I'm a huge fan of theme parks. I love roller coasters and costumed characters and all that jazz, but there are some parks that are boring and some that are just plain weird. Personally, I think I could pass on quite a few of these bad parks...others I want to visit just to see that the deal is.

Image Via km33068 [Flickr]

1. Hershey Park, PA -Mmmmm….chocolate! Hooray, kisses! The company that combined the two truly is brilliant, but a theme park in their name? There’s roller coasters, water slides, and, of course, cute little Reese’s and Hershey’s characters wandering. If you were worried about getting your chocolate fix on, don’t worry, there’s plenty of sweet treats at the restaurants throughout the park.

Image Via Andrewds14 [Flickr]

2. Dollywood, TN –Maybe you’re a Dolly fan. Maybe you like the ironic humor of visiting a theme park dedicated to the blonde county bombshell Maybe you just love farms. Whatever your reason for visiting Dollywood, you’re sure to get an earful –of Dolly Parton songs. Enjoy the sights and smells of the Smoky Mountains while speeding through exciting roller coasters.

3. Diggerland, UK –Ever wish you could be a construction worker, but hate sweat and hard work? Finally, you can relax by going to work on backhoes and other digging devices. They even have rides where you get to be inside the digging bucket. Apparently the United Kingdom has a crucial shortage of construction jobs available.

Image Via Hazelisles [Flickr]

4. Limestone Heritage, Malta –What could be more fun than limestone? Why anything of course! This exotic destination located on the island of Malta teaches kids about the fundamentals of limestone. I’ve never seen anyone work so hard to remove the “fun” from “fundamentals.”

Image Via llamnudds [Flickr]

5. Dickens World, UK –Do you have great expectations when it comes to your amusement parks? Sorry, I couldn’t resist. You can finally chill out in downtrodden 19th century England like the characters of Charles Dickens.

Image Via Mukluk Land website

6. Mukluk Land, AK –Alaska isn’t exactly known for being a crazy fun place for children and their amusement park is no exception. Their biggest attraction is the World’s Largest mukluk (a traditional soft boot worn in the Arctic). Aside from that, there is skee ball, mini-golf and big cabbage.

Image Via blatantgizmo [Flickr]

7. Pedro Land, SC –Why is there a Mexican theme park in the middle of South Carolina? Because who better to build a stereotypical amusement park based on the South of the Border than people who know nothing about Mexicans? Pink flamingos, hot tamales and really bad puns, like a mini golf course called the “Golf of Mexico,” run abound in this cheesy park.

Image Via the website Gallery

8. Harry Potter Themepark, FL –This is park may be unfinished, but it is sure to be completed and opened sometime in 2010. It’s going to be part of Universal Studios Florida. Finally you can put away your muggle wears and “let out your inner wizard.”



9. The Ocean Dome, Japan –Ever go to the beach and think, “I sure wish I could be having a simulated beach experience right now?” Here’s your chance. With real sand, manufactured waves, a private rain forest and a simulated volcanic eruption every hour, the Ocean Dome would be a great attraction for landlocked people in Utah. Unfortunately, its actual location lies within 1000 feet of a real beach in Miyazaki, Japan.

Image Via azkid2lt [Flickr]

10. Grutas Park, Lithuania –Hooray communism. Go USSR. Grutas Park is nicknamed “Stalin’s Word” -and for good reason. This Lithuanian theme park is dedicated to the area’s soviet-occupation. There’s not only a great statue garden of the communist heroes and a zoo, but also a fun gulag experience for all you history lovers out there.

Image Via Theme Park Review

11. BonBon Land, Denmark –Yes the colors and statues look crazy, but the madness doesn’t stop there. One roller coaster peaks with farting sounds being played just as you pass behind Henry Hound’s butt. Vomiting, pooping and breasts are in full force throughout this tasteless park, making it any 13 year old boy’s fantasy land.

Image Via Angie Torres [Flickr]

12. Suoi Tien Park, Vietnam –Sure Buddhism is all about sacrificing material goods and obtaining enlightenment, but roller coasters and water slides are fun too. You know what else is fun? A pond full of 1,500 live crocodiles that you can feed with meat attached to fishing poles. And just in case you really don’t get the message of Buddhism through the tons of golden statues, there is also a fun animatronics ride featuring the 12 torments of fell.

