08 May 29: Bruxism
Bruxism - the grinding of teeth at night - affects anywhere from 15 to 96 percent of the adult population at some point in their lives.
08 May 28: Zappos
Zappos offers new call-centre employees US$1,000 on top of what they have earned after a few weeks of intensive training, if they want to quit. The theory is that the people who take the money ‘obviously don't have the sense of sense of commitment’ Zappos requires. About 10% of its trainees take the offer.
08 May 13: Eudaimonistic
On Happiness, two theories predominate:
‘The first says happiness comes when pleasure is at a maximum – the ‘hedonistic theory.’ The second holds that we are happy when we find meaning, even if it is through effort and frustration – the ‘eudaimonistic theory,’ from the Greek daimon, our true self.’
‘The first says happiness comes when pleasure is at a maximum – the ‘hedonistic theory.’ The second holds that we are happy when we find meaning, even if it is through effort and frustration – the ‘eudaimonistic theory,’ from the Greek daimon, our true self.’
08 May 12: Taboo
‘During the war, Chinese feminists continued their struggle on two fronts. In 1938, Mao Liying founded the Chinese Career Women's Club in Shanghai, which addressed both their society's gender assumptions and the Japanese occupation.
In Shanghai, where public baths were closed to women, members of the club held ‘bathing parties,’ during which they rented a hotel room, and in which they sang, danced and ate, as they took turns taking baths. Club members also bicycled around Shanghai in groups, breaking another cultural taboo.’
Source: ‘Shanghai in 1942’
In Shanghai, where public baths were closed to women, members of the club held ‘bathing parties,’ during which they rented a hotel room, and in which they sang, danced and ate, as they took turns taking baths. Club members also bicycled around Shanghai in groups, breaking another cultural taboo.’
Source: ‘Shanghai in 1942’
08 May 11: Benz
The film version of Sex And The City has just about as many Mercedes-Benz cars as it has pairs of Manolo Blahniks.
08 May 10: IAT
The Implicit Association Test is based on the observation that we make connections much more quickly between pairs of ideas that are already related in our minds than we do between pairs of ideas that are unfamiliar to us. Try a computerized IAT at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/.
08 May 9: Lavender
Whiffing lavender oil during your next dental visit may blur the memory of your pain.
08 May 8: Pashmina
The test for a quality pashmina has been warmth, feel and the passing of the shawl through a wedding ring.
08 May 6: Facial
The Geisha is the latest facial to hit New York City. It is a $180 mask made with bird excrement. Article here.
08 May 2: Intervention
The Snobby Coffee Intervention at Un-Snobby Coffee is a Washington McDonald's marketing campaign designed to ‘help a friend kick their snobbish habit.’
08 May 1: Heartache
Days of ‘heartache leave’ that employees of one Japanese cosmetics company are allowed to take each year: 3
08 April 29: ‘1’
Amount a businessman in the UAE paid this year for the nation's license-plate number ‘1’: $14,000,000
08 April 27: Southdale
The Southdale shopping centre in Minnesota is the world's first true shopping mall, making it a landmark as important to architectural history as the Louvre or New York's Woolworth Tower.
08 April 25: Inter@ctive
In 1998, Research in Motion (RIM) released the Inter@ctive Two-Way Pager. A year later, RIM introduced the BlackBerry to the world.
08 April 24: Kitchen
According to a 27-country survey for IKEA by IsoPublic, a polling firm, less than 20% of Chinese families eat in the kitchen compared with 64% of Canadian and over 50% of American ones.
08 April 23: Poiret
Paul Poiret, King of Fashion, liberated women from the ‘stifling, tight-waisted, hoop-skirted monstrosities’ of the 19th century. ‘Poiret effected a concomitant revolution in dressmaking, one that shifted the emphasis away from the skills of tailoring to ... the skills of draping.’
08 April 19: Scenting
A dog's extraordinary scenting ability can distinguish people with both early and late stage lung and breast cancer.
08 April 9: Cognition
Scents of coffee and chocolate have a significant effect on enhancing cognition and clerical office work.
08 April 8: Aztecs
The ancient Aztecs believed we are born without a face and that we must win our faces bit by bit as we grow.
08 April 7: Signs
In both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, loss of olfactory sensitivity is thought to be among the earliest signs of the disease.
