The Ratner Gazette

A Five Star Dinner

2011-04-28T08:08:00.000-05:00

Nutricia, a Dutch company specializes in dairy products and baby food. To launch their latest ingredient range of Olvarit baby foods, they organized an exclusive tasting-dinner in a Michelin starred restaurant.

Honeymoon - Check Natural Disasters- Check

2011-04-07T08:55:00.000-05:00

This is not my kind of honeymoon. Before planning your next vacation, check and make sure that these people are staying in Stockholm.

A Swedish couple's honeymoon struck disaster six times - with the couple witnessing floods in Australia, destruction in Japan and the earthquake in Christchurch.

During a four-month trip, newlyweds Stefan and Erika Svanstrom and their baby girl Elinor endured a snowstorm in Munich, Germany, a cyclone that struck Cairns, Australia, the floods of Brisbane, Australia, the wildfires in Perth, Australia, the earthquake that hit Christchurch, New Zealand, and then the earthquake in Japan:

The family returned to Stockholm on March 29 after a much calmer visit to their last destination China.
But Mr Svanstrom – who also survived the devastating Boxing Day tsunami that hit southeast Asia in 2004 – said the marriage was still going strong.
He added: “I know marriages have to endure some trials, but I think we have been through most of them.
“We’ve certainly experienced more than our fair share of catastrophes, but the most important thing is that we’re together and happy.

link

Rachel Ray Hungry

2011-03-23T17:23:00.000-05:00

Correct Your Own Posture

2011-03-15T10:01:00.000-05:00

This is something that I really should follow up with.

Lane Franklin, LLC has come out with a new posture correction device called PostureNOW. The company says it can permanently correct posture in as little as 10 minutes a day.

When you are seated or standing in the correct position, there is little tension on the elastic bands, but when you slouch, tension on the bands increase to remind you to straighten your posture. PostureNOW is supposed to strengthen your upper back muscles as they straighten in response to the band pressure and then hold the correct position.

The strap-like device, actually a wide tension band, has two neoprene armbands on either side that are attached to the back band with smaller elasticized bands. The whole apparatus slides up your arms like a jacket or coat, when you place one arm in each armband.

For more information or to purchase the PostureNOW, visit Posturenow.com.

link

The Happiest Man in America

2011-03-07T11:45:00.001-05:00

I am shocked that it is not Stuie.

Statistically speaking, anyways.
For the last three years, Gallup has called 1,000 randomly selected American adults each day and asked them about their emotional status, work satisfaction, eating habits, illnesses, stress levels and other indicators of their quality of life.

The New York Times asked Gallup to come up with a statistical composite for the happiest person in America, based on the characteristics that most closely correlated with happiness in 2010. Men, for example, tend to be happier than women, older people are happier than middle-aged people, and so on.
Gallup’s answer: he’s a tall, Asian-American, observant Jew who is at least 65 and married, has children, lives in Hawaii, runs his own business and has a household income of more than $120,000 a year.

Does that person actually exist? The New York Times went a-sleuthin':

A few phone calls later and ... Meet Alvin Wong. He is a 5-foot-10, 69-year-old, Chinese-American, Kosher-observing Jew, who’s married with children and lives in Honolulu. He runs his own health care management business and earns more than $120,000 a year.

Link

When Life Gives You Lemons...

2011-03-06T10:40:00.000-05:00

Here is a perfect way to take a bad situation add some humor and do something good too.

Phil Johnson, a homeowner in New Zealand, has put a rock up for sale. The rock found its way to his home during the recent earthquake in the Christchurch area.

For sale 1 owner 25 – 30 tonne landscape feature (answers to the name Rocky) …
He is in pristine condition (just a little bit of concrete dust). Suitable for garden feature, or as in our case a magnificent addition to your living area.
Rocky will enhance your “indoor outdoor” flow considerably, especially if you load him in through the garage roof like we did.

The Q&A section is priceless! Humor aside, the proceeds from this particular auction go to the Christchurch Earthquake Relief Fund. The current bid is $8,200. Link

The Google Art Project

2011-02-02T08:41:00.000-05:00

All I can say is wow!

Google Art Project is a collaboration between Google and 17 of the world's top art galleries and museums, including the National Gallery and Tate Britain in the UK, and others including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Palace Of Versailles in France.

The Google Art Project website lets users take a trip around the rooms of the galleries using the familiar Street View-style navigation. Virtually move around the museum's galleries, selecting works of art that interest you, navigate though interactive floor plans and learn more about the museum and you explore.

Temperature Regulating Slippers

2011-01-26T12:37:00.000-05:00

Okay, they aren't the most attractive slippers but I don't care. How nice to have toasty toes.

Here's the details on these babies:

These are the slippers made with a patented fabric that regulates the internal temperature to ensure the wearer's feet are always comfortable. Developed for NASA to help astronauts adapt to extreme temperature fluctuations, the fabric absorbs and stores excess body heat to prevent overheating, releasing it back to the skin as the temperature drops to keep feet warm. Also effective when worn to bed, the slippers are insulated with 3 1/2 oz. layer of fine duck down that wicks moisture away, keeping feet dry, unlike synthetic fills that tend to retain humidity. Durable cowskin soles. Machine washable. White. All for $59.95

link

Damn Left Hand Turners!

2011-01-19T12:14:00.000-05:00

From The Consumerist:

(North Carolina DOT)

When you think about it, left turns across a lane of traffic are kind of crazy. Only an admixture of luck, skill, and a collective social agreement to, as a general rule, avoid crashing into each other keeps you alive.

In fact, left turns increase the potential for an accident and also waste fuel. So traffic engineers have come up with a new street design, called "superstreets" that get rid of all left turns. And a new study says they are both faster, and safer.

The design uses dividers to force all turns to be right hand turns. Want to go in the opposite direction? Use the U-turns located just down the road from the intersection.

Superstreets have been around since the 60's, first pionerered in Michigan, where they are called "The Michigan Left." Why they are getting attention now is the North Carolina State University study, the first of its kind, finds that superstreets reduce travel time by 20%. See, the U-turns are actually faster because drivers aren't stuck at the light trying to wait for traffic to clear enough to turn. Not only that, but the superstreets studied had 46% fewer reported car collisions and 63% fewer collisions that ended in personal injury.
City planners should take note and think about adding superstreets to their designs.

Vending Machines That Read Facial Expressions

2011-01-19T12:07:00.000-05:00

Both intriguing and scary all at once.

Not only can devices take your temperature with no contact, but now machines can do certain actions by detecting a smile on your face. Unilever has created an ice cream vending machine that will give you a free treat if you smile!

There is now software which enables machines to know exactly how we feel.

link

Tattoos for the Elderly

2010-12-30T17:46:00.000-05:00

TATTOOS FOR THE ELDERLY

A Contender

2010-12-22T11:22:00.000-05:00

Here is a contender for the winner of an ugly sweater contest. You too can get it here.

Is it worth $79? I think not!

Color Healing Chart

2010-12-21T11:49:00.000-05:00

The Color Healing Chart is designed to suggest links between colors, body energies, color effects, chakra centers, and crystals. The original seven colors of the spectrum have been expanded to include shades, as well as rays like silver.

Guided by the way you feel, you will be able to choose the appropriate colors to help you, as well as select useful crystals. Some of these correspondences may be surprising. Black, for example, often has an undeserved negative association, but it can have quite a different meaning. In many healing traditions such as that of the Native Americans, for example, black is simply seen as the complemenet to white. Observing the night sky, the darkness creates the shadow that lets the light of the stars appear like diamonds on black velvet.

Native Americans teachings revere the darkness as the source of mystery, the place from which all new things are born.
Every creation myth on Earth relates the origin of the planet to a time of dark fromlessness, out of which came light.

