"In this April 28, 2011 image from video footage released Friday, April 29, 2011 by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), top parts of fuel rods are seen about 6 meters (20 feet) from the surface of water in the spent fuel storage pool at the damaged Unit 4 reactor building at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. This is the first time an underwater image of the storage pool was released by TEPCO after the complex was ravaged byt the March tsunami. (Tokyo Electric Power Co. )"

-- Some more recent photos to go along with the previous ones I've posted for a quick update on this, since the rest of the world seems to have forgotten. What happened to all the panic!? *facepalm* Follow the links for the rest.

SEE HERE

-- Politically charged music clip for Lupe Fiasco. Love it.

-- As if you haven't heard by now, even if you did manage to miss the 11PM show last night, but I thought I should address it anyway in light of the often foreign policy and other war related news I post here. It would be odd if I left this out. However this is a symbolic victory more than anything. Did it bring a sense of closure to many people? Yes. But, celebrating the death of a human being, no matter how terrible, is troublesome to me. Even an execution should never be cause for celebration. I'm not saying he did not deserve to die, or that there should not be a sense of accomplishment and justice served, or even the humor and jokes at his expense and the time it took for this to happen, but I was not happy with many of the reactions I saw. It is not like the war in Afghanistan and Iraq will just magically end now. Afghanistan hasn’t been about him for a long, long time now, it never really was. However maybe we’ll stop bombing Pakistan? Not likely either. It is doubtful that Al Qaeda will be affected by this at all. It’s been years since they have been a centralized organization and bin Laden has been more of a symbol than a leader for a long time now. If the last videos that he supposedly released are to be believed he was practically begging for money and followers to support his “cause”. He’s definitely has not been the priority of the US government, so the 11PM announcement on a Sunday night is more of an election year theatrics than anything. If he really was a top priority target it would not have taken 10 years to take him out. I just typed this all up in one sitting now, so if I left something out, or said something you don’t agree with please let me hear from you. Also, why does he get a proper burial at sea within 24 hours while the whole world watched Saddam hang?...

All that being said I leave you with these two clips and a photo to sum my reaction to the announcement since I watched it last night. Though I'll leave out the hilariousness and photoshops that are flaoting around the intrawebz.

"TRIPOLI, Libya – Angry mobs attacked Western embassies and a U.N. office in Tripoli Sunday after NATO bombed Moammar Gadhafi's family compound in an attack officials said killed the leader's second youngest son and three grandchildren, ages six months to two years.

Russia said the Western alliance exceeded its U.N. mandate of protecting Libyan civilians with the strike.

The vandalized embassies were empty and nobody was reported injured, but the attacks heightened tensions between the Libyan regime and Western powers, prompting the United Nations to pull its international staff out of the capital.

The bombing did not slow the attacks by Gadhafi's forces on rebel strongholds in the western part of Libya that has remained largely under the control of the regime. The rebel port of Misrata, which has been besieged by Gadhafi's troops for two months, came under heavy shelling Sunday and at least 12 people were killed, a medic said.

Gadhafi has repeatedly called for a cease-fire, most recently on Saturday, but has not halted his assault on Misrata, a city of 300,000 where hundreds have been killed since the rebellion against Libya's ruler erupted in mid-February.

The rebels, who control most of eastern Libya, have been unable to gain an advantage on the battlefield despite weeks of NATO airstrikes. Alliance officials and allied leaders emphatically denied they were hunting Gadhafi to break the stalemate between the better trained government forces and the lightly armed rebels.

Canadian Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, who commands NATO's operation in Libya, said that "we do not target individuals." However, the leaders of the U.S., Britain and France have said Gadhafi must go, prompting warnings by U.N. Security Council members Russia, China and Brazil against NATO attempts to change the regime..."

READ HERE

"It's a 120-million-member social network that's adding over 300,000 users a day, with more than 4.3 million daily photo and video uploads, and seven billion monthly page views. It has Facebook's fastest-growing app, with 570,000 new daily users, making it the third-biggest app of all after FarmVille and CityVille. Hugely profitable, it's forecast to generate hundreds of millions of dollars this year, and is being aggressively courted by venture-capital firms valuing it in the billions. And it's run from London by a secretive Russian serial entrepreneur who has steadfastly refused to be interviewed or photographed. Until now.

