Hiatus

Unfortunately kids, due to work load and traveling this week I will not be able to bring you the usual bloggy goodness. Have no fear though, the blog will be back and running Monday (6/23).

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Glad We Cleared That Up

We Arent Twins. . . Just Born The Same Day

Two Scottish girls born to the same mother minutes a part are not twins. Hmmm. How does that work?

Defying million-to-one odds and everything you ever knew about fertility and hormones and monthly cycles, a 29-year-old mother of two got pregnant a couple of times within the span of a few weeks.

After she initially became pregnant, her menstrual cycle soldiered on none-the-wiser and released an egg the following month, which also became fertilized and eventually implanted. Oh, and Mom was on the pill the whole time. (Full Story at babble)

That's crazy. I thought we had our kids close together. . .

Cats For Dinner

Eating house pets in the name of animal welfare is a quick way to raise the hackles of not only animal rights groups, but also the on-line community, a group of journalism students in Århus have discovered.

The group, all students at the Danish School of Journalism, had their Facebook accounts closed by the on-line community's administrators after they uploaded pictures of themselves cooking and eating a cat.

The meal had been intended as a way to shed light on the plight of food animals such as pigs and cows, but instead it has animal lovers hissing in protest.

'This is the worst way to draw people's attention to animal welfare,' said Ole Münster, director of animal welfare organisation Dyrenes Beskyttelse. 'The choice of a cat was an especially bad one, since we get most of our calls about them.' (Full Story at cphpost)

I've always thought it was interesting that cultures will declare particular meats edible and others not. Seems to me that you have to declare all animals edible or none, so I get what they were trying to do. I could have told them, however, that their little stunt was going to end badly.

Anyone Includes You

EASTON, Md. (AP) - For only the third time in five years, Easton police have ticketed someone for going topless in public. Sean Cephus, 18, was cited June 4 when police say he was spotted without a shirt on South Street near Hanson Street. He was also cited for failing to obey a lawful order to stop for police.

A town ordinance adopted in 1974 forbids anyone from going topless in public buildings or on public streets and sidewalks. Possible penalties are a fine of up to $100 and up to 10 days in jail.

Easton Police Lt. Gregory Wright said people without shirts are considered a public nuisance. He said three citations have been issued since 2003. (From wtop)

Strange law, but it is what it is.

Sites To Know

This week we have repairpal highlighted. It's a pretty simple concept. You put in the make and model of your car then select the type of servicing you need done to it. Based on your zip code it will recommend shops in your area (reviewed by your peers), and it will give you an estimated price range for the repair.

I checked on getting my AC fixed. . . Considering the cost is about what my car is worth, I will keep rolling in the ol' sweat box. So if you wonder what it's going to cost you to get your wheels - go here and check out repairpal.

World Champ Shin Kicker

The crowd that assembled on Dover’s Hill near Chipping Campden last Friday weren’t in the Cotswolds for views of the rolling countryside.

They came instead for scenic pleasures of sheer, shinbone-shattering violence that forms part of the Cotswold Olimpick Games.

To the casual observer, it may appear that the men in white coats knocking seven bells out of one another should be the ones carted away.

But these amateur gladiators are battling for the honour of being crowned Britain’s pre-eminent shin kicker. (Full Story at mirror)

I have to be honest. I would be a little afraid of a world class shin kicker.

For The Curious

One cyclist was killed and 10 others injured after a suspected drunk driver crashed into a bicycle race in Monterrey, Mexico.

Police allege Juan Campos, an American citizen from Brownsville, Texas, was drunk when he fell asleep behind the wheel and crashed into the bikers who were participating in a 21-mile race along a highway near the U.S.-Mexico border.

37-year-old Alejandro Alvarez of Monterrey was killed in the accident.

The cyclists were 15 minutes into the race when the crash occurred. The cycling event was cancelled following the incident. (From transworldnews)

Tragic.

Things You Cant Do

I'm sure some of you wonder how I have so much free time on my hands (a misnomer I assure you), but I think this guy has more at any rate. . . and he's more of a dork.

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Too Smart To Work Here

A Federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a man who was barred from the New London police force because he scored too high on an intelligence test.

