Materials: 2 Stefan chairs
Description: The chair is made from two Stefans, one cut in half and a 85mm slice of the other inserted into the middle of the first one. This makes the chair wider and more suitable for a rocking chair with arms. The front legs and rails of the second chair are used as the arms; the back legs of the second chair are used as the rockers. The resulting chair is comfortable and rocks surprisingly well.
~ Laura Mays, Connemara, Ireland
Taylor Swift is getting the comic book treatment: The bulked-up 18-year-old hunk joins his Twilight co-stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson as the latest celeb having his life story reincarnated on the pages of a graphic novel from Bluewater Productions’ Fame Comics series.
Due in stores this August, Fame: Taylor Lautner is a 32-page comic that details Taylor’s rise from child stardom in the comedy Sharkboy & Lavagirl to status as an official teen heartthrob after he packed on the pounds to play Jacob Black in the The Twilight Saga. He studied martial arts and packed on 30 pounds of muscle for his role as the lovelorn werewolf.
“The Twilight series has become a pop culture phenomenon,” Darren Davis, president and founder of Bluewater Productions, said Monday. “It’s transformed previously unknown actors into superstars. It seems that the same thing is happening with Taylor Lautner. We at Bluewater are happy to bring Taylor’s story to his fans, and hope that his comic helps introduce these readers to the joys of graphic storytelling.”
Kimberly Sherman — who penned the biography comics for Pattinson and Stewart — also wrote the new Lautner comic. Warren Martineck, an artist for DC Comics’ WildStorm studio, provided the interior art, while JuanMar Studios drew the cover.
Washington D.C. — The Department of the Army said Monday that some of the 44,000 defective helmets it recalled last Thursday are being used right now in combat operations. The only way to determine who is wearing one, Army officials say, is for troops to check the helmet labels themselves.
“We don’t know where they are,” said Brigadier General Pete Fuller, who overseas equipment contracts for the Army. “So they could be on some soldiers’ head in either Iraq or Afghanistan. They could also be anywhere else in the world.” The Army has already received some returns from soldiers in Afghanistan.
Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon Fuller said the Army learned that in January of 2010 the Justice Department began an investigation into the advanced combat helmet made by ArmorSource. Testing at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland concluded the helmets did not meet Army ballistics standards and that certain parts of the helmet failed to protect against multiple rounds of ammunition. Brigadier General Fuller said the helmets failed a “worst case scenario” test, but nevertheless the helmets were not up to Army regulations.
Even though the helmets failed the tests by a small margin, “standards are absolute and if you don’t need them, you don’t need them,” Fuller said. “So that’s why we’re going to pull them.”
Officials said the recall applies to all the military services, not just Army. That’s because 24 thousand of the helmets were distributed across every service from a supply center in Philadelphia. According to the Army, once those helmets left Philadelphia, they were impossible to track.
The Army notified its soldiers of the recall last Thursday and it’s asking all service members to check their helmets by pulling back the cover and reading the label on the the left-hand side near the ear. Officials say if a soldier identifies the helmet as an ArmorSource advanced combat helmet he should stop wearing it immediately and exchange it. According to Brigadier General Fuller there are plenty of alternate helmets available to those serving in theater.
In a statement on its website the Ohio-based manufacturer, ArmorSource, claims it was given no warning of the recall before the Army made the news public in a press release last Friday. Part of the statement reads: “All Advanced Combat Helmets distributed to the field were accepted by the government after they passed independent, government-approved quality and lot testing. ArmorSource will cooperate fully with any governmental inquiries regarding its Advanced Combat Helmet and is seeking to obtain additional information to allow ArmorSource to address the government’s concerns.”
No injuries or deaths have been reported in association with the helmet, but Army officials want them off the battlefield as soon as possible.
Coincidentally the Army put a halt to the ArmorSource contract in November of 2008 after receiving reports that the green paint was peeling off the helmets.
by Peter Spiro
Justice Kennedy has returned to foreign sources in his Eighth Amendment jurisprudence with today’s decision in Graham v. Florida, striking down state statutes sentencing juveniles to life without parole for crimes other than homicide:
[A]s petitioner contends and respondent does not contest, the United States is the only Nation that imposes life without parole sentences on juvenile nonhomicide offenders. We also note, as petitioner and his amici emphasize, that Article 37(a) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by every nation except the United States and Somalia, prohibits the imposition of “life imprisonment without possibility of release . . . for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age.” Brief for Petitioner 66; Brief for Amnesty International et al. as Amici Curiae 15–17. As we concluded in Roper with respect to the juvenile death penalty, “the United States now stands alone in a world that has turned its face against” life without parole for juvenile nonhomicide offenders.
