Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

The Secret of Luck

Why do some people have all the luck while others are perpetually unlucky? Professor Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire was determined to get to the scientific bottom of the phenomenon of luck, and what he discovered may surprise you:

I placed advertisements in national newspapers asking for people who felt consistently lucky or unlucky to contact me.

Hundreds of extraordinary men and women volunteered for my research and over the years, have been interviewed by me. I have monitored their lives and had them take part in experiments. The results reveal that although these people have almost no insight into the causes of their luck, their thoughts and behaviour are responsible for much of their good and bad fortune. Take the case of seemingly chance opportunities. Lucky people consistently encounter such opportunities, whereas unlucky people do not.

I carried out a simple experiment to discover whether this was due to differences in their ability to spot such opportunities. I gave both lucky and unlucky people a newspaper, and asked them to look through it and tell me how many photographs were inside. I had secretly placed a large message halfway through the newspaper saying: ‘Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win $50′.

This message took up half of the page and was written in type that was more than two inches high. It was staring everyone straight in the face, but the unlucky people tended to miss it and the lucky people tended to spot it.

Unlucky people are generally more tense than lucky people, and this anxiety disrupts their ability to notice the unexpected.

Link | Richard Wiseman’s official website | His book: The Luck Factor

NY Bou Scout earns all 121 Merit Badges

A Long Island teenager has earned all 121 merit badges offered by the Boy Scouts of America. It's an accomplishment the local arm of the organization calls "an almost unheard-of feat."

Oceanside resident Shawn Goldsmith earned his final badge — for bugling — in time for his 18th birthday in November. He far surpassed the 21 badges required to achieve the elite rank of Eagle Scout.

He says he took about five years to earn his first 62 badges and then nearly doubled that number in a matter of months. He did it with the encouragement of his grandmother, who died shortly before he reached his goal.

The Binghamton University freshman was awarded his final badges on Dec. 19. He says he hopes to become a businessman and politician.

Gee David, how come you never earned a badge for bugling?


link

Recycled Calendars

A noted expert writes about Recycling Calendars.

2009 is almost here, and that means a new calendar. Or, you can just recycle an old calendar. If you think about it, only 14 different calendars exist. January 1 can occur on any of seven days -- but some years are leap years and have an additional day.

He then explains, in masterful prose, how to create an Excel spreadsheet to determine which years have identical calendars.

His conclusion:

You can use any of the following calendars for a 2009 calendar: 1903, 1914, 1925, 1931, 1942, 1953, 1959, 1970, 1981, 1987, or 1998.

I think I will use 1981 the year I was married or possibly 1903.

By the way, if you start saving calendars in 2009, you will have a complete set of 14 different calendars in 2036.



Monday, December 29, 2008

Shoplifting Dog


This is amazing.

A surveillance video at Smith’s Food & Drug grocery store in Idaho has captured a … shoplifting dog!

Surveillance video at Smith’s Food & Drug shows the dog walking in the front door and giving a friendly sniff to a young girl at a checkout stand.

Then the dog headed straight for the pet food in Aisle 16, grabbed the $2.79 bone and made a break for the door, only to be confronted by store manager Roger Adamson.

Adamson says that when the dog didn’t obey his command to surrender the bone, he decided not to force the issue. Adamson tells KSL-TV, "I decided I wanted to keep all my fingers." (Source)

Nothing to do with Arbroath blog has the video clip: Link

Regular binge drinking can cause long-term brain damage - study


Just a few sessions of heavy drinking can damage someone's ability to pay attention, remember things and make good judgments, research shows.

Binge drinkers are known to be at increased risk of accidents, violence and engaging in unprotected sex. But the study is the first to identify brain damage as a danger of consuming more alcohol than official safe limits.

The study was undertaken by two experts in alcohol's toxic effects on the brain: Professor Fulton Crews, director of the Bowles Centre for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina, and Dr Kim Nixon of the department of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Kentucky.

They reviewed previous studies in which rats were used in experiments to examine the impact of binge drinking and then related those findings to humans. For four days in a row the rats were given the same amount of ethanol that someone imbibing 15 units of alcohol - about seven pints of normal-strength beer - would consume in one drinking session. Losses in key mental abilities were noted in the weeks after the experiment had ended.

