Clipmarks | dewitte's clips

Squeez Bacon

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:14:41 GMT

clipped by: dewitte

Clip Source: www.thinkgeek.com

The World's Most Perfect Food

Tags: bacon

How come it cost $175 to fly a bike yet obese travelers don't pay extra?

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:12:17 GMT

clipped by: dewitte

Clip Source: www.examiner.com

This photo allegedly snapped by an American Airlines flight attendant has renewed the debate concerning obese travelers.

But what about ultra light bikes?

In an effort to maximize revenues airlines have begun to charge super-sized fees to transport bikes. It can easily cost $175 on some airlines to transport a bike...one way.

The airlines justify these fees by saying that it cost more money to handle a bike, and of course more money to transport a bike because of the added weight. The more weight, the more fuel an airplane uses, the more money it cost to fly.

So let's assume that a typical modern bike weights about 20 pounds. The bike case can weigh anywhere from 30 t0 50 pounds...so that means a heavy bike and case weighs about 70 pounds.

So how much does the passenger in this photo weight?

Tags: obese, airline, plane, rates

British comedian Eddie Izzard determined to finish an Ironman

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:10:29 GMT

clipped by: dewitte

Clip Source: www.examiner.com

It wasn't that all that long ago (September 17th) that British Comedian Eddie Izzard finished 43 marathons to run over 1000 miles around England...as you may recall from THIS story.

So what do you do to top 43 marathons?

You guessed it, the 47-year-old actor turned ultra runner, now has his eyes set on completing an Ironman.

"I've just started up swimming because I want to do Ironman now. It's where you swim for five kilometres, then cycle for 180 kilometres and then you run a marathon after that - all in one go," he added.

It may seem strange that a cross dressing British comedian has become the face of fitness in Great Britain, but Izzard says that since we'll all live to 100 we better be fit.

Tags: eddie, izzard

Implant-Based Cancer Vaccine Is First to Eliminate Tumors in Mice

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:52:10 GMT

clipped by: dewitte
clipper's remarks: Mice are so lucky! Doctors are always working hard on cures for them.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (Nov. 25, 2009) — A cancer vaccine carried into the body on a carefully engineered, fingernail-sized implant is the first to successfully eliminate tumors in mammals, scientists recently reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The new approach, pioneered by bioengineers and immunologists at Harvard University, uses plastic disks impregnated with tumor-specific antigens and implanted under the skin to reprogram the mammalian immune system to attack tumors. The new paper describes the use of such implants to eradicate melanoma tumors in mice.

The slender implants developed by Mooney's group are 8.5 millimeters in diameter and made of an FDA-approved biodegradable polymer. Ninety percent air, the disks are highly permeable to immune cells and release cytokines, powerful recruiters of immune-system messengers called dendritic cells.

Tags: cancer, vaccine

Paula Deen Hit In Face With Ham

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:38:57 GMT

clipped by: dewitte

Clip Source: www.cbsatlanta.com

ATLANTA -- One celebrity chef is showing what it means lend a hand this holiday season.

Savannah's own Paula Deen is helping to deliver more than 25,000 lbs. of protein to Hosea Feed the Hungry.

Although the focus was on giving back, things took a quick turn when Deen got a serving of ham in a rather unique way.

While tossing hams and turkeys, a misguided thrown ham hit Deen in the face, but that didn’t sideline her from the topic at hand.

Related To Story

Video: Raw Video: Paula Deen Hit In Face By Ham
Video: Deen's Reaction To Ham In Face

While Deen managed to escape visible injury, she did say the area around her nose hurt.

"I just got hit with a hog so what do I expect said Deen through laughter. "Ran head on to a hog."

Tags: paula, deen, ham

Lab creates fake DNA evidence

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:25:08 GMT

clipped by: dewitte
clipper's remarks: I heard about this on an episode of Law and Order this week. It's the first I'd heard about it.

Clip Source: www.scientificamerican.com

Unlike finicky fingerprints and frowned-upon fiber analysis, DNA evidence has been the most bulletproof evidence for forensic sciences in recent years. But staffers at a research firm in Israel have recently upended the presumed infallibility of this forensics golden child—by making it themselves.

