If you get a parking ticket in Lexington, Kentucky, you can pay your fine in canned goods. This program, which runs from November 16-December 18, is called "Food for Fines." 10 cans of food pay for $15 in fines. The food is distributed to local food banks for people in need this winter. The Lexington Herald-Leader reports:
"Last year, citizens brought in over 6,200 cans of food as payment for over 600 meter citations," said Gary Means, LexPark executive director. "We hope by opening the program up to all types of citations, we'll see the numbers increase."
The parking authority suggests large cans — 14-15 ounces — of fruits, vegetables, proteins and peanut butter. No out-of-date, damaged or open canned goods will be accepted.
God's Pantry will use the food to stock shelves at its four Lexington locations.
Designer Tom Medwin calls his invention "The Best Morning Ever." It's a single-cup way to start the day right. The cup holds your coffee (or other drink, I suppose, if you're some sort of uncivilized savage) and a donut on top. The top keeps your coffee warm and heats the donut.
Ireland takes its butter very seriously. It is with pride that that nation can boast of owning a 3,000-year old barrel of the yellow gold. Ireland is known for its high quality butter, and the city of Cork in particular has a long-established butter trade. Scott Calonico of Vice magazine visited the Cork Butter Museum and talked to its director, Peter Foynes:
VICE: What's the backstory of the museum?
Peter Foynes: The museum was opened in 1997 by a group of local businesspeople. In particular, [they wanted] to mark the old Butter Exchange in the city, that used to be the biggest butter market in the world. But also to commemorate Ireland's dairy history, which is really quite important. So that was the initial idea. The old Butter Exchange became vacant in 1996, so that was the ideal place for it.
Wait, what's a Butter Exchange?
In 1769, there was a group of people in the city called the Committee of Merchants that decided they wanted to take regulation into their own hands. There was butter trading in the city before that, but it was unsatisfactory. So the Merchants introduced a system of quality checking, basically grading the butter themselves. Over time, it also became a system for dealers to go through to get their butter because it would then have the mark of the Butter Exchange of Cork on it and that was a good thing to have. […]
For the most part, Barbie has kept her 39-18-33 measurements over the years. But her face has changed quite a bit. She may have had plastic surgery. That becomes a bit more clear when you look at the development of her face during her 56 years.
And you can see precisely that, thanks to the hard work of Tumblr blogger Forbidden Transmissions. She has lined up headshots of Barbie from every year during her long life. She comments:
Personally, I think the molds they used from 1987-1995 are the cutest, but I was still a little girl playing with Barbies at that time, so I may be a bit biased.
A Jew who adheres to kosher can eat only selected animals. That was achievable in the primitive economies that Jews lived in when these laws were handed down and certainly remains feasible today in a world of mass production and transportation.
But let's say that a time traveler goes so far back in time that modern kosher animals, such as the sheep, haven't evolved yet? Can a faithful Jew eat a dinosaur? Which kind of dinosaurs are acceptable and which are prohibited?
Roy E. Plotnick, Jessica M. Theodor, and Thomas R. Holtz answered these questions in a recent article in the scholarly journal Evolution: Education and Outreach:
The determination of whether an ancient mammal had cloven hooves can be done directly using fossils of the limbs, by inspecting the foot symmetry, to make sure it passes between toes 3 and 4, and the shape of the last phalanx of the toes, which should be wide and flat, not pointed or curved (Figs. 3, 4).
Determining whether an animal chewed the cud is much more challenging. Because teeth are what are used to chew and they are by far the most common mammalian remains, they would be the logical place to determine from fossils whether or not an animal chewed the cud. Unfortunately, there are no discernable differences between the teeth of cud-chewers and non-cud chewing artiodactyls. First, one might think that regurgitating so much material back into the mouth might bring excess stomach acid into the mouth and cause recognizable damage to the teeth; however, part of the evolution of rumination (cud-chewing and multi-chambered stomachs) included a system of acid reducing mechanisms. The chewed and digested plant matter is regurgitated into the mouth, where the saliva has a high concentration of bicarbonate, which acts as a buffer to the stomach acid coming into the mouth with the cud (McDougall [1948]). This reduces the incidence of acid wear on the teeth.
You can read a summary of the authors' kosher paleontology at Real Clear Science.
The Battle of Yavin is the event Star Wars fans most commonly think of as the destruction of the first Death Star at the end of Episode IV. The Rebels concocted a risky plan to take out a much more powerful force. It was, through skill, courage, and a lot of luck, successful. The Empire faced a major setback in its plans as a result.
Hooray! And Jordan Freiman of Death and Taxes magazine joins you in the celebration. But he also argues that the Rebel Alliance demonstrated extraordinary stupidity in its battle plan.
The crux of his argument is that the famous trench run, which was modeled after a real-life bombing campaign by the Royal Air Force during World War II, was completely unnecessary. As Spock commented upon Khan's tactics in the Battle of the Mutara Nebula, it demonstrated two-dimensional thinking. Instead of flying down a long and dangerous trench toward the Death Star, the Rebel fighters should have flown directly at it, perpendicular to point of impact. Frieman explains:
Just because the exhaust port is at the end of the trench, that doesn’t mean you have to use the trench to get there. You have spaceships! And the exhaust port is facing upward! You even show it facing upward in your little diagram. Why not just fly straight down towards it? Flying through the trench makes everything more difficult. You have no room to maneuver and, more importantly, rather than hitting the port with a straight shot, you now have to angle the proton torpedoes to go straight and then curve down. That’s so much more difficult!
