03.27.2006

Pet Plus

Posted by regine    Category: pets
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03.27.2006

Cleaning ears salon pop up in Tokyo

Shops that specialize in cleaning people's ears and massaging them are popping up around Tokyo. The concept is to give people the pleasant feeling some had as children when they would rest their heads on their mothers' laps and have their ears cleaned.

Staff use an ear-pick equipped with a tiny camera to show the insides of clients' ears. Akiko Inaba, who manages Mimi Kurin, or Ear Cleaning, said she gets a good reaction with the device because people can see the wax buildup in their ears on the monitor.

Seventy percent of the customers are men, many of whom are in their 30s, and the service has been so successful that a second store will open in Yokohama this month.

Apparently, many women want to learn how to remove earwax to please men. Akiko Inaba is even thinking of starting classes to teach women ear cleaning and massage as part of their bridal training.

From The Japan Times.

Posted by regine    Category: body
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03.27.2006

Kanebo Fuwarinka

If you like perfumes but can't wear them (perhaps they give you contact dermatitis), Kanebo may have solved your problem with their new range of chewing gum and candy. According to New Scientist, they've created:

A new line in chewing gums and candy could leave you smelling of roses - for 6 hours afterwards at least. Japanese firm Kanebo has developed confectionary containing rose or vanilla-scented chemicals that the body starts secreting 30 minutes after the treats are eaten. Takao Tsuda at Nagoya Industrial University found the most effective ingredients to be geraniol, extracted from roses, and vanillic aldehyde from vanilla.

The Fuwarinka range of gum and soft candies comes in two flavours, rose and lemon. Somewhat confusingly, however, the candies give you the scent of vanilla, while the gum makes you smell of rose, regardless of the flavour you choose.

(Originally via Now Smell This; thanks to K for the translation.)

Interestingly, Kanebo's researchers now claim that the very scent of roses is beneficial to a woman's health. Read more here. (Thanks to I for the tip.)

Posted by saresha    Category: body
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03.27.2006

Cucusoft iPod Video Converter + DVD to iPod Converter Suite

Here I sit with my brand new iPod 30 gig video wondering what on earth would I possibly want to watch on a 2X2 screen. I have to let you know up front, the iPod was a gift and I had no intention of buying a device with a screen to begin with. Not one to make waste of a perfectly good piece of technology I strained myself to come up with something that would be worth watching. I perused the iTunes site in search of videos that I might be willing to pay for and only downloaded a paltry few just so I could actually see something on the video screen.

After finding zilch of my favorite band I remembered I had an extensive collection of concert DVD’s right here at home. OK, there was something I would enjoy. So being slightly naïve I popped a DVD into my laptop and plugged in the iPod. There must be a button here somewhere to make the transfer…...hmmmm. After an hour of pushing, prodding and reading my manual I began to realize that what I was trying to do wasn't going to work. That’s when I stumbled across this suite of software that assists you in converting DVD’s into computer files. Once the conversion process is finished you can then convert those newly minted files for use on your iPod. Pure genius for around $40. Now when I travel I can bring along any number of concerts or even movies to entertain myself.

Available here.

Posted by Maria    Category: devices
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