December 31, 2011
From all of us at the BRI, may you all have a very Doggy New Year. Like this dog, we mean. In the video. When the guitar’s playing. Not when it’s not playing. Because that would be a grim, upset, possibly about to bite someone kind of New Year…
P.S. Have a very Penguin New Year, too.
December 30, 2011
After spending years in story boards and movies debating if mutants are humans or not, Marvel is now taking the stance that mutants are in fact not humans. The real life debate has nothing to do with mutant rights, but rather taxation on toys. Excerpt from article:
‘Dolls,’ which are toys that represent humans, are taxed at 12%. ‘Toys,’ meanwhile, are, well, toys, but ones that don’t represent humans. Those are taxed at 6.8%. You can probably see where this is headed.
But, where do you draw the line? Who is a mutant and who isn’t? As you can see in the article “11 X-Men Who Aren’t Actually Mutants,” it might be hard to distinguish between the two. For example, did you know that Storm was a member of the X-Men with no powers in 41 different issues?
December 30, 2011
Today’s post is a roundup of great animal stories we’ve seen this week.
First we visit with a lion who loves to be pampered. Watch the video of him rolling on his back waiting for his pedicure.
Next we have a beautiful image of an elephant’s pedicure session. Getting him ready for the day’s elephant beauty pageant.
Last but not least, here is a chimpanzee that loves to bbq. He’s so good at gathering wood and making marshmallows that I’m thinking of inviting him to our next camping trip.
What’s the best animal story you have seen lately? Post a link in the comments and we’ll do a roundup next week of the top 5. We’ll even give you credit for finding it.
December 29, 2011
The South Pacific Nations of Samoa and Tokelau are about to cross the International Date Line. Tonight at midnight, the islands will jump from December 29 to December 31. The decision was made in order to standardize trading with their partners in the region. Our thoughts go out to all those with a December 30 birthday on the islands. Hopefully your families will not use this as an excuse to skip out on gifts. More information about the switch is here and here.
Samoa Flag
While we are on the topic, here is a story of Kiribati, which had to shift the International Date Line so it would not cut straight through the middle of their country. Before the shift, half of Kiribati was 22 hours ahead of the other half.
December 28, 2011
Imagine the surprise of the baggage X-ray technicians who discovered this! A Czech man boarding a plane in Argentina, bound for Madrid, tried to board the plane with 247 live animals. Among the animals were 15 venomous vipers. Yikes!
Snakes on a plane doesn’t seem like a good idea at all. Someone should make a movie about that and they should call it “Snakes on a Plane.”
Here are some more details about the story.
December 27, 2011
Not all the subway vents around a major city are visible. In fact, there many such vents hidden in buildings and fake structures. Here is one fake apartment building that the city of New York maintains in Brooklyn to hide giant vents that allow fresh air into the subway system.
BLDGBLOG has an interesting case study on some of these structures and how they connect the outside world to the underground one.
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December 24, 2011
And he still looks exactly the same.
If you need a reminder, here you go. (“I have since heard of people in extreme duress speaking in strange tongues…” )
Merry Christmas, everybody. Talk to you in a couple days.
December 23, 2011
Did you know you can send someone who doesn’t own a Kindle e-books from Amazon? That’s right: Amazon has FREE apps that allow you to read e-books on computers, phones, etc.
All you need is the giftees email. It’s so easy – and they’ll get the gift in time for Christmas.
And the gift can be Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader e-books!
Wow! It’s like it’s Christmas or something!
P.S. We have apps, too.
December 23, 2011
We ain’t kidding:
That’s actually really fun. It’s like he’s performed before or something…
December 23, 2011
“An Indonesian girl swept away in the 2004 tsunami has been reunited with her parents seven years on, the family say.
Meri Yulanda, also known as Wati, turned up at a cafe in Meulaboh, Aceh, earlier this week, looking for her parents.
She says she was found by a widow after the disaster and forced to work as a beggar, being freed only last week.”
The rest of this amazing story is at the link.
Update: Not enough good news for you, crabby pants? Well try this one on for size:
When Frankie Pruitt came home from school for the holidays, he stopped on the way up the driveway to hug his pit bull, who had run to him with her tail wagging. “Petunia!” he said, and rubbed the fur around her ears, and looked into her brown eyes.
“Same eyes,” he said. “Same old Petunia!”
He hadn’t seen the dog since 2003…
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Last -minute gifts? Your friends don’t need a Kindle to read an Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader e-book from Amazon. It’s really easy to send one as a gift, and it’s also really fast!
