An Illustrated Guide to Every Stupid Cable You Need

We put up with too many cables. There are at least four different kinds of USB plugs, two kinds of FireWire and like a million different ways to connect something to TV or monitor. Modern gadget life can be kind of retarded in this way. Why not one kind of cable, or just a couple? I don't know. But until everyone gets on the same appendage-to-hole scheme, in the meantime, you can use this: an illustrated guide to pretty much every kind of cable you will see in current gadgets and what it's used for (unless, you know, Sony springs a new one on us overnight, which is honestly possible).

USB Type A Universal Serial Bus, the gold standard. The whole idea behind it is that this one interface will connect everything (except the stuff it doesn't), killing off the old guard, like parallel and serial ports. It moves data, and in the case of USB 2.0—which is pretty much the standard now—it does it faster, and with some extra specs for power. Clarification: USB 2.0 adds in the Battery Charging specification 1.0, which allows for dedicated charging and other power goodness. This particular connector is the type A variety. It plugs everything from your iPod to your digital camera into a computer, or whatever else. If you haven't seen this before, what are you reading this on?

USB Type B The USB Type B plug is basically a USB connector for peripherals—you've probably seen it jacked into a printer or scanner.

Mini USB It's a type of USB connector for smaller devices like cameras and phones—it takes up less real estate than a port for a Type A connection, obviously.

Micro USB Even smaller than the above Mini USB. Since it's, like, even smaller, we're starting to see it adopted by LG, Motorola and others—hopefully this is the last time they all switch power adapters on us, till wireless power makes adapters unnecessary. Update: Better pic via Mobile Burn.

IEEE 1394 (aka FireWire) An alternative to USB, Apple popularized the IEEE 1394 interface as FireWire (Sony called it i.LINK). You're probably most familiar with it on a digital camcorder (or an old school iPod), since it's really speedy for data transfers. You're looking at the four- and six-pin versions of FireWire 400. The six-pin version delivers power, the four-pin version (originally favored by Sony) doesn't.

FireWire 800 A revised, faster version of FireWire introduced in 2003, it doesn't use the same connectors as the original, making it rare for non pros—and an unnecessary pain the ass.

RJ45 The kind of plug you're used to seeing on the end of a Category 5, Cat5 enhanced or Cat6 (commonly known as Ethernet) cable, which is plugged into your router or computer's networking port. Cat5e is an update to Cat5 that supports faster Gigabit Ethernet. Cat6 is the next-gen standard that will handle speeds twice as fast as Cat5e, and has stricter rules about noise and crosstalk. Interestingly, the most recently approved IEEE 1394 spec (aka FireWire S800T) uses RJ45 connectors as well.

eSATA External Serial ATA is a branch off of the Serial ATA interface that connects your hard drive to your computer if it was put together in the last couple of years. As you can guess from the name, the difference is it's an external port, but it delivers the same insane data transfer speeds as the hookup to your hard drive. Faster than USB or FireWire, it's basically for external hard drives for quicker data transfers. You'll be seeing it more as more laptops include a port for it, usually one that can also be used with USB. There's even talk of bus-powered eSATA coming in the next year or two.

HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface is another one of those "it'll connect everything except all the stuff it doesn't" deals, but for high-definition audio and video. It basically replaces DVI (see below) plus S-Video and all that other analog crap. Laptops, desktops and even high-end cameras and other gadgets are getting HDMI. Besides fat bandwidth, another benefit is control: The Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) profile already lets machines send commands to other products over HDMI—that or something like it could be very useful in the PC space, too.

DVI The digital successor to VGA, Digital Visual Interface is a video connection you'll most likely see dealing with computers or computer monitors, at least until they're all replaced by HDMI. Older HDTVs have DVI ports too. It can have a few different pin arrangements, depending on whether it carries a digital (DVI-D) or analog (DVI-A) signal or both (DVI-I, for integrated). The analog deal on some types is to make them easy to adapt for use with a VGA monitor, but it's less and less noteworthy. There's also a dual-link version that carries more data for high-res displays. These are helpfully depicted at Wikipedia.

Mini and Micro DVI are dumb, shrunken, Apple-only versions of DVI. Why dumb? Because they're essentially proprietary formats. HDMI will make them obsolete before long.

DisplayPort is the newest video interface on the block, and its plane of existence is basically in the computer-to-monitor realm only. It's not even close to mainstream yet, but Dell is backing it, among others, so you might wanna know it. It can carry a whole lot of data, but it's got DRM built into the spec, so it's a double-edged sword. Update: Swapped pic out with a better one.

That's enough cable to strangle most of California, but by all means feel free to add in your own cable trivia down in the comments.

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[via gizmodo]

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Say goodbye to the computer mouse

It's nearly 40 years old but one leading research company says the days of the computer mouse are numbered.

A Gartner analyst predicts the demise of the computer mouse in the next three to five years.

Taking over will be so called gestural computer mechanisms like touch screens and facial recognition devices.

"The mouse works fine in the desktop environment but for home entertainment or working on a notebook it's over," declared analyst Steve Prentice.

He told BBC News that his prediction is driven by the efforts of consumer electronics firm which are making products with new interactive interfaces inspired by the world of gaming .

"You've got Panasonic showing forward facing video in the home entertainment environment. Instead of using a conventional remote control you hold up your hand and it recognises you have done that," he said.

"It also recognises your face and that you are you and it will display on your TV screen your menu. You can move your hand to move around and select what you want," he added.

"Sony and Canon and other video and photographic manufacturers are using face recognition that recognises your face in real time," he said. "And it recognises even when you smile."

"You even have emotive systems where you can wear a headset and control a computer by simply thinking and that's a device set to hit the market in September."

"This" Mr Prentice said, "is all about using computer power to do things smarter."

Greatly exaggerated

Naturally enough those in the business of making mice are not wholly in agreement that the end is nigh.

"The death of the mouse is greatly exaggerated," said Rory Dooley senior vice president and general manager of Logitech's control devices unit.

Microsoft has said touch screens will be all pervasive

Logitech is the world's biggest manufacturer of mice and keyboards and has sold more than 500 million mice over the last 20 years.

"This just proves how important a device the mouse is," said Mr Dooley.

But he also agreed that the number of ways people can interact with a computers were rising and that his own company was manufacturing many of them.

"People have been talking about convergence for years," he said. "Today's TV works as a computer and today's computer works as a TV.

"The devices we use have been modified for our changing lifestyles but it doesn't negate the value of the mouse," Mr Dooley explained.

Popularity

The mouse was invented by Dr Douglas Engelbart while working for the Stanford Research Institute. He never received any royalties for the invention partly because his patent ran out in 1987 before the PC revolution made the mouse indispensible.

With a 40 year anniversary planned for later in the year, Mr Dooley said Gartner's prediction for the mouse was too gloomy given that the developing world has still to get online.

The Wii has changed ideas about how we interact with computers

"The mouse will be even more popular than it is today as a result," he suggested.

"Bringing technology, education and information to these parts of the world will be done by accessing web browsers and doing that in the ways that we are familiar with today and that is using a mouse.

"There are around one billion people online but the world's population is over five billion," he said.

Gesturing

So just how ready are people to wave their hands in the air or make faces at devices with embedded video readers?

Gartner's Mr Prentice says millions are already doing it thanks to machines like Nintendo's Wii and smartphones like the iPhone.

"With the Wii you point and shake and it vibrates back at you so you have a two-way relationship there.

"The new generation of smart phones like the iPhone all now have tilting mechanisms or you can shake the device to do one or more things.

"Even the multi-touch interface is so much more powerful and flexible than in the past allowing you to zoom in, scroll quickly or contract images."

For those who lament the demise of such tried and tested pieces of hardware, Mr Prentice did concede that the keyboard was here to stay for the foreseeable future.

"For all its faults, the keyboard will remain the primary text input device," he said. "Nothing is easily going to replace it. But the idea of a keyboard with a mouse as a control interface is the paradigm that I am talking about breaking down."

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To Trust or Not to Trust: Ask Oxytocin

When someone betrays us, how does the brain deal with it? A hormone associated with social attachment gives us clues.

The development of trust is an essential social tool, allowing people to form productive and meaningful relationships, both at a professional and personal level. Bonds of trust are also extremely fragile, however and a single act of betrayal—such as a marital affair—can instantly erase years of trustworthy behavior. The consequences of such breaches in confidence can be disastrous, and not only for a relationship. People who have been betrayed in the past will sometimes start avoiding future social interactions, which is a potential precursor to social phobia. In light of these connections, recent research has attempted to elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying trust behavior. This is the goal of an exciting new study by neuroscientist Thomas Baumgartner and colleagues at the University of Zurich in Switzerland that combines different disciplines (economics and neuroscience) and methodologies (neuroimaging and neuropharmacology) to investigate how the brain adapts to breaches of trust.

The Chemistry of Trust
To study social interactions, economists, and more recently neuroscientists, take advantage of a simple game played between two people called the “trust game.” (For more on greed and altruism, see this.) In a typical trust game, an investor (Player 1) is faced with a decision to keep a sum of money (say, $10) or share it with a trustee (Player 2). If shared, the investment is tripled ($30) and the trustee now faces the decision to repay the trust by sending back a larger amount of the initial investment (for example, $15 for each participant) or to defect and violate trust by keeping the money. In this game, the investor is therefore left with an important social dilemma: to trust or not to trust. Although it is more profitable to trust, doing so leaves the investor at risk of betrayal.

It has been hypothesized that oxytocin, a hormone recognized for its role in social attachment and facilitation of social interactions, is also important in the formation of trust. For instance, application of oxytocin to “investors” in experimental games increases their tendency to engage in social risks and trust someone else with their money (see this and this). The study by Baumgartner and his colleagues highlights the neural mechanisms through which oxytocin acts to facilitate trust behavior by investigating what happens in the brain when trust breaks down.

When Trust Is Broken
The authors used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan 49 participants who were given either placebo or oxytocin via a nasal spray. Participants were instructed to act as investors during multiple rounds of a trust game with different trustees. They were also told that they would engage in a risk game (similar to the trust game in terms of financial risk, but played against a computer instead of another human being). In order to investigate the role of oxytocin following breaches of trust, the experiment was divided into a pre- and post-feedback phase. In between the two phases, participants received feedback information indicating that roughly 50 percent of their decisions (in both trust and risk games) had resulted in poor investments—that is, their trust had been breached (trust game) or their gamble did not pay off (risk game).

Participants who were given a placebo prior to playing the game decreased their rate of trust (that is, how much money they were willing to invest) after they discovered their trust had been violated. Participants who received oxytocin, however, continued to invest at similar rates regardless of whether or not their trusting behavior had been taken advantage of. These behavioral group differences were accompanied by differences in neural responses, as participants in the oxytocin group showed decreases in responses in the amygdala and caudate nucleus. The amygdala is a region of the brain involved in emotion and fear learning, and is rich in oxytocin receptors, whereas the caudate nucleus has been previously linked to reward-related responses and learning to trust . Thus, the authors hypothesized that oxytocin decreases both fear mechanisms associated with a potential aversion of betrayals (via the amygdala) and our reliance on positive feedback that can influence future decisions (via the caudate). This in turn facilitates the expression of trust even after breaches of trust have occurred. Notably, the behavioral and neural results observed were only apparent when participants played the trust game, but not the risk game, suggesting that oxytocin’s effects on trust are exclusive to interactions with real people.

A Science of Social Phobias?
The study demonstrates how oxytocin can facilitate social interactions after trust has been violated, by potentially lowering defense mechanisms associated with social risks and by overcoming negative feedback that is important for adapting behavior in the future. These intriguing results provide an important step in our understanding of mental disorders where deficits in social behavior are observed. Excessive fear of betrayal, for example, could serve as a precursor to social phobia, a disorder characterized by a disabling fear of social interactions. Over the long-term, this lack of social interaction may lead to serious problems in mental and physical well-being. Thus, to continue forming a bridge between basic and clinical research, future studies may focus on the effects of oxytocin during the sort of betrayals that more commonly occur in real life (such as being betrayed by a loved one or a business partner). It will also be interesting to examine how different genders respond to breaches in confidence following oxytocin administration.

Trust is an adaptive mechanism essential to building social relationships, and breaches of trust have a profound impact on social behavior and mental health. Understanding the balance between levels of oxytocin and appropriate levels of trust will be another important step in the future. Lower levels of oxytocin in some situations may certainly be adaptive, as a person will become more wary of possible harm. Higher levels of oxytocin, however, may also be necessary at times to allow an individual to “forgive and forget,” an imperative step in maintaining long-term relationships and mental well-being.

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20 Funniest Newspaper Headlines ever

What goes around, comes around! Click the pic to read the article online








Civil War planes? Lemme know how that works out...



Must be one of those celebrity-without-makeup pictures...



And you wonder why...






Yeah, don't you hate those guys at DOE who do the NEPA's EIS on BNFL's AMWTP at INEEL after SRA protests?



"This is an artist's conception of the Mount Pleasant High School football field Friday after an electrical transformer blew, knocking out the stadium lights."



"We had no idea anyone was buried there"


"I wouldn't do it again" says the hero, "she's been a pain this week"









Please, if you've seen this man...



What are the odds of that?









Mistress of the universe... Now that sounds like a lot of work!



Here's the winner of a local dog look-alike contest... He does look exactly like his dog!



Ok, that's just mean

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FINALLY! NFL offers live streaming games

Webcasting has officially made its way to the beer-and-football mainstream thanks to the National Football League, which has announced plans to stream live broadcasts of Sunday night football games this fall. These streams will be the first time the NFL's content is made widely available online, and the news means that the patented Madden "Boom!" will soon be coming to a laptop near you.

Both the NFL and its broadcast partner, NBC, will provide sites dedicated to the webcasts. In addition to the live TV feed that features commentary from Al Michaels and John Madden, both sites will feature a variety of extra content. These include highlight clips, views from multiple cameras, live statistics, and blog content. True fanatics may find the site worth visiting even if they have access to the TV broadcast.

The move is surprisingly forward-looking, given the NFL's historic anti-online stance when it comes to its games. As many Internet-using NFL fans know by now, the league keeps an extremely tight leash on even the tiniest of clips from its games. The organization even made headlines last March when it sent a series of DMCA takedown notices to Brooklyn Law School professor Wendy Seltzer because she posted a clip on YouTube that showed the NFL's own copyright notice. In August, however, the NFL took its first baby steps into the big, bad online world by signing a deal with DIRECTV that would allow some satellite subscribers to watch games streamed live to their PCs.

Still, the DIRECTV deal was pretty restrictive, making this new offering even more noteworthy. "We are taking a big leap here," NFL Network's Steve Bornstein told the LA Times. "We are looking at this as a learning opportunity to see what applications work online. We are trying to be innovative and creative to make the viewing experience better for our fans."

NBC plans to sell advertising for the webcasts (presumably they will be free to the public) and the revenues from the ads will be shared with the NFL. Given the massive mainstream appeal of NFL games, the potential for this venture to rake in the advertising dollars is huge. This ain't no live broadcast of an artsy-fartsy documentary or the Jackass 2.5 movie; this is Reggie Bush trying to become the second coming of Barry Sanders.

The NFL and NBC plan to begin offering streams on September 4, a Thursday night game between the Washington Redskins and the New York Giants. After that, they will do regular broadcasts of Sunday night games.

If the league is successful, the move could open up the door to other mainstream TV content being broadcast live online, rather than delayed, as most network fare currently is. Live online House, here I come!

The NFL's press release, announcing the plan.

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[via arstechnica]

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Interactive Map Shows Deadliest U.S. Roads

Rural highways are some of the deadliest in the country, studies have shown, so some researchers have created a new interactive map that drivers can use to see exactly how safe — or fatal — the roads are where they live.

Driving is one of the most dangerous activities people engage in; the lifetime risk of dying in a motor vehicle accident for U.S residents is 1-in-100. About 57 percent of highway deaths happen on rural roads, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

To help educate drivers on the hazards they might face on the road, researchers at the University of Minnesota's Center for Excellence in Rural Safety (CERS) have mapped out every fatality in the nation at www.saferoadmaps.org

The researchers plan to unveil the new Web site Monday at an annual conference on rural safety in Santa Rosa, Calif.

Drivers can enter their address and are then shown a map or satellite image of all the in their area.

"When drivers type in their most common routes, they're shocked how much blood is being shed on it," said Tom Horan, research director for CERS.

Web site users can narrow down the search to see the age of the driver, whether speeding or drinking was a factor in the accident, and if the driver was wearing a seatbelt.

"When it's a route you or your loved ones use, the need to buckle up, slow down and avoid distractions and drinking suddenly becomes much more personal and urgent," Horan said.

The new tool also lets users know what policies, such as strong seatbelt laws, are in place in the area.

Last year, CERS researchers tabulated that have the highest proportion of accidents occurring on rural roads.

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BlackLight's physics-defying promise: Cheap power from water

An entrepreneur with $60 million in venture funding says he's found an endless source of cheap energy. Trouble is, it violates the laws of quantum physics.

Imagine being able to convert water into a boundless source of cheap energy. That's what BlackLight Power, a 25-employee firm in Cranbury, N.J., says it can do. The only problem: Most scientists say that company's technology violates the basic laws of physics.

Such skepticism doesn't daunt Dr. Randell Mills, a Harvard-trained physician and founder of BlackLight, who recently claimed that he has created a working fuel cell using the world's most pervasive element: the hydrogen found in water.

"This is no longer an academic argument," Mills, 50, insists. "It's proven technology, and we're going to commercialize it as quickly as possible."

For the first time in his company's 19 years of persistent trial and error, Mills says he has a market-ready product: a fuel cell that produces a chemical reaction to alter hydrogen atoms. The fuel cell releases heat that turns water into steam, which drives electric turbines.

The working models in his lab generate 50 kilowatts of electricity - enough to power six or seven houses. But these, Mills says, can be scaled to drive a large, electric power plant. The inventor claims this electricity will cost less than 2 cents per kilowatt-hour, which compares to a national average of 8.9 cents.

While his business has been working on the "BlackLight Process" since its inception almost two decades ago, Mills developed the patented cocktail that enables the reaction - a solid fuel made of hydrogen and a sodium hydride catalyst - only a year ago. (He recently posted instructions on the company's Web site, blacklightpower.com). Now that the device is ready for commercialization, he says, BlackLight is negotiating with several utilities and architecture and engineering firms, but he won't disclose any partners' names until the deals are finalized.

Cheap power for tomorrow: 5 ventures

About 20 of the generators, which look like small copper water heaters turned on their sides, rest on lab benches inside the company's 55,000 square foot headquarters, once a Lockheed Martin facility. BlackLight's 11 scientists barely make a sound as they slip among the cavernous rooms, blue lab coats flapping behind them. The near-emptiness is eerie, but it's also portentous, says Mills: "Within the next two years, we're going to grow to 500, maybe 1,000 employees. This could satisfy a majority of the world's power needs, and the demand is going to be huge."

Such grandiose predictions invite comparison to cold fusion, a source of cheap and abundant energy that two scientists in Utah claimed to unearth in 1989, only to be immediately discredited by government and independent experts.

But while the cold-fusion scientists rushed to the media shortly after their "discovery," BlackLight hasn't courted press until it considered its invention commercially viable, and had lined up financing and respected board members. The business, Mills says, has attracted $60 million in funding from wealthy individuals, investment firms, and utilities such as Delaware's Conectiv, and it is no longer seeking money. BlackLight's board of directors reads like a Who's Who of finance and energy leaders, including Michael Jordan, former CEO of both Electronic Data Systems (EDS, Fortune 500) and Westinghouse; Neil Moskowitz, CFO of Credit Suisse First Boston; and Shelby Brewer, former CEO of ABB (ABB) Combustion Engineering Nuclear Power. BlackLight has all of the trappings of prestige, minus one hitch: Mills' theory is rejected by almost all of the scientific community.

"He's wrong in so many ways, it's beyond counting," says Robert Park, a professor of physics at the University of Maryland and former spokesman for the American Physics Society. Parks, 77, uses BlackLight as an example of phony physics in his 2002 book, Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud. He says of Mills, "I don't know of a single scientist of any reputation who takes his claims seriously."

Mills' theory, which he expounds upon in his self-published 2,000 page book, The Grand Unified Theory of Classical Quantum Mechanics, rests on what he describes as his discovery of the hydrino - an altered version of hydrogen that has an energy level lower than its ground state, or the baseline energy level. These modified atoms, he argues, are the stuff that comprises dark matter, the invisible material that many scientists believe composes more than 90% of the universe. The mechanism that creates hydrinos - a chemical reaction whose released energy can allegedly be harnessed for power - is what Mills calls the BlackLight Process.

