Saturday, December 4, 2010
Gylne Tider
This very long promo for Norwegian show Gylne Tider (Golden Times) features a bunch of people I haven't thought of in a while, green-screened onto a Santa Monica beach background, covering The Beatles' "Let It Be." It made me feel simultaneously amused, perplexed, and old.
A three-day holiday detox
This simple vegetarian plan will help you recover from too much celebrating.
Also: Tax credits for home upgrades
Some improvements can save on energy costs and lower your IRS liability — but you need to act fast.
Also: Ways you're wasting money
Changing your oil every 3,000 miles or leaving ceiling fans on can needlessly waste money.
Also: Student's debt: $200,000
Kelli Space borrowed $200,000 to earn a bachelor's degree — a move she now regrets.
Also: Odds and Sods
Mike and Terri Karsten really like good bread. In fact, they like bread so well they built a wood-fired brick oven in their backyard just to bake really good bread.
Alaska had its Bridge to Nowhere. It's starting to look as though Minnesota and Wisconsin might be planning the bridge to never.
After the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals received an anonymous complaint about the New York Police Departmenta s method of trapping mice, they contacted the police commissioner over the mouse emergency.
Alaska had its Bridge to Nowhere. It's starting to look as though Minnesota and Wisconsin might be planning the bridge to never.
After the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals received an anonymous complaint about the New York Police Departmenta s method of trapping mice, they contacted the police commissioner over the mouse emergency.
Nazi Scientists Proposed Creating a Giant Space Mirror to Burn Enemy Nations
An issue of Life magazine published on July 23, 1945 includes an article about a secret weapon proposed by some Nazi scientists toward the end of World War II. It was a huge mirror that, if placed in orbit, would focus sunlight on enemy nations and burn them:
Plausible schemes to build a station in space were engineered on paper long before the war. European rocket enthusiasts, including Dr. Hermann Oberth, who may have been the designer of the V-2, had planned to use the space station not as a weapon but as a refueling point for rockets starting off on journeys into space. … The only major obstacle: constructing a rocket powerful enough to reach a point where a space station could be built. If the modern German scientists had been able to make such a rocket, they might have ben able to set up their sun gun. Whether the sun gun would have accomplished what they expected, however, is another matter.”
The German idea of using the sun as a military weapon is not new. There is an ancient legend that Archimedes designed great burning mirrors which set the Roman fleet afire during the siege of Syracuse, in which Archimedes later died. This legend, and the German plan for building may be proved physically impossible by a simple axiom of optics. This is that light cannot be brought to a sharp, pointed focus with lenses or mirrors unless it comes from a sharp, pointed source. Since the sun appears in the sky as a disk and not as a point, the best any optical system can produce is an image of this disk. At very short focal lengths, the image is small and hot but as the focal length is increased the image becomes progressively bigger and cooler. At the distance the Germans proposed to set up their mirror (3,100 miles) the image of the sun cast on the earth would be about 40 miles in diameter and not hot enough to do any damage.
Is that a mirror or a 2-way glass?
How can you tell when you are in a room, restroom, motel etc. with a mirror or a 2-way glass?Here’s how: I thought it was quite interesting! And I know in about 30 seconds you’re going to do what I did and find the nearest mirror.
Do you know how to determine if a mirror is 2-way or not? A policewoman who travels all over the US and gives seminars and techniques for businesswomen passed this on.
When we visit toilets, bathrooms, hotel rooms changing rooms, etc., how many of you know for sure that the seemingly ordinary mirror hanging on the wall is a real mirror, or actually a 2-way mirror (i.e., they can see you, but you can’t see them)? There have been many cases of people installing 2-way mirrors in female changing rooms. It is very difficult to positively identify the surface by looking at it.
So, how do we determine with any amount of certainty what type of mirror we are looking at?
Just conduct this simple test: Place the tip of your fingernail against the reflective surface and if there is a GAP between your fingernail and the image of the nail, then it is GENUINE mirror. However, if your fingernail DIRECTLY TOUCHES the image of your nail, then BEWARE! IT IS A 2-WAY MIRROR!
“No Space, Leave the Place”. So remember, every time you see a mirror, do the “fingernail test.” It doesn’t cost you anything.
REMEMBER: No Space, Leave the Place.
