Hi-Tech T-Shirts from Sweden

Swedish "hi-tech" textiles researcher Lena Berglin has developed a comfortable tank top (a long with other garments) which measure your heart, muscular activity, and breathing rate while exercising. She developed these to help normal people with their problems, like for a person who had a heart attack and wants to exercise but their fear of another heart attack prevents them from doing that.

She works creating smart-textiles that transmit an electric current through them to achieve various results, like monitoring breathing rate, sensing danger, and identifying who is calling you on your cellphone just by looking at the color your purse turns.

View the original article here for more.

Nigerian Film Industry Suffering Under Sharia Law

Film industries in Nigeria have recently been restricted and put down by Islamic Sharia law. Many of the films made in the industry there copy popular and successful forms found inindustry is based in Kano, Nigeria (which also happens to be an Islamic city who follows Sharia law.)

First there was a 6 month ban on filming absolutely anything at all because of a tape released of an actress during an "amorous" phone call. The ban has been lifted, but now they are not allowed to have any singing or dancing in their films. They are not allowed to portray anything that is outside the traditional life or that questions the traditional way of being according to Sharia and that those things are "immoral to the Hausa culture". (The Hausa people are an ethnic group found in West Africa, like Nigeria, Niger, Ghana, Chad, Cameroon, and neighboring places. Their language is also called Hausa.)

Many have lost their jobs and countless productions have been halted, resulting in the loss of millions of dollars in the Nigerian film industry (which in the 3rd largest in the world behind Hollywood and Bollywood.) One film producer, Iyan Tama, may even be sent to jail for supposedly releasing his film "Tsinstiya" (a Hausa langauge version of West Side Story) without it going through the censors and being approved first.

Famous Russian Ballet Dancer Ekaterina Maximova Dies at 70

The famous ballerina Ekaterina Maximova who's professional career lasted three decades in the famous Bolshoi theatre died at home last Thursday. She was 70 and working as a coach for young ballerinas for the theatre.

She mostly did classical ballet and experimented with some avant-garde ballet as well. Russian art and the world will miss her greatly.

Two American Idol Judges Considering Leaving

American Idol judges Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul have discussed and considered leaving the #1 rated television show once their contracts end next year.

This could mean a plummet in the amount of people viewing the show, since Simon and Paula are two of the main reasons why they watch the show in the first place. People just like watching them, they make the show interesting; Paula with her scatterbrained and loopy self and ratings and Simon with his scathing reviews that devastate hundreds of auditions goers.

Don't want to go to your high school reunion?

No problem. Do what Andrea Wachner did.

Andrea's memories of high school are full of contempt for the place, and she really didn't want to go. So she decided to do something funny with the situation. She hired a stripper to go in her place, making for some very interesting/funny situations. Some people weren't fooled, but many were. Andrea wanted to see how everyone would react to see that she had changed from a "drama geek" into an exotic dancer.

The promo video for her little exploit can be viewed here on Youtube.

Twitter with your Brain

On April 15th, the first Twitter messages ever to be sent through the power and will of someone's brain were posted.

Adam Wilson and his lab have created a device that you hook up to your head to communicate messages via computer screen. You focus on a letter/symbol on the screen, and the device can detect which one you are focusing on, and brings up the letter. Then you focus on the next letter, and so on.

This could be used to allow people to communicate who for some reason can't.

Russian Artist Wants to Make Oil from Corpses

Andrei Molodkin is a Russian artist obsessed with oil; when he was in the Russian military he would work with in and eat oil spread on bread as a sort of drug. He sees many problems in the world today and in Russia as being connected to oil, he sees oil as the blood of Russia, and oil corrupts.

He is also obsessed with ball point pens, which he would draw with extensively during his military time and still does today. For him, ink is the life of the pen. When you use up all the ink, you have killed the pen.

According to Andrei, if ink is the blood of the pen, and oil is the blood of Russia, then ink and blood are the same. You use the pen for ink so you can make your letters and drawings, and you exploit people for the sake of oil.

He uses oil and ink already extensively in his works, and wants to start using oil/blood from human bodies in his projects as well. If oil is blood, and human bodies (and their blood, naturally) can break down into actual oil, then it is the same for Andrei. He feels that bodies into oil would just be speeding up the process. If beer and vodka come from organic sources with chemical alterations to get them there says Andrei, then why can't he do it with humans?

He already has some volunteers to be turned to oil after they die, including a BBC reporter and a French adult film star.

Andrei Molodkin is mostly known for his 3-D sculpters inside acrylic plocks pumped with Chechen and Iraqi oil.

Ballistics Calculator for iPod Touch

Wow. Now this seems like something I could have (and would have) thought of, but ironically, I didn't. A full fledged military grade ballistics calculator is available for the iPod touch, and why didn't I think of it? Apparently some soldiers just loved their iPods so much they had to bring them with them on their assignments. So why not make it useful? (More useful than watching Die Hard and canned beans I mean.)

The program: BulletFlight

The company: Knight's Armament

This app is currently used in service by snipers in the army, pretty cool huh? You can even get a special case for it, you know, to make it fit for service.