Feb. 29, 2012
Marketing Campaign of the Day: Betty White and Slash together at last in a series of surprisingly informative promo spots for the LA Zoo‘s new LAIR (Living Amphibians, Invertebrates and Reptiles) exhibit.
Check out the rest here.
[adfreak.]
Feb. 29, 2012
A normal landlord’s normal letter to his normal, water-heater-chicken-defrosting tenants.
[reddit.]
Feb. 29, 2012
Everybody Needs A Hobby of the Day: 850 employees of La Quinta Inn & Suites gathered at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center on Tuesday to set a new Guinness World Record for longest chain of human mattress dominoes.
The previous record of 550 was set last year in Belgium. For reference’s sake, the current record for human dominoes sans mattresses is 10,000.
Mattresses used in the even were donated by the Simmons Bedding Company, and will be donated to local charities.
[nola / video: telegraph / dvice.]
Feb. 29, 2012
First official trailer for Dazed and Confused director Richard Linklater’s upcoming black comedy Bernie.
Based on the true story of wealthy widow Marjorie Nugent’s murder at the hands of her then-39-year-old companion Bernie Tiede, the film stars Jack Black as Tiede, Shirley MacLaine as Nugent, and Matthew McConaughey as the local DA.
A theatrical release has been set for March 2nd.
[collider.]
Feb. 29, 2012
Sex 2.0 of the Day: To coincide with National Condom Week, Planned Parenthood last week launched a new campaign that invites sex havers to “check in” after they finish (safely) bumping uglies.
Some 55,000 “smart condoms” were distributed by Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest to students at colleges in western Washington. Each condom has a QR code on the package that can be scanned with a smartphone to identify the user’s location.
A website, WhereDidYouWearIt.com, was set up to let people anonymous notify others where they did the horizontal mambo, and leave a short message about their experience.
“We hope the site promotes discussions within relationships about condoms and helps to remove perceived stigmas that some people may have about condom use,” said the Planned Parenthood branch’s new media coordinator Nathan Engebretson.
If you’re planning on engaging in one these, ahem, condom discussions, a good place to start would be how to wear one.
[livescience.]
Feb. 29, 2012
Upgraded Childhood of the Day: Devin Graham and his buddies hit the road with their souped-up Big Wheels for some fast and furious trike drifting.
[thanks cameron!]
Feb. 29, 2012
Damn You Auto Correct of the Day: Two schools in Georgia were on lockdown for two hours today after an autocorrected message sent to the wrong person led police to suspect a shooter may be looking to harm students.
“Gunman be at west hall today,” read the text, referencing West Hall middle and high schools.
Tracing the message back to its sender, police quickly learned that autocorrect was to blame for the threat. The unidentified person was merely informing the recipient that they were “gunna” be at the school today.
The word “gunna” was autocorrected to “gunman,” and the text was sent to the wrong person, triggering a call to police.
“While this event caused a great deal of anxiety among students, staff and parents,” said Hall Superintendent Will Schofield in a statement, “be assured that we will always err on the side of caution when it comes to the safety of our boys and girls.”
[times.]
Feb. 29, 2012
A Florida woman was arrested yesterday for burning down the fifth oldest tree in the world while smoking meth inside of it.
The iconic 118-foot Seminole County cypress tree known as The Senator, estimated to be some 3,500 years old, burned to the ground in January following what police believed to be an arson attack.
But a Crimeline tip led investigators to 26-year-old Sarah Barnes, who confessed to setting it alight while smoking meth with a friend inside the tree.
“I can’t believe I burned down a tree older than Jesus,” Barnes allegedly told friend while showing them photos of the burning tree she snapped with her cellphone.
Barnes was booked into Seminole County Jail on a felony charge of intentional burning of land, as well as drug charges.
Feb. 29, 2012
Not Dead Yet of the Day: A nonagenarian from the southern Chinese village of Liulou inadvertently scared the bejesus out of friends and family after she suddenly “reanimated” on the sixth day of her closed-casket wake.
95-year-old Li Xiufeng was reportedly showing no signs of life when she was discovered in her bed by a neighbor some two weeks after suffering a head injury.
Chen Qingwang, who would visit the elderly lady daily to bring her breakfast, said he tried pushing her and calling her name but to no avail. He claims she was not breathing, so he assumed she had passed on.
Neighbors placed Li in a coffin, and spent five days paying their respects, as is the tradition. On the sixth day, the day before the funeral, Chen arrived at the house and found his neighbor’s corpse missing.
Li had apparently returned from the dead, and walked into the kitchen to make herself a snack.
“I slept for a long time,” she later told her neighbors. “After waking up, I felt so hungry, and wanted to cook something to eat. I pushed the lid for a long time to climb out.”
An “artificial death” — in which a person temporarily stops breathing but remains alive — is being blamed for the mix-up.
Though one tradition may have saved her from an untimely demise, another one has sadly left her without a thing to call her own. It seems local custom dictates that, upon a person’s death, all their earthly possessions must be burned.
Feb. 29, 2012
5-year-old up-and-coming comedian Zay Zay performs some material that his dad wrote for him.
It’s both precious and terrifying all at once.
