March 19, 2008
At least I got the number right
They say it doesn't constitute an extraordinary circumstance
Jayci is ten years old. She's about to die of an incurable brain cancer. Her dying wish is to see her daddy one last time. But daddy in prison on a drug charge, and won't be released until August. By which time Jayci will be dead. Federal prison rules allow for furloughs in "a family crisis." But only at the warden's discretion. "They say it doesn't constitute an extraordinary circumstance".
Kleine Dampfblöcke
First there was the Dardenbahst
now comes:Kriegerhund, Sentinel of the Deutsches Reich. Plenty more lego steampunk goodness at the Brothers Brick. Via
Charley
So Bad They're Good (At Being Bad)
Bad Gift Emporium. Can't stand to look at that glittery unicorn statue from Aunt Ethel any longer? Can't bear to wear the hand-knitted sweater from Grandma Agnes (made from her own cat's hair)? Want to offer your horrific gift items to people who can truly appreciate them, or just share the misery? The Bad Gift Emporium is for you.
And you thought discrimination was a thing of the past...
Say you do a job and retire in or before 1996. Your coworker retires after 1997. Coworker gets six times more pension and you're asked to leave the country. Sounds unfair? Not to the British Government. [more inside]
Everybody kills Hitler on their first trip
If Metafilter did time travel, it might end up like Desmond Warzel's Wikihistory. It's a short piece in the latest issue of Abyss and Apex and features snippets from the WWII subforum of the International Association of Time Travelers. Takes only moments to read but might amuse for hours. [more inside]
Nugget Shooter
Looking for a new outdoor hobby? There's always recreational gold prospecting. If you live in Washington State, check out Bedrock Prospectors. If not, no worries, there's gold all over the United States and Australia. Probably elsewhere too, it's widely distributed. You can really get into it, but some practitioners say you probably won't make money at it. [more inside]
Wear a Sweater on Fred Rogers' birthday
As part of Won't You Be My Neighbor? Days in Pittsburgh, and in honor of what would've been Fred Rogers' 80th birthday, Mr. McFeely is requesting that you wear your favorite sweater on March 20. "It doesn't have to be like the one Mr. Rogers wore, it just has to be special to you." [more inside]
what did we tell you
Without Posing and Artifice
"Using information provided earlier about their weekly routine, the photographer will arrive on the scene, and unseen, take shots of the subject." This is what Izaz Rony of Methodizaz says he can do for you for several hundred bucks. Or, perhaps use this self-hired paparazzi service as a present for friends and family?
"Without posing and artifice, the camera captures only the natural beauty of the person." Flash website [via]. [more inside]
Bassically, it's a series of tubas
The Travelers Club International Restaurant and Tuba Museum, Okemos, Michigan. Sixty-plus tubas, euphonia, helicons, sousaphones, ophicleide, and other brass monstronsities, accompany a menu of international cuisine -- uh an' cookin'. [more inside]
For Arthur
Unofficial Wiretap Podcast
CBC's Wiretap has an unoffical podcast. In the latest episode, Gregor Samsa gets help from Dr. Seuss.
Somewhere in the crowd... sometimes you find someone very special. Someone who sees light in the dark.
Between 1981 and 1984, the first network for kids broadcast an unusual show called THE THIRD EYE [more inside]
Trouble on the Roof....... of the World
China ready to hold talks with the Dalai Lama. With nearly 1,000 jailed in Lhasa, the Dalai Lama has offered to resign.
China has blocked the media, and reporters have been taken in for questioning.
China is opposed to the US speaker's Dharamsala visit.
Meanwhile France raises the idea of boycotting the Olympics opening ceremony.
Existing thread arising from Björk's protest.
Sex in public park legal in Amsterdam
Amsterdam plan to legalize public sex in park from this year September onwards. The police's National Diversity Expertise Centre (LECD) wants this to expand this plan to all public parks of the Netherlands.
Everyone hates Ben Bernanke
Columbia Business School doesn't like Ben Bernanke. The Previous Link is a
Music Video from Columbia Business School. No Billy Joel, but it is a music parody. You might not like music parodies which is A-Okay, but this is a financial focused music parody from a business school improv group. It made me smile wanely a few times, but I still enjoyed it. You might not. I am sorry if you do not. If you don't, maybe you would like a video about munchkin kittens. [more inside]
The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar
Bobby Dunbar was a four year-old boy that vanished in 1912, while on a fishing trip with his family in a Louisiana swamp. For weeks, searchers combed the area looking for him. The lake where he went missing was dynamited. Alligators were captured and had their bellies slit open to see if the body was inside. Nothing was found except a set of child's footprints leading to an old railroad trestle. Eight months later, the police found Bobby in the company of a drifter with a horse-drawn cart. He protested his innocence but was arrested and charged with kidnapping. Another woman came forward and claimed Bobby was, in fact, her son. But she was an unmarried fieldworker, and her claims were dismissed. The crime became a nationwide media event and the boy was returned to his parents, and their hometown held a parade in his honor. Bobby returned to his life. Ninety-one years later, Bobby Dunbar's granddaughter uncovered the truth.
Food For The Soul
Great Poets Of The 20th Century. From The Guardian so Brit bias... Introduction, William Boyd on Siegfried Sassoon, John Banville on Seamus Heaney, Jeanette Winterson on Ted Hughes, Andrew Motion on Philip Larkin, Margaret Drabble on Sylvia Plath, Rowan Williams on WH Auden, Craig Raine on T.S. Eliot.
Art of TekkonKinkreet
Elementary School Nostalgia-Filter
Blogger Beware! Troy Steele reads through all the Goosebumps books and snarkily recaps them. So you don't have to.
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