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Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless; but no matter what happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value.

Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who love you. The worth of our lives comes, not in what we do or who we know, but by …WHO WE ARE.

You are special – don’t ever forget it.”

The buzz around Poseidon Undersea Resorts has been around for a few years now (c.f. our 2007 report on the conceptually-similar Hydropolis in Dubai). Poseidon Resorts has announced that it has completed the design and engineering of structural works, indicating that the sci fi-esque undersea project is closer to getting off the ground, or better, into a lagoon on a private island in Fiji. The company is now working to secure capital for construction, which should take two years to complete, it says.

‘I was 47 years old, disabled Veteran, i had given up’…This video end blew me away..Whoa.

TIME contract photographer Yuri Kozyrev hung out with members of Pussy Riot, photographing their busy first days of freedom.

The Trovants of Costesti – Romania’s Unique Growing Rocks By Sumitra on December 30th, 2013 Category: Pics When I first read about trovants, I couldn’t believe they were real. They sounded like objects Captain Kirk and his crew would discover on an alien planet. Strange rocks that grow when it rains and move from one place to another without any assistance. Totally sci-fi, right? As I kept reading about them, I discovered that trovants aren’t a part of science fiction, they are just an amazing geological phenomena. These stones seem to grow as if they are alive, even though they’re not. They are found in the small Romanian village of Costesti. The word ‘trovant’ is a synonym for the German term “Sandsteinkonkretionen” (try saying that really fast), which means ‘cemented sand’. Cemented sand – that’s a strange name for a rock, isn’t it? But that’s what trovants are – spherical shapes of sand that appeared on earth after powerful seismic activity. In fact, the earthquakes that brought these strange rocks into existence are said to have occurred 6 million years ago. Trovants grow when they come into contact with water. Stones as small as six to eight millimeters end up as large as six to ten meters. Some of them even move on their own. When cut, trovants reveal spherical and ellipsoidal rings, similar to tree trunks. It is assumed that trovants consist of a stone core, with an outer shell of sand. After a heavy rain, smaller stones form on the larger ones, which is why they are called growing stones. All trovants are believed to be identical to each other, but I’m not sure if this is true. There are many theories, some scientific, and some fantastical, explaining the origin and strange behavior of trovants. Scientists are baffled by the phenomenon. They believe that under the shell, the stones contain a high mineral content. When the surface becomes wet, the minerals begin to spread, and pressurize the sand to expand. This makes the stones ‘grow’. But this is just a theory; no well-documented research or conclusive experiments have ever been conducted on these miraculous rocks. For now, they remain a popular tourist attraction in Romania. “Muzeul Trovantilator” (Trovants Museum National Reserve) was inaugurated in 2004 and is now protected by UNESCO. Don’t forget to pay the trovants a visit if you ever happen to visit Romania!

Trovants - The Living, Growing Rocks of Costesti | Oddity Central - Collecting Oddities

Last month, two oarfish washed up on the shores of Southern California. While these large deep water fish are rarely seen by humans because they live so far below the surface, some think their presence might actually be a warning sign of an upcoming natural disaster. A group of oarfish washed ashore in Japan shortly before the 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck the country in 2011. Some scholars believe that deep-sea fish are particularly sensitive to fault movements and so their presence near the surface suggests seismic activity down below. But the belief that animals can predict earthquakes is not new. In 373 B.C. historians recorded that animals, such as snakes and rats, abandoned the ancient Greek city of Helice before a massive earthquake struck. And in 1975, Chinese officials ordered the evacuation of a city called Haicheng after earthquake warning signs, which included hibernating snakes waking up unexpectedly. A 7.3 earthquake hit the region soon afterwards. There’s no consensus on how animals might know an earthquake is coming, but a 2011 study published in the Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health theorizes that rocks stressed by active fault lines release various particles into the groundwater which animals – but not humans -- may be able to sense. The stressed rocks are a precursor to larger seismic activity. This theory may explain why a colony of around 100 toads abandoned its pond before an earthquake struck L’Aquila, Italy in 2009. As for the oarfish, whether or not they can sense seismic activity, they’ve already gotten lots of media attention – and in Los Angeles that’s as common a skill as predicting earthquakes.

Natural Disaster Warning Signs | Watch the video - Yahoo Entertainment Singapore

Life Time Experiences..... turned 2 today!

