The Fastest Growing City in the U.S.

By Brad Rollins at the San Marcos Mercury

San Marcos, TX is the fastest-growing large city in the United States, according to updated population estimates announced today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The city added 2,339 new residents — an increase of 4.91 percent — between July 2011 and July 2012, the bureau said,

Image Source

pushing its official population above 50,000 for the first time. South Jordan, Utah was the second fastest-growing with a 4.87 percent increase to 55,934.

San Marcos Mayor Daniel Guerrero said news that San Marcos’ population is well beyond booming does not come as a total surprise based on “the growth trends that we’ve seen over the last 10-15 years.”

“We knew San Marcos is a growing city. The population of Central Texas as a whole is booming and San Marcos happens to be in the center of all that action. So we ended up with the largest gains,” Guerrero said. “When you have that kind of proximity to Austin and San Antonio — and you’re three hours away from every major city in Texas — those are certainly big facets” in attracting new residents.

Texas State University is a leading factor in the city’s growth, the mayor said, as is the city’s and county’s aggressive drive over the last decade to update and expand roads and other infrastructure. In addition, he said, “San Marcos’ overall natural beauty is something that brings people in.”

Elsewhere in the Interstate 35 corridor, Austin moved from the 13th most populous city in the nation to the 11th with a population of 842,592, according to the new estimates. San Antonio grew to 1,382,951 residents and kept its spot as the seventh-largest city in the U.S.

Continue on to the full article..

Source / Via

Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side’: 40 Years Later

40 Mind-Blowing Facts About The Mad Classic ~ A Yahoo Music article by Chris Willman | Stop The Presses!

Sure, like everybody else, you’ve listened to Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon so many times that you can recite not just every line but every heartbeat, clock tick, and cash register ring by heart. But how much do you really know about the landmark prog classic, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this month?

Image Source

To celebrate the 40 years we’ve been listening to what is arguably the preeminent rock album of the 1970s, here are 40 things you ought to know about Dark Side. Because lunacy breeds albums about lunacy, and albums about lunacy breed lunatic obsessions with album trivia. Let’s start with that iconic cover art, shall we?

The band members spent three minutes deciding on the front cover. Designer Storm Thorgerson brought seven designs into the Abbey Road studio where they were still recording. “The band trooped in, swept their gaze across the designs, looked at each other, nodded, and said ‘That one,’ pointing at the prism. Took all of three minutes,” Thorgerson recalled in liner notes for the 2011 deluxe box. In an 2003 interview, the designer elaborated, “No amount of cajoling would get them to consider any other contender, nor endure further explanation of the prism, or how exactly it might look. ‘That’s it,’ they said in unison, ‘we’ve got to get back to real work,’ and returned forthwith to the studio upstairs.”

One of the rejected designs involved a then-popular Marvel comic book superhero. Imagine how differently we’d think of the album if the Floyd members had expressed any interest in one of Thorgersen’s alternative ideas, to have the cover feature… the Silver Surfer!

The band had always hated having their photos in the artwork. “When Storm showed us all the ideas, with that one, there was no doubt,” guitarist David Gilmour told Rolling Stone in 2003. “It was, ‘That is it.’ It's a brilliant cover. One can look at it after that first moment of brilliance and think, ‘Well, it's a very commercial idea: It's very stark and simple; it'll look great in shop windows.’ It wasn't a vague picture of four lads bouncing in the countryside. That fact wasn't lost on us.”

It was keyboardist Rick Wright who was insistent that the cover not feature any photography at all, even conceptual photos. The Hipgnosis design team was famous for elaborately staged and photographed covers, like Wish You Were Here, which came out two years later. But in this instance, as Thorgerson remembers it, Wright “said, ‘Storm, let’s have a cool graphic, not one of your tatty [figurative] pictures…’ I protested. ‘Rick,’ I said, ‘I do images, I don’t do cool graphics.’… Whereupon Rick said, ‘Why don’t you try to see it as a challenge.’”

The prism design was partly inspired by Floyd’s extravagant live light shows. “The refracting glass prism referred to Floyd light shows–consummate use of light in the concert setting,” Thorgerson said in an interview for the album’s 30th anniversary. “Its outline is triangular and triangles are symbols of ambition, and are redolent of pyramids, both cosmic and mad in equal measure, all these ideas touching on themes in the lyrics. The joining of the spectrum extending round the back cover and across the gatefold inside was seamless like the segueing tracks on the album, whilst the opening heartbeat was represented by a repeating blip in one of the colors.”

Click here to continue to the rest of the list!

