Category Archives: General

General

Worst Baseball Card of All Time…?

When I was very young, I collected a lot of things, from coins to stamps to (of course) books and comic books.

One thing I never got into, however, was collecting baseball cards.

Even so, this story, concerning the “worst baseball card of all time”, had me laughing:

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2013/08/bob_hamelin_worst_baseball_card_ever_the_case_of_1996_pinnacle_foil_no_289.html

For those too lazy to click the above link (I highly recommend it…the story behind the card, and other examples of terrible sports cards, is worth your time), this is the notorious card:

Bob Hamelin baseball card.

Hard to believe such a terribly, terribly designed card was approved and released.  Not only is the photo itself strictly amateurish, but the flourishes added to the card (in particular the bit at the bottom with the player’s name…covering the player’s mug-shot looking photo and identification!).

Very weird -and hilarious- stuff.

General

A single photon of light…

Fascinating article by Charles Q. Choi and presented at MSNBC.com regarding a new manner in which to search for signs of intelligent life, via faint laser pulses in contrast to the larger, isolated bursts they were looking for before:

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/faint-alien-laser-pulses-sought-hunt-extraterrestrial-intelligence-8C10995618

Perhaps the most fascinating quote of the article is this one:

“We assumed that aliens would use the simplest possible way of attracting our attention, one already implemented in seafaring since ancient times using lighthouses — that is, periodic light pulses,” (laser scientist Walter) Leeb said.

The key is repetition in the signals, faint as they may be, which would indicate something not necessarily found in nature.

As I said, fascinating stuff!

Now, on to the other side of the coin:  Top Ten Alien Encounters…Debunked:

http://www.space.com/9704-ten-alien-encounters-debunked.html

General

50 Year Old Message In A Bottle Washes Up…

Incredible story, presented on NBC’s newscast, of a message in a bottle tossed into the sea fifty years ago and washed up and was found following super storm Sandy:

I’m surprised by how the note survived all those years in that jar!

General

The Bulls**t Police…

Fascinating article by Michael Moynihan for Newsweek Magazine concerning the “Skeptic” movement:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/08/16/james-randi-the-amazing-meeting-and-the-bullshit-police.html

Don’t know how long ago it was I first saw/heard/became aware of James Randi, the movement’s founder…perhaps it was on one of his Johnny Carson/Tonight Show appearances…but I’ve always felt a kinship, of sorts, with him.  I suppose what drove him into this area (he was a well known magician/illusionist before) was a distaste for people claiming to have some kind of extra-sensory power and using this flim-flam to get money.

In some cases, lots and lots of money.

Where the article gets really interesting, in my opinion, is when it deals with some of the groups trying to appropriate the term “skeptic” to essentially promote anti-scientific ideas and, the big one, the whole issue of religion in the skeptical community.  The author notes that skeptics can sometimes come off as arrogant and this passage, found close to the end of the article, sums up that danger:

Many believe that the movement’s insularity and self-confidence is damaging its ability to broaden its impact. In his 2010 speech at TAM, Slate’s Phil Plait offered his allies a harsh bit of advice: if you want to gain converts, he said, “don’t be a dick.” “The tone of what we are doing is decaying,” he admonished, and “vitriol and venom are on the rise.”

As I said, a fascinating article.

General

Hipsterless Brooklyn…

Want to check out some Life magazine photographs of Brooklyn, circa 1946?

Sure you do:

http://life.time.com/culture/hipsterless-brooklyn-vintage-photos-from-a-vanished-world/#1

Don’t know about you, but I can’t get enough of these “vintage” photographs.  If I had a time machine…

General

Rare historical photographs…

Over at the fascinating slightlywarped.com you can find three incredible pages devoted to “rare” historical photographs…oddball pieces that surprise, delight, and amaze:

http://slightlywarped.com/crapfactory/curiosities/2013/march/rare_historical_photos.htm

In this, the first webpage, I found the following photograph the most fascinating:

Yes, that’s Fidel Castro standing before the Lincoln Memorial after laying a wreath!  Though I knew of his trips to the United States both before and after the Cuban Revolution, this image is so very…odd.

The second page can be found here:

http://slightlywarped.com/crapfactory/curiosities/2013/august/even_more_rare_historical_pictures.htm

Of this group, my favorite has to be:

According to the website, this is a photograph taken in 1893 of three Princeton students after a Freshman/Sophomore snowball fight!  Guess the snowball fight became somewhat…intense.

There is a second photograph in this grouping, however, that I simply have to show:

Believe it or not, that’s a photograph taken in 1894 of Mark Twain in Nikolai Tesla’s lab…with, I’m assuming, Mr. Tesla looking on!  Seems like something you’d see in a steampunk movie.

Finally, we have this, the last of the three pages:

http://slightlywarped.com/crapfactory/curiosities/2013/may/hidden_rare_historical_photos.htm

Of these, easily my favorite photograph, and one I had seen before, is this:

This photograph, taken in 1885, shows the Statue of Liberty nearly completed…while sitting in the middle of Paris.  Sometimes its easy to forget this extraordinary statue was a gift from the French and was constructed over there before being brought over to New York.

