I just booked a vacation in Italy for 11 full days with my girlfriend. We are flying into and out of Rome in early May. Please help us plan our trip!We don't have any particular destinations in mind, though my girlfriend would like to check out Cinque Terre. We're on a bit of a budget, so want to probably private room hostel it for most of the trip, though we will also probably splurge on a nice place along the beach at some point. We are more interested in natural beauty and fun activities over historical sites, though we're aiming for a mix of both. My initial thoughts were to go Rome - Florence - Cinque Terre - Venice - Rome. I only want to go to Venice so that my girlfriend has a chance to see it, but I've already been, and don't feel compelled to return. She doesn't feel strongly either way. My father suggests Rome - Florence - Sardinia - Rome, though he hasn't ever been to Sardinia. Both of these routes perhaps feel like a bit too much to squeeze into 11 full days. What might you recommend? Any particular thoughts on Cinque Terre? Any other thoughts on two young 20-somethings traveling together in Italy on a romantic vacation? Thanks!
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I started running a few months ago, and have now gotten to the point where I can (slowly! gradually!) increase my speed and distance. About two weeks ago, I started experiencing mild pain at the top of the arch on my left foot, what I believe to be the first metatarsal.It doesn't hurt while I'm running, or even after I run. I mostly experience mild pain the next day, and the pain is usually gone by the end of the day. But the next time I run, usually a day or two later, the pain is back. From what I've read, it seems a stress fracture on the first metatarsal is unlikely, due to the larger size of the bone. I'm wondering what else this could be, and if indeed it is an injury, or just foot pain that comes with running. My current plan is to stay off my feet for two weeks then try running again. But I'm wondering if I should visit my doctor. I'm a bit reluctant to get sucked into the cycle of referrals/Xrays/diagnoses just to be told to stay off my feet for a few weeks before I try running again. For the record, I have health insurance, and getting time off work for appointments is not an issue. I realize you are not my doctor, and your opinion here does not constitute or replace medical advice. Thanks!
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Jeff Bridges (The Dude himself) has released an album called Sleeping Tapes. It's a collaboration with Squarespace to raise money for No Kid Hungry. It's also deeply, deeply weird.
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So once you've slayed (or at least knocked out) the procrastination beast, how do you keep your balance and not burn yourself out?I like, and am good at, my job. I like most of the people I work with. All in all it's pretty darn good right now. Historically I alternate periods of high burn productivity and periods of procrastination and average productivity. This worked fine for my employers as I was still a high producer overall, but it sucks for me in terms of stress and work/life balance. So I worked on some of my procrastination triggers/habits and feel like I have that licked, but now am finding myself stuck in high burn and see great potential for getting burned out. Also there are some negative things on the horizon at work which will definitely add drama and roadblocks to my work life in the next year+. So I'd like to figure out how to mitigate the potential issues I see, keep my sanity, and hold on to as much positivity as possible. What I think might help is if I can articulate goals for myself which allow me to identify when I've done my job well, and thus can relax a bit and dismiss my internal protestant voice of guilt. This is challenging b/c: - I don't produce anything uniform (widget) that a metric can be applied to - My work is more creative/problem solving/analytical, very thinking heavy, which I can't do for 8 hours a day without burning out. - My position is unique in the org - There is always MORE work (infinite wish lists) I was thinking some kind of measure of hours per day of meetings and focused work (in half hour chunks), with some target percentage of focused effort, but am unsure what kind of percentage should be my goal? Or maybe this is the wrong approach. So what are your ideas for - Measuring personal work productivity when there's nothing measurable? - Excelling at your job without it being your life, or maintaining strong boundaries between work and home? - Ways to integrate positive/rejuvenating/life affirming moments into your work?
