| I just saw something this morning that really made me smile. See, this independent coffee shop opened in Sturbridge while I was away and they get their sleeves for free with ads on them. Here's the latest one:
Anyway:
how is everybody?
cheers,
H. | comments: Leave a comment   |
| highlights of May 23, (my birthday) through the ages:
1430 - Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to relieve Compiègne.
1498 - Girolamo Savonarola is burned at the stake, in Florence, Italy, on the orders of Pope Alexander VI
1568 - Dutch rebels led by Louis of Nassau, brother of William I of Orange, defeat Jean de Ligne, Duke of Aremberg and his loyalist troops in the Battle of Heiligerlee, opening the Eighty Years' War.
1618 - The Second Defenestration of Prague precipitates the Thirty Years' War.
1701 - After being convicted of piracy and of murdering William Moore, Captain William Kidd is hanged in London.
1846 - Mexican-American War: Mexico declares war on the United States.
1934 - American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed by police and killed in Black Lake, Louisiana.
1945 - World War II: Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, commits suicide while in Allied custody.
1985 - U.S. engineer Thomas Patrick Cavanagh is sentenced to life in prison for attempting to sell stealth bomber secrets to the Soviet Union.
1995 - Oklahoma City bombing: In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, what remains of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building is imploded.
yeah, yeah, good stuff happened too, but this is more fun | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| If you thought a hangover was bad ...
A new report says binge drinking has increased to such an extent that cases of 'exploding bladders' are on the rise in the UK. Lucy Atkins reports
Tuesday November 20, 2007
The Guardian
When doctors warn of the dangers of binge drinking, exploding bladders may not immediately spring to mind. However, last week a report in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) made alarming reading. In the report, the medics discuss the unprecedented appearance in emergency wards of women who have suffered alcohol-induced "bladder rupture": their bladders have quite literally torn apart under pressure of a big night out.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2213866,00.html | | comments: Leave a comment |
| This is why I love my mother to death;
She's in Seoul right now on a business trip, and here's her correspondence:
So here I am in my hotel room in Seoul at about 7 pm on Friday. I have been to the convenience store and bought a container of "spaghetti" to be microwaved and a beer and a chocolate-coated green-tea icecream-on-a-stick. I flip on the TV and find a channel that is showing a really cheesy horror movie, obviously approaching its climactic end. There are lots of skeletons. The leading man looks familiar, but I can't quite place him. Finally, the penny drops: it is Bruce Campbell! I am watching "Army of the Dead" with Korean subtitles!
I'll be flying home tomorrow. I'll give you a call and tell you about my trip. It's been pretty cool.
M.
| | comments: Leave a comment |
| October 10, 2007
Australian doctors used an intravenous feed of vodka to keep an Italian tourist alive after he consumed large quantities of a poisonous substance.
The 24-year-old man, in an apparent bid at self-harm, had swallowed ethylene glycol, found in antifreeze, which can cause death.
Doctors administered pure alcohol, the conventional antidote, but exhausted the hospital's supply.
Desperate to continue the treatment the doctors at Mackay Base Hospital in Queensland state hooked up an intravenous feed of vodka, hospital officials said.
"The patient was drip-fed about three standard drinks an hour for three days in the intensive care unit," Todd Fraser said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Fortunately for him he was in a medically induced coma for a good portion of that. By the time he woke up I think his hangover would have well and truly gone," Dr Fraser said.
...
The Italian man was treated in the hospital two months ago and has since made a successful recovery. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| mental note:
if you ever get the urge to jump into oncoming traffic, signal for the car to stop, and then do a little dance, just make sure it's not an unmarked police cruiser.
Queen's kids are lacking, a little bit, the common sense.
on the same topic, we just got this email from the Dean of Applied Science:
You may be aware that the behaviour of Queen's students is being much discussed in the Kingston media, at City Council, and on the street. Permanent residents of the area report frequent noise disruptions and serious problems associated with public drunkenness. The University continues to believe that by far the majority of students conduct themselves appropriately, and that the entire student body should not be blamed for the poor behaviour of a few...
...In addition it has come to my attention that there is clear evidence that students of the Faculty of Applied Science have been engaging in inappropriate behaviour...
...Our profession is highly respected and as engineers we are often in positions of significant trust within companies and society. You cannot become a licensed professional engineer with a criminal record. During your iron ring ceremony you take an obligation for a duty to protect public safety and community welfare...
...The Professional Engineers Ontario Code of Ethics clearly states “professional engineers have a clearly defined duty to society, which is to regard the duty to public welfare as paramount, above their duties to clients or employers. In addition the Code also states that the engineer is expected to act all time “with devotion to high ideals of personal honour and integrity”...
...the behaviour of a minority of students is very seriously damaging the valued reputation of not only the Engineering Profession but that of Queen’s Engineers themselves.
