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.

Here's the video:

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.

Finally! Google Maps Helps me Find a Restroom

Women everywhere will appreciate this. We are always aware in our travels of where the free and clean restrooms are, but now you can find them using Google Maps.
SitOrSquat.com

The wonderfully named SitOrSquat.com is a website and mobile application that has mapped over 25,000 public restrooms. In their own words SitOrSquat "is dedicated to telling you where the closest public restroom is and whether or not that restroom is worthy of your bare bottom."

Users can rate the restrooms, view photos, read reviews...you can even create a list of your favorite toilets. Even though this is a US based application, I would flag the restroom that I visited in Eutopia in the Northland and Kawa Kawa's art deco toilets.

It also has a iPhone application. Turns out New York has been documenting restrooms for a bit longer. Here's their map: NYRestroom.com.

Hookup Maps - A Mashup of Craigslist Personals and Google Maps

So it turns out there is a mashup application out there to let you know who is single in your neighborhood. Beyond the obvious (that as a single woman I don't want random men to know where I live before vetting them) it might actually be helpful. I'm thinking of my own neighborhood where there are TONS of townhouses and apartment complexes in a small area. I walk by them on the way to the metro, and think, "I bet the love of my life lives in one of these apartments...how would I ever meet him"?

HookupMaps is a mix of Craigslist personal ads and Google Maps - showing you where the people wanting to "hook up" in your city are. I wonder if it pulls from the sexually scarey "random encounters" section, "the LTR section" or some other section. It will not only tell you how many single people there are in your neighborhood, but it will also tell you the age and gender of each poster.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The site also lets you filter your searches based on a few criteria: m4m, m4w, w4w, w4m, and whether the post contains a picture. You can search by city, neighborhood, or, by keyword. Here in DC maybe that means you can search for "liberal" or "democrat" or "lawyer" if that's your preference.

There's a different twist on staving off movie watching loneliness that I discovered while at Pop!Tech. It's a blog called "White Hat Stories", where a poster announces that they will be wearing a white hat and watching a movie at X movie theater in case anyone wants to join them for company.

It's interesting to see how people are using technology to encourage face-to-face interactions - like joining groups on Facebook or Meetup.com

Technology use is Stimulating Evolutionary Change

And everyone laughed when Ray Kurzweil talked about the ultimate merging of human brains and machines.

Here's a fascinating article looking at how we strengthen certain neural passageways due to our technology use - making use better at decision-making, data filtering, and complex reasoning, but also limiting our ability to read body language.

The whole article is here.

Potential for Terrorist Use of Twitter

Fascinating. US Army has posted a report claiming that certain mobile and web technologies (like Twitter) could be used to enable terrorism. The report references how activists used Twitter to organize protests at the Republican National Convention. More here.

Clay Shirky - Design for Generosity

I've followed Clay Shirky for awhile now (he's the author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations), and it was great to hear him speak at PopTech.

He admitted that he hasn't found the magic formula for explaining the growth & activity in social media sites to "old school" organizations. I find myself in that role again and again, and while I'm getting better at changing mindsets, I haven't found the magic formula either.

His top level elements of a social community design that will encourage charity?
1. Designing for intrinsic motivation (letting members be recognized for things they are good at doing, make them feel like they are doing the right thing, ensure that their efforts are appreciated).
2. Make sure members have autonomy
3. Make sure to strike a balance between a community that is too open or too closed/regulated - neither extremes will be successful.

I think they are great qualities to keep in mind when trying to encourage use of a new social network. Now I just need to quantify the tactics required for educating an old school organization on why and how to get involved in social media. If I figure out how to educate them so that they "get" it on a gut level, I'll let you know.

Marian Bantjes - Beautiful Designs

Her designs are beautiful, and one line from her presentation really stuck with me: "When we spend time on something, we sacrifice ourselves to do it."

