Strange & Stupid: Amusing News

R. Buckminster Fuller c.1917
Born July 12, 1895(1895-07-12)
Milton, Massachusetts
Died July 1, 1983 (aged 87)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.

Occupation Visionary, designer, architect, poet, author, inventor
Spouse Anne Fuller
Children 2
Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller (July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American visionary, designer, architect, poet, author, and inventor. He was the second President of Mensa.

Throughout his life, Fuller was concerned with the question “Does humanity have a chance to survive lastingly and successfully on planet Earth, and if so, how?” Considering himself an average individual without special monetary means or academic degree, he chose to devote his life to this question, trying to find out what an individual like him could do to improve humanity’s condition that large organizations, governments, or private enterprises inherently could not do.

Pursuing this lifelong experiment, Fuller wrote more than thirty books, coining and popularizing terms such as “spaceship earth”, ephemeralization, and synergetics. He also worked in the development of numerous inventions, chiefly in the fields of design and architecture, the best known of which is the geodesic dome. Carbon molecules known as fullerenes or buckyballs were named for their resemblance to a geodesic sphere.

Late in his life, after working on his concepts for several decades, Fuller had achieved considerable public visibility. He traveled the world giving lectures, and received numerous honorary doctorates. Most of his inventions, however, never made it into production, and he was strongly criticized in most fields he tried to influence such as architecture, or simply dismissed as a hopeless utopian. Fuller’s proponents, on the other hand, claim that his work has not yet received the attention that it deserves. According to philosopher N.J.Slabbert, Fuller had an obscure writing style which has impeded the circulation of his ideas.

The Rural Life
Belated Frost
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By VERLYN KLINKENBORG
Published: October 31, 2007
In the absence of a general, killing frost, people have become expert in the subtleties of what the season has so far not delivered. The other day I heard a farmer refer to the “high” frost that had hit his farm in upstate New York. It coated the windows on his pickup but didn’t touch the fields. Down in the valleys, people know that the frost on their lawns doesn’t entirely count, because the hillsides above them haven’t been hit. A killing frost to a pot of basil is merely a pleasant evening to a stand of Brussels sprouts, but until the past few days, even the basil has not been bothered.

I think the first frost has finally come. It wasn’t a deep black frost, the kind that makes the unprepared gardener weep. Two mornings in a row the pasture has turned white, and the thick stands of goldenrod have turned silver. Even the most utilitarian stretches of countryside — the fields of corn stubble — have been glazed with what feels like a kind of anticipation, a readiness for snow if it ever comes again. A thin line of wood smoke hangs just above the trees, and where the hillsides rise above the highway, the wood smoke lies in tendrils, the way water vapor does on a wet summer day.

Everyone up here has noticed how late this frost is, and how deep into October some of the trees have kept their leaves. Pastures that were going brown in the drought of summer have greened up again. There has barely been skim ice on the stock tanks. But if things seem awry and you want to talk about it here in the country, you talk about what it costs when the fuel oil truck comes, and you feel uneasily grateful that it has come so few times yet this fall. Winter usually arrives on a very tight schedule, and it’s hard to regret a little slack, even if it feels worrisome.

The first frost isn’t everything, though. I’m still waiting for the hard one, the one makes the steel gates bitter to the touch and drives the bees deep into the core of their hive. That kind of frost puts away any thoughts of last-minute regeneration. It makes it clear that some time is going to have to pass — and it’s going to have to get a lot colder — before there is any hint of rebirth. When that frost will come is anyone’s guess. Right now, the frost we’re having still seems ornamental, a last-minute embellishment for Halloween.

VERLYN KLINKENBORG

Like E.F. Hutton, when Big Papi talks, people listen!

The new issue of Sports Illustrated, with the World Champion Boston Red Sox [team stats] on the cover, reveals that, when the Sox went down 2 games to 1 to the Cleveland Indians, David Ortiz [stats] cleared the clubhouse of everyone but the players and gave his boys a big, fat talking to.

“Listen,” the designated hitter began, according to SI, “we’re not just a good team. We’re a great team. And don’t you (bleeping) forget that. And let’s go play one at a time and go prove that. Because let me tell you something . . .”

“Ortiz pulled on the sides of his gray road jersey,” the story goes on. “ ‘There’s a reason why you wear this Red Sox uniform . . .’ ”

“Ortiz paused for a beat, letting the suspenseful silence fill the rapt room. ‘Because you’re a bad mother(bleeper).’ ”

The Red Sox lost that night, but never lost again on their way to a second World Championship in four seasons.

do it for the team.
do it for AMERICA!

http://ihasabucket.com/

The base-taco connection

Taco Bell [YUM] has another reason for baseball fans to root for the Red Sox [team stats] on the base paths: The fast-food chain is giving away free crunchy beef tacos if someone steals a base in the World Series.

If any player from either team steals a base in Games 1 or 2 Wednesday or Thursday, the tacos will be available on Tuesday from 2 to 5 p.m. at all participating Taco Bells. If a base is stolen in Games 3 through 7, tacos will be available on Nov. 6.

Go to www.StealaBaseStealaTaco.com for more information.

uuhhh…gross. i mean, seriously, disgusting. Disgustingly AWESOME!

