My two dogs, Ekoh and Quilla are spoiled, every time they come in from outside, they get a treat. Since they are spoiled, it’s not surprising they are picky when it come to which treats they will eat. I’m picky when it comes to what treats I feed them. Would you believe some dog treats contain plastic? Yes, plastic is just one of the filler ingredients some dog treat manufacturers add to their products.

Nylabone Nubz, edible dental dog chews don’t contain artificial fillers, or gluten — they are made with real chicken. My dogs are smaller dogs, so another great thing about Nylabone Nubz is that the 18 larger size bones can break into half, so you get 36 smaller treats, that for my little dogs? Are quite a treat. You can actually break them smaller that that if you want to. They are one of the few dog treat products that’s designed to provide a dental benefit that my dogs will eat.

Right now if you are a Costco member, in your Costco coupon book you’ll find one with a $3.50 value for Nylabone Nubz, edible dental dog chews. Don’t wait too long, the coupon savings lasts until September 12th or while supplies last.

Some of my friends are snuggies addicts, I am not…However, I found this video of Lady Gaga on snuggies to be humorous. You might too.

This was an interesting one, it makes sense, but we don’t often think ancient bacteria could be good for something today, especially when it comes to the cosmetic industry. However, according to this New Scientist article:

Using a genome-mining approach, the duo identified a gene cluster that could be responsible for making sunscreen molecules in a cyanobacterium called Anabaena variabilis. To test the genes, they expressed the cluster in the bacterium Escherichia coli, which normally does not make sunscreen molecules. Afterwards, the team found the bacteria could make the molecules.

The pair then found that four enzymes were responsible for synthesising the MAA molecules. Each MAA has two amino acids linked to a central organic group. It’s the amino-acid linkages that are important for determining the wavelength and strength of UV absorbance, they say.

The MAAs shinorine and porphyra-334 have already been used in an “anti-ageing” cosmetic product, Helioguard 365, manufactured by Mibelle Biochemistry, a company based in Buchs, Switzerland. However, Mibelle extracts these chemicals directly from algae. “Our work could be a starting point for devising new routes to these molecules or analogues using a biocatalytic or biological engineering approach,” says Balskus.

“We don’t yet know if biological sunscreens will end up being any better than man-made sunscreen ingredients, since Helioguard is a relatively new product. But they do have the photochemical properties desirable in sunscreens,” she adds.

Whenever I see any reference to stainless steel drums or just steel drums, I can’t help thinking about when we went to the Bahamas and I heard a band play using just steel drums. It’s an amazing sound considering these instruments are hand made to create just the right tone. If it’s not something you’ve ever heard? There are quite a few YouTube videos out there that you can listen to…and if you’ve ever been to the Caribbean? It may just return you there in your mind…

Game Developers Conference Europe 2010, Europe’s Most Important Game Development Event, Opens in Cologne, Germany

GDC Europe 2010 Opens Its Doors for Developers of Online Social Games, Big Budget Titles, PC, Mobile and Console Games throughout Europe and the World

BERLIN, Aug. 16 /PRNewswire/ — Game Developers Conference Europe® 2010 (GDC Europe) has opened its doors at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany. Produced by UBM TechWeb Game Network, organizers of the leading Game Developers Conference® series, GDC Europe is the largest professionals-only game event in Europe, and has increased in scope compared to its inaugural debut event in 2009, encompassing a robust selection of keynotes, lectures, panels, and sessions. GDC Europe returns to Cologne, Germany on August 16-18, 2010 for three days of learning, networking, and inspiration. For more information on GDC Europe visit: www.gdceurope.com.

continue reading "European Game Developers Conference begins…"

The neat part about this video is the story Bachman tells and the crowd singing with him. His vocals are not what they used to be but then how many of us could say we’ve not changed with age…

Here’s an interesting one, that means in theory that climate warming would decrease the number of hurricanes and typhoons hitting American and Asian coasts. According to New Scientist:

The centres of gyres tend to be clearer than their edges, allowing solar heat to penetrate to nearly 100 metres, while it gets no further than 5 to 10 metres at the edges. This means that areas of ocean that are murky with phytoplankton get warmer nearer the surface, while clearer waters warm up further down.

