If you’re keen on improving your mind (or a child’s concentration levels), this game, called the Telekinetic Obstacle Course looks awesome fun for all ages. Well, 8 and up. The aim of the game? To maneuver a ball through an obstacle course…with your mind. Without the vocabulary barrier of crosswords or the numerical logic required for Sudoku, the Telekinetic Obstacle Course requires just concentration and your soon to be skillful sense of hand-mind coordination to navigate the game’s ball through hoops, teeter-totters (seesaws), baskets and chutes.Including   read more

Randall StephensSometimes I’m at a conference or hearing a lecture–time dragging on–and my mind begins to wander. Happens to everyone. As I daydream, I occasionally think of fake book titles and wonder what the content of those not-ready-for-prime- time volumes might entail. This is also just a good general way to waste time. I include here some recent ones. (This may, in fact, be one of the all-time most useless posts on RiAH. So be it.) From Scatology to EschatologySeventh-d ay Advantageous The Devil is in the RetailsRentacostals and Holy Home OwnershipJesus   read more

This editorial, published in today’s Boston Globe, caught my eye because my husband is currently serving on a federal grand juror here in New York, where cell phones and other electronic devices are banned from the courthouse. The editorial discusses the growing phenomenon of “tweeting, texting, and obsessive e-mail checking” which now threatens the jury system. “Increasingly, courts have had to warn jurors that blogging or searching the Web during trial jeopardizes the very foundations of the judicial system.” The author, Renee Loth, cites examples from trials in Florida,   read more

Amazon has stopped selling the US only CDMA Sprint/Nextel Kindle, though it will continue to support exiting units. Amazon is only going to sell the 3G version that works on AT&T’s network in the US, though it’s the same model that is sold internationally. Amazon could have used a chip manufactured by Qualcomm known as the Gobi which support 2G/3G and US protocols but Amazon said the chip was more suited to netbooks, they may consider using Gobi in a future device.Sprint/Nextel must be disappointed as it’s assumed most of their 394,000 wholesale customers are Kindles. On the other   read more

The Walkstation is the fully integrated combination of an electric height-adjustable worksurface with an exclusively engineered, low speed commercial grade treadmill. And its the first product in the entirely new FitWork category of products from Details designed to bring healthy habits to sedentary workers while they are actually working. The fully-functional treadmill display console shows speed, calories burned, time and distance. High torque motor is built in to withstand the rigors of slow speeds and possible higher weights for long periods of time. While exercising, the Height-AdjusTable   read more

Edge is featuring, in “The Age of the Informavore,” a fascinating interview with Frank Schirrmacher, the influential science and culture editor at Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.”The question I am asking myself,” Schirrmacher says, “[which] arose through work and through discussion with other people, and especially watching other people, watching them act and behave and talk, [is] how technology, the Internet and the modern systems, has now apparently changed human behavior, the way humans express themselves, and the way humans think in real life … And you encounter this   read more

Miller Britzke (Alternative Energy Engineer) Helps Large Businessesand Homes to Convert to Green PowerI am an engineer who works with corporations to help them go green byconverting to solar and wind energy. I know what it takes to create analternative energy plan that works, and I know how to implement thoseplans.As   read more

am an engineer who works with corporations to help them go green by converting to solar and wind energy. I know what it takes to create an alternative energy plan that works, and I know how to implement those plans.As an engineer who works in the realm of alternative energy, there is one thing that often surprises me.The range of quality of information on how to go green is simply astounding. At least once a week, someone will ask me how they can learn how to convert their home, and answering that question can be difficult.Simply put, there are literally hundreds of products out there that teach   read more

Yoga practitioners are criticizing a Missouri sales tax that applies to yoga classes, claiming they should be exempt because the lessons include spiritual elements. Some practitioners think such a tax is unconstitutional. They argue that yoga, with roots in ancient Indian meditation, is as much a spiritual practice as an exercise routine and should be exempt from taxation.   read more

Paul Harvey A sneak preview of an American Historical Association session that ought to draw a serious crowd, details listed below. I got to preview the 3 papers being presented, at the last Young Scholars in American Religion meeting, and you AHA attendees are in for a terrific session. So if you’re going to the AHA in San Diego, make your plans now. War, Religion, and American National IdentityAHA Session 42Friday, January 8, 2010: 9:30 AM-11:30 AMElizabeth Ballroom B (Hyatt)Chair: Laurie Maffly-Kipp, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillCommentator:   read more