Buzz

The number of spices home cooks use to prepare meals for family and friends has increased exponentially since the 1950s. The CBS Evening News takes views behind the scenes at McCormick spices to see how the company keeps up with the demand for ever more exotic spices.

Watch the video:

Peter Allen, a screenwriter born and raised in Baltimore, hits the big time with his new film featuring some of Hollywood's and the rap world's top stars.

"Veteran filmmaker Peter Allen is living the life many screenwriters dream about: his movie, "Takers" seems destined to be a bona fide 2010 summer blockbuster.

The movie stars red-hot actors Idris Elba and Zoe Saldana, hip-hop superstar Tip "T.I." Harris and controversial crooner Chris Brown, and is about a group of slick bank robbers who go all out to pull off a $20 million heist. The movie is scheduled to be released nationwide Aug. 27.

Allen, one of the film's co-writers, says he wanted to present a different vision of high stakes criminals. "Why can't they be gentlemen, why can't they be slick, why can't they be smart like some of the guys I have read about and know about," Allen told the AFRO in a phone interview from Los Angeles."

Read the entire article here.

If you're looking for a job -- any kind of job -- and you haven't checked out the Fed's job database website, you should.

Here's an excerpt:

"A federal website, www.usajobs.gov, shows more than 300 open positions in Greater Baltimore, including one with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency for a supervisory project scientist. The Fort George G. Meade-based job pays between $123,758 and $163,275, and involves developing new technology focused on national defense, homeland security and navigation.

While the local and national economies continue their halting recovery, area vendors report that food service is one sector that's not struggling in the Greater Baltimore Area.

Here's an excerpt:

"Through good economic times or bad, the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., corridor remains a stronghold for the foodservice business, produce vendors in the area say.

It's just a matter of finding the right niche, they add.

Jessup, Md.-based Lancaster Foods Inc. has grabbed ahold of fresh-cut business as its ticket into the foodservice sector.

A move to a new building two years ago prompted the strategic shift, said Jerry Chadwick, vice president of marketing and business development for the company, which built its business on the retail side."

Read the entire article here.

Paul Lebelle and Adam Burkowske, two friends from Baltimore, have hit the middle stages of a cross country bike tour for their Bike Free charity. The idea is to raise $125,000 to purchase bikes and helmets for the children of military personnel.

Here's an excerpt:

"The pair began their ride in Maryland on June 10 and plan to end it with several large fundraisers in mid-October in California. They have been riding about 300 miles a week while carrying 60 pounds of gear on each bike.

Burkowske said Bike Free has connected with Rotary Clubs along their route to help raise money for the cause and has paired with the USO for distribution of the bikes, which they hope to do in December.

Lebelle and Burkowske met five years ago while working in a Baltimore restaurant. Both had given up their vehicles and taken to bicycles, and both were looking for something that would give their life greater purpose.

Burkowske said he had always wanted to walk across the country, doing volunteer work along the way. He shared his dream with Lebelle."

Read the entire article here.

Michael Solomon, a member of the TWIGS (To Work in Gaining Skills) program at the Baltimore School for the Arts, has published a new book of tips all about the science of finding lost items.

Here's an excerpt:

"Lost your car keys in that Bermuda Triangle between your front door and the table in the hall? Can't find the plumber's number that you scribbled on a Post-It note by the phone before it vanished?

Well, then Michael Solomon - the author of How To Find Lost Objects and the world's only professor in a new, incredibly useful science he's dubbed 'findology' - is your man."

Read the entire article here.

Scientists at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, based in Laurel, MD, want to get into the minds of amputees who use prosthetic limbs. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded researchers a $34.5 million contract to begin testing a new prosthetic limb system controlled by the amputees' thoughts.

Here's an excerpt:

"APL scientists and engineers developed the underlying technology under DARPA's Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009 program, an ambitious four-year effort to create a prosthetic arm that would by far eclipse the World War II era hook-and-cable device used by most amputees. The program has already produced two complex prototypes, each advancing the art of upper-arm prosthetics.

The final design -- the MPL -- offers 22 degrees of motion, including independent movement of each finger, in a package that weighs about nine pounds (the weight of a natural limb). Providing nearly as much dexterity as a natural limb, the MPL is capable of unprecedented mechanical agility and is designed to respond to a user's thoughts."

Read the entire article here.

It won't work exactly like Gene Roddenberry envisioned on Star Trek, but teleportation will likely be a reality one day. Pioneering research being conducted at the University of Maryland's Joint Quantum Institute, among others, on quantum entanglement could lead to the ability to instantly transport an item from one end of the galaxy to another.

Here's an excerpt:

"According to the quantum theory, everything vibrates," theoretical physicist Michio Kaku tells NPR's Guy Raz. Kaku is a frequent guest on the Science and Discovery channels. "When two electrons are placed close together, they vibrate in unison. When you separate them, that's when all the fireworks start."

