It’s Christmas Eve! Not only can you track Santa tonight on Google, but you can also play a bunch of games.
I’m pretty sure my score on the “Santa’s Jetpack” game from Dec. 19 was pathetic, but it sure was a great time-waster. Proof of my skills:
- Category Archives Tuesday Time-Waster
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Tuesday Time-Waster: Abandoned amusement parks
I haven’t posted a Tuesday Time-Waster (something to waste your valuable time at 11:11 a.m. PDT) in, oh, let’s just say a long time. But I saw a blog post that just begged to be shared, so here you go.
I love amusement park rides. The bigger, the faster, the taller: the better. But what happens when amusement parks get senile or get destroyed by Hurricane Katrina? They become wastelands.
Six Flags New Orleans: "Closed For Storm" And that’s just one amusement park. Here’s a GoogleSightseeing.com blog post about them. That post has links to other parks and maps. It’s sad, but it’s also fascinating to see how time marches on, despite our valiant efforts to stop it.
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Tuesday Time-Waster: The Con Man
Today’s Tuesday Time-Waster harkens back to my journalism days. I once wrote about a few people who led a couple shady organizations that stole money from people under the guise of investments (pyramid schemes). Then, after the legal matters and press coverage died down, a couple years later I came across those same organization leaders. They were forming new corporations, and it sure looked to me that the swindling was going to start happening all over again. I ran past one of the guy’s homes (bonus of being a runner — perfect incognito disguise), confirmed that his car was the same one I’d seen on Google maps, then later that week showed up with my press badge at his office where the same car/license plate was parked. He kicked me out immediately.
Due to downsizing at my newspaper and being given the health care beat along with my courts and crime reporting, I wasn’t allowed the time to dig into the matter, so my notes did not become a newspaper investigation. That is one of a few storiesI really wanted to dig into, and which I regret not pursuing on my own, because I’m convinced people are being victimized all over again.
But I’ve rambled enough about myself and should get to today’s real matter. I happened to see an ABC News story about a guy who built up a huge veterans charity, got $100 million in donations, rubbed shoulders with the likes of former President Bush, but faked the whole thing. It turns out he was a military spy turned eccentric attorney, who had been on the lam for 25 years. As happens more often than most people realize, the initial investigation was started not by ABC News nor by the FBI — it was the St. Petersburg Times (now Tampa Bay Times) in 2009. They spent six months trying to track down all 85 of the veterans charity’s officers, and found none of them. They went around in circles with the charity’s founder. They kept digging, and in March 2010 published a report (first part, second part, sidebar that debunks many of the charity’s claims, an interview with a California man whose identity was stolen, political matters, etc). My nerdy self particularly loved the copies of letters from the charity’s lawyer, trying to defend the organization and blast the reporter.
Because of the newspaper’s investigation and report, Florida officials opened an official investigation. The charity kept denying that it was phony, but two months later the state ordered it to stop fundraising. Then the feds came in and seized computers and documents. The charity’s leader soon disappeared. More than a year after the newspaper’s report, a woman went to prison for five years due to her role in the scam.
In April, two years after the Times’ report, officials finally caught up to and arrested the charity’s creator in Portland, Ore. — which caught my attention because I love the city. (That’s a fun story to read, by the way.) The story is ongoing, and authorities only just finally figured out the guy’s true identity — which is why he is in the news and caught my attention. I have a feeling many more stories will come out before the case is done.
Anyway, this is a long, link-heavy post that I’m sure will appeal to 0.2 percent of my readers. But if you want to read more, check out The Times’ special investigation page on this guy.
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Tuesday Time-Waster: Colossal images
Look at this photo, and then look again.
Yes, that image is made solely by hanging glass from the ceiling.You can see a few more amazing art displays from the artist at this link. And that leads to the main site where I found this artwork: Colossal. I apologize for today’s Tuesday Time-Waster, because there is a good chance you will live up to the idea and wind up wasting a lot of time on that site.
Bonus tip: I suggest reading the blog author’s recent two-year-anniversary post, in which he writes about how he started the blog because he happened to write a bucket list. It’s a good reminder (which I should remember) that if we set out to do something, we might actually get a result similar to having 30 million blog visits in two years.
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Tuesday Time-Waster: Clouds
Today is the 11th anniversary of 9/11. But, rather than posting a tribute at my normal 11:11 a.m. Tuesday Time-Waster time, I’m giving you something beautiful.
Yes, today you get lovely clouds. In fact, you get a link to 60 amazing cloud photos.I’ve always loved clouds, but really, who doesn’t like them? When I was a kid, I used to go on bike rides up and down hills, stopping at the top of a hill in time to watch the setting sun. I usually had a 360-degree view (depending on the particular hill), with the sun disappearing over the horizon to the west and Mt. Shasta to the east. The snow and glaciers on the 14,162-foot mountain would turn pink and orange, and there were usually clouds to add an exponential amount of color and beauty. I would write bad poems in an attempt to capture the beauty in words, then make a mad sprint for home before it was too dark to see the road.
