Sep 11 2009 9/11: The World Trade Center From Space

This is a picture of the World Trade Center after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, taken by current commander of the International Space Station at the time, Frank Culbertson. Damn, has it really been eight years? Remember.

The World Trade Center Terrorist Attack from Space [gizmodo]

Dec 4 2008 Terrorist LEGO Minifigs Stir Controversy

I can't say that I'm surprised, but apparently people are taking offense to LEGO minifigs that have been modded (by BrickArms) to resemble terrorists and Nazis.

Mohammed Shaffiq of Muslim organisation The Ramadhan Foundation told The Sun the figures were 'absolutely disgusting'. He said: 'It is glorifying terrorism - the makers should be ashamed. We should be coming together to unite against terrorism but how is that possible when children are playing with toys like this?'

Last night the business's founder Will Chapman said: 'It's not my intention to glorify terrorism or Nazis - but kids love the bad guys. He added: 'I can see why people might get offended but that is not what I'm trying to do. We have sold thousands and thousands of them.'

He later added: 'CHA-CHING!'

When reached for comment, the Geekologie Writer had this to say about the figures: 'Finally, terrorists versus Nazis! PEW PEW.'

Hit the jump for a few more of the offensive minifigs.

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Oct 3 2008 Buns And Guns Is A Real Freaking Restaurant

Buns and Guns is an actual freaking restaurant in Beirut and I would totally eat there.

At the "Buns and Guns" fast food restaurant, deep in Beirut's Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs, the chefs wear military helmets, the food is wrapped in camouflage paper, and the motto is "a sandwich can kill you."

The glossy camouflaged menus feature burgers with names like "the mortar" and "the 155 mm howitzer," while grilled chicken sandwiches can be a "magnum" or a "rocket-propelled grenade."

Lebanon's most common and popular weapon, the AK-47 Klashnikov assault rifle, is a beef steak sandwich served in long baguette-style bread.

Oh man, I love a good beef steak sandwich, I'm gonna have to go try one. I'll get it with extra hot peppers too, really blow my o-ring sky high.

Hit the jump for a ton more pictures of the restaurant.

Continue Reading " Buns And Guns Is A Real Freaking Restaurant "

Sep 16 2008 Uh-Oh: Government Fears Terrorists Are Plotting Attacks In Online Worlds

A researcher at the Pentagon recently gave a presentation at the Director of National Intelligence Open Source Conference explaining how terrorists could potentially plot attacks by meeting in a virtual world.

In it, two World of Warcraft players discuss a raid on the "White Keep" inside the "Stonetalon Mountains." The major objective is to set off a "Dragon Fire spell" inside, and make off with "110 Gold and 234 Silver" in treasure. "No one will dance there for a hundred years after this spell is cast," one player, "war_monger," crows.

Except, in this case, the White Keep is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. "Dragon Fire" is an unconventional weapon. And "110 Gold and 234 Silver" tells the plotters how to align the game's map with one of Washington, D.C.

Great, like I didn't already have enough to worry about in World of Warcraft. Now that I'm on terrorist patrol, I may never get a mount. Whatever happened to good old fashioned D&D terrorism?

Hit the jump for two pictures explaining how you can use a game's map to help plot an attack.

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Aug 21 2008 Pretty F'ed Up: World Trade Center Invaders

French-American artist Douglas Edric "Asshat" Stanely "Steamer" has this game on display right now at the '08 Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany.

Stanely says that the exhibit is an update of one he created in September 2001. This time the exhibit is much larger, includes multiplayer support, improved tracking, high and low scores leader boards and a "stronger tie-in to the historical narrative that originally inspired me to make this version in the first place."

You aren't helping.

The World Trade Center attacks mark a deep cut in our recent history that is still being processed. The French-American artist Douglas Edric Stanley has found an unusual - though obvious - metaphor with his work "Invaders!", which is based on the 1978 arcade original. In his interactive large installation, the players must prevent the catastrophe by controlling the well- known cannon at the lower screen border with their bodies and firing it using arm movements. Like the original, this trial is ultimately unsuccessful, thus creating an articulated and critical commentary about the current war strategy. In this regard, Douglas Edric Stanley sees Space Invaders as "a social tale that can be related to historical tales without losing its poetic power"

Oh yeah, tons of poetic power there, Stanley. How moving. The convention goes on until the 24th, so anybody that's attending or lives nearby, feel free to stop in and say hello to Douglas. Hello with a tire iron to the nuts. And maybe you could recite some Dylan Thomas or Robert Frost while you're doing it. You know, for added poetic power.

