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Google's .bro file format changed to .br

Posted by takyon on Sunday October 11 2015, @10:27PM (#1516)
2 Comments
/dev/random

Journals: Soylent controversial topic containment zone?

Google's .bro file format changed to .br after gender politics worries

In late September, Google released a compression algorithm called Brotli and gave files it makes the extension “.bro”.

But last week the extension was changed to “.br”.

The reason for the change is threads like this one, in which posters suggest that “'bro' has a gender problem” and “comes of[f] misogynistic and unprofessional due to the world it lives in.”

[...]

Wikipedia

BBC Trending: Drawing of a 6-year-old Syrian girl, racist?

Posted by takyon on Thursday October 08 2015, @08:40PM (#1511)
11 Comments
/dev/random

BBC Trending: Is this manga cartoon of a six-year-old Syrian girl racist?

"I want to live a safe and clean life, eat gourmet food, go out, wear pretty things, and live a luxurious life… all at the expense of someone else," reads the text on the illustration above. "I have an idea. I'll become a refugee."

The image and caption were posted by a right-wing Japanese artist last month. Now, more than 10,000 people have signed a Change.org petition in Japanese urging Facebook to take it down. The petition, posted by an account calling itself the "Don't Allow Racism Group", claims that several people have reported the illustration and demands that "Facebook must recognize an illustration insulting Syrian refugees as racism."

Although the Japan Times reported that Facebook did not take the picture down, saying it did not go against community guidelines, the artist herself removed the picture. But she remains defiant about her motivations for posting it in the first place. Toshiko Hasumi told BBC Trending that she believed the people signing the petition were left-wing activists. "I draw many political mangas [Japanese comics] which are not favourable to them," she said. "This is why they targeted me."

Barrett Brown: Stop Sending Me Jonathan Franzen Novels

Posted by takyon on Wednesday October 07 2015, @09:37AM (#1506)
1 Comment

Last season's anime (incomplete list)

Posted by takyon on Sunday October 04 2015, @06:45PM (#1500)
2 Comments
/dev/random

This is a reposted submission with editing.

---

Incomplete list.

Overlord. (13 episodes) Too short. Ending yelled "our production budget is too small". Really, felt like an advertisement to learn WRITTEN japanese, and buy the raw manga from amazon.co.jp; to find out what happens next.

Chaos Dragon. (12 episodes) Beautifully dark; at least for the first few episodes. The "happily ever after" ending felt tasteless and disgusting. Doesn't anybody know how to write a good tragedy anymore ?

Normally, I wouldn't submit trash like this; but the queue's empty, so . . .

---

AniChart Summer 2015 anime

LiveChart Summer 2015 anime

Original Submission

London Cereal Café Attacked By Anti-Gentrification Protest

Posted by takyon on Monday September 28 2015, @06:30PM (#1487)
0 Comments

Saudi prince arrested at LA mansion for alleged sex crime

Posted by takyon on Friday September 25 2015, @10:01PM (#1466)
3 Comments
News

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34358380

Los Angeles police said Majed Abdulaziz al-Saud, 28, was arrested on Wednesday and released the following day after posting a $300,000 (£197,000) bond. He is scheduled to appear in court on October 19 to face a charge of "forced oral copulation". Al-Saud does not have diplomatic immunity, police said.

Republican Debate #2

Posted by takyon on Wednesday September 16 2015, @11:53PM (#1441)
3 Comments
News

http://www.cnn.com/ (right on the front page, no Fox BS)
Or an audio stream.

Starts at 5:10 PM PT, 8:10 PM ET.

Wikipedia:

The undercard broadcast took place at 3 PM PDT, while the main card broadcast will occur at 5 PM PDT. The candidates in the main debate are Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, Chris Christie, and John Kasich. The candidates in the undercard debate are Bobby Jindal, Lindsey Graham, Rick Santorum, and George Pataki. Rick Perry suspended his campaign on September 11, effectively ending his candidacy. The two-tiered CNN broadcasts will be consecutive, with the primetime debate planned to immediately follow the second-tier broadcast. The moderator is Jake Tapper of CNN, with side-by-side participation by Hugh Hewitt of Salem Radio.

Other stuff:

Taco Bell to Serve Alcohol

Posted by takyon on Wednesday September 16 2015, @03:47AM (#1438)
8 Comments
Business

Pushing To Attract Millennials, Taco Bell Will Offer Beer And Wine

[Image]

On Tuesday, Taco Bell announced it is launching a new concept that "redefines fast food experience." The first of these "experiences" will open in Chicago next week, and another one will follow later this month in San Francisco.

In a statement, the company says:

"Taco Bell Cantina restaurants will be the first and only Taco Bell restaurants to serve alcohol to customers who are of legal drinking age. The San Francisco restaurant will serve beer and wine only, while Wicker Park will serve, beer, wine, sangria and twisted Freezes. Cantina restaurants will also feature a new tapas-style menu of sharable appetizers — including nachos and rolled tacos — during designated hours each evening, in addition to the standard Taco Bell Menu."

These new cantinas won't have drive-throughs and will have open kitchens, according to a press release. They will also have digital menu boards, television monitors and an option for customers to use a mobile app to order and pay for their food.

