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By Janet Evans
Wednesday, Jun 25 2008, 05:37 PM
I happened to come across this blog regarding 12 Beers You Should Only Drink In College and noticed that there are three or four Milwaukee beers on the list.
“Everyone loves college. You live in a building full of your friends and the opposite sex sans parents for months, with a veritable smorgasbord of food, parties and alcohol to distract you from worthless schoolwork. But the sacrifice is that you’re broke. Still, you have to get drunk. What do you buy? Here’s a list of beers that encourage you to do your homework so you can afford the good stuff after graduation. But for now, you drink these purely out of circumstance.”
Ð
That’s what the “Campus Squeeze” says……
It’s a scary place, parents….be afraid…be very afraid….
It was just easier before their were blogs and websites...it was easier when you asked your college student how things were going and the just said, "Fine, can I have some money?"
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By Janet Evans
Sunday, Jun 15 2008, 10:30 PM
In the 50s and 60s robots were very mechanical in appearance, and extremely clumsy. In the 70s and 80s their movement was more lifelike. In the 90s, and now the 2000s they have become more human-like; even showing emotion and facial expression.
The reality is, in the coming decades human-robot relationships of the romantic nature are expected to become something commonplace. For those who can't find the "real thing," forget the blow-up doll in the closet…no more lonely hearts club…a robot will be able to carry on a conversation of sorts with a partner….among other things.
The Japanese made a very lifelike robot back in 2006. Except for the "Hello Kitty" shirt, that's a pretty convincing robot.
Actroid Der-2
See what Dutch researcher, Vincent Wiegel has to say about the fact that….
In 2050, your lover may be a ... robot ç here
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By Janet Evans
Tuesday, May 27 2008, 07:30 PM
My twenty-something son dated and married his lovely high school sweetheart.
My thirty-something daughter didn’t. She dated in high school and dated in college, too. She had a relationship after college. Life was busy, work was hectic. And Mr. Right was nowhere to be found. At least, not in plain sight.
When she told me some of her friends had tried internet dating and she was considering it, I wasn’t happy about it. Too dangerous, I thought....and I still do. But she, just as at least one of her friends that I’m aware of, met her husband during the process.
So, why is it so difficult to meet that “someone special” if you don’t meet them in school or in the workplace?
If you're single would you, or have you used an online dating service?
If you're a parent, would you be worried if one of your children used one?
I'm still not crazy about the fact that my daughter used one, but I'm crazy about my son-in-law. Funny thing is, it ends up that he didn't live too far away from my daughter, and some friends in her work circle new him, and never thought of introducing them to each other. Go figure.
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By Janet Evans
Wednesday, May 21 2008, 06:40 AM
A woman demonstrates Nintendo's "Wii Fit"
game console. REUTERS
Remember how I mentioned Wii Fit might not be the nicest gift to give for Mother’s Day? I mean, no mom wants to be reminded that she may need to lose weight.
Well, Mother's Day is over, and Father's Day is just around the corner.
Dad would love this!
REUTERS
When you first step onto the Wii Balance Board, a sturdy platform that comes with the system, it asks for your age and height and figures out your body mass index (BMI). Sensors in the board detect a user's weight and balancing skills, too, because you are given a balance assessment. Once you get past the assessment, you can pick a trainer -- male or female, and then choose from aerobics, strength training, yoga or balance. Each segment (there are more than 40) is only about three to five minutes -- not enough to break a sweat in a serious gym rat, but okay for the person who wants to have some fun and start an exercise regimen. "
Read more about it
Wii Fit Gives Kinder, Gentler Workout ç here
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By Janet Evans
Tuesday, Apr 22 2008, 11:30 AM
"The longest smoke break of Nicholas White’s life began at around eleven o’clock on a Friday night in October, 1999. White, a thirty-four-year-old production manager at Business Week, working late on a special supplement, had just watched the Braves beat the Mets on a television in the office pantry. Now he wanted a cigarette. He told a colleague he’d be right back and, leaving behind his jacket, headed downstairs.
The magazine’s offices were on the forty-third floor of the McGraw-Hill Building, an unadorned tower added to Rockefeller Center in 1972. When White finished his cigarette, he returned to the lobby and, waved along by a janitor buffing the terrazzo floors, got into Car No. 30 and pressed the button marked 43. The car accelerated. It was an express elevator, with no stops below the thirty-ninth floor, and the building was deserted. But after a moment White felt a jolt. The lights went out and immediately flashed on again. And then the elevator stopped."