"It is fair and credible to extrapolate the research findings from tests on rats to humans," said Dr Jonathan Chick of the alcohol problems service at the Royal Edinburgh hospital, who is the chief editor of Alcohol and Alcoholism.

"From this research we can infer that humans who have a few heavy drinking sessions in a row may sometimes undergo subtle brain changes which make it harder to learn from mistakes and to learn new ways of tackling problems because their brain function has been subtly impaired."

The research also suggests that loss of brain function in people under 20 brought on by binge drinking increases their chances of becoming alcoholics in later life, Chick added.

link

Friday, December 26, 2008

Champ!


After gathering the whole family around the Christmas tree this morning, Vice President-elect Joe Biden's grandchildren announced the name of his new German shepherd puppy.

They chose to call the new pup "Champ," Biden's press secretary, Elizabeth Alexander said Thursday.

"Champ" will move into the vice presidential residence with the Bidens after the Inauguration.

link

Thursday, December 25, 2008

SnorePro

I know someone who this would be perfect for.

snorepro1.jpg


It's a device which your favorite snorer attaches to their wrist like a watch. But instead of telling the time, the Snorepro uses a biofeedback function that sends a programmable digital pulse to help reduce snoring.

link

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Happy Holidays!

Inventor's 2020 vision: to help 1bn of the world's poorest see better


It was a chance conversation on March 23 1985 ("in the afternoon, as I recall") that first started Josh Silver on his quest to make the world's poor see. A professor of physics at Oxford University, Silver was idly discussing optical lenses with a colleague, wondering whether they might be adjusted without the need for expensive specialist equipment, when the lightbulb of inspiration first flickered above his head.

What if it were possible, he thought, to make a pair of glasses which, instead of requiring an optician, could be "tuned" by the wearer to correct his or her own vision? Might it be possible to bring affordable spectacles to millions who would never otherwise have them?

More than two decades after posing that question, Silver now feels he has the answer. The British inventor has embarked on a quest that is breathtakingly ambitious, but which he insists is achievable - to offer glasses to a billion of the world's poorest people by 2020.

Silver has devised a pair of glasses which rely on the principle that the fatter a lens the more powerful it becomes. Inside the device's tough plastic lenses are two clear circular sacs filled with fluid, each of which is connected to a small syringe attached to either arm of the spectacles.

The wearer adjusts a dial on the syringe to add or reduce amount of fluid in the membrane, thus changing the power of the lens. When the wearer is happy with the strength of each lens the membrane is sealed by twisting a small screw, and the syringes removed. The principle is so simple, the team has discovered, that with very little guidance people are perfectly capable of creating glasses to their own prescription.

more

Nail Polish Quilt Car

Hey Stevie, maybe your car would sell faster if you did something like this:



When Jill Bell noticed a dent on the hood of her car two winters ago, she thought it would be appropriate to paint a Band-Aid on the scrape.

After the painted bandage survived the ice and snow of winter, Bell decided that she wanted to repaint her car entirely - in nail polish.

Over the next 13 months, from September 2007 to this past October, she completely covered her car in a quilt-like pattern – as a quilter, she found the multi-pattern paint job fitting, she said.

Bell said she collected between 100 to 250 bottles of nail polish, but did not have an exact idea as she simply used bottles from anyone she could get it from.

"Lots of ladies in my church donated nail polish, and lots of ladies at Weight Watchers, too," she said. She said it would be nearly impossible for her to estimate the dollar value of all the bottles, as each brand cost a different amount – anywhere from under a dollar to $5.

link

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

No Gelt, Nor Glory


From NPR:

The competitors hunch over the tables, cracking fingers and stretching their wrists. It's the first night of Hanukkah, and only one person can take home the crystal dreidel-shaped trophy. The Major League Dreidel championship is on.

The legends of the game arrive early at a bar on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. With nicknames like Debbie Does Dreidel and Jewbacca, this is no longer a sport for children.

Pamela "Pamskee" Goldman, last year's champion, comes in with a target painted on her spinning wrist. Everyone wants to beat her world record spin last year: 17.8 seconds.

