from the "sign me up" dept.

Make it Earth, today!

A UK hostel booking agency is giving away a round-the-world trip for two -- not to mention a bunch of electronic goodies. All you have to do is answer a question and submit your email. But do it before May 8.

Here's the HostelBookers.com LINK.

Cheers!

from the "Charley! Why?" dept.

The BBC World Service has produced a series of radio docs focused on West Africa. Episode #1 is an eye-opener. It tells the story of Spirit Children.

Programme one begins in Northern Ghana, with the story of one man and his efforts to stop the widespread killing of babies and children in northern Ghana. Cletus Anaaya has made it his life's work to bring an end to the phenomenon known as Spirit Children. [BBC SITE]

Important listening.

from the "another one bites the dust" dept.

Sad news this morning that the Boston Globe could stop publishing in 60 days.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Unions representing Boston Globe employees continued to negotiate with the newspaper's management well past midnight Sunday, the deadline to agree to concessions to cut the paper's losses and avoid its closure.

Less than three hours before the deadline, the Boston Globe's largest union said it had presented a proposal to management that cuts costs by more than what is necessary to avoid closing the newspaper. The Globe, which is owned by New York Times Co., said it had told its unions it is prepared to file notice on Monday under the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires 60 days' advance notice before closure of a business. Management's statement, issued shortly after the union's, suggests the two sides might not be as close to an agreement as union leaders had indicated. [ MORE ]

Sigh.

from the "practice makes perfect" dept.

When I first watched this video of trials rider Danny MacAskill I was floored by some of the most technical riding imaginable. The second time I watched I was completely gobsmacked.

Sit back, click play and be inspired.

Shot in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Cheers!

from the "when you gotta go, you gotta go" dept.

Ah, crap!

The Olympian is reporting that a man survived a small plane crash thanks to some well placed porta-potties.

A pilot was shook up but otherwise apparently unhurt Friday when his single-engine airplane crashed into a lot full of portable toilets just short of the Pierce County-Thun Field airport.

“The plane took off, he got about 150 feet in the air and his engine quit running,” sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said. “He tried to turn around and come back and land, but he didn’t quite make it.”

The plane hit a fence, flipped over and landed upside down on top of the portable toilets, which were stored at the Northwest Cascade company, just northwest of the runway.

“The Honey Buckets kind of cushioned things,” said a Northwest Cascade employee who asked not to be identified. “They were the big, ADA-approved ones. I think they may have saved his life.”

KOMO-TV in Seattle has video here.

[h/t: Vagabondish]

from the "faux news" dept.

The right-wing-nuts over at Faux News continue their never-ending tirade against the Obama administration. It's unbelievable that the network has the balls to use the word "news" in their name.

Check out their fair and balanced coverage of the first 100 days of Obama's tyrannical rule:



Unbelievable. And sad. So sad.

from the "bird dance" dept.

The BBC has a cute little story today about birds and rhythm:

"Some birds have a remarkable talent for dancing, two studies published in Current Biology suggest.

Previously, it was thought that only humans had the ability to dance, but footage has revealed that some parrots have a near-perfect sense of rhythm." [MORE]

Click HERE to see video of Snowball, a sulphur-crested cockatoo getting down with the Backstreet Boys!

Science, schmience... the video is great entertainment.

Cheers!

from the "beginning of the end" dept.

A Historic Snip

In 1989 change swept across Europe. It's hard to believe that 20 years has passed since those amazing days when anything seemed possible. The reality didn't quite meet expectations, but back then the sense of hope and the smell of freedom in the air was intoxicating.

A lot of events contributed to the fall of communism... like this one: On May 2nd, 1989, Hungarian authorities began to dismantle their border with Austria. As it turned out, this was the first hole in the dike. It started as a trickle but the old-school communist leaders soon realized the flow couldn't be stopped. From the BBC:

On 2 May, Hungarian soldiers began to dismantle the barbed wire and electric fencing along Hungary's border with neighbouring Austria.

The communist governments of East Germany, Romania, and Czechoslovakia were furious. They feared that their own citizens would use this gap in the Iron Curtain to flee to the West. But Moscow did nothing. [MORE]

And so it began..

Cheers!

from the "blow out prices" dept.

Bust the TV

It's not a good sign for the Canuckian media landscape when TV stations, once thought to be cash cows, are selling for $1. A DOLLAR! And a Canuckian dollar at that. That's what Shaw just paid CTV for stations in Windsor, Wingham and Brandon.

CTV head Ivan Fecan said the company has accepted the offer of $1 per station by Shaw (TSX:SJR.B), Canada's second-biggest cable TV operator.

"Cable is rolling in money and can obviously afford to underwrite the losses. Good for them," Ivan Fecan, president and CEO of CTVglobemedia and CEO of CTV, said in a statement. [MORE]

Good times. Come visit me in Guatemala!

Cheers!

from the "old school" dept.

Happy May Day!

THEN:

NOW:

Good times.

Cheers!