guide category
Juicing the battery, also known as super charging
“Vampire power” has been bugging me ever since I first heard of it.
It’s the juice consumed by electronic gadgets even when they’re turned off (also called phantom loads, standby power or leaking electricity). They just sit there, plugged in, sucking electricity, at a cost to you and to the environment. According to the Energy Department, vampire gadgets account for about 25 percent of total residential electricity consumption in the U.S.
Now, these gadgets weren’t meant to be evil; they were designed to remain semi-on for good reasons. Lots of them, like TV sets and stereos, have to remain half-awake in case you pick up the remote control and press the On button. Printers, speakers, scanners and other computer gadgets keep one eye open just in case some signal is sent to them from the computer. Hundreds of gadgets remain in standby mode so that their clocks or other status gauges remain up to date.
Nonetheless, vampire power has gone off the rails. Cumulatively, these gadgets cost us, our country and our environment way too much for what they give us.
The eco-magazines cheerfully suggest that we go around our houses unplugging everything every night. That, obviously, is not a suggestion that the masses will be adopting anytime soon.
You can plug certain phantom gadgets into a power strip, of course, and just turn that on or off every night. But that, too, is not a habit most people will stick to for more than about a week.
But come on. If they can put a man on the moon, surely they can come up with an *automatic* solution to phantom power.
APC has taken a healthy step in the right direction with its Power-Saving SurgeArrest surge protector power strip. (…) The SurgeArrest goes for about $28 online. Considering you’ll save about $25 per year (the company’s estimate), it seems like a no-brainer for anyone who cares about money or the environment.
photo { The Vampires Night Orgy, 1973 }
Well, I ordered - ‘Yeah, let me get a fruit cocktail, I ain’t 2 hungry’
medford
Free Poison Oak starts
Date: 2008-03-08, 9:59PM PSTFree if you remove, must take all. Nice variety of vining, brushy and low-lying ground cover plants. These are drought resistant and turn beautiful colors in the fall.
Have pesky neighbors that cut through your yard? These plants leave unwanted guests with more than a warm-fuzzy feeling. Get these planted now before its too dry to replant.
Not responsible for death, injury or costly medical bills, remove at your own risk. Planting these in someone else’s yard is the equivalent of chemical warfare and violates the Geneva convention and violators should be prepared to face the ramifications..
illustration { Ken Keirns }
Pour the sticky corn mixture into the scorching hot skillet, and press down with a spatula to flatten and compact it
Learning how to turn a flashlight into a laser is not a top priority for most people. Yet Kip Kedersha’s step-by-step instructional video that teaches how to do just that has been seen online by more people (1.88 million) than live in Manhattan (about 1.6 million).
Mr. Kedersha’s online library of 94 videos includes tips on how to chill a Coke in two minutes, simulate a gunshot wound and start up a PC quickly.
Many of the clips have been played hundreds of thousands of times, turning Mr. Kedersha into the top earner on Metacafe, a video-sharing Web site that pays the makers of popular videos. In little more than a year, the site has written him checks totaling $102,000.That puts Mr. Kedersha, a 50-year-old video producer from St. Petersburg, Fla., near the front of the latest online stampede: the rush to capitalize on the popularity of how-to videos on the Web. (…)
Most clips tend to run a few minutes or less — but not all. In a series of videos running a total of more than five hours, an Australian veteran of the Vietnam War demonstrates in minute detail how to build a replica of a working Sherman tank at two-fifths its original scale.
related { How to build your own Sputnik }
Twinkle, twinkle little star, so I’ll know where you are
Looking for a cushy job with great pay and low responsibility? Be a bank CEO!
Here’s how it works:
* Take the job after an economic downturn, when your predecessor is forced out after presiding over the loss of billions in bad-debt and trading write-offs (don’t worry, your predecessor won’t starve in retirement).
* Immediately take huge additional write-offs and reserves and blame them on your predecessor. Clean up balance sheet so your performance bar is so low you could fall over it.
* Announce “new era” in which Your Bank will focus on conservative, fee- and spread-based businesses in which you grow steadily and prudently.
* Smile for the cameras. Have PR people place a Fortune cover story entitled “The Wizard Who Turned Around [Your Bank”]!
* Announce that, given the huge opportunities in the markets, Your Bank will take a bit more risk (prudent, of course) to improve return on equity.
* Encourage your traders to make huge bets.
* Sit in your chair for three years and collect at least $50 million a year during rest of bull market while those bets pay off.
* When market finally turns (sorry, it always does), briefly deny that the downturn will affect Your Bank.
* When it’s clear that your traders were just bull-market geniuses and have gambled away all the “profits” Your Bank booked in the previous three years, blame them and express disappointment. Then hang around to see whether market cares.
