CELEBRITIES ::: Last night, police were called to the Palomar Hotel in Dallas, Texas by an employee per Nicki Minaj’s request following a scuffle at the hotel’s pool. Grapevine sez Nicki got into a verbal tiff with an unidentified male she was staying with. The row moved to her hotel room where NM told police the man smacked her in the lower lip. When police arrived the unknown man had already left the premises and Nicki asked to not file charges on the attacker whom she stated was not in a relationship with.

via TMZ

Pablo Andrés Rivero shares [es] a slideshow by photographer Patricio Cooker with music by rapper Ukamau y Ke: “The pictures reflect everyday life in El Alto, one of the most sui generis cities in Latin America, because of its rapid growth and its peculiar social, economic, and political dynamics.”

BLOG COMMENTING ::: “1 New Comment.” That line is one of the most exciting things a blogger can read and can make his day. It shows that someone out there is actually reading his blog, and taking some time off to comment on his article. It is like a gold star on the workbook of a preschooler, applause after a recital or a medal after a competition. For those who spend their time isolated in their homes and chugging away in front of the computer, this is their way of socializing and meeting new people. After all, that is what blog comments are about – it’s an online conversation... supposedly... Nikki Romero explains...

FOOD ::: The refreshing and delicious watermelon salad recipe.

China Media Project highlightsanother food scandal. A tofu workshop in Lanzhou added chemicals and shampoo into Tofu to create a sticky texture.

•Oiwan Lam

Xiaxue as a Live Mannequin for Essential

Tags: XiaXue, blogging



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This is off the chart, peeps! Yes, you can now get your jollies with Ms. Roboto (well, she's not really a robot, although I can see that coming - no pun intended!)

More fun than a mail-order bride, [NSFW link ] you can pick and choose eye colour, hair style - a la "BUILD A BARE" the fake ladies are in demand in China, of all places! Go figure!

[NSFW high res photos by photographer Zackary Canepari were posted last year on his blog documenting his visit to the RealDoll factory].

Perhaps Japanese robotics scientists could be called in for a collaboration? After all, they've been building women for more than a couple of years now... just a thought!

Girls, just so you don't feel left out, you can always make sef-adjustments - rebuild yourselves! (Before the robo-babes take your men away!)



Tags: robot woman, artificial women



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Lainey speaks! IT'S NOT A BLOG!
“i’m not a blogger. i never was, never will be. i’m just a girl with a twitter account. & a dumpsite where i randomly toss stuff into & hopefully will one day compile this heap of piffles & i don’t know maybe turn it into a book”

Zayna Daze posts Photo Diary: Yarah Bravo

Facebook now has 750 million members worldwide

ZDNet (blog)

From a TV news site: "FLASH MOB" robs a Walgreen's store.

chinaSMACK

Torrential Rains Flood Beijing, Subways, and Forbidden City - Stunning photos & video of heavy rainfall causing widespread flooding throughout Beijing!

Yuka Yoneda serves up fashion in a new blog!

TechCrunch

Angry Yahoo Shareholder Confronts Bartz And Asks For Her Head (Audio Clip) - Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz got an earful yesterday at the tail end of the company's annual shareholder meeting.

RIP ::: Peter Falk Dead

Washington Post Twitter account suggests you buy paper instead of reading Twitter

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Whether one enjoys high school years or not, the yearbook is a cherished document representing four years that come to shape the future outcome of one's life.

Ms. Kurchner talked about the yearbook indident Thursday on Fly 92.3. She plans to attend Berklee School of Music in Boston after graduation. She is a singer and songwriter whose music is available online.

HOVER AND CLICK ON KURCHNER's "GOOD" PHOTO ABOVE TO SAMPLE HER MUSIC!

Kurchner's father reportedly dismissed the idea that the doctored photo was part of a publicity ploy. The yearbook company says whatever happened to the picture happened before they received it.

The Post Star newspaper account makes a yearbook misprint sound like an awful incident of cyberbullying gone too far:

The doctored photo showed senior Maya Kurchner wearing a black dress, pearl necklace and a single gold tooth.

The actual yearbook photo looks like this (you be the judge):::
Also: apparently, the student's name is also spelled (incorrectly) as Maya Kirchner.

