The IRS has acknowledged that it wasted $60,000 of taxpayers' money to make Star Trek and Gilligan's Island parody training videos of no value.

The Star Trek clip, a corny but ambitious effort which runs six minutes, was produced in an IRS studio in 2010 for a training and leadership conference. It mentions tax issues, but there is no way to claim that there are lessons to be learned from the clip, which was reportedly shown in 400 locations.

In a statement, the IRS admitted that the video "is not reflective of overall IRS video efforts, which provide critical information to taxpayers and cost-effective employee training critical to running the nation's tax system" and promised "tough new standards for videos."

Samsung’s planned March 14th press conference for the Galaxy S4 seemed as much anticipated as the white smoke that billowed from the Sistine Chapel the day before.  HABEMUS S4! (translation: we have a new smartphone!)

Details of the new Galaxy S4 were revealed with a big dog-and-pony show and the S could stand for Sexy.  Features such as dual camera recording, smart pause and air gesture will give consumers new ways to use their device while giving Apple cold sweats and nightmares.

The phone will go on sale sometime between late April and the end of June, from Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA, US Cellular and Cricket, Samsung says.  The phone companies will set the prices but expect this phone to start at $200 with a two-year contract.

The screen is slightly larger than last year’s big hit and previous model, the SIII.  At 5 inches on the diagonal compared to 4.8 inches for the SIII and 4 inches for the iPhone 5. It sports a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, as much as you’d find on a high-definition TV set.  The bigger screen is crammed into a chassis that’s actually a hair narrower and thinner than the SIII′s.  This is quite a feat.  Samsung shrank the frame surrounding the screen to make room.

The Galaxy S4′s  camera rear-facing camera was upgraded to a whopping 13 megapixels.  The most impressive camera feature seems to be the Duel Camera record, which does pretty much exactly what the name  infers: It lets you capture footage from both the rear and the front-facing  camera.  This was designed to solve the problem of excluding the cameraperson  from being in the video or photo by adding the actions of the person behind the  camera into its own frame that plays in unison with the main camera’s footage.  This duel camera feature can also be used in video calls, allowing the person on  the other line to see what you’re seeing during the call.

The camera, er smartphone, has many new shooting modes.  Highlighting these include a function that makes it  possible to capture more than 100 shots in just four seconds.  You can then  browse all those captures and pick your favorites to put into a single frame  composite picture or save them all as a homemade .gif with Drama Shot.  This is  just one of twelve shooting modes.  This includes another called Sound and Shot,  which captures voice and pictures together.

Of course, sometimes you’ll capture things that you don’t really want in your  photo. That’s where the new Eraser feature comes in. It allows you to completely  eliminate a part of your snapshot that you didn’t see when lining up the shot.  This tool will be the worst enemy of photo bombers everywhere.

Samsung is taking the whole “touch screen” thing further by now sensing when the user’s finger is hovering over the screen.  In other words, you don’t even need to touch the phone to make it react.  Hovering over a thumbnail of a picture in the Gallery will reveal a bigger thumbnail, and hovering over one email in a list will show a preview of its first lines.

In the “how come no thought to add this feature before” category comes an infrared blaster.   This will give ability to control any TV or set-top box with your phone, browse for TV shows  by genre and set custom recommendations based on viewing habits.  No more worries about losing your remote control.  In fact there may be little need to have an actual remote control since your home electronic gear may now be controlled via the S4.

Controlling the phone can be done without actually touching it thanks to “air gesture”.   The S4 uses the front-side camera to sense hand movements up to about 4 inches away from the phone.  The phone’s browser responds to an “up swipe” in the air above it with by scrolling up, and to a “side” swipe by jumping to another tab.  This could be pretty useful when the smartphone is the lunchtime companion and you don’t want to grease it up with foody fingers.

The SIII was my favorite smartphone last year and I can assume the S4 will be near or at the top of  my 2013 list.  As I await the release date I will buy time tossing out my remote controls, conventional cameras and – depending on the new apps coming – possibly my car.

Britney Spears sat on the grass and watched sons Jayden, 6, and Sean, 7, play soccer Sunday in Los Angeles.

Just another soccer mom, right?

Except for the fact that the pop star changed into a short white dress and appeared to have nothing under it.

1)  Ford Pickup

2)  Chevrolet Pickup

3)  Dodge Pickup

4)  Honda Civic

5)  Chevrolet Tahoe

6)  Honda Accord

7)  GMC Pickup

8)  Chevrolet Impala

9)  Toyota Camry

10) Ford Taurus

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has released its final MVT19 report on the top vehicles reported stolen in Texas during 2012. 

Vehicles are stolen for a variety of reasons, and contrary to popular belief, the most stolen vehicles are several years old.  Some are stolen and stripped for parts.  Others are stolen and resold by thieves to unsuspecting buyers.  Many vehicles are stolen for joyriding, for use in committing other crimes, to perpetrate insurance fraud, to burglarize personal items and documentation, or for any number of other illegitimate purposes.  And vehicle theft directly costs Texans more than any other single crime – over $621 million in 2011.

I don't know his name, but the last time I saw him, he was nestled snugly in Paulina Gretzyky's cleavage.

see the pics ---> D-Listed

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This might be the best thing on the Internet right now.  Check out a video where a beer-bellied Russian guy in a Speedo joins in on a step aerobics class.  It's next to a pool at some resort, and he's awesome at it.

(Highlights include :38, :56, 2:29, and 4:06)

On Friday, a guy tweeted a photo of his brand new tattoo of the NETFLIX logo.  And Netflix responded by giving him one year of free streaming.  Retail value...approximately $96.  There's no word how much the guy spent on his tattoo.

read more ---> Gawker

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