A spinning excavator, a giant pit of mud, rednecks, reckless disregard for personal safety, speed, waterskis and moonshine, added to taste: some recipes are simply perfect.

There are a lot of questions posed by this video. Is the excavator stranded? Is this just a group of people making the best of a messy, annoying situation? Or was it placed there intentionally, as a part of some kind of perennial South Carolinian tradition; a sacred coming of age ritual known in the local dialect as gittin'r done? Lastly, when can I try this?

Search as I may, I can find no answers. Just more questions. [Break]

Today, DHS's Napolitano's response to the crotchbomber: "We're looking to make sure that this sort of incident cannot recur." But the TSA's response to Abdulmutalib's attempt makes one thing clear: We must stop pretending the TSA is making us safer.

Security expert Bruce Schneier nails the core incompetency: "For years I've been saying 'Only two things have made flying safer [since 9/11]: the reinforcement of cockpit doors, and the fact that passengers know now to resist hijackers.'"

So what has the TSA done in response to the attempted attack? They've told airlines to make passengers stay in their seats during the last hour of flight. They've made it verboten for passengers to hold anything in their laps, again only during the last hour of flight. Perhaps most hilariously telling, they've forbidden pilots from announcing when a plane is flying over certain cities and landmarks.

There is no other way to interpret it: The TSA is saying clearly that they can't prevent terrorists from getting explosives on airplanes, but by god, they'll make sure those planes explode only when the TSA says it's okay.

I want our government to prevent terrorism and to make flights safer. But we are spending billions of dollars and man-hours to fight a threat that is less likely to kill a traveler than being struck by lightning. In the last decade, according to statistician Nate Silver, there has been "one terrorist incident per 11,569,297,667 miles flown [the] equivalent to 1,459,664 trips around the diameter of the Earth, 24,218 round trips to the Moon, or two round trips to Neptune." (Sadly, this does mean that in the future we can expect one out of every two round-trip flights to Neptune to be hijacked.)

The TSA isn't saving lives. We, the passengers, are saving our own. Since its inception, the TSA has been structured in such a way as to prevent specific terror scenarios, attempting to disrupt a handful of insanely specific tactics, while continuing to disenfranchise and demoralize the citizens who are actually doing the work that a billion-dollar government agency—an agency that received an additional $128 million just this year for new checkpoint explosive screening technology—has failed to do.

We just had the first legitimate attempted attack in years, and the TSA changes the threat level from orange...to orange.

This goes far beyond simple customer satisfaction issues like "Take Back Takeoff." (Although they are of a kind.) It has to do with wildly irrationally response of a government agency in the face of failure. An agency whose leader, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, said at first blush that the attempted attack showed that—here comes the Katrina-class foot-in-mouth—"the system worked." (She shoveled shit in her mouth this morning, while still talking up the asinine new measures that the TSA will be taking to respond to this isolated threat.)

I don't want to die on an airplane. I don't want to die in my home while eating an organic bagel infested with parasites that lay eggs on my liver. I don't want to die from starvation or bad water or a thousand other things that I pay our government to monitor and regulate.

But I also don't expect the government to protect from the literally endless possibilities and threats that could occur at any point to end my life or the life of the few I love. It's been nearly a decade since terrorists used airplanes to attack our country, and last week's attempt makes it clear that the lack of terrorist attacks have nothing to do with the increasing gauntlet of whirring machines, friskings, and arbitrary bureaucratic provisions, but simply that for the most part, there just aren't that many terrorists trying to blow up planes. Because god knows if there were, the TSA isn't capable of stopping them. We're just one bad burrito away from the TSA forcing passengers to choke back an Imodium and a Xanax before being hogtied to our seats.

President Obama, don't let this attack—this one attack that was thankfully stopped by smart, fearless passengers and airline staff—take us further in the wrong direction. I don't think I'm alone in feeling this way. Americans of all stripes and affiliation standing up to say, "This isn't working. We gave you our money. You're not making us safer." We appreciate the attempt to make us safer and acknowledge that it came from an honest attempt to protect American (and the rest of the world's) lives.

But it's a failure. It's wrongheaded. It's a farce. Tear it down. Put the money towards the sort of actions at which our government excels, like intelligence. The failure of the TSA leaves us no choice, but it's okay. The American people are ready to take back the responsibility for our own safety. Really, we already have.