Why do scientists give Mills so much heat? By positing that a molecule's energy level can dip below its ground state, he rewrites the principles of quantum mechanics, which are widely viewed as incontrovertible. Perhaps the most widely-known critique of his theory was published by Andreas Rathke of the European Space Agency, who argues that Mills' mathematics is flawed.

Jan Naudts, a physics professor at the University of Antwerp, says of Mills' work, "The few people who looked at it immediately found errors." He adds, however, "That's quite common with new theories. And his hasn't been investigated on a large scale."

Mills attributes the lack of engagement with his theory to the self-preserving nature of academia.

"As long as you're in the mainstream, you're fine. But if you're doing something paradigm-changing, you're proving that academics have been going down the wrong path," he says. Such self-interested politics, argues Mills, have led mainstream scientists to seek BlackLight's demise by blacklisting the company from publications and spreading disinformation on the Web.

Brewer, who has served on the firm's board since 1997, agrees that the fear of losing government grants has bred widespread skepticism towards the hydrino: "Hell hath no fury like a professor whose funding is cut off."

BlackLight does have a few fans among scientists. Gerrit Kroesen, a professor Eindhoven University in the Netherlands, wrote in an e-mail that he's attempted to replicate Mills' experiment and produced surprising, if not conclusive, results.

How to shrink your electric bill

In 2005, leaders at Greenpeace asked Randy Booker, chair of the physics department at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, to fly to New Jersey to investigate BlackLight's claims. Booker says he was skeptical at the outset, but during his visit, "I found that they really were producing a great deal of excess energy with hydrogen," he says. "Some people may disagree with the theory, but the experiments work." Booker believes that commercialization could lead more independent laboratories to validate BlackLight's claims. He now performs paid research work for the company.

Critics such as Park say the high-profile CEOs on BlackLight's board are following each other over a cliff. He could be right: Both Jordan and Jim Lenehan - a BlackLight investor, senior consultant at hedge fund Cerberus, and former president of Johnson and Johnson (JNJ, Fortune 500) - say they were led to the business by friends. But Lenehan, who does not sit on BlackLight's board, says, "It's no longer a high-risk part of my portfolio. It now has the ability to make a huge difference in the world of power."

Jordan, who earned science degrees from Yale and Princeton, expresses a similar sentiment.

"In the beginning, I thought it was worth putting money into because it was going to be a huge flop or a huge success." he says. "But when they made the breakthrough last fall, I saw the results."

That logic could explain BlackLight's success in garnering investors, despite its lack of scientific approval: While the academic community stresses theoretical backing for a new discovery, the business world is more concerned with practical applications.

Lenehan says, "My point of view is, just do it - generate power. In terms of influencing investors, it's about results."

Jordan agrees: "Theoretically, the bumble bee can't fly - but no one told the bumble bee. Now they're saying this can't be done, but it's happening."

While the company's followers already extol the high-energy, green, and thrifty virtues of BlackLight's technology, the rest of the world will have to wait for evidence until the fall of 2009, when the business promises to install its cells in power plants. Whether or not Mills' team meets that deadline will likely determine how BlackLight goes down in history - as a revolutionary startup or a flop 19-years in the making.

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[via cnn]

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Parents wanted to name son... (see below)

Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 (pronounced ['albin']) was a name intended for a Swedish child who was born in 1991.

Parents Elisabeth Hallin and Lasse Diding had planned never legally to name their child as a protest against the naming law of Sweden, which reads, "First names shall not be approved if they can cause offense or can be supposed to cause discomfort for the one using it, or names which for some obvious reason are not suitable as a first name."

Because the parents failed to register a name by the boy's fifth birthday, a district court in Halmstad, southern Sweden, fined them 5,000 kronor (US$682 at the time). Responding to the fine, the parents submitted the 43-character name in May 1996, claiming that it was "a pregnant, expressionistic development that we see as an artistic creation." The parents suggested the name be understood in the spirit of 'pataphysics. The court rejected the name and upheld the fine.

The parents then tried to change the spelling of the name to A (also pronounced ['albin']). Once again the court refused to approve of the name, citing a prohibition on one-letter naming.

In his first passport, the boy's name was given as "Icke namngivet gossebarn", meaning "unnamed little boy".

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Seven Common Dreams and What They Mean

Dreams come to us in our most private moments: wrapped up in sheets, our public faces stored away for the night. The visions we see in sleep are supposed to be expressions of our individual psyches and imaginations, but most people’s dreams are based on themes that are very common. I thought my recurring dream of losing my teeth was scary and freakish until I went online to find thousands of others having the same dream, all trying to find out what the heck it could mean. Just because our dreams are shared, though, doesn’t mean they aren’t unique; the way we experience these common elements in dreaming life is what’s significant.

1. Being chased.
Candice Janco, author of the Bedside Dream Dictionary: 500 Dream Symbols and Their Meanings, describes this dream (the most common) as an indication of a felt threat in your waking life. This threat can take the form of a menacing person or a strong emotion with which you are having difficulty coping. Try to determine who or what is chasing you, where the dream takes place, and what your feelings are during the chase to understand what this dreams means to you.

2. Missing an important event because you are late.
This can indicate regret over a missed opportunity, inability to make a connection, or desire to pull oneself together. In Dream Power: How to Use Your Night Dreams to Change Your Life, Cynthia Richmond suggests asking questions of dreams in order to understand what this common symbol means to you. For example: What are you missing? Who is disappointed by the missed event? Is it only you or are there others involved?

3. Finding yourself at work or school naked.
Not surprisingly, Freud interpreted dreams about being naked as repressed sexual wishes. But the most important part of this dream is the feelings that are involved. You suddenly find yourself exposed, vulnerable, and awkward. What area of your life corresponds to that feeling? Figure this out by noting where you are, who notices you, what part of you is exposed, how people react to you, and how you yourself react to the situation.

4. Falling.
Falling indicates feelings of insecurity and lack of support. What situation have you “fallen into?” Who has “let you down?” Perhaps not surprisingly, this particular dream is most common among professional men and women. The Illustrated Dream Dictionary authors Russell Grant and Vicky Emptage note the close relationship between “falling” and “failing.” They also note that the dream’s meaning is probably not so clear-cut. Grant and Emptage ascribe dreams of falling to feelings of isolation, the sense of being without the support and affection that success cannot provide.

5. Flying.
Interestingly, Grant and Emptage interpret flying dreams as boasting about sexual powers. The important part of the dream is how you are flying; since the flying itself represents your ambitions, are you flying successfully, or trying and failing to fly as high as possible? From there, they make the leap to feelings of sexual inadequacy, but such feelings of low self-esteem could cover inadequacy of any kind, not just sexual.

6. Losing your teeth.
This theme has a number of potential meanings because of the very different significances teeth have to different people. Our teeth are representative of our appearance because our smiles are one of the first things people notice about us. Therefore, dreaming about losing your teeth can indicate insecurity about your appearance, or even fears of sexual impotence, as teeth are often used to flirt with a desired partner. We also use our teeth to bite, chew, and tear, so losing them can mean a loss of power or fear of getting old. Interestingly, this dream is most common among menopausal women, perhaps for all of the above reasons

7. Snakes.
Snakes have been a fear in dreams for quite some time. The ancient Egyptians used to make snakes out of clay and place them at the doors of their homes to frighten away nightmares, believing that snakes were bringers of bad dreams and that the clay snake would keep real ones away. Dreammoods, an online encyclopedia of dream meanings, reports that snakes signify some hidden threat. This makes sense, as most of us fear the “snake in the grass.” Like most other symbols, though, this one has many meanings that depend on context. Snakes shed their skin, so they may signify renewal and transformation. This may be a frightening experience, as most people are uncomfortable with change, or it may be very positive.

In all of our dreams, the true meanings emerge when we decide what they really mean to us. Though these dream symbols are shared among many, and we can determine general explanations for them, it is the context in which we place them that is significant. Read all you can about dream meanings to find information that may be relevant to you, but also ask questions about your dreams and how these symbols make you feel. Once you dig a little deeper, you may find answers and clarity.

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Are Granite Countertops a Health Threat?

If you have granite countertops in your home, you might consider testing them for the amounts of radon gas they give off, experts say, due to the potential that those amounts are above levels considered safe.

But marble manufacturers say flat-out that, "Radiation in granite is not dangerous."

Radon is "a cancer-causing natural radioactive gas that you can’t see, smell or taste," the Environmental Protection Agency explains on its Web site. "Its presence in your home can pose a danger to your family's health. Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers. Radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in America, and claims about 20,000 lives annually." The popularity and demand for granite countertops has grown in the last decade, as have the types of granite available.

The amount of radon in the air is measured in "picoCuries per liter of air," or "pCi/L," and the EPA says 4 pCi/L is the level of radon exposure that requires someone to take action. The agency also says levels lower than that "still pose a risk" and "in many cases, may be reduced."According to The New York Times, 4 picocuries is "about the same risk for cancer as smoking a half a pack of cigarettes per day."

The newspaper also reports that, "Allegations that granite countertops may emit dangerous levels of radon and radiation have been raised periodically over the past decade, mostly by makers and distributors of competing countertop materials. The Marble Institute of America has said such claims are "ludicrous" because although granite is known to contain uranium and other radioactive materials like thorium and potassium, the amounts in countertops are not enough to pose a health threat.

Indeed, health physicists and radiation experts agree that most granite countertops emit radiation and radon at extremely low levels. They say these emissions are insignificant compared with so-called background radiation that is constantly raining down from outer space or seeping up from the earth's crust, not to mention emanating from manmade sources like X-rays, luminous watches and smoke detectors.But with increasing regularity in recent months, the Environmental Protection Agency has been receiving calls from radon inspectors as well as from concerned homeowners about granite countertops with radiation measurements several times above background levels."

On The Early Show Friday, Stanley Liebert, quality assurance director at CMT Laboratories in Clifton Park, N.Y. showed co-anchor Harry Smith a chunk of granite countertop emitting 4.4 pCi/L and said, "The probability is we're looking at a problem here, and the granite would actually be removed.

"In the lower levels," Liebert said, "we can usually improve (radon levels) by exchanging air" with systems that "bring fresh air in and exchange it with the air in the kitchen."He says some granite countertop colors are more potentially troublesome than others: "We're seeing higher results in reds, pinks, purples. However, you've got to test them all.

"The only way to know about radon levels from your granite countertops, and in your home in general, is to test for them, and the EPA says, "There are many kinds of low-cost "do-it-yourself" radon test kits you can get through the mail and in hardware stores and other retail outlets. If you prefer, or if you are buying or selling a home, you can hire a qualified tester to do the testing for you. You should first contact your state radon office about obtaining a list of qualified testers. You can also contact a private radon proficiency program for lists of privately certified radon professionals serving your area."

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Botox and Boobs for the Bridal Party

AFTER the band was chosen and the napkins color-coordinated to match her shoes, Kacey Knauer, a bride-to-be, had another critical matter to address: her skin, and the skin of the nine women in her bridal party.

So Knauer, the 35-year-old owner of TempTrends, a staffing agency in New York, invited her nearest and dearest — including her mother and future mother-in-law — for a night out at the TriBeCa MedSpa, replete with mimosas and cupcakes. An aesthetician assessed each woman's face and devised a treatment plan — a quick chemical peel, say, or an injection of a wrinkle-filler. Or maybe, for a bridesmaid with age spots, a series of Fraxel laser treatments over months, allowing for recovery time.

For Knauer, who will be married in December, cosmetic interventions for herself and her entourage are as vital as the centerpieces or food. "If I were 25 or 26 and getting married, a bracelet, necklace or matching earrings would be fine," she said.

But at 35? "Giving them a bracelet isn't as special as spending an evening together. Plus, as you get older, everyone is more conscientious about their skin and appearance," she said. "Giving them something for themselves — as opposed to something that they'll never wear again — is more meaningful."

And let's not forget the pictures of college roommates-turned-bridesmaids quickly posted to Facebook. It is no longer sufficient to hire a hairstylist and makeup artist to be on hand the day of. Instead, bridal parties are indulging in dermal fillers and tooth-whitening months before the Big Day.

Some brides pick up the tab for their attendants, replacing the pillbox inscribed with the wedding date with a well-earned squirt between the eyes. In other cases, bridesmaids — who may quietly seethe about unflattering dresses — are surprisingly willing to pay for cosmetic enhancements. "Most women, when they come in here, they want it," said Camille Meyer, the owner of TriBeCa MedSpa. "They know they're aging."

For Karen Hohenstein, who held her party at the Tiffani Kim Institute Medical Wellness Spa in Chicago, convincing her friends was as smooth as a Botoxed forehead. "It wasn't me saying, 'Hey, we all could use a little something,' " she said. "It was, 'I want to do this,' and a couple of people said, 'I do, too.' "

But for every accommodating pal, there's another who feels going under the knife is beyond the duty of bridesmaid. Becky Lee, 39, a New York photographer, declined when a friend asked her — and five other attendants — to have their breasts enhanced. "We're all Asian and didn't have a whole lot of cleavage, and she found a doctor in L.A. who was willing to do four for the price of two," said Lee, who wore a push-up bra instead.

Not for nothing are some maids known as slaves of honor, but this kind of cajoling is a recent development on the wedding front.

Marie Scalogna-Watkinson, the founder of Spa Chicks on-the-Go, a mobile spa, said she receives five to seven calls a month from brides seeking Botox or Restylane for their bridesmaids. Five years ago, collective makeovers were unheard of, she said.

Dr. Fardad Forouzanpour, a cosmetic surgeon in Beverly Hills, California, said his business has increased more than 40 percent since he began offering what he calls Bridal Beauty Buffets in 2006.

In the last two years, bridal party tuneups have increased roughly 25 percent, estimated Susie Ellis, the president of SpaFinder.com, a site that lists 4,500 spas worldwide.

Just as timing matters when it comes to securing a hall, it's best that brides-to-be don't delay scheduling appointments, aestheticians and doctors say. "You wouldn't get a cut and color the week before," said Dr. Jessica Wu, a dermatologist in Beverly Hills who advises coming in three to six months before the big day. "We do a trial run of Botox about four months ahead of time. Then, two weeks before the wedding, we do that last treatment."

Meyer of TriBeCa MedSpa suggests that a bride contact her the minute the question is popped. "Brides really appreciate the fact that we put everything in a regimented schedule for them," she said. Since February 2007, she has staged more than 30 bridesmaid parties and has 18 planned so far this year. "If you have to do eight treatments, six weeks apart, that could take up to a year," she said.

Fraxel laser could also set you back $1,200 a session, which even without the economic downturn, amounts to quite a bit. These days, Robyn Bomar, an event planner in Destin, Florida, overhears brides doing cost-benefit analyses. "They will never choose Botox over a great dress, but they will say 'Maybe I'll have a buffet over a sit-down at the rehearsal dinner,' " she said. Or: "I'll spend the money on Botox rather than lunch.' "

In June, Jennifer Peterson, 31, a production director in Los Angeles, and eight friends indulged in Botox, Restylane, massages, facials and microdermabrasion at Infinity MedSpa in Valencia, California Her friends chipped in for her treatments, but she is considering giving them each a $100 certificate to the spa — a gift she is sure they will appreciate. "Everybody does Botox out here," she said.

The beauty procedure thank-you gift is becoming more common, said Bomar, who coordinates about three parties a month. Time was when the bride arranged for everyone to get manicures at the same time, followed by lunch. But today? "It's much more likely that she is footing the bill for eyelash extensions, airbrush tanning and a bevy of other cosmetic procedures," she said.

Five years ago, plastic surgeons, dermatologists and tooth-whitening centers "were virtually absent" from bridal expos, said William Heaton III, the president of the Great Bridal Expo Group, which produces events in 40 cities nationwide. "Now we're getting a half dozen phone calls a week."

This year alone, American Laser Centers, a chain, has participated in 830 bridal shows, said Amanda McInnes, a marketing director.

Two weeks ago, Health Travel Guides, a medical tourism company, exhibited at the Dallas Bridal Show for the first time. "We received 30 requests for quotes among the bridal show attendees — mostly for plastic surgery such as liposuction and breast augmentation," said Sandra Miller, the company's chief marketing officer. "But also many for cosmetic dentistry and inquiries for providing quotes for bachelorette getaways that will feature beauty treatments."

A bride's request that you whiten your grayish teeth can strain a relationship. Samantha Goldberg, a wedding planner in Chester, New Jersey, recalled a bride who asked her attendants to get professionally spray-tanned for a Hawaiian-theme reception.

Alas, two women were claustrophobic and couldn't bear standing in a tanning capsule. "They asked the bride if they could use regular tanning cream from a salon," Goldberg said. The bride refused; she wanted everyone to be the same shade. The women ultimately declined to be bridesmaids. "Friendships of 20-plus years gone over a spray tan?" Goldberg said. "Sad!"

And how does a bride break it to a mother-in-law that she'd love her crow's feet to be frozen into submission? Very delicately.

"My mother is in her 60s. She's been talking about it for so long, so I said 'Let's do it,' " said Stacey Berlin, 29, a marketing consultant, who is having a party at Aquamedica Day Spa in Long Branch, New Jersey

It was trickier with her future mother-in-law. "To her," Berlin said, "I said it as a joke: 'You should do Botox for the wedding!' She giggled, and then I said, 'I'm serious. It's exactly what you need to freshen up.' At first she kind of laughed it off, but the more we talked about it and I told her my mom was going to do it, she said 'O.K.' "

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From UGLY to HOT in 60 Seconds

This Dove Ad is a little old. But if you haven't seen it, its worth watching.

Girls of all ages are starving themselves to get that perfect super model body. When in reality not even the glamorous models we see on billboards are real. Every ad photo you see has been altered by powerful software like Photoshop. Trim here, widen there, stretch this, cut that, lighting and shading turn and average woman into a goddess.



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71 things you CAN do to CHANGE your life

Most people aren't Warriors, and I'm fine with it. Most people do things that don't make sense, and I'm fine with it. I've learned to accept the non-sense that fills this world. (Part of being a Warrior is accepting that most other people are not Warriors, and accepting them.) Still, the point is that people do things that don't make sense. They whine, complain, and cry over problems they can easily change. They get depressed over problems they cause for themselves.

For example, lazy people often whine that they don't make more money. Selfish people complain that they don't have more friends. Many people sabotage all their romantic relationships and then complain that they don't have a lover.

Granted, sometimes when something bad happens to a person it's purely bad luck. For example, you could be sitting in your well-built home while reading the newspaper and a tornado could tear your home up.

However, usually when you don't like what's happening in your life, it's your own damn fault. It's your fault if you're fat, lazy, uneducated, lonely, etc.

In the following, I list 71 things that you can do to be more successful. You choose to do them or not. If you choose not to do these things, then you have no right to complain about your problems; your problems are your fault!

1. Stop watching television.

2. Stop eating fast food.

3. Stop eating pizza and fried foods.

4. Stop driving places that you could easily walk to.

5. Read at least 1 book a month.

6. Take classes in what interests you or your vocation.

7. Work enough to support yourself, and if needed get a new job or second job to make enough to support yourself. Never stick with a job that doesn't pay enough to support yourself no matter how much you work.

8. Pay off your debts and don't go in debt. You can pay off your debts if you avoid needless expenses, such as cable, overpriced clothes, impractical decorations, unhealthy snacks, jewelry, etcetera.

9. Don't buy a car on finance, and don't buy an expensive car if a cheaper one that works is available.

10. Wake up early, and get all your work done as quickly as possible. That includes household chores, as well as your employment.

11. Drink alcohol less or quit.

12. Do drugs less or quit.

13. Don't smoke cigarettes.

14. Don't eat foods with high fructose corn syrup.

15. Don't drink soda.

16. Don't eat sugary foods at all.

17. Don't drink more than 1 glass of juice per day.

18. Stand up straight and have good posture.

19. Look people in the eyes when you talk to them.

20. Smile.

21. Be polite.

22. Keep your promises.

23. Wear a watch, if you can afford it.

24. Eat breakfast.

25. If you eat cereal at any time, choose your cereal based on healthiness not tastiness.

26. Exercise at least 3 days per week.

27. Walk often.

28. Always write with correct spelling and grammar.

29. Never speak worse about a person behind their back than you do to their face. (Feel free to say nicer things about a person behind their back than to their face.)

30. Don't gossip and don't have a big mouth.

31. Never judge other people harsher than you judge yourself.

32. Make New Years resolutions, but make one every day instead of every year.

33. Volunteer.

34. Forgive, but never forget.

35. Don't have skeletons in your closet.

36. Keep as few secrets as reasonably possible.

37. Despite the rule before this one, keep your friends' secrets.

38. Politely tell people that you will not betray your friends' trust, when you are asked about their secrets and such.

39. Volunteering (i.e. activism) is more important than voting. If you can do both, good for you. If you only have time for one, volunteer instead of voting. It makes more of a difference.

