My bosom is full, to tell you much — there are moments when I find that speech is nothing at all. Brighten up — remain my true and only treasure, my all, as I to you. The rest the gods must send, what must be for us and shall.
Your faithful
Ludwig
An orangutan saves a tired baby chick with a leaf, then inspects it afterward to makes sure it's all right. There's not a ton of info available about this video (for instance, which zoo this is or when it was filmed), but the important takeaway here is that orangutans are both extraordinarily compassionate and also kind of gross, as evidenced by the first 40 seconds of the clip. How many times did you think the orangutan was going to eat the bird? I'm not gonna lie--I held my breath a few times.
via Pharyngula
Nefer, 38, says he's married to a mannequin named Teagan, and the kooky couple is traveling 70 miles from Syracuse to Watertown on foot, the Watertown Daily Times reported.
Or at least Nefer is walking. The Syracuse native is pushing his 6-foot wooden wife in a wheelchair across upstate New York.
"This is definitely one of the oddest things I've come across, but he seems very happy," said Lisa Spear, principal social welfare examiner for the Jefferson County Department of Social Services. "I wouldn't classify him as dangerous at all,"
Nefer's relationship is one that's built on trust - and lumber. He told the Daily Times that Teagan was only a head when they first met. But he built her a wooden body and claims they were married on Oct. 31, 1986, in California.
"Two Boys", a new opera at the ENO London Coliseum, highlights the profoundly weird behavior we engage in online. Watch as this guy takes his Facebook and Twitter activity to the streets. "Do you want to be my friend? Can I poke you? What's your comment?" If you're going to be London-bound sometime between June 24 and July 8, you can pick up tickets to the show on the Two Boys website.
via Gizmodo
When Shaunna Raycraft learned that her neighbor planned to burn 350,000 books, she decided to take over the collection herself. After all, her neighbor’s husband was a collector and many rare books–including a first edition of Black Beauty–could be found in the sprawling stacks. But now Raycraft and her husband might be forced to burn the books themselves because they don’t know what else to do with them.
They tried selling them on eBay. They tried selling them to other collectors. They even tried selling them to used bookstores. But no one wanted to endure the arduous task of sorting through the books.
Angela Voelkert, 29, set up her ex by creating a false Facebook identity, 17-year-old "Jessica Studebaker." (By the way, that's a big no-no with Facebook's terms of service.) She used the profile to exchange messages with the ex, David Voelkert, 38 of South Bend, Ind. On June 1, Angela Voelkert used the information to apply for a restraining order against her ex-husband, who spent four days in custody until a judge dismissed charges yesterday.
The charges against David Voelkert focused on him allegedly placing a GPS device on his ex-wife's car to track her, for purposes of finding someone to "take care of" and "put a cap in her ass" for $10,000 — as revealed by these Facebook messages.
But, it seems Voelkert was onto his ex-wife, and knew she embroiled him in a sting operation. And just as she was trying to use the information against him in the fight for custody of their kids, he did the same by feeding the faker with an elaborate plan.
Federal prosecutors were prompted to drop the charges after an affidavit emerged filed by David Voelkert days earlier, on May 25, that revealed he knew "Jessica" wasn't a real person."I am lying to this person," he stated, "to gain positive proof that it is indeed my ex-wife trying to again tamper in my life. Anything said in the chat to her from me cannot be held as the truth and I am chatting to this person in attempts to prove to my court that my ex-wife will not leave my personal life alone ... In no way do I have plans to leave with my children or do any harm to Angela Dawn Voelkert or anyone else."
He, in turn, wanted to use this as evidence in their ongoing custody case. His ex-wife used exchanges between him and "Jessica" dated May 31 as her evidence in obtaining the restraining order.
We like to think of our favorite writers as people we would get along with. So much of what attracts us to literature and philosophy is its author’s stated or implied worldview that it’s disturbing to find out that the writers we love have lived morally questionable — or even reprehensible — lives.
In the spirit of hating the author but loving the work, we’ve rounded up a collection of great books by poets, novelist, and philosophers with unsettling biographies.