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Let Us Face the Future - "All parties pay lip service to the idea of jobs for all. All parties are ready to promise to achieve that end by keeping up the national purchasing power and controlling changes in the national expenditure through Government action. Where agreement ceases is in the degree of control of private industry that is necessary to achieve the desired end. In hard fact, the success of a full employment programme will certainly turn upon the firmness and success with which the Government fits into that programme the investment and development policies of private as well as public industry." viz. Labour campaign from the 1945 UK general election cf. Beatrice Webb & the Fabians [1,2,3] Back to the Future Green campaign for the 2015 UK general election - "The Green Party aims to create a just, equitable and sustainable society. We focus our efforts primarily, though not exclusively, through the electoral system." OUR PRINCIPLES: The Green Party has a short statement of our Core Values, and a longer explanation, called the Philosophical Basis, of the underlying thinking and motives behind our policies. George Monbiot: Follow your convictions – this could be the end of the politics of fear Let me give you a flavour of the political transformation the Green party seeks. There would be no prime minister of the kind we have today, no secretaries of state. Instead, parliament would elect policy committees which in turn would appoint convenors. It would also elect a first minister, to chair the convenors' committee. Parliament, in other words, would be sovereign rather than subject to the royal prerogative that prime ministers abuse. Leaders would be elected by the whole parliament, and its various political parties would be obliged to work together rather than engage in perennial willy-waving. Local authorities would set the taxes they chose. Local currencies, which have proved elsewhere to have transformative effects in depressed areas (see Bernard Lietaer's book The Future of Money), would become legal tender. Private banks would no longer be permitted to create money (at the moment they issue 97% of our money supply, in the form of debt). Workers in limited companies would have the legal right, after a successful ballot, to buy them out and create cooperatives, with help from a national investment bank. The hideously unfair council tax system would be replaced by land value taxation, through which everyone would benefit from the speculative gains now monopolised by a few. All citizens would receive, unconditionally, a basic income, putting an end to insecurity and fear and to the punitive conditions attached to benefits, which have reduced recipients almost to the status of slaves. Greens plan to shake up City of London and drop reliance on growth - "Gross national product statistics would be relegated in favour of indicators that 'measure progress towards sustainability, equity and devolution'. GNP figures ignore 'damage done to the environment, count much expenditure on bad things as positive, and take no account of distribution', Natalie Bennett, Green party leader, said." Britain's Greens venture towards pastures new - "Green party values have been gaining support because beneath the morass of policy detail they are remarkably clear. They unashamedly favour the environment over economic growth. They evince manifest hostility to global business and the City of London, and believe in companies paying far more tax. Their fiscal policies are described as 'anti-austerity' and are intended at least to be radically redistributive. Communal ownership is favoured over the capitalist sort, and local organisation over anything wider." Greens contemplate life beyond the fringe - "Roughly a tenth of the electorate tell pollsters they will vote Green at the general election in May, which would constitute a tenfold improvement on the party's last score. At 45,000, it now has more members than the Liberal Democrats, a party of government, and the UK Independence party, which, until recently, faced no competition as the most successful outsider in politics."
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I'm an apartment dweller with an extensive container garden and I'm moving into an apartment without access to outdoor space.I mostly grow vegetables on my porch in the summer, but the place I'm moving to has no yard or porch. I'm in New England right now so there are no plants to worry about and I have a place to store the (stacked) containers in the hopes that my living situation will change some day, but what to do with all that leftover soil? I don't have a yard to dump it, or friends who want to take over the gardening. All the suggestions I've found online say to re-use it, but I just need to get rid of it! Can I throw the soil out with my usual trash? Are there better uses for it?
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I would like to learn computer programming online, what websites/courses would you suggest?I have learnt some Java and am OK with it so far, and as I have Ubuntu I have been learning a bit of C but the course I was learning with, after he did pointers and structures, it suddenly got real hard. I am currently giving Ruby a go at CodeAcademy. I can understand the concepts in these languages, they make sense to me, and I can code a bit, I just struggle to think of things to write to expand my knowledge and skills and this concerns me as I think surely if I was any good I would be able to think up things to write. Are there any courses or anything where they give you ideas for programs to write? I am sure there was an FPP a while back with a big list but I can't find it with search. If you can think of any other languages which would be useful to learn other than the ones I mentioned then please feel free to throw them into the mix. I am doing this as I am sick of working menial jobs as they bore me senseless and I would like to move into IT, but don't really know where to start, or how to get involved. I am in the UK if that makes any difference. (After I posted the Noice - "Liquid Candy" VCS demo I looked at VCS assembler - I can understand how it works and even write some very simple 6507 assembler, but man, VCS stuff is totally rock hard - there are only 76 clock cycles per scanline, so there isn't much time to do stuff, and even getting a sprite on screen is rock hard - as there are no x and y position registers - x is done with cycle timing and the TIA fine move register, y pos seems to just use the scanline and a compare. Talk about tricky...)