40. Privately question your own values.

41. Avoid questioning other people's values, especially in public.

42. Listen more than you talk.

43. Use a journal to count how many calories you consume per day.

44. Use a journal to count how many calories you burn per day.

45. If you want to lose weight, burn slightly more than you consume. If you want to gain weight, consume slightly more than you burn. If you are happy with your weight, try to burn the same amount as you consume.

46. Weigh yourself daily at the same time(s).

47. Write your daily weight down in a journal.

48. Never allow the police to search you, your car, or your belongings if you do not have something to hide.

49. Never tell other people that you think they or something they are doing is immoral or sinful.

50. Keep your moral values and religion to yourself. Use them to direct your own actions.

51. Ask people how they are often and listen to their answer.

52. Laugh at other people's jokes, but not your own.

53. Shower at least once per day.

54. Wash your hands, even if you aren't an employee.

55. Take care of the elderly, which includes spending time with them and talking to them.

56. Avoid going places where you need to be waited on.

57. Wait on yourself wherever possible.

58. Make your friends look good.

59. Avoid lying.

60. Don't pretend to be better than you are. Don't pretend to be more successful, popular, etcetera.

61. Treat other people as if they are better than they are. Treat them as if they are more successful, popular, etcetera.

62. Don't brag about your talents. Instead, surprise people with them when they just happen to be called upon.

63. Sit up straight.

64. Keep your house clean.

65. If you have either of them, keep your car and office clean.

66. Stretch daily. (I do Yoga most mornings.)

67. Dance.

68. Take dancing lessons if you could use improvement.

69. Ask other people (e.g. your friends, your co-workers, your boss, etc.) what their favorite book is, and read it.

70. Ask their favorite song or band, and listen to it.

71. Ask their favorite movie, and watch it.

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10 Top (Legal) Things to Do If You Find Yourself Holding a Jar of Salt

A list of useful things just about anyone could do with a jar of salt, in just one afternoon. You don't even need a pair of gloves.

My apologies to all the slug lovers out there for the slug salt maze.

Okay, so you've got a day off work and decide to do a bit of work around the house. The only drawback is that all you have is jar of salt. These are some of the chores you could still get on with, as salt has many (legal) uses in and around the house.

1. Collect your kids' smelly plastic juice bottles, stale flasks and other closed containers and soak them with salty water. Leave this overnight and come back tomorrow to fresher smelling bottles and containers.

2. Next, put some salt in your greasy baking pans and wipe down with paper. This makes them easier to wash.

3. As you're still in the kitchen you may as well add a pinch of salt to your milk to keep it fresher for longer.

4. Your jar of salt will keep you busy today as you'll see, so for a quick lunch, if you're cooking rice or pasta, add a bit of salt to the water, as salt makes it boil at a higher temperature, thus decreasing the cooking time (and saving on energy)

5. With lunch over, collect your faded washable curtains and rugs and dump them in the washing machine with a splash of salt added in your soap chamber. They'll come out brightened and newer looking, but make sure that they're washable before you do this, as the salt (nor me) can take responsibility for any shrinkage.

6. Once those are out of the washing machine, get all the young ones' (and the older ones') perspiration-stained garments, it's time to remove the offending stains. Dissolve 5 tablespoons of salt in one litre of hot water. Sponge the garments with the solution and watch the stains disappear.

7. Collect all your flower vases, and soak them in a strong solution of water and salt. Rub down with a sponge after a soak. If you can't reach down to the bottom of the vase, just dump in a handful of raw rice at the end of a long soak (rice works as a scrubber) get something to place on the top of the vase and shake vigorously. Or if you have access to an old bottle brush you can use this instead.

8. Work on your watermarks left on tables and other wooden surfaces by making a paste with water and salt. Work into the stain with a soft cloth until it's completely gone.

9. Go outside and place some salt on the around your doors and windows frames to stop ants and other insects entering the house. They won't cross the salt barrier. Remember to replace after heavy rain.

10. After all your hard work, you deserve a personal treat, so give your teeth a cheap instant whitening (and gum treatment). Grind down the salt as much as you can (maybe with a rolling pin on a cutting board). Add one part salt to two parts baking soda, make a paste and brush your teeth with it. You'll see a marked difference in colour. This is for whitening, removing plaque and healthy gums.

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Smart Battery Will Warn You Before Your Cellphone Explodes

A new “intelligent” lithium-ion battery is supposed to prevent explosions and fire accidents by sending constant updates on its own health. Developed by researchers at NTT DoCoMo, the battery uses a 8-bit microcomputer “brain” to monitor its condition and relay the information to the cellphone user.

The pack then notifies you when it's time to recharge, when it needs repairs or even when it's time for a replacement. Information is stored on the battery itself, so that even if you change your phone, you can still view your pack's previously recorded data.

NTT DoCoMo says that keeping close track of deterioration in the battery pack is a great way to prevent the Li-ions from catching fire or exploding—a problem that has only increased as the need for more portable power continues to swell. The new brand of intelligent batteries will be found on phone models coming out next year.

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5 Painful Facts You Need to Know

First off, let's set the record straight: Pain is normal. About 75 million U.S. residents endure chronic or recurrent pain. Migraines plague 25 million of us. One in six suffer arthritis.

The global pain industry peddles more than $50 billion in drugs a year. Yet for chronic pain sufferers, over-the-counter pills are typically little help, while morphine and other narcotics can be addictive sedatives.

An overview study published last month in the Journal of General Internal Medicine looked at multiple studies of pain and found "researchers don't yet know how to determine which [treatment] is best for individual patients." From studies of drugs to surgeries and alternative medicines, "We have found that there are huge gaps in our knowledge base," said Dr. Matthew J. Bair, assistant professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

So what is pain and why do so many suffer so long?

Pain is felt when electrical signals are sent from nerve endings to your brain, which in turn can release painkillers called endorphins and generate reactions that range from instant and physical to long-term and emotional. Beyond that, scientific understanding gets painfully fuzzy. Here's what's known:

1. Scientist don't understand pain

When you're in pain, you know it. But if scientists could fully grasp how pain works and why, they might be able to help you more. The American Academy of Pain Medicine defines pain as "an unpleasant sensation and emotional response to that sensation." Some pain is the result of an obvious injury. Other times, it is caused by damaged nerves that are not so easy to pinpoint. "Pain is complex and defies our ability to establish a clear definition," says Kathryn Weiner, director of the American Academy of Pain Management. "Pain is far more than neural transmission and sensory transduction. Pain is a complex mixture of emotions, culture, experience, spirit and sensation."

2. Chronic pain shrinks brains

If you have chronic pain, you know how demoralizing and debilitating it can be, physically and mentally. It can prevent you from doing things and make you irritable for reasons nobody else understands. But that's only half the story. People with chronic backaches have brains as much as 11 percent smaller than those of non-sufferers, scientists reported in 2004. They don't know why. "It is possible it's just the stress of having to live with the condition," said study leader A. Vania Apkarian of Northwestern University. "The neurons become overactive or tired of the activity."

3. Migraines and sex go together

It may not eliminate the phrase "Not tonight, honey ..." but a 2006 study found that migraine sufferers had levels of sexual desire 20 percent higher than those suffering from tension headaches. The finding suggests sexual desire and migraines might be influenced by the same brain chemical, and getting a better handle on the link could lead to better treatments, at least for the pain portion of the equation.

4. Women feel more pain

Any man who has watched a woman having a baby without using drugs would swear that women can tolerate anything. But the truth is, guys, it hurts more than you can imagine. Women have more nerve receptors than men. As an example, women have 34 nerve fibers per square centimeter of facial skin, while men average just 17. And in a 2005 study, women were found to report more pain throughout their lifetimes and, compared to men, they feel pain in more areas of their body and for longer durations.

5. Some animals don't feel our pain

Animal research could offer clues to eventually relieve human suffering. Take the naked mole rat, a hairless and nearly blind subterranean creature. A study this year found it feels neither the pain of acid nor the sting of chili peppers. If researchers can figure out why, they might be on the road to new sorts of painkilling therapies for humans. In 2006, scientists found a pathway for the transmission of chronic pain in rats that they hope will translate into better understanding of human chronic pain. Lobsters feel no pain, even when boiled, scientists said in a 2005 report that is just one more salvo in a long-running debate.

What you can do

Meanwhile, exercise is a useful remedy for many types of chronic pain.

In an Italian study detailed in the May issue of the journal Cephalalgia, office workers did relaxation and posture exercises every two to three hours. Over an eight-month period, they kept diaries, which were then compared to those of a control group that did not change habits. In the end, the group that exercised reported that headaches and neck and shoulder pain decreased by more than 40 per cent, and their use of painkillers was cut in half.

"Physical activity is actually a natural pain reliever for most people suffering from arthritis," concludes another study published in the Arthritis Care and Research journal in April. "Even minor lifestyle changes like taking a 10-minute walk three times a day can reduce the impact of arthritis on a person's daily activities and help to prevent developing more painful arthritis," said Dr. Patience White, chief public health officer of the Arthritis Foundation. "Physical activity can actually reduce pain naturally and decrease dependence on pain medications."

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Randy Pausch, author of The Last Lecture, has died.

If you dont know who Randy Pausch is, please watch this video. It will change your life forever.

Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor whose final lecture inspired millions, died early today in Virginia of pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Pausch, 47, who turned the lecture into a book, said that no one would have been interested in his words of wisdom were he not a man in his 40s with a terminal illness, leaving behind a wife and three young children.

According to Dr. Pausch's Web site, a biopsy last week revealed that the cancer had progressed further than expected, based on recent PETscans.

"Since last week, Randy has also taken a step down and is much sicker than he had been," the Web site said. "He's now enrolled in hospice. He's no longer able to post here so I'm a friend posting on his behalf because we know that many folks are watching this space for updates."

Last fall, Dr. Pausch delivered the lecture at CMU, which still posts it on its Web site. The lecture has attracted more than six million viewers.

In the year preceding the lecture, he had gone through rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, but refused to give in to morbidity or self-pity. Instead of focusing on the cancer, he talked about how to fulfill childhood dreams and the lessons he learned on his life's journey.

In his 10 years at CMU, he helped found the Entertainment Technology Center, established an annual virtual reality contest and helped start the Alice program, an animation-based curriculum for teaching high school and college students.

After the lecture, he moved to Chesapeake, Va., to spend his remaining time with his wife, children and family.

Steve Seabolt, a vice president at video-game maker Electronic Arts and one of Dr. Pausch's best friends, was with him when he died at 4 a.m. today. Dr. Pausch was lucid until near the end, he said, and even went up and down the steps a couple times at home yesterday, "although he had minimal energy."

Dr. Pausch had stopped taking chemotherapy in recent weeks but was investigating a possible vaccine therapy up until the end of his life, Mr. Seabolt said.

"Randy had an enormous and lasting impact on Carnegie Mellon," said university President Jared L. Cohon. "He was a brilliant researcher and gifted teacher. His love of teaching, his sense of fun and his brilliance came together in the Alice project, which teaches students computer programming while enabling them to do something fun -- making animated movies and games. Carnegie Mellon -- and the world -- are better places for having had Randy Pausch in them."

With the help of Wall Street Journal columnist Jeffrey Zaslow, Dr. Pausch wrote a book, "The Last Lecture," which was published earlier this year and has now been translated into 30 languages. He elaborated on his lecture and emphasized the value he placed on hard work and learning from criticism. His words were intended as a legacy for his young children.

In May, Dr. Pausch spoke at the Carnegie Mellon University commencement. He said a friend recently told him he was "beating the [Grim] Reaper" because it's now been nine months since his doctor told him he would die in six.

"But we don't beat the Reaper by living longer. We beat the Reaper by living well," said Dr. Pausch, who urged the graduates to find and pursue their passion. He put an exclamation point at the end of his remarks by kissing his wife, Jai, and carrying her off stage.

Mr. Zaslow said the commencement was the last time he saw Dr. Pausch. He recalled that Dr. Pausch was weak enough from his cancer that he had to lie down on a couch before and after his appearance, but as he often did, he mustered his energy for the public appearance, "and he was excited and happy."

Mr. Zaslow said he had become obsessed with Googling Dr. Pausch's name each day on the Internet to see how many new Web sites were devoted to him. In an e-mail exchange they had about a month ago, Dr. Pausch "said to me, 'Will you stop Googling me and go hug your kids?' So I did."

In addition to his wife, Dr. Pausch is survived by his children, Dylan, Logan and Chloe. Also surviving are his mother, Virginia Pausch of Columbia, Md., and a sister, Tamara Mason of Lynchburg, Va. The family plans a private burial in Virginia. A campus memorial service is being planned. Details will be announced at a later date. In September, Carnegie Mellon announced a plan to honor Dr. Pausch's memory and his work as "a tireless advocate and enabler of collaboration between artistic and technical faculty members." CMU is to build the Randy Pausch Memorial Footbridge, which will connect the Gates Center for Computer Science, now under construction, with an adjacent arts building.

The family requests that donations on his behalf be directed to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, 2141 Rosecrans Ave., Suite 7000, El Segundo, Calif. 90245, or to Carnegie Mellon's Randy Pausch Memorial Fund, which primarily supports the university's continued work on the Alice project.

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The Science Behind Breaking Baseball Bats

The broken barrel of a maple bat whacked fan Susan Rhodes, 50, in the head as she sat four rows behind the visitors' dugout at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on April 25. She didn't see it coming. She suffered a concussion and the blow fractured her jaw in two places.

Broken bats are commonplace in baseball games, but the Rhodes incident along with similar injuries this year to a hitting coach and an umpire, are making people wonder: Has America's pastime suddenly become a lot more dangerous and is the new trend in bat wood to blame?

Babe Ruth's hickory bats are long gone, and now it seems the decades-long tradition of ash bats might also be waning. Thanks to Barry Bonds' affinity for maple bats, more and more players are using maple and an argument can be made that they are more likely to break.

"It's really dangerous," Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on June 26, referring to the prevalence of breaking bats. Just the week before, he was watching the ball when a piece of second baseman Kelly Johnson's bat flew over his head. Like Rhodes, Cox never even saw it.

Last month, players, teams and league officials began meeting to decide what might be done to solve the broken bat problem. Scientists and engineers have also considered the problem — they know that differences between maple bats and the more traditional ash bats, as well as the ways that a bat is shaped and hit, can influence how and whether it breaks.

Bat evolution

The maple vs. ash controversy didn't exist in the early days of baseball: When Babe Ruth was hitting homers, he — and every other player — used a hickory bat.

"Hickory was a common wood, and it's still known today as a good strong wood," said Lloyd Smith, a mechanical and materials engineer from Washington State University. "But it is very heavy ... that was one of the criticisms, was that it was a heavy bat."

The desire for a lighter-weight bat (for faster swinging and higher batting averages) eventually led to the adoption of ash as the wood of choice for major leaguers. And it stayed the preferred type of wood up until a few years ago.

But because it is lighter, ash is not as strong hickory.

"The problem with most wood is that strength is proportional to weight, so if you want a really strong wood, you can do that, but you end up getting an increase in weight," Smith explained. "And if you want a really light wood, you can do that, but you pay for it because your strength goes down. So there's this kind of optimum balance."

In the 1990s, maple started to make the rounds as an alternative. It was appealing because it was stronger (which is better for hitting longer distances) and less prone to flaking than ash, so players didn't go through bats as quickly. Most players still stuck to their ash bats, though — that is, until Barry Bonds got the single-season home run record in 2001, using a maple bat.

Now, just a few years later, maple is no longer on the fringe.

"For 50 years, northern white ash was the wood. Today half of the bats in the major leagues are made out of maple. So it was a very dramatic shift," Smith told LiveScience.

Flaking, cracking and breaking

Maple and ash tend to break in different ways. While ash tends to crack and flake off in smaller chunks, maple tends to fracture in bigger, jagged shards.

Smith attributes some of the difference in breaking patterns to the structure of the pores, which transport moisture inside the trees before they become bats.

Ash is what is called ring porous. "If you were to kind of climb inside of the wood, what you find is, in the grain areas, there's a whole bunch of pores that carry moisture through the tree. And if you go in the region of the growth ring where you don't have the grain, it's more or less solid fiber," Smith said.

Because the voids in the wood are concentrated in a few areas, the growth planes have weak regions. When the ash bat hits a ball, "these cell walls would collapse, and you'd get what they call 'flaking' — the barrel would just kind of start to soften, and you'd get little layers that flake off," Smith said.

Maple on the other hand is "ring diffuse," meaning its pores are more evenly distributed throughout the wood.

"So a characteristic of maple that exists today is the barrel is very durable; you don't get these flaking kinds of failures in maple bats that you did in the ash bats," Smith said.

Cracking styles

Cracks form in both types of wood as a bat is used to hit ball after ball after ball. But the same pore structure that makes ash prone to flaking also channels cracks along the length of the bat, meaning the crack has a long way to grow before it can break the bat in two. And batters tend to notice the cracks or decide the bat has too much flaking and switch to a new bat before the old bat completely breaks.

Because of maple's diffuse pores, cracks in the wood can grow in any direction, making it easier for them to grow out toward the edge of the barrel, causing a large chunk of it to break off entirely. And since maple doesn't flake, serving as a warning to a player that his bat is cracking, "you're perhaps more likely to have bat particles flying through the infield," Smith said.

How the bat is cut out of the wood when it is made can affect its susceptibility to breakage as well. A bat is strongest when the grain lines up with the length of the bat. The grain of ash is easier to see and straighter than the grain of maple, which Smith says could be a factor in how and how often maple bats break.

"If you have a bat that's not cut straight to the grain, it's going to be a weaker bat," Smith said. "Now whether that's the cause of the maple failures or not, there's still other things that could be going on, but that could at least be one factor."

Tremendous force

Another such factor has to do more with the batter than the wood: He could hit the ball badly.

The ball comes into contact with the bat over a small area for only about one thousandth of a second; the force of that short impact is about 5,000 pounds.

"If you hit the ball poorly, if you don't hit it on what they call the 'sweet spot' of the bat, you get this kind of stinging feeling in your hands," which means the bat is vibrating and bending, Smith explained.

If the vibrations are large enough, the bending can cause the bat to break, usually at the narrowest part of the bat, the handle. (That's exactly where the bat of Colorado Rockies player Todd Helton broke before the barrel hit Rhodes, the fan.)

This leads to another aspect of today's bats that could be causing them to break: narrow handles.

A century ago, bat handles were much thicker than they are today. Smith attributes the narrowing of the handle to the advent of metal bats, which most players today grew up using, and which typically have narrower handles. A narrow handle makes a wooden bat less sturdy and more prone to breaking.

Controversy today

The seeming prevalence of breaking bats in games this season has brought the issue into the limelight. The most recent incident occurred when plate umpire Brian O'Nora was hit in the head by a stray bat shard in a game between the Colorado Rockies and the Kansas City Royals on June 24.

But though engineers like Smith have a good idea of how and why bats crack and break, there is little data on how often they do so and which types of wood break more often, so there's no real evidence that bats are breaking more often now than in the past, or that maple breaks more than ash.

"People are really focusing on maple because it perhaps has a more dramatic failure than ash," Smith said, adding that broken ash bats have also caused injuries in the past.

One factor that Smith suggests could be skewing the statistics on which type of bat breaks more often is the fact that cracks in ash bats can often be detected before the bat breaks (players tap the bat on the plate and can tell that it sounds different), whereas maple cracks usually can't be detected and are more likely to break during a swing.

A number of ways to reduce the number of broken bats have been suggested. Smith mentioned the simple option of requiring thicker handles, like the older baseball bats (there are currently no restrictions on handle diameter in the major leagues).

"If you increase the handle diameter, then you're going to make the bat stronger, no question," Smith said. But that alone won't solve the problem.

"Really the problem is part of the game," Smith added. "Wood bats fail, and they'll continue to fail, and maple bats will likely continue to fail in a more brittle way than ash bats."

Major League Baseball could also do a study of wood types and put restrictions on the species that break in a more brittle way, or put specifications on the grain alignment of the bats to make them less likely to break, Smith said.

Alternatively, more protective netting could be added in front of the lower-level infield seats in stadiums, which would protect fans (Detroit Tigers center fielder Curtis Granderson suggested this option in his ESPN.com blog, since fans are the primary concern for injuries because it is easier for players to dodge errant shards). Smith agrees that it would keep fans safer, but adds: "Then you've got to look through that stupid net to enjoy the game."

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Top 10 Computer Annoyances and How to Fix Them

Computers are supposed to make our lives easier, but too much of the time they can be frustrating, time-wasting, stubborn machines. From the irritating "Access Denied" message when you can't remember your 147th password, to all the useless email that clutters your inbox, to IT lockdown restrictions that keep you from getting your job done, let's take a look at 10 of the more common gripes amongst computer users and our humble suggestions for fixing them.

