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Skullcandy has officially announced the availability of their Roc Nation Aviator headphones, the only headphones officially sanction by Jay Z. Jay Z is a rapper who raps about, among other things, his 99 problems, New York, and detritus under your ear.

The headphones actually look quite cool and they’re completely portable. You also have a mic and 40mm drivers with 20-20K Hz frequency response and nylon braided cabling.

Remember – Jay Z approved these headphones and did not, in fact, carve them in his small mountain workshop out of plastic the way Dr. Dre does for his beats. This is could be a bit of a problem for true audiophiles who require their headphones to be made completely by hand by the artist in question.

Filed under: Spy Photos, Coupe, Performance, Aston Martin, Luxury

A refreshed version of either the Aston Martin DB9 or DBS has been spotting working out at the Nurburgring, likely in preparation for a debut in Paris this September. Up front the lower fascia has been reshaped with a single wider lower opening while a pair of DBS-style air extractors are added to the hood. Both of those point to a bump in output, likely in the range of 10-20 horsepower although it could be considerably more if Aston Martin decides to add something like direct injection to the 6.0-liter V12.

Obviously, it’s too early to speculate about gearbox changes, but since Aston Martin has indicated that it will be working with Daimler on some future projects, we wouldn’t be surprised to see the SL63’s multi-clutch-transmission supplant the hydraulically actuated manual.

At the back the DB9/DBS gets clear taillamp lenses, a taller lip spoiler and a big diffuser to help keep the rear wheels stuck to the pavement at elevated speeds. Undoubtedly, there will also be interior upgrades with some new woods and hides and perhaps a better telematics system of some sort.

Spy Shots: Aston Martin DB9/DBS nip/tuck spotted swirling ’round the ‘Ring originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 18 May 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For this week’s Photoshop Contest, you conceptualized the technologically appalling fast food industry of the future. And better yet? Frog Design took your ideas somewhat seriously, offering a class of criticism far beyond our pay rate. The winners: More »

From Green Right Now Reports

Two years ago, an AP investigation found that America’s medicine habit had a boomerang effect. Discarded and excreted medicines — heart and mood drugs, tranquilizers and hormone treatments — that had been flushed down the toilet were turning back up in drinking water. (Yes, that’s how our managed water cycle works.)

This invisible problem poses serious health risks. One person’s life-saving nitroglycerin might be another person’s life-threatening disease trigger. None of us want our neighbor’s meds, no matter how tiny the dose, in our morning coffee.

But while it is easy to see how the problem gets started: Who doesn’t have a medicine cabinet with at least one under-used or unopened prescription medicine that just wasn’t required or didn’t work? It’s more difficult to conjure a solution. How can these medicines be collected and where can they be safely retired?

Maine, the state with the oldest median-age population, and no doubt a treasure trove of packed medicine cabinets, has found one answer. It piloted a program in which residents can mail back unused meds to the state’s aging agency.

The pilot project began back in 2007 with a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under its Aging Initiative.

The state was motivated to try something new because of environmental concerns, but also because prescription drug abuse and related crime is a major problem, according to police authorities.

The program, called Safe Medicine Disposal for Maine, launched with an education effort first aimed at senior citizens in several counties; telling them about the program and supplying them with return mailers. It partnered with police and health departments, the state environmental department and regional agencies on aging. The University of Maine, Community Medical Foundation for Patient Safety, the National Council on Patient Information and Education and the Rite Aid Corporation all provided support and expertise.

Eventually, 150 pharmacies in all 16 of the state’s counties participated by distributing return envelopes.

Volunteer pharmacists and pharmacy students cataloged the returned meds, under police supervision, to track what the program was collecting. This group also sorted the collected drugs into hazardous and non-hazardous substances. About 17 percent of the collected drugs fell into the “controlled drug” categories. They included narcotic pain relievers, tranquilizers and sedatives (which you definitely don’t need in the morning coffee). These drugs, about 250 pounds of them, along with all the other drugs were destroyed using a “high heat incineration” method approved for this type of disposal.

The total take: 2,300 pounds of drugs were collected from 3,926 returned envelopes.

Surveys showed that these drugs were no longer needed because the person using them had either been told to stop taking the medicine or had switched to a different one (27.3 percent); had died (19.6 percent), felt better and no longer needed to meds (18 percent) or had an allergic or other negative reaction (11.9 percent).

