The hottest thing about chili peppers isn’t the way they taste; it’s everything else they can do for you.

1. They Strangle Cancer

Human cells aren’t the happy-go-lucky little fellows we’d like to imagine. In fact, our cells commit suicide on a regular basis, via a process called apoptosis. Unlike the messy deaths that happen when a cell is injured or diseased, apoptosis is a peaceful passing, wherein an otherwise healthy cell reaches the end of its life span, then shuts down, shrinks, and is absorbed by its neighbors. But with certain types of cancer, the natural process of apoptosis doesn’t occur. Unwilling to go quietly into the great night, cancer cells rage on, refusing to die, continuing to multiply, and eventually forming tumors.

That’s where chili peppers come in. New studies have shown that capsaicin—the chemical compound that gives chili peppers their kick—may be the key to controlling cancer cells. During the past few years, research has indicated that capsaicin can induce apoptosis in cancers of the lungs, pancreas, and prostate. In the case of prostate cancer, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles found that capsaicin also slows the cancer’s ability to grow. This means chili-pepper treatments could be lifesavers for men who’ve survived one bout of cancer but are at risk of another.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that people should start feasting on pepper-only diets just yet. Right now, there’s little evidence that gorging on chilies will prevent healthy males from getting the disease. In fact, thus far, all research tests on capsaicin have been limited to Petri dishes and some very unlucky mice. That said, scientists remain optimistic about the pepper’s potential to help control the disease.

2. They Protect Men at Sea

Any good sailor knows that barnacles are bad news. If enough of these water-dwelling pests clamp onto a boat’s hull, it becomes less hydrodynamic. In fact, barnacle build-ups can force ships to use as much as 30 percent more fuel. That’s why many seafarers choose to safeguard their vessels by coating them with anti-barnacle paint. The only problem is that these paints are generally filled with toxic chemicals and metals.

Fortunately, in the early 1990s, an American sailor named Ken Fischer came up with a better idea. While chowing down on a Tabasco-laced sandwich, Fischer realized that barnacles might not share his love for spicy food. His hunch was right. Before long, Fischer was making millions off his pepper-based repellant, Barnacle Ban.

Surprisingly, barnacles might not be the only sea creatures averse to chili peppers. The Kuna tribe of Panama reportedly still sails with strings of chilies tied to their boats. The peppers supposedly make the ships (and the Kuna themselves) less appetizing to sharks.

3. They Numb the Pain

In addition to killing cancer and fending off barnacles, capsaicin has the ability to dull pain. When it hits the tongue, the spice activates pain receptors that fire up that burning sensation. But after a while, the same process depletes the body of Substance P, a chemical involved in the perception of pain. The message “ouch” stops getting through to your brain, and your discomfort fades.

Medical science has already turned this trick into over-the-counter creams for arthritis, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Someday, capsaicin could revolutionize anesthesiology. Have you noticed that after a trip to the dentist, you talk funny and can’t move parts of your face? That’s because traditional anesthesia temporarily deadens your senses to the extent that you lose control of those body parts. In October 2007, however, researchers at Harvard Medical School announced that they’d used capsaicin to numb rats without rendering them immobile. The researchers first injected rats with capsaicin and then with a local anesthetic. As the capsaicin flowed through the pain reception pathways, the anesthetic followed in its footsteps, deadening any discomfort while leaving the rats free to scurry about their cages.

In the future, this could mean better painkillers—ones that could make it possible for women in labor to be mobile after an epidural or allow dental patients to move their faces normally after getting a filling.

4. They Make You Forget How Bad They Taste

Although pepper fanatics are always itching for new ways to assault their taste buds, chilies aren’t actually addictive. Numerous scientific studies have shown that chili peppers don’t induce physical cravings, withdrawal, or loss of control—the classic signs of addiction. Yet, there is something about peppers that keeps people coming back for more.

Scientists think that when pain receptors come into contact with capsaicin, it triggers the body to release endorphins—chemicals that bind to the same receptors in the brain as opiates such as heroin and morphine. And while endorphin highs from peppers aren’t like the ones in Trainspotting, they can provide enough of a euphoric kick to keep people engaged in the actions that release them, such as jogging or bungee jumping. This observation may go a long way toward explaining why humans are the only mammals that keep eating chili peppers, even though the sensation burns. Scientists believe that the little high we get from the spice has helped us convince ourselves that we like the taste. The truth is that we do the same thing—for the same sort of pleasurable payout—with other bitter flavors such as coffee, tobacco, and beer.

