Sarcastically Yours

'Octomom' house going to auction Monday : LA HABRA – The four-bedroom, three-bathroom home where Nadya Suleman – known as "Octomom" – and her 14 children have lived for more than three years is scheduled to go on the auction block Monday, Amer Haddadin, the home's previous owner who...

No BlizzCon? Blizzard teaming up with MLG to make up for it : There was a bit of a shock when Blizzard Entertainment decided not to hold BlizzCon this year — the event attended by 20,000 people sells out in seconds. Now the Irvine-based game developer is offering some degree of solace for fans. The company is...

U.S. Attorney investigating NBA players union : The U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan is investigating the NBA players union.

Exclusive: Apple courts Hollywood for upcoming TV: sources | Reuters :

Parenting Fails: That Didn’t Go as Planned : They won’t be playing this game anymore.

Report: Hyundai Sonata caused Nissan to reassess 2013 Altima development : Filed under: Sedan , Marketing/Advertising , Hyundai , Nissan , Toyota , Design/Style When Hyundai rolled out their outrageously styled Sonata three years ago, car buyers took notice. It's eye-catching exterior styling, well-appointed interior and affordable price was just what a lot of family sedan buyers wanted. Few will admit it, but carmakers sat up and paid attention, too. However, Andy Palmer, Nissan executive vice president for global planning, doesn't mind telling the world that his company certainly saw the significance of the midsize Korean sedan. So much so that they briefly halted design work on the 2013 Altima . "We even delayed development by a short amount just to check that the (new Altima's) proportions were right, the (package) was right (and that) the product overall was right," Palmer tells Ward's Auto. "I'd say they (Hyundai) are our major...

Terrifying Landings and Aborted Landings Under 62MPH Crosswinds [Video] : Last Wednesday, a huge storm system arrived to Spain. In Bilbao, a city in the north of Spain, airplanes were forced to land under 62mph (100km/h) crosswinds. Some of the landings had to be aborted, like the third plane in this video. More »

Report: This Could Be HP's First Windows 8 Tablet [Rumors] : A slide supposedly leaked from an HP presentation revealing our first look at what might be HP's first Windows 8 tablet. If you believe the slide obtained by Neowin the HP Slate 8 will be a 10.1-inch, 9.2mm thick, 1.5-pound tablet—in other words it has a slightly bigger screen but a slimmer body than the iPad. More »

Scientists Have Found a Way to Regenerate Muscle Tissue After a Heart Attack [Medicine] : There could be a path to a simpler recovery after a heart attack. Duke University Medical Center scientists have discovered a way to turn the scar tissue that forms after cardiac arrest into healthy muscle tissue , which would make a stem cell transplant unnecessary. More »

Glass floor in bathroom has illuminated view of 15-level elevator shaft : The glass floor in the bathroom of this house in Mexico looks down an unused 15-floor elevator shaft. Pent-house PPDG by Hernandez Silva

Yeah, I "fell" for it and guessed $10 immediately. ~~~ Scientists claim the way a person answers simple math problem is a good predictor of their belief in a religion : Q: If a baseball and bat cost $110, and the bat costs $100 more than the ball, how much does the ball cost? If you answered $10 you are inclined to believe in religion. If you answered $5 you are inclined to disbelieve. Why? Because, according to new research reported in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science , the $10 answer indicates that you are an intuitive thinker, and the $5 answer indicates that you solve problems analytically, rather than following your gut instinct. Psychologists William Gervais and Ara Norenzayan, of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, predicted that people who were more analytic in thinking would tend not to believe in religion, whereas people who approach problems more intuitively would tend to be believers. Their study confirmed the hypothesis and th...

Hope it does justice to 1 of the most underrated presidents we've ever had. ~~~ HBO producing documentary about George H.W. Bush : NEW YORK (AP) -- HBO is producing a documentary on the first President George Bush to debut two days after his 88th birthday in June....

