Weird News

[glatt]

They tore down the old run down dump that was the neighborhood branch of our public library. The building was nothing special at all. Cramped or cozy, depending on you point of view. But the kids loved it. It was a great kid sized place, and the basement had a big rug where the kids would spread out with their books and/or have story time. We were on a first name basis with all the librarians.

The new place is a beautiful building. Huge two story rooms with picture windows floor to ceiling. Self checkout, so you never see the librarians. But it's very sterile and impersonal. Also much more crowded.

[Happy Monkey]

Our old library was nothing special (outside of the specialness of just being a library), and they tore it down. It took a few years, but they're rebuilding it now. It looks nice from the outside; hopefully it has a good atmosphere inside as well.

[Lamplighter]

Don't fret about desecration coming to an end soon...

The Oregon Utilities Board made a change about overhead (electric) lines,
and it's probably coming soon to your neighborhood.
Now the tree-cutters can top off trees and limbs within 20 ft of the lines.

Of course, Douglas fir and cedar and sequoia don't do well after being topped out,
so now 50 - 100 - 200 year old tress are going into the chippers,
and the broad leaf trees are being cut into squatty-bodies.

Some trees are far enough back from the right-of-ways that
they are just being skinned of their limbs on one side,
making them look even more naked and mal-formed.

[Glinda]

Originally Posted by Flint

The local branch of the library when I was a kid was a tall angular building of architectual wonder and mystery, with big exposed wooden ceiling beams reaching up overhead, creating a mystical realm which was treated with reverence. To enter, you had to pass through a semi-covered walkway area overhung by huge, ancient trees...you knew that you were entering a different type of place, almost like a cathedral.

When they rebuilt the Safeway around the corner, they revamped the entire shopping center, and the entire layout of the surrounding buildings. The old library and the ancient trees were torn down.

The new local branch of the library occupies an unassuming, sterile unit at the end of the "new & improved" strip mall. It resembles a 7-11 where you can get books. The children will never know what they've missed.

Happily, the locals in my town (I don't actually live there, but the post office says I do!) saved the old hospital by moving it to a new location and renovating it.

Built circa 1905, this charming 2-story library once served as a hospital. It was moved a half-mile to its current location in 2001, then completely renovated and transformed by the community.

[monster]

Paul the World Cup Octopus Dies in his Tank

Paul the octopus, an unlikely star of the 2010 World Cup who 'predicted' the outcome of eight matches, has died at an aquarium in Germany.

Staff at the Sea Life centre in Oberhausen said they were "devastated" to learn that he had passed away during the night.

Paul made his name by successfully choosing a mussel from one of two boxes bearing the flags of competing nations.

Octopuses rarely live beyond two years so his death was not unexpected.

[Shawnee123]

You can't see all the details in the exterior in this photo (all kinds of faces, snakes coiled sneakily...)

[Shawnee123]

Another shot and an artist's rendering.

[Shawnee123]

I love this story...of course it's not a cell phone, but it's fun anyway:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/10/....html?iref=NS1

[Gravdigr]

Make sure to read all the way to the last sentence.

[classicman]

Masked man nabbed on flight to B.C. from Asia

A young Asian male has been intercepted by authorities in Vancouver after boarding a flight from Hong Kong disguised as an elderly white man, officials say.

Canada Border Services Agency officers boarded the Air Canada plane after it landed Oct. 29 and took the man into custody, the agency said in a statement issued by its Pacific region.
The alert did not specify where the flight landed, but Air Canada officials have confirmed to CBC News that it was Vancouver.
The man quickly made a claim for refugee protection after his arrest, the agency said.
Air Canada security alerted the CBSA during the 12-hour flight about a passenger who "was observed at the beginning of the flight to be an elderly Caucasian male who appeared to have young-looking hands," the agency statement said.
"During the flight, the subject attended the washroom and emerged an Asian male that appeared to be in his early 20s."

Read more:

Just bizarre on so many levels.

[Sundae]

The hands.
It's always the hands that give them away.

[ZenGum]

He would have gotten away with it, were it not for those meddling kids.

[Gravdigr]

I thought that was Old Man Jenkins...

[ZenGum]

This dope makes that Vick jerk look positively wholesome.

Canberra Raiders [rugby league - ZG] star Joel Monaghan has expressed his remorse over the circulation of a photograph which shows him engaged in a lewd act with an animal.

SNIP

"It was a moment of abject stupidity brought about by too much drink and a complete lack of any thought process."

From here:

Monaghan's career has been hanging in the balance since photographs of him in a simulated sex act with a dog were circulated on Twitter last week.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Simulated? Sounds like nobody can take a joke.