Great white sharks coming closer to shore than thought November 4, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Enviroment.1 comment so far
For years, humans have thought of great white sharks wandering the sea at random, only occasionally venturing close to shore.
We were wrong
The team of 10 California-based researchers determined that these sharks probably pass close to populated beaches and have been spotted as far inland as the mouth of the San Francisco Bay, east of the Golden Gate Bridge. Thanks to one of the Researcher’s, Adam Brown
via Great white sharks coming closer to shore than thought, researchers find – washingtonpost.com.
How To Get Fired November 3, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Business, Humor.Tags: Accident, Humor, Video
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Don’t drink and drive around Vodka
Boating Splashes October 28, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Humor, Video.Tags: Humor, Streaming Video, Video
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Thanks Joe Greene for the laughs at other peoples misfortunes at sea.
70 foot Kayak Plunge October 26, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Cool photos, Enviroment, Photography, Sports.add a comment
photo by Jed Weingarten
This most recent picture was featured on Good Morning America of a 70″ Kayak plunge. The world record is still a 110 foot drop.
Click on Jed’s link for more pictures. Jed Weingarten Photography and a Yantze River Kayak Video
How A Fungus Is Pushing Frogs Extinct October 23, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Enviroment.add a comment
The realization that frogs across the globe were dying came in 1989. It wasn’t until 1998 that the deaths were linked to a fungus named batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Still, no one knew how this superficial skin infection was killing frogs by the thousands — until now. (more…)
Gang crackdown, lurid mob trials transfix China October 22, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in In The News.add a comment
Over the past 30 years, the economic boom caused by free-market reforms forced the Communist Party to withdraw from many areas it formerly controlled, clearing the way for new gangs to emerge and conspire with officials who held bureaucratic power but were poorly paid.
Gangs started out in traditional rackets — drug trafficking, smuggling luxury cars and extortion — in the 1980s. As China’s economy evolved, they moved on to loan-sharking and evicting tenants from land for real estate development. Tax reform in the mid-1990s sent revenue to Beijing at the expense of local governments, making local officials and police eager to cash in on the money-making opportunities offered by gangs.
The leadership now sees the link between endemic corruption and organized crime — or “black societies” in Chinese — as a threat to its very existence, diminishing the party’s already-low popularity.
via The Associated Press: Gang crackdown, lurid mob trials transfix China.
Protect Yourself On Facebook -5 Easy Steps October 10, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Lifestyle, Technology.Tags: Facebook, Lifestyle, Tech, Technology
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Unbeknownst to most mainstream Facebook users, the social network actually offers a slew of privacy controls and security features which can help you batten down the hatches, so to speak. If used properly, you’ll never have to worry about whether you should friend the boss and your mom. You can friend anyone you want while comfortable in the knowledge that not everyone gets to see everything you post.
The problem in implementing these privacy options is that they’re just too confusing for most non-tech savvy people to handle. And often, folks don’t want to bother to take the time to learn. To simplify the process, we’re offering five easy steps you can take today to help make your Facebook experience safer, more secure, and more private.
via 5 Easy Steps to Stay Safe (and Private!) on Facebook – NYTimes.com. (more…)
5 Nuns In A Bar… October 6, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Cool photos, Humor, Religion.Tags: Christian, Christianity, cool ph, Cool photos, Humor, Relig, Religion
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Sisters Mary Catherine, Maria Theresa, Katherine Marie, Rose Frances, & Mary Kathleen left the Convent on a trip to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City and were sight-seeing on a Tuesday in July. It was hot and humid in town and their traditional garb was making them so uncomfortable, they decided to stop in at Patty McGuire’s Pub for a cold soft drink.
Patty had recently added special legs to her bar stools, which were the talk of the fashionable east-side neighborhood. All 5 Nuns sat up at the bar and were enjoying their Cokes when Monsignor Riley and Father McGinty entered the bar through the front door.
They, too, came for a cold drink when they were shocked and almost fainted at what they saw (more…)
Best 100 of YouTube September 30, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Humor, Video.Tags: Humor, Video
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Reinstated Dolphin’s Running Back, Ricky William’s, New Jersey September 25, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Humor, Sports.Tags: Humor, Miami Dolphins, Sports
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Picture by Darryl Edwards
$$ New World Order September 24, 2009
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“The dollar looks awfully like sterling after the First World War,” said David Bloom, the bank’s currency chief. Look at the UK – debt is racing up to 100pc of GDP,” he said
What is occurring is an epochal loss in the relative wealth and economic power of the old G10 bloc of rich countries compared to rising regions of the world. The euro, yen, sterling, Swiss franc and other mature currencies will be relegated along with the dollar in this great process of rebalancing, but the Greenback will bear the brunt.
via HSBC bids farewell to dollar supremacy – Telegraph. (more…)
Try this All-Natural, Free Screen Cleaner September 20, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Enviroment, Humor, Technology.Tags: Environ, Environment, humo, Humor, Tech, Technology
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This free screen cleaner is all-natural and environmentally friendly. Thanks to Frank Andia.
