Why Swearing Is Good for You

When popping a pill doesn’t work, try dropping an F-bomb.

[via good.is] Like the music of Celine Dion, swearing is a noisy phenomenon some people enjoy more than others. Military folks and college students have a well-earned reputation for salty language, but even the most mild-mouthed saint might have trouble resisting a “Jesus Christ!” or “Shit!” on occasion.

Well, it turns out a potty mouth does more than earn your conversations an R rating: it actually relieves pain, according to a new study by Richard Stephens, John Atkins, and Andrew Kingston of Keele University in the UK. But that’s not all: you’d never know it from what your mom told you, but there are many positive, beneficial aspects of swearing, including harmless venting and social bonding (not to mention reams of adult comedy). Bad language does a lot of good.

In Stephens’ study, college students were asked to list “five words you might use after hitting yourself on the thumb with a hammer” (they came up with fuck, shit, bugger, bastard, bollocks, etc.) and “five words to describe a table” (such as brown, flat, and hard). If there was a swear word on the first list, they would repeat that word at a steady rhythm and volume (no yelling allowed) while one hand was submerged in cold water. The same procedure was then followed with the non-filthy word.

Going into the study, the researchers believed that swearing was actually a type of pain-related catastrophising—in other words, a “maladaptive response to pain” that made things like horrible agony worse, not better. But Stephens and company found that “…repeating a swear word, compared with repeating a neutral word, allowed participants to hold their hands in ice cold water for 40 seconds longer (on average), they perceived less pain on a pain perception scale (questionnaire) and they had a larger heart rate increase. Because we saw an increase in heart rate we think that people had an emotional reaction to swearing (indicated by the increase in heart rate), bringing about the fight or flight response, which is known to increase pain tolerance (make people more able to withstand pain).” In a nutshell, swearing has an analgesic, pain-lessening effect that could give Ibuprofen a run for its money, probably by working us into an aggressive, heightened state.

But if pain relief isn’t enough to make you start “working blue” in your workplace and at family picnics, consider the work of Timothy Jay, Professor of Psychology at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, who has repeatedly found that “…swearing is a common conversational practice resulting in no obvious harm.” His work makes clear that social cohesion, emotional satisfaction, and humor are among the top good things about bad words. By email, I asked what else swearing accomplished, and Jay made a rare defense of what would normally be considered fighting words: “Angry swearing can help the speaker change the listener’s behavior—yelling at someone who did something wrong—‘you fucking idiot, you made an illegal left turn, cutting me off.’ Much of swearing is like this, a corrective measure, but usually between people who know each other.” That sounds considerably less positive than a cookie or medal of honor, but if you agree that a sharp word is less damaging than a sharp trident, I think you see Jay’s point.

I wondered whether innocent exclamations like “By the hammer of Thor!” and Battlestar Galactica’s frak have the same beneficial effects as taboo language, but Fay emphatically said, “NO. Euphemisms exist because they don’t do what the more offensive words do…. We already have a rich vocab and the inventions have to compete for space, which they don’t very well, historically speaking. The seven dirty words have been around for centuries.” Stephens agreed, saying that “…I doubt they (pain-sufferers) would have the same emotional reaction to frak, although because frak is somewhat similar to fuck, maybe there would be a lesser effect. That remains to be seen.”

Frak is the obscenity of choice for a fictional military, a la the filth-mouthedness of the real armed forces. Stephens’ work makes me wonder if the pain of being a soldier—including physical pain, mental anguish, moral quagmires, and problems I can’t even conceive of—might be one reason for all the naughty talk. Stephens said, “…it fits with our theory that people can self-regulate their own emotional state by swearing—think of a sports team coach using four letter words in a team talk about getting at the opposing team). On the other hand, if it is the shock value of the words that produces the effect then one would expect overuse of swear words to lessen the effect. Investigating this would make a great follow-up study.”

Yes, it would. Sigh. You know, it kind of hurts to leave such a fascinating topic after just one column. At least I know how to relieve the pain…

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The world's most corrupt governments

Berlin - The most corrupt countries -- Afghanistan and Iraq, which receive billions of dollars a year in U.S. and other foreign support, are among the world's most corrupt governments, a monitoring group said in a report released Tuesday. [via latimes]

"The results demonstrate that countries which are perceived as the most corrupt are also those plagued by long- standing conflicts, which have torn their governance infrastructure," Transparency International said in its annual Corruption Perceptions Index report.

The report measures perceived levels of public sector corruption in 180 countries, drawing on surveys of businesses and experts. The United States is listed as the 19th least corrupt nation, with the report raising concerns about the lack of government oversight of the financial sector.

The report found that the most and least corrupt countries were:

The world's most corrupt governments:

1. Somalia

2. Afghanistan

3. Myanmar

T4. Sudan

T4. Iraq

6. Chad

7. Uzbekistan

T8. Turkmenistan

T8. Iran

T8. Haiti

T8. Burundi

T8. Guinea

T8. Equatorial Guinea

The world's least corrupt governments:

1. New Zealand

2. Denmark

T3. Singapore

T3. Sweden

5. Switzerland

T6. Finland

T6. Netherlands

T8. Australia

T8. Canada

T8. Iceland

Source: Transparency International

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The 25 Best Movie Performances of the Decade

Sometimes, a good actor can make a bad script tolerable and mediocre script enjoyable. But occasionally, an actor will stumble upon a role they seemed born to play, and watching them transform themselves is an utter joy. We chose 25 of our favorite performances to celebrate from the last decade and could have picked another 25 we dearly loved. We only selected our favorite from each actor so that Daniel Day-Lewis, Kate Winslet, Sean Penn and Philip Seymour Hoffman didn’t simply dominate the list. [via pastemagazine]

25. Adrien Brody as Wladyslaw Szpilman
The Pianist (2002)
While many great performances rely on dramatic and affecting dialogue, Adrien Brody’s turn as real life musician Wladyslaw Szpilman in Roman Polanski’s Holocaust drama The Pianist is hushed, a sullen-eyed lost soul hanging on to a world cloaked in gray. As the title character, Brody became a living skeleton, an all-too-real representation of one of history’s darkest periods. Justin Jacobs

24. Ellen Page as Juno MacGuff
Juno (2007)
Ellen Page walks the delicately fine line between pitiable pregnant teen and resilient, plucky feminist in this film that manages to be both a cautionary tale and a story of love and compassion. Page displays intelligence and wit while clearly conveying the moments of humiliation that come with being pregnant in high school, producing an utterly endearing, memorable character. Emily Reimer

23. Adam Sandler as Barry Egan
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
In a dark romantic comedy plot complicated by phone-sex scams and Healthy Choice frozen dinners, Sandler handled this starring role in the same manner in which he shuffles down that grocery store aisle – with ease. This will shock any moviegoer who’s watched any of his mediocre comedies or who got to know the Saturday Night Live comedian for his spats with Bob Barker and feuds with imaginary penguins. Christina Lee

22. Penélope Cruz as Raimunda
Volver (2006)
As prominently displayed in his most recent works, director Pedro Almodovar found his muse in Cruz in the same way that Woody Allen did in Diane Keaton years ago. Here, with a performance displaying both maternal and primal instincts, made as equally compelling and complex as the plot in itself, Cruz shows most clearly why such idolization is deserved. Christina Lee

21. Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles
Ray (2004)
Jamie Foxx might have seemed an odd choice to star in Ray Charles’ biopic, but he surpassed all expectations. Sadly, Charles died just before Foxx brought all of the R&B titan’s frailties and triumphs to life on screen. Josh Jackson

20. Anne Hathaway as Kym Buchman
Rachel Getting Married (2008)
No one expected Anne Hathaway to take on the role of an ex-junkie in Rachel Getting Married, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t deserve it. Hathaway nimbly sidesteps the clichés inherent in her character and creates a moving portrait of renewal and hope. Sean Gandert

19. Gene Hackman as Royal Tenenbaum
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Owen Wilson was brilliant in this film. Ben Stiller was brilliant in this film. Anjelica Huston was brilliant in this film. But it was Gene Hackman as the title character and family patriarch who made The Royal Tenenbaums the one of the 10 Best Movies of the Decade. Josh Jackson

18. Laura Linney as Sammy Prescott
You Can Count on Me (2000)
Laura Linney may have been the decade’s best everywoman, giving import to the daily stresses of juggling work and family dysfunction. That distinction began with 2000’s You Can Count on Me, with a wayward brother, an overbearing boss, an infatuated new boyfriend, an abusive ex-husband and a fatherless son spinning around her center of gravity. Josh Jackson

17. Kate Winslet as Clementine Kruczynski
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Perhaps the best actress of her generation, Kate Winslet brought a stunning performance to every film she made, regardless of how inconsequential they may have been. No movie showcased her talents better than Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which allowed her to bounce from serious to playful in a matter of moments. Sean Gandert

16. Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Her best of a fourth decade of outstanding performances. No one’s better at giving proper justice to a good script and a strong cast. Tim Basham

15. Paul Giamatti as Harvey Pekar
American Splendor (2003)
It’s hard to forget his wine-whiney lines in Sideways, but his dour portrayal of comics writer Harvey Pekar in American Splendor was a more complete, singular performance. Tim Basham

14. Halle Berry as Leticia Musgrove
Monster’s Ball (2001)
Berry’s Oscar-winning performance as down-and-out death row widower Leticia is startlingly unglamorous and fearlessly honest. In a film that is full of deeply flawed, unvarnished characters, Berry displays the kind of raw vulnerability alongside steely, almost vicious, resiliency that stays with you long after the final credits roll. Emily Riemer

13. Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II
The Queen (2006)
There are few bigger challenges than portraying a living celebrity who’s private life feels completely foreign to us commoners. Helen Mirren fully inhabited the queen of England as she navigates a world that has changed tremendously during her lifetime. Josh Jackson

12. Julie Christie as Fiona Anderson
Away From Her (2007)
Julie Christie got her first Oscar nomination in 1965. Her fourth came 22 years later for her turn as a victim of Alzheimer’s in Sarah Polley’s directorial debut, Away From Her. Christie makes us fall in love with her character before we see her slip from her husband’s grasp, make the loss so much more palpable than it otherwise would have been. Josh Jackson

11. Sean Penn as Jimmy Markum
Mystic River (2003)
Playing a man distraught over the murder of his daughter this is Penn at his emotional zenith (yes, a half-an-iota better than Milk) with excellent direction from Clint Eastwood. But really, Penn could be on this list for a number of roles. Tim Basham

10. Heath Ledger as Ennis Del Mar
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
While his performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight certain deserves the acclaim it’s been given, Heath Ledger’s true tour de force was his understated work in Brokeback Mountain. Ledger brought a driving force to the movie which complimented its contemplative tone and showed a true, classical brilliance in acting that left you convinced that his character was real. Sean Gandert

9. Don Cheadle as Paul Rusesabagina
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
As director Terry George found from his own research, this story of the 1994 Rwandan genocide unfortunately wrote itself. On the other hand, Cheadle’s portrayal as its hero seemed to rise from a passion he held within himself, transforming the role into a career golden standard still relevant today. Christina Lee

8. Felicity Huffman as Bree Osbourne
Transamerica (2005)
Between her TV roles on Sports Night and Desperate Housewives, Felicity Huffman showed her amazing range, playing a transexual woman who finds out she’s a father a week before her sexual reassignment surgery. Josh Jackson

7. Mickey Rourke as Randy “The Ram” Robinson
The Wrestler (2008)
This tale of a professional wrestler 20 years after his prime resembles the life of the starring actor himself, who returns to Hollywood one boxing career, one shattered cheekbone and five nose operations later. And as the wrestler searched for solace from everything he once abandoned from his sport, the role tore apart Rourke’s surgically reconstucted, sun-weathered exterior to reestablish his niche in Hollywood, if only because of one line: “I’m an old, broken-down piece of meat, and I deserve to be alone.” Christina Lee

6. Amy Adams as Ashley Johnsten
Junebug (2005)
She might have technically been a supporting character, but Amy Adams made the most of every moment on screen. Born in Italy and raised in Colorado, she was the rare non-Southern actor who seemed to be molded from North Carolina clay. Josh Jackson

5. Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Daring to base the central character of a Disney franchise on a notorious junkie-alcoholic walking-corpse rock star like Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards was a coup, but even more mind-blowing was how well Depp’s crazy idea worked. Guzzling rum as he bobs and weaves—stumbles, really—through this film delivering hilariously slurred one-liners, he is the consummate goodhearted scoundrel, easily stealing every frame he flamboyantly swaggers across. Steve LaBate

4. Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin
The Last King of Scotland (2006)
For much of this film, it’s easy to forget that the character you’re watching onscreen is actually a brutal, murderous dictator. The charm, depth and utter believability Whitaker brings to the role are unparalleled. And this likability makes Amin’s paranoid, violent outbreaks all the more chilling. Steve LaBate

3. Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview
There Will Be Blood (2007)
Without Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie could only be a faint shadow of itself. It’s a testament to Day Lewis that his performances alone are enough to draw an audience. Sean Gandert

2. Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote
Capote (2004)
In the same manner that In Cold Blood depicted the pristine scenes of Holcomb, Kansas, and the two men who disturbed them with a quadruple murder, Seymour Hoffman offered a precise yet chilling depiction of the man who helped found New Journalism. In turn, his performance burst apart Capote’s carefully crafted narrative to show just how haunted the writer himself had become. Christina Lee

1. Charlize Theron as Aileen Wuornos
Monster (2003)
If you haven’t watched the difficult but terrific Monster, it would be easy to dismiss Charlize Theron’s Oscar-winning performance as a gimmick: pretty actress made to look plain or ugly. We’ve seen that many times, on screens big and small, and we’re usually left wondering why the producers just didn’t get a non-starlet to play the role. But even though Theron’s physical transformation takes the ruse to a new level—it is thorough enough to render the actress unrecognizable and often indistinguishable from the real person she plays—her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos goes well beyond make-up tricks. It’s all encompassing. Theron is completely submerged in her character. Every glance, every hand gesture and every physical tick seem to be those of Wuronos. There’s not a single moment in the film in which the actress peaks out from behind those eyes. Charlize Theron captured something essential and magical (if very disturbing) in a performance that ranks as one of the best, not just of this decade, but of cinematic history. Tim Regan-Porter

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The top commercials from the past decade

Note: These are the decade's best commercials that did not air on the Super Bowl. [via adweek]
























































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Skydiving from plane to plane with no parachute [vid]

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Nike Sneakers made from Paper [pics]

David Brownings, a talented illustrator based in Bristol, has designed a series of creative Nike sneakers made out of paper. Enjoy! [via toxel]

For more cool projects by David Brownings, visit davidbrownings.com

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Seven Terrible Ideas for Breakfast

[via divinecaroline] The notion that breakfast is the most important meal of the day is drilled into us from a young age. I’m inclined to agree—mornings are hard enough with an empty, hungry belly making things worse. Unfortunately, we don’t all have time to prepare and eat a healthy, balanced meal before work. The food industry recognizes this need and has responded with a plethora of prepared breakfast items we can grab and eat on the run. The product forerunners, like instant oatmeal and energy bars, are good in a pinch. But considering the edible monstrosities some companies are creating these days, it might just be better to skip that most important meal after all.

