57 diggs This chick let some dude hit the top of her leg with a weed whacker. Pretty sure that's going to leave a mark.

65 diggs With the recent Kingdom Hearts games starting to concentrate mostly on either Final Fantasy characters or characters created specifically for the game, I am beginning to wonder if Square-Enix is running out of Disney material that they feel would be good to include in the game. Problem is, there are TONS of Disney films, TV Shows, and other media left un-tapped so far. I have made a list of the top ten Disney properties underrepresented in Kingdom Hearts, excluding most of their live action stuff. Not that people wouldnt love to play a level from The Parent Trap or Davey Crockett, but I figured animated stuff would be more suitable. These are in no particular order: Gargoyles So you thought I was going to keep this list down to simply feature films? Think again! Gargoyles was a fairly popular kids television show that ran in the mid 1990s. What set it apart from the usual Disney kids cartoon was that it specifically targeted the same audience as shows such as X-men, Batman the Animated Series, and Spider-man. The story revolved around a group of creatures referred to as gargoyles due to the fact that they turn to stone at night and resemble the grotesque statues of the same name. The show featured tons of characters and locations that could easily be pumped into a Kingdom Hearts game. Hell Id settle for a random Cameo by Goliath the shows main hero. Ducktales / Darkwing Duck Another show, well set of shows, Id like to see was the early nineties double hitter of Ducktales and its spinoff Darkwing Duck. Ducktales featured a cast containing most notably Scrooge McDuck, who was only seen previously in the Disney comics and a Disney themed version of A Christmas Carol called Mickeys Christmas carol. In Scrooges care was Donald Ducks nephews Huey, Duey, and Louie sent to live at his wealthy abode while Donald does a tour of the Navy. The show proved so successful that it ran for over 100 episodes and got its own feature length film and a spin-off. The spin-off, Darkwing Duck, featured an avian superhero much in the vein of 1940s pulp comic heroes. Aided by a charcter from its parent show, Launchpad McQuack, Darkwing solved all manner of crimes on our TV screens. Neither property has shown up in any Kingdom Hearts game as far as I know, they could at least Make Scrooge the banker or something, being that he has that huge money bank to swim in. Black Cauldron The 1980s were an awesome time for dark, gritty family oriented fantasy films. In a matter of five years or so we had The Dark Crystal, The Labyrinth and Disneys The Black Cauldron. The film did not do to well in the box office partly due to its dark subject matter and PG rating, which was a lot harsher back then. The story follows a typical fantasy outline of a hero and a rag-tag group of mercenaries trying to stop an evil King. This time the evil comes from a Cauldron that can create a huge army of undead called the cauldron Born. If anything the cauldron itself could play a role in the games! The Sword in the Stone The last film that Walt Disney directly oversaw, while he was alive, was 1963s The Sword in The Stone. Based on one of the Arthurian legends, it tells the story of the would be King Arthur, called Wart for the majority of the film, and his struggling apprenticeship and squirehood with Merlin the Wizard. Wart later pulls the Sword from the Stone and the rest is history. While Merlin appears in Kingdom Hearts II, I would love to see appearances by Wart, the sword, or maybe a jousting tournament. Jungle Book / Tailspin Rumors have been raging for a while that The Jungle Book was originally to appear in the very first game, but got cut due to its similarity to Tarzans world. Rumors still pop up that it will be added to each new game released, but this has yet to materialize. The Jungle Book was a late 1960s animated film based on the novel by Rudyard Kipling. It stars a boy named Mowgli and a huge cast of animals including his buddy Baloo, a bear, as they try to avoid the evil clutches of the Tiger Shere Khan. An odd spinoff of sorts was created in the early 1990s that starred Baloo in the main role and further anthropomorphized he and his animal brethren into 1930s fighter pilots. Tail Spin was very successful and enjoyed a huge run. With this series, one could easily have the characters meet Mowgli and baloo in the Jungle and fight Shere Khan, it writes itself. Robin Hood Best known (sadly) as the origin for that song that played on the old Hamster Dance website, Disneys Robin Hood took a bunch of anthropomorphized animals and tossed them into the shoes of Robin Hood, Maid Marian, and even Little John. While not a huge critical success, the film went on to be VERY popular with its fans. Like many of the films on this list, Robin Hood could easily work in Kingdom Hearts, you could have an archery contest, a sneak mission, and even fight Prince John. The Emperor's New Groove If the producers are worried that a few movies might be too similar to others used in previous games, a movie such as The Emperor's New Groove could cure such a woe. It strayed far away from the typical Disney mythos and inserted a vaguely Incan vibe to it. The story follows a spoiled young Emperor and a Headman from a neighboring village in a buddy movie, where all parties involved get sappy and learn to love each other in the end. To my knowledge none of the characters from this production have ever been in a Kingdom Hearts game. The Resucers or The Resucers Down Under The Rescuers is definitely an older Disney film that doesnt get a lot of hype anymore. I blame this on Disneys vault method of releasing DVDs to the public long after folks would really want them. The story follows Bernard and Bianca, a pair of mouse agents, tasked with international rescue attempts on anyone that needs help. The first movie happens in a swampland, and the other in Australia. To me a semi-spy motif would be great for a level in the games. Sadly no characters from this franchise have appeared in any of the games. And talking about mysterious mice, Great Mouse Detective anyone? Anything from Pixar Pixar and Disney were in the middle of a huge feud during the making of Kingdom Hearts 2, but the two parties have made up and Steve Jobs even runs Disneys animation for the most part now. Rather than having worlds based on each Pixar movie, the creators could have some sort of Pixar world containing characters and themes from Toy Story, Cars, Ratatouille, and The Incredibles etc. These are some of Disneys most popular movies, so its baffling that they havent appeared as of yet. Muppets Disney now owns the Muppets, but has honesty done nothing but make lackluster made for TV movies with the franchise. What better way to help hype up the upcoming new movie, than to plant the seeds for a younger audience. Personally I would die to play as Kermit the frog in one of these games! Well there you have it, maybe Kingdom hearts 3 can do a few of these!