Everybody knew the iPhone was coming—just like everybody knows the tablet coming. Funny thing is, (nearly) everybody got everything else about it wrong. If we'd all been right, the iPhone would've sucked.

From Technologizer's round-up of pre-iPhone iPhone coverage, here's some of the most of tragicomically wrong specurumorbobulation:

• An Apple phone's functions could be accessed hassle-free with the iPod's scroll wheel, and the numbers could work with a slide-out keyboard or a simple touchpad system on the screen.

• The click-wheel is closer to the bottom of the device with the screen taking a vertical orientation. The click-wheel portion of the device reportedly slides down to reveal a traditional numeric dial-pad underneath. The front is black, while the back is chrome like the current iPod.

• Two battery design (with single charger) - one for playing music, the other for phone functions.

• The first will be little more than an iPod Nano with basic phone capabilities while the latter will boast more advanced smartphone functions including real-time IM using Apple's iChat platform (and by proxy, AOL and Jabber).

• AppleBerry–a combination iPod/BlackBerry: Apple Computer and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion might be working on a product together based on the advice of their common partner, Intel. The pairing combines Apple's design expertise with RIM's relationships with carriers and handset makers.

Okay, altogether now: Ahahahaha.

But wait. Check out these bits from a piece by NYT's John Markoff from 2002:

And now come signs that Mr. Jobs means to take Apple back to the land of the handhelds, but this time with a device that would combine elements of a cellphone and a Palm-like personal digital assistant.

But industry analysts see evidence that Apple is contemplating what inside the company is being called an "iPhone."

But analysts and people close to the company say that the plan is under way and that the evidence is manifest in the features and elements of the new version of the Macintosh operating system.

He didn't just report the iPhone would be called the iPhone and be a real smartphone, he even got that it would use part of OS X. (Update: I misread, and gave him just a little bit too much credit.) Five years before it was announced. Whoa, right?

The broader point of all is this one I made rounding up all of the current Apple Tablet rumors. We all might've "known" the iPhone was coming, but nobody had any idea what it was really like, which turned out to be a good thing—an iPodphone doesn't sound all that great. Maybe it'll be the same story with the tablet. I hope so, I like surprises. [Technologizer, Image: © 2004 eye//candy]

Vespa South Africa calls this four-seater a "family car." Apparently South African families don't pack much for road trips?

Not to mention how silly it sounds for an angry father to threaten to "turn this Vespa around this instant!" No, the stretch Vespa should clearly be marketed to its rightful clientele: roving gangs of urbanites who don't mind making wide right turns. [Likecool]

The A5/1 privacy algorithm, a code which is used to protect the privacy of about 80 percent of all mobile calls worldwide, has been deciphered and made public. It remains to be seen whether it's time to panic just yet.

The algorithm in question has been used to encrypt GSM calls since 1988, but this past week, at the Chaos Communication Congress, a four-day computer hackers' conference, an encryption specialist by the name of Karsten Nohl disclosed how he and about 24 other people cracked the code. He also revealed that the resulting two terabyte "code book" which is "a vast log of binary codes that could theoretically be used to decipher GSM phone calls" is available on various BitTorrent websites.

Whether you should begin to worry about this news depends on whom you listen to. The telephone companies are proclaiming that the A5/1 algorithm, a 64-bit binary code, will soon be phased out for its successor, the 128-bit A5/3 algorithm, and that even just a simple modification to the existing code would be enough to thwart any attempts to intercept calls.

Some security experts on the other hand are saying that the "hardware and software needed for digital surveillance were available free as an open-source product" and that this new development could "reduce the time to break a GSM call from weeks to hours."

Either way, it doesn't seem like it's time to shout about yet another breach of privacy just yet, so let's go back to focusing on crotch pat downs once again. [NY Times]

Photo by Taberna de Ingrid

My first iMac arrived with a jaundiced screen, so Apple sent me a replacement. After unpacking, it took only moments for me to diagnose the system as being flawed in the exact same manner. Yes friends, I'm two for two!

