Vocab Boost

   1. "New words for Collins English Dictionary"
      < http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2005/06/08/1077764-ap.html >
   "Chavs, yarcos and neds - these are the new tribes of Britain, as defined
    by compilers of the latest edition of the Collins English Dictionary"

   2. "Online dictionary breathes life into English"
      < http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1267618.htm >
   "Collins has launched a 'Living Dictionary' which can help people decipher
    new English terms like Santa stress, tinseltastic, mucus trooper or
    bingeworker"

   3. "Dictionary says Americans getting phatter"
      < http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200307/s892649.htm >
   "Fed up with your McJob? Then curb your agita with a phat brewski and be
    grateful you did not throw away your last dead presidents on the latest
    dead-cat bounce on the market"

   4. "New words are added to dictionary"
      < http://www.rednova.com/news/stories/6/2003/06/30/story146.html >
   "A former dot-commer working a McJob was listening to some headbangers
    while laying out the last of his dead presidents for longnecks and some
    less than heart-healthy Frankenfood"

   5. "Oxford 'bada bings' its latest dictionary"
      < http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200308/s929270.htm >
   "'Bada bing', the catchphrase popularised by the hit television show The
    Sopranos, has earned a place alongside 3,000 other new entries in the
    latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English"

   6. "McDonald's CEO upset over 'McJob' entry"
      < http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=32369 >
   "McDonald's says it deserves a break from the unflattering way the latest
    Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary depicts its job opportunities.
    Among some 10,000 new additions to an updated version released in June
    was the term 'McJob,' defined as 'low paying and dead-end work.'"

   7. "Farmers stew over 'couch potato'"
      < http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4108964.stm >
   "Farmers want 'couch potato' removed from the dictionary because they
    believe the expression is damaging the vegetable's image"

   8. "Website embedded in naming top words, phrases"
      < http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200312/s1016494.htm >
   "'Embedded', as in the reporters assigned to accompany military units
    during the war, beat out 'blog' and 'SARS' as the top word of 2003,
    website yourDictionary.com said"

   9. "'Ginormous' tops non-dictionary word list"
      < http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/custom/fringe/sns-ap-
          winning-non-words,0,6431077.story >
   "The editors of Merriam-Webster dictionaries got more than 3,000 entries
    when, in a lighthearted moment, they asked visitors to their Web site to
    submit their favorite words that aren't in the dictionary"

   10. "Vatican breathes new life into Latin"
      < http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3030169.stm >
   "An up-to-date Latin dictionary produced by the Vatican goes on sale this
    week, modernising a language considered by many best left consigned to
    history... In their day, Rome's rulers might have benefited from a
    'telephonium albo televisifico coniunctum' - or video telephone - to
    stay in touch with distant parts of the empire"

Dining Out Suggestions

   1. "Restaurant offers diners new pitch on blind date"
      < http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200507/s1410550.htm >
   "Diners rub their eyes as they emerge from behind a curtain after eating
    at France's only pitch black restaurant"
      "Dining in the dark in Paris"
      < http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/09/23/dining.blind.ap/index.html >
      < http://www.inclusiondaily.com/archives/04/09/23/092304frcafeblind.htm >
   "At 'Dans le Noir' -- In the Dark -- it's not just that the lights are off
    and curtains closed. Diners sit in a room of inky blackness that the eyes
    never adjust to"

   2. "Hushed reception for the Café des Signes"
      < http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,973593,00.html >
   "France's first silent bistro, where most of the 45-strong staff cannot
    hear, has been opened officially after a month's trial on the left bank's
    Avenue Jean-Moulin and there is little chance of being served quickly
    unless you use a bit of imagination"

   3. "A restaurant full of beds? Yep, it's no lie"
      < http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/263583p-225498c.html >
   "What do I mean, a bed-filled restaurant? You know - a restaurant filled
    with about 30 king-size beds, tons of satin pillows and some very awkward-
    looking waiters bending down to change the sheets between customers"

