Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Let This Ice Cream Machine Show You How Your Truly Feeling
Dr. Whippy
Mixed Media/Travelling Performance: London, Austria and Zagreb, 2007 – 09
Dr. Whippy is a machine which proffers soft scoop ice cream according to the perceived unhappiness level of the customer. Employing a voice-stress analysis of the user’s answers to specific questions, varying degrees of unhappiness are measured and the counteractive quantity of ice cream is dispensed: The more unhappy you are, the more ice cream you need.
Cross Dressing At A British Funeral
British soldier made a pact with his friend that if one of them died, the other would have to wear a dress to the funeral. He kept his promise by wearing a neon green dress, knee high socks, and boots to the funeral.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/07/toilet-paper-wedding-gown.php
Major, major kudos to Ann Kagawa Lee of Honolulu, Hawaii, winner of Cheap Chic Wedding's annual toilet-paper wedding dress contest, who made this mind-boggling matrimonial ensemble out of bathroom tissue—a textile fit for a recession!—tape, glue, and a breathtaking amount of commitment.Lee's stunningly detailed creation, which has drawn comparisons to an Oscar de la Renta couture gown, according to the Web site, was inspired by a potent combo of Gone With the Wind and Japanese origami.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Caster Semenya Is A Hermaphradite
Tests show that controversial runner Caster Semenya is a woman ...and a man!
The 18-year-old South African champ has no womb or ovaries and her testosterone levels are more than three times higher than those of a normal female, according to reports.
The tests, ordered by The International Association of Athletics Federations after Semenya's 800-meter victory in the World Championships, determined she's a hermaphrodite - having both male and female organs.
Semenya could be stripped of the gold medal she won in Berlin last month and her competitive future is in limbo, according to Australia's Daily Telegraph.
The athletics governing body is also expected to advise her to have surgery to fix the potentially deadly condition, the paper reported. The IAAF would not comment on the results that have yet to be released.
According to a source with knowledge of the IAAF tests, Semenya has internal testes - the male sexual organs that produce testosterone.
Testosterone is a hormone responsible for building muscles and for producing body hair and a deep voice.
Confirmation of the test results is sure to stoke the controversy that erupted after the university student's sensational track triumph.
She has been embraced in her home country - where she was declared "our girl" - and appeared on a magazine cover after a feminine makeover.
"God made me the way I am and I accept myself. I am who I am and I'm proud of myself," she told You Magazine, which ran a photo spread.
"I don't want to talk about the tests. I'm not even thinking about them."
oyaniv@nydailynews.comRead more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/09/10/2009-09-10_caster_semenya_.html#ixzz0Qo41QyKo
The 18-year-old South African champ has no womb or ovaries and her testosterone levels are more than three times higher than those of a normal female, according to reports.
The tests, ordered by The International Association of Athletics Federations after Semenya's 800-meter victory in the World Championships, determined she's a hermaphrodite - having both male and female organs.
Semenya could be stripped of the gold medal she won in Berlin last month and her competitive future is in limbo, according to Australia's Daily Telegraph.
The athletics governing body is also expected to advise her to have surgery to fix the potentially deadly condition, the paper reported. The IAAF would not comment on the results that have yet to be released.
According to a source with knowledge of the IAAF tests, Semenya has internal testes - the male sexual organs that produce testosterone.
Testosterone is a hormone responsible for building muscles and for producing body hair and a deep voice.
Confirmation of the test results is sure to stoke the controversy that erupted after the university student's sensational track triumph.
She has been embraced in her home country - where she was declared "our girl" - and appeared on a magazine cover after a feminine makeover.
"God made me the way I am and I accept myself. I am who I am and I'm proud of myself," she told You Magazine, which ran a photo spread.
"I don't want to talk about the tests. I'm not even thinking about them."
oyaniv@nydailynews.comRead more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/09/10/2009-09-10_caster_semenya_.html#ixzz0Qo41QyKo
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Swine Flu Apps On Your iPhone
Swine Flu apps
CDC News Reader If you want the latest and most up-to-date information on the swine flu, CDC News Reader is probably a good place to start.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides all the latest information available on the swine flu. And since it also provides information on other outbreaks the organization is tracking, you're likely to find some of the best health data of any app in this roundup. For 99 cents, it might be worth it.
H1N1 Cases by State If you want daily updates on how the swine flu is spreading, H1N1 Cases by State will fill you in.
H1N1 Cases by State automatically downloads daily all the new instances of swine flu in each state in the U.S. When you click on a new outbreak, you'll be brought to a page detailing it. You can also see how many deaths have occurred because of the outbreak. For 99 cents, it's not a bad app to have with you when you need some updates.
Outbreaks Near Me Outbreaks Near Me is clearly one of the most useful applications in this roundup.
With the help of Google Maps, Outbreaks Near Me maps all the known swine flu outbreaks in your area. The app also lets you report outbreaks if you find someone who has swine flu and isn't included in the map listing. This free app even supports push, so it can alert you whenever a new incidence of swine flu has affected your area. Check out our full review here.
Swine Flu Tracker Swine Flu Tracker is a simple application designed to keep track of where outbreaks of the swine flu are occurring all over the world.
When you start using Swine Flu Tracker, you'll find a series of maps that lets you see each instance of swine flu outbreaks. You can check around your area or elsewhere around the world. The app also features an information pane, providing detailed data on the swine flu, where it comes from, and how to prevent it from affecting you. It's available for free.
Swine Flu Upto-the-Minute Swine Flu Upto-the-Minute aims at becoming your daily source for everything related to the swine flu.
To do so, it starts out by telling you where the worldwide alert level is. It then explains what each level means to you. The app also features the world's "status" to let you know whether it's safe to travel to certain countries. If you want to learn more about the swine flu or influenza in general, Swine Flu Upto-the-Minute has some documents for you to read. Even if you're looking for the latest headlines, you'll find it with this app. It's full-featured and affordable at 99 cents.
I mean Palin Is Hot And All But 25k Is Kind Of Steep
The Internet auction giant, eBay, is offering the chance to dine with Sarah Palin, with bids starting at $25,000.
CNN reports the winner will engage in a dinner for five with the former Alaska governor and her husband, Todd.
The auction is for a good cause, with all of the proceeds going to “Ride 2 Recovery,” a charity that provides bicycles to wounded veterans and organizes bike rides to aid in their physical and mental rehabilitation and recovery.
Palin spokesperson, Meg Stapleton said, “The Governor is excited to have been asked to honor our nation’s veterans in this way.”