Liquid Cereal

Pouring things into bowls is the worst! Not to mention all that chewing—so much effort! Don’t you wish someone could chew the sugary cereal first, then put it into a soda can for your convenience? Yeah, me neither.

Jimmy Dean Pancakes & Sausage on a Stick

Jimmy Dean knows you don’t have time to make, let alone sit down to eat, a pancake-and-sausage meal in the morning. You don’t even have time to eat a bowl of cereal! That’s why he wrapped one around the other, stuck some blueberries on it (for you health nuts out there), and impaled it on a stick. Brilliant man, that Jimmy Dean.

Pop-Tarts Vanilla Milkshake

Now that Pop-Tarts have calcium, we can eat them knowing that we’re lowering our risk of osteoporosis and increasing our risk of diabetes in one meal! There’s nothing like starting your day right, especially when it involves something that tastes like a warm milkshake.

Lean Pockets Quesadilla Breakfast

Ever hear Jim Gaffigan’s stand-up bit about the addition of breakfast items to the Hot Pockets line? “You can have a Hot Pocket for breakfast, a Hot Pocket for lunch, and be dead by dinner.” And now there are Lean Pockets breakfasts for people who want to watch their calories without missing out on subsequent stomach issues. Incidentally, have the makers ever actually seen a quesadilla?

Bob Evans Original Frozen Sausage Gravy & Biscuits

If Bob Evans and Jimmy Dean ever teamed up, they’d rule the world with giant, greasy fists. Consuming a couple of biscuits with pork bits floating in a sea of grayish gravy sounds like an appropriate start to the day—but only if you planned on writhing in pain, clutching your abdomen, and cursing Bob Evans’ name for the rest of it.

Kraft Bagel-fuls Apple Cinnamon & Cream Cheese

Bagel-fuls are a fine idea in theory; bread with a bagel-like consistency filled with cream cheese and fruit filling isn’t terribly alarming. But considering it’s frozen, that means you have to heat it up, which also means the cream cheese and jelly will be scorching. Somehow, hot cream cheese just isn’t that appealing.

Post Honey Bunches of Oats Just Bunches

Finally, a cereal that cuts the crap and eliminates those boring corn flakes. I’ve been hoping for a corn syrup–laden alternative to all those cardboardlike cereals out there. Now I don’t have to automatically turn to Smorz, Reese’s Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Frosted Flakes, Cap’n Crunch, Froot Loops, Lucky Charms, Oreo O’s … and the list goes on and on.

Eating breakfast first thing jump-starts our metabolisms and minds—as long as what we’re eating isn’t any of these items. The only things these morning meals will jump-start are stomachaches, sugar crashes, and vows never to eat said products again. Clearly, even convenience can be too much of a good thing.

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The History of the Internet in a Nutshell

If you’re reading this article, it’s likely that you spend a fair amount of time online. However, considering how much of an influence the Internet has in our daily lives, how many of us actually know the story of how it got its start? [via sixrevisions]

Here’s a brief history of the Internet, including important dates, people, projects, sites, and other information that should give you at least a partial picture of what this thing we call the Internet really is, and where it came from.

While the complete history of the Internet could easily fill a few books, this article should familiarize you with key milestones and events related to the growth and evolution of the Internet between 1969 to 2009.

1969: Arpanet

Arpanet was the first real network to run on packet switching technology (new at the time). On the October 29, 1969, computers at Stanford and UCLA connected for the first time. In effect, they were the first hosts on what would one day become the Internet.

The first message sent across the network was supposed to be "Login", but reportedly, the link between the two colleges crashed on the letter "g".

1969: Unix

Another major milestone during the 60’s was the inception of Unix: the operating system whose design heavily influenced that of Linux and FreeBSD (the operating systems most popular in today’s web servers/web hosting services).

1970: Arpanet network

An Arpanet network was established between Harvard, MIT, and BBN (the company that created the "interface message processor" computers used to connect to the network) in 1970.

1971: Email

Email was first developed in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson, who also made the decision to use the "@" symbol to separate the user name from the computer name (which later on became the domain name).

1971: Project Gutenberg and eBooks

One of the most impressive developments of 1971 was the start of Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg, for those unfamiliar with the site, is a global effort to make books and documents in the public domain available electronically–for free–in a variety of eBook and electronic formats.

It began when Michael Hart gained access to a large block of computing time and came to the realization that the future of computers wasn’t in computing itself, but in the storage, retrieval and searching of information that, at the time, was only contained in libraries. He manually typed (no OCR at the time) the "Declaration of Independence" and launched Project Gutenberg to make information contained in books widely available in electronic form. In effect, this was the birth of the eBook.

1972: CYCLADES

France began its own Arpanet-like project in 1972, called CYCLADES. While Cyclades was eventually shut down, it did pioneer a key idea: the host computer should be responsible for data transmission rather than the network itself.

1973: The first trans-Atlantic connection and the popularity of emailing

Arpanet made its first trans-Atlantic connection in 1973, with the University College of London. During the same year, email accounted for 75% of all Arpanet network activity.

1974: The beginning of TCP/IP

1974 was a breakthrough year. A proposal was published to link Arpa-like networks together into a so-called "inter-network", which would have no central control and would work around a transmission control protocol (which eventually became TCP/IP).

1975: The email client

With the popularity of emailing, the first modern email program was developed by John Vittal, a programmer at the University of Southern California in 1975. The biggest technological advance this program (called MSG) made was the addition of "Reply" and "Forward" functionality.

1977: The PC modem

1977 was a big year for the development of the Internet as we know it today. It’s the year the first PC modem, developed by Dennis Hayes and Dale Heatherington, was introduced and initially sold to computer hobbyists.

1978: The Bulletin Board System (BBS)

The first bulletin board system (BBS) was developed during a blizzard in Chicago in 1978.

1978: Spam is born

1978 is also the year that brought the first unsolicited commercial email message (later known as spam), sent out to 600 California Arpanet users by Gary Thuerk.

1979: MUD – The earliest form of multiplayer games

The precursor to World of Warcraft and Second Life was developed in 1979, and was called MUD (short for MultiUser Dungeon). MUDs were entirely text-based virtual worlds, combining elements of role-playing games, interactive, fiction, and online chat.

1979: Usenet

1979 also ushered into the scene: Usenet, created by two graduate students. Usenet was an internet-based discussion system, allowing people from around the globe to converse about the same topics by posting public messages categorized by newsgroups.

1980: ENQUIRE software

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (better known as CERN) launched ENQUIRE (written by Tim Berners-Lee), a hypertext program that allowed scientists at the particle physics lab to keep track of people, software, and projects using hypertext (hyperlinks).

1982: The first emoticon

While many people credit Kevin MacKenzie with the invention of the emoticon in 1979, it was Scott Fahlman in 1982 who proposed using :-) after a joke, rather than the original -) proposed by MacKenzie. The modern emoticon was born.

1983: Arpanet computers switch over to TCP/IP

January 1, 1983 was the deadline for Arpanet computers to switch over to the TCP/IP protocols developed by Vinton Cerf. A few hundred computers were affected by the switch. The name server was also developed in ‘83.

1984: Domain Name System (DNS)

The domain name system was created in 1984 along with the first Domain Name Servers (DNS). The domain name system was important in that it made addresses on the Internet more human-friendly compared to its numerical IP address counterparts. DNS servers allowed Internet users to type in an easy-to-remember domain name and then converted it to the IP address automatically.

1985: Virtual communities

1985 brought the development of The WELL (short for Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link), one of the oldest virtual communities still in operation. It was developed by Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant in February of ‘85. It started out as a community of the readers and writers of the Whole Earth Review and was an open but "remarkably literate and uninhibited intellectual gathering". Wired Magazine once called The Well "The most influential online community in the world."

1986: Protocol wars

The so-called Protocol wars began in 1986. European countries at that time were pursuing the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI), while the United States was using the Internet/Arpanet protocol, which eventually won out.

1987: The Internet grows

By 1987, there were nearly 30,000 hosts on the Internet. The original Arpanet protocol had been limited to 1,000 hosts, but the adoption of the TCP/IP standard made larger numbers of hosts possible.

1988: IRC – Internet Relay Chat

Also in 1988, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was first deployed, paving the way for real-time chat and the instant messaging programs we use today.

1988: First major malicious internet-based attack

One of the first major Internet worms was released in 1988. Referred to as "The Morris Worm", it was written by Robert Tappan Morris and caused major interruptions across large parts of the Internet.

1989: AOL is launched

When Apple pulled out of the AppleLink program in 1989, the project was renamed and America Online was born. AOL, still in existence today, later on made the Internet popular amongst the average internet users.

1989: The proposal for the World Wide Web

1989 also brought about the proposal for the World Wide Web, written by Tim Berners-Lee. It was originally published in the March issue of MacWorld, and then redistributed in May 1990. It was written to persuade CERN that a global hypertext system was in CERN’s best interest. It was originally called "Mesh"; the term "World Wide Web" was coined while Berners-Lee was writing the code in 1990.

1990: First commercial dial-up ISP

1990 also brought about the first commercial dial-up Internet provider, The World. The same year, Arpanet ceased to exist.

1990: World Wide Web protocols finished

The code for the World Wide Web was written by Tim Berners-Lee, based on his proposal from the year before, along with the standards for HTML, HTTP, and URLs.

1991: First web page created

1991 brought some major innovations to the world of the Internet. The first web page was created and, much like the first email explained what email was, its purpose was to explain what the World Wide Web was.

1991: First content-based search protocol

Also in the same year, the first search protocol that examined file contents instead of just file names was launched, called Gopher.

1991: MP3 becomes a standard

Also, the MP3 file format was accepted as a standard in 1991. MP3 files, being highly compressed, later become a popular file format to share songs and entire albums via the internet.

1991: The first webcam

One of the more interesting developments of this era, though, was the first webcam. It was deployed at a Cambridge University computer lab, and its sole purpose was to monitor a particular coffee maker so that lab users could avoid wasted trips to an empty coffee pot.

1993: Mosaic – first graphical web browser for the general public

The first widely downloaded Internet browser, Mosaic, was released in 1993. While Mosaic wasn’t the first web browser, it is considered the first browser to make the Internet easily accessible to non-techies.

1993: Governments join in on the fun

In 1993, both the White House and the United Nations came online, marking the beginning of the .gov and .org domain names.

1994: Netscape Navigator

Mosaic’s first big competitor, Netscape Navigator, was released the year following (1994).

1995: Commercialization of the internet

1995 is often considered the first year the web became commercialized. While there were commercial enterprises online prior to ‘95, there were a few key developments that happened that year. First, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption was developed by Netscape, making it safer to conduct financial transactions (like credit card payments) online.

In addition, two major online businesses got their start the same year. The first sale on "Echo Bay" was made that year. Echo Bay later became eBay. Amazon.com also started in 1995, though it didn’t turn a profit for six years, until 2001.

1995: Geocities, the Vatican goes online, and JavaScript

Other major developments that year included the launch of Geocities (which officially closed down on October 26, 2009).

The Vatican also went online for the first time.

Java and JavaScript (originally called LiveScript by its creator, Brendan Eich, and deployed as part of the Netscape Navigator browser – see comments for explanation) was first introduced to the public in 1995. ActiveX was launched by Microsoft the following year.

1996: First web-based (webmail) service

In 1996, HoTMaiL (the capitalized letters are an homage to HTML), the first webmail service, was launched.

1997: The term "weblog" is coined

While the first blogs had been around for a few years in one form or another, 1997 was the first year the term "weblog" was used.

1998: First new story to be broken online instead of traditional media

In 1998, the first major news story to be broken online was the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal (also referred to as "Monicagate" among other nicknames), which was posted on The Drudge Report after Newsweek killed the story.

1998: Google!

Google went live in 1998, revolutionizing the way in which people find information online.

1998: Internet-based file-sharing gets its roots

In 1998 as well, Napster launched, opening up the gates to mainstream file-sharing of audio files over the internet.

1999: SETI@home project

1999 is the year when one of the more interesting projects ever brought online: the SETI@home project, launched. The project has created the equivalent of a giant supercomputer by harnessing the computing power of more than 3 million computers worldwide, using their processors whenever the screensaver comes on, indicating that the computer is idle. The program analyzes radio telescope data to look for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.

2000: The bubble bursts

2000 was the year of the dotcom collapse, resulting in huge losses for legions of investors. Hundreds of companies closed, some of which had never turned a profit for their investors. The NASDAQ, which listed a large number of tech companies affected by the bubble, peaked at over 5,000, then lost 10% of its value in a single day, and finally hit bottom in October of 2002.

2001: Wikipedia is launched

With the dotcom collapse still going strong, Wikipedia launched in 2001, one of the websites that paved the way for collective web content generation/social media.

2003: VoIP goes mainstream

In 2003: Skype is released to the public, giving a user-friendly interface to Voice over IP calling.

2003: MySpace becomes the most popular social network

Also in 2003, MySpace opens up its doors. It later grew to be the most popular social network at one time (thought it has since been overtaken by Facebook).

2003: CAN-SPAM Act puts a lid on unsolicited emails

Another major advance in 2003 was the signing of the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, better known as the CAN-SPAM Act.

2004: Web 2.0

Though coined in 1999 by Darcy DiNucci, the term "Web 2.0", referring to websites and Rich Internet Applications (RIA) that are highly interactive and user-driven became popular around 2004. During the first Web 2.0 conference, John Batelle and Tim O’Reilly described the concept of "the Web as a Platform": software applications built to take advantage of internet connectivity, moving away from the desktop (which has downsides such as operating system dependency and lack of interoperability).

2004: Social Media and Digg

The term "social media", believed to be first used by Chris Sharpley, was coined in the same year that "Web 2.0" became a mainstream concept. Social media–sites and web applications that allow its users to create and share content and to connect with one another–started around this period.

Digg, a social news site, launched on November of 2004, paving the way for sites such as Reddit, Mixx, and Yahoo! Buzz. Digg revolutionized traditional means of generating and finding web content, democratically promoting news and web links that are reviewed and voted on by a community.

2004: "The" Facebook open to college students

Facebook launched in 2004, though at the time it was only open to college students and was called "The Facebook"; later on, "The" was dropped from the name, though the URL http://www.thefacebook.com still works.

2005: YouTube – streaming video for the masses

YouTube launched in 2005, bringing free online video hosting and sharing to the masses.

2006: Twitter gets twittering

Twitter launched in 2006. It was originally going to be called twittr (inspired by Flickr); the first Twitter message was "just setting up my twttr".

2007: Major move to place TV shows online

Hulu was first launched in 2007, a joint venture between ABC, NBC, and Fox to make popular TV shows available to watch online.