NY Times: Microsoft Tried To Unload Bing On Facebook : benfrog writes "According to a blog posting on the New York Times site, Microsoft tried to sell the perpetual money-losing Bing to Facebook 'over a year ago' (the article cites 'several people with knowledge of the discussions who didn't want to be identified talking about internal deliberations'). Steve Ballmer, apparently, was not involved or consulted. Facebook politely declined. Neither Microsoft or Facebook would comment on the rumors." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

MIT Researchers Invent 'Super Glass' : redletterdave writes "On Thursday, researchers at MIT announced a breakthrough in glass-making technology, which basically involves a new way to create surface textures on glass to eliminate all of the drawbacks of glass, including unwanted reflections and glare. The research team wanted to build glass that could be adaptable to any environment: Their 'multifunctional' glass is not only crystal clear, but it also causes water droplets to bounce right off its surface, 'like tiny rubber balls.' The glass is self-cleaning, anti-reflective, and superhydrophobic. The invention has countless applications, including TV screens, as well as smartphone and tablet displays that benefit from the self-cleaning ability of the glass by resisting moisture and contamination by sweat." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Is Extraterrestrial Life More Whimsical Than Plausible? : coondoggie writes "Princeton University researchers are throwing some cold water on the hot notion that astrobiologists and other scientists expect to one day find life on other planets. Recent discoveries of planets similar to Earth in size and proximity to the planets' respective suns have sparked scientific and public excitement about the possibility of also finding Earth-like life on those worlds, but the expectation that life — from bacteria to sentient beings — has or will develop on other planets as on Earth might be based more on optimism than scientific evidence." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Spanish economy in "huge crisis" after credit downgrade : MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's sickly economy faces a "crisis of huge proportions", a minister said on Friday, as unemployment hit its highest level in almost two decades and Standard and Poor's downgraded the government's debt by two notches.

Lacker sees U.S. Fed rate hike in mid-2013 : WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Jeffrey Lacker said on Friday he believes the U.S. central bank will have to raise interest rates in mid-2013, not late 2014 as suggested in this week's policy decision.

People have forgotten that all these companies have looking been for China to continue to boom (partly because of their currency protection) to grow their companies.  That's the real reason people are concerned about a Chinese cooling economy.  It will sink all the other companies because the US and Europe economies are still fragile and can't be counted on for growth. ~~~ Analysis: Slower China economy a worry for Western firms : BOSTON/LONDON (Reuters) - As China's economy cools, some big U.S. and European companies are losing what had been one of their surest growth bets.

Rabid bat found in Laguna Niguel : A dead bat found Sunday in Laguna Niguel has tested positive for rabies, Orange County Health Care Agency officials said Thursday,  asking anyone who recently had contact with a bat in the area to call the agency. The bat, its species unknown, was...

Perfectly and Evenly Microwave a Hot Pocket (or Anything Else with a Filling) Using This Simple Trick [Video] : Evenly microwaving anything can be a challenge, but Redditor ArcadiumStadium has figured out a simple method to get perfect results every time. All it requires is proper timing and a little shaking. Here's what you do: More »

Boy Scouts of America seeks to reverse order to release sex abuse files : A Santa Barbara judge's order pertains to 20 years' worth of confidential files detailing allegations of abuse by troop leaders and others. The Scouts filed a writ to reverse to ruling with an appellate court. The Boy Scouts of America is seeking to reverse a Santa Barbara judge's order to release 20 years' worth of confidential files detailing allegations of sexual abuse by troop leaders and others within its ranks.

Seriously?  You fire 37 times and can't cap Professor X? ~~~ Woman in wheelchair shot at 37 times, wounded : A woman in a wheelchair was wounded in a drive-by shooting in Sacramento on Wednesday, officials said.

Expo Line's opening launches rail service push to Westside : Trains begin running Saturday on the first segment. USC, with three nearby stops, is seen as a big beneficiary. The line is expected to carry riders to Culver City this summer and to Santa Monica in a few years. Almost 60 years after the Pacific Electric Railway stopped running trains to Santa Monica, the resurrection of passenger rail service to the Westside will begin with the grand opening of the $930-million Expo light rail line.

Because of course we have to make their passing as painless as possible in contrast to their criminal acts. ~~~ Brown orders consideration of single-drug execution method : The governor issues the directive as the state appeals a court order that has blocked California from carrying out the death penalty. The filing comes three days after certification of a ballot measure on capital punishment. Gov. Jerry Brown has ordered prison officials to consider a single-drug method of executing condemned inmates as the state appeals a court order that has blocked California from carrying out the death penalty.

