The Long & Winding Road to SB XLIII

This Sunday, many of us will be glued to the television to enjoy the most important pro football game of the year. I’m intrigued by this season’s matchup; I knew that the Cardinals had never been to a Super Bowl, while the Steelers had won more than their share of Vince Lombardi trophies. Upon doing some research on the origins of these two NFL franchises, however, I got so confused that I had to resort to creating icons for team names.

The key might not help, but here’s what I came up with. These aren’t all the NFL teams, mind you, just the ones referred to in the article.

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Via: MentalFloss

The Cute and the Sinister: Huggable Primates

The Pygmy Marmoset, looking like a reincarnated Furby (did you already forget about those? - a must-have toy in 1998), is the world’s smallest monkey. They range in length from 5 to 6 inches not including the tail, which is an amazing 6 to 8 inches in itself. Their name comes from the French word marmouset, meaning “shrimp” or “dwarf”.

Follow the link for more.

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Via: Dark Roasted Blend

Fun and Unusual Units of Measurements

Humans like to measure things - distance, mass, time, you name it, we've measured it. And along the way, people have come up with some interesting and unusual units of measurements

Via: Neatorama

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Ten sci-fi devices nearing reality

In this special feature, we (NewScientist.com) assess the prospects of 10 of the coolest gadgets that in 30 years' time may change our lives as much – or maybe more – than cellphones, iPods and the internet.

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Dating Guide: 40 Things You Can Learn About a Guy in 10 Minutes

You don't have to date a guy for six months to get the lowdown on who he really is. With the right clues, you can size him up in 10 minutes. "A man's actions -- especially the ones you see in unguarded moments when he's not going out of his way to try to impress you (or doesn't realize you're watching) -- can speak volumes about his character and personality traits," says Rita Benasutti, PhD, a psychotherapist who specializes in couples' issues. To help you decode a guy you've just started seeing, Cosmo called on a team of experts to tell you how to assess his actions and tap into his boyfriend potential, pronto.

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How the Rest of the World Lives

A heart breaking look at the slums of the world. For all of us who complain about our lives, and how poor we are.....just take a look. I guarantee you'll never think of yourself as poor again.

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Via: Neatorama

Battling Addiction: Are 12 Steps Too Many?

In last month's Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, University of New Mexico addiction specialist William Miller and his colleagues presented findings from two controlled trials in which patients underwent drug treatment. Some of the patients received spiritual guidance as part of the treatment — learning such practices as prayer, meditation and service to others, all of which are central to 12-step programs. Others received secular psychotherapy. Because of the enduring popularity of AA and similar programs that involve a spiritual component, Miller and his team expected the patients in the spiritual group to do better than those in the secular group. They were wrong — at least in the short term.

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Crack Babies- The Epidemic That Wasn’t

At a scientific conference in November, Dr. Lester presented an analysis of a pool of studies of 14 groups of cocaine-exposed children — 4,419 in all, ranging in age from 4 to 13. The analysis failed to show a statistically significant effect on I.Q. or language development. In the largest of the studies, I.Q. scores of exposed children averaged about 4 points lower at age 7 than those of unexposed children.

Cocaine is undoubtedly bad for the fetus. But experts say its effects are less severe than those of alcohol and are comparable to those of tobacco — two legal substances that are used much more often by pregnant women, despite health warnings.

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THE 10 SEXIEST FEMALE CELEBRITY LIPS

Research has shown that the more estrogen a girl has, the fuller her lips are. Research has also shown that estrogen makes women crazy, so that means these ten women are incredibly insane and incredibly hot. In honor of Netflix's new "Greatest Kiss Challenge," we decided it was time to pay tribute to the most kissable lips in Hollywood. So sit back and enjoy these celebrity hotties and their amazing estrogen lips.

From Manofest

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How Many 90 Year Olds Could You Take in a Fight?

The Ground Rules:
You are in an enclosed area roughly the size of a basketball court. There are no weapons or foreign objects, and all 90 year olds must be capable of standing and walking (no wheelchairs). Everyone is wearing a cup - so no groin kicks. The elderly are fearless and will fight to the death. If a 90 year old is knocked unconscious, they are "out." The same goes for you.

