The Transition is a dual-purpose vehicle designed by a group of MIT aeronautical engineers.
via Wired.com / read more
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
It’s 2011 — Where’s My Flying Car? Oh, There It Is…
The Transition is a dual-purpose vehicle designed by a group of MIT aeronautical engineers.
via Wired.com / read more
Monday, June 6, 2011
Jon Stewart, on Rep. Anthony Weiner saying he 'can't say with certitude'.
"'I'm not certain of a lot of things. But there are three things in this world that I know for certain: Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars movie. OJ killed those people. And what my erect penis looks like in my own underwear from a bird's-eye view.' —Jon Stewart, on Rep. Anthony Weiner saying he 'can't say with certitude' whether a lewd picture posted on Twitter wasn't his weiner"
Political Humor
Political Humor
Smurfs accused of antisemitism and racism
"Does that not remind you of anything? A political dictatorship, for example?" asks Buéno, going on to compare the Smurfs' world to a totalitarian utopia reminiscent of Stalinist communism (Papa wears a red outfit and resembles Stalin, while Brainy is similar to Trotsky) and nazism (the character of the Smurfs' enemy Gargamel is an antisemitic caricature of a Jew, he proposes)."
via guardian.co.uk/read more
Isaac Asimov's letter to the future patrons of a new library
The Troy library is under threat of closure today."
Boing Boing
The Shame of Serbia
"Not long ago, for a brief moment, it seemed that all of Serbia would side with “foreign” victims against its “own” perpetrators. That was in 2005, after my colleagues and I uncovered and released a 1995 video showing the execution of six Muslim men from the Bosnian town of Srebrenica. For the first time, the Serbian public saw incontrovertible evidence of the state’s involvement in massacring 7,000 Muslims there.
The government was quick to respond by dissociating the state from the massacre. Overnight, the police arrested five men and then declared them a criminal group, denying any connection the unit may have had with state institutions. At the trial, the Serbian court rejected the testimonies of the mothers and children of the six executed Muslims. There was no evidence, the court concluded, that the men were detainees from Srebrenica. That ruling was a mark of shame on all of us. And we can’t wash it off by sending Mr. Mladic to the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Mr. Mladic’s arrest brought relief to the families of victims. It offered the Hague tribunal recognition that it is a successful agent of international justice. And it granted Serbia the long-coveted prospect of membership in the European Union. The Serbian government has managed to persuade the world that it values a European future more highly than the criminal heroes of the past.
But I am not so sure that Serbia has given up on Mr. Mladic and his fellow generals, who prosecuted a genocidal war in Bosnia. The sympathy that state officials and the news media expressed for Mr. Mladic last week is yet another mark of shame on all of us. The deputy prosecutor offered him strawberries. His wish to be visited by the health minister and the president of Parliament was granted, as was his request to visit his daughter’s grave. The Serbian public was constantly updated on his diet in jail, and we all learned that Mr. Mladic flew to The Hague in the suit he’d worn at his son’s wedding. He was treated as a star."
By Natasha Kandic/ NYTimes.com/read more
The government was quick to respond by dissociating the state from the massacre. Overnight, the police arrested five men and then declared them a criminal group, denying any connection the unit may have had with state institutions. At the trial, the Serbian court rejected the testimonies of the mothers and children of the six executed Muslims. There was no evidence, the court concluded, that the men were detainees from Srebrenica. That ruling was a mark of shame on all of us. And we can’t wash it off by sending Mr. Mladic to the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Mr. Mladic’s arrest brought relief to the families of victims. It offered the Hague tribunal recognition that it is a successful agent of international justice. And it granted Serbia the long-coveted prospect of membership in the European Union. The Serbian government has managed to persuade the world that it values a European future more highly than the criminal heroes of the past.
But I am not so sure that Serbia has given up on Mr. Mladic and his fellow generals, who prosecuted a genocidal war in Bosnia. The sympathy that state officials and the news media expressed for Mr. Mladic last week is yet another mark of shame on all of us. The deputy prosecutor offered him strawberries. His wish to be visited by the health minister and the president of Parliament was granted, as was his request to visit his daughter’s grave. The Serbian public was constantly updated on his diet in jail, and we all learned that Mr. Mladic flew to The Hague in the suit he’d worn at his son’s wedding. He was treated as a star."
