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Vice:

Artist Simon Menner was recently granted permission to spend some time with the German Army and its snipers. During the two occasions he visited, he captured the soldiers’ remarkable ability to blend into their environment, producing images that appear to be simple landscape shots until you look close enough to spot the barrel of a gun.

None of these guys would get me. Mostly because I don’t go into the woods.

Peter Cohen has some interesting thoughts on what the Mac will look like in 30 years. I think technology is moving so fast, we won’t even recognize the computer industry in 30 years. Whether it’s a Mac, iPad, or some other combined post-pc device, we’ll be living in a different world with different needs.

Grantland:

Go to any speedskating race and you’ll see them: the happy hordes of fans from the Netherlands who have come to support their athletes in their nation’s most dominant sport. They carry HUP HOLLAND HUP banners and bells; they have their own band, called Kleintje Pils, which means “a little bit of beer.” And at the end of the night, they flock to the Holland Heineken House — in most cases, to celebrate another win.

Much like the Brazilians at soccer events, the Dutch have more fun than anyone at speed skating events around the world. And the words “Heineken House” must bring a tear of joy to the eye of The Loop’s Publisher.

TIME.com:

Today’s Flickr has more than 10 billion photos. It hosts 1.8 million groups, which are being joined by 50,000 new members a day.

I’ve been a member since 2005 but have almost left a couple of times. Good to see it’s having a bit of a resurgence.

New York Times:

Gravity is defeated, for a beat or two, when it all works perfectly, and “it’s a great feeling because you can just float,” says Jessica Jerome of the United States, who will be competing in the first women’s ski jumping competition at an Olympics.

This is interesting not just for the information provided (ski jumping is much more technical than you would imagine) but for the way it is presented too. Make sure you check out the pages on Halfpipe, Luge and Slopestyle.

The Android ecosystem today is superficially similar to the PC ecosystem, but I’d suggest that the clarity and alignment of interests of the PC ecosystem isn’t present in anything like the same way. As an Android OEM you have very little idea what Android will be in 3 years – partly because Google itself may not have a fully-formed idea. There certainly aren’t public roadmaps stretching out years in advance.

Many great points in this article.

As I write this, my wife is sewing a skirt. Everything is laid out—the skirt itself, the fabric she cut the material from, the thread, the scissors, a measuring tape, some pins, the sewing machine, and the pattern. It’s the first piece of clothing she’s made from scratch, and she’s thoroughly enjoying the process. I find the chatter of the sewing machine very comforting. […]

The iTunes “empire” of content and services would be ranked as number 130 in the Fortune 500 ranking of companies (slightly below Alcoa and above Eli Lilly).

That’s incredible.

TicketBlast is an iPhone app that helps you relive the best live events of your life, providing a place to save your shoebox full of ticket stubs and memories and share them with the world on Facebook and Twitter, all while viewing them on your iPhone.

I really wish I had this 20 or 30 years ago. I’d love to look back at all of the concerts and games I’ve been to.

If you’re looking for some more disk space or just want a cleaner Mac, MacPaw has a fresh utility that you should check out; it’s called CleanMyMac 2.

CleanMyMac 2 helps you clean out unwanted apps, data, and gigabytes of junk on your Mac. It’s a powerful cleaning app that’s beautifully designed to make cleaning and organizing your Mac as simple as can be. With CleanMyMac 2, you can manage widgets and extensions, fix broken apps, drastically reduce your iPhoto Library, and clean out old, neglected files that waste disk space.

And, thanks to its Safety Database, you can rest easy knowing that CleanMyMac 2 is 100% safe to use. The Safety Database is a gigantic collection of rules and exceptions for cleaning up and uninstalling nearly anything on your Mac! It has over 5 years of data and is updated regularly. With CleanMyMac 2 and its Safety Database, your Mac is in good hands.

So, why put off getting yourself a faster, cleaner Mac? Download CleanMyMac 2 right now to see how easy cleaning your Mac can be!

“I’ll find you and i’ll kill you.”

“I will kill you mother fucker.”

Holy shit people, calm down.

