Can you imagine an entire family living a space that's smaller than a king-size bed? A large number of Hong Kong residents live in super-subdivided spaces. The only way to really see how crowded these apartments are is to photograph them from the ceiling.
In an attempt to draw attention to the issue, human rights organization Society for Community Organization recently commissioned a series of photographs showing what a number of unacceptable living spaces look like when viewed from directly overhead. (Here’s a larger version of the photo above.)
According to the SoCO, over 100,000 people live in tiny “cubicle apartments” in the city. These are 40-square-foot living spaces created by dividing already-small apartments into multiple units.
Residents go about their lives in these confined spaces, sleeping on one corner, eating in another, storing their belongings in a third, and perhaps watching a TV that’s found in a fourth.
The 85th Academy Awards will be handed out this Sunday. That's a lot of history! This supercut from Nelson Carvajal has clips of all the previous Best Picture winners for your enjoyment. How many have you seen, and how many can you identify? The answers are at the end of the video; you will probably have to see them full-screen to read them. The music is “November” by Max Richter. -via Slate
On Saturday, February 20, 1971, a civilian teletype operator grabbed the wrong recording tape and instead of a test, inadvertently sent an Emergency Broadcast Alert to radio stations across the U.S. I've told stories about the Cold War and how seriously everyone took the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS). Activation of the system meant nuclear war to almost everyone who heard it.
Station managers, broadcasters and listeners across the country were thrown into a tizzy. David Skinner, the news director of WEVA in Emporia, Virginia recalled the experience for a reporter: “I thought I was going to have a heart attack trying to open that damned envelope [containing the code words that authenticate the message from Cheyenne Mountain]. I haven’t felt that way since John Kennedy was killed.”
Chuck Kelly of WWCM in Brazil, Indiana took his station off the air for twenty-two minutes and told a reporter, “I saw the authenticated message and thought, ‘My God! It’s December 7 [1941] all over again!’”
It took 40 minutes of panicky fumbling before the alert could be properly killed. The audio of the incident from WOWO radio in Fort Wayne,m Indiana, is available along with the story of what happened at CONELRAD Adjacent. Link -via Metafilter
Vintage Everyday has a collection of passports belonging to celebrities. See Albert Einstein, David Bowie, Janis Joplin, Muhammad Ali, and more, with plenty of stamps showing they were well used. Shown here is a military ID card issued to Norma Jeane DiMaggio in 1954, presumably for the purpose of entertaining troops abroad. Link -via Nag on the Lake
C. G. P. Grey tells us how you can work your way up to the job of replacing Pope Benedict. It's pretty difficult. It may even be too late to get started, at least for the next conclave. -via mental_floss
One crow is taking full advantage of a snow-covered car, not only by sliding on the window, but also by making snow angels! Before the day is over, he'll have that entire back window cleared. -via Arbroath
The strange epitaph on the tombstone makes us want to know more about poor George Spencer Millet, cut down in his adolescence by cupid's arrow, so to speak.
George Spencer Millet worked as office boy for a well-known insurance company in Manhattan, and the rather shy teenager enjoyed in spite of himself an enviable success with his female coworkers. A picture of him, published after the accident in the New York Evening Telegram, shows him as an Edwardian Macaulay Culkin, a radiant blond cupid with a naïve expression and a gentle, seraphic presence. George had yet another thing that made him even more adorable: he was born on the 15th of February, just a day after Valentine's Day, a sweet and sour element for this quiet, grotesque tragedy.
1909 - To celebrate his 15th birthday, a pack of stenographers are said to have teased the young George with threats of a birthday kissing spree, promising to execute their love trap once office hours were over. Later that day, they struck, charging lips first at the golden-haired kid who, overwhelmed and panicked, dodged the furies and fell on the floor, crying “I'm stabbed” before he collapsed, unconscious in a pool of his own blood. Confused and shocked by the tragedy of a scene that began as a Benny Hill chase, the office members called an ambulance, but unfortunately George died on his way to the hospital.
