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88 Brilliant Examples of Forced Perspective Photography

2010-08-28T01:15:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: 88 Brilliant Examples of Forced
Perspective Photography via instantShift by Daniel Adams on 8/24/10

Forced perspective is a technique that employs optical illusion to make
an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it
actually is. It is used primarily in photography, filmmaking and
architecture. It manipulates human visual perception through the use of
scaled objects and the correlation between them and the vantage point
of the spectator or camera.

There are many ways to attack photography and some are much more
expensive than others. Here in this showcase, we presenting a Stunning
collection of Forced Perspective Photography and Pictures taken by
various artists in which all pictures are linked to the author’s pages.
You may want to explore further works of the photographers we’ve
featured below.

When it comes to inspiration then there is no limitation on resources.
Photography is one of the key sources of inspiration for some of our
past work. Here we talking about photography of Specific form named as
“Forced Perspective Photography” which I find usually amaze me. If you
know how to shoot a photo then you can also change something fairly
simple to something creative or abstract or otherwise more artistic.
You don’t need any special skills for taking such shots. It all depends
on the environment and perfect timing.

You may be interested in the following photography inspiration related
articles as well.

- 88 Brilliant Examples of Bokeh Photography
- 99 Brilliant Examples of Infrared Photography
- 100+ Examples of Brilliant Tilt-Shift Photography
- 88 Examples of Incredible Aerial Photography
- 100+ Beautiful Examples of Black and White Photography
- Enjoy Moments Of Reflective Photography – Part I, Part II
- Motion and Blur Photography for Inspiration – Part I, Part II
Please feel free to join us and you are always welcome to share your
thoughts even if you have more reference links related to photography
inspiration that our readers may like.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS-feed and follow us on Twitter —
for recent updates.

Brilliant Examples of Forced Perspective Photography

Photography can serve as a nice source of inspiration. We designers,
can derive inspiration from almost everything around, and this
collection can fulfills your Forced Perspective Photography Inspiration
related needs as the creativity in shooting photos is somewhat hot
trend now days. We can promise you that when you start browsing them
farther in details it will surely refresh your memory.

Further Resources!
- Forced Perspective | Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The Forced Perspective Flickr Pool
- Forced Perspective Flickr Pool Find Something Missing?
While compiling this list, it’s always a possibility that we missed
some other great photography work. Feel free to share it with us.

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Tiny Seattle Apartment

2010-08-27T10:31:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: Tiny Seattle Apartment via Tiny
House Blog by Kent Griswold on 8/24/10

Chelsea brought this article and this fantastic little apartment to my
attention. I am guilty of not covering apartments very often but I love
the use of space in this one and you must see it.

The article written by The Seattle Times Rebecca Teagarden is titled
“Tiny apartment shows the value of a good fit” and talks about Steve
Sauer’s 182-square-foot Seattle condo which shows the value of a good
fit, from the soaking tub built into the entry floor to the “video
lounge” tucked beneath the “cafe area.” Sauer shopped Ikea for many of
his home’s furnishings, such as a little table, and used tabletops to
fashion cabinet fronts.

Photos by Benjamin Benschneider of the Seattle Times

Steve Sauer watches television in the video lounge, which has seating
for two. The horizontal band around the condo, accenting the
powder-blue walls, is coated with blackboard paint.

Saurer’s says, “What I really wanted was one place with exactly what I
needed and wanted. Quality is more important than quantity for me, and
extra space only a problem,” he has written, describing his nearby
too-big-for-him, one-bedroom condo.

Sauer relaxes in the cafe area of his 182-square-foot condo. "I was
worried as I filled in all the upper spaces that it would feel cramped,
but it didn't," he says. The window is at street level. The little
table is Ikea. It has a glass top that swivels open, providing storage.

“I wanted to compress my home to squirt me back out to the community,”
he says, taking inspiration from dwellings in Scandinavia and Japan,
places where space is dear. “That was one of the philosophical reasons.
I want to be able to shop daily, not store a lot and eat really well.”

Sauer checks his messages at the dining table, which includes a leaf to
expand for company. The undercounter refrigerator is Frigidaire, from
Lowe's.

When Sauer couldn’t find the things he needed, he designed them and
built them: The stainless-steel shower caddy, towel bar. For other
pieces, “Ikea came through again.” Lighting, cabinet pulls, and butcher
block for shelves, the table top and cabinet fronts. The rich flooring,
Brazilian walnut, was installed by Matt Messenger. A bureau from West
Elm fit to 1/8 of an inch, and so it was ordered.

Sauer designed the tiny condo for two. Just inside the door is the
bathroom to the left, and a soaking tub inserted into the floor and
covered with a 3form Chroma panel.

“My dream is to put 300 of these in a building and not have it be a
tenement.”

Read the Seattle Times article here.

One bike is tethered to the ceiling for storage. Steam heat comes from
the building's system. The ventilation chimney runs across Sauer's
ceiling, and was easy to pipe into. "It was passing through here
anyway."

The bathroom wall is covered in 1-inch tiles from Tiles for Less. Light
filters into the room through a 3form Chroma panel, shared with the
kitchen. The ceiling is tempered glass meant for a table top from Ikea.
The toilet is Philippe Stark for Duravit. Sauer designed and
manufactured the stainless-steel shower caddy and towel bar.

The video lounge is tucked beneath the cafe area and next to the dining
table. "All along the way this project's had good chi, so that's good,"
Sauer says. The bureau is from West Elm. "It fit to within 1/8 inch. It
was a nice find. I didn't want to build another piece of furniture."
The floor is Brazilian walnut.

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the game

2010-08-27T05:21:00.001-07:00

emilya92

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part 2
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part 3

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part4

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a torpedo

2010-08-27T04:27:00.001-07:00

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Piracy is bad-a report

2010-08-27T01:28:00.000-07:00

As a software developer myself, I know how hard it is to see your product being ripped off. We have recently reported on how even $2 iPhone games or iPad games are not immune despite their low cost and closed platforms. Their developers have reported piracy rates as high as and respectively.
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Mac developer Dmitry Chestnykh of recently came across a crack on The Pirate Bay for his journal keeping application and decided to use different tactics. Out of curiosity, he downloaded the crack to see how it worked, and he did not like what he found one bit, ... but it's not for the reasons you might think.

Reproduced below is a portion of the official complaint he has filed with the Pirate Bay, under the heading of "Notice of Ridiculous Activity" (keep in mind English isn't Dmitry's first language).

It has come to my attention that the torrent located at [URL] is ridiculous.

Not only it requires installing APE plugin, and generating keyfiles using some scary tool, it contains an [expletive] *WINDOWS* program to verify the validity of this release. The "How-to" section in the description is just incomprehensible, and won't be understood by anyone other than the writer of this description.

Clearly, the "cracker" Minamoto did a lazy job and don't know how to crack software. It's an [expletive] SINGLE BOOLEAN SWITCH that validates the licence, it doesn't require any Application Enhancer tricks or whatever.

I demand that you don't remove this torrent, so that people can laugh at Minamoto and CORE skills. However, I also demand the better crack to be made, so that it doesn't cripple the user experience of my beautiful program.

Dmitry: for your vigorous defense of Quality, TUAW salutes you.

a news on sport

2010-08-25T06:55:00.000-07:00

On the surface, Johnny Damon chose the Detroit Tigers over the Boston Red Sox. But underneath it all, he actually made a different choice. He understands that all things Boston lead back to New York, and, in a way, this site.
He could not feign forgiveness. For the Red Sox front office, these negotiations may never have been personal, but for Damon they were. Despite his carefree persona, he held tight to a grudge, and while Red Sox fans were preparing to let go, he was not. Now, those fans will scorn him all over again, as if he were an outfielder in his prime headed to the Yankees, instead of a designated hitter in his twilight sticking with the Tigers.
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Damon claimed that the decision to stay away from Boston was as difficult as the one to leave. In both instances, the Yankees were involved, though this time in a more tangential way. When the Tigers traveled to Yankee Stadium just last week, Damon was given a standing ovation, and he wondered how he would be treated if he were in a Red Sox uniform instead.Although Damon is beloved by his peers, who could not care less that he once left the Red Sox for a richer contract with the Yankees, he still seems concerned with how he is viewed by fans. He could not bear to jeopardize his relationship with a second major following.
By picking Tigers over Red Sox, Damon chose Yankees over Red Sox. If his allegiance were not clear five years ago, it is today.
Ergo, Johnny is ours. Does everyone agree?

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Sports

6:28 AM

ESPN.com

Jim Furyk misses pro-am tee time, disqualified from The Barclays

- Jim Furyk was late for his pro-am time in The Barclays meaning he has been disqualified from the first of four FedEx Cup playoff events.

6:23 AM

Deadspin

And The Mariotti Mug Shot Photoshops Have Begun [Wake Up Deadspin]

- Because no one reads the newspaper, and SportsCenter's anchors are too perky for this early in the morning, Deadspin combs the best of the bro...

5:49 AM

ESPN.com

Tiger Woods' ex-wife Elin Nordegren says she never hit him

- Tiger Woods' ex-wife Elin Nordegren said she has "been through hell" since her husband's infidelity surfaced but she never hit him, according to an interview released Wednesday.

5:31 AM

BBC Sport | Sport Homepage | World Edition

Balotelli to miss Man City Europa tie

- Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli will miss their Europa League second leg tie at home to FC Timisoara because of a knee problem.

5:31 AM

BBC Sport | Sport Homepage | World Edition

Montgomerie frets over Ryder team

- European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie says finalising his team on Sunday will be an almost impossible task given the quality of players available to him.

5:06 AM

ESPN.com

Giants crush Reds for second straight game

- Pablo Sandoval homered and drove in four runs, Buster Posey hit a three-run homer, and the San Francisco Giants routed the Cincinnati Reds for the second straight game with a 16-5 victory Tuesday n...

Hiv possible to be cured?

2010-08-24T10:40:00.000-07:00

Loyola University researchers have identified the key components of a protein called TRIM5a that destroys HIV in rhesus monkeys.
The finding could lead to new TRIM5a-based treatments that would knock out HIV in humans, said senior researcher Edward M. Campbell, PhD, of Loyola University Health System.
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Campbell and colleagues report their findings in an article featured on the cover of the Sept. 15, 2010 issue of the journal Virology, now available online.
In 2004, other researchers reported that TRIM5a protects rhesus monkeys from HIV. The TRIM5a protein first latches on to a HIV virus, then other TRIM5a proteins gang up and destroy the virus.
Humans also have TRIM5a, but while the human version of TRIM5a protects against some viruses, it does not protect against HIV.
Researchers hope to turn TRIM5a into an effective therapeutic agent. But first they need to identify the components in TRIM5a that enable the protein to destroy viruses. “Scientists have been trying to develop antiviral therapies for only about 75 years,” Campbell said. “Evolution has been playing this game for millions of years, and it has identified a point of intervention that we still know very little about.”
TRIM5a consists of nearly 500 amino acid subunits. Loyola researchers have identified six 6 individual amino acids, located in a previously little-studied region of the TRIM5a protein, that are critical in the ability of the protein to inhibit viral infection. When these amino acids were altered in human cells, TRIM5a lost its ability to block HIV-1 infection. (The research was done on cell cultures; no rhesus monkeys were used in the study.)
By continuing to narrow their search, researchers hope to identify an amino acid, or combination of amino acids, that enable TRIM5a to destroy HIV. Once these critical amino acids are identified, it might be possible to genetically engineer TRIM5a to make it more effective in humans. Moreover, a better understanding of the underlying mechanism of action might enable the development of drugs that mimic TRIM5a action, Campbell said.
In their research, scientists used Loyola’s wide-field “deconvolution” microscope to observe how the amino acids they identified altered the behavior of TRIM5a. They attached fluorescent proteins to TRIM5a to, in effect, make it glow. In current studies, researchers are fluorescently labeling individual HIV viruses and measuring the microscopic interactions between HIV and TRIM5a.

this is one crazy report

2010-08-23T11:12:00.000-07:00

“I actually think most people don’t want Google to answer their questions. They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next. […] The thing that makes newspapers so fundamentally fascinating—that serendipity—can be calculated now. We can actually produce it electronically.”

Nick Carr, quoting the above,

I hope Google will also be able to tell me the best candidate to vote for in elections. I find that such a burden.

But Carr doesn’t even mention the oddest part of the WSJ interview:
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[Schmidt] predicts, apparently seriously, that every young person one day will be entitled automatically to change his or her name on reaching adulthood in order to disown youthful hijinks stored on their friends’ social media sites.

I’ve been thinking about this since Saturday. Here’s my theory: the problem with Google is that Eric Schmidt is creepy. I think he’s a really weird dude. Recall, for example, this comment of Schmidt’s from 2009, regarding Google and privacy: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”
The industry is filled with eccentric CEOs — billionaires who, say, wear a wardrobe that consists of nothing but identical black shirts and Levi’s 501 jeans, or , including swords, at their home. But Schmidt doesn’t seem eccentric (or at least not merely so). He seems creepy.
, regarding a talk Schmidt gave in March in Abu Dhabi:

In one of the sharper exchanges of the afternoon, a questioner challenged Schmidt with the fact that Google is collecting a staggering amount of information about who we are, what we’re thinking, and even where we are. “All this information that you have about us: where does it go? Who has access to that?” (Google servers and Google employees, under careful rules, Schmidt said.) “Does that scare everyone in this room?” The questioner asked, to applause. “Would you prefer someone else?” Schmidt shot back – to laughter and even greater applause. “Is there a government that you would prefer to be in charge of this?”

That’s a glib answer, but at least our government answers to its citizens through elections. Schmidt answers to Google shareholders. And who’s to say the government won’t have access, by way of subpoenas, to the information Google — and any other cloud service providers — store about us? Maybe the question isn’t who should hold this information, but rather should anyone hold this information.
More and more, I get the feeling that if there’s a rift between the old “Don’t be evil” Google and the new “Let’s do whatever we want” Google, that it’s a rift between Schmidt and Larry/Sergey — if not personally, then at least culturally within the company. On the one side, the Larry/Sergey Google that makes amazing cool things — the search engine, Gmail, Android. On the other, the Schmidt Google that, in its efforts to serve ads as efficiently as possible, no longer seems concerned with the traditional Western concept of personal privacy.
A lot of people seem surprised by Google’s alliance with Verizon on mobile network neutrality. That stance doesn’t fit with my view of the Larry/Sergey Google. But it fits my idea of the Schmidt Google like a glove.

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Aug 21, 2010

Super Punch

Clever clothing tag

- Clever clothing tag gives washing instructions and suggests you give it to your mother.

this is forum,what the best?

2010-08-22T10:53:00.000-07:00

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jack lalanne juicer

these are my latest forum joinings

2010-08-21T06:00:00.001-07:00

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Portal on the booklist

2010-08-21T03:33:00.000-07:00

This year, for the first time, a video game will appear on the syllabus of a course required for all students at Wabash College, where I teach. For me - and for a traditional liberal arts college founded in 1832 - this is a big deal.
Alongside Gilgamesh, Aristotle's Politics, John Donne's poetry, Shakespeare's Hamlet, and the Tao Te Ching, freshmen at Wabash will also encounter a video game called Portal. If you're curious to know how it happened, read on.
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Last spring Wabash faculty approved a new all-college course and charged a small committee to design it over the following summer and fall semester. I was elected to the committee as a representative of the Humanities.
We titled the new course "Enduring Questions," and we agreed on this description:

Enduring Questions is a required freshman seminar offered during the spring semester. It is devoted to engaging students with fundamental questions of humanity from multiple perspectives and fostering a sense of community. Each section of the course includes a small group (approximately 15) of students who consider together classic and contemporary works from multiple disciplines. In so doing, students confront what it means to be human and how we understand ourselves, our relationships, and our world.
The daily activity of the course most often involves discussion, and students complete multiple writing assignments for the course. As such, assessment of student performance emphasizes written and oral expression of ideas.
Students may not withdraw from the course. All students must pass the course to graduate from Wabash.

Our charge from the faculty made it clear that we should apply a broad definition to "readings," and I believe my special purpose on the committee was to help identify films, music, art, and other 'non-textual' sources to challenge our students to think hard about the questions raised in the course.
And so, as you might expect, a little light went off in my head. What about a game? Why not? Which one? Will they bite on this? Who knows? Let's try.
My very first thought was Portal. Accessible, smart, cross-platform, relatively short, full of big ideas worth exploring. I played it again to be sure my impressions still held. No problem there. If anything, I admire the game more now than when it first appeared. A beautiful design.
I recalled reading Daniel Johnson's recent essay on the game and its strong connections to Erving Goffman's seminal Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. One of the central questions of our new course, "Who am I?" is the focus of Goffman's study. He contends we strive to control how we're perceived by others, and he uses the metaphor of an actor performing on a stage to illustrate his ideas. Johnson describes it this way:

…we're acting out a role that requires constant management…of the interaction. The front stage is the grounds of the performance. The backstage is a place we rarely ever want to reveal to others, it contains the truth of our obstruction and to reveal it would be to defraud our identity in front of the audience - it simply spoils the illusion of where we're placing ourself in the interaction.

This tension between backstage machination and onstage performance is precisely what Portal depicts so perfectly - and, no small detail, so interactively. Goffman would have found a perfect test subject in GLaDOS. Bingo! Assign students Goffman's Presentation of Self and follow it up with a collective playthrough of Portal.
I pitched the idea to my colleagues on the committee (decidedly not a collection of gamers), and they agreed to try Portal and read selections from Goffman's book. After plowing through some installation issues ("What does this Steam do? Will it expose me to viruses?"), we enjoyed the first meaningful discussion about a video game I've ever had with a group of colleagues across disciplines. They got it. They made the connections, and they enjoyed the game. Most importantly, they saw how Portal could provoke thoughtful reflection and vigorous conversation on questions germain to the course.
And so we're playing Portal at Wabash College.
Could I have chosen a game to stand by itself, with no accompanying text assignment? Maybe. I thought about Bioshock. I thought about Planescape: Torment. In the end, I chose Portal because I thought it would make a good start. A good first impression. A lead-off hitter, if you will.
Deploying a game for an entire cohort to play at the same time requires more problem-solving than you might expect. We ultimately decided that hardware, installation, and licensing issues were complex enough to dissuade us from teaching Portal in all sections of the course this year; so I and a group of eager colleagues will play the game in our sections to work out the kinks. I don't want our first college-wide experience with a game to be plagued with problems.
I also need time to help acclimate some of my colleagues to "reading" a modern game. They're less resistant than you might think, but they need more than my speechifying. They need sound pedagogy. They need to taste it for themselves. We'll get there. I'll let you know how it goes.

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Aug 20, 2010

Joystiq

Portal 2 will triumph on Feb. 9, 2011

- OK, maybe that's not fair, since we don't necessarily know it will triumph when, according to Game Informer, Portal 2 arrives on February 9 next year. But let's say we think there's a strong poss...

Aug 20, 2010

YouTube

Stinson Beach Bubbles (Canon 550D)

- Bubble-smith Sterling Johnson on Stinson Beach Canon 550D T2i test footage music by incompetech.com stinson beach bubbles canon 550d t2i test footage

Aug 20, 2010

Dictionary.com Word of the Day

vellicate: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

- vellicate: to touch (a body part) lightly so as to excite the surface nerves and cause uneasiness, laughter, or spasmodic movements.

6:09 PM

Destructoid

Man who played Lineage II for 20,000 hours sues creators

- A man who has been playing Lineage II for over 20,000 hours has decided to sue developer NCSoft for getting him addicted to the game. Craig Smallwood of Hawaii claims that the game p...

Aug 20, 2010

The Loop

Steve Jobs was right, Flash fails on Android

- Many people have been giving Adobe the equivalent of “put up or shut up,” when it comes to the debate over Flash on a mobile device. The company shipped mobile Flash on Android and the first result...

Aug 20, 2010

Frank Chimero

What advice would you give to a graphic design student?

- Design does not equal client work. It’s hard to make purple work in a design. The things your teachers tell you in class are not gospel. You will get conflicting information. It means that both a...

Aug 20, 2010

Scientific American

Psychedelic Drugs Show Promise as Anti-Depressants

- Ketamine --a powerful anesthetic for humans and animals that lists hallucinations among its side effects and therefore is often abused under the name Special K--delivers rapid relief to chronicall...

Aug 20, 2010

YouTube

The 200 yard Gong Shot

- Challenge #1: Could David Howell, Paul McGinley, Marcel Siem or Rhys Davies skim a ball 200 yards across a lake and hit a 9 inch gong?

Aug 20, 2010

Pitchfork: Latest News

Weezer Plan Blue LP/Pinkerton Tour

- Photo by Ceilidh Madigan The newly major-label free Weezer have a new album, Hurley (aka the one with the absurd, Lost-referencing album cover), out September 14 via Epitaph. They've got a new sin...

Aug 20, 2010

YouTube

Birthday Celebration Fail

Aug 20, 2010

Motionographer | Motion graphics, design, animation, filmmaking and visual effects

WORDS

- The folks over at Everynone just released a new addition to their series of shorts in collaboration with NPR & WNYC’s Radiolab – an evocative interpretation of communication which explores the ro...

Aug 20, 2010

Phoronix

Gmail Video & Voice Chat Comes To Linux

- For those that enjoy using Gmail for e-mail and chat but have been missing out on the video and voice chat capabilities when using this Google service, there's now official video and voice chat sup...

Aug 20, 2010

YouTube

Dexter Returns (Season 5 Promo)

- Dexter's carefully constructed world has been turned upside down. Will he be able to pick up all the pieces? Dexter returns September 26th.

Aug 20, 2010

BBC News - Home

Students to study muggles and quidditch

- Students at Durham University are offered a course focusing on the fictional world of Harry Potter.

Aug 20, 2010

ArtsJournal: Daily Arts News

Why That Girl in the Bar Looks Hotter After You've Had Five Beers

- "Everyone looks better after you've tipped back a pint or two, and now we may know why. It turns out that alcohol dulls our ability to recognize cockeyed, asymmetrical faces, according to researche...

A Look at Burger King's Latest Whopper Bar in NYC and Their New Pizza Burgers

2010-08-21T01:07:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: A Look at Burger King's Latest
Whopper Bar in NYC and Their New Pizza Burgers via Slice on 8/18/10

From A Hamburger Today

VIEW SLIDESHOW: A Look at Burger King's Latest Whopper Bar in NYC and
Their New Pizza Burgers

After Burger King's successful debut of their modernized
Whopper-centric restaurant concept Whopper Bar last March at Universal
CityWalk in Orlando, they've since opened Whopper Bars in South Beach,
Memphis, Spain, Venezuela, Singapore, and their latest, largest,
two-story flagship location in New York City by Times Square.

