Now That's a Pig!

An 11-year-old Alabama boy used a pistol to kill a wild hog his father says weighed a staggering 1,051 pounds and measured 9-feet-4 from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail.

If the claims are accurate, Jamison Stone's trophy boar would be bigger than Hogzilla, the famed wild hog that grew to seemingly mythical proportions after being killed in south Georgia in 2004.

Cereal On The Go

What a cool new product and cheap too.

This super handy container is perfect for those of us who tend to eat our breakfast at the office or in class. The Cereal On The Go container ($5) keeps your milk separate from your cereal until you're ready to chow down. The milk section has gel-filled sides that you freeze to keep your milk cold. A folding spoon snaps into the lid.

Finger length predicts SAT performance

A quick look at the lengths of children's index and ring fingers can be used to predict how well students will perform on SATs, new research claims.

Kids with longer ring fingers compared to index fingers are likely to have higher math scores than literacy or verbal scores on the college entrance exam, while children with the reverse finger-length ratio are likely to have higher reading and writing, or verbal, scores versus math scores.

Exposure to testosterone in the womb is said to promote development of areas of the brain often associated with spatial and mathematical skills, he said. That hormone makes the ring finger longer. Estrogen exposure does the same for areas of the brain associated with verbal ability and tends to lengthen the index finger relative to the ring finger.

Yahoo News

15 Stretches

Fifteen exercises performed by Kermit.
Click on each exercise to learn more.

Weight Gain and High Fructose Corn Syrup

From Serious Eats:

The Economist explains why consuming fructose, in particular high fructose corn syrup, can lead to weight gain:

Fructose apparently tricks the brain into thinking you are hungrier than you actually are. Unlike carbohydrates made up of glucose, fructose does not stimulate the pancreas into producing insulin. Nor does it promote the production of leptin, a hormone made by fat cells. Under normal conditions, the amount of insulin and leptin in the body signal to the brain that you’ve had enough to eat. Meanwhile, fructose doesn’t seem to suppress the production of ghrelin, the hormone that triggers appetite, which normally declines after eating.

In tinkering with the body’s hormonal balance, fructose also causes the liver to spew more fat into the bloodstream than normal. Thus, consuming foods or drinks laced with HFCS is like eating a high-fat meal. In doing so, we not only gobble down more calories with every mouthful, but we also store more of those calories as fat. That can mean only one thing: a bigger waistline.

Gotta Love Those Simpsons

Brooklynese Spoken Here

via Fishs Eddy

Hershey Bar Pie

This looks like it would rate right up there with Peanut Butter Pie! Very simple to make.

Hershey Bar Pie (Anna’s Version)

1 prepared graham cracker crust, store-bought or home-made*
1/3 cup milk
16 large marshmallows, Jet Puffed!
6 Hershey Milk Chocolate Bars with Almonds (somewhere around 9 oz)
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

In a double boiler or a bowl set over a pot of water, combine the milk and marshmallows. Heat, stirring occasionally to mash marshmallows, until marshmallows are partially melted. Add Hershey Bars and stir often until everything is melted. Remove from heat and let cool completely (about an hour)

In a bowl (preferably metal), whip the cream until fluffy. Stir in the vanilla. Fold the whipped cream into the cooled chocolate mixture, scoop it put all in the pie shell. Chill for 4 hours or even better, overnight. If you are using a smallish store-bought graham cracker crust, it may not all

*Homemade Graham Crust: Mix together 1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs, 3 tablespoons sugar, 6 tablespoons melted butter. Press into a greased 9 inch glass pie plate and bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Cool.

via Cookie Madness

Now here is the mug that you must get me however, $16 for a mug is just plain stupid.

Oh look...it's the perfect mug for me!

Create an ongoing photo time capsule by mailing your future self

This is such a cool idea. Why don't we all plan on doing this.

The photo enthusiasts at Photojojo suggest putting together an ongoing time capsule by setting picture appointments for your future self.