Here are some examples of showing how you can use the chart below.
If you feel cold and lacking in energy, you will see that red is a warming color and garnets are suggested. You can either find some red in your wardrobe, or try wearing the crystal or meditating on it.

If you're afraid of change, try wearing or meditating with labradorite. If you want to expand a relationship, wear amber colors or wear the stone.
If you find yourself using a lot of one particular stone or color, then that chakra clearly needs energizing.

Your Apps are Watching

2010-12-20T10:52:00.000-05:00

"Your Apps Are Watching You"

Above, the headline of Saturday's Wall Street Journal article by Scott Thurm and Yukari Iwatani Kane, subheaded "A Journal investigation finds that iPhone and Android apps are breaching the privacy of smartphone users."
The graphic accompanied the piece.
A detailed interactive graphic shows the behavior of each of the 101 popular apps investigated by the paper.

Google 'Reading Level' Search Filter

2010-12-19T10:35:00.000-05:00

Google has added a brand new search filter option to the advanced search page named "Reading level."
The purpose is to give users a way to find content based on your reading level. The options include:

No reading level displayed
annotate results with reading levels
show only basic results
show only intermediate results
show only advanced results

Here is a picture of the reading level filter box.

If you select "annotate results", Google will show you all the search results and add labels to the results with if it is basic, intermediate or advanced. You can also quick filter them on the page.

Another way to look at it is to compare how smart or dumb your site's content is. You can tease your competitors that way. Just do a site:domain.com command with this filter on and presto, you got a great chance of teasing your competitors. Watch out when it is election time and you rate the smart level of politicians.

link

The Land of the Unibrow

2010-12-01T11:33:00.000-05:00

In Tajikistan, the unibrow is commonly thought of as a mark of beauty. Women who don’t have it naturally may resort to herbal remedies in order to grow one:

Usma, a leafy green herb, is sold in all Tajik markets. You can get a small bunch for about $0.06. The process is simple but effective, several market women assured me. Take a bunch of usma and let it dry in the sun for a couple hours. Then grind up the leaves until a dark green goo seeps out. Dip a branch of usma — or a matchstick, if you want to be more precise — into the goo and smear it on your eyebrows, making sure, of course, to color the space in between. Leave on for 15 minutes, and repeat the smearing process one or two more times. The result is a deep black unibrow, rich and expressive.
Asking Tajik women why they like the unibrow is a bit like asking Western women why they like to paint their nails or pluck their eyebrows into oblivion.
“I just think it’s beautiful,” was, without exception, the answer I got after asking more than a dozen Tajik women about their unibrows.
Tajikistan is not the only central Asian country where the unibrow reigns supreme — a symbol of feminine beauty and purity. And it’s not as if every Tajik woman has it. The unibrow is the exception, and still found more commonly in places outside the capital.

You can view a slideshow of Tajik women with unibrows at the link.
Link | Photo: Miriam Elder/Global Post

A Life on Facebook

2010-11-11T10:16:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving Meal in a Cake

2010-11-08T10:20:00.000-05:00

Don't want your company to stay too long? Serve them Thanksgiving in a cake and send them on their way.
The entire Thanksgiving meal made to look like dessert. Turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey, sweet potatoes and marshmallows all in one neat package.

Recipe

What Your Phone Says About You

2010-11-06T08:16:00.000-05:00

iPhone Vs. Android Vs. BlackBerry

How smartphone users see each other.

link

“The harder you work for something, the more you’ll appreciate it.”

2010-11-04T08:48:00.000-05:00

Mice Prefer Treats They Worked Harder For

A new study finds that the harder mice have to work for a treat, the better it tastes. The research appears in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. [Alexander Johnson and Michela Gallagher, "Greater effort boosts the affective taste properties of food"]

Mice were trained to push levers to get either of two rewards. Press one lever, out comes a drop of sugar water. Press the other and they get a drop of different tasting sugar water.

Then things got interesting. For one of the treats, scientists gradually increased the amount of effort required for the payoff—from one lever-press to five, then 10, then 15. So by the end of the session, one type of sugar water cost 15 times more effort than the other.

The mice then retired to their home cage where both treats were freely available. And they showed a strong preference for whichever reward they’d worked harder to obtain. Based on how fast the mice sipped, they appeared to find the costlier sugar water more tasty.

Which makes evolutionary sense. An animal wouldn’t survive if a little hard work left a bitter taste in its mouth.

Scientific American

Skin Printer Generates Skin

2010-10-31T09:37:00.000-05:00

Researchers at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine are developing a printer that they hope can create skin to help injured soldiers immediately after they’re hurt:

The system, which lays down cells with the same fluid-based inkjet technology used in many printers, could print large swathes of living tissue directly onto the injuries of soldiers wounded on the battlefield. Covering burns and related wounds is of critical importance because, the scientists note, “any loss of full-thickness skin of more than 4 cm in diameter will not heal by itself.”
Tests on mice revealed advanced healing by both the second and third week of recovery, with complete closure and formation of scar tissue by week three in treated (but not untreated) subjects. The printer has two heads, one of which ejects skin cells mixed with fibrinogen (a blood coagulant) and type I collagen (the main component of the connective tissue in scars). The other head ejects thrombin (another coagulant).

link

Flash Mob Dance

2010-10-21T15:40:00.000-05:00

To raise funds for breast cancer a flash mob dances at the airport

Flatter Me Phone Calls

2010-10-11T08:05:00.000-05:00

For only $5 you can make someone you know feel on top of the world. Because the
team behind Flatter Me will personally phone people to tell them how incredible they are. You can customize the message and the Flattery Specialists will make sure that the people called feel great about themselves.

At Flatter Me, we love interacting with total strangers and making them laugh. We do all the calling from Montreal, Canada. There is no one hired overseas. Every call is different. Nothing is scripted. For us, this is about sharing our sense of humor with others and making people feel good about themselves.

How to Seal Plastic Bags with Old Bottle Caps

2010-10-02T09:56:00.000-05:00

Seal Plastic Bags with Old Bottle Caps

Zip-top bags are great, but sometimes you buy something in bulk and you're stuck with an unsealable bag. Home-centric blog Re-Nest shows us an easy way to give these bags an airtight seal with an old water bottle.
All you need to do is cut off the top of the bottle and take off the cap. Push the bag through the bottle neck, fold it over the edges, and twist the cap back on. Now, your bag has an air and water tight seal, and you didn't have to waste the bag.

Look Who's 50

2010-09-30T12:54:00.002-05:00

Everyone's favorite modern Stone Age family and friends are celebrating their golden anniversary. The Flintstones, America's first prime-time animated sitcom, first aired on ABC-TV on September 30, 1960.

The show was set in the fictional town of Bedrock, where the Flintstones and their neighbors the Rubbles shared screen time with various dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths and many other creatures - several of which served as appliances.

Awesomness Reminders

2010-08-25T14:59:00.000-05:00

Why didn't I come up with this? I know how to tell people they are wonderful. I just didn't know I should charge.

AwesomenessReminders

How great would you feel if a real person called you every day to tell you, 'You're Awesome'? With AwesomenessReminders, a real person will call you every day to tell you how much you rock.

If you're not around, they will leave you a voicemail. Only $10/month!

PBJ Ice Cream Cone

2010-08-18T09:27:00.000-05:00

This has to be one of the neatest ideas! It is rather easy to do.

Here are the step by step instructions from Grathio Labs.

Ingredients:

Bread. Get the good stuff that is moist (so it doesn't break when forming the cone) and doesn't have many voids for the ice cream to melt out of.
Peanut butter. Your favorite. Chunky or creamy. With chunky you'll have to use a lot more. This is either a plus or a minus depending on your disposition.
Ice cream. Buy it or make it.

Supplies and Tools:

Sharp bread knife
Paper
Uncoated metal paper clips

Slice the Bread.