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"I want to decide what to do when. That is a major reason why I decided in 2005 to self-publish rather than chase after a record deal. I am independent because I didn't want a bunch of men in suits deciding how I should release my music. For 10 years I have managed to bushwhack a circuitous path around them, but now I've got to find a way around the men in hoodies and crocs." Cellist Zoë Keating (previously) on the new Youtube music services agreement.
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Okay, the title pretty much is what I remember: it's a young adult book where the protagonist goes to a Go-Go's concert where INXS is the opening act.I don't think I actually finished this book; in fact, I don't think I read it as much as I read it over the shoulder of a girl in junior high, which would have meant the book already existed sometime between 1987 - 1989 or so. This makes sense as INXS toured with The Go-Go's in 1984. However, since Belinda Carlisle revealed in her autobiography that she and Michael Hutchence hooked up at that time, searching for "The Go-Gos INXS book" has a whole lot of other stuff. I also think there was some sort of teen drama where a girl went crazy over Michael Hutchence and tight pants and the boy who liked her acted similarly over the Go-Go's as some sort of mind game revenge. (But this part is all a vague memory except for the tight pants description.)
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My roommate works from home and it is driving me fucking insane. She is here 24/7. Her desk is in the living room and she's pretty much monopolized the common area. Additionally, she ALWAYS talks to me. Whether I'm just passing through the living room to pee, or I've just woken up, or any other time, she won't stop fucking talking.(I am PMSing, so this may be tinged with a bit of that. Still, I'm fed up.) I'm in school as a post-bacc, so my schedule is a little bit irregular as well. I've lived with people who had full time jobs as well as my friend from class, and both situations were fine. Because either the other person was gone all day, or in the case of the student, she at least had scheduled times to be away from the apartment (class, tennis, part-time job, etc.) That way I could plan to unwind during those times alone. I am also very independent and prefer a LOT of alone time. Or at least comfortable silence, which my roommate doesn't seem to be capable of. The problem is also that I don't particularly like her as a person. As far as typical roommate things: she's not particularly messy, or loud if I'm asleep, and she's punctual with bills. But I feel like we are irritatingly interconnected because I'm literally never at my apartment when she isn't. I can't stand seeing this much of someone, particularly a chatty, over-zealous 21 year old. She is the type of person I'd probably avoid in real life situations because she is so annoying and talkative (about herself, usually). She is also very involved in my life, to where she is infringing on my personal space. The other night she was going to bed and "suggested" that I do too to make for an easier wake up. I was fucking livid. When I sleep in, she calls me "sleepyhead" and once she told me she heard me turn over in my sleep at 130pm so she knew I was alive. Basically she is paying WAY too much attention to me and what I do. I don't want this type of relationship with a roommate. I don't need to or want to be her pal. Especially because when she perceives me as such, it makes it harder to establish rules. Her desk is right outside my bedroom door. She moved in two weeks ago. I've been living here since Oct 2013 and have loved my apartment. At first the desk was next to the TV, but I asked her to move it because it was obstructing my view of/enjoyment of the TV. I also mentioned at that time that I like her but that I'm not used to having someone around all the time, and that I really need my alone time. So we moved her desk, and she mentioned that maybe she'd work at a coffee shop on the days that I'm here. So far, that hasn't happened. Because she works from home, she is able to write-off half of her rent. So this girl is paying like $600 to have a cushy home office situation in the living room, as well as a fully-functioning bedroom (where a desk previously resided happily for a year). She has mentioned that she hates working from the same place she sleeps. I understand that, but I still think it's unfair to me, and