Just a damning article from Paul Thurrott, but he makes so many valid points.

As has been widely publicized, Jimmy Fallon is moving on from his late night show to become the new host of the Tonight Show. Here’s the very last little bit of his last show. If the muppets don’t do it for you, just skip ahead to 3:40 and watch him walk off into the sunset. Watch to the end. Nice. [Embedded video]

Punch:

A white-jacketed bartender steps up to the long wooden bar at the Buena Vista Café and lines up a dozen tulip-shaped glasses. Into each go two white sugar cubes pulled from a bulk box. Then comes hot black coffee in a continuous steaming stream from a diner-style pot. Next: Irish whiskey, delivered in a dramatic long pour all along the line of waiting glassware. Last comes the cream—aged for half a week and then lightly whipped in a milkshake blender—ladled gently from a metal pint glass like a fluffy floe.

The pattern will continue all day long—filling anywhere from 2,000 to 3,500 glasses—until the bartender’s white jacket sleeves are spattered with coffee and the century-old tavern shutters at 2 a.m.

Whenever I go to San Francisco, I always stop in at the Buena Vista Café for four to seven Irish Coffees.

io9:

Add this to the list of things we never knew existed but now desperately need: The Evolution Door, a “flip-panel” invention by Austrian designer Klemens Torggler.

We’ve all opened a thousand doors but I bet you’ve never opened a door like this.

Many thanks to BiteMyApple.co for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week. Online retailer BiteMyApple.co has an impressive lineup of more than 60 successful Kickstarter products currently on sale. The retail site offers a wide range of accessories for the iPad, iPhone and other Apple devices.

I love the Olympics

PetaPixel:

In 50 seconds and one uninterrupted flowing video shot, UK directing duo US and advertising agency Grey pay tribute to six completely unique, culturally iconic images by expertly recreating one after the other.

If that sentence made no sense, it’s because it’s hard to describe what you’re about to see.

Rodin, Forest Gump, Mad Men, Michelangelo, Reservoir Dogs and Daft Punk all in one shot. Make sure you watch the behind the scenes video.

The New York Times has a “firehose” of live stream photos from the Sochi 2014 Olympics. It’s cool to watch but lacks context.

It’s truly amazing how many videos and photos we take each year on our iPhones. The big difference between the two types of media, is that photos are shared quite a bit more than videos. Vivoom wants to change that. […]

Salon:

I don’t remember any of what I’m about to tell you.

I died, in a way, and was reborn, with the same physical form, but not the same mind. I still to this day sit around with my family and listen to stories about the other Su.

Fascinating and terrifying story.

Interesting look into how Jared Sinclair designed his new RSS reader for iPhone, Unread.

The International Olympic Committee confirmed today that Olympic athletes are free to use any device they wish during the Opening Ceremonies, including iPhones. They are also not required to cover any logos on their devices.

Samsung must be pissed.

No matter how good the intentions or the system, there will always be those that try to take advantage. Apple’s App Store is no different.

James Martin:

I’m working on an initialism for a new standard of RSS Synchronization. It’s really, really simple synchronization, so the working title is RRSRSSS.

Sometimes you need an article like James’ to wake you up and realize you don’t have to read the same news from 10 different sites to enjoy or get the most out of RSS. Plus, it was funny.

Most people know that I’m a huge dog lover (I have two Border Collies) and that my wife recently opened Home To Stay Dog Rescue. Here is another great resource that has reviews, tips and more information for dog lovers.

In theory using photographs in your story should be simple, but it’s really not. Medium does a good job of letting users integrate photos, but as you scroll through some stories, you quickly see that some people just don’t get it, while other’s stories look great.

It’s called NameTag, and in Robocop-like fashion, the app can scan a person’s face and compare it to a records database consisting of millions of people.

If NameTag successfully finds that person, it spits back tons of information about them, including their full name, their relationship status, what school they went to, their current occupation, their interests, and more. It’ll even tell you if that person has a criminal record.

Google tells BGR that it has a ban on facial recognition apps. In other words, they haven’t found a way to make advertising dollars on that part of the creepiness yet.

I agree with all of these.