AT40 Week of June 29th, 2009

1) Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow
2) Beyonce - Halo
3) Shine Down - Second Chance
4) 3Oh!3 - Don't Trust Me
5) Lady Gaga - Poker Face
6) Miley Cyrus - The Climb
7) Jamie Foxx - Blame It
8) Pitbull - I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)
9) Kelly Clarkson - I Do Not Hook Up
10) Lady Gaga - LoveGame
11) Pink - Please Don't Leave Me
12) Kristinia DeBarge - Goodbye
13) Katy Perry - Waking Up in Vegas
14) Britney Spears - If U See Amy
15) Kelly Clarkson - My Life Would Suck Without You
16) Flo Rida - Right Round
17) Sean Kingston - Fire Burning
18) The All American Rejects - Gives You Hell
19) The Fray - You Found Me
20) Kid Cudi - Day 'n' Nite
21) Nickelback - If Today Was Your Last Day
22) Jeremih - Birthday Sex
23) T.I. - Dead and Gone
24) Jesse McCartney - How Do You Sleep?
25) Soulja Boy - Kiss Me Thru The Phone
26) Flo Rida - Sugar feat. Wynter
27) The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name
28) Kevin Rudolf - Welcome To The World
29) Matt Nathanson - Come On Get Higher
30) Taylor Swift - Love Story
31) Lady Gaga - Just Dance
32) Jordin Sparks - Battlefield
33) Pink - Sober
34) Keri Hilson - Knock You Down
35) Jessie James - Wanted
36) Kanye - Heartless
37) Daughtry - No Surprise
38) Britney Spears - Circus
39) Jonas Brothers - Paranoid
40) Rob Thomas - Her Diamonds

commercial

Woman: Excuse me! Excuse me!
Waiter: Yes ma'am, is something wrong?
Woman: Yes, I ordered a veggie burger. I'm very eco-conscious, I hope you know. I care about my health!
Waiter: Is something wrong with it?
Woman: This isn't a veggie burger!
Waiter: Actually it is ma'am, [RP vegetarian patties] taste, look and smell just like the real thing!
Woman: Is that so?
Waiter: Yes ma'am, good for your health and good for the environment!
[other closing comments]

AT40 Week of June 22th, 2009

1 Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow
2 Beyonce - Halo
3 Lady Gaga - Poker Face
4 Shine Down - Second Chance
5 Jamie Foxx - Blame It
6 3Oh!3 - Don't Trust Me
7 Miley Cyrus - The Climb
8 Kelly Clarkson - I Do Not Hook Up
9 Britney Spears - If U See Amy
10 Pitbull - I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)
11 Flo Rida - Right Round
12 Lady Gaga - LoveGame
13 Kelly Clarkson - My Life Would Suck Without You
14 Pink - Please Don't Leave Me
15 The All American Rejects - Gives You Hell
16 Katy Perry - Waking Up in Vegas
17 Kristinia DeBarge - Goodbye
18 Kid Cudi - Day 'n' Nite
19 The Fray - You Found Me
20 Jesse McCartney - How Do You Sleep?
21 Soulja Boy - Kiss Me Thru The Phone
22 Flo Rida - Sugar feat. Wynter
23 T.I. - Dead and Gone
24 Sean Kingston - Fire Burning
25 Nickelback - If Today Was Your Last Day
26 Matt Nathanson - Come On Get Higher
27 Kevin Rudolf - Welcome To The World
28 Lady Gaga - Just Dance
29 The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name
30 Jeremih - Birthday Sex
31 Taylor Swift - Love Story
32 Pink - Sober
33 Kanye - Heartless
34 Britney Spears - Circus
35 ???
36 Jessie James - Wanted
37 Keri Hilson - Knock You Down
38 Jordin Sparks - Battlefield
39 ???
40 Daughtry - No Surprise

Megan Fox

This morning i heard that she was the US winner for "most beautiful woman in the world" (or something like that). The first thing i thought of was "no, that's Meg Cabot". The second was "Who the hell is Megan Fox?" Here's the wiki picture :


What the hell? Half of her face is white (bad makeup?) she seems to have no hair, a huge random tattoo, and tits showing. This is the best America can do?


