Daredevil Darren Taylor (aka Professor Splash) holds the world record for the highest shallow dive. He achieved the record by jumping from a height of 36 feet into less than 12 inches of water.
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Coming to Kindle and Smashwords
November 2013
Feb 16, 2012
Neal Stephenson on getting big stuff done
[Video Link] Neal Stephenson talks about "our society's inability to execute on big stuff, to get big stuff done. In the first two thirds of the 20th century we went from not believing that heavier-than-air-flight was possible to walking on the moon."
Feb 15, 2012
knock me over w/t a feather....
Rick Santorum's Wife Karen Sued Doctor For $500,000, Despite Senator's Calls For Tort Reform
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has advocated capping medical malpractice awards at $250,000, but in 1999, his wife sued her doctor over a back injury and asked for twice that amount
She sued for $500,000, despite the fact that her medical bills totaled approximately $18,800.
While the jury awarded Karen $350,000, a judge later reduced the amount to $175,000.
By the time of the lawsuit, then-Sen. Santorum had taken up the cause of tort reform, twice sponsoring or co-sponsoring bills limiting the non-economic awards for pain and suffering that a plaintiff could seek to $250,000.
A significant part of what the Santorums were concerned about at the time of the lawsuit was that Karen would not be able to help the senator's re-election campaign, as she had done in the past.
As ABC News reports, Santorum's wife, Karen, sued a Virginia-based chiropractor for half-a-million dollars for allegedly bungling a spinal adjustment.
The suit charged that in November 1996, Karen saw Dr. David Dolberg for a spinal alignment, according to an article by Roll Call on Dec. 13, 1999. The adjustment, however, was performed improperly and resulted in a herniated disk that caused her physical pain and emotional suffering, and required surgery and multiple doctors' visits, she alleged.She sued for $500,000, despite the fact that her medical bills totaled approximately $18,800.
While the jury awarded Karen $350,000, a judge later reduced the amount to $175,000.
By the time of the lawsuit, then-Sen. Santorum had taken up the cause of tort reform, twice sponsoring or co-sponsoring bills limiting the non-economic awards for pain and suffering that a plaintiff could seek to $250,000.
A significant part of what the Santorums were concerned about at the time of the lawsuit was that Karen would not be able to help the senator's re-election campaign, as she had done in the past.
Ape speaks...
Hoisted on their own petard.....
The near universal support of conservatives and far right elements of the Citizens united decision has come back to bite them in their collective asses. By huge infusions of anomoyus superpac money (free speech according to the conservative wing of the supreme court) it allows to keep a candidate who is unpopular with the majority of the party and the one a incumbent president most wants’ to run against....
wtf?
Mormons Still Baptizing Dead Jews Despite Agreements to End Practice
LDS leaders have apologized for the baptism of the parents of famed Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal, but the persistent posthumous baptizing of Holocaust victims has outraged Jewish leaders.
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Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi Retold Using Only Icons
Designer and illustrator Wayne Dorrington graphically retells the story of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi using only icons. All five pages are amazingly detailed. In the past, he’s retold Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Episode IV in his
Soft robots: elastomeric origami
Wired Science's Dave Mosher investigates elastomeric soft robots -- air-powered origami creepers that can go places that challenge their rigid metallic kin.
Getting the soft robots to perform a particular action is a feat of origami: Folded in just the right way and glued in the right spots, for example, the researchers showed how a crinkled clump of silicone-soaked paper lifted a 2-pound weight. The force of the air required to drive it was roughly twice that of a human exhalation.
Feb 14, 2012
weird but cool...
Trailer for Tim Burton's "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter"
Here's a trailer for Tim Burton's forthcoming adaptation of the satirical horror novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Hard to tell how Burton will play it -- it will be tricky to maintain the relevance of the fact that the action hero is also Honest Abe without obliterating suspension of disbelief, since each reminder of this fact is a bit jarring in the context of a fun/funny horror romp.