According to CNN, the auction opens sometime on Tuesday and will remain open for ten days. Also up for auction on eBay is lunch with former Bush presidential adviser Karl Rove, with a startin
Friday, September 4, 2009
ZOOBLU offers FREE H1N1 Swine Flu Masks Untill a Vaccine is Readily Available
Clearwater, Florida – September 4, 2009 – With the fall season nearing and the H1N1 (Swine Flu) virus expected to ramp up to unprecedented levels, one website is offering its customers solace by giving away free N95 respirator masks that help prevent the unnecessary spread of the virus.
“Swine Flu is definitely on peoples’ radar right now” says Zooblu buyer Rob Kral, “and until a vaccine is available to everyone, we wanted to offer our customers these masks free of charge”. With trials currently underway, experts expect that the Swine Flu vaccine will be available to the general public by October 15.
Currently, the most effective measures to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus include the frequent use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers, regular washing of hands using soap and water and the use of an N95 respirator mask.
“The respirator masks that we are giving away on Zooblu are FDA approved N95 masks that meet the standards of the National Institute of Safety and Health for the prevention of airborne viruses” says Zooblu co-founder John Carlin.
Zooblu is a newly-formed “Deal a Day” website that features daily products, user chat forums, live office video feeds and real-time user interaction.
“With the launch of Zooblu it was important to us that we did something that would immediately benefit our customers” says Zooblu marketing director Matt McAvoy, “with the rising of concern of Swine Flu, giving away respirator masks was a no-brainer for us”.
To receive a free 2-pack of Swine Flu respirator masks, users can simply go to Zooblu.com and click on the “Gimme One” button.
If you would like more information about Zooblu or would like to schedule an interview with co-founder John Carlin, please send an email to john.carlin@zooblu.com.
“Swine Flu is definitely on peoples’ radar right now” says Zooblu buyer Rob Kral, “and until a vaccine is available to everyone, we wanted to offer our customers these masks free of charge”. With trials currently underway, experts expect that the Swine Flu vaccine will be available to the general public by October 15.
Currently, the most effective measures to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus include the frequent use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers, regular washing of hands using soap and water and the use of an N95 respirator mask.
“The respirator masks that we are giving away on Zooblu are FDA approved N95 masks that meet the standards of the National Institute of Safety and Health for the prevention of airborne viruses” says Zooblu co-founder John Carlin.
Zooblu is a newly-formed “Deal a Day” website that features daily products, user chat forums, live office video feeds and real-time user interaction.
“With the launch of Zooblu it was important to us that we did something that would immediately benefit our customers” says Zooblu marketing director Matt McAvoy, “with the rising of concern of Swine Flu, giving away respirator masks was a no-brainer for us”.
To receive a free 2-pack of Swine Flu respirator masks, users can simply go to Zooblu.com and click on the “Gimme One” button.
If you would like more information about Zooblu or would like to schedule an interview with co-founder John Carlin, please send an email to john.carlin@zooblu.com.
Losing Appendages Over Health Care Reform.....Giving The Finger And Not Getting It Back
Obama Critic Gives MoveOn the Finger -- Doesn't Get It Back
Well, William Rice didn't actually give MoveOn the finger -- his pinky was forcibly removed by an Obamacare supporter's teeth.
Rice, a 65-year-old real-estate appraiser from Newbury Park, Calif., expected some heated arguments when he went to a health care protest in Thousand Oaks. He did not expect to leave without his finger.
Rice was part of a small group of counter-protesters who showed up to a MoveOn-sponsored "We Can't Afford to Wait" vigil. The two groups were on opposite sides of the street. At one point, a man from the MoveOn side of the street crossed over to confront Obama critics. Rice got in an altercation with the man, who bit off his pinky finger in the scuffle, down to the second knuckle, Rice said. The man, who is pictured leaving the scene in this group of photos, is still at large.
The alleged crime is a serious one:
"It's considered a mayhem which is the removal of an appendage from a human," said Norris of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department. "The crime is punishable by imprisonment for 2, 4, or 8 years."
Rice drove himself to nearby Los Robles Hospital after the incident for treatment. One report said his finger was reattached, but Rice told THE WEEKLY STANDARD in a phone interview that's not the case.
"They weren’t able to attach it because a human bite has so much bacteria," said Rice, who also said Wednesday's rally had a different feeling than other local health care events he'd been to recently.
"It had a Code Pink element that I’d never seen before and it had a MoveOn element I'd never seen before," he said, calling some of the Obamacare supporters "borderline emotionally out of control."
Even so, Rice said he'd had a cordial discussion with several Code Pink protesters before he walked back over to his side of the street. One report characterized that exchange as a "heated discussion," but Rice said it wasn't and was "not a catalyst or a trigger whatsoever." Some liberal witnesses have alleged Rice was intimidating Obamacare supporters, but Rice, who has a son in the Marines, said he talked with several Code Pink members about what their message was, afraid it might be anti-troops. He said when he realized they were there to talk health care, he went back to his side of the street.
Scott Bush, an Obama critic who was standing next to Rice when the incident happened, said critics and supporters of Obama had had face-to-face, calm debates throughout the night without incident until the suspect in the biting crossed the street to confront critics. Of Rice's behavior, he said:
"He didn't even have a sign. He was just there to be a part of things. He's a nice man."
The suspect yelled at the group, "Are you for the public option?" When the crowd answered, "no," Bush said he singled out Rice, one of the smaller men in the group, coming at him and yelling, "You're an idiot, you're an idiot!"
"I don’t think he had any intentions whatsoever of talking," said Rice, who "popped him in the nose" when he got close to his face.
Bush called Rice's move "defensive." Bush said the incident became a scuffle, the public-option supporter pulled Rice into the street, and it was over very quickly after that. During the struggle, Rice said his finger ended up in the suspect's mouth, and it was bitten off.
"William grabbed his hand and said, 'Oh, he bit my finger off," Bush said. "It was clear that the end of his finger was bitten off. It was a stump."
Rice left for the hospital and the assailant ran away before police arrived. Bush looked for Rice's fingertip and found it about 20 feet away from the scuffle, in the street.
"I got in my car and I took his finger to Los Robles and I found him, and I gave him back his finger," Bush said, who carried the digit wrapped in a napkin.
Unfortunately, "it was of no use," Rice said.
MoveOn released this statement on the incident, calling it a "regrettable act of violence," but said they don't know whether the suspect was a MoveOn member.
Liberals on Twitter were somewhat less politic, declaring the forcible amputation a victory of government-run medicine over a hypocritical Obamacare critic. Because of his age, Rice is covered by Medicare.
