I went and wallpapered the fridge. Annnnnnnnd it’s amazing. I take no credit in this because I didn’t make the stuff, I just stuck in on there, but wow, this is a good thing. A very good thing. I mean, I have a lot of weird and wonderful things in my kitchen but this sucker is a show stopper. You walk in the room and it hits you like a bag of Thunder Cats. Hey now that is a fridge! — via Aunt Peaches
Rebecca from Sew Festive Handmade shows you how to make this pretty Pintuck Pillow with an easy smocking technique — via Sew,Mama,Sew! Blog
Are drugs addictive? As odd as it might sound, one scientist believes that they weren’t — at least not to the degree most people insisted. He thought it had more to do with overwhelming misery and depressing environments, and to prove it he created the ideal environment… for rats.
In the late 1970s, Canadian psychologist Bruce Alexander was distressed by the laws and policies pertaining to opiate drugs. He didn’t approve of the harsh penalties dealt out to people in the name of addiction prevention. Generally those penalties were applied in order to prevent drug dealers from pushing their product on new people — at which point the addictive nature of drugs caused people to be hooked.
When Alexander looked at the studies indicating the addictive properties of drugs, he found what he believed to be insufficient evidence. There were plenty of interviews with drug users who self-reported themselves as being addicted, but Alexander reasoned that they had reasons of their own to declare that their affinity for drugs was beyond their control. Meanwhile, the relatively few studies done on addiction were highly technical and all relied on one thing: they were conducted on rats that lived and died in miserable, cramped cages.
It seemed to Alexander that the reported increased rates of addiction in economically depressed areas might have something in common with the consistently high rates of addiction in studies done on rats in distressing environments. Drugs provided relief from pain, and if it was the only relief available, it was no wonder that anything — animal or human — would turn to it with the fervour of an addict. Alexander began to put forward a new hypothesis. If rats were given a beautiful living area that allowed them a relatively happy life, they would not become addicted — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The installation was created by Netherlands-based artist John Breed, and incorporated 145 shoes and legs in total, in conjunction with German shoe salon Breuninger — via io9
Glazed ceramic salt & pepper shakers shaped like octopi — via NeatoShop
The latest version of Adobe’s Creative Suite — the exceedingly popular design, web and multimedia software suite that includes Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, After Effects, Dreamweaver and Acrobat — will be its last, the company announced at its MAX conference in Los Angeles.
Moving forward, the company will double down on its Creative Cloud software-as-a-service offering, introduced last year.
Creative Suite 6 — the current version of the desktop-based offering — will still be available for purchase, but it is the final version and will not be updated beyond routine maintenance.
Goodbye, CS. Hello, CC — via redwolf.newsvine.com
When I got this sword, it was completely covered in blood rust.
Sword maker Francis Boyd is showing me yet another weapon pulled from yet another safe in the heavily fortified workshop behind his northern California home.
You can tell it’s blood,
he says matter-of-factly, because ordinary rust turns the grinding water brown. If it’s blood rust it bleeds, it looks like blood in the water. Even 2,000 years old, it bleeds. And it smells like a steak cooking, like cooked meat. I’ve encountered this before with Japanese swords from World War II. If there’s blood on the sword and you start polishing it, the sword bleeds. It comes with the territory.
Blood rust: I hadn’t thought of that. I guess it would turn water red, but the steak comment is kind of creeping me out, as is the growing realization that if these swords could talk, I couldn’t stomach half the tales they’d have to tell — via Collectors Weekly
The real capabilities and behaviour of the US surveillance state are almost entirely unknown to the American public because, like most things of significance done by the US government, it operates behind an impenetrable wall of secrecy. But a seemingly spontaneous admission this week by a former FBI counter-terrorism agent provides a rather startling acknowledgement of just how vast and invasive these surveillance activities are.
Over the past couple days, cable news tabloid shows such as CNN’s Out Front with Erin Burnett have been excitingly focused on the possible involvement in the Boston Marathon attack of Katherine Russell, the 24-year-old American widow of the deceased suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. As part of their relentless stream of leaks uncritically disseminated by our Adversarial Press Corps, anonymous government officials are claiming that they are now focused on telephone calls between Russell and Tsarnaev that took place both before and after the attack to determine if she had prior knowledge of the plot or participated in any way.
On Wednesday night, Burnett interviewed Tim Clemente, a former FBI counter-terrorism agent, about whether the FBI would be able to discover the contents of past telephone conversations between the two. He quite clearly insisted that they could:
BURNETT: Tim, is there any way, obviously, there is a voice mail they can try to get the phone companies to give that up at this point. It’s not a voice mail. It’s just a conversation. There’s no way they actually can find out what happened, right, unless she tells them?
CLEMENTE: No, there is a way. We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation. It’s not necessarily something that the FBI is going to want to present in court, but it may help lead the investigation and/or lead to questioning of her. We certainly can find that out.
BURNETT: So they can actually get that? People are saying, look, that is incredible.
CLEMENTE: No, welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not.
All of that stuff
— meaning every telephone conversation Americans have with one another on US soil, with or without a search warrant — is being captured as we speak
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
Game Of Thrones cast in real life — via Wil Wheaton
Waffle House lost a loyal customer on 30 April 2013. Antonia W Toni
Larroux died after a battle with multiple illnesses: lupus, rickets, scurvy, kidney disease and feline leukemia. She had previously conquered polio as a child contributing to her unusually petite ankles and the nickname polio legs
given to her by her ex-husband, Jean F Larroux, Jr. It should not be difficult to imagine the multiple reasons for their divorce 35+ years ago. Two children resulted from that marriage: Hayden Hoffman and Jean F Larroux, III. Due to multiple, anonymous Mother’s Day cards which arrived each May, the children suspect there were other siblings but that has never been verified.
