You
smell Like Play -Doh!
From the Hasbro web site:
It's
Scent-Sational! For the first time that fresh-out-of the can, eau-de-PLAY-DOH
scent is available for fun, highly-creative people who seek a whimsical scent
reminiscent of their childhood.
As part of our year-long celebration of the
beloved modeling compound's 50th birthday, PLAY-DOH compound's distinctive
aroma will be available in a limited-edition 1-ounce spray bottle.
Childhood memories last forever, but
the PLAY-DOH perfume is only available through the end of the year.
Posted Wed May 31st, 2006 - 5:43am by CPC
Top of page
Public smoking bans hit Ont.,
Que.
CBC News
Smokers
in Quebec and Ontario will be spending more time outside as laws that ban
smoking in all enclosed public places kicked in at midnight Tuesday.
The Quebec government has vowed
to crack down immediately, with inspectors fanning out to check bars,
restaurants, bingo halls, shopping centres, and other facilities — even tents
and churches.
Any business owner who allows
illegal smoking will be fined $400 for a first violation of the new law.
Ontario, on the other hand,
plans to phase in its legislation gradually. Although its law is also tough —
banning cigarettes even in enclosed smoking rooms or partially roofed patios —
the province plans to initially hand out warnings instead of fines to
violators.
As well, people in many Ontario
municipalities — including Ottawa and Toronto — have long faced bans on
smoking in many public spaces.
Quebecers, on the other hand,
have rarely been forced to butt out.
Many bar and restaurant owners
in Quebec have fiercely opposed the crackdown, predicting the new law would
bring financial disaster, lead to job losses, lower video lottery terminal (VLT)
revenues and slimmer profits for bars and restaurants.
But the provincial health
minister, Philippe Couillard, dismissed concerns that a smoking ban would
damage the economy and put bars out of business.
Couillard said the province
hopes that banning tobacco use will drop the percentage of Quebecers who smoke
to 20 per cent, from 23.
The ban is sound fiscal policy,
because any reduction will help the province reduce health-care costs, the
health minister said.
He also dismissed the dire
warnings that many bars and restaurants would fold because of the new ban.
He recalled the banning of
cigarettes from drugstores in Quebec. At the time, retailers warned it meant
imminent bankruptcy, Couillard said — but the financial disasters never
materialized.
Posted Tue May 30th, 2006 - 7:46am by CPC
Top of page
Kitty Litter Cake
Link
Posted Mon May 29th, 2006 - 5:32am by CPC
Top of page
Join
a timeshare island tribe in Fiji
Today's
LA
Times has a short article about
Tribewanted, a project to recruit 5,000 people from around the world who
want to live on an island with 100 other people for a couple of weeks and
build a community.
The goal: to build a
sustainable eco-community and keep at bay developers with dreams of massive
hotel complexes. Memberships — Nomad ($220), Hunter ($440) and Warrior
($660) — entitle members to seven, 14 or 21 days on the palm-fringed
200-acre oasis, 100 at a time. Fees cover food, lodging and local airport
transfer.
This is not for the five-star
hotel crowd. The tribe will be roughing it, especially the early arrivals,
who will have only tents and basic shower and toilet facilities.
"The first job for the
tribe," [co-founder Ben] Keene said, "is to build for those who come later,"
working alongside paid Fijian laborers to build beach huts. There's no
electricity, but solar energy will provide Internet access.
So far, about 400 people have
signed up, ranging in age from 18 to 67.
Link
Posted Sun May 28th, 2006 - 9:01pm by CPC
Top of page
Cloaking devices
described in scientific journal
Two papers in this week's
issue of Science describe the possibility and theoretical method to construct
cloaking devices. Imperial College London physicist Sir John Pendry and his
colleagues describe an approach based on metamaterials that could bend
electromagnetic radiation, including light around an object. (Link
to abstract.) Meanwhile, Ulf Leonhardt of the University of St. Andrews,
writes about using metamaterials in "a general recipe for the design of media
that create perfect invisibility within the accuracy of geometrical optics." (Link
to abstract.)
