What guide books tell foreign visitors to America

The United States is the second greatest tourist draw in the world, with 60-million-plus visitors in 2010 alone (France, number one, attracted almost 80 million). Flipping through a few of the many English-language tourist guides provides a fascinating, if non-scientific and narrow, window into how people from the outside world perceive America, Americans, and the surprises and pitfalls of spending time here.

Of the many pieces of advice proffered, four of the most common are: eat with your fingers (sometimes), arrive on time (always), don’t drink and drive (they take it seriously here!), and be careful about talking politics (unless you’ve got some time to spare).

…some sage advice on a ritual that even I did not realize was so complicated until I read this passage:

When invited to a meal in a private home it is considered polite for a guest to ask if they can bring anything for the meal, such a dessert, a side dish, or for an outdoor barbecue, something useful like ice or plastic cups or plates. The host will usually refuse except among very close friends, but it is nonetheless considered good manners to bring along a small gift for the host. A bottle of wine, box of candies or fresh cut flowers are most common. Gifts of cash, prepared ready-to-serve foods, or very personal items (e.g. toiletries) are not appropriate.

 

That and many more interesting suggestions – The Atlantic

Continue reading “What guide books tell foreign visitors to America”

The CEO of AT&T says data-only plans are inevitable in the next 24 months

The CEO of AT&T Inc. said Friday that cellphone plans that count only data usage are likely to come in the next two years. In such a scenario, phone calls and texts would be considered as just another form of data.

Randall Stephenson didn’t say AT&T has such a plan in mind, but he suggested that someone in the industry will likely offer one.

Analysts see such plans as a logical extension of trends in wireless technology. Smartphones with data service can already use it for Internet phone calls and texting through services such as Skype.

Phone calls are also taking a back seat to other things people do with their smartphones. AT&T has been recording a decline in the average number of minutes used per month.

via Yahoo!

 

That is certainly true for my family where there are four of us sharing one 700 minute plan, and we rarely use the full minutes.

Continue reading “The CEO of AT&T says data-only plans are inevitable in the next 24 months”

Certify to become a diver and join Reef Check’s conservation movement

Reef Check California is a volunteer monitoring program for California rocky reefs designed to provide data for managers and to build a conservation constituency among California divers.

If you’re interested in becoming a getting certified or learning more, diving season is here!

***

May Update:

This month we started full swing into Reef Check California’s training and survey season. As every year, only after successful completion of the recertification are our volunteers allowed to collect data in the new survey season. We are particularly excited about having conducted our first recertification of citizen scientists in Fort Bragg, where we held a community training for the first time last year, and many of last year’s participants became recertified.

We also have had recertifications in Los Angeles, Monterey and Moss Landing. More recertifications and trainings will be held state wide over the next few months; click here for the schedule.

Overall, we now have a group of new, as well as seasoned, Reef Checkers ready to survey the reefs along our coastline for the 7th year in a row. In April, we completed our first surveys in Mendocino and Monterey Counties and we are looking forward to a successful survey season in 2012.

via RCCA May Update

Continue reading “Certify to become a diver and join Reef Check’s conservation movement”

Hot Generation! 1960s Punk from Down Under

Found an awesome punk album from the 60s, featuring raw garage bands from Australia singing about love and surfing. I put together a YouTube playlist of all the songs (but one):

 

Continue reading “Hot Generation! 1960s Punk from Down Under”

Vimeo adds soundtrack features in a push to keep supporting independent filmmakers

Vimeo has always sought to differentiate itself as a platform for high-quality video content. Now the IAC-owned video platform is now adding features to help creators enhance their videos and make even them more attractive to viewers.

The latest update makes a big push around improving videos by adding soundtracks, and it’s got two main product announcements along those lines:

  • First, it’s rolling out a cloud-based “Enhancer” tool that will let users make changes to their videos without having to edit them on the desktop and re-upload. The main point of the tool for now is the ability for creators to instantly add music to their videos, straight from the Vimeo web site. In addition to adding music, they can also update audio levels and control the start- and end-point of a song.
  • Second, is the addition of nearly 4,000 new soundtrack options from new music partner SmartSound. Those options come on top of the 50,000 titles already available through Vimeo’s soundtrack tool, but provide more flexibility than existing options. For $1.99 per song for a personal license and $19.99 for a commercial license, users can create customized soundtracks of SmartSound songs. That includes the ability to control the length, musical arrangement and instrument mix of those 4,000 SmartSound tracks.

Vimeo continues to try to define itself as the place for artsy independent video producers to showcase their goods.

via TechCrunch

Continue reading “Vimeo adds soundtrack features in a push to keep supporting independent filmmakers”

“Leeroy Jenkins” meme from World of Warcraft – reimagined as a heist film

Even if you have only a passing familiarity with the massive multiplayer online game World of Warcraft, you’re probably aware of “Leeroy Jenkins,” a comedy sketch/meme/recreation of real events about an oblivious player who dooms his teammates charging into a battle (video here, watch this first if you’ve never seen it).

For the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival, director Finn O’Hara and advertising agency doug & serge recast Leeroy’s ill-fated battle with dragons as a sleek, taut heist thriller about a bank robbery. Clever stuff.

via io9

 

Top 5 girl surfers charging the world’s heaviest waves

The five finalists for the Billabong Girls Overall Performance category of the 2012 Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards. The rides depicted are just examples — the performance award acknowledges overall excellence over the entire year.  – BillabongXXL

 

The 2nd girl in the video, Maya Gabeira, won the 2012 Overall Performance Award.

PBS Nature has 70 full episodes – to watch online free

 

Click to browse all 70 episodes on PBS Nature.

 

A few of the episodes

Radioactive Wolves

Continue reading “PBS Nature has 70 full episodes – to watch online free”

8% of adults check Twitter every day – 20% of young adults check every day

Eight percent of adult Internet users said they log on to Twitter every day, up from the 4% who said the same last year, according to the Pew Research Center, which conducted the survey.

That number was even higher for young adults. One in five Internet users ages 18 to 24 are using the website each day, and nearly one-third of all users that age are on Twitter.

Another interesting fact from the survey is African Americans use Twitter twice as much as other ethnic groups. More than a quarter, 28%, of black Internet users are on Twitter as opposed to Hispanic, 12%, and white Internet users, 14%.

via L.A. Times – Tech Now

Continue reading “8% of adults check Twitter every day – 20% of young adults check every day”

How do octopuses navigate?

One researcher, Jennifer A. Mather, wondered: how do octopuses navigate? Do they rely on chemotactile sensory information (i.e. movement based on chemicals in the environment), or do they orient towards visual landmarks?

Octopuses occupy “homes” for several days or in some instances for several weeks, and when they go out looking for food, they are sometimes gone for several hours at a time. Therefore, they must use some sort of memory to find their way back home.

Many molluscs use trail-following, and follow their own mucus trails, or the trails of others. You might expect that octopuses use trail-following as well, since they forage by using chemotactile exploration – at least four different types of receptors on their suckers gather chemical and tactile information as they move along the rocky seafloor.

However, many other species use visual scene recognition to aid in navigation: ants, bees, gerbils, hamsters, pigeons, and even humans, use visual landmarks to navigate around their environments. Since octopuses use visual information to distinguish among different objects, they could use visual landmarks to get home as well.

To find out the researchers performed a series of experiments, testing chemicals, memory, and navigation. See what they learned – Scientific American.

 

** The article is kinda long so you can just read the last paragraph for the summary 🙂

Continue reading “How do octopuses navigate?”