DEADLINE post-it stop motion

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Created by: bunliu

This is my senior project at Savannah College of Art and Design. Where my idea comes from is that every time when I am busy, I feel that I am not fighting with my works, I am fighting with those post-it notes and deadline. I manipulating the post-it notes to do pixel-like stop motion and there are some interactions between real actor and post-its. Here is the making of : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArJYva...

Directed by Bang-yao Liu
Music by Röyksopp (http://royksopp.com)
Sound design by Shaun Burdick

Angry iPhone owners blast AT&T over upgrade pricing

Thousands sign Twitter petition, want carrier to retreat from $200 surcharge on iPhone 3G S

By Gregg Keizer

Computerworld - iPhone users angry over AT&T's pricing policy for the new iPhone 3G S have taken their campaign to Twitter, where more than 4,400 have added their names to an instant petition.

They're mad as hell about AT&T's plan to charge them an additional $200 to upgrade to the iPhone 3G S if they haven't fulfilled most or all of their two-year contract with the carrier. "AT&T should give existing customers the same rate for the new iPhone 3G S that they do for new customers," the Twitter petition reads. "New customers or not, another 2-year contract is being made."

Apple's and AT&T's subsidized prices for the iPhone 3G S, which will launch on Friday, June 19, are $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB device. Those prices, however, apply only to new customers to AT&T, or to existing customers who are judged eligible for the lower-priced upgrade.

Meanwhile, people who already own an iPhone or have an existing AT&T contract, and are judged by AT&T as ineligible for another subsidized phone must fork over $399 for the 16GB, $599 for the 32GB.

AT&T doesn't reveal the criteria it uses to peg existing customers as eligible or ineligible, but Computerworld staffers who own iPhones have been told that they must run through as few as 12 months, and as many as 20 months, of their 24-month contracts before they'll qualify for the $199 and $299 prices.

That's made AT&T customers mad enough to sign the Twitter petition at a rate of about 250 an hour as of mid-day Wednesday. The petition was first posted yesterday.

They're also venting in other online venues. "This is all a slap to our face!" ranted a user identified as "irishlad1977" on a well-trafficked AT&T support forum thread labeled "No Subsidized Price For Loyal iPhone Users."

"Cry foul, all disappointed iPhone users!" added "tsfroggy" on the same thread.

"Why are we being punished for buying Apple products?" asked "Darksithscorpius" in a post to an Apple support forum. "I love the product, but the way that they let AT&T dictate how their customers are treated is terrible. Charging us the extra $200 for being loyal customers is flat out wrong!"

The company's policy, however, is standard for the wireless industry in the U.S., which ties subsidized phone prices to the completion of long-term contract commitments. That fact was quickly pointed out by others unsympathetic to the complainers.

"You do have a cheaper option once you live up to your side of the bargain," said "DWC1" on the AT&T forum. "If you want to upgrade early then you will have to pay full price with no subsidy discount. You can't blame anyone but yourself for your predicament."

AT&T did not respond to a request for comment about its pricing practices, or what it thought of the Twitter petition and the online postings by iPhone owners.

A similar Twitter-based petition for customers of O2, the U.K.'s exclusive carrier for the iPhone, had nearly 4,100 signatures by mid-day Wednesday.

The hubbub over pricing isn't the only negative press that AT&T's received since Apple unveiled the iPhone 3G S on Monday. The company has also come under fire for its slow moves to support MMS and its lack of a tethering plan to let customers connect laptops to the Internet via the iPhone. Other mobile carriers will offer both MSS and tethering when the iPhone 3G S debuts next week.

The World’s 5 Creepiest Places

Posted by snowhite

Mary King’s Close, Edinburgh, Scotland

For years the hidden underground closes of Mary King’s Close, in the Old Town area of Edinburgh, Scotland, have been shrouded in myths and mysteries. Tales of ghosts and murders, and myths of plague victims being walled up and left to die abounded.

The Real Mary King’s Close consists of a number of closes which were originally narrow streets with houses on either side, stretching up to seven storeys high. In 1753, the Burgh Council decided to develop a new building on this site, the Royal Exchange (now the City Chambers). The houses at the top of the closes were knocked down and part of the lower sections were kept and used as the foundations for the Royal Exchange. The remnants of the closes were left beneath the building, dark and ancient dwellings steeped in mystery.

Following research into new documentary and archaeological evidence uncovered by Continuum, for the first time the real lives of some of the people who lived here have been traced and their stories can now be told. At The Real Mary King’s Close you will see an historically accurate interpretation of life in Edinburgh from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.

