Michael Jordan Is Engaged

Michael Jordan Is Engaged: After divorcing his wife of 17 years in 2006 then buying the Charlotte Bobcats, North Carolina and NBA legend (and worst dressed millionaire in history) Michael Jordan, got engaged to his girlfriend...



[[ This is a content summary only. Visit IDontLikeYouInThatWay.com for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Raiders of the Lost Ark shot-for-shot tracing of the adventure movies it borrowed from

Raiders of the Lost Ark shot-for-shot tracing of the adventure movies it borrowed from:

David Weinberger sez, "An amazing video from StooTV shows the first 13 minutes of Raiders of the Lost Ark paired with identical shots from 30 different adventure movies made between 1919 and 1973. Yup, that’s how culture works ... at least if we let it."

Raider of the Lost Lawsuits

LG details 55-inch OLED TV, will show off its true colors at CES 2012

LG details 55-inch OLED TV, will show off its true colors at CES 2012:

While building the world's first 55-inch OLED TV panel is nice, it's not worth much unless you put an actual TV around it and LG Electronics will have the total package on display next week at CES. Today's press release reveals more about LG's "4-Color Pixel" and Color Refiner technology it's implementing to bring consistent, accurate colors that it claims will be other OLED TV's abnormal color gamut. LG's press release doesn't mention production plans or pricing, but all of this is squeezed into a frame that's just 4mm thick with a narrow bezel and weight of 7.5kg -- we'll let our eyes decide on the quality of its colors once we meet in person.

Continue reading LG details 55-inch OLED TV, will show off its true colors at CES 2012

LG details 55-inch OLED TV, will show off its true colors at CES 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Casio's smartphone-ready G-Shock watch set to hit Japan in March

Casio's smartphone-ready G-Shock watch set to hit Japan in March:

Casio's G-Shock GB-6900 watch was originally set to roll out sometime this year (having even made an appearance at FCC way back in July) but, according to TechCrunch, the company was forced to delay its release to due to shortages resulting from the Thailand floods. Now it looks like you'll be able to finally pick one up on March 16th of next year -- at least in Japan, where it's set to run ¥18,000 (or about $230). Of course, we wouldn't be covering this if it was just an ordinary G-Shock watch. The key feature here is Bluetooth LE connectivity (part of the Bluetooth 4.0 spec), which consumes far less power than other Bluetooth variations, and allows the watch to communicate with your smartphone. As you might expect from that tiny display, that functionality is a bit more limited than something like Motorola's MOTOACTV, but it will let you see incoming calls, emails and text messages, and control some basic features like your phone's ringer or alarm.

Casio's smartphone-ready G-Shock watch set to hit Japan in March originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | TechCrunch | Email this | Comments

Fisker Karma recall is official, 239 cars will need their battery packs swapped

Fisker Karma recall is official, 239 cars will need their battery packs swapped:

The folks at Fisker are probably more excited to see the calendar roll over than anyone, as a tumultuous 2011 comes to an end with another setback for the Karma. A battery issue previously thought to affect around 50 cars will actually result in the recall of 239. GigaOM points out an NHTSA notice confirming a problem with the positioning of hose clamps on the high-voltage Li-Ion batteries. It could result in said hoses leaking coolant into the battery creating the risk of an electrical short-circuit (still not seeing how this is a bad thing) and fire (oh), which the company will resolve by replacing the batteries. The recall probably covers everyone out there rolling like Walden Schmidt, since the CEO announced December 21st that 225 cars had been shipped and its factory was producing 25 cars per day. Still, assuming the ~$96k price tag isn't an issue, would you really let a little thing like potentially bursting into flames keep you away from such a sleek, smooth handling luxury sedan that puts 657hp of hybrid power at your disposal? Neither would we.

Continue reading Fisker Karma recall is official, 239 cars will need their battery packs swapped

Fisker Karma recall is official, 239 cars will need their battery packs swapped originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Jan 2012 07:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink GigaOM | NHTSA | Email this | Comments

The truth is the best bullshit

The truth is the best bullshit:

Instapaper developer Marco Arment nails three companies -- Apple, Google and Facebook -- for spreading bullshit. "Everyone has their bullshit," he writes. "You can simply decide whose you’re willing to tolerate."

Percolate's Noah Brier, however, takes issue with one of Marco's picks; namely, Facebook's claim that "users want to interact with brands." Brier believes that it's true, and offers some evidence why it is so.

It's easy to get snarled up arguing over branding, advertising and whether people like it, hate it, or just play along. But even if Brier is right, I think he's missed the point.

There's a reason Marco calls these slogans "bullshit" instead of "lies." It's because there's a subtle difference between the two. Bullshit creates a particular impression regardless of the truth, whereas lies are explicitly untrue. If you look at each of the items in his list, you'll see that all of them are just as true, literally speaking, as the one that Brier pointed out.

What makes them bullshit is the context—in this case, the economic incentives that each of the three companies have to select these literal truths as marketing messages. Marco's intention, if he'll forgive me for presuming, is surely to point out that each of these messages serve to mislead consumers, not that they are untrue in an absolute sense.

For example, Android is certainly an open-source operating system, and its success is of great value to the free and open-source software movement. Google's incentive to develop it, however, is to increase advertising revenues, a core business which benefits when users disregard their privacy. Moreover, most Android installations are mucked around with by cellular carriers, whose track record on consumer rights is appalling. To those concerned about these issues, Android is a trojan horse for privacy invasion and corporate surveillance. This makes "Android is open" bullshit when aimed, as a marketing slogan, at consumers who could not care less about the context where it's actually true.

