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Jonathan Karl did something that very few civilians ever get to do: ride along on the U2 spy plane:
The U2 goes to such a high altitute you you basically have to wear a spacesuit. I’m doing what they call the ‘pre-breathe’ which is basically getting in the suit and breathing pure oxygen before you go up to the flight. The reason why you do that is they want to get all the nitrogen out of your blood because if nitrogen is in your blood when you reach the altitude of 65-70,000 feet, it will actually try to get out and your blood will literally boil.
ABC World News Webcast has the story: Link [Flash video]
When lawyer and bride Elana Glatt was dissatisfied with the color (and freshness) of her centerpieces in her wedding, she did something that comes naturally to lawyers: she sued the florist!
“The use of predominantly pastel centerpieces had a significant impact on the look of the room and was entirely inconsistent with the vision the plaintiffs had bargained for,” Ms. Glatt, a lawyer who practices under the name Elana Elbogen, said in the lawsuit, which she filed on behalf of herself, her husband and her mother-in-law, Tobi Glatt, who paid for the flowers.
Elana Glatt said they had reluctantly paid for the flowers in advance, with a cashier’s check for $27,435.14. She accused the florist of a “bait and switch” scheme, and asked for more than $400,000 in restitution and damages for, among other things, “unjust enrichment” by the florist. In a litany of “distressing and embarrassing” offenses, the lawsuit says the florist substituted cheaper orchids than promised in the bridal bouquet and provided the equivalent of $5 roses from a street vendor, but charged $55 to $65 for those arrangements.
The florists, Stamos Arakas of Posy Floral Design, has this to say:
“My father used to tell me, ‘Don’t deal with lawyers,’” Mr. Arakas said. “Maybe he was right, God bless his soul.”
Links: NY Times article – via Above The Law blog, who has a photo of the lovely (but angry) bride
Previously on Neatorama: Tale of the $54 Million Pants | There is Justice After All: $54 Million Pants Lawsuit Thrown Out
UK pub chain JD Wetherspoon opened a new pub named The John Masefield after the poet laureate, but may have to ditch its logo because it looks too much like Adolf Hitler!
They based their sign on a picture of Masefield, who died in 1967 at 88, when he had a "toothbrush" moustache like Hitler’s. [...]
Newsagent Keith Buckley, 25, said: "Everyone’s already calling the pub The Adolf."
Nurse Myra has more to make you "Bubble Over With Joyous Vitality" and hazardous waste products.
I received this picture via email. The subject line was “Why trampolines are dangerous.” ~Thanks, Jan!
You can turn just about any website into a LOLcats site with LOLinator. Enter the URL of the targeted site, and see the LOLcat version. You can even LOLinate an individual post, like this recent item at Neatorama. Link
When the Italian police arrested Salvatore Lo Piccolo, the purported head of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra mafia, they discovered the mafia-version of the Ten Commandments!
1. No one can present himself directly to another of our friends. There must be a third person to do it.
2. Never look at the wives of friends.
3. Never be seen with cops.
4. Don’t go to pubs and clubs.
5. Always being available for Cosa Nostra is a duty – even if your wife’s about to give birth.
6. Appointments must absolutely be respected.
7. Wives must be treated with respect.
8. When asked for any information, the answer must be the truth.
9. Money cannot be appropriated if it belongs to others or to other families.
10. People who can’t be part of Cosa Nostra: anyone who has a close relative in the police, anyone with a two-timing relative in the family, anyone who behaves badly and doesn’t hold to moral values.
This is not to be missed: Earlier this year, Stephen Worth of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive blog posted a very neat gallery of scanned Disney Christmas cards from the 1950s.
(The cards belong to the family of Clair Weeks.)
A group of Israeli journalists created a diplomatic row when they decided to use a translation engine to send an email to the Dutch Consulate. They wanted to discuss an upcoming visit to the Netherlands, but ended up asking the Dutch Foreign Minister impolite questions about his mother!
"Helloh bud, Enclosed five of the questions in honor of the foreign minister: The mother your visit in Israel is a sleep to the favor or to the bed your mind on the conflict are Israeli Palestinian, and on relational Israel Holland," began the e-mail. It continued with five nearly incomprehensible questions, and several other mentions of "mother."
The article at Jerusalem Post went on to describe how the journalists used babelfish.com to translate the letter, but this appeared to be a mistake in itself: babelfish doesn’t translate Hebrew: Link – via The Register
Image: David Arcos [Flickr]
To celebrate Star Wars‘ 30th anniversary, Darth Vader and his cadre of stormtroopers invaded the iconic La Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona, Spain.
Link (with embedded YouTube clip) | More pics [Flickr photoset] – via Urban Skye
This is a perfectly good segue to introduce Neatorama’s 10 Divinely Designed Churches (in which La Sagrada Familia is featured)
This used care salesman from Ralph Williams’ Bay Shore Chrysler Plymouth tells it like it is … Why it’s refreshing to hear a used car salesman finally tells the truth!
[Warning: NSFW language] Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – via A Million Monkeys Typing
