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At one point or another, who of us hasn't risked losing a finger by opening a pair of scissors and using them as a quick, impromptu knife? It turns out they're a pretty good way to open taped boxes without horribly slicing what's inside, so Quirky took the idea and created a pair of scissors called the Sheath that's actually safe to use as an improvised knife.

When fully opened a groove in the handle stashes one of the scissor's blades making it safe to hold and letting you repurpose the lowly crafting tool into a formidable slicing apparatus. Quirky hasn't quite nailed down a price for this little innovation just yet, but they are putting into production. And even if the charge an arm and a leg for it, it's still better than accidentally losing an arm or a leg using a traditional pair of scissors like this. [Quirky]

Very sad news out of Florida for gearheads everywhere as Bill Warner, a motorcycle racer who once hit a record speed of 311 mph, crashed and died during a high-speed run on Sunday.

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Should flashing your headlights to warn other motorists to be aware of police presence in the area be protected by the First Amendment?

Michael Elli of Michigan, was doing just that. Trying to warn fellow drivers about a police trap by flashing his lights, when he was pulled over by officers who were not too pleased with him and given a ticket.

The charge was obstruction of justice, but prosecutors ended up dropping the case.

However, Elli has filed a class action lawsuit against the city, claiming that police retaliates against drivers who exercise their right of free speech, in this case warning others of police presence.

He also adds that the government is trying to prevent free speech because it disagrees with the message.

Under the law, obstruction of justice is usually reserved for active attempts to interfere with the administration of the courts, the judicial system, or law enforcement officers.

So is flashing headlights to warn other motorists obstructing police activity?

It seems that there is a fine line and the subject is not at all clear.

From the police perspective, they are looking for speeding cars and other violators to protect the public and Elli’s actions interfere with that objective.

But does a citizen have the right to, out of the goodness of his heart, warn others to watch out because the police is there? Elli doesn’t see anything wrong in doing so.

Several other states, including Florida, Utah, and Tennessee have ruled that it is protected speech under the constitution and the flashing driver cannot be prosecuted.

In the case of Michael Elli, the problem is that once the charges were dropped, he filed a lawsuit and in those cases plaintiffs have been less successful.

Do you think that a driver flashing headlights to warn others of police traps should be protected by the First Amendment?

[Image via Shutterstock]

Should Flashing Your Headlights Be Protected By First Amendment? is a post from: The Inquisitr

York unveils a new corn maze each year and it’s always a grand affair that includes rides, shows and attractions for an entire day’s worth of entertainment. Each year, the theme of the maze changes and this year it’s Doctor Who. That means there is now a 300 meter long maze featuring a giant Dalek and the images of the first and current Doctor. There are also a couple of Daleks hiding out and the TARDIS just in case you really get desperate to leave. The Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker, even stopped by for a bit.

See more pictures after the break…

(York Maze via BuzzFeed)

The cascade of smartwatch rumors—be they iWatch, Surface, or other—increases daily. By this point, smartwatches of every shape and stripe seem inevitable. But there are so, so many reasons why they shouldn't happen. Not any time soon, at least.

To get a sense of the sheer volume of smartwatches on the horizon, you can look no further than Quartz's exhaustive rumor roundup. It's an extensive lineup of companies, each and every one of whom may want to seriously reconsider where they're headed. Here are just a few reasons why.

The wrist is valuable accessory space. Watches aren't just watches anymore, if they ever were. They're fashion statements in a way that today's gadgets—ooo, a black rectangle!—aren't. One-look-fits-all isn't going to cut it, and color variations don't count (looking your way Apple).

Too many sizes. In fact, one size doesn't fit all, either! Men and women wear different-sized watches. Beyond that, watch size is another aesthetic choice that people who wear things on their wrists care very much about. How many SKUs are these companies prepared to manufacture?

Which makes for terrible UI problems. Adding a micro-sized display to your platform's lineup is problematic enough on its own for apps. Allowing for displays with multiple degrees of tiny is guaranteed chaos. Scaling horrors, ahoy!

