Daily Dispatch

Samoa and Tokelau to Skip December 30

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.

Tsunami Girl Home After 7 Years [updated]

Tsunami girlUnbelievable:

“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.”

Louis CK’s Experiment

Louis CK

You may have heard about this. If so, well, there’s been a very big update as of yesterday.

Back story: On December 10, comedian Louis CK put a video of himself performing at the Beacon Theater in New York City up for sale on a website made just for purpose. It offered the video for $5. You could pay through PayPal – even if you didn’t have a PayPal account – and download the video right away. And:

The Batman Infographic

What a great idea:

Comic book writer Grant Morrison said it best: “[Every bat-suit is] completely different” – sometimes insanely different – “but they’re all instantly recognizable as [the-bat-suit].”

Every Batman bat-suit

Hanukkah Lamps Selected By Maurice Sendak

Happy Hanukkah! The eight-day Jewish holiday also known as the “Festival of Lights,” which honors the redidication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century CE, begins today. (If you’re unfamiliar with the details of the origin of this holiday—that’s what jewfaq.org is for.)

To commemorate the holiday this year, the Jewish Museum in New York City has a display entitled “An Artist Remembers: Hanukkah Lamps Selected by Maurice Sendak.”

Last-Minute Gifts Beginning With E

Okay, we’ve done A-D, now here’s E.

• E-Books

OMG! What a coincidence! You can gift Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader e-books right now over at Amazon! How weird! That’s totally coinci-mental!

Okay, it wasn’t a coincidence, we made that up as a clever way to get into this post. Not really that clever, though, huh? We’re sorry.

Where were we? Oh yeah. All you need is the giftee’s email address. It’s really easy.

And you don’t need to own a Kindle—and whoever you’re gifting doesn’t need a Kindle either, as Amazon has FREE apps that allow you to read books on other devices, like computers, and pads, and phones.

There are nine UJBR’s currently available as e-books. Here are the links, straight to Amazon:

Researchers: Acupuncture Does Something Good

This is rare. You’ve probably heard, like we have, dozens of times, how scientists have proven that acupuncture is a bunch of hokum. (And heard dozens more times from friends, aunts, wandering musicians, etc., that “No, it really works! I quit smoking, became psychic, and had my piles cured—all from acupuncture!”)

Well, score one for Team B above, as for one of the first times we’re ever seen, a medical research team has just recently found that acupuncture does something quite good:

Acupuncture significantly reduces levels of a protein in rats linked to chronic stress, researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) have found. They say their animal study may help explain the sense of well-being that many people receive from this ancient Chinese therapy.

Now, that’s not a complete vidication for acupuncture supporters, of course, but it is something.

And how they conducted he experiment is pretty cool, too:

Secret Movie Cameos: E.T.’s Bedroom

I SPY…AT THE MOVIES

More fun in-jokes and cameos from the silver screen.

CHARLIE’S ANGELS (2000)
I Spy…E.T.’s living room
Where to Find It: Wearing nothing but a plastic blow-up swimming-pool toy, Dylan (Drew Barrymore) bursts into a house where two boys are playing a video game. It’s the same house in Tujunga, California, that was used for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the film that launched Barrymore’s career in 1982. (To hammer the point home, the kids are eating Reese’s Pieces and there’s an E.T. poster on the wall.)

That’s just one tiny excerpt from the brand new Uncle John’s 24-KARAT GOLD Bathroom Reader.

NFL Drug Scandal Coming? [updated5]

FYI, sports fans: There could be a big story concerning the National Football League breaking pretty soon:

Chicago Bears wide receiver Sam Hurd was locked up in federal custody Thursday as his stunned teammates learned he had been charged with trying to set up a drug-dealing network following his arrest with more than a pound of cocaine.

A POUND of cocaine. That’s not your “personal-use” amount of cocaine, as the story implies with the “network” comment. And the dude just signed a three-year contract worth $5.15 million! Why on earth…?! Wow.

But for the REALLY big ingredient in this story we have to go to another site:

Bears wide receiver Sam Hurd, who was arrested Wednesday on federal drug charges, was a top drug dealer in Chicago and police have a list of NFL players who were supplied drugs by the receiver, a law enforcement source told 670 The Score.

Oh. Dear. This is really, really ungood for the NFL.

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