Red pandas are just about the cutest thing ever. These guys are native to the forests in the Himalayas, and there are only 10,000 to 20,000 of them worldwide. In the past they had been misclassified as being in the same families as raccoons and bears, but have recently been reclassified in a family all their own; they are considered “living fossils”, which means they’re more closely related to animals found in fossils than any living species. The people native to the red panda’s region call them “Wha” after the sound they make. They are slightly bigger than a house cat and eat a diet of mostly bamboo shoots and leaves. They spend most of the day time napping in the tree tops, and are most active at dusk and dawn.
LOUT Laura Hall is the first person to be banned from buying or drinking booze ANYWHERE in the country.
Magistrates slapped the Drinking Banning Order (DBO) on Hall after she was involved in a run of alcohol-related public order offences.
Cops argued strict measures were needed to deal with the 20-year-old's drunken behaviour.
The DBO means Hall is not allowed in any pub, club, off-licence or bar in England and Wales for the next two years. She is also banned from buying booze - or having alcohol in an unsealed container or drinking in any public place. And she must attend an alcohol-misuse course.
The party's over ... Laura Hall in full swing
Sgt David Roberts added: "Rather than seeing it as a punishment, we hope she'll use it to get her life on track." Hall, of Bromsgrove, Worcs, had already been banned from all her local pubs before yesterday's decision by Kidderminster JPs.
Licensing officer PC Neil Sharpe said he hoped the order would prove an "example to others".
He added: "A DBO is a powerful tool for tackling alcohol-related disorder. We will not hesitate to apply for more and we hope that others with drink-related issues will take note of this."
DBOs were launched by the Home Office last September. But Rachel Seabrook, of the Institute of Alcohol Studies, doubted whether the order could be enforced.
She said: "How can a police officer in Wales know this women has been banned if she turns up in his town?"
BritainsGotTalent09—Apr 16, 2010 — Season 4 Ep. 1 — Britain's Got Talent: At first you wonder why Tobias' hoody is on the wrong way around, but soon it becomes clear. With his body popping and fluid movements - Tobias' dancing becomes unmissable! See more at http://itv.com/talent
Apparent dilemma: Where can San Franciscans find other pot smokers?
Are you tired of being surrounded by clear-headed people? Do you resent the fact that only every other Craigslist roommate posting includes the phrase "420 friendly"?
Now there's a better place for all you reality-resistant folks to congregate! 420 Room Search will help you "find people you actually want to live with," the Web site explains. "Low key land lords and easy going roommates."
We found 420 Room Search advertised on its competition, Craigslist.org, in a Bernal Heights Housing ad entitled, "alternative roommates situations." Gotta say, it would be more alternative to find a place to live in San Francisco where nobody smoked weed.
Sand sculptures can be very creative and beautiful sources for creativity and imagination. We all have enjoyed our childhood in making sandcastles and sand sculptures on the beaches as our favorite pass time activity, but we never realized that these sandcastles and sculptures can be huge and represent our artistic nature. Let us have a close look at these creative and attractive sand sculptures.
Herzogenaurach, Germany — Puma's new shoe packaging changes the idea of the shoebox by wrapping footwear in a simple cardboard structure held in place by a reusable bag.
The new packaging, which will hit stores in late 2011, was designed in collaboration with Fuseproject, a firm led by Yves Béhar, whose previous work includes One Laptop Per Child and PACT Underwear.
Puma's packaging, which it's calling its "Clever Little Bag," will contain 65 percent less cardboard by using a bag made of recycled plastic as the outer layer that holds the inner cardboard structure (which has no top) together. The bag's handles slip through a hole at one end of the inner box, securing the bag to the cardboard and providing a plastic-bag-free way to carry the shoes.
Puma has also eliminated all plastic bags and tissue that typically come in shoeboxes.