Chernobyl, Pripyat, Ukraine

Prypiat (Ukrainian: При́п’ять, Pryp”jat’; Russian: При́пять, Pripjat’), or Pripyat, is an abandoned city in the zone of alienation in northern Ukraine, Kiev Oblast, near the border with Belarus. The city was founded in 1970 to house the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant workers, and was abandoned in 1986 following the Chernobyl disaster. Its population had been around 50,000 prior to the accident.

It is difficult to accurately quantify the number of deaths caused by the events at Chernobyl

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear reactor accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. It is considered to be the worst nuclear power plant disaster in history and the only level 7 instance on the International Nuclear Event Scale. It resulted in a severe release of radioactivity into the environment following a massive power excursion which destroyed the reactor.

Paris Catacombs, Paris, France

Underground stone quarries that hold the 200-year-old skeletons of several million people.

The Catacombs of Paris or Catacombes de Paris are a famous underground ossuary in Paris, France. Its entrance is located near the Denfert-Rochereau station of the Paris Métro. Organized in a renovated section of the city’s vast network of subterranean tunnels and caverns towards the end of the 18th century, it became a tourist attraction on a small scale from the early 19th century and has been open to the public on a regular basis from 1867. The official name for the catacombs is l’Ossuaire Municipal.

Bones and skulls are stacked on either side of a narrow corridor like merchandise at a warehouse—a lot of merchandise. The air is close and cool, with just a hint of decomposition, and there’s rude graffiti dating from the French Revolution, mainly about the king and the feeble nobility.

Manchac Swamp, Louisiana

The Manchac Swamp, a.k.a. the “haunted swamp,” near New Orleans is a Southern Gothic fan’s dream. An imprisoned voodoo queen is said to have cast a curse on these watery surroundings around the turn of the last century, resulting in the disappearance of three hamlets in a hurricane in 1915.

This swamp is a wilderness jewel. Sims’s photographs and John Kemp’s text have made timeless the people and place of Manchac Swamp.

The Manchac Swamp Bridge is a bridge in the US state of Louisiana. With a total length of 22.80 miles (36.69 km) it is the third longest bridge in the world by total length (see List of bridges by length). The bridge carries Interstate 55 over the Manchac Swamp in Louisiana, and represents one-third of the highway’s approximately 66 miles in Louisiana.

Bran Castle, Bran, Romania

Bran Castle situated near Bran and in the immediate vicinity of Braşov, is a national monument and landmark in Romania. The fortress is situated on the border between Transylvania and Wallachia, on DN73. Commonly known as “Dracula’s Castle” (although it is one among several locations linked to the Dracula legend, including Poienari Castle and Hunyad Castle), it is marketed as the home of the titular character in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

In 1897 Bram Stoker wrote a terrifying story about Count Dracula. A century after, there are still people who believe in it. Even researchers are trying to find out the truth about Dracula. All are trying to clear the mystery: was there or wasn’t there a vampire in Transylvania?How many of these fabulous stories are legends and how many say the truth ? Here is the legend about Dracula.

His castle is supposed to be Bran’s Castle since its narrow corridors constitute a mysterious labyrinth of ghostly nooks and secret chambers easy to hide a “vampire”.

Sky 'rains tadpoles' over Japan

The sky has been raining tadpoles over a coastal region in Japan, according to reports.

By Danielle Demetriou in Tokyo

Residents, officials and scientists have been baffled by the apparent downpour of tadpoles in central Japan's Ishikawa Prefecture.

Clouds of dead tadpoles appear to have fallen from the sky in a series of episodes in a number of cities in the region since the start of the month.

In one incident, a 55-year-old man who was caught in a tadpole downpour described hearing a strange sound in the parking lot of a civic centre in the city of Nanao.

Upon further exploration, he found more than 100 dead tadpoles covering the windshields of cars in an area measuring 10 square metres.

Dead tadpole downpours were also reported by local officials 48 hours later in the city of Hakusan in the same prefecture.

The raining down of small creatures such as frogs and fish is a rare meteorological phenomenon that is reported from time to time across the world.

Scientists have widely attributed the surreal raining of animals to strong winds, storms and water sprouts sucking up creatures before depositing them further inland.

However, this explanation has not satisfied meteorologists in the Ishikawa region.

Officials at Kanazawa Local Meteorological Observatory told local media that they were unsure how the tadpoles had arrived as there had been no reports of strong winds at the time.

