XIAM007 - Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Friday, 29 July 2011

Welcome to Iceland, home to the world’s most expansive penis museum - Wanderlust: "Yes, I collect penises" -

Three years ago when a local fisherman found a dead walrus on his property, he cut off its penis and called Sigurdur Hjartarson.

“I’ve taken it off. Do you want it?” he asked, figuring Hjartarson, the curator of the phallological museum located conveniently a few miles away, might be interested in the genitals of what he described as an extremely old, two ton walrus.

Hjartarson was thrilled. His Icelandic Phallological Museum, which houses the world's largest collection of penises and penile parts, had scored another valuable specimen.

To own the private parts of every male mammal living in Iceland, you see — a goal he set for himself years ago — Hjartarson needed a walrus, an animal that‘s becoming rarer every year.

“Collecting penises is like collecting anything. You can never stop, you can never catch up, you can always get a new one, a better one,” Hjartarson said as he reached into the museum's penis-shaped cash register to return some change to a customer, before picking up a phone of the same shape.

The interior of this Icelandic museum or “phalloteca,” as Hjartarson likes to call it, looks like a sinister setting for some morbid bachelorette party. Even the lampshades, which aren’t made to look like penises, are made from bull and lamb scrotum.

“You know, collectors. They can get a little obsessed,” Hjartarson explained.

[39 inches], penis bone 62 cm [24 inches] with both testicles. In formalin.”

What’s left of the walrus today lolls in the museum, pickled like a giant ginger root inside a glass cylinder that's been custom-made to accommodate the impressive piece. It bears the caption: “Member 100 cm

While the walrus is Hjartarson’s favorite piece, it’s not nearly the largest specimen in the phalloteca. That honor belongs to a sperm whale and its intimidating, six foot-long penis.

“This isn’t even the whole thing,” said Hjartarson, explaining that after a whale dies two-thirds of its penis leaks out. He estimates that a sperm whale penis in its entirety is 13 feet in length, and weighs nearly 800 pounds — impressive credentials for an animal who gets to use it once a year, at best.

But not all of the penis specimens on display in Husavik are so frightenly large. That's especially true for the organ filed under the code “D15b."

This one belonged to a human male, a renowned womanizer named Pall Arason who died in January at the age of 95 after claiming to have bedded 296 women (he kept a "gentlemen's scorecard," naturally).

In 1996, Arason agreed to have his penis donated to the museum after his death. He kept his word, although right before he passed away he regretted it had “shriveled embarrassingly” in the last years.

Today the specimen, hair and all, sits among the smaller mammal pieces — rats, rabbits and hamsters whose bits, humiliatingly enough, come with a magnifying glass — in the transparent case with the caption: “Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Member whole, with scrotum and both testicles. In formalin.”

Every year 11,000 visitors make the trek to the northeast of Iceland to this small fishing village about a 6-hour drive from Reykjavik, to see the museum's 276 penile pieces.

Apple iPhone 5: First Look? -

Apple iPhone 5: First Look? -
Iphone-5--9to5mac

It happens every time: When Apple drops hints it has a new product about to hit the market -- in this case the iPhone 5 -- the blogosphere lights up.

The new phone, if you believe what they're saying...will be out Sept. 5...will have a rounded back...a larger screen...won't disconnect calls if you touch the edges...will fly -- well, it won't fly, but the rumors do.

Seth Weintraub, who writes for 9to5mac.com, says, "a tipster sent us some pictures of what he now thinks is the iPhone 5. He caught what he said was likely an Apple employee hunched over the device on the way home from work in San Francisco earlier this week. He told us he was able to get a very good look at the device but the pictures he snapped 'didn’t do it justice.'"

Read more -
http://blogs.abcnews.com/scienceandsociety/2011/07/apple-iphone-5-first-look.html#.TjLoKlmP7YE.email

The Sneaky Genius Of The Twitter In-Stream Ads -

Twitter had been expected to put ads directly in your stream since basically forever, and yesterday it announced it would do it.
So far, so good. Twitter's got to make money somehow.
But what's interesting is how the ads will work, and in particular one feature: you will only see in-stream ads from brands you already follow.
And that's a good thing for everyone: it's more relevant (and less annoying) for users, and it's more targeted to the people advertisers want to reach.
But here's why it's brilliant: if brands want more people to see those ads, they'll want more followers. And Twitter just happens to sell that, through its Promoted Accounts, which suggests accounts you might want to follow.
So to buy one type of ad, brands might very well end up buying another type of ad in the process. Genius.

working really well, because a lot of the advertising spend on Facebook is getting more user to like their fan pages. And that makes sense, because their messages end up seen not just by fans, but by friends of their fans, which is how it'll work on Twitter when ads get retweeted.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-in-stream-ads-2011-7#ixzz1TVVuhU4O

DC bus cams catch drivers running red lights, chatting on cell phones... - lead to 20 firings, 222 suspensions -

Metro has fired 20 bus drivers in the past five months after new cameras filmed them using cell phones while behind the wheel.

