The Top 13 Worst Jobs with the Best Pay

[via business week]

These are dirty jobs and somebody has to do them. At least they get paid well for their efforts

Think you have a lousy job? You're not alone. So do about half of your fellow workers—and about a quarter of them are only showing up to collect a paycheck, according to a survey conducted by London-based market information company TNS. Grumbling over the size of that check is common, too. About two-thirds of workers believe they don't get paid enough, says TNS—even though many of them may actually be overpaid, compared to average compensation data.

Gastroenterologist

Average pay: $269,500 (Salary.com)

Let’s face it: None of the reasons to see a gastroenterologist — the doctors who plumb the depths of the human digestive system—is pretty. And that’s one of the reasons why GI remains one of the least-sexy specialties. It also has the potential to be among the more monotonous, since GI docs spend a good chunk of their time on routine (and unpleasant) procedures such as colonoscopies. But all those billable procedures also make GI one of the most lucrative specialties in medicine.

Podiatrist

Average pay: $125,663 (Salary.com)

High average salaries and reasonable, flexible hours make podiatry look like a pretty attractive career choice—at least for those who don’t squirm at the thought of dealing with bunions, ingrown toenails, and pus-filled foot ulcers. There’s also the (lack of) prestige factor to consider: Because podiatrists are DPMs (Doctors of Podiatric Medicine), not MDs, they face the same “not a real doctor” stigma as chiropractors and optometrists. Getting started in the field can also be difficult, especially for those without surgical training—loan default rates for podiatrists are among the highest in medicine.

Private Security Contractor in Iraq

Average Pay: $120,000

Calling it a “high-risk” job might be an understatement. Though nobody knows the exact number, more than 300 private contractors have been killed in Iraq since the start of the war. In one particularly gruesome 2004 attack, four employees of security subcontractor Blackwater were ambushed, mutilated, and hung from a bridge in Fallujah. And yet, despite the ongoing hazards, companies have had no shortage of willing employees. Why? The money: Hired guns in Iraq can earn $10,000 a month protecting diplomats and escorting convoys in Iraq—about 10 times the base pay of an Army private.

IT Worker

Average pay: $103,400 (Salary.com)

Information technology is a high-demand field—and a demanding one. One survey this year rated IT as the most stressful profession. Four out of five IT workers said they feel stressed before they even get to the office, just thinking about spending another day on the phone with laymen, explaining where to find their computers’ off buttons.

Crop Duster Pilot

Average pay: $53,870

One of the most dangerous (and least glamorous) professions in aviation, crop dusters face the hazards of low-level flying (with potentially deadly obstacles such as power lines, fence posts, and water standpipes), as well as long-term exposure to toxic chemicals. While salaries are generally lower than those of airline flyers, experienced agricultural pilots with a good work record can earn up to $80,000 a year.

Crime-Scene Cleaner

Average pay: $50,400

If crime-scene cleanup was just wiping blood off the floors—well, that would be easy. But CSI fans with get-rich-quick dreams should note the job involves more than handiness with a mop and a tolerance for the smell of decomposing flesh. Getting rid of bodily fluids typically calls for more rough-and-ready methods, such as ripping up carpet, tile, and baseboards. It also sometimes means working in confined spaces (if someone was electrocuted in an attic, for example). And when tearing up old houses, workers face exposure to hazards such as lead paint and asbestos—not to mention the combustible chemicals involved in drug-lab abatement.

Roughneck

Average pay: $46,867

Working 12-hour shifts underneath a drilling rig is no cakewalk. Drilling goes on even in the worst weather conditions, the rig’s engine blares so loudly that crew members communicate with hand signals, and the air swirls with dust and chemicals. Roughnecks get stuck with the dirtiest, and most dangerous, grunt work of all, for instance, changing hot drill bits and connecting new sections of pipe. The cash-rich oil industry is strapped for good workers though, so they’ll pay up to $100,000 for specialized or supervisory positions.

Toll Collector

Average pay: $45,000

The worst part of being a toll collector isn’t the environment (the ever-present smell of exhaust, the deafening traffic noise, exposure to bad weather through those open windows) or the hours (eight-hour shifts that either start early or in the morning or go until late at night), or even the threat of a tollbooth holdup. It’s the sheer boredom of being trapped in a two-and-a-half-foot-wide booth for hours at a time, with only a radio (and the occasional highway flasher) for amusement. The pay is good, though—toll collectors are union workers—with solid benefits and overtime that can double take-home salaries for some workers.

Long-Haul Trucker

Average pay: $43,200 (Salary.com)

With long hours behind the wheel, frequent stretches away from home, and constant pressure to make deliveries on time, life on the open road can be lonely and stressful. Throw in the dangers of highway accidents, irregular sleep patterns, and fatty truck-stop grub, and it’s perhaps no surprise that the trucking lifestyle can shave 15 years off a driver’s life expectancy. While the average American male lives to be 76, the typical male truck driver can expect to live to age 61. Job security is good, though, as is the pay. First-year company drivers can earn $30,000 to $45,000; salaries for experienced drivers with good safety records can push $85,000.

Embalmer

Average pay: $42,400 (Salary.com)

Preparing corpses for public viewing is a skilled job that requires specialized knowledge of anatomy, microbiology, pathology, chemistry, and cosmetology—not to mention a strong stomach. And because the Grim Reaper doesn’t clock out at 5 p.m., hours can be long and unpredictable.

Sewer Inspector

Average pay: $34,960

You get used to the smell, they say. But claustrophobics, hypochondriacs, and the rat- or roach-fearing need not apply for the job of sewer inspector, a job that is self-explanatory: crawling on all fours through several inches of raw sewage, armed only with flashlights and chest-high waders, in search of cracked or clogged pipes. Starting salaries are typically on the low end, all things considered, but a sewer inspector on the town payroll in Hampton, N.H. made $61,058 last year.

Crab Fisherman

Average pay: $29,000

Fishing is the most dangerous job in the U.S., according to the government’s latest statistics, and crab fishing in the stormy waters of the Bering Sea is especially perilous. Workers brave the icy winds and pounding waves to put in grueling 20- or 21-hour days launching and retrieving 800-pound crab pots. The upside: Experienced deckhands could earn $60,000 in just a few months of work—or more, for a big haul.

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Don't Judge Too Quickly [Funny vids]

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What's the Best Diet? Eating Less Food

[via time]

Low fat, low carb, high protein — there's a diet plan of every flavor. And if you're one of the millions of Americans who struggle with weight, you've probably tried them all, likely with little success. That wouldn't surprise Dr. Frank Sacks, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and lead author of a new study published in the Feb. 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, whose findings confirm what a growing body of weight-loss evidence has already suggested: one diet is no better than the next when it comes to weight loss. It doesn't matter where your calories come from, as long as you're eating less.

"We have a really simple and practical message for people: it's not so much the type of diet you eat," says Sacks. "It's how much you put in your mouth."

In the analysis of 811 obese patients from Massachusetts and Louisiana, participants were randomly assigned to one of four heart-healthy diets: low fat or high fat, with either average or high levels of protein. All four regimens also included high amounts of whole grains, fruits and vegetables and substituted saturated fat, found in foods such as butter and meat, with unsaturated fat, found in vegetable oil and nuts. The participants were encouraged to exercise 90 minutes a week. (See the top 10 food trends of 2008.)

On average, the study participants lost about 13 lb. after six months of dieting, or about 7% of their starting weight, regardless of which diet plan they followed. At the one-year mark, the dieters had regained some of the lost weight, and after two years, average weight loss was about 9 lb. Only about 15% of participants were able to lose 10% of their body weight or more. Across the board, however, patients lowered their risk of diabetes and reduced blood levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) while increasing good cholesterol (HDL) and overall heart health.

Catherine Loria, one of the study's co-authors and a nutritional epidemiologist with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which funded the study, was encouraged by the findings. "People do have to choose heart-healthy foods," she says, but "I think the beauty of the study is that they have a lot of flexibility in terms of the dietary approach."

But that's where the trouble begins. It's hard enough to figure out what to eat. Eating less of it is even harder. Researchers had hoped to get study participants to eat 750 calories less than they expended each day — an objective that proved unsustainable. Dieters adhered to the initial plan for the first several weeks, but by the six-month mark, they were consuming only 225 calories less than they expended — about a third of the goal — according to a calculation based on overall weight loss. "It's very difficult to reduce your calories enough to really sustain a lot of weight loss," Loria says. (See pictures of facial yoga.)

One failure of most diet plans is that people get hungry and quit, says Sacks, who acknowledges that the sudden reduction of 750 calories in his study was perhaps too steep. "I think what that teaches us is that maybe it's better to make a more gradual change in intake," says Sacks. "That's what I recommend to my patients: let's try to pick a gradual or realistic reduction in calories that's not going to make you really hungry a lot and that you can sustain day after day."

But eating less, however simple it may sound, is hardly a one-man job. Some nutrition experts argue that the balance of responsibility needs to fall more heavily on society at large. Martjin Katan, a professor of nutrition and health at Amsterdam's VU University, wrote an accompanying editorial that analyzed the merits of the diet study. He suggests that focusing on individual diet plans of any kind may be misguided, and that only community-wide change will truly be able to stem the tide of obesity. He points to a small town in France that tapped all of its residents to solve the problem — building more outdoor-sports facilities and creating walking routes, hosting cooking classes and even intervening with at-risk families. After five years, obesity among children was down to 8.8%, less than half the rate of neighboring towns. That success, he writes, "suggests that we may need a new approach to preventing and to treating obesity and that it must be a total-environment approach."

It's a useful lesson for American adults, two-thirds of whom are overweight or obese. Long-term weight loss has proved frustratingly elusive for many obese individuals, but study after study has shown that community and peer support help people take off weight — and keep it off. In this study, the participants who took advantage of group and individual counseling offered as part of the diets had far greater success than those who chose to go it alone. Over the course of two years, participants who went to at least two-thirds of the counseling sessions dropped about 22 lb., 13 lb. more than the average of the entire study population. "Losing weight and sustaining it for two years is difficult," Sacks says. "To help people do that, they need some level of support to keep their motivation and focus."

But the bottom line, according to most obesity experts, is to set realistic goals. Expect what is achievable: a 250-lb. person isn't likely to slim down to supermodel proportions in her lifetime, but she may be able to lose 10 or 20 lb. A moderate 5% or 10% reduction in body weight can significantly improve health, by lowering cholesterol and the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. For many doctors who work with obese patients, the goal is not thinness but well-being — and, ultimately for the patient, self-acceptance.

As for the secret to losing weight? There is none. "It's basic physiology," Loria says. "Eat fewer calories than you expend."

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Man ticketed after he was hit by car

[via upi]

The stepson of a Denver man who was hit by a car while helping two elderly women cross a large street said police ticketed his stepdad for jaywalking.

Ken McDonald, stepson of Jim Moffett, 58, said his stepfather was driving a bus Friday night when he dropped off two elderly women who tried to cross Federal Boulevard to reach their trailer home, the Rocky Mountain News reported Thursday.

"With that light snowstorm, my stepdad didn't think they could cross the street safely," McDonald said. "There's a six- or seven-block area where there's really no place to cross. So, he got off the bus with another passenger, and they helped the ladies cross."

However, once the group had made it about halfway across the road, a "pick-up driver got impatient and passed in the left hand turn lane," McDonald said. "He plowed right into my stepdad -- but not before he pushed the old ladies and the other guy out of the way."

Moffett was taken to St. Anthony Central Medical Center with bleeding in the brain, broken bones in his face, a dislocated shoulder, a broken wrist, a possible ruptured spleen and liver, and a destroyed right knee.

McDonald said it is "absolutely obscene" that police ticketed Moffett and the other man for jaywalking. The driver of the pickup was ticketed for careless driving causing injury.

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The $2,000 car you can't buy

[via msn]

The much-anticipated Tata Nano -- at just half the price of the next-cheapest car in the world -- will be sold in India beginning in April. You won't find it in the US, though.

The cheapest car in the world is expected to begin rolling off assembly lines March 23, seven months behind schedule.

India's tiny Tata Nano, priced at 100,000 rupees, or about $2,000 at current exchange rates, will not be sold in the United States. Cars will reach dealerships across India in April, and production for the first year is expected to reach 250,000 vehicles.

The Nano's unveiling in January 2008 caused a stir worldwide and especially in India, where there are fewer than 10 cars for every thousand people, compared with 40 per thousand in China and 450 in the U.S.

Indians bought about 1 million cars in 2007. Far more middle-class Indians buy and transport their entire families on scooters.

Despite the frenzy of enthusiasm that ensued, production of the ultracheap car stalled when protests from farmers forced Tata Motors to abandon its West Bengal factory. The car will be built in small numbers at several current Tata factories until a dedicated factory is finished.

Tata, India's leading producer of trucks and third-biggest carmaker, last year bought Ford Motor's (F, news, msgs) Jaguar and Land Rover brands for $2.3 billion. While India's relatively small passenger-car market hasn't collapsed nearly as much as North America's, sales of passenger trucks, buses and other large vehicles tumbled 51% in January, a big blow to Tata.

35 horsepower, millions of fans

The company's Nano Web site has seen more than 30 million hits, and social networks such as Facebook have thousands of interest groups and communities around the car.

Why the fuss? The Nano -- its working name was the "People's Car" -- is just half the price of the next-cheapest car in the world, a Chery Automobiles QQ3 sold only in its domestic market of China. The $5,200 Suzuki Maruti is the current least expensive option for Indians, where per capita incomes are nearing $1,000 after years of explosive economic growth. In the U.S., the cheapest option is the Nissan Versa, which, at $9,990, is about five times the price of Nano.

With a snub nose and a sloping roof, the world's cheapest car can hold five people -- if they squeeze. And the basic version is spare: There's no radio, no air bags, no passenger-side mirror and only one windshield wiper. If you want air conditioning to cope with India's brutal summers, you need to get the deluxe version. Analysts estimate taxes, delivery and extras will add 30% or so to the car's cost.

At 10 feet long, the Nano is about 2 feet shorter than a Mini Cooper. Its 623-cubic-centimeter, two-cylinder engine is estimated to produce about 35 horsepower, good for a top speed of 75 mph.

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Shhh...Secret U.S. Oil Discovery - Largest Reserve in the World!

[via usgs]

3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil Assessed in North Dakota and Montana’s Bakken Formation—25 Times More Than 1995 Estimate—

North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation.

A U.S. Geological Survey assessment, released April 10, shows a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered compared to the agency's 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil.

Technically recoverable oil resources are those producible using currently available technology and industry practices. USGS is the only provider of publicly available estimates of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources.

New geologic models applied to the Bakken Formation, advances in drilling and production technologies, and recent oil discoveries have resulted in these substantially larger technically recoverable oil volumes. About 105 million barrels of oil were produced from the Bakken Formation by the end of 2007.

The USGS Bakken study was undertaken as part of a nationwide project assessing domestic petroleum basins using standardized methodology and protocol as required by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 2000.

The Bakken Formation estimate is larger than all other current USGS oil assessments of the lower 48 states and is the largest "continuous" oil accumulation ever assessed by the USGS. A "continuous" oil accumulation means that the oil resource is dispersed throughout a geologic formation rather than existing as discrete, localized occurrences. The next largest "continuous" oil accumulation in the U.S. is in the Austin Chalk of Texas and Louisiana, with an undiscovered estimate of 1.0 billions of barrels of technically recoverable oil.

"It is clear that the Bakken formation contains a significant amount of oil - the question is how much of that oil is recoverable using today's technology?" said Senator Byron Dorgan, of North Dakota. "To get an answer to this important question, I requested that the U.S. Geological Survey complete this study, which will provide an up-to-date estimate on the amount of technically recoverable oil resources in the Bakken Shale formation."

The USGS estimate of 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil has a mean value of 3.65 billion barrels. Scientists conducted detailed studies in stratigraphy and structural geology and the modeling of petroleum geochemistry. They also combined their findings with historical exploration and production analyses to determine the undiscovered, technically recoverable oil estimates.

USGS worked with the North Dakota Geological Survey, a number of petroleum industry companies and independents, universities and other experts to develop a geological understanding of the Bakken Formation. These groups provided critical information and feedback on geological and engineering concepts important to building the geologic and production models used in the assessment.

Five continuous assessment units (AU) were identified and assessed in the Bakken Formation of North Dakota and Montana - the Elm Coulee-Billings Nose AU, the Central Basin-Poplar Dome AU, the Nesson-Little Knife Structural AU, the Eastern Expulsion Threshold AU, and the Northwest Expulsion Threshold AU.

At the time of the assessment, a limited number of wells have produced oil from three of the assessments units in Central Basin-Poplar Dome, Eastern Expulsion Threshold, and Northwest Expulsion Threshold.
The Elm Coulee oil field in Montana, discovered in 2000, has produced about 65 million barrels of the 105 million barrels of oil recovered from the Bakken Formation.

Results of the assessment can be found at http://energy.usgs.gov.

The follow is one of those emails you get forwarded to you with just the facts called out if interested...

*****

The U. S. Geological Service issued a report in April ('08) that only scientists and oil men knew was coming, but man was it big. It was a revised report (hadn't been updated since '95) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota; western South Dakota; and extreme eastern Montana ..... check THIS out:

The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska 's Prudhoe Bay, and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable... at $107 a barrel, we're looking at a resource base worth more than $5.3 trillion.

'When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea.' says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature's financial analyst.

'This sizable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years.' reports, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. It's a formation known as the Williston Basin, but is more commonly referred to as the 'Bakken.' And it stretches from Northern Montana, through North Dakota and into Canada. For years, U. S. oil exploration has been considered a dead end. Even the 'Big Oil' companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago. However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken's massive reserves... and we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels. And because this is light, sweet oil, those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL!

That's enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 41 years straight.

2. And if THAT didn't throw you on the floor, then this next one should - because it's from TWO YEARS AGO!

U. S. Oil Discovery- Largest Reserve in the World!
Stansberry Report Online - 4/20/2006

Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world is more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction.

They reported this stunning news: We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth. Here are the official estimates:

- 8-times as much oil as Saudi Arabia
- 18-times as much oil as Iraq
- 21-times as much oil as Kuwait
- 22-times as much oil as Iran
- 500-times as much oil as Yemen
- and it's all right here in the Western United States

HOW can this BE? HOW can we NOT BE extracting this? Because the environmentalists and others have blocked all efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil!

James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says we've got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East -more than 2 TRILLION barrels untapped. That's more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today, reports The Denver Post.

Don't think 'OPEC' will drop its price - even with this find? Think again! It's all about the competitive marketplace, - it has to.

Got your attention/ire up yet? Hope so! Now, while you're thinking about it .... and hopefully P.O'd, do this:

3. Pass this along. If you don't take a little time to do this, then you should stifle yourself the next time you want to complain about gas prices .. because by doing NOTHING, you've forfeited your right to complain.
--------
Now I just wonder what would happen in this country if every one of you sent this to every one in your address book.

**********

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16 More Tips Your Grocer Won't Tell You

Check the previous post 13 tips your grocer won't tell you

1. "Don't buy anything with more than five ingredients (too processed), with ingredients you can’t pronounce (too processed), with anything artificial (tastes bad), with a cartoon on it (direct marketing to children), or with a health claim (misleading)," says Nestle. [via rd]

2. Paper? Plastic? We don't really care. But asking us to double-bag…that's just wasteful.

3. Dig and reach for the freshest produce. Older merchandise gets pushed to the front of the bin and spread across the top to encourage customers to take it first.

4. This isn't a social service agency. "The purpose of grocery stores is to get you to buy more food, not less," says Marion Nestle, author of What to Eat (North Point Press). Only 14% of consumers overall stick to just the items on their shopping list.

5. Very few people really like the "loyalty card" program, and it's expensive for us to run.

6. Attention, shoppers: Don't start your shopping just as we're closing. We just want to leave. It's been a long day.

7. Watch out for gimmicks. They are intended to get you into a store more frequently and to keep you away from competitors.

8. The person who supervises it all has a tough job; they're just a big babysitter.

9. Thanksgiving is our least favorite holiday.

10. Bring back your recyclable cans and bottles, but please rinse them out first. Leaving soda inside is unsanitary and we find it disgusting.

11. Signs of a store in trouble: Stocking fewer perishable items, storing non-perishables in refrigerated cases to make them look full, and "dummying up" shelves with empty boxes. If we were offering the best prices and highest quality, wouldn't there be more people shopping here?

12. I'm not getting rich here. After-tax net profit for the grocery industry is less than 2 percent, and by the end of 2013, the Food Marketing Institute, an industry group, predicts annual average wages will be just $18,000.

13. If you get in the 10 items or less line with 25 items, don't be surprised if you are asked to leave. If you have 12 items, not many people will care.

14. Watch those shopping-cart handles. They're covered in bacteria, says food-safety consultant Jeff Nelken. Use a sanitary wipe if the store provides them. Finicky shoppers can even patronize supermarkets that send their carts through a cart wash.

15. Skip the center aisles. That's where you'll find the junk food, like sodas and snack foods.

16. Check sizes. "Manufacturers are constantly trying to repackage things to make them sound like a better deal," says David Livingston, a supermarket industry consultant. "Some new peanut butter containers may look the same, but look closely and you'll see they actually have less peanut butter inside. Ninety-five percent of customers don't watch this kind of stuff."