Just like my first 27-inch iMac, the screen is inflicted with the yellow screen issue, a color reproduction failure that moves from cool on top to warm on the bottom. Receiving two faulty products in a row is making it hard to believe that this issue isn't every bit as common as the Apple message boards would make it seem.
I'll admit, this iMac's screen isn't nearly as bad as my first's. The warm color gradient is subtler and more localized to the center. But the naked eye can see it, especially on a big, white webpage. And there's absolutely no reason that a consumer should be paying $2000+ ($2200 in my case) on any product that's anything but perfect.

Personally speaking, this setback means I'll have gone a month after dropping a few grand from my bank account without anything to show for it. A normal person might settle with product flaw, worn down by packing, shipping and customer service. The most sane would probably just file for a return.

I have a lot of respect for this "most sane" category.

Me? I basically mail back review products for a living, and the joy of this new toy has long been spoiled. So I'm going to do my damndest to bankrupt Apple with return shipping. I will send back these iMacs as many times as it takes for them to build one correctly. And every single time that they screw it up, I'm going to air their dirty laundry here. Feel free to read it or don't. It's my opinion that Apple's cyclical production issues can't be swept under the rug any longer.

You see, I received a lot of email after my initial problem post. About 80% of it was thanking me for bringing the issue to light. But about 20% suggested that this was somehow MY fault, you know, for not waiting for Apple to work out the kinks in a new line before purchasing it. As an educated consumer, I should have known that the first X% of Apple purchasers always get screwed by manufacturing problems, and my bad fortune was the result of a sort of consumer Darwinism.

I was simply unfit to buy the "ultimate iMac" with "the ultimate display."

Because that makes sense—Apple's lack of QA is my fault. Their inability to supply a functional screen—the centerpiece of this whole freaking product—is something I should have anticipated. Seriously, can you imagine if they built anything more crucial? Airbags? Plane engines? Condoms? The world would never turn a blind eye.

Apple, it's this simple: Get your shit together.

1. Openly acknowledge the issue.
2. Apologize (mock sincerity is fine if the public doesn't notice).
3. Fix the problem, which I'm betting is the LCD itself.
4. If you can't fix the problem, then just test for it at the factory. (It takes about 2 seconds.)
5. If the computer has a yellow screen, don't ship it out.

In fact, I don't even expect steps 1 or 2. If you just did 3-5, nobody would have even cared in the first place.

A couple was stuck in the untamed winter wilderness of eastern Oregon for three days after following their evil SUV's GPS navigator's directions. They were saved by a do-gooder GPS in their phone.

The couple got trapped in the snow for three days in the Winema-Fremont National Forest after their SUV's navigator told them to follow Forest Service Road 28—35 miles down the remote road, they got stuck in a foot-and-a-half of snow. They would've frozen to death, except they had packed a bunch of winter clothes.

On the third day, the "atmospheric conditions" changed enough that their cellphone's GPS was able to put out a tiny signal that led 911 dispatchers to the couple's location.

And that's why you should still learn to navigate using the stars. [Yahoo]

I'm a sucker for architecture. And I'm a sucker for time lapse photography. So yes, I'm going to get this prettyful time lapse view of Dubai's skyline—from author of the 2.3-gigapixel Burj Dubai photo—and suck hard on it.

Gizmodo reader Gerald Donovan took more than nine hundred images over the course of an hour and twenty minutes to create this timelapse at sunset.

I want to believe that Medica really did try to cut health care costs with the light saber app, waving their humming iPhones over financial statements while wearing robes. Now that would be a board meeting. [Thanks DaSazonator and Sam]

By now you're probably wise enough to know when not to whip out your smartphone around your significant other, but what about when you're bored at home for the holidays? Follow this flowchart to determine when you've crossed the line:

Click the image to view a larger version.

Based in New York City, Shane Snow is a graduate student in Digital Media at Columbia University and founder of Scordit.com. He's fascinated with all things geeky, particularly social media and shiny gadgets he'll never afford.

That failed terrorist attack yesterday might make international flights a whole lot less enjoyable. Passengers are reporting that new restrictions are in place, and their severity varies flight-to-flight. Among the reports, a rumor: No electronics allowed.Updated:

Update 2: The TSA also released this statement, which seems to confirm that electronics usage policies will be on a case-by-case basis (emphasis added):

"Passengers flying from international locations to U.S. destinations may notice additional security measures in place. These measures are designed to be unpredictable, so passengers should not expect to see the same thing everywhere. Due to the busy holiday travel season, both domestic and international travelers should allot extra time for check-in."