Vladimir Putin Will Make 3D Popular Whether You Like It or Not [Image Cache] : Back in 2010, Vladimir Putin wasn't very happy about the prospect of wearing 3D glasses . But now he's donned a pair to watch a commemorative film of Yuri Gagarin's first human space flight, he looks pretty bad-ass in them. [ Boing Boing ] More »

Woman Kills Man By Squeezing His Testicles [WTFriday] : The man on the graphic photo below is a 42-year-old shop owner in the Meilan District of Haikou City, in Hainan, that big island south of mainland China. He is dead. A 41-year-old woman killed him. By squeezing his testicles. More »

People Test Toilets Using Fake Poop? [Wtf] : If you always thought toilets just worked , be prepared to reassess. A company called Maximum Performance dedicates its activities to optimizing your bathroom experience—and that's led it to develop fake poop for testing toilets. Really. More »

Samsung Overtakes Nokia as the World's Biggest Phone Manufacturer [Factoid] : Samsung has just toppled Nokia's 14-year run as the world's biggest vendor of mobile phones in terms of shipments. In the first quarter of 2012 Samsung shipped 93.5 million handsets—36 per cent more than a year earlier—overtaking the Finnish phone giant who shipped a mere 82.7 million. More »

The ATMs in Vatican City Speak Latin [Image Cache] : Turns out those four years of high school Latin might not have been the complete waste of time you thought they were. More »

These Olympics will be social network free. ~~~ Wait, You Can't do WHAT at the London Olympics? [Olympics] : Today in oppressive British finger-wagging we learned that the London 2012 Olympic Games has a pretty extreme "conditions for ticket holders" policy when it comes to social media. More »

The First Pick in the NFL Draft Andrew Luck Still Uses a Flip Phone [Video] : If you follow football, you'd know that #1 NFL draft pick Andrew Luck is supposed to be the best quarterback prospect since John Elway and the quarterback that'll replace Peyton Manning. Great! What's not great? Flip phones. And that's what Luck, the future multimillionaire, shockingly still uses as his phone. More »

The White House is already threatening veto. ~~~ Privacy-Killing CISPA Bill Passes House [Cispa] : CISPA, a terrible bill that would let websites hand over your personal data to the government with little oversight, just passed the U.S. House of Representatives. That's not good. More »

New Navy Uniform Could Monitor Sailors' Pee for Signs of Nuclear Attack [Military] : The military's uniforms will probably never be runway ready. But in the future, a soldier's threads might very well be quite a bit sharper. More »

WIN!: So Hardcore WIN :

How Steve Jobs wanted to surprise 1 millionth iMac buyer : According to a new book about Apple, Jobs wanted to put a golden certificate inside the 1 millionth Mac sold. Yes, just like Willy Wonka.

US economic growth rate slowing : US economic growth slowed to an annualised pace of 2.2% in the first quarter of the year, from 3% in the final three months of last year.

New sex claim hits Secret Service : The US Secret Service is looking into allegations its employees paid for strippers and prostitutes in El Salvador ahead of a presidential visit.

Amazon's profits beat forecasts : Amazon posts better-than-expected profits after the world's biggest retailer cuts costs and boosts sales of Kindle tablets.

It would flop, no doubt about it. ~~~ What a Facebook Phone Will Look Like: Features and OS : We heard it five months ago and we're hearing it again: Facebook is working on its own smartphone. If true, what might this super social phone look like?

Diablo III midnight launch coming to Irvine : Blizzard Entertainment is holding the midnight launch for its long-awaited "Diablo III" at the Irvine Spectrum, a little more than a mile from its headquarters. The game launches at 12:01 a.m. on May 15, but starting at 8 p.m. on May 14 in the Big...

