Bobcats moving into foreclosed homes.

One neat thing about the devastating housing crisis is that empty and abandoned houses are becoming homes for wild bobcats! I, for one, welcome our new furry landlords. Article here. (Thanks Jen!)

Boeing 747 jumbo jet converted into hostel.

A hostel in a jumbo jet? That makes sense. Hostels and planes have a lot in common - cramped, uncomfortable space, limited entertainment, bad food, smelly people with too much luggage... But put these two things together and you've got awesomeness. From Gadling:

In December, Stockholm airport will be home to the first Boeing 747 hostel in the world. This 747-200 was built in 1976 and is currently being converted into a 25 room hostel with 3 beds per room.

Each room features a flat panel TV, wireless Internet access and a shared shower/toilet facility. The upper deck of this 747 has several more luxurious rooms with their own bathroom facility. For the ultimate in overnight luxury, you will even be able to spend the night in the cockpit, where you can enjoy a fantastic view of the air traffic at Stockholm's Arlanda airport.

More info is at the "Jumbo Hostel" official website.

Day of the Triffids 2.0.

Caught this commercial during the Colbert Report. It is the creepiest thing I've ever seen on tv since the Encyclopedia Britannica guy. Check this out... if you dare!



Is this a commercial for an HDTV or a Tool video?

Zombie Watch: Cremated father reunited with family.

Amnesia + mistaken identity = ZOMBIE!

From Reuters:

A father mistakenly declared dead after going missing eight years ago has been reunited with his family after his son spotted him on television, police said on Thursday.

The family of John Delaney thought he had died when he disappeared in April 2000. They held a funeral and cremation after police found what they thought was his body three years later.

But Delaney, 71, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, had in fact been admitted to hospital in a confused state 10 days after he was reported missing.

I think, therefore I'm fat.

Canadian scientists have found that using brain power creates much bigger glucose fluctuations and induces higher calorie intake than just sitting around on your ass.

Mutant vegetable shocks woman.

A Queens woman has grown a 6-foot, perfectly straight zucchini in her backyard. This brings up a very shocking question - there are backyards in Queens?

Article here.

xkcd on Google Maps.

I love this comic from xkcd. So true.

Xbox now redonkulously cheap.

From ReadJunk:

Microsoft said Wednesday that it will drop the price of the Arcade on Friday to $199, breaking through what some have said is the all-important psychological price level of $200. At that price, industry observers say, the market opens up to mass levels of consumers.

Microsoft will also drop the price of its 60GB Xbox to $299 and its "Xbox Elite," which has a 120GB hard drive, to $399.

Okay, fine already! I'll get one! Jeez!

Howdy.

Just saying hi. What's up!

Giant robot ape mysteriously disappears.

A giant mechanical gorilla was stolen - in broad daylight - in front of a flea market store in Maine. Everyone's wondering who stole it without considering the more likely alternative. IT WALKED AWAY. And also: IT WILL KILL US ALL.

Zombie Watch: Dead for years, ferrets become fathers.

Who said the zombie outbreak has to start with humans? Clearly, our demise can easily begin with the black-footed ferret. We are all doomed.

Coozer-Bits.

Houston Chronicle: NYC man caught with 2,000 stolen bras.

Sign On San Diego: 8 in 10 Americans prefer ranch dressing with salad... I'm not sure why I care about this, but I do.

BBC News: Not speaking good annoys Brits.

Via HuffingtonPost: 4 ways to supercharge your metabolism.

US News: The science of aphrodisiacs. (Guess who's gonna start eating a lot of watermelon rind!)

Washington Post: Facebook ads use your profile information to target/insult you.

Scientists: Birds act like soccer hooligans.

But no word yet if birds dress like skinheads and are secretly homoerotic. From News.com.au:

RIVAL groups of birds behave like football fans, shouting chants at each other and commiserating after a loss, research from England's University of Bristol has revealed.

Green woodhoopoes, a South African bird, live together in gangs of up to 12 and "rival groups often engage in raucous vocal displays, akin to opposing football supporters chanting at one another'', the university in the west of England said.

The research by Dr Andy Radford, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B, also revealed that the birds preen each other after a conflict, particularly when they have just lost or the battle lasted a long time.

"Just as football fans commiserate with their friends in the pub when their team loses a match... birds support one another following contests with their rivals,'' the university said.

Spontaneous rave party bursts out at IKEA.

From Ananova. You know, I once tried constructing a party at IKEA but it fell apart.

Ikea shoppers were stunned when 300 dancers held a spontaneous rave amongst the flatpack furniture.

[...] Pregnant women and families with their children were among the party crowd who danced for around five minutes in the textiles department, reports Sky News.

Video footage shows them jumping up and down, some wearing fluorescent vests and others blowing whistles.

Robot helicopter teaches itself how to fly.

Oh shit. We are so screwed now.

From Yahoo! News:

A new artificial intelligence system allows a robotic helicopter to teach itself how to fly and even do challenging stunts, just by watching other helicopters perform the same maneuvers.

[...] The artificial-intelligence helicopter, an off-the-shelf model other than its new brains, can do traveling flips, rolls, loops, stall-turns with pirouettes and more. It can even do the "tic toc," in which the helicopter, while pointed straight up, hovers with a side-to-side motion as if it were the pendulum of an upside down clock.

Yeah, good idea, let's give a hunk of flying metal some brains and a hatred of mankind. (The latter being inherent in all metal things.)

Trend Spotting: Talking into teddy bears.

A hot new trend has hit the streets of Tokyo - mobile teddy bear phones!

That's right - what could be easier than carrying around a giant teddy bear and then talking into its crotch? From CScout Japan:

At the 2008 Good Design Expo PHS mobile provider Willcom showed off their concept Kuma Phone (Bear Phone), a stuffed bear that holds a SIM card and can actually be used for making and receiving phone calls by holding it up to your ears.

[...] The bear seems a bit silly and, yes, “Japanese” by cuteness standards, but the idea is fun and was adored by the expo crowd. You can save up to four speed dial numbers in the bear, one in each paw, which are activated by pinching internal sensors. It vibrates and makes custom noises for incoming calls, which can be answered and finished by pressing the tail.

Shopping center creates special parking spots for women.

You know, for all the time women spend calling this sexist, they could be baking delicious cakes. From Ananova:

A Croatian shopping centre has introduced special parking spaces for women drivers.

