Yeah... the 80's were cool

for example, here is Mr. T in all his glory:

Meet my friend Pain!

"This guys a sissy don't be a sissy and get some nuts fool"

Treat your Mother Right!

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The Piano

Here is a short animation worth watching (or, if you've seen it re-watching).
The music is Comptine D'un Autre Etè: l'Après Midi by Yann Tiersen Enjoy!


Like the song? Download the mp3 played by Rui Wang (it's legit)
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FAKE - Japanese buy lambs, think they are poodles

Opps! this is a FAKE! Newly created URBAN LEGEND!! (click here for link)
A Japanese actress was on a Japanese talk show the other day talking about her poodle. It wouldn't eat dog food and it never barked. When asked to show a picture of the poodle the actress shows a picture of a funky cut sheep.

This is an April fools joke

Cops estimate there are about 2000 Japaneses people who have purchased Poodles, received lambs, and have never known the difference.

After the talk show police were swamped with calls from people with sheep.
One site selling lambs, based in Sapporo, Japan, has been shut down, but police fear there are more.

Technology is great, but make sure you use it wisely, and don't buy pets online for half price.

Links after the jump (see the big hitters that were duped):

Brisbane Times
The Sun
Metro (UK)
Herald Sun
Rush Limbaugh (16 min after posting)

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The ancient rainforests of... Illinois?

A giant fossil rainforest was found in an Illinois coal mine three years ago. The findings are published in the May 2007 issue of Geology. National Geographic also did a piece on it Tuesday.
(tab em)
What's amazing is the size of the discovery:

"The forest covers four square miles (a thousand hectares) and features an abundance of huge leaf impressions, large trunks of extinct trees, and tree-size horsetail plants..."

Want to know what it all looks like?

"Imagine an artist's canvas that's covered in gray flat paint—that's what gray shale kind of looks like.

"The plant fossils stand out in that grayness as black impressions, and they look just like pressed leaves in a book."

So just think of Illinois, next time you burn some of that good old fossil fuel.
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New planet looks like Earth

A team of European scientists have found a planet (Gliese 581c) 20 light years away that looks like it could be Earthlike.

From the New York Times:

The most exciting part of the find, Dr. Sasselov said, is that it “basically tells you these kinds of planets are very common.” Because they could stay geologically active for billions of years, he said he suspected that such planets could be even more congenial for life than Earth. Although the new planet is much closer to its star than Earth is to the Sun, the red dwarf Gliese 581 is only about a hundredth as luminous as the Sun. So seven million miles is a comfortable huddling distance.

Beam me up, Scotty!

Links:
NY Times
Yahoo
AOL

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The Sun in 3-D

NASA is going to show the world what the sun really looks like this monday April 23:

"NASA will unveil 3-D images of the sun from NASA's Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) on the web, television and museums across the country. For first time, scientists will be able to see structures in the Sun's atmosphere in three dimensions. The new view will improve space weather forecasting and greatly aid scientist's ability to understand solar physics."

So on Monday whip out your 3-D glasses and tab this link: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/main/index.html

What! You don't have 3-D glasses, NASA has a page to help you make your own.
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A Bright Idea!

Everyone's favorite home improvement store, the Home Depot, is giving away a million CLF light bulbs to customers throughout the US on Earth Day (this Sunday) April 22.

From the news release:

As part of its Eco Options launch, The Home Depot will give away 1 million CFL bulbs at its stores on Earth Day, April 22, and will launch an interactive Web site dedicated to the program. The CFL bulb has become an icon of energy efficiency, and replacing 1 million incandescent bulbs with CFLs will result in savings of $12 million in annual energy costs and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by at least 147 million pounds.

Here is a link to the interactive web site.

In other news Home Depot recently donated a million bucks to the USO.
Yeah, Home Depot is cool.
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Masonry

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TV time

On February 17, 2009 (in ) your old TVs will self destruct. Ok, they won't self destruct, but they will stop working. Congress has decided to go digital. If you have a new TV, and you live in a big city you probably already enjoy digital TV. The picture is cleaner and clearer, and many channels have sub channels (11.1, 11.2, 11.3 etc.). Free TV will still be free, but getting a new TV or a converter for your old TV won't be.

