Archive for October, 2012:
The World’s Largest T-Shirt Cannon Is Monsterously…
The World’s Largest T-Shirt Cannon Is Monsterously Ridiculous
T-shirt cannons are typically tiny little toys that shoot out free t-shirts to rabid fans who want nothing more than a free t-shirt tagged with a silly phrase and drenched in crappy sponsors even though they spent hundred dollars on their to come to the game. This T-shirt cannon though? It’s a freaking monster. It’s the world’s largest T-shirt cannon.
The T-Shirt cannon, named the Big Bella, is the pride and glory of the Philadelphia 76ers and its specs are laughably awesome:
On opening night, the Sixers will unveil Big Bella, the world’s largest T-shirt launcher that fires 100 tees in just 60 seconds. Big Bella weighs 600 pounds and, when firing T-shirts into the upper reaches of the Wells Fargo Center, can be up to 10 feet high. The team commissioned the creation of Big Bella from FX in Motion, an entertainment elements company out of New Berlin, Wisc. The team will also drop T-shirts, free game tickets and other promotional items from the rafters of the Wells Fargo Center down to fans below in a new themed “Sixers Parachute Drop.â€
I think we should use Big Bella in warfare. [The 700 Level via The Basketball Jones]
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All of Gizmodo’s Hurricane Sandy Coverage Hurricane Sandy was no joke, it rampaged through…
All of Gizmodo’s Hurricane Sandy Coverage
Hurricane Sandy was no joke, it rampaged through New York, New Jersey and the rest of the Northeast and left damage everywhere. People died, buildings were destroyed, flooding happened everywhere, electrical plants exploded and the power is still out in many places.
We’ve rounded up all our coverage of Hurricane Sandy so you guys can follow along. Stay safe everybody.
Our definitive live coverage of Hurricane Sandy dating back from Sunday and still being updated now can be found here. [Gizmodo Emergency]
How You Can Help Hurricane Sandy Survivors
What It Will Take to Repower NYC
Giz Explains: What It Takes to Restore Cellular Service After a Hurricane
Why Salt Water in the Subway Is So Extremely Dangerous
Toolkit: 7 Tools to Help Survive a National Disaster
How Long Is the Food in Your Fridge Safe to Eat After the Power Goes Out?
Yes, Climate Change Caused Hurricane Sandy
All the Articles
The Best Hand Tools for Disaster Recovery
Everything you need to know about NYC Transit after Sandy
AT&T and T-Mobile share networks to keep NY and NJ covered
Comcast unlocks its Wi-Fi hotspots to Hurricane Sandy Survivors
#Sandy Tweets top 3,000,000 in 24 hours
Nearly every comment on Bloomberg’s update is a kid screaming that school is cancelled
All the Videos
Collapsed building on 14th Street and 8th Avenue
Collapsing crane on the skyscraper on West 57th Street
Sandy’s attack and disintegration
This is Sandy destroying the internet
All the Images
House ripped from its foundation
Hurricane Sandy damaged the Enterprise’s tail
What the storm would look like over Western Europe
Uprooted Bench – Williamsburg, Brooklyn – October 30, 2012
Fallen Pole – Williamsburg, Brooklyn – October 30, 2012
Bricks everywhere – Williamsburg, Brooklyn – October 30, 2012
The only place in this NYC neighborhood with cell service
People crowding outside of Starbucks for Wi-Fi
Elsewhere on the Internet
Which Foods Are Safe to Keep After a Power Outage (and Which You Should Toss)
Why Can’t We Stop a Hurricane Before It Hits Us?
New York City’s Displaced Rat Population Simply Cannot Wait to Give You the Bubonic Plague
But How Did Wall Street Execs Enjoy Their Hurrication?
A Grisly Question: Did NYC’s Subway-Dwelling ‘Mole People’ Get Out Alive?
Who’s ‘Winning’ the Hurricane?