The "knishioner" of Major League Dreidel, Eric Pavony, points out that this is not your rabbi's dreidel. In the traditional Hanukkah game, the spins are left up to chance — and only luck can win you the chocolate coins known as gelt.

But Pavony came up with something a little more challenging: Spinners compete on how long their dreidel spins on progressively smaller surfaces. On the "Spinagogue," as they it call it, only skill can bring home the gelt.

Everyone has a technique. Tasmanian Dreidel spins with his whole body. Dre-idol has covered his fingers with wax and plans to spin the top upside down. But Pamskee sets the standard. She uses only the barest of movement with her fingertips to get her world record spins.

The night starts with 64 competitors set up in brackets. It's like the NCAA, Pavony says, except more Jewish.

By almost midnight, there are only two left: Pamskee and the runner-up from last year's competition — the man known as Virtual Dreidel. As the crowd pulls in, it starts chanting "spin, spin, spin, spin."

Virtual Dreidel removes his scarf, looks across the table at Pamskee and nails a perfect spin to the center with a time of 15.4 seconds. He carries the dreidel over to her. She flubs the first spin, then recovers with a beauty. Everyone looks to the judge who calls out her time: 12.1 seconds. There is a new dreidel champion.

Holding the trophy aloft, Virtual Dreidel reveals his real name: Howard Pavony. He is Eric Pavony's father. But there's no nepotism, he swears — the stopwatch doesn't lie.

Howard Pavony says his secret to a long, long dreidel spin is to remain calm, and not show emotion. It's like the holiday of Hanukkah itself, he says. Just as the oil in the temple burned for eight days, so too a great dreidel player has patience and spirit.

Unfortunately for the champion basking in glory, Major League Dreidel has the shortest season of any professional sport. It's over and forgotten by the time that last Hanukkah candle is lit. But Eric Pavony would like to see it go a little longer. Dreidel for New Year's Eve, anyone?


An international crapmobile

Look, there is now an international crapmobile!

Driver banned for having world's most untidy car.

Police have banned a woman driver's car from the road - for being too untidy. The Vauxhall Astra was so full of junk, magazines, old clothes and even bits of furniture that they could barely see the driver at it roared down a motorway in Dusseldorf, Germany.

The driver - who has not been named by police - has been banned from taking the car on the road again until it has passed a tidiness test.

7 Pounds of Latkes in 8 Minutes


A 23-year-old mechanical engineering student has downed 46 of the potato pancakes in eight minutes to win a contest at a Long Island deli.

Pete Czerwinski says he'd never eaten a latke before consuming about seven pounds of them Sunday at Zan's in Lake Grove. The Toronto bodybuilder says he's just "a power eater" whose brain never signals that he's full.

Association of Independent Competitive Eaters Chairman Arnie Chapman says Czerwinski demolished the contest's previous record of 31 latkes, set in 2006.

Brooklyn college student Will Millender took second place Sunday with 29 latkes.

link

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Beer Bottle Holder Sweatshirt

Hmm, I wonder if anyone I know would find this useful.


Classic heather gray sweatshirt has a built-in pouch to hold your bottled brew right on the front, where it's easy to grab.

$41-$44 depending on size

Friday, December 19, 2008

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Amazing discovery of dinosaur leg bone

The leg bone of a new dinosaur species has been found - one that was among the biggest animals to ever walk the Earth.

It belongs to a sauropod that may have been 98ft long.



The 16in beak of an unknown kind of pterosaurs was also dug from the sand of the Sahara by Portsmouth University researchers.

Full story here, with more photos.

Study Stack

It may be too late for this semester but it can help for next semester.

Study Stack is a collection of study guides covering a wide range of topics that can be accessed in a variety of ways, including being exported to PDA and mobile phone friendly flashcards.




1

Find data to study or add your own data.

2

Study and play with data online as flashcards, hangman game, crossword puzzle, matching, word search, or word scramble.

3

Study anytime/anywhere by printing data or exporting flash cards to your cell phone, PDA, or iPod.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Flight of the Conchords

Brett- check, Jermaine - check, Murray - check, first episode of Season 2 - check.

Brain Too Hot? Yawn!


From Discovery News:

If your head is overheated, there’s a good chance you’ll yawn soon, according to a new study that found the primary purpose of yawning is to control brain temperature.

