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Thomas Beatie, the transgendered "Pregnant Man" has just given birth, ABC reported:
The birth, at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, Oregon, was natural, according to a source, who added that reports that Beatie had had a Caesarean section are false.
"She’s really cute, really pretty,” the source told ABC News Thursday afternoon.
Previously on Neatorama: The Pregnant Husband: Transgender Man Expecting a Baby
This one fits today’s Independence Day celebration to a tee: You are looking at the remnant of a stellar explosion that occurred more than 1,000 years ago. The red stripe, called the SN 1006 Supernova Remnant, is actually a ribbon of gas that floats in our galaxy as captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope: Link – via Newslite.tv
Max P. Sander’s eBay auction ended with 0 bids … and 1 felony charge! The 19-year-old University of Minnesota student is charged with selling his vote in the Presidential Election (it was a joke, he said):
"The rules are simple, the highest bidder will tell me who to cast my vote for in the election," he wrote. "I will vote for any candidate of any party, as long as they are on the ballot."
He also said that to prove he’d carried out the winning bidder’s wishes, "i will photograph myself inside the voting booth with my filled out ballot."
"Good luck!" he wrote. "You’re country depends on You!"
He got no bids, and an investigator for the county attorney’s office said Sanders told him the whole thing "was a joke." Minnesota Statutes Chapter 211B.13, Subdivision 2, however, calls it "Bribery, Treating, and Soliciting," and it’s punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Most people agree that a homeowner has got an intrinsic right to protect himself in his home if attacked – but the case of Joe Horn sparked a furious debate whether that right extended to shooting unarmed burglars in the back:
Moments later, Horn saw two burglars leave his neighbor’s house, one of them carrying a bag filled with cash and jewelry.
"I’m gonna kill him," Horn said. "Stay in the house," the dispatcher said. "They’re getting away," Horn replied. "That’s all right," the dispatcher said. "Property’s not worth killing someone over. OK?" "—damn it," said Horn, who then defied the dispatcher.
"Well, here it goes, buddy, you hear the shotgun clicking, and I’m going," he said.
"Don’t go outside," the dispatcher warned.
Self-Defense? Horn says he came out his front door, down his porch and confronted the two burglars. The next sounds heard on the 911 tape are Horn ordering the two men to stop & and then shooting them both.
"Move you’re dead," he said, and fired his shotgun three times.
"Both suspects were shot in the back," Pasadena Police Captain A.H. "Bud" Corbett said. "Not at the same angle, but both suspects were hit in the back."
The Texas grand jury cleared him for the killing, citing the "Castle Doctrine" that gives Texans unprecedented authority to take action against intruders: Link
Do you think what Joe Horn did was justified?
A caller called the 999 emergency line in South Wales to report a mysterious bright stationary object in the sky. And when the police checked it out, they found that it was … the moon!
Control Room: "South Wales Police, what’s your emergency?"
Caller: "It’s not really. I just need to inform you that across the mountain there’s a bright stationary object."
Control room: "Right."
Caller: "If you’ve got a couple of minutes perhaps you could find out what it is? It’s been there at least half an hour and it’s still there."
Control: "It’s been there for half an hour. Right. Is it actually on the mountain or in the sky?"
Caller: "It’s in the air."
Control: "I will send someone up there now to check it out."
Caller: "OK."
The mystery was soon solved, as the exchange between control and an officer at the scene, makes clear.
Control: "Alpha Zulu 20, this object in the sky, did anyone have a look at it?"
Officer: "Yes, it’s the moon. Over."
Ah, you’ve got to love the Welsh: Link – Thanks Phil!
Tearin’ its way through the InterWeb right now is an unsolicited script by Michael Bay (Director of Transformers, Bad Boys, and so on) for Batman’s The Dark Knight that was rejected by Warner Bros.
Pure. Comedy. Gold. Link – Thanks Jaime!
