Brody's Liked Blog Posts
A British housewife named Marina Chapman claims, after being kidnapped and subsequently abandoned at the age of five in the Columbian jungle, that she was raised by a colony of capuchin monkeys. She alleges that she spent five years with the monkeys learning to catch birds and rabbits with her bare hands.
Eventually she was discovered by hunters, captured, and sold to a brothel in Cucuta, Columbia. She escaped the brothel and after a few years of living on the streets, got work as a maid. From there she met a family that brought her to Bradford, England where she met a Mr. John Chapman at church service. They married in 1977.
"I got bedtime stories about the jungle, as did my sister. We didn't think it odd - it was just Mum telling her life. So in a way it was nothing special having a mother like that."
~Vanessa James, one of Chapman’s two daughters
Chapman says she is now coming forth with the story to raise awareness of human trafficking in South America. Vanessa is helping her write a book detailing her life, set to be published in April.
-Via Orange
Watch out you sneaky Yelpers, the website is now out to get you. Apparently people have been using Yelp to make a quick buck. Users will rise to the rank of “elite reviewer” then people will pay them to review their place, restaurant, or what have you. Now the website is striking back.
Yelp is placing fake Craigslist ads that promise good reviews for money. Any business caught trying to buy reviews is publicly shamed for 90 days with a warning that informs users of their dastardly deeds.
-Via Esquire
For the people of Newcastle it doesn’t take much to play Beethoven. Press a few keys here and there and voilà, a beautifully orchestrated sonata. I mean, I guess it does help to have someone else playing all the tough parts for you, but hey it’s still beautiful. This took place in the Haymarket Bus Station in Newcastle England and was funded by The Arts Council of England and Nexus Art.
-Thanks Anton
The guys over at Cool Material are trying to get me in trouble. They have come up with a list of mixed drinks using alcohol, sparse ingredients, and your favorite Keurig K-Cups.
This is a hot version of Bourbon Mint Tea. Go easy on the bourbon cause it will have a strong bourbon flavor (unless you like that kinda thing).
-Pure Peppermint Tea K-Cup
-Knob Creek Whisky
-Dark Brown Sugar
There is Apple Rye Punch, Classic Irish Coffee, even a Moscow Hot Chocolate! I can just see it now…
“Hey Brody, that coffee you have there smells awfully funny.”
“Yeah I know, I was messing around with my Keurig this morning…”
“Yeah I know, I was messing around with my Keurig this morning…”
“Is that alcohol? It’s 9 am! Are you drunk?!?”
“Don’t judge me…”
Thanks guys, I was just starting to like this job too. Check out all their diabolical concoctions over at Cool Material.
-Thanks Mike for the heads up
Dubstep violin. How has this not been a thing until now? I mean I do love classical music (not kidding in the least) and I like dubstep- so why wouldn’t they go well together? Like bacon and peanut butter or salt and chocolate milk, just a winning combination.
The artist is Lindsey Stirling and you can find her new album on iTunes. Apparently she is not that new to the scene, the 26 year old has over 149 million Youtube views on her channel and in 2010 was a quarter-finalist on America’s Got Talent.
-Via Unique Daily
We have all seen the so called Perpetual Energy Machines running around on the internet. Whether an actual perpetual energy machine is possible or not (I think not), a perpetual energy wasting machine doesn’t seem so farfetched. I mean just look at my roommate- he wastes an awful lot of energy with all that couch sitting he does.
“Perpetual Energy Wasting Machine” is a rope and pulley mechanism, installed in the staircase of the WRO Art Center in Wroclaw, Poland. The mechanism connects the sliding doors of the elevator in one floor with the elevator call button on another floor. Operating in two directions on the first and on the second floor, the contraption automatically moves the elevator cabin in an infinite loop between those two levels.
I think my favorite part of this has to be the little calculator that estimates the Kilojoules wasted by the machine. After the results print they go right into the trash (more “waste” for you).
The machine won’t run forever, I have a feeling the people in the office will eventually want their elevator back, but it will perpetually waste energy until someone dismantles it or they stop paying their power bill. Link
-Via Today Tomorrow
(Image by Damir Sagoli) Cambodians have been lining the streets to honor King Norodom Sihanouk, who passed away of a heart attack in Beijing on Monday. Sihanouk was King of Cambodia from 1941- 1955 and again from 1993-2004. He was also effectively the ruler of Cambodia from 1953 – 1970. He was 89 years old.
