Not Sure I Believe This

I write like
Kurt Vonnegut

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Giant Lucy Pez Dispenser

Giant Peanuts Lucy w/Music Pez Dispenser, originally uploaded by candymachines.com.

The inventor of the Pez Dispenser has died. RIP Curtis Allina.

You Can Take It With You

When you die. A bookshelf that can be reconfigured into a bookshelf.

Googley Goodness

I love Google and all it's Googley goodness. They track the flu by flu symptoms searches. They are a week or two faster at spotting flu outbreaks than the Center for Disease Control.

Oh My!

LIMA (Reuters) – Peru's top court has ruled that workers cannot be fired for being drunk on the job, a decision that was criticized by the government on Wednesday for setting a dangerous precedent.

The Constitutional Tribunal ordered that Pablo Cayo be given his job back as a janitor for the municipality of Chorrillos, which fired him for being intoxicated at work.

The firing was excessive because even though Cayo was drunk, he did not offend or hurt anybody, Fernando Calle, one of the justices, said on Wednesday.

The Dark Side of the Moon

The dark side of the moon, originally uploaded by Maarts.

Christmas eve was the fortieth anniversary of man seeing the dark side of the moon.

Humans have been going into space ever since the Russian Aviation and Space Agency launched Yuri Gagarin into a single orbit about Earth on April 21, 1961 aboard Vostok 1. In the intervening 47 years, there have been 292 manned space flights; 182 by NASA, 105 by Russia, two by China, and three by private company Scaled Composites. Out of all of those missions, the majority—in fact a full 283—never really did anything more than go around the block, so to speak. Only nine manned missions have ever truly left Earth and entered the gravitational influence of any other celestial body.

The first time this happened was the Apollo 8 mission, during which Jim Lovell, Frank Borman, and William Anders put their Apollo command module into lunar orbit 40 years ago today, December 24th, 1968. 1968 is considered one of America's most tumultuous years in the 20th century. Beginning with the Tet offensive in Vietnam, which saw heavy American casualties, it was followed up by Rev. Martin Luther King's assassination in Memphis and ensuing riots across the nation, then saw Robert Kennedy get assassinated two months later. Finally, the battle between police and protesters in the streets of Chicago at the Democratic National Convention left a black mark on 1968. However, on December 21st, Apollo 8 launched three humans on the first-ever voyage to the moon.

How Bizarre

Not that he returned the money, just that it happened twice in the same spot.

AUBURN - Tuesday morning, walking the aisles of The Home Depot looking for a trailer part, a man's wallet caught Gil Steward's eye. It was on the floor, stuffed with almost $1,000 in $100s and $50s.

Thursday morning, Steward was back, shopping at Home Depot to replace a blown-out Christmas light when his eyes fell on a green money bag. It was also on the floor, also stuffed with money.

Same store, same time of day. Both returned to men who didn't know they'd dropped the money.

Some Christmases will be better for the kindness of strangers this year. He is going to play yhr lottery. Who knows maybe the third time is the charm.

MMM!

Garlic salted roads.

f you live in the Des Moines suburb Ankeny you may have noticed a slightly more aromatic salt concoction being deposited.

When local spice manufacturer Tones tried to think of ways to help the local community, they decided to donate 9 tons of garlic salt to the road works department.

The funniest quote comes from one of the plow drivers, who says his dog starts licking his pants when he comes home at night, and that he's constantly in the mood for a steak and baked potato.

Air Traffic

A simulation of all the fights in the world in 24 hours. Pretty cool. More video and an explanation.
Via Clusterflock.

Very Safe

Created by The Car Connection

College

Movie Reviews

Yummy!

Space urine to be recycled into drinking water.

ORLANDO, FL-- The countdown is underway for NASA's planned launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour Friday.

The mission will carry astronauts and a one of a kind sewage treatment plant to the International Space Station.

The new system is efficient enough even turn urine into clean drinking water.

Astronaut sandy Magnus will start up the water recycling system after it's transferred from the shuttle to the space station.

"There's five containers of waste water from the Russian toilet to start the regeneration system going," said Magnus.

Of course they will bring a sample back to earth for testing before the astronauts start drinking it.

Wow!