Yummy Chocolate -TCHO

I have a confession to make. I've become a chocoholic, and have really been enjoying Trader Joe's single source chocolate ice cream. I've discovered similar high quality chocolate in bar form at PopTech -- www.tcho.com. So yummy!

Translate your video into another language

Free tool to translate your videos into another language: dotsub.com.

Global Volunteer Service before College

PopTechers were introduced to Global Citizen Year - a nonprofit that is creating a movement to get young people to do a year of global service during the year between high school and college. It will be interesting to see how they create an attitude change amongst high schoolers to fill their ranks of volunteer slots... I also wonder how this will be more successful than the Peace Corps? Are we seeing duplication of efforts?

The Extinction of Languages

David Harrison is a ethnolinguist who is working with the Living Languages Institute and National Geographic to record dying languages around the world. They've created a great site where you can see the last living survivors of various languages (with English translations) at languagehotspots.org.

PopTech Day 1- Scents, Passion, Energy, Expression and Addiction

As usual the first day of Pop!Tech was amazing. The speakers that spoke to me were:

Saul Griffith


He has calculated his entire energy usage for his lifetime - including the energy used to create the things he purchases like bottled water, his laptop, and the NY Times that gets delivered to his front door every morning. You can calculate your energy usage too at Wattzon.com. He provided a summary about our global energy usage and how it will impact our environment.

His analysis shows that we need to product more energy fast over the next 25 years (akin to one solar panel a second...and he outlines how fast we need to produce other types of energy production). We also need to reduce our energy usage so that those in the developing world who currently don't have access to electricity.

So his plan to reduce his energy footprint? Massive reduction in travel (Pop!Tech had to work hard to get him to fly to Maine to speak), eliminating his bottle of water per day, becoming a vegetarian, etc. It certainly made me think about reducing my purchases of bottled drinks.

He also advocated for companies to develop products to last longer. I couldn't agree more. Considering I grew up in Maine with a family that made things last, bought things second hand, etc. I can't agree more that we should move away from our disposable culture, learn how to mend clothing, and focus on reducing our "stuff" and keeping our "stuff" longer.

Malcom Gladwell

Malcom is always interesting to listen to. In his presentation, he's taken on the idea that some talents are genetically determined (like the myth that Kenyans are better at running) and has instead looked at the data and discovered that it has everything to do with how young people's talent is nurtured. For instance, boys in Kenyan run 5 to 10 miles per day. Compare that to how inactive American boys are, and you can see why our athletes might not be as good at long distant running. So there isn't a scarcity in talent, we just are not preparing our youth effectively to capitalize on their talents.

Peter Wybrow

Peter has written a book about what happens to people when we live in a society of abundance and explored the addictive cycle of living with abundance from a physiological perspective. He highlighted the elements that drive humans engagement in our economy: self interest, curiosity, a competition for resources, and social ambition. I can't help but wonder how we balance our innate curiosity-- exploring new ideas and things-- with our need to keep products for 10 years to sustain our ecological health.

Our 24/7, always-on economy surrounds us with stress and a sense of urgency, and creates an environment of low face-to-face people interaction, and it fuels our addiction. It turns otu Starbucks is a part of the vicious cycle. On one slide Peter mentions that Starbucks coffee has 8 times the caffeine in an average cup of coffee. Isn't that crazy? I had always wondered why their coffee made me more jittery.

I was very aware of the negative impacts of this type of life style. Last year's Poptech speaker who talked about the slow movement really helped me re-focus on trying to get more sleep, and increase the amount of face-to-face interaction I had with other people. Studies show that sleep deprivation makes you gain weight because it decreases your ability to control your cravings for high caloric foods. So while Peter didn't provide a 12 step program for breaking the cycle of addiction like I would have hoped, I was re-energized to sleep more, keep up the exercise, increase my face-to-face time with people, and attempt to make my life more simple and less consumer driven. Less stuff, more quality experiences. My family's commitment to having experiences together around Christmas instead of buying each other stuff has always felt "right" but now makes even more sense to me.