Like the other Whopper Bars, the New York City location features
create-your-own Whoppers with over 20 topping choices, a special
Whopper Menu not available at regular Burger Kings, and a more stylish,
roomy environment to eat in. But unlike the other Whopper Bars, there's
this:

The New York Pizza Burger ($12.99), a 9-and-a-half-inch wide burger
made with four Whopper patties topped with pepperoni, mozzarella
cheese, marinara sauce, and Tuscan pesto sauce. It'll be available
exclusively at the New York City Whopper Bar starting in September to
fulfill that longtime desire for a giant burger that sort of tastes
like a pizza.

As Adam is the resident pizza and burger fiend (and just reviewed a
pizza burger, I'll let him review the burger:

I was absolutely starved when Robyn walked into the office with the
Pizza Burger. I hadn't eaten all day. As you know, "Hunger is the best
sauce in the world." So I dove into that thing, nearly knocking down
the gaggle of officemates who had come over to gawk at it. (Yes, it's
looks funny. Like a giant burger wearing a flower costume, each lobe a
petal of beefreakiness.)

Anyway, I housed that thing. But even in my rush to gullet-cram, I was
surprised that it actually managed to convey both burgerness and
pizzaness in a single bite. Of course, when you've got the
assertiveness of that liquid smoke BK flavor mixed with plenty of pizza
shaky spices, it's not too hard to light up the "burger" and "pizza"
areas of the brain at once.

It was interesting as a novelty, which is what BK probably introduced
it for (I mean, look at all the bloggage it's gotten), but I much
prefer the standard Whopper if given a choice among BK menu items.

I can't top Adam's review, so I'll just say...it tastes like a
pizza-flavored Whopper.

During my press visit to the Whopper Bar I also tried the Meat Beast
Whopper ($5.54) topped with bacon, pepperoni, mayo, lettuce, tomato,
onions, American cheese, and ketchup, making its debut in New York
City; the 7-ounce BK Black and Bleu Steakhouse XT ($6.30) topped with
blue cheese and blackened Cajun sauce; and the California Whopper
($5.54) topped with guacamole, crispy bacon, and Swiss cheese. Out of
all of these, the California Whopper is the most popular so far at this
location.

Whopper Bar is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and will soon
serve beer. Aside from Whoppers they also serve chicken sandwiches,
desserts, and breakfast sandwiches from 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

For more photos, check out the slideshow.
Whopper Bar
561 7th Avenue, New York, NY 10018 (b/n 40th and 41st; map)
212-997-5122; bk.com

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A bike lane video game on N. Williams

2010-08-21T01:00:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: A bike lane video game on N.
Williams via BikePortland.org » Front Page by Jonathan Maus
(Publisher/Editor) on 8/18/10
Someone has stenciled several video game symbols in the N. Williams
bike lane.
- See the rest of them below -
(Photos © J. Maus)
A cherished local tradition of adding character and personality to our
bike lanes has taken a new twist. Someone has painted symbols from
Nintendo's Mario Kart video game in the bike lanes on N. Williams Ave.

The painted symbols begin south of N Tillamook Avenue with a set of
speed-boosting arrows (see above) and the symbols continue to about N.
Cook Ave. There are several bananas...

A mushroom (which a reader tells me is worth an extra life in the game
allows you to store a speed boost)...

And a star (which gives you invincibility)...

While this sort of vandalism is obviously illegal, I don't think anyone
is looking to crack down on it. Reader Steve R. wrote us to share this
sentiment about the symbols:

"I'm sure this is very illegal. As I pedal home from work, though, I
find it engaging and humorous. Would motorists similarly decorate their
lanes? I suspect not - this good-natured vandalism is a sign that
bikers take pride in their bike lanes and the biking community we've
created. Well, that is my impression anyway."

Have you seen the symbols? What's your impression? I find them to be
great conversation starters with my fellow Williams commuters.

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Is it legal to eat your cat?

2010-08-20T03:46:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: Is it legal to eat your cat? via
Slate Magazine by Brian Palmer on 8/12/10
When police in Western New York pulled over Gary Korkuc for blowing off
a stop sign on Sunday, they found a live cat in his trunk, covered in
cooking oil, peppers, and salt. Korkuc told authorities that his pet
feline was "possessive, greedy, and wasteful" and that he intended to
cook and eat it. Korkuc has been charged with animal cruelty. Is there
a legal way to cook and eat a cat?

[more ...]

Cat - Cruelty to animals - Police - Gary Korkuc - Cooking
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choi + shine architects: the land of giants

2010-08-20T03:34:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: choi + shine architects: the
land of giants via Designboom - Weblog on 8/11/10

'the land of giants' by choi + shine architects
all images courtesy choi + shine architects

american firm choi + shine architects recently received the 2010 boston
society of architects
award for unbuilt architecture for their project 'the land of giants',
which they originally
designed for the icelandic high voltage electrical pylon competition
back in 2008.

making only minor alterations to well established steel-framed pylon
design, the architects
created a series of towers that are powerful, solemn and variable.
these iconic pylon-figures
will become monuments in the landscape.

the pylon-figures can be configured to respond to their environment
with appropriate gestures.
as the carried electrical lines ascend a hill, the pylon-figures change
posture, imitating a climbing
person. over long spans, the pylon-figure stretches to gain increased
height, crouches for
increased strength or strains under the weight of the wires.

the pylon-figures can also be arranged to create a sense of place
through deliberate expression.
subtle alterations in the hands and head combined with repositioning of
the main body parts in
the x, y and z-axis, allow for a rich variety of expressions. the
pylon-figures can be placed in pairs,
walking in the same direction or opposite directions, glancing at each
other as they pass by
or kneeling respectively, head bowed at a town.

the various configurations of the pylons

despite the large number of possible forms, each pylon-figure is made
from the same major
assembled parts (torso, fore arm, upper leg, hand etc.) and uses a
library of pre-assembled
joints between these parts to create the pylon-figures’ appearance.
this design allows for many
variations in form and height while the pylon-figures’ cost is kept low
through identical production,
simple assembly and construction.

sketch of the pylon design

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A hub on hoover windtunnel

2010-08-16T07:11:00.001-07:00

http://hubpages.com/hub/hoover-windtunnel

OpenSolaris R.I.P.: The Day is Finally Here.

2010-08-16T05:52:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: OpenSolaris R.I.P.: The Day is
Finally Here. via The Blog of Ben Rockwood on 8/13/10

This is a real thing. This is not hype or idle rambling. OpenSolaris
is, as of Friday the 13th of August, 2010, dead. Read the full skinny
in the leaked internal email to Solaris Engineering.

Here is the short version: OpenSolaris is dead. No more
real-time/nightly code pushes. OpenSolaris 2010.05 will not happen, nor
will any in the future. Solaris 11 Express will be the new "developer"
release which will be available through OTN. Solaris will remain open
source, but code will only be released after the product ships, not
before.

Now, lets go bit by bit.

Today we are announcing a set of decisions regarding the path to
Solaris 11, and answering key pending questions on open source, open
development, software and binary licenses, and how developers and early
adopters will be able to use Solaris 11 technology before its release
in 2011.

So, Solaris 11 is the new hotness and the "community" is reduced
to "early adopters".

Solaris must stand alone as a best-of-breed technology for Oracleâ€™s
enterprise customers. We want all of them to think â€œIf this has to
work, then it runs on Solaris.â€ Thatâ€™s the Solaris brand. That is
where our scalability to more than a few sockets of CPU and gigabytes
of DRAM matters.

This goes on for a while, but the message is clear. Solaris needs to
not simply be another UNIX OS... it needs to be, as it was in the 90's,
the enterprise platform of choice.

We will continue to grow a vibrant developer and system administrator
community for Solaris. Delivery of binary releases, delivery of APIs in
source or binary form, delivery of open source code, delivery of
technical documentation, and engineering of upstream contributions to
common industry technologies (such as Apache, Perl, OFED, and many,
many others) will be part of that activity. But we will also make
specific decisions about why and when we do those things, following two
core principles: (1) We canâ€™t do everything. The limiting factor is
our engineering bandwidth measured in people and time. So we have to
ensure our top priority is driving delivery of the #1 Enterprise
Operating System, Solaris 11, to grow our systems business; and (2) We
want the adoption of our technology and intellectual property to
accelerate our overall goals, yet not permit competitors to derive
business advantage (or FUD) from our innovations before we do.

This, really, isn't so bad. But again, no community, just end-users. A
return to focus isn't a bad thing.

We will continue to use the CDDL license statement in nearly all
Solaris source code files. We will not remove the CDDL from any files
in Solaris to which it already applies, and new source code files that
are created will follow the current policy regarding applying the CDDL
(simply, that usr/src files will have the CDDL, and the very small
minority of files in usr/closed might not have it).

Ok, so existing code will not be closed. So, no drastic change.

We will distribute updates to approved CDDL or other open source-
licensed code following full releases of our enterprise Solaris
operating system. In this manner, new technology innovations will show
up in our releases before anywhere else. We will no longer distribute
source code for the entirety of the Solaris operating system in
real-time while it is developed, on a nightly basis.

So here is the killer... what I've been afraid of. No more nightly
code. The upshot is that the code will still be available following
releases to assist with DTracing, debugging, etc, but you won't get
real-time updates. The biggest downside is that you can't see bug-fixes
as they are put-back, and obviously anyone developing on Solaris is
always playing catch up. It says "full release", so I can't expect that
code will ship with each Express release. Maybe it will, I hope so.

It goes on to say that "technology partners" (such as Intel) will have
full source access via OTN.

We will encourage and listen to any and all license requests for
Solaris technology, either in part or in whole. All such requests will
be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, but we believe there are many
complementary areas where new partnership opportunities exist to expand
use of our IP.

This is a sticky place. Code is shipped CDDL post-release, however they
want to establish partnership opportunities. Clearly they are trying to
ensure any businesses which rely upon Nevada will not escape from the
partner programs and thus revenue opportunities for Oracle.

We will deliver technical design information, in the form of
documentation, design documents, and source code descriptions, through
our OTN presence for Solaris. We will no longer post advance technical
descriptions of every single ARC case by default, indicating what
technical innovations might be present in future Solaris releases. We
can at any time make a specific decision to post advance technical
information for any project, when it serves a particular useful need to
do so.

Flush... there goes ARC. So the external view into Solaris development
is now closing. We now only see what they wish us to see.

We will have a Solaris 11 binary distribution, called Solaris 11
Express, that will have a free developer RTU license, and an optional
support plan. Solaris 11 Express will debut by the end of this calendar
year, and we will issue updates to it, leading to the full release of
Solaris 11 in 2011.

So, back to the old days.

All of Oracleâ€™s efforts on binary distributions of Solaris technology
will be focused on Solaris 11. We will not release any other binary
distributions, such as nightly or bi-weekly builds of Solaris binaries,
or an OpenSolaris 2010.05 or later distribution. We will determine a
simple, cost-effective means of getting enterprise users of prior
OpenSolaris binary releases to migrate to S11 Express.

There is the axe on OpenSolaris, present and future. The distro isn't
coming. No nightly. No BFU's.

We will have a Solaris 11 Platinum Customer Program, including direct
engineering involvement and feedback, for customers using our Solaris
11 technology. We will be asking all of you to participate in this
endeavor, bringing with us the benefit of previous Sun Platinum
programs, while utilizing the much larger megaphone that is available
to us now as a combined company.

And here we see again, its "back to the future" . Pay to play.
The Verdict
Frankly, I'm not surprised by any of this. Saddened, certainly, but not
shocked. The sleigh ride is officially over.

As far as the community and governance is concerned, the OGB played
right into Oracle hand. It might as well have been engineered this way.
On Monday, the 16th, the OGB will disband and default on the charter.
Great work guys! Thanks for truly representing the needs and desires of
Ora...I mean, the community.

As a governance, OpenSolaris has been a non-stop, end to end failure.
Hands down. At every turn, it failed.

As an open source project, it was luke warm at best.

What I will miss is having full access to Solaris Engineering. What's
happening, where we're going. That was amazing. An all access pass. I
will truly miss that.

The plus side is, that for all the ups-and-downs, the code is out
there. They can't take that back. And we have reasonable assurances
that it will stay out there following "full releases". That's not
ideal, but its something. Something very valuable.

As for me... Illumos will now carry the torch, and I'll participate in
that with all the more gusto. This blog existed prior to OpenSolaris
and it will continue to be a Solaris blog after. Solaris is the best
platform on earth, it continues to be, in any given form.

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1975: The First Digital Camera

2010-08-15T01:39:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: 1975: The First Digital Camera
via ISO50 Blog - The Blog of Scott Hansen (Tycho / ISO50) by Scott on
8/11/10

I’ve had these images laying around for ages and stumbled across them
again tonight. This is a prototype digital camera Kodak produced way
back in 1975. The “toaster-sized” system relied on a cassette tape for
recording data. The digitized images took 23 seconds to record to tape
which then had to be played back using a specialized system (shown in
the second photo — note the name of the Motorola computer,
“EXORciser”). This is one of those times where I’m tempted to say “look
how far we’ve come in such a short time!”. But damn, 1975? I wasn’t
even born. I never would have guessed they had this sort of tech back
then.

I’m really not sure I’d be doing the things I do now if I was coming up
back in those days. Either computers have made me lazy, or I’m just
inherently lazy, but I honestly can’t imagine dealing with
23-second-per-image write times and cassette tapes.

Check out this piece about the process of creating the prototype by one
of the original team members, Steve Sasson: “Plugged In – We Had No
Idea“

Permalink | Comment On This Post (15) | Tweet This Post | Add to
del.icio.us | Stumbleupon
Post tags: digital cameras, kodak

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George Lucas officially announces Star Wars on Blu-ray in 2011

2010-08-15T01:35:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: George Lucas officially
announces Star Wars on Blu-ray in 2011 via Engadget HD by Richard
Lawler on 8/14/10
As rumored, all six Star Wars movies will be released together on
Blu-ray in 2011 for the 35th anniversary of the release of A New Hope.
George Lucas personally announced the set on stage at the Celebration V
event, and showed off a deleted scene from Return of the Jedi that will
be included (embedded after the break.) While the "highest picture and
audio quality" and extensive special features are promised, what won't
make it to Blu-ray are the original versions of the movies; Lucas told
the New York Times that only the special editions will be included,
since restoring the original versions in high enough quality would cost
too much. No word on price, release date or any plans to release the
films individually, but if you can stand living in a world where Greedo
shot first then this will certainly be on next year's shopping list.

[Thanks, @thunsaker]
Continue reading George Lucas officially announces Star Wars on Blu-ray
in 2011

George Lucas officially announces Star Wars on Blu-ray in 2011
originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 Aug 2010 18:05:00 EST.
Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments
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2010-08-14T13:09:00.001-07:00

Do you enjoy playing Roulette? I do. It's a fun game and can produce
great wins - if played well. Bankroll management is important though.
Last week, Derren Brown appeared live on UK television in the final
episode in the Derren Brown's The Events series. There was a great deal
of Internet hype generated before the showing - but know I'm not sure
why. Derren Brown intended to take down a casino by predicting the
course of a roulette wheel and winning a lucky viewer £175,000. But he
didn't do it. That's right: he didn't win the money for a viewer. He
didn't predict the number correctly - although he came close. The ball
stopped one number away on the roulette wheel from the number he
predicted to win

http://fobtgaming.blogspot.com/

2010-08-14T13:08:00.001-07:00

One challenge that every competitive gamer faces is how to demonstrate
their skills and talents in order to network with other more established
and experienced gamers. Players want to meet the best players and want
to get their attention. In short, new players want to get known

Visit www.gamingmontage.com for more info

one way to quit a job: curse out your customer and escape out the emergency ...

2010-08-10T09:42:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: one way to quit a job: curse out
your customer and escape out the emergency slide via Ask a Manager by
Ask a Manager on 8/9/10
A Jet Blue flight attendant just lived out everyone's fantasy way of
quitting a job.

From the New York Times:
A JetBlue flight attendant, apparently upset with an uncooperative
passenger on a just-landed flight, on Monday unleashed a
profanity-laden tirade on the public address system, pulled the
emergency-exit chute, slid off the plane and fled Kennedy International
Airport, a law enforcement official said...One passenger got out of his
seat to fetch his belongings from the overhead compartment before the
crew had given permission. Mr. Slater instructed the man to remain
seated. The passenger defied him. Mr. Slater approached and reached the
passenger just as he pulled down his luggage, which struck Mr. Slater
in the head.Mr. Slater asked for an apology. The passenger instead
cursed at him. Mr. Slater got on the plane’s public address system and
cursed out all aboard. Then he activated the inflatable evacuation
slide at service exit R1; launched himself off the plane, an Embraer
190; ran to the employee parking lot; and left the airport in a car he
had parked there.I can't stop living this out in my mind. The
evacuation slide is such a good touch.

Ask a Manager home page

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This is kaboom

2010-08-08T11:25:00.000-07:00

http://citiesprogramme.org/index.php/member/934/
http://www.ics-amman.edu.jo/index.php/member/893/
http://www.eurabo.be/member/2122/
http://www.mcsonline.org/index.php/member/911/
http://www.parentswithattitude.com/index.php/forums/member/7138/
http://liwa-project.eu/index.php/member/6544/
http://www.beforeidieiwantto.org/newsite/index.php?/member/316/

I found some great places to join

2010-08-07T12:26:00.000-07:00

http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/member.php?307328-goodreview25
http://forum.binarynights.com/member.php?3293-goodreview25
http://forum.vodafone.co.nz/user/13313-goodreview25/
http://forum.amule.org/index.php?action=profile;u=25354
http://mb.corrsonline.com/member.php?u=5023

Social networking forums

2010-08-06T12:01:00.000-07:00

http://www.jackandjill.ie/meeting/index.php?action=profile;u=2636
http://putyourfaithinaction.org/forums/member/12663/
http://sc2gg.com/forum/index.php?s=1c2974af6b0afced3187b54765e43c7e&showuser=6750
http://www.rakftzforum.com/member.php?9361-goodreview25
http://www.soccervista.com/forum/member.php/10242-goodreview25

These sites are cool

2010-08-05T10:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.umfulana.com/forum/member.php?action=profile&uid=1253
http://www.podproducer.net/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2099
http://www.mysolutionspot.com/goodreview25/
http://www.buglabs.net/users/goodreview25
http://forums.eyeos.org/index.php?action=profile;u=16359
http://forums.rootsmagic.com/index.php?/user/52350-goodreview25/
http://www.la-canada-flintridge-online-community.com/member.php?u=559
http://www.pastapadre.com/forum/member.php?u=4624
http://lubbock.skirt.com/goodreview25
http://www.dinaitour.com/forum/profile.php?id=8334

Android Sales Overtake iPhone in the U.S.

2010-08-03T23:52:00.003-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: Android Sales Overtake iPhone in
the U.S. via GigaOM by Kevin C. Tofel on 8/2/10

Sales of Google Android phones in the U.S. are rising so quickly, the
devices have outsold Apple handsets for the first time on record. New
smartphone subscribers choosing Google phones accounted for 27 percent
of U.S. smartphone sales, the Nielsen Company will announce this
morning, nudging past the 23 percent share held by Apple. But Android
isn’t just a U.S. phenomenon: Canalys today estimates that Android
handset sales grew 886 percent worldwide from the year ago quarter.

It’s easier to show stellar growth in the beginning of a product cycle,
but Android is nearly two years old. One could make the valid argument
that Android really began to mature over the past year with Android
2.1, so from that standpoint, Google’s platform is still an infant when
compared to iOS4, BlackBerry and other mobile operating systems. But
the uptake of Android among handset-makers is another factor in such
growth. Motorola’s Mobile Device division has swung from losses to
profits on the back of Android, for example. And HTC — once primarily a
Windows Mobile phone maker — embraced Android even as Microsoft’s
mobile platform is undergoing a major facelift. The result? HTC
revenues were up 66 percent in June from a year ago.

As hot a seller as Google Android phones are right now, its user base
isn’t the most satisfied with their device. When surveying current
Android device owners, Nielson found that 71 percent would buy an
Android phone again. That sounds like a high loyalty rating, but it
falls noticeably short when asking iPhone owners about their next
handset — 89 percent are happy with iOS4 and plan to buy a future Apple
handset.

Both the Android and iOS4 platforms still trail the 33 percent U.S.
share held by Research in Motion’s BlackBerry devices, but for many,
BlackBerry needs an overhaul. One half of the current BlackBerry owners
surveyed don’t want another RIM device when it comes time to upgrade,
but instead are looking at replacements running either Google’s or
Apple’s mobile platform. Even with the top market share spot in the
U.S., RIM share has been trending down because the current devices are
seen as inferior when it comes to browsing or offering apps. That
should change tomorrow as RIM is holding a press event where it is
widely expected the company will debut its new BlackBerry 6 operating
system and potentially new devices, such as a tablet.

Given that the U.S. currently has the largest smartphone user base —
Canalys estimates 14.7 million smartphones were purchased in the U.S.
last quarter — it’s easy to overlook the current king of smartphone
sales globally: Nokia. In the second quarter of 2010, the Finnish
phone-maker sold 23.8 million handsets. Nokia saw a 41 percent growth
rate over the prior year’s second quarter sales, which sounds positive,
but when compared to Android’s 886 percent gain, Nokia’s growth pales
in comparison. The overall smartphone market is growing, which is
lifting sales of nearly all. But some — like Android — are clearly
growing far faster than others.

Related GigaOM Pro Research (sub req’d):

Why RIMs Future (Unfortunately) Hinges on BlackBerry OS 6

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- Subscribe to GigaOM using Google Reader
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favorite sites

China to build ginormous buses that cars can drive under (video)

2010-08-03T23:49:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: China to build ginormous buses
that cars can drive under (video) via Engadget by Richard Lai on 8/2/10
Seriously, this is the future that China's envisioning: huge friggin'
buses engulfing smaller cars on the road. Despite the silly picture and
the eccentric "3D Express Coach" branding, this cunning project by
Shenzhen Huashi Future Car-Parking Equipment actually makes sense. The
idea is to make use of the space between regular-size cars and bridges,
thus saving construction costs as well as minimizing congestion impact
by allowing cars to drive underneath these jumbo buses. Fancy hitching
a ride? You better start planning your move to Beijing's Mentougou
district, which is where Huashi will commence building its first 186km
of track at year's end. For now, enjoy the Chinese demo video after the
break (translation text at source link).
Continue reading China to build ginormous buses that cars can drive
under (video)

China to build ginormous buses that cars can drive under (video)
originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Aug 2010 09:13:00 EDT.
Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | China Hush | Email this | Comments
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favorite sites

Anne Rice: 'I Quit Being A Christian'

2010-07-30T02:57:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: Anne Rice: 'I Quit Being A
Christian' via The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com by The Huffington
Post News Editors on 7/29/10

Anne Rice, the bestselling novelist most popularly known for "Interview
with the Vampire" and her other creepy vampire novels, announced on
Wednesday via Facebook that she has officially renounced Christianity.
It's a bold move for the author who has become well-known for her
vehement religiosity; the majority of her frequent tweets are related
to religion in some way. The author has also recently launched a new
series of novels about angels, which debuted in October 2009
with "Angel Time."

