patti labelle blog: September 2006

Amercan's Worst City For Sleeping Is Atlanta

A survey funded by Sanofi-Aventis, the world's 3rd largest pharmaceutical company found.

The Big Peach was the pits in a ranking based on survey data and on factors that deprived people of sleep like commute times, divorce and unemployment rates.

Atlanta residents reported an average of 9.7 days of poor sleep each month, more than the 8.4 average reported for the 50 metropolitan areas studied. The commute time was about 34 minutes in Atlanta, above the 30 minute average. Divorce and unemployment rates were slightly above average as well.

Nashville, Houston, New York and St. Louis followed Atlanta at the top of the list of worst places to snooze.

The best cities for sleep were in California — Anaheim and Los Angeles were No. 1 and No. 2. Raleigh-Durham, N.C., Minneapolis and Chicago rounded out the best list.

Videos From Yahoo Hackday

Can't stop help laughing when watching those extreme-nerdy things happened on the Yahoo Hackday convention. Go and check , sure you will be stunned too!

Video: Funeral For A Pet Fish

This is what happens when girls at a strange boarding school have nothing better to do at 1:53 in the morning: they gather together in the handicapped bathroom stall to mourn the death of a pet fish.

Video: Oops, Turtles Mate In The Middle Of Road

A hilarious turtle's courtship video.

Video: Angry Professor

Obviously, he gets a little distracted with a student using a cell phone...

Video: Painter Sketch

This animated sketch -- made with acrylic paint, a canvas, and a Super-8 camera propped up on a ladder -- was a preliminary test for a longer animated project that I never got around to. The footage is from 1993. The soundtrack is from now.

All You Need Is Ubuntu

Ubuntu does not only mean the open-source operating system, but more than that.

Ubuntu. That was what Bill Clinton told the Labour party conference it needed to remember this week. "Society is important because of Ubuntu."

But what is it? Left-leaning sudoku? U2's latest album? Fish-friendly sushi?

No, it's a word describing an African worldview, which translates as "I am because you are," and which means that individuals need other people to be fulfilled.

The former president, husky-voiced and down-home with the delegates, gave it a folksy flavour, describing it in terms of needing to be around others to enjoy being ourselves.

"If we were the most beautiful, the most intelligent, the most wealthy, the most powerful person - and then found all of a sudden that we were alone on the planet, it wouldn't amount to a hill of beans," said Mr Clinton.

Video: My Cubicle

My cubicle, a very funny and entertaining parody of James Blunt's hit song You're Beautiful.

3-Years-Old Jack Neal Bought Vintage Nissan Car On eBay

Jack Neal briefly became the proud owner of a pink convertible car after he managed to buy it for 9,000 pounds ($17,000) on the Internet despite being only three years old.

Jack's mother told the BBC she had left her password for the eBay auction site in her computer and her son used the "buy it now" option to complete the purchase.

"Jack's a whiz on the PC and just pressed all the right buttons," Rachel Neal said.

The seller of the second-hand car, a dealer from Worcestershire, central England, was amused by the bid and agreed not to force the sale through.

4 Is The Unlucky Number In China

I bought a phone number in Beijing several days ago. It’s surprising that they are differently priced depending on whether certain number is ncluded. The one including “four” costs 40 yuan, and those without “four” is much higher. It’s said that “four” is unlucky number in China.. But I bought the cheapest one including “four” because I didn’t believe in that. However, misfortune came one after another since I got this phone number. My purse lost; my cell phone broke; my bike was stolen…

Anna Nicole Smith's Daughter Fathered By Her Mother's Attorney?

Anna Nicole Smith's daughter, named Dannie Lynn Hope, was born on Sept. 7 at a hospital in Nassau, Bahamas. If not her brother's sudden death, the girl not known who fathered at the time would be most probably not well-known by the world. Howard K. Stern, the personal attorney of former Playboy Playmate and reality television star confessed on CNN's Larry King Live that he is Dannie's father.

"Anna and I have been in a relationship and we love each other, and it's been going on for a very long time, and because of my relationship as her lawyer, we felt that it was best to keep everything hidden," Stern said, "I think based on the timing of it, there shouldn't be a doubt."

Secrets Of Mona Lisa Revealed, She Was A New Mother !

