New Transformers Trailers

Both have a quick spot of BumbleBee talking. The first one has an ending with Optimus Prime. The second trailer has a Spike kicking in Frenzy’s head.

Messed up by Meth

This article was taken verbatim from MSNBC’s website about the dangers of Meth…

ST. LOUIS – A former trucker whose documentary chronicled an agonizing descent as methamphetamine ravaged his body has died, optimistic to the end that his story would keep others from the highly addictive stimulant.

“He was extremely satisfied, wanting to do more in getting the word out and showing kids what meth harm does. We didn’t get to that point,” his father, Jack Bridges, said shortly after the 35-year-old died Monday at a hospital in Cape Girardeau.

“He didn’t want anyone to go through what he did,” his father said.

Shawn Bridges drew global attention last year for “No More Sunsets,” a 29-minute film shot by a former southern Illinois television videographer at Bridges’ request.

By his family’s account, Bridges already had died at least twice, his heart so damaged by years of using meth — a concoction that can include toxic chemicals such as battery acid, drain cleaner and fertilizer — that it stopped and had to be shocked back into beating.

The documentary shows Bridges mostly bedridden, his constant companions a catheter and feeding tube.

“I’d say he’s got a 34-year-old body on the outside with a 70-to 80-year-old man on the inside,” his father told The Associated Press last May.

Roughly 28,000 people sought treatment for meth addiction across the country in 1993, accounting for nearly 2 percent of admissions for drug-abuse care, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Just a decade later, the meth-related admissions numbered nearly 136,000 — more than 7 percent of the national total for drug-abuse treatment.

Haunted by brother’s death
Family members have said Bridges had been haunted by the dreary day in 1976 when his younger brother Jason, barely a year old, died in a car wreck. Shawn was 4 and nowhere near the accident but still blamed himself, wanting to trade places with his dead sibling, his father said.

A lenient upbringing set Bridges on the road to becoming “a little monster,” his father said. “By 16, the kid was a high school dropout and partier.”

At 26, Bridges had a heart attack that his father blamed on meth’s ability to damage a chronic user’s heart and other internal organs. Bridges learned he had congestive heart failure. Twice, he tried to kill himself, according to family members.

During his final months in a hospital bed, Shawn’s words slurred to guttural sounds when he tried to talk. At times, he spit up blood, and his weight fell dangerously when he couldn’t keep food down. His father said Monday that Bridges developed a urinary tract infection shortly before he died.

“I don’t think people will forget what got him to this point,” said Chip Rossetti, who filmed the documentary. “But what he did with his condition is really the amazing thing.”

Rossetti said 500 to 600 copies of the documentary have been sold, some going as far as Australia. Bridges was also profiled on German television. Rossetti said Monday he plans a sequel, chronicling Bridge’s final year and testimonials by people touched by his awareness effort.

“We wanted to keep him with us a lot longer, but we appreciate God’s good grace,” Jack Bridges said after his son’s death. “We’ll still be trying to drive home the point that these drugs are poison, and that people using them are heading the same place Shawn has gone.”

Nasa POD

Here’s a great picture of a supernova.

Two decades ago, astronomers spotted one of the brightest exploding stars in more than 400 years.

Since that first sighting, the doomed star, called Supernova 1987A, has continued to fascinate astronomers with its spectacular light show. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is one of many observatories that has been monitoring the blast’s aftermath. The supernova is located 163,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

This image shows the entire region surrounding the supernova, the most prominent feature of which is a ring with dozens of bright spots, shining like cosmic pearls. Unleashed by the stellar blast, this material is slamming into regions along the ring’s inner regions, heating them up, and causing them to glow. The ring, about a light-year across, was likely shed by the star about 20,000 years before it exploded.

This image was taken in December 2006 with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, P. Challis and R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
*Image and article taken from www.nasa.gov

2007 Mini Cooper

This is a clip taken from the British show, Fifth Gear (http://fifthgear.five.tv/)

The Nut Bra

Word of the Day

sycophant: one who seeks favor by flattery; a toady.

Deep Thoughts

If you ever catch on fire, try to avoid looking in a mirror, because I bet that will really throw you into a panic.

by Jack Handey

New found Website: Mighty Optical Illusions

This picture is just one example of the many optical illusions I found on the linked page. This particular one is of 3D painted rooms.

The rest of the site is cool, they post pictures of optical illusions. Like this one:

National Geographic POD

Port Campbell National Park, Victoria, Australia, 1995

Photograph by Sam Abell

Surf froths around the wind-and-water-eroded coastal tunnels in southwestern Australia’s Port Campbell National Park. Retreating tides have left jagged limestone formations around the park’s coastline, giving the area its historical notoriety as a ships’ graveyard.(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, the National Geographic book Australian Coast, 1995)

Taken from National Geographic’s website.

iPhone makes nice with iPhone

That’s right! Apple and Cisco have struck a deal – out of court, mind you – regarding the trademark for the iPhone name. Apple is to “guarantee the exploration of “wide-ranging ‘interoperability’ between the companies’ products in the areas of security, consumer and business communications” (WSJ.com & Engadget.com). Whatever that means.

Anyway, whatever it means for the two companies, it is one less hurdle that the iPhone will have to overcome. Now, if they could get it right the first time and add 3G and GPS support. All us Apple fanboys would truly be happy.