The article is about a 13-year-old boy named Scott Campbell who is asked to swap his iPod for an original 30-year-old Walkman.
The quote from the article that sums it up best is
It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape
Now some of us might laugh at that but think about it, how was he suppose to know the tape could be turned over? CDs put a stop to the whole A side B side, which actually takes away from the music singles but that’s another discussion.
What I thought was strange about the artilce was how slow Scott was to figure out the Walkman. If he had been given a new mobile phone, MP3 player or computer he’d have most of the functions worked out within a half hour but give him something out of the ordinary and unfamiliar and he’s lost.
This was brought to my attention yesterday. An Australian company, LifeArt, are offering that personal touch when it comes to your funeral. Did you ever think that those coffins are just too dull and boring for you? Do you want something special when it comes to your time. Well here’s your chance.
Ok so there is a point to these coffins. They’re actually made from recycled cardboard making them cheaper, lighter and greener than the ordinary ones and they don’t have to look like that one. The fact they’re made from cardboard also means they can be printed on and designs can be created to suit the person.
This story appeared in todays papers. While the most of the UK shut down yesterday due to the snow one man, Peter Cartwright, decided to walk the 18 miles to his work to attend to his patients.
Some people might be accused of using the weather as an excuse for not going to work.
But one NHS radiographer was so determined to support his patients and colleagues that he walked 18 miles through the snow to get to work
Got this story in an email today and just thought it was great.
In 1994 at the annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, AAFS.
The President Dr Don Harter Mills astounded his audience with legal complications of a bizarre death.
On March 23, 1994 a medical officer examined the body of Ronald Opus. He concluded that Mr Opus had died as a result of a shotgun wound to the head. Mr Opus had jumped from the top of a ten strory building intending to commit suicide. He had left a note to the effect indicating his despondency. As he fell past the ninth floor his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a window, which killed him instantly.
Neither the shooter nor the the deceased was aware that a safety net had been installed just below the eighth floor level to protect some building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide the way he had planned.
Ordinarily a person who sets out to commit suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide. The fact that Mr Opus was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands.
The room on the ninth floor, where the shotgun blast eminated, was occupied by an elderly couple. They were arguing vigorously and the husband was threatening the wife with a shotgun. The husband was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he missed his wife and the pellets went through the window striking Mr Opus in the head, on his way down.
When one intends to kill a subject “A” but kills subject “B’ by mistake one is guilty of murder of subject “B”
When confronted with the charge of murder the old man and his wife were adamant and both said that they thought the gun was unloaded. The old man explained that it was a long-standing habit to threaten his wife with an un-loaded shotgun during the course of their arguments. He had no intention to murder her.
Therefore the killing of Mr Opus appeared to be an unfortunate accident; that is, if the gun had been accidently loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple’s son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the argument and fatal shooting. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son’s financial support and the son, knowing the ponpensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his Father would shoot his Mother. Since the loader of the gun, was aware of this, he was guilty of murder even though he didn’t actually pull the trigger. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.
Now comes the exquisit twist.
Further investigations revealed that the son was in fact, Ronald Opus. He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his Mother’s murder on March 23rd 1994 he went to the the top of the ten story building and jumped off, only to be killed by a shotgun blast through the ninth story window.
Quick note to say the company putting together these ads for Cadbury’s must be a great place to work and really deserve all the praise they get. Keep up the great work and keep pushing that bar up inch by inch.
Got an email alert today telling me Ross Noble is coming back to the Olympia Theatre, May 4th 2009. After seeing him there last year I’ve been waiting for this and of course booked my tickets today. If you haven’t seen Ross live before take it from me and really try to get to one of his shows on this UK tour.
*** Update ***
Not great today and only for a win in the final race it would have been a bad day. The day finished with Kazal getting a placed finish and Cousin Vinny getting a win so the day finished in profit.
Sorry to anyone that’s been coming to the site looking for new content. I’ve been pretty busy lately with work and now it’s only 2 weeks until Halloween and I haven’t started my costume yet so I’m really under pressure. But what all that means is that I’ll have a load of things to write about when I do have the time to sit down again.
The things to come will include:
Halloween Costumes – I’m making 2 this year maybe even 3
MAME Cabinet – I’ve finally finished my MAME cabinet and got it up and running
Virtual earth – I’ve been doing some nice virtual earth map integration with WindGuru to produce weather maps for surfers
Plus the usual Bebo, web stuff and other things I’ve gotten up to
All I can say now is keep checking back, new posts will appear soon….. hopefully…..