Susan Boyle didn't win

Susan Boyle did not win "Britain's Got Talent." She came in second to a dance troupe. This may not be the end of Susan. She may make an appearance on the show "Ugly Betty," and she may also still sign a music performance.
And now for Susan's final number.

Speeding Tickets for Emergency Vehicles

What? That's what I said. Not only did the emergency vehicles get speeding tickets with the aid of red light cameras, but the emergency department in Ottawa actually paid them.

Apparently by law, emergency vehicles must come to a full stop at stop signs and red light. If they don't, they can get a ticket. Police officers and firefighters heading to emergencies got 60 tickets last year totaling $11,000.

What Disgusts You?

Psychologists at the University of Virginia have developed a fascinating battery of tests designed to both do research and give individuals insight into their moral and political outlooks.

One of the tests lets you know what disgusts you; another one asks what you would do for a million dollars.  The idea is that political conservatives feel disgust stronger, and have more of an aversion to violation of rules than liberals.

 www.yourmorals.org 

image: http://www.magazine.ucla.edu

Mullet Like Me

Jake Nyberg is out to make a point... that people with mullets have a difficult life.

It's called 'mulletism.' Nyberg is out to document the mistreatment of people with mullets and you can find it all on the site mulletlikeme.com.

Nyberg chronicles his experience from Wal-Mart to J. Crew. Maybe he'll resurrect the business in the front, party in the back look.

Run away and join the circus

Have you been meaning to join the circus? You're in luck. Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey is hiring. All you have to do is show up in Brooklyn, NY today between 10a and 2p. The circus is looking for 200 circus crew members to be ushers, ticketing and maintenance people.

You can apply on Coney Island's site.

As long as you did not have to pick up after the elephants, it sounds like a fun summer job.

Addiction to Reality TV

If you have pushed your own life aside to watch reality TV, you may experience withdrawal symptoms. Doctors say it's not as severe as say a cocaine addict, but people still feel the pain.

The Television schedule is such that show finale often happen around the same time. That's deliberate. We saw the finale of "Dancing With the Stars" and "American Idol" last week.

If you can't live without DWTS, maybe it's time to take a ballroom dancing class or Idol fans can hit the right note at karaoke night.

Hopefully, you don't have something awful in your life that requires escapism. If you do, maybe this is the time to explore that.

Texting, Unlimited

Voice mail seems to be dying a slow death. At the same time, texting is becoming ubiquitous, especially among teenagers.  This has prompted concern from some teachers, parents, and psychologists about the effects of too much texting. 

Side effects of too much texting include psychological anxiety; falling grades; and texting thumbs, a repetitive stress injury.

Texting World Championship @ Yahoo! Video

Free Flowing Alcohol

Many of us will be flying this summer. How about a drink to calm your nerves on that cross country trip. Apparently, some passengers leave the plane and they're still flying high from all the alcohol they had in the cabin.

A Kansas City television station placed a producer on a Continental Airlines flight from Kansas City to Albuquerque with a layover in Houston to see when flight attendants would stop serving him.

on the first leg of the trip, the producer ordered 6 mini bottles of liquor. No questions asked. He only stopped ordering because the plane was landing. On the connecting flight, another 8. A total of 14 mini bottles of liquor on one trip.

Have you noticed now the airline have portbale credit card machines on the plane so you don't even need cash to get a cold one. Keep an eye out for the drunks.

Desperately Seeking Susan's Ad Revenue

Following the Susan Boyle thread, the New York Times ran an interesting article on the difficulty of monetizing internet fame.  Although hundreds of millions of people have watched Susan Boyle perform "I Dreamed A Dream" via the internet - mainly YouTube - this has not translated directly into money for the producers or distributors of "Britain's Got Talent".  And surprisingly, not even YouTube (a unit of Google) has profited from Susan Boyle's fame: commercials were not placed on the videos of her singing due to a failure of Fremantle Media and YouTube to see eye to eye on a way to split the potential ad revenue.

