Top 10: Bizarre Health Fads

Time and time again, we here at AM come across stories that sound too outrageous to be true. Yet, without fail, we are reminded that there is no shortage of people willing to try anything at least once -- no matter how bizarre. The following is a prime example: our top 10 bizarre health fads. [via askmen]

No.10 - The Master Cleanse

Perhaps the longest-lived fad on our list is the Master Cleanse, the detoxification program that consists simply of drinking a concoction of lemon or lime juice, maple syrup, water, and Cayenne pepper -- no eating or drinking anything else -- for a minimum of 10 to a maximum of 45 days. Since 1941, Stanley Burroughs, master of the Master Cleanse, has been promoting his program as a means to rid the body of toxins. Not surprisingly, the lack of macro-nutrients and vitamins can lead to headaches, fatigue and constipation, not to mention that any weight lost is usually replaced once old food habits resume (like that wacky “eating” thing people seem so attached to). But, with a hefty amount of celeb support, the Master Cleanse will probably be around for many years to come.

No.9 - Biotape

Building on our last example of health fads gone wrong is Biotape, the pain-relieving tape disseminated by Smart Inventions Inc. Made of a space-age conductive Mylar that connects broken circuits that cause pain, Biotape and its makers fell flat when confronted by the Federal Trade Commission, having to settle for $2.5 million in consumer refunds. The product’s website is still functional, but can now only claim that the tape connects the broken chi in all of us. Who knew that our chi was broken?

No.8 - Q-Ray Ionized Bracelet

You’ve probably seen the infomercials on the Q-Ray Ionized Bracelet, a breakthrough in science that was first marketed as a pain-relief product, but then went on to promise those who wear it enhanced performance, balance and vitality. How did it achieve its magical effects? Ionization, of course. Not surprisingly, when tested, the Q-Ray was not ionized at all and its makers were court-ordered to turn over $16 million in profits as refunds to consumers due to false advertising.

No.7 - Ear Candling

When you place a long, hollow cone coated in beeswax or paraffin into your ear and let it burn, a subtle vacuum effect is created in the ear canal. This vacuuming effect reportedly draws ear wax out of the ear and thus cures a wide range of medical problems, such as ear aches, sinus infections, headaches and even vertigo -- at least that’s what proponents of ear candling claim. Of course, there is absolutely no medical support for these claims, and instead, serious reports of burns and even punctured ear drums have surfaced. Topping things off, experts even cite that ear candling offers no help for the simple management of ear wax. Next!

No.6 - Ozone Therapy

The use of triatomic ozone (O3) in medicine, referred to as ozone therapy, is nothing new. The process actually dates back to 1856 when ozone was first used to sterilize surgical equipment. Fast forward to the present and it’s still being used extensively in sterilization, extending now to food and water. Beyond sterilization, the bizarre act of infusing the blood or body cavities with ozone has been met with contentious debate, particularly since doing so can pose major health risks. Until these issues are clarified, do yourself a favor and steer clear.

No.5 - Colonics

Remember the whole Michael Phelps and Kellogg’s debacle? While it was undoubtedly a contentious issue, it was almost ironic when you consider that Kellogg’s, a company attempting to uphold moral virtue, was founded by John Kellogg, a man who insisted on the importance of performing regular yogurt enemas and who discouraged female masturbation by use of carbolic acid mutilation. While colonic cleansing does have its place in medicine -- before radiological endoscopy for example -- regular colonic cleansing is dangerous and should be discouraged.

No.4 - Cow Urine

For our next bizarre health fad, we turn our attention to a South Asian nation of one billion -- India. The cow is a sacred creature in India, to such an extent that India's biggest and oldest Hindu nationalist group, the Cow Protection Department of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), hopes to turn cow urine into the next soft-drink craze. The RSS has been steadily building hype for cow urine over the past few years, promoting the liquid as a cure for a range of ailments including liver disease and, of course, cancer. By the end of this year, RSS hopes to release its "cow cola" to the masses, assuring the public that it will taste great. The taste, however, may be of little concern, considering that imposters have already begun selling knock-off buffalo urine as the real thing.

No.3 - Bee Venom

What better way to find out if you are fatally allergic to bee venom than by deliberately letting yourself get stung in the name of health? Welcome to the practice of bee venom therapy, whereby therapists apply bee venom to specific points on the surface of the body to cure or reduce symptoms of arthritis, bursitis, tendinitis, herpes, and even breast cancer. Although the practice is rare in the Western world, bee venom therapy is still abuzz in China, being offered as one of an exhaustive list of folk remedies at any of the 3,000 or so traditional folk medicine clinics across the country. While apitherapy (the medicinal use of bee products, such as honey) has some medicinal usefulness, the claims for bee venom therapy are just too far-fetched to believe.

No.2 - Malariotherapy

It shouldn’t take a lot of smarts to pick up a brochure entitled Malariotherapy and promptly deposit it into the nearest trash can, yet for a fad to even exist there must be at least someone who’s tried it. Since the early 1980s, Dr. Henry Heimlich (of Heimlich Maneuver fame), has been touting the deliberate infection of malaria (a mosquito-borne disease) as therapy for a variety of ailments including Lyme disease, syphilis, and, most recently, AIDS. Yes, AIDS, a disease that attacks the immune system. Thankfully, the FDA, the CDC and numerous clinical experts have strongly rejected the practice.

No.1 - Tapeworm Diet

Anytime your dieting involves sharing your semi-digested foodstuffs with a parasite, more specifically a five meter-long beef tapeworm, it’s likely you’re taking your diet a little too far. This is the tapeworm diet, an archaic diet introduced in the early 20th century. The idea behind the tapeworm diet is rather simple, albeit stupid: Swallow a bunch of beef tapeworm pills, happily consume excess calories as your food is now being partially digested by your newfound friend, and then take medicine to rid your guest once they’ve overstayed their welcome -- fantastic! This obviously dangerous diet fell out of favor rather quickly once the FDA intervened, banning this wildly unsubstantiated fad.

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The 7 Most Horrifying Parasites on the Planet

As soon as your doctor says you've got parasites in your body, you don't need to hear any more details. They're all horrible, right? How can it get worse than little tiny worms or something feeding on your insides? [via cracked]

Actually, it can get way, way worse. As it turns out, there's nothing in nature more creative than a parasite. And we don't mean that in a good way. For instance...

#7.

The Guinea Worm Will Make You Do Its Bidding

Technically, your body is full of tiny creatures already. Bacteria, viruses and so on. So really, should we get freaked out when we find out that there's a specific kind of worm that lives under our skin? And should it really bother us that said worm can grow to be longer than your leg?

This brings us to the guinea worm. It starts small, really small. It begins life as a microscopic larva tiny enough to fit inside of the common water flea. Like the elderly residents of Florida, water fleas love to hang out in stagnant pools of water, gossiping and doing water exercises until they are unknowingly ingested by big, thirsty, humans.

So you go swimming and the flea makes its way down your throat. Now, not being adequately equipped to survive the harsh environment of the human stomach, the water flea is dissolved away, leaving the guinea worm larva behind. It finds a soft, fleshy cavity to burrow into and starts growing.

And growing.

About a year after infection, the full sized guinea worm is no longer microscopic, but instead measures two to three goddamned feet long. As long as a three year-old human child.

Being so large, a cramped human body is no longer adequate real estate. So the worm wants to get out, and here's where it gets even weirder. The worm burrows to the surface of the skin and creates a blister, and causes a burning sensation. It does this on purpose, because the worm has figured out that a burning feeling in a limb makes humans want to dunk it in water.

This is exactly what the worm wants. It pokes its wriggling head out of the blister, and releases its foul, milky brew into the water, containing hundreds of thousands more larvae. They are promptly eaten by water fleas and the whole thing starts all over again.

#6.

Is That Your Tongue, Or is it Cymothoa Exigua?

On one hand, you can relax because this one doesn't affect humans... as far as we know. On the other hand, it's about the most fucked-up thing you'll ever hear.

Cymothoa exigua is a tiny crustacean that sneaks up on a fish (specifically, a red snapper) and works its way in through the gills. Typical parasite behavior so far.

Then it attaches itself to the base of the fish's tongue, the tongue evidently being the tastiest part of the fish (get it!?). The parasite uses its claws to dig into the tongue and drink the fish's blood--and that's just the beginning.

As cymothoa exigua grows, less and less blood is able to get into the fish's tongue which causes the tongue to slowly atrophy and ultimately fall off--well, not so much "fall off" as pathetically float away, but you know what we mean.

With the tongue dead and gone, the parasite settles in and replaces the lost tongue with its own body. Somehow, cymothoa exigua is able to attach itself to the fish's tongue muscles, allowing the snapper to use it just like a normal tongue, the parasite flapping around as a permanent fixture in the fish's mouth for the rest of its life.

Why does it do this? We don't know, but we're going to go with the commonly held opinion that the cymothoa exigua simply thinks it's funny.

#5.

The Horsehair Worm's Side Effect? Suicide.

Imagine you're a happy grasshopper for a moment, joyfully kissing your grasshopper wife and kids goodbye as you leave the house, tiny briefcase in hand, ready to hop to work for the day.

Suddenly, on your way to the office, a sudden urge overtakes you, an urge that cannot be ignored. You obediently follow the siren song to the nearest body of water, and promptly fling yourself in. For weeks afterward, your widowed wife and friends will wonder what could have possibly made a perfectly happy and content grasshopper tragically commit suicide, by drowning no less. Depression? An affair gone wrong? Crushing gambling debts? No, it turns out it was just another strike from the soulless and evil menace known as the horsehair worm.

Resembling a coarse, thick horse hair (well, duh) the horsehair worm infiltrates insects, and sometimes even crabs, as a larva when the insect drinks tainted water. From inside the aforementioned grasshopper, the worm goes to work.

It weasels its way into the body cavity, and nourishes itself on the insect's tissues, sometimes growing up to a foot long. After a time, when the worm has matured, it starts to get horny, as teenagers do, and decides that the time has come to find himself a sexy mate. The problem is, all of the sexiest female worms hang out at the swimming pool club, and he's stuck inside of a prudish grasshopper.

That's a problem easily and dickishly solved by the horsehair worm, however, by simply reprogramming the insect's brain to seek out the nearest body of water and to hop right in, despite the sad fact that grasshoppers, like many other insects, can't swim.

As his former host panics and gasps its last breaths of sweet life, the worm casually slithers out of its anus, bids adieu to the drowning grasshopper and swims in search of the orgies of knotted up worms he's heard so much about.

#4.

The Filarial Worm Can Turn You into an Object of Horror

Fucking mosquitoes. As if there weren't enough reasons to hate these living dirty needles, the bastards are responsible for yet more horrifying diseases thanks to the multitude of parasites they unwittingly inject into us every time they feed.

One such parasite is the almost too-weird-to-be-real filarial worm and, yes, it does affect humans.

Nature's douchebag.

After a year spent bumming around in our bodies, the worms mature into adults and finally take up the job they were born to do, by moving into the lymphatic system. Doesn't sound so bad...

Well, here's the thing. The lymphatic system keep excess fluids moving out of your body. It's one of those unnoticed bodily tasks that you don't appreciate until it stop working. Like if, say, a bunch of worms clogged it up. The filarial worm does just that, bunches of them all working hard in the vessels near the lymph nodes, causing those vessels to become obstructed and inflamed. Shit starts backing up, and the tissue starts inflating like a freaking balloon.

Finally, you wind up with massive and debilitating enlargements of the legs and genitals, a condition commonly known as Elephantitis. Goddamn mosquitoes.

Despite his rampant case of filarial worms, this man is still too proud to use only one flip-flop.

#3.

Sacculina Will Make You Her Bitch. Literally.

Sacculina has adopted the age-old parasite disguise of sounding like a really hot Italian chick. Well, we're not fooled.

Sacculina is actually a not-at-all-hot female barnacle that is able to inject itself into various species of crab, grow inside them and eventually emerge from the carapace as a large sac. Right near his genitals.

Sacculina?

There, sacculina goes to work. She manipulates the crab's hormones, sterilizing and basically emasculating him. Next, the parasite starts forcing changes in the crab's body to make it resemble a female, presumably by causing a couple of huge crab boobs to flop out. As the final insult, she forces her victim to perform humiliating female mating dances.

Finally when it comes time for sacculina to release her fertilized eggs--after having had sex with another sacculina on top of the poor crab's genitalia, that is--the former male crab is compelled to release them into the ocean and stir the water with his claw, as if the eggs were his own.

Where the crab's genitals used to be, that's sacculina.

Again, there are no known cases of this happening to a human, but, you know. If you see a huge egg sac growing near your junk we urge you to get it checked out right away.

#2.

Mind Control, Part I: Leocochloridium Paradoxum

Leucochloridium paradoxum is a parasite that has an impossible dream. Luey, as it shall henceforth be known, begins life literally in a puddle of shit. But Luey dreams of flight, and the method by which it achieves it is both complicated and fucked-up beyond comprehension.

First, knowing how much some animals love to eat shit, Luey lies in wait in his fecal puddle until the vacuum cleaner of nature, more commonly known as the snail, comes around to slurp it up.

Once inside the snail, Luey enacts the next part of his ingenious plan. Knowing that birds aren't too fond of eating slimy snails, he migrates to the snail's eyestalks and begins to stretch and change them into something that looks much more appetizing to birds: caterpillars.

The eyestalks that are usually so well-guarded and often retracted by the snail, are now pulsating, swollen and brightly-colored morsels of imitation caterpillar meat. Wait, it's not done.

Now is when Luey hacks into the snail's brain. It takes complete control, driving it like a little, slimy car out into the open so all of the hungry birds in the sky can see and swoop down on the irresistible caterpillar-like eyestalks.

Kind of like this.

Once inside the luxuriously spacious and soaring bird, Luey is free to feed on its insides, grow into an adult and reproduce knowing that soon, his babies will be shat out of the bird like he was, to start their own rags-to-riches lives. Meanwhile, the poor and confused snail is less one eyestalk, but has learned the hard way that eating shit is always a bad idea.

#1.

Mind Control, Part II: The Emerald Jewel Wasp

The emerald jewel wasp is a marvel of evolution. And evil.

The female, not being content with just laying her eggs in a hole and hoping the larvae find a way to survive like other insects, makes sure that her larvae will hatch right on top of their preferred food source: a cockroach. The problem with that is a typical cockroach is aggressive, and two to three times larger and beefier than the female.

She has found a way around this. An inventive, terrifying way.

Like a surgeon, the wasp uses her long stinger to penetrate the surprised cockroach, to paralyze and anesthetize the front section of its body. Now, she can take her sweet time, to make sure the second injection of her stinger is perfectly placed into a specific area of the roach's brain. She injects more venom directly into it, precisely blocking very specific receptors of neurotransmitters that essentially destroy the roach's fight or flight responses and leave it zombified.

Yes, the wasp knows how to do this.

Now in control of her very own cockroach, the wasp leads it back to her burrow. Once inside, she finally lays her egg on top of the cooperative cockroach, bites off its antennae in order to drink the roach's blood and replenish her energy, then exits the burrow, sealing it off with rocks and pebbles.

After a few days, the eggs hatch and the larvae slowly consume the insides of the roach until they form a cocoons and the roach is finally allowed to embrace the sweet relief of death. Eventually the adult wasp emerges from the cocoon/dead roach husk to begin its own life of surgical zombification.

Seriously, did you ever think you'd find yourself taking the roach's side in a situation?

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No dating, thanks, just sex

Dating culture is dead - instead, young New Zealand women are regularly getting drunk and cruising around in packs looking for men to have sex with. [via stuff]

That's one of the findings of a TVNZ Sunday investigation into the sexual behaviour of New Zealand women. The programme makers did the story after Kiwi women last year topped the Durex Sexual Wellbeing Global Survey as the world's most promiscuous.

They are reported to have an average of 20 sexual partners, double that of their Australian and British counterparts and almost three times the global average of seven.

TVNZ Sunday correspondent Janet McIntyre said there was anecdotal evidence from the five women on the show that the Durex survey findings were valid.

"There's a new kind of mating ritual sex is the point of entry into the relationship."

If the first-up sex wasn't any good women weren't prepared to waste their time progressing the relationship.

"There's no dating culture any more." In candid interviews about their sexual experiences some of the women who are all in their twenties felt empowered by having sex and wanted to celebrate and enjoy it.

McIntyre said all the women who had experienced one-night stands had been affected by alcohol, a term described by at least one expert in a report as "getting pissed and hooking up".

Men are also feeling the impact from the new sexual tactics being employed by women.

The Sunday Star-Times' Being a Bloke survey last year found that 29% of the 5000 men surveyed felt they had been pressured into having sex or had had sex unwillingly.

Young Kiwi women have an average of 20 sexual partners.

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Marijuana issue suddenly smoking hot

Smoking pot doesn’t cause schizophrenia, but marijuana as an issue sure gives our political system the symptoms. We have just elected our third president in a row who at least tried marijuana in early adulthood, yet it remains illegal. [via politico]

As we discovered again this week, President Obama, like his two predecessors, supports imprisoning people for making the same choices he made.

Beyond imprisonment, one of my policy students, who was honest on a security clearance about her one time use of pot, could lose her job for doing what Clinton, Bush and Obama did.

On television, leading comedian Jon Stewart and America’s sweetheart, Sandra Bullock, swap pot smoking stories with lighthearted abandon, laughing along with their audience, who, like most Americans, end up voting for politicians who support draconian punishments for pot users and dealers.

Year after year, major Hollywood films like Pineapple Express show potsmoking in a positive light, yet legalization remains unmentionable to both our political parties. And America’s most popular Olympian, Michael Phelps, like the majority of people his age, has tried pot, but loses millions in sponsorship when it is revealed that he has done what most of his fans have done.

Several states have legalized medical marijuana, and a few are contemplating decriminalization, and yet, other states are about to prevent those whose urine tests positive for marijuana from receiving desperately needed benefits to which they would otherwise be legally entitled.

At least eight states, including Kansas, Oklahoma, and West Virginia, are actively considering making drug tests mandatory for food stamps, welfare, or unemployment. In a classic demonstration of how America has always had one drug law for the rich and one for the poor, no one has suggested drug testing recipients of billions in bailout cash. We could probably save a lot of money by testing Wall Street financiers for pot (or cocaine, for that matter).

