As subtle as a flying brick.

Latest

Plastic Surgeon General Warns Of Small Breasts Epidemic – TheOnion

breasts_article_large.article_large.jpg

The National Center for Cosmetic Enhancement rails against A-cups.

BEVERLY HILLS, CA–According to a report released Monday by U.S.
plastic surgeon general Dr. Louis T. Saddler, an alarming number of
American women are suffering from dangerously small breasts.

The Office of the plastic surgeon General–headed by a presidential
appointee tasked with monitoring the national aesthetic, alerting the
public to any small flaws, and offering a wide range of affordable,
noninvasive laser resurfacing options–first addressed the countrywide
plague of undersized breasts in the mid-1980s by demanding that
manufacturers of A- through C-cup bras place large warning labels on
their products informing female consumers of the potential risk of
having deficient bosoms. Since taking the position in 2001, Dr. Saddler
has continued these education efforts, launching several ad campaigns
and personally reaching out to women all across the nation.

“The undersized breasts problem in the United States has reached
crisis level,” Saddler said during a press conference held at the
National Centers for Rhinoplasty and Microdermabrasion. “Unless they
receive immediate cosmetic treatment, millions of women in this country
will lose the attention of their male acquaintances completely, and
some may never be able to land husbands or, if they are somehow already
married, keep their husbands’ interest.”

Added Saddler, “I urge all Americans to educate themselves about the
differences between silicone and saline, and contact my secretary Linda
to set something up.”

According to information found on the plastic surgeon general’s
website, there are several easily identifiable indications that a woman
may be afflicted with Chronic Breast Deficiency, or CBD. These include
the inability to fill out tight sweaters, as well as invisibility when
in proximity to women who have large breasts. Females with this
disorder may also experience a troubling absence of back pain.

small-breast-quotes-4443.jpg

Despite impressive advances in augmentation mammoplasty in recent
years, breast smallness continues to be a scourge on the female
population, in some part due to the difficulty many women have in
recognizing the symptoms. According to Saddler, some can live with a
severe chest deficiency for years without realizing that they have a
problem.

“A woman who suspects that she may have this condition can verify it
with an extremely quick, normally painless test,” said Saddler, later
adding that symptoms such as a fluid, natural movement of the bosom or
any breast shape other than a perfectly round, rock-hard grapefruit
should also serve as definitive warning signs. “It’s as simple as
consulting a trained professional such as a strip-club bouncer or
licensed drywaller to assess your personal risk.”

“I cannot stress enough how important it is for women who believe
they already have large breasts to remember that they can almost always
benefit from having even larger breasts,” Saddler added.

Citing statistics showing that small breasts strike women of every
age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, and that every region of the
United States is uniformly affected with the exception of Southern
California, the plastic surgeon general stressed that a nation of
under-breasted women is “everyone’s problem.” In an attempt to reach
out to as many citizens as possible, including those not directly
afflicted, the Office of the Plastic Surgeon General has released a
series of public service announcements that emphasize the important
role men can play in helping to turn the tide of the epidemic.

“If your daughter, girlfriend, or secretary has small breasts, let
her know that she should get the help she needs,” Saddler says in one
of the televised spots, standing before a diagram of Pamela Anderson.
“Referring to under- endowed women’s mammaries as ‘mosquito bites’ or
likening a female’s appearance to a diving board are just two of the
many effective methods that can encourage those suffering from this
unpleasant disorder to seek treatment.”

The informative PSA also suggests several coping strategies that can
allow small-breasted women to lead a relatively productive life while
securing the funds necessary to have their disorder remedied. These
include giggling at anything a man says, wearing shorter skirts, and
engaging in empty promiscuity.

Although the plastic surgeon general’s office has had a
long-standing and fruitful partnership with the media to promote the
image of a healthy, ample-chested lifestyle, Saddler said legislation
may be the key to solving this crisis. Last week, Congress proposed a
bill that would earmark $600 million to provide high schools nationwide
with educational programs and literature.

