from the San Jose Mercury News

Woman found dead in machine at SoCal food processor that supplies McDonald’s

 

Associated Press

Posted: 07/21/2009 08:31:31 PM PDT

Updated: 07/21/2009 08:50:12 PM PDT

 

INDUSTRY, Calif. — A 40-year-old woman has been found dead in a machine at a Southern California food processing plant that is a major supplier for McDonald’s restaurants.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives say the woman’s body was found early Tuesday at Golden State Foods in the City of Industry. Investigators believe her death was accidental.

No other details were given about her death or about the woman except that she was an employee.

The Irvine-based company has distribution centers across the nation. Its Web site says the company supplies McDonald’s and developed the sauce for the restaurant’s Big Mac in the 1960s.

[ click to continue reading at the SJ Merc ]

from The Cleveland Plain-Dealer

House where Langston Hughes lived in Cleveland is foreclosed on, sold at sheriff’s auction

House where writer Langston Hughes lived as a teen is on the block after sheriff’s sale

by Sandra Livingston, Plain Dealer Reporter

The foreclosure crisis has touched a piece of Cleveland history.

A house where writer Langston Hughes lived during high school - a time when he was developing his famously poetic voice - was sold at a sheriff’s auction in February.

Wells Fargo Bank foreclosed on the East 86th Street house and subsequently took title.

The sale price: $16,667, according to the county auditor’s Web site.

[ click to continue reading at The Plain-Dealer ]

from the LA Times

 

with thanks to The Mighty Lars

from New Scientist

Spoke wheel’ 

This is a CT scan of a human skull. 

The red ring-like pattern is cancer of the thyroid which has become detached from the thyroid and deposited itself on the skull bone, shown as rainbow-coloured layers. 

The yellow area shows a cut section at the top of the skull, which is due to the top part of the skull not being included in the CT scanning. 

The cancer has caused the bones of the skull to expand. 

Fung has used a post-production trick he developed, known as the “rainbow technique” to add coloured contour lines to this image. This enhances the 3D effect. (Image: Kai-hung Fung)

[ click to view more scans at NewScientist.com ]

from Ananova

Nun sues over naked Facebook photos

A novice nun is suing her ex-boyfriend in Italy after he uploaded pictures of her naked on Facebook.

The 31-year-old woman who lives in Turin said she was devastated when she saw the pictures, taken in summer 2006 during a holiday in Sicily, on the social networking site.

The man who said he wanted to stop her becoming a nun has refused to remove the pictures despite the woman’s requests.

Large numbers of Italians meanwhile have logged on to see the pictures leaving comments like: “If all the nuns are like that, I want to become a priest.”

[ click to read at Ananova.com ]

from The Daily Mail via Drudge

Rubber ring to rubber ring: Swimmers still manage to smile despite being crammed into a swimming pool in Nanjing, China, as a heatwave sweeps across the country

[ click to read article at the The Daily Mail ]

from The LA Times

Strapped city wants donors for Watts Towers conservation

11:33 AM, July 17, 2009

The Watts Towers may be a unique and symbolically rich work of folk art, but it is also a world-class money trap, vulnerable to earthquakes and the elements, and constantly in need of repair.

There’s been long-simmering discontent among some of the most intense admirers of Simon Rodia’s 100-foot-tall structure who say the city doesn’t spend nearly enough on its upkeep and criticize the quality of conservation work carried out by L.A.’s Department of Cultural Affairs.

Rodia, an uneducated Italian immigrant stonemason, labored on the towers alone for more than 30 years, starting in 1921, creating a triple-spired skeleton of steel and wire, fleshing it out with concrete and adorning its surfaces with colorful bits of glass, pottery, tile and seashells. It adds up to a national landmark that is, for many, an inspirational example of what one committed person can achieve.

“I had in mind to do something big, and I did,” Rodia said — as extensive a public explanation as he ever gave.

[ click to continue reading at The LA Times ]

from the Mail Online

What DOES it take for a film to get banned these days?

By CHRISTOPHER HART
Last updated at 1:09 PM on 20th July 2009

[ click to continue reading at the Mail Online ]

from The New York Times

Don’t Touch ‘A Moveable Feast’

By A. E. HOTCHNER

Westport, Conn.

BOOKSTORES are getting shipments of a significantly changed edition of Ernest Hemingway’s masterpiece, “A Moveable Feast,” first published posthumously by Scribner in 1964. This new edition, also published by Scribner, has been extensively reworked by a grandson who doesn’t like what the original said about his grandmother, Hemingway’s second wife.

