The Kindle Fire is a holiday record breaker.
Amazon sent out a press release titled, “2011 is the Best Holiday Ever for Kindle” and looking at the numbers, it seems like a justified statement.
The company reports that there were over a million Kindle devices sold each week, with the Kindle Fire as the hottest item, the Kindle Touch following it up, and the plain old Kindle bringing up the rear…
Are you giving the gift that won’t get used?
Gift cards are the laziest, lousiest, most convenient, popular and widely given present. And this is your yearly reminder of just how much they stink. Since 2005, we’vetossed out more value in gift cards than the entire GNP of Ghana…
Continue reading… “We’ve bought $41 billion in unused gift cards since 2005”
The Rodnik Band’s urinal dress took three weeks of sequin applying and embroidering to make.
Potty dress, glass bikinis, eyelash jewelry, hair necklaces: The list of 2011’s wackiest fashions runs on and on. Whether you liked them or not, or were even brave enough to try them, these styles certainly gave us our money’s worth in entertainment value. (pics)
Here are 10 favorites:
Continue reading… “10 craziest fashions of 2011”
Brominated vegetable oil is patented as a flame retardant and it’s banned in food all over Europe and Japan, but it’s on the ingredient list of about 10 percent of sodas in the U.S. It’s not in Coca-Cola, but is in Mountain Dew, Fanta Orange, and in some flavors of Powerade and Gatorade.
What brominated vegetable oil (BVO) does to soda is, Coca-Cola explains, “prevent the citrus flavoring oils from floating to the surface in beverages.” The fruit flavors that are mixed into a drink would otherwise settle out. What BVO does when it’s acting as a flame retardant is not much different: It slows down the chemical reactions that cause a fire…
Continue reading… “Is that Flame Retardant in your Soft Drink?”
If your life is not a masterpiece, try typing a new one
“The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enough to get the job done.” – – George Carlin
Continue reading… “Top 10 Photos of the Week”
What would you send into space via a space post office?
Young children living the Western world will often spend December writing letters to be sent the North Pole in the hope of reaching Santa Claus. In China, however, people of all ages now have a new reason to get the pen and paper out again as China Post are now offering a service that sends letters into space…
Continue reading… “China Post beams letters into orbit via a Space Post Office”
Top Secret for years after the project was completed.
In the 1970s, during the heights of the Cold War, more than 1,000 engineers worked on a project so secret that they couldn’t tell their wives and children decades after it was over.
In September 2011, the project – a series of spy satellites so advanced that it could see objects about 2 feet wide from space (mind you, this was in the 1970s before the ubiquity of computers so the satellites were built with slide rules), was declassified and with it, the stories of the men who kept their secret for 45 years…
Continue reading… “Secrets of the Hexagon Spy Satellite”
![guy-laramee-2[3]](https://www.impactlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/guy-laramee-23.jpg "guy-laramee-2[3]")
Books with a literal view.
“So I carve landscapes out of books and I paint Romantic landscapes”, says interdisciplinary artist Guy Laramee who, in the course of his 30 years of practice, found his way through such varied and numerous disciplines as : stage writing, stage directing, contemporary music writing, musical instrument design and building, singing, video, scenography, sculpture, installation, painting and literature. Laramee uses books that are slowly falling apart, such as old encyclopedias and dictionaries to create dramatic landscapes… (more pics after jump)
Continue reading… “Amazing 3D landscapes carved out of books”
Two heads are not always better than one.
Two-headed creatures are rare and somewhat uncomfortable to behold, but they are not unheard of in the natural scheme of things…
Continue reading… “Two-headed cyclops pig born in China”
Hear the future of synth music now, from this emerging powerhouse duo Robotic Drummer and HP Scanner! Little Drummer Boy comes alive with the office friendly sounds of Christmas, and makes you wonder “what are these two going to play next?”
Continue reading… “Little Drummer Boy performed by HP Scanner and robotic drummer”
The mystery sphere.
For a few days, people living in a remote area of Namibia heard strange explosions. Then they found this sphere, which about 43 inches in diameter, in an impact crater about 12 feet across. What is it for? Who does it belong to?
Continue reading… “Mysterious sphere falls from space”
Hear no pandemic, see no pandemic, speak no pandemic.
The US government has approached the scientific journals Nature and Science in order to censor data on a lab-made version of bird flu, because it could potentially be used as a weapon. That’s not cool!
According to the Guardian, the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) asked the journals to publish redacted versions of studies carried out by two research groups…
Continue reading… “The US Is Trying To Censor Scientific Journals”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.