08 April 4: Factor
For heterosexual women, smell is the number one physical factor in sexual attraction, as well as the most important social factor, aside from pleasantness. Men also tune in to the important scent messages given off by a woman, but they tend to rely more on their eyes than their noses.
08 April 2: Olfactory
The 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Richard Axel (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York, NY) and Linda Buck (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA) for a series of studies that led to their groundbreaking discovery of the gene family responsible for odorant receptors and clarified how the olfactory system works.
08 April 1: Jubes
In the United States, Jujubes is the brand name of a particular type of candy, whereas in Canada the word is generic, and describes any of many similar confections.
08 March 27: Origami
More news from space: Japanese scientists and origami masters, headed by Shinji Suzuki, are aiming to launch a paper airplane from space to see if it can make it back to Earth.
08 March 26: Boomerang
In an unprecedented experiment, Japanese astronaut Takao Doi has thrown a boomerang in space and confirmed it flies back.
08 March 25: Di
Princess Diana's funeral was viewed by an estimated 2.5 billion people around the world.
08 March 18: Settlement
$1.7 billion: Estimated amount of the world's largest-ever divorce settlement, between financier Rupert Murdoch and his wife of 32 years, in 2000.
08 March 17: Bleaching
‘The linguistic community applies the term ‘semantic bleaching’ to refer to a word that through high frequency of usage has lost its original meaning or intent’ (e.g., ‘indie’).
08 March 15: Caricatures
The front entrance of Toronto's Old City Hall is adorned with caricatures of late 19th century city councillors. Carver Arthur Tennison also included a stone carving of the building's architect, E.J. Lennox.
08 March 14: Laced
Four Danish prison guards have been treated for poisoning after eating a drug-laced cake baked by prisoners.
08 March 10: Vikings
‘Vikings dressed with more finesse than we previously gave them credit for, a new study out of Sweden finds; vivid colours, flowing silk ribbons, and glittering bits of mirrors all contributed to their glamorous wardrobe. The men were particularly vain, while the women dressed quite provocatively.’
08 March 8: Bunny
Puck Bunny – ‘a female ice hockey fan, often one whose interest in the sport is primarily motivated by sexual attraction to the players.’
[Puck Bunny accessories are available on sites like this or this.]
[Puck Bunny accessories are available on sites like this or this.]
08 March 7: Gold
Lam Sai Wing, chairman of Hang Fung, has a 24-karat gold toilet in his Hong Kong jewellery shop.
08 March 6: Language
According to the Oxford dictionary, ‘eye language’ is ‘the process of communication by the expression of the eyes.’
08 March 5: Degree
Percentage of immigrants who arrived in Canada before 2001 with a university degree: 28; percentage of recent immigrants with a university degree: 51.
08 March 4: Kissing
‘A recent University at Albany, NY, study that looks at kissing showed men expect lip-locking to lead to sex about half the time; and women only about one-third of the time.’
08 March 3: Shui
‘A McDonald’s fast-food outlet near Los Angeles has been redesigned along the principles of feng shui, the ancient Chinese art of creating harmonious relationships, in part to reflect the population make-up of the Hacienda Heights community.’
08 March 2: Casanova
Legendary Italian lover Giacomo Casanova courted his romantic interests with a cup of chocolate instead of champagne.
08 March 1: Thermablade
A selection of professional hockey players from different NHL teams will soon be hitting the ice with new battery-powered, heated hockey skates designed to cut the ice with better speed, precision, and control. The Thermablade, a new product manufactured and sold out of Quebec, is made without a boot and is designed instead to be used to replace the blades of existing hockey skates. The invention of an Alberta native, Tory Weber’s idea that a warm blade would cut across ice better than a cold one has attracted a large number of investors, including Hockey Legend Wayne Gretzky and is expected to be officially accepted by the NHL after just two weeks of in-game testing.
Full story and pictures here.
Full story and pictures here.
08 February 28: Candies
In 2007, ‘sales of Halloween themed candies led the way with a 4.8% increase in chocolate Halloween themed candies and an 8.7% increase in non-chocolate themed candies. This trend, which started in 2005, shows retailers focused on packaging decorated with Halloween themes such as witches and goblins...’