And What a World It Would Be :

'The Winchester' has been rejected [Miscellaneous news] : Today, the Cuusoo team has announced that LEGO will NOT be making 'The Winchester' from Shaun of the Dead, the reason being given, in the annoucement that: "...we have decided that – good though the model is – the film Shaun of the Dead contains content that is not appropriate for our core target audience of children ages 6-11." The 'no' decision comes as no surprise to me, to be honest, although I would have loved to have seen it made. You can read our previous discussion on LEGO's dilemma whether to release or not. However, there is some good news over at Cuusoo: the Eve Online model, right, has just hit the 10,000 mark, thanks to mention on the Eve Online Facebook page , I believe. Personally I think the model is crude, blocky, too covered in studs and not enough greebling, particularly compared to other models of spaceships that grace the pages of the likes of Brothers-Brick. How...

And that's why our country is falling apart, having slutty pseudo-celebrities able to attend these dinners. ~~~ Kim Kardashian and Lindsay Lohan Share Table at White House Correspondents' Dinner : Kim Kardashian and Lindsay Lohan will be seated at the same table Saturday night at the White House Correspondents' Dinner ... TMZ has learned.Kim and Lindsay were both invited by Fox News Channel and they will be face-to-face at the table ...…

Send in the holograms. ~~~ Report: TLC Plan Reunion Tour With Projection of 'Left Eye' : TLC are planning a reunion tour that will integrate video projections of late band member Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes reports TMZ According to a representative for the R&B group Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas are in the planning stages of a full-scale North American tour that will launch...

Leaked Verizon Roadmap Tips Fall iPhone, Summer Galaxy SIII [Smartphones] : Verizon's roadmap for late summer/early fall 2012 has reportedly leaked , and it includes a few interesting rumors. More »

Report: Hundreds of 5-year-old municipal vehicles found in Miami that were never used : Filed under: Hybrid , Government/Legal , Hatchback , Toyota Have you ever bought a brand new cars only to forget where you put it? How about 300 of them? Probably not - unless you're Miami-Dade County, which was recently reunited with 298 vehicles it bought brand new between 2006 and 2007. The county "discovered" this fleet of no-mileage vehicles after reading about them in a Spanish-language newspaper there (see the source for more images). Most of the misplaced motorcade is made up of Toyota Prius hybrids whose warranties either expired with very few miles on the odo or will very soon. Looking to save some face, the county has rushed at least 123 of the hybrids into service. The Toyota warranty covered the hybrid bits for eight years or 100,000 miles, but we're not sure if that covers cars parked for five of those eight. We're also not sure what that much tim...

I don't want to live on this planet anymore. ~~~ TSA agents harass 7-year-old girl with cerebral palsy and developmental disability : The Transportation Security Administration launched the “TSA Cares” program to assist disabled fliers just four months ago, but a story making the rounds today proves that the TSA definitely does not. The Frank family was traveling from New York City's JFK airport to Florida, and were abruptly pulled aside after a dispute over how their 7-year-old daughter Dina was screened. The child is developmentally disabled and has cerebral palsy. She walks with crutches and leg braces. With her crutches and orthotics, Dina cannot walk through metal detectors and instead is patted down by security agents. The girl, who is also developmentally disabled, is often frightened by the procedure, her father said. Marcy Frank usually asks the agents to introduce themselves to her daughter, but those on duty on Monday were exceptionally aggressive, J...

Who did the TSA terrorize today? A 4-year-old girl. Why? She hugged her grandma. : PHOTO: Snapshot by Lori Croft of her 4-year-old granddaughter Isabella Brademeyer, in Wichita, Kan., where she was a flower girl at her uncle’s wedding. The child was harassed by TSA goons on the way back from that family event, for the crime of hugging her granny. Earlier this week on Boing Boing, Cory blogged about a 95-year-old Air Force veteran who was robbed of $300 at a TSA checkpoint. After picking on the elderly, today the TSA is bullying children. A 4-year-old girl who was upset during a TSA screening at the Wichita, KS airport was forced to undergo a manual pat-down after hugging her grandmother. Agents yelled at the child, and called her an uncooperative suspect. Nope, we're not making this up. The child's mom, Michelle Brademeyer of Montana, shared the incident in a public Facebook post last week, and the story has since spread widely. “They didn’t explain anything and she ...

