Sunday, August 31, 2008

Giant Squid is not a Fiction!

It was a squid of colossal dimensions,
fully eight meters long. It was traveling
backward with tremendous speed
in the same direction as the Nautilus.
20000 Leagues Under the Seas, by Jules Verne

Today, on of the top search lines at the Google Hot Trends was captured by Sea Monster - giant squid. The interest to the topic once again has been revived by the Discovery Channel presentation today.

Remember amazing gook from your childhood, 2000 Leagues under the Seas, by Jules Verne? In chapter 17, The Devilfish, he describes the gigantic squid, the Sea Monster, which filled the nights of many kids with adventurous nightmares. One of the illustrations to theJules Verne’s Voyages Extraordinaires shows the squid as follows:


010936899

And, now, we can be sure that it was not just a tale or a fiction. Gigantic Squids are as real, as you or me. Tsunemi Kubodera, a scientist with Japan’s National Science Museum, caught the 24-foot (7-meter) animal in December, 2006 near the island of Chichijima, some 600 miles southeast of Tokyo. His team snared the animal using a line baited with small squid and shot video of the russet-colored giant as it was hauled to the surface.

The squid, a young female, "put up quite a fight" as the team attempted to bring it aboard, Kudobera told the Associated Press, and the animal died from injuries sustained during the capture.

010936900

Giant squid, the world’s largest invertebrates, are thought to reach sizes up to 60 feet (18 meters), but because they live at such great ocean depths they have never been studied in the wild.

While it was the first case, when the squid was actually captured, the substantial evidence of their existence has been already obtained earlier. Many giant squid have washed up on beaches or have been found dead or dying in fishing nets. This specimen was found in New Zealand in 1996.

010936903

To conclude this publication, I want to present show MonsterQuest, and the episode "Giant Squid Found," which aired on the History Channel in 2007. A mammoth squid was filmed in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico at about 1,000 feet below the surface. The group of divers and researchers working on the project attached a camera to a smaller squid in hopes it would dive down deep enough to give them a glimpse of these Kraken-like sea creatures that many believe exist.




Gigantic Squid

Thursday, August 28, 2008

How to conduct Reverse Lookup of the caller identity

The search string “ reverse lookup” made up to the line 39 on the Google Trends by the midday. In April, in one of my publications I provided the way to Remove your personal data from public records. This actually represents the approach to block one of the ways to get your personal data from unwanted intruders, knowing your phone number. However, the “bad guys” can be on both sides of the fence. So, you need to know how to get the guy that is calling you in the middle of the night just to say “Hello!” Or to catch the weirdo, calling my 75-years-old dad and offering couple prostitutes cheaply.

So, if you ever were in the similar situation, and you need to know, how to identify the harasser, review the publication devoted to reverse lookup.

You can run your own phone number reverse lookup without hiring an expensive private investigator using a few free and easy techniques:

1. Call Them - If you are bold enough, you can call the number yourself or have someone else you trust call the phone number. Remember, your purpose in calling the number is to identify the person behind the call, so it may not be wise to reveal your own identity outright.

2. Google - Another easy thing you can do is to type the phone number into a search engine like Google, MSN, or Yahoo. I have done this on a few occasions with success. The phone numbers that I typed in turn out to be telemarketer numbers. Surprisingly, many people come online with the very same numbers and receive the same vague phone calls. Note, that the number in some search engines can be easily blocked.

3. Free Phone Directory - You can also use an online phone directory like the White Pages. This is basically an online version of your typical phone book. It will help you find listed home phone numbers or landline numbers, but not very useful for cell phone numbers.

4. Cell Phone Directory - If you are certain the phone number comes from a cell phone user, you can subscribe to a cell phone directory.

5. Phone Number Reverse Lookup - This is your best option if you want a quick and reliable reverse phone number lookup. You type in the phone number and you get an instant report showing you the name, address, carrier, and other details regarding the user.