52 diggs Considering that 21% of elementary school students have already consumed alcohol, it is never too soon for drug and alcohol education.

80 diggs Movie theaters and expensive LED TVs aren’t the only tech toys going 3D these days. Lately doctors, hackers, geeks, and architects are using design software and state-of-the art 3D printers to sculpt some truly awesome stuff. 3D printers squirt molten plastic, metal, and even human tissue into shapes previously only possible through hand craftsmanship, if at all!

75 diggs Some people look at an impoverished immigrant laborer and immediately think "illegal," with all the stigma that word carries. Others see that same person and think: There goes a worker.

75 diggs What happens when Apple introduces a square-shaped new iPod and adorns it with an analog watch face for a lock screen? A whole new cottage industry sprouts up, whereby entrepreneurial types dust off old and mostly worthless watch straps, cut out an iPod nano-shaped compartment in them, and charge you $19.99 for the privilege of turning your tiny PMP into a somewhat bulky wristwatch. The saddest part about this is that we've got a feeling they might be on to a winner here.iLoveHandles turns nano iPods into oversized watches originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 05:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | iLoveHandles |Email this|Comments

81 diggs In an excerpt from his new book The Grand Design, Stephen Hawking argues that there is no concept of reality that is independent from theory or perspective. Do his thoughts trump his already-established list of rules? Read more at TIME.com.

107 diggs The smartphone brawl between Apple and Google just crashed through a fence and onto your television set. But is Apple...

66 diggs Seventh Generation took down a video on its website after Procter & Gamble challenged ads that imply Seventh Generation's products do not contain hazardous chemicals and are completely natural...

42 diggs

45 diggs It’s almost a universal truth that if you’re unhappy with your job, there’s a good chance you’re probably not as happy with life in general as you could be. Everyone has their own opinion on what the perfect dream job entails, but some of those require big fancy degrees and incredibly long hours. And let’s be honest, a lot of Guyism readers (myself included) may not have the chops to cut it as a heart surgeon or fighter pilot. So, here are nine awesome slacker jobs. I have no idea how one acquires some of these jobs, but like just about anything else in life, it’s probably all about who you know.

83 diggs Nokia on Friday confirmed rumors of a search for a new CEO by replacing its long-serving chief Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo with Microsoft executive Stephen Elop. The now former head of Microsoft's business division was picked for both his experience in software and "change management" that will help reorganize the company. In the past, he had worked with Adobe and Macromedia as well as Juniper Networks.

104 diggs One of the commonly used effects in Photoshop is the lighting effect which is mainly used for creating the feeling of creativity, technology, magic, and fantasy.

44 diggs Microsoft’s Xbox Live team suspended Josh Moore, a resident of Fort Gay, WV, for using the word “gay” in his profile, despite the fact that it is his real hometown.

56 diggs Necrophilia isn’t just for humans anymore!

77 diggs Asked how many times he tried the 900, in different variations over the past several weeks, Burnquist answered, “I’ve tried hundreds of times, probably 900 times, who knows?” And yes, he believes the 1080 is possible, but that’s a story for another day.

74 diggs During your web browsing, you may constantly see impressive advertisement on top most websites, but there are chances that you are missing some extra ordinary and imaginative ads. Won’t believe it? Just have a look at these ads!

73 diggs Debating the pseudo-sequel to The Official Preppy Handbook

84 diggs Some say bypassing a higher education is smarter than paying for a degree. Across the region and around the country, parents are kissing their college-bound kids -- and potentially up to $200,000 in tuition, room and board -- goodbye.

61 diggs Things are not going well for Dan Maes in Colorado. After a series of highly-publicized miscues over the last few months -- and a third-party bid from ex-Rep. Tom Tancredo -- Maes' supporters are now leaving him in droves. The result? In a cycle where the GOP ought to be making strong gains all over the map, the party seems to be waving the white flag in the Colorado gubernatorial race -- where they should have had a great shot of winning.

