Racism? From FoxNation.com? What ELSE could it possibly be?

newsweek:

listentolex:

newsweek:

inothernews:

str8nochaser:

thehuskybro:

jamilsmith:

Goddamn, that is racist. Even by their standards.

blackingitup:

We’re not amused and we’re not happy about this.

dropfox:

This is actually the top story on Fox News’ “Fox Nation” right now.

We’re not amused and we’re not happy about this.

I see you working it Fox News, trying to push those buttons…not even trying to sugar coat the bigotry anymore.  That’s okay, keep making fun of the Black Man In Charge…but remember, the Negro you making fun of today, is the big bossman who’s FBI is currently investigating your boss, Slick Rupert Murdoch.

Its hard to cover your bigotry for so long… their filter just said “No MAS!”

Prepare for the onslaught.

Dear members of the mainstream media who are here on Tumblr and reading my blog:

Will you please show this screencap to your friends at Fox “News” and let us know whether they cringe in disgust at the practices of their colleagues in the online department?

Also ask them if they’re ashamed to be associated in any way with the unadulterated bigotry masquerading as “news” over there at 1211 Avenue of the Americas.

Thanks in advance,

Your fellow Tumblrfolk

I guess that’s an appeal to people like us, so, noted! We’re cringing right there with you. This comment on the story from Fox Nation reader ‘whatitism’ sums up the general sentiment loosely buried in the lede on the piece:

“Barefoot in the rose garden and hiphop in the east room. What a shameful day when we turn the white house into a h o h o u s e. Well I guess he is one, may as well act like one.”

Classy.

A few things:

This headline is not racist. Asinine? Indeed, but even if the intent WAS underhanded racism, the fact of the matter is the birthday bash did include barbecue food on the menu and there was hip-hop music played, as well as soul and R&B music.  So the headline is also incorrect since it wasn’t just a “hip-hop barbecue” but I’m not chalking it up to racism - it strikes me as misleading, cynical, and rude, but I’m not mad about anything race related.  If it read “Niggas at the cookout ain’t do shit” then I’d be over here making phone calls and sending emails, but since it didn’t, I’m not upset.

Further, I’m trying to figure out how President Obama celebrating his birthday - something damn near everyone does - has anything to do with creating jobs…

The bottomline is this is supposed to make us angry (and don’t act like you don’t know what I mean by “us”) and I’m not allowing myself to get upset over some half-assed news reporting. If the folks over at Fox wanna be in their feelings about Obama enjoying his birthday at the White House, so be it. Fussing about it on the internet doesn’t do a damn thing to stop it. But if someone wants to throw another pie in Murdoch’s face, I won’t be mad about that either.

Another point-of-view to consider re: the “Obama’s Hip-Hop BBQ Didn’t Create Jobs” headline. Thoughts?

Um, yeah, that’s racism. Calling it a “Hip-hop BBQ” and it not *featuring* stacks of hip-hop artists sharing their BBQ recipes makes it racist.

Think of it this way: replace the four pictures above the headline with white men and do you think they would have called it a “Hip-Hop BBQ” just because there was hip-hop music played and BBQ eaten?  Yeah, that’s a pretty bad headline.

As for it being simply half-assed journalism, these days, is there any other kind?

NOT MY HACK BUT COOL: Photo Projecting Ring (almost the coolest jewelry hack EVER)Found v

NOT MY HACK BUT COOL: Photo Projecting Ring (almost the coolest jewelry hack EVER)

Found via photojojo:

Inspired by the Stanhope of the 19th century, Luke Jerram designed this Viewmaster-like ring for his wife. It contains tiny slides and a lens for projecting photos of the two!

ADORBS.

Photo-Projecting Wedding Ring

Awesome idea!!  I’d love to see a tiny LCD stuck in there instead. Then you could project moving images :)

ThePeteHacks: Kindle 2 Handmade Book Cover

So, after a few months of owning a Kindle 2, I noticed that it was getting a little scuffed up, even though I was wrapping it in a bandanna whenever I’d toss it into my bag to bring it somewhere.  So, I decided it needed a cover.  I did some browsing on Amazon and quickly discovered that every K2 cover seemed overpriced to me.  So, I did what any self-respecting hacker/customizer/DIYer would do and that’s hack together a perfectly reasonable cover from stuff I had laying around.

I also loved the idea of making my Kindle 2 look more like a high school text book than a high tech e-book reader, so I decided it should be made, mostly, from a grocery bag.  However, that brown paper feels pretty abrasive to me, so I used a couple of thin sheets of foam I had left over from an unboxing of another cool gadget and added them to the mix.

Have a look at the pics:



Obviously, I added some stickers to dress it up a bit.  I had planned to make it look even more high-schooly by drawing on it.  But since I’ve decided to give my Kindle 2 to my mom thanks to never using it, myself, (I have too many paperbacks I have yet to read and they take precedence), I’ll be leaving it up to my mom to take the design further if she wants to.



Yep that’s a paperclip that is slipped through a slit in the brown paper cover, itself, so it is never loose (or loseable).  The “rope” (paper strand) is just a long, thick strip of brown paper folded in half and then held that way with celo tape (I think I used the glossy Scotch tape because it sticks to the paper better than the transparent kind). The “DISOBEY” sticker comes from fellow-Flickrer Andres Musta. He’s a great artist. Check his stuff out.