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Top 10 Google Earth Finds

Columbus and Magellan had it rough. Exploration these days is quite literally an armchair activity, as high-resolution satellite images and tools like Google Earth make it possible for anyone with an Internet connection to pour over the globe with a fine-toothed comb. There are entire online communities devoted to finding and cataloging the most unusual locales worldwide, creating 21st-century atlases of minutiae. It isn't just for hobbyists either — Google Earth has helped scientists find previously unknown ruins and police locate clandestine marijuana fields. Here are ten of the most unusual discoveries. [via time]

Might these be the ruins of the lost continent of Atlantis? Eager explorers certainly thought so, trumpeting this grid off the coast of Africa as streets in the mythical sunken city. Observers noted the area appeared to be the size of Wales, making such a large grid an impressive feat of ancient urban planning. The real explanation is far less fun: Google Earth engineers soon announced that the grid pattern was merely a digital artifact created by the sonar boats collecting mapping data. Whispers still linger, but it doesn't look like anyone will be dredging up a forgotten civilization anytime soon.

See "Atlantis" site on Google Maps.

Firefox Crop Circles

Maybe alien technology isn't so foreign after all. This Firefox crop circle sprouted up in a corn field in Oregon, but its origins are no mystery. In 2006, the Oregon State University Linux Users group created the giant logo — spanning more than 45,000 square feet — to celebrate the Web browser's 50 millionth download.

See the Firefox logo on Google Maps.

UFO Landing Pads, Maybe?

Here's a true Google Earth mystery. These odd formations can be found on air bases in the U.S. and Britain — this one comes from a base outside of Norwich, England. The U.K. Ministry of Defense called it a motorcycle range, but other speculate it may be some sort of calibration tool for satellites. No one really knows — and the military isn't saying anything more.

See the "motorcycle range" on Google Maps.

Oprah Maze

She's got a massive syndicated show, a magazine called O and was dubbed the most powerful celebrity in the world by Forbes. Why shouldn't Oprah get her own corn maze? An Arizona farmer created this 2004 tribute to the TV talk-show host.

See the Oprah maze on Google Maps.

Secret Swastika

When builders of the Coronado Naval Amphibious Base in San Diego planned this complex in 1967, satellite imagery was probably the furthest thing from their minds. But in 2007 Google Earth sleuths found that four unconnected buildings on the base formed an unfortunate shape when viewed from above: a swastika. The Navy says it's spending more than $600,000 to mask the shape. "We don't want to be associated with something as symbolic and hateful as a swastika," a spokesman said.

See the swastika building on Google Maps.

Lost (and Found) at Sea

The SS Jassim, a Bolivian cargo ferry, ran aground and sunk on the Wingate Reef off the coast of Sudan in 2003. Now it's one of the largest shipwrecks visible on Google Earth.

See the shipwreck on Google Maps.

A Face in the Clay

It looks disconcertingly like a face from above, but this formation in Alberta, Canada is entirely natural. Dubbed the Badlands Guardian, the "face" is actually a valley eroded into the clay. Some say the man looks like he's wearing earphones; that's merely a road and an oil well. Even the Badlands Guardian, it seems, isn't immune to exploratory drilling.

See the Badlands Guardian on Google Maps.

Iraq's Bloody Lake

This blood-red lake outside of Iraq's Sadr City garnered a fair share of macabre speculation when it was discovered in 2007. One tipster told the tech blog Boing Boing that he was "told by a friend" that slaughterhouses in Iraq sometimes dump blood in canals. No one has offered an official explanation, but it's more likely the color comes from sewage, pollution or a water treatment process.

See Iraq's bloody lake on Google Maps.

Airplane Graveyard

The Davis-Monthan Air Force Base outside of Tuscon, Ariz., is where old planes go to die. More than 4,000 military aircraft are parked on the base, from B-52s to stealth bombers, where they are salvaged for parts and broken down for scrap. It's one of the most popular satellite pictures online, making guided tours of the area are a hot ticket.

See the airplane graveyard on Google Maps.

Missile Test?

Google Earth has plenty of examples of planes, helicopters — even hot air balloons — caught in flight, but this cruise missile, thought to be fired during military training exercises in the Utah mountains, might be the most unlikely capture yet. If it is, in fact, a cruise missile. Many dispute the image and say it's merely an airplane. You be the judge, but if you look closely, the "missile" appears to have wings.

See the missile on Google Maps.

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NBC orders Jerry Seinfeld reality series

[via thrfeed]

Jerry Seinfeld is reteaming with NBC to launch his first reality series.

The comedian's project is tentatively called "The Marriage Ref" and features celebrities, comedians and athletes who will judge couples in the midst of marital disputes while recommending various strategies to resolve their problems.

Seinfeld is partnering with "The Oprah Winfrey Show" veteran Ellen Rakieten on the project, which reunites the comedian with the network that aired his hit sitcom "Seinfeld" for nine years.

NBC co-chair Ben Silverman said Seinfeld pitched the show as a companion piece of sorts to his classic sitcom. The comedian increasingly has used married life for material in his stand-up act. So while being a bachelor inspired "Seinfeld," the comedian's married years will inspire his unscripted program.

"Some of the greatest comedies in the history of television have been around marriages," Silverman said. "The concept is so universal and accessible, and obviously it works so well when it comes from somebody with a point of view -- and nobody has a stronger point of view on this subject than Seinfeld."

Six one-hour episodes have been ordered for a planned fall release.

Seinfeld appeared on the network in a series of interstitial shorts two years ago to promote his DreamWorks Animation film "Bee Movie" and appeared on an episode of NBC's "30 Rock." But this deal marks the first series Seinfeld has committed to since his sitcom aired its series finale in 1998.

Seinfeld's role is behind the camera as an executive producer and creator, but given the show's celebrity-guest format, it's not too difficult to imagine an occasional on-camera appearance. Executive producer Rakieten said Seinfeld's voice will be evident in the show's commentaries.

"Every single person in a relationship can completely relate to this show," Rakieten said. "We all have the same fights, and there's a bottomless well of content."

Added Seinfeld: "This is not a therapy show, it's a comedy show. After nine years of marriage, I have discovered that the comedic potential of this subject is quite rich."

The Seinfeld news comes on the heels of NBC nearing a deal to bring the U.K. series, "I'm Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!" to the U.S. as a summer weekday strip.

"We're very excited about the possibility of that show, and the commitment would be a big one for us this summer," Silverman said.

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The restaurant where you pay what you can

To find out what recent customers paid for meals at the SAME Cafe, go to westword.com/slideshow.

The first thing Brad Birky does is hand me an apron.

"Would you mind starting on soup duty?" he asks, guiding me toward two large industrial cookers near the front counter. "This is tomato corn bisque, and this is lentil."

The lunch rush is just starting at So All May Eat (SAME) Cafe, and soon I'm ladling steaming servings of soup into a mismatched collection of bowls and mugs. With me behind the counter are three more volunteers preparing pizza and dishing out salad and cookies to the growing line of customers, a cross-section of East Colfax Avenue foot traffic: latter-day flower children, sunburned day laborers, older women in librarian attire, laptop-toting students, professional bums, khaki-wearing businesspeople, vegan-core punker kids and the general miscellany of society that never appears in restaurant-industry demographics.

SAME has a menu that changes daily but always features food that's made from scratch and is largely organic. It has tables, chairs, bus bins, plants in the windows and overhead music (usually a mix of classic rock). But there's one thing SAME doesn't have: a cash register. There's no credit-card machine, no change drawer, no receipt book. That's because SAME doesn't have prices. Diners come in and order — some ask for just a cup of soup or a small slice of pizza, while others go for a whole meal, maybe even seconds if they're really hungry — and then pay what they want.

The concept is the exact opposite of Denver Restaurant Week, now under way, in which more than 200 restaurants in the metro area are offering a meal for the set price of $52.80 for two. DRW's goal is to entice diners to eat out more by removing the uncertainty of the final tab.

After only an hour behind the counter at SAME, I can pick out the new customers the minute they step in the door. Their eyes seek out numbers, first falling on the handwritten menu board, then drifting along the counter, searching for a printed menu with prices. Before puzzlement becomes full-blown confusion, Brad usually steps in.

"Is this your first time here?"

"Yes," says a young couple, him with a beard and her with an extra-long scarf. "We just moved into a place down the street."

"Okay," says Brad. "So we're a non-profit restaurant. We operate on a pay-what-you-want model. So we have no set prices. We let our customers pick what they want to eat and then pay afterward, however much they wish. If you can't pay anything, then we ask you to volunteer an hour helping in the cafe."

"Oh," both members of the couple reply. "Okay. Cool." They glance at each other to make sure it really is cool, then place their orders and make their drink selections from a choice of coffee, tea, iced tea or water. Brad hands each of them a small orange envelope with the number of their order.

After customers have eaten, they will put their payment in these envelopes, which then go through the slit of a small wooden box. That's the high technology upon which this business rests. The cafe will serve 55 people over a three-hour period today — a stat that multiplies out to roughly 15,000 customers a year. Some pay less than their share, some pay more, some pay nothing at all. And yet somehow it all works out.

---

Libby Birky still remembers the reactions of their families when she and Brad first confessed their desire to open a restaurant with no prices. Behind the smiles, the words of support and the offers of assistance were looks of deep concern. Friends were intrigued but skeptical. Loan officers and government officials were a bit more blunt. "They told us we were crazy. In those exact words," she says. And maybe they were a little crazy. It was the kind of utopian, half-baked, vaguely Boulder-ish concept you'd expect from old hippies or naive undergrads with more money than brains, not a pair of young professionals raised in the rural Midwest.

Central Illinois, to be precise. The town closest to the farm where Brad grew up had a population of 900. His family is Mennonite, which is like being Amish but with less old-timey hats and butter-churning, and with more social-justice work among worldly folk. Libby lived thirty miles away in a town that was a bit more cosmopolitan — it had a small college — but was still removed from the complexities of urban life. She went to a Catholic elementary school and a Catholic high school and spent summers on missions building houses for the less fortunate. After her freshman year at a Catholic college upstate, she met Brad through a mutual friend. They clicked. Not only did they share similar backgrounds, but their family setup was identical: dad in construction, mom working in the schools, brother, sister.

Brad and Libby married in 1998 and moved to a house situated exactly between their two families. Libby was getting her master's in gifted education; Brad was working as an IT consultant. But eventually they grew weary of their familiar surroundings and longed for a bigger city. After visiting Denver for a wedding, they moved here in 2002, found jobs and bought a handsome little place in the Baker neighborhood. Brad still had an itch, though. The IT gigs were bringing home the bacon, but what he really wanted was to cook the bacon, understand what flavors might go with the bacon, and serve the bacon in a way that maybe no one had thought of before. He realized he wanted to be a chef, and enrolled in the two-year culinary program at Metropolitan State College of Denver.

Continue Reading over at Denver News

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The Internet's 99 Greatest Hits

[via time]

I remember my first viral video. The year was 2001 and I was a fresh-faced teenager with my first high-speed Internet connection. Someone showed me a Flash animation featuring 1980s Japanese video game images repurposed into a techno music montage. Or something. I'm not really sure. I didn't understand "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" then and I don't understand it now, but I can't deny its Internet significance. All I remember is that people wouldn't stop saying "Someone set up us the bomb" for at least a week.

Since then, I have become thoroughly entrenched in Internet pop culture (I'm pretty sure that half of my workday is spent exchanging YouTube videos with coworkers, but don't tell anyone). There was the Star Wars Kid (2002); Homestar Runner (which I saw in 2003-4) and Tom Cruise's Scientology video (2008). When a friend refused to stop singing "Peanut Butter Jelly Time," I didn't speak to her for three days because whenever I did she would sing it, and the song would get stuck in my head. But that was in 2002, and I haven't seen the video since. That is, until now.

Advertising copywriter Greg Rutter has compiled everything great about the Internet and put it on one web page. Youshouldhaveseenthis.com is a list of 99 videos and websites that any self-respecting Internet addict needs to see — and probably already has.

So if you have a lot of free time, here are the best things the Internet has to offer:

• Number of animal videos: 11
• Number of animal videos that should come with a warning because they're too adorable and will make you cry at work: 1
• People who injure themselves: 6
• People who injure other people: 3
• Children who will grow to resent their parents for putting embarrassing footage of them on the Internet: 9
• Things that are funny because they're from the 80s: 6
• Home shopping TV screw-ups: 2
• Sports videos: 2
• Acts of bad journalism: 9
• Reminders that OK Go are better at making music videos than they are at making music: 1
• Inaccurate portrayals of American history: 1
• Fat people: 4
• Angry Germans: 2
• Transvestite midgets: 1
• Videos longer than 5 minutes: 5
• Videos shorter than 30 seconds: 12
• Celebrity videos: 7
• Wedding videos: 2
• Videos of people dancing: 9
• Ads for an office product that seems oddly sexual: 1
• Performances inspired by Star Wars: 3
• Freaky Tom Cruise moments: 2
• Things from Japan: 4
• People with too much time on their hands: 37
• Grown men who may never know the love of a woman: 12
• Bonus NSFW links hidden at the bottom of the page that should not be viewed in public, or even at all: 4
• Number of links I clicked on at work anyway: 4
• Level of awkwardness when my boss walked by: high to very high

That's it. You've now seen everything that's on the Internet. There's nothing left to do now except check Facebook.

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The 20 Most Terrifying Pictures of Ronald McDonald Ever

[via unrealitymag]

What inspired me to write this post? Well, I was trying to search for a shot of Heath Ledger’s Joker that I hadn’t seen a million times and this came up. Yup, haven’t seen that before. And that got me thinking about a long-held childhood fear, that Ronald McDonald is pretty damn creepy. He shook my hand in a parade once and I’ve never been the same since. I’d rather have the Burger King run at me with a carving knife than have Ronald McDonald smile at me again.

So yeah, Heath Ledger + Childhood Fears + Google Images = this post. It’s random, but I think it’s pretty awesome. Enjoy.

Cannibal Ronald Will Now Be Haunting Your Dreams

Pimp Ronald Wants His $50 Ho!

Bob Ross Ronald is Painting Nightmares in Your Head

Ronald McNinja is the Opposite of Stealth

Mime Ronald is Taking a Stand for Labor Rights

Your Mom Totally Sent Ronald to Pick You Up, Get in the Car

WTF Ronald is NOT OK

Hot Ronald is Arousing Strange Feelings in Your Nuggets

Ronald is Breaching McDonald’s Employee Code

Cosplay Ronald Wins First Prize and Now Should Never Be Seen Again

Little Ronald’s Parents are Suing the Doctors

Weird Fetish Prostitute Ronald Only Gets Two Customers a Year

Prostrate Ronald is Just Asking for It

To Mega-Ronald, You are All Fries

God Does Not Listen to Praying Ronald

Homeless Ronald Ruins Your Day

Art Project Ronald Got Johnny Sent to the Principal’s Office

Wow, I think I’ve conquered my fear.

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Why Dreams Mean Less Than We Think

[via time]

Most people dream enthusiastically at night, their dreams seemingly occupying hours, even though most last only a few minutes. Most people also read great meaning into their nocturnal visions. In fact, according to a new study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the vast majority of people in three very different countries — India, South Korea and the United States — believe that their dreams reveal meaningful hidden truths.

According to the study, 74% of Indians, 65% of South Koreans and 56% of Americans hold an old-fashioned Freudian view of dreams: that they are portals into the unconscious. (See the top 10 scientific discoveries of 2008.)

But after so many years of brain research showing that most of our everyday cognitions result from a complex but observable interaction of proteins and neurons and other mostly uncontrolled cellular activity, how can so many otherwise rational people think dreams should be taken seriously? After all, brain activity isn't mystical but — for the most part — highly predictable.

The authors of the study — psychologists Carey Morewedge of Carnegie Mellon University and Michael Norton of Harvard — offer a few theories. For one, dreams often feature familiar people and locations, which means we are less willing to dismiss them outright. Also, because we can't trace the content of dreams to an external source — because that content seems to arise spontaneously and from within — we can't explain it the way we can explain random thoughts that occur to us during waking hours. If you find yourself sitting at your desk and thinking about a bomb exploding in your office, you might say to yourself, "Oh, I watched 24 last night, so I'm just remembering that episode." But people have a harder time making sense of dreams. Maybe 24 caused the dream, we think — or maybe we're having a premonition of an attack. We love to interpret dreams widely, and those acts of interpretation give dreams meaning. (Read "Can't Sleep? Turn Off the Cell Phone!")

Human beings are irrational about dreams the same way they are irrational about a lot of things. We make dumb choices all the time on the basis of silly information like racial bias or a misunderstanding of statistics — or dreams. Morewedge and Norton quote one of the most famous modern studies to demonstrate our collective folly, from a paper written by psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman that was published in Science in 1974. In that paper, Tversky and Kahneman discuss an experiment in which subjects were asked to estimate the percentage of African countries represented in the U.N. Before they guessed, a researcher spun a wheel of fortune in front of them that landed on a random number between 0 and 100. People tended to pick an answer that wasn't far from the number on the wheel, even though the wheel had nothing to do with African countries.

Countless experiments over the ensuing decades have confirmed that most of us make this so-called anchoring mistake — that is, making a decision based largely on an unrelated piece of information, like a random number that appears on a wheel. Anchoring occurs all the time, like when you're asked to look at your Social Security number before answering a question (you're more likely to pick an answer close to the digits in your SSN). A team of researchers even showed in a 2003 paper in the Quarterly Journal of Economics that people will endure more physical discomfort (exposure to an unpleasant noise) for less monetary compensation in a lab setting when they are anchored prior to the experiments to smaller monetary amounts. As I said, we all make dumb choices based on silly information. That's why we invest meaning in dreams. (See TIME's 2004 cover on the science of sleep.)

That being said, dumb choices aren't necessarily bad ones. A final finding from the study: When people have dreams about good things happening to their good friends, they are more likely to say those dreams are meaningful than when they have dreams about bad things happening to their friends. Similarly, we invest more meaning in dreams in which our enemies are punished and less meaning in dreams in which our enemies emerge victorious. In short, our interpretation of dreams may say a lot less about some quixotic search for hidden truth than it does about another enduring human quality: optimistic thinking.

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Man Calls 911 After Burger King Runs Out Of Lemonade

A man was charged with misusing 911 today for a midnight complaint that a Boynton Beach Burger King had run out of lemonade, police say.



Jean Fortune, 66, dialed 911 and told dispatchers he was "unhappy with his order" at the Burger King at 1521 W. Boynton Beach Blvd., according to an arrest report.

When a Boynton Beach police officer arrived, the cashier told him she had informed Fortune at the drive-thru that the store no longer served lemonade. He became angry when he picked up his order at the window and threatened to call police.

The cashier told him to "Go ahead."

The officer noted in his report that Fortune could not explain why he resorted to calling 911 for a "civil dilemma."

He was issued a notice to appear in court.

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The world economy was 24 hours away from complete collapse on Sept 15, 2008, yet no one knows

$550 Billion Disappeared in “Electronic Run On the Banks”">Rep. Kanjorski: $550 Billion Disappeared in “Electronic Run On the Banks”

At 2 minutes, 20 seconds into this C-Span video clip, Rep. Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania explains how the Federal Reserve told Congress members about a “tremendous draw-down of money market accounts in the United States, to the tune of $550 billion dollars.” According to Kanjorski, this electronic transfer occured over the period of an hour or two.

Some questions to ask your yourself and others...

1.) Why has the President or the mainstream media (no major networks) never talked about this?
2.) Why has there been no discovery after 6 months of where this money went?
3.) If this was an act of terrorism that could have collapsed the entire globe, shouldn't more people be talking about this?

Here is a transcript of what Kanjorski says in the video:

On Thursday Sept 15, 2008 at roughly 11 AM The Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw down of money market accounts in the USA to the tune of $550 Billion dollars in a matter of an hour or two.

Money was being removed electronically.

The treasury tried to help with $150 Billion.

But could not stem the tide.

It was an electronic run on the banks

The treasury intervened but had they not closed down the accounts they estimated that by 2 PM that afternoon. Within 3 hours. $5.5 Trillion would have been withdrawled and collapsed and within 24 hours the world economy.

Kanjorski does not provide further details.

A Google search to verify this produces zero results.

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Top 10: Expenses To Cut Immediately

[via askmen]

When the economy was expanding, convenience was king. We wanted to be able to read the New York Times while programming our DVRs, all while riding the subway. Extravagance and excess somehow became expected, and each little bit of convenience came with a fee or tax attached to it. That was fine then, but it's absolutely insane to pay a convenience tax in the current market. It's amazing just how much you can save a month when some of the extreme convenience is carved away. Rethinking your entertainment during the month is going to be the biggest money-saver of all, but there are other expenses flying under your radar right now that you could do without. Here are the top 10 expenses to cut immediately that could save you up to $670 per month.

No.10 - Landline

Monthly savings: $17

The landline should be as dead as the telegraph. Cell phones started out as a novelty and a convenience that was deemed an edge in business -- now they're a requirement. Can you imagine leaving your cell phone at home when you leave the house? Not answering your cell phone because you aren't home is completely unacceptable. The culture has evolved to require each and every person to be contactable at all times. That's an expectation that landlines simply cannot keep up with, making the landline an obvious expense to cut immediately.

No.9 - iTunes/downloads

Monthly savings: $25 (0.99/song, 2 albums and 1 movie)

iTunes and digital downloads in general have made obtaining media extremely easy. Going out to buy a DVD or a record would require some planning, a little forethought and at least some effort. Granted, it wasn't much, but if you were busy, you probably wouldn't make it to the music store. Now, you can buy song after song from the computer, and instantly enjoy it. Instant gratification is almost always a recipe for overspending. Cancel your iTunes account, and cut out the digital downloads. Savings will vary from person to person, but digital downloads are an expense everyone across the board can cut today.