Man claims new Droid 2 smartphone exploded next to his ear
A Cedar Hill, Texas resident claims that his brand-new Motorola Droid 2 exploded next to his ear, when he was trying to make a call. Aron Embry reported hearing a "popping sound" come from his Droid 2, although he felt no pain at first. He did, however, begin feeling blood dripping onto his neck.
Police say teenager swallowed bag of cocaine
A Framingham teenager fought with officers as they tried to prevent him from swallowing a bag of what appeared to be cocaine, police said.
Art Taylor, 18, swallowed the small bag but was arrested on several other charges after police pulled him over on Union Avenue at, police spokesman Lt. Ron Brandolini said. "He made a quick movement to the centre console, and there was small baggie with a white powder in it," Brandolini said.
"He immediately made a movement to put it in his mouth." An officer tried to stop him, but Taylor kept pushing his arm away. The officers dragged Taylor from the car, and he started fighting with them in the middle of the road. By the time officers handcuffed him, Taylor had swallowed the bag, Brandolini said.
Taylor pleaded not guilty at his Framingham District Court arraignment yesterday and was released without bail. He is due back in court Jan. 6 for a pretrial conference.
Art Taylor, 18, swallowed the small bag but was arrested on several other charges after police pulled him over on Union Avenue at, police spokesman Lt. Ron Brandolini said. "He made a quick movement to the centre console, and there was small baggie with a white powder in it," Brandolini said.
"He immediately made a movement to put it in his mouth." An officer tried to stop him, but Taylor kept pushing his arm away. The officers dragged Taylor from the car, and he started fighting with them in the middle of the road. By the time officers handcuffed him, Taylor had swallowed the bag, Brandolini said.
Taylor pleaded not guilty at his Framingham District Court arraignment yesterday and was released without bail. He is due back in court Jan. 6 for a pretrial conference.
What it's like to be a cocaine submarine captain
A former Columbian narco-sub pilot anonymously recounts his life captaining a homebrewed semi-submersible filled with millions of dollars' worth of cocaine, at gunpoint all the while:
At around 8 p.m., the tide was high and the night sufficiently dark as the ocean water tugged at the submersible. A speedboat pulled the vessel out to sea, where the crew started the engines. They accelerated to 12 knots and set off on a 270-degree course heading west, toward the open ocean. The guard provided by the drug mafia for each transport, armed with a revolver and an assault rifle, stood at the door to the engine room. It was incredibly hot in the submersible, where the engines remove oxygen from the air and enrich it with carbon monoxide, despite ventilation pipes. "You constantly feel like you're suffocating," says Alonso. "Every four hours, we reduced the speed from 12 to six knots. Then we opened the hatch in the front for exactly one minute, let some fresh air in and accelerated again." The four-man team worked in shifts, while Alonso kept monitoring the route. Once they were in the open ocean, the man with the assault rifle gave him a piece of paper showing the target position. Their instructions were to arrive there on a specific day and at a specific time.
Each of the men tried to sleep after his shift, but the stench and the noise on board made this impossible. They had to drink copious amounts of water to make up for the buckets of sweat constantly running off their bodies. Their main source of nourishment was condensed milk, the Peruvian "Leche Gloria" brand. The stench from fecal matter, which couldn't be disposed of during the trip, soon became almost unbearable.
Chillin' the immune system out
Cannabis is a double-edged sword: by dampening the immune system, it provides relief from inflammatory diseases, but this also increase the risk of infections.
Daily Funny
A wife was making a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband.
Suddenly, her husband burst into the kitchen.
'Careful,' he said, 'CAREFUL! Put in some more butter! Oh my gosh! You're cooking too many at once. TOO MANY! Turn them! TURN THEM NOW! We need more butter. Oh my gosh! WHERE are we going to get MORE BUTTER? They're going to STICK! Careful. CAREFUL! I said be CAREFUL! You NEVER listen to me when you're cooking! Never! Turn them! Hurry up! Are you CRAZY? Have you LOST your mind? Don't forget to salt them. You know you always forget to salt them. Use the! salt. USE THE SALT! THE SALT!'
His wife stared at him.
'What in the world is wrong with you? You think I don't know how to fry a couple of eggs?'
The husband calmly replied, 'I just wanted to show you what it feels like when I'm driving.'
Suddenly, her husband burst into the kitchen.
