The city council of Leicester, UK, has twenty days to respond to this Freedom of Information Act request by resident Robert Ainsley:

Leicester City Council has 20 working days to answer but its head of information governance, Lynn Wyeth, took to local radio yesterday to address the issue.

She said: "We've had a few wacky ones but this one did make us laugh.

"It's one of those questions that you could do a one-liner saying there is nothing specifically in the emergency plan to state a response to a zombie invasion.

So either the government officials are either (1) guilt of gross negligence or (2) hiding their true plan -- one that probably provides for the security of selected elites.

Link | Image: United Film Distribution

This distinction is critical, as one crime victim in the state of Washington recently learned:

Police say a man was carrying a dead weasel when he burst into a Hoquiam apartment and assaulted a man.

The victim asked, "Why are you carrying a weasel?" Police said the attacker said, "It's not a weasel, it's a marten," then punched him in the nose and fled.

This incident makes more sense once you learn an important fact: the assailant was actually looking for his girlfriend at the time.

Link -via Lowering the Bar | Photo of an actual weasel by Flickr user Cecil Sanders used under Creative Commons license

Long before comic book artist Bryan Lee O'Malley became famous for his graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim, he was an eight-year old kid:

This is a choose your own adventure-style book that I did when I was like 8 years old. I was always making comics and books. I've been writing and drawing ever since I was basically a baby.

Link via Comics Alliance

Previously: Real-Life Locations in Scott Pilgrim

I found this image on WTF Japan, Seriously!? with no description. A bit of Googling led me to a 2008 post on Pink Tentacle explaining that a young celebrity in Japan who goes by the name Shokotan had taken to decorating her hair with dead cicadas.

But keep in mind: that was three years ago, which is a long time in fashion. Don't rush out put cicadas in your hair in order to be hip and trendy. People will instead just look at you funny.

Link via WTF Japan, Seriously!? | Photo: Shokotan Blog

A man who is wearing a shark for a pair of pants has my respect. A gorilla, doubly so. If he declares himself the #1 Dad, who am I to dispute it?

This image by Phineas Jones is the label for a beer by 3 Floyds Brewery. Jones writes "It's pretty self-explanatory." Indeed.

Link via Super Punch | Photo: Artist's Website

I keep getting these two confused. So does the father of redditor itsgus, but this illustration will keep it clear and easy to remember. Of course, it's not that important since Slash isn't real.

Link

Joshua J. Romero discovered that much of his daily life was dominated by Google. He used its myriad services for so many tasks, and worried that it gave Google too much ability to control him. So as an experiment, he decided to completely disconnect from the company:

In general, quitting Google was easier than I thought. One of the biggest lessons for me was that Google’s not the best at everything. I’m thrilled to be rid of Google Tasks. I realize now that I was always dealing with its deficiencies; it’s not even supported on Android, and it had a tendency to undo my recent changes. I now use a site called Todoist, which I find vastly superior. I had never bothered to research alternatives before, and I ended up falling for the inferior product out of what I thought was convenience.

It’s easy to get seduced by the lure of a single sign-on. But managing multiple user accounts actually isn’t as much of an annoyance as we think it is. For me, it quickly became clear that my single Google account had mixed and muddled my personal and professional services and data. There are many online services that make sense to link together—but there are plenty of others that don’t. Calendar and e-mail might be a good fit, but do you need to use the same company to manage your social contacts, RSS feeds, and to-do lists? What about your phone and computer operating system? Even in the midst of the experiment, it was hard to remember to sign-out of the Google account; I was signed in by default, just as I’m also often signed in to Twitter and Facebook without realizing it.

Link via Glenn Reynolds | Photo by Flickr user orangeacid used under Creative Commons license

Martin Mireles has been paralyzed from the neck down for nearly twenty years. He can maneuver a mobility chair by steering it with his mouth, but a new magnetic tongue stud developed by researchers at the Northwestern University School of Medicine makes it a lot easier:

Mr. Mireles, 37, tested the equipment one recent afternoon by guiding a wheelchair through an obstacle course lined with trash cans. Mouth closed, he shifted the magnet to travel forward and backward, left and right.[...]

To operate the system, the user wears a headset with sensors that pick up magnetic signals from the tongue ring. Moving the tongue to the mouth’s upper left corner, for instance, moves the wheelchair forward. (The researchers hope that in the future, touching each tooth could signal a different command, from turning on the television to answering the phone to opening a door.)

Researchers decided to use the tongue because they wanted to take advantage of some of the functions a severely disabled person still had. The tongue does not tire easily, they said, and it is not usually affected by a spinal cord injury because it is directly connected to the brain through a cranial nerve.

Link -via Gizmodo | Photo: Steve Kagan/NYT

Pomander Walk is a little neighborhood on Manhattan that was designed to look like an London street composed of Tudor-era houses. Inspired by a popular 1910 play called Pomander Walk, it was built by a somewhat eccentric nightclub owner in 1921:

Named Pomander Walk (of course!), this little alley way goes unnoticed by most everyone not previously aware of its location. From the main street (see the 94th Street view here and the 95th Street view here), most passersby would walk by without ever thinking that this picturesque little mini-village exists in the Big Apple.

The houses are tiny. Each is divided into two one-floor apartments; each apartment measures roughly 700 square feet. By necessity, some have kitchenettes (instead of full kitchens), using a closet to house the refrigerator. And some of the houses have external dumbwaiters, designed (most likely) as makeshift garbage chutes.

Link | Photo by Curbed used under Creative Commons license

Really! It's paper. Paul Overton of Dude Craft summarizes my own thoughts on the work of paper sculptor Calvin Nicholls:

Every time I think I've witnessed the limits of paper sculpting, along comes somebody who blows my mind all over again.

See a gallery of his amazing work at the link.

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Follett-Library-Resources-Hummingbird/753955 via Dude Craft

It is a vision! But what does it mean? Offer your theological explanations in the comments.

Link (Google Translate) via Geekologie | Photo: Infamy

Etsy seller SVJewelry made these Portal-themed earrings out of acrylic. If you wear these, you'll have an excuse for not remembering what people tell you.

Link via Technabob

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Five artists walked into the Fancy Grocery convenience store in New York City's West Village and bought each and every item. By the end, Hercules, the owner, was completely depleted of his inventory and had rung up each purchase on two rolls of receipt paper. Today, those artists are exhibiting their finds at 57 Stanton Street.

Among the items for sale: a Coke can for $150. Is that too much? Keep in mind that the artists cleverly inverted it, thus increasing its artistic value.

Link via Super Punch

Quick! You must take out more student loans in order finance this opportunity! You can consider the career applications later.

Japan’s Kyoto Seika University said Tuesday it will launch the country’s first doctoral program in manga studies next year.

The private university in western Japan is well known for its manga and anime programs and established a master’s degree course in manga last year.[...]

The university says it has received overseas requests for an advanced center for manga research, and that the industry is in transition amid globalization and the growth of digital media.

http://asiancorrespondent.com/56914/manga-fans-can-collect-something-new-a-doctorate/ via The Mary Sue | Image: Ben Dunn

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Casey Neistat got a ticket for riding his bicycle outside of a bike lane in New York City. He argued with the police officer that sometimes he does so because there are obstructions that make it unsafe to use the designated lane. The cop didn't care, and issued him the citation anyway. To prove his point, Mr. Neistat made this video, showing how dangerous it would be to comply with the law...by crashing his bike, over and over again into road hazards. He saved the best for last. via reddit