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo said: "bright side! anti-health care reform protestor has finger reattached under Medicare after hcr supporter bites it off"
Air America posts about the incident under the gleeful title, "Anti-reform protester forced to use government insurance."
Rice will likely go in Friday for further repair on the finger.
"The prognosis is they’re holding off on repairing it until they see what kind of infections I may incur, and then they'll clean it up, trim the bone back, and take care of the nerve endings and all those things."
I would have gotten the suspect's side of the story, but he didn't stick around to sing the praises of the Medicare services he forced Rice to use.
Posted by Mary Katharine Ham on September 3, 2009 04:39 PM | Permalink
via weeklystandard.com
Well, William Rice didn't actually give MoveOn the finger -- his pinky was forcibly removed by an Obamacare supporter's teeth.
Rice, a 65-year-old real-estate appraiser from Newbury Park, Calif., expected some heated arguments when he went to a health care protest in Thousand Oaks. He did not expect to leave without his finger.
Rice was part of a small group of counter-protesters who showed up to a MoveOn-sponsored "We Can't Afford to Wait" vigil. The two groups were on opposite sides of the street. At one point, a man from the MoveOn side of the street crossed over to confront Obama critics. Rice got in an altercation with the man, who bit off his pinky finger in the scuffle, down to the second knuckle, Rice said. The man, who is pictured leaving the scene in this group of photos, is still at large.
The alleged crime is a serious one:
"It's considered a mayhem which is the removal of an appendage from a human," said Norris of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department. "The crime is punishable by imprisonment for 2, 4, or 8 years."
Rice drove himself to nearby Los Robles Hospital after the incident for treatment. One report said his finger was reattached, but Rice told THE WEEKLY STANDARD in a phone interview that's not the case.
"They weren’t able to attach it because a human bite has so much bacteria," said Rice, who also said Wednesday's rally had a different feeling than other local health care events he'd been to recently.
"It had a Code Pink element that I’d never seen before and it had a MoveOn element I'd never seen before," he said, calling some of the Obamacare supporters "borderline emotionally out of control."
Even so, Rice said he'd had a cordial discussion with several Code Pink protesters before he walked back over to his side of the street. One report characterized that exchange as a "heated discussion," but Rice said it wasn't and was "not a catalyst or a trigger whatsoever." Some liberal witnesses have alleged Rice was intimidating Obamacare supporters, but Rice, who has a son in the Marines, said he talked with several Code Pink members about what their message was, afraid it might be anti-troops. He said when he realized they were there to talk health care, he went back to his side of the street.
Scott Bush, an Obama critic who was standing next to Rice when the incident happened, said critics and supporters of Obama had had face-to-face, calm debates throughout the night without incident until the suspect in the biting crossed the street to confront critics. Of Rice's behavior, he said:
"He didn't even have a sign. He was just there to be a part of things. He's a nice man."
The suspect yelled at the group, "Are you for the public option?" When the crowd answered, "no," Bush said he singled out Rice, one of the smaller men in the group, coming at him and yelling, "You're an idiot, you're an idiot!"
"I don’t think he had any intentions whatsoever of talking," said Rice, who "popped him in the nose" when he got close to his face.
Bush called Rice's move "defensive." Bush said the incident became a scuffle, the public-option supporter pulled Rice into the street, and it was over very quickly after that. During the struggle, Rice said his finger ended up in the suspect's mouth, and it was bitten off.
"William grabbed his hand and said, 'Oh, he bit my finger off," Bush said. "It was clear that the end of his finger was bitten off. It was a stump."
Rice left for the hospital and the assailant ran away before police arrived. Bush looked for Rice's fingertip and found it about 20 feet away from the scuffle, in the street.
"I got in my car and I took his finger to Los Robles and I found him, and I gave him back his finger," Bush said, who carried the digit wrapped in a napkin.
Unfortunately, "it was of no use," Rice said.
MoveOn released this statement on the incident, calling it a "regrettable act of violence," but said they don't know whether the suspect was a MoveOn member.
Liberals on Twitter were somewhat less politic, declaring the forcible amputation a victory of government-run medicine over a hypocritical Obamacare critic. Because of his age, Rice is covered by Medicare.
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo said: "bright side! anti-health care reform protestor has finger reattached under Medicare after hcr supporter bites it off"
Air America posts about the incident under the gleeful title, "Anti-reform protester forced to use government insurance."
Rice will likely go in Friday for further repair on the finger.
"The prognosis is they’re holding off on repairing it until they see what kind of infections I may incur, and then they'll clean it up, trim the bone back, and take care of the nerve endings and all those things."
I would have gotten the suspect's side of the story, but he didn't stick around to sing the praises of the Medicare services he forced Rice to use.
Posted by Mary Katharine Ham on September 3, 2009 04:39 PM | Permalink
via weeklystandard.com
Thursday, September 3, 2009
The swine flu is coming and zooblu has you covered!!!!!
ATLANTA (Sept. 1) - Since it first emerged in April, the global swine flu epidemic has sickened more than 1 million Americans and killed about 500. It's also spread around the world, infecting tens of thousands and killing nearly 2,000.
This summer, the virus has been surprisingly tenacious in the U.S., refusing to fade away as flu viruses usually do. And health officials predict a surge of cases this fall, perhaps very soon as schools reopen.
A White House report from an expert panel suggests that from 30 percent to half the population could catch swine flu during the course of this pandemic and that from 30,000 to 90,000 could die.
via aol.com
Zooblu has you covered this fall. We will be offering one of the only N95 rated FDA approved respirator mask. Made for prevention of the H1N1 Swine Flu, Avian Flu, Seasonal. Our mask comes in a two pack and of course it will be extremely discounted. Stay posted to Zooblu to get further details. Quantities limited
This summer, the virus has been surprisingly tenacious in the U.S., refusing to fade away as flu viruses usually do. And health officials predict a surge of cases this fall, perhaps very soon as schools reopen.
A White House report from an expert panel suggests that from 30 percent to half the population could catch swine flu during the course of this pandemic and that from 30,000 to 90,000 could die.
via aol.com
Zooblu has you covered this fall. We will be offering one of the only N95 rated FDA approved respirator mask. Made for prevention of the H1N1 Swine Flu, Avian Flu, Seasonal. Our mask comes in a two pack and of course it will be extremely discounted. Stay posted to Zooblu to get further details. Quantities limited
Website gets viral for making fun of Walmart shoppers....
(CNN) -- It's a blog where people post, and make fun of, pictures of out-of-shape, poorly dressed and otherwise awkward people shopping at Wal-Mart.