It's also true that Apple's app-review rules are in everyone's best interests -- so long as you agree with Apple's definition of our best interests. But Apple's taste in UI convention, inoffensiveness and so on is not shared by all. It's a combination that serves its bottom line: "make good apps, devs, but not ones that make us look bad or compete with us!"

The best example (of bullshit encapsulated by a literal truth) is another of those Marco attributes to Facebook: "We value your privacy."

I can hear your outraged scoffs, but think about it. Of course Facebook values our privacy. It knows exactly how much it's worth. So it's only natural that the users it loves to talk about are the ones who love to interact with "brands".

Bullshit [Marco]

On Bullshit [Percolate]

On Bullshit, by Harry Frankfurt [Amazon]

Actual Damages For 1 Download = Cost of a 1 License

Actual Damages For 1 Download = Cost of a 1 License:

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In Real View v 20-20 Technologies, it was held that the actual copyright infringement damages for a single unauthorized download of a computer program was the lost license fee that would have been charged. The judge, in the District Court of Massachusetts, granted remittitur, reducing the jury's verdict from $1,370,590.00 to $4200 unless the plaintiff seeks a new trial. Something tells me the plaintiff will seek a new trial."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Bohn Aluminum's hypermodernist futuristic wartime ads

Bohn Aluminum's hypermodernist futuristic wartime ads:

Here's a gallery of advertisements from the Bohn Aluminium and Brass Corporation, illustrated in super-modernist, streamlined style by Arthur Radebaugh. They run the gamut from future farms to future vehicles to exploded engine diagrams, with monorails and super-jumbos and transparent curvy refrigerators for all. They're full of wartime pluck, with ad copy like, "When peace is established, a great variety of new products for the housewife will be forthcoming. One of these will be a new refrigerator... When Victory comes, Bohn will continue such work as designing new refrigerator parts..."

Imaging the Future, Arthur Radebaugh, Bohn Aluminium and Brass Corporation, advertisements

(via How to Be a Retronaut)

Tensions Over Hormuz Raise Ugly Possibilities For War

Tensions Over Hormuz Raise Ugly Possibilities For War:

Hugh Pickens writes "The high stakes standoff between Iran and the U.S. over the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for one-fifth of the world's oil, escalated this week as Iran's navy claimed to have recorded video of a U.S. aircraft carrier entering the Port of Oman and the deputy chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Hossein Salami rejected U.S. claims that it could prevent Iran from closing the strait. To drive the point home, Iran has started a 10-day naval exercise in the Persian Gulf to show off how it could use small speedboats and a barrage of missiles to combat America's naval armada while in a report for the Naval War College, U.S. Navy Commander Daniel Dolan wrote that Iran has acquired 'thousands of sea mines, wake homing torpedoes, hundreds of advanced cruise missiles (PDF) and possibly more than one thousand small Fast Attack Craft and Fast Inshore Attack Craft.'" (Read more, below.)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Claude Coats, the background artist who made the Haunted Mansion feel infinite

Claude Coats, the background artist who made the Haunted Mansion feel infinite:

Long Forgotten, the world-beatingly insightful blog on the history and design of the Haunted Mansion rides at Disneyland, Walt Disney World and other parks, has a new lavishly illustrated post up, this one on the contribution of background artist Claude Coats. HBG2, the site's author, makes a compelling case for Coats' draftsmanship and sense of depth and detail being the clinching element of the Mansion's design, the thing that makes it seem so much bigger and realer than it has any right to be. I once read FoxxFur, the blogger at the equally awesome Passport2Dreams Old and New describe the Mansion as a series of scenes in a giant, empty box (contrasting with the Pirates of the Caribbean, which is really a series of towns and scenes that fill the whole ride-space -- but the Mansion feels like it goes on and on, like you could jump out of your vehicle and get lost in its depths.

Coats was one of the artists Walt pulled out of the studio to work on Disneyland as it neared completion. He had studied architecture as well as painting, and he seemed a natural pick for designing the interiors of dark rides, starting with Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Among other things, Coats had a knack for squeezing an amazing amount of ride into a ridiculously small space. He and Ken Anderson must be given the lion's share of credit for Toad. The precise extent of Coats's contributions to the other two 1955 originals, Snow White and Peter Pan, is less clear, but there seems to be little doubt that he participated. Later dark rides in which he was heavily involved include Alice in Wonderland and Adventure Thru Inner Space (which was practically all Coats; notice that there are no characters in ATIS)...

Besides the sheer scale, another difference in this work was the mixture of 2D and 3D. Coats was now doing background paintings with bulges, a sort of bas-relief. He quickly showed himself a master of this technique. This Peter Pan shot is modern (hat tip Daveland), but it preserves the illusioneering Coats and Anderson pioneered at Disney, layering shallow, three-dimensional models against flat paintings...

Every time you feel that strange urge to wander into the labyrinthian depths of the Haunted Mansion and be lost (the pull is especially strong in the first half), that's Claude Coats the background painter, leaving your very self to supply the missing character cell.

We tend to think of immersive environments (especially the Disney ones) as being all about the robotics, character design, sound and ride systems, but the backgrounds are what really make the experience.

Long-Forgotten: Claude Coats: The Art of Deception and the Deception of Art