The Criticker blog noticed something about movie titles: a lot of them have the word "American" in them. In fact, "American" is by far the most popular nationality in movie titles.
Check out the entire list of movies with the word "American" in their titles: Link – Thanks Juergen!
(Is that surprising? Aren’t most movies made in America? Except for Bollywood … those are in a class by themselves!)
Photo: michael hughes [Flickr]
Photographer Michael Hughes, who did the neat trompe l’oeil photography of souvenirs in front of landmarks (featured before on Neatorama here) is at it again: this time, he created what has got to be the world’s largest "meet the staff" photo page!
The Teams project is progressing well with the unveiling of an eight metre by five metre print on the occasion of the official opening of the Hedwigshohe Hospital in Berlin, September 2007. Situated on the main axis and comprising 236 individual portraits organized systematically with colour backgrounds, the viewer can identify the Team membership of those whose functions enable a modern hospital to operate efficiently. (Source)
These award winning photos were taken with a vintage Hasselblad: Link [Flickr photoset] – Thanks xadrian!
Ricardo Gonzalez had to bring his two small children to work every day because he can’t find a baby sitter. That in itself isn’t bad, but Gonzalez went one step further: he locked his kids in a cage while he works!
Whenever Ricardo Gonzalez went to a job site in his pickup truck, he never let his small children out of his sight. So protective was the 35-year-old south suburban man, he kept his daughters in a makeshift cage inside the truck, officials say.
One of the girls told an investigator for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services that her father locks them up because "he does a very dangerous job," according to state records reviewed by the Tribune. "My dad tightens both of us with his belt by my leg and my sister was [on] the other side of the cage tight with another belt."
The Chicago Tribune has the story: Link (with video) – Thanks Claire!
Volkswagen’s had its super-thrifty One-Liter Car concept vehicle — so named because that’s how much fuel it needs to go 100 kilometers — stashed away for six years. The body’s made of carbon fiber to minimize weight (the entire car weighs just 660 pounds) and company execs didn’t expect the material to become cheap enough to produce the car until 2012.
But VW’s decided to build the car two years ahead of schedule.
A limited number of cars will be produced in 2010. The car will use a two-cylinder diesel hybrid engine, and will automatically shut off at stoplights -and (we hope) automatically restart when you hit the gas pedal. Link -via the Presurfer
Last month, we posted 450 posts and got 7077 (legit, non-spam) comments on Neatorama. That’s a lot – and unless you read the blog every day, it’s easy to miss some great posts. So please indulge me while I look back at June and pick what I think are some of the most interesting posts of the month.
I wanted to write this post right at the end of June, but work got in the way (story of my life!) … but better late than never – so here are my favorite Neatorama posts from June 2008, in no particular order:
The following is reprinted from Bathroom Reader Plunges Into History Again
Thomas Paine was a writer, agitator, Anglo-American revolutionary, and
professional troublemaker. They certainly don't make 'em like him any
more ... Here's the life story of one of the most colorful characters
of the American Revolution:
Thomas Paine's life was pretty exciting to say the least. He was a central
figure in both the American War of Independence and the French Revolution.
During Paine's event-filled 72 years, he took on the British government
and army, the French king, and anyone else he considered an opponent of
liberty. Though Paine was entirely self-taught, his works - Common
Sense, The Rights of Man, and The Age of Reason,
to name just a few - probably did more to advance the cause of democracy
than those of any other modern writer.
REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE
Born in England in 1737, Tom Paine was poor and badly educated. He grew
into a cranky young man, unable to hold down either a regular job or a
relationship. By his mid-20s, Paine had held and lost a string of positions
and had been married twice.