Nucleix, a Tel-Aviv-based life sciences company, was able to create credible DNA evidence that could be used to finger the wrong person, proof that even genetic evidence can be manipulated (beyond planting a hair or used cigarette) just like other physical traces.

"You can just engineer a crime scene," Nucleix founder Dan Frumkin told The New York Times. "The current forensic procedure fails to distinguish between such samples of blood, saliva, and touched surfaces with artificial DNA, and corresponding samples with in vivo generated (natural) DNA," Frumkin and co-authors wrote in a recent Forensic Science International: Genetics study that announced the technological achievement.

Tags: dna, medicine, crime, fake

Henry Gibson dies at 73; original cast member of 'Laugh-In'

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:05:59 GMT

clipped by: dewitte

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

Henry Gibson, a veteran character actor who came to fame in the late 1960s as the flower-holding poet on TV's landmark satirical comedy show "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In," has died. He was 73.

Gibson, who more recently played a recurring role as cantankerous Judge Clark Brown on "Boston Legal," was part of the original ensemble cast of “Laugh In,” which ran on NBC from 1968 to 1973.

"Henry was an integral part of 'Laugh-In' for a long time, and he was brilliant," said Gary Owens, the show's announcer, who remained close to Gibson over the years. "He was a very funny man."

Looking back on his time on "Laugh-In" in a 1993 interview with The Times, Gibson said, "It was an oasis of laughter and escape."

Tags: obits, henry, gibson

Mugging Victim Tracks Suspects Via IPhone's GPS

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:19:17 GMT

clipped by: dewitte

Clip Source: www.thepittsburghchannel.com

PITTSBURGH -- A CMU student who was mugged on a street in Shadyside helped Pittsburgh police catch the suspects using his iPhone.

Police said two men flashed what looked like a gun at Can Duruk and demanded his wallet, PIN and iPhone early Saturday morning in the 400 block of Amberson Avenue.

Duruk, who spoke only to WTAE, contacted a friend to call 911. He said it was his friend who had the idea to do a little detective work.

"He was the one who remembered my phone had GPS. Then I was like, 'Oh yeah, we can do that.' So, we got into the apartment and started tracking them. It took like five minutes or so for them to appear, but then we could see where they were heading towards," Duruk said.

Police officers tracked the three suspects to an Eat N' Park in North Versailles, where police arrested the men.

Police said Brent Potter and Bryant Rather will be charged with robbery, and Myron Knox Jr. will also face charges related to using stolen credit cards.

Tags: iphone

Why is there no Q on the telephone dial?

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:02:30 GMT

clipped by: dewitte

Clip Source: www.straightdope.com

Phone company planners made a conscious decision to exclude Q the better part of a century ago and history has been proving they were geniuses ever since. It all started when the phone company began replacing human operators with mechanical switching equipment, which necessitated the use of dials. Bell wished to retain its folksy exchange names (since discontinued), but for reasons we'll get to in a moment elected to assign letters to only eight of the ten available digits.

The selection of the other came down to deciding which of the remaining 25 was the most useless, the principal candidates presumably being Q and X.

In any case, X was chosen for immortality while Q was consigned to the dustbin of telephony.

Tags: q, dial, phone, digit

Masters of multitasking fall short in Stanford study

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:43:05 GMT

clipped by: dewitte

Clip Source: www.mercurynews.com

Hey, concentrate for a second here. We know you think you can simultaneously text your boss, e-mail your girlfriend, post a school photo to your Facebook page and shop for shoes online better than doing it the old-fashioned way — one task at a time.

Sorry. A team of Stanford University researchers says you can't.

More specifically, the team found that people who are HMM (heavy media multitasker in research parlance) do not pay attention, cannot control their memory or cannot switch easily from one job to another as adeptly as low-tech people who concentrate on one job at a time.