Bruno Mottin of the French [Louvre] Museums' Centre for Research and Restoration said that on very close examination of the painting it became clear that the Mona Lisa's dress was covered in a thin transparent gauze veil.
"This type of gauze dress ... was typical of the kind worn in early 16th century Italy by women who were pregnant or who had just given birth. This is something that had never been seen up to now because the painting was always judged to be dark and difficult to examine," he told a news conference.
"We can now say that this painting by Leonardo da Vinci was painted to commemorate the birth of the second son of the Mona Lisa, which helps us to date it more precisely to around 1503."

Wild Man With 2-M-Long Hair & 1.5-M-Long Beard

80-year-old Luo Shiyuan wears his 2-meter-long hair over head at a wild animal zoo in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality Wednesday, September 27, 2006. Luo, who lives in a remote mountain in Chongqing, has been growing his hair and beard for 30 years, which stand at 2 meters and 1.5 meters long respectively. With his grey and unkempt hair, Luo is hailed as a wild man.

Update: Finally Mr. Luo washed his hair and beard, the resultant washed dirty water may make you vomit!

Apple Does Not Fall

A photo spotted on the first female space tourist Anousheh Ansari's flickr account called Space Explorer! The amateur astronaut looks and hears very happy in the space! via Cynical-C

One-Thousand-Hands Bodhisattva

Wonderful!

Members of the Chinese Disabled Persons' Art Performing Troupe perform their best know work 'Bodhisattva with 1,000 hands' dance to celebrate the first anniversary of Aichi Expo opening in Nagoya, central Japan Monday night, Sept. 25, 2006.

Weird Japanese Transparent Mini Skirt

More on Sohu Forum. Actually these bottom pictures cycled online quite long time ago (I think, it should be two years ago), it's weird that nowadays a phrase of 全透明裙子 (totally transparent skirt) re-surfaced among the top popular searched phrases in a Chinese search engine SoSo. Actually the skirt is just impressed the lingerie pantyhose, while not genuinely transparent.

World's Most Expensive Freehold Island Sale For $75 million

[Sale for $75 million] Vatu Vara island is claimed to be the most expensive freehold island in the world.

It is often nicknamed Hat Island because of its unusual shape — the top of its peak is flat because it was once at sea level. It is part of the Lau group of islands and its peak dominates the surrounding skyline. It is said to be one of the last four freehold islands to come on to the market in Fiji.

via BornRich

Carl Mertens' Table Top Fireplace

From Unicahome.com

The table top fireplace by carl mertens is nothing short of beautiful. unlike any other oil lamps around, this faux fireplace creates a focal point and radiates light and warmth for the table top. the 18/10 stainless steel logs are sleek and contemporary and are further highlighted by the natural feel of the slate base. base dimensions are 10 by 14 inches.

Video: Bill Clinton Smacks Down Fox News

The ex-president sets the record straight on his efforts to combat terrorism, the Bush administration's record of dismal failure and the tactics of Fox News.

Giant Drum

I saw this picture on China Daily website some days ago, but did not post it here until at least two blogs have blogged or constructed the link to it.

Liu Zhibin and his wife sit atop the "First Drum under Heaven" Tuesday in Shangchuankou Village in Yangling, northwest China's Shannxi Province. The drum, with a diameter of 3.68 meters and a height of 1.98 meters, took the couple and 12 other drum makers 108 days to finish. The drum makers plan to apply for Guinness World Record for the drum.

Anyone one notice something amuzing about this picute? Heh, doesn't the woman in the picture look like Furong Jiejie (芙蓉姐姐, Sister Lotus)?

Kate Hudson's Left Foot Has Six Toes!

Some one just exposed the secret on the left foot of Katie who played the role of Molly Peterson in You, Me and Dupree released this July.

World's Most Expensive Jam

Duerr's [an English jam manufacturer] has produced what it says is the world's most expensive jar of marmalade, making breakfast a pricey proposition at 76 pounds (113 euros, 145 dollars) per slice of toast. The one kilo (2.2 pounds) jar costs 5,000 pounds (7,420 euros, 9,500 US dollars) and contains generous lashings of 62-year-old Dalmore malt whisky and Pol Roger vintage champagne, as well as edible gold leaf.

Howler Monkey

A howler monkey, a species in risk of extinction, is seen at the zoo of Asuncion, 22 September 2006. The animal was found in Guayaibi, 450km north from the Paraguayan capital and taken to the zoo to be cured from injuries. It will later be freed as it cannot live in captivity. Howler monkeys range in size from 56 to 92cm, excluding their tail which can be just as long. They have a lifespan of 15 to 20 years and are native to South and Central American forests.

