Today's Cool News

I'm Famous

Over the last few weeks here in Texas I've been getting a bazillion subscriptions to my FriendFeed.  Now I know why.

It appears Robert Scoble (if you're a geek you know who that is) has put me on his list of "Top Tech Blogger/FriendFeed/Social Media" types. 

So I guess that means I had better start blogging more. 

My Trip to Dallas, 12 seconds at a time.

I've become a huge fan of 12 seconds and will be updating from the road and during my three to four months minimum in Dallas.

Watch for the updates here and in the meantime enjoy some of my previous 12 seconds extravaganzas.

smi23le on 12seconds.tv

Loma Prieta Loves Me

Stumble of the Day: What Language You Talkin' to Me At?

http://www.bartleby.com/61/images/indoeuro.jpg

Joaquin with Dinosaurs - PG 13

My friend Joaquin Waters has a new documentary out about dinosaurs... but be careful, parental guidance suggested.. (I sure needed some.. Mommy what does Joaquin mean when he talks about mating until all the females are gone?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1qy6Ut6EJM

You Don't Have to be a Woman to be a Lesbian

Did you know that being a Lesbian could be an accident of birth?  So could being a lesbian.

From the Guardian:

Arriving at the tiny airport of Mytilene on the Greek island of Lesbos, I walk past a sign advertising "Lesbian wine". I'm on my way to Eressos, a small Greek village where, I am told, lesbian tourists are 10 a penny. This island in the Aegean Sea is to some lesbians what Torremolinos is to 18-30 holidaymakers - the destination of choice for those who want to sunbathe and party with kindred spirits, and be open about their sexuality.

Lesbians began to visit the island in the 70s, and have been coming back ever since. But now trouble is brewing. Three Lesbians (natives of the island of Lesbos) have submitted a legal challenge in an attempt to stop the Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece (OLKE) from using the term "lesbian". The use of the word to denote a sexual preference derives from the island's association with Sappho, the ancient poet who wrote about her love for women. But according to Dimitris Lambou, editor of the rightwing publication Davlos (Torch), and two female colleagues, using lesbian in this way "disgraces them around the world"; islanders, they say, are suffering "psychological and moral rape", due to being confused with lezzers such as myself.

As Long as You're Snail Mailing, Send Some Bucks to These Critters

So while you have an envelope and pen out to send a letter to Kareem, also take a moment to write a check and snail mail it to help save some critters in Sioux Falls.

Today's Cool News reader Susan Antonitis writes from South Dakota:

Everyone is in love with Peaches.
What a sweet girl, she was on the
brink of death when found in the woods,
thrown out by puppy millers, done with
her,  sold her pups and threw her away.
Starved, with ear infections, dental needed.
teeth to be pulled. Poster dog for why NOT
to buy from PET STORES. Their parents are
treated this way!!!!!!!!! Big Yuck.
Anyway, I ramble on, this is my passion.
Dogs. Rescued dogs.
Any amount anyone can send will be
helpful. We are small potatos, rescue group
in Sioux Falls, SD. Her vet bill is a whopper.

So far Pet Pals for Life doesn't have a PayPal for Life so here's how to help Peaches:

We only have a p.o. box, at this time.
Petpalsforlife
P.o.Box 173
Sioux Falls, SD. 57105
(any amount will help out)
We are completely non profit, 501C3
and have Tax Id #'s.)

So if you can, please help out Susan and Peaches.  I will add a picture of Peaches and a link to this post to the sidebar of the blog to help you remember. 

Why I Love Grace Davis aka Why I Joined the Kegel "Photostream"

I must live a sheltered life because while I once knew a guy who filed a report with AP radio sigging out as "Charles Smegma", I had never come across the concept of Kegel before receiving a wonderful Flickr group invite from one of my favorite people in the world, Grace Davis:

Take a self portrait of yourself while performing a Kegel.

What's a Kegel, you say? Let's ask the pros at the Mayo Clinic:

"Try to stop the flow of urine while you're going to the bathroom. If you succeed, you've got the basic move."

