Tom Smith

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/io9/full/~3/TLuSz0OIK30/the-earliest-known-panda+like-fossils-have-been-found-+-in-spain

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. More »

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/io9/full/~3/wtyiOlXY8Lo/this-colossal-prehistoric-turtle-could-snap-other-turtles-in-half

For a brief period after the dinosaurs vanished, truly gigantic reptiles like the 50-foot snake Titanoboa and twenty-foot crocodiles dominated the swamps of ancient Colombia. Now we've discovered another, much gentler giant - the humongous 60-million-year-old "coal turtle." More »

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/io9/full/~3/1Q8HeqVT8SA/what-if-jack-kirby-made-my-little-pony-comics

Not a dream! Not an imagined story! Well, okay, an entirely imagined story. ComicsAlliance unleashes a battle-ready Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie upon the Internet. More »

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/io9/full/~3/e2zr_-wLJMA/miyazakis-films-reimagined-as-dog+eared-penguin-book-covers

Hayao Miyazaki's films are marked by rich landscapes and innovative character designs, but these illustrations reduce those films to their most basic components, imagining them as minimalist Penguin book covers. More »

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/io9/full/~3/_bzgv-NxyjY/take-out-your-game-of-thrones-aggression-on-this-king-joffrey-practice-target

When watching tonight's Game of Thrones episode, you can try smacking King Joffrey every time he says something petulant, but replacing your TV screen gets expensive after awhile. Instead, fire off a few spit balls at this King Joffrey target. More »

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/io9/full/~3/-OMZtPrcROE/crowdfund-human+powered-flight-a-whale-on-stilts-and-pork+eating-cartoonist-vampires

Looking for more worthy projects to support this long weekend? We have an interactive story about a whale walking on stilts, a graphic novel following a young vampire who just wants to make comics, a human-powered helicopter looking to break records, and a webseries about aspiring cartoonists. More »

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/io9/full/~3/FjSYvmLYkzY/glowing-text-messages-spill-out-into-the-real-world

In Lee Jung's lovely photographs, text messages have escaped the confines of the phone screen and scattered across the real world, illuminating various landscapes with their questions and declarations of love. More »

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/io9/full/~3/wyFi_Sv0-NM/how-the-zombie-apocalypse-starts-naked-man-found-eating-victims-face

A scary bit of news is coming out of Miami this weekend after the city police shot a naked man found eating another man's face. And several circumstances of the story have some people crying zombie. More »

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/io9/full/~3/eJNFY7Z6jms/douglas-adams-animated-history-of-the-book-from-rocks-to-e+readers

In the early 1990s, the Voyager Company looked into creating "Expanded Books," digital books that would offer an enhanced onscreen reading experience. Appropriately, one of the titles they converted into an expanded books was a series that revolves around a digital book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Douglas Adams recorded a promo on the history of books, hailing e-readers as the future of reading. More »

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/bRuz/~3/PEW20gdJsFQ/cheeky-monkeys.html

Not a fan of the "give the banks free money" thing, but sticking it to the ECB and Teh Markets is worth a clap.

The plan, viewed as highly unorthodox by analysts, involves Madrid issuing Spanish government guaranteed debt to Bankia in return for equity, with the bank then able to deposit the bonds with European Central Bank as collateral for cash.

...

But the admission by Madrid that borrowing in the capital markets is too expensive – and the use of the ECB to temporarily fund at least part of its bank rescue plan – surprised analysts.

“This is very cheeky – the ECB executives are going to be furious,” said one analyst.

This might be the closest thing to printing Euros that Spain can do, by basically forcing the ECB to print the money to finance the bailout.

Not so bad, Spain.

...adding, the point is that there's a relatively zero cost way to plug the financial holes. Free money! Central banks can do that. I'd prefer giving people free money instead of banks - you can even can do both simultaneously, by canceling debts with free money! - but this bit of sneaky at least is more in the "free money" direction.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/bRuz/~3/tKCKX57Z7do/making-me-never-want-to-be-on-road.html

This is all going to work so well.