Why here and not in the 2008 decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana, which made not so much as a nod to international practice on the way to halting the death penalty as punishment for rape. I had been telling my students that Louisiana evidenced a retreat in the wake of Roper’s storm, giving in to the rabblerousers across the street. Do we now have a rule under which international practice is relevant only where the US all by itself?
Bearish money manager John Hussman is not tempted to nibble on stocks after the recent swoon.
My impression is that the market remains in a tenuous state in that we have not meaningfully cleared the overextended syndrome that has been with us in recent months. Even so, we’ll respond fractionally to any clearing that we do observe (with a growing responsiveness as we move through the year). We’re certainly not inclined to “buy the dip” to a material extent, and I continue to anticipate a second wave of credit difficulties in the months immediately ahead. But I also believe that if we can move through 2010 without a second “crisis-level” wave of credit strains, we’ll be more able to rely on post-1940 criteria in setting our investment positions, with less concern about the more hostile “post-crash” dataset.
Suffice it to say that we’re not about to lift a significant portion of our hedges early in a selloff provoked by fresh credit strains, but that I also don’t intend to specifically factor in concerns about a second-wave for an extended period if we don’t observe them.
He also slams ECB boss Jean-Claude Trichet’s claim that he’s not engaged in quantitative easing because debt purchases will be sterilized:
ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet has been quick to deny concerns that the move by the ECB will be inflationary, emphasizing that the intervention will be “sterilized” in order to prevent a major increase in the amount of euros outstanding. This is “totally different,” he argued last week, from the massive increase in monetary base that has occurred as the U.S. Federal Reserve has bought up over $1.25 trillion in debt obligations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. A “sterilized intervention” is one where the euros created through the purchase of distressed Euro-area debt will also be absorbed by selling other assets from the ECB’s balance sheet, in order to take those euros back in.
In order to evaluate the arguments being made, it’s helpful to understand the balance sheet of a typical central bank. Whether in the U.S., Europe, or elsewhere, the basic structure is the same. On the asset side, the central bank has government debt that it has purchased over time. A small proportion of total assets might be held in “hard” assets such as gold, but primarily, the assets of each central bank has traditionally represented government debt – mostly of its own nation (or in the case of the ECB, euro-area governments). As a central bank purchases these securities, it creates an equal amount of liabilities, in the form of “monetary base” (currency and bank reserves).
Notice, for example, that the pieces of paper in your wallet have the words “Federal Reserve Note” inscribed at the top. Currency is a liability of the Federal Reserve, against which it has traditionally held assets such as Treasury securities, and prior to 1971, at least fractional backing in gold.
In this context, consider the ECB’s proposed 750 billion euro line of defense. Essentially the ECB is saying “We stand ready to buy as much as 750 billion euros of distressed Euro-area debt in order to defend the euro.” Simultaneously, despite the fact that Euro area countries are running large fiscal deficits, the worst being in Greece, Portugal and Spain, the ECB is saying “However, we intend to sterilize this intervention, which will ultimately require that we sell Euro-area debt into the market in order to absorb the euros we create.” The only way that both statements can be true is for the ECB to admit “Therefore, we are fundamentally promising to debase the quality of our balance sheet, by exchanging higher quality Euro-area debt with lower-quality debt of countries that are ultimately likely to default.”
Read his whole letter here.
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For those of you who don’t follow various internetty things, Foursquare is a location-sharing social media service where you can compete with others to be declared “mayor” of various locations. In an effort to make this actually have a point, Foursquare has teamed up with Starbucks to offer discounts to the Mayors of individual Starbucks locations.
The deal is $1 off a Frappuccino, any size, any flavor.
Says Mashable:
Tristan Walker, who heads up business development at Foursquare (Foursquare), tells us that the Starbucks special is a one-time mayor deal that runs through June 28, but he’s optimistic that Starbucks will continue to experiment with mayor rewards on an ongoing basis. “Starbucks is particularly innovative as it relates loyalty and social media,” Walker noted, “so we continue to be super excited to explore this intersection with them.”
Mayors of Starbucks Now Get Discounts Nationwide with Foursquare [Mashable]
Seagate’s senior product manager Barbara Craig confirmed rumors that the company will be releasing a monster 3TB drive later this year. That’s a lot of disk space! But sorry XP users, the drive will require a 64-bit OS. More »
Sony has been putting various industry notables on the ModNation Racers Artist Spotlight, so it was only a matter of time before they unleashed Kevin Butler into the campaign. Check it out it’s Sony’s fictional VP
Jon of Tehkseven rounds up all of the big cellular news PhoneDog highlighted the week of May 9th – May 15th, 2010. This week Jon talks about how our very own Aaron Baker’s got his hands on the Sprint Evo 4G at a NYC party. As well as reminding everyone to take a look at Noah’s LG Ally unboxing video. Enjoy those stories and much more in this episode of the Weekly Bone.