2007: The iPhone and the Mobile Web

The biggest innovation of 2007 was almost certainly the iPhone, which was almost wholly responsible for renewed interest in mobile web applications and design.

2008: "Internet Election"

The first "Internet election" took place in 2008 with the U.S. Presidential election. It was the first year that national candidates took full advantage of all the Internet had to offer. Hillary Clinton jumped on board early with YouTube campaign videos. Virtually every candidate had a Facebook page or a Twitter feed, or both.

Ron Paul set a new fundraising record by raising $4.3 million in a single day through online donations, and then beat his own record only weeks later by raising $4.4 million in a single day.

The 2008 elections placed the Internet squarely at the forefront of politics and campaigning, a trend that is unlikely to change any time in the near future.

2009: ICANN policy changes

2009 brought about one of the biggest changes to come to the Internet in a long time when the U.S. relaxed its control over ICANN, the official naming body of the Internet (they’re the organization in charge of registering domain names).

The Future?

Where is the future of the Internet headed? Share your opinions in the comments section.

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Dutch Set Domino Record: 4,345,027 dominoes fall

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Facebook Status Update Clears Teen From Criminal Charges

This is Rodney Bradford. A few days ago, Facebook saved his 19-yo life. Facebook, and his status plea demanding the immediate consumption of one of the basic food groups every human being needs to properly function in the morning: Pancakes. [via gizmodo]

Rodney was arrested on October 18 as a suspect in two crimes. He declared himself innocent and Robert Reuland—his defense lawyer—found the key to free him: "Where's my pancakes?"

That seemingly inconsequential Facebook status update proved crucial when the Californian company confirmed that someone wrote it from his father's Harlem apartment computer, using Rodney's user and password at around the time of the alleged crime: Saturday October 17, 11:49am.

Of course, you can argue that anyone with Rodney's password could have written the status update, while the 19-yo went on to commit two crimes, but his defense lawyer and the district attorney disagree:

This implies a level of criminal genius that you would not expect from a young boy like this; he is not Dr. Evil.

A spokesman for Brooklyn's District Attorney said the Facebook update served as the confirmation of the other alibis, namely Rodney's father and stepmother, who declared he was at their Harlem home at the time.

The most interesting thing in this case, however, is that this seems to be the first time in which social networking has been used to save the ass of someone, rather than nailing a really stupid thief. Some people believe that Facebook and other sites will become part of criminal cases across the country, as they get deeper under society's skin. Personally, I can't wait till we are all monitored by automagical retinal scans, and naked bald people in funky swimming pools decide who is a criminal and who is not. Can't wait, I tell you.

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Some types of technology are about to bite the dust, says study

As technology advances at a phenomenal speed, there are bound to be some casualties as new devices supersede the old ones, even though the old ones are not really so old. [via geekwithlaptop]

DVD players, satnavs, smartphone chargers and dongles could all end up obsolete and dumped by the wayside as soon as next year, according to the latest research from Pixmania, the largest electronics retailer in Europe.

Pixmania have made up a list of the top 10 technologies they say are “endangered” and aren’t likely to make it as far as 2012 — and some on the list might surprise you.

Top of the list is DVD players. They will be superseded by Blu-Ray, movie streaming and game consoles.

Next in line for the chop are fax machines, which will not survive due to other technologies taking on their role. Basically, they’re no longer required.

Satnavs are likely to be replaced as smartphones and location-based software rise up and take on the task of guiding us where we want to go. I mean why would we buy another gadget when the ones we have are perfectly capable of doing the same job for us, and just as well?

Wii-motes will be blasted into oblivion as soon as Microsoft’s Project Natal takes off, which is expected before the end of next year, and of course the landline phone is at risk as we rely more and more on our mobiles to communicate.

“We’re always talking about the fast pace of technology but 2009 has truly seen us take huge leaps forward and even greater developments are expected in 2010.

“Things that have been making life easier for a generation are about to be replaced. It’s a shame to see an old classic like the DVD face the threat of extinction; it will be gone, but not forgotten,” says Kieran Alger, the editor of the T3.com gadgets website.

Other gadgets on their way to finding a place in the history books include the dongle, the computer mouse, chip and pin credit cards, the mobile phone charger and analog TV.

Are we sad? Well, some people might be but there’s no time for nostalgia, we’ve got a future to build — a future where new technology is king.

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10 “WTF” Products – Guess What’s Inside

[via interbent] It is amazing where people’s ingenuity can reach. What else we say is we already have at least 7 types of banana holders? But while a banana holder might still make sense in some cases, there are plenty of absolutely weird products you have never any idea about!

Here’s our collection of such wanky and odd stuff we find on the store shelves – guess what’s inside!

1. PURE GUM LAMB NIPPLES

These are for bottle-feeding baby lambs:

Source

2. HAPPY END

That is premium toilet paper:

Source

3. DIRTY GIRL

“These handy foil packaged antibacterial towelettes are lightly infused with her lily scent. They’re perfect in your purse or car, to tidy up near AND far”.

Source

4. KICKER BALLS

Looks like mini-sausage:

Source

5. HANDZOFF

Believe it or not, this is an “anti-masturbatory gum”:

Source

6. INSTANT SEX

Just fruit and vegetables:

Source

7. TRAVEL-JOHN

Disposable urinal? Really?

Source

8. TITZ

Apparently, these are “eggs”:

Source

9. VERGINA

This is just regular beer named after the well-known Italian town:

10. JOKE BREAST

That’s a strange toy. Breasts with stickum the back that kids are supposed to stick all over their bodies. You know, breasts on the fingers knees and cheeks will go over real well at school.

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Seriously Insane Juggling Skills

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Incredible Time-Lapse Graffiti by Blu and David Ellis

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40 Funny Print Ads

Print adverts need to get a message across with a single image and without the recourse of interactivity that we find today on the Internet. [via webdesignerdepot]

As interactive media expands, attention spans are getting shorter and shorter every day.

For any company trying to get their product or service out in print format, the task is ever more challenging and difficult.

Humorous ads remain one of the few effective ways to engage an audience in a very saturated advertising market. This is an area where the audience is far more receptive and still willing to pay attention.

In this post, we’ve gathered 40 hilarious and really creative ads for your enjoyment…

1. Kayaking Jumbo Peanut: Choking

2. Ambulance – Listermint Mouthwash

3. EPhone: Snakebite

4. Wolf Hot Sauce: Hand dryer

5. Hospital – Lazer Helmets

6. Utopolis, Group of Cinemas: Titanic

7. McDonald’s: The Real Milkshake

8. Nikol Baking Dish: Jacuzzi

9. McDonald’s: Billboards 200m-197m

10. Aquafresh Flexigel: Ear

11. Denver Water: Hose

12. Fresh Step: Cross-legged cats

13. Coca-Cola Light

14. KitKat

15. Mag-Lite: Buddha

16. Mischief Scissors

17. Boecker Public Health: Toilet

18. Fish – Tolnaftate cream

19. McDonald’s: Individuals

20. Fairfax/The Sydney Morning Herald: Size Change

21. BBDO Düsseldorf Recruiting: Join us

22. Utopolis, Group of cinemas: Free Willy

23. KISS FM 97.7: Father

24. Nutri Balance: Husband

25. Tesa: Bush

26. General Tire: Wrapped by Adventure

27. Covergirl Teens: Anime

28. Softlan Ultra: Wrestling

29. Oranges – Wonderbra

30. Breath – Pedigree

31. Lion – Zoo Safari

32. New Job – Career Builder

33. Zoom – Olympus

34. Sharp – WMF

35. Truck – Pepsi Light

36. Mask – Gear Drop

37. Magician – Glassex Window

38. Overloaded – 3M Scotch

39. Playground – Wonderbra

40. Pies – Pocket Pies

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50 Kick-Ass Websites You Need to Know About

It's time to update the entries in your browser's links toolbar. But with recent estimates putting the size of the internet at well more than 100 million distinct websites, it's getting harder and harder to get a handle on all the great stuff that's out there. That's why we've compiled this list. And unlike some lists you may have seen, which try to name the very "best" websites, but end up just telling you a lot of stuff you already know, we've chosen instead to highlight 50 of our favorite sites that fly under most people's radar. Think of it as the Maximum PC blog roll (remember those?). These sites represent great alternatives to popular web destinations like YouTube and Hulu, and include useful references, powerful web apps, and the unknown blogs you must absolutely bookmark.

You might have heard of some of these sites, but we'll bet you haven't heard of all them. Read on and find out. You won't be disappointed.

Demoscene.tv

See What Can Be Done with 4 Kilobytes

If you’re any kind of nerd at all, you probably know about the demoscene, where talented programmers create complex videos rendered in real-time, stored in incredibly small files. If you’re not familiar, you should make yourself acquainted with the scene, and all of the trippy, procedurally-generated content it has to offer. And hey, it’s not like you’re going to hit your bandwidth cap watching demos.

But what if you just want to see what all the fuss is about without actually downloading and running an executable? That’s where demoscene.tv comes in. Think of it as YouTube for the scene, letting you watch demos in HD on the web. And if you like what you see, the full demo executable is just a click away.

lite.Facebook.com

Clutter-Free Social Networking

You can admit it. Along with Twitter, Facebook is one of the sites that you absolutely feel compelled to check every day to keep track of your friends’ activities and latest funny links. But while we’re all for friend-stalking, we could definitely do without the AJAX-heavy sidebars and interface modules that clutter up the Facebook homepage. Try using Facebook Lite, which gives you lean views of friend feeds and your user profile. You get access to essential image and update posting functionality without being bothered by the newest Facebook game apps.

Letsplayarchive.com

Let other people play games for you

The Let’s Play Archive maintains a list of hundreds of “Let’s Play” games, where somebody plays through a video game while maintaining a journal using text, screenshots and videos. Some are funny, while other’s just give you a whirlwind tour of a game you’ve never played before. Sounds dumb? Give it a try, you might just find it more engrossing than you’d imagined.

Soyouwanna.com

What They Didn’t Teach You in School

If you’ve ever needed some advice on how to do go about doing the most obscure, but didn’t really know who to turn to without receiving some sort of critical feedback, So You Wanna is a great resource for inquiring minds that think alike. So you wanna…audition for American Idol? Bottle your home-made beer? Get a travel visa to a foreign country? So You Wanna tells you all about it and assists you in your quest to become the all-knowing. Note that there is some NSFW content floating around the site.

Google Building Maker

Crowd Sourcing the 3D World

14th Century cartographers would be right about Google Earth – its world is pretty flat. Despite high-resolution satellite imagery that lets you zoom in on your neighbor’s skylight, buildings are still part of one big flat surface. That’s where you come in. Google’s Building Maker is a website that lets you help design and create buildings for Google Earth. Using a plug-in based version of their Sketch-up modeling program, you can easily create a textured 3D model of your neighborhood or local landmarks and submit them to be included in the Google Earth database. The process is surprisingly simple and really fun to use. Google has rolled out the service to 50 cities so far, but plans on expanding its reach in the future.

Ikeahacker.blogspot.com

Outsmart the Swedes at their Own Game

If you’ve been a college student or 20-something living on a budget in the last couple decades, chances are good that there are a couple of bits of Ikea furniture gracing your living quarters. The Ikeahacker blog shows you how other people have transformed their old Swedish furniture into something awesome.

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Fatburgr.com

Count your Calories

Also a popular iPhone app, Fatburgr helps you count calories and make healthier decisions when eating out at various popular dine-in and fast food restaurants. Simply pick your poison (ours is Panera Bread) and Fatburgr will present you with an alphabetical list of the restaurant’s entire food inventory with the number of calories, grams of fat, carbohydrates, and fiber in each serving. If you take a look, you might be surprised at the lack of nutrition surrounding some of your favorite dishes.

Ffffound.com

Get Inspired

Ffffound (yes, four F’s) is an image bookmarking web service that allows users to post and share their favorite images they find on the web and recommends similar images according to the user’s taste. This is a great resource if you’re looking for some inspiration, or need an image that matches your tastes. Fffound displays graphic designer’s works, typography, advertisement design, animations, and sometimes, even the latest meme. There is some NSFW content floating around the site.

Newseum.org

Keep Up with the Local News

Curious about what’s on the front page of newspapers elsewhere in the world? Look no further than the Newseum, which offers downloadable PDFs fof more than 80 major international and domestic newspapers. These informative gems are brought to you by the interactive museum of news and journalism and is located by Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

Strangemaps.wordpress.com

Strange Maps are Strange

If you’ve got a fascination with maps, or an affinity for world history, Strange Maps posts interesting maps several times a week, complete with interesting facts and statistics following suit in blog form.

Wunderground.com

The Most Accurate Weather Reports

We know, your gut instinct tells you to go to Weather.com to check for local weather conditions or the weekend forecast. But Weather Underground provides better local reporting by tapping into a network of 10,000 local weather stations in all major cities across the United States. A community-powered reporting system provides detailed hourly updates, which are especially useful when planning your commute during the rainy season.

Whatshouldireadnext.com

Take a Look, Read a Book

If you’re looking for a good book that’s out of your realm, try your hand at What Should I Read Next. WSIRN displays recommendations based on your favorites list. Conversely, if you just want a quick recommendation, simply enter in one item and WSIRN will offer titles that may appeal to your interests based on genre and author title.

Rulesformyunbornson.tumblr.com

There’s more to Life than the Internet

A recent issue of Wired listed rules for the modern Pointdexter – proper etiquette for techies in the 21st century. But while you may know the difference between a good and bad post on Twitter, how about ten hours of the day when you’re not on the internet? That’s where Rules for My Unborn Son comes in; this blog regularly posts the important lessons that’ll really help you get by in life. Rules like “Never eat lunch at your desk” and “Compliment your mom’s cooking” may be common sense for most of the world, but it’s sage advice for the unwashed masses of geeks.

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Prezi.com

Pitch a Meeting

Microsoft’s Powerpoint is truly a hassle to use when you’ve only got a few hours to put together a full blown presentation. Thankfully, free web services like Prezi offer procrastinating professionals a better way to put together some pretty creative presentations. Prezi takes about five minutes to learn and the slide show is really just one big easel. And, if you want to get super creative, there are numerous tutorials that teach you how to jazz up your presentation with animated segues and mindmapping techniques that will inspire your audience to think outside of the box. Best of all, it’s all hosted online, so you don’t have to worry about anything happening to your expense report.

Tvtropes.org

Must-Read before Engaging in Mature Internet Discourse

This wiki is a comprehensive catalog of literary devices used in popular fiction, including tropes (different for clichés) used in most television shows today. Be wary, the site is a deep dive into the craft of story writing, and will change the way you enjoy books, television, and movies forever.

Knowyourmeme.com

Stay Up to Date with the Internet

Pardon us for considering our readers to be out of touch with the latest Internet memes, but you’d be surprised to see the statistics on how many average Internet users aren’t in touch with the latest Internet fads. For this reason, Know Your Meme exists to give your friends and family all an equal chance to laugh at, or with, the Internet.

