Think you have a lot of pets? Try this one for size:
About 800 small dogs, including Chihuahuas, terriers and Pomeranians, were seized from a triple-wide mobile home whose occupants were overwhelmed trying to care for the animals, authorities said Wednesday.
Pima County sheriff's deputies and animal welfare officials who removed the dogs also found 82 caged parrots in the home in a rural area northwest of Tucson.
Our pal WebUrbanist blog has a really neat post about 42 of the most fantastic prefab architecture and flat pack furniture designs. These aren't your usual IKEA furniture, folks - check it out: Link
You better have the skills of the Caped Crusader when you wear this Batman costume hoodie, because you're surely asking for someone to beat you up (either because they want it, or they just like to beat up nerds!)
This Batman Costume Hooded Sweatshirt is based on the original gray Caped Crusader Bat-suit. The outside of the hood features Batman’s ears. The inside of the hood features a “drop down” mask that can be worn or kept folded under the hood. The cape can be easily taken off with metal snaps.
When Pingu the baby penguin had to be separated from its family because its greedy brother ate all of its food, zookeepers were afraid that it was lonely ... so they got it a penguin doll!
'The cuddly penguin toy is something for the chick to cosy up to and be comforted by - a surrogate family for the time being.' Pingu is living in a snug den made out of foam matting and towels with a shelter to imitate a normal burrow. [...]
Keeper Lois Rowell added: 'The chick is quiet but quite inquisitive. It enjoys a shallow warm bath and being preened by us when its feathers need a clean up.' The youngster will return to the colony when it is strong enough to compete with the others for food.
As well as a stuffed penguin Pingu also cuddles up to a toy puffin.
Super Punch blog found a really bizarre squeeze toy (office de-stresser?) in shape of the Hulk's head. When you squeeze it, Hulk shows his rage by ... um, vomiting his brain out!
Every year, the New Oxford American Dictionary announces its word of the year: "hypermiling."
“Hypermiling” was coined in 2004 by Wayne Gerdes, who runs this web site. “Hypermiling” or “to hypermile” is to attempt to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one’s car and one’s driving techniques. Rather than aiming for good mileage or even great mileage, hypermilers seek to push their gas tanks to the limit and achieve hypermileage, exceeding EPA ratings for miles per gallon.
Many of the methods followed by hypermilers are basic common sense—drive the speed limit, avoid hills and stop-and-go traffic, maintain proper tire pressure, don’t let your car idle, get rid of excess cargo—but others practiced by some devotees may seem slightly eccentric:
• driving without shoes (to increase the foot’s sensitivity on the pedals) • parking so that you don’t have to back up to exit the space • “ridge-riding” or driving with your tires lined up with the white line at the edge of the road to avoid driving through water-filled ruts in the road when it’s raining
Other words of the year finalists and shortlist include: frugalista, topless meeting (not what you think), carrotmob, link bait and so on.
It's never too early to get your kids used to the idea that it's a dog eat dog world out there ... and FAO Schwarz (who knows how *hard* retail stores have it these days ...) can help. Behold the "Food Chain Friends":
Food Chain Friends are from Daro, a small green planet much like Earth was 200 million years ago. Daro teems with wildlife, and its exceptionally social and gracious species flourish in a complex - but oddly, very friendly - ecosystem. They're friends. They eat each other. It's a complicated relationship!
Caption: At top - customers sit at ease selecting groceries as shelf moves past. Lower photo shows clerk restocking the endless shelves. Inset shows operation of the novel store.
Modern Mechanix blog has a snippet from a new self-service store c. 1933 where instead of you roaming the aisles, the aisles roamed YOU! (Sorry, Yakov) It's not in Soviet Russia, instead it was in Los Angeles:
Moving Shelves Pass Customers in New Self-service Store
CUSTOMERS sit at ease as shelves move past them in a new self-service market opened in Los Angeles. The shelves are attached to an endless chain. The customers sit on stools before a counter and pick the groceries they want as the shelves move by. The moving shelf is 157 feet long and makes a complete revolution every eight minutes.
A great number of customers can be served simultaneously without the need of clerks to wait on them. As they leave the store the goods are checked by a cashier. The endless shelf passes around the rear of the store where the shelves are restocked.
The units of the endless shelf are neatly arranged, the various types of food, such as jams or canned vegetables being grouped together for easy selection. The shelf is driven by an electric motor.
A group of mathematicians and a group of engineers are traveling together by train to attend a conference on mathematical methods in engineering. Each engineer has a ticket whereas only one of the mathematicians has one. Of course, the engineers laugh at the unworldly mathematicians and look forward to the moment the conductor shows up.
Suddenly one of the mathematicians shouts: "Conductor coming!" All the mathematicians disappear into one washroom. The conductor checks the ticket of each engineer and then knocks at the washroom door: "Your ticket, please." The mathematicians stick the one ticket they have under the door, the conductor checks it and leaves. A few minutes later, when it is safe, the mathematicians come out of the washroom. The engineers are impressed.
When the conference has come to an end, the engineers decide that they are at least as smart as the mathematicians and also buy just one ticket for the whole group. This time the mathematicians have no ticket at all...
Again one of the mathematicians shouts: "Conductor coming!". All the engineers rush off to one washroom. One of the mathematicians goes to that washroom, knocks at the door, and says: "Your ticket, please..."
If you like that, there are more excellent math jokes at University of Alberta's math professor Volker Runde's website: http://www.math.ualberta.ca/%7Erunde/jokes.html
Fifty-five years ago today, the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas died of an alcohol overdose. Even if the name of the hard-drinking poet doesn't ring a bell to you, I'm sure you've heard of one of his most famous poems, Do not go gentle into that good night.
Dylan wrote the poem watching his father, formely in the Army, grow weak and frail with old age:
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
The Academy of American Poets has a recording of the reading of the poem: Link | If the words from the poem sound vaguely familiar to you, it may be because you've ran across its many pop culture references (as listed in Wikipedia )
L: Ca-D'Oro (1964) R: Spike (1964) both by John Chamberlain Photo: Sotheby's, Christie's Images Ltd via The New York Times
Take a look at these two 1964 sculptures by John Chamberlain. The one to the left, titled Ca-D'Oro is valued at between $1.8 million to 2.2 million by Sotheby's whereas the one to the right, titled Spike, is valued by Christie's at between $900,000 to $1.2 million.
They look the same, made by the same artist in the same year. So why the price difference? Carol Vogel wrote an article for The New York Times about the pricey world of art:
Both of these colorful crushed metal sculptures are from the artist’s prime period, when he used everyday objects, like abandoned car parts. He often sprayed as many as 100 coats of lacquer on the steel to achieve the surface he desired.
Estate property is generally more reasonably priced, and Christie’s has given the Lawrence heirs a guarantee. That means the auction house rather than the estate can set the prices. The one at Sotheby’s seems to have been estimated at the whim of an auction house expert — or possibly a hungry seller.
Italian photographer Gianni Fasolini heard that the divorce rate is going up and got a brilliant idea. People take wedding photos, so why not offer them a divorce photo album as well?
"People celebrate a marriage as a milestone in their lives, but a divorce is an important event too," he explained.
The 45-year-old added: "I have been doing photos of weddings and marriage ceremonies for years, day in and day out, and people told me they like having a photo marking important events in their lives.
"Then I got to thinking that maybe there would be some demand for people marking their divorces and so I started to offer photo sessions for freshly divorced couples - them smiling or shaking hands or in some cases even kissing.
