Monthly Archives:

December 2011

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Air Swimmers

My sister bought one of these Air Swimmers from VAT19 to share with all the kids in our extended family during the holidays. It was a hit! Even my 80+ year old grandmother took a turn flying it around the room. The Air Swimmer is a helium filled remote controlled balloon with motors that moves through the air like a fish moves through water. It is pretty much what you see in the video below.

If
you have young kids I would recommend the Clownfish because the shark actually
caused one of the younger kids to cry. No one is afraid of Nemo!

You can fly it around small rooms, like we did, but the Air Swimmer is much more suited to larger rooms. If you have a “great room” with high ceilings you’ll be able to fly the Air Swimmer up and down.

The only inconvenience with the Air Swimmer is its need of helium. However, you can easily have it filled at a party store. It only cost $.99 to get our shark filled which should last a couple weeks.

It’s really cleverly done and I highly recommend it.

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NYTimes.com: Boehner Ties Payroll Tax Cut Extension to Pipeline

NYTimes.com: Boehner Ties Payroll Tax Cut Extension to Pipeline

Speaker John A. Boehner said Friday that House Republicans would insist on including the Keystone XL oil pipeline in any legislation that extended the tax cut and unemployment benefits.

This is how dysfunctional our government is. Projects and ideas should be be forwarded on based on their merits instead of being tacked as a negotiation tactic.

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StarTribune.com: Peterson will play for pride, Fantasy

StarTribune.com: Peterson will play for pride, Fantasy

Vikings running back Adrian Peterson said he will play against the Saints on Sunday. As for why he’d actually want to play for a 2-11 team on a left ankle that he says is “85 percent,” well, he has his reasons.

“It’s very important, especially for my fantasy team owners,” Peterson said with a smile. “They’ve been giving me a hard time.”

It’s funny to hear a football player playing in a lost season acknowledging fantasy football.

Purists probably hate it, but fantasy football has helped make the NFL into the most popular sport. The only baseball games I watch are games that involve my hometown team, the Cincinnati Reds. But, I can pretty much watch any NFL game because I either have a player that’s on my fantasy team or I’m scouting players to add to my team.

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WikiHow.com: How to Crack a “Master Lock” Combination Lock

MasterLock.jpg
WikiHow.com: How to Crack a “Master Lock” Combination Lock

This is kind of scary if you use Master Locks, but the instructions actually work.

I just cracked a lock that I had from high school. With no memory of the combination and following the directions, it took me about 30 minutes to crack it. The method is part mechanical, part mathematical, and part trial and error.

Cracking the lock gave me a strange sense of accomplishment, opening something that was not supposed to be able to be opened in this way.  It’s not quite as sexy as cracking a safe with a stethoscope or picking a lock, but I think my dance with the dark side will end here.

The question is, should one use a combination lock like this, even though they are not completely secure. For most short term uses like a locker at a gym or at school it’s probably ok. With practice one could probably learn to open a combination lock in 10-15 minutes, but doing so is a pretty conspicuous task.

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North Korea warns South over Christmas lights

North Korea warns South over Christmas lights

A church group in Seoul wants to put up the Christmas lights on a massive steel tower shaped like a tree on top of a military-controlled hill just 3 kilometres from the border with North Korea.

When lit up, it will be able to be seen in the northern city of Kaesong, prompting Kim Jong-il’s regime to denounce the display as “a mean attempt for psychological warfare” aimed at promoting Christianity, according to the North’s official website, Uriminzokkiri.

I’ve seen Christmas displays around here that I’d also describe as psychological warfare.

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WANT TO STEAL BANKSY?

WANT TO STEAL BANKSY?

One of the weirder promotions I’ve ever seen. Art Series Hotels in Australia is hiding a piece of art from the street artist, Banksy in one of their hotels and challenging someone to steal it.

Find the art and try and steal it. If you don’t get caught it’s yours to keep. If you do get caught then back up on the wall it goes.

I wonder how many other pieces of artwork they’ll lose during this promotion.