The pilot program staff determined that without the program about 80 percent of these drugs would have been flushed down the toilet.

(The government agencies that organized and participated ii the project: The Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services and its Offices of Adult Mental Health Services and Substance Abuse, the Maine Benzodiazepine Study Group, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the U.S. Postal Service, the Maine Department of Health, the Maine Office of the Attorney General, the U.S. District Attorney for Maine, and the University of Maine Center on Aging.)

2011 Volkswagen Polo GTI reviewed by AutoCar

As much as we’d like to have one in the U.S., Volkswagen has no plans to bring the 2011 Polo GTI hatchback to the stateside. Of course, that means we’ll just have to be satisfied with the Golf GTI, which is not necessarily a bad thing… but we’re pretty greedy. Not to mention, we are still in dire need of the Volkswagen Golf R.

Click here to get pricing on the 2010 Volkswagen GTI.

Hit the jump for the video.

Click here for our review of the 2010 Volkswagen GTI.

Refresher: Power for the 2011 Volkswagen Polo GTI comes from a 1.4L TSI engine that uses a supercharger from 0 to 3,000 rpm. After that a turbocharger cuts in to provide extra boost. The system puts out a total of 180-hp with a maximum torque of 184 lb-ft. Mated to a 7-speed twin-clutch DSG gearbox (or a 6-speed manual), the 2011 Polo GTI runs from 0-62 mph in 6.9 seconds with a top speed of 142 mph.

2011 Volkswagen Polo GTI:

AutoCar Reviews the 2011 Volkswagen Polo GTI:

May 30, 2007. Watch Señor Bill Gates describing the future of computing, with Apple CEO Steve Jobs next to him: An iPad-like device being used alongside an iPhone-like device. Then watch Jobs saying that, actually, the future was the PC. More »

WASHINGTON—New details about who interviewed Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan before President Obama picked her emerged on Tuesday, with Chicagoans David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett –White House senior advisors–playing a role in Kagan being picked.

More information about the selection process was in an extensive questionnaire released Tuesday with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

On April 7 Kagan–a former University of Chicago Law School professor– met White House senior advisor David Axelrod; on May 6 she met with Valerie Jarrett, also a senior advisor. Obama nominated her on May 9.

She apparently did not meet with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

FOOTNOTE: Axelrod is a U. of C. grad; Jarrett is a former U. of C. board member.

This fall, incoming students at UC Berkeley will find a little something extra in their welcome packages: cotton swabs. The university is hoping that students will swab a few cells from the insides of their cheeks and pass them over to the university for DNA testing. The university says this exercise will get students excited about the prospects of personalized medicine, in which genetic testing could allow doctors to tailor their treatments to individual patients. The administration stresses that students won’t be tested for their risks of serious diseases, but instead for three fairly mundane genes. USA Today reports:
Geneticists will analyze each sample for three genes: metabolism of folate, tolerance of lactose and metabolism of alcohol, all relatively innocuous and perhaps useful in students’ daily lives. Students will be able to use that information to learn if they should eat more leafy green vegetables, steer clear of milk products or limit alcohol intake. Jasper Rine, the professor of Genetics and Development Biology who’s overseeing the project, swears he’s not trying to create a genetic database of thousands of undergraduates for any nefarious purpose. Really, what nefarious purpose could there possibly be? Anyway, the school can’t make lists of students who might be suitable for …

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Thirty-two days ago, I purchased Apple’s iPad, after proclaiming that I wouldn’t. A gadget like this one should be tested if repeatedly blogged about. I would have used a for-reviews loaner, but I’m on the same fraked list as Gizmodo. I bought my own. A month-or-so usage later, I agree with Tumblr and Instapaper developer Marco Arment, who asked about iPad yesterday: “What’s it for, really? Logically, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for most computer owners…most people will have trouble justifying the $500 entry price.”

My problem is similar to Arment’s: I like the iPad, but can’t find a use for it. The tablet is too big to replace a cell phone and it’s not functional enough to displace my laptop (singletasking is one of the major reasons for that). I would never buy the butt-ugly Amazon Kindle or slow-as-cold-molasses Barnes and Noble Nook, yet I find iPad to be a so-so satisfactory substitute e-book reader. I managed to reread Orson Scott Card’s excellent Ender’s Game and am trudging through sequel Speaker for the Dead. But it’s reading for convenience, not joy.