The idea is that you take a photo of yourself, then write a letter to yourself several years in the future with instructions to add another photo to the capsule. Photojojo suggests reminding yourself to take your future photos by using an email service like previously mentioned FutureMe to send an email to your future self. Sounds like a great project. — Adam Pash

"Note to Future Self, Please Take a Picture of Me": Create Your Own Ongoing Time Capsule [Photojojo]

Truth Behind The Construction Of The Great Pyramids

Almost everyone in the scientific world embraces the theory that the pyramids were crafted of carved-out giant limestone blocks that workers carried up ramps.

Professor Michel Barsoum, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA, and colleagues have found scientific evidence that parts of the Great Pyramids of Giza were built using an early form of concrete, debunking an age old myth that they were built using only cut limestone blocks.

Camel fitted with pair of desert boots

It's enough to give any camel the hump - hooves too sore to walk on after a close encounter with a fire.

But, luckily for Goliath, a specialist shoe maker stepped in and custom made him four sturdy boots.



The camel would be more at home in the desert but was on a trek through Europe to raise funds for children's charities when his hooves were hurt in a roadside grass blaze.

As Goliath and his owner Joerg Schmid rested in the town of Bonndorf, southern Germany, locals came to his aid by donating money to have the boots made by specialist firm Wessels.



Mr Schmid said: "As well as the burns, he suffers from a genetic defect common to camels that makes the feet rot. But since he's had the boots, he's been great."

Now that he is back on his feet, they will soon be heading to Romania on the next leg.

via Arbroath

New fingerprint analysis identifies smokers

Images that show how fingerprints can be used to reveal whether you are a smoker, an avid coffee drinker or even a drug addict have been revealed by UK scientists.

They were produced using a novel forensic technique that could in future be used on fingerprints collected at a crime scene. If the prints in question are not on file, this would still give police a powerful way to shrink their pool of suspects, by identifying their lifestyle habits.

It exploits the fact that the breakdown products - metabolites - of substances people consume are deposited in sweat found in pores in their fingerprint ridges.

New Scientist

New XBox

David- this is for you.

Microsoft is scheduled to release a special edition Xbox for ‘The Simpsons’ movie. Only 100 will be made. As seen on LA MJC.

Be safe on the water

MetLife Insurance has put together a series of boat safety tips for the U.S. Coast Guard; they include:

• Aids to Navigation
• Getting Help
• Water-Skiing Safety Tips

So when sailing the high seas in the Rat-Tat-Two-E be safe.

MetLife Boat Safety Tips [U.S. Coast Guard ]

Grandparents

Good thing you have grandparents that look like this:



and not like this:



A Chinese grandmother has a five inch horn growing out of her forehead.

The horn curves downward and looks like the stalk of a pumpkin, reports the Yangcheng Evening Post.

Granny Zhao, 95, of Zhanjiang city, Guangdong province, says it first appeared three years ago.

"At first, it was only a mole, but it gradually grew and became like a horn," she said.

Zhao says the horn causes her little trouble except to affect her vision slightly: "It causes me no discomfort, but blocks part of my view."

But her family are hoping that medical experts can explain the phenomenon.

Wonder What Graduation Was Like

They say a picture is worth 1000 words. Well this man took over 1000 pictures. Tracie you really missed out.

Dark Matter

Today scientists announced that they had mapped a ring of dark matter around a galaxy cluster utilizing gravitational distortions observed in photographs taken by the Hubble space telescope.

This is a groundbreaking discovery, since for decades scientists had theorized that the bulk of the Universe is held together by dark matter, and that this matter could not be observed since it neither emits nor reflects light.

Read more at the Bad Astronomy Blog.

Congratulations Evan

I got my name in lights with notcelebrity.co.uk

Congratulations Evan on being awarded the Emory University, Goizueta Business School, BBA Meritorious Service Award for 2007.

