Learn the right way (and the wrong way) to lace your shoes.
Nut allergies -- a Yuppie invention
Nut allergies -- a Yuppie invention - Los Angeles Times: "Your kid doesn't have an allergy to nuts. Your kid has a parent who needs to feel special. Your kid also spends recess running and screaming, 'No! Stop! Don't rub my head with peanut butter!'
Yes, a tiny number of kids have severe peanut allergies that cause anaphylactic shock, and all their teachers should be warned, handed EpiPens and given a really expensive gift at Christmas. But unless you're a character on 'Heroes,' genes don't mutate fast enough to have caused an 18% increase in childhood food allergies between 1997 and 2007. And genes certainly don't cause 25% of parents to believe that their kids have food allergies, when 4% do. Yuppiedom does."
Yes, a tiny number of kids have severe peanut allergies that cause anaphylactic shock, and all their teachers should be warned, handed EpiPens and given a really expensive gift at Christmas. But unless you're a character on 'Heroes,' genes don't mutate fast enough to have caused an 18% increase in childhood food allergies between 1997 and 2007. And genes certainly don't cause 25% of parents to believe that their kids have food allergies, when 4% do. Yuppiedom does."
Friday, January 9, 2009
The 25 Most Deserving Non-Inductees Of The Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame
The 25 Most Deserving Non-Inductees Of The Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame: "irst off, I'd let everyone in. Why not? Who cares? It's a dumb idea to begin with. You take a counter-cultural movement and you give it a big building and charge people $22 bucks to stare at Jimi Hendrix's guitar and underwear, assuming he wore underwear.
Getting this list down to 25 was ridiculous. If this 'Hall' can find room for Bobby Darin, The Dells, The Eagles, Billy Joel and The Mamas And The Papas, surely they can find a cubbyhole for the folks listed below. And if not, they need to rethink their spatial priorities, pronto."
Getting this list down to 25 was ridiculous. If this 'Hall' can find room for Bobby Darin, The Dells, The Eagles, Billy Joel and The Mamas And The Papas, surely they can find a cubbyhole for the folks listed below. And if not, they need to rethink their spatial priorities, pronto."
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A: "If you’re a gamer and haven’t heard of this famous button sequence, you likely fall into one of two categories: one, you’ve got a problem with lying, or two, you’ve got some sort of amnesia going on… and you might want to get that checked out. Or maybe you’re just really good at Contra."
Eccentric Man Killed by His Own Garbage Maze
Eccentric Man Killed by His Own Garbage Maze: "You'd think that if a man turned his house into an intricate labyrinth of garbage tunnels, he would have either A. memorized said maze or B. made a map. Unfortunately, Gordon Stewart, 74, apparently failed to do either of these things. He got lost in the burrows and didn't make it out of his home alive.Neighbors called the police when they hadn't seen Mr. Stewart leave his Broughton, England, house for several days. But before the cops could go in to search, they had to call in a specialized diving team, whose breathing apparatus would shield them from the powerful funk of at least 10 years' worth of accumulated riffraff fashioned into a human Habitrail. This was obviously a home in need of a feminine touch. Or a mop. Or a bulldozer."
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
6 Year Old Boy Missed the School Bus, Took Mom’s Car Instead
6 Year Old Boy Missed the School Bus, Took Mom’s Car Instead: "Who says that video games aren’t educational? Here’s the story of one 6-year-old Virginia boy who took the family’s sedan because he missed the school bus:The boy, whose name wasn’t released, missed the bus, took the keys to his family’s 2005 Ford Taurus and drove nearly six miles toward school while his mother was asleep, police said.
He made at least two 90-degree turns, passed several cars and ran off the rural two-lane road several times before hitting an embankment and utility pole about a mile and a half from school."
Autism test would deprive the world of geniuses
Autism test would deprive the world of geniuses: "A new book on the greatest British physicist since Newton speculates that both his profound mathematical abilites and his extreme social awkwardness stemmed from undiagnosed autism.
