I'm sure this is not new to some of you, but I've just learned that besides making pumpkin pie and those delicious roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin also makes a good ... canoe!
While most families place a candle or light bulb in their carved-out pumpkins, J.R. Hildebrandt can fit a chair and small heater in his.
The Wisconsin resident has carved a canoe out of a pumpkin and is taking the 760-pound gourd to the water where he plans to paddle 150 miles for charity.
Just because you're all into that fancy internet telephony and stuff, it doesn't mean that you can't enjoy it in a fully retro manner. Here's PAPPA*PHONE from Hulger: a solid walnut and brass phone that plugs directly into a Mac or a PC and works with all VoIP services (like Skype or GoogleTalk): http://www.hulgershop.com/view?product=pappa - via Detangle.us, thanks Marilyn!
I am in awe with James Kuhn. The Michigan artist (and self-described drag queen, former nudist, born again Christian, and average 46-year-old guy ... well, maybe not so average) has an unusual choice for art medium: his own face!
From National Geographic's extensive photo archives, here is an intriguing photo of a burrfish on a mic. Too bad it wasn't singing karaoke or anything like that:
"You don't think of fish as making noises, but many do. They grunt, purr, drum, croak, and grind their teeth!" wrote F. Barrows Colton in the January 1945 Geographic, where this photo first appeared. As part of an experiment to record fish noises at a New York aquarium, photographer Lilo Hess used a pinch of fish food to lure this striped burrfish to the microphone. Despite its resemblance to a big band crooner, however, the bug-eyed burrfish doesn't vocalize through its lips but by grinding its teeth to display distress or aggression—or attract mates.
As US debt exceeded $10 trillion for the first time and caused the National Debt Clock ... to run out of digits!
The national debt clock, the unofficial tracker of the federal deficit maintained by the Durst Organization in New York, has reached its limits. Last month, as the national debt exceeded $10 trillion for the first time, the clock ran out of digits to record the number.
The dollar sign in the clock had to be deleted and replaced with a one to record the massive number. The clock’s owners say a new model — with space for two extra digits — will be in place early next year.
Now here's a brilliant idea: a woman decided that she wanted to bring something special for halloween, so she packed a human skull in her checked luggage! Guess what happened next:
Tucson International Airport security were greeted with quite the surprise Wednesday morning when they discovered a human skull in a piece of checked luggage. [...]
The female passenger who owned the luggage had already boarded her flight, but was pulled off by security personnel for questioning.
According to TSA, the woman says the skull was brought back by her boyfriend after his military deployment in Okinawa, Japan. The woman says she was taking the skull to Philadelphia for halloween.
No, that's not a mistake. Nor is it a photo from a year ago. That truly is gas for under $3 - but to get it, you have to travel all the way to Georgetown, South Carolina:
AAA of the Carolinas reported drivers were snagging the best deals on Wednesday at the Winyah One Stop on Highmarket Street, as cars lined up for the $2.86 bargain for unleaded regular gas. Gas prices dipped even lower than $2.86 Thursday morning, dropping 8 cents in one night.
The owners of Gene's Country Store saw much of the same activity earlier this week after dropping the price of gas 20 cents on Monday. Prices opened the week at $3.15 before falling to a steady $2.95 per gallon. As of Thursday morning fuel reports, the store, also located on Highmarket Street, has continued the bargain for locals into the beginning of the weekend.
Tired of seeing renters who are caught in the mortgage meltdown being kicked out to the curb, Sheriff Thomas J. Dart of Cook County, Illinois, took a brave step: he's going to stop serving eviction notices!
"These poor people are seeing everything they own put out on the street. ... They've paid their bills, paid them on time. Here we are with a battering ram at the front door going to throw them out. It's gotten insane," he said.
Mortgage companies are supposed to identify a building's occupants before asking for an eviction, but sheriff's deputies routinely find that the mortgage companies have not done so, Dart said.
"This is an example where the banking industry has not done any of the work they should do. It's a piece of paper to them," Dart said.
"These mortgage companies ... don't care who's in the building," Dart said Wednesday. "They simply want their money and don't care who gets hurt along the way.
"On top of it all, they want taxpayers to fund their investigative work for them. We're not going to do their jobs for them anymore. We're just not going to evict innocent tenants. It stops today."
Rueben Miller has a pretty nifty blog post compiling various alphabets created by some of the world's most creative artists. I love this one above, titled Beard Alphabet by Tim Yarzhombek.
Being a customer service representative is thankless job. Customers with problems are usually angry and often take out their anger on the person they're talking to over the phone.
So Jake Bronstein of Zoomdoggle decided to do something about it. Like thanking the customer service rep for no other reason but just being nice!!
What can I say, it’s fun brightening other people’s day… so again, today, after lunch, I decided to ring up the customer service devision of a company I don’t use at all, just to say thanks to whoever picked up. You know, to spread some joy in a place that’s normally pretty joyless. This time I got the sound going right, next time I’ll get the chat going right. Did I tell you it’s something I plan on doing often?
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - Thanks Jay Neivitch!
Bad idea: breaking into a car to steal a satnav system Really bad idea: breaking into a police car ... Neatorama-worthy: ... that has a covert surveillance camera, then revealing your name and date of birth tattooed on your neck!
Aaron Evans, 21, was filmed breaking into the Peugeot 106 in an NCP carpark before making off with a stolen sat-nav.
He not only failed to spot the covert camera filming his every move but had the incriminating tattoo 'Evans 19.9.87' on his neck.