Due to using fewer materials - 8,500 fewer tons of paper, to be specific - and the new packaging's lighter weight, Puma expects to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 10,000 tons per year and water, energy and diesel use by 60 percent. That works out to 1 million liters of water, 20 million megajoules of electricity, 1 million liters of fuel oil and 500,000 liters of diesel.
Puma is also changing the bags it uses for it apparel. The company is first reducing the amount of bagging material it needs by folding T-shirts an extra time before packaging them up, and it is also replacing plastic bags with biodegradable ones. Puma stores will also swap out their plastic and paper bags for biodegradable versions. Altogether, the apparel and shopping bag changes will cut plastic use by 912 tons and paper by 293 tons.
John Lennon, pictured with wife Yoko Ono, hid a stash of LSD in his garden / File
HARDCORE fans of The Beatles legend John Lennon uncovered where in the grounds of his Surrey, southern England, home he hid his stash of LSD more than 40 years ago.
Builders digging up the lawn of his old house, Kenwood, came across the remains of a leather holdall containing several large broken glass bottles, The Sun reports.
Legend has it that Lennon buried a large quantity of the drug in his garden in 1967 when The Beatles declared they had given up drugs in favour of transcendental meditation.
But when the band returned from India, John decided he had been a bit hasty and tried to dig it up - but never found it.
Now fans are convinced these bottles contained the missing treasure - though they will never know for sure as the one bottle found intact had a cracked cork, so it was empty.
110mph Winds On Ski Lift - Watch more Funny Videos A bunch of skiers get hit with a 110mph micro burst wind while up on a ski lift in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
A classic Willie Nelson moment. In an interview set to air tonight on CNN, Larry King asked Willie if he still smoked pot, and to the shock of exactly no one, Willie said yes. "I have a huge tolerance for it that maybe everyone doesn't have."
King followed up, did you smoke pot today? "Yeah," Nelson said, causing King to twitch around in disbelief. "There's pot in you right now?"
"Yeah. You can arrest me," Willie cracked, offering his arms up for some imaginary handcuffs.
Watch the video below, and scroll through for some other notable Willie Nelson/reefer clips.
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, well, the Rectum Bar in Vienna kind of leaves you lost for words, doesn’t it? Actually, at first sight, there may be only a few single words that will come to mind right away.
As offensive or disgusting as this Rectum Bar may be for some, it is also rather educational, for it illustrates an anatomically correct digestion track with great detail, going from tongue to anus, and the large intestine. Better yet, it was an actual real theme bar outside of the Vienna Museums Quarter, so it was also supposed to be artistic. The photographer, Jurgen from Random Good Stuff, has really made sure as to present the detail and realism.
BarRectum, Arsch Bar, Asshole Bar, Bar Anus. While the translations sound different, the form is universally recognizable. The bar takes its shape from the human digestive system: starting with the tongue, continuing to the stomach, moving through the small and the large intestines and exiting through the anus. While BarRectum is anatomically correct, the last part of the large intestine has been inflated to a humongous size to hold as many drinking customers at the bar as possible. The anus itself is part of a large door that doubles as an emergency exit.
Now the question is really…would you buy a drink there?
For another cool bar that may not be so ‘in your face’, check out the Progress Bar, illustrating the dreaded “progress bar” from our computers.
It'll be his second straight 4/20 in Colorado. Last year, he was at the bash at the University of Colorado at Boulder, which he likened to "an orgasm of cannabis consumption."
NORML@CU executive director Alex Douglas, who recently decried the university's ban against medical marijuana patients smoking in dorms, laughs when he hears St. Pierre's description. However, he thinks a more apt description for what's going to happen at CU tomorrow at 4:20 p.m. is "an orgasm of cannabis consumption -- and students standing up for what they believe in."
According to Douglas, "We're expecting the largest gathering in the history of 4/20 at CU -- between fifteen and twenty-thousand people at the Norlin Quad," directly in front of Norlin Library, which he calls "one of the most academic buildings on campus."
