13 Incredibly WTF Body Modifications

by: Tim
from: http://www.popcrunch.com/

Again and again, human beings have shown off their willingness to pierce, poke and alter every facet of their bodies. Currently, tattoos and certain piercings are seen as utterly socially acceptable, and no-one blinks twice if your barista has 8 earrings and full sleeve tattoos. But some people take it to the next level, with bodymods that stretch belief and might fire up your gag reflex. Here are 13 of the craziest body mods (which don’t involve genitalia, because that would just be too easy).

13. Black Light Tattoo

So what do you do if you want a tattoo but you don’t want it to be highly visible? If you’re a normal person, you get it put somewhere discreet, and it’s not an issue. If you’re someone who tends to hang around places where the music repetitively goes oons-oons-oons, and look fondly back on the 90s, then you get a black light tattoo. Much as the name suggests, black light tattoos only show up under black light, meaning they look like a very faint scar most of the time. However, once you get into the club with the rest of your raver friends, the ink glows. It’s a cool effect, but I wonder if the glow degrades over time.

12. Corset Piercing

This bodymod is high on the list because, well, because it’s actually kinda hot. Two rows of piercings run down the back, and then a piece of ribbon is threaded through them. This duplicates the look of the ties on a corset, which has definite aesthetic appeal. Which is doubtless boosted by its usual appearance on the backs of young, attractive women. The downside? Whenever I see one, I just get a horrible mental image of someone ripping the whole thing out.

11. Implanted Magnets

Another one that’s kinda cool. Implanting magnets under your skin, which not only lets you pick up metal objects, but gives you a minor 6th sense. Reportedly, once you’ve implanted the small and powerful objects, you can detect live wires, feel your hard drive spin up, or sense security systems. The magnets are implanted into your fingertip, and when you cross a magnetic field they oscillate slightly, creating a buzzing sensation. As far as bodymods go, it’s a fair bit more practical than most. The downside? The silicon sleeve used to separate your body from the magnet has a tendency to rupture, which leads to the magnet breaking down.

10. The Giant Labret

The labret is a fairly common piercing, one which is beneath your lower lip, and is often seen as a stud or spike. It’s remarkably common, and you probably know someone who has one. So what happens when someone does to the labret piercing as they do to their ears, and start to stretch the hole. And, after it gets big enough, they stick a clear plastic plug in it. You get an unparalleled look at the persons gumline, and I’m sure more than just a couple of really, really odd glances. Looking at that, and seeing how much it alters the shape of the lower lip, you have to wonder if it makes eating difficult.

9. Microdermal Implants

So you want a piece of metal sticking straight out of your body? But you don’t want to shove a piece of metal deep into your muscle structure? Well, lucky for you, there’s a middle-ground. A microdermal implant sticks a small L-shaped bracket into your skin, which leaves just a tiny stud of metal protruding. With this hook, you can stick on all types of studs, jewels, and various spikey shaped things. As far as implants go, it’s relatively non-invasive, and won’t go too deep. You’re still sticking hooks under your skin though.

8. Ear Spiking

There are only two types of people who would get their ears modified to look like this: hardcore fantasy fans, or hardcore Star Trek fans. Neither of whom are usually the primary demographic for extensive body modification, especially ones that involve removing large chunks of flesh. But I’m not one to judge. So if you’re of the type where you think your life would be immeasurably improved by having ears that come to a sharp point, then maybe this is for you. So how is this achieved? Well, you take your ear, carve a wedge of flesh and cartilage out of it and then strap it back together. You keep it bandaged that way for some time, until it heals enough that it won’t rip itself to shreds as soon it becomes unstrapped. Then you have a spiky set of ears!

7. Scarification

Scarification scares me more than almost anything else, but mostly because I find the results oddly attractive. What happens with this procedure, is that you peel off large sections of someone skin in a specific pattern, revealing the tissue beneath. Once this area heals, it will cover with scar tissue, which will be a different color and texture from the surrounding skin. As crazy and gruesome as this is, some people take it a step further, and deliberately aggravate the wound, preventing it from healing normally. This causes greater swelling in the scar tissue, and creates more defined results. The whole process is extremely bloody, and looks more painful than I care to fathom. But I kinda think it looks hot.

6. Saline Inflation

So you want giant lumpy bits added to your body, but don’t want them to be permanent? You still want to look like you got stung by some sort of mutant bee, and have swelling that would make any sane doctor run in terror? Well, how about injecting large amounts of saline solution into your face, and then making divots with your thumb on it? All the cool Japanese are doing it! Now, I would like to digress here for a second, and mention that there’s an entire group of people who like doing this exact same thing, but to their testicles. Seeing as we’re trying to keep this list at least vaguely PG-13, we won’t show any of the images, but it’s pretty horrific. At least saline inflations disappear after a while…

5. Subdermal Implants

But subdermal implants are here to stay! A subdermal implant involves inserting a large object under the skin, and then leaving it to heal. The shape of implant then shows through the skin, creating a raised and slightly terrifying resulting effect. It’s not often in life you’ll run into someone with devil horns or detailed beaded patterns protruding under their skin, and it’s certainly a dramatic look. Subdermal implants are still rare enough that you’ll probably face a fair amount of social ostracization because of it, but hey, what price is art?

