San Francisco Art Music Style Fashion Culture - Jungle Life

What a great "why hasn't anyone thought of this before?" concept! Based in Sydney, Australia, Smart Divas is a group of 3 women who provide advice and counselling for other women entering the world of online dating. The focus is on articles, question-and-answer sessions, on-site events, and general hand-holding. Smart Divas communicates via e-mail, instant messenger, and telephone with people living in Syndey getting optional one-on-one coaching.

2-hour courses cost $77 and include: helping you select the right dating site, choosing a username, writing a memorable profile, choosing the right photo, managing responses, first date advice, safety techniques, juggling different dates, recognizing married men and players, answering difficult questions, and sex in the online dating world.

Smart Divas Online Dating Coaching

» tags: onlinedating Technorati Tag: onlinedating  consulting Technorati Tag: consulting  divas Technorati Tag: divas  sex Technorati Tag: sex

California State Controller Steve Westly recently kicked off a campaign to find the owners of $4.8 billion worth of items in the state's unclaimed property vault. There's a searchable database at the California State Controller's website. The database is searchable by first name, last name, city, and middle initial.

No lie, I searched the database and found my Aunt and Uncle have over $700 in an unclaimed bank account at World Savings (most likely from my Grandma who set up all these savings account for the grandkids 20 years ago when she used to work at World Savings).

Common types of unclaimed property include:
- Bank accounts and safe deposit box contents
- Stocks, mutual funds, bonds, and dividends
- Uncashed checks and wages
- Insurance policies, CD's, trust funds
- Utility deposits, escrow accounts

California State Unclaimed Property Database

National Unclaimed Property Database

With more than 300 cars catalogued over the course of who knows how many movies, IMCDb is THE definitive guide to every car that's ever appeared in any movie. Why this information is useful is beyond me but it's certainly a car-geek's dream if also an unlikely dream for database and information geeks as well.

The database is searcheable via a wide variety of parameters including movie title and release year, vehicle make and model, type (car, bike, truck, bus, and "other) and further breaks down into style of car (coupe, wagon, suv, hatchback, etc.).

From the homepage users can peruse the gallery by simply clicking on any car name - choosing "DeLorean" for instance shows that the DeLorean DMC 12 has appeared in 10 different movies including Bikini Planet, The Simpsons and Beverly Hills Cop. Screen grabs are available for each of the movie appearances as well.

Pictured is the Skoda Favorit from the 2004 movie Eurotrip

IMCDb - The Internet Movie Cars Database

» tags: cars Technorati Tag: cars  database Technorati Tag: database  movies Technorati Tag: movies  films Technorati Tag: films  history Technorati Tag: history

I recognize a lot of these magazine covers from over the years - the Demi Moore Vanity Fair cover, the famous National Geographic cover (they actually tracked the girl down almost 20 years later), the New Yorkistan map cover (this was also sold as a shower curtain and we have one at my parents house in the guest bathroom), the controversial Bill Clinton crotch-shot Esquire shoot cover by Platon, The nude Dixie Chicks cover on Entertainment Magazine (taken in the wake of their controversial anti-bush comments), the October 1971 Playboy cover featuring the first black Playmate of the Month Clarie Rambeau, and the Ellen Degeneres "Yep, I'm Gay" cover among others.

I feel this collection is surely missing out on a few classics but still covers an array of periodicals from National Lampoon to Interview, Life, Time, People, and more.

ASME's Top 40 Magazine Covers of the Past 40 years

» tags: art Technorati Tag: art  photography Technorati Tag: photography  magazines Technorati Tag: magazines  photoshoots Technorati Tag: photoshoots  history Technorati Tag: history  periodicals Technorati Tag: periodicals

POLANOID was invented because the magic of Polaroid pictures, the thrilling Edwin Land story and the charm and touch of Polaroid cameras hit us like a sledge hammer.

Hungry for real analog, good smelling pictures in a digital world, Polanoid decided to swim against the stream, reset their focus and start the biggest, best and most instant online photo community ever. Stuffed with millions of Polaroids, collected and uploaded by Polaroid addicts all over the planet.

As an added bonus, each month Polanoid features a project giving you the chance to win prizes with your best polaroid pictures. The current project is "instant tools" with the winner receiving a Polaroid SX-70.

Polanoid.net is connected to Unsaleable.com - a website dedicated to the sale of rare and collecteable Polaroid cameras and tools.

Polanoid was just launched this week so expect there to be a few hiccups as they grow into the latest online community.

Polanoid.net: Bringing back the instant fun

» tags: polaroid Technorati Tag: polaroid  cameras Technorati Tag: cameras  community Technorati Tag: community

In this funny and informative article, Sam Eifling tests 8 of the most popular energy drinks on the market and rates them for taste, ability to perform as advertised, Boggle scores, basketball skill, and body effect.

Sample verdict for Arizona Tea Caution Energy: "Decent flavor, and the small dose kept me from feeling like I had the attention span of a terrier. One of the better finds. What I'd recommend for people who dislike energy drinks."

Sample verdict for Monster Energy Drink: "A moderate disappointment, considering the bitchin' claw marks on the can. I can't figure out why I seem immune to this, and two other drinks called Energy Pro and Hansen's—all the spawn of Hansen's, the second-largest U.S. energy-drink manufacturer. I recently met an Iraq war veteran (who knows from stimulants) who buys this stuff by the case. Me, I can't see it, although a fair flavor and a lack of ill effects make it a borderline drink."

Slate: How well do those energy drinks work?

Photo from Velocity Weekly's helpful guide to the butt-kicking world of energy drinks

(via LifeHack)

» tags: energydrinks Technorati Tag: energydrinks  reviews Technorati Tag: reviews  humor Technorati Tag: humor

Much like the shocking news that American Apparel isn't all sweet and innocent, Suicide Girls has recently been exposed as a farce. It is not in fact a quaint little site for the people by the people, women run and owned, happy models just doing their thing etc. Instead, it's been discovered that SG was founded by a man (the horror!), the models are paid a paltry $300 for their entire photo set, many are censored if they speak out on their own websites, Live Journal, MySpace, etc. and several of their most popular models have left the site in protest.

More information about the ongoings of this saga can be found via:

UnPink - Tales From the Dark Site
Excerpt: "..they claim to have been created by a woman ("missy suicide"), and give the basic public impression that they are a politically correct business, created and run by women. - the truth about suicide girls is that it is the creation of a verbally abusive misogynist, who exploits women.

GloomDools - Tales From the Dark Side
Several public letters posted including: Sicily's Confession, Sicily Speaks, Suicide Girls Sues Deviant Nation, Sicily Clears The Air About What Really Happend In The "basement", Marla's Letter To Spooky, Sicily Speaks About Her Friendship With Sean, Dia's Response To The Wired Magazine Article, Does SG OWN Dusty?

BoingBoing - Suicide Girls: rumor-debunking time

Wired News: SuicideGirls Gone AWOL

Interesting stuff...

» tags: suicide Technorati Tag: suicide  girls Technorati Tag: girls  porn Technorati Tag: porn  controversy Technorati Tag: controversy