Shanghai Leader Chen Liangyu Sacked!

When living in Shanghai for quite some years, I did have a positive impress at Mr. Chen Liangyu (陈良宇), then vice-Mayor, mayor & later the city General Secretary of Party. Now when I am reading news titles from the subscribed RSS, I learned he was dismissed by being accused of violating discipline and law [links to Xinhua (in Chinese) or to BBC (in English)]. Snips of AP report seemly have other aspects of the case.

Shanghai is a bastion of Hu's predecessor, Jiang Zemin, and Chen's removal could be part of a strategy to weaken rivals in the collective leadership for Hu to better position himself and the allies he wants to maneuver into place.

Chen was viewed as a Jiang protege and therefore an ally in the former leader's attempts to wield influence even in retirement. He reportedly clashed with Premier Wen Jiabao over Beijing's efforts to cool economic growth, lobbying instead for ambitious infrastructure projects for China's wealthiest and most populous city.

"It's a serious warning to corrupt officials and to those who don't toe the party line," said Joseph Cheng, director of the Contemporary China Research Center at Hong Kong's City University.

Major reshuffles of local leaders are planned for many areas ahead of the congress, the Beijing-linked Hong Kong newspaper Wei Wei Po reported Monday. It said local leaders who have defied Beijing's economic policies would be singled out.

With his protector Jiang now descending into political obscurity, Chen could face a lengthy jail term or other harsh punishments.

"Sacking Chen shows that Jiang has no power to protect his proteges and is in no position to affect the choice of new leaders," said City University's Cheng.

Chen was last seen in public on Friday at a meeting of chief justices from China, Russia and four Central Asian states. Mayor Han also attended, but neither man spoke in public.

It was unclear what impact, if any, the scandal may have on Vice Premier Huang Ju, the most senior leader in the Shanghai faction and sixth-highest ranking Communist Party official.

Huang disappeared from the political scene early this year amid reports that he had cancer. But in recent months he has made a number of public appearances.

Video: Thief Hacked ATM Machine And Get Cash Notes Bigger Than Expected

CNN reported the story. Below is a short summary on the case from Neatorama

A clever criminal hacked a gas station ATM into thinking that it’s dispensing $5, when in reality it’s dispensing $20 (he used an untraceable ATM giftcard). What’s worse, the thief probably got the master password for the ATM on the manufacturer’s website!

Astronaut Collapses

When giving a speech to a crowd in Houston one day after finishing a perfect 12-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS), Astronaut Heidemarie Piper, maybe her body still needs sometime to get used to the gravity of the Earth, really fell back to the podium two times, a Reuters video shows.

Video: Psycho Throws A Hand Grenade At Cops

Crazy!

Korea's Most Popular Names Mirrors Changing Times

Korea’s most popular names during the last 30 years include Jeong-hun and Min-joon for boys and Mi-young and Seo-yeon for girls; 60 years ago, they were Young-soo and Young-ja. The Chosun Ilbo with the help of the Supreme Court surveyed the names of babies born in 30-year intervals -- in 1945, 1975 and 2005 -- to discover the 10 most popular names in each generation. In proof that naming of children reflects the times, no single name from one generation made it into the top 10 of the next. Experts in onomastics (the study of naming) say that names reflect the state of things in the era when they were used.

Boys born in 1945, when Korea had just been liberated from Japanese colonial rule, were often given names with the chinese character “young (永)” - which means long-- such as Young-soo, Young-ho and Young-shik. Onomastician Lee Dong-woo says this is because parents at the time wished that their sons should live a long life. In fact, the average life span of Korean men at the time stood at only 35 years because of disease and the military draft. For women, Japanese-style names that included the Chinese character “ja (子)” (equivalent to the Japanese “ko” as in Yoko) at the end were popular, such as Young-ja, Jeong-ja and Soon-ja. Jeong-soon in ninth place was the only one that did not include “ja” in the top 10, showing how Japanese rule still heavily affected Korean society. However, some say that “ja,” which also means “son,” was so popular because people at the time preferred sons to daughters and wanted to ease their disappointment at having a girl.