Rice declared on her Facebook account that she is "an outsider" in the
Christian community:
I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be
anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse
to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to
be anti-life.
Rice affirmed that though she has decided to leave the Christian
institution, she "remain[s] committed to Christ as always."

(via GalleyCat)

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- Subscribe to The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com using Google Reader
- Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your
favorite sites

Haha found them easily

2010-07-29T09:37:00.000-07:00

http://www.podproducer.net/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2099
http://dbshan.co.uk/messageboard/index.php?action=profile;u=1782
http://zunerama.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=15986
http://forums.eyeos.org/index.php?action=profile;u=16359
http://acmescience.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=1767
http://tattoos-and-art.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=1207
http://www.gamerhold.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2229
http://www.mmaontap.com/member/3972

Another set of useful links

2010-07-29T07:47:00.000-07:00

Part$$$$$$$

http://community.phvx.com/phvx/member/14530/
http://www.lalannefitness.com/index.php/member/5470/

Day 9 #@%$#@

http://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?action=profile;u=86898
http://www.mongoliatrade.mn/forum/member.php?action=profile&uid=461
http://tasselfoot.com/forum/member.php?5954-goodreview25
http://divorceinfo.com/heo/index.php?action=profile;u=21860
http://www.ntz.info/wiki/profile/?u=442
http://www.start64.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2615
http://www.wncgreenbuilding.com/forums/member/18509/
http://www.islambosna.ba/forum/profile/?u=18065

Day 10

http://www.jameslabrie.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=1030

Backlinks from forum profiles

2010-07-27T00:42:00.000-07:00

Day 8##$$$

http://www.motorcycle-navigation.net/forum/members/goodreview25.html
http://www.gekgasifier.com/forums/member.php?u=914
http://doom10.org/index.php?action=profile;u=4449
http://eqatwork.com/forums/member.php?u=9764
http://www.southernpigskin.com/index.php/forums/member/17962/
http://orac.vu/index.php/member/956/
http://www.umfulana.com/forum/member.php?action=profile&uid=1253
http://www.neon-toolkit.org/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=593
http://www.turbohercules.com/member/3505/
http://crystalcastles.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=1903
http://plugcomputer.org/plugforum/index.php?action=profile;u=14894
http://www.felinepine.com/forums/memberlmazknsxjbfv/14355/

Boom Boom BThe best forum links

2010-07-25T11:50:00.000-07:00

http://forums.moviebattles.com/member.php?u=7818
http://www.celticfcforum.net/member.php?u=124
http://wrecklessmediaradio.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=4776
http://www.digital-exposure.com/members/goodreview25.html
http://forum.rizon.net/member.php?u=7762
http://www.reefstewardshipfoundation.org/forums/member.php?u=1380
http://forum.xenagia.net/member.php?3797-goodreview25
http://avaapolitics.com/member.php?u=486
http://www.mauisails.com/forum/profile.php?id=27457

123 boom forum profiles

2010-07-25T07:17:00.000-07:00

http://www.itstooloud.com/V3/forums/member.php?u=3833
http://www.tokiohotel.com/uk/forum/member.php?u=4035
http://www.passionperformance.ca/community/forum/member.php?u=1211
http://www.splashdamage.com/forums/member.php?u=17950
http://belgia.at/index.php?showuser=2345
http://allthewine.2.forumer.com/index.php?showuser=3122
http://www.forum.en.joomgallery.net/index.php?action=profile;u=5383
http://www.gbridge.com/forum/member.php?u=1389
http://www.gamesniped.com/forum/member.php?u=6026
http://www.trendmx.com/forum/profile.php?id=555

Blender 2.53 Released

2010-07-24T09:44:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: Blender 2.53 Released via
BlenderNation by Bart on 7/22/10
The Blender Foundation just released 2.53, the first ‘Beta’ of the
Blender 2.5 series. While the excellent 2.50 release log has been
updated with 2.53 features, there’s no ‘changelog’ since the previous
version available yet (this may follow later). What *is* clear is that
lots of bugs have been fixed, there’s a new ‘addons’ system [...]
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- Subscribe to BlenderNation using Google Reader
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favorite sites

Is 'FlashForward' Heading to Starz?

2010-07-24T09:31:00.003-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: Is 'FlashForward' Heading to
Starz? via TV Squad by Chris Harnick on 7/23/10

Filed under: TV News
'FlashForward' may have been discarded by ABC, but that hasn't stopped
fans from aggressively campaigning for another network to pick up the
series. It's worked before for other shows and according to TVOverMind,
Starz might be the savior fans are hoping for.

A fan posted on the Save FlashForward! Facebook fanpage that they were
told by a Starz's representative that the network is aggressively
looking into picking up the series.

To prove their dedication to the series, 'FlashForward' fans have
staged blackouts in front of ABC offices.

The series starred Joseph Fiennes (right) as an FBI agent looking into
the cause of a worldwide blackout that showed citizens a glimpse into
their future.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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- Subscribe to TV Squad using Google Reader
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favorite sites

Samsung: Don’t Like Your iPhone 4? Here, Have a Free Galaxy S (UK)

2010-07-24T09:31:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: Samsung: Don’t Like Your iPhone
4? Here, Have a Free Galaxy S (UK) via Android Phone Fans by Quentyn
Kennemer on 7/23/10

Samsung’s really flogging the living hell out of Apple’s misfortunes as
of late. Now, they’re extending a hand to all of those inside the
walled garden that aren’t satisfied with the fruits, vegetables, and
flora inside. After “antennagate”, Samsung’s firing back at all
coordinates and they won’t stop until the Apple flag has fallen. On
twitter, Samsung’s official account for their UK division responded to
several users who were just going on about their merry day tweeting
about their iPhone 4 woes. Their suggestion? “Switch to a Galaxy S,
we’ll even give it to you for free!”

Tiffany – the lady that Samsung graced with a brand new Galaxy S – told
Wired:

“My iPhone and I have been inseparable for almost a month now, tomorrow
being one month since the iPhone OS 4 launched. But the honeymoon
period ended this week as repeated dropped calls, and a sudden
unexplainable inability to make or receive calls or send texts left me
disgruntled.

“So I did what anyone else would do: I vented my frustration on
Twitter. Imagine my surprise, then, when this morning I am tweeted by
Samsung offering me a free Galaxy S, their latest phone. Too good to be
true? I decided to investigate.

“I called a friend at Samsung, and though she was initially sceptical
(sic), it has now been confirmed: the campaign is legit. Samsung is so
confident about the superiority of the Galaxy S that they’re sending
free ones to existing iPhone customers so they can decide for
themselves.”

That’s ridiculously generous. There are no immediate catches that can
be found (carrier contract deals?) and I’m sure Samsung won’t send a
free Galaxy S to anyone just claiming to have issues (let’s face it:
everyone’s going to want to try it after this), but it’s still pretty
awesome to see that they aren’t going to take Apple’s FUD-spreading
without a fight.

[Wired via Samsung Hub]

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- Subscribe to Android Phone Fans using Google Reader
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favorite sites

This is definitely the best backlinks I ever found.lol

2010-07-23T11:14:00.000-07:00

Worked hard day and night for these backlinks.Searched a lot of forums and after 48 hours found these outstanding forum backlinks.
http://www.fishgame.com/forum/member.php?u=362
http://www.patriotmem.com/forums/member.php?u=11981
http://www.studentfilmmakers.com/bb/member.php?u=11574
http://www.panama1.com/foros/member.php?u=1246
http://forum.chumby.com/profile.php?id=7042
http://www.spbas.com/community/member.php?u=20980
http://www.sciforums.com/member.php?u=79940
http://www.barstoolsports.com/bb/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=121348
http://www.iscrapbook.com/forum/member.php?u=1259
http://www.hondaforeman.com/36533-goodreview25.html

WootTF?!: The End Of History

2010-07-23T11:03:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: WootTF?!: The End Of History via
Woot! - One Day, One Deal on 7/22/10

You know, often when I'm drinking a beer while sitting on my couch and
staring off into space for hours in an attempt to make the darkness and
pain I've tried so long to keep bottled up in the depths of my heart
from bubbling up to the surface, I sometimes think to myself, "Man, if
only this beer was stronger and I were drinking it out of a stuffed
roadkill coozie. THEN maybe I could get my life back on track."

Finally, someone has heard my silent prayers.

The End Of History, the newest brew from Brew Dog, is a 55% ABV (yes,
55% ALCOHOL BY VOLUME) beer that not only seeks to "get you krunk"
faster than any other beer in history, but also comes in this fetching
dead rodent package! From the site:

"This blond Belgian ale is infused with nettles from the Scottish
Highlands and Fresh juniper berries. Only 12 bottles have been made and
each comes with its own certificate and is presented in a stuffed stoat
or grey squirrel. The striking packaging was created by a very talented
taxidermist and all the animals used were road kill.

The impact of The End of History is a perfect conceptual marriage
between art, taxidermy and craft brewing. The bottles are at once
beautiful and disturbing – they disrupt conventions and break taboos,
just like the beer they hold within them."

Sadly, it seems all eleven bottles of the limited run are sold out now,
even though they were going for over $750 a pop. Rats. I mean, "Tree
rats".

[via The Daily What]

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- Subscribe to Woot! - One Day, One Deal using Google Reader
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favorite sites

this is goodreview25 another useful link

2010-07-23T02:00:00.000-07:00

DAY FOUR#######

http://meds.iatp.by/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=76643
http://www.spartak-varna.net/ipb/index.php?showuser=40916
http://reinventedsoftware.com/forum/profile.php?id=30690
http://www.hafen.cc/haffo/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=13120
http://www.rotaract.fr/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=65183
http://www.realitytvforum.co.uk/member.php?u=35357
http://www.griponlife.ca/grip/interact/profile.php?id=9301
http://heavyjam.dk/forum/profile.php?id=24320
http://www.osempire.com/community/member.php?u=23147
http://www.staggernation.com/mtplugins/forums/profile.php?id=76744
http://www.wicreate.com/forum/profile.php?id=15724

Forum profile backlinks 123456

2010-07-22T09:52:00.000-07:00

DAY three#####
http://jackpenate.com/forum/profile.php?id=44313
http://www.dinaitour.com/forum/profile.php?id=8334
http://italiadeivalori.antoniodipietro.com/forumgiovani/member.php?u=17254
http://www.lxl.ir/forum/member.php?u=19806
http://www.fkrny.com/vb/member.php?u=20578
http://lastchaos-forum.gamigo.es/member.php?u=71812
http://www.kinopoisk.ru/board/member.php?u=118105
http://em.waw.pl/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=10317
http://tv.gani.ru/comments/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=12170
http://www.swissburnout.ch/forum_en/profile.php?id=3449
http://www.travelforum.pl/archiwum//index.php?showuser=37699

A test

2010-07-22T02:21:00.001-07:00

www.google.com

http://www.google.com

google

google

Lasers used in a light show have damaged a Canon EOS 5D Mark
II(
reviews ) CMOS
sensor and I sure didn’t know it was possible, but I thought I’d get a
warning out since it appears to have damaged this guy’s sensor. I would
suspect that all CMOS sensors are probably susceptible – including Nikon,
Sony, Panasonic etc., but maybe because we’re using larger lenses on the
HDSLR cameras would tend to focus more of the laser’s beam on the sensor
(I’m no scientist so I’m just guessing here, but it makes some sense). While
it appears to be mostly safe and not common to get damage (you’ll see in the
video that several lasers hit the camera but only one caused the damage), we
thought you should know.
------------------------------
[image: Redrock Micro]
------------------------------

Popout

How to break your 5D in a second from
Aguaon
Vimeo .

A laser light burnt my sensor. Shot at Madrid’d Gay Pride:
http://www.vimeo.com/13432785
------------------------------
[image: Follow planet5D on twitter]
------------------------------

We thought we’d check up on this a bit and found this page on the
International Display Laser Association’s
sitewhich says:

“Lasers emit concentrated beams of light, which can heat up sensitive
surfaces (like the eye’s retina) and cause damage. Camera sensors are
susceptible to damage, similar to the human eye.

For large scale shows, such as on a televised concert, laser show producers
work with clients to avoid TV camera locations and video projectors (ILDA
Members, see this page for details). However, it is not possible for laser
show producers to be responsible for all cameras and camcorders which might
be at a show.

Therefore, if you attend a show as an audience member, you should take
reasonable precautions not to let a laser beam directly enter your camera
lens.”

So, there you go… you can read more on their site, but I think the idea is
there… be careful out there!

The Numbers No One Wants to Talk About in the Android vs. iPhone Sales Battle

2010-07-22T02:09:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: The Numbers No One Wants to Talk
About in the Android vs. iPhone Sales Battle via Android Phone Fans by
Kevin Krause on 7/21/10

For all of those shocked and awed by the Apple’s announcement that as
of last Friday they had sold 3 million iPhone 4 handsets, I’d like to
take a moment to direct everyone’s attention over to John Battelle’s
Searchblog. In his post he takes a rather bold stance, one much of the
blogosphere hasn’t even entertained the idea of since Steve Jobs used
the smoke and mirrors sales figure to distract our tech reporting peers
from what has been dubbed “antennagate.” Kind of like shaking some
shiny keys in front of a bunch of spoiled babies or dangling a ball on
a string in front of a kitten. I can’t really put it any better than
Mr. Battelle did, so take a gander at this excerpt from the full post
that delves into a bit of simple arithmetic to show that the 3 million
figure might not be that impressive after all:

“3 million phones in 23 days – that’s a pretty strong clip, the fastest
sales of an Apple phone to date, Mashable reports. If I do the math,
that’s more than 130,000 phones a day.

But did anyone in the press notice Google’s little announcement, the
day before Apple launched its iPhone 4? This one? The one where Google
said, and I quote: ’Every day 160,000 Android-powered devices are
activated — that’s nearly two devices every second.’

Yep, that’d be 30K MORE phones a day than Apple. And my guess is that
Android’s pace is accelerating, while the iPhone 4 is probably sliding
downward, given how many folks bought it at launch (Mashable reports
that 1.7 million were sold in first three days, so 1.3 million the next
20 days). In fact, if you do THAT math, and divide 1.3 million by 20
days, you get 65,000 iPhone 4s sold each day, which is nearly 100,000
less, PER DAY, than Android phones.”

Granted, there is no denying that for a single handset a sales number
of 3 million is beyond astounding, but we’d also venture to say that if
iOS was dropping on the same number of smartphones as Android and at
the same frequency the figure would be spread out quite a bit more —
just as is the case with Google’s platform. If anyone should be scared
about the number of phones flying off the shelves it certainly
shouldn’t be Google in this case.

Will Android ever topple the iPhone? There will at least come a time
where the two are no longer separated by as wide a gap in market share.
A time when Google’s platform sits at the same level. Only true
innovation and the continued release of simply killer Android phones
will prove if Google has what it takes to become the top dog in the
handset world.

[thanks to Rob Isakson for sending this in!]

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- Subscribe to Android Phone Fans using Google Reader
- Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your
favorite sites

Forum profile backlinks

2010-07-21T09:42:00.000-07:00

Terry Kyles's Backlink Packets

http://forum.amule.org/index.php?action=profile;u=24526
http://mb.corrsonline.com/member.php?u=4876
http://hcgtv.net/profile.php?id=26183
http://www.nayapatrika.com/nayabichar/member.php?u=25364
http://www.somanforum.com/member.php?u=46150
http://forum.southafrica-direct.com/member.php?u=30128
http://www.forumplasma.com/member.php?u=84082
https://www.wecanbebothered.co.uk/bothered/forum/member.php?u=1045
http://tvuniversal.tv/forum/member.php?u=41168
http://www.thecypruz.com/member.php?u=88063

Second day####

http://theshootingmall.com/forum/profile.php?id=39412
http://www.xcskiworld.com/forums/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=115849
http://pinnaclegameprofiler.com/forum/member.php?u=88645
http://www.fasopresse.net/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=14742
http://dmhcc.gov.vn/diendan/member.php?u=12227
http://www.iraqigs.com/gsvb/member.php?u=21155
http://www.oklahomahighschoolwrestling.com/forum/index.php?showuser=20309
http://www.haoyah.com/forum/member.php?u=21228
http://immiline.com/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=12511
http://www.redliberal.com/foros/member.php?u=59152

My goodreview25 links

2010-07-20T10:17:00.000-07:00

http://forum.amule.org/index.php?action=profile;u=24526
http://mb.corrsonline.com/member.php?u=4876
http://hcgtv.net/profile.php?id=26183
http://www.nayapatrika.com/nayabichar/member.php?u=25364
http://www.somanforum.com/member.php?u=46150
http://forum.southafrica-direct.com/member.php?u=30128
http://www.forumplasma.com/member.php?u=84082
https://www.wecanbebothered.co.uk/bothered/forum/member.php?u=1045
http://tvuniversal.tv/forum/member.php?u=41168
http://www.thecypruz.com/member.php?u=88063

Woz: The "Best 'compromise' solution" for the iPhone 4? A Pre Plus!

2010-07-20T06:01:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: Woz: The "Best 'compromise'
solution" for the iPhone 4? A Pre Plus! via PreCentral.net by Jonathan
I Ezor on 7/16/10

Henk van Ess, who describes himself as a "a Dutch born investigative
journalist and accidental entrepreneur" who sells MiFi cellular WiFi
access points, recently took an order from Steve Wozniak (co-founder of
Apple) himself. After verifying that it was the real Woz, van Ess
started an e-mail conversation with Woz about the iPhone 4 and other
issues, and received permission to post the conversation on his site.

While Woz is always interesting, of particular importance to our
community was his suggestions for how iPhone 4 users can deal with the
unreliability of the AT&T data network:

If you can afford it, carry a second Verizon phone for backup. Another
option is to carry a Verizon mifi and rely on Skype on your iPhone. I
have used this mifi technique to rescue my own, and others', iPhones on
occasion. If you buy a Verizon Palm Pre, you get free mifi on it so
that is possible the best 'compromise' solution, to carry a Verizon
Palm Pre along with your AT&T iPhone 4.

Woz continues that he has a Pre (Plus) with Verizon, and notes
that "[a]t first [Verizon] charged but then they made free a built-in
mifi ability (Mobile Hotspot)."

It's great to know that Steve Wozniak is a member of our community, and
we encourage him to explore his Pre Plus; it has a lot more to offer
than just a free Wi-Fi connection!

Source: Mifieurope.com (via Mobilecrunch)

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- Subscribe to PreCentral.net using Google Reader
- Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your
favorite sites

5 Ways to Use Foursquare to Market Your Location-Based Business

2010-07-20T05:58:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: 5 Ways to Use Foursquare to
Market Your Location-Based Business via StartupNation Blog by Wendy
Kenney on 7/18/10

I’ve been mulling this around since posting the last Foursquare article
and thought that there were more practical tips could be added.

Foursquare is a hugely untapped and powerful little tool for business
marketing, especially if you own a business that requires customers to
physically visit your location to make a purchase. Unfortunately most
businesses don’t understand just exactly how they can use Foursquare
and are missing out on a fantastic and inexpensive marketing
opportunity!!

So here are five very practical tips on how to use Foursquare to market
your location-based business.
1. Use Foursquare like a customer loyalty card
The cool thing about Foursquare is it shows the user how many times
they have been at each location, so you could offer customers a freebie
after so many check ins. Make sure you set clear rules about how to
redeem the offer including: check ins more than once per day do not
count towards redemption of the free offer; or free offer value at
$5.00, may not be accumulated or transferred, may not be redeemed for
cash, etc.

The women’s clothing store Ann Taylor recently launched a Foursquare
promotion like this in New York City giving shoppers 15% off at the
store after their 5th check in and giving the person with the most
check ins at one location (called the Mayor) 25% off their purchase at
that visit.

Another company, Tasti D-Lite, offers frequent shoppers a branded
Foursquare badge, as well as additional loyalty points on their
physical loyalty card, plus freebies and other perks.
2. Organize a real-time treasure hunt.
Now this could get really fun. Leave a clue of the day on the “Tips”
section of your Foursquare page with the answer to each clue being a
different special of the day. The customers who come in and guess the
special, get the special, plus they are eligible to win a bigger prize
at the end of the contest.

Another company, Jimmy Choo, a high-end designer footwear brand, runs
this contest by having a pair of Jimmy Choo sneakers check in at
various hot spots around town. The person who is able to guess the next
hot spot and arrive there before the Jimmy Choo shoes arrive will win a
pair of very expensive shoes.
3. Use Foursquare to entice new customers to come into your store by
offering a 1st Timers check in discount or freebie.
“Show us your check-in and your dessert is on us!” Again, make sure you
communicate clearly in your offer what the rules are; i.e., free
dessert is only for first check in, and must be redeemed with purchase
of a meal; etc.”
4. Leverage word of mouth marketing.
One of the benefits of Foursquare is that friends can “follow” each
other and thus can see each other’s check in’s on Foursquare. Note: The
check in’s are also posted on Twitter, Facebook and Yelp, if they’ve
enabled the function. This is huge for your business because every
check in at your location is a tacit recommendation from the person
checking in there. Leverage this exposure by inviting people to check
in via Foursquare. Providing special offers for those who check in via
Foursquare will invite people to check in more often.

Also, make sure you pay attention to what people are saying on
Foursquare about your business, because whether you use it or not,
people are using it, and chance are, they are talking about your
business. Personally reply back to people who leave tips or make
positive comments and thank them. Likewise, it’s just as important to
respond to negative comments as well and to remedy the issue as soon as
possible. Don’t be negative; just say something like, “I’m sorry that
you had a bad experience. Let’s get it touch and discuss how we can
make it up to you.”
5. Tie in text message marketing with Foursquare.
Invite people to take photos of them having fun or otherwise enjoying
your location and text the photos to a special text message phone
number. Once they do this they will have opted into your text message
marketing program and you will be able to send them additional specials
and discounts via text.

