Obama & Clinton tattoos

People are really getting fired over their favorite 2008 political candidates. A couple folks have even paid for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton tattoos! Oh the humanity!

(No reports yet of anyone getting inked with the mug of John McCain.)

Barack Obama

Hillary Clinton

2008 Roofball World Championships

In 1988, eighth-grader Adam Willis began playing catch with his new rugby ball by hurling it onto the steep roof of his home in Beaverton, OR and catching it as it rolled back down. Over the years, the game came to be known as Roofball, and developed its own set of rules (including points for hitting the home’s chimney, and deductions for hitting the parked car in the driveway). By 2008, the sport had evolved into a 24 person tournament – with segments broadcast on cable access television.

Below are video segments from this year’s tournament:

Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4

Jack O’Connell: “Need a little lunch action?”

In late February 2008, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell delivered remarks on improving accountability in California’s struggling school districts.

Midway through the event, 12-year old Theo Scott-Femenella fainted while on stage and was immediately assisted by Gov. Schwarzenegger. While the incident made national headlines – few people noticed Jack O’Connell’s (who was speaking) half-hearted concern for the poor kid.

Watch the CNN video below and the full video and transcript here:

Jack O’Connell [to the boy]: “Doing okay?  Need a little lunch action here?”

 LOL!  Lunch action!?  Maybe the next educational bill should provide for “mid-morning snacks”?

Jack O’Connell [to the remaining kids]: “You guys okay-wanna to rest for a minute-need some water?  You cool? Do you want to spread out a little bit?  Can you spread out for a second or two?“

The funniest part (see full video) is that O’Connell speaks so rapidly that the kids cannot reasonably respond to his questions. What if one of them had really wanted to rest?  Would O’Connell have stopped the press conference?   He finally resorts to telling them to “spread out” (an old home remedy to improve blood circulation?) not indefinitely… just briefly… for “a second or two”. 

O’Connell was no doubt trying to be helpful here – but his demeanor is quite humorous!

Honey, I shrunk the world

Using a photoshop technique called Tilt and Shift, photographers can make large objects appear to be minature. More examples are available here and elsewhere. Here are some of my favorites:

Since I’m too lazy to credit all the photographers – click here - see the originals and find out who created them! 

Los Angeles, USA:

A busy marketplace:

Minack Theatre, Cornwall, England:

Canadian Pacific train:

Edinburgh Park, UK:

Busy expressway (whereabout unknown):

Mini construction:

Tiny workshop:

Scottish Parliament:

Metro Main Street:

 

Throw David Archuleta a bone!

Talk about pouring lemon juice in a festering paper cut: Not only did David Archuleta lose in his bid to become the next American Idol, he also appears to have placed second in Idaho’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.

David J. Archuleta (video), hailing from Fort Hall, Idaho, came in a strong second to Larry LaRocco in a recent statewide election.  Perhaps a couple renditions of John Lennon’s Imagine on the ol’ campaign trail, would have yielded a different outcome!

 

The king(s) who ate too much

Few would disagree that U.S. President William Howard Taft probably consumed more than his fair share of calories throughout his lifetime. But, sheesh, at least he could hold down a good meal!

Sadly, overconsumption of rich foods was the downfall of Adolph Federick (1710-1771) King of Sweden, who died from massive digestive complications after scarfing down lobsters, caviar, sauerkraut, kippers (whole herrings split from head to tail), and champagne, topped off with 14 rounds of selma, his favorite dessert.

King Adolph was not the only king in history to gorge himself into oblivion. Henry I of England died of food poisioning after inhaling an absurd amount of lamphreys: a jawless, blood-sucking eel. Barf!

Compulsive hoarders: The Collyer Brothers

Brothers Homer and Langly Collyer, who both died in 1947, became famous for their amazingly filthy home and reclusive lifestyles. Although some journalists of the day were exceedingly harsh in reporting their unusual behavior, we know today that the Collyer brothers likely suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder and disposophobia (a.k.a. compulsive hoarding).

They reached fame in 1947 when neighbors detected a horrible odor coming from the Collyer brothers’ home. When police arrived to investigate, they were unable to proceed past the front door due to huge piles of newspapers, books, furniture and rubbish. The police eventually gained access through a second floor window, and after searching for hours through mountains of belongings, they eventually found the decaying body of Homer Collyer, who had died of starvation. Langly Collyer, was nowhere to be found.

The police began a sytematic removal of all the junk in the house. The process took weeks and resulted in the removal of over 100 tons of trash. Wikipedia gives a substantial list of the some of the items discovered:

 ”Items… included rope, baby carriages, a doll carriage, rakes, umbrellas, rusted bicycles, old food, potato peelers, a collection of guns, glass chandeliers, bowling balls, camera equipment, the folding top of a horse-drawn carriage, a sawhorse, three dressmaking dummies, painted portraits, Mrs. Collyer’s hope chests, rusty bed springs, the kerosene stove, a checkerboard, a child’s chair (the brothers were lifelong bachelors and childless), more than 25,000 books (including thousands of books about medicine and engineering and more than 2,500 on law), human organs pickled in jars, eight live cats, a beaded lampshade, the chassis of the old Model T Langley had been tinkering with, one British and six American flags, tapestries, hundreds of yards of unused silks and fabric, clocks, fourteen pianos (both grand and upright), a clavichord, two organs, banjos, violins, bugles, accordions, a gramophone and records, and, of course, countless bundles of newspapers and magazines, some of them decades old. Near the spot where Homer died, police also found 34 bank account passbooks with a total of $3,007.18.”

The body of Langly Collyer was eventually discovered close to where Homer had died and buried under three large stacks of newspapers and a suitcase. Langly was likely killed while trying to bring food to his brother; crawling through a tunnel within the rubbish, which gave way and crushed him. Homer, both blind and paralized, died of malnutrition soon after.

A saddening story in terms of the brothers’ struggle with mental illness and sudden demise, as well as the national media’s sensationalized coverage, the Collyer brothers’ legacy has shaped American culture in unexpected ways. For example, the term “Collyer mansion” has become an American slang phrase for a home overpacked with junk. The term “Collyer brothers’ sydrome” is also used by some to describe compulsive hoarding behaviors.

Telectroscope connects New York and London

Have you ever wanted to dig a hole so deep in your backyard that it reached China? Neither have I. But some people have wanted to look inside a giant victorian style telescope and gaze at passersby in the streets of New York and London. Nuts huh? Artist Paul St George has created such a contraption, which he calls a “Telectroscope”. Sadly, its not a real telescope connecting New York and London. Blast! But it is a cool invention which uses streaming broadband video to create such an illiusion. For the price of 1 pound the citizens of both cities can peer into the device. Friends in both cities may use it to say ‘hello’ or even propose marriage!

Fruity Bus Stops

A Japanese designer is making a name for himself/herself designing fruit-themed bus stops for several cities. For the life of me, I cannot figure out who the designer is and what these are all about. If you can help with this, please visit this website and report back!

Crazy Norwegian Bikelift

I rode my 1969 Schwinn Continental today. What a rush! One cannot deny the combined pleasure of warm weather, blue skies, STEEP HILLS….ugh! The citizens of Trondheim, Norway however, have developed an ingenious public service for conquering their paved inclines: the Sykkelheis (Municipal Bike Lift).

The lift consists of a metal track which guides and powers a petal to the top of the hill. Users sit on their bike with one foot standing on the moving pedal. For 100 NOK ($20) riders can operate the lift for 15 minutes. Here’s a video:

View full size photos here.