The claims – from a biography of Paul Dirac by Graham Farmelo, The Strangest Man – tie in with an article on the BBC website from leading autism researcher Prof Simon Baron-Cohen. Baron-Cohen says we need a public debate about the prenatal diagnosis of autism. Although such a test is not yet available, it soon could be."
20 Biggest Photoshop Disasters of 2008
20 Biggest Photoshop Disasters of 2008: "Out of all the disasters that happened this year, these are the ones we can laugh about, everybody makes mistakes but this photoshop disasters are made by people who make a lot of dollars and are not really suppose to make these kinds of mistakes, and that's why it's so fun to see them. Check them out yourself and double check you next image for any disasters."
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Giant killers: No. 7 Texas latest Arkansas victim
Giant killers: No. 7 Texas latest Arkansas victim: "Michael Washington scored 22 points, including a driving dunk with 22.5 seconds remaining, to help Arkansas upset another top 10 team with a 67-61 victory over No. 7 Texas on Tuesday night."
Where The Locals Eat
Where The Locals Eat: "At Where The Locals Eat, we get indigestion just thinking about relying on public opinion polls-they capture Olive Garden devotees and deep-fried-cheese addicts-to identify the best restaurants in the city. We love democracy as much as the next guy, but not when it comes to the serious business of determining culinary chops. We'll leave that kind of user-generated approach to others-the little book with the maroon cover comes to mind-who excel at this technique."
Also an iPhone App
Top 50 movie special effects shots
Top 50 movie special effects shots: "This is not a list of 'iconic' SFX shots, such as the opening shot in Star Wars or the final shot in Back To The Future, etc. There are many fantastic SFX shots in cinema history that are artistically 'awesome' without qualifying here. For the purposes of this list, a shot has to be either a) exceptionally convincing, b) ground-breaking or c) an exemplary execution of an oft-used technique. Only one shot is allowed per film."
Grow Your Own Bananas or Peanuts
Grow Your Own Bananas or Peanuts: "Save Money--Grow Your Own!
It's easier than you think! Watch your banana plant rocket to heights of six feet within its first year! Or count down the days until you dig up your first delectable peanut harvest!
Each set includes everything needed to grow, including seeds, planting mixture and instructions."
Top 10 Signs Of Evolution In Modern Man
Top 10 Signs Of Evolution In Modern Man: "Through history, as natural selection played its part in the development of modern man, many of the useful functions and parts of the human body become unnecessary. What is most fascinating is that many of these parts of the body still remain in some form so we can see the progress of evolution. This list covers the ten most significant evolutionary changes that have taken place - leaving signs behind them."
Cofield Accepted Into Alcohol Education Program
Cofield Accepted Into Alcohol Education Program: "In a proceeding that took less than 15 minutes, a judge who police say was drunk when she drove into a parked state police cruiser -- and who allegedly made racist remarks after the collision -- was accepted into an alcohol education program today in Superior Court in Manchester.Judge E. Curtissa Cofield, 60, sideswiped the patrol car in a Route 2 construction zone in Glastonbury Oct. 9 and was charged with driving under the influence and failure to drive in the proper lane. The state police initially said no one was injured, although the trooper's lawyer recently told the court the trooper had suffered some sort of arm injury.
Still, Judge William Bright Jr., opted to allow her to participate in the program, which, if successfully completed, could lead to the erasure of the charges against her in a year. Her next court date is Dec. 11, 2009."
Police: Ohio baby sitter shot, wounded by angry 4-year-old
Police: Ohio baby sitter shot, wounded by angry 4-year-old: "Police say an angry 4-year-old Ohio boy grabbed a gun from a closet and shot his baby sitter.
Eighteen-year-old Nathan Beavers was hospitalized Sunday with minor wounds to his arm and side after the shotgun attack. Police say another teen was also injured.
