Leda Smith of Lake Lynn, Pennsylvania, returned from church to find that her house was in the process of being burglarized. So what did the 85-year-old great-grandma do? She didn't exactly cower in fear:

"I saw him move by my keyboard near the wall but I just walked right on past him to the bedroom and got my gun," Smith said, noting that she started keeping the .22-caliber revolver by her bed after a burglary at a neighboring home several weeks ago.

Smith said she then found the boy hiding and confronted him. "I said, 'What are you doing in my house?'" Smith said during an interview Monday with WPXI-TV, Channel 11 in Pittsburgh, a news partner with the Herald-Standard. "He just kept saying he didn't do it."

Smith ordered the teen to turn around and not to run and then had him pick up the telephone and dial 911. She then ordered the boy to give her the telephone after placing the call and she told dispatchers about the intruder.

Officials from 911 stayed on the telephone with Smith as she had the boy lay facedown and spread-eagled on the floor.

Don't mess with this grandma! Links: Article at Herald Standard by Josh Krysak | Video clip of Alan Jennings of WPXI-TV interviewing LEDA

Jay Leno (who has a collection of over 100 automobiles - must be one really large garage) has a simple yet brilliant advice for Detroit carmakers on how to get things back on track: make better cars!

When you get into a high-priced, well-made American car today and
the key is in the ignition, you hear a melodic bong, bong. But when you get in a cheap American car, like a rental, and the key is left in, it goes plink, plink, plink. It’s just horrible. Every time you use the turn signal, it’s like breaking a chicken leg. In order to make the more expensive car more appealing, U.S. companies feel as though they have to dumb down the cheaper car.

I believe that, all things being equal, Americans will buy American. It just has to be as good as the competition; it doesn’t have to be better. The classic example is Harley-Davidson. Throughout the ’70s, the motorcycle maker had huge quality-control problems. Then Harley-Davidson said, “Look, let’s take our time. Let’s build fewer bikes. Let’s build them properly, so they don’t leak oil and they’ll run forever.” Harley-Davidson won back the market share it had lost, and it continues to dominate today. Even though the bikes might not be technically superior, they’re bulletproof and they’re American. People will buy American if given the chance.

Link - via reddit

Well, Dubai may have the air-conditioned bus stop but they don't have this: a swing in a bus stop in London!

Check out more of "Playful Spaces" art project by Bruno Taylor at Wooster Collective: Link [embedded YouTube clip]

Photo: Ivan Kashinsky - see more at NatGeo gallery

Forget WWE and Mexico's lucha libre ... the real wrestling action is in Bolivia. Here's a neat article by Alma Guillermoprieto for the National Geographic Magazine about the cholitas luchadoras or fighting Bolivian beauties:

Like many of the women of Aymara descent in the audience, Yolanda and Claudina are dressed to the nines in the traditional fashion of the Andean highlands: shiny skirts over layers of petticoats, embroidered shawls pinned with filigreed jewelry, bowler hats. Their costumes glisten in the spotlights while they make a regal progress around the bleachers, greeting their public with the genteel smiles of princesses, twirling and waving gracefully until the music stops.

That's the sign for the two women to swing themselves deftly onto the wrestling ring that has been the focus of this afternoon's activity. Swiftly they remove their hats, unpin their shawls, and ... whap, whap, whap! Claudina belts Yolanda one, Yolanda slaps Claudina, Claudina tries to escape, but Yolanda grabs Claudina by her pigtails and spins her around, and WHAM! Claudina whirls through the air, petticoats and braids flying, and lands flat on her back on the mat, gasping like a fish. The audience goes nuts.

Link - Thanks Marilyn!

Here's a window for Windows lover, Fenêtres 3.1 by John Nouanesing, a real window made to look like Microsoft's classic 3.1 OS version (complete with the "code"shades - or is it just the BSOD?). It's only a concept for now, probably because efforts to convert it to reality were constantly met with unexplainable crashes: Link

Ben Wake lost a leg in a motorcycle accident, so during his rehabilitation, his friends got together to build him ... a Dalek wheelchair for him get around!