Incidentally, here is a link to Susan's second performance, in which she sings "Memories" from the musical "Cats."

image: http://www.paydayloanaffiliate.com

Update: Susan Boyle

"Britain's Got Talent" and Susan Boyle is proof. The 47-year old singer on the "American Idol" type singing competition advanced to the next round. She will perform again tonight. The show says that performance will be available almost instantly on YouTube.

The unlikely star has been seen on YouTube some 60 million times.

Ponzi Scheme Game

Interested in investing in a ponzi scheme, but don't want any of the risk? Try the Bernie Madoff video game called "Made Off."
The creator says the game pokes fun at Madoff, not the people who invested with him. You too can play the game.

When the Error's In Your Favor

A human error at a New Zealand bank caused one couple's overdraft limit to go from $62,000 to  $6,200,000.  When the couple found out about the error, they withdrew as much money as possible and fled the country.  The police are now after them.

That story, and other stories of people for whom temptation was just too great, here.

Mancow Waterboard Stunt

With waterboarding in the news, Radio talk show host Mancow Muller decided to show his audience that it's really not torture. Mancow lasted about 6-7 seconds and in the end said it was worse than he thought.

Here is the video to Mancow's waterboarding.

Movies vs. video games

Over the last 6 months, two out of three people played a video game. That's more than the 53% of people who went to the movies over the same time period.

When you buy a video game, you get to play it as often as you'd like. A movie is a one time deal, plus you have to buy snacks.



Just further proof that there is a lot of competition for your entertainment dollar.

Spend them wisely.

Need It Like A Hole In My Head

On the heels of the man who delivered a baby after watching YouTube videos, an Australian doctor working in a small town 100 miles northwest of Melbourne has saved a teenager's life by performing brain surgery using a regular power drill and some telephone guidance.

The teenager was suffering from a skull fracture that had caused a blood clot to form on his brain.  This is the same condition that killed Natasha Richardson in March 2009.

With every minute counting and no specialized equipment, the doctor called a specialist in Melbourne, who gave assistance via telephone.  He drilled a hole in the boy's skull at the hospital, using a De Walt power drill.  The blood clot was removed and the boy is recovering well.

video: www.timesonline.co.uk

Hollywood Perfection

Is Hollywood perfection is an oxymoron? Recently Jessica Biel complained that she's too beautiful. I know how sorry you feel for her. What an awful problem. Biel says her good looks prevent her from getting good movie parts.
You can judge for yourself if Biel is too beautiful.

On the other side of the spectrum is Miley Cyrus. The star of "Hannah Montana" is telling cyber bullies to stop calling her fat.

I think it was Mrs. Wallis Simpson who said a woman can never be too rich or too thin.

Is that still true? Maybe perfection doesn't exist and beauty is really in the eye of the beholder.

Michael Vick to work for Humane Society

Many call dogfighting inhumane. In an attempt to rehabilitate his image, Michael Vick, the man who bankrolled a dogfighting operation, will work with the humane society when he gets out of jail.

Vick will work with the Humane Society of the United States on its anti-dog-fighting campaign. The Society figures Vick has tremendous sway over young people and this is a way to use his celebrity to do some good.

After what Vick apparently did to dogs, would you let him anywhere near a Humane Society?

The View From Up There

I came across this harrowing video at The New Yorker.  In it, Frenchman Alain Robert, 5' 4", 114 lbs and age 45 at the time, is attempting to climb up the 60 storey tall Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong without any special equipment. 

Crazy.

And not to give the ending away, but check out this news article about an event that occurred just 2 weeks after the video above was taken.

Stop Speeding

Some new software is designed to do just that...slow you down automatically. Or it can just suggest you need to slow down. The software will be tested this summer in all sorts of vehicles.



A monitor in your car equipped with GPS, a map of the city and speed limits will give you a frown or a smiley face depending on how you're doing.