The "People of Walmart" blog features photos taken by users at the mega-chain.
1 of 2 And, in less than a month, with no marketing to speak of, it's become the toast of the Internet.
"People of Wal-Mart," a gag started by two 20-something brothers and their buddy to share crazy pictures with their friends, has gone viral. Promoted largely on sites like Digg and Funny or Die -- and linked ad nauseam on Facebook and Twitter -- the site picked up enough traffic to crash its servers on Wednesday.
"I'm still baffled -- I really am," said Andrew Kipple, 23, one of the creators of the site, who said his team was frantically working Wednesday to add enough server space to handle the surge in traffic.
Photos on the site, sent in by viewers all over the United States, frequently feature overweight people wearing tight clothes, bizarre hairstyles (with versions of the short-in-front, long-in-back "mullet" leading the pack) and fashion crimes ranging from furry leg warmers to miniskirts that leave absolutely nothing to the imagination.
There's a guy enjoying a can of beer outside a Wal-Mart, a guy dressed as Captain America and another guy with a goat. Yes, a live goat.
Andrew and his brother Adam, 25, said they thought of the site after a visit to a South Carolina Wal-Mart where they saw a woman they believed to be a stripper, wearing an obscene T-shirt and leading a toddler in a harness. Around the next corner was a man with a beard reminiscent of the rock band ZZ Top.
Don't Miss
People of Walmart
Walmart Stores Inc.
Center for Rural Strategies
"It's kind of like the light bulb went off," Andrew said. "We get the e-mails already from people who are like, 'Why didn't I think of this?' We just happened to be fortunate enough to have the ability to actually follow through on it."
Their site was keeping up when it was getting about 500,000 views a day, but got swamped by a new spike in traffic late last week. The brothers, along with partner Luke Wherry, 23, say response has been largely positive -- with only a handful of complaints out of every 100 e-mails they get.
A post on the group's Facebook page Thursday morning said they had gotten more than 1.2 million page views on Wednesday, even though the site was down for much of the day.
The site was getting two or three photo submissions a day until last week they said -- when all of a sudden hundreds of e-mails, most with pictures, started rolling in.
But not everyone appreciates the humor -- saying the site goes out of its way to mock poor and rural patrons of the store, reinforcing stereotypes along the way.
"American culture likes to single out people who appear to be different," said Tim Marema, vice president of the Whitesburg, Kentucky-based Center for Rural Strategies. "Whether it's a joke or not, all depends on which side of the camera you're on."
Furthering stereotypes can strengthen the rifts between rural, urban and suburban residents and, in the worst-case scenario, can affect the way some people are treated by government and industry, he said.
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer with more than 4,200 U.S. stores and over $400 billion in annual sales, may be more prominent in rural areas, Marema said, but to use that to stereotype its shoppers doesn't make sense.
"The reality is that everybody shops at Wal-Mart," he said. "If you want to find the guy in the golf shirt and khakis, he's there too."
A spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. declined to comment for this story.
The brothers say they don't mean for their site to be mean-spirited, and that they have standards for which photos they use.
Andrew Kipple said they don't include pictures of people with physical disabilities or apparent mental disabilities and won't run a picture of a person simply because they are overweight.
"We're not going to go out and say we're not making fun of anybody or we're the nicest guys in the world. But I think you have to draw a line somewhere when you have a site like this," he said.
"If you have a mental handicap -- that's not funny. If you have lost a leg and you're on a crutch or in a wheelchair, some people may laugh at that, but we don't find it funny."
He denied complaints that the photos -- many of which attract a string of snarky comments from readers -- single out people because they are poor or unattractive.
"If you make a bad decision on what you're going to be out in public wearing, that's what we're looking for," he said. "If you're 400 pounds, you shouldn't be wearing nothing but a pink tube top. Even if you shop at Goodwill, wherever you go, the shirts they sell have sleeves and they have your size."
Adam Kipple, who works as a Web designer for a marketing firm, said he and his brother are frequent Wal-Mart shoppers themselves and that, in a way, their site could be boon to the shopping chain.
"People [who send e-mails wanting to take pictures] say, 'I haven't been to Wal-Mart in years, but now I have a reason to go,' " he said.
E-mail to a friend
The "People of Walmart" blog features photos taken by users at the mega-chain.
1 of 2 And, in less than a month, with no marketing to speak of, it's become the toast of the Internet.
"People of Wal-Mart," a gag started by two 20-something brothers and their buddy to share crazy pictures with their friends, has gone viral. Promoted largely on sites like Digg and Funny or Die -- and linked ad nauseam on Facebook and Twitter -- the site picked up enough traffic to crash its servers on Wednesday.
"I'm still baffled -- I really am," said Andrew Kipple, 23, one of the creators of the site, who said his team was frantically working Wednesday to add enough server space to handle the surge in traffic.
Photos on the site, sent in by viewers all over the United States, frequently feature overweight people wearing tight clothes, bizarre hairstyles (with versions of the short-in-front, long-in-back "mullet" leading the pack) and fashion crimes ranging from furry leg warmers to miniskirts that leave absolutely nothing to the imagination.
There's a guy enjoying a can of beer outside a Wal-Mart, a guy dressed as Captain America and another guy with a goat. Yes, a live goat.
Andrew and his brother Adam, 25, said they thought of the site after a visit to a South Carolina Wal-Mart where they saw a woman they believed to be a stripper, wearing an obscene T-shirt and leading a toddler in a harness. Around the next corner was a man with a beard reminiscent of the rock band ZZ Top.
Don't Miss
People of Walmart
Walmart Stores Inc.
Center for Rural Strategies
"It's kind of like the light bulb went off," Andrew said. "We get the e-mails already from people who are like, 'Why didn't I think of this?' We just happened to be fortunate enough to have the ability to actually follow through on it."
Their site was keeping up when it was getting about 500,000 views a day, but got swamped by a new spike in traffic late last week. The brothers, along with partner Luke Wherry, 23, say response has been largely positive -- with only a handful of complaints out of every 100 e-mails they get.
A post on the group's Facebook page Thursday morning said they had gotten more than 1.2 million page views on Wednesday, even though the site was down for much of the day.
The site was getting two or three photo submissions a day until last week they said -- when all of a sudden hundreds of e-mails, most with pictures, started rolling in.
But not everyone appreciates the humor -- saying the site goes out of its way to mock poor and rural patrons of the store, reinforcing stereotypes along the way.
"American culture likes to single out people who appear to be different," said Tim Marema, vice president of the Whitesburg, Kentucky-based Center for Rural Strategies. "Whether it's a joke or not, all depends on which side of the camera you're on."
