Whoops. This could have very easily killed or injured someone. I am glad they will not be airing the footage.
‘MythBusters’ hosts: Sorry about that cannonball
Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer | San Francisco Chronicle | December 8, 2011
The special-effects gurus who host the television show “MythBusters” were cast Wednesday in an ignominious role: visiting a home on a quiet street in Dublin and apologizing to a family for firing a 30-pound cannonball through their front door a day earlier.
“Come in,” said Hitha Shetty, 39, ushering show hosts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage across a floor still speckled with paint and plaster.
Behind Shetty was damage more likely to be found on a pirate ship than a two-story tract home. A round hole scarred an interior wall and, beyond that, another hole showed where the cannonball had exited the upstairs master bedroom as Shetty’s wife, Seema, napped with the couple’s 2-year-old son.
After assuring Shetty, his two children, his wife and her parents that they would never again blast a home with heavy ordnance, Hyneman and Savage said the incident was the worst thing that had happened during thousands of experiments over eight years on the Discovery Channel show.
They also promised they wouldn’t air the footage they had filmed of the near-catastrophic cannon shot.
Archeologist Richard Hansen explains the detail on a Mayan panel in the northern Guatemalan Peten jungle. Image Reuters
Mayan prediction of 2012 apocalypse ‘a marketing fallacy’
By Pepe Cortes | Reuters | Dec 2, 2011 – 12:13 PM ET
If you are worried the world will end next year based on the Mayan calendar, relax: the end of time is still far off.
So say Mayan experts who want to dispel any belief that the ancient Mayans predicted a world apocalypse next year.
The Mayan calendar marks the end of a 5,126 year old cycle around December 12, 2012 which should bring the return of Bolon Yokte, a Mayan god associated with war and creation.
Author Jose Arguelles called the date “the ending of time as we know it” in a 1987 book that spawned an army of Mayan theorists, whose speculations on a cataclysmic end abound online. But specialists meeting at this ancient Mayan city in southern Mexico say it merely marks the termination of one period of creation and the beginning of another.
Anne Marie Kennedy. Image Owen South/Limerick Leader
Effin woman launches online fight for Facebook recognition Facebook wipes small Irish village off the map because it deems name of Effin in Co Limerick obscene
Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent | guardian.co.uk, Friday 2 December 2011
Facebook may have its European headquarters in Dublin but the social networking site has wiped a small Irish village off the map because its name is deemed obscene.
Effin in County Limerick has been branded “offensive” by Facebook and is blocked from the site.
A native of the village has now started an online battle to get Effin recognised by the site.
Anne Marie Kennedy, who works at the University of Limerick, said yesterday that she, along with several more friends, have been trying to insert the village name into the “home” section of their Facebook profiles in recent months. But they have not been successful.
Claws for thought: Sue Vanwyk with colleague Jacqui Ward and a model lobster at Martin Hobbs fishmongers
That’s a fishy tale, sir! Police arrest man for ‘kill and stab’ threat on Facebook after buying lobsters for dinner
By Craig Mackenzie | 26th November 2011 | www.dailymail.co.uk
A shopper landed in hot water with the police after he bought two lobsters for dinner.
They swooped when he wrote on Facebook about his plan to go into town ‘to kill’ and ‘stab something in the neck’.
Four officers in bullet-proof vests handcuffed the suspect outside the Martin Hobbs fishmongers in Market Harborough, Leicestershire.
That Viral Story About The Poor Woman Stuck With The Poop Tattoo? Sorry, It’s Totally Full Of Crap.
November 29, 2011 | thesmokinggun.com
That viral story about the Ohio man who purportedly tattooed a pile of excrement on the back of his wayward girlfriend?
Fake. Fake. Fake
As the fable goes, “Rossie Brovent” was expecting her boyfriend, “Ryan L. Fitzjerald,” to ink a scene from “Narnia” on her back. Instead, having found out that “Rossie” had cheated on him, a vindictive “Fitzjerald” retaliated by delivering a tattoo of a steaming, swirly pile of excrement encircled by several flies.
