Yummy Wakame

Great article in lifehacker:

Super runner Dean Karnazes – who recently ran 50 marathons in 50 days – gives Wired magazine a list of strategies he’s used to train and push himself on his long distance running feats, like his eating habits:

You wouldn’t believe the stuff Karnazes consumes on a run. He carries a cell phone and regularly orders an extra-large Hawaiian pizza. [...] He’ll chase the pizza with cheesecake, cinnamon buns, chocolate éclairs, and all-natural cookies. [...] When he’s not in the midst of some record-breaking exploit, Karnazes maintains a monkish diet, eating grilled salmon five nights a week. He strictly avoids processed sugars and fried foods – no cookies or doughnuts. He even tries to steer clear of too much fruit because it contains a lot of sugar. [This approach] makes him look forward to running a race, because he can eat whatever he wants.

arnazes also only sleeps about 4 hours a night and uses Krazy Glue on his blisters. This one’s a fascinating look into the mind and methods of a crazy person committed to pushing the limits of human capability.
~ Gina Trapani

Wired: The Perfect Human

One of my all time favourite UK TV shorts is now available online, and each Friday I will bring you a new episode. Check back each week for a new one!

Let today’s lesson begin:

Thanks for the tip pp!

A really special thing is happening over at ClickNathan – he is releasing his book online for the world to read, one chapter a week. Every Monday, devout fans and followers like myself have stopped by to find out what happens next in Annie’s life. It’s not easy waiting 7 days for the next chapter, so as a special Yule treat to you my loyal readers, here are the first 5 chapters in this original series premier:

A Maple Tree, Chapter 1
A Maple Tree, Chapter 2
A Maple Tree, Chapter 3
A Maple Tree, Chapter 4
A Maple Tree, Chapter 5

Watch out for the next episode this Monday!

I’m pretty excited about this:

New York-based Freedom-2 LLC says their ink “will create an expanded market for body art — since consumers can be now assured that the tattoo will come off easily and without exorbitant cost.”

“I think it will open a floodgate for people who want tattoos,” says Dr. Bruce Saal, a Los Gatos, Calif., dermatologist who specializes in laser tattoo removal and has invested in the company. “People will say, ‘I want to do something a little wild. Now that I know it’s not a lifelong commitment, I’ll do it.’ ”

How does it work? This revolutionary ink — only available in black for now — is encapsulated in microscopic polymethylmethacrylate beads (the same synthetic material used to make surgical glue) that fall apart when exposed to laser energy, after which the body’s natural ability to expel foreign particles kicks in and does the rest.

How much will it cost? Freedom-2’s CEO predicts the ink should only add about $50 to the cost of an average tattoo.

I hope everyone is having as wonderful a day as I’ve had. And to my familie in England and South Africa, I miss you so much!!
XXXXXXXXX

Christmas Gift Tags:
Print your own funky little gift tags

Print your own wrapping paper:
Red Tree pattern
Red stripes
Design 1, Design 2

Make your own wrapping paper:
From stuff around your house

Gift Boxes & Decorations:
Turn catalogues into gift wrap
Origami gift box 1
Origami gift box 2
Origami Santa
Origami star decoration 1
Origami star decoration 2
Christmas star
Paper garland
Printable Christmas goodie bags

Tristan, Nathan and I pass a statue of Ronald McDonald relaxing on a park bench beckoning creepily at all passing children.

T: *pfoot!*

N: Did you just spit at Ronald McDonald?

T: Yep.

N: Good job. Fight the system.

“Single male knitter seeking like-minded female (knitter and/or spinner, crocheters… well, we’ll see) situated in Western Canda.

Apply within.”

What a great little blog. Thanks Faye!

BBC News footage
“The man, who had been waiting for his fare in the reception of Television Centre, found himself being ushered into a studio and fitted with a microphone after raising his hand when a producer called out the name Guy Kewney.”

The Wall Street Journal:
The growing use of email gadgets is spawning a generation of resentful children. A look at furtive thumb-typers, the signs of compulsive use and how kids are fighting back.

Amazing!

Episode 1 – Killeroo

Happy Friday!

(Thanks Pieter)

In a startling turnaround, breast cancer rates in the United States dropped dramatically in 2003, and experts believe it is because many women stopped taking hormone pills.

