caseymalone:

No grand conspiracy, no ‘white guilt’ - I was playing the game, and when all 30 characters were unlocked, they appeared on screen at once, and I was struck by how the overwhelming majority of them were white. … I thought about what I saw on the screen, and formed the opinion “Nintendo can do better than this.”

sudama shared this story from Waxy.org Links.

resize your browser window  

Short documentary on Greenbelt Knoll, Philadelphia’s first integrated development. We were driving by and the beautiful homes stopped us in our tracks. It’s delightful to learn that the neighborhood has such a remarkable history.

allisonburtch:

This Firefox addon iterates through all of the html text in your browser and whenever it finds a person or corporation from the data, it illuminates that relationship a little bit.

The main problem I was trying to solve was how to increase the spread of information about political…

sudama shared this story from Seriously.

I was reminded today that former Pirate Dock Ellis has always been one of my favorite athletes.

1. He pitched a no-hitter while he was tripping on LSD

2. He used to wear these curlers in his hair onto the field until the league banned him from doing so.

3. He once tried to hit every player on the Reds with a fastball to start a game. He hit three batters, and attempted to hit two more before getting thrown out.

4. He once chased a racist heckler into the stands with a baseball bat.

5. He was in general outspoken and intolerant of racism in baseball during an era when not many players would be.

(The “hate better” quote came after he sued the Cincinatti Reds for macing him before a game because a security guard didn’t know he was a player trying to get into the stadium. He won his lawsuit.)

loladelphia:

Today was a landmark day in the city of Philadelphia and the commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a federal judge within the state ruled the state’s ban on gay marriage to be unconstitutional. If the ruling is not successfully challenged, it will mean that Pennsylvania will become the 19th state to…

notational:

thingsmegansees:

1. Resilience over strength
2. Pull over push
3. Risk over safety
4. Systems over objects
5. Compasses over maps
6. Practice over theory
7. Disobedience over compliance
8. Emergence over authority
9. Learning over education

The page includes a little description/explanation of each principle.

Thinking about this again.

sudama shared this story from Seriously.

“The brutal truth is that the bulk of white people in American never had any interest in educating black people, except as this could serve white purposes. It is not the black child’s language that is in question, it is not his language that is despised: It is his experience. A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled. A child cannot be taught by anyone whose demand, essentially, is that the child repudiate his experience, and all that gives him sustenance, and enter a limbo in which he will no longer be black, and in which he knows that he can never become white. Black people have lost too many black children that way. And, after all, finally, in a country with standards so untrustworthy, a country that makes heroes of so many criminal mediocrities, a country unable to face why so many of the nonwhite are in prison, or on the needle, or standing, futureless, in the streets—it may very well be that both the child, and his elder, have concluded that they have nothing whatever to learn from the people of a country that has managed to learn so little.”

-

If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?

James Baldwin’s concluding graf is the literary equivalent of the mic drop.

(via syreetamcfadden)

sudama shared this story from Popular Posts Across MetaFilter.

…which are easy to explain.

“They took YouTube and fucked it in the ass” — wow, this is good. Eases the pain a little, somehow.

sudama shared this story from Waxy.org Links.

Jay Smooth breaks down a new report on media coverage of race  

sudama shared this story from Popular Posts Across MetaFilter.

I have a digital subscription to the New Yorker. I love it dearly when I make time to read it. I haven’t made the time in… about two years… and I would like to read the best articles I’ve missed in that time. So: which articles published in the New Yorker in 2012 and 2013 are absolute must-reads?

sudama shared this story from Tyler Cowen’s Ethnic Dining Guide.

I’ve never understood this argument, which is sometimes cited as a reason to go to a non-Indian restaurant on a given day. How should people cope who live in India? They have Indian food many, many days in a row, and often (not always, by any means) poorer Indians are choosing from a less varied menu of that food than Americans who visit Indian restaurants. Would it be so terrible to eat only Indian food, whether at home or in restaurants, every day for a week? Every day for a month? I don”t see why. So how about two days in a row? Or two meals in a row? Three? What if you had Indo-Chinese food somewhere in the middle of the sequence? Momos cooked by Nepalese immigrants?

Until a group meal yesterday, I had Korean food five days in a row, three meals a day, much to my joy. I bet some Koreans, in Korea, did the same.