Via

More info on the great album here, at its Wikipedia page..

One Race - Every Medalist Ever

~by Kevin Quealy and Graham Roberts of the New York Times.


Screen-grab from source video

This is a great comparison of Usain Bolt's recent domination of the men's 100m sprint with past Olympic champions. The examination also includes notable winners, as well as similar comparisons in the long jump, and 100m freestyle swimming.

Click HERE or on the image above to go check it out... It's well worth it, I promise!

Via / Source: The New York Times

Additional sources:   Amanda Cox; Rose Eveleth; "The Complete Book of the Olympics" by David Wallechinsky and Jaime Loucky, International Olympic Committee; Amateur Athletic Assocation; Photographs: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times, Getty Images, International Olympic Committee

Spurs' Success Starts at the Top

This is a terrific article by ESPN's John Hollinger (1, 2) about the Spurs' organization. I think the national media may be waking up to exactly what it is we've been doing here for many years now. I think I even heard several "experts" publicly praising us - who have never, ever praised us - now that we've won 16-straight, and in dominating fashion. Greg Anthony, Tim Legler, Jeff Van Gundy, and more.

This is an ESPN "Insider" article, which means it's an article you only get to read if you pay ESPN for their Insider package. I'll let you know now, I'm not the one who ripped it and posted it. That credit goes to georgestephanopoulos. But I give the guy a ton of thanks for sharing an incredible article with a ton of people who would have otherwise not seen it.

Via / Source

Once the rest of the league starts to pay attention to what we've been doing for years & years, I think they might start to figure it out. Then again why has it taken them so long? More importantly once the media drops their "old & aging team" moniker that has been present since about, oh 2007, perhaps they'll also realize this franchise isn't gonna have a rebuilding stage. We're gonna be there - competing with the best of them - winning 50 games a season - for many, many years to come. My only hope is that Timmy & Pop stick around a little longer.

The 9 People You'll See At Every Golf Course

Image Source

The Misogynist
Description: He doesn’t so much enjoy golf as he enjoys having an environment where it’s acceptable to complain about women and crudely talk about sex. Leave a putt short or hit a weak drive? “Come on, Sally! You hit that like a pu***! Nice skirt! Does your husband play?” Hit a putt past the hole or crush a drive? “Whoa! Someone’s wife isn’t giving him enough of the ********! Look at all that extra aggression!” Whatever The Misogynist shoots in a round, put him down for double that number on uses of the terms “old lady” and “ole’ ball and chain.”

Fun Fact: The Misogynist has been banned from 12 courses for trying to feel up the beverage cart girl.

The Rules Official
Description: He has read the USGA rules book two dozen times and has a copy of it in his golf bag that he will display at a moment’s notice. You better not be trying to move your ball out of that mud patch in the middle of the fairway because, according to Rule 13-b(1.4), that particular mud patch, due to its lack of distinguishing marks, does not fit the criteria for “ground under repair.” I mean, sure, if you want to play that way, fine. But if this was the US Open you’d be getting a significant penalty.

Fun Fact: The Rules Official received a severe beating in 8th grade after reminding his math teacher that she had forgotten to assign homework.

The Mulligan Man
Description: He is the complete opposite of The Rules Official. To him, it’s always winter rules … wherever his ball lands, he just finds the nearest and best lie without any sort of obstruction between him and the hole. And then he props it up on a cluster of grass like a tee. Golf’s not so hard! Whoops! Hit one out of bounds again? Just like on the last four holes? Nope! Not really! He didn’t use his 5th hole mulligan yet! And that’s a gimme from 10-feet, right? Well, it doesn’t matter anyway. He’s going to count the putt whether it goes in or not. Put him down for yet another par!

Fun Fact: Despite losing 14 balls during the round, Mulligan Man still managed to shoot 78. Amazing!

Click HERE, or on the Stooges banner image to go see the rest of the article..

Source / Via

Internet 2011 in Numbers

(an article by Pingdom)


Image Source

So what happened with the Internet in 2011? How many email accounts were there in the world in 2011? How many websites? How much did the most expensive domain name cost? How many photos were hosted on Facebook? How many videos were viewed to YouTube?

