Filipino Prisoners Dancing to Queen

Supposedly as a part of their rehab. The beginning is slow, but stick with it, it's worth it.

Rocket Fuel Found in Infant Formual - Kids at Risk

CDC has found the rocket fuel chemical (perchlorate) in 15 brands of powdered infant formula. Combined with existing perchlorate drinking water contamination in 28 states, infants are at risk. Environmental Working Group asks for EPA action. http://www.ewg.org/Rocket-Fuel-In-Infant-Formula/TakeAction

Beautiful 404 pages

I just loved some of these 404 Error Pages and had to share. I copied my favorites below, but you should really see them all.

Mercury Found in High Fructose Corn Syrup

My family members are diabetic, so I've been irritated by the corn industry's new TV commercials that say "high fructose corn syrup is fine in moderating".

Yeah right.

Turns out they've been creating the stuff with mercury.

"Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high-fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply," the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Dr. David Wallinga, a co-author of both studies, said in a prepared statement.

Full article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012601831_pf.html

And here are products that have mercury in them:
Product Name Total Mercury Limit of Detection (ppt)
Quaker Oatmeal to Go 350 80
Jack Daniel’s Barbecue Sauce (Heinz) 300 100
Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup 257 50
Kraft Original Barbecue Sauce 200 100
Nutri-Grain Strawberry Cereal Bars 180 80
Manwich Bold Sloppy Joe 150 80
Market Pantry Grape Jelly 130 80
Smucker’s Strawberry Jelly 100 80
Pop-Tarts Frosted Blueberry 100 80
Hunt’s Tomato Ketchup 87 50
Wish-Bone Western Sweet & Smooth Dressing 72 50
Coca-Cola Classic 62 50
Yoplait Strawberry Yogurt 60 20
Minute Maid Berry Punch 40 30
Yoo-hoo Chocolate Drink 30 20
Nesquik Chocolate Milk 30 20
Kemps Fat Free Chocolate Milk 30 20

The whole list is here: http://www.healthobservatory.org/library.cfm?refID=105026

Looking for a coffee in a strange city that isn't Starbucks?

I had to share a new tool that will let you look up non-chain coffee shops, bookstores and theaters. It's called Delocator.

Useless Info for the Day - Fear of Long Words

Really. The word that describes the fear of long words is: Hippopotomonstrosequippedalio.

Look it up.

Dr. Stephen Badylak - Regenerative Tissues

Dr. Stephen Badylak is an expert on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, with over 40 U.S. patents and 200 patents worldwide.



This was by far one of the most exciting presentations at PopTech.

Dr. Badylak has studied how or body can regenerate its own tissue by rallying the stem cells we have in our own body. He discovered an extracellular matrix that is loaded with information and acts like a scaffolding.

(picture of extracellular matrix)

When you apply this material to a wound, the stem cells in our bone marrow rush to the area and start rebuilding tissue. His tests have re-grown cut off fingers, wounds in bladders, closed a softball size hole in a horse's nose...This stuff regenerates skin, hair, tissue, even muscle. He's using it to help generate tissue by Iraq veterans who have lost limbs, muscles, etc.

You can find out more about his research via an Esquire article,

Jay Parkinson - Social Network to Connect you to your Doctor

Jay Parkinson has created HelloHealth which lets you make appointments online, email your doctor, and use 21st century tools to manage your health. I think it's a great model.


The phrase that stuck with me after his presentation at Pop!Tech?

16.9% of the US GDP runs on handwritten notes.

Gary Slutkin - Violence as an Infectious Disease

This presentation at Pop!Tech was fascinating. Gary Slutkin has a background in infectious diseases and discovered that the spread of violence behaves a lot like the spread of disease. He has applied the formula for containing the spread of infectious diseases to violence reduction in Chicago with great success.

The formula to control infectious diseases looks like this:

1. Interrupt transmission
2. Change the behavior that is driving the transmission (this is based on the social network)

You change behavior by sending out the same message through various channels with credible messengers. You can learn more about the CeaseFire program to end violence in Chicago here.

Visualizing your Friend Connections on Facebook

I discovered a neat way to view your friend connections on Facebook via a new (to me) application. You can see my graph here.