Parents with teenagers might appreciate this technology.

The Obesity Paradox

Obesity is not good for the heart.  Obesity is linked to cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, and stroke.

But obesity is not the only cause of heart disease.  Lean people get heart disease, too.  And here is the paradox: obese patients tend to live longer than lean patients with heart disease.  The reasons are not simple, and researchers are still trying to figure out why.

However, according to this article, "studies also show that whether patients lose weight or not, engaging in regular exercise is one of the best things they can do for their hearts."

image at themedica.com

Area Code Identity

For the longest time, it felt like your area code was a part of your identity in New York City. Instantly it told people if you were from Manhattan, Bronx, Staten Island, Queens or Brooklyn. That's a good and a bad thing, but you were saddled with that area whether you wanted to claim it or not. I think 212 (Manhattan) used to be the most coveted area code.
With the explosion of cell phones, more area codes have been added over the years. We're up to 5. Now comes word that we need at least a 6th to supplement 718 and 347 by 2011.

I wonder if we further dilute who we are by adding more area codes? I am sure that's silly...

The Battle to Legalize Cheerios

On Cheerios®  packaging, General Mills claims that Cheerios is "clinically proven to lower cholesterol." 

The FDA is saying that there's plenty wrong with that statement and other health claims on the Cheerios® box.  The FDA has issued a warning letter the cereal company General Mills, saying that it has "determined that [your] Cheerios® Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal is promoted for conditions that cause it to be a drug because the product is intended for use in the prevention, mitigation, and treatment of disease."

That's right, the FDA is saying that Cheerios being sold as a drug -- specifially, an unauthorized new drug!

The FDA wants General Mills to change the claims on the Cheerios® box.  Failure to do so may result in "enforcement action" including seizure of products by the FDA.

The FDA also posts responses to their warning letters on their website, so I'm sure there will be more of this to come.

Palin graduates

No, not Sarah. Her daughter, Bristol. The single mother said she'd graduate from high school and she did this week.

Her son Trigg was there as well.

Proof that it can all be done. High school graduate, college next and all while being a single mom.

A Horse By Any Other Name

Rachel Alexandra has won the Preakness, becoming only the fifth filly to win in that race's history.

This got me thinking about the names of racehorses: Secretariat, Seabiscuit, Street Sense.  Interestingly, regulations state that no horse's name may contain more than 18 letters.

In contrast, American Kennel Club rules state that no two purebred dogs may have the same name - resulting in long and colorful names such as "Champion Cookieland Seasyde Hollyberry."   I guess "Spot" was already taken.

Image: http://www.tsl.state.tx.us

Sweet Dreams?

Why do we dream? Doctors think we have dreams to help us process our emotions. Bad dreams are a way for us to deal with the day's emotions. How do you explain nightmares? Researchers think nightmares happen when the system short circuits in some way.

Free Viagra

Need I say more? Unemployed and can't afford your medication. If Pfizer makes it, you might be in luck. You had to have been hooked on one of the 70 Pfizer drugs before you lost your job and insurance.

There are some other conditions too. You can find all the answers here. It is in Pfizer's best interest to make sure you continue to take its products... so there, so good news and goodwill for Pfizer.

Try triangular triads

You have heard of swingers, but that so 1970's. Triads are the alternative to swingers.

Relationships come in all sorts of shapes. Triads involve 3 people in a relationship where each person has a full relationship. That includes sexual. I know what you're thinking, a relationship between two people is difficult enough, can you imagine an extra person.

There is a group and website, Love More, that's dedicated to polyamory (people who love more than one person at a time openly.)

Several groups of people testify to successful long-term relationships in triads. Like most relationships,communication sounds like the key. So, that means discussing everything from jealousy to who is getting more attention.

Forget gay marriage rights, are triads the new marriage minefield?

Greiner-Petter-Memm-Noelle-Neumann-Maier-Leibnitz, party of two, your table is ready

The Germans are famous for creating fast cars and very long words.  For example: Hoechsgeschwindigkeitsbegrenzung - a word which does not apply to the Autobahn.

