Friday, April 3, 2009
Biz Stone on Colbert
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
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Twitter To Google? Too Soon
Twitter To Google? Too Soon: "Google (GOOG) is in negotiations to buy messaging startup Twitter, San Francisco's hot startup du jour, according to TechCrunch's Michael Arrington. One of Arrington's sources says the deal is in 'late stage' negotiations, while another says the deal is in 'fairly early stages' and that the companies are also just talking about working together on a 'Google real time search engine.'
There is a price for everything. But unless Google is offering a fortune -- in cash -- it's too early for Twitter to sell itself."
There is a price for everything. But unless Google is offering a fortune -- in cash -- it's too early for Twitter to sell itself."
A Few Fun Facts About The Manatee CC Win Over The Pirates
A Few Fun Facts About The Manatee CC Win Over The Pirates : "First of all, they're calling it The Miracle On Grass; that's how big Manatee Junior College's 6-4 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates has become around Florida's Tampa-St. Pete area.
Another thing that may have gotten lost in the shouting over the Pirates' admittedly embarrassing defeat to the Lancers; the Pirates big leaguers were playing the Reds in Sarasota at the time. Manatee was opposed by Triple-A players for the first four innings, and then a Double-A squad thereafter. Still ..."
Tropicana Line's Sales Plunge 20% Post-Rebranding
Tropicana Line's Sales Plunge 20% Post-Rebranding - Advertising Age - News: "Tropicana's rebranding debacle did more than create a customer-relations fiasco. It hit the brand in the wallet.
The new Tropicana Pure Premium packaging (right) had been on the market less than two months before the company scrapped the redesign.
After its package redesign, sales of the Tropicana Pure Premium line plummeted 20% between Jan. 1 and Feb. 22, costing the brand tens of millions of dollars. On Feb. 23, the company announced it would bow to consumer demand and scrap the new packaging, designed by Peter Arnell. It had been on the market less than two months."
11 Extinct Animals That Have Been Photographed Alive
11 Extinct Animals That Have Been Photographed Alive : EcoWorldly: "The current rate of extinction is 100 to 1000 times higher than the average, or background rate, making our current period the 6th major mass extinction in the planet’s history.Although fossil reconstructions or pictorial representations can sometimes be difficult to connect with, it’s impossible to ignore the experience of seeing a photograph of an animal on the brink of extinction.
Thus, what follows is a list of 11 extinct animals that were photographed while still alive."
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Extremely Rare Dolphins Found by the Thousands
Extremely Rare Dolphins Found by the Thousands
Previously it was assumed there only tiny populations numbering in the low 100s, and the species could go extinct almost at any moment. In 2008 the Irawaddy was listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
The recent scientific discovery has breathed both relief and optimism into the prospects for the species. World Conservation researcher Brian Smith said this of the reversal of fortune: “This discovery gives us great hope that there is a future for Irrawaddy dolphins. Bangladesh clearly serves as an important sanctuary for Irrawaddy dolphins, and conservation in this region should be a top priority.” Researchers also noted that even with the very unexpected and most welcome news of the much larger population’s existence, the dolphins still remain threatened by a variety of factors such as fishing net accidents, climate change, and pollution of their habitats.
Top 10 Ugliest Shoes Of The Past 20 Years
Top 10 Ugliest Shoes Of The Past 20 Years: "All the shoe buzz this week is around the upcoming release of the Kanye West designed Air Yeezys (above). Their retail price is $215, but they’ll likely sell out in a hurry, which means you’ll have to pay at least double on ebay. When asked about these shoes, 17/17 humans surveyed in an official YepYep poll agreed that Kanye should stick to writing robot songs and leave shoe design to the experts. So now that we’re talking hideous, let’s look into other kicks-related eyesores. Below are the Top 10 Ugliest Kicks Of The Past 20 Years."
The new shoes that grow with children's feet
The new shoes that grow with children's feet... but will any kids actually wear them? | Mail Online: "It's an expensive exercise keeping children in shoes, as any parent would attest.
All too often, the little darlings are bursting out of their new ones before the soles have been scuffed.
