Schrödinger's cat x Flash Forward

This week's episode of ABC's campy breathtaking drama, Flash Forward, featured a brief discussion of Schrödinger's Cat; one of the most complex and troubling paradoxes in quantum physics.  For the past hour or so, I've been reading about it and it is fascinating.

Schrödinger devised this particular "thought experiment" in 1935 to highlight the absurdity of quantum mechanics:

"We place a living cat into a steel chamber, along with a device containing a vial of hydrocyanic acid. There is, in the chamber, a very small amount of a radioactive substance. If even a single atom of the substance decays during the test period, a relay mechanism will trip a hammer, which will, in turn, break the vial and kill the cat. The observer cannot know whether or not an atom of the substance has decayed, and consequently, cannot know whether the vial has been broken, the hydrocyanic acid released, and the cat killed.

 Evan's note-- Pause for a second and think about what this means.

"Since we cannot know, the cat is both dead and alive according to quantum law, in a superposition of states. It is only when we break open the box and learn the condition of the cat that the superposition is lost, and the cat becomes one or the other (dead or alive)."

The paradox exists in that the observation itself affects an outcome.  So that the outcome as such does not exist unless the observation is made. (That is, there is no single outcome unless it is observed.)  This is a very troubling concept and since I am not an expert in quantum mechanics, I admit that I do not understand the full implications of this theoretical experiment.  Schrödinger himself is rumored to have said, later in life, that he wished he had never met that cat.

Here's a short video that illustrates this concept:



[Link: WhatIs?]

The Most Badass Military Drone to Date-- Sabre Warrior

I stand corrected, the Sabre Warrior > China's Dark Sword & Sour Dragon.  Go USA!

It's nice to know our defense budget of world conquest proportions is being spent on something awesome, not some fancy Geiger counter.  Why look for nuclear weapons when you could smart bomb some motherfuckers at mach 6?!  Introducing Lockheed Martin's Sabre Warrior, a next-generation fighter plane that made me shit my pants at first glance.

The Sabre Warrior drone is 46 feet long, with a 36-foot wingspan, capable of taking off with 30,000 pounds of load using a 22,000-pound trust afterburning turbofan engine.  Each payload section (there are two) can handle one 2,000 pound or two AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles or 10 smart bombs or sensors, or even fuel for extended range missions—even while this thing is air refuelable.

It's super deadly and super badass.  Man, I'm glad I'm not this guy:

No Shave November Is Almost Here!!

Oh boy, no-shave November is right around the corner and you can consider me excited.  No-shave November is 30 day hiatus from all forms of shaving; a grace period where one simply lets nature take its course.  As the month progresses, and your beard gets dirtier and patchier, you and your friends can make bets on who will contract a deadly disease first from their funky beard.  OR you can compare yourselves to some of history's great bearded men like Karl Marx (pictured above).  He was a communist, yes, but goddammit he had a beautiful beard.

Also, some of you might have heard of Movember, a charity for prostate cancer in which the participants grow and groom (?!?) a mustache for 30 days.  Pfft, no thanks!  I don't want to look like a dirty hipster this November, I want to look like Chuck Norris; the patron saint of manliness.

So remember, on October 31st, take your last shave and then bask in the glory of your soon-to-be filthy beard!

The Prandtl-Glauert Singularity

When rockets go fast, they break the sound barrier. And when the sound barrier breaks, we get the Prandtl–Glauert singularity. That's the official term for the beautiful cone of vapor that forms around a craft moving very, very fast through the atmosphere. And it makes for a great photo.  Oh yeah, that's awesome.
[Link: PopularScience]

Lil Wayne- No Ceilings (Mixtape Download)

Originally slated for a Halloween release, Weezy's most recent mixtape, No Ceilings, leaked sometime earlier today first in .wma format.  From there, Dre from Nahright converted it to .mp3 and then the 2DopeBoyz correctly labeled the tracks and uploaded the finished product.  Trick or treat, bitches- Halloween came early.