Another scientific explanation for raining animals relates to birds carrying the small creatures before dropping them as they fly overland.

However, dismissing this theory, a researcher at the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology in Abiko told Kyodo news: "Crows eat tadpoles but if these were spat out (by the birds), a wider area should have been covered."

World's Fastest Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (and Other Stuff)

by Chad Mumm

It may surprise you that beneath our gentle, gadget-loving exterior, there lies a closeted obsession with speed. Sure, we tend to talk about Twitter and have been known to spend hours debating the best instant-messaging client -- or the best sci-fi villain (it's so obviously IG-88) -- but we turn our heads just like the next person when a Ferrari F430 rolls by.

In honor of our innate love of all things fast, we've gathered up a list of the fastest things on (or nearly on) Earth. You'll find no cheetahs or peregrine falcons here, just the most crazy-quick contraptions humans have ever strapped themselves into. With that, let's punch it....

Fastest Plane: X-15
The title of fastest piloted plane belongs to the incredible X-15. This rocket-powered test plane was designed and built in the early 1960s to see how human pilots could handle flying themselves into space. Carried by a modified B-52, the X-15 would detach at 45,000 feet and immediately ignite its Reaction Motors XLR-99 rocket engine, blasting up to the edge of the stratosphere thanks to 57,000 pounds of thrust. Incidentally, several test pilots received astronaut wings from NASA for their X-15 flights into what's technically outer space.. On October 3, 1967, test pilot Pete Knight took the craft to a mind-bending 4,519 mph, which still stands as the absolute speed record for an airplane. At that speed, you could fly from New York to Los Angeles in approximately 25 minutes.

Fastest Car: SSC Ultimate Aero
Unlike most of the things on this list, the fastest car in the world can not only be driven, it can also be owned (provided, of course, that you have $600,000). Although the Bugatti Veyron is often cited as the fastest thing on four wheels, only the SSC Ultimate Aero actually holds the official title of world's fastest production car. Built by Shelby SuperCars (which is not affiliated with famed car designer Carroll Shelby), this 1,183-horsepower, American-made monster is capable of 256 mph. But, this thing doesn't just rule on straightaways -- the Ultimate Aero also holds the world slalom record (averaging 73.1 mph), which it snatched away from the Italy's greatest supercar, the Ferrari Enzo.

Fastest Boat: "Spirit of Australia"
Proving, like the X-15, that old-fashioned knowhow is often better than new technology, the fastest boat in history was built in the 1970s by a man named Ken Warby in his shed. "The Spirit of Australia" set the world water speed record of 317.6 mph all the way back in 1978, and the record still stands today. Apparently, chasing this record is one of the most dangerous endeavors in the world, since around 85-percent of those who give it a go die in their attempts. For the complete, grisly record, check out this great article from Wired.

Fastest Bicycle: Fred Rompelberg Custom Bike
On October 3rd, 1995, Fred Rompelberg rode his double-geared, custom-designed bike behind a motor dragster and used its slipstream to draft his way to 167 mph, the fastest speed ever on a bicycle. At that speed, he could easily outrun most police helicopters. Not that he'd be able to lose them -- the Bonneville Salt Flats, where Rompelberg set his record, stretch for over 150 square miles.

Fastest Elevator: Taipei 101 Tower
Pack your bags and hit Asia if you want fast elevators -- six of the ten fastest in the world are located there. To ride the fastest of them all, get yourself to Taiwan and the Taipei 101 Tower. Two of the tower's elevators, built by Toshiba and GFC Elevator, will rocket you to the 89th floor observation deck at a gut-wrenching 37 mph. For comparison, the Empire State Building's elevator (the 9th fastest in the world) clocks in at a plodding 16 mph.

Fastest Sailboat: l'Hydroptère
Sure, sailing seems placid, but if you've ever ripped it downwind amidst six-foot ocean swells, you know that 15 mph under sail can feel like 50. That's why the l'Hydroptère's speed of 69 mph is so completely insane. This hydrofoil-equipped trimaran holds the unofficial world record for a sailboat, and apparently is capable of going even faster -- in December of 2008, it topped 70 mph before capsizing in an epic crash that sent its cheering crew sprawling into the Mediterranean. Who ever said sailing wasn't exciting?