Space Invaders Attack World Trade Center At Games Convention [kotaku]

Artist Explains WTC Space Invaders Exhibit at Games Convention [kotaku]
(Note: this page has a picture of him that will make you hate him even more -- he looks like a Nihilist from The Big Lebowski)

Thanks to Julian, who promised to stuff me in his luggage and get me over there.

Jul 22 2008 Wait, What?: SAS Dogs Trained To Parachute

Allegedly, German Shepherds are being trained to jump from planes at 25,000 feet strapped to SAS soldiers. The dogs will soon be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, where they will serve as reconnaissance shepherds.

With tiny cameras fixed to their heads, the animals will be sent in before their human partners to hunt for Taliban or insurgent hideouts. The cameras will beam live images back to the troops as the dogs penetrate behind enemy lines and warn of ambushes.

According to The Sun, the dogs will be trained to accompany soldiers on what are called 'High Altitude High Opening' parachute jumps, after which they may have to travel 20 miles to their targets.

Apparently dogs have been trained to jump out of airplanes since World War II, when German Shepherds were used to infiltrate the German ranks and poison high ranking officials. Okay, I made that up (minus the parachuting). Still, somebody should make a movie about it. But I have a question. Why does that dog in the picture have a bionic mouth? And why is that guy pointing his gun at its head? Calm down bro, so it ate your boot -- that's what dogs do. And also, hump the cat and shit on the sofa. Right?
German Shepherds trained to parachute with SAS troops [telegraph]

Thanks Pat, now imagine if they did the same thing with mice. Stuart Little parachuting in behind enemy lines and then sneaking around and shit and talking in that little cute voice of his. That'd be great. Oh, another blockbuster movie idea.

Jul 18 2008 Eye Candy: More Chinese Anti-Terrorism Exercises For The Olympics, With Captions!

Remember the picture of the Chinese military on Segways as part of an anti-terrorism exercise? Well it turns out there's a whole bunch more of them performing various drills. And I've posted them here for your viewing pleasure. This is one of the group practicing their synchronized flailing routine.

Hit the jump for 7 more, with captions!

Continue Reading " Eye Candy: More Chinese Anti-Terrorism Exercises For The Olympics, With Captions! "

Jul 9 2008 Great, Just Great: DARPA Awards Grant To Make T-1000's, Kill Us In Our Sleep

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently awarded Tufts University a $3.3 million contract to develop T-1000 shape-shifters so they can squeeze under doors and through cracks and shit to kill us all. Part of the original DARPA solicitation for proposals follows.

The ability to safely and covertly gain access to denied or hostile areas and perform useful tasks provides critical advantages to warfighters over a broad spectrum of military operations. An effective and logistically attractive means for gaining entry to denied areas is to deploy an unmanned platform, such as a robot. However, often the only available points of entry are small openings in buildings, walls, under doors, etc. In these cases, a robot must be soft enough to squeeze or traverse through small openings, yet large enough to carry an operationally meaningful payload. Current robotic platforms are constructed primarily from hard materials and, while capable of locomotion with embedded payloads, cannot change their physical dimensions to rapidly traverse arbitrary size/shape openings whose dimensions are much smaller than the robot itself and are not known a-priori.

You thought I was joking, didn't you? Well I wasn't. And I wasn't joking when I just boarded up the door and windows of my apartment either either. I'll be damned if I'm done in by some mercury-ass blob. Ha, I forgot to let the girlfriend in. I can hear her out front pounding...the UPS guy. What a freaking slut.

Hit the links for more in-depth articles that I stopped reading because they were creeping me out.

Tufts to develop morphing 'chemical robots' [physorg]
via
Shape-shifting, organ-probing chembots coming soon [engadget]

DARPA Solicitation For Proposals

Thanks Ryan and Benjamin, I hate living anyways.