Originally posted on Marginal Revolution – click to see comments and suggestions.

nextwavefutures:

Basically: extreme Taylorism with digital tracking. From Simon Head’s new book, Mindless

[Its Chief of Operations and Customer Relations] Mark Onetto in his lecture describes in detail how Amazon’s present-day scientific managers go about achieving speedup. They observe the line, create a…

“All mammals play when they are young and those that have the most to learn play the most. Carnivores play more than herbivores, because hunting is harder to learn than grazing. Primates play more than other mammals, because their way of life depends more on learning and less on fixed instincts than does that of other mammals. Human children, who have the most to learn, play far more than any other primates when they are allowed to do so. Play is the natural means by which children and other young mammals educate themselves. In hunter-gatherer bands, children are allowed to play and explore in their own chosen ways all day long, every day, because the adults understand that this is how they practise the skills that they must acquire to become effective adults.

The most important skills that children everywhere must learn in order to live happy, productive, moral lives are skills that cannot be taught in school. Such skills cannot be taught at all. They are learned and practised by children in play.”

kenyatta:

Ripping up the playground rulebook is having incredible effects on children at an Auckland school.

Chaos may reign at Swanson Primary School with children climbing trees, riding skateboards and playing bullrush during playtime, but surprisingly the students don’t cause bedlam, the principal says.

The school is actually seeing a drop in bullying, serious injuries and vandalism, while concentration levels in class are increasing.

Principal Bruce McLachlan rid the school of playtime rules as part of a successful university experiment.

"We want kids to be safe and to look after them, but we end up wrapping them in cotton wool when in fact they should be able to fall over."

Letting children test themselves on a scooter during playtime could make them more aware of the dangers when getting behind the wheel of a car in high school, he said.

"When you look at our playground it looks chaotic. From an adult’s perspective, it looks like kids might get hurt, but they don’t."

Swanson School signed up to the study by AUT and Otago University just over two years ago, with the aim of encouraging active play.

However, the school took the experiment a step further by abandoning the rules completely, much to the horror of some teachers at the time, he said.

When the university study wrapped up at the end of last year the school and researchers were amazed by the results.

Mudslides, skateboarding, bullrush and tree climbing kept the children so occupied the school no longer needed a timeout area or as many teachers on patrol.

Instead of a playground, children used their imagination to play in a “loose parts pit” which contained junk such as wood, tyres and an old fire hose.

sudama shared this story from iPhone Atlas: Apple iPhone tips, how-tos, troubleshooting, and news - CNET Reviews.

I’ve stopped carrying my Fitbit, now that the Fitbit app can track my steps using the iPhone 5S’s built-in motion tracker.

I haven’t charged my Fitbit Ultra in over three weeks. And I doubt I ever will again.

Ever since I bought an iPhone 5S, I’ve kept an eye on how the embedded M7 motion coprocessor co-processor chip, which can track and store motion information, would be used. It wasn’t clear when the iPhone 5S was launched exactly how the M7’s data would be available, but after a few months, fitness apps like the Nike+ Move starting adding support for basic step-counting functionality.

While I started tracking my steps with both my Fitbit and Nike’s app at first, the clincher for me was when the Fitbit app for iOS was updated at the end of 2013, allowing the standard Fitbit app to track steps using the iPhone 5S’s internal hardware. Now I could get nearly the same activity tracking us… u… [Read more]

I totally screwed up #5, but this is some great advice.

I’ll always be drawn to New York like a moth to a flame.

kenyatta:

A photo of a Canadian RCMP officer taking a pic of a young bear makes the news in 2011.

The photo gets famous on Tumblr in late 2013. Someone in the reblog suggests that it’d make a great cartoon:

An artist (lemonteaflower) creates single pane art of the imagined cartoon…

sudama shared this story from PetaPixel.

I recently got asked to shoot photos for a show called “The Haves and HaveNots” for the Oprah Winfrey Network. I’ve shot many shows in my career and I always enjoy these shoots because there are so many challenges involved.

There’s tons of “talent” aka celebrities involved, all their teams, all the hair, makeup and wardrobe involved, there’s very limited time, there are tons of shots to create, there’s an immense pressure to “nail” the creative concept and obviously there is usually lots of money involved. These are high budget, high-pressure shoots. It’s diving into the deep end for sure, as far as photography is concerned. And I love that challenge. I love stepping up to the plate and going for the homerun.

But one of the things I DON’T love about these shoots is that I never really get to connect with the people I’m shooting. They’re in and out in minutes. Sometimes I literally am only able to take a few pictures before they’re wisked away.

This is one of those VERY few rare occasions where I was able to connect. And I have my subject to thank for allowing me into his story.