But one inventor claims to have found the solution - shoes that grow with the feet."
100 Most Often Misspelled Words in English
100 Most Often Misspelled Words in English: "Here are the 100 words most often misspelled ('misspell' is one of them). Each word has a mnemonic pill with it and, if you swallow it, it will help you to remember how to spell the word. Master the orthography of the words on this page and reduce the time you spend searching dictionaries by 50%."
Freaky and Weird Froggies
Freaky and Weird Froggies: Will You Keep Them as Pets?: "Some species of frogs are edible and some are not. As a matter of fact, there are so many species of poisonous frogs. Some frogs are colorful and look pretty and some are ugly. Other frogs are scary and others look freak. With the unusual physical appearance of frogs on the list below you would rather keep them as pets rather than eat them. Here are the freakiest and weirdest leaping creatures on the planet."
1967 Dodge Viper
What The Viper Would Look Like In 1967 | Dodgepedia.org: "If Austin Powers drove a Dodge Viper, what would it look like? Rafael Reston combined the look (and curves) of classic Dodge Challengers and Chevy Corvettes to give us an interpretation of a 1967 Dodge Viper."
Why I Never Let Employees Negotiate a Raise
Why I Never Let Employees Negotiate a Raise- Inc.: "What would happen if you got to work one day, went into the kitchen, and saw a list of your employees' salaries taped to the fridge? Would you freak out? Would you expect to find half of your staff weeping and the other half waiting with pitchforks outside your office door?
Because salary information is viewed as particularly sensitive, employers often go to great lengths to keep it under wraps. Some companies even make it a fireable offense for employees to compare salaries, or they write something into the standard employment contract prohibiting workers from disclosing their pay. (In the United States, this kind of rule is unenforceable, by the way, but some bosses hope their workers won't know that.) The trouble with keeping salaries a secret is that it's usually used as a way to avoid paying people fairly. And that's not good for employees -- or the company."
Because salary information is viewed as particularly sensitive, employers often go to great lengths to keep it under wraps. Some companies even make it a fireable offense for employees to compare salaries, or they write something into the standard employment contract prohibiting workers from disclosing their pay. (In the United States, this kind of rule is unenforceable, by the way, but some bosses hope their workers won't know that.) The trouble with keeping salaries a secret is that it's usually used as a way to avoid paying people fairly. And that's not good for employees -- or the company."
70 Outstanding Out of Bounds Photos
70 Outstanding Out of Bounds Photos | Inspiration: "Out of bounds (OOB) photos are post processed photos where the contents are taken outside the boundaries, presented in creative 3-dimensional perspective. OOB photos can be achieve with some basic photo editing skills. Getting an interesting OOB photo depend largely on the photo angle and individual creativity. Here we present - 70 Outstanding Out of Bounds"
How do ants know when another ant is dead?
'Hey I'm Dead!' The Story Of The Very Lively Ant: "Here's a question — not one that's on everybody's lips, granted — but a question nonetheless: How do ants know when another ant is dead? E.O. Wilson, now the most celebrated, most eminent ant scholar in the world, wanted to know."
New math formula might predict tsunamis
New math formula might predict tsunamis - UPI.com: "British mathematicians say they've created a formula that can be used to predict tsunamis and how destructive the tsunamis might become.
Scientists at Newcastle University, led by Professor Robin Johnson, studied the 2004 tsunami that devastated coastal communities in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand when an ocean earthquake triggered a long surface wave that resulted in six massive consecutive wave fronts."
Scientists at Newcastle University, led by Professor Robin Johnson, studied the 2004 tsunami that devastated coastal communities in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand when an ocean earthquake triggered a long surface wave that resulted in six massive consecutive wave fronts."
Top 10 Ancient Inventions You Think Are Modern
Top 10 Ancient Inventions You Think Are Modern - Listverse: "The industrial revolutions and the years following them produced some of the greatest inventions known to man - and certainly the most complex. Because this has been a part of our history for so long now we tend to presume that much of our modern conveniences have come from then. What is surprising is how many of the things that we use every day have been in use by humans for thousands of years. This list of ten things all predate the birth of Christ and they are all things that we are familiar with if not regular users of."