But then Google images..









Are these really the same people!?

Destroying marriage

By defining something as magical as marriage to "pick one man. okay, now pick one woman. Definition achieved!" aren't conservatives the ones destroying marriage?

On the bright side, at least it's not "a white man and a white woman" anymore

--

Microsoft sues ad-clickers

Microsoft is suing three people (believed to be a mother and her two kids) for $775,000 for spending their lives clicking ads for money. (Business Week)

Radio is heard here, Radio isn't seen here!

Radio's been playing a lot of "Radio is heard here, Radio is heard Everywhere" ads recently, I wonder if the radio industry isn't getting as many advertisers as it used to?

Why do I listen to the radio? Because it has the music i like without the music VIDEOS that i hate. Okay, to be sure, some of the lyrics are pretty terrible (misogynistic), but often the lyrics are fine yet the video encourages little girls to become whores (I'm looking at you, Kelly Clarkson.) For those times,

"Radio. Hey, at least your kids can't learn how to dress like little sluts from me!" Should be their new ad :/ Some stations already run "lyrics that won't embarrass you in front of your kids" ads (untrue, thanks, Sheryl Crow), they should really capitalize on this legitimate concern! You can't see what's on the radio, making it an amazing medium from so many angles!

Radio should really serve its listeners instead of pitching to the businesses. Terrible radio ads aren't hard to come by (Bad voice acting, obvious need for visuals, too many words) these days. I've also seen radio ads with the exact same script on TV, making me wonder just how much amazing potential has been lost not making two different ads for two different mediums.

tl;dr

perez hilton tweets

tabloid-blogger Perez Hilton: "will.i.am assaulted me"

singer/actor will.i.am: "he tweeted that instead of calling the cops"

"America's Most Depressing Statistic"

A graph showing that poor kids with good SAT scores still drop out of college more than rich kids with bad SAT scores. (Be sure to read the little text too!)




From Money Magazine. Full article?
(Please don't sue me without warning first)

another ad!

Interesting ad in a lot of different financial magazines. Can you find what it's advertising? (warning, huge horizontal scroller)

addressing child abuse everywhere

since rich people abuse their kids too, this was in Businessweek magazine
(click to enlarge)

AT40 Week of June 15th, 2009

1) Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow
2) Lady Gaga - Poker Face
3) Beyonce - Halo
4) Jamie Foxx - Blame It
5) Shine Down - Second Chance
6) Miley Cyrus - The Climb
7) 3Oh!3 - Don't Trust Me
8) Kelly Clarkson - I Do Not Hook Up
9) Britney Spears - If U See Amy
10) Flo Rida - Right Round
11) The All American Rejects- Gives You Hell
12) Jesse McCartney - How Do You Sleep?
13) Kelly Clarkson - My Life Would Suck Without You
14) Kid Cudi - Day 'n' Nite
15) Soulja Boy - Kiss Me Thru The Phone
16) Flo Rida - Sugar feat. Wynter
17) Pitbull - I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)
18) The Fray - You Found Me
19) Pink - Please Don't Leave Me
20) T.I. - Dead and Gone
21) Kristinia DeBarge - Goodbye
22) Katy Perry - Waking Up in Vegas
23) Lady Gaga - LoveGame
24) Sean Kingston - Fire Burning
25) Matt Nathanson - Come On Get Higher
26) Nickelback - If Today Was Your Last Day
27) Lady Gaga - Just Dance
28) Taylor Swift - Love Story
29) Pink - Sober
30) Kevin Rudolf - Welcome To The World
31) The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name
32) Kanye West - Heartless
33) Jason Mraz - I'm Yours
34) Jeremih - Birthday Sex
35) Kevin Rudolf - Let It Rock
36) Britney Spears - Circus
37) Katy Perry - Hot N Cold
38) Jessie James - Wanted
39) Eminem - We Made You
40) Madcon - Beggin'