One of the themes emerging from Pop!Tech this year, and re-iterated during Peter's presentation was a historical look at the impact that scarcity has on human behavior. In Peter's presentation he looked at the Renaissance - a period of great poverty but also a period of great creativity and innovation. Considering our current economic climate, and considering I'm an optimist, I think I'm going to focus on how scarcity will bring unknown great art and technological innovation.

It's Almost Time for Pop!Tech

Oh...I can't wait, and Pop!Tech has posted an intro video about Pop!Tech to get me excited about this year's conference. I can't wait to get re-inspired and get my passion for social change and the potential for technology re-charged.

@ Yahoo! Video

Selling Lotion through Mapping Social Networks

I found a fascinating article about how Vaseline created a film documentary through mapping the social network of a small town in Kodiak, Alaska, and then analyzed the social network to determine who was the "sneezer" (a reference there to the Ideavirus book)...or the one in the community who was recommending the lotion the most to other town residents.

Once they found Petal Ruch (a voice coach and 40-year-old mother of four) or the "hub" of referrals, they documented their life and how the lotion is a part of their life and launched the documentary about lotion use on the web.

I think it's a fascinating study of a company analyzing social dynamics and one to one referrals to create a marketing campaign that seems real - using video to amplify the message coming from that one sneezer. And as an added bonus, it's unique enough to pick up traditional media coverage in the New York Times....

Rap Video about CERN's Large Hadron Collider!

CERN Rap from Will Barras on Vimeo.

A moment of dorkyness folks. Or, if you've been curious about what the Hadron Collider does, you should watch the video.


Also you can donate your computer's time to help them crunch the data: lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/

Latest Scientology News - Going to Court in France

I have a fascination with Scientology - a cult created by L. Ron Hubbard a science fiction writer. It turns out France rightly believes that they are a cult and are letting a woman take them to court over charges that the sect swindled her out of $28,000 for vitamins and classes.

Good for her! It would be great to see Scientology finally convicted of a crime...they've committed so many. More about the story here.

Facebook Groups, Wall Post and Discussions Now Indexed by Google

Just an FYI to all of you on Facebook - many of the areas which you think is only available to your friends who are logged into Facebook are now being indexed by search engines and are going to be available via Google.

I think this is going to cause a challenge to college age kids who are trying to get hired - their comment about getting smashed at a part posted to a discussion board within Facebook is now going to be available when you search on their name...

More information about Facebook's opening up to Google here.

Easy Way to make Cheap Multi-Touch Pad for your Computer

My brother sent this to me and I had to share. Crazy that you can make something so cool out of cheap materials...

Soy Allergies Higher in Genetically Modified Foods

I recently discovered more evidence to support my theory that the reason I didn't have an allergic reaction to soy products in New Zealand was due to the fact that they don't import or grow GM foods.

Here's the article about GM soy and an increase in allergic reactions

Who knew that GM soy had high levels of Roundup in it? No wonder my body hates it.

Starbucks Closings on Google Maps

Normally, I wouldn't necessarily care if Starbucks closes stores -there are SO many of them! But it's one of the places that I can find soy free food to eat, and unfortunately by looking at this Google Maps mashup of the Starbucks closures, I can tell that the one next to my office is going to close. :-(

Google Maps Now with Walking Directions

Finally! You can get walking directions in Google Maps. Here's an example of Google walking directions - notice that in a car I could go that way because of the one way street.

My new favorite blog: Neuromarketing

I only had to scan the first article to know it was love at first site. The science and psychology behind marketing has always fascinated me. Take a look.

Amazing Savant Had Photographic Memory

This is absolutely amazing. Photographic memory and amazing artistic ability.

Great Tampon Commercial

Random, I know, but it made me laugh:

Xylitol Poisonous to Dogs

I'm about to become a dog owner, so I'm learning about things poisonous to dogs. I can't help but wonder why we ingest something that can kill a dog, but anyway...

Here's the email that I received from one of my mother's friends:

WARNING!
To all dog owners pass this on to everyone you can.