By Natasha Kandic/ NYTimes.com/read more
Sunday, June 5, 2011
The World Is Our Playlist
In the age of the global village, it sure seems like our musical choices are ruled by geography—and just maybe limited by cultural imperatives.
Personal playlists are ubiquitous, but they tend to be frighteningly similar, built on the recommendations of friends and friends of friends and the collaborative filtering of iTunes and Pandora.
But it’s a big, wide world, and we wondered what we here in the States were missing. To find out, we asked 15 critics the world over to pick one track by a homegrown artist that they think is worth crossing over to our shores.
The result is a true rhythmic patchwork of intercontinental sounds, proving that though we all dance to different drummers, they always have a great beat.
Croatia
SONG: “Čemu se Nadaš Srce Moje”
ARTIST: Gibonni
This is a new song from one of Croatia’s biggest stars. Literally “What Do You Hope For, My Heart,” it connects traditional Mediterranean Croatia with modern pop music. Zlatan Stipišić Gibonni is our biggest hope for crossing borders.
Ivo Scepanovic, Croatian Times
The World Is Our Playlist - LA Times Magazine/more
Personal playlists are ubiquitous, but they tend to be frighteningly similar, built on the recommendations of friends and friends of friends and the collaborative filtering of iTunes and Pandora.
But it’s a big, wide world, and we wondered what we here in the States were missing. To find out, we asked 15 critics the world over to pick one track by a homegrown artist that they think is worth crossing over to our shores.
The result is a true rhythmic patchwork of intercontinental sounds, proving that though we all dance to different drummers, they always have a great beat.
Croatia
SONG: “Čemu se Nadaš Srce Moje”
ARTIST: Gibonni
This is a new song from one of Croatia’s biggest stars. Literally “What Do You Hope For, My Heart,” it connects traditional Mediterranean Croatia with modern pop music. Zlatan Stipišić Gibonni is our biggest hope for crossing borders.
Ivo Scepanovic, Croatian Times
The World Is Our Playlist - LA Times Magazine/more
Bird Watching with Jean-Luc Mylayne
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Is this art or rubbish?
The exhibition features works by 35 artists dotted around the park. Telegraph photographer Eddie Mulholland wandered around Alexandra Park taking pictures of objects that caught his eye. The question is: are they art or rubbish?
Pope Benedict begins first Croatia visit
The Pope is a supporter of Croatia's bid to join the European Union, which would add another devoutly Catholic nation to the bloc.
There have been criticisms of the $6m (£3.6m; 4m euros) cost of the visit.
BBC News /read more
Friday, June 3, 2011
'Dr Death' Jack Kevorkian dies at 83
Kevorkian, who claimed he had helped about 130 people to kill themselves between 1990 and 1999, died at William Beaumont hospital in Michigan, close friend Mayer Morganroth said."
via The Guardian /read more
Who doesn't love doughnuts?
Petar Čulić 2009
One of the best world classical guitarists!
- 22 first prizes on national and international competitions
- more than 1000 performances
- about 8 000 subscribers on You Tube on his channels, 100 000 views, and more than 2 300 fans on Facebook
- finished Split music Academy master degree and Koblenz Guitar Academy postgraduate study
- also composer, singer and electric guitarist
Something new, something different, something special!
more here
Abandoned penguin chick thinks glove is its mother
In order to hand rear the chick, keepers are wearing a home-made penguin glove puppet during its feeds to stop it from becoming used to humans.
The puppet is made from a black rubber industrial glove decorated with red eyes and yellow plumes to mimic an adult macaroni penguin.
Exhibit manager Clare Rugg said: ''This way contact is kept to a minimum - yes, the chick will hear and see keepers, but it will also see the glove which has the shape and colour of an adult penguin.''
The egg was not incubated by its parents after one of them became ill. It usually takes two birds to look after an egg so it was abandoned. The adult bird has since recovered.
read more
The Perfect Birthday
What can you possibly give a two-year-old dog to make him the happiest puppy in the world?
Bunk will never forget this one!
Neatorama
Best Jokes About Anthony Weiner's Twitter Scandal
—Jon Stewart, on allegations that Rep. Anthony Weiner, a former housemate of Stewart's, sent out a crotch photo from his Twitter account.
more here
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