Math

so good, i had to post it everywhere. http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf

yes, it's about math
no, it's not full of math questions
yes, you'll like it
no, it's not a short read
yes, math in school sucks
no, math's not useful in the real world
yes, math is an art
no, math is not memorizing formulas
yes, this is a tl;dr
no, you should still read the whole thing

that's amazing, all the times i wondered about the volume of shrubbery and optimal placement of sandwich condiments, i was doing math :)

it's true, i'm one of the people described in the paper as "told was good at math but was actually just good at doing what they were told" but math and i had a fallout because i decided it was too damn easy to apply formulas senselessly (also predicted in the paper).

maybe it's time to give math another chance?

--

First black Disney princess!

The Princess and the Frog. ... it's like Shrek with a minstrel show!
but it will be the first black Disney princess (and prince!)

wow, I can't wait for the first Disney gay couple (did it already happen?)

Also, Astroboy movie (sticking to it's origin, non-Disney)

Also, Up problem solved via barrel roll.

--

same product, different ad

"One day, his son would speak to the world.

He wanted them to understand.

Rosetta Stone. The fastest and easiest way to learn Chinese."



Same Rosetta Stone but in Money Magazine. Totally different. Also, was Blogger always this bad at image resolutions?

--

"Progress is Overrated"

Progress is Overrated

Has progress taken us to a better place?

I'd say it's taken us for a ride. (Probably in a carbon-coughing oil guzzler.)

Honestly, what thanks do we owe progress? We're up to our necks in landfill, down to the wire on resources, and climate change is out to get us - or at best leave us with a nasty sunburn.

Historically, civilizations are destroyed by progress. Just ask the Pharaohs. No sooner had they built those jumbo triangles and giant cement cats than they flushed themselves down the Nile.

That's why at Post Shredded Wheat, we put the "no" in innovation.

Henry Perky created the Original Shredded Wheat in 1982. One man. (Him.) One ingredient. (Wheat.) One machine. (The machine.) We didn't give it any add-ons or plug-ins. Heck, we didn't even name it.

All we did was make it Spoon Size in 1961. Did we go too far? Time will tell. But I will say our naturally fiber-rich, 100% whole grain wheat has been free of enhancement, progress and pyramids for 117 years and counting.

Frank Druffel

"We put the 'no' in innovation"


See Frank in action at ThePalaceOfLight.com




The youtube videos are nice but the magazine ads are... what?

Fat Princess. Also, condoms.

yes, this is old news.

Well, now that i've seen the trailer ( http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-fat-princess/50696 ) i can say for sure that all the flame wars over anti-fat sentiment and sexism were just a ploy by Sony to publicize the game (nice work, asshats.) This trailer shows a potentially fun real-time strategy game that could easily stand on its own, without needing to capitalize on its controvertial name. (speaking of names, Project Natal for the Xbox360? what?)

What this blog is actually about is the Trojan Condoms ad that is cut off right before the actual trailer starts. The "2Go" (http://www.trojancondoms.com/ ...hmm, interesting, that's the name of the new PSP too) is basically Trojan taking the old "keep a condom in your wallet" idea one step further by packaging 2 condoms like a sheet of allergy tablets and marketing it as specifically for your wallet. Honestly it's not that discreet, seeing as it says "ultrathin" on it twice and probably has instructions for use on the back. The only real difference is that squishing one of these is unlikely to reveal a condom-shaped indent.

Way to fail Trojan, gamers don't get sex! Though actually this is very sneaky; if they ever do they're unlikely to know that Trojans are pretty much the most advertized yet least awesome condoms ever. Whoo!


--

Unplug stuff!

The tl;dr : Unplug chargers when you're not using them, it wastes electricity. However, random small household appliances are fine when plugged in but turned off.

The second tl;dr : TVs eat up electricity when plugged in but off so that they can turn on in mere seconds. The US Department of Energy is really overstating how much leaving stuff plugged in is costing us (according to devices that track how many watts something uses per hour). However, when you consider that it's thinking about 300 million Americans, it really does add up.



