By (author unknown), Daddy Types – June 21, 2010 at 06:43PM
289. “Your one goal is to get someone in bed and, when you’re finally successful, you’re so tired all you want to do is go to sleep.”
10 Reasons Having A Toddler Is Like Being At A Frat Party [suburbansnapshots.com via @felixsalmon]
By James Johnson, ForeverGeek – June 21, 2010 at 02:23PM
Do you love Batman? Well you don’t love it as much as Aaron Schoenke. If you did you would have spent $27,000 to film your own take on the popular franchise. That’s what Schoenke paid to film City of Scars, a rather impressive looking and morbid take on Batman.
Aaron took the film back to it’s roots with a darker look and the classic voice over which I personally love, although I know voice overs can piss off some viewers.
Here’s the synopsis for the 30 minute movie:
When the Joker escapes from Arkham and murders the parents of a young boy, Batman recalls the pain of losing his own parents as a child. He is pushed past his limits to the point where his focus becomes revenge on all who stand in his way, including many of Gotham’s underworld. Finally, Batman is forced to look at the psychological profile of his own mind and accept the consequences of his life to find resolve.
Batman has always focused on revenge in some manner or another, giving him the opportunity to realize how his revenge affects who he is may be a great idea, but the conclusion will always be the same “I’m Batman.”
Here’s the entire movie:
So what do you think? Not bad for $27,000 in my opinion.
By Ben Blanquera, Techlife – June 21, 2010 at 01:26PM
Bruce Feiler: A Father’s 10 Lessons for His Daughters (VIDEO)
A little late but for all you dad’s out there – good read – Ben
One of the secrets of parenting is that it’s often a very lonely sport. Especially for dads. Our children expect us to be the Answer Man, Mr. Fix It, the Know-it-All. And the truth is we often expect this of ourselves. Maybe our dads played this role for us. Maybe we interpreted their silence, or awkwardness, or distance to be authority. Maybe they had skills — changing the oil, building the tree-house, serving their country — that we never had, or never utilized.
But for whatever reason, dads today like to think we have the answers, when often we don’t.
Two years ago this week I stumbled into a way to end this isolation. I reached out to six men from all parts of my life and asked them to be present in the lives of my three-year-old twin daughters. And I called this group, “The Council of Dads.”
I formed this group for emotional reasons. I was facing a life-threatening illness. But even before my illness passed, I realized the Council of Dads was giving me something that I didn’t know I needed.
It was giving me an inner circle. It was welcoming my friends into the most precious thing in my life — the lives of my children. It was making me feel part of a group.
Fathering was no longer a solo sport. It was a team sport.
Along the way, I asked each dad for one piece of wisdom he would share with my girls.
Their answers surprised, and moved me. They made me a better father.
And they inspired me to write the book, The Council of Dads, which gathers the life lessons from my these dads, along with some from my dad, and various father figures in my life.
Today, when one my daughters asks me a question I don’t know the answer to, or gives me that look that says, “Can you make it better?” I no longer feel alone. Or scared.
I turn to my Council.
Here, with a little help from these men, are 10 Lessons for My Daughters from The Council of Dads.
1. Be a Traveler, Not a Tourist – A tourist takes the easy road. A traveler seeks out the challenging path. A tourist stays on the bus. A traveler jumps in the mud.
2. Always Pack Your Flip-Flops – In college, a friend and I backpacked across Asia and got kicked out of the great hotels because he refused to wear anything but tank tops and flip-flops. Twenty years later, though he wears a suit during the day, he still wears flip-flops whenever he can. We would still get kicked out of those hotels. Not surprisingly, he’s my most loyal friend. Whatever you do, be true to yourself. Wherever you go, always pack your flip-flops.
3. Don’t Give in To the Wall– Dream big. And when you encounter a wall, find a way to get over it, around it, or under it. Whatever you do, don’t succumb to it. Don’t give into the wall.