No.8 - Newspapers/magazines

Monthly savings: $30

There's a reason the newspaper industry has been complaining about decline in readership for the past 10 years. The overhead associated with printing and delivering a physical product is enormous and it is a cost that is passed right on to the consumer. The internet (even internet that isn't blazingly fast) can load up any content that a newspaper displays. Reading a newspaper at work is quite a bit more conspicuous than checking out the New York Times in another browser tab while you work. The internet is the way of the future when it comes to news delivery: The writing is on the wall. Get on board and ditch this unnecessary expense.

No.7 - Blazingly fast internet

Monthly savings: $37.06

Cable, satellite and DSL have been ramping up the speed for the past few years. At some point, it became completely unnecessary. Unless you're downloading illegal copies of Blu-ray discs, you don't need 25 Mbps download rates. Even full-motion video on the web can be streamed at something around 1.5 Mbps with no problems, making blazingly fast internet an easy expense to cut immediately. If you can't wait an extra 11 seconds to catch the latest viral video on YouTube, then you probably need to invest in a book on time management skills and patience.

No.6 - Mobile surfing

Monthly savings: $50

3G access is something of a modern miracle. The bits and bytes flying around the ether have sped up the pace of business by an incredible degree. Getting e-mail outside of the office on your cell phone has become almost as standard in business as using overnight couriers to send documents. The problem is that, in most cases, having e-mail on your phone isn't really necessary. Lawyers want it, salesmen need it -- but the rest of us? We could really do without. Actually surfing on your cell phone is an enormous waste of time. Do you really need immediate and ubiquitous access to your Facebook profile and Twitter account? We think not. Go ahead and talk to some people around you in the coffee shop. Do a little IRL networking.

No.5 - Digital cable

Monthly savings: $54

If there is a time sink more devastating to productivity than random web surfing, it's channel surfing. At least with the internet you have a modicum of control over what content you're putting in front of your eyes. Not so with TV. Television eats time with a hypnotizing picture of "whatever is on." Digital cable has added more "choices," but not any more control. Commercials still run rampant during your favorite shows. With alternatives on the internet, like Hulu.com or the network websites themselves, cable seems like a waste of money. Depending on your geography, you can still pick up the network broadcasts in HD for free, so what's the point of cable?

No.4 - Covers

Monthly savings: $60 (6 venues in 4 weekends)

Drinks are already expensive. The cover is merely a tax for the privilege to walk in the door to pay more money. Patrons are going to wake up and realize that they don't want to subsidize the latest club remodel and will start looking for quality over flash. Patrons will cut their expenses accordingly and will support those establishments that are more forward-thinking. Some venues are beginning to go to the comedy-show model, where the cover exists, but it comes with a drink ticket or two. There's nothing wrong with supporting these establishments, but in this market, everyone needs to share in the pain.

No.3 - Lunches

Monthly savings: $100 ($5/day, 5 days a week)

This is a time-honored tradition your Grandma has been talking about since the Great Depression: Bring your lunches from home -- always. Even the most frugal of value-menu shoppers is going to be hard-pressed to come in at under $5 per lunch. And you're expected to be at the office five days a week? This is one expense that obviously adds up quickly, but rather discreetly, so it's easy to miss. This goes for the morning coffee too. It's easy and much cheaper to make it at home. Save the going out until it's a client lunch or one that will scrounge up some new business, and cut this expense immediately.

No.2 - Drinks

Monthly savings: $100 ($4-$9 premium drinks)

Out on the town or picking up a few things from the store, take your liquor purchase down a notch or two. If you're still going to the bar and calling your liquors, you're throwing good money away. Unless you're a true aficionado, there are few times when you can tell the premium vodka from the so-so vodka when mixed with a healthy dose of tonic -- even more so with juice. Old Blue Eyes made his drink as simple as Jack Daniels straight up. You aren't going to top Frank in class or classic cool, so how much cachet do you think you're garnering by being so label-conscious?

No.1 - Taxis

Monthly savings: $100 (5 trips at $20 per trip)

There are a few reasons to cut down on taxis: The first is that by not being able to afford the cab, you can't really afford to go out. So, you're saving money on both ends of the transaction. The second is that it will cut down on your drinking for the time being, allowing you to focus on something more productive than transient fun. Maybe with the downtime you can start a side career. Taxis are just entirely too expensive and should be the first expense to drop in a bad economy.

If you're taxiing to work, not just out on Saturday nights, then consider cheaper modes of transportation throughout the week, like buses and subways. Or, here's a novel idea: walk.

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World's craziest restaurants [PICS]

[via oddee]

Cannibalistic Restaurant (JAPAN)

"Nyotaimori" (which literally means "female body plate") is the name of the japanese restaurant that serves sushi and sashimi on a naked woman's body. The body is made from food and placed on an operating table, much as though in a hospital. You can "operate" anyway and anywhere you want by cutting open the body and eating what you find inside. The body will actually bleed as you cut it and the intestines and organs inside are completely editable. It's a banquet of Cannibalism.

Toilet Restaurant (TAIWAN)

Have you ever heard of people eating out of a bathroom toilet and having great fun? A restaurant named Marton Theme Restaurant, in Kaohsiung (Taiwan) has a toilet theme and is a great hit among people. The restaurant has a bathroom decor, with colorful toilet seat being the standard chairs at the restaurant. It also serves food in plates and bowls shaped like western loo seats and Japanese “squat” toilets. Customers sits by a tables converted from a bathtub with a glass cover while looking at a wall decorated with neon-lit faucets and urinals turned into lamps. The restaurant is named after the Chinese word "Matong" for toilet and is doing really well. The owner Eric Wang says "We not only sell food but also laughter. The food is just as good as any restaurant but we offer additional fun. Most customers think the more disgusting and exaggerated (the restaurant is), the funnier the dining experience is." The meals are cheaply priced with a meal set including soup and ice cream costs from 150 to 250 Taiwan dollars ($6 - $10).

Restaurant in the Sky (BELGIUM)

"Dinner in the Sky" is a Brussels based restaurant that serves dinner for up to 22 people… 150 feet in the air! The specially-designed table and chairs are lifted by a crane. Dinner anywhere in Belgium will set you back almost 8 thousand euros; other locations are also available. Remember, you must wear your seat belt, and don't drop your fork!

Dark Restaurant (CHINA)

The first dark restaurant in Asia is officially opened on the 23 December 2006. This restaurant, located in Beijing, China, has its interior painted completely black. Customers are greeted by a brightly lit entrance hall and will be escorted by waiters wearing night vision goggles into the pitch dark dining room to help them find their seats. Flashlights, mobile phones and even luminous watches are prohibited while in this area.

The meal will be taken in this environment with the complete loss of vision. By starving one's sense, your other senses are stimulated to full alert "all so the theory goes" and your food will taste like it's never tasted before. In case you are wondering about the washrooms, they are all brightly lit.

Graveyard Restaurant (INDIA)

The bustling "New Lucky Restaurant" in Ahmadabad is famous for its milky tea, its buttery rolls, and the graves between the tables. Krishan Kutti Nair has helped run the restaurant built over a centuries-old Muslim cemetery for close to four decades, but he doesn't know who is buried in the cafe floor. Customers seem to like the graves, which resemble small cement coffins, and that's enough for him.

"The graveyard is good luck," Nair said one recent afternoon after the lunch rush. "Our business is better because of the graveyard." The graves are painted green, stand about shin high, and every day the manager decorates each of them with a single dried flower. They're scattered randomly across the restaurant - one up front next to the cash register, three in the middle next to a table for two, four along the wall near the kitchen.

Restaurant in a Prison (ITALY)

A restaurant situated inside the top security prison Fortezza Medicea in Italy is so popular that officials have since opened more branches. Serenaded by Bruno, a pianist doing life for murder, the clientele eat inside a deconsecrated chapel set behind the 60ft high walls, watch towers, searchlights and security cameras of the daunting 500-year-old Fortezza Medicea, at Volterra near Pisa. Under the watchful eye of armed prison warders, a 20-strong team of chefs, kitchen hands and waiters prepares 120 covers for diners who have all undergone strict security checks. Tables are booked up weeks in advance.

Robot Restaurant: run by two identical couples (CHINA)

People are confused how a Chinese couple managed to run a busy restaurant 21 hours a day without getting tired. Turns out the restaurant is run by two couples … both the men and women are identical twins!

Locals had nicknamed the eatery the "robot couple restaurant" as they couldn't understand how the same couple seemed to be on duty from 6am through to 3am. However, a journalist from Today Morning Post interviewed the restaurant owner and found out the truth. It turned out that the twin brothers, 32, married a set of twin sisters from the same township three years ago and moved to Yiwu to run the restaurant together. "Many diners thought we worked too hard and are like robots, but they don't know that we are actually four people," said Mao Zhanghua, 32, the elder brother.

Undersea Restaurant (MALDIVES)

The first-ever undersea restaurant in the world has been introduced at the Hilton Maldives Resort & Spa in April 2007. Ithaa (which is pronounced “eet-ha” and means “pearl” in the language of the Maldives, Dhivehi) sits five meters below the waves of the Indian Ocean, surrounded by a vibrant coral reef and encased in clear acrylic, offering diners 270 degrees of panoramic underwater views. This innovative restaurant is the first of its kind in the world, and is part of a US $5 million re-build of Rangalifinolhu Island, one of the twin islands that make up Hilton Maldives Resort & Spa. This re-build includes the construction of 79 of the most luxurious beach villas in the country as well as the Spa Village, a self-contained, over-water “resort-within-a-resort” consisting of a spa, restaurant and 21 villas.

Condom Restaurant (THAILAND)

"Cabbages and Condoms" is a chain of restaurants in Thailand. There are condoms on the walls and pictures of condoms printed on the carpets. Instead of after-dinner mints, patrons are offered a bowl of condoms at the counter. Profits from the restaurants go to support the Population and Community Development Association (PDA).

Medical Restaurant (TAIPEI)

D.S. Music Restaurant in Taipei, Taiwan is a medical-themed restaurant with crutches on the wall, waitresses dressed a nurses, and drinks served from an IV drip bottle! The owner came up with the idea to express his gratitude for care he received at a local hospital.

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Scientists discover gene that can grow TEETH

[via dailymail]

A breakthrough by scientists could see dentures bite the dust.

Researchers have pinpointed the gene that governs the production of tooth enamel, raising the tantalising possibility of people one day growing extra teeth when needed.

At the very least, it could cut the need for painful fillings.

Experiments in mice have previously shown that the gene, a 'transcription factor' called Ctip2, is involved in the immune system and in the development of skin and nerves.

The latest research, from Oregon State University in the U.S., adds enamel production to the list.

The researchers made the link by studying mice genetically engineered to lack the gene.

The animals were born with rudimentary teeth which were ready to erupt but lacked a proper covering of enamel, the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports.

Researcher Dr Chrissa Kioussi said: 'It's not unusual for a gene to have multiple functions, but before this we didn't know what regulated the production of tooth enamel.

'This is the first transcription factor ever found to control the formation and maturation of ameloblasts, which are the cells that secrete enamel.'

The finding could be applied to human health and, if used in conjunction with fledgling stem cell technology, could one day allow people to grow replacement teeth when needed.

Alternatively, the knowledge could be used to strengthen existing enamel and repair damaged enamel, cutting decay and the need for fillings.

Dr Kioussi said: 'Enamel is one of the hardest coatings found in nature.

'A lot of work would still be needed to bring this to human applications, but it should work.

'It could be really cool, a whole new approach to dental health.'

Researchers hope that within ten years we will be able to grow new teeth from stem cells - the so-called master cells which have the potential to be used to grow any part of the body.

Scientists have successfully harvested stem cells from dental pulp - the nerves and tissue inside the teeth - and grown teeth in the lab which have been transplanted into mice.

Other innovations on the horizon include 'drills' that cut and polish teeth using nothing more than a blast of air and a mouthwash that could do away with the need for fillings.

Around 11million Britons wear dentures - more than one million of them in their 30s or younger.

The NHS pays for false teeth for around 12,000 six to 24-year-olds a year.

However, the making of dentures is a dying art.

The British Society for the Study of Prosthetic Dentistry has warned that time spent teaching dental students on the ins and outs of false teeth is now being devoted to lessons on tooth whitening, orthodontics and other techniques behind the much sought-after 'Hollywood smile'.

Eighty-five per cent of people claim to have good oral hygiene, but just two-thirds brush their teeth twice a day and nearly a third of adults have 12 or more fillings.

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Legalize Marijuana + $7 Tax = $218.8 Billion in Taxes & Fixes the Economy

[via suddenrx]

It is a little difficult to estimate exactly how much money would be generated from taxes on legalized marijuana (10x higher than cigarette taxes). But based on $437.6 million in new revenue for Ohio for a $0.70 tax increase on cigarettes we can make the below estimation:

$7.00 tax on legalized Marijuana Sales creates $4.376 billion for Ohio.

Just for fun let’s multiply by 50 states and that is $218.8 Billion generated each year in legalized marijuana taxation based on $7.00 per legal unit of sale.

source: http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0098.pdf

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Simple hacks to boost your Wi-Fi coverage

Free or cheap ways to get a stronger wireless signal

[via techradar]

Setting up a home Wi-Fi network is infuriating. Unless you live in a mansion the claimed 32-meter range of a standard router sounds as if it should be adequate. But every home has places with flaky coverage and they're usually just where you want to use your computer.

Before you rush out to buy a new router, signal booster or a more powerful antenna there are some cheap and simple tricks which could give you coverage where you need it.

The first thing to realise is that there's an almost endless list of objects that can interfere with Wi-Fi signals including walls, anything metal and electrical equipment. This particularly applies to items such as some cordless phones [correction: not DECT], microwaves and baby monitors which share its 2.4 GHz frequency. Move the router and these objects around and you may solve your problem.

If that doesn't work, you can make your Wi-Fi directional. It's not difficult to stop distributing your signal to the neighbours. The simplest method is to create a parabolic reflector for your router's aerial. It sounds complicated but is actually a project of Blue Peter simplicity.

Free Antennas offers a scientific template to download and print onto card. Cut, glue and cover with tinfoil and you've got a parabolic reflector to slip over your router's aerial.

If even that seems too much hassle almost anything curved and covered with foil will work, whether it's an old lampshade, plastic plate or anything that happens to be lying round the house. Of course, by making the signal directional you will reduce other areas of coverage. That may be a nuisance or it could improve your network security by making it harder for neighbours to nick your bandwidth.

They may be doing that using another hack based on the parabolic principle. This utilises a sieve, colander or other similar curved metal object. Just stick a wireless USB adapter in the middle so it resembles a miniature satellite TV dish with an extender cable attached to your PC.

Probably the best version incorporates an adjustable desk lamp - no bulb required. You can move this round until the strongest signal is found, then leave it pointing in that direction. Of course, if you use this method to "borrow" somebody else's broadband it's not exactly legal.

The other mechanical way to boost your Wi-Fi is with a bigger aerial. You can buy one which will set you back £20 or so. Alternatively you can follow these instructions to create a new antenna with a drinking straw and some copper wire. It does require some simple soldering.

Upgrading your router's firmware

If that seems daunting you may be able to boost the signal from your router without actually touching it. You can do this with open-source firmware downloads such as DD-WRT or Tomato.

A word of caution before you start messing with your router's firmware. Although it's unlikely to do any harm, if it does it may void your warranty. Also, make sure you download the latest official firmware from the manufacturer's site. Test it. Then backup everything to your PC. The wrong time to find you need to download firmware is when your router's borked.

If you do decide to make the upgrade the process is fairly simple. First you'll need to ensure your router's supported using the databases on the sites above. Owners of common Linksys, Buffalo or Asus models are most likely to be in luck. Then it's just a matter of downloading and flashing the firmware as you would with a standard upgrade by following the instructions in the manufacturer's manual. If it doesn't work immediately you may need to carry out a hard reset by pressing the small button at the back of the router.

Once you're up and running, log into the router. You'll then find you have access to a large number of tweaks and ways of tracking performance.

Increasing the signal using Tomato, for instance, is a matter of going into the advanced menu in the sidebar and then to "Transmit Power". Although it'll go much higher, it's probably safe to raise the power up to around 70mW. Don't overdo it, though, as routers tend to be left on 24-hours-a-day and overheating can burn out their chips. But used judiciously new firmware can seriously boost your Wi-Fi coverage.

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How the three-tiered beer distribution system works

[via fermentarium]

If you are a starting brewery looking to get your beer to market, the three-tiered distribution system can be dizzying. Here's how everything works, and in some cases doesn't work.

History of beer distribution

Before prohibition, the large breweries had their own saloons. If you wanted a Schlitz, you went to a bar which sold only Schlitz. The large breweries practiced anti-competitive practices by requiring retailers to carry only their products.

The breweries also held ownership stakes in the bars. They provided the bars not only with beer, but the breweries also gave loans for furniture, beer equipment, and other bar needs. While this might seem like a great way to start a bar, the breweries required the bars to carry only the brewery’s labels, and they applied pressure to the bars to continually increase beer sales. The pressure pushed their patrons to the point of constant overindulgence. Society cried for a solution, and the government gave us the 18th Amendment, otherwise known as Prohibition.

America went without alcohol for thirteen years before Prohibition was repealed with the ratification of the 21st Amendment. The new Amendment gave the states complete control over alcohol regulation. To make sure the problems before Prohibition were not repeated, nearly every state adopted some form of the “three-tier system”.

How it works

The three-tier system requires all beer (and other alcohol in most cases) to pass through a middle-man, known as the distributor (also called a wholesaler in some states). The distributor does the on-the-ground sales and marketing for the producer, and the distributors sells the beer to retailers.

Distributors are the people who get the beer from the brewery to your store

This system means beer producers do not sell directly to bars, liquor stores, or grocery stores. It is the responsibility of the distributor to establish the retail relationship. The distributor is not allowed to purchase shelf space or exclusivity, furnish equipment like draft coolers, offer loans or create a feeling of obligation, or offer discriminatory promotional pricing. They are supposed to provide all retailers the same pricing.

Distributors also maintain refrigerated warehouses to store the beer, and fleets of trucks to ship the beer around the state.

The benefits of the three tiered system

The original intent of the three-tiered system was to provide temperance, ensure orderly market conditions, and raise revenue (taxes).

The system increases the price of alcohol (since there is a middleman). In theory, the higher prices discourage over-indulgence, and forces temperance on the society.

Distributors argue the system also benefits small producers. They say if direct sales were allowed, a small brewery would be at a disadvantage. Large retailers, like Costco, are used to purchasing goods in very large quantities to get the best price possible. Larger breweries would be able to undercut small brewery prices, and only macro beers would be available. Since all brewers are required to go through an independent distributor, this levels the playing field for all brewers. One distributor can get many beers into a retail store at once, since there is incentive to provide a diverse selection.

The distribution model also benefits retailers. The distributor reduces inventory costs for the retailer by managing the large portfolio of beers. This is an advantage because beer is a perishable product. The distributor makes sure the retailers are always carrying fresh beer.

The three-tier system also provides transparency for taxation. The government can easily determine how much alcohol is shipped, and where it is shipped to. The distributor often is responsible for collecting the taxes because they can accurately monitor the shipments. This creates a paper trail and protects against “gray market” sales (purchases from unauthorized sources). If the distribution system goes away, the government will be forced to come up with a new system to collect revenue.

Complaints about the system

While the system has been in use for over 70 years, it is not without its warts. The three-tier system makes sense in the United States, but other countries have open and lightly regulated markets. We are headed into a global market and international producers struggle with the prohibition-era laws. They feel the laws interfere with efficient distribution, unnecessarily inflate beer prices, and are possibly in violation of international free trade agreements.

The wine guys are getting around the system

The system is inefficient because everything has to go through a middle man. Many wineries are contesting this system which they feel was not intended for wine sales. This problem came to a head when some states allowed in-state wineries to sell wine directly to the consumer, but required out-of-state wineries to go through distributors. This is obviously a problem, because it violates the Commerce Clause—you cannot pass laws which improperly burden or discriminate against interstate commerce. In 2005, Granholm v. Heald, the Supreme Court agreed with the small wineries and forced New York to change their laws. This opened the floodgates, so to speak.

As of April 2008, 35 states now permit some form of direct wine sales to the consumer. It only accounts for about 2% of the wine sales in the United States, but there is huge opportunity in this market. The distributors see this as a direct challenge to their place in alcohol commerce. Craft brewers would love this access to the consumer, and some states are starting to permit it in small quantities. If everyone can sell directly to the consumer, there is no need for distributors. You better believe the distributors are lobbying heavily against this!

Beer costs more money

Since there is a middle man in the system, the cost of beer in America is higher. There is a whole industry between the producer and consumer that employs over 92,000 jobs and generates almost $8 billion (USD) annually. The added costs are passed to the consumer by design. The original intent of this system was to discourage over-indulgence, but now it just makes our beer cost more.

It might violate trade treaties

Budweiser dominates in world sales, and was the number one selling beer in the world until recently. Part of the reason for their success is it is much easier for Budweiser to penetrate foreign markets than it is for foreign beers to penetrate the American market. The most likely reason InBev pursued the purchase of Budweiser was to gain better access to the distributors, not for the “great taste” of Budweiser.

Markets are becoming more open for wine, so it is a matter of time before the beer producers demand the same treatment. The distributors will fight for their existence, but the US government may have already signed their death warrant with world trade treaties. No matter what happens, eventually the path beer takes to your glass may change.