The Denver event has a full schedule of live music and speakers such as St. Pierre, who will be delivering the bash's "invocation." Unfortunately, because of what Douglas calls "limitations from the school," that's not possible at CU.
Choosing another location in Boulder would add such options, but "that wouldn't be the attention-grabber it is at CU," Douglas feels. "It wouldn't make the same statement. These students aren't going to classes. They're protesting for what they believe in at their university, and that statement alone makes it so popular and newsworthy.
"We have so many top-rated programs here, and I believe a CU education is really amazing, and really carries students far after they graduate. So with all the recognition CU gets, it makes having 4/20 on campus that much more meaningful."
Douglas, who's currently a CU senior, is far too young to have experienced the genesis of 4/20 celebrations at the university. But by virtue of his role with NORML@CU, he's become something of a historian of the event.
"Back in the '80s and early '90s, there were people who would go onto Farrand Field, which is a recreational field in the middle of the residential dorms on campus," he says. "They were never large groups. Then, in 1997, the owner of a prominent store in Boulder put out a flier for people to meet on Farrand Field on 4/20. It was kind of rainy that year, but some people did show up -- and from that point on, it really seemed to gain interest. Like, in 1998, there were 75 to a hundred people -- and it just kept building and increasing."
Then, in the middle of the last decade, "CU-Boulder began getting a lot of attention because of the tactics they used to stop the students from participating in the 4/20 event," Douglas continues. "One year, they shut down the field and hired outsourced security to stand around. And they also turned the sprinklers on -- but that didn't really stop anybody. And then, the next year, they took video and put stills online and tried to get students to identify the people. It was absolutely ridiculous. There was a lot of mockery going on."
As April 20, 2007 approached, "the university did something very smart in their eyes: They destroyed the field to make a new one, thinking that was going to help 4/20 simmer down," Douglas says. "But it actually wound up making it more interesting, because that's when it moved to Norlin Quad -- and that's where we really got to see the increase in numbers." This was also the first year Douglas attended personally.
In 2009, CU administrators tried a different tack: The university sent an e-mail to students under the signatures of interim chancellor Phil DiStefano, vice chancellor of student affairs Julie Wong and dean of students Deb Coffin arguing that participating in the rally "debases the reputation of your University and degree" and creates safety risks. Read the e-mail here.
"I actually saw that e-mail a long time before they sent it out," Douglas notes. "I told them, 'What are you doing? This is just going to make more people go. If you're really, truly, honestly worried about the safety of students, why don't you tell them, 'Please don't bring barbecues and trampolines.' And two days after they sent out that first e-mail, they sent out another one that said, 'If you go to 4/20, be safe.' And I was happy about that."
He's also pleased that this year, CU supervisors seem resigned to the 4/20 festivities going forward whether they like it or not. Although he'd be even more upbeat if the university actually supported what was going on.
"They think it's a black eye to the school, but to me, I think it's something they should embrace," he says. "These students pay a lot of money to go to CU, and they're standing up for what they believe in. The university thinks that's debasing the degree -- but why would taking a stand for something do that?"
As for Douglas, he's got a simple message for the thousands upon thousands of people expected to light up tomorrow afternoon: "Make sure you're safe, you treat everyone with respect, and you stand up for what you believe in."
Those sound like the ingredients for quite an orgasm.
Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland has continuing to gather our attention. The huge plume of ash which has covered almost whole western and northern Europe has made a lot of troubles to passengers and air traffic landing down the most of plane flights over the Europe.
But it still continues to send large amounts of ash into the air and photographers managed to catch some photos of rare phenomenon called a “dirty thunderstorm” which follows the eruption.
It is really amazing and also scary to see those photos where boiling stones and plenty of strong and shiny thunders are “dancing” and all that thing is followed by dark plume of ash.
It is not completely clear what is the real cause of such thunderstorms but scientists believe that they might be caused by ice particles mixed with volcanic ash and lava. As you can see from photos, those “dirty thunderstorms” are pretty intensive and at this moment, the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull volcano has took an apocalyptic look, considering the fact that it caused the breakdown of whole air traffic system for almost a week and we don’t know when it is going to end.