This article originally appeared in the July-August 2008 issue of mental_floss magazine.

We stayed on the air, they waited for the right time, and all of a sudden there was the flash. The people watched it, Gil described it, Lane talked about it, and that was our telecast. That one flash. You just see this blinding white light. It didn’t seem real. We didn’t have videotape. You couldn’t say, “Let’s look at it again.”

A year later, all the networks carried live coverage of nuclear tests. Link

Wired also has a collection of nuclear bomb videos. Link

Stone Brewing Co.’s beer bottle tumblers by BottleHood
Available from the Neatorama Shop

Can you help save the environment, create local jobs and help stimulate the economy? Oh, and did I mention that beer is involved? Two San Diego folks did just that with an idea so simple it’s genious: turn used beer, wine and liquor bottles into zany glassware and gorgeous vases.

While many of us recycle (Yay! Go us!), more than a billion bottles still end up in California landfills every year. That represents both a problem and an opportunity for artist and eco-activist Leslie Tiano and businessman Steve Cherry who teamed up to create BottleHood. They “rescue” beer, wine and liquor bottles from local restaurants, then wash, cut, grind, and polish them into tumblers, juice glasses, vases, and candle holders.

Stone IPA Beer Bottle Tumblers – $7.95 each

Tiffany and I met Leslie and Steve at the California Gift Show in Los Angeles recently and asked them a few questions:

Neatorama: These are great! How did you come up with the idea of “repurposing” beer bottles?

BottleHood (Steve): Leslie presented her first few product concepts from which we first started with vases and tumblers made from wine bottles. I didn’t want to cut thin beer bottles glass if you can believe it!

Anyway, I thought of the process of repurposing glass based on lapidary techniques as opposed to heat based treatments to repurpose glass which create a huge carbon footprint in the process. My role was in the conception of the manufacturing and distribution strategy, being “neighborhood” based, very scalable and easily replicated geographically.

Neatorama: What’s involved in making the tumblers and glasses? How long does it take to make each one by hand?

BottleHood: We treat the bottles as if they were a gemstone, like quartz, and cut, grind, sand, and polish the bottle turned glassware back to its original luster and finish. It takes about 20 minutes to make each tumbler.

Neatorama: What do the breweries and restaurants think of your idea?

BottleHood: Most breweries love what we do as it promotes their brand and it’s a green socially conscious connection. Restaurants turn out to be both our bottle suppliers as well as our largest client segment. BottleHood is a sustainable business and to complete the “circle of sustainability” our suppliers turned clients offer the glassware back to the folks that drank the wine in the first place!

Neatorama: What’s next for BottleHood?

BottleHood (Steve): We’ve got our eyes on lots of different neighborhoods, come see us at the SF Gift Show for more!

BottleHood (Leslie): There’s a steady flow of ideas that comes from discarded bottles, so there will be new products in the very near future by BottleHood.

Arrogant Bastard Ale Beer Bottle Tumbler – $12.95 each

… and who can resist: the Double Bastard!

Double Bastard Ale Beer Bottle Tumbler – $14.95 each

———-

I’m particularly taken by Leslie and Steve’s line of glass tumblers made from beer bottles. They’re SO awesome that we just have to collaborate with BottleHood to carry these beer bottle tumblers in the Neatorama Shop. Check it out – they’ll make awesome Valentine’s Day present for beer lovers everywhere: Link

Los Angeles-based artist Ramon Coronado made furniture from shopping carts. He calls the project “Mercado Negro” and his ambition lies in “reclaiming an ordinary, everyday object and transforming it into a whole new object.” At the link, you can see many more pictures, as well as photographs from his workshop as Coronado constructed these pieces.

Link via Fast Company | Photo: Ramon Coronado

Stewardess
The term seems hopelessly outdated today, but until the early 1980s, the majority of airline cabin attendants were female and it was commonplace to refer to them as “stewardesses.” In the late 1920s, a registered nurse named Ellen Church was so captivated with air travel that she took flying lessons. She approached the president of Boeing Air Transport (BAT) for a pilot position and was turned down. He did, however, like her alternate suggestion—having a registered nurse aboard each commercial flight to assuage the passengers’ fear of flying. Air travel was still a new idea at the time, and fledgling airlines were in need of some sort of safety assurance in order to encourage the general public to choose an airplane over a train for their travel needs.