Automakers say they are concerned too, but that hasn’t stopped them from connecting smartphones to in-dash systems and putting Internet-based information into so-called connected cars for 2013. While some Web-based apps offer features similar to those already available in traditional car stereo systems, like the streaming music service Pandora, newer offerings will let drivers order movie tickets, scroll through restaurant reviews and even check Facebook updates.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/bRuz/~3/g-n4hMWqvEE/saddam-hussein-was-69-when-he-was.html

My point is that if you can modify the security theater for the elderly, then you can modify it for everybody...

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/bRuz/~3/ONsLEUtAW7A/they-didnt-have-one-before.html

Previously their risk committee was basically fake, so I suppose this might be a positive step.

But the real issue here is that this subject should not interest me at all. I should have no concerns about whether JP Morgan is winning money, losing money, or anything else. That this actually does concern you, me, and all of us, is a tremendous problem.

http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/3780842.html

Here's a selection of humorous silent comics created by the Argentine cartoonist Mordillo:

( Read more... )

comments

http://engrishfunny.failblog.org/2012/05/27/engrish-funny-but-bing-transliteration-cybermachine-exhales-forcefully/

http://engrishfunny.failblog.org/?p=40034

</p>

“It blows.”

http://engrishfunny.failblog.org/2012/05/27/engrish-funny-comedy-channel-present-south-pak/

http://engrishfunny.failblog.org/?p=40021

</p>

Screw you guys, I em goink home!

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/to/~3/26OVkyG_tyk/patent-troll-now-armed-with-thousands-of-nortel-patents

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/to/~3/8C3QTq7_QZo/new-cyberbullying-evidence-rules-may-go-too-far

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/to/~3/gdFjvN6o8II/apple-fires-back-at-doj-over-ebook-price-fixing

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/to/~3/dQZ5em4HNDM/internet-defense-league-a-bat-signal-for-the-internet

For those of the appropriate geek subcategories, it appears that the Lego Lord of the Rings sets are now available.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Americablog/~3/VTH66XUX7tE/tsa-to-modify-groping-procedures-for.html

Surely the TSA is not using some common sense? Maybe humiliating seniors wasn't as successful as they had hoped. I still remain confident that the TSA will still find a way to embarrass their fair share of dangerous grannies. MSNBC.com:Since March, TSA workers at airports in Chicago, Denver, Orlando and Portland, Ore., have been testing modified screening practices for passengers 75 and over....

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Americablog/~3/r-6Jeuhp000/un-counts-32-children-murdered-in-syria.html

Assad has been a thug for a while, but this is a new low even for him. The Guardian:Syria's fragile peace process is in shreds after what was claimed to be a regime-backed massacre left 32 children among more than 90 dead and triggered a wave of international revulsion. As UN observers in the central town of Houla confirmed one of the bloodiest death tolls of the 15-month revolt against...

This streak of sun in Michigan can't go on much longer! Anyway, here's another picture of a big grey circle with dots on it. WHEEEE!!!!

http://www.cakewrecks.com/home/2012/5/27/sunday-sweets-jolly-rogers.html

... gently gliding toward us on rolling waves of blue buttercream!

(Note to self: no more rum for breakfast.)

 

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/05/27/legend-of-the-valkyrie-by-jimmy-palmiotti-and-justin-gray-from-shiftylook-with-new-time-crisis-art-and-marv-wolfman-details-from-mcm-london-expo/

http://www.bleedingcool.com/?p=163376

Stephen LAcey writes from London MCM Expo for Bleeding Cool, with more details an visuals about yesterday’s announcements;

The big announcement from yesterday’s Shiftylook panel at the MCM Expo was that Marv Wolfman would be writing a webcomic for shiftylook.com based on the classic Time Crisis arcade games. Wolfman spoke about adapting the arcade game, saying that although he would be using the basic setup from the games, he would be creating two new characters to lead the comic. Both would work for the agency seen in the games. He told us that the comic would replicate the fast-paced feel of the game. Each instalment would feature three or four panels, and would be like “a spy series with fifty shots of Red Bull”. When asked by an audience member about the iconic gameplay aspect of ducking behind something to reload, Wolfman assured us that it would form a key part of the style of the story he will be telling.