Our New Economy’s Direction September 20, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Economy & Business.Tags: Economy & Business, Manufacturing
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The U.S. remains the world’s largest manufacturing nation, larger than China or anyone else. Many of these manufactured goods are sold outside of the U.S.. U.S. farm products, technology products, consumer products, commodities, and services are also sold abroad.
Bureaucracy and hierarchy were wonderful administrative structures for a manufacturing based economy and for command and control based activities like large scale manufacturing, large military, mass education, and the big government of the 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s, and even the 70’s. However, since the 1980’s, the efficacy of the command and control oriented hierarchical bureaucracy has been poor. Since that time, large manufacturing companies have been downsizing and failing with great frequency.
On the other hand, many of the more flexible, quick moving, and technologically advanced organizations have prospered. One reason for this may be that Technology based companies have flat organizational structures rather than hierarchical bureaucracies. In addition they often have merit-based promotion and compensation schemes, rather than seniority based promotion schemes. Guild Investment Letter
A Boomer’s Whining September 19, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Humor, Lifestyle.Tags: Humor, Lifestyle
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1. I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.
2. More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.
3. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.
Chef Of The Mac September 16, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Business, Food.Tags: Business, Fast Food, Food, McDonald's
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Coudreaut, or Chef Dan as he’s called within McDonald’s, has navigated pretty well within his straits. Since hired on in 2004, he has led the creation of the Snack Wrap, the latest iterations of McDonald’s chicken-topped salad entree, the Fruit and Walnut Salad, McCafé espresso-based coffees, and, most recently, the 1/3-lb. Angus burger. (He has blown it, too. McDonald’s dropped the too-adventurous Hot ‘n’ Spicy McChicken sandwich in 2007 after just six months on the market and disappointing sales.)
The stream of new products is paying off. While restaurant sales have been sinking industrywide since the recession hit in 2007, McDonald’s quarterly same-store sales have continued to climb. The string, which began in 2003, continues into the third quarter, with a 1.7% increase in the U.S. in August and 2.6% in July. CEO James A. Skinner credited the gains to premium coffees and the Angus burger.
via The Challenges for McDonald’s Top Chef – BusinessWeek. (more…)
What The World Wants September 7, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Geopolitics.add a comment
America has spent the last seven decades expending blood and treasure to birth and then enlarge an international liberal trade order, now known as globalization.
The result?
The most pacific and prosperous age known to humankind, which nonetheless tripled its numbers on this planet in the meantime. Now, as we face only a 50 percent increase in world population over the next four decades (hat tip, India and China) before we top off in our growth as a species, humanity nonetheless face an era that will challenge our capacity for innovation — both technological and social — like none before.
Why? Because America was too damn successful in its revolution-from-below, empowering and enriching individuals on a global scale never before seen. Pundits like to decry the “have/have not” gap in this world, but it’s the emergence of a global middle class that is the dominant, system-shaping trend of our age. Nothing else even comes close
via WPR Article | The New Rules: The Growing Global Middle Class and Its Demands.
Maybe We Aren’t Running Out of Oil September 7, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Economy & Business, Enviroment.add a comment
In the end, perhaps the most misleading claim of the peak-oil advocates is that the earth was endowed with only 2 trillion barrels of “recoverable” oil. Actually, the consensus among geologists is that there are some 10 trillion barrels out there. A century ago, only 10 percent of it was considered recoverable, but improvements in technology should allow us to recover some 35 percent — another 2.5 trillion barrels — in an economically viable way. And this doesn’t even include such potential sources as tar sands, which in time we may be able to efficiently tap.
Oil remains abundant, and the price will likely come down closer to the historical level of $30 a barrel as new supplies come forward in the deep waters off West Africa and Latin America, in East Africa, and perhaps in the Bakken oil shale fields of Montana and North Dakota.
via Op-Ed Contributor – ‘Peak Oil’ Is a Waste of Energy – NYTimes.com. (more…)
Freon Fix Fries The Climate September 3, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Enviroment.Tags: Environment, Global Warming
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This is not the funny kind of irony: Scientists say the chemicals that helped solve the last global environmental crisis — the hole in the ozone layer — are making the current one worse.
The chemicals, called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), were introduced widely in the 1990s to replace ozone-depleting gases used in air conditioners, refrigerators and insulating foam. They worked: The earth’s protective shield seems to be recovering.
But researchers say what’s good for ozone is bad for climate change. In the atmosphere, these replacement chemicals act like “super” greenhouse gases, with a heat-trapping power that can be 4,470 times that of carbon dioxide.