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AmEx paying card holders to close their accounts

[via reuters]

American Express Co, battered by mounting credit card losses, is offering $300 to a limited number of U.S. card holders who pay off their balances and close their accounts, the company said on Monday.

"We sent the offer out to a select number of card members," said Molly Faust, a company spokeswoman. "We are looking at different ways that we can manage credit risk based on the costumers overall credit profile."

The company did not say how many card holders would receive the offer and did not disclose the total of their card balances.

Card holders have until the end of February to accept the offer and must close their accounts in March or April. Each card holder will receive a $300 pre-paid American Express card.

American Express, often seen as catering to relatively wealthy customers and companies, has been expanding its credit card business in recent years by reaching out to a wider range of clients.

But that strategy has backfired. The company's earnings tumbled in the fourth quarter as credit losses jumped and debt-burdened consumers slashed spending.

In addition, American Express reported last week that credit card delinquencies rose in January more than analysts expected, as U.S. unemployment increased and the global economy deteriorated.

Like its credit card rivals such as Discover Financial Services, Capital One Financial Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc, American Express is selectively scaling back the credit lines of some U.S. customers and reducing efforts to gain new customers domestically.

The firm is cutting expenses, aiming to save $1.8 billion in 2009.

American Express shares fell 3 percent to $12.58 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares have lost a third of their value this year.

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ESPN Reporter Quits Because "Forced" To Fly Coach

[via dailyhearld]

Let's talk about perspective.

People are losing their jobs by the millions. They're losing their homes, too.

Many of us who do still have jobs are being asked to take paycuts, or do without raises or bonuses, all while paying the same or more for goods and services.

Meanwhile, retirement accounts everywhere have become a complete joke, thanks to Ponzi schemes and one of the most volatile stock markets in decades. People are losing millions there, too.

It's depressing to see our economy in such shambles. It's depressing to see good people losing so, so much.

And then there's Stacey Dales.

The former Chicago Sky guard made headlines this week, particularly on Internet blogs, for a decision she made that smacks of arrogance and ingratitude in this climate.

She decided to quit her sideline reporting job at ESPN. Why did she quit, you ask?

Well, it's a reason any one of us might give for quitting a job, particularly in these challenging times. (I hope my sarcasm came through there.)

According to reports and sources at ESPN, Dales had to fly coach for business travel to and from games while many of her colleagues were flying first class.

Yes, you read that right.

Dales quit a desirable, high-profile, and what I'm sure was a very nice-paying job because she had to slum it with the common folk - common folk that includes, of course, other white-collar professionals who are expected to travel coach for business every single day.

"At some point, you have to take a stand at whatever you are doing in life," Dales told The Oklahoman, which served as her hometown newspaper when she played her college ball at Oklahoma. "That's not sounding like a feminist. That's not sounding like a spoiled, rotten kid. That's making a business decision that affects the quality of your life. That was an important thing for me."

OK. Sure. Um, what exactly was it that Dales is standing up for again?

Note to Stacey: We're in an economic depression here. Companies all over the globe, even ESPN, I would imagine, are trying to slash costs right now on everything from free coffee in the break room - to, yep, first-class travel.

And what's with the comparisons? Yeah, it's not cool to be the odd man out, but the broadcasters you were traveling with this fall for ESPN's football coverage - Brad Nessler, Paul Maguire and Bob Griese - are longtime veterans who are a bit more tenured and well traveled than you.

It's possible they even had travel perks such as first-class upgrades negotiated into their contracts years ago.

Still, some people see inequity here. Even Dales indirectly floated the notion when she insisted, perhaps with a bit of reverse psychology, "That's not sounding like a feminist."

Of course, anyone who reads this space regularly knows that I'm all about gender equity. I always want to see women treated fairly in sports, and in life.

But this time, I'm skeptical that anything is amiss here.

The reality is, every professional has to pay dues and climb the ladder. Some people do so for their entire careers, to no avail.

Maybe the answer here is simple. Maybe the 29-year-old Dales simply hadn't climbed enough rungs in her six years of broadcasting, in which much of that time was spent as an entry-level, in-studio analyst for women's college basketball games.

Then again, it is also entirely possible that there could be something more to this story. Much more. Part of me wants to believe that must be the case, that Dales couldn't have made such a foolish decision over what amounts to better snacks and a few extra inches of legroom.

In covering the Sky, I got to know Dales, albeit on a very surface level. From what I could tell, she's smart and fairly nice. She was also usually respectful and accommodating to the media.

I left her two voice mails and an e-mail this week asking if she'd like to further explain her decision and her position.

I never heard back from her, which, as a side note, is ironic, considering that she's now a reporter herself and probably expects people to get back to her.

Anyway, it's possible that Dales never got any of my messages. I'm willing to concede that.

But it's also possible that she's regretting her actions, is embarrassed by the attention she's getting and is no longer in a mood to talk.

I think there's a good chance the latter might be true.

After all, being a diva is just so out right now.

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Man Loses Job Then Wins This $2 Million House

Check out the rest of the house over at NBCBay Area

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6 Dream Jobs That Would Actually Suck

[via cracked]

How'd you like to get paid to play video games? Or watch TV? Or just eat?

You hear about these mythical jobs now and then, and maybe even run into somebody who has one of them. These people seem to be living in a magical land where a man can make a nice paycheck doing the things he would be doing if he had no job at all.

But before you go tell your boss to piss off and devote your life to getting one of these careers, know that there is a downside to each.

#6.

Video Game Play Tester

The Dream:

This is the job every boy wants when he's 13, and it is, in fact, real. Video game developers and companies will actually pay people to play video games all day, as that's the only way to track down bugs before release. And yes, "before release" means not only do you get paid to play, you get to play the games months or years before anyone else.

Did we say we dreamed of it when we were 13? Hell, this is the job we want now.

The Reality:

It's sort of like getting a job testing various sex lubrication formulas, only to realize that the goal is finding out which ones make your dick break out in an angry rash. The entire point of play testing is to find the parts of the game that are horrible, frustrating and broken, and play them over and over and over and over.

The life of a games tester is ruled by strict guidelines from the developers which condemns you to playing the same small section of the same game for your entire eight hour shift. Each time you hit a glitche, you write up a small treatise describing exactly how you found it. They'll try to fix it, you'll go back the same spot and play it over and over again to make sure. This goes on for weeks.

Also keep in mind that sometimes you won't even get to play games, but, rather, will be asked to test the hardware itself which includes such life-affirming assignments as turning the console on and off hundreds of times while carefully timing and documenting how long it takes to power-up each time.

Also, the "perk" of being able to play games long before their commercial releases is quickly corrupted when the realization hits that the further ahead of the release date you are, the more unfinished and irritating the product is to play.

Unfinished levels, features that are only halfway implemented, rampant bugs and glitches mean that by the time the game actually makes it to shelves, the very thought of it will make you break into a cold sweat and scream "FUCK YOU!" every time you pass an EBGames (if you don't do that already).

#5.

Brewmaster

The Dream:

Brewmasters are the head honchos of the beer making world. They create and decide which recipes to use, which beers to brew and bring to the market and strictly oversee the entire production process from grain to bottle. They also have the definite perk of often tasting the fruits of their labor as it's produced to ensure "quality control," or as we like to think of it, the ability to drink beer on the job without having to create a secret compartment under your desk to store it in.

The Reality:

As we mentioned, brewmasters are responsible for every step of the brewing process, at all times, to make sure that every bottle of beer is produced equally and without fault. Because of this, they often work 10 hour days, seven days a week, year round, constantly monitoring the brew and adjusting the recipes when needed.

Because brewmasters are working with unpredictable, natural ingredients like barley, yeast and hops, any slight variation of each has to be compensated for at each step of the brewing process so that the finished product always tastes the same to consumers. That means the brewmaster must keep an eye, and tongue, on each batch of beer at all times during it's production making the job extremely tedious and foul tasting, especially when you consider what a half-brewed beer tastes like.

Brewmasters and brewers work in factory-like conditions that often exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit, are potentially dangerous and, because of the malted barley and roasting of hops, a stench not unlike the odor of urine continually hangs in the air.

Also, much of being a brewmaster is spent keeping the gigantic tanks and intricate pipe systems spotlessly clean of any dirt or grease build-up so as not to contaminate the beer. And to top it all off, malting of the barley produces rootlets that drip off and create a heavy, dense paste; a byproduct that is often sold as animal feed, which must be scooped out and stored away by, you guessed it, the brewmaster.

But after all of your hard work, drenched in sweat and body crevices lined with itchy malt waste, you get the distinct pleasure of tasting the sweet, ice cold beer that you produced for the final time, as it's bottled. Except, when it's bottled, it's noticeably warm and if there is even a slight variation of the taste from normal, the entire batch must be thrown away, dooming you to start the whole process all over again. Cheers!

#4.

Concert Promoter

The Dream:

Concert, or event, promoters are completely responsible for every aspect of staging a great concert from it's initial planning, to final production. That means they get to work out how big and flashy the show will be, what cities it will take place in, how much money to sink into it and exactly which bands will play. All of that gives them an inside view of the music business and allows them to dictate exactly how and when a concert will be staged.

They also enjoy the enviable perks of experiencing tons of concerts from backstage, partying with the bands themselves after the show and getting lots of those cool placards that VIPs get to wear around their necks.

The Reality:

How about this: During the concert season from March to October, the job typically requires 70 hour work weeks with absolutely no guarantee of any kind of paycheck. See, a promoter's salary is entirely based on how well the show they put on does, and whether or not it makes any profit. In the same league as being a professional gambler, a promoter can make as little as minimum wage (or less) depending on the concert's success after spending hundreds of hours planning and executing it. Also, because the occupation is very competitive and job openings are sparse, only the very few, absolute cream of the crop actually succeed and end up making any money.

As if that wasn't bad enough, that enviable perk of being able to meet and party with the bands we mentioned earlier is actually kind of a curse. It turns out that a lot of bands have very specific tastes and demands that must be met before they agree to go out on stage. These lists of requests are called "riders" and can involve tedious tasks such as sorting the band's M&Ms by color. Even after fulfilling all of bizarre stipulations on the list, concert promoters are responsible for the band's needs during and after the show as well.

So you end up not really hanging out with Aerosmith so much as acting as their servant by delivering their chicken tikka and Indian rugs, and pointing them to a local chiropractor. As if they'd really want to hang out with you anyway.

#3.

Stay-at-Home Dad

The Dream:

Stay-at-home dads, otherwise known as "househusbands," are becoming increasingly more common and accepted in Western society as more women eschew traditional gender roles and obtain independent and lucrative jobs.

Compared to stuffy office work or hard labor, the seemingly faux responsibilities of keeping the house tidy, and the kids fed, seems like it'd be a breeze that leaves lots of time for relaxation, masturbation and catching up on our soaps.

The Reality:

The first perceived perk of leaving a traditional job to be a househusband is that there is no longer a boss to deal with and you are now able to dictate your own schedule and tasks, on your own time. But in reality, the exact opposite is true. A stay-at-home dad has the most demanding, most obnoxious, rudest boss possible: a child. Babies and toddlers make unreasonable demands and give out impossible deadlines to meet at all hours of the day (and night). In fact, the job never ends. There is no time clock, no shift whistle and no drinks with the guys after work.

"Sorry guys, can't go out. Old Man Baby is being a real ball-buster, again."

This is an occupation that requires 13 hour days, for every single day of the year, and includes the necessity of being on call at all times, much like an emergency surgeon. Except surgeons make over $300,000 a year while househusbands only make what is essentially free room and board.

Although, even if you do manage to keep the job of househusband and turn it into a career, your wife is likely to fire you anyway... from the relationship. Apparently traditional gender roles exist for a reason, as many women instinctually lose respect for and attraction to their husbands because of the still deep-seated belief that men should be the protectors and supporters of the family. Shockingly, a grown man wearing an apron, holding a dustbuster in one hand and a dirty diaper in the other just ain't sexy.

#2.

Professional TV Watcher

The Dream:

You might be calling bullshit on this job, but we assure you, it does exist, and it just might be the greatest occupation ever. What other job allows, nay, requires you to watch TV all day while paying up to $12 an hour to do so? This "too good to be true" job is required by certain television productions including late night talk shows, news satire programs like The Daily Show, and other productions that focus on using clips and quotes from the world of television for comedic purposes.

Even companies like the Neilsen Service that keeps track of the ratings for every single television show hire professional couch potatoes to ruin their eyes for money.

The Reality:

The problem with watching TV all day, every day, is that you have to watch TV all day, every day. While eight straight hours of television every day for seven days a week may sound great if you're assuming you'll be tuned into shows you actually like, the reality is far harsher. With so many TV shows currently roaming the air waves, the odds of you being assigned to watch a show you enjoy are miniscule, especially if you're working for a comedy-centric clip show.

As with the video game tester, you're specifically watching horrible, grating TV as part of the job (since the best clips to make jokes about come from the worst, most horrible television shows ever broadcast--we're looking at you Tyra Banks). It's your job to watch every excruciating minute of them. We hope you really like LA based reality soap operas.

Say hi to your new best friends.

But it gets worse. It turns out those guys watching Oprah for eight hours a day have it good compared to the poor schmucks that work for the Nielsen Product Placement service. What is that? Well, you know when you spot a can of Coke or the Nike swoosh in your favorite TV show and curse underhanded corporate marketing techniques? Some people do that for a living.

They go to work to sit in front of a TV and literally count how many instances of product placement there are in various network TV Shows. How much of that could you stand before you were unable to watch TV at home without muttering "Toyota... Ford... Toyota again... " during every car chase on 24.

#1.

Food Taster

The Dream:

This isn't the job they had back in the old days, when a food taster was a person employed by rulers and other powerful leaders to screen meals for poisons (though some are paranoid enough to demand that even now). Food tasters today are most likely found working for food manufacturers to help them develop new products, or make sure existing foods taste as they should.

Almost every company in the food industry employs tasters who are paid to sample anything from wine to chocolate on a daily basis to ensure proper consistency. Some companies even allow the tasters to suggest and influence new recipes, essentially turning them into chefs who also get to eat the gourmet meals they create instead of having to serve them to the loud, non-tipping douchebags at table eight.

The Reality:

Modern food tasting is a science first and foremost, and is treated as such. All tasting takes place, not at a cozy intimate table for two, but in a sterile booth flooded with only red light, where meat is shoved through a hole in the wall.

Some tasters are more fortunate than having to taste underdone meat for a living and are able to enjoy making love to cheese and chocolate with their tongues for science. However, even when dealing with such delectable treats, tasting fatigue sets in quickly (essentially the tongue gets "fried" and can't taste anything anymore for a little while), especially when one considers the large sample sizes some tasters have to work through which can sometimes number into the hundreds of morsels.

And then there are the alternative foods and food projects that aren't so mainstream, but need testing as well. Companies have employed tasters to sample various types of mushrooms, measure escalating levels of "rancidity" in expired foods and even ingest flavored birth control pills.

Some people even make a living eating pet food. Yes that's right. Since dogs and cats evidently can't discuss the finer aspects of their palates well enough, it falls to borderline lunatics to give the stamps of approval before the kibble is served. One such taster, Simon Allison, even has a favorite dish: "organic luxury chicken dinner with vegetables for cats".

If you're not suitably grossed out by that, keep in mind that many of these foods include "animal by-products", which can include feathers, animal fur and diseased, cancerous organs determined to be unfit for human consumption.

"Hey, you've got some good fur in this batch."

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Microsoft wants refund from some laid off workers

[via cnet]

Microsoft says it made an accounting error when it laid off some employees last month and now feels the best way to correct the error is with what will likely add up to a public relations blunder.

The software giant, which recently laid off 1,400 employees, sent letters (see image below) this week to some of those former workers letting them know that their severance payouts were a bit too "generous" and respectfully requested that the former employees pay back that money, according to a report Saturday on TechCrunch.

"An inadvertent administrative error occurred that resulted in an overpayment in severance pay by Microsoft," the letter states. "We ask that you repay the overpayment and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience to you."

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the authenticity of the letter posted by TechCrunch but declined further comment, saying it was "a private matter between the company and the affected people."

The company declined to specify how many of these letters were sent out, and it's unknown how much the overpayments total, but it did indicate that some laid off employees were also undercompensated.

The letter failed to provide an explanation for the accounting error but did manage to add--with underlined emphasis--a veiled threat of monetary punishment if the money wasn't repaid, at least in the form of a tax impact.

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United Airlines cuts off customer service line for YOUR sake

[via msnbc]

Don’t bother calling with your travel complaints

If you do give feedback, be specific and realistic — and keep your cool

United Airlines is putting the kibosh on calling in with complaints.

Last week the airline confirmed that, come April, it will disconnect the phone line to a foreign call center contracted to field customer compliments and complaints. Customers with issues to discuss will still be able to call the airline’s general 800-number but, as anyone who’s tried navigating United’s (or any airline’s) automated phone tree knows, the focus there is on selling tickets and tweaking reservations.

From here on out, even if you get through to a live United Airlines agent, you’ll likely be told to send post-flight comments, good or bad, in old-fashioned letter form or via e-mail.

Why quit answering the phone?

United Airlines spokesperson Robin Urbanski says the company did research on the success of the feedback line and concluded that “people who e-mail or write us are more satisfied with our responses.”

However, many travelers, hospitality industry experts and folks in the field view the call-center closure as a cost-cutting measure and yet another step away from focusing on customer care.

In a tough economy, when keeping every customer you’ve got is more important than ever, United’s move puzzles folks like Zeke Adkins of Luggage Forward, a door-to-door luggage shipping company. “What is unclear to me is how this [research] led United to conclude that eliminating, rather than improving, their call centers would be the best strategic decision.”

Others suspect that as the economy worsens and budgets tighten, live customer-service centers will disappear elsewhere as well. But that’s doesn’t mean well-mannered travelers should stop giving feedback on service. We may just need to learn some new skills — and sharpen some old ones.

“It’s a skill that anyone can master and everyone should,” says Betsy Whitmore of Angie’s List, a Web site that invites consumers to rate and review companies and services. “Whether it’s travel, home improvement or restaurant service, not speaking up about bad or good service is a disservice to you and the company involved.”

Whitmore is right, says John Crotts, director of the hospitality and tourism management program at the College of Charleston. “Customers or guests who complain are a business’s best friend. They are telling you where your problems are and giving you the opportunity to correct mistakes, thereby keeping their loyalty.” His advice to travelers: “Speak up!”

How to give feedback
OK, we will. And if no one answers the phone, we’ll put our issues in writing using some of these tips from well-mannered, experienced travelers and experts in the field:

• Don’t yell. When writing your complaint letter, always keep your cool, says customer service consultant Esteban Kolsky. “While calling someone names in a letter may help you feel better, it does not improve your odds of getting what you want — it actually does the opposite.” Business travel expert Chris McGinnis agrees. “Write your emotion-packed ‘I'll never use you again’ letter first, then put it in a drawer and re-write it later.” He adds, “Keep things short and sweet. Include an ‘executive summary’ at the top of the letter, show the details below, but never, ever more than a single page.”

• Be specific. When complaining to an airline, Anne Banas of SmarterTravel.com says be clear about the details of your experience and very specific about what you want to happen. “Always ask for some form of compensation and attach an appropriate dollar figure. Of course, this is easy if your loss was tangible, but even if it is not, come up with a figure for inconvenience and hassle. Do you want a voucher for future travel? More frequent flyer miles? A check? An upgrade next time you travel?”

• Be realistic and fair. When sending feedback to a hotel, Lara Weiss of K Hotels suggests directing your note to the general manager of the property and copying the corporate office, if there is one. “Demanding a refund never works,” says Weiss, “because then you just look like you want your money back and don’t really care about the experience.” She says hotels would much rather offer you a free stay to come back and try them again but warns against writing a complaint to a hotel after you have already written a bad review on sites like TripAdvisor. “You will lose all opportunity because you’ve already done the damage.”

• Don’t over-dramatize. Guido Adelfio of Bethesda Travel Center shared the story of a client who fell in the hallway in a French hotel, chipped a tooth and complained when the hotel ignored his request for compensation. “The customer asked for dental bills, medical bills…, a refund of the airfare, a meal allowance, plus a fund for the inconvenience and discomfort,” says Adelfio. “Of course they didn't hear back. They’d asked for the sun, the moon and the stars, far beyond the damage suffered.”

• If you need to, go up the ladder. If you don’t get a response to your well-written complaint letter, it may be because the person reading it doesn’t have the authority to do anything about it. That’s when Kelli Grant, Senior Consumer Reporter at SmartMoney.com, suggests going up the ladder. “There’s a great Web site called Executive Bomb that helps you find executive e-mail addresses for a given company. This way, if your initial complaint falls on deaf ears, you can be sure the next try doesn’t.” And don’t forget that these days many company representatives can also be reached via Twitter, she says. “UPS, Bank of America, JetBlue and Comcast all have people you can reach out to via Twitter to help solve problems. It’s fast help, and usually pretty effective.”

On-the-ground strategies
If it’s really fast help you want, then Tom Murphy suggests learning how to resolve travel complaints in real time. Murphy is the Director of the Human Resiliency Institute at Fordham University in New York and has been helping teach airport and airline employees how to solve customer issues before they become written complaints.

He says the three key tools employees are taught to use — body language, tone of voice and words — can be used by travelers as well.

“If you can, approach a worker with an understanding of the stresses that person has on their job and let them do their job without getting in their face,” he says. “If you use body language and words that have respect, then you have a better chance of getting what you want.”

That approach works for experienced traveler and expert negotiator Ashley Grayson. “The secret is: Don't wait until you have to complain,” he says. “Act immediately to get the optimum solution from the person in front of you.”

