May 12, 2011

Friday the 13th… Thirteen interesting facts about the number 13 ²

All, Hodge Podge, Lighter side of life • Tags: facts, Friday the 13th, history, interesting, trivia

Some interesting facts about the number 13….

1. Hospitals and hotels regularly have no room number 13.

2. Many cities don’t have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue. This city tempted fate.

3. If you have 13 letters in your name, you’re said to have the devil’s luck. Like, this guy (Charles Manson).

4. Many airports skip the 13th gate.

5. Airplanes have no 13th aisle.

6. Italians omit the number 13 from their national lottery.

7. More than 80% of high rises lack a 13th floor.

8. On streets in Florence, Italy, the house between number 12 and 14 is addressed as 12 and a half.

9. Traditionally in hangings, there are 13 knots in the noose and 13 steps leading up to the moment of death.

10. French President Nicolas Sarkozy may know that in France, socialites called quatorziens (fourteeners) make themselves available as 14th guests to keep a dinner party from an unlucky fate.

11. Many say the No. 13 pointed to the ill-fated mission to the moon, Apollo 13.

12. Tarot Card number 13 is the Death Card, depicting the Grim Reaper.

13. Some say that the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (circa 1780 B.C.E.) is to blame for the No. 13 woes since the 13th law is omitted.

Okay, I’m adding a 14th as this is interesting, and goes against the pattern of the number 13 being unlucky:

13 -1/2: While the number thirteen is widely considered unlucky, especially in western cultures, it actually remains a popular symbol of luck as tattoos.

About these ads

May 12, 2011

Pageant mom gives Botox to 8-Year-Old… and defends her actions ⁴

All, News: US • Tags: 8-year old girl, beauty pageant, botox, child abuse, competition, damage, disorders, gma, good morning america, injections, interview, mother gives botox injections to 8-year old daughter, pain, psychological, scar, video, waxing legs, wrinkles

It never ceases to amaze me what people will do… giving Botox to an 8 year old girl, and waxing her legs. All in prep for her beauty pageants. Is this child abuse? This mother is living out her fallen dreams through her daughter, and taking away her childhood.

The girl tells about the pain… and claims she has wrinkles! What parent would purposely put their own child in agony as this woman has done?

The psychological scars will forever remain with this girl. She may very well grow up never believing her outer beauty is good enough, thus damaging her inner beauty. Forever seeking alterations to her body.

Video on this story:

________________________________________

Can the child beauty pageant officials should ban this woman from entering this girl? This may be the only way of stopping her from torturing her own child. Statistics show half of girls ages 8 to 10 as being unhappy with their size, 40 percent of fourth graders admitting to previously being on a diet, and more than half of girls ages 9 to 15 having exercised to lose weight.

Being forced into a competition, whether the child likes it or not, hampers the confidence of the child. Moreover, she has to always look pretty, wear make-up and behave in an adult manner. Naturally, these children suffer from mental problems like low self-esteem, depression and eating disorders. Most of these girls are tall but have a low body mass index or BMI. Malnutrition sets in their body sometimes at the young age of 14 or 16.

And now… injecting botox and waxing legs…. What have we come to? How much longer until this mother has plastic surgery done on her child?

Parents, and society in general, need to focus more on the inner beauty. It is more than skin deep.

May 12, 2011

Donald Trump discloses how he styles his infamous hair ^Reply

All, Lighter side of life, News: US • Tags: coif, combover, discloses, donald trump, hair, hairdo, style, tells

Just what we all wanted to know...

May 12, 2011

Mt Etna erupts May 12, 2011. Footage of nighttime eruption. ¹

All, Environmental, News: International • Tags: 2011, active, ash, catania, continental europe, erupts, footage, hd, italy, lava, may 12, most active, mount etna, mt etna, night, sicily, video, volcano

Most active volcano in Continental Europe, Mount Etna, on Thursday (12 / 5) morning, again erupted. Mountain located on the island of Sicily, Italy, was accompanied by bursts of backfire hot lava and ash into the air.

Etna eruption occurred between the hours of 02:00 until 06:00 local time. Italian authorities closed the airport services in the city of Catania, the town nearest to Mount Etna, after warnings from the specialist mountain Institute of Volcanology in Catania.

In addition, workers also attempted to clear the airport runway from volcanic ash. The eruption of Mount Etna would create problems. Section, will take place next Sunday racing bike from the city of Messina to the Etna.

Etna, with an altitude of 3295 meters, is the most active volcano in Continental Europe. The mountain had last erupted in 1992.

Hosted by imgur.com

May 12, 2011

Video of world’s longest Boilermaker domino chain… ^Reply

All, Lighter side of life • Tags: beer, boilermaker, domino chain, shot

This took some work… and a lot of booze.

May 12, 2011

A Clockwork Orange 40th Anniversary. Recent pictures of Malcolm McDowell and trailer ^Reply

All, Lighter side of life • Tags: 40th Anniversary, A Clockwork Orange, about, Alex, documentary, Malcolm McDowell, photos, re-release, release, release of blu-ray, Stanley Kubrick, trailer, video

On May 31st, Warner Home Video will honor Kubrick and the film with A Clockwork Orange 40th Anniversary Edition on Blu-ray ($34.99 SRP). The two-disc release includes two newly-produced bonus features: Turning Like Clockwork, a 25-minute documentary about the film’s “ultra-violence” and its cultural impact, and a short documentary where Malcolm McDowell reminiscences on working closely with the legendary director. This two-disc edition will also contain the feature-length documentaries, Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures and O Lucky Malcolm! The 40th Anniversary Edition will be packaged in a 40-page Blu-ray book with rare photos and production notes.
_________________________________

