Photo: ECAL/Florian Joye
Going to the bathroom doesn't get much simpler than this. Behold the "Simple Toilet," as envisioned by Jessie Neukomm (bag) and Alejandro Bona (shovel) for the University of Art and Design Lausanne (ECAL), Switzerland. http://fdeco.femina.ch/?p=35 [in French] - via Cribcandy, Thanks Justine Dufrenne!
Photo: Miles Pocket Watches
Oobject, a neat visual directory of gadgets, has an interesting list of Memento mori watches. Memento Mori, latin for "Remember that you will die," is an art genre that span a wide range of styles, but has one purpose: to remind you of your own mortality.
This one above, the Skull and Bones pocket watch, is listed by Miles Pocket Watches as an original creation based on a form of watches made nearly two centuries ago.
Apparently, taking a bath in the sink is becoming a meme of sorts for fast food workers. Last time, it was at Burger King in Xenia, Ohio. This time: a KFC in Anderson, California. Redding Record Searchlight has the story:
Hijinks in the sink at an Anderson fast-food restaurant have cost three girls their jobs.
After closing the Anderson Kentucky Fried Chicken one recent night, the girls stripped to their underwear or changed into bathing suits and took a bath in the dishwashing sink. One of them posted the photos of the event on her public MySpace Web page.
The girls' manager said she first learned of the photos on Tuesday and suspended the trio. On Wednesday, they were fired, said Rick Maynard, a KFC spokesman.
And the girl that posted it on her MySpace page? Here's her reaction:
After removing the photos on her MySpace page from public access late Tuesday, the 17-year-old girl who had posted the photos made her entire page private Wednesday.
She also put up what appears to be a message for the media.
On the lone part of her page that is still public, she wrote: (sic)"Its a sad world when one has to stoop low enough to go through ones dirty laundry....one womans trash is anothers treasure! -Thanks alot for having good respect how can you live knowing the little bit of money you made was made hurting someone!"
This bit of news above puts Mike Jacobsen's "Sizzlin' Chicken" design (on Neatorama's Online Store) in a completely different light:
http://shop.neatorama.com/product-info.php?sizzlin-chicken-tshirt-pid93.html
Mark Champkins of the Quirky design studio Concentrate asked school teachers their most commonly used phrases ... and then print them on these "Mugs of Authority"
Teachers have no need to shout themselves hoarse, repeating the same phrases over and over - now they just need to point at their mug!
(The phrases are: Put That Down, Stop Doing That, and Don't Mess About.)
Genius! Link
Every year for Christmas, Bev Stewart of West Yorkshire, England, faces the same quandary. Her family members always bicker over the best seat in front of her TV. But this year she has the perfect solution: auction it on eBay!
It was advertised as a "a very comfy and popular item" open to all members of the family - and Bev even offered to throw in a free cushion for those with aching backs.
After the auction involving guests and family, Bev's daughter-in-law Alexis Stewart and her 11-month-old son Mark will now be sitting pretty after trumping 17 other bids with her £13.50 winning offer.
The enterprising grandma said: "There is always arguing over who gets it, it's the perfect seat. It is straight in front of the TV and has got the coffee table at the side for you to rest your drink on and the TV remote, so everybody wants to sit there.
School officials in Queensland, Australia, are worried about the mental health of kids, so they suggest that teachers don't use red pen to mark homeworks and tests because red is an aggressive color!
Other tips include structuring time for peer tutoring every day, apologizing to students when necessary and asking students to conduct a "personal skills audit" where they focus on their individual strengths rather than their weaknesses.
The kit, designed to help Queensland teachers address mental health in the classroom, suggests social and emotional wellbeing has been linked to young people's schooling, among other things.
The education aid has sparked a row in parliament, with deputy opposition leader Mark McArdle calling it "kooky, loony, loopy lefty policies."
Le Trung, a 33-year-old computer geek from Brampton, Ontario (yes, he still lives with his parents), didn't have much luck with dating women. So he did the next best thing: he built himself a fembot!
He said: “Aiko doesn’t need holidays, food or rest, and will work almost 24 hours a day. She is the perfect woman.”
Aiko sparks mixed reactions in public.
Le said: “Women usually try to talk to her. But men always want to touch her, and if they do it the wrong way she slaps them.”
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] | Article at The Sun | Aiko's website (down at the moment)
Shaggy the reindeer lost his antlers but that didn't stop him from strutting his stuff in a Christmas performance: his owner, Trevor Hill, made him an antler toupee!