From National Geographic News:
Invented six years ago,
the man-made (metamaterials) are embedded with networks of exceptionally
tiny metal wires and loops.
The structures refract, or
bend, different types of electromagnetic radiation—such as radar,
microwaves, or visible light—in ways natural substances can't.
"[Metamaterials] have the
power to control light in an unprecedented way," said Sir John Pendry, a
theoretical physicist at England's Imperial College London.
"They can actually keep it
out of a volume of space, but they can do so without you noticing that
there's been a local disturbance in the light..."
So far researchers have
only developed metamaterials that divert radar and microwaves—rather than
light waves, which are the key to invisibility.
While that's good news for
Air Force generals who want to conceal warplanes, it's bad news for wannabe
wizards hoping for a magic cloak.
Link to National Geographic News
article
Link to BBC News report
Posted Sat May 27th, 2006 - 12:11pm by CPC
Top of page
Interpreting
global law
by Lawrence R. Douglas | the
Times online
A look at two provocative books:
Philippe Sands
LAWLESS WORLD
Making and breaking global rules 404pp. Penguin. Paperback, £8.99. 0 141
01799 6 John Yoo
THE POWERS OF WAR AND PEACE The Constitution and foreign affairs after 9/11
366pp. University of Chicago Press. $29. Distributed in the UK by Wiley.
£20.50. 0 226 96031 5
For more than fifty years, the United States
and Britain stood as two of the great defenders of international law. In 1941,
Churchill and Roosevelt drafted the Atlantic Charter, a vision of a future
world order based on limiting the use of military force which served as the
inspiration for the grounding principles of the United Nations. In the waning
days of the Second World War, the two countries energetically supported the
creation of the world’s first international criminal tribunal, to punish Nazi
aggression and atrocities. More recently, the US pushed strongly to establish
international tribunals to try war criminals from the Balkans and Rwanda,
backing these courts with substantial financial and logistical support. And if
the Clinton Administration never entirely overcame its suspicions of the
International Criminal Court, it nevertheless signed on to the tribunal’s
enabling statute.
Yet since the events of September 11, 2001,
the US and Britain have largely assumed a different stance towards global
rules. In Philippe Sands’ provocative formulation, the United States under
George W. Bush has engaged in nothing short of a “war on law”. Britain,
meanwhile, has weakly turned into a “handmaiden to some of the worst
violations of international law”. Sands is a prominent practitioner and
Professor, at University College London, of International Law, and in Lawless
World: Making and breaking global rules he has written an important book that
documents President Bush’s contempt for international law and Tony Blair’s
endorsement of his ally’s strong-arm tactics. ..
Read the rest of the review
here
Posted Fri May 26th, 2006 - 7:12am by CPC
Top of page
Zoom
forever into this photomosaic
It's
been quite awhile since I've posted a cool photomosaic.
The photo on
this page
is made up of tiny photos. Click on the photo to zoom in. More tiny photos.
Forever. And ever.
Link
See previous entry:
Starry Night
Photomosaic
Posted Thu May 25th, 2006 - 9:11pm by CPC
Top of page
Grow a square
watermelon
Grow a square watermelon by putting it into a
box.
Link
See previous entry:
Watermelons = Dinosaur Eggs
Posted Wed May 24th, 2006 - 7:34am by CPC
Top of page
Killer reel of 1970s toy commercials
Someone
has uploaded a 7 minute reel of amazing 1970s toy commercials -- for Bing Bang
Boing, SSP Pee Wees, SSP racers, Smash Up Derby, Screen-a-Show, Slip n'
Slide/Water Wiggle, Bug Out!, Screech, and Masterpiece. These are commercials
from an era of cheap plastic and no advertising-to-kids regulation, and as a
result, the toys look incredibly fun, even today. Plus who knew buying fine
art at auction could be fun for seven-year-olds?