4. Suspension

Suspension isn’t so much a single modification, as a religious experience associated with the bodymod world. People who are into suspension literally hang themselves off hooks, usually through the skin of their back. The hooks are inserted just prior to the act itself, meaning the piercings are always fresh, and the person is hoisted up. The hooks must be carefully placed, taking into account the weight of the subject, and their skin’s strength, because if there aren’t a sufficient number of the piercings, then the skin won’t take the weight, and will rip out.
Suspension is never undertaken with anesthesia, as the practitioners feel this would diminish the importance of the act. It’s an intensely spiritual performance for most people, who see it as a form of meditation. Me, I’m just terrified of the whole concept!

3. Split Tongue

You know how snakes have split tongues. Do you want one? Do you yearn with the desire to separately control the left and right halves of your tongue? To slither them around various objects, and creep people out? To give the heebie-jeebies to the general populace? All you have to do is split your tongue down the middle—known as bifurcation—and then stitch it up again to let it heal. In doing so, you’ll get the tool you’ve always wanted to strike fear into the hearts of children.

2. Burning

So, remember when I talked about how scarification could have visually impressive results? Well, what happens when you take that process, remove any chance of it looking good, and add an even stronger undercurrent of self harm? Welcome to the world of self-inflicted burn wounds. The image above was done by cigarette. Slowly. And repeatedly. Over the course of a long, long time. That’s right, it says “love hurts”. And it’s almost entirely illegible. That’s just screwed up.

1. Eye Tattoos

AAAHH! AAAAH! AAAAAAAH! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT! Holy crap, that’s just screwed up! That’s right, these folks are getting tattoo ink injected into their eyeballs, effectively dying it blue. There is only one situation where I want to see someone with all-blue eyes, and that’s if they’re Fremen. Apparently getting the ink shoved into your eyeball is relatively painless, but I don’t care. That’s just weird, creepy, nasty and all around unpleasant. Some people can’t stand the idea of having anything near their eyes. Think about them, not look at that needle. Hell, I went through LASIK surgery, I’ve had weird things done to my orbs. But this? This is just gross.

Stephen Colbert: Sarah Palin Is A F**king Retard

How Rich People Smoke Pot

by Paul Schrodt

Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.

 
David McNew / Getty Images

The Volcano Vaporizer has become a coveted status symbol for posh pot smokers, who say it draws out the drug's aroma like "the bouquet of a wine," and their personal trainers insist on it.

As the executive director of NORML, the leading lobbying organization for pot smokers’ rights, Allen St. Pierre gets asked a lot of strange questions. But the one he’s been getting lately is, “What is that metal thing they use on Weeds?”

The answer is the Volcano Vaporizer, a smokeless inhalation device that has recently shown up on both the Showtime series and HBO’s Bored to Death, in which a sexy stoner played by Jenny Slate lures Jason Schwartzman into her bedroom to test one out. (“Just squeeze down on that nipple and suck in the vapors,” she coaches him.) It’s even used at the renowned Chicago restaurant Alinea, albeit unconventionally, to pipe aromas of nutmeg and coffee to diners as they eat dessert.

The Volcano is affectionately known as the “Mercedes Benz” of toking up.

“If you live in Ohio, or if you’re a baby boomer who has no problem with cannabis, and you see them using that, you’re asking, ‘What’s going on?’” says Pierre. “There’s a veneer of sophistication to it. This is not your daddy’s bong.”

Indeed, the Vaporizer wouldn’t look out of place in the pages of the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog. With its sleek, brushed-aluminum chassis and digital temperature gauge, it could be mistaken for a device that steams milk. And, perhaps not incidentally, the $700 Volcano is growing in popularity with the cappuccino crowd—highly educated strivers who demand nothing but the best. “If you’re buying this, you are either an aficionado, or you are well-read in the best ways to deliver cannabis to your body as science currently tells us,” says Pierre. “Otherwise you’d have to have a lot of vanity to drop this much money.”

“After I understood what it was, I immediately ordered one,” says a criminal lawyer in his 60s who heard about the Volcano from a colleague. “I have friends who are musicians. They get together at each other’s houses. These are businesspeople and professionals. They don’t smoke cigarettes. We filled up the bag with their pot and passed it around. None of them had seen it before. They were amazed.” He believes the Volcano—affectionately known as the “Mercedes Benz” of toking up—should be a standard offering for high-end travelers. “Someone should start a hotel chain with a Volcano in every room. I think there are a lot of people who would pick a hotel just for this.”

What might be most remarkable about the Volcano is its engineering. It works by pushing hot air through the cannabis, delivering all the chemicals that get you high without combustion or carcinogens. Using it is about as easy as operating a rice cooker. After waiting for the vaporizer to heat up, you place about half a gram of ground pot in a small chamber and press a button that releases the “vapor” (a misnomer since there’s no actual water) into a large bag with a mouthpiece on it. The vapor dissipates quickly, making the pot smell disappear. The user then smokes from the bag. “For me, it was the satisfaction that there was no smoke,” the lawyer says. “I wasn’t getting any carbon monoxide into my blood. I wasn’t doing anything that might hurt me. It made the experience better.”

