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POP QUIZ

View Poll: Feedback Poll!


Yeah, we only just realized that paid accounts can make polls anywhere. Whoops!

Edit: derp, can't use strike tags inside a poll! sorry about that!

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This just in! Megaupload goes down!

Megaupload sharing site shut down

Megaupload, one of the internet's largest file-sharing sites, has been shut down by officials in the US.

The site's founder and others have been charged with violating piracy laws.

Federal prosecutors have accused it of costing copyright holders more than $500m (£320m) in lost revenue. The firm says it was diligent in responding to complaints about pirated material.

Investigators denied a link to recent protests against proposed piracy laws, according to the Wall Street Journal.

On Wednesday, thousands of websites took part in a "blackout" to protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa).


Indictment Charges Megaupload Site With Piracy
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 19, 2012

McLEAN, Va. — Federal prosecutors in Virginia say they have shut down one of the world’s largest Internet file-sharing sites, Megaupload.com, and charged its founder and others with violating piracy laws.

An indictment accuses the company of costing copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated films and other content. The indictment was unsealed Thursday, one day after Web sites shut down in protest of two Congressional proposals intended to thwart the online piracy of copyrighted movies and TV programs.

Megaupload.com has claimed it is diligent in responding to complaints about pirated material.

The indictment says that at one point, Megaupload was the 13th most popular Web site in the world.


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Another news post.

We're very behind on the news lately, sorry. Let's have another mishmash post, starting with a tragedy:



This is a very serious matter, the murder of an accomplished astrophysicist is not to be joked about, but we do have to admit that a headline of OXFORD PROFESSOR MURDERED immediately led us to wonder if Lewis and Hathaway were going to investigate.

No disrespect meant to Prof. Rawlings or his wife, Linda. It's just a headline seen far more often in fiction than in reality.

Graphene is still going strong these days:



And quantum computers are always awesome.



Meanwhile, AUTISM:



(It's always "MEANWHILE, AUTISM".)

Our favorite "who knows who's at front" icon is in danger:



And in other recent news, Israeli scientists are making cyborg rats, there are terrifying reports of completely antibiotic-resistant strains of TB in India, and the BBC discovers asexuality as an orientation.

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Time for news.

Graphene's been pretty big in the news the past few days:

Between this and and the tiniest silicon nanowire ever, and a random shout-out to RPI researchers, this should be a good year for nanotech.

Meanwhile, AUTISM:

Intestinal flora have really been making the news lately. A good week to be a gut microbe.

And then let's finish this off with a short list of headlines from the BBC:

Regarding the last bit there, oh dear.



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Fotoshop by Adobé!



When you've had a client insist on liquify tool-ing their arms until the wrists look broken, this is pretty hilarious.

Well, maybe it's hilarious anyway. IT'S POSSIBLE.

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fratrandas import!

As you might have seen in [site community profile] dw_news just now, Community Imports are a go! There's currently a 100,000 limit on comment imports, but since it only received 1,454 comments in four years, that means we can finally import [livejournal.com profile] fratrandas with everything in it!

Once the import's done, we're deleting [personal profile] fratrandas, which only had backups of the posts. (LJ-Sec couldn't do comments.) Also, most of the stuff from years ago was under a lock, and all that will remain members only. Right now, of course, only tags are imported and everything else is waiting in the queue.

See, this is why Dreamwidth is AWESOME.

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Slightly Late Signal Boost

Ever have one of those moments where you could have sworn you did something and then you actually check to see if you did and it turns out that you didn't?

Yeah, just had one of those!

Wolfmoon Tarot & Rune Readings

[personal profile] ulfhedinn's girlfriend was receiving disability, but now the government has spontaneously decided She Doesn't Need It Anymore. Problem: she definitely does! Solution: getting training and certification for a job she can effectively work in with her still-very-existing disability.

Of course, the process of going from loss of income to gaining a new source of income costs money. So through the 31st,[personal profile] ulfhedinn is offering free one Tarot card pulls or one rune pulls in [community profile] wolfmoon, with a Paypal donate button as a tip jar, as well as three card or three rune readings for $5 each.

It's a little late for Christmas (sorry!), but you can still go and get a reading for the New Year!

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Yes, we finally got around to some seasonal icons

Total Icon Count: 20

Categories:
Damn You Auto Christmas! + Other Christmas Icons - 9
Cinemagraphs - 4
Misc. Icons - 5
Alts - 2

Teasers:

The musician Carlos Santana in a Santa hat, next to the words: Santana Claus A half-naked jogger bodypainted red and white, sort of like a Santa outfit, next to the words: Sexy Xmas Oompa Loompa An illustration of one of Christopher Columbus's ships, with musical notes and the words: Santa Maria is coming to town

Damn You Auto Christmas! + Other Christmas Icons

001
An illustration of one of Christopher Columbus's ships, with musical notes and the words: Santa Maria is coming to town
002
The musician Carlos Santana in a Santa hat, next to the words: Santana Claus
003
Raphael's 'Madonna della tenda' cropped to focus on the infant Jesus's rear end, next to shiny gold words: Merry Christ Ass
004
A pair of happy snowmen with a Christmas cake, under the words: Happy Christmas Event
005
A saxophonist in a Santa hat, jamming away.
006
A woman cradling a porcelain figure of the baby Jesus.
007
A half-naked jogger bodypainted red and white, sort of like a Santa outfit, next to the words: Sexy Xmas Oompa Loompa
008
A deep-sea diver underwater in a full Santa suit, being swarmed by shiny fish.
009
A very bored-looking Santa mans the coat check at a German theatre.