The finding solves several mysteries about yawning, such as why it’s most commonly done just before and after sleeping, why certain diseases lead to excessive yawning, and why breathing through the nose and cooling off the forehead often stop yawning.

The key yawn instigator appears to be brain temperature.

“Brains are like computers,” Andrew Gallup, a researcher in the Department of Biology at Binghamton University who led the study, told Discovery News. “They operate most efficiently when cool, and physical adaptations have evolved to allow maximum cooling of the brain.”

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Ow! That Sand Is Too Hot!

Advances in luxury beaches: World's first refrigerated beach to be built next to luxury hotel in Dubai.

The world's first refrigerated beach is to be built at a luxury hotel in Dubai so the filthy rich holidaymakers don't burn their feet on the scalding hot sand.

The revolutionary beach will sit next to the new Palazzo Versace hotel and will include a system of heat-absorbing pipes built under the sand and giant wind blowers, designed to keep tourists cool in the searing 40-50C heat...

Soheil Abedian, president of Palazzo Versace, said: 'We will suck the heat out of the sand to keep it cool enough to lie on. This is the kind of luxury that top people want.'

A source added: 'The super rich want pure luxury. They don't want to walk on scalding sand.'

Friday, December 12, 2008

Ever wonder where chipmunks and squirrels hide their nuts? Wonder no more.

When the turn signal and windshield wipers went out on Hope Wideup's car, she didn't think much of it. It was a 2004 with about 60,000 miles, just about the right age and mileage for some minor problems to crop up. What the DeMotte resident didn't expect was what she discovered under the hood of her vehicle.

Nuts, black walnuts, and lots of them. "There were thousands in there. They were everywhere," Wideup said.

Now, $242 in car repairs and towing later, Wideup thinks she has figured out just how those walnuts made their way to her car. Wideup speculates it all started in the fall when a chipmunk snatched a garden glove from her yard. She tried to chase the creature and get it to drop the glove, but then decided since winter was coming the chipmunk might need it for a nest.



She later found the glove in the engine compartment of her car when she was trying to repair the broken turn signal. Since she couldn't fix the turn signal, Wideup let the car sit unused for a couple weeks before dealing with the minor repairs. When she went to start the vehicle, the engine made a huge revving sound.

It was at that time she looked under the hood again to find a sea of black walnuts filling the entire engine compartment. Apparently this little guy stuffed a bunch of these nuts in the accelerator throttle," Wideup said, which caused the engine revving.

Wideup said so far the chipmunk hasn't returned. She is alternating her two cars so one doesn't sit too long. In the meantime, she is taking the situation in stride. "This time of year I surely wasn't prepared for that $242.08 expense," she said. "It's funny, but it's not."

link

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Festivus for the Rest of Us


OLYMPIA, Wash. - State officials, besieged by requests for more seasonal displays at the state Capitol, have approved several more - including a "Festivus" display honoring a faux holiday popularized by TV comedian Jerry Seinfeld.

The new display requests come on top of an anti-religion placard, a Christmas tree and a Christian nativity scene erected earlier this week and a pro-religion sign added Friday.

The state General Administration, which runs the state Capitol building, have OK'd four of the requests so far:

- On Saturday, Dec. 6: A balloon nativity shelter from a private citizen.

- On Sunday, Dec. 7: A demonstration by a group called "Private Citizens of Federal Way" against the atheistic sign will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. on the front steps.

- On Monday, Dec 8: A display will go up in the capitol from the Washington Values Alliance.

- On Wednesday, Dec 10: A Festivus display from a private citizen.
According to the online reference Wikipedia, Festivus is an annual holiday invented by writer Dan O'Keefe and introduced into popular culture by his son Daniel, a scriptwriter for the TV show Seinfeld.

Most people now celebrate the holiday on Dec. 23, as depicted on the December 18, 1997, Seinfeld episode "The Strike."

The holiday includes novel practices such as the "Airing of Grievances", in which each person tells everyone else all the ways they have disappointed him or her over the past year.

link

Holiday Cheer

It's not too early nor too late to send some holiday cheer.


Upload your photos, choose your Holiday Cheer, a background, and send it to your friends.

