Bullsh*t / Meeting Ambigram Mug - $9.95
Hate meetings? Well, if you're like most of us, then you best be passive aggressive in displaying your hatred of boring meetings. Thanks to this fantastic rotational ambigram by Bastian Pinnenberg of unterart, you now can have the perfect coffee mug to attend all those important meetings in style: Link
More fun and unusual drinkware from the NeatoShop
What better game than Monopoly to teach the young uns about the wonderful world of capitalism? Well, you'd be surprised to learn that the board game was actually created to teach people the evils of capitalism!
The earliest recognizable version of what we know as Monopoly was patented by Lizzie Magie in 1904. The Landlord’s Game, as she called it, featured a board with the familiar circuit of increasingly pricey neighborhoods interspersed with railroads and utilities. At three of the corners were Go to Jail, Public Park (the ancestral version of Free Parking), and the Jail itself.
The fourth corner, however, wasn’t labeled “Go” but instead bore a drawing of the globe encircled by the lofty words “Labor Upon Mother Earth Produces Wages.” Translation: you got a hundred bucks. Nonetheless you realize: someone here has an agenda.
The story goes that Magie intended her game to be a teaching tool about the injustices of capitalism. She was a fan of the theories of political economist Henry George, who thought landlords were parasites and advocated a "single tax" on them to replace all other taxes.
DirectTV is pulling an Old Spice with a new series of ads featuring a creepy Russian billionaire who favors opulence and ... OMG! What is that? Petite Lap Giraffe! I so want one! What are we talking about again?
Entrepreneurial spirit? Got it in spades. Retail location ? Check. Burger so good it's called the Supa Dupa with Cheese? Yep.
What's left? How about a name that's either crazy or so crazy it's genius (especially since it got 'em a lot of free publicity). Here's the Fat Ho Burgers in Waco, Texas:
23-year-old Waco, Texas native Lakita Evans worked her way through college so that she could open her own restaurant. That's pretty much the American dream, so why are people in the community's feathers ruffled? Because she decided to call her restaurant "Fat Ho Burgers."
Urlesque has the video clip: Link
Designer Stanislav Katz told us that "rumor has it that the one who dares to gaze at it long enough would see a certain superhero symbol unravels." http://www.katzhq.com/en/products/accessories/24/ - via Nerd Approved and Cool Material
Chris Glass was getting ready to visit friends when he suddenly had anxiety about the gifts he was bringing, so he came up with a brilliant solution. Behold, the Gift Complaint Form:
You know how kids can be at a certain age. Sometimes they aren’t the most delicate with their emotions. All of a sudden, the spirit of the season is drowned out by screaming or complaint.
I’ve got an approach though, and I’m going to make this announcement before anyone opens gifts, “Okay everyone, this is how this is going to work. We’re going to each open up gifts one at a time and you’re going to love them. If you don’t, I’ve brought along these Gift Complaint Forms for you to fill out if you are unhappy with what you’ve received.”
Biology, Chemistry and Physics T-Shirt from the NeatoShop
Which branch of science is the deadliest? Alex "Sandy" Antunes of Science 2.0 compared the three most murderous fields of science: physics, chemistry, and biology.
Pulling out real world statistics, we look to the Center for Disease Control (CDh). In 2007 (their most recent complete survey), we find that the bulk of the 2,423,712 US deaths were due to three causes: heart disease, cancer, and stroke.
Damn, looks like Biology takes an early lead. Those 3 causes alone cover over half of all deaths (54.2%) In fact, of the 15 leading causes, 9 of them are simple biology, causing 68.2% of all deaths. Disease and infection rule the land of the dead.
Before Robin Williams got his breakout role as Mork from Ork, he starred in this wonderful ad for Illinois Bell. Take a look: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via Laughing Squid
This is fantastic: artist Polly M. Law illustrated 100 odd and obscure words with her unique bricolage style in The Word Project. My favorite is this one above, in which she magnificently illustrated the word "dinomania": (n) irresistible urge to dance. (Yes, the word also also means obsession with dinosaurs).
