TED2012: Lucy McRae, Body Architect

[Video Link] Lucy McRae was trained as a classical ballerina and an architect, and her work as a "body architect" incorporates these interests and more. She is the recipient of a TED Fellowship. I interviewed her this morning at TED 2012.

Rejected Star Wars Promotional Merchandise Concepts

 

Back in 1998, toy designer and Star Wars fiend Jason Geyer was part of team tasked with pitching promotional merchandise ideas for the upcoming film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. In 2008, Geyer posted a small selection of concepts that were rejected. He recently posted a follow

Technology Military Video Captures Destructive Power of Navy’s Newest Railgun

It’s a new version of the railgun, and it packs an earth-shattering, hypersonic punch.
In the past, railguns have been high-tech but massive beasts that looked like only the largest naval ships could handle one. With continued testing and experimentation, that’s starting to change.
As you can see from the screenshot above depicting the loading of a prototype rail gun built by defense contractor BAE, these amazing weapons are getting smaller, and inching closer to combat readiness.

Gizmodo lays out just how incredible this new weapon is, stating that ”it fires a 40-pound metal slug up to 5,600 miles per hour… slamming into its target with 32 times the force of a 1-ton car being thrust at 100 mph.”

Below you can see the oddly shaped projectile ripping through heavy barriers like butter.

Gizmodo contacted the Navy, and they agreed that the technology is becoming more compact and therefore more usable. ”It finally looks like a gun,” the Navy said.

Rail guns are designed to destroy basically anything, anywhere, on the land, sea, or in the air. The Navy may one day destroy the biggest, most expensive ships with nothing but a hunk of metal traveling really, really fast.
The military even hopes to use rail guns one day to shoot down incoming missiles.

It’s a true marvel of science, as all of this is accomplished with nothing more than kinetic energy. The projectiles do not contain any explosives. In fact, the Navy has been using non-aerodynamic rounds on purpose in tests so that a round doesn’t go off-range and smash through a neighboring town or interstate.
One day, however, the Navy will be using conical projectiles for maximum penetration.

The Navy plans to continue testing rail guns over the next five years, eventually pushing the energy used to 32 megajoules- – over even more.
It hasn’t happened yet, but one day, the railgun may change the way wars are fought.

Watch the incredible clip of the newest railgun model in action here, courtesy

This is the best Godzilla vs. Cthulu poster you will ever see

W just keeps on givin..

Richard Cebull, Montana Federal Judge, Admits Forwarding Racist Obama Email

Montana's chief federal judge admitted on Wednesday that he forwarded an email comparing African-Americans to dogs and implying that President Barack Obama's mother had sex with animals.

The email, obtained by the Great Falls Tribune, reads: "Normally I don't send or forward a lot of these, but even by my standards, it was a bit touching. I want all of my friends to feel what I felt when I read this. Hope it touches your heart like it did mine."

A joke then follows: "A little boy said to his mother; 'Mommy, how come I'm black and you're white?' His mother replied, 'Don't even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you're lucky you don't bark!'"
Cebull forwarded the offensive email from his official court account to six "old buddies," who then forwarded to others.

In an interview with the Tribune, Cebull maintained he did not send the email because it was racist, but because it was 'anti-Obama.'

"The only reason I can explain it to you is I am not a fan of our president, but this goes beyond not being a fan," Cebull said. He agreed the email was racist, but said he personally was not.
"This is a private thing that was, to say the least, very poor judgment on my part," he said. Cebull was nominated to his current position by George W. Bush. He has served since 2008

world class ,top in his field, fuc*in idiot....

Sheriff Joe Arpaio Investigates President Barack Obama's Birth Certificate

Joe Arpaio, a sheriff in Arizona, has been investigating the authenticity of Barack Obama's birth certificate.

PHOENIX -- America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff finds himself entangled these days in his own thorny legal troubles: a federal grand jury probe over alleged abuse of power, Justice Department accusations of racial profiling and revelations that his department didn't adequately investigate hundreds of Arizona sex-crime cases.