Update: According to @charleneli, here's the situation:

New flight rules - Body search, no electronics apply only to int'l flights to US. Just landed in ORD from Canada, missed connection

Again, these are isolated incidents, and there's still no official word from TSA. But in certain instances, some passengers are reporting that electronics usage on inbound U.S. flights is restricted. We'll let you know if an official announcement comes.

The New York Times is reporting that no one will be able to move from their seats during the last hour of flight. That means no bathroom breaks, no accessing carry-on luggage, nothing. When that plane starts descending, you're planted.

Multiple sources, among them Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing, have also been told that no electronics are allowed on international flights. None. So you can't even play video games to distract yourself from how badly you have to pee.

From what we can tell, this is largely restricted to inbound international flights. TSA hasn't made any announcements yet either, so hopefully this is either a temporary measure, or the restrictions will be less severe once the official policy becomes clearer.

So much for using those free in-flight Wi-Fi codes we told you about. If you're flying today, tell us what you hear. [Business Insider, New York Times, @xenijardin]

Image via Bekathwia

Consumerist is investigating readers' complaints regarding the inability to purchase an iPhone through AT&T's website when using an NY zip code. So far they've discovered that, according to a CS rep: "New York is not ready for the iPhone." Updated.

The conversation Consumerist's Laura Northrup had with an AT&T customer service representative after confirming that iPhones could not be purchased online when using any New York zip code almost plays out like an SNL skit:

Daphne: Welcome to AT&T online Sales support. How may I assist you with placing your order today?

Laura: Hi, I was looking at the iPhone 3Gs and the system tells me that I cannot order one in my ZIP code. My zip code is 11231. (Brooklyn, NY) Is this true? Are iPhones no longer available in New York City?

Daphne: I am happy to be helping you today . Yes, this is correct the phone is not offered to you because New York is not ready for the iPhone.

Daphne: You don't have enough towers to handle the phone.

Laura: Thank you for your help. So the phone is not available to people anywhere in the city?

Daphne: Yes this is correct Laura.

Yikes. We know that AT&T's aware that it sucks in NY, but is the solution to a localized network strain from heavy data usage to stop online sales of a particular phone? Doesn't exactly seem like the most sensible of ideas, especially since there are plenty of iPhones in AT&T's brick-and-mortar New York stores.

Something else that's peculiar about this "sales ban" is that folks in San Francisco, another spot where data puts a huge strain on AT&T's network, are still able to purchase the iPhone online:

A possible explanation to things comes in the form of whispers regarding some kind of New York-based online sales fraud, but somehow the answer to the old ""Is it the network?" still seems to be a loud, angry "Yes!"

I'm definitely curious to hear if AT&T makes an official statement on this issue and what the, probably innocent, explanation is. Hell, I'd be happy with just another Luke Wilson pep talk. [Consumerist]

Japan's PaPaLaB made the first practical camera capable of seeing color as well as the human eye by attaching a special filter to a recalibrated $140k industrial camera. Uses: Archives of fine art and telemedical imaging. [Tech On via Engadget]

While a majority of those people playing Gran Turismo will never race a Civic, let alone the supercars featured therein, you can bet 100% of the people "playing" Ferrari's new racing rig will end up on the track some day.

This is because Ferrari's 200-ton racing simulator is designed to throw as realistic a simulation as possible at the drivers, who will eventually sit behind the wheel of a real, live Formula 1 race car.

The rig is comprised of 10 computers, sporting 60GB of RAM. The hydraulics it uses to simulate motion generate force equal to 174 horsepower—a whopping 34 more than the current Civic I just mentioned in my lame lead-in joke above.

A 180-degree track view is displayed to the driver using five 3D video monitors. Real engine and track sounds are pumped into the cockpit via a 3,500 watt Dolby surround sound system. This thing is unsurprisingly not available to the public and that geeky image at the top of the page is all Ferrari is giving up for now. [Jalopnik, Gizmag via DVICE]

Cycling apps are nothing new to the Apple App Store, but this hardware/software combo called Pedal Brain is the first to provide convenient ANT+ wireless device support.