Track List:

01 Swag Surfin’
02 Ice Cream Paint Job
03 D.O.A.
04 Interlude
05 Wasted
06 Watch My Shoes
07 Break Up f. Gudda Gudda & Short Dawg
08 Banned From TV
09 Throw It In The Bag (rmx)
10 I Think I Love Her f. Tyga & Shanell
11 Interlude 2
12 Wetter
13 I’m Good f. T-Streets
14 Make Her Say f. Jae Millz
15 Run This Town
16 I Gotta Feeling
17 Outro

 DOWNLOAD: Lil Wayne- No Ceilings (usershare) (mediafire)

Subscribe for the latest music and info (click the white box)

[Link: 2DopeBoyz]

Lupe Fiasco- All The Way Turnt Up Freestyle

Lupe GOES IN over the Travis Porter beat.  Some more fire coming from the FNF camp.  Big thanks to LupEND for this one.  FNF up, up, and away!!

DOWNLOAD/STREAM: Lupe Fiasco- All The Way Turnt Up Freestyle (usershare)

[Link: Nahright]

German Arm Wrestler Matthias Schlitte has a gigantic right arm

 

Here are several photos and a video of champion arm wrestler Matthias Schlitte.  If you look really closely, his right arm appears to be larger than his left arm.

[Link: Superpunch]

Cell Phone Holsters -- Doubly Bad

In addition to making you look like a gigantic douche, cell phone holsters may also reduce bone density according to a new study done by Turkish researchers.  The study, published in the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, suggests that "electromagnetic fields emitted by cell phones may have a harmful effect on bone density."

So, if you don't have any respect for yourself, please- at least have some respect for your bones.  Throwing your cell phone holster away will probably get you beat up less frequently, and apparently less severely now that you'll have denser, stronger bones.

Need any more reason?  Quickly name all of your friends who wear a cell phone holster.  Still thinking?  My point is proven.

[Link: Gizmodo]

Timbaland: Say Something feat. Drake & Beautiful Music (Unreleased)

A snippet leaked last week on some of the blogs, but now we’ve got the full version, a MySpace rip, of Timbaland’s second single off his upcoming album, Shock Value 2 (11/23).  The other song is an old reference track that was never finished.  Props to ATF for that leak.

DOWNLOAD: Timbaland - Say Something feat. Drake (Mediafire)

DOWNLOAD: Drake- Beautiful Music (2007) (Mediafire)

[Link: 2DopeBoyz]

Inside Astronaut Boot Camp

In September, a panel of space experts and former astronauts chaired by former Lockheed Martin chief Norman Augustine told the White House that a budgetary boost of an estimated $3 billion annually would allow NASA to develop the necessary spacecraft to take astronauts to the moon, near-Earth asteroids and ultimately to Mars.  Here's what deep space training consists of:

Like the astronauts before them, recruits will take an outdoor survival course in Maine, spend up to two weeks living in an underwater lab, endure altitude chambers, and struggle through flight mechanics. But for deep space, astronauts will need new training entirely, perhaps including spending weeks, even months, in confinement and isolation.

A trip to Mars will take humans so far from home that Earth will look no bigger than a star. The distance is so great that in a September New York Times op-ed, Lawrence Krauss, a theoretical physicist at Arizona State University, went so far as to propose that, to save fuel, astronauts perhaps shouldn’t come home at all. Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin, an ardent believer in the colonization of Mars, has also floated this idea. For a trip that long, intense psychological preparation is critical.

While everyone in the class of 2009 has an advanced degree in engineering, science or math (“extensive experience flying high-performance jet aircraft” was also a plus), the most sought-after quality was the ability to play well with others. Today, an astronaut with the right stuff is someone who does not get frazzled or grumpy when he spends seven months trapped in a flying office with co-workers who may not even speak his language—an office in which his and his companions’ recycled sweat and urine is a beverage, the toilet clogs, and a serious mistake means they all could die.

Of course, astronauts will need extra preparation for the physical challenges too. During the trip itself, they will be subjected to high doses of radiation, raising their odds of getting cancer later in life, and they will lose bone density. “The worst-case scenario would be a Mars crew that steps off the vehicle and their bones are too brittle to hold their weight,” Kring says. He suggests that NASA may eventually need to create a new category of astronauts trained for “ultra-long-duration” missions. “Thirty-six months in space is a lot different than six months,” he says.

Astronauts.  Are nuts.