Last Friday evening, I arrived home from work, fed Chloe, our 24# Dachshund,
just as I normally do. Ten minutes later I walked into the den just in time
to see her head inside the pocket of Katie's friend's purse. She had a
guilty look on her face so I looked closer and saw a small package of
sugar-free gum. It contained xylitol. I remembered that I had recently read
that sugar-free gum can be deadly for dogs so I jumped on line and looked to
see if xylitol was the ingredient. I found the first website below and it
was the one. Next, I called our vet. She said to bring her in immediately.

Unfortunately, it was still rush hour and it took me almost 1/2 hour to get
there. Meanwhile, since this was her first case, our vet found another
website to figure out the treatment. She took Chloe and said they would
induce her to vomit, give her a charcoal drink to absorb the toxin (even
though they don't think it works) then they would start an iv with dextrose.
The xylitol causes dogs to secrete insulin so their blood sugar drops very quickly.

The second thing that happens is liver failure. If that happens,even with aggressive treatment, it can be difficult to save them. She told us she would call us.

Almost two hours later, the vet called and said that contents of her stomach
contained 2-3 gum wrappers and that her blood sugar had dropped from 90 to
59 in 30 minutes. She wanted us to take Chloe to another hospital that has a
critical care unit operating around the clock. We picked her up and took her
there. They had us call the ASPCA poison control for a case number and for a
donation, their doctors would direct Chloe's doctor on treatment. They would
continue the iv, monitor her blood every other hour and then in 2 days test
her liver function. She ended up with a central line in her jugular vein
since the one in her leg collapsed, just as our regular vet had feared.

Chloe spent almost the entire weekend in the critical care hospital. After
her blood sugar was stabilized, she came home yesterday. They ran all the
tests again before they released her and so far, no sign of liver damage.
Had I not seen her head in the purse, she probably would have died and we
wouldn't even had known why.

Three vets told me this weekend, that they were amazed that I even knew
about it since they are first learning about it too. Please tell
everyone you know about xylitol and dogs. It may save another life.

Sewage Treatment Plan to be Name for Bush

This is why I would enjoy living in San Fran. The Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco want to rename the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the George W. Bush Sewage Plant come January, when the next president is sworn in. The full article is here: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/24/9861/

Disturbing Findings from Keyword Research

SO I'm conducting keyword research for a client that is focused on bringing attention to warrantless spying via the Patriot act, and I discover the following:

Keyword Phrase	Searches in the Last 100 Days	Predicted Searches in the next 24 hours
spying in the bathroom	43	62
spying on girl	35	50
spying on girls	742	1,070
spying on girls in the shower	11	15
spying on hot sister	135	194
spying on my mom in the shower	13	18
spying on naked women	12	17
spying on sister changing	319	460
spying on sister naked	11	15

Ah. insight into a boy's mind.....

5th Element Personalized Video Ad Coming to a Billboard near you

Another example of science fiction meets fact. An Israeli company has developed a billboard equipped with a camera that can recognize the age and gender of the person standing in front of it and then deliver a custom message based on the person. The full article is here.

Creepy. I can just envision a future billboard saying, "Katherine, how long is it since you've cut your hair? The Hair Cuttery around the corner has special this month."

Crazy Rasberry Ants - They're Like Tiny Aliens Taking over Texas

These little suckers are as big as fleas, like electrical equipment for some reason (and because of that have destroyed computers and smoke detectors, etc). They are resistant to over the counter pesticide AND use their dead comrads to travel over pesticides by stacking up their bodies like a bridge.

Rumor has it that they came over on a cargo ship in 2002, and they eat fire ants, but I think their behavior is WAY too intelligent for just a lowly ant...and why are they attacking our electrical equipment?

Do You Know the Difference Between McCain and Bush?