Watch the report

Mango Falls links to me!

Awwe… you guys! *nudge*

*wink*

Lois: You’re drunk again.
Peter: No, I’m just exhausted ’cause I’ve been up all night drinking.

Youtube video
“Could’s be a crackhead that got hooked to the wrong stuff! And it told him to get up in a tree and play a leprechaun.”

Found on What I Did for a Klondike Bar, where I also found this:

Gorgeous haute couture scarves at Supermaggie!

Found at Pretty/Modest – a newly discovered blog that features talented craftsters and their crafts.

Walt Disney – The Story of Menstruation

Time’s up everybody. You just can’t exist another day without seeing this short video followed by these hilarious VGA ads.

Shawn is today’s hero for sending the links!

Extreme Hotel Cape Town

Cape Town magazine: “The 130-room hotel in Cape Town’s city centre boasts stunning views of Table Mountain and features a five-storey climbing wall on the exterior of the hotel.

The hotel’s swimming pool has been designed to look like an aquarium: The swimming pool is adjacent to the 30mm thick glass windows of the hotel’s restaurant, giving diners an underwater view of swimmers.

The men’s urinals appear to be suspended on scaffolding at the edge of the building while the inside of the hotel’s elevator simulates being inside a shark cage (thanks to life-size floor-to-ceiling photography).

Rooms will cost a standard R615 (£45) a night and include free broadband internet access.”

Take part in wholesome spouse-related excercise:
How to become a master in Wife Carrying

There have been a couple of posts on the Google Blog regarding health care over the past two weeks, where they mention some “problems that we believe need our attention” and “other challenges in health care that we plan to work on.”

Which has me wondering if their use of our and we are references to Google themselves, or just a greater inclusion of all of the world’s people as a pronoun.

If the G-men were to initiate a health care plan, that would be huge, and I dare wonder if an organization with the trillions of dollars of influence (and actual cash) would be able to make social changes like this – and how would those fat cats up on Capital Hill put that in their pipes and smoke it?

With news that istockphoto’s prices are going up in 2007 you may be shopping around. Here are all my main resources:

• istockphoto.com
  1,278,601 images. Images ranging in size from XS 350kb to XL 46MB.
• dreamstime
  820,000 images. High res images for $1 with prices as low as $0.38 each.
• Stockvault.net
  4,000 FREE royalty free high res stock photos. All the free images & photos are at least 1600×1200 pixels in size. If you’re looking for SUPER high resolution textures you can buy images in packs of 25, as low as 20c per image.
• Morguefile.com
  Unknown archive size. A place to keep post production materials for use of reference, an inactive job file. This morgue file contains FREE high resolution digital stock photography for either corporate or public use.

Enjoy!

As far as photo hosting goes, everyone’s heard of Yahoo/Flickr, Google, Photobucket, MSN and MySpace, but have you heard of these smaller niche sites yet?

Geograph (UK)

People submit photographs and text for every square kilometre of Great Britain and Ireland. So far an impressive 58% of all the grid squares (each 1km2) in Great Britain have been filled with photos and 7% in Ireland. It’s easy to use – if you have a postcode a search box will translate it into a grid reference. The result is a growing photographic record of the British Isles and a good instance of one of the ongoing delights of the web: returning to places that don’t get much publicity when they are launched but just go on getting better. If the exercise could be repeated every five years we would have an enduring record of the changing face of Britain.

Woophy (WOrld Of PHotographY)

Similar, but on a worldwide scale, encouraging amateurs anywhere to upload high-quality images to fulfill its modest ambition “to ultimately cover every inch of our world map with images that represent the world’s beauty”. Woophy presents you with a map of the world studded with photos from enthusiasts everywhere.

Zooomr.com

A fascinating American startup with big ambitions, now run by the photographer Thomas Hawk. It has fewer than 100,000 photos so far but does have interesting features including an easy way to fix an exact location (geotag) to your pictures, an option to view others nearby, plus the ability to see pictures through light boxes, not to mention trackbacks so you can find out why a photo of yours gets a lot of views. You upload an image and click on a button to the right marked “Geotag it now”. You then zoom in from a map of the world to the exact place you want to locate your photo.

From the Guardian article:
Snapshot of the true content generators via Pieter.