Badoo is the world's largest social network that you probably haven't yet heard of. Run from 800-square-metre loft-style offices in Soho, it is brilliantly effective at providing one simple and universally compelling service: hooking up members according to their profile pictures and location. "Chat, flirt, socialise and have fun!," implores the home page, alongside photos of prospective friends such as Terri, 21 ("Wants a candlelit dinner"), and Christopher, 25 ("Wants wake up with a girl" [sic]). Sign in, and a message declares that "204,516 girls [or guys] near you are looking to meet a guy your age!". Explain your intentions (the pull-down menu's suggestions include "to talk about sex", "to get a massage", "to flirt") and Tatyana, Oshrit or Gary might just give you access to their stash of private photos.

Still barely registering in Britain or the US, the free-to-use network -- on the web and via smartphones -- is a mass phenomenon in Brazil (14.1 million members), Mexico (nine million), France (8.2 million), Spain (6.5 million) and Italy (six million). Relying on word-of-mouth rather than any marketing spend, it has cracked the internet's eternal conundrum: how to persuade users to pay hard cash in a world drowning in free digital services and content, by charging members each time they want to boost their visibility to others searching for a date.

A year after Badoo's 2006 launch, when it had 12 million members, Russia's Finam Technology Fund bought a ten per cent stake for $30 million, valuing it at $300 million (this year Finam will realise an option for a further ten per cent at a higher valuation). Today, A-list investors such as Sequoia and Accel are courting the business and there is talk of an initial public share offering. "Cracking the Anglo-Saxon market will probably give us double to triple today's reach," says Bart Swanson, recruited as CEO last September, having expanded Amazon into Europe and run EMI in France. "The opportunity for people discovery [through Badoo] is a horrendously large market -- it's a confluence of social, proximity, mobile, and it's extremely local. The basic mechanism of what Andrey has developed is genius -- just like Google with its AdWords, it's people paying for self-promotion. And it works...""

READ HERE

-- From a photo session for Russian band "Vragi".

-- Gorgeous video by Chas Mackinnon and Brad Goble of Melbourne-based design studio BETTY WANTS IN. In February 2011, the five times world champions Fred Fugen and Vince Reffett from Soul Flyers were invited to Melbourne to provide advanced 3D coaching to some of Australia's leading Skydive athlete talent, - this is the result.

"These days, gamification is so hot that everyone is fascinated by it--even terrorists.

Is there no productivity issue that can't be solved with gamification?

Unlikely, as gamification, the idea of applying game mechanics to non-games, has conquered corporate America, education, and healthcare, and has begun to catch on in the expanding spaces of terrorism and militant Islamism.

In a recent article in Foreign Policy, security consultants Jarret Brachman and Alix Levine wrote on what they call the World of Holy Warcraft and argued that jihadist bulletin boards and chat rooms are making use of the same gamification techniques that Foursquare and airlines, among others, use. We took the opportunity to ask Brachman a few questions and to find out whether Anwar al-Awlaki reads Jane McGonigal too.

FAST COMPANY: Why do you both think gamification is such a good way of analyzing why people spend so much time in jihadist bulletin boards or chat rooms?

JARRET BRACHMAN: I think that it's less us thinking it's a good way to view them, and rather them thinking that it's a good way to incentivize partcipation in their own space. We actually stumbled on the gamification concept after briefing a room full of techies about how al-Qaeda and their global supporters are using the Internet. It was this group who were familiar with gamification that helped us to see what had been going on under our noses--we just didn't have a framework in our minds for understanding it, so we did so ancedotally. Gamification allows us to make sense of the introduction of points, status, levels--elements that are being introduced into forums of all kinds--in order to increase and enhance participation. But the difference is that with al-Qaeda, gamification is being used for promoting hatred and encouraging militancy, as opposed to rewarding you for brand loyalty in where you shop or on what airline you fly..."

READ HERE

"This incredible set of photographs reveal capture some of the sea's inhabitants in a way you have never seen before.

The stunning pictures, taken off the coast of Hawaii, were taken in the dead of night with a special flash to give a wonderful display of colours.

Among the 'colour x-ray' style images are pictures of rare squids, jellyfish and shrimp. 0Measuring just a few centimetres in length they can be found living off the coast of Kailua-Kona.

Fine art photographer Joshua Lambus took the picture and believes he has been on more than 400 'blackwater' dives.

The 25-year-old had the idea after becoming frustrated with running charters for divers who just wanted to see turtles, dolphins and whales.

To get the unique images, Joshua waits until nightfall to head out about three miles on a boat. He then cuts the engine and dives into the water..."

SEE HERE

-- Yeh, it's uncensored. Obviously.

-- Reagan got jokes! Obama should tell terrorist jokes.

-- A-M-P-U-T Double EE, the glass is half full yea I still got threeee! This guy is great!