Archive for August, 2011

Ongoing Salish Sea Mystery of the Day: The disturbing trend of human feet washing ashore along North America’s West Coast continues.

Today’s discovery in Vancouver’s False Creek of “a human foot and leg bones in a running shoe” marks the eleventh incident since 2007.

“There is no indication at this early stage in the investigation how the remains came to be there,” said Vancouver police Const. Jana McGuinness.

Foul play is not currently suspected in any of the previous cases — eight in BC, three in Washington. At least one of the feet was linked through DNA to a suspected suicide, and police believe the others may have a similar origin.

[v|s / ctv.]

Pareidolia of the Day: 46-year-old Yvonne Darnell of Burgess Hill, West Sussex is photographed holding a baby carrot that she claims looks like, well, a baby.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she says of the misshapen taproot she pulled out of her own garden. “It’s so funny. I saw it and thought, ‘It looks like an alien baby’.”

Darnell has even gone so far as to give the little guy a name: Kevin. Addressing Kevin’s future, she told The Argus Kevin will have “a short but happy life.”

Dear Kevin: Get the hell out of there now.

[theargus / metro / h/t: urlesque.]

Street Art of the Day: TrustoCorp‘s latest “public intervention” involves ultra-realistic send-ups of popular gossip magazines that feature heavy-breathed headlines for stories that have yet to be written.

Copies were inserted into racks at newsstands and bookstores throughout Hollywood, Manhattan, Williamsburg, LAX, and JFK, so if you happen to be in one of these areas, you may just get to read tomorrow’s news today.

See hi-res images of the faux-mags after the jump.

Click to see more… »

Puzzle Piece of the Day: A cash-strapped 22-year-old who sought to have an entire Where’s Waldo scene inked on his back got a proposition from tattoo artist Rytch Soddy: Raise £500 (~$815) for London’s Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, and the full-back piece is yours, free of charge.

John Mosley, a music producer, did him a few hundred better, raising a total of £2000 (~$3250) for the hospital that saved Soddy’s life when he was stung by a bee many years ago.

All told, the back-tat took 24 hours to complete. “It is the longest tattoo that I have ever completed in terms of the time taken,” Soddy is quoted as saying. “It was certainly more fun than the average tattoo and I am really pleased with it.”

The Norwich-based tattooist didn’t tell his client when it came time to draw in Waldo, because where’s the fun in that?

[en24 / dailymail / h/t: brobible / photo: guardian.]

Historical Revisionism of the Day: Remember that misquote attributed to Martin Luther King Jr. that was widely circulated after the death of Osama bin Laden until it was revealed that it was accidentally engineered by an English teacher on Facebook? Well, a similar situation involving the recently unveiled Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial is threatening to, quite literally, set a MLK misquote in stone.

“If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice,” King famously told the congregation at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church on Feb. 4, 1968. “Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.” Designers of the MLK memorial wanted to have these inspiring words inscribed on the statue, but space restrictions forced them to abbreviate.

Henceforth, MLK will be quoted as saying “I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.”

This distortion of history has upset quite a few people, including author and poet Maya Angelou, who was Northern Coordinator of MLK’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and on whose birthday the civil rights leader was assassinated.

“The quote makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit,” Angelou — one of the memorial’s consultants — told the Washington Post. “He was anything but that. He was far too profound a man for that four-letter word to apply.”

Angelou went on to say that the paraphrasing “minimizes the man…makes him seem less than the humanitarian he was. . . . It makes him seem an egotist.” She is demanding the inscription be changed to reflect the full quote.

Ed Jackson Jr., the memorial’s executive architect, admits he didn’t consult with Angelou about the quote, but says the problem was outlined to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, and the solution was approved. “The buck has to stop somewhere,” Jackson said. “Otherwise we go round and round and round.”

Memorial adviser Jon Onye Lockard agrees. “I think it’s rather small of folks to pick at things,” he is quoted as saying. “This has been going on for 14 years, and all of them have had plenty of time to add their thoughts and ideas.”

[wapo.]

Kickass Cover of the Day: The multitalented Josie Charlwood covers “Feel Good Inc.” solo on a boatload of gear.

Download the MP3 here.

[reddit.]

Simpsons Did It of the Day: Earlier today, J. C. Penney was making money off a long-sleeve shirt marketed to girls aged 7 to 16, which proudly announced to the world that its female wearer was too busy being pretty and listening to Justin Bieber to do homework like a boy.

After the Internet got involved, however, J.C. Penney quickly pulled the offending apparel and apologized with this statement:

J.C. Penney is committed to being America’s destination for great style and great value for the whole family. We agree that the “Too pretty” t-shirt does not deliver an appropriate message, and we have immediately discontinued its sale. Our merchandise is intended to appeal to a broad customer base, not to offend them. We would like to apologize to our customers and are taking action to ensure that we continue to uphold the integrity of our merchandise that they have come to expect.

The outrage, however, hasn’t been as quick to die down, with disgruntled JC Penney patrons continuing to take to the retailer’s Facebook page to express their dismay.

[h/t: vv-rs.]

That’s One Way To End An Altercation of the Day: In a bizarre incident that left police officers scratching their heads, a Yorktown, Virginia man decapitated himself during a domestic dispute with his ex-wife.

According to report from the York-Poquoson’s Sheriff’s Office, deputies arriving on the scene spotted a burning trailer hitched to a white Ford Explorer. The unidentified driver, who had reportedly wrapped a tree-tied cable around his neck, refused officers’ requests to exit the vehicle. The man suddenly accelerated, causing his head to separate from his body.

The 46-year-old Chicago native’s death has been ruled a suicide. Details about the dispute were not released, but local reports say the couple, who share two children, were arguing about the man’s living arrangements.

[ap / ksee.]

One Man’s Earthquake Is Another Man’s Miracle of the Day: A 75-year-old cancer patient at D.C.’s Veterans Affairs Hospital regained his hearing after the 5.8 East Coast Earthquake unclogged some fluid that was blocking his middle ear.

Robert Valderzak lost his hearing last Father’s Day, when he fractured his skull after falling. “He had conductive hearing loss, caused by fluid in his middle ear, as well as loss due to nerve damage,” the hospitals chief of staff Dr. Ross Fletcher told ABC News.

The quake that struck the DC area last week “shook me terrible – right out of the bed,” says Valderzak. “”But after that it stopped. And my son talked to me, and I could hear his voice.”

“A combination of a drug he was taking and the earthquake event itself likely led to him losing the fluid and gaining back his hearing,” Dr. Fletcher explained. Valderzak thinks something else deserves most of the credit. “It was God’s blessing,” he says. “It was a miracle for me.”

[abcnews / arbroath.]

Morning Links:

• Scottish comedian Brian Limond AKA Limmy tried to shake off 1,000 of his 11,000 Twitter followers in 24 hours. Things did not quite go as planned. (via.)

• AskReddit: What is one meal you think everyone should know how to cook?

• A collection of extended and deleted scenes from the final shooting script of Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything…

• Morning Distraction: Rizzoli and Isles: The Masterpiece Murders. (via.)

• Morning Wood: Nashlly Sokoli.

• Morning List: 5 Embarrassing Failures History Class Turned Into Victories.

[photo: reddit.]