Kongregate.com

Play Flash Games in Style

What do you get when you combine time-wasting flash games, an Xbox-like achievement system, a social network and a collectable card game? You get Kongregate; the best flash game hub on the ‘net.

Howcast.com

Instructional Videos that are Actually Coherent

From mundane tasks like washing your hair to complicated ventures like how to finance a home, Howcast hosts instructional videos that can help you get by in life. User-shared videos are well produced and get straight to the point, unlike the junk you’ll find on YouTube.

Interfacelift.com

Find the Perfect Wallpaper

Interfacelift may not be the biggest desktop wallpaper site on the internet, but it is one of the best organized, with easy sorting by resolution, rating, or tag. With thousands of gorgeous photos and illustrations, available in tons of resolutions (including dual- and triple-monitor resolutions), Interfacelift is definitely worth a look next time you want to refresh your PC’s wallpaper.

Investopedia.com

Demystify Your Investments

If you’re new to investing, the stock market and other financial institutions can seem like black magic—you put some money in, some charts go up and down, and hopefully you end up richer than you started. Enter Investopedia, Forbes’ collection of definitions and articles about all things financial. Written accessibly but not condescendingly, Investopedia will leave you feeling more confident about investing in no time at all.

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Good-Tutorials.com

Paint a Pretty Picture

You don’t have to be a designer to learn how to touch up photos, create your own graphics, or conjure up fancy web buttons. Good Tutorials is one of our favorite resources for making the most out of our entire Adobe Creative Suite. Additionally, if you’ve got a knack for web design, this site can also help with CSS, Flash, Java and PHP.

Drinkhacker.com

Learn How to Drink in Style

Nothing says “sophistication” and/or “problem drinker” like leaving Drinkhacker open in your browser. With well-written spirits reviews and intriguing cocktail recipes, Drinkhacker’s got something to offer even the most casual drinkers.

io9.com

Be a Sci-Fi Superfan

Ok, ok, so io9 is a Gawker blog, and therefore not exactly “under the radar.” Nonetheless, it’s one of the blog mega-network’s lesser known sites, and an absolute must-read for any science fiction fan (we know you’re out there). All mediums get covered -- television shows, movies, books, and even comics. The editors know their Cylons from their Cardassians, and the editorials give you more to stretch your mind than typical geek debates.

Customize.org

Spruce Up Your Desktop

Customize.org is the biggest and best resource for pretty much any aspect of the desktop customization scene. On it, people post screenshots of their desktops, tricked out with popular apps like Litestep, Samurize and Rainlender, and share how they're made. The site also hosts themes and skins for those apps and others, along with helpful how-to guides.

Mentalfloss.com

Learn a New Interesting Fact Every Day

Did you know that giraffes have the highest blood pressure of any mammal? Or that Pope John Paul II was made an honorary member of the Harlem Globetrotters? No? Well, if you visited the Mental_Floss blog regularly, you would. With informative posts, infuriating quizzes and an “Amazing Fact Generator,” the blog is recquired reading for wannabe smart-alecs.

Musicovery.com

Find new music, the colorful way

Musicovery is a music-finding service that’s a little different than the rest. To get music recommendations, you just specify a list of genres that you like, a timeframe, and whether you want your music calm or energetic, dark or positive. Musicovery searches up matching songs, and displays them in a color-coded map. Its library isn’t as big as some others, but the colorful visuals and unusual song selection make it worth a visit.

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Yankodesign.com

Glimpse into the Possible Future

Do high-concept gadgets like the Optimus Keyboard tickle your fancy? Yanko Design is a blog that focuses entirely on futuristic design concepts from studios like Art. Lebedev. The products showcased are mostly conceptual renders and may never see production, but occasionally, you’ll find a forward-thinking idea that perfectly combines form and function.

Gethuman.com

Skip the Robot, Talk to a Person

These days, calling technical support can be a real nightmare for a number of reasons: long hold times, unintelligible outsourced operators, and “Tier 1” technicians who almost inevitably know less about the product in question than you do. But the worst of all tech-support injustices is the automated frustration dispensers that companies sometime employ to put you through a labyrinth of touch-tone menus before you can talk to a real person.

But you don’t have to put up with all of that, thanks to Gethuman.com, which tells you—on a company by company basis—exactly what number to call and what buttons to press to get through to a real, human operator.

Cookingforengineers.com

Learn to Cook like a Nerd

If you’re the type that thinks of cooking as more of a science than an art, then Cooking For Engineers is the site for you. With lots of recipes written out and photographed in excruciating detail, and interesting cooking “experiments,” this site will help you make the transition from computer nerd to kitchen nerd.

Newsmap.jp

See the World’s News at a Glance

As Google News has become the single largest aggregation of local and global news, there have been several attempts to rearrange all that data into a more readable form. Newsmap.jp is one such effort, which organizes stories into a big, colorful treemap, based on category (business, technology, sport, etc) and importance, measured by the number of outlets reporting on a story.

Give it a try; it’s a surprisingly intuitive and addicting way to browse the news.

Magnatune.com

Listen to Free, Licensable Music

These days there are so many sites offering free music download (legally or illegally), that to stand out from the crowd, you need to do something unique. Magnatune is a site that does several unique things. For one: they only offer music from independent artists. Another, you can listen to any album in its entirety. Finally, Magnatune lets you license any song they offer, making an excellent resource for producers of podcasts and indie films.

Kayak.com

Plan Your Next Trip

If you’re looking for a quick weekend getaway, Kayak can help you find the best deals on any trip around the world, whether it’s by plane, ship, or automobile. Kayak is a search engine that pulls information from hundreds of travel sites based on your query; you can then refine your search and choose the result that is right for you. You can also sign up for their newsletter and receive daily deals based on your airport location setting . We should mention, however, that domestic flights within the continental United States or Europe do not show up economy airliners, such as Southwest and EasyJet.

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Eeggs.com

Find Out Things You Never Knew about Your Favorite Games and Movies

Eeggs.com is a directory of user-submitted easter eggs for games, movies, and TV shows. You can browse the “Eeggs” by category, date added, or by rank. There are about 4,000 Easter eggs for video games alone, so head on over and find out what you’ve been missing.

Widgetbox.com

Put Some Flair on Your Blog

Alright, so we’re aware that this is no longer the nineties, and websites are still taboo and less traffic worthy when covered in Javascript widgets, but if you’re fairly active on a number of social networking sites, or would like to create a landing page out of your blog, Widget Box is the perfect resource. Some of our favorite widgets include: the Twitter feed box, the Flickr slideshow, and the Social Networking badge.

IFarchive.org

Play Thousands of Free, Awesome Games

“Interactive fiction” is a term used to refer to text-based adventure games which rely on clever writing and imagination, rather than fancy graphics. Although you’re probably more familiar with the classic interactive fiction games that were popular around the dawn of PC gaming, such as Zork and Adventure, there are plenty of enthusiasts still hard at work turning out new and innovative works in the genre. Ifarchive.org is the place to go to find pretty much an interactive fiction game, new or old, as well as emulators and other software needed to play them.

TheSixtyOne.com

Listen to Music, Level Up

Tired of music sites that just let you listen to music? Wish more stuff in your life had RPG elements? Then you should definitely give TheSixtyOne.com a look. A music site with a decidedly indie slant, songs on TheSixtyOne are uploaded by artists themselves, and voted on by users. The gimmick? Whenever a song that you’ve voted for goes on to be voted for by others, you gain experience and levels. There are also achievements (such as listen to 1000 songs) and quests (for example: listen to 7 recently posted songs), so you'll always have something to work toward.

Vuvox.com

Make Slick-Looking Web Photo Collages

Vuvox is a web app which lets you take a collection of images, videos, and song files, and turn them into a rich, scrolling web collage. A set of simple photo editing tools lets you show only the best parts of your photos, and you can add info boxes that expand when moused over. When you’ve created the perfect collage, you can embed it on your blog or other website, or pass a link around on Twitter.

Openwith.org

Decode the Language of File Extensions

This essential website is a comprehensive database of file extensions for whenever you come across an unknown file type. The site is frequently updated, easy to browse, and even links you to freeware applications to open your cryptic files. In fact, the advocacy of free software to open documents is paramount in the site’s mission statement.

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Crackle.com

Watch TV Shows and Movies You Can’t Find on Hulu

NBC’s Hulu may be the dominant video-streaming service for legally watching TV shows and movies, but its catalogue isn’t nearly comprehensive. Rival service Crackle fills in missing shows and films owned by Sony Pictures, in case you want to watch movies like Ghostbusters or Groundhog Day. Cracke’s collection isn’t as big as Hulu’s, but there are plenty of hidden gems here (Karate Kid II, anyone?).

Offworld.com

Insightful Gaming News without the Kotaku Crowd

Boingboing’s gaming spinoff cherry picks only the most interesting gaming links and industry news for its blog, adding insightful commentary with a little nostalgic bent to each post. It has since been put on hiatus, and former editor Brandon Boyer has deposited most of his eclectic links in a Tumblr blog. Still, Offworld’s archives are a delightful read, and it is still currently updated by the editors of Boingboing.

Also worth checking out: Rockpapershotgun.com, featuring frequent Offworld and PC Gamer UK contributors.

Vimeo.com

The Best Place to Upload Your Videos

We’ve given up all hope for Youtube. Vimeo – founded by the creators of CollegeHumor – is the premium cable equivalent of internet video. The simple upload interface, relatively quick processing times, and elegant video interface make this our preferred video hosting site. The moderated channels have high-quality content (there’s even a channel for anaglyph 3D video!), and the community has more than a single-digit lexicon.

Craiglook.com

Craiglist Gets Unstuck from 1995

Craigslist is undoubtedly the best place online marketplace to barter or trade goods, but its interface and navigation system leaves much to be desired. But since all of its content can be read through RSS feeds, you’re not forced to actually use the Craigslist site. Craiglook is a mash-up of Craiglist feeds (read through Yahoo Pipes) and Google Maps. Its location radius-based search is the site’s most useful feature, and its content is always up to date with the main Craigslist directory.

Drop.io

Collaborate in Real-Time without the Wave

Yes, we know everyone is excited about the potential of Google Wave as an end-all solution for real-time project collaboration. But in its Beta state, Wave is too buggy and slow to earn our recommendation. Drop.io takes a simpler approach to real-time collaboration: users share online “drop” repositories which host documents and images. We dig that Drop.io doesn’t require complicated user accounts or unnecessary social networking elements. Yahoo apparently feels the same way, and has pre-installed Drop.io’s Attach Large Files feature into every Yahoo mail account.

Spotify.com

A Social Music Platform to Replace iTunes

Spotify is a new music service that hopes to streamline the way we both stream and purchase new music. The company was launched with the blessing of several major labels, in a refreshingly forward-thinking move on the part of the music industry. Because of this, Spotify is able to stream full, high-quality tracks from these labels without fear of retribution. Our favorite feature is the ability to create and save playlists for later. This really adds to the illusion that you now have an unlimited music library on your computer. While Spotify is not yet available for US residents, we await its stateside debut with bated breath.

---

Obsoletethebook.tumblr.com

Respect Your Gadget’s Ancestors

This darling Tumblr blog preaches the kind of nostalgia that techies can really appreciate. Author Anna Jane Grossman recounts the simpler days of pay phones, Polaroid photos, and pocket calculators. If you’re ever suffering from shiny gadget overload, take a breath and calm yourself in the Obsolete blog’s welcoming analog arms.

Wired.co.uk

Tech News from a Different Perspective

Wired UK’s website is a great example of an international publication that puts out fine content that’s distinct from its US counterpart. Sure, some news and blog posts cover the same topics as the stateside edition, but the perspective is just as elucidating and fresh. Plus, it’s the only place you’ll find the musings of acclaimed futurist and comic book writer Warren Ellis.

Blog.makezine.com

Advanced Crafting for Hobbyists

Like to get your hands dirty? Makezine’s blog is a treasure trove of links to geeky craft projects found all over the web. From circuit bending tutorials to D-I-Y robots, you’ll find all sorts of nifty projects that’ll get your inner inventor stirring. And even if you’re not the hacking type, the linked projects are a joy to read.

Pdfgeni.com

Find any PDF Reference Manual

This search engine is dedicated to indexing PDF files scattered all over the web. It’s extremely useful for finding technical manuals that you might have thrown away without having to dig through the original manufacturer’s website. It’s also great for finding ebooks and obscure academic documents.

What the Font

Because Not Everyone Uses Helvetica

In the days of yore, font-recognition software was expensive and didn’t work particularly well. Lucky for us, what once cost a lot of money is now available free on the web. Point your browser to WhatTheFont, upload an image featuring the font in question, and the service will give you a list of matching fonts, usually including some free options. For bonus points, font nerds can test their knowledge by trying to identify the difference between Arial and Helvetica in common logos.

Tor.com

Get Your Sci-Fi Short Story Fix

If you’re a science fiction and fantasy aficionado, this site is for you. A free membership to this publisher’s site gets you access to exclusive ebooks, and casual browsers can still dive into a wealth of short stories, comics, art, and its delightful blog.

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The 6 Creepiest Places on Earth

[via cracked] It doesn't matter whether or not you believe in ghosts, there are some places in which none of us would want to spend a night. These places have well earned their reputations as being so creepy, tragic or mysterious (or all three) that they definitely qualify as "haunted."

Places like...

#6.

Aokigahara Forest

Aokigahara is a woodland at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan that makes The Blair Witch Project forest look like Winnie the Pooh's Hundred Acre Wood. It probably has something to do with all the dead bodies scattered around.

What Niagara Falls is to weddings, Aokigahara is to suicide. How many suicides does it takes for a place to get that reputation? A dozen? Fifty?

More than 500 fucking people have taken their own lives in Aokigahara since the 1950s.

The trend has supposedly started after Seicho Matsumoto published his novel Kuroi Kaiju (Black Sea of Trees) where two of his characters commit suicide there. After that-always eager to prove they are bizarrely susceptible to suggestion-hundreds of Japanese people have hanged themselves among the countless trees of the Aokigahara forest, which is reportedly so thick that even in high noon it's not hard to find places completely surrounded by darkness.

Also skulls.

Besides bodies and homemade nooses, the area is littered with signs displaying such uplifting messages like "Life is a precious thing! Please reconsider!" or "Think of your family!"

"If you commit suicide here, bears will poop on your corpse."

In the 70s, the problem got national attention and the Japanese government began doing annual sweeps of the forest in search of bodies. In 2002, they found 78. But who knows how many they missed? In all likelihood there probably is a hanged person somewhere in Aokigahara on any given day. You can see some of them here. WARNING, NSFS (Not Safe For Soul).

