A handful of critics enjoyed Seth Rogen’s bumbling reinvention of Green Hornet —but only a handful. The movie’s currently at 44% on Rotten Tomatoes , though to be fair, audiences liked it a fair bit more (71%). Here’s what they’re saying: The first half of the movie has a “genuinely subversive…
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enlarge First of all, this isn’t my idea. It’s my oldest son’s, and he told me about it a few years ago when he was trying to figure out a way he could make money. (Did I mention the kid is a genius? If you use this idea, you owe him.) He said it made more sense to sidestep the entire gun control controversy and instead pass state laws that require anyone who owns a gun to carry insurance. If they have risk factors (like teenagers in the house), their rates go up. If one of their kids sneaks a gun out of the house and gets caught, or uses it to commit a crime, the insurance gets canceled for some meaningful period of time — say, 10 years. And if someone steals your gun and you don’t report it in a 24-hour window of you finding out, your insurance is suspended. If you have a rifle and it’s only used for hunting, low rates. If you have a Glock and you carry it in an open-carry town or state, your rates will be very high — because odds are so much higher that innocent bystanders may get caught in a shootout. Homeowners could be required to carry gun insurance as long as they’re still paying on a mortgage, because a gun accident or misuse could result in a large legal judgment against the house. Oh yeah, and you have to buy coverage for each gun you own. I think it has real possibilities. What do you think?
Continue reading …Tree Rings Show Swift Shifts in Europe’s Climate Linked to Rise & Fall of Roman Empire
January 14, 2011 No Comment
photo: Francesco Z / Creative Commons Those who don’t remember the past… It’s been long known that changing climatic conditions has contributed to the demise of ancient civilizations (think: the Saraswati-Indus civilization when the Saraswati River dried up), and the connections between climate variations and agriculture are perhaps obvious, … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Perhaps if there was some sort of Brundlefly-style gadget mix-up five years ago, the outcome would look like this: an HTC Hermes jammed inside a GameBoy Advance housing. This prototype, presented by Windows Phone Hacker, features some fun changes that make it feel more like your beloved handheld gaming console, and less like your dated Windows Mobile Pocket PC, including a startup GIF animation of the original GameBoy Advance boot screen, custom software that keeps the OS in landscape mode, and custom notifications and ringtones from the Mario games. Also included is PocketGBA emulator for playing GameBoy Advance ROMs on the phone itself. Of course, this is just the beginning of the project: we look forward to seeing a version where the buttons work! In the meantime, check out the thing in action after the break. [Thanks, Juan] Continue reading GameBoy Advance Phone caught in the wild (by the guy who built it) GameBoy Advance Phone caught in the wild (by the guy who built it) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Chris Gaida is a celebrity escort—no, not the kind of escort Charlie Sheen favors , the kind that gets paid to squire celebs down the red carpet. “He’s reliable and fast and trustworthy,” says Queen Latifah’s executive assistant, and “he’s not bad-looking either.” An escort’s job is to make sure…
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Photo: biofriendly , CC Reducing Air Pollution The last diesel bus in the 2,228 vehicle fleet of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) was recently retired, making Metro the first major transit agency in the world to operate only “alternative” fuel buses. They now have 2,221 compressed natural gas (CNG) buses, one electric, and six gasoline-electric hybrid buses. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Photo: Catwalk Queen/ Ecostiletto Until she was engaged to, married to, and expecting with actor Orlando Bloom all in the space of a few weeks, model Miranda Kerr was most recognizable for her runway work — and for the naked Rolling Stone cover that showed her standing up for protected koala habitats. But in a four-part series on
Continue reading …Despite what countless people seem to think, it’s “totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong” to use two spaces after a period, writes Farhad Manjoo in Slate . It’s been the case since the early 20th century, but you wouldn’t know it based on his readers (“In editing letters for my occasional…
Continue reading …After waking to a 4:30am robocall announcing a snow delay, a Maryland dad was fuming—so he decided to make a robocall of his own. The father of five found an online robocalling company and recorded a message to be sent at 4:30am yesterday to school officials, the…
Continue reading …CO2 Levels Could Rise to Concentrations Unseen in 30 Million Years by 2100
January 14, 2011 No Comment
image: Wikipedia Now this is really a pretty shocking projection, but one which is by no means certain provided we take action now to change course from our business-as-usual levels of greenhouse gas emissions : New research from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (h/t
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