Dot 2 Finally it arrives ..™ “The Sequel” – a game of skill and survival! ..™ game play manifests itself in 3D. Fly through a world of amazing sound, stunning graphics and highly addictive game play. Be part of the experience. Become one of a few select individuals who can own them all. NOW WITH TWITTER AND FACEBOOK.
Price: Free
Pros
Cons
Dot 2 Android Game is a simple accelerometer game where you try to make the white dot last as long as possible by hitting the blue dots and dodging the red triangles. Blue dots increase the size of the white plus extend game play while the red triangle shrinks the white dot. Shrink too much and the game is over. Match your high score online with others, plus broadcast your Best Time on Facebook and Twitter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp0Vk4Owd_g
The game can be fun, challenging & addictive to see how long you can last and boast the best time via social networks.
Features a simple yet futuristic 3D playing field in which you tilt the white dot in.
The core of the game is based on the accelerometer and uses vibration for crashes into the red triangle along with cool background music (you cannot toggle the music so lower it with volume buttons).
(3.9 out of 5)
Should you Download Dot 2? Yes! Drop Your Best Time in the Comments Below!
CrowdStar, the fast-growing social game startup behind Happy Aquarium, has hired Niren Hiro, an executive at mobile ad network AdMob as its CEO. Hiro, a former general manager at Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), joined AdMob in 2006 and had served as VP of business development at the firm, which is in the process of being sold to Google (NSDQ: GOOG).
Hiro’s hiring comes as several of CrowdStar’s titles have taken off. The company is now the fifth largest Facebook app developer, according to AppData, and the startup has said it plans to more than double its staff by year-end. That growth has attracted interest from investors—and earlier this year Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) was reportedly in talks to buy the company.
Hiro doesn’t seem to be replacing one specific executive, with VentureBeat noting that until now CrowdStar has “run itself without a formal organization chart.”
Related
Today’s young people are more involved than ever in environmental issues, and are making a huge difference. This week, we celebrate their efforts to protect tomorrow’s environment during the President’s Environmental Youth Award Ceremony in Washington, D.C.
What will define the environmental issues for today’s young people?
Nearly six months after former CEO Niccolo de Masi quit to join rival Glu Mobile (NSDQ: GLUU), mobile game firm Hands-On Mobile has finally found a replacement. The company has hired Judy Wade, a VP of strategy and emerging business at Linden Lab, as CEO.
Wade joins as Hands-On Mobile, which was once the fourth largest U.S. mobile game publisher, has gone through a series of strategic shake-ups. The company, which had already shed both its European and Korean operations two years ago, followed up those deals by selling its HOMBRE division to GoTV Networks this month.
Hands-On Mobile now says it is making a push into the social gaming sector. It just launched its World Poker Tour-branded Texas Hold ‘Em Poker game on Facebook. More about Wade in the release here.
Related
Organlegging was Larry Niven’s 1970s term for trafficking in human organs. Gibson’s fiction, including the fabulous (1984!!) Neuromancer, featured Chinese organ shops. Cross organlegging with Neuromancer and fast forward to 2010.
How do people not raised on science fiction get their head around the modern world? It’s really a disability of sorts.
Since my 2006 organ trade post (see also) the market has continued to mature …
Blood & Treasure- the liver trade
… Type in Baidu and search for “looking for liver, kidney” and so on words, tens of thousands of results show up, including QQ numbers*, cell phone numbers, some even operate like a company. They not only look for people willing to sell their livers and kidneys, at the same time they also advertise to provide livers and kidneys that match the patients. Reporter contacted number of organ trading brokers and found that they had a clear set of requirements, and the business also formed “one shop stop” service…
Liver segment and single kidney donation is usually survivable.
Is anyone in the US paying attention?
No, I didn’t think so.
… is the most popular free instant messaging computer program in Mainland China, and has over 856.2 million users. In April 2010, QQ.com ranked 10th overall in Alexa’s internet rankings. The program is maintained by Tencent Holdings Limited (HKEX: 0700), owned in part by Naspers…
I’d never learn this stuff if I didn’t have my Chinese-focused blogs to read. The mainstream media is hopelessly lost.
Update: After posting this, I revisited a link in my 2006 post to a 2004 NYT article. There I found mention of “Organs Watch” – an organization tracking the global organ trade. The web site, however is “under construction“; the notice refers to an August 2009 update that never happened. Nancy Scheper-Hughes led Organs Watch, but the last news of her is from 2008. Reading between the lines of the Wikipedia article, I wonder if she might have gone a bit off the rails (“Israel” and “tentacles” in the same sentence is a bit of a red light). She was still teaching at Berkeley in Fall 2009.