We’ve got answers to these questions and many more. A veritable smorgasbord of numbers, statistics and data lies in front of you. Using a variety of sources we’ve compiled what we think are some of the more interesting numbers that describe the Internet in 2011. (Source)

Email
• 3.146 billion – Number of email accounts worldwide.
• 27.6% – Microsoft Outlook was the most popular email client.
• 19% – Percentage of spam emails delivered to corporate email inboxes despite spam filters.
• 112 – Number of emails sent and received per day by the average corporate user.
• 71% – Percentage of worldwide email traffic that was spam (November 2011).
• 360 million – Total number of Hotmail users (largest email service in the world).
• $44.25 – The estimated return on $1 invested in email marketing in 2011.
• 40 – Years since the first email was sent, in 1971.
• 0.39% – Percentage of email that was malicious (November 2011).

Websites
• 555 million – Number of websites (December 2011).
• 300 million – Added websites in 2011.

Click here to continue to the rest of the article.. (I've only shown you about a tenth of it.)

Via

Earn More, Work Less: 8 Great Jobs that Escape the Rat Race

by Sarah B. Weir, Yahoo! blogger


Image Source

Yoga teacher and self-titled "Life Stylist" Sadie Nardini advises her clients, "Think huge-small and medium have a lot of competition." That's just what she did when she went from being a broke, harried studio yoga teacher to harnessing technology, streamlining her workload, and earning in a day what she used to make in a week. In 2010, she put in the hours she wanted and netted close to $300,000.

Nardini got her start as a yoga teacher moonlighting after her day job in cubicle land. Eventually, she got fed up with laboring long days for little money doing office work and decided to teach full time. Soon enough, she was teaching 25 classes a week and feeling just as burnt out as before. "I love the scene in 'Finding Nemo' where he swims into the current with the sea turtles and speeds effortlessly toward his goal," she says. "I asked myself, 'How can I be more passive and less active income-wise?'"

Nardini posted free online videos to gain a wider audience. Now she has 25,000 subscribers on YouTube and 40,000 Facebook followers. She started selling DVDs and teaching at large conferences instead of small classes. She branched out into wellness counseling and life coaching. On a practical level, she set up automatic responses on her website and outsourced all of her administrative work.

Nardini says that fear gets in the way of people actually doing something instead of just talking about it. "People
Sadie Nardini

often have skills that they doubt anyone will care about. I advised a friend who loved making bracelets to sell them on Etsy. A magazine featured her work and within a month she had earned more money from her bracelets than she had made in a year working an office job."

Here are seven more jobs that offer flexibility, fun, and a good wage:

1 - Massage Therapist
According to the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA), the majority of massage therapists work under 27 hours a week. Massage therapist Jenny Adams, who has practiced in Pennsylvania for 20 years, describes the benefits of her career: "I get to wear comfy clothes, set my own hours, and work with wonderful people. Most days I see three to four clients which leaves me plenty of time for other things."
Gyms, doctor's offices, sports teams, and spas all employ massage therapists. Some massage therapists are self-employed and travel to people's homes.

Background requirements:
• 300 to 1000 in-class hours (varies state to state). See the AMTA website for info.
• National certification exam for therapeutic massage and bodywork.
• Some states require additional certification.

Earning potential: $60 to $100 per hour


2 - Technical Writer

Are you the only one of your friends who actually reads the manual before powering up a new electronic device? If you are a clear communicator with a good head for technology, you might want to consider a pursuing a career in technical writing-according to the Bureau of Labor Statics, the field is expected to grow by 18 percent between now and 2018. Technical writers translate technical information supplied by experts into easily understandable language for everyday consumers. They usually work for computer systems and software companies, but could also be employed by engineering or architectural firms or in the medical industry. Many are freelance.

Background requirements:

• Most Technical writers hold a Bachelor's degree in English, Communications, or Journalism.
• Being comfortable working with computer systems is a must and desktop publishing and multimedia software experience is also helpful.

Earning potential: $40 to $75 per hour


3 - Make-up artist

Being a make-up artist involves more than just helping people look pretty. Some create detailed prosthetics for film and television. Top fashion and celebrity make-up artists such as Bobbie Brown have created their own multi-million dollar cosmetics lines.

Background requirements:
There are no specific requirements for becoming a make-up artist, but you can take courses at a school such as Make-up Designory (MUD), which has campuses in Los Angeles and New York City. Some budding make-up artists get their start by working at a department store cosmetics counter or volunteering to do make-up for local theater productions.

Earning potential: Entry level make-up artists earn about $15 per hour, but a Hollywood makeup artist who works on successful films can earn a upwards of a million dollars a year.

Click here to continue to the rest of the list..

Source

Revolver's Jams of the Year!