What other ways can you use Foursquare to market your high traffic
location based business? I would love to hear your comments. Next post,
how to market your non-location based business on Foursquare.

Wendy Kenney is a nationally known Buzz Building Expert and the Founder
and CEO of 23 Kazoos, a marketing firm specializing in inexpensive and
creative small business marketing strategies. She has honed her
marketing skills through over 26 years of entrepreneurship and business
management.

Wendy just released her new book called “How to Build Buzz for Your
Biz- Tap into the Power of Social Media, Publicity and Relationship
Marketing to Grow Your Business” based on her knowledge of what works
and what does not work in small business marketing. This book features
practical and low cost marketing strategies, such as “How to Grow Your
Business Using Social Media,” as well as valuable links, resources, and
tips and is available on Amazon.com.

Wendy frequently speaks to organizations about marketing for small
business. To get more information or to schedule Wendy to speak go to:
Business Marketing Speaker

Claim your free download (no email necessary) on Wendy’s website: 23
Kazoos

How to Build Buzz for your Biz: 23 Creative and Inexpensive Marketing
Strategies That Will Get You Noticed

ShareThis

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HP files for 'PALMPAD' Trademark

2010-07-20T05:53:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: HP files for 'PALMPAD' Trademark
via PreCentral.net by Dieter Bohn on 7/19/10

Looks like we have a possible name for the upcoming webOS Slate
previously known as Hurricane: PALMPAD. This from a USPTO Trademark
application filed on July 9th by HP. The trademake is listed in a
fairly comprehensive list of possible categories:

Computers, computer hardware, computer software, computer peripherals,
portable computers, handheld and mobile computers, PDAs, electronic
notepads, mobile digital electronic devices

While that rumored Q3 launch window still feels a little early, we're
wondering if maybe, just maybe, we might see a 2010 launch.

What do you think of the name? It's definitely in the range of iPad,
but we're liking that 'Pad' can be a a way to clarify it's a tablet yet
not let it get confused with Slate or Tablet or any of the other names
that might get applied to a Windows 7-based slate device.

Source: USPTO; via myHPmini

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paris: the street is ours!

2010-07-13T13:41:00.007-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: paris: the street is ours! via
Human Transit by Jarrett at HumanTransit.org on 7/13/10

Next time you're involved in a debate about whether we should consider
taking one lane of traffic on a busy street and setting it aside for
buses, show them some pictures of Paris in 2010. Almost any boulevard,
in fact. Here's Boulevard Raspail:

Lots of traffic in two lanes, and a lane reserved for buses and
two-wheels conveyances. Yes, the bus lane is empty at the moment, but
this demonstrates the great and damnable paradox of bus lanes: If buses
are moving well, and carrying more people than the car lanes, the bus
lane looks empty most of the time. Only a failing or obstructed bus
lane looks like it's full of buses. That's why bus lanes such a hard
sell in cities run by motorists who want to do the green thing but
still form their impressions from behind the wheel -- like Los Angeles,
for example.

But in the last two decades, while a few American cities have had long
arguments about converting single lanes to bus-only, Paris just did it.
Not here and there. All over the city. Name your favorite Paris
boulevard, and it probably has bus lanes now.

And they´re really nice buses, where you can board and alight at all
doors.

One key to the Paris project is that these are not just for buses. They
can also be used by taxis and all two-wheeled vehicles. This is a
manageable range of vehicles that all serve urban mobility more
efficiently than the private car, and that don't usually generate
enough congestion to plug the lane for any length of time. Now and
then, something else shows up in a bus lane, such as here on Blvd. de
Clichy in front of the Moulin Rouge.

But still, the buses get through.

What about smaller streets? Surely when you just have two lanes of
traffic, you'd never take one of them -- half of the entire capacity of
the street -- for a bus lane, would you? Of course you would. Have a
look at Rue du Faubourg St. Denis, climbing the gentle grade from Les
Halles to Gare du Nord.

Without that barrier in the middle, you could have striped this one-way
street as two traffic lanes plus a parking/delivery lane on each side;
in fact, if I probe my dim memories of living in Paris in 1986, I think
that's what it was. But they not only carved out a wide bus lane but
also a solid median curb to protect it. (These curbs are sensible
because motorists know not to drive over them but emergency vehicles
still can.) The resulting wide bus lane is important because it's
shared with two-wheeled vehicles -- bicycles and motorbikes and
scooters, and these need the ability to pass the bus without
interacting with parallel traffic.

Here's Rue du Faubourg St. Martin, the southbound partner of the
northbound Rue du Faubourg St. Denis above. Here, the bus lane is on
the left, and stops are in median islands. Looking north:

The magnificent edifice in the distance, by the way, is Gare de l'Est,
the railway station for the east. Looking south from the same spot:

Another view of a median bus stop:

Remarkably, even though cyclists are welcome in the bus lane, they also
have a cycle lane, carved out of the sidewalk/footpath and isolated by
landscaping:

Note that the direction of the bicycle path matches that of the street,
the norm in Paris. Car traffic still has one through lane and an
intermittent delivery/parking/turning lane.

[Update Note also that the bus lane (technically a bus-taxi-2 wheel
lane) is quite a bit wider than the bus. There´s enough space or
cyclists to pass stopped buses. Note also that Paris stop spacing is
quite wide, I´m guessing around 400m, so you don´t see as much of the
leapfrogging problem -- where the same bus and bike have to pass each
other repeatedly. ]

(If any French readers have access to section drawings of this street
or similar ones, I'd love to publish a few just to show how the
available width has been apportioned.)

It's also increasingly common, on larger boulevards, to see separate
bicycle and pedestrian spaces in addition to the bus lane. Typically,
the large boulevards have always had small frontage roadways on each
side used for accessing on-street parking. These roadways now also
serve bicycles, and are connected by appropriate bike-only segments.
There is still a sidewalk/footpath for pedestrians as well, against the
building face, though nobody worries much about enforcing ped/bicycle
separations.

Further encouragement for both cycling and motorbikes comes from the
abundant supply of parking areas for "2 roues" -- two-wheels.

Finally, the pedestrian signals:

The truth will sound silly, but it's striking how green these signals
are. It's simple: the default setting for pedestrian signals is green,
and they turn red only when your safety requires it. (In Sydney, where
I currently live, the opposite rule applies. There, pedestrian signals
are always red, but if you push a button and wait patiently, often for
a nearly complete cycle of the signal, wondering if you've submitted an
application to some bureaucrat who will get to it after his lunch
break, you'll finally get green for a few seconds. But don't blink or
you'll miss it and have to start again.)

The scourge of two-step signals for crossing major boulevards remains:

The sign means that you'll have to wait for one signal to cross to the
median, and then another signal to cross to the far side. A pain, but
then again, signaling the two phases separately gives you more
opportunities for signals to be green. This is useful if, like me,
you're willing to cross on a red if it appears safe. That way, you
still get the assurance of the green for half of your crossing.

Last year when I passed through Paris, I encountered a funny bit of
sculpture in the Rue du Chat qui Peche ("street of the fishing cat").

"La rue est à nous" -- "The street is ours."

Those words are at least as old as the French Revolution, but they've
never been truer in Paris than they are today. We are a long way from
the Paris of the 1970s, when planners imagined freeways on both sides
of the Seine, and new extra-wide bridges for more car traffic. Today,
Paris is for human beings, but you don't become human in this city
until you get out of your car. As soon as you do, the street is yours.

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Fashion Victim Tutorial: How To Make An Annoying, Painfully Trendy T-Shirt D...

2010-07-13T13:38:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: Fashion Victim Tutorial: How To
Make An Annoying, Painfully Trendy T-Shirt Design via Princess Sparkle
Pony's Photo Blog by Peteykins on 7/12/10
Gather 'round, kiddies, because I'm going to help you strike it rich!
I've been meaning to devise this tutorial for well over a year, and I'm
distressed that it's still valid.

OK, you want to make an irritating t-shirt? First of all, it has to
feature wings (THIS IS NOT OPTIONAL) and really should include a skull.
Let's start with a pair of wings; it doesn't matter where you steal get
them:

Why are the wings such a requirement? I have no idea. Don't question
me! Basically, the overall vibe you want is caduceus meets tattoo
design + random crap. Like I said, a skull is optional but why take the
chance of not including one? Look, Alexander McQueen died for you, OK?
Place your skull:

Next, you need to add some sort of element reminiscent of Rococo
tracery or shapes found in fleur de lis motifs (resist the urge to use
pseudo-Maori "tribal" elements; the 90s are over). I'm just going to
dump in a simple example of the latter:

Now you need some more-or-less random crap in the background. I
strongly urge you to use old-fashioned handwriting:

DO NOT pay any attention to what the handwriting says, because madness
awaits down that road. OK, it's time for some color. Stick to
grayed-down colors, burgundies, mustard yellows, dull greens, burnt
oranges, etc:

OPTIONAL: why not use some metallic ink? It'll look like absolute shit
after only one washing! OK, now we're ready for the shirt itself. It
should be either black, burgundy, or dull army green. Think drab:

Now it's time to place your design. Here is a crucial point: even
though you've just made a symmetrical work of "art," DO NOT place it in
the center of the shirt. Make it look like the garment was just tossed
haphazardly under the screens:

Not shown above, but crucial nonetheless: sandpaper your silkscreens a
little to give them a totally phony "distressed" look.

Last step: contact the buyer at Nordstrom Rack.

Obviously, these are all suggestions (BUT NOT THE WINGS! THEY ARE
REQUIRED!), and this is a highly-simplified example (not nearly enough
random crap) but I'm sure you'll agree that the tutorial above will
help you make a t-shirt so trendy, so incoherent and badly-considered,
that you will be rolling in money in no time.

You're welcome.

UPDATE: After completing the above from memory, I thought I'd check
Urban Outfitters to see if I could find a good example, and was
astonished to find this meta-ironic version:

I swear I didn't see that before writing the tutorial. Points off for
symmetrical placement, though.

UPDATE: I also didn't previously see this obnoxious Ecko design, which
includes every single motif suggested above:

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On World Population Day, take note: population isn’t the problem

2010-07-13T12:07:00.001-07:00

by Fred Pearce.

A green myth is on the march. It wants to blame the world’s overbreeding poor people for the planet’s peril. It stinks. And on World Population Day, I encourage fellow environmentalists not to be seduced.

Some greens think all efforts to save the world are doomed unless we “do something” about continuing population growth. But this is nonsense. Worse, it is dangerous nonsense.

For a start, the population bomb that I remember being scared by 40 years ago as a schoolkid is being defused fast. Back then, most women round the world had five or six children. Today’s women have just half as many as their mothers—an average of 2.6. Not just in the rich world, but almost everywhere.

This is getting close to the long-term replacement level, which, allowing for girls who don’t make it to adulthood, is around 2.3. Women are cutting their family sizes not because governments tell them to, but for their own good and the good of their families—and if it helps the planet too, then so much the better.

This is a stunning change in just one generation. Why don’t we hear more about it? Because it doesn’t fit the doomsday agenda.

Half the world now has fewer than the “replacement level” of children. That includes Europe, North America, and the Caribbean, most of the Far East from Japan to Thailand, and much of the Middle East from Algeria to Iran.

Yes, Iran. Women in Tehran today have fewer children than their sisters in New York—and a quarter as many as their mothers had. The mullahs may not like it, but those guys don’t count for much in the bedroom.

And China. There, the communist government decides how many children couples can have. The one-child policy is brutal and repulsive. But the odd thing is that it may not make much difference any more. Chinese women round the world have gone the same way without compulsion. When Britain finally handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, it had the lowest fertility in the world—below one child per woman. Britain wasn’t running a covert one-child policy. That was as many children as the women in Hong Kong wanted.

What is going on? Family-planning experts used to say that women only started having fewer children when they got educated or escaped poverty—like us. But tell that to the women of Bangladesh.

Recently I met Aisha, Miriam, and Akhi—three women from three families working in a backstreet sweatshop in the capital Dhaka. Together, they had 22 brothers and sisters. But they told me they planned to have only six children between them. That was the global reproductive revolution summed up in one shack. Bangladesh is one of the world’s poorest nations. Its girls are among the least educated in the world, and mostly marry in their mid-teens. Yet they have on average just three children now.

India is even lower at 2.8. In Brazil, hotbed of Catholicism, most women have two children. And nothing the priests say can stop millions of them getting sterilized. The local joke is that they prefer being sterilized to other methods of contraception because you only have to confess once. It may not be a joke.

Women are having smaller families because, for the first time in history, they can. Because we have largely eradicated the diseases that used to mean most children died before growing up. Mothers no longer need to have five or six children to ensure the next generation, so they don’t.

There are holdouts, of course. In parts of rural Africa, women still have five or more children. But even here they are being rational—they need the kids to mind the animals and work in the fields.

But most of the world now lives in cities. And in cities, children are an economic burden. You have to get them educated before they can get a job. And by then they are ready to leave home.

The big story is that rich or poor, socialist or capitalist, Muslim or Catholic, secular or devout, with tough government birth-control policies or none, most countries tell the same story: Small families are the new norm.

That doesn’t mean women don’t still need help to achieve their ambitions of small families. They need governments or charities to distribute modern contraception. But this is now about rights for women, not “population control.”

It is also true that population growth has not ceased yet. We have 6.8 billion people today, and may end up with another 2 billion before the population bomb is finally defused. But this is mainly because of a time lag while the huge numbers of young women born during the baby boom years of the 20th century remain fertile.

With half the world already at below-replacement birthrates, and with those rates still falling fast, the world’s population will probably be shrinking within a generation.

This is good news for the environment, for sure. But don’t put out the flags. Another myth put out by the population doom-mongers is that it’s all those extra people that are wrecking the planet. But that’s no longer the case.

Rising consumption today is a far bigger threat to the environment than a rising head count. And most of that extra consumption is still happening in rich countries that have long since given up growing their populations.

Virtually all of the remaining population growth is in the poor world, and the poor half of the planet is only responsible for 7 percent of carbon emissions.

The carbon emissions of one American today are equivalent to those of around four Chinese, 20 Indians, 40 Nigerians, or 250 Ethiopians. How dare rich-world greens blame the poor world for the planet’s perils?

Some greens need to take a long, hard look at themselves. They should remember where some of their ideas came from.

The granddaddy of demographic doomsters was Bob Malthus, an English clergyman who got famous by warning 200 years ago about population growth. He believed that the world’s population would keep increasing till it was cut down by disease or famine. Back in the ferment of the Industrial Revolution, he was a favorite of the evil mill owners and a scourge on anyone with a social conscience.

Malthus hated Victorian charities because he said they were keeping poor people alive to breed. Better that they die, he said. He believed the workhouses, where the destitute ended up, were too lenient, and he successfully campaigned for a get-tough law known at the time as Malthus’s Law.

The novelist Charles Dickens, a social reformer, attacked Malthus in several of his books. When Oliver Twist asked for more gruel in the workhouse, that was a satire on Malthus’s Law. In A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge was a caricature of Malthus. In Hard Times, Thomas Gradgrind, the unfeeling headmaster of Coketown, had a son called Malthus.

I think Karl Marx, another contemporary, was spot on when he called Malthusian ideas “a libel on the human race.” And we are seeing the truth of that today as, round the world, women are voluntarily cutting their family sizes. No compulsion needed.

The population bomb is being defused right now—by the world’s poor women. Sadly, the consumption bomb is still primed and ever more dangerous. Now that would be a proper target for environmentalists.

Editor’s note: Read a rebuttal to Pearce’s post by Robert Walker of the Population Institute.

Related Links:

Of course population is still a problem

To the population doomsayers: What do you propose?

The Population-Poverty Connection

How to trick people into thinking you're good looking

2010-07-12T07:49:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: How to trick people into
thinking you're good looking via YouTube on 7/11/10

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Google Open Spot alerts Android users to freed parking spaces

2010-07-12T07:12:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: Google Open Spot alerts Android
users to freed parking spaces via Engadget Mobile by Darren Murph on
7/11/10
Oh, sure -- this has certainly been tried before, but given that things
like this need a critical mass of followers to be effective, we're
particularly jazzed about Google's own initiative. Dubbed 'Open Spot,'
this bloody brilliant Android (2.0 and up) application enables
motorists to search for unclaimed spaces that have been reported by
other Open Spot users, and once they head elsewhere, it allows them to
mark their spot as open and available. Once a spot is marked, the color
gradually fades from red to yellow the longer it remains unclaimed.
We've given it a quick test here on our end, and while it seems snappy
enough (and yes, we definitely received a Karma Point for every space
we dropped), the obvious omission is the ability to add notes to each
marked place. There really should be a way to denote whether a spot is
metered, covered by some wacky city permit law or submerged in a foot
of water -- here's hoping the next update will enable comments. Hit
that source link (or just open up the App Market) to grab it for free,
and jump on past the break to see how your fellow city dwellers feel
about this marvelous invention.
Continue reading Google Open Spot alerts Android users to freed parking
spaces

Google Open Spot alerts Android users to freed parking spaces
originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Jul 2010 14:02:00 EST.
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We agree it’s WEIRD, but is it WEIRD enough?

2010-07-10T23:48:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: We agree it’s WEIRD, but is it
WEIRD enough? via Neuroanthropology by gregdowney on 7/10/10

The most recent edition of Behavioral and Brain Sciences carries a
remarkable review article by Joseph Henrich, Steven J. Heine and Ara
Norenzayan, ‘The weirdest people in the world?’ The article outlines
two central propositions; first, that most behavioural science theory
is built upon research that examines intensely a narrow sample of human
variation (disproportionately US university undergraduates who are, as
the authors write, Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and
Democratic, or ‘WEIRD’).

More controversially, the authors go on to argue that, where there is
robust cross-cultural research, WEIRD subjects tend to be outliers on a
range of measurable traits that do vary, including visual perception,
sense of fairness, cooperation, spatial reasoning, and a host of other
basic psychological traits. They don’t ignore universals – discussing
them in several places – but they do highlight human variation and its
implications for psychological theory.

As is the custom at BBS, the target article is accompanied by a large
number of responses from scholars around the world, and then a
synthetic reflection from the original target article authors to the
many responses (in this case, 28). The total of the discussion weighs
in at a hefty 75 pages, so it will take most readers (like me) a couple
of days to digest the whole thing.

It’s my second time encountering the article as I read a pre-print
version and contemplated proposing a response, but, sadly, there was
just too much I wanted to say, and not enough time in the calendar
(conference organizing and the like dominating my life) for me to be
able to pull it together. I regret not writing a rejoinder, but I can
do so here with no limit on my space and the added advantage of seeing
how other scholars responded to the article.

My one word review of the collection of target article and responses:
AMEN!

Or maybe that should be, AAAAAAAMEEEEEN! {Sung by angelic voices.}

There’s a short version of the argument in Nature as well, but the
longer version is well worth the read.

Of course, I have tons of quibbles with wording or sub-arguments, ways
of making points, choices of emblematic cases and the like in the
longer BBS article (and I’ll get to a couple of those below the
‘fold’), but I don’t want to lose my over-arching sense that there is
so much right in this piece. So before I get into the discussion, I
just want to thank all of the authors, not just Henrich, Heine and
Norenzayan, but also the authors of the responses, who pulled it
together when I didn’t try. The collection is a really remarkable
discussion, one that I find gratifying in such a prominent place, and I
do hope that the target article has a significant impact on the
behavioural sciences.

If you have one blockhead colleague who simply does not get that
surveying his or her students in ‘Introduction to Psychology’ fails to
provide instant access to ‘human nature,’ this is the article to pass
along. If that colleague still doesn’t get it, please stop talking to
them. Really. You. Are. Wasting. Your. Breath. If Henrich, Heine and
Norenzayan don’t shake their confidence, I’m not sure what can.
The weirdest people in the world?
Joseph Henrich,Steven J. Heine and Ara Norenzayan (2010).
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Volume 33, Issue 2-3, June 2010 pp 61-83
http://journals.cambridge.org.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/action/displayAbstract?aid=7825833

Abstract

Behavioral scientists routinely publish broad claims about human
psychology and behavior in the world’s top journals based on samples
drawn entirely from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and
Democratic (WEIRD) societies. Researchers – often implicitly – assume
that either there is little variation across human populations, or that
these “standard subjects” are as representative of the species as any
other population. Are these assumptions justified? Here, our review of
the comparative database from across the behavioral sciences suggests
both that there is substantial variability in experimental results
across populations and that WEIRD subjects are particularly unusual
compared with the rest of the species – frequent outliers. The domains
reviewed include visual perception, fairness, cooperation, spatial
reasoning, categorization and inferential induction, moral reasoning,
reasoning styles, self-concepts and related motivations, and the
heritability of IQ. The findings suggest that members of WEIRD
societies, including young children, are among the least representative
populations one could find for generalizing about humans. Many of these
findings involve domains that are associated with fundamental aspects
of psychology, motivation, and behavior – hence, there are no obvious a
priori grounds for claiming that a particular behavioral phenomenon is
universal based on sampling from a single subpopulation. Overall, these
empirical patterns suggests that we need to be less cavalier in
addressing questions of human nature on the basis of data drawn from
this particularly thin, and rather unusual, slice of humanity. We close
by proposing ways to structurally re-organize the behavioral sciences
to best tackle these challenges.

Article summary

If you absolutely don’t want to read the target article (you should),
I’ll also provide a bit of summary discussion to supplement the
abstract. Skip ahead to the next section if you just want my response.

Henrich, Heine and Norenzayan first survey some of the evidence that
Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic subjects – more
specifically, University undergrads – are disproportionately the
empirical foundation for claims being made, either explicitly or
implicitly, about human nature. The evidence here is pretty staggering,
even for someone like me who is suspicious of psychology for precisely
this reason.

A recent survey by Arnett (2008) of the top journals in six
sub-disciplines of psychology revealed that 68% of subjects were from
the US and fully 96% from ‘Western’ industrialized nations (European,
North American, Australian or Israeli). That works out to a 96%
concentration on 12% of the world’s population (Henrich et al. 2010:
63). Or, to put it another way, you’re 4000 times more likely to be
studied by a psychologist if you’re a university undergraduate at a
Western university than a randomly selected individual strolling around
outside the ivory tower.

Moreover, psychology is disproportionately American, and especially
English-speaking, even compared to other scientific fields. 70% of all
psych citations originate from US research institutions, compared with
37% in a field like chemistry, and the top four countries for
psychology citations are all English speaking.

