Did you hear the one about the KKK-member in NY who made a death ray? In a weird twist, he targeted Jewish Groups--for sales. "An industrial mechanic with General Electric Co., who is also allegedly a member of the Ku Klux Klan, designed a deadly, mobile radiation device that he tried to sell to Jewish groups and then to a southern branch of the Ku Klux Klan, according to a federal complaint unsealed Wednesday in Albany" (found via TPM)
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Graham Hastings, Alloysious Massaquoi and Kayus Bankole are a musical trio from Scotland. They first met at a local hip-hop night for under-16 youth in Edinburgh, where the music scene is more focused on indie rock than beats and rapping. They started collaborating a few years ago, and now go by the name Young Fathers. They mix rap, grime, modern R&B, afro-beat, noisy samples and more, though they write music from a pop-perspective, and consider themselves "pop boys." They have two short releases that are something between EPs and albums, plus a handful of singles. Their primary releases, Tape One and Tape Two, have been (re)released on the US label Anticon, and they have a handful of official videos: Deadline, Sister, Rumbling and Romance are the first four tracks from Tape One; I Heard is the first video from Tape Two; The Guide is separate single to stream and/or download, for free on Soundcloud.
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The last mystery of the financial crisis. It's long been suspected that ratings agencies like Moody's and Standard & Poor's helped trigger the meltdown. A new trove of embarrassing documents shows how they did it. by Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone.
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Having Daughters Rather Than Sons Makes You More Liberal In remarkable research, the sociologist Rebecca Warner and the economist Ebonya Washington have shown that the gender of a person's children seems to influence the attitudes and actions of the parent.
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A while back I remember coming across a really novel vanity site that somebody had come up with. It was a vanity site configured as an Amazon.com products page. It had an identical layout and a place for reviews where former employers and co-workers could write their "product" reviews of this person's work. At the time I came across this site, it was somewhat of a meme and people listed it as a creative way of standing out from the crowd with all of their usually boring sites. Does anybody remember this or have the link to it? Thanks
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World's Smallest Museum Finds the Wonder in Everyday Objects "Tucked away in a lower Manhattan back alley, the freight-elevator-sized, generically named Museum is one of New York City's newest curiosities. While it's only open 16 hours a week, during the day on Saturdays and Sundays, the museum's contents are viewable 24/7, lit and sealed by glass doors." Hat tip to Jason Kottke for this find.
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I'm in charge of launching the MVP program for the software company I work for and am looking to find great examples of how other software/tech companies do this. Microsoft is the primary one people point to, but what about Google, Apple and other successful organizations in the space with passionate users?We have an incredibly vibrant user base at the company I work for and we want to roll out a solid MVP program that does more than just hand out t-shirts. The power users in our community are generous and kind individuals that spend hours and hours helping new users purely for the sake of being supportive and we want to recognize that. What are some great examples of other tech companies that do this in a public way? Beyond Microsoft, the SalesForce MVP program seems to be the only other highly visible one I can find. Does anyone out their having experience either starting one of these programs or being a member of such a program? Any and all suggestions would be appreciated.
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My 80-year-old grandfather has a Nexus tablet, and he wants me to find apps for him. I have no idea what to get him, and I don't think he does, either: he just wants neat things to do with it, though he's not at all tech-savvy. What might I download for him? This may be a tall order: I'm looking for apps that are preferably free, intuitive to use, and that aren't too complex or intricate. Most games are probably right out (though he likes card games, and may like similarly simple ones). Even the act of entering a search in YouTube is tricky for him. Any ideas of what I could find for him to download?