Rather than seek cover, though, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is seeking to grab the spotlight in the same unorthodox fashion that has helped boost his career as a nationally known lawman.
Arpaio scheduled a news conference Thursday to unveil preliminary results of an investigation, conducted by members of his volunteer cold-case posse, into the authenticity of President Barack Obama's birth certificate, a controversy that has been widely debunked but which remains alive in the eyes of some conservatives. Last year, Donald Trump most prominently revived the issue while entertaining a possible bid for the presidency.
The 79-year-old Republican sheriff has declined to offer clues to what the probe may have found – but defends his need to spearhead such an investigation after nearly 250 people connected to an Arizona tea party group requested one last summer.
"I'm not going after Obama," said Arpaio, who has criticized the president's administration for cutting off his federal immigration powers and conducting a civil rights investigation of his office. "I'm just doing my job."
Some critics suggest Arpaio's aim is to divert attention from his own legal troubles while raising his political profile as he seeks a sixth term this year. The sheriff vehemently denies such strategies are in play.
"You say I need this to get elected? Are you kidding me? I've been elected five times. I don't need this," he said in a recent interview.
Democratic state Sen. Steve Gallardo said Arpaio is pandering to relentless critics of the president.
"It doesn't matter what President Obama does, they'll never support him," Gallardo said. "It's those folks who will continue to write checks to Sheriff Joe because of this stuff."

Where’s Waldo? The Movie

Icebound, long-abandoned Communist flying saucer in the cliffs of Bulgaria

 

Timothy sez, "This is a link to some photos I have took of Buzludzha (pronounced Buz'ol'ja) a very remote building in the Balkan Mountains. It is Bulgaria's largest monument to Communism which was left to ruin after the revolution in 1989. An incredible 70 metre tall, 1970's 'flying saucer' perched precariously in the snow on a ridge at 1500m. Full of beautiful communist mosaic frescos and an amazing central atrium complete with giant golden hammer and sickle. It took 6000 workers 7 years to build. I managed to fly over it in a microlight in mid winter to get some interesting pictures too. Such an amazing place

A moronic bike thief attempts to ply his trade=

A moronic bike thief attempts to ply his trade

[Video Link] From Animal New York:

While out on a shoot Friday, the ANIMAL team captured footage of a thief with questionable intelligence trying to steal parts from a locked up bike on the Lower East Side. The video was shot at around 3PM on Attorney Street (between Houston and Stanton). That’s when a young man wearing a hoodie loosened the handlebars from a track bike and attempted to rip them off, literally. Sadly for him, this fixed gear has brakes and the cable prevents him from doing so, resulting in hilarity

If this smuck wasn't a millionaire they only piece of a## he get within spitting distance of is one that was willed to him(and then maybe)

Rush Limbaugh: Sandra Fluke, Woman Denied Right To Speak At Contraception Hearing, A 'Slut'

Rush Limbaugh called the woman who was denied the right to speak at a controversial contraception hearing a "slut" on Wednesday.

Sandra Fluke, a student at Georgetown Law School, was supposed to be the Democratic witness at a Congressional hearing about the Obama administration's contraception policy. However, Darrell Issa, the committee chair at the hearing, prevented her from speaking, while only allowing a series of men to testify about the policy. Fluke eventually spoke to a Democratic hearing, and talked about the need for birth control for both reproductive and broader medical reasons. She mentioned in particular a friend of hers who needed contraception to prevent the growth of cysts.

To Limbaugh, though, Fluke was just promoting casual sex.
"Can you imagine if you were her parents how proud...you would be?" he said. "Your daughter ... testifies she's having so much sex she can't afford her own birth control pills and she wants President Obama to provide them, or the Pope."
He continued:

"What does it say about the college co-ed Susan Fluke [sic] who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex -- what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex."

Limbaugh then said, "ok, so she's not a slut. She's round-heeled." "Round-heeled" is an old-fashioned term for promiscuity.

Limbaugh's comments came on the same day that Fluke was mentioned during a debate in the Senate about the so-called "Blunt Amendment," which would override Obama's contraception rule. Sen. Barbara Boxer brought up Fluke's testimony, recounting what she would have said at the Congressional panel if she had been given the opportunity.

simpler times.....