Slice a piece of bread horizontally so you get two thinner slices of bread. This is by far the hardest part of the whole process.

Make more than you think you'll need. Some might break and they make somewhat shrimpy cones. Also they're so delicious that you'll want to eat more.

Form the cones.

For each bread cone roll a piece of paper into a cone shape and secure it with two paper clips. (You could use tape too, but I'm not sure how safe it is to bake with tape.)

Carefully roll your piece of bread into a cone making sure there's a little bit of overlap. Pinching the bottom and along the seam will help it hold together. Slide the bread into the paper cone so the bread will hold its shape.

It's okay if there's a hole in the bottom or if there are some small gaps. We'll be filling those holes with peanut butter.

Bake.

I don't toast the cones, I found it was easiest (and just as tasty) to simply dry them out similar to making croûtons or bread crumbs

Place them in the center rack of your oven and set the oven to 250°F (120°C). When the oven reaches temperature (or after 15 minutes) turn off the heat and let them sit half an hour or until the oven cools.

If the cones are still a little spongy you can do the process again (or do it longer the first time). The cooking time will vary depending on your oven and the weather.

If the bread has trouble holding its shape inside the paper cones you can make a reverse sandwich with the bread between two paper cones. You'll need to bake them a little longer since it's harder for the water to escape.

If you don't want to use your oven because it will make extra heat you can just leave them in a warm place over night (like the top of the refrigerator or in a gas oven with a pilot light) and then finishing them off with 10 seconds in the microwave. Though technically this isn't baking, it's making stale bread.

Apply peanut butter.

This layer will keep the bread from getting soggy so cover the entire inside of the cone with peanut butter. Be sure to sure you get some in the bottom and fill any holes so the melting ice cream doesn't leak.

Add ice cream

Don't Bring Teddy Bears to Australia

2010-08-17T09:19:00.000-05:00

Good thing Dolly isn't a teddy bear.

A teddy bear sent from England to Australia has been quarantined in case it was bringing diseases or exotic pests into the country.
The soft brown Stoke City bear, complete with red jumper and matching red woolly hat, was sent as a new baby gift.
Caroline Rothwell, 26, posted the toy from her home in Stoke, Staffordshire, to childhood best friend and Stoke City fan Natalie Kinnaird, in her new home of Perth, in Western Australia.

Jobsworths: Caroline Rothwell was mortified when a Stoke City teddy bear sent to her friend Natalie in Australia was quarantined by customs

But when the parcel, which also included baby clothes, arrived at Natalie's home the bear was missing - except for a note stating it was quarantined and not allowed into the country.
Now Natalie has been informed she must pay 41 Australian dollars to send the bear back to Britain.
Stunned support worker Caroline explained: 'The bear was a gift from my one-year-old daughter Isabelle to Natalie's new baby son James.
'Natalie has been over to visit me in Stoke a few times and I thought it would be nice to send the new baby something from here.
'But when Natalie told me she had received the parcel she said there was a note saying the bear had been quarantined because it could release dangerous exotic pests or diseases into the country.
I couldn't believe it. It seems ridiculous to think that a stuffed teddy bear could present such a danger.
'I was going to buy a bear from the Stoke City shop, but my daughter already had one so I thought it would be a bit more personal to send the one she had.
'The note said Natalie wasn't allowed to have the bear but she could pay 41 dollars to send it back to me.'
Australia prides itself on its rigid border police - the Customs and Border Protection Service - and it's diligent quarantine unit, called the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service.
The quarantine unit operates under the 'Bio-Security' wing of their Department for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry (DAFF).
The country is deemed to be one of the toughest to enter in the world, with a no-nonsense immigration policy based on a skills and points tally.
Caroline, who lives with partner Mark Connolly, sent the parcel of gifts last month at her local post office, costing her £15 in postage.
She added: 'I sent the package, which also included some baby clothes, by air mail.
'When I received the letter saying that the Stoke City bear had been taken hostage at the airport because he did not meet Australian quarantine standards, I felt disappointed.
'Caroline and I have been friends for 16 years, and our children have never met, so the Stoke bear was the only bond James and Izzy had.'
The bear is still with customs officials in Australia.
Quarantine rules stipulate that animal matter - including wool and furs, as well as stuffed animals - are not allowed into the country.
Their website also says that 'craft and hobby lines made from animal or plant material' are also banned, or at least must go into temporary quarantine.
A spokeswoman for DAFF, speaking from Canberra, in Australia, said that officials could have been concerned about the woolly jumper the bear was wearing, or possibly the stuffing material.
The spokeswoman said: 'Without investigating the individual case it must be to do with the materials the bear is made from.
'We have a very enviable bio-security status so we do take security very seriously.'

Daily Mail

Still Sleeping With Dolly?

2010-08-17T08:36:00.000-05:00

You are not alone!

More than a third of adults still hug a teddy bear while falling asleep, according to a new survey. More than half of Britons still have a teddy bear from childhood and the average teddy bear is 27 years old, the poll found. Travelodge, the hotel chain, surveyed 6,000 British adults and found that respondents said sleeping with a teddy a "comforting and calming" way to end the day.

The survey also found that 25% of men said they even took their teddy away with them on business because it reminded them of home. Travelodge said that in the past year staff have reunited more than 75,000 teddies and their owners.

Spokesman Shakila Ahmed said: "Interestingly the owners have not just been children, we have had a large number of frantic businessmen and women call us regarding their forgotten teddy bear." Corrine Sweet, a psychologist, said cuddling a teddy bear was an "important part of our national psyche".

She said: "It evokes a sense of peace, security and comfort. It's human nature to crave these feelings from childhood to adult life. It's not surprising, then, that taking a teddy bear on a business trip is popular. As a bedtime bear evokes feelings of home, warmth, and can help you nod off - just like in babyhood." The study also found that the traditional teddy bear was the most popular cuddly toy among adults, with Winnie the Pooh second and Paddington Bear third.

Shopping at Walmart

2010-07-28T14:09:00.000-05:00

How come this never occurs at our local Walmart?

Periodic Table of Mad Men

2010-07-27T11:36:00.002-05:00

link
Graphic by Emily Miethner

Chocomize

2010-07-22T11:30:00.002-05:00

What a great gift!

Chocomize ($6) lets you customize your chocolate bars.

Pick your chocolate bark base and add more than 100 different kinds of fruits, nuts, herbs, and

candies, or simply select from one of the company's best-selling bars, like the Smores Bar with

graham teddies and mini-marshmallows, the Candy Bar with gummi bears, chocolate candy, and

Nerds, or the Spicy Special Bar with black peppercorns, mini chipotles, and cayenne pepper.

Money Tree in Sydney

2010-07-22T11:07:00.000-05:00

Photo: RaboDirect Australia [Flickr]

Money doesn't grow on trees. Or does it? As a publicity stunt, RaboDirect of Australia sponsored a stunt where a tree in a park in Sydney is festooned with real $5 bills:

An Overview of Responses:

Lost Opportunity
In the early stages, almost 100 people passed the tree without noticing that anything was different. Even when a group of joggers noticed, they were too busy to stop. The first groups who eventually stopped to interact couldn’t believe it. They inspected the notes and took pictures, but left empty handed.

Follow the Crowd
Only once one brave participant started taking the money, did momentum gather. Legitimized by the crowd, a wide spectrum of behavior ensued.

Frugality
Some took just one or two notes, satisfied by their modest and unexpected gains.

Opportunist
Consumed by the fantasy, a group of braver participants made the most of the opportunity by filling their pockets.

Employing Tools and Working Together
When the low hanging $5 notes were depleted, participants employed tools such as swinging coats and umbrellas, to help them reach higher branches. Teamwork also came into play as spectators formed human pyramids to reach the notes seemingly out of reach.

