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Pee-Wee Herman took part in a bit on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon in which he narrated the trailer for The Dark Knight Rises. Great, now this movie is going to be hilarious when it's definitely not supposed to be, and I'm just going to have to see it twice so I don't hear Pee-Wee Herman the second time. Also: John Cleese should also dub this trailer. (via Gawker)
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Archie McPhee’s Inflatable Cthulhu Arm is a giant wearable tentacle that fits over your hand so you can pretend that you’re turning into Cthulhu, the “unspeakable horror from beyond space.” It would also be great if you want to costume up as the Laughing Squid logo, kind of like Dan’l did with their Cthulhu tentacles (but, of course, on a much larger scale). The also carry a less menacing version, the Inflatable Tentacle Arm.
Cthulhu is a mythical dark god from another dimension that every nerd knows about…good for squid costumes and having tentacle fights with your pals.
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Just a reminder for those of you who did not pick up Jem and the Holograms – The Truly Outrageous Complete Series on DVD, the third and final season of the popular/magical series has been released. With Jem and The … Continue reading →Unfurl
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Ben Popper, writing for The Verge:
Twitter set off alarm bells across the web in recent weeks when it ended its partnership with LinkedIn and reiterated its warning that it would be cracking down on the terms of its API. The company didn’t offer any explanation for why it removed tweets from LinkedIn, but speaking with sources familiar with the company’s plans, The Verge has learned that major changes are coming in the next few months which will move Twitter from an open platform popular among independent developers towards a walled garden more akin to Facebook.
I can’t think of a more ominous four-word description of Twitter’s future than “More akin to Facebook”. For me, Twitter isn’t just a little bit better because of third-party clients — it’s vastly better because of third-party clients. Whatever it is Twitter is planning, I sure hope it isn’t going to cut third-party clients loose.
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HOUSTON—During an address Wednesday to the National Association for the Advancement of White People, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney received a lengthy standing ovation from the group of 2,000 Caucasians who had gathered to hear him sp...
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Yes, June was a hot a month for folks in the US, but just how hot? According to the National Climactic Data Center, US states and territories saw 2,284 temperature records broken in June and 998 records tied. The center has conveniently mapped out all 3,282 of those record temperatures.
The National Climatic Data Center contains the world's largest active archive of weather data, and has a handy interactive map that lets you see the record highs, lows, precipitation, and snowfall for various parts of the United States. In playing around with this application, NPR noted that so far this year has been heavier on the record highs than last year; 2012 so far has seen 23,283 record highs set while by this time in 2011, 13,582 records had been set. Head over the NPR for more weather record insights.
The map above doesn't show all 3,282 temperature records met or broken in the US, as some were set in Alaska, Hawaii, and US territories. Visit the National Climatic Data Center website to see the sites of all the US's new temperature records.
[National Climatic Data Center via NPR via Geekosystem]
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That’s a lot of limited edition/kinda obscure handhelds! Wow, is that a Magic Knight Rayearth Game Gear?
See also: It's a tiny cartridge reunion
[Via MagixButtons]
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NotesSpelunky, an Xbox Live Arcade revamp of a free PC indie game, straddles the line between insurmountable addiction and a precise extractor of self-hatred. Like other rare indie gems, such as Metanet's N series, Spelunky is equal parts diabolical and ingenious.
The concept is simple: explore worlds filled with treacherous obstacles while collecting treasures and attempting to survive. You start the game with a standard whip along with a few climbing ropes and bombs, which are used to carve out a path to the level's exit. Each randomly generated level is filled with traps, enemies, and environmental disasters awaiting your unnamed adventurer. Survival may be the primary goal, but Spelunky's secondary objective is to make players regret the follies of poor split-second decisions.
It's the kind of experience you hate yourself for loving, but love it you shall.
Gallery: Spelunky (XBLA)
Continue reading Spelunky review: Obtainer of rare antiquities, giver of aneurysms
Spelunky review: Obtainer of rare antiquities, giver of aneurysms originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 04 Jul 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It's not Hellboy 3 but it's a scene that warms our Hellboy-loving hearts. Ron Perlman donned the red makeup again not for a movie or a promotional event, but to fulfill a young boy's Make-a-Wish dreams.