Witnesses told police the child was angry because Beavers accidentally stepped on his foot. Beavers was watching the child at a mobile home in Jackson with several other teenagers and several other children.
Jackson County Sheriff John Shashteen says authorities are investigating. The child has not been charged."
Eighteen-year-old Nathan Beavers was hospitalized Sunday with minor wounds to his arm and side after the shotgun attack. Police say another teen was also injured.
Witnesses told police the child was angry because Beavers accidentally stepped on his foot. Beavers was watching the child at a mobile home in Jackson with several other teenagers and several other children.
Jackson County Sheriff John Shashteen says authorities are investigating. The child has not been charged."
Transform your photos into tilt-shift miniatures
Transform your photos into tilt-shift miniatures: "Tilt-shift miniature style photos are pictures of real-life scenes that are manipulated to look like model photographs.
Now you can easily transform your existing digital camera photos into tilt-shift miniatures using tiltshiftmaker.com."
The day the music died - QRS has ended production of player-piano rolls
The day the music died : "The halt in production comes 108 years after the company was founded in Chicago, and 42 years since it moved to Buffalo. Rolls used in player pianos reached their peak in popularity in the early 20th century, when a roll of paper was able to reproduce music through perforations signifying notes played on the piano.
The company is now a leading manufacturer of digitized and computerized player-piano technology that runs on CDs.
“The roll market has continued to decline, which is no surprise,” said Bob Berkman, the company’s music director and manager of the Buffalo office. “It no longer is, nor has it been for some time, the central part of our business."
Pink Iguana That Darwin Missed Holds Evolutionary Surprise
Pink Iguana That Darwin Missed Holds Evolutionary Surprise : "Biologists report that a rare type of pink iguana found on a single volcano in the Galapagos Islands is a genetically-distinct species from its green cousins — and that it's probably critically endangered.
'This form, which we recognize as a good species, is very important because it carries substantial evolutionary legacy,' the authors of a new paper in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences wrote. 'Thus far the rosada form is the only evidence of deep diversification along the Galapagos land iguana lineage.'
Charles Darwin visited the Galapagos islands in 1835 but didn't make it to the northernmost volcano, Volcan Wolf, which is the lone habitat for these pink lizards. Later travelers and scholars also seem to have missed or failed to report the curiously striped creature until 1986 when some Galapagos National Park rangers spotted the animals. Still, no scientists had looked into whether they represented a distinct species until now."
British couple has 'black-and-white twins' twice
British couple has 'black-and-white twins' twice: "A mixed-race British couple has defied the odds — twice — by producing two sets of twins in which one sibling appears to be black and the other white. Dean Durrant's newborn daughter Miya has dark skin like him. Twin sister Leah has fair skin like her blue-eyed, red-haired mother, Alison Spooner.
Their older siblings Lauren and Hayleigh, born in 2001, also have strikingly different skin tones and eye colors.
'There's no easy way to explain it all. I'm still in shock myself,' Durrant, 33, told Sky News on Wednesday.
Both sets of twins are fraternal rather than identical, meaning they are the product of two separately fertilized eggs, so it is not unusual that they don't look alike. Miya's skin color was more influenced by her father's genes, while Leah takes after her mother.
But scientists say it's rare for a couple to have two sets of twins, end even rarer for them to have such different appearances."
Their older siblings Lauren and Hayleigh, born in 2001, also have strikingly different skin tones and eye colors.
'There's no easy way to explain it all. I'm still in shock myself,' Durrant, 33, told Sky News on Wednesday.
Both sets of twins are fraternal rather than identical, meaning they are the product of two separately fertilized eggs, so it is not unusual that they don't look alike. Miya's skin color was more influenced by her father's genes, while Leah takes after her mother.
But scientists say it's rare for a couple to have two sets of twins, end even rarer for them to have such different appearances."
