Rubik's Cube World Record 5.25 sec Collin Burns

Watch this teen break the world record for solving a Rubik’s Cube – in just 5.25 seconds 

 

Collin Burns completed the puzzle in 5.25 seconds. Lucky for us, someone caught the moment on video.
Burns was participating in an official World Cube Association competition at a high school in Doylestown, Pa., on Saturday. The previous record, set by Mats Valk from the Netherlands, was 5.5 seconds. A WCA representative confirmed to Mashable that Burns is indeed the new record holder.
“Although this result has not been uploaded to the WCA database just yet, we can confirm that this is (or will be soon) the new official WCA world record for the 3x3x3 single solve category. To our best knowledge, it has been performed in an official competition, with all the rules being followed, even the scramble has been checked for its correctness,” the spokesperson said.
Want some tips from the new world record holder on how to solve the puzzle? He’s got them on his YouTube page.

Collin Burns - US Rubik's Cube Champion 2014 (Table Cam)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmgm5j9dNfA

 

Collin Burns - 5.93 Official Rubik's Cube Solve 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIVN0SOYwwU

 

Rubik's Cube World Record 5.25 sec Collin Burns Slow Motion

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz8sYIN78kM

 

 

What Constant Exposure To Negative News Is Doing To Our Mental Health

It's nearly impossible to turn on the TV, open up a web browser, or scroll through Twitter without being assaulted with notifications of a new world disaster (or two, or three...). Thanks to the 24-hour news cycle, alerts of shootings, plane crashes, ISIS beheadings, crime, war and human rights violations are constant -- and this incessant news of violence and destruction may be messing with our heads.

The world isn't falling apart, but it can sure feel like it. The news can be violent, depressing and emotionally-charged.

"Terrorism is newsworthy because it is inherently dramatic and threatening," political scientist Shana Gadarian wrote in The Washington Post in October. "Media competition means that journalists and editors have incentives to use emotionally powerful visuals and story lines to gain and maintain ever-shrinking news audiences."This may be driven partly by ournatural negativity bias, which leads us to pay more attention to things that are dangerous or threatening.

According to some psychologists, exposure to negative and violent media may have serious and long-lasting psychological effects beyond simple feelings of pessimism or disapproval. The work of British psychologist Dr. Graham Davey, who specializes in the psychological effects of media violence, suggests that violent media exposure can exacerbate or contribute to the development of stress, anxiety, depression and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

"Negative news can significantly change an individual’s mood -- especially if there is a tendency in the news broadcasts to emphasize suffering and also the emotional components of the story," Davey told The Huffington Post. "In particular... negative news can affect your own personal worries. Viewing negative news means that you’re likely to see your own personal worries as more threatening and severe, and when you do start worrying about them, you’re more likely to find your worry difficult to control and more distressing than it would normally be."

According to Davey, the way that negative news affects your mood can also have a larger affect on how you interpret and interact with the world around you. If it makes you more anxious or sad for instance, then you may subconsciously become more attuned to negative or threatening events, and you may be more likely to see ambiguous or neutral events as negative ones.

On a neurological level, when we're confronted with images of violence, we know that images or videos depicting violence are categorically different from actual violence -- so we don't process the input as threatening stimuli. However, we internalize the negative stimuli, which can affect mood and cause one to feel more negatively towards the environment more broadly.

"These images change our overall mood to a more negative one -- more sad or more anxious -- and it is this change in mood that leads to psychological changes in the way we attend to things around us (e.g. we are more likely to pick out things in our environment that are potentially negative or threatening)," Davey explains. "This can have a vicious cycle effect on mood generally for some time."

Some research has even suggested that viewing traumatic images in the media can cause PTSD-like symptoms. A 2001 study found that watching the events of 9/11 on television was enough to trigger PTSD symptoms -- such as worrying about future terrorist attacks and reduced self-confidence -- in some viewers. Severity of symptoms, interestingly, was directly correlated with the amount of time the subjects spent watching television.