08 February 27: Savage
In 1991, Dan Savage was living in Madison, Wisconsin, working as a manager at a local video store that specialized in independent film titles. There he befriended Tim Keck, co-founder of The Onion, who announced he was moving to Seattle to help start an alternative weekly newspaper, The Stranger. Savage ‘made the offhand comment that forever altered [his] life: ‘Make sure your paper has an advice column—everybody claims to hate 'em, but everybody seems to read 'em.’
08 February 26: Spice
As of February 2000, the Spice Girls had certified sales of 35 million albums and 18.2 million singles.
08 February 25: Blood
‘Polish taxmen are offering Poles the chance to pay their tax bills in blood ... Every donation to the local blood banks will allow Poles to write $60 off their tax bill.’
08 February 24: Marlies
The Toronto Marlies are a junior league feeder team for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Today they set a new attendance record of 8120.
08 February 23: Prime
Weekdays from noon to 2pm is the most popular time for people to watch TV shows online.
08 February 22: Queen
Since its original survey in 1793, Queen Street in Toronto has had many names. For its first sixty years, many sections were referred to as Lot Street, but in 1851 it was renamed for Queen Victoria.
08 February 21: Obama
The average speaking speed for politicians making presentations is 120-125 words a minute. This compares with 170-180 words a minute in regular conversation. Barack Obama speaks as few as 110 words a minute.
08 February 20: Libido
Feed your libido. ‘Pistachio nuts are really good because they contain an amino acid called arginine, and that's to help both genders to increase their genital circulation to help with sexual functioning.’
08 February 19: Goby
‘Subordinate goby fish stay slim so they won't be a threat to their superiors. That way, the underlings won't get evicted.’
08 February 18: Pool
For accurate shots in pool, find out which eye is your dominant eye. If your dominant eye is not over the stick, you’ll aim off-centre. More tips here.
08 February 17: Butter
The word butter comes from bou-tyron, which seems to mean ‘cowcheese’ in Greek.
08 February 16: Bigspy
Bigspy on Digg Labs displays upcoming stories on your computer screen as people digg them (bigger stories have more diggs).
08 February 15: -san
In Japanese, -san is a title of respect added to a name. It can be used with both male and female names, and with either surnames or given names. It can also be attached to the name of occupations and titles.
08 February 14: Formation
‘The mission of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation.’
08 February 12: Snot
Your nose and sinuses make about a quart of snot every day. Boogers are a sign that your nose is working the way it should!
08 February 11: EA
‘Electronic Arts (EA) received 93 out of 100 on the 2004 Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, which measures how equitably employers treat their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) employees, consumers and investors.’
08 February 10: NoHo
‘Greenwich Village is an area from 14th Street to Houston Street in Manhattan. In the early decades of the 20th century the word got around that The Village was the place to live ‘the free life’ as it was then called. It is now home to Washington Square Park and NYU. NoHo is a newly designated historic district famous for its up-and-coming fashion designers and artists.’
08 February 9: Method
Method Home Cleaning Products are biodegradable, toxicity-free, not tested on animals – and in bottles designed by Karim Rashid.
08 February 8: Massage
Two of the greatest physiological changes produced by massage therapy are an increase in blood circulation and an increase in lymphatic fluid circulation.
08 February 7: Pentagon
‘More than 20 public information specialists are assigned as liaisons with the film and television industry. They review scripts and proposals, advise producers on military procedures, and decide how much assistance, if any, a film or TV show portraying the military should receive.’
08 February 6: Philanthropy
‘In a recent year, American corporations and their foundations gave more than $12 billion to a variety of causes. Although there is a common perception that corporate philanthropy provides the lion's share of donations, the actual percentage is very small. Of the $241 billion given in 2002, only 5.1 percent was from corporations. The largest amount of money given, 76.3 percent, was given by individuals.’
08 February 5: MS
‘In multiple sclerosis, the body mistakenly directs antibodies and white blood cells against proteins in the myelin sheath, a fatty substance that insulates nerve fibers in your brain and spinal cord. This results in inflammation and injury to the sheath and ultimately to the nerves that it surrounds. The result may be multiple areas of scarring (sclerosis). Eventually, this damage can slow or block the nerve signals that control muscle coordination, strength, sensation and vision.’
