Top 10 Michael Jordan Buzzer Beaters
Michael Jordan Top 10 Slam Dunks
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Giant Helium Balloon in Paris Displays Air Pollution Levels
Helium Balloon in Paris Displays Air Pollution Levels
Aérophile´s balloon turns different colors depending on the air pollution levels, as registered by the air quality organization Airparif.
A company called Aérophile announced its recent launch of the gas balloon, known as the AERO30NG Aérophile 5500 model, which is located in the Parc Andre Citroën in Paris. Aérophile manufactures tethered gas balloons as tourist and cultural attractions for places including Disney Village in Paris and the Great Park Balloon in Irvine, California.
The newest balloon, which is filled with 6,000 cubic meters of helium, will serve as both an eco-diagnostic public awareness tool as well as a tourist attraction.
Around the city, air pollution data will be collected by several sensors set up by Airparif, an organization that measures air quality in France. Based on this data, the Aérophile balloon will display two measurements: ambient air quality and air pollution produced by auto emissions, which is measured at major traffic junctions.
The balloon's color signifies the ambient air quality using three projectors that are located in the middle of the balloon. For example, red signifies highly polluted air, orange for polluted, yellow for moderate, light green for clean, and green for very clean.
To display traffic pollution, a high-powered rotating laser at the base sweeps across the lower half of the balloon. Both pollution displays will be visible day and night. Also, Airparif will be recording the data on its Web site, along with that of 30 other European cities.
As a tourist attraction, the balloon will provide non-polluting rides for up to 30 passengers at a time. The balloon is tethered to the ground with a movable cable controlled by a hydroelectric winch - an environmentally friendly design based on the Archimedes principle.
As Aérophile describes on its Web site, "Flight aboard a tethered gas balloon AERO30NG is a unique experience full of sensations for the passengers. Silent and without vibration, the gondola is open to the air, allowing passengers to experience the sensation of being on a flying balcony 150 m in the sky. A 360° panorama unfolds before them, and in a single gaze they can take in the whole landscape."
More information: http://aerophile.com/
via: AlphaGalileo
The 7 Creepiest Real-Life Robots
Scientists say they can now build near-perfect replications of a human being. Scientists are liars. Here are seven robots that reached for life-like, and came up with a big handful of your worst nightmares.
read more | digg story
Really Cool Waterproof Keyboard [PICS]
The “Really Cool” Waterproof Keyboard is a water-resistant and contaminant proof keyboard with tactile feedback keys.
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What to do With Your Crummy Old iPhone
With the 3G soon to hit stores, here are some suggestions on how to make use of your old school iPhone.
read more | digg story
Water Discovered for First Time in Ancient Moon Samples
Water has been found conclusively for the first time inside ancient moon samples brought back by Apollo astronauts. The discovery may force scientists to rethink the lunar past and future, although uncertainty remains about how much water exists and whether future explorers could extract it.
read more | digg story
Why You Don't Need A New iPhone
The coolest thing about the next generation iPhone, however, is its new software. And if you already have the device, you're going to be getting the best parts of the new model for free very soon (or for a small charge to those who own an iPod Touch). Getting stuck with the old iPhone isn't looking as bad as we feared.
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10 Richest People of All Time and How They Made Their Money
Quick: who is the richest man of all time? Bill Gates? Warren Buffet? Not even close, though there's no denying they're very, very rich. The richest man of all time, when wealth is measured as a percentage of the national economy, was John D. Rockefeller, whose fortunes made Gates' and Buffet's look downright puny.
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Body Makes Pot-Like Substance To Help Skin
Our Bodies Like Marijuana Plant, Doctor Says
The body makes chemicals similar to THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, to help the skin, scientists reported.In the journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, researchers said that learning more about so-called endocannabinoids could lead to drugs that treat acne, dry skin or skin tumors.The researchers treated the cells that produce oil for the skin with endocannabinoids to make them produce more oil.One scientists said the products could include new skin creams."This research shows that we may have something in common with the marijuana plant," said Dr. Gerald Weissmann. "Just as THC is believed to protect the marijuana plants from pathogens, our own cannabinoids may be necessary for us to maintain healthy skin and to protect us from pathogens."
Unsexy Moments in the History Of Modern Art (NSFW)
On our last couple of jaunts to the local art show, we've noticed a disturbing phenomenon. A lot of modern art is deeply, deeply unsexy. Not just weird, but explicitly damaging to the libido. So in the interest of letting you know what to avoid, we've collected some of the unsexiest artwork we could find.
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How to Catch Your Girl Cheating
A young man who is filled with good intentions, and surprises for the girlfriend of his dreams. He notes that you must be very careful with your girlfriend. This video is just a short film and the video is stunning!