10 Misconceptions About Common Sayings
10 Misconceptions About Common Sayings - Listverse: "It is no secret that I love language and all things related it to. Also, being a bit of a pedant, I love to share titbits of information about words, phrases, and language in general. Therefore, I have put together a list of misconceptions (one of my favorite types of list) about common sayings. Some involve spelling errors, while others involve conception or comprehension errors. Be sure to tell us your favorite (and by that I mean most hated) common errors in the comments."
Near-death experiences: Heaven can wait
Near-death experiences: Heaven can wait: "Tunnels, bright lights, visions of the deceased. Do near-death experiences really offer a glimpse of the afterlife – or is there a more rational explanation? Roger Dobson reports"But there's no consensus on what lies behind near-death experiences, even though they are being increasingly reported. Are they, as some people are convinced, signs of the soul leaving the body? Or are they, as others suggest, the last, dreamlike act put on by a dying brain?
Ultimate Assassins Weapon Ice Mold
Ultimate Assassins Weapon Ice Mold: "Now you'll have an assassin's weapon - a glistening dagger - made out of frozen water. Think about it: it will melt by the body heat of the person you 'introduce' to it and since the human body is approx. 60 percent water anyways, no one will notice a little more. We recommend using the most generic, store-brand water from the largest food store chain near your home - harder to trace back to your tap that way."
Squeez Bacon
Squeez Bacon: "A few years after WWII ended, a young man working in a small restaurant in Sweden developed a new way to process bacon. By precooking it and blending it in a special way, he was able to make a fully cooked 100% bacon paste that could be squeezed from a tube. Knowing he had discovered something paradigm-shifting, young Vilhelm Lilleflsk quickly went into business. That, dear friends, is when Squeez Bacon was born. And this delicious delectable from Sweden has finally been brought over to the USA - now with American Flavor!"
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Away We Go - Movie Trailer
Away We Go: "Directed by Academy Award winner Sam Mendes (“American Beauty”) from an original screenplay by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, this funny and heartfelt film follows the journey of an expectant couple (John Krasinski [“The Office’] and Maya Rudolph [“Saturday Night Live’]), as they travel the U.S. in search of the perfect place to put down roots and raise their family. Along the way, they have misadventures and find fresh connections with an assortment of relatives and old friends who just might help them discover “home” on their own terms for the first time. The movie features the music of Alexi Murdoch."
10 Literary one-hit wonders
10 Literary one-hit wonders - Times Online: "Luke Leitch looks at those authors for whom one novel proved quite enough"
11 Baffling Medical Conditions
11 Baffling Medical Conditions - ABC News: "They are conditions that one would be hard-pressed to find in medical literature.
Bring them up in front of a physician and in some cases you may get little more than a blank stare.
But they exist, often as an extreme form of a normal bodily function that most people experience every day."
13 Creepiest Characters from Television Shows
13 Creepiest Characters from Television Shows: "Television characters are as diverse as television show premises. But what always makes for good television is a good old-fashioned creepy character. This can either be a character accidentally, or purposefully made to unease viewers. In any case they are the characters for which lines are recited, and impressions are burned into our frontal lobes. Below is a list of the thirteen most prominent creepy characters in Television:"
Dogs (not chimps) most like humans
Dogs (not chimps) most like humans - Discovery.com: "Chimpanzees share many of our genes, but dogs have lived with us for so long and undergone so much domestication that they are now serving as a model for understanding human social behavior, according to a new paper.
Cooperation, attachment to people, understanding human verbal and non-verbal communications, and the ability to imitate are just a handful of the social behaviors we share with dogs. They might even think like us at times too, according to the paper, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Advances in the Study of Behavior.
While there is no evidence to support that dogs and humans co-evolved their laundry list of shared behaviors over the past 10,000 to 20,000 years, the researchers believe adapting to the same living conditions during this period may have resulted in the similarities."
PETA’s Pet Slaughterhouse
PETA’s Pet Slaughterhouse: "If animals are people and fish are kittens, then the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are genocidal tyrants. Once in PETA’s death clutch, few animals escape.