way too entitled of a college-grad to expect such accomodations. Not to mention she "loves cooking" so she has cluttered up the kitchen with all of her supplies. I feel like it's not my home/place of R&R anymore. The lease is up end of June, after which I'm planning to leave NYC for grad school. I can't decide if it would be harder to fix this or to move. I really, really don't want to move. The only pseudo-solution I can think of would be to have a series of really awkward conversations and boundary-setting. I've tried watching TV in the living room while she's there, but she just types away or pretends she's watching the show with me from her desk. I need the desk to be in her room, and additionally I need her to schedule at least small intervals of time to be away from the apartment. Just a few hours a couple of times a week seems like a luxury at this point. Is this too much to ask? How do you tell someone that you'd like them to be around less, and to talk to you less? She is an intellectually very smart girl, and she did move the desk the first time I asked. Am I out of luck? What do I have the right to ask of her? I really need specific ways to phrase things, because I can't think of a way that doesn't sound super bitchy. TL;DR - My roommate is in the living room working all. fucking. day. When she's not working, she's engaging me in unwanted conversations from her desk. She is the first thing I see when I wake up and the last before I go to bed, and every other fucking time I'm at the apartment because she NEVER ISN'T HERE. Can I ask her to move the desk into her bedroom? Is there a way to ask her to stop talking to me all the time? Can I ask her to schedule time away from the apt? If so, how do I phrase these things? Thanks for reading!
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The imperial family and I will be traveling to Mumbai in a couple of weeks. We'll be arriving at a profoundly unfriendly hour of the night with three children 12 & under. We need to get from the airport down to the Fort District without getting taken for a ride, as it were. What do you recommend: Taxi rank at the airport? Reliable car service? Recommendations sought.
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Aphex Twin is (apparently) unloading over 100 rare and unreleased tracks from his 20+ year vault, now streaming for free on Soundcloud. Late last year, the semi-reclusive and often-inscrutable electro master Richard D. James released Syro, his first official release as Aphex Twin since 2005's Analord series. Last Friday, he quickly followed that up with an EP of acoustic instruments controlled by computer, aptly titled Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2 EP. (and, previously) Now, Richard D. James is delving into the archives and putting a treasure trove of material , including various early and remixed versions of classic tracks, live sets, John Peel sessions, and experiments, all online for free. Many of the tracks are tagged "early aphex" or "afx" (one of his pseudonyms), and a large number of them come with small bits of commentary, background, or recording dates. A few random highlights (the tip of the iceberg) "7 cutting" "(vocoder disco)" - "94ish" "20 Pink Floyd" - "Didn't have many records to sample back then and the girl who lived next door had a floyd lp, never listened to them then or since, just bagged the sample and made the tune, few different versions of it, been in the atic for all these years." In typical Aphex fashion, the very first uploaded track, 8 Utopia, comes with the comment: "like early aphex but I'd never heard of him when I wrote all these tracks im going to be uploading" When Aphex Twin did a (Syro) bonkers interview with Noyzelab in november, he also released a number of tracks on Soundcloud (Previously) , which have since been taken down. Enjoy them while they last!
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I fell in love with dark brown Markor bookshelves from Ikea, and bought five of them, eventually. Now I would like more shelving, and something very Markor-like would be lovely... but Ikea has long since discontinued the pattern.Don't bother pointing out some barren, 1x8 brown shelving. I've seen it. It's not pretty. I want pretty. And I'd love to continue the decor theme of Markor, but I'll take dark wood that's pretty and not outrageously expensive (I paid ~$150 in 2014 for those shelves back then, I'd guess). I'll even take 2nd-hand, but so far Google and Ebay don't even offer that.