Cheese and Rice, I saw this ad in China (yes, China) saying that tons of electricity is wasted if you leave cell phone chargers plugged in but not charging your cell phone. Since then I've spent the extra effort unplugging my cell phone charger and DS charger. It's actually pretty difficult because the outlet I use at home is pretty sticky and behind a lot of shit (wait, I should just move that stuff!)

The extra bit of difficulty comes from the fact that I (and probably everyone that's reading this post) is currently in their parent's home and doesn't have to pay their share of the electricity bill.
Or, if not, are spending their time in college and definitely don't have to pay the electricity bill.
With that kind of environment (no pun intended) there's really no incentive to turn the Xbox off when you're not using it blah blah blah here let's just paste some things.

By J.V. on April 21, 2008 11:01 PM

I am an electrical engineer, so I'll give you some insight on why products use "phantom power".

Most modern electronics use low-voltage DC power internally, but a wall outlet supplies higher-voltage AC power. A converter is required, and these are inefficient and usually never turn off, especially if it is an external "brick". Another issue is that if the device has internal memory or a clock, these require a trickle of power. Many electronics could be designed to use no energy at all when turned off, so if consumers start demanding it, we can vote with our dollars.

Simple appliances such as light bulbs, vacuum cleaners, toasters, and simple ovens without a clock use absolutley no energy when they are plugged in but turned off.

Many appliances like microwaves and coffee makers use very little energy when plugged in, but turned off. Around 10 cents/month maximum.

The biggest offenders are devices with external "bricks" (which run about 3-5 Watts when turned off) and high-wattage electronics such as stereos and computers (which run up to 20 Watts unplugged). Leaving a computer plugged in could cost you up to $1.50 a month even if you never turn it on.

The statistic on the DOE page that states "75% of our energy is used by devices that our switched off" is absolutely false. The real number is closer to 5%.

For more info, check out this person's fact-checking

http://www.dbskeptic.com/2008/01/30/oprah-plug-in-your-toaster-most-appliances-dont-use-energy-when-turned-off/

Ramdonperson: That link is AMAZING. Another link: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/consumer/tips/home_office.html says

"There is a common misconception that screen savers reduce energy use by monitors; they do not. Automatic switching to sleep mode or manually turning monitors off is always the better energy-saving strategy."

AT 40 Week of June 8th, 2009

1) Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow
2) Lady Gaga - Poker Face
3) Jamie Foxx - Blame It
4) Beyonce - Halo
5) Shine Down - Second Chance
6) Jesse McCartney - How Do You Sleep?
7) Flo Rida - Right Round
8) The All American Rejects - Gives You Hell
9) Britney Spears - If U See Amy
10) Soulja Boy - Kiss Me Thru The Phone
11) Kelly Clarkson - I Do Not Hook Up
12) 3Oh!3 - Don't Trust Me
13) Miley Cyrus - The Climb
14) Kelly Clarkson - My Life Would Suck Without You
15) Kid Cudi - Day 'n' Nite
16) Flo Rida - Sugar feat. Wynter
17) The Fray - You Found Me
18) T.I. - Dead and Gone
19) Pink - Please Don't Leave Me
20) Pitbull - I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)
21) Kristinia DeBarge - Goodbye
22) Katy Perry - Waking Up in Vegas
23) Lady Gaga - Just Dance
24) Taylor Swift - Love Story
25) Lady Gaga - LoveGame
26) Matt Nathanson - Come On Get Higher
27) Pink - Sober
28) Sean Kingston - Fire Burning
29) Nickelback - If Today Was Your Last Day
30) Kevin Rudolf - Welcome To The World
31) Eminem - We Made You
32) The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name
33) Britney Spears - Circus
34) Kanye West - Heartless
35) Kevin Rudolf - Let It Rock
36) Jason Mraz - I'm Yours
37) Katy Perry - Hot N Cold
38) Ne-Yo - Mad
39) The Offspring - Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?
40) Plain White T's - 1, 2, 3, 4

better "today" than i could ever come up with...