On May 15, 1930, Church became the first stewardess when she worked the BAT flight from Oakland (California) to Chicago. She wore a specially designed uniform that included her nursing pin, and she served drinks and meals as part of her duties. BAT (which eventually became United Airlines) hired seven more stewardesses shortly afterward, and three years later each major airline had at least one stewardess aboard (who was not only a registered nurse, but who also was single, younger than 25, and weighed less than 115 pounds.)

In-Flight Movie
The first movie shown on a scheduled basis on a commercial flight was By Love Possessed. Unlike the already-available-on-DVD movies shown on today’s flights, the 1961 potboiler starring Lana Turner and Jason Robards was still fresh in theaters when TWA started screening it in July of that year on flights between New York City and Los Angeles.

Hijacking
The first recorded hijacking of a commercial airplane occurred in Peru on February 21, 1931. A group of five Peruvian rebels commandeered a Pan American Airways Fokker F7 mail plane for the purpose of dropping propaganda leaflets from the sky.

Airport Codes
In the earliest days of aviation there weren’t any official “airports”—any field with enough space for take-off would do. In the early 1920s, though, certain large cities had enough demand for air travel that small airports were built, and since temperature, precipitation and wind speed/direction were critical factors in air travel, the National Weather Service began using these airports as data points for reporting the weather. The NWS assigned two-letter codes (LA for Los Angeles, PH for Phoenix, etc.) to each airport for easy reference.

During the 1930s the popularity of air travel exploded, and the International Air Transport Association decided to standardize the industry by assigning each airport a three-letter code. The oldest airports, which had previously been known by a two-letter designation, had an X added to their abbreviation. Incidentally, that sand dune in Kitty Hawk from whence the Wright Brothers made their historic flight has its own IATA designation: FFA, for First Flight Airport.

Airport Metal Detector
Airport security was virtually non-existent until a rash of hijackings occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Note that in the 1970 disaster film blockbuster Airport, not only was Helen Hayes able to freely travel around the world as a stowaway, but Van Heflin also easily carried a briefcase full of dynamite onto an international flight. In December 1972, the FAA finally decided that skyjacking was a big enough concern to issue an ultimatum: all U.S. airports had one month to install the necessary equipment and procedures to ensure that each and every passenger and his or her carry-on baggage would be properly screened.

The first metal detectors used at most airports were large, clumsy devices called magnetometers. These machines were originally designed for the logging industry (if a piece of metal is present in a log, it can severely damage the saw, so the magnetometer was devised to prevent mill shutdowns.) Unlike the door-frame design of today’s metal detectors, the original magnetometers were tunnels about five feet long. Passengers walked up one ramp to enter the device, and down another to exit.

In-Flight Meals
Various airlines served cold sandwiches and hot coffee aboard flights (sometimes distributed by the co-pilot) as a way to attract passengers in the 1920s. In 1936, United Airlines established the first “in-flight kitchen,” which had chefs preparing hot meals behind the scenes for stewardesses to serve to passengers en route.

While the NFL introduced new rules this season requiring players who exhibit any significant symptoms of a concussion to be removed from a game or practice, players have long taken protecting their noggins into their own hands. From oversized helmets and Velcro-affixed padding to facemasks and ball-repelling throat protectors, here are 10 interesting ways that athletes through the years have protected their most valuable assets – their heads.

1. Mark Kelso’s Pro Cap

Longtime Buffalo Bills trainer Eddie Abramoski had watched safety Mark Kelso get knocked silly one too many times, so he took action. In 1989, Abramoski approached Kelso with a Pro Cap, a half-inch of rubberized padding that fit over a standard helmet and was attached with Velcro. The device was designed by Bert Strauss of Protective Sports Equipment in Erie, Pa., where Abramoski was once a high school football standout. Teammates dubbed Kelso “The Great Gazoo,” but the teasing was a small price to pay for the protection the Pro Cap offered. The creators of the device claimed that the Pro Cap reduced the chances of a recurring head injury from 65 percent to 3 percent. “The biggest obstacle is the aesthetics,” said Kelso, who credited the Pro Cap with prolonging his career. “I think guys just don’t want to wear it because it looks so different.” At least two other NFL players, Indianapolis Colts lineman Randy Dixon and San Francisco 49ers lineman Steve Wallace, also wore the Pro Cap. “Everyone laughs at me,” said Wallace, who started wearing one after suffering his fifth concussion. “But what’s more important, your ego or being able to play with your kids with a clear head after your career is over? I’ll never play again without it.”