10. Dashboard widgets (OS X).

If you've got a newer or high-powered Mac that never seems to drag, then your Dashboard widgets are probably just a dandy little convenience. But those lacking memory or just sick of accidentally hitting F12 and getting their screen taken over by Dashboard could use a little help. If you just want to make the widgets go away for one session, you can install the simple Dashquit widget or use these terminal commands for the job. Killing multiple widgets, like those iterations that pop up from delivery trackers, is easier if you hold the Option key. And those looking for leaner, cleaner Dashboard can speed it up with some cache cleaning. And if you're really only hitting F12 for a single widget, try pulling it onto the desktop.

9. Remembering passwords.

Yes, yes—the "duh" answer is "use Firefox to save your passwords," but even the mighty 'fox can be used more securely, and made to remember any password. For your other data, including login and encryption tools, you could try an easy universal password system, a randomizer like Diceware, or other tools like Strong Password Generator or the Password Chart. It beats trying to remember which combination of Simpsons character and three-digit number you used for that rarely-updated social network.

8. Google search result links are indirect, awkward, and too long to copy.

If you're a power Googler who's constantly grabbing image, site, and news links from searches, you know that you don't actually get the direct link from right-clicking—you get more than a 100 characters of link-tracking gobbledy-gook. True, the link will get you there eventually, but it's not exactly email-friendly, and it's an unnecessary click-through. CustomizeGoogle, one of our Top 10 Must-Have Firefox Extensions, fixes this with just one of its many, many tweaks—"Remove click tracking," found in the first "Web" set of options. You'll get nice, clean links to copy or send, as illustrated (fourth-grade style) below:

7. Hours spent re-installing Windows XP (or Vista).

It's usually only 20-30 minutes from slipping in that holographic XP or Vista CD/DVD to arriving at your new-car-fresh desktop, but it's often a few hours' work getting everything customized, updated, and tweaked to your liking. With the nLite tool for XP, or vLite for Vista, you can skip a ton of clicking and pop-up answering during installation and first boot-up—in the case of nLite, pretty much all of it. Here's a guide to slipstreaming XP Service Pack 3 into a new, automated installation CD, and the Digital Inspiration blog has a similar walk-through of vLite for Vista. nLite's also a great tool for creating a stripped-down, speedier XP for virtualization or older machines.

6. Windows Vista, in general.

We really don't mean to rag on Windows in this list—in fact, let's admit that Windows Vista isn't as bad as one would believe from the common blog or news post. It does, however, have some quirks that can quickly nip at your last nerves. Luckily, fellow tech enthusiast and blogger The How-To Geek did us a solid by writing up 10 ways to make Windows Vista less annoying, each with a link to a detailed explanation over at his own site. Before you feel compelled to say it in the comments—yes, "Install XP on Your Vista Computer" is one of the tips.

5. RE: Fwd: Fwd: Email (and time-wasting email in general).

There are tons of tools to improve your own productivity and stop wasting time on useless stuff—but not everybody got the memo, as you might notice from your inbox. Your best options for dealing with chain forwards, repetitive conversations, and other email gaffes are smart filters, including a fwd filter for those "Did you know" emails from Aunt Margie and Uncle Bif. Correspondents just not getting the message? Take the next step with an explanatory email etiquette page. Need proof that wasteful messages are eating up your time? Gmail/Google Apps users can take a detailed look at the waste with Mail Trends.

4. File copying freezes and awkwardness (Windows).

You've got the entire run of "The Wire" in a 20 GB folder, and you've set it up to transfer to your external hard drive while you're at the movies. You get home, flick the monitor on, and ... well, Windows just gave up at some point, and you're ready to toss your keyboard. Free Windows add-on TeraCopy is exactly what you need. It makes file transfers faster, more consistent, and it provides realistic job times and status reports. You'll hardly notice it's there—which is just about perfect.

3. Office IT restrictions.

You can understand why the tech gurus at work don't let those people install apps willy-nilly, change system settings, or check out certain web sites. You, however, are tech-savvy, responsible, and just need to IM this one client, for Pete's sake. We know your pain, and, luckily, Gina's assembled a guide to surviving IT lockdown that should get you around most IT restrictions. If you're all but chained to the default Internet Explorer and long for Firefox, you can still get some of its best features. Photo by cell105.

2. GIANT email attachments.

Until a stable, easy-to-install Flux capacitor is available, you won't be able to go back in time and prevent your relatives, co-workers and goofy-humored friends from sending that "hilarious" 10 MB PowerPoint "joke." You can, however, mitigate the annoyance and damage done to your inbox. The best suggestion we've got for any nearly any account is to create a Gmail account to manage your other mail. That way, you can jump in and check your important messages, while your dedicated mail client is frozen trying to grab that huge file. You can then use tools like Gmail Drive (Windows), gDisk (Mac OS X), and GmailFS (Linux) to clear space-hogging attachments from your email accounts. Or you can just simply filter and kill giant attachments with Gmail's advanced search-and-filter tools. If you're stuck with big attachments in Outlook, there are ways of extracting attachments without having to open the actual email, using Outlook Attachment Remover or this simple trick described by the Digital Inspiration blog. The real solution? Get your friends or relatives a copy of Picasa or another photo manager that auto-magically shrinks pictures before sending. For every other file type, there's just courteous, unsolicited tech support emails.

1. All that crappy "default" software.

Whether you're unpacking a new PC, helping out a friend, or sitting down at a new office system, you're more than likely going to find some, as Gina puts it, sucktackular software on there. Seriously, now—RealPlayer? Pop-ups asking to renew Norton/McAfee/Symantec? Limewire, for crying out loud? We've rounded up the free, and superior, alternatives to those persistent programs, and many of our suggestions are cross-platform, open source, and do a better job than the system-dragging softs you find in the wilds of computing.

We've covered lots and lots of other annoyances, computer-based and not, during Lifehacker's run, and we're sure you've got your own software tweaks you just couldn't take anymore. What irksome issues did you have to get rid of, and how did you do it? What irreplaceable software smooths out your desktop? Hop on the couch and share the pain in the comments.

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What's making us fat? Maybe we're too stressed

The theory: Chronic stress leads to weight gain, and chronic stress is at epidemic levels (just like obesity).

The research: Whole books have been written to explain how stress leads to weight gain -- "The Cortisol Connection: Why Stress Makes You Fat and Ruins Your Health -- and What You Can Do About It"; "Fat Around the Middle: How to Lose That Bulge for Good."

Cortisol is often called the "stress hormone" because it's part of the body's fight-or-flight response. It's a good thing when you're being chased by a lion (or chewed out by an angry boss), but many doctors and scientists believe that chronic stress is anything but good.

Studies have shown that cortisol makes people crave rich sweets in the worst way -- and pile on pounds in the worst place, around the middle, putting a body at risk for bad cholesterol, heart attacks and strokes. One study compared women with high waist-to-hip ratios to women with low waist-to-hip ratios and found that the former secreted more cortisol in stressful lab situations and self-reported more stressful feelings.

In 2007, researchers introduced a different notion of how stress is related to weight gain. Their study compared stressed mice (who had to live either in cold cages or with a bunch of mean cousins) and unstressed mice (who, relatively speaking, had the life of Stuart Little before all that bad stuff happened). When fed a high-fat, high-sugar diet, all the mice gained weight, but the stressed mice gained twice as much. The scientists found that a molecule in the stressed mice -- neuropeptide Y -- activated a gene in fat cells, causing the cells to grow in size and number. When that gene was blocked for two weeks, the mice lost 40% of the weight they had gained.

Are we more stressed these days? "I would say that modernity . . . provides more factors that are a source of stress," says Angelo Tremblay of Laval University in Quebec.

Our experts weigh in: Susan Roberts of Tufts University says lots of research shows changes in food preferences for animals under stress. And Dr. Julie Lumeng of the University of Michigan says studies have shown that obese people are less likely than others to be drug addicts or alcoholics -- "the thought being that if you use food to 'soothe your mood,' you will be less likely to need to use alcohol or drugs to 'soothe your mood.' "

Maybe a virus is to blame

The theory: Certain viruses may put people at greater risk of becoming obese.

The research: At least 10 viruses are believed to cause obesity in animals, and two have been tenuously linked to people. Antibodies against one (SMAM-1, which causes obesity in chickens) were found in about 20% of a group of 50 obese people tested in 1992. (Scientists don't know how many non-obese people would have antibodies to this virus as well.) In 2005, in a study of 500 people tested, antibodies to Ad-36 -- a virus that causes symptoms similar to the common cold -- were found in about 30% of obese people, but only in 11% of non-obese people. And in a 2005 test of 89 twin pairs, if one had antibodies and the other didn't, the one who did was generally heavier.

After exposure to Ad-36, chickens, mice, monkeys and rats hardly act under the weather at all, but their body fat increases, sometimes even doubling. Strangely, though, their total cholesterol, "bad" cholesterol and triglyceride levels go down. People who have antibodies for Ad-36 also have better metabolic profiles than people who don't.

It's unknown whether more people are exposed to Ad-36 now than 30 years ago since no one was tested then.

Our experts weigh in: "Obesity due to infection is possible in some people. How big the group is I don't know. . . . Not all obesity is due to viral infection," says Nikhil Dhurandhar of Louisiana State University, who has studied SMAM-1 and Ad-36 and coined the term "infectobesity" for "obesity of infectious origin."

"I think the data are new and emerging, and we just don't know yet," says Dr. Julie Lumeng of the University of Michigan, while Dr. George Bray of Louisiana State University says, "The jury is out on whether these are important in humans."

"I don't buy into these at all," says Susan Roberts of Tufts University.

Maybe the temperature is just right

The theory: Call it the Goldilocks Syndrome. If people rarely get too cold or too hot, but almost always stay "just right" in their temperature comfort zone -- as Americans do, these days, year-round -- they will gain weight.

The research: Environmental temperature can affect weight. A 2002 study of Dutch men found they burned more calories when in a room that was a chilly 61 degrees than when it was a cozier 72 degrees.

That same year, a study with Dutch women found they consumed fewer calories in a too-toasty 81-degree room than in a 72-degree room, because they chose lower-calorie foods to eat. That fits with other science. Studies of people (and pigs) have found they eat less in hot environments.

If the effects seen in short-term experiments hold over time, you'd expect that people who experience sizable temperature variations would be thinner than people who live in conditions that always suit them.

This could only be implicated in the widespread widening of Americans if they're staying in their comfort zone more than they did 30 years ago -- and it seems that they are. Although most homes were heated in the 1970s, better units and better insulation now help keep people in those homes warmer in winter. But greater progress has probably been made in beating the summer heat. Data from the Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute show that nearly 90% of new homes are now built with central air conditioning, while only about one-third were in the 1970s. And Americans are even more likely to stay cool on the road. Almost every new car has AC now, whereas only about 60% used to back then.

Our experts weigh in: "I am very skeptical about this one," says James Hill of the University of Colorado, and Susan Roberts of Tufts University calls it "small stuff." But Dr. George Bray of Louisiana State University thinks there may be something to it. He notes that temperature affects energy intake and output -- so the more the temperature varies, the more a person's energy balance may bounce around.

Maybe it's all that high-fructose corn syrup or Maybe low-fat foods made us eat more...

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Man breaks into bar, tries to cook food, catches the bar on fire, dies

AMORY, Miss. - A Monroe County man has died of injuries suffered in a restaurant fire that he started while trying to cook food.

Coroner Alan Gurley says 57-year-old Robert H. Davis of Amory died Wednesday at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Ga.

Davis was taken to the hospital Monday night after sustaining heavy burns in the fire at the Gilleylen Dairy Bar in Amory.

Authorities say Davis apparently broke into the dairy bar, attempted to cook with the restaurant's equipment and accidentally set the building on fire.

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Fingernail Timex Will Be All the Rage in 2154

By the year 2154, robots will give us haircuts, cell phones will be implanted in our brains and wristwatches will be worn on fingernails. The future is really scary!

Thankfully, we won't be around to witness the phasing out of Hair Jordan and the iPhone, but the idea for the fingernail watch is already on the table. And who is behind it but Timex, the company that manufactured our wristwatches in the '90s. For big T's 150 year anniversary, the watchmaker joined forces with design site Core77 to announce an Orwellian competition entitled 'Timex 2154: The Future of Time."

The competition's runner-up concept watch, the TX54 evolved from press-on nails and contact lenses, like birds from dinosaurs. Humanoids wear it on their thumbnails, and can activate glow-in-the-dark features by touching the nail-tip. It's disposable, and available in an array of colors.

Call us old-fashioned, but we're still not ready to ditch our Casios. Maybe in 150 years...

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LA Plastic Bag Ban: Disposable Bags Outlawed By 2010

Los Angeles shoppers soon won't hear the question, "Paper or plastic?" at the checkout line.

The City Council voted Tuesday to ban plastic shopping bags from stores, beginning July 1, 2010. Shoppers can either bring their own bags or pay 25 cents for a paper or biodegradable bag.

The council's unanimous vote also puts pressure on the state, which is considering an Assembly bill that would impose bag recycling requirements on stores. City officials said their ban would not be implemented if the state passes the bill and requires at least a 25-cent charge per bag.

"We've gotten to a point where we need to act as a city, where we can have real results," said Councilman Ed Reyes, who proposed the bag ban. "We're trying to do it in a way where we can educate and inform the public of what we're doing."

Reyes said the ban will minimize cleanup costs for the city and reduce trash that collects in storm drains and the Los Angeles River. The city estimates more than 2 billion plastic bags are used each year in Los Angeles. About 5 percent of plastic bags and 21 percent of paper bags are recycled in California.

Banning plastic bags will not solve the litter problem, said an attorney who opposes the regulation of plastic bags.

"We've had enough of politicians accepting the misinformation that's spread around the Internet about plastic bags," said Stephen Joseph of the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, which represents bag manufacturers.

Joseph said the city motion gives "a free pass" to paper bags, which he argued are biodegradable but consume more materials and natural resources to make.

Three percent of the bag fee will be returned to the retailer, 3 percent will go to the state, and the rest will go back to the city to fund an education campaign.

Last year, San Francisco passed the nation's first bag ban, which took effect in November.

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What Are the Odds of Being Struck by Lightning?

You might have heard of the two golfers who were trying to hide themselves under a pine tree in order to protect themselves from a thunderstorm. Lightning struck both of them. The two golfer were disoriented and injured after the incident, but survived. One remembered their current golf score, but didn’t know what year it was. The question is, what are the odds of being struck by lightning? Only 10% of people who are struck by lightning are killed. The odds of being struck in a given year is 1/700,000. The odds of being struck in your lifetime (est. 80 years) is 1/5000. Prevention is the key, so make sure you know all about how to protect yourself.

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10 Weird and Unusual Cars

1. The Zoop Car: Designed by the unlikely candidate of Paris fashion house Maison de Courrèges, this electric car is actually capable of speeds of up to 120mph and can seat three people. It might be eco-friendly and relatively fast, but I don’t imagine driving a lemon is for everyone’s taste.

2. The Parkcycle: Whilst not technically a car, it’s roughly car-shaped and was used to occupy parking spaces for the global event PARK(ing), in which participants turn ordinary parking spaces into public parks. Designed by art group Rebar and with a top speed of around 8km/h, it may not be the most maneuverable vehicle, but it does come with a 5m tree on it!

3. The Live-In Truck: Living Is.be has transformed the bed of a truck into a fully-functional living space. With hatches in the roof to allow natural sunlight and ventilation into the room, it also comes with a double bed, a sink, shower (naturally with running water) and a kitchen stove.

4. The Transparent Car: Similar in color to the Zoop Car, this car is different in that almost all of it is completely see-through. Designed by Swiss manufacturer Rinspeed, this is the perfect car for those that want to be seen both outside of the car and inside the car.

5. Fiat Jolly Panda: It may have a bizarre name, but the more bizarre thing is that this car totally lacks doors! Stylishly designed and with non-toxic and UV resistant materials, its aesthetic impression is one that appeals to those with a taste for the more simple-looking vehicles. Although you do have to wonder if it’s not in danger of being stolen…

6. The Kenguru Car: This is a car that is designed specifically for wheelchair users. There’s no front seat, just an open space for the operator to position their wheelchair, which gets locked in place. The car itself is controlled with a joystick device, and with the option to simply roll in and out without having to hoist yourself into a seat, it’s the easiest car-tech available for wheelchair users.

7. Nissan Terranaut: While a concept-car, the concept alone is pretty cool. Rather than standard RV interiors, Nissan have gone with features and designs that bring to mind aeronautics and maybe even a little sci-fi.

8. Becker Jet Vans: Unfortunately not a jet-powered van as the name might suggest, but instead you get an outrageously luxurious interior which has been heavily influenced by private jets and limousines.

9. The Surface Orbiter: Built from a milk-tanker, taking over 4 four years and costing around $175,000, this was New Yorker Rick Dobbertin’s dream machine, and was constructed to cross both land and sea without any aid from a support vehicle. Impressively, the Orbiter has clocked up over 3,000 miles in the sea and 33,000 miles on land.

10. The Pacman Car: For anyone that enjoys a bit of nostalgia, or even just unusual cars. This was a converted hot-rod drag-racing car made to look like the classic arcade-game character Pacman.

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Spray-On Condom

While most technologies advanced by leaps and bounds in recent decades, condom design has been relatively static for the last century or so. One visionary German scientist is working to change that. Jan Vinzenz Krause has spent recent years trying to make the world's most common prophylactic available in spray-on form. The technology's draw, according to Krause (pictured), is that conventional condoms often don't fit penises of varying sizes (also pictured, sort of).

Unlike its depiction in popular media, it's not a generic spray can that men haphazardly shoot towards their crotch. In reality, it works like a miniature car wash, employing a penis chamber lined with jets that distribute liquid latex. The entire process takes 10 seconds, with another 20 to 25 required for drying. But couples who don't want to miss a second of "Two and a Half Men" will be happy to hear that the inventor is hard at work decreasing that time to 10 seconds.

Although Krause planned to release his product this year, he hit roadblocks earlier this month with the patent. Since condoms are considered medical products, the approval methods are far more rigorous. So it's possible that Krause's prototype will never see mass production, and the world will be denied what he expected to be "a revolution in the condom market."

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Man Caught Using Impersonator to Divorce Wife

An Indian man took a new approach to the painful process of divorce recently.

Sanjib Saha decided it would be best if he hired an impersonator to act as his wife during divorce procedures in the eastern city of Kolkata.

Both Sanjib and his fake wife said they sought a mutual divorce which the court granted.

Sanjib’s real wife found out later, when she was asked to leave their home.

She immediately appealed to a higher court charging her husband with cheating on her and faking their divorce. The court suspended the fake divorce leaving both Sanjib and his wife married once more.

“The case exposed the legal loopholes in our system,” Kaushik Chanda, lawyer of Saha’s real wife, said.

Sanjib Saha finds himself in a tough situation. If he now tries to get the divorce legally, the judge is likely to be very hard on him and rule in his wife’s favor. If he doesn’t get the divorce he has to live and stay with his wife, who he just tried to divorce with an impersonator.

I would definitely not want to be in Sanjib’s shoes…

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[via wan]

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A gun that fires variable speed bullets and which can be set to kill, wound or just inflict a bruise

Toy rocket inspires variable-speed bullets

A gun that fires variable speed bullets and which can be set to kill, wound or just inflict a bruise is being built by a US toy manufacturer. The weapon is based on technology used to propel toy rockets.

Lund and Company Invention, a toy design studio based near Chicago, makes toy rockets that are powered by burning hydrogen obtained by electrolysing water. Now the company is being funded by the US army to adapt the technology to fire bullets instead.

The US Army are interested in arming soldiers with weapons that can be switched between lethal and non-lethal modes. They asked Company Invention to make a rifle that can fire bullets at various speeds.

Sniper version

The new weapon, called the Variable Velocity Weapon System or VWS, lets the soldier to use the same rifle for crowd control and combat, by altering the muzzle velocity. It could be loaded with "rubber bullets" designed only to deliver blunt impacts on a person, full-speed lethal rounds or projectiles somewhere between the two.

Bruce Lund, the company's CEO, says the gun works by mixing a liquid or gaseous fuel with air in a combustion chamber behind the bullet. This determines the explosive capability of the propellant and consequently the velocity of the bullet as it leaves the gun. "Projectile velocity varies from non-lethal at 10 metres, to lethal at 100 metres or more, as desired," says Lund.

The company says that the weapon produces less heat and light than traditional guns. It can also be made lighter and could have a high power setting for long-range sniping.

