Romney billed 10000

Romney billed 10000 - A visit to Newport Beach, California isn't cheap it seems as Mitt Romney is facing a $10k bill after his recent campaign visit. Of course it is a drop in the ocean for the money he has raised so far.

Romney billed 10000

So why would a town bill someone bringing a big campaigning event to town? Well big events cost money and Mitt Romney was billed because of police officer overtime.

If you think this is a dig at the Republican's candidate then think again. When President Obama rolled into town it was reported "Newport Beach charges president 35000".

It seems Romney is edging ahead of Obama, at least in the fund raising stakes as it was said that he raised $76 million in May. I find that kind of sad in a world where that money could be going to some real use! In comparison Ron Paul only raised 1.78 million.

Romney billed 10000

Do you think the town should just be happy to have them in town?

Story republished from: http://therandomforest.com/romney-billed-10000/

TSA grandfather ashes

TSA grandfather ashes - TSA workers are back in the news again after an alleged and very sad sounding disprespectful incident regarding a man carrying his grandfather's ashes.

TSA spills grandpa ashes laugh

TSA grandfather ashes

John Gross says he was travelling on 19th June on a Express connecting flight to Newark and then onwards to his home Indianapolis when his bag was called for a bag check after going through an x-ray.

He alleges that a TSA officer opened a small jar containing his grandfathers ashes and spilled around a quarter of them onto the floor. As he was frantically trying to mop them up he says the lady was laughing, not chuckling, laughing!

Man wants TSA to apologize over ashes incident

The TSA doesn't need anymore bad publicity so if this turns out to be true (although that could be hard to be 100% sure on) the employee should be seriously reprimanded. John Gross says he wants a formal apology from the TSA which I am sure we can all fully respect.

The jar was marked Human Remains and should have been checked via an x-ray.

In an article from Seattle Times John said:

"I didn't want to cause a scene because I didn't want them to throw me off my flight or put me on the no-fly list," said Gross, 30, a restaurant manager. "It didn't really hit me until I got on the plane."

And on talking to a lady on the number sympathetic TSA officials gave him:

"She basically hung up on me because there was nothing she could do," Gross said. "I don't want anything. All I want is an apology. And I want to understand where they get off treating people like this."

And on his grandpa:

"My grandpa I'm sure is up there in heaven laughing about this. I'm wondering who stepped in his ashes and where they are now. Maybe a little bit made it to Cubs' stadium," Gross said. "You've got to laugh about it but when you get down to it, it's not a laughing matter."

Story republished from: http://therandomforest.com/tsa-grandfather-ashes/

Stephanie Rice bikini

Stephanie Rice bikini controversy - Like much controversy these days it all started with a Tweet....

On 23rd June from her @ItsStephRice Twitter handle she tweeted:

"Thankyou to the Gorgeous @elliegonsalves for my birthday @veveswimwear bikini"

And this the image via Instagram.

Stephanie Rice bikini via Twitter / Instagram

The thing is I don't understand anything negative going around. It's her right to do this if she wants although some concerns were spreading over sponsorship issues but she isn't sponsored by Speedo anymore.

She is used to being in public with revealing clothing si I guess this doesn't bother her and that is absolutely fine and her choice.

What do you think?

Story republished from: http://therandomforest.com/stephanie-rice-bikini/

Rainbow Oreos - It seems the battle for Gay Rights has taken a step forward with a major product endorsing the cause and although causing controversy showing that being Gay is now becoming ever more ok in the mainstream.

Rainbow Oreos

Oreo is an all-American cookie, something that symbolises the America of the last 60 years and something that everyone has fond memories of growing up. The NaBisCo favorite has to be careful because it is a cookie, not a political statement however it seems that being gay is now ok enough for the corporation to support the Pride movement. I think this is awesome!

So what happened?

Kraft has produced an image on their Facebook page showing a rainbow colored layered Oreo in support of Gay Price. The image can be seen below.

Rainbow Oreos

Kraft have also said this is just the beginning of a line of support images from their brands coming this month.

Of course the anti-gay lot are calling for an Oreo boycott now but many people are hailing Kraft for the move including me.

Many are calling for the cookie to be made, sadly the image above is just photoshoped so they don't even have a prototype yet!

You can go and like the image here.

More details can be found in the story from Time.

Story republished from: http://therandomforest.com/rainbow-oreos/

Impaled at WTC

Impaled at WTC - following 4 World Trade Center's celebration of it's final steel beam on Monday there has been a sad accident where a worker has dropped approximately 5 feet and impaled himself on a bit of metal.

Luckily for the worker he is expected to survive although he is in critical condition.

More details can be found in the Huffington Post.

Below you can see a rendering of what 4 World Trade Center is going to look like on completion, it's pretty impressive.

Image source from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:4wtcrendering.png

Story republished from: http://therandomforest.com/impaled-wtc/

What makes a product cool?

What makes a product cool? - Some things just have it and some don't. We can all take a glance at a product and almost like an instinct decide if it is cool or not. Much of what makes cool is an illusion, a contextual decision we make based on what we feel is currently cool and what kind of cool we personally identify with.

What makes a product cool?

Corporations invest a huge amount of time and money studying trends and working out what is going to be perceived as cool. If 5" thick solid metal blocks were thought to be something people would think of as cool then the iPads of today may well have looked like that. You just need to peak back to the crazy 1980s to know that cool changes dramatically although saying that a large proportion of hip youngsters have now brought elements of the 80s back and decided they are now cool again. It's a hard thing to nail down.

Form and function

The two overriding factors are generally how the thing looks, which is ever changing things and how it functions which could be seen as a constant. It's a constant in the fact that a cool product will usually be one that fills a need or does something that nothing else can do. An iPad is cool because you can do all the basic things of a previously much larger device. You need no additional equipment such as  a mouse and it's read to use i seconds. The form works because it is streamlined and fits in any bag. Apple have rewritten the book on cool in many ways in recent years and other companies base much of what they release on how Apple's current line of products look.

The function does not always have to be a need though. That can be attested to with items that litter shops like Urban Outfitters. They sell many retro-replica's and the function in that aspect is that these things can do something that old things used to do. An example being the low-grade copies of Russian communist cameras. These film cameras have red hues on the images and burned edges plus barely focus. In aspects of quality they are horrible but they are cool because they replicate something interesting of the past. Of course things like Instagram manage to use modern devices to produce the same thing, now that is a hybrid of cool!

Demand is also another aspect of cool. If someone you think is cool has something then their cool passes onto that thing. They could like drinking a cheap supermarket wine because it's cheap and it doesn't make them sick. All their friends who look up at them may well start doing the same thing thinking it is a cool idea. That product gets caught in a wave and could become cool. This has already happened with Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, a cheap beer that is drinkable and is now a hipster favorite.

I can't nail what is cool but I like to think it's more function heavy for me. Of course like anyone I like a bit of Retro and reminding of things I loved as a kid. If I saw a Goonies T-shirt I would think that was cool, a homage is always cool!

What do you think makes things and products cool?

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