Landlord of the Flies is a blog about Gabe and his dealings with his landlord Gary. Gary sends emails and leaves notes and is in quite a bit of trouble with the police, all seemingly for our amusement. When Gabe received the above note, he wasn't sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. This blog is only two pages long, so you'll want to read the whole thing. Link -via reddit

Angry Octopus is a webcomic featuring an octopus that always becomes angry by the final panel. It's a summer project from Mike and his eight-year-old daughter Zoe. The pictured comic is entitled "Beware of Fugu". Link -via Metafilter

I received a mysterious package in the mail yesterday. I'm always expecting something from eBay, but I didn't order anything lately that would come in a package this big.



Continue reading if you are interested in the contents. It gets a little creepy.

34-year-old Hu Binjun of Chengdu, Sichuan province, China was reportedly been doing drugs when he threatened to commit suicide. He also dangled his three-year-old daughter out the window of their eighth-story apartment by her legs! Police and emergency personnel spent three hours dealing with Hu.

Several attempts to coax Mr Hu into putting the girl down failed, until Chen Long, a 22-year-old fireman dressed in army uniform, dropped down from a window on the floor above and grabbed the child away from her parent.

As Mr Chen intervened, Mr Hu tried again to snatch the girl back, eventually falling back into his apartment.

He was arrested by the police after the incident on Tuesday, but subsequently attacked by a crowd of onlookers for threatening the life of the girl.

The daughter was found to have no serious injuries. Link -via Arbroath

Although not common, some people exhibit allergic reactions to some strange and hard-to-avoid things, like heat, cold, sunlight, sweat, and vibrations. Vibrations?

Once again it is the body having a strange reaction to what should be ordinary stimuli, as histamines are released in response to the sufferer's body being treated like one of 007's martinis. Hives, weals and welts erupt after as little as five minutes exposure to any kind of vibration.

Treatments for these odd allergies include antihistamines, desensitization, and avoidance. Link -via Digg

An animation from Industrial Light & Magic, Work in Progress tells the story of a couple of modern-day Dr. Frankensteins. The moral of the story is that brains and brawn are small beans compared to the power of magic pixie dust. http://www.ilm.com/ilmshorts.html -via Dark Roasted Blend

Remember the story of Beauty, the Alaskan bald eagle who lost her beak? National Geographic has an update on her story, as well as six other animals who have received artificial limbs and other body parts. Link

(YouTube link)
When Dave Carroll and his band Sons of Maxwell wanted to complain about the way United Airlines handled their guitars, they tried going through the proper channels. A year later and no resolution, there's nothing else to do but write a song about it. There's also a text version with all the details. Since this video was released Monday, United Airlines has changed its tune and wants to talk to Dave Carroll about his guitar, and has scheduled a call to him today. Link -via Digg

Dark Roasted Blend takes a look at the flags of nations and empires that no longer exist. The double eagle is a recurring motif, found in the flags of the Byzantine Empire, Imperial Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Yugoslavia. Pictured is the Russian flag that was in use until the 1917 revolution. Link

(YouTube link)
This ad celebrating the 50th anniversary of the PEN camera series required over 10,000 still photographs. It follows a user over 50 years. -Thanks, Chicomathmom!

Afraid of monsters under the bed? Your fears are confirmed when you have this rug from Jellio in your bedroom!

Place it under your child's bed and they're sure to have the coolest room on the block. Or just place it in the middle of a room to reveal a monster who's actually a little afraid of you.

http://www.jellio.com/store/boogiemanRug.html#

This Michael Jackson tribute features hundreds of people from all over the world (and some animals and objects) attempting to recreate the Moonwalk. Most don't quite succeed, but I have to admit I spent more time than I should have watching them. http://www.eternalmoonwalk.com/ -via Metafilter

The world's first fantasy magazine, Der Orchideengarten, was published in Germany from 1919 to 1921. The 51 issues featured artistic though sometimes disturbing cover art. Will at A Journey Round My Skull has obtained the first 14 issues and has scanned and posted the covers. Link

Artist Olivier Otten invites you to manipulate him in a series of interactive videos called Self-control Freak. You have to figure out how on your own. Link -via Everlasting Blort

The more we find out about the Apollo moon missions, the more we find they were operating closer to the edge than anyone outside of NASA knew. In an excerpt from Buzz Aldrin's new book, "Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon", he tells about a crucial circuit breaker he and Neil Armstrong found broken on the floor of the moon lander. Aldrin rigged the circuit by inserting a felt-tip pen, and hoped it would work during their liftoff.

The liftoff from the moon was intrinsically a tense time . The ascent stage simply had to work. The engines had to fire, propelling us upward, leaving the descent stage of the LM still sitting on the moon. We had no margin for error, no second chances, no rescue plans if the liftoff failed. There would be no way for Mike up in Columbia to retrieve us. We had no provision for another team to race from Earth to pick us up if the Eagle did not soar. Nor did we have food, water, or oxygen for more than a few hours.

Link -via Digg