Police already fire non-lethal projectiles from standard shotguns. These are known as "beanbag" rounds, bags of lead shot which will knock down a suspect at ranges of up to 10 metres. They are termed "non-lethal", but can cause bruising or even broken ribs.

'Handgun to Howitzer'

Lund says that the new weapon system will use different types of bullet for lethal and non-lethal use. Police forces already use separate shotguns for non-lethal loads – typically marking them with bright orange tape to prevent any confusion – so this shouldn't be an issue.

The existing VWS design is a .50 calibre (12.7 mm) rifle weapon, but Lund says the technology can be scaled to any size, "handgun to Howitzer".

Steve Wright, a security expert at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK warns of the potential risk of variable lethality.

"In a high-stress, high-personal-risk zone, there will be a real temptation for soldiers to turn the tuneable lethality switch up to 'kill' mode so that all doubt is removed."

A demonstration version will be ready within six months, and the VWS could go into production within 18 months of approval, according to Lund and Company.

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[via newscientist]

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Wal-Mart Intercom Pranks

Wal-Mart stores can be so big and the workers seem so bored and the customers seem so harried and annoying. It seems like the perfect fertile ground to have a little fun at Walt's expense. Sometimes I just want to jump on the intercom and say something. But how does one get access?

Planet Wally found the answer. You can use the intercom from any one of the many telephones Wal-Mart provides around the sales floor. Even better, we know the code! Here is how you use the intercom at Wal-Mart:

• Pick up the phone
• Dial #96

You're now on the store intercom!

The proper way to use the store intercom, I mean, apart from the fact it is only supposed to be used by Wal-Mart employees, is to declare the code and the location. For instance, "Code White in Automotive". Here are a few helpful things you can do with the Intercom.

Intercom Codes:

INTERCOM HOLD: Sometimes silence is golden. So if you pick up the phone, dial #96 and then hit hold, nobody can use the intercom until they figure out which phone is on hold.

CODE 1: This code is used for SHOPLIFTING!

CODE 10: Dry Spill.

CODE 20: Wet Spill.

CODE 90: Management Needed. That sounds useless.

CODE 99: This code implies that there is an emergency and all male employees are to immediately stop what they are doing and move to the announced location.

CODE 300: Security Needed. For grins, call Code 300 to the location you are currently at.

CODE ADAM: Code Adam is used to report a lost child. Technically, the store is supposed to shut all doors until the lost child is found. This sounds like fun until you realize that you are going to be trapped in a Wal-Mart for hours while they attempt to locate a missing child.

CODE BLACK: This code is used for severe weather. It's only used if something severe is happening such as tornadoes are bearing down on the store. All employees are supposed to immediately head to the fitting rooms at the center of the store. Wal-Mart doesn't like to use this code because it quite frankly, when the employees all leave, it leads to looting.

CODE BLUE A bomb scare.

CODE C: Customer service. A customer needs help in a location like housewares.

CODE GREEN: This code is used when there is a hostage in the store. Ask yourself, do you really want to shop at a store that needs to have a special code for a hostage situation?

CODE ORANGE: This is for a chemical spill. Water is a chemical.

CODE RED: This is used in case of a fire!

CODE WHITE: is used for an injury.

With knowledge comes power and responsibility. Use it wisely.

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[via gwally]

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Who Does Rainwater Belong To?

One of the greatest steps forward that local communities have taken of late is the push to collect rainwater to offset your water use. It is often an easy way to help out the environment and, in the long run, simply save water. There don’t really seem to be any catches to it either. Rain falls from the sky, hits your roof and runs in to your drums or barrels or tanks.

If only it were that simple.

Notch up another one for the members of the Idiots Anonymous who have apparently been camping out in Bellingham, Washington. Apparently, rainwater doesn’t actually belong to individuals, but to the state as a whole. Therefore, all the wonderful efforts of communities to collect water are actually illegal.

Not just frowned upon, or morally unethical, or shifty – all of which water collection is not – but actually illegal, so much so that in the future such legalities could be used in a court of law.

It comes down once again to the simple fact that humanity is doomed to an ever continuing cycle of idiot and misanthropic events and situations that will, eventually, simply wear down those of us with half a brain, and leave planet Earth populated by half-wits and mimes (often the same thing).

This information is coming to us from the Bellingham Herald, who recently ran a story entitled “Does saving rainwater violate state law?” by Jennifer Langston. “We’re not going to start issuing permits for a pickle barrel in the backyard. But what if it’s four pickle barrels or a system that has 20,000 gallons of storage?” said Brian Walsh, a manager in the Department of Ecology’s water resources program.

Mr. Walsh, manager of the Department of Ecology, who the hell cares if it’s 2 million! It is rainwater you simpleton. It is wet water, falling from the clouds in the sky, on to roof’s and paddocks which may very well be decked out with enough pickle barrels to quench the thirst of a small army, like Canada’s. But unless someone is filling their aforementioned barrel from a river or other form of wet estuary, what right minded individual is going to attempt to enforce this law?

According to Langston, Seattle has obtained a citywide water-right permit, which allows for rain to be collected from most rooftops in the city. The “most” there refers to the few neighborhoods, mostly areas north of 85^th street that see their stormwater empty into creeks and streams and lakes.

Just how is this stormwater making its way from Joe Bloggs’ roof and backyard out in to the streets and gutters so that it can then run into whatever lake lies at the end of it. How much rain is already soaked up by the grass that covers many a backyard? Is that grass acting illegally hogging all that water for itself?

If this law is not soon revoked, then my faith in humanity will once again drop another few notches down. And while Washington state lawmakers may not be out to please Joshua S. Hill of Melbourne, Australia, one can at least hope that they are going to try and use at least a modicum of common sense. It’d be a change, sure, but it’s a change for the better!

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[via planetsave]

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Study: The Effects Of Serotonin On Spirituality

According to Psychology Today and referencing the American Journal of Psychiatry, serotonin, the brain chemical in charge of moderating mood, metabolism, and sexuality, has been linked to spiritual experiences. Psychology Today reports:

A team of Swedish researchers has found that the presence of a receptor that regulates general serotonin activity in the brain correlates with people's capacity for transcendence, the ability to apprehend phenomena that cannot be explained objectively. Scientists have long suspected that serotonin influences spirituality because drugs known to alter serotonin such as LSD also induce mystical experiences. But now they have proof from brain scans linking the capacity for spirituality with a major biological element.

So what does this mean? Well, the researchers believe that it provides evidence that religiosity and spirituality are not defined necessarily or entirely by environmental or cultural factors, such as upbringing. Basically, those with a higher concentration of serotonin receptors will therefore most likely show a stronger inclination towards spiritual acceptance.

What do you think? Does this belittle the notion of spirituality or encourage it? Tell us your thoughts below.

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[via hp]

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12 Unbelievable Examples of Buildings in Motion: From Floating Churches to Rotating Skyscrapers

You may have heard about the impressive and flashy new moving skyscraper set to be erected in Dubai. However, did you know that one man is single-handedly rebuilding his own stone henge (without modern machinery) or that entire Egyptian temples (originally carved out of mountainsides) have been relocated? Here are twelve fantastic feats of ingenuity and structural engineering that range from pragmatic to artistic, from seemingly impossible moving buildings to incredibly creative building moving projects.

(images via: Wikipedia)

In one of the most amazing building moving feats in history the twin temples of Abu Simbel, carved out of an Egyptian mountainside, were moved to avoid flooding from the construction of a nearby dam along the Nile river. Shown above is a model showing the former and current locations, the former being hundreds of feet underwater and the latter placed in new artificial hillsides. The structures had to be carefully cut out piece by piece, labeled and individually reassembled at their new locations.

(images via: Fogonazos)

The Peter Green House at Brown University appears at first glance to be a rickety candidate for a building moving project. The first video above video shows in fast-motion the process of slowly slide the building to its new location a few hundred feet away. Timing was critical for lifting this structure so no unequal stresses were introduced to the building which could have resulted in catastrophic structural failures.

(images via: Plan Philly and Joel Tropp)

Built in the middle of the 1800s the Floating Church of the Redeemer was built in Bordertown, NJ and was towed to a busy dock in Philadelphia. The Churchman’s Missionary Association for Seamen was apparently interested in catering to sailors in a quite direct fashion. The building was eventually rolled onto land where it survived for a few years before succumbing to a Christmas morning fire.

(image via: Aran Johnson)

The London Bridge has an impressive history dating back two thousand years to roman times. It was destroyed and rebuilt dozens of times in wood and stone and it was one such stone bridge that was eventually disassembled and moved, piece by piece, all the way to the United States. The version in Arizona is not a complete replica but it is clad with the original stone and those stones fetched a handsome 2.5 million dollars.

(images via: Solar Navigator)

The Belle Tout lighthouse survived near the edge of a cliff for over 150 years shining light visible for 20 miles. A few years back 20 of the 30 feet of cliff protecting the lighthouse suddenly crumbled, leaving only a few meters between the structure and its destruction on the rocks far below. Unwilling to give up on the building, its owner chose to move it instead and after five months of construction and structural preparation managed a miraculous slide of this 125-ton structure 17 meters to save it.”

The four videos above show (respectively) the move of the Newton-Wellesly Hospital - a 900 ton brick building - the he simultaneous moves of three wooden structures at Harvard University, and the move of a residence along a canal and the transport of the Schubert Theater. The slower-moving videos have been sped up to show the progress of these incredible building moving projects.

This man is truly a genius. A simple builder by trade he has turned his talents to recreating the entire structure of Stone Henge - all by himself. How is that possible? He has used a series of simple tricks and elementary home-made wooden machines that anyone could build to do two critical tasks: (1) move large objects (including entire buildings) leveraging with only his own muscle power and (2) tilt up objects using simple weights and pulley systems and, again, only his own strength. What does this prove? That if the original builders of Stone Henge used elementary technology an incredibly small crew could have built it.

(images via: P3dro)

Turning the Place Over is a strange art project in which part of a building was essentially cut out and made to rotate through a series of positions including its original one - a literal deconstruction/reconstruction process to make postmodernists proud. The giant rotator used is a powerful device used in the nuclear industry and the resulting effect is a smooth (though entirely disturbing) view into the building that shifts slowly as the opening twists, morphs and eclipses again in a never-ending sequence.

(images via: Dynamic Architecture)

Perhaps the most talked about ‘moving building’ of all time is the first moving skyscraper set to be built in Dubai. Eighty stories of towers are set to rotate around a central axis facilitated by wind-powered turbines on each floor. There is talk of building these in other major cities around the world but Dubai looks to be the first projected to have one finished - they are aiming for completion in 2010.

Not quite sure you are ready to move an entire house? Check out these firemen as they relatively effortlessly lift a car into the air. This is probably about the largest scale at which such a feat would work but it is nonetheless a highly impressive way to defy gravity.

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[via weburbanist]

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Drug for deadly prostate cancer found

Scientists are hailing a new drug to treat aggressive prostate cancer as potentially the most significant advance in the field for 70 years.

Abiraterone could potentially treat up to 80% of patients with a deadly form of the disease resistant to currently available chemotherapy, they say.

The drug works by blocking the hormones which fuel the cancer.

The Institute of Cancer Research hopes a simple pill form will be available in two to three years.

An advanced clinical trial involving 1,200 patients around the world is currently under way, with more trials likely later this year.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men.

It is estimated that up to 10,000 men a year in the UK are diagnosed with the most aggressive - and almost always lethal - form of prostate cancer.

Typical life expectancy following chemotherapy is no more than 18 months.

It had been assumed that the cancer was driven by sex hormones such as testosterone produced in the testicles.

Current treatments work by stopping the testicles from producing testosterone.

New action

However, experts have now discovered that the cancer can feed on sex hormones from all sources, including supplies of the hormone produced by the tumour itself.

Abiraterone works by blocking production of the hormones throughout the body.

The latest study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, is based on just 21 patients with advanced, aggressive prostate cancer treated with the drug - but data has been collected on a total of 250 worldwide.

It found significant tumour shrinkage, and a drop in tell-tale levels of a key protein produced by the cancer called prostate specific antigen in the majority of patients.

Many of the patients have reported a significant improvement in the quality of their lives.

Some were able to stop taking morphine for the relief of pain caused by the spread of the disease to their bones.

Real hope

Lead researcher Dr Johann de Bono said the findings needed to be confirmed in larger trials.

At this stage, no patient has taken the drug for longer than two-and-a-half years, and so it has not been possible to determine exactly what the effect of the drug on life expectancy will be.

But he said: "We believe we have made a major step forward in the treatment of end-stage prostate cancer patients.

"These men have very aggressive prostate cancer which is exceptionally difficult to treat and almost always proves to be fatal.

"We hope that abiraterone will eventually offer them real hope of an effective way of managing their condition and prolonging their lives."

It is hoped the drug will also aid other cancer patients, including those with breast cancer.

Professor David Webb, an expert in clinical pharmacology at the University of Edinburgh, said: "This agent clearly looks promising, but it is still at the early stages of clinical development.

"It will be crucial to look carefully at the balance between its benefits and harms, before drawing firm conclusions about the usefulness of this new drug.

"Important side effects often only emerge with the larger clinical studies that now need to be done."

John Neate, of The Prostate Cancer Charity, said: "This is an exciting development which has been eagerly anticipated."

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[via bbc]

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New Stimulus Plan on Tap

Senate Democrats plan to unveil a second fiscal stimulus plan next week, this one worth at least $50 billion, arguing that soaring energy prices and the crisis in the housing market require a major jobs program to kick-start a faltering economy.

The Senate Appropriations Committee will consider a stimulus plan Tuesday, the first step toward legislation drafted by Democrats that President Bush and congressional Republican leaders oppose. The final details of the Senate legislation are still being developed as lawmakers and staff members pick through an assortment of traditional liberal programs, such as increased funding for highway construction, food stamps and home heating assistance. Also under consideration is another round of government payments to workers.

"We literally are trying to put money into the economy and get it going again," said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the majority whip and a senior member of the Appropriations Committee.

The House Appropriations Committee is putting together its own plan, but the timing of its introduction is uncertain. Neither chamber is expected to act until September.

Republicans rejected the pending plans as partisan legislation timed to arrive on the House and Senate floors just before the November election.

"Sounds political to me," said House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), who helped craft the $152 billion stimulus plan approved in February.

In contrast to the current stimulus talks, that first package of payments to individuals and business tax cuts was the result of bipartisan talks that involved Boehner, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. It was approved by both chambers and was signed into law less than three weeks after the three unveiled their proposal.

This stimulus program is being written solely by Democrats. President Bush has argued that more time is needed to allow the effects of the tax payments -- which were first mailed in May -- to work through the economy. And congressional Republicans contend that the most important economic step Congress can take now is approving more domestic oil drilling in an effort to decrease fuel costs, a position Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) have rejected.

"The most significant thing you could do to stimulate the economy is convince the world that the United States is going to increase its oil supply," said Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah), an economics expert close to GOP leadership. "I give them credit for recognizing the need for stimulus; I just disagree with the prescription."

Pelosi told CNN yesterday that she is seeking $50 billion, but that other legislators were pushing for more. Reid told reporters yesterday he is "not a rebate fan," tamping down speculation that another round of checks would go out to the public. Single workers who earn up to $75,000 received as much as $600 and couples got as much as $1,200 in the first payments.

Other lawmakers appear more supportive of another round of payments.

"It's on the table, without getting into what people like or don't like," said House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.). Pelosi told reporters she also favors more payments.

House and Senate Democrats agreed they had consensus on a large infusion of infrastructure spending, particularly on highways.

Other items under consideration are helping states with Medicaid costs and more money for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, as well as a possible extension of unemployment benefits beyond the 13 extra weeks that were recently approved.

Despite Democrats' urgent calls for economic action, there are no plans to bring the legislation to the floor until mid-September. Privately, some Democrats said this will put the most pressure on Republicans to break with Bush and the GOP leadership by supporting a potentially popular spending package just before the fall campaign.

Reid said the Senate, which deadlocked yesterday on a bill to curb oil speculation and adjourned until Tuesday, has other pressing issues to address before the stimulus legislation.

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[via washingtonpost]

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Scientist think they've found HIV weakness

HIV researchers at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston said they think they've found the chink in armor of the virus linked to AIDS.

The vulnerable spot is hidden in a protein essential for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, the virus that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, to attach to host cells, the university said in a release.

An HIV vaccine doesn't exist because HIV is a mutating virus.

The scientists said they are focusing on a stretch of amino acids on HIV's envelope protein gp120.

"Unlike the changeable regions of its envelope, HIV needs at least one region that must remain constant to attach to cells. If this region changes, HIV cannot infect cells," said Sudhir Paul, a pathology professor at the UT Medical School.

Paul's group engineered antibodies with enzymatic activity, called abzymes, that can attack the virus's weakness.

"The abzymes recognize essentially all of the diverse HIV forms found across the world. This solves the problem of HIV changeability," Paul said. "The next step is to confirm our theory in human clinical trials."

The theory was in a recent issue of Autoimmunity Reviews and will be presented during the International AIDS Conference Aug. 3-8 in Mexico City.

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Oops! Weirdest Accidents

Nothing is as fascinating as an unexplained accident

New batch of strange mis-happenings, weird situations, and often maddeningly mysterious wrecks, where we keep asking ourselves: "How on earth could that happen?"

Are you in a huge hurry? Drive your car straight into the subway (just make sure it can fit in some tight places):




(images sent in by: B.E. de Jong)

Car (involuntary) acrobatics:





















Surprise! Say a little prayer, thanking your windshield:



The "flying" manhole lids could also present a problem:

A giant fork falling out of the sky? Well, an urban art, actually:
("Royal de Luxe" visiting Iceland, more info)


This guy may cause some serious accidents. I hope he realizes that -


How do you get a truck in this position?


Maarten Dijkstra sends us this picture: "A delivery truck in the city of Leiden, Holland, had a brake failure and rolled into the canal" -


(image credit: Maarten Dijkstra)





What happened here? Maybe the trailer had one wheel too many? -








(image credit: EnglishRussia)


Sunk... or Buried!

Who says cars only travel on solid surfaces? They are equally adept navigating on sand, water, ice or snow - or at least they are trying to... Really hard, judging from these pictures:




(image credit: EnglishRussia)




Oh, the sense of impending sinking! This car is doomed -


The following picture was sent to us by Edo Engel. He says: "During the night, a major water pipe below the pavement cracked. Since the soil in our area is sandy, the sand was flushed away through the pipe quite easily, creating an ever expanding cavity" -



More sinkholes:



Why is this car so dirty? -


Idiot Parking

These guys couldn't even park a bicycle, it seems:









You might have seen this picture before - but it's worth another look: this seems simply impossible -


Similarly masterful parking can be observed here:




Heavy machinery can end up in a heavy, heavy trouble




This happened in Norilsk, Siberia:




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[via darkroastblend]

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All the water and air on earth gathered into spheres and compared to the Earth

Dan Phiffer found this image on a message board (it's by Adam Nieman / Science Photo Library), and by his calculations, he says it's accurate.

Left: All the water in the world (1.4087 billion cubic kilometres of it) including sea water, ice, lakes, rivers, ground water, clouds, etc.

Right: All the air in the atmosphere (5140 trillion tonnes of it) gathered into a ball at sea-level density. Shown on the same scale as the Earth.

From Science Photo Library: Conceptual computer artwork of the total volume of water on Earth (left) and of air in the Earth's atmosphere (right) shown as spheres (blue and pink). The spheres show how finite water and air supplies are. The water sphere measures 1390 kilometres across and has a volume of 1.4 billion cubic kilometres. This includes all the water in the oceans, seas, ice caps, lakes and rivers as well as ground water, and that in the atmosphere. The air sphere measures 1999 kilometres across and weighs 5140 trillion tonnes. As the atmosphere extends from Earth it becomes less dense. Half of the air lies within the first 5 kilometres of the atmosphere.

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I've lost my key. Can you pass me that banana?

Lock-picking enthusiasts are cracking the 'uncrackable' in increasingly creative ways. And locksmiths aren't happy about it. Patrick White reports

You won't be kicked off a car lot for asking about horsepower or ousted from a bar for asking about booze. But apparently, you can be tossed from a locksmith shop for asking about locks.

It happened to Steve Boisvert a few months ago. He dropped by a locksmith store near his home in London, Ont., and began asking the owner about Medeco locks, the supposedly unpickable industry standard used in government and military installations. The locksmith asked him where he planned to install it.

"Oh, nowhere," Mr. Boisvert said. "I'm just playing with it as a hobby."

That's when the locksmith told Mr. Boisvert to leave. "And he wasn't exactly nice about it."

Mr. Boisvert is a member of a thousands-strong community of amateur lock-pickers whose growth and influence is raising hackles among locksmiths across North America.

Driven mainly by computer geeks who see parallels between hacking networks and picking locks, the hobby has exploded online.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin recently gave the pastime a further boost, confessing that he has been a picking enthusiast since he was a student.