A recent study also found that being frequently exposed to graphic, uncensored images of violence is emotionally distressing to many journalists working in newsroom settings. The journalists who were regularly exposed to violent video footage scored higher on indexes of PTSD -- including re-experiencing, avoidance and general anxiety -- as well as increased alcohol consumption, depression, and somatization (physical signs of distress in the body).

The researchers noted that over time, exposure to graphic violence can cause a process of either sensitization, in which the individuals becomes more sensitive to emotional distress upon viewing the images, or desensitization -- a sort of numbing process in which individuals become habituated to what they see -- to occur. This numbing effect, which causes the brain to exhibit less of an emotional response to disturbing stimuli, has been observed in those who have been repeatedly exposed to violent video games.

The diagnostic criteria for PTSD -- which was appended for the DSM-5 to recognize that not only experiencing something traumatic oneself but also witness a life-threatening trauma to another could lead to symptoms of the disorder -- acknowledges this to some degree. Davey notes, however, that the DSM description does say that these events should be witnessed in person.

Of course, it's important to note that exposure to negative news is unlikely to cause depression, anxiety or PTSD in individuals who are not already prone to these conditions. But it can still lead to a pessimism and world-weariness that leads us to perceive the state of the world in an overly negative light -- leading us to ignore and overshadow the many things that are working.

What's clear from this research is that more positive news is needed to outweigh the violence and destruction we're exposed to every day. As psychologist Steven Pinker and international studies professor Andrew Mack write in Slate, the world is not going to hell in a handbasket, despite what the headlines suggest. Violence has actuallydecreased, and quality of life has improved for millions of people. Journalism should reflect these truths.

As Positive News founder Sean Dagan Wood said in a recent TED talk, "A more positive form of journalism will not only benefit our well-being; it will engage us in society, and it will help catalyze potential solutions to the problems that we face."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/19/violent-media-anxiety_n_6671732.html

Posted: 02/19/2015 8:49 am EST

Tonino Lamborghini’s $6,000 Android phone

There might be only 1,947 units of the 88 Tauri smartphone ever made, but each and every one of them is ridiculous. That’s the only way to describe Tonino Lamborghini’s $6,000 Android phone. With a stitched leather finish that’s the real deal (unlike a plastic Samsung) and gold-plated stainless steel surrounding this phone, you’re bound to stand out in the crowd if you’re crazy enough to even want to pay $6,000 for pure stupidity.

Tonino Lamborghini had two of the units here at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today, perfectly matching the city’s passion for excess. Once you get past the raging bull logo, inside there’s a 2.3 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, 3G of RAM, and 32GB storage. It’s all part of a 5-inch display running at 1920 x 1080, with a 20-megapixel camera on the back and an 8-megapixel shooter at the front. It’s not exactly a special smartphone inside, but that’s not the point. This phone is as insane and exquisite as a supercar, but it just doesn’t go from 0-60 mph in less than 5 seconds.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/5/7498785/88-tauri-tonino-lamborghini-hands-on

Top 16 Worst selflies

OR, when I saw this video parody, I didn’t stop taking instagram photos

Posted by Krissy Moore

• http://www.dailyhiit.com/hiit-blog/hiit-life/selfie-addiction-top-16-worst-types-selfies/

I have to be honest with you. RIGHT before I read this post, I had just taken a selfie of my 32 week pregnant belly(#11), standing with my kid (#7), right after working out (#1).
I have a love/hate relationship with the ‘selfie’. It reminds me of how I used to feel about texting. I thought it was the most annoying thing one could do, and I vowed I NEVER would do it. These days, TRY and get me on the phone. It’s impossible. If you can’t tell me in a text, then you are waiting a LONG time for a response. It’s just the way my life is these days. Too busy and too much going on, so I turn to texting to communicate quickly. Just as the ‘selfie’ allows me to post photos of myself to friends and family who may be remotely interested, and/or following me on my FB page.

