First of all, let me wish Deadlock a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Man arrested in feces-filled home – A man living in a home with a layer of animal feces between 2 and 3 inches deep and as many as 300 cats, both alive and dead, was arrested Friday, authorities said.
Company: Toilets might catch fire – Japan’s leading toilet maker Toto Ltd. is offering free repairs for 180,000 bidet toilets after wiring problems caused several to catch fire, the company said Monday.
Wanna bet on global warming? You can – Think global warming will raise the oceans enough to submerge Cape Hatteras? Want to bet on it? An online gambling service has started taking bets on global warming, including whether it can submerge some of the East Coast’s top vacation spots. The odds that Virginia’s Cape Henry will be under water by 2015 — 200-to-1 at BetUs.com. Its odds for Cape Hatteras flooding by the same date — 300-to-1.
Donkey Kong Climbs E2 (from Digg) – Donkey Kong (Miyamoto, et. al.,1981) was the first appearance of the Itallian plumber we now know as Mario. While this game’s early ’80s arcade popularity predates most of today’s engineering students, it represents the amazing results that a small development team can produce. Today Donkey Kong is ranked as the 3rd most popular arcade game of all time, selling over 65,000 units. Currently this work is visible at the E2 building at UCSC, it is scheduled to be removed on or before May 1. This looks like the same building they did the Super Mario post-it.
The Unilever Series: Carsten Höller (from Deadlock) – To date Höller has installed six smaller slides in other galleries and museums, but the cavernous space of the Turbine Hall offers a unique setting in which to extend his vision. Yet, as the title implies, he sees it as a prototype for an even larger enterprise, in which slides could be introduced across London, or indeed, in any city. How might a daily dose of sliding affect the way we perceive the world? Can slides become part of our experiential and architectural life? How cool would it be to ride a slide down from whichever floor you work on!
N.C. clerk wins $200,000 by mistake – A store clerk’s slip-up at the cash register has paid off big time. Wayburn Allen on Tuesday accidentally rang up two duplicate Powerball tickets for a customer in this western North Carolina town. At the end of the day, after she was unable to sell the second ticket, Allen paid for it herself. The next day, Allen returned to the store and found the ticket matched all five numbers — earning her a $200,000 jackpot. When Allen went to Raleigh to claim her prize, she met the customer who purchased the original ticket. The customer also will receive a $200,000 jackpot. I’m thinking… If I was one of the few people who got asked if I wanted to purchase that $1 Lotto ticket, I’d be baning my head against the wall. On the other hand, if I was the original customer who chose these winning numbers, I’d be banging my head because now I have to split the money with someone who took my numbers.
Dead billionaire leaves all to feng shui master – The sole beneficiary of Hong Kong tycoon Nina Wang’s multi-billion dollar fortune is her feng shui master, a legal notice published on Friday showed, paving the way for a likely legal battle with her family.
Crook wins damages for injury during theft – A Canadian man who admitted shoplifting C$106 in razor blades has been awarded C$12,000 ($10,645) for injuries he suffered when he was tackled by store security guards. I was just imagining the scene when the security guards jumped him and the razor blades started to go everywhere. OUCH!
Chinese poplar trees to undergo “sex change” – Beijing’s female poplars are to receive “sex change operations” to stop them from producing flying pollen that has overwhelmed the city and worsened allergy and asthma problems among its citizens, Chinese media reported on Friday. What about the tree’s rights! Maybe it doesn’t want to be a boy!
Dad makes son wear sign for using drugs – A father says he wasn’t trying to shame his 14-year-old son when he made the boy wear a large sandwich-board sign saying, “I abused and sold drugs.” “I’m not out here doing this to humiliate my son,” the father told WATE-TV as the teenager walked up and down the sidewalk Wednesday in front of Cedar Bluff Middle School. Now there’s a responsible parent. You don’t need a court order just to punish your kid.
Love at first bite? – An Israeli woman accidentally bit off part of her boyfriend’s tongue during a heated French kiss, an Israeli hospital that reattached the tongue said on Thursday.
Woman gives birth to seven babies – According to the latest Guinness World Records, there have been three known cases of seven children surviving birth; two in the United States and one in Saudi Arabia.
Woman registers a .47 on breath tester – A woman arrested following two car crashes last week registered a .47 blood-alcohol content on a breath test — nearly six times the legal intoxication threshold and possibly a state record. I still remember asking if the alcohol concentration limit was 8% and the person who I told it to was shocked. He said it was more like .08%.
China law blind to nude Web chats – The 36-year-old woman, surnamed Li, had been charged with “organizing pornographic activities” for using a Web cam to chat with people on the Internet in the buff and for organizing online chats for nudists. But law officers investigating the case found that nude chat rooms were not defined in China’s pornography laws, an oversight the official Xinhua news agency described as a legal “blind spot.”
Home Depot – Eco Options – In Celebration of Earth Day On Sunday April 22nd, We will give away 1,000,000 n:vision Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs (CFLs) to customers who visit any U.S. The Home Depot Store. That’s this Sunday if you want a free CFL.
The Biggest Sell Is the Audition (from Consumerist) – Rare is the Hollywood movie, network television program or Broadway show that casts its stars from an open call. But QVC, a $7 billion annual business, where hosts can have television careers that span decades, does. The nominal stars of QVC are the budget clothing and jewelry designers who offer their creations, inventors touting new housewares and faded celebrities with exercise programs. But on a network that can move tens of thousands of dollars of merchandise a minute, the host plays a crucial role: part cheerleader for a celebrity guest, part M.C. executing the orders of producers to end a slow-selling item’s airtime gracefully, part fantasy friend to viewers, coaxing them to call. It’s a rare skill set, and industry sources say the network is willing to compensate hosts for it extremely well, up to $500,000 a year. I’m in the wrong business!