I was held hostage at “Thomas” toy factory in China
Snip from essay by David Barboza of the New York Times:
As an American journalist based in China, I knew there was a good chance that at some point I’d be detained for pursuing a story. I just never thought I’d be held hostage by a toy factory.
That’s what happened last Monday, when for nine hours I was held, along with a translator and a photographer, by the suppliers of the popular Thomas & Friends toy rail sets.
“You’ve intruded on our property,” one factory boss shouted at me. “Tell me, what exactly is the purpose of this visit?” When I answered that I had come to meet the maker of a toy that had recently been recalled in the United States because it contained lead paint, he suggested I was really a commercial spy intent on stealing the secrets to the factory’s toy manufacturing process.
“How do I know you’re really from The New York Times?” he said. “Anyone can fake a name card.”
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Camera in parcel tracks journey through postal system
Tim Knowles put a digital camera inside a cardboard box and rigged it so that it would snap a photo every ten seconds through a small hole in the box. Then he sent the box through the mail. It recorded a total of 6994 images and he made a movie with them. It’s really cool!
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Punctuation bookends
I’m pretty hot for these quote-unquote bookends, made of concrete with a synthetic rubber cover.
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Toddler in MENSA
Georgia Brown of Hampshire, England, has a 152 IQ and is the youngest member of MENSA. She’s two years old. Brown’s parents noticed how clever she was after she started crawling at five months, walking at nine, and chatting with people by the time she was eighteen months old.
From the BBC News:
(Middlesex University) psychologist Joan Freeman, who tested Georgia, said she thought the toddler could have scored even higher but needed a nap after 45 minutes of work…
She told the BBC: “She is two years, nine months – not very much older than a toddler really – and she is able to answer questions five and six-year-olds can’t.
“The test uses questions like ‘If brother is to boy, then sister is to …?’. If you take a normal two-year-old, they cannot hold a pencil, they don’t know the colours and they would not be able to answer those simple questions.
“The thing I found most striking was the copying of a circle. Most two-year-olds cannot do that but she drew a perfect one.
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CIA secret documents just declassified
The Central Intelligence Agency has just declassified 700 pages of documents about such creepy, strange, and titillating subjects as “cranks, nuts, and screwballs,” “Soviet Tactical Laser Weapons,” and “USSR-UFO Sightings.” For example, here’s a section of the mostly-redacted thriller “(TITLE DELETED)-USSR-UFO SIGHTINGS-SOMEONE MUST HAVE MADE A POLITICAL DECISION”:
One one occasion XXXX asked if the U.S. forecast has even bothered with U.F.O. sightings. He explained that one time the XXXXXXXXX and the XXX in particular, has been plagued with calls and questions about the U.F.O. sightings. He said that some of their scientific balloon flights had prompted some of them. Now, he said, he never gets these calls anymore and half joking surmised that someone must have made a political decision that they were not to be sighted anymore.
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Drug addled driver makes mess of farmer’s field
A driver allegedly zonked on cocaine tried to elude police by driving through a cornfield. The moron ruined the farmer’s crop, as seen in this photo.
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1000 Science Lecture Videos
SciTalks – from the press release [19 June]: "The site launches today with over 1,000 lectures online, and more are being added daily. Segments range from a series of hour-long lectures by the late Richard Feynman, to a short, hilarious Ali G interview with Noam Chomsky, and a fascinating talk on designing a semiconductor-based brain, by up-and-coming Stanford researcher Kwabena Boahen."
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Suspect has identifying characteristics.
“Prisoner kills officer at Utah hospital.” Gee, I wonder how they caught him?
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5. ColdFusion
The top 10 dead (or dying) computer skills. "Obsolescence is a relative — not absolute — term in the world of technology."
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Virtuoso Vertiginousness
Vertigo got you spinning? The answers to your problems and more are available at the Hitchcock DVD Wiki.
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Testing
BTW, in case you didnt notice, I’m goofing around with a new style or two. Stay tuned.
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One thing leads to another.
The folks from Japanese public TV’s excellent children’s show "Pythagora Switch" have for several years been creating some of the most delightful and inventive Rube Goldberg-esque contraptions you’re likely to ever see. Here’s a 9 minute clip featuring lots of these little kinetic masterpieces, guaranteed to entertain.