'Careful,' he said, 'CAREFUL! Put in some more butter! Oh my gosh! You're cooking too many at once. TOO MANY! Turn them! TURN THEM NOW! We need more butter. Oh my gosh! WHERE are we going to get MORE BUTTER? They're going to STICK! Careful. CAREFUL! I said be CAREFUL! You NEVER listen to me when you're cooking! Never! Turn them! Hurry up! Are you CRAZY? Have you LOST your mind? Don't forget to salt them. You know you always forget to salt them. Use the! salt. USE THE SALT! THE SALT!'
His wife stared at him.
'What in the world is wrong with you? You think I don't know how to fry a couple of eggs?'
The husband calmly replied, 'I just wanted to show you what it feels like when I'm driving.'
Female driver's secret weapon
A housewife turned daredevil says she has an important skill her male competitors don't.
Also: Runner's incredible finish
Holland Reynolds had more than a state title in mind when she forced herself to finish a grueling race.
Also: 
Group Rope Jumping
This seems to be the newest craze in Russia: Group Rope Jumping. A group of people tied together, daring fate, jumping from a bridge on a frozen river.
Calcio Fiorentino
A Bruising, Anarchic And Exhilarating Spectacle Of Sport
Calcio Fiorentino. Does that ring any bells in terms of sports? It's almost certainly not one you played at school but it has weathered the centuries well and is still played in its home town of Florence, Italy.
It has been played since the sixteenth century. The game - Calcio for short - must be the original extreme sport. And boy, oh boy, is it extreme.
Unusual Sportswomen Of The Past
At the turn of the last century women in the western world were finding a voice, both collectively and individually. As the Victorian era lapsed in to memory and the Edwardian Era commenced many women chose to pursue sports. Some women chose to flaunt convention and compete in sports that, even today, are not thought of as traditional women sports.
Some of these vintage pictures from the Edwardian Era (and just beyond) may surprise you. Yet these few representatives are surely testament to a greater percentage of the women of the past who were unafraid to pursue their sporting ambitions in a still male dominated world.
Being a baby photographer ain't easy
Being an animal baby photographer is another whole level of 'not easy'.
Friday, December 3, 2010
The Daily Drift
The Daily Drift
Today's horoscope says:Your quick thinking and keen eye are sharper than ever -- use all your skills to keep someone else from making a very big mistake.
They might not appreciate your efforts right away, but in a few days they'll be singing your praises and thanking you for stepping in when you did.
It's just another example that when you know you're right, you're right!
You'll get a glimpse of the future you thought you wanted -- turns out, you're glad to be taking a different path.
Some of our readers today have been in:
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
Izmir, Izmir, Turkey
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
Seoul, Kyonggi-Do, Korea
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Reutlingen, Baden, Wurttemburg, Germany
Perpignan, Languedoc-Roussillon, France
Prague, Hlavni Mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Delhi, Delhi, India
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Sittard, Limburg, Netherlands
Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Paris, Ile-De-France, France
Perth, Western, Australia, Australia
Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada
Thornhill, Ontario, Canada
as well as Serbia, Bangladesh, Greece, Scotland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Wales, Singapore, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Croatia, Pakistan, Romania, Finland, Korea, Netherlands, Argentina, Vietnam, Egypt, Russia, Indonesia, Puerto Rico, Belgium, Brazil and in cities across the United States such as Kaysville, Durham, Oklahoma City, Salem and more.
Today is:
Today is Friday, December 3, the 337th day of 2010.
There are 28 days left in the year.
Today's unusual holiday or celebration is:
There isn't one.
Don't forget to visit our sister blog!
The brainiest U.S. cities
In a test of smarts, college towns get high marks, with one Western spot at the top.
Also: 
U.S. troops' Taliban reality
In one deadly Afghan city, Americans bargain with the same insurgents they're trying to defeat.
Also: Attack leaves ghost town
Charred homes and empty streets are all that remain on tiny Yeonpyeong after North Korea's attack.
Also: 
On The Job
American workers who go without a job for many months are learning some very painful lessons.
Also: Economy hopes rattled by news
A surprising setback in unemployment numbers adds to jitters about the wobbly economy.
Also: Make more over the holidays
Earn extra cash by filling in for people on vacation and working at seasonal parties.
Also: How to avoid a tax penalty
Take one easy action in December, and you could owe less to the IRS in April.
Also: Money-saving mortgage tips
By making an extra payment each year, you can save thousands of dollars.
