Tuesday, March 31, 2015
26 Things We Learned From David Fincher’s ‘Gone Girl’ Commentary
For example:
Emily Ratajkowski was cast specifically to divide audiences.
“I liked the idea of introducing Andie as this kind of werewolf that comes in the back door and just mauls him”
Monday, March 30, 2015
"2 Federal Agents in Silk Road Case Face Fraud Charges"
NYT:
Two former federal agents (DEA, Secret Service) are expected to be arrested on Monday on charges of stealing money while working undercover on an investigation into Silk Road, the once-thriving black market website for drug dealing, a document shows.
...
“stole and converted to his own personal use a sizable amount of Bitcoins,”
DEA/USSS lesson via #bitcoin : Your agents probably steal cash all the time and this is the 1st time you had a chance of catching them.
— Alan Silbert (@alansilbert) March 30, 2015
Sunday, March 29, 2015
WWE NXT wrestler Finn Balor's Venom bodypaint
Balor without the paint:
WWE was impressed with Emily Anderson's comic book bodypaints, and asked her to paint him.
The WWE is selling a tee:
Ronda Rousey joins The Rock vs. The McMahons
Bonus:
You know it's #WrestleMania when @TheRock takes a picture of @RondaRousey @WWEAJLee and @RealPaigeWWE backstage! pic.twitter.com/fHa45Is0qJ
— WWE (@WWE) March 30, 2015
*Buy The Rock Elite figures at Amazon.
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Friday, March 27, 2015
"'Empire' Star Apologizes For Claiming Glendale Police Racially Profiled Her Son"
"a recording of the incident from Glendale Police tells a different story"
"Did David Ortiz admit to more than he realized with his Players’ Tribune editorial?"
HT:
Either Ortiz is grossly exaggerating how often he has been tested — possibly by a factor three or four — or Ortiz is telling the truth, he has been tested as often as he claims and the reason for it is that he is or has been “in the program” for previous drug offenders and we just didn’t know about it.
Thursday, March 26, 2015
"we are spending thousands of dollars worth of water to grow hundreds of dollars worth of almonds"
MR on California "running out of water."
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Upscale bus line in San Francisco
TA:
a venture capital-backed private bus service began operating in San Francisco that directly competes with public transit for “regular commuters who are doing a predictable route every day.”
...
This is perhaps the most magical side effect of the new category of services made possible by the convergence of a new kind of logistics, a chronically underemployed labor force, and apps: It allows society’s most influential class to remove themselves from civic discussions at will.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Roman chariot racer Gaius Appuleius Diocles is the highest paid athlete the world has ever known
"a modern day net worth of something around 15 billion dollars."
"Officials at both the United States Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee have strong aversions to ballot measures"
NY Times says 36% Bostonians support the Olympic bid:
John Fish, chairman of Boston 2024, the private group that organized the bid, announced Tuesday morning that the group would seek a statewide vote and even help gather the signatures required to get the measure on the ballot. Mr. Fish, who is also chief executive of the region’s leading construction firm...
Officials at both the United States Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee have strong aversions to ballot measures because they can amount to highly public rejections of something they hope to depict as prestigious.
Monday, March 23, 2015
The 7 Most F***ed Up Real 'Choose Your Own Adventure' Books
Cracked:
Perhaps most unsettling are the shark and octopus storylines: The octopus path ends when a shark doesn't fall for your ink-spewing trick, and it finds your calamari body delicious. Alternately, while inhabiting a shark's body, you can eat an octopus who ineffectively tries to use ink to escape.
Are ... are you eating yourself?
Yes, you're almost certainly eating yourself. That's some serious multiverse-level mind-screwing for a book aimed at 10-year-olds.
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Bombshell Stargirl wallpaper
The latest Infinite Crisis wallpaper features Bombshell Stargirl.
*Buy Bombshell Stargirl toys at Amazon.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
“As a young kid, I would catch as many dragonflies as I could and rub them on the bottom of my feet, and the rest is history”
The inspiration for Nike's new line of apparel:
Jacoby Ellsbury, the first major leaguer of Navajo descent, is proud of his heritage and his speed. The New York outfielder was just 8 years old when his mom told him about the dragonfly, a Native American legend that his grandfather had passed down to her. As Ellsbury recalls it: "If you catch a dragonfly without killing it and rub it on the bottom of your feet, it will make you faster."
New York politics
From the New Yorker's lengthy article about Andrew Cuomo:
As the HUD Secretary, Cuomo presented himself as the spokesman for the nation’s poor, travelling around the country to show that, even in a time of prosperity, many people were left behind. He was given to fierce denunciations of those who, in his opinion, used federal dollars to mistreat the vulnerable. In 1997, the department sued A. Bruce Rozet, a HUD landlord, accusing him of taking kickbacks from a management company called Insignia Financial, which ran his buildings. According to a press release from HUD, which was cited in a 2006 Village Voice story, the department’s mission was to provide housing for the needy—“not to provide lives of luxury for con artists stealing from our programs.” Cuomo called the case “the largest ever brought by HUD” and condemned “the abysmal conditions” that he said tenants were forced to endure in projects that had been “poorly maintained” by Insignia.
