Saturday, December 30, 2006

Walk Or Dance Your Way To A Cleaner House


A new pair of shoes have been invented that vacuum as you walk.

These vacuum shoes, which makers Electrolux call the Dustmate, have a tiny rechargeable vacuum inside the base.

The shoes are made of green nylon with a flexible rubber sole and elastic sock to fit any foot making it comfortable to wear.

A spokesman for Electrolux said: "We all have to vacuum our home - this product is designed for busy people who want to keep the housework down to a minimum. Dustmate provides a cleaning solution that doesn't take up any precious free time."

"As you walk, the base of the shoes collect dust on the floor without requiring any effort. It is a simple yet creative cleaning concept."

The designers came up with the invention after asking consumers what they wanted and finding that they were just too busy to spend lots of time doing housework.

The next step would be to make your guests wear these shoes as they walk around your house.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

No Bargains For The Natives


Time works its changes in mysterious ways.

Recently I read the New York Times article about bargain hunters traveling from London to New York because of the dollar’s weak economic performance against the pound.

According to the article in the NYT, the pound was about $1.96, up from about $1.60 four years ago. This was enough to get Londoner’s to come to New York and shop.

“The British are pretty savvy travelers and are pretty keenly aware of the exchange rate,” said Fred Dixon, the vice president for tourism development at NYC & Company. “The British and the Irish will come to New York for a long weekend to shop like we would go to Boston.”

But that is not whole story. On Dec.26th I went to find some homespun after Christmas sale items in the clothing stores on Broadway between Houston and Canal. That stretch of Manhattan features the likes of Banana Republic, American Eagle, and Bloomingdales SoHo, Max Mara, Mexx, Prada, Armani Express and many other known names on the side streets off of Broadway.

Now I wasn’t expecting wholesale prices in the after Christmas sales but I thought there would be quite a few items discounted 30 percent or more.

Not this year, not only were post Christmas prices not very discounted, there were few items on sale.

But shoppers were in a state of frenzy, buying everything in sight.


I was in a state of shock. All that I knew as a New Yorker was at risk. Maybe purchasing at close to wholesale in the city was going the way of the VCR tape deck.

That might be the case. Almost everyone cheerfully carrying a shopping bag was not speaking English. I could recognize German, French, Russian, Spanish, Italian and British English. Those who looked and spoke New York were by and large not buying anything.

I asked Alfonso, the floor manager of Bloomingdales SoHo how many of his current customers were foreign tourists. He replied about 85%. With customers shopping the exchange rate there was little need for his or other stores in the area to drastically reduce prices.

But here, here in the capital of “I can get it wholesale”, those days of discounts may be gone.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Jesus Stolen From Nativity Scene, Replaced With Beer Can

PLAISTOW, N.H. (AP) - A homeowner said Friday that whoever stole the baby Jesus from his manger scene was disrespectful by replacing it with an empty beer can.

Bob Chooljain said that the Jesus figure was stolen from the manger scene on Wednesday night.
Chooljain said that he made the nativity scene more than three decades ago with his children.
“It’s something we kind of did together,” he said.
“You just wonder, what was in the person’s mind that actually did that? What was the reason for it? Why leave the beer can? What’s the connection?” said Chooljain, doesn’t want to press charges.

Wooden cutouts of sheep and cows remain; only two of the three wise men stand on either side of the manger. Chooljain said the third was stolen eight years ago.

Chooljain said he will replace the illuminated figure with another doll for the time being.

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Brown Dress Saga

For one year dancer and activist Alex Martin has refused to change her dress.

It's a simple frock in a warm chocolate color. But, since July 7, 2005, it has played a principal role in Alex's "one-woman show against fashion" and consumerism.

Over the past 365 days, the dress has endured holes, rips, and a perpetually loose waist button.

This website has Alex and her dress’s story

http://littlebrowndress.com/

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

2006 Movie Mistakes


As 2006 draws to a close, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is the clear winner (or loser), with by far the most mistakes of any movie released this year - 147.

Find More Mistakes At: http://www.moviemistakes.com/

Monday, December 18, 2006

Jakarta Hotel Puts $110 Hamburger On Menu

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A hotel in Indonesia is dishing out a hamburger that costs more than twice the monthly minimum wage in some parts of the country.

The $110 (56 pounds) hamburger offered by the Four Seasonss is made of Kobe beef with foie gras, Portobello mushrooms and Korean pears -- served with french fries, of course.

More: http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type

Friday, December 15, 2006

Smell-o-Vision Is Back In A Magazine Near You

Kraft Foods is sponsoring a special holiday issue of Time
Warner’s People magazine that comes with an olfactory
twist: 5 of the 31 Kraft ads in the issue are scratch and sniff.

This will let the readers to experience the smell of one of the
products being advertised i.e., strawberry cheesecake,
cinnamon coffee, cherry Jell-O, and white chocolate.

The issue will be sent to only 1 million of the 2.3 million
subscribers – targeting only women 25-54 households with
children.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Prosecutors won't seek charges for exhumation in Billy the Kid case

PRESCOTT, Ariz - Prosecutors won't seek charges against two men who exhumed the remains of a man who claimed to be the celebrated outlaw Billy the Kid.

Tom Sullivan, former sheriff of Lincoln County, N.M., and Steve Sederwall, former mayor of Capitan, N.M., dug up the bones of John Miller in May 2005. Miller was buried at the state-owned Pioneers' Home Cemetery in Prescott nearly 70 years ago.

"It appears officials in charge of the facility gave permission and the people who were attempting to recover samples of the remains believed they had permission to do so," said Bill FitzGerald, a spokesman for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, which made the decision not to seek charges.

Sullivan and Sederwall obtained DNA from Miller's remains. The samples were sent to a Dallas lab to compare Miller's DNA to blood traces taken from a bench that is believed to be the one Kid's body was placed on after he was shot to death in 1881.

Sullivan and Sederwall have been hunting for the Kid's bones since 2003.

Friday, December 08, 2006

Zombies on the web


A zombie is physically identical to a normal human being, but completely lacks conscious experience. Zombies look and behave like the conscious beings that we know and love, but "all is dark inside."

There is nothing it is like to be a zombie.
On this website you will meet all varieties of zombies, from the Hollywood and Haitian zombies to the little known Philosophical zombie.

http://consc.net/zombies.html

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Survey America - Love & Sex

What surveys say about Americans

Love & Sex

2 out of 5 have married their first love.

Only 4% asked the parents' approval for their bride's hand.

29% of us are virgins when we marry.

56% of men have had sex at work.

60% of men and 54% of women have had a 1-night stand.

Women buy 4 out of every 10 condoms sold.

1 in 5 men proposed on his knees.

6% propose over the phone.