In a ruling made public on Tuesday, Judge Peter C. Dorsey of the United States District Court in New Haven agreed that the plaintiff, Robert Jordan, was denied an opportunity to interview for a police job because of his high test scores. But he said that that did not mean Mr. Jordan was a victim of discrimination.

Judge Dorsey ruled that Mr. Jordan was not denied equal protection because the city of New London applied the same standard to everyone: anyone who scored too high was rejected. (Full Story at nytimes)

I don't think any comments are necessary for this one.

Unicorns Are Real

THE legend of the unicorn has been punctured. The mythical beast with a horn protruding from the centre of its head, blessed with healing powers and a temper tamed only by a virgin's touch is, in reality, just a deer with a wonky gene.

The discovery in an Italian nature reserve of a deer with a single antler growing from the centre of its head is being hailed as an explanation for the ancient belief in a horned horse capable of miracles.

The one-year-old roe deer was born in a research centre's park in the Tuscan town of Prato, near Florence. He is believed to have a genetic flaw as his twin has two horns. The deers' mother was brought to the park several years ago after being hit by a car in the Apennine mountains. (Full Story at thescotsman)


So what about ogres, trolls and fairies?

Racing

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(by reuters)

On The Tip Of Your Tounge

(via lifehacker)

Whose 727 Is This?

Vietnamese authorities say they are mystified as to who owns a Boeing 727 which has been abandoned at Hanoi's Noi Bai airport.

The plane was flown in from Siem Reap in neighbouring Cambodia in late 2007 and has been unclaimed ever since.

An airport official told the BBC that they believe the owners could be an airline based in Cambodia.

The official said that if it remains unclaimed, the plane will have to be sent for scrap.

The plane has a Cambodian flag on its fuselage and is emblazoned with the name Air Dream, but the authorities say they have no information about the airline. (Full Story at bbc)

Do you need keys for something like that? I guess if you're looking for a used 727 you can contact these guys.

Back From The Dead

THE case of a man whose heart stopped beating for 1-1/2 hours only to revive just as doctors were preparing to remove his organs for transplants is fuelling ethical debates in France about when a person is dead.

The 45-year-old man suffered a massive heart attack and rescuers used cardiac massage to try and revive him without success before transferring him to a nearby hospital.

Due to a series of complex circumstances, revival efforts continued for longer than usual for a patient whose heart was not responding to treatment, until doctors started preparations to remove organs.

It was at that point that the astonished surgeons noticed the man was beginning to breathe unaided again, his pupils were active, he was giving signs that he could feel pain -- and finally, his heart started beating again. (Full Story at news)



There are already people who claim that if you are an organ donor many hospitals will pronounce you dead quicker to get your organs. I don't know the veracity of the claim (I'm an organ donor and I'm not all that concerned) but this will certainly cause a stir for some folks - maybe even a lawsuit or two?. . .

Fighting Cancer

A biotech company, founded by researchers from the University of Munich, has developed a fascinating way to make the immune system fight cancer.

On Thursday, Micromet Inc. announced that its experimental drug, MT103, had impressive results in a test upon seven Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma patients. All of them had failed at least three conventional treatments, but showed signs of recovery after receiving doses of a two-headed antibody. (Full Story at wired)

Hitler Was My Great Uncle

FOR more than 50 years, the relatives of Adolf Hitler have hidden under false names in Long Island, New York. They have not spoken publicly since the Second World War. In a revelatory new book to be launched this week, they break their silence. David Gardner tells their story.

The faint lilt of German folk music floated through the open window of the dark-wood alpine bungalow as I walked down the short path to the front door. The property straddled two small roads on a forested private estate nestling into one of the bays tucked behind slivers of land protecting the New York coastline from the full impact of the Atlantic Ocean.

Neither close enough to New York city to be overrun by urban sprawl nor fashionable enough to compete with the wealthy weekend getaways in the Hamptons, it was a community left largely untouched by the passing of the years. (Full Story at telegraph)

Can you imagine being a relative of someone so universally hated? That's a tough row to hoe.

