Tooth Toons for Tots

Here's a gimmick that's sure to please... a musical toothbrush! Hasbro is capitalizing on the fact that sound can travel fairly well through bone, by selling a toothbrush that plays music for the two minutes children are supposed to brush their teeth. You buy the brush and tell the kid to brush until the music stops.

Talk about getting a song stuck in your head.. each brush only plays one song so if you want to change things up you'll have to grab your sister's brush just don't get caught!

I have to say this toothbrush concept is almost as good as the image (above) Hasbro has created to illustrate how it works..

Link to Tooth Tunes Don't miss the Commercial!!


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Explore your Body

Explore the Human Body, or at least the major parts of it on National Geographic. It's an interactive and very informative site that should tickle even the dullest of curiosities.
Here's your link to The Human Body
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Spice up your run

If you haven't seen it you should check out these 10 great workouts to spice up your running program

They offer some great training ideas that will hopefully help keep you motivated during these dark winter days.

...Your body adapts. After a month or so of doing one type of workout, you body will adapt and you’ll no longer be getting the same kind of benefits from that workout. You need to change things up every 3-4 weeks … and if you do, you’ll most likely see continued improvements....

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A Major Scientific Finding!

I've seen people change their name, hair color, eye color, even in some cases their height. However, as reported in the The New England Journal of Medicine today, a 9 year old girl has switched her blood type. This is a first in recorded human history and a major finding which encourages future transplant and stem cell research. Granted the switch was from O- to O+ it's still a first and has allowed the girl to better tolerate her transplanted liver. The very basic theory is that stem cells from the donor's liver were able to colonize the child's bone marrow and effectively made the switch from O- to O+.

In other science news US researchers are one step closer to creating artificial life after having successfully made from scratch the DNA of a bacteria. They're calling it "Mycoplasma laboratorium". The great thing about the Mycoplasma genus is that it is very simple lacking even a cell wall. However, also included in this genus are Mycoplasma pneumoniae (which causes atypical pneumonia) and Mycoplasma genitalium (which may be associated with pelvic inflammatory diseases and cancer).

Links after the jump
Switching Blood Types
Making DNA, making bacteria
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An amazing Discovery

"The fossilised skull of a rat the size of a car has been unearthed." Need I say more! Link "The rodent, Josephoartigasia monesi, was uncovered by Andrés Rinderknecht and Ernesto Blanco. It has been nicknamed Mighty Mouse and is thought to have been similar to the capybara and pacarana, much smaller creatures that are still found in South America. Capybaras are the biggest living rodents at just over 60kg fully grown, while pacaranas weigh 15kg. The common rat weighs about 300g."
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Squeeze some speed out of your Computer

Here are a few quick tips to get your personal dust bunny hovel in tip top shape:

1. Check for viruses
2. Check for spyware - you should use at least 2 programs to do this. Try Spybot (free) and Ad-aware (free).
3. Remove any Norton (Symantic) or Mcafee programs and replace with Comodo Firewall Pro (free) and Avast Antivirus (free).
4. Remove Adobe Acrobat Reader and replace with Foxit.
5.Clean your registry and startup using Glary utilities.

I've heard of a "computer guy" who tried to charge $100 to do these same steps.
Of course one of the best ways to speed up your carpal tunnel maker is to increase your RAM. You especially want to do this if you are sitting on less than 1,000 MB (1Gb) to check in windows xp go to start>all programs>accessories>system tools>system information and look under Total physical memory.
Rule of Thumb: never have more than 1 firewall on your computer
at one time. That is the same for an antivirus program, never have
more than 1 installed on your computer at one time. However, for
spyware programs only you should have and use at least 2.
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A cry from the dust

I was really touched by a recent post I read from a blogger who is dead. Andrew Olmsted a Major in the US Army prepared this final post to be made on condition of his death. It is certainly worth reading.

Andrew Olmsted

Major Andrew Olmsted was killed by sniper fire while coaxing three suspected insurgents to surrender in Diyala province northeast of Bagdad. "I died doing a job I loved. When your time comes, I hope you are as fortunate as I was." - Maj. Olmsted The first casualty of 2008.Rest in Peace.
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