In 1975 when they became parents in turn, the ja’s and Young’s chose Jeong-hun, Seong-ho, Seong-hun, Seong-jin and Jeong-ho for their sons. The names mostly have the Chinese characters “seong (成)” and “hun (勳), which mean success and achievement, reflecting parents’ wish for their children’s social success and career achievement at a time when the country was experiencing rapid economic growth. For girls, feminine names like Mi-young, Eun-jeong, Eun-ju, Eun-young and Hyun-ju were popular. But in 2005 children of both sexes were often given androgynous names, like Ji-won and Su-min -- a break from the past, when the sexes could be clearly distinguished by their names.

Interesting!

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Scientists combing through undersea fauna off Indonesia's Papua province said Monday they had discovered dozens of new species, including a shark that walks on its fins and a shrimp that looks like a praying mantis.

The team from U.S.-based Conservation International also warned that the area _ known as Bird's Head Seascape _ is under danger from fishermen who use dynamite and cyanide to net their catches and called on Indonesia's government to do more to protect it.

Atlantis Shuttle Safely Back To Earth

The shuttle made a perfect landing on runway 33 at Nasa's Kennedy Space Center just after 0621 EDT (1021 GMT), ending a 12-day mission to re-start construction of the International Space Station (ISS).

"Nice to be back. It was a great team effort. Assembly is off to a good start," said Atlantis' commander Brent Jett after the landing.

Flora Bush: The Child Left Behind

On November 25th, 1981, George W. Bush became the loving father of twins. Unfortunately, Mom gave birth to triplets.

Hello, America. I'm Flora Bush, the daughter the President doesn't want you to know about. I'm a Democrat! I'm a punk!

via Ratner Gazette

Video: Rotoscoped Anime Mashup The Race

The most incredible piece of mashup video made from over100 cartoons the boinger Cory Doctorow has ever seen by the producer in Istiv Studio.

Video: 4-Years-Old Igor Falecki Is A Drummer!

The Poland boy is rocking the drum kit just like nobody's business!

Oregon Crater Lake

With an average depth of 350 meters or 1,148 feet, Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States.

Crater Lake is formed from the caldera of Mount Mazama. Part of the Cascades volcanic chain, Mount Mazama sits between the Three Sisters volcanoes to the north and Mount Shasta to the south. The catastrophic eruption of Mount Mazama that occurred approximately 7,700 years ago destroyed the volcano while simultaneously forming the basin for Crater Lake. Eruptive activity continued in the region for perhaps a few hundred years after the major eruption. Evidence of this activity lingers in volcanic rocks, lava flows, and domes beneath the lake surface; the small cone of Wizard Island is the only visible portion of these younger rocks.

Blog--My Father's Hand

My father can no longer hold a pen. He is in a wheelchair and is suffering from Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Here are some of his drawings.

via

Crabfu Steamworks

American game animator I-Wei Huang (via Wired News) loves making steam-powered robots by using the recycled materials, so far his gallery called Crabfu Steamworks has included Steam Hauler (picture above), Steam Tank, Steam Rover, Steam Crab, Steam LocoCentipede, and Steam Trilobite Tank among others.

via TechEblog

German Art Student Wannabe Terra Cotta Warrior

From Neatorama:

This is odd. Very odd - A german student made a dusty brown suit of armor, a tunic and a helmet, and jumped into an open pit to join the famous terra cotta army in Xian, China.
When approached by a security staff, the man stayed "in character" and refused to utter a word! But finally, they dragged him out.

Video: Lindsay Lohan Beach Boxing

Lindsay Lohan was rushed to New York St. Vincent's Hospital with a fractured wrist after slipping and falling at the Milk Studios in New York (via). But long before, the 20-years-old actress had already havd a boxing in the beach. Oh, another buzz about this celeb is that she was recently spotted clearly-shaven vejayjay!

Free Video Editing Softwares For Various OS

For Windows:

Windows Movie Maker http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/default.mspx or http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp
Virtual dub http://www.virtualdub.org/
WAX http://www.debugmode.com/wax/
Zwei-Stein http://www.thugsatbay.com/tab/?q=zweistein
Avedit http://www.am-soft.ru/aviedit.html
Chopper XP http://www.digital-miner.com/chopperxp.html
Virtual Edit http://www.virtualedit.net/home.htm
DDClip Free 2.23 http://www.softlab-nsk.com/ddclipro/free.html
Avid Free DV http://www.avid.com/freedv/

For Mac OS X:

iMovie http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/
Avid Free DV http://www.avid.com/freedv/

For Linux:

via Tv.isg.si

Video: Male Restroom Etiquette

All men of the world can find common ground in these simple rules of "evacuation" etiquette.