But the move has not gone down well as female motorists resent the implication that they need the extra wide bays, while men resent the fact women are getting special treatment.

[...] Decorated with pink flowers, the prime spots are wider, further apart, better lit and easier to get in and out of than ordinary spaces.

"Do they think we're disabled or something?" fumed one woman shopper.

ZombieWatch: Corpses, including Alistair Cooke's, plundered and sold.

This article is worth reprinting in full. A little graverobbing is no cause for concern, but if you read carefully, this guy has been hit with a hundred charges. 100 corpses, led by Alistair Cooke, would be an unstoppable army.

Two brothers who ran a Philadelphia funeral home have pleaded guilty to selling corpses, Among them that of "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke, to a company that trafficked in stolen body parts.

Louis and Gerald Garzone pleaded guilty Tuesday in Philadelphia to charges including conspiracy, theft and abuse of corpse. The pleas came on the day their trial was to begin.

The mastermind of the scheme, Michael Mastromarino, pleaded guilty Friday to hundred of charges that could send him to prison for life.

Mastromarino's company took bodies from funeral homes in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania and carved them up without families' permission and without medical tests.

And did you notice this guy's name is Mastromarino? Sounds like an evil necromancer name to me..

McCain fought teen pregnancy prevention programs.

According to HuffingtonPost, "Republican John McCain, whose running mate disclosed that her unmarried 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, has opposed proposals to spend federal money on teen-pregnancy prevention programs and voted to require poor teen mothers to stay in school or lose their benefits."

Whoops.

Turn your loved one into a diamond!

Hideously tacky, or the only foolproof (if flashily pricey) way to prevent a zombie apocalypse? From Reuters:

Diamonds really are forever. Algordanza, a small company based in the mountainous southeast of Switzerland, uses the ashes of dead people to make diamonds as a permanent memento for their nearest and dearest.

[...] Algordanza -- which means "remembrance" in the local language Romansch, spoken in some parts of the Swiss canton of Grisons -- is one of a handful of companies offering artificial diamonds that have sprung up as the technology has improved.

U.S.-based LifeGem and Britain's Phoenix Diamonds, for example, also offer diamonds made from hair, which contains more carbon than ashes meaning a gem can be created from the hair of a living person, or from someone who has been buried rather than cremated. LifeGem even offers diamonds made from dead pets.

US army to have weaponized lasers by 2013.

I'll give Boeing $36 million if they can add these lasers to Pink Floyd planetarium shows.

From New Scientist:

Laser weapons mounted on trucks could be ready to roll into battle within five years. This week Boeing won a $36 million contract from the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command to build the optics needed to track and focus lethal laser energy onto rockets, artillery shells and mortar rounds. The High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator will use a new solid-state laser powered by electricity from a truck-mounted diesel generator, rather than bulky and dangerous chemicals.

Scientists finally figure out how Post-Its work.

The science nerd in me is fascinated by the ongoing mystery of adhesives; the 12-year-old in me though snickers at "liquid stickiness." *snort*

From Live Science:

Recently physicists discovered there are two distinct ways for adhesives to release their grip, with no middle way and no smooth transition. A sticky substance can either act like a liquid or like a solid, it turns out.

"The goal of the study was really to try to understand the intermediate state between what happens when you have a sticky liquid and when you have a sticky solid," said researcher Costantino Creton, a physicist at the École Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielles (ESPCI) in Paris. "We found there was no real continuous transition in behavior but a very sharp change from a very solid-like behavior to a viscous fluid behavior. We were surprised that there was no intermediate regime."

Viscous fluid! *giggle giggle snort*

It can?

Oddest headline I've seen today in reaction to the Palin pregnancy thing.

Err... really?

Gyoza-Gate coming to a close?

If you've been following my blog, you know that no story is more interesting to me than the escalating tensions between Japan and China over a handful of contaminated frozen dumplings. China has finally admitted that it may have been their fault (duh). Here's the latest:

Chinese authorities have told Japan it is highly likely that frozen dumplings linked to food poisonings in China in June were contaminated by workers at the Chinese factory where they were made, sources close to Japan-China relations said Sunday.

Tokyo and Beijing have been at odds over where the "gyoza" dumplings were contaminated with a toxic substance, with both denying tampering in their countries.

China's effective acknowledgment came after authorities there interrogated 55 employees of Tianyang Food in Hebei Province, suspecting one or more may also have been responsible for separate food poisoning incidents that occurred in Japan, the sources said.

Monogamy gene discovered.

Gene found that predicts how faithful a dude will be. I'm just glad there's a genetic excuse for why I run to the tv whenever there's a nip-slip. From New Scientist:

They found that variation in a section of the gene called RS3 334 was linked to how men bond with their partners. Men can have none, one or two copies of the RS3 334 section, and the higher the number of copies, the worse men scored on a measure of pair bonding.

Not only that, men with two copies of RS3 334 were more likely to be unmarried than men with one or none, and if they were married, they were twice as likely to have a marital crisis.

US postal truck eyed in fatal hit & run.

As if the postal service doesn't suck enough... From the NY Daily News:

Cops are searching for a U.S. mail truck that fatally mowed down a father of three Sunday as he crossed a Queens street on his way home from work.

Shakoor Khan, 75, died from injuries suffered when the Postal Service tractor-trailer rig clipped him in the crosswalk at Rockaway and Farmers Blvds. in Jamaica.

Detectives were reviewing surveillance videos from nearby businesses, looking for clues to identify the truck and driver involved in the 7 a.m. accident, police said.

A U.S. Postal Service spokesman did not return phone or e-mail messages yesterday.

Lamest hospital staff meeting ever.

I get that Australians drink a lot and wave knives at each other, but this is pretty lame...

ONE of Queensland's most senior surgeons is threatening to sue the State Government after a booze-fuelled staff meeting where doctors joked about a patient who bled to death on the operating table.

[...] "I think it is unethical to be drinking alcohol in a hospital staff meeting and making jokes at the expense of patients and surgeons," Dr Steffen told The Courier Mail. "It is typical of the culture within the hospital."

Only 5% of rapes reported in Britain end in a conviction.

I don't care much about this article about Helen Mirren except for this crazy statistic:

Only 5 percent of reported rapes in Britain end in a successful prosecution, according to a report from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate -- one of the lowest conviction rates in the developed world. Campaigners argue that British attitudes often partially blaming a raped women for her behavior is part of the reason why so few sexual attacks are reported and successfully prosecuted.