That deeper heat is carried away from the gyre by its associated deep currents, creating a region that is cooler than the rest of the tropics. There are no such currents to carry away the warmer waters of the murky regions. A cooler area changes patterns of regional air convection and so reduces the number of cyclones over the gyre.

Gnanadesikan and colleagues modelled two cases: one in which the gyre had half its normal chlorophyll levels, and another in which it was completely clear. They found that a clear gyre would reduce the number of tropical cyclone days over the north Pacific by about 70 per cent, whereas reducing the chlorophyll by half led to a 35 per cent drop.

The findings are backed up by records from the 1960s, which show that cyclone activity in the Pacific subtropical gyres during the 1960s was about 20 per cent lower than today, while chlorophyll levels were about half of present-day levels – a trend consistent with the model.

Our current system when it comes to social security disability moves slower than the proverbial turtle, one wrong form can set you back weeks, if not months. Companies like Allsup have been created to help people with filing their first claim or if their claim has been denied. They state they’ve helped more than 130,000 people receive Medicare benefits and Social Security Disability Insurance since 1984. What’s unique about them compared to some of the other companies out there is they only charge a fee if they can obtain benefits for you…

I can’t remember the last time I felt bored, but then again that is related to my life and the way I over push myself to accomplish the Herculean tasks of the day that would make a less stronger woman cringe…Yet, I can’t help agree with parts of this Newsweek piece — Lost in Electronica. I can walk away and unplug, I then turn to other household tasks that must be done.

However, I have friends and family that can’t, they have internet on their phones and complain of boredom instead of turning to reflective thought, reading or even just taking a walk…

I dream of my ideal home in my head, at times in great detail. This is easy to accomplish as far as precise details since one of my favorite non-political past times is doing window shopping via the internet. It’s easy to find products like Elkay sinks and then imagine the possibilities in your mind as far as your dream kitchen or bath. Should the time ever come where I am given the opportunity to have my dream home, the challenge will be to decide which version of the house in my mind should become reality…

Enjoyable piece from Wired – Apple and the War for the Mobile Market. My house is thus far iPhone free though my husband still dreams from time to time about owning one. One of my daughter’s ex-boyfriends had one, so I have gotten to check out what the iPhone can do. Part of the article from Wired:

Android sales are surging because there’s a pretty good Android phone—probably several, in fact—for sale in nearly every place that sells mobile phones. And as hard as it may be for some of the people reading this to believe, the Apple store is not where most people go to buy a new cell phone. All those Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile kiosks in the mall exist for a reason. Apple has 229 retail stores and a big marketing budget, but both are dwarfed by the combined retail presence and advertising spending of the carriers. And yes, I’m including AT&T in all this; AT&T sells Android phones too! It’s Apple on one side and an entire industry on the other…starting to sound familiar?

Depending on how much memory your cell phone has on it, the purchase of an SD card can extend the things your phone can do. From message storing to photo storing to even the ability of downloading unique ring tones, thanks to a tiny little SD card. The ringtone ability is alone one area where buying an SD card can save you money as opposed to purchasing ringtones for your phone. Granted you have to use an audio editing program to shorten the song in most cases but that’s also easily found online for free…

Highly recommended article from New Scientist – (link) on the recent heat wave and it not being automatically related to global warming. Part of the article:

“Snow chaos: and still they claim it’s global warming.” “Snowmageddon delivers another blow to global warming.” “The mini ice age starts here.”

A few months ago, these were the kind of headlines that were appearing in newspapers and blogs. After very cold winter weather in many parts of the northern hemisphere, the notion of global warming was ripe for mockery. The family of senator Jim Inhofe – who called global warming “a hoax”, built an igloo in Washington DC, with a sign saying “Al Gore’s new home”.

And now? The winter weather has given way to a series of extraordinary heatwaves.

According to meteorologist Jeff Masters, nine countries have recorded their hottest ever temperatures this year, from the 53.5 °C recorded on 26 May in Pakistan to the 44 °C recorded in Russia on 11 July.