Teenage Heroism Not Couraged Now In China

A dozen years ago, Chinese teenagers were besieged in a nation-wide wave to learn from a late juvenile hero, Lai Ning (1974-1988). The native of the southwestern province of Sichuan died trying to put out a forest fire when he was only 14 years old.

In November 1988, Lai was named a 'revolutionary martyr' and held up as an example for other teenagers to follow.

However, in today's China, Lai has been replaced by stylish pop stars from Taiwan or Hong Kong, such as Jay Chou and S.H.E (A three-member pop music group comprised of Taiwanese native Selina Ren, Hebe Tian and Ella Chen), in teenagers minds, and people are struggling to find an answer to whether it's right or not.

Terms in China's Conduct Code of Pupils, such as 'Do not be scared to fight' and 'Try to save others in danger' have been replaced by 'Reporting the danger to others' and 'Learning to protect oneself.'

What's more, China's Ministry of Education discourages teenage heroism in the Measures for Primary School, Middle School and Kindergartens on safety management, which came to effect September 1, saying schools are not allowed to deploy under-age students for emergency rescue work.

Japanese Doomsday Cult Leader Sentenced To Be Hung

Shoko Asahara (麻原彰晃), the founder of Aum Shinrikyo, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto (松本智津夫), was ultimately responsible for ordering cult members to release the nerve gas into Tokyo subway trains.

From Japanese Times

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a special appeal filed by lawyers for Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara, finalizing the death sentence for the man who masterminded the cult's horrific nerve gas attacks on the Tokyo subway system in 1995.

The decision by the top court's Third Petty Bench, led by Justice Yukio Horigome, concludes the trial of the 51-year-old mass murderer that ran for more than a decade. Asahara was initially sentenced to death in 2004 for his role in 13 crimes, including the subway sarin attacks, which killed 12 people and injured some 5,500.

Video: Mr. Bean's Fujifilm Ads

This is very funny!

Video: Kid thinks he's falling from ride. Stepmom is laughing hysterically!

This poor kid thinks he's falling out of an amusement park ride, although he actually is strapped in tight. This is a very rare real combination of horror and laughter captured within the same sequence.

Canadian Gunman Killed By Himself, Not Police

Kimveer Gill fullfilled his ambition to die in a hail of bullets.

The man who went on a shooting spree at a college in the Canadian city of Montreal died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, police say.

The police had said 25-year-old Kimveer Gill, who killed a young woman and injured 19 other people at Dawson College, was gunned down by officers.

But a post-mortem examination revealed that a wound in his arm from a police bullet was not fatal.

Tags: kimveer gill montreal gunman

Astronomers Renamed Xena As Eris

The distant world whose discovery prompted leading astronomers to demote Pluto from the rank of "planet" has now been given its own official name.

Having caused so much consternation in the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the object has been called Eris, after the Greek goddess of discord. Eris' discoverer, Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology, called it "too perfect to resist".

Eris [wiki] is larger than Pluto, which put scientists in the fix of having to call them both planets - or neither. Both bodies have now been put in the new classification of "dwarf planets".

In mythology, Eris caused a quarrel among goddesses that sparked the Trojan War. In real life, Eris also caused strife, forcing scientists to produce a strict definition of the term planet - and that eventually led to Pluto losing the status it had held since its discovery in 1930.

After 30 Years, Mao's Glory Still Shines

However, the world's fourth-largest economy with an annual economic growth of 10.3 per cent is witnessing changes in the way people perceive Mao, who was once painted as the savior of the most populous nation in the world.

Where before people carried Mao's red book with them as a source of inspiration, now Chinese entrepreneurs are turning to Mao's warfare tactics to earn profits.

Naobaijin, a popular tonic medicine sweeping across China, earned its profits and fame from using the ideas behind Mao's 'countryside surrounding city' and 'mass warfare' tactics in its advertising and sales campaigns, Zhou Dajiang, the author of Dang Shi Shang Jian, which turns Mao's tactics into business transactions, told the magazine.