In Virginia, PETA takes the notion of killing with kindness literally: only seven animals found a home out of the 2,216 it cared for in 2008. Seven animals managed a reprieve; the rest were loved to death. From the blog PETA Kills Animals:
PETA’s “Animal Record” report for 2008, filed with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, shows that the animal rights group killed 95 percent of the dogs and cats in its care last year. During all of 2008, PETA found adoptive homes for just seven pets."
In Virginia, PETA takes the notion of killing with kindness literally: only seven animals found a home out of the 2,216 it cared for in 2008. Seven animals managed a reprieve; the rest were loved to death. From the blog PETA Kills Animals:
PETA’s “Animal Record” report for 2008, filed with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, shows that the animal rights group killed 95 percent of the dogs and cats in its care last year. During all of 2008, PETA found adoptive homes for just seven pets."
GeoBulb LED light bulb uses just eight watts, rings up at $120
GeoBulb LED light bulb uses just eight watts, rings up at $120: "Ah, progress. Right around two years ago, we spotted a LED-filled light bulb that used 'just' nine watts and cost a staggering $65. Now, we've got yet another option that sucks down even less power and costs nearly twice as much. C. Crane Company has been working on its so-called GeoBulb for a solid three years now, but at long last the device is shipping to affluent homeowners and headstrong Earth lovers. The bulb can provide as much light as a traditional 60W incandescent with just 7.5W, and it features a 30,000 hour (10 years) lifespan with typical usage. Now, the hard part: choosing between cool, soft and warm white."
Monday, March 30, 2009
Woman trades rare coins for groceries
Woman trades rare coins for groceries: "The woman told the bank teller she just needed money to pay for the groceries she had waiting at a local store.Then she traded a small fortune in rare gold coins for a couple hundred bucks, launching a quest to reunite the coins with their rightful owner.
Zions Bank and Washington County law enforcement now are trying to solve a mystery that began March 16 when an unknown woman walked into a local Zions Bank branch in the St. George area and handed over 14 rare $20 gold Double Eagle coins in exchange for $280.
Just based on the price of the gold in the coins, each one is worth 50 times that — or more. The oldest of the coins was minted in 1875 and the most recent was 1927."
"How does a gas pump know when my tank is full?"
"How does a gas pump know when my tank is full?": "This mechanism has been around for a long time, so it is safe to say there is not a miniature camera inside the nozzle hooked to a microprocessor. It's purely mechanical -- and ingenious."
10 Excruciating Medical Treatments from the Middle Ages
10 Excruciating Medical Treatments from the Middle Ages - Oddee.com: "Surgery in the Middle Ages was crude and blunt and … PAINFUL! Surgeons had a very poor understanding of human anatomy, anesthetics and antiseptic techniques to keep wounds and incisions from infection. It was not a pleasant time to be a patient, but if you valued your life, there was no choice. To relieve the pain, you submitted to more pain, and with any luck, you might get better. Surgeons in the early part of the Middle Ages were often monks because they had access to the best medical literature – often written by Arab scholars. But in 1215, the Pope said monks had to stop practicing surgery, so they instructed peasants to perform various forms of surgery. Farmers, who had little experience other than castrating animals, came into demand to perform anything from removing painful tooth abscesses to performing eye cataract surgery."
Top 50 Craft Brewers in America
Top 50 Craft Brewers in America | Sloshspot Blog: "The popularity of craft beers stateside has grown tremendously over the past few years, giving rise to some great new breweries all around the nation. The definition of a craft brewer, according to the Brewers Association, is as follows,
An American craft brewer is small, independent, and traditional."
Monopoly Killer: Perfect German Board Game Redefines Genre
Monopoly Killer: Perfect German Board Game Redefines Genre: "In 1991, Klaus Teuber was well on his way to becoming one of the planet's hottest board game designers. Teuber (pronounced 'TOY-burr'), a dental technician living with his wife and three kids in a white row house in Rossdorf, Germany, had created a game a few years earlier called Barbarossa and the Riddlemaster, a sort of ur-Cranium in which players mold figures out of modeling clay while their opponents try to guess what the sculptures represent. The game was a hit, and in 1988 it won the Spiel des Jahres prize—German board gaming's highest honor."