The Metrobus cameras have caught bus drivers misbehaving 1,173 times in that period, prompting 222 suspensions for various infractions as well as the 20 firings.

Aimed at the driver's seat, the cameras are intended to help train Metro's bus operators how to better navigate the region's traffic-filled streets. But they also are catching drivers speeding, driving without seat belts and chatting on forbidden cell phones. The most common violation has been running red lights.

The $3 million addition of the cameras in the fall has even caused the agency to take the blame more often for bus crashes. Previously about 35 percent of all Metrobus accidents were deemed "preventable," the agency's way of saying the driver was at least partly to blame for the crash, Metro Assistant General Manager of Bus Service Jack Requa said. Since the cameras were added, the rate has crept up to 40 percent because the agency is seeing things it couldn't before. Metro says drivers could have prevented 351 of the 883 crashes that occurred March through June.

Not all are happy about the repercussions of the new technology, including Jackie Jeter, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 that represents most of the agency's more than 2,400 bus operators.

"It's amazing. When they convinced us to accept the cameras, they lied," she said. "They said it was a training tool."

The cameras constantly film the drivers yet preserve the recordings only when the vehicle makes an unusual move, such as braking too hard, accelerating too quickly or hitting something. The cameras capture the eight seconds before the event that triggers it, then four seconds after, Requa said.

Similar cameras have been used on MetroAccess vehicles for several years. Those have caught 87 MetroAccess operators falling asleep while driving in the past three years, as The Washington Examiner reported in June.

Metro finished installing the cameras on all Metrobuses in November. Officials gave drivers an amnesty period through February before beginning any disciplinary action.

Some drivers tried to turn the cameras away at first, Requa said. But that activated them and caught them in the act.

Since the discipline began, the cameras have been triggered about 5,000 times, according to Requa. But about 80 percent of the time, the driver wasn't doing anything wrong -- and sometimes was doing something right.

Requa said one driver was captured on camera swerving the bus, sending some riders flying. But the driver had been trying to dodge a 4-year-old child who ran across four lanes of traffic to get from one parent to another. The child was not hurt and the driver was praised for doing the right thing.

Still, with 1,173 disciplinary actions made from those images, that means nearly half of all drivers would have been disciplined if every driver had received just one violation in five months. Some drivers are repeat offenders, though.

Arctic scientist who exposed climate threat to polar bear is suspended -

It was seen as one of the most distressing effects of climate change ever recorded: polar bears dying of exhaustion after being stranded between melting patches of Arctic sea ice.

But now the government scientist who first warned of the threat to polar bears in a warming Arctic has been suspended and his work put under official investigation for possible scientific misconduct.

Charles Monnett, a wildlife biologist, oversaw much of the scientific work for the government agency that has been examining drilling in the Arctic. He managed about $50m (£30.5m) in research projects.

Some question why Monnett, employed by the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, has been suspended at this moment. The Obama administration has been accused of hounding the scientist so it can open up the fragile region to drilling by Shell and other big oil companies.

"You have to wonder: this is the guy in charge of all the science in the Arctic and he is being suspended just now as an arm of the interior department is getting ready to make its decision on offshore drilling in the Arctic seas," said Jeff Ruch, president of the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. "This is a cautionary tale with a deeply chilling message for any federal scientist who dares to publish groundbreaking research on conditions in the Arctic."

The group filed an official complaint on Monnett's behalf on Thursday, accusing the government of persecuting the (PDF) scientist and interfering with his work. It seeks his reinstatement and a public apology.

Monnett was on a research flight tracking bowhead whales, in 2004, when he and his colleagues spotted four dead polar bears floating in the water after a storm. The scientists concluded the bears, though typically strong swimmers, had grown exhausted and drowned due to the long distances between patches of solid sea ice. It was the first time scientists had drawn a link between melting Arctic sea ice and a threat to the bears' survival.

