If you haven’t seen this story, get a wallet or something to bite on first:
Mary Bale, 45, was caught on CCTV petting four-year-old tabby cat Lola before picking her up, tossing her into a trash can and closing the lid.
This story almost has the feel of a hoax:
“It is the second-lightest element in the Universe, has the lowest boiling-point of any gas and is commonly used through the world to inflate party balloons. But helium is also a non-renewable resource and the world’s reserves of the precious gas are about to run out, a shortage that is likely to have far-reaching repercussions.
We’re deep on deadline here at BRI headquarters, and I’m just polishing up a page on fascinating brain facts—”Your brain is so soft it can be cut with a butter knife” is a fun one. I just came across this bit of info: The earliest known realistic depiction of a human brain was made just 500 or so years ago. Imagine that. Of all the tens of thousands of years that modern humans have been around, we didn’t, at least according to the article linked, get a good drawing of that most vital of organs—the brain—until just a few centuries ago. Almost makes you feel young, doesn’t it?
Inside Uncle John’s Briefs are the most entertaining, myth-busting, and thought-provoking brief articles from Uncle John’s enormous Bathroom Reader library. So plunge in and see for yourself why the Bathroom Reader series has sold more than 10 million books.
Here is a bit of what awaits you…
- Corn Crackos and other cereal flops
- Baseball’s most bizarre injuries
- The timeless wisdom of Mr. T
- The origins of the warerbed, tarter sauce, and the polka
- How to talk like a mobster
- The anatomy of a hiccup
…and much, much more!
Now to the fun part—Giveaway!!!
If we didn’t already have a toilet at the office, we might have all pitched in to buy J.D. Salinger’s “Throne.”
The description reads: “Here’s an item you won’t come across everyday! This is the toilet that was personally owned AND used by J.D. Salinger for many years! It sat in his home in Cornish, New Hampshire, and was installed in the ‘new wing’ of his house. When he died, his wife inherited all of his manuscripts with plans to eventually release some of them! Who knows how many of these stories were thought up and written while Salinger sat on this throne!”
But, we’re not sure $1 million is a fair price. What do you think?
Thank you Greg Wolcott for sending us a great cartoon today. Thanks for making us smile!
Free Range cartoon by Bill Whitehead
A creepy yet fascinating insect story from Discover:
“Hyper-violent males can sometimes wear the female down but some opt for a subtler approach – they tap intricate rhythms on the water with their legs. When Han and Jablonski discovered these rituals last year, they suggested that the males might be trying to demonstrate their quality, by tapping out the most consistent rhythms. Now, they have another explanation – the tapping is a form of blackmail, a way of coercing sex from the female with the threat of death.
The duo studied the preferences of the backswimmer – a predatory bug that floats upside-down at the water’s surface and listens out for the vibrations of potential prey. When given a choice between a silent male water strider and a mating pair with a tapping male, the backswimmer always headed towards the vibrating duo. And since these predators attack from below, the female was always the one who was injured while the male strode off to tap another day.”
Okay, we’re about one million views behind on this one, but it’s just too good to pass up. I mean watch that Mazza player drop those gloves! Artwork!
There’s a headline over at GrindTV right now that says this:
“Marlin goes berserk, attacks press boat during Hawaii tournament”
We here at the BRI enjoy taking our luxury yachts on fishing trips to exotic locales around the world as much as anyone—but can you give a fish a break here? It had a hook in its face. Does reacting to that qualify as going “beserk,” and “attack[ing]” a boat? It may have just wanted to, you know, get the hook out of its face.
Someone at Yahoo hit their head and put up a REALLY DUMB ARTICLE about “money habits” you didn’t know were illegal. Did you know, for instance, that it is illegal to lie on a home loan application? Of that you can’t make copies of U.S. currency? I know, it’s crazy!
Hey, it happens—but we still get to laugh at it. And read the comments. And there are over 4,700 of them. A few of our favorites:
These comments are way more interesting and accurate than the the stupid article.
