

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:33:35 +0000

Oh, Nemo! My Great Pyrenees is going to look great! He'll be wearing this Bantha costume as we wander the entire .4 of a mile that is our neighborhood designated trick-or-treating run.

I wish there was a Tauntaun.

Rubies Costume Company Star Wars Bantha for Pets via Amazon

‘Imagination’, A Trippy Short Stop-Motion Film That Captures the Innocent Playfulness of Childhood

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:29:30 +0000

“Imagination” by PermaGrin is a wonderfully trippy stop-motion film that calls back to the childish world of innocent playfulness. Perfectly set against a cover of the classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory song “Pure Imagination“, the colors, textures and frenetic movement of the film seem capture a world that was somehow left the past.

As children, we viewed the world through the lenses of our imaginations. The carpet became lava, the shadows formed monsters, the family minivan was a spaceship. But the older we got, the more reality set in, and soon we forgot the magic our minds could create. We invite you to step back into your childhood and take a look through the lens once again..

Director Marc Donahue provided some lovely behind-the-scenes footage showing what went into the making of this film.

View post on imgur.com

via Visual News

How do you design 2-sided dice that aren't flat?

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:21:13 +0000

Here's the rule: design a 2-sided die that is not coin shaped. Many people have tried, with varying degrees of success. Core77 has a gallery of some attempts. Here are a few: (more…)

A Special Report from Breaking Cat News

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:00:16 +0000

The cats from Breaking Cat News (previously at Neatorama) explain how cats wind up in animal shelters, and why some of them don’t get adopted. To illustrate, they follow five different cats who become homeless for five different reasons. At least 95% of those who read the whole story will need a hankie before it’s over, so be warned before you begin. But these cats have happy endings. So many shelter cats don’t. -via Metafilter

If you find the comic overly disturbing, follow it up with a Halloween Breaking Cat News report.

20-Year-Old Compiles Daily Selfies Taken Since He Was 12-Years Old Into One Time-Lapse Video

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:00:09 +0000

20-year-old Hugo Cornellier has created an awesome time-lapse video made up of 8 years worth of daily selfies that Cornellier has taken of himself since he was 12.

I was taking selfies before it was mainstream… I take a photo of myself everyday from the age of 12 to the age of 20. An ongoing project.

Since all of you have been asking for an update for me for quite some time, here’s my selfie everyday project updated to September 2015! Yes, I still take the selfies everyday and will continue to do so forever.

via reddit

Theoretical "auto-brothel" attack on mechanics' computers could infect millions of cars

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 14:58:15 +0000

Companies like GM have engineered their cars so that it's a felony to make independent diagnostic tools for them, or to investigate the official diagnostic tools rented to mechanics in exchange for a promise to only buy GM's hyper-inflated replacement parts. (more…)

Nerdcore Ghostbusters rap video starring the Atlanta Ghostbusters

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 14:39:33 +0000

djBC writes, "Atlanta nerdcore rapper Tribe One teams up with producer and mashup artist dj BC for this Ghostbusters-inspired rap joint. The video was shot at Bootie Dragon Con and on location at an abandoned farm on the outskirts of Atlanta, and stars members of the Atlanta Ghostbusters cosplay group. If you want to add the song to your Halloween playlist, it's free to download."

Chunky Knits are getting more popular and look...

NOTCOT — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 14:39:02 +0000

Chunky Knits are getting more popular and look so cozy! Nice DIY for chunky knit wool seat pads by lebenslustiger.

(Want more? See NOTCOT.org and NOTCOT.com)

Blue Rodeo's anti-Tory anthem: Stealin' All My Dreams

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 14:33:30 +0000

The Canadian-as-maple-pie band's Stealin' All My Dreams is a catalog of all the horrors of the Harper regime, from stifling scientists to strip-mining the CBC to doubling down on tar-sand oil. The October elections are upon us, Canadians: get out there and vote, for those of us who've had our votes stolen by the Tories. (Thanks, David!)

22 Things You Shouldn't Say To Someone Who Doesn't Drink

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 14:30:01 +0000

It can be easy to forget that alcohol ruins lives when you're out drinking and having a good time, and the more drinks you've had the easier it is to act like an inconsiderate jerk towards those struggling with alcoholism.