Boom Goes The Dynamite

Prom Time

So how much was the dress??

Happy Graduation Evan!!

Happy Graduation Evan!!



On behalf of the entire staff here at The Ratner Gazette, we wish you a hardy mazel tov on this milestone. We love you and are all very proud of you and what you have accomplished and what you have yet to accomplish.

Find an apartment with Google Maps/Craigslist mashup

MapsKrieg helps you find apartments, houses for rent, sublets and more by mashing Craigslist listings with Google Maps.

Just choose your city from a pull-down list. You'll then see a marker-filled Google Map for that city; each marker represents a Craiglist ad. Clicking one produces a pop-up bubble containing information about the rental and a link to the full ad. Unfortunately, the site is currently limited to just a couple hundred cities, and there's no search option. Even so, this ingenious mashup greatly simplifies apartment hunting by letting you browse available locations on a map. While you're at it, check out Adam's awesome feature: Apartment hunting 101.

via Lifehacker

Fun With Clouds

link

Nice Clock

Turn a boring old cheap clock into a fun clock for folks who grew up watching Sesame street, One two three four five, six seven eight nine ten, eleven twe-eh-eh-eh-elve! Thydzik writes -

This instructable will outline the construction of a customized clock. Whilst this is specifically the construction of the clock featured on Sesame Street; the Pinball Number Counting animation, the general procedures are the same and the instructions are as generic as possible. The clock is inexpensive and an easy way to create something out of the ordinary.

instructables : Custom Clock - This example is featured in Sesame Street - Pinball Number Count - Link.

via Make:blog

Imaginary friend sold on eBay by real 'friend'

A 27-year-old man is selling his imaginary friend on eBay - because he has grown out of him.

The sales pitch reads: 'My imaginary friend Jon Malipieman is getting to old for me now. I am now 27 and I feel I am growing out of him. 'He is very friendly. Along with him, I will send you what he likes and dislikes, his favourite things to do and his personal self portrait.'



Seller thewildandcrazyoli, from Newport, has received questions including does he mind smokers? And is he single?

The highest bid currently stands at £1,550.01 with one and a half days left till the auction ends. Postage is free.

It's a good thing you can put no price tag on Gege and Woowoo!

Diagram of World Fatness

Based on the data showing the percentage of the population older than 15 with a body index greater than 30 in various countries, someone at Wellinftogrey.net built this cool diagram of world fatness.

Gorgeous Red Land in Yunnan

This beautiful red land is located in Dong Chuan District of Kunming City, Yuanna Province. The compelling colors of soil is due to the deposition of iron oxides, which make the area look really gorgeous!

more photos

via Random Citations

Herod's Tomb Found

After a 35-year search starting from 1972, Professor Ehud Netzer, an archaeologist from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, finally found Herod the Great's last resting place in Herodium, Herod's fortified palace on a hilltop in West bank.

The tomb was located at Herodium, a hill rising more than 750 metres (2,475 ft) above sea level and 12 km (7.5 miles) south of Jerusalem in the West Bank.

"The location and unique nature of the findings, as well as the historical record, leave no doubt that this was Herod's burial site," Netzer said.

The pieces of the "large unique" sarcophagus, made of Jerusalem reddish limestone and decorated with rosettes, were discovered on the northeast slope of the hill.

Herod, sometimes called Herod the Great, was appointed king of Judea by the Romans in around 40 BC in the first century.

He greatly expanded the Jewish second temple and ordered building works in Caesaeria, Jericho and at the hilltop fortress of Masada overlooking the Dead Sea.

He is best known to Christians from the Gospel of St Matthew in the Bible for ordering the Slaughter of the Innocents - the mass killing of male babies in Bethlehem in a bid to avert a perceived threat to his rule.

Hot rice, just add cold water

An environmental consulting firm and other developers here have come up with a non-perishable food pack that creates steaming hot rice with the simple addition of cold water.