But, this generosity with word length does not extend to surnames.  A German court recently ruled that a couple could not combine their last names to form very long surnames.  The idea was that a child born to such a name would then possibly marry and add yet another name to an already long name - and so on and so forth until you get last names like Greiner-Petter-Memm or Noelle-Neumann-Maier-Leibnitz - both of which already exist, incidentally.  But if someone from these families were to marry each other, they would not be able to take the surname of Greiner-Petter-Memm-Noelle-Neumann-Maier-Leibnitz.

image: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com

Look younger, find a job

The recession is not depressing for everyone. Plastic surgeons are capitalizing on wrinkles and helping older people find work.

In some cases, employers get hundreds of applications for one job. So they have a lot of choices. Older people are now competing with perky young people for the same jobs. So, to even the playing field, older workers are getting some work done to make them look and feel younger.

Can I get plastic surgery to be taller?

**Note... to my knowledge this man has not had any plastic surgery.

Gross office fridge sickens employees

So an unplugged fridge at a workplace was stocked with food. An employee decided to clean it out. The mixture of the cleaning chemicals and the rotten food caused a toxic mixture.

The fumes were so noxious, that it sent 7 co-workers to the hospital and made many more sick.
The woman cleaning the fridge did not get sick because she has allergies.

Worth Its Salt?

The National Institutes of Health recommend a maximum of 2,400 mg of sodium per day for adults - about a teaspoon of salt.  People with high blood pressure are recommended to keep their maximum daily salt intake at about 60% of that.

Researchers at the Center for Science in the Public Interest have found that some restaurant meals can deliver well over the maximum daily recommended dose of salt: an "Admiral's Feast" at Red Lobster contains nearly three teaspoons of salt.  Some menu items at Chili's and The Olive Garden also contained more than 2 days' worth of salt.

Read more on CSPI's article, "Heart Attack Entrees with Side Orders of Stroke."

Image by wastedinthekeys, on flickr.com

The salary of a stay- at- home mom

Mother's Day just passed but some people will tell you that the work of a mother is never done.
What exactly is that work worth anyway? Salary.com has been figuring that out for the last 9 years... this year's number is $122, 732 a year. This number is based on the top 10 mom jobs like: laundry machine operator, janitor, van driver, housekeeper, computer operator, cook, and my favorite: psychologist.

Apparently the work of a stay-at-home dad is worth more than mom... $128,755. There are a lot of variables like where you live, but you can calculate your worth at salary.com.

But really, can you put a price on a mom's job? If you ask some people, mom's are too super to put a dollar figure on.

**Note... woman pictured is not a stay- at- home mom.

App-solute waste?

With an average of about 53 apps downloaded per iPhone, here's an interesting figure: after downloading a paid app, only 5% of people were still using it 20 days later -- and that percentage was even lower for free apps.

image: blogs.reuters.com

Birth control pill for men

It works like the pill, but it's a monthly injection. Injections are much more manly than a pill. Men, soon you'll be able to control your reproductive destiny. No more excuses about condoms not being manly enough or whatever else you come up with. The testosterone injections went through human trials recently and showed a 99% effectiveness. Of course, we should warn you, this doesn't protect your from catching a disease.

Do you think the pill/injection will give men the same kind of freedom women experienced when the pill became widely available? What would a male sexual revolution look like?

Airport to Nowhere, your tax dollars @ work

Have you ever wondered how the government is spending your money. Here is a good example. It's the John Murtha-Cambria County Airport in Johnstown, PA.

John Murtha is a Democrat from Pennslyvania. The airport has gotten hundreds of millions of dollars from the Federal Government in the last decade.
On average last year, 20 people flew out of the airport each day. There are 3 flights a day and the government will even subsidize your ticket. Recently, the airport got another $800,000 of your stimulus money.