Altruism
Perhaps the most comforting observation from the participants was that of altruism. Taller participants shared their earnings with shorter spectators, while one gentleman on identifying the undercover observation team, requested his money be donated to charity.

Link [with video clip]

Edible Drinking Glasses

2010-07-22T11:03:00.001-05:00

These drinking glasses made from agar agar are edible and eco-friendly, just toss them aside when you’re done.

The cups are made entirely out of agar agar and cast in different flavors, such as lemon-basil, ginger-mint, or rosemary-beet, each specifically designed to compliment a corresponding drink. Jelloware is meant to be thrown into the grass after it is used, as agar agar is a seaweed extract and actually nurtures the growth of plants.

Link

Bat Boy Lives

2010-06-21T11:12:00.001-05:00

Even though Weekly World News is no longer publishing, you can still get this.

From the Weekly World News comes the first ever Bat Boy action figure! Discovered in a cave by scientists, Bat Boy struggles to find his place in the world…more specifically a strong branch to hang from. He loves chocolate covered mosquitoes, long walks at night, and YOU! Give him a good home…but keep hands away from Bat Boy’s mouth – HE BITES! In fact…it may be best just to leave him in the package.

link

Play Me I'm Yours

2010-06-17T17:16:00.003-05:00

Play Me, I’m Yours: New York City 2010

“Play Me, I’m Yours” is an artwork by British artist Luke Jerram who has been touring the project globally since 2008.

At 9am on Monday the 21st June, 60 pianos will be distributed and then unveiled across New York City by Sing for Hope. Located in public parks, streets and plazas the pianos will be available until 5th July for any member of the public to play and engage with.

This website is made for you to post and share your films, photos and stories about the pianos. While documenting each piano’s journey, the website will connect the pianos with their individual communities across the city. Following the artwork, the pianos will be donated to local schools and community groups. To volunteer as a piano buddy with Sing for Hope, please sign up by clicking here.

Play Me, I’m Yours is being presented simultaneously in London and New York. Connect here with the street pianos across the Atlantic.

For locations and more info

The Tourist Lane

2010-06-09T08:21:00.001-05:00

First there were rumors that it was Banksy, but now the truth is told. It was Improv Everywhere.

link

Ah Australia, The Home of Drunken Birds

2010-06-07T11:13:00.001-05:00

Red-collared lorikeets in Australia exhibit signs of drunkenness at the end of the rainy season, most likely brought on by drinking fermented nectar.

They behave much the way humans do when inebriated only with a little less screeching and more flapping of wings.

The only thing sadder than a drunken lorikeek is a lorikeet with a massive hangover from swilling plonk. Sweetened porridge and fresh fruit for breakfast ease the hangover.
Link

Interesting...

2010-06-07T11:02:00.002-05:00

Chittenango, NY is they birthplace of L. Frank Baum, and they hold an event called Oz-Stravaganza. But this, year: Most Oz-Stravaganza activities canceled after high winds rip through Chittenango.

Most activities for the final day of Oz-Stravaganza have been canceled after a windstorm blew through Chittenango this morning, razing vendor tents and knocking down trees and power lines.

Lenox Lane was closed because several trees have fallen. A tree also fell in the parking lot of Advance Auto Parts on Genesee Street (Route 5) in Chittenango -- and fell onto a red pickup truck.

Some people said they saw a funnel cloud. Joanne LaBounty, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said they have heard reports of damage from weather spotters, but have not heard official reports of funnel clouds.

Amazing Robotics

2010-06-02T09:44:00.000-05:00

Wow! The future of warfare.

Who You Gonna Call?

2010-05-18T12:58:00.002-05:00

Improv Everywhere at it again. This time it's the New York Public Library.

See how they did it here.

Banksy in Detroit

2010-05-17T10:52:00.001-05:00

An incident in Detroit raises several questions about street art. Renowned British graffiti artist Banksy visited a crumbling factory in the city and painted a wall.

Discovered last weekend, the stenciled work shows a forlorn boy holding a can of red paint next to the words “I remember when all this was trees.” But by Tuesday, artists from the 555 Nonprofit Gallery and Studios, a feisty grassroots group, had excavated the 7-by-8-foot, 1,500-pound cinder block wall with a masonry saw and forklift and moved the piece to their grounds near the foot of the Ambassador Bridge in southwest Detroit.

The move — a guerilla act on top of Banksy’s initial guerilla act — has sparked an intense debate about the nature of graffiti art, including complicated questions of meaning, legality, value and ownership. Some say the work should be protected and preserved at all costs. Others say that no one had a right to move it — and that the power and meaning of graffiti art is so intrinsic to its location that to relocate it is to kill it.

The gallery defends its action by pointing out that the artwork would have been destroyed soon along with the building. Others respond that Banksy may have intended for that to happen. And then there’s the fact that the context gave the painting it meaning in the first place. One could say that while Banksy broke laws against trespassing and vandalism, the gallery is guilty of theft. The property owner hasn’t said anything about it yet. No one yet knows who, if anyone, stands to profit from the incident. Link

Using Google Rankings to Get a Job

2010-05-13T16:57:00.002-05:00

Alec Brownstein, a writer, needed a job. So he chose the names five NYC advertising directors that he’d like to work for. Then he bought the top search result in Google for each person’s name. So when they Googled themselves, the first hit was Brownstein asking for a job. He got two job offers. The cost was just $6.

In 20 Years

2010-05-08T13:31:00.002-05:00

'In 20 Years' is using advanced face detection and morphing technology to predict what your face would look like in 20 years from now. This magical engine turns your face old automatically. All you have to do is upload your photo.

Skin Colored Hospital Gowns

2010-05-03T20:39:00.002-05:00

A research team led by Mark Changizi of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute proposes that hospital patients be given gowns that match their skin color when they’re admitted. Changes in that color during the stay, contrasted by the gown as a constant, could alert caregivers to a decline in patient health:

Human eyes evolved to see in color largely for the purpose of detecting skin color changes such as when other people blush, Changizi said. These emotive skin color changes are extremely apparent because humans are hard-wired to notice them, and because the background skin color remains unchanged. The contrast against the nearby “baseline” skin color is what makes blushes so noticeable, he said.

Human skin also changes color as a result of hundreds of different medical conditions. Pale skin, yellow skin, and cyanosis – a potentially serious condition of bluish discoloration of the skin, lips, nails, and mucous membranes due to lack of oxygen in the blood – are common symptoms. These color changes often go unnoticed, however, because they often involve a fairly universal shift in skin color, Changizi said. The observer in most instances will just assume the patient’s current skin color is the baseline color. The challenge is that there is no color contrast against the baseline for the observer to pick up on, as the baseline skin color has changed altogether.
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50 Body Language Secrets You Need To Succeed In Life

2010-05-01T09:06:00.002-05:00

A professor from UCLA performed a study that indicates 55% of communication comes from body language and only 7% from the words we use. In light of this study, it makes sense for anyone to pay attention to what their body language is telling others as well as learning to read non-verbal cues from others.

These 50 body language secrets will provide you with tips you can use in job interviews, boosting your career, enhancing your social life, learning how to read other people's body language, and what you should not do when it comes to body language.

Banksy Art Painted Over in Australia

2010-04-27T10:15:00.002-05:00

MELBOURNE Council has inadvertently painted over a priceless piece of CBD street art by world-famous stencil guru Banksy.

In a move sure to anger Melbourne’s street art community, council’s anti-graffiti crew has painted over what is believed to be the only remaining work by the enigmatic British artist left in the city, the Melbourne Leader reports.

The image of a rat descending in a parachute adorned the wall of an old council building behind the Forum in Hosier Lane.

Hugh Thorne, of Hosier Lane cocktail bar Misty Place, said council officers had told him about the mistake this morning.

“It’s a shame, but no one really knew it was there. It was a quiet one,” Mr Thorne said.