Despite the skewed sampling, psychologists seldom offer cautionary
notes about the source of their data or its potential cultural
boundedness, and likely would be testy if the cross-culturally critical
among us suggested that they retitle their publications to reflect the
source of their information: such as, the Journal of Experimental
Psychology in High-Enrollment American Research Universities:
Undergraduate Psychology Students’ Perception and Performance, a
personal favourite. Henrich and colleagues do a good job of pointing
out where there are exceptions to the pattern, and many of the authors
of comments have been leaders in trying to implement broader,
cross-cultural sampling, but the pattern is pretty pronounced in spite
of noteworthy exceptions.

Henrich and colleagues then go on to use existing studies to contrast
WEIRD subjects with other sorts of people on a series of increasingly
close, ‘telescoping’ contrasts: first, they compare industrialized and
‘small-scale’ societies in areas such as visual perception, fairness,
cooperation, folkbiology, and spatial cognition. The authors then
highlight the contrast of ‘Western’ and ‘non-Western’ populations on
measures such as social behaviour, self-concepts, self-esteem, agency
(a sense of having free choice), conformity, patterns of reasoning
(holistic v. analytic), and morality.

The authors then examine how Americans specifically stand out from
other subject pools in comparative research to highlight how the
specific dominance of US subject pools in psychological research might
skew our understanding. In particular, Henrich and colleagues survey
the issue of individualism, choice, and other outlying US traits. This
section is among the thinnest in the article, but it is still full of
suggestive data, especially for those of us who are sensitized to the
dissimilarities glossed over in the catch-all term, ‘Western’ (my
Australian wife and I, a Yank, frequently find ourselves contending
with Oz-Sepo contrasts in daily life, even though Australia and the US
would typically be considered quite similar ‘Western’ cultures).

Finally, Henrich, Heine and Norenzayan contrast the Americans who
typically wind up as psychology subjects with the whole population of
the US, highlighting the diversity among adult Americans in such area
as social behaviour, moral reasoning, cooperation, fairness,
performance on IQ tests and analytical abilities. US undergraduates
exhibit demonstrable differences, not only from non-university educated
Americans, but even from previous generations of their own families.

Herich et al. are careful to point out that ‘difference’ is not the
whole story, that there are underlying similarities among the diverse
groups, and they are agnostic about the causes of various contrasting
results. They suggest (2010: 79) that determining a set of criteria for
traits likely to be universals would be helpful to psychology and
behavioural science and offer a few examples.

But perhaps the main point is a cautionary one, arguing that the
developmental environment for WEIRD children may be statistically
unusual in a wide variety of ways from the typical environment of
modern Homo sapiens throughout our species’ time on the planet:

The fact that WEIRD people are the outliers in so many key domains of
the behavioral sciences may render them one of the worst subpopulations
one could study for generalizing about Homo sapiens…. WEIRD people,
from this perspective, grow up in, and adapt to, a rather atypical
environment vis-à-vis that of most of human history. It should not be
surprising that their psychological world is unusual as well. (2010:
79-80)

As a counter-balance to the oddity of WEIRD subjects, and their
overwhelming over-representation in psychological research to this
date, Henrich and colleagues recommend an ambitious cross-cultural
research agenda, changes to publication policy to redress the
imbalance, and a range of other practical, albeit quite difficult,
policies.

They highlight that adding subjects to our pools may not be sufficient
to fix biases that are inherent in research questions, method, or
theory, a point that several of the commentators also discuss, some
with less optimism than Henrich and colleagues (for example, Gosling,
Carson, John and Potter; Shweder; and Baumard and Sperber).

Overall, what most recommends this article is not that these arguments
have never been made before, but rather the breadth and depth of the
empirical sources that Henrich and colleagues draw into the discussion.
For example, Paul Rozin, who arguably has made very similar arguments
before, lauds Henrich and colleagues, writing about the message of
cross-cultural variation, ‘never has it been so thoroughly documented
and elaborated into all the domains in which it is relevant. And never
so convincingly’ (2010: 108). High praise, indeed.

So what possible quibbles could I have with a piece that clearly has so
much so right? Let the picking of nits begin!

Is being WEIRD really what makes them odd?

Henrich and colleagues use the acronym WEIRD (Western, Educated,
Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) to capture the distinctiveness of
the typical subjects used in psychology experiments – university
students in psychology classes – but I suspect that this acronym,
however clever, fails to truly capture how odd these subjects are. One
could add a host of other terms that would highlight other outlying
characteristics of this population, especially differences that may not
be so obvious to WEIRD researchers.

Although WEIRD is terribly catchy and quite manageable, it may not even
focus us on the most important distinctions, nor may it reflect a good
starting point for a truly trans-cultural psychology, carting our own
self-conceptions and obsessions, surreptitiously, into the
cross-cultural comparisons. Is WEIRD weird enough to constitute a break
from typical ways of thinking among the WEIRD researchers? (God, this
if fun. It’s one reason I think the article has legs: rhetorical
catchiness.)

For example, when I brought one of my Brazilian subjects to an American
university at which I previously taught, his characterization of the
American students’ differences from young Brazilians with whom he had
more contact focused on none of these traits (W. E. I. R. or D.). He
was more struck by their large size (both height and BMI, to put it
nicely), their frumpy androgynous clothing (anyone here not wearing a
sweatshirt?), their materialism, their clumsiness and physical
ineptitude, and their ethnic and personal homogeneity. If my Brazilian
colleague were to characterize the oddness of the WEIRD, he wouldn’t
focus on the traits Henrich and colleagues have chosen in their
designation.

From the perspective of my admittedly non-academic Brazilian colleague,
the truly outstanding characteristics of the US students were
characteristics like their body types, the diminishing of gender
markers, and the evidence of extraordinary peer-group conformity in
bearing, expression and personal presentation. His observations are
hardly scientific, but they suggest that focusing on ‘Western-ness’,
education, economic system, wealth, and political system certainly
doesn’t exhaust the parameters of difference and it might not even
highlight the most salient, although it does correspond to patterns of
the Big Variables in Western scholarship about difference (when I was
in grad school, it was the Holy Trinity: gender, class and ethnicity).

I don’t think that my point is a fundamental disagreement with Henrich
and colleagues, but a concern that the parameter of difference we
choose to highlight, even in the simplest designation, might itself be
a culturally-generated bias. Anthropologists are well acquainted with
having our subjects point to traits that are invisible to the Western
research as ‘the crucial’ characteristic for understanding the gap. For
example, ‘rich’ may seem an obvious contrast to poverty, but we know
that not all ‘poverty’ is the same, nor are all ‘rich’ people able to
experience in the same way their material situation. Some economists
have argued that inequality is more crucial for understanding the
experience of deprivation, for example, than absolute wealth. And poor
populations often fix, not on their material deprivation, but on other
qualities to describe their difference from the wealthy (or the WEIRD).
For example, religious differences, family dynamics, or caste might be
salient to people from other cultural backgrounds.

In addition, I worry that some of our cultural ideology and self
deception may be smuggled in under the terms themselves, especially
‘Western,’ ‘industrialized’ and ‘democratic.’ ‘Western’ has been too
comprehensively discussed to really dwell on here, but I’m struck by
both ‘democratic’ and ‘industrialized’ as forms of self description for
Americans, especially. After all, isn’t ‘de-industrialization’ or
post-industrialization a key economic transformation in the United
States, and aren’t many American commentators worried about the
hollowing out of ‘democracy’ in an age of voter apathy and corporate
domination of media and political lobbying?

If WEIRD college students aren’t voting in large numbers, for example,
and feel profoundly alienated from politics, isn’t it problematic to
think of ‘democracy’ as shaping their attitudes? I’d be more inclined
to say we should examine the landless farmers in Brazil I worked with
while studying the Landless Movement to understand ‘democratic’
populations. They had long community meetings modeled on the labour
movement or anarchist movement to come to decisions. I doubt my
university students in the US had experienced anything nearly as
‘democratic.’

Again, I think that my critique is more than a bit unfair, as Henrich
and colleagues are writing for an experimentalist academic community
that needs to be made aware of the distortions introduced by accustomed
research methods. They’re not writing for an audience of
deconstructivist, left-leaning, post-colonial political economists,
anthropologists, or cultural studies scholars. My ‘critiques’ are more
about how we might shepherd the next stage of research if Henrich,
Heine and Norenzayan are successful with their intervention. I worry
that, even if psychologists, brain scientists, and evolutionary
theorists decide that they need to take human variation seriously,
anthropology isn’t going to be ready as a discipline to help (one more
reason I appreciate the inter-disciplinary program that Henrich and his
colleagues are sketching).

So, to sum up this post-Henrich, next stage concern: I worry that
W.E.I.R.D. classification flatters the WEIRD, focusing on traits that
Westerners typically highlight to describe themselves in ways that are,
however inadvertently, pretty self-congratulatory. If we were to call
the same group, Materialist, Young, self-Obsessed, Pleasure-seeking,
Isolated, Consumerist, and Sedentary (MYOPICS)… you get the idea. (By
the way, I’m not committed to this, only to getting my own acronym –
You know the steps in the cheap acronym process: Set acronym. Find
words to fit each letter.)

How the WEIRD get weird

Henrich, Heine and Norenzayan are really good in the target article to
refrain from too much speculation about the explanations for the
peculiarity of the WEIRD. It’s one of the many things that I think they
need to be congratulated on, and their openness invites a wide-ranging
discussion of the many likely contributing facotrs. But many of the
specific qualities highlighted in the Henrich et al. piece and in the
responses likely do not stem directly from being either W., E., I., R.
or D., so the classification itself can be misleading.

For example, one of the prime candidates for the cause of some of the
measurable differences is variation in child-rearing techniques,
especially forms of verbal interaction with infants and young children,
their visual and sensory environments, and the manual forms of care
given to children. WEIRDness doesn’t necessarily determine this
childhood environment, even though many childcare practices that might
help to create the psychological statistical anomalies we find in these
populations do correlate with being WEIRD. If English is affecting how
the WEIRD think in ways that make them unusual, for example, there’s no
inherent reason why English speaking-ness necessarily leads to
WEIRDness, although the WEIRD are disproportionately English-speaking
(especially those surveyed for psychological research).

Again, this is not so much a critique of Henrich and colleagues but a
consideration of where we go from here, how we get at human
psychological variation. The point is just that it will not be enough
to try to get populations who are different to Us (if You, the reader,
are WEIRD) in ways that we recognize. For example, although poor
populations within Western countries may demonstrate significant
variation, they might not, and not because variation is not possible;
they might share child caring practices with wealthier countrymen
without sharing wealth or income profile. The choice of comparison
should be motivated by the research question and hypotheses about
relevant causal dynamics, not simply, like the broader reliance on
WEIRD subjects, the result of convenience in sampling.

Who you callin’ ‘SMALL-scale’!?

Henrich, Heine and Norenzayan use the term ‘small-scale,’ although they
are very clear what the term means and that it is not a thin proxy for
‘primitive’ (see p. 123, fn#4). I’m more than a bit uncomfortable with
the term ‘small-scale’ although it is arguably the most acceptable
classification for the groups that are being clustered (and miles and
miles and miles better than ‘primitive’ and other bare-facedly
ethnocentric terms). The problem is, what’s the contrast with
‘small-scale’? If it’s ‘Western,’ than we have an asymmetrical binary
distinction where some groups will arguably fall under both categories
or under neither.

For example, ‘small-scale’ focuses on a cluster of traits that don’t
NECESSARILY co-vary, although they might in until-recently foraging
groups: small, geographically-bounded groups with slight division of
labour, local organization through kinship, self-sufficient in food
provisioning, and face-to-face interaction. The obvious ‘none of the
above’ cases in the ‘small-scale v. Western’ contrast are non-Western
groups who are not small-scale, such as city dwellers in Asia, Latin
America, Africa and the Pacific (outside Australia and New Zealand).
This group would constitute a substantial part of the world’s
population, if not the largest grouping.

And what about Western populations living in small-scale settings? For
example, I live in a very wealthy town of around 2000 people where I
frequently encounter people I know on the street. As members of a
gentrified country town, we grow and eat a lot of local produce, more
so every year for ideological reasons, and, given 5 or 10 minutes, most
of the locals can find kin or age-cohort connections in a process that
is as seemingly obligatory as it is tedious for a ‘blow in’ (local
argot for an in-migrant) like myself to watch. I’m surrounded by people
interested in green lifestyles, self-sufficiency, ‘slow food,’
reconnecting socially – many of them living on million-dollar
properties. We’re obviously WEIRD – waaaaaay WEIRD – but also, in an
admittedly tendentious argument, ‘small scale.’

I don’t think for one SECOND that Henrich and colleagues are not aware
of this issue, but I think that the problem highlights a stumbling
block for anthropologists doing cross-cultural comparisons more
generally: the use of binary classifications is likely to be a nagging
intellectual handicap. Much more useful is to really think through
Henrich’s suggestion, in the same footnote (p. 123, fn#4), about an
‘n-dimensional’ comparative space for talking about cultural
distinctions.

The contrast of ‘small-scale’ to ‘Western’ seems to me to be an
artifact of more simplistic forms of cross-cultural comparison, more
‘primitive’ intellectual projects than the one Henrich and colleagues
are proposing. So much of the discussion in the article, including the
really intriguing graphs showing the wide range of variation WITHIN
both WEIRD and ‘small-scale’ groups, runs counter to the dichotomy,
highlighting the fact that human diversity can’t be too quickly
recuperated with old-fashioned Us-Them thinking. I don’t think Henrich
and colleagues fall victim to bipolar thinking as an intellectual
short-cut, but I worry that there’s dead-falls lurking along the path
of the terminology itself.

My own candidate for one source of the oddity

Although Henrich and colleagues are laudably restrained in speculating
about the sources of differences between WEIRD populations and other
groups, I want to put another candidate on the table that’s discussed
by Lana B. Karasik, Karen E. Adolph, Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda, and
Marc. H. Bornstein in one of the responses that I enjoyed a lot. They
talk about ‘WEIRD walking,’ the way that WEIRD populations are also
outliers in terms of motor development in ways that many people in the
field overlook.

Karasik and colleagues describe how WEIRD children’s patterns of motor
development became enshrined in psychology through testing procedures,
test items and norms into an understanding of universal ‘stages’ of
motor development (see 2010: 95). Even when cross-cultural research was
conducted, these culturally-specific criteria, derived from examining
WEIRD developmental pathways, meant that researchers were often
carrying with them tools that were ill-suited to study other sorts of
children. Or these psychologists were simply comparing diverse children
to WEIRD ones on standards set by the WEIRD children.

One example of this that I have discussed is overhand throwing, a task
that has been used in some tests of motor coordination in spite of the
fact that different cultural groups demonstrate enormous variability in
the activity because it is a skill, not a universally-acquired
entailment of being human. Some children learn to throw in environments
that support, model and reward the activity; others never really learn
to throw particularly well because their activity patterns simply do
not include the opportunity to learn (I’ve written in a book chapter
that will soon appear about ‘throwing like a Brazilian,’ an analogue to
‘throwing like a girl’).

Karasik and colleagues point out that even such ‘basic’ motor abilities
at crawling are susceptible to manipulation: the trend to put newborn
children on their backs to sleep in the West, for example, has retarded
the development of crawling in a population where children formerly
would routinely sleep on their bellies. In some groups, normal
development may not even include crawling, children skipping the stage
entirely or using some other intermittent form of locomotion, like
‘bum-shuffling’ or scooting about while seated.

In my own research, the physical abilities of WEIRD university students
stand out more clearly as strikingly odd than many of their other
traits, and I’m convinced that the extraordinary inactivity of this
population, coupled with their high calorie diets, has more diverse and
wide-ranging effects than simply leading to an epidemic of obesity,
Type-II diabetes, and other diet-related health problems. For example,
capoeira instruction, a subject close to my heart, has to start at a
much different place for American youth than it does with Brazilian
kids in Salvador where I did my field research. Even teaching salsa
lessons at a Midwestern US university drove home the profoundly
different motor starting point, prior to the lessons, of young adults
in the US compared to Brazilians (and I suspect, to many populations in
Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and elsewhere).

The point is not just to rehearse the typical alarmist discussion of
the ‘obesity epidemic,’ but also to point out the profound potential
implications of radical differences in activity environments for
children during their development. I don’t think most WEIRD theorists
realize just how powerful an influence sedentary living is on our
psychological, physiological, metabolic, endocrine, and neural
development because most of us, subjects and researchers alike, are SO
sedentary. WEIRD bodies have so much unused energy from their diets,
especially with their levels of activity plummeting, that I find it
hard to believe we understand metabolic patterns that would have
dominated much of human prehistory.

To argue that WEIRD subjects are a good window in on ‘human nature’ is
difficult when, from the perspective of metabolic energy and
expenditure, the WEIRD are such outliers in the whole history of our
species. We know that this radically unusual metabolic situation —
massive energy surplus with less and less expenditure — is profoundly
affecting mortality patterns: in WEIRD societies, most of the leading
causes of death are, arguably, directly linked to the human body’s
difficulty of coping with this situation, and that’s even after
generations of sedentary life in which to adapt. But the psychological
and neurological consequences of sedentarism are less well understood
in part, in my opinion, because most WEIRD researchers have a hard time
even imagining how arduous life would have been. Throughout human
existence, most humans likely have been phenomenally active, and
athletic, compared to WEIRD populations, out of necessity.

I’m going to have to write something more in depth on this, but I just
feel the need to flag it. If I had written a response, I probably would
have focused on this trait because it runs against WEIRD researchers’
self understanding. The WEIRD tend to think of themselves as unusually
healthy, and by measures of things like infectious disease rates, death
from accident, and infant mortality, they certainly are. But from a
broad, cross-cultural view, the extraordinary inactivity of the WEIRD,
coupled with their access to very energy dense, highly processed food
sources, makes them outliers in ways that I’m not sure we fully
comprehend.

Taking issue with some of the responses

A number of the commentators bring really interesting points to the
discussion. A few that I have to single out for special praise are
Majid and Levinson on WEIRD languages; Leavens, Bard and Hopkins on
BIZARRE chimpanzees (the acronym thing is apparently contagious);
Karasik and colleagues on motor development; Chiao and Cheon on brain
imaging; Ceci and colleagues on hiccups in research design; Fessler on
unknown unknowns in shame research; Lancy on ethnocentrism in child
development research… There’s really a lot of great discussion, most of
it building upon what Henrich, Heine and Norenzayan have laid out in
the target article. Again, I can only really recommend that you read
the original.

That said, there are a couple of responses that I have to take issue
with, including a couple that Henrich and colleagues handle far more
diplomatically than I would have.

‘Difference is really uniformity if you just ignore difference’

Lowell Gaertner, Constantine Sedikides, Huajian Cai and Jonathan D.
Brown basically write a piece that says, ‘yeah, yeah, differences,
differences, yada yada…. But the over-arching human universals, the
kind that we label with vague generalities that could be applied to
anything, are really the point, and they’re GENETIC!’ Frequent readers
of our weblog will know that this kind of argument gets me as hopped up
and raving as a post-Halloween kindergarten class. (And don’t even get
me started on errant use of the word, ‘reify’…) Danks and Rose offer a
similar, but less objectionable use of this argument strategy,
suggesting that universality is in the learning process, not in what is
learned.

Henrich and colleagues do an excellent job of shredding the specific
empirical case made by Gaertner and colleagues about the universality
of ‘positive self-views’ (see esp. pp. 119-121), so I won’t dwell on
the nuts and bolts. Flogging a dead horse and all. What I just want to
highlight is that the idea that there is something ‘essential,’ an
obdurate and universal ‘human nature,’ is NOT evolutionary thinking. To
argue against ‘human nature’ is not to be anti-evolutionary.

For some reason, some (though not ALL) theorists try to make the
argument for human variation appear to be against evolution, which is
something I can NOT understand, except in the narrow confines of the
history of feuding within anthropology. Even in my freshman human
evolution course, one of the key arguments from Week Two is that even
Darwin’s classical perspective on natural selection says that species
change and that variation is a fundamental precondition for natural
selection even if stabilizing selection produces patterns of continuity
over time.

But the bigger problem with Gaertner et al. is the common assumption
that, although there’s diversity in ‘behaviour’ or ‘phenotype,’ on some
other higher level of abstraction, there’s unity, even if that unity
has to be stated in such vague terms that it’s essentially meaningless.
Likewise, I’m not convinced that Danks and Rose are on solid ground, or
making much progress by trying to separate out learning processes from
what is learned, and then to argue that the processes are universal. As
an empirical statement, the argument for universal learning processes
is obviously false. Some societies, like WEIRD ones, have extensive,
explicit, segregated systems for formal learning; others have virtually
no separate contexts for learning or have very different sorts of
institutions than classrooms.

I just don’t think I get why some theorists must, as soon as confronted
by evidence of diversity, immediately declare that there’s
‘uniformity,’ at some ‘higher level’ of abstraction. The act can often
sound like a vague rearguard defense, as if there is some underlying
need to demand uniformity in spite of evidence to the contrary. For
example, confronted by the empirical reality of profound dietary
variation in humans, of survival for multiple generations at near
starvation levels, of culturally-induced dietary restrictions, of
eating patterns that are unhealthy and self-destructive, even voluntary
self-starvation or gross over-consumptions, some defenders of
universalism, like Gaertner and colleagues say, ‘the diverse diets are
connected and assimilated by a universal need for sustenance’ (2010:
93).

The point is not that there are no universals; it’s that the
‘assimilation’ of diversity into a meaningless ‘universal’ is a hollow
exercise that seeks to escape from the very point that Henrich et al.
are marking. Gaertner and colleagues argue that apparent,
empirically-verifiable diversity is actually unity at an ‘abstract
process and function’ level, a retreat to an unfalsifiable and
ineffable assertion, especially when coupled with allusions to
‘genotype’ that also can’t be shown to be empirically founded. Even
absolute, empirically demonstrated universality is NOT proof that
something is ‘human nature’; everywhere on Earth, humans deal with
gravity, but this is not due to ‘human nature,’ except that to be a
human is, like all other matter, to have mass affected by gravity.

It would be alright, logically, to retreat to universal declarations
about human universals of process or function ONLY IF the psychologists
who made this retreat would then refrain from making any statement or
implying any characterization of humans more specific than that
abstract universalism. In other words, if you’re going to argue that
the universal trait is the need for sustenance, than you have to stop
yourself from making pseudo-evolutionary arguments about food
preferences for salt-and-vinegar potato chips, fizzy soft drinks, and
‘death by chocolate’ cake, or anything else. That is, you can’t
strategically retreat to abstract high ground as soon as you’re
challenged empirically on sloppy universalisms only to boldly foray
forth into the land of blanket statements about more detailed
characteristics of ‘human nature’ as soon as you think no one is
watching.