The group has recently introduced the product, named "Hotto! Raisu," to the market.

By subjecting rice to 4,000 times normal atmospheric pressure, the developers were able to preserve rice for long periods in a soft form that holds moisture. When water is poured over an exothermic agent in the pack, steam warms the rice contained within, and after about 15 minutes, the dish is piping hot.

The product is not cheap, costing 10,000 yen ($83) for 30 packs with pickled ume plums.

viaSpluch

Spiders found in ear of boy with earache

A 9-year-old boy who complained of an earache was a little surprised when the doctor told him that a pair of spiders had tried to make a home out of him.

"They were walking on my eardrums," said Jesse Courtney. His mother, Diane Courtney, said her son insisted he kept hearing a faint popping in his ear -- "like Rice Krispies" -- before the earache sent them to the doctor.

Dr. David Irvine said it looked like the boy had something in his ear when he examined him, but he could not immediately identify it. So he irrigated the ear, and the first spider came out, dead.

The other spider took a second dousing before it emerged, still alive. Both were about the size of a pencil eraser. Irvine said it was a first for him as a physician.

Jesse was given the spiders -- now both dead -- as a souvenir.

via KGW

Who Doesn't Believe in Evolution?

That would be...Brownback, Tancredo and Huckabee with their hands up. Smart group, huh?!

WD -40 An Easy Fix

When the new millennium was marked by bells ringing in other cities, Mayor Thomas M. Menino had nothing to offer. And while bells around Boston rang to mark the Fourth of July or the Red Sox and Patriots championships, the mayor couldn't contribute.

It's not that he didn't have a bell -- there's a historic one atop city-owned Faneuil Hall, in clear view of Menino's City Hall office -- but for as long as anyone can remember, it was inoperable, its striker rusted and frozen in place.

Tired of sitting out solemn and happy occasions when bells are called for, Boston has finally restored the ringing mechanism of the 1866 British-forged bell. The fix: a can of WD-40. Officials said they repeatedly sprayed the lubricant on the rusted striker over the course of a week. Now, it works like a charm.

via The Boston Globe

Power station bathed in "heavenly light"

This is a power station operating in Serville, Spain, which makes use of energy from the Sun to generate electricity. This environmentally friendly power plant has an array of 600 huge mirrors and generates electricity for 8,000 homes. The most amazing aspect of it is that the light being reflected from the mirrors give it a kind of heavenly feel in broad daylight as shown in this photo.

BBC

Now this is cool... DocuPen Pen Scanner

Can you imagine having a pen sized scanner? Just glide the "pen" over the page and it will scan it into memory, then connect it to your laptop or computer and it uploads the page. The DocuPen RC800 color handheld scanner, by Planon, can store up to 100 pages of scanned text.

While portable scanners aren't new, the speed of the DocuPen RC800 -- scans a full page of text and graphics in four to six seconds -- puts it in a class by itself.

After a few tries, I found I had mastered it; and it scans images as well as text, plus business cards, pretty much anything you want. The 800 version will set you back $299, but there are cheaper versions available, even a Recertified R700 for $99, which makes it afforable for students.

via Popgadget

Relationship Problems?

Wife escapes living room truck smash

When David E. Monroe asked his wife to sit by the window in their living room on Sunday evening, she suspected that something might be up.

'I'll be right back', 51-year-old allegedly reassured her, before going outside.



Her suspicion that something untoward might be going on was seemingly confirmed when, shortly after, Monroe drove his Ford pickup truck through the large window, right where Carolyn Monroe had been sitting.

The truck came to a stop in the room. Mrs. Monroe and her daughter, quite wisely, had fled through the back door.

