After watching this, you won’t have much reason to complain about those hassles.
Unless, of course, you’re concerned about the sheer idiocy of dim-witted Americans everywhere… Honestly! What in the name of ANYTHING did he think was gonna happen!?
It’s an age-old question testing an individual’s reaction to the unexpected. This video is a perfect test. (Thanks Chris!)
Say what you will about the United States government, but they can no longer be accused of being unconcerned with the world’s dwindling water supply. With all the extra cash we’ve had kicking around lately, NASA has been pissing away a reported $154 million into a Urine Recycler project… we kid you not.
The device is apparently an absolute necessity for life on the International Space Station, whose occupancy will double in bladders next year – since we have no other pressing concerns at the moment. On a more serious note, I’m sure there are prospects for this technology to have a huge impact in the developing world, where access to water is a serious concern, but we can only hope that there will not be too many severe blockages to getting this technology downstream.
As for any sneek peeks as to what the technology looks like… no such luck. On the other hand, we’re sure you remember the last time a ton of money was flushed down the toilet on a pee-drinker.
Oh man. At least it’s catchy.
…bust a nut at a convenience store near you!
(thanks Chris!)
Watch out Stjeev, and all you other Warcrafters out there: the government is on to your fiendish schemes! As Noah Shachtman reports in Wired:
“In a presentation late last week at the Director of National Intelligence Open Source Conference in Washington, Dr. Dwight Toavs, a professor at the Pentagon-funded National Defense University, gave a bit of a primer on virtual worlds to an audience largely ignorant about what happens in these online spaces. Then he launched into a scenario, to demonstrate how a meatspace plot might be hidden by in-game chatter.”
Aside from the fact that this story comes straight out of a National Lampoon’s script, Noah somehow manages to find humor in the fact that Washington security types are seriously worried about what goes on in the subverisve WoW. He ends with this choice quote:
“Toavs, for one, believes that spies will have to spend more time in virtual worlds like WoW, if they want to have a hope of keeping tabs on what goes on inside ‘em. Which means, some day soon, we might find secret agents in World of Warcraft, along with the druids and orcs and night elves.”
Beware ye computer geeks: behind every warlock and druid there might just be a fed…
Continuing on my election kick, check out “We Need a President (It’s Obama!)” from Bay Area artist Eklectyk, and members of the Napalm Clique. The viral video caught on pretty quickly with local media and blogs, and the video’s director even had a request for a copy from Oprah at the DNC.
Regardless of political affiliation or affinity, plenty of people are interested in making political statements – especially in the middle of a Presidential campaign (go figure!).
As for me, I’m more interested in hilarity, and the following video from The Daily Show is damn funny. If you don’t have an uninterrupted 3:28 minute block, go straight to the 2:17 mark, where the comedy kicks into high gear. Otherworldly irony available at 3:17 minutes:
“Freedom of choice? That’s different than being pro-choice.”
(from Dee)
