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Friday, June 6, 2008

Amazon.com is down

Service at Amazon.com Inc.'s Web site was unavailable on Friday. Amazon's homepage returned the message "Http/1.1 Service Unavailable" against a blank white screen. No reason for the service interruption was listed, and company representatives were not available for immediate comment. Shares of Amazon were down 2.7% to $82.25 in early afternoon tradin

Chickipedia: Lohan Slideshow

Rindone, what you think of that!!


Lindsay Lohan - See more hot women at Chickipedia.

Wake Up With Hot Chicks Spotted At Fenway

Compliments of Barstool Sports:



More great Pics here:

The word of the day: CLEAVAGE!! (SNFW)



SNSFW!!

It's Friday afternoon..what better time than now!!

CLICK HERE

Old Printers, Scanners and Hard Drives Used to Perform Radiohead's 'Nude'




Most people just create amusing videos to fit their favorite songs, but James Houston went one step further and synchronized a bunch of obsolete gadget noises to recreate Radiohead's "Nude." A Sinclair ZX Spectrum 8-bit PC was used for rhythm and lead guitars, an HP Scanjet 3c was used for bass guitar, an Epson LX-81 Dot Matrix Printer was used for drums, and an array of hard drives were used as bad speakers to distort and reproduce vocals and effects.

This song came about as a call for remixes by Radiohead for "Nude." Houston notes that most of the entries were lame, and he wanted to do something a little different that fit in the theme/alternate song title offered (Bad Ideas: Don't Get Any). And he also came up with this video, which has an awesome retro, Daft Punk-ish Human After All vibe.

It's entirely possible this was all made on a computer or keyboard, but I'll take it in good faith it was made as the creator claims. And I'd say this isn't just a little different, it's way different and damn spectacular. [Youtube] (Thanks, John )

Radiohead ALL I NEED video for MTV's EXIT CAMPAIGN



End Exploitation and Trafficking

http://www.mtvexit.org/

2008 Star Wars Weekends Merchandise


May 29, 2008

[ 2008 Star Wars Weekends Merch ] For those planning to visit Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort this summer, you'd better set aside a few extra bucks in the vacation budget to pick up some of the spectacular merchandise planned for this year's annual event!

Star Wars Disney Fashion Sets')">[ 2008 Star Wars Weekends Merch ] Pins, t-shirts, mugs, posters, coins, apparel items and more await fans and collectors who visit the park starting June 6 when Star Wars Weekends kicks off every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday through June 29. There is also a bunch of non-event Disney-exclusive Star Wars merchandise that's becoming available throughout the year.

Like last year, there are four amazing new large-scale Disney/Star Wars crossover characters to be made available, although images are not yet available: Mickey as Anakin, Minnie as Queen Amidala, Goofy as Jar Jar, and Donald as Darth Maul. These will also be available as small PVC figures (with the addition of Stitch as Yoda).

Check out the slideshow at right for images of just some of what's being offered to guests for Star Wars Weekends 2008!

Chismillionaire's Friday weekend movie pick- Kung Fu Panda


Can't wait, Can't Wait




  • Kung Fu Panda: The IMAX Experience
  • Opens today June 6, 2008 | Runtime:1 hr. 31 min.
  • PG
    sequences of martial arts action
  • Kung Fu Panda, from DreamWorks Animation, has been digitally re-mastered into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® through proprietary IMAX DMR® technology. Enthusiastic, big and a bit clumsy, Po is the biggest fan of Kung Fu around. Unexpectedly chosen to fulfill an ancient prophecy, Po's dreams become reality when he joins the world of Kung Fu and studies alongside his idols.
  • Also available in 35MM: Kung Fu Panda

  • Director: John Stevenson,Mark Osborne
  • Genres: Animated, Comedy, Family

Man Scales New York Times Building

Alain Robert
Alain Robert, a stuntman, climbed the 52-story New York Times building on Thursday before he was arrested. His banner read, “Global warming kills more people than 9/11 every week.” (Photo: Sewell Chan/The New York Times)



A man holding a bright green banner has ascended the north face of the New York Times building, climbing more than 16 stories as of 12:15 p.m., while the police and security officials cordoned off the sidewalk on West 41st Street.

read more | digg story

10 Reasons Not To Take Drugs On A Date

Everything you need to know.