Two years later, Monnett and a colleague published an article in the science journal Polar Biology, writing: "Drowning-related deaths of polar bears may increase in the future if the observed trend of regression of pack ice and/or longer open water periods continues."

The paper quickly heightened public concern for the polar bear. Al Gore, citing the paper, used polar bear footage in his film Inconvenient Truth. Campaigners focused on the bears to push George Bush to act on climate change, and in 2008, the government designated the animal a threatened species.

It was the first animal to be classed as a victim of climate change.

In 2010 the Obama administration began an investigation into his work. The scientist was suspended with pay on 18 July. He is said to be under a gagging order and forbidden from communicating with his colleagues. The employee group's complaint alleges that the investigation is a thinly veiled attempt to disrupt scientific work on the Arctic.

Read more -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/28/arctic-scientist-polar-bear-oil

Neanderthals' demise caused by modern human invasion -

Neanderthals died out in Western Europe after a surge of modern humans arrived from Africa and made them a minority in their own land, researchers claim.

The swarm of Homo sapiens onto the continent more than 40,000 years ago left the Neanderthals, who had thrived in the frigid conditions for 300 millennia, outnumbered by a massive 10 to one.

The invasion of so many modern humans overturned the Neanderthals' domination of the land and forced them into fierce competition for food, fuel and other crucial resources.

The scenario, described by Paul Mellars, emeritus professor of prehistory and human evolution at Cambridge University, and his colleague, Jennifer French, is the latest attempt by scientists to explain the mystery of the Neanderthals' demise.

Modern humans, along with environmental factors, have long been suspects in the sudden extinction of our thick-browed relatives, but the nature of their decline is still under debate.

Mellars and French analysed archaeological evidence in Périgord, a former province of southwestern France, which is renowned for its Neanderthal and early human sites. They found that the population of H. sapiens that arrived in the region was at least ten times larger than that of the Neanderthals already settled there.

In particular, the area saw a sharp rise in the number and size of early human sites and the detritus of life they left behind, such as stone tools and the remains of animal carcasses, according to a report in Science.

The researchers believe the sheer pressure of being outnumbered was exacerbated by the social and technological advantages that modern humans displayed, from long-range hunting spears to stronger cooperation and communication. The arrival of modern humans coincided with the appearance of elaborate cave paintings, decorative stones and beads, and imported shells, suggesting H. sapiens had a more complex society than the Neanderthals.

"It was clearly this range of new technological and behavioural innovations which allowed the modern human populations to invade and survive in much larger population numbers than those of the preceding Neanderthals across the whole of the European continent," said Mellars.

"Faced with this kind of competition, the Neanderthals seem to have retreated initially into more marginal and less attractive regions of the continent and eventually, within a space of at most a hundred thousand years, for their populations to have declined to extinction – perhaps accelerated further by sudden climatic deterioration across the continent around 40,000 years ago."

Stop The Presses: The Fed Can Fund The Treasury With Over Half A Trillion In Emergency Capital -

By now some readers may have read ludicrous stories about the Fed coining multi-trillion precious metal coins in a way to loophole the debt ceiling situation. Granted, this plan is so far beyond ridiculous that we have not wasted the time to comment on it. That, however, does not mean that the Fed is powerless to assist the Treasury in a modestly long-term term fix of the debt ceiling fiasco. In fact, as Stone McCarthy's Raymond Stone observes: "The Fed does not want to be a player in this debt ceiling/potential default debate. It didn't want to be a player in the Bear Stearns debacle, or the Lehman situation. But when push comes to shove the Fed will do what it can to avoid a default." In summary there are three avenues that the Fed can pursue in order to help Tim Geithner prolong the cash illusion modestly longer. The three options for Bernanke are to i) book profits; ii) prepay expenses and, yes, iii) sell gold. Combined, these three approaches could squeeze out well over half a trillion dollars, giving the Treasury breathing room not only past August 2, but potentially into 2012! That said, "The Fed would not want to advertise to Congress the possibility of delaying default. It does not want to take Congress off the hook on increasing the debt ceiling." But it will, if it has to, and the end result will be a delay potentially of up to a month. And if it means selling off the Fed's gold, so be it.

