Did you eat your Cheerios this morning? You may have just inadvertently taken an unapproved drug. Or so says the FDA, who has just sent a warning letter to General Mills, the maker of the cereal:
In a warning letter sent to the chairman of General Mills (maker of the beloved breakfast classic) and posted on the agency's website, the FDA says:
"Based on claims made on your product's label, we have determined that your Cheerios Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal is promoted for conditions that cause it to be a drug because the product is intended for use in the prevention, mitigation, and treatment of disease."
The agency takes special issue with these claims:
* "you can Lower Your Cholesterol 4% in 6 weeks."
* "Did you know that in just 6 weeks Cheerios can reduce bad cholesterol by an average of 4 percent? Cheerios is ... clinically proven to lower cholesterol. A clinical study showed that eating two 1 1/2 cup servings daily of Cheerios cereal reduced bad cholesterol when eaten as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol."
There are young women and men standing by the busy streets of Jakarta, Indonesia, waiting for drivers to pick them up for $1. Prostitutes? Nay, they are car jockeys who help car owners beat the congested city's carpooling laws:
When this city of epic traffic jams started carpooling a while back, it inadvertently gave birth to an entirely new profession: jockey.
For less than a dollar, car owners hire one or two jockeys to gain access to stretches of the city’s “3 in 1,” high-occupancy lanes. The jockey is essentially an extra passenger who helps commuters circumvent carpooling rules, making the ride into central Jakarta slightly less slow.
Norimitsu Onishi of The New York Times' Jakarta Journal has the story: Link (Photo: Ed Wray for the New York Times)
Paleontologist Mary Schweitzer of North Carolina State University and colleagues apparently have never watched Jurassic Park. Why else would she extract dino "blood" from ancient bones?
A dinosaur bone buried for 80 million years has yielded a mix of proteins and microstructures resembling cells. The finding is important because it should resolve doubts about a previous report that also claimed to have extracted dino tissue from fossils.
... Schweitzer took a look at the pristine leg bone of a plant-eating hadrosaur that had been encased in sandstone for 80 million years. She and colleagues exhaustively tested the sample, sequencing the proteins they found with a new and better mass spectrometer and sending samples to two other labs for verification.
Now they report recovering not just collagen – which conveys little evolutionary information because it is the same in almost all animals – but also haemoglobin, elastin and laminin, as well as cell-like structures resembling blood and bone cells. The proteins should reveal more about dinosaur evolution because they vary much more between species.
Every time my good friend Joe and I were talking about great companies to work for, we invariably talk about Zappos and its counterintuitive strategies: the company famously offers $2,000 to employees who have just completed its training course ... to quit! Turns out they save money long-term on "weeding out" people that aren't enthusiastic in working for them.
So it was with great interest that I read Robert Scoble's visit to the company's headquarters and the lessons that this quirky online company offers:
Anyway, so what can Silicon Valley learn from Zappos?
1. You don’t need to be in San Francisco to build a great company. Zappos actually started in the same building as Craig’s List. They moved to Las Vegas because it was cheaper and because they saw they could build a better company. The other half of the company is a warehouse in Kentucky. That’s there because that’s where UPS is, so they can take your order in the evening and have it on your doorstep the next day.
2. Focus on culture and build something for long term. Tony’s first company, Link Exchange, was sold because it wasn’t fun anymore, he told me. That’s why he focused so much on culture when he got involved with Zappos. I see so many companies who focus on growth and get exactly what they want: an unfun fast growing company that falls apart later.
3. Get rid of assholes. Zappos has a filtering system before, during, and after hiring to make sure they get rid of people who “don’t fit the culture.” That is the nice way of saying they get rid of assholes and they get rid of them quickly. They even pay candidates $2,000 after they go through training if they can admit they don’t fit into the culture.
http://scobleizer.com/2009/04/23/learn-from-zappos/ | More about Zappos at World of Usability: Why Zappos Works
The funeral industry is usually recession proof. After all, as Arvin Starrett, spokesman for the National Funeral Directors Association, said "The honest-to-goodness truth of the matter is that everybody does die."
So it goes to show how bad the current economic situation has become: a cemetery on Highway 86 in Imperial, California, is in foreclosure!