13. Shijingshan Amusement Park, China –If you thought the Chinese bootleg DVDs were a huge source of copyright infringement, just wait until you see the Shijingshan Amusement Park. Despite numerous copyright lawsuits from Disney, blatant knock offs of Minnie Mouse, Cinderella and Donald Duck still roam the park grounds, along with their friend Hello Kitty.

Image Via Semisvetik [Flickr]

14. Love Land, Korea –A lot of the attractions at this park are too adult for the general Neatorama audience. Even so, you’re certain to enjoy this sculpture of dogs making love with while flashing the peace sign. The owner hopes that the park will not only be fun, but be a good-source of education for newly weds.

Image Via San Sharma [Flickr]

15. Neverland Ranch, CA –Lock up your daughters –I mean sons. This park is an American classic, filled with tacky artwork, a zoo and rides. Unfortunately, this is one park that is long gone and will likely never rise again as the attractions have been moved out in the last year. Jackson said he no longer considers this park home since he claims the police officers “violated it.”

This honey cake is baked inside a Honey Baked Ham shell and topped with a lovely little slice of pineapple. It is a one up to the meat to cake ratio of the bacon cupcake.

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This masterpeice was entered in the upcoming Stitch Wars exhibit at the Bear and Bird Boutique + Gallery in Florida. The little blue Luke Skywalker is zipped inside for a super Star Wars surprise.

Link Via CraftZine

WebUrbanist has a great post with 15 images that look fake, but aren't. The dog above has two mutant genes that make it look like it's loaded on steroroids. The other 14 images are great too.

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This week’s artist was quite a treat for me, although I’ve always loved Jane’s Addiction, I didn’t know much about their lead singer. Turns out he’s done a whole lot for the music community at large.

• Perry Farrell was born in Queens, New York on March 29, 1959. His birth name was Peretz Bernstein. His mother committed suicide when he was only three years old –later referenced in the Jane’s Addiction song “Then She Did.”


• After graduating from high school in Florida in the early 80s, Perry decided to live the surfer’s life in Los Angeles, California, living out of his car and making money by waiting tables and working construction.


• Perry’s first band was the gothic band Psi Com. The music scene the group was involved with included a lot of big name bands like X, Fishbone and Black Flag.


• When Psi Com broke up in 1985, Perry began working on Jam Sessions with Eric Avery that would help lead to the foundation of Jane’s Addiction. It was around this time period that Farrell came up with his stage name, he chose Perry Farrell because it was a fun play on “peripheral.”


• Jane’s Addiction was named after Perry’s drug addict roommate, Jane Bainter. Eric’s little sister Rebecca helped the group find its other two members, Stephen Perkins, her boyfriend, and a friend, Dave Navarro.

• The group soon started to have a big following around the LA club scene and quickly garnered interest from multiple record labels. They chose to sign with Warner Brothers Records, but insisted on releasing their first album with the independent label Triple X Records. In addition, the group received the largest signing advance ever offered at the time, around $275,000.


• In 1991, Farrell worked with Ted Gardener and Marc Geiger to create the Lollapalooza festival as a farewell tour for Jane’s Addiction. For this reason, Farrell became known as a “godfather of alternative rock music.”


• Parry Farrell and Casey Niccoli worked together on a film titled Gift that featured Jane’s Addiction. The movie is a gothic, tragic, romantic story in the LA club scene with themes of sex and drugs. The movie was released by Warner Brothers in 1993.


• After Jane’s Addiction, Perry and Stephen Perkins started a new band, Porno for Pyros.


• Around this same period, Jane’s Addition reunited with Eric Avery replaced by Flea, who had worked with Dave Navarro in The Red Hot Chili Peppers.


• A number of women dancers were hired as part of the stage show for this “relapse” tour, one of these dancers later became Farrell’s wife. He had this to say about meeting her, "Etty and I have been working together since 1997. The very first time I saw her come in and shake her... ponytail, I hired her and I fell in love with her on the spot.” She has continued to dance in every Jane’s Addiction tour since.