[...] As USA Today reports:

"The company knows that its Millennial customers increasingly are attracted to urban areas, where real estate is pricey. Company officials think that selling a stiffer drink might pad the receipts — the typical Taco Bell receipt is in the $7 range — and in turn help make their urbanization push more doable.

" 'To put in a drive-thru you need land,' Neil Borkan, the Taco Bell franchisee who will operate the Chicago test location, told USA TODAY. 'Can you imagine buying an acre of land in a neighborhood like [Chicago's] Wicker Park? You couldn't afford it. As real estate becomes more and more expensive, this kind of concept makes more sense.'

"Taco Bell is treading carefully into booze. While quick-service rival Starbucks recently announced it would accelerate its push of its beer and wine program and has applied for liquor licenses for hundreds of stores across the USA in recent months, Taco Bell spokesman Rob Poetsch said the company could potentially open 10 locations selling hard drinks next year."

The drug lord who championed the poor

Posted by takyon on Sunday September 13 2015, @12:51AM (#1434)
4 Comments
News

The day I met Rio’s favela master: the drug lord who championed the poor: Misha Glenny tells of his prison meetings with Nem of Rocinha, the slum crime boss who channelled some of his cocaine profits into running a welfare state for 100,000 people

After his arrest, I wrote to Nem in prison and asked if he would speak to me. He agreed. The story that emerged was fascinating: once he reached the top, Nem was, in effect, mayor, police chief and director of the chamber of commerce for a community estimated at 100,000 residents. With the receipts from the cocaine trade, he ran a business that supported nearly 1,000 people. He also channelled some of his profits into a basic welfare state. He could do this because he paid close attention to accounting and budgetary matters.

“The food baskets and the support we gave to extracurricular school activities, such as the Thai boxing or capoeira classes, were all accounted for as part of our business expenses,” he explained. “But the burials, prescription costs or if anyone who couldn’t afford it needed gas, these were all extra payments.”

In the absence of any regular police, law was maintained by 150 armed men, most in their teens and early 20s. But while the man known locally as Mestre, or master, decided over life or death, he usually opted for the former. Under his rule, homicide rates dropped by more than two-thirds.

This was part-calculation, part-intuition. Rocinha was so profitable for the cocaine trade because it is surrounded by the three richest areas of Rio – Leblon, São Conrado and Gávea. By turning Rocinha into the safest and most attractive favela in Rio, business boomed. “He was not a man of violence,” said Detective Bárbara Lomba, who led the three-strong team that patiently investigated the Rocinha drugs operation for four years. “He had a policy of avoiding confrontation wherever possible and of not facing down the police. Rather the opposite, he was in contact with them in a corrupt relationship.”

Nem’s policy paid off. Rocinha became a fixture on the tourist route; Brazil’s biggest pop stars such as Ivete Sangalo and Claudia Leitte were happy to include the favela on their tours, boosting their popularity with Brazil’s poor. Politicians including former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the current incumbent, Dilma Rousseff, were keen to tour, as were members of Brazil’s national football side. Above all, the youngsters from the surrounding middle class areas went to buy coke.

Beltrame knew that he would have to “pacify” Rocinha because of its symbolic power and its location. As the World Cup and the Olympics approached the pressure grew. But by taking Nem out of the equation, Rocinha’s character has changed. The relationship between the police and residents is uneasy at best. In July 2013, a group which included the chief of Rocinha police murdered an innocent bricklayer, and the favela came close to open insurrection.

Since then the drug cartel has been edging its way back and there are sporadic shootouts with the police. Homicides remain at historic low levels but domestic violence, rape, assault and burglary have increased fourfold.

30 day eating challenge

Posted by microtodd on Wednesday August 19 2015, @05:19PM (#1387)
11 Comments
/dev/random

Whelp, today is day 30 of my 30 days of clean eating challenge. There's more info about the challenge I did here but short answer is: cold turkey no alcohol, no dairy, no bread, no junk food. So basically I went out and bought a grill and ate a lot of grilled meats (chicken and steak), steamed vegetables, and some fresh fruit. When I weighed in this morning, I was down 17 lbs. BF% is a little harder to measure, my tools don't seem that accurate, but I'm guessing around 2-3% BF.

Some lessons I learned:

  1. Strength Training - I made sure to lift weights 2-3 times a week so I didn't lose too much muscle mass. I also started working on the Hundred Pushups Challenge.
  2. Other Exercise - Make sure you do some kind of exercise that makes you sweat. Seems like a lot of the weight/fat/toxins are excreted through sweat.
  3. Healing Crisis - So I'd heard about this, it was interesting to experience. After a few days, and for about the first two weeks, I felt kind of horrible, actually. Lethargic and sore. I think its because when your fat cells start excreting a lot, all those toxins are in your bloodstream. So...
  4. Drink a lot of Water - Helps flush those toxins and the excreted fat. But you'll have to pee a lot.

I would definitely recommend this for anyone. It was hard at first, but seriously, once you get through the first few weeks it really does get easier. Of course, now the trick is not to just go back to my old eating habits but to continue to eat healthy, but allow some "cheat" meals in here and there. This is actually probably easier than it seems...if you had asked me 3 weeks ago I would have told you when this is over the first thing I'm doing is hitting the buffet but actually, by the time you're done with the 30, your palate and cravings have changed enough that there's not a big desire to go eat a bunch of pizza.