Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Mission: Impossible - Fallout Q&A - Christopher McQuarrie

Great podcast about the making of the movie.

Ten funny tweets





Patriot on Amazon Prime is really good

"To prevent Iran from going nuclear, intelligence officer John Tavner must forgo all safety nets and assume a perilous 'on-official cover' -- that of a mid-level employee at a Midwestern industrial piping firm."

(Think spy thriller written by Elmore Leonard.)

Monday, July 30, 2018

"Russian Jamming Poses a Growing Threat to U.S. Troops in Syria"

"it’s allowing U.S. troops a rare opportunity to experience Russian technology in the battlefield and figure out how to defend against it."

"This Japanese Company Believes That Renting Space on Armpits Is the Next Great Ad Frontier"

Not the Onion?:
Arms go up to hold on to a strap and, BOOM, you’re staring at an ad. In a woman’s armpit. You’re noticing advertising now, aren’t you?

...

Wakino Ad Company (“Waki” is Japanese for “armpit”) is relatively new and it’s unclear how well stickers placed on armpits will be received or even revealed in the first place.

Ten funny tweets



















"The new British foreign secretary didn’t exactly make the best impression upon his first official visit to China recently, referring to his Chinese wife as Japanese"

"After confusing his own wife’s ethnicity, Hunt went on to boast about his familial connections to China"

"Architects were asked to design appealing homeless shelters on a $1-million budget. Here's what they came up with"

LAT:
The opposition highlights the importance of good design up front, De Briere said.

“I’m not saying you wouldn’t still have some community concerns about having temporary homes built there,” she said, pointing to the renderings on display in the institute’s office. “But if they had seen something that was more like some of these images, I think you would have a more positive reaction.”

"India on Monday effectively stripped four million people in Assam of citizenship, sparking fears of mass deportations of Muslims"

"A new draft register of citizens includes only those able to prove they were in Assam before 1971"

Win the contest, get your resume on the side of a racecar

Sunday, July 29, 2018

Micro horror anthology



Creepy detail in "Shutter Island"

"The vest vending machine at San Francisco's airport is getting mocked, but it rings up $10,000 in sales every month"

"At nearly $50 a pop, that means the vending machine sells about 200 vests per month."

Ten funny tweets






















Saturday, July 28, 2018

"On a summit above Beverly Hills, a sweeping 157-acre property touted as the city’s finest undeveloped parcel is hitting the market with [a $1 billion] asking price"

LAT:
The mountaintop was once owned by a sister of the late shah of Iran, the Princess Shams Pahlavi, who had planned to build a lavish palace there.

The property was later acquired by talk show host-turned-TV-producer Merv Griffin, who commissioned prominent designer Waldo Fernandez to create a marble-and-limestone mansion. It was never built.

...

After falling into financial trouble, Griffin sold the mountaintop for more than $8 million in 1997 to Mark Hughes, the late founder of Herbalife

Polaroid stripe


The Pink Panther of Wakanda

Ghanian Dune poster


"And just like that, the wolverine makes like a snowball, and rolls off into the woods"


Ten funny tweets





















Friday, July 27, 2018

"I found the most dismal No Man's Sky planet where absolutely no happiness is allowed"

PCGamer:
I decide to feed one of the little crab critters scuttling around just to give something on this planet a little happiness. The critter eats and the smiley face icon appears. Less than a second later he's mauled to death by another creature

...

I climb out of the sea and pause before getting in my ship, admiring the view of the ringed paradise planet above.

Clouds immediately roll in and block it from view.

"Don't eat campfire colorants, even if they look like Pop Rocks"

Star Tribune:
But confusing packaging has led some to open the packets and swallow the contents instead of throwing them into the fire

...

products such as Mystical Fire and Magical Flames

...

Olives said the black packaging and bright powder inside look very similar to Pop Rocks candy.

Vietnamese gangs in Germany; Augmented reality version of "The Ring"; Lost baggage found







"How neglected archives lead to propaganda"

CJR:
[A CBS television segment and] headline on the station’s website [stated]: “ICE Investigators Serve Human Trafficking Warrant In West Oakland Neighborhood.

...

But the protesters actually proved to be correct. The East Bay Express reported a month later that Oakland police chief Anne Kirkpatrick had made false statements about the raid. The operation was not part of a “human trafficking” investigation; in fact, the lone person charged was “facing immigration charges and could be deported.”

...

[The CBS affiliate did not post] an update to their original story.

...

Nearly a year later, a flurry of posts linking to the original KPIX segment appeared on right-wing websites. The Federalist headlined their post “WATCH: Neighbors Protest ICE As It Breaks Up Child Sex Trafficking Ring,” while National Review tweaked theirs to “Watch: Protesters Blast ICE as Agents Act on Federal Child Trafficking Warrant.” The Daily Wire and InfoWars ran similar posts. Donald Trump, Jr. and Katrina Pierson, senior advisor for President Trump, shared The Federalist post on social media; on July 8, President Trump retweeted Pierson’s tweet to his 53.2 million followers.