...
After the election, Cuomo’s marriage disintegrated, in a rancorous battle chronicled in detail by the local tabloids. The divorce was eventually settled, without litigation, but Cuomo found himself an outcast—single, unemployed, and repudiated by the New York political establishment. His salvation began in an unlikely place. He was visiting a real-estate executive in New York, and another prominent businessman happened to be in the office—Andrew Farkas, who had been the chief executive of Insignia Financial, the company that Cuomo denounced in such strong terms as HUD Secretary.
...
Cuomo went to work for a new commercial real-estate venture that Farkas established, and, as the Times has reported, he was paid more than $2.5 million in three years.
...
When, in 2006, Pataki decided not to seek a fourth term, Eliot Spitzer, who had enjoyed great success as the state attorney general, had a clear shot at the governorship. Cuomo decided to run for attorney general. The finance chairman of his campaign was Andrew Farkas.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Friday, March 13, 2015
"How Paul Allen Solved the Mystery of a WWII Battleship Lost at Sea"
Grantland:
The Musashi went down in an American aerial assault during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval engagement ever.
And then — nothing. The wreckage was never found. The remains of the Yamato were discovered in the South China Sea in 1984, but the Musashi, despite sinking in a well-documented battle and in front of thousands of witnesses, eluded every search. It seemed to have just vanished.
...
Or it did until last week, when Paul Allen started tweeting.
Fugitive tricked police by attaching his ankle bracelet to a ceiling-mounted, motorized device
He left in his home to simulate movement, and delay law enforcement from realizing he'd fled.
"Kim Stanley Robinson Says Colonizing Mars Won't Be As Easy As He Thought"
Poisonous, missing the crucial elements we need, and colonizing it might mean eradicating the life already growing. (Still hope for KSR's Red Mars tv series though, apparently.)
Japan's Miss Universe pageant contestant is only half-Japanese
Kotaku:
When introducing herself to reporters after her selection, Miyamoto said that her mother is Japanese and her father is American. She added that she was born and raised in Nagasaki and that while she doesn't "look Japanese" on the outside, on the inside, there are many Japanese things about her.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Two articles about Gone Home
First, the creators discuss level design:
As it turns out, Gone Home shares the same general structure as many levels in the BioShock series. It's a hub and spoke design, intended to gate off certain areas of the map while providing players the illusion of being open and familiar. While that's important for game design reasons, in reality it makes the Greenbriar's home an impossible space, with rooms in weird positions relative to one another and even entire floors floating unsupported. Yet it evokes a kind of reality in the mind of the player nonetheless.Second, a fan looks at the cleverness of the first cabinet.
"There’s this concept which I think I first heard about at Irrational Games called 'player RAM,'" Gaynor said. "As you’re playing a game you’re seeing what’s on screen, you’re reacting to what you’re seeing right now, and what has come before, and what you are predicting will come next is kind of passing through your head. But you only have a certain amount of capacity to really hold a high-fidelity image of the overall structure this place is describing.
Another politician caught sexting the same woman Anthony Wiener sexted
"In a tabloid-worthy twist, a Democratic lawmaker in Indiana has been busted for sexting with the same woman who brought down former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) two years ago."
"[Tom] Brady is 80 million dollars behind Peyton [Manning]."
Grantland looks at recent football signings and "mercenary" players.
"Leigh's Month as an Assassin"
Two good podcasts--"Leigh played a deadly femme fatale in a month long watergun assassination game. This is her story of stalking her prey, shivering in bushes and battling the most dangerous enemy of all. "
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
"Nike 'has the rights to the name Tiger Woods,' which prevented Woods using his first and last name in the restaurant name."
Tiger's new restaurant will be called The Woods Jupiter: Sports and Dining Club.
"Vote for me and I won't do anything about Russia building a moon brothel."
Drew Magary speculates on what would happen if Russia started building a moonbase.
Monday, March 9, 2015
Saturday, March 7, 2015
Poynter:
The latest in the world of photojournalism contest ethics and photo sleuthing took another turn yesterday with World Press Photos’ rescinding a first-place award after disqualifying 22 percent of the entries that had made the penultimate round.
Friday, March 6, 2015
The director of the Wes Anderson's X-Men video isn't making money off the video
No ad because there's a copyrighted song in the video. (In fact, it's blocked in other countries b/c of the copyright claim.) Also:
YouTube actually required me to agree not to disclose my earnings when I joined the Partner Program, but it doesn't matter here because this video isn't generating any revenue at all.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
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