Dave Mustaine joins Metallica at their 30th Anniversary Tour (Image Source)

If there’s one thing more exciting than seeing your favorite bands live, it’s seeing your favorite bands playing live together at the same time. Although the hard-rock and metal history books include more than a few eye-popping collaborations over the genres’ four-decade histories, 2011 boasts some of the most exciting. Below is a list of what got the Revolver editors’ jaws dropping this year.

The Big Four
Although Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax jammed together for the first time last year, it was in 2011 they made it their calling card. Beginning with their performance of Diamond Head’s “Am I Evil?” in April to their jams in Europe (which also featured members of Diamond Head, Exodus, and Sepultura), to their U.S. final performance of Motörhead’s “Overkill” in New York City, these bands have made history at each performance.




(This one, I've posted before)

Article also includes Metal Masters (which featured Anthrax’s Scott Ian, Frank Bello, and Charlie Benante, Megadeth’s David Ellefson, Mike Portnoy, and special guests Kerry King of Slayer and…Phil Anselmo of Pantera and Down), Temple of the Dog, The Revolver Golden Gods Awards, GnR, Motley Crue, Metallica's30th Anniversary Tour, Zakk Wilde, A7X, and more.

Here is Avenged Sevenfold featuring Pantera's, Damageplan's & Hellyeah's Vinnie Paul playing Pantera's "Mouth for War":


See the whole article here.. 21 videos!

Via

Former Mexico President Fox Blames US for Drug War

by Jason Whitely at wfaa.com


FORT WORTH — Former Mexican President Vicente Fox told News 8 that Americans addicted to drugs are at the root of the border violence in his country.

Image Source

"This country has to think about legalization of drugs or make the decision to stop drug consumption," Fox explained. "If you don't consume drugs, our problem is solved. We're doing our part. We're paying with 50,000 dead now."

Violence along the international border — especially in Mexican cities that border Texas like Juarez, Piedras Negras, and Nuevo Laredo — has increased in the the last 24-months with beheadings, kidnappings, and even car bombs detonated as drug cartels battle each other and the federal police who were sent in to solve the problem.

The former president spoke at The Vicente Fox Forum of World Leaders at Texas Christian University on Wednesday.

But in a one-on-one interview, Fox told News 8 the drug war along the U.S.-Mexico border isn't his country's fault, but rather the United States' problem.

"We don't deserve to be where we are. It's not even our problem," Fox said. "Mexico does not consume drugs — not at the level of the drug consumption in the United States." (Source)

Continue reading.. (Link includes video interview)

Big NBA FA Deals? Not So Fast..

by SI.com's Sam Amick


Image Source

A visual comes to mind as it relates to the most unique of NBA free-agency periods that has unofficially begun. Picture a pool surrounded by the league's general managers and owners, all of them turning left and right to see what the other is doing while peering down at the water with a shared look of trepidation.

This is a pool party, after all, so someone will have to jump. But with big men Nene, Tyson Chandler and Marc Gasol waiting for them in the deep end and the talent level of free agents so shallow compared to last year's class led by LeBron James, no one is in the mood for a cannonball just yet.

"I think what you're seeing is that nobody considers anyone in this free-agent market to be a clear-cut, franchise guy that we have to do everything within our power to get," said one agent with a client near the top of the mediocre mix. "No one wants to be the first to give that stupid, crazy contract and have that article saying what a sham the lockout was."

As a result, the third day of talks between agents and teams came and went without any major news of a big-name player leaning hard in the direction of a particular team. While oral or signed agreements are not allowed until Dec. 9, after the tentative collective bargaining agreement is ratified, a mutual understanding of some sort is still possible. But the pace has been even slower than expected.

Continue to the rest of the article..

Via

50 of the World's Best Breakfasts

The famous American breakfast - home made thick pancakes with syrup and blueberries, topped off with a few rashers of bacon. Anyone not wishing for a coronary usually opts for a bowl of muesli, so I’m told. Pancakes all the way for me!

I love to eat breakfast, it’s the best meal of the day as far as I’m concerned. Pancakes, cereal, brunch, eggs, healthy breakfasts, greasy breakfasts, I’m not fussy. My only trouble is what to choose.

Here are some of the best of the best from around the world:

An Egyptian Breakfast
The breakfast of choice here is Foul Madammas. It’s made from fava beans, chickpeas, garlic and lemon. Above you’ll see the dish topped with olive oil, cayenne, tahini sauce, a hard boiled egg, and some diced green veggies.



Breakfast in Colombia
There are a variety of regional staples to keep your stomach grumbles at bay throughout the day. In Cundinamarca this changua dish is very popular. It’s made from milk, scallions and cheese.