Ferrari racing's mourning livery





"The Ordinary License Plate’s Days May Be Numbered"

NYT:
The screen can display anything, making it easy to switch designs if an owner wants to buy a vanity plate. Amber Alerts can be flashed on the plate; if the vehicle is stolen, the plate can be changed to display that fact.

When the vehicle is parked, businesses can display advertisements on the plate, even targeting a vehicle’s particular location because the plate is connected to GPS.

...

Reviver has permission to sell the plates in California as part of a pilot program.

...

As part of the program, the City of Sacramento has already affixed digital plates to 24 of its Chevy Bolts and will display various messages on them.

Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™ by Rebecca Roanhorse is really good

Read it here. Also available as a podcast read by LeVar Burton.

"Iran’s Wolf Wall, Second-longest in the World, is Still Shrouded in Mystery"

Discover:
The ancient name for this place was Gorgan (گرگان), meaning “land of wolves”, and wild wolves can still be found here

...

Across the plain stretches a mighty border wall, surpassed in size and scale only by the Great Wall of China. It’s known as the Wall of Gorgan, and unlike its Chinese counterpart, much of its construction remains an unsolved mystery to this day

...

creating an immense mobile brick-making industry to produce the millions of fired mud bricks that make up the wall. Along its whole length, archaeologists have found the remains of temporary kilns

...

“No ancient textual source refers to the Wall

Monument to victim's of an explosion

Picard in one of Barclay's holodeck fantasies, perhaps

Ten funny tweets





















"L.A. County sheriff announces inquiry into secret societies of deputies and their matching tattoos"

"McDonnell’s announcement at a meeting of the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission comes two weeks after allegations surfaced that as many as 20 deputies at the Compton Station have matching tattoos featuring a skeleton holding a rifle."

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

"After Last Year's Hurricanes, Caribbean Lizards Are Better at Holding"

Atlantic:
Donihue and his team realized that they had a rare chance to see how natural disasters change the evolutionary fate of a group of animals. After all, they had been the last to observe the anoles before the hurricanes struck. So in October, they flew back to the islands.

...

“To be honest, given how catastrophic hurricanes are, I thought it was plausible that survival would be random—that there wouldn’t be an advantage that would help [the lizards] survive,” he says. But when he compared the survivors’ measurements with those of the pre-hurricane population, he realized he was wrong.

Six lucky winners will get an infinity stone from Mondo

"Home DNA test results from the 5 million customers of 23andMe will now be used by drug giant GlaxoSmithKline to design new drugs"

NBC:
One of the big obstacles to genetics research is getting enough people to donate their DNA and paying to sequence it. The 23andMe database delivers a huge number of customers who have already consented and whose DNA has already been partly sequenced.

Gorilla Channel update

NYT:
He raged at his staff for violating a rule that the White House entourage should begin each trip tuned to Fox — his preferred network over what he considers the “fake news” CNN — and caused “a bit of a stir” aboard Air Force One, according to an email obtained by The New York Times. The email, an internal exchange between officials in the White House Military Office and the White House Communications Agency last Thursday, also called for the ordering of two additional televisions to support Beam, a TiVo-like streaming device, to make sure the president and first lady could both watch TV in their separate hotel rooms when they travel.

"Judges In California And South Carolina Order Carriers To Brick Prison Inmates’ Cellphones"

CBS:
California has since installed nearly 1,000 sophisticated metal detectors, scanners and secret security cameras in prisons to detect and deter the smuggling of cellphones and other contraband like drugs. That effort was paid for by Virginia-based Global Tel-Link, the nation’s largest prison phone company, from the projected $17 million it receives each year from California inmates and their families who use landlines to make phone calls that are monitored for security reasons.

Ten funny tweets





















Gothic Ark; Cave suite; Glitched car

Was finally able to get some decent pics and video of “Leviathan” Ark of the Apocalypse #15 in my Gothic Times Series..Made this piece a little over 4 yrs ago for a good mate taking roughly 14 months and an unknown amount of hours..sorta lost track..Was with out a doubt the most daunting yet rewarding piece I’ve made thus far🤙 She stands 8ft on a custom made table @heritage_harvest_tables 7.5ft in length and 2.5ft wide..On board you have the motliest band of savages to have ever sailed the high seas👊 For detailed pics.. vids and more sculptures you can visit my portfolio @shallowgravestudios Wishin you all the best..Have a great weekend✌️Stay hungry stay creative... @sullenclothing #leviathan #arkoftheapocalypse #assemblageart #sculpture #gothictimes #timepiece #skulls #sullenclothing #togetherwerise #art_motive #art_daily #arts_help #artdiscover #arts_gate #art_dailydose #art_collective #art_supernova @peacockpromo
A post shared by Jason Stieva (@jasonstieva) on


A post shared by Jason Stieva (@jasonstieva) on









Wargaming miniatures gallery























*Buy Avengers vs. Predator miniatures at Amazon.

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Celebrating a weed; Husk; Skylight

A post shared by Michael Pederson (@miguelmarquezoutside) on









*Buy SDCC Flash Gordon badges at ebay.