The hardest part of doing a reverse cell phone lookup, is working out which service to use. Unlike with landline numbers, an accurate, free reverse cell number search can’t actually be done. The sites advertising as free are either fakes that let you search for free, but then make you pay to see the information, or sites that “decode” cell numbers to help work out the location and carrier (not the accurate information you want).

Several options (not free) to start from:

http://www.intelius.com/reverse-phone-lookup.html

http://www.reversephonedetective.com/

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

How Funny are VeryFunnyAds?

In the light of the coming elections and recent Olympics, it is not easy for other stories breaking their way to the Top Google Searches Hall of Fame. I was attracted by the two not quite leading lines very funny ads (line 74) and veryfunnyads.com (line 79). Why? I just like to have some fun. Let’s have it together!

VeryFunnyAds.com is a website, sponsored by TBS (a member of Time Warner Company team) and devoted to the funniest TV commercials from around the World. They have Super Bowl classics, the Daytona 500’s funniest ads, hilarious foreign finds -and even a few that were too sexy or racy to be aired officially in the United States.

Videos are updated frequently, and you can personally submit the ad you liked to be reviewed by the team. At this time, you cannot download videos on your Hard Drive by any official methods. There I could find for you an example of the funny commercial from Netherlands:



Funny Commercial from Netherlands
Name: Yellow Pages: Shark
Netherlands 2006
Description: One false movement - and Shark will get you.
The renewed interest to the website has been sparkled by the “World’s Funniest Commercials 2008” yesterday on Olympic theme. The show is hosted by comedian Kevin Nealon and his wife, Susan Yeagley, a member of the Groundlings improv group. American commercials are included, like the one with the screaming animals on the road, but be sure to catch the United Kingdom spot that gives you an entirely different spin on “Toy Story.” This is the ninth edition of “WFC,” which has since spawned the Web site VeryFunnyAds.com

Sunday, August 24, 2008

10 questions to ask your biology teacher about evolution... and 10 answers you might get!

The line 16 of the today’s Google Trends captured my attention (the day is not finished yet, and the final position of the search might change by end of the day). It was “ ten questions to ask your biology teacher about evolution”.

010819967 Jonathan Wells, the author of Icons of Evolution, 2000, composed list of "Ten questions to ask your biology teacher about evolution", based on his antievolutionary claims he makes in his book. The hot interest to the topic has been sparkled by the article published The New York Times 10 Questions, and Answers, About Evolution. As you can see on the article title, NY Times not just publish the questions set, launched by Jonathan Wells, but also gives appropriate answers provided by the National Center for Science Education in 2001. NCSE claims that many of Wells’ claims are incorrect or misleading; Icons of Evolution and "Ten questions" are intended only to create unwarranted doubt in students’ minds about the validity of evolution as good science.010819970

Who is right, and who is wrong? And may be both are wrong? Seeing two “sides of the coin” gives ability to look on the question of evolution from completely different angles.

Wells’ questions appear in italics with NCSE response immediately below in bold.

Q: ORIGIN OF LIFE. Why do textbooks claim that the 1953 Miller-Urey experiment shows how life’s building blocks may have formed on the early Earth -- when conditions on the early Earth were probably nothing like those used in the experiment, and the origin of life remains a mystery?

A: Because evolutionary theory works with any model of the origin of life on Earth, how life originated is not a question about evolution. Textbooks discuss the 1953 studies because they were the first successful attempt to show how organic molecules might have been produced on the early Earth. When modern scientists changed the experimental conditions to reflect better knowledge of the Earth’s early atmosphere, they were able to produce most of the same building blocks. Origin-of-life remains a vigorous area of research.

Q: DARWIN’S TREE OF LIFE. Why don’t textbooks discuss the "Cambrian explosion," in which all major animal groups appear together in the fossil record fully formed instead of branching from a common ancestor - thus contradicting the evolutionary tree of life?