MORE Good news to report: Principal Brett Miller tells the Times Union that all Saratoga High students who purchased yearbooks will get new copies this summer at no additional cost. Meanwhile, the New York State Police Computer Crimes Unit will look into the matter.

At the very very least, the individual(s) who perpetrated the incident should be made to make full reimbursement for the reprinting of the yearbooks. Put college on hold and get a job until every penny is repaid.

Of course these days, we are so touchy-feely that won't happen. Just like I heard a local radio talk show host Thursday afternoon whining about Albany County's cyberbullying law. Seems the host, who seemed to enjoy making fun of the new law, would rather let arrested student Marquan Mackay-Meggs go than face the music. Problem is, the kid is then more likely to get involved in a more serious crime later on down the line.

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Some photos of a visitor to our home: a young squirrel, I belive orphaned (a car ran over an adult squirrel the night before this youngster happened along).

The squirrel hid under the front steps of the house next door, until growing confident that no harm would come its way.

Although the rodent was friendly, I didn't want it to lose its fear of humans. After taking a few snapshots, I stepped away.

Later on when it was gone from the immediate area, I sprinkled a few peanuts on the ground, in hopes if the creature was hungry this would sustain it for the time being.

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FUN FACT ::: 49% of females say they have been photographed (perhaps by cellphone?) perfroming a sex act. (Only 32% of us guys have!)

Flashback to 1983 ::: Playboy shared the results of one of the largest sex surveys ever. The internet has forever changed things since then. You might wonder how have people’s thoughts and views on sex changed since the dawn of the digital age?

To give you an idea of what kind of fascinating info can be found in the 2011 Sex Survey, the folks over at thesmokingjacket.com decided to share some of the results in this fascinating 2011 Playboy Sex Survey [Infographic]. Enjoy!




Tags: Playboy Sex Survey 2011, Playboy Sex Survey



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Channel [V]

MILEY'S BIGGEST FAN... WHO ARE YOU THE BIGGEST FAN OF?

AP The Associated Press

With no photos and his body buried at sea, some don't believe that bin Laden is truly dead. What do you think? http://apne.ws/jT1Ooc

Twitter / NewYorkPost

NewYorkPost: View To A Kill. President Obama Watches The Raid From the White House Situation Room (SEE PHOTO) http://www.nypost.com

the twitterer

Osama bin Tweeten - Twitter reaches its highest ever tweets-per-second ratio!

nytimes The New York Times

Details Released on DNA Match http://nyti.ms/lwUTna

guardiannews Guardian news

Fox station gets its Osamas and Obamas in a twist

http://gu.com/p/2znpz/tf

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Catching up on my print reading! One of may favourite magazines is aperture. The Spring 2011 edition (no. 202) contains an awesome article (page 40) about photography's "secret life as a creative medium" circa 1860. You must see the stunning black-and-white photography by Camille Silvy. Think of Silvy as the Civil War-era version of Andy Warhol. He was an artist who enhanced his works much the same way modern digital photographers enhance theirs with tools like Photoshop. Silvy produced over a million prints between 1859 and 1868.

More B&W ::: Award-winning freelance photog and UAlbany alumni Teru Kuwayama documents history in some of the most dangerous places on the planet. [UAlbany Magazine, Spring 2011, Volume 20, Number 1] Kuwayama arrived in Albany with no career goals "at all," joined the Student Photo Service despite a lack of interest in photography (and initially no intention of joining the group!). Says he: "A year later, I ran the place." Kuwayama's shots are amazing! See them here. You may also check out his Fall 2010 project, Basetrack (on facebook).

The pictures taken by Kuwayama and Silvy capture time in the analog world. And it looks like the lack of our understanding of the digital world may be our undoing.

Get you 2012 thinking cap on now, as you recall Stephen Hawking's waning about broadcasting our presence to outer space? Hawking’s logic on aliens is, for him, unusually simple. The universe, he points out, has 100 billion galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions of stars. In such a big place, Earth is unlikely to be the only planet where life has evolved. Turn to Page 6 of Scientific American [May 2011] and read the appearing dead center of the page. To summarize, gently: for years we've been employing tools like radiotelescopes and SETI to search for life in the stars by trying to intercept what we would define as communication waves or frequencies, but all we have ever "heard" is noise.