The three plans in detail from Stone McCarthy:

Book Profits

The Fed holds roundly $2.6 trln in the System Open Market Account (SOMA). Some of these securities were purchased at a time when market interest rates were substantially above current levels. This subset of SOMA represents securities on which the Fed has unrealised profits. Prior to the onset of the crisis the Fed held roundly $160 bln of Treasuries with maturities in excess of 5 years. These securities have accrued substantial unrealized profits

The Fed could sell some of these securities, book the profits, and then repatriate those profits to the Treasury. If desired, the Fed could reinvest the par value of those securities back into newer Treasuries to maintain the par value of its holdings.

Prepay Expenses

Every week the Fed repatriates its profits to the Treasury. The weekly profits of the Fed largely represent the weekly accrued interest income from the Fed's SOMA, minus interest expense, operating expenses and accrued dividends.
In 2010 the Fed repatriated $79.3 bln of profits to the Treasury. Effectively the accrual of monies to be paid to the Treasury shows up in an expense account (liability) Interest on Federal Reserve Notes (IOFRN). When the payment is actually made to the Treasury each Wednesday, the IOFRN liability on the Fed's balance sheet is reduced and the Treasury deposit account at the Fed is increased by a similar amount.

Over the first 6 months of calendar year 2011 the Fed remitted $46.1 bln to the Treasury, up from $35.3 bln in the comparable period of 2010. In other words, in 2011 the Fed's repatriated profits to the Treasury have been on track to bypass the $79.3 bln of 2010.

Could the Fed prepay IOFRN to the Treasury? In other words, could the Fed pass along profits before the income is actually accrued on the Fed's books? We think the answer is yes, but are not certain. Effectively this would be similar to prepaying any other Fed expense, such as payrolls, rents, etc.

This transaction would effectively reduce the IOFRN liability into negative territory, while increasing the Treasury's deposit by a similar amount. One liability goes down and another goes up.

Gold

The Treasury holds 261,498,899.316 troy ounces of Gold with a book value of $11.041 bln at $42.22/oz. The Treasury has monetarized this gold by issuing to the Federal Reserve gold certificates in an equal amount ($11.041 bln). The monetarization of gold effectively was an accounting entry providing an increase in Fed assets (gold certificates) and an associated increase in the Treasury's cash deposit at the Federal Reserve.

The $42.22/oz official price of gold was last set in 1973. Given that gold is trading above $1,600/oz could the Treasury prevail upon Congress to increase the official price? Would Congress respond under the Gold Reserve Act of 1934? If the official price were reset to $84.44/oz (doubled) the Treasury's deposit at the Fed would rise by $11.041 bln.

The Treasury could elect to de-monetarize gold, taking back the gold certificates from the Fed, and having its cash position reduced by $11.041 bln. After de-monetarizing gold the Treasury could presumably sell gold on the open market. Undoubtedly, such sales would drive the price of gold down from over $1,600/oz, but presumably the Treasury would be able to get a good deal more than the current official rate of $42.22 oz.

So there you have it: combined across all there alternatives, the Fed could probably generate over half a trillion in emergency cash, which would last the country well into next year! So perhaps everyone should immediately forget the relentless lies and fearmongering from Tim Geithner (who could not possible see a US downgrade from AAA as recently as three months ago, which is now imminent) and force the Fed to actually help the one entity that it is supposed to help: the United States, instead of the likes of Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan.

Yes, in the process the Fed's barbarous relic "tradition" will be sold off and the market price will plunge, only to subsequently explode to record highs (although we expect that gold would be then be confiscated from the broader population), but at least in the process this will allow the politicians to finally resolve the long-term problems of this country in whole, instead of the proposed partial resolutions that do nothing but at best slow the rate of debt accumulation.

Don't steal the hotel towels... they're electronically tagged with traceable microchips -

The days of hotel guests helping themselves to towels and robes when they check out could be a thing of the past as high tech gets in to the linen.

One company has come up with a way of adding miniature tags in the expensive materials which were costing hotel managements a fortune to constantly replace.

It has long been assumed, wrongly in most cases, that the smart towelling robes and plush fluffy towels were fair game for guests looking to save some cash at home.

But now beware - they may come with an electronic leash as more and more hotels are turning to new radio frequency chips to keep track of their inventory.

The RFID technology - which stands for radio frequency identification and requires an installed chip that can be read by an electronic reader - has been used by various industries for several years to organise product storage and tally shipments.

Now hotels are using the tech to monitor the whereabouts of bathrobes, bed sheets, duvet covers, bathmats, pool towels and banquet linens.

Up to 20 per cent of hotels' stock typically go missing, estimates William Serbin of Linen Tracking Technology.