Just got this off Moveon.org's list, it's totally fun to play, and I did very badly (but I wasn't planning on voting Republican so I think it's OK). Send it to as many Republicans as you know.




http://Bush-McCainChallenge.com/?rc=challenge-friends&r_id=

Wearable Computers Get Much Needed Infrastructure

Many of you know that I'm a wearable computer geek, and one of the findings from my graduate thesis was that wearable computers will not be adopted by consumers until there is ubiquitous wireless internet. Well folks, that might be just around the corner. An article in the Washington Post Express mentions that Sprint Nextel Corp has successfully garnered the funding to build a Wimax network that will provide free wireless access regardless of the hardware you have in your hand. If you're device is wireless enabled, you'll be able to pick up a signal.

If you combine this with Google's announcement of it's integration of Google Street view and it's maps that means that in the not-so-distant future the following scenario is possible:

[scene]
A man on travel in San Diego, CA walks down the street with sunglasses on, and from his perspective, he's seeing images of the buildings that he's walking past streetview in route to the new restaurant that his friend recommended (directions provided by Google). He stops when the photo displayed by his glasses matches the building in front of him, and his handheld vibrates displaying a coupon for 10% off his meal.
[end scene]

It was a scenario that my focus group dreamed up and GPS based mobile advertising is a reality, you can get microoptical video sunglasses to go with your iPhone, and once Wimaz is rolled out, we'll be able to experience what seemed like science fiction only 5 years ago.

Google Directions now includes Street View

I'm so excited that they've integrated the two! Now when you're in a new city, you can "see" what the intersections look like. Now once this is integrated into GPS I will be truly happy.

A type of Dancing You've Never Seen Before

Here's a video of a dancer that I met at Pop!Tech who needs crutches to walk and has developed a really cool inspirational dance form.

Church of Scientology Creates a YouTube Channel

As many of you know, I'm morbidly fascinated with the dangerous cult called The Church of Scientology. It was created by a science fiction writer who is quoted as saying "I think I'll create a church, there's a lot of money in that", and they believe that they need paramilitary training to defend the earth from aliens. They also have killed many of their own church members who have tried to leave the cult. There's a great article from an ex-Scientologist on Orato.

It's COMPLETELY a cult, not a religion, and frankly I think folks should work harder to dismantle the cult just like they are doing with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. For more fascinating reads about truth of the cult of Scientology, you should read Operation Clambake.

Anywho, I find it fascinating that the Church has set up a YouTube Channel youtube.com/ChurchofScientology - I'm not going to link to it directly, because I don't want to be associated. Check it out though - they've dismantled all of the community sharing features and commenting. I had no idea that you could do that. Because you know that I headed over there to leave a negative comment, and alas- no dice. They are using YouTube to push their message, and to squelch any dissent. Just like they do in the courts as well.

Did you know that the cult of scientology has murdered, but has not been charged with murder for any of their former members who have died? They have an amazing amount of $ (collected from their members) to pay for legal teams...

Google now provides public transit info

Not for the DC metro area, but I suppose we have Wmata for that. However, when I'm traveling and want to take public transit, the new Google Transit tool that is integrated into Google maps is really helpful.

Why I like Search Marketing

I just had a eureka moment about why I like search marketing. I was reading an article from last year's Marketing Pilgrim's scholarship contest.

Part of the post talked about how search engines are all about people and how they are trying to create search results for what people are looking for in order of preference.

It stands to reason, then, that someone who is an expert in how people think and what motivates them would be an ideal choice for creating a campaign to build search engine ranking.

Considering I focused on social psychology and how people become persuaded during my undergrad, and a tri-focus on marketing,technology and business for my graduate work, OF course I would be drawn to search marketing!

In order to develop online partnerships and link building relationships for instance, you need to investigate that site/person's personality and motivation, and that's the part of the equation where I get to use my social psychology background.

I had to share because it was such an eye opening moment for me.

Searching for "Suicide" Turns up "how to" advice

This was so awful that I wanted to share. I'm sure it's because the suicide help line type sites aren't optimized for search engines...

