Mount Everest now 'wired' for Internet, ready for Starbucks originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 05:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
For the First Time, the TSA Meets Resistance (via Kottke)At BWI, I told the officer who directed me to the back-scatter that I preferred a pat-down. I did this in order to see how effective the manual search would be. When I made this request, a number of TSA officers, to my surprise, began laughing. I asked why. One of them -- the one who would eventually conduct my pat-down -- said that the rules were changing shortly, and that I would soon understand why the back-scatter was preferable to the manual search. I asked him if the new guidelines included a cavity search. "No way. You think Congress would allow that?"
I answered, "If you're a terrorist, you're going to hide your weapons in your anus or your vagina." He blushed when I said "vagina."
"Yes, but starting tomorrow, we're going to start searching your crotchal area" -- this is the word he used, "crotchal" -- and you're not going to like it."
"What am I not going to like?" I asked.
"We have to search up your thighs and between your legs until we meet resistance," he explained.
"Resistance?" I asked.
"Your testicles," he explained.
'That's funny," I said, "because 'The Resistance' is the actual name I've given to my testicles..."
The pat-down at BWI was fairly vigorous, by the usual tame standards of the TSA, but it was nothing like the one I received the next day at T.F. Green in Providence. Apparently, I was the very first passenger to ask to opt-out of back-scatter imaging. Several TSA officers heard me choose the pat-down, and they reacted in a way meant to make the ordinary passenger feel very badly about his decision. One officer said to a colleague who was obviously going to be assigned to me, "Get new gloves, man, you're going to need them where you're going."
(Image: In Your Face, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from nyc_xmas's photostream)
The only scientifically observed specimen of a newly discovered monkey species in Myanmar (Burma) was killed by local hunters by the time researchers found it. Shortly thereafter, it was eaten.
This species of monkey in fact so snub-nosed that it is said to sneeze uncontrollably when it rains. But "Snubby" has far greater problems than the sniffles.
Local demand for monkey flesh as a food source is one of many reasons the species is endangered; habitat destruction by Chinese logging companies is a big threat, which in turn leads to more hunting: no forest means fewer barriers to tracking and killing these beautiful, vulnerable beasts.
Read more here at National Geographic News.
(via Submitterator, thanks, Ted and Marilyn Terrell)
http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/RjUVb9_yiYI/new-snub-nosed-monke.html
AB Marketers via Amazon.com offers the Boyfriend Pillow (also called a "hug me pillow") for $25.50 with free shipping. That's the lowest total price we could find by a buck. Only slightly disturbing, this pillow mimics a quarter of a human ... for snuggling purposes. And, just like a real man, it's filled with polyester.For years, Nordstrom's Employee Handbook was a single 5×8" gray card containing these 75 words:
Welcome to Nordstrom
We're glad to have you with our Company. Our number one goal is to provide outstanding customer service. Set both your personal and professional goals high. We have great confidence in your ability to achieve them.
Nordstrom Rules: Rule #1: Use best judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules.
Please feel free to ask your department manager, store manager, or division general manager any question at any time.
During this time, Nordstrom had the highest sales per square foot performance in the retail industry – by almost double. [thx Ian]
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/37signals/beMH/~3/thxPTUCtSN4/2632-nordstroms-employee-handbook-mdash-short-and-sweet
I love these snippets from Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer, that were published in the New Yorker. An anthology, edited by Robert Swartwood, it includes an eerie piece by my friend and fellow Minneapolitan Jeremy Zoss, called "Houston, We Have a Problem":
I'm sorry, but there's not enough air in here for everyone. I'll tell them you were a hero.
Perfect reading for those winter evenings where you just want to take in a sentence, and then stare out the window for 20 minutes digesting it.
Image of something else disturbing and short: Some rights reserved by Alyssa L. Miller
http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/QPhtVZCXQoc/disturbing-delightfu.htmlThanks to InYourFaceNewYorker for the link
It's scary to think that a person who believes gay kids deserve suicide has a position of power within a school district. But sure enough, Clint McCance is a school board member at Midland School District in Arkansas. And he has some absolutely troubling and disturbing views when it comes to homosexuality, according to HRC Backstory.
McCance took to his Facebook page last week, to blast what became known as Spirit Day, a day where all around the country, people wore the color purple to remember those LGBT students who were victims of bullying or suicide. For McCance, this was nothing more than a day of honoring "sin."
"Seriously they want me to wear purple because five queers committed suicide. The only way I'm wearin' it for them is if they all commit suicide," McCance said, in one of the most ugly outbursts in recent memory. "I can't believe the people of this world have gotten this stupid. We are honoring the fact that they sinned and killed themselves because of their sin."
