Robert blog page

pollytree: Moraine Lake, Canada.

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:09:34 -0500

Moraine Lake, Canada.

microlawns: Twin lawns, each 2 feet across, separated for all...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:09:15 -0500

Twin lawns, each 2 feet across, separated for all eternity by a vicious curbcut built to appease a giantess obsessed with oversized push-scooters. She died with tears streaming down her cheeks after years of never having quite fit in with the rest of society.

fresh as.... A Mynt Public Relations Blog: 23 Smartphone Apps that PR Professionals Can't Live Without

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:09:01 -0500

fresh as.... A Mynt Public Relations Blog: 23 Smartphone Apps that PR Professionals Can't Live Without:

myntpr:

by Ronnie Manning

At last count, I think there are around 45 billion applications available for our smartphones and tablets. The first application that everyone probably downloaded was either Facebook, Angry Birds or Pandora (Facebook was mine and I even downloaded a virtual pet, which I…

Lenny Zeltser on Information Security: Explaining Computer Security Terms to Ordinary People

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:08:43 -0500

Lenny Zeltser on Information Security: Explaining Computer Security Terms to Ordinary People:

lennyzeltser:

When you spend much of your time working with information technology, it’s easy to forget that the terms we use on daily basis might not be meaningful to non-IT people. It’s often wise to stay clear of technical jargon when communicating with non-techies; however, it’s not possible to avoid…

WTF White Privilege: "Being a Maid" by James McBride

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:08:27 -0500

WTF White Privilege: "Being a Maid" by James McBride :

wtfwhiteprivilege:

Last night, President Obama, our first African American President, delivered his third State of the Union address. On that same day, the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated two gifted African American actresses, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, for Oscars for playing…

nationaljournal: PHOTO OF THE DAY: A man attaches rigging to...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:08:11 -0500

nationaljournal:

PHOTO OF THE DAY: A man attaches rigging to the top of the Washington Monument on the National Mall, in Washington, on Tuesday before engineers rappelled down the sides of the monument to survey the extent of damage sustained to the monument from the Aug. 23 earthquake. (PHOTO: JACQUELYN MARTIN/AP PHOTO)

bunnyfood: (via friendly-cat)

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:07:56 -0500

bunnyfood:

(via friendly-cat)

When The Beautiful Game Met America's National Pastime

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:07:39 -0500

afootballreport:

By Eric Beard

“He’s been waiting for this moment his entire life. He’s just minutes away from hoisting up the trophy of his dreams. Holland has stayed up all night to watch their beloved Dutch maestro make history. They said it was impossible. Hell, I said it was impossible. Well, we’ve all been proved wrong by Mr. Cruyff. He has been absolutely phenomenal all series and is showing no sign of slowing down. My goodness! I’ve never heard the chants of “Johan” sung quite like this. It’s deafening! And there’s his last warm up pitch. He’s ready to go. Just look at that smile. Folks, it’s the World Series. It’s Game 7. It’s 1-0 in the bottom of the 9th here at Yankee Stadium and you better believe the world is watching….”

When you mention the Ajax team of the late 1960s and early 70s, there’s no denying that geniuses ran rampant throughout Holland and Europe for the better part of a decade. But what if I told you that Johan Cruyff and Johan Neeskens weren’t born to play the beautiful game? What if I told you that some of Holland’s finest athletes may have wanted the opportunity to pursue a career in another sport they adored?

Read More

charlestonmuseum: Kick off the New Year right – 1930s that...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:07:22 -0500

charlestonmuseum:

Kick off the New Year right – 1930s that is!

In the 1930s, the woman’s silhouette was slender yet curvaceous and evocative. Check out these gowns, perfect for a New Year’s Eve party. Both are cut on the bias to ensure maximum cling; the dresses hug the body and drape beautifully.

The olive green silk velvet dress with jacket has a boat neckline, rhinestone shoulder clips and a short train in back. The long sleeved jacket closes in front with ball buttons, also seen at the wrist of these wonderful batwing sleeves. It was worn by Miss Fanny Eliza Hume (1882-1950) of Charleston and bears a McAvoy/Chicago label.

The red rayon evening gown is cut very low in front and high in back with a large velvet flower on the right shoulder. Notice the bias cut gored skirt, shaped for a really dramatic effect. It was worn by Elizabeth Woodroe Meadows (1903-1992) of Charleston, West Virginia.