Perhaps these accumulated paradoxes have finally become large enough for the nation to begin reconsidering its position on pot. For an issue that has been in stasis for decades, marijuana is suddenly hot, one might even say, smoking.

By jamming up the White House’s “Open for Questions” website with votes for questions about their favorite substance, advocates for the legalization of marijuana managed to force President Obama to address the issue.

This is success in Washington, even when the president chuckled derisively and came down against legalization. Of the thousands of issues in the competitive policy environment, only a few get this kind of attention.

Some think the economic crisis will help the legalization cause.

California state legislator Tom Ammiano argues that marijuana, by far the most lucrative crop with an estimated $14 billion in sales, could provide over a billion dollars of tax revenue in California alone.

There are, however, a few problems with these numbers. First, it is always tough to estimate what total sales are for any illegal substance. Good data just doesn’t exist in this area. Second, even if $14 billion is accurate, that’s the California sales total when pot is illegal. When a pothead scores a dimebag in Los Angeles, the high price is mostly a function of the illegality. He’s paying for the risks taken by the grower, the importers, and the dealers at each step of the marijuana process.

Currently, dealers risk not only jail, confiscation of property, and the burden of a criminal record, but they also face violence from other rival dealers. That’s why the markup on pot is so extreme.

Legalize pot, and perhaps 80% of its price vanishes. And since marijuana requires very little processing, unlike cocaine or heroin, the supply of pot could skyrocket if it were legalized, further driving the price down. Why pay for it when you can grow your own, tax-free?

It is also possible, though, that legalization would result in a surge in demand, since potential users who avoided it due to fear of incarceration or its high price might now indulge.

Advocates of decriminalization or legalization have reason to take cheer from many recent developments. Tax revenues, although not as high as some dreamers would wish, would certainly be substantial, and would replace the billions spent interdicting and confiscating marijuana, as well as imprisoning users and small time dealers. Legalizing marijuana would immediately remove millions of dollars in income from the international drug cartels that are making life hell in Mexico.

The tide of public opinion is slowly moving towards decriminalization. As polling expert Nate Silver recently pointed out, only 10% supported legalization in 1969, while at least 40% do so today. The younger you are, the more likely you are to have tried marijuana, and to support its legalization. NORML doesn’t have to persuade anyone to win; if they just wait for the anti-pot geezers to die, most Americans will favor legalization within a decade.

Or, they could wait for Obama to go back to the position he had when he was an obscure Illinois state legislator, just four years ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQr9ezr8UeA

I don’t use pot, but I do believe that the tide of history is moving against our ridiculous and counterproductive ban on this relatively harmless substance. The question is not will we decriminalize, but when?

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Obamas Paying for White House Renovations Personally

[via nymag]

At a time when people are having trouble holding on to their houses, Barack and Michelle Obama have sensibly decided not to use taxpayers’ money to renovate theirs. New presidents are allotted $100,000 to overhaul the White House residence and the Oval Office, and the Obamas hired Hollywood decorator Michael S. Smith (known, per his site, for mixing “Old World classicism with very contemporary settings”). But the First Couple isn’t spending that money. They “are not using public funds or accepting donations of goods for redecorating their private quarters,” says Camille Johnston, director of communications for the First Lady. Nor is the couple, who reported $4.2 million in household income in 2007 tax returns, using money from the White House Historical Association, a privately funded foundation that paid for a $74,000 set of china shortly before Laura Bush left town.

But does this mean they’re going to spend more than $100,000 or less? Though Michelle Obama has talked up Pottery Barn, Smith’s client list includes cost-is-no-object types like Rupert Murdoch, Steven Spielberg, and former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain—for whom he procured that $87,783 rug. “There’s no question that he’ll get it done in the way that it’s supposed to be done,” says Smith client and Democratic donor Katherine Chez. “But how, I don’t know.” The White House declined to disclose the budget, saying that all expenses would remain private as a result of the Obamas’ decision to absorb the cost.

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34 Uses for That Can of Soda, Other Than Quenching Thirst

It's the Real Thing, it Adds Life, and You Gotta Have It, but that can or bottle of cola can also work wonders in an emergency. The chemical soup that makes up most commercial soft drinks not only makes them taste good and quench thirst, but also make them effective cleaning agents, bolt looseners, paint strippers, and possible skin softeners. More uses than MacGyver could think up. [via bachelorguy]

And since most guys usually have a can or six lying around the house, knowing what to use it for when trouble arises can save you big problems and big money. Here’s a list you should keep handy... Just in case.

CLEANING
1. Clean Car Battery Terminals.
There's acid in almost all carbonated drinks. And that helps strip corrosion from car battery terminals. Pour some soda over the battery terminals and let it sit for a while. Wipe off the residue with a wet cloth.


2. Clean Your Dirty Toilet Bowl.
Got bad stains, a date coming over in an hour and no toilet cleaner? Pour a can of soda into the bowl. Let it sit for an hour to let the phosphoric acid work on the stains, then brush to loosen the dirt and flush clean.

3. Remove Rust Spots From Chrome.
If you have an older car that has real chrome trim, chances are there are some small, and some not so small, rust spots developing on the chrome. Take some crumpled aluminum foil, dip it in some cola and rub the rust off the affected area.

4. Remove Rust Stains in Your Tub.
Remember how the phosphoric acid worked to clean the toilet bowl? The same acid will remove rust stains in your tub. Soak a sponge (preferably one with an abrasive side), in some cola and go to work on the stain.

5. Clean Grout.
Got some mold and mildew ruining the look of your shower? Soak a sponge with Coke and work it into the grout. Rinse with water.

6. Remove Grease From Clothes.
Been working on the car all weekend and greased up more than just the engine? Pouring a can of cola into your washer, along with your regular detergent, is said to help loosen and wash away those grease stains.

7. Remove Milk Stains From Clothes.
Got milk? Soak the stain with Coke for about five minutes, then wash normally. It should get the stain out.

8. Remove Blood Stains From Clothes.
I'm not going to ask how they got there, but if you soak the stain with cola for five minutes then wash in your machine, the blood should come out. Even dried blood that's been there for a while. (Don't tell the CSI.)


9. Clean Coins.
Got a thing for shiny pennies? Collecting state quarters and want them to sparkle? Place your coins in a small dish and soak in Coke for a few hours. Rinse and wipe to a bright shine. (I wouldn't recommend this trick with a rare coin collection. Just in case.)

10. Clean Grease From Glass. Even Eyeglasses.
That same handy phosphoric acid removes grease and grime from glass. Even dried hairspray from mirrors. Just rinse thoroughly with water after.

11. Clean Oil Stains From Garage Floor or Driveway.
Pour soda over the stain, let it soak in for a while, then scrub and rinse off with a hose.

12. Clean Burnt Pans.
Forget a pot on the stove and now whatever was in it is seared to the bottom? If scrubbing won't get it off, try this: boil some Coke in the pot and the burnt-on mess should lift right out.


AROUND THE HOUSE
13. Loosen Clogged Drains.
If your sink is draining slowly and you don't have any drain cleaner in the house, pour a 2-liter bottle of cola down the drain and let the acids go to work on the clog.


14. Loosen Rusted Nuts and Bolts.
Soak a rag in cola and wrap it around the rusted-on bolt for a few minutes. The acids and carbonation will help loosen it.


15. Make Flowers Last Longer.
Got your girl some flowers and you want them to survive through the week? Pour about 1/4 cup of clear soda, like Sprite or 7-Up into a vase full of water. Sugar helps them last longer.

16. Strip Paint From Metal Patio Furniture.
Want to refinish some outdoor furniture? Do it the right way and strip off the old paint first. To make it easier, soak a towel in Coke. Let it sit on the furniture for about a week, adding more Coke whenever the towel starts to dry out. The paint should strip off easily.


17. Kill Slugs and Snails.
If these pests are invading your lawn and garden, pour a little Coke into shallow dishes or jar lids and spread them throughout your yard. The sugar attracts them, and, just like you remember from when you were a kid, the acid kills them.

18. Greener Lawn.
It's rumored that spraying Coke on your grass will keep your lawn greener into the fall months.


FIRST AID AND EMERGENCIES
19. Relieve Nausea or an Upset Stomach.
According to The Doctor’s Book of Home Remedies, the syrup in Coca-Cola can be used to cure upset stomachs. Just let leave the can or bottle open for about 30 minutes first, until the soda goes flat. The carbonation could have an adverse effect on your stomach.

20. Prevent Diarrhea.
Also found in The Doctor’s Book of Home Remedies, if you're traveling through a country with a questionable water and/or food supply, drinking coke could keep you from making constant "runs for the border". The acids in the soda help reduce the amount of E. Coli bacteria in your intestines. This inhibits the production of toxins that can cause diarrhea.

21. Relieve Constipation.
If you are, as the Germans say, Farfrompoopin, the caffeine from a can of coke can have a laxative effect. Much like that morning latte.

22. Stop an Asthma Attack.
Just as an asthma attack comes on, down a couple of cans of coke. Some sources say the caffeine can help prevent an asthma attack.

23. Ease a Sore Throat.
By gargling with soda you can loosen the phlegm causing the irritation.


24. Stop a Jellyfish Sting From Stinging.
The acids in cola seem to neutralize the venom in the sting. And pouring Coke over the wound is better than having your buddy pee on it.

25. Get Gum Out of a Kid's Hair.
Want to score points with that single mom struggling to get gum out of her screaming kid's hair? Come to the rescue with your can of Coke. Soak the kid's hair for a few minutes, then rinse. The gum should come right out.

26. Strip Dye From Hair.
If you girl comes over crying that her new dye job turned her hair green, wash her hair with Diet Coke. Apparently Diet Coke has the ability to strip and/or fade bad dye jobs.


27. Get Rid of Skunk Odor.
Pissed off Pepè Le Pew and now you aren't allowed in the house? Sponge down with some cola and hose yourself off. Again, those handy acids work to neutralize the stink.

28. Use As a Moisturizer.
Mixing a capful of cola with unscented lotion is said to enhance the moisturizing effects.

29. Keep People From Slipping on Slick Floors.
If you're having an outdoor get together and you're worried about guests slipping on your back patio, try this old stagehand trick: use a mop to spread a thin layer of Coke on the slippery surface. It'll dry slightly sticky and tacky.


DUBIOUS USES
30. Give Your Hair Shine.
Pour a can of coke over your head, work it into your hair, then rinse. It's said your hair will be incredibly shiny. And impervious to slugs and snails.

31. Mousse Alternative.
Mix equal parts coke and water in a spray bottle and mix well. After you shower, spray a light coat of the mixture into your hair, then style. (I'm sure having sugar in your hair all day won't attract flies or be uncomfortable at all.)

32. Prevent Flatulence.
Adding a can of coke to a pot of pinto beans when cooking is supposed to neutralize the gas-causing compounds. (Belching? Another story.)

33. Get a Darker Tan.
There are those who say rubbing plain coke all over your body gives you a deeper tan. (There's caramel coloring in there, but I question the evenness of the result, and how long it will last.)

34. Shell Hard Boiled Eggs.
Apparently, if you soak hard boiled eggs in Coke the shells will dissolve, eliminating the need to actually have to peel them.

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Hoax Website Promising Great Tan From Computer Screen Gets 1M Hits

There is even a iPhone app for 'mobile tanning'! Yay!

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Tough task: Designing a game about your 'first time'

In an industry dominated by men, leave it to women to come up with the winning idea in a contest to create a concept for a video game about losing one's virginity. [via cnn]

On Wednesday, at the Game Developers Conference here, the two-woman team of Heather Kelley and Erin Robinson won the Game Design Challenge with just 36 hours of preparation, while their competitors had weeks to come up with concepts for a game about "your first time."

This was the sixth straight year of the design challenge, hosted annually by New York-based game developer Eric Zimmerman. The contestants are generally top-tier game designers like two-time winner and Spore and The Sims creator Will Wright, Deus Ex lead designer Harvey Smith, or 2008 winner and Leather Goddesses of Phobos creator Steve Meretzsky.

The contestants are generally given several weeks to come up with a concept for a game based on some sort of unusual challenge posed by Zimmerman. Past themes have included a game about love, a game based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson, and a game that could win the Nobel Peace Prize.

"We are in a medium that is just incredibly plastic," Zimmerman said. "We can put anything up on the screen...Still, we find every year that most of the money being put into games is put into a relatively narrow (set of) genres" that tends to include monsters, dragons, and the like.

Zimmerman added that the purpose of the challenge is "to think about how we can create games that really break away" from what's been done so many times before.

Sex and autobiography have been constant themes in literature, film, and theater, Zimmerman argued, pointing to "Lolita," the work of Henry Miller, Chaim Potok's novel, "My name is Asher Lev," and the films of Fellini and Woody Allen.

But while Zimmerman touted the widespread historical acceptance of the theme of autobiographical sex, he noted with some dismay that veteran game designer Kim Swift, who works for Valve and who created the award-winning Portal, had originally been slated to be among the contestants but had eventually been pressured by Valve to withdraw due to the theme.

"I'm saying this as a fan of Valve," Zimmerman said, "but I do find it frustrating and disturbing that Kim would be pulled from the panel."

Still, he said, after word got around about Swift's withdrawal, Lapis designer Kelley and independent developer Robinson volunteered to step up and compete.

The two ended up facing off against Meretzsky, on hand to defend his crown, and Habbo Hotel lead designer Sulka Haro.

And in the end, while all three submissions were well-received, the duo of Kelley and Robinson were judged by the audience to have very closely beaten out Meretzsky.

The two women came up with a concept for "Our first times," and presented it as a two-level game, one level for Kelley's experience and the other for Robinson's. They imagined a series of mini games that could be played on Nintendo's Wii, or possibly on Apple's iPhone.

Kelley began by explaining that her game would commence with the player having to pick an outfit for a date that was intended to conclude with their deflowering. It would have to be the least complicated outfit possible, she said, nothing with zippers that get stuck, or too many buttons or ties.

Then, there would be a mini game in which players would have to shave their legs, making especially sure not to miss the all-important spot "by the knees." Next up, dinner, and making sure to remove all the garlic from the meals, something the main character--clearly a female, since the game was presented from a woman's perspective--would have to do because of the general cluelessness of the boyfriend in question.

The next mini game would revolve around choosing the proper mood music from a selection of LPs--yes, records, since the game would be set in the timeframe of Kelley's first time. And clearly, she said, Miles Davis would have to be the choice.

The penultimate mini game would task the player with "not falling off the top bunk" in a college dorm room," while the final task would involve flicking off the smirking roommate.

The Robinson level also involved a series of mini games that commenced with "driving home from ultimate-Frisbee practice" and setting the radio station in a car--perhaps using the Wiimote dial, she said--to anything except country music. Next would be a stop at a drug store to buy a brand of condoms that doesn't terrify you, and then going "back to his place," and grappling with adjusting the tracking on his "antiquated" VCR.

Being a game concept presented from the woman's perspective, the next mini game would revolve around "making the first move. Poor guy."

And then, afterward, calling the best friend to tell the tale.

"But you have to be careful," Robinson said, "because she's next to mom and grandma on the speed dial."

Perhaps given their short notice, the mini-game concepts created by Kelley and Robinson weren't very fleshed out, something that was a shame since they seemed to be onto something. But the crowd appreciated how much effort they had put into the storyboards they'd created, and forgave the rudimentary fleshing out of the details.

Meretzsky's concept--which came in a very close second--ended up revolving around the idea of moving beyond the awkwardness of fumbling high school attempts at romance. But before explaining his final design, he talked at length about the challenges of coming up with a game idea when every possible title was too overtly sexual. He said he tried out "Where's dildo," but discarded it because "it had nothing to do with my autobiography."

And then, he thought "about the almost too obvious genre of first-person shooters."

He also threw away "Call of Booty"--because it would have "problems that would keep it off the shelf at Wal-Mart"--and then almost settled on a beat-matching idea called "Hump Hump Revolution."

And, playing off the title of Swift's hit game, as well as a popular 2008 film, he said he nearly ended up with "Zack & Miri make a Portal," but "my business people tell me paying licenses for two different (intellectual properties) is a non-starter."

In the end, he said, he came up with a three-act structure for a game based in the virtual world, Second Life, where act one involves the awkward era of high school, the second act is the more promising college years and finally, act three, happiness in the form of a series of vignettes including dates, a wedding, and then, home life.

The game, he said, would be called, "Wait, time passes."

"No matter how picked on you are," Meretzsky said, "this too shall pass. Your time will come, and you will find happiness and your place in the world."

Of the six Game Design Challenges, this year's felt the most wanting for detail and working game mechanics. That may have been because the contestants' task of building something autobiographical didn't meld well with game design. Still, the crowd, which was heavy with game designers, appreciated the efforts and shouted out their support for all three contestants.

After all, in the end, the point was to take a particularly challenging game design topic and create something that could plausibly be a working title. And who would know better the difficulties of doing so than a room full of game designers?

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Man dies trying to catch suicidal girlfriend as she jumps from 7th floor

A Chinese man was killed last night after trying to catch his suicidal girlfriend as she jumped from the seventh floor of their Quanzhou apartment building in south-eastern China. [via app]

The young man, only identified as Wang, tried to break the woman’s fall by holding out his arms, witnesses said. He was killed by the impact of her body landing on top of him, according to Perth Now.

His girlfriend survived the fall, suffering only from bone fractures and other injuries. She was not in critical condition and expected to make a full recovery.

The couple had quarreled before Wang went to the street below to try and persuade his girlfriend not to jump. It was unclear if she plummeted from a ledge or out of a window.

Hospital staffers say the woman appears confused and doesn’t know how she fell.

Perfect example of how not to make it alright. Poor guy.

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The End of Excess: Is This Crisis Good for America?

In the early 1980s, around the time Ronald Reagan became President and Wall Street's great modern bull market began, we started gambling (and winning!) and thinking magically. From 1980 to 2007, the median price of a new American home quadrupled. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed from 803 in the summer of 1982 to 14,165 in the fall of 2007. From the beginning of the '80s through 2007, the share of disposable income that each household spent servicing its mortgage and consumer debt increased 35%. Back in 1982, the average household saved 11% of its disposable income. By 2007 that number was less than 1%. (See TIME's top 25 people to blame for the financial crisis.)