As a quick primer, ANT+ is a wireless standard used by cyclists to measure and analyze their ride performance using a variety of wireless devices. It's been around for a while, but until Pedal Brain, there was no way to sync it up to an iPhone of iPod touch. Now there is!

Once you plug the Pedal Brain Synapse hardware device into your phone or touch, you'll start to get updates in real-time via the app on screen. When you're all done pedaling for the day, you can sync up with Pedal Brain on the Internet for a more in-depth analysis. There's team support too, which could make the software a boon for coaches.

The device/app will be available this spring, possibly in March, for $130 to $190. Unfortunately, the steep price does not include the additional charge for a subscription. A limited free version will be available at launch, but will crap out on you after a few weeks. [Pedal Brain via TechCrunch]

So I happen to love Audis. I drive one, and I like her fine, but nevertheless if I received this razor in my stocking, she would have developed an inferiority complex at the sight of my incessant shaving.

You see, it's that mirror sheen. And those four red rings signifying the four marques of Auto Union...it's enough to get a guy to park it in front of a mirror for hours on end.

Good thing this is just an artist's concept, as you can see above. That said, if artist Poling Huang ever gets it done, I'd love to give it a quick review. Send it over in an R8 or something. [Coroflot via Born Rich]

I guess this was hinted at back in November, but now it's an all but certain reality: the Roku player will soon stream porn to your television set.

The streaming, no pun intended, comes from EroticVision.TV. The company will deliver a number of channels to your Roku player, but for now all we know of is "Wasteland.com." For the unfamiliar, that's a BDSM website.

Parental controls will bar yougins from seeing any BDSM tomfoolery, and to access the content you'll have to register your box with EroticVision.TV. Uh, enjoy? Update: NSFW porn is obviously redundant. "Changed." [CrunchGear]

How about a nice Android rumor and a nifty video to kick start your afternoon? Well we have both: Exhibit A is a rumor regarding T-Mobile, while B is a video of Espresso in action:

To be quirky, here's B first:

It's a down and dirty little walk-through, featuring a slightly more polished menu and a new launcher bar in the corner.

The second bit is a rumor regarding Android 2.0. It might be headed to T-Mobile, you see, on the T-Mobile G1. Further unconfirmed reports state it might actually be version 2.1 (Google Nexus One type stuff!). CES is coming soon. We expect more then, but possibly sooner. This is the Internet after all. Total sieve. [Mobile Tech World via Engadget and AndroidSPIN]

There can be only one Universe Ring. Unless you believe in the Multiverse. Then you can have as many as you want!

The Universe portion of this concept ring lies in the tiny dot. Within the dust particle-sized imperfection lies a tiny model. A model of what theorists like Stephen Hawking say our Universe looks like. You'll need some magnification to see it clearly, but it's there, inspired by scientists like Stephen Hawking and the anthropic theory.

Artist/creator To22 says the ring "puts our daily pursuits into perspective and reminds us that we are always a part of something bigger."

That's well and good and all, but I can seriously see this being used instead as a geek's dream wedding band. "I gave you the Universe, baby." Or something. Let me know if she/he says yes. [The Universe Ring via MAKE]

Another year, another Star Trek "Synthehol" story. This time, however, there's some promise. Could hangover-free late night binges be the feel good story of 2010?

For now, the answer is maybe, as is often the case with wild new scientific discoveries—especially those that pertain to the mythical substance first consumed by the crews seen in the Star Trek universe.

This latest substance is being developed in a way that mimics Valium by a man named, I shit you not, Professor Nutt. He's totally sane though, and claims this substance delivers all the inebriating effects of alcohol, but without the mood-altering and addiction side effects. Better still, he claims that drinkers will be able to flush their system almost immediately with an antidote. Need to drive home after a rager of a holiday party? No problem! Pop a pill and you'll soon be good to go.

That said, it's time for the cold water dose of reality that accompanies seemingly every science-related story seen in a mainstream news publication these days. You see, Prof. Nutt is without funding or a test country that's willing to change regulations and allow such a substance onto the open market. The liquor industry has also shown little interest, which I find unfortunate. Wouldn't they sell more drinks this way? [The Telegraph via Slashdot]