Here are some recent pictures of Malcolm McDowell (Alex)

_________________________________

A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 darkly satirical science fiction film adaptation of Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel of the same name. The film, which was made in England, concerns Alex (Malcolm McDowell), a charismatic, psychopathic delinquent whose pleasures are classical music (especially Beethoven), rape, and so-called ‘ultra-violence.’ He leads a small gang of thugs (Pete, Georgie, and Dim), whom he calls his droogs (from the Russian друг, “friend”, “buddy”). The film tells the horrific crime spree of his gang, his capture, and attempted rehabilitation via a controversial psychological conditioning technique. Alex narrates most of the film in Nadsat, a fractured, contemporary adolescent slang comprising Slavic (especially Russian), English, and Cockney rhyming slang.

This cinematic adaptation was produced, directed, and written by Stanley Kubrick. It features disturbing, violent images, to facilitate social commentary about psychiatry, youth gangs, and other contemporary social, political, and economic subjects in a dystopian, future Britain. A Clockwork Orange features a soundtrack comprising mostly classical music selections and Moog synthesizer compositions by Walter Carlos (later known as Wendy Carlos). The now-iconic poster of A Clockwork Orange, and its images, were created by designer Bill Gold. The film also holds the Guinness World Record for being the first film in media history to use the Dolby Sound system.

From Wikipedia: A Clockwork Orange (film)
_________________________________

Photos and official trailer of the movie

May 12, 2011

Pick Up America – 7 young volunteers picking up trash as they walk 3600 miles across America ^Reply

Activism, All, Environmental • Tags: across, bottles, communities, country, environment, environmental, garbage, highways, landfills, pick up america, picking, plastic, recycling, reduce waste, tires, trash, up, volunteer, walk, waste, young, youth, zero, zero waste

Pick Up America is a local, regional, and nationwide initiative committed to reducing plastic waste in our communities and waterways. The Pick Up Artists will coordinate community trash clean-ups while walking across the country to encourage alternatives to our nation’s throwaway mentality. The two year trek began on March 20, 2010 from Assateague Island, MD., and will span 13 states to the San Francisco Bay, Calif., sometime in November 2011.

There are 7 volunteers who are doing the entire cross country walk. Along the way, many local volunteers walk along, help pick up and bag the trash. The bags are left alongside there road where the following day, the state’s highway DOT will come by and pick up the bags.

The volunteers seperate the garbage as they go into recycling items which are taken to the local recycling areas. Each bag is weighed so they will have a total amount of trash picked up by the end of their journey.

Most common item is platic bottles, followed by cans, plastic bags and beer bottles. Also common are tires… everywhere.

Mission: Walk across the country, pick up trash, and inspire a transition to zero waste.

One of the goals is to help connect the churches with businesses with students and with environmental organizations. The biggest item is to help build coalitions pushing towards zero waste. To help transition where we are at a place where we’re not taking resources straight from the earth, using them once, then landfilling them.

Most importantly, Pick Up America is trying to get people to understand why we are producing so much trash in the first place.

Let’s all work together in transitioning to a country of zero waste.

Thank you, Pick Up America, for helping build awareness towards our environment and waste problems.

May 12, 2011

Facebook spam hit thousands Wed night with “Verify My Account” post. How to set your FB as secure ^Reply

All, Science & Technology • Tags: account, affected, Facebook, facebook security, how to set secure connection, phished, phishing, please do your part in preventing spam by verifying your account, post, set secure connection of facebook, spam, thousands, verify, verify my account, verify your account, viral, wall

Last night, Wed. May 11, 2011, I was just about to go to bed and doing one last peek at Facebook, when I saw someone posted on my wall. I take a look, and immediately knew it was spam – and that my friend did not send this. We’ve all seen these posts come through many times, I’m sure.

However, this one was different… suddenly, within a matters of seconds, there were over a hundred of this same posting on my wall coming from various friends posting to everyone in their friend list. Since most of my friends are a large local circle, many of us have anywhere from 20 to 100+ common friends amongst us. Therefore when a friend posted to another common friend, it showed on my wall. Within one refresh of my screen, my wall was entirely full of these posts.

The posting stated: “In order to PREVENT SPAM, I ask that you VERIFY YOUR ACCOUNT. Click VERIFY MY ACCOUNT right next to comment below to start the process…”

When the recipient clicks on the ==VERIFY MY ACCOUNT==, they were NOT verifying their account, they went to javascript which then would post this same message on EVERYONE’S wall in their friend list.

I watched in utter amazement last night watching these posts fill my wall and spread faster than the Swine Flu did last year.

This appears to be phishing which is a way of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. By clicking the the “verify your account”, the sender was then able to acquire your user information, including your password.

Now, I spent a few hours last night stepping my friends through the correct way to change your password on Facebook, especially in this situation. And simply, FIRST (very important)… go to your account / account settings / account security (change) / and click on:

Secure Browsing (https)
 Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) whenever possible (make sure this box is checked)
 (see picture below)

After you have set (or verified) that you have a secure connection… THEN you need to change your password. If you change your password without a secure connection, and you have been phished, then the phisher will have your new password.

Although I have a bit an animosity towards Facebook for allowing something like this through, I do need to commend them on reacting quickly and shutting down this post. At one point, all posts on my wall were gone, and only new posts showed. It appeared as though they somehow stopped these posts, and others in between, from showing. This morning, all was normal.

I love the internet, but some people really need to find something better and more positively constructive to do then cause havoc for complete and total strangers.