The rest of the currently-announced Shiftylook projects were discussed. Bravoman by Max Moylan and Dax Gordine, will retain the flavour of the original US regionalisation of the game, down to the character of Doctor Bomb talking in badly translated English. The Five-Dimensional Adventures of Dirk Davies by Ben McCool and Dean Haspiel is based on the Warp & Warp games, and is the oldest property resurrected for Shiftylook. Ben McCool described the game as “Tetris with a really rubbish gun”, and told us that the strip would have a Marvel Silver Age feel to it, with more than a flavour of psychadelia.

Jim Zub and Erik Ko are creating a Wonder Momo: Battle Idol strip, a risky move for Shiftylook as the Wonder Momo games where never released in English. Shiftylook editor in chief Rob Pereyda told us that this is currently the most popular strip in Japan. Dig Dug will be receiving a series of one-off webcomics by 30 different creators to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of the game. Announced creators include Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub.

Finally, at the Shiftylook cabaret on Saturday night, Legend of the Valkyrie by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Fernando Furukawa was announced.

 

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/05/27/the-marriage-proposal-of-phoenix-comicon/

http://www.bleedingcool.com/?p=163235

You’re at Comic Con. You get your intended a sketch cover from her favourite artist. It asks her to marry you. Thankfully she doesn’t take it as the artist asking her to marry her. She knows it’s from you. And reader? She said yes.

 

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/05/27/massive-cosplay-round-up-phoenix-comicon-day-three/

http://www.bleedingcool.com/?p=163053

More awesomeness from Phoenix Comicon, sourtesy of Keith and Rich. Check out the cosplay fun… and a few epic photobombs, as well (keep your eye out for them).

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/05/27/some-dark-knight-rises-spoiler-speculation-confirmed/

http://www.bleedingcool.com/?p=163059

Whenever the first trailer for a big tentpole picture comes along, some nerd or another will spend an awfully long time going through it with a fine tooth comb, looking for clues. It really didn’t take much combing to find one such “hint” in the first promo for The Dark Knight Rises, but it’s still nice to have its meaning confirmed.

Here’s a shot from the first Rises trailer.

And a shot from Batman Begins.

It seemed obvious that Selina Kyle is wearing Martha Wayne’s pearl necklace. And so she is.

Harper Collins are publishing a kids’ book tie-in to the film called Batman versus Catwoman, and they’ve revealed this official blurb:

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/05/27/review-gi-joe-cobra-issue-13/

http://www.bleedingcool.com/?p=162139

Alasdair Stuart writes for Bleeding Cool.

With the sudden, frankly baffling announcement of a 9 month hiatus before GI Joe: Retaliation is released, the only fix fans have available between there and here are the comics. Thankfully, Cobra, Mike Costa‘s series, is 13 issues in and has just started a new story arc and a very new direction.

Costa manages to walk a couple of very fine lines here, continuing plots from the first year but at the same time setting up the status quo for the second. The Joes, much like NCIS, work well as perpetual underdogs, their best of the best status neatly balanced by their maverick, underdog natures and some in-story budget cuts. That’s something Costa picks up and runs with here, showing us three different relationships between officers, some Cobra, some Joes, and the different perspectives they have on the war.

Ronin, the first, is also the least interesting. I’ve never been particularly interested in the
‘I’m an effortless death machine but all I want to do is be at peace’ ninja trope that every iteration of the series features and Ronin‘s no exception. Her fight with a group of Vipers is nicely paced and choreographed but the character is the most skilled, and least interesting, person we meet in the issue. It’s only in her sparky interactions with Duke, and the emotional sucker punch he hits her with, that she comes to life and I’m looking forward to seeing Costa continue to play with that relationship. His take on Duke is particularly great, playing the new unit CO as a man who is one part George Smiley, one part George Patton. He’s a man who seems very comfortable in command and it’ll be interesting to see how Costa explores him settling into the role.

The second person in the spotlight this issue, Chameleon, is a lot more fun. Costa takes a relatively minor character with a one note gimmick and expands her into a spiky, furious, survivor. In many ways she’s the mirror image of Ronin, a woman who has run from one side of the war to the other, only to find that the people she ran from may have followed her. There’s a nicely handled action beat with her and the Joe‘s new ‘backer’ and her antagonistic relationship with Flint , her nominal CO, is another nice reflection of the Ronin/Duke partnership set up at the start of the issue.