Cutting Back on Meat

LET’S suppose you’ve decided to eat less meat, or are considering it. And let’s ignore your reasons for doing so. They may be economic, ethical, altruistic, nutritional or even irrational. The arguments for eating less meat are myriad and well-publicized, but at the moment they’re irrelevant, because what I want to address here is (almost) purely pragmatic: How do you do it?

I’m not talking about eating no meat; I’m talking about cutting back, which in some ways is harder than quitting. Vegetarian recipes and traditions are everywhere. But in the American style of eating — with meat usually at the center of the plate — it can be difficult to eat two ounces of beef and call it dinner.

Cutting back on meat is not an isolated process. Unlike, say, taking up meditation or exercise, it usually has consequences for others. (Full Story at nytimes)

With food prices rising, cutting back on meat is a good way to save some ca$h. Also, as he points out in the article, I'm starting to believe that the average American diet contains entirely too much meat. (Start following fanaticcooks blog if you are interested in studying dietary issues. She is one of the main reasons I've started heading in this direction).

Cool Chart

Below is a chart displaying the percentage of income spent on fuel. Interestingly, even though gas is cheaper down here it still hurts more to fill up than in California. If you click on the link, you can also see the price of gas around the country and the median income. Sorry about the diminutive sized chart (just click on the link to see a readable version). (From nytimes)

"Is Google Making Us Stupid"

"Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Will you stop, Dave?” So the supercomputer HAL pleads with the implacable astronaut Dave Bowman in a famous and weirdly poignant scene toward the end of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Bowman, having nearly been sent to a deep-space death by the malfunctioning machine, is calmly, coldly disconnecting the memory circuits that control its artificial »

brain. “Dave, my mind is going,” HAL says, forlornly. “I can feel it. I can feel it.”

I can feel it, too. Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.

I think I know what’s going on. For more than a decade now, I’ve been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet. (Full Story at theatlantic)



I was actually commenting yesterday to a co-worker that something about the Internet is ADD. I can spend hours at a time reading a book (empirically refuting claims of the above article), but you can forget about me reading anything on the Internet that would require 15 minutes. It's one of the reasons that I think paper books are here to stay. I don't care what kind of electronic device you create to read books on - I just can't see myself using it. Maybe that will change with the next generation though. What do you think?

Making Better Wepons

ScienceDaily (Jun. 11, 2008) — In today's fast-paced, technologically advanced world, people often take the innovation of new technology for granted without giving much thought to the trial-and-error experimentation that makes technology useful in everyday life. When the "cutting-edge" technology of the bow and arrow was introduced to the world, it changed the way humans hunted and fought. University of Missouri archaeologists have discovered that early man, on the way to perfecting the performance of this new weapon, engaged in experimental research, producing a great variety of projectile points in the quest for the best, most effective system.

"Technological innovation and change has become a topic that interests people," said R. Lee Lyman, professor and chair of the University of Missouri Department of Anthropology. "When the bow and arrow appeared in North America, roughly 1,500 years ago, it eventually replaced the atlatl (spear thrower) and dart. The introduction of the bow and arrow, a different weapon delivery system, demanded some innovative thinking and technology. In other words, one could not just shoot a dart from a bow. Components like the shaft and arrow point needed to be reinvented." . . .

"Everyone is looking for the better mouse trap," Lyman said. "Once a change is made in one variable, it may prompt changes in another variable because the two are mechanically linked. For example, if something gets longer, generally, it will get heavier. This is called a cascade effect. This, in combination with experimentation, resulted in the tremendous variation in projectile points." (Full Story at sd)

On the surface of things this study seems like a complete waste of time. Of course they worked on making their tools better, but I would find it interesting to see the process they went through. What did they start with and what did they try? Do you think it would vary much from the things you or I would try? How much did their previous tools color their perception on what would work?

Cool New Guitar

If you aren't into music or maybe even if you aren't into making music you might want to skip this. At any rate, I can't wait to see what some folks do with this.

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Baby Smash

Windows only: Programmer and dad Scott Hanselman wanted an easy way to let his toddler play on his computer without deleting files or quitting programs, so he put together baby-proofing software, Baby Smash!. Start up Baby Smash! and let the little one go to town on your keyboard.

