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Kangaroos in the Noos

News, we meant news. Anyhoo:

• “What is a kangaroo doing in the middle of the road in Bemidji, Minnesota in November?” Luke Havumaki said. (Uncle John said, “In November?”)

• Solving the mysteries of the elusive tree kangaroo. (With video.)

• A motorcycle rider was injured when he ran into a kanagroo. In Texas. (Texas, Asutralia.)

• Hankering for a new flavor potato chip? How about BBQ Kangaroo?

• The hunt for a phantom kangaroo…in Japan.

• Kangaroo v. dingo.

• Horny kangaroos!

• Shark attacks kangaroo. (Whu-huh?)

• And, finally, more ocean-going kangaroos, with less shark.

Ancient Weapons Found in Melting Arctic Ice

We now bring you another exciting edition of As the World Melts:

A treasure trove of ancient weapons has emerged from melting ice patches in the Canadian Arctic, revealing hunting strategies thousands of years old.

The weapons, which include a 2,400-year-old spear throwing tools, a 1000-year-old ground squirrel snare, and bows and arrows dating back 850 years, have been found high in the remote Mackenzie Mountains, a region where Mountain Boreal caribou abound in the summer months.

Politalks: Gordon Brown and the “Bigoted Woman”

Woo hoo. This one’s a doozy. Like we said in the last post, we love politics. Especially this kind.

Setup: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, eight days out from an election in which Brown’s Labour Party is predicted to lose their majority for the first time since 1997, is out on the stump. He comes across one Mrs. Gillian Duffy, aged 65, on a Rochdale, England, street, who had just popped out for a loaf of bread.

He has a nice and seemingly substantive little chat with Mrs. Duffy, surrounded by reporters and cameras.

He says goodbye, and gets in his car…but his microphone was still on. And this conversation is soon played to the world:

Wednesday Wrap

If you’re just coming to see us for the first time—Welcome!—and here’s a quick look at what Uncle John’s Blog has been up to for the last week:

THURSDAY, April 22—Earth Day—we brought you the story of the making of the recycle—♲—symbol.

FRIDAY, April 23rd, we had a YouTube contender for college baseball play of the year, and we also said, “Happy Anniversary YouTube!“

Eggs, Smoke Bombs, and Fistfights. In Parliament.

We here at the BRI love politics. Especially this kind:

Ukraine’s parliament collapsed into chaos during a debate about extending the Russian navy’s lease on a base.

Parliamentary speaker Vlodymyr Lytvyn was forced to dodge eggs and was later shielded by two aids with black umbrellas.

Opposition MPs set off smoke bombs and the debate had to be held over the whining of alarms.

There are several photos at the link, including this one:

Internet Wonders: Old & Interesting

This is such a great idea for a Web site:

This site is about . . .
. . . how people furnished and equipped their homes in previous centuries, and how they handled household tasks. Plans are to keep adding more articles, with the homepage updated every Wednesday – at least. Please email if you want to suggest a topic connected with the history of everyday home life, housekeeping, domestic objects, or any related bits of social history.

Simple and fascinating. There are many, many photographs of actual antique items, along with descriptions of their use. Just a few of the items covered:

Google Toilet View

No, it’s not a new Google program—I smell lawsuits! (no pun intended)—it’s a look at what curious Web surfers like ourselves might find by putting the word “toilet” into Google images. Our Toilet-View Top Ten:

1. Wearable Toilets…in Space!

Mia Farrow was on the first cover of People magazine, March 4, 1974.

Taco is Spanish for “plug.”

Don’t blink! A 30-minute cartoon may contain over 18,000 separate drawings.

One beehive can have as many as 80,000 bees.

Winston Churchill once designed greeting cards for Hallmark.

C.S. Lewis received more than 800 rejection letters before selling his first book.

The Rolling Hills Country Club in Florida was the setting for the movie Caddyshack.

In the 1850s, Americans set their watches in as many as a hundred local times.

Run DMC was the first rap group to perform on TV’s “American Bandstand.”

Superman made his first flight in a DC comic in 1938.

Happy Fifth Anniversary, YouTube

On this date five years ago the very first video ever was uploaded to internet video behemoth YouTube. It was created by YouTube cofounder Jawed Karim, and is just 19 seconds long. And I know it might be difficult to believe, with the millions of horrible rotten awful just plain dumb videos that have been uploaded to the site in the time since, but this very first video just might be The Most Boring YouTube Video…Ever. Even more boring than this one, which, you might like to know, is titled, “The Most Boring YouTube Video…Ever.” Go ahead. Watch and decide for yourself:

<img src="https://bathroomreader.com/wp-content/themes/unclejohns/images/heading-fountain-of-knowledge.png" width="1434" height="108" style="width: 800px;" alt="Fountain of Knowledge">