What I don’t get, I guess, is the defensiveness. Are the knee-jerk
universalists worried that, if we concede that there might be
fundamental variation in humans, we inevitably move toward racism? If
so, we’re in trouble. Do they think that the existence of human genes
means that we must necessarily be a species of genetic clones? Are they
worried that science can’t be conducted on a topic where one cannot
make blanket universalizing declarations? If so, someone should tell
biologists because they’re in trouble. Is it just intellectual
laziness? Or is it a fear of some previous intellectual error, like the
denial of science itself, committed by some intellectuals in the name
of diversity? I suspect that it might be the last, but, unfortunately,
it often sounds like one of the earlier objections.

I don’t have a problem with saying there are some universals; I just
have a problem with someone, when confronted with evidence that a
particular trait is NOT universal, immediately trying to declare that
it really, really is uniform if we just squint our eyes, blur our
understanding, and step back further from the object of study. What’s
the point?

You say WEIRD, I say nuh-uh!

I’d also take issue with Paul Rozin’s commentary, although I think he
makes some excellent points (and I very much respect his work). My main
problem is the assumption that technologically-driven human development
will necessarily lead the world to become, well, WEIRDer:

But the main point of my commentary is that although the NAU [North
American undergraduate] is truly anomalous, this subspecies of Homo
sapiens is a vision of the future. With the Internet, ready
availability of information of all sorts, computer fluency as key to
success in the world, and ease in negotiating a world where text as
opposed to face-to-face interactions are the meat of human
relationships, the NAU is at the vanguard of what humans are going to
be like. (Rozin 2010: 109)

Perhaps I just don’t share Rozin’s techno-optimistic ‘vision of the
future’ online as a species, but Rozin seems to assume that the
wealthiest, most well educated, most privileged and greediest
resource-consuming sliver of the world’s population is just a bit out
in front temporarily from where everyone will eventually arrive.
Someday, when we grow up as societies, we’ll all be like college
students. God save us if that’s the case, because the environmental
footprint is going to be catastrophic unless a lot changes in the next
few years.

I don’t think I’d be alone in my suspicion that this view of digital
‘modernization’ is reminiscent of many declarations that some new
technology was going to change us fundamentally as a species; so far, I
think the evidentiary ball is in the court of the techno-optimists to
write a plausible account of how that will happen. Just as some might
argue the world is getting WEIRDer, others might argue that the Western
nations are less uniformly WEIRD.

I’d also take issue with Alexandra Maryanski’s commentary, but I’m just
not really sure I get where she’s coming from, so I don’t know where to
start (Henrich and colleagues don’t respond at length to this piece).
On the one hand, Maryanski seems to be aware of cross-cultural
research; on the other, I’m not sure she’s really read it the same way
that I would. The piece is so shot full of rhetorical questions that
it’s hard to follow the logic, but she seems to be saying that, because
ethnographic data on hunter-gatherers says that they have ‘high
individualism, reciprocity, and low levels of inequality,’ then WEIRD
societies are sort of just like the societies in which humans first
evolved…

For, despite all the multiple ills of industrialized societies, WEIRD
societies may be more compatible with our human nature than the
high-density kinship constraints of horticultural societies or the
“peasant” constraints of agrarian societies with their privileged few

So, people in industrial societies are JUST LIKE hunter-gatherers,
except for the gigantic scale, anonymous interaction, replacement of
reciprocity-based relationships with market transactions, and the
unprecedented-in-human-history levels of material inequality. (For the
slow readers, yes, that’s irony.) Oh, and the domestication of plants
and animals, sedentary settlements, high technology, extended classroom
education, mass media imagery, enormous social institutions, changes in
family structure, decrease parent-infant contact, radically new built
environment, completely different, dense social structure…

That’s why I say that, although there’s evidence that she’s aware of
the Human Relations Area Files, I’m just not sure how Maryanski read
them to come away with the impression that the WEIRD are just like the
foraging peoples in the ethnographic record. Maybe the train just left
the station without me on this argument, but I do not get it.

The argument she MIGHT make is that, with the enormous proliferation of
technology and division of labour, WEIRD humans, especially in the
extended adolescent period created by the system of tertiary education
that delivers them as subjects to psychology researchers, demonstrate
what humans might be like if they were utterly REMOVED from most normal
selective pressures. If anything, university students might be
demonstrating the utter nihilism and lack of restraint when normal
external scaffolding on human behaviour and decision making are relaxed
and replaced with fermented motivation, collective peer effervescence,
and complete discounting of any future outcomes…

Might make that argument.

I’m not sure I’m persuaded by it, but maybe slavish obedience to peer
pressure, high levels of inebriation and pizza consumption, cluttered
living spaces, transitory sexual relationships, intermittent
high-stress all-nighters punctuating months-long periods of sloth-like
inactivity except for feeding, drinking and playing video games – maybe
this is in fact what humans choose to do when divested of all
responsibility for themselves with virtually no immediate pressures
except for self-created social ones. Or maybe I’m just describing my
own time in college.

Concluding thoughts

I apologize for this overly long discussion, especially in a blog
format, but I just feel terribly inspired by this piece by Henrich,
Heine and Norenzayan. I can’t thank the authors enough, and I am going
to learn how to use a citation tracker specifically so that I can
follow the subsequent impact of this article.

My reservations notwithstanding, I think it’s a remarkable piece, one
that really needed to be written, and I congratulate the authors on it.
It’s a thorough, well-thought piece, but with the added advantage of
having some especially well-chosen examples and that colossal,
infectious, acronymic hook, the glossy term that captures such a key
idea well. I think the piece will travel well and might actually have a
terribly salutary effect on the WEIRD populations it is targeting.

References discussed:

Arnett, J. 2008. The neglected 95%: Why American psychology needs to
become less American. American Psychologist 63(7): 602-14.

Danks, David, and David Rose. 2010. Diversity in representations;
uniformity in learning. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 33: 90-91.
doi:10.1017/S0140525X10000075

Gaertner, Lowell, Constantine Sedikides, Huajian Cai, and Jonathon D.
Brown. 2010. It’s not WEIRD, it’s WRONG: When Researchers Overlook
uNderlying Genotypes, they will not detect universal processes.
Behavioral and Brain Sciences 33: 93-94. doi:10.1017/S0140525X10000105

Henrich, Joseph, Steven J. Heine and Ara Norenzayan. 2010. Most people
are not WEIRD. Nature 466(1): 29.

Henrich, Joseph, Steven J. Heine and Ara Norenzayan. 2010. The weirdest
people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 33: 61-135 (with
commentary). doi:10.1017/S0140525X0999152X Check Joseph Henrich’s
homepage for a pdf of the article and related audio files.

Karasik, Lana B., Karen E. Adolph, Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda, and Marc
H. Bornstein. 2010. WEIRD walking: Cross-cultural research on motor
development. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 33: 95-96.
doi:10.1017/S0140525X10000117

Maryanski, Alexandra. 2010. WEIRD societies may be more compatible with
human nature. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 33: 103-104.
doi:10.1017/S0140525X10000191

Rozin, Paul. 2010. The weirdest people in the world are a harbinger of
the future of the world. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 33: 108-109.
doi:10.1017/S0140525X10000312

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The Horror Of Asking For Data

2010-07-10T09:39:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: The Horror Of Asking For Data
via In the Pipeline on 7/9/10

A reader in the UK sent along this item from the BBC, and those of us
in the drug industry will enjoy it very much. An EU regulation is
forcing health food and supplement companies to. . .wait for
it. . .actually provide evidence that their advertising claims are true.

For those of us living in Orrin Hatch's world here in the US, this will
certainly be a change of pace. US readers know how it works - listen to
the ads, with the first two sentences delivered as a low-decibel
mutter: "Sold as a nutritional supplement only. Not intended to treat,
cure, or modify any disease. But the hell with that! It'll grow hair,
regenerate your liver, detoxify your colon, improve your memory, and
boost your immune system! You'll lose weight, have more energy, sleep
better, and you'll have to fight off the attentions of the opposite sex
with whatever weapons come to hand! And it's all-natural! Call now for
a free thirty-day supply!"

No, the EU isn't letting this stuff pass. Want to claim that your
cranberry drink reduces the risk of urinary tract infection? Show us
your clinical data - and no, not from someone else's study. From yours,
with your product. Glucosamine for arthritis? Got some data to back
that up? Green tea for cholesterol, or as an antioxidant? Show them
some numbers, or go home. The marketers aren't too happy:

Ioannis Misopoulos, director general of the International Probiotics
Association (IPA), is openly hostile.

"It can take three years to get these kinds of human studies together
but in the meantime the claims are going to be wiped away," he
said. "The regulation is killing this industry and the job losses are
already being felt."

Cry me a procreating river, dude. Or come over here to where you can't
get near the market without going through the clinic first - and for a
lot longer than three years, I might add. And where every claim you
make for your product is hammered out with the regulatory authorities,
and if they catch you stretching out past them you can get fined out
the wazoo. So they won't even let you keep running the ads while you go
fetch some evidence, eh? Well, it gets worse:

Not surprisingly, the process has left many manufacturers here in the
UK angry. Some say EFSA is demanding the same kind of clinical evidence
which prescription medicines would require.

"EFSA is rejecting most of the proposed food supplement claims," says
Jenny Baillie of the York-based health foods company Power
Health, "even established claims like cranberry for urinary tract
health, which will mean that there will be no information on packs for
the consumer to assess what the product is supposed to do."

She believes the regulation may even drive consumers into buying from
less reputable sources.

To which I am tempted to reply: Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.
Except in the EU.

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New images from space captured with Nikon D3S

2010-07-10T07:24:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: New images from space captured
with Nikon D3S via Nikon Rumors by [NR] admin on 7/7/10

You can see the rest of the images here (credit: NASA).

The full press release after the break:

MELVILLE, NY (July 7, 2010) – The images exhibited were captured with
equipment, including Nikon D3S digital-SLR cameras, NIKKOR lenses,
Speedlights and other accessories, kept aboard the ISS. To date, NASA
has captured more than 700,000 images with Nikon equipment carried into
space. Among these many images, those rare and precious photos that can
only be captured from space, as well as those captured under the
extremely low-light conditions of space that exhibit the superior image
quality of D3S noise suppression features are introduced.

Nikon has spent many years contributing to NASA’s study of space
through the development and manufacture of advanced and extremely
durable cameras and NIKKOR lenses. Production of NIKKOR lenses, which
make the most of Nikon’s optical technologies, reached fifty million
units last September. Nikon’s history with NASA began with the Nikon
Photomic FTN?, a modified Nikon F camera that was used aboard the
Apollo 15 in 1971. Nikon’s relationship with NASA continued even with
the transition to digital when NASA placed orders for Nikon D2XS
digital-SLR cameras in 2008. These cameras are still being used in
space today. In 2009, NASA ordered eleven D3S cameras and seven AF-S
NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED lenses for use in recording activities aboard
the Space Shuttle and International Space Station. The D3S cameras were
the same products available to consumers with no special modifications,
and they were delivered to the ISS via the Space Shuttle Discovery
launched on April 5, 2010.

Nikon products kept aboard the ISS

- 1 Nikon D3S digital-SLR camera: Delivered to the ISS via the
Discovery with Space Shuttle mission STS-131, which returned on April
20, 2010. Images are primarily those of the surface of the earth and
nighttime scenes. Standard consumer product (no modifications).
- 8 Nikon D2XS digital-SLR cameras: Modified according to NASA
specifications for recording extravehicular activities (EVA)
- 36 NIKKOR lenses (including three teleconverters)
- 7 SB-800 Speedlights
- 4 D2XS eyepieces: Eyepieces made exclusively for NASA Special
eyepiece viewfinders that enable image framing and verification through
a space helmet with extravehicular activities.
- Miscellaneous (filters, cables, etc.)
Primary images captured by Nikon products

Image of extravehicular activities on the STS-131 mission. View of
astronauts, as they work to tie down an Ammonia Tank Assembly on the
International Space Station during STS-131 spacewalk.

Nikon’s history with NASA

- 1971: Nikon Photomic FTN* (NASA specifications) was used on Apollo 15
- 1980: The “Small Camera”, based on the Nikon F3 and equipped with a
motor drive, and the F3 “Big Camera”, which utilized long film, were
delivered to NASA. The “Small Camera” was used aboard the Space Shuttle
Columbia launched the following year.
- 1991: The Nikon F4 and F4S were delivered to NASA
- 1999: The Nikon F5 and AI AF Nikkor lens were carried aboard the
Space Shuttle Discovery to photograph extravehicular activities (EVA)
- 2008: D2XS digital-SLR cameras were delivered to NASA. Eight D2XS
cameras are still used in space to document activities such as
inspections and maintenance operations.
- In addition, approximately 15 types of lenses, more than 35 all
together, are kept aboard the International Space Station for intra-
and extravehicular photography that supports NASA’s space activities.
Posted by NikonRumors.com
This RSS feed is copyrighted and cannot be republished in any way
without permission.

Related posts:
- The “Lord of Darkness” goes to space (Nikon D3s)
- More Nikon AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX sample images
- Nikon D3/D60 + Nikkor 35mm/F1.8G DX sample images

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Seattle Mapping Gets Old School

2010-07-09T21:32:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: Seattle Mapping Gets Old School
via Seattlest by Ian Chant on 7/8/10

We're sure, or at least fervently hoping, that we're not the only
people who have been walking the streets of Seattle at some point and
found ourselves thing 'Sure, this is nice, but wouldn't it be cooler if
everything here was rendered in 8-bit, Final Fantasy-style Nintendo
graphics?' Your Seattlest may be a little bitter that some of our more
finely honed skills--defending villages from rampaging hordes of orcs,
for example, or retrieving powerful relics from the treasure troves of
vicious dragons--are undervalued because these things don't, well,
exist.

But courtesy of Brett Camper, Seattleites can finally take a look at
what the Emerald City would look like if it was a magical video game
fiefdom at 8-Bit Seattle. Using Google Maps and 8 classic video game
graphics, Camper has created interactive 8-Bit maps of cities like New
York and London, and his hometown of Seattle is the latest to get the
treatment.

Our one piece of disappointment? No special marker for the Fremont
Troll - that gag is right there, just waiting to be made.

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LeBron React: Never Has Being a Sports Fan Felt So Stupid

2010-07-09T21:10:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: LeBron React: Never Has Being a
Sports Fan Felt So Stupid via The Sports Section by Will Leitch on
7/8/10

The worst moment of a night full of bad moments tonight came at the
end, after most disgusted fans had turned ESPN off, bile still sloshing
in their gums, when LeBron James, 45 minutes after announcing he would
play for the Miami Heat, returned to the camera with Jim Gray and the
head of the Apollo Group, which owns and runs the University of
Phoenix, one of the primary sponsors of the evening's festivities. At
this point, we had seen the pain of the Cleveland Cavaliers fans, who
had been so cruelly toyed with for weeks now, and we had seen Gray and
Michael Wilbon, shockingly, so inept and seemingly disinterested in
anything resembling a follow-up question. Fans of teams in the LeBron
Derby were disappointed — though no one as much as Cavs fans — but
mostly they were flabbergasted by the tone deafness of the whole
enterprise. LeBron James was a man breaking hearts across the country,
and there he was, with an old bald white man peddling for-profit online
education, and a short smug onetime sportscaster now just happy to be
on TV. There they all were, trying to sell us something. After that. It
was hawking souvenirs before the wake was over. And no one onscreen
seemed to find this wrong.

Loving sports, by definition, requires a certain suspension of
disbelief and logic. We are all pouring our hearts and souls into
cheering for men (and women) who do not care about us, who are not like
us, who are not the type of people we would ever associate with (or
even meet) in real life. We deify them because it is hard to find
people to deify in the real world: Sports spans every age group, ethnic
group, political persuasion, and all else that serves to divide us,
separate us. We cheer for athletes because sports does not matter, not
really. We cheer because sports is, ultimately, harmless.

And we trust that they will at least pretend. We trust that they will
recognize the ultimate ludicrousness of this whole enterprise, that
these are grown men wearing tank tops, throwing a ball up and around,
running on wood, that this all exists because we allow it to exist,
that the illusion must be maintained. We trust that they understand how
good they have it, how much we give them, against our own
self-interest. We trust that they are not laughing at us.

That trust felt broken tonight. Not because LeBron James went to the
Heat, even though he referred to his destination as "South Beach,"
not "the Miami Heat and their fans." Not because LeBron James didn't go
to the Knicks, even though of all the cities he mentioned enjoying
during this free agent "courtship," New York was the one he omitted.
Not even because LeBron was so, so cruel to Cleveland, not once
thanking the fans who made him into what he was, the fans who have to
wonder if their absurd investment in their sports franchises will ever
be rewarded. No, tonight, it felt like everyone involved — LeBron,
ESPN, Bing, the University of Phoenix, Stuart Scott, the man who once
chastised fans for having the audacity to boo, Jim freaking Gray —
treated the millions of people watching like stupid, mindless
consumers, empty lemmings ready to follow Sport into the abyss. Here,
here are the Boys & Girls Club props. Here, here is your search engine.
Here, here is your online college, Here, here is your Athletic Hero.
Eat. Eat. Consume. You like it. You love it. You'll always come back
for more.

They're surely right, of course. But never has it been laid more bare,
and never did it feel so empty. It felt like a break, the moment when
the tide crested, when we looked at the games, and their players, and
ourselves, and wondered: Why in the world are we watching these awful
people? It was a question impossible to answer.

LeBron James, thanks to this debacle, will never be the same. (That he
appears unable to understand why is the precise reason why.) ESPN, it
feels, will never quite be the same: There were surely thousands of
employees there who rubbed their eyes, aghast at what they were
watching, guilty to be a part of it. The NBA, the hunger laid bare and
the wound gaping for all to see, may never be the same.

And the fear is that we won't be the same. The fear is that we've truly
seen the ugly, dark heart of sports, and we won't be able to come back.
It feels extremely stupid to be a sports fan. It feels pointless. None
of this felt harmless tonight. And we allowed this to happen. Perhaps
this is what we deserve. Perhaps this will be good for us, all of us.

Let us all just hope everybody feels better in the morning. Some
morning, someday.

Related: The Knicks, Reheated [NYM]
Did Walsh and D'Antoni Fail? [The Sports Section]

Read more posts by Will Leitch

Filed Under: lebron watch fin, basketball, lebron james, lebron watch,
nba, sports

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Extinction Burst

2010-07-09T07:59:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: Extinction Burst via You Are Not
So Smart by David McRaney on 7/7/10

The Misconception: If you stop engaging in a bad habit, the habit will
gradually diminish until it disappears from your life.

The Truth: Any time you quit something cold turkey, your brain will
make a last-ditch effort to return you to your habit.

Source: Corie Howell

You’ve been there.

You get serious about losing weight and start to watch every calorie.
You read labels, stock up on fruit and vegetables, hit the gym.

Everything is going fine. You feel great. You feel like a champion. You
think, “This is easy.”

One day you give in to temptation and eat some candy, or a doughnut, or
a cheeseburger. Maybe, you buy a bag of chips. You order the fettuccine
alfredo.

That afternoon, you decide not only will you eat whatever you want, but
to celebrate the occasion you will eat a pint of ice cream.

The diet ends in a catastrophic binge.

What the hell? How did your smooth transition from comfort food to
human Dumpster happen?

You just experienced an extinction burst.

Once you become accustomed to reward, you get really upset when you
can’t have it.

Food, of course, is a powerful reward. It keeps you alive.

Your brain didn’t evolve in an environment where there was an abundance
of food, so whenever you find a high-calorie, high fat, high sodium
source, your natural inclination is to eat a lot of it and then go back
to it over and over again.

If you take away a reward like that, you throw an internal tantrum.

Extinction bursts are a component of extinction, one of the principles
of conditioning.

Much of your behavior is the result of conditioning. It is among the
most basic factors shaping the way any organism reacts to the world.

If you get rewarded by your actions, you are more likely to continue
them. If punished, you are more likely to stop. Over time, you begin to
predict reward and punishment by linking longer and longer series of
events to their eventual outcomes.

If you want some chicken nuggets, you know you can’t just snap your
fingers and wait for them to appear. You must engage in a long sequence
of actions – acquire language, acquire money, acquire car, acquire
clothes, acquire fuel, learn to drive, learn to use money, learn where
nuggets are sold, drive to nuggets, use language, exchange money, etc..

This string of behaviors could be sliced up into smaller and smaller
components if we wanted to really dig down into the conditioning you
have endured in order to be able to get nuggets in your mouth.

Just driving the car from point A to point B is a complex performance
which becomes automatic after hundreds of hours of practice.

Millions of tiny behaviors, each one a single step in a process, add up
to a single operation you have learned will payoff in reward.

Think of rats in a maze, learning a complicated series of steps – turn
left two times, turn right once, turn left, right, left, get cheese.

Even microorganisms can be conditioned to react to stimuli and predict
outcomes.

For a while in psychology, conditioning was the cat’s pajamas.

Source: Time Magazine

In the 1960s and ’70s, Burrhus Frederic Skinner became a scientist
celebrity by scaring the shit out of America with an invention called
the operant conditioning chamber – the Skinner Box.

The box is an enclosure which can have any combination of levers, food
dispensers, an electric floor, lights and loudspeakers.

Scientists place animals in the box and either reward them or punish
them to either encourage or discourage their behavior.

Rats, for example, can be taught to push a lever when a green light
appears to get a food pellet.

Skinner demonstrated how he could teach a pigeon to spin in circles at
his command by offering food only when it turned in one direction.
Gradually, he withheld the food until the pigeon had turned a little
farther and farther until he had it going round and round.

He could even get the pigeon to distinguish between the word “peck” and
“turn” and get them to perform the corresponding behavior just by
showing them a sign.

Yes, in a sense, he taught a bird to read.

Skinner discovered you could get pigeons and rats to do complicated
tasks by slowly building up chains of behaviors through handing out
pellets of food. For example, if you want to teach a squirrel to water
ski, you just need to start small and work your way up.

Other researchers added punishment to the routines and discovered it
too could be used like the pellets to encourage and discourage behavior.

Skinner became convinced conditioning was the root of all behavior and
didn’t believe rational thinking had anything to do with your personal
life. He considered introspection to be a “collateral product” of
conditioning.

Like Freud and Einstein, Skinner was a celebrity in his day, and his
belief we were all robots was unsettling. He made the cover of Time
magazine in 1971.

“My book,” says Skinner, ”is an effort to demonstrate how things go bad
when you make a fetish out of individual freedom and dignity. If you
insist that individual rights are the summum bonum, then the whole
structure of society falls down.”

