This has got to be the ultimate gadget for Star Wars lover: the R2-D2 Projector, complete with built-in DVD, iPod dock, and Millenium Falcon remote control!
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Vaune Dillmann, a craft brewer from Weed, California, thought that he got a cute marketing gimmick by labeling his beer bottle caps after the name of his town ("Try Legal Weed"). But the Federal alcohol regulators didn't get the humor:
The agency responded that the message on the caps amounted to a drug reference. In a letter explaining its decision, the agency said the wording could "mislead consumers about the characteristics of the alcoholic beverage."
Dillmann scoffs at the notion that his label has anything to do with smoking pot.
"I've never tried marijuana in my life," he told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "I don't advocate that. It's just our town's name."
Apparently, making fun of the town's name is somewhat of a sport with its inhabitants:
A sign posted on the way out of town reads, "Temporarily Out of Weed," while another says "100 Percent Pure Weed." Dillmann noted those examples in an appeal letter he sent to the alcohol bureau, a division of the U.S. Treasury Department.
Once, Dillmann said, his wife, a former teacher, was delayed on a field trip to San Francisco as tourists clamored to pose next to the school bus, which said "Weed High."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/04/23/financial/f145926D47.DTL - via Beyond Madison Avenue
(Photo: Rich Pedroncelli / AP)
School bus driver and amateur artist Steve Kreuscher of Zion, Chicago, wanted to change his name legally to "In God We Trust":
Kreuscher says the new name would symbolize the help God gave him through tough times.
Kreuscher also told the Daily Herald that he's worried that atheists may be successful in having the phrase "In God We Trust" removed from U.S. currency.
Would his first name be In? http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-namechange,0,5824666.story
With all the hoopla about Iron Man, DVICE blog wonders if we can actually build a real Iron Man suit. Step one is to check out what history has to offer, and that's Hardiman exoskeleton for humans:
Before we start building our own Iron Man suit, let’s first benefit from the experience from those who have tried this in the past. In 1965, GE (disclosure: our parent company, bless ’em) was the first to try creating an exoskeleton for humans. But the first iteration went berserk — kicking, bucking and gyrating so much, they never chanced it with a human inside. The project was scaled down to an arm that would be able to lift 750 pounds, enough to load up a bomb onto a plane on an aircraft carrier. Big problem, though: The arm itself weighed 1,500 pounds, far beyond anyone’s capacity to handle it. The idea was scrapped.
Read the rest of the entertaining article here: Link - via Gorilla Mask
This guy probably thought it was a good idea at the time: mooning the speed camera ...
A front seat car passenger was photographed baring his backside at a speed camera in Northumberland. [...] His behaviour has been labelled as "dangerous and offensive" by road safety campaigners.
Police may take action against the man for public order offences and not wearing a seat belt.
When angler John Berzins and guide Al Simson of Kettafly hooked a saratoga fish, they didn't expect to find a skink - the fish's last meal - inside its mouth. And they certainly didn't expect the partially digested skink to come back to life!
While they were taking photographs the fish started regurgitating its last meal _ the lizard _ which clearly should have been dead and looked dead with its lifeless eyes.
But as Simson continued taking photographs a miracle happened. "As I was looking through the lens of the camera I noticed that the once-glazed over eyes of the skink were now black," he said . "I said, `hey John, the skink's alive'. John said, `wow man, it just blinked at me, and look, it's breathing'."
The lizard began to struggle and with a little help from the fisherman it crawled from its captor's jaws. There were some teeth marks down its back and the tail was partially digested, but when they put it back on the river bank it happily scurried off.
Link (Photo: Al Simson) - via Underwater Times
UK Consumer group Which? conducted the test that showed keyboards may actually be dirtier than a toilet seat:
Out of 33 keyboards swabbed, four were regarded as a potential health hazard and one harboured five times more germs than one of the office's toilet seats.
Microbiologist Dr Peter Wilson said a keyboard was often "a reflection of what is in your nose and in your gut".