By the way, if an entire dark forest full of hanged corpses wasn't bad enough, a few years ago some people noticed that a lot of the dead in Aokigahara probably had cash or jewelry on them. Thus began the proud Japanese tradition of Aokigahara Scavenging where people are running around the Death Forest, looking for dead guys to loot.

#5.

The Overtoun Bridge

Located near Scotland's charming little village of Milton in the peaceful burgh of Dumbarton, the Overtoun Bridge is a local arch construction where no human beings have ever died in any suspicious circumstances whatsoever over the last few decades.

However, during that span, for reasons we can't begin to possibly understand, hundreds and hundreds of dogs have killed themselves there. It appears that dogs have been plunging off of Overtoun since the early 60s, at a rate of one animal a month... bringing the total number today to around 600 mutts, who for some reason, decided to end it all.

"Please don't make me do something like this again."-Photoshop Department.

And we're not talking about a series of unfortunate accidents that could have been avoided with a simple guard rail. People who actually witnessed the reported dogs willingly climbing the parapet wall and leaping to their doom with dumbass doggy grins on their faces. Whether they were crying blood remains to be confirmed.

Theories on why is this happening have been all over the place, from particularly aromatic rodents to a simple stream of bizarre coincidences. We call bullshit on both seeing as--to paraphrase Ian Fleming--"Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action and over 600 is clearly the work of an ancient Sumerian demon or some shit."

"Because, for real, that shit is straight up like eight different kinds of crazy. Shit."

To further drive the point home, it has been observed that certain dogs that jumped off the bridge and survived, fucking climbed back up and THREW THEMSELVES TO THEIR DEATHS ALL OVER AGAIN.

Because the great Overtoun demon's hunger will not be appeased with tries. He demands fresh canine blood, and lots of it.

#4.

Winchester Mystery House

In San Jose there is this house. It is a gigantic, sprawling 160-room complex designed like a maze, with mile-long hallways, secret passages, dead ends, doors opening to blank walls and staircases leading to the ceiling.

It's the work of Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune. In the late 19th century, deeply saddened over the death of her husband and daughter, she visited a Boston medium who told her she was haunted by the spirits of all the victims of Winchester rifles. She needed to make peace with them by... always be building a house. As in, never stop building a house, or else she will die. What a nice thing to say to someone who has just lost her family. There is no way this could end with Sarah building a real life version of the Addams Family household.

In 1884, Winchester started construction of her new San Jose mansion, which has gone on non-stop for 38 years right until her death. Despite modern contractors taking about that much time to put in the wooden paneling in your kitchen, the Winchester mansion eventually grew so big you could, in all seriousness, get lost in it. And getting lost was the idea, the crazy twists and turns and dead ends were intended to confuse the ghosts. Sarah was kind of a jerk like that.

Oh, bitch...!

But pissing off vengeful spirits was just one of the many architectural choices for the mansion. The entire Winchester Mystery House was decorated with a constant spiderweb motif--which Sarah believed had some spiritual meaning--and everything from the hooks on the walls to candle holders has been arranged around the number 13, supposedly for good luck. Yeah... for someone trying to free herself from ghosts, Winchester did everything but sacrifice a baby goat to Satan to assure her house will be haunted.

#3.

The Sedlec Ossuary

Remember when we said Aokigahara was the Niagara falls of suicide? Well, for centuries the abbot in the small Czech town of Sedlec has been the Niagara Falls for dead people, regardless of cause of death. Ever since someone sprinkled soil from the Holy Land on the local cemetery in the 13th century, people from all over Europe started demanding to be buried there and the Sedlec graveyard kept growing until 1870, when the priests decided to finally do something about all those surplus bones lying around. Something insane.

Bam! Chandelier full of bones!

Today, the Sedlec Ossuary is a chapel famous for being decorated with tens of thousands of human bones. This macabre style of interior design was the work of Czech woodcarver Frantisek Rint who, for some reason, was hired to organize the church's extensive skeleton collection. The results were huge mounds of human remains in the four corners of the chapel, a terrifying chandelier built from every bone in the human body, and a massive skull coat of arms adorning the entrance.

We realize this is the Czech Republic and all, but it has been 27 years, surely Poltergeist was released out there already. Like, maybe last year or something? Why are they still playing with human bones as if they were Satan's Lego blocks and making them sit through Mass every single day for almost 140 years now? On the Tempting Fate scale, the only thing worse would be to start using some of the skulls as ceremonial mugs or chamber pots.

At this point, does it really surprise anyone that the church became the inspiration for Dr. Satan's lair in the Rob Zombie movie House of 1000 Corpses?

#2.

San Zhi Resort

What do you get when you cross a series of abandoned, rusting, futuristic UFO-shaped buildings with a series of mysterious deaths covered up by the government? How about the ghost town-slash-tourist resort of San Zhi, located just outside Taipei and inside your worst nightmares.

The exclusive San Zhi resort in Taiwan was supposed to be the destination for bored, rich folk who always wondered what it would be like to live inside an over-sized hockey puck. Construction of Pod City started around the 80s but was quickly shut down after a series of mysterious on-site fatal accidents... or it could have been due to Godzilla attacks for all we know. There is actually very little official information on San Zhi. We can't even confirm how many people died there or if they screamed something about eyeless children eating their souls. The whole thing is shrouded in secrecy.

A hotel? No! This is a... a weather balloon!

Currently, most of the information on the complex comes from the locals who--what a surprise--refuse to go near the damn thing. And thus the abandoned 90 pods just stand there, waiting for anyone foolish enough to wander in.

Come on dude, don't be a pussy, this place looks legit.

Wait a second... abandoned resort town in the middle of nowhere, mysterious deaths, lack of any official information... where have we seen this before?

We also would've accepted "Our nightmares."

#1.

Prypiat

A whole lot of you just got deja vu looking at the above picture. Specifically, those of you who have played Call of Duty 4, as there is an entire level that takes place there. If you thought the idea of a completely silent, abandoned, radioactive city was typical video game apocalyptic fantasy, you were wrong.

Prypiat is in the northern Ukraine and once housed the workers and scientists of the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant. Founded in the 70s, it held as many as 50,000 people. Then in 1986, according to a footnote in the official Soviet records, there was a small malfunction in the Chernobyl reactor, so for safety reasons the city was evacuated.

Since then, Prypiat has been desolated, its buildings decaying, the giant Ferris Wheel just standing there all alone with nobody to ride it. The city actually had an entire amusement park for the families of the Chernobyl employees. Because when you are living next to a nuclear reactor which was outdated even by 1986 Soviet standards, the only thing on your mind is bumper cars.

The city is located in what is known as the Zone of Alienation, the 30-kilometer radius directly affected by the Chernobyl "minor technical difficulty" over 20 years ago. Despite that, Prypiat is now opened to the public because the radiation levels have apparently went down significantly over the years. We guess we have a different view on radiation than the government of Ukraine. They obviously have a scale for it, while we consider any radiation a very bad thing.

Aside from the inherent risk of getting bit by a radioactive snail and becoming the lamest superhero ever, there is another reason why you will never see us among the tourists occasionally visiting Prypiat.

The fucking nursery. We told you this was a place built for families and wouldn't you know it, they have a nursery, which according to certain claims is currently paved with baby shoes and abandoned dolls. So, Prypiat is basically an abandoned radioactive ghost Soviet baby amusement park.

Coming Soon to a theater near you!

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Walmart Goes Crazy On Couple Suspected Of Shoplifting

[via consumerist] Walmart can try to spin itself as being on the side of good all it wants, but if it ever suspects you of shoplifting, you may find that you're powerless to fight back. In the case of a couple accused of shoplifting some Bic lighters in Niles, Michigan this past August, Walmart detained them, the police came and cuffed one of them, their two kids were taken to a security room, and—after a review of security footage proved the couple's innocence—they were banned for life from all Walmarts. To top it off, Walmart's legal team has sent the couple a letter asking to be reimbursed for 10 times the value of the lighters, even though the police determined no shoplifting had taken place.

(It's unclear whether the couple ever actually paid for the Bic lighters in question—the article only specifies that the footage shows they scanned the package of lighters but that the scanner didn't register it.)

The couple in question is gay and their sons are adopted, which may have introduced a whole new level of emotional reactions on both sides of the dispute. The men say their children told them that while they were being held in the security room, the security staff threatened the kids and "had made disparaging remarks about Paolucci and Hitchcock's lifestyle." It's not a stretch to imagine that such an attitude, if it existed, carried over into any face-to-face interactions. Meanwhile, the police who showed up and cuffed Paolucci, then forced the two men into the backs of different squad cars, claim that the men were causing a disturbance when they arrived at the scene.

Still, no amount of pro-gay or anti-gay outrage makes it okay for a retailer to place paying customers in such an abusive situation, especially when the retailer's own security footage—which was immediately available for review—shows that if there was any inventory issue it was due to a malfunction of the scanner. But Walmart can get away with it because it can afford to:

Asked if they intend to sue Wal-Mart, Paolucci said he and Hitchcock probably won't because other attorneys have advised them Wal-Mart historically "plays hardball" and isn't prone to settle cases out of court.

"We could spend a couple million dollars to sue them," Paolucci said.

But that doesn't mean there won't be court action. Paolucci and Hitchcock e-mailed The Tribune a copy of a letter from a law firm representing Wal-Mart seeking 10 times the retail price of the items the store still claims were shoplifted by Paolucci. The letter states the matter will be dropped if Paolucci submits the $158.40 payment.

Fortunately, the men seem to have enough money that they can afford to never shop at the discount retailer again, even if they weren't banned for life. If you're not part of a wealthy two-income family, though... well hopefully Walmart will look down favorably upon you when your post-checkout time comes, so long as you act contrite and respectful of their security team's authority.

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The 10 Most Beloved and Unhealthy Gaming Snacks

You're having people over for a night of dungeon running, or maybe you are having no people over and playing your friends online with some Left 4 Dead. Either way, you are going to need to eat something during this lengthy gaming session, preferably something you can grasp without one hand without looking. More importantly, it must be something that has almost no preparation time, thereby maximizing your game time. Most importantly, it must be horrible for you; full of calories and fats and cholesterol and sugars, with as little actual nutritional value as possible. Why that last part? We're not 100% sure, but it's certainly a rule that gamers aren't going to eat salads during their epic tabletop or online adventures. Here now are a few of the worst things nutritionally -- but the best things emotionally -- to eat while gaming. [via topless robot]

10) Nachos
​
This delicious snack has the special property of being variably unhealthy. Plain nachos and cheese are not that bad health-wise, but you can easily ramp that up, with sour cream, olives, tomatoes sausage chunks, whole slices of pizza, until what you are left with is food goo, not unlike what you might feed to domestic livestock. Perfect for when you might already be in a "farm" mindset for a game of Settlers of Catan.

9) Oreos
​
You need to bring something to a D&D campaign, and you want something sweet, you usually can't go wrong with Oreos. You can even go and get some non standard mint, strawberry or Double-Stuf Oreos if you want to shake it up, but if you usually slap down a plastic wrapped plastic tray of Oreos on a table, your friends will eat them. Also, they contain 2,400 calories per container so, you know, eating one of these by one's lonesome could be considered "heroic," though going into a diabetic coma over Xbox Live could be one of the worst ways to die as you not only see "The Light" but hear someone shouting "Hey, this fag is sucking dick all over the place!"

8) Beef Jerky
​
Why have we not yet developed a way to make this snack cheaper? It is delicious pieces of dried meat, yet always costs you an arm and a leg to purchase. They also contain about 600mg of sodium on average, so naturally you may find your organs turning into jerky themselves if you eat enough of it. If further to demonstrate the unhealthiness of these foods, think of a gas station. Are you thinking of jerky? Jerky is synonymous with gasoline. Jerky is also great to use on a 3-D gaming map for those characters unfortunate enough to be killed outright. As a DM all you need to do is replace the character's statue with a piece of dried snackness and say "See that? Dwarf jerky. Anyone want to revive the peppered teriyaki goodness?"

7) Slim Jims
​
A cousin to jerky, you don't necessarily seek out the Slim Jim, rather it subliminally calls to you as you are purchasing a soda on your way to a gaming session. Get in the car, and suddenly there's a Slim Jim there without you realizing it. It also one of the few things that you know can't be healthy for you without even looking at ingredients on the package, but if you did look, you would see "Mechanically Separated Chicken" as an ingredient. Yes. It sounds like it might be chicken torn apart by a robot with claws for hands, but in reality is just chicken meat turned into a paste-like substance, which looks like this:
​
Of note: Slim Jims have been out of production since a large explosion at the Slim Jim factory since June 2009, and perhaps only now are returning to acceptable distribution levels, so there are likely to be still plenty on the shelves.

6) Combos
​
Essentially cooked circular dough with stuff inside, these beauties can run you about 140 calories per serving with 60 of that being fat calories. In a small 1 oz. bag, you can get 7 servings, so if you eat a whole bag, that's 980 calories, with 420 calories of that being fat. They also do sort of taste a lot like whatever the flavor is, from pepperoni pizza to chips and jalapeno pepper, thanks to whatever strange supersience in flavoring they utilize from labs buried deep in the earth. The Combos all have essentially the same shape, which is not unlike a Snausage, the snack for dogs, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. If they marketed "Snausages for Humans" you can bet there would a lot of Combos eaters who would crack a bag of those in a second, even if they just changed the packaging and not the dog treat itself.

5) Pizza Rolls
​
These snack-sized pizzas in an edible container that are less healthy than a regular slice of pizza are truly the pinnacle of human scientific endeavor. No, seriously, you get a box, you cook about forty of them, sit down and you are set. Maybe with a little ranch dressing on the side or beer to dip these in and you have yourself a good hearty meal. Or, heck, cook several boxes, make a giant mountain of pizza rolls, place a few mountain climbers, a flag at the top, and have your friends over to eat the Mount Everest of snacks!

4) Twinkies
​
I don't even need to describe Twinkies. You know what these are, cake, with filling and a creepy-long shelf life of 25 days (yes, they do expire) which is because they aren't made with dairy products. That's right, they are a cake without any dairy in them, which should tell you that something unholy is made up of their molecular compounds. Doesn't matter, though does it? Take a box of one of these to a gaming night, and you are a hero. Or screw that, keep the box for yourself, load up some Modern Warfare, and cram Twinkies in your mouth as you shoot - it's not like you're going to get some interesting conversation over Xbox Live anyway.

3) Mountain Dew
​
There is a reason you can find Halo and World of Warcraft-themed Mountain Dew drinks - it's like the ichors of the Gaming Gods! Yeah, it's got a lot of sugar, which is bad, and the usual carbonic acid, which can eat through your insides, but more importantly it contains Brominated Vegetable Oil. Brominated Vegetable Oil, or BVO is banned in 100 countries. Oh, also in a pure liquid or vapor form, it's deadly. Put it in your Mountain Dew or a number of other citrusy soda drinks and you get that distinctive uniform color to it. It also has it side effects such as memory loss, violent tendencies, acute irritability, tremors, confusion, loss of peripheral vision, slurred speech, stupor, erratic reflexes, and so on and so forth of awful. You do have to drink about 353 12-ounce cans of soda per day for 42 days to have any kind of detectible chemical buildup, which some gamers may call "cutting back."