Annika Mengisen of Freakonomics Blog has the answer to the question I'm sure you're all thinking of: will the ..., um, occupants be evicted? Link
Our friends over at Tokyoflash is running a nifty little contest: submit your idea for a famous landmark that "has a Tokyoflash way of reading time" (either image, description, news story, or combination).
Three winners will be chosen to win a watch of their choice from Tokyoflash. Hurry, contest ends May 26th, 2009: Link - Thanks Paul!
W00t! It's time for our collaboration with the What is it? Blog - can you guess what this object is for? Place your guess in the comment section. Please post no URL, let others play. No prize this week, so you're playing for bragging rights only.
Update 5/17/09 - The answer is: A Geyser Tube, used for the Coke and Mentos geyser experiment, to see it in action check out the video at the link. Congrats to Jared who got it right out of the gate!
Hello everybody - I'd like to take a minute and give you
an update on all things Neatorama.
Mystery Sale - Thank you to everyone who participated!
We've been working hard to improve the turnaround time. The first wave
of shipment has started - we will be sending out packages for the next
week or two. Unfortunately, I don't know whose packages will be shipped
when. We'll have another update soon!
Upcoming
Queue - We continue to be pleased with your submissions to the
Neatorama Upcoming Queue.
As a token of our appreciation, the top 5 submitters (well, 6 actually
since the last position is a three-way tie) of April 2009 will get free stuff from
the store (oh, let's pick one: the Ice
Invaders Ice Tray).
We will continue to reward top submitters of the UQ. As the feature is
still new, you stand a very good chance in being a top submitter (For
hints on how to get your posts promoted to the front page, please read
the UQ FAQ and Tips).
Round Up - We've never really done any weekly round
up summarizing the neatest and greatest posts on the blog, and I think
it's time that we start doing that. Since the beginning of May, we've
done 155 posts on Neatorama. That's a lot of posts to keep track, so here
are a few noteworthy ones in case you missed them:
Neatorama's
Facebook Fan Page - I don't know what you guys do at Facebook (I'm
a luddite that way), but thanks to Neatoramanaut Becky, we now have
a Facebook
Fan Page. Becky told me that right after the post, the page got
300 fans. It's at a little above 800 fans the last time I checked. Plus
all those nice comments on the "Wall." Maybe I should join
Facebook after all ...
Cutest: Sonya
Loves Her Nom Noms (though I did get emails chastising me about
allowing such a post on Neatorama as it legitimizes/will-only-serve-to-encourage
people to get slow lorises as pets)
Best UQ post: America's
First Face Transplant Patient Hopes Her Story Teaches People Not To
Judge, submitted by Geekazoid
Mea culpa: Cab
Driver Becomes Star For Good Deed - in this UQ frontpaged post,
we painted Argentina with a too-broad-of-a-brush. My apologies to our
neighbors to the South (See what you did, baiwabel
;) )
Neatest exclusive posts on Neatorama: 10
Things You Didn't Know About Emoticons :) | The
Hindenburg - What Happened? | Music
Tidbits: Perry Farrell
The following is reprinted from Uncle John's Unstoppable Bathroom Reader book. Psst! Do you need a sure-fire way to make money on bets that you absolutely, positively cannot lose? (Bar fights afterwards not guaranteed, mmkay?) Here are some sucker bets, courtesy of Uncle John of Bathroom Reader:
I'll Bet ... "I can make you say the word 'black.'"
Setup: Start asking your mark the colors of various objects in the room, making sure that none of them are black or blue. After three or four objects, ask "What are the colors of the American flag?"
Payoff: When they respond, "Red, white, and blue," you say, "I win, I told you I could make you say 'blue'!" Nine times out of ten they'll come back with, "You didn't say blue, you said black." Then you say, "Now I really do win!"
I'll Bet ... "I can make you say what I want you to."
Setup: When the other person agrees to the bet, tell them to say "mutifarious verbiage."
Payoff: When they say they won't or that they don't know what that means, you've won the bet. Why? To say multifarious verbiage means to say a variety of words ... which they've just done.
I'll Bet ... "I can roll the cue ball underneath the cue stick without holding it and without the ball touching the stick."