4. Tend Your Tadpoles – When I was a boy I caught tadpoles with a friend. Like those tadpoles, we grew legs and hopped off into the world. I had little in common with that friend. Later, when I needed help, my friend was suddenly back. Tend your tadpoles. You never know when you might need a pal.
5. Live the Questions – Have patience with the unknown. No matter where you find yourself, if you ask questions, you’ll find your way. Don’t only seek the answers. Try to love the questions. And the point is to love everything you do. Live the questions.
6. Harvest Miracles – Life is full of everyday miracles. Sometimes it just takes a bad situation to help appreciate them. Even when it’s cloudy, keep looking for the rainbow.
7. Use Your Words – When you were toddlers, we begged you, “Use your words.” Yet sometimes we forgot to take our own advice. Even when you’re older, don’t hide behind silence. When you face a problem, talk it through.
8. Always Learn to Juggle on the Side of a Hill – When I was 12, I learned to juggle on the side of a gravel hill with oranges. Every time I dropped an orange it would hit the ground, pulpify, and role to the bottom of the incline. It was fool’s errand. But it worked! If you’re going to try something, try it. Don’t half commit.
9. Take a Walk with a Turtle – In Paris, centuries ago, a new type of pedestrian appeared. He was called a flaneur, one who strolled the arcades. Flaneurs liked to take turtles for walks and let the reptile set the pace. It’s a perfect ode to slow-moving. Don’t be in a hurry. Behold the world in pause.
10. Hug the Monster – Pilots learn that when they face a life-defining challenging, they should not run from their fear. They should embrace it. Hug the monster. Wrestle your fear into submission. Redirect it into a source of resilience and purpose.
Take trips, girls. Take chances. Take off.
The piece is adapted from The Council of Dads, by New York Times-bestselling author Bruce Feiler. Watch Bruce give a TED Talk about “The Council of Dads.”
By Adam Pash, Lifehacker – July 06, 2010 at 11:45AM
Your wireless router broadcasts your Wi-Fi signal on channels ranging from 1 to 11.* As more routers broadcast on the same channel as yours, your router’s performance generally decreases. The solution: Scan for the least crowded channels and use one of those.
If you’re used to seeing countless Wi-Fi networks when you scan for a connection at your home or workplace, there’s a good chance your wireless connection is broadcasting on the same channel as those other routers (unless you changed the default). At his home away from Lifehacker, the How-To Geek details how to change your Wi-Fi router channel to optimize your signal using previously mentioned inSSIDer to determine which channels are most and least crowded. He then explains how to switch your broadcasting channel on Linksys routers. (The method will vary from router to router, but finding and changing your router’s channel is normally a pretty simple process.)
For an even quicker, download-free method for finding an interference-free channel, check out previously mentioned, web-based WiFi Stumbler. If you’ve installed the open source Tomato firmware on your router, it scans and lists crowded channels for you, as well, and Android users may want to try previously mentioned WiFi analyzer.
Remember that some Wi-Fi channels do overlap, so keep that in mind when you’re choosing the optimum channel for your router. (inSSIDer actually displays some of that overlap.) And while you’re tweaking, take a look back at these other settings you should change on your router.
* The number of channels varies by location. Per Wikipedia, the U.S. allows for 11 channels; most of Europe allows 13; Japan goes to 14.
By James Johnson, ForeverGeek – July 06, 2010 at 11:23AM
Katy Perry might not lock her lips around the girls, but for the “nerdier” demographic there’s Damsels of Dorkington and they are more than willing to get all romantic with the “nerdier” music crowd.
“I Kissed A Nerd” was written and performed by Blythe Renay and Rissy Pelot, with co-writing by Rissy Pelot. The music video was edited by Emery Emery.
How can you not love a music video where a hot girl is giving some much needed attention to Darth Vader and his Storm Troopers, while providing some shoutouts to Starcraft archons and Counterstrike, plus various other idols of geekdom.
The song includes such lyrical gems as “for you I’ll do role playing games and learn to factor.”