Link
Posted Tue May 23rd, 2006 - 7:14am by CPC
Top of page
For a
Guilty Nation, Docu-Satire "My Bad" Profoundly Scorches
by Ron Rosenbaum | the
New York Observer
Could
it be that the public apology has become the iconic new literary art form of
our times? With an aesthetic and a taxonomy and a subtle rhetoric all its own?
This is the thought that occurred to me while reading a sneakily profound new
book called My Bad: 25 Years of Public Apologies and the Appalling Behavior
That Inspired Them, by Paul Slansky and Arleen Sorkin.
I say “sneakily” profound
because the Slansky/Sorkin opus partakes of the sneaky new satirical art form
that Paul Slansky has invented over the years in his “quizzes” about the
hard-to-believe, obscure, bizarre and blundering statements of Nixon, Reagan,
Bush and other ripe targets among public figures. Coming upon one of Mr.
Slansky’s “Quizzes” in The New Yorker and other venues is one of the rare pure
comic-satiric pleasures to be found in contemporary periodicals.
Mr. Slansky, who has been
called “a documentary satirist,” has made an art out of scouring public,
mostly political, utterances for emblematic instances of verbal misdeeds,
misspeaks and mystifications, the more bizarre the better, all of which
deserve more than their 15 seconds of ridicule. Because such emblematic
idiocies, documented with the attentiveness of Mr. Slansky’s deceptively
simple quiz form, become compressed verbal embodiments of our misbegotten
times.
But Mr. Slansky does more than
document; he possesses, like the great satirists, a Swiftian disgust at human
folly. He is still capable, one senses, of being outraged at pure stupidity.
Long after many inured themselves to Nixon and Poppy Bush’s pronouncements,
say, Mr. Slansky, one felt, was constantly slapping his forehead and saying,
“Can you believe this guy!”
I remember running into him at
a party a while ago and discussing our mutual fascination with Nixon. Where
mine had mutated into a “He’s a great representative of the dark side of the
American character” mode, Mr. Slansky had preserved the pure flame of
righteous wrath at every new White House tape revelation. And I admired him
for it.
Another thing about Mr. Slansky:
He respects your intelligence. He doesn’t feel he has to spell everything out,
connect the dots for you, jab you in the elbow and say, “See the relatedness
of it all.” (That’s my job.) He just lets his quotations lie resplendently (in
both senses of the word “lie”) on the page and allows the attentive reader to
savor their many-layered meretriciousness. (See his books
The Clothes Have No
Emperor and
The George W. Bush Quiz Book.)
Comes now Mr. Slansky (and Ms.
Sorkin) to the public apology—a natural progression, in a way. Where once he
would make multiple-choice quizzes out of various instances of verbal infamy
(the answer to many of his multiple-choice quiz questions was “All of the
above”), now he’s focusing on the language we use to apologize for the
language we use or the behavior we “regret,” as well as the mendacious way we
ask (and grant) forgiveness. And what a big fat lie it all is.
In My Bad, he and Sorkin move
beyond satire to the realm of moral philosophy. (Although you could argue
great satire is a form of moral philosophy.) Moral philosophy that asks such
questions as:
Are there any deeds that are
unforgivable? Does a verbal apology—an expression of “heartfelt regret to
those I may have hurt,” a formulaic verbal act of contrition to “anyone I
might have offended”—wipe the slate clean? Is there any way of judging the
“sincerity” of such ritual and convenient and job-saving formulae? How much
does it matter if the apology is unforced or forced (only given because
caught)? When it comes down to it: Are words enough?
Should shame last beyond the
press conference? Do we believe in shame at all, or rather syndromes,
diseases, addictions of the sort that rehab rather than real consequences will
redress? Does promiscuously granted forgiveness encourage bad behavior if the
only consequence suffered is uttering a verbal formula? But what’s the
alternative: a return to the public stocks, tarring and feathering?...
Read the rest
here
Read a
review of "the George W. Bush Quiz Book at
Ramblings
Read a review of the Clothes Have No Emperor at
Common Dreams
Posted Mon May 22nd, 2006 - 10:11am by CPC
Top of page
Coffins woven from wicker
Britain's Somerset
Willow Company sells these very handsome and biodegradable, wicker
coffins.