House Sitter Random Light Timer
House Sitter Random Light Timer: "Having a state of the art alarm system is ideal, however, not everyone can have that. Be it due to finances or just that you’re renting instead of in a home that you own yourself. This gadget isn’t necessarily to make you feel at ease while you’re asleep at night, but more to protect your things when you’re away. While you’re out on vacation, you can set up this light timer to make it appear as if someone is still within the house."
List of common misconceptions
List of common misconceptions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "This list of common misconceptions details various ideas described as widely held by the general populace, but which are fallacious or flawed."
Scientists: True love can last a lifetime
Scientists: True love can last a lifetime: "Take heart, scientists have discovered that people can have a love that lasts a lifetime.
Using brain scans, researchers at Stony Brook University in New York have discovered a small number of couples respond with as much passion after 20 years together as most people only do during the early throes of romance, Britain's Sunday Times newspaper reported.
The researchers scanned the brains of couples together for 20 years and compared them with results from new lovers, the Sunday Times said."
Scientists dismiss 'detox myth'
Scientists dismiss 'detox myth': "There is no evidence that products widely promoted to help the body 'detox' work, scientists warn.The charitable trust Sense About Science reviewed 15 products, from bottled water to face scrub, and found many detox claims were 'meaningless'.
Anyone worried about the after-effects of Christmas overindulgence would get the same benefits from eating healthily and getting plenty of sleep, they said."
Sprinkler Key Hider
Sprinkler Key Hider:: "Putting an extra key under the mat is old hat. Leave the key for family or friends without worry by hiding in our fake sprinkler head. The sprinkler hide a key sits inconspicuously in lawn or garden and easily opened when needed. Durable, commercial grade black PVC plastic."
Detroit lawyer gets 5-cent IRS bill, 4-cent refund
Detroit lawyer gets 5-cent IRS bill, 4-cent refund: "James Howarth is a little confused by two letters he has received from the Internal Revenue Service.
The Detroit defense lawyer received one letter in November that said he owed the IRS money -- five cents.
He was warned that he should pay 'to avoid additional penalty and/or interest,' the Detroit Free Press reported Saturday.
Howarth says he then received a second letter telling him the government owes him money -- four cents.
He was told he would have to request the refund since it's less than $1.
'When I owe them a nickel, I must pay them. It's not optional,' he said. 'But when they owe me, I have to ask for it.'"
The Detroit defense lawyer received one letter in November that said he owed the IRS money -- five cents.
He was warned that he should pay 'to avoid additional penalty and/or interest,' the Detroit Free Press reported Saturday.
Howarth says he then received a second letter telling him the government owes him money -- four cents.
He was told he would have to request the refund since it's less than $1.
'When I owe them a nickel, I must pay them. It's not optional,' he said. 'But when they owe me, I have to ask for it.'"
Kermit Bale
What do Christian Bale and Kermit the Frog have in common? More than you might realize...
Kermit Bale
Kermit Bale
Conn. man's last lotto ticket wins $10M for widow
Conn. man's last lotto ticket wins $10M for widow - Yahoo! News: "On the day that Donald Peters died, he unknowingly provided financial security for his wife of 59 years and their family.
Peters bought two Connecticut Lottery tickets at a local 7-Eleven store on Nov. 1 as part of a 20-year tradition he shared with his wife Charlotte. Later that day, the 79-year-old retired hat factory worker suffered a fatal heart attack while working in his yard in Danbury.
On Friday, his widow cashed in one of the tickets: a $10 million winner which, in her grief over her husband's death, she had put aside and almost discarded before recently checking the numbers."
Peters bought two Connecticut Lottery tickets at a local 7-Eleven store on Nov. 1 as part of a 20-year tradition he shared with his wife Charlotte. Later that day, the 79-year-old retired hat factory worker suffered a fatal heart attack while working in his yard in Danbury.
On Friday, his widow cashed in one of the tickets: a $10 million winner which, in her grief over her husband's death, she had put aside and almost discarded before recently checking the numbers."
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