   4. "Piggybacking on other brands"
      < http://blog.fastcompany.com/archives/2004/11/29/
           piggybacking_on_other_brands.html >
   "Cereality, a Boulder, Colorado, company this Wednesday opens its first
    full scale, sit-down restaurant, near the campus of the University of
    Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The Philly location will serve 33 kinds of
    name-brand cereal, along with Cereality-created cereals, and specialty
    items like cereal bars... Cereality servers wear pajamas. The restaurants
    are starting out near college campuses, because as the New York Times
    reported several weeks ago on its front page, cereal is all the rage as
    the latest college eating trend"

   5. "St Peter's Basilica, serving heavenly coffee"
      < http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1269607.htm >
   "St Peter's Basilica now has its own rooftop coffee bar... Located on the
    terrace at the base of the cupola designed by Michelangelo, it commands a
    breathtaking view of St Peter's Square all the way to the Tiber River and
    beyond"

   6. "For the ultimate control freak: cook-it-yourself"
      < http://www.restaurantedge.com/index.phtml?news=1&newsid=525 >
   "Well, according to Time, 'restaurants where diners chop, grill, boil or
    dip their food are hot in the heartland'"

Sleepwalking Adventures

   1. "Sleepwalking teen rescued from crane"
      < http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200507/s1408445.htm >
   "A teenage sleepwalker was rescued after being found fast asleep 40 metres
    up on the arm of a crane in London"

   2. "Sleep walker wakes up and falls off roof"
      < http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/bizarre/65912004.htm >
   "Thomas Manninger climbed out of a first-floor window, shimmied up a drain-
    pipe and managed to walk across the roof of his house, before falling 20
    feet to the ground when he woke up and realised where he was"

   3. "German sleepwalker wakes up stark naked on street"  [expired link]
      < http://in.news.yahoo.com/030703/137/25meq.html >

   4. "Sleep walker mows lawn naked"
      < http://www.news24.com/News24/Backpage/Offbeat/0,,2-1343-1347_1679282,00.html >
   "A sleep-walking computer expert was caught by his wife mowing the lawn
    naked at 02:00"

   5. "Sleepwalk plunge halts wedding"
      < http://smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/23/1093246448592.html >
   "A couple's dream wedding had to be cancelled when the groom went sleep-
    walking and fell out of a window the night before"

   6. "Sleepwalker cleared of murdering father"
      < http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/03/19/1111086066638.html >
   "A British man was cleared of murdering his father after a court accepted
    his excuse he was sleepwalking at the time, a highly unusual defence
    seen just a handful of times in the country's legal history"

   7. "Knife-wielding sleepwalker stabs hotel owner"
      < http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/15/1058035005127.html >
   "A sleepwalker who stabbed the owner of a hotel in China where he was
    staying was freed after paying his victim compensation"

   ----

   Diary of a Somnambulist
      < http://www.sleepwalkdiary.com/ >
   Someone is keeping a diary of their sleepwalking adventures.  The site
   also has links on the topic of somnambulism.

Homewreckers

   1. "Ship crashed into house"  [expired link]
      < http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1185201.html >
   "A Croatian man who settled down to watch an action movie was almost killed
    when a runaway ship crashed through the wall"

   2. "Norwegian tank strikes house, tank wins"
      < http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?sid=439084&nid=104 >
   "[A] 26-ton tank slammed into Viken's house in Vassbotna, some 350 miles
    north of Oslo, the military said ... The tank went through a wall and
    part way into the bathroom"

   3. "Satellite crushes house in China"
      < http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200410/s1221846.htm >
   "State media in China are reporting that a Chinese satellite returning to
    earth crashed into a villager's house on Friday"

   4. "Outhouse falls on man"
      < http://www.hwt.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,11773397%255E1702,00.html >
   "The utility then struck a brick outhouse - which collapsed on a man in the
    yard - before crashing into a neighbouring house"

   5. "Airborne car plows into Arkansas house"
      < http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2005/06/20/1096580-ap.html >
   "In one instant, Rickey May thought a bomb had gone off outside his home.
    In the next, he realized a car had crashed through his home's brick wall
    and landed on top of him in his bed"

