(hat tip, Barry)

Michael Francis McLaughlin, 48, held the cardboard sign on the 500 block of Cox Road near I-85 Friday evening, Gastonia Police Officer J.K. Sarratt wrote on a misdemeanor criminal citation.

Gastonia City Ordinance 5-17 makes it unlawful for anyone to beg or offer to work for money or other compensation by “accosting one another or forcing oneself upon the company of another.” The citation did not state whether McLaughlin had been approaching vehicles.

McLaughlin was charged with unlawful solicitation under the city ordinance and was jailed under a $500 secured bond.

Gaston Gazette

The brand wanted to elevate its role beyond simply being a brand of orange juice and increase loyalty amongst its consumers and become Canada’s National Provider of Brighter Mornings.

In order to do this, Tropicana spent a month in Inuvik, one of the country’s northernmost towns, during the coldest and darkest days of the winter. The 3,500 residents of the Arctic town in the Northwest Territories live without a sunrise for several weeks every winter. Tropicana literally brought a brighter morning to Inuvik with a giant artificial sun that emitted 100,000 lumens of light. A team of Canadian filmmakers captured the raising of the ’sun’ in Inuvik for a series of documentary-style commercials.

The lights were affixed to a 36-foot wide helium balloon which then rose and illuminated the town. The Tropicana Brand’s ’sunrise’ coincided with Inuvik’s annual Sunrise Festival, which celebrates the return of sunlight after weeks of relative darkness.

The brand also provided 1,200 free cartons of Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice – one for every household in the community.

Full CreamGlobal.com post

Each pencil is foil stamped with the name of the person. Only one pencil can be removed at a time, it is then sharpened back into the box causing the sharpenings to occupy the space of the used pencils.

Over time the pencil box fills with sharpenings – a new ash, transforming it into an urn. The window acts as a timeline, showing you the amount of pencils left as time goes by.

Link

The Oak Brook-based company has received Weight Watchers’ seal of approval on some of their menu items, including the popular Filet-O-Fish, Chicken McNuggets and the Sweet Chili Seared Chicken Wrap.

“The partnership was initiated for the growing number of customers interested in health and well being,” said Mark Hawthorne, McDonald’s New Zealand managing director. The Weight Watchers items will be marketed to the Kiwis first.

The fast food giant joined forces with the world’s leading weight management organization to offer customers new meal combinations, each offering a Weight Watchers POINTS value of 6.5 per item.

Full Article

DarrenBarefoot.com

So what’s a solution? Here’s the No-Mix Toilet.

This toilet separates urine and poo-poo at the source. The nutrients in urine can be then recycled for such purposes as fertilizer. And the other sewage can then be transported to waste treatment facilities where actually can be used to produce power rather than consume it.

Houston Chronicle

[Thanks, David!]

“It tastes like cow’s-milk cheese, kind of sweet,” he told The Post.

The flavor depends on what the cheese is served with — Angerer recommends a Riesling — and “what the mother eats,” said Angerer, who once bested Bobby Flay on TV’s “Iron Chef.”

Breast milk doesn’t curdle well due to its low protein content, so a little moo juice has to be added to round out the texture, Angerer said.

But a one-year-old hen that thinks it’s a dog has adopted a litter of puppies much to the bemusement of their canine mother.

Mabel has taken to keeping the small dogs warm by snuggling up to them while their mother, Nettle, sits out in the yard at a farm in Shrewsbury.

Full Article

jakpak.com

Of course, the damage inside the plane still would have been horrific. But it’s nice to know that the trusty 747 can stand up to such abuse.

Gizmodo

The pressurized cabin was also addressed:

Some readers have questioned the validity of the experiment given that the plane was tested on the ground. The programme-makers gave this response:

At the time of the attempted detonation, Flight 253 was descending rapidly and its altitude has been estimated to be around 10,000ft.

At that height the difference in pressure inside and outside the plane would not have been great enough significantly to affect the explosion.

So the explosion team ruled that the decommissioned plane’s lack of doors was not a factor in the test.
With this quantity of explosive, the peak pressure and impulse are over quickly and decay rapidly over distance. The doors were sufficiently far away that the overpressure would have dissipated before it reached them.

Take this quiz to see if you are smarter or stupider than the average person.

WashingtonPost.com

More details from woohome.com.

www.aspiralclocks.com

www.lace-amatic.com

We believe…

…that most men are fully capable of ensuring they have clean stuff to wear. The task just happens to be low priority.

…in working *with* human nature, rather than fighting against it. Encouraging men to more regularly shop for underwear is not the answer.

…in self-reliance. In this case, it means not waiting for someone else to buy us socks as a gift.

…simplicity is awesome. One measure of success is how much we liberate ourselves from things we don’t like doing. Automation is key.

ManPacks.com

Ottawa now wants to start a public discussion on whether Canada should adopt a gender-neutral version of the song.

As part of a policy speech unveiled on Wednesday, the minority Conservative government said it would ask Parliament to look at the original lyrics to the anthem.

Full Article

The White Mountain from charles on Vimeo.

The two men jumped into the pool to cool down after sweating in a steam room.

A third man tried to save the victims but was unable to pull the men out of the boiling water, Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid reported today.

The two men’s bodies were discovered in the sauna in the city of Kirov in central Russia on February 18 and “their death was caused by overheating”, the Kirov regional investigative committee confirmed in a statement.

The water in the pool was “overheated due to an error by one of the victims,” investigators said.

Saunas usually include a cold plunge pool.

Link

Some places, like Chipotle Mexican Grills, have a whole secret menu that’s limited only by your imagination. On the other hand, In-N-Out Burger’s secret menu” is so unsecret it’s posted on their Web site. Kind of takes the cool factor out of having the inside scoop, doesn’t it?

If you’re looking to impress a date or just like that feeling of “knowing the chef,” here are 24 restaurants that offer secret menus. Remember, not all may participate in the hidden menu. However, if you try to order something and the server looks at you with a blank look, don’t give up. Describe the dish and usually they’ll make it for you anyway.

CouponSherpa.com

A few items that caught my attention . . .

Chick-fil-a

• Fried Club – This is their normal club sandwich with the fried chicken substituted for the grilled chicken.

McDonalds

• McKinley Mac – A big Mac with quarter pounder patties.
• Grilled Cheese – A bun grilled with American cheese inside.

Wendy’s

• Value Crispy Chicken Club – A reduced price Crispy Chicken sandwich with bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayo.

56-year-old Thomas Heugel is charged with unauthorized practice as a health professional. He’s accused of performing circumcisions on three adult males in a bedroom of his Sparta home. Investigators say Heugel told his patients he was a medical doctor.

“He had a mini operating room type atmosphere set up at his house and he wore a laboratory coat, and he was even able to administer a local anesthetic before the procedure,” said Lt. Kevin Kelley.

“I don’t know who would go to somebody’s house for a surgery,” said neighbor Larry Benson, who says he has known Heugel for several years.

Full Article

www.thedoghousediaries.com