Breakfast in Mexico
The delightful plate above consists of beef tips, chilaquiles and other assorted goodies eaten in Manzanillo. Nachos, cheese and beans always feature heavily and a delicious, spicy breakfast is the norm.




A Canadian breakfast
That eggy looking section is actually perogies. Perogies are boiled, baked or fried dumplings made from unleavened dough and traditionally stuffed with potato filling, sauerkraut, ground meat, cheese, or fruit. Then you’ve got some sausages and toast to mop it all up.


Icelandic Breakfast Cuisine
A hearty and hot breakfast to fight off the dark, icy mornings is what’s needed here. Hafragrautur, or oatmeal, is served with a sprinkle of brown sugar with a few raisins or nuts on top, perfect.




Click here to continue to the rest of the list!

Via

NFL Bye Weeks Are Coming

I just realized this, and thought I'd pass it on for what it's worth.

The bye structure is different this season than in most previous ones, and I don't know why - other than all the possible lockout ramifications. Instead of starting at week 5 with 4 teams per week, then a couple weeks with 6 teams on bye, wrapping it up at week 10, this is how it is this season.
Image Source

The odd & interesting thing is there are no byes week-10:

Wk-5: 6 teams (CLE, DAL, STL, MIA, WAS, BAL)
Wk-6: 6 teams (DEN, TEN, KC, ARZ, SD, SEA)
Wk-7: 6 teams (BUF, CIN, NE, NYG, PHI, SF)
Wk-8: 6 teams (ATL, CHI, GB, OAK, NYJ, TB)
Wk-9: 4 teams (DET, MIN, CAR, JAX)
Wk-10: NONE -- wtf?
Wk-11: 4 teams (HOU, IND, NO, PHI) ..and DONE!

Thanksgiving falls in wk-12, so I'm not sure what's so special about wk-10, but hey if they're gonna spread it out more like this, they ought to spread it out even more, I say.

32 ÷ 4 = 8 Eight weeks, 4 thru 11, four teams each!

Or why not bunch 'em up? 32 ÷ 8 = 4 (duh) Four weeks, 6 thru 9, eight teams each?

Fantasy struggles either way. The ideal scenario for fantasy football is NO friggin' byes, but for some reason the NFL feels the need to give every team a week off - even though it is at a different time of the season for most of them. Which begs the question - what is the reason for the bye weeks anyway? Hmm...

Fantasy football would obviously be more "slammed" with the 2nd of those two options. For those four weeks fantasy teams would be scrambling to add/drop half their roster perhaps, and the result would suck... but it would "get it over with" in a much more concise period of time. The first idea provides fantasy teams to not be bogged down by a bunch of substitutions at one time, but it would simply stretch out the period of worrying about bye weeks a lot longer.

We all hate the bye weeks and must deal with them - or must we?

Why Music Makes You Happy

My Image

People love music for much the same reason they're drawn to sex, drugs, gambling and delicious food, according to new research. When you listen to tunes that move you, the study found, your brain releases dopamine, a chemical involved in both motivation and addiction.

Even just anticipating the sounds of a composition like Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" or Phish's "You Enjoy Myself" can get the feel-good chemical flowing, found the study, which was the first to make a concrete link between dopamine release and musical pleasure.

The findings offer a biological explanation for why music has been such a major part of major emotional events in cultures around the world since the beginning of human history. Through music, the study also offers new insights into how the human pleasure system works.

Image Source

"You're following these tunes and anticipating what's going to come next and whether it's going to confirm or surprise you, and all of these little cognitive nuances are what's giving you this amazing pleasure," said Valorie Salimpoor, a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal. "The reinforcement or reward happens almost entirely because of dopamine."

"This basically explains why music has been around for so long," she added. "The intense pleasure we get from it is actually biologically reinforcing in the brain, and now here's proof for it."

In a previous study, Salimpoor and colleagues linked music-induced pleasure with a surge in intense emotional arousal, including changes in heart rate, pulse, breathing rate and other measurements. Along with these physical changes, people often report feelings of shivers or chills. When that happens during a listening experience, Salimpoor's group and others have found evidence that blood flows to regions in the brain involved in dopamine release.

To solidify the dopamine link, the researchers recruited eight music-lovers, who brought to the lab samples of music that gave them chills of pleasure. Most picks were classical, with some jazz, rock and popular music mixed in, including Led Zeppelin and Dave Matthews Band. The most popular selection was Barb[e]r's Adagio for Strings.