I have no idea who those people are.

Monday, December 08, 2008

Footsie PJs

I always wondered why they didn't make footed pjs for adults. Thanks to the interwebs, I have found them. A lot more expensive than my Dr. Denton's I wore as a teen but hey.


Available in all sizes.

Wonder Wrist Rest


David- A wrist rest just for you. Simply "wonder"ful.

link

Oh No!

Man vs. Wild and the wild wins.


Adventurer Bear Grylls was in agony yesterday as he waited to be airlifted to hospital after breaking his shoulder on a 9,000ft mountain in Antarctica.

The 34-year-old television presenter suffered a serious shoulder injury while climbing an ice mountain in the far north of the freezing continent.

The accident happened whilst Grylls was preparing to spend the Friday night in a bivoaucing suspended on a ice shelf.

Daredevil: Bear Grylls broke his shoulder

Daredevil: Bear Grylls broke his shoulder

Although he was in severe pain, his back up team took the decision to wait until until Saturday morning before evacuating him to their Antarctic basecamp.

A spokesman for the former SAS soldier said: "He has broken his shoulder and is in a lot of pain. He is calm and collected - but in pain. It is par for the course for the sort of thing that Bear does - this was a dangerous trip."

Grylls was in Antarctica for a trip designed to improve the green credentials of bio-fuels. His four-man team is being sponsored by biofuel company Ethanol Ventures.

Bear Grylls - whose real first name is Edward - left the Territorial Army's SAS regiment after a parachute jump in which parachute failed to fully open. Amazingly he survived with three broken vertebrae.

Since then he made his name as an adventurer - he was the youngest person ever to have climbed Mount Everest. He then turned his hand to motivational speaking and television presenting.

Earlier this year his program Born Survivor was at the center of television fakery complaints when a former crew member revealed that his existence had been far more comfortable that it was suggested on-screen.

Grylls has also been criticized by rival survival expert Ray Mears who branded him a 'Boy Scout' and a 'showman'.

link

Do Your Procrastinate?

Have you ever wondered why you can’t quite get round to finishing a job? Researchers have devised a mathematical formula for procrastinators to work out just how much chance they have of overcoming their weakness.

According to the new book containing the equation, procrastination is becoming more and more of a problem as computer games and personal organisers provide endless opportunities for distraction and rescheduling.

Piers Steel, a business professor at Calgary University in Canada, has pulled together hundreds of studies on the art of delay. He believes that the two contradictory views commonly held about procrastinators — that they are either extra-careful or bone idle — are both wrong. Instead, they have a vice all their own. According to Steel the evidence suggests that chronic procrastinators, who make up about 20% of the population, are more impulsive and erratic than other people and less conscientious about attention to detail and obligations to others.



In his forthcoming book, The Procrastination Equation: Today’s Trouble with Tomorrow, Steel warns that dozens of “procrastination workshops” that have sprung up on campuses to help students are only delaying a solution.

According to Steel, procrastinators believe they can complete a task and also care about it. Lazy people, by contrast, are not bothered whether they can finish the job — they just do not want to do it. Both can come up with excuses such as a dog eating the homework. Steel, who admits he can be distracted by computer games, says procrastination is becoming a bigger issue because many more jobs are “self-structured”, with people setting their own schedules.

The equation is U=EV/ID.

The 'U' stands for utility, or the desire to complete a given task. It is equal to the product of E, the expectation of success, and V the value of completion, divided by the product of I, the immediacy of the task, and D, the personal sensitivity to delay.

You can measure your procrastination here.

Where is the Gap in Your Knowledge?


You will be asked three questions in each section (history, economics, politics, science and nature, arts and culture, law, philosophy, and religion and theology) to find out where the gaps in your knowledge are.

You must answer at least two out of three correctly to complete each section. Just remember, the quiz originates out of the U.K.

Recommended readings are given in areas needing help.

Where's The Gap In Your Knowledge?

Alcohol Experiment


What effect does drinking have on your waistline?

Lots of people end up with 'beer bellies' if they drink too much, but spirits and wine also contain plenty of calories.

Use this link and find out.

Friday, December 05, 2008

Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts

I could really use these.

