Brian Gongol
TSA full-body scanners could get a little bit less creepy
Software is being tested at Las Vegas that turns the body scans into vague, stick-figure-like images that simply highlight points of potential concern. It certainly looks less creepy than the original body scans, though one could still be reasonably skeptical about the safety and efficacy of using those scans in an effort to thwart terrorism.
Some art for your review
Just some abstract art created the other day by the proprietor of this site. Not nearly as good as anything you can see through the new Google Art Project, which offers a virtual tour of many of the world's great art galleries similar to what a person gets using Google Street View. At once, both technologically stunning (the resolution of many images is vastly higher than what a visitor could get putting eyeballs right up to the canvas) and enormously commendable (creating free access to a range of places that most people wouldn't get to see in an entire lifetime). The site serves another value altogether: Creating a sort of insurance policy against damage to the collections documented. Thanks to the project, should the unthinkable happen and a catastrophe wipe out the Museum of Modern Art in New York or the Tate in London, many of the featured works of art would still be preserved -- albeit digitally -- for posterity. It's quite the community service, really.
40% of the top ten airlines of 2000 are gone
TWA, Northwest, Continental, and America West were among the top ten in 2000, and by the end of 2010, they were gone...all absorbed into other airlines. That's a considerable degree of consolidation in a single decade.
Inside the town Chernobyl destroyed
25 years later, it's still a ghost town. And the images captured by a BBC crew on a recent visit are eerie.
Is there a word to describe horrible safety posters in Soviet realist style?
"Terri-evil" comes to mind, but it doesn't quite seem to capture just how macabre and ghastly several of the posters really are.
Why nobody seems to like Jay Cutler
Even in a town where sports legends are adored. Names like Ditka and Jordan and Santo are like codewords to a secret fantasy clubhouse in Chicago, but nobody seems to get behind Bears quarterback Cutler.
What we have to be ashamed of
A map depicting that at which each of the United States is at its worst
Know how to shut off your water in the cold