* If market demands resignation, resign, collect $500 million severance, and join private equity firm.
* If market yawns, re-up for another cycle and do it all over again!
{ Huffington Post }
This is my neighborhood, this is my street, this is my life
I had hemorrhoid surgery in 1973 and have had trouble pooping ever since. I didn’t know that the anus could be sewed up too small until I read the book “Alternatives To Surgery.” My anus won’t stretch any bigger then my middle finger and I am a woman with small hands.
About ten years ago I went to a butt doctor because I had developed numerous tiny bumps on my anus. The first thing he said was “VD WARTS.” I hadn’t had sex that way ever, and it had been nine years since I had sex at all, honest. When he said this I cried for days because I didn’t know how I could have got them. I was told you can get them from an infected toilet seat. I was so upset.
The doctor did the surgery to remove them and had them tested. He said they were skin tags — not harmful or contagious in any way. WHEW! But he wouldn’t fix my small anus so it would stretch to a normal size.
I have read that frequent constipation can cause cancer to develop. You aren’t suppose to take laxatives for a long time so I don’t take them at all. Fiber gives me gas, so I drink a sixteen ounce glass of grapefruit juice every morning and another one after my evening meal to prevent constipation. But sometimes when I am away, it is not possible to get grapefruit juice.
So I get constipated and it is so painful. Who do I call to get help for this problem if a butt doctor won’t help me?
related { Although most people think hemorrhoids are abnormal, they are present in everyone }
photo { William Eggleston }
Perhaps one of the answers to the over-busy-ness phenomenon
milwaukee craigslist > computer services
Personal Digital Shopper Available (Milwaukee)
Date: 2008-04-07, 3:24AM CDTAre you a busy professional that doesn’t have time to download all your favorite music, films and television shows? Do you have a newly purchased lap top or external hard drive just sitting there, mocking you with the plethora of entertainment that could be contained there within? Do you often times find yourself embarrassed around friends and co-workers when you are clueless about the latest big thing?
If any of these are the case, then my services are definitely meant for you. Using your computer and internet service, I will download whatever you tell me and suggest more than a few that I believe you would like. I will fill that space for you, I will find the films. I will get you back up to speed with pop culture for a fraction of the price of purchasing it new. You will come home, exhausted from work and you will find the whole world there, just waiting for you on that flickering screen.
I charge by the hour or by the gig and will only download from sites and services legal in the US. Also, I can help out with limited installation: hooking the computer up to the TV, sound systems, etc; anything that doesn’t involve drilling.
In this fast paced, modern world there is a lot to keep up with, I can help you.
The towel didn’t look like no god-damn maxi-pad
For every occupation, there is a catalog of secrets only its employees are aware of…
When you’re twisting balloons for children, never tell them what you’re making. The majority of the finished products—despite your best attempts—almost always look like a dog, a blastula, or something vaguely phallic. If you identify what you’re actually attempting to make, the children will respond to your finished product with, “That doesn’t look like a [insert animal name]…”
But if you make the animals and then ask, “What does it look like to you?” the child’s imagination will take over, turning the blue, four-legged balloon into Blue from Blue’s Clues, the blastula into a Pokemon, and the phallic object into an elephant. You’ll also get bonus points because you were so cool for making exactly what they wanted.
photo { Rikki Kasso }
Can’t you hear the thunder someone stole my watch
In the last year, a few dozen chefs have come here to the test kitchen of Rastelli Foods, a wholesaler based near Philadelphia, in search of tips about how to trim portions — preferably in ways that diners won’t notice.
Like many in this business, Rastelli has developed an impressive bag of tricks. (…)
“What you do is skewer the shrimp before you boil them,” Roehm says. “It straightens them out so that when you serve them, they look bigger. Now you can buy a smaller, less expensive shrimp.”
Pinched by soaring food costs on the one hand and a recession-fearing public on the other, the restaurant industry is getting crafty. Chefs are tinkering with recipes, swapping out expensive ingredients for cheaper ones. Managers are using behavioral science research to rejigger menus — putting high-profit items in the top right-hand corner, for instance, where diners tend to look first.
{ Washington Post | Continue reading }
Most restaurant chefs are dishing out portions that are two to four times bigger than the government’s recommended serving sizes.
They know these large amounts are supersizing their diners, but they believe customers expect big platefuls of food when eating out, according to a survey of 300 chefs presented here Saturday at the annual meeting of the Obesity Society.
A typical restaurant meal has at least 60% more calories than the average meal made at home, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm. And Americans purchased 209 meals a person from restaurants last year, both eating at restaurants and buying takeout, NPD says.
Portions served at restaurants have steadily increased since the 1970s in tandem with the rise in obesity rates
photo { Joel Barhamand }