Furthering stereotypes can strengthen the rifts between rural, urban and suburban residents and, in the worst-case scenario, can affect the way some people are treated by government and industry, he said.
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer with more than 4,200 U.S. stores and over $400 billion in annual sales, may be more prominent in rural areas, Marema said, but to use that to stereotype its shoppers doesn't make sense.
"The reality is that everybody shops at Wal-Mart," he said. "If you want to find the guy in the golf shirt and khakis, he's there too."
A spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. declined to comment for this story.
The brothers say they don't mean for their site to be mean-spirited, and that they have standards for which photos they use.
Andrew Kipple said they don't include pictures of people with physical disabilities or apparent mental disabilities and won't run a picture of a person simply because they are overweight.
"We're not going to go out and say we're not making fun of anybody or we're the nicest guys in the world. But I think you have to draw a line somewhere when you have a site like this," he said.
"If you have a mental handicap -- that's not funny. If you have lost a leg and you're on a crutch or in a wheelchair, some people may laugh at that, but we don't find it funny."
He denied complaints that the photos -- many of which attract a string of snarky comments from readers -- single out people because they are poor or unattractive.
"If you make a bad decision on what you're going to be out in public wearing, that's what we're looking for," he said. "If you're 400 pounds, you shouldn't be wearing nothing but a pink tube top. Even if you shop at Goodwill, wherever you go, the shirts they sell have sleeves and they have your size."
Adam Kipple, who works as a Web designer for a marketing firm, said he and his brother are frequent Wal-Mart shoppers themselves and that, in a way, their site could be boon to the shopping chain.
"People [who send e-mails wanting to take pictures] say, 'I haven't been to Wal-Mart in years, but now I have a reason to go,' " he said.
E-mail to a friend
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Is it that much of a problem on Japanese subways that they need to post a graphic sign about it??
Is it that much of a problem on Japanese subways that they need to post a graphic sign about it?? haha
2010 Ferrari California...everyone should rush out and get one
2010 FERRARI CALIFORNIA
Base price $200,000 (est)
Vehicle layout Front-engine, RWD, 4-pass, 2-door convertible
Engine 4.3L/454-hp/358-lb-ft DOHC 32-valve V-8
Transmission 7-speed dual-clutch automatic
Curb weight 3800 lb (mfr)
Wheelbase 105.1 in
Length x width x height 179.6 x 74.9 x 51.5 in
0-60 4.0 sec (mfr est)
On sale in U.S. June 2009
People Devoured by "Black Holes"
A group of 150 people disappeared within one minute
Witnesses clearly saw that a glimmering cloud shrouded the people who entered a small valley. Then the foggy mass lifted off and disappeared in the blue carrying along the first battalion of the 5th Norfolk regiment of the British army - all soldiers to a man were gone...
The event which occurred on August 21, 1915, when an entire battalion was gone in the presence of other people, had been an official secret for over fifty years. Only in 1967 the documents containing the testimonies of twenty witnesses to this incident, which happened in the Southern Europe near Dardanelles, were made public. A long search for the vanished soldiers was mounted. But none of them had been found neither among the dead, nor among the POWs released by Turks after the war.
Mass disappearances of people are among the mysteries in the world history which are most hard to explain. So far scientists cannot offer a lucid explanation for such strange things, as the disappearance in 1590 of about a hundred men, women and children, who lived in an American colony on Roanoke Island. When the soldiers marched in the village, they saw burning candles and tables set for meal in the huts, but with no settlers around. The first idea was that Indians had killed them, but no drop of blood or dead body could be found anywhere. Only a few words were left carved seemingly in great haste on a tree near the priest's house reading "it doesn't look like... ".
The search for six hundred inhabitants of the settlement Hoer-Verde in Brazil, who disappeared on February 5, 1923, was given up a long time ago. The police thoroughly examined the vacated small town. At school, they noticed a gun, which was apparently used the day before, lying on the floor and words "there is no salvation” written on a blackboard.
“We can only guess why such mysteries happen, but so far we have failed to find any scientific explanation for them,” said Zong Li, Doctor of History from Harbin, who had been investigating cases of mass disappearances in China for many years. “Well, how can the disappearance of 3, 000 Chinese soldiers near Nanking, where they held their positions on a December night in 1937, be explained? Next morning, radio communication with this unit was suddenly lost, and a reconnaissance group dispatched quickly did not find any trace of the people. It appeared as if they had deserted, but around there were posts of armed guard and the soldiers could not escape unnoticed. Recently, an investigation in the city archive produced evidence of the 12th company 100 strong of the Soviet NKVD forces disappeared in November 1945. The group was heading for the railway station and did not come back. A search yielded only slight traces like tents put up for a halt, or an extinguished fire. That same year, a train carrying hundreds of passengers traveling from Guandun to Shanghai was lost halfway to its destination, leaving not a single nut. Where might all the passengers have gone?
The Ominous God
Researcher Richard Lazarus suggests that meteorites are behind these mysteries. During their fall on the ground, celestial bodies are charged with a potential as high as billions (!) of volt. On hitting Earth's surface they explode with a violent force, as it happened near the River Tunguska, Siberia. But sometimes meteorites fall apart before they reach Earth, hitting it with a huge wave of energy that creates electrostatic levitation. Under these circumstances, large groups of people, ships or even trains may be lifted up and transferred across vast distances.
Ancient Greeks of the city-states situated in Italy attributed the disappearance of people to the deeds of god Proteus. Consisting of protoplasm it dozes underground and once in 50 years wakes up to have a meal. Proteus could transform into any thing and was imagined as coming to the surface from volcanoes. So, people had to sacrifice to it a hundred of virgin slave girls leaving them near a volcano. And they disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only their fetters. The well-known American writer Dean Koontz in his horror book Phantoms favors a theory of the incorporeal god and believes that Proteus existed in realoty.
“It is an enormous mass of protoplasm covering maybe an area of some square kilometers,” explains Koontz. “Some millions years of age, it is probably one of the very first forms of life existing in the entrails of Earth or deep in the ocean. Once or twice in a century it eats people dissolving and digesting them almost entirely. Deep pools of water were found in the huts of Roanoke colony. A Chinese pilot searching for a missed train spotted from air a small lake that seemed to emerge from nowhere. Frozen water was found in the huts of an abandoned small Eskimo village on the shores of Lake Anjikuni, Canada, in 1930. The human body is 90 percent water, and that was perhaps all that was left of the dissolved victims of Proteus.
