Puppies and Flowers

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As a much-loved institution, it's been imitated around the world, from San Francisco to Sydney, and plenty of places in between. The Irish pub is alive and well.
In Ireland itself, once you have left the cities and headed into the green landscapes and small communities where agriculture is key, it is a different picture. Link

Having Won a Pulitzer for Exposing Data Mining, Times Now Eager to Do Its Own Data Mining.

Barely a year after their reporters won a Pulitzer prize for exposing data mining of ordinary citizens by a government spy agency, New York Times officials had some exciting news for stockholders last week: The Times company plans to do its own data mining of ordinary citizens, in the name of online profits.

Watch real time, a sampling of images being uploaded to Flickr and their respective geographic locations. flickrvision

Sailing past traffic jams is every commuter’s dream but David Grimes does that almost every day - literally.

The 37-year-old IT manager puts on a wetsuit each morning and kitesurfs to his office in Brighton.

He lives in a beach house along the coast west of the city in Shoreham, West Sussex, and the trip to the shore nearest his office takes about 30 minutes.

Link to article with more pictures

Wolfowitz resigns as World Bank president

Paul Wolfowitz resigned as president of the World Bank effective June 30, the bank's directors announced Thursday. The bank will launch an immediate search for a new president. Directors had been negotiating with Wolfowitz to step down after an internal review found that he violated the bank's code of conduct by engineering a pay raise for his girlfriend, Shaha Riza. "We are grateful to Mr. Wolfowitz for his service at the bank," the directors said in a statement. "Much has been achieved in the last two years."

Link to MarketWatch article

Guerilla Art?

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - The Little Mermaid statue in Denmark's capital was found draped in a Muslim dress and head scarf Sunday morning. Police removed the clothing after a telephone caller reported it, spokesman Jorgen Thomsen said.

Careful with those brownies...

SAN JOSE, Calif. - It was a big enough bummer for Kenneth Affolter when he was sentenced to more than five years in prison for making pot-laced treats and soft drinks. Now he faces the wrath of a candy giant. The Hershey Co. has sued Affolter, 40, for giving his marijuana goodies names like Stoney Rancher, Rasta Reese's and Keef Kat. Each came in packaging similar to Hershey's Jolly Rancher, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Kit Kat candies, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

DINERS are flocking to what could perhaps be termed the most exclusive restaurant in Italy - one located inside a top security prison, where the chefs and waiters are Mafiosi, robbers and murderers. Serenaded by Bruno, a pianist doing life for murder, the clientele eat inside a deconsecrated chapel set behind the 60ft high walls, watch towers, searchlights and security cameras of the daunting 500-year-old Fortezza Medicea, at Volterra near Pisa. Under the watchful eye of armed prison warders, a 20-strong team of chefs, kitchen hands and waiters prepares 120 covers for diners who have all undergone strict security checks. Tables are booked up weeks in advance. Link to article

Amazing photographer, Fisherman dude, Deadliest Catch star, Corey Arnold gives you this first hand account.

Link to article with awesome photographs

John Waters, Devine? Well not quite...

LONDON (AFP) - A pair of gay flamingos have adopted an abandoned chick, becoming parents after being together for six years, a British conservation organisation said Monday. Carlos and Fernando had been desperate to start a family, even chasing other flamingos from their nests to take over their eggs at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) in Slimbridge near Bristol.
But their egg-sitting prowess made them the top choice for taking an unhatched egg under their wings when one of the Greater Flamingo nests was abandoned.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates May 23, 2007, 11:58 a.m. ET · The U.S. Navy staged its latest show of military force off the Iranian coastline on Wednesday, sending two aircraft carriers and landing ships packed with 17,000 U.S. Marines and sailors to carry out unannounced exercises in the Persian Gulf.

Napa vintners finally get name recognition, European Union agrees this week on special designation for region

In China, Spain, Chile, Tahiti and other parts of the world there are at least a dozen winemakers using the words Napa or Napa Valley in their brand names in what California vintners say is a deliberate attempt to deceive customers.

Link to article

Interesting comments from current employees of the bridge including:

"People in Corvettes are very snotty," she said. "I hate to say that, but it's true. They don't give you the time of day."

Forest "Woody" Becker said working on the bridge is "about the greatest job an ironworker can have. It's a great icon, and it's real security." He is proud to have designed camera mounts for the bridge and recently created a mold to make zinc castings used on suspender ropes. Becker first saw the Golden Gate in August 1964. "I was in the Navy, heading to Vietnam aboard the USS Ranger. Then I saw it 10 months later. It welcomed me home. I'll never forget it. "

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chen Yan waves at a crowd of onlookers bemused at seeing China's late helmsman, Mao Zedong, brought back to life by a middle-aged woman.

