Author: Chris Barrus

Travel author Robert Young Pelton kidnapped in Columbia

CNN reports:

The author of the travel book “The World’s Most Dangerous Places” was kidnapped with two other Americans near the Colombia-Panama border, police said Tuesday.

Author Robert Young Pelton, 47, of Redondo Beach, Megan A. Smaker, 22, of Oakland and Mark Wedeven, whose hometown wasn’t released, were traveling Saturday through a lawless area used by Colombian guerrillas and paramilitary groups for drug and arms trafficking, authorities said. Pelton was researching a story for National Geographic’s Adventure Magazine.

Pelton’s website has some more details.

Compulsive squalor: animal “collectors”, trash houses, and clutterers

Teresa Nielsen Hayden has put together an amazing, comprehensive post about squalor and animal collecting: the so-called “cat ladies” and garbage people. The stories are incredible, the syndrome pervasive. People across the country accumulate hundreds of animals, or fill their bathtubs with feces, or stack newspapers to the ceiling in room after room until their homes are uninhabitable.

Careful with some of those links, the stories they lead to are not for the squeamish. This article from the Minneapolis City Pages is particularly amazing.

Giant squid attacks French boat

Because I can’t pass up a good squid story…

French sailors taking part in the round-the-world Jules Verne Trophy say they have come across one of the most elusive monsters of the sea: the giant squid.

Veteran yachtsman Olivier De Kersauson, who sailed from Brittany on Saturday, said that several hours into his voyage he found that a giant squid had clamped on to the hull of his boat.

Black And White Overnight

Matt over at Scrubbles has a nice write up of the Game Show Network’s ‘Black And White Overnight”:

The New York Times did a nice article on the wonders of ‘Black & White Overnight’, the Game Show Network’s graveyard shift programme of vintage ’50s-’60s quiz shows. This has quickly became a favorite of mine since getting the TiVo, giving me the warm fuzzies for a time which I never experienced firsthand. The shows (‘What’s My Line’, ‘I’ve Got a Secret’, and ‘To Tell the Truth’) conjure up a swanky, Manhattanish world of cigarettes and martinis, intermissions and urbane small talk. Concepts were simple, sets were utalitarian, and personality was everything. Being smart and well-rounded was a given among all participants, something nearly unheard-of nowadays. For example, the effortlessly witty Bennett Cerf of ‘What’s My Line?’ was the head of Random House — can you imagine a publisher being on today’s game shows? I could go on and on, but instead I’ll point to Evan Izer’s wonderful weblog entry on the same subject from last year. Arlene Francis must be smiling down on him.

Science experiments while you drive

Fluid dynamics as played out on the highways…

Once upon a time, years ago, I was driving through a number of stop/go traffic waves on I-520 at rush hour in Seattle. I decided to try something. On a day when I immediately started hitting the usual “waves” of stopped traffic, I decided to drive slow. Rather than repeatedly rushing ahead with everyone else, only to come to a halt, I decided to try to drive at the average speed of the traffic. I let a huge gap open up ahead of me, and timed things so I was arriving at the next “stop-wave” just as the last red brakelights were turning off ahead of me. It certainly felt weird to have that huge empty space ahead of me, but I knew I was driving no slower than anyone else. Sometimes I hit it just right and never had to touch the brakes at all, but sometimes I was too fast or slow. There were many “waves” that evening, and this gave me many opportunities to improve my skill as I drove along.

I kept this up for maybe half an hour while approaching the city. Finally I happened to glance at my rearview mirror. There was an interesting sight.

It was dusk, the headlights were on, and I was going down a long hill to the bridges. I had a view of miles of highway behind me. In the other lane I could see maybe five of the traffic stop-waves. But in the lane behind me, for miles, TOTALLY UNIFORM DISTRIBUTION. I hadn’t realized it, but by driving at the average speed, my car had been “eating” traffic waves. Everyone ahead of me was caught in the stop/go cycle, while everyone behind me was forced to go at a nice smooth 35MPH or so. My single tiny car had erased miles and miles of stop-and-go traffic. Just one single “lubricant atom” had a profound effect on the turbulent particle flow within the entire “tube.”

Subliminal baby toys

A Canadian couple has discovered that the toy aquarium they bought for their 6-month-old son plays a lot more than ocean waves.

Blanche Skelton was feeding her baby when she heard something besides the soothing sound of ocean waves coming from a toy attached to the crib.

It was saying, “I hate you.”

After asking her husband, her parents-in-law, and everyone else in the home east of Hazel Dell, they were convinced. The toy was definitely, albeit quietly, saying “I hate you.”

Blanche’s 6-month-old son, Alex, got the toy as a Christmas present. It makes soothing sounds and music for baby to fall asleep to, with an illuminated picture of a cartoon-style aquarium on the front.

But in between the white noise of ocean waves, a tiny babyish voice pipes up with childhood angst.

Made in China, the toy was sold by Wal-Mart and carries the Kid Connection brand, which is a store brand.

Blanche and her husband, Steve, said they went to the Wal-Mart store Thursday and listened to two other aquarium toys like theirs. Sure enough, there was that creepy voice.

The couple talked to a manager, who scoffed until another employee blurted out that he heard it, too.

Then the manager pledged to get the toy off the shelves, and offered the family a refund, Blanche said. By Friday, the toys were gone from the shelves at the Hazel Dell store.

Shades of They Live?