Jun 9 2008 Lightning Guns To Help Fight The War On Terrorism, Old People With Pacemakers

A company called Applied Energetics is developing lightning guns capable of stalling cars and shorting IEDs from a safe distance. They were originally planning on using them on people, but have since moved to cars and bombs after an unsuccessful attempt at rounding up test subjects (bums). The weapon is expected to be ready within 5-6 years and I'll definitely be adding one to my anti-robot arsenal. You hear that, Zeus? I said I won't be needing your lightning bolt services after all. Your rates were ridiculous anyways you greedy bastard. Oh, and while I'm at it -- I banged your wife/sister Hera! Two birds with one stone, baby! Chalk it up.

Lightning Guns to Short Out Cars, Fry Roadside Bombs [gizmodo]

Thanks Sev, don't lightning me bro!

Jun 2 2008 Man Nearly Arrested For Transformers Shirt

Brad Jayakody, 30 (that's him in the picture), was almost arrested for attempting to board a flight from London to Dusseldorf, Germany while wearing that Transformers t-shirt.

Mr Jayakody said the first guard started joking with him about the Transformers character depicted on his French Connection T-shirt. "Then he explains that since Megatron is holding a gun, I'm not allowed to fly,' he said. A spokesman for Heathrow operator BAA said: 'If a T-shirt had a rude word or a bomb on it, for example, a passenger may be asked to remove it.

'We are investigating what happened to see if it came under this category.

'If it's offensive, we don't want other passengers upset.'

Freaking wow. Now I hate flying as much as the next kid whose father pushed them off the roof with a bedsheet hang glider, but seriously, you know? Seriously. Wow. In all honesty though, companies shouldn't even be allowed to sell Transformer t-shirts. It's a freaking terrorist act and breeds robot sympathizers.

Man threatened with arrest at Heathrow for wearing Transformers T-shirt [dailymail]

Thanks to Neko, who finds robot sympathizers as despicable as I do

Nov 30 2007 Police Forces To Get Flying Video Drones

Both the Miami-Dade, Florida and Houston, Texas police departments will soon be adding a new officer to the force -- the Micro Air Vehicle (MAV), made by Honeywell. The little RC bastards can fly to a 10,500-foot altitude, hover, and even fly through windows -- all the while transmitting live video. "The unmanned aircraft will be used during SWAT team and tactical operations, especially when officers need video of a heavily armed suspect." Interesting, I'm glad they're finally putting these things to good use. Now I hate to be a conspiracy theorist or anything, but I swear I saw one of these hovering outside my bedroom window last night. There I am, sitting on the edge of the bed masturbating, when I catch a glimpse out the corner of my eye. Now call me crazy, but I think this is solid proof that the government has a vested interest in examining the world's smallest penis.

A video of the little bugger in action after the jump.

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Oct 29 2007 Bullet Tape Ensures Packages Won't Arrive

Tired of using the same boring-ass clear packing tape when sending a package? Well check out some of your other options. RuebenMiller has posted a review of 20 different designer packing tapes that are currently available. This is my personal favorite, the bullets. There's simply no better way to ensure your package doesn't arrive on time and unopened than wrapping it with this stuff. Smear some unidentified white powder on the box and throw something that ticks in there and you'll really be good to go. To prison for being an ass-clown.

Two more different ones after the jump.

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Oct 2 2007 NYPD's New License Plate Readers

The New York Police Department is currently testing a camera that can read license plates and then transmit that information to a database to search for matches. The camera is a couple of blocks from ground zero, and is part of the city's effort to create a high-tech security ring around Lower Manhattan. No data is being collected at the moment -- the camera is just being tested, so you can rest (a little) easier. Big brother is not yet in full swing. The good news is that they didn't say the camera can scan vehicles for hookers. They also failed to mention what happens if you don't have a plate on. Which probably means you beat the system.

New York City Cameras to Read License Plates [therawfeed]

Aug 16 2007 Airplane Security Collar

Above is the schematic for an invention by Italian Paolo Valletta that is um, well, it's like a shock collar for dogs, except it injects your neck with a tranquilizer if you start acting up on a plane. Using this device, the flight attendants would be able to knock out any passenger on the plane, or all if necessary. Which, at least for me, is entirely unnecessary. After my typical pre-flight liter of bourbon and handful of sleeping pills I'm usually peaceful. This thing would probably kill me.

Airplane Security Collar [livescience]