2) Donuts
​
Who does not like a donut? It's about the worst thing you could eat. You may think that because it has dough in it that perhaps you are getting some nutrition, but you aren't thinking. A donut, whether it be cakey or Krispy, has about no nutritional value whatsoever. It's got nothing but fat, sugar, and carbohydrates in portions so large it may as well be "The Sam's Club of Unhealthy." However, like cigarettes, it may be the unhealthyness that draws us to it. Also, it is one of the few foods you can buy a box of, bring it to a friend's house and only your most picky of bitch friends will not find something they like.

1) Huge Piles of Candy
​
One advantage of being old enough to buy candy is that you can buy candy any time you want. This being America, you can get bags of easy-to-consume candy in enormous sizes. Never mind your insulin, you've got a giant plastic bowl to fill with Skittles, Reese's Pieces, M&Ms (all varities), Jolly Ranchers, Gummi Bears, Mike and Ikes, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, King Size Snickers Bars, and sugar cubes covered in powdered sugar. Go ahead! Go wild! It's not like with your sedentary lifestyle you're going to start losing weight anytime soon, unless you are using the Wii, in which case, you're not really gaming.

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Casino Denies Man his Jackpot Worth 166 Million

A Florida man, Bill Seebeck hit one hell of a jackpot. Playing the $4 slots, he hit the biggest jackpot in the history of the state of Florida: $166,666,666.65. The casino looked at the number and thought two things: 1) that is way more money than we want to lose and 2) that is too many consecutive sixes for foul play to not be involved. [via mademan]

It turns out, they may have been right. Casinos make it their policy to investigate every jackpot (wouldn’t you?), and after they roped the machine off, they looked into whether or not Seebeck’s win was legitimate. They concluded (surprise) that it was not because the machine’s alleged top payout was $99,000. Seebeck (surprise) claimed he wanted a good lawyer.

Usually, when you hit a jackpot, the machine “locks up” and stops spinning. There are flashing lights and an electronic signal is sent to a casino attendant instantaneously to let them know about the win. In Seebeck’s case, the casino is claiming that the machine continued to spin “out of control,” that it was their policy to not payout for malfunctioning machines, and that he would therefore be getting no money.

This is actually protocol for all jackpots over $5,000. A casino attendant, in these cases, always checks the machine for malfunctions, and as the jackpots get larger, even the machine manufacturers will travel to the casino to check the machine. You've got to be a phenomenal liar to put one over on the casinos (like these guys).

So, at the end of the day, when the casino offered Seebeck an undisclosed amount for a settlement, he should be thanking his lucky (sort of?) stars. The Seminoe Hard Rock Casino had this to say:

“The Seminole Hard Rock Casino Tampa has made an offer to William Seebeck, and he has accepted, recognizing that the slot machine he was playing on Sunday malfunctioned, in what can be best described to the layman as a “computer glitch.”

“Determination of a malfunction was made by representatives of the machine’s manufacturer and software provider, according to established gaming industry standards, with confirmation from an independent third-party laboratory analysis. The casino has opted to settle this matter for an undisclosed amount as a good faith gesture, and we look forward to welcoming Mr. Seebeck on future visits.”

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Best Buy exec denied first-class seat because he looked like a scrub

Apparently there is a dress code if you want to fly first class on United Airlines. Even if you are a Best Buy executive. [via citypages]

Armando Alvarez, a corporate vice president for Richfield's electronics retail giant, said he upgraded to first class using his miles Oct. 26. He was on a flight from Dulles to Connecticut.

When he arrived at the gate and walked up to the counter, the agent told him he couldn't fly first class because he was dressed too casually. He was wearing a tracksuit. And let's be clear here: It was a Puma track suit. He says he packs his suits so they don't get wrinkled during the flight.

Alvarez says he isn't looking for compensation, but wants to call out United for his embarrassment.

"If this happened to me and I'm a United Airlines Red Carpet Club member then I believe it's happening to other people and this must stop," Alvarez said on Fox.

Watch the video interview below.
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12 worst parking error videos on YouTube

Every motorist has misjudged a parking manoeuvre at some point in their lives. Here are 12 car park howlers that might help wash away the embarrassment.

1. Best bit: The moment of deliberation while the driver considers the options. Call the police? Wait for the owner to return? Or, as they ultimately decided, crawl towards the exit and hope no-one else noticed their epic double park.

2. Best bit: Not the woman driver's repeated false moves, or even the frustrated man's grumpy intervention. No, the real stars of the clip are the passersby who tried to make themselves useful by waving vaguely in the direction the parking space.

3. Best bit: The hand-over-mouth shock of the front seat passenger as everyone in the car contemplates the crushed barrier beneath the wheels.

4. The panicked protests of the mechanic as he spots the impending fall.

5. Best bit: After a "difficult" 50 seconds spent inching delicately out of the space, the driver gives it up as a bad job and zooms straight back in.

6. Best bit: The moment the driver realised he had mistimed the stunt, and allowed himself to be lifted up on to the bonnet.

7. Best bit: The sudden and satisfying splash

8. Best bit: The baffled pacing of the portly shopper, who avoided being hit by a matter of inches.

9. Best bit: While not a parking error per se, this clip provides succour to nervous drivers who know that the worst crashes are caused by recklessness rather than excessive caution.

10. Best bit: The driver seems finally to have completed their tortuous escape from the car park when they plough back into view smash into a stationary vehicle.

11. Best bit: The terrified dog that hurtles across the screen as the driver bashes into every possible obstacle.

12. Best bit: When the driver was helped out of the car, alive. A particularly horrifying accident given the relatively slow speed at which the car was travelling.

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Semi Hangs Over Freeway Dumping 1000's Of Beer Cans [VID]

Traffic lanes on the I-70, I-75 interchange are now clear of a lot of beer.

Earlier a semitruck carrying a load of beer, heading northbound on I-75 to westbound I-70, struck the wall and caused debris to fall on vehicles on I-70 and I-75, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol. The ramp, now open, was closed for cleanup.

The semitruck driver and two other drivers were transported to Miami Valley Hospital.

"It's believed the semi lost its load," state trooper Steven Ilo said. The semitruck was left partially hanging over the overpass and emergency crews are working to rescue it and clear any debris. Authorities are unclear on the cause of the accident.

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50 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do

Herewith is a modest list of dos and don’ts for servers at the seafood restaurant I am building. Veteran waiters, moonlighting actresses, libertarians and baristas will no doubt protest some or most of what follows. They will claim it homogenizes them or stifles their true nature. And yet, if 100 different actors play Hamlet, hitting all the same marks, reciting all the same lines, cannot each one bring something unique to that role? [via NYTimes]

1. Do not let anyone enter the restaurant without a warm greeting.

2. Do not make a singleton feel bad. Do not say, “Are you waiting for someone?” Ask for a reservation. Ask if he or she would like to sit at the bar.

3. Never refuse to seat three guests because a fourth has not yet arrived.

4. If a table is not ready within a reasonable length of time, offer a free drink and/or amuse-bouche. The guests may be tired and hungry and thirsty, and they did everything right.

5. Tables should be level without anyone asking. Fix it before guests are seated.

6. Do not lead the witness with, “Bottled water or just tap?” Both are fine. Remain neutral.

7. Do not announce your name. No jokes, no flirting, no cuteness.

8. Do not interrupt a conversation. For any reason. Especially not to recite specials. Wait for the right moment.

9. Do not recite the specials too fast or robotically or dramatically. It is not a soliloquy. This is not an audition.

10. Do not inject your personal favorites when explaining the specials.

11. Do not hustle the lobsters. That is, do not say, “We only have two lobsters left.” Even if there are only two lobsters left.

12. Do not touch the rim of a water glass. Or any other glass.

13. Handle wine glasses by their stems and silverware by the handles.

14. When you ask, “How’s everything?” or “How was the meal?” listen to the answer and fix whatever is not right.

15. Never say “I don’t know” to any question without following with, “I’ll find out.”

16. If someone requests more sauce or gravy or cheese, bring a side dish of same. No pouring. Let them help themselves.

17. Do not take an empty plate from one guest while others are still eating the same course. Wait, wait, wait.

18. Know before approaching a table who has ordered what. Do not ask, “Who’s having the shrimp?”

19. Offer guests butter and/or olive oil with their bread.

20. Never refuse to substitute one vegetable for another.

21. Never serve anything that looks creepy or runny or wrong.

22. If someone is unsure about a wine choice, help him. That might mean sending someone else to the table or offering a taste or two.

23. If someone likes a wine, steam the label off the bottle and give it to the guest with the bill. It has the year, the vintner, the importer, etc.

24. Never use the same glass for a second drink.

25. Make sure the glasses are clean. Inspect them before placing them on the table.

26. Never assume people want their white wine in an ice bucket. Inquire.

27. For red wine, ask if the guests want to pour their own or prefer the waiter to pour.

28. Do not put your hands all over the spout of a wine bottle while removing the cork.

29. Do not pop a champagne cork. Remove it quietly, gracefully. The less noise the better.

30. Never let the wine bottle touch the glass into which you are pouring. No one wants to drink the dust or dirt from the bottle.

31. Never remove a plate full of food without asking what went wrong. Obviously, something went wrong.

32. Never touch a customer. No excuses. Do not do it. Do not brush them, move them, wipe them or dust them.

33. Do not bang into chairs or tables when passing by.

34. Do not have a personal conversation with another server within earshot of customers.

35. Do not eat or drink in plain view of guests.

36. Never reek from perfume or cigarettes. People want to smell the food and beverage.

37. Do not drink alcohol on the job, even if invited by the guests. “Not when I’m on duty” will suffice.

38.Do not call a guy a “dude.”

39. Do not call a woman “lady.”

40. Never say, “Good choice,” implying that other choices are bad.

41. Saying, “No problem” is a problem. It has a tone of insincerity or sarcasm. “My pleasure” or “You’re welcome” will do.

42. Do not compliment a guest’s attire or hairdo or makeup. You are insulting someone else.

43. Never mention what your favorite dessert is. It’s irrelevant.

44. Do not discuss your own eating habits, be you vegan or lactose intolerant or diabetic.

45. Do not curse, no matter how young or hip the guests.

46. Never acknowledge any one guest over and above any other. All guests are equal.

47. Do not gossip about co-workers or guests within earshot of guests.

48. Do not ask what someone is eating or drinking when they ask for more; remember or consult the order.

49. Never mention the tip, unless asked.

50. Do not turn on the charm when it’s tip time. Be consistent throughout.

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Your Guide to Online Schools

Way back when I was around the age to start thinking about College I already knew what school I wanted to go to. I always had a desire to go to art school and knew I would end up graduating from one. I have know so many people who were undecided about where they wanted to go and what they wanted to learn to be successful later down the road.

Friends of mine always asked me what they thought about this college and that college and I asked them back…How on earth would I know? You see, the internet wasn’t around back then to do the research and compare schools and read comments and reviews from everyday normal people. You had to rely on the word of people you knew and the experience you got when visiting the campus. Now we live in an age where online schooling has become commonplace and we need to make the right decision to which online school can offer the most for us while in our pj's.

On this blog I have a user submit button to which you can submit sites or resources that you find my readers might enjoy. I recently received such a website that I think would help out the next generation of students find the right college. I found this site, GuidetoOnlineSchools.com a useful and well designed resource for Online College Reviews.

As I stated before there was no such thing as online collages or the internet for that matter when I was going through the process. So I found the resources tab useful as it’s a helpful in getting started, finding financial aid, accreditation and tips and tricks to getting your Online degree.

Their website has everything you need to make a educated decision from a full list of Online Colleges categorized per subject or field or simply by the most popular online schools available. If you are headed back to school, or going to college for the first time check out the site and let me know what you think.

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Xerox Claims Printable Electronics Breakthrough

Xerox on Tuesday announced a new silver ink (among other things) that it's calling, and apparently is, a breakthrough in printable electronics, a leading edge concept that's generated a lot of discussion but few actual products to date, largely because of the issues that Xerox's new technology addresses. [via pcmag]

In concept, printable electronics is just what it sounds like: using a printer, basically an ink jet, to print electronic circuits. If you can do that reliably, you can print electronic devices for far less than current methods cost. You can also print the devices on a variety of new materials.

The possibilities range from printing on flexible plastic (opening the door to displays you can roll up and put your briefcase), to paper and cardboard (for packaging that can give audio and video instructions for assembling a product, actively remind you to take your medicine, or confirm whether you already took it), to fabric (which will allow wearable electronics -- a T-shirt with a display, say, replacing a printed slogan for marketing or for showing support for a political candidate.)

Until now the concept of printable electronics has been more promise than reality. One of the few actual applications has been printing antennas for RFID tags (the technology EZ-Pass or FastPass uses to charge passing cars tolls without forcing them to stop). . Those who keep an eye on the area have been predicting that the ability to print the entire RFID tag, instead of just the antenna (and print it cheaply enough), is the point where printable electronics will begin to take off.

As just one example of the possibilities, if you can print the RFID on packaging as easily as printing a bar code -- right along the text and graphics, you can replace bar codes with RFID tags on every box of cereal, every frozen food package, and every can in a supermarket. Do that, and going through the checkout counter becomes a simple matter of walking past an RFID reader to register everything in your cart.

The big hurdle for printable electronics has been finding a practical (as well as economical) way to implement it. Given the goal of being able to print on everything from paper, to cardboard, to plastic, one of the big problems has been that the temperature needed to melt silver ink for printing -- the conductor you need in electronics -- tends to be too high for the materials you want to print on. Plastic, for example, tends to melt when it gets too hot.

According to Xerox one of the key benefits of its technology is that it can print with sliver ink at a much lower temperature than competing technologies, which makes it much easier for the materials it's printing on to survive.

Another important benefit is that it can print reliable circuits in non-clean room environments. According to Xerox, printing with competing technologies in open air environments results in circuits that don't last long or aren't consistently reliable. However, Xerox says that its technology doesn't need a clean room any more than a standard printer needs one for putting ink or toner on paper.

In addition to eliminating the need for a clean room and making it easier to print on various materials without ruining them, the new technology also promises to lower costs dramatically -- enough to finally it make it practical to print entire RFID tags on anything. Xerox says it could bring the cost of RFID tags down from the current dollar or so each to roughly a penny each, which is to say, Xerox may have just reached the critical take off point that the industry has been looking for.

Still another important piece of the announcement is that Xerox says it will make the technology available to others. Assuming it does what Xerox is claiming, and assuming other companies agree it does what they need, this new technology may be just the breakthrough the industry needs to jump start printable electronics as a major new approach to building electronic devices.

