Advertisers to rebrand beef as health food.

I wish I could go on a beefscape.... From AdWeek:

The nation’s beef producers want consumers to think "lean protein," as they launch a major ad campaign this week.

Known as the Beef Checkoff Program, the group is running print ads that pitch beef as a good source of protein and the variety of lean cuts it offers. Appropriately, the ads will carry the tagline: “29 lean cuts. One powerful protein.”

An ad for T-bone steak, for instance, shows a mouthwatering shot of the beef alongside grilled vegetables. “When all the steaks get together, they call this one boss,” the ad copy reads. This ad, along with others touting beef filets, ground beef, and top round, appear in this month’s issues of magazines like Bon Appetit, Cooking Light, Men’s Health and Self. Radio spots are also launching mid-month.

The Chicago office of Publicis Groupe-owned Leo Burnett handled advertising duties. Starcom is the Beef Checkoff Program’s media buying agency.

This is the first major campaign for the Beef Checkoff Program since its 2008 effort, dubbed “Beefscapes,” which touted beef as a good source of protein. Now, the group is focused on educating health-conscious consumers, said Kim Essex, svp, marketing at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the organization that manages and executes the Beef Checkoff Program’s marketing plans.

“We’re on a storytelling journey with our ‘Beef. It’s what’s for dinner [campaign],’” Essex said, referring to the group’s iconic tagline. “We’re keeping those equities that are really recognizable to us,” but at the same time, stressing the lean side of beef, she said.

Trend Spotting: 12-year-olds love inhalants!

Huffing glue is the new pogs! From CNN:

When their kids turn 12, parents are concerned about peers pressuring them to smoke cigarettes, drink and use drugs, but it turns out 12-year-olds are doing something else: getting high on inhalants.

A new national survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration report finds that they're using inhalants more than marijuana, hallucinogens and cocaine combined.

Some young people are sniffing -- inhaling -- a wide variety of products to get high. Inhalants are legal, cheap and everywhere. They can easily be found in most homes: spray paint, shoe polish, glue, air fresheners, hair spray, nail polish, gasoline, aerosols, computer cleaners, even the refrigerant from air conditioners.

"We continue to face the challenge of increasing experimentation and intentional misuse of common household products among the youngest and most vulnerable segments of our population: 12-year-olds," said Harvey Weiss, executive director of the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition.

"The data are ominous, and their implications are frightening because of the toxic, chemical effects of these legal products on growing minds and bodies."

According to the survey, 6.9 percent of 12-year-olds have "huffed," while 1.4 percent have used pot, 0.7 percent hallucinogens and 0.1 percent cocaine. The report found 5.2 percent smoked cigarettes.

Huffing can be fatal, leading to "sudden sniffing death."

Trend Spotting: Karaoke taxis.

From EarthTimes:

Muenster, Germany - On a Friday night shortly before midnight taxi driver Nizamettin Kilincli picks up a group of women who begin singing loudly in the back of his cab. While some drivers consider this the worst type of fare, Kilincli welcomes the women, even encourages them to sing. Seated in the back, beer bottles in hand, the six tipsy women belt out German pop hits, amplifying the fun they are having getting to their destination.

Kilincli's taxi is a bit different from others in the north-western German city of Muenster. The German association of taxi and rental car companies says his is the only karaoke taxi in Germany.

The cab is specially equipped so that customers can sing while travelling to their destination. Two years ago the 46-year-old taxi driver came up with the idea of putting a video screen on the ceiling behind the driver's seat. Passengers can request music videos and they are encouraged to sing along with the lyrics, which appear in red.

Coozer-Bits.

Local: Terrorism, swine flu, girlfriend-beating politicians put my home in the national spotlight! Yeah, Queens Pride! Up yours, Brooklyn!!

Science: The Year in Space.

Film: Half of the movies coming out in 2010 are from 2008.

Duh: Dumbest quotes of the 2000's. (Somehow, not all are from Bush!)

Trends: Anti-energy drinks. (Isn't that called "beer"?)

RUW: Robot helps grandma shop. Our elderly are doooooomed!!

Awesome: Italy gets $95 billion from illegal money held in Swiss banks!

Science: Scientists discover how wild mushroom cancer drug works.

Trend Spotting: The male paunch.