The same zeitgeist made gambling ubiquitous: until the late '80s, only Nevada and New Jersey had casinos, but now 12 states do, and 48 have some form of legalized betting. It's as if we decided that Mardi Gras and Christmas are so much fun, we ought to make them a year-round way of life. And we started living large literally as well as figuratively. From the beginning to the end of the long boom, the size of the average new house increased by about half. Meanwhile, the average American gained about a pound a year, so that an adult of a given age is now at least 20 lb. heavier than someone the same age back then. In the late '70s, 15% of Americans were obese; now a third are. (Read "What's the Best Diet? Eating Less Food.")

We saw what was happening for years, for decades, but we ignored it or shrugged it off, preferring to imagine that we weren't really headed over the falls. The U.S. auto industry has been in deep trouble for more than a quarter-century. The median household income has been steadily declining this century ... but, but, but our houses and our 401(k)s were ballooning in value, right? Even smart, proudly rational people engaged in magical thinking, acting as if the new power of the Internet and its New Economy would miraculously make everything copacetic again. We all clapped our hands and believed in fairies.

The popular culture tried to warn us. For 20 years, we've had Homer Simpson's spot-on caricature of the quintessential American: childish, irresponsible, willfully oblivious, fat and happy. And more recently we winced at the ultra-Homerized former earthlings of WALL•E.

We knew, in our heart of hearts, that something had to give. Remember when each decade, not long after it finished, assumed a distinct character? We all knew and know what "the '50s" mean, and they definitively ended with the Pill, J.F.K.'s assassination and the Beatles — just as "the '60s" ended when Americans got tired of being alarmed and hectored, and "the '70s" ended when stimulants became more popular than depressants and AIDS appeared. But in all salient respects, "the '80s" — Reaganism's reshaping of the political economy, the thrall of the PC, the vertiginous rise in the stock market — did not end.

The '80s spirit endured through the '90s and the 2000s, all the way until the fall of 2008, like an awesome winning streak in Vegas that went on and on and on. American-style capitalism triumphed, and thanks to FedEx and the Web, delayed gratification itself came to seem quaint and unnecessary. So what if every year since the turn of the century the U.S. economy grew more slowly than the global economy? Stuff at Wal-Mart and Costco and money itself stayed supercheap! Even 9/11, which supposedly "changed everything," and the resulting Iraqi debacle came to seem like mere bumps in the road. Even if deep down everyone knew that the spiral of overleveraging and overspending and the prices of stocks and houses were unsustainable, no one wanted to be a buzz kill.

But now everything really has changed. More than a year into the Great Recession, we still aren't sure if there's a bottom in sight, and six months after the financial system began imploding, it's still iffy. The party is finally, definitely over. And the present decade, which we've never even agreed what to call — the 2000s? the aughts? — has acquired its permanent character as a historical pivot defined by the nightmares of 9/11 and the Panic of 2008-09. Those of us old enough to remember life before the 26-year-long spree began will probably spend the rest of our lives dealing with its consequences — in economics, foreign policy, culture, politics, the warp and woof of our daily lives. During the '80s and '90s, we were Wile E. Coyote racing heedlessly across the endless American landscape at maximum speed and then spent the beginning of the 21st century suspended in midair just past the end of the cliff; gravity reasserted itself, and we plummeted.

In the Road Runner cartoons, after each fall, the coyote is broken and battered but never dies. America isn't going to expire either. But unlike him, we will be chastened and begin behaving more wisely. For years, enthusiasts for unfettered capitalism have insisted that the withering away of enterprises and entire industries is a healthy and necessary part of a vibrant, self-correcting economic system; now, more than at any time since Joseph Schumpeter popularized the idea of creative destruction in 1942, we must endure the shocking and awesome pain of that metamorphosis. After decades of talking the talk, now we're all obliged to walk the walk.

We cannot just hunker down, cross our fingers, hysterically pinch our pennies, wait for the crises to pass, blame the bankers and then go back to business as usual. All that conventional wisdom about 2008 being a "change" year? We had no idea. Recently Rush Limbaugh appeared on Sean Hannity's Fox News show, panicking not so much about the economy but about how the political winds are blowing as a result. If we finally manage to achieve something like universal health care, Limbaugh warned, it would mean "the end of America as we know it." He's right, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. This is the end of the world as we've known it. But it isn't the end of the world.

Continue Reading over at Time.com

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Stem cells to grow bigger breasts

A STEM cell therapy offering “natural” breast enlargement is to be made available to British women for the first time.

The treatment could boost cup size while reducing stomach fat. It involves extracting stem cells from spare fat on the stomach or thighs and growing them in a woman’s breasts. An increase of one cup size is likely, with the potential for larger gains as the technique improves. [via timesonline]

A trial has already started in Britain to use stem cells to repair the breasts of women who have had cancerous lumps removed. A separate project is understood to be the first in Britain to use the new technique on healthy women seeking breast enlargement.

Professor Kefah Mokbel, a consultant breast surgeon at the London Breast Institute at the Princess Grace hospital, who is in charge of the project, will treat 10 patients from May. He predicts private patients will be able to pay for the procedure within six months at a cost of about £6,500.

“This is a very exciting advance in breast surgery,” said Mokbel. “They [breasts treated with stem cells] feel more natural because this tissue has the same softness as the rest of the breast.” He said the treatment offered the potential of considerable improvement on implants: “Implants are a foreign body. They are associated with long-term complications and require replacement. They can also leak and cause scarring.”

Although the stem cell technique will restore volume, it will not provide firmness and uplift.

Mokbel believes the stem cell treatment may be suitable only for modest increases in breast size, but will conduct research to find out whether larger augmentations can be achieved: “We are optimistic we can easily achieve an increase of one cup size. We cannot say yet if we can achieve more. That may depend on the stem cells we can harvest.”

The cells will be isolated from a woman’s spare fat, once it has been extracted from her thighs or stomach, using equipment owned by GE Healthcare, a technology company. The concentrated stem cells will then be mixed with another batch of fat before being injected into the breast. It takes several months for the breast to achieve the desired size and shape.

Until now, when fat was transplanted to the breast without extra stem cells, surgeons had difficulty maintaining a blood supply to the new tissue. Surgeons believe the double concentration of stem cells under this technique promotes the growth of blood vessels to ensure a sufficient blood supply circulates to the transplanted fat.

The same technique has been used in Japan for six years, initially to treat women with breast deformities caused by cancer treatment and, more recently, for cosmetic breast augmentation in healthy women.

Mokbel is confident the therapy is safe and that, after carrying out about 30 procedures, the London Breast Institute will be able to offer the procedure to private patients.

The use of stem cells in healthy women undergoing cosmetic surgery is controversial. Medical bodies have warned that the breast enlargements should not be offered to healthy women until large-scale trials in cancer patients have shown that the new technology is safe and effective. The treatment is not yet routinely available to women solely for cosmetic purposes.

Eva Weiler-Mithoff, a consultant plastic surgeon at Canniesburn hospital in Glasgow, is leading the British arm of a European trial of stem cell therapy for women who have been left with breast deformities following removal of cancerous lumps.

So far more than a dozen British cancer patients have been treated and Weiler-Mithoff is impressed with the results. She does not believe this justifies offering the treatment to healthy women, however.

She said that while breast cancer patients regularly attend follow-up appointments, young women who have had cosmetic surgery are less likely to do so and complications could be missed.

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Did You Know? Stuff that will blow your mind

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25 Websites To Have Fun With Your Photos

Getting a little bored how your photos are presented online? How about injecting some fun and humour into it. You don’t really need to be Photoshop literate to edit and add effects into your photos. There’re some really great sites out there that allows you to add effects to your photo by using their existing effect-templates. [via hongkiat]

The best part is - most of them are free and output is shown immediately on the fly. Here’s a collection of 25 Sites To Have Fun With Your Photoswe’ve come to know. You know they don’t really have to be your photos :-)

We’ll start with 10 of our favorites, followed by the rest. Full list after jump.>

Our Top 10 Picks

PhotoFunia

One of the hottest site with tons of creative backgrounds to play around with. Now comes in 9 different languages.

Fun Photo Box

If you don’t get what you want from PhotoFunia, you reallly need to check out this site.

Picartia

Create a photo mosaic of your choice for free online.

Hairmixer

Choose a photo for the left and right side and start mixing their hairs up.

Photo505

We’d say, with Photo505, Photofunia and Fun Photo Box, you’ll be buzy for days.

Yearbook Yourself

Turn your face photo into yearbook alike black & white old school photo. The service is paused and will be back this Summer.

Loonapic

Make funny photos by embedding your face from the photo to the various templates.

Magmypic

Create different fake magazine covers from your photos.

Your own Wired Cover

Powered by Xerox, this service allows you to create your own Wired magazine cover. Customized everything from titles, colors to photos.

Hollywood Hair Makeover

Love those celebrities’ hair? Wear them instantly and see how you look.

More Ways To Have Fun

Write On It

Easily create your fake pictures, captions and fake magazines and other funny jokes for you and your friends.

Dumpr

Create multiple interesting effects from your normal photos.

Anymaking

Allows you to upload any photo and create "old photo", "wanted" and "puzzle" effects out of it.

Montagraph

PiZap

My Heritage

Making use of their face recognition technology, this site offers several fun effects you can play with your photos. Included are Celebrity Morph, Look-alike Meter, Celebrity Collage and Tag Photos.

Letter James

Letter James has nothing to do with photo effects, but instead you allows you to blend texts and words of your choice into their existing templates.

Imagechef

Lots of ways for you to customize your photos and express them wherever you want.

Funny Photos

Similar to Fun Photo Box and Photofunia, just different effects.

Frontpage

Make yourself frontpage in 136 different magazine covers.

Fake Magazine Cover

Personalized money

Get your head into that dollar bill.

Faceinhole

Create HDR

One of the simplest way to create HDR photos online.

Blingee

Add Glitter, Graphics, and Comments to personalize your images, then share with your friends!

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Teen Arrested for Posting Nude Pics

A 14-year-old New Jersey girl has been accused of child pornography after posting nearly 30 explicit nude pictures of herself on MySpace.com — charges that could force her to register as a sex offender if convicted. [via aol]

The case comes as prosecutors nationwide pursue child pornography cases resulting from kids sending nude photos to one another over cell phones and e-mail. Legal experts, though, could not recall another case of a child porn charge resulting from a teen's posting to a social networking site.

MySpace would not comment on the New Jersey investigation, but the company has a team that reviews its network for inappropriate images. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children tipped off a state task force, which alerted the Passaic County Sheriff's Office.

The office investigated and discovered the Clifton resident had posted the "very explicit" photos of herself, sheriff's spokesman Bill Maer said Thursday.

"We consider this case a wake-up call to parents," Maer said. The girl posted the photos because "she wanted her boyfriend to see them," he said.

Investigators are looking at individuals who "knowingly" committed a crime, he said, declining to comment further because the case is still being investigated.

The teen, whose name has not been released because of her age, was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography and distribution of child pornography. She was released to her mother's custody.

If convicted of the distribution charge, she would be forced to register with the state as a sex offender under Megan's Law, said state Attorney General Anne Milgram. She also could face up to 17 years in jail, though such a stiff sentence is unlikely.

Some observers — including the New Jersey mother behind the creation of Megan's Law — are criticizing the trend of prosecuting teens who send racy text messages or post illicit photos of themselves.

Maureen Kanka — whose daughter, Megan, became the law's namesake after she was raped and killed at age 7 in 1994 by a twice-convicted sex offender — blasted authorities for charging the 14-year-old girl.

The teen needs help, not legal trouble, she said.

"This shouldn't fall under Megan's Law in any way, shape or form. She should have an intervention and counseling, because the only person she exploited was herself."

Called "sexting" when it's done by cell phone, teenagers' habit of sending sexually suggestive photos of themselves and others to one another is a nationwide problem that has confounded parents, school administrators and law enforcers.

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Owners drop Freedom Tower name for new WTC skyscraper

The agency that owns the space where the World Trade Center towers stood is freeing itself of the term "freedom" to describe the signature skyscraper replacing the buildings destroyed on September 11, 2001. [via cnn]

The change from Freedom Tower was revealed Thursday at a news conference where the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced the signing of the first commercial lease in the building to a Chinese company. The building is expected to be completed in late 2013.

"We've referred to the primary building planned for the site as One World Trade Center -- its legal name and street address -- for almost two years now, as well as using the name the Freedom Tower," said Stephen Sigmund, a spokesman for the Port Authority, in a statement released to CNN. "Many will always refer to it as the Freedom Tower, but as the building moves out of the planning stage and into full construction and leasing, we believe that going forward it is most practical to market the building as One World Trade Center."

Ten of the building's planned 108 above-ground floors have been built.

"The fact is, more than $3 billion of public money is invested in that building, and, as a public agency, we have the responsibility to make sure it is completed and that we utilize the best strategy to make certain it is fully occupied," Sigmund added.

He noted that the agency lost 84 colleagues in the September 11 attacks.

Mary Fetchet, founding director of Voices of September 11th, a group that commemorates the lives of those killed in the attack, said she was not familiar with the decision made by the Port Authority and was not willing to make a statement.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, on the John Gambling radio show taped Friday morning, said he was not upset by the Port Authority's decision.

"It's up to the Port Authority," he said. "I have no idea what the commercial aspects are, and we can say, 'Oh, we shouldn't worry about that,' but of course you have to, particularly now.

"I would like to see it stay the Freedom Tower, but it's their building, and they don't need me dumping on it. If they could rent the whole thing by changing the name, I guess they're going to do that, and they probably, from a responsible point of view, should. From a patriotic point of view, is it going to make any difference?"

He added, "one of the things is, we call things what we want to call them. So, Avenue of the Americas is a good example, for it's Sixth Avenue to most people. Very few people use Avenue of the Americas. If they name this One World Trade Center, people will still call it the Freedom Tower."

The building was named the Freedom Tower in the first "ground zero" master plan. Officials said at the time that the tallest, most symbolic of five planned towers at the site would demonstrate the country's triumph over terrorism.

Representatives of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Vantone Industrial Co. announced Thursday the signing of a lease that will create the China Center, a 190,810-square-foot business and cultural facility, to be on portions of the 64th floor and the entire 65th through 69th floors of One World Trade Center.

Hailing it as a great day for the Port Authority and its partners in the China center, Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward added, "this is the first step in a long journey as downtown is finally rebuilt."

The lease is for 20 years and nine months, beginning when the building is completed, with rents starting at $80 per square foot and escalating afterward. The China Center also will have the right to lease up to two additional contiguous floors under the same terms, an option that expires at the end of 2009.

The Port Authority also has commitments for more than a million square feet of leased office space in One World Trade Center from the U.S. General Services Administration and the New York State Office of General Services. Leases for these two public agencies are being finalized. These commitments, coupled with the China Center lease, represent nearly 50 percent of the office space in the building.

The China Center at One World Trade Center is expected to represent the elite of China's business and cultural communities and serve as a hub for Chinese firms developing United States operations, as well as for U.S. companies that wish to conduct business in China or expand operations.

One World Trade Center will include 2.6 million gross square feet of office space on 70 office floors, a public lobby with a 50-foot-high ceiling, an observation deck 1,265 feet above ground, a skyline restaurant, a wide array of shopping and parking.

The building itself will be 1,368 feet tall, and a spire at the top will bring the total height to 1,776 feet.

Beijing Vantone Industrial is one of the first private corporations established in China. Today, the company is one of China's largest private real estate investment companies with 13 subsidiaries, including one publicly traded company, Beijing Vantone Real Estate Co.

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50 Animals Who Hate Baths [funny pics]

[via bestweekever]

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50 Beautiful Long Exposure Photos

Below you’ll find an impressive collection of 50 long exposure photos!

50 Photos taken with very slow shutterspeed. Enjoy![via pxlshots]

HDR infrared

author: aluminumstudios

En route to Exposure

author: ojx

Gullane Beach

author: blue fin

Small Street

author: llmatzell

Fog Movement

author: danheller

Flow Battery S1 - 4

author: fishmonk

F-16 w/Zoom

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Kill 'bad GM' so 'good GM' can live?

A proposal to split the automaker in two could save brands such as Cadillac and Chevrolet while letting a bankruptcy court liquidate Hummer, Saturn and other assets. [via msn]

General Motors (GM, news, msgs) executives and Treasury Department officials have made it abundantly clear that they want to keep the auto giant out of Chapter 11. But behind the scenes, GM and its advisers have been war-gaming various bankruptcy options as a last-ditch way to save the company.

One scenario being taken seriously goes like this: The automaker is split in two –- a "good GM" consisting of the brands and operations deemed most viable, and a "bad GM" made up of the brands slated for the junk heap, a big chunk of debt and underperforming operations.

The bad GM likely would be liquidated, say several people familiar with the automaker's thinking, and the good GM would emerge fairly quickly from bankruptcy as a going concern.

If GM ends up in bankruptcy court and chooses that strategy, it could solve some big issues.

So far, bondholders have shown little willingness to compromise -- at least not as much as GM would like. Under the plan, the automaker would convert much of its $60 billion debt into equity, and creditors would take stock in the "good" company and receive proceeds from the liquidated "bad" company.

With the threat of contracts being torn up in bankruptcy, the United Auto Workers might accept scaled-back staffing and benefits.

The two-company strategy also offers significant political and marketing advantages. The government, which would likely finance the company while in bankruptcy, could credibly tell taxpayers that the good GM had an excellent chance of prospering. And the move would tell consumers that it's safe to buy GM vehicles.

What would the good GM look like? Much like the company that executives described to Treasury officials in a restructuring plan filed in February. The good GM would keep Cadillac and Chevrolet. Ditto for GMC trucks, which are profitable in economically sound markets, and Buick, which continues to pack brand muscle in China.

GM would load up the bad company with Hummer, Saturn and any factories or operations it needs to ditch. Unless GM were to find a buyer, it would unload those assets in bankruptcy court, where they would be liquidated.

Dealers would have a tough time suing to be made whole while Hummer and Saturn are in Chapter 11. GM could even put its Canadian operations into bankruptcy. GM does good business there, but its pension plan is seriously underfunded. (Such a move would be less likely if the Canadian government provides GM the financing it has requested.)

Even with federal backing, a Chapter 11 filing would be risky, though. Creditors could hold up proceedings for a long time. As GM struggles to extricate itself, consumers could balk at buying its cars.

"Bankruptcy is like war," says Michael L. Cook, a bankruptcy attorney at Schulte Roth & Zabel. "You think you know about it until you go through it."