Exploring New York In the Post-Sandy Pitch Black
Here Is Tomorrow’s Subway System
Halloween, Sandy, and Pee on the LES
The MTA had a fool-proof system for preventing floodwaters from getting into the subway system
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Daily Desired: Puma x MiharaYasuhiro Utility Bag Everybody needs…
Daily Desired: Puma x MiharaYasuhiro Utility Bag
Everybody needs a good looking black bag. And this fresh one from Puma and MiharaYasuhiro does double duty—it’s a messenger, but if you want to change it up, it’s also a backpack.
The utility bag is also snake-printed and has a big flap opening with nice leather stitching detail. What’s not to like there? $273 for two slick bags in one isn’t so bad. [Browns via Acquire]
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Why Can’t We Stop a Hurricane Before It Hits Us?
By Charlie Jane Anders
Hurricane Sandy has caused untold billions of dollars in damage and insane casualties. And we saw the “Frankenstorm†coming, for days in advance. We can send people into space and put vehicles on Mars — why can’t we stop a hurricane in its tracks, before it comes to our major population centers and starts rolling for damage?
Here are some methods that people have suggested for preventing, or stopping, a hurricane — and why they might not work.
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The Terrifying Tech in Classic Horror Films By Leslie Horn From…
The Terrifying Tech in Classic Horror Films
By Leslie Horn
From evil cars with minds of their own to chainsaws used to torture and taunt—many of our favorite horror movies would be nothing without a little technology. Here’s how it played a role in some of the spookiest stories on film.Â
Hold on there, Jack. Methinks your typing on this Adler Universal 39’ typewriter means you’re headed for a mental break in this classic scene from The Shining. Next up, chopping through doors with an axe.
Image by Warner Bros. Pictures//Hawk Films
Buffalo Bill has opted for a pair of night vision goggles through which he watches Clarice Starling in the Silence of the Lambs. He doesn’t even need a skin suit to be totally creepy.
Image by Strong Heart/Demme Production//Orion Pictures Corporation
Samara crawls right through the TV screen in this scary scene fromThe Ring. The lesson to be learned here is never watch VHS when DVDs are an option.
Paranormal Activity taught us if your husband wants to set up a tripod to film ghosts attempting to possess you, your answer should always be no.
Image by Blumhouse Productions/p>
In Dawn of the Dead, humans took on zombies from this Bell Jet Ranger II helicopter.
This Geiger–Müller counter played a role in The Hills Have Eyes.
This creepy music box comes from a scene in the 1980 movie The Changeling.
Image by Chessman Park Productions
Seriously, we should all just stay away from TVs forever. Because that’s how people are abducted in horror films, just like Carol Anne in Poltergeist. “They’re heeere!â€
The Descent gives us another scary flick takeaway—don’t go rappelling down a deep dark hole because there are things down there that want to eat you. Thank goodness for that pick axe.
A machete is a staple of horror movies, and it’s the weapon of choice of Jason in Friday the 13th.
Glove plus blade equals a great tool for snatching people in their sleep, which is exactly how Freddie Krueger rose to infamy in Nightmare on Elm Street.
Image by The Elm Street Venture
Saw is evidence that a reversed bear trap is not just for catching bears, but also killing and taunting helpless hostages. Look how frightened she is!
Image by Evolution Entertainment/Saw Productions Inc./Twisted Pictures
Psycho was the movie that spawned a lot of poor hygiene, because how do you shower safely after watching that?
Gun and hand become one terrifying megaweapon in this scene from Videodrome.
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Stolen Cellphone Databases Switched On In US
alphadogg writes “U.S. cellphone carriers took a major step on Wednesday toward curbing the rising number of smartphone thefts with the introduction of databases that will block stolen phones from being used on domestic networks. The initiative got its start earlier this year when the FCC and police chiefs from major cities asked the cellular carriers for assistance in battling the surging number of smartphone thefts. In New York, more than 40 percent of all robberies involve cellphones and in Washington, D.C., cellphone thefts accounted for 38 percent of all robberies in 2011.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Comcast Unlocks Its Wi-Fi Hotspots to Hurricane Sandy Survivors by Andrew Tarantola Paywalls…
Comcast Unlocks Its Wi-Fi Hotspots to Hurricane Sandy Survivors
by Andrew Tarantola
Paywalls guarding the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal fell first. Now Comcast, one of the largest cable operators in the country, has announced that it will unlock thousands of Wi-Fi hotspots along the East Coast to help emergency responders and others affected by Hurricane Sandy.
