“Fuck that shit,” Harper Reed, Obama’s former chief technology officer, told us. “It is GIF.”
“It is GIF all the way, and I do not care what the founder thinks,” added Teddy Goff, the Obama campaign’s digital director.
“If people think it’s JIF,” Michael Slaby, Obama’s former chief integration and innovation officer, chimed in,”they’re not very smart.
Obama Tech Team on GIFs: Hard G! — Daily Intelligencer
I don’t think there’s a gif close to expressing how much pride I feel right now.
(via amazur)
LOVE. THESE. REDESIGNS. Kinda want the Catwoman hoodie.
STUNNING! These “practical” superheroine redesigns by Meredith McClaren are just to die for. I love how fashionable they are, how much they take into consideration the real world, there’s a practicality and function that is nevertheless completely badass. They’re also so far away from “basic catsuit” type stuff that it all feels so damn new and fresh!I mean…Look at that freaking Zatanna! I’ve never seen anything like that!
AND, you’ll be able to buy the original line art for some of these as she releases rewards this week for her AWESOME KICKSTARTER…although you guys are going to have to fight me for that Catwoman.
These are so amazing guys!
Meredith is beyond talented.
If you haven’t already you should go support her Kickstarter.
It turns out procrastination is not typically a function of laziness, apathy or work ethic as it is often regarded to be. It’s a neurotic self-defense behavior that develops to protect a person’s sense of self-worth.
You see, procrastinators tend to be people who have, for whatever reason, developed to perceive an unusually strong association between their performance and their value as a person. This makes failure or criticism disproportionately painful, which leads naturally to hesitancy when it comes to the prospect of doing anything that reflects their ability — which is pretty much everything.
But in real life, you can’t avoid doing things. We have to earn a living, do our taxes, have difficult conversations sometimes. Human life requires confronting uncertainty and risk, so pressure mounts. Procrastination gives a person a temporary hit of relief from this pressure of “having to do” things, which is a self-rewarding behavior. So it continues and becomes the normal way to respond to these pressures.
Particularly prone to serious procrastination problems are children who grew up with unusually high expectations placed on them. Their older siblings may have been high achievers, leaving big shoes to fill, or their parents may have had neurotic and inhuman expectations of their own, or else they exhibited exceptional talents early on, and thereafter “average” performances were met with concern and suspicion from parents and teachers.
Disney’s new Star Wars movie will be all original
By Meredith Woerner
After a hefty amount of speculation on what inspirations Disney and Lucasfilm would use for the plot of Star Wars: Episode VII, the latest reports claim the new movie won’t be based on any existing source material. Forget Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy , the video games and the graphic novels. The next Star Wars is a brand new story.
If they had just used the Thrawn Trilogy or any other story from the expanded universe, I would have been excited, but seeing as how they intend to create a script from scratch and finish production within two years… I just can’t see it being a quality movie.
I fear that with this kind of approach new Star Wars movies will become like all those terrible direct to VHS movies that Disney was once so fond of.
In the not so distant past, we had the great pleasure to put on An Eclectic Affair, our largest and most varied event to date. It is far past the time to show everybody that could not make it some of the splendors that they missed, and to remind those that were there of the wonders they beheld.
Many thanks to the fantastic Daria Melnikova for capturing and editing the videos seen here.
Tremble in fear and delight as the Lord Baron Joseph C.R. Vourteque interviews the dangerous Steampunk Boba Fett and marvelous Hayley Jane in his Family Cocktail Hour:
Take in the inimitable and unforgettable sounds of Ford Theatre Reunion:
And finally, be mesmerized by the grace and beauty of Satina Braswell’s hooping:
In a simple experiment, researchers at the University of Chicago sought to find out whether a rat would release a fellow rat from an unpleasantly restrictive cage if it could. The answer was yes.
The free rat, occasionally hearing distress calls from its compatriot, learned to open the cage and did so with greater efficiency over time. It would release the other animal even if there wasn’t the payoff of a reunion with it. Astonishingly, if given access to a small hoard of chocolate chips, the free rat would usually save at least one treat for the captive— which is a lot to expect of a rat.
The researchers came to the unavoidable conclusion that what they were seeing was empathy— and apparently selfless behavior driven by that mental state.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/a-new-model-of-empathy-the-rat/2011/12/08/gIQAAx0jfO_story.html
I’ve been watching this wonderful sendoff video for Russel T. Davies and Julie Gardner after they finished their run on Doctor Who three times each day since I happened upon it. I hope you will too!
As a bonus, here’s a video of the cast and crew singing ”(I’m Gonna Be) 500 Miles” by The Proclaimers:
(Source: io9.com)
Materialism and the Cloud
As more of my things become ethereal information in the cloud, am I free of my material goods, or more attached than ever before?
I came to realize recently that there are increasingly few possessions that I consider myself attached to. The one object I know I’d regret losing is the necklace I’ve worn almost every day since 8th grade, but in days past, there were many more things I couldn’t stand to think about parting with.
I used to have books, music, pictures, and my own writings that I’d be terrified of losing. As time passed, much of those was digitized, so I’d worry less about my many possessions, and more about my computer. Now most of my digital information has escaped my physical computer and found a home in the ethereal cloud. My books are on kindle, my music is safe on google, picasa keeps my photos safe, and I have dropbox for just about everything else. All my computers could burn, and yet nothing I truly care about would be lost.
All my most important possessions are in the cloud now. Even my money is stored as numbers on my bank’s mainframe. So am I free of my materialistic ties, or have I replaced bondage to physical things I could see and feel for an intangible master in the digital aether?
A million times
I’m sure it’s been said before, but it seems that with facebook, google+, twitter, and google buzz, I still need one more place to post and crosspost musings and what amuses.
Enjoy.