Thomas Paine's home in Lewes, England. Photo: Kto288 [wikipedia]
Paine's life was at a low ebb when, in his late 30s, he found work as
a customs officer. Customs men were held in low esteem (even the smugglers
they were hired to capture were more popular.) The work paid little and
was thankless - so Paine decided to do something about it. He had a passion
for self-improvement and was constantly reading books on science, politics,
and philosophy. Inspired by his reading, Paine organized his coworkers
into a protest group to agitate for better conditions. He also wrote the
first of his many political tracts, The Case of the Officers of the
Excise. But Paine's attempt at a workers' revolt failed, and he was
fired.
SAVED BY THE BEN
That was when things started to look up. Paine moved to London, and while
there, got to know Benjamin Franklin (both men attended meetings of the
same scientific society.) Franklin recognized Paine as a man of spirit
and energy, and so recommended that Paine head for America, where his
ornery nature would fit right in. Franklin even wrote Paine some letters
of introduction. It was Paine's good luck to arrive in America just when
the colonies' simmering squabbles with the mother country were coming
to the boil. As someone who already had a grudge against His Majesty's
government, Paine wasted no time in joining the fray. In late 1774, he
found a job with the Pennsylvania Magazine and set about writing
article after article denouncing what he saw as the inequality, injustice,
and corruption around him. Aged 37, Thomas Paine had a new lease of life.
LET'S GET RADICAL
Up to the time, the main gripe between the British government and the
American colonists was about why America's settlers should pay taxes to
the British government when they were not allowed any representation in
the British parliament ("no taxation without representation,"
as the saying goes).
But as far as Paine was concerned, Americans shouldn't be negotiating
for representation in the British Parliament - they should be demanding
independence from Britain itself. Thomas Paine's pioneering role in passionately
and powerfully arguing for America's independence should never be underestimated.
On January 10, 1776, Paine published Common Sense, a 50-page
pamphlet that laid out the case for American independence in no uncertain
terms. It was an immediate sensation, with 500,000 copies sold. Common
Sense heavily influenced Thomas Jefferson's writing of the Declaration
of Independence, published on July 4, 1776, just six months later.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK
But
after having written the script for the American Revolution, Paine found
that his services were no longer required. He was given a number of minor
political posts by the Continental Congress during the war, but just to
keep him out of the way. Wealthy, politically ambitious Brahmins like
John Jay and John Adams were not prepared to give a loose cannon like
Paine any responsibility.
Instead, Paine was encouraged to continue his verbal assaults on the
hated British. Between 1776 and 1783, Paine reeled off 16 pamphlets designed
to boost the war effort. They were called the Crisis Papers.
The first of these, which begins with the famous line, "These are
the times that try men's souls," so inspired George Washington that
he ordered it read aloud to the troops during their darkest days at Valley
Forge.
THE $64,000 ANSWER
At the end of the war, Paine found himself famous but poor. Although
his pamphlets had sold hundreds of thousands of copies, Paine accepted
no royalties from them, insisting instead that the price of each pamphlet
be kept low enough for ordinary folk to afford.
To alleviate Paine's poverty, his supporters in Congress put forward
a bill offering financial assistance to the hero of the revolution. But
the Brahmins blocked the bill. In the end, the State of Pennsylvania came
to Paine's rescue by offering him a sum of £500 (which would translate
to about $64,000 in today's U.S. currency). The New York State also pitched
in, donating a farm for him in New Rochelle, now a suburb of New York
City.
RIGHTS PLACE, RIGHTS TIME
So, having sort of single-handedly launched the American War of Independence,
Paine turned his attention to Europe. Once again, his timing was perfect:
Paine arrived just after the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789.
When, in 1791, the British politician Edmund Burke wrote Reflections
on the Revolution in France, attacking the uprising, Paine hit back
with The Rights of Man.
PAINE SEES LONDON ...
Paine's book was an immediate sensation, and has since been recognized
as an all-time classic of political writing. It has sold more than 500,000
copies and was the best-selling book of the entire 18th century. The book
didn't just defend the French Revolution, it attacked the monarchy, undemocratic
governments, the rich, the powerful, and pretty much anyone else Paine
saw as responsible for the misery around him - in Britain as much as in
France.
