From the kind of odd but interesting section….
]]>I tied a disposable camera to a bench with a sign that read:
Good afternoon,
I attached this camera to the bench so you could take pictures. Seriously. So have fun. I’ll be back later this evening to pick it up.
Love, Jay / The PlugWhen I retrieved the camera that night, I was happy to find that the entire roll of film had been shot. Below are the photos that were taken.
Duck and cover New Orleans. Katrina was your warmup exercise, if you trust this NHC track.
The Washington Post is reporting that Margaret Thatcher’s condition is deteriorating and she now suffers from dementia. She forgets that her husband has passed and has to be reminded several times of this and other things. At times she is reportedly quite lucid and cognizant, but at others it seems she cannot remember simple things.
First, Business, Coach or Kids? That could be your options on airplanes if some frequent flyers had their way. 85% in a recent poll suggest it is time for a special kids-only section on planes.
Little ones go to the rear of the plane
I have to confess that even I have thought this might be a good idea. A few rows of each plane reserved for kids and parents. It would, of course, be the craziest section of the plane, but it would also give some of the other folks more peace of mind on their flights.
I’ve done a number of long hauls (i.e. 12 hour+ flights) and when there is a kid behind you you just know you aren’t in for a good night’s sleep. Of course, it’s a kid. It’s what kids do, but it can still be kind of annoying. Of course the most annoying is when the adult traveling with them adopts a “I don’t care about anybody” attitude and lets the kid cry or kick and moan without any intervention. Most frequent flyers can deal with kids, but none can deal with a parent who lets them run feral in the plane.
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And who said New Yorkers stand idly by?
Donnette Sanz, a seven month pregnant traffic warden was pinned under a ’short bus’ school bus yesterday in a horrible accident that turned out to be fatal for her. However, 20 to 30 people from a park, the sidewalk and a construction site rushed to the scene of the accident and were able to lift the school bus with their bare hands and pull out the woman’s body so that they could save the unborn baby.
Sean Michael Sanz was born yesterday by emergency c-section, 3lbs and 6 ounces. The driver of a van who caused the accident is being held for vehicular homicide. He has a suspended license since the 60s, a gun bust and a few other criminal records in his file.
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Reports are coming in of a 3 alarm fire at the Apple Computer headquarters in Cupertino. Live video was here. Media reports are just coming in indicating quite a bit of smoke damage.
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One of the more famous arches in Arches National Park in Utah came crumbling down earlier this week. The sandstone Wall Arch which has been photgraphed countless times was found in pieces by Park service officials. The arch’s opening beneath the span was 71-feet wide and 33-1/2 feet high. It ranked 12th in size among the over 2,000 known arches in the park.
Now before you go blaming global warming, or motocross bikers, or stupid teenagers, it’s worth noting this is a natural event. From the NPS press release:
]]>All arches are but temporary features and all will eventually succumb to the forces of gravity and erosion. While the geologic forces that created the arches are still very much underway, in human terms it’s rare to observe such dramatic changes.
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This really isn’t what you want to see when you come home. But it’s what was waiting for us the other day…
Kind of eerie story about a Tube driver who hit a suicidal person lying on the tracks. The driver is still a bit messed up by the whole incident, though that wasn’t the case with one of the people standing on the platform.
]]>By the time we were stationary, four of my eight cars were in the platform and I was on autopilot. I told the passengers there would be a delay in opening the doors due to an “incident”, and was calling the line controller for assistance when I heard a tap on my cab door. A smart man inquired, “Do you know there’s a person under your train?” I looked at the blood on the windscreen momentarily before assuring him that, yes, I was aware.
He paused for a heartbeat, looked at his watch and said, “So, how long before we get on the move again?”
I was to look back on this exchange with amusement and also, strangely, comfort: in the midst of the horror, normality was briefly restored by a commuter asking for alternative travel arrangements.