Of course, if that struggling someone is hanging out in a bar or club then act as you will, but if your friends are staying sober at someone's house then you should show them you respect their sobriety.

Here are some of the dumbest things you can say to someone choosing to stay sober:

17. "Your not drinking makes it hard for me to relate to you." Try to get to know me, and I'm pretty sure you'd relate somewhere.

18. "You must have so much dirt on everyone, watching us sober." Of course, my favorite hobby is to collect blackmail and is the sole reason I don't drink. Actually, I'm not judging. Please stop judging me.

19. "You must be so against this stuff." Just because I don't want to have a drink doesn't means I'm against alcohol entirely and think it's the worst thing. It's wonderful for people who enjoy it. I just happen not to.

20. "I don't drink that much usually! Really!" You don't have to justify your drinking to me just because I'm not.

Read 22 Things You Should Never Say To Someone Who Doesn't Drink here

Foursquare To Make a Donation to Alley Cat Rescue With Every Swarm Check-In Made From Anywhere Around the World

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 14:25:41 +0000

Foursquare has launched its wonderful #EveryCheckInSavesAKitten campaign. Between October 1 and October 15, 2015, whenever anyone anywhere in the world checks in on Swarm, the company will make a donation to Alley Cat Rescue, an amazing agency that provides homeless and abandoned cats with veterinary care and adoption services. Users will also have an opportunity to unlock an official limited edition Grumpy Cat sticker.

Get ready to check in, because starting today #EveryCheckInSavesAKitten. http://t.co/ac3hKGlT5z pic.twitter.com/SCiXMmhu2N

— Swarm (@swarmapp) October 1, 2015

To help us save as many kittens as possible, we’ve partnered with everyone’s favorite cat celebrity, Grumpy Cat®! Turn that frown upside down by unlocking our limited edition Grumpy Cat® sticker. Show off your support and spread the word by sharing your check-ins to Twitter or Facebook using the hashtag #EveryCheckInSavesAKitten.

images via Swarm

France's plan to legalize mass surveillance will give it the power to spy on the world

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 14:22:18 +0000

After getting caught breaking its own laws with a mass surveillance program, the French government has introduced legislation that mirrors the NSA's rules, giving it the power to spy on all foreigners -- and any French people who happen to be swept up in the dragnet. (more…)

Hitler's drug habit wilder than widely known

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 14:16:04 +0000

I love reading about all the drugs Hitler was on and the implication that his insane medical treatments made him even crazier and nastier than he otherwise was. Andrea Maurer takes a deep dive into the "High Hitler" story and finds it to be even more disturbing than popularly understood. (more…)

Portable Pizza Pouch Lanyard Lets You Hang a Slice of Pizza Around Your Neck For Quick Access

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 14:08:42 +0000

Stupididiotic has created a brilliant Portable Pizza Pouch lanyard that is perfect for hanging a tasty slice of pizza around your neck, ready to eat at any given moment. It is available to purchase online.

No one should ever be without pizza. Sadly, (often tragically) pizza is not always available for immediate hand-to-mouth consumption. Prepare yourself. Keep and carry a backup slice with this specially designed Pizza Pouch. A durable zip-lock sealing neck-strap pie slice device. Always fresh and ready. BONUS: Just wearing this Pizza Pouch will instantly make you more popular and attractive. It’s a bold (and delicious) fashion statement. Portable pizza. The best invention since delivery.

images via Stupididiotic

via Odditymall, First We Feast, Neatorama

Haute Cuisine - You Can Really Taste The Freshness!

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 14:00:02 +0000

Haute Cuisine by Whitebison

When you live in a remote location, far away from prying eyes, it can be hard to source good meat and even harder to find anyone with knowledge of haute cuisine. But no dish is worth dealing with that madman Hannibal, because all who let him into their homes end up paying a heavy price in the end. Hannibal enjoys the finer things in life, and he knows how to make some exquisite meals, but if you're not careful his invitation to have you over for dinner will result in you becoming the entree!

Show the world you have top notch taste in TV shows with this Haute Cuisine t-shirt by Whitebison, it's one killer design that will make your fellow Hannibal fans drool with delight!