Canadian blogger Cory Doctorow has also shown an interest, posting a number of picking-related items on his popular site boingboing.net.

Sites such as Lockpicking101.com hold forums where tens of thousands of pickers share techniques and triumphs. Some contest one another in open competitions. Others post tips and tricks on YouTube. Their instructions are so thorough that anyone with half an hour to waste online can learn to crack bike and laptop locks and even break into used Mazdas.

Hobbyists say they broadcast these feats to challenge lock makers to improve their designs.

Many professional locksmiths see it otherwise, arguing that hobbyists could be training thieves.

"This is a skill that can do a lot of harm," says Paul Bentley, president of the Association of Ontario Locksmiths. "That's why we kind of protect it."

Just three decades ago, the finer points of lock-picking remained shrouded in mystery. Family locksmith businesses had hoarded their secrets since the 1400s, when guilds fiercely defended the purity of the trade.

"When I started 35 years ago, the business was still very much closed to outsiders," Mr. Bentley said. "You had to be a member of the family."

That has all changed. Lockpicking101.com, which site administrator and business coach Josh Nekrep runs from his home in Winnipeg, has more than 75,000 members. In 2005, he launched Locksport International, an organization that promotes the competitive aspects of picking.

The biggest showdown takes place at Defcon, an annual computer hacker conference held in Las Vegas every August. Pickers take centre stage, vying to crack unfamiliar locks in the shortest time possible.

One of the most peculiar aspects of the hobby is each picker's choice of tools. Some buy precision tools through online retailers; others consider home tool making an art form.

"My first set of tools was a bobby pin and a hair pin," Mr. Boisvert said from his home, where he has about 120 practice locks. "Now I'll make them out of wiper blades, hacksaw blades, bike spokes, filler gauges - anything you can get at a scrapyard. One guy I know even used a banana."

This is where hobby pickers can brush up against the Criminal Code. Under federal law, anyone caught carrying a "break-in instrument" and an intent to use it could receive 10 years in jail.

The law is rarely used.

"It can be tough to distinguish between criminals and hobbyists," Mr. Bentley said.

When Mr. Nekrep holds Winnipeg Locksport gatherings in his basement, he is careful to screen out unsavoury characters.

"There have been a few people I haven't felt totally comfortable inviting into my house," he said.

Hobby groups throughout North America have cracked supposedly unbeatable locks. Mr. Nekrep, who maintains a personal collection of more than 300 locks, has demonstrated online how to open a Kensington laptop lock using Scotch tape and a Post-it note. Another Lockpicking101.com member discovered the well-publicized method of opening Kryptonite bike locks with a ball-point pen, a revelation that prompted Kryptonite to replace all of its compromised locks.

Other lock manufacturers haven't admitted their flaws so readily. Marc Tobias, a lawyer and security expert, recently shook up the lock-picking community by publishing a detailed analysis of how to crack the uncrackable: Medeco locks.

"We've figured out how to break them in as little as 30 seconds," he said. "[Medeco] won't admit it, though. They still believe in security through obscurity. But by not fixing the problems we identify, lock-makers are putting the public at risk. They have a duty to disclose vulnerabilities. If they don't, we will."

More progressive locksmiths agree with that sentiment.

"Most crooks don't waste time with locks anyway," said Thomas Fraser, head of the Institutional Locksmiths Organization of Canada. "They use a hammer."

Mr. Fraser, who works as a full-time locksmith for the Toronto District School Board, identifies with most hobbyists. "I've always treated locksmithing as a game, too. It's a puzzle. I don't want that lock to beat me."

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Ten Disturbing Spa Treatments

A girl needs to be pampered every now and then. After a long week at the 9-to-5, few things sound better than a relaxing massage and a bubbly drink. Clearly, I’m not alone—there are spas popping up all over the world, each one’s sole purpose to cater to our every desire. Papaya-scented body scrub? No problem. A mani-pedi-Botox package? Standard these days. Bull semen in your hair? You betcha!

The proliferation of spas has created a competitive market. Some of these spas, like the ones listed below, are coming up with the wackiest, strangest services to lure us in through sheer curiosity. Apparently pampering isn’t enough anymore—it’s got to shock us, too.

1. Snake Massage

Photo source: Dano on flickr

A spa in Israel has put a unique spin on the standard massage. While some masseuses use soothing music or scented candles to supplement massages, owner Ida Barak prefers to use snakes; she believes that they have a calming effect and can alleviate joint pain. Imagine—lying facedown on a bed, strong hands rubbing oil on your back as a few snakes slither up and down your body. What could be more relaxing? Try anything.

2. The Geisha Facial

Photo source: Wikipedia commons

At the Shizuka Day Spa in New York, they use (according to the Web site) “traditional and natural Japanese ingredients” to make skin vibrant and soft. Traditional and natural sounds so purifying … until you realize that the treatment includes nightingale excrement. The treatment, uguisu no fun, incorporates powdered (and sanitized) nightingale feces into a facial mixture that revitalizes skin. Nightingale droppings contain natural enzymes that act as exfoliants and skin brighteners, so what looks unsightly on the ground actually makes your face look great.

3. Aberdeen Organic Bull Sperm Treatment

Photo source: Wikipedia commons

As much as I hate untangling my dry, frizzy hair, there’s no way I’m smearing it with bull sperm. No way—ain’t gonna happen. However, if you don’t have an aversion to sperm in your tresses, go to Hari’s Salon in London and get their infamous treatment. The protein in this ingredient moisturizes, brightens, and repairs your hair like nothing else. It’s combined with Katera root, another protein powerhouse that does amazing things for hair. Considering its nickname (“Viagra for hair”) and the state of my own ’do, I may need to retract my previous dismissal.

4. Fish Reflexology

Did you ever see a whale being cleaned by tiny fish on the Discovery Channel and wish that were you? Singapore’s Sentosa spa can make your dream come true. People who pay for this service (which is called Fish Reflexology) sit in a bath while tiny Turkish spa fish (also called doctor fish) swim around and eat the dead skin off your feet. After the fish nibble (a painless process, according to the Web site), you’re left with softer, healthier feet. Watch the above YouTube video to see a fish reflexology session in action.

5. Bathe in Your Favorite Beverage

Photo source: yunessun.com

I enjoy a good glass of wine, but I’ve never considered bathing in it. At the Hakone Kowakien Yunessun spa in Japan, you can soak in a big pool of red wine. If alcohol’s not your thing, how about green tea, coffee, or sake? Each liquid offers therapeutic benefits for the skin—for example, green tea contains immune-boosting antioxidants, and red wine has skin-restorative properties. I’m not sure how refreshing the treatment actually is, but standing under a huge, pouring bottle of vino sounds mighty relaxing.

6. Chocolate Fondue Wrap

Photo source: hersheypa.com

Going to a spa is an indulgent act already, so why not step it up a notch and indulge your sweet tooth, too? The spa in the Hotel Hershey (possibly the most delicious-sounding hotel ever) offers a plethora of cocoa-infused treatments designed to both soothe you and make you really hungry. The sweet, seductive smell can be relaxing, but what products do they offer for the stomachache you’ll surely get after “sampling” the Chocolate Sugar Scrub?

8. Corona Beer Face Lift

Photo source: merfam on flickr

First chocolate and now beer—I guess we’re all looking for new, non-caloric ways to experience our favorite things. If you love Coronas, but hate the subsequent bloat, head to the Esperanza Resort Spa in Mexico and experience the healing power of beer for a change. The beer treatment is supposed to clear your pores, tighten your skin, and give your face a fresh “glow”—quite different from the glow you get after drinking a couple of Coronas.

9. The “Other” Face Lift

It’s not enough that we have to worry about how toned our legs or arms are. According to Phit, a spa in New York dedicated to pelvic health, we should also be mindful of our vagina’s muscle tone. The clinic offers pelvic services for mothers who’ve recently given birth, women with bladder control issues, and those who are dedicated to fitness on all levels. The Web site claims that the “Other” Face Lift, which is geared toward older women worried about wrinkling or sagging in that area, can “restore labial and vulvar contour to a plump firmness” with a process involving lasers. Since even the thought of lasers near my eye scares me, I think I’ll steer clear of this lift.

10. The Fanny Facial

Facials aren’t just for our faces anymore. All of our body parts need equal love, including our derriere. The Smooth Synergy Day Spa in New York offers the Fanny Facial, a process involving exfoliation, microcurrent therapy, and a spray tan for your booty. The microcurrent therapy helps reduce the appearance of cellulite and tones your backside, and the spray tan enhances the tone. If it saves me a trip to the gym, I’m all for it.

With all of these spas trying to one-up each other with unique (read: bizarre) services, it’s exhausting just trying to find one that offers the basics! I think I’ll just stay home and make my own spa services. It’ll be cheaper, save time, and most likely be excrement-free.

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[via divinecaroline]

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Strongest Material Ever Tested

Graphene, praised for its electrical properties, has been proven the strongest known material.

Materials scientists have been singing graphene's praises since it was first isolated in 2005. The one-atom-thick sheets of carbon conduct electrons better than silicon and have been made into fast, low-power transistors. Now, for the first time, researchers have measured the intrinsic strength of graphene, and they've confirmed it to be the strongest material ever tested. The finding provides good evidence that graphene transistors could take the heat in future ultrafast microprocessors.

Jeffrey Kysar and James Hone, mechanical-engineering professors at Columbia University, tested graphene's strength at the atomic level by measuring the force that it took to break it. They carved one-micrometer-wide holes into a silicon wafer, placed a perfect sample of graphene over each hole, and then indented the graphene with a sharp probe made of diamond. Such measurements had never been taken before because they must be performed on perfect samples of graphene, with no tears or missing atoms, say Kysar and Hone.

Hone compares his test to stretching a piece of plastic wrap over the top of a coffee cup, and measuring the force that it takes to puncture it with a pencil. If he could get a large enough piece of the material to lay over the top of a coffee cup, he says, graphene would be strong enough to support the weight of a car balanced atop the pencil.

It's unlikely that graphene's incredible strength will be put to use in such a task. At the macroscopic level of coffee cups and cars, "any material will be full of cracks and flaws," says Kysar. It's at the level of such cracks and flaws that airplane wings and bridge supports fail. "Only a tiny sample can be perfect and superstrong," says Hone.

However, the measurements are yet another demonstration of the remarkable properties of graphene. "We knew graphene was the strongest material; this work confirms it," says Konstantin Novoselov, a fellow at the University of Manchester, who was the first to isolate two-dimensional sheets of the material.

The material's strength is particularly good news for those in the semiconductor industry who hope to make computers faster by developing microprocessors that use graphene transistors. "The main liability concerning the microprocessing industry is strain," says Julia Greer, a materials scientist at Caltech. Not only must the materials used to make transistors have good electrical properties, but they must also be able to survive the stresses of manufacturing processes and the heat generated by repeated operations. The processes used to pattern metal electrical connections onto microprocessors, for example, exert stresses that can cause chips to fail. And, says Greer, the main obstacle to making faster microprocessors is that "the heat is too much for materials to take." Based on measurements of its strength, graphene transistors could take the heat.

Graphene is the basic building block of several other three-dimensional nanostructures made up of carbon, including nanotubes and buckyballs, hollow soccer-ball-shaped molecules. "In theory, a nanotube is rolled-up graphene, so it should have the same strength," says Hone. In reality, however, most nanotubes have tiny flaws--an atom missing here or there. "When you pull on a nanotube," says Hone, it breaks at any site where there's a defect.

The mechanical strength of graphene on the nanoscale could prove useful for applications other than in transistors for microprocessors. The material could, for example, serve as a durable, mechanically operated electrical switch for communications devices including cell phones and advanced radar, says Kysar.

Although most research on nanomaterials has focused on their electrical, optical, and chemical properties, "mechanical properties control more than it might appear," says Greer. Existing databases of materials' strength don't account for differences in strength at the nanoscale. But now, at least, researchers testing the strength of nanomaterials will have a record to shoot for.

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[via technology review]

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The Origin of Your Favorite Condiments

Next time someone asks you to pass the ketchup, mustard, mayo or Worcestershire sauce, you can wow them with your knowledge on the history of condiments.

Ketchup
The word “ketchup” comes from the Chinese “ke-tsiap,” and if you’re wondering why ketchup isn’t used in Chinese food, well, there’s your story. Ke-tsiap wasn’t at all like ketchup. It was a sauce made from pickled fish that frankly wouldn’t taste so great on a burger – or in our opinion on much else. Nonetheless, it was popular enough to catch on in Malaysia, where it was called “kechap,” and Indonesia (“ketjap”), and to be honest it probably wasn’t as bad as it sounds; it’s been compared to soy sauce . When English and Dutch sailors made their way to the Far East in the 17th century, they “discovered” the sauce and brought some back with them. Homemade versions immediately became popular; Elizabeth Smith’s The Compleat Housewife (copyright 1727) called for anchovies, shallots, vinegar, white wine, cloves, ginger, mace, nutmeg, pepper, and lemon peel.

Note the lack of tomatoes in that recipe. In the grand East-meets-West tradition of fusion cuisine, someone thought to add tomatoes to ke-tsiap in the early 1700s. The British counterpart of that person, by the way, went another direction and added mushrooms instead; you can still find mushroom ketchup at a few specialty retailers, and The New Joy of Cooking contains a recipe for the homemade stuff. Anyway, in both nations, the spelling also mutated around the same time; the first reference to “ketchup” appeared in 1711. This, too, caught on, and within 100 years or so ke-tsiap had acquired yet another regional name: tomato soy. Teresa Heinz Kerry’s great-great-great in-laws started selling a thin, salty version of the stuff in as “tomato ketchup” in 1876, and it was such a hit that eventually they just dropped the “tomato.”

Mustard
Mustard, in our opinion, has one of the best linguistic back stories in the English tongue: its name is a contraction of the Latin mustum ardens, meaning “burning wine” – presumably because the seeds are spicy and used to be as valuable as the vintage stuff. (The French used to mix mustard seeds with grape juice , which may also have something to do with the name.) Mustard’s tastier qualities, however, weren’t always appreciated the way they are today. It started out as the ancient equivalent of Neosporin: Pythagoras prescribed it for scorpion stings. His successor, Hippocrates, tried to cure toothaches with it (at least he didn’t use something sugary). Later, the stuff had fans among religious types, too: Pope John XXII was reportedly so enamored of mustard that he established a new Vatican position, grand moutardier du pape, which means “mustard-maker to the pope.” Conveniently, he happened to know the perfect candidate; his nephew was a moutardier.

Mayonnaise
Our friends at HowStuffWorks have a great, simple retelling of this tale, so we’ll let them do the honors: “Mayonnaise was invented in 1756 by the French chef of the Duc de Richelieu. After the Duc beat the British at Port Mahon, his chef created a victory feast that was to include a sauce made of cream and eggs. Realizing that there was no cream in the kitchen, the chef substituted olive oil for the cream and a new culinary creation was born. The chef named the new sauce ‘Mahonnaise’ in honor of the Duc’s victory.”

Worcestershire sauce
Worcestershire sauce was invented accidentally in England by Brits trying to ape what they thought was authentic Indian food. In this case, the demanding diner was one Lord Marcus Sandy, a former colonial governor of Bengal. Having grown attached to a particular flavor of Indian sauce, he recruited two drugstore owners, John Lea and William Perrins, in hopes that they could recreate it based on his descriptions. Lea and Perrins thought they’d make a profit by selling the leftovers in their store, but frankly, the sauce they created had a powerful stench – so they stashed it in the basement and forgot about it for two years while it aged into something that tasted much better. (We suspect that in a similar manner, we are harboring the next big culinary phenomenon in the back of our fridge.)

Lea and Perrins sold the stuff to a boatload of customers, literally; they convinced British passenger ships to carry some aboard. Presumably they didn’t mention the way they’d come across their secret recipe since it probably would have made most people seasick.

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[via mentalfloss]

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Why TV Just Won't Die

Those who predict the imminent death of TV might have to wait awhile. There's still a vast swath of land -- commonly known as "Middle America" -- where broadcast television works just fine, thanks.

New research suggests the people most likely to have an "Internet-connected digital living room" are relatively well-off families on the coasts, with household incomes of between $100,000 and $150,000. It's a fancy demographic, for sure, and it excludes much of the nation.

"These upper middle class households would ideally have children and be located in a metropolitan area on the East or West Coast," according to Multimedia Intelligence, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based market research firm.

The research group surveyed 25,000 people in both English- and Spanish-speaking households, and they found, contrary to popular belief, it wasn't the young, fabulous and tech-savvy who were most likely to digitally network their entertainment centers.

"Older households, those with a head of household age of 60 to 69, are among the fastest growing segments adopting data home networking. The number of US households in this category saw a compound annual growth rate of 29 percent between 2004 and 2007," according to Multimedia Intelligence.

Of course, Middle Americans are still free to turn to the web for their TV fix, but PCs and other portable devices are mostly unsatisfying for anything longer than 30 minutes. So, until most Americans have fully networked their living rooms, it's hard to imagine that broadcast television will evaporate or die any time soon.

We may be in the minority, though: In recent months, a number of industry watchers -- including TiVo CEO Tom Rogers and internet entrepreneur Marc Andreessen -- have predicted a tragic, newspaper-like fall for network television (or old media). The problem is four-fold: The internet is cannibalizing TV audiences; pirated cable TV shows are readily available online; increasing numbers of people fast forward through the commercials now (thanks to digital TV); and finally, and this may be debatable, but critics say the programming just sucks.

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[via wired]

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Hitmen Posting Their Services on Craigslist

Craigslist is probably the best resource for finding local people who do things that you need taken care of, whether they be mowing lawns, hauling away old appliances, or watching your kids (if you're brave). According to a report in London's Telegraph, the latest types of ads to show up on the site are giving a whole new angle "taking care of" things, with Mexican hitmen advertising their services on the site.

The purported professional killers are offering their services for as little as $6,000, and are pledging traditional service agreements like "job guaranteed in 10 days or less" and "I am 100 per cent professional and don't charge in advance." With offers like that, you seemingly can't go wrong -- except that you're committing a horrible deed and setting yourself up for a potentially long time in jail.

Given this is Mexico, though, you may not have to worry about that last issue. The Mexican police system is overwhelmed with drug-related crimes and has little time to investigate the estimated 1,000 - 1,700 murders that will occur in Mexico this year. We're guessing that's a market Craig Newmark didn't have in mind when he founded the site.

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[via The Telegraph]

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9 Amazing Ads from the 30s

Email forwards - use at your own risk. Most of the forwards I get are urban myths from my aunt saying Starbucks hates the troops or toliet paper causes cancer. Every once in a while, there's a rare gem worth telling other people about. Adam McKay forwarded these to me - 9 Amazing Ads from the 30s. These are real. And they're so awesome, they're worth telling you about.

Which one is your favorite? I like "Eat eat eat and always stay thin. How? with sanitized tape worms!"

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[via funnyordie]

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10 things that are suprisingly good for you

1. Chocolate.
Everyone knows that chocolate is good for you, although unfortunately the dark and bitter kind is better for you than the sweet milky kind. It contains chemicals called polyphenols that reduce the presence of free radicals, which cause cell and DNA damage. It also protects the heart. The Harvard School of Public Health studied amost 8,000 American men aged around 65 for a five-year period and found that those who eat chocolate and sweets up to three times a month live almost a year longer that those who eat too much or none at all. "As with most things in life, moderation seems to be paramount," the Harvard researchers wrote.

2. Red Wine.
Again, if you read a newspaper more than once a year, you'll have heard about the benefits of red wine, the "French Paradox" and the like. Like chocolate, polyphenols are the key - chemicals such as tannins and flavonoids in the grape skin and seeds that are powerful antioxidants. Also important are the procyanidins, which help to reduce blood pressure and lower cholesterol. Another ingredient, resveratrol, slows ageing of the heart, bones, eyes and muscles and can even deter cataracts, at least in mice. As for chocolate, red wine must be consumed with moderation. Certain traditional red wines from southwest France, Sardinia and Crete appear to have the most magic ingredients.

3. Stress.
Long-term stress is definitely not good for you but in short bursts - say standing up to give a speech at a wedding - stress can help reinforce your immune system. Experts say that stressful situations prompt the body's "fight or flight" response, which helped early man cope with the threat of predators.

4. Ice cream.
Ice cream is low GI, which means it releases its sugar gradually into your blood afer you've eaten it, which means you're not left desperately craving for more. A 75g scoop of Ben and Jerry's Cookie Dough ice cream has just 114 calories and 6g of fat against 511 calories and 43g of fat for a slice of cheesecake.

