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flickr/chrispirillo
Pac Man Fever
"Study: Pac-Man on Google wasted 4.8 million hours" Check it out: "It might not sound like a lot on first glance, but the 36 extra seconds that the average Google.com visitor spent there last Friday playing Pac-Man adds up to a massive 4.8 million of wasted hours. According to a study by RescueTime, Pac-Man on Google--the playable version of the iconic game that the search giant replaced its home page logo with on Friday--cost the economy a total of 4,819,352 man-hours and a whopping $120,483,800 in lost productivity." [CNET]
Posted 5:19 PM | Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 | Permalink
Source: flickr/andersadermark
Booze And Alzheimer’s
Forget the messy days of youth where booze made you forget stuff - today booze may help you remember. A new study from Spain shows drinking alcohol may help you avoid the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Moderate drinking affected the brain's neural centers and helped women avoid the disease, but here's the rub: it only worked if the women were nonsmokers. [Yahoo News]
Posted 5:18 PM | Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 | Permalink
Ugh.
It finally happened. A movie theater in New York is charging $20 for a ticket. "Several theaters will charge $20 per adult ticket to IMAX showings of the animated 3-D family film 'Shrek Forever After,' the fourth 'Shrek' installment from DreamWorks Animation." We'll wait for the DVD. [WSJ]
Posted 1:29 PM | Monday, May 24th, 2010 | Permalink
Source: flickr/jwpacifist
Thursday, May 20
The Administration
- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: On her way to Tokyo, Japan.
- Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke: In Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Jakarta for a clean-energy trade mission.
- Secretary of HHS Kathleen Sebelius: In Geneva for the World Health Organization's 63rd Annual World Health Assembly.
- HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan: Testifies in front of a Senate Approps subcommittee on "Housing America's An Examination of the Progress in Ending Veterans' Homelessnes." 10AM
- Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki: Testifies in front of a Senate Approps subcommittee on "Housing America's An Examination of the Progress in Ending Veterans' Homelessnes." 10AM
The Hill
- 10AM: Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on "Housing America's An Examination of the Progress in Ending Veterans' Homelessness." Watch For: HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan; VA Secretary Eric Shinseki
- 2PM: Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on investing in mine safety.
- 9AM: House Education and Labor Committee hearing on "The Impact of Concussions on High School Athletes."
- 9AM: House (Select) Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee hearing on "Climate Science in the Political Arena."
- 9:30AM: House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee hearing on "Implementation of the Pipeline Inspection, Protection, Enforcement and Safety Act of 2006 and Reauthorization of the Pipeline Safety Program."
In History
- 1873: Levi Strauss and his partner Jacob Davis get a patent for their new invention, blue jeans.
- 1932: Amelia Earhart leaves Newfoundland on her quest to become the first woman to fly around the world solo
- 1956: The United States has its first test of an airborne nuclear weapon, detonating an H-Bomb over Bikini Island.
- 1996: The Supreme Court strikes down a measure in Colorado that banned the legislature from passing laws to protect gays from discrimination.
- Happy Birthday: Jimmy Stewart, Timothy Olyphant, Ron Reagan and Cher.
Posted 4:36 PM | Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 | Permalink
Extra Value Meal
How much is that sandwich really worth to you? Instead of just donating money to charity, Panera Bread is doing something unorthodox: they’ve set up a satellite store where customers are encouraged to pay what they think is fair. All the proceeds are then used to fund local community groups. Executives say if their non-profit model proves successful, they’ll expand it to other locations around the country. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
Posted 2:05 PM | Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 | Permalink
Crowning Achievement
Much to the chagrin of hard-right conservatives, Miss USA has crowned its first Arab-American winner. Rima Fakih, of Michigan, won last night’s pageant, managing to avoid any of last year’s controversy. When asked whether she thought birth control should be paid for by health insurance she said yes, that it should be treated like any other medication. Miss Oklahoma, the first runner up, fielded a question about Arizona’s new immigration law, which she said she supported. Lebanon-born Fakih says she is already bracing for questions about her heritage and says she hopes her win shows that “she’s an American first.” [Detroit News]
Posted 3:11 PM | Monday, May 17th, 2010 | Permalink
Encouraging X-Rated Teens?