Visit Whitebison's Facebook fan page and official website, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more frighteningly good designs:


BSG	A Fistfull Of Feathers	Last Son	Escape From Zebes

View more designs by Whitebison | More TV T-shirts | New T-Shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Imagination: Stop-motion at its Finest

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 14:00:01 +0000

PermaGrin Films brings us a stop-motion fantasy that pulls you into a child’s magical imaginary world. The video is accompanied by the song “Pure Imagination” by Jordan Corey (originally sing by Gene Wilder in the movie Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory). Don’t let the video length discourage you, the sequence is only four minutes long. However, the credits are impressive, too.

(YouTube link)

They said it took a year and a half and “About 13,457 frames” to create the time-lapse. You can read more about the video at Fstoppers and see the behind-the-scenes video here. -Thanks, Roth Rind!

Tube-map labelled with one-bedroom flat rental rates

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 13:54:08 +0000

Since the crisis, the number of people renting in the UK has sharply increased, but the number of landlords has decreased, as a smaller and smaller number of richer and richer people control the destiny of more and more Britons. (more…)

Simon’s Cat Resorts to Frustratingly Clever Means In Order to Avoid Being Put Into His Carrier Crate

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 13:53:24 +0000

In “Box Clever“, the latest episode of Simon’s Cat, the stubborn feline resorts to clever and creative means in an effort to avoid being put into his carrier crate for his visit to the vet. This clip is just a small part of “Off to the Vet“, the larger film for which creator Simon Toland successfully raised funds through Indiegogo.

‘Box Clever’ is a film that Simon has wanted to make for a long time. During the development of the film’s story, the team thought the theme of a trip to the vets could be explored beyond the usual 1 to 2 minute YouTube films we make, and saw it as the perfect opportunity to tell a longer narrative – out of which the idea for our Indiegogo crowdfunded short film ‘Off to the Vet’ was born. ‘Box Clever’ features in ‘Off to the Vet’ as just a small part of the overall story. We decided to release ‘Box Clever’ in black and white as it works as a stand alone film, and a small teaser for non funders. : )”

Terrible pickup lines from around the world

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 13:53:01 +0000

"Is your father a terrorist? Because you are the bomb."

Guys, just stop. Stop. [via Digg]

Eternal September and the broadening of horizons

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 13:47:37 +0000

"Eternal September" refers to the Internet as it has been since 1993, when AOL began providing access to USENET. The flood of newbies made the newsgroups feel like the first month of school—but this time, the flood never ceased. Though USENET is a thing of the past, Jason Koebler remembers what it felt like to be a member of a group that saw itself as a deserving incumbent elite, but wasn't really any of those things.

"My memories of early 90s Usenet are of a vibrant, enlightened world of serious discourse. But I was a confused arrogant geek in my early 20s, so that's mostly heavy rose-tinting and confirmation bias," Fischer said. "When you're deeply immersed in an elitist clique, it often feels like you're in an open welcoming community. From your perspective, everything's great."
"People look back on it like it was some kind of CyberAthens," he added.
It wasn’t, of course.

The same techniques used to exclude and assimilate outsiders are still in use. Now, as then, they're failing under the sheer weight of numbers.

Nuanced profile of the Oklahoma County where "no one believes in climate change"

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 13:38:58 +0000

Oklahoma native John Sutter visited Woodward County, Oklahoma. At first, he could find no one who'd admit to believing in anthropogenic climate change, not even the headmaster of the local academy, who paid out of his own money to erect a statue of a little girl on a stegosaurus' back with a plaque that read, “A dinosaur like this roamed the Earth 5,000 years ago.” (more…)

Qoopy: A Luxury Day Care for Chickens in San Francisco, Brooklyn, and Portland

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 13:30:01 +0000

It's almost certainly a hoax because the photos are lifted from other sites and no one would actually do this, right?

Well, maybe. While you work at the neighborhood artisanal mayonnaise shop, you need someone to take care of your chickens. Without mental and social stimulation, a pet chicken can develop an anxiety disorder.

Qoopy, an alleged business with facilities in Portland (Oregon), San Francisco, and Brooklyn--where pet chickens are thick on the ground--offers professionally staffed day care options with convenient drop off and pick up times. You never have to miss another brunch.

The application form seems a bit suspicious.

I might have fallen for it, except that Qoopy doesn't have an office in Austin. A real chicken day care business would never consider missing that opportunity.