55 diggs Is this the world's ultimate gaming PC? You could probably argue either way, but we're pretty sure it's the world's ultimate entertainment machine. Pound for pound, you'll be hard pressed to find a desktop tower with more fun-per-square-inch than on Origin PC's new

105 diggs They Won't Even Know What Hit Them

83 diggs Fantasy football is the sports nerd version of Dungeons and Dragons. Here's the scoop

85 diggs We already know that Facebook is the webs biggest time sink. If you look at the average amount of time (according to Nielsen) users spend on the social network, Facebook is a clear winner over sites such as Google or Yahoo.Now, according to comScore, Facebook is also first when it comes to the total amount of time users are spending on the site. In August, U.S. web users spent 41.1 million minutes on Facebook, which was about 9.9% of their entire web-surfing time in that month. In this same period, people spent 39.8 million minutes on all of Googles sites, and those include another huge online timesink YouTube.comScore puts Yahoo in third place, with U.S. web users spending 37.7 million minutes on its sites, which was about 9.1% of their web surfing time in August.The numbers are even more impressive when you consider that Facebook had just overtaken Yahoo in July, and in August last year U.S. web surfers had spent less than 5% of their online time on the social networking service.Still, it hardly comes as a surprise: Facebook has been growing steadily in the last couple of years, and in July it announced it had over 500 million active users.If Facebook keeps growing, a year from now Google may find itself far behind Facebook when it comes to web users minutes. But does Facebook have room for growth? Mark Zuckerberg predicts the sites userbase might even reach one billion. The number doesnt sound too far-fetched, given that Facebook still has room for international growth for example in China and Russia.Of course, comScore only counts users from the U.S., so the global picture is still blurry. But the facts show that Facebook users spend a huge amount of time on the site, and its a worrying stat for Google. Googles many online properties (Gmail, Search and YouTube, to name a few) have vast influence and reach. But right now, without a large social networking property (Orkut doesnt count as serious competition to Facebook anymore), Google will have a hard time snatching users time from Facebooks hands.[img credit: Thomas Hawk]More About: ComScore, facebook, GoogleFor more Social Media coverage:Follow Mashable Social Media on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Social Media channelDownload our free apps for iPhone and iPad

66 diggs After watching President Obama's speech in Cleveland on Wednesday, in which he called out John Boehner and the Republicans multiple times, Jon Stewart was impressed: "That may be as close as any President of the United States has ever come to saying: 'Skullfuck all ya'll.'"

77 diggs It's definitely one of the more expensive multi-tools we've written about, but it's also one of the most hardcore. The Surefire Delta Folding Survival Knife ($435) features a Crucible CPM...

64 diggs If you're a fan of Food Network in general -- or chefs-as-superstars in particular -- you already know that what's on the plate sometimes isn't as important as how it's on the plate.

68 diggs Scientists: Swallowing a sponge (a "cytosponge") on a piece of string could help prevent a deadly form of cancer...

66 diggs American artists like Otis Redding & Bob Dylan found their groove in Muscle Shoals, while international groups like the Rolling Stones were drawn by the allure of the place and the music it created. We had a chance to sit down and talk to these legends.

112 diggs In the wake of Apple's decision to relax restrictions on the tools its developers can use, Adobe announced Friday that it would resume development on Flash for the iPhone.

66 diggs For the first time since the Vietnam War, the Medal of Honor will be awarded to a living soldier for his heroism in battle.Obama spoke with Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta on Thursday to inform him that he had earned the honor for his service in Afghanistan in 2007.

75 diggs A PlayStation phone? Don't hold your breath--not this year, at least. Last month we heard rumors that Sony Ericcson was working on an Android-based handset called the PlayView, which would be a Samsung Captivate-esque phone crossbred with a Sony PSPGo. The device was said to be do out by October.

110 diggs Without much fanfare, Apple this week updated its iPhone Configuration Utility when it released iOS 4.1.

104 diggs Kerr was in the water taking photos of his friend surfing when he found himself facing a shark. After some quick thinking he managed to punch the shark and snap a picture of the encounter.

56 diggs You’ll be shocked to find out that these average objects, that on any normal day wouldn’t get any attention, are actually handcrafted by a single block of wood.

70 diggs SABMiller is concerned about climate change -- specificially about its impact on water in the production and consumption of beer. The company has released a study on the impact of its "water footprint" on breweries in four countries.

100 diggs Amazing bodypaint costumes for cosplayers with bodies good enough to look like actual superheroes.

64 diggs Appyzilla is a site where applications and products for iPads and iPhones are reviewed. These include everything from productivity apps and games t...

82 diggs In the fourth installment of our “Sin Tax” series, we explore the financial implications of gambling on Uncle Sam’s bottom line. It’s no secret that the government makes some income from gambling. But, many would be surprised to find that total gaming brings in nearly $100 billion in tax revenue each year. From legal bookmaking to card rooms, the graphic below illustrates where the money comes from. We also take a look at the various tax rates across the U.S., by state and by type of establishment.

103 diggs Many people work hard at being an asshole, but for some it just comes natural.

53 diggs ...

76 diggs What has happened to all the great criminal masterminds? Nowadays, the profession is made up of idiots with double digit IQs and no common sense. However, one thing you do have to give these robbers credit for is their creativity when it comes to their choices of disguise.

104 diggs Fresh graduates who are able to find jobs often start out in management positions and are very likely to have employees much older than themselves. A recent survey of people who work for younger bosses shows that the older a worker is, the less likely age difference is to be a problem.