Cinemagraphs

010
Rain falls in a puddle next to yellow leaves. Animated icon.
011
Black and white photo of a model. She is wearing a large dangly earring, which is swinging back and forth. Animated icon.
012
Someone burning photos and a letter with a lighter. The hand with the lighter and the photo are in color; everything else is black and white. Animated icon.
013
Black and white photo of a model. She is wearing a large dangly earring, and a hand is flicking it with one finger, making it fly around. Animated icon.

Misc. Icons

014
A grocery store sign announcing that Coca-Cora is a dollar forty-nine.
015
A black and white owl sternly raising and lowering its head, under the words: Oh, REALLY. Animated icon.
016
A brick wall with spraypainted words that read: Anything you can do, I can do drunker
017
A pixelated space alien with the words above it: Please don't be a space invader
018
A purple wall with a piece of paper on it. The paper reads: The people who want to stay in your life will always find a way.

Alts

019
A black and white version of icon #10, the rain falling into the puddle. Animated icon.
020
A textless version of #15, the black and white owl raising and lowering his head. Animated icon.
 


The cinemagraphs come from From Me To You. Some of the Christmas icons are adapted from Damn You Autocorrect submissions, and some are from the Guardian's 24 Hours in Pictures series.

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Lazier Text Icons!

Total Icon Count: 16

Teasers:

Yellow-ish text on a nearly black background: When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed they are not it. An ad for an ice-cream parlor: I scream. You scream. The police come. It's awkward. A warning sign: Danger! Do not touch! Not only will this kill you, it will hurt the whole time you're dying.

001
A sign that reads: Go slow! Accident porn area.
002
Some kind of plastic that reads: Bread! Never needs sharpening
003
Yellow-ish text on a nearly black background: When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed they are not it.
004
A warning sign: Danger! Do not touch! Not only will this kill you, it will hurt the whole time you're dying.
005
A bright yellow sign that reads: Did you know why dinasours are extinct ?? Because they did not wear safety belt
006
A sign in Chinese with the English translation: DO NOT RELY ON
007
A Thai zoo sign with the English translation: Don't eat the animals
008
A car park sign that reads: Custom Parking Only. No Donde Es Parko El Junk Yardeo.
009
Some graffiti art of Little Red Riding Hood and a CCTV camera. Some text next to her reads: Fear makes the wolf look bigger.
010
An ad for an ice-cream parlor: I scream. You scream. The police come. It's awkward.
011
Light text on a dark sign reads: Music equals Life
012
Green text on a cream background. It reads: Hush, little baby / go to sleep; / do not cry, / or the naked bear / will eat you.
013
A newspaper page with a picture of an otter and the headline: OTTER DEVASTATION
014
A yellow spoon with text on it that reads: Tables Poon
015
A pirated computer chip that reads 'VIAGRA' instead of 'VIACOM'
016
A Japanese ad with a pretty smiling girl on it. The text above her reads: What your hair fine?
 


We're a bit overdue for another Text Icons From DYAC Favorites post, but these are so much fun to make!

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Figured we ought to spread the word

Matthew Perpetua's put up the Fluxblog 2011 Survey Mix. Ten discs! 183 songs! Something for everyone, because, well, it's Fluxblog.

tl;dr free musics over here

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24 Hours in Pictures IN ICONS

Total Icon Count: 16

Categories:
Icons from the Guardian
alts

Teasers:

Icons from the Guardian

001
Buenos Aires, Argentina: A pair of tango dancers rehearse for the Queer Tango festival
002
Chon-Tash, Kyrgyzstan:-Beyit cemetery
003
Bhaktapur, Nepal: A rooster peeks out from the window of a house in the ancient city near the capital, Kathmandu
004
Baltimore, USA: A clergyman waits in a hotel lobby while holding rosary beads at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
005
Zurich, Switzerland: A pileated gibbon (Hylobates pileatus) cuddles its baby at the zoo
006
Paris, France: A couple kiss on the Pont des Arts
007
Sonepur, India: A man offers a piece of apple to a baby monkey for sale at the Sonepur mela, India's biggest cattle fair
008
New Delhi, India: Sufi Muslim dervishes from Turkey wear camel fur hats on stage during the Ruhaniyat Sufi and Mystic Music festival
009
Prague, Czech Republic: A bat sucks juice from a lemon at Troja zoo
010
Venice, Italy: A gondolier walks in St Mark's Square as thick fog shrouds the city
011
Madrid, Spain: A disabled man begs in the street
012
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Policemen patrol the Rocinha slum during an operation against a drug dealer
013
Daofu county, China: Tibetan Buddhist nuns from the Ganden Jangchub Choeling nunnery sit on a mountain slope, Sichuan province
014
New York, USA: Occupy Wall Street protesters sleep in a McDonald's near Zuccotti Park; edited to remove much of the background and to put in the words: OCCUPY REM SLEEP

alts

015
an alternative version of 001, the two men dancing
016
a closer view of 004, the clergyman with his rosary in a bright yellow chair


These are all from The Guardian's 24 hour in Pictures series, all from the past month.

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