360 DEGREES Weblog

There are fans and then there are the superfans, the absolutely obsessed and devoted. For baseball fans looking to take their loyalty all the way to their toast there is the Pangea ProToast. The toasters don’t just have a team logo on the side, they toast your favorite Major League Baseball team’s logo onto one side of the bread. The current model is the lower end model and sells for $34.99 but a higher-end chrome model for around $60 or $70 is in the works.

Fans can also grill up their food at a barbecue with Team Grills, a line of gas grills featuring the logos of baseball, football and basketball teams on the porcelain-enamel lid. Grills start at $399 for the small tailgate version.

If you happen to be a frequent business flyer, you know very well the frustration of fighting your way through the airports, crowds and the security lines. The best option in that case seems to be a private jet charter, but then, not everyone can afford the said luxury. Here is a piece of good news for such flyers as a new private jet sharing service dubbed WannaJet claims to offer seats on private flights at a fixed price, that is comparable to business class fares. WannaJet currently operates in the U.S. with 60-plus domestic business routes. WannaJet allows passengers to book seats on private jets and 4-6 passengers share the cost of the private jet charter. This way, the cost per head is reduced by 80 percent and the final cost is almost comparable to commercial airline Business Class fares. Just hope the name isn’t merely a promise of what it wants to be!

This Micro SIM Cutter promises to take your olde worlde ancient SIM card and transform it magically into a wonderful 21 st century Micro SIM marvel which you can then plonk into your jailbroken iPhone 4 to do with as you will.

Um…we’re not really sure whether the procedure is reversible, so good luck when you discover your new iPhone can’t make or receive calls if you hold it incorrectly and want to return to your trusty Nokia. Ah well, such is progress. $25.00.

The iPhone 4 shatters easily, and its tiny plastic bezel offers no protection. On top of that, touching its metal rim causes interferences. The Vapor4 bumper—made of aluminum—may solve most of these design problems. And it looks great:

Of course, nothing looks as cool as the iPhone 4 on its own, but if you want to avoid the antenna problems and the shattering, you are going to need one of these. They are made of aluminum, and they have an interior liner that separates the metal from the antenna, insulating it. The manufacturer - Element Case - the same who makes the beautiful Joule iPad stand—told me that their tests showed no interference whatsoever across all models of iPhone:

We basically wrapped it in an inch thick of anodized aluminum all around with our special secret liner inside, nothing impacted the reception.

The Vapor4 is not cheap, although not as expensive as the beautiful exotic wood back replacement: The Vapor4 is $80. For $100 you also get the V4Carbon, a carbon fiber back plate that will further protect the iPhone 4 fragile glass back.

I’m only slightly ashamed to admit that I use a Bluetooth headset by Jawbone, the Icon. But while its compact size makes it easy to wear, it also limits the number of buttons on it, making changing settings or adjusting the noise cancellation a ridiculous series of timed button presses that I never bothered to learn. So I have to say I’m quite surprised that the Sound ID 510 Bluetooth headset is actually the first to come with its own iPhone app, EarPrint, that makes changing settings, adjusting the volume or EQ of the sound and monitoring the battery life ridiculously easy.

My collegue is hanging out in Europe, after 2 plane cancellations, 7 train journeys and a ferry, so I’ve been spending a fair amount of time online to try and help out while our Icelandic volcano friend does its thing. I thought it might be useful to share what we have learned, in case it helps anyone else in a similar predicament.

1. Planes are unreliable (duh). Even now there’s no consensus as to when they’ll start flying properly again. Even if it’s this week, it’s possible that the backlog will be so great it will break the system and chaos will ensue.

2. Trains and buses are chock full but worth trying. There’s over a million displaced people around the world, so expect to stand on trains and change trains a lot, as the railways appear to be making things up as they go along. Improvising I believe is the term. They’re doing a great job actually, under impossible circumstances.

http://www.raileurope.co.uk/ - trains

http://www.eurailtickets.com/index.htm – trains

http://www.interrailnet.com/ – trains

http://www.bahn.com/ – trains

http://www.eurolines.com/ – European bus

There are a number of other ways you can try and beat the system if you’re adventurous enough.

Twitter. Use the #ashtag #getmehome #roadsharing and #stranded tags to broadcast your needs to see if anyone can help out. This applies to urgent accommodation if you’re running out of money, or travel help via lifts etc.

Facebook. If you’re running a smartphone, Facebook is another place where you might be able to get help, although that’s obviously more problematical the further away you are from your home base.

Here’s a list of 9 car ride sharing services which might be able to help you move from place to place. Do be sensible about your choices though eh, just to stay safe.

Roadsharing. Nicely designed ride sharing site with a good selection of journeys clearly on offer. Links to Twitter, Facebook and RSS also make it easier to find a ride.

Compartir. Another nice clean ride sharing service, which covers all the main countries in Europe. Also gives you a breakdown of your ecological savings if you ride share, which may not be interesting if you’re just trying to get home, but is a nice touch nonetheless.

Ride4Cents. Carpooling as an unconventional means of travelling around Europe. Not such a large choice of journeys on offer here, which may reflect a German bias. You pay a contribution (or fare) for the journey.

MitFahr/RideShare. Currently only in European languages (English site coming soon), but if you can enter in city names (or use Google translate), you can use it. Has a very good selection of journeys on offer.

eRideshare. Uses a more clumsy interface, which makes it more difficult to find what you’re looking for straight off. Probably more useful for car-pool information.

Hitchhikers.org. Deceptively spartan interface, masks a great little service linking hitchers to drivers. The listings are basic and informative. Kind of the Craigslist of car sharing. Use advanced search for specific needs.

AutoStopp. Pan European ride sharing site with 10,000 plus users. Basic interface, but there’s useful journeys in there. Definitely worth checking out.