-via Laughing Squid

A Look At Some Of The Most Complex International Borders In The World

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 13:00:01 +0000

Most borders simply didn't exist before mankind claimed the land for their own, drawing lines to divide up and control sections of the earth, so it's not surprising that many of man's borders are unnecessarily complicated.

(YouTube Link)

Borders create enclaves when a country is surrounded by another country, they create enmity when armed guards patrol the border, and they ultimately create confusion when people can't figure out in which country their feet lie.

(YouTube Link)

WonderWhy has created a two part video series that explores the wild and wacky world of complex international borders, it's enough to make you want to declare a treaty just so you don't have to figure it all out!

-Via Curiosity

Popeye and the Great Spinach Myth

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 12:00:01 +0000

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.

Everyone knows Popeye the sailor. And everyone knows his secret. Whenever the cartoon sailor is on the verge of a fight, he squeezes open a can of spinach, pours the greens down his throat, and uses his muscles to pummel his opponent (almost inevitably fellow sailor Bluto, his arch-enemy.)

As an interesting sidebar, in the classic Popeye animated cartoons, it wasn't always Popeye who eats the spinach. In one Popeye cartoon, he actually forces the spinach down Bluto's throat, so Bluto will work him over and he'll get sympathy from his dream girl, Olive Oyl.

Even Olive Oyl eats her spinach in one rare Popeye cartoon. A Mae West-like competitor is flirting a little too intimately with Popeye in a gym and Olive gets fed up, downs some spinach, and proceeds to beat the crap out of her competition.

Few people know that the U.S. government is directly responsible for Popeye's dependence on the canned green vegetable.

In the 1930's, America was mired in the Great Depression. The U.S. government was looking for a way to promote iron-rich spinach as a meat substitute. To help spread the word, they decided to hire one of America's favorite celebrities, Popeye the Sailor Man.

It was a smart plan. And it worked like a charm.

In all the Popeye comic strips up to that point, Popeye's superhuman strength was never explained. But with the government's campaign in place, Popeye was suddenly more than willing to share the secret of his strength. Sure enough, soon after Popeye took up spinach, American sales of the mighty vegetable increased.

Spinach sales skyrocketed by a full one-third. Even more amazingly, children actually rated spinach as their third favorite food, right after turkey and ice cream.

(In those years, I wonder if spinach consumption was skewed toward male children, as opposed to little girls? I mean, okay, boys would be encouraged to eat their spinach to be strong and tough like Popeye, but what would have been the incentive for a young girl to eat her spinach?)

But it wasn't just spinach the government was endorsing. They were also pushing the merits of canned foods. U.S. officials wanted Americans to know that cans were the perfect way to stock up on emergency rations.

While the one-eyed sailor should be applauded for persuading America to eat its leafy green veggies, he did mislead people a bit.

The government's enthusiasm for spinach was almost entirely based on the calculations of a German scientist named Emil von Wolf (sometimes spelled “Wolff"). Wolf had discovered, in 1870, that spinach contains iron. But when calculating his results, wolf misplaced a decimal point. This mistake thereby made it "official" that spinach contains 10 times more iron than it actually does.

Wolf's error in calculating was not to be discovered for several decades. But by then, everyone was downing their spinach to be as tough and strong as Popeye. In the meantime, the "spinach is richer in iron" myth had firmly taken hold, taking on the status of an urban legend. The myth persists to this day.

One last point: although spinach's iron content has been mistakenly inflated, the vegetable is still something good to consume, being rich in both vitamins and minerals.

(YouTube link)

[Ed note: Spinach gives you not only super strength, but apparently musical ability, too!]

JPK releases his latest print, "Katatsumuri",...

jonpaulkaiser — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 11:10:03 +0000

JPK releases his latest print, "Katatsumuri", an edition of 30 on 380gsm recycled pulp paper with a lovely and subtle iridescent finish.

(Want more? See NOTCOT.org and NOTCOT.com)

What Boyfriends Are For

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 11:00:01 +0000

A man is like a multi-tool. He's got several useful functions, as well as a fish scaler. Sarah C. Andersen puts her multi-tool boyfriend to work for everyday household tasks.

My wife most often uses the Be Tall For Me function, but I also kill bugs, open jars, and drive Phillips screws. She's never asked me to scale fish, but I'll be ready immediately if she does.