Vandals created a public outcry in 2008 when they poured paint over another iconic Banksy stencil of an old-fashioned diver wearing a trenchcoat on the corner of Swanston St and Flinders Lane. In that same year, another Banksy artwork stencilled onto a London wall sold for $472,528.

Melbourne Council has introduced a permit system that can give building owners permission to display graffiti works, but Mr Thorne said the building displaying Banksy’s rat did not have one.

“The council is trying to clean up all of the tagging in the city and they’re trying to differentiate between tagging and street art and I guess in this case they just couldn’t,” Mr Thorne said.

“At the end of the day, if they really want to get an art restorer in and spend thousands of dollars they could bring it back.”

Melbourne Leader is awaiting comment from the council.

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Banksy and the Band

2010-04-26T07:55:00.001-05:00

The painting arrived outside Simon Duncan's west London home inside a battered old van. Overnight it has put him at the heart of street culture and made him £200,000 wealthier. The new work by Banksy was sent unexpectedly last week to Duncan, a 41-year-old web developer, as compensation for the world-renowned graffiti artist having coincidentally chosen the name of Duncan's band as the title for his film, Exit Through the Gift Shop.

"I am a drummer in a band that was called Exit Through the Gift Shop that I started with friends 18 months before I turned 40. It was a kind of midlife crisis, but we are still going, with a different line-up, and it has become a bit more serious," said Duncan, who agreed to change his band's name to Brace Yourself in an arrangement with Banksy.

"We had these hilarious emails from someone saying he was Banksy, but we didn't know if they were genuine," said Duncan. "Then a scruffy white van arrived. The driver had no idea what he was carrying." The band plan to unveil their new name and backdrop, which shows the grim reaper riding a dodgem car, at a London gig this week.

"When we saw the painting we could not believe it," said Duncan. "It is the size of a double bed, for a start. We had to insure it, so a man from Sotheby's came over to see it in my loft. He said to me, 'This is surreal. I have just been valuing an 18th-century portrait in a stately home, but it is not as valuable as this.'" The band have put the painting in storage at Sotheby's and will perform in front of a full-size copy.

Vicks VapoRub and the Orphaned Bear Cubs

2010-04-26T07:52:00.000-05:00

The future of two orphaned bear cubs depends on the Vicks VapoRub. Unable to find the mother of the tiny cubs that turned up this week in Plainfield Township, the state Game Commission on Thursday used the smelly ointment in an attempt to trick another mama bear into adopting them as her own.

''If this is successful, it will be the best possible outcome,'' said Kathy Uhler, director of the Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, which cared two days for the male and female cubs. Game Commission officers on Thursday located a mother bear in the Poconos for a possible adoption. This mama already had two cubs, but could handle four cubs easily, Uhler said.

The biggest obstacle to the adoption is that a mother bear normally rejects unrelated cubs, primarily because they smell like someone else's. That's where the VapoRub comes in. When the Vicks is rubbed on a stranger's cub, the camphor, eucalyptus oil and menthol vapors disorient a mother bear's senses so thoroughly that she won't notice the cub isn't her own. ''It covers the scent of the natural mother,'' Uhler explained. ''This is something that was pioneered in Pennsylvania, and we think this could be a happy ending to this story.''

On Tuesday afternoon, Game Commission officers tranquilized the big bear and collected the orphans from Uhler. Then they VapoRubbed the cubs and slipped them in with the mother's own cubs while mama slept. ''They want her to wake up and not see that the cubs are being pushed in,'' Uhler said. ''If she wakes up and the cubs are there, she might forget how many were there. It has worked in the past.'' The Game Commission will know within a few days whether the trick worked.

How To Command Respect Through Body Language

2010-04-21T12:04:00.001-05:00

Some people are the center of attention wherever they go. They're not glamorous movie stars, just ordinary people with excellent command over their body language.

Here are some pointers to help you emulate these confident people and command respect from those around you.

Household Product Database

2010-04-14T10:19:00.001-05:00

Here is a site you should bookmark, because you never know when you’ll need information on some household product.

The database has information on recalls, warnings, and more resources as well.

Link

Home Libraries

2010-04-14T10:15:00.001-05:00

After examining statistics from 27 nations, a group of researchers found the presence of book-lined shelves in the home — and the intellectual environment those volumes reflect — gives children an enormous advantage in school.

“Home library size has a very substantial effect on educational attainment, even adjusting for parents’ education, father’s occupational status and other family background characteristics,” reports the study, recently published in the journal Research in Social Stratification and Mobility. “Growing up in a home with 500 books would propel a child 3.2 years further in education, on average, than would growing up in a similar home with few or no books.

“This is a large effect, both absolutely and in comparison with other influences on education,” adds the research team, led by University of Nevada sociologist M.D.R. Evans. “A child from a family rich in books is 19 percentage points more likely to complete university than a comparable child growing up without a home library.”

Link

Spin x Crosley USB Turntable

2010-04-14T09:33:00.000-05:00

If you are an aspiring DJ, you have to take a look at this Spin x Crosley USB Turntable. It really looks hot in red and it has this retro look going which really works. It features USB enabled for connection to Windows equipped PC and Mac, Software Suite for ripping and editing audio content, belt driven turntable mechanism, plays 3 speeds - 33 1/3, 45 and 78 RPM records, plays 7", 10" & 12" records, fully automatic return tone arm, diamond stylus needle, auxiliary input, adjustable tone control, dynamic full range stereo speakers, vinyl-Wrapped, chrome snap closure, corner guards, metal and resin handle. That's a lot of stuff. It's a limited edition of 125, so you need to hurry!

[Backstreet-merch]

link

Lock Jaw from a Sandwich?

2010-04-06T10:27:00.003-05:00

Of course this had to happen in Georgia.

A Georgia man bit off more than he could chew -- literally -- when he dislocated his jaw while trying to eat a super-sized sandwich.

Chad Ettmueller, a structured settlement broker in Cumming, Ga., suffered a locked jaw for 14 hours after biting into a double meat, double cheese sandwich. But what may be more amazing is that Ettmueller is going against the grain of this lawsuit-happy country and NOT taking the makers of the sandwich to court.

Here's the back story: Ettmueller, 38, is a fan of Which 'Wich, a Dallas-based restaurant chain specializing in sandwiches with 105 locations in 18 states. So when he wanted to celebrate his son's second place showing in a local talent show, it was a natural for him to take his family to the restaurant.

ttmueller is especially fond of a sandwich called the "Wicked," which has five different types of meat and three cheeses. Because he hadn't eaten all day, he ordered a version with twice the meat and cheese, which made his jaw drop.

That's because Ettmueller's mouth got stuck before he could have that very first bite and he couldn't shut it.

Adding insult to his injuries, and pain to his suffering, Ettmueller's three kids thought he was joking and started laughing at his misery.

"It was so bad that I went outside and punched my jaw trying to get it back in place," Ettmueller said.

When that didn't work, he and his family went to a local Urgent Care clinic where the medical staff tried to help him when they weren't stifling their giggles.

Ettmueller is still talking about the bizarre methods used to treat his locked jaw -- and he's not really supposed to talk!

"At one point, they tried to sedate, but I woke up after five minutes to see a guy on top of me standing on the bed trying to leverage his weight to move my jaw forward," Ettmueller said.

When that didn't work, he was transported via ambulance to Emory University where a doctor declared he had "double dislocation of the mandible," or, in layman's terms, he had dislocated his jaw.

Ettmueller had his jaw locked in the open mouth, insert foot (or sandwich) position for more than 14 hours before doctors were able to surgically manipulate it back to its normal area.

During that time, Ettmueller's best buddy, Paul Addison, decided to get revenge for his friend by going to Ettmueller's minivan -- where the leftover sandwich was being stored -- and eat it.

"It had to die," he said. "But it was a mercy killing."

link

Please help!