- Time Magazine, 1971

Some psychologists and philosophers still hold to the idea you are
nothing but a sophisticated automaton, like a spider or a fish. You
have no freedom, no free will.

Your brain is made of atoms and molecules which must obey the laws of
physics and chemistry, so some say your mind is locked into service of
the rules of the universe like a clock. Everything you have thought,
felt and done in your life was the natural mathematical aftermath of
the Big Bang.

To this wing of psychology, you are the same as an insect, just with a
more complex nervous system responding to stimuli with a wider array of
denser behavioral routines which only appear to give rise to
consciousness.

You may take comfort knowing this is a hotly contested idea, one which
is as old as the Greek philosophers who imagined the unconscious as
wild horses pulling a chariot helmed by your upper-level reasoning.

Whether or not you have free will, conditioning is real, and the impact
of conditioning can’t be ignored.

The Supernanny

There are two kinds of conditioning – classical and operant.

In classical conditioning, something which normally doesn’t have any
influence becomes a trigger for a response.

If you are taking a shower and someone flushes the toilet which then
causes the water to become a scolding torrent, you become conditioned
to recoil in terror the next time you hear the toilet flush while
lathering up.

That’s classical conditioning. Something neutral – the toilet flushing
– becomes charged with meaning and expectation. You have no control
over it. You recoil from the water without ever thinking, “I should
recoil from this water else I get scalded.”

If you have ever been sick after eating or drinking something you love,
you will avoid it in the future. The smell of it, or even the thought
of it, can make you ill.

For me, it’s tequila. Ugh, gross.

Classical conditioning keeps you alive. You learn quickly to avoid that
which may harm you and seek out that which makes you happy, like an
amoeba.

The sort of complex behavior Skinner produced in animals was the result
of operant conditioning.

Operant conditioning changes your desires. Your inclinations becomes
greater through reinforcement, or diminish through punishment.

You go to work, you get paid. You turn on the air conditioning and stop
sweating. You don’t run the red light, you don’t get a ticket. You pay
the rent, you don’t get evicted.

It’s all operant conditioning, punishment and reward.

Which finally brings us back to the third factor – extinction.

When you expect a reward or a punishment and nothing happens, your
conditioned response starts to fade away.

If you stop feeding your cat, he will stop hanging around the food bowl
and meowing. His behavior will go extinct.

If you were to keep going to work and not get paid, eventually you
would stop.

This is when the extinction burst happens, right as the behavior is
breathing its final breath.

You wouldn’t just not go to work anymore. You would probably storm into
the boss’s office and demand an explanation. If you got nowhere after
gesticulating wildly and inventing new curse words out of your boss’s
last name, you might scoop your arm across his desk and leave in
handcuffs.

Just before you give up on a long-practiced routine, you freak out.
It’s a final desperate attempt by the oldest parts of your brain to
keep getting rewarded.

If you use the same elevator every day, and one day you press the
button and nothing happens, you start jamming the button over and over
again instead of just giving up.

You lock your keys in your apartment, but your roommate is asleep. You
ring the doorbell and knock, but they don’t come. You ring the doorbell
over and over and over. You start pounding on the door.

If your computer freezes up you don’t just walk away, you start
clicking all over the place and maybe go so far as to bang your fists
on the keyboard.

If a child doesn’t get any candy at the checkout line, he or she may
throw a giant spit-slinging tantrum.

These are all extinction bursts. A temporary increase in an old
behavior, a plea from the recesses of your psyche.

The worst thing you could ever do is give in to a temper tantrum. This
goes for adults too, because if you spend enough time observing other
people you will notice that people who are used to getting their way
will start a temper tantrum immediately after you have refused their
request. If you patiently restate your position and stay calm you will
see the person eventually give up. Depending upon how long he carries
on will tell you how other people have responded to the person in the
past. If he has been rewarded for having a fit often enough the
extinction burst will be spectacular, enjoy! If it’s short lived, it
will be over as quick as it started and you can feel good that you
haven’t encouraged it. The best way to eliminate a tantrum is to not
give in, wait out the extinction burst (walking away works wonders) and
reinforce the absence of the tantrum with your attention as soon as the
person stops.

- From the Canine University’s training statement

So, back to that diet.

You eliminate a reward from your life: awesome and delicious
high-calorie foods. Right as you are ready to give it up forever, an
extinction burst threatens to demolish your willpower.

You become like a two-year-old in a conniption fit, and like the child,
if you give in to the demands, the behavior will be strengthened.

Compulsive overeating is a frenzied state of mind, food addiction under
pressure until it bursts.

Diets fail for many reasons, much of them associated with your body
trying to survive in a situation where surviving starvation is much
less of an issue.

To give up overeating, or smoking, or gambling, or “World of Warcraft,”
or any bad habit which was formed through conditioning, you must be
prepared to weather the secret weapon of your unconscious – the
extinction burst.

Become your own Supernanny, your own Dog Whisperer. Look for
alternative rewards and positive reinforcement. Set goals, and when you
achieve them, shower yourself with garlands of your choosing.

Don’t freak out when it turns out to be difficult. Habits form because
you are not so smart, and they cease under the same conditions.

Links:

The 1971 Time Magazine Article on Skinner

The Supernanny

The Dog Whisperer

Operant or Classical Conditioning?

Classical Conditioning at Changingminds.org

Operant Conditioning at Changingminds.org

Extinction at Changingminds.org

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True Story

2010-07-09T07:06:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: True Story via Eschaton by
noreply.com (John) on 7/8/10
My fiance and I are in the process of trading in one delightful urban
hellhole for another, and this past weekend all the driving earned me a
cracked windshield on my pickup truck. A couple days ago I called a
local dealer (yeah I know, dealer) in my former city, where the truck
was but I wasn't, and got an estimate for replacing the windshield at
$250-$300. Fair enough; they hire a glass contractor to do it for $150
and charge me for the privilege of their customer service.

So imagine my surprise when my fiance dropped it off and called me to
say that they gave her an estimate of $450-$500. Same car. Same
windshield. 24 hours apart. Now, I'm not quick to assume bad faith or
nefarious motive, but I'm pretty damn sure some pig in the service
department thinks it's ok to try to rip off women.

When I called this morning to speak with the manager the woman who
handled my call seemed genuinely appalled that this was going on where
she worked. I'm sure it made her feel good to know what at least one of
her coworkers thinks of women. Speaking to the manager only furthered
my suspicions. The repair had already been done, and the bill had come
to about $425 total, but there was little attempt on his end to justify
the price. As soon as I said I wanted to see the invoice from the glass
contractor he told me he would see what he could do, and five minutes
later he called me back to say he had "fixed the problem with my bill,"
with a state inspection thrown in to sweeten the deal.

It's an indication of my blindness to my privilege that this episode
shocked me. It seemed like an antiquated cliche, but I guess it's
really not rare at all. The fact that the manager seemed more sheepish
about being caught than surprised at the behavior of his employees is
enough to make me realize how common the practice must be. And the
really crazy/depressing thing is that in a global context getting
ripped off by mechanics is pretty far down on the list of pressing
issues women face.

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Mike Judge Working on 'Beavis & Butt-Head' Revival?

2010-07-09T06:55:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: Mike Judge Working on 'Beavis &
Butt-Head' Revival? via TV Squad by Scott Harris on 7/7/10

Filed under: TV News
Back before Mike Judge filmed the cult classic workplace comedy 'Office
Space' and hit it big with the beloved Fox animated staple 'King of the
Hill,' the director rose to fame alongside two of the cultural icons of
the 1990's, Beavis & Butt-Head. Well, don't look now, but it's time to
break your flannel wardrobe out of storage, because it appears
America's favorite idiots may be about to return.

Yes, you read that right: According to Examiner, Judge is currently
hard at work fleshing out a whopping 30 new episodes of 'Beavis &
Butt-Head' with the intent of bringing the MTV series back to prime
time. The series, which features Judge as the voices of both title
characters, would retain its "original ghetto-tech aesthetic," but
feature modern music videos, which most would agree are more than ripe
for some intense sardonic mockery.

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Some Palystation game reviews

2010-07-09T01:12:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: Some Palystation game reviews
via amazon discounts by Nabil Khan on 4/3/09

So lets talk about games. The latest cool game released in the year
2008. Surely we'll be expecting something good from 2009 but we have to
give it time. The following are the games to be discussed about:
Naruto Ultimate ninja:storm(PS3/Xbox 360)
Dragon Ball Z: infinite world(Ps2)
Persona 4(Ps2)
Folklore(Ps3/xbox360)

Naruto Ninja storm-First up, the way of the ninja.The landscape is so
3-d, the Jutsus and kung-fu's so destructive, the impact of the punches
the ninjas throw at each other, you do not want to miss the action.You
can play mini-games in this game esp. which you'll need to complete in
order to progress through the story.There's even a giant battle where
your character has to battle a giant creature.So far so good, this game
is worth playing.

Dragon Ball Z: infinite world-The publishers of the DBZ games have made
many progresses in the vs. dbz fighting games. The destructive blows
from each ki attack seem to get more serious. In infinite world, its
not just a game to battle one on one with an opponent but like naruto
ninja storm, there are trails that must be completed. Sometimes when
you play as Goku in Story mode you have to play in a gameplay mode
where you have to fly to a destination, dodge enemy attacks and so on.
This game can keep you thrilled for a long time. persona 4: Awesome Rpg
game however its pretty unfit for players underage. Enough about age,
this game is a thriller taht you do not want to miss. Its like a cross
section of an rpg game and the sims game.For those of you who love
rpgs, you do not want to miss playing this game. Folklore: This game is
all beauty and fantasy. Surely your eyes will be filled with water and
your faces will be dripping wet when you see this game. the fantasy,
the story, the monster(folks), the drama, the story etc. Its all
composed together nicely to keep you interested in the game fopr a long
time.
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23 Brilliant Logos With Hidden Messages

2010-07-08T05:42:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: 23 Brilliant Logos With Hidden
Messages via theroxor.com on 7/7/10

Logos aren't always what they seem. Some of these logos can hold a lot
of information about the brand, all you have to do is look at the
clues. I've selected 23 great logos that have some sort of hidden
message. I'm sure you've seen some of these hidden messages before, but
I hope I've been able to show you some new ones as well. Big Ten.
bigten. Big Ten is an academic union which was founded in the year
1896. Until 1990, this union consisted ...

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My other website

2010-07-08T00:04:00.000-07:00

Doshopin

useful links

2010-07-07T11:27:00.001-07:00

http://www2.wrbl.com/rbl/snap/profile_view/30108
http://www.sqoop.co.ug/main/pg/profile/goodreview25
http://shanghaiist.com/profile/goodreview25
http://www.smartmenus.org/forum/profile.php?id=3288
http://www.grindtv.com/profile/goodreview25
http://www.planetwisdom.com/member/2412
http://forums.vwvortex.com/member.php?546775-goodreview25

Many English speakers cannot understand basic grammar

2010-07-07T07:39:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: Many English speakers cannot
understand basic grammar via ScienceDaily: Latest Science News on 7/6/10
Research into grammar suggests that a significant proportion of native
English speakers are unable to understand some basic sentences. The
findings - which undermine the assumption that all speakers have a core
ability to use grammatical cues - could have significant implications
for education, communication and linguistic theory.
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4chan prank means Justin Bieber must tour North Korea

2010-07-07T06:27:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: 4chan prank means Justin Bieber
must tour North Korea via Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin on 7/5/10
Justin Bieber's "My World Tour" Twitter voting contest asked fans to
vote on which country he should tour next, without restriction on which
countries could be included in the vote. 4chan smelled opportunity:
Anonymous nominated North Korea, then the boards clickswarmed. At the
time of this blog post, more than half a million votes now demand the
Canadian singer go do his thing on Kim Jong Il's party train.
I can't tell what's funnier, the Bieb stunt or the Beeb's coverage:

The contest, which ends at 1800 on 7 July, saw North Korea move from
24th to 1st place in less than two days, several thousand votes ahead
of Israel.
Given the fact that almost all citizens of North Korea are denied
internet access and there are restrictive controls over all media, it
is unlikely that any of the votes have actually come from within the
country.
A spokesman for the North Korean Embassy in London told BBC News that
any application for 16-year-old Bieber to tour would be dealt with by
its mission to the United Nations, although the matter would be
referred to Pyongyang.

Thank you for reminding us this is serious bizness, BBC News. Anyway,
if the prank's outcome really does obligate Bieber to go to North
Korea—hey, fair's fair— let's just hope he stays there. Just one day
left for votes, as I publish this blog post!

Also: 4chan's been busy with this guy. Ars Technica reports on a
related attack that exploited a YouTube vulnerability.
(via Jodi Ettenberg)

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Lockerbie bomber advice defended

2010-07-04T10:39:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by scorp via Google Reader: Lockerbie bomber advice
defended via BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition on 7/4/10
The Scottish government stands by advice on which it freed the
Lockerbie bomber after claims he could live for 10 more years.
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Rafael Nadal v Tomas Berdych – live!

2010-07-04T10:38:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by scorp via Google Reader: Nadal beats Berdych to claim
second title via The Guardian World News by Xan Brooks,
Minute-by-minute report on 7/4/10

Click on auto-refresh for all the latest updates. Email your thoughts
on Rafa Nadal, Tomas Berdych or anything else to
xan.brooks@guardian.co.uk

Play begins on Centre Court at 2pm. Xan will be here from 1.30pm. While
you're waiting, here are Kevin Mitchell's musings on how Rafael Nadal
is on the verge of eclipsing a certain Swiss fellow as the greatest
player in the history of the game ...
Rafael Nadal has Roger Federer's legacy in his sights
When they pack away the strawberries, calm the parched grass and close
up this marvellous old institution for another year, Rafael Nadal's
name should be written all over the 133rd edition of Wimbledon.

If he beats Tomas Berdych in the final this afternoon – as he should do
on rising form and proven pedigree – the amazing Spaniard will be
closing in on Roger Federer for the unofficial and hotly contested
title of best player in the history of the game.

If that has the sting of blasphemy about it – and Nadal thinks it does
– there are reasons to at least wonder if he could unseat the Swiss,
winner of six Wimbledons among his 16 Grand Slam titles, a whopping
nine in front of Nadal, who has won here just once and been runner-up
twice – both to Federer.

As Federer maintained after an imperfect exit from these championships
at the quarter-final stage, he is still hungry to resume his trophy
chasing. He does not accept there is even a hint of a decline in his
game, and it would indeed be a brave bookmaker who offered a price on
his not winning more major titles, maybe even another handful, which
would probably put him out of sight of the rest of the field, and
certainly he remains the prime threat on grass.

Article continues

The preview: Final Sunday, end of days and these championships are
drawing to a close. It is the cruel logic of the gentlemen's singles
draw that it eventually gives us one winner and 127 losers. The opening
round provides a mass cull of 64 hopefuls, a bloodbath in tennis
whites, after which the survivors are ushered through, wearied and
relieved, only to find themselves picked off at a slower (though no
less remorseless) rate until there is just one more victim to find.
Today, the thinking goes, that victim will be Tomas Berdych.

The 24-year-old Czech has exceeded the world's (and possibly his own)
expectations at this event. He demolished six-time champion Roger
Federer in the quarter-finals and put Novak Djokovic to the sword in
the semis. He is possessed of a fearsome serve and a monster forehand
and has shown, time and again, that he can keep a cool head in a crisis.

But facing him across the net is Rafael Nadal, the world number one,
who missed the chance to defend his title last year and is now in the
final stages of his mission to reclaim the kingdom. Nadal and Berdych
have met 10 times before, with the Spaniard carrying a seven-three
lead. Once, some years ago, the Czech was able to dominate Nadal with
sheer, brutish power. Since then, it's been one-way traffic. They have
met once before on the lawns of Wimbledon, in the 2007 quarter-finals.
Nadal won that one 7-6, 6-4, 6-2.

How to sum up today's men's singles final? Kevin Mitchell, the
Guardian's tennis correspondent compares it to a tussle between a bull
and a matador except that on this occasion, he says, the bull will win.
Similarly, you could view this one as a contest between the boxer and
the puncher. Nadal is the former; quick, clever and industrious;
working his man over with a flurry of body-blows and using swift
footwork to keep out of danger. Berdych is the puncher. His plan is to
plant his feet, bring back his arm and throw hay-maker bombs off either
wing. If he can connect with enough of these, he might just knock the
number one to the turf.

The past three finals have served up five-set classics (Federer over
Nadal in 2007; Nadal over Federer in 2008; Federer versus Roddick in
2009). But I'm not sure this one will quite go the distance. Random
prediction: Berdych will belt more outright winners than Nadal, but it
won't be enough to bring him victory. Nadal has too much in his
arsenal. His work-rate is too lively. He should grind the Czech down,
wear him out and win in four.

The knock-up: Tomas Berdych is first out of the locker room, with Nadal
trailing just behind. The Czech slumps in his seat and hands a quartet
of bottles to a ball-boy. The bottles are full of a cloudy yellow
liquid and are no doubt urine samples, handed over in advance ahead of
the obligatory drugs test. Berdych hands them over willingly, with the
hint of a sheepish smile. It is a smile that says: Hey, I have nothing
to worry about. But this is a bit embarrassing all the same.

Rafael Nadal runs to the baseline to begin the knock-up, bouncing on
his feet to get the juices flowing. It is a clear, warm day on Centre
Court, but the wind has picked up and the breeze blows the top-soil off
the ground. The general feeling is that, assuming the wind is a factor,
it will effect Berdych's big-hitting, precision game more than it does
Nadal's. We shall see.

At the baseline, the 12th-seed Berdych limbers up with half-speed
forehands and backhands. He is the first Czech to reach the men's
singles final since Ivan Lendl, arguably the greatest player never to
win this title. Lendl battled through to the final Sunday twice, in
1986 and 1987, but his angular game was fatally unsuited to the slick
courts and low-bouncing ball. These days the ground is firmer and the
balls are slower and Nadal enthuses that there is not much difference
between the grass and the clay. That works to Berdych's advantage too.
He is a big man and likes a ball that sits up high, hanging in the air
and waiting for him to hit it.

First set, Berdych* 1-0 Nadal: Tomas Berdych barrels quickly out of the
blocks. His serve is working and his forehand is in the groove and
Nadal is left to scramble about the baseline, still in search of his
rhythm. Love game to the Czech.

First set, Berdych 1-1 Nadal*: "I love you, Rafa!" shouts a man in the
stands. It may be Uncle Toni, who controversially coached his nephew
during a torrid five-set victory over Philipp Petzschner in round
three. Or maybe not. The Spaniard is a hugely popular figure out here
and the crowd applauds warmly as he coasts through a love game of his
own.

First set, Berdych* 2-1 Nadal: An encouraging early sign for Nadal. He
catches the Berdych serve on his forehand, flicking his return back
deep to catch the 12th-seed napping. But finding a rhythm is tough
against Berdych, who hits fast and deep, going for the winner at the
earliest opportunity. The Czech holds to 15.

First set, Berdych 2-2 Nadal*: Rafael Nadal's serve may well be his
most underrated weapon. It comes through quick, with kick and disguise,
and Berdych struggles to get a reading on it. But he makes some crucial
inroads here, scrambling into position to test the Spaniard with a lob
and then clobber him with forehand drives to either side. At 30-all he
has a chance, yet the chance comes and goes, kicking off the turf and
out towards the stands.

First set, Berdych* 3-2 Nadal: The 12th-seed decides to press forward
and kill Nadal at the net. He chugs north like a battleship, his guns
blazing, unconcerned when the Spaniard laces him with a forehand pass.
Keep going, keep going. Take the fight to the world number one. The
tactic works and Berdych holds to 15.

First set, Berdych 3-3 Nadal*: But now, with a grunt and a crack, come
the ominous signs that Nadal's game is slipping into gear. His
forehand, comparatively muted in the early games, abruptly starts
zipping through and rearing off the baseline and the kick serve comes
good with ace number-three. And with that we're level: three-all in the
first.

First set, Berdych* 3-4 Nadal: Panic stations, panic stations! The
sirens are wailing, indicating that the battleship is holed below the
waterline. Berdych rolls forward again, only for Nadal to tear him
apart with a forehand pass down the line to bring up love-40. Already,
several crew members are seen dragging out the life-raft. Berdych saves
one point with that big, clubbing forehand but he can't salvage the
next. Nadal breaks and pulls ahead.

First set, Berdych 3-5 Nadal*: Now a stretch of clear blue water opens
up between Rafa Nadal and lumbering Tomas Berdych. The Czech is pegged
back on the baseline, unable to move his feet and control his drives.
On the last point, Nadal gives him the run-around, sending the Czech
off to the right as he hooks a sugar-sweet forehand back behind his man.

NADAL WINS THE FIRST SET, 6-3: Just what is Berdych's game-plan today?
Has he lost the map or is he merely reading it upside-down? If the
Czech stands at the baseline, feeding Nadal balls like he's doing right
now, then he'll be on the ocean-bed in about an hour's time. He has to
try something different; has to take his chances; has to knock Nadal
off his stride. The Spaniard breaks again to put the opening set in his
pocket.

Second set, Nadal* leads Berdych 6-3, 1-0: Run, thinks Tomas Berdych. I
can still run at least. So Berdych runs, hauling his heavy frame around
the back-court until one, two, three break points bob gloriously into
view. Can he grasp them? No he cannot. The number one promptly knocks
him off-course with a flurry of swinging serves and kicking forehands,
and the Czech is still floundering.

Now the wind is picking up, whipping white-caps off the court. It blows
Nadal's hair across his brow and disrupts his ball toss. Might it blow
some good news in Berdych's direction? Again, no. The Czech blasts a
forehand wide to slip one game behind.

Second set, Nadal leads Berdych* 6-3, 1-1: A-ha: here at last is a
glimpse of the Berdych who whopped Federer and flattened Djokovic. He
opens his shoulders and tilts at the lines, crowning a love game with a
thunderous ace down the middle.

Second set, Nadal* leads Berdych 6-3, 2-1: Now it is Nadal's turn to
run - run! - around the back-court, scampering this way and that and
inviting Berdych to hit just one more shot to finish him off. Did I say
just one more? Make that two more, three more. One more than you can
manage.

Second set, Nadal leads Berdych* 6-3, 2-2: A fresh thought wafts
through Berdych's head and he seizes at it, a drowning man. Hit aces,
he thinks. Hit ACES! He hits aces and holds to love.

Second set, Nadal* leads Berdych* 6-3, 3-2: The Spaniard's pressure
appears to be telling as Berdych blunders impotently off in pursuit of
those probing topspin forehands. He reaches one and sends it off into
the crowd. He reaches another and slaps it at his own feet. This was
not what he meant to do.