I've had my paunch for years, before it was cool. From the NY Times:

This summer the unvarying male uniform in the precincts of Brooklyn cool has been a pair of shorts cut at knickers length, a V-neck Hanes T-shirt, a pair of generic slip-on sneakers and a straw fedora. Add a leather cuff bracelet if the coolster is gay.

In truth this get-up was pretty much the unvarying male uniform last summer also, but this year an unexpected element has been added to the look, and that is a burgeoning potbelly one might term the Ralph Kramden.

Too pronounced to be blamed on the slouchy cut of a T-shirt, too modest in size to be termed a proper beer gut, developed too young to come under the heading of a paunch, the Ralph Kramden is everywhere to be seen lately, or at least it is in the vicinity of the Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene, the McCarren Park Greenmarket and pretty much any place one is apt to encounter fans of Grizzly Bear.

What the trucker cap and wallet chain were to hipsters of a moment ago, the Kramden is to what my colleague Mike Albo refers to as the “coolios” of now. Leading with a belly is a male privilege of long standing, of course, a symbol of prosperity in most cultures and of freedom from anxieties about body image that have plagued women since Eve.

Latest Trend: Lying face down in weird places.

Back in my day, we listened to heavy rock music and set fire to things. Damn kids today with their quiet, passive immobility! From the Daily Mail (with a number of pics).

They lie rigidly face-down on rooftops, postboxes, luggage racks and even in the engine of a jumbo jet.

It's the latest and perhaps the most bizarre internet phenomenon yet to sweep the globe.

Several Facebook groups set up in honour of 'the Lying Down Game' display thousands of photographs of people lying face-down in progressively odder locations.

It seems no location is out of bounds, with people lying down roofs, in the middle of the road, in front of tanks, across bars in pubs and on table football games.

Participants are told there are two aims to the challenge; that the lying down should be as public as possible and that as many people as possible should be involved.

Players are told they must have their palms flat against their sides with the tips of their toes touching the ground.

The abacus popular again in Japan.

From The Japan Times:

The popularity of the abacus, now rarely used in the world of calculators, has recently been on the rise as many parents concerned about their children's math ability have started sending them to abacus schools to develop their skills.

The number of applicants for the national abacus certification exam, which peaked at 2.04 million in 1980, slumped to a low of 180,000 in 2005. But since then, applications have been on the rise and hit 200,000 in 2008.

"(The recovery) coincided with the time when many parents started to worry about the academic performance of their children because of the (recent) relaxed style of education" at public schools, said Hiroshi Nakayama, managing director of the League of Japan Abacus Associations. The league organizes the certification exam.

"The value of the abacus has been reassessed because it can improve the calculating ability and concentration power of the user," Nakayama said.

Trend Spotting: Heroin use on Long Island skyrockets.

I'd need heavy painkillers too if I lived on Long Island... From Newsday:

Between 2004 and 2008, at least 1,068 people in Long Island lost their lives in overdoses of either heroin or prescription opiates. In 2007 alone, a staggering 10,418 people were admitted to rehab facilities in both counties for opiate addiction. Statistics from other locales were unavailable yesterday.

Authorities say aggressive promotion by dealers, increased purity that allows users to snort or smoke the drug, rather than inject it with a needle, prices as low as $5 for a one-time high, and similarity to popular but costly opiate painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin are behind heroin's growth in popularity.

Experts say these painkillers - often found in parents' medicine cabinets, and legally prescribed - are more often than not the entry point to heroin addiction.

Trend Spotting: Buttock stabbing in Rome.

From BBC:

It's called the Eternal City by many, but Rome also has the sobriquet "Stab City" among football fans because of the level of knife attacks in the Italian capital.

There are fears tonight's Champions League final, being held in the city's Olympic Stadium, will be marred by such violence after several knife-related attacks on supporters from a number of English clubs over the last decade.

What is marked about the attacks is that victims are often stabbed in the buttocks. The practice even has its own slang name in the local Roman dialect - "puncicate". But why is the backside targeted?

According to those who have researched the subject, a stab wound in the buttocks may be chosen as it is seen as not likely to be life-threatening, but is humiliating and painful for the victim.

Experts believe the cultural tradition may even be linked to medieval duelling where slashing an opponent's buttocks was supposedly considered very skilful.

Japan's households turn to bean sprouts, ketchup amid recession.