From their web site:
"Each one of our
coffins has been beautifully and caringly hand woven by one of our skilled
basket makers, making each coffin unique and special.
Willow is one of the few truly
environmentally renewable resources. The willow plant grows on the Somerset
Levels and can be harvested annually from the same crown for up to 60 years."
Link
Posted Sun May 21st, 2006 - 11:13pm by CPC
Top of page
Koranic fish
Markings on this tuna fish
caught on the Kenyan coast south of Mombasa may or may not spell out the
Arabic words for "You are the best provider." According to the BBC News, the
phrase is close to a text in the Koran. After the tuna was reeled in, it was
brought to a local fish shop "for preservation." Shortly after, the tuna was
moved to the fisheries department for protection. It was promptly reported
stolen from the fisheries office but has since been located back at the fish
shop where it first came to the public's attention. From the BBC News:
After being asked by Muslim
leaders in Kenya, Kenya's National Museum had offered to take custody of the
fish and preserve it for the country's heritage.
The reported theft followed
numerous attempts by locals and Muslim scholars to buy the mysterious fish.
An official at the fisheries
department in Mombasa said someone had even offered to pay as much as $150.
Link
Posted Sat May 20th, 2006 - 10:21am by CPC
Top of page
Christian ad about Code gets pulled
Theatre chain drops spot that was to appear before film
Brian Hutchinson | National Post
VANCOUVER - A movie house
commercial that encourages churchgoers to see and discuss Hollywood thriller
The Da Vinci Code has been dropped by Canada's largest cinema chain, which
said the ad was part of a religious campaign to "stalk" unsuspecting film
patrons.
The 10-second spot was produced
by evangelical Christians and was to be shown for the next month inside 65
Cineplex cinemas in Ontario and Western Canada.
The ad directs people to a
Christian Web site devoted to the controversial film, which opens across North
America today.
Cineplex Entertainment LP is
promoting the movie heavily; however, on Wednesday, the company abruptly
cancelled its $63,000 advertising deal with Campus Crusade for Christ Canada,
a B.C.-based affiliate of the world's largest evangelical Christian
organization, CCC International.
The decision was announced
after a story about the Campus Crusade ad appeared this week in the Toronto
Star.
In addition to producing the
ad, the Star reported, Campus Crusade had "mobilized a small army of
volunteers from Toronto to Vancouver willing to stalk moviegoers in the line
outside cinemas" and to press upon them "biblical tracts," debunking
contentious claims about Jesus Christ said to be in the movie treatment of The
Da Vinci Code.
Cineplex made direct reference
to the Star article in an e-mail to Campus Crusade yesterday.
"With the knowledge that this
organization plans to 'stalk' our moviegoers outside of our theatres handing
out unapproved material concerning a film we are presenting, we cannot lend
support to this activity by running this campaign," wrote Cineplex ad
saleswoman Diane Rajh.
Campus Crusade's marketing
director was flabbergasted when he read the Cineplex e-mail.
"We never planned to stalk
anybody," Braden Douglas said yesterday.
Read the entire article
here
Posted Fri May 19th, 2006 - 7:33am by CPC
Top of page
Garbage house
full of 70,000 empty Coors Light cans
A
rented house in Ogden, UT was discovered to have accumulated some 70,000 empty
Coors Light cans in eight years of tenancy -- the cans covered the furniture
and blocked the entrance. The garbage house tenant consumed 24 cans of Coors
Light per day for eight years. Ryan Froerer, Century 21: "As we approached the
door, there were beer boxes, all the way up to the ceiling." Inside, he took
just a few snapshots to document the scene. Beer cans by the tens of
thousands. Mountains of cans burying the furniture. The water and heat were
shut off, apparently on purpose by the tenant, who evidently drank Coors Light
beer exclusively for the eight years he lived there.