Second set, Nadal leads Berdych* 6-3, 3-3: Bottle this game, it's
Berdych in essence. Most of the time he just hits aces. Other times he
hits heavy first serves, is gifted with a weak reply and is able to
strike a winner off the forehand. It's a great bottle, an impressive
bottle. But it is drifting, drifting miles from shore.

Second set, Nadal* leads Berdych 6-3, 4-3: Let's state the obvious:
Berdych needs to get a handle on Nadal's serve very soon. The Spaniard
is holding easily, firing that kick serve out wide and scampering in to
nail a backhand volley.

Second set, Nadal leads Berdych* 6-3, 4-4: Aces, thinks Berdych. Aces!
It is the only word rattling in his tormented skull right now. It is
his north star, his lucky heather. Aces.

Second set, Nadal* leads Berdych 6-3, 5-4: The pugilists jab and parry
but Nadal is quicker, cleverer; he makes Berdych looks clumsy. The
Spaniard holds to love.

Second set, Nadal leads Berdych* 6-3, 5-5: Nadal jumps to love-15,
making Berdych stoop low to dig out a volley and then lancing him with
a clean forehand pass. The Czech's Wimbledon campaign is now hanging
entirely on his first serve. It's the serve that is delaying Nadal's
progress, the aces that are keeping Berdych in this match. He hits
another out wide to the backhand and keeps level; five-all in the
second.

Second set, Nadal* leads Berdych 6-3, 6-5: The 12th-seed would dearly
love to get hold of some of these returns. He is angry and frustrated,
his temper fraying beneath his baseball cap. If God were to give him
just a split second longer, he could plant his feet and ram the thing
right back down the Spaniard's throat. But he is being rushed and
distracted and is one-step late on almost all of his shots.

NADAL WINS THE SECOND SET, 7-5: It's love-15, it's love-30 and Nadal
scents blood in the water. In his fury, Berdych hits out (literally)
and now it's love-40. The Spaniard duly takes set number two as another
Berdych torpedo floats wide.

Third set, Nadal* leads Berdych 6-3, 7-5, 1-0: Tomas Berdych lines up
his cannons for one last assault, blasting Nadal off court and then
shunting forward to kill the point at the net. But what's that in front
of him? Why, it is none other than Nadal, the man who a second ago was
off way off in the stands. The Spaniard takes the ball on his backhand
and rifles it for the pass.

Third set, Nadal leads Berdych* 6-3, 7-5, 1-1: Punch-drunk and weary,
Berdych goes forward again. The back-court has been no friend to him in
this match; maybe the net will be kinder. He reaches for a forehand
volley, listing on one leg and sees the ball drop blissfully on a
vacant patch of grass.

Third set, Nadal* leads Berdych 6-3, 7-5, 2-1: Now, through the murk
and the seaweed, a bold idea washes like a miracle into the Czech's
harried brain. Go forward, says the idea. Volley at the net. He follows
the idea where it leads (north; forward) and abruptly arrives at break
point. But this time Nadal gives him no chance to run forward, pushing
him back until an exhausted backhand pops into the tape. And so Berdych
trudges back to his seat, flapping his racket in fury. Not waving, but
drowning.

Third set, Nadal leads Berdych* 6-3, 7-5, 2-2: Bliss for Berdych;
salvation for Berdych. The Czech bags an easy game.

Third set, Nadal* leads Berdych 6-3, 7-5, 3-2: How much longer can
Tomas Berdych stay afloat in these choppy waters? He kicks feebly and
keeps dipping below the surface. He has yet to engineer a break of the
Nadal serve and fares no better here. The Spaniard holds serenely to 15.

Third set, Nadal leads Berdych* 6-3, 7-5, 3-3: Boom, go the Tomas
Berdych aces. Boom. Seldom has the noise sounded more poignant. The
Czech has nothing more to give except booming aces and the occasional
death-or-glory run to the net.

Third set, Nadal* leads Berdych 6-3, 7-5, 4-3: With a shuffle of feet
and a flex of forearm, Rafa Nadal scurries into the backhand side to
lash a lethal south-paw forehand, inside-out, to the far corner of the
court. Berdych runs for it, but his pursuit is merely for form's sake.

Third set, Nadal leads Berdych* 6-3, 7-5, 4-4: At 40-15, Berdych gropes
and fumbles and finds forward gear again. But at the net, he is is then
passed by a high forehand, slathered with topspin that drops way inside
the baseline. Nothing else for it: he falls back on his heavy first
serve and ties the score at four-all.

Third set, Nadal* leads Berdych 6-3, 7-5, 5-4: Whip-crackaway,
whip-crackaway. Its yet another love game for the Spanish Armada.

"This is obscene," says Shreela via email. "Give me something ...
anything to justify my presence in front of the telly." I'm guessing
our correspondent is referring to the tennis, and to the brutal bashing
that Nadal is inflicting on Berdych. But Flog It is currently airing on
BBC2 and Shreela may just as easily be referring to that.

NADAL WINS, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4: Is he down? Has he sunk? Does he sleep with
all the fishes? The Berdych battleship lists to love-30, courtesy of a
devastating pass from the Spaniard. He makes one last attempt, hauling
himself back up to 40-30. But the legs are gone and the brain is soup,
and a moment later it's match point Nadal.

Go forward, thinks Berdych. It's worked in the past and it may work
again. It doesn't. Nadal catches him with a lashing, whip-crack pass on
the forehand, the ball zipping cross-court and kicking happily off the
grass. And Rafael Nadal is Wimbledon champion for the second time.

The presentation: Rafa Nadal's 2009 Wimbledon defence was killed off by
a dodgy knee but he came this year as a man on a mission. His vital,
vigorous game was too much for hulking Tomas Berdych. The Czech
pretender sunk swiftly to the ocean floor where his big-hitting game
sprouted barnacles. Try as he might, Berdych had no answer to the
Spaniard's onslaught and promptly went down at the end of each set.

On court, Nadal steps forward to collect his trophy. This is his second
Wimbledon title and his eighth grand slam in all. That puts him level
with the likes of Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl and Andre Agassi on the
pantheon of all-time greats.

In the meantime, the BBC TV coverage continues to excise some viewers.
Mark Taylor's beef is with the cameramen: "Their obsession with zooming
in on rich people groping and pawing at each other during the games is
making me feel ill. Not a classic final by any means but surely they
can find other things to show us."

Apologies, by the way, for the lack of email banter. I received a sum
total of seven emails during the course of this match - five of which
were from people requesting more email banter. did consider cutting and
pasting these missives, but it all felt a bit too meta and postmodern
somehow. Thanks for sticking with me all the same.

So that's that; Wimbledon been and gone for another year. It was, as
Mark Taylor points out, hardly a classic final. But it has at least
provided a classic champion: a tireless whirling dervish who deals in a
unique brand of non-malicious violence; a man who directs his fury at
the ball but never at his opponent. So the bull gored the matador; the
boxer out-thought the puncher. Rafael Nadal stands proud as winner of
the 2010 Wimbledon championship.

- Wimbledon
- TennisXan BrooksMinute-by-minute report
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this
content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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A link to one of my website

2010-07-04T06:22:00.000-07:00

Goodreview25

Upside Down Houses Flickr Finds

2010-07-04T05:47:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: Upside Down Houses Flickr Finds
via Apartment Therapy Main by Sarah Coffey on 6/30/10
"What if I should fall right through the center of the earth...oh, and
come out on the other side where people walk upside-down?" - Lewis
Carroll, Alice in Wonderland.
You wouldn't think the world would have so many upside down houses, but
it does. People have built them for all kinds of reasons, from starting
up a tourist attraction to commenting on the absurdity of politics.

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Rockport xcs boots

2010-07-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

Hey guys this is the place where you can buy it cheaply.Trust Amazon cause they provide the best offers.I searched everywhere and I found out that Amazon is the cheapest provider.

bad breath cure part 2

2010-07-02T02:54:00.000-07:00

Another reason to want a job at Google: insane napping pods

2010-06-19T03:08:00.001-07:00

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: Another reason to want a job at
Google: insane napping pods via Engadget Alt by Laura June on 6/17/10
Sure, the work days might be long, but there are plenty of upsides to
working at Google, as far as we can tell -- not the least of which are
the technologically advanced MetroNap Energy Pods they've installed for
their drones to nap in. Seriously? On site naps? We're there.
Another reason to want a job at Google: insane napping pods originally
appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Jun 2010 22:20:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
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6/19 Health-and-Fitness Articles from EzineArticles.com

2010-06-19T00:32:00.003-07:00

==================================================
1. Housemaid's Knee (Pre-Pateller Bursitis)
==================================================
June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

Housemaid's knee, also known as pre-patellar bursitis, occurs when the pre-pateller bursa (which lies in front of the kneecap) becomes inflamed. Normally, this body part exists to reduce the friction between the tendon in the knee and the overlying skin used when bending the knee.

http://ezinearticles.com/4506915

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2. How to Build Your Home Gym Effectively and Work Out at Home
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

Learn how to create an effective home gym setup. Working out at home is great, but you need to get the right equipment first.

http://ezinearticles.com/4502286

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3. Cure For Excessive Underarm Sweating
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

Sweating is a problem that all of us have, but some have in excess. Excessive sweating or hyperhidrosis is a way to see to it that the body temperatures are regulated.

http://ezinearticles.com/4508161

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4. Do You Understand Your Health Risks?
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

Health risks are just about everywhere, as well as in everything that we do in our daily lives. By understanding the health risks that are out there, we may be able to avoid them.

http://ezinearticles.com/4505821

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5. Dicom Solutions For Chiropractic Offices
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

This means more competition for clients. By going digital with the latest chiropractic DR (digital radiography) system and equipping your radiography room with chiropractic CR (computed radiography) and chiropractic PACS (picture archive and communication system), you'll be ahead of the pack while enabling your practice to provide patients with superior service.

http://ezinearticles.com/4507996

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6. What is the Life Cycle of Lice?
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

If you or your child come down with a head lice infestation it is important to understand the life cycle of these creatures in order to kill the infestation. Lice are a parasitic insect that live close to the scalp in the hair of humans. These parasites feed off of blood and are very small, about the size of a sesame seed. They usually appear to be a dull gray-brown color. The life cycle of lice is in three distinct phases.

http://ezinearticles.com/4504511

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7. Impact of Clinical Research Jobs on Life Science Industry
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

There is a big impact on the life science industry in UK, which is now on expansion mode with the kind of practices being put into practice concerning clinical research jobs. The main objective is to make sure that these research jobs creates and implements clinical procedures within the industry that can benefit many people who desire for quality treatment. The focus is mainly on research activities related to new pharmaceutical products that can aid in better treatment for everyone.

http://ezinearticles.com/4507383

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8. Processed Sugar, Salt and Flour - Are They Safe?
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

There are some foods, especially baked goods that contain high quantity of refined sugar, salt and flour. It is difficult to say which of these three ingredients considered the most damaging to our bodies or the most prevalent one. Several years ago, flour was stone-ground and lacked some of the original nutrients from the grain. A grain of wheat has a number of layers to it that contains necessary nutrients that are normally lost when being refined. This is the reason why several manufactures were mandated to add vitamins and nutrients after it was processed.

http://ezinearticles.com/4506816

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9. Why Am I Always Hungry and Tired? Here Are Four Common Causes You Should Look Into
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

Hunger and tiredness are two symptoms that often coexist. This was the case for me when I was always tired: I was very hungry even if I had eaten just one or two hours earlier, and I always had to eat right before I went to bed at night in order to fall asleep. Are you asking yourself why am I always tired or why am I always hungry and tired? Let us consider what the reason may be for your problem and what you can do about it.

http://ezinearticles.com/4505964

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10. How to Shrink Hemorrhoids - A Home Made Guide
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

If you have been looking everywhere for a simple yet effective solution on how to shrink hemorrhoids, this article aims to suggest a few methods. Cure your hemorrhoids naturally by following the advice given in this article.

http://ezinearticles.com/4502696

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11. Holistic Health Concepts That Can Kill You If Ignored
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

Holistic health care is defined as optimum functioning of one's physical, mental, and spiritual self. Here is what your body needs to be healthy.

http://ezinearticles.com/4505590

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12. Cure Lice With Tea Tree Oil
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

Head lice are an extremely common problem among children. They are considered to be the most likely to pick up a lice infestation between the ages of three and ten.

http://ezinearticles.com/4504314

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13. A Great Way to Kill Head Lice
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

The infestation of lice that live on humans is known as Pediculosis. There are many different methods used to kill head lice. It is very important that we remove as many cases of this as we possibly can. Every year lice spread further and further across the globe.

http://ezinearticles.com/4504421

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14. How to Remove a Scar Naturally
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

Removal of body scars can be done by different means and remedies, but most of the available methods and treatments found in the internet are usually expensive and ineffective. Some of these are even unsafe and can cause allergic reactions to the skin if applied directly without properly checking. An effective scar removal program can be an effective and inexpensive way of removing body scar.

http://ezinearticles.com/4505248

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15. How to Deal With Head Lice Infestation
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

Head lice infestation is a very common medical condition in humans. This condition is called pediculosis humanus capitis. This is when lice colonize the hair on a persons head.

http://ezinearticles.com/4504298

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16. How to Foreknow Some Disease by Observing the Facial Color?
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

Scientists figure out that, there are some special relations of the inner organs of people, such as the heart, stomach, kidney, with the different locations of the face. The face of people could tell the health situation of our inner organs, therefore, a healthy diet is quite important for beauty.

http://ezinearticles.com/4504974

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17. Some Info in Reducing Weight
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

Are you feeling miserable because of obesity and over weight? If you are suffering from this disease then you are the only one responsible for it.

http://ezinearticles.com/4504253

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18. The Conditions and Injuries That Qualify For Outpatient Rehabilitation
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

Outpatient rehabilitation is going strong due to what has been learned about injury and rehabilitation. Many people are allowed to recover in the comfort of their homes and have outpatient rehabilitation. One of the factors to being able to do outpatient rehabilitation is that the person needs to be able to take care of himself or herself at home or have someone that can assist at home.

http://ezinearticles.com/4507435

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19. Discover Why You Need a Household Water Filter to Remove Chemicals You're Currently Drinking
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

If you're like me, you want to be sure that your drinking safe, healthy water. Recent studies have uncovered that most public water sources have over 2000 chemicals in it. The only way to know that your tap water is pure and free of these chemicals is to install a household water filter.

http://ezinearticles.com/4502540

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20. Can Television and the Media Be Harmful to Your Health?
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

My family got its first television in the 1980s, and to a little country kid, it was heavenly. I loved watching cartoons, soaps, and public television with siblings. After school I could not wait to get home and get my fix of TV.

http://ezinearticles.com/4506912

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21. Shower Head Water Filter - Is Your Health Being Threatened by Taking Showers in Contaminated Water?
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

It's unbelievable. Public water sources that we're all showering in are filled with thousands of toxic chemicals. It's making us sick and damaging our skin and hair. Luckily, you can remove these contaminants by adding a shower head water filter.

http://ezinearticles.com/4505087

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22. Food For Healthier Hair
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

Surprising as it may sound, the food that we take can greatly affect the growth of our hair. The nutrients that we get from our food goes through our bloodstream and the blood vessels we have carry those nutrients even to our hair follicles. This is how it affects the growth and even the quality of our hair.

http://ezinearticles.com/4503417

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23. How to Cure Hemorrhoids - All is Revealed
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

Very few people like to discuss their hemorrhoid problem out in the open - not even to a doctor who promises confidentiality and a straight face! It can be embarrassing but it does not have to be an ongoing problem if you learn about how to cure hemorrhoids.

http://ezinearticles.com/4504892

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24. Start Growing Taller by Understanding Growth Hormones
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

Growing taller is a natural process we all go through. It's caused by growth hormones in the body.

http://ezinearticles.com/4501931

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25. Cure For Sweaty Hands - Never Let Excessive Hand Sweat Wreck Your Social Life Again
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

Relationships have been broken more than you can remember due to your excessive hand sweat. Indeed, finding the cure for sweaty hands and to stop sweaty palms is your number one priority in life if you are in such a difficult predicament. Find out how here.

http://ezinearticles.com/4503168

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26. How to Find a Nail Biting Cure - The 4 Nail Biting Treatments That Work!
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

As the nail biting habit starts to take over your life you are desperately looking everywhere for a nail biting cure. Well, there are plenty of nail biting treatments out there especially on the web, however all treatments work differently and you have to find the right treatment that will suit you and your needs.

http://ezinearticles.com/4503985

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27. The Different Types of Bottled Water - All Water is Not Created Equal
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

Some people believe that bottled water is just a hype and some can see that there are two sides to the story. Either way, what really matters is why you pick a certain one over the other. To some people, bottled water is nothing more then tap water in a bottle.

http://ezinearticles.com/4489464

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28. Digital Alcohol Breathalysers to Keep You Safe and Sound the Morning After
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

There is a problem on the streets of the UK today and it's not the knife carrying hoodies or the career criminals we almost expect to see these days - No, it's something far more disturbing! People from all walks of life, all ages and all areas around the world are getting inside their cars, vans and even on their motorbikes after a 'skinfull' the night before!

http://ezinearticles.com/4502466

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29. Grow Taller EBook - Tips to Find a Good Resource
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

You can find all sorts of ebooks on the internet on practically every subject. One example is a grow taller ebook. What should you look for in a good resource? How can you tell if it's a reliable resource? This tip guide should help you find a great ebook on the subject.

http://ezinearticles.com/4502045

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30. Grow Taller Naturally With Simple Breathing Exercises
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

This is one method you can use to grow taller naturally: breathe properly. If you're a bit shorter than you'd hoped, and find it a little discouraging that you're not as tall as others, then try these exercises.

http://ezinearticles.com/4501818

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31. Anaphylaxes to Change Stunts Our Growth
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

Resistance to change is truly an example of biting your nose to spite your face. The need for change is the driving force behind self growth, self satisfaction & often our health. The old expression "if it ain't broken don't fix it" really is self stagnation. Evolution is all bout survival of the fittest. We need to constantly self evolve to stay fit emotionally & physically.

http://ezinearticles.com/4501554

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32. A Diaper Manufacturer Has a Long History!
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

When was the first Diaper Manufactured? How were diapers made in the beginning, and how are they made today? This article details the history behind making various types of diapers.

http://ezinearticles.com/4501498

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33. Simple Solutions For Incontinence
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

More than 13 million Americans have trouble controlling their bladders. Urinary incontinence is not a disease. It's a symptom of an underlying issues - diabetes, stroke, multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson's disease are even chronic bladder infection.

http://ezinearticles.com/4469298

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34. The Best Exercises to Get Big Calf Muscles
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June 18, 2010 at 5:37 AM

The calves are one of the most difficult muscle groups to exercise effectively. Even the great Arnold Schwarzenegger confesses that he was so embarrassed about his skinny calves that for years he always had his pictures taken with his calves in the water.

http://ezinearticles.com/4487058

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Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?cat=Health-and-Fitness
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6/19 Communications Articles from EzineArticles.com

2010-06-19T00:32:00.001-07:00

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1. Looking Up Any Phone Number the Green Way
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June 18, 2010 at 8:22 AM

White pages and yellow pages are still being printed and distributed. Thousands upon thousands are an obsolete and unnecessary use of vital resources. The internet has made that 3 1/2 inch think phonebook that sits on your front porch a disappointment.

http://ezinearticles.com/4506705

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2. Whose Email Address is This? Find People by Email Address and Get Their Contact Details
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June 18, 2010 at 8:22 AM

The speed and reliability of the electronic mail system can be attributed to the advancement in technology. The e-mail being a part of this advancement is seen as one of the fastest means of data transfer.

http://ezinearticles.com/4507631

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3. Find People by Email Address - Get Name and Address Using Reverse Email Lookup
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June 18, 2010 at 8:22 AM

How many times have you been faced with so many questions without answers? How many times have you asked yourself questions like; "whose email address is this?" I guess it is about time you found answers to all the questions bothering your mind.

http://ezinearticles.com/4507734

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4. What is Blown Fibre?
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June 18, 2010 at 8:22 AM

Blown fibre is a very specific cabling system that is perfect for upgrading networks or installing new networks because it can be run through existing piping such as sewer systems. The true benefit to blown fibre is that you don't have to trench new ditches to lay new cable, which makes blown this a fantastic option for most locations. This type of cabling system has many other benefits too.

http://ezinearticles.com/4506866

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5. Understanding Microwave RF
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June 18, 2010 at 8:22 AM

There are many devices that operate using microwave RF filters to aid in the flow of data. There are various things that we all rely on today that are transmitted using these filters and without them we would find normal life to be very different. These filters aid in transmission of both high and low frequency waves.

http://ezinearticles.com/4506854

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6. Reverse Email Lookup - Expose the Identity of People Behind the Mysterious Emails
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June 18, 2010 at 8:22 AM

Did you know that you can now trace down people with their email addresses and name? It is actually possible to get a whole lot of background and family information with just an email id. Some people are apprehensive about such services because they made the wrong choice and opted for the free reverse email search services.

http://ezinearticles.com/4504540

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7. The Different Types of Structured Cabling Systems
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June 18, 2010 at 8:22 AM

A structured cabling system is a series of wires that connects a company's communication systems and other data transmission systems. This type of cabling can transfer voice, data and video communications. You may need a more complicated solution if you have a large business with a great deal of technology that needs to be wired together.

http://ezinearticles.com/4506764

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8. Shoutcast Hosting - Music 24x7
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June 18, 2010 at 8:22 AM

According to Edison Research, a well known firm in media research, more than 42 million users were tuned in to online radio stations in October 2009. This is more than double the 2005 figures. This surge has been attributed to the emergence of shoutcast hosting technology. Shoutcast hosting enables users and professionals to set up and run internet broadcasting services.

http://ezinearticles.com/4505327

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9. Reverse Email Look Up Service - Never Miss Inviting Someone to Your Party!
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June 18, 2010 at 8:22 AM

The Internet offers a world full of surprises. There is always something new coming up every day. The technology is developing at an amazing rate and one often wonders whether it will ever slow down. There are so many things going on in the cyberspace that you need to constantly keep yourself updated or you may just miss out on something.

http://ezinearticles.com/4504457

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Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?cat=Communications
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230 Franklin Road Suite 814 Franklin, TN 37064

Yet another test email

2010-06-18T03:42:00.001-07:00

This is just a test just to see that everything is working fine.

This is just a test post

2010-06-18T03:32:00.001-07:00

Haha I am the joker.WHy so Serious?