Libraries fight privatization with really dumb video

Libraries in Camarillo, Santa Clarita and Ventura (California) are being targeted for privitization. I'm not condoning or condemning this, but this is a really dumb video:

Click here to go to their website.

Laid off steel workers burn company executive to death

Norm from Cheers

Layoffs are always difficult and emotional. We've all heard the stories or disgruntled workers coming back to seek vengeance after being fired. In India, it appears, handing out those pink slips is even more dangerous. After learning they were laid off at a steel factory, a mob of fired workers burned a senior executive to death. The mob apparently attacked the exec's Jeep, doused it with gasoline and set it on fire. Police are detaining two people in the case. 

They might just want to think about hiring Norm from Cheers to give the bad news next time.

Charlie Sheen is paid to tweet

This from AdFreak.com:  "As you may have noticed, Charlie Sheen just set a new Guinness World Record for being the fastest person ever to reach 1 million Twitter followers....  But he's not just on Twitter for kicks—or to impress more people with the ramblings of his newly enlightened self. He's on it to make money by endorsing products. As GQ reports, Sheen's handlers reached out to Los Angeles-based digital company ad.ly, which set up his Twitter account. Ad.ly specializes in marketing partnerships with celebs, getting folks like Snoop Dogg and Kim Kardashian (and now Sheen) to recommend products and services in exchange for cash (in Kim's case, supposedly $10,000 per tweet). Sheen confirms to TMZ that it's all about the money. ("I'm unemployed!" he points out.) He has yet to make an overt pitch through the account (unless Tigerblood is his forthcoming soft drink), and it remains to be seen whose products he'll endorse. Presumably he will start by peddling his own fragrance. UPDATE: More details here from Brian Morrissey. "We want to be top of mind if they think about monetizing it," says ad.ly CEO Arnie Gullov-Singh. "He may never think of monetizing it.""

How NASA recovers the rocket boosters from the Shuttle

I have always wondered what happened to those rocket boosters that are expelled by the Space Shuttle (RIP) during takeoff. Here's a series or photos from NASA shwoing ust how they recover them from the ocean.

From NASA "The shuttle’s two solid rocket booster casings and associated flight hardware are recovered in the Atlantic Ocean after every launch by Liberty Star and Freedom Star. The boosters impact the Atlantic about seven minutes after liftoff and the retrieval ships are stationed about 10 miles from the impact area at the time of splashdown."

 Credit: Frank Michaux, Ben Smegelsky/NASA

Click here to see more

Sirius XM launching radio station devoted to Charlie Sheen

The feeding frenzy continues. Sirius XM is launching "Tiger Blood Radio" devoted to all things Charlie Sheen. The station will be totally devoted to "breaking news, facts, fallout and career implications of the Charlie Sheen controversy," according a company statement. It will broadcast for 24 hours beginning March 5 at 6 a.m. until March 6 at 6 a.m. 

Sheen declared he had "Tiger Blood" in interviews this week  and it has gone on to become a Twitter trending topic this week.

For the first time I am happy not to have satellite radio!

The new Viagra: Banana spider bite will cause four hour erection

Image via Wikipedia

This is one of those good news/bad news stories. The venom from the Banana Spider, also know as the Wandering Spider, will cause a four hour erection. That's the good news. The bad news is that the condition,called priapism, is actually a painful condition where erections last four hours or more and require medical attention. More bad news: It can also cause loss of muscle control, severe pain, difficulty breathing and death due to oxygen deprivation.

A little more good news, though: Scientists in Brazil have managed to isolate the toxin in the venom that causes priapism and believe it may lead to a new drug for ER (erectile dysfunction for those of you that don't watch TV).

For the moment I would avoid that trip to the banana plantation you might be planning.

Chocolate factory in controlled by iPhone app

This is very cool. This chocolate factory uses an iPhone app to control most of of its manufacturing processes. Willie Wonka would be impressed.  Have a look:

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Man must pay $2,000 every time he smokes a cigar in his home

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This has got to be one of the craziest legal settlements ever.

The New York Post reports that Harry Lysons, 70, of Manhattan has to pay $2,000 every time he lights up a cigar in his home. He must pay his neighbors, Russell and Amanda Poses, $2,000 every time he smokes a cigar in his apartment. If he doesn't pay within 15 days, he will have to pay another $1,500. His neighbours were suing him for $2 million, so this is a bit of a deal, I suppose.

The neighbours claim that the smell from the cigars created "foul and noxious odors ... that the strong [odor] was so pungent that you can't eat dinner." The Poses also alleged that the cigars created  breathing problems and ear infections for their children.

Lysons' attorney Jeffrey Marcus said that his client had no plans to quit smoking cigars. That-a-boy Harry!

Funny Commercial: McDonald's Shamrock Shake 1983

The McDonalds website says, "It all began with a little girl, a football team, and a visionary doctor."

The Shamrock Shake was developed in 1970, according to McDonald's. Delish.com, however, is reporting that Harold Rosen, who owned a McDonald's in Connecticut, claims he invented the popular holiday drink in 1966. Whatever. The drink has raised enough money to buy a four-story house which was the first Ronald McDonald House Charity.

This just gives The Cry Baby a reason to show you this very funny commercial from 1983:



Also see Sexy Japanese McDonald's Commercial

Sexy Japanese McDonald's commercial

It's just not fair. We get stuck with that dumbo clown Ronald McDonald and the Japanese get this!