From Bloomberg:

Japan’s deepest postwar recession is encouraging cash-strapped consumers to eat more bean sprouts, ketchup and cheap beef, according to a report by Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute.

Spending by each household fell a record 69,509 yen ($734) in 2008, Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at Dai-Ichi Life in Tokyo, wrote in a report published today. Consumers cut back the most on food, paring outlays by 16,952 yen, he said.

“Households are in serious penny-pinching mode,” Nagahama wrote in a report that compares last year’s consumption with spending during the 1998 financial crisis. “We’re seeing families eat more at home to help save money.”

Virgin Mary appears on diner griddle.

I wonder if they were using extra virgin mary olive oil. From the Miami Herald:

CALEXICO, Calif. -- The hottest thing on the griddle at the Las Palmas restaurant these days isn't the food - it's the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that a cook says she saw on the griddle.

Restaurant manager Brenda Martinez says more than 100 people have flocked to the small town of Calexico on the California-Mexico border to gaze at the likeness of the Virgin Mary since it was discovered as the griddle was being cleaned.

Among the awe-struck was a group of masked Mexican wrestlers who arrived Thursday for an exhibition at a nearby swap meet.

One, known as Mr. Tempest, says: "This is amazing. It's a true miracle."

Since the discovery, the griddle has been taken out of service and placed in a shrine in a storage room.

Trend Spotting: Naked hiking.

Hey baby, wanna see my Matterhorn? From BBC:

The tiny Swiss canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden has voted to prohibit the phenomenon of naked hiking.

Anyone found wandering the Alps wearing nothing but a sturdy pair of hiking boots will now be fined.

Appenzell is considered one of the most conservative regions of Switzerland; it gave women the vote only in 1990.

Locals have been outraged by an apparent upsurge in hikers who think the best way to appreciate the mountains is with their clothes off.

Johnny Rotten boosts milk sales.

God save the dairy queen.... From Financial Times:

Dairy Crest said using John Lydon, the frontman of punk band the Sex Pistols, in Country Life adverts had helped to boost annual sales of the butter by more than a quarter.

The TV advertising campaign, which first aired in October and features the one-time anarchist also known as Johnny Rotten, has had a “very positive impact on sales”, said Mark Allen, chief executive.

Country Life and Clover sales were both up between 25 and 30 per cent for the year to March 31, outperforming the butters and spreads market.

The owner of Cathedral City cheese and Clover spread also announced the sale of a 49 per cent stake in Yoplait Dairy Crest, the yoghurt and chilled desserts group, to its joint venture partner for £63.5m.

The sale of just under half of YDC, which was completed on Thursday, will result in an exceptional profit of £50m.

Coozer-Bits.

Sad: Black girls 50% more likely to be bulimic than white girls.

Health: Shellfish and inkjet printers hold key to to faster healing.

Awesome: Goodbye needle, hello smoothie! New vaccines may be tasty.

Science: NASA scientists find clues to the secret of life.

Lame: Madoff scandal deeply impacted life science research.

Sad: Old books could cause problems for libraries.

Sad: Girl, 18, hangs herself after boyfriend texts pic of her around school.

Sad: Darth Vader in cancer battle.

Politics: Syrian president praises Obama, wants to help mediate.

Misc: Wisconsin's new slogan faces pushback.

Lame: Bush aide gets 30 months for stealing $600,000 from Cuba democracy program.

D'oh: Does China have better anti-monopoly laws than the US? Takeover bid by Coca-Cola shot down.

Duh: Some schools may be breeding grounds for killers.

D'oh: Lawyer defending dirty cop discovers he's on his client's hit list.

Travel: US warning over Tokyo nightlife after Americans keep getting drugged.

D'oh: Sarah Palin to give huge speech - only she doesn't know about it.

Trends: Easy access to info creating more and more mistrials.

Duh: Bush's first post-prez speech met with protesters, flying shoes.

Duh: Diebold admits its voting machines can delete ballots.

Misc: Queenryche's singer doesn't want your silent lucidity when it comes to thanking troops!

Trends: Whoopie pies making a comeback! (I just like saying "whoopie pie.")

Trend: Upskirt photographs.