Piñata cookies : Cookies filled with candies, shaped like burro piñatas. The creator of this chimera is the Louis Pasteur of compulsive eating. SUGAR COOKIES WITH A SURPRISE INSIDE ( via Reddit )

Proposed solution for in-game harassment : Penny Arcade TV's " Harassment " episode looks at the phenomenon of in-game trolling, with its disproportionate emphasis on racism, homophobia and sexism, and suggests a solution: identify players who are muted more often than the norm, and set them to "auto-muted" when they join games, and have guild efficacy decline based on the number of automuted players in them. The idea is to create social pressure that make bullying into something that makes gaming suck for bullies.

Ex-tour saxophonist for The Killers found dead : LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A saxophone player who toured with The Killers has been found dead in Las Vegas in an apparent suicide....

A Big Deal Is Brewing in Online Poker : PokerStars is reportedly in talks to buy Full Tilt, potentially creating a powerhouse in the industry.

Debt Collectors in the E.R.: Welcome to Modern Medicine : Debt Collectors in the E.R.: Welcome to Modern Medicine

Getting closer to cancelling Saturday service. ~~~ Senate approves changes to the U.S. Postal Service : Congress moved one step closer Wednesday to overhauling the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service by approving sweeping reforms to rebalance the mail agency’s finances and help cut the size of its delivery network. Read full article >>

What Do Millennials Want? : The youngest group of shoppers rivals baby boomers in size and purchasing power, and they're fickle consumers.

That's the real trick now isn't it?.  Based on their earnings, they are really forced to find new markets to sustain their growth. ~~~ Apple's growth hinges on China, new devices : SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Sometimes even eye-popping results are not enough.

How One Man Hacked Hollywood [Hacking] : Pictures hacked from Hollywood stars' email accounts and phones seem to be a mainstay of popular culture these days. Chris Chaney, one of the most prolific celebrity hackers to date, was recently arrested—but GQ has a wonderful profile of the man which you really have to read . More »

The Original Google Phone Was Almost a Blackberry Clone [Android] : In the ongoing Google versus Oracle courtroom saga, new documents have emerged detailing an early prototype for an Android smartphone. These images and specs were presented to T-Mobile back in 2006 . Thank god Google went back to the drawing board. More »

Burglary FAIL : Sometimes, LOL’ing can blow your cover.

Nintendo slides to massive loss as revenue falls off a cliff : The game company saw its revenue slide by 36.2 percent during the fiscal year that ended March 31, pushing the previous year's profit into a huge loss.

How much longer til we finally get rid of the TSA? ~~~ US air screeners 'ran drug ring' : Four current and former security screeners at Los Angeles international airport are arrested and charged with drug-trafficking and bribery.

Weapons and crystal meth? ~~~ US charges over 'China arms plot' : US prosecutors charge two Taiwanese nationals with attempting to export US military technology - for the alleged benefit of the Chinese government.

The Hobbit Is Orange County's Precious : The Hobbit is from a dying breed, a group of the proud and expensive that once included La Vie en Rose, the Arches, and the Riviera at the Fireside—places that had their heyday when eating out was still called dining, men were required to wear dinner jackets, and the cost per person was abo...

Now going to take until August?! ~~~ So. Cal. Gas performing pipeline integrity work at Grand & Chestnut : City of Santa Ana, Downtown Orange County Advisory: SOCALGAS PERFORMS PIPELINE INTEGRITY WORK IN SANTA ANA LOS ANGELES, April 25, 2012 – Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) is performing pipeline...

$7.50? ~~~ La Habra Wins For Cheapest Blow Jobs in Orange County : Blow jobs from Newport Beach prostitutes reportedly can cost as much as $500, but 28 miles inland in Nadya Suleman's La Habra street hookers apparently have been willing to provide oral copulatio... Continue reading "La Habra Wins For Cheapest Blow Jobs in Orange County" >

That's the last thing Detroit needs right now. ~~~ Lions' Johnson beats Newton for Madden cover : Fresh off a mega contract, Calvin "Megatron" Johnson landed the coveted cover of "Madden '13."