-via Tastefully Offensive

“A Charlie Brown Christmas” Stamps for Peanuts’ 65th Anniversary

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 10:00:01 +0000

On October 2, 1950, Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip Peanuts debuted in seven newspapers. October is also National Stamp Collecting Month. To celebrate the 65th anniversary of Peanuts, the U.S. Postal Service is releasing a new set of Peanuts stamps today, featuring ten scenes from the TV special “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” The TV show first aired 50 years ago, in December of 1965.

The stamps are “forever stamps,” meaning they are sold at the current rate for a first-class letter and will always be good for mailing a one-ounce letter, even when rates go up. They will be formally introduced at a ceremony this morning at the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California. You can order the stamps through the USPS website or, if you’re lucky, at your local Post Office. Stamp collectors can also purchase First Day Covers with either black or multicolor postmarks, press sheets, and framed art.

(images ©2015 USPS)

9 Ways to Repurpose Old Pianos

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 09:00:32 +0000

Is your piano worn out? Or do you just not know how to play? If that old piano isn't serving any useful purpose, you can give it a new one! Home Crux shows you 9 ways to repurpose old pianos. This upright was turned into a handsome bar with a wine rack, liquor cabinet, glasses, and LED interior lighting. When closed, it looks like any other piano.

The Raccoon and the Breathalyzer

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 08:00:17 +0000

This report from last Saturday has people laughing out loud across the country. You have to ask why the raccoon didn’t tear the guy up when he first caught him. Well, he probably did, but the guy was drunk, so that part didn’t get mentioned in the report.

The sad part of the story is that it’s not true. The watermark logo is JTTOTS, which designates military humor. Yet enough people believed it to make the debunking itself worth a news story. People wanted this to be true because it paints such a funny picture. Expect to see the vignette incorporated into some movie screenplay before a year passes. -via reddit

How to Burn a Candle Underwater

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 07:00:17 +0000

(Video Link)

Dave Hax makes helpful videos that illustrate science experiments, such as how to get an egg inside a bottle, and essential interpersonal skills, such as how to steal pizza without getting caught.

For this trick, Hax shows how to burn a candle underwater. Yes, really! All you need is a bowl of water, a candle, and a lighter. When properly arranged, the candle wick will continue to burn even when it's below the level of the surface of the water.

-via Laughing Squid

Young Punks In London Interviewed Five Years After "Anarchy In The U.K."

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 06:00:01 +0000

When you're young and obsessed with the punk rock subculture you can't help but believe you'll be in to the music, the spiky hair and the piercings for the rest of your life.

But being punk is something most people outgrow, and most punks trade in their mohawks and piercings for something more mundane after a while, remembering what it felt like to let your rebellious side fly in the face of convention.

Photographer Virginia Turbett was asked to interview young punks in London for The Face Magazine back in 1981, five years after the Sex Pistols song "Anarchy In The U.K." was released, which is often seen as the beginning of the punk rock subculture.

Virginia asks the young and dangerous about their favorite bands, when they started dressing punk and whether they'll be punks for life, and their answers were surprisingly unsnotty for a bunch of teen punks. I guess their mums raised them right!

Read the entire two-page spread from The Face here

-Via Dangerous Minds

Walking The Dead - Apocalyptic Peanuts

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 05:00:02 +0000

Walking The Dead by Ed Harrington

The Lucy Van Pelt that everyone knew, and Charlie Brown hated, died what felt like a decade ago, and now there was nothing left of her old self but the frown on her face and the roundness of her feet. She'd changed her name to Michonne because it sounded cooler than Lucy, and after a few years battling the walking dead on her own she actually became as badass as her name. The only problem was she didn't know who she could trust among the living, and she was growing tired of hearing zombie Chuck and Linus try to talk without a lower jaw...

Pick up this Walking The Dead t-shirt by Ed Harrington and it'll arrive just in time for Halloween, or just in time for the return of your favorite zombie themed TV show!

Visit Ed Harrington's Instagram, official website and Tumblr, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more frightfully good designs:


Lando-Man!	Nightmare On The Bookcase Aisle	Restroom For The Recently Deceased	Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse

View more designs by Ed Harrington | More TV T-Shirts | New T-Shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!