Here’s the video:
What do you think? The singer isn’t quite as hot as Katy Perry, but she’s definitely catering to a whole new crowd who I’m sure would be more than willing to have her.
By Soulskill, Slashdot – July 05, 2010 at 10:30AM
An anonymous reader points out a recent story at NPR describing one of the greatest lightshows in history — a US hydrogen bomb test 250 miles above the Pacific Ocean in 1962. The mission came about after James Van Allen confirmed the existence of radiation belts around the earth that now bear his name. As it turns out, the same day Van Allen announced his findings at a press conference, he “agreed with the military to get involved with a project to set off atomic bombs in the magnetosphere to see if they could disrupt it.” According to NPR, “The plan was to send rockets hundreds of miles up, higher than the Earth’s atmosphere, and then detonate nuclear weapons to see: a) If a bomb’s radiation would make it harder to see what was up there (like incoming Russian missiles!); b) If an explosion would do any damage to objects nearby; c) If the Van Allen belts would move a blast down the bands to an earthly target (Moscow! for example); and — most peculiar — d) if a man-made explosion might ‘alter’ the natural shape of the belts.” The article is accompanied by a podcast and a video with recently declassified views of the test. They also explain how the different colors of light in the sky were produced.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
By (author unknown), Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine – July 04, 2010 at 07:19PM
The words “You need root canal treatment” are not what you want to hear when you visit the dentist, even though millions of teeth are saved every year by the procedure. While the root canal procedure has a high success rate, it still leaves a dead tooth in the mouth. That could be about to change, however, with scientists reporting development of a nano-sized dental film that may bring diseased teeth back to life…
Continue Reading Nanofilm could bring dead teeth back to life
Tags: Dental,
Nano,
Regenerative
Related Articles:
By Soulskill, Slashdot – July 02, 2010 at 04:50PM
crimeandpunishment writes
“The US government is making colleges and universities join in the fight against digital piracy by threatening to pull federal funding. Beginning this month, a provision of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 requires colleges to have plans to combat unauthorized distribution of copyrighted materials on their networks. Colleges that don’t do enough could lose their eligibility for federal student aid. ‘Their options include taking steps to limit how much bandwidth can be consumed by peer-to-peer networking, monitoring traffic, using a commercial product to reduce or block illegal file sharing or “vigorously” responding to copyright infringement notices from copyright holders.'”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
By Evan Wondrasek, MakeUseOf – July 02, 2010 at 12:30PM
Video games — the absolute best way to waste a couple hours on a rainy weekend. Or heck, the best way to waste a couple hours on any weekend. You can be a soldier in almost any war (without that pesky risk of dying), fly through space, fight endless hordes of zombies, or micro-manage a virtual life. But, as any gamer knows, there comes a time when you might want (or need) a little help getting through an especially difficult level.
Enter the cheat code.
Cheat codes have been around as long as video games, but thanks to the internet we can now get them in huge stockpiles. In this guide, I’ll introduce you to 3 great sites to get your cheat code fix, many times with the added bonus of computer game walkthroughs and strategy guides.
GameFAQs was founded in 1995 – making it the oldest (and most popular) site on this list – but it’s still in business today because it provides some of the best video game guides on the internet. Don’t let the “FAQs”, which stands for Frequently Asked Questions, mislead you – GameFAQs mostly contains strategy guides, cheats, and walkthroughs for almost every video game in existence.
Guides at GameFAQs are solely provided by volunteers, so you’ll find a wide variety of gaming and writing styles in their guides. With over 50,000 guides on their site, you’ll have the luxury of choosing from several guides for any one game. I have always been impressed with the thoroughness and quality of guides at GameFAQs, which speaks highly of the volunteers that contribute them.
Almost every game has a Cheats tab that contains a full list of cheat codes (if they’re available). Not sure if you want to purchase a game? GameFAQs offers over100,000 reviews, written by volunteers, for almost every game on the site.
GameFAQs released an Answers section last year where gamers can ask questions about any game they’re playing (not unlike MakeUseOf Answers for tech questions, which you should also check out). The Answers section also has a useful search, often allowing you to get un-stuck in a frustrating video game without waiting for a reply.