These hotspots, part of a 50,000-unit nationwide network, are peppered across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Washington, D.C., Virginia, West Virginia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. They’re normally password-protected and only accessible to actual Comcast subscribers.Â
However, until November 7th, anybody within the affect areas, comcast customer or not, will be able to log on for renewable two-hour sessions. To find the nearest hotspot, check the Xfinity coverage map (assuming you can), then seach for the “xfinitywifi” network when in the area. Non-customers will need to sign in using the “Not a Comcast subscriber?” link.Â
[DSLR Reports via CNet]
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Apple reminds iTunes Match subscribers of auto-renewal
Apple is quietly telling subscribers of its nearly one-year-old iTunes Match service reminders their year is almost up.
6 Half-Assed Last-Minute Halloween Costumes for 2012 How the…
6 Half-Assed Last-Minute Halloween Costumes for 2012
How the heck is it October 31st already? It doesn’t really matter why you don’t have a costume. Maybe Hurricane Sandy got in the way, or maybe you’re just a lazy waste of humanity in sunny California. The point is that you’ve got to put something together and fast. So get ready to lower your standards and put the stuff you’ve got lying around the house to work. Here’s our second annual guide to getting all costumed up with zero preparation.
Episode VII Merchandise Mockup
It’s anyone’s best guess what Disney has planned for the next Star Wars movie, but that hasn’t stopped the Internet from speculating about what a Mickey meets Darth Vader mashup might look like. Now it’s your turn. Thanks to the nearly endless merchandising of both Disney characters and Star Wars films, there’s a 99.9-percent chance you own at least one novelty item from each empire. Simply match an article from column A to an article from column B. Maybe it’s Mickey ears and a lightsaber. Maybe it’s a Cinderella Tierra™ and a Wookie hoodie. It doesn’t matter. Instant meme.
The Forsaken Executive’s Mad Science
It’s a blessing to all things tasteful that Scott Forstall was just ousted from Apple, but his tacky design choices can now become the basis for your costume. Just wear something—anything—hideous from your closet. The more beleaguered the fashion and the more skeuomorphic the design, the better. When somebody asks, just say you’re a discarded prototype for an iOS application. You’ll get that Tim Cook for burying your genius.
The Unmasked Troll
ViolentAcrez and ComfortablySmug got the unmasking they deserved after anonymously trolling the Internet. Now you can repeat this unmasking over and over and over. Just use a bandana or a t-shirt to cover a part of your face on which you’ve scrawled the word “asshole†in magic marker. When people ask what you are, rip off the mask. So. Satisfying.
Night of the Living Useless Gadget
Tonight, from the depths of your junk drawer, an ancient menace will emerge: Your Blackberry from 2007. Find all the terrible old gadgets that haunt your memories and attempt to revive them. Oh what it doesn’t make calls? Was it ever even good at that? Oh you mean that novelty combination lighter/bottle opener isn’t any good at starting fires or opening bottles? Impossible! You’ll be forced to borrow stuff from others all night long. Watch as they run for the hills.
Bonus points for calling your carrier and activating your ancient phone. Double bonus points for Sharper Image crap.
Instant Paul Ryan
Politics is the art of simple messages. That’s what Paul Ryan’s red hat was supposed to be in the infamous photo shoot from last year. Unfortunately, the message was lost in translation. Instead of, “Republican and unassuming,†it reads “idiot man-boy.†Either way, it’s Paul Ryan’s hat now. And when you put on a little red hat, you too magically assume Ryan’s buffoonish qualities.
The IRL Deal With It GIF
You’re screwed. Just grab your Ray-Bans, and go out with your kids or to a party with friends as planned. Tell people you didn’t get dressed up this year. When they start to snivel about the spirit of Halloween, cut them off with a glare and flip down your shades. Deal with it.
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Your Favorite Army General Actually Sucks
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