The Tour de France...

...when you can't beat 'em¹, jump 'em.

[1] Unlikely, unless you have superior drugs.

20 Things You Didn't Know About Obesity

A few from the list available at Discover.com:

2. According to a study by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, nearly half the 4,000 people responding to an online survey about obesity said they would give up a year of their life rather than be fat.

5. From 1991 to 2000, the average weight of Americans increased by 8.5 pounds.

7. Airlines spent $275 million on 350 million additional gallons of fuel in 2000 to compensate for the additional weight of their passengers. Now we know why the peanuts are no longer free!

13. Two years ago, the Hardee's fast-food chain introduced the 1,420-calorie 107-fat-gram "Monster Thickburger." It contains two 1/3-pound slabs of Angus beef, four strips of bacon, three slices of cheese, and mayonnaise on a buttered sesame-seed bun. [ Supersize it! ]

14. Mississippi is the home of the mud pie, Cajun fried pecans, sweet potato crunch, fried shrimp, and catfish. Mississippi is also home to the country's fattest people—more than 25 percent of adult Mississippians are obese. Coincidence?

19. If the entire morbidly obese population of the U.S. lived in one state, it would be the 12th highest-populated state, with more people than Virginia.

#2 sounds plausible to me, since obesity will probably take off more than a year of your life.

Winchester Technology: I'm Not Dead Yet

"Robert X. Cringely" of I, Cringely writes about an upgrade to hard disk technology that he is invested in, standard hard disk platters made of lighter, thinner aluminum or titanium foil. The result is more platters in a drive, more information packed on the platters, and a dramatic reduction in energy consumption. While the initial focus of the technology looks like mobile devices, the technology looks like it has application for the desktop:

The technology in question replaces the aluminum or glass platter in your hard disk drive with a "platter" made from stainless steel or titanium foil that is 22 microns or 25 microns thick, respectively. The materials cost more but we use so much less of it (the disk is so incredibly thin) that the total material cost is substantially less. This "floppy" material has the same kind of magnetic coatings used on standard disk drives and our drives live on the same technology growth curve as those others. The way we obtain greater storage density is simply by putting more platters in a drive (say 12-15 instead of 4-5 in an enterprise 3.5-inch drive) because they are much thinner and can be stacked closer together. The only parts of the drive that are significantly different are the platters and the heads and the heads vary only in having an extra slot. There is no rocket science here, but what science there is is patented.

Lot's more in the original article.

I'm mostly for removing high-speed, low-margin-of-error moving parts from the computer, but this technology looks very intriguing.

[ via LockerGnome Nexus ]

Burglars Will Not Go Here

The "Brief Safe," a way to secure your valuables and cleverly disguised as this:



Parting with $29.95 will posit you the following:

...an innovative diversion safe that can secure your cash, documents, and other small valuables from inquisitive eyes and thieving hands, both at home and when you're traveling. Items can be hidden right under their noses with these specially-designed briefs which contain a fly-accessed 4" x 10" secret compartment with Velcro closure and "special markings" on the lower rear portion. Leave the "Underwear / Brief Safe" in plain view in your laundry basket or washing machine at home, or in your suitcase in a hotel room - even the most hardened burglar or most curious snoop will "skid" to a screeching halt as soon as they see them. (Wouldn't you?) Made in USA. One size. Color: white (and brown).

Wow, and to think of all the money I could have made making these things out of my home. If you need a little extra dose of realism security you can also opt for the "Doo Drops" product which will crapify the olfactory experience of any attempted assault on your secured belongings.

[ via Boing Boing ]

Zero

That there on top is the outside temperature this morning. It seems like just a month ago the bottom number was the outside temperature.

Solid State Drives Ramping Up

Here's another one coming out this year, this time by a company called PQI (kind of ruins the alliterative branding that was happening). This one doubles up both the storage capacity of prior announcements (to 64GB) and the estimated on-the-street pricing (to $2k).

Hard to imagine what a perfectly quiet PC is going to be like. I'll have to be content with listening to the sound of the ringing in my ears.

[ via Engadget ]

Crucify Him!

Behold Scientologists, your Christ has arrived:

TOM Cruise is the new "Christ" of Scientology, according to leaders of the cult-like religion.

The Mission: Impossible star has been told he has been "chosen" to spread the word of his faith throughout the world.