I’m sure everyone that read this already knew you weren’t allowed to copy money. It is called “counterfeiting”, Marcie.
well no @#$% sherlock
Ohh.. Can’t I make my own money? *facepalm* -.-
It’s been a few weeks since we introduced our brand new website, and we thought it was time to give you, our loyal fans, something to thank you for hanging around. So…it’s giveaway time! That’s right, five lucky fans will get 1 free book of their choice from our store, simply for being our readers! All you have to do to enter our giveaway is leave us a comment on THIS blog post, with the answer to this question: Do you fold or bunch your tp? Make sure you comment with a working email address so that we have a way to contact you if you win! (You can answer the question once per contest). Continue reading for 6 additional ways to win.
Have you ever found yourself thinking, “Dang, it sure is a good thing that we have C-SPAN”? Well, it’s a good thing to remember that before 1979 we didn’t have anything like it—and it took one person, Brian Lamb, a lot of work over a lot of years to get it on the air. We wrote about it in Uncle John’s Triumphant 20th Bathroom Reader (page 243). Here’s an excerpt:
Mr. Lamb goes to Washington
During the Vietnam War, a young navy lieutenant from Indiana named Brian Lamb was assigned to the Pentagon press office to report troop deaths to the media. The amount of information either omitted or censored in order to paint a rosier picture of the war appalled him. “The government lied to us,” he later recalled. “We just weren’t getting the straight scoop.”During that time, Lamb also served as an aide in the Johnson White House. Once again he saw a huge gap between what the American people knew and what was really happening. “I got a firsthand education about how the media interacts with the government, and it led me to think that there could be a better way.”
That better way was a news outlet that would report what was happening in politics—with two major differences: 1) no censorship from government; and 2) no commentary from media pundits.
He wasn’t for everyone, but we sure liked him.
“John Callahan, a quadriplegic, alcoholic cartoonist whose work in newspapers and magazines made irreverent, impolitic sport of people with disabilities and diseases and those who would pity and condescend to them, died Saturday in Portland, Ore. He was 59 and lived in Portland.”
Here’s his Web site. It actually has a section titled “Free Animations,” and visitors are invited to take one or more, asking only that you provide a link back to the site in exchange. What a guy. Here’s a fairly mellow one that’ll give you a bit of an idea what John Callahan was all about:
This is Secret Agent M reporting. Comic-Con is officially over. Beside more pictures of great costumes and booths, below you will find highlights of the induction of Sylvester Stallone to the Action Hero Hall of Fame, the annual Zombie Walk, and SYFY/EW’s red carpet event. For those who followed all the Comic-Con news, I was no where near Hall H and know nothing about the guy who stabbed the other guy in the eye because he was sitting too close to him at a panel.
Now to the fun stuff:
Whiplash from Iron Man.
Joker from “The Killing Joke” and Harley Quinn.
Drew Struzan: Movie poster artist of Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones fame.
We’re back! And super secret agent M is back at San Diego Comic-Con taking photos of all the sites. Day 1 was big fun – so on to Day 2:
Comic-con t-shirts
He-Man!
Spiderman!
The Ghostbusters!
Brains…brains…
The world’s premier comic book convention is going on right now in San Diego – and we have a BRI agent there taking photos of the fantastic sites. We’re going to be adding photos to this post throughout the day; should be a blast.
Let’s get things rolling with the first image, just sent to me via the marvelous Mana’s mobile:
Iron Man bad guy?
Sailor Moon!
The real Chewbacca!!! Peter Mayhew!
Green Lantern Girl and…that guy
Very cool story from the wild world of, well, the Wild:
One rare tree specimen in Ireland is proving that it’s never too late to try something new. Some 90 years after being planted on an estate outside of Belfast, a Goat Horn Trees [sic], native to China, is flowering its pale, aromatic blossoms for the very first time ever. Sadly though, it’s attempt to find another tree with which to reproduce will likely be in vain as there’s only one more like it in the whole country.
Sad little tree.
Here’s some more information on Carrierea calycinea, and a nice pic of the tree’s flowers:
Dear brave souls that participated in our scavenger hunt:
We thank you all for taking the time to research, take pictures, and get creative with each of our clues. Over the next couple of weeks, we will share some of the awesome pictures/answers with you all. As promised, the winners have been picked and notified. And…here they are:
Grand-prize winner (iPad):
Anna Harmon
Runner Ups (10 signed Uncle John’s Bathroom Readers):
Mary Jane Crewe
Brian Breslin
James King
Read on for all the answers.