Legend has it that the 4:20 phenomenon began with a group of California teens in the early ’70s, who would gather together at 20 past 4 in the afternoon to avail themselves of one of Mother Nature’s wonders. Ever since then, the word has spread and the, er, grass-roots 4:20 subculture has grown bigger and bigger. Today 4/20 is the day 4:20 is saluted not only across the country, but around the globe. So whether you’re marking the day in a herbaceous way or you’re simply in sympathy with the spirit of the whole thing, here are 10 essential stoner songs to make your April 20th a smokin’ one.
Linda Ronstadt’s cover version made this trucker tune about “weed, whites, and wine” famous, but it’s Little Feat’s good ‘n’ greasy delivery that puts “Willin’” straight across the plate.
An early example of The Man stomping on stoners’ good times, folk-rock duo Brewer & Shipley’s 1970 tune was a Top 10 hit that might have gone all the way to Number One if it hadn’t been stalled by the FCC, who decided to ban it due to lyrical content.
A toker tally without reggae would like a PB&J sandwich without bread, so here comes Eek-A-Mouse to give you a little background on how the magic herbs are disseminated. Even if some of the meaning gets lost in Mouse’s thick patois, you still know just where he’s coming from.
In late-’60s California, everybody was a stoner — not just the hairy hippie types, but even clean-cut, super-smooth harmony-vocal groups like The Association, whose ode to their favorite gal had the whiff of something more than puppy love.
Odd are that a guy who modeled himself after Syd Barrett, John Lennon, and Bob Dylan knows a bit about altered states of consciousness. And by the song’s end, when he starts rhapsodizing about “human sheep…with their curly little whirly tails,” it seems likely there’s more than just a conversation about altered consciousness going on.
Pretty much the stoners’ National Anthem, “Purple Haze” is the ultimate evocation of that “not necessarily stoned, but beautiful” feeling (Yes, we know that lyric is from another song). Has there ever been a better motto for lighting up than “’scuse me while I kiss the sky?”
“Hits From the Bong” – Cypress Hill
You didn’t really think we’d leave Cypress Hill out, did you? Their faces should be emblazoned on the stoner Mt. Rushmore, right next to Dre and Snoop (okay, so we didn’t have room for everyone). Just listening to the vocal delivery on this track is enough to make you feel like you’ve spent the last two weeks in a college dorm with a poster on the wall that says “Get it on, bang a bong,” while the sweet smell of cannabis emanates from everything in the room.
“Rainy Day Women #12 & 35″ – Bob Dylan
It’s hard to imagine how Brewer & Shipley got shut down by the FCC for “One Toke Over the Line,” but four years earlier, this song — complete with drunken brass band and “everybody must get stoned” refrain — sailed up to the No. 2 spot on the charts unmolested by the powers that be.
“Because I Got High” – Afroman
One of the greatest one-hit wonders of the 21st century, Joseph “Afroman” Foreman provided the theme song for Kevin Smith’s Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back with this tongue-in-cheek cautionary tale about the hazards of a weed addiction. Don’t think for a second that he or anyone involved with the film took the warning to heart, though.
“Sweet Leaf” – Black Sabbath
An actual love song to the pot leaf itself, this 1971 Black Sabbath classic starts off with the sound of Sab guitar god Tony Iommi’s hacking cough, which we assume was caused by something other than an excess of smog in the air that day.
You are looking at Apple's next iPhone. It was found lost in a bar in Redwood City, camouflaged to look like an iPhone 3GS. We got it. We disassembled it. It's the real thing, and here are all the details.
