Nevergirl's

Moondust is a beautiful word but do you know how it feels, tastes, and smells?

It feels like snow, soft but incredibly abrasive. It doesn’t taste half bad, if Apollo 16 astronaut John Young is to be believed. It smells like spent gunpowder, declares Apoolo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan.

But just so you know, that beautiful-sounding part of the moon – moondust – is something you might need EcoQuest International marketplace products for. Astronauts have felt, sniffed, and tasted moondust and what’s more, one of them got extraterrestrial hay fever as a result.

Moondust is clingy, clingier than contemporary fabricseven. It sticks to exposed surfaces quite easily. Boots, spacesuits, gloves – you name it, moondust clings to it. And while it smells of gunpowder, it is certainly nothing like gunpowder, component-wise anyway.

Strangely, the moment moondust enters Earth’s surface, its smell alters. No matter what container you put it in, its smell changes and becomes neutralized the very minute it comes into contact with moist, oxygen-rich air.

What’s a cafe without beer, its share of morose drinkers, chips and fries so greasy you’d be better off drinking lard instead, and a cloud of cigarette smoke so thick and heavy it seems no different from a fog? Not much, says Dutch cafe owners who are still reeling from the effects of the July 1 smoking ban.

Trust the Dutch to be resourceful, though. Rather than take the ban sitting down, they got creative and ordered Geurmachines, the antithesis to EcoQuest humidifiers. These machines fake smells – a lot of them – and come in different prices and sizes, from small and cheap scent devices to giant smell-makers. With over 50 different scents in its repertoire, each Geurmachine can make any room smell of leather, new car, freshly baked bread, or – in the case of Dutch cafes – sweat, beer, and tobacco.

The one good thing about this odd, odd Geurmachine is that while it simulates tobacco smell, the smell it produces does not pose health risks or linger in the clothing of customers.

The world never runs out of surprises, and no, you don’t need to buy morgan dollars to run into any of them.
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Source: Dutch cafes use fake cigarette smells to create atmosphere after smoking ban
July 18, 2008. Telegraph.co.uk.

Will you give your graduate the gift of surgery? Do you really have the funds, the liberalism, and the moxie to go, “Congratulations, daughter. Here’s money for a new nose.”?

If you answered yes just for the sheer fun of it, you’re not alone. Parents are actually giving their graduates the gift of surgery, and the number of parents who do this has grown. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, teens comprise two percent of cosmetics surgery patients in the U.S. In 2006 alone, 244,124 teens went under the knife for various procedures. Think 9,000 kids aged 13 to 19 getting breast implants. Think 47,000 of the same age group getting Jersey plastic surgery for a nose job.

If you’re appalled by those figures, here’s one more piece of statistic that makes it even worse: the number of teens who actually get the gift of cosmetics surgery is only a fraction of those who asked for it.

Back in my time, photo albums, dresses, books, and pieces of jewelry counted as presents. Today, academic achievement is rewarded with a boob job or a nip or tuck. These are strange times we live in.

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Source: Way to go, grad! Here’s a check for a new nose
2008, MSNBC Interactive

There’s a new trend in the U.S’ layoff-beleaguered economy, and it’s one that’s keeping plastic surgeons happy.

In the old days, people had cosmetics surgery to improve their looks, correct physical defects, or steal someone else’s identity and go on a thieving or bombing spree somewhere in Lithuania. Today, they’ve added one more to this eclectic string of reasons.

The new argument for revisional rhinoplasty and other means of going under the knife? Career advancement. The staunchest prophet of this new gospel? Donald Trump.

His Hairness argues that the average worker ant has an innate desire not just to be near good-looking people but to please them as well. For this reason, they work harder to please beautiful bosses and jump at the opportunity to impress. This is why football teams with handsome quarterbacks generally have more success than those that don’t. This also explains why better-looking people command higher entry rates and tend to be promoted faster than their average-looking counterparts.

You would think that in this day and age, The Donald’s arguments would get laughed out of cubicles everywhere. But no, worker ants are sitting up and taking notes. One U.S News and World Report write-up notes that better-looking bosses are more persuasive and are generally perceived as more credible. In his article, Looks: Why They Matter More Than You Ever Imagined, Gordon Patzer suggests several means for prolonging your workplace effectiveness: teeth whitening, eyelid surgery, hair transplant, Botox, and yes, revisional rhinoplasty.

Clearly, it’s not just the fashion industry that’s obsessed with beauty. The workplace is, too. And even though His Hairness ends his post with some conciliatory line about average-looking people also doing as good a job as ‘em good-looking ones, some people now look onto a nose job as the best way to fast-track their climb up the ladder.

Believe it or not, today, workplace go-getters buff up their appearance along with their resume. Ridiculous, is what it is, and you can bet your next paycheck we’re not putting “must be conventionally good-looking” on our hiring ads. Not this year, and not in this lifetime.