During the fall semester, students help to construct–and then quickly devour–a mile-long sandwich known as THE BIG SUB. [Wikipedia]

There’s a college on a hilltop,
That’s very dear to me
And a certain group of women
With ties of camaraderie

So we’ll sing to dear old Barnard
And loyal be and true
As we show to coming classes
How we love to EAT REALLY BIG SUBS.

The Barnard song actually finishes with “How we love the white and blue.” Then it repeats. It’s very nice and sweet. But not nearly as sweet as our mile long sub.

Yes, I must admit that the women here at my beloved school sure know how to eat. So much, in fact, that nearly the entire school joins in on the ritual of spanning this sub all the way from our quad, down the campus, past the gates, and into our mouths.

I haven’t experienced this fantastic phenomena yet as I’m a first year… but, I can tell you this much: I couldn’t be more proud of my dining service people. You guys are the greatest!

Enjoy the photo at the top right. It’s some strange illustration I found while Google-imaging “largest sub sandwich in the world.”

“Low-cost, home-built 3-D printer could launch a revolution, say Cornell engineers” says the Cornell Daily Chronicle online.

The Altair 8800, introduced in the early 1970s, was the first computer you could build at home from a kit. It was crude, didn’t do much, but many historians would say that it launched the desktop computer revolution.

Hod Lipson, a Cornell assistant professor, seems to think that a machine called “Fab@Home” might have the same impact. He believes that someday every home will have a “fabber” or small machine that creates objects directed by “downloadable” computer instructions. He suggests: “Instead of buying an iPod, you would download the plans over the Internet and the fabber would make one for you.”

Pretty nifty eh? Such machines do already exist in the commercial world. They’re used to create “rapid prototyping” – such as building models and sample machine parts. It’s basically a 3D Printer. “How does this work?” you say? Well, I’ll tell you:

A 3-D printer has a small nozzle that scans back and forth across a surface, depositing tiny droplets of quick-hardening plastic. After each scan, the nozzle moves up a notch and scans again until it has built up the complete object, layer by layer. With multiple nozzles or a means of swapping supply cartridges, the machine can create objects made of many different materials.

Many useful things can currently be “fabbed” including lego wheels and chocolate bars. Who knows what they’ll come up with next!

Cool right?

Here are the top ten foods for a good night’s sleep according to Yahoo:

What is the secret to getting a solid 7 to 8 hours of sleep? Head for the kitchen and enjoy one or two of these 10 foods. They relax tense muscles, quiet buzzing minds, and/or get calming, sleep-inducing hormones – serotonin and melatonin – flowing. Yawning yet?

Bananas. They’re practically a sleeping pill in a peel. In addition to a bit of soothing melatonin and serotonin, bananas contain magnesium, a muscle relaxant.

Chamomile tea. The reason chamomile is such a staple of bedtime tea blends is its mild sedating effect – it’s the perfect natural antidote for restless minds/bodies.

Warm milk. It’s not a myth. Milk has some tryptophan – an amino acid that has a sedative – like effect – and calcium, which helps the brain use tryptophan. Plus there’s the psychological throw-back to infancy, when a warm bottle meant “relax, everything’s fine.”

Honey. Drizzle a little in your warm milk or herb tea. Lots of sugar is stimulating, but a little glucose tells your brain to turn off orexin, a recently discovered neurotransmitter that’s linked to alertness.

Potatoes. A small baked spud won’t overwhelm your GI tract, and it clears away acids that can interfere with yawn-inducing tryptophan. To up the soothing effects, mash it with warm milk.

Oatmeal. Oats are a rich source of sleep – inviting melatonin, and a small bowl of warm cereal with a splash of maple syrup is cozy – plus if you’ve got the munchies, it’s filling too.

Almonds. A handful of these heart-healthy nuts can be snooze-inducing, as they contain both tryptophan and a nice dose of muscle-relaxing magnesium.

Flaxseeds. When life goes awry and feeling down is keeping you up, try sprinkling 2 tablespoons of these healthy little seeds on your bedtime oatmeal. They’re rich in omega-3 fatty acids, a natural mood lifter.

Whole-wheat bread. A slice of toast with your tea and honey will release insulin, which helps tryptophan get to your brain, where it’s converted to serotonin and quietly murmurs “time to sleep.”

Turkey. It’s the most famous source of tryptophan, credited with all those Thanksgiving naps. But that’s actually modern folklore. Tryptophan works when your stomach’s basically empty, not overstuffed, and when there are some carbs around, not tons of protein. But put a lean slice or two on some whole-wheat bread mid-evening, and you’ve got one of the best sleep inducers in your kitchen.

Ahhh… I’m a notorious midnight eater. I’ll pick out the most random stuff (like noodles and cottage cheese with a side of salsa and chips). It’s a hit or miss whether or not I get a good night’s sleep that night either. Hopefully, this special little diet supplement will help. So, for you midnight munchers out there: what do you eat before you go to sleep?