Vaporizers are nothing new. The devices have been sold in magazines like High Times and Cannabis Culture since the early ‘90s, but the original versions were clunky and not very user-friendly. They didn’t take off until 2000, when NORML co-sponsored a study looking for pot alternatives after the FDA asserted there is no such thing as a “smoke medicine.” An MIT student approached the organization saying he had invented “the safest way to inhale marijuana.” Storz & Bickel, a German design company that manufactures the Volcano, refined the findings into what they considered the best vaporizer on the market. Early units sold for thousands of dollars at drug-conference auctions. “They were just so notable,” says Pierre. “It was clear they were going to become the standard.”

When it first came out in 2001, Jeff Jones had trouble selling the Volcano at his Los Angeles marijuana club, Patient ID Center. No one knew what to make of it. Now entertainers and singers come in asking for the product by name. “They get paid to speak,” he says, “and they’re worried about what smoking is going to do to their lungs.” Bill Maher, one of the most public marijuana advocates in the country, told Rolling Stone in 2006, “I once gave a Volcano to a high-powered studio executive who shall remain nameless. He was having respiratory problems.”

The Volcano has succeeded in spite of a complete lack of marketing. Storz & Bickel are shy about being associated with drug culture (their Web site avoids references to marijuana), possibly in part because the federal government seized over 1,600 Volcanoes during Bush’s last term. (The company declined to comment for this story.) But word-of-mouth recommendations have anointed the Volcano a certain mystique, especially in states where medical dispensaries have opened up a whole new target demographic. “The Volcano is perfect for the coming medical marijuana age,” says a high-level entertainment executive who uses it, “even if there never was anything particularly ‘medical’ about smoking, if you think about it.”
Devout vaporizers say it’s not just a healthier high, either—it’s also a purer high. They liken the experience to eating pot brownies, which, unlike smoking, results in more lasting, full-bodied effects. “For people who are experienced smokers, the Volcano is just different. It’s like describing the bouquet of a wine,” says a 35-year-old lawyer from Oakland, California who uses his Volcano to savor the complex aromas of high-end pot. “It tastes better—you can actually taste the flavors, as opposed to just tasting smoke. You can taste the herbal essences.”

That’s also one of the potential drawbacks. For the uninitiated, vaporization can be a little jarring. One Internet entrepreneur who owns a Volcano competitor called the Vapir One breaks it out when he throws parties for his friends at his house in California. Someone almost always needs to go upstairs and lie down, he says. “Some people tend to get way too stoned. Then they’ll never touch it again.” The Volcano is also heavy and, for those making less than six figures, dauntingly expensive. As it is, it usually takes a certain kind of person to fully appreciate the device—someone who takes both their drugs and their health equally seriously. “I know a personal trainer, and it’s the only thing he’ll use,” says the Oakland lawyer.

Not to mention cramping your style. In many ways, the Volcano fits perfectly into a society embracing the concept of enlightened pot smoking: in an era where everyone gets high, the most well-informed, health-conscious smokers use a vaporizer. It's become a gently subversive status symbol, like a tasteful tattoo. "Bill Maher has probably pushed the idea of vaporization on the unsuspecting American public more than anyone,” says Pierre. “When Maher says, 'I don’t smoke, I vaporize,' you get a whiff of elitism. In some quarters of this country, elitism sells."

Then again, maybe it’s just a generational thing. About a year ago, after giving a speech, Pierre jumped down from the stage and spotted a kid wearing a t-shirt that said, “Got Vape?” And technology is catching up with the times. “These products are getting so sophisticated that they can be used anywhere, at any time. They don’t need to be in a controlled setting like a Volcano. They can be used on airplanes, and almost no one would know you’re using it, other than by the smell of your breath,” he says. “In 15 or 20 years, kids aren’t going to be smoking, per se.”

Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.

For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.

I Think She’s Doing It All Wrong (GIF)

http://www.totalprosports.com




I have previously stated that there is no better GIF than the failed gymnast, and while I still believe this to be true, I think it may be fair to say that the failed treadmill GIF is a close second.  Here is our proof.
I don't know what these two females were trying to do, but unless their intentions were to make complete asses of themselves, I think we can safely assume that they failed miserably.

Lesson number one: A treadmill is made to be used by only one person at a time.
Lesson number two:  It is probably not a good idea to put a treadmill so close to a wall, unless of course you prefer getting thrown that wall as you roll over repeatedly.
Live and learn, I guess

How The Space Station Sees Earth [pics]

How The Space Station Sees Earth [pics]

The ISS gets its own HD video tour

by Matt Burns

Sit back, relax, and enjoy this extensive HD video tour of International Space Station. You better enjoy the ISS while you can. There’s a good chance it’s going to crash into Planet Earth within the next couple of years because of budget issues unless the ESA can save it.

iBall

Subscribe

brusspup


Playing around with an ipod, a tv, 2 computers and a ping pong ball. No special effects were used.

Russians jumping off a 4 story building into snow. [WTF]

Shackleton's whisky stash yields more than expected

Master blender expects the hundred-year-old Scotch to be heavier and smokier than today's whisky.

By Emily Stone — Special to GlobalPost

From: http://www.globalpost.com/

 

Sir Ernest Shackleton left behind two cases of Scotch whisky after a failed attempt at the South Pole. (Emily Stone/GlobalPost)

CAPE ROYDS, Antarctica — Preservationist Al Fastier spent three long, cold days laying on his stomach in Antarctica earlier this month, chipping away at ice that had accumulated under the 102-year-old hut built by Sir Ernest Shackleton. His goal was to retrieve two crates of whisky that the famed polar explorer brought down with him — and then abandoned — after his unsuccessful 1908 expedition to the South Pole.