She is survived by the two confirmed, aforementioned children. Her favourite child, Jean III, eloped in college and married Kim Fulford who dearly loved Toni. They gave Toni three grandchildren: Jean IV, Ann Elizabeth and Hannah Grace. Toni often remarked that her son, Jean III, was just like his father
, her ex-husband, Jean Jr, a statement that haunts her son to this day.
Hayden Hoffman married Stephen Hoffman of Charleston, WV. They reside in Bay St Louis and carry the Larroux family torch forward through each and every Happy Hour, Mardi Gras and cocktail party. Steve’s quiet demeanour has provided ballast to an otherwise unstable family. They have two children: Charlie and Helen (the well-behaved
child Toni’s daughter, Hayden deserved to raise.)
Toni had four sisters: Patty the elder, Kitty the cook, Lisa the lawyer and Piji… the… piji. The sisters dearly loved Toni; spoke often and as one family photo proved, all preferred Clairol blonde in a box #47. They inherited their unique sense of humour from their father, Paul P Marvellous
White. He gave nicknames to all the girls such as tittle mouse
, kittycat
, bouder bounce
, spooker mcdougle
and poodle pump
.
Toni previously served on the board of the Hancock County Library Foundation. Ironically, the only correspondence she has received from the library since her resignation has been overdue notices for several overdue books (a true statement.) Between ICU, dialysis and physical therapy she selfishly refused to make the time to return them. Her last words were, tell them that the cheque is in the mail…
Toni retired from GE Plastics after Hurricane Katrina in 2007. She would undoubtedly cherish the thought of having the former smoking room named in her honour.
Any send-off for Toni would not be complete without mentioning her lifelong buddy Myrtle Jane Wingo Haas and her adopted daughters Liz & Laura. She considered Aaron Burrell to be a distant grandson (not distant enough) and had the ability with family pets to usher them toward heaven at an unrivalled pace. Her favourite activity was sipping hot tea on her back porch with friends seated around her porch ensemble from Dollar General (again, not kidding.) This will be sold to the highest bidder at her garage ‘estate’ sale. Any gifts in her honour should be made to the Hancock County Library Foundation (to the overdue book fund.)
Visitation will be held at Edmond Fahey Funeral Home in Bay St Louis, Mississippi on Saturday, 4 May at 9.30am. Her memorial service will begin at 11.00am. (another true statement.) It will be led by Reverend Curt Moore of Orlando, Florida, a questionable choice for any spiritual event, but one the family felt would be appropriate due to the fact that every time Toni heard Curt preach she prayed for Jesus to return at that very moment.
On a last but serious note, the woman who loved life and taught her children to laugh at the days to come
is now safely in the arms of Jesus and dancing at the wedding feast of the Lamb. She will be missed as a mother, friend and grandmother. Anyone wearing black will not be admitted to the memorial. She is not dead. She is alive.
Edmond Fahey Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements — via redwolf.newsvine.com
This is a clever awareness campaign by the Mexican organisation Save the Children, which showed the cycle of abuse
through powerful, hard-to-stomach photos of children growing into future abusers. The ads were meant to illustrate the statistic that 70 percent of abused children turn into abusing adults.
Spanish organisation the ANAR Foundation (Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk) recently released a campaign that makes similarly powerful use of photography, only they’re taking advantage of the process of lenticular printing to send an offer of help to abused children without alerting their abusers, even if they’re walking together — via redwolf.newsvine.com
It’s been 70 years since the letters of John Pryor were understood in their full meaning. That’s because as a British prisoner of war in Nazi Germany, Pryor’s letters home to his family also included intricate codes that were recently deciphered for the first time since the 1940s.
Pryor’s letters served their purpose in World War II, as Britain’s MI9 agents decoded the messages hidden within them — requests for supplies, notes about German activities — before sending them along to Pryor’s family in Cornwall.
There were two types of information buried in these letters,
Pryor’s son, Stephen. There is military intelligence going back about munitions dumps, about submarines that have been sunk, and information requests for British Military Intelligence in London to send maps and German currency and German ID, to help them with their escape plans
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
This past February, Howletts Wild Animal Park in the United Kingdom received the latest member of its family, a healthy male baby Brazilian Tapir. The little boy, who has been named Inca, spent the first few months of his life indoors and off exhibit due to the cold weather. He spent his time inside with the warmth of shelter, and the comfort of his mother — via ZooBorns
If you have a spare few million lying around, you can buy your very own Scottish island.
A small Scottish island has been put up for sale for STG2.5 million ($A3.82 million).
Tanera Mor is the largest and only inhabited island in the Summer Isles archipelago 1.5 miles off the north-west coast of Scotland.
The 800-acre island is currently managed by Lizzie and Richard Williams, who took it on from Mrs Williams’ family, the Wilders.
The Wilders bought the island in 1996 after selling their dairy farm in Wiltshire — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A man has been left red-faced after being doused with chilli while allegedly trying to rob a takeaway in Sydney’s south.
Police say the 24-year-old man had a bucket of chilli poured over his head when a female employee tried to stop him stealing money from the till at Rosebery last night.
Officers found the man lying on the floor suffering burns to his face — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A video about the beauty of creating…
Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean, 1955 — via Awesome People Hanging Out Together
I have a really huge yarn crafting crush on this gorgeous crocheted daisy afghan by Joleen Kraft. The colours are so vibrant, and I especially love the giant flower motif — via MAKE
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