Bathroom Readers' Institute's Blog, page 191
September 9, 2012
Yellowstone Bison Goes After Kids
All we can say about this: The adults there ought to be beaten with large sticks.
That bison was even giving all the signs of being agitated! Gah!
From the West Yellowstone Chamber of Commerce:
This video is one that makes us angry, expecially at the irresponsible person behind the camera urging the children “to go ahead and touch him.” This group has no idea how incredibly lucky they were that no one was injured or killed.
Officials in Yellowstone National Park say a Massachusetts man was gored by a bull bison that threw him 10 feet in the air and then pinned him to the ground.
The man, who is in his mid-50s, suffered a broken collarbone, shoulder blade, several ribs and a groin injury in Saturday’s encounter near the Norris campground.
That was an adult man. That gnarly old bison would have smashed those kids like gourds.
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• Obligatory related UJBR book here.
September 8, 2012
Strategic Canadian Syrup Reserve Robbed
Filed under, “No, really, this could only happen in Canada“:
TORONTO—Sticky-fingered thieves made off with as much as 30 million Canadian dollars (US$30.4 million) worth of maple syrup from a little-known strategic reserve in rural Quebec—leaving authorities to investigate just how much is missing and where it has gone.
The Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers said late Thursday that during a routine inventory check at a facility that stores some 10 million pounds of syrup, inspectors discovered barrels had been emptied and reported “missing a large quantity of maple syrup.”
Quebec produces about 75% of the world’s maple syrup. Despite the theft, the federation said there would be no immediate impact on world-wide syrup supply.
We’re picturing the strategic Canadian syrup reserve being guarded by packs of vicious moose:
Okay, not vicious, really. More just curious, but wary moose.
Here’s a photo from inside Canada’s strategic syrup reserve:
Sweet, huh? (Sorry.)
More here, including a fancy syrup graph.
P.S. If we had a time machine, we’d put that story in Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges into Canada, Eh.
September 7, 2012
Super-Slow-Mo: Bottle of Red Wine in Microwave…and So Much More
‘Super slow motion highlights from Danish TV show “Dumt & Farligt”.
Found on StumbleUpon.
Bonus: This is actually maybe even better:
’6 Minutes of Stuff Getting Destroyed in Super Slow Motion CollegeHumor video’
September 5, 2012
World’s Oldest Message-in-a-Bottle
A Scottish fisherman has found the world’s oldest message in a bottle, the Guinness Book of World Records confirmed last week. It is 98 years old, and was cast into the ocean by Captain C. Hunter Brown, a scientist at the Glasgow School of Navigation, who was studying the currents in the North Sea.
The bottle was one of 1,890 bottles released on June 10, 1914, and the 315th to be entered into Captain Brown’s log, which is still kept and updated by Marine Scotland Science in Aberdeen.
That is so cool: a 100-year-old experiment still ongoing! (We’ve got to do an article on the world’s longest-running experiments, don’t we?) Do check out that Atlantic article: it has a ton of info on that experiment, and others like it.
Here’s a pic of the postcard:
Too cool.
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We’ve written about message-in-a-bottle stories a couple times over the years. If you’ve got Uncle John’s Top Secret Bathroom Reader for Kids Only!—look on page 106!
Photos: Big Waves, Flowing Lava
Extreme sports, photography edition:
Two photographers risked their lives to become the first people to capture the explosive moment fiery lava crashes into the sea.
Nick Selway, 28, and CJ Kale, 35, braved baking hot 110F waters to capture these images, as they floated just feet from scalding heat and floating lava bombs.
The pair, who chase the lava as it flows from Kilauea through Kalapana, Hawaii, spend their days camped on the edge of active volcanoes to capture the incredible images.
Look at this guy:
The shots they got are really out of this world. There’s a bunch, too, at the link.
And here’s the photographers’ website. Definitely worth a wander round. (Here, for example.)
Bonus: Stromboli Online.
*****
Related: Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader NATURE CALLS. There’s an ocean of wild stuff in there!
September 4, 2012
Internet Wonders: Randy Otter
Sometimes the internet makes up for itself:
By Randy Otter. Okay one more:
Found here, a wonder in itself. Main page here.
Bonus Wonder: Boom. And another one. (Pick through many illustrators.)
September 3, 2012
The Throne Room
Have you heard about the Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Blog THRONE ROOM? You can read a bunch of our stories there – right here online – from a bunch of our most popular books from over the years, all the stories seperated into “short,” “medium,” or “long” reads (for those different bathroom reading occasions, if you will).
On this page, for example, you’ll find this story, from Uncle John’s HEAVY DUTY Bathroom Reader:
(Rest of that story at the link.)
And on this page you’ll find this story, from Uncle John’s Creature Feature Bathroom Reader for Kids Only!:
And so on!
That’s what you’ll find in the UJBR Blog THRONE ROOM. We hope you like it.
September 2, 2012
A Photo of a Frying Pan Goes Viral
Next, a movie that features nothing but someone’s bare butt for two hours!
Someone please explain why this image has 5,000+ shares and 120,000+ likes on FaceBook right now:
Yes, we know it’s a cast iron skillet. And yes, they’re dandy. But…5,000+ shares? Of a frying pan? And 18,000+ comments!? About a frying pan!?
P.S. Get offa our lawn!
September 1, 2012
Screw-Mobiles
They drive on screws. Here’s one:
The Fordson Snow-Motor. It has twin screw drives and is capable of hauling a ton at 12 mph. This machine used to carry the US mail and freight in the Truckee area of the California Sierra Nevada Mountains. Hays Antique Truck Museum Woodland, California
That is a good looking screw-mobile right there.
You can read “Screw-Mobiles: A Timeline,” in Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader VROOM! A World of Motorized Marvels (page 265).
That is all.
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August 30, 2012
Funny Hall of Fame: ‘Missing’ woman unknowingly joins search for herself
Oh, toads on fire, this is so funny:
A group of tourists spent hours Saturday night looking for a missing woman near Iceland’s Eldgja canyon, only to find her among the search party.
The group was travelling through Iceland on a tour bus and stopped near the volcanic canyon in the southern highlands Saturday afternoon, reports the Icelandic news organization mbl.is.
One of the women on the bus left to change her clothes and freshen up. When she came back, her busmates didn’t recognize her.
Soon, there was word of a missing passenger. The woman didn’t recognize the description of herself, and joined in the search.
At 3 a.m., with fifty people combing the region, the woman finally had a “Hold on…” moment, and realized it was her that they – and she – had been looking for.
We all know EXACTLY what went through her mind right then: “Scotty…one to beam up. Scotty?”