Link

Why are kids today so fat? Just see what they're being fed! Holy Taco blog has the menu from a Harrisonburg, Virginia school (with pictures!): Link

Yes, I know, I know, it's a viral ad for Zillow, the real estate valuations website (they're probably feeling the pinch as people have stopped looking at their home values because they've been dropping like rocks!).

But it's a funny viral ad. What's not to like about seeing people getting bonked in the head with pillows? In slo-mo goodness, no less!

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]

The current U.S. drinking age of 21 is not working, according to more than 100 college and university presidents. They have signed a statement calling for a public debate to rethink and lower the drinking age to 18:

"Kids are going to drink whether it's legal or illegal," said Johns Hopkins President William R. Brody, who supports lowering the drinking age to 18. "We'd at least be able to have a more open dialogue with students about drinking as opposed to this sham where people don't want to talk about it because it's a violation of the law." [...]

Several students interviewed yesterday at Johns Hopkins said lowering the drinking age could reduce binge drinking. "I think alcohol is seen, a lot of times, as a forbidden thing, and people want it," said Jamie Hittman, 20, a junior from Columbia. "It's almost like contraband. Once you get it, you have to drink all of it."

Katie Buckheit, 19 and also a junior, said if people were exposed to drinking at a younger age, they would be more mature about it. "Maybe I'm being idealistic, but in Europe you can drink once you can see the bar," she said. "I think we should maybe take a lesson from
what other countries are doing."

But Laura Kranish, an 18-year-old sophomore from Silver Spring, said students would drink as much they do no matter what the drinking age is.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-te.md.drink19aug19,0,3214922.story

What do you think? Should the drinking age in the US be lowered to 18? Would that help reduce binge drinking or lead to higher alcohol-related accidents?

Bad idea: growing marijuana.
Really bad idea: growing marijuana on U.S. park land
Neatorama worthy: getting busted by a turtle equipped with a GPS tracking device.

You might call him a pint-sized crime fighter. A box turtle equipped with GPS helps police nab a suspect growing marijuana in Rock Creek Park.

Just south of the DC/Maryland line, a turtle wearing a GPS device for research purposes makes an amazing discovery. "The ranger in charge of the program discovered the turtle in the middle of a marijuana field," Sgt. Robert Lachance of the U.S. Park Police says. [...]

Growing marijuana on U.S. park land is never a good idea, and it's illegal. So U.S. Park Police set up surveillance. Sgt. Lachance says, "We soon discovered we had a culprit who was actively working the field."

Link - via bioephemera

Earlier this month, Rob Beschizza of Boing Boing Gadgets has a mega post of 101 of some of the best, the worst, and the weirdest computer and video games ads of yore: Link - via Picdit

Photos: Julian Wolkenstein

I think Julian Wolkenstein is trying to tell us something! Check out more the neat artwork of this award-winning photographer: Link [Flash] - via B Become Boh

Tremayne Durham is a big guy. And he likes to eat. So when he was sitting in an Oregon jail waiting for trial for murder, all he could think about was food. So, when the prosecutors offered this unusual plea deal, Durham bit right in:

Durham was sentenced Wednesday to life behind bars with a chance for parole in 30 years after pleading guilty last month to aggravated murder for Adam Calbreath's brutal slaying.

Multnomah County, Ore., Judge Eric Bergstrom agreed to the unusual plea deal - which included buckets of fried chicken, pizza and lasagna - because it saved the expense of a trial and possible appeals. A murder trial could have cost the county about $4,000, officials said.

Durham's insatiable need for greasy food - which included gorging on KFC and Popeye's chicken, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, carrot cake, along with a pizza, two calzones, lasagna and ice cream - cost Oregon taxpayers only $41.70. Bergstrom signed off on the deal, and the killer downed the food in two sittings - the first a few weeks ago, and the second on Wednesday. [...]

Don Hons, 32, a friend of Calbreath's who attended the sentencing, said Durham deserved no favors - but told The Oregonian newspaper he was glad the judge made the food deal in order to get the killer locked up.

"If a couple buckets of chicken are going to help to get a conviction, then get some biscuits to go with it," he said.

Link - via iPood:Blag