Photo: Philippe Halsman
Is it in a fridge somewhere? Actually, that's Alma Reville, Hitchcock's wife, who posed lovingly with a refrigerated prop head of the famed director. Via Dangerous Minds and Cakehead Loves Evil
See previously on Neatorama: 5 Things You Didn't Know About Alfred Hitchcock
The fly catchers were used in the sickroom. They were baited with sugar and water, which was placed in the ring near the base. Flies which entered between the feet of the trap were unable to find their way out again and drowned in the sugar solution.
It is made in two halves; the back is on a hard base with padding on top, the underside is on a more pliable base. The two are seamed together to just below the front legs and are lined with greenish-yellow silk with a gusset at each side to form a tiny purse with a drawstring fastening.
Illustration: Kenji Aoki / The New York Times; Prop Stylist: Nell Tivnan.
Source: UI.S.D.A. 2009 Estimates
How much do we love sugar? The amount may surprise you - the average American eat about 3,550 pounds of sugar and 313 gallons of high fructose corn syrup in a lifetime. And according to Dr. Robert Lustig, UCSF expert on pediatric hormone disorders and childhood obesity, it's killing us:
Lustig’s argument, however, is not about the consumption of empty calories — and biochemists have made the same case previously, though not so publicly. It is that sugar has unique characteristics, specifically in the way the human body metabolizes the fructose in it, that may make it singularly harmful, at least if consumed in sufficient quantities.
The phrase Lustig uses when he describes this concept is “isocaloric but not isometabolic.” This means we can eat 100 calories of glucose (from a potato or bread or other starch) or 100 calories of sugar (half glucose and half fructose), and they will be metabolized differently and have a different effect on the body. The calories are the same, but the metabolic consequences are quite different.
See also Lustig's fascinating lecture, Sugar: The Bitter Truth, about how bad the sweet stuff is for us:
Taco shell made from Dorito chips? What can be more awesome? According to reports by Slashfood and Food Beast, Taco Bell is experimenting with Nacho Cheese Doritos Taco Shell.
What do you think? Will you eat it? Link
Czech President Václav Klaus really, really liked a pen put in front of him during his official visit to Chile. Check out his smooooth moves in palming the pen. No one will notice ... : Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
This single-story steel structure with floor-to-ceiling glass walls was meant to open a minimalist interior to nature in an extreme way. Construction took place from 1945–1951 on a 60 acre estate beside the Fox River in Plano, Illinois, where it still stands today.
My Kid's Personal ATM - $9.95
This Mother's Day show Mom how much you care by buying her a T-shirt from the NeatoShop. We know she will love the My Kid's Personal ATM T-shirt. In fact, we think she will be so touched by your fabulous gift that she won't think twice when you hit her up for a little cash to cover the bill.
Be sure to check out all the fantastic Mother's Day gift ideas from the NeatoShop!
| More Funny T-ShirtsTerrarium (or technically, vivarium) is a neat glass enclosure for plants but for some, they're too ... boxy. Well, never fear! Here are some geometric terrariums for the boxophobics: Link
Someone wasn't using his braaaaaiiiinss here: a billboard advertising the zombie series Walking Dead was put right beside a funeral parlor in Consett, County Durham, England. The ad has since been removed, but the infamy will be undead forever on the Net.
Link (Photo: North News) - via The Mary Sue
It seems like every day we're reminded how American kids are falling behind in science and math (we're ranked 24 out of 34 countries that participated in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development).
China, the top-ranking country in math, relies on long hours in school (and after school) to teach their students - so it's natural to think that the key to improving US schools is to turn them into dens of Tiger Mothers.
But is there a better way? Turns out, Finland, who ranked second in the list has a very different - and some say better - approach. The key? Better teachers.
Finland's sweeping success is largely due to one big, not-so-secret weapon: its teachers. "It's the quality of the teaching that is driving Finland's results," says the OECD's Schleicher. "The U.S. has an industrial model where teachers are the means for conveying a prefabricated product. In Finland, the teachers are the standard."
That's one reason so many Finns want to become teachers, which provides a rich talent pool that Finland filters very selectively. In 2008, the latest year for which figures are available, 1,258 undergrads applied for training to become elementary-school teachers. Only 123, or 9.8%, were accepted into the five-year teaching program. That's typical. There's another thing: in Finland, every teacher is required to have a master's degree. (The Finns call this a master's in kasvatus, which is the same word they use for a mother bringing up her child.) Annual salaries range from about $40,000 to $60,000, and teachers work 190 days a year.
"It's very expensive to educate all of our teachers in five-year programs, but it helps make our teachers highly respected and appreciated," says Jari Lavonen, head of the department of teacher education at the University of Helsinki. Outsiders spot this quickly. "Their teachers are much better prepared to teach physics than we are, and then the Finns get out of the way. You don't buy a dog and bark for it," says Dan MacIsaac, a specialist in physics-teacher education at the State University of New York at Buffalo who visited Finland for two months. "In the U.S., they treat teachers like pizza delivery boys and then do efficiency studies on how well they deliver the pizza."
An apple a day keeps the doctor away, and now, science has proven the age-old saying to be true, at least for post-menopausal women:
In a study of 160 women who ate either dried apples or prunes daily for one year, the women who ate apples saw their low-density lipoprotein cholesterol – the “bad” kind known as LDL – drop by 23% after six months. At the same time, their “good” high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or HDL, rose about 4% over the course of the study.
Women in the dried apple group ate 2/3 cup of the fruit each day. Though the apple slices added 240 calories to their daily diet, these women wound up losing weight – 3.3 pounds, on average. These women also saw their levels of C-reactive protein (a measure of potentially dangerous inflammation) and lipid hydroperoxide (which can signal higher risk for cardiovascular problems) fall.
http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-apple-a-day-heart-health-20110412,0,1463575.story
The ad for J. Crew features a mother and child having a good time painting her child's toenails hot pink. That may sound like a plain ho-hum ad, but the ad sparked a huge controversy in the blogosphere - you see, the kid in the ad is a boy:
It began when a photo of J. Crew's president and creative director Jenna Lyons painting the toenails of her son Beckett in an ad was sent to customers last week in a feature, "Saturday with Jenna."
"Lucky for me I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink," says the caption. "Toenail painting is way more fun in neon."
Social conservatives reacted with outrage. Fox News' Dr. Keith Ablow ran an opinion piece on the issue and Erin Brown of the right-leaning Media Research Center called the ad "blatant propaganda celebrating transgendered children."
"Not only is Beckett likely to change his favorite color as early as tomorrow, Jenna's indulgence (or encouragement) could make life hard for the boy in the future," Brown wrote. J. Crew, known for its tasteful and modest clothing, apparently does not mind exploiting Beckett behind the facade of liberal, transgendered identity politics."
Reaction to the reaction was appalled at the notion that the child was being "turned" gay or transgender.
Now let me ask you this: is painting a boy's toenail (pink, red, whatever color) harmful? Do you think that will "turn" him gay?