A: Wells is wrong: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals all are post-Cambrian - aren’t these "major groups"? We would recognize very few of the Cambrian organisms as "modern"; they are in fact at the roots of the tree of life, showing the earliest appearances of some key features of groups of animals - but not all features and not all groups. Researchers are linking these Cambrian groups using not only fossils but also data from developmental biology.

Q: HOMOLOGY. Why do textbooks define homology as similarity due to common ancestry, then claim that it is evidence for common ancestry -- a circular argument masquerading as scientific evidence?

A: The same anatomical structure (such as a leg or an antenna) in two species may be similar because it was inherited from a common ancestor (homology) or because of similar adaptive pressure (convergence). Homology of structures across species is not assumed, but tested by the repeated comparison of numerous features that do or do not sort into successive clusters. Homology is used to test hypotheses of degrees of relatedness. Homology is not "evidence" for common ancestry: common ancestry is inferred based on many sources of information, and reinforced by the patterns of similarity and dissimilarity of anatomical structures.

Q: VERTEBRATE EMBRYOS. Why do textbooks use drawings of similarities in vertebrate embryos as evidence for their common ancestry -- even though biologists have known for over a century that vertebrate embryos are not most similar in their early stages, and the drawings are faked?

A: Twentieth-century and current embryological research confirms that early stages (if not the earliest) of vertebrate embryos are more similar than later ones; the more recently species shared a common ancestor, the more similar their embryological development. Thus cows and rabbits - mammals - are more similar in their embryological development than either is to alligators. Cows and antelopes are more similar in their embryology than either is to rabbits, and so on. The union of evolution and developmental biology - "evo-devo" - is one of the most rapidly growing biological fields. "Faked" drawings are not relied upon: there has been plenty of research in developmental biology since Haeckel - and in fact, hardly any textbooks feature Haeckel’s drawings, as claimed.

Q: ARCHAEOPTERYX. Why do textbooks portray this fossil as the missing link between dinosaurs and modern birds -- even though modern birds are probably not descended from it, and its supposed ancestors do not appear until millions of years after it?

A: The notion of a "missing link" is an out-of-date misconception about how evolution works. Archaeopteryx (and other feathered fossils) shows how a branch of reptiles gradually acquired both the unique anatomy and flying adaptations found in all modern birds. It is a transitional fossil in that it shows both reptile ancestry and bird specializations. Wells’s claim that "supposed ancestors" are younger than Archaeopteryx is false. These fossils are not ancestors but relatives of Archaeopteryx and, as everyone knows, your uncle can be younger than you!

Q: PEPPERED MOTHS. Why do textbooks use pictures of peppered moths camouflaged on tree trunks as evidence for natural selection -- when biologists have known since the 1980s that the moths don’t normally rest on tree trunks, and all the pictures have been staged?

A: These pictures are illustrations used to demonstrate a point - the advantage of protective coloration to reduce the danger of predation. The pictures are not the scientific evidence used to prove the point in the first place. Compare this illustration to the well-known re-enactments of the Battle of Gettysburg. Does the fact that these re-enactments are staged prove that the battle never happened? The peppered moth photos are the same sort of illustration, not scientific evidence for natural selection.

Q: DARWIN’S FINCHES. Why do textbooks claim that beak changes in Galapagos finches during a severe drought can explain the origin of species by natural selection -- even though the changes were reversed after the drought ended, and no net evolution occurred?

A: Textbooks present the finch data to illustrate natural selection: that populations change their physical features in response to changes in the environment. The finch studies carefully - exquisitely - documented how the physical features of an organism can affect its success in reproduction and survival, and that such changes can take place more quickly than was realized. That new species did not arise within the duration of the study hardly challenges evolution!

Q: MUTANT FRUIT FLIES. Why do textbooks use fruit flies with an extra pair of wings as evidence that DNA mutations can supply raw materials for evolution -- even though the extra wings have no muscles and these disabled mutants cannot survive outside the laboratory?