After getting the two crates out, Fastier and the archeologist working with him peered through the wall of ice that remained and saw another box. They kept chipping away with drills and hand tools, and soon two more crates appeared. In all, they recovered three cases of Charles Mackinlay & Co. whisky and one of brandy, as well as one crate of brandy labeled Hunter Valley Distillery Limited Allandale. He could hear liquid sloshing in the crates and peeked into one box with a missing board and saw a bottle with an intact cork inside.
“It was a fantastic outcome,” Fastier said Saturday from Scott Base, New Zealand’s Antarctic station. He’s program manager with Antarctic Heritage Trust, the New Zealand nonprofit charged with conserving the building.

The first two crates were discovered four years ago when Fastier and his team cleared out a century’s worth of ice under the hut because it was damaging the fragile structure. The boxes were frozen to the porous rock in the foot and a half of space beneath the hut and couldn’t be safely removed without the specialized drills the group brought this time.

Perhaps no one was more excited to learn of the bottles’ safe retrieval than Richard Paterson, master blender at Whyte & Mackay, the Glasgow company that now owns Mackinlay.

“Absolutely fantastic, unbelievable,” Paterson said of the news. He’s been lobbying since the crates’ original discovery to get several bottles of the whisky — or at the very least some samples — so he can learn what a Mackinlay from that era tasted like. Company records show it was a 10-year-old blend. He expects it to be heavier and smokier than today’s Scotch.

If he gets a sample, Paterson is considering issuing a recreation of the Shackleton whisky. The company recipes have long since disappeared, he said, so these bottles may be the only way to discover what that vintage Mackinlay tasted like. If the corks have remained intact, whisky experts agree that the spirit should taste much as it did when bottled.

Obviously, the fact that the whisky has been entombed in Antarctic ice and belonged to Shackleton make this a more exciting discovery than just any old 19th century booze.

“It’s not just that a case of whisky has been found, that’s so bloody boring,” Paterson said.
Scottish whisky author Charles MacLean agrees. Hundred-year-old bottles of whisky aren’t terribly rare. Three or four go to auction each year, he said. He couldn’t speculate what a bottle of this whisky would be worth and said the price will be set by how much someone is willing to pay.

“The Shackleton provenance is, of course, priceless,” he wrote from his home in Edinburgh.
MacLean explained that Charles Mackinlay was one of the earliest and most prominent Scotch blenders, and Paterson is one of today’s most respected blenders, having earned himself the nickname “the Nose.” So a recreation by Paterson of Mackinlay’s whisky would attract interest.

It seems possible Paterson will get his chance, despite an international treaty that governs all historic artifacts found in Antarctica stipulating that they remain in place unless they need to be removed from the continent for conservation reasons. Indeed, Shackleton’s hut is maintained as a museum, with its 5,000 artifacts on display for the roughly 900 tourists who come through annually and interested history buffs who tour it online.

Nigel Watson, executive director of Antarctic Heritage Trust, said, “it’s not beyond the realms of possibility” that Paterson would get some of the whisky, but the organization is not rushing toward a decision. Its first priority is to safely conserve the crates, bottles and liquid. The boxes are in varied conditions, some of them cracked in spots with ice built up inside. The group expects it will take a couple months or so to come up with a conservation plan.

“They’ve been under the hut for 100 years,” Fastier said. “I think another couple months won’t make a difference.”

'Alice in Wonderland' screenwriter is ready for haters

latimesblogs.latimes.com — Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with "Alice in Wonderland." Screenwriter Linda Woolverton, whose previous credits include the Disney hits "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King," says at one point she thought "Really, what have you got yourself into?" [Warning: Spoilers]

Click here for the full article...spoilers ahead.. 'Alice in Wonderland' screenwriter is ready for haters

The Most Awe-Inspiring Natural Wonders in America

Livescience Image Album

From: http://www.livescience.com/

Sweet Breesus! What a Game, What a Picture, What a Story

by Jerod
I’m not even a Saints fan and I’m still beaming from last night’s game. I can’t even totally put my finger on why.
The team I picked in my family Super Bowl betting challenge lost, the team I picked publicly lost, and the team with the QB from Purdue won. Plus, the difference in the game was two touchdowns and it did not have the last second drama of last year’s Super Bowl.

But…something about seeing a good guy like Drew Brees win, seeing a star-crossed city like New Orleans get to enjoy a Super Bowl, seeing the Big Ten earn some respect on football’s biggest stage, and seeing “the football gods favor the bold” (as Robert Littal would say), made Super Bowl XLIV forever special.


And here is something else that made Super Bowl XLIV special: perhaps the greatest, most poignant post-Super Bowl victory celebration picture ever, courtesy of the AP (via Deadspin).


It’s easy to be cynical about so many things that have to do with the NFL, but is there anything – anything at all – to be cynical about when it comes to Drew Brees?

I realize I run the risk of going way overboard in my public fawning of Brees today (although I’m pretty sure I won’t be the only one), but during a week that featured talked of a 2011 lockout and the legal woes of NFL legends like Michael Irvin and Warren Sapp, it’s nice to be able to focus on something that appears to be 100%, genuinely good.