That's messed up. Only 5%?? Jesus. I wouldn't be surprised if Pakistan has a better conviction rate of rapists than the UK. Appalling.

Palin's daughter's pregnancy a big deal.

I don't get what all the hoopla is. I mean, this is what happens when you open up virgin Alaskan land for pipe-laying.

From ABC News:

The news that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's 17-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant rocked the political world Monday almost as much as Palin's joining the Republican ticket did just three days ago.

[...] The news -- released to the public on the first day of a Republican National Convention severely truncated by Hurricane Gustav -- sent shockwaves through St. Paul, the convention site. Many Republicans expressed relief that the timeline of her pregnancy apparently means that Internet reports that Palin pretended to be the mother of a child who was actually her daughter's cannot be true.

Trailer: Takashi Miike's Sukiyaki Western Django

A huge departure from his usual stylistic ultraviolent gorefests, Takashi Miike's new one is a spaghetti western. Looks a bit campy and Quentin Tarantino in an acting role is always a bad sign. But I'm intrigued...

Neighbors peed off at/on new club with glass roof.

I've heard about this restaurant and had wanted to check it out. But given their disregard for their neighbors, screw them. From the NY Post:

The glass-roofed lounge, which opened with red carpets and loud trance music in July, has neighbors at 265 Lafayette St. up in arms over the riotous party atmosphere.

But one unidentified building resident has taken matters into his own hands, emptying his bladder on the see-through ceiling from his apartment window above.

The stream of discontent prompted another apartment dweller to post a sign in the hallway that reads:

"I know not everyone is happy with Delicatessen but, please stop urinating on the glass roof. I have to buy a new a/c because you did not aim correctly! Thank you!"

[...] More than 10 of the building's 99 apartments look directly down on the leather couches, partying patrons and cocktail-carrying waitresses. The thin layer of glass barely holds back the noise, they gripe.

Liar gets zapped by lightning.

This type of divine intervention just goes to show that God is a dick. *ducks for cover*

From Ananova:

A Chinese man who swore to God that he didn't owe money to a neighbour was hit by lightning a minute later.

The man, named Xu, made the oath in front of a crowd of neighbours in Fuqing city, reports Southeast Express.

[...] "I told him that if he dared to swear to God that he didn't owe me the money, then I would waive his debt," said Huang.

Xu made the oath, but was suddenly struck by lightning a minute later.

Coozer-Bits.

San Diego Union Tribune: Not only God can make a tree. Columbia University geophysicist creating synthetic trees to suck up CO2.

Live Science: 10 Species You Can Kiss Goodbye. Sad..

Game Info Wire: New Resident Evil 5 screenshots!

Houston Chronicle: Gustav might be twice the size of Katrina.

AdWeek: US Army sets up recruitment center disguised as hip Apple-like store in mall.

ABC News: University president resigns after photos surface of him doing keg stands with students.

News.com.au: 80-year-old man becomes sex monster after taking Viagra.

Yahoo! Canada: Dead: Killer Kowalski

NY Daily News: Bush for once putting human life and presidential responsibilities ahead of politics.

NY1: Brooklyn man arrested for stealing 87 parking meters.

Earth's atmosphere is leaking into space.

Great, as if we didn't have enough to worry about... From Universe Today:

Oxygen is constantly leaking out of Earth's atmosphere and into space. Measurements taken by satellites during the 1980s and 1990s showed the escaping ions were traveling faster the higher they were observed. This implied that some sort of acceleration mechanism was involved. Now, new work on data collected by a group of formation-flying satellites called Cluster shows that Earth’s own magnetic field is accelerating the oxygen away. But don't worry, compared to the Earth’s stock of the life-supporting gas, the amount escaping is negligible. However, in the far future when the Sun begins to heat up in old age, the balance might change and the oxygen escape may become significant.

Kathie Lee Gifford mocks Asians on TV.

Kathie Lee Gifford, not the brightest bulb in the.. umm.. bulb store, puts on a "Chinese" accent and slits her eyes to tell some stupid story. Here is the Asian American Journalists Association's letter to NBC News:

It's difficult to believe in this day and age, and immediately following an Olympics hosted by China, that "Today" host Kathie Lee Gifford chose to relate on national television an "amusing" anecdote about Al Roker sending birthday greetings to her in a mock "Chinese" accent.

If that weren't bad enough, Gifford decided to spice up her performance by squinting her eyes into slits. Gifford's performance had all the wit and subtlety of a schoolyard taunt. All that were missing were the buck teeth and Coke-bottle glasses.

I suppose she could defend herself by pointing out her name IS Lee....

Iran: Attack on us will cause World War III.

Doubtful. It's a Coozer Prophesy that the next world war will be between the world and Canada, and it'll be over clean water and/or Moose Munch.

Should Israel or the United States attack Iran, it would be the start of another World War, Iranian Deputy chief of staff General Masoud Jazayeri warned on Saturday.

"Any aggression against Iran will start a world war," the Iranian state news agency IRNA quoted the top Iranian official as saying. "The unrestrained greed of the US leadership and global Zionism... is leading the world to the edge of a precipice."

"It is evident that if such a challenge occurs, the fake and artificial regimes will be eliminated before anything," he said.

The news agency also quoted Jordan's King Abdullah II as saying that if an attack was launched against Iran, it would fail to achieve its objectives.

Rest of the article here.

Tecmo Bowl players to have spiky hair, giant swords.

Square Enix has offered a "friendly" takeover of Tecmo. How can a hostile takeover be friendly? You'll find out when you've summoned a Level 40 Bahamut.

25% of gas stations in NY overcharge.

From the Consumerist:

New York's Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, is warning consumers after an undercover investigation found that 25% of gas stations are engaging in "deceptive practices, including wrongfully surcharging credit card customers." The AG says that under New York state law, retailers are not allowed to impose surcharges for using a credit card.

The AG also said that the stations were engaging in false advertising by only listing the lower cash prices on signs, leading to nasty surprises for consumers once they parked at the pump.

Candy Addict continues its noble experiment.

Once again, Candy Addict smothers household items in chocolate to discover new epically chocolicious combinations. This time, they raise the bar (and bile) with sundried tomatoes and roasted garlic. The results may shock you.

Special 200th Post Extravaganza!!