   6. "Crashing chooks ruffle residents' feathers"
      < http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200502/s1299042.htm >
   "There are two reports of houses being damaged by plucked chickens crashing
    through their roofs in Newcastle in the New South Wales Hunter Valley"

   7. "Fish-toting eagle crashes into alaska home"  [expired link]
      < http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050614/ap_on_fe_st/eagle_crash >
   "A bald eagle crashed through a window of a home and landed in the living
    room, scattering broken glass, feathers and a salmon carcass across the
    floor. Homeowner Jean Stack heard the crash and initially wondered if
    someone had thrown a dead fish through the window"

   8. "Plane jettisons ice through Japanese roof"
      < http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200506/s1390876.htm >
   "A block of ice which is believed to have fallen from an airplane has
    crashed through the roof of a house in Japan but no-one was injured"

Bombs Away!

   1. "Jet accidentally drops bomb on hiking trail"
      < http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6313239/ >
   "Military officials are investigating why a jet fighter accidentally
    dropped a 25-pound practice bomb on a hiking trail a mile from its
    intended target in southeastern Pennsylvania"

   2. "Fighter pilot mistakenly targets US school"
      < http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200411/s1235379.htm >
   "A United States National Guard F-16 fighter plane has mistakenly fired
    25 rounds of ammunition at the Little Egg Harbour Intermediate School
    in South New Jersey"

   3. "US bomber misses target for flypast at air show"
      < http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/21/nfarn21.xml >
   "An American B52 bomber flew from America for a flypast at the Farnborough
    Air Show yesterday but picked the wrong airfield"

   4. "Harrier crash forces evacuations in Ariz."
      < http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,159723,00.html >
   "A Marine Harrier jet carrying four 500-pound bombs crashed Wednesday in a
    residential neighborhood, forcing the evacuation of 1,300 residences"

   5. "British ships carried atomic weapons in 1982 Falklands War"
      < http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/050628/w062842.html >
   "British ships carried nuclear weapons to the Falkland Islands during the
    1982 war with Argentina because there wasn't time to unload them before
    setting off, according to an official history of the conflict published
    Tuesday"

Places with Dubious Distinctions

   1. "'Aliens choose Luton' as top town"
      < http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/4630329.stm >
   "A collection of 10 stories about Luton is being launched in an attempt
    to improve its image after it was voted 'crap town' of the year last year"

   3. "Town celebrates being named the Armpit of America by reporter"
      [expired link]
      < http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2003/08/21/165833-ap.html >
   "About 2,000 people turned out over the weekend for the community's second
    annual 'Festival in the Pit' - a takeoff from Battle Mountain being named
    the 'Armpit of America' by a Washington Post reporter in 2001"
      "Why not the worst?"  [original article]
      < http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A31628-2001Nov28?
          language=printer >
   "We promised to find the armpit of America. Turns out it's only about five
    inches from the heart"

   4. "Detroit named America's fattest city"
      < http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1020001.htm >
   "Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has committed something of a cardinal sin
    in the motor city by blaming cars and trucks for Detroiters' bulging
    waistlines"

   5. "Baked bean capital dubbed Windy City"  [expired link]
      < http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_870837.html >
   "West Bromwich has been dubbed The Windy City after a survey found its
    inhabitants to be the UK's biggest fans of baked beans"

   6. "Winnipeg still world Slurpee capital"  [expired link]
      < http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2004/07/08/531948.html >
   "How sweet it is. For the fifth year in a row, Winnipeg can proudly call
    itself the Slurpee Capital of the World"

Where am I? - using Google Maps

   Google Maps has expanded it's catalogue of satellite imagery, now covering most
   of the known world.