After 15 minutes of listening, scientists injected participants with a radioactive substance that binds to dopamine receptors. With a machine called a PET scanner, the scientists were then able to see if that substance simply circulated through listeners' blood, which would indicate that they had already released a lot of dopamine, and that the dopamine was tying up all available receptors.

Continue to the rest of the article..

Via

Lobsters Never Age

by Matthew Koh - Guest Writer, Chimes



Many have spent their whole lives searching for the secret to eternal youth, traveling far and wide and wasting their fortunes — all in vain. In modern times, that mad quest has been replaced by a slightly more attainable goal: to slow, if not stop, time’s marking of flesh by means of pills, superstition and surgery. Unfortunately, as Cher and Dolly Parton bear unwitting witness, the key word in the above sentence is "slightly."

What would these people have done if they realized their holy grails were right beneath their noses?

Or more appropriately, on their plates.

The key to eternal youth is held by none other than the common lobster. Yes, the lobster: red-shelled, big-clawed and six-legged. The same animal whose presence on the menu always drew furtive glances from you, which always ended in disappointment, either because you couldn’t buy such a dish or you did and found it less than valuable. Look into their beady eyes and know the secrets of immortality.

Lobsters never age, they just grow. Their bodies don’t become frailer in time, they don’t need more and more medicine to keep their hearts going and they don’t even lose their sexual potency. In fact, the older a lobster, the more fertile it becomes.

The secret to these oceanic Dorian Grays is an enzyme by the name of telomerase. Telomerase affects telomeres, which are found on the end of all chromosomes and protect these chromosomes from deterioration. However, each time a cell divides, its telomeres are shortened. Eventually, the telomeres become too short to protect the chromosomes and cells begin to lose their ability to divide (known as the Hayflick Limit).

Telomerase acts as a sort of add-on, restoring length to telomeres and thus enabling them to continue protecting the cell. In most animals (including humans), telomerase production rapidly declines with age — hence, the whole dying part.

Lobsters, however, don’t stop producing telomerase; in fact, while most animals show higher levels of telomerase in certain areas of their bodies, lobsters have the enzyme in abundance throughout their body. Couple that with the fact that lobsters shed and recreate their exoskeletons, and there’s nothing to stop a lobster from growing indefinitely.

Except for things eating them, which tends to happen a lot. In fact, after a certain point, the larger a lobster grows the harder it is for the creature to stay alive, since the places it hides from predators become increasingly inaccessible the bigger the lobster gets.

Protected, lobsters have been proven to be incredibly long lived. January of 2009, a New York restaurant freed an allegedly 140-year-old lobster that weighed in at a whopping 20 lbs (which essentially means "Giant George" — as he was affectionately known — was given a death sentence). Currently, Boston University professor Jelle Atema is keeping a lobster to see how big it can grow.

Lobster is %$#@&!* delicious (Image Source)

I can hear some of your minds whirring. You’re thinking: "I’m not in any danger of being eaten, so give me some of that lobster juice." Unfortunately (or maybe not), the lobster path to immortality is strictly inaccessible for humans. It turns out cell deterioration in the human body is a relatively good thing. In humans, cells that surpass the Hayflick Limit tend to become cancerous. So where lobsters get eaten from the outside, we’d be devoured from within.

There you have it. The secret to immortality is useless for humans. If you’re feeling particularly vengeful, go buy a lobster dinner and console yourself with the thought that even though you’ll never live forever, neither will that particular lobster. Or you might go to an aquarium and gaze upon this red crustacean with a little bit more awe. Or you could do what I do, which is to buy a lobster, sit with it in public places, stroke its shell and whisper, "Soon ... soon, my precious."

Whatever you do, I hope a little bit of your mind was blown by the immortal lobster.

Source / Via

13 Places Google Doesn't Want You to See

A TruTV article


The White House - Formerly blacked-out, now with uncensored but out-of-date imagery

The Pacific Northwest, USA

Here's one that gives us chills. What exactly are we not seeing here? The site is close to the Washington-Oregon border and is rumored to have something to do with FEMA, HAARP or, really, anything at all. Prison Planet readers inspected the site in person and could find no identifying details other than an ominous fence and unmarked entrance.


Unknown Area, Russia

Another one that is so mysterious, no one has a clue what it is. One commenter on the website Siberian Light speculates it's either "a radar station or missile interceptor," while another notes that the image of the surrounding area appears to have been copy-pasted from another part of the country.


North Korea

You've no doubt heard about this country, one of the members of the supposed "Axis of Evil," but few have ever visited. You won't see it on Google Maps, either, as the entire country exists in images but without highway markers, street names, or any other identifying details.