But mostly one giant size. The obvious answer to that would be to stick with just one display size, which iWatch and Samsung and Microsoft rumors currently peg at 1.5-inches. That is a very big thing to lug around all day.

Battery life will be horrid. The sad thing is, it still won't be big enough to fit in all of the internals it needs alongside a battery that's worth a damn. While there's no way a smartwatch will be as battery-intensive as your phone, you're still going to have to plug the damn thing in every few days.

Imagine input on that tiny display. Making your smartwatch do what you want is going to be a royal pain, unless you've got needlepoint fingers, or until voice command technology advances so far beyond where it's at today we might as well be talking about getting a few more feet of lift out of our hoverboards.

They're going to be ugly. Big might be a necessity for a smartwatch, but it's also garish in an accessory. Even the nicest-looking iWatch renders are sort of gross. And existing e-ink products aren't much better.

Speaking of which, this already exists.

It's pretty awful.

And this.

Likewise.

Even Apple sort of had one. The iPod nano was the closest we've gotten to a real-deal iWatch in terms of size and functionality, especially when paired with a clever watchband. It was so popular that Apple ditched the hardware after a single generation.

In fact, we've been doing this since the 80s. And they've all been bad. Could someone come in and reinvent the category, like Apple did with smartphones? Sure! But it'll have to be a once-in-a-generation reimagining. Maybe someone manages it, maybe not. The only guarantee is that nearly every smartwatch will be terrible for a very long time.

How much will these things cost? Oh man, are you really ready to drop $150 on yet another gadget that already does things your preexisting gadgets can? That's how much the Sony SmartWatch runs you. Even if an Apple iWatch manages to match that, it's a whole lot of change.

And how often will you have to get a new one? Product refresh cycles are variable, but it's safe to say that your average handheld gadget—phones, tablets, etc.—don't last you much longer than three years at most, if only because of the (non-replaceable) battery. So look forward to having to get a new watch at least that often.

It's another data eater. Not to mention that a smartwatch that only runs on Wi-Fi would be effectively useless; when you're in your house or a coffee shop or another Wi-Fi accessible location, you're using other devices. So get ready to tack yet another gadget onto your data plan, unless it's pure Bluetooth (there's that battery life again) or some sort of Airplay-like ad hoc wireless hookup with your phone.

The smartwatch identity crisis. Is a smartwatch a souped-up activity tracker or a dumbed down iPhone? If it's the former, are we really sure that people want activity trackers on a large scale? If it's the latter, won't that be redundant? If it's a combination of both, do you go with a leather band or a rubber strap? Why are we doing this, again?

Honestly, it's the gadget version of 3DTV. All of this smartwatch build-up sounds incredibly familiar if you've been around a while. It sounds almost identical to the drumbeats that lead up to 3DTV, another product for which there was no clear demand, but companies didn't have any better ideas, so why not? Smartwatches are that.

Dick Tracy would've used a smartphone. Ever get the feeling that we're all still chasing that dumb Dick Tracy watch-phone? Forget it. If Dick Tracy were alive today he'd be using an iPhone, because it does all of the things that watch-phone did, but better. If you're going to resurrect a Dick Tracy accessory, make it the fedora.

Sweet. Another installment of Madden is coming out soon. That should make all you football fans excited. You know what's better? This version is a lot more Professional Grade. And that's because GMC is now the official truck of Madden 25, which means in-game advertising just went to the next level.

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via http://kai-s.deviantart.com/art/Steam-Gunner-Schmidt-86324877

Many people have been cutting their cable thanks to streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Instant Video, but the reason many people are still glued to their cable subscription is that live sports are hard to find on anything other than cable, but that may change slightly, as cable providers are looking into cutting sports from their lineup in order to provide lower monthly cable bills.

You may have experienced your cable bill rising ever so slightly recently, and it’s a running joke that our cable bills keep getting more and more expensive, but that actually has mostly to do with sports programming. The fees that cable operators pay to offer sports networks have risen a whopping 113% over the last 10 years or so.

