Ikea. Land of cubist bookshelves, affordable throw pillows and … daycare for men? We are all familiar with the childcare services Ikea offers: drop off your children in Smaland, where they can play with their peers in a giant ball pit under the watchful eye of paid staffers as you shop. Just make sure you keep that Smaland buzzer on you at all times so you know when to pick them up. Now, picture that scenario, only replace that kid-friendly jungle gym with foosball tables, free hot dogs, flatscreen TVs playing nonstop sports, and video games. A Sydney, Australia location of the Swedish furniture chain is testing out their notion that men would be happier in a special room rather than cruising Ikea’s notoriously twisty aisles picking out matching drapes. The company calls this sanctum — what else? — “Manland.” Women are given a buzzer that goes off after thirty minutes to remind them to pick up their partners in Manland — “or else, you know, we may have to call the authorities,” a sales associate joked to a local Australian newscaster. That newscaster called the concept, “basically a creche [the Australian term for a daycare] for husbands and boyfriends with short retail attention spans, a place to hang out while their wives and girlfriends run the aisles of Ikea.” Unfortunately for the men out there thrilled by this development, the installation is not permanent — it was created for Father’s Day in Australia (down under, it’s the first Sunday of September) — but will men the world over join Kris Matheson in his proposed petition to make Manland a staple at Ikea locations worldwide? Not if Jezebel’s Irin Carmon has anything to say about it: “The problem with the men-as-children meme is that it’s self-fulfilling, particularly in conjunction with the idea that men are no good at household tasks and only women can do stuff like laundry. Some men may prefer playing video games to buying a couch or cleaning the kitchen, but women probably would rather do a lot of other things too.” And Sarah Firshein at Curbed points out another glaring omission in the “Manland” concept: what about gay couples? I agree with Carmon — let’s give men a little more credit. Implying that half the population needs and wants to be kept occupied while the other half makes decisions about their shared living space is sad (as is the concept that all it takes to make a man happy are hot dogs and a foosball table) and in many cases, untrue. Besides, how can men get busy creating their own man caves if they don’t do the shopping themselves?
Continue reading …“We have to cut $1.5 trillion out of this year’s budget,” says investment advisor, author, and radio host Peter Schiff. Reason’s Nick Gillespie sat down with Schiff at July’s FreedomFest in Las Vegas. Schiff, whose most recent book is How and Economy Grows and Why it Crashes, says that the economic downturn of 2008 is only a mild preview of what’s Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Big Government Discovery Date : 16/09/2011 17:22 Number of articles : 2
Continue reading …“We have to cut $1.5 trillion out of this year’s budget,” says investment advisor, author, and radio host Peter Schiff. Reason’s Nick Gillespie sat down with Schiff at July’s FreedomFest in Las Vegas. Schiff, whose most recent book is How and Economy Grows and Why it Crashes, says that the economic downturn of 2008 is only a mild preview of what’s Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Big Government Discovery Date : 16/09/2011 17:22 Number of articles : 2
Continue reading …No. 7 Wisconsin routed Northern Illinois 49-7 at Soldier Field in Chicago Saturday. No. 11 Nebraska outscored Washington 51-38. No. 15 Michigan State and No. 21 Auburn lost in upsets. (Sept. 17)
Continue reading …Anonymous Will Occupy Wall Street, 9/17/11, TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ‘Anonymous’ Will Occupy Wall Street 9/17/11, TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Occupy Wall Street ! Or a corner in St. Paul… USANewsSecrets says: Video starting to stream from Occupy Wall Street http://t.co/9v3XdFCN
Continue reading …The pilot of a post-World War II plane died Saturday when his plane crashed at an air show in West Virginia. No spectators were injured, and the pilot’s name hasn’t been released. It was the second deadly air show crash in 24 hours. (Sept. 17)
Continue reading …Mariano Rivera tied the major league saves record, earning the 601st of his career and matching Trevor Hoffman while preserving the New York Yankees 7-6 win over the Toronto Blue Jays Saturday. (Sept. 17)
Continue reading …Flash fans can breathe a collective sigh of relief — Adobe has confirmed that the next version of Windows will, in fact, support work built on its once ubiquitous web publishing platform. Windows 8 PCs and tablets with x86 or ARM processors will support the platform — in the more traditional desktop mode, that is. The version of Internet Explorer 10 built for that interface will play nicely with Flash. Those users who opt for the new Metro UI , on the other hand, will be out of luck on the Flash front, thanks to a lack of plug-in support. Between Adobe’s work in the HTML5 world and the ability to build Flash-like apps using Air for the Metro interface, however, the company seems to have most of its bases covered in Windows 8 land. Check out evidence of Flash running in Windows 8 after the break, courtesy of Qualcomm. Continue reading Adobe: yep, your Windows 8 system will support Flash — sometimes (video) Adobe: yep, your Windows 8 system will support Flash — sometimes (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …In what appears to be an attempt to make light of her husband’s controversial, bogus ex-gay therapy service, Michele Bachmann bizarrely throws him under the bus while on Jay Leno’s show. Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Firedoglake Discovery Date : 17/09/2011 16:49 Number of articles : 3
Continue reading …Sometimes it’s the simplest questions that lead to the most important innovation — other times it’s more that they’re just plain fun to answer. Take the one asked by Grand Rapids, MI-artist, Sam Blanchard: what would the Wachowski Brothers’ bullet-time effect look like, were it shot on, say 20 Polaroids , instead of a room full of expensive digital devices? The answer, naturally, can be found in the Polaroid Matrix, a circle of cameras on display at Maker Faire in New York, this weekend. The Kickstarter success story arranges the cameras into a circle — a subject can be sat in the middle, or the cameras can be oriented outward, to take a panorama of the surrounding environment. Once the rig is fired up, the cameras make that familiar Polaroid warm up hum — times 20. The actual photographing happens almost in an instant, with 20 flashes. The photographer walks around the circle and collects 20 photos, which are bound into a photographic flipbook. Check out a video of the Polaroid Matrix in action, after the jump. Gallery: Stepping into the Polaroid Matrix at Maker Faire (video) Continue reading Stepping into the Polaroid Matrix at Maker Faire (video) Stepping into the Polaroid Matrix at Maker Faire (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Sep 2011 20:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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