One of the cast members was John Schneider. You might know him from his work on “Dukes of Hazard” or “Smallville”. John was one of my many subjects that day and like the rest of the cast, he was extremely professional, humble and a lot of fun to work with. He was killing his portraits… smiling, goofing off and he even threw in several impressions of famous actors and presidents. I was very impressed by his talent and good-natured humor. You can see some of those portraits below.

Towards the end of his session, we brought in one of the female cast members to interact with. They were dancing, laughing and having a great time. Again, I was very impressed by his ability to light up the camera and have a good time.

Once we wrapped up his session, the female walked off set and John came to me and whispered in my ear “Hey can you sneak a few more portraits of me?” and I said “sure of course”. He said “there’s something going on and I just need a photo.”

So I grabbed my camera again and John walked back on set.

He immediately began weeping. Legitimately crying. He was so good at impressions that I thought this was another impression and I thought “wow, what an acting talent.”

But then after a couple of frames, I could tell that this wasn’t an act. He was really somewhere else.

Finally, I put my camera down. This was too real. It didn’t feel right to keep shooting.

So I walked up to him and hugged him.

He whispered in my ear “My Dad died about an hour ago. I found out during our lunch break. And I wanted you to capture that for me.”

Then he walked up to my screen, looked at the portraits and pointed to the last one (seen above, last) and said “That’s it. That’s my Dad.”

“I’m so sorry.” I said. I was stunned. Shocked. And deeply moved, obviously.
I didn’t want to ask any further questions out of respect.

John took off shortly thereafter to go back home to plan the next steps with his family.

I’ve since received official permission from John to share this story and these portraits with you. I will never forget this moment. And I want to thank John for inviting me into his story, even just for a moment and for allowing me to capture this for him.

As a father myself, I wept for him. We all did that day.

About the author: Jeremy is a Celebrity Photographer, Entrepreneur and a Humanitarian. He founded a global photography movement called Help-Portrait and recently launched an iPhone App/Social Network called OKDOTHIS. His goal in life is to use his platform, ideas and creativity to inspire and help others in need. You follow him and see more of his work on his website, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and OKDOTHIS. This article was originally published here.

via sudama’s blurblog

A once-in-a-lifetime sale from Cards Against Humanity

It is a long-standing randomWalks tradition to observe and promote Buy Nothing Day, but this deal is simply too good to ignore.

Hey Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post, take a look at this: Isaiah Carter has fixed your disastrous Cohen piece with three edits, to three sentences. You said you could do it in one, but we’re still waiting for your one-sentence edit which clarifies this debacle. 

(PDF)

At first, the moderator — a sweet-voiced writer from the LA Times — asked them typical, if interesting, questions. “What’s your favorite stunts?” “Your most challenging costumes?” “Do you have trouble leaving your character behind?” That kind of thing.

Then, she half-turned to look at them. “What’s the most egregious example of sexism you’ve seen on set?”

"Some actor dude once said chicks couldn’t drive cars," Michelle scoffed. “I was like, ‘Move over.’" 

The audience laughed a little. Sexism! Girls can drive cars. Silly sexist actor boys. No one in the audience was like them.

"One time when a crew member started hitting on me when I was tied to a bed for a scene," Tatiana Maslany offered. “I was young. I was just starting out. I couldn’t get away."

Less laughter now from the audience. 

"Once a guy on set kinda beat the shit out of me during a fight scene," Katee Sackhoff said. “He said he thought I could ‘handle it.’"

No laughter now. Lots of squirming. The guy beside me was checking Twitter. 

"He’s lucky I wasn’t there," Michelle said. “That kind of thing makes my blood boil.”

Silence.

Onstage, though, it was like a fucking dam had broken. Michelle lectured us all, at length, on how 80% of the content written for women is by guys, and how they don’t know shit. “Dudes, I love dudes,” I remember her saying, “But they don’t know how to write for women.” Maggie Q talked about how, as an Asian-American actress, everyone expects her to be quiet and demure and also know how to do kung-fu in heels. Danai Gurira actually used the phrase “white male privilege.” In a room full of 6,000 Marvel fanboys! Male privilege.

I kept screaming, entirely spontaneously, like the sound was being ripped out of me. I couldn’t help it. I think I cried a little. I felt like I was in church.

Estimate by Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, who knows something about data storage. If you don’t want to click, it’s about one twenty-five thousandth of the defense budget.

If you haven’t seen the Embroidery Trouble Shooting Page yet, go now.

monkeyajb:

This article is great. If you haven’t read it yet, you should. It details the search for, and eventual interview with, a guy who ran some really terrible subreddits on Reddit. It’s so interesting.