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Does fabulous take out, more or less within walking distance of Battery Park City, exist?We're borrowing an apartment in Battery Park City for a few weekdays in late February so my family of lumberjacks and goatherds can absorb some culture. Can you recommend the best take-out or casual dine-in options within, say, a half mile of BPC? Two of us are teenagers, but don't let that stop you. They eat everything this side of balut. Than you!
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Along the western coast of England, under a half-moon hidden by clouds, a dark Audi sports car with fabricated plates followed an empty road toward a Barclays bank. Inside were five men, dressed all in black, and their gear: crowbars, power tools, coils of flexible tubing, and two large tanks of explosive gas. It was 1:51 a.m. The job would take just under seven minutes.
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I've read a lot about saving money for experiences rather than things. What are some experiences that are absolutely worth saving up for? I'm in my mid-20's, partnered, and finally beginning to crawl out of the hole that is credit card debt. It's really nice to think that I will be debt-free by next year, but sometimes "debt-free" is a little too amorphous to really motivate me. I like to think about concrete, tangible goals that I can anticipate over time. Also, I want to work with my partner to focus less on things and more on experiences that we can enjoy and will shape our relationship. The new big-screen TV is nice, but it isn't the stuff of memories. Assuming that we remain debt-free and conscientious about saving, could you recommend some life-changing experiences that we can look forward to in the future? Here are some qualifiers: - For two people in their mid-20's right now - Maximum $10,000-$20,000 range in the short-term (5-10 years), or more (like 30-40k) if we're talking about really big, once-in-a-lifetime stuff (that we can probably go to when we're older) - Experiences that can fit into weekends or 1-2 weeks max. - Suggestions for honeymoons are welcome. Does everyone have to visit a Caribbean island once in their life? Which one is the best? - Stuff we've done: been to a few cities in China, California, Texas. Lived in New York. I've been to Europe when I was younger but not with my partner.
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My doctor covers the basics well and is caring, but isn't a great communicator. Is that a dealbreaker?If something's wrong with me that's easily identifiable or fixable with a standard treatment, she'll take care of it or refer me on if I ask her to. (I do have to ask, usually - she doesn't love that, she prefers to manage things herself, but she'll do it.) With more complex things (hormonal/gyno issues, mental health), she likes to stick to standard treatment as well, and to want to manage things herself. She's very practical, overall. This may be a good thing, because I'm prone to Google-itis, and a grounded approach might be what's called for. On the other hand, there isn't a lot of discussion or explanation of the diagnosis or treatment (which makes me uncomfortable, because I'm a PITA and need to know why why why and "what can I expect" and "no really, give me the fine print on the potential risks of this medicine, please") and my preferences wrt treatment aren't always taken into account. No big deal for a lot of issues, I guess; the main thing right now is she's recommending SSRIs for anxiety. I don't want them, I just don't. I tried another drug of the same class in the past and had just a miserable experience with it, during and after. I am not up for putting myself through that trial and error process. I know there are a few other pharma approaches to anxiety management (have had experience with one) and mentioned these, and she said, "hmm, maybe, but let's try X first". She's generally not keen on the research I bring up and think is relevant. (This is only an example of what I mean about communication; I'd be grateful if answerers focused on that and not on persuading me to get on board the SSRI train.) Similar exchanges take place wrt a few other issues. E.g., arthritis: "You have arthritis". "What kind?" "Wear and tear. Take these NSAIDs". E.g., chronic pain and tingling in the ankle after running: "Don't run. Take these NSAIDs". "There's nothing I can do? Physio won't help?" "Oh, okay, sure. See a physio. Ok let me thing of who's good, ok, go here." (She's not being rude or anything, she's friendly - that's just how she talks.) So I wind up going to Google anyway and freaking myself out. I usually discover that she's right in the end, that NSAIDs really are the answer to most of my problems, but only after a good bit of stress thinking I maybe have compartment syndrome. (Also, the ankle thing is just not getting better, years out. Also, I have a schwack of tendon problems, and I'm curious about why that is, and she's not, so much. My desktop full of pdfs suggests there aren't any easy answers, anyway, but still.) I have to remember to follow up on tests for ongoing issues and physicals, but I think that's a normal and expected part of a patient's responsibility (right?). She's missed one or two things that walk-in doctors have caught, but those are just odds, right? Or maybe it's because I usually see her for particular things, and there's only so much time in any given appointment. Overall, I like her, I'm mostly well-covered for the things that have answers, I've been with her for a long time, and I'm grateful to even have a regular doctor. I appreciate that I may well be a hypochondriac and that my communication needs might be higher than the average bear's. (Secondary question: if you think I should try to find another doctor, how should I go about it? What are reasonable questions/expectations?) I live in Ontario, Canada. Thanks!
