.::REALITYRECALL::.

It may shock you that a lot of the stuff we buy is made in China. In order to keep up with the mammoth demand for Snuggies, Shake Weights and other trappings of modern society, the Emma Mærsk makes the trip in four fewer days than the average container ship on a China-to-California run. More »

While we here at Мишка are prone to posting up content having to do with bicycles from time to time, it’s rare that we ever tackle the wide world of competitive cycle racing. Considering the gruesome events that have been taking place at this year’s Tour De France however, I’ve had rethink our normal stance on the topic. A series of particularly horrifying images and videos have started to make the rounds stateside lately, that not only rule, but reveal the French Bicycle Superbowl to be a bit more grueling than we ever thought before.

The folks over at Deadspin have been keeping us Yanks up to date surrounding the events of the million mile race (that’s an estimate), by kindly focusing on all the various forms of carnage that have occurred over the past month.  Deadspin editor Barry Petchesky anointed this year’s event with the fitting nickname DeathFrance 3000 pretty early on, when rider Maxim Iglisky clipped a spectator in a yellow frock during the very first stage of the race. This small love tap eventually went on to cause a massive bicycle pile-up, which really set a pretty gnarly tone for the rest of the event. The entire tour wraps up this coming Sunday, but I’m willing to bet that it already ranks among the bloodiest.

During the 14th stage of the race, Laurens Ten Dam of the Netherlands, who can be seen at the top of the post, took a trip over his handlebars, planting his face firmly into a ditch. The resulting images produced by the incident are the stuff that nightmares are made of. Ten Dam strapped an ace bandage around his melon upon crashing, which essentially kept his mug from detaching from the rest of his skull, and saddled up for the rest of the ride, Aerosmith-style. While his vibrant blue and orange ensemble may direct your attention away from this guy’s train-wreck-of-a-face for just a moment’s time, it appears there was very little seperating the rider from a Hannibal Lecter victim.

I suppose I should also mention the car/bike that crash which eventually jettisoned a whole cadre of cyclists into a barbed wire fence. You can check out all that damage in the video and image above. I would be doing bicycle/injury enthusiasts a huge disservice if I didn’t at least quickly touch on this wreck.

Anyway, I’ve started to wonder why the Tour De France hasn’t really caught on in the ol’ U S of A. People attend Nascar races to drink beer out of coolers and watch things crash into other things, right? I don’t see why this principle can’t also be applied to bicycle racing. If this post changes the mind of one short-sighted Dale Jr. fan, then maybe I’ll have done my job.

We’re more accustomed to ignoring flashing ads saying “your computer is infected!” but Google’s hoping people will pay attention once they start advertising the state of your computer’s health at the top of Google search pages. [Google Blog] More »

When university student Gwen Jacob removed her top to cool off on a sweltering summer day in July 1991, she unwittingly spearheaded a movement to give all women in Ontario the legal right to expose their breasts – though most still choose not to.

Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self esteem, first make sure you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes.

Thanks Aubrey

A CRTC hearing that could determine the internet prices and options available to Canadians has closed with a look at a freshly revised usage-based billing proposal from Bell.

Julio Tang often gets mistaken for an ice cream vendor when he rides the Google Street View tricycle with its bulky white box on the back.

Jethro Nededog
Starz releases new photos ahead of Friday’s Comic-Con panel.

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This is big news. Huge actually. Ryan Bidan, Senior Product Manager at RIM, has departed the company. Bidan was part of RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook team but has now jumped ship and joined Samsung. He’ll take on the role of  Director of Product Marketing. This was confirmed by his own Tweet stating that a “It’s official: There’s about to be another #cdnindallas”. Keith Pardy, He’s not the only one in in a high profile position to leave, RIM’s old CMO, Keith Pardy, departed in March, followed by Paul Kalbfleisch, RIM’s VP of Brand Creativity, in May. RIM recently announced they will “streamline operations” with a “headcount reduction”… so it’s not that surprising that people are leaving, just didn’t think it would be one of RIM”s main evangelists.

Source: CrackBerry

Related posts:

1. RIM’s CMO departs for personal reasons
2. RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie adds CMO title to his name
3. AdMob Founder and CEO departs Google

Manitoba archeologists have unearthed the bones of a prehistoric sea creature approximatley 80 million years old.

It’s already been rather unceremoniously leaked, but now the Microsoft Explorer Touch Mouse is all sorts of official. Granted, it’s kinda tough to get excited about a mouse, but Redmond’s latest pointer is actually pretty neat. It sports BlueTrack Technology for getting your double click on while using your jeans or carpet as a mouse pad, and a haptic scroll strip that lets you feel the speed at which you’re flicking through the web. Oh, and that strip lets you scroll both horizontally and vertically — not bad for $49.95. Microsoft even claims it can last 18-months on a single set of batteries, just long enough to forget this wireless mouse even has a set of DC cells inside. Check out the extraordinarily brief PR after the break and keep those purchasing fingers holstered for now — this bad boy wont be hitting shelves till September.

Continue reading Microsoft Explorer Touch Mouse coming in September for $49.95

Filed under: Peripherals

Microsoft Explorer Touch Mouse coming in September for $49.95 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google has been working on multiple profile support in Chrome since we last mentioned it. The latest Canary and Dev channel releases both have the new features, and it’s come a long way, even if its still a little rough around the edges. More »

Last December, the release of Google Maps 5.0 for Android ushered in the next-generation of mobile maps where you can rotate, tilt, and zoom in and out of 3D maps. Whether you’re on the go or playing with a new phone, seeing a 3D skyline spring up in New York City, Zurich, Milan, and other cities is a helpful, fun, and unique experience–an experience we want as many of you as we can to have for your city.