Grayson is a literary agent who knows a thing or two about using words effectively. So he offers this opening line: “I’ve got this terrible problem that I hope you can help with. But if you can’t, let’s get someone who can."

Longtime public radio host Bill Radke, also an expert with words, has had luck resolving travel issues with this opening line: “I’m looking for a hero here.”

Radke says he suspects the line works because “people want their work to matter. So in just the right circumstances, when the other party knows you're getting red-taped or shafted” the person at the hotel front desk or airline counter “might just step in to be your hero.”

And in a world of cranky, unhappy travelers, if someone is asking for the moon, why not be their star?

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7 ways to make your laptop battery last longer

How to get more minutes from your machine [via tech radar]

With the latest portable PCs, working on the move has never been easier, but laptops are still slaves to the National Grid.

You can do practically anything on a modern laptop, but their advanced features drain battery life to the extent that you can only get a couple of hours out of your laptop before it turns up its toes.

While battery life is a chief cause of mobile moans, it's possible to get significant improvements by simple good practice and a few software tweaks. To help you get the most from your laptop battery, here are seven easy ways to make it last longer.

1. Dim your screen

The screen is one of the most power-hungry parts of the laptop. It takes serious amounts of battery power to keep your display looking clear and bright. Saving this power is simply a question of turning the brightness down. The screen brightness button is usually located as a second function of one of the F keys, and is represented by a little sun symbol with up and down icons. To use it, just hold down the correct function key and then choose up or down.

2. Change power settings

Windows Vista comes with some great power features, which enable you to eke out the best performance when you're plugged into the mains, and optimise battery life when on the move. Type power options into the Start Search box and choose Power saver from the list. The Windows Mobility Center has more methods for saving battery life. These include settings for powering off the monitor and kicking into sleep mode more quickly.

3. Switch off Wi-Fi

One of the biggest battery sappers is the wireless networking capabilities built into most laptops. Wi-Fi drains the battery by constantly drawing power from the battery and, when not connected, looking for networks. When you're using your laptop away from the grid, the likelihood is you're away from wireless networks, so you can turn this device off. Many laptops have a function button that enables you to turn off the wireless adaptor manually to save yourself the unnecessary waste, but older laptops often don't have this. If this is the case, just go to the Control Panel, access the Network Connections menu and disable your wireless connection manually.

4. Turn off peripherals

Using USB peripherals can put a big drain on your system, because your motherboard has to power them, so unplugging everything saves juice. USB sticks, mice and webcams are common offenders, so copy all your information across and eject your devices as soon as possible, and put up with laptop track pads over your USB mouse. Many laptops have function buttons to turn off the built-in webcam, which drains the battery if given the chance.

5. Eject your disc drives

Having a disc spinning in the drive is a huge drain on resources, and many programs constantly do this. Simply eject your discs before you switch to battery power to gain vital extra minutes from your working day.

6. Invest in some hardware

Good practice can go some way to extending your battery life, but if you need to use your laptop throughout your working day, you're going to need some help. Most laptops come with a six-cell battery, but many manufacturers offer eight- or even 12-cell optional upgrades, which can double your power. The alternative to expensive laptop batteries are products such as the Philips Portable Power Pack, which gives you valuable extra hours for all your devices. The Philips is a compact battery unit that has adaptors for most laptops and mobile phones, which is portable enough to be placed in a bag and has enough capacity to double the length of your charge.

7. Disable features

Windows Vista has some handy built-in features, but many put demands on your system that are unnecessary when working on the move. Take the simple measure of turning off Windows Aero and the Windows Sidebar when you're on the move to make your laptop more efficient.

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Nigerian Accused in Scheme to Swindle Citibank

[via nytimes]

Swindles in which someone overseas seeks access to a person’s bank account are so well known that most potential victims can spot them in seconds.

But one man found success by tweaking the formula, prosecutors say: Rather than trying to dupe an account holder into giving up information, he duped the bank. And instead of swindling a person, he tried to rob a country — of $27 million.

To carry out the elaborate scheme, prosecutors in New York said on Friday, the man, identified as Paul Gabriel Amos, 37, a Nigerian citizen who lived in Singapore, worked with others to create official-looking documents that instructed Citibank to wire the money in two dozen transactions to accounts that Mr. Amos and the others controlled around the world.

The money came from a Citibank account in New York held by the National Bank of Ethiopia, that country’s central bank. Prosecutors said the conspirators, contacted by Citibank to verify the transactions, posed as Ethiopian bank officials and approved the transfers.

Mr. Amos was arrested last month as he tried to enter the United States through Los Angeles, a prosecutor, Marcus A. Asner, said in Federal District Court in Manhattan.

Mr. Amos, who was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, told a federal magistrate judge, “I’m not guilty, sir.” The judge, Andrew J. Peck, ordered him detained pending a further hearing. If convicted, he could face up to 30 years in prison, prosecutors said.

The fraud was uncovered after several banks where the conspirators held accounts returned money to Citibank, saying they had been unable to process the transactions, and an official of the National Bank of Ethiopia said that it did not recognize the transactions, according to a complaint signed by an F.B.I. agent, Bryan Trebelhorn.

A Citigroup spokeswoman said: “We have worked closely with law enforcement throughout the investigation and are pleased it has resulted in this arrest. Citi constantly reviews and upgrades its physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to detect, prevent and mitigate theft.”

A spokesman for the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington said, “We are aware of this unfortunate story.” He said the embassy was not involved in the legal proceedings, and declined further comment. Officials at the National Bank of Ethiopia could not be reached by phone for comment.

Prosecutors said the scheme began in September, when Citibank received a package with documents purportedly signed by officials of the Ethiopian bank instructing Citibank to accept instructions by fax. There was also a list of officials who could be called to confirm such requests. The signatures of the officials appeared to match those in Citibank’s records and were accepted by Citibank, the complaint says.

In October, Citibank received two dozen faxed requests for money to be wired, and it transferred $27 million to accounts controlled by the conspirators in Japan, South Korea, Australia, China, Cyprus and the United States, the complaint says.

Citibank called the officials whose names and numbers it had been given to verify the transactions, prosecutors said. The numbers turned out to be for cellphones in Nigeria, South Africa and Britain used by the conspirators.

Citibank, in its investigation, later determined the package of documents had come via courier from Lagos, Nigeria, rather than from the offices of the National Bank of Ethiopia, in Addis Ababa.

Citibank has credited back the lost funds to the National Bank of Ethiopia, said one person who was briefed about the situation.

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33 Simple Sex Tips to Turn Her On

Most bedroom problems boil down to this: Men are microwaves and women are slow cookers.

With men, all you have to do is push a few buttons and we're hotter than a habanero. But with women, it's an all-day process. You have to buy the ingredients, mix them together, and then put everything in the pot and let it simmer . . . and simmer . . . and simmer.

That's why we're offering a microwave mentality for the Crock-Pot reality: quick, easy things you can do to make her heating speeds better match yours. Our suggestions take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. The payoff? They'll quickly adjust her thermostat to high heat.

1. Buy Her a Silk Thong
A gift of lingerie is cliched, right? So twist it. Give it to her when you (seemingly) don't expect sex right then and there. Pass it under the table at a restaurant and ask her to go to the ladies' room and change into it. "It's a little naughty, but she has a chance to play back," says Joy Davidson, Ph.D., a relationship therapist in Seattle. Not recommended for a first date.

2. Embrace Her Until She Makes the Move to Leave
Good kissing tops most women's lists of turn-ons, but don't underestimate the heating power of a great hug, especially when she initiates it. "Let her know how much you savor it," says Lou Paget, author of 365 Days of Sensational Sex. Make it clear you don't want the hug to end.

3. Wear her Name
Women love to hear men use their names. The more unexpected the place—like in the middle of a sentence—the better. Better still, write her name on your shoulder, your hand, or anyplace she'll have a chance of spotting it. It's a tattoo without pain—one that gives only pleasure. "It will make her laugh and think you're so adorable," says Davidson. "It says, 'You matter.' "

4. Whisper into Her Ear
In public, at a party, tell her what you want to do to her later: "Tonight, I'm going to make you have as many orgasms as possible." For women, anticipating it can be as exciting as the actual event.

5. Skip the Flowers
Blooms at the office are overdone. If you want to stand out, send a card instead. "It's really the thoughtful things you do at nonsexual times that make a woman want you," says Paul Joannides, author of Guide to Getting It On! Go with a thank-you. Write out a few things you've never thanked her for—making breakfast on Sunday, cleaning your stubble out of the sink. An appreciated woman during the day is an appreciative woman at night.

6. Plant a Picture
Stash a photo of her in your wallet. She'll deny it, but all women rummage at some point. You might as well turn it to your advantage.

7. Say Why
Anyone can say, "I love you," so explain why. Maybe it's the way she nibbles at a KitKat, or how her nose scrunches when she drinks tequila. The more unique your reasons, the more special she'll feel.

8. Get Your Story Straight
For a happy ending (tonight and every night), remember the beginning: the details of your first meeting—where you were, what she was wearing, what you said, and how you felt. Recount them. Often.

9. Make Yourself Sick
Leave love notes around the house—in the fridge, on the bathroom mirror, under her pillow. That much sweetness might make you nauseous, but it'll make her feel like a lovesick teenager.

10. Apply Her Lipstick
"Grooming a woman is kind of a role reversal," says Linda De Villers, Ph.D., a California sex therapist and author of Love Skills: A Fun, Upbeat Guide to Sex-cessful Relationships. "She's being doted on and served, and it shows that you think a certain part of her body is attractive." Other ideas: Shave her legs, paint her toenails, or brush or wash her hair. According to a menshealth.com poll of 3,200 men, 76 percent said they have shampooed their woman's hair.

And Men's Health readers don't waste their time on things that don't work.

11. Kiss and Lick Her Hinges
You've got the obvious kiss spots covered. Now concentrate your efforts elsewhere—on her elbows, knees, shoulders, ankles, neck, and hip joints. "They're rarely attended to with long caresses," says Davidson. "It's a super sensation." See if you can make her come unhinged.

12. Bear Fruit
Chocolate syrup and whipped cream get all the kinky play in movies. Instead, turn her body into a juicer. "The best foods for sex are fruits that you can rub onto the body, such as soft mango or papaya," says Ava Cadell, Ph.D., Ed.D., a sex therapist in California and author of 12 Steps to Everlasting Love. "Then devour both her and the fruit." Get sticky, shower, repeat. If you're Mickey Rourke, skip the shower.

13. And Berries
Forget coffee and toast—bring hot chocolate (a sexual stimulant for her) and raspberries and strawberries to bed. The berries replenish the zinc you lose when you ejaculate—5 milligrams, or a third of your daily requirement.

14. Try the No-Move Move
When you start foreplay, tell her you're not going to move on to another action until she tells you what to do next. This works physically and mentally: It's a way to encourage her to open up and direct you to what she really wants. Now, your turn.

15. Give Her a Massage
But make it interesting:
• In hot weather, roll a chilled can of soda along the backs of her thighs.
• In cool weather, warm a towel in the microwave for 10 seconds and massage her with it.
• Season her belly with a little salt, and then slowly lick it off. Add tequila to taste.
• Turn winter gloves inside out, put them on, and massage her with the soft side.

Check out the rest of the tips over at Men's Health

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Is anything made in the U.S.A. anymore? You'd be surprised

[via iht]

It seems as if the country that used to make everything is on the brink of making nothing. In January, 207,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs vanished in the largest one-month drop since October 1982. U.S. factory activity is hovering at a 28-year low. Even before the recession, plants were hemorrhaging work to foreign competitors with low-cost labor. And some companies were moving production overseas.

But manufacturing in the United States is not dead or even dying. It is moving upscale, following the biggest profits and becoming more efficient, just as Henry Ford did when he created the assembly line to make the Model T car.

The United States remains by far the world's leading manufacturer by value of goods produced. It hit a record $1.6 trillion in 2007 - nearly double the $811 billion of 1987. For every $1 of value produced in China factories, the United States generates $2.50.

So what is made in the U.S.A. these days?

The United States sold more than $200 billion worth of aircraft, missiles and space-related equipment in 2007, and $80 billion worth of autos and auto parts. Deere, best known for its bright green and yellow tractors, sold $16.5 billion worth of farming equipment last year, much of it to the rest of the world.

Then there are energy products like gas turbines for power plants made by General Electric, computer chips from Intel and fighter jets from Lockheed Martin. Household names like GE, General Motors, International Business Machines, Boeing and Hewlett-Packard are among the largest manufacturers by revenue.

Several trends have emerged over the decades:

The United States makes things that other countries cannot. Today, "Made in U.S.A." is more likely to be stamped on heavy equipment or the circuits that go inside other products than the televisions, toys, clothes and other items found on store shelves.

U.S. companies have shifted toward high-end manufacturing as the production of low-value goods has moved overseas. This has resulted in lower prices for shoppers and higher profits for companies.

When demand slumps, all types of manufacturing jobs are lost. Some higher-end jobs - but not all - return with good times. Workers who make goods produced less expensively overseas suffer.

Once this recession runs its course, surviving manufacturers will emerge more efficient and profitable, economists say. More valuable products will be made using fewer people. Products will be made where labor and other costs are less expensive. And manufacturers will focus on the most lucrative products.

Boeing announced last month that it was cutting about 10,000 jobs. At the same time, workers were streamlining the wing assembly for the 737, the company's best-selling commercial plane, said Richard McCabe, a mechanic for 10 years and former Machinists union shop steward.

He and his co-workers at the factory at Renton, Washington, were asked about three and one-half years ago to figure out how to switch from building wings in huge stationary jigs mounted vertically, "the way things have been done here forever," to "one-piece flow," assembling them horizontally on a moving line similar to the way automobiles are constructed. The new process is set to begin by the end of the year.

"I won't go to the wing," McCabe said. "The wing will come to me. It's going to save them millions in scrap and rework."

McCabe said there had been a lot of initial resistance on the shop floor, but Boeing's increased outsourcing - including the outsourcing of wing production for the new 787 to Japan - helped change workers' minds.

"I told the guys, it's development or die," McCabe said. "If we can get this done, it assures us the future."

About 12.7 million U.S. workers, or 8 percent of the labor force, still held manufacturing jobs as of last month. Fifty years ago, 14.6 million people, or 28 percent of all U.S. workers, were employed in factories. The numbers - though painful to those who lost jobs - show how companies are making more with less.

Still, the perception of decline is likely to grow as factories and jobs vanish and imports rise for most goods we buy at stores.

Thirty years ago, U.S. producers made 80 percent of what the country consumed, according to the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI, an industry trade group. Now it is about 65 percent.

U.S. factories still provide much of the processed food that U.S. households consume, everything from frozen fish sticks to cans of beer. And U.S. companies make a considerable share of the personal hygiene products like soap and shampoo, cleaning supplies and prescription drugs that are sold in pharmacies. But many other consumer goods now come from.

In the 1960s, the United States made 98 percent of its shoes. It now imports more than 90 percent of its footwear. The iconic red Radio Flyer wagons for children are now made in China. Even the Apple iPod comes in a box that says it was made in China but "designed in California."

"Some people lament the loss of manufacturing jobs we could have had making iPods - so what?" said Daniel Ikenson, associate director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute. "The imports of iPods support U.S. jobs," including engineers, marketers and advertisers.

Some U.S.-made products are hiding in plain sight. Berner International, near Pittsburgh, does not make the clothes, dishes or sponges sold at Wal-Mart, but its products hang above shoppers' heads as soon they go through the sliding doors.

The company's 60 employees make air curtains - rectangular blowers mounted on the ceiling that keep out hot or chilly air, insects and dust while keeping in air-conditioning and heat. Also called air doors, they hang from ceilings at Wal-Marts, Whole Foods supermarkets and Starbucks, and above the big factory doors at Ford Motor and Toyota Motor car plants.

The chief executive, Georgia Berner, keeps her company in the United States because she relies on her staff's deep knowledge of air blowers. Each box requires specific voltages and sizing, she said.

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Loophole For Leased Vehicles Found In Red-Light Camera Law

[via newsnet5]

There's a controversy brewing over the red-light and speed cameras put up at intersections throughout Cleveland.

A new court ruling about the tickets issued through the cameras could open up a big can of worms, reported NewsChannel5's Paul Kiska.

It turns out there's a loophole in Cleveland's traffic camera system. It's in the wording of the code violation that reads the "owner of the vehicle shall be eligible for the penalty." There is no mention about drivers who lease a vehicle.

"I think the lessee of the vehicle is not liable under this Cleveland code section," said attorney Blake Dickson.

Dickson fought City Hall and won. His law firm leases cars and got ticketed by the cameras.

Dickson appealed to Ohio district court and won because the code doesn't mention anything about "leased" or "rented" vehicles.

But until the city code is changed, every driver might have a case if they want to pay $225 in fees to appeal.

"Somebody made the argument until this is changed, every owner has an argument because it's an unequal situation because there's not equal protection under the law," said Dickson.

While drivers debate whether the 41 cameras are a money grab by the city or about safety, it appears they're here to stay.

"Yes, they're making money and yes, it's safety, but it's also a catch-22," said Dickson.

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Officials may soon decide that genitals are a more reliable form of security ID than the face or retina

[via guardian]

We should protest against body-scanning machines by going out with our cameras and taking intimate photographs of every public official.

New body-scanning machines have gone on trial this week at Tulsa airport in Oklahoma. If successful, they could eventually replace the metal detectors in use at airports throughout the world, for they are supposed to be able to spot not only metallic weapons but also the plastic and liquid explosives increasingly favoured by terrorists. But the trouble with these scanners is that there is almost nothing they do not detect: they even provide images of people's private parts.

Naturally, this is causing some concern. Not everyone is proud of their private parts or eager to have them inspected by strangers, and not everyone feels satisfied by the assurance of one top American security chief that the scanner "really does not reveal as much as some people might think". How much does it reveal, then? According to a spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union, "We're getting closer and closer to a required strip-search to board an aeroplane."

Alarming though this sounds, it is unlikely to cause as much of a rumpus as one might hope. People are so inured to invasions of their privacy in the name of security that they will probably put up with anything, even scrutiny of their genitalia. And I doubt if it will be long before officials decide that genitalia are a more reliable form of recognition than the face, or the retina, or the fingerprint, and make them their principal means of identification.

It seems unfair, though, that while officials are allowed to photograph every particle of us, we aren't allowed to photograph any bit of them. Under section 76 of the 2008 Counter-Terrorism Act, which came into force this week, we could go to jail for up to 10 years if we take a photograph of a policeman or any other individual or object "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism". This means in practice that, under threat of a jail sentence, we can be stopped from taking pictures of almost anyone or anything of a public nature, from the guards at Buckingham Palace to Westminster abbey or St Paul's cathedral. As the most photographed people on earth, we should protest by going out in our millions with our cameras and taking intimate pictures of every public official we see. They can't put us all in prison.

Dame Vera Lynn is reported to be "furious" with the British National Party (BNP) for marketing a CD of second world war music called The White Cliffs of Dover, with her rendition of that song as its main selling point. The 91-year-old says nobody asked her permission, and she is consulting her lawyers. One can quite see that she wouldn't want to be associated with the nationalist BNP and its inheritance of racism, antisemitism and homophobia, even though it now claims to be free of such prejudices.

Ironically, though, the BNP's album of songs celebrating British wartime patriotism features artists from groups it has traditionally disparaged as neither British nor patriotic enough; for most of them are either Jewish or black. Irving Berlin, Bud Flanagan and Joe Loss are among the most famous of the Jews, while The Four Vagabonds and Leslie "Hutch" Hutchinson were black. "Hutch" was not only an immigrant from Grenada in the Caribbean but also a promiscuous bisexual, who had affairs with two famous homosexual songwriters, Ivor Novello and Cole Porter. He contributed almost as much as Vera Lynn to lifting the spirits of the nation in time of war. The BNP would seem to have scored something of an own goal.

Peter Mandelson emerges as a bit of a hero from his scrap with the head of Starbucks, appearing as a red-blooded patriot standing up for Britain against its snivelling foreign detractors. Howard Schultz, the head of Starbucks, was certainly provocative with his denunciation on television of the British economy, and it's hard to understand why he described Britain's downward spiral as his main concern when his shrinking company has only 700 outlets here (compared to 11,500 in the US) and has not hitherto had to close any of them. In the circumstances, Lord Mandelson's anger seems perfectly justified.

But the story as published was not that he had criticised Schultz, or had been right or wrong in his judgment of him, but that he had used the word "fuck" in the phrase "Who the fuck is he?" I think it's time the press woke up to the fact that, like it or not, the word is on the tip of every tongue in Whitehall, just as it is in Fleet Street. So accustomed have people become to its use that nobody turned a hair when it was claimed recently that Boris Johnson had said it nearly a dozen times in a telephone conversation with Keith Vaz, the Labour MP. It did the mayor of London no harm at all.

It would, of course, have been a different matter if either Mandelson or Johnson had uttered the expletive in public. That would have damaged them. So the press, in seeking to cause a stir about this kind of thing, is reduced to blurring the boundaries between public and private. One thing journalists like to do is to treat anything said in their own presence as a public statement, even if the context is a private drinks party at the British consulate-general in New York (as it was in the Mandelson case). This is little different to the BBC deciding that Carol Thatcher's "golliwog" reference wasn't private because she made it over drinks in a green room on the corporation's premises; each challenges any normal understanding of what is meant by a public place. The danger is that if people are now to be prevented from expressing themselves freely even in private, they may suddenly explode and do or say heaven knows what.