"Try it at frequent intervals for five seconds at a time, four or five times in a row. Work up to keeping the muscles contracted for 10 seconds at a time, relaxing for 10 seconds between contractions."

Thus, the Kegel in four steps:
Squeeze!
Hold!
Release!
Repeat!

Kegels can be done anywhere and anytime. Kegels may be overt or covert. You can be Kegeling without anyone knowing! Or, you can announce the execution of a Kegel, and your companion will probably join you with enthusiasm!

In this flickr group, we will Kegel anyway we want, so long as we capture our likeness while in Kegel mode.

The International Kegel Moment for World Peace is proposed for Saturday, May 10, 2008, as a lead-in event to Mother's Day on Sunday, May 11th. At 12 noon Pacific Time, perform 10 Kegels, holding each for 5 counts. What might happen? Let's give it a squeeze and find out!

Okay here goes:

Is a Dominatrix with a Holistic Approach a Ho? Apparently in the New York Times...

The fallout of the Spitzer scandal continues to cause fits and starts at the New York Times... Maybe the Grey Lady should leave these stories to the tabloids.

From the New York Times (editor's note at bottom);

An article on March 16 profiling three sex workers in the wake of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s resignation after revelations that he patronized prostitutes misconstrued how two of the women, identified by the pseudonyms Faith O’Donnell and Sally Anderson, said they earned a living. The resulting misrepresentation of the two women’s work included a headline that referred to them as “high-priced call girls” and a paragraph that said they practiced “the 21st-century version of the oldest profession.”

The reporter who interviewed them, one of two who worked on the article, never explicitly asked the women whether they traded sex for money or were prostitutes, call girls or escorts; he used the term “sex workers,” a term they used themselves that describes strippers and lap dancers as well as prostitutes. Though Ms. Anderson advertises herself as a “dominatrix with a holistic approach,” he did not ask her whether that meant she also performed sex acts for money, nor did he ask Ms. O’Donnell what her work actually was before characterizing it. He and the editors should have explored whether he had determined these things precisely.

After the article was published, both women contacted The Times and said they do not perform sex for money; Ms. O’Donnell refused to be specific about what she does.

By the Whiskers of My Robotic Rat

Do you smell a rat?  Well, it just may be that the rats around this place were recently oiled.

Such a conversation could be in our futures now the scientists are trying to develop robotic rats for dangerous missions like rescue operations and deep space exploration.  Why does the world need robotic rats?  The answer is in the whiskers.

From TFOT (The Future of Things):

Scientists from Europe, Israel, and the USA are developing 'robotic rats' that will be able to aid in rescue operations and carry out planetary research missions. Nine research groups from seven countries are collaborating on this initiative, which was recently set up with the aim of imitating nature.

Active sensing is widely common in the animal kingdom. For example, rats’ whiskers function as active sensors. A multinational team was recently assembled in order to develop a series of innovative tactile technologies, including a 'whiskered' robotic rat, which will be capable of quickly locating, identifying and capturing moving objects. "The use of touch in the design of artificial intelligence systems has been largely overlooked, until now," says Professor Ehud Ahissar of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Neurobiology Department, who is taking part in the project.

(snip)

Why is the sense of touch in a rat’s whiskers so much more efficient than that of the average person’s finger tips? The consortium’s teams have managed to provide some answers to this question. One of the explanations relates to the way in which the sensory system works; whiskers actively sweep back and forth repetitively, accumulating information about their surroundings. The sensing begins in the neurons at the whiskers’ bases, which ‘fire’ signals to the brain. Further experiments have shown that the way in which a rat uses its whiskers is context-dependent. For example, the seemingly simple act of feeling out a 3-D object requires three different types of code, each encoding a different dimension and calculating the horizontal, the vertical, and the radial distance of the object from the whisker base. 

TFOT has some great links to the world of robotics... if I do say so by the hair of my chinny chin chin.  Oh, that's right I shaved it off.