The bias cut was devised by French couturier Madeleine Vionnet in the 1920s, cutting across the grain to add draping and stretch to any fabric. Usually, a woman could step into her dress without the need for side, back or front openings.

TEXTILE TUESDAYS: Each Tuesday we post a piece from our textile collection. Some items have been on exhibit, some will eventually be shown in our new Historic Textiles Gallery and some may be just too fragile to display. We hope you enjoy our selection each week – do let us know if there’s something in particular you’d like to see on TEXTILE TUESDAY! #TextileTuesday

:o: Non-reblogged reblog

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:07:04 -0500

:o: Non-reblogged reblog:

mspandrew:

Not officially reblogging this response because I don’t want to spark a hate war swirling around one particular tumblr user. I probably wouldn’t even bother responding but I kind of get the sense there’s a faction out there that feels this way.

—
oh come on this race answer is unmitigated…

Henry James' Guide to Sports: Wild Card: Detroit Lions v. New Orleans Saints

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:06:50 -0500

Henry James' Guide to Sports: Wild Card: Detroit Lions v. New Orleans Saints:

henryjamesguidetosports:

In the multitudinous glow of the many-lighted stadium, where stands the individual in relation to his fans, to his city, to his sport and indeed to the firmament? To whom, in the very minute and turn of it, does victory belong? Shall we hand it, as indeed we have before, to Mr. Brees of Austin,…

porrarquiteto: AE GALERA, DESCULPA A FALTA DE POST, ULTIMAMENTE...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:06:35 -0500

porrarquiteto:

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TODO ARQUITETO FORMADO TEM QUE VOTAR!!!

cultureofresistance: ScienceDaily (Jan. 26, 2012) — Stop...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:06:20 -0500

cultureofresistance:

ScienceDaily (Jan. 26, 2012)

— Stop wrangling over global warming and instead reduce fossil-fuel use for the sake of the global economy

That’s the message from two scientists, one from the University of Washington and one from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, who say in the current issue of the journal Nature (Jan. 26) that the economic pain of a flattening oil supply will trump the environment as a reason to curb the use of fossil fuels.

“Given our fossil-fuel dependent economies, this is more urgent and has a shorter time frame than global climate change,” says James W. Murray, UW professor of oceanography, who wrote the Nature commentary with David King, director of Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.

The “tipping point” for oil supply appears to have occurred around 2005, says Murray, who compared world crude oil production with world prices going back to 1998. Before 2005, supply of regular crude oil was elastic and increased in response to price increases. Since then, production appears to have hit a wall at 75 million barrels per day in spite of price increases of 15 percent each year.

“As a result, prices swing wildly in response to small changes in demand,” the co-authors wrote. “Others have remarked on this step change in the economies of oil around the year 2005, but the point needs to be lodged more firmly in the minds of policy makers.”

For those who argue that oil reserves have been increasing, that more crude oil will be available in the future, the co-authors wrote: “The true volume of global proved reserves is clouded by secrecy; forecasts by state oil companies are not audited and appear to be exaggerated. More importantly, reserves often take 6 — 10 years to drill and develop before they become part of the supply, by which time older fields have become depleted.”

Production at oil fields around the world is declining between 4.5 percent and 6.7 percent per year, they wrote.

“For the economy, it’s production that matters, not how much oil might be in the ground,” Murray says. In the U.S., for example, production as a percentage of total reserves went from 9 percent to 6 percent in the last 30 years.

“We’ve already gotten the easy oil, the oil that can be produced cheaply,” he says. “It used to be we’d drill a well and the oil would flow out, now we have to go through all these complicated and expensive procedures to produce the oil.”

The same is true of alternative sources such as tar sands or “fracking” for shale gas, Murray says, where supplies may be exaggerated and production is expensive. Take the promise of shale gas and oil: A New York Times investigative piece last June reported that “the gas may not be as easy and cheap to extract from shale formations deep underground as the companies are saying, according to hundreds of industry e-mails and internal documents and an analysis of data from thousands of wells.”

Production at shale gas wells can drop 60 to 90 percent in the first year of operation, according to a world expert on shale gas who was one of the sources for the commentary piece. Murray and King built their commentary using data and information from more than 15 international and U.S. government reports, peer-reviewed journal articles, reports from groups such as the National Research Council and Brookings Institution and association findings.

Stagnant oil supplies and volatile prices take a toll on the world economy. Of the 11 recessions in the U.S. since World War II, ten were preceded by a spike in oil prices, the commentary noted.