Even the website is pretty cool with animation flying in.

Dancing Your Donette Off

The Oxygen channel's new reality TV series "Dance Your Ass Off" features "talented, full-figured contestants who struggle with their weight and dance to unleash their inner thin."  In a slightly wicked touch, "In a nod to real-life temptations, the contestants' kitchen contains a 'Cheat Pantry' loaded with the very snacks and goodies that helped land the contestants on the show."

With six Donettes coming in at 440 calories, how much dancing would you have to do to lose weight?

 This handy website will tell you: 40 minutes of fast ballroom dancing if you weight 250-lbs... 

Entertaining text messages

You know that text message you sent at 3 or 4 am... well, everyone can see it now. You can find it at the site TFLN or textsfromlastnight.com. You can search the site by area code (big cities like 212, 312, 201 are most entertaining), and by best nights, worst nights.

There are too many funny posts to put here, but... some of the PG rated ones...

(201): you remind me of a slightly lless slutty bristol palin

(914): and you remind me of a slightly less retarded levi johnston

or

(818): people and things i regret. that's what i want to do tonight.

And best of all, you can post your own for the rest of us to enjoy.

Hello Up There

Following on the heels of the terrifying Air Force One promo photo shoot, which cost taxpayers over $300,000, prompted the resignation of one of President Obama's aides, and the photo from which might not even be released, there is a spot of bright news about the Statue of Liberty.

The crown of the statue, closed to the public since September 11, 2001, will reopen to visitors.  For the next two years, people in groups of ten will be able to climb the steps and look out from the crown.

Bad Economy=More Sex?

More people are home in a recession... and they're finding ways to entertain themselves with sex. One unintended consequence of the recession may be a baby boom. Some women are out of work, lost their insurance coverage and are not spending on birth control. A new survey shows that 3% of women child bearing age stopped using birth control because of the cost.

Soon we may have a new term, recession baby.

Glass Half Full?

Babies know more than we think they know.  For example, most babies are able to pick the next winner of American Idol even during the "auditions" phase.

Just kidding.

But it does seem that most babies know what a liquid is, and how that's different than a solid.  Between actual liquids in glasses and solids that are supposed to look like liquids in glasses, babies stare longer at the solids - because they don't know what to make of it.  Which means they understand liquids in glasses already.

Bottom line is, babies know a lot more than we suppose they do.

image: gettyimages.com

Now the winner of the best job in the world....

Drum roll please... it's Ben Southall from Britain. Southall beat out more than 34,000 people to win what many are calling the best job in the world.

He'll spend 6 months on beautiful Hamilton Island where he will explore the white sandy beaches, scuba dive and snorkel. Then he will write all about his adventures on a blog.

The 34 year old will make over $110,000 for all his troubles.
If you missed out on that job and want to try for another dream job, check out this winemaker who is looking for some temporary help.

Murphy-Goode in Sonoma County, CA is looking for a wine country lifestyle correspondent to work 6 months for $60k. You'll learn a lot about the wine making process and post a lot on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. You can find more info on the job here.

A Delicious Food Bacons You

To me, "BT" used to mean "British Telecom," the telecom giant serving customers in over 170 countries.

But I think this friendly giant of a company has been displaced by a different sort of BT: Bacon Today.

Bacon Today is a website dedicated to all things bacon, "on the simple principal that a world of bacony goodness exists out there for all to discover and enjoy."  They report on all things bacon, sample bacony foods and give the samples Smaste(tm)* ratings.

Nothing related to bacon escapes their notice, not even my favorite party gift, Squeez Bacon.

*Smaste, according to the folks at Bacon Today, is a rating system based on "smell" and "taste."

White Fat vs. Brown Fat

Who knew fat has color? Apparently white fat stores calories. Brown fat has special protein that burns extra energy. Is it me or does brown fat look like cooked cheese... yum!