A lady rowed from San Fransisco to Hawaii.

Savage, who set out from San Francisco on May 25 in an attempt to become the first woman to row alone across the Pacific Ocean, rowed before dawn through the choppy waters of Molokai Channel off Waikiki. After daylight she was met by supporters in a boat dispatched by the Waikiki Yacht Club.

The English-born Savage rowed the Atlantic Ocean in 2005, then spent two years in the cottage of a Woodside supporter while lining up sponsors for what is projected to be a three-part, 7,200-mile journey ending in Australia. She first set off in her customized 24-foot rowboat last year, but that launch foundered after 10 days.

Mighty lonely out there.

Besides food, a sea anchor and two laptop computers, Savage traveled with four iPods containing audio books - a diversion she didn't have on the Atlantic.

"I listened to 62 books," Savage said in a telephone call from her Waikiki hotel. "They passed the time and helped keep me sane."

K2

A glimpse of K2 at Sunset, originally uploaded by Siriustar.

Nine climbers are believed dead in an avalanche on K2.

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — At least nine mountaineers died near the summit of K2 when a huge chunk of ice sheared off the mountain and hit them, and several more climbers are missing, Pakistani tour operators said Sunday.

Three South Koreans, two Nepalis, a Dutch, a Serb, a Norwegian and a Pakistani climber were killed on the notoriously treacherous Himalayan peak, the world's second highest mountain after Mount Everest.

"I can confirm nine dead and three missing," Nazir Sabir, a celebrated Pakistani climber and chief of Nazir Sabir Expeditions, told AFP.

My condolences to their friends and family.

Stuff

Row Row Row Your Boat

A drunken Swede fell a sleep in one of the worlds busiest shipping channels.

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - A drunken 78-year-old Swede stole a dinghy after a night out in the Danish town of Helsingor and tried to row back to Sweden, but fell asleep halfway, Danish police said on Monday.

When the man discovered he lacked the necessary funds to pay for the ferry from Helsingor to Helsingborg in Sweden on Saturday, he decided to row the five km (three miles) across the strait of Oresund that separates the two.

Small World

But, I still would not want to paint it.

BERLIN (AFP) - A German camper who tried to buy a tent after his was stolen, stumbled upon the original on eBay along with information leading to the arrest of the thief, police said Monday.
They said the 45-year-old from the western city of Bochum spotted a picture of the tent that disappeared from his cellar a fortnight ago while trawling the Internet auction site Sunday.

George Carlin RIP

From the New York Times.

By 1972, when he released his second album, “FM & AM,” his star was again on the rise. The album, which won a Grammy Award as best comedy recording, combined older material on the “AM” side with bolder, more acerbic routines on the “FM” side. Among the more controversial cuts was a routine euphemistically entitled “Shoot,” in which Mr. Carlin explored the etymology and common usage of the popular idiom for excrement. The bit was part of the comic’s longer routine “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” which appeared on his third album “Class Clown,” also released in 1972.

“There are some words you can say part of the time. Most of the time ‘ass’ is all right on television,” Mr. Carlin noted in his introduction to the then controversial monologue. “You can say, well, ‘You’ve made a perfect ass of yourself tonight.’ You can use ass in a religious sense, if you happen to be the redeemer riding into town on one — perfectly all right.”

He will be missed.

More Bizarre

A sixth foot has washed a shore.

All six of the feet - five rights and a left - have been found since August 2007 in the Strait of Georgia, which is sheltered from the Pacific Ocean by Vancouver Island, or nearby in the mouth of the Fraser River.

16,500 Condoms

125 scientists and staff. You do the math.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - One of the last shipments to a U.S. research base in Antarctica before the onset of winter darkness was a year's supply of condoms, a New Zealand newspaper reported Monday

Bill Henriksen, the manager of the McMurdo base station, said nearly 16,500 condoms were delivered last month and would be made available, free of charge, to staff throughout the year to avoid the potential embarrassment of having to buy them.

The base only has a skeleton staff through the long winter.

"Since everybody knows everyone, it becomes a little bit uncomfortable," Henriksen told the Southland Times newspaper.

About 125 scientists and staff are stationed at McMurdo base, the largest community in Antarctica, during the winter months when there is constant darkness.