As babies smash on the keyboard, colored shapes, letters and numbers appear on the screen. Baby Smash will lock out the Windows Key, as well as Ctrl-Esc and Alt-Tab so your baby can't get out of the application. Pressing ALT-F4 will exit the application and Shift-Ctrl-Alt-O brings up the options dialog. (babysmash here | via lifehacker)

Now I just need someone to come up with a way to keep my kids from touching the LCD monitor all the time. . .

Sleep More For Better Performance

ScienceDaily (Jun. 10, 2008) — Getting extra sleep over an extended period of time improves athletic performance, mood and alertness, according to a research abstract that will be presented on June 9 at the SLEEP 2008 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS) in Baltimore, Md.

Participants in this ongoing study were five healthy students on the Stanford University men’s and women’s swimming teams. For the first two weeks of the study, the students maintained their usual sleep-wake pattern. The athletes then extended their sleep to 10 hours per day for six to seven weeks.

Athletic performance was assessed after each regularly scheduled swim practice. After obtaining extra sleep, athletes swam a 15-meter meter sprint 0.51 seconds faster, reacted 0.15 seconds quicker off the blocks, improved turn time by 0.10 seconds and increased kick strokes by 5.0 kicks. (Full Story at sd)

Those results are pretty impressive, but 10 hours is a long time to sleep. I wonder if taking a nap in the middle of the day would have similar results (assuming the total sleep per day equaled 10 hours).

Whale Vase

This Whale Vase is so simple, so elegant, so perfectly executed. It comes in two pieces you strategically place on any surface, as if the whale is breaking tide. Designer Alessandro Beda is currently looking for a way to mass produce and we couldn’t be more happier with the idea! (From yanko)


I like that it can turn just a flower or two into a nice center piece.

Golf Cart Injuries Rise

ScienceDaily (Jun. 10, 2008) — As golf carts are used in more settings off the golf course, the number of injuries is rising. According to an article in the July 2008 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, from 1990 until 2006, the injury rate rose more than 130 percent. During this period, nearly 150,000 golf cart-related injuries were recorded in people as young as 2 months and as old as 96 years.

Golf carts have become much faster and more powerful - some can reach 25 mph and travel over 40 miles on a single battery charge. Golf carts are now routinely used for transportation purposes at sporting events, hospitals, airports, national parks, college campuses, businesses and military bases. In many gated and retirement communities, golf carts have become the primary means of transportation. Most golf carts are not subject to federal regulation, and state and local regulations for golf carts vary widely by region. (Full Story at sd)

I don't think there is any cause for alarm here. I just hope the government doesn't decide it needs to start regulating golf carts.

Colour Lovers

The gauges sizzled with blue light. Long sparks crackled along the wall. Somewhere a red light blinked, like a silent, threatening eye, and a vial behind Joachim’s back was filled with a green glow. Then everything calmed down; the spectacle of lights vanished.

—Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain, translated by John E. Woods. Mann is describing the workings of a primitive X-ray machine.

___________________

Though printed in black and white, great literature is bursting with vibrant colour. In this rebus-style puzzle, color words and parts of words have been replaced with colored boxes. Try to guess the exact hue of each. Roll your mouse over the colored boxes to reveal the missing words. Click the colored boxes to learn more about each hue. Special thanks to Paul Dean for his colorful research. (From colourlovers)

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Best Before Dates

It is lunchtime and I am arguing with my wife. It is a big one. We are entering neighbours-can-hear-every-word territory. Something terrible has come between us: an uncooked piece of chicken. My wife Emily points out that it is six days past its Use-By date and shouts: 'It's gone off, idiot!'

She accuses me of trying to poison my stepson Felix, 16, who, like me, wants to eat it. I say she shouldn't believe everything she reads on the label. This makes things worse.

Welcome to an unusual experiment. For two weeks I have decided to eat increasingly out-of-date supermarket-food in an attempt to discover the truth about Use-By and Best Before dates, and prove that Britain is throwing out tons of perfectly good produce. (Full Story at dailymail)



I have to admit that I have always played pretty loose with "best by" and "use by" dates. I've never had any troubles from it either.