And, wow, did Drew Brees give us something as football fans to feel genuinely good about this week.
For whatever reason – and 1,000 words might not encapsulate it – the picture above and video below sum that up for me.

Video: Drew Brees with son after Super Bowl

Boomer Esiason is right: “Don’t you live for that moment right there?”
Yes, yes you do. And it couldn’t have happened to a better or more deserving guy.
Email the author of this post: jerod@midwestsportsfans.com

Real Time Voice Translation is On the Way, Thanks to Google

By Zee

Real time voice translation is on the way and Google aims to pioneer it.
The Internet giant wants to develop its smartphone technology to translate speech in real time.
The company would combine its advanced voice recognition know-how with its text translation service to create a mobile phone that acts as an instant interpreter.

Head of translation services Franz Och said: “We think speech-to-speech translation should be possible and work reasonably well in a few years’ time.“Clearly, for it to work smoothly, you need a combination of high-accuracy machine translation and high-accuracy voice recognition, and that’s what we’re working on.”
‘Everyone has a different voice, accent and pitch,’ said Mr Och. ‘But recognition should be effective with mobile phones because by nature they are personal to you.’

Google has already created an automatic system for translating text on computers, which is being honed by scanning millions of multi-lingual websites and documents.

However Google admits speech will be an even tougher challenge than text but says a customer’s phone would adapt to its user by ‘learning’ their style of talking.

Source: The Times

Snowboarding in DC - I love the cops

From: schibolaus

Subscribe

 

From YOutube:
Nik snowboarding behind a Subaru Forester in the streets of South East DC, followed by a cop car. The cops are taking a video of it and are taking it easy. I love those cops! 

Bannen Way

http://www.lodinews.com/articles/2010/02/05/lodi_living/1-mark-gantt-100206.txt

The Biggest Taco: This is Why America is Fat!!!

Wild Skydiving People and Dropped Freefalling Things! » Freestyle FMX ATVs @FMXATVS.com

Click here for this fantastic gallery of Sky Dving:  Wild Skydiving People

Sword swallower Chayne Hultgren claims world record

SOME people call Chayne Hultgren the Space Cowboy for good reason, the Byron Bay street peformer has dared to go where no man had before - swallowing 18 razor sharp swords.

Sword swallowing record

VIDEO: Sword swallowing record

Chayne Hultgren 'The Space Cowboy' breaks a world record, swallowing 18 swords.

 The professional sword swallower set the new Guinness World Record in Sydney today by swallowing all of the 72 centimetres long swords at the same time.

The 31-year-old beat his own previous record of 17 swords, which he set in 2008.
But for all those wannabe sword swallowers out there Mr Hultgren warned the stunt has taken years to perfect.
"It's amazing," Mr Hultgren said.

"I've been preparing for this since I was 16."
"It is definitely one of my greatest achievements so far.''

Hultgren began practising the art of sword swallowing at the age of 16 when he swallowed his first hose.
A few years later he upped the ante and began using stainless steel blades.

He swears his latest feat is not dangerous, but the cheeky entertainer conceded that ``it wasn't recommended by my doctor''.

"It's educated risk,'' he said.
"I don't just straight away grab 18 blades and shove them down my throat - you've got to practise a lot and build up to it.

"So I stretch my throat with hoses and use a few different techniques to basically enable me to do what, until now, has been impossible.''

Hultgren beat his own previous record of swallowing 17 swords - also a Guinness World Record, which he set in 2008.

He is the only person in the world to down more than 13 blades simultaneously, he said.

The Space Cowboy is a regular at the Royal Easter Show's "Psycho Sideshow" where he performs along side other side show acts such as Zoe Ellis, the Pain Proof Wonder who regularly climbs a ladders of swords barefoot.

Fizzy drink that you can reseal: Tab keeps contents bubbly for 24 hours

By Vanessa Allen
From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

It's a perennial problem for lovers of fizzy drinks. You've snapped open the ring pull and had a few slurps.
But now you're full up - and you still have half a can of drink left.

And with no way of sealing it, you either have to leave it to go flat or throw it away.
Now, however, a solution is on the way for one of modern life's many little irritations.

Seal of approval: The new can can be shut by twisting the plastic tab by 180 degrees

A new 'twist and shut' resealable drinks can is about to be launched in Britain.


The revolutionary design will allow consumers to reseal their fizzy drink after it has been opened, a development which could signal the end for traditional ring-pull cans.

The airtight device promises to stop spills and keep the contents bubbly for up to 24 hours.
Drinkers simply twist a plastic tab 180 degrees to break the seal and open the can, and twist it back to its original position to reseal their drink.

Open and shut case: The 485ml resealable cans will cost £1.19 

American sportswear brand No Fear is to use the new can design when it launches a drink for sportsmen, Extreme Energy, in April.

It will be sold in 485ml cans instead of the usual 330ml size. But the plastic seal is likely to make the cans more expensive to manufacture. The No Fear drink is expected to sell at £1.19 a pop.
The drink is being marketed by Aimia Foods, based in Haydock, Merseyside.

Spokesman Neal Haworth said: 'The resealable technology allows people to drink the amount they want, when they want it.
'You don't have to finish the can in one go as it can be resealed to stay fizzy. It's such a logical step for canned energy drinks.'