200 posts in under a month. I think I've hit a new record for boredom and spare time.

So what do you think about this place and these posts? Your kind of thing? Do you dig the political stuff, the offbeat news, the science-y things? The close watch on our future zombie masters? The scrumptious recipes I was gonna post but never did? Talk to me, O silent Coozer-Philes!!

Nun beauty pageant canceled.

I think what I love most about this story is that the priest wanted to hold the contest on his blog.

An Italian priest who planned to hold the world's first beauty contest for nuns has decided to cancel the pageant after complaints.

Antonio Rungi wanted to host the called Miss Sister Italy contest to end the stereotype of nuns being old and dour, reports the BBC.

He wanted to hold the contest online on his internet blog but changed his mind after the local religious authorities expressed their displeasure.

Slimelight to reopen?

Oh, good lord. According the Village Voice's blog, the church-turned-dance club/pharmaceutical factory may reopen. I have mixed (and fuzzy) memories of the Limelight from the early 90s. The good: Seeing some cool shows there, like Mr. Bungle and one particularly memorable hardcore show. The bad: Being asked at the door if I had drugs. And when saying no, being pressured into buying some from said doorman.

Brain chemical linked to strong appetities, obesity.

Good news for always-hungry people like me. (I drown my tummy pangs with coffee and booze.) From the NIH:

A brain chemical that plays a role in long term memory also appears to be involved in regulating how much people eat and their likelihood of becoming obese, according to a National Institutes of Health study of a rare genetic condition.

Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is, as its name implies, produced in the brain. Studies of laboratory animals have suggested it also helps control appetite and weight. The NIH study, appearing in the August 28 New England Journal of Medicine, provides the first strong evidence that BDNF is important for body weight in human beings as well.

Least surprising celebrity news.

David Duchovny can't keep his little grey alien in his pants.

I dunno, I always got that vibe off him. That's what makes him awesome.

Rat meat in demand.

Poor mousies...

The price of rat meat has quadrupled in Cambodia this year as inflation has put other meat beyond the reach of poor people, officials said on Wednesday.

With consumer price inflation at 37 percent according to the latest central bank estimate, demand has pushed a kilogram of rat meat up to around 5,000 riel ($1.28) from 1,200 riel last year.

Spicy field rat dishes with garlic thrown in have become particularly popular at a time when beef costs 20,000 riel a kg.

Cocaine and Ecstasy deaths in UK up 1,200% thanks to Amy Winehouse.

Amy Winehouse's #1 hit was probably a speedball injection. But she can also be proud of creating a country-wide drug epidemic.

Halliburton sued for human trafficking.

Is there anything these dicks won't do for money? From Raw Story:

Thirteen Nepali men were recruited and held against their will for thirteen months in a human trafficking scheme engineered and perpetrated by Halliburton and its Jordanian contractor, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday in California federal court.

The Nepali men, each between the ages of 18 and 27, were allegedly hired as kitchen staff by the then-Halliburton subsidiary KBR and its Jordanian subcontractor, Daoud & Partners. Once they arrived in Jordan, however, their passports were seized and they were dispatched to Iraq.

"Tragically, as the men were being transported to Iraq, a car containing twelve of the men was stopped by members of the Ansar al-Sunna Army, an insurgent group," the Washington lawfirm Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll writes. "The 12 men in the car were taken hostage and executed by the insurgents. The executions were filmed and posted on the Internet. The Inspector General for the United States Department of Defense investigated and confirmed the facts related to the fate of the 12 men, which led to increased enforcement of anti-trafficking measures by the United States."

Only one man survived. After he was released by Iraqi rebels, he said he was assigned to work as a loader/unloader in a US military warehouse facility supervised by KBR. He asserts that he was held for 15 months against his well, before the firm finally allowed him to return home to Nepal.

Scientists: Our eyes evolved for X-Ray vision!

My 12-year-old dreams have finally become true! Now if only there were a girls' locker room here...

The advantage of using two eyes to see the world around us has long been associated solely with our capacity to see in 3-D. Now, a new study from a scientist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has uncovered a truly eye-opening advantage to binocular vision: our ability to see through things.

[...] Demonstrating our X-ray ability is fairly simple: hold a pen vertically and look at something far beyond it. If you first close one eye, and then the other, you'll see that in each case the pen blocks your view. If you open both eyes, however, you can see through the pen to the world behind it.

To demonstrate how our eyes allow us to see through clutter, hold up all of your fingers in random directions, and note how much of the world you can see beyond them when only one eye is open compared to both. You miss out on a lot with only one eye open, but can see nearly everything behind the clutter with both.

Read the article - there's interesting stuff in there about how eyes evolved for different animals and why. Kinda cool.

Pete Wentz on politics.

CNN threw some softballs at Pete Wentz, whose craptastic emo band played Rock the Vote. I found this part nauseating on multiple levels:

CNN.com: So what do the Democrats need to do to win the White House, do you think?

Wentz: I actually learned this from the person I got tennis lessons from that Democrats or the Republicans need not only to win the White House but you need to maintain the majority in the government in general in order to get things moving.

Just... wow.

Bloomberg announces park is safe while junkies shoot up nearby.

Whoops. From The Post:

Just several hundred feet from where Mayor Bloomberg was proclaiming that the renovated High Bridge Park in Washington Heights is now safe, a parks advocate yesterday said he stumbled upon two drug addicts shooting up.

"I told them, 'I'm just walking by, I'm not the cops,' " recalled Geoffrey Croft, adding that he had the encounter in a wooded area while taking a shortcut to the mayor's press conference nearby.

Old woman misunderstands instructions at airport, goes down baggage chute.

From Breitbart:

An elderly woman misunderstood instructions while checking in at Sweden's main airport and was whisked down a baggage shoot after she placed herself instead of her luggage on the belt, media reported Wednesday.

The 78-year-old woman, who was not named, was preparing to fly from Stockholm's Arlanda airport to Germany on Tuesday when she lay down on an unmanned baggage belt in the belief she was following check-in instructions, the Upsala Nya Tidning local daily reported on its website.

Dumbass.

Zoo student intern opens giant python cage, gets swallowed head-first.

Stupid intern. From The Independent:

A three-metre (10ft) python has killed a student zookeeper who let the snake out of its enclosure in Venezuela while working a night shift at the zoo.