GM and the feds seem to agree.

Stock Chart (Year)

General Motors

So why is GM war-gaming bankruptcy? Partly over concerns that the auto market could worsen. What's more, even if the union and bondholders were to give the automaker what it wants, GM would still need to borrow $22.5 billion to $30 billion from the Treasury to survive.

Add $8.4 billion in Energy Department loans to help GM make more fuel-efficient vehicles, and the automaker could end up with a debt load of more than the $60 billion it already has.

If the Treasury decides it doesn't want taxpayers paying GM's creditors, a creative bankruptcy might be the only way out.

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The Origins of Suicidal Brains

Certain life experiences may lead to brain changes in suicide victims

[via sciam] Suicide rates in the U.S. have increased for the first time in a decade, according to a report published in October by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. But what leads a person to commit suicide? Three new studies suggest that the neurological changes in a brain of a suicide victim differ markedly from those in other brains and that these changes develop over the course of a lifetime.

The most common pathway to suicide is through depression, which afflicts two thirds of all people who kill themselves. In October researchers in Canada found that the depressed who commit suicide have an abnormal distribution of receptors for the chemical GABA, one of the most abundant neurotransmitters in the brain. GABA’s role is to inhibit neuron activity. “If you think about the gas pedal and brakes on a car, GABA is the brakes,” explains co-author Michael Poulter, a neuroscientist at the Robarts Research Institute at the University of Western Ontario.

Poulter and his colleagues found that one of the thousands of types of receptors for GABA is underrepresented in the frontopolar cortex of people with major depressive disorder who have committed suicide as compared with nondepressed people who died of other causes. The frontopolar cortex is involved in higher-order thinking, such as decision making. The scientists do not yet know how this abnormality leads to the type of major depression that makes someone suicidal, but “anything that disturbs that system would be predicted to have some sort of important outcome,” Poulter says.

Interestingly, this GABA receptor problem is not the result of abnormal or mutated genes. Rather the change is epigenetic, meaning some environmental influence affected how often the relevant genes were expressed—that is, made into proteins. [For more about epigenetics, see “The New Genetics of Mental Illness,” by Edmund S. Higgins; Scientific American Mind, June/July 2008.] In the frontopolar cortex of suicide brains, the gene for the GABA-A receptor often had a molecule called a methyl group attached to it, the team found. When a methyl group is attached to a gene, it keeps that gene hidden from cells’ protein-building machinery—in this case, preventing the cells from manufacturing GABA-A receptors.

The addition of this methyl tag, called methylation, occurs more extensively in rodents that are handled by humans than in rodents that are not. Less is known about what causes methylation in the human brain, but another recent study suggests it could be related to abuse during childhood. In May researchers at McGill University reported that the gene responsible for creating cells’ protein-building machinery is more frequently methylated in the hippocampus—the brain region responsible for short-term memory and spatial navigation—of depressed suicide victims who suffered child abuse than in the brains of nonsuicide victims who were not abused.

Again, the researchers do not yet know how problems with protein-building machinery lead to depression and suicide. But “it makes sense that if you have some limited capacity for protein synthesis, you gradually are depriving yourself of building critical synapses,” or connections between neurons, which could be important for staying happy, says co-author Moshe Szyf, a pharmacologist at McGill. “Our hypothesis is that there are social events early in life that kind of epigenetically program the brain,” he says. He and his colleagues are now comparing the brains of suicide victims who were abused with those of suicide victims who were not abused to see if their methylation patterns differ.

Even in the womb, epigenetic influences can change the developing brain in ways that increase the risk of eventual suicide. In February 2008 a study revealed that baby boys who are born either short or with low birth weight are more likely to commit violent suicide as adults than longer and heavier babies are, irrespective of their height and weight as adults. Similarly, baby boys born pre­maturely are four times more likely to attempt violent suicide than those born at full term.

The researchers, publishing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, suggest that the chemical serotonin, which is involved in fetal brain growth, may play a role. A stressful or deprived womb environment may interfere with the development of the fetus and its serotonin system; other studies have shown that the brains of people who exhibit suicidal be­haviors have reduced serotonin activity.

Ultimately, these findings reveal that suicide brains differ from other brains in multiple ways—in other words, “we’re really dealing with some sort of biological imbalance,” Poulter says. “It’s not an attitude problem.” And because epigenetic changes typically occur early in life, it may one day be possible to identify young people at risk for suicide by studying their methylation patterns and then to treat them with drugs that regulate this mechanism, Szyf notes.

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20 Movies That Destroy New York

Stomping all over the city that never sleeps is nothing new. The Big Apple has taken quite a few cinematic hits over the years.

Nicolas Cage's new movie Knowing is once again putting a fictional New York in the path of destruction. Check out our review here. Being one of the most iconic cities in the world means that Manhattan is ripe for filmmakers looking to make a visceral impact. After all, what could be more gasp-inducing than torching the Empire State Building? Or flooding Grand Central Station? Or stomping all over the Brooklyn Bridge? New York has always been a prime target for disaster, and even after real disasters have toppled some of its towers, filmmakers still can't stay away.

20. Independence Day (1996)

Despite some geographical inaccuracy (the Empire State Building does not straddle an North-South street), serial New York–abuser Roland Emmerich certainly makes his point anyway. When the hovering alien spacecraft get the "go" sign, Gregory Johnson's iconic design gets lit up like a Roman candle, and Manhattan learns the hard way that not all tourists want to pose for pictures in Times Square and catch a matinee of Legally Blonde.

19. The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

Emmerich again. This time, severe changes in the Earth's climate cause New York to get flooded like a cheap Chevy, and then frozen solid. Why this also causes giant werewolves to appear is cause for debate (we choose the "bad CGI" argument), but this was one circumstance where New Yorkers actually would have preferred the snow turn to a slushy gray muck like it usually does ten seconds after a blizzard.

18. Godzilla (1998)

OK, Emmerich, we get it. You like to see New York decimated. Fine. This time, the German director unleashes a giant lizard in the city so nice they named it twice, and a great many recognizable landmarks suffer as a result. We're not sure if that ending. Godzilla is finally stopped by the criss-crossing cables of the Brooklyn Bridge was meant to be a subtle joke for Manhattanites who equate moving to Brooklyn with death, but we like to think it is, anyway.

17. Men in Black II (2002)

To think, the MIBs spend so much time covering their tracks and erasing memories and yet, if you told the average N.Y. commuter that giant, subway-car-sized space slugs lived in the tunnels, they probably wouldn't bat an eye. They have seen far more disturbing things inside a subway car. MIB2 is relatively gentle on the big city, though, and even its predecessor saved most of its destructiveness for Queens where, let's be honest, no one's really going to notice.

16. Superman II (1980)

When Tim Burton made Batman's Gotham City, he made it so that it didn't resemble any other city the audience knew of (well, maybe some areas of Berlin). Richard Donner, however, wanted people to buy his location as "Metropolis" even though THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING is sticking up right in the middle of midtown. That's like painting wings on an elephant and calling it an eagle. When Supes throws down with General Zod and his flunkies, there's no mistaking that it's Times Square feeling the brunt of the super-fisticuffs.

15. Q (1982)

It's an old New York joke that you can tell who the tourists are because they are the only ones looking up. New Yorkers don't need to gawk at their skyscrapers, making Q's conceit that a giant winged serpent could nest atop the Empire State Building without anyone noticing until it starts eating people utterly believable. Hindered by 1982 special effects, the movie opts for "mystery" over large-scale carnage, but thinking of monumental buildings as home to man-eating monstrosities is disturbing enough.

14. When Worlds Collide (1951)

Before Roland Emmerich got the notion to turn Manhattan's cavernous streets into a log flume, legendary sci-fi producer George Pal busted out the miniatures and the garden hose in When Worlds Collide. The tale of a rogue planet on a collision course with Earth (see? The title isn't a metaphor), the end is not a pleasant one for New York. It gets flooded with enough seawater to drown everything save the cockroaches.

13. Deep Impact (1998)

Before Roland Emmerich got the notion to turn Manhattan's cavernous streets into a log flume, but after George Pal did the exact same thing, director Mimi Leder…aw, forget it. Meteor. Hits earth. New York floods. Let's move on.

12. The Warriors (1979)

Not all destruction has to be an extinction-level event. In The Warriors, the Big Apple is rotting from the inside -- the generally good, hard-working, no-nonsense New Yorkers who are the city's heart and soul have been chased to the periphery and replaced by elaborately-dressed and ultra-violent gangs. These clown-faced crooks have the run of the entire island (and the surrounding boroughs), and civilians are hardly seen at all, which leads to the chilling conclusion that unless you pick a clan, you're pretty much a walking ghost.

11. Planet of the Apes (1968)

After all the hunting, capturing, escaping, and laying on of stinking paws, Charlton Heston wanders down a desolate stretch of beach to discover…the Statue of Liberty! All this time, he's been among ape-men who have built a civilization on the ruins of what was once New York. Well, OK, it could have been New Jersey. But still — we blew it up! Damn us all to hell!

Check out the rest over at Premiere

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5 Items you owned (that would bore today’s youth)

First off, I don’t want to imply that the children of today are all spoiled shit heads. We’d simply like to point out that if today’s youth were given the recreational tools we had while growing up, they’d be pretty bored. [via regretful morning]

Big Wheel - If you could list off the best moments in your life, getting a Big Wheel would be somewhere at the top. It wouldn’t rank as high as getting a car or losing your virginity, but it would still easily make the top 10.

Today’s Replacement - The Wii Racing Wheel.

Rolling around outside really can’t compete with the excitement a five year old can get via any Wii racing game whilst gobbling down a bag of these.

Sling Shot - The wrist rocket used metal, plastic, and rubber to combine destruction with fun. Having a wrist rocket put you leaps and bounds in front of your buddies who had just the regular sling shot. You could spend an entire afternoon shooting shit with this bad boy and not get bored.

Today’s Replacement - The paint ball gun eliminates the labor it takes to make an object projectile through the air. The down side is that it’s pretty messy. However, even though taking a paintball to the dome isn’t fun, it’s a lot safer than being blasted by a rock.

a paintball shot to the ear. - Watch more

In a made up statistic, 9 out of 10 teenagers preferred the blast of a paintball to that of a rock from a sling shot.

Nintendo - For many of us, the NES is where it all started when it comes to gaming. Hours upon hours of hour lives got flushed down the 8 bit toilet while playing this masterpiece.

Today’s Replacement - Putting a Nintendo in front of a kid today would almost be a mean joke. In fact, if I wanted to be a real prick I’d put a kid in time out by making him save the princess. The Xbox 360 is to Nintendo like Katie Couric is to Barbara Walters. Newer, nicer looking, more expensive, and gets far more attention.

Rubik’s Cube - This awesome toy was invented in 1974 and remained a smash hit all through out the 80’s. Simple design, but not easy to conquer.

Today’s Replacement - A teenager can’t be seen with bulky entertainment accessories. However the pure genius of the Rubik’s cube goes unmatched - Thus, we bring you the Rubik’s iPhone app.

Journal/Diary - Guys don’t write in diaries because that would be a serious loss of man points. We do however remember how important this garbage was to our sisters and female class mates. Ever steel a diary? I have, and I will tell you right now that the beat down I received from my sister was one that I will never forget. A diary was a book of blank pages where girls left the most private of private thoughts. In 1992, a 15 year old might write the following in her journal:

Dear Diary, Mark is really cute and tonight we kissed for the first time. I hope he asks me to the dance!

Today’s Replacement - Facebook/Myspace/Twitter etc

Food for thought: We can look back now and say “damn I was easily entertained.” But were we? Not really, those items and activities were the norm for society - In 20 years from now the Xbox 360 will be a sad joke, and a 15 year old girl with bra/panty pics on her Myspace would be considered prude for not showing nipple + snapper.

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Meet the bankers and brokers responsible for the financial crisis

[via rollingstone]

The Enabler
ALAN GREENSPAN

WAS Chairman of the Federal Reserve (1987-2006)
WHAT HE DID Pushed for sweeping power to regulate Wall Street — and then failed to use it. Fueled "irrational" bubble with low interest rates.
WORST MOVE Called derivatives like CDOs "extraordinarily useful"; regulating them would be a "mistake."
NOW ADMITS He was "partially" wrong to not impose tougher oversight.

The Pioneer
SANDY WEILL

WAS CEO of Citigroup (1998-2003)
WHAT HE DID Created the first too-big-to-fail company, Citigroup. Led the boom in subprime mortgages.
RECENTLY Celebrated $45 billion taxpayer bailout of Citi by taking Mexican vacation on Citigroup jet, complete with $13,000 carpets, pillows made from Hermés scarves, and Baccarat crystal glassware.

The Ideologue
PHIL GRAMM

WAS Senate Banking Committee chair (1995-2000)
KNOWN AS "High priest of deregulation"
WHAT HE DID Pushed repeal of Glass-Steagall Act, leading to rise of megabanks.
WORST MOVE Wrote law that exempted disastrous CDS deals from all regulation.
NOW ADMITS Nothing. Says there is "no evidence" his laws caused crash, which he dismissed as a "mental recession."

The Arsonist
JOE CASSANO

WAS Chief of AIG Financial Products (2001-2008)
WHAT HE DID Blew a $500 billion hole in fabric of the universe by placing massive bet on the bubble economy with money he didn't have.
WORST MOVE In August 2007 told investors his CDS deals could not lose even "$1"; lost $352 million that quarter.
NOW Enjoying his $280 million in earnings.

The Bagman
ROBERT RUBIN

WAS Treasury secretary (1995-1999)
WHAT HE DID Opposed regulation of credit swaps; fought to overturn Glass-Steagall Act, leading to creation of Citigroup, where he later made $115 million.
WORST MOVE Asked Treasury to pressure ratings agencies to delay downgrading Enron, a Citigroup debtor.
NOW Still on Citi's board; mentor of Treasury Secretary Geithner.

Mr. Buck Passer
CHRISTOPHER COX

WAS Chairman of the SEC (2005-2009)
WHAT HE DID Gave the market a free ride, waiting until far too late to reverse the disastrous "voluntary regulation" program of 2004 and police the ratings agencies.
LAME EXCUSE Insisted it wasn't his fault, claiming deregulatory policies tied his hands.
NOW SAYS His "greatest contribution" during the crisis was staying "calm."

The Predator
ANGELO MOZILO

WAS Head of Countrywide Financial (1969-2008)
WHAT HE DID Biggest provider of subprime mortgages; specialized in predatory loans that put broke people in mansions.
WORST MOVE "Friends of Angelo" program gave favorable mortgages to Sens. Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad.
NOW SAYS Called plea from homeowner facing foreclosure "disgusting."

The Decorator
JOHN THAIN

WAS Chief of Merrill Lynch (2007-2009)
WHAT HE DID Concealed $15 billion hole in Merrill balance sheet until government subsidized the sale of his company. Went skiing in Vail just before revealing losses.
WORST MOVE Proposed $10 million bonus for himself as company imploded; OK'd $1.2 million office refurbishing.
IS NOW Facing class-action suit for concealing losses.

The Maestro
HENRY PAULSON

WAS CEO of Goldman Sachs (1999-2006); Treasury secretary (2006-2009)
WHAT HE DID Pushed for end to debt restrictions for banks like Goldman, then arranged big bailout for Goldman.
WORST MOVE TARP proposal just three pages long; made his decisions "non-reviewable."
NOW SAYS "I don't think we've made mistakes on the major decisions."

The Big Loser
DICK FULD

WAS CEO of Lehman Brothers (1993-2008)
WHAT HE DID Piloted Lehman to largest ­bankruptcy in U.S. history; earned $22 million the year firm went bust.
WORST MOVE Tried to avoid lawsuits by selling his $13 million Florida home to his wife for $100.
NOW SAYS Feels "horrible" about Lehman, but insists his management was "prudent and appropriate."

Mr. Too Big
KEN LEWIS

IS CEO of Bank of America (2001-present)
WHAT HE DID Created ultimate too-big-to-fail company, buying up Fleet, MBNA, Countrywide and Merrill Lynch.
WORST MOVE Failed to catch a $15 billion loss at Merrill before buying the firm; needed $20 billion bailout to close deal.
NOW SAYS It's a false "claim" to say "the banks that caused this mess must be held accountable."

Illustrations: Victor Juhasz.

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Ice that burns could be a green fossil fuel

[via newscientist]

Natural gas locked up in water crystals could be a source of enormous amounts of energy – and if a new technology delivers what scientists are claiming, then it could even be emissions-free too.

To the naked eye, clathrate hydrate looks like regular ice. However, while it is made up partly of water, the water molecules are organised into "cages", which trap individual molecules of methane inside them.

Compared to other fossil fuels, methane – also known as natural gas – releases less carbon dioxide per unit of energy generated. Nevertheless, burning it still releases carbon dioxide and thus drives climate change.

However, according to research presented this week at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society, a new method of extracting the methane could effectively make it a carbon-neutral fossil fuel.

'Bridging fuel'

Due to their physical structure, clathrate hydrate cages "prefer" to have carbon dioxide at their cores, so if carbon dioxide is pumped into the hydrate, it spontaneously takes the methane's place. As a result, it should be possible to simultaneously extract methane and store carbon dioxide.

"Methane from hydrate could be a bridging fuel, to lead towards more renewable energies," says Tim Collett of the United States Geological Survey.

According to the results in Collett's presentation, the exchange process has been shown to work in the lab. Pumping carbon dioxide into rock cores containing hydrate successfully released the methane, and stored the carbon dioxide.

The US Department of Energy is now working with the oil company ConocoPhillips on a field trial in Alaska (pdf), to test whether the technique can be scaled up.

Rival technology

Previous attempts to obtain methane by heating up the hydrate were not effective, but pumping fluids out of the hydrate to release the pressure does release the methane. To be put into commercial practice, it is likely that the carbon storage method will need to outcompete this depressurisation technique.

Deborah Hutchinson of the USGS says that the technique "could make it possible to sequester CO₂."

Natural gas normally contains a percentage of CO₂, which under industry regulations must be pumped back into the gas wells when it is extracted.

"The first CO₂ to be utilised in this [new] methodology would be the CO₂ 'cleaned' from raw natural gas produced in nearby wells," says Hutchinson. In other words, the CO₂ sequestered in the extraction of methane in ice will most likely be the stuff separated from conventional gas reservoirs.