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Boy Gets in Trouble at School with “No Touching” Policy
Boy’s Hug Lands Him in Trouble At School With “No Touching” Policy. 7th grader Hal Beaulieu “hopped up from his lunch table one day a few months ago, sat next to his girlfriend and slipped his arm around her shoulder. That landed him a trip to the school office.” Handshakes could be gang signs, and officials note, “in a culturally diverse school…families might have different views of what is appropriate.” The PTA President remarks: “”Even high-fives can get out of hand … someone can get bonked in the head.” (CNN News Video)
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“The Following PREVIEW Has Been Approved ONLY for age-appropriate internet users.”
Nearly all movie trailers shown in theaters, and on the web, come with a so-called green tag, saying they are approved for all audiences, or a red tag, saying they are approved for only restricted audiences. Since 2000, many theaters will not run red tag trailers; Warner Brothers will not make red tag trailers, and Universal Pictures has not ran one in theaters since "American Pie" in 1999. Wishing to show audiences more "edgy" previews, the producers are looking to the internet.
Rob Zombie�s �Halloween� remake became the first to display a new yellow tag, signaling that the movie was rated PG-13 or above, and the preview was �approved only for age-appropriate Internet users� � mandatd by the MPAA as visitors to sites either frequented mainly by grown-ups (as determined by Nielsen’s Web Demographic reports) or accessible only between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m.
This August�s �Superbad� (autoplay music…) has an R-rated, red tag internet trailer, which MPAA regulations require a viewer to pass an age-verification test, in which the viewer 17 and older has to match their name, birthday and ZIP code against public government records on file.”
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The Flying Karamazov Brothers’ Comedy of Errors
In 2003, the Flying Karamazov Brothers workshopped a piece with The Bobs entitled "The Comedy of Eras". In 1992, they performed a show about Le Pétomane billed as "A Comedy of Airs". And in 1983, they started the cycle by creating a vaudeville adaptation of Shakespeare’s "The Comedy of Errors". When they brought this adaptation back to the stage in 1987, PBS aired a performance live from Lincoln Center. Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of that broadcast, and if you enjoy good juggling or bad Shakespeare, you can celebrate by watching it online: part 1, part 2.
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Nature Slowly Reclaims Abandoned Amusement Park
Chippewa Lake Park is a former amusement park in Ohio; opened in 1878, it closed in 1978 due to lack of attendance. During the decades since then, the ballroom, roller coasters & other rides have lain abandoned as the surrounding forest reclaims them.
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Man kills attacking bobcat
Dale Rippy, 62, killed a rabid bobcat with his bare hands when it attacked him on his porch in Wesley Chapel, Florida. The Vietnam vet was later treated for bites, scratches, and exposure to rabies. From Associated Press:
Dale Rippy endured the (25 pound) bobcat�s slashes and bites until it clawed into a position where he could grab it by the throat. Then he strangled it.
When I read this, I flashed back to some storys Firlotte.com told me about his father. Heh.
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The Last Link is a Reward for Getting Through the First Link
The concept of alphabetization was invented at the Great Library of Alexandria in the third century BC, with words grouped by first letter. It wasn’t until 1053, in the Elementarium doctrinae erudimentum that recursive alphabetization (where "Aab" comes before "Aac" and after "Aaa") appeared in rudimentary form.
You’d think that by now we’d have the process down, but controversies still rage. Does "sea foam" come before "seaborne"? Does "Michael Jackson" come before "Nick Cave"? Throw in international characters and an occasional foray into ASCIIbetical order and it’s no wonder the alphabet can be so frustrating.
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Theremin Crazy
Two words: Hip Hop and Theremin. Turns out the weird, spooky sci-fi noise machine plays all sorts of good music: Video Killed the Radio Star, The Legend of Zelda and sometimes, in the right hands, it speaks of a man’s love of White Castle.
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“What a beautiful world this will be. What a glorious time to be free.”
It’s been nearly 50 years since the beginning of the International Geophysical Year (IGY), an 18-month period of scientific activities and discoveries that ran from July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958. Both the US and the USSR launched the world’s first artificial satellites during the IGY (Sputnik 1 and Explorer 1). Other achievements of the IGY included the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts and the mapping of mid-ocean ridges. The IGY also inspired at least one artistic endeavor: Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen wrote his 1982 solo song "I.G.Y. (International Geophysical Year)" as an homage to 50s optimism.
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It’s a girl
15 year old Indian boy performs a Caesarean Section on pregnant woman in presence of his Doctor parents. Father stands by his son�and says he did nothing wrong.
RobDurdle.com 
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