Also see McDonald's 1983 Shamrock Shake commercial

Video: Thom Yorke Kills Justin Bieber

Hmmm .... not much to be said here. Just have to watch:

Video: "Iraqi Tron" - A Must See!

From the kids that brought  Iraqi Patriot Missile Defense System (and this is a Must See as well)  to the world comes Iraqi Tron; an adrenaline pumping fan film of last year's popular film Tron.

Look out LeBron James – Robot seal plays basketball

This robotic seal, developed at Taiwan's National Chiao-Tung University, shoots hoops like a pro. Paro, the Japanese robot, is hoop-shooting  creation of Taiwanese roboticists at the National Chiao-Tung University. No double dribbling please.

Mazda recalls cars because of spiders in engines

Image via Wikipedia

Forget about having a tiger in your tank – owners of Mazda 6's get the extra option of spiders in the engine. For reasons no one understands spiders like making their home in these Mazda cars. "There doesn't seem to be any particular reason why he's chosen the Mazda 6," spokesman Jeremy Barnes told AFP.

While this all sounds fun and games it's a serious problem that can block air flow to the gas tank and cause a leak or fire. None have been reported, but Mazda is taking now chances and is recalling 65,000 vehicles in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Zoom, Zoom, Zoom!

Video: Cool bookshelf so cool it isn't real - it's an optical illusion

This is perhaps the coolest bookshelf in the world –– because it is not. Not a bookshelf, that is. It's an optical illusion. Very clever. Clarke Hopkins Clarke created "Bias of Thought" based on the optical illusion know as the devil's fork. Never heard of it myself but check out the video and become more confused.

The case for hand sanitizer: Study shows grocery cart handles covered in fecal matter

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

A recent study from University of Arizona researcher Professor Charles Gerba might make you want to puke while grocery shopping. Gerba says 72 percent of the grocery carts they tested had fecal bacteria on the handles. When further examined, they found E. coli on half of them. The researchers said they found more fecal bacteria on grocery cart handles than you would typically find in a bathroom.

Gerba also pointed out that you should be careful what is put in reusable shopping bags. Meats and vegetables need to be wrapped because bags that are not washed on a regular basis can become a "bacterial swamp."

Can I gag now?

Image via Wikipedia

Diddy asks Charlie Sheen for invite to the party

Image via Wikipedia

I guess the party looks so good even Diddy wants in. Diddy tweeted to Charlie looking for an invite and Charlie is happy to oblige:

"@charliesheen can u please send me the address to ur house? Ive been dreamin about a party like this all my life #winning! See u soon! Lol," Diddy wrote (@IAmDiddy) on Tuesday night (March 1)."

"Sheen, who has been holed up in his Hollywood Hills mansion , accepted Diddy's proposal, tweeting (@CharlieSheen) in response: "Get dressed my man... sending the driver..!"

Related articles

• Diddy Wants to Party With Charlie Sheen (theboombox.com)
• Charlie Sheen a Twitter sensation (guardian.co.uk)

Science fiction writer Peter Watts has flesh eating disease

Image by dliban via Flickr

Science fiction writer Peter Watts was brutally beaten US customs guards last year and then charged with a felony, and now has the dreaded flesh eating disease after going in for a routine skin biopsy in a Toronto hospital. This man has some serious bad luck and he is blogging about it:

"My doctor keeps jamming on his commitment to fork over the shots he took in surgery, the ones showing the necrotic tissue spreading across my leg. Fuck it; I’ve kept you waiting too long (only partially due to the above reason, granted; I’m also still comatose for a good chunk of the day), and I [...]"

"Let us start with the fact that I contracted flesh-eating disease during the course of getting a skin biopsy — that it was being all precautionary and taking proper medical care of myself that nearly got me killed. That’s just the start. There’s also this little snippet from the upcoming Crysis novel, my own words [...]"

"Some of you may have heard by now that I got hit with a serious case of necrotising fasciitis (more luridly known as “flesh-eating disease”) late last week. I’m told I was a few hours away from being dead. Now, several morphine drips and debridements and blood-pressure crashes and pulmonary edemas later, I have a [...]"

Follow Peter's blog here.

Cat purrs as loud as lawnmower – loudest purr in the world?

From the Telegraph: Smokey the cat purrs at roaring 80 decibels. The average car purrs in at about 25 decibels, possibly making old Smokey the loudest purrer in the world. For the record a lawnmower also kicks out 80 decibels.

The U.S. Government's secret UFO files

Aliens. UFOs. The government was keeping track. Here's a secret government document that lists UFO sightings. From Majestic Documents: "This 12-page document is a chronological summary of National Investigation Committee on Aerial Phenomenon (NICAP) cases allegedly pulled from the Project Blue Book files ... Much of Project Sign has been declassified. Logical military doctrine shows that the very sensitive nature of crashed alien hardware would not only be "pulled from" the traditional lights in the sky and fantastic aerial capabilities of project Sign's scope, but that real crashed hardware would need a lower classification cover story such as Project Sign to help shield the truth from prying Soviet eyes."

Download the entire document here.

"At approximately 8 PM on 12 July 1965 J. Douglas Stewart of 100 Second St. Athens Ohio took this picture with a Pentax camera with 135mm lens with a 1.8x Barlow creating a focal length of 243 mm. The film was Kodak Plus-X 35mm film, which was underdeveloped to reduce image contrast. (developed in D-76, 1:4) This entire event was witnesses by Dr. and Mrs. William. Stehr, Mrs. Claud Kantner and Mrs. Scott Wilson.aa'