Globally, there are thought to be from 10¹⁵ to 10¹⁷ cubic metres of methane stored in hydrates – a vast store, large quantities of which should be recoverable.

'Limited sequestration'

Much of it is in sediments just below the sea floor, or trapped under permafrost. Some of the best-studied reservoirs are in Alaska, and beneath the Gulf of Mexico and the Sea of Japan.

The deposits on the North Slope of Alaska are among the richest. A 2008 USGS study showed that there are 2.4 trillion cubic metres (85 trillion cubic feet) of methane in hydrate form, which could be recovered using existing technology.

The US, Canada, Japan and Korea are all looking into clathrate hydrates as a possible energy source.

"A lot of countries are getting very serious about this," says Ray Boswell of the US National Energy Technology Laboratory. "Something that used to be more hype than reality is becoming something people are seriously talking about."

Bahman Tohidi of Heriot-Watt University's Institute of Petroleum Engineering says the Alaska trial is "a step in the right direction", but that the potential for sequestering carbon would be limited by the remote locations of the hydrate reservoirs. "You're talking about long distance CO₂ transport," he says.

Neil Crumpton of UK environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth is sceptical. "It's a technology we think is best avoided. The US should be focusing its efforts on concentrated solar power in its southwestern deserts."

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Mother cooks and eats friend in front of 7 year old son

A CANNIBAL mum axed a friend to death, cooked her body and ate the meat — while the killer’s young son looked on.

Olesya Mostovschikova, 27, told police she rowed with Tatiana Romanchuk, 32, during a booze-up. [via mirror]

Officer Oleg Lobach said Olesya calmly told cops: “I took the axe and hit her a number of times on her head.

“Then I cut off her ears, gouged out one eye, cut off an arm and a hand. I then cooked the parts in the oven.”

Another friend, who is being treated as a witness, claims that she was forced to eat the flesh.

Cops say Olesya’s son, seven, witnessed the murder and the cooking. He is now in care.

Locals at Irkutsk, in Siberia, Russia, found Tatiana’s legs in a rubbish bin.

Picture of her here.

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Michigan Man Sentenced to 90 Days in Prison for Sex Act With Car Wash Vacuum

A man police caught performing a sex act with a car wash vacuum has been sentenced to 90 days in prison.

Jason Leroy Savage must also submit to drug testing. [via foxnews]

The 29-year-old from Michigan, was sentenced Wednesday at Saginaw County Circuit Court.

Savage pleaded no contest to indecent exposure last month.

Police say Savage was arrested after a resident called officers early on Oct. 16 to report suspicious activity at a car wash in Thomas Township, about 90 miles northwest of Detroit.

Savage's attorney, Philip Sturtz, didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.

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35 Interesting and Fun Alcohol Facts

Alcohol is probably one of the most controversial product in terms of health, age, laws or cause of accidents. A while back we did a post on alcohol facts which highlighted some of the facts that are related to drunk driving, industry facts and so on. The facts on that particular post were mostly something that would either affect us in one way or the other. Today we wanted to cover alcohol facts that are either surprising, funny or just fun to know. It’s amazing to know that Ohio has a law than bans giving any alcohol to fishes. We are not sure what caused this law to come into effect but there is one. And we are sure most of you didn’t know the national anthem of US was written to the tune of a drinking song. Check out some more fun facts related to alcohol below. [via cognac]

1

The word “toast,” which means wishing good health originated in ancient Rome. A piece of toasted bread was literally dropped into wine back then.

2

The soil of one of the vineyards in France is considered so precious that it is mandatory for workers to scrape the soil off their shoes before they leave.

3

Anyone under the age of 21 should be careful of taking out trash bags in Missouri. If you are under 21 and the garbage contains an empty bottle of alcohol, you can be charged with illegal possession of alcohol.

4

Most people think that drinking alcohol raises the body temperature. Alcohol actually lowers the body temperature.

5

Here is a little surprise : The national anthem of United States “The Star Spangled Banner,” was written to the tune of a drinking song.

6

Although “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” is considered to be the shortest sentence that includes all the letters of the alphabet, alcohol lovers came up with one of their own “Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.”

7

Most vegetable and almost all fruits contain a small amount of alcohol in them.

8

The first Thanksgiving Day didn’t include mashed potatoes, turkey and all other foods that we usually eat on this particular day. However, there was beer, brandy, gin and wine.

9

Bourbon, the official drink of United States takes its name from Bourbon County in Kentucky.

10

The pressure in a champagne bottle is 90 pounds per square inch, that is three times the pressure in automobile tires.

11

Adolf Hitler was one of the world’s best known abstainers from alcohol.

12

Sir Winston Churchill was one of the world’s heaviest drinkers.

13

The longest permanent bar is 405 feet and 10 inches. It is located in Ohio. Some suggest that the longest bar is in Illinois which is 684 feet.

14

The first recruiting station of the U.S. Marines was a bar.

15

The world’s oldest known recipe is for beer.

16

It is illegal to run a “tab” in Iowa (source that we used says running a “tab” in Iowa is illegal. Iowa residents say it is legal. We will go with Iowa residents and rule this one out)

17

United States has the highest minimum drinking age in the entire world.

18

The alcohol content of a typical beer, wine or spirits are virtually identical. To a breathalyzer, a drink is a drink is a drink.

19

Brandy, rum and whisky can be either aged too long or not long enough.

20

It is estimated that there are 49,000,000 (forty-nine million) bubbles in a bottle of champagne.

21

Human body produces its own supply of alcohol naturally, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

22

Beer started selling in bottles starting 1850 and in cans starting 1935.

23

In the 1600’s thermometer used to be filled with brandy instead of mercury.

24

The term “Dipsomania” refers to abnormal cravings for alcohol.

25

There is a cloud of alcohol in the outer space which is enough to make four trillion-trillion drinks.

26

It is illegal to feed alcohol to Moose in Alaska and fishes in Ohio.

27

In some European countries McDonald’s serves alcohol. Some parents like to drink alcohol while kids munch on fries and chicken nuggets. McDonald’s decided they needed all the customers they can get.

28

Many high school cafeterias in Europe serve alcohol to students who choose to drink

29

Distilled spirits such as brandy, gin, rum, tequila, etc. contain no carbohydrates, no fats and no cholesterol of any kind.

30

A mixed drink that contains carbonated drink is absorbed into the body more quickly than straight shots.

31

Abraham Lincoln held a liquor license and operated several taverns.

32

All spirits (unlike beer and wine) are originally clear and colorless. The golden brown and other colors are achieved due to the aging process.

33

The French Wine “Fat Bastard” is banned in Ohio and Texas. (although the articles we referred to suggested that this was true, many readers have said that you can buy “Fat Bastard” in Texas)

34

Here is another one we found that relates to Texas : Texas state law prohibits taking more than three sips of beer at a time while standing.

35

The BATF (Bureau of Alcohol,Tobacco and Firearms) prohibits the use of word “refreshing” to describe any alcoholic beverage.

Please take a moment and share with us of any interesting and fun alcohol facts that you know of. We hope you enjoyed these fun alcohol facts.

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The trillion dollar question-How to understand enormous numbers

As Obama proposes a $1,000,000,000,000 rescue plan, Marcus du Sautoy offers a handy guide to the mind-bogglingly big numbers being bandied about. [via guardian]

The global recession has brought us a slew of numbers so large, with so many noughts attached, that it's getting difficult to put them into any kind of perspective. The Bank of England recently announced it was injecting up to £150 billion of new money into the British economy, an unimaginable amount - yet now we hear Barack Obama is proposing to splash out a further $1trn (one trillion dollars) to rescue Wall Street's floundering institutions. And even that's not as much as Britain's national debt has been recalculated at - £1.5trn - following the classification of Lloyds and the Royal Bank of Scotland as public corporations.

Millions, billions, trillions - names most of us are familiar with, even if we can't specify the number of zeros. In January, Zimbabwe printed a dollar note with a number containing 11 zeros, only to further deflate its currency a month later. And it still doesn't match the Hungarian National Bank in 1946, which came up with the highest denomination banknote ever issued: a 100 quintillion (20 zeros) peng note.

To make any sense of what's going on (and how bad things really are), you need a feeling for quite how big these numbers are. So here's a brief guide, from zero right up to the biggest of them all.

0 or zero

A relative newcomer on the mathematical scene, zero wasn't recognised as a number in its own right until the Indians started exploring its properties in the seventh century AD (they are also responsible for the other nine symbols we use for recording numbers, known as the Arabic-Hindu system). Zero was introduced to Europe by the Italian mathematician Fibonacci in the 12th century - and the authorities were so suspicious of it that in 1299 the government of Florence banned its use.

The Indians' invention of the number zero is directly related to their fascination with large numbers. The Sanskrit saga Lalitavistara gives an account of Gautama Buddha, who is asked at one point to name all of the numbers up to those with 421 zeros. A time-consuming task.

10

The base-10 system we use today is a direct result of the fact we count on our 10 fingers (the Simpsons, presumably, are working in base eight). Other cultures were not so hooked on powers of 10: the ancient Babylonians collected things in powers of 60, and we see hangovers of their system of numbers in the modern world. The fact that there are 60 minutes in an hour and 360 degrees in a circle is a relic of the Babylonians' choice of base 60. The effect of putting zeros on the end of a Babylonian number is therefore even more devastating than on our modern decimal notation.

1,000,000 (one million)

We really start to see the power of the Arabic-Hindu system coming into its own as we hit the big numbers. The Romans had to keep on cooking up new letters every time their numbers got bigger - C for 100, D for 500, M for 1,000 - because they didn't have zeros to add on to the end. To give a sense of how big a million is, 1m seconds is just over 11½ days and if you laid 1m pound coins end to end, they would stretch for 14 miles.

1,000,000,000 (one billion)

In the UK, this number used to be called, simply, 1,000 million, while a billion was reserved for a million million (a number with 12 zeros). But pressure to standardise our numbers with the US drove Harold Wilson to announce in 1974 that any government mention of a billion would from then on mean a number with nine zeros.

If you really want someone to blame for the confusion over billions, however, it's the French. Throughout history, they have flip-flopped between different definitions, wreaking havoc on the names of numbers. In 1480, they proposed that a billion have 12 zeros, which is what the British adopted. Then, in the middle of the 17th century, they knocked three zeros off, so a billion became a number with nine zeros. The young United States inherited this new definition. Then in 1948, the French reverted back to the old system.

1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion)

To help Obama put the full scale of his rescue plan into perspective, one trillion seconds would take you back 31,709 years to the time of the hunter-gatherers. If you lined up the 1.5tn pound coins that were reported to have been wiped off the global markets on one single black Friday, they would get you from here to Mars.

1,000,000,000,000,000 (one quadrillion)

Mathematicians write this number as 10¹⁵: the superscript tells you how many zeros there are after the one. Given that we are already wiping trillions off the markets, this is the next order of magnitude that's surely soon going to start appearing on the scene.

The Americans and British call this number a quadrillion, although the European name is a billiard. The world's derivative market has a notional value of nearly half a quadrillion dollars - that's 10 times the value of the world's output, which is why it is regarded as a ticking timebomb by some analysts. Line up a quadrillion pound coins, and they will take you outside our solar system.

10¹⁰⁰ ... (one googol)

This numerical name was coined in 1938 by a nine-year-old boy, Milton Sirotta, who was asked by his mathematical uncle to think of a name for a number with one followed by 100 zeros. If that's not mindboggling enough, a "googolplex" is a number with a googol number of zeros. As surely everyone knows, a misspelt version of this number is now the name of a rather well-known internet search engine. It was also the answer to the million pound question given by Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? cheat Major Charles Ingram.

316470269330 ... 66697152511

This is the largest prime number that has been discovered (with the aid of a large computer) to date. It has nearly 13m digits and was only found in August of last year. Printing the full number would require a G2 page about 30 miles long, and it would take more than two months to read aloud all the digits. It earned the discoverer a prize of $100,000 for the first prime number to break the 10m-digit barrier. The next prize on offer is $150,000, for a prime number with more than 100m digits. Thanks to the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, we know that there are prime numbers out there with as many digits as we want.

A zillion

Ask a child to name a really big number and they will often go for a zillion. This name does not correspond to any particular number, but has gone into the lexicon to mean a number of indefinitely large magnitude, coined by the American writer Damon Runyon, the author of Guys and Dolls.

Infinity

The smart kids will go for infinity as the largest number imaginable. Until the end of the 19th century, the concept represented the unknowable - but amazingly, in 1874, a mathematician called Georg Cantor revealed that there are many sorts of infinity, some larger than others. He also showed how one can make sense of adding and multiplying infinities. He paid for his investigation, however, spending much of his life in a German mental asylum in Halle.

So, in the great scheme of the mathematical universe, the numbers being bandied about over the last few weeks are pretty small beer. However bad it gets, mathematicians will always be ready with a name and notation to tackle the next onslaught of bad economic figures.

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Man wrongly jailed for 27 years walks free ... and is hit by a taxi

The man released after spending 27 years in jail for a murder he did not commit has spent his first weekend of freedom in hospital after being hit by a taxi. [via dailymail]

Sean Hodgson needed stitches in his face after being struck by the cab as he was about to cross a busy road in London.

His solicitor said the accident was just one example of how difficult it was for Mr Hodgson to adjust to life on the outside after nearly three decades behind bars.

Mr Hodgson was convicted in 1982 of killing barmaid Teresa De Simone after he confessed to the murder while in prison for another offence.

But the 58-year-old was finally released last week after new DNA evidence came to light proving he could not have committed the 1979 murder.

Declaring himself 'ecstatic' as he left the Royal Courts of Justice last Thursday, Mr Hodgson headed straight for the pub for a pint with his brother Peter and the £46 prison discharge grant he had in his pocket.

But in a moment reminiscent of Rip Van Winkle - the classic story of a man who falls asleep for 20 years and wakes to find the world changed - Mr Hodgson immediately had to be stopped from lighting a cigarette, unaware of the smoking ban introduced in pubs nationwide two years ago.

Solicitor Julian Young said his client was upbeat but was finding especially difficult to adjust to life in the capital.

Describing the accident, Mr Young said: 'He was struck by the wing mirror of a taxi that mounted the kerb and taken to hospital where he had two stitches in his face.

'He's OK but I think he's struggling with life on the outside, and particularly in London. He's been in to see us and his spirits are up,' he said.

Mr Hodgson, who left prison with just £46 discharge grant, is now staying in a small hotel paid for by housing benefit arranged with the help of the Royal Courts of Justice's miscarriage of justice team.

Mr Young said work had now begun on Mr Hodgson's claim for compensation for the years he spent inside.

He added: 'We're hopeful things might be moved through a bit quicker for someone who has wrongly spent 27 years in prison.

'You might think a moral stand could be taken given the nature of the case.'

A Home Office scheme means compensation is capped at £500,000. But Mr Hodgson may make a further claim against the Forensic Science Service (FSS) after a blunder prevented him being released ten years ago.

In 1998, the FSS wrongly told his solicitors no scientific evidence had been kept from the murder scene behind the Tom Tackle pub, in Southampton, Hants.

Mr Hodgson was jailed for life for strangling Miss De Simone after her body was found in her Ford Escort in December 1979.

He confessed to the murder a year later while in jail for stealing a car - but later retracted his confession, saying he was a 'pathological' liar.

Despite this a jury convicted him of the grisly murder of Teresa, who also worked as an accounts clerk for a gas company.

Mr Hodgson appealed unsuccessfully against his conviction in 1983.

Although he continued to protest his innocence while being held in Albany Prison on the Isle of Wight, his case remained closed until he contacted solicitors last year.

Earlier this year, a review of the DNA evidence showed the genetic material found at the scene did not match a sample taken from him.

Police have now reopened their investigation into the killing of the 22-year-old.

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8.2 seconds needed to fall in love

The time needed for a man to fall in love at first sight is 8.2 seconds, scientists claim.

The longer a man's gaze rests on a woman when they meet for the first time, the more interested he is.[via telegraph]

If it last just four seconds, he may not be all that impressed. But if it breaks the 8.2 second barrier, he could already be in love they say.

However the same is not true for women. They let their eyes linger on men for the same length of time whether they find them attractive or not.

Hidden cameras were used to secretly track the eye movements of 115 students as they spoke to actors and actresses. They were then asked to rate their conversation partner's attractiveness.

The men looked into the eyes of actresses they considered beautiful for an average of 8.2 seconds, but that dropped to 4.5 seconds when gazing at those they rated less attractive, the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior reported.

The female students, however, looked at the actors for the same length of time. The researchers believe that men use eye contact to seek out fit and fertile mates.

But women are more wary of attracting unwanted attention because of the risks of unwanted pregnancy and single parenthood.

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Mich. baseball park offers 4,800 calorie burger

4-pounder features 5 beef patties, 5 slices of cheese, 1 cup of chili and more

Well, at least the salsa is low-cal.[via msn]

The West Michigan Whitecaps, a minor league baseball team, will be offering up major league cholesterol, carbohydrates and calories in an enormous hamburger being added to the menu this year at the Fifth Third Ballpark.

The 4-pound, $20 burger features five beef patties, five slices of cheese, nearly a cup of chili and liberal doses of salsa and corn chips, all on an 8-inch sesame-seed bun. That’s a lot of dough!

The Grand Rapids Press reports that anyone who eats the entire 4,800-calorie behemoth in one sitting will receive a special T-shirt. Saner fans can divide it up with a pizza cutter and share.

The Midwest League team is a Class A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers.

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11 Strange, and Often Wrong, Colored Foods and Drinks

1. Green beer. Alcohol shouldn't color your tongue. If it does, you're doing it wrong. That's why I never do shots out of test tubes. Why put the shots that are all juice and coloring into the nerdiest scientific item in the entire bar? They don't light up your flaming shots with a bunsen burner. [via 11 points]
   
   
   
2. Pink fake bacon (or "fakon"). I don't get why they do this on vegetarian products. It's not bacon. It doesn't taste like bacon. And, worst of all, in their attempts to make it resemble bacon, it's hot pink with fake off-white marbling.
   
   
   
3. Purple ketchup. At one point, Heinz decided that kids didn't want red ketchup any more, they wanted colored ketchup. The stuff looks like, at best, mold.
   
   
   
4. Blue raspberry. I never understood why blue became the universal color of raspberry in candy. I get that cherry is red, but kids aren't stupid. And they haven't lost their vision yet... they can still visually discern between red and maroon or red and vermilion. "Blue raspberry" was such a weird decision someone made once upon a time that stuck.
   