Why Organic Milk Stays Fresh Longer

If you’ve ever shopped for milk, you’ve no doubt noticed what our questioner has: While regular milk expires within about a week or sooner, organic milk lasts much longer—as long as a month. . .

Organic milk lasts longer because producers use a different process to preserve it. According to the Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance, the milk needs to stay fresh longer because organic products often have to travel farther to reach store shelves since its not produced throughout the country.

The process that gives the milk a longer shelf life is called ultrahigh temperature (UHT) processing or treatment, in which milk is heated to 280 degrees Fahrenheit (138 degrees Celsius) for two to four seconds, killing any bacteria in it. (Full Story at sciam)


Interesting. I'm sure the organic milk producers enjoy the false conclusion that it lasts longer because its organic.

The Backpack Car

Up to 300 mile range - incredibly safe - value-priced - comfortable- technologically amazing - customizable - fast - durable - easy to maintain- energy you can produce at home - and more...We are discussing all orders under NDA only. It is preferred that fleet and distributor opportunities meet at our San Francisco Center to discuss the program. We are not selling individual vehicles currently. Due to competitive market reasons, all vehicle data is currently confidential until the official open launch, which will be announced once certification papers are in hand from various regulatory agencies. We are not releasing sales literature at this time.

We are also working on custom projects like the BACKPACK CAR^TM below:

(From xpcarteam via tom)

Moments In History Via Legos

Go here to check out more of these very cool recreations of historical moments. (via makezine)

Morningness For Better Grades

ScienceDaily (Jun. 9, 2008) — Morningness is a predictor of better grades in college, according to a research abstract that will be presented on June 9 at SLEEP 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS).

The study, authored by Kendry Clay, of the University of North Texas, focused on 824 undergraduate students who were enrolled in psychology classes. The subjects completed a health survey which included questions regarding sleep habits and aspects of daytime functioning.

According to the results, college students who are evening types had lower GPAs, while those who are morning types had higher GPAs. (Full Story at sd)

Is "morningness" really a word?

Condiment Gun

Sausages, chips and burgers will be unable to dodge the splodge once you arm yourself with a Condiment Gun. As you can see, this brilliantly ridiculous sauce dispenser looks just like a comedy cartoon six-shooter and it's ideal for anyone who loves squirtable condiments such as ketchup, mustard and brown sauce.
All you do is load up the Condiment Gun's cartridge (two supplied) with your favourite sauce, bung it in and squeeze the trigger. Satisfying? It makes walloping the bottom of a regular sauce bottle seem about as entertaining as watching a tomato go off. (From firebox)


I have to think this will end in nefarious usage.

When The Microwave Is Broken

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Nessy In Minnesota

LAKE CITY, Minn. (WCCO) ― There's one creature in Minnesota that's so hard to track that $50,000 reward is out for proof it exists.

Ever since the 1800s, residents around Lake Pepin in Lake City, Minn. say they've spotted a sea monster. They call him, Pepie.

"It was very strange," said Larry Nielson, who says he's seen the mysterious creature. "We watched it for quite a while and we watched it for about 15 minutes and could not figure out what it might be."

Steve Raymond shares the same story.

"Now, I'm the third person who's reported it. I distinctly remember three humps, with one hump looking like a head," recalled Raymond about his experience on Lake Pepin.

The first sighting of the creature was in April 1871. An artist has tried to show what the monster, with a hypnotic red-eye and demon-like head, might look like. It's said to live within the depths of Devil's Abys. (Full Story at wcco)


I like to think that there are still creatures that hide right under our noses.

Zombie Caterpillar

Johnny Appleseed Has a New Bike

The Bloom device is meant to be a subversive and inspirational tool for our concrete jungles. Similar to the tuft of a dandelion as the wind carries the seedling, we propose a way of dispersing seedlings with bubbles and bicycling. Seeds are co-mingled with a bubble mixture and upon pedaling to your destination , you release the floating seeds which land in cracks and crevices throughout the city streets. Over time, the seeds grow into flowers and plants to create a green "fringe" to our sidewalks and streets.

