We had a professional moving company handle my office move a couple weeks ago. The contract I had to sign seemed fairly routine… until I got to the part about them not being responsible in the event of a nuclear attack or outbreak of civil war.
I dunno, maybe that is par for the course—I’ve never dealt with professional movers before—but it did seem just a little bit overkill…
I know I used this image last year on Halloween, but it’s just so perfect that I had to use it again.
So… anyone dressing up for Halloween? What are you going to be?
This is a video of a cat flushing a toilet. Over and over and over again. Now I’m sure some of you will think it’s boring, but I actually found it quite fascinating. That cat’s behaviour seemed to have an almost human-like quality to it. The fascination and utter determination reminded me of a small child. Check it out. [via Metafilter]
In response to the post I made about my flight to Los Angeles, Sherri W. pointed out that there’s always someone who’s had a worse flight than you.
Yeah, I’ll say. Like the people on Virgin Atlantic Flight 45 on July 21st.
I’m paraphrasing here, but you’ll get the gist of it:
At around 6 pm, as we were descending into JFK, we were told that we would have to go instead to Philadelphia International Airport because JFK was shutting down due to the bad weather conditions.
…
Over the next 7 hours, we were told that the Philadelphia airport was bullying the crew and allowing other diverted planes to disembark and refuel over us because Virgin Atlantic had no right to be at that airport. And to add insult to injury, the fuel company was demanding to be paid in cash in full at the time of refueling.
…
Finally around 9:30 or so, we finally began to refuel and were told that we’d be in the air in no time. We started to taxi down the runway and then….stopped.
…
The flight supervisor came on again and said that if we didn’t land within the next 20 minutes, the crew would be over their allowed hours worked, and thus would be illegally operating the plane.
…
So we had to disembark in Philly, which would be a little difficult seeing as how we still had no gate or way to get through customs…
Dan Rubin over at Blinq reports that most of the story is true, according to Philadelphia International Airport spokesman Mark Pesce. You can visit the links below for more detailed information.
Man, that puts things in perspective.
Further Reading:
-Virgin Atlantic Flight 45 [Consumerist]
-Bringing The Benjamins [Blinq]
Holz and I are another year older today!
(I know, I know, try to contain your excitement.)
So, in honor of our continued aging, here’s some useless information about 7/11 throughout history…
On July 11, 1274, Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland was born.
On July 11, 1533, Pope Clement VII excommunicated England’s King Henry VIII.
On July 11, 1767, John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States, was born.
On July 11, 1798, the current US Marine Corps was formed.
On July 11, 1804, Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr killed Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in a pistol duel near Weehawken, NJ.
On July 11, 1838, John Wanamaker, founder of Wanamaker’s department stores, was born.
On July 11, 1889, the city of Tijuana, Mexico was founded.
On July 11, 1899, American writer E. B. White, author of Charlotte’s Web, was born.
On July 11, 1914, Babe Ruth made his major league baseball debut with the Boston Red Sox.
On July 11, 1921, former US President William Howard Taft was sworn in as the tenth Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, becoming the only person to ever be both President and Chief Justice.
On July 11, 1934, Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani was born.
On July 11, 1959, Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora was born.
On July 11, 1969, David Bowie’s first hit single, Space Oddity, was released.
On July 11, 1979, after over six years in space, Skylab, the first American space station, reentered the Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated over the Indian Ocean and Australia.
On July 11, 1987, the world population reached 5 billion (according to the United Nations).
On July 11, 1991, there was a total solar eclipse in Hawaii. [I remember using a homemade pinhole projection viewer to watch the partial version of this eclipse during my birthday party.]
See Also:
-July 11 [Wikipedia]
-On This Day [NYT]
-On This Day [Encarta]
-This Day in History [The History Channel]
-July 11 [On-This-Day.com]
I just saw the most ridiculous commercial—This drawing of Ben Franklin, animated only by a moving mouth (à la Monty Python), comes on and says something like “Hi, I’m Benjamin Franklin, inventor of many things including the lightening rod, bifocals, and the stove.”
Whatever, with all of the Benergy going around these days, I’ve begun ignoring things like this.
Except then he says, “But I’m not here to talk about myself, I’m here to talk about teenage pregnancy.”
What?!
He goes on with something like “Think it won’t happen to you?” and then gives some statistics.
I found the whole thing pretty amusing, if not a bit bizarre, but it was the last line of the commercial that had me laughing out loud: “So before you have sex, think of me, Benjamin Franklin.”
Dude, that was not cool!
And isn’t it kind of funny that they used Ben Franklin for this at all, given the rumors of his own sexual escapades?
Update: You can view the commerical here: A Message from Benjamin Franklin [teenpregnancy.org]
Ever think about what a stranger might see if they ever came across one of your hastily scrawled lists? Sometimes I wonder what my lists would say about me (I seem to always have several at a time). Anyway, check out the ones on todolistblog.com.
Check out this awesome mashup of Battlestar Galactica characters à la The Simpsons.
[pantsketch via Phillyist]
I meant to post this yesterday:
Stop The Duck! [via Philebrity]
Now this is a cause I can really get behind! Let’s wipe out this “quack-tacular” headache-inducing plague upon our fine city.
Or at least take away their damn “quackers.” That would be a good start.
I mean, who thought encouraging the tourists to harass the locals was a good idea, anyway?
Previously at the Landslide in My Ego:
-Quack Quack
Check out this weird and wonderful photographic art: Stephen Berkman.
[via Boing Boing]
-George Clooney is still smoking hot.
-Thanking your mom is really “in” this year.
-I really need to catch up on my movie watching.
I was watching some tv show last night where a woman was being abducted. She was trapped in a car trunk, and calling for help from her cell phone. I guess her abductor heard this, so he stopped the car and got rid of her phone.
That got me to thinking… shouldn’t there be some way to send a 911 text message? Or even email? There are lots of instances where it would be easier to summon help while remaining hidden and safe if you didn’t have to talk. Just a thought.
I saw these really striking images on Boing Boing yesterday, and I wanted to share them. They are scans from Life Magazine of anti-Nazi paintings by the Russian artist Boris Artzybasheff.
See Also:
-Boing Boing, for larger, uncropped images.
-American Art Archives, for more of Artzybasheff’s work.
Remember making paper snowflakes when you were a kid?
Well now you can have all the fun without having to clean up the little bits of paper that always go everywhere.
I see cars all the time with American flag decals or yellow ribbon stickers, so I don’t usually think much of it.
This past weekend I saw one with a small fabric flag stuck to the side window with scotch tape. I thought it looked weird, but didn’t really take notice of the car until I walked behind it.
There were individual paper letters cut out and taped to the rear window. On the left side it said “United we stand,” and on the right, “Divided we fall.”
Then I noticed one of those fake license plate things propped up at the bottom. It had a drawing of an angry Native American with a gun, and it said “America: Love it or give it back.”
I REALLY wish I’d had a camera.
UPDATE:
I found a picture of the plate.
I LOVE google image search.