A: In the very few textbooks that discuss four-winged fruit flies, they are used as an illustration of how genes can reprogram parts of the body to produce novel structures, thus indeed providing "raw material" for evolution. This type of mutation produces new structures that become available for further experimentation and potential new uses. Even if not every mutation leads to a new evolutionary pathway, the flies are a vivid example of one way mutation can provide variation for natural selection to work on.

Q: HUMAN ORIGINS. Why are artists’ drawings of ape-like humans used to justify materialistic claims that we are just animals and our existence is a mere accident -- when fossil experts cannot even agree on who our supposed ancestors were or what they looked like?

A: Drawings of humans and our ancestors illustrate the general outline of human ancestry, about which there is considerable agreement, even if new discoveries continually add to the complexity of the account. The notion that such drawings are used to "justify materialistic claims" is ludicrous and not borne out by an examination of textbook treatments of human evolution.

Q: EVOLUTION A FACT? Why are we told that Darwin’s theory of evolution is a scientific fact - even though many of its claims are based on misrepresentations of the facts?

A: What does Wells mean by "Darwin’s theory of evolution"? In the last century, some of what Darwin originally proposed has been augmented by more modern scientific understanding of inheritance (genetics), development, and other processes that affect evolution. What remains unchanged is that similarities and differences among living things on Earth over time and space display a pattern that is best explained by evolutionary theory. Wells’s "10 Questions" fails to demonstrate a pattern of evolutionary biologists’s "misrepresenting the facts."

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Photosynth - 3D Photo Composition from Microsoft

Photosynth did not make the first lines of the yesterday Google Hot Trends (August 20, 2008); this search found itself on the modest 73 position. However, if it would not be for the Olympic Games heat, it would go much higher. Today, Microsoft has announced that Photosynth, its stunning three-dimensional photo display technology, has moved beyond the demonstration stage and is now available for photographers to process and upload their own pictures on the site.


What is Photosynth?

Photosynth is an entirely new visual medium. It analyzes a set of photos of a place or an object for similarities each other, and uses that data to estimate where a photo was taken and build a model of the subject. It then re-creates the environment and uses that as a canvas on which to display the photos.

How does Photosynth work?

You make a bunch of digital photos of the same object. They might all have been taken by one person, or they might be a mixture of images from many different cameras, shooting conditions, dates, times of day, resolutions, and so on.

Each photo is processed by computer vision algorithms to extract hundreds of distinctive features, like the corner of a window frame or a door handle. Photos that share features are then linked together in a web. When the same feature is found in multiple images, its 3D position can be calculated. It’s similar to depth perception - what your brain does to perceive the 3D positions of things in your field of view based on their images in both of your eyes. Photosynth’s 3D model is just the cloud of points showing where those features are in space.

Your brain knows that your eyes are about two inches apart. But when Photosynth does its magic, it doesn’t know where the cameras were, or which way they were pointing. Fortunately, when there are many cameras, and many features in common, the algorithms behind Photosynth can figure out not only where the features are in 3D, but where all of the cameras would have to have been, and which way they were aimed, consistent with the features they "saw".

Is it Free?

Yes, it is!!! You can get not just online application for free, but also 20GB free storage to host your synths too.

Limitations:

Project supports only Windows XP (SP2 and SP3) and Windows Vista Operating Systems, and selective browsers as Internet Explorer and Firefox 2 or 3.

How will Photosynth help you?

“Next time you visit a museum and with an intention to blog about it in your photo blog, keep it mind that using this technology you can give more that just a hand full of photos to your readers. You can create stunning videos from that photos that can take your readers through an experience as if they were actually visiting the museum. Maybe this one will even change the concept about photo blogging," reports Daily Gyan.

Want to see presentation?




Photosynth - 3D Photo from Microsoft

Access Photosynth: http://photosynth.net/default.aspx

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Hurricane Fay and Others - Be Prepared!