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The World’s 18 Strangest Bridges

Some bridges are engineered with nothing but utility in mind—for these, aesthetic design is secondary to safety and longevity. And given that San Francisco’s bay bridge was just closed for six days, this makes sense. But advances in design software and construction materials have given bridge architects opportunities to focus on original, striking and sometimes whimsical designs that impress, while keeping function in mind. Here are some of our favorite unusual bridges—and why they’re architecturally striking. [via popularmechanics]

1: Rolling Bridge

London, England

Background: UK-based design firm Heatherwick Studio created this 39-foot timber and steel bridge in 2004 to act as a walkway over a small section of London’s Grand Union Canal.

Why It’s Innovative: A hydraulic system built into the bridge’s handrail allows it to retract and curl into an octagon. The retractable design allows for boats to cruise through the canal unobstructed, and the bridge rolls up every Friday at noon.

Donald MacDonald, an architect with more than 40 years of experience who has worked on over a dozen bridges, tells PM that, “this bridge represents an experimental gesture, and it’s really complicated for what it does."

2: The Neal Bridge

Pittsfield, Maine

Background: Habib J. Dagher and colleagues from the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composite Center completed this small road bridge in November 2008.

Why It’s Innovative: While at first glance this bridge appears to have a straightforward design, the Neal Bridge is unique because it is supported by a series of 23 arches made from fiber-reinforced plastics that are filled with concrete. “There’s been really no new bridge material since high-strength steel and high-strength concrete came in, which was 40 or 50 years ago," MacDonald says. And though the price of composite materials is high, proponents argue that there are significant savings on shipping, construction and long-term maintenance that offset the initial investment.

3: Henderson Waves

Mount Faber Park, Singapore

Background: The 118-foot tall Henderson Waves is Singapore’s tallest pedestrian bridge, linking Mount Faber Park with Telok Blangah Hill Park.

Why It’s Innovative: Pedestrian bridges allow for a certain amount of creativity that’s not possible with structures that need to support heavy-duty use. The undulating outer shell of the Henderson Waves is striking, and the inside is shaped into benches where tourists can sit and gaze at nature or the nearby skyline of Singapore City. The bridge, which is about 900 feet long, is illuminated by an array of LED lights each night to bolster its snake-like presence in the midst of two national parks.

4: Sundial Bridge

Redding, California

(Photograph by Chad K)

Background: Renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava designed this cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge to be made from a combination of steel, glass and granite. Completed in 2004, the pedestrian bridge crosses the Sacramento River in the Turtle Bay Exploration Park.

Why It’s Innovative: As its name implies, the bridge’s 217-foot-tall support tower acts as a giant sundial. The deck of this pedestrian bridge is made from nonskid glass panels to give walkers a greater sense of the river. MacDonald notes that the deck’s truss bears the bulk of the bridge’s load, while the cables appear slack compared with those of other bridges.

5: Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge

Brasilia, Brazil

(Photograph by Mariordo Mario Roberto Duran Ortiz)

Background: Completed in 2002, this asymmetrical bridge crosses Lake Paranoa. Its name pays homage to former Brazilian president Juscelino Kubitschek, who established Brasilia as the nation’s capital in the 1950s.

Why It’s Innovative: Three steel arches that jump from side to side support the deck of the 3900-foot-long bridge. Architect Alexandre Chan, who designed the bridge, has said that he wanted to avoid straight lines on the deck in order to accentuate Brasilia’s striking sunsets.

6: Modern Bamboo Bridge

Leiyang, China

(Photograph by Yan Xiao/USC Viterbii School of Engineering)

Background: Engineer Yan Xiao of the University of Southern California has developed everything from pedestrian bridges to mobile housing using bamboo. This bridge opened to traffic in December 2007.

Why It’s Innovative: The 32-foot bamboo bridge has a load capacity of 8 tons (though it may actually be able to carry a heavier load), making this one of the first bamboo structures capable of handling trucks. Using lightweight prefabricated materials allowed construction workers to avoid using heavy construction equipment, and the bridge took only a week to install.

7: Millau Viaduct

Millau, France

(Photograph by Scole1)

Background: English architect Norman Foster designed this massive cable-stayed bridge to carry travelers over the valley of the Tarn River. It opened in 2004 with a final price tag of nearly $600 million.

Why It’s Innovative: With its apex at 1125 feet, the Millau Viaduct is one of the world’s tallest bridges. Despite its huge size, the construction period lasted only three years thanks to the use of GPS guidance systems, self-climbing formwork and prefabricated materials. “What is unusual is to have the towers taper in both directions as they rise," Macdonald says.

More than 1500 tons of cables support the 1.5-mile structure. Because its deck is 885 feet above sea level, drivers often find themselves above the clouds on foggy days.

8: Pont Gustave-Flaubert

Normandy, France

Background: This vertical lift bridge crosses the Seine, one of France’s major commercial waterways. With pylons that stand 282 feet tall, the Pont Gustave-Flaubert is Europe’s tallest lift bridge.

Why It’s Innovative: Instead of separating in the middle like a drawbridge, the Pont Gustave-Flaubert’s deck is lifted straight up by a butterfly-shaped pulley system so tall ships can pass through. The deck takes about 12 minutes to be pulled all the way up, which happens about 30 or 40 times per year. MacDonald tells PM that using twin roadways allows more sunlight to penetrate the water under the bridge, an important consideration for the river’s ecosystem.

9: Langkawi Sky Bridge

Langkawi, Malaysia

(Photograph by The Dilly Lama)

Background: This curved pedestrian bridge is 2000 feet above sea level at the top of Mount Mat Cincang in Malaysia. Tourists who want to walk across the 400-foot long structure must ride up to it in a cable car.

Why It’s Innovative: Set above the treetops, the Langkawi Sky Bridge is one of the highest elevated single-stay bridges in the world. The deck is less than 6 feet wide and its curved shape gives travelers a panoramic view of Langkawi, an archipelago of 99 islands. Each end is fitted with triangular observation decks.

10: Hangzhou Bay Bridge

Zhejiang, China

(Photograph by Jürgen Zeller)

Background: This massive structure, which mixes cable-stayed spans and typical highway bridge elements, opened in 2008 after nearly 10 years of planning. It links the cities of Jiaxing and Ningbo, and shortens the commute between the two cities by 75 miles.

Why It’s Innovative: At 22 miles long, the Hangzhou Bay Bridge is the longest ocean-crossing bridge in the world. Engineers had to account for how Hangzhou Bay’s extremely strong tides and powerful typhoons would affect the structure. From end to end, the bridge is slightly S-shaped, which helps it withstand the elements. Future plans include building a service area right in the middle of the bridge.

11: Da Vinci Bridge

Aas, Norway

Background: Leonardo Da Vinci sketched plans for this bridge in 1502 for Sultan Bajazet II of Constantinople, but it wasn’t until 500 years later that the design was brought to life by Norweigan artist Vebjørn Sand. The pedestrian bridge opened in 2001 and crosses the E18 highway.

Why It’s Innovative: For centuries it was thought that Da Vinci’s sketch of the bridge was implausible. The bowed arches of the single-span design are dramatically thin where they connect with the walkway, but they flare out as they approach the ground. Da Vinci’s original plan called for the span to be 720 feet long, but Sand and colleagues scaled it down to 300 feet and built the walkway from Norwegian pine.

12: Pythonbrug

Amsterdam, the Netherlands

(Photograph by nfontes)

Background: Design firm West 8 was commissioned to create a series of bridges linking Amsterdam’s Sporenburg area with Borneo Island. Pythonbrug, which roughly translates from Dutch as “Python Bridge," opened in 2001 and is about 300 feet long.

Why It’s Innovative: The sinuous Pythonbrug is one of the most modern bridges in Amsterdam, a city famous for its traditional canal bridges. Unlike Singapore’s Henderson Waves, which relies on an outer shell to create the wave illusion, the Pythonbrug walkway actually dips and rises. While the bridge is certainly an eye-catcher, MacDonald points out that its steep incline wouldn’t pass muster under the Americans With Disabilities Act, which sets a 5 percent limit on the grade of such structures.

13: The Gateshead Millennium Bridge

Gateshead, England

Background: This award-winning tilt-bridge is the brainchild of Wilkinson Eyre, a London-based architecture firm. It crosses the River Tyne, connecting Gateshead and New Castle.

Why It’s Innovative: A system of six hydraulic rams can pivot the bridge’s walkway at a 40-degree angle in order to let boats pass. Wilkinson Eyre describes the bridge’s movement as looking like a “slowly opening eyelid" when it raises, a process that takes fewer than 5 minutes. Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that the bridge was fully constructed before being installed as a single piece by Europe’s largest floating crane, Asian Hercules II.

14: Oresund Bridge

Malmo, Sweden

Background: The Oresund Bridge crosses the Oresund strait and joins Sweden with Denmark. This marvel of ingenuity has a total length of 4.8 miles and was completed in 2000.

Why It’s Innovative: The Oresund Bridge is an incredibly complex structure that begins as a cable-stayed bridge in Sweden and ends as a tunnel in Denmark. A small artificial island was built around the tunnel’s entrance to keep water from creeping in. Not only is the bridge equipped to handle four lanes of traffic; it also has a double-track railway. Creating the tunnel was likely the best and cheapest solution to completing the crossing without impeding boat traffic, MacDonald says.

15: Puente de la Mujer

Buenos Aires, Argentina

(Photograph by Banfield)

Background: The Puente de la Mujer, or “Woman’s Bridge" in English, is Santiago Calatrava’s second design on this list. The Puente de la Mujer, like the Sundial Bridge, is a cantilever spar cable-stayed design.

Why It’s Innovative: The portion of the bridge’s deck that is supported by the inclined pylon can rotate a full 90 degrees to accommodate passing ships. “A lot of bridge architects, like myself, are trying to get movement into these bridges, and this is one way to do it," MacDonald says. “[Calatrava] is continually trying to put movement in his architecture. You could say he has introduced movement to the built environment, in both buildings and bridges."

16: Slauerhoffbrug

Leeuwarden, the Netherlands

Background: The Slauerhoffbrug is a tail bridge that can quickly be raised to allow ships to pass. It was completed in 2000 and spans a small section of the Harlinger Vaart River.

Why It’s Innovative: Instead of rotating open, the Slauerhoffbrug is lifted up by a dual hydraulic system that is built into its pylon. The Slauerhoffbrug is L-shaped, with its foundation sitting adjacent to the road.

17: Evergreen Point Floating Bridge

Seattle, Washington

Background: This floating bridge, which was completed in 1966, carries State Route 520 from Seattle to Medina, Washington. At 1.4 miles long, it has one of the longest floating spans in the world.

Why It’s Innovative: Because Lake Washington can be more than 200 feet deep, building a suspension bridge across it was not a viable option in the 1960s. The floating design, which relies on concrete pontoons that are anchored by underwater weights, was the perfect solution. In its more than 40 years of existence, the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge has been battered by high-speed winds and even withstood a barge crashing into it. However, these abuses, along with the bridge’s vulnerability to earthquakes, have forced the Washington Department of Transportation to launch a project aimed at replacing the structure.

18: Octavio Frias de Oliveira Bridge

São Paulo, Brazil

(Photograph by Marcosleal)

Background: This mammoth, x-shaped, cable-stayed bridge was completed in 2008 over the Pinheiros River in São Paulo. The peak of its pylon is 452 feet high, while the bridge’s total length is just shy of a mile.

Why It’s Innovative: The most noticeable attribute of the bridge is how its two levels of traffic cross one another as they pass through the pylon. A series of 144 steel cables were used to support the structure. Brazil spared no expense on this masterpiece; Philips was contracted to develop an energy-efficient system of LED lights that showers the bridge in changing colors and patterns, which the company says consumes 53 percent less energy compared to lighting on other bridges.

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$200,000 Worth of Beer Destroyed

A quick, easy way to find out whether or not you're an alcoholic is if you cried at this.

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What Rich People Eat

This is an actual receipt from Nello's in New York City. The customer was Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who had no problem dropping 47k on food and drinks for himself and five other people.



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20 Most Hilarious (Yet Unfortunate) Company Names On Earth

Every business, they say, needs a catchy name – but some people evidently can’t tell the differance between ‘catchy’ and ‘ridiculous’. Would you have your haircut at Assman the barber or get a quote from Mammoth Erection scaffolders? Read on for some of the most unfortunately named companies on earth… [via businesspundit]

20. Mammoth Erection scaffolders

Finding a decent scaffolder can sometimes be hard. But if you phone up Mammoth Erection scaffolding asking for some long, firm poles, don’t be surprised if they hang up on you. And don’t be surprised if your bank manager raises his eyebrows when your payment clears at the end of the month.

19. Boring Business Systems

This might be passed off as one of those lame corporate jokes, if only the company wasn’t actually so mind-numbingly generic. ‘…mission statement… blah…innovative solutions…blah…’. Only call your company ‘Boring’ if you plan on using the skull and crossbones as your logo and having fireaters and topless dancers in the office.

18. Doggy Style Designs

Absolutely nothing to do with Snoop Doggy Dogg’s soft porn emporium of the same name (we think). This dog outfitter undoubtedly thinks they’re being very funny and clever with this one – but I doubt if the little old lady down the road will be clothing her mangy cur with them.

17. S&M Amusements

Politicians and high court judges have been enjoying the illicit amusments of S&M for decades. But they might get a shock when, expecting Miss Whiplash, they are instead given a quote for coin-operated arcade machines.

16. Boxwell Brothers Funeral Directors

When you choose to use a particular company, it’s nice to know they’re good at what they do – but the name Boxwell for a funeral services goes way past reassurance, beyond a sick joke and into the realms of the horrifyingly morbid. People want to be gloriously entombed, not boxed up and put in storage.

15. The Black Cock Bar, Italy

You’d think an Italian bar that was bothered enough to use an English name would also be bothered enough to check what that name meant. After all, calling your bar ‘The Black Cock’ as an exercise in marketing might severely limit your target audience – unless, of course, you’re that kind of bar.

14. Curl Up & Dye

Yet another hairdressers who have hit upon the life-changing discovery of the dye/die pun – what a pity it’s not really helpful in the context of getting your hair cut. ‘See Paris & Dye’: maybe as a tourist novelty… ‘Curl Up & Dye’: no thanks, I just want a haircut…

13. Bimbo Bakeries

Another name that would be great if only it made sense. Bimbo could base themselves entirely around a range of novelty baked products for, or by, idiots – the dipsy doghnut, airhead loaf or clueless tart perhaps. As it is they don’t produce these products and their name is just dumb.

12. Pee Pee Gas

The sign for Pee Pee Gas sits gloriously alongside another for Pee Pee Creek in Piketon, Ohio, providing endless fun for schoolboys and the immature everywhere. Unsurprisingly, for a company with such obviously limited marketing power, they don’t have a website.