I digressed. Research shows that people have brown fat deposits in the collarbone and neck area. Younger people and lean people also have brown fat. Two ounces of brown fat could burn 20% of calories while you are at rest.

So now the trick is to activate your brown fat. Lower temperatures seem to get your brown fat going, but it's not a solution because there are plenty of obese people living in cold climates. Expect a pill in about 5 years.

Not Test Tube Baby...

There are millions of "How To" videos on YouTube.  Some of them have limited usefulness, such as "How to be Ninja," "How to Get Rid of Ghosts," or "How to be English." Others are more practical, such as "How to Make Cheese," or "How NOT to use PowerPoint."

However, I think this one tops them all.  A man in the UK delivered his wife's baby after watching some videos online, such as this one, "How to Deliver a Baby in a Taxicab." 

illustration: www.science-art.com

Google Hires Goats

Sure it's easy to just brush (sorry) this story aside, but it's pretty interesting if you're a goat. You get a ride to Google's Mountain View, CA headquarters and you can graze and poop (am...fertilize the land) all you want.

Google used to pay people to mow the lawn until they came up with this greener solution. So basically, these goats are taking away jobs from Americans. I'd like to see some work visas. First we had to worry about immigrants, now we have to worry about goats. Good Grief.

By the way, Yahoo also has a similar deal with goats.

Not everyone is happy about this arrangement. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is worried about how these goats are transported to and from Google's headquarters. Is it possible to make PETA happy? I suppose if they were happy, they might be out of business. Carry on, PETA.

Support for Gay Marriages... or Funerals

A growing number of Americans describe themselves as "atheist."  And among secular Americans, support for gay marriage runs around 75% - greater even than President Obama's approval rating.  So it's not entirely surprising that now, for the first time, it seems that more Americans support gay marriage than oppose it.  

However, it's worth a moment to remember that not everyone approves of gays - much less gay marriage.  Once-tolerant attitudes in Senegal, for example, are becoming less tolerant.  The body of a man thought to be gay has been dug up from the grave twice after his family attempted to bury him.  Some people did not want the man to be buried where he was.

The Glass Ceiling

There is a growing chorus that says put women in leadership positions and you'll make more money. Some experts go as far as saying women could have prevented the current financial crisis. On the whole, women tend to be more risk averse and do a better job of monitoring potential problems.
Apparently women at the top of large companies are jumping ship.

What would a world run by women look like?

What a day for a daydream

Hey, stop daydreaming. Focus. Well, no need to stop your mind from wandering to happy memories or beautiful places anymore. Psychology Today says daydreaming may be good for your brain. This is a great way to foster creativity and maybe come up with that next invention to change the world. Walt Disney was known for his frequent daydreaming.

Most of us spend 15-50% of our waking moments daydreaming.
I daydream about beautiful places (that's a picture of Otter Creek in VT) or moments of laughfter I shared with people.
What do you daydream about?

Madonna adoption - update

Quick update on Madonna's adoption effort--

According to the BBC, the supposed father of the child Madonna wants to adopt says that he opposes the adoption, saying that the child, Mercy, is Malawian and should be raised Malawian.

This adds one more obstacle in Madonna's effort.  The first obstacle was a ruling that she could not adopt the child due to residency requirements in Malawi.  To adopt in Malawi, the adopting parent must be a resident of Malawi for at least the last 18 months.

More changes at the White House

The Obama Administration is everywhere. For those who followed the campaign, it should not be a surprise to find out that you can now find the White House has a Facebook, MySpace and Twitter page.

The administration won't be able to respond to your Facebook posts or questions, but other people in the group could give you a thumbs up.

Women may have 'sexual fluidity'

Women are making the switch, to women. It seems women look for traits in people like kindness, intelligence and humor and it doesn't matter if those traits come in a male or female package. Experts say it may not be something women can control.

Perhaps it's more acceptable now, but more women are leaving boyfriends and husbands for other women.

Men do not appear to have the same fluidity in sexuality, but this is all new area of research.