Mar 19, 2010
New iPhone Application
The 319-bed Hospital of Central Connecticut has launched a free iPhone application that will tell you how long the wait is at both of its emergency rooms. It will also give you directions, in case you are already in the car.
Web Wills
A new service called My Webwill launched a new web based service last December. The Swedish Internet site offers to manage email and social networking accounts after death. My Webwill is testing in Sweden and the United States and plans to go live in Britain and Germany this year and more countries in later.
Users can set up a digital will with directions on what should happen to their email and social network accounts after they die. Currently, a Facebook profile, for example, can remain active long after its creator has passed away.
Some services, such as Legacy Locker Inc., Deathswitch, and Slightly Morbid, will send posthumous emails to friends and family. My Webwill will enter accounts and manage them according to a person's last wishes.
The basic service is free and includes the deactivation of 10 Internet accounts and the option to send up to five prepared e-mails written by you. A premium service paid service offers more detailed management of social networking profiles as well as unlimited posthumous e-mails and account deactivations. It offers customers a range of services, including posting prepared messages, changing profile pictures or updating status bars. Users can also pre-write emails that will be passed on to designated receivers such as friends or family.
In Sweden and Germany, My Webwill is automatically notified of a death by national authorities. In other countries clients will need to choose one or two people who notify My Webwill about the death and send a death certificate for the deceased.
Currently families have much difficulty shutting down sites and emails. For instance, Facebook's current policy is to move a deceased person's profile into a "Memorial State," removing contact information, status updates and group memberships once a death has been confirmed. The profile itself usually remains and confirmed friends can still find them through the search tool and write on the person's wall. This whole business may sound morbid, but it makes sense as we spend more and more time online.
Users can set up a digital will with directions on what should happen to their email and social network accounts after they die. Currently, a Facebook profile, for example, can remain active long after its creator has passed away.
Some services, such as Legacy Locker Inc., Deathswitch, and Slightly Morbid, will send posthumous emails to friends and family. My Webwill will enter accounts and manage them according to a person's last wishes.
The basic service is free and includes the deactivation of 10 Internet accounts and the option to send up to five prepared e-mails written by you. A premium service paid service offers more detailed management of social networking profiles as well as unlimited posthumous e-mails and account deactivations. It offers customers a range of services, including posting prepared messages, changing profile pictures or updating status bars. Users can also pre-write emails that will be passed on to designated receivers such as friends or family.
In Sweden and Germany, My Webwill is automatically notified of a death by national authorities. In other countries clients will need to choose one or two people who notify My Webwill about the death and send a death certificate for the deceased.
Currently families have much difficulty shutting down sites and emails. For instance, Facebook's current policy is to move a deceased person's profile into a "Memorial State," removing contact information, status updates and group memberships once a death has been confirmed. The profile itself usually remains and confirmed friends can still find them through the search tool and write on the person's wall. This whole business may sound morbid, but it makes sense as we spend more and more time online.
Obscura Day March 20, 2010
It is an international celebration of wondrous, curious, and esoteric places in cities and towns all over the world. You can see and experience such things as musical rocks, a worry bead museum, a European pyramid, unusual cemeteries, a hash museum, a 19th century landfill, a gasometer town, a giant lemon, and many more unusual and wonderful things.
The folks behind Atlas Obscura, a compendium of the world's wonders, curiosities, and esoterica are putting it on. Here is the LINK Go on, get up, get out of the house and see something truly amazing.
The folks behind Atlas Obscura, a compendium of the world's wonders, curiosities, and esoterica are putting it on. Here is the LINK Go on, get up, get out of the house and see something truly amazing.
Words
You may choose your word like a connoisseur,
And polish it up with art,
But the word that sways, and stirs, and stays,
Is the word that comes from the heart.
And polish it up with art,
But the word that sways, and stirs, and stays,
Is the word that comes from the heart.
Beer for Blood
Cascade Regional Blood Services in Tacoma, Washington is offering donors a free pint of beer every time they give blood. They are hoping the scheme might encourage more people to donate. Donors must be over 21 and are given a coupon entitling them a free pint when they donate blood.
It appears to be having the desired effect with the blood center saying the scheme has worked so well that it is being expanded. Maybe next year they should try bacon for blood. Ha.
It appears to be having the desired effect with the blood center saying the scheme has worked so well that it is being expanded. Maybe next year they should try bacon for blood. Ha.
Daylight Savings Time
My brother has one of those clocks that only shows the days of the week. He set it ahead for daylight Savings time and lost a whole day.
American Gothic
American Gothic is a famous painting that was created in 1930. Grant Wood entered the painting in in a competition at the Art Institute of Chicago and won the bronze medal.