This is where quantum entanglement � sometimes described as "teleportation" � begins. "An invisible umbilical cord emerges connecting these two electrons. And you can separate them by as much as a galaxy if you want. Then, if you vibrate one of them, somehow on the other end of the galaxy the other electron knows that its partner is being jiggled."

This process happens even faster than the speed of light, physicists say."

Listen to or read the entire article here.

Baltimore County Schools students will soon have their game faces on -- their game developers' face, that is. Baltimore County Schools says it will add the new curriculum using serious games.

Here's an excerpt:

"Along with Learning Port strategies, the public school district has developed a program called L.i.V.E., or Learning in a Virtual Environment, which includes a "virtual high school" and a game development contest that will encourage students to create games based around topics related to science, technology, engineering, and math.

Baltimore, Maryland-area schools hope that the program will both generate interest in the sciences and prepare students for technical careers later in their lives."

Read the entire article here.

For the second year, ForbesWoman has released its list of the 50 best cities for working moms. Baltimore rounded out the Top Five cities, behind Minneapolis-St. Paul, Washington, D.C., Boston, Mass., and Pittsburgh, Pa.

Here's an excerpt:

"To calculate our list we began with the 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the U.S. while working under the notion that "best" means different things to different women. Safety, of course, is important, and great schools and healthcare also all play a part--but when it comes to quality of life for high-achieving women, there are other components to consider."

Read the entire article here.

It only took Phileas Fogg 80 days to travel around the world in the Jules Vernes novel. A Maryland family -- mom, dad, two daughters and one son -- have returned from a seven-year voyage during which they circumnavigated the globe.

Here's an excerpt:

"After living the past seven years in this cabin the size of a hotel bathroom, the Crafton family seems in no hurry to clear out now. On a muggy, sun-drenched morning, all five of them -- knees just touching, lives completely entwined-- sit cheerfully in the sailboat that has been their home since they pulled away from this Severna Park dock in 2003.

Kalena, 18, who went through puberty and adolescence in this room, has her eyes fixed on a laptop slideshow of their travels that's playing on the galley table. For her, college awaits on land. Her mother, Kathleen, fingers a Melanesian carving she picked up in a trade during one of the family's countless island anchorages; the relaunch of her nursing career can wait until next week. Jena, 22, and Ben, 15, settle in for yet another telling of the family's greatest adventures (such as the three-day trek into the mountains of Papua New Guinea, or the village festival no white people had seen before)."

Read the entire article here.

It's one of the bright sides of a struggling economy, entrepreneurs creating new businesses. With credit tight, new business owners in Baltimore are looking beyond the confines of a traditional brick-and-mortar business to other opportunities that require less capital.

Here's an excerpt:

"Street vendors like the Quints are popping up on new corners, with city-inspected stainless steel food carts in tow. At the end of last year and into this summer, applications for street vending licenses shot up, said Alvin Gillard, Baltimore's vendor board chairman. The city still hasn't caught up with processing all of them.

It's hard to imagine, but there are actually people out there who haven't experienced Baltimore's wonders. This blogger finally made the trek and left planning to return.

Here's an excerpt of her travels:

"Baltimore has always been a dream destination for me, and this past weekend I finally made it there. It has a reputation as a quirky city, and it did not disappoint. Soon after we pulled into the downtown area, the streets were full of really strange characters, all dressed up in outrageous costumes. It took us a while but we finally figured it out�an anime convention was taking place that weekend.

We drove to Fells Point and one of the first things we spotted was this little beauty:

Read the entire post here.

It was an expensive lesson, but following his graduation from Yale University Roy Skeen, a history major, realized he didn't have a lot of skills that would land him a professional position. Farming in Baltimore, however, can be learned on the job. He's not alone. A growing number of young people are returning to the farm.

Here's an excerpt:

"Skeen moved back to his hometown, Baltimore and is now working the land on an urban farm. He finds the work hard, but satisfying, in an almost spiritual way.

"To me, the magic of seeing a cucumber on the vine, it was like a circle, and my psyche was connected. Here's something that was in front of me every day of my life and I never knew where it came from."

Skeen is not the only young person yearning for a simple, more spiritual life. The National Future Farmers of America � an organization kids join in junior high and high school � has seen its membership soar. It now boasts 520,000 members � the most in its long history."

Read the entire article here.

Fire Chief James Clack doesn't rely on radios or meetings at the firehouse to talk to officers and firefighters in Baltimore's Fire Dept. He turns to social media, and he's one of the first fire chiefs in the country to do so.

Here's an excerpt:

"In the age of the Internet, some fire departments have tried to limit what makes it online, but some chiefs have used technology to allow them to better communicate with firefighters and officers.

Baltimore Fire Chief James Clack has been one of the most proactive chiefs in the country when it comes to using social media.

"I really have a lot of ways to interact with our workforce," he said during a session at Firehouse Expo today that also include Syracuse Fire Chief Mark McLees and Memphis Fire Chief Alvin Benson."

Read the entire article here.