Link
Posted Wed May 17th, 2006 - 4:55pm by CPC
Top of page
Man
builds 90-ton scale model of cruise ship in back yard
François
Zenella, an ex-coal miner, spent 25,000 hours building a 90-ton one-eigth
scale model of Royal Caribbean International's cruise liner, the Majesty of
the Seas. In his back yard. He launched it in 2005 and has sailed it ever
since.
Link (via
Make Blog)
Posted Tue May 16th, 2006 - 7:22am by CPC
Top of page
Spelling out
Camus's "Myth of Sisyphus" in cookies
Boing
Boing has a link to "Jane McGonigal's real-world application of
cookie/biscuit text/edible graffiti called 'cookie rolling,' in which she
attempts to write the entire Myth of Sisyphus, one word at a time, in cookies,
in public places around the world."
...the artist will spell out
Camus’ existential essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” in cookies, one word at a
time. each word will be installed in a public location and constructed from a
different kind of cookie, locally-purchased or prepared. each word of the
essay, 1406 in total, will appear in a different city. the project will
continue indefinitely until the improbable event of its completion. the
temporary cookie installations will be documented through digital photography
and video. The photos will be added to the
Flickr
database and the videos posted to the artist’s website.
Link
Posted Mon May 15th, 2006 - 7:03am by CPC
Top of page
Smithsonian Magazine on Dada
This
month's issue of the always-excellent Smithsonian magazine has a long feature
about the history and influence of the Dada art movement, described by artist
Tristan Tzara as a "virgin microbe" that spread around the pre-World War I
world leaving mind-blowing artifacts of absurdity in its wake. The article is
timed with the massive Dada exhibit touring the US that will be on display at
New York's Museum of
Modern Art beginning next month. From Smithsonian:
“In 1913 I had the happy idea
to fasten a bicycle wheel to a kitchen stool and watch it turn,” (Marcel
Duchamp) wrote, describing the construction he called Bicycle Wheel, a
precursor of both kinetic and conceptual art. In 1916, German writer Hugo
Ball, who had taken refuge from the war in neutral Switzerland, reflected on
the state of contemporary art: “The image of the human form is gradually
disappearing from the painting of these times and all objects appear only in
fragments....The next step is for poetry to decide to do away with
language.”
Link
Posted Sun May 14th, 2006 - 10:05pm by CPC
Top of page
Buh-bye
Hummer H1!
Get ready to say goodbye to
the Hummer H1, the hulking, gas-guzzling status symbol that has attracted
celebrities and off-road enthusiasts but has drawn the ire of
environmentalists.
General Motors Corp. said
Friday that the 2006 model year will be the last for the H1 (re-badged the H1
Alpha), which has been the foundation for the automaker's Hummer brand. Based
on the military's Humvee, the about 12,000 put on the road since 1992 defined
the Hummer name.
Related newsDow Ends Down
120, Nasdaq Ends Down 29 U.S. Narrows Trade Gap to $62B in March GM Stock
Posts Gains on Analyst Upgrade Big Movers in the Stock Market VIDEO from
Medialink: What to Consider When Considering a Buyout "It's a reflection of
where we're going with the Hummer brand," Hummer general manager Martin Walsh
said of the decision. "The Hummer DNA still resides in the Humvee. ... It will
always be the core from where we come."
GM expects the last H1s to
be built next month.
Walsh said Hummer plans to
focus on models with broader appeal instead of the niche-market H1. Since
taking over the Hummer name in 2000, GM has introduced the still hefty H2 and
a midsize H3 sport utility vehicle.
The H1 gets about 10 miles
per gallon, but Walsh said rising gas prices didn't factor into GM's decision.
He noted that H1 buyers typically have been less sensitive about gas prices
than most other drivers....
Read the
rest of this at Money Central / MSN
See also:
USA Today
see also :
Is Hummer's H1 on It's Way Out? @ cars.com
Posted Sat May 13th, 2006 - 10:22am by CPC
Top of page
Animal costumes made from "stuff"
This
gallery of photos of homemade animal costumes showcases how the ingenious use
of stockings, tennis-balls, sleeping bags, ski-gloves, tennis-racket covers
and other commonplace items can produce striking and amusing animal disguises.