Scott Brown on Stand-Up Comedy, Lingua Franca of the Wired World
Scott Brown on Stand-Up Comedy, Lingua Franca of the Wired World: "We've heard a lot about how Google is making us dumber and more distracted and lazier. We've heard less about how it's making us—maybe even forcing us to be—funnier. For today, thanks to the digital hive mind, comedy is colloquy, everything is 'material,' and life is one big writer's room, a massive clusterchuckle of witty one- upsmanship—on blogs, on social-networking sites, in tweets, in funny video shorts, in Lolcats and talkbacks."
Stem cells to grow bigger breasts
Stem cells to grow bigger breasts - Times Online: "A STEM cell therapy offering “natural” breast enlargement is to be made available to British women for the first time.
The treatment could boost cup size while reducing stomach fat. It involves extracting stem cells from spare fat on the stomach or thighs and growing them in a woman’s breasts. An increase of one cup size is likely, with the potential for larger gains as the technique improves.
A trial has already started in Britain to use stem cells to repair the breasts of women who have had cancerous lumps removed. A separate project is understood to be the first in Britain to use the new technique on healthy women seeking breast enlargement."
The treatment could boost cup size while reducing stomach fat. It involves extracting stem cells from spare fat on the stomach or thighs and growing them in a woman’s breasts. An increase of one cup size is likely, with the potential for larger gains as the technique improves.
A trial has already started in Britain to use stem cells to repair the breasts of women who have had cancerous lumps removed. A separate project is understood to be the first in Britain to use the new technique on healthy women seeking breast enlargement."
California schools' risks rise as vaccinations drop
California schools' risks rise as vaccinations drop: "The rise in unvaccinated children appears to be driven by affluent parents choosing not to immunize. Many do so because they fear the shots could trigger autism, a concern widely discredited in medical research.
But with autism rates rising, some parents find that fear more worrisome than the chance that their child could contract diseases that, while now very rare in this country, can still be deadly.
Last year, a 7-year-old boy triggered a measles outbreak in San Diego after he returned, infected, from a family trip to Switzerland. His parents had chosen not to vaccinate him or his siblings."
Best Beer Map of America
369 - Best Beer Map of America - Strange Maps: "Despite the quip about American beer being like making love in a canoe, the US produces a multitude and a variety of brews that belie the homogenised tastes of the most popular brands. At its annual Great American Beer Festival, the Brewers Association awards gold, silver and bronze medals to the best beers produced by the hundreds of breweriers in the US, from the largest to the micro-est."
Compiled by veteran drinks journalist (1) Rick Lyke and his son-in-law Mike Wirth (2), this map charts all the gold, silver and bronze presented by the Brewers Association since 1987. “Looking at the pages of medal winners from the past does not give quite as clear a picture as the state map showing where the winners come from,” says Mr Lyke (on this page of his blog, lyke2drink). “Clearly, beer fans in California, Colorado, Wisconsin, Oregon and Pennsylvania enjoy some of the best beers in the land.”
25 Businessmen Who Broke The Rules (And Some Laws)
25 Businessmen Who Broke The Rules (And Some Laws): "Fortunes are rarely won by playing it safe. On the contrary, the biggest fortunes have been won by those willing to step outside the box and change the way the game is played. Following are twenty-five business innovators of the past, present, and future whose stories are different in many respects, but all point to the same truth: Ingenuity, improvisation, and daring are more important than following the rules (even though you might find yourself on the wrong side of the law once in a while)."
List of Crayola crayon colors
List of Crayola crayon colors: "Crayola crayons have come in a number of different colors over the years. When Binney & Smith first produced Crayola crayons in 1903, there were just eight colors.[1] By 1949 there were 48 colors. In 1958 the number of colors increased to 64. Eight fluorescent colors were introduced in 1972, increasing the total number of colors to 72. In 1990 the total increased to 80 colors with the introduction of 16 new colors and the discontinuation of eight colors."
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