“A gadget just needs to be good at something that you need or want to do,” Arment writes. Yeah exactly. He has found a few good-at-somethings, but I assert nothing that he couldn’t do as well — or better — on a laptop. “It’s the perfect living-room computer that lives on the coffee table and can be used to quickly look up a fact, find a restaurant, check mail, browse news, and play a game,” he asserts. So is my smartphone, which doesn’t cost $499 to $829.

The personal computer succeeded in part because it is versatile, multi-use, all-purpose device. The PC does many things fairly well. Ubiquity is why the PC is ubiquitous. But as I predicted, Apple’s tablet isn’t really good enough to replace PC or smartphone. Arment writes:

Accepting that the iPad isn’t an all-purpose computing device is going to be a slow process for everyone, including Apple. They can’t quite explain what it’s for, either, which is why the launch marketing, software, and accessories are a bit scatterbrained. For instance, if you’re using a hardware keyboard with the iPad very often, you’d probably be much better served by a MacBook Air.

So what is iPad good for then? Arment and I agree on something else. Eleven days ago my post “Usability expert faults iPad user interface, calls it ‘whacky’” dinged Apple’s tablet. But in iPad’s defense, I explained: “There also is UX, or user experience, which is as much emotive as it is functional…iPhone is more a joy to use [than Google Nexus One]. There’s something about UI design and tactile, responsiveness of the screen that make me feel good. I can say the same about using iPad.”

Arment describes using iPad as “satisfying and delightful.” I totally agree. It’s the main reason I have resisted selling mine. Functionally, my iPad isn’t good enough at anything to justifying keeping it. But emotionally, I’m hooked. I find parting with iPad to be difficult. Sitting down to use the tablet, I suddenly get girlie giggly. It’s a happy experience. If you asked me why, I would say it has something to do with the the user interface’s beauty and how it responds to my touch. But that kind of intellectual evaluation just doesn’t nail down why.

Yesterday, Nokia’s Joe Gallo tweeted: “Can anyone explain to me why this video is funny http://bit.ly/hoXKj.” Gallo referred to YouTube video “Charlie bit my finger — again!,” which has 191,352,797 views, as I write. I resisted laughing but couldn’t stop on second viewing. “By that last tweet, I meant, I was cracking up and had no idea why!” Gallo later tweeted. In assessing my response to iPad, I have similar reaction. I can’t put my finger on why (no pun intended) using iPad makes me happy.

There are lots worse reasons for using a product than it makes you happy, and many product designers would kill to have that kind of customer problem. “Ah, our product gives you joy even though you can’t fathom a use for it, and you’re going to keep it even though you’ve got no use for it?”

I’ll use iPad for awhile longer to test the apps and to see whether this happy thing wears off. I’ve already had several good offers to buy the Apple tablet. But my answers have been nos. Functionally, iPad isn’t for everyone, and it’s probably not for most people. Too many features overlap the smartphone below and laptop above. Nevertheless, here’s a question for potential buyers: How much joy can you get for $500 — iPad’s starting price? Stated another way, how much joy is worth spending $500?

I giggle every time I turn the damn thing on. Who knows? Maybe someday I’ll find a real use for iPad. For now, a little joy is reason enough.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

A couple of times a year, Japan’s Triumph International unveils a themed undergarment based on a current trend or issue. Bringing women closer to agriculture is the company’s latest inspiration for crazy conceptual underwear, which takes form in the shape of the Rice Bra…
Continue Reading That’s a very “rice” bra, Triumph

Tags: Agriculture,
Japanese,
Triumph International,
Underwear,
Women

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• ‘Nice Cup In Bra’ – the world’s weirdest golfing accessory?
• Destroying cancer cells with exploding gold nanoparticles
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• Protecting world food supplies with salt-tolerant crops
• Saving lives with a salad spinner
• Triumph launches Street Triple

I’m a bit late in doing this–I have already interviewed the guy, so you can’t pose online questions to him as with previous guests. They’ve already been asked! Still, I’m psyched that the next guest for the program is New Yorker staff writer, Denialism author, and Daily Show guest Michael Specter. Specter and I happen to have developed a bit of a dynamic/rapport over the past year, having done a recent panel together at the Cambridge Science Festival, as well as a Bloggingheads.tv episode and a Slate dialogue. Indeed, and as you’ll see, we’ve been arguing for some time about the meaning of a famous John Milton quotation…er, but to say more about that would be giving too much away. And we’ve also been arguing, in a pretty friendly way, about whether there is anything we can do about American irrationalism, whether the left is more guilty than the right–and much else. So listen for the show on Friday–and in the meantime, if you haven’t already, get yourself a copy of Denialism by clicking the book cover….