Setup: To demonstrate the difficulty, place the cue stick over the two long side rails of the pool table. Then have the sucker try to roll the cue ball underneath the stick, which they won't be able to do - the space between the stick and the tabletop is too small.
Payoff: But you can do it. Pick up the cue ball, put it on the floor under the table, and roll it underneath the table so it passes below the cue stick above. It will never touch the stick.
I'll Bet ... "You can't lift my hand off the top of my head"
Setup: Put your palm on the top of your head and instruct the person to try to remove it by pushing up on your forearm. It works best when a smaller person challenges a bigger, stronger person.
Payoff: They won't be able to. We're not sure why; it's one of those freaks of nature (not you, the trick).
I'll Bet ... "I can remove this quarter from underneath this napkin without touching the napkin or blowing on it."
Setup: Put a quarter under a napkin. After you've set up the trick, discreetly put another quarter into your hand. Then put that hand underneath the table, say some magical incantations, and after a moment, reveal that the quarter is magically in your hand!
Payoff: The person will most likely go straight for the napkin to prove you wrong. When they remove it, pick up the quarter and you've won the bet.
I'll Bet ... "You can't taste the difference between an apple and a raw potato if you close your eyes and plug your nose."
Setup: The best way to ensure success with this one is to make them try it three times. Just once is a 50/50 guess. Three times put the odds in your favor.
Payoff: It's not really a trick. According to experts, smell and sight are more important in tasting things than most people realize. Without those two senses, the taste buds don't have enough info to send to the brain.
I'll Bet ... "You can't eat eight saltines in 60 seconds."
Setup: Make sure that you stipulate the person isn't allowed to wash them down with anything - and that they have to eat them one by one.
Payoff: Because of the saltiness of the crackers, most people will get "cotton mouth" and not be able to eat more than five or six. Don't wager too much, though, because there is the occasional big mouth that can pull this one off. But at least you've gotten them to make a fool of themselves.
I'll Bet ... "I can jump higher than this house."
Setup: Just jump up in the air six inches or so.
Payoff: You've just jumped higher than any house ever could.
The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Unstoppable Bathroom Reader. Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!
John of The Zeray Gazette has a neat compilation of various video clips of Enter Sandman, the iconic song by Metallica, as covered by others and played in um, different genres.
Included are: Enter Sandman as performed by the bluegrass band Iron Horse, the cello quintet Apocalyptica (quite famous, actually), and even a version played with a Kazoo!
Ever wanted to be a superhero? What's stopping you? Here's a list of real life superheroes - people who don costumes and fight crime/do good as listed in the World Superhero Registry (yes, a website dedicated to finding these people).
Take, for instance, the Red Arrow, a 20-year-old guy in Hong Kong who tries to "bring happiness to people and become the salt and light of the world" by handing out toys to poor children.
... or Superbarrio Gómez, a Mexican "real-life superhero" who wears red tights and a Lucha Libre wrestler's mask to organize rallies and protests and file petitions against forced evictions in Mexico:
WebUrbanist blog has a really nifty round up of 15 artworks done through typography. This one above is by Bulgarian illustrator Stefan Chinof, who uses the negative space to spell out "Don't Panic."
"Reach for the moon" is easier said than done, so when you hear someone utter this oft-overused phrase, kindly point them out to this ladder by Hong Kong Designer Mike Mak. The "Moon Reach Ladder" inspired by , the Chinese character for moon.
Not content with allowing old men to marry underaged girls, a Saudi Arabia judge is doing one better in promoting equal treatment of womenkind in the Kingdom:
Husbands are allowed to slap their wives if they spend lavishly, a Saudi judge said recently during a seminar on domestic violence, Saudi media reported Sunday.
Arab News, a Saudi English-language daily newspaper based in Riyadh, reported that Judge Hamad Al-Razine said that "if a person gives SR 1,200 [$320] to his wife and she spends 900 riyals [$240] to purchase an abaya [the black cover that women in Saudi Arabia must wear] from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment."
Update 5/11/08 - Clarification: it's not the same judge that ruled that the marriage between a 58-year-old man and the 8-year-old girl was legitimate - Thanks seefish3!