1. I can’t think of a “print-primary” publication that could have done this reporting, and run…

buskingghostszine:

Like the idea of travelling by foot? Here are Nick Papadimitriou’s 6 top tips to kickstart your deep topography experience…

1. Go walking. Stay away from bright lights.
2. Explore second hand bookshops. Buy books on topography – on areas, regions, counties. Study them. Then walk around and see…

“Drift helps you get lost in familiar places by guiding you on a walk using randomly assembled instructions. Each instruction will ask you to move in a specific direction and, using the compass, look for something normally hidden or unnoticed in our everyday experiences."

Another iOS app and corresponding (pending) website. I don’t know why the idea of talking random walks excites me so!

This link is my blogroll

sinker:

My favorite moments in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are are not the beautiful scenes of the wild rumpus, so vivid and alive. Instead, I’ve always been partial to the quiet moments at the start of the book, where Max’s room slowly transforms into the jungle and endless sea that leads…

via @TMNheadlines

“Eight talking points about the potentially fatal condition of being Black” by Touré

“There is no undo."

Click on ‘interactive graphics’ for a look at how Google intentionally circumvents users’ privacy settings to track their web activity. Immoral? Yes. “Profoundly immoral”? I guess that’s arguable, but is it possible anymore to hope that Google is inculcating respect for users across their organization? No. Update: Apparently Siegler and Battelle are taking the position that privacy settings should be treated as just a suggestion or disregarded entirely in the spirit of good old-fashioned ingenuity. Unbelievable.

Mr. Chase blogs about math

monkeyajb:

Touré has released his pick for Hip-Hop album of the year, and it’s undun. When I saw this review finally written, I got really happy for a moment; Touré is a great music critic, a great writer, and his endorsement seems really meaningful. So many blockbuster releases this year are getting…

THERE IS SO MUCH TO LIKE ABOUT THIS POST

I can’t believe I missed this! I knew I missed something!

monkeyajb:

I really love The Roots and Black Thought is one of my favorite MC’s. I haven’t purchased undun yet but I’ve been listening to it and it really is great and interesting and fulfilling. If you haven’t yet, please go buy it or listen to it or experience it.

This article in Capital is; fun to read,…

(remember Everything2?)

amaditalks:

The recent illustrations of Siri, the iPhone 4S voice-recognition based assistant, failing to provide information to users about abortion, birth control, help after rape and help with domestic violence has gotten a lot of notice. Yesterday’s post with screenshots…

(Via @megnut, @lia)

anil:

Today, ThinkUp is out of beta and available for free. If you have a presence on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ and know how to run a PHP/MySQL app on a web server (or on EC2), you should…

“Without toys or exercise wheels to distract them, the mice are left with nothing to do but eat and sleep—and then eat some more. That such a lifestyle would make rodents unhealthy, and thus of limited use for research, may seem obvious, but the problem appears to be so flagrant and widespread that few scientists bother to consider it. “

(via Waxy.org Links )

OMG (via DCist )

(via DCist )

(via Scripting News )

(via PetaPixel )

(via inessential.com )

(via Marco.org )

(via docs.google.com )

(via PetaPixel )

(via Evolutionary Psychiatry )

(via quid.pro )

(via Holy Scrap )

(via Runblogger )

(via Design Milk )

(via Scripting News )

(via Design Milk )

(via Mike Went West )

(via Modcult )

(via Undernews )

(via Official Google Reader Blog )

(via Waxy.org Links )

(via Fuck Yeah, Allen Ginsberg. )

Such modcult material… (via The Generalist )

(via Waxy.org Links )

(via Seriously )

(via ian spalter )

(via Root Simple )

(via Daring Fireball )

SPOILER: bespoke milkcrates!

IMPORTANT (via KurzweilAI » News )

I would queue this but the news can’t wait!

(via The Art Center )

Do people still say hot because this is hot. (via ian spalter )

(via Technoccult )

(via Fuck Yeah, Allen Ginsberg. )

(via PetaPixel )

(via today and tomorrow )

Oh hell yes! (via Photos from sudama’s friends and family )

(via kottke.org )

“Now it’s back from nowhere and even thought I never agreed anything, this app has the permission to collect data about: My location (fine GPS location) My personnal information (read/write contact data) My Internet communication (full Internet access) My accounts (and even act as an account authenticator and manage my accounts list) My phone calls And of course it has the permission to modify/delete SD card contents, prevent phone from sleeping, write sync settings, control the vibrator, etc… And all this shit even if 1) you never agreed to any of these and 2) you are not a facebook user."