According to new reports, several British government-run unemployment offices are offering teenage job seekers a chance to make more than $1,000 a week on x-rated Web sites. The jobs are being advertised at Jobcentre Plus offices in Birmingham, Warwickshire and Shropshire by an adult recruiting agency, Faceclick. The agency encourages applicants to engage in sexually explicit conversations and to perform "activities that you feel comfortable" when naked in front of a camera. How disturbing. [USAT]
Posted 10:40 AM | Thursday, May 13th, 2010 | Permalink
flickr/rustybrick
How Old Are You Again?
A high school basketball player in Texas has been arrested after authorities found that he was a 22-year-old from Haiti acting as a 16-year-old student. Guerdwich Montimere admitted the deception and was charged Tuesday night with presenting false identification to a peace office. "I feel like I was hit by a ton of bricks," says athletic director Leon Fuller. "In my 50 years in education, I've never heard of anything like this." Montimere graduated from Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in 2007, then played basketball briefly at a community college in Illinois. [USA Today]
Posted 9:15 AM | Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 | Permalink
What’s In A Name?
According to the Social Security Administration Isabella is the new top baby name for girls, while Jacob continued its 11-year run as the most popular baby name for boys. Pop culture appeared to influence many of the most popular names in 2009. Some 69 boys born in 2009 were named Barack, making it the 1,993rd most popular name for boys. A version of the president's daughter's name, Malia, was the fastest riser for girls, while many of the top names (and the fastest risers) came from the "Twilight" series of books and movies. [AP]
Posted 9:21 AM | Friday, May 7th, 2010 | Permalink
Source: flickr/thesmuggler
Facebook Faux Pas
So...how many marriages were busted up over this one? A new "security flaw" in Facebook allowed people to eavesdrop on the "private chats" their friends were having with other people. The chat function has now been temporarily turned off entirely. [BBC News]
Posted 5:54 PM | Wednesday, May 5th, 2010 | Permalink
CBS, Here I Come
It pays to be the senator's daughter. Ayla Brown, the daughter of Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown has been chosen to serve as a new CBS contributor for the "Early Show." Brown, who has yet to graduate from Boston College, will produce pieces focused on the youth audience. "You can't create the next Katie Couric; you just have to find talent that you think can develop into something," said Executive Producer David Friedman. [AZ Central]
Posted 9:51 AM | Wednesday, May 5th, 2010 | Permalink
Good News
A potential breakthrough out of the University of California today, as researchers have discovered a way to predict whether women in the early stages of breast cancer will develop deadly tumors or not. Experts say if the findings translated into simple testing in the exam rooms, they will greatly reduce the need for unnecessary mastectomies. Many women opt for surgery right away instead of waiting to see if their cancer will turn malignant. [San Francisco Chronicle]
Posted 2:24 PM | Thursday, April 29th, 2010 | Permalink
flickr/paalia
But What About Gargamel?
Paul Reubens (aka: PeeWee Herman) has been cast in the new 3D movie version of "The Smurfs" as...wait for it...wait for it...wait for it...Jokey Smurf! (How perfect is that??!) In case you don't remember, Jokey Smurf loves to trick the other Smurfs, usually with a big, wrapped present that explodes when you open it, turning your whole face black and smoking. [Deadline]
Posted 5:03 PM | Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 | Permalink
Old Habits Die Hard
After just coming back from our lunch of burgers and french fries, we're not surprised to read this USA Today story that finds that Americans are going to have a hard time limited their salt intake. Many have concentrated on limiting their fat intake or the number of carbs they ingest (not us today), but experts predict that a limit on the amount of salt in American diets might be hard to implement: “Sodium makes a fast-food lifestyle very easy and to change, we would need to live and eat differently.” New research has shown a correlation between excessive sodium intake and high blood pressure, a leading cause of heart attacks and strokes. [USA Today]
Posted 2:04 PM | Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 | Permalink
Source: flickr/jasonippolito
Not-So Happy Meals
Sad Face :( Santa Clara County lawmakers just outlawed Happy Meals in a bid to make fast food less attractive to its youngest citizens. Only meals that meet certain nutritional requirements are allowed to be accompanied by a toy. Apparently, recent efforts by McDonalds to offer more healthy choices are falling by the wayside. [San Jose Mercury News]
Posted 1:59 PM | Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 | Permalink
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