In 2012, cable providers paid regional sports networks an average of $2.47 per subscriber to carry their channels as part of their digital basic programming, which is up from $1.12 in 2002. This means that you’re paying almost $2.50 every month for a sports channel that you may or may not be using (fees for ESPN and ESPN2 was a combined $5.71 in 2012), and the odds are, you aren’t watching sports.

TV ratings company Nielsen found that only a measely 4% of households watch sports on average, but in order to offer an attractive lineup of channels to consumers, cable providers are still having to pay these fees that are being passed along to the consumer. However, cable providers are considering cutting down on sports networks in order to offer lower monthly bills for customers. Both AT&T and DirecTV have already begun doing this.

However, this could spell bad news for sports fans, as the cheapest cable plan may no longer consist of favorite sports channels, leaving these people to upgrade to a higher-tier plan and pay more money to get the sports channel they want. Of course, we talked in the past about how great of an idea it would be to have an a la carte option for channels, but we don’t see that happening anytime soon, if ever.

SOURCE: Wall Street Journal

Two-dimensional graphene may be poised to revolutionize much of materials science, but a recent study has shown that this one-atom-thick material could present some serious health risks inside the human body. The problem? It's so thin that it can slice directly into our cells.

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HOLY CRAP THIS MATHS QUIZ IS STRESSFUL. Seriously, probably the worst thing to attempt on a Monday morning. But we're sharing it with you, anyway, because you deserve to know about this. Also, it's pretty fun.

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Every college student and space-starved home dweller knows that the easiest way to make more storage space in a bedroom is with a set of bed risers lifting up your bed. But what if those bed risers had power and USB outlets on them? The Power Bed Risers gives you a pair each of grounded outlets and USB outlets to plug in your phones, laptops, lamps, alarm clocks and anything else you might need on your bed or bedside. Plus they lift up your bed 8″ for more storage. And it’s from Bed, Bath and Beyond, so it’s like 20% off (ask your Mom for a coupon lol). (the gadgeteer via gizmodo)

Bed Risers with USB Power Strip

Monday marks the 30th anniversary of the original Nintendo Entertainment System. It was launched in Japan on July 15, 1983, as the Famicom, and changed the way we played for years to come.

That simple 8-bit console held some of the greatest games of our childhoods, and was the place many popular Nintendo franchises, such as the Super Mario Bros. games, got their start.

Although the Nintendo didn't come to America and Europe until 1985, that hasn't stopped Twitter users from surrounding the #NESMemories hashtag. The tag was started by user Christopher Arnold Sunday night. Read more...

Networks.

Makes sense. Rosie O’Donnell was a 9/11 Truther and they let her blather about it on air repeatedly, but the only thing Rosie’s brand of trutherism killed was brain cells. They had to up the ante so they went out and got the queen of the anti-vaccination movement, whose deeper thoughts have inspired body-count websites. [...]

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You can already get a beauty cream made of snails. This treatment offered by the Ci:z Medical Group in Tokyo just removes the intermediary process:

According to a Ci:z.Labo spokesperson, the snails on your face feel a little ticklish at first, but they gradually start to stick onto your skin and after a while, they feel nice and cool on your face. Umm, okay, I think I’ll take their word for it and not try it myself in this case.

Like most beauty treatments, the escargot regimen doesn’t come cheap, with the 60 minute regular course priced at 24,150 yen (US$240) and the additional live snail experience option costing another 10,500 yen (US$100). Since the snails require careful management, the celeb escargot course is currently available only at the main Ci:z.Labo salon in Ebisu.

Link

(Photo: Nirinari)

This tank top features the classic 1966 Batman and Robin scaling the wall of a building. They always made it look so easy.

Product Page ($20.50)

(frankieleon)

I once had a roommate casually mention that she never got mosquito bites because she wasn’t allergic to the little buggers. Hearing this, while I was grumpily slathering hydrocortisone over seemingly innumerable red itchy skin splotches caused an overwhelming and totally rational jealousy. Why me? Why anyone? Stupid bugs.

Smithsonian Magazine has a few answers if you feel like ending the senseless rage. Perhaps you’re just part of the 20% of our species deemed especially mouthwatering. So congratulations, you’re going to get bitten more often — invest in a big bottle of insect repellant and shut your ears to those never-get-bitten types.

