luapo |
September 19, 2011
Even seen on a laptop screen, the images from last year’s San Bruno explosion are stunning.
But when flipped to different angles, and layered to reveal data and information, the images actually become helpful. At least, that’s what Google is hoping, as it rolls out new disaster preparation technology via its “Geo” team.
It’s technology that Google has been using – Maps and Earth – but now focused on how disaster victims and responders can take advantage of the software, especially considering how we’re all using mobile devices wherever we go.
Read more…
luapo |
September 19, 2011
German model maker Robert Gülpen has built the most expensive car model in the world – a 1:8 scale replica of the Lamborghini Aventador made from carbon, platinum gold and decorated with precious stones.
52-year-old Gülpen, who describes his creation as a “high-tech work of art” said he wanted to create something unique that has never been done before. A former mechanical engineer, Gülpen started making miniature car models from precious metals in the late 1990s and eventually became a renown miniature car model maker. He decided the cutting edge Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 would be the perfect choice for his greatest masterpiece.
Read more…
luapo |
September 18, 2011
The effects are not small: one study showed that an American worker who was among the bottom one-seventh in looks, as assessed by randomly chosen observers, earned 10 to 15 percent less per year than a similar worker whose looks were assessed in the top one-third — a lifetime difference, in a typical case, of about $230,000.
In addition to whatever personal pleasure it gives you, being attractive also helps you earn more money, find a higher-earning spouse (and one who looks better, too!) and get better deals on mortgages. Each of these facts has been demonstrated over the past 20 years by many economists and other researchers.
Why this disparate treatment of looks in so many areas of life? It’s a matter of simple prejudice. Most of us, regardless of our professed attitudes, prefer as customers to buy from better-looking salespeople, as jurors to listen to better-looking attorneys, as voters to be led by better-looking politicians, as students to learn from better-looking professors. This is not a matter of evil employers’ refusing to hire the ugly: in our roles as workers, customers and potential lovers we are all responsible for these effects.
Read more…
luapo |
September 18, 2011
They train to smile with chopsticks wedged between their teeth and books balanced on their heads. They must be nearly as tall as the Miss China beauty contestants and produce smiles outlasting any beauty contest: 4 hours and 48 minutes aboard the new train from China’s capital to coast.
The 313 attendants on the 1,318-km Beijing-Shanghai bullet train launched last week have earned the online nickname ‘high-speed sisters’ for their charm offensive. The glimpses of smile training sessions reported in the media served to divert some of the public attention away from the high ticket prices and corruption and safety scandals in China’s railroad expansion.
Read more…
luapo |
September 17, 2011
A 1-month-old kitten that has genes for a jellyfish fluorescent protein along with a rhesus macaque gene (a virus-blocking restriction factor) is shown next to a sleeping adult control.
Read more…
luapo |
September 16, 2011
Activate your mind’s inner eye; visualize this scene. The worst has occurred. You’ve been locked in your own home. Be it by a forgetful partner or a SAW like psycho, you’re now a prisoner within your own four walls. Furthermore, having forgotten to do the weekly shop, the cupboards of your domestic gulag are bare. Prevent this from happening though, by stocking up on Emergency Food Supplies now.
Don’t worry though; we’ve compiled this helpful list to ensure you’ll survive the ordeal.
1. Animal Food
2. Waste
3. House plants
4. Leather
5. Oven Grease
6. Toothpaste
7. Cardboard / Paper / Tissue
Read more…
