Offbeat

Editorials June 23, 2011

Random Statistic: Married Households No Longer a Majority

I remember when I first heard about the so-called Defense of Marriage Act back in the early 90’s my first thoughts were naively that there was actually an effort being made to help prevent so many misguided kids get married and thereby decrease the divorce rate and number of so-called ‘broken’ homes, or in some other way try to bolster the institution of marriage as the core of the family unit. Nope … it was a buzzword laden title that the neocons really meant ‘we find homosexuality abhorrent, but since we can’t make it illegal we have to at least…

News & Features June 18, 2011

Random Cool Video: Astronaut’s View of Earth in Real Time

Technology is cool. The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo has just unveiled a massive 10 million pixel globe that shows you the view of the earth as if you were looking from space. But it gets better – you can interact and learn from touchscreens located all around the globe! Here is some more info: A new, gigantic Japanese globe unveiled in Tokyo features 10,362 OLED panels that show constantly updated satellite images of Earth. The nearly 20-foot-in-diameter globe, called Geo-Cosmos, displays Earth’s current appearance in more than 10 million pixels, an incredibly high resolution that…

Gear Bits June 18, 2011

And You Thought Veggie Burgers Were Weird…

I’m a huge fan of the television show “True Blood”. The show is set in a world like ours, except the Japanese have perfected artificial blood, which has prompted vampires to “come out of the coffin”. In real life, though, the Japanese haven’t invented fake blood; they’ve turned poop into food! No, this is not a joke. According to Fox News: Japanese scientist Mitsuyuki Ikeda from the Okayama Laboratory certainly doesn’t believe in human waste. He thinks that’s perfectly good protein you’re sending out to sea, and he’s found a way to extract it, mix it with steak sauce and create…

News & Features June 17, 2011

One Vancouver Couple Chose to Make Love, Not War!

Image from Rich Lam/Getty Images I wrote about the awful riots in Vancouver following their team’s loss in the Stanley Cup finals (to my team, Yay!), but at least there is some sort of silver lining in what has become one of the most iconic images from the fracas – the ‘kissing couple’. It was highlighted through Twitter: @buzzfeed You forgot one of the best ones – Vancouverites who know to make love, not war: http://ow.ly/5jf9o That pointed to this image, from Rich Lam of Getty Images. Initially there was some concern that this was TOO perfect, so it must…

News & Features June 17, 2011

Nielson Study Shows How Teens Interact with Media

It is amazing to look at the image above and realize that reflects the top TV shows the year that seniors graduating high school this month were born! Many of the shows – certainly Seinfeld, Rosanne, Frasier and Home Improvement – are classics easily found in syndication now. The X-Files also launched that year, bringing with it nearly a decade of conspiracies and unrealized sexual tension between the main characters. Jurassic Park Stomped through theaters, and ‘A Whole New World’ from Aladdin ruled the airwaves. 1993 was also the year that the Mosaic web browser launched, and the internet as…

Gear Bits June 17, 2011

Meet Winston Kemp, Lightning Strike Survivor and Lichtenberg Figure Owner

“What does your boyfriend do when you go out of town? Well, [mine] gets struck by lightning.” – Daphne Cheek We’ve all heard stories about people getting struck by lightning — usually as some sort of cautionary tale, but how many of us have ever seen the effects of lightning on a human? The Lichtenberg Figures it can leave? Winston Kemp, a 24-year-old electrician, has had first-hand experience, and now he also has a unique and possibly permanent bit of body art — a Lichtenberg Figure — to go along with it. As Winston tells it … I went outside…

News & Features June 13, 2011

Using YouTube to Fight a Traffic Ticket!