Also: Ten money-saving products
A water filter costs as little as $60 per year, versus $504 a year for bottled.
Also: 
Best places to go in 2011
Doha, Qatar, has beautiful beaches and hosts a prestigious film festival.
Also: Luxury camp-like family retreat
Kate Ditzler and Stuart Gasner spent millions to create the perfect getaway.
Also: 
World gets new hottest pepper
A new breed that's 270 times hotter than a jalapeno blows away the notorious "ghost chili."
Also: 
Scientific Minds Want To Know
Absolute zero sounds like an unbreachable limit, but there is a weird realm of negative temperatures that could reveal new states of matter.Chimps display morality
Primates display a startling ability to share — and care, one biologist claims.
Also: Archaeology News
Archaeologists on Orkney are investigating what is thought to be a 5,000-year-old tomb complex.
Lakebed discovered under sand
An ancient lake bed 350 kilometers long has been discovered beneath the sands of the Egyptian Sahara desert.Coca leaves first chewed 8,000 years ago
Peruvian foraging societies were already chewing coca leaves 8,000 years ago, archaeological evidence has shown.
Great white's weakness revealed
Adolescent great white sharks' jaws are not strong enough to bite through large prey.
Dog found alive in tornado-leveled house
After spending all night in its owner’s home, a dog was safely rescued on Wednesday morning from a home in the Buford neighborhood that was badly-damaged by a tornado on Tuesday. Cameras captured the special moment when Kirin, an American Eskimo, was reunited with his owners. Kirin was found alive and well at the Bancroft Way home where his owners, Matthew and Reasey Lee, live in the Kirkstone subdivision. The Gwinnett County neighborhood was hit hard Tuesday when severe weather rolled through the area, and spawned a tornado.on
Matthew Lee said that authorities searched his home on Tuesday night, but they told him they didn’t find Kirin inside. So, he and his wife decided to return on Wednesday morning to have another look. Video captured on Wednesday morning showed the happy reunion. Gwinnett County workers helped the couple search through what was left of their bedroom.
“Early this morning, we went to what was left of the bedroom, and heard him start whimpering,” Matthew explained. “And those nice gentlemen helped me, I guess, lift the wall, and out he came.” Kirin, who is about 8 years old according to the Lees, appeared to be very happy to see his owners, and the feeling was clearly mutual. “A house is a house,” said Matthew Lee. “Kirin can’t be replaced,” his wife added.
A total of 56 homes were damaged by Tuesday’s twister, and residents were forced to seek shelter elsewhere. Matthew Lee said their house appeared to have been damaged worse than any other home in the neighborhood. Still somehow, the Lees were nothing but grateful on Wednesday morning. “It’s a blessing that I have my husband and I have my dog,” Reasey said, who was clearly emotional upon seeing her dog again. “We’re all still here. Everything else can be taken care of.”
Matthew Lee said that authorities searched his home on Tuesday night, but they told him they didn’t find Kirin inside. So, he and his wife decided to return on Wednesday morning to have another look. Video captured on Wednesday morning showed the happy reunion. Gwinnett County workers helped the couple search through what was left of their bedroom.
“Early this morning, we went to what was left of the bedroom, and heard him start whimpering,” Matthew explained. “And those nice gentlemen helped me, I guess, lift the wall, and out he came.” Kirin, who is about 8 years old according to the Lees, appeared to be very happy to see his owners, and the feeling was clearly mutual. “A house is a house,” said Matthew Lee. “Kirin can’t be replaced,” his wife added.
A total of 56 homes were damaged by Tuesday’s twister, and residents were forced to seek shelter elsewhere. Matthew Lee said their house appeared to have been damaged worse than any other home in the neighborhood. Still somehow, the Lees were nothing but grateful on Wednesday morning. “It’s a blessing that I have my husband and I have my dog,” Reasey said, who was clearly emotional upon seeing her dog again. “We’re all still here. Everything else can be taken care of.”
Blind mare led everywhere by one-eyed horse
They say you can lead a horse to water … but this blind mare is being led everywhere by a one-eyed companion who has become her protector. Angel, a 12-year-old rescue horse, has formed a remarkable bond with Tarna, who shadows her everywhere and gently guides her away from danger. The pair have become inseparable since meeting at The Horse Trust animal sanctuary in Buckinghamshire.