[Link: PopularScience]

1934 Depression Era Chess Board-- Engineers vs. Agitators

The March, 1934 issue of Modern Mechanix introduced this remarkable Depression-era chess-variant that pitted "agitators" against "engineers."  It's funny how the entire historical zeitgeist appears to have been captured in 16 chessmen.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

MODERN as tomorrow morning's headlines, a newly simplified form of the game of chess has for its game board the Modern World, and for its pieces Farmers, Mechanics, Engineers and even Agitators struggling against forces symbolized by opposing Armies, Bankers, Radio, Press, Law and Middlemen trying to become Rankers.
The play, which is solely a matter of skill, centers around opposing forces trying to dominate one neutral piece called Government while either the red or white side, as the antagonists are named, is in power.  The game may be played by either two, three, or four persons and is substantially like chess. But gone are the Pawns, the Knights, and the Kings and Queens.

[Link: BoingBoing]

Al Franken-- Killin' Em Softly

Watch Senator Al Franken absolutely destroy this poor health-care-lobby shill from the Hudson Institute who claimed that universal healthcare would increase medical bankruptcies. This is the perfect mix of being sensibility AND devastating sarcasm... at a Senate sub-committee hearing!

[Link: BoingBoing]

Lil Wayne-- Swag Surfin' Freestyle

Jailbird Weezy goes in over the Fast Life Yungstaz beat-- this is his latest freestyle leaked off his upcoming mixtape, No Ceilings.  In other, unrelated "Weezy news," Wayne is expected to accept a plea bargain for his 2007 arrest for criminal weapons possession.  By pleading guilty and accepting a deal outside of court, he will most likely only spend 8 months in prison, rather than the much harsher, 3 and a half year sentence which would be imposed if his case goes to trial.

*Condescending, British Accent* "No Ceilings, huh?  Ironic, because he's in a box"

DOWNLOAD: Lil Wayne- Swag Surfin' Freestyle (usershare)

[Link: NahRight]

Infrequency of Posts

It's midterm week at Syracuse University right now, and every student is either living in the library, strung out on Adderall, or some kind of combination of the two.

As for me, it's no different... I've had all sorts of essays and tests this week so I apologize for failing to keep Fred Phelps's Pajama Party updated.  Never feat though, this week is almost over!!

American Heros-- Philip Spooner

Philip Spooner, an 86-year old WWII vet, at a public meeting on Maine's marriage equality bill on April 22, 2009:

"The woman at my polling place asked me do I believe in equality for gay and lesbian people. I was pretty surprised to be asked a question like that. It made no sense to me. Finally I asked her: what do you think I fought for in Omaha Beach?"

[Link: BoingBoing]

American Heros-- Paul Gowder

Paul Gowder dropped his Kindle 2 and it broke. Amazon wanted $200 to replace it. Instead, they replaced it and gave him an additional $200. But how did he do his?

An intimidating letter of complaint filled with legal jargon!  Here's the money paragraph:

I am prepared to offer an immediate settlement of my claims against Amazon.com for a payment of $400.00. That sum represents the $200.00 replacement fee I paid plus $200.00 to compensate me for the diminution of utility and value of the device as well as of the e-books I have purchased for that device, in light of the fact that the replacement device, too, can be expected to be far more fragile than advertised and prone to destruction under the slightest stress. This offer expires thirty days from your receipt of this letter. If you do not accept this offer, I intend to bring suit either individually, or, if I decide it is warranted, as representative for a class of similarly situated plaintiffs. At that time, I will seek the amount noted above, plus punitive damages under the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act, Cal. Civil Code §1750 et. seq., costs, fees, and such other monetary damages as provided for by law, including without limitation Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §17200 et. seq., the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, and other relevant law.

And here's Amazon's response...




Final Score:

Paul (1) Amazon (0)

[Link: Consumerist]

Empirical Data-- "The False God of Coffee"

Robin Barooah gradually weaned himself off coffee and found that his concentration actually improved. He explains how he did it and what he discovered on the Quantified Self blog, which covers news about self-testing and self-monitoring.

"As part of a separate experiment, I have been keeping track of the amount of time I spend working on projects. I work in 25 minute intervals which I time with a coffee timer, and I mark an X in a paper journal for each interval that I successfully complete. If I get distracted, I don't mark the X, and if I can't concentrate, I abandon it and don't mark an X rather than sitting out the timer. I've been doing this since the end of June, so I tabulated the data and created a graph of my hours of concentration per day, and overlaid a bar showing when I drank my last coffee.

Causality is a complex issue. Obviously this is an n=1 experiment and I am intentionally doing other things that may well be improving my concentration, but one thing is very clear; the amount of time I spend concentrating has not deteriorated since I quit coffee, so I can easily reject the hypothesis "I need coffee to help me concentrate."