If you’ve been to New York City recently (or many major cities, actually), you may have noticed they’ve started offering bike lanes, a move that is supposed to alleviate traffic and be safer for riders, drivers, and pedestrians. Of course, that’s all in theory, as one peeved cyclist has demonstrated in a very awesome video. Apparently, he was ticketed for not riding in the bicycle lane, despite his protests that nothing was being done about the cars, trucks, and construction equipment blocking it. Rather than just write a letter, he created a video showing what his ride would be like…

News & Features May 31, 2011

Making a Pilgrimage? Apple’s 5th Ave Store is Destination for Many

The Huff Post recently published an article that “Apple Stimulates ‘Religious’ Reaction in Fans’ Brains”. That may sound like a ridiculous April Fools Day post, but neuroscience is neuroscience and clearly Apple has found a way to quite literally strike a nerve in many. It should come as no surprise then that, for many, Apple’s flagship store in Manhattan is a pilgrimage destination. Sure, that sounds even more wacky and fanboy hyperbole-ish than the religious thing, but just take a look at this heat map that was put together by developer Eric Fischer. Each red dot indicates where a photo was taken…

News & Features May 25, 2011

Today is Towel Day … Do You Know Where Yours Is?

This morning my younger son left for school carrying his towel … since he became a big fan of Douglas Adams Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy a year or so ago he ALWAYS knows where his towel is! He has been excited about celebrating ‘Towel Day’ all week. Unfortunately he wouldn’t let me take his picture for this post! Towel Day was created just after Douglas Adams death in 2001, in a post that said: Towel Day: A Tribute to Douglas Adams Monday 14 May 2001 06:00am PDT Douglas Adams will be missed by his fans worldwide. So that all…

Gear Bits, News & Features May 24, 2011

Random Cool Video: Classic Sesame Street

I consider my family fortunate – I grew up watching Sesame Street when it was brand new, and my kids got to experience it as well during a time when both classic and new material was presented side-by-side, and there were plenty of videos, computer games, and music CD’s to enjoy! Last week my wife was shuffling on her iPod and ‘What do I do when I’m alone’ came on, a hold-over favorite from when the kids were little (I still have Rainbow Connection on my iPod!). Then this weekend a post at Buzzfeed looked at a bunch of classic…

News & Features May 24, 2011

Random Cool Video: What Would You Do

‘What Would You Do’ is one of those ‘if we happen upon it’ shows my family will watch occasionally on Friday. The show sets up actors playing roles on hidden cameras in public places. Some of the ones we have seen are different teens (boy/girl, black/white) attempting to take a bike chained to a pole, hateful speech lobbed at an overweight girl, a spouse (again, male & female) trying to instigate a tryst in a bar on their anniversary while the other spouse is in the restroom. The goal is to see how normal bystanders will behave when confronted with…

Gear Bits, News & Features May 23, 2011

Random Cool Video: Watch Family Guy ‘Its a Trap’ for FREE!

Over the last several years Family Guy has taken on the original Star Wars trilogy, with Blue Harvest and Something, Something Dark Side. Last December they released the final entry ‘It’s A Trap’ on DVD and Blu-Ray, and on May 22nd the show aired as the finale for the 9th season of Family Guy. The episode is once again a humorous retelling of Return of the Jedi using series characters in place of the original actors, but keeping the personalities of the Family Guy characters largely intact. General opinion seems to be that this is the weakest of the three…

Gear Bits May 21, 2011

Teva Sandals Saves a Penguin!

I fully recognize that this story is basically a giant ad for Teva. However, it’s too adorable not to share. In a nutshell, Lucky the Penguin had a foot deformity that would have led to sores and infections, so Teva made a special penguin-shoe just for him. But really, the video is what this story is all about…you can’t watch the baby penguin waddle/limp wearing his stylish Tevas without letting out an involuntary “awwwwwww”. Check out the video for the full story, and then let us know in the comments if you want a pet penguin now as bad as…

Gear Bits May 21, 2011

Your Car Is Naked without a Carstache

Sure, your car visits the car wash often, and you’ve carefully kept the paint looking fresh, maybe spruced it up with wax or an air freshener. But your car is not truly complete without a key accessory: the CARSTACHE! Yes, it’s exactly what you think it is. From the company: QUESTION: Will having a Carstache® change your life? ANSWER: YES, it will make it better. We made the Carstache® purely because we think it’s funny and it makes people smile. No other reason. When people see a Carstache® on the streets they laugh, wave, thumbs-up, fist pump, gun flex, wink…

Gear Bits, News & Features May 20, 2011

Random Cool Stuff: Build a Urinal from Old SNES Cartridges!