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The 20 Best Movie Endings Ever
Is it E.T. leaving in a spaceship or Butch and Sundance going down in a hail of bullets? Here Times critics choose their Top 20 film endings. But be warned: it does contain spoilers
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Ancient 'Dead Sea' Stone Tablet Predates & Might Rewrite the Bible
July 08, 2008
A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew found near the Dead Sea in Jordan that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is raising eyebrows in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it is believed to speak of a messiah called Simon who will rise from the dead after three days, suggesting that the story of Christ's death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.
The tablet, which is similar in style to the Dead Sea Scrolls, is written, not engraved, across two neat columns, similar to columns in a Torah. But the stone is broken, and some of the text is faded, meaning that much of what it says is open to debate.
A fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls which set the word talking when they were discovered 60 years ago. The new text seems to imply the life and death of Jesus was predicted before his birth
But a leading scholar says it confirms his theory that some Jewish sects before Christ believed a messiah would save them - but not before he was killed and brought back to life after three days. Israel Knohl, Professor of Biblical Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, says one line of the text tells the 'prince of princes' slain by the evil government, 'in three days you shall live'. He suggests the story refers to the death of a Jewish prince called Simon who led a revolt against King Herod.
Daniel Boyarin, of the University of California at Berkeley, said that there was growing evidence suggesting that Jesus could be best understood through a close reading of the Jewish history of his day.
'Some Christians will find it shocking - a challenge to the uniqueness of their theology, while others will be comforted by the idea of it being a traditional part of Judaism,' he said.
Source:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1032642/The-ancient-scripts-predate--rewrite--Bible.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/world/middleeast/06stone.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
Nazi Hunters Find 'Doctor Death': Most Wanted War Criminal
Most-wanted Nazi sought in Chile
 |  Heim in his earlier days - but how might he look now?  |
Enlarge ImageIsrael's chief Nazi hunter has arrived in southern Chile to step up the hunt for the Nazi fugitive Aribert Heim.
Heim - known as Dr Death - is believed to be in the Patagonian regions of either Chile or Argentina.
Efraim Zuroff, of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, will spend two days in Chilean Patagonia before crossing to Argentina.
Heim tortured and killed prisoners in Mauthausen concentration camp in World War II, but fled Germany in 1962 before authorities were able to arrest him.
Chilean and Argentinean newspapers have published pictures of Heim in 1950, 1959 and how he might look now. These are also displayed on posters advertising the search.
"In the last few days we've received information from two different sources, both relating to Chile, which we think have very good potential," the director of Israel's Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Mr Zuroff, said.
"The reason we are going [to Patagonia]... is of course the fact that Heim's daughter lives in Puerto Montt, and we think there is a strong likelihood that he might be in that area or in the area between Puerto Montt and Bariloche [Argentina]."
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The Simon Wiesenthal Centre, along with the German and Austrian governments, has offered $495,000 (315,000 euros; £250,000) for information leading to Heim's arrest.
Although he would now be 94, they believe Heim is still alive because his family has yet to claim around $1.6m sitting in a German bank account in his name, says the BBC's Gideon Long in Santiago.
In order to make the claim, his family would have to prove he is dead.
The search for Heim is part of Operation Last Chance, a final bid to bring Nazi war criminals to justice more than 60 years after the end of WWII.
Body parts
Heim kept meticulous notes of his activities at Mauthausen.
According to Holocaust survivors, he performed operations and amputations without anaesthetic to see how much pain his victims could endure.
Injecting victims straight into the heart with petrol, water or poison were said to have been his favoured method at Mauthausen.
"His crimes are fully documented by himself, because he kept a log of the operations that he carried out," Mr Zuroff said.
"He tortured many inmates before he killed them at Mauthausen, and he used body parts of the people he killed as decorations."
After the war, Heim was detained by US forces, but later disappeared.
He practised medicine in the German town of Baden-Baden until 1962, when he fled the country after being tipped off that the authorities were about to prosecute him.
Gaming Headset Lets Your Thoughts Control On-Screen Action
It's mind over machine: a US high-tech company has created a headset allowing computer game lovers to use their thoughts to move mountains and make objects disappear on screen. Emotiv, a San Francisco-based startup that marries neuroscience and computer engineering, says its gaming headset offers only a glimpse of what the technology has to offer.
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Fill Your Car Up With Hydrogen ... At Home
One of the main barriers to the widespread adoption of fuel cell vehicles has been the lack of an adequate hydrogen-refueling infrastructure. Beyond a handful of hydrogen stations, such as the one near Los Angeles International Airport, there just isn’t anywhere to fill up.
This has resulted in a kind of chicken-and-egg situation, where car companies, such as fuel-cell pioneers Honda, are reluctant to mass-produce hydrogen-powered cars until a comprehensive refueling system is established, and infrastructure providers won’t move until there are enough cars to make stations economically viable.