[Link: BoingBoing]

$1.6 M Armored Car... with Whale Penis interior

A Russian armored-car builder is boasting that its latest vehicle has seats covered with "whale-penis interior." As that sentence alone speaks volumes, I don't feel it's necessary to offer any backhanded witticisms about Russians or this ridiculous idea... but I will anyway.

The $1.6 million Dartz Prombron Monaco Red Diamond Edition armored car has been developed by Russian industry pioneer, RussoBaltique, probably as an ode to the absurd lavishness that was the Golden Age of Czardom. Not surprisingly, RussoBaltique used to build armored vehicles for some of Russia's greatest (and most reasonable) leaders including Vladimir Lenin and Czar Nicholas II. However, the steep costs from frequent reupholstering of the motherland's armored fleet due to spilled vodka aggravated both the Council of Ministers and RussoBaltique to the point that business ties had to be severed.

Okay, that last part I made up but it did sound plausible, didn't it? Anyway, here are the features of this Soviet monster:

-gold-plated bulletproof windows

-tungsten exhaust pipe

-diamond and ruby-encrusted gauges

-kevlar exterior

-3 complimentary bottles of RussoBaltique-- the world's most expensive vodka

-rocket/grenade-proof shell

[Link: SMH]

Wiz Khalifa- The Thrill (Walking On a Dream) (Prod. DJ Ill Will)

New joint off Wiz Khalifa’s upcoming mixtape Burn After Rolling, which is set to drop sometime at the end of this month. I can't wait. How Fly was sick, props to DJ Ill Will for the leak.

DOWNLOAD: Wiz Khalifa- Empire of the Sun (mediafire)

[Link: 2DopeBoyz]

Artwork-- Atelier Van Lieshout

Atelier Van Lieshout of Rotterdam is best known for its sculptures that look like human bodies or body parts. Here are some of my personal favorites:

Illuminatius -- made from foam, paper mache, and varnish.


Sensory Deprivation Skull -- made from reinforced fiberglass. The double doors open up to a cozy, shag rug interior.

PappaMamma Lamp -- made from nylon and resin. For you cretins who were not alerted by the title to the nuances of the artwork, look closely. Notice the penis in the urethra, the baby in the uterus; all supported by the fallopian tubes and the testicles. Very impressive.

If you want to see more of Lieshout's work, attend the Carpenter Workshop Gallery in London this week or go to the Gallery's website.

[Link: BoingBoing]

"We Were Once A Fairytale" -- Short Film by Kanye West

Very interesting video from Mr. West, perhaps a metaphor for the death of his ego? Watch and decide. Let me know what you think in the comments section.

Directed by Spike Jonze.

[Link: NahRight]

Pictures from Burning Man 2009

For those of you who aren't aware of the Burning Man Music Festival, it's an annual event held in the Black Rock Desert, in Northern Nevada that takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on Saturday evening. According to the Festival's website:

"There are no rules about how one must behave or express oneself at this event (save the rules that serve to protect the health, safety, and experience of the community at large); rather, it is up to each participant to decide how they will contribute and what they will give to this community."

It's an experiment in community, radical self expression, and self-reliance. I've been told that it's a little like seeing Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in real life... and with that mysteriously ambiguous introduction, here are some of the pictures:





[Links: Flickr via TheCoolHunter]

The RZA on The Colbert Report

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The RZA
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Michael Moore

According to RZA, "This Book of Wisdom, Volume II of the Wu Tang Manual, is the second installment to the chambers of ideas of Wu Tang as told by the abbot"

Available at Amazon... Wu Wu Wu Wu Wu

[Link: NahRight]

Everyone Almost Died Last Night

Rejoice, because you are alive: An asteroid named 2009 TM8 just passed only 216,000 miles from Earth, racing at 18,163mph. That's closer than the moon. According to Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, there's about 7 million other monolithic objects in the near-Earth space which could wipe us out.