Google Hot Trends searches gave away most of the leading positions to the news related to the projected path and outcomes of the hurricane Fay on August 18, 2008. National hurricane center miami captured the first line, hurricane fay tracking - the third, hurricane fay projected path - the fifth, noaa - the eights, and so on…

We will start our review from NOAA. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is the parent agency of the National Weather Service, represented by the National Hurricane Center in Miami-Dade County, Florida. NOAA’s primary missions: predict environmental changes to protect life and property, and provide industry and government with a reliable base of scientific information. In conjunction with the hurricane center, NOAA operates the Hurricane Research Division on Virginia Key in Miami, which is considered a vital part of the effort to improve hurricane forecasts and provide more advanced warnings.

And the reason of this sharp interest to the hurricane related issues has been triggered by Tropical Storm Fay. It moved over the western end of Cuba on Monday morning on its march toward the eastern Gulf of Mexico and Florida Keys. Traffic out of the Florida Keys was brutal at times on Sunday as officials urged the evacuation of thousands from the path of the storm, a Florida official said.

At 5 a.m. ET, the storm, with maximum sustained winds of near 50 mph (80 km/hr) with higher gusts, was heading north-northwest at about 12 mph (19 km/hr), forecasters said.

Fay was centered about 105 miles (170 km) east-southeast of Havana, Cuba and about 155 miles (250 km) south-southeast of Key West, the hurricane center reported.

The projected path current versions from CNN and NOAA:

010706203 010706209

The storm has caused several closings in the area. Orange, Seminole, Lake, Osceola and Polk County schools are closed on Tuesday, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Hillsborough and Pinellas counties have declared a state of emergency. Key West International Airport closed at 10 a.m., according to the National Weather Service. However, Tampa International Airport, Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale International Airport have yet to cancel flights. However, several airlines have canceled flights entering these airports. Customers are asked to call the airlines to receive an update on their flights and their possible cancellations.

It is still unclear how bad it can come to the certain Florida areas, but if you happen to be in the neighborhood, be prepared. Hurricane hazards might come in many forms: storm surge, high winds, tornadoes, and flooding. This means it is important for you and your family to have a plan that includes possibility of activation of all or some of these hazards. Visit Hurricane preparedness Website to get some ideas on how to survive and save your family in case of disaster: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/intro.shtml

Sunday, August 17, 2008

A.bin file is missing: AVG users - do not panic!

I am using AVG Freeware antivirus on all my computers for several years. So far, I did not have any problems with it. Just once, it crashed on my son’s PC, and I had to reinstall it. Today, I saw the warning sign on the AVG8 icon and the related error message: a.bin file is missing. I guess there are many people who also keep AVG as their main antivirus shield since the search avg a .bin file is missing made to the Google Hot Trends (line 25) yesterday, August 16, 2008.

So, what is the problem?

Apparently there is an issue with one of the update files, specifically "u7iavi1616oo.bin", as such AVG has pulled the file from public download. AVG is aware of the issue and is working to correct the matter.

How to resolve the problem?

I personally pressed the update button couple of times, loaded updates, and finally after the third attempt the error message disappeared. However, there are many people, who were not able to get rid from the error message with any conventional means. There is a solution that reported to work for all the users who tried, found online:

1) go to »www.grisoft.com/ww.download-update
2) make a directory on your desktop called AVG
3) download AVI: 270.6.4
4) download IAVI: / 1616
5) move the downloaded files to the directory you made called AVG
6) launch AVG
7) select tools -> update from directory
8) select the directory called AVG where you put the downloads.

There is another way of the problem resolution:

1) Start up AVG,click Update Now.
2) The list of updates is shown in Popup; click on the more information link. A list of updates will be shown.
3) Click on and save all updates in a file except the last one - http://downloadfree.avg.com/update/u7iavi1616oo.bin - because this is causing the problem.
4) Cancel the update and instead click on Tools > Update from Directory and go to the file where you saved the updates. Install these and AVG should be working properly again.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Dead Body of Bigfoot Found! Hoax or Not? You Decide!