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Lost "Sleeping Beauty" Mummy Formula Found

She's one of the world's best-preserved bodies: Rosalia Lombardo, a two-year-old Sicilian girl who died of pneumonia in 1920. "Sleeping Beauty," as she's known, appears to be merely dozing beneath the glass front of her coffin in the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, Italy.

Now an Italian biological anthropologist, Dario Piombino-Mascali of the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano, has discovered the secret formula that preserved Rosalia's body so well.

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Time Stands Still: The Psychology of Casinos

On the face of it, it seems like a hard sell to get millions of people to part with vast amounts of their hard-earned cash with just a hint of ever getting any of it back. But since casinos are able to do it at increasing amounts every year, the question is, how?

Well, a lot of it comes down to design – casinos are designed to put visitors in a trance-like state where the bright lights, lack of natural daylight and absence of clocks keep them lulled into continually pulling out their wallets. There’s a lot that goes into insulating gamblers from consciousness: Music, for example, is purposefully reminiscent of supermarket Muzak, made up of mind-numbing top-40 pop and played on a continuous loop. Free drinks – alcoholic or not – and free snacks are another way to keep gamblers happy, contented, and ponying up the cash. Loyalty programs for frequent gamblers include free stays in hotels, free cruises, even hundreds of dollars staked by the casino to the gambler, keeping that gambler coming back time after time. [Image courtesy of PalmTreeWelder.]

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FDA OKs First Human Trials of Embryonic Stem Cells

The Federal Drug Administration has approved the first human trials of embryonic stem cells — a sign of a new, liberal attitude toward stem cell research, which was hamstrung by the Bush administration.

Starting this summer, the biotech firm Geron will treat a small group of spinal-cord injury patients using neurons derived from stem cells, marking the first time embryonic stem cells will be tested in humans.

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Top 10 Rejection Lines From Women

Rejection lines women use, plus translations.

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The 20 Worst Foods in America 2009

Can an appetizer with the caloric equivalent of 13 Krispy Kreme doughnuts be justified? No. The 2,710-calorie Awesome Blossom has been purged from Chili’s menu—maybe the fat-drenched appetizer couldn’t withstand the scrutiny of being named one of the worst foods in America last year. No matter the reason, we applaud this waist-expanding starter’s retirement.

The deep-fried onion wasn’t the only thing to withdraw from this year’s race—seven other items from 2008’s lineup have been removed from menus. That’s a step in the right direction, and it’s good news for your waistline.

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6 Words That Make Your Resume Suck

I’ve used a few bad words in my life. S$it, you probably have too. But when the wrong words appear on your resume, it sucks.

These sucky words are not of the four-letter variety. These words are common. They are accepted. They litter the average resume with buzzword badness. Hiring managers can identify sucky words in seconds, leaving your resume work worthless.

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The Most Dangerous Places in the United States

We scoured government databases and academic publications to find crime rates, disease rates, disaster occurrences, and deadly wildlife ranges. We then compiled our findings into one centralized database that pulls those stats, combines the score into four categories, and gives you an overall “LETHAL Index” for hundreds of locations.

The research for this project was both captivating and terrifying. It was fascinating to learn about the different dangers that various locations pose. Below are the most dangerous locations in each of our four categories.

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Pro Bowl Cheerleaders: The Best Of The Best Since The Game Doesn't Matter, It's Time To Evaluate The Pro Bowl Cheerleaders.

The Pro Bowl rosters were released almost a month ago. There were some good calls, and some noticeable snubs. The bottom line, however, is that no one really cares about the Pro Bowl. Anyone who attends the game either already lives in Hawaii, or was vacationing there anyway, and some players will do anything they can do to avoid having to play. The ones who DO play, usually don't play that hard.

Instead of the players, though, we're going to introduce you to the Pro Bowl cheerleaders, who have finally all been chosen. These are also some of the best of the best, much like the Pro Bowl players, and they are at the top of their craft. Without further ado, here are your cheerleaders for the 2009 Pro Bowl

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Crime for Dolts

What were these dumb criminals thinking? They could use a crime guide after botching these jobs. Here are some tips they could have used.

