Blog Marco

Clerks (1994) is one of the few well-known recent films shot in black-and-white for no artistic purpose; because of the extremely low out-of-pocket budget, the production team could not afford the added costs of shooting in color (though the difference in film stock price would be slight, the store's fluorescent lights could not be used to light for color; by shooting in black and white, the film-makers did not have to rent lighting equipment).

With the oil spill crisis still ongoing in USA, with no signs of ending anytime soon, and with environmental damage which will last more than 50 years, I ponder about how much BP actually profits from piping oil from deep underground. According to this media release, BP p.l.c. made a replacement cost profit of $5,598 million just in the first quarter of 2010. Assuming BP's first quarter is from January to March, that's 90 days. $5,598 million/90 days = BP made $62.2 million in profit (on average) for each day of the first 90 days of 2010. That's making $2.59 million in profit per hour!

What's "replacement cost profit"?

It is a profit figure that is calculated using the cost of supplies at the cost of replacing supplies at current prices Oil companies often disclose replacement cost profit. This is because the oil

How to run properly, good running technique is important, especially to avoid any injuries - such as a Shin Splint. Aim to learn to run with good technique will help you run faster, more efficiently with less stress on your body.

• Look Straight Ahead and Not at your Feet
• Land MidFoot, not on your toes or heel (Are you a Toe Runner or a Heel Striker?)

Landing on your toes will make your calves get tight and you'll fatigue quickly and may develop shin pain. Landing on your heels wastes energy as you have overstrided and you're braking. It is best to land in the middle of your foot then rolling through the motion to the front of your toes.

• Run with your Hands Swinging by your Waist - where they may brush your waist while your run

Beginners, especially when they get tired, will hold their hands by their chest. This will get you more tired and you'll find that you'll start to feel tightness and tension in your shoulders and neck.

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Submitted by Marco on Sun, 13/06/2010 - 8:45pm.

I've started walking and running at the gym and I've noticed a pain around the shin area of my leg after running a couple of minutes. After some research on Wikpedia, I've found that this shin muscle has a name: the muscles located in the anterior shin or the front of the shin is called the tibialis anterior.

According to MadetoRun:

When either running or jumping athletes will sometimes over-stride and forcibly plant on the heel of the foot. This causes a whip like reaction with the distal end of the foot in which the toes are stretched forward and downward (following heel strike), placing significant stress on the muscles and ligaments that regulate your toes, which happen to run up your ankle all the way to your shin. Repeating this motion continues to stress the muscles and ligaments of the shin and can rapidly develop into a debilitating overuse injury. Basically, with a heavy heel strike you are giving the tibialis anterior a bit of whiplash.

Lady Gaga has released a music video clip of her song Telephone which is over 9 minutes long and features Beyonce Knowles. Within 12 hours of the video being released on the internet it had half a million hits and nearly as many blogs dissecting its possible meanings. Lady Gaga has said the video had been inspired by Quentin Tarantino's films.

"There's certainly always a hidden message in my music videos," she said. "I'm always trying to convolute everyone's idea of what a pop-music video should be." Early in the clip, there's a scene set in a prison yard featuring a lesbian snog between a butch lesbian dressed in leather and Lady Gaga, who is wearing a pair of sunglasses constructed from burning cigarettes.

No. Female chickens are called hens. Male chickens are called roosters or cocks or cockerel. And yes all the chickens we eat are females. The egg-laying hens are genetically-modified/bred so that they only lay eggs that are female. Any male ones are wastage and are often gassed to provide food for snakes. This is because male chickens tend to have a tougher meat.

Yes, all cows are female. However, the species as a whole are referred to as "cattle" are also known colloquially as cows. But strictly speaking, male cattle are bulls, female cattle are cows and castrated cattle are called steer. Most beef we eat are from steer. Dairy cows don't have as much meat in prime cuts such as loin and rump so they are mostly ground to make hamburgers.

Racehorses are both. Stallions, geldings and colts are male race horses. Mares and fillies are female race horses. In Australia, the males and females usually race against each other. There are races for one sex only, but most of them have them competing against one another. A mare named Makybe Diva is the one and only race horse to win the prestigious Melbourne Cup three times. Phar Lap was a Gelding who won the Melbourne Cup in 1930.

OK Go - the band responsible for the treadmill dance video "Here It Goes Again" which was a youtube viral video have created another viral video for the band's new song "This too Shall Pass". "This Too Shall Pass" has been viewed over 300,000 times in less than two days, and according to link-shortening service Bit.ly, the link has been shared over 26,000 times on Facebook.

The video, depicting an elaborate series of chain-reactions known as a Rube Goldberg machine, may be rising in popularity by tapping into a YouTube trend. Rube Goldberg machines, named after the US cartoonist and inventor, are a popular subject of YouTube videos. Users share clips of the best contraptions, often created for real-world competitions, with some clocking up to 1.9 million views online. The four-minute video was shot in one take and took 60 tries to get it right over two days, according to Wired.com.

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - RGM version

Dictionary reading was a favourite pastime of mine when I was younger. I love discovering new words such as psychosomatic and many others. Other popular words... I was taking a quiz on definitions online when these 10 words popped up:

Banal: lacking force or originality; trite; commonplace

Erudite: having or showing extensive scholarship; learned

Loquacious: characterized by or showing a tendency to talk a great deal

Lugubrious: excessively mournful; doleful

Maudlin: foolishly tearful or sentimental, as when drunk

Obsequious: obedient or attentive in an ingratiating or servile manner

Perturbing: 1. To disturb greatly; make uneasy or anxious; 2. To throw into great confusion.

Platitude: 1. a trite, dull, or obvious remark or statement; a commonplace; 2. staleness or insipidity of thought or language; triteness

Here's a topic which would interest frugal shoppers and businesses who pay for outsourcing, services, gifts and other products online with Paypal. Comparing Paypal vs. Credit Card Currency Conversion - Which gives better rates? Personally I thought my credit card would get the better rate. But it turns out Paypal gives the better rate taking in consideration the whole transaction including fees. I though Paypal was only trying to be difficult when they try to force me to use Paypal for the currency conversion process and not my credit card.

Ok this is the experiment I did: First I took note of how much it was to convert from Australian dollars to US dollars using Paypal's payment method, with Paypal Conversion Rate. For $100 USD, it would cost me $115.78 AUD. That's including all the fees and currency conversion costs and Paypal allowed me to pay this bill either by using my Direct Deposit, or credit card or current Paypal Funds. But then I switched my payment conversion method to my own credit card company - so my credit card will do the currency conversion. My bill came to this: $100 USD cost $113.56 AUD.... BUT... there was an additional International transaction fee of $3.35, bringing my cost to $116.91 - which is $1.13 AUD more expensive. I did the same experiment with another transaction of a smaller value, and it was similar: PayPal was cheaper to use. Yes the Credit card companeis give you a good exchange rate, but then they charge their fees - and that's when they double dip as the card companies make money on the exchange spread and the supposed "international transaction fee" which is a fixed price per transaction plus a percentage. Check with your own credit card if this is the case.