See more at Brain Pickings: Link
Warm weather, steaks as big as an elephant's ear and big hair. What's not to like about Texas? Apparently, that's what pre-historic men also must've thought as they settled in North America:
"At the Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas, we have found evidence of an early human occupation… 2,500 years older than Clovis," said Dr. Waters. "This makes the Friedkin site the oldest credible archaeological site in Texas and North America. The site is important to the debate about the timing of the colonization of the Americas and the origins of Clovis."
The newly discovered tools are small and made of chert, and the researchers suggest that they were designed for a mobile toolkit -- something that could be easily packed up and moved to a new location. These tools are recognizably different from Clovis tools although they do share some similarities, including the use of biface and bladelet technology.
Link (Photo: Michael R. Waters)
Why are states like California in dire budget crises nowadays? Sure, state expenditures have risen quite a bit, but according to Brad Williams, a former economic forecaster for the state of California, the root cause of all these budget woes is the states' reliance on taxing the rich.
Before you reach out for the metaphorical pitchfork, consider this:
Nearly half of California's income taxes before the recession came from the top 1% of earners: households that took in more than $490,000 a year. High earners, it turns out, have especially volatile incomes—their earnings fell by more than twice as much as the rest of the population's during the recession. When they crashed, they took California's finances down with them.
Mr. Williams, a former economic forecaster for the state, spent more than a decade warning state leaders about California's over-dependence on the rich. "We created a revenue cliff," he said. "We built a large part of our government on the state's most unstable income group."
New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Illinois—states that are the most heavily reliant on the taxes of the wealthy—are now among those with the biggest budget holes. A large population of rich residents was a blessing during the boom, showering states with billions in tax revenue. But it became a curse as their incomes collapsed with financial markets.
Arriving at a time of greatly increased public spending, this reversal highlights the dependence of the states on the outsize incomes of the wealthy. The result for state finances and budgets has been extreme volatility.
Robert Frank of the Wall Streeet Journal explains: Link
Sex, Tea and Rock 'N' Roll - $11.95 | More Tea Party Series
Now these are the kind of Tea Party that both liberals and conservatives can agree on :) These Tea Party teabags from the NeatoShop, designed by Thomas Kappes, bear images of famous people in music, film, and politics just hangin' out in your cup of tea: Link | More weird and wonderful drinks
Quick: who do you think are "on call" all day and all night? If you say emergency room physicians, you're only half right: nowadays, there are teenagers that stay up all night answering "emergency texts."
Brookline 10th-grader Ashley Olafsson sleeps with her cellphone under her pillow so she doesn’t miss “emergency’’ texts — “like if a friend broke up with her boyfriend.’’ Stephanie Kimball of Waltham, 14, is also available for urgent overnight correspondence, such as, “Hey, seeing if you’re awake.’’ Dedham ninth-grader Courtney Johnson gets as many as 100 texts while in bed. “I just don’t feel like myself if I don’t have my phone near me or I’m not on it,’’ she said.
Sure, all that middle-of-the-night communication leaves them tired, but as Olafsson explained, “It’s impolite not to respond if someone is coming to you with their problems.’’
With teenagers sending and receiving an average of 3,276 texts per month in the last quarter of 2010, according to the most recent statistics from the Nielsen Co., it’s no wonder that Michael Rich, director of Children’s Hospital Boston’s Center on Media and Child Health, is starting to see young patients who come in exhausted by being “on call’’ or semi-alert all night as they wait for their phones to vibrate or ring with a text.
He and his patients’ parents were initially baffled by the children’s increased sleepiness because bedtimes hadn’t changed, he said. “Who would think to ask a kid, ‘Do you sleep with your phone under your pillow?’ To us, it sounds like torture.’’
Yes, that's right: the average teenagers send and receive 3,276 texts per month! Link
Chris Illuminati (yes his real name, he said) used a lot of Post-It Notes around the office to remind himself of deadlines and meetings. After he decided to quit work and become a stay-at-home dad, it was only natural to use the sticky notes to remind himself what to do, and "more importantly, what not to do when raising a child."
Behold, Chris' new Tumblr blog, Message with a Bottle - via Metafilter.
