from the "highways to hell" dept.

You may have seen pictures of the world's most dangerous roads before. But Dark Roasted Blend has an outstanding five-part series on some best (worst?) fright-filled drives.



I've even been on one road that made their list: Albania's Tirana to Elbasan highway. Think driving through the Rockies is tough?



But not all crazy roads fill drivers with thoughts of an early demise. Sometimes, they're just plain wonderful to drive -- as the crew of BBC's Top Gear discovered in Italy:



Cheers!

from the "nice tubes" dept.

Check this bad boy out:

What is it? Why, a tube amp for your iPod, silly!

The deets HERE.

[via Engadget]

from the "assholes and nature don't mix" dept.

Some people are soooo stupid that it's amazing they remember to breathe.

A case in point: This dumbass tourist hoping to get a cool picture with a wild animal (in this case a croc):

"Check out the pretty fish!"

Ah, but therein lies the problem: Animals are WILD. Ergo:

"Holy f*ck! Am I ever a dumbass!"

The whole story is in the Telegraph... HERE.

And... as an added bonus, my list of things you don't f*ck with:

1. The ocean.
2. The mountains.
3. Wild life.
4. Terrorists.

None of the above have much of a sense of humour. Got more? Comment, below!

from the "gilligan's workshop" dept.

Are coconut shells going to waste? Steve Lodefink thinks so. That's why he's looking for new uses for them...



The whole story is [HERE] at Dinosaurs and Robots...

[via boingboing]

from the "take me to your dealer" dept.

From boingboing -- a story about an Atlanta bar owner who created a robot to videotape and scare away ne'er-do-wells.

Late at night several times a week, Rufus Terrill powers up the 4-foot-tall, 300 pound device and reaches for a remote control packed with two joysticks and various knobs and switches. Standing on a nearby corner, he maneuvers the machine down the block, often to a daycare center where it accosts what Terrill says are drug dealers, vagrants and others who shouldn't be there. [MORE]

Cool!

from the "what is the meaning of life?" dept.

Boingboing has a piece on a nifty unit that extends the reach of the InterTubes to remote locations: The Question Box.


The Question Box is a project from UC Berkeley's Rose Shuman to bring some of the benefits of the information on the Internet to places that are too remote or poor to sustain a live Internet link.

It works by installing a single-button intercom in the village that is linked to a nearby town where there is a computer with a trained, live operator.

Questioners press the intercom, describe their query to the operator, who runs it, reads the search results, and discusses them with the questioner (it's like those "executive assistant" telephone services, but for people who live in very rural places). [MORE]

Cheers!

from the "sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't" dept.

[Sometimes you feel like a nut...]

If you've lived in B.C. for any length of time, you've likely heard the name Rachel Marsden. She's had a few run-ins with the law... and she's a conservative commentator [blerk!].

She's making headlines yet again... and *surprise* it has to do with affairs of the heart.

From the Times of London:

Ms Marsden first came to public attention in Canada in the late 1990s when, as a college swimming star, she accused her team coach of sexual harrassment. The coach, who was fired and reinstated, claimed that she had in fact harassed him.

In 2004, she was given a conditional discharge with one year's probation for criminally harassing a Vancouver radio host following their break-up. Last September she was again accused of harassment after she used her blog to accuse a Canadian counter-terrorism officer, with whom she had had a two-year affair, of passing her secret documents.

The whole story is HERE.

Read on, and don't hurt yourself shaking your head...

from the "grin and bear it" dept.

Wild animals. They're cute and cuddly when they're young. But eventually they grow up and become decidedly less cuddly. Take Knut for example:

[GROWWWWLLLLLLLLLLL!]

From the Daily Mail:

"A year ago, he was a cute and cuddly ball of white fur who captured the hearts of millions worldwide.

But Knut the polar bear has grown up fast - as this startled young visitor to Berlin Zoo discovered... " [MORE]

from the "saving it up" dept.

Yes, I realize I should write more on Roadspill than just simply posting links. But, in my own defense, there hasn't that been much to write about.

No arsehole roommates, no little-lost-souls with their laughable sense of superiority, no cool adventures in far-off lands.

That said, I'll at least make an effort at an update:

Working full-time is a challenge. Especially with other projects on the go. It's not that I'm not used to working a lot -- it's more a case of having to deal with a fairly rigid workday. 9-to-5 is tough! How does one fit all the other stuff into a weekend?!

It was a bit different last week. I worked three 6pm to 2am shifts and then two 9-to-5 shifts. The turn-around was tough, but working nights allowed me the time and clearheadedness to finish the second of three magazine articles about development projects in Ghana.

I was also able to book tickets to see the Seattle Mariners (vs Oakland) on April 26 and 27. This is part of my upcoming trip to Denmark/Romania/Ukraine/Moldova et al. Basically:

April 25: Finish at the CBC.
April 26: Head to Seattle to see the M's.
April 27: See the M's again in an afternoon game.
April 28: Fly to Copenhagen before a 3 week journey around the breadbasket of the former-Soviet Union. Hello perogies and garlic coils!


I also booked a flight from Bucharest, Romania to Chisinau, Moldova on Air Moldova. Part of their fleet is from Soviet times. Old Aeroflot mainstays like Tupolev-134s and Yakovlev Yak-40s.


I've been able to put some money aside because I'm still living at no fixed address. Thanks to the generosity of my friends and good timing, I've been able to bounce between house-sitting opportunities and couch surfing. So far, so good.


More stability arrives in April when I start a three-month house-sitting "gig."

In other news: I've been suffering a bit of "old man's hip." My degree in medicine tells me that the problem is directly related to porking up in Africa. And at Christmas. However, once the sun shines on a more regular basis and I'm not moving every few days, I'll take my bike out of storage and start building the Ks. I'm sure some regular exercise will do wonders.

Well... It's now 8:30 on a Sunday morning... time to run off for a coffee and fat-laden muffin at Honey's.

I'm off!

Cheers!

from the "turning japanese" dept.

Now this is cool: A Japanese Karaoke version of "We are the World". It's freakishly authentic and well worth a few minutes of your time.



Is that the real Michael Jackson?!

[h/t: gigglesugar]

Cheers!