All road signs in Wales must have text in both English and Welsh. Sometimes they don't exactly agree. Swansea Council emailed a request for a Welsh translation for this sign. The reply came back in Welsh, and was duly printed. The problem is that the Welsh version says (in English),
"I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated".
The sign has been removed, but quite a few photographs were already taken and sent to the Welsh language magazine Golwg, which has a series of such unfortunate translations. Link -via Digg
Splitter is a flash game based on simple physics. Your object is to get the smiley face to the brown spot by cutting through wood or strings, then letting gravity take its natural path. I got to level 11 before I decided I'd better stop and post this. Link-Thanks, David!
Elke Wisbey of Bearsted, Kent, England was born with brain damage. Now 6, she has never been able to walk, feed herself, or even communicate with her family -until now. A £17,000 MyTobii Smartbox machine tracks her eye movements with lasers and sends messages to a programmed voice that speaks for her. Elke took only a few days to learn how to use the machine, faster than her family members. Her parents noticed she was constantly looking at the "I love you" symbol.
Mrs. Wisbey, 43, who also has a son, Galahad, aged nine, said: 'I thought it was stuck and then I realised what she was saying.
'She was looking at the "I love you" icon and I couldn't believe it, she kept doing it.
'I said to Elke "are you telling Daddy you love him?" and she pointed at the icon "yes".
'It really choked me up, made me really emotional. I'm still emotional when I think about it.
'It was quite emotional. It is mind-blowing really. We have gone from somebody not being able to communicate to this.
'We didn't think Elke would ever be able to tell us how she was feeling, and now she can. This will be amazing for us, absolutely phenomenal.'
Readers of a local newspaper raised money to buy the specially-adapted machine for the family from Bearsted, Kent.
Elke has learned a number of words and phrases and can also use the machine to play games. Link -via Digg
We previously showed you video from the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, where they use fake animals to train for escapes. The latest drill features a rhinoceros! An escaped rhinoceros? They should have used a bulldozer instead of two guys in a rhino suit! -via Arbroath
It's a story and picture made for the internet. The driver and his passenger escaped with only minor injuries when the £100,000 Ferrari met a utility pole in Adelaide, Australia. The front half of the car was split in two.
Pictures of the crashed vehicle resulted in one internet blogger commenting: 'I wonder what action the police will take with an idiot driving a Ferrari.'
Another commentator said: 'We're making a few assumptions here, but when a young guy is driving a Ferrari worth a quarter of a million bucks, and then splits it almost in two, someone's going to be grounded for life.'
See full-size pictures at the Mail Online. Link-Thanks, Moi!
For Halloween, Dark Roasted Blend has a roundup of weird wearable art and over-the-top costumes that you probably won't see at your doorstep tonight -but wouldn't it be cool if you did? Jason Hackenwerth designed this balloon outfit. Link
This guy recreated the effect of a theremin by manipulating the feedback of two walkie-talkies. Now if he could just learn a tune! Warning: You may want to turn the sound down a bit. -Thanks, Clyde Langer!
You've seen pictures of pelicans eating extraordinary things on the internet. But a pelican eating a dog? That's what it looks like, but Petri the pelican was just angry that the dog stole her chicken snack. Roland Adam, owner of the exotic bird farm in Germany where Petri lives, explains.
"I was preparing foods for the birds in our outdoor kitchen, when I noticed Petri at my side looking for a snack," explained the 38-year-old. "I decided to feed her one of the chicks I had been preparing when Katijina raced in, caught the frozen bird mid-air and gobbled up Petri's dinner."
Confused and slightly irritated by missing out on the proffered snack, Petri decided to scour every inch of the Rhodesian ridgeback - named Katijina - for the discarded chick.
Kids helping each other out on Halloween can put a chalk mark at the bottom of the driveway to let later trick-or-treaters know what to expect. The pictured symbols mean "Dentist", "Werther's Originals", and "Reeces Pieces"! I'm afraid I'll go from "miserly portions" to "out of candy, now giving out sauce packets from Taco Bell." Link -via a comment at YesButNoButYes
The American Library Association has compiled stories of haunted libraries across the country -plus an international post. Who knew the dead love to go back to their favorite library? http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2008/10/ghosts-in-the-library-the-haunted-library-series-is-back/ -via the Presurfer
How much candy can you get in a pillowcase? The short answer is: almost 48 pounds. This post also explains the measurement, and lays out a strategy for actually getting that much candy during trick-or-treat. According to the conclusions, everyone who reads this article will be showing up at my house Friday evening. Link-Thanks, ebez!
Pat Paulson ran a spoof campaign every presidential election year for decades. Dave Barry also threw his hit into the ring a few times. The new celebrity taking up the spoof campaign mantle is Paris Hilton. That's hot! -Thanks, CheeseDuck!
This Old House is having a Jack-o-Lantern contest, and you can vote for your favorite of the submitted entries until noon Thursday. I was quite impressed by this multi-pumpkin display. I'm sentimental like that. https://youroldhouse.thisoldhouse.com/pumpkincarving/index.jsp -Thanks, Betsy Andrews!
Companies have integrated ads into video games for quite some time now, but this is the first time election campaign ads have been used in virtual reality games. Is this a good idea? Will it be effective? The ABC World News Webcast takes a look. Link to segment. Link to entire webcast.
