Posts Tagged ‘internet’

Hunting the elusive Shamrock Shake; not in Louisville – USA Today

Thursday, March 17th, 2011

By Larry Muhammad, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – St. Patrick’s Day is almost upon us, and not a single McDonald’s here is offering the seasonal mint ‘Shamrock’ milkshake.

Plenty of people have taken their disappointment to the Internet – to a site called shamrockshake.com and a Facebook fan page at facebook.com/shamrock shake – where things are getting a little, ahem, frosty. The online anger only grew when commentators noted that the Shamrock Shake could be found elsewhere.

“I have lived here for three years and haven’t been able to find these delicious nuggets of joy that I grew up with yet,” Kim Jurewicz said. “What is wrong with this city?”

Shamrock shake fans are getting organized, as did fans of the McRib, who developed a locator at kleincast.com/maps/mcrib.php. At shamrockshake.com, you can find a list of ‘Latest sightings,” but it’s not exhaustive.

Managers of several area McDonald’s referred us to corporate headquarters for comment, while daring to suggest that the Shamrock Shake might not be as popular as ardent admirers believe.

The trail led to Pam Fisher, director of marketing for McDonald’s Restaurants of Kentuckiana, which includes stores here.

“Some flavors of shakes perform better in different markets,” Fisher said. “I would love to hear that the local community actually wants it. If they wanted it, we would sell it. That’s what happened in Indianapolis. We had a radio station going live from location to location asking for the Shamrock Shake and we got lots of calls.”

Don’t tell Erin Thompson, a hotel housekeeping manager in Elizabethtown, Ky, that no one wants the Shamrock Shake. The Minnesota native is jealous that her friends back in the Twin Cities can sip Shamrock Shakes while she would have to make a trip to Lebanon Junction, Ky., to get her fix.

“My best friend in Minnesota has had three or four already. She’s coming to visit this week, and well, she wishes she could bring me one – but you can’t really fly with a Shamrock Shake,” Thompson said.

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How to avoid sleep problems caused by Daylight Saving Time – Detroit Free Press

Saturday, March 12th, 2011

Troubled sleepers, listen up. Your problems may get worse Sunday with Daylight Saving Time, the annual rite of moving the clock forward each spring.

Even losing an hour of sleep can cause decreased alertness and more accidents in spring, when Americans shift clocks forward in the twice-a-year time-change ritual.

But a University of Michigan sleep expert says there are ways to head off problems, including going to bed a half-hour earlier tonight, waking a half-hour earlier than usual Sunday and sitting in the sun Sunday morning to allow your body’s wake-sleep cycle to adjust.

“The most important thing is, when you wake up, expose your eyes to light,” said Dr. Anita Valanju Shelgikar, a U-M sleep medicine specialist. “Open the blinds and turn on a light; tell your brain that this is morning.

“Light is such a powerful cue to our brains” and the body’s internal circadian rhythms, which affect sleep, eating and even hormones, she said.

How to avoid sleep problems caused by Daylight Saving Time

Sleep problems triggered by Daylight Saving Time, which kicks in at 2 a.m. Sunday, when clocks are moved forward an hour, can occur for a week or two and are greater for “morning larks and night owls,” says Dr. Anita Valanju Shelgikar, a U-M sleep medicine specialist.

That’s because people who have irregular sleep patterns already have circadian rhythms that are well off the norm, she said. The problems are like the jet lag travelers experience after they’ve returned from a long trip — a fatigue that often is worse than the symptoms experienced getting there.

As many as 3 in every 10 Americans have sleep problems. Stress — both the so-called good kind that comes from planning a celebration, for example, and the bad kind triggered by job loss — also affects sleep loss. And sleeplessness is on the rise due to Michigan’s recession, Shelgikar said.

“We’re definitely seeing more people with stress who never had sleep problems before.”

Here are some tips to help with the time change and sleep troubles in general:

• Go to sleep a half-hour earlier than usual tonight and wake up a half hour earlier.

• Expose yourself to outdoor or indoor light. If you have serious sleep problems, consider purchasing a blue light used to combat winter sadness. The lights can help adjust the body’s internal clock that helps regulate sleep.