"I found it very surprising," said Eyal Ophir, the study's lead researcher at Stanford's Communication Between Humans and Interactive Media Lab who is admittedly a one-thing-at-a-time kind of guy. "We thought that multitaskers would have some kind of special ability. All we found were deficits."

Tags: multitasking, stanford

Three Indicted in Largest Corporate Identity Theft Case in History

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:08:15 GMT

clipped by: dewitte

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

Albert Gonzalez of Miami, 28, is charged with acting with two unnamed conspirators to locate large corporations and steal vital account information in a crime that the Department of Justice calls "the single largest hacking and identity theft case ever prosecuted."

Authorities say more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen in a corporate data breach involving three different corporations and two individuals. The card numbers, along with additional account information, were allegedly stolen from Princeton-based Heartland Payment Systems; 7-Eleven Inc., a Texas-based convenience store chain and Hannaford Brothers Company, a Maine-based supermarket chain.

According to the Justice Department, the suspects used a sophisticated hacking technique called an "SQL injection attack," which "seeks to exploit computer networks by finding a way around the network's firewall to steal credit card and debit information."

Tags: sql injection

Reader's Digest plans to file for Ch. 11

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:06:30 GMT

clipped by: dewitte
clipper's remarks: "Bankruptcy" is the best medicine

Clip Source: www.bizjournals.com

Magazine and media publisher Reader's Digest Association, Inc. said Monday that it plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a move to reduce some of its $1.6 billion debt load.

Reader's Digest is the parent company for Seattle-based website AllRecipes.com, which is the top online recipe site in the U.S. with about 300 million visits each year.

AllRecipes represents a growth business for the 87-year-old media company, which has watched the circulation of its flagship print publication fall in recent years. The effect on AllRecipes wasn't immediately known. Reader's Digest said it plans to operate normally during the restructuring.

Rock guitar pioneer Les Paul dies

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:36:55 GMT

clipped by: dewitte

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Les Paul, whose pioneering electric guitars were used by a legion of rock stars, has died at the age of 94.

Mr Paul died from complications of pneumonia in New York, according to Gibson, the firm that sold his guitars.

He is credited with developing one of the first solid-body electric guitars, which went on sale in 1952 and contributed to the birth of rock.

He also developed other influential recording innovations such as multi-track recording and overdubbing.

And he was credited with inventing the eight-track tape recorder.

U2 guitarist The Edge, Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, Guns N' Roses star Slash and The Who's Pete Townshend are among those closely associated with the Les Paul sound.

Slash described him as "an exceptionally brilliant man".

Tags: obits, les paul

Portsmouth mayor fined for using assistant for personal tasks

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 17:50:21 GMT

clipped by: dewitte
clipper's remarks: "Bring me up the 1978 Superbowl video with all of the commercials edited out."

Clip Source: hamptonroads.com

Mayor James Holley's secretary has been busy.

She's surfed the Internet for a Taser gun to repel geese at Holley's home, and she's called T.J. Maxx stores across Virginia to find medium-size wooden shoe trees.

She's made hair and nail appointments with Mrs. Erma at Camelot Beauty Salon and at Foxy Nails and asked the city's information technology department to cancel Holley's subscription to Playboy. The Web site is typically off-limits to city employees.

Lorraine Stokes was so busy performing personal tasks for the 82-year-old mayor that they interfered with her job responsibilities, she said. So she took a list of her concerns, including 44 personal tasks the mayor wanted, to her supervisor and the City Council.

Council members have fined Holley $2,500 for an ongoing pattern of using his city assistants to perform personal chores. If he doesn't contest the fine, the money will be deducted from his paycheck.

Stokes is being reassigned.

John Hughes Dies

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:59:57 GMT

clipped by: dewitte
clipper's remarks: Bueller, Bueller, Bueller...

Clip Source: www.tmz.com

John Hughes has died of a heart attack.

Hughes suffered the heart attack while taking a morning walk during a trip to NYC to visit family.

He directed such '80s hit films as "The Breakfast Club," "Pretty in Pink," "Sixteen Candles" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

He was 59.

Story developing...

Tags: hughes, john, ferris