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We will be importing a 2004 Honda Accord into Canada this weekend, I hope. We must pay taxes (16% of value of the car!) when we bring it in. It is up to us to put a value on the the car and hope the customs agent accepts our assessment. If they don't accept it, they will put their own value on the car and we must accept that and pay taxes accordingly. Two questions: how would you assess the value? And how would you try to pay the least amount possible?Car in question is a 2004 Honda Accord EX manual drive with approximately 70,000 miles on it. Usually, the border agents assess the value of a car based on the "Canadian Red Book" but this car is too old for that. The car has a few dings and scratches and most importantly was in a head-on collision in 2009. We think that this decreases its value considerably from what's for sale online. How would you estimate the value? What documentation would you have on hand to prove it? We don't want to take the time or money to have it officially appraised. At the border, the agent will look at our declaration form and either accept our assessment or can use his/her "own discretion" to propose another value. I am not sure if there's negotiation at this point, or if we have to accept the new appraisal. The amounts listed online vary by many thousands of dollars and, of course, we want to minimize the taxes we pay on a pretty beat-up old car that runs well but that we will drive into the ground for the next few years. What would you do?
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The Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB), on behalf of The National Academies, is seeking input papers on human spaceflight until July 9th, 2013. You can also read the current submissions. From the website:In addition to the many sources of focused input to this study, the Committee on Human Spaceflight recognizes the importance of reaching out to the communities interested in human exploration. This request for input papers is open to any and all interested individuals and groups wishing to submit their own ideas on the role of human spaceflight and their vision for a suggested future. In developing their papers, respondents are asked to carefully consider the following broad questions. What are the important benefits provided to the United States and other countries by human spaceflight endeavors? What are the greatest challenges to sustaining a U.S. government program in human spaceflight? What are the ramifications and what would the nation and world lose if the United States terminated NASA's human spaceflight program?
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We're transitioning into living full time in an RV and several people have expressed interest in reading a blog about our experiences. I know the kinds of things I want to write, but I'm stumped on a name.Things about us that may help you: We're from Wisconsin and we're parked in a rural area for the summer, after that I'm not sure where we're going, hopefully west We have a 38 ft 5th wheel and a ginormous truck We're a married couple in our late 30s/early 40s with no kids We have two black cats and a lazy old dog I like photography, stargazing, and going for walks on the beach (lol) I love maps and geography, and when I say "love" I mean hopelessly addicted He likes (auto) racing, kayaking/canoeing, and biking We both like popular science fiction (Star Trek, etc.) and we both work in technology I'll probably do the bulk of the writing, with guest appearances from him Bonus question: I'm leaning towards Tumblr because I'm already familiar with it, but I'm open to suggestions. I must be able to post by email and I'd like to have the ability to use my own domain name (when I get one).
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My Imaginary Well-Dressed Toddler Daughter. Pinterest collection featuring the high style exploits of "Quinoa," an imaginary stylish toddler with her imaginary stylish friends.
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Digital mapping startup MapBox teams up with social data warehouse Gnip to create some stunning visualizations of every geotagged tweet since September 2011. There are three zoomable maps on offer: Locals & Tourists, Languages on Twitter, and Mobile Devices on Twitter. The continent-scale views are interesting global data but the real reward is zooming in to cities such as Tokyo, Chicago, or São Paulo to see neighborhood by neighborhood distributions of languages and tourist interest. The maps were developed by Metafilter's own Eric Fischer and Tom MacWright. Eric's work has been discussed several times on Metafilter.
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Well, all you lazy butt people who couldn't manage 7 minutes, here's hope. Norwegian researchers have discovered an even shorter and effective workout. Straight off the heels of the 7-minute workout (which really was more of a 21 minute workout), the 4-minute program (but designed to be done 4 times, so 16 minutes of HIIT total) is said to contain the minimum amount of exercise required to develop appreciable endurance and health gains.
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On blogginheads.tv Mark talks to Glenn Loury about helping the state of Washington to legalize marijuana. Licensing, costs, restrictions, methods of sale etc. One of the best conversations on the topic I've heard.
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Son of 1066 had early acceptance to a university six hours away. And we've been planning for him to go there since early December. Last week he decided he now wants to go to the local university and live with me. Acceptance is a given due to his grades. This is going to save me tons of money. The problem? I have had basically zero social life for the past sixteen years because I only had him on the weekends (no regrets). But I was really looking forward to meeting some friends and possibly even dating. So how do we go about transitioning from part-time mom and kid to full-time, loving, supportive, independent mom and adult son/roommate? Advice on any aspects of having a relative/roommate would be appreciated.