Using natural ingredients; vegetable based soap and seeds, combine together to make a dissolving "nugget". The resulting mixture resides in a reservoir inside Blooms aluminum housing. The housing is attached to the lower frame near the rear tire, similar to a exhaust pipe. Upon pedalling, air enters the front of Bloom and spins a pinwheel inside which picks up a small drop of the seed/bubble mixture and blows a bubble carrying a seed out the back as "exhaust".

Our inspiration comes from the tale of Johnny Appleseed, where he would spread seeds everywhere he went planting apple trees for future generations. (From design21sd via makezine)


I like it. I have no clue as to whether or not it would work, but I still like it.

Sites To Know

This week I'm highlighting lookybook. Lookybook is a website designed to let you look through children's books before buying them, and yes, you get to read the whole thing. Its free, and if you register you get some extra features such as keeping a "library" of books you like. Its my guess that they make their money on click throughs. When you finish a book it gives you links to places from which you can order the book. Sure, they aren't doing anything for you that a trip to the book store wouldn't take care of, but you can use the site whenever and from the comfort of your PJs.

Go give lookybook a try and tell me what you think.

IM In The Work Place

ScienceDaily (Jun. 4, 2008) — Employers seeking to decrease interruptions may want to have their workers use instant messaging software, a new study suggests. A recent study by researchers at Ohio State University and University of California, Irvine found that workers who used instant messaging on the job reported less interruption than colleagues who did not.

The study challenges the widespread belief that instant messaging leads to an increase in disruption. Some researchers have speculated that workers would use instant messaging in addition to the phone and e-mail, leading to increased interruption and reduced productivity.

Instead, research showed that instant messaging was often used as a substitute for other, more disruptive forms of communication such as the telephone, e-mail, and face-to-face conversations. Using instant messaging led to more conversations on the computer, but the conversations were briefer, said R. Kelly Garrett, co-author of the study and assistant professor of communication at Ohio State. (Full Story at sd)

I happen to use Gtalk at work. Even though my co-workers sit within earshot of me, I would rather instant message them. It also comes in handy when you want to ask a question when you are on the phone with someone. There is also the added bonus of being able to vent frustrations without having to worry about someone overhearing.

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Garfield Minus Garfield

Garfield is just an OK comic in my opinion. At some point an individual realized that the comics were much funnier if you take Garfield out of them. I have to agree. In there words:

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb.

Check out the site (with the "improved" comics of course) here.

More Pyramids Found

June 5, 2008—The foundations of a pyramid long lost under the sands of Egypt lie exposed on June 2, 2008. Archaeologists today announced the rediscovery of the ruins in Saqqara, south of Cairo.

The so-called Headless Pyramid was reported in the early 19th century by a German archaeologist, but its exact location was subsequently lost.

With its recent rediscovery, archaeologists have determined that the pyramid probably belonged to Pharaoh Menkauhor, who ruled from 2421 to 2414 B.C. Teams also found a new part of a sacred road at the site that is thought to have been used for processions of mummified royal bulls. (Full Story at nationalgeographic)

Seconds Please

Police in Russia are investigating after pupils stripped off their clothes, climbed walls or lay on the floor laughing after their school dinners were spiked with drugs.The teenaged students were given ecstasy in their soup and drinks at their school in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in eastern Russia.

Doctors who were called in said the students showed signs of intoxication and prosecutors later found traces of ecstasy.

The students ranged in age from 13 to 15-years-old. (From 13wham)

I would assume this was a prank done by one of the students, but whose to say. I would like to hear how this eventually turns out.

Just Eat Real Food To Recover

The New York Times interviews experienced athletes and researchers and finds that the wealth of so-called "recovery" drinks and protein bars, are mostly over-hyped. During and after a long exercise period, like a marathon or lengthy bike ride, you don't need specialized products, or a four-to-one carbohydrate/protein mix, to boost your performance:

Dr. Rennie said that 10 to 15 grams of protein is probably adequate for any adult. And you don't need a special drink or energy bar to get it. One egg has 6 grams of protein. Two ounces of chicken has more than 12 grams.