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iPhone game saves a family's home

[via newsobserver]

With unexpected medical bills piling up and his employer suspending its bonus program, Ethan Nicholas and his family faced a financial crisis.

So he struck a deal with his wife, Nicole: If she took on more responsibility in caring for their two young boys, he would devote the hours before and after his regular job to building a video game for the Apple iPhone.

The 30-year-old computer programmer hoped to sell enough copies of the game that the couple wouldn't have to put their home on the market.

That was more than $700,000 ago.

The game Nicholas built, "iShoot," sat atop the most downloaded list in the iPhone application online store for weeks. Phone users couldn't get enough of the game, which features tiny battling tanks and sells for $2.99.

Did he expect it?

"Nobody could, for a little tank game I wrote in six weeks on my couch."

An Apple spokeswoman said she could not share sales figures about a specific game, but noted that more than 15,000 different applications have been made available since the App Store's launch in July 2008. They have been downloaded more than 500 million times.

A double hit

Pinch Media, an analytics and market-research company that specializes in smart-phone applications, confirmed that iShoot topped the best-selling app list for more than three weeks. To help goose sales of iShoot, Nicholas released a free version, iShoot Lite.

For a few days, iShoot Lite was No. 1 on the free download list, while iShoot topped the paid-download list, said Greg Yardley, CEO of Pinch Media.

Because iPhone applications tend to be inexpensive and can be downloaded on the go, users can buy on impulse, Yardley said.

And by setting up a store where programmers can sell their wares, Apple has "made it very easy for developers to make money."

For every $2.99 game that Nicholas sells, Apple keeps 30 percent. Nicholas gets the rest -- about $2.09 for every game sold.

"I am thrilled to give them 30 percent," Nicholas said. "I wouldn't have made a penny without them."

Prior to his iShoot coup, Nicholas worked from home as a programmer for Sun Microsystems.

On Jan. 6, he made about $2,000 on the iShoot game. On Jan. 11, he gave his two week's notice to Sun.

On his best sales day, Nicholas said he sold more than 17,000 copies of the game. He earned about $37,000 before taxes that day, all for a game he designed "holding a bottle in one hand and typing with the other."

Nicholas, who graduated from Enloe High School in Raleigh and later dropped out of N.C. State University to start his programming career in earnest, built the game on a laptop while sitting on his living room couch.

He wanted to work where he could easily interact with his sons -- Spencer, 3, and Gavin, 19 months.

Nicole said she had no hesitation about his taking on the iPhone project.

"I really believe in him. I have faith in what he does," she said.

For her dedication during the building phase, they used some of the money to buy her a new laptop.

Nicholas built iShoot because he's always enjoyed artillery-style games, and a good one hadn't been devised for the iPhone.

He's already working on iShoot version 2.0, and has another game in development for the iPhone.

He's also started his own company, Naughty Bits software, to concentrate on building iPhone games.

The market for iPhone applications is so new, it's difficult to know what the future holds, he said.

But he's going to find out, on the couch in the home that his family loves.

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Top 10 Tools for Landing a Better Job

[via life hacker]

From the first Google search to the last interview, you can boost your odds at landing a better job with the right preparation. Here are our ten best tools and tips for job-seekers and career climbers.

10. Cover all the search sites

It's not exactly a "hack" to suggest hitting Monster.com, or your LinkedIn network, to check out job offerings and work your connections. Each site amongst our five best online job search sites, however, puts you in a different pool of possibilities, and each has its own quirks and tools. They're somewhat perfunctory and broad, but wouldn't you feel bad knowing you missed a great opportunity simply because it wasn't in your super-specific Craigslist search?

9. Cover Craigslist like a glove

The same types of skills and always-there alertness that make someone a Craigslist power user can give them the edge on the site's job board, which has the benefit of (sometimes, not always) attracting relatively tech-savvy, with-it employers. Once you're getting text message and RSS alerts whenever "Micro-brew taster" shows up, browse these tips for applying for a job on Craigslist, written by someone looking to hire through Craigslist and looking for only the honest, direct, ready-to-work types.

8. Take the guesswork out of salary demands

There are a host of salary-obsessed sites that use a combination of math and insider info to compute what workers with certain skills and experience levels can expect in different cities and corporate firms. The most prominent among them—Glassdoor.com, PayScale, SalaryScout, and Indeed—have their own strengths and weaknesses, as we've previously detailed. If you're lucky enough to have an informed source inside a firm you're looking to jump ship to, or can cultivate one, that might be your best bet.Photo by AMagill.

7. Leave without burning any bridges

If you have a great estimate of exactly how many seconds are left until you can leave, it can be really tempting to email all@youroldcompany.com with exactly how liberated you feel. But if your dream job doesn't turn out quite so ethereal, or you ever find yourself needing a tip, lead, reference, or maybe even someone to hire at your new digs, you'll wish you'd kept things civil. To fake it until you make it, crib from eMurse's sample resignation letters, read from wikiHow's guide to resigning gracefully, and keep in touch over social networks like Facebook with the co-workers in the same realm you find yourself in. You never know when one of them might hear about a sudden job opening; alternately, you can ditch the civility and think about offering cold, hard cash rewards for job leads.

6. Walk into your interview without fear

From covering an oldie-but-goodie list like the 50 common interview questions and answers to mastering a few conversational Jedi mind tricks—how you prep for your job interview depends on how geeky you want to get. If you bore even yourself with your answers to 1950s HR Manual standards like "What's your greatest weakness," consider turning the interview around by talking about your first 100 days on the job, or tell the story of your career, and future. If you managed to escape without squirting mustard on the interviewer's shirt, dash off a quick, effective thank-you note. For more ideas, visit our tips for talking your way into a job.

5. Look the part

Unless your interviewer is Mark Zuckerberg, your newest sandals and fleece just ain't gonna cut it. Here's the shorter, job-focused version of our tools for dressing sharp:

• Give the shoes a solid shine: In five minutes or so.
• Dress sharp, but save: By turning a cheap-and-cheap-looking suit into one that's an expensive suit that wasn't expensive.
• Don't you dare rock a clip-on: Take the time to learn with a basic tutorial and YouTube instructional clip.
• Travel without ironing: You could take Fodor's advice and wield the power of plastic sheets to prevent wrinkles amongst your best-looking clothes. Or you can go a bit more eco-friendly and cross-cultural with a bundle wrap. For those who like a bit of extra security, a bit of DIY wrinkle releaser in a drug store spray bottle handles whatever gaps your folding and backing leaves open.

4. Use search-friendly words; skip vague generalities

Some large-scale employers deposit every single resume and CV into a giant, OCR-scanned database; others merely search out candidates on job sites using specific word criteria. Either way, having the right words on your resume prevents being cut in the first round like some warbly-voiced would-be Idol contestant. On the other hand, the humans who actually read through your cover letter, resume, and application want to see real numbers and results, not Career Services blather. So take a good long look at your text and kill at least six words from your resume.

3. Get better, faster, smarter alerts on job openings

A while back, we suggested just a few tools to nab a job with feeds and email alerts. Our commenters, though, had a wealth of links and suggestions that worked for them:

• SimplyHired and its RSS feeds, which 72ba digs for its aggregation of the big job sites and local players, as well as the customized feeds.
• Yahoo Pipes, the feed mashing/extracting/filtering tool we've created master feeds with and which Earth2Marsh used to monitor jobs at every grade school in Maine.
• Feed43, which ain't exactly a five-minute job, but it can take pretty much any page on the internet and make a feed out of it, as Jay discovered.
• Other tools: FeedMyInbox and UpdatePatrol.

2. Build your personal brand with a blog

By and large, no one-person blog is going to replace a salary, but it can help you find a new source of income. Blogger Adam Darowski believes the blog is the new resume, and at least one Lifehacker editor is really glad he built his up to help land a new gig. Write and post material related to the field you work in, and generally work it as if you were already employed in it. Your resume and clips can spell out that you're a great with Photoshop, but your blog's slideshows will definitely sell your clients or employers a lot more emphatically.

1. Write a killer resume for a new career path

With the economy lurching about like an over-tired Capoeira enthusiast, we recently decided it was a good time to look at taking the first step toward escaping one's endangered (or just plain boring) career for another, no matter what your experience level. We rounded up our favorite tips from our own resume posts and experience, and talked to a career specialist about how to score a great gig, even if you lack the supposedly mandatory "minimum requirements." Check it out, pull out the heavy-stock paper, and get to writing. Photo by emdot.

Go ahead—tell us which tools or skills were conspicuously absent from our Top 10. Tell us your experience on any of the above from the perspective of employer, employee, or current job-seeker, or offer up some links in the comments.

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New CocaCola Machines To Hold More Than 100 Different Drinks

[via blogs pitch]

At the same time as New York is trying to pass a soft drink tax, ABC News is doing an expose on Mountain Dew Mouth and doctors are urging all Americans to cut down on soda, Coca-Cola is debuting a new soda fountain that can hold more than 100 sodas. That's ten times more than current soda fountains.

Currently, fountains work through syrup bags. The restaurant buys a bag (actually, a bag in a rectangular box) from Coke or Pepsi, hooks it up to a soda line and then the fountain combines the carbonated water with the syrup to create your soda. The machines are limited by soda lines, which tend to gunk up with sugar mold, and by bulky soda bags that weigh 30 pounds or more.

The new Coke machine is completely different.

The new fountain is like an ink printer with space for hundreds of cartridges. Each cartridge contains a concentrated formula of ingredients. When you press your choice, say Diet Coke, the machine will tell cartridge 12 to release three squirts, cartridge 81 two squirts and so on, then it combines it with carbonated water and viola! The same drink as old machines.

The new fountains can hold a lot more of these little cartridges, so they can handle a lot more flavors. Coca-Cola promises 120 different drinks, but there could be even more as the technology gets better and the company gets more confident. Hypothetically, the machine should be able to act as a bartender too, allowing customers to get a Shirley Temple or Roy Rogers in addition to regular drinks. All it would take is a cherry syrup cartridge.

The first new fountains are rolling out in Atlanta and California in a month. Assuming tests there go well and the public loves its overwhelming choices, the new fountains would come to Kansas City next year.

Coca-Cola's product list is more than 2,800 beverages long so the company will have no shortage of drinks to pick for the new machine. The main problem is how Coke protects its customers from the paradox of choice, when too many options overwhelm our brains and shuts them down from making a decision.

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Snapple replaces corn syrup with real sugar

[via NYTimes]

Snapple, once the “official beverage of New York City,” is being redesigned — inside and out — this year.

The popular iced teas are losing the high-fructose corn syrup and the dated font. The bottles are becoming more svelte (to better fit into cup holders, which became a force after Snapple iced teas were originally introduced). The labels will also emphasize the green and black tea leaves used to make the drink. The changes are rolling out over the first few months of the year, and they are expected to hit New York in early March, according to Dr Pepper Snapple Group, which is now the owner of the brand.

Snapple, which once defined the genre of specialty tea, now finds itself fading in an increasingly crowded field of competitors. The brand, which passed through many hands before landing as part of Dr Pepper Snapple, went through a round of focus group testing over the last two years.

“Through that work we really found that Snapple had lost of its luster and had been replaced in the minds of consumers by other beverages out there,” said Jim Trebilcock, an executive vice president with Dr Pepper Snapple.

(For example, President Obama prefers (the more lightly sweetened) Honest Tea, and the White House is now stocked with his favorite flavors, Black Forest Berry and Green Dragon.)

Real sugar is replacing the corn syrup. (Sugar vs. corn syrup, by the way, is the difference between Mexican and American Coca-Cola.) In some cases, that has actually resulted in a decrease in calories.

The old ingredient list for Lemon Snapple Iced Tea: “water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, tea, natural flavors.” Calories: 200. The new ingredient list: “filtered water, sugar, citric acid, tea, natural flavors.” Calories: 160.

The label is also being refreshed. Gone is the print-block style sun, the handwritten fonts, and the red highlights. Instead, they are putting more emphasis on “All Natural” and “Made From Green & Black Tea Leaves.” The “Snapple” itself is going from a heavy-set typeface to a more elegant serifed typeface. (Logo redesign seems to be in these days.)

Of course, Snapple’s origins are rooted in selling juices to health food stores. Originally, in 1972, it was a partnership of three men that was named Unadulterated Food Products.

The five-year, $166 million “official beverage” agreement with New York is scheduled to expire this year, because it failed to live up to its potential, but the drink and the city are still tightly bound. Not only was the original company founded in Queens in 1972, but also, about 40 percent of Snapple sales today are concentrated in New York City — arguably the highest concentration of any nationally distributed beverage in the United States.

Mr. Trebilcock said that Dr Pepper had 30 percent of its sales concentrated in five southwestern states, but still that was 30 percent, and across five states. “The New York consumer has made Snapple what it is,” he said.

While on the phone with the Snapple executives, this reporter took the opportunity to lodge a protest about the inability to find Mint Snapple Iced Tea, which apparently was discontinued despite protests and petitions. (Others are trying to take steps to remedy the absence, too.) Mint Snapple Iced Tea lovers, your voices have been heard.

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The Coolest Little House in the City for $700,000

If only this 3-bedroom in Lower Pac Heights were abutted by another tall building on the other side— then it'd win the award for most "Little House"-like home in San Francisco. Take a look inside the coolest little house

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Baby Carrots Contain Bleach: Yum-Yum

[via ecochildsplay]

An email came to me, warning me that baby carrots are dipped in chlorine. They are made from deformed carrots, peeled and then dipped in a high solution of chlorine to keep them from turning white and being deemed, “bad”. This made me scratch my head. Food dipped in chlorine that I am feeding my children, who love baby carrots. Thus the research began. Could this be true?

I hate to say it but, yes.

When a baby carrot turns white they call this, “white blushing” and often times this “white blushing” causes the bags of carrots to pulled from the shelf and thrown away. Consumer waste. To prevent this consumer waste the carrots are then dipped in the chlorine.

To date, white blush has been controlled primarily by washing freshly processed carrots with chilled water, usually in a hydro cooler, followed by refrigeration and/or by packaging of the freshly processed carrots in specialized containers, including some that maintain modified atmospheres within the containers. Chlorine has also been added to the chilled water treatments for sanitation purposes, and primarily to control microbial bacteria growth on the processed carrots. However, depending upon the above variables, the onset of white blush may only be delayed for a few days. Therefore baby carrots tend to have a shorter shelf life.

You can also go find the patented information on washing carrots and the dilution rate of the chlorine the carrots are dipped in, as though that matters.

I like baby carrots and find them convenient and my children like them. After reading this and finding out the truth, I will be buying my carrots organic and whole. So much for convenient and packaging, a lessen I should know by now. I suppose if I were to choose the baby carrots I would be washing them very well in my favorite veggie wash. From what I read, some say that it doesn’t matter that a carrot was dipped in bleach but I guess you decide.

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The 32 Totally Essential (and Free) Apps for Every New PC

You have to admit, Windows is a pretty barebones operating system, feature-wise. After a fresh install of XP or Vista (perhaps following a Clean Start), you're faced with a barren Start Menu and an empty desktop that's beaming with limitless potential. The problem is that it's up to you to hunt and download those applications that you really need in your day-to-day computing experience. And chances are, it's often difficult to find good software that's also free. That's where this guide comes in.

We've put together a list of what we think are the most essential PC apps for every Maximum PC reader. These are all free programs (except one) that should be immediately installed after a fresh build or reformat; 32 indispensable programs and utilities that we couldn't imagine computing without. From the best IM client to FTP browser and Notepad replacement, these essentials truly enhance the Windows experience (much more so than Microsoft's own Windows LIVE Essentials). We're not saying you'd use all 32 entries in our list on a daily basis, but if you are at all serious about utilizing your PC, we promise our picks will not go unused.

And at the end of the feature, we'll even show you how to install these apps in one fell swoop with a special configuration file we've created. Because if it were up to us, this is software that should be bundled with every copy of Windows.

WinDirStat

Have you ever sorted a folder by file size, hoping to track down a hard disk hog, only to be frustrated by the fact that Windows doesn’t let you see the size of nested folders’ contents? So have we, and that’s why we make sure that we’ve always got WinDirStat close at hand.

WinDirStat, short for Windows Directory Statistics, is an application which analyzes the composition of your hard drive, allowing you to identify which files are eating up your disk space. It presents this information in a size-ordered directory view, or as a colorful treemap, making it a snap to see exactly what is using up your hard drive space. Once you’ve figured out which files are taking up more than their fair share of your drive, you can get rid of them with WinDirStat’s built-in cleanup operations.

AnyDVD

For hassle free rips of DVD, Blu-ray, and even HD-DVD content, there's no simpler app to use than AnyDVD. Unlike more traditional DVD ripping tools, AnyDVD decrypts, unlocks the region code, and even removes annoying ads and that pesky FBI warning on the fly. It's not free, but it's well worth the cost for anyone who wants to exercise his fair use rights on Blu-ray or DVD discs. Your money is well spent, typically the brain trust at Slysoft manage to disable new copy protection tricks just a few short days after they go public, which is more than worth a few bucks a year. (standard version is 50EUR for 2 years, HD edition is 79EUR for 2 years)

Foxit PDF Reader

There are few things that can ruin your internet browsing groove like the painfully long wait you have to endure when opening an Adobe PDF file. Acrobat reader, as a program and browser plugin, is notoriously cumbersome and drains not only your time but gobs of memory as well. That's why we use Foxit Reader, a free lightweight application that weights in only at 3MB. The program launches with the speediness of a roadrunner, and gives you access to welcome features like text extraction and comment annotation. Just be careful when you install Foxit to uncheck the Ask.com toolbar and eBay icon options. A professional version of Foxit ($40), gives you advanced editing tools, but we're more than happy with the free offering.

VMWare Server

Virtualization isn't just one of the hot buzzwords in tech, it's a practical way to test software, patches, and operative systems. VMware is our pick for a robust and easy-to-use virtualization option, and VMWare Server is the company's free product. It runs on top of a host Windows or Linux machine to deploy multiple virtual machines by provisioning your hardware resources. The only big limitation of VMWare Server is that it doesn't currently support 3D acceleration, not is it officially compatible with Vista 64-bit. Still, it's relatively the easiest way to create and run virtual machines, even those created by Microsoft Virtual PC.

Steam

Remember when Steam first launched with Half-Life 2, and trolls all over the internet complained about the service's mandatory online connection? What fools, we were. Today, we can't imagine gaming on our PCs without Steam. Valve's app isn't just an ultra-convenient online store, it's our preferred method of staying connected to fellow online gamers. Gabe Newell recently remarked that Steam is more than just about combating illegally downloaded content, the program is Valve's way of catching up to the convenience and instant-access appeal of piracy. We think it's doing a fine job.

Dropbox

Get this: a Windows app that "just works." Yes, we're being serious. Dropbox came out of nowhere last year to stun us with its amazingly intuitive approach to online storage. The program creates a user folder that acts just like a folder on your hard drive. You can drag, drop, copy, and even save up to 2GB worth of files to the cloud ($100/year for 50GB), while the service works its magic and syncs up your documents in the background. The online interface lets you track your file transfer history and download any file remotely, as well as restore any files that may have been accidentally deleted. You can even create shared or public folders to pass files along to your friends and family. And you don't even have ot bear any online ads. Of course we're smitten.

Get the rest over at Maximum PC

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The Crisis of Credit Visualized [cool vid]

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250 DVDs in a Quarter-Sized Device -- Coming Soon?

[via nbc]

A new technique developed by scientists at UC Berkeley and University of Massachusetts Amherst may drastically increase the ability of devices to store things.

Cal officials called the technique "innovative and easily implemented," on Thursday.

The method lets microscopic nanoscale elements precisely assemble themselves over large surfaces.

Scientists said the technique could soon open doors to dramatic improvements in the data storage capacity of electronic media.

"I expect that the new method we developed will transform the microelectronic and storage industries, and open up vistas for entirely new applications," said co-lead investigator Thomas Russell, director of the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at UMass Amherst and one of the world's leading experts on the behavior of polymers. "This work could possibly be translated into the production of more energy-efficient photovoltaic cells, for instance."

Russell conceived of this new approach with co-lead investigator Ting Xu, a UC Berkeley assistant professor. They describe their work in the Feb. 20 issue of the journal Science.

"The density achievable with the technology we've developed could potentially enable the contents of 250 DVDs to fit onto a surface the size of a quarter," said Xu.

How it Works…

Xu explained that the molecules in the thin film of block copolymers - two or more chemically dissimilar polymer chains linked together - self-assemble into an extremely precise, equidistant pattern when spread out on a surface, much like a regiment of disciplined soldiers lining up in formation.

For more than a decade, researchers have been trying to exploit this characteristic for use in semiconductor manufacturing, but they have been constrained because the order starts to break down as the size of the area increases.

Once the formation breaks down, the individual domains cannot be read or written to, rendering them useless as a form of data storage.

To overcome this size constraint, Russell and Xu conceived of the elegantly simple solution of layering the film of block copolymers onto the surface of a commercially available sapphire crystal.

When the crystal is cut at an angle - a common procedure known as a miscut - and heated to 1,300 to 1,500 degrees Centigrade (2,372 to 2,732 degrees Fahrenheit) for 24 hours, its surface reorganizes into a highly ordered pattern of sawtooth ridges that can then be used to guide the self-assembly of the block polymers.

With this technique, the researchers were able to achieve defect-free arrays of nanoscopic elements with feature sizes as small as 3 nanometers, translating into densities of 10 terabits per square inch.

One terabit is equal to 1 trillion bits, or 125 gigabytes.