Sup /d/. I'm new to 4chan. I'm John Suleiman, I live in Washington, and I have a bit of a problem. I went to my friend about this problem, and he told me to come to /d/. The problem is, my girlfriend has a penis. I'm 19 and we have been dating for two months, and I didn't notice it. She wants me to do anal, what do I do?

by request

"We're not ugly!" Spider B said.
"And we're really cool! You know that!" Tea added from the ceiling.
Kumo shook her head. It wasn't the time to listen to her spider friends, she had to reply to her normal friends!
But they weren't really her friends.

"Haha, Kuuuu-Mooooo, what a dumb name!" They taunted.
"I bet you can step on her like a spider too!"

"No! Leave me alone!" Kumo screamed as her classmates started to surround her. Suddenly, a shrill scream broke the chatter.

"AAAAAAHHH!!! SPIDER!! GET IT OFF!!" A girl screamed so loudly Kumo's ears started to hurt. Spider B whispered something and Kumo repeated "Watch out, or it will get into your mouth" without much enthusiam. It was enough though, while the other girl was desperately pulling the sleeves of everyone around her. Kumo took the chance to escape.

"Where have you taken all of my subjects?" The Spider Queen asked. She had made a web in the hallway window while she waited for Kumo to finally get out of the hellish middle school classroom.

"I don't know, your majesty! I'm sorry." Kumo apologized.
"I'm right here!" Spider B crawled out of a crack in the wall. "We were just helping Kumo with her bullies."
"We spiders do not help common humans." The queen replied. She turned and tapped away, eight fine feet hitting the windowsill with an elegant rhythm.

"This stinks." Kumo sighed to herself, walking home alone. "I wish I had a different name."
"Really!?" A voice replied excitedly. Kumo turned around and looked down out of habit but didn't see any spiders. Instead, there were some plain brown shoes.
"Hey, I'm up here!"
"Sorry... Who are you?"
"Isn't it obvious? Look at this!" The other girl whipped out a small pink card. It said "Bunny" in highly stylized baby blue letters. "This is my name, you wanted to trade right? I'll trade with you!"
"How do we do a trade...?" Kumo asked, finally deciding that this new girl, Bunny, must be from another school.
"We just swap name cards, duh!"
"I don't have one of those."
"Of course you do, everyone does!"
Kumo put her small hand to her chest and waited for something to happen.

When it was finally time, she removed her hand and saw a white card stuck to her palm. It said "Kumo" in small black letters.
"Great!" Bunny practically tore the card from her hand. "Well, here you go, consider it a trade!"

Kumo looked at the sad pink card that was left behind. "I guess I'm Bunny now. This name HAS to be cute enough, right?" Her parents would be mad that she changed her name without telling them first. "Maybe I'll go back to school instead of home for now." She decided.

"It's pretty late but there should still be some school clubs running..." Kumo wanted to ask one of her spider friends which places in the school still had people in it, but she couldn't find any of them. She continued to wander.
"There must be some people here!" Loud noises were coming from one of the stairways. Kumo tried to imagine the look on everyone's faces when she told them her new, cuter name.

"Kumo! Help us!!" The other students screamed at her through the glass door. This was different. She opened the door cautiously and noticed that she had pulled apart a spider web. Spiders were franctically crawling everywhere, scaring the other students into a corner of the stairwell.

A spider had reached Kumo's arm and she asked it what was wrong. There was no reply.
"You! What are you doing here!" A familar voice demanded from the top of the stairs. It was Bunny!

"I go to school here?" Kumo replied weakly.
"Not any more! I'm taking over this school and so I get to say what goes! I'm going to expell you right now!"
"Uh oh, my parents aren't going to take this news very well..." Kumo decided, a little distracted by another spider that was crawling in circles around her arm. The little spider looked familiar.
"Oh, you're Spider B, sorry I didn't recognize you earlier." She apologized to her friend.