More videos here | digg story

5 Job Interview Bear Traps


The 5 most painful things that can happen during a job interview.

read more | digg story

Game helps paralyzed man walk again

Second Life brings second hope

How would it feel to walk for the first time in 30 years? One severely paralyzed Japanese man found out this week, courtesy of a team of Japanese scientists.

In an experiment taking place at Japan's Keio University heralded as a world first, the man donned headgear which sensed brainwaves relating to his arms and legs. Just by imagining he was moving his limbs again, he was able to "walk" a character around Second Life, a popular virtual world.

Sound a little gimmicky? Not so fast. Although it'll never replace the mouse and keyboard for able-bodied folks, the team hopes to use the system to help stave off depression in immobilized patients -- no doubt a common problem.

Next up for the Japanese team is a system to allow patients to create text messages by mentally selecting letters. Cellphones may never be the same again.

Get more on Second Life.

ASUS teases with photo of iMac-like Eee PC


ASUS today has provided PC World and other guests at a company-run seminar their first glimpse of its Eee Monitor all-in-one PC and confirms an iMac-like design that should cost less than half the price of its Apple-made rival. Resembling a cross between a white third-generation iMac and Apple's easel-like Cinema Displays, the system is already being marketed as a fashion item that fits into an interior decor; all its expansion ports are tucked to the back to avoid cluttering the front.

Specifications haven't been discussed, though the company has previously said that the system will be based on Intel's Atom platform (then called Shelton), which is already in use by the Eee PC 901/1000 and the Eee Box to drive down power use and cost. The system is also known to use either a 19- or 21-inch LCD and is shown in a new image with a built-in webcam.

ASUS plans to launch the system in September and is still anticipated to use its custom version of Xandros Linux to drive down the price; an earlier cost estimate puts the Eee Monitor's launch price at $500, or well under the $1,200 price of an iMac and less still than the Windows-based, $1,300 Gateway One and the $1,500 Dell XPS One.

A 42-inch Eee TV should add basic computing functions to an LCD HDTV and will also become available in September, with pricing reportedly just $200 above the price of a stand-alone TV set.

Some of the most detailed 3-D images of cells ever made

Biological beauty: This image of two adjoining cells preparing to divide was made with a new high-resolution 3-D microscope developed at the University of California.
Credit: Lothar Schermelleh, Peter Carlton
Multimedia
photo See images of cells made using the new microscope.

There is a revolution afoot in microscopy, as biophysicists come up with ways to image the nanoscale structures of living cells. Using a new technique called 3-D structured-illumination microscopy, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, have made some of the most detailed optical images yet of the interior workings of cells, and they are gorgeous.

The resolution of conventional microscopes is limited by the size of the spot of light used to scan a surface. For more than a hundred years, biophysicists have run up against a fundamental limit: using lenses, it's not possible to focus light down to a spot size smaller than half its wavelength. So the inner workings of living cells have been impossible to resolve. Biologists have sequenced the genome, but it's still something of a mystery how DNA, RNA, proteins, and other molecules interact in live cells. These parts are visible using electron microscopy, but this process can only be employed on dead cells. Images of live cells taken with conventional light microscopes reveal only a blur. Understanding the inner workings of cells could shed light on disease.

"We threw the conventional microscope out the window and began again," says John Sedat, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco. Instead of focusing a small spot of light onto cells, the new microscope, which has a resolution of about 100 nanometers, illuminates cells with stripes of light called an interference pattern. When a fine cellular structure, such as a single cluster of proteins embedded in a cell nucleus, reflects this light, it changes the pattern slightly. The microscope collects this light; software is used to interpret changes in its pattern and create an image.

