So, Dash gets this thing in a Happy Meal or, some such.
I’m not entirely sure when I first encountered Pokemon. Probably not long after they were invented. The five oldest kids all had cards and whatever else. I never noticed this guy before. Holy crap! His little butt (eh, thingy) even lights up!
Oh yeah. Hi. It’s been a while.
Will try to get back to posting 🙂
Aging Japan builds robot to look after elderly. This is exactly the kinds of paradox that Japan consistantly demonstrates. Elders being sacred in society… I dunno.
Christo & Jeanne-Claude’s, “The Gates” went up in Central Park. Flickr has a keyword “gates” for individuals pictures of them. Or, you could do a google image search for them as well. Both should improve over time.
There will be zero-tolerance for random acts of kindness. Two teenage girls who surprised their neighbors with homemade cookies late one night were ordered to pay nearly $900 in medical bills for a woman who says she was so startled that she had to go to the hospital.
Frightened, she (the woman) spent the night at her sister’s home, then went to the hospital the next morning because she was still shaking and had an upset stomach.
The article goes on:
The teenagers’ families offered to pay Young’s medical bills, but she declined and sued, saying their apologies were not sincere and were not offered in person.
The girls declined comment after the ruling. Taylor’s mother said the girl “cried and cried.”
“She felt she was being punished for doing something nice,” Jill Ostergaard said.
Young said the teenagers showed “very poor judgment”
“The victory wasn’t sweet,” Young said. “I’m not gloating about it. I just hope the girls learned a lesson.”
The teens said they did not answer when the woman called out because they wanted the treats to be a surprise.
USDA goes to public for ways to fight fat… This is an old story, not sure how I missed it but, here goes.
The USDA held the first of a series of conferences designed to raise nutrition awareness in this “alarmingly obesce nation” of ours. That’s not the important part. They held it in Manteca California who’s name in Spanish means… (wait for it)… lard.
Stay tuned to mental heath awareness month, soon to be kicked off in Waco Texas.
Matt Drudge is reporting that Michael Moore’s website hosting and design has been outsourced to a Canadian company:
“…Advocate Michael Moore may have released a book titled DUDE, WHERE’S MY COUNTRY?, and may have vaulted to stardom documenting worker’s rights and corporate malfeasance in Flint, Michigan, but that has not stopped Moore from outsourcing his website design and servers — to companies based in Canada!…”
There’s a lot wrong with this, yes… But, I can’t help but to giggle at the irony since I contacted him in 1996 or 1997 about becoming his webmaster. I never heard from him on the matter. Makes sense when you look around at this place, I suppose. But still, I was a web guy, I was from Flint and I was driving 115 miles a day to work in Detroit. Well, I thought it was a good idea at the time. Guess that’s why I’m still a Flint turd and he’s got a Oscar on his mantel.
A UK student sold her virginity to the highest bidder, a 44 year old engineer for about 15,400 US.
Rosie Reid, a lesbian, cooked up the plan to help defer debt upon graduation from university as a (get this…) social policy major.
“I felt obliged… to please him as he had just paid all this money.” But she added: “It didn’t feel like it was happening to me. I felt like I was watching it happen to someone else. I was just so relieved when it was over… I was desperate to get back to Jess (her lover) as I felt so uncomfortable.” The next morning she said she joined her partner and they “just cried and cried”.
I’m so sorry for you Rosie but, this is one that you’ll look back upon when you are old and cringe.
As we speak, armed people believe they are hunting a dinosaur in Papua New Guinea. Don’t believe me? I can’t wait to see how this turns out.
A Utah woman is in criminal custody for refusing a c-section delivery of her twin babies. She signed waivers and walked out of the hospital, the babies were stillborn and she’s being charged with 2 counts of first-degree murder. Described as having a history of mental illness and citing that she didn’t want the scars left by the procedure.
…Rowland moved to Utah with a boyfriend and is either divorced or estranged from her husband, Sikora said. Court records show she was living on Social Security disability benefits…
My question is this, if they are lining up for an insanity defense (which they clearly are) and win, whom in the social services system, including the hospital, will be charged with murder instead of this woman? Since (apparently) someone must be responsible for the lives of the unborn. Why did no one in “the system” move to declare her incompetent? Where were the right-to-lifers on this one? What is the executive branch and it’s christian conservatives plan for 15-20 million scenarios such as this across the country? Perhaps this wouldn’t have happened at all if she was picking cotton on some welfare to work plantation?
And the executive branch says social programs are over-funded and that cuts are justified.
The moral of the story: Don’t hit cops with snow shovels. No matter how crazy you are.
Voices from the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories
Voices from the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories provides the opportunity to listen to former slaves describe their lives. These interviews, conducted between 1932 and 1975, capture the recollections of twenty-three identifiable people born between 1823 and the early 1860s and known to have been former slaves.
New Scientist has a series of global mega-disasters that is nicely written and illustrated. Don’t expect to find weak blips in earth history such as Chernobyl or the Chicago fire. These are the kinds of things we’ve never seen (nor would survive) in our fleeting human history. (via linkfilter)
Last wounded U.S. WWI veteran dies at 108
Alfred Pugh, the last known combat-wounded U.S. veteran of World War I, has died. He was 108, just 10 days short of his 109th birthday, when he died Wednesday.
Pugh, who often told visitors the key to a long life is “keep breathing,” joined the Army in 1917 and fought in France during World War I with the 77th Infantry Division. In 1918, he was wounded during the Meusse-Argonne offensive, one of the war’s bloodiest battles.
Amazing, utterly amazing to me. A wonderful generation is almost all gone now. If you know any of the WWI generation alive (born between 1890-1920) cherish them and spend every moment you possibly can.
China Sentences Two to Life for Sex Party
According to news reports, about 400 Japanese men and as many as 500 Chinese hostesses had sex at a Zhuhai hotel over a three-day period that ended on Sept. 18. That was the anniversary of a Japanese attack on a city in China’s northeast in 1931 that many Chinese regard as the start of Japan’s World War II invasion and occupation.
The inflation calculator is a site I can never find when I need it.
For some reason I can’t remember what search terms to even get google to find it for me. I stumbled across it accidental and wanted to put it here so that I can find it later, when I need. Now all I have to remember is that it is here… which I probably won’t.
Elderly, blind and diabled Portland woman files suit for being tackled by four police officers, hit with pepper spray and stung by a taser gun. Her prosthetic eye reportedly fell out during the incident.
A $4 million dollar lawsuit was filed on Tuesday. If these allegations are true, I hope she is awarded 4 times that amount.
“I thought it was hail and I said to my wife, Ginger, it’s hailing,” he said. “I went back to reading my paper and then I saw the things were still there and were not melting. I went out and saw hundred of these white things.”
Apparently, deposited by hurricane Isabel, houses on either side of him were untouched.
Find your place on the Global Rich List. How rich are you? (via metafilter)
Here’s a state to state 1010 telephone rate comparison website. Find what the real cost of those “10 10” numbers is. Many times, it’s a lot more than the commercials lead you to believe.