[...]
"Looking back on the experience now, with a peculiarly melancholic kind of bewilderment, he recognizes that he walked onto an elevator one night, with his life in one kind of shape, and emerged from it with his life in another. Still, he now sees that it wasn’t so much the elevator that changed him as his reaction to it."
~~~~~~~~~~
Have you got a few minutes?
Your going to need them.
That’s if you want to read the long, sad, but true story of what happened next to Nicholas White because he made the choice to take a cigarette break and then hop on an elevator back up to the 43rd floor.
You’ll also learn all you ever wanted to know about elevators.
From The New Yorker
Up and Then Down í here
The lives of elevators
Aren’t stairs great?
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By Janet Evans
Thursday, Apr 17 2008, 07:14 PM
I happened to see the following old news blurb:
CBS Evening News for
Thursday, Apr 16, 1981
Headline: Cow Magnets and Auto Mileage
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(Studio) Report introduced
REPORTER: Dan Rather (Windhorst, Texas) Willy Hoff's use of magnets in his cows and H.C. Lyles' use of magnets for improved gasoline mileage examined; films shown. [LYLES - notes he can use them in his cows if they don't work on his truck.] [Farm store owner Cotton FLATT - comments on sales.] [Texas A&M spokesperson Richard DAVISON - thinks consumer union should test use of magnets in cars.]
REPORTER: David Dick
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What's funny about this, to me anyway, is I have one of those cow magnets. My brother gave it to me when I was a kid, back in the 60s. We lived in Connecticut, and he had a friend who lived on a farm. They used to drop those magnets down the cows to catch nails and things.
I can't tell you why I kept it, except it's a heck of a strong magnet, three inches long, and it's unusual. I keep it in my sewing box where everyone of my pins clings to it like mad.
Here is a picture of the thing:
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So, back to the magnet/gas story.
I thought it was odd that this story made national news.
So I looked around some more and found that a Minnesota State University Engineering professor investigated the cow magnet theory, along with other gas saving techniques, and found it to be a "hoax."
"Since the days of the Arab Oil Embargo, whenever rising fuel prices have driven people to try dubious technologies promising better gas mileage, two Minnesota State University professors have tested and debunked them.
Automotive and Manufacturing Engineering Technology professor Bruce Jones and professor emeritus Kirk Ready have tested many gas-mileage enhancers over the years and have yet to find one that makes a significant difference.
From magnets to fuel additives, anything that claims to dramatically improve fuel efficiency is probably too good to be true, Ready said. "If it were that easy, every car sold would already have it," Ready said.
At best, Ready said, some of the technologies may have a minor effect if used as part of regular maintenance. At worst, the technologies are bogus.
One of the first claims he tested, and "probably the biggest hoax," was placing cow magnets on or near the fuel line to improve gas mileage. The magnets - used by cattle farmers to safely collect any metal objects their animals might ingest - would supposedly ionize gas for better fuel distribution, Ready explained.
Ready said his test results, however, were conclusive: "It makes absolutely no difference."
While the gas-mileage enhancers on the market today are more sophisticated, they still routinely wither under Ready's and Jones' scrutiny. Still, especially when gas prices go up, those who sell gas-mileage enhancers find a public willing to try anything to save at the pump.
"The products go in cycles with gas prices," Ready said."
Read the rest of the story, from MSU Cow Magnets Too Good To Be True í here
~~~~~~~~~
Looks like I’ll be putting my cow magnet back in my sewing box.
It was nice to know I had it if I needed it though.
I was thinking about putting in my seed order for my garden to make this though
Instructions í here
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By Janet Evans
Monday, Apr 14 2008, 11:50 AM
I looked outside this morning and behold, my lawn is turning green!
Time to start thinking about how we will cut that grass this year.
With gas prices so high and everyone wanting to be more eco-friendly…..
Well….what more could you ask for?
No fuel needed....self-propelled.
You can use it on those "Ozone Action Days."
Fertilizes the lawn, too.
and, it’s quiet!
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Even though it’s early, I just thought I would bring this to your attention since
the St. Martins’s Fair only comes the first Monday of each month.
Great place to buy that rabbit (or sell one).
H/T: Presentsimple
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