   
   
5. Crystal Pepsi. Frankly, this was all just an elaborate ruse to cram yet another reference to Crystal Pepsi onto this blog.
   
   
   
6. Green eggs. My name is Sam. For my entire life I have been tormented by this food. At least when people want to make a lame cultural reference to my name they go for "Sam I Am" and not "I Am Sam". And then to round it out I could say "Am I Sam?"
   
   
   
7. Pink butter. Unacceptable. If butter's pink, how can Americans continue to secretly cook everything in it and fatten up. The pink would leave evidence behind.
   
   
   
8. White mint chocolate chip. I remember when my mom bought some white mint chocolate chip ice cream. I thought it was weird. Then I ate some and it was effing delicious. Seriously. I think my mom and I would've killed a man for trying to take this away from us.
   
   I'm fairly sure that green is added to most cheaper mint chocolate chip ice creams just to distinguish it from regular chocolate chip.
   
   It's like the green color in the Shamrock Shake. Does it really add a minty taste or is that in your head? (And, more importantly, did you just think to yourself, "Oh shit it's March 18th McDonald's is gonna stop selling Shamrock Shakes this week I gotta go buy one before I get McRibbed."
   
   
   
9. Purple mashed potatoes. I actually don't care for mashed potatoes, so this doesn't gross me out any more than regular white mashed potatoes.
   
   
   
10. Black tomatoes. These, on the other hand, gross me out hardcore.
    
    
    
11. Blue duck. I want to eat blue duck because I've never eaten a blue duck before and I want to eat one.
    

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22-Year-Old's Virginity Auction Bids Hit $3.7M

[via nbcnewyork]

A San Diego woman who is auctioning off her virginity said she has now received a bid of $3.7 million, according to a published report.

Natalie Dylan, a 22-year-old San Diego woman, said she got the idea for the auction after her sister was able to pay for her college education after prostituting herself for three weeks, according to the London Telegraph.

Dylan has a degree in women's studies. She told the paper she hopes to pay for an advanced degree in family and marriage therapy with the proceeds from the auction.

She told the Telegraph that she doesn't think she's the only one who will be benefit from the auction.

"I think me and the person I do it with will both profit greatly from the deal," Dylan told the paper.

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20 Unusual and Creative Ice Cube Trays

[via toxel] Collection of unusual and creative ice cube trays from all over the world.

Alphabet Ice Cube Tray

Float subtle messages in your friends drinks, or if you are feeling really creative, go crazy and make letters out of jelly or butter. [link]

Ice Invaders Ice Cube Tray

Did you spend a good portion of your childhood (and your allowance) blasting 2-dimensional aliens to smithereens? Now you can freeze those precious moments in time with Ice Invaders. [link]

Bone Chillers Ice Cube Tray

Chilling ice cube tray. Chill your beverages to the bone! [link]

Golf Ball Ice Cube Tray

A fun way to cool your drink, perfectly formed Ice Gold Balls. [link]

Titanic Ice Cube Tray

You get 4 ocean liners and 4 icebergs — just add gin, Leo DiCaprio, and Kate Winslet for a perfect party. [link]

Pi Symbol Ice Cube Tray

Your favorite irrational number chills your beverage of choice. [link]

Tipsy Toes Ice Cube Tray

Stylish ice cubes that won’t dilute your drink and can be used over and over. Put a pair in your punch, or dip your toes into a gin and tonic. [link]

AK Bullet Ice Cube Tray

Show James Bond how it’s done and add a little sophistication to your parties with this amazing ice cube tray. [link]

Strawberry Ice Cube Tray

These soft rubber ice cube trays allow you to have strawberry-shaped blocks of ice in your drinks. [link]

Frozen Smiles Ice Cube Tray

Freeze up a batch of Frozen Smiles and drop them into any glass - they’re the ice cubes that grin right back at you. [link]

Tetris Ice Cube Tray

Iceblox Ice Cube Puzzle Tray - the only ice cube tray that makes special puzzle shaped pieces which you can use to play a chilly version of the old classic. [link]

FOSSILICED Ice Cube Tray

Need to dig up a clever party accessory? Look no further than ice-cold fossils - these two assorted dinos will add the perfect Ice Age touch to your modern drinks. [link]

Fishbone Ice Cube Tray

Guaranteed to keep your drinks cool in more ways than one. Use them as a party piece, an icebreaker, or simply to keep your drink cold. [link]

Ice Princess Ice Cube Tray

This unique ice tray creates magic wands fit for a fairy princess - sparkly glittery reusable drinking straws with star-shaped ice cubes at the tip. [link]

Jewels Ice Cube Tray

Just fill this food-grade flexi ice tray with water or any kind of juice, and freeze. Then pop out the three-dimensional Cool Jewels and bling out your beverage. [link]

Snowflake Ice Cube Tray

Creative ice cube tray designed by Ignacio Pilotto. [link]

Guitar Ice Cube Tray

Drop one of these groovy guitars into your drink, and give it a stir. Just the thing for jazzing up your favorite beverage. [link]

LEGO Ice Cube Tray

Serve the coolest drinks around with ice that looks like LEGO bricks, or build your own LEGO ice “sculpture!”. [link]

Homemade LEGO Ice Cubes

Learn how you can make your own LEGO ice cube trays at home. [link]

Cool Shooters Ice Cube Tray

What’s cooler than a shot glass made of ice? [link]

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9 Good Things The Internet Has Ruined Forever

Nostalgia is a funny thing. Usually it serves no other purpose than to make us hate our lives and long for a simpler time. Sometimes nostalgia can actually serve a mirror into our lives and show how really screwed up we really are. Like, for instance, what life was like before high speed Internet. Sure, our lives sucked then as much as it sucks now, but we blame the Internet for ruining a few things that were once good and holy. Here's our list of 9 Good Things The Internet Has Ruined Forever. [via omglist]

9- Rick Astley

Granted, Rick Astley was never the coolest singer ever to hit VH-1, but his cheeziness still endeared him to many folks who listened to music in the 1980s. His biggest hit, Never Gonna Give You Up, was dumb enough to laugh at, but still catchy enough to sing drunkenly at kareoke. That all changed once one smartass forum commenter decided to trick people into clicking a YouTube link, and then the Rick Roll phenomenon spread like a wildfire of annoyingness. Granted, at first you might have got a chuckle out of Rick Rolling your friends or the New York Mets, but now there's no fun to be had watching Mr. Astley proclaim his love.

8- Watching TV with Other People

Remember a time when you'd have people over to watch a show or special event on TV? Your non-cable-having friends would mooch off of you and, although it was annoying, it was fun to have viewing parties. With the expansion of broadband and popularity of torrents, everyone can watch shows in the comfort of their office chairs, couches, subway trains... the list goes on. With the major networks launching sites like Hulu.com or TV.com, you can watch most of your shows at your convenience. There are even iPhone Apps that allow you to watch your shows on the go. Good luck getting your friends to crowd around that.

7- Cats

There was once a time when cats had a peaceful life of eating, sleeping, and ignoring us. Then one day, images of our furry friends with funny captions appeared on the image boards of 4Chan -- the most famous caption being "I CAN HAZ CHEEZBURGER?" Ever since the meme hit the mainstream, there is no rest for our cats. We've turned in to the cat paparazzi and have snapped pics of our kitties popping out of ceilings, laundry baskets, and everything in between.

6- Motivational Posters

Remember going to your dentist's office? Lying there and staring at the ceiling was not fun, but at least the motivational posters were there to get you going. Sure, they were generic, but you have to admit that they did in fact motivate you. Right? Ever since de-motivational posters have popped up on the Internet, it's become that much more dorky to have a motivational poster of your own. Now you have to hide those posters deep in your computer hard drives, under a different user name.

5- Lists

There was once a time when lists were just for groceries, magazine covers, and David Letterman. Although today's list frenzy was probably copied from magazine cover cuts, they have become so abundant and ubiquitous that it's difficult to find a list that hasn't already been done. You have to resort to writing a list about how lists have been ruined. See what we mean?

4- Porn

If you're a pre-Gen Y kid, you probably discovered porn under your dad's bed or at a friend's house. Remember the butterflies you felt when you were about to see your first porno? That first look into the world of sex was usually so enthralling, you'd often forget is was also a deep gaze into your parent's or friend's parents sexual desires. It was all so exciting. With the introduction of Internet, however, porn has become a perversely solitary thing. And you can't even be assured your first exposure to filmed sex will of the professional variety, due to the flood of amateurs bumpin' uglies (and we do mean uglies) on web cams.

3- Tom Cruise

You viral-video making bastards, don't even deny that you all caused the demise of Tom Cruise's career. Don't you remember Maverick? Jerry McGuire? What the hell happened? If this were 1980s, before YouTube was invented, the couch scandal would've been a blip on Tom Cruise's career. Instead, it was that catalyst for his career's descent. Because we were all so concerned with his ties to Scientology and his general weird behavior, every misstep of Cruise's for the past few years has been passed around like a cold sore.

2- Journalism

What would happen if Clark Kent and Lois Lane worked for a blog? They'd be on their couches, in their underwear, copying and pasting articles. Remember when journalists were investigators? Magazines and newspapers were glamorous, cushy places of employment. Oh how things have changed. Newspapers and magazines are on life support and now the editorial filter is almost non-existent. Hey, who needs it anyway when you're stealing your stories from better-run blogs, right? And photographers? Forget about it. Any kid that can afford a digital camera and Photoshop can claim they are a professional photographer. Who the hell needs Art School anyway? The journalist as we know it is a dying breed and have been replaced with bloggers and aggregators. Tough cookies, we know, but sad nonetheless.

1- Privacy

Thank God we went through our experimental phase in college before the invention of MySpace and FaceBook. We've all heard the stories of people getting fired for their online activities a.k.a. personal lives. These days you can't lie about where you're going, whom you're with, or what you're doing if there is even one person there with a camera and a FaceBook account. And with your co-workers adding you as friends on your social networks, you can't chat up your friends about how stupid drunk you were and all of the illegal things you did on Saturday night. There goes years of life experience for the next generation of college kids. Yeah, sure they have access to amazing technology and a zillion online friends... but we all know that the most awesomely stupid experiences you have are the illegal ones you have with other people around (ahem... Michael Phelps). Even for responsible adults, the lines between socializing, stalking, invasion of privacy can often be blurred.

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10 Cars for More than Commuting

They're called extreme commutes. Spending 90 minutes or more getting to and from work is no one's idea of a good time. What if you could while away the traffic doing email or playing Parcheesi with your family? The Japanese already treat the car like a mobile office or living room, and automakers, in their latest attempt to actually sell some cars, are encouraging customers to "hang out" on wheels, offering amenities such as Wi-Fi, satellite TV, and seating cushier than what you have at home. Let's face it, if the economy doesn't improve soon, we're all going to be living out of our cars, so think of these vehicles as a down payment on our dystopian, post-apocalyptic future.

Nissan Cube
The Cube answers the burning question, what if Ikea designed furniture for your first car the same way it outfits your first apartment? This aesthetic is most evident in the funky Cube's "sofa-style" rear seat and cubbyholes galore for storing electronics, clothing, and toiletries. Already popular in Japan, the economical Cube enters the U.S. market later this year. Although it's highly customizable, much like Toyota's Scion vehicles, thankfully there's no assembly required.

Ford SYNUS
Had Ford commercialized this Brinks truck-like vehicle, it surely would have kept any driver's virginity secure. This fanciful but tough-looking concept notably included a "lockdown mode" for when passengers wanted to ignore the outside world and watch a movie, play a game, or relax. (Ask any dog: Nothing screams relaxation like being locked in an automobile.) As hard as it is to believe this car was never made, take heart: Its portable "lounge" eventually found its way into Ford Flex vehicles, and newer compact SUVs carry over SYNUS's smaller windows and muscular look to make the driver feel secure and comfortable.

Dodge Caravan
Soccer moms, rejoice! The first true minivan is back with innovations even cooler than tummy-control jeans. The latest generation turns the van into a portable game room, featuring its own satellite hookup and flat-screen TVs waiting to be plugged into your DVD player and game console of choice. The middle row of seats can be turned backwards, and the kids can fold out a table for a round of Monopoly.

Ford Transit Connect W/ Work Solutions
When Hollywood makes The A-Team: The Movie (and it's just a matter of time), if the gang doesn't drive the Ford Transit Connect, they should. The setup includes an integrated computer system equipped with a portable keyboard and GPS. It's also configurable to include printers, inventory scanners, and other equipment. The van is also taller, easier to park, and cheaper to operate than a full-size van. If your job involves spending more time driving to see customers than sitting at your desk, this mobile office sure beats Starbucks. Available later this year.

Maserati Quattroporte Collezione Cento
You can take the CEO out of his renovated $10 million office, but you can't take the $10 million office out of the CEO. Enter the Maserati Quattroporte Collezione Cento. For merely $142,500 of taxpayer bailout money, the already loaded sedan includes a built-in rear-seat computer system (what? You think he's giving up his driver?) with wireless mouse and keyboard. Between the rear passenger seats is a foldout table for important documents and/or a cappuccino. Check your plummeting stock, fire thousands, and still make it to lunch at the club in style.

Check out the Top 5 over at Fast Company

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The Five Best Office Pranks Of All Time

Pranks aren’t something that only high school kids are entitled to. Once in a while we as adults like to have some fun too. When it comes to pranks there are three kind of pranks that seem to get the most attention : high school pranks, wedding pranks and one of the most popular ones are the office pranks. If the company you are working doesn’t make you suffer behind isolated and stuffy cubicles, you probably have pulled pranks on your co-workers or the other way around.[via applicant]

These office pranks are some of the best that we have come across and although there were quite a few we wanted to include, we think 5 is more than enough (we have to leave some room for you to share as well). Below are the top 5 office pranks that the applicant team thinks are some of the best office pranks ever pulled.

Enjoy!

Missing Hallway

This has to be one of the best office pranks ever. These guys built a wall and blocked the hallway that lead to 11 offices. One of the best executed office pranks. The only thing that could have been done better was to record workers reaction and less usage of “WTF?” Besides that this certainly is one of the best office pranks we have seen in a long time. We have no idea why the CEO is looking up in the ceiling though.

Golf Balls

After a long tiring day at the office, the first thing we want to do is jump in our vehicle and head home. The guy you are about to see in this video didn’t have a clue what his colleagues had planned for him. We are sure this end of the work day will be the one he will remember for the rest of his life.

Taking Office To The Streets

This one doesn’t really qualify as an office prank and is more so carried out on other people walking on the street. However, the prank is pulled in an office setting so we had to include it here. The idea of this prank and the amount of time that has gone into setting each of them up for a surprise must have been painstakingly hard. They pulled it good and certainly falls under one of the best office pranks ever simply because it’s done in an office setting.

Scaring a Co-Worker Enough To Fall Off a Chair

The prank you are about to see is probably one that has been pulled on you or one that you have pulled on someone else. We remember this one circulating on the internet like a wild fire. All this lady wants is to beat the game and impress her co-workers. Check out how well these people got her.

Job Interview

When appearing for a job interview you want to make sure everything goes right. Slightest mistake and you might not get the job offer. We are sure these job applicants knew they weren’t getting the job after opening the toilet door while someone was taking care of the nature call. Check it out.

These are some of the office pranks we found to be the best among thousands floating on the web. If you have any that you would like to share please feel free to drop the link in your comments.

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Internet Explorer 8: How not to launch a new browser

Microsoft is the company that invented the concept of launching a beta product in order to build up traction for the final product. And still, the introduction of Internet Explorer 8 shapes up to be a complete train wreck as far as customer adoption is concerned. [via tgdaily]

Sure, journalists are no marketing whizzes, at least not typically. And I don’t claim that I am smarter than Microsoft’s marketing and PR strategists. But I have spent my fair share in software marketing in my career and I can say with certainty that I would have been in trouble if I had messed up a product launch as much as Microsoft messed up the launch of its new web browser.

Last week, I spent some time on the relatively slow launch pace of IE8, which topped out at a market share of 1.86% by Friday afternoon, according to data provided by Net Applications. For a company with the reach of Microsoft, this was a bit of a disappointment. But browsers like Internet Explorer 7, Firefox or Safari hit their market share highs on weekends, while Internet Explorer 6, still a browser that has a fairly high market share during the week, declines.

If we believe the market share numbers provided by Net Applications, IE8 climbed above the 2% mark when U.S. users went into their weekend – or around 5 pm EDT last Friday. Over the past two days, the market share climbed as high as 2.59% (Sunday, 3 am EDT), before dropping into the 2.3% neighborhood later that day. It is too early to say which browser had to give up market share to enable IE8’s gain, but as far as we can see from Net Application’s data, it does not appear that IE7’s and Firefox 3’s market share numbers have suffered. It will take some time until we can see whether IE7 users are upgrading or Firefox users are returning to IE.

But the heart of the matter is that, in a best case scenario, IE8 has gained less than 1% of market share over the weekend and may have seen somewhere between 5 and 7 million downloads between Friday evening and Sunday night. Since launch day, the market share has increased by less than 1.3% - if Net Applications’ numbers are correct.

Let’s look at what Mozilla accomplished with Firefox. Firefox 3 gained 2.76 percentage points over its first four days of availability – and we are talking about a browser that had less than 20% overall market share at the time of its release. Microsoft’s IE is still well above the 65% mark. You do the math on the performance discrepancy – and it is now even more impressive how Mozilla handled the launch of Firefox 3.

I have no idea what happened at Microsoft, but I can just imagine the questions that are already asked by some executives. It is mind boggling to compare ingenious campaigns such as the launch of IE4 and the quiet launch of IE8. Just like IE4 was designed to surpass Netscape’s Navigator/Communicator browser back then, IE8 is a critical product that Microsoft needs as supporting software for its cloud computing strategy. I personally would have missed the launch, had I not been told about it by TG Daily in-house browser expert Christian Zibreg.

Given the circumstances, especially IE declining market share, I just don’t believe Microsoft can afford such half-baked product launches.

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New Punch-Out for Wii!! Trailer Brings Familiar Faces

Nintendo released a new Punch Out!! Trailer Today, you can see Little Mac training and some familiar faces (and scenarios).