But for China, which had gone through the agony of a civil war and the Japanese invasion from 1937 to 1945, Mao's glory will never fade from the public consciousness, even though people are becoming more practical in the way they use his teachings. Mao is the leader who helped relieve the suffering of the Chinese people.

A statue in Nanjie, a small village in central China's Henan Province is imprinted with the phrase, 'Chairman Mao is not a god, but his thoughts are better than god."

Angel of Death

The gunman of Montreal Dawson College, was identified as Kimveer Gill of Laval, Quebec. He called himself "Angel of Death"in his online dairy on vampirefreaks.com. Read more on CNN, or CBC .

Solartrike

A novel enviroment-friendly transportation!

The “Solartrike” is a solar-powered bike that “can go 15-18mph and 10 miles per charge.” It sports either a 200W or 400W motor, 80W solar panel, and a 2×2 square steel frame.

Video: Top Gear Fab 1, the Big, Pinky Ford Vechile

Fab One, a product as Ford’s primary involvement with the movie Thunderbirds, is a stunning pink, 27-foot, six-wheel/bubble canopy vehicle, which can transform between car, plane, hydrofoil and features clear Ford Thunderbird design cues. James May's test driving on the humorous car was taped in the video. via TechEBlog

Video:The Hubble Deep Field: The Most Important Image Ever Taken

One of my inspirations for starting this website came from the profound experience I had when looking at the Hubble Deep Field images for the first time. I felt I was looking at the most important image humanity had ever taken.

It was important because for the first time, I got a real feeling for just how immense the universe actually is. It's absolutely mind-blowing if you stop to think about it, that by looking at a patch of sky that appears to have nothing in it, and you stare at it long enough, you see an image full of galaxies.

To fully convey how I feel about the Deep Field images, I composed the following video:

Linday Lohan Exposed

Oh, my godness! Lindsay Lohan is Aa Firecrotch babe now! via Gossipin.

Gunman Rampage In Dawson College

Horrific!

Dawson College students described how the shooting began at about 1245 local time, and how a total of 20 shots were heard over a half-hour period.

One witness described how the gunman, dressed in a black trench coat and military boots and with a Mohawk haircut, appeared emotionless as he fired his weapons.

"He said nothing. He had a stone cold face... He just started opening fire," said student Soher Marous.

Others told of how he pursued terrified students along corridors and up stairwells.

Those who could not escape barricaded the doors to classrooms and hid themselves under their desks.

The man was shot dead and no one knows why he did such rampage.

Video: Funny Old Dude Bitching About Coffee At Starbucks

New Multicolored Bird Discovered In India

The striking multi-coloured Bugun Liocichla was discovered in India's remote northeast, making it the first ornithological find in the country in more than half a century, experts said on Tuesday. The Bugun Liocichla, scientifically known as Liocichla bugunorum, a kind of babbler, was discovered in May at the Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary in India's hilly state of Arunachal Pradesh, bordering China. Picture taken May 25, 2006. REUTERS/Ramana Athreya

The War Over Salt

Salt is not as safe as we think it.

Sprinkled into everything from bread to cheese, soups and breakfast cereal, just about every fast-food restaurant meal and now even fresh cuts of meat, salt is ubiquitous in the American food supply. And according to government data, Americans eat far too much of it.

Now the nation’s largest doctors’ group, the American Medical Association, is going after the government and the food industry to reduce what it sees as a persistently high level of salt in many processed foods. At its annual meeting in late June, the medical association recommended that the Food and Drug Administration limit the amount of salt that food companies are allowed to add to products.

Specifically, the medical association, which had never before called for regulation of a food ingredient, asked the F.D.A. to revoke salt’s long-time status as a substance that is “generally recognized as safe,” a classification that warrants little oversight. Instead, the F.D.A. should regulate salt as a food additive, the medical group said.

If the recommendation were adopted, packaged-food companies would have to adhere to limits on allowable sodium levels for various categories of food, and speed up the search for an alternative to salt as a preservative and flavor enhancer.

The initiative has thrust salt into the limelight as a public health concern and raised questions over how attentive the F.D.A. has been to the problem of excess sodium consumption.

Video: Monkey Loves Cat

David Pescovitz writes

In this video, a monkey [on a chain] protects his cat pal from a chicken poking around. The soundtrack is the sweet song "J'Taime" as sung by Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg.