Chen, 51, from Mianyang, in China's southwestern province of Sichuan, has been dressing up as Mao since she was discovered on a local TV show in 2005 impersonating another actor who had played Mao in movies.

Link to Reuters with more photos

SINGAPORE: A waterspout has been spotted from the eastern parts of Singapore. Most callers to the MediaCorp News Hotline reported seeing what looked like a tornado or a twister over the sea. Most said they saw the phenomenon at about 2.30pm and that the phenomenon lasted about 15 minutes. Witnesses said it was moving in a circular motion.

Irish eagle chick is first in century

Link to article

I've avoided linking to Google's new street-level zoom map feature because basically it was everywhere but this is an interesting blog however on the company behind the pictures.
Link to blog

"Now I see people on the streets with cell phones and there are so many goods in the shops it makes my head spin."

Link to article

Pileus is an umbrella connected to the Internet to make walking in rainy days fun. Pileus has a large screen on the top surface, a built-in camera, a motion sensor, GPS, and a digital compass, and it provides two main functions; A Social Photo-sharing and A 3D Map Navigation.

Link to list

Shown here: Continental Airlines / USA Uniform 1970 - 1973

Link to uniformfreak.com

Digital paper that can speak to you has been created by scientists.

Researchers from Mid Sweden University have constructed an interactive paper billboard that emits recorded sound in response to a user's touch.

The prototype display uses conductive inks, which are sensitive to pressure, and printed speakers.

Link to BBC article

A Drink a Day Delays Dementia, Study Finds Italian researchers find the descent into dementia among the elderly is significantly slower in light to moderate wine drinkers

Link to Wine Spectator

Coffee: The New Health Food?

Want a drug that could lower your risk of diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and colon cancer? That could lift your mood and treat headaches? That could lower your risk of cavities? If it sounds too good to be true, think again.

Link to WebMD

Beer is good for you

It turns out that beer hops contain a unique micronutrient that inhibits cancer-causing enzymes. Hops are plants used in beer to give it aroma, flavor and bitterness. 

Link to article

and

Kaplan says beer in moderation can deliver protection against heart attacks, stroke, hypertension, diabetes and dementia. Red wine gets all the glory because people who drink wine also tend to have healthier lifestyles in general. All forms of alcohol have benefits in moderation, but beer data has been submerged because beer drinkers tend to have unhealthy habits like binge drinking and smoking as well.

Link to article

Hot chocolate

In one new study, consumption of cocoa in healthy volunteers, aged 18 to 77, resulted in significantly improved vascular responsiveness. (The measure the researchers used looked at the "stiffness" of blood vessels. In patients whose blood vessels are "stiff," hypertension is common.) The beneficial effect was most pronounced in patients over 50 years of age.

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- A 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast last month had a weapon fragment embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt -- more than a century ago.

Link to CNN article

Not only was Rome not built in a day, but a digital model took 10 years to construct. A team of archaeologists, architects and computer specialists from Italy, the United States, Britain and Germany has just unveiled a sprawling 3D digital simulation of the ancient city as it appeared at the height of its development as the capital of the Roman Empire.

Link to c|net article

LUXEMBOURG glugs more than 15.5 litres of alcohol per person in a year, more than any other country. One explanation is that the duty on alcohol is relatively cheap in the tiny nation, encouraging booze tourism from its more heavily taxed neighbours. No such explanation for the Irish, however, who quaff 13.7 litres a year, according to the World Health Organisation. European countries, with their cultural acceptance of alcohol, tend to dominate the top places. In America, where stricter minumum-age requirements apply, the average person drinks 8.6 litres a year.

Source The Economist

A professional puzzle inventor has solved what he considers the oldest riddle of them all - Stonehenge.

Bruce Bedlam, 56, has built a scale model of the ancient stone circle as he believes it was originally constructed - as a round building.

He believes that the Wiltshire monument was created with a large, domed roof made from wood and covered in wooden tiles.

Bruce believes the siting was significant and the sun would enter the interior at every solstace through one of the ten doors.

Link to article

Anonymous postings of people's secrets, strangely absorbing. Link to postsecret.blogspot.com

Find out on the cool Design Observer blog

An interesting article by Adam Savage (MythBusters) on the sci-fi classic.

I'm still such a big Blade Runner fan that I watch it at least once every 18 months. I also own pretty convincing replicas of the "blade runner blaster" wielded by Harrison Ford's world-weary former cop Rick Deckard. The source material was a Steyr Mannlicher .222 target rifle magazine cover, with a Bulldog .44 carriage underneath. I can't get enough of this prop. Now, I want a working one.