The grandson has removed several sections of the book’s final chapter and replaced them with other writing of Hemingway’s that the grandson feels paints his grandma in a more sympathetic light. Ten other chapters that roused the grandson’s displeasure have been relegated to an appendix, thereby, according to the grandson, creating “a truer representation of the book my grandfather intended to publish.”

It is his claim that Mary Hemingway, Ernest’s fourth wife, cobbled the manuscript together from shards of an unfinished work and that she created the final chapter, “There Is Never Any End to Paris.”

As an author, I am concerned by Scribner’s involvement in this “restored edition.” With this reworking as a precedent, what will Scribner do, for instance, if a descendant of F. Scott Fitzgerald demands the removal of the chapter in “A Moveable Feast” about the size of Fitzgerald’s penis, or if Ford Madox Ford’s grandson wants to delete references to his ancestor’s body odor.

[ click to continue reading at the NY Times ]

from the BBC

Wikipedia painting row escalates

[ click to read full article at the BBC ]

from The NY Times

Stereo for One: A Brief Unaccompanied History

By DAN BARRY

Thirty years ago this month, the Sony Corporation made a huge contribution to human interaction by ensuring there was less of it. No longer would people who did not want to engage the world have to stick fingers in both ears and say, over and over, “La, la, la, I’m not listening!”

Thanks to Sony, they now had a portable stereo device called the Walkman, which allowed them to block the sounds of their surroundings with a very private cassette recording of, say, Supertramp. So what if the headset and the 14-ounce unit strapped to your belt made you look like a drive-thru attendant at some Wendy’s of the future?

Today, of course, the ocean of humankind is cluttered with solitary islands of disengagement, thanks to the iPod, the iPhone, and so many other devices that say I. But before we explore what the Walkman has wrought, it might be instructive to revisit the events leading up to its invention.

[ click to continue reading at NYTimes.com ]

from ARTINFO

Banksy murals have turned up in some unlikely places, but the latest, Mali, is further-flung than usual.

Drawings and photos of the anonymous street artist’s work adorn a re-creation of his studio in the current crowd-pleasing exhibition “Bristol Museum vs. Banksy,” and among them are a number of pictures of Banksy murals in the West African country.

But could the pictures of the murals simply be illusions, since illusions are a trademark of Banksy’s work? A member of the Banksy Flickr Group says no, he has seen at least one of them in person in the suburbs of Bamako. “There are a handful in Mali, stretching from Bamako to Timbuktu,” writes Flickr user Olly C, adding that they were created four or five months ago and that their locations remain unpublicized.

[ click to read full piece at ARTINFO.com ]

from AFP via ABC News

Rising interest, pricetag for Warhol portrait of Jackson

(AFP)

NEW YORK — A portrait of a beaming Michael Jackson by pop art legend Andy Warhol, purchased just weeks ago for less than 300,000 dollars, could fetch as much as 10 million dollars at auction next month, art connoisseurs said Thursday.

Since Jackson’s June 25 death, anything related to the King of Pop has soared in value — as has the 30-inch by 26-inch (76-centimeter by 66-centimeter) Warhol silkscreen and synthetic polymer paint portrait.

The 1984 head-and-shoulders painting shows a “Thriller”-vintage Jackson: tawny skin and cascading curls, smiling broadly and wearing red and gold-tinged military garb.

“We had an overwhelming response,” said Janet Lehr, owner of the East Hampton, New York gallery.

[ click to continue reading at ABC News ]

from Beck.com

Tom Waits x Beck Hansen : Pt. 1

Irrelevant Topics in a new section featuring conversations between musicians, artists, writers, etc. on various subjects, without promotional pretext or editorial direction. For the first in this series of conversations, the legendary musician and performer, Tom Waits agreed lend an hour of his time to talk about anything and nothing in particular. 

Here is Pt. 1 of that conversation.

Tom Waits: How you doin’?

BH: Good, I’m good.

TW: Are we up and runnin’?

BH: Yeah I think so. Hey, I wanted to ask you about being from Los Angeles. You grew up there…

TW: Yeah, Whittier, La Habra, Downey, that whole area. Yeah, Los Lobos, they’re from Whittier. So is Nixon. I remember Nixon’s market. He had his own family market.

BH: He was? For some reason I thought he was from the Midwest.

TW: No, California, and we used to get a visit every year from the Oscar Meyer wiener mobile, which was an enormous vehicle shaped like a hot dog. The driver was a Dwarf, and the wiener mobile would broadcast music while he sang the song “I wish I was an Oscar Meyer wiener.” He drew quite a crowd. Pretty exciting for a shopping center.