Wooden Flash Memory

Imagine you have a laptop or a personal computer and have a memory stick for data recovery. But this one is made of wood so now the whole thing looks like something is going out of your laptop and it’s a tree. It’s really funny!

Ultralight Panasonic Toughbook T5 Laptop Has An Armstrap

This is the T5 ($1,899), an ultralight toughbook with touchscreen and - get this - a hand strap. You hold it like a book and rather than having a swivel screen, you just tap on the 12-inch TFT.

via Gizmodo

Top Five Strangest Japanese USB Gadgets

TechEblog editors have compiled a list of the five strangest Japanese USB gadgets. The USB Egg by Japanese Evergreen ranks the No. 5.

In addition to being a USB 2.0 hub, the device also sports 2W stereo speakers and a 3-in-1 memory card reader (SD/CF/Media Stick) .

Video: Ads For 2nd-Generation iPod Nano

Before viewing the short clip (via TechEblog), below is a brief review of Apple's new iPod Nano by Gizmodo:

Battery life increased from 15 to 24 hours, gapless playback, instant search like the big iPod, and quick scrolling. Comes with the new headphones.

Comes in three models, 2GB model in silver, 4GB in silver, pink, green, blue, and 8GB in black. $149 for 2GB, $199 for 4GB, $249 for 8GB model. Double the storage for the same price. New packaging is 52% less volume than the old iPod nano. It's more "environmentally friendly".

The new nano works with the charger, the armband, lanyard, and works with the Nike Shoe.

Cute Baby Spacecraft

Indeed cute! via Wangtam

42 Most Famous Banned Book On Google Book Search

To join the upcoming Banned Books Week from Sept. 23-30, Google provides 42 most famous books (enlisted below) challenged throughout the years (via Gseeker). Now you do have freedom to read!