Fastest Train: JR Maglev
The distinction of being the fastest train in the world belongs to Japan's JR-Maglev. It set a world speed record for a manned, railed vehicle when it hit 361 mph on December 2nd, 2003. The train uses magnetic levitation to float above its track, which eliminates rail friction and allows it to achieve such swift speeds. Altogether more amazing is the French TGV -- this conventional train rode its metal wheels and track to a baguette-crisping 357 mph. That's only four miles per hour slower (357 mph) than the fancy-pants Maglev train.

Search for $1million mattress in Tel Aviv

An Israeli woman says she purchased a new mattress for her mother's bed and chucked out the old one without realizing it contained $1 million.

Details of the incident were first published Wednesday in the Yedioth Aharonoth daily, and showed a photo of the woman sifting through mounds of rubbish in a dump outside Tel Aviv.

The woman told the newspaper only after the old mattress had been thrown out did her mother confront her and reveal her life savings had been stashed inside the mattress.

She immediately raced outside the house to search for the mattress, but the garbage had already been collected, she said. Refusing to give up, she searched three dump sites before arriving at the dump outside Tel Aviv.

Yitzhak Borba, the manager of the dump, told Army Radio he had beefed up security at the site and his staff was assisting the woman, so far to no avail. The task is difficult, he said, especially taking into account that 2,500 tons of garbage are dumped at the site daily.

By Wednesday afternoon the mattress had still not been found.

© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Dial up with teeth, no Sabbath desecration

© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

A religious ruling permits ultra-orthodox Jews to operate their mobile phones on the Sabbath and religious holidays with their teeth.

Many of the ultra orthodox volunteers and workers at Israel's Magen David Adom emergency services work on the Sabbath and were confronted with the dilemma of how to activate their mobile phones without violating religious rules, Ynetnews.com reported.

Recently, the agency began replacing workers' paging systems with modern mobile phones equipped with GPS technology that locates workers and volunteers closest to the scene of an accident, shortening the response time, the report said.

MDA asked the Scientific Technology Halacha Institute to come up with a solution. Rabbi Levy Yitzhak Halperin issued a new set of rules involving the use of a specially designed case that prevents phones from being shut down accidentally. To confirm response to dispatch, workers are permitted to hold a small metal pin between their teeth and press the necessary buttons on the phones, the Web site said.

According to Judaism, the Sabbath, which is observed from sunset Friday to Saturday night, is considered a day of rest. Religious Jews do not travel, cook, work or use telephones. They also are prohibited from turning on electricity or driving but allowed to violate the Sabbath to save lives.

© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

12 Funniest TV Show-Inspired Tattoos

We've seen geeky tattoos. We've seen music-related tattoos. We've even seen tattoos of dead GOP icons. But maybe you're too lazy to learn HTML, go see bands, or vote. Maybe you want to come home from a hard day's work, turn on the boob tube, drink a sixer, and go get a tattoo of the last thing you watched.

You're not alone, brothers and sisters! As proof, we have compiled a list of the 12 Funniest TV-Show Inspired Tattoos. If you see anything you like, print this out and tote it to the parlor for reference. Anything we can do to help contribute to our readers' unfortunate, permanent decisions.

12. The Golden Girls

Here's a tip for the ladies: A photo-realistic portrait of the Golden Girls splayed across your thighs is always a turn-on for guys.

GAY guys. (Cue laugh track, eat some cheesecake, Stan arrives and asks Dorothy for money.)

11. Joy Of Painting Host Bob Ross
Ironically, whoever designed this tattoo is a much better artist than Bob Ross.




10. ALF
Can we tell you something, ALF-tattoo-man? ALF and nipples don't go together. It's just creepy.

Not as creepy as this, but still creepy.

9. Hawkeye Pierce
This portrait of Alan Alda's iconic M*A*S*H character Hawkeye Pierce, lovingly inked into your flesh, can serve as a somber reminder of the horrors of war. Or as a reminder of the joys of binge drinking and banging nurses. Your call.


8. Bob Barker
Remember to have people with this tattoo spayed or neutered.


7. Chris Farley
We really enjoy your tribute tattoo of beloved SNL-er Chris Farley, especially the bottom picture, where he looks especially sweaty, bloated, and self-destructive. Was the reference photo taken the night he died? Was the tattoo parlor out of Artie Lange?


6. Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter
Continuing our theme of tattoos of dead people, here's Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter. This is probably an Australian dude's tat-- it's an Aussie rite of manhood to drunkenly get a tattoo of either 1) Steve Irwin, 2) Paul Hogan, or 3) A Can Of Foster's, right after you kill your first wallaroo. Australians call this a walkabout.


