There are 16 states that help with back-to-school shopping by declaring "tax-free weekends," meaning no state sales tax on certain items during certain days. States running the program this weekend include Alabama, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Iowa, Louisiana, and Arkansas, although exact dates vary.
Before you get too excited though, I should make note of the fact that most states place a dollar limit on what is tax-exempt. For example, Alabama’s tax holiday offers a tax break on any articles of clothing $100 or less. This means that a pair of jeans costing $125 would be taxed but a jacket for $99 would be tax-free, so be aware of any specific rules your state may have during tax holidays.
To help out, BargainJack has assembled a handy chart detailing the dates and limitations for each state, with links to government information. Link
An inflated sculpture named "Is Land" was deployed at the Secret Garden Party music festival in Cambridgeshire, England. The £9,000 helium-filled sculpture is seven meters wide and looks like a chunk of land with grass and trees on top. The island drifted off after someone cut the ropes tethering the balloon on July 24th and is now nowhere to be found. Anyone who sees the island is asked to report it to the project's website. Donations to the site will go toward getting a second sculpture ready for Burning Man. Link to story. http://www.is-land.co.uk/wordpress2/ to website. -via Fortean Times
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is sending back data that may indicate that the red planet has some flowing water during part of the Martian year. The streams are small, short-lived, and must be salty -if it is what they think it is.
Dark, finger-like features appear and extend down some Martian slopes during late spring through summer, fade in winter, and return during the next spring. Repeated observations have tracked the seasonal changes in these recurring features on several steep slopes in the middle latitudes of Mars' southern hemisphere.
"The best explanation for these observations so far is the flow of briny water," said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson. McEwen is the principal investigator for the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) and lead author of a report about the recurring flows published in Thursday's edition of the journal Science.
Some aspects of the observations still puzzle researchers, but flows of liquid brine fit the features' characteristics better than alternate hypotheses. Saltiness lowers the freezing temperature of water. Sites with active flows get warm enough, even in the shallow subsurface, to sustain liquid water that is about as salty as Earth's oceans, while pure water would freeze at the observed temperatures.
"These dark lineations are different from other types of features on Martian slopes," said Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Scientist Richard Zurek of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Repeated observations show they extend ever farther downhill with time during the warm season."
NASA has a multimedia presentation in which you can see how the images change over time. Link
This cool lamp gives an eerie glow as the tractor beam from a UFO finds an Earthling to beam up and study. You may have seen this type of alien abduction lamp for sale, in stores or on the internet, but you can make one yourself for about five dollars! The instructions are at Dollar Store Crafts. Link -via Nag on the Lake
Stefanos Birbotsukis posted a series of eight minimalist posters for several British TV series. It took a while for Alex to figure out this Mr. Bean poster -and I still haven't, but I haven't seen much British TV, either. He also has posters for Doctor Who, Coupling, How Not to Live Your Life, and Little Britain. http://rhythmshapes.blogspot.com/2011/04/minimalist-posters.html
It happens every once in a while, and over time we end up with a list like this. Air stewards have more power than ever to keep people from getting where they need to go. And some people just seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like the passenger who was tossed for taking a photograph.
Remember the glory days when air stewardesses were pretty much angelic creatures? Okay so it might have been swayed by the fact that we were young and more angelic ourselves then. But after a passenger decided to photograph the name tag of a particularly rude employee, she was confronted and told to delete the photo. Even after she obliged, she was still considered a security risk and thrown off.
Nick McBride of Juniata College sent in pictures of some fun his department had with leftover Macintosh computer boxes. They made furniture out of them!
The couch that we put together can hold 2 or 3 people, has built in cup holders, and would retail for $12,000 (if you purchased the Macs to make it). We kept all the internal foam pieces to further reinforce the sitting areas.