The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald "It is humor, irony, ribaldry, pathos and loveliness...A curious book, a mystical, glamorous story of today." - The New York Times Books about The Great Gatsby		1984 George Orwell "[T]he most contemporary novel of the year and who knows of how many past and to come." - The New York Times Books about 1984
Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger "[A]n unusually brilliant novel...the unconscious humor, the repetitions, the slang and profanity, the emphasis, all are just right." - The New York Times Books about Catcher in the Rye		The Lord of the Flies William Golding "This brilliant work is a frightening parody on man's return ... to that state of darkness from which it took him thousands of years to emerge....Superbly written." - The New York Times Books about The Lord of the Flies
The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck "Steinbeck has written a novel from the depths of his heart with a sincerity seldom equaled." - The New York Times Books about The Grapes of Wrath		Beloved Toni Morrison "A masterwork... Wonderful... I can't imagine American literature without it." - Los Angeles Times Books about Beloved
The Color Purple Alice Walker "[A] work to stand beside literature of any time and place." - The San Francisco Chronicle Books about The Color Purple		Ulysses James Joyce "[O]ne of the most significant and beautiful books of our time." - The Nation Books about Ulysses
Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck "[A] thriller, a gripping tale running to novelette length that you will not set down until it is finished. It is more than that; but it is that... .Steinbeck has touched the quick in his little story." - The New York Times Books about Of Mice and Men		Catch-22 Joseph Heller "A monumental artifact of contemporary American literature, almost as assured of longevity as the statues on Easter Island." - The New York Times Books about Catch-22
Brave New World Aldous Huxley "Mr. Huxley is eloquent in his declaration of an artist's faith in man, and it is his eloquence, bitter in attack, noble in defense, that, when one has closed the book, one remembers." - Saturday Review Books about Brave New World		The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway "No amount of analysis can convey the quality of The Sun Also Rises. It is a truly gripping story, told in a lean, hard, athletic narrative prose that puts more literary English to shame." - The New York Times Books about The Sun Also Rises
As I Lay Dying William Faulkner "For range of effect, philosophical weight, originality of style, variety of characterization, humor, and tragic intensity, [Faulkner's works] are without equal in our time and country." - Robert Penn Warren Books about As I Lay Dying		Song of Solomon Toni Morrison "It places Toni Morrison in the front rank of contemporary American writers. She has written a novel that will endure." - The Washington Post Books about Song of Solomon
Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad "Heart of Darkness has had an influence that goes beyond the specifically literary... one of the great, if troubling, visionary works of western civilization." - Joyce Carol Oates Books about Heart of Darkness		Their Eyes were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston "Their Eyes belongs in the same categorywith that of William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingwayof enduring American literature." - Saturday Review Books about Their Eyes were Watching God
A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess "I do not know of any other writer who has done as much with language as Mr. Burgess has done here." - William S. Burroughs Books about A Clockwork Orange		A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway "[S]eldom has a literary style so precisely jumped with the time... a moving and beautiful book." - The New York Times Books about A Farewell to Arms
Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell "This is beyond a doubt one of the most remarkable first novels produced by an American writer. It is also one of the best." - The New York Times Books about Gone with the Wind		Go Tell it on the Mountain James Baldwin "Baldwin... has really unusual substantive powers but conventional ingenuity in form...[a] beautiful, furious first novel." - The New York Times Books about Go Tell it on the Mountain
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey "A work of genuine literary merit. What Mr. Kesey has done in his unusual novel is to transform the plight of a ward of inmates in a mental institution into a glittering parable of good and evil." - The New York Times Books about One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest		Slaughterhouse Five Kurt Vonnegut "Highly imaginative, nearly psychedelic...It is very tough and very funny; it is sad and delightful; it is very Vonnegut; and it works." - The New York Times Books about Slaughterhouse Five
For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway "This is the best book Ernest Hemingway has written, the fullest, the deepest, the truest. It will, I think, be one of the major novels in American literature." - The New York Times Books about For Whom the Bell Tolls		The Call of the Wild James Baldwin "Baldwin... has really unusual substantive powers but conventional ingenuity in form...[a] beautiful, furious first novel." - The New York Times Books about The Call of the Wild
All the King's Men Robert Penn Warren "Mr. Warren has employed vivid characterization and strong language combined with subtle overtones to write a vital, compelling narrative." - Booklist Books about All the King's Men		The Jungle Upton Sinclair “When people ask me what has happened in my long lifetime I do not refer them to the newspaper files and to the authorities, but to [Sinclair's] novels.” - George Bernard Shaw Books about The Jungle
Lady Chatterley's Lover DH Lawrence "Nobody concerned with the novel in our century can afford not to read it." - Lawrence Durrell Books about Lady Chatterley's Lover		Invisible Man Ralph Ellison "It is a resolutely honest, tormented, profoundly American book." - The New York Times Books about Invisible Man
In Cold Blood Truman Capote "The best documentary account of an American crime ever written... The book chills the blood and exercises the intelligence... harrowing." - The New York Review of Books Books about In Cold Blood		Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie "Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Voltaire's Candide, Sterne's Tristram Shandy... Salman Rushdie, it seems to me, is very much a latter-day member of their company." - The New York Times Books about Satanic Verses
Sons and Lovers DH Lawrence "There is probably no phrase much more hackneyed than that of 'human document,' yet it is the only one which at all describes this very unusual book." - The New York Times Books about Sons and Lovers		Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs "A masterpiece. A cry from hell, a brutal, terrifying, and savagely funny book that swings between uncontrolled hallucination and fierce, exact satire." - Newsweek Books about Naked Lunch
A Separate Peace John Knowles "[An] engrossing tale of love, hate, war, and peace...Intense, mesmerizing, and complelling." - School Library Journal Books about A Separate Peace		Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut "A free-wheeling vehicle...An unforgettable ride!" - The New York Times Books about Cat's Cradle
Women in Love DH Lawrence "No other writer of [Lawrence's] imaginative standing has in our time written books that are so open to life." - Alfred Kazin Books about Women in Love		The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer "The best novel to come out of the... war, perhaps the best book to come out of any war." - San Francisco Chronicle Books about The Naked and the Dead
An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser "Mr. Dreiser is not imitative and belongs to no school. He is at heart a mysticist and a fatalist, though using the realistic method. He is, on the evidence of this novel alone, a power." - The New York Times Books about An American Tragedy		Rabbit, Run John Updike "Brilliant and poignant....By his compassion, clarity of insight and crystal-bright prose, [Updike] makes Rabbit's sorrow his and our own." - The Washington Post Books about Rabbit, Run
Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller "One of the most remarkable, most truly original authors of this or any age." - Saturday Review Books about Tropic of Cancer		Native Son Richard Wright "Certainly, Native Son declares Richard Wright's importance... as an American author as distinctive as any of those now writing." - The New York Times Books about Native Son