Bubbles, what's not to like?

Kids, and adults who want to be kids again, head to Times Square for a bubble battle on Friday (June 12) at 6:15 PM. You must bring your own bubble generators and solution. In case the flurry of bubbles in the air don't tip you off, the location is W. 47th St. and Broadway.

CaptionFish!

If you are looking for captioned films, you can visit Fomdi.com and type in your Zip code, and the site lists theaters and their offerings near you. Or you can visit individual theater chain sites (like Regal, AMC, etc.) and try to find the sole captioned film playing (if any are playing).

Now there is an even more coherent and visually pleasing site that rounds up all your nearby options, called CAPTIONFISH.COM.

Airplanes and Knees

Plane seats these days... how to (maybe) get comfier seats.

Green Genes

Green Monkeys! Controversy over transgenic monkeys...

Taste of Times Square

Tonight I went to an annual summer tradition in New York, a foodie's paradise called Taste of
Times Square. I stumbled upon it (what luck, considering it's a one-night a year deal!) the first summer I spent in NYC, and eagerly have been going back since.

Basically dozens of Times Square restaurants set up little tents on 46th St. between Broadway and 9th Ave. ("Restaurant Row") and sell around 1-3 of their signature menu items. You pay $5 for 5 tickets or $10 for 10 tickets, and then use the tickets to pay for the food. Each item sold at the tents is between 1 and 4 tickets typically, and it's a good deal for the customer generally. The portion sizes are sometimes small but often regular-sized, and equivalent to only $2 or $3 in cost (so the customer saves money). Planet Hollywood offers Bananas Foster cheesecake, John's offers pizza, Bubba Gump's offers corn, mahi-mahi, and shrimp fritters, Virgil's offers chicken wings, and numerous other vendors sell pasta dishes, meatballs, and ribs, to name a few selections.

My particular favorite from last night was Joe Allen's pulled pork sliders -- the BBQ pulled pork was some of the best I've ever eaten, and I even went back to get a second portion at the end.

My only caveats: go early (it started at 5), bring your own water bottle, and if you're claustrophobic, you may want to have a friend bring you back something instead of literally facing the hundreds of people in the crowd.

Octomom Holding Onto Her 15 Minutes

Not that I approve of the subject matter or would watch this show personally, but the question is, why wasn't this deal settled sooner?

AOL

AOL and Time Warner will go their separate ways ...

Don't Say Cheese

Virginia DMV bans smiles...now driving licenses can resemble mug shots!

Betty vs. Veronica

Archie chooses!

Credit

Article on the credit card company restrictions: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/19/AR2009051901867.html?hpid=topnews

And another one: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/your-money/20money.html?_r=1&hp

Cereal

Cheerios is now targeted by the FDA about their health claim. But it's been a few years now that the claim has been on the boxes...

New Appointment

Read here for the news about the new director of the CDC (hint, he's from NY).

Swine Flu

Hype over the swine flu, explained by members of the media.

Bugs

Vaccines for the swine flu... http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2009/tc20090427_386206.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

Obama's administration handling the 'pandemic':
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/27/AR2009042703060.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

Presidential News

Evening newscast coverage for Obama greater than for Clinton and Bush.

Disappearing Brands

I won't be sorry to see Crocs or Old Navy go, to be honest!

Da Vinci Code Sequel

Robert Langdon still lives, this time in The Lost Symbol. Will this become a mega-hit and film, too?

Guidelines Announced

Here's an update on the new embryonic stem cell research policy drafted by the NIH.

Pharmaceuticals

Prices for generic drugs have fallen although prices for popular brand name drugs have increased.

Of interest, a few of the drugs with the largest price increases in 2008 were Prevacid (for acid reflux), Wellbutrin (for depression), and Lunesta (for sleeping) -- they went up at least 20 percent. Part of the reason for hiking the prices has to do with the brand drugs' patent expirations coming up, meaning that generic versions will become available; so it's a last attempt to make money on the brand drugs before copies hit the market.

But there's another reason, it seems, one that is related to the type of condition the drug treats. Right now in this economic meltdown it follows that more people are depressed and anxiety-ridden -- hence their new or heightened problems with sleeping, depression, and acid reflux. So once again, the brand drug companies are trying to make money off the fact that more people at this moment in time need Wellbutrin, Lunesta, and Prevacid.

Easter Parade

Happy Easter!!!

For info. on the NY parade: http://www.ny.com/holiday/easter/

No touching!

Michelle Obama and the Queen of England

Odd Laws

When in Canada, count your pennies well. In Denmark, don't wear a mask in public. More foreign laws that you should heed while in the country...

NY Subway

MTA developments...

FDA

Some advocate splitting the FDA in two...

Undo E-mail

Now you can 'undo' any Gmail account e-mail you send. A very handy feature!

And while you're in the "Google Labs" to enable the 'undo' button, check out the other helpful features like "accessing Gmail while offline" and the "forgotten attachment detector."

Maestro's Return

The Phantom of the Opera has been running on Broadway (and provoking tears) since 1988. And now there's going to be a sequel! Who would have thought? Love Never Dies opens in October this year. Unfortunately, Paris has been replaced by Coney Island...

Glitz and Grub

Here are a few sites I've just discovered that I will be going back to quite often.

The first, I stumbled upon when Googling details for the NY film location of Salt (starring Angelina Jolie). I've never found such a comprehensive site that offers location specifics, so this was an unexpected treat. (Despite living in NY for a few years and sighting various celebrities, I've only once, to my knowledge, walked by a movie set (it was a car chase scene from the 3rd Bourne film), and I never found any Web sites that disclosed such insider information.) Here's the site: http://www.onlocationvacations.com/category/daily-filming-locations/.

The second, http://eater.com/, is a restaurant/bar blog. Updated regularly, it features reviews and news on local establishments.

Mine Magazine

Hurry and get your Mine. Time is offering a customized magazine (digital or print, your choice) for readers, the material culled from a handful of its existing magazines like InStyle and Sports Illustrated. Oh, and it's free.

Hesperonychus elizabethae

No, no relation to me. This was supposedly a dinosaur, the smallest known one in North America. Based on the picture, it sort of resembles a ferret.

Article: Nicholas R. Longrich and Philip J. Currie, "A microraptorine (Dinosauria–Dromaeosauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of North America," PNAS, March 16 advanced online edition

Climate Changes

Thanks to global warming, the Atlantic Ocean circulation will be altered "in a way that will move more water to New York by 2100," according to a study by Florida State University. The Bloomberg article is here. Other places including Florida and California, not to mention island nations, will be similarly affected.