This bullsh*t over anti abortion and anti contraception (sort of a oxymoron) and how they are being prosecuted..
American religious institutions enjoy as further proof of how far removed they are from other countries that face legitimate persecution. We're talking of course about their collecting up to $100 billion a year without paying any taxes, AND designated parking on New York City streets. We'll let you decide which one is more valuable.
Arthur Goldwag: Big C and Little C Conspiracy Theories
(In 2010, Boing Boing was pleased to feature as a guestblogger Arthur Goldwag, author of Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies: The Straight Scoop on Freemasons, The Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Black Helicopters, The New World Order, and many, many more. The following is an excerpt from Arthur's latest book, The New Hate: A History of Fear and Loathing on the Populist Right. - dp)
Conspiracy theories often resemble a kind of misbegotten, debased form of theology — one that begins with a set of suppositions and then reverse engineers a fantastical version of reality that comports with them. History does not dispute, for example, the fact that Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s mother’s father was Jewish. But in the auto magnate and arch-conspiracist Henry Ford’s telling, this genealogical detail held the key not only to Lenin’s entire character and political philosophy but to the vicissitudes of the former Russian Empire circa 1920 and to the historical development of Bolshevism worldwide. Lenin’s wife is Jewish, and his children all speak Yiddish, Ford insisted, a little hysterically. Russia’s yeshivas are the recipients of lavish subsidies from the Bolshevik state:
The Bolsheviks immediately took over all the Hebrew schools and continued them as they were and laid down a rule that the ancient Hebrew language should be taught in them. The ancient Hebrew language is the vehicle of the deeper secrets of the World Program.
And for the Gentile Russian children? “Why,” said these gentle Jewish educators, “we will teach them sex knowledge. We will brush out of their minds the cobwebs. They must learn the truth about things!” with consequences that are too pitiable to narrate.
Viewed through Ford’s monistic frame, Lenin’s grandfather’s one-eighth contribution of Jewish “genes” was sufficient to neutralize the very Russianness of the Russian Revolution, to reduce it to just another local skirmish in Judaism’s global war against the Gentiles.
Richard Nixon was forced to resign his presidency because of a small-c conspiracy to cover up the illegal activities carried out by his reelection campaign. But to conspiracists on his right, his whole presidency had been the enactment of a long-standing conspiracy to destroy America’s sovereignty; his breakthrough trip to China was just the latest in a long line of betrayals. “If Mr. Nixon has been only kidding about his devotion to forging the links in the chain of the World Superstate that is to be welded around America’s wrists, then he is a consummate hypocrite,” the John Birch Society’s Gary Allen wrote in 1971, a year before Nixon’s epochal meeting with Mao. “But his commitment to world government goes back nearly a quarter of a century and indeed he would not now be in the White House if he were not committed to this ultimate goal of the Insiders.”
Conspiracism, like racial bigotry, is almost always a murky undercurrent in the mainstream of politics, its propositions only glancingly acknowledged by the establishment and summarily dismissed. But as cartoonish as its heroes and villains might be, as disordered and disreputable and deranged as its proponents and its premises so often are, they are rarely without pertinence to an understanding of the social and political environment that spawned them.
Conspiracy theories often resemble a kind of misbegotten, debased form of theology — one that begins with a set of suppositions and then reverse engineers a fantastical version of reality that comports with them. History does not dispute, for example, the fact that Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s mother’s father was Jewish. But in the auto magnate and arch-conspiracist Henry Ford’s telling, this genealogical detail held the key not only to Lenin’s entire character and political philosophy but to the vicissitudes of the former Russian Empire circa 1920 and to the historical development of Bolshevism worldwide. Lenin’s wife is Jewish, and his children all speak Yiddish, Ford insisted, a little hysterically. Russia’s yeshivas are the recipients of lavish subsidies from the Bolshevik state:
The Bolsheviks immediately took over all the Hebrew schools and continued them as they were and laid down a rule that the ancient Hebrew language should be taught in them. The ancient Hebrew language is the vehicle of the deeper secrets of the World Program.