2. David Wright’s Jumbo Helmet

Three weeks after being beaned in the head by a Matt Cain fastball last season, New York Mets third baseman Wright returned to the lineup sporting the Rawlings S100, an oversized helmet that can withstand the impact of a 100 mph fastball. Wright resembled a life-size bobblehead doll and was the object of ridicule both within and outside the Mets’ clubhouse before ditching the helmet after two games. “It’s just not comfortable,” he told reporters. In his first game with his regular helmet since coming off the disabled list, Wright had three hits. Rawlings delivered a trial shipment of the S100s to every major league team last September, but players, citing the helmets’ bulky feel and goofy look, have been hesitant to make the switch. Angels outfielder Torii Hunter refers to them as “Gazoo helmets,” a reference to the Flintstones character, while Marlins catcher John Baker is waiting for Rawlings or another company to improve on the S100’s design. “If we could put a man on the moon 40 years ago, we can put a transmitter on Mars and I can watch a movie on my little iPod, we could probably make a thinner helmet that can protect up to a 100-mph fastball,” Baker told the Palm Beach Post.

3. Ryan Sadowski’s Plastic Cap Insert

When veteran Randy Johnson went on the disabled list with an elbow injury last season, it opened the door for San Francisco Giants rookie Ryan Sadowski to make his major league debut after a remarkable trip through the minor leagues. In 2003, while pitching for the Giants’ short-season minor league team, Sadowski began experiencing headaches. He didn’t think much of them at first, but after becoming extremely sick a few months later, he had an MRI and was diagnosed with a subdural hematoma. Sadowski had emergency surgery and doctors told him that he would probably never throw again. Instead, he resumed pitching in 2004. The Giants wanted Sadowski to wear a skullcap to protect his noggin when he returned, but the right-hander had a more creative solution. Sadowski starched one of his caps and provided it to a plastic manufacturer, which produced a mold and a custom plastic insert for Sadowski to place inside his regular caps., “It’s kind of shaped like a salad bowl,” he told the San Jose Mercury News last year. Sadowski won his first two starts before struggling and being sent back down to the minors.

4. Jacques Plante’s Goalie Mask

In 1959, Montreal Canadiens goalie Jacques Plante was hit in the face by a shot in the first period of a game at Madison Square Garden. The game was delayed 20 minutes while Plante received seven stitches to close the wound. He returned to the game wearing a fiberglass mask, which he had used in practice but had never worn in a game. The decision sparked controversy and criticism from some of hockey’s traditionalists. Muzz Patrick, the Rangers’ general manager, told the New York Times, “The use of a mask takes something from the fans. They want to see the man, particularly the female fans.” A few years before Plante started wearing his mask, Rangers goalie Gump Worsley had considered the idea. Worsley purchased a mask, but his coach, Phil Watson, wouldn’t let him wear it. “Who wants a good-looking goalie?” Watson said. By 1974, perhaps to the dismay of the league’s female fans, all goalies were wearing masks.

5. Steve Yeager’s Throat Protector

Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Steve Yeager is remembered for a number of things, and his ability to hit a baseball is not one of them. Yeager’s father, Chuck, was widely considered the first pilot to break the sound barrier. Steve Yeager, who was a .228 hitter in 15 major league seasons, posed nude for Playgirl in 1982. He appeared in Major League, Major League II, and Major League: Back to the Minors. He won the 1981 World Series MVP award. Oh, and he almost died in the on-deck circle. In 1976, shards from Bill Russell’s broken bat tore a hole a half-inch deep in Yeager’s neck, piercing his esophagus. Yeager underwent emergency surgery and made a full recovery. Shortly after the incident, Dodgers trainer Bill Buhler, who was known as Dr. Fix-It throughout his 44 years in baseball, invented and patented a throat protector that hung from the catcher’s mask. While it wouldn’t protect him in the on-deck circle, Yeager began wearing the throat protector behind the plate and it soon became a staple piece of equipment for both catchers and umpires.

6. Charlie O’Brien’s Hockey-Style Cather’s Mask

Thirteen years after Yeager retired and more than 100 years since Harvard’s Jim Tyng introduced the catcher’s mask to baseball, journeyman catcher Charlie O’Brien, who was playing for the Toronto Blue Jays at the time, began working with Van Velden Mask Inc. to design a hockey-style catcher’s mask that would provide greater protection against foul-tipped balls. Major League Baseball approved the masks, but prohibited the use of personalized logos and designs like the ones that had become popular among NHL goalies. When O’Brien debuted the mask in Toronto, the Jumbotron at SkyDome displayed images from Friday the 13th, The Mask, and Silence of the Lambs. Hockey-style catcher masks remain popular today.