Young Zachary's heart's desire was to meet Hellboy and become Hellboy himself. The Make-a-Wish foundation made it happen, having Zachary and his family meet a made-up Perlman down at the makeup effects studio Spectral Motion. Perlman, ever the good sport, ordered up a "Hellboy sized" sampler of burgers, shakes, and fries for everyone involved and Zachary even got to play Hellboy himself, sitting in the Spectral Motion makeup chair and putting on the big red horn stumps.
Forget another Hellboy movie. We'll happily watch 90 minutes of Ron Perlman cheering up sick kids — maybe with a cat or two for good measure.
Make a Wish day with Zachary [Spectral Motion Facebook via Geekologie]
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Golgo 13 watches, guys. You can live your life always asking “What Would Duke Togo do?” during those times (hur hur) when you have to make hard decisions, without having to actually wear one of those corny bracelets.
Seiko is releasing these two limited edition models (total of 1,500 units produced) in Japan today for around $725 and $800, and they’re going for around that much on eBay right now. My birthday is in seven days, y’all, and if you’re wondering what Duke Togo would get me for a present, this is what he’d buy — a watch with his own face on it.
Buy: Golgo 13 stuff
See also: Lots of Golgo 13 posts
[Via @feitclub]
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Super Metroid poster by Ian Wilding. It’s a little different from the “minimalist” thing that’s happening with a lot of posters/fanart, but it’s still simple, and just really nice to look at. Plus, it serves as a reminder that Super Metroid exists, which is an important public service.
The print is available in a variety of sizes from Wilding’s Society6 shop.
Buy: Metroid: Other M
Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more
See also: Lots more Metroid posts
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This is definitely the perfect screenshot for today, as Canadians recover from the weekend's fiery festivities and people in the US celebrate Independence Day by going online and ordering the ingredients for explosives. In this screenshot, you can take joy in the friendly way Amazon informs us that people who buy one ingredient for thermite often buy all of them together (thermite contains aluminum powder and iron oxide powder, and is usually lit with magnesium ribbon). Now these are the kinds of product recommendations we need. What could go wrong?
Over at the fine site "How to Make Stuff," we learn the hard way to make thermite by scrounging the ingredients at local machine shops and paint stores. But why dig around and deal with finding stores in the real world when Amazon makes it so easy for you?
To see this for yourself, just search Amazon for aluminum powder.
Also, PLEASE DO NOT MAKE THERMITE AT HOME.
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Authorities say a Kentucky woman trying to kill bedbugs accidentally started a fire that destroyed several apartments in downtown Carlisle in Nicholas County. It took firefighters from several counties to put it out. Not only had to battle the flames, but the extreme heat as well. You could see the flames shooting out from the apartment's roof from several blocks away. "I was scared to death for my husband because he was in the apartment," says Vicky Bussell, who lived there.
Firefighters disappeared into the smoke as they climbed the ladder to make sure everyone was out the building. It took hours to get a handle on the out of control fire. "I've never really seen anything like this before," says Brianna Ross. About 30 people lost their homes. Six families in the apartment building where the fire started, and ten families next door. "It damages you. It's hard when you lose everything," Bussell says.
The Carlisle Fire Chief says a woman doused her couch in alcohol to try to get rid of bed bugs, and when she dropped her cigarette, the fire started. "They're just belongings, you can replace them anytime. Main thing is, nobody got hurt," says Randal Lutes, who lost everything. While everyone did make it out, four people were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation. Jackie Bond's mother was one of them:
"My mom's bed ridden. I take care of her everyday. I don't know where I'm going to take her, I don't know what to do." Red Cross will be helping some of these people with a place to stay Friday night, but after that, many of these fire victims say they don't know where they'll go. "I guess i just work until we build everything back up," Bond says. "Everybody's alive. As long as everybody's alive, I'll find a way. I'll have to."FeedUnfurl
Notes Last month, the 6,200 residents of Bethel, Alaska, got their collective hopes up after news spread that a Taco Bell restaurant was opening in town. More » Unfurl
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Contemporary games are designed so the player can never lose. No matter how badly you play you can always recover or reload and keep going. It’s good design, it encourages players to explore, it avoids frustration. But not being able to fail removes some challenge. If you can’t lose, then is winning really that interesting?