Also, you know how everyone groans when he says “the shaft is ray shielded, so you’ll have to use proton torpedoes.”? Why is everyone groaning? How would you even hit that thing with a laser if you’re approaching it from the side? USE YOUR HEADS!
If I remember correctly, the point of the trench run was to get so close to the surface of the Death Star that the space station's anti-ship weapons could not be brought to bear against it. The trench run began at the point closest to the Rebel fleet. Flying directly toward the exhaust port would have required the X-wing squadron to be exposed for a much longer time
I pity any fool who doesn't know these fascinating facts about Mr. T rounded up by the Huffington Post. He's the one and only Mr. T and, yes, that is literally his name. He legally changed it when he saw his accomplished older brother being addressed as 'boy'--an insulting form of address traditionally used in America to refer to black men. Mr. T is nobody's 'boy':
"I was not born Mr. T," the actor explains. "I changed my name because as a black man growing up in white society, I watched my father being called 'boy,' and he was a preacher. I watched my brother coming back from the Marines and Vietnam and being called 'boy.' I watched enough black men in my family being called 'boy,' so I point to the fact: What does a black man have to do to get his respect as a man? So, when I became 18 years old, I legally changed my name to Mr. T."
He continued, "I'm not one of those rappers with a fake name. My driver's license: 'Mr. T.' My passport: 'Mr. T.' And everything. My new birth certificate: 'Mr. T.' Mr. T is short for my family name. I was born Lawrence Tureaud. Me and my father shortened it to Tero, but really that’s what it stood for. Legally, my name's Mr. T."
You can read more at the Huffington Post, including about the time Mr. T chopped down 70 trees in 3 hours.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, an actress most famous for her role on Seinfeld, once appeared on Sesame Street. While shooting a scene with Elmo and Zoe, Louis-Dreyfus flubbed a line. She swore in response.
Elmo replied immediately just as Elmo should. It's hilarious!
When people are prompted to think about appealing architecture, they invariably consider New York City's subway system. This door is an example of why. The new entrance to the station at 560 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan features this lovely curved glass door.
Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill designed it to swing open and closed along a rounded track. It closes off the system at night, but permits people and pizza-encumbered rats to gaze and down to the platform below. You can see more photos at Contemporist.
Easter is almost upon us, so it's time to dye Easter Turkeys and get ready for the Thanksgiving Bunny to come down the chimney and give us presents!
Wait, what holiday is it? You may get confused if you visit Gozzi's Turkey Farm in Guilford, Connecticut. Since 1940, Bill Gozzi and his relatives on this third-generation family farm have dyed their turkeys in vibrant, pastel colors. They've become a local attraction that is now gathering worldwide attention thanks to the internet. Lisa Flam reports for the Today show:
A trip to see the toms and hens is a holiday tradition for many.
Christa Trudeau, 36, started visiting the turkeys when she was 2, and has never missed a year. She and her older sister chased each other around the pen when they were little, Trudeau kept up her visits when she was home from college, and she continues the weekend trips with her children, 7-year-old Camden and 10-year-old Emma.
"I guess there was never a time it wasn't important," says Trudeau, of North Branford, Connecticut.
What is it about those turkeys that keeps her going back?
"It's just so bizarre," Trudeau says. "It seems almost like a cartoon. It's like a fantasy, it seems so unrealistic. If you happened upon it and had never seen it, I imagine the first time you would see it, it would make no sense. But it's so silly, it makes you laugh."
The video starts out well and keeps getting more insane as it goes on.
Rachel wants to sell her little brother because "something in him is wrong." She speculates that they could get a good price for him at the pet store and already has ideas of what she could buy with the money.
Then Rachel lays out a complicated investment scheme that sounds like a combination of short selling and house flipping. Once she's explained that to dad, it's time to sell her brother on the idea.
Flu season is upon us. I don't want it. I don't mean to be rude, but I'd rather not shake hands with you. It's nothing personal. I like you. I just don't like your germs.
So let's bump knees together, as Vine user hassanisms illustrates. Or, since those might be inaccessible on us, we can just rub bellies together.
Yerin is upset about . . . well, whatever it is toddlers get angry about, which is pretty much anything at random moments.
But she can't stay that way. She has squeaky shoes. As she turns to avoid her father, her shoes squeak. They squeak so much that they squeak the orneriness right out of her!
Fabratastic is a small British company that offers unique pillows that are ideal for someone in mourning. Send its tailors a shirt belonging to a departed friend or relative, and they'll send it back as a pillow. Each one comes embroidered with a message to help you grieve, remember, and heal.
The company has been flooded with orders, so it won't take any more until after Christmas. I'm not surprised. It's a wonderful service.
(Image: Onderdonk's The Fall of the Alamo, photo by Argos'Dad)
Have you visited the Alamo? You won't be able to access the basement, but you can explore the beautifully preserved remains of the battle site, explained in rich detail by tour guides and signs.
Among the many memorials there is this unusual monument inscribed with classical Chinese script. It was placed there in 1914 by Shiga Shigetaka, a visiting Japanese scholar who wanted to express the admiration of the Japanese people for the gallant defenders of Texas liberty who fell there in 1836.
Now how did that happen? How did people in Japan learn about the Alamo? Franz-Stefan Gady explains at The Diplomat.
In the 1870s, American Civil War veteran William S. Clarke, formerly the colonel of a Massachusetts regiment of volunteers, taught at an agricultural college in Japan. Among other courses, he taught on military history. In it, he told the story of the Alamo to young student Shiga Shigeta.
