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December 2005 Archives

December 7, 2005

Passenger Rigoberto Alpizar Killed by Airport Marshals

A sad and scary story, we'll see how the facts develop..

Air Marshal Kills Man Claiming To Have Bomb

An agitated passenger who claimed to have a bomb in his backpack was shot and killed by a federal air marshal Wednesday after he bolted frantically from a jetliner that was boarding for takeoff, officials said. No bomb was found..

It was the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks that an air marshal had shot at anyone, Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle said. Another federal official said there was no apparent link to terrorism.

According to a witness, the passenger ran down the aisle of the Boeing 757, flailing his arms, while his wife tried to explain that he was mentally ill and had not taken his medication. The passenger, identified as Rigoberto Alpizar, indicated there was a bomb in his bag and was confronted by air marshals but ran off the aircraft, Doyle said. The marshals went after him and ordered him to get down on the ground, but he did not comply and was shot when he apparently reached into the bag, Doyle said.

Alpizar, a 44-year-old U.S. citizen, was gunned down on a jetway outside the American Airlines plane, which was parked at a gate at Miami International Airport. Alpizar had arrived earlier in the day from Quito, Ecuador, and Flight 924 was going to Orlando, near his home in Maitland.

Relatives said Alpizar had been on a working vacation in Peru. A neighbor who said he had been asked to watch the couple's home described the vacation as a missionary trip. "We're all still in shock. We're just speechless," a sister-in-law, Kelley Beuchner, said by telephone from her home in Milwaukee.

Mary Gardner, a passenger aboard the Orlando-bound flight, told WTVJ-TV in Miami that the man ran down the aisle from the rear of the plane. "He was frantic, his arms flailing in the air," she said. She said a woman followed, shouting, "My husband! My husband!" Gardner said she heard the woman say her husband was bipolar _ a mental illness also known as manic-depression and had not had his medication.

December 9, 2005

rsstroom reader - toilet paper printer!

A crazy new product out of Taiwan seems to be aimed at the feed dependent of us out there. The 'rsstroom reader' is a bathroom gadget that prints news feeds onto your T-P - that's right, your TOILET PAPER! The best part is the "biometrics" toilet seat that'll figure out who you are based on your weight and prints the news you want - not your roommates tabloid garbage. Going to the rsstroom will never be boring again!

http://www.djspyhunter.com/teapot/2005/12/rsstroom-reader-toilet-paper-printer.html

December 11, 2005

Escher's "Relativity" in LEGO®

I haven't posted about a LEGO nerd in a while. This one was too good to pass up on...

"...our fourth Escher picture rendered in LEGO. Once again, no camera tricks, but the picture has to be taken from exactly the right place, and boy did we get tired of trying to find where that place was. The whole thing took five or six evenings spread over two or three weeks. Most of the last evening was taken up with setting up the lighting the way we wanted it and trying to get the camera position just right..."

http://www.andrewlipson.com/escher/relativity.html

December 12, 2005

Lil Ronnie - Super Bowl Bound

From the mean streets of the SouthSide of NAP (that's Indianapolis), comes Lil Ronnie and his debut video "Super Bowl Bound":

http://www.crowdpleezers.com/LilRonnie.htm

December 19, 2005

Cellphones Used as ID Cards in Japan

Japanese college to put ID cards on cellphones

A cellphone is the last thing a typical student would forget to take to class, so a Japanese university said it would incorporate identification cards into mobile handsets.

From next April, all new students at Kanagawa Institute of Technology near Tokyo will carry an ID on their phone that lets them register for classes, open locked doors and surf the Internet for school-related information.

Students can also use it to buy from the cafeteria, shops and vending machines.

"No student forgets to take a cellphone with him, even if he forgets his textbook," university president Kosei Oguchi said on Friday.

December 22, 2005

Robot Demonstrates Self Awareness

From discovery.com:

Robot Demonstrates Self Awareness Dec. 21, 2005— A new robot can recognize the difference between a mirror image of itself and another robot that looks just like it.

This so-called mirror image cognition is based on artificial nerve cell groups built into the robot's computer brain that give it the ability to recognize itself and acknowledge others.

The ground-breaking technology could eventually lead to robots able to express emotions.

Under development by Junichi Takeno and a team of researchers at Meiji University in Japan, the robot represents a big step toward developing self-aware robots and in understanding and modeling human self-consciousness.

"In humans, consciousness is basically a state in which the behavior of the self and another is understood," said Takeno.

December 25, 2005

Wafah Dufour GQ Photos, Osama Bin Laden's Model/Singer Niece



from the Wash Post:

Osama's Niece Poses in Racy GQ Pics

Osama bin Laden's niece, in an interview with GQ magazine in which she appears scantily clad, says she has nothing in common with the al-Qaida leader and simply wants acceptance by Americans.

"Everyone relates me to that man, and I have nothing to do with him," Wafah Dufour, the daughter of bin Laden's half brother, Yeslam Binladin, says in the January edition of the magazine, referring to the al-Qaida leader.



"I want to be accepted here, but I feel that everybody's judging me and rejecting me," said the California-born Dufour, a law graduate who lives in New York. "Come on, where's the American spirit? Accept me. I want to be embraced, because my values are like yours. And I'm here. I'm not hiding."

Dufour, who adopted her mother's maiden name after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that have been blamed on bin Laden, appears in several provocative photos in the magazine.

The pictures are likely to be considered obscene by conservative Muslims in and outside of Saudi Arabia where women are required to be veiled.

Asked if she would like to perform her music in the Middle East, Dufour says her mother, Carmen Dufour, would be too afraid that "someone would want to kill me."

"Listen, I would love to raise consciousness. Maybe women could hear the songs and realize that I'm doing my dream and hopefully they can, too," she said.

December 27, 2005

The Neediest Dolls In The World


The Needies were created by graduates of New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program. While brainstorming ideas for a school project, the three designers noticed that each competed to outdo the others and come up with a better suggestion. "We noticed that we were being extremely needy," says Amos Bloomberg.

It was this thought which was transformed into the concept of The Needies.

Each Needy is fitted with an internal microprocessor and wireless antenna. They beg for attention (with varying levels of perversity) and when you finally pick one up the others complain loudly.

You can check out The Needies in action here: VIDEO

Hip-Pop is something you sell

"Rap is something you do. Hip-Pop is something you sell" is what KRS-One might have written today...

making more money than a pagan holiday and CNN ad or 8 mile movie still? from ohword.com pretty much sum up what I mean...

About December 2005

This page contains all entries posted to The Inane Asylum in December 2005. They are listed from oldest to newest.

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