(via anildash’s YouTube Activity )

(via PetaPixel )

(via www.mnftiu.cc )

Is this guy the most bloggable photographer or what? http://www.randomwalks.com/2000/04/justin_quinnells_bath_as_seen.html (via PetaPixel )

(via kottke.org )

(via Streets Dept )

Do the pot cartels really have this much influence with the federal govt? (via The Atlantic Wire )

Jason rounds up the most important links about Jobs.

(via MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - Mac Blog )

(via Daring Fireball )

(via Fuck Yeah, Allen Ginsberg. )

(via Scripting News )

(via PetaPixel )

(via Cool Tools )

(via Scripting News )

“The Wirecutter is mostly a list of amazing gadgets."

Exactly wrong; look for the mea culpa in ~25 yrs. (via BBC News - Home )

(via eats shoots ‘n leaves )

(via PetaPixel )

(via Rebecca’s Pocket )

(via Hacking NetFlix )

(via Smarterware )

(via Modcult )

How demoralizing it must be to work in marketing there… (via Daring Fireball )

monkeyajb:

It’s only logical that a Philadelphian who knows about the High Line park in New York would ask the question “When will Philly do the same with the Reading Viaduct?”

The answer, in a logical, only-in-Philly way, may be never — due to political, neighborhood, financial, and general urban…

(via kottke.org )

(via Root Simple )

This is a preview of the new Facebook, right? (via kottke.org )

(via PetaPixel )

(via kottke.org )

(via Streets Dept )

(via xkcd.com )

(via Modcult )

(via The Funny Blog - Ouchmytoe.com )

(via Social Design Notes )

(via MAKE )

(via monkinetic weblog | monkinetic.com )

(via PetaPixel )

(via today and tomorrow )

(via today and tomorrow )

(via Hunter-Gatherer - How to live wild in the modern world )

(via Cool Tools )

(via Root Simple )

(via PetaPixel )

(via Daring Fireball )

(via Feminist Philosophers )

(via Modcult )

(via Evolutionary Psychiatry )

(via Scripting News )

(via Cool Tools )

(via Rebecca’s Pocket )

(via Runblogger )

(via Paper Bits )

I am haunted with worry for that little boy. (via Seriously )

(via kottke.org )

Is privacy an anachronism? (via picturephoning.com )

(via www.rootsimple.com )

Shared with love as though my wife ever read any of this stuff. (via Copenhagenize.com - Building Better Bicycle Cultures )

(via BBC News - Home )

Huh. (via Undernews )

Noooooooooooooooooooo! (via Techdirt )

“The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl” is a web series I’ve been meaning to watch. (via Popular Posts Across MetaFilter )

(via kottke.org )

(via Undernews )

(via Social Design Notes )

What about The Roots’ album? That is some shoddy reporting. (via Books news, reviews and author interviews | guardian.co.uk )

(via Daring Fireball )

benjamin-palmer:

Life feeds off of life.

I felt that to remove myself from this cycle was almost more unnatural than the “natural diet” I thought I was trying to follow. I had been internally struggling with the animal abolitionist approach for a while, and it wasn’t resonating as strongly with me anymore; the idea that any animal usage is categorically wrong looks good on paper, but it doesn’t function too well taken out of the hypothetical and put into the context of the real world or my cognition.

How I stand now is that I recognize and respect the sentience of animals; at the same time I recognize and respect death and slaughter as part of life.

via @mccreath

A lot of the slides are up. This is the most important happening in 2011 to date, mark my words.

An ex-vegan on veganism.

alhorner:

Being “backstage” at Glastonbury comes with quite lofty expectations: rubbing shoulders with stars, being witness to the crazed antics of coke-riddled rock stars, so on and so forth. However, the reality of working behind the scenes at the festival, sadly, has more to do with queueing for portaloos…

I saw this once years ago and have looked for it a half-dozen times since then to no avail. Finally, avail! This remains one of the most important prototype social apps extant.

Improved handling of kerning pairs and ligatures in modern browsers using the text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; declaration.

“A growing number of futurists” giving up on civilization & starting over. Tee-hee!

Best blog name since “randomWalks”.

monkeyajb:

There are so many strange racial plot lines in my wonderful neighborhood. I’m in Red Caps Corner, a shop dedicated to card games, dungeon and dragons, warhammer etc. In the open game room, I was pleased to see an almost even split between white and black. But even in this room with this split, it…