Category: Web

For those with a lot of time on their hands, consider giving your bland PC box a beautiful Extreme Makeover. I particularly like the dual use coffee machine/PC.
By way of Boing Boing

Well, there goes my fantasy that all IKEA names are actually rude words. This article in the German magazine Stern decodes the system for naming things in IKEA. Book shelves are named after occupations, bathroom articles are named after Scandinavian seas, rivers, and bays. And so much more. You are linking to the Babelfish translation of the page, so some things are a bit funny sounding, not unlike IKEA furniture.
By way of Boing Boing

The Earliest Known 404 Error

Holy Moses and the Tournament of Roses! Not many people survive being impaled through the head by an 18-inch long, 1 1/2 inch thick drill bit, but this guy did. (Includes fascinating X-Ray pic).

Splitting Headache: Man survives horrific construction accident
Truckee resident Ron Hunt, who has been dubbed ‘Miracle Man’ by friends, survived being impaled through the eye with an 18-inch long, 1 1/2-inch diameter chip auger drill bit.
While using a drill above his head on Aug. 15, the six-foot ladder he was standing on started to wobble, Hunt’s nephew Ben Hunt said. ‘The ladder started to ‘walk’ on him,’ Ben said. ‘He lost his balance and threw the drill down – which is normal for us (construction workers).’
Then, he fell off the ladder face-first and onto the drill, which went through his right eye and out his skull, just above his right ear. According to Ben, doctors told him the drill pushed his brain aside, rather than impaling it, which could have caused further – and most likely vastly more extensive – damage.”

By way of Metafilter

Okay, not as funny as the time I mistook a human head for bacon (though by now I think that particular Denny’s should have gone out of business!), but this is one of the few times that art has made a criminal repent.

BBC NEWS: Bacon mistaken for human head
Police have apologised to an artist after raiding his home when an artwork made out of bacon was mistaken for a human head.
Richard Morrison, 37, of Wavertree, Liverpool, returned home to find his door had been kicked in by police with a search warrant.
They had been acting on a tip off from a criminal who had broken into the artist’s home just days earlier.
He told officer he had seen a human head in Mr Morrison’s house.
But it was in fact a mask made from rashers of bacon, stored in formaldehyde.

By way of Haddock Directory

Continuing in our Russian theme (check out my post over at the Spires), here’s a wonderful collection of Russian Anthems for you to download. This will be a hit at any party or meeting. Or Party Meeting. To quote the site: As you can clearly see, Russian anthem technology is vastly superior to that of any other country.

So this stuff really does happen. I’ve often wondered if it could. Now I just run and jump into elevators when they arrive. Or take the stairs.

Doctor decapitated by faulty elevator at hospital
By PEGGY O’HARE
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
Doctor was driven by compassion for indigent
An aspiring missionary doctor, who was voted by medical school classmates as the epitome of a good physician, was killed Saturday at Christus St. Joseph Hospital when an elevator malfunctioned, decapitating him, authorities said.
Hitoshi Nikaidoh, 35, of Dallas, a surgical resident at the hospital at 1919 La Branch, was stepping onto a second-floor elevator in the main building around 9:30 a.m. when the doors closed, pinning his shoulders, said Harold Jordan, an investigator with the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office. The elevator car then moved upward, severing the doctor’s head, Jordan said.

Worse is that his co-worker was inside the elevator when it happened and had to stay in there with the head for an extended period before rescue workers could get her out. Brrrr.

If only I had rock-hard abs, was ten years younger, and half my IQ, I’d be down for this!
Lapdance Island
By way of Metafilter

Monty Python fans will know what I’m talking about. Holy Mackerel!

Refusing help, woman gives birth aboard T
By C. Kalimah Redd and Mac Daniel, Globe Correspondent and Globe Staff, 7/31/2003
A 42-year-old Braintree woman gave birth to a baby boy while standing on an inbound Red Line train yesterday morning, refusing help from stunned passengers who heard her moan and seconds later looked down to find her baby on the floor.
Witnesses told police that Joyce M. Judge, a former nurse who later said she was on the way to a Boston hospital, kept quietly refusing help during and after the delivery.
” `Thanks for your concern, we’re OK,’ ” she said, according to Chris Chin of Duxbury. Standing 4 feet away from Judge, Chin said, he saw her tie the umbilical cord in a knot and wrap the baby in a silk scarf. ”She cradled the baby in one arm and grabbed the handrail with the other and continued to ride the T and stare out the window.” ”

By way of Die Puny Humans

We’re a bit partial to good ol’ British tea over here at the Compound/Clearinghouse/Deprogramming Center, but these days we use a bit of Asian ingenuity to get our hot water with the perpetual boiler. However this BBC Photo Instruction Page is telling us how to really make a trad cuppa. I’m not too sure I agree with the “milk first” rule, especially because 1) I use tea bags and 2) I’m a bad judge of the future milk/tea ratio. Still, if you’re curious, here’s how you really should do it.