Horrified colleagues at the Caracas zoo had to beat the snake to make it release the body of Erick Arrieta, whose head it was swallowing, local media reported.

Marks on the biology student's wrist suggested the snake had bitten him before crushing him to death.

The intern, 29, had been supervising the section alone when he broke zoo rules by opening the snake's cage, according to press reports.

Cats in China grow angel wings.

If this story is real, the weird thing is that the cats weren't born with these wings as an odd genetic defect, but grew them suddenly as a result of their environment, which seems strange and unlikely.

In any case, very cute but also pretty weird.

Pro-veg TV ad maligns hot dogs, raises false cancer fears.

The mighty hot dog is one of our nation's most perfect foods. After all, it contains just about all of God's creatures. But a new tv ad running in major cities links hot dogs with cancer, which the American Cancer Society and the hot dog lobby are calling a silly scare tactic.

How nutty is the ad? At one point, a little boy "hauntingly laments" while eating a hot dog: "I was dumbfounded when the doctor told me I have late-stage colon cancer."

WTF.

I'm sympathetic to most campaigns by veggieheads and animal rights activists, even gross/creepy ads, but this unprovoked attack on the hot dog cannot stand! Grab your wiener and wave it proudly in the air!!!

Cops: Man planned to use puffer fish poison.

Police arrested a man for possessing puffer fish poison, or tetrodotoxin, to be used as a weapon. Now it's been awhile since I've seen The Serpent And The Rainbow (okay, I saw it three days ago), but wasn't tetrodotoxin one of the ingredients used for ZOMBIE POTIONS?!!

This crazy dude had 40 VIALS of it. He wasn't trying to kill anyone. He was trying to create an ARMY OF THE UNDEAD!

"100 Things To Do Before You Die" author dies.

Young guy - only 47. He was so young, he only did half the things in his book!

From the Daily News:

The co-author of the popular travel adventure book "100 Things to do Before You Die" has died.

Dave Freeman passed away on Aug. 17 after a fall in his Venice home, the 47-year-old writer's father confirmed to the Los Angeles Times.

The "100 Things" theme inspired countless readers to do things like attend the Academy Awards and travel to exotic locales.

"This life is a short journey," the book read. "How can you make sure you fill it with the most fun and that you visit all the coolest places on earth before you pack those bags for the very last time?"

According to his family, Freeman had visited nearly half of the places on his list before his passing.

Robot Uprising Watch: MIT gives computers human-like pattern recognition.

Scary news from MIT:

Humans have a natural tendency to find order in sets of information, a skill that has proven difficult to replicate in computers. Faced with a large set of data, computers don't know where to begin -- unless they're programmed to look for a specific structure, such as a hierarchy, linear order, or a set of clusters.

Now, in an advance that may impact the field of artificial intelligence, a new model developed at MIT can help computers recognize patterns the same way that humans do. The model, reported earlier this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, can analyze a set of data and figure out which type of organizational structure best fits it.

I'm pretty sure this is how Terminator started out.

Magnetic fields affect cattle, deer.

In recent years, we've learned that birds and bats are helped around by magnetic fields. This new study shows that larger animals, like cattle and deer, are also affected by magnetic fields, which explains why they graze eerily in a north-south alignment. Scientists are now wondering if all animals have this hidden sixth magnetic sense. Or as I like to call it, animal magnetism. *winka wink*

Mysterious death of woman, just before her testimony in two criminal cases, ruled accidental.

About to testify against the man who raped her, and against another man who beat and kidnapped his girlfriend, Joy Blackman was found dead in an alley way. Authorities preliminarily ruled it accidental, and have now confirmed it to be an accident.

But Newsday's report today on the ruling raises eyebrows, quoting cops, investigators, and the medical examiner, who all think the death was suspicious.

I just wonder if the authorities would've treated this case differently, perhaps not have closed the book so quickly, had the woman not been homeless and a drug user. In any case, because of her death, all rape charges were dismissed against her attacker.

Coozer-Bits

Breitbart: Firefighters return to station to find it ablaze.

Chicago Sun-Times: Rising ocean burying coastal villages.

Chicago Tribune: 13-y.o. girl beats the crap out of school administrator during a disciplinary meeting.

NY Times: Huge protests in Thailand; Thai government offices stormed and besieged.

Huffington Post: UN accuses US troops of killing Afghan civilians.

LiveScience: Awesome monkey news of the day!

New Scientist: Pollutants are messing up birds' mating songs.

NY Post: The cooling system at Indian Point nuclear power plant kills over a BILLION fish each year.

The Independent: Homophobic Vatican digging up corpse of cardinal who was buried, per his wishes, with the man he loved

International Herald Tribune: 20% of US soldiers in combat have gotten at least mild head injuries.

Obama assassination attempt by white supremacists thwarted.

Yipes.

An alleged racist sniper plot to assassinate Barack Obama has been uncovered. Four people, including a woman have been arrested over the alleged plot.

[...] U.S. law enforcement sources said one of the suspects had admitted travelling to Denver to kill the first African-American to be nominated for president.

The shooting was allegedly planned for Thursday, when the White House hopeful will be in the city to formally accept his party's nomination for the November elections.

His speech is due to be made at the 75,000-seat Invesco stadium and the shooting would have been from a distance of at least 750 yards in front of almost 100,000 people.

What I find fascinating/scary is that the plot wasn't uncovered by super-competent anti-terror agents, or by Secret Service, or by the heavy spying/eavesdropping I had imagined would be taking place.

The alleged plot was thwarted by local traffic police on a routine patrol. It came to light on Sunday when the officers stopped a pick-up truck driving erratically in Aurora, less than 20 miles from the Democrats' convention venue.

Two high-powered rifles with telescopic sights were found when police searched the rented Dodge truck, which was being driven by 28-year-old Tharin Gartrell.

They also found camouflage clothing, walkie-talkies, a bulletproof vest, licences in the names of other people and the drug methamphetamine. One of the rifles was listed as stolen from Kansas.

Obama not winning unions because they're filled with racists.

Hey, I didn't say it. This article did.

Karen Ackerman, political director for the AFL-CIO, acknowledged that Obama’s race is an important factor for some union members.

“This race is very complicated because there is an African-American candidate for president,” said Ackerman. “We feel there is a racial component for some union members, but we’re confident we can overcome that.”

Some in the labor movement say that Obama’s race has made it difficult for a significant number of union members to support him over Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive GOP nominee.