"Kumo, do something! You're the only one not scared of spiders!" Her classmates were screaming at her again.
"No! I'm Kumo now! She's just a silly Bunny!" Bunny cried out from the top of the stairs.

"I get it, she has the Spider Queen hostage!" Kumo chided herself for taking so long to figure it out. She brushed the spiders off her clothes and ran towards one of the classrooms. Yesterday Tea told her that one of the other classes had a pet rabbit. She hoped that no one had taken it home for the weekend yet.

"The door's unlocked!" She sighed happily as the lights in the classroom automatically turned on. She ran towards the rabbit's cage and opened it, slowly taking out the large pet. It felt soft yet very awkward in her arms.
"Hi." Kumo greeted it curtly. There was no reply.
"Guess it doesn't work like that..."

"Okay Bunny, you better stop this!" Kumo called up the stairwell, pet rabbit in hand.
"My name is Kumo now, you're Bunny! Get it straight!" Bunny yelled back.
"Well I called all the bunnies from the zoo, and bunnies are bigger than spiders, so maybe you should switch names back with me." Kumo lied.
"No way! How did you do that!? I could never talk to bunnies!"
"Maybe you never tried hard enough?"
"You! Stop the other bunnies!" Bunny ordered the pet rabbit.
Kumo paused and held the rabbit to her ear. "Sorry, she only responds to people called Bunny."
"WELL THEN SWITCH BACK WITH ME!"
"Fine..." She offered up the pink card and it was quickly snatched away. Her own special card was then dropped down through the steps.
"Everyone can go home now." Kumo said to both kinds of friends.

The End.

animals...

cool pictures of animals
http://news.wenxuecity.com/messages/200906/news-gb2312-866531.html

This new thing i wanted to do

Dear Blog thing,
Today was pretty boring. There was this truck with a guy in it. It was pretty uneventful, he took me to this place and started to say weird things. I told him I wasn't interested and left. When I got home my parents were all freaking out and stuff. Even my grandma who I hadn't seen since last Christmas was there. Last Christmas was actually cool.
Anyway the police were in our house, which is a total mess because my parents don't clean ever and are too cheap to hire a maid. They were all blah blah blah can you give us a physical description and I was just like.. he's right there, because the dumb truck was still outside.
The police started to surround him and I thought it might even turn cool if a helicopter equipped with a machine gun showed up but no, my life is too boring, he just got out and surrendered. My parents were all like, "we're going to press kidnapping charges" and I was just like, whatever, I'm going to check my email good night. There was a funny spam mail about getting a teaching degree for free. LOL, poor Gracie.

panda sneeze!

i'm such a big fan of this..

Overfurnishing

It seems that a big trap sellers fall into is over-furnishing their home. It makes sense that people will want to customize their house but an economically better way to do it would be to sell the house they live in and then customize the new one. Expensively furnishing a modest house will usually create an odd structure no one else would want to buy, or make the selling price of the house far higher than the other houses in the neighborhood. It is very well-received advice to do renovations before selling a home but don't over-furnish!

once

A bit after blacks were finally integrated into baseball's major leagues, they thought of having a separate place in the Hall of Fame for black players :/

Thanks to fans, this never took off.

taken from http://www.rasmusen.org/w/capitalization.htm

Capitalization Rules for Titles. I recommend the NIVA, Inc. Writer's Block site, "Writing Tips," http://www.writersblock.ca/tips/index.htm. It has a page on the "Subjunctives" and another on "Capitalization in Titles".

NIVA follows the general rules for capitalizing words in document titles set out in The Chicago Manual of Style (with one minor exception-- see the note in rule 3):

1. Always capitalize the first and the last word.
   
   
2. Capitalize all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions ("as", "because", "although").
   
   
3. Lowercase all articles, coordinate conjunctions ("and", "or", "nor"), and prepositions regardless of length, when they are other than the first or last word. (Note: NIVA prefers to capitalize prepositions of five characters or more ("after", "among", "between").)
   
   
4. Lowercase the "to" in an infinitive.
   

Rule 1 extends to the first and last word of phrases separated by colons, so you should write "The Colon: An Important Mark, Yet...".