Google Trends for August 13, 2008 have several closed searches that drew my full attention: bigfoot found - line 11, bigfoot - line 18, bigfoot body - line 27, searching for bigfoot - line 33, bigfoot pictures - line 34, bigfoot georgia - line 36, and more and more. If you even did not hear or see the story, you can create your version, based on these keywords. You know, that the Bigfoot dead body was found in Georgia (For sure, it is Georgia in the USA, Georgia near Russia has enough other dead bodies), and the pictures were taken.

So, what is the story?

Two men from the state of Georgia, Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, claim to have found the carcass of a 7’ 7" apelike creature while walking in the woods in northern Georgia.

Whitton and Dyer say they will provide proof of their finding during a press-conference in Palo Alto, California on Friday, August 15, 2008 for one hour and one hour only, from 12:00 to 1:00. The proof includes photographs of the body and results of DNA testing, but not the body itself.

For those of you interested in the find, here are the facts.

  • Whitton (who also goes by the name Gary Parker) and Dyer found the body somewhere in the woods in northern Georgia.
  • They are currently holding the body of the creature (which they call the Rickmat Creature) in an undisclosed location.
  • Whitton and Dyer plan to have extensive scientific testing performed on the Rickmat Creature, so long as it is done by their own hand-picked scientists. These scientists must travel to the undisclosed location where Whitton and Dyer are holding the body.
  • Whitton and Dyer will allow independent verification to be performed on the Rickmat Creature. Provided that the verification is done by ’The Real Bigfoot Hunter’ Tom Biscardi. Biscardi is known by Bigfoot enthusiasts for his work hunting the creatures since 1971, and to the mainstream public for a 2005 hoax in which he claimed to have captured a Bigfoot live.
According to Whitton and Dyer, the creature weighs in excess of 500 lbs, and is covered all over with shaggy reddish brown hair.

More details may be found in a press release, along with advertising and links promoting Whitton and Dyer’s companies, bigfoottracker.com, and Bigfoot Global LLC, Along with Biscardi’s ventures, The Bigfoot Live radio show www.bigfootliveradioshow.com, and his Searching for Bigfoot Team.

And just in case any interested parties get ideas that they might be able to profit off of the creature that is being held in an undisclosed location and has only been seen by a hand-picked group of people, Whitton and Dyer would like you to know that they hold exclusive rights to all images of the creature, as well as the rights to any and all money making opportunities that may or may not come from the discovery of the creature.
There is one image I could find on the Web for the creature, and it is claimed to be from Bigfoot Global LLC (http://www.searchingforbigfoot.com/). However, the site is down due to the exceeded bandwidth. I guess, many people have already rushed there to see the exclusive information.

But, there is also another controversial claim that it is all a HOAX. And, there was a simple Halloween costume to impersonate a fake dead bigfoot. Please review two videos, giving some more light on the people involved. Hoax, hoax, hoax. What else?


Bigfoot Tracker Video

Bigfoot Tracker - HOAX

Additional Reading:

http://firefox.org/news/articles/1774/1/Maybe-Next-Time-He039ll-Stop-to-Ask-For-Directions-Bigfoot-Found-in-Georgia-Woods/Page1.html
http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/688171/Bigfoot_Found_Not_A_Hoax.html
http://bfro.net/hoax.asp
http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2008/08/bigfoot-and-chupacabra-found-c.html
http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/747412.html

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Kerry Walsh has Kinesio Tape, not a Tattoo

Two of the most searchable items on August 9, 2008 were kinesio tape (2nd) and kerri walsh tattoo (5th). These two searches were definitely connected.

Let’s start from the brief review, who is Kerri Lee Walsh is an American professional beach volleyball player. She captured the public’s imagination in 2004 by bringing home a Gold Medal from the Athens Summer Games, and soon afterwards started a stretch of 50 consecutive match victories. Walsh and May-Treanor have also captured the SWATCH-FIVB World Championships in 2003 (Rio de Janeiro), 2005 (Berlin) and 2007 (Gstaad). And now she is a part of the team on Olympic Games in China.