The images here are part of a larger collection on Boston.com in the blog The Big Picture. The images are breathtaking and I recommend that you take a look.
(Image by Chris McGarth)
-Via The Big Picture
Maybe it’s coincidence that I wore my Arrested Development t-shirt today, maybe not. This documentary, about one of my favorite TV shows of all time, is being put together by two superfans- Neil and Jeff.
“The overall goal of the documentary is to provide awareness of this brilliant, witty and original comedy. We have already completed our interviews with fans, cast and crew.”
The two both live and work in LA and the project is self funded. You can check out their website and follow the project on twitter.
-Via Buzzfeed
Before he invaded Middle Earth, before he forged the three rings for the Elves, the seven for the Dwarves, the nine for Men, and The One, pretty darn selfishly, for himself, Lord Sauron was Hula-Hooping. Unbeknownst to the free people of Middle Earth, Lord Sauron was actually a three time collegiate hula-hooping champion.
-Via The Monica Bird
The downfall of the al-Qaeda could be their affinity for Western women. According to a report released through a Danish Newspaper (Jyllands Posten), a man named Morten Storm worked as a double agent for Denmark and the CIA in an attempt to capture Anwar al-Awlaki, an al-Qaeda leader and cleric.
For six years Storm allegedly worked undercover as a Muslim, and established connections with al-Awlaki. When al-Awlaki went into hiding, he contacted Storm to help him procure a wife- a western wife. While the man already had two wives of his own, they didn’t understand his western way of thinking and were not in hiding with him.
A Croatian woman and Muslim convert by the name of Aminah was eventually set as his bride to be. Storm was the matchmaker and Aminah was oblivious to the fact that he was working with Western powers. While the two (Al-Awlaki and Aminah) were eventually married, the plan to capture Al-Awlaki through tracking devices was foiled. A suitcase given to Aminah by Storm, carrying a very important tracking device, was left behind in a hotel room and the mission failed.
Al-Awlaki was later killed by U.S. drone strikes and Storm claims this was only possible because of intelligence gathered by him. The CIA hasn’t commented on the story.
-Via CNN
Derek Amato (photograph by Matt Nager) dove into the shallow end and emerged a genius, literally. At 39, Broughton hit his head after carelessly diving into the shallow end of a pool and was diagnosed with a severe concussion. He was told that he would lose 39% of his hearing over time, as well as his memory. What he wasn’t told is that he would emerge a musical savant.
It's as if my knock on the head unlocked something latent, or enabled me to use some part of my brain I simply couldn't access before. But I still can't read or write music conventionally, and have to rely on special software to translate what I play into scores. I've played alongside a classically trained concert pianist, who was fascinated by my technique – in some respects, I play like someone who has just started learning, in others my skills outstripped his. It can be exhausting, though. The music often keeps me up at night, and I'll sometimes wake my girlfriend by "playing" her arm in my sleep.
Amato says while he is worse off financially now, after the accident he quit his corporate job, but he is much happier concentrating on his music.
Via Unique Daily
We all have heard the terrible story of what happened between the young teen Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. How, initially, Zimmerman was set free because what he did was within the constraints of the law under the “Stand Your Ground” policy. It wasn’t until public outcry became so great that Zimmerman was again detained, and eventually charged with second degree murder.
The controversial “Stand Your Ground” policy is visually conceptualized by id-iom. Find more information about the piece and their message at their Flickr page.
-Thanks id-iom
I don’t base jump, I don’t encourage base jumping, and under no circumstances would I recommend attempting a high bar routine while base jumping. Only bad things will happen. Luckily for Mr. Richard Henriksen, he lived to tell the tale- just barely.
-Via NY Daily News
You know how the story goes. Boy loves girl, girl loves boy, boy gets freaked out by psycho robot hand, girl destroys humanity. Yeah. That’s the good stuff.
Tears of Steal was crowd-funded and produced by an open source 3D creation tool known as Blender. There is more information available about the film and its making at the YouTube channel and official website.
-Via Short of The Week.
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