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I have a Readynas which will not boot. I have gone through support and am ready to give up. Assuming the problem is fixable, is there anyone in New York who you would trust with recovering your music / photo collection?
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Today saw the release of the first trailer for The LEGO Movie, and there are some interesting things to note about it. First, it should be mentioned that this is not the first LEGO feature length film. Earlier this year saw the release of a Batman direct-to-video movie and in 2010 there was a new character driven movie called The Adventures of Clutch Powers. Both were completely CGI and looked it, complete with minifig limbs bending as if made of rubber and everything looking very polished. And though there is surely a lot of CGI invloved in this new feature, it seems they have gone with a stop motion appearance that hearkens to all the short films on YouTube made by fans. The movement is slightly jerky and the lighting is more natural. It brings to mind Curse of the Were-rabbit where Nick Park had the animators who did the CGI portions make sure to include random "fingerprints" on the characters and elements that were CGI. Adding to the homemade "kids at play" feel is the inclusion of characters from many of the different LEGO series over the years (including the licensed ones) appearing side by side. So, yes, we will get Superman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the 2002 NBA All Stars all fighting evil together.
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Do I really ½" of space on either side of my refrigerator?Our 16-year-old fridge died and we're looking for a replacement. It's tucked into our kitchen pretty good, with about a ⅜" gap on either side. Here's a crude diagram of the current setup. The problem is that the refrigerators we like are all at least a tiny bit wider than our dead one, leaving an even smaller gap. Many of the installation guides I've seen say to allow ½" of space on either side. But the dead one lasted 16 years that way, and there is that open space on the left side of it. Is it a bad idea to leave so little room? We have plenty of depth and height available. Thanks!
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Need to get MS Excel on a PC running Windows Vista. Latest Excel versions seem to require Windows 7 or 8. Any help on where I can get a downloadable version of Excel for Vista?
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I'm searching for an awesome 5th anniversary gift, made from wood or silver, with an adventure-y theme (this can be pretty loosely interpreted). It'll be a supplement to a primary gift I've already splurged on, so I'm looking for something
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My living room window 1" horizontal blinds have suddenly stopped closing fully when rotated upwards. The movement of the rod that rotates them seems to have become stiffer, with some "humps" that were not there before. Is there anything I can do to restore them to their previous non-problematic functionality? I can close them fully in the downward position, but I really would like to be able to close them fully in the upward position, as I get morning sun that I need to keep out. The blinds are closing less than 2/3 of the way in the upward position. I am reluctant to try forcing them to close further in case this might break the mechanism. (The blinds are about twenty years old; have they simply reached the end of their life cycle?)
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Andy Warhol bridge to be "yarn bombed" Maybe some of you saw the post about the Rubber Ducky coming to Pittsburgh. Well, apparently, now Pittsburgh is getting one of their bridges covered in yarn. This is so bizarre. I hope it all happens at the same time. Bath time fun for everyone!
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I'm lucky enough to work for a company that sponsors occasional off-site activities for team building. We get to go anywhere and do anything we want together, self organized, within a reasonable budget. We're (mostly) 20- and 30-something males. I'm looking for more awesome things to do in Manhattan, or within an hour or two's drive (i.e. chartered bus). Within one day or possibly including an overnight stay.Things we've done in the past: * Bus to Atlantic City with a one night stay there * Fishing trip off of Long Island * Visited a gun range in PA and shot all sorts of guns * The New York auto show * A hockey game at Madison Square Garden * Go karting * Quad Bike/ATV offroading * Six Flags Great Adventure Lots of us seem to be up for some sort of hiking/camping/geocaching type thing. Generally anything fun and/or exciting is worth consideration. Budget of roughly $100/head (more or less, we can "save up" two outings worth for really exciting things).
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I've started getting emails "from" people in my contacts list. The email is from their name, but with an email address that is not theirs and is different each time. I have an address with a local internet provider, not gmail or yahoo. Do I have a virus my antivirus hasn't caught? How can I fix it?
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