7. John Olerud’s Helmet

After his junior season at Washington State, John Olerud underwent a six-hour surgery to remove an aneurysm at the base of his brain. Cougars head coach Bobo Brayton suggested that Olerud, who was named college player of the year as a sophomore, wear a helmet in the field during his senior season. Brayton had worn a helmet while coaching after he was drilled in the head by a line drive while throwing batting practice in 1959. “You know when (NHL goalie Clint Malarchuk) got his neck cut? One of the things he said in an interview is that the little things that used to bother him don’t bother him any more,” Olerud told the Spokesman-Review in 1989. “Well, the little things that used to get on my nerves just don’t any more.” Olerud, a lifetime .295 hitter, wore a flapless helmet in the field throughout his 17-year career.

8. Dave Parker’s Hockey and Football Masks

In 1978, Pittsburgh Pirates great Dave Parker fractured his jaw and cheekbone in a home plate collision with Mets catcher John Stearns. Parker missed 11 games before returning to the lineup with some unique headgear to protect his swollen face. Parker wore a hockey goalie’s mask painted black and yellow during batting practice and as a pinch-hitter in his first game back. While the hockey mask was intimidating, it limited Parker’s ability to see pitches, so he turned to Pittsburgh Steelers equipment manager Tony Parisi to help design him a better form of protection. Parisi came up with several solutions, including a baseball helmet with a football-style two-bar faceguard. Paul Lukas, ESPN contributor and founder of the Uni Watch blog, captured the fascinating history of Parker’s various masks in an article last year. Parker stopped wearing facial protection in 1979. Nearly 30 years earlier, the Pirates, under the instruction of general manager Branch Rickey, were the first team to wear helmets.

9. Gerry Cheevers’ Stitch Mask

After being hit in the mask by a puck during practice in 1968, Boston Bruins Hall of Famer Gerry Cheevers asked team trainer John Forristall to draw stitch marks on his mask where he had been hit. The comical idea continued that season and Cheevers’ white mask was soon full of stitch marks. Cheevers began each season with a fresh canvas for Forristall’s stitches and his unique design helped launch the tradition of decorated goalie masks that continues today. “Kids used to write me and say, ‘How do I get a mask like that?’” Cheevers recalled in a 2007 interview. “I’d say, ‘Send me $100 and I’ll send you a Magic Marker.”

10. Richard Hamilton’s Facemask

Detroit Pistons guard Richard Hamilton began wearing a clear plastic facemask in March 2004 after having his nose broken twice during the season. While Hamilton hated the mask at first, he gradually became more comfortable with it and led the Pistons in playoff scoring en route to an NBA title. Hamilton had no intentions of wearing the mask in 2005, but resumed wearing it early in the season and has sported it ever since. Hamilton’s mask was designed by orthotist Jerry McHale, who created a clear facemask for former Pistons “Bad Boy” Bill Laimbeer in 1990 after he suffered an orbital fracture, and a facemask for Kobe Bryant while the Lakers guard was in high school.

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A bit of nerdy interactive fun for you today: the New York Times has an Interactive Map of Netflix Queues covering 100 “frequently rented” titles from 2009, including very heavily-rented titles like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and less-rented titles like Happy-Go-Lucky and Adventureland.

The map is interactive, allowing you to slide or step through various movie titles and see how popular each title is in twelve metro areas in the US: New York City, Boston, Chicago, Washington, the Bay Area (aka San Francisco, Oakland, etc.), Los Angeles, Seattle, Minneapolis, Denver, Atlanta, Dallas, and Miami. What’s better, you get a geographic breakdown by ZIP code within each metro area, so you can see if a title is popular in the city center or the ‘burbs. For example, Milk (a biopic about Harvey Milk, who lived and worked in San Francisco) is the #1 rented title in many ZIP codes in the city center of San Francisco.

While the Times notes that distinct patterns are visible with the titles Mad Men (popular in city centers), Obsessed (popular in predominantly black neighborhoods), and Last Chance Harvey (popular everywhere but city centers), I found the most interesting pattern overall in The Bucket List: popular almost nowhere except in Minneapolis, where it stains the landscape like a bizarre, vaguely urine-colored invader (seen above). Check out the map for yourself and see what you can figure out! (See also: the comment thread for the infographic, which is full of privacy concerns, political flames, and requests for more info on the raw data and methodology. One excellent comment from “DCR” in Arlington, Virginia: “We don’t just live in red, blue and purple zip codes; we live in Milk, Tyler Perry and Slumdog Millionaire zip codes.”)