The two-and-a-half-year-old reindeer lost his horns because of
raging hormones produced during the mating season this year.They fell off three weeks ago, just before he was due to star in Christmas performances in front of thousands of excited children. But rather than disappoint the children with an odd-looking version of one of Santa's pets, a bizarre new solution was found. [...]
Mr Hill revealed the festive animal had lost his confidence after he fist lost his antlers, where they are kept in Tenbury Wells, Herefordshire. He said: "People don't even notice that it's on there – the mark of a good toupee.
Link (Photo: Newsteam)
Jami McElrath got her camera stolen when a thief broke into her car. When the thief found out that Jami is terminally ill, he had a change of heart and returned the camera:
McElrath, who has inoperable cancer, was collecting photos to place in a scrapbook for her children so they could remember her after she was gone. The camera had belonged to her father, who died of a heart attack two years ago.
The woman told her heart-wrenching story to Dallas-area news station WFAA TV, appealing to the burglar to return the camera. [...]
Then something remarkable happened. A few days after the story aired, Douglas got a call from a man who told him to look behind a red car in the station’s parking lot. The caller didn't leave his name; he said only that he felt bad about the incident and wanted to return the camera.
Link - Thanks Geekazoid!
A substitute teacher in the United Kingdom got into a whole lot of Christmas trouble when she - gasp! - told kids that Santa doesn't exist:
The female supply teacher told pupils at Blackshaw Lane Primary in Royton, Oldham, that it was parents, not Santa, who left their gifts on Christmas Day.
Several parents complained to the head teacher, who has since accepted an apology from the teacher concerned.
But head Angela McCormick has since told the agency she does not want the teacher to work there again.
Link
- Thanks Phil!
Our very own Miss Cellania wrote a really neat article for mental_floss about 8 truly strange Christmas customs. This one to the left is "Caga Tió" or the "pooping log.":
The Catalan custom is still celebrated in Spain, where you can buy your own el Caga Tió. The log is hollowed out, with legs and a face added. You must “feed” him every day beginning on December 8th. On Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, put him in the fireplace and beat him with sticks until he poops out small candies, fruits, and nuts. When he is through, the final object dropped is a salt herring, a garlic bulb, or an onion. Oh yeah, there is a traditional song the family can sing to encourage the process.
poop log,
poop turrón,
hazelnuts and cottage cheese,
if you don’t poop well,
I’ll hit you with a stick,
poop log!
Don't Panic TV has a clip of "Larry" (actually LRRY-1), a fire-breathing robo-dog, like it's straight out of Mad Max, roaming the streets of London. The contraption is built by Lyle of the Mutoid Waste Company. Link
Gentlemen, we can rebuild her. We have the technology. And that's just exactly what vets did for Edgar, a 4-year-old long-haired feline who lost her face in an accident:
Me-ouch! Veterinarians on Tuesday performed an unusual surgery to reattach the face of a cat they believe was injured by a car's fan belt, probably because she tried to stay warm under the hood. [...]
Remarkably, Edgar suffered no major blood loss nor any permanent nerve damage from her accident. She just needed to have her facial skin stitched back on during an hour-long surgery, according to veterinary surgeon Michael Pavletic.
"And she should be fine after this," Pavletic said. Besides the skin hanging from Edgar's face, Edgar seemed normal, Kendrick said. "She was purring and sticking her head up so we could pet her," Kendrick said. "She even tried to chew at her skin. I'd never seen anything like it."
Link - Thanks Denita!
Bonnie, a 30-year-old female orangutan living at the Smithsonian National Zoological Part in Washington, D.C., started doing something strange one day: she started whistling!
Scientists have long known that orangutans copy physical movements of humans, but Bonnie's whistling indicates that the learning capacities of orangutans and other great apes in the auditory domain might be more flexible than previously believed, Wich said. The behavior goes against the argument that orangutans have no control over their vocalizations and the sounds are purely emotional that is, an involuntary response to stimuli such as predators.
Bonnie appears to whistle for the sake of making a sound rather than to receive a food reward or some other incentive. If asked to whistle, she is likely to oblige, another indication to scientists that she makes the sound voluntarily.
Link | Video of the whistling orangutan - Thanks casey!
This "100 Tons Bomb" tissue roll cover looks like it came straight out of the ACME catalog.
But don't let Wile E. Coyote light the "fuse", you may need the tissue to wipe tears from your eyes after spending $29 on this puppy!
http://www.stylishhome.ca/products/Bomb_Tissue_Roll_Cover-8364-11.html - via OhGizmo!