Here are 5 reasons you might be more succulent — check out Smithsonian for more:

1. They vant to suck your blood type: It’s no secret that skeeters are after a feast by way of the red stuff coursing through your veins. And depending on what your blood type is, you might be more tantalizing: One study found mosquitoes landed on folks with Type O blood almost twice as often as those with Type A. Type B fell in the middle.

2. You’re gassy: Mosquitoes flock to targets, propelled by whiffs of carbon dioxide emitted when you breathe. If you exhale more than others — often larger people — you could be more of a bug magnet. Kids, you’ve got it easy… for now.

3. Beer is delicious, obviously: It’s not just humans who enjoy a cold brewsky on a hot day — one study found that beer could attract more mosquitoes to the people who drink it. It was thought that drinking increases how much ethanol you sweat out and bugs like that, although that hasn’t shown to be a lure for mosquitoes in research. Maybe they’re just fans of a nice IPA?Clothing

4. It’s your ancestors’ fault: Here’s where I shall shake my fist at genetics. Underlying genetic factors are responsible for about 85% of the variability between how attractive people are to mosquitoes. It could be your blood type, metabolism or any manner of things. All we know is it isn’t faaaaaair (whining not proven to attract biters).

5. You are just delectable: There are those of out there who could emit natural repellants, yucky things that mosquitoes don’t like and won’t come biting for. Researchers are trying to isolate these particular chemicals, as they think they could be used to engineer a more successful line of bug sprays. So you can be a large, Type O blood, beer-swilling and bug-free person, free of all that mosquito rage.

Why Do Mosquitoes Bite Some People More Than Others? [Smithsonian Magazine]

Toyota announced back in March that it had formed a special partnership with Nickelodeon and SpongeBob SquarePants—and from that partnership this crazy car was born. It’s a one-off 2014 Toyota Highlander designed to look just like SpongeBob, inside and out. The car made its debut over the weekend at the Padres vs Giants game in San Diego and will now be touring the US with stops in places like the Nickelodeon Suites Resort and Mall of America.

See the exterior after the break…

(via Jalopnik)

The Trayvon Martin case’s newest development involves Eric Holder, who addressed the George Zimmerman not guilty verdict as well as rumblings about a Justice Department civil rights investigation into the unarmed teen’s shooting death last year.

Yesterday, we learned that Eric Holder’s DOJ had been investigating the Trayvon Martin case from before George Zimmerman was even arrested, weeks after he shot Martin in Sanford, Florida, kicking off protests and outcry that have thus far outlasted the verdict handed down late Saturday night.

Zimmerman was told he had “no further business” with the court by presiding Judge Debra Nelson, but federal status of the case — ceded when state prosecutors stepped in — remains unclear. An immediate action by the NAACP to encourage federal civil rights charges in the Trayvon Martin shooting prompted a petition with about half a million signatures, and protests raged Sunday night in major American cities over the Martin verdict.

Eric Holder’s DOJ is still interested in the Zimmerman verdict, and today, Holder spoke out on Trayvon Martin at a Delta Sigma Theta luncheon where he was the featured speaker.

Holder addressed “the tragic, unnecessary shooting death” of Trayvon Martin, adding that he is pushing a federal investigation into the case.

He confirmed that the DOJ plans to “continue to act in a manner that is consistent with the facts and the law” and persist in its work to “alleviate tensions, address community concerns, and promote healing” before saying:

We are determined to meet division and confusion with understanding and compassion… and also with truth… We are resolved, as you are, to combat violence involving or directed at young people, to prevent future tragedies and to deal with the underlying attitudes, mistaken beliefs and stereotypes that serve as the basis for these too common incidents. And we will never stop working to ensure that — in every case, in every circumstance, and in every community — justice must be done.

In the wake of the Trayvon Martin verdict, Eric Holder is scheduled to travel to Orlando tomorrow for an NAACP meeting.

Eric Holder’s DOJ To Tackle Trayvon Verdict is a post from: The Inquisitr