Yes, today is the anniversary of 9/11. But it’s also my mom’s birthday. She’s the one who sent me the link to these clouds, so it’s only fitting to post it today. Happy birthday, Mom.
We often saw lenticular clouds such as this one over Mt. Shasta (this is Mt. Fuji). Some people actually believe the clouds are UFOs that transport creatures, called lemurians, to and from Mt. Shasta.
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Tuesday Time-Waster: Letter to oneself
Did you ever write a letter or a journal entry to yourself to read in the future? I can’t be the only one, I’m sure. In fact, a year-and-a-half ago I actually bought and started filling up a book that has pages full of questions about your current life, so you can look back on it later. (And, um, I didn’t finish it. A lot has already changed since I started it. Oops.)
But you can also write to your past self — yourself as a teen, yourself at age 20, etc. This kind of writing is best shared with those at that age because they’re the ones who might benefit from it. Or, as in the case of today’s Tuesday Time-Waster, you can share it with the Internet so that everyone can realize, “Life actually is pretty cool, huh?” So, go read this letter from 40-year-old self-made success story Peter Shankman to his 15-year-old self.
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Tuesday Time-Waster: A dam letter
No, that blog headline does not contain a misspelling of a mild curse word. It’s actually about a dam — the kind that interrupts a flow of water.
Today’s Tuesday Time-Waster is an amusing letter written by a Michigan man who was threatened with fines if he didn’t immediately two dams that were under construction on his property. He hadn’t gotten a construction permit, state officials wrote in the certified letter, and he was given a month to remove the dams. There was one big problem: He hadn’t built the dams — beavers had constructed them.
The property owner wrote back (copying PETA on the letter) and included sentences such as these: “My first concern is — aren’t the dam beavers entitled to dam legal representation? The Spring Pond Beavers are financially destitute and are unable to pay for said dam representation — so the State will have to provide them with a dam lawyer.”
Not surprisingly, the state dropped the matter, but not before it made news, including an Associated Press article with the headline, “State gives beavers cease-and-desist order.”
The letter is still on the writer’s website, which still looks like websites did back in 1997. Bonus: If you go to that site in Internet Explorer, your cursor will drag butterflies behind it as you move around the page. Yep, it’s definitely still in the stone age of websites. (I admit that at one time I, too, had wacky cursors on my website. And a sparkly background.)
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Tuesday Time-Waster: James Bond and the Olympics
If you missed the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, well, you missed a segment that was an overload of awesome things. I’m talking about how James Bond/actor Daniel Craig (one awesome thing, though it’s kind of two in one) escorted the 86-year-old Queen through her home, past her Corgis (second awesome thing), to a helicopter. Then they parachuted out of the helicopter (third awesome thing). The awesomeness doesn’t end there, but we will pause for today’s Tuesday Time-Waster, when James Bond meets Queen Elizabeth:
And then they went flying off into the sky on a helicopter, and then they went skydiving.
Well, here’s where the awesome things continue. The actor playing the queen is a stuntman named Gary Connery — you know, sharing a last name with Sean Connery (fourth awesome thing). He holds the record for the highest skydive (fifth awesome thing). And he was a stuntman in the Indiana Jones movies. I’ll be conservative and lump those into one awesome thing.
So, there were six awesome things, according to the book of Layla, in one scene from the Olympics. Yep, sitting through the very long opening ceremony was worth that.
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Tuesday Time-Waster: Skid marks in San Francisco
This video debuted earlier this month, and I know the odds are fairly high that you’ve seen it. If you haven’t, I think it’s worth the 10 minutes — and that says a lot, because I have a short attention span when it comes to YouTube videos. (If YouTube is blocked at your workplace, as it is at mine, email this link home to yourself and have an 11:11 p.m. Tuesday Time-Waster.)
I was curious about all the skid marks driver Ken Block left behind. What did people think of them? How long do they last? Well, I don’t have all the answers, but apparently someone pointed them out back in May, shortly after the stunt was filmed. Scroll to the end of this column (the headline and photo are unrelated) to the “Furious Fiesta” section. “They pay,” [a highway patrol spokesman] said, “so we let them do whatever they want as long as it’s within the permit.”
And this page has links to some YouTube videos taken by passersby who saw the filming in May. Can you imagine looking out your window in time to see a car go airborne?!
By the way, this video was a Big Deal: It got the attention of publications ranging from ESPN to the New York Times.
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Tuesday Time-Waster: Photobombing animals
We’ve all heard of or seen photobombing in some form: Just as you click your camera’s shutter button, someone either jumps in front of the camera or behind the subject of your photograph.
Many people have probably seen the original photobombing squirrel.
Awww, nuts! I remember seeing that squirrel photo/story when it went viral a few years ago, but now the squirrel is being challenged by other non-humans. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: 35 photobombing animals.
See? Wasn’t that worth wasting a few minutes of your Tuesday? You can thank Michaela for that one.