Because crystals come in a variety of sizes, there are few limitations to how large this block copolymer array can be produced, the researchers said.

They also noted that the angle and depth of the sawtooth ridges can be easily varied by changing the temperature at which the crystal is heated to fine-tune the desired pattern.

"We can generate nearly perfect arrays over macroscopic surfaces where the density is over 15 times higher than anything achieved before," said Russell. "With that order of density, one could get a high-definition picture on a screen the size of a JumboTron."

"It's one thing to get dozens of soldiers to stand in perfect formation in an area the size of a classroom, each person equidistant from the other, but quite another to get tens of trillions of individuals to do so on the field in a football stadium," Xu added. "Using this crystal surface as a guide is like giving the soldiers a marker so they know where to stand."

Other research teams across the country are engaged in similar efforts to break the size barrier of self-assembled block copolymers, but this new project by the UMass Amherst-UC Berkeley scientists differs in that it does not rely upon advances in lithography to achieve its goals.

In the semiconductor industry, optical lithography is a process in which light passes through a mask with a desired circuit pattern onto a photosensitive material, or photoresist, that undergoes a chemical change.

Several steps of chemical treatment are then used to develop the desired pattern for subsequent use.

To keep up with Moore's Law and the demand for increasingly smaller features for semiconductors and microprocessors, industry has turned to nanolithography and the use of ever-shorter wavelengths of light at greater cost.

"The challenge with photolithography is that it is rapidly approaching the resolution limits of light," said Xu. "In our approach, we shifted away from this 'top down' method of producing smaller features and instead utilized advantages of a 'bottom up' approach. The beauty of the method we developed is that it takes from processes already in use in industry, so it will be very easy to incorporate into the production line with little cost."

An added benefit, said Xu, is that "our technique is more environmentally friendly than photolithography, which requires the use of harsh chemicals and acids."

UC Berkeley and UMass Amherst have filed a joint patent on the technology.

The U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation helped support the research.

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Private Caller? New Service Says, Not Any More

[via wired]

A new service set for launch Tuesday allows cellphone users to unmask the Caller ID on blocked incoming calls, obtaining the phone number, and in some cases the name and address, of the no-longer-anonymous caller.

The service, called TrapCall, is offered by New Jersey's TelTech systems, the company behind the controversial SpoofCard Caller ID spoofing service. The new service is likely to be even more controversial — and popular.

"What’s really interesting is that they’ve totally taken the privacy out of Caller ID," says former hacker Kevin Mitnick, who alpha-tested the service.

TrapCall's basic unmasking service is free, and includes the option of blacklisting unwanted callers by phone number. It also allows you to listen to your voicemail over the web. It's currently available to AT&T and T-Mobile subscribers, with support for the other major carriers due within weeks, says TelTech president Meir Cohen.

"It’s not meant for spies, it’s not meant for geeks, it’s not meant for any specific target audience,” Cohen says. "Everybody hates getting blocked calls, and in this day and age they want to know who’s calling, and they want the option of taking the call or not."

Consumers have had the option of shielding their number from display since Caller ID was introduced in the early 1990s, either by dialing *-6-7 before placing a call, or asking their carrier for blanket anonymity for their line. But TrapCall takes advantage of a loophole in Caller ID blocking that’s long benefited corporate phone customers: Namely, calls to toll-free numbers are not blocked, because those calls are paid for by the recipient.

TrapCall instructs new customers to reprogram their cellphones to send all rejected, missed and unanswered calls to TrapCall’s own toll-free number. If the user sees an incoming call with Caller ID blocked, he just presses the button on the phone that would normally send it to voicemail. The call invisibly loops through TelTech’s system, then back to the user’s phone, this time with the caller’s number displayed as the Caller ID.

The caller hears only ringing during this rerouting, which took about six seconds in Wired.com's test with an iPhone on AT&T. Rejecting the call a second time, or failing to answer it, sends it to the user’s standard voicemail.

The service comes as bad news to advocates for domestic violence victims, who fought hard to make free blocking an option in the early days of Caller ID. "I have huge concerns about that,” says Cindy Southworth, director of technology at the National Network to End Domestic Violence, in Washington, D.C. Southworth fears that abusers will use the new service to locate partners fleeing a violent relationship.

In a notable case in 1995, a Texas man named Kevin Roberson shot his ex-girlfriend to death after locating her through the Caller ID device on her roommate's phone line.

The problem is serious, because domestic violence victims who've fled an abusive relationship often have to stay in contact with their abuser by phone, particularly in situations where the former couple share custody of their children,” Southworth says.

"The judge will require that the victim contact the offender to discuss where they’re dropping the children off, for example," says Southworth. "And there’s often court-mandated phone contact between the abusive partner and the victim." In those cases the victims often rely on Caller ID blocking to keep their former partner from knowing where they’re living.

Cohen dismisses that concern, arguing that Caller ID blocking was never secure to begin with. "It’s very simple for somebody to forward a phone to an 800 number in their office, and right there, they’re picking up the phone number of the person who is calling," he says. At least now the false illusion of Caller ID privacy will be dispelled by TrapCall, he adds.

In addition to the free service, branded Fly Trap, a $10-per-month upgrade called Mouse Trap provides human-created transcripts of voicemail messages, and in some cases uses text messaging to send you the name of the caller — information not normally available to wireless customers. Mouse Trap will also send you text messages with the numbers of people who call while your phone was powered off, even if they don’t leave a message.

With the $25-a-month Bear Trap upgrade, you can also automatically record your incoming calls, and get text messages with the billing name and street address of some of your callers, which TelTech says is derived from commercial databases.

TelTech is no stranger to controversy. Its Spoofcard product lets customers send any phone number they want as their Caller ID. Among other things, the spoofing service has been used by thieves to activate stolen credit cards, by hackers to access celebrities’ voicemail boxes, and by telephone hoaxsters to stage a dangerous prank called "swatting," in which they spoof an enemy’s phone number while calling the police with a fake hostage situation. The goal of swatting — realized in hundreds of cases around the country — is to send armed cops bursting into the victim's home.

Cohen’s company has cooperated in law enforcement investigations of Spoofcard abuse, which have led to several prosecutions and convictions. Despite the spoofing-linked crimes, he insists that most Spoofcard users are just privacy-conscious consumers, including celebrities, government officials, private investigators and even spousal abuse victims and shelters.

He also expects his new business will be good for his old one.

“The only way to block your number after this is released is to use Spoofcard,” he says with a laugh.

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Do You Know What’s in Your Detergent? Activists Sue to Find Out

[via planetsave]

Environmental groups will sue Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, and two other chemical cleaner manufacturers later today to demand that they release the ingredients to their products.

Attorneys from EarthJustice will file the suit on behalf the Sierra Club and American Lung Association and four other groups. The lawsuit will be filed in New York to take advantage of a seldom-used 1976 law against using phosphates in soaps.

The groups requested ingredient disclosure from the four companies and many others last September, citing the New York law, but these four refused to comply. On the other hand, Method Based and Seventh Generation, both companies that specialize in non-polluting cleansers, obliged the request and disclosed their ingredients.

The activists contend that some chemicals in detergents may cause asthma and skin problems for humans, and some may affect fish and marine mammal health. In the end, however, it comes down to the fact that people deserve to at least know what is inside the product they are buying.

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Why Do All Cars Look the Same?

The experts tell you about the future of automotive design

[via aol autos]

Have you ever exited a supermarket and wondered why you couldn't find your car? Chances are you suffered from something all of us have at some point: cars tend to look a lot alike these days. But, why? Furthermore, what do today's best automotive designers think cars will look like twenty years from now? Will cars fly or be a predictable evolution of what's on the road today?

Discussing the future of automobiles is a favorite pastime among those in the automotive business. Designers and engineers from every generation have put their dreams on paper (or LCDs). Some have even been spectacularly brought to life. The Firebird concepts are a trio of future-think cars produced by General Motors for their Motorama shows of the 1950s. Jet airplanes influenced these show-only creations that included such innovations as turbine engines, drive-by-wire controls, and titanium bodies.

But GM's designers from the Eisenhower era didn't accurately predict the future, although many cars today do feature drive-by-wire controls and lightweight alloys. Even though cars have never looked like the finned Firebirds, this design folly doesn't damp today's crop of automotive designers from offering opinions on what the cars of 2028 may look like.

2010 Toyota Prius

At a recent Automotive Press Association gathering in Detroit, senior designers participated in a panel discussion about automotive design trends. The distinguished panel consisted of Pat Schiavone from Ford, Dave Marek of Honda, Nissan's Robert Bauer, Ty Stump from Chrysler, and John Cafaro from GM. These styling masters identified key trends that will drive automotive design for the next decade and beyond.

It's All About Aero
Did you ever wonder why the fuel-sipping Toyota Prius and the Chevrolet Volt electric car have nearly the same profile in silhouette? Aerodynamics. Any aero engineer knows that a car designed for maximum mileage must enter the air smoothly and have a relatively sharp cutoff at the rear (to cleanly detach the air stream from the body). The general shape of Prius and Volt use a similar approach to meet their aerodynamic (and fuel economy) targets.

What you don't see when you look at the Prius or Volt are the painstakingly details that enhance the general shape of the vehicles to make them more efficient at piercing the air. Whereas older cars used to have window frames around the side glass that could catch the wind, the Prius and Volt have nearly smooth side surfaces -- even the door handles are aerodynamically designed. The APA design panel agreed that "smoothness" is the trend future.

2010 Honda Insight

Cars like GM's 1996 EV1 and the 2000 Honda Insight have already shown the world what radical (but practical) aero designs look like. Their diminutive size helped mileage, and foreshadowed our current enchantment with smaller cars (like the smart fortwo). Among their many aerodynamic features were skirted rear wheels. These cars foreshadowed the smoothness trend.

In the future, designers will embrace new technologies to make cars smoother still. For example, large wind-catching exterior rearview mirrors will be replaced with miniature rear-facing cameras that have no aerodynamic drag. (These cameras will display what's behind you on interior monitors.) Front grills will feature movable panels that open and close to meet the cooling needs of the engine. When these panels are closed, the car will benefit from less drag and get better fuel economy.

Evolution vs. Revolution
Designers talked about the public's resistance to designs that are too wild or aggressive. Honda's Dave Marak opines that more vehicles will take on the cab-forward look of his company's hydrogen-powered FCX. "People have seen this general shape before, and this is something they're willing to park in their driveway," he thinks.

Honda FCX Clarity

If you trace a line from the hood to the windshield to the roof on the FCX Clarity, the transitions are gentle and smooth. While this may not look radical, compared to the angular shape of sedans from the 1980s (think of a Chevrolet Caprice or Dodge Diplomat), the FCX is shaped like a bullet. This look will become more mainstream.

GM's John Cafaro astutely noted that "Just as all birds are aerodynamic and don't look the same, cars will continue to show a diversity of style." His comment was in response to a question from the audience about the probability of all cars needed to look the same in order to be efficient. As proof, Cafaro pointed out that the 2010 Cadillac SRX crossover, an aerodynamic crossover.

The Next Big Thing
Ford's Pat Schiavone thinks that a styling revolution could be brewing. He shared that Ford as pulled out a couple of old concept vehicles for inspiration. He referenced the series of Probe design studies that were on the auto show circuit in the 1980s, and specifically referenced the Probe IV and V from 1982 and 1985. He also brought up the Synergy 2010 vehicle produced by Ford in cooperation with Chrysler and General Motors. The Synergy represents a more recent look forward (1996). Beyond the aerodynamic styling, it also features a hybrid powertrain.

1985 Ford Probe Concept

Schiavone says, "With decades more experience and technology than we had when we did the Probes in the 80s and 90s, I think we could see bubble cars one day in the near future. It could be the next big thing. Advanced materials and technologies may allow us to do something cool like that." Perhaps one day the car the Jetsons used to cruise Orbit City will be a reality.

Design Perspective -- The Time for Innovation
Ford's Model T (now a century old) typifies the upright buggy-derived style of early automobiles. As the first car designed in a wind tunnel (one owned by the Wright Brothers), Chrysler's benchmark 1934 Airflow began the era of modern aerodynamic styling and engineering. More recently, the 1986 Ford Taurus put a different face on aerodynamic design, one many called the jellybean look.

What will be next? For the near-term, expect derivative mono-block shapes like the 2010 Toyota Prius, Honda Insight, and the 2011 Chevrolet Volt. What may happen closer to 2028 is unknown, but we should expect that it will be very cool.

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Yes, Virginia, there is a magenta

[via arstechnica]

A meme circulating on Twitter recently suggests magenta is not color. We beg to differ.

There is a nasty rumor making its way around the interconnected series of tubes we call the Internet. The rumor was sparked by an article on The Neurostimulation Technology Portal by Liz Elliott entitled "Magenta Ain't A Colour," which has since had people exclaiming, "Fact: Magenta isn't a color," or, "Magenta is a lie." The truth is a little more complicated than that, but I assure you that magenta is not a lie—or at least not any more a lie than any other color.

See, what we call the "visible spectrum" is really a very narrow band in a much larger spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. It is visible because our eyes have cells called "cones" in the retina that are sensitive to these wavelengths—in the range of about 400–700nm—to varying degrees. Some of the cones are sensitive to longer wavelengths, some to medium wavelengths, and others to shorter wavelengths. These wavelengths correspond to (roughly) what we call red, green, and blue light, and form the basis of the RGB color model used by digital images, TVs, flat panels, and more.

This chart shows the range of EM radiation, and the narrow band we call visible light within it.

Wikimedia Commons

As visible light enters the eye and strikes the cone cells, the cells send electrical signals along the optic nerve to the brain. This is how our body "senses" light. Our brain interprets those three separate sensations to produce the perception that we call "color."

So back to this rumor that magenta somehow isn't a color. Elliott's thesis centers on the argument that magenta appears nowhere on the spectrum of visible light, so it therefore isn't a "real" color. If you look at a standard CIE chromaticity diagram, which maps wavelengths of light according to human perception, you'll note that every point along the curve corresponds to a single wavelength of light. Magenta, as it were, lies along what's commonly called the "pink-purple line" that runs across the bottom. All colors along this line do not exist as single wavelengths. But, all points inside the "color bag" above that line do not exist as single wavelengths, either.

The CIE 1931 color space chromaticity diagram. The outer curved boundary is the spectral (or monochromatic) properties of light, with wavelengths shown in nanometers.

Wikimedia Commons

The truth is, no color actually exists outside of our brain's perception of it. Everything we call a color—and there are a lot more than what comes in your box of Crayolas—only exists in our heads. We define color in terms of how our brains process the stimuli produced by a mix of wavelengths in the range of 400–700nm hitting specialized cells in our eyes—"one, or any mixture, of the constituents into which light can be separated in a spectrum or rainbow," says the OED. Elliot's article might be better titled, "Magenta is not a single wavelength of electromagnetic radiation in the 'visible' spectrum, but our brain perceives it anyway."

So despite what you read on Twitter, Virginia, there is a magenta. And it's all in our heads.

Further reading

• Cambridge in Colour: Tutorials: Color Perception
• Science Daily: Color Perception Is Not In The Eye Of The Beholder: It's In The Brain

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The 27 Club: Musicians Who Died At The Age of 27

[via upvenue]

Kurt Cobain once quoted Neil Young who said “it’s better to burn out than to fade away” and then he (allegedly) shot himself in the face. Kurt, who would have turned 42 this coming Friday, is part of the unlucky group of musicians who died at the tender age of 27 when their careers were still in bloom (oh, bad pun). As homage to the Nirvana frontman, we take a scroll through memory lane and honor the five greatest musicians who are part of the cursed 27 club; May they rest in peace.

Jimi Hendrix – The Jimi Hendrix Experience (died 1970)

There was nothing about Jimi Hendrix that didn’t stick out; from his flamboyant outfits, to his left-handed guitar or his use of amp overdrive. After being turned down by The Rolling Stones, Jimi was introduced to Chas Chandler via Keith Richard’s girlfriend. They went on to form The Jimi Hendrix Experience a rock band that would revolutionize the genre forever. In 1969, he headlined the biggest music festival of all time, Woodstock. One year later, Jimi Hendrix was found dead after overdosing on pills and drowning in his own vomit (Asphyxiation).

Brian Jones – The Rolling Stones (died 1969)

Brian Jones was the founder of a little known band named The Rolling Stones. While on the phone to secure a gig with a venue owner, Brian came up with the name “Rollin(g) Stones” by reading it off an album that was laying around. Their music consisted mostly of R&B covers and it wasn’t until Andrew Loog Oldham joined that they began shifting their focus to newer, more original material. This transition reduced Jones' role in the band which was further accelerated with his drug habit and alcohol abuse. He became alienated from The Rolling Stones and eventually, he was no longer a member of the band he helped form. One month later, he was found face down in his swimming pool.

Janis Joplin – Big Brother and The Holding Company (died 1970)

Janis’ big break came in 1966 when she became the lead vocalist of the psychedelic hippie rock band, Big Brother and The Holding Company. She was renowned for her strong powerful vocals during a male dominated rock era. Janis Joplin performed at Woodstock after having several shots of heroin and being highly inebriated. In 1970, she flew to Brazil where she cleaned up her act and remained sober for a while. She would later return to the US where her drug habits would resurface and ultimately, get the better of her as she died from an apparent heroin overdose in October 1970.

Jim Morrison – The Doors (died 1971)

Jim Morrison was a poet, a writer, a filmmaker and of course, the lead singer for the rock band, The Doors. Controversy surrounded The Doos when they were asked to perform on the Ed Sullivan show. Fearing that the lyric “Girl We Couldn’t Get Higher” was too risqué for television, Ed Sullivan requested that the band modify the sentence to be more TV friendly to which they agreed. When they played, Jim proceeded with original wording which infuriated Ed Sullivan. The Doors had great success in the late 60s but Jim Morrison started to get out of control. He was constantly drugged or drunk and would oftentimes show up late for live performances. In 1971, he moved to Paris and a few months later, Jim Morrison was found dead in his apartment. The circumstances surrounding his death are still unclear as an autopsy was never performed.

Kurt Cobain – Nirvana (died 1994)

We began with a left-handed guitarist, so it’s only fitting that we end with one as well. In an era where rock music was all about long hair and leather jackets, Kurt Cobain sported short hair and wore flannel clothing. Nirvana became an overnight success when they took Michael Jackson off the number one slot in the Billboard music charts with their smash hit, Smells Like Teen Spirit. Grunge music would go on to flood the radio airwaves throughout the early nineties. In 1992, Cobain wed the equally unorthodox Courtney Love with whom they had daughter Frances Bean Cobain. In 1993, Nirvana, known for their grungy loud music, were approached by MTV and asked to perform a quieter, more intimate acoustic set. Kurt Cobain’s emotional performance in “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” still sends chills down our spines.

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Man Wakes Up After Family OK's Disconnecting Life Support

[via nctimes]

Mike Connelly's family and many of his nurses are calling him a miracle man ---- and doctors are hard-pressed to disagree.

The 56-year-old Vista man's heart stopped in late January and he lay in a coma for 96 hours before his family tearfully gave the OK for physicians at Tri-City Medical Center to disconnect life support.

That's when Connelly woke up.

His stepson, Mike Cooper, was reading Scripture beside Connelly's hospital bed last week when he saw a tear slide down the man's cheek.

Cooper said he didn't think that was significant until he left the room and started walking down the hallway, only to hear shouts from a family member still at Connelly's side.

"He said Mike was responding," Cooper said. "I didn't believe him, but I went back in there, and it was true. You would say his name, and he would turn his head toward you. It was a miracle."

Though doctors had pronounced Connelly's case hopeless and said his brain would never recover, today he is showing steady progress. Those same doctors say Connelly seems headed for a full recovery.

Martin Nielsen, Connelly's pulmonary doctor, said it is not a stretch to call the sudden recovery miraculous.

"When we get a guy like Mike Connelly, it's almost like a miracle," Nielsen said. "I've never seen anybody come back like he has."

Connelly's ordeal started at his home around 6 a.m. Jan. 31, when he developed an arrhythmia ---- an electrical short circuit in the heart muscle that causes the vital organ to stop beating, usually with no warning.

Connelly's wife, Loris, said she awoke to the sound of choking.

She found her husband slumped forward in his easy chair, a half-eaten bowl of Raisin Bran in his lap, in the living room of the couple's Vista apartment.

At 6 feet 8 inches and more than 250 pounds, Connelly is not easy to move.

His wife was unable to get him out of his chair and onto the floor by herself.

"I found him totally unconscious," she recalled Monday. "I couldn't find a pulse. I couldn't find any air. He wasn't breathing."

Fearing her husband was dead, Loris Connelly called 911. According to NorthComm fire dispatch records, the call came in at 6:10 a.m. and paramedics arrived at the apartment on Shadowridge Drive at 6:16 a.m.

Nielsen said that when paramedics arrived, Connelly's heart had stopped beating.

He said an electrocardiogram tape recorded during resuscitation efforts showed that paramedics performed CPR and delivered multiple shocks with a portable defibrillator for about 35 minutes before they were able to get the man's heart beating again.

Although no one knows exactly how long Connelly's brain went without oxygen, Nielsen said it had to be at least 10 minutes. That length of time, he said, usually results in severe brain damage if a patient ever regains consciousness.

"Generally, the rule of thumb is if you go for more than four minutes without oxygen, you will see severe damage to the brain," Nielsen said.

Paramedics drove the unconscious man to Tri-City Medical Center, where doctors decided that inducing hypothermia was Connolly's best chance for survival.

