Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.

Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.

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Talent Is Underrated

sponge rainin

Guitar Hero World Tour ad – Kobe, A-Rod, Phelps, Hawk

Huskies

Why sled dogs are super dogs

Study: Athleticism of Alaskan huskies is superior to most other mammals

Discovery Channel

Alaskan huskies that participate in the grueling Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race must run 1,100 miles while enduring heavy blizzards, temperatures as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit and winds up to 60 miles per hour, all of which earn the hearty canines status as the world’s premier ultra-endurance animal athletes.

How do they do it? New research suggests the canines are superior to most other mammals, including humans, in at least three key areas: They are unusually adept at adapting to exercise, they have superior aerobic capacity and are unusually efficient in using food as fuel.

Thats what she said

Ninja cat comes closer while not moving!

Do You Even Think About Americans? Ron Paul

Mad TV – Abercrombie Skits

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/082708dnmetabercrombie.4027698.html

Sign of the times. :-S

Nike Basketball Commercial

Is Jon Stewart the Most Trusted Man in America?

s Jon Stewart the Most Trusted Man in America?

By MICHIKO KAKUTANI

 

IT’S been more than eight years since “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” made its first foray into presidential politics with the presciently named Indecision 2000, and the difference in the show’s approach to its coverage then and now provides a tongue-in-cheek measure of the show’s striking evolution.

In 1999, the “Daily Show” correspondent Steve Carell struggled to talk his way off Senator John McCain’s overflow press bus — “a repository for outcasts, misfits and journalistic bottom-feeders” — and onto the actual Straight Talk Express, while at the 2000 Republican Convention Mr. Stewart self-deprecatingly promised exclusive coverage of “all the day’s events — at least the ones we’re allowed into.” In this year’s promotional spot for “The Daily Show’s” convention coverage, the news newbies have been transformed into a swaggering A Team — “the best campaign team in the universe ever,” working out of “ ‘The Daily Show’ news-scraper: 117 stories, 73 situation rooms, 26 news tickers,” and promising to bring “you all the news stories — first … before it’s even true.”

Warp 9

 

Star Trek warp drive is a possibility, say scientists

Stop and Stare

You start to wonder why you’re here not there.

And you’d give anything to get what’s fair
But fair ain’t what you really need
Oh, can you see what I see

They’re tryin’ to come back, all my senses push. Untie the weight bags, I never thought I could…
Steady feet, don’t fail me now
Gonna run till you can’t walk
But something pulls my focus out
And I’m standing down…

Fronk N Dego – The Most Dramatically Normal Day Ever

4 in the Morning – Gwen Stefani

The Sundays – Here’s Where The Story Ends

1-800-GOOG-411: Google’s 411 service

Works really well, and FREE.

The end of U-Turn.

6.6 Degrees

 

Study confirms ‘Kevin Bacon’ theory

Survey of instant-messagers finds any two people just 6.6 degrees apart

By Peter Whoriskey

The Washington Post

updated 11:00 a.m. MT, Sat., Aug. 2, 2008

WASHINGTON – Turns out, it is a small world.

The “small world theory,” embodied in the old saw that there are just “six degrees of separation” between any two strangers on Earth, has been largely corroborated by a massive study of electronic communication.

With records of 30 billion electronic conversations among 180 million people from around the world, researchers have concluded that any two people on average are distanced by just 6.6 degrees of separation, meaning that they could be linked by a string of seven or fewer acquaintances.

The database covered all of the Microsoft Messenger instant-messaging network in June 2006, or roughly half the world’s instant-messaging traffic at that time, researchers said.

“To me, it was pretty shocking. What we’re seeing suggests there may be a social connectivity constant for humanity,” said Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft researcher who conducted the study with colleague Jure Leskovec. “People have had this suspicion that we are really close. But we are showing on a very large scale that this idea goes beyond folklore.”

Sorry I missed you…….

Don’t Want to Talk About It? Order a Missed Call

By MATT RICHTEL

 

When Alexis Gorman, 26, wanted to tell a man she had been dating that the courtship was over, she felt sending a Dear John text message was too impersonal. But she worried that if she called the man, she would face an awkward conversation or a confrontation.

So she found a middle ground. She broke it off in a voice mail message, using new technology that allowed her to jump directly to the suitor’s voice mail, without ever having to talk to the man — or risk his actually answering the phone.

The technology, called Slydial, lets callers dial a mobile phone but avoid an unwanted conversation — or unwanted intimacy — on the other end. The incoming call goes undetected by the recipient, who simply receives the traditional blinking light or ping that indicates that a voice mail message has been received.

Waboba

Ball that bounces on water is summer craze

A ball that bounces on water has become the must-have beach toy of the summer.

 

Last Updated: 3:06PM BST 01 Aug 2008

Photo: WABOBA.COM

The Waboba ball, which is about the size of a golf ball, has taken off around the world after videos were posted on YouTube.

Made of a combination of plastics with a lycra coating, it is described as having the consistency of a breast implant.

The ball is about the same density as water and floats when at rest, but bounces high and true when thrown. It continues to bounce until it is caught or runs out of steam.

The ball took Swedish inventor Jan von Heland several years to perfect, but it is now being sold around the world after first taking off on the beaches of Australia.

“I first got the idea when I was throwing a frisbee upside down on the water trying to get it to bounce,” he said.

“I thought it would be good to get something that used the water to bounce off and began to experiment.”

He added: “It has been very successful and we sell the balls all over the world – Australia is our biggest market.

“It seems a bit odd that a Swede should invent this because it is best for a hot climate where people are in the sea and in swimming pools all the time.”

The ball, which works well in the sea and in swimming pools but is not intended to be thrown at hard surfaces, is available from several online retailers.

A spokeswoman for Volumeload, which supplies the balls in the UK, said that it had already sold around 15,000 this year and it was having to order more stock to keep up with demand.

Very Cool

Wowser

Bike Thief

This is why i bolt my bike with the “New York Fahgettaboutit” chain. Yes it sucks to carry a chain that big around, but nobody is gonna cut through it in a few minutes while everyone goes on about their day like that. :-S

Lessons in Love, by Way of Economics

If economics is the study of the allocation of scarce goods and services, what could be scarcer or more precious than love?