Their supervisor should be suspended for his inability to apply simple logic, a lack of common sense, and his resource-wasting reliance on simplistic decision-making practices. Here's a situation where three workers are good at their jobs and a supervisor who is too ignorant to recognize it.

>> What is the cat pukes in one of the corners?

Judging by the photos, there are seams where the tubes can be taken apart. Korean engineering is pretty advanced so I'd imagine things like being able to clean inside is part of the design, not to mention just common sense aspects like being able to move household furniture around.

>> If they REALLY cared, they would have done something instead of just cooing at him.

Huh? I thought they were doing just what they were supposed to be doing -- no direct interaction, just observing. Calling the authorities every time one sees wildlife on a beach is pointless, isn't it? They live there, we just visit occasionally.

If there's anyone who is really up on seal lion behavior I hope they chime in. I'm just assuming that unless something bad happened to the pup's mother, she was just out gathering food and most likely not too far away. I'm also wondering if sea lions out in the Galapagos Islands are typically comfortable interacting with humans, especially adults when it comes to their pups.

This is all media over-hype. Some SXSW staff got in contact with a local Austin social services nonprofit and set up this arrangement. The nonprofit, a long established organization, selected and interviewed some of their clients after determining there was interest in this. There was training and oversight involved, just like any job requires. This wasn't some random, exploitative venture some people are making it out to be, it was a very temporary, relatively low-skill job opportunity and the ones who did get chosen were happy they did. If you find this matter so despicable you need to understand that not every job is career opportunity, a lot of jobs are simply to make a few bucks.

AntDude - this is kind of weird as I also remember this video and I STILL have it on my PowerMac. (Just fired it up for the first time in many years. CMOS battery is dead but OS 7 still starts up.)

nickolas_warner -- I'm not sure just why you think wood chips in a pet tortoise cage is disgusting. Are you confusing tortoises with aquatic turtles maybe? Roaming over dirt and vegetation is pretty much home for most tortoises. The heat lamp incident appeared to by a very unfortunate accident, assuming there was negligence or ignorance involved doesn't make sense.

>> Blah blah blah… nerd talk…

So someone at Neatorama not only wrote up a short summary explaining what happened yesterday (thanks for that by the way), but also took the trouble to add a simple explanation in detail for the curious -- a little disappointing someone still found it daunting enough to mock it.

Seems like he's lived a pretty balance life before, much more socially conscious than the callous people posting their frustrated anger here. He's experienced cultures the rest of you can't understand -- most definitely none of the angry gripes posted here are from people who would make a sacrifice like volunteering for Peace Corp. I can only assume he saw things he found really distasteful in our society, cultural things he just wanted to minimize his contact with. He's living his life the way he wants and the minimal resources he does use is hardly a burden to society in any way. If friends want to feed him every so often, that's what friends do. For those of you who give something only if you expect something in return, that's a sad way to live. If he wants to use the library every so often, so what? The building will be open to the public for certain hours anyway, no one has to make a special trip just to open it up solely for his use.
Maybe some day he'll decide to return a more conventional lifestyle, maybe he won't. Either way it's surprising to see so many people here so upset about a simple human interest story.

Uhm, yeah they must all be idiots. Glad to read you're not bitter about it.

It appears as if there is blame to be put on both parties -- the street crew should have had a few safety cones in place before they even started, but the girl also created her own accident. It's a shame her parents are using this situation in an opportunistic way instead of trying to use this as a values/life lesson she obviously needs more than the money.

I concur with seekshelter's comment -- participating in an event like a pageant is not trivial. If she entered into the competition without being aware of the required time commitments it's hard not to suspect she had some hidden agenda.