Fruit, water, and fruit juice also work well after hard workouts, the article notes, and don't have to be taken within any certain window after the exercise. (From lifehacker | nytimes article here)



Should have guessed it. So stick to little league wisdom: have an orange slice or half a banana and a juice box.

I'll Bet My Life On It

A Blind Sherlock

ANTWERP, Belgium: Sacha van Loo, 36, is not your typical cop. He wields a white cane instead of a gun. And from the purr of an engine on a wiretap, he can discern whether a suspect is driving a Peugeot, a Honda or a Mercedes.

Van Loo is one of Europe's newest weapons in the global fight against terrorism and organized crime: a blind Sherlock Holmes, whose disability allows him to spot clues sighted detectives don't see. . .

When police eavesdrop on a suspected terrorist making a phone call, van Loo can listen to the tones dialed and immediately identify the number. By hearing the sound of a voice echoing off of a wall, he can deduce whether a suspect is speaking from an airport lounge or a crowded restaurant. After the Belgian police recently spent hours struggling to identify a drug smuggler on a faint wiretap recording, they concluded he was Moroccan. Van Loo, who has a "library of accents in his head," listened and deduced he was Albanian, a fact confirmed after his arrest. (Full Story at iht)

Burried In a Pringles Can

I first heard this story yesterday via the How Magazine blog.

Frederic J. Baur, the designer/inventor of the tube shaped Pringles package recently died and, to honor his wishes, his children buried him in the container he invented. (i.e. put some, but not all, of his ashes in a Pringles can.)

Since then I’m noticing the “Buried-in-a-Pringles-Can” story quite a few other places. I guess you’d say it was “viral.” (And here I am, jumping on the band wagon.)

Not surprisingly, the majority of the blog pieces you’ll find play this for laughs with a lot of Pringles-related puns.

One blog mocked the idea that creating the Pringles container was Fred Baur’s “proudest achievement”—but it isn’t like that blog’s writer has, himself, discovered a cure for cancer or anything.

A funeral industry blog called Final Embrace also featured the story.

Time magazine’s Jeremy Caplan did a more thoughtful piece. Dr. Baur died of Alzheimer’s. His children stopped at a Walgreen’s on the way to the funeral home. Time quotes Dr. Baur’s son, Larry. “My siblings and I briefly debated what flavor to use," Baur says, "but I said, 'Look, we need to use the original.” Time also included a brief appreciation of the ground-breaking nature of Dr. Baur’s contribution and it’s influence on subsequent packaging innovations. (Full Story at boxvox)

You know I want to make a comment about how trite it is that your legacy is a chip packaging device, but then I have to think about my own legacy. . .

Pilo Pilo Ring

Do you hate getting that imprint of your ring on your face. . . Can't say it has ever been an issue for me, but in case it is for you we now have the Pilo Ring. (From yanko)

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Have a Nice Flight

Who Needs Disney

This American Life did a piece on this guy (or someone very similar) a good while back. Anyone know which episode that was? If so, just link it in the comments.

Cigarette Prices In NYC

"New York has traditionally had the highest cigarette taxes in the nation," said Patrick Fleenor, chief economist at the Tax Foundation, a non-partisan tax research group in Washington, D.C. "It's also the state with the most significant smuggling problems."

The state tax on a pack of cigarettes jumps today from $1.50 to $2.75, making it the highest tax in the country. In Central New York, a typical pack of smokes will cost about $7.

New York City charges an additional $1.50 excise tax, so the cost of a pack of cigarettes there will hover around $9.

At those prices, experts predict that many smokers will try to find ways to buy cheaper, untaxed cigarettes. Historically, when taxes surge, so do black-market cigarette sales. (Full Story at syracuse)

I'm not for people smoking; its just a bad idea in general. That said, I have a serious problem with the government policing my choices. They aren't banning smoking in NYC, but the tax is a round about way to force people to quit. Add to this the fact that they are knowingly creating a black market and this just becomes a ridiculous tax.

By the way, if you are looking for a new business opportunity you can start trafficking cigs to NYC along with your moonshine (ethanol via home pump).