2012 & The End of the World [Video]

Youtuber C.G.P. Grey takes a quick look at why the world will NOT end in 2012.

[Via]

Why Alcohol Makes your Head Spin [Video]

Why Alcohol Makes your Head Spin [Video]:

In this video, Youtuber Thegnome54 explores how alcohol affects the semicircular canals in the inner ear, the reason why everything seems to spin when you drink too much of it.

[Thegnome54]

Game Companies Dropping SOPA Support of the Day

Game Companies Dropping SOPA Support of the Day:

Game Companies Dropping SOPA Support of the Day: Major game companies EA, Nintendo and Sony have apparently pulled their support for the Stop Online Piracy Act.

The latest update to the House Judiciary Committee’s list of pro-SOPA organizations no longer includes the three companies, who all signed a letter of support for SOPA back in September.

It’s not clear whether Sony’s withdrawal from SOPA is connected to threats from hacktivist group Anonymous. The companies may also have been motivated by the Internet backlash against GoDaddy, or rumors that various tech companies may black out the Internet to stop SOPA.

It’s also worth noting that some divisions of Sony — Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Music Nashville — still appear on the list, as does the Entertainment Software Association, a group that counts all three of these game companies as members.

[businessinsider]

Giant North Korean Soldier of the Day

Giant North Korean Soldier of the Day:

Giant North Korean Soldier of the Day: A soldier who appears to be about 8 feet tall was spotted in the back row of mourners at North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s funeral procession in Pyongyang.

Although it’s easy to assume the giant soldier has simply been Photoshopped in, especially after the Korean Central News Agency altered other photos from the funeral, there’s a possibility that the image is genuine.

Photos taken from 4 different angles all show the same tall soldier, and the Internet even has a theory as to who he might be: 7’8″ North Korean basketball star Ri Myung Hun.

At one time, Ri was the tallest man in the world. He considered playing in the NBA during the 1990s, but remained in North Korea

Take a look at some more photos after the jump, and decide for yourself whether this looks ‘shopped.

[telegraph]

Photoshopped Funeral Procession of the Day

Photoshopped Funeral Procession of the Day:

Photoshopped Funeral Procession of the Day: A North Korean news agency appears to have doctored a photo of Kim Jong-Il’s funeral procession, according to an analysis by the New York Times.

Strangely enough, the photo editors at the Korean Central News Agency didn’t use Photoshop to add more people to the crowd at the funeral. They used it to remove six men standing near a camera on the side of the road.

As the Times points out, the agency was a bit overzealous with its use of the clone brush, and removed the men’s footprints in the snow. That means it’s next to impossible that the photo was simply taken after they walked away.

Unlike in other cases of Photoshopped propaganda, it’s not clear why this particular image was altered.

Take a closer look at the evidence after the jump.

[nyt]

2011 in Torrents of the Day

2011 in Torrents of the Day:

2011 in Torrents of the Day: Google has released its annual zeitgeist, an analysis of the terms we searched for most in 2011. But what about the things we downloaded?

It’s hard to track the most popular BitTorrent searches of the year, because they’re spread out across dozens of different sites, but TorrentFreak has gotten pretty close. They’ve published the top 50 search terms from one of the top five torrent sites on the web: kat.ph (better known as KickassTorrents).

Popular movies like Thor appear on the list, as well as TV shows (led by Glee and True Blood). There are also quite a few porn searches — “xxx” is in the top 5, and “porn” appears at #19.

Despite what the RIAA would like people to think, music barely made a dent in the list of most-searched torrents. “Adele” was the top music-related term, at #44.

Check out the entire list after the jump.

1. ita
2. french
3. 2011
4. ita dvd
5. xxx
6. dvdrip
7. italian
8. kickasstor
9. thor
10. 720
11. psp
12. harry potter
13. glee
14. kung fu panda 2
15. green lantern
16. 1080p
17. wwe
18. movies
19. porn
20. transformers 3
21. cars 2
22. captain america
23. windows 7
34. true blood
25. fast and furious 5
26. hindi
27. sex
28. game of thrones
29. telugu
30. tamil
31. rango
32. super 8
33. playboy
34. x art
35. how i met your mother
36. pirates of the caribbean
37. x men
38. transformers
39. mac
40. rio
41. supernatural
42. kickassto
43. source code
44. adele
45. house
46. sucker punch
47. final destination 5
48. dexter
49. nero
50. breaking bad

Ääähhh......

Thailand's worst flood in 50 years claimed the lives of 610 people and caused billions in damage, but with the waters slowly receding, the extent of the damage is coming into focus.

Among the tens of thousands of businesses affected by the disaster, Honda hasn't been spared - its factory in the Ayutthaya province was hit hard, and in an effort to assure that damaged vehicles never make it to consumers, the Japanese automaker has begun to scrap over 1,000 vehicles damaged during the flood.

Honda workers have begun disposing of row upon row of Brio and City subcompacts submerged during the flooding using construction equipment and vehicle crushers to demolish the 1,055 vehicles. The tragic yet oddly beautiful gallery above chronicles the aftermath and resulting destruction.