Sedat and his group played a major role in developing this technique, initially for two-dimensional imaging. Their new work, described this week in the journal Science, involved creating 3-D images of the nucleus, the structure that holds the lion's share of the genome. The next step, says Sedat, is to decrease the amount of cell-damaging light needed to make the pictures to ensure that the cells remain healthy during the imaging process.

Click here to launch a slide show of images that reveal the cell at an unprecedented level of detail.

Egypt uncovers 'missing' pyramid of a pharaoh


Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered the "missing pyramid" of a pharaoh and a ceremonial procession road where high priests carried mummified remains of sacred bulls, Egypt's antiquities chief said Thursday.Zahi Hawass said the pyramid is believed to be that of King Menkauhor, an obscure pharaoh who ruled for only eight years more than 4,000 y.

read more | digg story

Mother Nature has a message for us!

World's Largest Fake Breasts Record Has Been Set

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

The Real-Life Cars Behind Grand Theft Auto IV







It may not have the racing chops Gran Turismo 5 Prologue or Midnight Club: Los Angeles, but Grand Theft Auto IV is still a big-title game for 2008 with some big-time automotive tie-ins. There are more than 100 different vehicles to play with, most of which are inspired in one way or another by real-life automotive counterparts

read more | digg story

Crazy Water Slide Drops You Straight Down a Trap Door



This German water slide is the definition of terror. Rather than starting out sitting down and sliding into the steep part, you start standing up on a trap door that they pull out from underneath you. It drops you straight down, you know, so you can gather enough speed for the complete loop that it throws you through. I don't understand German, so I'm not sure exactly what they're saying in this, but I assume it has something to do with the dangerous amount of chlorine in the water to help balance out the pee that every single rider leaves behind.

Four Air Force officers relieved of duty after nuclear weapons Gaffe

(CBS/AP) Four Air Force officers are being relieved of duty after losing track of six nuclear-armed cruise missiles, which were flown on a B-52 bomber across the United States without anyone knowing it, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.

In addition, more than 60 Air Force personnel have had their nuclear security clearances lifted, adds Martin.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen are to be briefed Friday on the Air Force probe into the incident.

Gates said Thursday that officials want to reduce the chances of another such incident "to the lowest level humanly possible." But it "would be silly" to promise it won't happen again, he said at a press conference with Mullen.

Asked if they could assure the American public the nation's nuclear stockpile is secure, Mullen said he wanted to see the report first.

"I look forward to understanding ... what happened here ... to really make a judgment about where we are and what we have to do," he said. "But certainly being at a point where we can assure everybody that we have control of these weapons ... is where we absolutely have to be."

Two Defense Department officials said earlier Thursday that the Air Force investigation found long-established procedures for handling the munitions were not followed and one official said it recommends that five or more officers be relieved of their duties.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record. They also said senior Air Force officials were still reviewing parts of the report, though it was unclear whether any changes were planned.

The Air Force said last month that one munitions squadron commander was fired shortly after the Aug. 30 flight in question and that ground crews and others involved had been temporarily decertified for handling weapons.

It was supposed to have been a routine transfer of cruise missiles carrying dummy warheads from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., adds Martin. But six of them had nuclear warheads, 60 times the explosive power of the bomb that leveled Hiroshima.

The officials declined to say what procedures were not followed. But the mishandling in August would have required not one mistake, but a series of lapses by a number of people in order for armed weapons to be inadvertently taken out of a storage bunker, mounted on the B-52, misidentified on a flight manifest and flown across the country for three hours without anyone noticing.

The plane also sat on a runway for hours with the missiles after arriving in Louisiana before the breach was known, meaning a total of 36 hours passed before the missiles were properly secured, officials have said.