More than five billion aluminium cans are used in the UK each year and, if successful, the device could be used for other fizzy drinks.

Resealable cans have proved popular in the U.S. but the British launch is believed to be the first time they have been made available here.


Drinks iant Coca-Cola used a resealable design when it launched its energy drink in France. It tried out a similar design in the Channel Islands, but said it had no plans to introduce the cans in the UK.
The first canned drinks had to be opened by punching holes into the lid with a sharp metal implement nicknamed a 'church key'.

Canadian Mikola Kondakow reportedly invented the ring-pull in 1956, but there were complaints that the detachable ring-pulls led to injuries and an increase in litter.

These problems were reduced after the introduction of 'stay-tabs' in the 1980s.

The system of a scored lid, with a pull-tab used as a lever to punch a hole to open the can, remains the most widely used drinks can in the world.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1249177/At-drinks-twist-shut-fizz.html?ITO=1490#ixzz0eyW7V1Or

Sky Siege Augmented Reality Warfare Game Turns iPhone Into Deadly Portal to the Heavens

Sky Siege ($3, available now) uses the iPhone 3GS' compass and accelerometers to turn the iPhone into a window rather than just a screen, resulting in startlingly immersive gameplay. Don't know what that means? Just watch this remarkable clip. [iTunes]

Send an email to Mark Wilson, the author of this post, at mark@gizmodo.com.

DAVIS, Calif. -- A new study shows beer could help make your bones stronger.
Research found that beer is a significant source of dietary silicon, which increases bone mineral density.
The University of California, Davis study examined brewing styles and raw materials to see where the silicon comes from.
Higher levels of the element were found in beers with greater amounts of barley and hops.

(Copyright (c) 2010 Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) 

Got Beer?

Posted: Today at 8:20 am EST      Last Updated: Today at 8:35 am EST

LeBron James and Dwight Howard McDonald’s Commercial

From: http://www.totalprosports.com/

Back in the day, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan went head to head for a Big Mac and fries. The acts of chomping down on Micky D's and playing sports are polar opposites, but who cares -- the commercial was "nothin' but net." We never even find out who won because neither Air Jordan or Larry Legend missed. It's better that way, kinda like Rocky and Apollo sparring at the end of Rocky 3. Charles Barkley even wondered if he could play one year later.

Flash Forward to 2010, over 15 years later. The update of the classic "Bird vs. Jordan" McDonald's Super Bowl commercial features modern NBA superstars Dwight Howard and LeBron James. King James sits down with a bag of, you guessed it, Big Mac and fries while Howard is practicing. Dwight offers to play for it, and you know after Superman's Orlando Magic beat Bron's Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs last year that LBJ was down. Especially considering the way he dunks in practice.

Before things got started, the two agreed to "no jumpshots" per the request of Howard. That was a nice little bit of riffing off of Bird's "no dunking" line in the original. After that, the dunk contest we wish we'd get to see at NBA All-Star Weekend went down. Flat-footed 540s. Quadruple pumps. Between-the-leg windmills. 360s from the free-throw line -- with Olympic-style landings. Sure, a little CGI and some special effects tricks were used, but it was still awesome. One of the best commercials of the night hands down. Check it out...



Adam Best is the senior editor of the FanSided Sports Network. You can also find his work at FlickSided, a film and entertainment site.

9 Jeopardy! Fun Facts

By Stacy in Neatorama Only

I like to think that I’ve picked up a lot of random trivia as a writer. I often blurt out trivia at really inappropriate moments in casual conversation. I like to think that I would rock on Jeopardy!, but I have taken the show’s sample audition quizzes before, and the fact is… I suck. However, if there’s ever a Jeopardy! category about Jeopardy!, I might just ace it… and now you can too.

1. The original name of the show was What’s the Question? After pitching it to the network brass, Merv Griffin decided to change the name to the catchier one we know today. The reason? One of the execs thought that the game was a great idea, but that the game needed more jeopardies. NBC ended up buying the show without even seeing a pilot.

2. The winner with the smallest amount of earnings at the end of the game managed to triumph over the other two contestants by keeping a mere dollar. On January 19, 1993, Air Force Lt. Col. Daryl Scott cleverly bid just enough to keep him afloat. The other contestants got the question wrong and lost everything. No one else has ever won by keeping a single George Washington. The answer? “His books ‘No Easy Walk to Freedom’ and ‘The Struggle is My Life’ were published during his imprisonment.” The question? “Who is Nelson Mandela.”


[YouTube Clip] 3. The infamous Final Jeopardy music has a name – it’s called “Time for Tony” and it was written by Merv Griffin as a lullaby for his son. If you’re familiar with the song, no doubt it’s not much of a lullaby to you – it serves more as a reminder that time is running out and you’d better hurry. It was tweaked a little bit and renamed “Think!” Over the years, Griffin estimated that royalties from the theme song earned him roughly $70 million.

 
4. The record for the largest one-day total ever belongs to Ken Jennings, of course. He’s the only contestant to surpass $52,000 in one day, and he surpassed it by a landslide with $75,000. Jennings actually holds 11 of the top 15 earnings spots. One of these top 15 spots was actually earned during Jeopardy! Kids Week by a 12-year-old from Virginia named Kunle Demuren, whose knowledge and quick buzzer finger earned him $49,000. Photo from Moore’s Lore.

