28 March 2010

Sunday smörgåsbord

OMG I can't believe how many links have accumulated in the past week.  I count 96.  Cyberspace is just not a place for compulsive accumulators with limited time resources.  Anyway, here's the linkdump of "leftovers" - things that don't require pictures or much explanation.   Photo found at Old Hollywood.

Paleontologists have uncovered what they believe is the oldest stone wall made by humans.  It partially blocked the entrance to a cave in Thessaly, and was constructed about 23,000 years ago.

A man attempting to be a Good Samaritan was robbed by scumbags in England while he was trying to save what he thought was a drowning child.

A discussion thread re why David Attenborough's voice is replaced by celebrity narrators when some BBC series are released in America.  There may be technical reasons for doing so, but I for one would prefer to seek out and purchase the Attenborough originals.

Glenn Greenwald discusses and trashes the accusations that Chrisitane Amanpour cannot be an objective host of the This Week television program, in part because she grew up in Iran and her family fled from Tehran during the Islamic Revolution.

Undercover police officers jumped out of an unmarked car, ambushing a man.  He ran away thinking he was about to be robbed or assaulted, so they shot him in the back of the head.  He wasn't guilty of anything; he was a pastor giving a ride to a member of his congregation who was a drug suspect.

This isn't a "TYWK" because everyone else has blogged it - video of President Bush shaking hands with a Haitian, then wiping his hands on Bill Clinton's shirt.  It's been explained elsewhere that this isn't a race-thing, it's a cleanliness-thing.  Whatever.

An article at Der Spiegel examines whether or not prostitution really occurred in the religious temples of ancient civilizations.

This video is called "Roof Sex."  It may or may not be safe-for-work at your workplace; if in doubt, you might mute the sound.

A man went into a frenzy in an Indiana supermarket, stabbing the meat with a knife and throwing it on the floor.  "Coffman told police that he is a vegetarian and gets upset when others consume beef, telling the employee that God sent him to ruin the meat and that he was trying to save little girls from food he believes would make them “chubby.”

Got Medieval disagrees with the story spreading widely on the 'net this week that portrayals of the Last Supper document progressively increasing food portions over the centuries.  It's not that simple, in part because the sizes of things (heads, hands, Jesus) in older paintings were larger because they were considered more important.

Wired Magazine has a 6-page article about the ingenious thief who stole the Sisi Star from an Austrian castle in 1998.  It's a true story.

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