Thousands of Internet radio stations and channels across North America are preparing to go silent tomorrow (6/26) as part of an industry-wide "Day of Silence". The landmark event is designed to draw attention to impending royalty rates that threaten to virtually shut down Internet radio as a medium.

Link to kurthanson.com

Xeni at boingboing.net has more links on the subject

This photograph, taken June 18 from a Japan Coast Guard aircraft off the northeastern coast of Hokkaido, shows a bird’s-eye view of cloud streets over the Sea of Okhotsk. According to the Sapporo Meteorological Observatory, these low-altitude stratocumulus clouds were rolled into long, distinctive ribbons after becoming trapped in air currents. While it is not uncommon for wind to form such patterns in stratocumulus clouds, photos that clearly show the clouds rolled into strips are rare, says the observatory.

Link to Mainichi via Pink Tentacle

This is sad…

This letter originally belonged to my grandmother. After she passed away we discovered it and were surprised at how well it was preserved for being nearly 70 years old. She eventually became an animator during WWII for the war effort.

Link to Flickr entry

From the 'Chronic' article:

Salvia divinorum is a bright, leafy green plant from Mexico that when chewed or smoked causes intense hallucinations comparable to LSD or "magic mushrooms."

And it's legal in California.

The drug is available all over the Bay Area, mostly in smoke shops and herbal stores. It's also sold over the Internet. For $15 to $50 a hit, users get a high that sends them into a dream-like state for anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or two.

The Sorted Books project began in 1993 years ago and is ongoing. The project has taken place in many different places over the years, ranging form private homes to specialized public book collections. The process is the same in every case: culling through a collection of books, pulling particular titles, and eventually grouping the books into clusters so that the titles can be read in sequence, from top to bottom.

Link to photo collections

The male participants who reported moderate drinking were 1.27 times more likely to report above-average health, compared with those who were lifetime abstainers and former light drinkers. The moderate drinking women were more than twice as likely as abstainers to report above-average health.

Previous good news reported here

Link to article

Link to YouTube

Letters. Painted on shop shutters in the east end of London. Apparently they're by a graffiti artist called Eine. I found 10 in one night and then wondered whether all 26 were available. Comments on the pictures helped me to locate more. I found another 16 the next day, but 3 of them repeated letters I'd already found... so I was still 3 short of a full alphabet.

Link to FlickrSet

Spanish researchers on Friday said they had unearthed a human tooth more than one million years old, which they estimated to be the oldest human fossil remain ever discovered in western Europe.

Link to article

Shown here:

Cover of "Berkeley Barb", an underground newspaper, featuring a photographic collage of politically charged images, mostly relating to the Civil Rights movement. Central image is of an African American male, smoking and saying in a speech bubble, "I have a nightmare...", inverting the line from Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech.

Link to Wisconsin Historical Society

Brooklyn Bridge (Image Credit: dustin3000 [Flickr])

Background: Not long after the Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883, a shifty 20-year-old named George C. Parker decided on a whim to see if he could "sell" it to an unsuspecting tourist. He did. In fact, it was so easy that he tried it on someone else a few days later and pulled it off again. He dropped his other cons and went into Brooklyn Bridge sales full-time.

Continue reading at Neatorama

(image source: Flickr)

The building's electricity was cut off in April, but sympathisers from the town have continued to provide food and water under cover of darkness. The nuns have on occasion thrown stones at journalists trying to speak to them.

Link to The Australian

A 10-year-old Nepali girl worshipped as a living goddess, or Kumari, has lost her "divine" status for defying tradition and visiting the United States.

Not to be confused with the Munger article

Few things exemplify the chaos of Liberia more than the sight of doped-up, AK-47-wielding 15-year-olds roaming the streets decked out in fright wigs and tattered wedding gowns. Indeed, some of the more fully accessorized soldiers in Charles Taylor's militia even tote dainty purses and don feather boas. Why did this practice begin and what is the logic behind it?

The cross-dressing combatants blipped onto the Western press's radar screen right around the time the Liberian Civil War started on Christmas Eve in 1989. During Taylor's rebel siege on Monrovia in the '90s, his band of dolled-up marauders—aka the National Patriotic Front of Liberia—put on one of the most disturbing horror shows the planet has ever seen. Between 1989 and 1997, 150,000 Liberians were murdered, countless others were mutilated, and 25,000 women and girls were raped. The NPFL's shock-and-awe antics were apparent from the very start of the conflict. In an essay in Liberian Studies Journal, an administrator at Cuttington University College tells a story of Taylor's forces storming the rural campus during the initial stages of the war in "wedding [dresses], wigs, commencement gowns from high schools and several forms of 'voodoo' regalia. … [They] believed they could not be killed in battle."

Found on Slate