Mobile phone battery dead? Try dancing

LONDON (Reuters) - "What do you do if you are stuck in a field at a pop festival but there's trouble ahead because your mobile phone's battery is about to run out?

Thanks to a new gizmo, you now just need to face the music and dance.."

(http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL2427851420080624)

Amber says: Hahaha! As if people with "Bluetooth headsets" and all that jazz weren't ridiculous enough looking. Honestly, I think that if I dropped into our century from the 1950's, Id be searching for the nearest mental facility- everyone walking around talking into their hands or into a headset (That isnt even visible...!) and now this- people dancing around for no apparent reason. The world we live in is a crazy, crazy place!!

Company tests eye-controlled 'wearable' gadgets

YOKOSUKA, Japan (AP) --
"Rolling your eyes to turn up the volume of a portable music player and tapping your fingers to turn on a DVD player are among technologies Japan's top mobile carrier is testing for "wearable" gadgets.
In one version, sensors and chips inside headphones detect electrical current produced by movements of the wearer's eyeballs, says Masaaki Fukumoto, executive research engineer at NTT DoCoMo..."

(http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/ptech/06/25/wearablecontrols.ap/index.html)

Amber says: Okay, I remember when I would watch Star Trek and be like "Wow! That is soooo cool!!" (This could apply to anything- the medical stuff, the cloning stuff, holodeck... anything...) and now we have like, people re-growing fingers and lab generated bladders and hearts and stuff (Im sure Ive posted about these things). And look at this. People never have to do anything again! We could control the world with our EYEBALLS!! haha.

Really, though. Its cool to have this technology. It could make things safer, as well as more "cool". They have been putting things in cars so that if your eyes arent on the road, or if your head tilts a certain amount (Like if you were falling asleep) an alarm sounds... and that kind of thing. Lets just hope that these things stay "fun" and dont end up taking over the world :-P Maybe they can really create a Holodeck...

Oh, and I must say- I love how a man is quoted as saying "Japanese don't like to stand out,". Fruits begs to differ.

EDIT: Haha! http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080604195058.htm
Holodeck 1.0!

Wine Bras for Women and Beer Bellies for Men

June 19th, 2008- Reuters
"Quick quiz: you can tell if a woman has class if you offer to buy her a glass of wine and she says…

a) Thank you, I’ll have a supple Margaux
b) Thank you, I’ll have an earthy Syrah
c) Thank you, I’ll have an overpriced Pinot Grigio
d) No thanks, hot-shot, I got me a brassiere full of cheap sweet red, right here!

Yes, female wine drinkers no longer have to bother with bottles and corks, they can just strap on this wine bra. And for guys, there is a wearable beer belly..."

(http://blogs.reuters.com/oddly-enough/2008/06/19/her-cups-runneth-over/)

Amber says: Just thought I should share this one, Its amazing. Really. If I had found these when I was in Germany I would have brought one back for EVERYONE!!! :-) Seriously, people are making money off of this, too. Maybe my ideas aren't so bad, after all!

Pluto gets a new name: plutoid

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "Pluto, demoted from planet status in 2006, got a consolation prize on Wednesday -- it and other dwarf planets like it will be called plutoids.
The International Astronomical Union said in a statement that its executive committee meeting in Oslo, Norway, decided on the term..."

(http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSHER25750620080612)

Amber says: Hooray! Okay, so Im a total dork, and I have washcloths for the bathroom- one for each of the planets. I wanted a pluto one- but they didnt have any pluto ones. It was very sad for me to realize that when they stripped the planet status, it also meant that they took away all of the Pluto "fun stuff". I vowed to make my OWN Pluto washcloth (Still to be done... Sigh, I dont procrastinate...)

Although this isnt as cool as being a planet, it is still uber cool that Pluto gets to have its own little clique of "Blobs That Arent Cool Enough To Be Planets". I still think we hurt Plutos feelings when we told everyone it wasnt a planet anymore... :-P

Deer With Rare 'Unicorn' Horn Spotted In Italy

June 12, 2008

"ROME — A deer with a single horn in the center of its head — much like the fabled, mythical unicorn — has been spotted in a nature preserve in Italy, park officials said Wednesday...."

(http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,365629,00.html)

Christie Anna says: I love it! A real-life unicorn? Come on, how could you not love this story? Unicorns have always been one of my favorite mythological creatures. I am fascinated by theories on where the idea of them originally came from, and here we are - a possible explanation. Someone sees a deer with a genetic anomaly resulting in a single horn in the center of its head, spreads the news, suddenly there's a huge hunt on for the unique creature, rumors spread, years pass, details change...a few decades later, voila, we have a unicorn. Okay, so maybe that's not a very realistic version of the theory, but you get the idea. If this were seen way back when, it could be unique enough to be worth something, and people are kind of notorious for exaggerating stories. This just gives a whole new perspective, and I find that absolutely fascinating. A possible beginning for the unicorn myth.