Shades Of Stupid

Shades Of Stupid:

(Electronics Store | New Zealand)

(A customer comes in with a DVD player and several DVD movies.)

Customer: “My DVD player is not working properly. I borrowed some DVDs from a friend, and some of them aren’t playing in color.”

Me: “Which ones are you having the troubles with?”

Customer: “These.” *points at a bunch of black and white movies*

Answer WIN

Answer WIN:

Cool Library WIN

Cool Library WIN:

awesomephilia:Follow Awesomephilia for some awesomeness on...

awesomephilia:

Follow Awesomephilia for some awesomeness on...:

Bivouacking WIN

Bivouacking WIN:

Important Things

Important Things:

Important Things

Prometheus: First Official Trailer [Alien Prequel]

Prometheus: First Official Trailer [Alien Prequel]:

OMG. I’m totally speechless. What do you guys think? Is anyone as excited as I am about this movie?

Ridley Scott, director of “Alien” and “Blade Runner,” returns to the genre he helped define. With PROMETHEUS, he creates a groundbreaking mythology, in which a team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a thrilling journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.

[Prometheus]

Definition WIN

Definition WIN:

Fernsehkritik.tv Folge

Folge 83 vom 21. Dezember 2011:

• Porno-Steffi kehrt zurück


• 10 noch erwähnenswerte TV-Momente 2011


• Kurz kommentiert: Schweinsgalopp in der Nacht / Mit Schwachsinn schmeckt's am besten / Brandheiße Facebook-Tipps / Der falsche Polizist / Kommerz statt News / Werbung zur Prime Time / Enttarnter Schwindler / Kuschelig und teuer / Irgendwie unschwul

Dear Canada, you SUCK

A new CRTC ruling also allows Bell to pass along more of its usage costs to independent ISPs that purchase its services, giving them less incentive to limit internet speeds.

Instead of throttling, Bell is adopting a solution that many US ISPs already use: managing bandwidth by imposing usage caps and charging for overages. The CRTC chairman has endorsed this method, saying that traffic management "should be done through transparent, economic means." This may be a victory for net neutrality, but it must feel a little hollow to those Bell subscribers paying $33.95 for 2GB of monthly usage.

Nissan's LEAF-to-Home System Could Power a House for Two Days

Nissan says its LEAF-to-home system could power a typical house for two full days.

read more

Video Game-Playing Bullfrog Takes Revenge on Owner [Video]

Video Game-Playing Bullfrog Takes Revenge on Owner [Video]:

After seeing the video of a bearded dragon playing Ant Crusher we featured a few days ago, Youtuber KoreanFrogMania decided to try putting his African bullfrog in front of the game. Check it out!

[Youtube]

Santa Claus

Santa Claus:

Why Do Facebook Users Add and Remove Friends?

What about you guys? What are some of YOUR reasons for adding or removing friends?

[Source:NielsenWire]

Telsa Model S electric sedan pricing and options announced, starts at $57,400

Tesla Motors has announced final pricing and option details for its much-anticipated Model S electric sedan. The battery-powered vehicle, which follows the original sold-out Tesla Roadster, will come in four different varieties:

• The $57,400 entry model offers a 40-kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery pack, a range of 160 miles, and a top speed of 110 miles per hour.


• A 60kWh version will give you a 230 mile range at up to 120mph for $67,400.


• The $77,400 85kWh variant will deliver an impressive 300 mile range at up to 125 miles per hour.


• A fourth Performance model will sell for $87,400, pairing the same 85kWh battery with a top speed of 130mph, a deluxe interior package, and high performance tires

Sadly, that next year's production run is already sold out.

Continue reading…

Hobbit Image of the Day

Hobbit Image of the Day:

Hobbit Image of the Day: A new image of Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins has turned up on the official Facebook page of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Bofur, Bombur, Bifur and Nori appear in the background, and although the caption doesn’t say anything about the setting, it’s possible we’re looking at Rivendell.

Perhaps we’ll know more when the first trailer for the film is released tonight.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens December 14th, 2012.

[geektyrant]

Submitted by: Unknown

Wall Decorations WIN

Google+: A few big improvements before the New Year

Google+: A few big improvements before the New Year: Today we’re pleased to announce a goodie basket full of Google+ features and functionality for you to unpack and enjoy over the holidays. Some of these were on nearly everyone’s wishlist... and some we hope will be welcome surprises. These features will be rolling out over the next couple of days, and we hope you’ll find them useful this holiday season and beyond.



Pump up (or down) the volume!

Sometimes important posts you wouldn’t want to miss from close friends or family can get lost amongst posts from others who post dozens of times a day. We’re adding fine-grained controls that will enable you to “graphic-equalize” and fine-tune your stream. When viewing the stream for a particular circle, you’ll now see a slider at the top that lets you adjust how posts from that circle should be blended into the main stream. That way you’ll never miss a post from that special someone, and you can tweak these settings to form your own “perfect stream.”