PARIS (AFP) — People searching the Internet for information about suicide methods are more likely to find sites encouraging suicide than those offering help or support, according to a study released Friday.

Researchers from the Universities of Bristol, Oxford and Manchester found that nearly half of websites showing up in queries of the four top search engines gave "how to" advice on taking one's own life.

Only 13 percent, by contrast, focused on suicide prevention or offered support, while another 12 percent actively discouraged suicide. More of the story here.

New Job, New focus

I wanted everyone to know that I have a new job. :-) I'm the Online Campaign Director at OMP Direct in DC. I'll be working with political and advocacy groups on their online campaign strategies. It's a perfect fit for my passion and my background.

My Father's Golden Raven Storytelling Circle Schedule

You can see who is schedule to appear this summer.

Yet another reason to keep dancing

Not that I needed yet another reason to keep dancing, but...

The Washington Post Express had an article about how to save your brain cells, and was encouraging people to choose hip hop or Kung Fu as their exercise of choice. It turns out there is a book "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain" by John Ratey where the author suggest that you either take dance or martial arts classes because you're required to position different parts of your body simultaneously and in a coordinated way along with listening to music - really working your brain.

I suppose this also means that I should keep trying different types of dance to keep the class mentally challenging, instead of taking jazz classes (which I've been taking for 24 years). So I think I'll take Brazilian Samba tonight...

Ending Women's Suffrage

This is sad. Makes me want to try to get to get signatures for some other random cause - just to see if folks always sign petitions without thinking about the cause.

More Proof that Dark Chocolate is Good For You

Ok, I have to admit that dark chocolate is one of my weaknesses, so when I see a study that promotes the benefits of consuming dark chocolate, I tend to ignore that the research was funded by the Chocolate Makers of America. :-)

Though this article in the UK Telegraph is interesting.

At the very least, it provides a reason for why after a long brain or emotionally stressing day I have a dinner of salmon, brocolli, bulgar and dark chocolate.

So for all of you who want to make me feel better when I'm feeling blue, you now know what to treat me to! Sushi, seaweed salad and chocolate ice cream for dessert also works! :-)

Scientology - A Dangerous Cult?

This amused me - Google "Dangerous Cult" and see what happens!

Another Dance Show!!! Best Dance Crew

OK. I'm officially addicted to another dance show - America's Best Dance Crew on MTV created by Randy Jackson.

I'm watching the audition show - the actual series starts Feb. 7th, and I'm thrilled to see one of the guys who auditioned (but didn't get into So You Think You Can Dance) is a part of the Boston crew Status Quo.

The guys from Indiana BreakSk8 who were doing hip hop on roller skates didn't get in. I need to find a video of them on the 'net somewhere - they were just AMAZING.

The Broadway hip hop crew Iconic was also amazing and hard to explain. "One singular sensation" with a hip hop undertone - just brilliant!

But by far one my favorites going into the competition is Fysh n Chicks. Here's to girls dancin' without showing off their bodies

The pop n' locking from this crew Kaba Modern was amazing - sharp, and all totally together.

Welcome to Australia - Answers from the Australian Tourism Website

This was an email chain I received, and I decided it was so funny that it deserved posting here.

The answers below are the actual responses by the Australian Tourism website officials, who obviously have a sense of humor.
_________________________________________________

Q: Does it ever get windy in Australia? I have never seen it rain on TV, how do the plants grow? (UK)

A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die.
_________________________________________________

Q: Will I be able to see kangaroos in the street? (USA)

A: Depends how much you've been drinking.
__________________________________________________

Q: I want to walk from Perth to Sydney - can I follow the railroad tracks? (Sweden)

A: Sure, it's only three thousand miles, take lots of water.
__________________________________________________

Q: Are there any ATMs (cash machines) in Australia? Can you send me a list of them in Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville and Hervey Bay? (UK)

A: What did your last slave die of?
__________________________________________________

Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing in Australia? (USA)