Mr. Monroe has been jailed in Yorktown, Indiana, on preliminary charges of attempted murder, disorderly conduct and criminal recklessness with a vehicle.

via Arbroath

Starry Night on Jupiter

What does legendary, long-dead painter Vincent Van Gogh have to do with an Earth-sized storm whose whipping winds top 400 mph? That all depends on your point of view: pragmatically, not much, since Jupiter’s “Little Red Spot,” as it’s known, was only discovered a few years ago. But new, close-up pictures of the Spot returned by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft have revealed a connection Mother Nature may never have intended: it looks a heckuva lot like Van Gogh’s Starry Night. Like, check it out:

Whether or not Van Gogh took his inspiration from an actual starry night — and a not-yet-formed alien storm system, or at least its big brother storm, hundreds of years old and well-known during Van Gogh’s lifetime — is a matter of speculation. Either way, the resemblance is striking.

via Mental Floss

This Won't Happen for Another 100 Years

At 3 minutes and 4 seconds after 2 AM (and PM, if you’re using a 12-hour clock) this Saturday, the 6th of May, the time and date will be

02:03:04 05/06/07

(At 9 minutes and 10 seconds after 8 AM/PM, it’ll be 05/06/07 08:09:10)

How Good Do These Look?

Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cupcakes

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 ¼ cups lightly packed brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 heaping TBSP cocoa powder
2 ¼ cups sifted cake flour
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup sour cream
¾ cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350F.
Grease cupcake pans and set aside.
Place the butter, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on high speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl often , until well blended, about 3 minutes. Add the cocoa powder. Mix until combined. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, on at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl and mixing well after each addition. Continue to beat for 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Stop the mixer, add the melted chocolate, and mix well. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add about ½ the ingredients followed by about ½ of the sour cream and beat well. Add the remaining dry ingredients followed by the remaining sour cream, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beating well after each addition. Add the boiling water and beat until smooth.
Scoop(ice cream scoop works best) batter into prepared pans. Bake for 15-20 minutes until cake springs back when touched lightly in the center. Let cool for about 10 minutes and remove from pan. Let cupcakes cool completely.

Peanut Butter Filling

4 ounces or 1/2 package of Philly cream cheese
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
milk to thin out filling

Beat cream cheese and peanut butter until combined.
Add powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until combined.
Add the milk and beat until combined. Add milk until your reach desired consistency.

Chocolate Ganache

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
5 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon butter, room temperature
2-3 cups powdered sugar

Chop chocolates and transfer into a heat proof bowl.
Heat cream until bubbles form around the edge of the pan, pour cream over the chocolate.
Let sit for 1 minute then stir until combined.
Add butter and vanilla and stir until combined.
Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixture and let cool for 10 minutes.
Sift powdered sugar into the mixture and beat until combined. Add more sugar if needed.
Continue to beat with an electric mixer until lighter in color and creamy.

Assemble
Using a small pairing knife, cut off the top of the cupcake in the shape of a cone. Flip the top over and cut off the cone.
Fill the cavity with a teaspoon or so of peanut butter filling. I used a piping bag, this makes it much easier.
Replace top.
Frost with ganache.

via Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Happy 17th Birthday Hubble Telescope

Astronomers are placing another candle on Hubble’s birthday cake. The Earth-orbiting telescope is celebrating its 17th birthday, making it a mere teenager. This teenager, however, has produced some breathtaking images of celestial objects and has helped astronomers answer many important questions about our universe.

NASA launched the Earth-orbiting telescope on April 24, 1990, when George W. Bush’s father was president and the World Wide Web was still a dream. In its 17 years of exploring the heavens, the telescope has snapped nearly 500,000 images of more than 25,000 celestial objects. It has made nearly 100,000 trips around Earth. Those trips have racked up lots of frequent-flier-miles — more than 2.4 billion, the equivalent of a round trip to Saturn.

Hubble’s 17 years of observations have produced more than 30 terabytes of data, equal to about 25 percent of the information stored in the Library of Congress. Each day the orbiting observatory generates about 10 gigabytes of data, enough information to fill the hard drive of a typical home computer in two weeks.

more