Link
to creator's site
Posted Fri May 12th, 2006 - 8:17am by CPC
Top of page
Space colony art
According
to NASA, "A couple of space colony
summer studies were conducted at NASA Ames in the 1970s. Colonies housing
about 10,000 people were designed. A number of artistic renderings of the
concepts were made." Here are more than a dozen of them. Ah, the good ol' daze
of Gerard O'Neill's High Frontiers
and Timothy Leary's rallying call of SMI2LE (Space Migration, Intelligence
Increase, Life Extension).
Link
Posted Thu May 11th, 2006 - 9:02am by CPC
Top of page
Ingenious makeshift contraptions
This
gallery of "redneck" photos is a testament to human ingenuity.
Link
Posted Wed May 10th, 2006 - 7:16pm by
CPC
Top of page
Emil
Dudek’s Vintage Technology
Emil
Dudek has a fantastic
collection of obscure vintage calculators and other outdated technologies.
Link
Posted Tue May 9th, 2006 - 7:22am by CPC
Top of page
Born Into
Cellblocks
In the penitentiary of Nuevo
Laredo, children do time with their mothers -- and the cartels.
Violence seems to love the line
running through the Rio Grande at the twin cities of Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo
Laredo, Tamaulipas. The Mexican community was born in the humiliation of the
U.S.-Mexican War. When the peace treaty left the Spanish colonial town of
Laredo on the American side of the river, Mexican patriots decamped to the
southern bank and, legend has it, took their buried dead with them. That
favorite murder song “The Streets of Laredo” migrated from Great Britain (“The
Unfortunate Rake”) to New Orleans (“St. James Infirmary”) and to Texas, where
it mutated into the classic cowboy ballad of dying by the gun.
As I walked out in the
streets of Laredo, As I walked out in Laredo one day, I spied a poor cowboy
wrapped up in white linen, Wrapped up in white linen, as cold as the clay.
Now Nuevo Laredo has become the
line between two major Mexican drug cartels, and every day new lyrics are
written in blood to a lament we all know but fail to face.
Bullets killed the police chief
last summer, just a few hours after he took office. This brought in the
Mexican army. The ongoing slaughter of many cops and citizens caused the U.S.
government to shut down its consulate for a spell last August. This winter the
local paper was visited by some strange men, presumably working for the
cartels, and they fired dozens of rounds and tossed in a grenade. One reporter
took five bullets. The editor promptly announced a new policy: His paper, one
of the few Mexican publications on the line actually printing news about the
drug cartels, would no longer report on the cartels. One major U.S. daily had
to evacuate a reporter after getting what editors termed “creditable death
threats.” Dozens of U.S. citizens from neighboring Laredo have vanished while
visiting Nuevo Laredo. This January the city experienced, at a minimum, 20
cartel killings.
Beneath this gore, women and
children muddle on, some in Mexican jails. Incarceration, like law, is a bit
different in Mexico. Conjugal visits are permitted; small children younger
than six can be locked up with their moms; and men and women peddle goods and
themselves within the walls in order to survive. Mexican prisons often do not
provide grub. I’ve stood in line with family members who toted a week’s supply
of food on visiting day, seen women reel out of cells in disarray after their
weekly intercourse sessions with their men. Drugs are commonplace inside the
walls, as are gangs. Money can buy anything. For years the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration has complained about the posh quarters given to
major drug players and how they continue to do business without interference
while theoretically being under lock and key...
Link
Posted Sun May 7th, 2006 - 7:16pm by CPC
Top of page
Canada's New Democratic Party Embraces Copy-Fighting Musicians
A coalition of
copyright-reforming superstar Canadian musicians paid a visit to Parliament
yesterday, and won the hearts of the Members from the New Democratic Party.
The Canadian Music Creators Coalition, which includes Barenaked Ladies
frontman Steve Page and Andrew Cash from the Cash Brothers, spoke to
Parliamentarians about the need for balance in copyright, and the insanity of
suing music fans and locking them down with crippled digital music offerings.