As you watched George Clooney and Brad Pitt in Ocean's Eleven, did you think, Hey, that's not a bad lifestyle; how do I get that job? If you did, then this article is for you. Because if you think the average criminal ends up with all that dough, not to mention Julia Roberts, then you really are a dolt, and you desperately need these cautionary -- and true -- tales.

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Predictably Irrational

The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

book by Dan Ariely

This outline was written by Chris Yeh, made free as part of the The Book Outline Wiki.

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Was Jack the Ripper a woman?

The notorious serial killer who stalked London's East End, butchering prostitutes and terrorising the population, may not have been Jack the Ripper - but Jill.


An Australian scientist has used swabs from letters supposedly sent to police by the Ripper to build a partial DNA profile of the killer. The results suggest that the person who murdered and mutilated at least five women from 1888 onwards may have been a woman.

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The Mystery of Borderline Personality Disorder

University of Washington psychologist Marsha Linehan, one of the world's leading experts on BPD, describes it this way: "Borderline individuals are the psychological equivalent of third-degree-burn patients. They simply have, so to speak, no emotional skin. Even the slightest touch or movement can create immense suffering."

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High Voltage Cable Inspection

High Voltage Cable Inspection
Uploaded by monnotman

Via DailyMotion.com

Pet dogs rival humans for emotional satisfaction

Who needs children when a puppy can provide a similar emotional experience? After playing with their pets, dog owners experience a burst in a hormone linked to infant care, not to mention romantic love and friendship, new research finds.

Nicknamed the "cuddle chemical" and the "love drug", oxytocin has been found to dampen stress, combat depression, and breed trust in humans. Studies of voles, mice and rats also point to oxytocin's role in pair bonding and social memory.

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Another Stonehenge Discovered Under Lake Michigan?

A group of researchers using sonar to find shipwrecks on the bottom of Lake Michigan have found something far older than crashed cargo ships. They believe they've found a 10-thousand-year-old stone structure like Stonehenge, including a rock carved with the image of a mastodon.

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Africa is HUGE!!!

The 2009 Dakar Rally

The Dakar Rally was traditionally an off-road multi-stage race from Paris to Dakar, Senegal. However, due to fears of terrorist attacks, the Rally was cancelled last year - and this year moved to an entirely different continent, South America. 540 teams started the 2009 Dakar Rally in Buenos Aires, Argentina on January 3rd, and, after 9,578 kilometres (5,951 mi) in 14 stages, will return to Buenos Aires on January 17th. Back in France, a small group of die-hard African Rally fans decided to stage their own version of the Dakar, folllowing the traditional route despite any terrorist threat, and have dubbed their version the "Africa Race", and 27 drivers started out from Marseille, France on December 28th. Here are some photographs of the official Dakar Rally (in South America), and a few of its shadow competition, the Africa Race. (30 photos total)

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25 Hottest Women of Business

For many, the word “businessperson” connotes men in white shirts and stranglehold neckties. That stereotype may have held true in the 1950s, but since then, the appearance factor of the business world has evolved substantially.

Take women. Hot women have always populated the business world in some shape or form. We tasked ourselves with compiling a list of the hottest businesswomen we could think of, for your viewing pleasure. These women are accomplished both in the business and the looks departments. Get acquainted with these hotties, outside of the cube–and outside of the pantsuit.

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Why we procrastinate and how to stop

Procrastination is a curse, and a costly one. Putting things off leads not only to lost productivity but also to all sorts of hand wringing and regrets and damaged self-esteem. For all these reasons, psychologists would love to figure out what's going on in the mind that makes it so hard to actually do what we set out to do. Are we programmed for postponement and delay?

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Warning: May Induce Epileptic Shocks

Click for your daily Seizure.

How to hallucinate with ping-pong balls and a radio

DO YOU EVER want to change the way you see the world? Wouldn't it be fun to hallucinate on your lunch break? Although we typically associate such phenomena with powerful drugs like LSD or mescaline, it's easy to fling open the doors of perception without them: All it takes is a basic understanding of how the mind works.