It is my odd disappoint to reassure you that 2009 TM8 is not big enough to destroy the entire planet, but it can still turn NYC into the Thunderdome... hopefully with Mel Gibson along with it. But such a formality won't stop me from showing what would happen if an asteroid big enough of human extinction did crash into the Earth... in glorious HD of course:



[Link: Gizmodo]

Lupe Fiasco- Solar Midnite

Lupe on his latest record:

"Solar Midnite is my first commercial release that I actually produced as well as wrote. The New Moon team asked me if I could do a song specifically for the film. They invited me to an early screening of the unfinished film from which I pulled different elements that I thought would translate into a great song. I pulled in vocalist and bassist Graham Burris and acclaimed musician Matt Nelson to help fill it out my vision musically and “joila” Solar Midnite was born. The song basically deals with the chaotic love story that takes place between the characters. It’s more on the rock side of my musical catalog and comes straight from my die hard fanhood of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Anthony Keidis, one of my FAVORITE RAPPERS."

DOWNLOAD: Lupe Fiasco- Solar Midnite (usershare)

[Link: NahRight]

The Dark Sword Stealth Plane

What do you think when hear, "knock-off Chinese products"? I think cheap electronics that I can buy in Midtown. Well, times are changin'. The Chinese military has been replicating our UAV stealth fighter planes for a while now. But a new Defense report reveals that the Chinese have designed and produced their own stealth fighter and it's far superior to any of our planes (The Predator & the Global Hawk).

Introducing the Dark Sword, China's latest military drone. Not only is it way more badass looking than any of the American models, "it's apparently much more maneuverable and highly capable in air-to-air combat."

And I challenge you to think of a more awesome name. Dark Sword?! Sour Dragon?! Pfft, game over.

[Link: Gizmodo]

My Opinion-- Obama & the Nobel Peace Prize

Let me begin by addressing some of the fallacies in popular debate. The Nobel Peace Prize, itself, has drawn as much controversy in the past as the recent news that President Obama is this year's winner. The Nobel Committee has been praised as well as criticized for past nominations; such judgments are based on what I like to call a "Nobel Litmus Test" of lifelong merit. Let's take two past winners who rest on opposite sides of the Litmus scale. First winner- Martin Luther King Jr; a man who spent, and lost, his life striving for equal rights for African Americans. Second winner(s)- Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin; three men who were never able to broken a deal for Middle East peace before or after their Nobel award. A fact which negates the assumption that the Prize is a call to action, or a recognition of future accomplishments. Ergo, Obama can confidently take his place somewhere on the Litmus Scale.

Apart from the Litmus Scale and the legacy of past winners, it is my belief that President Obama should not have won the Nobel Prize. He is almost a year into his first year as President; hardly enough time to make any sweeping changes, especially the implausible expectations thrust by those who hail him as a messiah (and there are many). Regardless, look at the other nominees!! Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, Buddhist monk Thich Quang Do, or anyone who died promoting democracy in Iran. The list is absurd.

But alas, Obama did not ask for this. He accepted the award with a rather halted demeanor as to insinuate disdain for the Committee's nomination. And is this not understandable?! Obama gains nothing from the Nobel. Domestically, no group will view him more favorably and, perhaps more importantly, no foreign power will be more inclined to deal with the United States. If anything, the Prize perpetuates Obama's portrayal as the "Rockstar President;" a winner of the award not as a recognition of his accomplishments, but as a result of his iconic popularity.

Congratulations Mr. President, now go change the world.

Another Fox News Gaffe

During the most recent September 12th march, Fox News argued that it was justified in covering the march incessantly because the network doesn’t “pick and choose these rallies and protests” — it covers them all. At the very same time, it slammed other networks for not giving enough coverage to the right-wing rallies. But as Jon Stewart noted on The Daily Show last night, Fox ignored the weekend’s National Equality March (for gay rights) whose turnout was comparable to the 9/12 March.

“You didn’t even send your own camera crew?” exclaimed Stewart. “You have a Washington bureau! Tell them to go to the window and point the camera down!”

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Queer and Loathing in D.C.
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

Boom, ROASTED.

[Link: ThinkProgress]

Badass Ways to Commit Suicide-- Kite Snowboarding

Okay, okay- he survives. But I challenge you to ascend hundreds of feet in the air without succumbing to the blistering winds. Maybe "1985 Arnold Schwarzenegger from Commando" could hold on and survive... maybe.

Also, English should be the lingua franca of all emergency situations. I don't care if that's culturally insensitive.

Wale- Contemplate feat. Rihanna (Prod. Syience)

Another Wale joint leaked off his upcoming Attention: Deficit (11/3). This one samples Rihanna's "Question Existing." Dopeness!!