“The younger a woman is when she realizes that she has this problem,
the better off we’ll all be,” said Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO), head of
the recently formed Itty-Bitty Titty Senate Subcommittee. “Of course,
we support all women receiving treatment for this disorder, regardless
of how old they are.”

“But after they hit 45 or so, really, what’s the point?” added
Allard, referring to a condition known as aging, which is cited by the
plastic surgeon general as another worrisome but treatable issue
currently affecting 100 percent of American women.

Several studies have found that the dreaded aging syndrome also
affects men, but, in those cases, is known alternatively as
“dignification” and is generally considered to be an asset rather than
an impairment.

The Sun – The Big Picture

The Sun – The Big Picture

An animation of the sun, seen by NASA's Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) over the course of 6 days, starting June 27, 2005. (Courtesy of SOHO/EIT consortium)

An
animation of the sun, seen by NASA’s Extreme ultraviolet Imaging
Telescope (EIT) over the course of 6 days, starting June 27, 2005.
(Courtesy of SOHO/EIT consortium)

Brain’s reaction to hand transplant

artificialhandtransplll.jpg
When he was 19, David Savage lost his hand in a machine accident.
Thirty-five years later, he had a replacement hand installed.
Amazingly, the same region that controlled his hand when he had one
kicked right back into gear to deal with his new appendage. This
surprised scientists because other research has shown that once a limb
is gone, the associated brain region quickly picks up other duties.
From Science News:

When Savage had both hands, part of his right brain
responded to his left hand, and a corresponding part of his left brain
responded to his right hand. After the amputation, that same part of
his left brain would have been sensory-deprived and thus ready to adopt
duties of adjacent sensory areas, such as those for the right arm and
possibly his face.

Much animal and human research has documented that such neural
reorganization begins within hours of limb loss or debilitation…

“It’s remarkable that an original neural pathway for the hand can be
reinstated after years and years,” (Vanderbilt University
neuroscientist Jon) Kaas says.

New Hand, Same Brain Map

Imagine being excited about a Paul McCartney album

Paul is NOT dead.
Paul goes into the studio, alone, no songs prepared at all. Thirteen
songs in thirteen days — one each day — Paul playing every
instrument, writing lyrics on the fly, ripping a line from a poem, the
next spontaneous, off the cuff, really gutsy. The album, Electric Arguments, to be released next month.

Maybe getting fleeced in a public and nasty divorce was the best thing
to happen to this man. I’ve not liked much if anything I’ve heard since
he split from Lennon, but I damn sure love this
single — “Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight” – it’s ragged and rugged, the thing bleeds and howls and moans. I think I’m gonna buy the album — Electric Arguments — as soon as it’s out.

Free download of Nothing Too Much Out of Sight here.

Nerd library to end all nerd libraries

Stephen Levy toured the personal library of Priceline founder Jay
Walker and discovered nerdvana: a wunderkammer piled to the rafters
with the most pricelessly awesome nerd artifacts of all time — an
original Sputnik, the Thing hand from the Addams Family, a globe of the
moon signed by every astronaut who’s walked on it, an original of
Robert Hooke’s Micrographia, an Enigma machine, etc. You know, I’ve
often turned my nose up at the absurd excesses of wealth, but this is
one guy who knows how to spend several million on really rad junk. I think I pee’d a little reading the inventory, I’m such a nerd.

ff_walker_f.jpg

Nothing
quite prepares you for the culture shock of Jay Walker’s library. You
exit the austere parlor of his New England home and pass through a
hallway into the bibliographic equivalent of a Disney ride. Stuffed
with landmark tomes and eye-grabbing historical objects–on the walls,
on tables, standing on the floor–the room occupies about 3,600 square
feet on three mazelike levels. Is that a Sputnik? (Yes.) Hey, those
books appear to be bound in rubies. (They are.) That edition of Chaucer
… is it a Kelmscott? (Natch.) Gee, that chandelier looks like the one
in the James Bond flick Die Another Day. (Because it is.) No matter
where you turn in this ziggurat, another treasure beckons you–a 1665
Bills of Mortality chronicle of London (you can track plague fatalities
by week), the instruction manual for the Saturn V rocket (which
launched the Apollo 11 capsule to the moon), a framed napkin from 1943
on which Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined his plan to win World War II.
In no time, your mind is stretched like hot taffy.