More useful and attractive notifications

One of the most useful and valuable features of the redesigned Google bar is the red notifications indicator. (You could even say it glows!) You know when you have tasty social content to consume, but the notifications themselves have been a little cryptic, often requiring you to navigate to the content itself to understand what happened. We now have easy-to-read “sneak previews” that immediately present what’s new and why you might care. We’ve polished these notifications up and made a few other meaningful improvements too, including the ability to see the +1’s and shares your posts have received since you last checked.

Google+ Notifications

Improvements to Google+ Pages

Google+ Pages have already provided brands and businesses a new means of connecting to and deeply engaging with consumers. In the weeks since launching pages, we’ve been listening to your feedback and we’re pleased to make some of the most oft-requested features available.

• You can now delegate up to 50 named managers as administrators for a page.


• A new notification flow will ensure that these managers stay in the loop on all the activity that takes place on a page, giving managers the ability to stay involved in page conversations.


• We’ll now show an aggregated count of users that have engaged with your page, either by +1’ing it or by adding it to a circle. This way, both you and your page’s visitors can get an at-a-glance summary of who is interacting with your page.

A more beautiful and usable photos experience

Finally, we’re making a bevy of improvements to the Google+ Photos experience, just in time for the holiday photo-sharing season. Viewing a photo in Lightbox has been completely redesigned with improved navigation, enhanced comment legibility and better overall utility. This design makes the photo the hero, letting the content itself shine through. And we’re introducing a completely new photo-tagging experience that’s both fun and fluid, and lets you quickly focus on the people in your photos.







We hope that you enjoy these improvements and continue to provide us feedback. It’s been an incredible year for us on the Google+ team. While this indeed has been a #seasonforshipping, Google+ users know that we believe that shipping is always in season! We’ve been busy making some resolutions for 2012, and we think you’re going to love them.



Posted by Bradley Horowitz, Vice President of Product, Google+

Now I Help You, Now I Don’t

Now I Help You, Now I Don’t:
(Grocery Store | Edmonton, AB, Canada)
(The customer service desk at the small store I work at is not manned at all times. It’s pretty much just where we store lotto and cigarettes. Most customers realize pretty quickly that they can go to any till to get service. This time I have seen a lady standing there, saying nothing for ten minutes.)

Me: “Can I help you with anything, ma’am?”

Customer: “I need to talk to someone in customer service.”

Me: “I’m sorry, we don’t have anyone just in customer service, but I can help you with anything you need.”

Customer: “No! I must speak to someone in customer service.”

Me: “Unfortunately, that’s not possible. This is a small store, so we all work at the customer service desk.”

Customer: “I’m not leaving until I speak to someone from customer service.”

(I go to the back, take my glasses off, put on a hat, and go back, this time behind the desk.)

Me: “Can I help you, ma’am?”

Customer: “Yes, finally! One of your stupid supervisors was saying that–”

(She sees my nametag, stops, turns red, and leaves.)

Portion Control WIN

Hobbit Trailer Announcement of the Day

Hobbit Trailer Announcement of the Day: Warner Bros. has set a U.S. premiere date for the first trailer from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: December 21st, 2011.

Yes, our first look at Bilbo, Thorin and co. on the big screen is less than a week away. The trailer will run before The Adventures of Tintin.

No word on when fans outside of the U.S. can get their Hobbit fix.

[heyuguys]

WUSA!!

(Coffee Shop | Australia)
(I have just finished making a coffee order and I call out the number the customer was give. No one comes to pick up the order, so I call the number two or three times before the customer finally comes up to the counter to pick up her order. After a few seconds, she returns.)

Customer: “This coffee is cold!”

Me: “It’s been sitting here for a few minutes. I called it out a couple times but no one came to pick it up.”

Customer: “Well, this is cold! Perhaps you should only have competent people make coffees!”

CLASSIC: Test Answers WIN

Quote of the Day

Die Partei hat die Quittung für die letzten vier Jahre erhalten. Es begann 2007 mit der Abwahl Christoph Blochers, der Wahl von Frau Widmer-Schlumpf und dem Rauswurf der Bündner SVP. Dazu kommt die Zickzack-Politik der SVP, die teilweise nicht verstanden wurde: ihre Haltung gegenüber der Nationalbank und zum Steuerabkommen mit den USA, ihre Ausländerpolitik. Das war gepaart mit einem aggressiven und besserwisserischen Stil. Dazu kommen die Personalpolitik und die Wahlstrategie der letzten Tage. Das alles führte dazu, dass sich alle gegen die SVP verbündeten.


Alt Bundesrat SVP, Adolf Ogi

Borat, der grosse Diktator

Sacha Baron Cohen («Brüno») ist zurück: Nächstes Jahr kommt der Film «The Dicator» ins Kino. Der offizielle Trailer lässt Katastrophales erahnen. Zum Glück.

Dating Fails: She Didn’t Get The “Semper Fi” Part