One of the office women was even arrested for murder! Read the rest of Millet's story at Atlas Obscura. Link
I saw this headline a couple of times yesterday before I realized that what made the story so rare is that she gave birth to two sets of identical twins all at the same time! Tressa Montalvo had a Cesarian section on Valentine's Day at Women’s Hospital of Texas and produced four boys, each weighing between three and four pounds. She had conceived fraternal twins, then each embryo split into identical twins. Montalvo and her husband used no fertility drugs.
The odds of delivering two sets of naturally occurring identical twins is somewhere in the range of 1 in 70 million, according to the hospital. Two boys shared one placenta and the two other boys shared another placenta.
Ace and Blaine were born at 8:51 a.m. on February 14 and weighed 3 pounds, 10 ounces (1.64 kg), and 3 pounds, 15 ounces (1.79 kg), respectively. Cash and Dylan followed a minute later, weighing 2 pounds, 15 ounces (1.33 kg), and 3 pounds, 6 ounces (1.53 kg), respectively.
"We tried to stick to the A-B-C-D theme when naming them," Tressa Montalvo said. "We didn't expect it, we were trying for just one and we were blessed with four."
The quadruplets join a two-year-old brother. The boys' father said they were going to try for a girl next. That's easy for him to say. Link -via Holy Kaw!
(Image credit: Reuters/The Women's Hospital of Texas)
Florida Atlantic University has sold the naming rights to its new football stadium to the GEO Group Inc. If the name is not familiar to you, they run the second-largest chain for for-profit prisons in the U.S. This brings up some interesting observations. First, the $6 million the corporation "gifted" to the university in exchange for the naming rights represents profits from taxpayer money. Second, why does a prison corporation need the publicity of having its name on a stadium?
"It appears to be a charitable gift that is trying to be a marketing vehicle, and it just doesn't make a lot of sense," said Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon's business school. "To link themselves with an athletic department when their business is locking people up, it just doesn't connect to me really well."
Critics of the private prison industry said the donation to a public university in Florida falls in line with efforts to gain influence with state and local public officials who decide whether to hand out contracts.
"The company is dependent on public dollars for all of its profits," said Bob Libal, executive director of Grassroots Leadership, a criminal justice advocacy group. "When you look at other things that GEO gives to, it's generally in communities where they either have contracts or are seeking contracts, and certainly Florida is a state where GEO has tremendous interest."
Life can be difficult when you are not only round but extremely buoyant! This is one of four delightful animated trailers produced to promote the 2013 Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film, all featuring peculiarly inflated animals. See the rest of them at vimeo. Link -via the Presurfer
Update: Read more about how these films were made. Link
The Island of Chiloé in southern Chile has always been a remote and isolated place of legend. In 1880, it was the site of the last significant witchcraft trials.
Who were they, these sorcerers hauled before a court for casting spells in an industrial age? According to the traveler Bruce Chatwin, who stumbled over traces of their story in the 1970s, they belonged to a “sect of male witches” that existed “for the purpose of hurting people.” According to their own statements, made during the trial of 1880, they ran protection rackets on the island, disposing of their enemies by poisoning or, worse, by sajaduras: magically inflicted “profound slashes.” But since the same men also claimed to belong to a group called La Recta Provincia—a phrase that may be loosely translated as “The Righteous Province”—and styled themselves members of the Mayoria, the “Majority,” an alternative interpretation may also be advanced. Perhaps these witches were actually representatives of a strange sort of alternative government, an indigenous society that offered justice of a perverted kind to indians living under the rule of a white elite. Perhaps they were more shamans than sorcerers.
The defendants readily admitted to witchcraft and sorcery, as well as kidnapping, murder, and all sorts of outlandish activities. Sorting through their motivations is difficult, as the political struggles of the people of Chiloé intertwined with the existence of the magical society of shamans who ruled by terror. And the cave where many of these deeds were supposedly performed was never found. Read the entire story at Past Imperfect. Link
When gremlins invade your home and try to steal socks, cats Roto and Bowie spring into action! After all, losing your socks is their job! Music by Savant. -via Tastefully Offensive
It's common knowledge that on the Starship Enterprise under Captain James T. Kirk, anyone who isn't a well-known cast member who puts on a red shirt and beams down to an alien planet is going to buy the farm, and fast. But are red shirts really that dangerous? The numbers on the surface seem to say yes.