• In the late nineties, Perry decided to start a solo career. His first album features a number of lyrics inspired by the Kabala.


• Farrell occasionally DJs using the name DJ Peretz.


• The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival largely has Perry to thank for their continued success, as the festival was close to failure after its first incarnation in 1999. When the festival was scheduled to happen a second time there was no headlining group for a long time. Finally, Farrell volunteered to reunite Jane’s Addiction for the event, which helped bring in large crowds. Since then there has been a tradition of reuniting one major band every year. Perry has been the only artist to play every Coachella festival, occasionally as a solo artist or DJ and occasionally in a group.


• Jane’s Addiction donated all of their earnings from one show in 2001 to help negotiate the release of over 2,300 Sudanese slaves.


• In 2005, Farrell and his wife Etty began a theatrical band called "The Satellite Party." The group’s music is focused around an imaginary version of their relationship together. Their debut album had appearances by Flea, Pearl Jam drummer Jack Irons, New Order bassist Peter Hook and Fergie.

Satellite Party Image Via -EMR- [Flickr]

• Kidzapalooza is a kid-friendly stage at the annual Lollapalooza festival that was started by Perry and music producer Tor Hyams. This year represents the first time Kidzapalooza will be its own festival. It is planned for June at the Hollywood Bowl. Featured artists will include Farrell, Gary Oldman, Slash and Ziggy Marley.


• Perry celebrated his Jewish heritage by performing at the 2006 Purimpalooza, a music celebration of the Jewish holiday of Purim and the birthday of Rabbi Yosef Langer.


• The NME awards of 2008 saw the first reunion in 17 years of all four original Jane’s Addiction members. They were the first American group to win the award of “God Like Genius.”

Sources #1, #2, #3, #4

I would assume that these skunks have been de-stinked and taken in as pets since the person is video taping them from such a close spot, but it seems they've held onto their instincts to break into things to get food. The result is pretty cute. Do any of you know someone who had pet skunks?

Link Via I Can Has Cheezburger

Joe Strummer was a highly political-minded musician with a love of music from all over the world. While many of you may only know a few of The Clash singles like "Rock the Casbah," the group had a lot of diversity and is celebrated as one of the most unique and innovative punk bands in history. Even fewer people seem to be familiar with Joe's work after The Clash, but if you're a fan of the band, I highly recomend checking it out.

• Joe was born John Graham Mellor on August 21, 1952. He was born in Turkey to a British foreign-service diplomat and a nurse. In his early years, he spent time all over the world, including Cairo, Mexico City and Bonn.

• During his school years, Joe and his brother attended a private school in London. Joe developed an interest in rock music, including Little Richard, The Beach Boys and Woody Guthrie –he even started having his friends call him “Woody” for a few years.


• At the same time, his brother became immersed in the National Front and killed himself in July 1970. Joe had to identify his body after it had laid undiscovered for three days. The event dramatically affected Joe, and would certainly play a role in his anti-National Front stance throughout his later life.


• After graduation, Joe began attending college in Surrey, where he considered becoming a professional cartoonist. In 1973, he moved to Wales to attend an art college, but dropped out. While there, he began working as a gravedigger and started playing with his first band, The Vultures.


• When The Vultures broke up, Joe returned to London where he started The 101’ers with his two squatter roommates. The name came out from their address, 101 Walterton Road. They originally played covers of American R&B and blues songs, but soon Joe began writing original material.


• Joe learned to play guitar from his friend and band mate, Tymon Dogg. Unfortunately, Tymon taught him how to play right-handed, despite the fact that he was left-handed. The result was that Joe felt he was mostly limited to strumming chords. After this, Joe dropped his “Woody” nickname and began calling himself Joe Strummer.

• In 1975, Joe married a South African woman for £100 so she could obtain British citizenship. He used the money to buy his telecaster that later became his signature instrument.


• The 101’ers played a show in London in 1976 and a group completely unknown at the time, called the Sex Pistols, opened for them. Strummer was really impressed by the group and when he was approached by Bernie Rhodes and Mick Jones to join their band, London SS, he jumped on the opportunity. Unfortunately, the group broke up right when Joe was about to join. Instead, Joe and Mick formed a new band, called The Clash, with Paul Simonon.


