Families differ on how they give their kids money. Kelly writes about how her family does it, and the many questions that go along with allowances.

* Should the allowance be given freely OR tied to chores?
* Should I only pay for extra chores?
* How much money should I give my kid?
* Should I let them spend it on what they want OR should I force them to save a portion of it?
* Coins, bills, or a savings account?
* How often should I give him/her allowance?

Personally, I give the kids a set amount every week, in order to teach them by trial and error how to handle money. The amount is less than their friends get, which forces them to think hard about how they spend it. Their allowance is not tied to performing family chores, but occasionally I give a bonus to someone who has been extra helpful (only as a surprise). How does your family handle children and their money, or how do you plan to do it? Link -via Consumerist

(image credit: Flickr user Pingu1963)

This diagram (actually an Euler diagram {wiki}) sorts out professional baseball team names. Even more interesting is the accompanying list of links and explanations for every team name included. Link -via Jason Kottke

People love watching unbelievably intricate contraptions designed to perform simple tasks. Days to design and build, a minute or two to use (depending on how many times something goes wrong), and possible YouTube stardom are involved. Eat Me Daily has collected videos of ten Rube Goldberg contraptions that use food, make food, or deliver food. Link -via Metafilter

The breakfast aisle at the grocery is full of cereals with silly names, but some from the past are real winners. In today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, you are challenged to distinguish real cereal names from some that were just made up for the quiz. I am almost ashamed to admit I scored 90% on this quiz! http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/35672

The Blood Lamp only works once, and you need to add of a drop of your blood to activate it! The idea is to stop and think about how badly you need light before you use it. Designer Mike Thompson created the lamp in order to draw attention to how much energy we waste. http://www.miket.co.uk/blood_lamp.html -via Dark Roasted Blend

Nothing draws attention like oversized objects, and when you’re traveling along the highway, hungry people notice big food. During the 1930s, buildings that look like something else popped up all over to draw in travelers, and many still exist. See 24 examples of appetizing architecture in this collection. Shown is the Big Duck in Flanders, New York. Link -via the Presurfer

To get a little perspective, this is what the Burj Dubai (previously at Neatorama) would look like if it were built in downtown Manhattan. Gizmodo has a chart comparing some of the world’s tallest buildings if you’d like to envision others. Link -via YesButNoButYes

Sometimes the stories of what might have been are just as fascinating as what really happened. Kara Kovalchik of mental_floss dug up actors and actresses that turned down TV roles that may have turned out quite different. Michael Richards as Adrian Monk? Paul Shaffer as George Costanza? Or Jayne Mansfield as Ginger? That may have put a whole different face on the "Ginger or Mary Anne?" debate! http://blogs.static.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/35388.html

(YouTube link)

Forget rap, forget the news, THIS is what auto-tune was meant for! Carl Sagan sings his lovely prose about our wonderful universe with an appearance by Stephen Hawking. -via Geeks Are Sexy

It looks like a new volcano is growing in Nola, Italy, near Mt. Vesuvius! The Vulcano Buono (good volcano) is a commercial center designed by Renzo Piano. The interior space is bigger than it looks due to the sloping grass roof, which insulates the building. Inside you’ll find a forest and an amphitheater, plus shops, a hotel, a supermarket, and a movie theater. See more pictures at Inhabitat. Link -via Metafilter

You may be familiar with Scrat, the “saber-toothed squirrel” from the Ice Age movies, but a real one lives in Niagara Falls, New York. This squirrel has an unusual tusk growing out of its lower jaw! Mary Jo Sutter has been feeding the squirrel since it was young. Watch the video of the squirrel who has no fear of humans or cats. Link

Ken Morrish of Colaton Raleigh, Devon, England picked a bizarre Red Delicious apple off his tree. It looks as if someone stuck together half of a green apple and half of a red apple, but these colors are natural.

John Breach, chairman of the British Independent Fruit Growers Association, said: 'I've never seen this happen before to a Golden Delicious. It is extremely rare. It is an extreme mutation.

'There has been the occasional case of this type reported. If there was a whole branch of apples with the same colouring then fruit experts would get even more excited.'

Jim Arbury, fruit superintendent at RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey, said it was probably the 'result of a random genetic mutation'.

'This is known as a chimera where one of the first two cells has developed differently giving rise to one half of the apple being different,' he said.

Morrish is keeping the apple in his refrigerator because so many people want to see it. Link -via J-Walk Blog

(image credit: Archant Devon)

The United Nations is in session, with leaders and representatives from all over the world meeting to exchange ideas. Just how can they do that, when they speak so many different languages?

The United Nations hires about 120 interpreters—not to be confused with translators, who translate text—who are considered the best in their profession. No education is required, but roughly 70 percent of the members of the American Translators Association have college degrees. Interpreters slot the languages they know into three categories: A, B, and C.

Interpreters work under strict protocols, which you can read about at Slate Magazine. Link

Some of the buildings you know from your favorite TV shows are real brick-and-mortar places, although the signs are sometimes different. Super Tremendous has video of eight of them and addresses for those who want to go see for themselves.

Located at the Corner of Bedford and Grove in Manhattan, the Friends apartment building houses many New Yorkers who pay way too much money to brag about living in the Friends apartment building.

Link

As they say, the third time is the charm. Three different missions to the moon have relayed back evidence of water. There were traces of water in the moon rocks brought back by Apollo, but that was attributed to contamination. Three more recent examinations have found evidence of water: India’s Chandrayaan-1 probe detected water by mapping wavelengths of light from the moon’s surface, the Cassini probe found evidence of global distribution of the water signal, and the Deep Impact spacecraft found evidence by infrared detection.

"The Deep Impact observations of the Moon not only unequivocally confirm the presence of [water/hydroxyl] on the lunar surface, but also reveal that the entire lunar surface is hydrated during at least some portion of the lunar day," the authors wrote in their study.

The findings of all three spacecraft "provide unambiguous evidence for the presence of hydroxyl or water," said Paul Lucey of the University of Hawaii in an opinion essay accompanying the three studies. Lucey was not involved in any of the missions.

The new data "prompt a critical reexamination of the notion that the moon is dry. It is not," Lucey wrote.

The amount of water on the moon is miniscule by Earth standards, with one ton of lunar surface holding about 32 ounces. Link -via Digg