Sunday, February 25, 2007

mystery noise

is it possible for a cookie box to produce a small humming noise when placed on a table? because that seems to be what was happening around 2:40 am in the common room. the gladwear (disposable tupperwear) box made a vibrating noise when on our table ... but when anna picked it up, the noise went away .... only to come BACK when she returned the box to the table!! ??????? um, maybe the box was expressing its discontent at being disposable.

Friday, February 23, 2007

wikipedia for dummies??

this is the wikipedia article on the trabant. this is in the "simple english" edition... i can't believe how badly this is written!

Trabant

From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

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A parking lot in East Berlin, in 1983. Mainly Trabants, a white Wartburg and a dark green Lada
A parking lot in East Berlin, in 1983. Mainly Trabants, a white Wartburg and a dark green Lada

The Trabant (or Trabi) was a series of cars built in the German Democratic Republic. When the first cars were released, people saw them as being full of innovations. The cars were also easy on fuel, they did not need much fuel. Unfortunately, the company who built the car did not innovate, so soon, the cars were showing the age of the technolgy that was used. At least they were robust.

Between 1957 and 1990, about 3 million "Trabant" were built. As of January 2005, about 67.000 such cars were still registered.


....awesome. at least they were robust....

link to wikipedia for dummies!

Thursday, February 22, 2007

WTF

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/22/porn.sword.ap/index.html

I really just don't understand the rest of humanity.

cosmo > work

it's a great day when the residents of F20 ignore their work in favor of ... cosmo and people magazine. we clearly have our priorities straight.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

i felt it shouldn't go unmentioned...

well, since even the BBC readership has evidently proclaimed the overarching importance of this story, i just figured i would throw out britney's new style, which has garnered ever too much attention...

so, the problems i have with this are threefold.
1. she freaking shaved her head. enough said. it was a poor choice.
2. the pictures of her with a shaved head were taken when she was getting a tattoo of lips on her wrist. granted, a small one. but still, another poor choice.

but alas. perhaps the most concerning?
3. the world seems to care. perhaps the poorest choice.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

england's questionable statues

among the wonderful things great britain has to offer are some really bizarre statues.

exhibit A:

that's churchill in the background. he's looking a bit dumpy.


exhibit B:

... what is hanging down from the cow's stomach??? actually, the thing has horns so i guess it's a male cow. what typically hangs from the stomachs of male cows?

Monday, February 12, 2007

Ah, Motherland!

my dad sent me this article while we were in London, and I just remembered it this morning....

The image “http://www.humanedgetech.com/expedition/n2i/images/At%20The%20Pole.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

Lenin greets Antarctic adventurers

Mon Jan 22, 11:09 PM ET

A team of British and Canadian adventurers has described the "surreal" experience of arriving at the most remote point in Antarctica -- only to find a bust of Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin.

The team was the first to reach the Pole of Inaccessibility (POI), the point on the Antarctic continent that is farthest from all surrounding seas, on foot.

But an expedition from the former Soviet Union, using huge mechanised snow vehicles, reached the pole in 1958 and set up a small camp there.

"When we were within six kilometres of the position signalled on the GPS we noticed a black dot on the horizon," Teamn2i said on their website.

"As we got closer an outline of (a) bust started to appear -- we could not believe it as we were expecting at the very best a mound of snow from when Lenin was left there 48 years ago.

"He is standing on a chimney of the old Soviet hut about two meters above the snow line -- he is a shoulder bust of Lenin larger than life size.

"It is made of some plastic composite -- he is totally frost free as if he was put there yesterday.

"It (is) so so very surreal. We are all so exhausted that we have only just put up the tent with Lenin's stern gaze over us!"

Britons Rory Sweet, Rupert Longsdon, Henry Cookson, who together won the 2005 Scott Dunn Polar Challenge, and Canadian Paul Landry reached the POI last Friday after a seven-week trek across the ice.

They had walked or used kite skis to cover more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) dragging 120 kilogram sleds


you can go here for the details!
go to recent news and check out around the 19th of January.

Image: Anyone want to start a Revolution
he's everywhere!

Wednesday, February 7, 2007