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Long before Internet Explorer became the browser everyone loves to hate, it was the driving force of innovation on the Internet. Sometimes it's hard to remember all of the good that Internet Explorer did before Internet Explorer 6 became the scourge of web developers everywhere. Believe it or not, Internet Explorer 4-6 is heavily responsible for web development as we know it today. A number of proprietary features became de facto standards and then official standards with some ending up in the HTML5 specification.

It may be hard to believe that Internet Explorer is actually to thank for a lot of the features that we take for granted today, but a quick walk through history shows that it's true.

It's about time someone showed Internet Explorer some love. On his site, NCZOnline, Nicholas C. Zakas walks us through some of the major contributions to the modern web that we owe to IE.

Java is Insecure and Awful, It’s Time to Disable It, and Here’s How

As usual, there’s yet another security hole in the Java Runtime Environment, and if you don’t disable your Java plugin, you’re at risk for being infected with malware. Here’s how to do it.

Security holes are nothing new, but in this case, the security hole is really bad, and there’s no telling when Oracle will get around to fixing the problem. Plus, how often do you really need Java while browsing the web? Why keep it around?

Should You Disable Java or Uninstall it?

Ideally, both. Otherwise:

If you don’t rely on any applications that use Java, and you don’t visit any sites that require Java in the browser, you should just completely remove the entire framework from your computer.

If you use applications that require Java, you should disable the plugin in the browser.

If you are forced to use Java in the browser for a specific site, you should disable Java in your main browser, and then use an alternate browser just for that one single site.

For regular users, there’s very little reason to keep Java around.

Note: many readers pointed out that the fun and extremely geeky game Minecraft requires Java. Obviously if you’re a geek, you deserve some Minecraft–but you should still disable the Java plugin in the browser.

How to Uninstall Java Entirely

Just like anything else, you need to head to Control Panel –> Uninstall Programs and uninstall it from there. Find anything else that has Java, JRE, JDK, or anything similar, and click the Uninstall button—it is completely free, so you can easily reinstall it if you really have to.

How to Disable the Java Plugin in Google Chrome

For Google Chrome, head to about:plugins in your browser bar, and then hit the Enter key.

Find Java in the list, and click the Disable button.

How to Disable the Java Plugin in Internet Explorer

Head to the Tools icon, and then use the Manage add-ons item in the menu.

Find the Java plugin in the list, click on it, and then click the Disable button. You’ll notice that this screenshot illustrates how to remove LastPass, but the same idea works for both.

How to Disable Java in Mozilla Firefox

Open up the Firefox menu and then click the Add-ons button.

Find everything that says Java in the name, and then disable it.

Finally, Java is gone! Now to find a good reason to get rid of iTunes.

Everyone likes a happy ending. Even more so, everyone likes a happy ending with an added bonus. Make tells the story of how a victim of a theft not only caught the perpetrator, but how his sleuthing also resulted in a drug bust.

Here’s what happened. Two guys rented a car, left their computer equipment in backpacks in the trunk, and went off to Maker Faire in Detroit. Using a screwdriver, the thief unlocked the car, popped the trunk, and made off with a MacBook Pro, an iPad, and other equipment. His job was easy. The victims’ job was a lot harder.

First, they found a police station and started giving local officials all the information they could remember. The ball really started rolling when a police officer asked “Was there an iPad or any way to track your computers?” The owner of the iPad tried to use the “Find my iPad” service to no avail. Thankfully, the owner of the MacBook Pro also had something similar: he had subscribed to an online backup service calledBackblaze. Not only was everything on his computer (personal files and photos) backed up, but there was a little “Locate My Computer” button that was worth a shot.

The first time the button was clicked, it showed the computer’s last position (based on Wi-Fi networks in the area), before it was stolen. Since the criminal hadn’t used the Internet on the computer, Backblaze couldn’t do much. They had reached a dead end, and the case wasn’t exactly a priority for local police:

Officer said to call if we had updates. While very nice, he didn’t sound overly hopeful. Clearly, the officers in Detroit had more important things to do like catch murderers, rapists, and other criminals than find our missing electronics. I can’t say I blame them.