Missing ships
Stories about crews vanishing with their ships are known worldwide. The story of the brig Mary Celeste found in 1872 drifting between the Azores and Portugal is a classic example. A boarding party dispatched from another ship discovered unfinished smoking tobacco pipes, prepared meals, mugs with dried up beer... and not a single sailor onboard.
The same happened near Philippines when in 1955 the steam-ship Hoita was found drifting without a crew, or in 1941, when a patrol vessel in the North Atlantic came upon the ship Iceland to find her engines running and everything looking normal, except that not a single soul was seen anywhere around.
“I blame the so-called “black holes” for disappearance of people”, says Jane Lindsett, Professor, California University, San Francisco. “Periodically, time and space on Earth refract, and entire cities may find themselves in a different dimension, which sometimes "spits them out". There are scores of such "black holes " on Earth, and people frequently get in them. A decade ago, a 36-year-old Lydia Kimfield, Androver (Texas), disappeared during her visit to the doctor. An hour later her body was found one thousand kilometers away from the city. An autopsy showed that she had died two months earlier! In the state of New Mexico there is a road on which 19 people disappeared without a trace, the last case being in 1997. The road runs across the desert, which can be observed from air. The vanished people might have been carried over to the ocean or woods where they perished. Objects cannot travel across space, that's why ships were found vacated, but the belongings of those who disappeared were in place”.
At the same time, Professor Lindsett cannot explain the mysterious signs on the wall of the Mayan temple and on the tree in Roanoke.
One of the recent bizarre events happened in the village of Stomu, Congo, in 2001 in a quiet area in the north, where the local insurgents were not active. The UN staff that brought humanitarian aid to the village (there are problems with food supplies in that country ) found there neither people, nor domestic animals and poultry. The tribe leader attempted to give a warning in the local language about something awful using a piece of charcoal to scrawl "Run! It...". But the phrase was left unfinished.
Apropos
In the Soviet Union, the authorities generally hushed up cases of unexplained disappearance of people. However, in 1991, the KGB declassified some information about an An-2 airplane, which had vanished from the radar screens thirty years earlier near the city of Sverdlovsk with seven people aboard. Soon, a rescue team in the woods found the wrecks of the disintegrated airplane. Not a trace of bodies or a drop of blood inevitably present after similar crashes was found, only a circle of unclear origin 30 meters in diameter was burnt out on the ground not far from the crash site. Later, the rescuers had to sign papers undertaking recognizance not to disclose anything they had seen.
Translated by: ZM
via http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377/12624_Holes.html
Witnesses clearly saw that a glimmering cloud shrouded the people who entered a small valley. Then the foggy mass lifted off and disappeared in the blue carrying along the first battalion of the 5th Norfolk regiment of the British army - all soldiers to a man were gone...
The event which occurred on August 21, 1915, when an entire battalion was gone in the presence of other people, had been an official secret for over fifty years. Only in 1967 the documents containing the testimonies of twenty witnesses to this incident, which happened in the Southern Europe near Dardanelles, were made public. A long search for the vanished soldiers was mounted. But none of them had been found neither among the dead, nor among the POWs released by Turks after the war.
Mass disappearances of people are among the mysteries in the world history which are most hard to explain. So far scientists cannot offer a lucid explanation for such strange things, as the disappearance in 1590 of about a hundred men, women and children, who lived in an American colony on Roanoke Island. When the soldiers marched in the village, they saw burning candles and tables set for meal in the huts, but with no settlers around. The first idea was that Indians had killed them, but no drop of blood or dead body could be found anywhere. Only a few words were left carved seemingly in great haste on a tree near the priest's house reading "it doesn't look like... ".
The search for six hundred inhabitants of the settlement Hoer-Verde in Brazil, who disappeared on February 5, 1923, was given up a long time ago. The police thoroughly examined the vacated small town. At school, they noticed a gun, which was apparently used the day before, lying on the floor and words "there is no salvation” written on a blackboard.
“We can only guess why such mysteries happen, but so far we have failed to find any scientific explanation for them,” said Zong Li, Doctor of History from Harbin, who had been investigating cases of mass disappearances in China for many years. “Well, how can the disappearance of 3, 000 Chinese soldiers near Nanking, where they held their positions on a December night in 1937, be explained? Next morning, radio communication with this unit was suddenly lost, and a reconnaissance group dispatched quickly did not find any trace of the people. It appeared as if they had deserted, but around there were posts of armed guard and the soldiers could not escape unnoticed. Recently, an investigation in the city archive produced evidence of the 12th company 100 strong of the Soviet NKVD forces disappeared in November 1945. The group was heading for the railway station and did not come back. A search yielded only slight traces like tents put up for a halt, or an extinguished fire. That same year, a train carrying hundreds of passengers traveling from Guandun to Shanghai was lost halfway to its destination, leaving not a single nut. Where might all the passengers have gone?
The Ominous God
Researcher Richard Lazarus suggests that meteorites are behind these mysteries. During their fall on the ground, celestial bodies are charged with a potential as high as billions (!) of volt. On hitting Earth's surface they explode with a violent force, as it happened near the River Tunguska, Siberia. But sometimes meteorites fall apart before they reach Earth, hitting it with a huge wave of energy that creates electrostatic levitation. Under these circumstances, large groups of people, ships or even trains may be lifted up and transferred across vast distances.
Ancient Greeks of the city-states situated in Italy attributed the disappearance of people to the deeds of god Proteus. Consisting of protoplasm it dozes underground and once in 50 years wakes up to have a meal. Proteus could transform into any thing and was imagined as coming to the surface from volcanoes. So, people had to sacrifice to it a hundred of virgin slave girls leaving them near a volcano. And they disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only their fetters. The well-known American writer Dean Koontz in his horror book Phantoms favors a theory of the incorporeal god and believes that Proteus existed in realoty.
“It is an enormous mass of protoplasm covering maybe an area of some square kilometers,” explains Koontz. “Some millions years of age, it is probably one of the very first forms of life existing in the entrails of Earth or deep in the ocean. Once or twice in a century it eats people dissolving and digesting them almost entirely. Deep pools of water were found in the huts of Roanoke colony. A Chinese pilot searching for a missed train spotted from air a small lake that seemed to emerge from nowhere. Frozen water was found in the huts of an abandoned small Eskimo village on the shores of Lake Anjikuni, Canada, in 1930. The human body is 90 percent water, and that was perhaps all that was left of the dissolved victims of Proteus.