And leader David Miscavige believes that in future, Cruise, 44, will be worshipped like Jesus for his work to raise awareness of the religion.

The response from a certain someone I know:

...flog him within an inch of his life and hang him on a cross until his lungs collapse to death and see if he comes back to life.

If Cruise's head gets any bigger the gravitational force is going to pull us into the sun. I mean, I don't think God even loves Tom Cruise as much as Tom Cruise loves Tom Cruise.

[ Thanks again, Ed. ]

Caffeine, the Post-Workout Pain Killer

The super-food that keeps giving:

That morning cup of coffee may be an antidote to post-exercise muscle soreness, if preliminary research is correct.

In a small study of female college students, researchers found that a caffeine supplement seemed to lessen the familiar muscle pain that crops up the day after a particularly challenging workout.

Known as delayed-onset muscle soreness, or DOMS, the pain is common in the day or two after a workout that was more intense than normal. Exercise that involves eccentric contraction of the muscles is particularly likely to cause delayed muscle pain.

[...]

The theory is that caffeine eases delayed muscle pain by blocking the activity of a chemical called adenosine, which is released as part of the inflammatory response to injury. Adenosine can activate pain receptors in body cells, explained Victor Maridakis, the study's lead author.

In this study, he told Reuters Health, the pain relief with caffeine was stronger than that from painkillers like acetaminophen (Tylenol) and naproxen (Aleve).¹

I'll be hitting the Starbucks on the way to my soccer game tonight. And having a sex change.

[1] Via Reuters

Ability to bend space-time a Must

http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Ability_to_Bend_Space-Time_a_Must.aspx

I've always maintained that any good service industry should present a little black magic to the public. Apparently, for web developers it means stepping outside the classical frame of time.

.XXX

Techdirt is reporting that the .xxx top level domain (TLD) is up for consideration again, but cites it's own 2004 article on the subject that forcing porn sites to migrate there would be a bad idea because the definition of porn can be subjective and defined differently between different people.

Phooey. At the very least it would force most porn sites (the "I know it when I see it" variety) to that TLD. I mean, most people don't disagree that the content found in adult bookstores and on the adult magazine rack qualify as x-rated material. I don't see a whole lot of people trying to qualify adult material as art these days.

Sandisk Solid State Hard Disk

First SimpleTech announced they were putting out a solid state hard disk in 2005. Then almost a year ago the news leaked out that Samsung had developed a 32GB solid state hard disk. Looks like SanDisk is now on the bandwagon with a 32GB drive of their own, except this one looks like it's going into laptops soon.

Hmmm. SimpleTech, Samsung, SanDisk. Will Sony be next?

[ thanks, Ed ]

Previously:

More Solid State Goodness
Update on Solid State Hard Drive Technology
Sweet

I Am Inconsolable

My life will continue to lack meaning.

The highest scoring offense in the NFL this year. A high ranked defense. The league's best player, MVP, multiple season record breaker, most rushing yards and touchdowns. The best record in the NFL, and home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

It's not enough. They went for it on fourth and eleven when in field goal range in the first quarter. They muffed a punt when they could have fallen on it. They committed a personal foul giving the other team 1st and 10 in near the red zone instead of 3rd and almost 20. They intercepted the ball and fumbled it back to the other team on fourth down. And to add to that gaffe, they disputed the call when there was nothing to dispute, costing them a timeout that they could have desperately used at the end of the game.

This was the best (regular season) Chargers team I have ever known, and I grew up during the Air Coryell era. The fact that they couldn't win on their own home turf with all the weapons available to them is shameful and a disgrace. We put the better team on the field but were determined to give the game to the other team. That, I am afraid, is the only thing the Chargers succeeded in yesterday.

Marty must go.

Swimming Pool Cooled PC

A cooler PC and a possibly warmer swimming pool. Two great tastes that taste great together.

[ via Makezine ]

Ping Pong Cup Madness

An amazing video collection of bouncing ping pong ball shots into cups.

[ via Gizmodo ]

Dot.Tunes

A nifty little way to access your iTunes collection over the Internet.

DriverMax

A shareware utility that backs up all your current Windows drivers. The next time you have to reinstall Windows you can reinstall the drivers from the backup disc you created instead of hunting down all the original driver discs.


[ via LockerGnome ]

Oops

What the heck is this?