Did you know that digital data compression, when transmitted - is NOISE. NOISE, unless you happen to know the codec or can solve the algorithm needed to decipher it. So all that NOISE scientists are picking up with their equipment may very very very well be embedded with alien transmissions! (Hopefully those on other worlds long abandoned the analog technology required to discover US.) Let's hope they did forget - for, if not, perhaps some alien scientist "fooling around" with old analog equipment will turn the tables and find us before we find him... could that be the danger that awaits us as "The end of the world" in 2012?






Tags: analog photography, Civil War era photography



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When contacted by The New Paper, Stella Yeo confessed that she did indeed edit her photographs, but insisted she has never gone under the knife... netizens across Southeast Asia have slammed Yeo repeatedly for uploading heavily touched-up pictures of herself to her blog.

Years ago, circa 2005, a lifetime in this digital era, Wendy Cheng (Xiaxue) pioneered the art of self-improvement via Photoshop. Wendy's work was top-notch, and when rival blogger Dawn Yang allegedly copied the look of Arissa Luna via plastic surgery, Wendy smacked Yang [Plasticzilla] across her digital face! (NOBODY messes with Xiaxue!)

Earlier this year we saw "blow-up doll" Wang Jiayun cause an internet stir with her enhanced photos. (Two psychologists The New Paper spoke to said bloggers who post doctored, picture-perfect photos of themselves do it because they want to seek attention, have low self-esteem or they live in a fantasy world.)

Like this post? Give it a little "push" on blokube.com!

Now, welcome Stella Yeo... the 19 year-old tells the Electric New Paper that she thinks she doesn’t look good in person, so she edits her photos to feel more confident about herself…

Yeo, who claims to be a freelance model, told TNP that she “doesn’t see anything wrong with editing her photos to look perfect.”

Explaining why she digitised the pictures on her blog, she said: “Who doesn’t want to look good? I think I don’t look good in person, so I prefer to touch up my photos.”

While Miss Yeo may be a competent photoshopper, her technique doesn't seem to enhance the looks of her friend, now, does it? (Bananas, anyone?)

Miss Yeo was quick to tell the media and netizens that not all her photos have been digitally enhanced: she claimed that she merely edited the colours and added a soft-focus effect on them.

Tags: Stella Yeo, Image-conscious blogger gets slammed online

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Hmmm. I can spell but my brain-to-keyboard skills sometimes render incorrectly spelled words (I ditched the spell-checker because it kept screwing up my blog posts in other ways!)

But when you see a company online that claims to offer "PROFESSIONAL photo editing & graphic design services" and then you see a GLARING error on the company webpage (A very simply laid-out page; the error quite obvious)...



Hopefully, these folks are honest and will fix the error. HOWEVER - I am preparing a post that tells the true story behind a lot of "bargains" for products and services on the net that are nothing short of scams.

Devious companies will charge small amounts - like $10 up to $49 - because they know they can keep your money, send you nothing in return, and there is NOTHING you can do about it!

In the case of fotodesigners, I couldn't check on how to pay for any services because there is a registration requirement (another possible 'red flag'?).

The website places company offices in cities in the US and Canada. So unless they threw their website up in a big hurry, it's hard to believe such experts would make such an obvious error.

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Here's a link to Ukrainiana's extensive post on the 22nd anniversary of Chernobyl.

Have a look at Elena's Motorcyle Ride through Chernobyl, one of the most interesting URL's you'll ever surf to! Check this one out late at night when you have time!

Package of links follows!

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 | Chapter 25 | Chapter 26 | Chapter 27

Tags: Chernobyl, Chernobyl

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And now a quick scan of what bloggers are blogging about! (Click here for more evidence that blogs ARE NOT "dying"!)

First up, a real eye-opener::: in Meeting Young Obama (posted on Anonymous Political Scientist by John C. Drew, Ph.D.), we learn about the American president from someone who claims to have had direct contact with him in the 1980s.

One of the biggest surprises in the last century has been that new religions continue to emerge in modern societies. According to The Technium, this was not supposed to happen.

If you'd rather look at photos, XiaXue [#1] has posted a series of snapshots taken in Dallas, Texas last Christmastime. Now, if you are in the mood for racier pics...

Tired of her template, Kimberlycun [#4] did a major blog overhaul... (results)

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