Do you Live in America’s Most Interesting Town? # trade show booth of life

Until May 31, anyone can nominate his or her town in the Reader’s Digest contest by sharing stories and pictures that demonstrate what makes the town special.

The author of the winning story will receive a cash prize of $1,000 and their town will be featured on the cover of an upcoming issue of Reader’s Digest magazine.

In addition, each week a new American town will be named America’s Most Interesting Town by popular vote and will be featured on the website and in an upcoming issue of Reader’s Digest.  Locals can show their community spirit by logging on and voting for their town as many times as they like.

Read more….

ReadersDigest

12 Things That Will Get Cheaper in 2012 – Trade Show Booth of Life

Despite record-low mortgage interest rates, United States home prices are expected to limp their way into the coming year. In 2011, average home prices across the country were down 3.4 percent (compared to the same period of August to October, 2010.)   And with unemployment expected to remain high, it looks  like 2012 will remain a buyer’s market.

Other things that are expected to be cheaper are most electronic products:  3D HD TVs, media streamers, Android tablets, GPS, eBook rentals, and car rentals.

What other prices will be lower?  Read more……

TheFiscalTimes

Couple Get Divorced after 115 Years – Trade show booth of Life

You can’t say they didn’t try.

After an impressive 115 years together, two giant turtles at an Austrian zoo are refusing to share their cage anymore.

“We get the feeling they can’t stand the sight of each other anymore,” said Helga Happ, director of the Klagenfurt-based zoo, where the turtles — Bibi, the female and Poldi, the male — have lived for the last 36 years.  Before that, they called Basel Zoo in Switzerland home.

Zoo staff realized something was amiss when Bibi bit off a chunk of her partner’s shell. When the attacks continued, Poldi was moved to another cage. Ouch says the Trade Show Booth of Life.

Animal experts even attempted couples’ counseling — feeding the turtles aphrodisiacs and encouraging them to play games together. But so far, efforts have failed to bring the lovers back together.

Huffinton Post

Woman Breaks in, Cleans House, Leaves Bill – Trade show Booth of life

An Ohio family was stunned to learn that someone broke into their home, not to steal anything, but to clean it. Not only was parts of their house tidied, but the intruder left a $75 cleaning bill.

Man tries to pay for meal with a bag of marijuana # trade show booth of life

On Saturday at about 2 a.m. a man ordered a meal of burger and fries worth $9.91 at Denny’s restaurant in Niagara Falls, N. Y.   After the meal, he offered the cashier $1 and a bag of weed in exchange.

When the cashier refused the deal, the man began hawking the pot around the restaurant, hoping to find a fellow stoner to sell it to.

The cashier promptly called the police and, at the sight of the police, the man fled into a nearby wooded area. An employee at the restaurant, who recognized the man as a resident in the neighborhood, gave his name and address to the police.

But the man was not at home when the police called.

Digital Journal

The Vibrator created to relieve female patients with “hysteria” – tradeshow booth of life

The new movie “Hysteria” is about a Victorian-era doctor who invents an electric massager and uses it to bring about “paroxysms” of relief in female patients with “hysteria.” Surprising even to the Trade Show Booth of Life

While the movie is set in the 19th century, doctors’ “manual manipulation” as a treatment for female hysteria goes back as far as the second century. “That took too long so doctors started training midwives to do it.  Eventually, doctors turned to technology to speed up the laborious treatment.

British physician Joseph Mortimer Granville – who’s at the center of “Hysteria” — patented a battery-operated vibrator for treatment of muscle pain.

When was hysteria taken out of medical books?  Read more….

Salon

Are You Too Fat? # trade show booth of life

One third of adult Americans are overweight (ie, with a BMI between 25 and 29.9) and another third are obese (a BMI of 30 or higher), according to the National Centre for Health Statistics in Toledo, Maryland.

Obesity is already costing America over $190 billion a year—21% of the amount spent on medical services—and is set to rise much higher. If current trends continue, about 42% of the population will be obese by 2030, reckons the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. By then, obesity will probably cost the country $550 billion a year.

Calculate your BMI:

BMI = ( Weight in Pounds / ( Height in inches x Height in inches ) ) x 703.

Read more…..

Economist

The Many Faces of Johnny Depp # trade show booth display

In Dark Shadows, Johnny Depp’s pretty face is hidden under a ton of makeup, fangs, and fake ears. And yet, the look feels familiar — most likely because the actor has become known for donning crazy costumes and makeup from one character to the next throughout his career. Some are scary, some are sexy, and some are just plain strange: check ‘em out brought to you by the trade show booth of life.

Buzz Sugar

Man Finds His Stolen Bicycle on Craigslist, Steals It Back # trade show booth of life

When a Danny Lesh of Washington D.C. saw his recently stolen bicycle for sale on Craigslist, his mission became clear: get it back, with or without the help of police.

Lesh purchased the bike for $600 in 1998, and the thief was asking for $100. He contacted police, but when they told him they couldn’t respond right away, he decided to reacquire the bike by himself before it was shipped off to a new owner. So he arranged a meeting with the seller, and, as a potentially interested buyer, took the bike for a little test-spin. And then never went back.

The seller began calling Lesh, threatening to contact the police, but Lesh continued to ride all the way home, where he promptly took to Craigslist to warn others about this man selling stolen bikes.  “I couldn’t help feeling bad for all the other people he’d stolen bikes from,” he said of the thief. “I’m glad that, hopefully, his business is interrupted a little bit.”

Time

Global Warming Linked to Dinosaurs’ Farts # trade show booth of life

Dinosaurs’ gassy guts may have contributed to global warming tens of millions of years ago, according to a new study that finds a group of plant-eating dinosaurs could have produced about as much methane as all of today’s natural and man-made sources of the greenhouse gas.

British researchers reported that the methane emissions from sauropods far outstripped those of today’s cattle, goats and other cud-chewing mammals.

Sauropods were a diverse bunch of plant-eating dinosaurs, known for their small heads and giant bodies with long necks and tails. An average-sized sauropod — such as Apatosaurus louisae, once popularly known as brontosaurus — could weigh 44,000 pounds, making it several times bigger than an elephant.

LATimes