One of 2009's most-anticipated titles for the Nintendo Wii gets a new trailer, showcasing some of title character Little Mac's training methods (even Rocky had a montage!), as well as some familiar faces and classic scenes. Will the game live up to the prestigious lineage of past titles, or go down in the first?

Check out the latest trailer to see how the upcoming game looks so far!

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Cops help dream up high-tech police car

Imagine the Batmobile busting bad guys in Bismarck, North Dakota, or "Knight Rider's" KITT corralling criminals on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Carbon Motors Corp.'s new high-tech cop car prototype might not be quite up to superhero specs, but some police say it could be a welcome addition to their arsenal. [via cnn]

"I don't see any downside to this car," said Carl Latorre, a Pennsylvania State Police dispatcher who served 35 years as a Philadelphia police officer. "I am so excited about this car. This car rates up there with cops carrying automatic weapons to combat what the criminals carry now. It's about time that something like this came about."

OK, so it doesn't have a nanotech cloaking capability or rocket boosters, but every feature on the Carbon E7 concept vehicle draws on suggestions from more than 3,000 law enforcement professionals.

The result is a futuristic prowler with a 300-horsepower clean diesel engine, flashing lights visible from all angles, an ergonomic cockpit, an onboard computer with voice command and instant license plate recognition, integrated shotgun mounts, and more. (Weapons of mass destruction detectors are available as an option -- seriously.)

The E7 was designed by cops for cops, breaking the tradition of recruiting family sedans into the force, company co-founder Stacy Dean Stephens said.

"The current vehicles that they (police departments) use were designed for driving around, going to the grocery store, taking kids to school -- things like that," Stephens said.

"You don't have an engineer sitting at one of the other automakers who says, 'Y'know, I think what we need to do is we need to take this car, and we need to run into a curb at 50 miles an hour and see how many times it takes before the wheels and the suspension fails on it."

The rear passenger compartment alone is enough to make experienced cops get teary-eyed. The rear-hinged "suicide doors" make it easier for handcuffed passengers to get in and out, and the seat is designed so "guests" can ride comfortably with their hands cuffed behind their backs.

For officer safety, Latorre likes how the seat belts are anchored in the center of the seat and buckle near the door so the officer doesn't have to lean across the prisoner.

"When you put a prisoner in the back seat, you're supposed to strap him in," Latorre said. "Nowadays, you have to make sure your gun isn't going close to his hands, and how are you going to strap somebody in doing that?"

Perhaps most popular among cops is the rear compartment, which is sealed off from the front and made entirely of seamless, washable plastic, with drain plugs in the floor.

"Numerous times I've had less than pleasant experience" with prisoners vomiting or relieving themselves in the back seat, said Stephens, a former Texas police officer.

The seat innovations are up front, too, where the seats have recesses to accommodate officers' bulky gun belts.

"The front seat -- I couldn't believe the front seat. They thought of everything," Latorre said. "You don't know how difficult it is to get out of a car. The first thing you've got to do is adjust your gun belt. The gun belt shouldn't be a problem."

The E7 can go 0 to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds, has a top speed of 155 mph and can withstand a 75-mph rear impact, according to the company's Web site. It has bullet-resistant panels in the doors and dash and has push bumpers incorporated into the aluminum frame. The upper flashing lights are integrated into the roof panel, eliminating the need for a bolted-on light bar that causes aerodynamic drag -- reducing fuel economy -- and can lead to rust.

Despite the technological "wow" factor and officer enthusiasm, the E7 could prove to be a tough sell.

"The people are very intelligent and smart that are setting this up," said Lt. Michael Arnold, fleet manager of the Bismarck, North Dakota, police department. "What scares me is they don't give you a price."

Company officials say the price -- possibly around $50,000 per unit -- will be "competitive" considering the cost of equipping a conventional car for police work and how long each vehicle lasts. The Carbon E7 will be built to last 250,000 miles, compared with 75,000 to 120,000 miles for the typical patrol car, Stephens said.

"When it's all said and done it's a matter of how much it costs per mile," said Bismarck Deputy Chief Fred Wooten.

Regardless of how good it looks on paper, a state or big-city agency won't be willing to take a chance on a vehicle with no track record, said Detective Mary Wheat, spokesperson for the Portland, Oregon, police department.

"If they do cost $50,000, nobody's going to buy them," Wheat said. "Nobody's going to buy them. No, police agencies can't afford $50,000 cars. We have huge fleets of cars. We have hundreds of them; hundreds and hundreds of cars. And we turn them over. I mean, we ride them hard. Those cars are used on a 24-hour basis. That wouldn't work."

But municipalities don't balk at paying large sums for other purpose-built vehicles such as firetrucks and ambulances, countered Latorre, the Pennsylvania officer.

"They don't say, 'Oh, here's a box truck; go fight fires with it' or 'Here's an E-250 cargo van; go pick up patients with it,' do they?," he said.

"So I don't see why the municipality wouldn't say, 'You know what? This [police car] is nothing but a plus for us.'"

The company, based in Atlanta, Georgia, doesn't yet have a factory, but has named five states where it could locate: Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina and South Carolina. Production is scheduled to begin in 2012, Stephens said.

Carbon doesn't expect to take over the market quickly, instead counting on a few "early adopters" willing to take a risk on a few vehicles and work out the kinks to everyone else's satisfaction, Stephens said. Hundreds of agencies already have made online reservations for thousands of Carbon Motors vehicles, putting the company "very well on our way to selling out our first year," he said.

Wheat praised the Carbon team's entrepreneurship and suggested the company market its car first in smaller towns with less red tape and simpler bidding processes. That works for Wooten, the deputy chief in Bismarck. "We'll be more than happy to field test one," he offered. "If it works as advertised, we'll probably have a fleet of them someday."

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Northeast warned of new source of rising seas

Study sees factor in ocean currents; subways, other infrastructure at risk

The northeastern U.S. coast is likely to see the world's biggest sea level rise from man-made global warming, a new study predicts. [via msnbc]

However much the oceans rise by the end of the century, add an extra 8 inches or so for New York, Boston and other spots along the coast from the mid-Atlantic to New England. That's because of predicted changes in ocean currents, according to a study based on computer models published online Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience.

An extra 8 inches — on top of a possible 2 or 3 feet of sea rise globally by 2100 — is a big deal, especially when nor'easters and hurricanes hit, experts said.

"It's not just waterfront homes and wetlands that are at stake here," said Donald Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, who wasn't part of the study. "Those kind of rises in sea level when placed on top of the storm surges we see today, put in jeopardy lots of infrastructure, including the New York subway system."

For years, scientists have talked about rising sea levels due to global warming — both from warm water expanding and the melt of ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica. Predictions for the average worldwide sea rise keep changing along with the rate of ice melt. Recently, more scientists are saying the situation has worsened so that a 3-foot rise in sea level by 2100 is becoming a common theme.

Boston singled out
But the oceans won't rise at the same rate everywhere, said study author Jianjun Yin of the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies at Florida State University. It will be "greater and faster" for the Northeast, with Boston one of the worst hit among major cities, he said. So, if it's 3 feet, add another 8 inches for that region.

The explanation involves complicated ocean currents. Computer models forecast that as climate change continues, there will be a slowdown of the great ocean conveyor belt. That system moves heat energy in warm currents from the tropics to the North Atlantic and pushes the cooler, saltier water down, moving it farther south around Africa and into the Pacific. As the conveyor belt slows, so will the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic current. Those two fast-running currents have kept the Northeast's sea level unusually low because of a combination of physics and geography, Yin said.

Slow down the conveyor belt 33 to 43 percent as predicted by computer models, and the Northeast sea level rises faster, Yin said.

So far, the conveyor belt has not yet noticeably slowed.

A decade ago, scientists worried about the possibility that this current conveyor belt would halt altogether — something that would cause abrupt and catastrophic climate change like that shown in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow." But in recent years, they have concluded that a shutdown is unlikely to happen this century.

Other experts who reviewed Yin's work say it makes sense.

"Our coastlines aren't designed for that extra 8 inches of storm surge you get out of that sea level rise effect," said Jonathan Overpeck, director of an Earth studies institute at the University of Arizona.

Other areas estimated
While Boston and New York are looking at an additional 8 inches, other places wouldn't get that much extra rise. The study suggests Miami and much of the Southeast would get about 2 inches above the global sea rise average of perhaps 3 feet, and San Francisco would get less than an extra inch. Parts of southern Australia, northern Asia and southern and western South America would get less than the global average sea level rise.

This study along with another one last month looking at regional sea level rise from the projected melt of the west Antarctic ice sheet "provide a compelling argument for anticipating and preparing for higher rates of sea level rise," said Virginia Burkett, chief scientist for Global Change Research at the U.S. Geological Survey.

Burkett, who is based in Louisiana, said eventually New Englanders could be in the same "vulnerability situation" to storms and sea level rise as New Orleans.

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Top 10 Time-Lapse Videos of Nature at Work

The world is filled with sluggish spectacles. Watching them would be painful were it not for time lapse photography, which can make those long stories short and remarkably entertaining.[via wired]

When a phenomenon happens very slowly, viewing accelerated footage helps scientists take a step back and see the big picture: At higher speeds, things that we regard as still take motion -- even the dullest scenes spring to life.

Here are Wired Science's picks of the best time lapse videos of nature at work.

10. Total Lunar Eclipse
Pete Herron / YouTube

9. Denver Snow Storm
Mike Kalush / YouTube

8. Corn Growing
Mindlapse / YouTube

7. Caterpillars Becoming Butterflies
jcmegabyte / YouTube

6. Magic Mushrooms Growing
annonymer / YouTube

5. Earth Rise
NnoxS3 / YouTube

4. Rotting Apple
alifitzd / YouTube

3. Thunder Storm
06solareclipse / YouTube

2. Aurora Borealis
06solareclipse / YouTube

1. Simi Valley Firestorm
powrslaveeli / YouTube

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What Your Favorite Movies Were Almost Called

Naming a film is not a task taken lightly, especially when many millions of production dollars are involved. See what some of your favorite films were almost called, and ask yourself if you would’ve hired a babysitter and paid for popcorn had cooler heads not prevailed. [via mental floss]

1. Pretty Woman

Pretty Woman was based on a script written by J.F. Lawton called 3000 (the amount of money paid for a week’s worth of the hooker’s “company”). In the original story, Julia Roberts’ character was not only a prostitute, she was also a crack addict. When Disney bought the script, they hired new writers to lighten it up a bit, and they decided that 3000 sounded too science fiction-y, so a new title was chosen – one that luckily allowed the producers to use Roy Orbison’s signature tune to accompany the obligatory Julia Roberts-trying-on-clothes montage.

2. Back to the Future

During the filming of Back to the Future, Universal Studios honcho Sid Sheinberg fired off a memo to all involved in the production stating that no movie with the word “future” in the title had ever succeeded at the box office. He suggested that the name of this project be changed to Spaceman from Pluto. According to writer/producer Bob Gale, Steven Spielberg “earned his executive producer credit” by stepping in and sending back a note that thanked the studio head for his “joke memo.”

3. Tootsie

Would I Lie to You? went through at least a half-dozen re-writes by as many writers before it finally hit the big screen in 1982 as Tootsie. The new title was suggested by star Dustin Hoffman (it was the name of his mother’s dog).

4. Boys Don’t Cry

Boys Don’t Cry, for which Hilary Swank won an Academy Award, was originally called Take It Like a Man. The producers decided that The Cure’s song “Boys Don’t Cry” (along with its inclusion on the soundtrack) gave the project more of the “dark” atmosphere they were seeking.

5. Help!

The Beatles’ second feature film had been titled Help during the first few weeks of filming. When director Richard Lester was informed that that title had already been registered, the film became known as Eight Arms to Hold You. No one involved cared for that name, so luckily Lester found out that by adding an exclamation point to the word Help he could skirt around the copyright laws.

6. The Grapes of Wrath

The 1940 classic The Grapes of Wrath was given the working title of Route 66 as a safety measure. Director John Ford needed to film many scenes along the historic highway, but John Steinbeck’s novel was not particularly appreciated in Oklahoma. Ford presented his project to local authorities as a documentary about the Mother Road in order to avoid trouble.

7. Annie Hall

Anhedonia is the scientific term for the inability to experience pleasure. And up until the opening credits were finally filmed, it was the name Woody Allen had in mind for his 1977 “serious comedy” Annie Hall. United Artists finally talked him out of it, insisting that such an unmarketable title would doom the film at the box office.

8. Blazing Saddles

Script writer Andrew Bergman originally called his 1974 Western spoof (and the lead character) Tex X, as a sly nod to Muslim leader Malcolm X. But director Mel Brooks was never enamored with that title. One morning when Brooks was taking a shower, the words “blazing saddles” popped into his head. Considering the classic bean scene, the new title seemed apropos.

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50 Stunning Examples Of Architecture Photography

Architectural photography can be broadly considered to encompass views of the exteriors and interiors of domestic, commercial, religious, institutional, and engineering structures, as well as records of the evolution of towns and cities. Today, we are showing you 50 Stunning Examples Of Architecture Photography. [via smashingapps]

The credit goes to all those talented photograhers who taken these excellent photos with their efforts, imaginations and creativity to give us a chance to see these photographic wonders from their creative eyes. This list is not long in numbers but I promise you that when you start browsing them in details it will surely refresh you and force you to know more about these photographers. Click on the images to go from where the images has been taken and learn more about their creators and to appreciate them.

All the images are copyright of their respected owners and creators. This post is about just to show their creative ideas and inspiration wonders to the world. Please contact us if anyone want to remove their work.

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More women needing cash go from jobless to topless

As a bartender and trainer at a national restaurant chain, Rebecca Brown earned a couple thousand dollars in a really good week. Now, as a dancer at Chicago's Pink Monkey gentleman's club, she makes almost that much in one good night. [via yahoo]

The tough job market is prompting a growing number of women across the country to dance in strip clubs, appear in adult movies or pose for magazines like Hustler.

Employers across the adult entertainment industry say they're seeing an influx of applications from women who, like Brown, are attracted by the promise of flexible schedules and fast cash. Many have college degrees and held white-collar jobs until the economy soured.

"You're seeing a lot more beautiful women who are eligible to do so many other things," said Gus Poulos, general manager of New York City's Sin City gentleman's club. He said he got 85 responses in just one day to a recent job posting on Craigslist.

The transition to the nightclub scene isn't always a smooth one — from learning to dance in five-inch heels to dealing with the jeers of some customers.

Some performers said they were initially so nervous that only alcohol could calm their nerves.

"It is like giving a speech, but instead of imagining everyone naked, you're the one who's naked," Brown, 29, said.

Eva Stone, a 25-year-old dancer at the Pink Monkey, said dealing with occasional verbal abuse from patrons requires "a thick skin."

Makers of adult films cautioned that women shouldn't rush into the decision to make adult movies without considering the effect on their lives.

"Once you decide to be an adult actress, it impacts your relationship with everyone," said Steven Hirsch, co-chairman of adult film giant Vivid Entertainment Group. "Once you make an adult film, it never goes away."

The women at the Pink Monkey say dancing at a strip club might not have been their first career choice, but they entered the business with their eyes wide open. The job gives them more control and flexibility than sitting in a cubicle, and "it's easy, it's fun and all of us girls ... look out for each other," Brown said.

In this economy, "desperate measures are becoming far more acceptable," said Jonathan Alpert, a New York City-based psychotherapist who's had clients who worked in adult entertainment.

For some, dancing is temporary, a way to pay for college loans or other bills. Others say they've found their niche.

Dancers at the upscale Rick's Caberet clubs in New York City and Miami can make $100,000 to $300,000 a year — in cash — even with the economic downturn, club spokesman Allan Priaulx said.

Priaulx said 20 to 30 women a week are applying for jobs at the New York club, double the number of a year ago.

Rhode Island's Foxy Lady held a job fair Saturday, seeking to fill about 35 positions for dancers, masseuses, bartenders and bouncers. The Providence Journal reported that more than 150 job seekers showed up to apply for work at the strip club. Foxy Lady co-owner Tom Tsoumas said a recent promotion to cut prices helped the club regain business lost due to the bad economy, forcing it to hire more employees.

Still, analysts say, the industry isn't immune to the economic recession. Business is down an estimated 30 percent across all segments, including adult films, gentleman's clubs, magazines and novelty shops, said Paul Fishbein, president of AVN Media Network, an adult entertainment company that has a widely distributed trade publication and an award show.

"In the past, people have said this industry is recession-proof," said Eric Wold, director of research for financial services firm Merriman Curhan Ford. "I definitely don't see that; maybe recession-resistant."

Strip club dancers and managers said they're drawing in the same number of customers, but fewer high rollers.

"They're not getting the big spenders," said Angelina Spencer, executive director of the Association of Club Executives, a trade group for adult nightclubs. "They're not getting the guys who come in and drop $3,000 to $4,000 a night anymore."

Still, the clubs' operating structure leaves them with low overhead and profit margins of up to 50 percent, Wold said.

Dancers are independent contractors, paying clubs a nightly flat fee depending on how long they work. At the Pink Monkey, for example, dancers who arrive at 7 p.m. Sunday through Thursday pay a $40 "house fee," while women who don't arrive until midnight pay $90. And they keep their tips.

Wold and others say it's almost impossible to estimate the size of the adult entertainment industry because few companies are publicly traded. He does pay close attention to three that are: Lakewood, Colo.-based VCG Holding and Houston-based Rick's Caberet, which own clubs, and New Frontier Media, a Boulder, Colo.-based adult film producer and distributor.

All three are profitable.

Rick's Caberet had $60 million in revenue in its 2008 fiscal year, up from $32 million the year before, Wold said, and he estimates VCG will have $57 million for last year, compared with $40.5 million in FY2007. New Frontier Media generates more than $400 million in consumer buying a year.

Larry Flynt, whose half-billion dollar Hustler empire publishes magazines, produces and distributes films and operates a casino, said he's continued to do well. But he doesn't expect those who are solely in the film business to survive.

"A lot of the small studios are out of business now, there's no doubt about that," Flynt said.

Adult magazines also are struggling along with the larger publishing industry, and have to cut pages like everyone else.

But the economic realities aren't keeping jobseekers away.

Vivid Entertainment's Hirsch said the number of women in his business has doubled in the last couple years, with roughly 800 working as adult actresses. "It is more competitive than I've seen it in 25 years," he said.

That doesn't mean all the newcomers are planning on lengthy careers in the industry.