Fast Fact

The anticipated disciplinary actions would be the most severe ever brought in the Air Force in connection with the handling of nuclear weapons.
The Air Combat Command ordered a command-wide stand-down - instituted base by base and completed Sept. 14 - to set aside time for personnel to review procedures, officials said.

The incident was so serious that it required President Bush and Gates to be quickly informed.

The Air Force said there was never any danger to the public because the weapons are designed with multiple safety features that ensure the warheads do not detonate accidentally.

But officials also have asserted over the years that such a mistake could not happen because there were numerous procedures in place to ensure the safe handling of nuclear weapons.

An Air Force spokesman, Lt. Col. Edward Thomas, declined to confirm Thursday morning what punishments were planned or to give any details of the probe's findings, saying Gates had not gotten the full report and those to be disciplined were not to be notified until later Thursday.

Three other defense officials said the Air Force planned to announce its investigation results and the punishments at a Pentagon press conference Friday. But two of them said that could be delayed if, for instance, Gates wants further information after he is briefed or more senior officials in the Air Force, who were still discussing the report, disagree with the decision.

The anticipated disciplinary actions would be the most severe ever brought in the Air Force in connection with the handling of nuclear weapons, The Washington Post said in Thursday editions, quoting an unidentified official who said that was aimed at sending a message about accountability.

The weapons involved were the Advanced Cruise Missile, a "stealth" weapon developed in the 1980s with the ability to evade detection by Soviet radars. The Air Force said in March that it had decided to retire the Advanced Cruise Missile fleet soon, and they said after the breach that the missiles were being flown to Barksdale for decommissioning but were supposed to be unarmed ones.

Three weeks into the Air Force investigation, Gates also asked for an outside inquiry to determine whether the incident indicates a larger security problem on the transfer of weapons. Official said his request for the inquiry, which is still under way, did not reflect any dissatisfaction with how the Air Force was conducting its investigation.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said Thursday that President Bush "appreciates the fact that Secretary Gates (had moved quickly) to find out what went wrong, make sure it doesn't happen again, and hold people to account if anyone did something wrong."

14 Creative Advertisements Part 2 [PICS]


Nice collection of creative advertising ideas.

some repeats some new ones!!

read more | digg story

Seville, Spain








2009 Porsche 911's revealed


ATLANTA — Porsche has managed to infuse the 2009 Porsche 911 Carrera with more power and better fuel efficiency, thanks to a pair of new direct-injection flat-6 engines and an optional seven-speed double-clutch gearbox.

The 2009 911 goes on sale in September in the U.S. Stickers are going up an average of 2.9 percent, which seems reasonable given the new hardware. The 2009 Carrera Coupe starts at $75,600, up $2,100; the Carrera Cabriolet and Carrera S Coupe, $86,200, up $2,400; and the Carrera S Cabriolet, $96,800, up $2,700. Prices do not include shipping.

The 3.6- and 3.8-liter six-cylinder engines have been fitted with direct injection. The 3.6 now makes 345 horsepower, up 20 from last year, while the 3.8 delivers 385 hp, up 30. Torque on the 3.6 climbs from 273 to 288 pound-feet and on the 3.8 from 295 to 310 lb-ft. Top speed on the 2009 Carrera S rises to 188 mph. Porsche said the new engines, while more powerful, return up to 13 percent better fuel economy on the European driving cycle.

A new option for 2009 is a seven-speed double-clutch sequential automatic gearbox dubbed PDK (for Porsche Doppelkupplung, or "double clutch"). The PDK replaces the Tiptronic S automatic on the Carrera and Carrera S, enabling quicker acceleration and reduced fuel consumption.

The Carrera 3.6 with PDK accelerates from zero to 60 in 4.5 seconds, while the Carrera S 3.8 with PDK does the same sprint in 4.3 seconds — 0.2 second faster than with the six-speed manual gearbox. To further enhance performance, customers can order the PDK with Porsche's racing-derived Sport Chrono Plus system, which trims acceleration times to 4.3 and 4.1 seconds, respectively.