LiftShare. Not just ride sharing, but find people to share your bike, walking or taxi journey. Hear that John Cleese? Not a huge number of journeys on offer, but it’s a start.

Drive2Day. Pretty rough and ready user interface doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, and the database is not exactly teeming with journeys, but let’s add it here for the sake of completeness, OK?

Finally, AirBnB.com has a page up offering to help people out with cheaper accommodation offers if they’re stranded. It’s not hugely altruistic, you’re still paying hotel/shared room rates, but there’s a $40 discount offer for users, which is nice.

Remember also, that in real desperate circumstances, there’s always your embassy or high commission or consulate or whatever representation your country has in your location. Good luck.

A federal appeals court says three Seattle police officers did not employ excessive force when they repeatedly tasered a visibly pregnant woman for refusing to sign a speeding ticket.

The lawyer representing Malaika Brooks said Monday that the court’s 2-1 decision sanctioned “pain compliance” tactics through a modern-day version of the cattle prod.

“To inflict pain on a person if that person is not doing what the police want that person to do is simply outrageous,” said Eric Zubel, the woman’s attorney. “I cannot say that loud enough.”

Zubel said he would ask the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear Friday’s 2-1 decision that drew a sharp dissent from Judge Marsha Berzon:

“Refusing to sign a speeding ticket was at the time a nonarrestable misdemeanor; now, in Washington, it is not even that. Brooks had no weapons and had not harmed or threatened to harm a soul,” (.pdf) Berzon wrote. “Although she had told the officers she was seven months pregnant, they proceeded to use a Taser on her, not once but three times, causing her to scream with pain and leaving burn marks and permanent scars.”

The majority noted that the M26 Taser was set in “stun mode” and did not cause as much pain as when set on “dart mode.” The majority noted that the circuit’s recent and leading decision on the issue concerned excessive force in the context of a Taser being set on Dart mode, which causes “neuro-muscular incapacitation.”

Stun mode, the court noted, didn’t rise to the level of excessive force because it imposes “temporary, localized pain only.”

The majority reversed a lower court judge who said the woman’s rights were violated. The lower court’s failure to distinguish between the two levels of pain modes “led the court to err in finding excessive force.”

The woman was driving her 12-year-old to the African American Academy in Seattle when she was pulled over on suspicion of speeding in 2004. The child left the car for school and a verbal spat with the police resulted in the woman receiving three, 50,000-volt shocks, first to her thigh, then shoulder and neck while she was in her vehicle. An officer was holding Brooks’ arm behind Brooks’ back while she was being shocked.

Brooks gave the officer her driver’s license, but Brooks refused to sign the ticket — believing it was akin to signing a confession. She was ultimately arrested for refusing to sign and to comply with officers asking her to exit the vehicle.

“A suspect who repeatedly refuses to comply with instructions or leave her car escalates the risk involved for officers unable to predict what type of noncompliance might come next,” Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall wrote for the majority. She was joined by Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain.

“Therefore, while using the Taser three times makes this a closer case, we find that it does not show excessive force in light of the corresponding escalation of Brooks’ resistance and the fact that it was the third tasing that appeared to dislodge her such that the officers could finally extract her from her car and gain control over her,” Hall wrote.

Thanks WIRED

Combining stylishly innovative designs in flooring at one point of time was limited to just restaurants, and then came the pools, but then it was yachts that are more associated with spectacular views than any other offering on the face of this earth. Based on the same technology, the JP54 has incorporated a dramatic interior that allows the transfer of weight to windward direction in a few seconds. The JP54 is the brainchild of Jean-Pierre Dick (FRA), a renowned shorthanded racer, who brought in the concept on JP’s yacht to have the speed of an Open 60. Placing the feature in the main saloon, this futuristically styled yacht accommodates eight - four adults and four children. The rotation of this satellite module is controlled while sitting down at the navigation station to keep things steady onboard.

Equipped with little more than a video camera and a piece of green cardboard, Montreal filmmaker Patrick Boivin earns a comfortable living by setting up action figures on his kitchen table and moving the limbs in tiny increments to produce weirdly funny slugfests. The creative shorts have propelled this self-taught stop-motion auteur from YouTube sensation to Hollywood hopeful in a matter of months.

Patrick Boivin’s warped sense of humor comes through in his amazing videos.
Image courtesy Patrick Boivin
In March, Boivin, 35, heads west to pitch projects on the strength of his videogame-inspired hit “YouTube Street Fighter,” his funny smackdown clip “Iron Man vs. Bruce Lee” and his recent martial arts spoof “Ninja’s Unboxing,” commissioned by Google to promote its new cellphone. The videos have racked up millions of views on YouTube and earned Boivin entry to Hollywood’s hit-making machine.
Essentially a one-man show, Boivin savors the do-it-yourself show biz ethos.

“There used to be this huge process where you had to go to a company with an idea, they’d called another company to hire a director — there was all this protocol,” he told Wired.com in an telephone interview. “Now, thanks to the web, companies can contact me directly to create all this stuff. For them it’s cheaper, and for me it’s a lot of money because I’m all alone.”

Well, not entirely. Shorts posted on Boivin’s YouTube channel triggered a call last year from Circle of Confusion. The talent-management outfit is setting up meetings with movie producers for Boivin to meet with during next month’s trip to Los Angeles.

Read More http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/02/patrick-boivin/#ixzz0fcTBJHRh

Could it be that geniuses at the Sheinhardt Wig Company (also known as GE) are getting creative now that they’re about to get rid of us underlings at NBC Universal (the parent company of our overlords at SyFy)? It certainly appears so, if you take this high-tech sleigh for a spin. It’s a clever interactive app that takes you on a tour of some of the latest ideas from GE, the company Thomas Edison built.