Finally, the issue focusses on Flint and Tomax. These two men are the most diametrically opposed of the three partnerships, a dogged, precise infantryman and a sociopathic billionaire, but the narrative weight of the issue lies on them. Tomax has had no choice but to come in from the cold and finds himself at the center of an unusually gilded web, not entirely of his own design. He’s clearly running a game here, but it’s unclear what as yet. Flint, by contrast, is openly manipulative, his calm, stolid exterior belying a man who has planned for everything, down to unexpected attempts on Tomax‘s life by his own officers. He’
s still precise, still stolid, but there’s a looseness to him, a willingness to bend the rules that neatly mirrors that of Duke, his new commanding officer. Both Flint and Tomax need one another, neither like or trust the other and their moves around the chessboard look set to power much of this storyline.

Costa‘s script is tight, character driven and clever and it’s backed up by some excellent, Sean Phillips-esque art from Antonio Fuso and precise, effective inking from Arianna Florean. GI Joe: Cobra Issue 13 is out now from IDW, priced $3.99. It may not feature The Rock or Bruce Willis, but it’ll keep you going until the movie comes out.

...I accidentally trolled like half of Tumblr with this. It got some 500 notes or something and... I don't think people realize they're reblogging a ZK baby? xD;

Oh well. Regardless, Dadko is cute. And it would be nice if his daughter actually was blue-eyed, wouldn't it? u_u

( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

http://www.mypapercrane.com/blog/?p=6016

Since dinner is one of those things that I can easily fall into a rut with, I thought I’d share a few of our dinners from the month of May (and links to the recipes of course!)

First up is the night we made our own noodles for lasagna. So much easier then I thought it would be! We used Bob’s Red Mill Semolina Pasta Flour which has easy instructions on the bag for pasta (egg, water, and oil) then if your using it for lasagna, you simply roll out the noodles really thinly and add them to the dish raw. I want to try ravioli next.


I’ve been using the website SkinnyTaste for recipes lately. I made her Cajun Chicken Pasta, but used vegetarian chic strips in place of the chicken and veggie broth in place of chicken broth. It was so delicious!


Breakfast for dinner is also a big go-to for me. I like to make veggie egg scrambles (or tofu scrambles) We also like making “crash hot potatoes” which are basically boiled, smashed, and broiled potatoes. So good & crispy!


Another great idea for those Summer nights is Summer Corn Cakes with salsa and sour cream. Although if I made the recipe again I’d just make half of it, I feel like it made so many, and I didn’t like them as much reheated.

Do you have go-to recipes you like to use, or specific blogs you like for recipes? I’d love to hear! I also have two boards over on Pinterest Dinner & Recipes We’ve Tried.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/io9/full/~3/0B4B0532o_M/neil-gaiman-writes-a-poem-for-a-fans-tattoo

Plenty of folks have a quote from a favorite author or a favorite artist's work tattooed on their skin. But what if you could get your favorite artists to design a tattoo especially for you? One fan asked Neil Gaiman to write a comic for his back tattoo, and Gaiman agreed. More »

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/io9/full/~3/xxInOi51V7A/watch-six-species-of-monkeys-play-six-different-synthesizers

If a million monkeys typing on a million typewriters will eventually produce the works of Shakespeare, what will half a dozen monkeys on a half a dozen synthesizers produce? This ad for Sweden's Volt Festival answers that not-so-age-old question by putting electronic instruments in the hands of long-tailed primates. More »

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/io9/full/~3/izicTexiMEE/50-years-later-the-coal-fire-beneath-pennsylvania-still-burns

Fifty years ago today, a coal seam caught fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania, causing the mines beneath the town to catch fire. While the decades-old fire has caused most residents to abandon the town, a few holdouts remain. More »

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/io9/full/~3/8nygmrhN5nM/the-eleven-doctors-drawn-as-dinosaurs

The Doctor may resemble Earth's dominent species (or rather, we resemble the Doctor), but if the Time Lord was traveling in prehistoric times, it would make more sense to blend with the dinosaurs. Dressed in the Doctor's finest fashions, these dinos turned out quite dapper. More »