CheatCC, or Cheat Code Central, is another pre-2000s gaming website that has amassed a huge supply of cheat codes. While they don’t offer the wide variety of information that GameFAQs has, you’ll still have access to a gigantic list of cheat codes, reviews (as well as previews of upcoming games), and videos. Most popular games have at least one accompanying strategy guide, but the focus is clearly on cheat codes at this site.
My only complaint about CheatCC is that they have started using some fairly obnoxious popup advertising that you will occasionally have to click through.
While I don’t find the Mahalo search engine to be terribly useful (actually, now that I checked, I don’t even see a search engine on the main page anymore), they do offer something very good: HD video walkthroughs of many popular video games. For as good as text-based and even printed-with-images walkthroughs can be, you simply can’t beat an actual video to get through a particularly hard level.
Many of Mahalo Gaming’s video reviews include detailed text instructions for accomplishing certain missions. The amount of time that went into these guides is really impressive, and certainly worth checking out the next time you’re struggling with a game.
With these resources, you should be an unstoppable, game-conquering ninja. And since you’re in the mood for video games, why not check out the rest of our articles about gaming?
Have a cheat code or a source for computer game walkthroughs worth mentioning? Share it with us in the comments below!
Image credit: haljackey
Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.
By John McClain, MakeUseOf – July 01, 2010 at 09:30PM
No doubt about it, toddlers can be a handful sometimes. They’re amazingly active and simply demand your time and attention. So, what do you do when you need just a little break from it all but also keep your child busy and entertained?
Playing some computer games with your toddler online is a good quiet and stationary activity for both of you to enjoy. It’s an excellent way to teach and introduce your toddler to some basic computer skills. At the same time, your child can learn and have fun with a variety of engaging games out there to choose from.
Best of all, these computer games for toddlers are all available for free online and anytime for you to enjoy and spend some quality time with your child. Here’s the 5 best computer games for toddlers.
Join the jam with the Musical Instruments Game from Fisher-Price. This fun and interactive music mixer game allows your toddler to learn about instruments and songs. Start out by choosing a song you’d like to play along with by clicking on one of the animals.
Now, turn up your speakers, watch, and listen as the animals start playing the song you picked with their instruments. You can now stop and start each individual instrument by clicking on a musician in the band.
Feel free to mix it up a bit by changing the song to take control over different instruments.
Let your toddler watch a dolphin perform tricks when you feed him. This entertaining Nick Jr. game demonstrates cause and effect and helps introduce your child to the mouse.
Just click on the bucket of fish to feed the dolphin and he’ll do a different trick for every fish thrown. It’s recommended that you and your toddler try to count the fish or come up with names for the dolphin’s tricks to bolster creativity and language skills.
Coloring Book is just one of many games to play on the Sesame Street website. With the help of Elmo, just have your toddler move the mouse around the image to color it.
Once completed, the picture will come alive with a bit of animation, music, and another image will come up for more coloring.
Recommended for age 1 year and over, Party Costumes and Presents for Kwala is a popular computer game for toddlers at UpToTen. The website says that this activity will help your child develop skills in observation, understanding, decision making, orientation, and using the mouse.
The game is pretty simple. You have to try to find who the costume pictured in the large circle belongs to by following the line to the correct character. You can keep at it until you get it right and once you do, a new game will come up for you to try again until all the characters are in their costumes.
Music-Maker is another simple and fun activity for your toddler to enjoy. This game is from KneeBouncers, which offers a variety of quality and full-screen games to choose from.
On the right-hand side, you can select either the drums, piano, or guitar to play. Song selection is on the left, and from there, just start pressing any key to play the instrument to the tune you picked. For the piano, you can also move your cursor over the keys to play them.
Be sure to check out the sites all these games come from for more activities for your toddler to play.
What are some of your favorite computer games for toddlers? Let us know in the comments.
Image Credit: Tom Carmony
Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already!
