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Hand
in the middle of it," Magerl says. "It's just a nice homemade ice cream and it draws attention. Everybody likes to see people enjoy a birthday."
Come hungry
Bobick Sarraf, owner of Bambino's at the Grove, 1801 Massachusetts St., was raised to believe that birthdays are important. That's why his employees get to take their birthdays off (with pay) and why he gives free dessert to people who eat at Bambino's on their birthdays.
"We don't advertise that anywhere, so there's not a real business reason," Sarraf says. "We're not expecting people to come in here just for their birthdays or anything. It's just what we do."
Cary Strong, one of the owners of Aimee's Coffee House, shares the same philosophy. Aimee's, 1025 Massachusetts St., offers a free expresso drink to those celebrating their birthdays.
"We do it because it seems like you should. There's no deep reason for it," Strong says. "It just seems like somebody deserves a drink on their birthday."
green it!
Predict climate change with your idle computer
If you have a computer and an Internet connection, then you can help predict changes in our climate.
Climateprediction.net is a project that runs climate models over and over to test their accuracy. This takes a lot of computing power, so the project sends the data to volunteer computers to process." Conceptually, it makes
To volunteer your computer; download a program called BOINC, then choose www.climateprediction.net as the project. It will ask you to create an account, send you data to process and you'll be started. You can decide how much of your computer's resources you want the program to
a lot of sense.There are a lot of idle computers laying around," says Jim Miller,associate professor of computer engineering. "Why not use them?"
— Adam Schoof
You can choose other projects, such as SETI@home, which sends you data from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence's radio telescopes to process.
use, so your computer doesn't become too sluggish for your own work.
Contributed photo from Climateprediction.net
Volunteer your computer to Climateprediction.net's climate model project and help predict changes in our climate.
DIY:
[DO IT YOURSELF]
Bowline knot
If you need to be rescued by a helicopter or hang something from your ceiling, then here's the knot for you.
The bowline knot is known by every Boy Scout, sailor and knot nut. "The Ashley Book of Knots," first published in 1944 and one of the most extensive encyclopedia of knots, lists the bowline as an essential knot.
The bowline is useful because it does not cinch, but rather bites on itself. If you are being rescued at sea by a helicopter and you tied a bowline, it would stay in place. Another knot might dangerously constrict around you.
However, Noah Hoelscher,Vinland senior and rock climber,says the bowline is a useful knot,but can be easily untied unintentionally when not under tension.
The same principle works in your favor if you need to hang something—what you are hanging will provide constant tension.
Adam Schoof
The bowline is simple to tie—take a look at these step-by-step directions. You can use a mnemonic to remember: Pretend the end of the rope is* a rabbit and pretend the loop end pointing away from you is a tree. The rabbit goes up its hole, around the tree and then back down the hole.
O
January 22, 2009
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