Life magazine was known for it’s amazing photography.  Many images that are embedded in our collective memories today are from Life’s photographers.  Back in the day, professional photographers grabbed so many incredible images.  Now, thanks to the work of Google and Life you can see them!   A perfect web surfing experience for a lazy Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning.  Better yet, share it with three or four of your friends with a nice ice coffee     You may access the Life archives, arranged by year and by subject, hosted at Google by clicking to them here.

When I first read this article I was shocked. “Do It Yourself” plastic surgery! WHAT! Can anyone really be that crazy or desperate? Well, the answer is yes.

I have friends who are obsessed with plastic surgery (or maybe I’m just jealous I can’t afford it!) but I think some of these items are really over the top. Here is a quick excerpt:

Around two years ago, a reliable English paper called Metro reported the outbreak of DIY plastic surgery. The obsession with celebrity culture, and media pressure that make everyone feel bad if they don’t look amazing, was leading people to take matters into their own hands. It did not go well.

“In the worst case, a man gave himself a nose job with a chisel and replaced the cartilage he removed with a chicken bone,” according to consultant psychiatrist Dr David Veale. “Others have cut their stomachs in DIY tummy tucks, and used glue to try to pin back their ears.”

Over your morning brew you can read the full article at Wisebread.com at their article, “DIY Plastic Surgery: This Is Not A Hoax“

(Photo courtesy of Colros’ Photos used under Creative Commons License)

Best quote evah on how to stay married.  When an 89 year old woman was asked during her 60th wedding anniversary one of her secrets to such a long marriage she quipped, “Some mornings,  just don’t get out of bed”.

(photo courtesy of Striatic’s Photostream, used under Creative Commons License)

If you’ve been keeping your ear partly to news the last couple of weeks you likely know that laws banning talking or texting on your cell phone while driving either have been unleashed or are about to. It’s getting difficult to know which states or cities even allow using your cell phone and which do not. Of course, we all know we should never use our cell phone while operating our motor vehicles. But, we do anyway don’t we?

So how to make any sense of which towns or states allow it so you can stay out of jail? Well, we’ve perked up a way to figure that out pretty easily and that’s by way of the nifty “Governors Highway Safety Association’s Cell Phone Driving Laws” table. It’s very nifty. Basically the Association has listed each state in a table then clearly show what laws apply in that state. Wondering about North Carolina? Scroll down to “N” then and you’ll see if:

• The state has a ban on handhelds
• Are only school bus drivers disallowed from using a cell phone?
• Is text messaging on ban and if so for which kinds of drivers?
• How are the laws enforced? Do you go to the pokey or write a penalty check?

All in all very handy to have. Just don’t check it on your Blackberry, iPhone, or Pre while driving! You can reach this helpful resource at the Governor’s Highway Safety Association link HERE.

(Driving while texting photo courtesy of Irina Slutsky’s photos)

If there is anything recent history has taught us here at Beck’s Cafe it’s that you can only keep people’s spirits and imaginations bound down for so long.  In the end, they have to come out.  And so the latest example is technology out of Africa.

Now we know what you are thinking, “Technology and Africa” do not seem self evident on the surface.  Africa and Natural Resources or Africa and Food (when there is no hellacious drought) or Africa and Nigerian Internet Scams.  But Africa and Technology?  Yep.  They do.

And they do because ther are smart people everywhere on our planet and there are problems everywhere and many times smart people will solve their own problems.  Case in point for AfriGadget, a web site devoted to this topic:

• The photo at the beginning of this post is of a student who invented an automated fishing machine
• Another inventive group has come up with a way to charge mobile phones using bikes and scrap
• And yet another invention harvests water from volcanic steam vents

All in all, some pretty amazing technologies using local talent and resources to solve real local problems.  Smart people and smart solutions.