5. White bread.
Common wisdom has it that wholemeal bread is better for you, but in fact white bread flour is fortified with calcium and iron as well as B1 and niacin. And because white bread has less fibre, it means that more of the calcium is absorbed. You should try to give the kids wholemeal as a rule but white bread does have some nutritional benefits.

6. Work.
Hard work never killed anyone, goes the saying. Except in Japan, of course, where it kills dozens of people every year. Curiously, however, the experts say that work helps keep you healthy, not just giving you enough money to eat and fulfil your basic needs but reinforcing your sense of social worth and extending your life expectancy.

7. Coffee
Like red wine and chocolate, coffee contains antioxidates and tannins that help protect the heart and unblock the arteries. It's also good for the liver - one cup per day cuts the risk of alcoholic cirrhosis by 20 per cent; four cups a day reduces the risk by 80 per cent, which is good news if you're on a red wine diet.

8. Baked beans.
Despite soaring commodity costs, baked beans are still relatively cheap and are generally considered to be good for the heart. They also make you flatulent.

9. Guinness.
Makers of the Irish stout used to market it under the slogan "Guinness is good for you" - until they were told to desist. Research published in 2003 from the University of Wisconsin suggests that they were right all along: a pint of the black stuff is as effective as an asprin in preventing blood clots, and much tastier. Again, it's all about antioxidants.

10 Newspaper lists.
Counter-intuitive, this one, and a bit controversial. Experts are divided but anecdotal evidence suggests that reading long lists in newspapers can help reduce stress and the risk of "Karoshi" - the Japanese term for death by overwork. They're definitely good for newspapers: give a lowly-paid researcher or journalist access to a computer terminal, show them how to use Google and Wikipedia and you're sorted. On a slow news day, lists help fill up space in the Dead Wood Edition. Clever website editors commission very long ones to provide extra "hits" in the silly season, although they rarely bother reading right down to the final paragraph.

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[via timesonline.co.uk]

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Wait to Buy! HDTVs About To Get Even Cheaper

Wait on buying your TV. Fresh off a round of price-cuts barely two months old, Mitsubishi, Sharp, Panasonic and Samsung will drop prices on their sets by as much as $400 in the coming weeks.

With too much inventory and not enough demand, the HDTV makers are cutting prices yet again to clear out stock. After these guys finish slashing, you can expect other bigwigs like Pioneer, LG and Sony to follow suit. So before you shell out for that sweet new LCD or plasma set, make sure you're not overpaying and check out the chart of everything we know so far. [HD Guru]

*Note: The following are "minimum advertised prices". Street pricing, or what they actually charge in store after sales, etc., is usually much less.

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[via gizmodo]

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Honey Bee Crisis Could Push Food Prices Even Higher

Food prices could rise even more unless the mysterious decline in honey bees is solved, farmers and businessmen told lawmakers Thursday.

"No bees, no crops," North Carolina grower Robert D. Edwards told a House Agriculture subcommittee. Edwards said he had to cut his cucumber acreage in half because of the lack of bees available to rent.

About three-quarters of flowering plants rely on birds, bees and other pollinators to help them reproduce. Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion annually in crop value.

In 2006, beekeepers began reporting losing 30 percent to 90 percent of their hives. This phenomenon has become known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Scientists do not know how many bees have died; beekeepers have lost 36 percent of their managed colonies this year. It was 31 percent for 2007, said Edward B. Knipling, administrator of the Agriculture Department's Agricultural Research Service.

"If there are no bees, there is no way for our nation's farmers to continue to grow the high quality, nutritious foods our country relies on," said Democratic Rep. Dennis Cardoza of California, chairman of the horticulture and organic agriculture panel. "This is a crisis we cannot afford to ignore."

Food prices have gone up 83 percent in three years, according to the World Bank.

Edward R. Flanagan, who raises blueberries in Milbridge, Maine, said he could be forced to increase prices tenfold or go out of business without the beekeeping industry. "Every one of those berries owes its existence to the crazy, neurotic dancing of a honey bee from flower to flower," he said.

The cause behind the disorder remains unknown. Possible explanations include pesticides; a new parasite or pathogen; and the combination of immune-suppressing stresses such as poor nutrition, limited or contaminated water supplies and the need to move bees long distances for pollination.

Ice cream maker Haagen-Dazs and natural personal care products company Burt's Bees have pledged money for research and begun efforts to help save the bees.

The problem affects about 40 percent of Haagen-Dazs' 73 flavors, including banana split and chocolate peanut butter, because ingredients such as almonds, cherries and strawberries rely on honey bees for pollination.

Katty Pien, brand director for Haagen-Dazs, said those ingredients could become too scarce or expensive if bees keep dying. It could force the company to discontinue some of its most popular flavors, Pien said.

Haagen-Dazs has developed a new limited-time flavor, vanilla honey bee, and will use some of the proceeds for research on the disorder. Burt's Bees has introduced Colony Collapse Disorder Lip Balm to "soften your lips while saving honeybees."

The House Appropriations Committee approved $780,000 on Thursday for research on the disorder and $10 million for bee research. The money awaits approval by the full House and Senate.

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[via huffingtonpost]

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TuneUp Automatically Updates and Fixes Your iTunes Metadata

Windows only: Music application TuneUp scans your iTunes library to fill in and clean up your music's metadata, including album art. After you install it, just point it at songs in your library you want to clean up; TuneUp fingerprints and analyzes them and then provides a diagnostic overview of your missing or incorrect metadata. You can then verify and clean up all your metadata with the stroke of a button. In theory it's very similar to previously mentioned MusicBrainz, but it's an altogether fresh take with a few more features.

For example, similar to the previously mentioned iConcertCal, TuneUp lists upcoming concerts for artists in your library; it also lets you explore your music through a web digest of YouTube videos, articles, and merchandise related to bands you like. I just finished testing TuneUp on around 40 entirely unlabeled or poorly labeled tracks, and the results have been impressive. Not only does the app update the metadata with accurate, consistent information, but it does it all live, updating your library on the fly. TuneUp is ad-supported and free to use, but you're limited to 500 cleans and 50 cover art look-ups per month. A premium version without any limitations is also available for a $12 annually or a lifetime price of $20. TuneUp is Windows only, with a Mac version planned for later this year.

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[via lifehacker]

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Dyeing to Boost Solar Efficiency by 50%

MIT has perfected a dye technology that could change the solar world as we know it.

The most efficient form of solar technology today is (arguably) extreme concentrated photovoltaics, essentially solar panels placed under a magnifying glass. But the problem with these systems is heat.

Concentrated sunlight can melt silicon solar panels unless you include specialized cooling systems. Cooling technology costs money, and the panels require expensive tracking mechanisms to follow the sun through the day. MIT’s new solar system bypasses the heat and tracking problems all together.

Thin coatings of organic dyes absorb sunlight and redirect favored wavelengths into a pane of glass. The light is aimed and concentrated towards the edge of the pane where small solar panels are located. The concentrated light allows the panels to produce the maximum possible amount of energy all day, every day without cooling systems or complex tracking mechanisms.



The idea is not new, but its founders in the 70s could not overcome technical challenges. The technology was abandoned when research funding dried up. Their dyes were unstable, and their optical experise was imperfect. Much of the light captured and concentrated into their glass or plastic was lost before it could reach the solar cells. MIT took tips from laser technology and organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) to perfect the technology. Their expertise increased the distance light can travel through glass or plastic to reach the solar panels, boosting energy production.

“In addition, the focused light increases the electrical power obtained from each solar cell “by a factor of over 40.”" According to Marc A Baldo, an associate professor at MIT who helped lead the project. For more technical details, you may need an AAAS membership to read the Science article.

Three Reasons Why This Could Rock the Solar World:

1) It’s Easy: The technology is neither complex or difficult to manufacture. All you need is a window frame laced with solar panels and an ordinary pane of glass or plastic. Apply the proper ratios of organic dyes and you’re ready to go. The finished product looks like smoked glass and could be used on rooftops or solar farms. Future improvements could bring them to ordinary windows. Hopefully it will be competitive in price with other solar technologies.

2) Upgrade Existing Solar: This technology can be applied to existing photovoltaic panels to boost their efficiency by as much as 50% with minimal additional cost. Upgrading existing solar panels will not only boost their energy output, but shift their cost/energy ratios. That means that even older, more expensive solar installations could become more competitive with non-renewable energy sources.

3) It’s Coming Soon: MIT claims this technology could be ready for commerical production within three years. A company has already been founded to capitalize on the technology, and it won two prizes at MIT’s Enterpreneurship Competition, totaling $30,000. They will also seek more investment over the next few months. Keep your eyes peeled for Covalent Solar.

But nothing is certain. Like any new technology, this one has its challenges ahead. The dyes, for example, have a demonstrated lifespan of ten years, but most solar panels come with twenty or twenty-five year warranties. Covalent Solar must also run the gamut of any fledgling business to bring their product to market. With so many improving and emerging solar technologies, they will face a lot of competition.

What makes this technology different is its implications for existing solar installations and expansion into new spaces. A window that helps power a building could become a powerful tool towards super-efficient or power-producing structures. The potential for low cost, high efficiency solar technologies has never been greater.

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[via cleantechnica]

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20 Ways To Make The Most Of Your Groceries Without Spending An Extra Cent

Americans throw away a quarter of our food uneaten, which translates into serious wasted cash over time. The Guardian compiled an excellent list of ways to shop smarter so you end up buying what you need, and eating what you buy.

1. Make A List! Shopping lists top every saving strategy we offer, and for good reason. Lists make for routinized, disciplined shopping.
2. Don't Fear An Empty Fridge: Food grows mold, not interest. An empty fridge is a strong sign that your buying matches your consumption.
3. Approach Deals Skeptically: Just because an item screams "Two for One!" doesn't mean that you need two. Make sure the item is something that you'll use, and something that won't expire quickly.
4. Avoid Supermarkets For Perishables: Buy your vegetables, meats, and fish at local establishments. You'll spend less per visit, while honing your comparison shopping skills. In our neighborhood, the Korean vegetable stand is usually 30% cheaper than the supermarket around the corner.
5. Buy Non-Perishables In Bulk: If you can store them, buy your pasta and rice in bulk. Just don't try to buy more than one bag at a time.
6. Buy Quality Products: Somewhat counterintuitive for those who focus exclusively on the bottom line, but if you pay more for a high-quality ingredient, you're less likely to let it go to waste.
7. Grow Your Own Herbs And Salad: Herbs and salad expire quickly in the fridge. If you have the space, grow your own and save.
8. Buy Whole Vegetables: Bagged lettuce? Washed carrots? Like any vegetable, they start to decompose as soon as they're processed.
9. Be Storage Savvy: Keep your food fresh with proper storage. If you're a fresh fruit lover, invest in an ethylene gas guardian to stave off spoilage.
10. Plan Your Meals: Planning is a key part of list building, and one of the best ways to prevent abandoned foodstuffs from clogging up your fridge.
11. Cook! Don't just follow recipes. Real cooks now how to whip that extra bit of coconut milk or leftover celery into a tasty meal.
12. Cook In Bulk: Since you're already at the stove, double the recipe and save the leftovers.
13. Use Your Freezer: Freezers are more efficient when they're full, so fill 'em up.
14. Learn To Love Leftovers: Mmm, leftovers! But seriously, don't throw away perfectly good food.
15. Watch Your Portions: The less you eat, the less you spend. If you have trouble eyeballing portions, consider buying a scale.
16. Learn From Your Parents: Your pappy's pappy would smack you silly for your wasteful ways. Says Sheila Tremaine, 81, "We never threw anything away, because if you didn't use everything up you had nothing to eat. People just seem to have lost that skill."
17. Rediscover Packed Lunches: Dust off that old He-Man lunch box and take your meals to work. Why waste $5.95 on a lunch special when you can eat from your own fridge?
18. Equip Yourself: "Make your own bread. It's quick, easy and so much better tasting than shop-bought. It's also much cheaper. Make your own ice cream, it's a doddle. Invest in a mincing machine as an attachment to a food processor, and turn the leftover roast lamb into a base for shepherd's pie. While you're at it, invest in a sausage stuffer and ask your butcher for some sausage skins when you buy the pork."
19. Don't Trust Use-By Dates: If it isn't soft cheese, pate, seafood or processed meat, then it will last for a while. "Chicken, raw meats and fish will all look and smell unpleasant long before they're actively unsafe (as long as you cook it thoroughly, chicken, for example, is good for at least a week past its sell-by date). Apples last for months; potatoes are fine as long as you chop the green shoots off before cooking; tins and jars will last decades if not centuries; hard cheese is indestructible; and dry foods will last for years too."
20. Become A Freegan: If all else fails, ditch your wasteful ways and become one with your urban landscape.

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[via consumerist]

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How Much Fluid Do We Really Need?

WATER, water, everywhere – and it really is. As an island, we’re surrounded by it. As a place with lousy weather, we’re deluged with it. And as suckers for the latest health trend, we’re falling over the stuff.

Because, these days, it seems we can’t work, shop or have a meal out without regular top-ups of water.

In fact, some people wouldn’t be seen dead without their favourite bottled brand poking fashionably from pocket or handbag. Quite right too, you might think. After all, we don’t drink enough, do we? And that’s a message that’s reinforced — drip, drip style — by health agencies and, of course, by the producers of bottled water.

But you can have too much of a good thing, as poor warehouseman Andrew Thornton tragically discovered recently. He died after drinking massive amounts of cold water to help his painful gums.

So how much water do we really need? And are we drinking too much, or not enough? Here are the stats. We each need about 2.5litres of fluid each day. More if we’re hot, exercising or ill. About 1.5litres comes from drinks, the rest from food. And how much do we lose? No prizes for guessing: 2.5litres a day. That’s 1.5litres of wee — yes, really — and a litre through sweat and other bodily losses. It’s no coincidence that these figures balance, because your body’s pretty clever at sorting out these things.

Flood

Too much fluid and we’re waterlogged. Too little and we dry out. But these extremes are unusual, because your internal plumbing — and its control mechanisms — is usually in good shape. True, the elderly and babies can be at risk of dehydration — especially in hot weather and when they’re not well. And you can flood the body if you really binge on fluid. Clubbers beware: Ecstasy can stop you making enough wee, so you could be topping up a tank that can’t empty.

Worst case scenario: Fluid overload, a swollen brain and fits or even death. But these cases are rare, which is why they hit the headlines. The facts are that your body is great at telling you when there’s a fluid-balance blip. Need a drink? It’ll tell you by concentrating your pee and making you thirsty. Overflowing? It’ll restore order by making you wee a bit more.

So maybe it should be no surprise that, despite the flood of advice about us needing to drink more, there’s hardly any scientific evidence to say we should hit the water bottle. It doesn’t “flush out toxins”. It doesn’t make you look more beautiful. And it doesn’t get you fitter — although all that running to the loo is good exercise.

Let’s face it, we’ve survived an awfully long time without having to carry water bottles around like mini life support machines. Emergency rations are fair enough in battle, running marathons, in the desert, and so on. But in the indoor shopping centre? Forget it — it’s just another health fad fuelled by clever marketing and the worried well.

Personally, I’d pour cold water on it.

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[via thesun.co.uk]

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The 10 Machines You Must Avoid at Your Gym

Defenders of stationary equipment argue that machines are designed to limit what you can do wrong. But seated machines often put heavier loads on the back and joints than is necessary, and almost always miss the mark when it comes to replicating the movements found in everyday life, according to Ultimate Back Performance and Fitness, by Stuart McGill, PhD, a professor of spine ­biomechanics at the University of Waterloo, in Ontario. For this list of exercises, we consulted McGill; Nicholas DiNubile, MD, author of FrameWork: Your 7-Step Program for Healthy Muscles, Bones, and Joints; and trainer Vern Gambetta, author of Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning.

1 Seated Leg Extension
What it’s supposed to do: Train the quadriceps
What it actually does: It strengthens a motion your legs aren’t actually designed to do, and can put undue strain on the ligaments and tendons surrounding the kneecaps.
A better exercise: One-legged body-weight squats. Lift one leg up and bend the opposite knee, dipping as far as you can, with control, while flexing at the hip, knee, and ankle. Use a rail for support until you develop requisite leg strength and balance. Aim for five to 10 reps on each leg. (If you are susceptible to knee pain, do the Bulgarian split squat instead, resting the top of one foot on a bench positioned two to three feet behind you. Descend until your thigh is parallel to the ground and then stand back up. Do five to 10 reps per leg.)

2 Seated Military Press What it’s supposed to do: Train shoulders and triceps
What it actually does: Overhead pressing can put shoulder joints in vulnerable biomechanical positions. It puts undue stress on the shoulders, and the movement doesn’t let you use your hips to assist your shoulders, which is the natural way to push something overhead.
A better exercise: Medicine-ball throws. Stand three feet from a concrete wall; bounce a rubber medicine ball off a spot on the wall four feet above your head, squatting to catch the ball and rising to throw it upward in one continuous motion. Aim for 15 to 20 reps. Alternative: Standing alternate dumbbell presses. As you push the right dumbbell overhead, shift the right hip forward. Switch to the left side.

3 Seated Lat Pull-Down (Behind the Neck) What it’s supposed to do: Train lats, upper back, and biceps
What it actually does: Unless you have very flexible shoulders, it’s difficult to do correctly, so it can cause pinching in the shoulder joint and damage the rotator cuff.
A better exercise: Incline pull-ups. Place a bar in the squat rack at waist height, grab the bar with both hands, and hang from the bar with your feet stretched out in front of you. Keep your torso stiff, and pull your chest to the bar 10 to 15 times. To make it harder, lower the bar; to make it easier, raise the bar.

4 Seated Pec Deck What it’s supposed to do: Train chest and shoulders
What it actually does: It can put the shoulder in an unstable position and place excessive stress on the shoulder joint and its connective tissue.
A better exercise: Incline push-ups. Aim for 15 to 20 reps. If this is too easy, progress to regular push-ups and plyometric push-ups (where you push up with enough force that your hands come off the ground), and aim for five to eight reps.

5 Seated Hip-Abductor Machine What it’s supposed to do: Train outer thighs
What it actually does: Because you are seated, it trains a movement that has no functional use. If done with excessive weight and jerky technique, it can put undue pressure on the spine.
A better exercise: Place a heavy, short, looped resistance band around your legs (at your ankles); sidestep out 20 paces and back with control. This is much harder than it sounds.

6 Seated Rotation Machine What it’s supposed to do: Train abdominals and obliques
What it actually does: Because the pelvis doesn’t move with the chest, this exercise can put excessive twisting forces on the spine.
A better exercise: Do the cable wood chop, letting your heels turn freely with your torso. Aim for 10 to 12 reps

7 Seated Leg Press What it’s supposed to do: Train quadriceps, glutes,
and hamstrings
What it actually does: It often forces the spine to flex without engaging any of the necessary stabilization muscles of the hips, glutes, shoulders, and lower back.
A better exercise: Body-weight squats. Focus on descending with control as far as you can without rounding your lower back. Aim for 15 to 20 for a set and increase sets as you develop strength.

8 Squats Using Smith Machine What it’s supposed to do: Train chest, biceps, and legs
What it actually does: The alignment of the machine—the bar is attached to a vertical sliding track—makes for linear, not natural, arched movements. This puts stress on the knees, shoulders, and lower back.
A better exercise: Body-weight squats. See “Seated Leg Press.”

9 Roman Chair Back Extension What it’s supposed to do: Train spinal erectors
What it actually does: Repeatedly flexing the back while it’s supporting weight places pressure on the spine and increases the risk of damaging your disks.
A better exercise: The bird-dog. Crouch on all fours, extend your right arm forward, and extend left leg backward. Do 10 seven-second reps, and then switch to the opposite side.

10 Roman Chair Sit-up What it’s supposed to do: Train abdominals and hip flexors
What it actually does: The crunching motion can put undue stress on the lower back when it is in a vulnerable rounded position.
A better exercise: The plank. Lie facedown on the floor. Prop up on your forearms, palms down. Rise up on your toes. Keep your back flat and contract your glutes, abdominals, and lats to keep your butt from sticking up. Hold this pose for 20 to 60 seconds.

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[via menshealth]

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The Importance of Pleasure in our Lives

A neuroscientist discusses a few ways that pleasure shapes us and makes life more enjoyable.

We talked with University of Oxford neuroscientist Morten Kringelbach, author of the upcoming book The Pleasure Center, about his revolutionary research and our constant craving to feel good.

Can pleasure be used as medicine?
We can implant electrodes in the brain of a person in pain. When we stimulate the right spots, almost magically the pain goes away. The relief is very pleasurable. This can help people with depression too.

Can I get an electrode just for fun?
It wouldn't work. The brain balances itself, and while you can help restore that balance temporarily, you can't permanently swing it one way or the other. That's why many people, even those who aren't getting any treatment, will probably come out of depression within a year.