Google is giving away a free (plus the cost of a stamp) Gmail-related sticker kit, including a page of stickers for your keyboard to train your fingers with the popular email client's handy keyboard shortcuts.

According to the blog, the adhesive from the shortcut stickers "is a bit more removable than standard stickiness, so you can take them off once you've trained your fingers." Just send a self-addressed stamped envelope to:

Gmail Stickers
P.O. Box 391420
Mountain View, CA 94039-1420

link

Woman Swept to Sea During Proposal


A romantic marriage proposal on the Oregon coast turned deadly for the bride-to-be when a wave swept her out to sea.

Scott Napper planned to pop the question to Leafil Alforque, 22, at a spot near Neskowin Beach that got its name from couples ready to marry.

Napper said the tide had receded around Proposal Rock on Saturday when the couple began to walk to it. He planned to propose and give her the ring he carried in his pocket.

About 10 feet from the rock, a wave around 3 feet high suddenly came toward them.
"I turned into it to keep from getting pulled under it," Napper said.

By the time he turned to find Alforque, only 4-foot-11 and 93 pounds, she had been caught by the receding waters.

"She was about 30 feet away, getting swept away," Napper said.

The 45-year-old Silverton man tore off his jacket to get rid of any extra weight, and when he looked up again she was gone.

link

Happiness is contagious, research finds


Who knew we are responsible for so much joy and true happiness.



They say misery loves company, but the same may be even more true of happiness.

In a study published online today by the British Medical Journal, scientists from Harvard University and UC San Diego showed that happiness spreads readily through social networks of family members, friends and neighbors.

Knowing someone who is happy makes you 15.3% more likely to be happy yourself, the study found. A happy friend of a friend increases your odds of happiness by 9.8%, and even your neighbor's sister's friend can give you a 5.6% boost.

"Your emotional state depends not just on actions and choices that you make, but also on actions and choices of other people, many of which you don't even know," said Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, a physician and medical sociologist at Harvard who co-wrote the study.

link

Little Gordon Ramsey

I haven't seen a child cry like this since Steven refused to eat his gefilte fish cheesecake.




P.S. Gordon came to Stamford.
LINK!

Thursday, December 04, 2008

From George Washington to Barack Obama

Forty four presidents in four minutes. Worth the watch.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Power Nap Capsule

Look what $25,000 can buy.
The Power Nap Capsule.
Inspired by NASA studies demonstrating that napping can improve reaction time by 16% and concentration by 34%, this is the power nap capsule that provides a spacious, semi-enclosed sleeping environment ideal for recharging the mind and body.

Drawing on extensive physiotherapeutic research, the mattress's undulated shape places your head and legs slightly above the lumbar region to relieve pressure on the back, encourage proper spinal alignment, improve circulation, and facilitate optimal relaxation.

Made from supple calfskin leather and filled with 6"-thick cold foam, the mattress contours to the shape of your body and provides a soft yet supportive surface free of pressure points.

The sleep surface is 12" longer than a king size mattress, ensuring ample room for outstretched limbs. The frame and canopy create a personal, semi-enclosed napping space that can help you block out distracting sounds and sights.

The frame is made from fiberglass-reinforced plastic and finished with a high-gloss varnish. 57" H x 53" W x 116" L. (180 lbs.)

link

Funny Commercial

Don't try on clothes left in a dressing room!

Monday, December 01, 2008

Look Who'll Be Designing for Payless



Arguably the most recognizable winner of Project Runway (and one of the most memorable), Christian Siriano is branching out into footwear and handbags with a Fall 2009 collection exclusively for Payless ShoeSource.

“I’m all about the runway and the sidewalks!” said Siriano. “I’ve already been working with the Payless Design Team in New York, and I can’t wait to see how they will take the high-end shoes and bags I’m designing for the runway and turn them into pieces that everyone can buy.”

The first of the multi-season collection will be unveiled at Siriano’s Fall 2009 show at New York Fashion Week in February before hitting Payless stores in the fall with prices set to range from $25 to $45.

“Christian is among the next great American fashion designers, and we are thrilled to continue to expand the Payless Designer Collections and to add Christian as our newest designer partner,” said LuAnn Via, president and chief executive officer of Payless ShoeSource.

link