A cheerful story for the holiday season

And even though Faith walloped them 33-14, the Gainesville kids were so happy that after the game they gave head coach Mark Williams a sideline squirt-bottle shower like he'd just won state. Gotta be the first Gatorade bath in history for an 0-9 coach.

But then you saw the 12 uniformed officers escorting the 14 Gainesville players off the field and two and two started to make four. They lined the players up in groups of five—handcuffs ready in their back pockets—and marched them to the team bus. That's because Gainesville is a maximum-security correctional facility 75 miles north of Dallas. Every game it plays is on the road.

This all started when Faith's head coach, Kris Hogan, wanted to do something kind for the Gainesville team. Faith had never played Gainesville, but he already knew the score. After all, Faith was 7-2 going into the game, Gainesville 0-8 with 2 TDs all year. Faith has 70 kids, 11 coaches, the latest equipment and involved parents. Gainesville has a lot of kids with convictions for drugs, assault and robbery—many of whose families had disowned them—wearing seven-year-old shoulder pads and ancient helmets.

So Hogan had this idea. What if half of our fans—for one night only—cheered for the other team? He sent out an email asking the Faithful to do just that. "Here's the message I want you to send:" Hogan wrote. "You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth."

Read the rest of the story. It has a certain resonance for me, because when I was in junior high school we used to play basketball games against kids in a reform school. But I think most people (especially TYWKIWDBI regulars) should read the whole story. You might even be choked up by the end.

(found at Metafilter - thanks)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I saw the first trailer (top) months ago and was fascinated; another trailer (bottom) has been released recently.

As a fan of science-fiction literature, the concept of the movie totally intrigues me. This morning I saw one review which panned the movie, suggesting that converting an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story into a three-hour movie was a mistake. I'll wait for more reviews to decide whether to see the movie in the theaters soon, or wait for the DVD to hit the library.

Update: another review here.
Update: very positive review here.

Street beggar bags his take

Found here. I can't vouch for the validity or any possible backstory.

Woman paints her car with nail polish

When Jill Bell noticed a dent on the hood of her car two winters ago, she thought it would be appropriate to paint a Band-Aid on the scrape.

After the painted bandage survived the ice and snow of winter, Bell decided that she wanted to repaint her car entirely - in nail polish.

Over the next 13 months, from September 2007 to this past October, she completely covered her car in a quilt-like pattern – as a quilter, she found the multi-pattern paint job fitting, she said.

Bell said she collected between 100 to 250 bottles of nail polish, but did not have an exact idea as she simply used bottles from anyone she could get it from.

Since I'm from the generation that invented and survived the "hippie" era, I kind of like it. Forget about resale - do your own thing and customize your car. No one will steal it, and she won't have any trouble finding it in a parking lot.

The Top Ten George W. Bush moments

Booktown in Fjaerland, Norway

Today I encountered a brief blurb about the "Book Town" of Fjaerland, Norway. In the summer the town's abandoned buildings are filled with books, and visitors can choose what they want, decide what it's worth, and leave money in a box in the building.

I love books, but what really interested me was the reminder of Fjaerland. This tiny town is at the head of the Fjaerland Fjord (a branch of the Sognefjord), where an arm of the immense Jostedalsbreen glacier comes down the valley. On the western bank of the fjord is Distad, a hamlet - really just a cluster of farms - which includes the farm from which my ancestors emigrated to the United States.

I'll revisit this topic occasionally in the future. For now those eager for a sneak peek can visit the Fjaerland website.

(credit for the books photo here)

Donkey dung from the Holy Land

Historically, pilgrims to the Holy Land have tried to return with fragments of the true cross. Modern pilgrims have a more prosaic option...

Visitors to Menachem Goldberg's tourist compound at Kedem village in Galilee can buy pieces of donkey dung presented in a plastic cube inscribed with religious text.

Mr Goldberg based the idea on a phrase in the Jewish Talmud which says, '"Let the messiah come... may I be worthy to sit in the shadow of his donkey's dung."

At the BBC link there is a video (text here). Mr. Goldberg says the donkey dung is "quite expensive" but I haven't been able to find a website listing its price. Perhaps it will show up on eBay...

Damn dyke bursts in Tennessee

This was the headline for a story in Huffington Post tonight...

Tennessee Damn Bursts, Hundreds Of Acres Flooded With Toxic Slurry Of Ash

The caption for the photo is even worse...

"An aerial view shows damage from a dyke break at the Tennessee Valley Authorities Kingston Fossil Plant..."

Must be temporary staff working the website for the holidays...

An aurora, and another aurora

From a collection of several dozen such photos (all from Iceland).