NDP Heritage Critic Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay) took the message to
heart, and the NDP has endorsed the musicians' position on its website. This
is a smart move for the NDP, who scored a seat in the riding of Parkdale for
candidate Peggy Nash this year when her Liberal Party opponent Sam Bulte
imploded over her shameful pattern of taking huge campaign contributions from
the copyright industries in exchange for laws favorable to their interests.
“This is not a debate between
bands who want to give music away and bands who want to be paid. This issue is
about artists who have adapted to new digital markets and an industry that is
trying to use legislation to impose a 20th century business model on a new
generation of fans. There is no going back. Canadian bands have thrived and
adapted. It’s time Parliament woke up to this fact.” Angus, who is also a
two-time Juno nominee with the band Grievous Angels, said the copyright agenda
has been largely driven by corporate interests.
“It’s important to have the
coalition at the table when new legislation is drafted. New copyright
legislation will have profound implications not just for music fans but for
students, educators and software innovators. The music coalition is giving
politicians a badly needed wake up call.”
Link
Posted Sat May 6th, 2006 - 11:44am by CPC
Top of page
Phoenix 1000: Submerge
Yourself in Luxury
As the superrich try ever
harder to impress each other, submarines are the next frontier, and personal
luxury subs are all the rage right now, where the undersea boats are
approaching the size of cruise ships with all the amenities you could imagine.
For example,
U.S. Submarines offers the Phoenix 1000, a 213-foot personal luxury submarine
that was originally custom-built for a client but is now for sale at an
undisclosed price. There's 5000 feet of living space, with huge viewports on
the side. It's capable of transoceanic crossings, and when the weather gets
rough, the boat can submerge into a perfectly smooth and quiet environment.
Take a look at the company's site, where there's a variety of submarines from
which to choose.
Wow.
Product page
[via BornRich]
Posted Fri May 5th, 2006 - 10:13pm by CPC
Top of page
Gallery of
home-made radios
Jeff
Duntemann has a gallery
of the beautiful radios and radio apparatus he's made at home. Lots of juicy
notes, but the photos are what make this.
]
Link (via Make Blog)
Posted Thu May 4th, 2006 - 6:55am by CPC
Top of page
Superhero
anarchists steal gourmet food for poor
From The Scotsman: A gang of anarchist Robin
Hood-style thieves, who dress as superheroes and steal expensive food from
exclusive restaurants and delicatessens to give to the poor, are being hunted
by police in the German city of Hamburg. The gang members seemingly take
delight in injecting humour into their raids, which rely on sheer numbers and
the confusion caused by their presence. After they plundered Kobe beef
fillets, champagne and smoked salmon from a gourmet store on the exclusive
Elbastrasse, they presented the cashier with a bouquet of flowers before
making their getaway.
Link
Posted Wed May 3rd, 2006 - 7:34am by CPC
Top of page
20-storey robotic cylinders of Volkswagens
Volkswagen
has a fully automated garage made of 20-storey-tall towers in Wolfsburg,
Germany. These photos make it appear to be some kind of egg-chamber for the
Queen VW to stash her larvae in before they hatch into marauding
auto-duelists. Which is to say that it's really quite lovely. When cars are
ordered, they are robotically fetched down for delivery: "In a fully automated
procedure, your new car is brought down to you from one of the 20-story Car
Towers. Large signboards in the Customer Center show you when your turn has
come. Then, you're handed the keys, your picture is taken, the glass doors
open and your brand-new car appears. You're all set to go."
Link
Posted Tue May 2nd, 2006 - 7:22am by CPC
Top of page
Plan Eh
Harper's Magazine
From “War Plan—Red,” a United
States plan for war with the British Empire. The plan was first approved at
the cabinet level in 1930. The United States is “Blue,” Canada is “Crimson,”
and the United Kingdom is “Red.”
Read the article
here
Posted Mon May 1st, 2006 - 8:45am by CPC
Top of page
