by Morgan
One of the best things about casual gaming is that it gives you an easy and light-hearted way to take ten minutes out of your stressful life and concentrate on something else. Hardcore gaming can be fun, but sometimes a break from level grinding is refreshing. On that note, here are some of the best casual iPhone games I’ve found in the last month:
[Above: Video Exclusive Part One]
It was the summer of 1976 in Los Angeles and The Ramones were playing second bill to the Flamin’ Groovies at The Roxy. Across the pond, The Sex Pistols were still months away from achieving everlasting infamy by calling their host a “fucking rotter” while live on British TV. Meanwhile, in a Kentucky Fried Chicken parking lot off Third Street in LA’s Fairfax District, an 11-year-old Marc Canter caught his fellow classmate, Saul Hudson (a.k.a. a just about teenage Slash of Guns N’ Roses), suspiciously eyeballing Canter’s mini-bike parked outside. In those days there was a lot of bike stealing. “I was one of the thieves, I know, ” Slash laughs. ”It’s quite possible I was thinking about taking off with it because I used to be like that back then. Anyhow, that’s how [Marc and I] met and weve been friends ever since.”
Rambo Suicide in Transatlantic
Get to know Rambo better over at SuicideGirls.com!
by Greg Palast
I need to speak to you, not as a reporter, but in my former capacity as lead investigator in several government nuclear plant fraud and racketeering investigations.
I don’t know the law in Japan, so I can’t tell you if Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) can plead insanity to the homicides about to happen.
But what will Obama plead? The Administration, just months ago, asked Congress to provide a $4 billion loan guarantee for two new nuclear reactors to be built and operated on the Gulf Coast of Texas — by Tokyo Electric Power and local partners. As if the Gulf hasn’t suffered enough.
Here are the facts about Tokyo Electric and the industry you haven’t heard on CNN:
The failure of emergency systems at Japan’s nuclear plants comes as no surprise to those of us who have worked in the field.
Nuclear plants the world over must be certified for what is called “SQ” or “Seismic Qualification.” That is, the owners swear that all components are designed for the maximum conceivable shaking event, be it from an earthquake or an exploding Christmas card from Al Qaeda.
The most inexpensive way to meet your SQ is to lie. The industry does it all the time. The government team I worked with caught them once, in 1988, at the Shoreham plant in New York. Correcting the SQ problem at Shoreham would have cost a cool billion, so engineers were told to change the tests from ‘failed’ to ‘passed.’
Today is π day, 3/14, as we reckon dates in the US. On an even geekier level, using the European method of writing the day and then the month (e.g. 14/3), today is, as noted by Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait, “the sum of 3 consecutive primes (43+47+53), and also of 5 consecutive primes (11+13+17+19+23+29+31).”
Today would have also been Albert Einstein’s 132nd birthday. By coincidence, Pi figures prominently in Einstein’s field equations, “10 equations in Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity which describe the fundamental interaction of gravitation as a result of spacetime being curved by matter and energy.” Heavy stuff, that, but Einstein’s theories are the foundation of the scientific knowledge that has allowed the development of GPS systems (the effects of the satellites’ movement relative to observers on Earth must be accounted for), the gravitational microlensing that allows astronomers to see otherwise unobservably faint or distant objects, and, ahem, nuclear power — amongst many other wonders. Science is badass.
by SG’s Team Agony feat. Charley and Koshil
Let us answer life’s questions – because great advice is even better when it comes from SuicideGirls.
Q: I’ve been single for about a year now, and in general it didn’t bother me too much. In September I wound up taking two classes at college alongside a girl who was everything I ever could have dreamed of in a woman. I didn’t get to know her very well, and, due to her having her own circle of friends, I was fairly intimidated to approach her as I’m not the most outgoing guy ever.
A friend of mine noticed my plight and informed me that he knew a friend of hers, and that she was in a long term relationship. However, he recently told me that she had apparently been dumped by her boyfriend. Naturally, I want to get in contact with her and tell her how I feel.
The problem comes in that she is no longer in any of my classes for this semester, nor do I have her as a “friend” on any social networks. I’ve been battling with myself as to how much time I should allow her to have space, as well as to how I’m going to contact her. The only way I can seems to be Facebook, and I guess I feel like it’d be creepy to say, “Hey, it’s the guy from your film class last semester, I know we don’t know each other well, but…”. Maybe I’m over-thinking it and should just take the leap. What do you think?
by Brad Warner
I just moved into a new apartment in beautiful Akron, Ohio. Don’t be sad. It’s OK. I like it! Anyway, the previous tenant apparently subscribed to Psychology Today magazine and neglected to either cancel or forward her subscription. So I got the latest issue, dated April 2011, and on the cover an article inside is advertised with the rather lurid headline, “Smashing a Taboo: Does Porn Protect Kids?”
