Tuesday, June 5, 2012

FedEx Sux (UPDATE 2x)

Found My Package
On May 30th, I placed an order for something Brooke let me buy for our 3-year anniversary (sweet wife). When the window popped up showing the order summary, before the heart-stopping click 'finalize order' - where you know you've messed something up, but can't do anything about it - I noticed that the company was shipping the item via FedEx.

Monday, June 4, 2012

They've got to know the secret password

Birmingham News Reports -

FULTONDALE, Alabama --- Solicitors or peddlers that knock on doors in Fultondale now have stringent regulations they must follow.

"The following practices very often become nuisances and therefore are of such public concern for the preservation of the privacy and safety of the citizens of the City of Fultondale that they must be regulated," according to an ordinance passed today that addresses peddlers, canvassers, solicitors and transient vendors.

The ordinance requires door-to-door solicitors to obtain a license from Fultondale, costing $10 per day or $30 per week.

The ordinance also bans soliciting before 8 a.m. or after 8 p.m.

Residents can further prohibit any solicitation by posting signs that state "No Solicitation" or "No Trespassing."

The ordinance has other regulations, such as stating that no solicitor shall continue repeated soliciting and shall immediately and peacefully leave the premises after the occupant has declined solicitation.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Time to diet

The 30 Most Powerful Sports Photographs Of All Time (Straight Copy from CrackTwo.com)

The 30 Most Powerful Sports Photographs Of All Time:

1. Derek Redmond And His Dad Finish An Olympic Race



Derek Redmond was a British Olympic sprinter (400 meters) in the '80s and early '90s. His career had been plagued by injuries that forced him to drop out of the 1988 Olympics just before his race. He had eight surgeries between 1988 and 1992 and by the time the Barcelona games came along he was ready to go. In the semifinals his hamstring snapped after 150 meters. A stretcher was brought out but Redmond refused it. And pulled himself up and began limping to the finish. His father ran through security to be with his son and helped him cross the finish line.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Best 3.5 Minutes You'll Spend Today

Next Stop Jurassic Park (via World of Technology)

(WorldOfTechnology32,000-Year-Old Plant Reborn From Ancient Fruit Found in Siberian Ice:
Researchers in Russia have revived a fertile plant from the remains of 32,000-year-old fruit that was found buried within the fossilized burrows of ancient squirrels deep in the Siberian ice.

The resurrected plant, from an era of woolly mammoths and saber-tooth cats, is the oldest viable multicellular living organism, according to the study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It is also the first plant returned to life from permafrost conditions, researchers said.

The discovery raises the possibility of reviving other frozen organisms with prehistoric gene pools, researchers said. Using a horticulture technique called micropropagation, researchers grew the plant from fruit tissue in a test tube of nutrients. The ones that grew roots were transferred into pots with soil and light, where they developed flowers and seeds.

“There is abundant permafrost in northern Alaska and Canada,” said Buford Price, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who edited the paper, in an e-mail. Finding an organism that could produce a plant with dark green leaves and small white flowers shows the benefit of pursuing goals that seem impossible, he said.

Alabama's Bullock Mental Health Facility is the most violent prison in state's system (B'ham News via al.com)

Alabama's Bullock Mental Health Facility is the most violent prison in state's system:
Alabama prisons with the biggest reputation for violence aren't necessarily the worst.


Gallery preview

Most people assume prisons are dangerous places. But Alabama prisons with the highest levels of inmate-on-inmate violence aren't necessarily the state facilities with the worst reputations.

According to a Birmingham News analysis of figures from the state Department of Corrections:
Assaults and fights in fiscal 2011 were not most prevalent at St. Clair Correctional Facility, which has been the scene of two homicides since October and was recently the subject of a tour highlighting the dangers of prison crowding.

Nor did the worst numbers come from Donaldson, a close-security prison in Jefferson County that was named for a slain guard and was sued in 2009 because of undue levels of violence.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

New Verb

Just take the money.

Iron Man 3 looks Boring