Christiana Figueres, a veteran climate change negotiator from Costa Rica, has been appointed as the United Nation’s head climate change negotiator. She replaces Yvo de Boer, who is leaving after four years as head of the United Nations’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for a job at KPMG.
Figueres is a surprise choice. Observers had predicted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon would appoint South African Tourism Minister Marthinus Van Schalkwyk to the Bonn, Germany-based post, probably one of the more high profile positions in the vast UN bureaucracy– see full press release.
In the wake of the Copenhagen disappointment, as the executive secretary of the UNFCCC, Figueres will have to work hard to rehabilitate the UN-system as viable organ, able to deliver a comprehensive, global climate change treaty. Large emitting countries, like China or India, which also talk for the developing world, are turning their back on the UN negotiation framework in favor of looser, self-regulating agreements.
Figueres takes over at the UNFCCC a little more than five months before the next UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun this November. She’s confident that strong agreements will come out of Cancun. She says: “I would say that there is an opportunity to take some of the elements that are in the Copenhagen accord, such as fast-track financing, such as the whole thing with deforestation, such as a framework for adaptation, and begin to focus on delivery.”
But who is Christiana Figueres? A member of the Costa Rican elite, she is 53 and was educated in England and the U.S. She’s been a member of Costa Rica’s negotiating team on climate change since 1995. Before that, in 1994 she was the director of the technical secretariat of the Renewable Energy in the Americas program. She also was the executive director of the Center for Sustainable Development in the Americas. Her father, Jose Figueres Ferrer, was three times president of Costa Rica.
Figueres is “well liked and a competent negotiator,” an unnamed UN source tells Fast Company’s Addy Dugdale. “If they wanted a technical bureaucrat, she’s probably as good as you’ll get,” the source adds.
The story may be funny, but this is no joke. Microsoft Taiwan, catapulting off the recent success of the Windows 7 burger, has opened a Windows 7-themed restaurant called Hot Fried 77. More »
According to Dale Evans, a professor at University College Cork in Ireland, he just wanted to bring up an interesting tidbit of animal behavior while chatting with a colleague. But the journal article he referenced, “Fellatio in fruit bats prolongs copulation time,” didn’t just cause raised eyebrows, it also prompted a sexual harassment complaint. New Scientist reports:
As part of what he says was an ongoing discussion on human uniqueness, Evans showed a copy of the fellatio paper to a female colleague in the school of medicine. “There was not a shred of a sign of offence taken at the time,” Evans says. “She asked for a copy of the article.” A week later he got a letter informing him that he was being accused of sexual harassment. The female colleague later said that she asked for a copy of the article only to cut short the conversation, which she found disgusting and offensive. Let’s just hope that she didn’t take a look at the video the original researchers put together of the bats in action. Related Content:
Discoblog: Chimps Use Tools to Improve Their Sex Lives
Discoblog: Endangered Frogs Encouraged to Get Amorous in an Amphibian “Love Shack”
80beats: With Chirps and Trills, Bats Sing Love’s …
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Dr. Copper’s prognoses for the world economy is very grim.
Even as the market managed to produce some gains, the bellwether metal got crushed today, and over the last month its taken a monster loss.
How come? Well, growth fears, a surging dollar, and perhaps a real slowdown in China to name a few things. A return to recession in Europe isn’t helping much.
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Confirming previous rumors, Land Rover has officially announced it will offer its upcoming compact Range Rover model with a two-wheel drive option. Set to go on sale in 2011, the LRX-inspired Range Rover model will emit just 130g/km of CO2, making it the most fuel efficient Land Rover model ever produced.
Land Rover will also offer a four-wheel drive version of the compact Range Rover model, but will use the 2WD model to attract those buyers that don’t necessarily need the off-road ability associated with the Land Rover name.
“A 2WD option is just one way in which we are developing our vehicles efficiency whilst adding to the Land Rover range and expanding our customer base,” Phil Popham, Land Rover managing director said. “We will continue to make the ‘world’s finest all-terrain vehicles’ for those customers who require 4WD but will also now offer an alternative to those that don’t.”
The 2WD Range Rover model is part of Land Rover’s growing initiative to reduce emissions through weight savings.
Source: Leftlane
VENICE, LA– BP Chief of Operations Doug Suttles just announced at a joint press conference with the U.S. Coast Guard, and other federal agencies that BP plans to “permanently plug” the busted well that has been gushing un-stopped into the Gulf of Mexico for nearly a month. Suttles said it was the “right thing” to do.
” There is absolutely no intent to ever, ever, produce this well. We intend to fill up the bottom portion of this well with cement, ” Suttles told reporters in Robert, LA.” It will never be produced.”