5. Back in the pre-Trebek era when Art Fleming was the host, contestants could start the audition process by just giving the office in New York a call. They would pass preliminary tests over the phone and then set up a date and time to audition in person if the were eligible. Once they made it to the actual office, potential contestants went through a written test and a faux game. These days, the audition process often starts on the Internet during designated testing times. Sometimes a “Brain Bus” also roams the country and tests Ken Jennings-wannabes. If you think you have what it takes, one of the online testing periods is coming up soon – January 26-28 for adults.

6. In the show’s entire history, a three-way tie has only happened once. It happened fairly recently too – on March 16, 2007, every single contestant ended Final Jeopardy with $16,000. They all returned the following week to play again. You can see it happen here – Alex Trebek seems quite pleased.


[YouTube Clip] 7. “I Lost on Jeopardy” was released by Weird Al Yankovic in 1984. Original host Art Fleming has a cameo as himself and original announcer Don Pardo shows up to tell Yankovic all of the fabulous prizes he failed to win. The funny thing is, Weird Al was actually on Rock & Roll Jeopardy and lost to Gary Dell’Abate, better known as Howard Stern’s sidekick Baba Booey.

8. Julann Griffin, Merv’s wife, was integral to the development of the show. She helped him develop the unique answer-and-question format when they were on a plane ride to New York in the early ’60s. From 1964-1975, a piece Julann composed served as the theme to the show. It was called “Take Ten.”

9. If Alex Trebek seems a little condescending when he corrects players with wrong answers, as if he would know the answers himself even without his cheat sheet, well… he just might. Trebek is pretty brainy. Time magazine once asked him if there was an easy question that he ever didn’t know the answer to, and this was Trebek’s response:

We were doing some shows at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and during the commercial breaks I’d go out and talk to the people in the audience. And a little boy stood up and asked, When was the Magna Carta signed? I said 1216. I was off by a year. I know a lot about the Magna Carta, but unfortunately I got the date wrong in front of 6,000 people.

He admits that he probably wouldn’t do too well if he actually had to participate on the show, though, due to his slow reflexes.

Read more of that interview at Time.

Cola Powered Radio Control Car Fueled by a Sugar Rush

As a health conscious parent, you’re probably not seeking plausible reasons to introduce your kids to cola — but a radio controlled car powered by pop? How cool is that? Takara Tomy, a Japanese toy maker, has manufactured a prototype RC ‘ene Bio Engine’ car (looks more like a futuristic delivery truck) that runs on Sony’s sugar fueled Bio-Battery. See the car in action in the video after the jump!

The car, which may be powered by a variety of sugary liquids (ie: the residue in kids’ juice containers), is still in its prototype phase. Once on the market, parents will be able to use the toy to encourage less waste and introduce a bit of life science. “The passive-type bio battery system generates eco-friendly electricity by breaking down sugar using processes similar to those in living organisms.”


For those parents who find it a bit dubious that, as Gigazine explained, “The speed/running-time of the toy depends on what drink you use” (i.e. the more sugary the drink juicing the battery, the more power the car will receive) — it should be noted that although for commercial reasons Tomy has chosen to use colas to promote the car (Coca-Cola, Sprite, 7-Up), the most efficient fuel tested was grape juice. And whatever syrupy liquids are left may one day power… your cell phone.
Images and video via Gigazine

Battery-powered bicycles rule

By Elaine Kurtenbach, Associated Press
From: http://articles.sfgate.com

Estimates put the number of scooters and electric bikes, like this one in Shanghai, at 65 million on the roadways of China.

Credit: Associated Press

Shanghai — It's a simple pleasure, but Xu Beilu savors it daily: gliding past snarled traffic on her motorized bicycle, relaxed and sweat-free alongside the pedal-pushing masses.

China, the world's bicycle kingdom - one for every three inhabitants - is going electric.
Workers weary of crammed public transport or pedaling long distances to jobs are upgrading to battery-powered bikes and scooters. Even some who can afford cars are ditching them for electric two-wheelers to avoid traffic jams and expensive gasoline.

The bicycle was a vivid symbol of China in more doctrinaire communist times, when virtually no one owned a car. Even now, nearly two decades after the country began its great leap into capitalism, it still has 430 million bicycles by government count, outnumbering electric bikes and scooters 7-1.

But production of electric two-wheelers has soared from fewer than 200,000 eight years ago to 22 million last year, mostly for the domestic market. The industry estimates about 65 million are on Chinese roads.

Car sales are also booming but there are still only 24 million for civilian use, because few of the 1.3 billion population can afford them. And unlike in many other developing countries, Chinese cities still have plenty of bicycle lanes, even if some have made way for cars and buses.

"E-bike" riders are on the move in the morning or late at night, in good weather or bad. When it's wet, they are a rainbow army in plastic capes. On fine days, women don gloves, long-sleeved white aprons and face-covering sun guards.

One of them is Xu, on her Yamaha e-bike, making the half-hour commute from her apartment to her job as a marketing manager. She had thought of buying a car but dropped the idea. "It's obvious that driving would be more comfortable, but it's expensive," she says.

"I like riding my e-bike during rush hour, and sometimes enjoy a laugh at the people stuck in taxis. It's so convenient and helpful in Shanghai, since the traffic is worse than ever."
The trend is catching on in the U.S. and elsewhere.