Theresa over at Consumer Reports Ad Watch took a gander at the latest Kin ad and is kinda skeeved out. In the ad for Microsoft’s new social networking phone targeted at teens, protagonist “Rosa” goes out to confront in person “Matty Goldberb” who’s been hitting on her on Facebook, despite their never meeting before and not knowing each other besides some “mutual friends” (according to Facebook).

In the ad, the nebbish Matty G tells us how it’s cool online because you can sit “around half-naked” “for hours” and “pick up chicks.” Rosa asks him in-person about some flirtatious stuff he said online and then they go for a walk. And this is supposed to sell phones?

While perhaps innocent on the face, it’s impossible to deny the sexual undertones or the implication of real-world encounters between young relatively anonymous strangers.

Consumer Reports thinks it’s a bad idea to friend strangers and arrange to meet them in person alone —especially for teens.

More videos for Microsoft’s Kin phones raise concern [Consumer Reports Electronics Blog]
Microsoft’s Creepy Kin Ad Campaign [Consumer Reports]

PREVIOUSLY:
Star Of Microsoft Kin’s Sexty Ads Has Sext Parody Video History
Microsoft Takes Back Its Naughty Ad For The Kin

Posted by John Chase at 3:46 p.m.

While it wasn’t a surprise, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce today endorsed Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk, saying the North Shore congressman has a depth of experience and history of bipartisanship to help create more jobs throughout the state.



The endorsement doesn’t come with any money, but Kirk said he the support shows business leaders back his economic philosophy of being more fiscally conservative. The business group has long endorsed GOP candidates for various offices, though Kirk noted it did endorse Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin in 2002.

Calvin Butler, chairman of the chamber’s board of directors, said Kirk’s proposed “Small Business Bill of Rights” is a major reason for the endorsement over Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias. Kirk’s plan calls for exempting small businesses from capital gains tax for a decade and slashing government paperwork.

“He also cares about small business and is committed to policies that create jobs and promote economic growth,” Butler said.



The endorsement served to highlight numerous economic policy differences between Kirk and Giannoulias. Kirk endorses keeping President Bush’s tax cuts in place and opposed President Obama’s $787 million economic stimulus bill. Giannoulias supported the stimulus bill and opposes extending all of Bush’s tax cuts.



Giannoulias’ campaign said Kirk’s votes in Congress have cost the state and the nation jobs.

Kirk said he opposed the stimulus plan because he felt that the bills endorsed spending money the nation doesn’t have. “That’s why, I think, we need a more fiscally conservative policy in Washington,” Kirk said.



In making the endorsement, the chamber received a questionnaire from Giannoulias’ campaign but the Democrat did not participate in an interview with the full chamber board of directors. Kirk did do the interview, Chamber President Doug Whitley said.

Materials: Ikea Mobile+Ikea cable light parts

Description: An old IKEA mobile is Transformed into a light by the simple addition of wires and two IKEA 12 volt cable lights.

~ Vlasis Albanis, USA

Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson-Wentz’s toddler son, Bronx Mowgli, is recovering safely in the arms of his famous parents after escaping a minor car accident in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The 18-month-old tot — who was in the care of his nanny at the time of the afternoon crash — is doing fine after the no injury collision in Cold Water Canyon, PEOPLE.com reports.

“It was a minor fender-bender, and everyone is fine,” says a rep for the couple.

Every weekend, I try to collate some of the best posts and articles I’ve read on the web and share them with all of you. For the past few weeks I have been remiss in my duties, for reasons explained earlier. So today I wanted to share some of the links and news stories that I think are worth your time.