Being a ‘Green’ family means looking to repurpose things rather than dispose of them … but I have to admit that I never thought about THIS! A urinal made from old Super Nintendo cartridges! According to Pricecharting.com: Building a video game urinal takes about eight hours of labor and costs roughly $200-250 (not counting the video games). If you too want a custom, hand-made video game urinal follow these steps below: The site goes on to detail the materials needed and provides the step-by-step instructions including images such as this: Interesting idea for the video game loving man looking to…

Gear Bits, News & Features May 20, 2011

Random Liger Alert: Napoleon Dynamite … the Cartoon!

We missed out on Napoleon Dynamite when it first came out, but when our kids were a bit older we watched it together, and it remains one of their favorites. All of us pull quotes from the film on occasion. Apparently after enough years that it has properly faded into obscurity, cult classic Napoleon Dynamite is returning in cartoon form. Here is a bit of info from the press release (you can read the entire release below). NAPOLEON DYNAMITE (Heder) is a 16-year-old boy convinced – for no apparent reason – that he is destined for greatness and blessed with…

Gear Bits May 19, 2011

Speed Painting Jack Sparrow

We all know Photoshop is a great product. While I may be partial to the open source program called the Gimp, Photoshop is still the king of editing programs. When you really know your stuff, you can do some pretty amazing things with Photoshop. A co-worker and teacher of mine, Gene Strickland, has done something pretty amazing, and he’s posted it on YouTube for all to see. The above video is Gene painting Captain Jack Sparrow. The results are fantastic! The video has been greatly speeded up so you can see him paint the picture in what seems like mere minutes….

Editorials May 14, 2011

Sweet16 Energy Drink: Why You Should Always Read the Label

A little bit of background: In the last year, I lost around 40lbs through watching what I ate and running. So I’ve gotten very used to paying close attention to my food, and to items that “claim” to be healthy. So when this press release popped up in the Gear Diary Inbox, I couldn’t resist taking it apart piece by piece, because it is truly the poster child for unhealthy “healthy” food. So let’s dive right in! My comments are in red, so you’ll know what came from the company and what didn’t. Bonavitas Introduces The First Truly Thermogenic Energy…

Gear Bits, News & Features May 14, 2011

Random Cool Video: Boeing 747-8F Performs Ultimate Rejected Take-off

If you have ever been in an airplane that has had to stop before takeoff, or encountered landing conditions that necessitated a quick stop, you know the force required to stop the massive planes! For their latest new mega-plane, the 747-8F, Boeing has to deal with a nearly 1,000,000 pound load – so stopping becomes more of an issue than ever! I know it is a PR move, but this week they released a video showing the test they performed showing how the plane would stop if it needed to abort a take-off at full thrust and had nothing but…

Editorials May 13, 2011

Pippa and the Plastic People

When you look at the image above … does something look wrong? I sure hope so! The picture shows the outcome of Hamilton College student Lisa Slayen’s project to show what a Barbie doll scaled to life-size would look like in terms of proportions. From the article: Life-size Barbie stands about 6 feet tall with a 39″ bust, 18″ waist and 33″ hips. She is made of wood, chicken wire and papier-mache, and is dressed in a size 00 skirt that was a remnant from Slayen’s one-year bout with anorexia. “I’m not blaming Barbie [for my illness] — she’s one…

Editorials May 11, 2011

‘Where’s Hillary’ Update: Der Tzeitung Apologizes, Another Jumps into the Fray!

The other day I wrote about the Orthodox Hasidic Jewish newspaper Der Tzitung Photoshopping Hillary Clinton and Audrey Tomason out of the famous ‘Situation Room’ photo. The concern was that the alteration of the photo to meet their “laws of modesty” stepped all over the White House rules of usage and the fundamental rights of the individuals in the photo to … well, exist. Today there is a large apology and clarification from Der Tzitung at the Gothamist, but you can read a relevant chunk here: Publishing a newspaper is a big responsibility, and our policies are guided by a…

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