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About a month ago, my wife and I were very interested in renting a townhouse in a nearby neighborhood that is very appealing to us for a variety of reasons. It's been vacant since late August, and the advertised rent has dropped each month to (what we believe) is now slightly below market value. On the day of the showing, we made an offer to sign a two-year lease -- something the owner clearly preferred per his advertisement -- and we are otherwise model tenants with great references and stable incomes. The one caveat was that we need to give our current landlord 60 days' notice (or potentially forfeit the next two months' rent). The property manager for the new place refused the offer outright, stating that she was only interested in prospective tenants who could move in immediately. When I asked if this was the owner's stipulation or hers, she refused to answer. Given that the house has been empty for nearly 5 months and my general knowledge of the economic incentives that apply to property management companies, I suspect the owner might be unaware of this behavior. He is a stranger to me. Should I let him know?I am aware that property management companies generally get a chunk (or entire) first month's rent, plus a percentage of the monthly rent thereafter, so there is an incentive for them to rent NOW for their own cash-flow purposes. I think this can occasionally come into conflict with the landlord's greater goal, which is to have guaranteed long-term, good tenants, even if it means having an empty property for a month or two. Since the property manager gets a monthly percentage in any event, it stands to reason that she would prefer to gamble and hope to get a renter sooner rather than later, so she can get her paycheck more quickly and start getting the monthly chunk earlier. As far as I can tell, she has no imediate financial interest in securing a "stable" long-term tenant -- an interest that most landlords most certainly DO have. I made what I thought was a good offer, given that the place had been vacant so long (it was initially overpriced, and now it's wintertime -- a bad time for showing rental properties in my neck of the woods). Knowing that they'd have to wait two months for me to begin the lease, I offered slightly more than the owner was asking, plus a commitment to stay a minimum of two years, with the strong likelihood of re-upping. Again, since this place has been vacant so long, it seems like this would be an offer worth considering if I were a landlord trying to rent my house in the dead of winter. But the property manager was adamant that we were out of the running unless we could start the lease immediately (or within a week). This approach put me off, and she was otherwise very hurried and unprofessional (arrived at the showing late, kept talking about other people who were interested in the place and how "wealthy" they were). We left, and I told her to give me a call if she changed her mind. As a tenant, I've dealt with deadbeat property managers over the years and this one seemed like a real stinker, so we decided that even if she did call us back, we weren't interested in renting from a property management company such as this one. However, I was left wondering whether the owner is aware that the management company is negotiating this way on his behalf, and also whether he is aware that it might be the company's unprofessional demeanor that could be contributing to home's extended vacancy. I can imagine a lot of people could be turned off by property manager's extreme hard-sell tactics that were more reminiscent of a used car lot than an upscale townhome community. I don't know the owner, but he is easily google-able and I could shoot him a quick e-mail to let him know that we made an offer on his rental but were turned down flat by his property manager. Could be that he get annoyed because part of the reason he hires a management company is to not get emails from strangers about his house, perhaps he'll say "those were my instructions to the company," or he might just be floored that his company is behaving this way. Any owners out there who have used property management companies -- would you want to hear about this kind of stuff or just be left alone?