They used special cooling blankets to drop his temperature from the normal 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit to about 93 degrees.

The cold, Nielsen explained, helps keep the brain from swelling and has been shown in clinical studies to reduce brain damage.

After 24 hours of cooling, doctors tried to bring Connelly out of an induced coma, but every time they did, he suffered seizures.

Seizures, Nielsen said, are usually a sign that a patient is not going to recover. The family prepared for the worst, but prayed nonetheless.

Connelly woke up a few days later.

Sitting in his hospital room Monday, Connelly conversed with family members and joked with nurses, some who have taken to calling him the "miracle man."

He said his chest aches from the CPR.

"Judging by the way my sternum feels, I'm pretty lucky," he said. "This is all still sinking in, and I think it will be for a long time."

In the 12 days since he awoke, Connelly has suffered muscle spasms ---- some violent ---- that have only recently begun so subside, his wife said.

Loris Connelly said she will always cherish the moment she saw her husband come around.

"When I finally heard the word 'hope,' that's the best word I ever heard," she said.

Family friends set up a "miracle man" trust fund at Wells Fargo Bank to help the Connellys defray the cost of his long hospital stay.

Donations can be made care of Marilyn Cipriani, 1075 Shadowridge Drive. Unit 70, Vista, CA 92081.

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100 days, 100 songs, 100 locations, 100 dances.

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'Frozen Smoke:' Ultimate Sponge For Cleaning Up Oil Spills

[via sciencedaily]

Scientists in Arizona and New Jersey are reporting that aerogels, a super-lightweight solid sometimes called “frozen smoke,” may serve as the ultimate sponge for capturing oil from wastewater and effectively soaking up environmental oil spills.

In the new study, Robert Pfeffer and colleagues point out that the environmental challenges of oil contamination go beyond widely publicized maritime oil spills like the Exxon Valdez incident.

Experts estimate that each year people dump more than 200 million gallons of used oil into sewers, streams, and backyards, resulting in polluted wastewater that is difficult to treat. Although there are many different sorbent materials for removing used oil, such as activated carbon, they are often costly and inefficient. Hydrophobic silica aerogels are highly porous and absorbent material, and seemed like an excellent oil sponge.

The scientists packed a batch of tiny aerogel beads into a vertical column and exposed them to flowing water containing soybean oil to simulate the filtration process at a wastewater treatment plant. They showed that the aerogel beads absorbed up to 7 times their weight and removed oil from the wastewater at high efficiency, better than many conventional sorbent materials.

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Diamond is no longer nature’s hardest material

[via itvnews]

Diamond will always be a woman’s best friend but the gemstone is no longer the world’s hardest material, according to scientists.

Instead, a rare natural substance, called lonsdaleite, which is made from carbon atoms just like diamond, has emerged as 58 per cent harder than the gemstone, according to a report in the New Scientist.

An international team, led by Zicheng Pan at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, simulated how atoms in two substances believed to have promise as very hard materials would respond to the stress of a finely tipped probe pushing down on them.

The simulation revealed that the first one, wurtzite boron nitride, withstood 18 per cent more stress than diamond, while the second, the mineral lonsdaleite, 58 per cent more.

Rare mineral lonsdaleite is sometimes formed when meteorites containing graphite hit Earth, while wurtzite boron nitride is formed during volcanic eruptions that produce very high temperatures and pressures.

If confirmed, however, wurtzite boron nitride may turn out most useful of the two, because it is stable in oxygen at higher temperatures than diamond.

And, according to the scientists, this makes it ideal to place on the tips of cutting and drilling tools operating at high temperatures, or as corrosion resistant films on the surface of a space vehicle, for example. Paradoxically, wurtzite boron nitrides hardness appears to come from the flexibility of the bonds between the atoms that make it up.

When its stressed some bonds tend to re-orientate themselves by about 90 to relieve the tension.

Although diamond undergoes a similar process, something about the structure of wurtzite boron nitride makes it nearly 80 per cent stronger after the process takes place, the studys co-author Changfeng Chen of University of Nevada wrote in the Physical Review Letters journal.

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Loneliness Affects How The Brain Operates

[via sciencedaily]

Social isolation affects how people behave as well as how their brains operate, a study at the University of Chicago shows.

The research, presented February 15 at a symposium, "Social Emotion and the Brain," at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is the first to use fMRI scans to study the connections between perceived social isolation (or loneliness) and activity in the brain. Combining fMRI scans with data relevant to social behavior is part of an emerging field examining brain mechanisms—an approach to psychology being pioneered at the University of Chicago.

Researchers found that the ventral striatum—a region of the brain associated with rewards—is much more activated in non-lonely people than in the lonely when they view pictures of people in pleasant settings. In contrast, the temporoparietal junction—a region associated with taking the perspective of another person—is much less activated among lonely than in the non-lonely when viewing pictures of people in unpleasant settings.

"Given their feelings of social isolation, lonely individuals may be left to find relative comfort in nonsocial rewards," said John Cacioppo, the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Professor in Psychology at the University. He spoke at the briefing along with Jean Decety, the Irving B. Harris Professor in Psychology and Psychiatry at the University.

The ventral striatum, which is critical to learning, is a key portion of the brain and is activated through primary rewards such as food and secondary rewards such as money. Social rewards and feelings of love also may activate the region.

Cacioppo, one of the nation's leading scholars on loneliness, has shown that loneliness undermines health and can be as detrimental as smoking. About one in five Americans experience loneliness, he said. Decety is one of the nation's leading researchers to use fMRI scans to explore empathy.

They were among five co-authors of a paper, "In the Eye of the Beholder: Individual Differences in Perceived Social Isolation Predict Regional Brain Activation to Social Stimuli," published in the current issue of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

In the study, 23 female undergraduates were tested to determine their level of loneliness. While in an fMRI scanner, the subjects were shown unpleasant pictures and human conflict as well as pleasant things such as money and happy people.

The subjects who rated as lonely were least likely to have strong activity in their ventral striata when shown pictures of people enjoying themselves.

Although loneliness may be influence brain activity, the research also suggests that activity in the ventral striatum may prompt feelings of loneliness, Decety said. "The study raises the intriguing possibility that loneliness may result from reduced reward-related activity in the ventral striatum in response to social rewards."

In addition to differing responses in the ventral striatum, the subjects also recorded differing responses in parts of the brain that indicated loneliness played a role in how their brain operates.

Joining Decety and Cacioppo in writing the Journal of Cognitive Science paper were Catherine Norris, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Dartmouth College; George Monteleone, a graduate student at the University of Chicago; and Howard Nusbaum, Chair of Psychology at the University of Chicago.

Decety and Cacioppo discussed the new field of brain mechanism in a paper in the current issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science. The new field extends the work of Charles Darwin, who "regarded the brain as a product of evolution and the science of psychology as concerned with these foundations," they wrote.

By studying brain mechanisms, researchers hope to gain new insights by examining mental activities surrounding consciousness, perception and thought through an understanding of how columns of neurons stacked next to each other form elementary circuits to function as a unit, they wrote.

New visualization tools such as three-dimensional imaging will help scholars develop a new way of studying psychology, they said.

"Psychological science in the 21st century can, and should, become not only the science of overt behavior, and not only the science of the mind, but also the science of the brain," they concluded.

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6 Reasons Why a Little Glass of Wine Each Day May Do You Good

[via eating healthy]

The list of wine’s benefits is long—and getting more surprising all the time. Already well-known as heart healthy, wine in moderation might help you lose weight, reduce forgetfulness, boost your immunity, and help prevent bone loss.

With America likely to edge out France and Italy in total wine consumption in the near future, according to one analyst, and with women buying more than 6 out of every 10 bottles sold in this country, we’re happy to report that wine may do all of the following:

1. Feed your head
Wine could preserve your memory. When researchers gave memory quizzes to women in their 70s, those who drank one drink or more every day scored much better than those who drank less or not at all. Wine helps prevent clots and reduce blood vessel inflammation, both of which have been linked to cognitive decline and heart disease, explains Tedd Goldfinger, DO, of the University of Arizona School of Medicine. Alcohol also seems to raise HDL, the so-called good cholesterol, which helps unclog your arteries.

2. Keep the scale in your corner
Studies find that people who drink wine daily have lower body mass than those who indulge occasionally; moderate wine drinkers have narrower waists and less abdominal fat than people who drink liquor. Alcohol may encourage your body to burn extra calories for as long as 90 minutes after you down a glass. Beer seems to have a similar effect.

3. Boost your body’s defenses
In one British study, those who drank roughly a glass of wine a day reduced by 11% their risk of infection by Helicobacter pylori bacteria, a major cause of gastritis, ulcers, and stomach cancers. As little as half a glass may also guard against food poisoning caused by germs like salmonella when people are exposed to contaminated food, according to a Spanish study.

4. Guard against ovarian woes
When Australian researchers recently compared women with ovarian cancer to cancer-free women, they found that roughly one glass of wine a day seemed to reduce the risk of the disease by as much as 50 percent. Earlier research at the University of Hawaii produced similar findings. Experts suspect this may be due to antioxidants or phytoestrogens, which have high anticancer properties and are prevalent in wine. And in a recent University of Michigan study, a red wine compound helped kill ovarian cancer cells in a test tube.

5. Build better bones
On average, women who drink moderately seem to have higher bone mass than abstainers. Alcohol appears to boost estrogen levels; the hormone seems to slow the body’s destruction of old bone more than it slows the production of new bone.

6. Prevent blood-sugar trouble
Premenopausal women who drink one or two glasses of wine a day are 40 percent less likely than women who don’t drink to develop type 2 diabetes, according to a 10-year study by Harvard Medical School. While the reasons aren’t clear, wine seems to reduce insulin resistance in diabetic patients.

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The Size Of The Universe [vid]

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'Most of What We Eat Is not Real Food'

[via spiegel]

Legendary California chef Alice Waters, who is a jury member at this year's Berlin International Film Festival, talks to SPIEGEL ONLINE about why we need to change the way we eat, Obama's support for the food movement and how to forage in Switzerland in the winter.

The "eat local" movement has become a force to be reckoned with in the United States in recent years, going from the fringes to the mainstream as more and more people become interested in eating better and minimizing their carbon footprint. The kind of locally grown, sustainable organic food that was once a California phenomenon can now be found at stores and farmers markets across the country.

One of the pioneers of that movement is chef Alice Waters, who transformed her state's cooking in the 1970s into world-renowned "California cuisine" with her Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse. Inspired by her experiences in France, she promoted the use of produce from local farms that is in season and advocated planting vegetable gardens in schools.

More than 30 years later, Waters is promoting sustainable agriculture as tirelessly as ever. She is now vice president of the international Slow Food movement, which promotes regionally grown goods and local culinary traditions. In November, Waters wrote an open letter to then President-elect Barack Obama, offering her services as an adviser and urging him to plant a vegetable garden on the White House lawn.

This February she enjoys another distinction: The self-confessed movie buff is a member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival. This year's festival features a number of films relating to the new food movement, including the documentary "Food, Inc.," which is highly critical of industrial food production, and the Slow Food portrait "Terra Madre."

SPIEGEL ONLINE talked to Alice Waters about the rise of the Slow Food movement and why the fight for real food needs to be taken to Washington.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What's wrong with the food we eat today?

Alice Waters: Most of it is not real food, in my opinion. Real food is grown by people who take care of the land, who refrain from herbicides and pesticides and everything that chemical agribusiness is putting into the food. It's food that's grown for taste, and it's grown in a way that pays people a good wage for their work -- it's not grown at somebody else's expense. As the Slow Food folks say, it's good, clean and fair. Generally we're supporting a system that is not.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You've been promoting the use of locally grown ingredients since the 1970s. Do you feel things are getting better?

Waters: It's kind of incredible -- the globalization of food is, of course, omnipresent now, but there's also been this counter movement of organic and sustainable food that is rising up in countries around the world. I never knew, way back then, that so many other people in the US were doing the same thing -- we didn't know each other. But now we have met, and we've met globally through Slow Food. And it's very, very good this meeting, because we feel empowered.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: In which places is the use of sustainable local food particularly well developed?

Waters: There are a lot of places where things are pretty far along in the US -- Northern California is one of those places, Vermont is another. But I think it's very important that we bring this movement together in a very public way. We need to gather our forces together. And it seems to me right now that Washington, DC is the place we need to go.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What do you hope Obama will do to promote good food?

Waters: He's already done one remarkable thing in relation to food. He hired as his private chef a young person from Chicago (editor's note: Sam Kass) who is extremely outspoken, both about sustainable food and also about food in schools. He has actually been out talking to people about it and it's all over the newspapers now, which is a really good thing. Plus Obama is sending his children to a school in Washington (editor's note: Sidwell Friends), which I have visited, that is very interested in eco-gastronomy. They're interested in sourcing their food and they have built a green cafeteria.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What should we do as consumers in order to eat better?

Waters: We have to uncover. We have to forage. I talk about foragers -- that's what I call the person who goes out in the woods or out in the neighborhood and starts finding food, like a mushroom forager. The first thing we have to look for is grass-fed beef (Ed's note: Food activists oppose the production of corn-fed beef because it helps to spread E. coli infections and the transport of corn comes with a massive carbon footprint). That alone could change the climate on the planet. The production of beef is one of the biggest problems we have.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Eating local is fine if you live in California or Italy, where there is a large selection of locally grown produce. But what happens if you live in a region like northern Europe, with its long, cold winters and short growing seasons?

Waters: That's what everyone always says. But no matter where you are, you can find things. Every region has its own products. For example, I went to Davos in Switzerland and I cooked a dinner in the mountains in the snow on Jan. 20, using only things from that region. We just don't think that there is anything there, but we eat differently in the winter than in the summer -- it's just different food. We had a forager out there in Davos. First of all, he found this beautiful red polenta that's only from that place, ground from a special red corn. Then we had cured meats that were exceptional -- little dried sausages unusually spiced with herbs from the mountains. We had lovely cheeses. We toasted nuts and seasoned them with spices. We found wholegrain bread cooked in a wood oven. We found kale down in the valley. We found baby mountain goat and we braised it. We found the best apples I've ever tasted and we made an apple tart. It's just endless.

Interview conducted by David Gordon Smith.

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There's an app for that: Casinos on alert for card counters using iPhones

[via tuaw]

File under "It was only a matter of time": The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Nevada gaming authorities are warning casinos to be on the lookout for blackjack card counters getting an assist from their iPhones. While card counting itself is not banned in Nevada, the use of an assistive technology is a felony (!), and apps like Card Counter or A Blackjack Card Counter make it much easier for the math-impaired. ABCC's 'stealth mode,' which uses vibration to alert the user when the time is right for a big bet, is particularly head-achey for casino security.

Nevada casinos don't have any instances yet of gamblers being kicked out or arrested for iPhone use -- the initial warning was from California authorities, who spotted card-counter apps in use at a Northern California casino and thought it prudent to raise the alarm. The lure of easier blackjack winnings may be too tempting for some people to pass up, but the consequence of this iCheating may be that we all have to check our iPhones before heading to the blackjack tables.

Aside from the logistical challenges of an iPhone ban in casinos ("Sure, I don't need my phone, my family knows that I'll be here at the quarter slots for the next five hours"), this is a fascinating example of how the App Store is turning us all into denizens of the Matrix, with skills and information on demand and jacked in, literally at our fingertips. Need to level a bookshelf? Fine. Want to identify local birds? Done. Get your garage mojo in gear? Can do. Learn a language? Of course. Adding the ability to move money from the casino's pocket into yours with better odds than usual seems like a natural next step... and another 'disruptive technology' is going to come into conflict with a long-established, politically and economically powerful industry. Let's watch.

Update: Commenter 'brainopera' contributed his "Matrix moment" -- have you had yours yet?

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Most Bizarre Experiments Of All Time

[via magazinetimepass]

20] Heartbeat At Death

On October 31, 1938, John Deering took a last drag on his cigarette, sat down in a chair, and allowed a prison guard to place a black hood over his head and pin a target to his chest. Next the guard attached electronic sensors to Deering’s wrists.

Deering had volunteered to participate in an experiment, the first of its kind, to have his heartbeat recorded as he was shot through the chest by a firing squad. The prison physician, Dr. Stephen Besley, figured that since Deering was being executed anyway, science might as well benefit from the event. Perhaps some valuable information about the effect of fear on the heart could be learned.

The electrocardiogram immediately disclosed that, despite Deering’s calm exterior, his heart was beating like a jackhammer at 120 beats per minute. The sheriff gave the order to fire, and Deering’s heartbeat raced up to 180 beats per minute. Then four bullets ripped into his chest, knocking him back in his chair. One bullet bore directly into the right side of his heart. For four seconds his heart spasmed. A moment later it spasmed again. Then the rhythm gradually declined until, 15.4 seconds after the first shot, Deering’s heart stopped.

The next day Dr. Besley offered the press a eulogy of sorts for Deering: “He put on a good front. The electrocardiograph film shows his bold demeanor hid the actual emotions pounding within him. He was scared to death.”

19] Shock the Puppy

When Stanley Milgram published the results of his obedience experiment in 1963, it sent shockwaves through the scientific community. Other researchers found it hard to believe that people could be so easily manipulated, and they searched for any mistakes Milgram might have made. Charles Sheridan and Richard King theorized that perhaps Milgram’s subjects had merely played along with the experiment because they realized the victim was faking his cries of pain. To test this possibility, Sheridan and King decided to repeat Milgram’s experiment, introducing one significant difference. Instead of using an actor, they would use an actual victim who would really get shocked. Obviously they couldn’t use a human for this purpose, so they used the next best thing — a cute, fluffy puppy.

Sheridan and King told their subjects — volunteers from an undergraduate psychology course — that the puppy was being trained to distinguish between a flickering and a steady light. It had to stand either to the right or the left depending on the cue from the light. If the animal failed to stand in the correct place, the subjects had to press a switch to shock it. As in the Milgram experiment, the shock level increased 15 volts for every wrong answer. But unlike the Milgram experiment, the puppy really was getting zapped.

As the voltage increased, the puppy first barked, then jumped up and down, and finally started howling with pain. The volunteers were horrified. They paced back and forth, hyperventilated, and gestured with their hands to show the puppy where to stand. Many openly wept. Yet the majority of them, twenty out of twenty-six, kept pushing the shock button right up to the maximum voltage.

Intriguingly, the six students who refused to go on were all men. All thirteen women who participated in the experiment obeyed right up until the end.

18] Would You Go To Bed With Me Tonight?

If you were a man walking across the campus of Florida State University in 1978, an attractive young woman might have approached you and said these exact words: “I have been noticing you around campus. I find you to be attractive. Would you go to bed with me tonight?”

If you were that man, you probably would have thought that you had just gotten incredibly lucky. But not really. You were actually an unwitting subject in an experiment designed by the psychologist Russell Clark.

Clark had persuaded the students of his social psychology class to help him find out which gender, in a real-life situation, would be more receptive to a sexual offer from a stranger. The only way to find out, he figured, was to actually get out there and see what would happen. So young men and women from his class fanned out across campus and began propositioning strangers.

The results weren’t very surprising. Seventy-five percent of guys were happy to oblige an attractive female stranger (and those who said no typically offered an excuse such as, “I’m married”). But not a single woman accepted the identical offer of an attractive male. In fact, most of them demanded the guy leave her alone.

At first the psychological community dismissed Clark’s experiment as a trivial stunt, but gradually his experiment gained first acceptance, and then praise for how dramatically it revealed the differing sexual attitudes of men and women. Today it’s considered a classic. But why men and women display such different attitudes remains as hotly debated as ever.

17] Stimuli Eliciting Sexual Behavior in Turkeys

Male turkeys aren’t fussy. Give them a lifelike model of a female turkey and they’ll happily try to mate with it as eagerly as they would with the real thing.

This observation intrigued Martin Schein and Edgar Hale of the University of Pennsylvania, and made them curious about what might be the minimal stimulus required to excite a turkey. They embarked on a series of experiments to find out. This involved removing parts from the turkey model one by one, until the male turkey eventually lost interest.

Tail, feet, and wings were all removed, but still the clueless bird waddled up to the model, let out an amorous gobble, and tried to do his thing. Finally, the researchers were left with a head on a stick. And surprisingly, the male turkey still showed great interest. In fact, it preferred a head on a stick over a headless body.

Schein and Hale subsequently investigated how minimal they could make the head itself before it failed to elicit a response. They discovered that freshly severed female heads impaled on sticks worked best, but if the male turkey had nothing else it would settle for a plain balsa wood head. Turkeys evidently adhere to the philosophy that if you can’t be with the one you love, then love the one you’re with.

Curious about the mating habits of other poultry, Schein and Hale performed similar tests on White Leghorn Cocks. For those curious, they published their results in an article that boasts one of the most evocative titles in all of science: “Effects of morphological variations of chicken models on sexual responses of cocks.”

16] Seeing Through Cat’s Eyes

In 1999 researchers led by Dr. Yang Dan, an assistant professor of neurobiology at the University of California, Berkeley, anesthetized a cat with sodium pentothal, chemically paralyzed it with Norcuron, and secured it tightly in a surgical frame. They then glued metal posts to the whites of its eyes, and forced it to look a screen that showed scene after scene of swaying trees and turtleneck-wearing men.

This was not a form of Clockword-Orange-style aversion therapy for cats. Instead, it was a remarkable attempt to tap into another creature’s brain and see directly through its eyes. The researchers had inserted fiber electrodes into the vision-processing center of the cat’s brain. The electrodes measured the electrical activity of the brain cells and transmitted this information to a nearby computer which decoded the information and