Browse the Artifacts of Geek History in Jay Walker’s Library

Lego Batman Cake!

.flickr-photo { border: solid 1px #000000; }
.flickr-yourcomment { }
.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 1px; }
.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }


Spotted on Flickr, a cake (yes, that’s all cake) made for the Lego
Batman videogame launch party. The cake was created by cake designer Elisa Strauss.

6 Towers fit for a Super Villain

I thought I’d offer some assistance to any super villains who may be looking for a menacing building to call headquarters. Admittedly they’re quite noticeable so unless you have the necessary means to defend the building or are managing to operate under the radar, you may want to look for something underground. All chosen structures look either creepy as hell, flat-out brutal, or both, and as far as I know none or on the market at present so you may have to use underhand tactics to actually move in.

1. Jin Mao tower, Pudong, Shanghai

Jin Mao tower is absolutely huge at 1380ft, a feature which will enable
you to survey the surrounding area for miles assuming cloud cover is
minimal. As for sturdiness, it’s been designed by hardcore
architects/engineers and as a result can withstand winds up to 200km/h
and earthquakes to a maximum of 7 on the Richter scale. inside, the
building is home to one of the tallest atriums on planet earth (375ft),
a perfect place for henchmen to dispose of unwanted guests.


photo sources: 1, 2, 3


2. Moser tower, Naperville, Illinois

Moser tower is basically a bell tower and as such doesn’t contain a
huge amount of habitable space for evil operations. The reason for its
inclusion here is purely an aesthetic one – of all the structures here,
it looks the best in terms of badassness – so I’d suggest maybe
building a lair underneath and using the tower itself solely as a
front. One potential positive is that, as it’s essentially an enormous
musical instrument, you could adapt it to play any villainous music at
will. Alternatively, the giant bells could surely be used as some kind
of torture device if a pesky human were attached.

photo sources: 1, 2, 3


3. Fernsehturm Berlin, Berlin

The fernsehturm is a TV tower in Berlin and it’s extremely tall at
1207ft. it could easily serve as a European headquarters and would be
pretty difficult for non-airborne enemies to infiltrate as all the
prime living space is located 669ft up in a sphere, its only point of
entry located at the bottom of the tower’s shaft on ground level. also,
within the sphere is a revolving restaurant, a feature which could
easily be transformed into a revolving control centre / spinning
turret, although you may have to speed up the mechanism as it’s
currently making just one revolution per 30 minutes.


photo sources: 1, 2


4. Oriental Pearl Tower, Pudong, Shanghai

As with the fernsehturm, pearl tower is a TV tower, but this one is
located in shanghai and looks far more menacing and sturdy. It’s
basically a fernsehturm on steroids: instead of one supporting vertical
column, it has 3. Instead of one large sphere, this one has 2. plus
it’s also taller at 1535ft. another benefit is that it’s located just
supercharged spitting distance from Jin Mao tower (see above), meaning
a firmer grasp over shanghai could be quickly attained providing both
towers were commandeered.


photo sources: 1, 2

5. Taipei 101, xinyi district, Taipei

Taipei 101 has a lot going for it in terms of evil HQ suitability. Its
height is a staggering 1670ft. it can withstand practically all natural
disasters and presumably a few of the attacks you’ll likely be subject
to. visually, it resembles a giant evil robot and completely dominates
the surrounding area, instantly sending out an intimidating message
before you’ve even settled in. it’s also the only tall structure to be
seen in that particular area meaning attacks from all sides will be
visible providing you have all corners manned.

photo sources: 1, 2, 3


6. žižkov television tower, žižkov, Prague

There’s not much that needs to be said about this one. It’s an
enormous, intimidating tower, and its supporting legs are covered with
faceless babies. If you’re the kind of super villain who’s obsessed
with image, look no further.

photo sources:1, 2, 3, 4