The 911's exterior for 2009 hasn't changed dramatically. There are LED daytime driving lights, taillamps and brake lamps, as well as bi-xenon headlamps on all models, with dynamic cornering lights available. There are larger air intakes in the front bumper, and the outside mirrors are slightly larger.

Inside, all Carreras get the latest PCM 3.0 Porsche Communication Management System, with a new touchscreen display, as well as such options as hard-drive navigation, XM Satellite Radio with NavTraffic capability, Bluetooth connectivity, plus iPod and USB ports.

What this means to you: A new Porsche with more power? Sign us up. — Paul Lienert, Correspondent

Chris Knight would be impressed: 25 kW Solid-State Lasers


Boeing Successfully Fires 25 kW Solid-State Lasers, Laser Weapons One Step Closer to Being a Reality



Boeing has just tested its new thin-disk laser, the most powerful solid-state laser ever made. It fires at over 25 kilowatts, with the scalability proven to go up to a 100 kilowatt laser in the coming years. A 100 kW laser would be the most powerful ever made, one that has a lot of challenges to overcome, including reducing the excess heat generated by such a powerful laser and maintaining the quality of the beam over distances. But even a 25 kW laser is extremely powerful. As the press release says, it "will damage, disable or destroy targets at the speed of light, with little to no collateral damage, supporting missions on the battlefield and in urban operations." Hit the jump for the full release.

Boeing Fires New Thin-Disk Laser, Achieving Solid-State Laser Milestone

ST. LOUIS, June 03, 2008 — The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] fired its new thin-disk laser system repeatedly in recent tests, achieving the highest known simultaneous power, beam quality and run time for any solid-state laser to date.

In each laser firing at Boeing's facility in West Hills, Calif., the high-energy laser achieved power levels of over 25 kilowatts for multi-second durations, with a measured beam quality suitable for a tactical weapon system. The Boeing laser integrates multiple thin-disk lasers into a single system. Through these successful tests, the Boeing team has proven the concept of scalability to a 100-kilowatt-class system based on the same architecture and technology.

"Solid-state lasers will revolutionize the battlefield by giving the warfighter an ultra-precision engagement capability that can dramatically reduce collateral damage," said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems. "These successful tests show that Boeing has made solid progress toward making this revolutionary capability a reality."

The thin-disk laser is an initiative to demonstrate that solid-state laser technologies are now ready to move out of the laboratory and into full development as weapon systems. Solid-state lasers are powered by electricity, making them highly mobile and supportable on the battlefield. The Boeing laser represents the most electrically efficient solid-state laser technology known. The system is designed to meet the rapid-fire, rapid-retargeting requirements of area-defense, anti-missile and anti-mortar tactical high-energy laser systems. It is also ideal for non-lethal, ultra-precision strike missions urgently needed by warfighters in war zones.

"This accomplishment demonstrates Boeing's commitment to advancing the state of the art in directed energy technology," said Gary Fitzmire, vice president and program director of Boeing Directed Energy Systems. "These successful tests are a significant milestone toward providing reliable and supportable lasers to U.S. warfighters."

Boeing's approach incorporates a series of commercial-off-the-shelf, state-of-the-art lasers used in the automotive industry. These industrial lasers have demonstrated exceedingly high reliability, supportability and maintainability.

A high-power solid-state laser will damage, disable or destroy targets at the speed of light, with little to no collateral damage, supporting missions on the battlefield and in urban operations.

[Boeing, Thanks, Jason!]



This is all reminds way to much of one of my favorite Movies: Real Genius





VAN DAMME FRIDAY: Beach Time!!

With the forecast supposedly being in the high 80's low 90's this weekend, I felt that it is time that we start hitting the beach!!! You Know Jean Claude will be there!!