"Danny Green Says He Played with Groin Injury, Tear Undetected by Spurs"

BR:
Green acknowledged his agent suggested he get a second opinion right away, but the guard trusted the San Antonio Spurs' medical staff, citing how well they had treated him in the past. And even with this latest development, he made it clear team doctors did a "great job" and "did everything they could."

However, he wishes in retrospect he had gone to see a specialist, who perhaps could have been more familiar with the injury or seen something different. And this situation is why, as Green said on the podcast, nobody should blame Kawhi Leonard for seeking a second opinion on his quad injury.

Ten funny tweets



















Goodie bags given to some NFL players


Monday, July 23, 2018

Watch Dogs NPCs hate these stairs; Psychological warfare in Rainbow Six; Christopher Walken in a 90's FMV






Wargaming Miniatures: Space Marines Gallery



"first charter school executive elected to the governing board of the nation’s second-largest school system . . . pleads guilty to conspiracy and resigns"

LAT:
He became board president as a result of a first-ever majority elected with substantial financial support from charter school backers.

...

But the campaign finance problems surfaced within months of his becoming board president. Rodriguez had known about the investigation for as long as two years but had kept the matter secret from his board colleagues, according to other school board members.

"Sounds Like Everyone Should Lay Off That Cubs Fan Who 'Stole' A Baseball From A Kid"

Deadspin:
Sunday outrage gives way to Monday fact-checking. If you were one of the people who . . . got very angry at a short video clip appearing to show an adult Cubs fan intercepting a ball meant for a child, you can stand down. The man, it now appears, is a good guy who does not deserve this at all, and indeed gave away every ball he got—including, earlier, one to that very same child.

Sunday, July 22, 2018

From Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon

(Excerpt found here):
To those Army fuckheads, [the decision not to deliver the declaration of war until after the Pearl Harbor attack] is nothing -- just a typo, happens all the time. Isoroku Yamamoto has given up on trying to make them understand that the Americans are grudge-holders on a level that is inconceivable to the Nipponese, who learn to swallow their pride before they learn to swallow solid food. Even if he could get Tojo and his mob of shabby, ignorant thugs to comprehend how pissed off the Americans are, they'd laugh it off. What're they going to do about it? Throw a pie in your face, like the Three Stooges? Ha, ha, ha! Pass the sake and bring me another comfort girl!

Isoroku Yamamoto spent a lot of time playing poker with Yanks during his years in the States, smoking like a chimney to deaden the scent of their appalling aftershave. The Yanks are laughably rude and uncultured, of course; this hardly constitutes a sharp observation. Yamamoto, by contrast, attained some genuine insight as a side-effect of being robbed blind by Yanks at the poker table, realizing that the big freckled louts could be dreadfully cunning. Crude and stupid would be okay -- perfectly understandable, in fact.

But crude and clever is intolerable; this is what makes those red headed ape men extra double super loathsome. Yamamoto is still trying to drill the notion into the heads of his [Army] partners in the big Nipponese scheme to conquer everything between Karachi and Denver.... Come on guys, Yamamoto keeps telling them, the world is not just a big Nanjing. But they don't get it. If Yamamoto were running things, he'd make a rule: each Army officer would have to take some time out from bayoneting Neolithic savages in the jungle, go out on the wide Pacific in a ship, and swap 16-inch shells with an American task force for a while. Then maybe, they'd understand they're in a real scrap here.

This is what Yamamoto thinks about, shortly before sunrise, as he clambers onto his Mitsubishi G4M bomber in Rabaul, the scabbard of his sword whacking against the frame of the narrow door. The Yanks call this type of plane "Betty," an effeminatizing gesture that really irks him. Then again, the Yanks name even their own planes after women, and paint naked ladies on their sacred instruments of war! If they had samurai swords, Americans would probably decorate the blades with nail polish....

They are approaching the Imperial Navy airbase at Bougainville, right on schedule, at 9:35. A shadow passes overhead and Yamamoto glances up to see the silhouette of an escort, way out of position, dangerously close to them. Who is that idiot? Then the green island and the blue ocean rotate into view as his pilot puts the Betty into a power dive....

They enter the jungle in level flight, and Yamamoto is astonished how far they go before hitting anything big. Then the plane is bludgeoned wide open by mahogany trunks, like baseball bats striking a wounded sparrow, and he knows it's over.... As his seat tears loose from the broken dome and launches into space, he grips his sword, unwilling to disgrace himself by dropping his sacred weapon, blessed by the emepror, even in this last instant of his life....

He realizes something: The Americans must have done the impossible: broken all of their codes. That explains Midway, it explains the Bismarck Sea, Hollandia, everything. It especially explains why Yamamoto -- who ought to be sipping green tea and practicing calligraphy in a misty garden -- is, in point of fact, on fire and hurtling through the jungle at a hundred miles per hour in a chair, closely pursued by tons of flaming junk. He must get word out! The codes must all be changed! This is what he is thinking when he flies head-on into a hundred-foot-tall Octomelis sumatrana.

Maybe Johnny Manziel will get to play





The Top Gun move



Here's Quora on whether the move would work in real life dogfighting.