Good job, working class. Way to vote against yourselves.

Canadian bike thief stole thousands of bikes, finally caught.

I always had a feeling that all crime in Canada could be attributed to just one or two people. In this case, a bike store owner in Toronto was caught stealing a bike. When cops raided his store, home, and storage lockers/garages, they found 3,000 stolen bikes in his possession. 3,000!! If you stole one bike a day, it would take over 8 years to steal that many.

I hope this guy has a good SPOKESman. Get it? Because bikes have spokes? Oh man, that's rich.

New heart device includes tiny propeller.

By propeller, they mean an apparatus closer to a turbine, but how could cool would it be if your heart could burst out of your chest and fly around the room, doing loop-de-loops? I'd pay money to see that. BLOOD money.

Here's the article, but it's more fun to imagine old timey heart planes.

Woman tries to abduct virtual boyfriend/lion.

This is precisely why I eschew technology, relationships, Tasers, and people. And virtual lions.

I found this part interesting:

Kimberly Jernigan is not the first person to allegedly blur their virtual and real lives, and her case presents one of the myriad problems that can arise when the two worlds collide.

Last year, a 48-year-old man in upstate New York was sentenced to 20 years in prison for killing a rival for the affections of a woman he'd never met. Thomas Montgomery reportedly posed online as an 18-year-old Marine and started an Internet relationship with a middle-aged woman from West Virginia, who was, herself, posing as an 18-year-old student.

Is there ANYONE online who isn't middle-aged and creepy?

Amazing fountain in Japan.

Fountain, art installation, magic? Whatever it is, it makes the Bellagio look like a limp puddle of dog drool.



(Thanks Jen!)

Barenaked Ladies survive plane crash.

They should've listened to their Toronto brethren Rush and only ride in red Barchettas. Story here.

Kitty Genovese 2.0

In Queens, neighbors ignored a woman's screams for help for 30 minutes after she was stabbed. She later died.

10 first aid mistakes.

Some good tips from Newsweek.

This one is new to me:

3. Burns.
Don't apply ice or butter or any other type of grease to burns. Also, don't cover a burn with a towel or blanket, because loose fibers might stick to the skin. When dealing with a serious burn, be careful not to break any blisters or pull off clothing stuck to the skin.

No ice on burns? Who knew!

Heavy metal causes genetic mutations.

This may explain the bumps on Lemmy's face.

According to this release, "heavy metal pollutants are linked to genetic mutations, stunted growth and declining fertility among small crustaceans in the Parramatta River, the main tributary of Sydney Harbour, new research shows.

"The finding adds to mounting evidence that toxic sediments and seaweeds in Sydney Harbour are a deadly diet for many sea creatures."

Hit-and-run driver sues city over car damages.

This guy = dick.

From NY Daily News:

A Coney Island businessman is suing the city for damaging the Bentley he was driving when he killed a Brooklyn dad in a hit-and-run accident.

Harry Shasho, who pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, says the NYPD failed to safeguard the battered black 2005 Bentley GT luxury sedan that was impounded as evidence of the fatal crash. He's asking for at least $190,000.

[...] Shasho says the Bentley was in "excellent condition ... with no noticeable defects or damage" when he turned himself in, according to the suit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.

The police report tells a different story.

It describes the car as crumpled and the windshield "depressed and fractured" by the violent impact with Couch that left his body parts strewn across the street.

The suit seeks damages from the city, the NYPD and the Brooklyn district attorney's office.

Beijing's tacky nightmare over.

Feel like you have something to prove? Have the need to overcompensate? Have no sense of understatement or class? Congratulations, you are China!

Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster that this crap is finally over. Now I can finally go back to less cheesy NBC programming, like.. umm.. Will & Grace and Mad About You.

Mexico finds its porpoise.

Leave it to Happy News to fill my bleak soul with some hope for mankind. They report that Mexico will invest millions to save an endangered species of porpoise, of which only 150 or fewer still exist. In case you are unaware, porpoises are really, really cute.

Illegal immigrants in USA shrunk by 11%.

I'm sure FOX News was elated to report that illegal immigrants are moving back to Mexico in record numbers. In fact, 1.3 million people have left the US since last year.

Some are pointing at the weakening US economy, but harsher enforcement and intimidation is a more likely cause.

Coozer Prophesy: NYC earthquake explosion + nuclear explosion.

Not to panic you while enjoying a beautiful Sunday picnic in Central Park, but... we're all going to die.

Seismologists - who are GENIUS SCIENTISTS - have figured out that an earthquake is going to hit NYC at any moment. Worse, you know the Indian Point nuclear power point, just north of NYC? Well, it sits bull's eye-style right on some earthquake fault lines.

So not only is there going to be mass devastation, but a nuclear plant is going to be involved, and I assure you, it'll be the biggest mass implosion since the 2007 Mets.

Horrifying story here.

On drinking alone Pt. II.

In marketing theory, each person has four identities that are never fully integrated. In fact, they are all incongruent, and attempting to assimilate them is extremely stressful if not impossible:

1. How you view yourself.
2. How you would like to view yourself.
3. How others view you.
4. How you would like others to view you.

The exercise, though, is less about self-actualization but how to manipulate people to buy your product and become loyal to a brand. But I often think about these four ideals.

And thinking about it, it becomes clear that identity is hard to pin down.

On drinking alone on a beautiful Sunday.

I stayed in today, all day, thinking I would review some CDs and books for ReadJunk, as well as clean the apartment thoroughly, because I'm a firm believer that a cluttered home means a cluttered life. Unfortunately, my apartment is always non-clean (I don't want to say "unclean" - sounds too religious) and extremely, hopelessly cluttered.

After a half-hearted effort in putting three dozen unread magazines (Game Informer, EGM, Wine Spectator, Bon Appetit) into a singular pile, I decided the best way to clear up some surface space was to get all these bottles off my living room floor. These annoying bottles are/were filled with rum of varying quality.

I am extremely drunk now, not even 2 pm. I'm drunk enough to speak freely, but still have my wherewithal to type and be able to spell "wherewithal" without having to retype it more than five times.

So here are my big thoughts about being drunk on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, alone in my apartment and figuring out what to do with my day/life:

1. Will Ferrell is actually a good actor - and even quite endearing - but only when he plays the straight man, such as in "Stranger Than Fiction" or to a lesser degree "Melinda and Melinda". If you decide to watch Stranger Than Fiction - and you should - watch it drunk.