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Thinking about the University of California, Riverside for college? Then come pet our cockroaches!

UC Riverside is using a cockroach petting zoo to attract students and parents to an upcoming recruitment fair. The zoo will include several species, including cockroaches that emit a foul, ammonia-like scent and the famous, palm-sized Madagascar hissing cockroach.

Also in plentiful supply: rubber gloves for the squeamish.

The Nov. 3 event targets local high school students interested in careers as science teachers or engineers, said Steve Gomez, co-director of Copernicus Project, one of two campus programs sponsoring the event.

It’s the second time this year that UC Riverside, which has a well-respected entomology department, has used the cockroach zoo to entice potential recruits.

“Everybody gets grossed out at first,” Gomez said. “But then they find out what uses they have in agriculture, like pest elimination.”

Gomez said he held the giant Madagascar hissing roach in May and it nearly covered his palm. The bugs seem to enjoy being held, he said.

“I’m not a big cockroach fan,” he said. “I held it for about five seconds and I gladly gave it back.”

SIOUX CITY, Iowa - City leaders have scrapped plans to do away with the Sioux Gateway Airport’s unflattering three-letter identifier - SUX - and instead have made it the centerpiece of the airport’s new marketing campaign.

The code, used by pilots and airports worldwide and printed on tickets and luggage tags, will be used on T-shirts and caps sporting the airport’s new slogan, “FLY SUX.” It also forms the address of the airport’s redesigned Web site - http://www.flysux.com .

Sioux City officials petitioned the Federal Aviation Administration to change the code in 1988 and 2002. At one point, the FAA offered the city five alternatives - GWU, GYO, GYT, SGV and GAY - but airport trustees turned them down.

Airport board member Dave Bernstein proposed embracing the identifier.

“Let’s make the best of it,” Bernstein said. “I think we have the opportunity to turn it into a positive.”

He noted that many airports, including some of the busiest, have forgettable three-letter codes.

“I’ve got buddies that I went to college with in different cities that can’t even remember their own birthdays, but they all know the Sioux City designator - SUX,” he said.

Mayor Craig Berenstein, who in 2002 described SUX as an “embarrassment” to the city, said he views the new slogan as a “cute little way” to make light of the situation.

now this is my sorta reward!

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A New Zealand brewer is offering a lifetime supply of free beer in exchange for the return of a laptop stolen in a break-in.

Croucher Brewing Co. co-owner Paul Croucher said Friday the computer contains “all our financials” as well as label designs for new beers and business contacts.

“So we decided that if anyone does come into possession of it we’ll be happy to offer them a reward — a dozen (bottles) of beer a month for the rest of their life,” he said.

Croucher estimated the total value would likely be about $19,500 for a lifetime of beer. Since making the offer, “plenty of people” had called to say they were looking for the computer, he said.

“Opportunistic kids and a flimsy padlock” resulted in the theft, he said.

Coucher said he was optimistic the free beer offer would lead to the return of the stolen computer. “We’d love it back. We’re at such a critical stage in our little business that every hit like that is quite big,” he said.

The microbrewery in the central North Island tourist town of Rotorua currently ships 160 gallons of its three beers — an English-style pale ale, Czech-style pilsner and a cloudy German wheat beer — each week.

New Zealand winemaker Montana called to warn the brewery owners to make sure the terms of their free beer reward were precise. The winery had a difficult legal wrangle with the winner of an offer of five years’ free wine who tried to extend the supply.

Perv locked up after asking for lap dance from little girl

FORT PIERCE, Fla. - A man who cops said treated a school bus stop like a strip club was arrested last week after police said he approached an 11-year-old girl and offered to pay her money for a lap dance.

The girl didn’t know what a lap dance was, police said.

She did, however, know that Horacio Benitez, 20, of Fort Pierce, Fla., was up to no good and told her mother.

The Palm Beach Post reports that cops arrested Benitez and threw him in jail.

Watching Benitez get hauled away, another parent told police that Benitez had tried to lure his daughter into his pickup.

Police said Benitez told them he has had thoughts about having sex with young children, but that he had never acted on those thoughts.

He was being held in the Port St. Lucie jail on $225,000 bail.

VANCOUVER, Wash. - An 8-year-old boy riding with his mom called 911 repeatedly to
report that she wasn’t “acting normal.”

When the cops caught up to the car, they agreed. They arrested mom on suspicion of drunken driving, reckless endangerment and assault of a child.

The drama continued for some time on Saturday, as cops zeroed in on the phone’s GPS transmitter.

“He said ‘I don’t know where we are, and Mom’s not acting normal,’ ” sheriff’s Sgt. Randon M. Walker said. At one point, Paulette Lynn Spears took the phone from the boy, told the dispatcher not to worry and hung up, Walker said. The boy called back, and again his mother cut short the call.

“The mother kept interrupting the 8-year-old,” he said. “It happened at least twice.”

At one point, Walker said, Spears apparently bit the boy’s hand to get the phone away from him. Spears, 33, was arrested after she drove to a fire station and said she had a medical problem. Cops arrived at the station less than a minute later.