I’m proud because this weekend I got my Hardcore Monk to level 60. Hardcore mode in Diablo 3 is a game you can lose. It’s permadeath; if you screw up your game is done, your character is gone, you have to start over. Most players of Diablo don’t play hardcore; in a normal game if you die you just reload. I played through the game in normal mode first myself. But hardcore is more exciting. And while I didn’t beat the hardest challenge in the game yet, I have played the guy for 45 hours without ever screwing up too badly.
The tension is amazing. For example the boss fights; once you jump into the arena with Diablo you can’t leave. One of you is going to die. But the bosses aren’t the hardest part of the game, the optional champion packs are. And there the anxiety is incredible. I see a group with something hard like molten + frozen + vortex and have to make an instant choice. Do I risk fighting them? Do I avoid them and look for easier targets?
Most of the time I engage because I’m playing for the challenge. And then sometimes things go badly and I’m running for my life, for my 45 hours invested, and those moments of fear and excitement are some of the most visceral experiences I’ve had playing a game in years. Since playing Eve Online, really.
So I’m loving hardcore Diablo. It helps that I’m winning, I imagine I’m going to be pretty angry when I finally screw up. I’m not a very good loser.FeedUnfurl
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An Alzheimer’s Researcher Ends Up on the Drug She Helped Invent
Dr. Rae Lyn Burke was working on a vaccine to help reverse Alzheimer’s dementia symptoms, when she began to succumb to the very disease she was researching. Through her ongoing work in the lab, and now as a patient advocate, she’s calling for more research and especially more understanding of what Alzheimer’s really means:
“It would be good to overcome this stigma, particularly for younger-onset individuals. We educate the public about handling physical disabilities but not so well for people with mental disabilities. We can walk fast, but we think slow. People should know more about the nature of the mental disability. Also, we need to educate the public that this is not just a disease of the elderly. Younger people too can be cut off in their prime.”
More at The Atlantic, a great read.
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On Thursday Mozilla Popcorn ran it’s first Storycamp Livecast with Damain Kulash from the wildly successful band OK Go! For an entire hour Damian talked about his band’s web videos, their success, inspiration, where ideas take hold. Damian talked about the web as a canvas and overcoming adversity, sticking to your guns and how failure is part of the process. He talked about coming up with ideas and iterating on them. He talked about creativity, fear, and what the secret of going viral is.
While it was fascinating for those of us that have seen the famous treadmill video, I feel like there was a little (and I mean very small) cultural gap between us OK Go fans and the youth participating in Storycamp. (Some of the feedback we received said as much, am I really so old?)
Part of the problem is that Damian’s fame likely dictates his schedule, meaning that although he took the hour to speak to all of us, he likely didn’t have time to read into what Storycamp is about. But that’s ok, he was totally on the ball. Damian said a few things that would inspire anyone:
And he’s proven with his testimony on Net Neutrality to be a friend of the Open Web.
We definitely got some great feedback from all of the instructors running Storycamp in their organizations, and a huge win in week one (and mirrored ever so spectacularly by the weekend launch of the Mozilla Summer Code Party) was our learn by making philosophy. Jacob Caggiano is going to be blogging about the Robots template (will link as soon as it’s written), a project that uses Popcorn to create a procedural story. Everyone is diggin’ the Robots template, so go try it out!
Part of what’s awesome about releasing early and releasing often is that the feedback you receive will take your work in directions you didn’t think possible or necessary. I’ve already got initial ideas on how we can improve Storycamp’s content and resources, what new stuff we should create, and how we can better support those brave people that take our Alpha work and run with it.
I can’t wait to see what this week’s speaker, Cory Doctorow, has for us, but even more than that, I can’t wait to hear the feedback from the instructors and participants on the ground. We can’t wait to hear what you dislike, what you love, what you wish were different about everything we’re doing. Tell us everything, and share your webmaking experiences!