If these records are officially confirmed, it will mean more national heat records been set in one year than ever before. So should “global warmists” be crowing about how this record-breaking heat proves they were right all along?

No: the record-breaking heat does not “prove” global warming.

I’ve always had problems remembering to take medication I’m supposed to take, even back when all I had to worry about was taking prenatal vitamins — I’d forget. I’ve bought more than one type of pill reminder since the amount of medications I’m supposed to take daily has increased, but the problem then becomes remembering to actually put the pills in the pill reminder. Then of course remembering to take them. The only advantage to the pill reminder is the times when I can’t remember if I took a pill or not…If I didn’t? It’s still there…

Supposedly because of my anemia, that’s why I’ve become addicted to ice these past few months. As in I can rarely get enough ice and I even take bags of ice to work with me since the ice from the water just takes plain funny to me. So, when I saw these on Think Geek I was drawn…Ice and straws in one. Heaven…

While I’ve been lucky when it comes to my skin, my poor dog has not. She suffers from severe flea allergies which means every summer all it takes is one flea bite for her to start an episode of scratching, biting herself to the point she looses most of her fur (which she has very short fur to begin with as a Manchester terrier) and then ends up with an eczema type condition. After spending hundreds of dollars at the vet, there was no real noticeable difference from just regular bathing, flea prevention medication and time. Every year after the first frost, her fur grows back and she starts to look perfect. Until summer comes…

I don’t remember to put suntan lotion on like I should, but so far this summer I have not gotten burned as I have in summer’s past where days later the peeling would begin. Thankfully while I have Lupus, I am not impacted by the photosensitivity that some suffer from who have the disease. Nor do I have problems with adult acne as some of the members of my former support group used to have to deal with. One of the most common identifiers for some with Lupus is the “butterfly rash” that appears on your face, since my particular form of Lupus impacts/targets internal body organs, I’ve been free of that as well.

For me finding what I want online is easy, since it is a simple matter of knowing what questions to ask, but for many people it’s a challenge (hence why so many people ask me for help in finding things). Soon my “skills” may not be needed since there are attempts to make search engines smarter according to this New Scientist article:

The cut-throat competition among search engines has ensured the operators are keenly attuned to keeping their visitors satisfied. But serving up handy links is a tricky business, especially when we searchers often use ambiguous terms.

Demographic data can help, say Ingmar Weber and Carlos Castillo at Yahoo Research Barcelona, Spain. For example, they say that when US women type in the search term “wagner”, they are most likely to be thinking of the 19th-century German composer. US men, on the other hand, may well be thinking about the makers of spray painters.

By giving a search engine some basic demographic information, such as age, gender and educational background, it is possible to boost the engine’s chances of identifying user intent correctly, say Weber and Castillo. That personal information can be gleaned when people sign up to the other services, such as email, that search engines provide.

Though see for me using the examples cited above – I’d search “Wagner German composer” if that’s who I wanted or “Wagner spray painter” if I wanted that. Then, I’d get what I wanted instead of needing a search engine to guess…

We had a brief heat wave that made sitting outside during the day pretty miserable and was still even a bit too humid after the sun went down. Last night a storm front came through and brought cooler temperatures with it. I spent a good part of today working from outside on my netbook enjoying my patio cushions, a nice breeze and some sunshine. I made myself a nice tall Arnold Palmer and tried to relax a bit…

Very interesting story on New Scientist about fireflies and why their lights flash in different patterns as well as why they synchronize – (link). I thought I knew a bit about these wonderful bugs, I was surprised…

Different species of firefly flash different patterns, and females respond to male flashing with a light pattern of their own. That suggests that the synchronous flashing allows females to spot males of the same species, but no one had put the fireflies to the test to find out for sure.

To do this, Andrew Moiseff of the University of Connecticut in Storrs and Jonathan Copeland at the State University of New York at Stony Brook turned to LEDs. They put female synchronous fireflies (Photinus carolinus) in a Petri dish surrounded by green LEDs, and flashed the lights in the same pattern used by male fireflies.

The females responded with their signature pattern 82 per cent of the time – but only if the LEDs were synchronised. When the lights did not flash in unison, female response dropped to 10 per cent or less.