The VERRUKT MEG-A-BLASTER — German for, well, “Insane Megablaster” — is supposed to be even taller than Brazil’s “Insano” waterslide, which is currently the world’s highest waterslide at 134.5 feet! The final, specific height remains a Schlitterbahn secret, however, and will only be announced once the slide’s construction is completed.
The Verrukt Meg-a-blaster will use 4-person rafts, as sliders can expect speeds of 65 mph or more!
The massive slide was supposed to open this past summer, but it will now be ready in time for Opening Day 2014.
Etsy seller Keith Phillips (Mudstuffing) has, among plenty of other things, a series of absolutely beautiful Space Invaders-themed pottery available for sale at his shop, and I have to say, I’d love to have a set of these at home!
These cups were made from a white stoneware clay on the wheel. Embellished with toner and silkscreen designs and refired to make them permanent. Electric fired.
Izabela Vidovic, 12-year-old daughter of actress Elizabeta Vidovic, played “Little Rock” on Amazon’s Zombieland: The Series (played by Abigail Breslin in the movie), and now she has added Writer and Producer to her already-respectable résumé!
Directed by Brian Patrick McGuire of Los Angeles, Vidovic wrote and starred in “Because These Kids Are…”, a 6-minute film chronicling schoolyard bullying.
She plays Kat, a young girl who draws during recess. One particular student and his bully catch her eye and she begins drawing them, only to have the bully set his sights on her. But Kat’s pictures are worth a thousand words and the bully is caught off-guard.
While there is no official release date, the short will most likely make the festival rounds first. The film will also be made available to some schools free-of-charge to be used as a learning tool.
Oh — and Vidovic will next be seen opposite Jason Statham (Jason Statham!!) in Homefront this Thanksgiving. I bet Statham would be useful against bullies!
For all you poor bastards scheduled to work this Saturday, I put together a note that I think might get you out of it. Feel free to download, print it out and type in your name. It’s worth a shot.
If you saw that “Miss Ping” video that went viral a few months ago, you had to wonder if the video was fake or not, and thanks to Captain Disillusion, we now know the truth!
Sure, this epic domino chain reaction we posted earlier this week was really impressive, but this 100,000 domino show is truly a wonder to behold.
From Austrian Domino Art:
In November 2013 we built up 100,000 dominoes under the theme “Lower Austria” together with 50 students of the HLUW Yspertal.
After 4 days of setup and 5 month of preperations 100,080 of 100,101 dominoes (99,98%) toppled!
We set up different famous buildings of Lower Austria and an official Guinness World Record: The Tallest Domino Structure with a height of 6.029 m and 11,465 dominoes!
Three of the biggest US cellphone carriers are to drop premium rate text messages. It should spell the end of cramming, a scam by which phone users are tricked into paying for a costly subscription service.
The scam usually involves the user getting an unsolicited message and replying under the impression they are entering a competition or getting more information. In fact they are “signing up” for a premium message service by which they receive one or more messages that carry a fee, which appears as a separate item on their monthly bill. The network then passes on this fee to the “service provider.”
Although theoretically such a system could be used for perfectly legitimate purposes, it’s got a shady reputation with many users being unaware of the costs (or even that they were agreeing to receive messages) and then finding it tricky to cancel the service.
The Office of the Attorney General in Vermont quotes an estimate that such services bring in around $2 billion a year nationwide, while a survey in the state found around 60 percent of such charges were not knowingly authorized.
Following talks between officials in 45 states, AT&T, Spring and T-Mobile have announced they will no longer allow premium rate text messages. Verizon says it isn’t formally joining this program but had already begun “winding down” such services itself, partly because of the allegations of dubious practice and partly because it’s 2013 and it’s hard to imagine anyone needing to pay for information in a text message.
The move follows several attempts by state and federal agencies to use legal and technical measures to crack down on dubious behavior. It’s the failure of those attempts to wipe out problems completely that have led to the conclusion among officials and phone companies alike that a complete abandonment of premium rate messaging is the only solution.
Both T-Mobile and Verizon say they will make an exception that means users can still actively and intentionally donate to a charity or political campaign by sending a text message.