BH: That car is still driving around. I see it from time to time.

TW: You see the Oscar Meyer wiener mobile?

BH: I’ve seen it parked.

TW: They used to pass out little whistles that were about two inches long and it had three notes available. (Laughs.) Whittier lore.

BH: I was born in the McArthur park area.

TW: You remember when they drained McArthur Park, the lake? 

BH: I do, yeah…

TW: They found unbelievable things: Cars, human bones, weaponry.

BH: They should have done an exhibit.

TW: I don’t know why they didn’t. I thought that’s why they drained it.

BH: I’d always heard that when they drained the Echo Park Lake they found an amateur submarine.

TW: Oh, my God.

BH: I don’t know if that was lore.

TW: You mean a homemade submarine?

BH: Yeah, I think it was older too, from the early days of “home submarine building.” I don’t know if that subculture still exists?

TW: That was the East Kids.

BH: There’s so many different versions of the city.

TW: It is pretty international. Drive over here and you’re in Russia. Here, Indonesia, the Philippines, Central America. It’s pretty wild that way.

BH: I think of the city as a sort of mirage. If you look at pictures of the city a hundred years ago it’s just a bunch of weeds and desert dust. Its not really supposed to be here. I was always fascinated by the city it was meant to be. I guess it was a place created by developers. It’s not really like a city where some people roam around and then they find a good piece of land, and then they test it out for a while and make sure there is water so they don’t die, and then they decide to make a city. I started looking at some pictures…Beverly Hills was originally supposed to be called Morocco Junction. I started thinking, if they’d gone with that name we’d be in a whole other situation. I was wondering if there were any things that you remember? It seems like it’s shed its skin so many times.

TW: Well, cars choked everything. I know originally there was a red line that ran from San Bernardino all the way to the ocean and for 35 Cents you could ride a streetcar you know from…

[ click to continue reading a fascinating interview with these two geniuses ]

courtesy of KF

from dealmac.com & NASA

Send your name to Mars for free

Ever wanted to go to Mars but lack the time/money/proper training? Well, you can send your name instead. NASA offers you the opportunity to include your name on a microchip on the Mars Science Laboratory rover heading to Mars in 2011 for free. Just provide your name and location on the registration page. You’ll also be able to print out a certificate of participation after you register.

[ click to sign up at NASA.gov ]

from the LA Times

 

from the LA Times

 

 

from Bild.de

KATE MOSS Model Business empire with Simon Cowell

Kate Moss is set to launch a £1 billion business empire with Simon Cowell. The supermodel has joined forces with the music mogul and British businessman Sir Philip Green to form a global entertainment super-company which the trio hope will be able to compete with Disney.

The 35-year-old beauty will be directing the style and image of the brand, as well as giving fashion advice, and experts say if it is a success, she could double her fortune to £100 million. Kate’s friend said:”She has been signed as a figurehead and style setter for the fashion end of the business. She will bring her expertise to the table, advising on all branding and style for clothes, hair and accessories.”

[ click to read at bild.de ]

I don’t know about you, but I still always root for the bull.

from Natural News

Americans Wipe Their Butts with Non-Renewable Trees

(NaturalNews) Environmentalists are increasingly pushing for people in the United States to change their toilet paper buying habits, in recognition of the fact that the soft, fluffy toilet paper widely preferred in the United States for home use can only be made by logging wild forests throughout the Western Hemisphere.

“No forest of any kind should be used to make toilet paper,” said Allen Hershkowitz of the Natural Resource Defense Council.

Toilet paper can easily be made from recycled paper, but only at the cost of a coarser final product. Manufacturers admit that the primary factor that keeps them making toilet paper out of freshly cut trees is the fact that standing trees yield longer fibers than recycled material does. Longer fibers, in turn, make for softer, fluffier toilet paper.

[ click to continue reading at NaturalNews.com ]

from The Guardian UK

Museums on the internet? Get real

Excited talk about digital museums is just futuristic babble – museums are all about the physical artefacts

‘Museums, where every encounter is solid’ … Robert Therrien’s table and chairs installation at Tate Modern. Photograph courtesy of Anthony d’Offay Ltd

Neil MacGregor and Nick Serota, the two leading museum directors in Britain – and some would say in the world – shared a platform the other night at the London School of Economics and apparently they were getting very excited about the internet. They seem to have competed to say the most apocalyptically futuristic things they could think of. Museums in the future will be totally transformed by the online utopia! The ones who don’t adapt will go to the wall! It’s virtuality or nothing for the modern museum.

I, for one, don’t like the sound of this cyber-museum of the future at all. It sounds like a place where nothing is real and beauty becomes just a word.