What do people find most pleasurable in their daily lives?
Sex. But No. 2 is being with friends. Most everything we find pleasurable, including eating and drinking, is so much better when doing it with someone else.

Can you help us cure addictions such as overeating?
It hasn't been tested yet, but deep-brain electrodes may help restore the balance of selective satiety mechanisms in the brain-the signals that tell us enough is enough. People who are obese may not have the selective satiation that thin people do.

Why do we sometimes feel guilty about indulging in pleasure?
Guilt is like a built-in stop valve. If we overindulge in one thing, such as sex, food, or drugs, it can become an addiction that we feed to the exclusion of the thing that gives us the most long-term pleasure-other people.

How can we live a more pleasurable life?
There's no magic here. Enjoy your family and friends, and work less. The simplest pleasures really are the best ones.

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[via rd]

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Nanoparticle Stops Cancer From Spreading

California researchers say they have developed molecular "smart bombs" that stop pancreatic and kidney cancer from spreading in mice while causing fewer side effects and damage to healthy surrounding tissues than traditional chemotherapy.

A team from the University of California, San Diego, designed a "nanoparticle" anti-cancer drug delivery system that zooms in on a protein marker called integrin avB3, which is found on the surface of certain tumor blood vessels. The marker is tied to the development of new blood vessels and malignant tumor growth.

While the system had little impact on primary tumors, it halted the metastasis of pancreatic and kidney cancers throughout the bodies of mice. Cancer metastasis normally is much harder to treat than the primary tumor, and it usually leads to the patient's death.

The findings were published in this week's online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

According to the report, the system works with a lower dose of chemotherapy because it attacks the cancer with such precision. In most chemo treatments, the destruction of healthy tissue is a side effect as it floods the body with cancer-killing toxins.

"We were able to establish the desired anti-cancer effect while delivering the drug at levels 15 times below what is needed when the drug is used systemically," study leader David Cheresh, vice chairman of pathology at UCSD, said in a university news release. "Even more interesting is that the metastatic lesions were more sensitive to this therapy than the primary tumor."

UCSD engineers and oncologists together designed the nanoparticle -- a microscopic particle made of lipid-based polymers -- to work with the cancer-killing drug doxorubicin.

"Doxorubicin is known to be an effective anti-cancer drug but has been difficult to give patients an adequate dose without negative side effects," Cheresh said. "This new strategy represents the first time we've seen such an impact on metastatic growth, and it was accomplished without the collateral damage of weight loss or other outward signs of toxicity in the patient."

"Traditional cancer therapies are often limited or non-effective over time, because the toxic side effects limit the dose we can safely deliver to the patient," he said. "This new drug delivery system offers an important advance in treating metastatic disease."

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[via livescience]

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The Brain Hides Information From Us To Prevent Mistakes

When we notice a mosquito alight on our forearm, we direct our gaze in order to find its exact position and quickly try to swat it or brush it away to prevent it bite us. This apparently simple, instantaneous reaction is the result of a mental process that is much more complex than it may seem. It requires the brain to align the tactile sensation on the skin with spatial information about our surroundings and our posture.

For the first time, a study done by the Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group (GRNC), attached to the Barcelona Science Park, has shown how this process unfolds over time, examining the conflicts posed by the coexistence of differing spatial maps in the brain. GRNC researchers Salvador Soto-Faraco (ICREA research professor) and Elena Azañón conducted the new study.

“The main finding of the study is that it has enabled us to confirm that tactile sensations are initially located unconsciously in anatomical coordinates, but they reach our awareness only when the brain has formed an image of their origin in the spatial coordinates, external to the body,” explained Salvador Soto-Faraco. The coexistence of different spatial reference frames in the brain has been known for some time. So has the fact that confusions between them may result in some cases, such as when we invert the usual anatomical position of some body parts (e.g. when crossing our arms over the body midline). “The brain sorts out problems of this kind rapidly, in a matter of tenths of a second. To do so, however, it has to integrate information arriving in formats that are quite disparate”, Sotoa-Faraco added. “Our research has helped us understand how this process works and how the brain manages spatial realignment when faced with conflict”, he concluded.

A simple example serves to illustrate the confusion that can occur when different spatial reference frames are set in conflict: cross one of your arms over the other, then interleave the fingers of both hands together, palms touching, and turn your hands towards your body so that the left hand is on the right side and vice versa. While holding this position, if you receive an instruction but no direct physical contact that you are to move one of your fingers, you will most likely move the equivalent finger of the opposite hand.

In order to determine how long it takes for the brain to realign these conflicting spatial reference frames, the GRNC researchers devised a specific methodology that enabled indirect measurement of the location of a tactile sensation on the skin. To do this, they measured response times to a brief flash (produced with an LED light emitting diode) appearing near one of the observer’s hands. The researchers then compared the reaction times to the flash when it had appeared near a hand that had previously received a tactile stimulus, versus when the flash had appeared near the opposite hand. In the main study, the participants (a group of 32 university students) were asked to cross their arms so that their right hand lay in their left-hand visual field and vice versa. The purpose of this procedure was to ensure that the actual external position of the hands was in conflict with their anatomical location.

Each participant underwent roughly 600 essays of this sort. The time between the tactile sensation and the appearance of the target visual stimulus, as well as their realtive locations, were varied at random. It was observed that the participants’ responses to the flash changed dramatically as a function of the time elapsed between receiving the tactile sensation and the presentation of the visual stimulus. In the initial phase (60 ms or earlier), the brain tended to locate the tactile sensation in anatomical terms, i.e. if it received the sensation on the left hand, even though it was crossed over to the right- visual field, the sensation was processed as though it had happened on the left-hand side of the body. However, only a few tenths of a second later (roughly 200 ms), compensation occurred and the tactile sensation was determined to arise from the right-hand side.

Curiously, when participants in the study were asked to locate the tactile stimulus explicitly, they always referred their response to its external source. This reveals that, although a transition occurs from an initial anatomically-based reference frame towards a visually or externally-based reference frame, we apparently become aware of the tactile sensation in the latter phase.

“The study’s results have allowed us to deepen our understanding of how tactile information is located, suggesting that our brain avoids confusions among the various spatial reference frames by keeping the initial part of the process below the threshold of awareness”, explained Soto-Faraco. “Put simply, it could be said that this system of spatial transformation works much as when we hastily jot down some rough notes and later copy them out into final form, discard the original draft,” he concluded.

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[via sciencedaily]

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How To Uncode the Hidden Dangers Of Plastic Bottles

The portability of recycled plastic bottles has made toting water convenient, but just how healthy is reusing them?

Bottles labeled No. 1: Most soft drinks, including Poland Spring, Dasani and even Snapple bottles carry this number to reflect that they are bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for consumer use. The narrow-necked bottles are not made for repeated use. The design of the bottle means they're difficult to clean. And, that means bacteria, from your hands and mouth, can grow in the bottle over time, says Royte.

MainStreet's Take: Always wash out with soap and water before reusing.

No. 2: At the grocery store, when you come across one gallon plastic containers and 2.5 gallon jugs of water, you'll see this number on the plastic.

MainStreet's Take: Wash with soap and water, do not reuse too many times.

No. 3: Polyvinyl Chloride (or PVC) and are environmentally hazardous and not recyclable. Not many bottles carry this label.

MainStreet's Take: NOT safe to use in the first place.

No. 4: Bottles with the number are considered safe, and are made using low density polyethylene. In addition to being used for some water bottles, it's a common oil-based plastic that's used for containers that are squeezable.

MainStreet's Take: OK to reuse when properly cleaned.

No. 5: When you pop plastic in the microwave, it's usually has this number because it's made with polypropylene.



MainStreet's Take: OK to reuse when properly cleaned.

No. 6: This is usually used for egg cartons, and styrofoam cups.

MainStreet's Take: Not a great container, if you are environmentally friendly.

No. 7: Polycarbonate bottles with this number can have many "other" materials. In other words, the bottle may have been used with phthalates, or bisphenol A, or not. It's a catchall. And, since bisphenol A is restricted in Canada, and has been linked to disruption in lab animals, it may be a number you want to avoid if you don't know the content. You'll see this number commonly at the water cooler. And, even Nalgene bottles carry this identification, while being bisphenol free.

MainStreet's Take: May not be safe to reuse.

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[via aol]

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10 Things You Might Not Know About Your Credit Card

As you might imagine, we get a lot of questions about using credit cards. Based on those piles of emails we've put together a list of 10 things a lot of people don't know about credit cards. Enjoy!

1) Unsigned Cards Are Not Valid And Merchants Can And Will Refuse Them
You might think that everyone knows that you have to sign your credit card in order for it to be valid — after all — there's a panel on the back that says "Not Valid Unless Signed," but you'd be shocked at the number of angry emails we get from people who have tried to use an unsigned credit card with "SEE ID" or "CHECK ID" written on it and were turned away when they refused to sign their card.

Here's what VISA says should happen when you present an unsigned card:

1) The merchant will ask for your government ID.
2) You will be asked to sign the card. If you sign it, the signature on the card will be compared to the signature on the government ID. If you refuse, the card will not be accepted.

Here's VISA's official statement on "See ID":

Some customers write “See ID” or “Ask for ID” in the signature panel, thinking that this is a deterrent against fraud or forgery; that is, if their signature is not on the card, a fraudster will not be able to forge it. In reality, criminals don’t take the time to practice signatures: they use cards as quickly as possible after a theft and prior to the accounts being blocked. They are actually counting on you not to look at the back of the card and compare signatures—they may even have access to counterfeit identification with a signature in their own handwriting. “See ID” or “Ask for ID” is not a valid substitute for a signature. The customer must sign the card in your presence, as stated above.

Most merchants don't follow this policy, but some (most notoriously— the U.S. Postal Service), are quite strict.

2) The Maximum Liability For Unauthorized Use Of A Credit Card* Is $50 According To Federal Law
The Fair Credit Billing Act protects you from suffering damages due to unauthorized use of your credit card. If you report a lost or stolen card before anyone uses it, you are not responsible for any charges. If you do not report it before an unauthorized use you are liable for a maximum of $50.

(*Credit cards only. Debit cards and ATM cards are covered under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, and your liability depends on how quickly you report the loss. Unlike credit cards, debit and ATM cards can have unlimited liability in certain circumstances.)

3) Merchants Cannot Require You To Present ID, Unless Your Card Is Unsigned
Some consumers enjoy it when a clerk asks to see their ID. Others do not. In some states, it's actually illegal for a store to record any additional information (such as an address or drivers license number) as a condition of processing a credit card transaction (unless the address is needed for shipping, of course.) For some reason this is always a hotly debated topic, so we'll go right to VISA for the answer:

Although Visa rules do not preclude merchants from asking for cardholder ID, merchants cannot make an ID a condition of acceptance. Therefore, merchants cannot refuse to complete a purchase transaction because a cardholder refuses to provide ID. Visa believes merchants should not ask for ID as part of their regular card acceptance procedures. Laws in several states also make it illegal for merchants to write a cardholder’s personal information, such as an address or phone number, on a sales receipt.

We think that's pretty clear. Don't want to show your ID? Don't.

4) Merchants Cannot Require A Minimum Transaction Amount
It's a violation of the credit card company's merchant agreement to refuse a transaction because it is below the "minumum."

VISA says:

Imposing minimum or maximum purchase amounts in order to accept a Visa card transaction is a violation of the Visa rules.

Mastercard says:

A Merchant must not require, or indicate that it requires, a minimum or maximum Transaction amount to accept a valid and properly presented Card

5) Merchants Cannot Charge A Surcharge For Using A Credit Card, However, They Can Offer A "Cash Discount"
You may have noticed that gas stations are starting to offer a different, higher price for credit cards. This isn't technically allowed— unless it is marketed as a "cash discount." In other words, if you fill up your car and find that you've been charged more than advertised because you paid with a credit card — that's not allowed. If, however, you decide to pay with cash because you saw an advertised "cash discount" to the "regular price" — that's ok. A subtle distinction, but an important one.

(There is something called a "convenience fee" that some institutions are allowed to charge if they do not typically accept credit cards in their normal course of business. The example VISA gives is a utility company where the customary way is to pay by mail or in person. The rules for charging this fee are somewhat complicated and there are loopholes, etc.)

6) Many Credit Cards Have Programs That Will Automatically Double The Manufacturer's Warranty And Other Excellent Benefits
We get a lot of complaints that can be easily solved by the complainee's credit card company. We've helped readers get laptops replaced out of warranty, and helped them get their money back when Best Buy sold them a box full of bathroom tile instead of a hard drive. Your card may come with extended warranty protection, 90 day accidental damage protection that includes vandalism, rental car insurance, road side assistance, baggage insurance, and return protection. You should be aware of what benefits your credit or debit card offers so that you remember to use them when you need them.

7) Merchants Are Not Allowed To Make You Give Up Your Right To A Chargeback
You might see a receipt that has suspicious-looking waiver stating that you're agreeing to give up your right to issue a chargeback against the merchant for any reason, no matter what, period. These waivers are the result of some crafty entrepreneurs selling sales-receipt paper with the waiver printed on it, claiming that it helps protect the merchant. It's all nonsense and it isn't allowed. If you see it, you should report the merchant.

8) Merchants Are Not Allowed To Place A Hold For The Estimated Tip
Because so many consumers have instant access to their account information, merchants aren't allowed to place an "authorization" for an estimated tip. For example, if you go to dinner and the bill is $100 and you pay with a credit card, the restaurant might be tempted to "authorize" your card for $120—a 20% tip. If you choose to leave a 15% tip and then check your balance — it will appear that you have been overcharged. This apparently results in lots of angry customers, so the practice has been forbidden in VISA's merchant agreement.

9) If Merchants Suspect You Of Fraud They Are Supposed To Call With A "Code 10"
If a merchant is suspicious of you, they are supposed to make a "Code 10" call. They are instructed to take your card, call in, and say “I have a Code 10 authorization request." They will then be asked a series of questions that can be discreetly answered with either yes or no. The merchant bank will then authorize or deny the card. They are not supposed to threaten to call the police or try to detain you. Mastercard says that if the police need to be involved, the "Code 10" operator will call the police while the clerk waits on hold.

10) If Merchants Break These Rules, You Can Report Them To The Credit Card Company
Here's Mastercard's Merchant Violation form. To report merchant violations to VISA, they ask that you report them to the financial institution that issued you your Visa card. You should beable to find the number your on Visa statement or on the back of your card.

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[via consumerist]

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Th!nk! Can This Eco-friendly Car Start an Electronic Revolution?

For pint-size designs, these electric cars seem to dream of a global revolution where many fear to tread, or have tried with not very impressive results. And think about it, these cars are 100% recyclable!

But Th!nk Global, yes, think with an exclamation mark, a Norwegian company buoyed by undisclosed funding injection by Silicon Valley venture capital firms, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and RockPort Capital Partners, is rolling out the Ox, Open and City in North America within three years after a gallant start in Europe and I can’t stop to think when they’ll ever get to Africa.

Think cars are gas-free, city cars that will start selling in the US next year but the actual mass roll out is slated for sometime in 2011, and the company has recently opened its North American division to steer the promising mad drive from the gas pumps.

Which, I think, is good news for those who feel fuel prices are already over the top, with more pump shocks yet to come if the global crude price projection is anything to go by?

Think, with more than 17 years of experience in developing and producing electric vehicles, designs, develops, manufactures and markets environmentally friendly vehicles and technologies. There are about 1,200 Think concept vehicles driving on European, mostly Norwegian, roads today.

Think’s website is full of boasts for the eco-friendliness of its models – a bold pronouncement that their cars for the future are safe for the environment. “Th!nk city demands very little of you. In fact, not much more than a mobile phone. Just an overnight power top-up, and it’s ready to go in the morning. It can travel up to 200 kilometers (124 miles) in city driving on a fully charged battery, with a top speed of 100km/h. It is fun, clean and simple.”

Think City is one of two models that are out already, together with the Think Ox. With a choice of either lithium or a sodium battery, it is gratifying that it can run up to 180 kilometers at 100km/hr without needing a recharge – enough to take a suburban dweller to the downtown office and back, with more miles to the theme park on a Friday afternoon without minding your carbon footprint.

The lithium-ion batteries have capacity to charge to 80% capacity in less than an hour, and slender solar panels integrated into the roof power the dashboard electronics.

Vicki Northrup, operations manager of Think North America says you can entirely recycle these revolutionary cars, from the dashboard to the fabric, unpainted body panels (to eliminate hazardous toxins), supports, air ducts, adhesives and fixings. If you reckon the battery is a little rusty, no problem. Simply return it to the supplier for a replacement.

The Think Ox is the company’s latest concept development and the first designated 5-seater fully electric vehicle. Think Ox is projected to be 100% emission free, and includes a unique EV platform suitable for a variety of different body styles designed for the European, North American and Asian markets.

According to Northrup, it is the basis for a variety of vehicle styles, starting with the Think Ox Crossover 5-seater. Talking of styles, the Th!nk designs are far away from anything ever created and other electronic wannabes look very, very pale in comparison.

For the busy green businessperson, the Think Ox looks like the perfect companion on the road. It is fully computerized and allows a key-less entry. It features real time navigation, web, e-mail and open source interfaces, intelligent and sustainable driving and route calculations.

The DNA-key gives the user feedback on charging status and sends messages, for example, for pre-heat or pre-cool options via GPRS.

This is a car of high dreams - drivers who are wont to car sharing will never mind about taking up the lion’s share of the fuel cost - the batteries eliminate the unnecessary haggling about which family fills up the tank on the second week of July!

With this kind of thinking, one is tempted to wonder aloud if these green motoring concepts will herald the electronic revolution on the roads…

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[via ecowordly]

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10 Signs It May be Time to Quit Your Job

Often, the hardest part about quitting your job is figuring out if and when you should go. Having been through this many times, I’ve picked out some of the fail-safe warning signs. Enjoy.

10) The best part of your day is listening to the radio on your morning commute. You’re actually disappointed when you arrive in the parking lot and have to turn off your car.

9) You break into a cold sweat when you suddenly realize how trivial everything really is, and yet how insane your co-workers get over things anyways. Then, you start excessively slipping in the phrase “the big picture” a lot. After a while, you actually pity them.

8) When you ask hard-working people at the lower rungs of the company how they’re doing, they inevitably say “Well, I’m still here.”

7) You start checking out the guys/girls at the company that are 20 years older than you. You found these people entirely repulsive before, but boredom and the fact that you’ve exhausted all other prospects leaves you on this unfortunate island.

6) You’re always having to ask people to copy you on emails. Listen, people absolutely love adding as many people to the cc: list as possible—more people get to see how wonderful they are that way. If even despite that, you have to consistently ask—it means you’re just not viewed as important. Sorry.

5) All of management’s pep talks are vacuous, in the future tense and accompanied by a preposterous Safe Harbor-esque statement. You know what I’m talking about: “Next quarter we will have great sales, of course, so long as electricity isn’t disrupted in the Western United States and most of our customers don’t come down with bird flu.”

4) You start looking forward to meetings, because it’s an hour long opportunity to shoot knowing looks to that one other really disgruntled employee and laugh on the inside. And you literally stare laser beams at this person until you finally catch eyes, getting insanely frustrated when they don’t look your direction for a few minutes.

3) You cautiously start using idiotic work clichés at every opportunity, like “let’s have a come to Jesus meeting,” or, “Let’s peel back the onion,” assuming someone is finally going to call you on your ridiculousness. But no one ever does, and instead they start using your clichés in their next presentation. See our list of the Top 15 Worst Work Cliches

2) When people give you assignments, you have to consciously hold yourself back from blurting out, “You know, I just don’t care, because I won’t be here when this is due.”

And the #1 Sign It's Time to Quit Your Job...
1) Taking a bathroom break is excessively satisfying. You think to yourself, “I just got paid for relieving myself,” and that carries much more satisfaction than it really ever should.

Bonus: The best scenes from the movie Office Space



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Jobs: App Store launching with 500 iPhone applications, 25% free

Apple CEO Steve Jobs expected to launch his App Store — the online venue for third-party iPhone and iPod Touch applications — with 200 software offerings; he ended up with more than 500.

"The reaction has been so strong," he says. "So many developers responded."

RELATED: Programmer quits job to write for iPhone

With 500 programs launching internationally today, "This is the biggest launch of my career," says Jobs.

The App Store is a way for owners of the iPhone and Touch (like the iPhone without the phone) to add games and other software and Web shortcuts to the devices. Heavyweight participants include Facebook, MySpace, AOL, eBay, Major League Baseball, Sega and Bank of America.

The App Store (AAPL) is timed to spur sales of the new iPhone, which goes on sale at 8 a.m. Friday with a lower price ($199 from $399) and faster network. The App Store is available as a free down