05.26.2009
Once more women will be calculating whether the men in their lives are sponge-worthy because the Today contraceptive sponge has just returned to drugstore shelves.
The sponge, and sponge-worthiness, became famous due to this episode of "Seinfeld," where Elaine hoarded her dwindling supply, vetting prospective bedmates severely to decide if they merited using up one of her precious sponges.
The contraceptive sponge, once the most popular barrier method of birth control for women, is made of polyurethane covered with spermicide. No prescription needed. It has twice disappeared from the market, although not for safety reasons. Natasha Singer's New York Times article explains the complexities.
Posted by Tam
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04.18.2009
An amusing take on Twitter, the e-fad du jour. It turns the Twitter question--what are you doing?--into an occasion for self-examination by Twitterers. Warning: this video was not put together by a fan.
Thanks to Katy Abby at Windows Secrets.
Posted by Tam
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04. 7.2009
Although President Obama is a great representative for the US in many respects he has become known on the other side of the pond for being a bit of a lame gift-giver. When he met up with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Washington last month, he handed him a pack of 25 DVDs. Which weren't compatible with British DVD players. Hardly the most thoughtful present.
This week he's been in the UK meeting The Queen, the 82 year old monarch who has been head of state of Britain and the Commonwealth for over 50 years and who is not known for her tech savvy. And he brought her... an iPod. Now, I wouldn't turn down a free MP3 player myself, but it hardly seems like Obama was considering his audience. Couldn't he have got her something more personal, more appropriate? And he even got it engraved, so there's no way she can get a refund.
Continue reading "President Obama presents Queen with iPod - bad move?"
Posted by Diane
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04. 1.2009
Clara Cannucciari remembers the economic chaos of the 1930s, so there's no way she's going to let the current credit crunch get her down. Her YouTube series Great Depression Cooking began when her grandson Christopher started filming her cooking in her kitchen, and now she's a genuine celebrity chef, with her own DVD coming out soon.
Clara's recipes are cheap but good quality. There's no junk food here but her lean meats, pasta and veggies are all easy to prepare. Watching Clara in action could be a great way for students and cash-strapped young families to learn how to cook on a budget. Or you could just sit back and listen to her charming childhood reminiscences - you won't regret it.
Via Chow.
Posted by Diane
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04. 1.2009
The currently ongoing retrospective of Jenny Holzer at the Whitney Museum, entitled "Protect Protect" is a dizzy display of control over text and messaging. The show contains two sections. The first half contains pieces which are a continuation of Holzer's now famous explorations of slogans and marketing communication. Brightly glowing LED signs broadcast messages such as "Abuse of Power Comes As No Surprise" in her work "For Chicago." At first glance the signs seem like not much more than the signage in New York delis which display the current jackpot of the state lottery. However, the subversive phrases make the viewer feel uneasy. The signs are often embedded into the wall, allowing the text to hang in the air above the viewer.
Much of her recent work, which comprises the second half of the show, uses text from declassified documents made public from the ACLU and the National Security Archives. The work of blown up military documents uses otherwise unaltered text and images that have been partially blacked out because what lies beneath was deemed too sensitive for the public. The pieces of enlarged photocopies offer an interesting and poignant contrast to the hi-tech LED signs. The connection between the two halves is the use of the simplest of forms and material to convey caution and danger.
Posted by Ray
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03.28.2009
There's nothing like beginning the day in a comfy chair with good coffee and a good newspaper. But finding a decent morning paper that's actually made of paper is increasingly possible only in a few fortunate places.
What's more, paper papers are shrinking even in those places. My beloved Washington Post, for example, is abandoning its separate business section and folding some business news into its main news section. That's bound to mean not only fewer business articles but less newsprint news overall. Even newspaper lovers like me will be getting all our news online before long.
Enter GlobalPost, the first serious grown-up news organization to appear in a very long time. It employs dozens of experienced journalists around the world and is filled with free news and features that usually are comparable in quality to those put out by major established news organizations. It also has a unique business model, which you can read about here and here.
GlobalPost, invented and run by real journalists, explains itself this way:
Continue reading "Goodbye, newspapers. Hello, GlobalPost"
Posted by Tam
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03.25.2009
The US Food and Drug Administration has added to its list of dozens of weight-loss products - available in stores and online - that contain undeclared pharmaceutical ingredients.
The new naughties contain drugs like fenproporex, an amphetamine derivative not approved in the US, and fluoxetine, better known as Prozac, the antidepressant. This extra stuff can produce unpleasant and even dangerous effects.
Here's the FAQ on the list of products plus the contaminants and their effects.
Posted by Tam
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03.24.2009
Seattle's Post-Intelligencer has just become the largest newspaper to switch to a solely online format. From now on its readers won't get newsprint-covered hands but will be at risk of eye strain instead.
Seeing how many media outlets have closed down during this economic downturn, it's great that the paper is able to keep going at all - and I'm a huge supporter of online publications. But it's sad when a change in content delivery is forced, rather than chosen.
Do you still buy your local paper, or given the cost to the environment of traditional publishing, are you happier reading it online?
Posted by Diane
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03.24.2009
I just checked out the NASA effort to get the public involved in the project to send its new rover to Mars and have hot news about why you should vote to name the rover.
Eight out of the nine name choices are borrrrrrring, but one is highly vote-worthy: Amelia. They don't explain, but presumably this is in loving memory of the daredevil pioneering pilot Amelia Earhart, who died in a Pacific plane crash some 70 years ago.
Ladies, it's the least we can do. You have until March 29. Vote for Amelia!
Posted by Tam
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03.21.2009
Here’s a snippet of conversation between two friends chatting on Gtalk :
Lady1 : Hi there, how are you?
Lady2 : Hi! Not doing so fine you know – the weather’s quite gloomy today and I have loads of unfinished laundry to handle. Life’s soo.. tough! How are you doing yourself?
Lady1 : I have promised to attend a friend’s book-release party tonight and haven’t got a thing to wear. Gotta go shopping now, but feeling soo.. lazy. How true - it is a tough life!
If only these ladies knew how much tougher it is to work behind the scenes to keep that conversation going. Meet John Rennie – the "protector of the Internet". The title is perfectly befitting of Rennie and his crew, as they spend their lives braving the rough waves of the North Atlantic Ocean, repairing thousands of miles of undersea cables that carry web and phone traffic across the world. And you thought your job was tough.
A truly great read from Popular Science on the one indispensable service that all computer users take for granted.
Posted by kanchana
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