Old toy for teaching children to accurately drop atom bombs

Before the "Nintendo wars" of the early 21st century, there were these toys, which invited young children to practice accurately releasing atom bombs. I'm not sure that the skills you learned with this gadget would translate into real A-bombing practice, though, which probably disappointed some youngsters.

The Avengers trailer #2

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The hot new trailer for Joss Whedon’s The Avengers is a virtual scruff-of-the-neck grabber, showing not only precious seconds of city-crushing war but also the strife within the superhero supergroup as Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and S.H.I.E.L.D. bring together its reluctant members

promethus teaser..

Actor Guy Pearce plays cybernetics pioneer Peter Weyland in this imagined TED Talk from the year 2023. The video is a viral promotion for the upcoming Alien prequel Prometheus, directed by Ridley Scott

Cooking with Poo!

This book is called Cooking With Poo. Yes, "Poo" is Thai for "crab" and it's also author Saiyuud Diwong's nickname. But this book is called Cooking With Poo. Heh heh. Heh. It's on the shortlist for The Bookseller's Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year. Here are the others

Cool Geometric Illustrations of Pop Culture Icons by Liam Brazier

 

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via

boom....blam...zap.....

the death of this republic can be laid directly at the feet of these right wing coporate oligarc pricks

Corporate Immunity Looks Likely: Supreme Court Seems Ready To Side With Shell In Human Rights Suit

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday morning appeared divided along party lines, with a conservative majority ready to hold that corporations cannot be held accountable in federal courts for international human rights violations.
The Court was hearing oral argument in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, which was brought under a founding-era law, commonly called the Alien Tort Statute, that allows foreign nationals to bring civil lawsuits in U.S. federal courts "for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States." The 12 Nigerian plaintiffs contend that Shell Oil's parent company aided and abetted the Nigerian government in its torture and extrajudicial killing of environmental and human rights protesters resisting Shell's operations in Nigeria in the 1990s.
At the very start of the argument, Justice Anthony Kennedy quoted from a brief submitted by Chevron in support of its fellow multinational oil company that "international law does not recognize corporate liability."
"I was trying to find the best authority you have to refute that proposition," Kennedy told the Nigerians' lawyer, Paul Hoffman.
Hoffman responded that the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have somewhat similar laws on their books. Problem is, those two countries submitted briefs opposing Hoffman's position in this case.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito and Antonin Scalia also expressed hostility to the notion of corporate liability under the Alien Tort Statute. This lawsuit, Alito noted, was brought by foreign plaintiffs against a foreign defendant for acts that took place in a foreign country. "What business does a a case like that have in the courts of the United States?" he asked Hoffman.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg tried to push back against Alito's line of questioning, noting that the Supreme Court has already allowed such cases to be brought under the Alien Tort Statute. The question in Kiobel, she reminded her colleagues, is whether only individuals, as opposed to corporate entities, can be sued.

In questioning Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler, who was arguing in support of the Nigerians, Justice Stephen Breyer at first expressed skepticism about creating a "U.S. Supreme Court of the World," but then pivoted toward a position in favor of finding corporate liability. Noting that the Alien Tort Statute was originally passed to allow suits arising from acts of piracy, he conjured up a hypothetical corporation, "Pirates Inc.," and saw no reason why, had such an organization existed in 1789, it could not have been dragged into federal court.
Attorney Kathleen Sullivan, representing Royal Dutch Petroleum, faced intense questioning from Justice Elena Kagan that highlighted the irreconcilable divide between the two sides' arguments. Sullivan contended that there was no norm of corporate liability in international law courts and conventions, while Kagan said that silence in the international sources did not create corporate immunity. Their back-and-forth ended as a stalemate between two career contemporaries: Both women are former deans of the country's best law schools -- Sullivan at Stanford, Kagan at Harvard.
In the end, however, Sullivan appeared to have the Court's five-justice majority of Republican appointees on her side, if the typically silent Justice Clarence Thomas sticks to his previously expressed narrow views on the Alien Tort Statute and general pro-business bent.
A decision in the case is expected by the end of Ju

just a taste

fuck@n nuts!!!!

fu*k this dick...(nice mustache)