DOWNLOAD/STREAM- Wale: Contemplate feat. Rihanna (usershare)

Earlier-- Wale: Inhibitions (Let It Loose) feat. Pharrell

My opinion-- Contemplate > Inhibitions

The World's Largest Firework

Boom.

Wale- Inhibitions (Let It Loose) feat. Pharrell

Wale just released this new track, "Inhibitions" via his Twitter. Wale's new album, Attention: Deficit drops November 3rd... DMV!!

DOWNLOAD-- Wale: Inhibitions (Let It Loose) feat. Pharrell (usershare)

Artists to Watch-- J. Cole

J. Cole is a rapper and producer out of Fayetteville, North Carolina and is the first artist to be signed to Jay-Z's label, Roc Nation.

After graduating from St. John's University Magna Cum Laude, J. Cole released his debut mixtape, The Come Up in late 2007 with mild success. He hit it big when Jay-Z heard "Lights Please," a single off his second and most recent mixtape, The Warm Up, which dropped on June 15th of this year after Cole inked the deal with Roc Nation.

Since then, Cole did a verse on Jay-Z's song, "A Star Is Born," which is featured on The Blueprint 3. The Warm Up, is extremely dope so download it and also check out his impressive rendition of Big Boi's song, "Royal Flush"

DOWNLOAD-- J.Cole: The Warm Up (Megaupload)

MAP-- Every Space Mission of the Last 50 Years

National Geographic has plotted the route of every space mission carried out over the last 50 years onto a map of the solar system, giving a nice visual look at the history of space travel.

Each line represents a different space mission, highlighting notable missions, including those from different countries, those of historical significance, and those which have failed. (The map doesn't seem to make note of the recent LCROSS mission, where a rocket plowed into the moon to probe for water.)

Did you know there have been three more missions to Venus more than Mars (43 to 40)?

The map, at its full size, is enormous; way too big to fit in this post. Check out the whole map for yourself here.

[Link: Popular Science]

WaterCar Python

For $200,000 you can have the world's fastest amphibious vehicle available to consumers. The WaterCar python can travel up to 60 mph on water and can accelerate from 0-60 in 4.5 seconds on land.

The vehicle itself is a Dodge Ram/Corvette hybrid; a Dodge base with a Corvette-inspired fiberglass body and aluminum Corvette LS engine. Rear Dominator jets handle the amphibious duties. Here's a video of the Python in action:

[Link: Gizmodo]

The Verizon 4G Dynasty (2010-Eternity)

Verizon is really drowning AT&T in their proverbial tears of defeat-- first this commercial, now their ambitious plans to deploy their new 4G LTE mobile broadband network next year! For all but the two of you who knows what a 4G LTE mobile broadband network is, allow me to kick some knowledge...

4G is the (extremely) near future of wireless data; with download speeds faster than most US broadband networks. LTE, or Long-Term Evolution, is a major 4G ultra-high speed mobile data deal. It's a GSM-based technology; GSM being the most widely used (210 countries) mobile network standard. Verizon is adopting LTE to, as previously stated, deploy a brand new, hyper speed 4G network to give its customers the best and fastest coverage, while also bludgeoning AT&T with its always-expanding, soon-to-be 4G penis.

I know that brief paragraph did not fully explain some of the acronyms, but further explanation would venture away from the point of this post. So I digress...

Here's a brief timetable for Verizon's 4G offensive: initial rollouts in 2010, with a wide commercial launch in 2011 and true mass availability in 2012. After launching LTE, Verizon's planning to offer femtocells through partners like Best Buy that won't just make the signal actually decent in your house, they'll have built in Wi-Fi, so you won't have to have a separate box for it.

...And for anyone who doesn't understand my choice in picture- it's Genghis Khan. I hope the rest is self-explanatory.

[Link: Gizmodo]

Incredible Microphotography

Nikon’s annual Small World Competition began in 1974 to showcase the best microscope-aided photography. The competition attracts a fascinating variety of subjects, photographed using a range of microscopy techniques. Many of the images are scientifically important, but all are aesthetically stunning. Here are some of my favorites:



Above is a translucent zebrafish larva showing the nervous system of the fish (green), the expression of the protein Tau (in red), and Alzheimer-like alterations of Tau (in blue). By bringing Tau into translucent zebrafish larvae, the disease-causing effects of the protein can be studied directly under the microscope.

These symmetric ovals are actually the eggs of a pond snail. Snails deposits their eggs in large jelly-like clumps into the water. This picture shows a close-up of two of these eggs, with embryos developing inside them.