Report: Next Mazda6 to go four-cylinder only : Filed under: Sedan , Technology , Mazda Beneath the gorgeous and impossibly long looking hood of the Mazda Takeri Concept lies plenty of real estate. By our estimation there's room for any number of powerplants, from a high-revving rotary to a twin-turbo V6. However, when Mazda launches the new 2014 Mazda6 , which will ape the looks of the Takeri show car , it will only contain a measly little four-cylinder, according to Autoweek . So that's being a bit harsh, as despite the reported demise of a V6 engine option for the Mazda6, at least it will be getting a Skyactiv four-banger, according to the report. Skyactiv is, of course, Mazdaspeak for its suite of technologies that includes its next-generation powertrain with direct injection and a fancy new automatic transmission design, a combination we liked a great deal when we sampled it in the CX-5 crossover . With Hyundai , Kia , and Chevrolet having dumped their ...

Huskers aide: Faith demands anti-gay stance : Nebraska assistant coach Ron Brown says he'll keep speaking out against homosexuality even if it costs him his job.

His reasoning is weak, but the conclusion is the same.  Apple will flounder at some point.  Apple of the 80's was doing OK and then fell apart when Jobs left.  It will do so again.  Without the strong leader, things will begin to fall apart inside while competitors and investors snipe from the outside.  You can't point to the 3rd iPad as something Apple cooked up without Jobs.  It was most likely in the pipeline already.  It really had no "magical" quality other than the expected hardware spec bump. ~~~ Apple = Sony | Forrester Blogs :

Wired needs to take off their Apple-colored glasses and look at this objectively. ~~~ Apple = Sony? Don't You Believe It. : Forrester CEO George Colony has written a controversial new blog post provocatively titled "Apple = Sony" in which he argues that now that Steve Jobs is dead, Apple is coasting on fumes and will begin its inevitable decline within the next two to four years. Much of Colony's argument comes down to this assertion: that there is no longer a 'singular charismatic leader' at Apple. When it comes to reality distortion fields, Tim Cook may be no Steve Jobs, but much of what Colony says about the vacuum of leadership at Cupertino is completely untrue. In fact, Apple's arguably in better shape now than it ever was when Jobs was at the helm.

The Entitlement Crisis is Coming Sooner Than We Thought: Are You Ready? - Forbes :

U.S. high court appears to back Arizona on immigration | Reuters :

Congressional battle brewing on how to pay for student loan rate cut : Congressional Republicans are signaling opposition to a Democratic proposal to pay for extending low rates for college loans by imposing new payroll taxes on some small businesses now exempted from the levies. Read full article >>

PIMCO: Millions of Homeowners to Become Renters : When PIMCO talks, investors around the world listen. But a message from the Newport Beach-based money management giant should perk up the ears of local homeowners.A lot more of you will soon becom... Continue reading "PIMCO: Millions of Homeowners to Become Renters " >

Must have been carrying a xenomorph. ~~~ If a Truck Loaded With Sulfuric Acid Crashes, Does It Melt the Road? [Science] : This truck carrying 1,000 gallons of sulfuric acid crashed in Bartow, Florida , spilling its cargo over State Road 60. The driver was burned, people and animals have been evacuated, and a hazardous materials team in on the scene. But my question is: if sulfuric acid drops on a road, would the road melt? More »

Words: Pulp @ Fox Theatre Pomona, April 19, 2012 : Photo by Sung. Full set here . For the first time in sixteen years, Pulp reemerged last Thursday to perform for Los Angeles. Los Angeles, that is, if Pomona “counts as Los Angeles”–a question posed from the stage by the night’s master of ceremonies, Jarvis Cocker. The audience–an older-skewing convivial bunch that looked like a lot of L.A.: hot, stylish, Latino, sometimes all three at once–emphatically let him know: yes, you bet your ass Pomona counts as L.A. Jarvis, being Jarvis, helpfully recounted the dates and locations of their previous L.A. appearances: September 24,1994, The Palace, leaving out the small detail that they were supporting some band called Blur that night. (I was there.) And the second and last stop: May 22, 1996, Hollywood Grand. (I’m losing my edge, but I was there.) (A typically clueless classic Robert Hilburn review of this show exists and is archived on the Times website , if you are in need of a lau...

Photos: Pulp @ Fox Theatre Pomona, April 19, 2012 : Pulp | pulppeople.com