Here’s a close up of the edge flap:



And here’s with the edge flap folded back after untying the paper strand:



Here’s the cover open with the Kindle 2’s screen, nav buttons and keyboard exposed:



You can see the foam sheet I folded over and cut so that the screen and keyboard would not have bare grocery-bag-paper rubbing against them when the Kindle 2 was in my bag.  I think I folded the foam over twice. Here’s a closer shot of the foam:



Here you can see another type of foam sheeting I used to wrap the Kindle 2 in before slipping it into the brown paper cover:



Here’s the area of the thin foam sheet that I cut away to allow the power switch and the headphone jack to be accessible. It’s a little ghetto looking, but it’s tough foam to cut neatly (or maybe my X-acto blade is finally getting dull?):



And here’s a shot of the exact opposite edge of the Kindle 2—the port for the USB cable and the tiny LED indicator that lights up when the K2 is plugged in:



And here is a shot of the empty brown-paper-case.  You can see that I used a Trader Joe’s grocery bag for the project :) and you can see where the paper strand is attached to the cover:



Finally, here’s a close up of the paper strand—I cut two slits, slipped the strand through and then taped it up.



I was pretty happy with how it worked out. So much so that I also made a similar cover for my eee PC 4g netbook.  I’ll have to post pics of that at some point.

You’ve heard of “blood diamonds,” now learn about “blood minerals”

You’ve heard of “blood diamonds,” now learn what “blood minerals” are :(



Found via newsweek.tumblr.com

The sad truth :(

Still, it’s not the consumer’s fault that Apple and friends get use “blood minerals” in the gadgets we lust for.  Big electronics companies could try finding alternative sources or alternatives, charge a little more and make a big deal about why the price is higher.  Guilt the public into being OK with spending more money.

OR, electronics companies could make less money and still do the right thing… ;)

Nah, I doubt they’ll do that.

NOT MINE BUT I WISH IT WAS: iPhone “motion control” (timer control?) tripod

NOT MINE BUT I WISH IT WAS: iPhone “motion control” (timer control?) tripod

yuiseki:

ymrl:

lightsnow:

goboh:

ka-ri-ko:

s13324:

bondz:

s32:

???????????? | WIRED VISION

??????????????

????????????

My Japanese is not good enough to read what it is, but luckily, the picture is clear enough. Someone took an egg timer, hacked out a chuck of it on top, stuck some foam in there and then slipped his iPhone into the foam.  Then, he hits record on his video recording app (or activates his stop-motion photography app) and sets the egg timer for as long as he wants. From there, the top of the egg timer slowly rotates the iPhone, changing its field of view as it goes creating a very stable “motion control” style effect.

I sooooo want to do this!!  What a brilliantly simple idea!

Go here or click the pic above for more pics and to see how it was done.

I must learn the Japanese word for jealous…

ThePeteHacks: Sonic Thumb Drive

Last year I first posted about my 1GB Sonic USB Stick, which I had hacked together from a USB thumb drive and a Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver toy, but I had a much more lame name for it. Well, I’ve renamed it (see above) and added some finishing touches to the project, itself, so I thought it would be a good excuse to post about it again, but with more pictures. Check em out:



And now for the howto:



This is how the Sonic USB Stick started out life. It’s a PQi 1GB “Mini I-Stick i810” I picked up from Meritline.com for $14. Get yours here: http://meritline.com/pqi-1-gb-mini-intelligent-drive.html (they also come in 2GB sizes).



Here’s what it looks like with it’s USB plug open.



Flip this puppy over to access from the bottom end.



I used a Swiss Army knife blade to delicately pry this part off of the main chassis with the hopes of being able to put it back together should my whole project fall apart. (Hey, it’s always a possibility!)



There it is with the bottom part of the frame off and the actual “USB” part of the drive popped out. It came out with almost no effort.



View from above.



Ok, here is the Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver. I picked it up from Amazon for about the same price as the thumbnail drive. Pick up your own Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver here from Amazon: http://urltea.com/1ivy (Special thanks to my pal Edgyspice for bringing one of these back from the UK for me so I could confidently screw this project up and still have a spare ^_^)



Here it is with the cap off. That ballpoint pen nub is swappable with with a marker nub that writes with ink that only shows up under ultraviolet light—the same light that is produced by the other end of the Sonic Screwdriver. However, this is where we’ll be putting the thumbnail drive.



Got Dremel? I think that’s how you spell it. Anyway, so, don’t cut straight through this thing unless you want ink all over you. The plastic is thicker than it looks, but it’s pretty easy to just pick away at it while rotating the Sonic Screwdriver every so often. Also remember to wear safety goggles—little bits of plastic flew everywhere once I dug in.



See? The pen inside is pretty long and would have made a mess if cut straight through by the dremel tool. Dramel? Dremal? Dremmel? Drill-type thing?



OK, here it is all done. Looks just like it did in the beginning, huh? Well, aside from the little bits of plastic everywhere.



Here it is with the USB plug exposed. Sorry, stupidly forgot to take a picture of me dremeling (??) a hole for the thumbnail drive to fit in. I’ve got a close up later, however.



Here’s a closer shot of the USB plug. Looks pretty sweet from this angle, huh?



Here’s the Sonic USB stick plugged into my MacBook. The MB reads it fine, BTW.



Here’s a different angle on the plugged in SUS.



Here’s the promised close up shot on the USB nub. I dremeled down quite a bit of the pen nub to make it look as good as it does. Sadly, it’s still a bit messy for my tastes, but not bad for less than an hour’s work. Over all, I’m quite happy with it. I decided to use JB Weld to fill in this ugly space and make it look nicer.



So, this was the eventual solution to the rough look of the hole the USB plug was sticking out of. JB Weld. It looks great from this angle, but not so much on the flip side.



As you can see, this came out a bit more messy than the other side. Ah well. :



If you can see in there, using an X-acto blade, I carved a slot for the USB plug to fit. Then I added some wall-tack which helps the nub-cap stay on a bit better.

So, that’s it! Now you, too can have your own 1GB Sonic USB Stick!! Sweet!!

(reposted from my old blog.)