The family of Erin McLyman is inviting the public to line the streets in Eugene tomorrow, Thursday, March 25th, for her funeral procession.  McLyman was killed in a mortar attack on her base in Balad, Iraq, on March 13th.  The procession leaves West Lawn Cemetary on South Danebo at about 12:30 tomorrow afternoon, and proceeds to West 18th, from there to Polk, ending up at the Eugene Faith Center on West 13th.  She graduated from Eugene’s Sheldon High School.  The governor has ordered flags flown at half-staff tomorrow to honor Spc McLyman.

Oregon fourth district Congressman Peter Defazio threatened to vote ‘no’ on Obamacare over the weekend over the issue of low Medicare reimbursements to Oregon doctors.  A ‘fix’ was in the earlier House bill, but was taken out of the one passed over the weekend due to its cost.  Including it would have ballooned the cost of the bill past defecit-neutral territory.  But Defazio said in a release today that he was assured by Obama Administration officials that higher Medicare reimbursements for Oregon and 16 other states would begin immediately while the issue is studied for two years.

You’re still peeing green

You went home with a girl and woke up with “Oh Danny Boy”

You held a girls hair while she puked, then made out with her

You lost your voice saying “I love you man” 4000 times

Your corned beef smells like cabbage

You woke in prison wearing your “Kiss me I’m Irish” pin on your ass

When the guy said “Do you want some Irish in you?” you didn’t realize he meant sexually

You went out in jeans and a tee shirt came home in kilt and a thong

You were so drunk you thought you cheated on your boyfriend…with your boyfriend

You conference called 4 ex girlfriends with one drunk dial

You woke up proud to be Italian

You’re convinced St. Patrick is the patron Saint of holding someone’s hair while they puke in a urinal

[wufoo username=”kfir720″ formhash=”m18al8qk1lij2zl” autoresize=”true” height=”677″ header=”show” ssl=”true”]

Okay, so watching the grass grow is normally one of those phrases associated with boredom. (more…)

ECS is well known among geeks for their motherboards and other hardware that goes inside a computer. (more…)

I came across this article over at Psychology Today that gives some great tips on improving your learning experience. (more…)

Oregon Fish and Wildlife is holding several “Free Fishing Weekend” events around the state on June 6th & 7th. (more…)

Wetsuits are usually plain…black…boring. Well, one designer isn’t too happy about that and has set out to change the face of the scene by adding some texture.

Diddo has applied various textures to wetsuits using “custom inks and unique printing techniques” to create something new. Although I’ve never surfed, wake boarded or done any such activity that requires a wet suit, I do have to say these are quite exciting. There are examples of suits bearing very fitting textures—a whale shark’s skin and the muscles of the human body. As well as more unique and humorous—rusting metal and a simulated shark attack!

How much megapixel goodness does your camera have? 8 megapixel? 12 megapixel? What if your camera was 13 GIGApixel?!?

Okay, okay, so this is isn’t really a gigapixel camera, but a stitch of 2045 photos that are 12 megapixel images. Still very cool, however. Head on over to HARLEM-13-GIGAPIXELS.COM and check this out. The 2045 images are stitched together to create one seamless image of Harlem, taken from the rooftop of a building on the corner of 7th Avenue and 110th Street in New York City.

Be sure to hit the “Switch to HD View” for an even better demonstration than Flash can pull off. That does require a plugin from Microsoft to be installed, but I promise it is worth it. The HD View plugin makes panning through the image butter smooth.

On yesterday’s Morning Show I mentioned the new version of Samsung’s Alias phone, appropriately named the Alias 2. This phone is significant because it uses so called “e-paper” or “e-ink” displays for each of the keys. This allows the keys to change what is printed on them depending on what you’re using the phone for at the time.

If you’re making a call, the phone will display the standard numeric 10-key layout found on the majority of phones. If you’re typing out a text message or e-mail, the keys will show up as the QWERTY layout we all know from our home computers. It even lets you cycle through sets of symbols.

Phone Scoop created a demonstration video showing off the Alias 2, check it out below. The keyboard’s fancy feats get shown off starting around 1:10 into the video.

A while back we posted a video showing off Boston Dynamics’ “Big Dog”. Well, the lab that works with them is back again with a new robot—that climbs poles. This robot, dubbed the RiSE V3, isn’t quite as visually impressive, but the technological feats required to pull it off certainly are impressive. Check out the video by clicking here.

Each year the Neural Correlate Society sponsors The Best Visual Illusion of the Year contest. This year’s winner is an illusion that demonstrates how the break of a curveball causes the brain to think the ball is changing direction. I would try to explain it, but it is simply something you have to see for yourself. Hit the link or the photo to check it out!

The runners up include an illusion which shows how the eyes interpret color and one showing how our brains determine the sex of someone we’re looking at. The latter is my favorite. Two variants of photo of an androgynous face are presented. One has reduced contrast and the other increased contrast, making them appear lighter and darker. This small difference causes our brains to identify one face as female and the other as male—even though they are the same face.

And be sure to just have some fun looking around the site. Take advantage of the “Try a Random Illusion” links in the left column and you could end up sinking hours of your time looking at awesome illusions!

This Sunday, May 17th, join Steve Wohlers as he interviews Sweet Home High School’s 2009 valedictorians and salutatorians. They’ll be discussing their hopes, dreams, opinions and plans for the future. Listen in and gain some insight as to how the next generation thinks about the future.

Just came across this over at boing boing. Someone took a long exposure, 30 minute, photograph of a Roomba doing its dirty work. Quite interesting, this shows how the Roomba wanders its way around the room, vacuuming as it goes. Click the photo to check out the original post on signaltheorist.com:

Via Boing Boing

This morning we talked about the Navy’s new flight-deck cleaning machine. If you’d like to see a video of the Mobile Cleaning Reclaim and Recovery System (MCRRS—aka the “flight deck Zamboni”), head on over to PhysOrg and check it out.

As promised on The Morning Show, here’s a link to the map NPR put together showing confirmed cases of the “swine flu”. But, please, don’t obsess over reloading the map every five minutes to see if the flu has shown up near you. We don’t need any “swine flu lotteries” or games of “flu darts”!

Over the weekend I was introduced to the goblin shark. I can”t help but think this thing must have inspired H.R. Giger”s designs for the movie Alien. It as a “protrusible jaw” that shoots out to capture prey. Take a look:

And Treasure came across the “Deep Sea Dragonfish“, which is equally as weird. It is bioluminescent, which means it can produce its own light, and looks like it fell straight out of the Jurassic period. For another group of photos that includes this and other creepy deep sea creatures, check these out.

On today’s Morning Show I talked about a few of the things Guy Kawasaki mentioned in his article showing what Twitter is being used for—besides telling everyone about the hamburger you just ate. (Sadly, I’m guilty of that.) For those who are interested in learning more, here are the links to the articles referenced.

Tony Hsieh’s Beginner’s Quick Start Guide and Tutorial to Using Twitter
Guy Kawasaki’s How to Demo Twitter