2010-04-01T09:06:00.003-05:00

Throughout the month of April, please vote daily for Family-to-Family in the Pepsi Refresh $50,000 Grant competition

Online Dating Statistics

2010-03-26T11:30:00.000-05:00

Via: Online Schools

Shoes That Make Everyone the Same Height

2010-03-26T10:34:00.002-05:00

Finally, I would be able to stand and look Stuie in the eye.

Berlin-based artist Hans Hemmert threw a party where guests wore shoe-extenders to make them all the same height of 2 meters (6 feet 7 inches).

Aside from bringing the partygoers all to a common eye level, the gathering is lent an infographic nature by the shoes: all made from blue foam, the person's real height is read in the visual uniformity of the sole instead of at the head - like a walking bar graph.

Don't Trust Profile Photos

2010-03-21T12:20:00.001-05:00

Australian man finds 9ft python in toilet

2010-03-11T11:32:00.002-05:00

Be careful in Australia H-$.

Answering the call of nature took on new meaning for Robert Eves when he discovered this monster serpent coiled in his toilet bowl. In a scene only embodied in many peoples' worst nightmare, Mr Eves came face to scaled snout with the 2.7m carpet python during a night-time trip to his North Ward cottage's bathroom.

''It was about 9pm and I was going to the bathroom,'' Mr Eves, 65, said. ''I saw a dark shape in the toilet, so I turned on the light to check what it was and there was the snake sitting quite happily in the bottom of the bowl. I wasn't scared because I knew it was harmless. It's one thing to have a frog in the toilet, but not a massive python.''

After recovering from the shock of finding the serpent in his toilet, Mr Eves raised the alarm and quickly employed a local snake catcher. Attending snake wrangler Brian West said it had most likely used the city's sewer system to find its way into the Mr Eve's bathroom. He said carpet pythons were common in North Ward, however, the toilet specimen was ''unusually large''.

''Most people don't understand that the sewerage system is full of air, not water,'' Mr West said. ''There are also plenty of rats down there and it makes a pretty ideal environment for the snakes.'' The snake was released in bushland in accordance with Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service guidelines.

link

Comic Character Creations

2010-03-08T15:06:00.003-05:00

Could you imagine being at a party and having these people show up?

From their website:

Comic Character Creations infiltrate your event with their surreal brand of humor. Our memorable characters, from the extremely silly to the extremely subversive, arrive unannounced and interact anonymously with the audience, provoking intrigue, astonishment and hilarity. Customised acts a specialty.

Lost Tribe Found!

2010-03-08T15:04:00.000-05:00

Lost Jewish tribe found in Zimbabwe.

The Lemba people of Zimbabwe and South Africa may look like their compatriots, but they follow a very different set of customs and traditions

They do not eat pork, they practise male circumcision, they ritually slaughter their animals, some of their men wear skull caps and they put the Star of David on their gravestones.

Their oral traditions claim that their ancestors were Jews who fled the Holy Land about 2,500 years ago.

It may sound like another myth of a lost tribe of Israel, but British scientists have carried out DNA tests which have confirmed their Semitic origin.

Impending large-scale unemployment results in fewer males being born

2010-03-02T14:32:00.002-05:00

Here’s a rather unexpected result of mass layoffs and high unemployment: the stress causes pregnant women to spontaneously abort more males, thus contributing to future gender gap.

To our ancient ancestors, those signs would presumably be signals of impending drought or other natural disaster, which would indicate a coming food scarcity. [Ralph] Catalano and colleagues concluded the closest thing we have today is the announcement of mass layoffs at major employers, which impacts “the degree to which the larger population perceives a threat to its economic security.”

Such threats are bad news to small male fetuses because “a relatively large fraction” of them fall near “a critical rank below which gestations spontaneously end,” the researchers explain. If they are born, these small males are more likely to die than larger infants and females of equivalent size.

The researchers examined California’s ratio of male to female births from mid-1995 to the end of 2007 and compared it to the federal Labor Department’s monthly statistics on mass layoffs in the state. The government reports a mass layoff has taken place when 50 or more people file for unemployment insurance from a single company over five weeks.

After doing some complex calculations, they estimated that news of impending mass layoffs “predicted the loss of 3,090 males in utero” during the 61 months (out of the 141 they examined) in which unemployment claims exceeded the expected number.
link

Sad News!

2010-03-02T14:22:00.001-05:00

Tom "T-Bone" Wolk, who performed with scores of musicians but was best known as the longtime bass player for the band led by pop-rock stars Daryl Hall and John Oates, has died. He was 58.

Wolk died Sunday in New York, hours after completing a recording session with Hall, who was working on a solo album, the duo's manager, Jonathan Wolfson, said Monday. Wolfson said the cause of death was believed to be a heart attack.

Found!

2010-02-27T11:09:00.002-05:00

They finally found him!

According to the Advocate:

Who would want to steal a 600-pound bronze statue of a police officer?

That was the question that perplexed police and the public in August 2008, when a life-like sculpture by artist J. Seward Johnson was nabbed from its designated spot at Broad Street and Greyrock Place. It was one of 53 pieces showcased as part of an annual Art in Public Places exhibit in downtown Stamford.

Part of the mystery was solved Thursday when two veteran Stamford police investigators recovered the statue, valued at around $125,000, at the Queen of Peace Cemetery in North Stamford.

Two Feet of Snow

2010-02-26T12:07:00.002-05:00

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY MRSZIPPY

2010-02-20T17:28:00.002-05:00

Happy Birthday from the Ratner Gazette team.

An Easy Way to Get Free Shipping at Amazon

2010-02-17T15:36:00.004-05:00

What a great idea! How many times have we gotten stuck at Amazon.com just looking for that little something that will enable us to get free shipping? Now we can.

FillerItemFinder finds a cheap item you actually want to meet the cutoff.

Whenever you spend $25 or more at Amazon.com you become eligible for free basic shipping.

Why pay for shipping—usually around $5-10 depending on the size and weight of your order—when you could spend that shipping cost on an actual product and end up with free shipping?

At FillerItemFinder you enter the amount you need to get to $25. FillerItemFinder gives you a massive list of all the items that fit the criteria ordered by rising price.

Test Your News IQ

2010-02-16T13:23:00.004-05:00

How informed do you think you are?

The PEW Research Center has an online test to measure your current news IQ.

Here's My Score: I correctly answered 11 out of the 12 possible questions, which means I did better on the quiz than 92% of the general public.

What's yours? Take the test and find out.

Placebo Buttons

2010-02-10T11:12:00.000-05:00

Placebo buttons are buttons that actually do nothing except give the user an illusion of control.

The advent of computer-controlled traffic signals make the walk buttons at pedestrian crossings on heavily trafficked streets obsolete. By the late 1980s, most (but not all) walk buttons in New York City have been deactivated yet people push them anyhow, either in ignorance, out of habit, or in the off chance the buttons did work.

Many large office buildings also have dummy thermostats to give office workers the illusion of control. Some even go as far as installing white-noise generators to mimic the hum of fans after the HVAC system is shut off.

The same goes for the close button in elevators. Most elevators built or installed since the early 1990s don’t have close buttons that work, unless you have a fireman’s key. People do push them anyhow, because the fact that the door eventually closes reinforces their belief that the button works.

link

Happy 100th Birthday Boy Scouts of America

2010-02-08T12:46:00.003-05:00

The US division of the Boy Scouts turns 100 today. The movement began in Britain under the leadership of General Robert Baden-Powell. An American publisher, William Boyce, met a Boy Scout in London and was so impressed that he decided to bring scouting to the United States. It grew rapidly during World War I and reached its peak with 6.5 million members in the 1972:

Supporters say the scouting experience builds strong, confident leaders. They point with considerable pride to its roster of former Scouts who went on to great achievement, including President Kennedy, astronaut Neil Armstrong, baseball great Hank Aaron, filmmaker Steven Spielberg and of course our own David.