   I've picked a few landmarks for you to guess "where am I?":

   1a. < http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-34.9152,138.5961&spn=0.003787,0.004957&t=k >
   1b. < http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-34.9152,138.5961&spn=0.060596,0.07930&t=k >
        Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, South Australia
   2.  < http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=45.4339,12.3387&spn=0.003787,0.004957&t=k >
        St Mark's Square, Venice, Italy
   3.  < http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=41.8902,12.4919&spn=0.003787,0.004957&t=k >
        Colosseum, Rome, Italy
   4.  < http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=48.8581,2.2942&spn=0.003787,0.004957&t=k >
        Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

Taken for a Ride

   1. "Cops say bogus bus driver collected fares, followed route"
      < http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/wabc_060303_busbandit.html >
   "The bogus bus driver apparently dropped every one of his passengers off
    safely, at the correct destination"

   2. "Bus driver is taken for a ride by pupils"
      < http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/06/20/
          nskool20.xml >
   "Rather than helping the driver, the mischievous pupils led him on an
    estimated 20-mile round trip"

   3. "Man charged with drunken ride in stolen plane; teen passengers not
       charged"
      < http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2005/06/22/1099967-ap.html >
   "An intoxicated 20-year-old stole a small plane and took two friends on
    a three-hour, predawn joyride early Wednesday that ended with a safe
    landing at a closed airport, authorities said"

   4. "Teenagers stole bus"
      < http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1388457.html >
   "Australian police are looking for three teenagers who stole a bus after
    the driver nipped out to go to the toilet"

   5. "Police tell of teen tram thief's obsession"
      < http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200504/s1347521.htm >
   "A 15-year-old boy who allegedly stole two trams over the weekend, drove
    them a total of more than 25 kilometres and picked up passengers along
    the way is a good lad whose obsession got the better of him, according
    to police"

Random Pix

   Today, for your viewing pleasure, a random assortment of photo links.

   1. The Ugliest Cars in Britain
      < http://www.uglycars.co.uk/ >

   2. Swedish "Boy" Bands?
      < http://www.heysuburbia.com/cgi-bin/m4/headline/03_04_02_22_50 >
   Abba doesn't look so bad after all

   3. The Helipad Open photos
      < http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/photo_galleries/4289977.stm >
   Federer v Agassi: "Just a normal day at Dubai's 321m high Burj Al Arab
   hotel, which is set on a man-made island"

   4. The World Islands
      < http://guide.tenuae.com/living/dubai/the_world_islands.php >

   5. Snow Crystal Photographs
      < http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/photos/photos.htm >

   6. Tornado and Rainbow Over Kansas
      < http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050613.html >
   First, the good news: your house is at the end of rainbow.  And now the
   bad news: your house is also in the path of a tornado.

Examples of Customer Relationship Mismanagement

   1. "Outrage at energy company howler"  [expired link]
      < http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11652324%255E2862,00.html >
   "A Melbourne man is seeking an apology from energy company TXU after it
    sent him a letter addressed to 'Paranoid Fool'"

   2. "Shock over 'strangling' tax letter"
      < http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/2952928.stm >
   "A woman who contacted the Inland Revenue for help was stunned when
    officials wrote back calling her 'Mrs Deserves-Strangling'"

   3. "Home Office enquiry into 'racist' letter"
      < http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1875640.stm >
   "The Home Office has promised an urgent investigation into letters it sent
    to a Nottingham asylum seeker addressing him as 'Mr Paki'"

   4. "Valentines cards prove the wrong medicine"
      < http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200502/s1310598.htm >
   "A pharmaceutical company that sent anonymous Valentine's cards to Dutch
    gynaecologists in a publicity stunt has been forced to apologise for
    sparking family rows"

   5. "Insurer apologises over letter gaffe"
      < http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2124713.stm >
   "Insurance giant Scottish Widows has apologised after sending out 100
    letters offering health cover to people it knew had died"

   6. "NTL admits billing letter blunder"
      < http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/07/28/ntl_admits_billing_letter_blunder/ >
   "NTL has apologised after sending out 800 letters by mistake to customers
    demanding payment on 'overdue' accounts"

   7. "Global village"
      < http://smh.com.au/articles/2005/06/10/1118347599380.html >
   "Customers who rang the helpline of one of Britain's biggest cable TV
    companies were shocked to be told to 'f--- off'"