Total Win for Iceland

So McDonald's is closing all its locations in Iceland (all three of them). Iceland, as you may know, is very small. It's very small and also very far from everything else. Therefore it was costing them too much to import ingredients to the Iceland stores. And now Iceland is McDonald's free! Just another reason to go there: escape the ubiquitous fast-food mega-chain. The owners are replacing the locations with restaurants with similar but local products. Good for them, I say!

Totally unrelated, there was a petting zoo in the Sunken Gardens today! I petted a goat, miniature horse, miniature donkey, alpaca, lamb, rabbit, duck, and chicken! SO adorable. In addition I watched A Beautiful Mind (review to come later) and decided on my costume for tomorrow. I am going as a fangbanger, a la True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse novels. I've looked up ways to make realistic looking vampire bites with makeup and I found a tank top that says "bite me." Yay!

hey, this reminds me of something...

I read on BBC News today that Dutch researchers think that beta-blocker drugs, generally used as a heart medication, could affect memories. They could even potentially be used to erase bad, painful, or traumatic memories. Of course, there's a whole slew of ethical repercussions and potential unwanted side effects, but my immediate thought was: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, anyone?

So... could you really erase them fully from your memory, or just from conscious knowledge? Would there still be an emotional connection?

(PS - if you haven't, see Eternal Sunshine, it is brilliant!)

Outrageous News of the week

This first one is unbelievable.

So, Cash4Gold, that skeevy company that you can just send in your old gold to and get money back, was reviewed on a blog called Cockeyed.com. This blog told how Cash4Gold will offer you way less than the gold is worth (though I was surprised, because I always assumed it was a complete and total scam, but I guess it's only a ripoff). Anyway, Consumerist picked up the story, so it was one of the top Google results for Cash4Gold. Recently, Cash4Gold decided to hire a marketing company to clean up its image. This led to the Cockeyed.com blogger being offered $3,000 to take down the blog post! Incredible.

via Consumerist

The other story is also outrageous. Outrageously adorable!

A mailman in the UK is just doing his rounds on a cold day when he spots an apparently abandoned otter pup on the side of the road. So he picks it up and carries it around in his mailbag, taking it to a car rally. He fed the little girl kitten milk through a pen tube. There are adorable pictures here.

via mental floss

LOOK HERE

It's my first Flat Hat article!

wow... this guy really likes seafood...

Some guy in Amsterdam returned a lobster to the seafood store, claiming it was bad. They gave him a bag of king crab legs instead. Suddenly it's realised that the lobster is just a shell...

" Store workers were about to allow Tessier to trade the $10.99 lobster for a bag of king crab legs when they discovered the lobster was all shell. Tessier had eaten it and put the shell parts back together, deputies said.

When confronted, the man with a passion for seafood ran from the store with the bag of crab legs in hand, they said.

Deputies said they caught up with him at his home only to discover that he had already eaten the crab legs." - Bob Gardinier, via Times Union.

lol.

A word about vandalism.

Hilarious.

Hooray for Mariela Castro

New Cuban leader Raul Castro's daughter Mariela is the head of the National Centre for Sex Education, and is trying to get new liberal sexuality laws passed in the country. "The proposed legislation would recognise same-sex unions, along with inheritance rights. It would also give transsexuals the right to free sex-change operations and allow them to switch the gender on their ID cards, with or without surgery," a BBC article said. If Cuba passes the legislation, it will be a great day for LGBT activists, and for personal freedom in general.

Bats are neither rich nor beautiful. Discuss.

And yet, Alan Hicks, a government conservationist, said:

"I don't want my grandkids saying, gosh, what was it like to have bats flying around? I want them to enjoy all the wealth and beauty that we have."

I'm sorry the bats are dying. But at least they won't get in my room anymore.

Election Coverage

This particular post is not going to be too political, I just want to highlight some of the media's coverage of the election, especially that of the Democratic race.

First up: Clinton's 'mistake.' Last week, she apparently talked of her terrifying experience entering Bosnia under sniper fire. But, oops, that never actually happened! Not only that, there is a VIDEO SHOWING HER ENTERING BOSNIA. Of course, she says it "proves [she's] human." We all make mistakes. They just don't usually involve completely making up something that never happened.

And then this. This is just pointless really. But people care about it, apparently.

Some thoughts, a link.

First of all, head on over to dooce to get a nice, healthy dose of crazy. Heather Armstrong is a wonderfully amusing writer, and makes the most mundane occasions hilarious. Would that I had such talent.

Next of all, my roommate went home this weekend. Great, right? But last night I slept in Tal's room, because we had been telling ghost stories and I was a little creeped out. We ended up staying up til 5 in the morning talking. Sleepovers are good like that. We talked about lots of things, including ethics.

I got a voicemail from my grandmother after dinner yesterday that my package from Jeff had arrived. Apparently Japan is not kidding when it sends things. That was really fast - he sent it Monday, it got here Friday. I went over to pick it up and met her friends Chuck and Judy who were quite cool. They told me this horrific story: "A US woman on a boat off the Florida Keys has died after a stingray leapt up and struck her in the face." Officials called this a "bizarre incident", apparently. Really? Bizarre? No way! It's like that Dane Cook joke, only real. And therefore terrible.