11. Cowboys’ Meat Market

More Brokeback Mountain then Nantucket, this organic butcher shop in Massachusetts manages to make itself sound disturbingly like either an open air wild-west brothel, or a gay bar for cowboys. Maybe we’ve just got dirty minds…

10. Pizza Orgasmica

We’ve all heard the horror stories about unscrupulous male employees at McDonald’s putting a little something extra in your mikshake (yes, we do mean semen) – but openly putting ‘orgasmica’ in the name of your fast food company is surely business suicide. Mayonnaise anyone…?

9. Menlove Dental Practice

You might think twice next time you’re due a quick check-up if your dentist is called this – everyday dentists’ sayings such as ‘open wide’ and ‘it’s just a little prick’ might take on a disturbing subtext.

8. Kum & Go

Does this ever stop being funny? We thought Kum & Go was what women think all men do. Nope. The two gentleman who created these highway stores cunningly combined the first letters of their surnames – evidently they were so pleased with themselves, they didn’t notice until it was too late. Woops.

7. Kidsexchange

Why, oh why, write Kids Exchange as one word? Has nobody noticed it looks more like Kid Sex Change or Kid Sex Exchange? Surely advertising this business is a quickfire way to go straight to jail. Exchange your kids for sex? Don’t think so.

6. Cock’s Restaurant, NY

Hard to tell with this one – do they have cocks on the menu, cater to a clientele of cocks or are they simply trying to set up a nude male restaurant to rival to Hooters? Perhaps, they just don’t care.

5. Assman the Barber

It’s hard to feel this name has any merit other than the fact it is the family name – surely you would have changed it by deed poll ages before starting up a barber shop…? In any case, we dread to think what kind of haircuts the delightfully named Assman specialises in. Or what it smells like in his shop.

4. Camel Towing

For those of you not familiar with the phrase ‘camel toe’ it is the phenomenon that occurs when a woman’s most delicate area is visible through tight pants (and said to resemble a camel toe) – popularised by the film, The Weatherman. The reality of Camel Towing, a breakdown service in Atlanta, is not quite as raunchy as it first appears. More’s the pity.

3. Dirty Dick’s Crab House

Wrong on so many levels. We can state with a high degree of certainty that we will never be ordering any food from ‘Dirty Dick’s Crab House’ for fear their secret ingredient is male member complete with crabs. If you don’t believe us check out the cartoon of ‘Dirty Dick’ – does he look like the kind of man who might have crabs to you? Exactly

2. Kuntz Insurance Group

You’d assume that no respectable man or woman would ever purchase insurance from a bunch of Kuntz? Perhaps part of being respectable is being able to look past these things…

1. Fuk Mi Sushi Bar

If ever there was a case of lost in translation, this is it. So abominably named, it’s like something out of the Simpsons – the employees of this firm must have a hell of a laugh every day with classics like ‘ask me where the best sushi bar is and I’ll just say Fuk Mi’, or answering the phone ‘Fuk Mi, how can I help?’. Or alternatively, a little piece of them might die every time they hear these same lame jokes.

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First-time mom plans to give birth live on the internet

Lynsee, a 23-year-old teacher in Minneapolis, is expecting her first child any day now. And she's decided to share the whole experience, from the first labor pain to that final awesome push, with the internet. [via boston]

Like many mommy bloggers have before, she’s been documenting every detail of her first pregnancy; unlike any of them, she’s been sharing the highs and lows with more than 900 Watch Lynsee Grow! readers at the Twin Cities’ Moms Like Me website, which will broadcast the birth from the hospital as it happens. Only Moms Like Me members will be able to leave comments during the event, though anyone with an internet connection will be able to watch the live feed.

“We wanted to document the pregnancy and create a one-of-a-kind memento for our baby to have forever,” Lynsee told the website's partner KARE-TV 11, which is also following her pregnancy (she requested that I not publish her last name, for privacy reasons). "You'll be at some of the doctor's appointments... You'll be there in the delivery room, tastefully, but you will be there.’’

Fresh off of the Balloon Boy saga, one may wonder whether Lynsee or her 24-year-old husband, Anders, is in it for fame or fortune -- or reality TV. But they're not. Though there are a few corporate sponsors on board and KARE-TV helped throw her a baby shower at the famed Mall of America, all gifts were donated to charity and Lynsee is not being compensated for her participation in the project, according to Twin Cities Moms Like Me site manager Cindy Chapman.

Moms Like Me representatives say that the goal of the project was to get more members to share and interact on the site. Many members are fans of A Baby Story on TLC, Chapman says, and she was hoping to take the concept a step further. "We have the perfect vehicle on the internet with taking the birth live -- something A Baby Story doesn’t do." She sent a private message out to the members of the Twin Cities' site, asking if there were any pregnant women who were interested in participating. Lynsee was one of about 12 who responded. “I emailed her right away and she filled me in on the project,” Lynsee told me. “I talked with my husband and we were excited about it!”

Of course, you can't log off when you're the one in labor. And you certainly can't script a birth. Viewers won’t see any graphic details -- an experienced camera crew will be at the helm, Chapman says, and a team of people will be monitoring the shoot as well as the online chat. Chapman, who will be at the hospital with Lynsee, says that there is a "massive crisis plan" in place.

In October, MomsLikeMe.com asked their members for their thoughts on the couple's decision to share their child's birth with the world. About 60 percent of moms said that they do not want anyone besides their significant other in the delivery room but, in another poll, the same percentage responded that they would be interested in watching a broadcast of a live birth. "You never know when you start projects like this, how they’re going to go,” Chapman says. "The response has been overwhelming, very supportive, very positive for Lynsee."

I’m sure that every parent reading this right now is having a mini-flashback to their first birth experience -- I know I am -- and wondering how they'd cope with having a camera crew in the room. But that’s not how Lynsee, a family and consumer science teacher, sees the project. “It’s so miraculous and special because each birth is different. If I were in a classroom, I would be teaching about childhood development, so I feel that I’m using myself as a textbook to teach others about pregnancy and delivery."

"I will also have all the support from the mom’s on the site while I’m having the baby. Just knowing they are there during labor means a lot to me," she adds. (You can read my entire interview with Lynsee here.)

As the big day approaches -- she’s due Nov. 19 -- Lynsee says she’s not having any second thoughts about broadcasting the labor and delivery live. “No – it’s the final part of the journey,” she says. “It’s the one big moment and the special part and it’s what I’m looking forward to sharing with everyone the most.”

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Robbery Fail: 20 of the World's Worst Robbers Caught on Tape

Some robbers are clearly in the wrong line of business... [via criminaljusticeschools]

Armed robber rule #1: never put down your gun:

Robber ends up giving clerk HIS money:

Least persistent robber ever:

When you rob a security camera store, expect to get caught on tape...25 times:

What's more disturbing: a 12-year-old robber or the fact that he tried to rob a police station?

If you wear a sack on your head, don't forget the eye holes:

Man fills out job application -- with his real information -- before robbing store:

Quickest attempted robbery ever:

Second-quickest attempted robbery ever:

It's hard to rob a place when no one takes you seriously:

Always remember which door you came in:

Try to steal an ATM, lose a van:

Never attempt a robbery when a cop is sitting behind you:

Awkward:

World's Least Successful Bank Robbers - Watch more Funny Videos

Pull, not push:

Never write your robbery note on the back of a personal check:

Weapon of choice? A tree branch:

Never try to rob a bar full of cops with your finger:

Worst. Robber. Ever.

Probably fake, but I hope it's not:

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25 Awesome Crop Circles

I could do better than this with my Spirograph when I was like, 8 years old. Nice try, Aliens. Tits or GTFO. [via holytaco]

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How junk food diet 'can give you depression'

Eating junk food can make you depressed, doctors have warned. [via dailymail]

Those who regularly eat high-fat foods, processed meals, desserts and sweets are almost 60 per cent more likely to suffer depression than those who choose fruit, vegetables and fish.

Researchers claim their study is the first to investigate the link between overall diet and mental health, rather than the effects of individual foods.

Dr Eric Brunner, one of the researchers from University College London, said: 'There seem to be various aspects of lifestyle such as taking exercise which also matter, but it appears that diet is playing an independent role.'

The study, in the British Journal of Psychiatry, used data on 3,486 male and female civil servants aged around 55.

Each participant completed a questionnaire about their eating habits and a self-report assessment for depression five years later.

The researchers found that those with the highest consumption of processed food were 58 per cent more likely to be depressed five years later than those eating the least amount.

The researchers suggest several reasons for the protective effect of a healthy diet.

They believe that high levels of antioxidants in fruits and vegetables protect against depression, as does the folate found in broccoli, cabbage, spinach, lentils and chickpeas.

Eating more fish may be protective due to high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids, it is claimed.

However, it is possible the effect comes from a 'whole food' diet that has many nutrients from different types of food rather than one single nutrient.

Dr Brunner, a reader in epidemiology at UCL, said the reverse was also important, that poor eating habits put more of a strain on the body.

He said: 'If your diet is high in foods that make blood sugar levels go up and down like a yo-yo, then it's not good for your blood vessels and is bound to have an effect on the brain.'

Dr Andrew McCulloch, chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation, said: 'We are particularly concerned about those who cannot access fresh produce easily or live in areas where there are a high number of fast food restaurants and takeaways.'

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8 Things Disney Parks Have Banned

Disneyland may be the Happiest Place on Earth, but don’t think that means you can just waltz in and do whatever you want. In fact, Mickey Mouse’s theme parks have banned quite a few things over the years. Here are just a few of the things on which the Mouse has dropped his hammer. [via mentalfloss]

1. Long Hair

Until the late 1960s, men could either have flowing locks or enjoy Adventureland, but they definitely couldn’t do both. According to Snopes, if a long-haired fellow tried to buy a ticket, a cast member would discreetly and politely inform the man that his hairdo didn’t jive with the park’s unwritten dress code before escorting him from the park.

2. Facial Hair

It’s tough to find a picture of Walt Disney without a mustache, but for decades it was even tougher to find a Disney employee who had a ‘stache of his own. Starting in 1957, workers at Disney parks were not allowed to have long hair, grow beards, or wear mustaches. (The underlying logic was that park patrons wouldn’t want to buy a $9 soda from some filthy bearded hippie or mustachioed Snidely Whiplash type.)

In 2000, Disney was having trouble drumming up enough manpower to staff its parks, so it relaxed the facial hair ban. Employees were finally allowed to grow mustaches, provided they kept them trimmed and groomed. Beards didn’t fare so well, though; they stayed on the forbidden list.

3. Blake Lively

How could anyone not like the cute-as-a-button star of Gossip Girl? Disneyland apparently wasn’t always amused with Lively’s pre-fame antics. According to Lively, when she was six, she and her older brother used the old put-hairspray-on-a-friend’s-readmission-hand-stamp-to-transfer-the-stamp-to-their-own-skin trick. It would have been the perfect crime, except security nabbed the Lively kids right as they went through the park’s turnstiles and slapped the pair with a one-year ban.

4. Florida State Football Recruits

In June 2007, four Florida State football recruits met up for a little bit of fun. Instead of engaging in any of the myriad nefarious acts a group of 18-year-old males are known to favor, the players decided to go to Disney World, which seemed like the very last place in the world they could get into any trouble. Wrong. Park officials approached the men, all of whom were African-American, while they hung out in Downtown Disney and ejected them from the park for violating its anti-loitering rules. Security also hit the players with a lifetime ban from the park in a move that many Disney critics claimed smacked of racial profiling.

5. Costumes

You may want to dress up like Jack Sparrow for a day of riding Pirates of the Caribbean, but if you’re older than nine, forget it. Disney bans any costumes and masks on anyone who’s ten or older. Also listed on Disney’s park dress code: “Makeup that could be construed as part of a costume.” So go easy on the eye shadow—the fashion police might decide you’re shooting for a 19th-century harlot look and give you the heave-ho.

Similarly, the dress code bans “clothing that accentuates or draws attention to private areas,” a well meaning, if oddly phrased, choice. Here’s hoping Disney starts handing out unisex burlap smocks at the park gates to avoid any potentially accentuated private areas. [Image courtesy of reader Christopher Schwarz.]

6. Gallows

In early 2008, upstart English punk band Gallows was all set to open for Social Distortion at a gig at the House of Blues at Disneyland. The bill seemed like a good way to get exposure for a band that was starting to catch on stateside—or it did until Disney officials actually stopped to listen to Gallows’ debut record, Orchestra of Wolves. Once Disney brass heard Gallows’ tunes, they nixed the show due to the band’s occasionally offensive lyrical content.

While it seems odd to get upset at a punk band for being abrasive, Disney’s move wasn’t unprecedented. Just a few months earlier, the company had banned the metal band Machine Head from performing at the House of Blues for similar reasons.

7. Kids

Kids banned by Disney? You bet. In January 2008, Disney announced that children under the age of 10 would no longer be allowed to dine at Victoria & Albert’s, the ritziest restaurant at Disney World’s Grand Floridian Spa and Resort. The move made news, but Disney officials claimed that the AAA five-diamond-rated restaurant didn’t attract that many children in the first place. In addition to being pricey, Victoria & Albert’s only offered a fixed-price menu with kid-unfriendly offerings like caviar, so the restaurant only catered to a handful of young diners each year.

8. Segways

GOB Bluth is going to be in quite a bind if he ever tries to ride his Segway into Disneyland. The company bans Segways from its parks, ostensibly because it’s tough to balance safety issues with the potential for having a fleet of two-wheeled vehicles rolling around the grounds.

The trouble here, though, is that a lot of disabled people use Segways in lieu of wheelchairs. These folks were understandably peeved that they couldn’t visit the parks using their preferred mode of transportation, and several of them filed lawsuits. So far it’s been tough for the Segway riders to get Disney to budge; earlier this fall, a federal judge threw out a class action lawsuit brought against Disney by Segway devotees. The ruling left an opening for further legal action, though, so this court battle may not be over yet.

Readers have brought up two other things that might not be welcome in Disney parks: Nikita Khrushchev and bubble gum. Alvin has added those stories…

Nikita Khrushchev?

Disneyland as a battleground for the Cold War? Believe it or not, that’s exactly what it became in 1959. That year, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev spent 11 days visiting the United States. He spent one day of the trip in Los Angeles, and the fierce orator wanted to see Disneyland. However, the LAPD and the rest of Khrushchev’s security detail were worried about his safety during such a trip, so they nixed the idea.

Khrushchev accepted the news with characteristic poise, which is to say he exploded. He ranted, “And I say, I would very much like to go and see Disneyland. But then, we cannot guarantee your security, they say. Then what must I do? Commit suicide? What is it? Is there an epidemic of cholera there or something? Or have gangsters taken hold of the place that can destroy me?”

Gum?

Want to chomp on some gum while you’re standing in line at a Disney park? You’ll have to bring it with you from home. In an effort to keep chewed gum from being stuck all over the parks, none of the shops in any Disney theme park sells gum. Supposedly this innovation came from Walt Disney himself, who wanted to make sure that his guests could enjoy their visits without getting gum stuck to their shoes.

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