In Japan, plug-in bicycles are favored by cost-conscious companies and older commuters. "Many company workers are beginning to use them to visit clients instead of driving, to save fuel costs," says Miyuki Kimizuka of the Japan Bicycle Promotion Institute, a private industry group.

Australians use electric bicycles in rural towns without bus and train service. Tony Morgan, managing director of The Electric Bicycle Co. Pty. Ltd., the continent's largest manufacturer and retailer of e-bikes, says he has sold about 20,000 in the past decade, priced at 1,000-2,000 Australian dollars (about $800-$1,600).

In the Netherlands, an especially bicycle-friendly country, the industry says sales passed 138,800 last year.
In India, Vietnam and other developing countries, competition from motorcycles, as well as a lack of bike lanes and other infrastructure, are obstacles.

Indian sales have risen about 15 percent a year to 130,000 units, thanks in part to a 7,500 rupee ($150) government rebate that brings the cost down to about the cost of a conventional bicycle. But they are far outnumbered by the millions of new motorcycles taking to India's roadways.

In China, electric bikes sell for 1,700 yuan to 3,000 yuan ($250 to $450). They require no helmet, plates or driver's license, and they aren't affected by restrictions many cities impose on fuel-burning two-wheelers.
It costs a mere 1 yuan (15 U.S. cents) - about the same as the cheapest bus fare - to charge a bike for a day's use, says Guo Jianrong, head of the Shanghai Bicycle Association, an industry group.

They look like regular bicycles, only a bit heavier with the battery strapped on. Some can be pedaled; others run solely on battery. In China, their maxium weight is about 40 kilograms (90 pounds), and maximum legal speed is about 20 kph (12 mph).

"For us, these are tools for transportation," Guo said. "We're not like Americans and Europeans, who tend to bicycle for fun or exercise."

(C) San Francisco Chronicle 2009

Terrell Owens: "If I Go To The Bengals, I'm Changing My Name To Ocho Uno"

Posted By Chris Littmann

I was fortunate enough to attend the Chad Ochocinco Mansion Party on Friday night in South Beach. I'll talk about who was there, but first I have to share the highlight of the night as Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens took to the D.J. booth.

Right before the clip, Terrell Owens shouted over the P.A. system, "Coach Lewis, is this tampering?" It was a funny moment in the continued campaign by Chad Ochocinco to bring T.O. to Cincinnati. (For what it's worth, Marvin Lewis didn't ever appear to actually talk to T.O. that I could see, so the tampering comment was purely in jest. Lewis was much busier talking to Spike Lee and Mike Zimmer for most of the night.)

As for the rest of the party, it was one of those nights that makes you say, "Oh, so this is what it's like to be rich and famous? I could get used to this." Of note that you'll see in this slideshow: Ochocinco, Owens, Spike Lee, Tracy McGrady, Marvin Lewis, Brady Quinn, Josh Freeman and Alfonso Ribeiro (aka Carlton from Fresh Prince). 

Had a chance to talk with Lee about sneakers. (He was wearing the upcoming and at this point unreleased Air Jordan 2010.) Also chatted with Jordan Palmer, the brother of Bengals QB Carson Palmer, about his burgeoning side career creating athlete iPhone apps. (Expect to see something on FirstCuts on that front in the future.) We probably walked right past numerous other NFL guys, so if you spot any in the pictures, point them out in the comments.

Panda-monium: Sixteen panda cubs pose for a class shot on their first day at nursery

By Mail Foreign Service
From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Posing for their first day at their new nursery, these 16 panda cubs are clearly going to be a handful.

In these amazing images, the tiny pandas are shown their new home for the first time after being separated from their mothers.

The curious cubs were soon exploring their assault course home complete with umbrellas and balloons to welcome them on their first day.

Morning class: The 16 panda cubs posed for a photograph with their keepers at Wolong National Nature Reserve, in Sichuan Province, south west China

It was the first taste of independence for the youngsters at the Wolong National Nature Reserve, in Sichuan Province, south west China.

Keepers at the reserve posed for a class photograph with their wide-eyed pupils and were helping the babies adjust to their new life under the gaze of visitors at the reserve.

Around 1,600 giant pandas live in the wild in China, mostly in Sichuan and the north western provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu.

Another 290 pandas are in breeding programmes in the country.

Playtime: The wide-eyed cubs take their first wander around the playground at their new home

I want to play with that: One of the cubs admires a pink umbrella at his new home

PS While these were getting used to their new surroundings, over in the U.S. panda bear Tai Shan was getting ready to head off to China and say goodbye to 12-year-old mum Mei Xiang at the National Zoo in Washington. Under a deal between China and the U.S., all giant pandas originally from China are only on loan to foreign zoos and any cubs they produce must all return to China eventually.
 

Enlarge    

 

Tai Shan gets covered in snow as he pulls on a branch on his final day at the National Zoo in Washington. The four-year-old is due to head to China

Slip sliding away. Tai Shan's mother Mei Xiang plays in the snow at the National Zoo in Washington

Jace Hall Show: Rocky IV Re-Match: I. Drago vs. A. Creed

Jace Hall Show: Rocky IV Re-Match: I. Drago vs. A. Creed