63 diggs Conservationists often go to extremes to protect endangered species and save them from extinction. Here's a look at some of the strangest things mankind has done to prevent a species from being wiped off the planet.

95 diggs Most athletic pig? People aren't the only record holders. Guinness also keeps track of some pretty amazing animals.

62 diggs Apparently fall is the new trend for wedding season. And if I needed further evidence, I could simply look at my ever-growing stack of wedding invitations over the next two months. I'm starting to feel the wedding burn out.

87 diggs At least four people have been killed in an explosion which tore through a town near San Francisco, officials say.

84 diggs History of the silver screen.

107 diggs Gartner now forecasts Android to overtake RIM's 2nd top spot as phone-maker, Apple to be third, then RIM in fourth spot

100 diggs Amid the economic recession, Cash for Clunkers was intended to lend a helping hand to the automotive industry and to the economy. As auto sales tumbled, the

86 diggs Make no mistake, the greatest stadiums for tailgating have nothing to do with the stadiums themselves, but everything to do with the people, atmosphere, and importance of the game. Here are nine of the best spots to enjoy a tailgate party before a game.

122 diggs Valve has released the Portal 2 Coop trailer shown at PAX in HD. You can check out the trailer above. Portal 2 is an upcoming first-person action/puzzle video game, developed by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to the critically acclaimed 2007 video game Portal and was announced on March 5, 2010, following a week long alternate reality game based on new patches to the original game.

115 diggs We had heard in mobile app research a forecast that there would be 25 billion downloads by 2015, and along the same vein, Nielsen has released the results of a survey of some 4,000 mobile users about their application downloading habits.

105 diggs Whether their strikingly original fashion sense has given them star power or their precocious devotion to politics caught the President's attention, these young bloggers are using the World Wide Web to change the way we look at the world.

54 diggs Mobile is set to receive $1.35 million of the $65 million in direct aid that BP PLC has given Alabama to ease the economic and environmental damage caused by the summer oil spill. Most of that pay for events, including a performance by the '80s metal band at BayFest.

60 diggs Liquid water has interacted with the Martian surface throughout Mars' history, measurements by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander suggest. The findings, also suggest that liquid water has primarily existed at temperatures near freezing, implying hydrothermal systems similar to Yellowstone's hot springs on Earth have been rare on Mars throughout its history.

60 diggs A restaurant in Sacramento, Calif., agreed to remove a menu item called Live Dancing Shrimp after dozens of complaints from restaurant's patrons about the practice of spraying lemon juice on the exposed flesh to make the live shrimp "dance" before consuming them.

69 diggs Early this year we wrote about Pumkpinhead, the working name for new startup About.me being created by repeat entrepreneurs/investors Tony Conrad and Tim Young. We didnt know much about the startup except that it had top angel investors involved: Ron Conway, AOL Ventures, Scott Kurnit, Founders Collective, Radar Partners (Doug Mackenzie & Kevin Compton) and David Mahoney. Freestyle Capital has also invested since then. The company is still in stealth, but theyve given out a few beta accounts to friends and advisors, they say. Part of the product is a personal profile page that points people to your content around the Internet, allowing you to pull all this information together to build a single online identity. So these beta users are creating very noticeable splash pages. Examples: Founder Tony Conrad, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, Typekit founder Jeffrey Veen and author Ellen Hopkins. You can see my About.me page here. Theres a lot more to the product on the back end to help users understand how many people see your profile, where theyre coming from and what they do on your page. You cant sign up for it just yet, but you can reserve your username. Over the last couple of years weve all learned the importance of securing your name on services like Twitter and Facebook. If this seems like a product youll use, you will want to grab your name now. Im pretty stoked I got /Mike myself. Just go to About.me and type in your email and the username you want. If it confirms the name is yours. If not its already taken or reserved. Just about everything is wide open right now.

129 diggs It seems more than a little odd to us that Apple hasn't bothered to make FaceTime compatible with its own longstanding desktop video chat service, iChat, but we've at least supposed that it's an inevitability with whatever upcoming Mac OS X update or software bundle that Apple deems appropriate. Now Mac4Ever, who was spot on with a pile of rumors last year, but hasn't succeeded with its recent prediction of an iLife '11 launch in August, is saying that Apple is prepping FaceTime both for Mac and PC. We don't know if that means building a whole copy of iChat for Windows, or just making FaceTime compatible with some existing PC video chat service, but it would certainly improve the odds of us ever finding a legitimate use for FaceTime.FaceTime headed for Mac OS X and Windows next? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 13:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.PermalinkMac Rumors | Mac4Ever |Email this|Comments

64 diggs Bummed you won't be in the audience for tonight's world premiere of Passion Play at the Toronto International Film Festival? Here's some consolation. The first clip of Mitch Glazer's Southern-set drama has appeared online...

97 diggs Altogether, federal employees owe their employer $1 billion in back taxes.

86 diggs What celebrity, if you had a chance to meet him or her, would render you speechless, silly or otherwise unable to function?

62 diggs Our intrepid spy photographers have managed to capture the first images of Subaru's STI performance variant of the upcoming FT-86 Coupe, presently being jointly developed with Toyota.