5. Zack Morris From Saved By The Bell
Our friends over at Funk Jelly recently featured this stunning skin-tribute to Zack Morris, who just this week made an appearance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. So this tattoo is, at the least, topical. On the minus side, it makes our eyes and childhood hurt.


4. Ralph Kramden
"Hey, you know that show Grampa always makes us watch? Look, we can get a tattoo of the fat guy from it! Yeah, you're right, I'll just stick with a rose on my ankle."



3. Tony Danza
Who's the boss? Not you, if you have this tattoo. Something tells us if you get Danza inked onto your skin, you're assured a lifetime of menial, minimum-wage jobs, a promotion to even assistant manager eternally out of your reach. But if you flex, it looks like Tony's all, "Angela!" So you got that going for you.


2. Oprah
As the Book of Revelation foretells, it will only be a matter of time before all humanity is forced to display The Mark Of The Oprah.


1. The Cast Of Bonanza
"I don't know, I came in here thinking "Pernell Roberts," but now that I see the Lorne Greene, I'm not sure. Gosh, though, that Dan Blocker really catches the eye, doesn't it? Oh wow, I didn't even see that Michael Landon. I-- I'm not sure. I can't decide. I CAN'T DECIDE WHICH BONANZA CAST MEMBER I WANT TATTOOED ON MY BODY!"

The babes of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

We might be jumping the gun a little early with so many other blockbusters to come out this summer but one movie we are totally amped for is G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. It was one of our favorite cartoons as a kid and the day that a decent movie was made based on the classic show is long overdue. That being said, slapping “From the director of The Mummy” on the trailer leaves us skeptical on how good it will be.

But we will see it not only to please the inner-child in us but to see the cast of hot babes they have lined up to play the female roles. Cobra will not be the only thing rising in movie theaters world wide one August 7th arrives.

Here are the babes of G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra. Remember, clicking to see is only half the battle.

The Baroness played by Sienna Miller

Scarlett played by Rachel Nichols

Other notables

Courtney A. Kreiger / Cover girl played by Karolina Kurkova

Sadly we could not find any photos of Karolina in character so you will just have to imagine.

Also check out this link from Double Viking that features the Five hottest G.I. Joe characters in cartoon form.

Milan Tuttle: The Amazing Female 5 Year Old Dribbling Phenom

Dr. Browntorious

Does anyone remember Milan Tuttle, the 5-year old basketball dribbling phenom? Well I was checking something out on YouTube and came across the video that shocked the world, showcasing her dribbling two and then three basketballs at once that went viral on YouTube last fall. I figured for those of you that haven’t seen the video yet, you need to take a look. Milan is 6 years old now, and from what I have read is still ballin’ fanatically. This video is such an amazing display of co-ordination for a 5-year old.

Think the WNBA scouts are knocking on this little girl’s door yet?

The Best Christopher Walken Impressions on YouTube

• by:// Eliot Glazer

Pacino. Nicholson. Cosby. De Niro. Eastwood.

One thing these cinematic legends all have in common -- besides, as we imagine, arthritic pain and toilet paper made of dollar bill$ -- is that they are the catalyst for epic impressions. A name that should not only be included in that list, but perhaps at the very top for its level of infamy, alone, is Christopher Walken.

The actor, who was born in Queens but sounds like as if were raised on Planet Flooboort (where, of course, all citizens speak in a stuttered, vowel-heavy drawl) has earned him plenty of admirers, especially since his ubiquitous hosting gigs on SNL, the most famous of which made "More Cowbell" a treasured national utterance.

Naturally, plenty have flocked to YouTube (many as part of now-finished contest Walken The Walk) to show off their chops, and we've chosen a few faves below:

• link:// Walken The Walk

Rare yellow lobster in Cape Cod tank

EASTHAM, Mass. -- This lobster will catch your eye, but not because you're imagining its tail dipped in butter. "Fiona" the lobster is bright orange and yellow, even though she's never been near a boiling pot.

Specialists tell The Boston Globe this "yellow lobster" is one in 30 million.

Fiona was recently caught off Canada and given by a friend to Nathan Nickerson, the owner of Arnold's Lobster and Clam Bar in Eastham, on Cape Cod.

New England Aquarium director of research Michael Tlusty said a rare genetic mutation produces yellow lobsters. Life isn't easy for such animals -- their bright colors make it easy for predators to spot them.

Nickerson said the predators at his restaurant will never get a hold of Fiona. He said it would be like steaming a Rembrandt.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)