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Sticky Bombs in Baghdad

The latest in the ever escalating battle of wits between the insurgent's ingenuity against the US military appears to be the increasing usage of "sticky" bombs. No, not those grenades from Halo.

The so-called "sticky" improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, can be quickly tucked under a car bumper, and held in place by magnets. Which means any vehicle in Iraq can now be turned into a car bomb, or an assassination tool. The driver often has no idea of the deadly modifications to his vehicle. Which makes stopping the bombs that much tougher.

Read more here.

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Israeli Candidate Borrows a (Web) Page from Obama

It's pretty amusing to see the hawkish and conservative Benjamin Netanyahu running for prime minister of Israel with a campaign website literally ripped from Obama's 2008 playbook.

The colors, the fonts, the icons for donating and volunteering, the use of videos, and the social networking Facebook-type options — including Twitter, which hardly exists in Israel — all reflect a conscious effort by the Netanyahu campaign to learn from the Obama success.

Compare their respective websites.

When I was in college as part of my political science training we had to analyze political ads, specifically TV spots. I think, if it already isn't, political candidate's websites should be added to the syllabus now too.

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Secret 'Directed Energy' Tech Protecting the President?

I don't think it's hyperbole to say that the next four years will present one of the greatest challenges to the Secret Service protecting President-Elect Obama and his family, so it isn't a surprise that the Secret Service may be deploying some super high tech next-gen weaponry and counter measures.

Presidential protection is likely to include a range of jammers to stop remote bomb detonation, and possibly remote-controlled aircraft attacks. With all this jamming, interference can occur and make radio communication impossible – if you leave any frequency clear, the bad guys might use it to send a detonation signal. So perhaps the Secret Service may have a microwave voice transmission system as an emergency backup when radio communication is impossible. This would allow them to beam instructions to agents at a distance. At a pinch it could also be used to distract a would-be assassin --- having a voice suddenly booming inside your head should put off most snipers (…though they might have a few voices in there already).

We know that the Air Force have looked at microwave sound as a nonlethal weapon, and long-range acoustic systems like LRAD are already in use by the military and others. So a Secret Service microwave sound system is not totally, completely out of the question.

And of course the Secret Service also have at their disposal...sharks with FREAKIN' LASER BEAMS on their FREAKIN' heads.

Update: New York Times has more on the overall ramping up of security around Obama and his family after November 4th.

Although he does not yet have access to Air Force One, he now rides in an armored government limousine, complete with the war wagon and other motorcade vehicles zipping through red lights with traffic blocked. Although the Secret Service long ago set up concrete barriers around his house here, they expanded their perimeter by several blocks after the election and brought in explosive-sniffing dogs.

“It’s changed,” said Mesha Caudle, 45, who lives a block from the Obamas. “It’s a little inconvenient, just a little, when you have to go around three blocks to go one block. I don’t mind, though, because I got the president I voted for. If the price is a little inconvenience, that’s O.K.”

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NASA's Recycled Water Recipe: Urine and Sweat

On the next shuttle mission to the International Space Station NASA will be testing their new $250 million "water recovery system." Designed to resupply the station's water by recycling approximately 93 percent of the water on board, "urine, sweat in the air, waste water and other forms of moisture will be fed into the system, distilled and sent back to the tap"

So, again — how does it taste? Your intrepid reporter opened one of the bottles of “Purified Recycled Water” that Mr. Bagdigian brought with him. The wryly worded label was a little intimidating: “We use only the finest ingredients! Urine, Perspiration, Food Vapors, Bath Water, Simulated Animal Waste, and a touch of Iodine. No Carbs or Calories Added.”

With that as my verbal drum roll, I took a sip. Aside from a slight tang of iodine, it tasted like, well, water. I’ve had tap water that tasted much more like things I don’t want to think about.

Thanks, but no thanks.

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Possible New Presidential Whip

Our president-elect's new ride may soon be this heavily armored Cadillac that was caught in the wild being tested.

Style-wise, we can see bits and pieces from a few different Cadillac models. Xenon headlights from the Escalade adorn the front while the rear seems to have some STS parts. We can also see holders on the top of the front fenders where two small American flags would traditionally go. The doors on this limo are absolutely astounding. We'd guess they are at least 20 centimeters (8 inches) thick!

That's what she said! Hi-HO!

In all seriousness, this Cadillac better come strong with the front mounted dual machine guns, oil slicks, smoke screens, and surface to air missiles. Oh wait, I'm thinking of Spy Hunter.

[Via]

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It Wasn't Me. It Was the iPhone.

This question was asked on the Apple support discussion boards by "Susan" in New Jersey.

Please help! I took my husband's i-phone and found a raunchy picture of him attached to an e-mail to a woman in his sent e-mail file (a Yahoo account). When I approached him about this (I think that he is cheating on me) he admitted that he took the picture but says that he never sent it to anyone. He claims that he went to the Genius Bar at the local Apple store and they told him that it is an i-phone glitch: that photos sometimes automatically attach themselves to an e-mail address and appear in the sent folder, even though no e-mail was ever sent. Has anyone ever heard of this happening? The future of my marriage depends on this answer!

One helpful person replied, "Its a glitch, but only happens if the pic is sufficiently raunchy."

[Thanks Moye!]

Update: Someone shared this on Digg. Please digg if you like this!

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The Adventures of Burn-E

Pixar revisits Wall-E and treats us to a hilarious short film that shows us what happened to one of the utility robots during Wall-E and Eve's adventure. Watch the tale of Burn-E (There's a final scene right after the credits as well)!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoTT4WBZ-30]

[Via]

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Lebron James Dunks From Free Throw Line

I know others have done it before but seeing someone dunk from the free throw line never gets old, particularly when it occurs in the middle of an actual game as opposed to some dunk contest or exhibition match. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZTRCRIjJcI]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY68TTW5KQ4]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQtZS-vF0bc]

I used to be able to do this too back in the days when I used to absolutely school the kids in summer camp. Yea, I was 20 and those kids were only 10 year-olds, and the net was about 6 feet off the ground. But so what? They were punk kids and you know something else? It feels good to dunk. Always.

[Via]

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Jonathan Lethem, "Lostronaut"

Good morning everyone. The short story in the latest New Yorker written by Jonathan Lethem is a startling pick for the magazine. When was the last time you read science-fiction in the New Yorker??

Told in a series of letters written by a female astronaut stranded in a space station to her signficant other, Chase living in New York, this excerpt is sure to get your day started on just the right depressing note!

We’re soaring atoms, Chase, that’s what orbit consists of, the inhuman hastening of infinitesimal specklike bodies through an awesome indifferent void, yet in our cramped homely craft, its rooms named to evoke childhood comforts, with our blobs of toothpaste drifting between our brushes and the mirror, our farts and halitosis filling the chambers with odor, we’ve defaulted to an illusion of substance. Inside Northern Lights, we’ve managed to kid ourselves that we exist, that we’re curvaceous or lumpy or angular, bristling with hair and snot, taking up a certain amount of room, and that space and time have generously accorded a margin in which we’re invited to operate these sizable greedy bodies of ours, a margin in which to dwell, to hang out and live our pale stinky stories.

Read story here.

[Via]

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