So if you want to keep using your old TV make sure you apply for a digital-to-analog converter box coupon on January 1, 2008. The coupon won't cover the entire cost of the converter box, but it will help. The earlier you apply for the voucher the better, congress has set aside a chunk of money to help buy converters, but analysts say it won't be enough. From what the government is saying right now; as the money dries up so will the voucher.

Want to know more?
Send your emails to couponinfo@ntia.doc.gov
Or tab these:
Consumer Fact Sheet (pdf)

DTV coupon presentation
National IT Administration




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Weekend treat: Reader’s Digest Best Brownie 2007

Want a treat tonight? The may issue of Reader’s Digest has America’s 100 best. Make their best brownie. The recipe comes from Katie Barker from Layton Utah:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 lb (16oz) mini marshmallows
• 1 2/3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1/3 cup canned evaporated milk

Steps:
1. Mix butter, sugar & cocoa.

2. Stir in eggs, flour, vanilla, and salt.

3. Pour into greased, 1-inch-deep baking sheet.

4. Bake @ 350°F for 20 min. (or until done)

5. Make frosting with powdered sugar, butter, cocoa and evaporated milk.

6. Cover brownies with mini marshmallows; bake for 3 more minutes.

7. Add frosting, and enjoy!

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Avoiding Cancer One Day at a Time!

As Dr. Lynne Eldridge M.D. pointed out in the comments of the last post, there's a great article on organic food from consumer reports(free). They take the pesticide contamination info, and add cost analysis. Here's the link: When buying organic pays (and doesn't)

Also, make sure to check out the book "Avoiding Cancer One Day At A Time: Practical Advice for Preventing Cancer" written by Dr. Eldridge. I haven’t read it yet, but after looking at the webpage, and book summary, it’s on the top of my reading list. The book came out in December, so it’s pretty new, but so far it has received rave reviews. In addition, readers from both Amazon and Barnes & Noble have given it 5/5 stars. If you're still not convinced, let me just say it’s "endorsed as a cancer prevention resource by The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society".

Did I mention, it's only about 15 bucks? Sweet!
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Gardening: What to Grow

The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit research organization specializing in agriculture toxins. Every so often, they come out with a list of the pesticide content in common fruits and vegetables.

Here are the top ten vegetables to grow in your garden (or purchase organic):

1. Bell peppers - 11 different pesticides on one bell pepper sample
2. Celery - 94% of celery tested showed pesticides
3. Spinach - 70% of spinach tested showed pesticides
4. Lettuce – 9 different pesticides on one sample of lettuce
5. Potatoes – 81% of potatoes tested showed pesticides
6. Carrots – 81.7% of carrots tested showed pesticides
7. Green Beans
8. Hot Peppers
9. Cucumbers
10. Mushrooms
11. Bonus: Tomatoes

And for fruits:

1. Peaches - overall highest amount of pesticides (among fruits and vegetables)
   
2. Apples
3. Nectarines
4. Strawberries
5. Cherries
6. Pears
7. Grapes - Imported
8. Raspberries
9. Plums
10. Grapes - Domestic
11. Bonus: Oranges

For both list: #1 = highest amount of pesticide and #11 = the lowest amount of bug/people killer
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Garden Guides

Planning a garden this year? Make sure you stop by Garden Guides. This site has been around for 10 years now, and they have information on anything and everything you could possibly need when it comes to gardening. This holds true whether you are a first time gardener, or a long time pro. If by chance, you can’t find the information you’re looking for on the site itself, use the forum where there are tons of people just waiting to help.
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Possible Cure for Diabetes type I

The Times, a newpaper in the United Kingdom, is reporting the cure of Type I Diabetes through stem cell transfusions. The study was published today in JAMA (the Journal of the American Medical Association)

Type I Diabetes affects a smaller percentage of individuals than type II diabetes, but it will be a great improvement in the quality of life of anyone with Type I Diabetes if this study holds true for the majority of the population (so far they’ve only tried this on 15 people).

From The Times:

"The results show that insulin-dependent diabetics can be freed from reliance on needles by an injection of their own stem cells...

There are still question marks about exactly how the treatment works, and further studies will be required to fully evaluate it’s safety and efficacy.