Following Chicago (not NIVA), one should capitalize the following words:

"In" as an adverb ("Bringing In the Sheaves", in contrast to "The Fish Was in the River")

Subordinating Conjunctions: "after," "although," "as," "because," "before," "how," "if," "once," "since," "than," "that," "though," "till, " "until," "when," "where," "whether," "while."

Do not capitalize the following words:

"In" as a preposition or as part of an infinitive ("He Wanted to Be Tall")

Short Prepositions: "at," "but," "by," "down," "for," "from," "in," "into," "like," "near," "of," "off," "on," "onto," "out," "over," "past," "till," "to," "up," "upon," "with."

Long Prepositions: "about," "above," "across," "after," "against," "along," "among," "around," "before," "behind," "below," "beneath," "beside," "between," "beyond," "despite," "down," "during," "except," "inside," "outside," "over," "past," "since," "through," "throughout," "toward," "under," "underneath," "until," "within," "without".

Co-ordinating conjunction: "and," "but," "or," "nor," "for," "so," "yet", "but," "for."

"But " and "for" are sometimes prepositions and sometimes conjunctions.

Two-Letter Words
Some writers lowercase all two-letter words, probably by extrapolation from the short prepositions "of", "to", "up", and so on, and the word "to" in infinitives. But if a two-letter word is acting as a noun, pronoun, adjective, or adverb, it must be capitalized. For example:

Go Tell it on the Mountain
(wrong; "it" is a pronoun and should be capitalized)

When is a Spade a Spade?
(wrong; "is" is a verb and should be capitalized)

Multipurpose Words
Some writers lowercase words that can function as prepositions when those words are currently functioning in other capacities. For example:

The Man in the Moon Owns a Yellow Balloon
(correct; "in" is functioning as a preposition and should be lowercased)

Bringing in the Sheaves
(wrong; "in" is functioning as an adverb and should be capitalized)

Phrasal Verbs
Some writers find it hard to decide how to capitalize a title containing a phrasal verb. Phrasal verbs are verbs whose meaning is completed by a word called a particle. For example, the verb "to give" has a different meaning than the phrasal verb "to give up".

Like other multipurpose words, words functioning as particles must be distinguished from the same words functioning as prepositions. Particles are always capitalized because they form part of the verb. For example:

My Travels up Nova Scotia's South Shore
(correct; "up" is functioning as a preposition and should be lowercased)

Setting up Your Computer
(wrong; "up" is functioning as a particle and should be capitalized)

AT40 Week of June 1st, 2009

1 Lady Gaga - Poker Face
2 Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow
3 Flo Rida - Right Round
4 Jamie Foxx - Blame It
5 Soulja Boy - Kiss Me thru the Phone
6 The All-America Rejects - Gives You Hell
7 Shine Down - Second Chance
8 Jesse McCartney - How Do You Sleep
9 Britney Spears - If U See Amy
10 Beyonce - Halo
11 Kelly Clarkson - My Life Would Suck Without You
12 Kelly Clarkson - I Do Not Hook Up
13 3Oh!3 - Don't Trust Me
14 The Fray - You Found Me
15 T.I. - Dead and Gone
16 Flo Rida - Sugar feat. Wynter
17 Miley Cyrus - The Climb
18 Kid Cudi - Day n Nite
19 Pink - Please Don't Leave Me
20 Taylor Swift - Love Story
21 Pink - Sober
22 Pitbull - I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)
23 Lady Gaga - Just Dance
24 Matt Nathanson - Come On Get Higher
25 Eminem - We Made You
26 Kristinia DeBarge - Goodbye
27 Katy Perry - Waking Up in Vegas
28 Britney Spears - Circus
29 Kanye West - Heartless
30 Kevin Rudolf - Welcome To The World
31 Nickelback - If Today Was Your Last day
32 The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name
33 Kevin Rudolf - Let It Rock
34 Ne-Yo - Mad
35 Katy Perry - Hot and Cold
36 Sean Kingston - Fire Burning
37 Jason Mraz - I'm Yours
38 The Offspring - Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?
39 Plain White T's - 1, 2, 3, 4
40 Akon - Beautiful

Artificial Sweeteners

Saccharin - found in pink Sweet 'n Low packets and diet sodas, this sweet (and a bit metallic) artificial sweetener passes through the human digestive system without being digested and so offers 0 calories. Charges of causing cancer in humans were finally dropped a few years ago.

