March 1, 2011
Seafood boil is the generic term for any number of different kinds of social events in which shellfish is the central element. Regional variations dictate the kinds of seafood, the accompaniments and side dishes, and the preparation techniques (boiling, steaming, baking, or raw). In some cases, a boil may be sponsored by a community organization as a fundraiser or a mixer. In this way, they are like a fish fry, barbecue, or church potluck supper.
But boils are also held by individuals for their friends and family for weekend get-togethers and on the summer holidays of Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. There are also companies that can cater a boil for large and small events. While boils and bakes are traditionally associated with coastal regions of the United States, there are notable exceptions. For example, the Fiesta Oyster Bake (San Antonio) began in 1916 as an alumni fund raiser for St. Mary’s University. It is now attended by over 70,000 people during its two day run and is a major music and cultural event in the city.
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March 1, 2011
Hallucigenia [huh-loo-suh-jane-ee-uh] is an extinct genus of animal found in British Columbia, Canada. The genus name was coined by English paleontologist, Simon Conway Morris in 1979. He named the genus Hallucigenia, because of its ‘bizarre and dream-like quality’ (like a hallucination).
Hallucigenia was initially considered by Stephen Jay Gould to be unrelated to any living species, but most palaeontologists now believe that the species was a relative of modern arthropods.
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March 1, 2011
The Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV) formerly known as the Lunar Electric Rover (LER) is a vehicle designed by NASA for extra-vehicular activity on a planetary surface or in-space missions. The SEV is the size of a small pickup truck, it has 12 wheels, and can house two astronauts for up to two weeks. The pressurized module contains a small bathroom with privacy curtains and a shower head producing a water mist for sponge baths. It also contains cabinets for tools, workbench areas and two crew seats that can fold back into beds.
The SEV consists of a chassis and cabin module, and will allow the attachment of tools such as cranes, cable reels, backhoes and winches. Designed for 2, this vehicle is capable of supporting 4 in an emergency. With wheels that can pivot 360 degrees, the SEV is able to drive in any direction. This vehicle is designed to be used with or without the pressurized module. Astronauts can enter and exit without space suits directly from an airlock docking hatch, or through a suitport without the need to depressurize the habitat module.
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February 28, 2011
Herman’s Hermits is an English pop band, formed in Manchester in 1963. For a brief time the group rivalled the Beatles on the charts, and was the top-selling pop act in the U.S. in 1965. The group’s manager and producer, Mickie Most (who controlled the band’s output), emphasized a simple, non-threatening and clean-cut image, although the band originally played R&B numbers. This helped Herman’s Hermits become hugely successful in the mid-1960s but hampered the band’s creativity, relegating Noone, Hopwood, Leckenby and Green’s original songs to quickly recorded B-sides and album cuts.
Their first hit was a cover of Earl Jean’s ‘I’m Into Something Good’ (written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King), which reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart and No. 13 in the US in 1964. They never topped the British charts again, but had two US Billboard Hot 100 No. 1’s with ‘Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter’ and ‘I’m Henry the Eighth, I Am’ (a British music hall song dating from 1911). These songs were aimed at a US fan-base, with Peter Noone exaggerating his Manchester accent; the band was not fond of either song and they were never released as singles in Britain.
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February 27, 2011
The Pascha is a 12 story brothel in Cologne, Germany. With about 120 prostitutes, over 80 employees and up to 1000 customers per day, it is the largest brothel in Europe. The brothel was opened in January 1972 in the Hornstraße, under the name ‘Eros Center.’ It was Europe’s first high rise brothel. The city of Cologne wanted to eliminate the red light district ‘Kleine Brinkgasse’ in the city center and issued a license to build the new brothel on land owned by the city in the outskirts of town. The house rents 126 rooms on 7 floors to prostitutes for a fee of 180 Euros per day, which includes meals, medical care, and the 20 Euros of tax that authorities collect per prostitute per day.
The women come from many countries; about 30% of them are German. They typically sit outside of their rooms and negotiate with customers who wander the hallways. Some of the women live in their rooms, others rent a second room to stay in, while still others stay in their own apartments in Cologne. The house is open 24 hours a day; customers of the prostitutes pay an entrance fee of 5 Euros and then negotiate directly with the women, who work independently and keep all of the money. One floor is reserved for low-cost service, and another one for transsexual prostitutes. The house also contains a regular hotel, a table dance nightclub with separate entrance, several bars, and a separate club-style brothel on the top floor.