Since it came out at the onset of the Great Depression, it was viewed by many as a symbol of the steadfast American spirit. Many saw it as a struggling farmer and his wife who refuse to give up. The woman is actually Wood’s sister and the man was his dentist.
Mar 17, 2010
Irish Friendship Wish
May there always be work for your hands to do;
May your purse always hold a coin or two;
May the sun always shine on your window pane;
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain;
May the hand of a friend always be near you;
May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you
May your purse always hold a coin or two;
May the sun always shine on your window pane;
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain;
May the hand of a friend always be near you;
May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you
Mar 16, 2010
Play Doh
Did you know Play Doh was originally a cleaner for cleaning soot off of wallpaper? Captain Kangaroo helped make it famous on his TV show. Now you know.
Foods From the Fifties
Did you ever wonder how long some things have been around?
-
1950
Sugar Pops (Kelloggs)
Minute Rice (General Foods)
Lawry's Seasoned Salt (Lawry's)
Dunkin' Doughnuts (fast food chain)
1951
Ore-Ida Foods (frozen potato products)
Duncan Hines Cake Mix (Nebraska Consolidated Mills)
Tropicana Products (Florida orange juice)
Jack-in-the-Box (fast food chain restaurant)
Taco Bell (fast food mexican restaurant)
1952
No-Cal Ginger Ale (Kirsch Beverages)
Sugar Frosted Flakes (Kellogg's)
Non-dairy creamer (M & R. Dietetic Laboratories)
Dehydrated onion soup mix (Lipton)
Ms. Paul's Fish Sticks
-
1950
Sugar Pops (Kelloggs)
Minute Rice (General Foods)
Lawry's Seasoned Salt (Lawry's)
Dunkin' Doughnuts (fast food chain)
1951
Ore-Ida Foods (frozen potato products)
Duncan Hines Cake Mix (Nebraska Consolidated Mills)
Tropicana Products (Florida orange juice)
Jack-in-the-Box (fast food chain restaurant)
Taco Bell (fast food mexican restaurant)
1952
No-Cal Ginger Ale (Kirsch Beverages)
Sugar Frosted Flakes (Kellogg's)
Non-dairy creamer (M & R. Dietetic Laboratories)
Dehydrated onion soup mix (Lipton)
Ms. Paul's Fish Sticks
Piconewton
A piconewton is a millionth of the force that a grain of salt exerts when resting on a tabletop.
Mar 15, 2010
China Dogs
The Chinese government is considering legislation that would make eating cats and dogs illegal.
Eating dog meat is a long-standing culinary tradition not just in China, but also Korea, and the Philippines. Cat meat can be found on the menu in China, Vietnam, Philippines, and even parts of South America.
"The dogs you raise at home, you shouldn't eat," said Pan, a butcher who declined to give his first name. "The kind raised for eating, we can eat those." Many dogs and cats sold for meat are specially raised on farms.
The ban on eating dog and cat meat is part of a larger proposal to toughen laws on animal welfare. Individual violators could face up to 15 days in prison and a small fine. Businesses found guilty of selling the meat risk fines up to 500,000 yuan ($73,500).
Restaurants won't necessarily need to change their menus immediately. According to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the law prohibiting cat and dog meat could take as long as a decade to pass.
However, to avoid upsetting international visitors during the Beijing Olympics, officials ordered dog meat off the menus at local markets. Officials in Guangzhou have warned vendors to stop selling it ahead of the Asian Games which will be held there later this year. Reminds me of what Utah did for drinking as a prelude to its Winter Olympic bid. It's true that money talks, even to religions and Communists.
Eating dog meat is a long-standing culinary tradition not just in China, but also Korea, and the Philippines. Cat meat can be found on the menu in China, Vietnam, Philippines, and even parts of South America.
"The dogs you raise at home, you shouldn't eat," said Pan, a butcher who declined to give his first name. "The kind raised for eating, we can eat those." Many dogs and cats sold for meat are specially raised on farms.
The ban on eating dog and cat meat is part of a larger proposal to toughen laws on animal welfare. Individual violators could face up to 15 days in prison and a small fine. Businesses found guilty of selling the meat risk fines up to 500,000 yuan ($73,500).
Restaurants won't necessarily need to change their menus immediately. According to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the law prohibiting cat and dog meat could take as long as a decade to pass.
However, to avoid upsetting international visitors during the Beijing Olympics, officials ordered dog meat off the menus at local markets. Officials in Guangzhou have warned vendors to stop selling it ahead of the Asian Games which will be held there later this year. Reminds me of what Utah did for drinking as a prelude to its Winter Olympic bid. It's true that money talks, even to religions and Communists.
No religion
According to the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, released in March, 2009, the percentage of people who claim no religion has nearly doubled since 1990. Those claiming no religion jumped from 8.2 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2008.
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