Click here to continue on to the rest of the list..

Via

Some Tips For Tipping

Tipping dates back to 18th century England, when an urn would be placed in pubs with a simple sign that read, "To Insure Promptitude." This was later shortened to the acronym T.I.P. or "tip," as it is currently called. While originally a way of ensuring good service, tipping is now expected at most businesses where a personal service is performed.

Some establishments include a tip or gratuity on your bill no matter how small the size of your party, but this is rare. Rather, tipping is an expected and essential part of any experience. In most cases, employees working in industries where tipping is expected make less than minimum wage, and rely heavily on tips. At present, average pay for waiters and waitresses is $2.12 per hour, most or all of which is used to pay taxes on their reported tips.

How do you know when and whom to tip? How much is the appropriate amount? (Source)

Here's the full article..

Via - (NSFW)

Golf's Top-10 Most Important Inventions of the Modern Era

Image Source

Almost every golfer dreams of coming up with the next BIG golf invention. Hell... right now there are probably thousands of men sitting in a garage or basement somewhere building a prototype they think will change the golf world forever. And you never know…one of those guys might just be on to something. That’s one of the things I love most about the golf equipment industry... some of the best inventions in golf started out on something as simple as a napkin by a guy you had never heard of before. And you never know the next BIG golf invention on a list like this might just come from a reader like you. (Source)

GolfSpyX over at My Golf Spy Dot Com reached out to three of the industry's top equipment designers to gather their opinions, and then to create a great article. They are Nike's Tom Stites, Nickent Golf's John Hoeflich, and Sheets Design Group's Tom Sheets.

Here's a snippet of what each designer had to say about their "Top-10 Golf Inventions" (all 3 specified "in no particular order"):

Tom Stites:
HEEL AND TOE WEIGHTED PUTTERS – Putters with mass located on the heel and toe are more stable than other geometries. This increases greatly the MOI of putters and improves the performance of putts when hit off center. (example- the original Anser putter)

OPEN CORE METAL WOODS - Before the first stainless steel driver all woods were solid core. If the core is open the club will have a much higher MOI and be much more forgiving to hit. Bigger metal woods for over all footprint and size will also have higher MOI’s and higher performance. This is only possible if the core is open without material and mass. Solid core woods and irons do not have a chance to compete against the performance of open core clubs. (example all metal woods)

TITANIUM METAL WOOD DRIVERS - Titanium is the ideal material for metal woods. It is very strong compared to its weight and allows very large high MOI drivers. There is nothing even close for drivers. (Example all titanium metal woods.)

Click here to continue to the original article...


John Hoeflich:
ETONIC CORFAM SHOE 1960′s – this was really the first “waterproof” shoe that sold in big quantities. The fit was awful, but it started a revolution in shoes.

RAM/MAXFLI WOUND SURLYN BALLS - late 60′s/early 70s. Started the synthetic cover revolution.

TAYLORMADE METALWOOD – Pinseeker bombshell was first, but TM perfected the art.

ALDILA GRAPHITE SHAFTS EARLY 70′s - Shakespeare and Frank Thomas started it all, but aldila made it a hit

SOLID GOLF BALL – Topflite solid ball. Nike solid ball. When Tiger switched, it was the beginning of the end for wound balls and paved the way for the Pro V1.

Click here to continue to the original article..


Jeff Sheets:
STEEL SHAFTS - Brought a level of consistency in shaft performance that didn’t exist with hickory. Led to today’s more upright swing plane. Hickory had about 14 degrees of torque and worked best with a flatter wristier swing plane.

MOLDED GOLF BALLS – Consistency in the product, speed in the production, consistency in the performance. Sure beats a feathery.

INVESTMENT CAST STEEL WOODS – Although aluminum and other metal woods pre-dated the first TaylorMades none of them cold hold a candle to the performance and versatility of the new generation launched in the late 1970′s.

TITANIUM DRIVERS – If stainless steel metal woods are good the larger titanium drivers are better. Deeper CG and the taller faces enabled the vertical gear effect to be a big distance factor (low/rear CG leads to higher launch and lower spin).

Click here to continue to the original article..

And when you go to the main article be sure to check out the readers' comments at the bottom! For me the top inventions are steel shafts, graphite shafts, multi-layered golf balls, better mowing technology, and much-improved irrigation systems.

