Author: Richard

Bottled Water Light Bulbs and Stinky Sock Mosquito Traps

A liter bottle of water with a few teaspoons of bleach is proving to be a successful recipe for dwellers in the light-deprived slums of the Philippines. The simple technology is spreading sunlight in places where it has never been, and saving residents money at the same time. Gemma Haines reports for Reuters:

Meanwhile, smelly socks are being tested in Tanzania as way to prevent malaria – and working.

Scientists think the musky odor of human feet can be used to attract and kill mosquitoes that carry deadly malaria. The Gates Foundation announced on Wednesday that it will help fund one such pungent project in Tanzania.

If they can be cheaply mass-produced, the traps could provide the first practical way of controlling malaria infections outside. The increased use of bed nets and indoor spraying has already helped bring down transmissions inside homes.

Netflix: same great service. NEW higher cost!

“Jessie Becker, here to share two significant changes at Netflix with you.” – sounds like something cool might possibly be coming your way, right? So wrong… Unless your idea of Awesome is paying more for a service you used to get for free. then you’re stylin… the rest of the world reacted differently though…

First, we are launching new DVD only plans. These plans offer our lowest prices ever for unlimited DVDs – only $7.99 a month for our 1 DVD out at-a-time plan and $11.99 a month for our 2 DVDs out at-a-time plan. By offering our lowest prices ever, we hope to provide great value to our current and future DVDs by mail members. New members can sign up for these plans by going to DVD.netflix.com.

Second, we are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into separate plans to better reflect the costs of each and to give our members a choice: a streaming only plan, a DVD only plan or the option to subscribe to both. With this change, we will no longer offer a plan that includes both unlimited streaming and DVDs by mail.

So for instance, our current $9.99 a month membership for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs will be split into 2 distinct plans:

Plan 1: Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month
Plan 2: Unlimited DVDs, 1 out at-a-time (no streaming), for $7.99 a month.

The price for getting both of these plans will be $15.98 a month ($7.99 + $7.99). For new members, these changes are effective immediately; for existing members, the new pricing will start for charges on or after September 1, 2011.

Why the changes?

Last November when we launched our $7.99 unlimited streaming plan, DVDs by mail was treated as a $2 add on to our unlimited streaming plan. At the time, we didn’t anticipate offering DVD only plans. Since then we have realized that there is still a very large continuing demand for DVDs both from our existing members as well as non-members. Given the long life we think DVDs by mail will have, treating DVDs as a $2 add on to our unlimited streaming plan neither makes great financial sense nor satisfies people who just want DVDs. Creating an unlimited DVDs by mail plan (no streaming) at our lowest price ever, $7.99, does make sense and will ensure a long life for our DVDs by mail offering. Reflecting our confidence that DVDs by mail is a long-term business for us, we are also establishing a separate and distinct management team solely focused on DVDs by mail, led by Andy Rendich, our Chief Service and Operations Officer and an 11 year veteran of Netflix.

Now we offer a choice: Unlimited Streaming for $7.99 a month, Unlimited DVDs for $7.99 a month, or both for $15.98 a month ($7.99 + $7.99). We think $7.99 is a terrific value for our unlimited streaming plan and $7.99 a terrific value for our unlimited DVD plan. We hope one, or both, of these plans makes sense for our members and their entertainment needs.

I use amazon prime. it includes free 2 day shipping on anything you buy from amazon – which was why i had it in the first place. one day they just added free streaming movies as a perk to my membership. HINT: that is how you do it, Netflix… surprise users with free new features, not with old features that now cost double what you were paying…

But this dude says it even better:

Willie Williams
Dear Netflix,

Individually your DVD and steaming services do not offer enough to justify their expense. As a bundled service they supplement each other and provide the value that made Netflix wonderful. DVDs allowed you to view newer releases in a fairly timely manner. Streaming allowed for viewing of the older catalog of movies that come up when you think of it but might not be worth waiting for to arrive in the mail.

I average 5 DVDs a month. I can replace these rentals with RedBox for $5 and save $3 based on your subscription prices. This replacement would also remove the 28 day wait that comes with most new releases available through Netflix. Likewise, I can replace your streaming service with Amazon Prime and save an additional $2 a month. Again, this would eliminate the unnecessary delay in availability of newer releases.

By separating these services I fear you are weakening Netflix as a service and subsequently the brand. Together these services made Netflix a success, separated you lack the availability and pricing of your competitors.

I sincerely hope you will reconsider, I will be saddened when I am forced to cancel my subscription.

An even more thorough breakdown:

Still confused? Here is the difference between a turtle and a tortoise:

Subway uses dwarf to make sandwich look bigger?

I always like seeing dwarves integrated in media, so this Subway banner looks like a nice inclusive advertisement…until you notice that the girl is holding a sandwich…and her size makes it look bigger…which makes me more cynical about the motive behind this ad… It’s also kinda freakydeaky how it’s kindov almost livesize and life-height… oy, Subway.

All Grown Up: Cindy Loo Who

Remember the adorable little girl who played Cindy Loo Who in the abortion of a movie that raped the beloved Dr Seuss classic and Frankenstiened it into the 2000 holiday horror? well, 11 years later, she looks different:


But seriously though…I haven’t been up on the Taylor Momsen news and don’t know what she is in or doing now but the gothy punk look makes me guess music of some kind? I’m not gonna google it. I dont wanna know.




UPDATE: I just found out that yes, she does music (also stars on Gossip Girl), she doesn’t turn 18 until next month and evidently she’s started this gimmick of taping her nipples and flashing her audience….oooookay….




Google Plus Dilema

You can move your Facebook friends into Google+..but…do you really want to?

Its almost a week after the launch of new Google Social Network, Google+ (Google Plus) and its increasing user rate is very high. But Google+ still doesn’t have the functionality for users to bring friends directly from Facebook to Google+ and every user on Google+ would surely want their Facebook friends to use Google+.

Untill now, Google hasn’t been fully launched to all the users freely but you can join if get invites from Google+ users.

But if you are already into Google+, then there is a way to bring your Facebook friends contacts to your Google+ account and give them invites. Facebook Friend Exporter is an extension forChrome which gives the easiest method of exchanging user contacts from one service to another.

Windy Kate

Prince William and Princess Kate landed in Calgary Canada to attend a rodeo on Thursday and while walking at the airport, a gust of pervert-wind took a peek at the former Ms Middletons underwear. Also, they have a guy whose only job is to carry their cowboy hats (at least I’m assuming that’s his only job). 

Takeaway lesson: Princesses dont wear thongs….

And as long as we’re ogling Brits, theres this:

Banana attacks Gorilla, then Splits

 

“I noticed a kid in the bushes. Then he just emerged, dressed up as a banana, and sprinted as fast as he could at our gorilla,” said Brandon Parham, the manager. “The kid just speared our gorilla.”

Parham and another employee witnessed the attack.

“The kid was in mid-air, flying. He just looked like a Spartan from that movie ‘300,’ except he was a banana,” added Parham.

The Wireless Center uses the gorilla as an advertising tool on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays.

“After he got tackled, the gorilla just got back up and adjusted his head. He kept on waving his sign around,” said Parham.

Police say the person dressed up as a banana split and headed south on Pearl Road.

According to Parham, the person who was wearing the gorilla costume will recover.

“This is just bizarre. It’s really not normal of the food chain. That’s not really how this works. The gorilla should have won,” said Parham.

Police were unable to locate the banana.

They believe it was prank.