'As a research scientist I am always hesitant to speak of a cure, but the initial results have been good and show the importance of conducting more trials,' Dr Burt said...

'It will probably be five to eight years before we see a treatment being widely available,' he said.

In an accompanying editorial in JAMA, Dr Jay Skyler, of the Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami, wrote: 'Research in this field is likely to explode in the next few years and should include randomised controlled trials, as well as mechanistic studies.'"

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Moola

Moola is a site that puts a spin on basic online games. They give you a few cents (money they earn from advertisers) and then pit you against other players in games like Rock, Paper, Scissors. If you win you get the other person’s penny, and vice versa. So what happens when you lose all your pennies? Moola gives you more of them and you continue playing. As you start to accumulate pennies you can choose how much money to risk per game. Theoretically, if you risked it all and won each time you would end up with 10.7 million dollars by round 30. Good luck with that.

You can cash out any time after $10, but of course when you cash out you start again with pennies. Some people boast of earning $10-20 after a few hours of play. I’ve never played for an hour straight, mostly a game here and a game there, and it’s gotten me up to about $5 so I guess they are telling the truth.

Now here’s the cool thing. You can earn money on moola without playing the games. I stopped playing games on moola a few months ago, but I’m now up to $8.50. I got the extra $3.50 by doing random searches (whenever I would remember) using moola’s search page. After entering my search on their page a little wheel of fortune wheel pops up and I spin it to see how much moola will give me for that search. The amounts on the wheel range from a penny to $9000.

Most of the time I end up with 2-5 cents, and I think my high so far has been 25 cents. I know big money! But a few pennies here and there add up. For the five seconds it takes me to click the search and spin the wheel it’s worth it. (5 cents for 5 seconds = $36 an hour and 25 cents for 5 seconds = $180 an hour) I think there are other ways to earn money through moola as well (called boosters), but I haven’t explored them.

So if you enjoy a quick rock paper scissors every once in a while or you like getting paid $36-180 an hour then leave me a comment with your e-mail address or send me an email wherewillyousendme@gmail.com. Right now moola is by invitation only. I have 6 invitations for this month left so get ‘em while there hot.
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Early Adapter: Mobile O/X

Mobile O/X is an up and coming web interface that is worth a look. It's still in a very early testing phase, but Mobile O/X shows a lot of potential. The site allows you to create a personalized Internet domain to keep all of your favorite / most used websites handy.

When you sign up you choose a user name and domain name, from there you customize your site by adding the web pages you view most often (I added most of the big hitters from my bookmarks). That’s it. The next time you are away from your home computer or if you are ever feeling lazy you head on over to your domain and browse to your heart’s content.

I really like how Mobile O/X meshes with Pandora (customized online radio). Instead of opening Pandora in a new tab I just click an icon and it starts right up, I then close Pandora’s window and it keeps playing in the background while I surf.

Page transitions have a fun fade in/out and don’t seem to load any slower than regular browsing. Also cool, is the fact that you get a domain name. With this you can give the address to friends and family without worrying about them changing or breaking anything. Next time I’m away from my computer I know exactly where I am heading: http://recueilli.isfrench.com/ (Links are in the top two gray bars). The service is totally free and plans to stay that way. Yipee!


If you do sign up, leave the link to your domain in the comments! Thanks.
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Tips for success

Retired Army General Colin Powell’s personal and professional rules.

1. It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.
2. Get mad, then get over it.
3. Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
4. It can be done!
5. Be careful what you choose. You may get it.
6. Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
7. You can't make someone else's choices. You shouldn't let someone else make yours.
8. Check small things.
9. Share credit.
10. Remain calm. Be kind.
11. Have a vision. Be demanding.
12. Don't take counsel of your fears or naysayers.
13. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

Powell’s Rules for Picking People: “What I look for is intelligence and judgment and, most critically, a capacity to anticipate, to see around corners,” he says. “I also value loyalty, integrity, a high energy level, a certain passion, a balanced ego, and the drive to get things done.”

One last good Powell quote: “leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.”

From Air Force Magazine, March 1991 and The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell - Author: Oren Harari
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The secret's in the seats

Building a backyard Amphitheater anytime soon? Well, the secret is in the seats. Researchers Nico Declercq and Cindy Dekeyser of the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered the secret to the Greek Amphitheater in Epidaurus.