[ click to read full and righteous rant at The Guardian ]

from Blabbermouth

LIVING COLOUR will release its first new studio album in five years, entitled “The Chair In The Doorway”, on September 15 via Megaforce Records. The legendary downtown New York City rock band, who exploded out of CBGB in the late ’80s, landing all over MTV, the cover ofRolling Stone and stadium stages around the world with its Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum debut album “Vivid”, is back and as “fierce” as ever.

Original members Vernon Reid, Corey Glover, Will Calhoun and (since 1993) Doug Wimbish gathered at Sono Studios outside of Prague in the Czech Republic during the fall of 2008 and spring of 2009 to write and record what would become “The Chair In The Doorway”. The results stretch from the modern soul anthem “Behind The Sun” to the politically-charged, heavy rock of “DecaDance” to the sacred steel blues of “Bless Those”. The artwork for “The Chair In The Doorway” was compiled from thousands of contest entries by fans from around the world.

“We feel like this is the best record we’ve made yet and we couldn’t be more excited to be releasing it with the legendary Megaforce Records,” says guitarist Vernon Reid. “Some of our favorite bands were or areMegaforce artists — METALLICA, BAD BRAINS, ANTHRAX, BLACK CROWES — so it’s an honor to be part of a label with a great legacy.”

[ click to continue reading at Blabbermouth ]

from The Observer

If You Want to Read Nabokov’s Laura Early, You’ll Have to Make a House Call to Knopf

By Leon Neyfakh

On Friday afternoon we ran through some of the most exciting galleys hitting the streets this summer. One we didn’t include was The Original of Laura, the final, unfinished novella from the late Vladimir Nabokov, which Knopf will be publishing on November 17. The reason Laura didn’t make it on our list was that we couldn’t find anyone who had actually seen a galley of it. Today, Knopf’s executive director of publicity, Paul Bogaards, provided an explanation via email.

“They are not available (and will not be available),” Mr. Bogaards said in his note. “We have instead printed two sets of page proofs and are inviting media colleagues to preview them at our offices. They are not leaving the building.”

[ click to read full piece at The Observer ]

Lucy And The Teenage Monster - Dance Steps from Punx Sthlm on Vimeo.

from The Guardian UK

Psychiatric nurse jailed for golf rage attack

Amateur golfer sent to prison for nine months after beating a fellow player around the head with a club

 by Vikram Dodd

A golfer who beat a fellow player around the head with an eight iron after an outbreak of “golf rage” was today jailed for nine months.

Harold Stafford, a psychiatric nurse, launched the attack on Barry Barnes after he accused him of playing his ball at a golf course in Luton.

During his trial at Luton crown court, Stafford claimed he acted in self-defence after Barnes had racially abused him.

The court heard that he began shouting at Barnes, accusing him of playing his ball. The argument intensified, and as Barnes turned his back to walk away, Stafford took an eight iron and began beating the golfer about the head.

The father-of-two knocked Barnes to the ground and continued his assault, hitting and kicking him, leaving him with bruising to his eyes, cuts and bruises to his chest, and bruising to his back and arms.

Stafford was convicted of actual bodily harm with the judge praising his previous good character and service to the community as he passed sentence.

Claudette Elliott, prosecuting, said: “This is a golf rage incident that occurred on 19 September 2008.

“The defendant was there with two of his friends and there was a misunderstanding about a ball that had gone astray.

“He felt that Mr Barnes had played his ball and he hit Mr Barnes with a golf club, causing it to break.

“Mr Barnes suffered quite serious injuries. He had two black eyes, his right eye puffed up to the size of a golf ball and his left eye was almost closed.

“The defendant has made it clear that golf is his passion. He said: ‘I love to play golf and I would play every day if I could. I also understand that golf is a game of integrity and honour.’”

[ click to read full article at The Guardian ]

from Fox News

Upcoming Military Robot Could Feed on Dead Bodies

It could be a combination of 19th-century mechanics, 21st-century technology — and a 20th-century horror movie.A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find — grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies.Robotic Technology Inc.’s Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot — that’s right, “EATR” — “can find, ingest, and extract energy from biomass in the environment (and other organically-based energy sources), as well as use conventional and alternative fuels (such as gasoline, heavy fuel, kerosene, diesel, propane, coal, cooking oil, and solar) when suitable,” reads the company’s Web site.That “biomass” and “other organically-based energy sources” wouldn’t necessarily be limited to plant material — animal and human corpses contain plenty of energy, and they’d be plentiful in a war zone.[ click to continue reading at Fox News ]