Posts Tagged: ‘News’

December 6, 2012

Welcome to Book Mountain

We know you like books, because, well, you’re here. We also you like weird stuff, because, well, you’re here. Behold, Book Mountain!

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No, it’s not Disneyland’s latest mountain-themed attraction but literary hounds might consider it the Happiest Place on Earth. You won’t find any bobsleds or animatronic animals at Bibliotheek Spijkenisse, the new public library located outside of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, but you will find books. Lots of ‘em.

Dubbed “Book Mountain” by its creators at the Dutch design firm MVRDV, this temple of tomes features over 70,000 titles and what could be the world’s biggest bookcase. The library opened earlier this fall.

It’s an architectural marvel that’s drawn headlines from around the world. On the outside, the library looks like a glass pyramid. Inside, bookworms can search for works across five floors or grab a cup of coffee in a cafe located on the apex.

Posted by BRI

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October 29, 2012

Interesting Hurricane Notice [updates]

• Image from the National Hurricane Center. (LOTS of info there.)

From the Mount Holly, New Jersey, National Weather Service office, check this out—especially the part we’ve bolded:

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOUNT HOLLY NJ
241 PM EDT SUN OCT 28 2012

…AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS STORM TO IMPACT THE AREA…

SANDY IS EXPECTED TO SLAM INTO THE NEW JERSEY COAST LATER MONDAY NIGHT, BRINGING VERY HEAVY RAIN AND DAMAGING WINDS TO THE REGION. THE STORM IS A LARGE ONE, THEREFORE DO NOT FOCUS ON THE EXACT CENTER OF THE STORM AS ALL AREAS WILL HAVE SIGNIFICANT IMPACTS.

THIS HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE AN HISTORIC STORM, WITH WIDESPREAD WIND DAMAGE AND POWER OUTAGES, INLAND AND COASTAL FLOODING, ANDMASSIVE BEACH EROSION. THE COMBINATION OF THE HEAVY RAIN AND PROLONGED WIND WILL CREATE THE POTENTIAL FOR LONG LASTING POWER OUTAGES AND SERIOUS FLOODING.

PREPARATIONS SHOULD BE WRAPPING UP AS CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO WORSEN TONIGHT AND ESPECIALLY ON MONDAY.

SOME IMPORTANT NOTES…

1. IF YOU ARE BEING ASKED TO EVACUATE A COASTAL LOCATION BY STATE AND LOCAL OFFICIALS, PLEASE DO SO.

2. IF YOU ARE RELUCTANT TO EVACUATE, AND YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO RODE OUT THE `62 STORM ON THE BARRIER ISLANDS, ASK THEM IF THEY COULD DO IT AGAIN.

3. IF YOU ARE RELUCTANT, THINK ABOUT YOUR LOVED ONES, THINK ABOUT THE EMERGENCY RESPONDERS WHO WILL BE UNABLE TO REACH YOU WHEN YOU MAKE THE PANICKED PHONE CALL TO BE RESCUED, THINK ABOUT THE RESCUE/RECOVERY TEAMS WHO WILL RESCUE YOU IF YOU ARE INJURED OR RECOVER YOUR REMAINS IF YOU DO NOT SURVIVE.

4. SANDY IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS STORM. THERE WILL BE MAJOR PROPERTY DAMAGE, INJURIES ARE PROBABLY UNAVOIDABLE, BUT THE GOAL IS ZERO FATALITIES.

5. IF YOU THINK THE STORM IS OVER-HYPED AND EXAGGERATED, PLEASE ERR ON THE SIDE OF CAUTION.

WE WISH EVERYONE IN HARMS WAY ALL THE BEST. STAY SAFE!

THAT is how it’s done.

From all of us at the BRI to all of you in Sandy’s path: Be safe!

Update: 30.8 foot swells detected by NOAA buoy #44065 at the entrance to New York Harbor. Good God.


• Here’s a Hurricane Sandy twitter feed: #Sandy.

Update II: Oh man:

Update III: Noted Hurricane expert Lindsay Lohan wants all you people to get over yourselves:

Update IV: Google has a crisis map up.

• Wow.

Posted by Thom

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May 30, 2012

“Hippie Capitalism” In Richmond, California

Very interesting story at FastCompany.com, with information like this:

The Basque Country in Spain is home to the world’s most famous worker-owned co-op, the Mondragon Corporation, based in the town of Mondragon. The 55-year-old corporation includes some 250 smaller co-ops, with more than 80,000 employees, the vast majority of them members and owners themselves. Mondragon is today the seventh largest company in Spain, with its fingers in finance, retail, and manufacturing, and it has become a kind of Mecca for far-flung groups eager to learn how to create their own co-op businesses.

We love learning about things like that! We should send a correspondent there to do a story! …

Back to the story: The city of Richmond, California—”regularly ranked among the most dangerous cities in the country”—just north of Oakland an the Bay area, is trying to learn from groups like Mondragon to revitalize the city. And darn good luck to them, dang it!

[pic]

Posted by Thom

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May 24, 2012

Man Arrested re. 1979 Etan Patz Disappearance

This is a rotten story told from any angle whatsoever. We happened to tell it recently, in the Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader, when we told the story of “The Missing Children Milk Carton Program”: Etan Patz was one of the very first kids pictured on milk cartons in the program that spread around the country in the 1980s. He had been abducted at the age of just six less than two blocks from his home in Manhattan on May 25, 1979. (A lot of stories say that Etan was the first missing child to appear on milk cartons. That’s actually not the case. The very first kids to appear on cartons were Des Moines, Iowa, 12-year-olds Johnny Gosch and Eugene Martin, in 1984. Etan appeared on cartons some months later. Those very first cartons were produced by Des Moines’ Anderson-Erickson Diary. Owner Jim Erickson was the one who came up with the idea.)