As you see on the picture below, she is wearing small tattoo on her right shoulder.


010527158

So, it was not a surprise, when the bigger tattoo was seen on the recent translations from Olympics. However, it is not a Tattoo. Kerry Walsh has, what is called a Kinesio Tape.
010527165

The taping is done to increase blood flow through the muscles. It is used in chiropractic, rehabilitation and sports medicine. Developed 25 years ago by Dr. Kenzo Kase, Kinesio taping is now getting recognition and being used by top athletes such as Lance Armstrong, Serena Williams, David Beckam, Robby Ginepri and Justine Henin.

Kinesio Tape works by giving support like a flexible brace and facilitates weak muscles with neurological awareness or proprioception. Kerri Walsh had a recent rotator cuff surgery last November. NBC reported that she uses it for better circulation and her shoulder pain.

More information about the medical features of the Kinesio Tape you can get from manufacturer’s Web Site: http://www.kinesio-tape.com/KinesioTex1.html

Friday, August 8, 2008

What animal has rectangular pupils

One of the popular search trends for August 7, 2008, at the position 48, listed the following string what animal has rectangular pupils. I was intrigued, because I did not know the answer on top of my head. Do you? I hope, you do not know as well, so I am not alone being poorly educated on the Animals World.

So, there are the results of my investigation:

  1. GOAT
Reference to the goat is the most frequent in the online sources. Check for yourself:

010470373

  1. OCTOPUS
010470375 010470377

  1. FROG
010470370 010470371

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Cell for Cash: Get Paid to Recycle your Mobile Phone

You want to get rid from your old mobile phones? You are not alone. Cell for Cash was rated as the second most popular Google search yesterday, August 4, 2008.

As many other people, you are getting a new cell phone every year or every two years. And, it is not easy to trash your old friend, your old cell phone. It might be not as good, as your new one, but it still works. So, the old dusty phones are piling little-by-little in your storage. And if you need to empty space, you just put the older models in the trash bin. But remember that mobile phones are full of chemicals that leach into groundwater from landfills. In California, for example, they are considered hazardous waste.

Did you know that an estimated 130 million, or roughly 65,000 tons, of cell phones are retired every year in the United States?

There are several companies offering you money for your phone recycling. One of them - Cell for Cash. The company is listing hundreds of manufacturers and related phone models that can be accepted for modern rebates. When you find your model listed, you can request a postage-paid box. Send it back with your phone and charger, and once the company verifies the contents, you will receive a check. Not all phones are worth cash, though; many older models are listed on the site as "Free Recycling," which means they have no resale value. Even thou, you might still send it for recycling if you care at least a bit of the environment. Besides, Cell for Cash refurbishes the phones and sells them in developing countries, applying affordable pricing. So, your phone might get a second life as well.

Check the listing at http://www.cellforcash.com/

If your phone is not listed, you can find a better deal at the competitive sites:
http://www.phoneiscash.com/Scripts/default.asp
http://www.cashmyphone.com/

Monday, August 4, 2008

1000 Ways to Die - Spike TV

1000 Ways to Die appeared on the line 54 of the top Google searches for Sunday, August 3, 2008.

Spike TV announced it has ordered 1000 Ways to Die, a new reality series that will explore various and bizarre ways that a person can perish. Every 30-minutes episode of the show will tell viewers true stories about the strange deaths people have met, using witness testimonials, historical parallels, scientific explanations and CGI effects.

Some of the cases that will be covered include death from eating a jalapeno pepper; a simple scrape-turned-flesh-eating virus; and a man trapped in an avalanche with plenty of food and water, only to succumb to methane poisoning from too much of his own gas.