• Don’t eat or exercise within two hours of bedtime.

• If you need a daytime nap, limit it to 30 minutes.

• Before bed, take a warm bath; listen to soothing music; do light reading, but stay away from a page-turner that could keep you up.

• Avoid alcohol. It may help you get to sleep, but it truncates it.

• Use the bedroom for sleeping and intimacy, not TV watching, video games or Internet surfing.

• Still can’t get to sleep? Get out of bed and try the tips again.

Contact Patricia Anstett: 313-222-5021 or panstett@freepress.com

Homeroom Period: Khan Academy edition – Eastern Iowa Schools

Friday, March 11th, 2011

Long-time readers know I’m a huge fan of TED talks. Here’s one from the most recent TED conference. Former hedge fund analyst Salman Khan talks about how Youtube videos can change education.

If Isaac Newton had done Youtube videos on calculus, I wouldn’t have to. – Salman Khan

Back when I was in elementary school, a big part of our weekly library period was always spent learning how to use the Dewey Decimal System for finding nonfiction books. Well the system is now on the outs at many libraries in favor of a bookstore-style system, according to the Chicago Tribune. The article says this is mainly happening at smaller, suburban libraries, which makes sense. I think it would probably be too confusing at larger libraries.

City Pages in the Twin Cities has an expose of standardized test-grading from the temps who grade student essays. It doesn’t paint a pretty picture of what’s happening to essays behind closed doors.

I’ve mentioned laptop 1:1 programs on here before as well as written about schools using iPads and tablets, but if you want some good raw information, check out this report from an Australian schools that recently introduced iPads to its classes and closely analyzed the results in all the classes.

Homeroom Period is a daily roundup of interesting education articles from around the Internet. If you have something you’d like to be considered, e-mail it to patrick.hogan@sourcemedia.net.


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Patrick Hogan is an education reporter for SourceMedia Group.

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Charlie Sheen to do live webcast

Sunday, March 6th, 2011

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Charlie Sheen apparently was hoping to take the Internet by storm again Saturday night.

On his Twitter page Saturday, Sheen said he would do a live webcast on ustream.tv/charliesheen from his mansion at 7 p.m. PST.

The actor was in the company of a small group of people, mainly sharing his views on a variety of topics and people.

Sheen’s webcast, “Sheen’s Korner,” came with bizarre ramblings and angry rants, one again alcoholics anonymous.

It was a mix of segments including a small group of friends and one of his porn star girlfriends.

During the hour-long show, Sheen promoted products, talked about people he’d like to be and slammed those he doesn’t like, such as his homeowners association.

He read from his book of published poetry and showed off a new tattoo of his slogan, “winning.”

Sheen said the show could return on a daily or weekly basis based on fan reaction. If the numbers are any sign, it may be a tough sell.

After 45 minutes viewers dropped to 92,000 and most of those who took to Twitter ripped it apart.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Police Department says it has not launched an investigation of Sheen for alleged threats he made to his estranged wife, Brooke Mueller.

Mueller claims he vowed to decapitate her and send her severed head to her mother.

She filed the statements in court, but the LAPD says they can only launch a probe if Mueller files a complaint, which she has not done as of Friday.

Sheen has previously pleaded no contest twice on domestic charges.

Attorney Gloria Allred represented one of the victims and said the LAPD needs to step in.

“Sometimes wives and mothers of children are reluctant to file that police report, there are many reasons they are reluctant to do so,” Allred said. “I haven’t spoken to Brooke about her reasons.”

Sheen has continued to be in the media spotlight.

The actor is now getting support from Sean Penn for his plan to visit Haiti.

Sheen said this week he would like to bring attention back to the earthquake victims and Penn says his passion could be of great service.

The date for such a trip has not yet been announced.

(Copyright ©2011 KABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

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celebrity, abc, radio, entertainment, leanne suter

Is Faith Kroll a Teacher or an Exhibitionist? – The Stir

Friday, March 4th, 2011

Faith KrollFaith KrollOh wow, will you look at this? Masturbation studies have (officially) come to college! And who’s bringing it? Exhibitionists Faith Kroll, 25, and her fiance Jim Marcus, 44, brought everybody’s favorite pastime into a human sexuality class at Northwestern University. That’s right. Kroll performed a sexual demonstration with a machine-powered sex toy in front of a voluntary, after-school class of students. And yes, Jim brought Faith ALL the way, uh, “home” during the demo.

