"Dirty Dozen" iPhone App

This isn't really school related, but it's important and useful, so I decided to share it here. This would also be good to share with students in a health or nutrition class.

In an ideal world, we could all afford to buy everything organic, grass fed, free-ranging, etc. Most of us have to pick and choose what to buy organic, however, which the folks at the Environmental Working Group make easier by publishing a "Dirty Dozen" list each of the most contaminated foods. Those are the ones I try to buy organic. But who can remember?

There is now an iPhone App you can use when you're in the produce department, trying to remember if you should buy organic peaches or not (you should).

According to the EWG, you can reduce your pesticide exposure by up to 80% if you buy organic versions of the Dirty Dozen.

LINKS:

Environmental Working Group
Dirty Dozen iPhone App
No iPhone? Download a pdf form of the guide.

THIS TOTALLY ROCKS!!!

The complete awesomeness of this just rocks my world!   Gale has created an iPhone App allowing students to access your Gale databases.  There's also one for public libraries.  Talk about reaching students where they live!!

I've downloaded it, and it's easy to use.  Just make sure students load the school version, and not the public library version.  Just call up the App store, type Gale in the search, and the two apps pop up in the first 4-5 results.  Then search for your school by state, type in your database password and you're good to go!

You can get more info here.  You can also bet that if Gale's doing it, others won't be far behind.

Sucker!

I finally did it. I resisted last year, telling myself not to be seduced by flash and style. Oh, sure, I was jealous of others who clasped it in their hands and gloated. But I only muttered, "Fools," to the hundreds forced to wait patiently for the chance to call it their own, forced to lavish money extravagantly on what would, at best, offer a tenuous connection.

Yet secretly I yearned.

Then succumbed. Yesterday, I bought an iPhone.

I promised myself last year that I could buy one this year, when my Verizon contract expires. Then I decided not to when I heard of the hefty $80 to have minimum phone service, web access AND texting. Why are you doing this? I wondered. I hardly use my cell phone as it is, leaving it for a week at a time in my bag, on silent and forgotten. But I lost it two days ago. Gerald thinks that was suspiciously convenient timing. I said, maybe, but now I need a new phone.

And it's so very cool.

Never mind the rumors that AT&T has sketchy reception in Connecticut. I drive the same highway David Pogue mentions here--I hope to run into him one of these days. (Though not literally, of course.) Apparently users across the country answer their iPhone only to say "Call me back on my Verizon line!"

But it's soooo cool.

Gerald just read me an article this morning that the 3G has a shorter battery life than the older model.

But it's cool, sweetie!

Now, I'm not so foolish as to stand in line. I thought I'd outsmart everyone and NOT go to the Apple Store in Stamford, but to the AT&T store here in pokey little Fairfield. Over a hundred other people had the same idea. Arriving at 7:45 for an 8 a.m opening, I was about 98th in line. Apparently, the people at the front arrived about 5 am. Crazy!

I just went back in the afternoon when there were no lines, placed an order and my phone will be here Wednesday.

How cool is that?

So now I'm going to end here and go check out the apps store. I have to make my cool phone even more cool by adding funky new apps. Like Bejeweled2. (which is also on my iGoogle page, but who can ever get enough of that bizarrely obsessive game?)

Adults don't stop playing with toys. They just buy more expensive ones...

Too darn funny!

NYT tech columnist David Pogue has real genius for writing schlocky satirical lyrics on current issues, e.g. check out his hilarious take on fair use and the RIAA. (David, David---PLEASE post the musical version--not just the lyrics!)

Anyway, he just wrote iPhone: The Musical. Apple loves the free advertising, I'm sure. But it's still pretty darned funny.