“Historically, there has been a tight link between oil production and global economic growth,” the co-authors wrote. “If oil production can’t grow, the implication is that the economy can’t grow either.”

Calculations from the International Monetary Fund, for example, say that to achieve a 4 percent growth in the global economy in the next five years, oil production must increase about 3 percent a year.

“Yet to achieve that will require either an heroic increase in oil production, … increased efficiency of oil use, more energy-efficient growth or rapid substitution of other fuel sources,” according to the commentary. “Economists and politicians continually debate policies that will lead to a return to economic growth. But because they have failed to recognize that the high price of energy is a central problem, they haven’t identified the necessary solutions: weaning society off fossil fuel.”

The commentary concludes: “This will be a decades-long transformation and we need to start immediately. Emphasizing the short-term economic imperative from oil prices must be enough to push governments into action now.”

bookwormbreakfast: entertainmentweekly: Nick Offerman &...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:06:05 -0500

bookwormbreakfast:

entertainmentweekly:

Nick Offerman & Megan Mullally stopped by our Park City, Utah photo studio.

BEST CELEBRITY COUPLE.

thepoliticalnotebook: The Special Investigator General for Iraq...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:05:43 -0500

thepoliticalnotebook:

The Special Investigator General for Iraq Reconstruction’s latest quarterly report is out today. And I always recommend reading these reports, they’re chock full of data and information on a wide range of things, from Iraqi public opinion, and trends in the security situation, to the ability of the US government to document its funds.

Here are some of the best/most interesting and important bits (read: I read it, so if you really aren’t in the mood, you don’t have to):

On January 4th of this year, the State Dept refused SIGIR’s request for “information pursuant to the activities it conducted pursuant to the US-Iraq Strategic Framework Agreement.” The SFA essentially governs the US’s interactions and relationship with Iraq now that they are no longer home to our troops, so that’s no small thing.

A Gallup poll of Iraqis showed that reports of low quality of life were much higher this year. When asked this September about their situations, 25% of respondents rated themselves as “suffering,” up from 14% in October of 2010. SIGIR reports that this can be connected back to the low quality of essential services in Iraq, like electricity.

On that subject - electricity is a big issue in Iraq, and has been for some time. When polled, more Iraqis think the pervasive lack of access to electricity should be the top priority for the government than think security should top the list. The average Iraqi household only gets 7.6 hours a day of electricity.

The DoD could only provide supporting documentation for $1bn of the $3bn provided to it under the Development Fund for Iraq for making contract payments. (This is such a shock…)

The number of contracting employees of US agencies in Iraq fell by 72% since last year.

Baghdad was declared the “world’s least safe city” by Mercer, but there have been some noticeable improvements in things like level of foreign investment, access to electricity and levels of violence.

Seriously, these are only a few things from this report. Look through the whole thing, particularly Section 4. If anything, read it for all the amazing, useful, to-die-for infographics and charts.

Some links to things mentioned in the report:

The US-Iraq Strategic Framework Agreement

Iraq’s first release of information as part of its involvement in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative

The World Bank’s Doing Business 2012 report

The 2012 Consolidated Appropriations Act

Mercer’s 2011 Quality of Life report city rankings

inothernews: The precise moment that Herman Cain’s campaign...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:05:26 -0500

inothernews:

The precise moment that Herman Cain’s campaign realized their candidate should never be photographed with Cain-authorized placards.

felixsalmon: (via This Is Europe’s Scariest Chart | ZeroHedge)

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:05:10 -0500

felixsalmon:

(via This Is Europe’s Scariest Chart | ZeroHedge)

siphotos: Michael Jordan is ready for Halloween. Are you?...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:04:55 -0500

siphotos:

Michael Jordan is ready for Halloween. Are you? (George B. Fry III/SI)

GALLERY: Athletes in Costume
GALLERY: NHL’s Scariest Masks

animalstalkinginallcaps: WOULD IT KILL THEM TO JUST PUT AN IKEA...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:04:38 -0500

animalstalkinginallcaps:

WOULD IT KILL THEM TO JUST PUT AN IKEA DOWNTOWN?

smarterplanet: RF-enabled app locates lost objects or...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:04:23 -0500

smarterplanet:

RF-enabled app locates lost objects or children

We’ve recently seen RFID technology used to help farmers track cows and locate children. Now, recently launched Bikn enables consumers to find lost objects, pets or children with a system consisting of an RF-enabled iPhone case, multiple tags and an app. READ MORE…

via springwise: