Oh yeah, don't forget about the Puppy Bowl!
It's almost time for the Commercial Bowl and that means eating foods that are awful for you. You might have clam dip, onion dip, salsa casseroles, and sour cream and onion chips. Shrimp will be dipped into cocktail sauce or ketchup and bacon will wrap itself around everything. Cheese will be chopped up into tiny little cubes, each skewered with toothpicks and cheese dips will be making messes on sofas. You will be sold beer, soda, chips, pizza, insurance, and more beer, soda, chips, pizza... The fact that these commercials cost companies millions is enough for me to sit through what they come up with. Horses will be trotting into stables, people will fly through glass, celebrities will sell you just about anything, but hopefully we will see some innovation this year. Make me interact! Make all of us do something besides go to a website to see more Go Daddy chicks. I want to scan and download something like a coupon for cheese dip. Better yet, I want to attend a Commercial Bowl while wearing Google Glass so I can truly be mind invaded. Virtual everything will pop up and I'll just want to reach out and drink it. We should be given Google Glass for free, paid for with the support of augmented reality popup ads.
Oh yeah, don't forget about the Puppy Bowl! Last night I watched Hawking on PBS. I was almost certain that I'd be listening to the buttery vocals of Benedict Cumberbatch for most of the broadcast. Instead, I was surprised to find Cumberbatch behind the camera being interviewed. He apparently portrayed Stephen Hawking in a biopic. I am accustomed to watching Into the Universe With Stephen Hawking where Cumberbatch and Hawking's iconic robotic voice beautifully overlap. This wasn't the case. Hawking narrated the entire hour and it was refreshing. He told the world about his interesting yet tragic life dealing with ALS through the one device that has enabled him to communicate his theories behind some of the biggest mysteries of the universe. I'm always looking for new ways to learn about the universe. By coincidence or more honestly by my app alerts on AppShopper.com, I had been notified that Stephen Hawking's Snapshots of the Universe went on sale. So, I bit. I read half of it in one sitting! It's filled with text and mini games that help explain the basic concepts behind the universe's most noticeable laws like gravity and space-time. I'm not going to give you a full review here, but you should check it out for yourselves, iOS users. Here's a quick book factoid: I am privileged to live in the same small town where Kitty Ferguson once lived. She has written a few books about Hawking and spent a lot of time interviewing him. Her works include Stephen Hawking: An Unfettered Mind and Stephen Hawking: Quest for a Theory of Everything. I have an intense interest in cosmology, in physics, and in some of the same mysteries that are driving the leading minds in science. I grew up with and was influenced by family members who were/are mathematicians and who are science-minded. Stephen Hawking is one of the few people in his field (Michio Kaku included) that are able to help us non-physicists understand quantum physics, black holes, multiverses and a long list of discoveries that are helping to sculpt the theory of everything.
Matches burn after we strike the side of a matchbox or the side of our scruffy beards. However, this giant match was lit by a torch and it was captured at 4,000 frames per second. If you want to learn about the amazing chemical reaction taking place go here. But if you want to learn a out how they managed to capture it burning in slow motion, you've come to the right place. They said that they used 2,000 watts of light at 4 inches plus mirrors and reflectors in order to capture the burning flame in slow motion. Isn't that going to overexpose the match and flame? Isn't the flame itself going to be a sufficient amount of light anyway? Nope. Even though the flame is producing a seemingly sufficient amount of light, it's not enough to be captured at 4,000 frames per second. As you increase framerate, the amount of light that is required to capture a subject is also increased. If the framerate were reduced to a standard of 24 fps or 30 fps, 2,000 watts of light at 4 in would be overkill and completely overexpose the subject because the frequency at which an image is being captured has decreased. Another factor is shutter speed. As a general rule, shutter speed is "double" that of a given frame rate to produce a decent looking shot. This is of course completely subjective. A shot captured in 24 fps would then have a shutter speed of 1/48 and a shot captured in 30 fps will have a shuttle speed of 1/60. If they shot at 4,000 fps then they may not have set their shutter speed to a high number. Most of the time it's electronically controlled on a high speed camera. Shutter speed ultimately decreases the amount of light that is captured as the fraction of the shutter speed decreases. Technical mumbo-jumbo aside, it's really cool to watch things in slow motion.
Ladies I apologize but this bra is really crazy. It's not the bra itself that fascinates me. It's the concept of smart clothing. Our consumer technology is currently limited to the power of a smartphone. It does everything. It has more sensors than we can utilize and more functionality than any one device ever created. Just think of all of the devices that a smartphone has replaced. It's a communication device, it's a camera, it's a tiny computer, it's a calendar, a calculator, a photo album, a clock, it's a flashlight, a barometer, a radio, and just about anything you can think of. Soon, it'll be the hub for smart things like clothing, body sensors, glasses, shoes, contact lenses, and it'll be the device that'll look at the insides of your body as it receives transmissions front the tiny consumer camera you just swallowed.
So, that bra... It senses when your heart becomes filled with true love. Someday, sadly, it'll take a smart device to tell us when we are in love, when to go to the bathroom, when to change our socks, and when to eat. There might be a time where it decreases our ability to spell, to remember, to construct proper sentences... We are outsourcing our minds and our memories to these things (photos, calendar reminders). It shouldn't take a smart device to tell us when it's time to remove a bra or tell us when we're in love. Side stitches are common among runners. I never thought that you could prevent such a thing simply by breathing correctly. Dr. Tim Noakes believes that if you are to exhale on your left foot, it will help prevent side stitches. Reason being, it will prevent your liver from being, "....displaced downwards while the diaphragm is in its highest position." That is an ingenious and logical observation on his part. Sometimes it's the simplest things that make the most sense and biggest difference. I also want to know the truth behind running with sneakers that have loads of support versus no support at all. Running barefoot is very popular these days as is the thought that insole support is causing knee problems. There's a lot of conflicting data. I suppose that doing what feels best for your body based on these studies is the best course of action.
The more you sauce the more you are. If you have these five sauces around, you'll never be out of sauce. In fact, your dishes will thank you. Staple sauces can be a great addition to a plethora of meals. They make great glazes, dips, marinades, and just about anything you can think of.
If you know who I am, you'll know that I hate to shave. It's a time-suck! Also, my girlfriend loves my beard *wink-wink*. So I tend to find a happy medium between scruffy and trimmed. When it gets a bit too long, I'm informed and through this endless cycle, I'm able to identify on my own the correct time to go into the bathroom for a shave.
Men's Journal identifies some of the best ways to properly maintain a nice looking beard by using brushes and oils. I like to splash some water on my throat and dry shave. My razor blades have shaving gel built-in, so I'm usually not in too much excruciating pain. I do own shaving cream, but I tend to go for the quickest route as you know. The tip is to never let it get so long that you can't dry shave. Otherwise, it'll be time for the electric razor to be sent into the battle. If you love reading manga, chances are you've discovered new foods that you've never even heard of. "The Manga Cookbook: Japanese Bento Boxes, Main Dishes and More!" is an excellent way to become acquainted with your favorite characters' everyday way of eating. Chances are it's already going to be healthy as most Japanese food is. However, you might not want to follow the eating habits of Vash the Stampede or you'll put on a few pounds.
Death is a difficult subject. Something that once existed as matter in the form of life, now exists as matter in the form of - well, nowadays humans ultimately decide how we'd like our loved ones remains to "live" on. The same is true for our pets. NPR had a great Weekend Edition about a company that turns human ashes into diamonds using high heat and pressure. One can argue that nobody would want to wear something that used to be great grandma Pearl. But how is this any different than buying a fur coat or genuine leather shoes? Minus the emotional attachment, it's still an item that was a living creature. The catch is that this process can cost as much as a funeral. So the compromise would be to add value to yourself in death, rather than having someone spread your ashes into the air or rather than buried underground with hopes that the zombie apocalypse will happen.
Saving money isn't easy. Here are a few quick tips to get the most out of your earnings.
1.) Don't buy stupid stuff. Stupid stuff = stuff you will use once and forget about the very next day. Novelties, digital goods... 2.) Always save a portion of your income. The keyword here is SAVE. Spend time figuring out your monthly expenses and KNOW how much you'll be left with at the end of each month. That doesn't mean you get to dash to the store to buy something (see #1). Take a small percentage of your earnings and SAVE it. 3.) Buy only what you can afford. If you have a credit card for the simple fact that you can't afford to buy something and want to buy it anyway then you're looking at debt straight in the face. Instead, live off of a debit card for two months and write down all the things you gave up because you pretended to have no credit. Those "things" you wanted to buy but didn't need will still be there at the end of those two months. Oh, and so will your money. 4.) Bring your lunch to work. It'll save you so much money that I can do the math right now to tell you how much you'll save. If an average lunch costs $8 and you buy your lunch 5 days per week, you'll be spending $40 per week. That's $160 per month and $1920 per year. If you stop buying lunch every day, that $1920 can be used for Obama Care, taxes, or gas money. 5.) Create a budget. Knowing your expenses beforehand and understanding your income are two very important things. You know that you have to spend money to eat. You understand that you'll be accumulating a wad of money in your bank by the end of the month. Budgeting the "knowing" and "understanding" of this conundrum will help you balance your wallet properly by creating goals and setting spending limits. Create categories such as food, travel, and entertainment and set monthly limits for each category. Create a goal such as spending less money in a particular category during a given month and reward yourself by saving the, um – savings. If you don't like the pen and paper route, free online services such as Mint and Wave will automatically help you manage your money like the Monopoly man. |
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