From the Guardian:

One summer day in 2006, Lucy Parkinson, then 21 years old, was shopping in Ealing, west London, when she heard behind her an altercation between two men. "I was crossing the road, and got stuck with a pack of other people at a traffic island," she says. "I was wearing a long-sleeved blouse and a white knee-length skirt." One man ran off and the other told her he had "chased him away because he had seen him 'upskirting' me".

Upskirting is the term used to describe taking photographs, often on a mobile-phone camera, up an unsuspecting woman's skirt.

"I hadn't even noticed it happening," says Parkinson, "and that's the most unsettling part - in a city, you just don't notice physical proximity to strangers. It could have happened a dozen other times too, for all I know."

It is impossible to judge how many women have been victims of upskirting, though a quick internet search yields hundreds of sites with hundreds of thousands of images. And there may be millions more pictures on phones and laptops that have never been shared. They have been taken in the street, on escalators in shopping centres, on trains, at bus stops and in supermarkets, schools, offices and nightclubs.

Coozer-Bits.

Local: Interesting article on Hasidic Jewish street patrols.

Trends: Japanese virtual subway groping! (thanks JenK!)

PSA: Stock up on your Forever Stamps - stamp price to go up 2 cents in May.

Zombie Watch: Mummies found in newly discovered tomb.

Creepy: Mysterious Scientology project raises questions in Wyoming.

Sad: At least 22 lose vision after free eye surgery.

Coozer-Bits.

These are from yesterday - I got inaugural fever and forgot to post them.

Trends: Japanese girls prefer video games as gifts over anything else. (Thanks Larissa)

Creepy: Synthetic sex smell lures vampire fish to its doom.

D'oh: Super leaves window open, causes $100,000's in damage.

PSA: Company recalls its "cuddly uterus" toy because the ovaries are a choking hazard.

Health: Epidurals are even safer than previously thought.

D'oh: Newlyweds leave wedding gifts in trunk of taxi.

Local: Federal judge lets Bloomberg overturn public referendums that would prevent him from being dictator for life.

Lame: Waiter plays Arabic chanting to frighten guests at Jewish wedding.

Awful: Proving again that England doesn't take rape seriously, gang rapists who tortured mentally challenged girl (and filmed her!) essentially get a slap on the wrist. Warning: this is as bad as it gets.

Coozer-Bits.

Creepy: Larry Craig dropping appeals (and pants! zing!).

Sad: 82-year-old man trapped in bathtub for 5 days.

WTF: Dozens of "witches" being tortured and killed in Papua New Guinea.

Creepy: Spookfish uses mirrors for its four eyes.

Science: Weird rock arrangements on Mars might not be the handiwork of bored Martians after all.

PSA: New salmonella outbreak sweeping through entire US.

Trends: Mugging Russian violinists.

Local: City Council candidate's campaign bus runs over and kills 9-year-old boy.

Science: Hubble finds some stars go "ballistic."

Eats: The New York Times wants you to eat squirrels.

Creepy: Carcass of mythical beast washes up on UK shore.

Sad: Vatican: Gaza resembles a concentration camp.

Coozer-Bits.

Yipes: Woman beaten randomly outside NYC mayor's mansion.

Yipes: Child molester still has access to youth center.

Awesome: 600 ancient Roman battle relics discovered in Germany.

Trends: J-Pop plans major assault on the West in 2009.

Lame: Why is Obama silent on Gaza?

Tech: Downloadable HD movies may doom Blu-Ray before it ever took off.

Creepy: Spider ancestor discovered - and (gross) - it had a tail!

Tech: Top 10 coolest open source products of 2008.

Health: Scientists learn to customize nutrition based on DNA.

PSA: "Detox" products don't work.

Health: The truth about 10 trendy New Years diets.

Trend Watch: Japanese toilets replacing doctors!

From CScout:

Toto (the toilet maker) and Daiwa Housing are teaming up once more to offer a sequel to their infamous 2005 “Intelligence Toilet.” The new “II” is equipped with all of the original health monitoring features (urine sugar analysis, blood pressure check, BMI and body weight measurement), plus an additional function designed to appeal to women: urine temperature measurement and analysis.

According to the press release, this data can be used to determine one’s basal body temperature and hormone balance—information which can help women keep track of their menstruation cycles, in addition to increasing physical awareness with the aim of “smarter” dieting and skin care. Like the original, all of this information collected by the toilet is beamed through your home network to your PC where it can be monitored in the form of charts and graphs.