And for the Gentile Russian children? “Why,” said these gentle Jewish educators, “we will teach them sex knowledge. We will brush out of their minds the cobwebs. They must learn the truth about things!” with consequences that are too pitiable to narrate.
Viewed through Ford’s monistic frame, Lenin’s grandfather’s one-eighth contribution of Jewish “genes” was sufficient to neutralize the very Russianness of the Russian Revolution, to reduce it to just another local skirmish in Judaism’s global war against the Gentiles.
Richard Nixon was forced to resign his presidency because of a small-c conspiracy to cover up the illegal activities carried out by his reelection campaign. But to conspiracists on his right, his whole presidency had been the enactment of a long-standing conspiracy to destroy America’s sovereignty; his breakthrough trip to China was just the latest in a long line of betrayals. “If Mr. Nixon has been only kidding about his devotion to forging the links in the chain of the World Superstate that is to be welded around America’s wrists, then he is a consummate hypocrite,” the John Birch Society’s Gary Allen wrote in 1971, a year before Nixon’s epochal meeting with Mao. “But his commitment to world government goes back nearly a quarter of a century and indeed he would not now be in the White House if he were not committed to this ultimate goal of the Insiders.”
Conspiracism, like racial bigotry, is almost always a murky undercurrent in the mainstream of politics, its propositions only glancingly acknowledged by the establishment and summarily dismissed. But as cartoonish as its heroes and villains might be, as disordered and disreputable and deranged as its proponents and its premises so often are, they are rarely without pertinence to an understanding of the social and political environment that spawned them.
Doctor Who and Star Trek Meet in Comics Crossover
Two of sci-fi's hottest properties collide in upcoming comic Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation2.
Super Mario villains recruitment posters
Fro Design's Mario Propaganda posters show how the other side recruited all those turtles and carnivorous plants. A greeting card for Valentine's Day
If that special person in your life has the right sense of humor, this card, designed by dandee and for sale on Etsy, may be just the thing to make them feel all smooshy inside without playing in too heavily
Feb 10, 2012
Writing office for National Geographic's "Explorer in Residence"
Writing in Washington Life, Karin Tanabe describes the remarkable writing office designed by Travis Price architects for Wade Davis, National Geographic's "Explorer in Residence." It's one of the most beautiful rooms I've ever seen, the apotheosis of writing-caves.
Nicolas Cage Addresses Rumors He's A Vampire On 'Late Show With David Letterman' (VIDEO)
"How can I be polite about this," he said of the man in the picture. "It's a somewhat slowed down version of me."
Furthermore, he posited that the very existence of the picture would seem to denounce the vampire theory. After all, it's common knowledge that vampires pictures can't be taken. "I don't drink blood and last time I looked in the mirror, I had a reflection, so I'm not going with the vampire theory," he concluded.
But there are two ways to interpret what's happening here. Perhaps the myths about vampire reflections and being able to take pictures of vampires are just that. Nicolas Cage could be a vampire following "rules" that humanity simply doesn't know yet. Or a far simpler explanation could be that he's just immortal. Meaning fans can look forward to more Nicolas Cage movies for the rest of their lives
Furthermore, he posited that the very existence of the picture would seem to denounce the vampire theory. After all, it's common knowledge that vampires pictures can't be taken. "I don't drink blood and last time I looked in the mirror, I had a reflection, so I'm not going with the vampire theory," he concluded.
But there are two ways to interpret what's happening here. Perhaps the myths about vampire reflections and being able to take pictures of vampires are just that. Nicolas Cage could be a vampire following "rules" that humanity simply doesn't know yet. Or a far simpler explanation could be that he's just immortal. Meaning fans can look forward to more Nicolas Cage movies for the rest of their lives
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