A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe.
Aus-tra-lia is that big island in the
middle of the Pacific which does not... oh forget it. Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Kings Cross. Come naked.
__________________________________________________

Q: Which direction is North in Australia? (USA)

A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we'll send the rest of the directions.
_________________________________________________

Q: Can I bring cutlery into Australia? (UK)

A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.
__________________________________________________

Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys' Choir schedule? (USA)

A: Aus-tri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is . oh forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Kings Cross, straight after the hippo races. Come naked.
__________________________________________________

Q: Can I wear high heels in Australia? (UK)

A: You are a British politician, right?
____________________________

Q: Are there supermarkets in Sydney and is milk available all year round? (Germany)

A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of vegan hunter/gatherers. Milk is illegal.
__________________________________________________

Q: Please send a list of all doctors in Australia who can dispense rattlesnake serum. (USA)

A: Rattlesnakes live in A-meri-ca which is where YOU come from. All Australian snakes are perfectly harmless, can be safely handled and make good pets.
__________________________________________________

Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Australia, but I forget its name. It's a kind of bear and lives in trees. (USA)

A: It's called a Drop Bear. They are so called because they drop out of Gum trees and eat the brains of anyone walking underneath them. You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.

__________________________________________________

Q: Can you tell me the regions in Tasmania where the female population is smaller than the male population? (Italy)

A: Yes, gay night clubs.

Google Search Tricks

You know you're a search engine geek when you share Google search tips with your friends, but I found some of these really useful. This is from a full article by LifeHacker.

1. Get the local time anywhere

_____________________________________________

2. Track flight status

_____________________________________________

3. Convert currency, metrics, bytes, and more
_____________________________________________

4. This one is a little complicated, but worth trying:

Find music and comic books

Using a combination of advanced search operators that specify music files available in an Apache directory listing, you can turn Google into your personal Napster. Go ahead, try this search for Nirvana tracks: -inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(wma|mp3) "Nirvana". (Sub out Nirvana for the band you're interested in; use this one in conjunction with number 7 to find new music, too.) The same type of search recipe can find comic books as well.
________________________________________________
5. Track your Shipment Directly through Google
You can also Google tracking numbers for UPS, FedEx, and USPS just by entering the number (e.g. 1Z14662R0340419XXX). This avoids going through the log in and hassle of the individual shipping company site.
__________________________________________________
6. Find Movie Times
Find your local movie time by typing in:
Movie Name + City,State

First Human Embryo Created from Skin Cell

Ok, I have to admit that I wasn't surprised by the new development that scientist have successfully created a human embryo from stems cells created from a skin cell. When I read about the November 2007 study where they had successfully developed stem cells from skin cells, I knew this would be the next step.

However, I'm still stunned that there has not been any legislative discussion on an international level about how to regulate this science. We've successfully created a way for one person to take their own skin cells, turn it into stem cells, create an embryo and potentially create a clone of themselves.

Even weirder, since I'm a woman...in theory, I could take my own skin cell, turn it into a stem cell, then create an embryo from it and implant it into me and birth my a clone of myself.

So creepy!!

Chinese Blogger Killed for Recording Waste Dumping Protest

Items like this just amaze me. This is from an article in CNN.

A Chinese blogger was beaten to death by government authorities last week for the crime of attempting to record a protest on his mobile phone.

The blogger, Wei Wenhua, happened on a confrontation in the central Chinese province of Hubei between city inspectors and villagers protesting over the dumping of waste near their homes. When Wei took out his cell phone to record the protest, more than 50 municipal inspectors turned on him, attacking him for five minutes and eventually killing him.

According to CNN, the killing has sparked outrage in China, "with thousands expressing outrage in Chinese Internet chat rooms, often the only outlet for public criticism of the government."

It's the combination of a lack of freedom of speech (which I would come to expect from China) AND the inability for citizens to work to have a clean environment (even just outside their homes) which seems like a recipe for environmental disaster.

How horrible does the environment in China need to be before the government changes, and how many people will they kill to keep the status quo?