75 diggs London is a city with a whole lot of self-confidence. While some destinations have had to tighten their belts during the recession, this trendsetting metropolis continues to captivate a never-ending stream of visitors with new hotels, restaurants, boutiques, and galleries.

69 diggs Guillaume Reymond creates another wonderful video-game stop motion video using real people.

62 diggs Congress has raised taxes by $670 billion since January of 2009. The major new and extended taxes passed by the federal government:

95 diggs As video game technology advances, the worlds created to be the playgrounds of sadistic manchildren become ever more complex and disturbingly realistic. Sometimes these game maps recreate vast sprawling cities populated with hordes of people and stunning architecture. Then sometimes they recreate vast, sprawling, unremarkable and formless blobs of landscape.

88 diggs Checking in, location reporting, geo-status updating - call it what you like, but sharing your location with the world has become one of the most popular movements to hit social networking in recent times. Facebook is the latest application to join the party, allowing users to include their location with their status updates. "Places," as it is called, is nothing new (services like Foursquare have been allowing users to advertise where they are for quite some time now), but it does raise some interesting privacy concerns. Since users share everything about their identity and personal lives with Facebook, just how far could Places plunge us into an Orwellian dystopia where "Big Mark is always watching?"

93 diggs Foxconn's production rate is one of many revelations in a new profile of its chairman...

68 diggs We all know what it means to be “nickel and dimed to death.” It usually refers to those incidental purchases made throughout the day: a cup of coffee, a newspaper, a pack of chewing gum, money for a parking meter. Over the course of a month they add up and put a considerable dent in your budget. In these tough economic times you can’t afford to be nickel and dimed to death.

91 diggs If it were up to me, I'd a slip the ol' You will die a most painful death fortune into every 1600th cookie.

73 diggs A quest to get Barack Obama to shout his commitment to solar power from the roof tops - by re-installing vintage solar panels at the White House - ended in disappointment for environmental campaigners today.

68 diggs It's the year 1936. The first freely programmable computer — the Z1 — is being produced. With the ability to run programs from punched tape, the idea of

75 diggs Wondering what to download for your smartphone? Trying to find high-quality apps among the many thousands available can be a challenge, no matter what phone you own. Start with this collection of the best productivity tools, utilities, reference apps, media helpers, timesavers, and games.

75 diggs The lifecycle of a viral video goes something like this: Youtube sensation to Urlesque.com to remix to Autotune to the inevitable appearances on the

92 diggs Any economist will tell you that the world runs on hard work, natural resources and ceaseless innovation. Crafty companies and individuals have discovered that 100% of economists are boring and liars.