Related articles
The weekend the world learned the web (openmatt.org)
And we have #StoryCamp liftoff! (zythepsary.com)
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This little feller is Agriarctos beatrix, which roamed the forests of Spain some eleven million years ago. It represents the earliest known member of the giant panda's evolutionary subfamily, and it was pretty much just ridiculously adorable.
Agriarctos beatrix is a member of the Ailuropodinae subfamily, which is one taxonomic level below the Ursid family in which all bears are a member. The Ailuropodinae subfamily is a lonely bunch, with the giant panda the only living member. This particular species, found near Nombrevilla in Zaragoza, Spain, is one of the most distant relatives of the panda that we've discovered, and we only know it from a pair of fossilized teeth.
Still, even with so little to go on, the team from Spain's National Museum of Natural Sciences and the University Valencia have been able to make some intriguing guesses about just what the bear was like, as you can see in the reconstruction above. Researcher Juan Abella explains:
"This bear species was small, even smaller than the Sun bear — currently the smallest bear species. It would not have weighed more than 60 kilos. This fur pattern is considered primitive for bears, such as that of the giant panda whose white spots are so big that it actually seems to be white with black spots. Its diet would have been similar to that of the sun bear or the spectacled bear that only eat vegetables and fruit and sometimes vertebrates, insects, honey and dead animals."
My favorite detail though has to be this one from the press release, which sounds wonderfully unlike typical bear behavior:
Agriarctos beatrix, from the Ursidae family and related to giant pandas, would have lived in the forest and could have been more sessile that those bears that tend to hunt more, such as the brown or polar bears. According to researchers, the extinct bear would have escaped from other larger carnivores by climbing up trees.
Via Estudios Geológicos. Image by SNIC.
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I included the image of the Nerf dart next to the Jolt EX-1 in the above picture so you can see the size of this new gun. It's tiny. It fits in your hand, it's easy to conceal, and you can whip it out quickly and shoot someone in the face with it. I would not suggest doing so in a social situation unless you are much larger than the victim. This is why I chose, once again, to test the gun on my children.
The surprising thing about the gun, which sells for around under $10, is that it's powerful.
Read the comments on this post
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Notes Don Draper is no longer Mad Men's hero. That honor now belongs to Michael Ginsberg, the young Jewish copywriter whose work has already upstaged Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce's longtime brilliant creative director. More » Unfurl
Notes A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that over a 13-year period studied, there "was a significant inverse association between coffee consumption and mortality," meaning that people who drank coffee had a lower risk of death, particularly from "heart disease, respiratory problems, strokes, injuries and accidents, diabetes and infections." More » Unfurl
Notes When nine-year-old Josef Miles spotted members of Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church doing their hate-mongering thing on the Washburn University campus in Topeka, he asked his mother, Patty Akrouche, if he could stage a small counter-protest to their message of intolerance. More » Unfurl
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Sixteen years ago, aerospace engineer Robert Zubrin wrote The Case for Mars, outlining his plan for a manned mission to Mars. Since then, we haven't put a human on the Red Planet or returned to the moon, and Zubrin argues that one reason is that we are too obsessed with the safety of astronauts.
Zubrin's article "How Much Is an Astronaut's Life Worth?" appeared in the February issue of the magazine Reason. The gist of his argument is laid out in the video above: that NASA fails to perform an appropriate cost-benefit analysis when deciding whether to send astronauts on missions, instead valuing the life of the astronaut above all. Zubrin notes that other government agencies do these analyses all the time; for example, the Department of Transportation will reject a safety improvement proposal if the proposed expenditure will cost more than $3 million per life saved. Even if we valued an astronaut's training and skills at $50 million per astronaut, Zubrin argues that doesn't justify, for example, the cancellation of the mission to save, repair, and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope in 2004 due to risk of astronaut death.
Zubrin is arguing in part for allowing astronauts to decide for themselves whether to accept the risk of manned missions to Mars and the moon, but also for risking human life to maintain and improve pieces of our space research infrastructure. I suspect, though, that NASA is considering not only the individual worth of an astronaut, but also how the death of an astronaut affects the public's view of the space program. It will be interesting to see if, with the advent of commercial space ventures, astronaut death will become a more routine aspect of space exploration, and whether the public at large will accept those deaths as a cost of human expansion into space.
