Category Archives: News

These clowns didn’t stand a chance…

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First off, we have a quick story from Colombia: an unknown gunman bursts into a circus and shoots two clowns.  Now I dislike clowns as much as the next dude, but that’s just uncalled for.

Then another story of an untimely, but not undeserving, clown death.  A bus full of senior citizens were held up by three hapless cowards.  It turns out that these losers were not quite up to the task, since two of them fled when the seniors started to fight back, and disarmed them.  The third was put into a headlock by a seriously bad-assed retired Military serviceman.  The “senior citizen” broke the man’s clavicle and apparently he choked the man to death in the struggle.  The seniors were back on their cruise boat by nightfall and cleared of any wrongdoing since they were defending themselves.  I love this story, it’s got a Hollywood movie kind of feel to it.  I’m thinking maybe Tommy Lee Jones, or maybe even Clint Eastwood in the role of the vigilante senior.

Recycling garbage into energy

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I saw a very cool article the other day about how a process exists to basically vaporize garbage into atoms, with the byproducts a molten-glass slurry and a gas that be used to produce hydrogen. In other words, it’s one of those things that sounds too good to be true. Anyway, if it does turn out that it’s reasonable it would change the world.  Landfills would produce energy and cities wouldn’t have garbage problems anymore.  It’s definitely a great dream, if it works.  Check it out.

Wilson and Angie should be happy with it, anyway.

Preserved Frog in Amber

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Here’s a neat article. Somebody found a frog perfectly preserved in amber that is probably 25 million years old. Anyway, the scientists want to drill this thing and get a sample of the frog’s DNA. Which would of course allow him to clone it and re-create a long-lost species of killer frogs that would soon end all human life as we know it. Think Jurassic Park and you’ve got it exactly. Or maybe they would just hop around a lot, and eat mosquitoes. Could be, you never know with these things.

Anyway, I saw the article and immediately thought of that Bugs Bunny segment where the construction worker finds a frog in the concrete of the building he is demolishing. It sings show tunes perfectly, but it only sings for him and eventually ruins him. Some things we just aren’t meant to find….. this frog is probably one of those.

He’s got wood.

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A very cool article on Wired today about a company that specializes in underwater logging. Apparently there are significant forests (estimated to be $50 billion worldwide) that are currently underwater due to hydro dam projects. Anyway, the story goes into how the actual logging process is basically the only guilt-free logging in the world since there is no habitat problem, no greenhouse problem, and not even any noise produced. It’s a brilliant idea, really and this guy deserves the heaps of money he is undoubtedly going to make. The process is nice and geeky too, with an underwater, chainsaw wielding-remote controlled robot. The pilot guides the robot to the tree, staples large floaties to the logs and then cuts them down with an 8 foot chainsaw. So cool, and environmentally friendly.

I can still remember getting completely creeped out by the huge amount of fallen logs visible at the bottom of Clayton Lake as a kid.  It was a tangled mess of logs fallen every which way, and it seemed to be just waiting to trap a swimmer’s foot.  Or at least to my 14 year old self.  This company doesn’t bother with logs that can be seen from the surface, but rather with still standing trees in over 150 feet of water.

Think you’re a big drinker?

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You aren’t. Not really. Not compared to this guy. You will realize it when you give this link a read. Oh man, this is crazy. It’s an article on the Modern Drunkard Magazine website (no, I’m not a regular reader, I saw this on Wired) about the legendary drinking exploits of Andre the Giant. Yes, the wrestler. He had a disease that caused him to grow far, far beyond the normal human size, obviously. At over 500 pounds, and looming about 7 feet tall, this man also had an inhuman tolerance for alcohol. Let me paraphrase the very entertaining article that you should definitely go and read in it’s entirety.

  • demolishing a dozen or so quarts of beer as a “warm-up” for a match
  • During trips Andre consumed beer at the incredible rate of a case every ninety minutes, with bottles of vodka or top-rate French wine thrown in for variety
  • once he drank “119 beers in six hours. That’s a beer every three minutes, non stop”

There are lots of really funny stories and anecdotes about this man’s life, including some funny stories about Hulk Hogan being his little buddy and scampering off to get beer to keep Andre happy so he wouldn’t hurt anybody.  His life of course was unusually short because of his disease, but not necessarily a sad one because of the lust for life this guy had.  Go and read this now.

Wife saves husband’s life

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There’s no sarcasm here, this is just an amazing story. A couple were hiking in California when a mountain lion attacked the man, who is 70 years old and must be in incredibly good health. It had his head in it’s jaws and the woman, 65, fought it off by beating it with a log. They then picked themselves up and walked a 1/4 mile to wiat for a park ranger. He’s doing ok and is recovering now.

Incredible story, and what a couple of remarkable people.