2. Nothing infuriates me more than on the rare occasion that I can't get my butt my clean, no matter how much I wipe. I don't mean this to be scatalogically edgy or infantiley funny. Sometimes, it seems like my butt will always have poop in it. It sounds silly, but the frustration is as real and serious as a heart attack. After some deep-butt excavation, I'm wondering if maybe certain areas of my butt are very hairy, harboring fecal matter in hard-t0-reach places, not unlike Osama bin Laden in Pakistani mountain crevices. And after smashing my fist down on my bathroom sink and swearing at the gods, it occurred to me - what if I'm just totally OCD in my butt cleanliness and other people don't care as much? Maybe due to some weird childhood trauma, I believe the norm is to have a completely white toilet paper swath, while other people just give up once blood appears. If you could leave a comment on the matter, I'd greatly appreciate it. You can leave a comment anonymously, you know.

3. After that last outburst, I really want to drink some more and forget I wrote that. I'll add more Deep Thoughts later, unless I sober up.

Game: Tombscape

Fun point-n-click adventure game with some shooting elements. I got up to the giant spider but kept running out of ammo.

Tombscape.

Tip: For the swinging blades in the beginning, wait until they're all the way to the extreme side. Time it well!

Addendum: Oh, I beat the spider and that's the end of the game. The trick is to shoot it just as it spits up a web - that does damage and usually drops more ammo. My high score: 221,510.

One-legged hooker killed in Brooklyn.

This is sad. From NY Post:

A one-legged hooker was killed in Brooklyn after a john hit her over the head, causing her to fall backwards out of her wheelchair and slam her skull against the wall, cops said yesterday.

[...] Acevedo - who lost her leg in a train accident - had a rap sheet with 67 arrests for prostitution and drug charges.

She wore a prosthetic leg, but also used a wheelchair.

Investigators believe she had been servicing a client in the hallway who then hit her on the head with a heavy object. Police were still looking for a suspect.

Coozer-Bits.

ABC News: Dr. Drew's rehab center has had three mysterious deaths and a rape.

News.com.au: Australia's news site has a weird homophobic article about how "real" men are back in vogue and "nancy boy" metrosexual's "days are numbered."

Boston Globe: Tens of thousands in MA lost their health insurance because of errors.

Yahoo! Canada: A more welcoming error: OK worker gets $850,000 bonus instead of $850.

Yahoo! Canada: Polish mobile company paid actors to stand in iPhone lines to stimulate interest.

LiveScience: Who is this man and what did he do to George W. Bush?? Bush seeks to protect remote island chains, which "would rank as one of the largest marine conservation efforts in history."

BBC News: North Korea develops super noodle that staves off hunger.

Garlic bread that turns blue recalled in Australia.

An Australian food company that supplies bread to Pizza Hut and Domino's has pulled its garlic bread after discovering it turns blue when heated up. No one has any idea why.

But seriously - if you're eating at Pizza Hut and Domino's, blue garlic bread is the least of your worries.

Rice bran contains dangerous levels of arsenic.

Per New Scientist:

Rice bran – a so-called "superfood" – might contain dangerous amounts of a natural poison.

A new study suggests that rice bran, the shavings left over after brown rice is polished to produce white rice grains, contains "inappropriate" levels of arsenic. Andrew Meharg at the University of Aberdeen, UK, and colleagues found that the levels of arsenic in rice bran products available on the internet and used in food-aid programmes funded by the US government would be illegal in China – the only country in the world to have standards for how much arsenic is permissible in food.

Actually, it's the last line that interests me. China, of all countries, is the only one with arsenic standards for its food?? China, the country that exports lead and poison under the guise of toys and pet food??

Trend Spotting: Kidnapping in Mexico.

Kidnappings in Mexico have become so bad (40% increase since 2004), that Mexicans are flocking to get microchip tracking implants. Not just the super-rich, but middle-class Mexicans are starting to get them too. The only problem? The technology is unproven and likely worthless. Story here.

Wisconsin couple keeps winning the lotto.

In other Wisconsin news, these folks are a bit luckier. Or sneakier.

This couple has had four winning lotto tickets last week, totaling $1.4 million. The husband claims to have figured out a mathematical formula and strategy for winning the lotto, "But Steven Post, a mathematics professor at Edgewood College in Madison, said there is no way to devise a strategy for finding the winning numbers in a game that uses randomly generated numbers to determine the winning combination."

Something stinks in Wisconsin, and I don't mean the Packers. In any case, I want in.

Wisconsin woman jailed for overdue library books.

From Ananova:

A US woman has been arrested and handcuffed for failing to pay fines for two overdue library books.

Heidi Dalibor, of Grafton, Wisconsin, is the first to admit that she ignored calls and letters from her local library.

She also admits that she ignored a notice to appear in municipal court or pay the fine, reports the News Graphic.

The interesting thing is that she only owed about $25 in late fees. It cost her about $150 to be bailed out.

Straight-edge ninjas fight drugs in NJ (and get arrested).

Who says nothing cool ever happens in New Jersey? These two awesome dweebs dressed as ninjas, sported nunchuks, throwning stars, and smoke bombs (!), and wrote threatening letters...

...to those who ignored their warnings and continued to smoke pot or, worse yet, persuaded others to try the drug.

They planned to drop the letters at the doors of friends, including one they accused of supplying the drugs to others. As assurance against counterattacks, they brought along homemade smoke bombs they'd concocted from instructions on YouTube.

But the art of the ninja, based on stealth and cunning, failed them.

At their first stop, the modern-day vigilantes delivered their fearful missives under the watchful eye of two Clifton patrolmen who happened to be standing in the shadows.

I love this part.

The letters stated "Shinobi will stop your cruel and sadistic intentions with justified, yet merciful force." The correspondence accused pot smokers and drug dealers of having "committed sin of passing impurity" to others. It also said the "wind guides us to those of impure heart and intent."

I want to bail these kids out and hang out with them.

(Originally spotted on Gothamist.)

Hot Pockets recalled for containing plastic.

Spotted this on Consumerist. Nestlé has recalled 200,000 pounds (100 tons!) of Hot Pockets Pepperoni Pizza after reports of plastic pieces being discovered in those little zesty pouches of heaven.

