chilean
Latest
Lawmaker: Chile and Texas don't share a flag, y'all
The current roster of emojis includes many national flags, but not state-specific ones. So, left with few other options, people have taken to using the Chilean flag emoji (🇨🇱) to signify Texas pride. This makes sense considering how much the two flags look alike, but one Texas lawmaker has had enough.
Evilot takes Plants vs. Zombies to Triple Town
This is Portabliss, a column about downloadable games that can be played on the go. Plants vs. Zombies has long been one of the most popular titles on the App Store (or any platform it's been released on, really), but PopCap has only recently revealed a sequel set to arrive in another month or so. In all that time, then, it's not surprising that game developers have "borrowed" PopCap's casual tower defense formula, where you build up units in lanes to defend against an oncoming horde. Samurai Bloodshow is one of the best pretenders to the throne, and there are other games like Legendary Wars that took PopCap's premise and ran far with it. Evilot also belongs in the second category. It's a recently released iPad game that has a very clear resemblance to the longtime battle of flowers against the undead, in that enemy troops come in by lanes from the right, and you need to build up units to defend treasure on the left. But while Plants vs. Zombies uses a straightforward currency system to build up its units, Evilot borrows a core mechanic from another great iOS title: Triple Town.
FurniGadget: N+ew freezes your e-waste into a stool
This is one of Rodrigo Alonso's stools. It's part of a series of furniture called N+ew, which stands for "No More Electronic Waste," the Chilean artist felt the best way to dispose of electronic gadgetry that had fallen by the wayside, was to encase it in epoxy resin and sell it to aesthetes worldwide. As you can see, the collection has a rare, distinct beauty that recalls Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona chair and Arne Jacobsen's No. 7 seat. If you find yourself unable to resist a purchase, bespoke editions can be ordered from the sculptor's website as the perfect conversation starter -- as long as you enjoy every conversation beginning with "What on earth possessed you to buy one of those things?"
Trapped Chilean miners watch a little soccer via fiber optics
It turns out that being trapped in a mine in Chile is only one of the many problems associated with being trapped in a mine in Chile. The mental well-being of the victims looks to be just as important as the rescue mission itself: a small village of miners' family members has sprung up around the mine, offering moral support and preparing food to send down, and NASA psychologists have been offering their advice on the miners' sleep-wake cycles. A few PSPs made their way down the shaft as well. Today, they even got a soccer fix as they watched their team play the Ukraine via a projector lowered down to their safety chamber on a fiber optic cable (Chile lost 2 - 1). While we're not sure which heroic projector model descended 2,300 feet below the earth's surface, we're just happy that some tech could brighten these guys' day just a little bit -- especially considering they could be in there for up to four more months. [Image credit: Location Scout's flickr]