81 diggs Yesterday afternoon, the leader of a microscopic cult of idiots who announced plans to stage an "international" day of Quran burning in Gainesville, Florida held a press conference, for a rapt media which decided that his moronic plans were the single most important thing going on in America. At that press conference, in front of "9/11 Truther" signs, this cult leader lied to everyone who was watching, telling them that he was going to call off his 9/11 book burning festival because he had successfully reached a deal with the people behind the Park51 community center in Lower Manhattan, in which hey would move their facility away from the site of the World Trade Center. Not a word of this was true, but it was amazing, all the same -- at one fell swoop, we had finally knit up the strands of a season of irrationality into one big, shiny, synergized knot. This was supposed to be the end of Recovery Summer? More like Relapse Summer. The story of how one lone idiot, pimping an 18th-century brand of community terrorism, held the media hostage and forced some of this nation's most powerful people to their knees to fitfully beg an end to his wackdoodlery is an extraordinary one. It's a modern media retelling of Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying", in which a gang of Islamaphobes, cast in the role of Addie Bundren, bamboozle the media into carrying their coffin full of malevolence on a journey of pure debasement. Let's begin at the beginning. Earlier this year, an organization called the Cordoba Initiative were granted permission by the appropriate authorities in New York City to turn an old Burlington Coat Factory at 51 Park Place in lower Manhattan into a community center. The organization was headed by an Imam named Feisal Abdul Rauf, who has made it his life's work to stand against radical cults like al Qaeda and teach young Muslims that America is a place where one can freely worship at the appointed times and then join other faith communities in America in the task of building a great nation. The proposed community center was to include a basketball court and space for different religious communities in New York City to have interfaith relations. It was also going to have a place for Muslims to pray, if they liked. The news didn't sit well with many people in New York, most notably people who didn't live in Manhattan. This is because they were told by a gaggle of dumb Islamophobes that what was planned was a "Ground Zero mosque." Of course, the planned community center was not, strictly speaking, a "mosque." And it was most definitely not "at Ground Zero." "Ground Zero" is the site of an interminable municipal construction project. There are no plans to build a mosque there. "Ground Zero" is also not the name of a recognized New York City neighborhood, like DUMBO or Murray Hill. But, here's the thing: even if it was, the battle to stop the "Ground Zero mosque" was already lost, because there already is a mosque in that neighborhood. This logic failed to sink in, because very few people outside of me and the good people over at Wonkette made any attempt to bring these facts to light. But it might not have mattered, because the fertile field of opposition to the Park51 community center was the raw wound of the September 11th attacks. Obviously, many people are still feeling the loss of that day. And that loss breeds many emotions, among them sadness and anger. And people definitely do have the right to express their sadness and their anger. But what people don't have the right to expect is that the government will intervene to remedy claims that have no basis in law. As soon as the media saw themselves a shiny shiny shining thing shining shinily in New York City, they pounced! How perfect! Something for us to talk about during the slow-news summer! I mean, we could talk about the nation's unemployment crisis, but that would mean we'd have to talk to poor, jobless people, and there's no currency in having access to a bunch of poors. Right away, they accepted the premise that this was a "Ground Zero mosque," when it wasn't. And so, by the power vested in the media, things that weren't in fact true were accorded the privilege of being "one side of a great debate" and "an interesting point of view." Charlie Brooker, calling out the media for this bullshit, states what should have happened at this very moment: New York being a densely populated city, there are lots of other buildings and businesses within two blocks of Ground Zero, including a McDonald's and a Burger King, neither of which has yet been accused of serving milkshakes and fries on hallowed ground. Regardless, for the opponents of Cordoba House, two blocks is too close, period. Frustratingly, they haven't produced a map pinpointing precisely how close is OK. That's literally all I'd ask them in an interview. I'd stand there pointing at a map of the city. Would it be offensive here? What about here? Or how about way over there? And when they finally picked a suitable spot, I'd ask them to draw it on the map, sketching out roughly how big it should be, and how many windows it's allowed to have. Then I'd hand them a colour swatch and ask them to decide on a colour for the lobby carpet. And the conversation would continue in this vein until everyone in the room was in tears. Myself included. That hasn't happened. Instead, 70% of Americans are opposed to the "Ground Zero mosque", doubtless in many cases because they've been led to believe it literally is a mosque at Ground Zero. And if not...well, it must be something significant. Otherwise why would all these pundits be so angry about it? And why would anyone in the media listen to them with a straight face? And because the media couldn't do their job, a group of hack politicians, like Rick Lazio and Newt Gingrich, desperate to get a little famewhore attention for their quixotic political career goals, saw an opportunity to horn in on the "discussion." They started telling all the sad and angry people that they actually did have the right to expect someone to provide a remedy to their claims. Their case was primarily based on the idea that nobody has the rights of religious freedom, no one has property rights and that the government has the right -- nay, the duty! -- to intrude. Right away, they should have been entirely ridiculed, because the people pimping this bilge were primarily right-wing types who would ordinarily say that church and state should not be separated, that property rights are sacrosanct, and that government should be small and unobtrusive. Someone really should have said to Newt Gingrich, "Is this seriously the stand you want to take? Because if it is, we shall never allow you to claim to be a supporter of small government or a 'Constitutional constructionist' ever again. And if you try to assert that claim, we will drop on you like a ton of bricks. We will cause you real, public pain." But of course, that's not what happened. The media has too much invested in flattering people like Newt Gingrich, and whoever writes Sarah Palin's tweets. And so, these inherent contradictions simply became "one side of a great debate" and "an interesting point of view." And from there, some idiot news producer said, "Hey, I bet we can shoehorn this into our election narrative somehow!" And so the Park51 community center became an election issue. Imagine that, in a world with a nine year-long, going nowhere war and a massive unemployment crisis! Imagine how many times you would have to hit yourself in the head with a ball peen hammer before you would ask a politician from California how they stood on a local zoning issue in Manhattan. But ask they did, all the way to the White House. And that's when Democrats like Harry Reid stepped forward to publicly cover themselves in cowardice. This turned the frenzy up several notches for the media, because suddenly, they had obtained a very precious thing -- the right to say "both sides do this." The matter had become a folie a deux -- a madness made for two! -- but the media focused all their attention on the "two" and none on the "madness." And in that climate, a pastor named Terry Jones saw an opportunity to make himself famous. Jones heads up a heretofore unknown and uncared-about gang of Florida morons known as the Dove Outreach Church -- minor bit players in the field of antagonizing American Muslims. This idiot announced that he was going to burn some Qurans on September 11th, and was anyone interested in giving this nonsense a whole lot of media attention? And boy howdy, lots of people took him up on the offer! And you know why they did that? Because of the shame. Because deep down, your media all-stars knew that they had aided and abetted something that closely resembled an intellectual atrocity, and now it was time to atone by finding the lowest-hanging fruit available and make themselves feel better by beating on them repeatedly for being assholes -- something they should have already been doing for months! And this gave an opportunity for some of those who had opposed the Park51 community center -- who deserved the treatment being meted out to Terry Jones -- to do the same. They joined their friends in the media in this demonstration of game-show absolution, saying, "This level of bigotry is unacceptable! It's so declasse in comparison to our own bigotry, which is a refined, 'Sunday Afternoon On The Island Of La Grande Jatte' form of despicableness." A few people, like John Boehner and whoever writes Sarah Palin's tweets went so far as to say, "See, this is exactly the same thing we were decrying with the Ground Zero mosque." Except it wasn't, because the Ground Zero mosque was a thing they had made up! None of this bothered Terry Jones at all! Why should it? In the long history of fringe religious figures saying and doing stupid things, it is exceedingly rare for the media to provide much attention to them. Pat Robertson has been telling America that gay people cause hurricanes for years, and it never amounts to much in the way of coverage beyond a periodic reminder that Pat Robertson is a complete fool. Terry Jones, however, had been given something very precious: he was now "one side of a great debate" who possessed "an interesting point of view." And the media worked very hard to push the case that Jones was part of a debate. Now, Quran burning was an election-year issue, for which every candidate had to answer. And they even went so far as to ask Jones repeatedly, "What if President Obama told you not to do this? What if former President George W. Bush told you not to do this?" They were literally brokering negotiations between an idiot cult leader and some of the most powerful and important people in the world! By now, things were terribly out of control. President Obama had to publicly state that Quran burning is a stupid thing to do. Imagine how out of touch you have to be that you need to go all the way to the White House to find that answer! Other important people were compelled to interject at this point. General David Petraeus had to come forward and state the plainly obvious: that all the public attention being given to this Quran burning would undermine the ability of U.S. forces to conduct their counterinsurgency operations, which depend heavily on winning the "hearts of minds" of Afghans. I think a lot of people read this as Petraeus speaking out against the attention-seeker, Terry Jones. But I think he was speaking more directly to the attention-givers. And everything that Justin Elliot reports here, I believe, lends credence to my contention. Eventually, Robert Gates -- the Secretary of Defense, who is running two wars! -- had to call Jones up and try to convince him not to do this. "Which is crazy," says Alex Pareene, accurately, because when, exactly, did the Pentagon start negotiating with two-bit terrorists? All of this finally culminated with yesterday's press conference, where Terry Jones lied and said that the Park51 community center was going to move, thanks to him. You see where this is headed now, don't you? Now the people behind Park51 are on the hook for stopping this Quran burning, and all of the negative external impact it may have. Now, all of the refined hate-merchants from early in the story can say that if the "Ground Zero mosque" isn't moved, immediately, American troops could die! To go back to Charlie Brooker, let's remember that after sizing up the incompetence that pervaded the Park51 coverage, he warned that the "media" should just "give up" before they "[made] things worse." Pretty prophetic, isn't it? They got played, and played badly, by a dude with 14th-century religious beliefs, 19th-century facial hair and ultra-modern media savvy. Terry Jones has essentially blackmailed some of the most important people in America, with the assistance of the media. Let's remember that all of this paralysis was caused by 50 people who wanted to burn a book that's available for free, on the Internet! There were many, many moments where someone could have simply said, "No, we should really not be doing this. These Islamophobes are objectively wrong, objectively stupid, objectively contradictory, objectively harmful, and by God, as someone with a functioning brain and a devotion to the pursuit of reason above all else, I am going to stand here and say no to all of this." But as it turns out, it wasn't until yesterday afternoon that someone finally had the guts to say maybe we cannot really believe a word this man is saying. Well, they should have thought of that before they decided to point a bunch of teevee cameras at him, I guess. [Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]