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February 27, 2011
Rhythms del Mundo (lit. ‘World Rhythms’) is a 2006 nonprofit album, which fuses Cuban musicians including Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo of the Buena Vista Social Club with artists such as Dido, Arctic Monkeys, U2, Coldplay, Sting, Jack Johnson, Maroon 5, Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs and others. A follow-up album, Rhythms del Mundo Classics, was released in 2009. Album proceeds benefits the environmental nonprofit organization Artists Project Earth, which raises funds for climate change projects and disaster relief efforts.
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February 24, 2011
Cibo Matto (meaning ‘crazy food’ in Italian) was a New York City-based band formed by two Japanese women, Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori, in 1994. The lyrics in their songs are primarily concerned with food and their sound has been described as a combination of Jazz, Hip-Hop, Brazilian music, African Drumming, and Disco samples. While the two founding members of the group are Japanese expatriates, they are not especially popular in Japan; the group did not gain nearly as large a following in Japan as it did in the United States.
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February 24, 2011
The Go! Team are an English sextet. They combine indie rock and garage rock with a mixture of blaxploitation and Bollywood soundtracks, double dutch chants, old school hip hop and distorted guitars similar to the style of Sonic Youth. Their songs are a mix of live instrumentation and samples from various sources. The band’s vocals vary between performances: while live vocals are handled mostly by Ninja (with Tsuchida and Fukami-Taylor also singing some solos), vocals on record consist of sampled and guest voices, not just Ninja’s.
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February 24, 2011
Miike Snow are a Swedish indie pop band formed in 2007. The band consists of producing team Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, also known as Bloodshy & Avant. The name ‘Miike Snow’ is said to have come from one of their friends called Mike Snow, with the spelling of ‘Miike’ coming from the Japanese film director Takashi Miike.
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February 24, 2011
Stadium Events is the English title of the video game ‘Running Stadium’ by Bandai. The game was released for the NES in Japan in 1986, in the United States in 1987. It was one of two games released in North America that were designed and branded for the Family Fun Fitness mat, a short-lived running pad accessory for the NES. The North American, or NTSC, version of Stadium Events is universally accepted as the rarest and most valuable licensed NES game. A copy sold January 2011 on ebay for $22,806.00, the highest price ever paid for a video game
The two Family Fun Fitness-branded games that had already been released, as well as Bandai’s version of the running pad accessory, were pulled from shelves and presumed destroyed. Because of this odd sequence of events, only 2000 copies are believed to have been produced, of which it is estimated that 200 copies reached consumers before being recalled. Today, collectors who follow the online sale of rare video games believe that fewer than 20 complete copies of the game exist, only two of which are known to be factory sealed.
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February 24, 2011
The Waimea River is a river on the island of Kauai in the U.S. state of Hawaii. At approximate 12 miles in length, it is one of the longest rivers in the Hawaiian Islands. It rises in a wet plateau of the island’s central highlands, in the Alaka’i Swamp, the largest high-elevation swamp in the world. It flows south, passing through the 3,000-foot-deep (910 m) Waimea Canyon, known as the ‘Grand Canyon of the Pacific.’
Due to wave action, sand gets pushed up into a large hill in front of the river each winter. This creates a natural dam that water collects behind for months, and which is about 20 feet above the level of the ocean on the other side of the sand berm. Every year some one digs a trench through the sand releasing millions of gallons of fresh water into the ocean. This produces a standing wave which is perfect for body boarding and surfing on.
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February 23, 2011
The Moodswinger is a twelve string electric zither with an additional third bridge designed by Dutch luthier Yuri Landman. The rod which functions as the third bridge divides the strings into two sections to cause an overtone multiphonic sound. In 2006 Landman was contacted by the noise band Liars to make an instrument for them. Although it closely resembles an electric guitar, it is actually a zither, as it has neither frets nor a proper neck. The pickup and electronics are built into the neck instead of in the body like usual electric guitars.
After Liars received their Moodswinger, they started recording their fourth album ‘Liars.’ The song ‘Leather Prowler’ is played with the Moodswinger, in many reviews confused with a piano. In 2008 the Moodswinger II was released as a serial product. Jessie Stein of The Luyas owns a copy. In 2009 Landman created a derivative version of the instrument called the Home Swinger, for workshops at festivals, where participants built their own copy within four hours.
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