It merits repeating once again that McCance, as a school board member in the Midland School District, is in a position of power where he helps set the education policy for students in the district. It should be more than alarming to administrators that McCance took to his Facebook page to suggest that all gay kids should commit suicide.
But alas, McCance didn't stop there. He started to engage his Facebook followers with even more homophobic rhetoric.
"Being a fag doesn't give you the right to ruin the rest of our lives. If you get easily offended by being called a fag then don't tell anyone you are a fag. Keep that shit to yourself," McCance wrote. "It pisses me off though that we make a special purple fag day for them. I like that fags cant procreate. I also enjoy the fact that they often give each other aids and die."
Let's repeat this once again: this is a school board member. Someone charged with upholding the Midland School District's mission of "making a difference" in the lives of students. And his reaction to the recent spate of anti-gay bullying and LGBT students who have committed suicide? To release a diatribe so vile, it makes the Westboro Baptist Church look like Miss Manners.
Please take action and let the Midland School District know that this kind of language from a school board member is exactly the reason we live in a country where schools are toxic for LGBT students. This simply can't be excusable.
... Read more
Filed under: Reality-Free, TV News, Stay Tuned
Due to low ratings, Syfy has cancelled the 'Battlestar Galactica' prequel 'Caprica.'
Daft Punk have been teasing frustratingly brief snippets of their soundtrack to Tron: Legacy. But the French duo have finally released their most satisfying preview yet, a one-and-a-half minute sample of the epic future-funk track "Derezzed," paired with footage from the movie. The soundtrack drops November 22; the movie hits theaters on December 17. Check out the trailer below.
WATCH: Daft Punk, "Derezzed"
Lola Dupre interviewFirst an image for manipulation has to be selected and sometimes this is what takes most of my time. Going into a project I often have a very fixed idea of what I want to work with: finding the image with the right background, foreground, resolution, and content can take all day sometimes! I usually search Google images for sources, or alternatively I scan images that myself or my contacts have.
When I have selected the right image to use, I crop and print this at various sizes and edits on various sizes of paper. Working like this, the only limitation is the resolution of the source image. I am currently planning to do some giant paste up art works on buildings and walls, and this requires just the same formula but slightly tweaked...
Originally I would cut up perhaps two or three images or work from a small handful of duplicates. But with time my technique has developed and now I need more! This is just technique development - like how a young painter might begin work with just a few colours of poster paints and one large brush, and years later they are working with multiple colours and honed techniques to blend and create with all the experiences they have learned through practice and exploring their medium.
For me, I take a certain delight in the ready-made colour schemes and the detail of the images I work from.
Only "qualified users" who can provide written proof that they intend to use the parts for research, teaching or medical purposes can place an order.Interested parties who do not fall into this category can buy reproductions of the real body parts - so-called "Anatomy Glass" which the shop's website describes as "high resolution acrylic glass prints of the original body slices".
Jewellery crafted from animal corpses, including necklaces made from horse slices, wristbands made from giraffe tails and earrings made from bull penises, is also available to the general public.
The online shop has outraged leading members of Germany's religious community. In a joint statement, Protestant regional bishop Ulrich Fischer and Catholic archbishop Robert Zollitsch condemned the online body shop, which they said was "breaking a taboo".
Gubener Plastinate (Thanks Kaden, via Submitterator!)
"Anatomist sells body parts online" (Irish Times)
http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/Gou0Rh15DP8/body-worlds-creator-2.html
Today's moment of musical beauty comes courtesy of the Dark Lord of the Sith: Pianist Richard Grayson has taken John Williams' classic "Imperial March" and reworked it into a piano concerto worthy of the Maestro himself.
As a rule, Belstaff coats are classic, timeless, and Steve McQueen cool. Then there's this -- their, er, Iron Man Jacket. It's handmade, leather, numbered, and $1950.Filed under: Humor, Photos, Science
Is it possible to "troll" the very laws of matter and motion that govern the universe for your own kinetic benefit? For example, can one survive a falling elevator by jumping up in the air at the last minute? Also, f*cking electromagnetism - how does it work?
The holiday buying season is around the corner. What do you get that certain someone who has everything? Why, grilled sausage scented iPhone soap, of course! Talk about a gift giving trifecta. Combine supernatural gadget lust with a cardiac inducing appreciation of grilled meats, through in a little improved personal hygiene, and you've got one heck of a stocking stuffer. Boston area maker twoeggplants sums up their creation:
This iPhone soap is roughly the same size as the actual iPhone. It has the black button at the bottom and the "screen icons" in its "flat screen". The top layer of the soap is dark grayish black and the bottom layer is a slightly lighter shade of gray. I must say that this is one of my coolest creations and each feature is meticulously created. I hope you like the result of the many experiments and hours I spent to perfect it!