79 diggs Japan is a wonderful place with their own special way of doing things. Like our own great nation, they tend to take they things they like from other countries, give them their own twist and resell them to the locals. Here, we add bacon. In Japan, giant robots.

83 diggs After you take a look at some of these beauties, you’ll probably agree that the art of tattooing is best left to those who have something really important to say and know how to do it properly.

68 diggs These gaming chicks will get your sabers up with this music video parody. Extra geek cred for appearances by a rapping Seth Green, Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff and Stan Lee.

68 diggs #triviagasm There's still only one way to bring a new person into this universe. Many science fiction/fantasy stories have featured the drama of childbirth... and some have done it better than others. Here are the best and worst SF/fantasy childbirth scenes. More

82 diggs Halo, the esteemed console first-person shooter franchise, comes full circle with the upcoming Reach. We take a look back at the history of the series.

57 diggs Professional photographer Frank Quirarte took amazing photos from last nights disaster in San Bruno.

77 diggs Long Island'€™s Newsday has a spiffy new iPad app, but ... (30-second video)

63 diggs Homeowners and communities square off over "right to dry" laundry rules, as homeowners associations in some places try to outlaw the traditional practice.

66 diggs We first denounced the Gainesville church's "International Burn a Koran Day" last month. Since then, the planned desecration has drawn broad attention and equally broad condemnation from everyone from Gainesville's mayor to the pope... Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, even appealed to the church's sense of patriotism. "Images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan — and around the world — to inflame public opinion and incite violence" against U.S. troops, he warned. To no avail. -- Christians and Muslims should ally against despicable acts by fringe groups.

47 diggs PROVO, UT (ABC 4 News) - Mold hidden in your home could be making you sick and in certain situations, can kill you. But a Utah dog can come to the rescue. Because of what his nose knows, he'll be on national TV this weekend.

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81 diggs Alice in Chains (a.k.a. the band that kicked out original bassist Mike Starr and lost distinctive doomsday vocalist Layne Staley in 2002 to an overdose and yet still calls itself Alice in Chains due to the presence of Jerry Cantrell), is hitting the road next week.....