While Apple may tinker with the final packaging and design of the final phone, it's clear that the features in this lost-and-found next-generation iPhone are drastically new and drastically different from what came before. Here's the detailed list of our findings:
What's new
• Front-facing video chat camera • Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS) • Camera flash • Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad) • Improved display. It's unclear if it's the 960x640 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the "Connect to iTunes" screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS. • What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack • Split buttons for volume • Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic
What's changed
• The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound • An aluminum border going completely around the outside • Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution) • Everything is more squared off • 3 grams heavier • 16% Larger battery • Internals components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery
We're as skeptical—if not more—than all of you. We get false tips all the time. But after playing with it for about a week—the overall quality feels exactly like a finished final Apple phone—and disassembling this unit, there is so much evidence stacked in its favor, that there's very little possibility that it's a fake. In fact, the possibility is almost none. Imagine someone having to use Apple components to design a functioning phone, from scratch, and then disseminating it to people around the world. Pretty much impossible. Here are the reasons, one by one.
It has been reported lost Apple-connected John Gruber—from Daring Fireball—says that Apple has indeed lost a prototype iPhone and they want it back:
So I called around, and I now believe this is an actual unit from Apple — a unit Apple is very interested in getting back.
Obviously someone found it, and here it is.
The screen While we couldn't get it past the connect to iTunes screen for the reasons listed earlier, the USB cable on that screen was so high quality that it was impossible to discern individual pixels. We can't tell you the exact resolution of this next-generation iPhone, but it's much higher than the current iPhone 3GS.
The operating system According to the person who found it, this iPhone was running iPhone OS 4.0 before the iPhone 4.0 announcement. The person was able to play with it and see the iPhone 4.0 features. Then, Apple remotely killed the phone before we got access to it. We were unable to restore because each firmware is device specific—3GS firmware only loads on 3GS devices—and the there are no firmwares available for this unreleased phone. Which is another clue to its authenticity.
It is recognized as an iPhone This iPhone behaves exactly like an iPhone does when connected to a computer, with the proper boot sequence and "connect to iTunes" restore functionality. Xcode and iTunes both see this as an iPhone. Mac OS X's System Profiler also reports this as an iPhone in restore mode, which is a natural consequence of remotely wiping the phone, but report different product identifiers (both CPID and CPRV) than either the 3G or the 3GS.
It uses micro-sim The fact that it uses a micro-sim is a clear indicator that this is a next-generation iPhone. No other cellphone uses this standard at this point in the US.
The camouflage case The case it came inside was a fully developed plastic case to house this phone to disguise it like a 3GS. This wasn't just a normal case; it had all the proper new holes cut out for the new switches and ports and camera holes and camera flash. But it looks like something from Belkin or Case-Mate. It's a perfect disguise.
The fact that it's in the wild right now Logic can also narrow down why this phone is this year's iPhone, rather than next year's model or one from the previous year's, just because it was found in the wild right now. It makes no sense for Apple to be testing 2011's model right now, in super finished form—they wouldn't be nearly finished with it. The phone also can't be last year's test model, because last year's model (based on the iPhone 3GS teardowns) components were way different. No micro-sim, much bigger logic board, no flash, no front camera, smaller battery and an inferior camera. That only leaves the 2010 model.
The guts, the definitive proof And finally, when we opened it up, we saw multiple components that were clearly labeled APPLE. And, because the components were fit extremely well and extremely conformed inside the case (obvious that it was designed FOR this case), it was evident that it was not just a 3G or a 3GS transplanted into another body. That probably wouldn't even be possible, with the size constraints of the thinner device and larger battery.
The New Industrial Design
At first sight, this new iPhone's industrial design seems so different from the previous two generations that it could be discarded as just a provisional case. Even while the finish is so perfect that it feels right out of the factory, some of the design language elements that are common to all Apple products are not there. Gone is the flushed screen glass against the metal rim. Gone is the single volume button, replaced by two separate ones. Gone is the seamless rim, and gone are the tapered, curved surfaces.
