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:
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:
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:
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.
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:
Today is the fifth anniversary of the very first video upload to internet video behemoth YouTube. It’s just 19 seconds long and was made by YouTube cofounder Jawed Karim. And I know itit might be hard to believe, with the millions of horribly awful videos that have been uploaded to the site over the last five years, but this very first one is a strong contender for The Most Boring Video in YouTube History. I kid you not. Watch:
Holy cow, don’t know how we missed this YouTube clip. Here’s to Fordham University’s Brian Kownacki, and the “Safe!” heard ’round the (YouTube) world. (1,193,475 views…in two days.) Here’s a quote from Kownacki to set the clip up:
“I got about halfway between third and home and I knew I was in trouble, but there was no turning back,” he tells the Daily News. ” When I was about five feet away, I saw the catcher kneel down in a crouch.”
Hap
py Earth Day, Earthlings! Here’s a cool little story for the occasion, from Uncle John’s Certified Organic Bathroom Reader (page 21), on the creation of that nifty little symbol used the world around that let’s you know if a product is recyclable and/or made from recycled materials. Little known fact: It’s creation was timed to coincide with the very first Earth Day.
The new high-tech $100 bills are in, and they are pretty darn cool looking.
If that’s not exciting enough for you, watch this totally bizarre video the Treasury Department made introducing the new note. It’s just images of the note, strangely dramatic music, and occasssional onscreen text describing some of the new bill’s features. Example: “Bell in the inkwell.” (Which would be a great name for a emo band.)