The recall is for 54-ounce, 12-pack cartons of Hot Pockets Pepperoni Pizza with the following printed on the sides of each carton: “8157544614D,” “EST 7721A” and “BEST BEFORE JAN2010.”

If you have some of the recalled product, spit out that plastic and call Nestlé Consumer Services Center at 1-800-350-5016.

GET OUT AND VOTE (for Jelly Belly).

Look, I know you're apathetic about the process and feel that your vote doesn't count. I know you once cared and were greatly disappointed. But you can't give up. You need to get over your cynicism and HAVE YOUR VOICE HEARD. I'm talking, of course, about Jelly Belly's new flavor.

According to my fave blog, Candy Addict (who, by the way, came up with their own ingenious "Girly Beans"), Jelly Belly has asked the public for flavor suggestions. They received 200,000 ideas, and whittled them down to five: Sublime Chili Lime, Honey, Thai Iced Tea, Mojito, and Acai Berry.

Vote for your candidate, but The Coozer Files strongly endorses Thai Iced Tea. The Thai Iced Tea Jelly Belly would turn this country around and give us hope for change.

This is Adam Coozer and I approve this message.

Coozer-Bits

The Independent: UK's economy grinds to a halt.

BBC News: The next world war is going to be over water (video). This should be a Coozer Prophesy. I've been talking about this for years while people mocked and threw water bottles at me!

Breitbart: Madagascar hissing cockroaches predict McCain win.

Breitbart: British government loses data of EVERY prisoner in England and Wales.

LiveScience: NYC is very much due for a major earthquake. (Another Coozer Prophesy, but I'm too lazy to start another post. Just take my word for it - we're doomed.)

Spinach to get zapped.

Per Reuters, the FDA is allowing spinach and lettuce to be zapped with radiation. They say radiating food is safe, but this guy begs to differ.

Sony announces $500 160GB PS3

Glad I've held off so far, as $500 for a 160GB console sounds more reasonable than their previous price points. But will it be backwards compatible...? From BBC News:

A 160 GB PS3 was unveiled at the Leipzig games conference that will go on sale on 31 October in Europe and November in the US.

[...] The new 160 GB PS3 will be sold as a bundle that includes a limited edition of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and will go on sale 31 October for 449 euros (£355), and shortly thereafter in the US for $500.

Argentine dog saves baby.

Animals rule. From BBC News:

An eight-year dog has touched the hearts of Argentines by saving the life of an abandoned baby, placing him safety alongside her own new puppies.

He was born prematurely to a 14-year-old girl in a shanty town outside the capital, Buenos Aires. She is said to have panicked and abandoned the boy in a field, surrounded by wooden boxes and rubbish.

Then along came La China, the dog which somehow picked up the baby and carried him 50m to place him alongside her own puppies.

This is really sad though:

La China, worried about her own puppies, is reported to be petrified by her new found fame, and her owner says he is worried that she is not eating.

Maybe Eliot Spitzer should give the keynote address?

Perhaps not surprisingly, the sex business is expected to boom during both political conventions. ABC News has the report.

Fishy fraud in NYC.

Two teens discovered via DNA sampling that up to 1/4 of fish in NYC stores and restaurants are cheaper species than as labeled.

From Reuters:

Up to a quarter of fish in stores and restaurants in New York City was mislabeled as a more expensive variety, according to samples collected by two U.S. teenagers and tested with modern genetic identification methods.

In the worst cases, two samples of filleted fish sold as red snapper, caught mostly off the southeast United States and in the Caribbean, were instead the endangered Acadian redfish from the North Atlantic, according to the tests, revealed on Friday.

[...] The two classmates from New York's Trinity school collected and sent off 60 fish samples to the University of Guelph in Canada. Of 56 samples that could be identified by a four-year-old DNA identification technique, 14 were mislabeled.

In all cases, the fish was labeled as a more costly type, apparently ruling out simple chance.

British theaters to ban popcorn.

You know, first these snooty Brits smoke their pipes in their tweed jackets, then they export over crap like Howard's End and penny farthings. Now no more popcorn at the movies?

I do say, good sir, this is an outrage! The Viscount of Essex shall hear of it! Quite so!

JetBlue to keep your mind off your 8-hour delay.

JetBlue's new food court at JFK is ridiculously chic-chic. Daring designs for a US airport, but I'd be happier if their planes simply left on time.

Check out the pics here.

Master of his domain name.

Per AdWeek, Microsoft has tapped Jerry Seinfeld for their new $300 million ad campaign (Jerry will get $10m).

Because nothing competes with hip, fresh Apple than an aging comedian from the 90s.

Fake restaurant wins Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence.

Consumerist found a funny story about a guy who created a fake restaurant website and online menu/wine list and submitted it to Wine Spectator, who gave the wine list its "Award of Excellence." The kicker?

The best part is that Mr. Goldstein included "the lowest-scoring Italian wines in Wine Spectator over the past 20 years."

"I didn’t have any empirical evidence of the quality of the restaurants other than my own impressions,” he said. “I wanted to see what the standards of the Awards of Excellence were. The results speak for themselves."

So does Wine Spectator give this Award of Excellence to anyone and everyone who submits a list? Very likely, and here's why:

Dr. Vino also notes that in a Times article from 2003, a reporter estimated that Wine Spectator was bringing in $625,275 from the award each year-- and that was when the application fee was only $175.

Anonymous donor interested in freeing SeaWorld animals.

This guy is my hero. PETA has announced that it has a mystery donor who is interested in buying all the SeaWorld animals so they can be freed. The donor would also use his money to replace the animals with virtual reality or animatronic displays (hopefully of the Chuck E. Cheese variety - the world needs a dolphin-robot jug band).

Look, I get it that SeaWorld provides educational services and rehabilitates some animals. But if this donor were to actually come through (assuming he's got billions of dollars), I have to say it's money well spent.

Unless of course the coddled, bred-in-captivity animals get immediately eaten in the wild.

PeaceCorps for nerds.

Just read about these guys today through Idealist.org. GeekCorps is a nonprofit that assists developing countries with their techie and IT needs. They've so far got 3,500 ICT experts willing to volunteer long-term in other countries.

I think this is really neat. I've always wanted to do PeaceCorps but was too lazy/physically inadequate to do things like carry buckets of water from a well to a town 10 miles away. Not that I know how to set up telecommunications infrastructure, but I'm happy to teach the children of the world how to set up an ugly blog.