Missing ships
Stories about crews vanishing with their ships are known worldwide. The story of the brig Mary Celeste found in 1872 drifting between the Azores and Portugal is a classic example. A boarding party dispatched from another ship discovered unfinished smoking tobacco pipes, prepared meals, mugs with dried up beer... and not a single sailor onboard.
The same happened near Philippines when in 1955 the steam-ship Hoita was found drifting without a crew, or in 1941, when a patrol vessel in the North Atlantic came upon the ship Iceland to find her engines running and everything looking normal, except that not a single soul was seen anywhere around.
“I blame the so-called “black holes” for disappearance of people”, says Jane Lindsett, Professor, California University, San Francisco. “Periodically, time and space on Earth refract, and entire cities may find themselves in a different dimension, which sometimes "spits them out". There are scores of such "black holes " on Earth, and people frequently get in them. A decade ago, a 36-year-old Lydia Kimfield, Androver (Texas), disappeared during her visit to the doctor. An hour later her body was found one thousand kilometers away from the city. An autopsy showed that she had died two months earlier! In the state of New Mexico there is a road on which 19 people disappeared without a trace, the last case being in 1997. The road runs across the desert, which can be observed from air. The vanished people might have been carried over to the ocean or woods where they perished. Objects cannot travel across space, that's why ships were found vacated, but the belongings of those who disappeared were in place”.
At the same time, Professor Lindsett cannot explain the mysterious signs on the wall of the Mayan temple and on the tree in Roanoke.
One of the recent bizarre events happened in the village of Stomu, Congo, in 2001 in a quiet area in the north, where the local insurgents were not active. The UN staff that brought humanitarian aid to the village (there are problems with food supplies in that country ) found there neither people, nor domestic animals and poultry. The tribe leader attempted to give a warning in the local language about something awful using a piece of charcoal to scrawl "Run! It...". But the phrase was left unfinished.
Apropos
In the Soviet Union, the authorities generally hushed up cases of unexplained disappearance of people. However, in 1991, the KGB declassified some information about an An-2 airplane, which had vanished from the radar screens thirty years earlier near the city of Sverdlovsk with seven people aboard. Soon, a rescue team in the woods found the wrecks of the disintegrated airplane. Not a trace of bodies or a drop of blood inevitably present after similar crashes was found, only a circle of unclear origin 30 meters in diameter was burnt out on the ground not far from the crash site. Later, the rescuers had to sign papers undertaking recognizance not to disclose anything they had seen.
Translated by: ZM
via http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377/12624_Holes.html
Tech Obsessed America
Tech lovers used to be dubbed geeks and nerds. According to a new report, we're all geeks and nerds now.
Young, old, single, married--they're all online, using PCs, watching digital TV, and chatting on cell phones, according to a report published Wednesday by Forrester Research. Looking at American consumers by "life stage," Forrester examined the devices people own, what technology they buy, how they use the Internet, and how they set up their digital homes.
Singles under 40 and couples under 40 sans children are well-connected to the Web, noted the report, with 87 percent of them frequently online, both for personal and work reasons. They're also apt to venture online in locations beyond home or work, with 55 percent of them more likely than the overall average adult to access the Web on their phones.
Among parents under 40 with kids under 18, 88 percent of them regularly use the Internet. They also buy devices for the whole family, such as Blu-ray players, digital camcorders, digital video recorders, and game consoles. In this group, 86 percent own a cell phone that's likely to offer music or video playback.
For parents over 40 with kids under 18, 84 percent of them are online, typically splitting their Internet use between work and home. Two in three of these families have broadband, the most of any group surveyed by Forrester. They also love their personal gadgets, owning the most PCs, laptops, MP3 players, and GPS devices of all the groups.
Among singles over 40 and couples over 40 sans kids in the house, 70 percent are online and gravitate toward services that directly benefit them, such as online shopping. The report found that consumers in this group spent more money online over the past three months than any other group.
Across all technologies, HDTV grew the faster in 2008, discovered Forrester, with almost 10 million new households buying a high-definition TV. The second most popular technology was the home network. Forrester predicts that these two technologies will continue to grow at a record pace over the next five years
More than five in six of all homes own a cell phone, with families with parents under 40 leading the way with 93 percent adoption. Among families with parents over 40, 57 percent have at least three mobile phones.
Forrester's report is based on an annual survey sent to consumers by mail. The company said it received 48,412 completed questionnaires in the U.S. this year.
via cnet.com
Microsoft calls for a single global patent program
A senior lawyer at Microsoft is calling for the creation of a global patent system to make it easier and faster for corporations to enforce their intellectual property rights around the world.
In a blog posting on Tuesday, Microsoft's Deputy General Counsel Horacio Gutierrez said that a backlog of patent applications internationally was needed to tackle the 3.5 million pending patent applications around the world--including around 750,000 in the US.
"In today's world of universal connectivity, global business and collaborative innovation, it is time for a world patent that is derived from a single patent application, examined and prosecuted by a single examining authority and litigated before a single judicial body," said Guiterrez. "A harmonized, global patent system would resolve many of the criticisms leveled at national patent systems over unmanageable backlogs and interminable pendency periods."
Guiterrez went on to praise efforts to harmonize international patent systems through projects such ad the Patent Prosecution Highway and the "IP5" partnership but said more needed to be done to allow corporations to protect their intellectual property.
"By facing the challenges, realizing a vision, overcoming political barriers, and removing procedural obstacles we can build a global patent system that will promote innovation, enrich public knowledge, encourage competition and drive economic growth and employment," he added. "The time is now--the solutions are in reach."
Microsoft's calls to speed up the issuing of patents come shortly after the company was prosecuted in Texas for patent infringement concerning its Word application. In August, US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a permanent injunction that "prohibits Microsoft from selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML", according to a statement released by attorneys for the plaintiff, i4i.
Commenting on Microsoft's appeal of the ruling late last month. i4i chairman Loudon Owen told ZDNet UK's sister site, CNET News, that the software giant's attitude was "extraordinary." "It captures the hostile attitude of Microsoft toward inventors who dare to enforce patents against them," Owen said. "It is also blatantly derogatory about the court system."
Microsoft's stance on stronger software patents has attracted opposition from the open-source community and other antipatent campaigners.
The founder of the GNU Linux project Richard Stallman, recently warned against the use of Mono software tools as they exposed users to potential patent violation accusations from Microsoft. In an article published by the Free Software Foundation, Stallman said that "only fools would ignore" the threat poised by Microsoft's patents.