Via

7 Self-Defense Techniques That Could Save Your Life

You decide to go for a late-night walk in your neighborhood. It’s been a rough day, and you just want to go out for a little while to clear your head. You’re enjoying yourself until suddenly you hear what sounds like footsteps behind you. You turn around to see what it is and realize that someone is running towards you with a knife. Although this is a situation that we hope we’re never faced with, there is the possibility that something like this could actually happen. It’s always a good thing to be prepared, so read on and keep those shoulders back.

Do as They Say
You should never try to be a “hero”. This means that if someone is pointing a gun or knife at you, you should comply with his or her demands. No amount of money or other item is worth your life. If someone demands your watch from you, give it to them. The main point to remember is that safety should be your main concern.

Run!
When you have the opportunity, you should always try to run away from your attacker. There’s no need to fight if you don’t have to. The attacker could have a knife or gun, which they could use to seriously harm or kill you; running isn’t going to change that but it may startle them enough to save your life. When you run, try to get to a public area, or at least a house with the lights on, and call 911.

Avoid Dangerous Situations
You should try to avoid unfamiliar areas of town, especially late at night. In these situations, you could get lost or not know where to run for help. Avoid walking through strange neighborhoods if you can, and when driving, make sure that your doors are locked and never talk to anyone you don’t know; don’t even slow down if somebody looks like they intend to approach your car.

Continue to the rest of the article..

Via

Lytro Camera Lets You Focus Photos After You Take Them

This year, Lytro will debut the first light field camera for everyone. OK – you’re not everyone. You are a beautiful, unique snowflake. And you deserve an amazing camera that lets you capture life’s singular moments, like baby’s first steps not second, with maximum magic and minimum hassle. No more fighting with dials and settings and modes. No more flat, boring, static photographs. With a Lytro, you unleash the light.

No fuss focus: Click away. Shoot first, focus after. That's right, after. You can't miss.

Here is a demo:


More information here at Lytro Dot Com

Via

Lockouts - NBA vs. NFL: A Primer On The Similarities And Differences

by Joel Thorman, SB Nation's NFL Editor & Tom Ziller, SB Nation's NBA editor

The NBA lockout began last week as David Stern decided Roger Goodell shouldn't have all of the fun. The NFL lockout has gone on since March. How are the stoppages similar and different?

Jul 5, 2011 - The NBA decided last week to stop letting the NFL have all of the fun and instituted a lockout to shut down the league until a new collective bargaining agreement can be reached. Given that these are two multi-billion dollar leagues with fairly similar set-ups, there are some comparisons to be made in the NBA lockout and NFL lockout. But there are just as many differences.

What's the lockout about?

NBA: The NBA lockout is focused almost completely on cutting player salary to help struggling teams -- the league claims 22 lost money last year -- make a profit. A line you hear often from the league is that while players are collectively guaranteed more than $2 billion in salary every season, team owners are never guaranteed a profit, and in many cases, are guaranteed losses because of extraordinary expenses.

NFL: The NFL lockout is focused on a number of issues, the biggest being how to split the over-$9 billion figure in annual revenue. The owners feel they need a larger slice of the pie, since they're taking the larger financial risk, while the players have called for the current system to stay in place. NFL teams aren't claiming poverty, like some in the NBA, but they do want a bigger cut of the pie in order to grow the game.

What are the major issues?

NBA: The NBA's biggest two issues are the revenue split and the hardness of the salary cap. Currently, players receive 57 percent of basketball-related income, which was about $2.1 billion for the 2010-11 season. This is taken from gross receipts and includes gate, TV revenue, merchandise and more. The NBA has a soft salary cap around $60 million; through cap exceptions and the ability to re-sign their own players in excess of the cap, teams easily surpass the soft cap, and it's rare that more than two or three teams end the season under the cap. The NBA is trying to turn that soft cap into a hard or harder cap to shrink overall salary levels and expenses at the team level, and is trying to shrink the revenue split to something closer to 50-50. The players have been willing to go down to 54 percent without a hard cap. The hard cap is seen as unacceptable by the players' union.

NFL: The biggest issue, by far, is how to split the money. The players were previously receiving a little over 50 percent of all the revenue, and recent reports say they have given in to the tune of a 48 percent slice of the pie. It's believed that, once the money issue is figured out, the rest of the deal will fall into place relatively smoothly. Another major issue is the rookie wage scale because the owners feel that the players at the top of the draft are receiving a disproportionate amount of money. The players have been receptive to changing the model in which the rookies are paid by funneling some of that money to established veterans. One more major issue is retired players and increasing the amount of money they're given. The owners have reportedly been open to the idea of giving more money to the retired players and this issue has not become one of the most divisive on the table.

Continue to the entire article..

Via