What seems to be the head of some strange horned creature is actually the back end of a watersnipe fly larva. These weirdly shaped larvae are found in freshwater, and they and other bugs are often good indicators of water quality.

[Link: PopularScience]

VIDEO-- Bullet Impacts at 1,000,000 Frames Per Second

Are you hung over? Bored? Spend ten minutes watching bullets strike various objects at 1,000,000 FPS; it's unbelievable.

Yes, it's black and white. Yes, it will still blow your mind:


[Link: Gizmodo]

New Military Combat Simulator Lets You Feel Getting Shot

Call of Duty has nothing on the new combat simulator from defense giant Raytheon.

Fully rigged soldiers can roam freely in the real world and engage unseen virtual enemies through their VR goggles, tossing real flash-bang grenades and even shaking off the muscle-numbing effects of getting shot.

Raytheon teamed up with Oscar-winning 3-D simulation company, Motion Reality, Inc., to develop the combat simulator, which can train up to 12 soldiers on clearing IEDs (roadside bombs) and small unit tactics. The interactive simulation went on display at the Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) annual conference in Washington, D.C. this week.

The simulation creators wanted soldiers to feel physically and mentally immersed in their training environment. That meant giving participants the freedom to physically crawl and run through hours of virtual training without being tethered by wires or cables.

Such immersion also contributes to providing some stressful training that can help at least mimic real combat situations. Raytheon's simulator can even provide a jolt when participants get hit by a virtual bullet in the simulator -- not enough to floor people like a TASER device, but enough to put an arm into spasms and render it temporarily useless.

Here's the Video:

[Link: Popular Science]

Obama Awarded 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

President Barack Obama said Friday that he was humbled by the decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award him the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it honored Obama for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” The award comes at a crucial time for Obama, who has initiated peace missions in key parts of the globe. Obama's envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, has returned to the region to advocate for peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

This year's Peace Prize nominees included 172 people -- among them three Chinese dissidents, an Afghan activist and a controversial Colombian lawmaker -- and 33 organizations, the highest number of nominations ever.Obama will donate the roughly $1.4 million award to charity, a White House spokesman said Friday

[Link: CNN]

The Nissan Land Glider (Let's embargo Japan)

Emanating from the Middle Ages tradition of mistreating the disfigured, I propose that we hogtie and shoot every moron engineer that sat in an office and created this eyesore. Its cubist dimensions look like it was spliced together from different Picasso paintings, which sounds kind of cool, but turned out heinous. To be fair, though, it does have some cool features. It's powered completely by electricity. It has a balancing system to make it stable as it takes curves, compensating for inertia with the car's body movement.

And, as Jesus Diaz from Gizmodo points out, "it has the coolest cockpit to date... like a star fighter out of Macross or Tron. Here's a video of the promo in action:


[Link: Pink Tentacle]

"Fire" -- New Lupe Fiasco

Lupe comes with a dope new track over a sped up sample of Jimi Hendrix's 1969 classic, "Fire." There's no word on whether this is going to be on his upcoming album, Lasers, but with the Hendrix sample, this could be a mainstream hit. There's also some speculation that this song was a response to his disclusion from MTV's "Hottest MC List," but no one should really take that list seriously. FNF UP!!!

DOWNLOAD: Lupe Fiasco - Fire (usershare)

[Link: NahRight]

"SONS" - Shoes or No Shoes

SONS is a gallery, located in East Flanders, Belgium, that displays over 5,000 different pairs of shoes from nearly every part of the world.

It consists of three collections. The Ethnographic Collection, amassed by former shoe distributor William Habraken, includes 2,700 pairs from 155 countries and is acknowledged by the Guinness World Records as the largest collection of tribal and ethnological shoes.

Antwerp-based shoemaker couple Veerle Swenters and Pierre Bogaerts contributed the Modern Collection -- some 1,200 pairs acquired from artists around the world.

The Designer Collection, also accumulated by Habraken, showcases unique footwear form 20th-century and contemporary designers including Salvatore Ferragamo, Christian Louboutin and Manolo Blahnik.

Very interesting, especially when think how long shoes have been worn by humans. Paleontologist Erik Trinkaus purports that man started wearing shoes between 26,000 and 40,000 years ago. Look at the new Yeezys and think how far we've come...

[Link: TheCoolHunter]