Fast Company

Sea Urchins Have No Eyes!

2010-02-08T12:00:00.003-05:00

Although sea urchins don't have any problems avoiding predators or finding comfortable dark corners to hide in, they don't have eyes. The question then is how they see.

Genetic analysis of sea urchins has revealed they have light-sensitive molecules, mostly in their tube feet and in tiny stalked appendages found in among their spines. As such, "it looks like the entire surface of their bodies are acting as one big eye," said researcher Sönke Johnsen, a marine biologist at Duke University.

Scientists had conjectured the spines of sea urchins might then help them pick out relatively fine visual details by screening out light from off angles. If this proved true, urchins with densely packed spines would have relatively sharp vision.

Live Science

Brewtarget

2010-02-08T11:55:00.002-05:00

Brewtarget is a free, open-source application designed to help homebrew enthusiasts (David) create and organize their beer recipes.

New Heinz Ketchup Package

2010-02-04T16:31:00.001-05:00

Anyone who's ever tried to eat French fries in the car or has squeezed packet after messy packet of ketchup onto a burger knows that those little condiment packages can be annoying (and sometimes impossible to open at all).

Heinz feels our pain. For the first time in decades, the ketchup company is revamping the way it packages ketchup on-the-go, the Associated Press reported.

Heinz has created the Dip & Squeeze package, a single-serving ketchup packet that has a cup for dipping and an end that can be torn off, making it easier to both dip and squeeze with less mess.

"The packet has long been the bane of our consumers," David Ciesinski, vice president of Heinz Ketchup, told the AP. "The biggest complaint is there is no way to dip and eat it on the go."

The packet also holds three times as much ketchup as the traditional Heinz ketchup packet.

link

How Rich Are You?

2010-02-04T12:14:00.000-05:00

Personally, I am rich in nachas.

Enter your annual income, and find out how rich you are: Global Rich List.

Just about everyone reading this blog will be in the top 10% in the world. How do they calculate it?

The Global Rich List calculations are based on figures from the World Bank Development Research Group. To calculate the most accurate position for each individual we assume that the world's total population is 6 billion and the average worldwide annual income is $5,000.

Pajama Jeans

2010-02-04T11:47:00.001-05:00

I can wear these while wearing my Neckie and sitting under my Snuggie.

Ice House Detroit

2010-02-03T12:01:00.001-05:00

Artists in Detroit have encased an abandoned house in ice in order to bring attention to the startling number of foreclosures in the region. The Ice House blog chronicles the project and provides stunning pictures of the ice house.

Link

Owww!

2010-02-03T11:45:00.001-05:00

Mugging victim Julia Popova calmly went home after being robbed on her way home from work - without realising she had a six inch knife stuck into her neck.

The 22-year-old office worker had grappled with her attacker when he snatched her handbag as she walked to her parents' home in the Russian capital Moscow. But she was so shocked by the ordeal she didn't know that the thug had buried a kitchen knife in her neck just fractions of an inch from her spinal cord.

Her horrified parents rushed her to hospital where surgeons managed to remove the blade without damaging Julia's spine.

"Shock had kicked in and her body prevented her from feeling any pain. She simply walked home without feeling the knife in her back," said one medic.

Groundhog's Day

2010-02-01T22:52:00.003-05:00

Learn to Drive a Zamboni

2010-02-01T20:23:00.001-05:00

From NY1:

A Manhattan ice rink is offering what may be the coolest ride in town.

The Battery Park City Ice Rink is the first in the country to offer Zamboni driving lessons.

For about $250, participants can take an eight-hour course on how to safely drive and maintain the ice resurfacing machine.

"We needed to find some time of mechanism, some program, where we could get people out on the ice, have some fun, let them have some fun,” said Glen Danischewski of Rink Management Services. “There are a lot of people out there that have dreamed about driving Zambonis, about being on the ice for the [National Hockey League] or figure skating and it just seemed kind of a natural."

So far, about a half dozen people have signed up for the course which also includes lessons off the ice.

"We have a syllabus and we go through teaching people the safety operations of the machines, operating the machine, and making an ice sheet," Danischewski said.

For more information about the rink, visit BatteryParkCityIce.com.

Blindfolded Half Court Shot

2010-01-25T11:30:00.000-05:00

This teacher thought NCAA Final Four tickets were at stake.

Is Mona Lisa Really Leonardo da Vinci?

2010-01-25T11:22:00.001-05:00

Scientists seeking permission to exhume the remains of Leonardo da Vinci plan to reconstruct his face to discover whether his masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, is a disguised self-portrait.

A team from Italy’s National Committee for Cultural Heritage, a leading association of scientists and art historians, has asked to open the tomb in which the Renaissance painter and polymath is believed to lie at Amboise castle, in the Loire valley, where he died in 1519, aged 67.

Giorgio Gruppioni, an anthropologist, said the project could throw new light on Leonardo’s most famous work. “If we manage to find his skull, we could rebuild Leonardo’s face and compare it with the Mona Lisa,” he said.

The identity of the Mona Lisa has been debated for centuries, with speculation ranging from Leonardo’s mother to Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant.

Some scholars have suggested that Leonardo’s presumed homosexuality and love of riddles led him to paint himself as a woman.

Recreating Leonardo’s face could test the theory of Lillian Schwartz, an American expert who drew on computer studies to highlight apparent similarities between the features of the Mona Lisa and those of a self-portrait by the artist.

Pauly D and Society

2010-01-24T12:38:00.003-05:00

This photo is amazing because I don't really know what Pauly D did to become famous but everyone wants a photo of him not even with him. Just count how many cameras are out

The Color Picker

2010-01-24T11:15:00.002-05:00

Now this is cool.

Color Picker is an innovative design of a concept pen that can scan colors from anything around and instantly use the color for drawing.

After placing the pen against an object, the user just presses the scan button. The color is detected by the color sensor and the RGB cartridge of the pen mixes the required inks to create the target color.

link

Bubble Wrap Turns 50

2010-01-23T09:43:00.003-05:00

Look what will turn 50 on Monday.

Bubble Wrap cushioning, the iconic brand best known for protecting products and providing fun and stress release to millions of people each day, turns 50 Monday, on the day that also marks the 10th Annual Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day.

To celebrate the golden anniversary, Sealed Air, makers of Bubble Wrap® brand will conduct a special limited run of gold Bubble Wrap® cushioning. The factory lines in the company's Saddle River, N.J. facility will change from the popular clear to gold to commemorate the historic occasion for the day.

link

Check Your Password

2010-01-22T12:14:00.000-05:00

A list of the 32 most popular passwords.

Amichai Shulman is the chief technology officer at Imperva, which makes software for thwarting hackers. Recently, he undertook a study of 32 million passwords stolen by an unknown hacker from Rockyou!, an online service that makes widgets for social networking sites like Facebook.

Here they are:

A Banksy Movie: Exit Through the Gift Shop

2010-01-21T11:52:00.002-05:00

From The New York Times
"Exit Through the Gift Shop" is about an eccentric French shop keeper and amateur film maker who was so obsessed with Banksy that he wanted to make a documentary about him. But the British-born Banksy turned the tables and made a film about the effort to film him.

The trailer:

Green Sea Slug Is Part Animal, Part Plant

2010-01-17T10:04:00.000-05:00

Is this our borrowed slug?

It's easy being green for a sea slug that has stolen enough genes to become the first animal shown to make chlorophyll like a plant. Shaped like a leaf itself, the slug Elysia chlorotica already has a reputation for kidnapping the photosynthesizing organelles and some genes from algae.

Now it turns out that the slug has acquired enough stolen goods to make an entire plant chemical-making pathway work inside an animal body. The slugs can manufacture the most common form of chlorophyll, the green pigment in plants that captures energy from sunlight.