The company, which sells trackable linens, has teamed with Fluensee, an inventory tracking technology firm, to market the RFID tags to hotels.

A towel with a chip is about a dollar more than other towels, he says. Bendable and washable, the tags can be read by sensors up to six feet away.

When towels are removed from a closet, for example, a reader station can register how many, so that the closet can be restocked.

Mouthwashing moms less likely to have a preemie -

Expectant mothers who have gum disease are less likely to deliver their babies prematurely if they use mouthwash throughout their pregnancy, a new study suggests.

Pregnant women with gum disease, also called periodontal disease, are known to have more preemies than women with healthy gums.

But it's unclear whether that link is causal, and so whether better oral hygiene would make a difference.

The new study, although not ironclad proof, found that regularly using an alcohol-free mouth rinse appeared to cut women's risk of early labor by about three-quarters.

"I think this is extremely encouraging," said Dr. Steven Offenbacher, a professor at the University of North Carolina's School of Dentistry, who was not involved in this study.

"We haven't known the best way to manage these patients."

The research team, which included staff and funding from Procter and Gamble, the company that markets the mouthwash used in the study, asked 71 pregnant women with gum disease to rinse twice a day for 30 seconds with Crest Pro Health mouthwash. The mouthwash does not contain alcohol.

They compared the number of pre-term births among this group to 155 pregnant women who also had gum disease, but rinsed only with water.

Among the water-only group, 34 mothers -- or about one in five -- delivered their babies prematurely, before 35 weeks of pregnancy.

In the mouthwash group, just four mothers delivered their babies prematurely, which is about one in 20 births.

The difference between the groups "was just incredible," said Dr. Marjorie Jeffcoat, the lead author of the study and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine.

But she pointed out that the women knew which treatment they were getting -- water or mouthwash -- which in principle might have influenced the results.

Jeffcoat's team did not identify why the mouthwash was linked to fewer premature babies, but gum disease might play a role.

Gum disease starts when bacteria on the teeth infect the gums and cause swelling, and pregnancy can exacerbate the condition.

“Mano a Mano en El Bano” - ‘Old Spice guy’ beats Fabio in ‘hunk-off’ video contest -

The Old Spice Guy has won his hunk-off with Fabio.

Former football player Isaiah Mustafa has been lead spokesman for the Procter & Gamble Co. brand of men’s body washes and deodorants for nearly two years, starring in a popular series of marketing campaigns relying heavily on YouTube, Twitter and other social media.

Now, he has held off a playful effort by the Italian model to become “the new Old Spice Guy.”

In a series of videos culminating Thursday, the muscular pitchmen dueled in tongue-in-cheek challenges from one another and viewers.

They held staring and whistling contests, bantered and gave advice on writing love letters and working out. P&G says Mustafa won based on consumer feedback such as “likes” and online comments.

They called the competition “Mano a Mano en El Bano” (hand-to-hand in the bathroom).

Mustafa said he wasn’t worried, even though Fabio has been “the epitome of the sex symbol as a pitchman.”

“Not at all,” he told the Associated Press. “There are so many fans that enjoy the Old Spice Guy, there’s not really a calling for him to disappear.”

Even “the ferocious Ray Lewis,” the Baltimore Ravens football linebacker, has taken a recent turn pitching Old Spice products, Mustafa pointed out.

The campaigns started with Mustafa appearing in a shower clad only in a towel and urging women to look at their man, and then back at him.

Then followed an online video series, including one in which he suggested President Barack Obama could improve poll ratings among women by opening speeches with Mustafa’s “Hello, ladies” greeting.

The campaigns engineered by Portland, Ore.-based agency Wieden+Kennedy won advertising industry awards, boosted Old Spice sales and have been cited by P&G CEO Bob McDonald as a leading example of the power of multimedia marketing.

Brand manager Allison Bolyard said Old Spice will “continue to find a variety of entertaining ways to engage consumers ... we love to surprise our consumers.”

Mustafa said he expects to stay on as Old Spice pitchman “as long as people like the character and are having fun with it.” Meanwhile, he continues to pursue his acting career in TV and movies including small roles in the current comedy “Horrible Bosses” and next year’s “Three Stooges” movie.

Procter & Gamble, maker of consumer products including Pampers diapers, Pantene shampoo and Gillette shavers, is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter earnings Aug. 5.

Read more -

http://www.toronto.com/article/693626