As I mentioned, I had just came back working out, and was about to post said ‘selfie’, on my Facebook page, when I came across the article below. Listen, am I going to stop taking selflies? No. Just like when I came across this ‘someecard’ online, I didn’t stop posting about my workouts, but STILL gave me a pretty damn good laugh.It’s JUST SO FUNNY to bring to light things we do all the time and don’t think for a second, others MAY find it annoying or ridiculous. It’s the age in which we live. With all this technology, we are each given the opportunity to offer others a glimpse into our lives, no matter how boring or exciting they are. We used to be able to just take the photos. But now, with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Myspace etc. it makes it that much easier to share these photos so instantly, that sometimes it’s just so hard to pass up! It’s harmless. But, when you come across a post like this, it’s a reminder of just how funny and/or stupid some of these so called ‘selfies’ come off.

I present the Top 16 Worst selflies out there….

Reposted from : http://wittyandpretty.com/2013/11/01/the-16-worst-types-of-selfies/ 

1. The Gym Selfie (Because the checkin isn’t enough.)


2. The Pet Selfie (If you want to post a picture of your pet, post a picture of your pet.)

Unless this happens, then it’s ok:

3. The Car Selfie AKA The Seatbelt Selfie (You LITERALLY got in the car and thought, “I look so good today, I better let everyone know before I put this thing in drive and head to my shift at the Olive Garden.”)



If you can combine the Seatbelt Selfie with the beloved Shirtless Selfie like this unattractive fella below, you..are…GOLD.

4. The Blurry Selfie (Why?)

5. The Just Woke Up Selfie

Yeah right you just woke up.

6. Or even worse, the Pretending to Be Asleep Selfie. (We know you’re not asleep, asshole. You took the damn picture.)

7. The Add a Kid Selfie (Extra points for a C-section scar.)


8. The Hospital Selfie (A rare gem. The more tubes you have hooked up to you, the better.)


9. The “I’m On Drugs” Selfie (This looker below also qualifies as theLook At My New Haircut Selfie.)

10. The Duck Face Selfie (Hey girls. This doesn’t make you prettier. It makes you look stupid and desperate. If that’s what you’re going for, carry on.)



11. The Pregnant Belly Selfie (Send this to your family and friends, not the entire Internet.)

And yes, that’s a pregnant belly duck face selfie. It’s the unicorn of awful selfies.
12. The “I’m a Gigantic Whore” Selfie

Nice phone case, by the way.

13. The “I Have Enough Money to Fly On an Airplane” Selfie (AND I own earbuds.)

14. The 3D Selfie. (It takes talent…along with class.)


15. The Say Something That Has Nothing To Do With Anything Selfie(You had a great night? Oh.)


16. The “I Live In Filth” Selfie (We all make messes, but if you’re going to post your living quarters on the World Wide Web, pick up your damn room.)

There are so many more, but I’m running out of time on my prepaid Wi-Fi at the Internet cafe and I still have to check Youporn and Friendster. In conclusion: If there’s really something on your face or body you HAVE to share (Halloween makeup/costume, fine, whatever), and there is no one around to take a photo, then society will let you slide, but other than that, please try to refrain from letting the world know you think you’re hot in the most douchetastic of ways. And remember, friends don’t let friends selfie.
I miss flip phones,
Selfie Tom
*Photos 12, 14 & 15 from TheChive.com

General Social and Dining Etiquette Rules

Justin Bieber's Madame Tussaud's NYC wax statue

Justin Bieber's Madame Tussaud's NYC wax statue has to be removed because so many fans have touched it… Ironically, the real Bieber also faces potential removal from the U.S. if he's convicted of felony vandalism.

Pop star Justin Bieber's wax statue will be removed from the Madame Tussauds museum as the bosses feel that the showcase "no longer does justice" to the singer or the attraction. - See more at: http://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/tabloid/justin-bieber-s-statue-to-be-removed-from-madame-tussauds/article1-1182883.aspx#sthash.1Z1s4CnS.dpuf

Pop star Justin Bieber's wax statue will be removed from the Madame Tussauds museum as the bosses feel that the showcase "no longer does justice" to the singer or the attraction. - See more at: http://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/tabloid/justin-bieber-s-statue-to-be-removed-from-madame-tussauds/article1-1182883.aspx#sthash.1Z1s4CnS.dpuf

I'm against animal cruelty