He then laid out his own plans for an alternative government, with policies
including pensions for the poor, free education, and lots of other radical
ideas. The British government was horrified by all this radical theorizing:
Paine was declared a traitor and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Memorial coins were created with Paine's face on them, so that British
aristocrats could set them into heels of their boots and grind Paine's
face into the dust each time they went for a walk!
PAINE SEES FRANCE ...
But
Paine had already fled. The French, recognizing a kindred spirit, had
elected Paine to a seat in their revolutionary government, the National
Convention.
However, as in America, Paine managed to tick off his revolutionary colleagues.
When the National Convention voted to execute the ousted king, Louis XVI,
Paine was among those who protested.
At this time the revolutionary government was under the control of Maximilien
Robespierre, a hard-line radical prone to chopping off the heads of anyone
who got in his way. Paine was imprisoned in 1793, threatened with execution,
and held captive until Robespierre's fall from power the following year.
On his release, Paine published the Age of Reason, an attack
on organized religion and his last great work.
PAINE GETS KICKED IN THE PANTS
Paine
hung out in France until 1802, just to make sure the revolution was safe.
(It wasn't. By this time, Napoleon had seized power and set up a military
dictatorship). Fed up with the infighting among the French, Paine returned
to America.
But when he got there he wasn't welcome any more. America was no longer
Britain's rebellious younger sibling, but a grown-up power in her own
right. Professional revolutionaries like Paine were unwanted in a country
looking for a period of peace and quiet.
Outgoing president John Adams branded Paine as "that insolent Blasphemer
of things sacred and transcendent, Libeler of all that is good."
If that weren't bad enough, Adams went on to describe Paine as "a
mongrel between pig and puppy, begotten by a wild boar on a bitch wolf."
NOT SUCH AS BAD GUY AFTER ALL
Rejected by the country he helped to create, Paine turned to drink. He
died penniless in 1809 in New York City. His obituary in the New York
Citizen claimed, "He had lived long, did some good and much
harm," which just goes to show how much history had been rewritten
even during Paine's own lifetime. It was only in the mid-20th century
that Paine's rehabilitation began.
A Thomas Paine monument in New Rochelle, New York. Photo: Anthony22 [wikipedia]
On May 18, 1953, a bust of Paine was unveiled in the New York University
Hall of Fame, and since then, his reputation as a fighter for freedom
and justice has been gradually restored, piece by piece.
SOME LAST WORDS
Thomas Paine was a writer of power and passion whose life-long quest
was to make the world a better place. His words - such as these - are
as relevant now as ever:
When it shall be said in any country in the world, my poor are happy; neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners; my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want; the taxes are not oppressive ... When these things can be said, then may that country boasts its constitution and its government.
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The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges Into History Again.
The book is a compendium of entertaining information chock-full of facts on a plethora of history topics. Uncle John's first plunge into history was a smash hit - over half a million copies sold! And this sequel gives you more colorful characters, cultural milestones, historical hindsight, groundbreaking events, and scintillating sagas.
Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. Check out their website here: Bathroom Reader Institute
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Techcult blog has an interesting post about the 5 scams that found fertile ground on the Internet. For instance, the story of how Tiger Telematics, the maker of Gizmondo handheld gaming device (left), lost $200 million in just 6 months:
The business history of Tiger Telematics (the makers of Gizmondo) makes Grand Theft Auto look like Barney Teaches Spelling. The “managing executives” of the company had over twenty-four years of jail time between them for frauds and physical violence, they bought an entire London “modeling” agency, have wrecked over a million dollars worth of sports cars and had the entire-extended-family-of-all launch parties featuring Dannii Minogue, Sting and Busta Rhymes (among others). All this spending was supported by the sales of shares, presumably to people who signed the cheques in crayon, because when a company is paying for parties with shares then that is not a company that plans to be around for long.