Phones for Haiti

2010-01-15T14:39:00.005-05:00

What is a simple and easy way to help the people of Haiti? Recycle cell phones.

Have an old cell phone just sitting in your electronics drawer? Consider putting it to good use and donating it to ReCellular’s Phones for Haiti program, a cell phone recycling initiative to provide disaster relief for the recent Haiti earthquake. There are over one billion used phones sitting around and gathering dust, and just a tiny percentage of those could equal millions of dollars for quake victims.

Your donated cell phones won’t go directly to quake victims — instead, ReCellular refurbishes and sells the phones in developing countries as an alternative to new models. The full value of each donated phone is then contributed to the American Red Cross.

In some cases (i.e. with a new iPhone or similar smartphone), up to $100 is contributed to relief efforts. Non-functional phones, batteries, and chargers are also accepted. So what are you waiting for? ReCellular offers free shipping, so there’s no excuse not to donate.

Do it in 3 easy steps.

+ Phones for Haiti

Via Earth911

Wacky Packs

2010-01-13T18:30:00.007-05:00

When I was in sixth grade, these were the funniest things around. Now they have returned as wall hangings.

Now for some history. TOPPS WACKY PACKAGES TOPPS launched their first collection of Wacky Packages trading cards in 1967.

Exclusive BIG WALL GRAPHICS from the original WACKY PACKAGES trading card designs are now available from LTL PRINTS.

The decals are removable and can be re-applied up to 100 times.

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Microwave Potato Chips

2010-01-13T17:49:00.001-05:00

Looks like I'll be making these.

Microwave Potato Chips

(makes 4 servings, 12-14 chips each)

1 1/3 pounds Yukon Gold or red potatoes, unpeeled, scrubbed

2 teaspoons or so of extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

Cooking spray

Slice potatoes into 1/8-inch rounds for thicker potato chips. For thinner ones, use a mandolin to cut very thin slices. Toss slices in a medium bowl with oil and salt to coat evenly.

Coat a large microwave-proof plate with cooking spray. Arrange some potato slices in a single layer on the plate. Microwave, uncovered, on High until some slices start to brown, 2 to 3 minutes (depending upon potato thickness and microwave power). Turn slices over (they will be hot, so take care with your fingers) and continue microwaving until they start to crisp and brown around the edges, about 35 seconds for very thin potato slices to 2 to 4 minutes for thicker slices. Check frequently and rearrange slices as needed to prevent scorching. Transfer chips to another plate and allow to cool completely. (They will crisp up more as they cool.) Repeat process with remaining slices.

Storage: Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Per serving: 141 calories; 2 g fat (0 g saturated; 2 g monosaturated); 0 mg cholesterol; 26 g carbohydrate; 3 g protein; 2 g fiber; 291 mg sodium; 807 mg potassium. Nutrition bonus: Potassium (27 percent daily value)

Adapted from a recipe published in EatingWell, January/February 2009

DARPA to Look for a Needle in a Haystack

2010-01-12T14:26:00.002-05:00

DARPA is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a US government organization that performs research in military technology. One of their current projects, the Fine Detail Optical Surveillance (FDOS), hopes to develop optical equipment sensitive enough to literally “a needle moving along the surface of a haystack.” That phrase is actually in the specs:

The program can be described as developing the technology and systems analogous to that required for the rapid imaging and identification, without the need for scanning or focusing of the optical receiver, of a needle moving along the surface of a haystack, where the location and type of needle on the haystack is uncertain.

Link via DVICE

Crash Test 1959 Car vs. 2009 Car

2010-01-12T12:38:00.001-05:00

Glad I wasn't driving a '59 Chevy.

Google's New "Near Me Now" Feature

2010-01-08T12:12:00.001-05:00

This is a pretty cool feature. Too bad we don't have iPhones or Androids.

"Near me now" uses your location aware cellphone (currently only iPhone and Android devices) to search for surrounding businesses by category (restaurants, coffee shops, bars, ATMs and banks, and more), then returns any nearby matches based on their proximity to you. So if you're standing outside or near a restaurant you're considering, all it takes is firing up Google, tapping the "Near me now" link, and then choosing the category. It really is considerably faster than typing (especially on mobile devices), and might be worth working into your mobile searching toolkit.

link

Synthetic Alcohol

2010-01-08T12:05:00.002-05:00

An alcohol substitute that mimics its pleasant buzz without leading to drunkenness and hangovers is being developed by scientists.The new substance could have the added bonus of being 'switched off' instantaneously with a pill, to allow drinkers to drive home or return to work.

The synthetic alcohol, being developed from chemicals related to Valium, works like alcohol on nerves in the brain that provide a feeling of wellbeing and relaxation. But unlike alcohol its does not affect other parts of the brain that control mood swings and lead to addiction. It is also much easier to flush out of the body. The new alcohol is being developed by a team at Imperial College London.

Cookie Holidays

2010-01-05T11:25:00.002-05:00

Please mark your calendars appropriately!

January 6 – Shortbread Day

January 12 – Fig Newton Day

January 23– National Pie Day

March 7-15 — Chocolate Chip Cookie Week

March 18 – Oatmeal Cookie Day

May 31 – Macaroon Day

June 12 – Peanut Butter Cookie Day

July 1 – Gingersnap Day

July 3 – Chocolate Wafer Day

July 9 – Sugar Cookie Day

July 20 – Fortune Cookie Day

September 21 – Pecan Cookie Day

October — Whole month is National Cookie Month

December 4 – National Cookie Day

December 23 – National Pfeffernusse Day

Things We Didn't Know Last Year

2010-01-04T16:19:00.002-05:00

A small sampling from 50 Things We Didn't Know Last Year:

Watermelon is more efficient at rehydrating our bodies than drinking water. It contains 92 percent water and essential rehydration salts.

Grumpy people think more clearly because negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking.

One mutated gene is the reason humans have language, and chimpanzees, our closest relative, do not.

Surfing the Internet may help delay dementia because it creates stimulation that exercises portions of the brain.

Scientists have discovered how to scan brain activity and convert what people are seeing or remembering into crude video images.

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Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T10:50:00.003-05:00

Happy 2KX!

Blu Dot Real Good Chair Experiment

2009-12-30T13:13:00.002-05:00

Curb-mining is the act of finding furniture and art on the street. Blu Dot, a Soho based furniture company, is attempting to track the curb-mining habits of the New York City residents by leaving chairs scattered throughout the city.

Using a built-in tracking device, the chairs tweeted their whereabouts for several days. Finally the Blu Dot team came a knockin’ and interviewed some of the lucky owners in the video.

Blu Dot Real Good Experiment from Real Good Chair on Vimeo.

link

Truck Flips in New Canaan

2009-12-23T17:47:00.002-05:00

How will anyone get to Y now

NEW CANAAN -- The New Canaan Fire Department responded to a truck on its side at 11:20 Wednesday morning on Old Stamford Road near the Weed Street intersection.

According to a Metropolitan Transit Authority official, the 12-foot, 6-inch-tall truck tried to make it under the 12-foot, 3-inch-tall railroad bridge and ended up on its side. The sign warning truckers of the bridge states that vehicles taller than 11 feet, 3 inches, should not try to pass underneath.

Fire Department Lt. Tony Ryan said such incidents happen at this location at least twice a year.

He said there were no injuries.

The road will be closed indefinitely

Color Changing Contacts for Diabetics

2009-12-22T17:08:00.003-05:00

A biochemical engineer at the University of Western Ontario has developed contact lenses that change color in response to spikes and dips in the wearer’s glucose levels.

The secret: Ultra-teeny nanoparticles that react chemically with glucose molecules in tears to produce a shift in hue.

The nanocomposite hydrogel lenses will allow diabetics to monitor potentially life-threatening variations in their sugar levels without missing a thing.

link