The next morning, Backblaze and “Find My iPad” were still not showing anything. Later in the day though, the MacBook Pro owner was presented with this map when clicking on Backblaze’s “Locate My Computer” button:

Unfortunately, contacting Detroit’s police department only resulted in another: officials couldn’t do anything without an exact address. Thankfully, the thief was looking to sell his car and put a few photos of it on the MacBook Pro, which Backblaze then in turn backed up to the cloud. As a result, the victim managed to get the perpetrator’s address and phone number by doing two things: comparing the house in the background of the photos against what Google StreetView showed, and finding a Craigslist ad for the sale of the car.

The police eventually did the rest:

According to the detective, he assembled a team, and search warrant in hand, knocked on the door of the house. Receiving no answer, they turned on sirens and lights and announced their intention to enter — which they then did, with the aid of a Halligan bar and door ram. Once in, the house was swept and declared clear. Well, except for the drugs.

A search of the house, “designed for narcotics distribution,” yielded “multiple, large jars of suspected Marijuana, multiple individually packaged vials of suspected Marijuana and multiple knotted baggies of suspected Marijuana.” My computer was located in an upstairs bedroom next to a mattress.

Unfortunately, the iPad and other content in the bags still haven’t been found. The victims did, however, learn a few lessons that everyone should keep in mind:

Install a remote backup system.

Don’t keep important items in your car.

Be really nice to police officers. They have a very hard job.

If I had to add something to that, I would say: don’t despair and never give up! Oh, and always let the cops do the actual busting.

Image credit: stock.xchng

Not so long ago I put the word out for a Gmail feature which would prevent any new email from appearing in my Inbox during particular periods of the day. See, like many of you I’m sure, as long as I’m online, I’ll constantly visit my Gmail Inbox to check for new mail. Even amidst the mother of all crisis’, I’d instinctively visit my inbox and lo and behold, there’s always new mail to distract me from more important issues.

The idea was to simply provide a feature which could prevent new email from appearing in the Inbox. Of course, I still wanted to be able to reply and compose mail, I just didn’t want new mail creeping in.

And, crucially, I always wanted to immediately be able to retrieve email when I was good and ready. I just didn’t want to be bothered by it or to be able to view any new emails.

Meet Inbox Pause

Ironically, a few days later, a new email arrives in my Inbox from Aye Moah at Baydin Inc, the creators of my most used browser extension Boomerang for Gmail, alerting me to a new extension they’d built: INBOX PAUSE.

It’s a marvelous little tool they’d built which does exactly which provides the exact functionality I’d been hoping for.

Simply install the extension, refresh your Gmail and you’ll notice a “Pause” button alongside your Mail drop down (as to the right).

When you click that button, new messages will stop arriving in your inbox. Instead, they’ll be held in a special label until you are ready for them. Should you wish, INBOX PAUSE can notify the people who email you to let them know that their message will not be delivered to your Inbox.

While your Inbox is paused, you’ll see a banner at the top of your Gmail window like this:

When you un-pause your Inbox, all of the messages that you received during the break will be moved to your Inbox, and new messages will arrive as before.

Simple as that.

Grab the extension, only for Chrome, here:

→ INBOX PAUSE

A newly discovered botnet is adding victims to its list by claiming to be an interesting video from a Facebook user. That’s nothing new. Here’s what makes this malware unique: it can spread via multiple instant messaging services, including Facebook Chat, Skype, Google Talk, Pidgin, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and even ICQ. The initial point of contact is Facebook (not surprising given that it’s the world’s most popular social network): the malware’s filename is typically something like “Picturexx.JPG_www.facebook.com.” It proliferates through the social network via an Ajax command that makes it look like the message came from one of your Facebook friends. Once the malware is on the machine, it can receive commands from a remote attacker. From there, the victim’s computer sends out instant messages via the aforementioned platforms in a constant attempt to infect more PCs, according to McAfee: Once on your machine, the malware bypasses the Windows Firewall by using the command line “netsh firewall allowed program” or by modifying the firewall policy to add itself as an allowed program. It then adds itself to start up when you reboot your computer and copies itself to another folder for safe keeping, marking the copy as a hidden file with read-only attributes. If you are checking for an infection, here are the three paths it might be in: the Windows folder, the Program Files folder, or the Public folder. The malware does a series of checks for anything that can get in its way, and then disables them: antivirus software, Windows Update, and even Yahoo update software. It even changes the Internet Explorer start page, and modifies Chrome and Firefox’s preference files. As a general word of caution, don’t click on any links you are sent via instant message. If you really can’t help yourself, always message your friend to make sure they really did send you something. Image credit: stock.xchng

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Isaac's Live Lip-Dub Proposal (by RobertaFosse)

A really cool proposal........