What is an Astronaut's Life Worth?: An Interview with Robert Zubrin [via reddit]
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Client: We won’t be paying. We didn’t use your material.
Me: You didn’t? I saw the brochure today, it is exactly what I designed for you.
Client: No, it isn’t. You sent us a PDF of the document. We did not print the PDF, we took a screen capture of it and pasted it into Word. That’s what we printed.
Me: Regardless of format, I designed it. I delivered what we agreed upon in the contract you signed.
Client: Well, we didn’t print from your file, we used it in a different format.
Me: Okay, I think you’re misunderstanding something. I’ll have my lawyer explain it to you on Monday.
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Client: All our sites are down!
Me: Seems fine here.
Client: We pay you to maintain this stuff, not cause more problems!
Me: I didn’t take your sites down. How do you know it’s my fault?
Client: It can’t be our fault! Our internet doesn’t even seem to be working!
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The artwork of Randy Regier channels the dime store toy aisles and the flashy comic book advertisements of the 1950s and 1960s. His toys promise rip-roaring thrills on their colorful packages...and deliver confusion, horror, and crushing disappointment once de-boxed.
Let's take a look at some of Randy's unabashedly rip-off playthings like John Manshaft the misleading action figure — he comes with hand-painted socks! — and the gasoline-fueled "electric Sun."
Regier's toys are filled with various forms of snake oil sleight of hand. A box that screams ELECTRIC TRAIN SET contains small print denoting it's actually an ELECTRIC man waiting for a TRAIN SET — the locomotive is nowhere to be found.
His John Manshaft line boasts exciting box art of the hero in space and medieval times, but most boxes only contain a single forlorn, bug-eyed action figure in his underwear (Manufacturer Gypco Toys covertly informs the consumer to "cut out box lid for clothes and accessories.") Still other doodads are plain unsettling — look no further than the prancing abomination Tardy the Man Pony. Here's a sampling of Regier's many demented playthings.
"Ric was apparently a regional politician who had these sets made to give the children of potential supporters. Set is filled with miniature campaign signs bearing Ric's name, but no cars are in evidence."
"Note fine print on box front, 'not actual size.' Actual toy in box is red tin sedan scarcely four inches in length."
"American Battery Using Astronaut — requires seven batteries but has no apparent functions."
"Fine print on box says, 'See end panel for model this kit builds.' End panel says, 'Pot with lid and spatula.'"
"Made of cast iron, weighs over 100 pounds."
"Block of wood comes with carving knife attached. Knife in this kit has been broken."
You can see many more of Regier's Americana hellhole artifacts at his Flickr account and website. And if you're especially lucky, he must just have a spare Tardy action figure on the market, looking for a loving home.
[Spotted on I♥C]
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Inflatable Cthulhu Arm, A Giant Wearable Tentacle
fuck yeah dementia!!1!/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/14000865/large_walled_garden.1419970597.jpeg)
Twitter follows Facebook down the walled garden path | The Verge
That’s a lot of limited edition/kinda obscure... - Tiny Cartridge - Nintendo DS, DSi, & 3DS News, Media, Videos, Imports, Homebrew, & Retro Junk
Spelunky review: Obtainer of rare antiquities, giver of aneurysms | Joystiq
Golgo 13 watches, guys. You can live your life... - Tiny Cartridge - Nintendo DS, DSi, & 3DS News, Media, Videos, Imports, Homebrew, & Retro Junk
Super Metroid poster by Ian Wilding. It’s a little... - Tiny Cartridge - Nintendo DS, DSi, & 3DS News, Media, Videos, Imports, Homebrew, & Retro Junk
Nothing To Do With Arbroath: Woman trying to kill bedbugs burns down apartment block making 30 people homeless
Nelson's Weblog: culture / games / diablo-hardcore-monk
OK Go…Be a Webmaker! | Zythepsary
The Nerf Jolt EX-1 is small, concealable, accurate, and it stings a little | Ars Technica
xkcd: Kickstarter
Client: We won’t be paying. We didn’t use your...
WORLD’S BIGGEST BUTT | Weekly World News