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/io9/full/~3/0Ra3FPpLMd4/a-scene-from-battleship-parodied-by-william-shakespeare

Battleship is fun, if fluffy entertainment, and it's hardly the works of Shakespeare. But what if a scene from Battleship was, in fact, penned by the Bard? More »

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/io9/full/~3/rqC-dREREeo/indiana-jones-vs-the-ninjas-and-other-indy-scenes-that-never-happened

Certainly Indiana Jones had far more adventures than could fill four movies and a prequel television series. These shadowy scenes imagine the hazardous moments in Indy's life that never made it to the screen. More »

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

I want a bottle or at least a decant of BPAL's Molly Grue. The tattoo feels more important though...

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/bRuz/~3/DAJRdcsLAWw/scandals-and-scandals.html

One would think an explicit conspiracy by a sitting governor to remove lawful voters from the rolls in a rather obvious fashion would be a "scandal."

But that's not how things work.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/bRuz/~3/o6tjw79iXS0/good-banking-is-somewhat-hard-work.html

This is about Spain, but could really be about the US. Banks just aren't interested in making loans to small businesses. Local banks have been eaten by bigger banks, bankers with knowledge of the local area either aren't there anymore or have no authority to approve loans.

There's no reason to expect things to improve, as the people who run the world focus on the "financial crisis" instead of the real one. No jobs, money, Spain just threw another 20 billion euros into the gaping maws of the banksters.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/bRuz/~3/3Su5mFJZzuU/sunday-bobbleheads_27.html

This Week has Panetta.

Face the Nation has Lugar, Gillespie, and Gibbs.

Meet the Press has Newt!, O'Malley, and Villaraigosa.


Document the atrocities!

http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/romero-called-it-grab-your-shotguns

http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/romero-called-it-grab-your-shotguns#When:14:53:15Z

by Amanda Marcotte

From a tweet by our own Jesse Taylor, I discovered two very startling things today. One, a naked man decided, for no discernible reason, to pounce on a likely homeless guy taking a nap at 2PM on the side of the freeway and chew his face off. Two, some people are so obsessively racist that their only reaction to this news was to jump into comments and gripe about a nearby hip-hop festival (many attendees who were put out by the ensuing traffic jam caused by the incident). This, even though there are many details in the story that should distract even a hardened racist from his obsession, such as the fact that the victim appears to have lost quite a bit of face (but is so far surviving) and that the officer on duty had to shoot the attacker multiple times, because the guy didn't stop chewing his victim's face when shot the first time. 

There are a couple of important lessons to be learned from this.

1) As George Romero predicted in his iconic film on the subject, American racism will not be suspended even in the event of a zombie apocalypse. 

2) But as we've learned from roughly every zombie film ever made, the people who can't rapidly rearrange their priorities to accommodate a zombie apocalypse are the first to be eaten. Which means that the guys shaking their fists at the evil hippity-hoppers are going down, giving the rest of us a chance to shore up our defenses against the undead.

Remember, folks, that despite the love of rednecks in zombie movies, it's the effete urban dwellers that have some serious advantages. We can, after all, hole up in tall buildings that are incomprehensible to the zombie mind and drop stuff on zombie heads. 

http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/3780604.html

The Odyssey comes to its conclusion...

( The final issue )

comments

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/27/graduation-song/

http://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=18708

Away from the Internets for most of the day because my niece Cecilia is having her high school graduation ceremony. See you all tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s “The Paper Chase,” one of my favorite graduation-themed songs, from the (now defunct) The Academy Is… (the ellipsis is part of their name).

I wrote about Fast Times at Barrington High, the album this song is on, here.

Have a good Sunday.

http://engrishfunny.failblog.org/2012/05/27/engrish-funny-damn-those-pioneers-and-their-forbidden-games/

http://engrishfunny.failblog.org/?p=40031

</p>

If you don’t have shoes, you’ll be escorted out. How’s that for manifest destiny?

http://engrishfunny.failblog.org/2012/05/27/engrish-funny-chinese-political-science-textbook-i/

http://engrishfunny.failblog.org/?p=40012

</p>

School, I…

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/to/~3/0Y-KX8g3PYk/the-gamification-of-hiring