Kimberly A. Woodhouse, Ph.D., P.Eng
Dean
Faculty of Applied Science
Queen's University
Scientist, Associate Director ARTEC
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
The silly thing is that the people who need to read this won't, and those of us who find it hilarious, didn't need it. At my school we get emails like this all the time. Each successive year of new students seems to be drunker and more unruly than the last. I find her call to think of ourselves as members of a profession interesting though, we've never been spoken to like this before, for good reason. No one is going to take it seriously.
The only reason I think that the incidence of citations for public drunkenness etc are up this year is because the pigs are out in force, with nightly patrols. of course, this means my street is a fucking zoo. Some nights I can't get home without being questioned.
Still, I couldn't help cheering when the traffic stopping ass hole went down. That's one of the more entertaining things I've seen in a while.
Anyway, cheers. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| A Swedish man has been granted disability benefits due to an "addiction" to heavy metal music. Playing in two bands, including Silverland, he also attended nearly 300 concerts last year.
Tullgren says he has always had difficulty holding down a job, mainly because he is absent most of the time.
Psychologists decided Tullgren's obsession is nothing less than an addiction, which puts him in a difficult situation in the labour market. Tullgren said he has been fighting for recognition for a long time.
Benefits include part of his salary as a dishwasher, and accommodation from his boss to play loud music.
http://scienceblogs.com/omnibrain/2007/06/heavy_metal_disability.php | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| Be sure to read this info first, then watch the clip.
And you thought those people that set up roomfuls of dominos to knock over were amazing. There are no computer graphics or digital tricks in the film. Everything you see really happened in real time exactly as you see it.
The film took 606 takes. On the first 605 takes, something, usually very minor, didn't work. They would then have to set the whole thing up again. The crew spent weeks shooting night and day. By the time it was over, they were ready to change professions.
The film cost six million dollars and took three months to complete including full engineering of the sequence. In addition, it's two minutes long so every time Honda airs the film on British television, they're shelling out enough dough to keep any one of us in clover for a lifetime . However, it is fast becoming the most downloaded advertisement in Internet history. Honda executives figure the ad will soon pay for it self simply in "free viewings" (Honda isn't paying a dime to have you watch this commercial!). When the ad was pitched to senior executives, they signed off on it immediately without any hesitation - including the costs. Everything; you see in the film (aside from the walls, floor, ramp, and complete Honda Accord) is parts from those two cars.
The voiceover is Garrison Keillor. When the ad was shown to Honda executives, they liked it and commented on how amazing computer graphics have gotten. They fell off their chairs when they found out it was for real. Oh, and about those funky windshield wipers. On the new Accords, the windshield wipers have water sensors and are designed to start doing their thing automatically as soon as they become wet. Check out the link below.
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/honda.php | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | At work I was allocated the small room (cough, closet) that houses the computer the machinists use to put programs on their CNCs. I've ended up staying here though I was going to be moved, and now I think my little room deserves a theme song. I nominate "Little Room" by the White Stripes. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | give a buck or two to Bill Richardson if you've got it to spare. He's a great guy and he'd make an excellent president. Unlike Obama, he'll actually tell you where he stands on the issues and also give you a comprehensive plan of how he intends to reach his goals. Also, people don't hate him as much as they hate Hillary. So then, who's left, Edwards, Kucinich? I think he can take Edwards and, well, most people could beat Kucinich with their arms tied behind their back. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Primus - Bob | | Subject: | moss | | Time: | 09:08 pm |
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| I've started a moss website...
I can explain, really. You see we have this really nice carpetlike moss that grows at my house instead of grass and it's nicer than grass, etc. I want to help it expand, but buying moss is really expensive. so, according to the web my only option is the "moss milkshake", but no one could attest to having tried this and having it work. So, I'm trying it and documenting the experience. Check it out if you like:
http://talkstosocks.googlepages.com/home
yea, it's a googlepage, probably the most plug and play of all the make your own website sites, but i didn't feel like messing around with notepad; i just wanted to get the material down in words. maybe i'll fix it up later and put it on yahoo or something (though their adds have gotten very annoying of late) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Is it silly to rate how good an experience it is by how unhappy you are that it's over? | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | well, we're more than halfway through exam period and the security guard's job here in the library has evolved to chair mover. He walks around replacing chairs where they belong. I wonder if he's got OCD or just bored out of his skull. Security seems like it would be the most boring job in the world barring the few completely absurd events which occur on occasion. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | gonzo | | Time: | 12:44 pm |
|
| I liked these quotes:
For the record, Gonzales hit what many believe to have been a record for "don't recalling" by a Cabinet member appearing before an oversight hearing: 64. And that does not count the dozens of "do-not-remember" and "can't-quite-recollect" variations. Noting that Gonzales said the decision to fire the U.S. Attorneys "just came down to these were not the right people at the right time," the senator looked the Attorney General in the eyes and asked: "If I applied that standard to you, what would you say?" | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
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flan53's journal