Despite that, however, this design is not a departure. Not when you frame it with the rest of the Apple product line. It's all the contrary: This new iPhone gets back to the simplicity of the iMac and the iPad. In fact, you can argue that the current iPhone 3GS—with its shiny chrome rim and excessively curved back—is out of place compared to the hard edges and Dieter-Ramish utilitarianism of the iMac and the iPad. Next to the iPad, for example, the new iPhone makes sense. It has the same feeling, the same functional simplicity.
But why the black plastic back, instead of going with an unibody aluminum design? Why the two audio volume buttons? Why the seams? And why doesn't the back have any curvature at all?
Why the plastic back? The plastic back is the most obvious of the design choices. The iPad, with its all aluminum back, has seen its Wi-Fi reception radius reduced. The 3G version comes with a large patch on the top, probably big enough to provide with good reception. But the new tiny iPhone doesn't have the luxury of space: It needs to provide as much signal as possible using a very small surface. I'm sure Jon Ive is dying to get rid of the plastic back, and go iPad-style all the way, but the wireless reception is the most important thing in a cellphone. A necessary aesthetical-functional trade-off.
Why separate volume buttons? This new iPhone uses separate buttons for the volume instead of the single button that you can find in the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. It's one of the factors that may indicate that this is a provisional case, until you think about one of the most requested features for Apple's phone: A physical button for the camera. The new iPhone has a bigger sensor and a flash, which means that the camera function keeps gaining more weight. It's only logical to think that Apple may have implemented this two-button approach to provide with a physical shutter button. It makes sense.
Why the seams? The seams are perhaps the most surprising aspect of the new design. They don't seem to respond to any aesthetic criteria and, in terms of function, we can't adventure any explanation. But they don't look bad. In fact, the whole effect seems good, like something you will find in a Braun product from the 70s.
It's doubtful that the seams are arbitrary, however. Either they will disappear from the final product, or they have a function we can't foresee at this time.
Why no tapering or curves? As you will see in a future article, the new iPhone is so miniaturized and packed that there's no room for the tapered, curved surfaces. Everything is as tight as it could get, with no space for anything but electronics.
The hardware specs
The phone measures 4.50 by 2.31 by 0.37 inches. It weighs 140 grams. The 3GS weighs 137 grams on a postal scale (and 135 on Apple's official measurements). So, in comparison, it's 3 grams heavier. The battery is 5.25 WHr at 3.7V, compared to the 3GS battery, which is 4.51 WHr at 3.7V. On the back of the phone, it said it was XX GB, but since we were unable to get the phone to a running state, we couldn't see exactly how large it was.
How it feels
Freaking amazing. As a person who never really liked the round mound of a back in the 3GS, the sleeker, flatter, squarer design is super welcome. It feels sturdier than the 3GS, and much less plasticky. The metal buttons give it a heftier feel—less of a toy—than all previous generations. The closest analog to it would be the original iPhone, which is more square and heavy than its newer brothers.
It feels completely natural up to your face, and the fact that both the front and the back are glossy makes no difference on how well you can hold it without the phone slipping. And because it's thinner, it feels even nicer in your pants.
What all this means
Apple has updated the exterior drastically different from the 3G and 3GS. That design is old, it felt out of place compared to the rest of their products and needed desperately to be killed. Now you have a thinner body, a much more pleasant form factor with no wasted space and lots of hard lines. But the design isn't the most important part that's changed.
They've delivered many of the features people have been waiting for—that damn front camera!—while at the same time upgrading everything else. Flash, better back camera, better battery life and another microphone for better voice clarity. People who bought the 3G two years ago and are now in the perfect position to upgrade and get a dramatically different, and better, phone. If confirmed this summer, and if it performs as we expect, this next-generation iPhone looks like a winner.
Much additional reporting and design analysis by Jesus Diaz. Rosa Golijan also contributed.
If you want to link to this article, here's a YouTube video you can use to illustrate your post:
.
All you art collectors out there. Here is a chance to get a Giclee copy of some of Ian M Sherwin work. Ian is planning on doing a whole series of Marblehead, Massachusetts paintings. His work is amazing.
.
Posts