Step forward ITM Power, a UK company that has developed a hydrogen refueling station that could be installed at home, providing a ready-made solution for fuel-cell car owners.
The station works via an electrolyser, which produces the gas from water and electricity, providing enough hydrogen overnight to fuel a 25 mile journey. If required, the unit, which has been tested on a converted Ford Focus, can also convert the gas back into electricity for use in the home.
According to Chief Executive Jim Heathcote, the unit, which is currently only a prototype, could be produced on a commercial scale by the end of the year, at an initial cost of £2,000 (around $4,000). He also anticipates that home-based systems could eventually be supplemented by more powerful stations in public places, capable of producing enough hydrogen for a 100 mile journey.
Speaking at a showcase launch event in Sheffield he said, “Given the pressing need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, especially oil, and to cut CO2 emissions, the future for hydrogen as an alternative means of storing and utilising energy cost-effectively has never been brighter.”
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Dark Knight Coming: Bat Signal Lights Up Woolworth!
Photo courtesy Olga Bas.
The marketing team for that new Batman movie – we think it's called The Dark Knight? – are having a hell of a time getting word out about their scrappy little art house film. So last night, in an act of sad desperation, they fired up the Bat Signal and shined it onto the Woolworth building to try and spark some degree of excitement. Unfortunately for them, The Dark Knight opens the same weekend as the hotly anticipated Space Chimps, so, you know, good luck, Nolan! Brooklyn Heights blog caught a glimpse of the signal from Brooklyn; and today the Times reports that optimistic theater owners will be screening the movie all night long when it opens.
Dark Knight Explores Another Side Of Harvey 'Two-Face' Dent
The themes of "golden boy" politicians, the fine line between enforcing the law and breaking it, and the Jekyll-and-Hyde hidden lives of those who represent us existed long before such scandal-inducing names as Clinton, Spitzer & Nixon. For 63 years, they've fueled the story of Harvey "Two-Face" Dent, who'll receive a new chapter in 'Dark Knight.'
read more | digg story
Teen delivers LSD cookies to police departments
FORT WORTH - A man performing community service delivered drug-laced cookies to police departments in both Blue Mound and Lake Worth on Monday, authorities said. At least three officers at the Blue Mound Police Department consumed some food that came from a basket of cookies and assorted candies delivered by Christian Phillips, 18, on behalf of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. At the time, Phillips was working for MADD as part of ordered community service. It was discovered the cookies contained LSD after staff at Blue Mound thought the cookies smelled of marijuana and sent them for testing. Lake Worth Police Department, who was warned by Blue Mound, arrested Phillips when he came into their department to deliver another basket. 08:06 PM CDT on Tuesday, July 8, 2008
City of Lake Worth Police Department Christian Phillips
iPhone Dice Game Simulates Real Dice Rolling Using Sensors and Physics
iPhone Dice Game Simulates Real Dice Rolling Using Sensors and Physics
This Dice game is by far the coolest game I've seen, and it's got amazing tech inside which takes advantage of the iPhone's sensors like no other app. Here's how it works: You shake the iPhone and it rolls the dice inside, which you use to play poker. But instead of using some dumb random number generator, it captures your hand's motion and rolls simulated collisions between the virtual dice. This game is great but its just a sampling of the tech from Fullpower, the company Philippe Kahn, creator of the camera phone in 1997, has been developing in stealth for 5 years until today. Yes, this is the tip of a giant iceberg full of gadgets exactly aware of what we're doing with them at all times.
This Dice game is by far the coolest game I've seen, and it's got amazing tech inside which takes advantage of the iPhone's sensors like no other app. Here's how it works: You shake the iPhone and it rolls the dice inside, which you use to play poker. But instead of using some dumb random number generator, it captures your hand's motion and rolls simulated collisions between the virtual dice. This game is great but its just a sampling of the tech from 
Fullpower is, at its heart, an advanced sensor data processing company. This game is using Fullpower's Motion X tech, which is used to simulate physics, predict motion patterns, and process sensor data. To put it pretty simply, it does "for motion what speech recognition does for voice." While a Wii just takes raw sensor data, a motion X layer can simply detect whether or a gadget is being carried in a pocket or in a hand and also distinguish whether that person is walking or running or driving in a car. Or sensing that a person with a pacemaker is walking quickly and up their heart rate. Fullpower also applies this same sort of interpretation to every kind of sensor you can think of: light, camera, pressure, heart rate, gps, audio, temperature, etc. Using motion sensors in conjunction with a camera's data could help optimize the timing at the moment a person's wavering hands are at their stillest.
They're not going to make many products directly, but are working with a bunch of companies to put all of this tech in tomorrow's gadgets to make them more aware of what we're doing.
For now, enjoy the game.
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