....Unless, perhaps, unicorns are real and the entire theory that a one-horned deer sparked the fable is complete BS from disbelieving science folk desperately trying to explain the unexplainable. Who knows. Either way, it's a cute little deer, isn't it? I'd totally adopt it as a pet if I could.

Thanks to Kevin for the link!

Caribbean Monk Seal Gone Extinct From Human Causes, NOAA Confirms

June 9, 2008

"After a five year review, NOAA’s Fisheries Service has determined that the Caribbean monk seal, which has not been seen for more than 50 years, has gone extinct — the first type of seal to go extinct from human causes..."

(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080608074828.htm)

Christie Anna says: Lovely. One more species we've managed to wipe out. I'm not going to start ranting about this; I'll go on for far longer than anyone wants. Well, RIP to the Caribbean monk seal, and my apologies.

National report rates Vermont 2nd healthiest among states for raising kids

May 30, 2008

"Vermont has been ranked the second healthiest state in the country in which to raise children, although it also scored poorly for having high health care costs, according to a new report that compared children's health in all 50 states.

The Commonwealth Fund's report, "U.S. Variations in Child Health System Performance: A State Scorecard," contains lots of good news for Vermont, including having some of the lowest rates in the country of infant mortality and low-income children without health insurance..."

(http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080530/NEWS01/805300372/1002/NEWS01)

Christie Anna says: Win! Like I've always said, Vermont is pretty fantastic, and this is just one more thing to prove me right. Second only to Iowa - and I daresay it's a tad more beautiful than Iowa. Have to say, this (among other things) makes me pretty happy that I was raised here. Thanks to my Dad for the link, along with the comment that maybe he and mom raised me right. I certainly can't complain! :)

Obama press 'hijacked' during Clinton meeting

June 6, 2008

"What seemed to be a routine evening waiting for Barack Obama aboard his campaign plane turned into anything but when the cabin doors closed and the passengers were informed the aircraft would be taking off immediately -- without the candidate..."

(http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/06/btsc.welch.obama.press/?eref=rss_politics&iref=polticker)

Christie Anna says: I love that man. (At least two other people have said those exact words after hearing this story). I wish I could use that to get rid of people I didn't want to have around. I mean, it's one thing to tell someone you're going to be somewhere and then go somewhere else, but to stick a bunch of people on a plane and send them across the country? Brilliant.

Stonehenge Used as Cemetery From Its Beginning

"

May 29, 2008 -- England's enigmatic Stonehenge served as a burial ground from its earliest beginnings and for several hundred years thereafter, new research indicates.

Dating of cremated remains shows burials took place as early as 3000 B.C., when the first ditches around the monument were being built, researchers said Thursday..."

(http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/05/29/stonehenge-burial.html)

Amber says: I want to be buried at Stonehenge. It would be awesome. Oh, and... This is a big find? I mean, Im not surprised at all by this... But maybe Im just cooler than everyone else... :-)

Geek Articles You Must Read...

(To Boldly Grow Where No One Has Grown Before)

(Eco-Alert- Sunscreen Causes Coral Damage {We cant win!!})

(Heavy Marijuana Use Shrinks Brain Parts)

(The Space Race For the New Millennium)

(Researchers Find New Way to Attack Malaria)

Amber says: I swear, I work while I'm at my job...

Giant 'telescope' links London, New York

LONDON, England (CNN) --
"As the first splinters of sunlight spread their warmth on the south bank of the River Thames on Thursday, it became clear that after more than a century, the vision of Victorian engineer Alexander Stanhope St. George had finally been realized.
In all its optical brilliance and brass and wood, there stood the Telectroscope: an 11.2-meter-(37 feet) long by 3.3-meter-(11 feet) tall dream of a device allowing people on one side of the Atlantic to look into its person-size lens and, in real time, see those on the other side via a recently completed tunnel running under the ocean. (Think 19th-century Webcam. Or maybe Victorian-age video phone.)..."

(http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/22/scope.project/index.html)

Amber says: This article made me insanely happy. How cool is this? I wish I had thought of it.
Obviously, they arent talking about a REAL tunnel under the ocean. I think we would have heard about that a long time ago. But, this idea is brilliant. It almost makes me want to make a trip to NYC to check it out. (Or London. You know, which ever...)

I say this all the time, but I am so excited to be living when all of this cool stuff is happening. Space travel, crazy- fake telescopes that make it seem like you are looking at someone across the ocean... what next?!