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Photos of Chilean Mine Rescue

13 Oct

The Boston Globe has, as usual, a stunning gallery of the rescue.  Lots of awkward encounters between mistresses and wives though.

Links: 10/6

6 Oct

1) Strange Plastic Surgery: Rumors are flying that the heir-apparent in North Korea— Kim Jong-un— had surgery to resemble his grandfather.

2) You Better Go Vote on November 2: Because this year’s elections are predicted to cost more than $5 billion. That’s five times more than the Presidential Election of 2008.

3) Legendary Polygamist Dies: Akuku “Danger” had more than 200 children and leaves 100 widows. He founded two elementary schools and a church for his family’s personal use. When he passed away at the age of 93, he left a 3 month old son, among many others.

4) Another Fad Bites the Dust: A recent poll reveals that Android has become the most popular operating system among smart phone buyers in recent month. iPhone and Blackberry are tied for second. Still, there is no chance of seeing all those iPhones disappear anytime soon.

5) No Big Success: CNN’s Parker Spitzer, a new late-night talk show featuring ex-New York governor Elliot Spitzer, debuted to awful ratings.

6) Sun Chips Are Environmentally Friendly (Up to a Point): The noisy, but easy to compost bags, have been scrapped. Too noisy.

7) Is This a Joke: MTV is reportedly going to bring back “Punk’d” with new host— Justin Bieber.

8) He’s So Smooth: Obama handles a prop malfunction with grace.

Links: 8/26

26 Aug

1) Google’s Pumped: Yesterday, Google released a feature that allows people to call phones from their Gmail account.  This feature resembles Skype, the popular video chatting application.  Today, Google tweeted that 1,000,000 million phone calls had been made since the launch.

2) Surprise Viral Hit Gets Star Treatment (Again): In late July, a local news broadcast in Huntsville, Alabama first told the story of Dodson family.  One of the family members, Antoine, drew the attention of Auto-Tune the News.  The Gregory brother produced a version of the song that would be sold on iTunes and would even place on the Hot 100 chart last week. Today, a bunch of punk artists recorded their own version of the song.

3) DC Mayoral Race Music: Last week, I told you of one new song in favor of current mayor Adrian Fenty.  Now, a new music has emerged and the DCist blog has reviewed it.

4) Texting habits: a recent survey examines how we, as a people, text and use cell phones by race and gender.

5) A New “Dilemma”: Author Michael Pollan of “Omnivore’s Dilemma” fame, believes it’s worthwhile to spend more on eggs because:

“when we’re spending billions to deal with a salmonella outbreak, [food] isn’t really as cheap as it seems”

6) Terrorists Like Avril: This story is not so funny.  Canadian police arrested three men on charges of terrorism against targets in Canada and abroad.  But the story took a bit of a turn when footage emerged of one of the men trying out on “Canadian Idol.” He sang Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated” (poorly) and did the moonwalk.

7) Funny, but Accurate

Lovely Links

25 Aug

I’ve stumbled upon some bizarre and awesome links recently.  I might turn this into a daily (or weekly) sort of thing, so keep your eyes peeled.

1) Colorado Politics: Democratic candidate for governor John Hickenlooper is enjoying a large lead ahead of this year’s contest.  It’s so large that he was able to put up this odd commercial.

2) Vermont Senate:  When you’re facing an established US Senator who’s predicted to coast to victory this year, you have to work hard to distinguish yourself, especially in the primaries.  Daniel Freilich tried really hard, but lost.  He did, however, leave us this gem of a commercial. It reminds us of this other gem. [Hat tip: Midd Blog]

3) Apparently, poets from the old days used texting lingo.

4) Want to find discount airline fares?  This site has the cutest mascot around.

News From Italy

23 Aug

1. You’re in Good Hands at the Ocean: They may be the cutest lifesaving device ever.  A series of elite lifeguards participates in a three-year training program before they are certified to help the 3,000 people that need rescuing each summer on the Italian beaches.  They are: dogs.

2. Vicious Corn War: the battle over genetically modified corn has turned violent.  One farmer, Giorgio Fidenato, took on the European Union and the Italian government when he planted two fields of genetically modified corn this past April.  Fidenato was defiant and granted interviews about his corn, which he said fought off a devastating pest in the area.  Recently, environmental groups found and destroyed a large portion of his crop.  We’ll see where the battle ends.

3. Pay up: With Italy facing an increasingly shaky economy, they need to collect tax revenue and quickly.  Apparently, they fail to collect $13 billion each year on unpaid taxes on yachts.  Efforts have been stepped up to collect that missing money.

4. Bad News for the Roma people: Long considered an eyesore on the European countryside, this nomadic people now face the force of European police.  France decided last week to expel the Roma people within its borders, even reserving a flight to deport them. One Italian minister praised the decision and urged his country to follow suit.

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