I tried two dictionaries and couldn't find the plural of "aurora." It's Latin, but has become a common English word, so I didn't know whether to choose -ae or -s. Thus the unusual title for this post.

Doctor turned liposuction waste into biodiesel

A top Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon says he used fat he removed from patients in liposuction operations to power his 'green' 4x4 car.
U.S. authorities have launched an inquiry into claims made by Dr Alan Bittner that the fat he had sucked out of patients in liposuction operations was turned into biodiesel.
Bittner wrote on his website: 'The vast majority of my patients request that I use their fat for fuel -- and I have more fat than I can use.
'Not only do they get to lose their love handles or chubby belly, but they get to take part in saving the Earth.'
The surgeon called his fuel 'lipodiesel'.
He posted his claims on a website lipodiesel.com, which has since been taken down after the sudden closure of his clinic on Beverly Hill's famed Rodeo Drive.
Dr Bittner is believed to have moved to South America after several patients filed a lawsuit against his practice for allowing his unlicensed girlfriend to carry out operations.
U.S. business magazine Forbes reported that Dr Bittner used the 'lipofuel' to power both his Ford Explorer car and his girlfriend's Lincoln Navigator...
It is not known how Dr Bittner went about turning the fat sucked out of patients into fuel.
But he claims to have carried out more than 7,000 lipo operations - and according to Forbes, a gallon of fat will produce about a gallon of fuel, and drivers can get about the same amount of mileage from fat fuel as they do from regular diesel.

This is not from the Onion, and is apparently not an April Fool joke. And by the way...

"it is illegal in the U.S. to use human medical waste to power vehicles."

Bet you didn't know that...

The danger of jumbo snow globes

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some 7,000 jumbo-sized snow globes were recalled by Hallmark Cards Inc. because the holiday decorations can act as a magnifying glass when exposed to sunlight and ignite nearby combustible materials, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Tuesday.

The snowman-shaped snow globes were sold in October and November at Hallmark Gold Crown stores nationwide for about $100 each.

The consumer agency said Hallmark has received two reports of the snow globes igniting nearby materials but no injuries have been reported.

Man gives away Walmart gift cards... Walmart objects

A man bought 130 $10 Walmart gift cards and started handing them out in front of the store, apparently as a goodwill gesture.

The next thing I knew, they turned to me and said, ‘You have to leave the store. You can’t do this here. You’re soliciting...’”

“They asked me, ‘Well, where did you get these cards?’” he said. “’I bought them from your store 20 minutes ago...’

In a statement to Eyewitness News, Wal-Mart states, "While we appreciate the customer’s patronage, we understand that he was interrupting the flow of foot traffic in the store’s vestibule.”

In a public relations coup, Target swapped his Walmart gift cards for Target ones and let him hand them out in front of their store.

Canadian "creek circle" documented with video

About six months ago I blogged photos of "round ice" spinning in a Russian river. This week someone posted a video (embedded above) of a somewhat similar phenomenon in Canada.

The knee-jerk reaction in discussion threads is that this is "fake" or "photoshopped" (video??), but in my view these are natural phenomena. The one above appears to be at the bend of a creek where there is likely a natural eddy.

An article in the (Toronto) National Post gives more details re the one in the video above, including comments from a "river specialist" who postulates re the mechanism of its formation, and the photographer's observation that the ice had newly formed and was too thin for anyone to have walked on to cut the circle.

Update Jan 14: A similar "ice disk" has been seen in Devon - the first one recorded in the U.K.

Kudos to FedEx

FedEx announced today that they are cancelling their ads previously scheduled to run during the Super Bowl.

As a country, we are in unprecedented economic waters. And as a responsible employer of more than 290,000 employees and contractors worldwide, there is a time to justify such an ad spend and a time to step back.

There could be other reasons, but we'll take this at face value and assume that they will repurpose the funds toward their employees in some way. NBC will undoubtedly be disappointed, but probably FedEx will pay some "early withdrawal" penalty, and the network can resell the spot. Perhaps one of the upsides of the recession is that (some) companies will reevaluate how they deploy their funds.

As a way of expressing approval of FedEx's choice, TYWKIWDBI hereby grants them some free "air time" by embedding two of their classic commercials. The bottom one aired in 2003, and is an excellent parody of the Tom Hanks' movie Castaway. The top one is the Emmy award-winning "Stick" from 2006. Enjoy.

Addendum: found by Noumenon - Look how Fed Ex is doing its pay cuts, too -- 5% cut across the board, 10% cut for executives, 20% for the CEO.

Wood frogs freeze and thaw

Most people have heard of this phenomenon, but it is still amazing to watch. And I love Robert Krulwich's approach to explaining science to the public.

Image the implications if/when this process can be performed with humans. Imagine going into suspended animation for years... Imagine traveling to the stars...