Angel is fully reliant on Tarna because she lost her sight when she was starved to within an inch of her life at Spindles Farm, Bucks. The case sparked the largest ever RSPCA equine welfare operation and led farmer James Gray, 47, to be fined £600,000 and banned from keeping horses for life. Angel is now shadowed every second of the day by Tarna, 28, who herself has only one eye after she was impaled on a metal spike.
Susan Lewis, marketing manager at The Horse Trust, the world’s oldest horse sanctuary, described the unlikely friendship as ”remarkable”. She said: ”How Tarna knows Angel is blind we’ll never know. She literally shadows Angel everywhere and they go. Between the two of them they have just the one eye – it’s incredible. Maybe Tarna, because she has one eye, realized Angel was blind. We don’t know. Wherever they go Tarna is there with her good left eye looking out for both of them.
”The two have developed a firm friendship and are now inseparable – Tarna will dig her feet in or cry out if a groom tries to separate the two. Tarna is very protective of blind Angel, leading her to food, defending her from other horses and acting as a physical shield from obstacles. Once when we separated them so Angel could have her sight tested Tarna was pawing at the door and they were crying out to each other. It was quite distressing. It’s incredible to think where they’ve both come from and now, together, there is no reason why they can’t live a happy life.”
Angel is fully reliant on Tarna because she lost her sight when she was starved to within an inch of her life at Spindles Farm, Bucks. The case sparked the largest ever RSPCA equine welfare operation and led farmer James Gray, 47, to be fined £600,000 and banned from keeping horses for life. Angel is now shadowed every second of the day by Tarna, 28, who herself has only one eye after she was impaled on a metal spike.
Susan Lewis, marketing manager at The Horse Trust, the world’s oldest horse sanctuary, described the unlikely friendship as ”remarkable”. She said: ”How Tarna knows Angel is blind we’ll never know. She literally shadows Angel everywhere and they go. Between the two of them they have just the one eye – it’s incredible. Maybe Tarna, because she has one eye, realized Angel was blind. We don’t know. Wherever they go Tarna is there with her good left eye looking out for both of them.
”The two have developed a firm friendship and are now inseparable – Tarna will dig her feet in or cry out if a groom tries to separate the two. Tarna is very protective of blind Angel, leading her to food, defending her from other horses and acting as a physical shield from obstacles. Once when we separated them so Angel could have her sight tested Tarna was pawing at the door and they were crying out to each other. It was quite distressing. It’s incredible to think where they’ve both come from and now, together, there is no reason why they can’t live a happy life.”
Panda dung Venus de Milo sells for £30,000
A 24-inch high replica of the Venus de Milo, sculpted from giant panda dung, has sold for £30,000 to a prominent Swiss art collector. Zhu Cheng, a Chinese sculptor, created the statue with the help of nine 11 year-old art students in the central Chinese city of Chengdu, the home of a giant panda breeding center.
It has already been purchased by Uli Sigg, a Swiss businessman who owns the world's largest collection of contemporary Chinese art, for 300,000 yuan (£30,000). Mr Sigg, who was formerly the Swiss ambassador to China, said that he thought the statue was "full of creativity and innovation".
"We made the statue in October," said Mr Zhu. "We took a clay mold of the statue and then pasted panda dung onto it using vegetable glue," he added. "I have been thinking about using panda dung in my work for years. After all, pandas are China's national treasure, so anything relating to them is interesting.
"It was quite hard to get hold of the dung, however. The first time I applied they declined, and I had to write a letter explaining what I was going to do with it." The statue is currently on display at a charity exhibition at the Zhengzhou Art Museum in Henan province, where it has drawn large crowds.
It has already been purchased by Uli Sigg, a Swiss businessman who owns the world's largest collection of contemporary Chinese art, for 300,000 yuan (£30,000). Mr Sigg, who was formerly the Swiss ambassador to China, said that he thought the statue was "full of creativity and innovation".
"We made the statue in October," said Mr Zhu. "We took a clay mold of the statue and then pasted panda dung onto it using vegetable glue," he added. "I have been thinking about using panda dung in my work for years. After all, pandas are China's national treasure, so anything relating to them is interesting.
"It was quite hard to get hold of the dung, however. The first time I applied they declined, and I had to write a letter explaining what I was going to do with it." The statue is currently on display at a charity exhibition at the Zhengzhou Art Museum in Henan province, where it has drawn large crowds.
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