Switched http://www.switched.com Switched http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.switched.com/media/feedlogo.gif Switched http://www.switched.com prods@weblogsinc.com (Weblogs, Inc. Producers) support@weblogsinc.com (Weblogs, Inc. Web Support) en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. View our terms of service here: http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/ Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/ <![CDATA[Last-Minute Halloween Guide (Best Online Resources)]]> http://www.switched.com/2009/10/30/last-minute-halloween-online-resources-guide/ http://www.switched.com/2009/10/30/last-minute-halloween-online-resources-guide/ http://www.switched.com/2009/10/30/last-minute-halloween-online-resources-guide/#comments
Hand-sewn costumes, homemade popcorn balls, and bobbing for apples are all so last millennium. It's time to get with the high-tech late Aughts, our fair readers, especially since Halloween is upon us. If you still haven't settled on a costume, or done anything ghoul-related, then take a look at our high-tech DIY guide to all things crafty and creepy, and get your spook on this Halloween.

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Last-Minute Halloween Guide (Best Online Resources) originally appeared on Switched on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> featuresguideshalloweenholidaystop switchedtips@gmail.com (Sara Faye Lieber) Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:42:00 EST Switched <![CDATA[10 Tips for 'Retrosexing' on Facebook]]> http://www.switched.com/2009/10/19/10-tips-for-retrosexing-on-facebook/ http://www.switched.com/2009/10/19/10-tips-for-retrosexing-on-facebook/ http://www.switched.com/2009/10/19/10-tips-for-retrosexing-on-facebook/#comments It's another Saturday night and you ain't got nobody. But, wait. Here comes a friend request from that shy one you used to French kiss in the back of the bus in junior high. The former wallflower is a doctor now. A hot doctor. A single, hot doctor. You message back. Your Saturday night just got a whole lot spicier.

As their numbers of Facebook friends climb into the upper hundreds, many social networking users are narrowing their searches to old friends and former flames who, they hope to find, have grown more enticing over time. This practice is so common that Boston Phoenix reporter Deidre Fulton has coined a term for these vintage partner refurbishers: retrosexuals. The name has caught on like thrift-shopping in a recession, and the exploits of various retrosexuals have been documented in the pages of publications like the U.K.'s Daily Mail and Time magazine.

We've all looked up former heartthrobs online and wondered, what if? Well, that's sexy and intriguing and all -- but you'll need to tread the waters carefully. We read up on the subject and spoke to several social-networking-love-nauts to find out how these retro-hookups work, where the pitfalls arise, and how best to navigate the fish-stocked sea that is Facebook. Take a look.

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10 Tips for 'Retrosexing' on Facebook originally appeared on Switched on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> facebookfeaturesretrosexingtop switchedtips@gmail.com (Sara Faye Lieber) Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:03:00 EST Switched <![CDATA[Why Female Astronauts Never Made It to Space in the 1960s]]> http://www.switched.com/2009/10/14/nasas-forgotten-female-frontierswomen/ http://www.switched.com/2009/10/14/nasas-forgotten-female-frontierswomen/ http://www.switched.com/2009/10/14/nasas-forgotten-female-frontierswomen/#comments
In 1957, the USSR got the first satellite into space with Sputnik, and the race was on to get the first anything else up into orbit. As U.S. rockets kept exploding, experts involved were looking for a way to lighten the load of the first human mission. Men were heavier than women, which suddenly opened up the possibility of the first female astronaut. The ill-fated and mostly forgotten initiative to get women into space way back in the early days of the space program is recounted in a recent article in the September issue of Advances in Physiology Education that we found courtesy of Wired. It's a fascinating read, but we'll recount a bit if you don't have the time to go through it.

Eugenicists and misogynists alike have long derided women as the weaker sex based on their delicate size in proportion to men. In 1960, however, Dr. Randolph Lovelace, Chairman of NASA's Special Advisory Committee on Life Sciences, and his team of forward-thinking scientists, convinced higher-ups at NASA to think less like generals and more like choreographers in terms of women's superiority as candidates for space travel, due to their generally smaller stature. Lovelace's reasoning was that women would make better astronauts because they require less oxygen, have a lower risk of heart or respiratory failure, can withstand longer amounts of time in sensory deprivation simulations, are more flexible, were proven to perform better in cramped spaces, and would require less fuel to propel the same distance because of their lighter weight.

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Why Female Astronauts Never Made It to Space in the 1960s originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> expire-images:2010-10-14historyNASAspacetopwomen switchedtips@gmail.com (Sara Faye Lieber) Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:30:00 EST Switched <![CDATA[Tech and Design Get Together at Areaware's THE DROP 2012+]]> http://www.switched.com/2009/10/13/tech-and-design-get-together-at-areawares-the-drop-2012/ http://www.switched.com/2009/10/13/tech-and-design-get-together-at-areawares-the-drop-2012/ http://www.switched.com/2009/10/13/tech-and-design-get-together-at-areawares-the-drop-2012/#comments
The name 'The Drop' comes from a date in the Mayan calendar that was expected to bring a shift from one phase of life to another, a window in time in which new things could begin to take shape. The number, 2012, is the year the Kyoto Protocol expires, and is added to inspire a sense of urgency in terms of taking responsibility for the environment. The host, Areaware, is an innovative design firm that prides itself in the fabrication and distribution of artful household products made with an eye toward new technologies. The event, which took place in New York City earlier this month (October 3rd, to be exact), combined art, design and technology, and the slides that follow depict the unique mix of real-world and art-design world products and works we found there.

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Tech and Design Get Together at Areaware's THE DROP 2012+ originally appeared on Switched on Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> areawaredesigndropeventsfeaturestop switchedtips@gmail.com (Sara Faye Lieber) Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:21:00 EST Switched <![CDATA[Hands-on With iPod Drum Circles, Human Scale Chess, and Texting Fish]]> http://www.switched.com/2009/09/25/hands-on-with-ipod-drum-circles-human-scale-chess-and-texting/ http://www.switched.com/2009/09/25/hands-on-with-ipod-drum-circles-human-scale-chess-and-texting/ http://www.switched.com/2009/09/25/hands-on-with-ipod-drum-circles-human-scale-chess-and-texting/#comments

The people of Conflux -- an annual art and technology festival held in New York City in September -- are obsessed with "psycho dynamism," or the art and science of fusing the virtual world with the real world, like doing virtual things in physical space (for example, organizing the first ever iPhone drum circle). To get our heads around this fascinating event, we checked out the Conflux '09 festival in person last weekend. Take a look at our list of the most interesting ways the artists at this fest found to make these seemingly separate realms overlap and interact.

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Hands-on With iPod Drum Circles, Human Scale Chess, and Texting Fish originally appeared on Switched on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> artconfluxeventsfeaturespsychodynamismtop switchedtips@gmail.com (Sara Faye Lieber) Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:16:00 EST Switched