This Red Diamond bathtub is probably the most expensive bathtub ever made, and has pretty interesting elements. Its features include two waterproof HDTVs, GSM remote control, console with massive gold frame (42 g 18 k) and Swarowski crystals. The thing that amazes me is the price, which is no less than $47,200. I wonder where did they come up this this enormous sum? Let’s do some math: 2 HDTVs, no more than $1,000, 42 g of gold, again no more than $1,000, GSM controlling capability, I’ll be kind and award them another $1,000. The small Swarowski crystals are placed on the champagne-support only, so… let’s value them at $2,000. These make a total of $5,000, so, technically, the bathtub itself should worth another $37,000. Read the rest here
When opening an online brokering account it is common practice for
companies such as E-trade and Schwab to send a tiny payment - ranging
from only a few cents to a couple of dollars - to verify that the user
has access to the bank account listed. Services such as Google Checkout
and Paypal use a similar tactic to verify credit and debit cards linked
to accounts.
According to court documents, Californian Michael Largent used an
automated script to open 58,000 such accounts, collecting many
thousands of these small payments into a few personal bank accounts.
Students in public schools have math scores that are just as good if not better than those of students in private schools, according to a new national study.Technorati Tags: School
The research focused across several years on 9,791 kindergarten through fifth-grade students.
"These data provide strong, longitudinal evidence that public schools are at least as effective as private schools in boosting student achievement," said researcher Christopher Lubienski of the University of Illinois.
Combined with other, yet-unpublished studies of the same data, which produced similar findings, "we think this effectively ends the debate about whether private schools are more effective than publics," said Lubienski, whose research has dealt with all aspects of alternative education.
This is important, he said, because many current reforms, such as No Child Left Behind, charter schools and vouchers for private schools, are based on the assumption that private schools offer better education than public schools.
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| Sodium benzoate, also known as E211, is used to stop fizzy drinks going mouldy. Coca-Cola said it had begun withdrawing the additive from Diet Coke in January in response to consumer demand for more natural products. By the end of the year no can or bottle will contain E211. The company plans to remove it from its other products as soon as possible, but said that at present it had not found a satisfactory alternative to replace the additive in some soft drinks with a higher juice content, including Fanta, Dr Pepper, Sprite and Oasis. The chemical is not used in regular Coke. While sodium benzoate occurs naturally in some fruits, it is used in greater strengths by the soft drinks industry. But research by Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology at Sheffield University, found that the additive could switch off parts of DNA, the genetic code in the cells of living creatures, that could be linked to cirrhosis of the liver and Parkinson's disease. However, the Government-backed Committee on Mutagenicity has dismissed the research. |  Diet Coke: Linked to hyperactivity and DNA damage |
Research by Southampton University found that sodium benzoate was one of seven additives - the six others are food colours - hat can lead to hyperactivity in children.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Starving yourself before a long flight may help prevent jet lag, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.
Normally, the body's natural circadian clock in the brain dictates when to wake, eat and sleep, all in response to light. But it seems a second clock takes over when food is scarce, and manipulating this clock might help travelers adjust to new time zones, they said.
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is a website that has aggregated live streaming video sources for almost 3,000 TV channels, and they can all be viewed with just a web browser. Channels originate from over 80 different countries - from Eurosports through to local US governement programming. Make sure you are watching only legal programs.
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UltimateDefrag is revolutionary defrag software that not only lets you defrag, but also considers a more important phenomenon, and that is, the placement of files and folders on your hard drive. With UltimateDefrag you can place the files you want the best performance from onto the faster areas of your hard drive and also get all of your unused data right out of the way and repositioned onto the slower areas of your hard drive in order to make way for the data that you want to place in the “hot” sections of your hard drive where performance is greatest.