Hang this illusion plaque in your home and just go about your business. Sooner or later, a guest will freak out, and you'll have a laugh that's well worth the $30 this artwork cost. Designed by Brooklyn artist Dan Witz. Also available in human and Tazmanian Devil. Link -via Dangerous Minds
This video is named Move. It's part of a trilogy of videos from director Rick Mereki, director/producer Tim White, and actor Andrew Lees. They traveled 38,000 miles to 11 countries in 44 days and produced three videos. The others in the trilogy are Eat and Learn. Click "more" to see them.
If you've been following the HBO series Game of Thrones, you may be a bit unsettled to see how BlueBolt created that fantasy world through visual effects. I am impressed with the things they can do with green screen these days! May contain spoilers, but only the first season is on this video. -via Geeks Are Sexy
NPR is trying to create a list of the best 100 science fiction books. Their audience suggested thousands of titles, which they narrowed to only several hundred, on which you are invited to vote.
Scrolling through the list of great science fiction and fantasy reads below will feel like a journey back in time for some of us, a voyage of discovery for others. But novice or veteran, everyone loves a contest. So, let the voting begin!
Here's how: Everyone gets 10 votes. Select your top 10 favorite titles, and then scroll down to the bottom of the poll and click "Submit." Feel free to lobby for your favorites in the comments. We'll be back in about 10 days with the results.
Even deciding on just ten will be difficult! http://www.npr.org/2011/08/02/138894873/vote-for-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-titles -via Metafilter
Pucker up as we explore 10 smooches that changed religion, art, culture, and history.
1. The Kiss of Judas: A Betrayal or Just Misunderstood?
Nothing ends a good "bromance" quite like flagrant, murderous betrayal. A long time ago, a wandering preacher named Jesus was doing pretty well for himself—building up a following and promoting religious teachings—until one of his buddies sold him out to the authorities. In exchange for 30 pieces of silver, Judas Iscariot kissed Jesus on the cheek and, by doing so, identified him to Roman soldiers.
Although Judas double-crossed his best friend for a paltry sum, some scholars argue that Judas is the secret hero of Christianity. The claim is based on a recent translation of The Gospel of Judas, a text written by Jesus’ followers a couple hundred years after his death. In 1978, a farmer discovered the mysterious text in Egypt and sold it to an antiques dealer. Years later, a National Geographic Society team got hold of it. They restored and analyzed the document, and in 2006, they announced that the text painted Judas as a man of valor. According to their interpretation, he was actually Jesus’ most trusted friend, because he agreed to fake a betrayal so that Jesus could die a martyr and then be resurrected.
Soon after the National Geographic Society released its findings, other scholars started picking the interpretation apart. Chief among them was April D. DeConick, a Rice University biblical studies professor, who claimed the team made some critical errors, including translating several passages to mean the exact opposite of what they were intended to communicate. DeConick contends that the Gospel says Judas was a “demon” rather than a “spirit,” as interpreted by National Geographic, and that he was set apart “from the holy generation” rather than “for the holy generation.” With just a few tweaks in translation, Judas has gone right back to playing the bad guy.
The Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, is a small Christian sect best known for rejecting all forms of violence, embracing progressive politics, and dedicating themselves to simple, restrained living. They’ve promoted a more harmonious world by founding causes such as Amnesty International, not to mention lending their name to oatmeal.
So we were surprised to learn that when teenage Quakers get together, their favorite activity is a free-for-all kissing game that often ends in bruising and rug burn. Alternately known as Ratchet Screwdriver, Bloody Winkum, or Wink, the game dates back to the early 1900s. To play, participants divide themselves into girl/boy pairs with one boy left over to be the “Winker.” The pairs sit on the floor, with each boy hugging a girl from behind. When the Winker winks at a girl, she tries to scramble across the room to kiss him, while her male partner does his best to hold her back. Hilarity (and release of pent-up sexual frustration) ensues.
But not everyone finds this game so hilarious. In 2002, the Children & Young People’s Committee of the Quakers in Britain issued a statement discouraging the game at official functions. And while that may not seem surprising, the reasoning is. The committee frowns upon the game because younger children and adults don’t get to play, thus making it ageist. Due to their egalitarian values, Quakers seldom segregate by age at get-togethers, and the committee didn’t want the very young or the very old to feel left out.