Pretty soon the computer will exercise for us:

Windows/Linux only: Prevent RSI from setting in after long, uninterrupted hours on your PC with the free WorkRave timed break application.

WorkRave pops up and prompts you for a “micro break” or a longer exercise break at time intervals you determine. The app will even suggest anti-RSI exercises for your eyes, back and shoulders to help prevent backaches, headaches and carpal tunnel. WorkRave is a free download, Windows and Linux only. (Mac users, check out previously-posted AntiRSI for a similar app.) Thanks, gatorparade! — Gina Trapani

Thank you to the wonderful people at LifeHacker.

Do you believe?The Flat Earth Website owns a website here, and a forum here: with such posts as:

Australia Doesn’t Exist
I own a space shuttle, and am giving free rides by “mbrooksay” who says, I own a space shuttle, and I am willing to give all you retarded **** free rides in space, AROUND the Earth, to once and for all end this crazy society. Sign-up list is here.

while another

moves to dispute the whole “water turns the other way in Australia” idea. Which brings to mind that funny Simpsons episode.

Here’s the interesting bit of their mission statement:

Then, in the year of our Lord fourteen-hundred and ninety-two, it all changed. For decades a small band of self-proclaimed “enlightened” individuals had been spouting their heretical nonsense that the Earth was in fact round. Citing “proof” based on nothing more than assumptions, half-truths and blind guesses, they dazzled the populace with their ” . . . undeniable mathematical and scientific evidence . . . that the world is shaped not like a pancake, but an orange!”

So are they just plain old cooks? Do you think they’re absolutely true? Or maybe you just like their quote at the top of their website…”Deprogramming the masses since 1547″.

Alexander Shopmann, a 55-year-old German retired stockbroker, thought of a bright idea one day to create Smokers International Airline, Smintair for short.

Shopmann claims that in an age of extremely limited freedoms, and cramped/stuffy/terrible airflights, his new airline will offer an experience that a flier won’t be able to find anywhere else. And it’s true:

SMINTAIR reinstates the liberty of smoking in all seats. Non-smokers will find the cabin air more refreshing than on any other flight with any other airline, as SMINTAIR adds fresh outside air to the conditioning system! This is more expensive, as it burns more fuel, but it is seen as an additional service to our guests.

Where do you think those colds you get right after a flight come from? STUFFY AIR!

More interesting “features:” Keep reading this »

To most, General Tso is recognized only by the fact that his name precedes the word “chicken” in the delictably sugary-spicy, deep fried, garlicky, meet tidbit dish universal to Chinese take-outs across the United States. However, what most people do not know is that General Tso was a ruthless military leader who met the height of his day during China’s greatest civil war, the 14-year-long Taiping Rebellion, which claimed millions of lives…. “Setting their chopsticks aside, patting their stomachs, the satisfied diners spare scarcely a thought for General Tso, except to imagine that he must have been a great connoisseur of hot stir-fried chicken.”

Tso’s compaigns were absolutely ruthless. During the Taiping Rebellion, he managed to smash the rebels in four provinces and put down an unrelated revolt called the Nian Rebellion. He THEN continued to march west and reconquer Chinese Turkestan from Muslim rebels.

Is it possible that, struggling to carve out a new life in America under backbreaking adversities, and having heard of the sword skills of the remorseless General Tso (who had the top leaders of the Nian Rebellion executed with the proverbial “death of 10,000 cuts”), the overseas exiles indulged in some gallows-humor about their old enemy? That the chopped-up chicken dish may have gotten its name from the sliced and diced victims of Tso’s grim reprisals?

How’s that for slice and dice chicken?

[Washington Post]

Actual photo of pluto. (Click for larger verion.)

Pluto is a planet no more. The IAU classified the ex-planet as a “dwarf planet,” during it’s 2006 General Assembly. From AP, CNN:

Much-maligned Pluto doesn’t make the grade under the new rules for a planet: “a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a … nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.”

Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune’s.

Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of “dwarf planets,” similar to what long have been termed “minor planets.” The definition also lays out a third class of lesser objects that orbit the sun — “small solar system bodies,” a term that will apply to numerous asteroids, comets and other natural satellites.

Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. Here’s an interesting tidbit from Wikipedia: Keep reading this »

So I’ve decided to start another “little section” of this blog (lets hope this one is more successful than my first plan.) I call it “Did you know…” Each week (or more like when I get around to it) I will feature some interesting fact or feature from the INTERWEB. Basically I decided to start this because I wanted to tell you about just this…

So you think iTunes is just an expensive tool for downloading over-priced media from Apple? Think again. Itunes features hundreds of free radio stations, all top quality because they’re not actually “radio” … they’re streamed over the internet. If your getting sick of some of the same playlists you run when your working at your desk or computer, check out the ambient section to chill out while you work. There are “Top Hits” stations, stations featuring music from the big band era, and even comedy stations. The best thing is there are usually many stations that rarely play commercials, and there is always a fresh new rotation of songs for you to listen to for FREE. So get on over there, download iTunes even if you don’t plan on buying ;)