During the Which? tests in January this year, a microbiologist deemed one of the office's keyboards to be so dirty he ordered it to be removed, quarantined and cleaned. It had 150 times the recommended limit for bacteria - five times as filthy as a lavatory seat tested at the same time, the research found.
Wendy Gonaver lost her teaching job at Cal State Fullerton one day before class was scheduled to begin, because she refused to sign a loyalty oath swearing to "defend" the U.S. and California constitutions "against all enemies, foreign and domestic."
As a Quaker from Pennsylvania and a lifelong pacifist, Gonaver objected to the California oath as an infringement of her rights of free speech and religious freedom. She offered to sign the pledge if she could attach a brief statement expressing her views, a practice allowed by other state institutions. But Cal State Fullerton rejected her statement and insisted that she sign the oath if she wanted the job.
"I wanted it on record that I am a pacifist," said Gonaver, 38. "I was really upset. I didn't expect to be fired. I was so shocked that I had to do this."
California State University officials say they were simply following the law and did not discriminate against Gonaver because all employees are required to sign the oath. Clara Potes-Fellow, a Cal State spokeswoman, said the university does not permit employees to submit personal statements with the oath.
"The position of the university is that her entire added material was against the law," Potes-Fellow said.
In February, another Cal State instructor, Quaker math teacher Marianne Kearney-Brown, was fired because she inserted the word "nonviolently" when she signed the oath. She was quickly rehired after her case attracted media attention.
It is hard to know how many would-be workers decline to sign the pledge over religious or political issues. Some object because they interpret the pledge as a commitment to take up arms. Others have trouble swearing an oath to something other than their God.
Here's an interesting story at the Los Angeles Times by Richard C. Paddock: Link
(Photo: Mark Boster / LA Times)
When the Ambani residence is finished next year, it will be the most expensive home in the world: a 27-story skyscraper in downtown Mumbai. The cost? $2 billion!
But the Ambani family can well afford it, because Mukesh Ambani, head of India's petrochemical giant Reliance Industries, is the fifth richest man in the world and is worth $43 billion.
Forbes has the story:
The home will cost more than a hotel or high-rise of similar size because of its custom measurements and fittings: A hotel or condominium has a common layout, replicated on every floor, and uses the same materials throughout the building (such as door handles, floors, lamps and window treatments).
The Ambani home, called Antilla, differs in that no two floors are alike in either plans or materials used. At the request of Nita Ambani, say the designers, if a metal, wood or crystal is part of the ninth-floor design, it shouldn't be used on the eleventh floor, for example. The idea is to blend styles and architectural elements so spaces give the feel of consistency, but without repetition.
Antilla's shape is based on Vaastu, an Indian tradition much like Feng Shui that is said to move energy beneficially through the building by strategically placing materials, rooms and objects.
Link | Photo Gallery - via Growabrain
"Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking."
- H.L. Mencken, journalist and satirist
Conchita, a 3-week-old white-naped mangabey monkey, couldn't see her mother because she was recovering from a caesarean (I didn't know monkeys could get a caesarean, but there it is!).
So, to make sure that Conchita doesn't miss her mommy, zookeepers gave her a teddy bear to cuddle with!
The Daily Mail has photos so sugary cute they'll rot your teeth! Link - via J-Walk blog
(Photo: Fiona Hanson / PA)
Gato Island found not one, but five cats that look amazingly like Wilford Brimley. Behold, here are the LOLBrimleys: http://gatoisland.com/archive/wilfordbrimleycats/ - via Cynical-C
No Marquess of Queensberry rules here ... This is Dembe, a brutal and sometimes deadly Nigerian boxing:
"Before the bout starts, the boxer will wet the flax cord wrapped around his hand and cover it in sand to maximize the pain he can infict. Wrapped inside his fist are small animal skin packets containing bird feathers or other charms the boxer believes protect him."
BBC News has a fascinating photo gallery of the sport: Link - via Look at This
As an ad gimmick for Amstel Beer, Airworks built this XXL foosball table to accomodate 2 entire soccer teams (22 players): http://airworksinflatables.com/pages/projects_pages/table_football.html - via Gizmodo
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