The UK Pirate Party, which was registered by the electoral commission last month, is also opposed to the current patent system--especially in the area of health care--and has put reform of the process at the center of its campaign for the next election. "Monopolies maintained by companies producing life-saving drugs mean people are dying, as they can't afford (treatment)," the party's leader Andrew Robinson told ZDNet UK last month.
Microsoft's backing for greater cooperation on the issue has the backing of other organizations. The World Intellectual Property Organization is planning to hold a conference on global enforcement of intellectual property rights in Geneva on the 17th and 18th of September. "IP systems need to keep pace with globalizing trends in innovation and business practices," the organization said in a statement. "The symposium offers stakeholders an opportunity to explore how existing highly diverse national and regional IP infrastructures can be developed to support the dynamics of innovation which is increasingly transnational and borderless."
FSF Europe and the UK Pirate Party were approached for comment but did not reply in time for this story.
Andrew Donoghue of ZDNet UK reported from London.
In a blog posting on Tuesday, Microsoft's Deputy General Counsel Horacio Gutierrez said that a backlog of patent applications internationally was needed to tackle the 3.5 million pending patent applications around the world--including around 750,000 in the US.
"In today's world of universal connectivity, global business and collaborative innovation, it is time for a world patent that is derived from a single patent application, examined and prosecuted by a single examining authority and litigated before a single judicial body," said Guiterrez. "A harmonized, global patent system would resolve many of the criticisms leveled at national patent systems over unmanageable backlogs and interminable pendency periods."
Guiterrez went on to praise efforts to harmonize international patent systems through projects such ad the Patent Prosecution Highway and the "IP5" partnership but said more needed to be done to allow corporations to protect their intellectual property.
"By facing the challenges, realizing a vision, overcoming political barriers, and removing procedural obstacles we can build a global patent system that will promote innovation, enrich public knowledge, encourage competition and drive economic growth and employment," he added. "The time is now--the solutions are in reach."
Microsoft's calls to speed up the issuing of patents come shortly after the company was prosecuted in Texas for patent infringement concerning its Word application. In August, US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a permanent injunction that "prohibits Microsoft from selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML", according to a statement released by attorneys for the plaintiff, i4i.
Commenting on Microsoft's appeal of the ruling late last month. i4i chairman Loudon Owen told ZDNet UK's sister site, CNET News, that the software giant's attitude was "extraordinary." "It captures the hostile attitude of Microsoft toward inventors who dare to enforce patents against them," Owen said. "It is also blatantly derogatory about the court system."
Microsoft's stance on stronger software patents has attracted opposition from the open-source community and other antipatent campaigners.
The founder of the GNU Linux project Richard Stallman, recently warned against the use of Mono software tools as they exposed users to potential patent violation accusations from Microsoft. In an article published by the Free Software Foundation, Stallman said that "only fools would ignore" the threat poised by Microsoft's patents.
The UK Pirate Party, which was registered by the electoral commission last month, is also opposed to the current patent system--especially in the area of health care--and has put reform of the process at the center of its campaign for the next election. "Monopolies maintained by companies producing life-saving drugs mean people are dying, as they can't afford (treatment)," the party's leader Andrew Robinson told ZDNet UK last month.
Microsoft's backing for greater cooperation on the issue has the backing of other organizations. The World Intellectual Property Organization is planning to hold a conference on global enforcement of intellectual property rights in Geneva on the 17th and 18th of September. "IP systems need to keep pace with globalizing trends in innovation and business practices," the organization said in a statement. "The symposium offers stakeholders an opportunity to explore how existing highly diverse national and regional IP infrastructures can be developed to support the dynamics of innovation which is increasingly transnational and borderless."
FSF Europe and the UK Pirate Party were approached for comment but did not reply in time for this story.
Andrew Donoghue of ZDNet UK reported from London.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Animoto will turn your home videos into a work of art
"I don't know about you, but I get shown so many boring slideshows of my friends' trips," says Hsiao. "It's like 20 minutes, and you're like, ‘Kill me now.'"It was this boredom that inspired Hsiao and Stevie, who were working in TV and film production at the time, to envision much more. They identified the disparity between the low-quality videos online and the high quality of TV and film and knew they could do something about it. They also saw how digital photography is transforming the way people take photos. Once unthinkable, now it's not so unusual to snap hundreds of photos of a single event. "We kind of realized that if the ways people capture experiences are changing, then the way we share those experiences should also be evolving," says Hsiao.
The process that led from the conception of the idea to the birth of Animoto took a year and a half, and along the way, Jefferson and Tom joined in on the vision. Extensive research and development went into perfecting the Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology that powers the video-creation process and ensures that no two videos are alike. "[The technology] takes a body of music, looks at all the nuances--like the beat, the tempo and the energy--and figures out how to juxtapose the imagery on top of that so the whole thing feels like one consolidated piece that evokes the intended emotional experience," explains Jefferson.
Since its launch in August 2007--and with funding from family, friends and Amazon.com reaching into the seven figures, as of press time--the web application hasn't disappointed. More than 300,000 users from more than 200 countries have already registered at Animoto.com, more than 2 million Facebook users have signed up since the application was introduced to the social networking site last March, and more than 4 million videos have been created. Although 30-second videos are free to users, longer videos cost $3 each.
Animoto might not have advanced if not for the perfect blending of each founder's skills and talents. "With Tom studying music, Stevie and I working in the TV and film industry here in New York, and Brad with his extensive business background, this was the only team that could do this," says Hsiao. "It perfectly leverages all our backgrounds and our relationship."
Friends since high school, they knew they were destined to do something together. And through the years, they have. While attending Dartmouth College, Jefferson, Hsiao and Stevie created the Dartmouth Interactive Directory, which was an innovative blend of Craigslist and Facebook--six years before Facebook even existed. But Animoto proved to be the ultimate venture, capturing their imaginations and bringing them together once more
via entrepreneur.com
you acn see more at www.animoto.com
Japanese Watches thats nearly impossible to tell time on???
look at the whole collection at http://www.tokyoflash.com/en/watches/1/
Black Hole concept phone, iphone on crack
Just a concept phone at this point but it looks extreme
via walyou.com
more at http://www.walyou.com/blog/2009/09/01/black-hole-cellphone-concept/
Check out this watch with a spy camera built in.....
This mini spy video camera disguised as a watch has a rechargeable Li-ion battery, microphone and 8GB of built-in storage that can be used as a flash drive. It also shoots AVI video at 352x288 (15 FPS) resolution - the lens is hidden right between the "1" and "2" on the watch face.
From thinkgeek.com
more at http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/watches/b550/?cpg=cj
we have the same locks for our bathrooms at zooblu....so annoying
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-mlHfKrcfA
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