“Rossie” claimed “Fitzgerald” tricked her into drinking a bottle of “cheap wine” and tequila shots, which incapacitated her for most of the time it took him to ink the tattoo.
According to the story–which is accompanied by a photo of the purported tattoo–“Brovent” this month filed a $100,000 civil lawsuit against “Fitzjerald.” The former couple are described as “trailer park residents” from Dayton in the story.
As seen above, the photo appears legitimate. In fact, it first surfaced online about 18 months ago as part of a “Worst Tattoo of the Day” post on the blog I Am Bored.
The image reappeared this week–complete with a backstory about the fractured love of “Rossie” and “Ryan”–on a sketchy “weird news” web site that appears to be dedicated to ginning up its Googe AdSense impressions.
A review of court indices, of course, shows no such civil complaint has ever been filed (either in federal or state court) by “Brovent.” James Druber, administrator of the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court (where Dayton residents file their six-figure complaints), said that he had heard nothing about the purported tattoo lawsuit.
Oh the dangers of living in a Mc Mansion near a petting zoo.
click to embiggen
Zebras roam Leesburg neighborhood
By Autria Godfrey | November 29, 2011 | www.wjla.com
A pair of zebras went galloping through a Loudoun County neighborhood Tuesday.
Neighbors in Leesburg were shocked when they saw the wild animals on their street.
“I think I’ve had too much coffee today, I think I’m seeing zebras in front of the house,” Dianne Murphy posted on Facebook when she awoke to the graceful animals grazing in front of her yard.
“It was just a little chaotic and surprising and they’re very beautiful animals but you’re kinda thinking where are they going to go?” Murphy said.
The two zebras had roamed less than a mile from the Leesburg animal zoo when a maintenance worker accidentally left a gate open.
Now that Thanksgiving is out of the way, let the Christmas season begin! Is this excessive force? Was a canine unit really needed at a holiday parade?
In this Friday, Nov. 25, 2011, photo, Kevin Walsh is seen dressed as Frosty the Snowman during the celebration of the arrival of Santa Claus at Fountain Park in Chestertown, Md. Walsh was arrested Saturday during the annual Christmas parade in Chestertown, on Maryland's Eastern Shore. He's accused of scuffling with police and kicking at a police dog. (AP Photo/The Star-Democrat, Kevin Hemstock)
Happier days... Frosty the Snowman pilots his small boat down the Potomac River on Christmas Eve December 24, 2010, at Maryland's National Harbor. (PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)
Frosty's Mug shot. Image thesmokinggun.com
Inside the Frosty meltdown in Chestertown Arrest is the fifth this year for longtime parade participant
By Tricia Bishop | The Baltimore Sun | November 28, 2011
Joan Zellers says her granddaughters will forever remember this year’s Christmas parade as the one when “Frosty got busted.”
They were standing Saturday morning on High Street in Chestertown, watching the annual holiday parade march by, when the big fluffy snowman came their way. Lilly, 9, and Maddie, 11, dutifully posed as Grandma snapped a photo — one of the last taken of Frosty as a free man.
Within minutes, two police officers had the so-called jolly, happy soul face down on the sidewalk in front of the Compleat Bookseller, raising a ruckus as his hands were cuffed behind his back. The round, white head lay forlornly at his feet, top hat and carrot nose still in place.
The image was “very unsettling” for the girls, Zellers said Monday. “They’ll be talking about this parade for a long time.”
Whether you camped out for a weeks for a Black Friday Deal today or are celebrating BUY NOTHING DAY you can still enjoy some of these fine sports.
Weird Turkey and Thanksgiving Sports
By Maryam Louise | Yahoo! | 11/22/11
Are you and your family or friends looking for a new way to celebrate Thanksgiving that doesn’t involve shopping for Black Friday deals? If you want to go beyond the annual shirts versus skins backyard football game, consider using the turkey as the object of your sport. It will not only encourage others to get up off of the couch, but weird turkey-related sports are a good way to show the kids who the real black sheep of the family is.
