Lifestyle13

Janjaap Ruijssenaars air mattress uses a matching set of repelling magnets that are built into the bed and the floor below.  This bed can support up to 2,000 lbs.

A company has come out with a concept that would make a simple trip to the grocery store even more guilt ridden for some of us.  The idea is to equip your shopping cart with a computer screen and barcode that will scan the items you put in your cart for calorie count and nutrition.  That’s all well and good if your filling your cart with fresh fruits and veggies but I’m afraid for most of us, we are not going to like what we see.  Let’s hope this device has an off button, for those days where you just need the chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, no matter what anyone or anything ( including your shopping cart ) says!

Why not try chasing your alarm clock around the room to shut it off. “Clocky” the alarm clock will give you one chance to hit the snooze but then the magic happens.  “Clocky” will jump off your nightstand and wheel around your room, forcing you to get up out of the cozy bed and turn it off. 

Clever idea.  http://www.nandahome.com/products.clocky.html

Of course there are always going to be debates between men and women. Who is right, who is wrong, who is more stubborn.   Its a never ending battle.  Understanding  the differences between men and women can be difficult. 

Women have four times as many brain cells connecting the right and left side of their brain. This provides physical evidence that men rely easily and more heavily on their left brain to solve one problem one step at a time. Women therefore have greater use of their right brain. Women can focus on more than one problem at one time and prefer to solve problems through multiple activities at a time. Young boys would rather play sports than participate in a conversation between 5 girls who are discussing as many as three subjects at once.

When it comes to solving problems, men and women have the same goal, but approach it differently.  Woman are usually more concerned about how problems are solved than merely solving the problem itself.   Most men are less concerned and do not feel the same as women when solving a problem.

Men approach problems in a very different manner than women. For most men, solving a problem presents an opportunity to demonstrate their competence.  How the problem is solved is not nearly as important as solving it effectively and in the best possible manner. 

Women come to understand and consider problems all at once. They take a broad view on things.  Women are prone to become overwhelmed with situations that arise and may have difficulty separating their personal experience from problems.

Men tend to focus on one problem at a time.  Men are prone to minimize the small things that can be crucial to successful solutions. A male may work through a problem repeatedly, talking about the same thing over and over, rather than trying to address the problem all at once.  

So, the ultimate task that faces men and women is to learn to accept their differences.  Also, avoid taking their differences as personal attempts to frustrate each other, and to compromise whenever possible. The idea that one gender can think and feel like the other, not going to happen.   

1. Boston Children’s Museum

2. Long Island’s Children Museum

3. New York’s Museum of Natural History

4. The Building for Kids in Wisconsin

5. Maryland Science Center

6. Kidspace Children’s Museum in California

7. Minnesota’s Children Museum

8. Charlotte at Play in North Carolina

9. Chicago Children’s Museum

10. The Lynn Meadows Discovery Center in Mississippi

Early stages of research are showing it may be possible to monitor blood sugar levels in people with type 1 diabetes with just a breath.  The BBC reports that those with type 1 exhale higher levels of methyl nitrates when the blood sugar level is too high.  Sometimes as much as ten times higher then normal.  Work at the University of Irvine in California hope to eliminate the need for sticking the finger to monitor blood sugar levels and use a simple breath test.

If you’re bored and want to have some fun, give this a try.

Go somewhere with open space such as a park or big back yard first.  Take a cold bottle of diet coke and 5 Mentos mints.  Break the mints in half and drop all 10 pieces in the bottle at the same time.  Stand back and watch the fountain erupt! 

You may have seen the commercials for wireless phones with the kids talking (texting) with just letters. I love those commercials, but realized I didn’t know what all the shortcuts meant.  Myself, I like to use the T9 function when I am texting and leave the acronyms for I.M.ing. I guess many people do use these short cuts for texting on the phone too, so I found a website to help me figure out what the heck people are trying to tell me.

Examples:

IDK - I don’t know

BFF - Best friend forever

2moro - tomorrow

GAL - get a life

ITA - I totally agree

The site, Netlingo.com lists everything alphabetically so it’s easy to find what your looking for. But be warned, so of the acronym’s meanings are not rated “G”

Scientists have now invented a nonstick gum.  Its called Clean Gum.  It can be easily removed from shoes, pavement, hair, skin, and clothes.  Scientists also say that the gum will degrade naturally in water. 

The trick to decreasing the stickiness of the gum was to add a polymer that made it less adhesive to most of the surfaces that the chewy stuff tends to stick to.

The creator of the gum plans to market Clean Gum commercially and launch the product in 2008.

Villagers are hit with a mysterious illness after a meteorite hits near the village in southern Peru. Villagers in the near by area were convinced that an airplane had crashed midday Monday causing an explosion. After searching the area, villagers find a crater 100 feet wide, and 20 feet deep caused by what is believed to be a meteorite. Mysteriously the villagers have come down with a weird illness associated with a headache, nausea and vomiting. This odd illness is believed to be from a strange odor that followed the incident. An investigation is underway to find out exactly what is causing these symptoms.

A gifted parrot that could count to six, identify colors and even express frustration has died after 30 years of helping researchers better understand the avian brain.  Alex, was an African Grey Parrot.

A scientist bought Alex from an animal shop in 1973.  He then learned enough English to identify 50 different objects, seven colors, and five shapes. He could count up to six, including zero, was able to express desires, including his frustration.

He also would tell two other parrots at the lab to “talk better” if they mumbled.

Scientist, Irene Pepperberg, said Alex hadn’t reached his full cognitive potential yet.  Just last month he pronounced the word “seven” for the first time.

The cause of Alex’s death was unknown. The African Grey parrot’s average life span is 50 years.  Pepperberg left Alex by going through their goodnight routine with her saying  it was time to go in the cage and saying: “You be good, I love you. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Alex responded, “You’ll be in tomorrow.”

 NASA has decided it’s time to change their old slogan, ”Explore. Discover. Understand. “They have come to realize that what you say is more important than what you do. Therefore, it has asked the U.S. public to suggest a new slogan to replace the current one.  Among those that have been offered are:

• Went to the Moon, invented Tang. For Mars, who knows?
• Weightless sex. Open up your wallets and make it happen.
• Earth — we’re outta here!
• From the increasingly dirty blue marble all the way to the stars!
• One small step for man, one huge debt for mankind.
• NASA: We can see your house from here.
• Look up, look down — do you see any insulation all around?
• We play with Mercury.
• We go long.
• We decide which way’s up.
• Now offering development property with out of this world views!

Researchers at Stanford University are working on new technology that allows you to enter your PIN number at the ATM with only the movements of your eyes.  When you look at your numbers the system will track the position of your eyes with infrared light.  The system is called EyePassword. Look for it at an ATM near you in the future.