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Suggestions for lightweight 11" laptop? Need to have: full keyboard, Windows, able to handle large and complex Excel files and long Word docs, good internet connection, reliable performance, decent battery life, good for both work and for netflix-type activities, reliable use with external monitor. After a lemon of an HP, reliability is important. What should I expect to pay for this? Which one should I get?Background: I purchased an HP Envy 2 for $700 just under two years ago, and it was lightweight with good battery, and I theoretically liked the convertible-to-tablet function. But nothing about it was consistent except its poor and glitchy performance: slow internet, intermittent capacity to connect to external monitors, poor touch screen responsiveness, slow-to-a-crawl when handling large excel files; occasionally does all sorts of weird and annoying things....basically, one big lemon. I've returned it for service more than once, they apparently can't replicate the problems. Horrible. While I push for refund/credit from Costco, I'm ready to consider what my replacement computer will be. My budget can be more flexible if needed, to get something that's not crappy. My more tech-savvy shmoopy suggested Lenovo. Is their Yoga 2 line along the right lines? Any other suggestions? I really want a computer that simply works as advertised. Touchscreen and convertible-to-tablet are nice ideas but not essential.
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After a crazy amount of jobless time ofcourse everything has come at once. I am having interview after interview + my head is splitting. The knowledge base I am expected to cover is vast + I have worked a week prepping for this (along with producing presentations etc). Todays interview was tough - creepy cab driver in thick snow then being kept waiting nearly an hr for the interview whilst getting increasingly anxious.. Although I 'warmed up' I felt horribly stiff + self conscious for the first chunk + had deficits in some basic answers. No feedback yet but I'm not confident...Tomorrow one of today's interviewers will be the panel. He seemed like a really nice guy/trying to put me at ease etc and I will do what I can to revisit gaps in knowledge but anything else to help calm me a bit prior? It's so draining doing them all at once :( ta
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I'd like to make a list of all the outdoor loading docks in San Francisco. Here's an example loading dock on 2nd Street at Mission that shows an integrated ramp leading back to ground level. I'm looking for docks that are around 30 inches tall. Bonus points if you can use Google Street View to show me the location or if you know the height of the dock.
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Worldcon is the "world science fiction convention." It's been around in one way or another since 1939 and is typically hosted at a different existing convention every year. (The Hugo awards are voted on by Worldcon members.) Last year it was in London; this year in Spokane. To get the event hosted at your convention, there is an elaborate bidding process. There is a long tradition of hoax con bids (which sometimes take on a life of their own, as in this Westercon story). The latest in the tradition: Nightvale Worldcon. If you have further questions regarding the bid, please contact the Help Desk with your bloodstone. Previously: Around the Worldcon, Hugo I Go We All Go to Worldcon.
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Almost five years ago Metafilter was introduced to Black People Twitter, but Metafilter has no chill. Since then Black People Twitter has become hot af. Compilations of black people being hilarious on twitter that were posted to reddit and a Black People Twitter subreddit was created, and has since grown to over 165,000 subscribers. From r/BlackPeopleTwitter you can learn that ball is life, explore the intricacies of relationships, have a cathartic chuckle at America's often complicated history with race, reinterpret images of Obama, hear about mixtapes, and make fun of Drake and Kanye. For more information.
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My 14-yo has been talking about a gaming computer for many moons. He wants to play Steam games: Minecraft, Don't Starve, Day Z, etc. Mainly networked playing. All of the computers we look at are just a really high end, colorful box with no OS, no monitor, no keyboard or mouse for around $800-$900. I am looking for an all-in-one that is graphics, ram and HD expandable and will run Steam (mostly) effortlessly. All suggestions welcome!
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On Trial for Rape by Ann Brocklehurst [The Walrus Magazine] "Late last year, in a Toronto courtroom, a young woman faced off against the university student whom she accused of raping her in a school parking lot. The media ignored the story. This is a series about a criminal rape trial that took place in Toronto late last year. The trial lasted eight days; the judge announced his verdict earlier this month." —Ann Brocklehurst Part 1: She Said Part 2: Are You Sure? Part 3: Can the Complainant Continue? Part 4: The Facebook Test Part 5: He Said Part 6: "I'm Not a Rapist" Part 7: Closing Arguments Part 8: The Verdict
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