Faith Kroll is a self-proclaimed exhibitionist who was not paid for her demonstration; however, she enjoyed it because she’s into that. However, that doesn’t make her demonstration any less educational for the class, does it? 

By definition, this demonstration was NOT a live sex act or a free porn show. It was not designed to arouse the students but to teach them. Just because Faith was naked doesn’t make it less educational; in fact, it makes it even MORE educational! The only naked, sexual beings we ever get to see up close are usually in pornography, which is a very false representation of true human sexuality and arousal, especially for women. So calling this pornography is quite off the mark, in fact. And where do you want your kids getting their real-life sexuality lessons — in school or on the Internet or, worse, from some lame dude?

Here’s what Faith had to say via Twitter about the difference between her educational demo for classroom purposes and pornography:

the class we taught was a psych sexuality class.

It’s not porn if you’re teaching about the mechanics. That’s the kind of stuff you hide in porn!

porn is a fantasy nothing I did was fantasy. it was as clinical as the movie that was shown in the class, but with more facts!

And folks, let’s not forget, this is a college, not a high school, and these are adults. The class was completely voluntary, and the students were repeatedly told what they would be seeing.

But what about that part about Faith being an exhibitionist? Does her enjoyment of the lesson make her a less effective teacher? I don’t know. I’ve always learned best from my more passionate teachers who really believed in and cared about what they were teaching, as Faith obviously does. And she didn’t do the demo alone with no educational information to back it up. There were educators in the room teaching the coordinating lessons and answering questions.

But isn’t being an exhibitionist just creepy? Well, not the way Faith explains it:

it was a fetish to do it in front of people who wanted to see it. it’s specific attention that is liked, not all.

Being an exhibitionist doesn’t mean someone likes all attention.

This, in fact, goes hand in hand with the lessons about sex safety and consent that were being taught alongside the demonstration. These are very important lessons for college students. Full consent should be present in every single sexual act. Always.

What more could a parent hope college tuition to cover? These kids learned about human sexuality, the workings of the female body and female arousal (great for women and men), as well as about safety and consent in a compelling demonstration that they will never forget. That’s a whole lot of good learning if you ask me.

What do you think of this type of teaching? Too racy for college or critical for young, often sexually active youth?

 

Image via Twitter

 

‘McLobster’ a ‘McFake’ Like the ‘McRib’? The Elusive Sandwich(Video) – Examiner.com

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

The McLobster at McDonalds is the latest fast food fad that has many wondering what and where it is. Like the McRib, is the elusive sandwich real, and are the rumors true about its availability? The only thing that is certain is that it’s buzzing on the Internet. 

Check out the McDonalds video commercial

There are rumors that the fast food giant has released the newest sandwich to its mix called the McLobster. After a Big Mac, McRib, and a host of other Mc’s, it was bound to happen. The trouble with the rumor is that the sandwich is not really new at all. 

In fact, the manufactured sandwich purporting to contain 100% lobster meat has been a staple item in the New England area and in Canada for quite some time. It appears that the savvy brass and product development team at McDonald’s had a desire to ride the coat tails of the McRib’s success. 

Fans of that elusive sandwich always fall victim to the comings and goings of the processed pork sandwich, sopped with special savory sauce, and made to look like a half-rack of baby-backs. The McLobster is no exception. 

The current rumor about the sandwich is that it’s coming to a McDonald’s near you. So what does that mean? It means if you’re a fan of lobster, or of a sandwich that was created to resemble the meat of the coveted bottom dweller, have at it. 

One site describes the McLobster as a concoction that resembles regurgitated meat, laced with mayo that is made to look like a lobster salad. It all comes stuffed inside a hot dog bun, is served with fries, and comes with the obligatory beverage. 

The jury is still out on the coming of the sandwich to your neighborhood, but if it’s anything like the McRib, it could turn out to be a McFake to the naysayers. 

 

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