The theater has 55 rows of seats and is known for its amazing acoustics (acoustics so good, that audience members can hear the unamplified striking of a match at center stage). How is this possible? The porous limestone seats filter out low frequency sounds and reflect high frequencies. This means that the miscellaneous sounds (whispers, shuffling, etc) coming from the audience are suppressed while the higher frequencies of the cast members voices are heard loud and clear. The seats also suppress the low frequency portions of cast members’ voices, but our brains fill those sounds in for us.
Links:
Mystery of Greek Amphitheater's Amazing Sound Finally Solved

Seats Helped Ancient Greeks Hear From Back Row
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Free Samples

How’s your snail mail these days? You know the stuff the mailman brings by your house. A few years ago I found a great way to supplement the never ending bills and advertisements. Free samples! The great thing about free samples is that you forget about what you order by the time it the object actually gets to you. It’s like a fun surprise twice.

Another great thing about free samples is that you never know exactly when someone is going to try to steal your personal information. Yeah, I know, living on the edge.

Got a wild side? Well, here’s how to get started:

• Walmart free samples (check weekly) These free samples are safe. Walmart won’t steal your personal information they don’t need to. If you have ever shopped there they already have it all.

• Absurdly Cool Freebie Finder (could check daily but, you would probably go insane) these free sample links come with no guarantee, use the stars, and comments, to help you figure out if the risk is worth it. Word of advice, if the product seems really, totally, ipod video, cool then you’re not going to get it for free.

• Giveaway of the day (could check daily, but don't) I've already talked about this one too much. Most of the time the software isn’t that great and you could find it for free somewhere else, but check it out when you are bored, who knows you might find something sweet.

• Boddit (could check every hour, but you'd go broke) Every once in awhile something free pops up here, but most of the deals cost money.

Make sure you only fill in the required blanks and use your head if it looks too good don't do it.

Here are some of the cool things I've collected over the years: Razors, Stationary (pens, notebooks, markers, crayons), T-shirts, Food, Magic Eraser, Soaps, Blue Fanny Pack!!
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Matthew 28

"In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

"He is not here: for he is risen...

"And when they saw him, they worshiped him: but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

Happy Easter
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Wireless Barcode system

The barcode system is really out of date. While it’s kind of cool that stores now let us scan our items on our own, that still seems behind the times. Here is how grocery store shopping and life should be:

You walk into the store. First stop produce. There you find a produce inventory kiosk. This kiosk has all of the stores produce indexed with a map showing you where each item is. You take out your cell phone which has been synchronized with your computer with your grocery list (more on this later). Placing your cell phone on the kiosk lights up the map showing you where the produce items you need are, and how much they cost. Now go get your produce.

Next stop is an aisle inventory kiosk (can be any aisle). It works exactly the same as produce, you put your phone on it, it shows you where the items you need are on that aisle and off you go. Is someone taking a really long time at your aisle’s kiosk? That’s ok, don’t wait in line. Just walk down the aisle with your phone in monitor mode and when you get to a product on your phone’s list it will flash the product name for you.

But, wait there’s more. Your shopping cart has a rfid reader on it as well. As you put items in your cart it “scans” them and keeps a running total of the price. When you are ready to checkout you push you’re your shopping cart up to the front, choose your method of payment, and leave.

Now when you get home your items are still tagged with rfids. That’s great. Your fridge and cupboards have readers. They keep track of all food in and out and send reports to your home computer. With this information your computer keeps track of eating habits, items nearing expiration, and anything you are out of. The computer also predicts your next shopping day and prepares shopping lists. You can also use the computer to generate recipes based on the ingredients you have or on ingredients nearing expiration. When you are ready to go to the store you sync your phone with your computer and off you go. What do you think? How long before we could see something like this?
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Life Underwater?

An Australian marine biologist is attempting to live underwater in a metal box for 10 days starting today. NASA astronauts did it for 18 days last year and submarine sailors have been living underwater for that long or longer for a while now, but this guy is trying to do it naturally.