1000 Ways to Die is executive produced by Thom Beers, the author of Deadliest Catch, Lobster Wars and Monster Garage (Discovery Channel), and Ice Road Truckers (History Channel).

"We may not readily admit it, but we all have a strange fascination with death, particularly all the gruesome details of how it occurs" said Beers. "The bizarre humor in some of these cases is undeniable."

1000 Ways to Die originally aired on Spike TV in May as a two-part special. The show success led Spike TV to order 10 more episodes. Now, 1000 Ways to Die is scheduled to premiere during Spike’s upcoming fall season.

Episode Preview:


1000 Ways to Die - Featured Clips - Semi-cide


Original Show Clips for your Review:


1000 Ways To Die (Part 1 of 2)


1000 Ways To Die (Part 2 of 2)

Additional Reading:
http://www.c21media.net/resources/detail.asp?area=100&article=43517
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6583160.html?industryid=47171

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Eco-friendly Jeans from Sheryl Crow

Bootheel Trading Co search was pretty popular on Friday, August 1, capturing line 23 on the list of the 100 Not Trends searches.

Sheryl Crow is launching her own jeans line! Sheryl Crow has announced that she is starting her own fashion line with the help of her stylist. The denim label is called “Bootheel Trading Co by Sheryl Crow”. That will not be just any ordinary jeans; they are eco-friendly jeans, as continuation of her eco-closing fashion line. The estimated price is $65.The product will be hitting the stores this Fall and many are already searching for a place to by them. But reports say shoppers are already seeing the Sheryl Crow jeans in some local stores, it doesn’t seem that the exact location of where her clothing line is going to be has yet to be officially released.

Sheryl Crow is a talented singer-songwriter. Her music blends rock, country, pop, folk, and blues into one mainstream sound, and she has won nine Grammy Awards. Crow is also a political activist. She has performed with the Rolling Stones, and has sung duets with Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson and Kid Rock, among others.

Quick Snapshot from People:

February 2006 was a rough month for Sheryl Crow. She split with fiancé Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong. Then, soon after her 44th birthday, a lump was found during a routine mammogram. But Crow beat breast cancer without missing a note - even returning to her tour after surgery and radiation treatment.
She broke onto the music scene in 1993 with her folksy rock album, Tuesday Night Music Club, which led to three Grammys and sold more than 7 million copies. Eight years later, she went glam at 40 with a sexier look and new pop-influenced sound that rounded her Grammy collection to nine.
Today, Crow splits her time between her music, her cancer and ecological causes

Additional Reading:

http://snarkfood.com/sheryl-crow-starts-new-jeans-line/

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/923165/sheryl_crows_jeans_offered_by_bootheel.html?cat=7


Sheryl Crow Pics:

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Friday, August 1, 2008

Monster of Montauk: Is It Real?

Monster of Montauk is one of the hottest topics on Google Trends for the second day in the row, capturing the third line in the top trends list on the last day of July, 2008.


Monster of Montauk

The "Montauk Monster" washed up onshore of a New York beach in Montauk, Long Island. Several onlookers took pictures of it, sending it via e-mail on Wednesday.

According to Newsday, Alanna Navitski, an employee for Los Angeles’ Evolutionary Media Group, was behind the media frenzy. Navitski sent the picture of the "monster" to Anna Holmes, the managing editor at Jezebel, who then sent it to Gawker.

Gawker published the photo with the headline "Dead Monster Washes Ashore in Montauk".

Many believe that it is a sea turtle without a shell or the remnants of a government animal-testing facility nearby. However, no scientific specialist has yet to identify what animal or creature this "Montauk Monster" truly is. And, the fact that the picture itself is real, and not one more falsification, should be still proven. In the age of digital photography and slick graphic artists, it is so easy to make us believe in something that is not exactly a reality.

Additional Reading:

http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=55061&cat=14

http://www.timesoftheinternet.com/973.html

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/920725/dhs_debunks_monster_of_montauk_mystery.html?cat=8