Jeff Deck adds an apostrophe to the word mens at a clothing store in Wicker Park on Tuesday. He and his friend Benjamin Herson are traveling across the country correcting spelling and punctuation errors wherever they see them. (Tribune photo by Abel Uribe / April 29, 2008)
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Bobby Jindal, Louisiana's Indian-American governor, is back in contention as presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain's running mate along with two others long rumoured to be on his vice presidential shortlist.
Jindal, 36, who was elected last October as the first Indian-American US governor, has denied that he is interested in the number two spot on the Republican ticket saying he likes his current job.
But fresh speculation about Jindal was sparked by a New York Times report Wednesday that he, Florida Governor Charlie Crist and former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will meet McCain at his home in Arizona.
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For you tea drinkers.... There is a gourmet Tea store that sells all sorts of tea... Try it out at your own risk..
PS: This is not a sponsorship advertisement
I consider grilling chicken as the toughest among all meats. For e.g., you need to cook chicken for atleast 40 minutes on low heat Vs 10 minutes for red meat...
Other Chicken Grill tips:
I just installed Firefox 3 and I have to admit, its pretty cool. Its very fast, loads up in no time.
I strongly recommend upgrading to FF3.
Please note that your extensions might not work. But don't worry, there are hacks for anything nowadays..
Check out this page how to get around that problem.
A more informative page is here
If you don't know where to get FF3, here it is: GetFF3
Netflix's first streaming box is finally here and it's pretty damn brilliant of a set up. First of all, the box is 99 bucks, and designed by Roku. It's fanless and quiet; has HDMI and optical outputs; and is about the size of 5 CD cases stacked together. Any Netflix disc mailing plan over $9 gets you unlimited streaming of almost 10,000 titles. Unlimited! 10K titles! Take that Apple TV and VuDu!
2 of 6 
The following post on depth of field was written by Hawaii photographer Natalie Norton, of natalienortonphoto.com.
We talk a lot around here at Digital Photography School about Depth of Field. I’m writing this based on the assumption that we all understand that in layman terms, “depth of field” is the portion of an image that is in sharp focus. To illustrate: in landscape photography, generally you’re working to achieve a very large depth of field. You want EVERYTHING in the scene to be in sharp focus. With portraits, photographers are often shooting for (lame pun intended) a more shallow depth of field, focusing in on their subjects and working towards fall off or blur in the background. Why do you think this is the case? Clearly to draw focus to the story being told. Well what if you want to tell a different story OR what if you want to tell the same story in a different way? Today let’s talk about depth of field and some ways you can use foreground in a different way to draw a different kind of attention to the story you’re trying to tell. Here are 3 ways to create “story telling images” using foreground to achieve creative depth of field.
I wanted to find the most straight forward illustration I could to get the point across clearly. This shot (left) is from a recent senior portrait session. I wanted to draw attention to the senior, particularly I wanted him to seem strong and capable: READY to take on the world.
The frame of the foliage around him draws attention right to him… it focuses the story of the image. I recognize that foreground used in this way can also be distracting, this image is borderline distracting, I recognize that. You need to be aware of that and be sure to make foreground work for you, not against you.
How to get a shot like this: well I was shooting with a 50mm lens. I got right up close to the foliage that separated Melvin and I. First I tried with auto focus, but because of my proximity to the leaves, I had to switch over and focus manually.
T r u e C r y p t
Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux
Main Features:
* Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.
* Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive.
* Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication).
* Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.
* Provides two levels of plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password:
2) No TrueCrypt volume can be identified (volumes cannot be distinguished from random data).
* Encryption algorithms: AES-256, Serpent, and Twofish. Mode of operation: XTS.
While I was waiting to get an approval from my wife to buy a new PC with UI rich Microsoft's new OS Vista, I stumbled upon this link. I installed some of the apps and thanks to that I don't have to buy a new PC now.
My favorites from the software listed on that website:
Hello foks,
Welcome to my blog world....
I'm going to share my experiences on the following topics:
Bits: Anything Technical / Computer / Electronics / Movies / Photography related
Bites: Anything food related
Enjoy..
Murali
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