The first thing to know is that the mind isn't a mirror, or even a passive observer of reality. Much of what we think of as being out there actually comes from in here, and is a byproduct of how the brain processes sensation. In recent years scientists have come up with a number of simple tricks that expose the artifice of our senses, so that we end up perceiving what we know isn't real - tweaking the cortex to produce something uncannily like hallucinations. Perhaps we hear the voice of someone who is no longer alive, or feel as if our nose is suddenly 3 feet long.

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Dirty Secrets of College Admissions

In a Daily Beast exclusive, college admissions officers reveal just how whimsical the selection process can be. Boring math geniuses, oboe-playing poets, and rich kids from New York need not apply.

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"Outlaw" Bikers Rescue Orphaned Kittens

A group of tattooed bikers rescued 180 stranded kittens yesterday afternoon, as part of their ‘in your face’ approach to animal rights activism. They call themselves Rescue Ink.

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Biggest Full Moon of the Year

This Saturday night, Jan. 10th, another perigee Moon is coming. It's the biggest full Moon of 2009, almost identical to the one that impressed onlookers in Dec. 2008.

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19 Cool Products That Are Almost Impossible to Use

Ultra-Minimalism

Sometimes modern design and minimalism go a little too far and it’s
hard to figure out exactly what the products are. We’ve tracked
down 19 products that look quite cool but leave you wondering wtf?

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More are getting away with murder

Despite the rise of DNA fingerprinting and other "CSI"-style crime-fighting wizardry, more and more people in this country are getting away with murder.

FBI figures reviewed by The Associated Press show that the homicide clearance rate, as detectives call it, dropped from 91 percent in 1963 -- the first year records were kept in the manner they are now -- to 61 percent in 2007.

Law enforcement officials say the chief reason is a rise in drug- and gang-related killings, which are often impersonal and anonymous, and thus harder to solve than slayings among family members or friends. As a result, police departments are carrying an ever-growing number of "cold-case" murders on their books

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5 Things You Didn't Know Anout Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is arguably the greatest writer in the history of the English language. Nearly 400 years after the bard's death we still stage his works in our theaters and study them in our classrooms. If he'd only written Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet or King Lear, we'd probably still consider him one of the greatest writers in the English canon -- but he wrote them all, along with numerous other classics.

We continually return to Shakespeare because of his ability to tell us something about ourselves. He was a perceptive student of human nature with an unrivaled capacity for drama and description. Shakespeare had a way with words, unmatched by anyone before or since. He's the writer we study perhaps more than any other.

You may be an admirer of the bard, but we're betting there are at least five things you didn't know about Shakespeare.

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Making Science User Friendly

From NPR (National Public Radio) is this great site with dozens of awesome science demonstrations, brief nerdy discussions, nature videos, and so on. Check it out.

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Vintage Cereal Box Art

Here is an archive of hundreds of cereal boxes, with even more to come.
Nothing here is for sale.

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Clever and Creative Billboard Advertising

Creative uses of billboards in advertising campaigns by various companies.

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The Stories Behind 11 Famous Cocktails

When you belly up to the bar, how well do you know the cocktail you’re ordering? The ingredients of these famous tipples may be familiar to bar patrons the world over, but some of their origins are as debatable as those of the Flaming Moe. Here’s a quick rundown of where some of your favorite drinks entered a glass for the first time.

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16 Creative Tables with Potential Identity Crises

From their earliest mention in ancient Egyptian inscriptions to the modern trestle and refectory styles we know so well, tables have come a long way. Today, new materials and design methods are injecting further creativity into modern tables - but are they having an identity crisis? These 16 table designs look like they are eager to be something else.

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Modern and Creative Bookshelf Designs

Modern bookshelves and creative shelf designs from all over the world.

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Seven new wonders of the world

750,000-year-old ice cubes

They may look like long-lost objects from a distant high-tech civilisation, but these large black objects buried in the Canadian Arctic are huge chunks of ice - the oldest ice ever found in North America. Researchers say the discovery could help predict the fate of the deep Arctic permafrost.

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Scientists discover true love

SCIENTISTS have discovered true love. Brain scans have proved that a small number of couples can respond with as much passion after 20 years as most people exhibit only in the first flush of love.

The findings overturn the conventional view that love and sexual desire peak at the start of a relationship and then decline as the years pass

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