Why Microsoft's Surface Tablet Shames the PC Industry

On June 18, Microsoft (MSFT) beckoned 200 or so members of the media to a grimy, industrial part of Hollywood for what it described as a can’t-miss affair. Dutiful reporters met at the appointed hour—3:30 p.m.—at a film and art studio Microsoft had rented out and emptied for the day. While beads of sweat formed on the foreheads of the people waiting to get in, aspiring actresses walked by in tight jeans and high heels on their way to a T-Mobile commercial casting call at the building next door.

Microsoft usually begs for attention. On this day, it played the cool maestro. In fact, the company played theApple (AAPL) role, using pomp, circumstance, and constructed anticipation to make us believe that something really fantastic would appear. Perhaps the whole thing worked: Something that did seem rather fantastic arrived at about 4:20 p.m. It was the Surface tablet—a computer that had all its software and hardware made by Microsoft. In that moment, Microsoft became not just a competitor to Apple but also a rival to such longtime PC manufacturing partners as Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Dell (DELL), and Acer (2353:TT).

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive officer, tried his best to soften this affront to the company’s partners. When he arrived in 1980, he said, Microsoft’s best-selling product was the SoftCard, a hardware device that would plug into Apple computers so they could run extra software. “Let’s take a little bit of a look back at the role of hardware at Microsoft,” Ballmer said, as a marketing video spun up to show mice, keyboards, and, of course, the Xbox.

Let’s be clear, though: Microsoft making hardware is not a natural action. It’s what the company does in times of desperation. With the release of Windows 8 looming, Microsoft was indeed desperate for a hardware company to do something to blunt Apple’s runaway tablet machine. The Surface tablet represents an indictment of the entire PC and device industry, which has stood by for a couple of years trying to mimic Apple with a parade of hapless, copycat products.

Rather than complaining, PC makers ought to take note of what Microsoft has produced. It has one tablet—a 9 mm thick, 1.5 pounder—that will run on low-power ARM chips and arrive around October. The black device has beautiful, beveled edges; its shell is made of what Microsoft calls vapor-deposited magnesium, or VaporMg. (Brushed aluminum is so last year, Apple.) It also has a built-in kickstand. Best of all, the device comes with a cover that locks firmly in place, unlike Apple’s flimsy iPad protector, and which functions as a proper keyboard. Both the kickstand and cover-cum-keyboard seem such obvious ideas now that we’ve seen them, yet the great army of PC makers failed to think up anything so clever over the past two years.

Later, a slightly bigger Surface tablet will arrive to run on an Intel (INTC) chip, with a stylus and an even-sturdier keyboard/cover. Workers will be able to run all their Windows 8 software and previous Windows applications on this device, while the thinner one will support a more limited set of software—it uses a chip architecture more common to smartphones than PCs.

Steven Sinofsky, president of Microsoft’s Windows division, did much of the oohing and ahhing over the Surface devices, which will be sold by Microsoft at its retail and online stores. Perhaps sensing the importance of the moment, Sinofsky’s voice shook and his hands trembled at times to the point that he could not finish demonstrating the tablets’ functions. Still, he managed to demo enough of the product and its industrial design to generate a few screams of ecstasy from the audience. (Whether these were overjoyed Microsoft employees or rapturous press was not clear.)

It was Panos Panay, general manager of Microsoft’s Surface products, who really did the Steve Jobs impression. He went on and on about the engineering marvels—200 custom parts, no less—that it took to make the Surface. When it goes up, the kickstand makes a sound as crisp as the way a luxury car door closes, he said. “And when you need it, it’s there.” Like Superman, I suppose.

Panay then talked for a long while about how the Surface devices feel and look like books. (To me, they looked like sleek computing devices, but what do I know?) “We designed this organically like a book,” he said. “It is light enough and it feels just perfect.” How perfect, Panos? “I am seriously in love with it,” he said of the keyboard/cover. “Outside of my wife, the Touch Cover is No. 2. I never want to take the Touch Cover off.” Okey-doke.

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