Josh Davidow

Bottom Line - We waste 1.9 billion gallons of gas sitting in traffic

In 100 years, people will look back at the daily commute as fondly as we do at the Spanish Inquisition.

Sunrise in Welly

photo on Flickr.

Morning in Wellington, NZ.

Because Diamond Food dared to let consumers know that natural substances in a natural food may offer some health benefits and protections, the FDA views this as a new drug. In their eyes, only FDA-approved drugs are capable of offering such protections … 

The FDA stated in the warning letter^[3]: 

“Because of these intended uses, your walnut products are drugs… Your walnut products are also new drugs … because they are not generally recognized as safe and effective for the above referenced conditions. Therefore … they may not be legally marketed with the above claims in the United States without an approved new drug application. 

Additionally, your walnut products are offered for conditions that are not amenable to self-diagnosis and treatment by individuals who are not medical practitioners; therefore, adequate directions for use cannot be written so that a layperson can use these drugs safely for their intended purposes. Thus, your walnut products are also misbranded… in that the labeling for these drugs fails to bear adequate directions for use… “ 

The FDA’s current position is that foods such as walnuts, cherries, broccoli, turmeric, green tea and the like should be subjected to the full FDA approval process. 

(via FDA Says Walnuts Are a “New Drug” — Health & Wellness — Sott.net)

Write your own joke here.

(via KhanApp - Mobile App for Khan Academy)

Information wants to be free.

(via Pictures - Mash-Up: Toy Story characters step into The Shining - New Orleans Movie | Examiner.com)

This is pretty great. Let’s see if Disney doesn’t kill it with a DMCA takedown.

All work and no play make Woody rather dull.

All work and no play make Woody rather dull.

All work and no play make Woody rather dull. 

;)

Taffola is quick also to point out the “Active Denial System” beam, while powerful and long-range, some 1000 meters (0.6 miles), is the military’s “safest non-lethal capability” that has been developed over 15 years but never used in the field.

(via U.S. military unveils ‘Active Denial’ heat ray weapon | The Raw Story)

It’s hard to choose which phrase I like more: “Active Denial System” or “Safest Non-Lethal…”

One thing is for sure..Getting blasted with this thing will put you back in denial quick.

On Wednesday, a student at West Hall middle or high school in Gainesville, Fla., tried to send a buddy a text with the message “gunna be at west hall today.” The autocorrect feature on this student’s phone changed it to “gunman.”

So the text — which also went to the wrong number — read “gunman be at west hall today.” Someone reported this to school officials and West Hall middle and high schools were locked down. The lockdown ended a couple hours later after school officials figured out what happened, according to the Gainesville Times.

(via Text Message Autocorrect Results in Police Lockdown | Popular Science)

Sometimes “Damn you, autocorrect” doesn’t quite go far enough. She-yit.

(via Call of Apathy: Violent Young Men and Our Place in War » Medium Difficulty)

A friend of mine came under fire inside a compound. He followed up the shooter, who disappeared into an escape tunnel. My friend followed standard procedure and threw a grenade into the tunnel entrance before following up. When entering the tunnel, he found only the bodies of a woman and a small child, whom the terrorist had used to cover his escape.

When I spoke about it to my friend years later, he recalled how pissed he was at losing the insurgent, and how bad he felt afterwards about it. He’d had his professional pride tarnished. I asked him if he ever thought about the woman and her kid and he just looked at me blankly.

He didn’t even remember they were there.

This is a serious issue that needs to be addressed in videogames. How would you feel if you accidentally killed an innocent child in a game? If the words “MISSION FAILED” appeared, but then disappeared after a few seconds, leaving you to continue as normal with no repercussions. Any normal person would feel guilty, but that’s my point. Combat troops are not normal people.

War is the most horrific, sickening thing mankind can inflict upon itself, fought by and large by uneducated maniacs that have no other place in the world. Videogames have the attention of the youth and can educate as well as entertain. The real horrors need to be made very public to keep the next generation from turning out like us.

(via DARPA Launches QR-Locating Game As Test Of Distributed Resource Gathering | TechCrunch)

Here come The Hunger Games for real.

A tall and elegant race of penguins inhabited what is now New Zealand 25 million years ago, scientists have learnt.

The bird stood more than a metre and was slimmer than modern penguins, with a long beak and flippers.

Researchers gave it the Maori name Kariuku, which loosely means ”diver who returns with food”. A reconstruction was made from fossil skeletons.

(via Penguin discovery)

I wonder what name researchers will give me when they discover my fossil…Nappy feet?

(via Morgan Spurlock: ‘I wasn’t the best looking kid – I was just tenacious’ | Film | The Observer)

Spurlock’s a comer. He gets in your face. What’s amazing is how much I don’t mind it coming from him.

Definitely one of the good guys. Keep doc’ing.

(via http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/taco-town/229053)

(via Reality Check: Jumbaco from Jack in the Box | A Hamburger Today)

It’s a cheeseburger SANDWICHED between two tacos. 

If you order it takeaway, they’ll fill the bag with nacho cheese sauce.

(via #mom)

Get the bot to call yuh mutha cause she’s not on twitter and doesn’t know foursquare. Clever and necessary.

(via The Love Box - Conversations in Paris about love and love after love)

I love this idea. Hybrid documentary and iPhone accessory. Too bad they don’t ship the love to New Zealand.

Dear Mr Scorcese.This is what they did to your movie last night. (by sbiens)

If you haven’t seen Hugo 3D (which you absolutely should), you won’t get how horribly awesome this mashup is.

Russell Brand on Katy Perry Split: Best Breakup… | Gather

So much better than “No comment.”

(via Obama Farting Doll » Coolest Gadgets)

If you’re full of shit, this is how others will capitalize on you.

Great talk and Q&A about the dangers of computers as appliances (I’m looking at you, iPad) by Cory Doctorow at the Chaos Communications Conference.