A total of 24 crew members wearing a red shirt were killed dramatically in the three years the series ran. But Matthew Barsalou crunched a lot more numbers, and the results aren't so clear. He posted his data at Significance magazine in a series of charts and graphs to answer the question. Turns out that putting on a gold shirt may actually be worse for your longevity on the TV series. What is clear is that Star Trek + math = geek explosion. Link -via Gamma Squad
Instead of blowing a bubble yourself, maybe the reaction of dry ice in water can blow it up for you! I'm not sure what I expected to happen here, but what happened was awfully pretty. -via Daily of the Day
Every summer, Uncle John makes a pilgrimage to the Siskiyou Mountains to confer with his puzzle guru, crazy Ol' Man Newman. He came back with another collection of mind-bending logic puzzles.
1. RAPID AGING
The day before yesterday, Johnny was 9 years old. Next year he'll be 12. How is this possible?
2. TIME AFTER TIME
After a power surge disrupted all the electronic devices in Brian's house, he had to go over to Amy's to find out what time it is. After she told him, Brian walked home and set all of his clocks. Even though Brian didn't know how long it had taken him to get home, he was able to set his clocks to exactly the right time. How?
3. A BAD FLIGHT PLAN
Uncle John was about to leave on a morning flight to the World Toilet Summit when he realized he left his Bathroom readers at the BRI office. He rushed back to get them, but the night watchman said, "Do not get on that plane! I had a dream last night that it's gonna crash!" Not wanting to tempt fate, Uncle John followed the watchman's advice. Sure enough, the plane crashed. That evening, Uncle John thanked the man for saving his life, then fired him. Why?
4. STORMY WEATHER
Five men were leaving church together when it started to rain. The four who ran got wet; the fifth, who didn't move, stayed dry. How?
5. A CLOWN-UNDRUM
Plungy the Clown had just earned three gold bricks after working a kid's party. While walking home, he came to an old foot bridge. The sign said, "Weight Capacity: 150 pounds." Plungy weighs 148 pounds, the three bricks weigh one pound each. How did Plungy make it across safely in one trip with all of his gold?
6. PUZZLING BUS TRIP
A bus full of people is traveling over a bridge on its way to Las vegas. No one gets on or off, but when the bus reaches the other side, there's not a single person on the bus. How can this be possible?
7. COUNT DUCKULA
Julia and Viola were comparing their rubber ducky collections. Julia said, "If you give me one of your ducks, I will have double of what you have remaining."
Viola replied, "Oh yeah? Well, if you give me one of your ducks, then we'll both have the same amount."
How many ducks does each girl have?
8. MARITIME QUERY
Gordon sailed his sailboat, the Uncle John, across the Pacific Ocean. When he reached the coast, he asked me, "Which part of my boat traveled the longest distance?"
9. BRIGHT THINKING
One day, Thom found himself trapped in a room with two doors. Behind the first door was a room made of thick glass that would magnify the Sun's heat to fry whoever went in. Behind the second door was a fire-breathing dragon that would do the same. How did Thom escape unscathed?
10. RELATIVITY
Some people are riding in a car. They consist of a mother, father, brother, sister, son, daughter, niece, nephew, aunt, uncle, and two cousins. What is the minimum number of people that can be in the car?
11. AND THEY'RE OFF!
Malcolm and Jahnna competed in a strange horse race. Whoever's horse reached the finish line last is the winner. After we waited four hours for them to go a few feet, Uncle John walked out, called them off their horses, and told them something. Immediately, Malcolm and Jahnna jumped up on the horses and rode them as fast as they could to the finish line. Uncle John swears he didn't call off the race or change the rules, so what did he tell them?
Continue reading for the answers, but try to figure them out on your own first!