He plans on growing Algae/Seaweed for food and oxygen. Sounds tasty doesn’t it. He also has an exercise bike customized to generate electricity. Webcasts and stuff twice a day. Link to biosub project.
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Today only: Save space on your hard drive

Giveaway of the day is a site that gives away one free software title a day. Today's gift to humanity is a program that searches your music files for duplicates.

The cool thing about the program though is that it "listens" to the music. So if your music is tagged or titled differently, but it sounds the same this program will find it.

Lets say for example 3 years ago you downloaded a copy of 'Ice Ice Baby' by Vanilla Ice.. yeah sweet. Then for your birthday last year you got another copy of the same 'Ice Ice Baby' but this time your friend titled it 'turn out the lights and I glow', many programs would miss this (especially if one file was 4mb and the other 5mb), this program won't.

So if you have a ton of music this program could save you a good amount of space, and it's free so why not. It just started searching my music, and has already found 17 duplicated songs for about 60mb of space.

Click here for link to download.

What do you think? Worth a download?
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Save money on your wedding

The average American wedding these days costs around $20,000!! Ouch. Some Americans barely make that much in a year. Actually, in 2002 the average Joe made only $42,409. So on average Americans spend half a year’s salary on that one special day.

I don’t know what to think about that. It is a special day, but I don’t think it’s worth possible debt and your first born son. So I did some searching... what are the best ways to save money when planning a wedding? There is already a ton of advice online, but one thing kept coming up over and over again...

Make sure you read, or at least look at, the book: Bridal Bargains: Secrets to throwing a fantastic wedding on a realistic budget.

I’ve never read the book, but I wish I would have. Here's some info I’ve been able to scrounge up on it:

So, the authors start off with a guarantee that you will save at least $500 after reading their book. I don’t know the fine print on that, but it sounds great when the book is selling online for about $10. Or possibly, a free read from your local library.

This book has been featured on Oprah.. there you go girls! If you aren’t convinced by Oprah, it’s also been on The Today show, Dateline, and in People magazine.

Ok, so it’s popular with the mass media, what about the general public? Well on Amazon.com the book received 4.5 out of 5 stars. In the online customer reviews people call it “the wedding bible”, “a great reference tool”, and “scary”. Hehe, yeah, Sally from TN got freaked out after reading about some of the bad things that have happened to couples over the years.

Anyway, this book is worth checking out (literally).

Here’s the link to the book’s webpage, and a link to the book on Amazon.com (my bigword.com sources tell me you’ll find it cheapest there).
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Samso

There is this story going around the net lately and earlier on CBS nightly news about some tiny island in Denmark (please see map with homemade thought control device).

So, in 1997 this tiny Danish island won a big Danish contest, and the prize was… the opportunity to try to live off the land for 10 years using only renewable energy.

Hehe, I can just imagine the rest of the people of Denmark snickering to themselves as they announce the winner. “Congratulations Samso, you get to be our country’s biggest science experiment for the next 10 years. Now, about those hot showers..”

Links to the real story:
CBS - Danish Island Is Energy Self-Sufficient
Metaefficient - Yeah it's the same title as CBS
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Melamine Foam

The other day I noticed a pretty interesting situation. Crayon had somehow found its way out of its box in the closet and onto the wall in my kid’s room. It’s one of those times when you just don’t ask how it happened. Americans face these kinds of situations almost every day. The American Heart Association even keeps track of them. There are 72 million people in the United States age 20 and older with high blood pressure. And, between the years of 1994 and 2004 the actual number of deaths from high blood pressure rose 41.8 percent.

They tell you that the cause of most of the cases of high blood pressure in the US is not known. What they mean is no scientist wants to look like an idiot by saying the leading cause of high blood pressure in America is from the misuse of multicolored wax in a big yellow box.

Anyway, part of the problem has been solved! The answer: a beautiful, white melamine foam called the Magic Eraser or the Ultimate Sponge. Basically, you get it wet and it works like microscopic sandpaper erasing ugly marks from almost anything.

For those of you who don’t have kids, or raging parties where people draw on your walls with crayon, the magic eraser is still pretty useful. I used it after moving out of an old apartment, and probably left the place looking cleaner then when I moved in.

Want to save a life and help lower high blood pressure? Well then go green, and buy your friends and loved ones beautiful white blocks of melamine foam.
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