67 diggs If you read RL Miller's post on "climate zombies" you know that open climate denialism is back in vogue in the GOP. However muted denialism may have gotten in the late 2000s, it has come roaring backlike everything reactionarywith the economic downturn. This is from Gallup:

84 diggs Pictured below is a young Steve Jobs at age 14, standing front row and center.  The photo was taken in 1969 and is of the Electronics Club at Homestead High

74 diggs Apple said it would end the iPhone 4 bumper case program on September 30th as the problem was smaller than expected

68 diggs Don’t have a Google Android phone yet? Why not? Going by many opinions out there, Android phones are the cream-of-the-crop. Without trying to start an all out flame war with the iPhone fan boys, I think you should take a look at Google’s prize of a mobile operating system.

80 diggs Looks like the world of social gaming is starting to reveal some of its (somewhat) surprising grisly underbelly.

68 diggs Author and activist Bill McKibben along with three students from Unity College walked away from their meeting with Administration officials still holding the solar panel they hauled half-way down the Eastern Seaboard.

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66 diggs As it turns out, the man behind International Burn a Koran Day, Pastor Terry Jones, shared a yearbook with fellow conservative contrarian Rush Limbaugh. This begs the question: what are they teaching at that school?

98 diggs The irony is he's the only weatherman in town who had been brave enough to forecast falling light fixtures.

82 diggs This kid is definitely going to get an A and is probably going to get a beatdown from his project. He earned both.

86 diggs Apply at your own risk, though.

67 diggs A pair of Chilean twins have broken the world levitation record by hovering above the ground for an extraordinary 200 minutes. Nicolas Luisetti and John Paul Olhaberry staged the event in Chile's capital Santiago to mark the country's 200th anniversary. The magic twins stunned thousands of passers-by as they floated above the city's streets for over eight hours.

66 diggs It takes 7 seconds for food to pass from mouth to stomach, a human hair can hold 3 Kg....

68 diggs Last year millions of people drank James Cameron's blue Kool-Aid about a so-called "3D entertainment revolution." Magazine publishers followed suit... to nice effect in many cases.

73 diggs Telegraph Angelo Vassallo was Mayor of the pretty little Italian town of Pollica, which Eric Reguly of the Globe and Mail calls "a cultural and environmental treasure." He said no to illegal construction that Reguly says " spreads like a cancer over so many seaside Italian towns". He said no to smokers who littered. He made the town part of the Slow City Movement. On Monday, he was killed in a Mafia-style execution.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

71 diggs Like many former bond holders from General Motors, over 450 former Chrysler workers learned the hard way that "guaranteed" doesn't always mean guaranteed.

76 diggs Verizon has just gone live with their own variant of the Samsung Galaxy S Android phone, dubbed the Verizon Fascinate, so of course we had to get our very own Fascinate to play with.

81 diggs During the 20th century, the United States experienced two major trends in income distribution. The Great Convergence (1940-1979) and the Great Divergence (1980-2010).

103 diggs Froyo might be the last word for Android smartphones, but Google denies its meant as a tablet OS, adding fuel to rumors that well be seeing Honeycomb or Gingerbread-enabled tablets competing against the iPad sometime soon.At least one Google executive has been saying publicly that the company doesnt see the most recent iteration of the Android operating system or the Android Market as entirely appropriate for tablets, suggesting that tablet-specific OSes might be forking from the Android family in the near future.Hugo Barra is Googles director of products for mobile. In recent comments to TechRadar, he said that while the company has seen Android 2.2 (which, like the rest of Androids distributions, is open-sourced and free for anyone to download) running on tablets, that isnt one of the OSs intended purposes.Froyo is not optimised for use on tablets, said Barra. The way Android Market works is not going to be available on devices that dont allow applications to run correctly. Which devices do and which dont will be unit-specific If you want Android Market on that platform [a tablet running Froyo], the apps just wouldnt run, it is just not designed for that form factor.He continued to say that Google is working on a different UX for a tablet-friendly Android Market. We would infer that, unlike the less-than experience of the first Android devices via-a-vis the iPhone, many of the first Android tablets could be more competitive with the currently market-leading iPad, thanks in large part to an operating system thats optimized for the full breadth of tablet hardware functionality.So, what could these mysterious operating systems be, and how soon could we see them? Will they be available on the already-released Dell Streak (which ships with Android 1.6) and Samsung Tab (which ships with Android 2.2)?While most of what we know about Android-for-tablets operating systems is shrouded in rumor, we are fairly certain that the fork will begin with Gingerbread, a.k.a. Android 3.0, which may be released as soon as this fall. And Honeycomb is thought to be the next iteration of the same fork.We can also safely speculate these OSes wont run on any but the highest-powered mobile devices, such as the Google/Verizon tablet that we expect to see around the holiday season.Whats your opinion on the future of Android-powered tablets? How do you think Android 3.X OSes might compare with other tablet operating systems currently on the market? Let us know what you think in the comments.More About: android, Froyo, gingerbread, Google, honeycomb, tabletsFor more Mobile coverage:Follow Mashable Mobile on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Mobile channelDownload our free apps for iPhone and iPad

77 diggs The Wall Street Journal reports that the FTC will continue to carefully scrutinize Apple despite its loosened policy regarding third-party iOS compilers.

88 diggs Samsung's Galaxy Tab will get an all-out launch next week for most major US carriers.