As I said before, fascinating, fascinating stuff.

General

How to find (alleged) criminals in this day and age…

Ran into several articles regarding how some (alleged) criminals were found out.  The first batch of articles are about how some people who (allegedly) stole cell phones/iPads were discovered because…well, read on!

http://www.wral.com/man-arrested-after-taking-selfies-with-stolen-cellphone/12495642/

http://www.myfoxphilly.com/story/22452829/cell-phone-feature-gives-police

and then there’s this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2382378/Meet-stranger-whos-taking-selfies-stolen-phone-Woman-publishes-blog-pictures-taken-man-missing-handset.html

“Selfies” seem to be all the rage nowadays, even with (alleged) criminals.  However, and as noted in the articles, often any photograph taken with your cell phone is “uploaded” to a secondary device you own or have access to, and therefore you get to see what the (alleged) criminal who has your property is doing with it.

This one may well take the cake, if only for the selfie taken by the (alleged) criminal, who in this case stole someone’s iPad:

http://cheezburger.com/7148116480

I can’t resist.  Here’s the “selfie” the (alleged) criminal in the above article took of herself:

Selfie

The second story is far more serious as it involves a double murder committed in 2007.  What is so incredible about this story is how police came to suspect a certain individual in this “cold” case:

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/31/19799880-rap-lyrics-lead-to-arrest-in-unsolved-va-murder

Yes, the rap lyrics of one Antwain Steward aided in his arrest for that double murder committed in 2007.  Obviously there’s more evidence linking him to the crime than the lyrics of a song he wrote, but it is nonetheless fascinating that he might well have -to at least some degree- fingered himself for the crime by virtue of his own song.

Interesting, interesting stuff.

General

Random bit of information….

I can spend hours at i09.com, especially for bits of information like this:

http://space.io9.com/did-you-know-that-the-saturn-vs-fuel-economy-was-7-inc-935695163/935748020

Granted, a very small bit of information, but to realize that at the time of launch the Saturn V’s fuel economy was a whopping 7 inches per gallon…is rather mind boggling.

And yet it makes perfect sense, given the incredible energy expended at the moment of liftoff.

Now you know.

General

Which city has the worst drivers?

Fascinating article by Brian Palmer for Slate magazine regarding which U.S. city has the worst drivers.  Now, I know most people out there feel the worst drivers have to be the ones they’re around, but Mr. Palmer uses actual research, in this article, so be warned!

So, which city has the worst drivers?  Behold:

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/07/which_city_has_the_worst_drivers_boston_baltimore_washington_d_c_miami.single.html

Spoilers: Miami is #1.  Not at all shocking for someone (me) who lives here.  Whenever I travel away from home, I’m always surprised by how much better the drivers are in other places.  True, there are glitches to be found almost everywhere.  As much as I like traveling to Canada, for example, the roadside signs and sudden changes to names of highways can be confusing and irritating to newbies.  However, the drivers themselves in the places I’ve gone to thus far always seem to be more…mellow.  More polite.  More in control.

In Miami, driving is a form of warfare, and you have to always need to keep your guard up.  Lately, my greatest frustration involves people who drive on a crowded/large street and then suddenly come to a stop to either let a passenger within the vehicle out or to pick someone up.

Yes, in the middle of a crowded street.

The “driver” (I use that term lightly) of said vehicle could simply drive into a parking lot or take a turn onto a smaller street and park in an embankment to deliver their passengers but no.  The brainiac inside said vehicle figures it is best to simply stop in the middle of the busy street (often not even using their hazards) and risk getting rear ended to let their passenger off.

Another example:  In the past few years I’ve driven I-95 during early morning rush hour to take my daughter to school.  During the first month of doing so I saw on two different occasions vehicles flipped over onto their roofs and blocking a lane in the highway.  The image was surreal, almost like witnessing a Michael Bay film in progress.

What had caused the drivers to lurch their cars in such a way as to flip them over?  I can’t imagine.  If it hadn’t occurred on the highway, I might have considered the poor drivers flipped their vehicles when they swerved to avoid someone that stopped to drop a passenger off.

Ah Miami.

General

McDonald’s 10 Most Spectacular Menu Flops!

And you thought all McDonald products were successes! (If not gastronomical delights)

http://www.thedailymeal.com/mcdonalds-10-most-spectacular-menu-flops

Some of these are quite…interesting.

Like the Hula Burger.  And the McLobster (!).  There are only a few items I can remember (several of the mentioned items on this list appeared in certain specific parts of the country or were on foreign menus).

In fact, looking the entire list over again there are only three items I’m familiar with:  The “Supersize”, The McLean, and the Arch Deluxe.

I was always bothered by the whole “Supersize” thing…it seemed like waaaay too much food (and drink).  I don’t believe I ever tried the McLean, but I do recall eating the Arch Deluxe.  It wasn’t too bad, all things considering.  I’m surprised it was such a big flop.