Today's pictures & links: Click to enlarge images.
Rainbow Clouds over Murmansk
A type of polar stratospheric cloud, born from extreme weather conditions. Sometimes called "Nacreous clouds", these colored marvels occur in the polar stratosphere at altitudes of 15,000–25,000 metres (50,000–80,000 ft).
Photo by Lindsey Lawless (sort of addition to our Ice Storms! article)
"It was a chilly winter day in Poway, California. This sight is very uncommon and caused great devastation to local agriculture, but was magnificent to look at in the morning sunlight."
This article "The Coldest City on Earth" describes in detail how "business as usual" life is possible at minus 50 temperature in a large Siberian city. What we are wondering how they are able to drive LADAs in these conditions?
See more pictures here. By the way, it was minus 50 Celsius windchill conditions in Calgary, Canada yesterday.
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Stella Awards - Most Outlandish Lawsuits Seriously head-scratching nut cases:
For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New Mexico where she purchased the coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving.... Here are some of the Stella's for 2006:
NOTE There are some fakes, circulating around the internet; these however, are the true cases:
Marcy Meckler. While shopping at a mall, Meckler stepped outside and was "attacked" by a squirrel that lived among the trees and bushes. And "while frantically attempting to escape from the squirrel and detach it from her leg, [Meckler] fell and suffered severe injuries," her resulting lawsuit says. That's the mall's fault, the lawsuit claims, demanding in excess of $50,000, based on the mall's "failure to warn" her that squirrels live outside.
KinderStart.com. The specialty search engine says Google should be forced to include the KinderStart site in its listings, reveal how its "Page Rank" system works, and pay them lots of money because they're a competitor. They claim by not being ranked higher in Google, Google is somehow infringing KinderStart's Constitutional right to free speech!..
And now - the 2006 Winner of the True Stella Awards:
Allen Ray Heckard. Even though Heckard is 3 inches shorter, 25 pounds lighter, and 8 years older than former basketball star Michael Jordan, the Portland, Oregon, man says he looks a lot like Jordan, and is often confused for him -- and thus he deserves $52 million "for defamation and permanent injury" -- plus $364 million in "punitive damage for emotional pain and suffering", plus the SAME amount from Nike co-founder Phil Knight, for a grand total of $832 million. He dropped the suit after Nike's lawyers chatted with him, where they presumably explained how they'd counter-sue if he pressed on.
Check out the rest of Stella's (for other years as well, as they are hilarious) on the Award's official site.
Today's pictures & links: Click to enlarge images.
Rainbow Clouds over Murmansk
A type of polar stratospheric cloud, born from extreme weather conditions. Sometimes called "Nacreous clouds", these colored marvels occur in the polar stratosphere at altitudes of 15,000–25,000 metres (50,000–80,000 ft).
Photo by Lindsey Lawless (sort of addition to our Ice Storms! article)
"It was a chilly winter day in Poway, California. This sight is very uncommon and caused great devastation to local agriculture, but was magnificent to look at in the morning sunlight."
This article "The Coldest City on Earth" describes in detail how "business as usual" life is possible at minus 50 temperature in a large Siberian city. What we are wondering how they are able to drive LADAs in these conditions?
See more pictures here. By the way, it was minus 50 Celsius windchill conditions in Calgary, Canada yesterday.
------------
Stella Awards - Most Outlandish Lawsuits Seriously head-scratching nut cases:
For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New Mexico where she purchased the coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving.... Here are some of the Stella's for 2006:
NOTE There are some fakes, circulating around the internet; these however, are the true cases:
Marcy Meckler. While shopping at a mall, Meckler stepped outside and was "attacked" by a squirrel that lived among the trees and bushes. And "while frantically attempting to escape from the squirrel and detach it from her leg, [Meckler] fell and suffered severe injuries," her resulting lawsuit says. That's the mall's fault, the lawsuit claims, demanding in excess of $50,000, based on the mall's "failure to warn" her that squirrels live outside.
KinderStart.com. The specialty search engine says Google should be forced to include the KinderStart site in its listings, reveal how its "Page Rank" system works, and pay them lots of money because they're a competitor. They claim by not being ranked higher in Google, Google is somehow infringing KinderStart's Constitutional right to free speech!..
And now - the 2006 Winner of the True Stella Awards:
Allen Ray Heckard. Even though Heckard is 3 inches shorter, 25 pounds lighter, and 8 years older than former basketball star Michael Jordan, the Portland, Oregon, man says he looks a lot like Jordan, and is often confused for him -- and thus he deserves $52 million "for defamation and permanent injury" -- plus $364 million in "punitive damage for emotional pain and suffering", plus the SAME amount from Nike co-founder Phil Knight, for a grand total of $832 million. He dropped the suit after Nike's lawyers chatted with him, where they presumably explained how they'd counter-sue if he pressed on.
Check out the rest of Stella's (for other years as well, as they are hilarious) on the Award's official site.
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