It weighs about 3.75 oz and it is scented with a fun Grilled Sausages fragrance. (I'm happy to provide a list of available fragrances to customize it as well.) Not only does it look cool, it is also infused with shea butter. It can also be made without fragrances or without shea butter.
SO. It turns out the 2001 monolith (in)action figure I wrote about last week is one of ThinkGeek's prank products. You can't actually buy one. Yet.
It's a clever trick, really: Call it an "April Fool's" product, then count the number of clicks on the buy link, and decide based on that info if you really want to manufacture and sell them, or not.
Me? Bitter? 'Course not.
Anyway, reader Dan Simpson saw that post and commented that
[b]ack in the 70s, I was commissioned to make one of these. I used one inch thick black acrylic plastic, and machined it to a thousandth of an inch accuracy on a vertical mill, then gave it a satin finish. Now, around three decades later, it's in stores. But I still have my prototype, which is a few thousandths off....
I asked, and Dan was kind enough to throw me a bone (sorry) with this photograph of his prototype. If it looks a bit funny, here, it's probably because I couldn't resist the temptation to crop it to 400.0 x 900.0 pixels. Although I am insufficiently evolved to perceive them, Dan assures me that the model's hyperspatial dimensions are equally precise. [Thanks, Dan!]
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/10/2001_monolith_replica_machined_to_0.htmlFiled under: Art / Design, Lists, Own It
http://www.urlesque.com/2010/10/22/meme-ify-your-home-with-these-10-things-currently-for-sale-etsy/
If you ever thought Obi-Wan Kenobi was a dick ... it turns out that he was. A private dick, that is. Check out the adventures of "Ben Kenobi: Private Jedeye," a short film which turns the Jedi into a 1940s noir detective.
How do you make a full-sized commercial airplane look like a toy, or give the illusion that your human subject is touching a cloud? Photoshop is an easy answer, but a much more low-tech method produces results that are just as amazing: forced perspective photography. Just as in filmmaking when miniatures convincingly stand in for buildings, landscapes or fantastical creatures, the trick is all in positioning, lighting and timing.
Everyone is familiar with this iteration of the forced-perspective photography trick: pretending to hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It's all about where you place your subject in relation to the background. At least this photographer took a different tack, giving his model a 'relaxed' pose.
Take that same idea and apply it in a new way and you've got the kind of photo that makes you look twice. To achieve this effect, photographer Lee 'Mr. Moog' used shallow focus and allowed the lens of his camera to render out-of-focus points of lights as little floating spheres.
Is that the foot of a giant descending from the sky to crush a priceless historical site into bits of gravel? From this angle, it sure looks like it.
When a watering can is big enough to suck you up into its spout, you'd better run.
Photographer Jeppe Olsen took a whole set of forced perspective photos out in the Salar de Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia, which provide a minimalist background ideal for deceptive shots like this one, making both the foreground and background subjects stand out equally.
What kind of monstrous crane would be required to pluck the Washington Monument right out of the ground? The silhouetted crane and illumination of the monument make this photo even more effective.
Forced perspective photography takes more than just selective focus or using the blur/sharpen tool in Photoshop. Clever positioning and light are also crucial elements in a successful photograph.
In some cases – like this one – timing is everything. No special effects or Photoshop necessary.
One of the famed natural formations in Arches National Park, Utah is in the palm of this photographer's hand when sharp focus is maintained on the entire image.
Even 900-foot-tall stone Jesus gets bored sometimes, so having a toy plane to play with is a plus.
This is definitely one of those photos that make you go, "what?" It's hard to tell exactly how the photographer achieved this effect, but according to his Flickr, there was no Photoshop involved.
The artist says "I kept messing it up and not aligning myself ( I was using tripod & self timer) and did it about 10 or so times. When I was happy with the result, I turned and saw that an old man walking his dog had stopped to watch my bizarre antics. He smiled and walked off. I must have looked completely mad because he was not in line with the cloud, so he would have seen my press my camera, run like a madman to the same spot 10 times and preform a melodramatic pray to god."
"Three years ago, I picked this guy up, put him in my pocket and claimed him as my own," says photographer Laura DeAngelis.
Believe it or not, this photo wasn't staged. Photographer Dave Brownlee calls it 'serendipity' that the heads and bodies of four separate people just happened to line up so well.
In this case, it's the location that's providing the illusion, not a trick of photography. The Puzzle Museum in Keswick, England contains an oddly-shaped room with a sloping ceiling, walls and floor so that from a certain vantage point, turning one person into a terrifying giant.
[ WebUrbanist - By Steph in Architecture & Design, Gadgets & Geek Art. ] 