3. The Kiss that Proved No Means No
Gentlemen, a word: When a lady rejects your advances, you’d do best to listen. Take, for example, the story of Thomas Saverland, an English gentleman who was at a party in 1837 and, as a joke, kissed Miss Caroline Newton by force. In response, she bit off a chunk of his nose.
Gathering Iwatake at Kumano. Woodblock print by Hiroshige II.
When making soup requires scaling a cliff, and grabbing a few olives involves avoiding gunfire, it’s time to find some comfort food that’s a little more comfortable.
1. Iwatake
The annals of Arctic exploration are filled with accounts of frostbitten limbs and near starvation. In fact, many adventurers have reported being so hungry that they’ve scraped papery-crisp lichen off rocks and boiled it into passably edible food. One outdoorsman even claimed that if braised shoe leather was in a taste-test with lichen, the shoe leather would come out on top. And yet, this very same survival food is considered a delicacy in Japan. There, iwatake (iwa meaning rock, and take meaning mushroom) is so highly sought-after that harvesters are willing to rappel down cliff faces for the precious growths. (It takes about a century for the lichen to get to a worthwhile size.)
Needless to say, this is specialty work. As if the rappelling isn’t tricky enough, iwatake is best harvested in wet weather, because the moisture reduces the chance that the lichen will crumble as it’s pried off with a sharp knife. In its preferred preparation, the black and slimy raw material is transformed into a delicate tempura. And while iwatake in any form doesn’t taste like much, it’s esteemed for its associations with longevity. As for the harvesters? Their longevity’s more questionable. “Never give lodging to an iwatake hunter,” goes an old Japanese adage, “for he doesn’t always survive to pay rent.”
Cantilevered high off cave walls and cliffs along the seas of Southeast Asia are the nests of the white-nest swiftlet—a bird that’s managed to turn an embarrassing drool problem into a useful D.I.Y. project. The nests, sturdy constructions no bigger than the palm of your hand, are made from the birds’ spit. Yup, these swiftlets have specialized saliva glands powerful enough to turn their tongues into avian glue guns.
You’d think being stuck in caves high above the ground, and the fact that they’re birds’ nests, would protect them against humans—but no. Ever since sailors first brought the nests home for the Chinese emperor and his family in the first century CE, bird’s nest soup has been a favorite among the country’s elite. Never mind that it’s virtually tasteless; the dish is revered for health reasons.
Of course, acquiring the main ingredient is less healthy. Nest harvesters must stand on rickety bamboo scaffolding hundreds of feet off the ground in pitch darkness. They must also endure unbelievable heat and humidity as they try to avoid all the insects, birds, and bats that live in the caves. In addition, the extraordinary value of the nests means the zones are patrolled by machine-gun toting guards. Harvesting rights are multiyear, multimillion-dollar deals arranged with national governments, and poaching is ruthlessly prohibited. Unarmed fishermen have been shot dead after accidentally beaching in swiftlet territory, and local tour group operators pay exorbitant fees to avoid rifle-assisted leaks springing in their kayaks. It all underscores the fact that being a nest harvester is less of a career choice and more of a life sentence—especially considering that the skill is almost exclusively passed on from father to son.
Arturas Zuokas, mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania, had enough. The mayor was so fed up with illegal parking that he took a spin in a Russian armored personnel carrier, crushing an illegally parked Mercedes along the way.
He said: ”I wanted to send a clear message that people with big and expensive cars can’t park wherever they feel like and ignore the rights of pedestrians and bike riders.
”It shows a lack of respect and won’t be tolerated. Of course, you have to have a sense of humour in my line of work and I thought this would be a way of drawing attention to the fact that the city intends to be proactive in its fight against illegal parking.”
That's at least one driver who won't be parking in the wrong place anymore. Link -via Arbroath