For 2005 the company effectively lost over a million dollars a day. You could light a hundred dollars on fire once a minute, every minute without eating or sleeping and still not achieve that level of loss – and I assure you that these guys found WAY funner things to do with the cash than that. It was a real life Brewster’s Millions. In what amazingly hasn’t turned out to be an April Fool’s joke, one of the original crew is now attempting to raise investment capital to relaunch the company (translation – there are a few types of champagne he hasn’t tried yet). Which just proves that there are people desperate to make money out of “those computer-game things” despite not even knowing how to Google somebody.
Link – Thanks Daniel!
Johnny Wright of our pal YesButNoButYes blog wrote a neat post counting down the 25 greatest monkeys (real and fictional) of all time.
This one to the left is Oliver the "Humanzee":
Oliver has been billed as "The Missing Link" due to his more-human-than-chimp face and his tendency to walk upright. Ollie has toured the world, bringing joy to countless millions. Genetic testing has allegedly shown that Ollie is not the missing link, but I’m not buying.
Link – More on Oliver at Rense – Thanks Johnny!
Good: Dancing with a bottle on one’s head
Better: Dancing with, oh say, 3 bottles balanced on one’s head
My brain asplodes: Watch Rosa dances to a Paraguayan folk music while balancing 10 bottles on her head!
An original video by Oddee: Hit play or go to Link [Metacafe] – Thanks Jorge!
For his art series VISUAL DNA, artist Daniel A. Becker converted the DNA bases G,C,A and T into various graphical interpretations. The result is surprisingly beautiful!
This one above is from the genome of Eudocimus ruber or the Scarlet Ibis: Link – Thanks Haj!
Photo: photosapience [Flickr]
Jerrold of BlogTO recounted his unique dining experience ("harrowing stunt meets gourmet cuisine" he said) some 115 feet above the ground, in Toronto’s Dinner in the Sky event:
Until tonight, I’d never had quite a unique dining experience – one that required a safety briefing and the signing of a waiver. With papers signed, and with a group cheer with my fellow eager table-mates, we were in upward tow. In my stomach were butterflies, and underneath the shiny silver lid before me was a very special meal.
Strapped into my seat, dangling some 35m above the ground, being served champagne by a waiter sporting a safety harness, I tucked my napkin under my plate to keep it from taking flight and landing on some unsuspecting pedestrian’s head below. Then I took my first bite of Summerlicious 2008.
It was surprisingly easy to quickly forget about the vertigo (the champagne was a good call) and within a few minutes everyone seemed to drop the jitters that come with, well, being suspended from a crane. Before long, we were all getting into the view and, of course, into the food.
Nosirreethankyouverymuch – I’m a weenie when it comes to great heights. Read more about it at BlogTO: Link – Thanks Jerrold!
Previously on Neatorama: Dinner in the Sky
This 4th of July, you can celebrate our nation’s awesomeness by eating food that only America could have invented.
Like the infamous turducken, for instance:
Such a brilliant-but-simple innovation, it’s hard to believe that 5,000 years of civilization couldn’t create it without us. Take one turkey, shove a duck inside it, and then shove a chicken inside that. From there you’re on you’re own, although it’ s most preferably enjoyed with sausage stuffing in the very middle, deep-fried, and wrapped in bacon if possible. Bonus points if you can figure out a way to enjoy some form of melted cheese product with this monstrosity. Some people have pushed to have the turducken become the traditional Thanksgiving feast, while others have begun to enjoy it on Christmas. But this invention is so uniquely American that there is no better day to enjoy one than the Fourth of July.
Endless Simmer blog has the Top 10: Link – Thanks Brendan Spiegel!
Photo: The CJM [Flickr]
Omar of ohmz.net wrote to us about this excellent Pac-Man birthday cake and ghost cupcakes made by his friend Jennie: Link – Thanks Omar! They looked delicious!