Historic weird Turkey Day sports
For over a century, Thanksgiving has been a time of sports traditions. Of course, we are all familiar with the football related history of Thanksgiving Day, but few are aware of all of the games related to the fourth Thursday in November throughout time. For example, an 1922 article from the Miami News tells a tale of sports related to Thanksgiving at the State College for Women in Tallahassee.
In 1922, it was common to stay on campus during Thanksgiving rather than commute back to your hometown. For this reason, having a day off meant an opportunity for participating in bizarre sports. These ladies were mimicking the already well-established tradition of Thanksgiving football games by dividing the student body into Evens and Odds. The two teams commenced to participate in a variety of competitive events including football, singing, color rushing, and a pajama and lantern parade. However, none of those sports included using a turkey as the sporting object.
The Occupy Wall Street movement has found a defining image in the pepper spraying cop meme you’ve probably seen floating on the intertubes lately. The casual, nonchalant use of pepper spray against seated and silent protesters at UC Davis is referenced in dozens of images where unlikely and similarly peaceful targets also get pepper sprayed.
If you haven’t, please take a moment to view the original video of the protest and police response. It is shocking.
To help flesh out the backstory below are definitions of meme and a blurb of what happened on the UC Davis campus.
Wikipedia – The term Internet meme (meem)[1] is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet.[2] The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.
dictionary-meme |mēm| noun Biology
an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, esp. imitation.
FACTS & FIGURES-from presstv.com
On November 18, UC Davis campus police used pepper spray against students protesting social inequality and tuition hikes at the University of California, Davis. wsws.org
The sticker price of studying and living on campus at the average public university has risen 5.4 percent for in-state students, or about $1,100, to $21,447 this fall, the College Board estimated. Tuition at the average public university has jumped 8.3 percent to $8,244. Chicago Tribune
The Occupy Wall Street movement that started in New York City on September 17 is protesting the income gap between Americans with the highest incomes and those with lower incomes and criticizes the greed of the nation’s wealthiest people. Occupytogether.org
Below are a few of the dozens of images of the pepper spraying cop meme that have been culled from random sources. Click to embiggen.
Ahhhhh. What a great little story, made better even by puppies!
WHO'S A CLEVER BOY? Sam the African Grey parrot with the litter of Pomeranian puppies whose lives he saved . Image blackburncitizen.co.uk
WHO'S A CLEVER BOY? Sam with Suzanna and her pets. Image blackburncitizen.co.uk
Talking parrot woke owner with news of newborn puppies
by Paul Byrne, Daily Mirror 9/11/2011
A CARING parrot alerted his sleeping owner that her dog had given birth by squawking “come on, come on”.
Suzanna Bolton was woken by the talking bird jumping on her head and mimicking her voice.
She took him back to his perch downstairs but he looked at her and squawked again – and she discovered her dog had delivered six puppies a week early.
One had died and four-year-old Pomeranian Sally and her other five pups were in distress on a cold, wet, kitchen floor. Suzanna, 55, said of her African grey parrot Sam: “He seemed to know something was wrong and came looking for me to help.
Oh brother, how hip and with it can ya get Swedish churches.
Random image result for "techno" music, whch is often played at large parties called "raves" where the altering substance of choice is often the drug Ecstasy.
Sweden Church Replaces Gospel With Techno to Lure Youth to Worship
By Matthew Cortina | Christian Post Contributor | global.christianpost.com
A church in Sweden is attempting to lure Christian youth to worship services by offering “techno mass”-a ceremony in which blaring techno music replaces traditional songs.
The Church of All Saints in Stockholm will illuminate this Sunday with strobe lights flashing and techno beats thumping. The Lutheran church says it is modifying worship in order to get more young people into the pews on Sunday morning.
27-year-old priest Olle Idestrom is organizing the event. “Techno mass” started last week and Idestrom said the feedback has been entirely positive.
Idestrom said he had to turn away people wishing to attend last Sunday’s techno mass.