• Yahoo is buying Associated Content for $90 million in an effort to compete with AOL and Demand Media. It seems Yahoo is back on a content kick after having a change of heart.
• Google may launch a competitor to Amazon’s S3 storage service at Google I/O. This from a company that has struggled to deliver Google Drive. Amazing.
• In an “Oh-no-they-didn’t” move, the National Venture Capital Association compared venture capital to tobacco. Paul Kedrosky rightfully skewers them for their self-serving behavior.
• The future’s so bright you gotta wear shades. No seriously, there’s a lot of doomsday talk going around these days but a new book, “The Rational Optimist,” by Dr. Matt Ridley argues that the best is yet to come.
• Instapaper creator Marco Arment argues that the iPad doesn’t have to do everything. I agree.
• The State of Web Spam…actually it’s more like the state of blog spam, but close enough. Great stats from the Akismet crew.

Erin Kutz wrote:

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced today it will be eliminating 300 manufacturing jobs by the end of 2015 at its Andover, MA, biotech plant, as part of a restructuring plan following its $68 billion acquisition of New Jersey-based Wyeth (NYSE: WYE) last year. Pfizer will be cutting about 6,000 jobs over the next few years, by shutting down eight sites and reducing headcount at another six plants worldwide, in order to increase the efficiency in its manufacturing processes, the announcement said. The job cuts will leave Pfizer with about 2,000 employees in Massachusetts, including its two locations in Cambridge.

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I’ve been patiently waiting for the Viliv N5 MID to launch after first getting a glimpse at it before CES ‘10. I was hoping to be able to check it out this month as a rumor suggested back in March. But apparently that’s not going to happen. The little Windows 7 clamshell has been pushed back to June.

Hopefully the company has improved upon the model since we got a few minutes to play with it on CES’s show floor. While the form factor is fantastic, it felt cheap and flimsy — almost breakable. We should find out in June.

Monster announced the DiddyBeats back at CES 2010, and the in-ear fashion headphones have finally started shipping just recently. We were able to get our hands on the DiddyBeats, which as you can see in this episode, are made to invoke a feeling of high fashion. We got the black pair, which is accented with chrome and black leather, definitely a unique look for a pair of earbuds, but really, what would you expect from the Beats by Dr. Dre line and Diddy himself? Get an up-close look at the DiddyBeats in this episode.

Here’s how to get the show:
Subscribe: iTunes iPod / H.264 | iTunes MPEG-4 | RSS H.264 Feed | RSS MPEG-4 Feed

|Download| – iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| – Apple TV High Resolution
|Download| – MPEG-4

Tags:
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Posted by Hal Dardick at 3:35 p.m.

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger scored a rare victory today when commissioners could not muster the votes to make stick a hiring freeze they tried to impose in the wake of the latest county hiring controversy.

The board voted 9-6, with one commissioner voting present, to override Stroger’s veto of the freeze. That was two votes short of the number needed to thwart Stroger and restrict hiring.

Just two weeks ago, the board voted 16-1 to approve the freeze. Today, however, commissioners were presented with an opinion from the state’s attorney’s office that concluded the freeze would not survive a legal challenge.



The board cannot restrict the authority of Stroger or other elected officials to hire, fire and promote individuals, as long as he stays within the confines of the budget approved by commissioners, according to the opinion by Asst. State’s Atty. Patrick Driscoll.



“The ordinance would result in an unconstitutional change in the form of government,” Driscoll wrote in response to a question posed by Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno, D-Chicago.



Stroger had threatened to sue if commissioners overrode his veto. The ordinance would have barred further hiring by all elected county officials.



Exceptions would have been made for the Cook County Jail, so it can meet federal standards, and the independent Health and Hospitals System, which is being reorganized. The board also could have approved “emergency” hires.



Two other measures designed to rein in Stroger’s authority that also were approved two weeks ago remain in place. They require Stroger to report within three days all contracts, new hirings, firings, promotions and raises not previously approved by the board.



The board’s move came after disclosures that Stroger’s administration paid $24,975 to a company owned by Carla Oglesby, who Stroger hired for $120,000 as a deputy chief of staff after his failed re-election campaign. Oglesby was the spokeswoman for Stroger’s campaign.



Oglesby was suspended for five days but returned to her job last week, after Stroger first said she would be suspended until the conclusion of an investigation by the county inspector general.



The contract for Oglesby’s company is one of the items being looked at the by the inspector general, sources said.