Let’s hope they can finally solve this case:

Authorities on Thursday arrested a man they said had confessed to the murder of six-year-old Etan Patz, a 1979 case that drew national attention to the issue of missing children and led parents to regard strangers with heightened suspicion.

Pedro Hernandez, a 51-year-old New Jersey resident, was being interrogated at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Detectives said he admitted Wednesday to luring Etan into the Manhattan convenience store where he worked, killing him and hiding the body, according to a law-enforcement official.

Posted by Thom

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May 6, 2012

Nazi Party Wins Seats in Greece

Just beyond comprehension:

Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn warned rivals and reformers Sunday that “the time for fear has come” after exit polls showed them securing their entry in parliament for the first time in nearly 40 years.

“The time for fear has come for those who betrayed this homeland,” Golden Dawn leader Nikos Michaloliakos told a news conference at an Athens hotel, flanked by menacing shaven-headed young men.

“We are coming,” the 55-year-old said as supporters threw firecrackers outside.

According to updated exit polls, the once-marginal party will end up winning over six percent of the vote and sending 19 deputies to the 300-seat parliament on a wave of immigration and crime fears, as well as anti-austerity anger.

A bad day in history. No two ways about it.

More from The Guardian.

Posted by Thom

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April 27, 2012

Stop Sign Yarn Bombing [update II]

Hilarious:

A stealth knitter has been turning Clairemont stop signs into flowers under cover of night. But San Diego is about to crack down on the so-called yarn-bomber and his cohorts.

Sixteen months ago a computer programmer named Bryan (who agrees to talk without disclosing his last name) encased five stop sign posts in his Clairemont neighborhood in knitted green “sweaters” with leaves.

“It’s a way to beautify the community — a fun way to be artistic,” says Bryan.

Two months ago, he and his knitting circle friends, with funds raised via the online Kickstarter program, brought the number of cozy-clothed stop sign posts to 100 – most between I-5 (west), I-805 (east), Route 52 (north) and I-8 (south). One also popped up in Point Loma, in Normal Heights and a few near Balboa Park.

Best part: We’ve got a whole contingent of BRIers in San Diego – more pictures as soon as we can get ‘em…

Update: Oh boy, Mana the Magnificent has agreed to a secret mission regarding the yarned stop signs…stay tuned over the weekend!

Update II: Success!

Posted by Thom

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April 24, 2012

Deadly Booby Traps Set in Utah National Park

Unbelievable:

A deadly booby trap rigged along a popular Utah trail could have killed someone if they had tripped a ground wire set up to send a 20-pound, spiked boulder swinging into an unsuspecting hiker, authorities said Monday.

Another trap was designed to trip a passer-by into a bed of sharpened wooden stakes, authorities said.

Two men arrested over the weekend on suspicion of misdemeanor reckless endangerment told authorities the traps were intended for wildlife, but investigators didn’t believe the story.

Look at this thing:

Things like this make us think that somebody’s in dire need of a nice cold can of whoopass. Arg!

• In a booby-trap-related story from Uncle John’s Curiously Compelling Bathroom Reader (page 54): In 2002 a Dutch guy set up a booby trap to protect his garden shed: If you opened the door to the shed—a shotgun would blast you in the stomach. The guy was so proud of his garden shed booby trap that he showed it off to some friends…by opening the door to the shed…upon which he was immediately shot in the stomach by his own booby trap. When police arrived they discovered why the guy had set up a booby trap to guard his garden shed: he had 15 marijuana plants in there. When he recovered from the shotgun blast…he went to jail.

Posted by Thom

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April 17, 2012

Levon Helm in Final Stages of Fight With Cancer

Kick in the gut:

Levon Helm, a treasured voice in Americana music whose Southern drawl and busy-but-tight drumming brought an authenticity to The Band, is losing his decade-long battle with cancer, his family announced on Tuesday.

“Levon is in the final stages of his battle with cancer,” a message reads on Helm’s website. “Please send your prayers and love to him as he makes his way through this part of his journey.”

Levon Helm always seemed like one of the real good guys in all of rock and roll, someone who was in it for all the right reasons, and left the whole scene bigger, cleaner, and better by being part of it. And that voice  - just so big and embracing and raw and authentic.

Just rotten news.

Rolling Stone’s got a list of Levon’s best moments.

And 50,000 websites will have this song up today – and so will we:

Posted by Thom

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April 13, 2012

14-Year-Old Saves 25 Horses From Fire

Ho hum:

“I got kicked in the shoulder by one of the horses in there and I got knocked down a few times,” she said. “But my adrenaline was so high at the time that it didn’t phase me.”

She’s just ovr four feet tall. And weighs 86 pounds. Yowza.

P.S. Must be something in the air.

Posted by Thom

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March 24, 2012

Japanese Tsunami Ship Nearing Canada

Wow. One year later, a catastrophe’s strange side effects, far, far away:

“A fishing trawler swept away more than a year ago by a tsunami off the east coast of Japan has been spotted floating near British Columbia, Canadian officials said…

The trawler is part of a giant debris field that was generated by the giant wall of water that struck the east coast of the island nation following a 9.0 earthquake, sweeping everything from cars to houses into the ocean.”

There’s a whole lot of other stuff out there, too. Check out this story, and this map someone made last November:

Tsunami Debris

 

Posted by Thom

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