If you don't drink, you had better have a lot of friends.

via thisnext.com

A tightly controlled study has shown that persons abstaining from alcohol all together can lead shorter lives than those who consistently and moderately partake.One theory on why is that since alcohol is a social lubricant, people who drink have larger social networks to lean on

Gibbons have accents!?

Scientists have discovered something similar to regional dialects in the songs of the gibbons living in Asian rain forests. After analyzing more than 400 gibbons from 92 groups in 24 locations, it was found that each group's song is slightly different from the next and can be used to identify species and location! mnn.com

Wicked Awesome Ice Fort!

I think the bigger story is the life style these 6 men live. According to the article, not only do they engineer sweet ice forts, they foster "intentional community" as well.

It's a real life Babe! In England even!

OMG!

I love this old man!

A Russia Today interview with Jacque Fresco, creator of The Venus Project.

 

Cella Energy Gets It!

via lclark.edu

The UK-based company has developed a synthetic fuel that could bring the price of gas down to $1.50 per gallon. fark.com

Today, In Positivity 1/25/11

via wix.com

Your weekly dose of positive news via Happy News.com 

One couple's smart camera trick and a Paris cabby's determination pay off. eastoregonian.com

"We must be prepared to consider radically new views of reality."

Thanks to Lady V for posting this fascinating link to a 1982 experiment performed in order to determine the nature of reality. A University of Paris research team led my physicist Alain Aspect found that, "under certain circumstances subatomic particles such as electrons are able to instantaneously communicate with each other regardless of the distance separating them. It doesn't matter whether they are 10 feet or 10 billion miles apart."

You Have a Tank Wheel Chair!?!?

via techblog.com

This article is about a UK man who received a sick hot tank wheelchair from a friend (some friend!) for Christmas. It seems the authorities are making a bit of a stink because, apparently, it really is a tank! It's width and weight technically make it a tank according to the UK Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. I say have him cover the tread and give him a special permit already!

I'm spotting a pattern here...

Maybe I wore my Rhythm Nation tape out...

On the way home from dropping my BF off at work at 0-dark-30, I heard Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation" (1989) and Genesis' "Land of Confusion" (1986). Both songs are over 20 yrs old and yet the subject matter, social injustice and government corruption respectively, are still relevant today.

I never did like Spiderman...

Cracked.com hit's it out of the park again with 6 Famous Movies With Mind-Blowing Hidden Meanings. I'm truly freaked out by #6-Spiderman and kind of impressed with #4-Iron Man 2.

With cranberry juice and a shot of amaretto, tall.

via featurepics.com

My love affair with whiskey began when I moved to Denver and made friends with a bunch of art students. Whiskey benders are a right of passage on Capital Hill...or at least they were for me. I used to be a whiskey sour girl but now I favor Wild Turkey Honey with water or Crown, cranberry and amaretto. So this one's for my homies.

Harbin Ice and Snow Festival 2011

Beautiful ice castles made from ice carved from a frozen river. China wins at making me feel like my ice castle looks more like an ashtray...again.

One thing to look forward to when we become the United States of China ;).

Squirt bottle optional, but recommended.

Please, allow one Chinese mother to enlighten you on the soft ways of Western parents and, in turn, the vast superiority of the iron fisted traditional Chinese parenting. She has a few good points, like when she says "Western parents are concerned about their children's psyches. Chinese parents aren't. They assume strength, not fragility, and as a result they behave very differently.". I think that is a valid point in that children are more resilient, psychologically, then we "Westerners" give then credit for. Some very well adjusted people had really messed up childhoods. Though I don't know that I'll be disregarding my (theoretical) children's psyches (the children are theoretical, not their psyches). The list of things her children were never allowed to do will make you weep for them!

 

Perhaps the author is onto something when she writes, "What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you're good at it. To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work...". However, she then goes on to say the solution to under performance is, "always to excoriate, punish and shame the child." though, "When Chinese kids do excel, there is plenty of ego-inflating parental praise lavished in the privacy of the home.". After forcing myself to read the whole article I'm too disgusted to comment more...just ew. wsj.com

"Drinking is associated with a 10.1 percentage point increase in the probability of exercising vigorously..."

Finally, justification! consumerist.com

Interactive Census Coolness

Check out this interactive census map from The New York Times. NYTimes.com

Underwater sculpture park!?

Check out this National Geographic report on an underwater art installation designed to provide relief to the tourist-stressed natural reefs of the Caribbean.

Ahhhh so freakin cool!

A renaissance church in Naples, Italy has a secret coded concert for strings engraved on it's  stone front! 

“It will not change the price of bread, but it will help us understand the age of the universe..."

How nerd-cool is this little Canadian girl? I like that she is totally unimpressed with herself.