08 February 4: History
Sunday's Superbowl was the most-watched ever, with 97.5 million viewers in the United States, a total that is second only to the M-A-S-H finale audience. The final M-A-S-H episode, which drew 106 million viewers in 1983, is the only other show in American broadcast history watched by more people.
08 February 3: Consumption
Superbowl Sunday is the second-largest U.S. food consumption day, following Thanksgiving.
08 February 2: Bar-Lev
‘Amir Bar-Lev grew up in Berkeley and graduated from Brown University. In 2001 he made his directorial debut with Fighter, which followed two Holocaust survivors on their emotional return to a Czech labor camp. The film was named one of the top documentaries of the year by several leading publications. Bar-Lev’s second feature documentary – My Kid Could Paint That – focuses on the meteoric rise, fall and re-emergence of Marla Olmstead, a four-year-old abstract painter from Binghamton, New York.’
08 February 1: Coverage
‘With television news offering only minimal coverage of conflicts around the world, viewers increasingly turn to the intrepid documentarian to fill the gap.’
08 January 31: New Museum
New York's New Museum of Contemporary Art was conceived by architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of the Japanese firm Sanaa as a series of mismatched galleries precariously stacked one atop the other.
08 January 30: Credit
New York offers a refundable tax credit equal to 15% of production costs for feature films, television pilots and TV movies/miniseries ... For location and other costs to be eligible, either 1) at least 75% of the location shooting days must be in New York, or 2) production spends at least $3 million on facility-related costs.
08 January 29: Green
Green-links.org is an online resource for the environmental community of New York.
08 January 28: Equation
‘The writers’ strike is not a factor in the film financing equation – yet. ‘The strike is having no effect on film slates,’ says one fund manager. ‘This is a TV production strike, not a motion picture strike, unless it goes another few months.’’
08 January 27: Grace
Sundance 2007 is where Weinstein Co. fought for the right to pay $4 million for worldwide rights to Grace is Gone, which went on to earn just $37,000 in its domestic release.
08 January 26: Backlash
At Sundance 2008, ‘[t]op celebs, it seems, have a case of swag backlash. They're being more circumspect this year, eschewing obvious gift suite appearances and the attendant phalanx of photogs.’
08 January 25: Renfro
On January 15, Brad Renfro - the young actor who first gained fame at age 12 in 1994's The Client - was found dead at his LA home (at press time, autopsy pending, the coroner's office said the cause may have been an accidental overdose of alcohol and Xanax).
08 January 24: Oprah
Oprah is launching the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) in conjunction with Discovery Communications.
08 January 22: Page
Ellen Page, star of Juno, is set to headline Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, Whip It.
08 January 21: Distinction
‘There are more than 100 bars and restaurants in Park City, many of them or or near Main Street. In fact, Park City has more bars per capita than any city in Utah, a distinction it has held since the silver-boom days.’
08 January 20: Slamdance
‘Once known as the rebellious younger sibling of the Sundance Film Festival, Slamdance has become a respected event in its own right, having found theatrical distribution for over 50 films in its 13-year span while helping launch some of the most successful careers in Hollywood.’
08 January 19: Gangsters
‘A discussion of men's fashion during the 1930s would be incomplete without recognizing the gangster influence. Gangsters, while despised as thieves, paradoxically projected an image of businessmen because of the suits they wore.’
08 January 17: Feist
After 2004's breakthrough Let It Die, Feist's follow-up album, The Reminder, launched her into the mainstream (before Apple picked her single ‘1234’ to accompany a new iPod commercial).
08 January 16: Vibrator
‘In 1906, a housewife could send away for her very own electric vibrator, as advertised in the pages of Women's Home Companion.’
08 January 15: Pusan
‘This October, Pusan International Film Festival screened 275 films in its official program, 193 of which were world, international, or Asia premieres...’
08 January 14: Sundance
‘Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization based in Park City, Utah, and founded by actor/director/producer Robert Redford in 1981. Emerging and aspiring filmmakers, directors, producers, film composers, screenwriters, playwrights, and theatre artists from around the world attend highly competitive artistic development programs run by the Institute, to assist them in developing their craft.’
08 January 13: Fumes
Consumers, not just factory workers, may be in danger from fumes from the buttery flavouring in microwave popcorn, according to a warning letter to U.S. federal regulators from a doctor at Denver's National Jewish Medical and Research Center, a leading lung research hospital.
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