Now, scientists say, the world must find replacements for the replacements — or these super-emissions could cancel out other efforts to stop global warming.
Mosquitoes Bite Mellow People September 3, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Enviroment, health.Tags: Environment, health, Mosquitoes
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If you’re one of those people whom mosquitoes tend to favor, maybe it’s because you aren’t sufficiently stressed-out.
Insects have very keen powers of smell that direct them to their targets. But for researchers trying to figure out what attracts or repels the pests, sorting through the 300 to 400 distinct chemical odors that the human body produces has proved daunting.
Dr. Logan suggests that mosquitoes may deem hosts that emit more of these chemicals to be diseased or injured and “not a good quality blood meal.” Proteins in the blood are necessary for female mosquitoes to produce fertile eggs, and Dr. Logan says it might be evolutionarily advantageous for mosquitoes to detect and avoid such people.
via Mosquito Bites: The Real Reason Some People Are Immune – WSJ.com. (more…)
Can Money Buy Happiness? August 30, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Lifestyle.Tags: Happiness, Money
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A few researchers are looking again at whether happiness can be bought, and they are discovering that quite possibly it can – it’s just that some strategies are a lot better than others. Taking a friend to lunch, it turns out, makes us happier than buying a new outfit. Splurging on a vacation makes us happy in a way that splurging on a car may not.
“Just because money doesn’t buy happiness doesn’t mean money cannot buy happiness,” says Elizabeth Dunn, a social psychologist and assistant professor at the University of British Columbia. “People just might be using it wrong.”
Dunn and others are beginning to offer an intriguing explanation for the poor wealth-to-happiness exchange rate: The problem isn’t money, it’s us. For deep-seated psychological reasons, when it comes to spending money, we tend to value goods over experiences, ourselves over others, things over people. When it comes to happiness, none of these decisions are right: The spending that make us happy, it turns out, is often spending where the money vanishes and leaves something ineffable in its place.
Teen Lotto Winner Blows $3.1 million August 30, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in In The News, Lifestyle.add a comment
Teenage lottery winner Callie Rogers has confessed to blowing £250,000 on cocaine and said she should never have been allowed to spend her fortune at such a young age. Miss Rogers, 22, scooped £1.9million when she hit the jackpot in 2003 at the age of 16 and went on a never-ending spending spree.
In a frank interview she told how her drug addict boyfriend Nicky Lawson got her hooked on cocaine too and she wasted a fortune on the drug. The former shop assistant believes she shouldn’t have had access to her winnings until she was old enough to deal with her wealth sensibly.
via How teen Lotto winner Callie blew her £2m fortune – including £250,000 on cocaine | Mail Online.
Why is There Peace? August 30, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Geopolitics.Tags: Geopolitics, History, Peace, war
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Violence has been in decline over long stretches of history, and today we are probably living in the most peaceful moment of our species’ time on earth.
When the archeologist Lawrence Keeley examined casualty rates among contemporary hunter-gatherers—which is the best picture we have of how people might have lived 10,000 years ago—he discovered that the likelihood that a man would die at the hands of another man ranged from a high of 60 percent in one tribe to 15 percent at the most peaceable end. In contrast, the chance that a European or American man would be killed by another man was less than one percent during the 20th century, a period of time that includes both world wars. If the death rate of tribal warfare had prevailed in the 20th century, there would have been two billion deaths rather than 100 million, horrible as that is. Read on with the link below.
Swimming With Whales August 25, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Cool photos, Enviroment.Tags: Cool photos, Environment, Whales
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In the deep blue waters of the South Pacific, cameraman Marco Queral gets up close and personal with a humpback whale.
The experienced diver even seems to be hitching a lift on the flipper of the 50ft female. Queral, 42, who has spent 17 years taking such remarkable pictures, said: ‘Whales are extremely intelligent. Just like humans, they have their own mind and come with strong personalities. Click the link below for more pictures.
A Brief History Of Movie Special Effects August 25, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Technology, Video.add a comment
A “Sampler” collection of clips and making-of footage from notable visual effects films of the past century. Originally intended for educational use as an introduction to a classroom lecture.
The music track is “Rods and Cones” from the album “Audio” by Blue Man Group.
Fountain Of Youth Drugs August 25, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in health.Tags: Aging, Drugs, health
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It may be the ultimate free lunch — how to reap all the advantages of a calorically restricted diet, including freedom from disease and an extended healthy life span, without eating one fewer calorie. Just take a drug that tricks the body into thinking it’s on such a diet.
It sounds too good to be true, and maybe it is. Yet such drugs are now in clinical trials. Even if they should fail, as most candidate drugs do, their development represents a new optimism among research biologists that aging is not immutable, that the body has resources that can be mobilized into resisting disease and averting the adversities of old age.