Stone, who has a bachelor's degree in graphic design, took up dancing four years ago to help pay her student loans. She plans to go to graduate school this year to pursue a master's in education.

Brown, meanwhile, has a ready answer for those critical of her career choice.

"I have job security," she said.

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How Advertisers Can Foil the Fast-Forward Button: Ads You Have to Watch

Web video may pose a real threat to the TV business, one day. But the DVR is threatening it now. More than a third of all U.S. homes now have TiVo-like digital video recorders, and the majority of DVR users fast-forward through ads when they watch TV. [via mediamemo]

Advertisers and programmers are doing their best to fight back. They’re tinkering with ad formats–notice all those movie ads that feature the film’s title and release date running across the top of the ad, designed to combat fast-forwarders? And they’re integrating the ads directly into the shows themselves–it’s impossible to watch Bravo’s “Top Chef” without understanding that it’s sponsored by Glad and Diet Dr. Pepper, because everyone on the show keeps referring to Glad and Diet Dr. Pepper.

But here’s another, more straightforward approach: Create ads with visuals so arresting, you have to stop fast-forwarding and watch them.

That’s what happened to me with all three of these ads, all of which happen to be produced by the same agency, Omnicom’s (OMC) 180la, for the same client–Sprint’s (S) Boost Mobile brand.

Now, the ads aren’t actually going to do anything for me–our household is locked into a different Sprint plan, along with one from AT&T (T), for a long time. But now I’m sharing them with you, so that’s worth something, right?

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5 Things We Wish We Could Undo on the Internet

Gmail has a new unsend feature — sort of like the broadcast delay in case Janet Jackson shows her nipple, but niftier because it's online! It made us think of other things people should undo. [via valleywag]

Facebook Photo Unpost Ever regret drunkenly uploading that picture to Facebook? We know a couple of people who could have used this.

Twitter Undershare: Is there something you need to tell the entire Internet about? Actually, there probably isn't. But something about the message-broadcasting service seems to beg people to share too much, 140 characters at a time. You can delete posts, but they still end up sent to people's cell phones and indexed in search engines. Where's the "untweet" button?

Tumblr Unreblog: What happens when your girlfriend follows the same cutie you do on David Karp's kiddy blogging service, and notices your habit of reblogging the Tumblrette's every last quip, pic, and quote? Ah, for a way to instantly zap all of your reblogs! It's either that, or propose a threesome.

LinkedIn Snub: So you meet a "social media marketer" — i.e., someone trying to get paid to talk to their friends on Twitter all day — at a party. You grudgingly exchange business cards. The next day, you get the inevitable connection request on LinkedIn — even though, you barely know the twit, let alone feel comfortable recommending their work. The feature LinkedIn needs: A way to politely acknowledge your interaction without actually exposing your whole list of industry connections to them.

Untexting: If AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile can shuttle text messages from phone to phone through the magical ether, surely they can reach into your friends' devices and delete that hastily sent SMS before it's read and the damage is done.

Get to work, geeks! There's too much information on the Internet as it is. Time to make the world safe for undersharing!

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Playboy Posts Unedited Back Issues Online, for Free

Sex sells, especially when it's free.

Through a partnership between Microsoft and Bondi Digital Publishing, Playboy Enterprises has put 53 back issues of Playboy on the Web, viewable through Microsoft's Silverlight viewer.[via extremetech]

The images are free to access at PlayboyArchive.com, with no age verification required.

The issues cover the years 1954 through 2007, and appear as they did in the print version, with advertisements left intact. To do so, Bondi Digital Publishing - the software pioneers that developed the platform for The Complete New Yorker - scanned and re-typed each issue of Playboy, the company said in a statement.

"Playboy has an incredibly rich history and an intensely loyal readership," said Hugh M. Hefner, Playboy founder, editor-in-chief and chief creative officer, in a statement. "This is the perfect opportunity to offer them something they have always wanted and also a great way to allow a whole new generation to easily explore the magazine."

Users will need to install Microsoft's Silverlight player, naturally. The Web component was developed with Microsoft's Partner of the Year, Vertigo.

The player does not allow full-screen viewing, but users can pan around the digital image, which loads large enough so that text can be easily read. When the archive first loads, an array of Playboy covers can be viewed and clicked upon; after that, several pages from the inside of the magazine appear. A table of contents is also available, and the archive is searchable.

The site went live late Thursday, and was announced at Microsoft's Mix09 show in Las Vegas.

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Does sex put you to sleep? Does cheese give you nightmares? The A to Zzz of sleep reveals all

Sleep is one of the most pleasurable and mysterious areas of our lives. It is as necessary as breathing and as nourishing as eating, yet few of us feel we are getting enough of it.

In our overcrowded lives, sleep has become a modern obsession, the thing we crave more than anything else. [via dailymail]

But how much do we know about this nightly pleasure? Why did the Elizabethans rub dormouse fat on to their feet? Who was the insomniac Prime Minister forced to quit? Does counting sheep work?

A fascinating new book by Sean Coughlan, The Sleepyhead's Bedside Companion, answers these and a host of other nocturnal conundrums …

Sweet dreams: A new book reveals everything you need to know about sleeping

HEROIC SLEEPERS

In modern life, forsaking sleep is seen as a sign of strength, but this was not always so. In the toughest times of World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill would go to bed in the afternoon.

He said: 'You must sleep some time between lunch and dinner, and no half measures. Take off your clothes and get into bed. You will be able to accomplish more.'

He did, however, admit to another reason for his siesta. 'Sleep enables you to be at your best in the evening when you join your wife, family and friends for dinner. That is the time to be at your best, a good dinner with good wines.'

Another heroic sleeper was Einstein, who clocked-up 11 hours a night. He developed a napping system in which he would break off from his work, sit in a comfortable armchair and hold a pencil in his hand.

When he fell into a deep sleep, the pencil would be dropped and the sound would wake him up. Refreshed, he would return to his desk.

Enlarge

HOW OUR ANCESTORS SLEPT

Going to bed late in the evening and staying asleep until morning is the pattern of the Western industrial working culture, but this single stretch of sleep hasn't always been common practice.

Before the Industrial Revolution and the arrival of the electric light bulb, there was nothing fixed about our sleep patterns. Our intake of sleep was spread out across the day.

According to social historians, our agricultural medieval forebears got up at dawn, started work early and fell asleep in the late afternoon. They awoke in the early evening, revitalised for the big social activity of the communal meal.

After eating and drinking, they would crash out in a boozy stupor around midnight, ready to rise again at dawn.

Later, it was traditional to go to bed at 9pm when it got dark (or earlier in winter), sleep till midnight, then wake for a 'watching hour' when people might read in bed, write a letter, talk, prepare a snack or do some light work.

This fits in with an acknowledged spike in the brain's activity around midnight (much utilised by poets and writers), after which a further four hours or so of sleep would follow.

This pattern continued into the early 19th century and, interestingly, this is also the way chimpanzees - our closest animal neighbour - sleep.

In some cultures, there was even sleeping akin to hibernation. Peasants in 19th-century France took to their beds for long stretches of the year.

Graham Robb, in The Discovery Of France, writes of a civil servant in Burgundy, in 1844, who found that no one was working after the wine harvest. 'These vigorous men will spend their days in bed, packing their bodies tightly together in order to stay warm, and to eat less food.'

HOW MUCH SLEEP DO WE NEED?

The typical answer is between seven and eight hours, but, in fact, this varies greatly from individual to individual.

Margaret Thatcher famously survived on just four hours a night, although one in 50 people is a long sleeper - needing more than nine hours a day.

A recent survey found that women slept on average seven hours and 12 minutes, men for six hours and 45 minutes.

But beware, too much sleep can be bad for you. A Californian study found that people who slept more than eight hours a night were at greater risk of dying younger.

On the other hand, a study of the sleeping habits of 10,000 civil servants by the University of Warwick found that less than five hours sleep a night increased the chances of dying from cardiovascular problems.

When the civil servants were revisited after a ten-year period, those who slept less than five hours nightly were 1.7 times more likely to have died, and twice as likely to have died from cardiovascular problems.

SLEEPING IN EXTREME CIRCUMSTANCES

How do lone yachtsmen and women sleep? Sleeping for eight hours isn't an option, as there is no one else to keep watch. Instead, they learn to sleep in short bursts.

Ellen MacArthur perfected a system of short naps that balanced physical need for sleep against her need to be awake and alert for as long as possible, before her 2005 record-breaking solo round-the-world trip.

She slept for five-and-a-half hours a day, in chunks of 36 minutes. She said: 'I can't describe the mechanism that wakes me up, but if I sleep for 40 minutes and the wind changes, I'll wake.'

Others are not so fortunate. Many astronauts find sleeping in space very difficult. The lack of gravity means they have to sleep vertically and can't have the reassuring pressure of a blanket on them.

If they must have a pillow, it needs to be fixed to their heads. However, that doesn't stop astronauts snoring - as proven by the deep nasal tones detected on Nasa scientists' microphones!

DORMOUSE FAT, CANNABIS AND OTHER INSOMNIA REMEDIES

Every year, some 10million prescriptions for sleeping pills are written in Britain, and we are currently a nation struggling to get sufficient shut-eye. So what are the alternative remedies?

The Greeks and the Egyptians relied on opium. In the Middle Ages, the opium was mixed with the henbane and mandragora plants, lettuce seed and ivy.

This was applied to a sponge then held to the nostrils of the person needing sleep.

The Elizabethans favoured 'the fat of a dormouse applied to the soles of the feet'.

While this might sound strange - and it probably didn't work - dormice have a long-established connection to sleep, through the snoozing dormouse in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures In Wonderland.

In the 1870s, cannabis was the insomniac's drug of choice. A French company advertised its special brand of Indian cigarettes, called cannabis Indica, as possessing 'remarkable virtues against asthma, neuralgia and insomnia'.

DOES CHEESE GIVE YOU NIGHTMARES?

In Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Scrooge blames his nocturnal visions on having eaten 'a crumb of cheese' before bed, and we have long associated cheese with nightmares.

But a study of 200 people by the British Cheese Board found no connection. (Maybe not such a surprise given who conducted the survey.)

However, researchers did find that different cheeses could affect sleep. Red Leicester was said to create rose-tinted nostalgic dreams, Stilton generated bizarre dreams and Cheshire could inspire a dreamless night's sleep.

SLEEP CONCERTS

For all those who struggle to stay awake whenever their bottom hits the comfy cinema seat, enveloped in dark, with no one talking and no mobile phones - the Japanese have the answer.

Sleep concerts, dedicated to helping stressed workers get some shut-eye, have sprung up across the country. People pay for a ticket, make themselves comfortable in reclining seats, listen to music, and try to fall asleep.

Judging by the photos of rows of dozing concert-goers - they work!

WHY CHARLES DICKENS TOOK A COMPASS TO BED

Charles Dickens suffered from insomnia. For a time, he tried a mixture of opium and alcohol. It put him to sleep, but made him feel terrible in the morning.

Then he tried to go to sleep with the head of his bed facing due north - which apparently helped.

This was in keeping with the Victorians' interest in the influence of magnetic fields. It is also, incidentally, the preferred sleeping position advocated by feng shui exponents.

THE PRIME MINISTER FORCED TO QUIT THROUGH INSOMNIA

When Harold Wilson was asked for the single most important ingredient for staying at the top of the political ladder, he said: 'The greatest asset a head of state can have is the ability to get a good night's sleep.'

The fifth Earl of Rosebery had no such luck. Hailed as the golden boy of late Victorian politics, he had to step down after just 14 months as PM because he couldn't sleep.

When he began his tenure in March 1894, the pressures of office rendered sleep impossible and he was regularly driven in his carriage round the streets of London, trying to sleep.

In a desperate bid to lull himself to sleep, he used ever-increasing amounts of morphine before admitting he could not go on. He stood down in June 1895 and never regained his political career.

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Perfectly Sculpted Melons [PICS]

Image via: Ruudvisser

Fruits from the melon family are pretty cool. In hotter climes, it doesn’t come much better than chomping on a juicy watermelon, the succulent flesh melting in your mouth before you spit out the pips – preferably aiming at a metallic object for that extra satisfying, spittoon-style ping. That said, we came across an even more pleasing use for our favourite fruit: as the medium for exquisite sculpture. [via environmentalgraffiti]

Image: francesco 6903

The skill and patience that must go into carving stuff this intricate is pretty incredible. Yep, definitely not for the heavy-handed. Apparently it’s a Chinese art from, though some also say it comes from Japan. Check it out: a canteloupe rose.

Image: sarahkim

It’s like a case of art imitating life but playing with the natural order of things – or perhaps just showing how the natural cycle continues. Instead of flowers becoming fruit, fruit become flowers – and, my, what blossom!

image: thomaswanhoff

Of course, fruit have always been an artist’s friend, but usually they’re the subject of sketching and painting rather than the very substance from which pieces are created. Getting a little bored with roses now? Well here’s a dolphin.

Image: Gewel Maker

Watermelon art has certainly been making waves and whetting a few taste buds on the blogosphere, as these next few images show. Here’s one for the soppy types, though its a long wait till Valentine’s Day unfortunately.

Image via: Makezine

There are lots of examples of designs carved into the skin of melons as if they’re a blank canvas to work on. You’ll find everything from images of baseball players to depictions of Van Gogh out there. Some of it starts to seem a little tacky though.

Image via: Makezine

This particular art critic prefers it when the entire melon becomes the basis for a stand alone object. It’s rather like the way pumpkins are put under the knife come Halloween, except instead of being hollowed out, the fruit is carved into.

Image via: NYNerd

Saying “ahh”, and looking incredibly lifelike, this next number has become something of a classic. Who can argue?

Image via: boingboing

The only thing with all this creative work is that it’s fundamentally throw-away – or perhaps rot-away. Yup, if ever there was art that isn’t eternal, it’s this lot. At least you could have a nibble if you started feeling peckish. Heaven forbid.

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10+ Best Firefox Addons for Security and Privacy

Security and privacy are some of the major concerns these days while choosing a web browser to use. So much so that all the major players in the “browser wars” are providing or developing a private browsing mode. [via makeusof]

Firefox with the myraid of add-ons that it has to offer is never far from action. Here are some of the top Firefox addons that you should install for better privacy and security

Stealther

Stealther - Stealther provides you with what can be called a private browsing mode. It allows you to browse the web without leaving any trace. The addon disables browsing history, cookies, cache, recent tabs and sending of referrer header for as long as you want. It’s lot like the incognito mode in Google chrome. Distrust is another similar addon that allows you to acheive the similar results.

Close ‘n’ Forget

Close ‘n’ Forget - While Stealther and Distrust require you to turn on private browsing explicitly, what if you happen to stumble upon a site that you wished you would have known to turn on the private browsing mode for? Close ‘n’ Forget comes to your rescue. Just hit the special close button once you are finished and that site will be deleted from history and cookies cleared as if you had never visited the site.

WOT

WOT - We all know about the threats which surfers suffer like viruses, spywares, adware, malicious spam, phishing etc., but here Web of Trust comes to rescue. WOT warns you about risky websites that try to scam surfers before they enter in them using a safety rating of 21 million websites, WOT combines evidence collected from multiple sources. Not only does it help surfers but also sets a protection level for children by blocking inappropriate content.

NoScript

NoScript - An absolute must have security addon for your browser. NoScript gives you the power to specify the sites you trust and only those sites will be allowed to run active content like Javascript, Java code and other executable code. The addon thus protects you from cross-site scripting attacks and clickjacking attacks.

Panic

Panic - Panic allows you to instantly close all the open tabs and replace it with another tab of your choice. So next time while you are on facebook and your boss drops to check in just hit Alt + ` and you would be taken to predefined page in no time.

hideBad

hideBad - Hides bad things! Saves all the tabs, closes them and opens your home page. Allows you to clear history, cookies, cache and passwords at your will and then restore them later.

TabRenamizer / Page Title Eraser

TabRenamizer and Page Title Eraser - Do your tabs give you away? Why not change their names with TabRenamizer or remove the names all together with Page Title Eraser? Both these addons let you play with the tab titles so that you can change them according to your will.

Gish It / tEMPORARYiNBOX / spamavert

Gish It!, TemporaryInbox, spamavert - These addons allow you to protect your inboxes from Spam by getting throwaway email addresses to be used with web forms while registering for sites you are not sure about.

BetterPrivacy

BetterPrivacy - Now you don’t need to worry from anything like ‘you are being tracked..!!’ BetterPrivacy is a Super-Cookie Safeguard which protects from usually undeletable Flash-Cookies. It blocks long term tracking on Google, YouTube, Ebay to name a few.

Ghostery

Ghostery - It keeps an eye on the websites that are keeping an eye on you i.e. it finds out that which web sites which are tracking you and would alert you about the same.

Torbutton

Torbutton - It provides a button to securely and easily enable or disable the browser’s use of Tor. Tor can be used for anonymous browsing and has been covered on makeuseof in detail.

FoxyProx

FoxyProxy - FoxyProxy automatically switches an internet connection across one or more proxy servers based on URL patterns and switching rules defined by you.

JSview

JSview - Allows you to view the source code of external files like javascript and CSS files. Although it would require a bit of knowledge and looking through the code to determine if it really is harmful, it can be quite useful to see if there is some malicious code sending off your passwords to somewhere else.

If privacy and security are on top of your list check out how to remain safe on public computers and how to set up firefox to automatically clear sensitive data.

Did I miss any addon that you use for similar purposes? (I am sure I have, there are just so many or them!) Fire up a comment and share your Firefox knowledge with us!

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30 Beautiful Surreal and Dark Art [PICS]

Art is a thing that attracts almost every individual. Today we would like to share with you two different but very interesting mediums of art which are called as Surreal and Dark Art. These types of art are quite different from other conventional mediums of art. In these medium, artist conveys his thought and imagination in a very mysterious but somewhat fantastic or I should say in a bizarre style. [via smashingmagazine]

I personally like these types of arts as they express the most beautiful and positive aspects of life. Artist has much room in these types of art to motivate your life, to inspire you and to bring happiness and positivity in your life. So, here’s the collection of most momentous and conceptually imaginative surreal and dark art works.

Do have a look at these photos and do not forget to share your comments with us.

Creative Surreal and Dark Art Pieces

Truth

You grow inside me

A new life

Darkness

Fear of Light

Brainwash

C O R E

Flying Brain