Aspartame - found in Nutrasweet, NutraTaste, Equal and Canderel packets (and diet sodas), aspartame has a relatively short shelf-life and breaks down under heat (so no baking!). Unlike Saccharin, aspartame is actually digested by the body and offers 4 Kcal/gram. If you're actually cutting calories, avoid using 20 packets of the stuff in your coffee. Aspartame is not for people with PKU but has been cleared by the FDA as safe for humans at normal consumption levels.

Sucralose - found in yellow Splenda packets, this is the sweetest artificial sweetener listed in this post. It also passes through the body undigested and personally I think it's chemical structure is quite amazing. It's stable under high temperatures!

Acesulfame-K - The K is for Potassium! However your body doesn't actually get any potassium from it. It passes through undigested.



All of these sweeteners were discovered accidentally.

Sweeteners are often mixed together in sodas, candies, gum, toothpaste and baked goods.
Many of these are too complex for bacteria in your teeth to digest and therefore can't cause cavities.
These sweeteners are considered safe based on the average amount the FDA expects you to consume during your lifetime. If you're having 2 cokes a day, that's probably too many.

signs

"Look I'm telling you it has to be a sign!"
"It's not a sign."
"You work up the courage to ask someone out and right before you can open an IM window to type it in they go offline, it's a sign!"
"It's not a sign, okay? It's just a coincidence."
"No, this means something."
"Like what?"
"Like it's not meant to be. It's not going to happen; don't bother trying."
"God, you're so stupid."

"Fine, will you?"
"What? Will I what?"
"Go out with me."
"What are you... what?! That was me?"
"Yes, now will you?"
"No, idiot. I don't swing that way!"
"See? I told you it was a sign."

Ad

I love this ad... Oops, what's the ToS on pictures again?

Kumo!

This is so random. I can just hit "new post" and type whatever I want. It's so nice. I love blogs, most blogs are read by 5 people, so the joke goes. That's the best part.


Kumo means Spider in Japanese, it was the name tossed out by Microsoft in favor of Bing as a rename for their internet search program. I read that in last week's time article just as i finally picked out the word as a wapanese from watching Soul Eater :).

what i actually wanted to say

What is this crap? Economy, stop failing morals, do better than we expect you to!

"Wall Street firms have been salivating over so-called life settlements for years. Under such arrangements, people sell their life insurance policies to financial firms that pay the premiums and collect the payouts." (BusinessWeek magazine, June 15, 2009)

I might be reading it wrong, but isn't "payout" supposed to be the money you get for dying while on life insurance? Doesn't that mean that someone that isn't your wife and kids will benefit financially from killing you? I could trust my wife and kids to not kill me for the life insurance money, but not some company that trades in Death Bonds (Though this could make a nice backdrop for the next bounty hunter movie).

Okay, are you thinking "what no one's going to get desperate enough to kill you, jeez."? Well, maybe not now, but say i was crazy enough to sell my life insurance policy. Then it's gotta be bad enough for someone to kill me over it! Also, will this thing really take off? Sure, you may be protected if somehow everyone starts doing it so that your chances of being singled out are low... but someone's gotta start it.

On a similar note, same thing applies to consumer spending and that hasn't taken off in the first quarter of 2009 either.

Non a similar note, this is not an economics blog, sorry.

FIRST POAST.

Wow i just wikihopped the Terms of Service. Thanks, GoogleTM, the internet search engine, for making that possible.

Why did i not get twitter instead? Didn't want the text limit. Facebook, eh, it's fed to friends so i don't want to overpost on that thing.

sorry, "FIRST PORST"