For what it’s worth, you can get similar data yourself directly from Netflix if you’re a member. Scroll to the bottom of the Netflix site, click Friends, scroll down to “Unique in [Your City] and click “See What’s popular in Other Locations,” then note the box in the upper right portion of the page — you can get statistics for any ZIP code . Here’s a direct link that may or may not work for you.

1. Where Cultures Coexist
Located in Lafayette, LA, the Acadian Cultural Center is one of three sites dedicated to preserving and explaining Acadian culture. The Acadians in Louisiana (now called Cajuns) are decedents of French colonists who settled in Canada, only to be forced south during the Great Expulsion as a result of the French And Indian War. About 300 Acadians were forcefully deported to Louisiana (then controlled by Spain), and many more followed suit in later years. All of these influences combine to create a unique blend of culture, food, music and language amid the bayous of Louisiana.

The center is actually part of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, a series of six sites that offer an incredible glimpse into history, culture and nature. At this site, you can take educational bayou rides and learn of the rich history of the region.

And the best part? It’s only closed on Christmas Day and Mardi Gras.

2. Birthplace of the Harlem Renaissance
In Alexandria, LA, you can visit the Arna Bontemps African American Museum, which itself is one of 26 sites on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail. The museum is the birthplace of Arna Wendell Bontemps, an influential American poet, author, librarian and one of the leading authorities and members of the Harlem Renaissance. Although Arna and his family moved to the Watts district of Los Angeles during the Great Migration when Arna was only three, his original house has been restored and stands now as a vehicle for education and awareness.

The museum also holds an annual African American Heritage Quiz Bowl (held in celebration of black history) for students in grades 6-12. Winners of this competition receive a US Savings Bond. Held in May 2010, this will be the 16th year of the competition.

3. My God, It’s Full of Stars
Louisiana’s Science Center, Sci-Port, can be found in the northwest Louisiana town of Shreveport. At the center, you can visit the Space Dome Planetarium, which offers the opportunity to control the International Space Station and view live presentations about the stars overhead. The center also includes an IMAX Dome Theater, interactive science, math and space exhibits as well as a Bodyworks center which strives to study and examine the innerworkings of the human body. With over 92,000 square-feet of real estate, there’s always something to see.

4. Boomtown, USA
Outside of Alaska, the East Texas Oil Field is the largest oil field in the United States, spanning over 140,000 acres. Similar to the gold rush 80 years earlier in California, speculators, lease hounds, and roughnecks swarmed to eastern Texas in the 1930s with the promise of finding black gold amid the eastern reaches of the Lone Star State.

In Kilgore, TX (on the campus of Kilgore College), there is a museum commemorating the rapid expansion and chaos of oil madness: The East Texas Oil Museum. Here, you can learn about the people, settlements, tools and lives of the settlers seeking riches in the subtropical regions of the state. The site actually includes a recreated city called Boomtown, USA—a full-scale replica of the stores, people, animals and machinery of a town in the throes of discovering oil.

5. One if by Land, Two if by Sea
The Dallas World Aquarium & Zoological Garden is divided into four sections: The aquarium, the rainforest, Mundo Maya and South Africa. Each area contains a separate ecosystem for you to explore. Perhaps most enthralling is the rainforest exhibit, which includes three stories of simulated canopies, giving you a glimpse into multiple jungle levels.

Also, be sure and check out the informational presentations throughout the day, complete with live feedings. The guides offer informational talks on everything from otters and sharks to sloths and jaguars. Definitely a must see if you find yourself in Dallas with several hours to kill!

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In the last 22 months, Ralph B. White’s meticulously logged schedule shows trips to the mountains of Nepal, the Australian outback, the China-Mongolia border, a Rwandan volcano, Iceland, Benin and the waters off Zanzibar. [...]

Thanks to [Ralph's friends at the Adventurer's Club], tiny portions of White’s remains, carefully measured out in plastic bags, have put in enough posthumous miles to rival King Tut. Instead of a bucket list, he’s got an ash log. It’s six pages long.

“Rather than have people mourn him, he wanted to give people incentive to go have adventures,” said Rosaly Lopes, who was engaged to White when he died and is the keeper of the ashes.

Though White covered a lot of the Earth during his life, said Krista Few, his daughter, most of these scatterings have delivered his ashes to new territory. “The competition is what is the most bizarre place we can take Ralph?”

Christopher Reynolds of The Los Angeles Times has the story: Link