WalkScore!!

Odds are if you are reading this, you PROBABLY should check the Walk Score of your current location and get walking. I mean seriously, Apparently my current walkscore is not that good,its under 25%.

This is an interesting mashup - Walk Score uses a patent-pending algorithm to calculate the walkability of an address based on: The distance to walkable locations near an address, calculating a score for each of these locations, combining these scores into one easy to read Walk Score. More details below on how the calculate an areas walkability…

From Walk Score

Walkable Neighborhoods

Picture a walkable neighborhood. You lose weight each time you walk to the grocery store. You stroll home from last call without waiting for a cab. You spend less money on your car—or you don’t own a car. When you shop, you support your local economy. You talk to your neighbors.
What makes a neighborhood walkable?

Walkable communities tend to have the following characteristics:

* A center: Walkable neighborhoods have a discernable center, whether it’s a shopping district, a main street, or a public space.
* Density: The neighborhood is compact, rather than spread out, which brings people closer to stores and jobs and makes public transportation more cost effective.
* Mixed income, mixed use: Housing is provided for everyone who works in the neighborhood: young and old, singles and families, rich and poor. Businesses and residences are located near each other.
* Parks and public space: There are plenty of public places to gather and play.
* Accessibility: The neighborhood is accessible to everyone and has wheelchair access, plenty of benches with shade, sidewalks on all streets, etc.
* Well connected, speed controlled streets: Streets form a connected grid that improves traffic by providing many routes to any destination. Streets are narrow to control speed, and shaded by trees to protect pedestrians.
* Pedestrian-centric design: Buildings are placed close to the street to cater to foot traffic, with parking lots relegated to the back.
* Close schools and workplaces: Schools and workplaces are close enough that most residents can walk from their homes.

Google News cushion..Enlightening, Embarassing

The Google News Cushion is a standard couch pillow that's been printed with the top Google News stories of the year. It's a microcosm, in plush, pillow form, of the collective human experience on planet Earth. For instance, what news did we search most in 2003?

Kobe Bryant, Brittany Spears, Shakira, and 50 Cent. 2005 found itself riddled with trifles like "tsunami" and Hurricane Katrina, but it's promising to know that even in the face of such tragedies, Man still found time to search for Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie Britney Spears again...Needless to say, the pillow becomes a greatest hits list for everything that truly matters in the world.

2003 will run you a steep $250, with other years costing a slightly more reasonable $120. Each pillow is signed for authenticity that it's expensive.

A Dime costs $1.9M

A dime(10 Cents) 1894 S was bought for $1.9 million...here's the story

John Feigenbaum didn't sleep at all during his redeye flight across the country. He's not a nervous flier -- he was carrying a dime worth $1.9 million.

Feigenbaum, 38, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, is a rare coin dealer, and the dime he was carrying from San Jose to New York is a 1894-S dime, one of only nine known to exist.

He picked up the dime on Monday from the seller's vault in Oakland. He delivered it to the buyer's vault the following day, in midtown Manhattan.

Feigenbaum said he and the seller's agent will split a 6 percent commission on the deal.

Feigenbaum said he put the dime, which is encased in a 3-inch-square block of plastic, in his jeans pocket. Accompanied by a security guard, he drove to the airport.

Shortly after boarding the plane, Feigenbaum transferred the dime from his pants pocket to his briefcase.

"I was worried that the dime might fall out of my pocket while I was sitting down," he said.

All across the country, Feigenbaum kept reaching into his briefcase to feel for the dime, one of only 24 minted in 1894 in San Francisco, as far as collectors know.

People..treasure your dimes...who knows after 103 years the dime that u treasured could fetch your great great grandchildren few millions...!

Sell it the Apple Way!

You know whats the best strategy to sell something...prefix/suffix apple to the product that you sell and put it up for sale on ebay/amazon...then just sit back and see the wonders...
to understand what i was saying...look at this...



this 6 foot neon rainbow apple Computer logo is on sale on ebay for $4500, this is sold by a apple dealer who's trying to relocate to some other place..and the bid starts from $4450...happy bidding folks!!

Silly Monkey!!

We all know the fact that monkeys are naughty/cranky most of the times..and this ape proves that they are silly even...he he he ;-)

A loo costs just about $19 Million .. in Space

In space, a loo costs a lot.

NASA has agreed to pay $19 million for a Russian-built toilet system for the international space station. The figure may sound astronomical for a toilet in space, but NASA officials said it was cheaper than building their own.

"It's akin to building a municipal treatment center on Earth," NASA spokeswoman Lynnette Madison said Thursday, explaining the cost of the new toilet system.

Also, astronauts are familiar with how it works since it's similar to one already in use at the space station. The new system will be able to transfer urine to a device that can produce drinking water.

The new system is scheduled to be delivered to the U.S. side of the space station in 2008. It will offer more privacy than the old toilet system, which will definitely be needed: The space station crew is expected to grow from three to six people by 2009.

The system will be installed on the American side, and the current toilet system on the Russian side will remain in place.

The space station toilet physically resembles those used on Earth, except it has leg restraints and thigh bars to keep astronauts and cosmonauts in place. Fans suck waste into the commode. Crew members also have individual urine funnels which are attached to hoses, and the urine is deposited into a wastewater tank.

Crew members using the current toilet system on the Russian side must transfer tanks of their urine to a cargo ship, which burns up in Earth's atmosphere once undocked from the station.

The $19 million toilet system was part of a larger contract valued at $46 million that NASA signed this week with RSC Energia, a Russian aerospace company. The extra equipment includes software updates for the station's inventory management system, a spare air pump and engineering support for a mechanism which allows space shuttles to dock with the space station.

Top 10 time wasting activities!

So what are employees doing to waste time on the company dime? Check out the survey's top 10 time-wasting activities:
See who's topped the list...[Internet :-)]


1. Surfing the Internet -- 44.7 percent
2. Socializing with co-workers -- 23.4 percent
3. Conducting personal business -- 6.8 percent
4. Spacing out -- 3.9 percent
5. Running errands off-premise -- 3.1 percent
6. Making personal phone calls -- 2.3 percent
7. Applying for other jobs -- 1.3 percent
8. Planning personal events -- 1.0 percent
9. Arriving late/leaving early -- 1.0 percent
10. Other -- 12.5 percent

Train-Coaster!!

A traffice ticket could cost you $3000!!!

Virginia is for lovers, or so the state slogan has declared since 1969. Starting today, Virginia also will be the home of the $3,000 traffic ticket. In an effort to raise money for road projects, the state will start hitting residents who commit serious traffic offenses with huge civil penalties

Beginning Sunday, Virginia is adding new civil charges to traffic fines. They range from $750 to $3,000 and will be added to existing fines and court costs. The civil penalty for going 20 mph over the speed limit will be $1,050, plus $61 in court costs and a fine that is typically about $200.