• Interestingly, The Clash’s first show involved them opening for the Sex Pistols on July 4, 1976.


• Within the next year, the group was signed with CBS records. Most of their songs had a highly political theme, such as racism, unemployment, police brutality and more. Joe was highly active in the Anti-Nazi League and the Rock Against Racism campaigns.


• In 1978, Strummer started dating Gaby Salter, the pair stayed together fourteen years and had two daughters. They were never married though, because Joe couldn’t find the woman he married for citizenship to get a divorce.


• While in The Clash, Joe and his other bandmates got in a series of problems with the law. In 1977, he was arrested for spray painting “The Clash” on a hotel wall. A few years later, he was arrested in Germany for hitting a violent audience member with his guitar. The incident affected him and later he remarked, “I nearly murdered somebody, and it made me realize that you can't face violence with violence. It doesn't work.”

• Before the release of Combat Rock, Joe’s manager pushed him to disappear to help sell tickets for an upcoming tour. Strummer was only supposed to hide at someone’s house in the city, but he opted to really disappear and ran off to France. During this period, no one, including the band’s managers, knew where he was.


• Around the time “Rock the Casbah” was released, the band members began to argue a lot and Joe fired Mick Jones. This left the group with only two original members.


• In 1985, the group released an album, Cut The Crap, under the band name “The Clash Mark Two.” The album was a major disappointment to fans and critics and Joe decided to disband The Clash.


• Rolling Stone chose London Calling as the top album of the 1980’s.


• After The Clash breakup, Strummer acted in a lot of movies, including Walker, Straight to Hell, Mystery Train and I Hired a Contract Killer. In the last film, he really did little more than play music in a cameo role. The songs from the movie were released on a limited edition promotional single credited as, “Joe Strummer & the Astro Physicians.”


• In the early nineties, Joe replaced Shane MacGowan as the lead singer of The Pogues. He also produced their Hell’s Ditch album.


• Around the end of the millennium, Strummer got together a lot of top-notch, yet mostly unknown musicians to form his new backing band, The Mescaleros. This group soon released a number of albums. When in concert, the group also played a number of Clash favorites.


• At one of the group’s shows, Mick Jones was in the audience and joined the band during the song “Bankrobber.” During the encore, Jones played guitar and sang “White Riot” and “London’s Burning.” This was the first time in almost twenty years that the pair performed on stage together.


• On December 22, 2002, Joe Strummer died unexpectedly at his home in Somerset, England. He became the victim of an undiagnosed heart defect.

• Before his death, Joe worked hard to help create an organization called Future Forests (now changed to The Carbon Neutral Company) that plants trees to combat global warming. He was the first musician to neutralize the carbon created in record pressing through planting trees. Since he began the practice, Foo Fighters, Coldplay and Pink Floyd have all followed in his footsteps.


• To pay tribute to Strummer, Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl and other musicians got together to perform “London Calling” at the Grammies.


• Additionally, many bands recorded songs paying tribute to Joe, including Stiff Little Fingers, Street Dogs, Cowboy Mouth and more.


• Even a train was named after Joe, the Class 47 locomotive 47828 was called “Joe Strummer.”


• The 2007 Sundance Festival featured a documentary about his life, called Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten.

Source #1, #2, #3

There are some weird bands out there with some even weirder names. Here's a collection of bands and the story of how they came up with their titles. If you have any bands you're curious about, list them in the comments, I might do a part two of this article if you all like it.

Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd was originally called "The Tea Set," but changed their moniker after finding a group of the same name was booked at a show they were scheduled to play. The band decided to change their name to "The Pink Floyd Sound" –later shortened to "Pink Floyd" -after seeing the names "Pink Anderson" and "Floyd Council" on the notes of a Blind Boy Fuller album. It’s likely all for the best, would you go and see a movie called “The Tea Set’s The Wall?” Source Image via Tea Set on Wikipedia

Black Sabbath

Ozzy’s band of mischief didn’t start off nearly as dark as it ended up. The group’s first name was "The Polka Tulk Blues Company," which was soon shortened to just “Polka Tulk.” After a while, they renamed themselves “Earth,” but had to change their name again when they found out there was another British band with that name. One day, bassist Geezer Butler saw a bunch of people lined up at the theater across the street from their rehearsal room. The movie showing was the Boris Karloff movie Black Sabbath. He noted how much money people spend to see scary films and used the film’s title for a song he wrote inspired by occult writer Dennis Wheatley. This song changed the entire music direction of the band and they started playing much darker songs than other musicians of the time. In 1969, the group decided to change their name to "Black Sabbath" to reflect their new decision to make the musical version of horror movies. Source | Image Via IMDB

Lynyrd Skynyrd

The original band was called “The Noble Five” and the year after it was changed to “My Backyard.” By 1970, it was obvious the group needed a new moniker. They decided on "Leonard Skinnerd," to make fun of their high school gym teacher Leonard Skinner, who frequently harassed boys to maintain the school dress code that banned long hair. They changed the spelling before they released their first album and the rest was history. Source

Motörhead

Before founding Motörhead, Lemmy Killmister was in a psychedelic rock group called Hawkwind. He was a heavy user of amphetamines and the last song he wrote for the band was called "Motorhead" –a British expression for a speed freak. Lemmy also held onto that song and it became a standard of the Motörhead lineup. The umlauts in the band name mean nothing -he just thought they sounded cool. Source

Joy Division

History buffs may know the term “joy division” to mean a prostitution division of a concentration camp, it was used to reward prisoners and guards alike. It’s interesting that a term this vile has lost most of its meaning, as most people merely associate it with the band, who adopted the name after reading the term in the 1955 novel The House of Dolls. Source

Duran Duran

Here’s a group that got the right name, right away. But where did “Duran Duran” come from? The villain in Barbarella, a really bad B-movie, was called “Dr. Durand Durand.” Source Image Via Barbarella on Wikipedia

Porno For Pyros

After leaving Jayne’s Addiction, band members Perry Farrell and Stephen Perkins wanted to start up a new project. Farrell was looking in a porno magazine where he saw an ad for fireworks. The name fits even better when you consider that right around the time of their inception, the LA Riots had just happened. Source

Gogol Bordello

The band was originally called "Hütz and the Béla Bartóks," but they decided to change it because, according to singer Eugene Hütz, no one in America knows about Béla Bartók (in case you don’t know, he is a Hungarian composer considered by many to be the best composer of the twentieth century). As a result, the group changed their name to Gogol Bordello. “Gogol” referencing writer Nikolai Gogol because the band considered him to have “smuggled” Ukranian culture into Russian society, which is similar to what the group wishes to do with their Eastern-styled music in America. Of course, I think you know what “bordello” means. Source

I know many readers may not like rap and may complain about the selection this week, but like all of these articles, the band was chosen by user requests. If you’ve got a band you want to see tidbits about, just list them in the comments, thanks! Alternatively, if you want to see more rap artists, leave them in the comments too.

• The Notorious B.I.G., a.k.a. Biggie Smalls, was born Christopher George Latore Wallace on May 21, 1972. His father was a small-time Jamaican politician and his mother was a Jamaican pre-school teacher. His father left the family when Biggie was only two and his mother was rarely home, as she had to work two jobs to pay the bills.


• Always a hefty lad, Biggie was nicknamed “Big” by the time he was ten years old. In adulthood, he measured about 6’3” and anywhere from 300 to 380 pounds.


• At his school, he was a great student and won several awards in English programs. This master of the language would later prove crucial in his rapping career.


• Biggie grew up during the peak of the crack epidemic and, like many kids around him, he ended up dealing drugs. Although he was selling crack since he was 12, his mother never knew about it until he grew up. He continued to sell drugs up until first child was born, at which time, his label manager, Sean “Puffy” Combs, insisted he stopped selling for good.


• His high school, George Westinghouse Information Technology High, also had Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes and DMX in attendance. This was the same period that Biggie began rapping. He performed in a few groups, the Old Gold Brothers and the Techniques, and he sang on the streets by himself. By seventeen, he decided to drop out of school.


• Notorious had long had a problem with the law, starting with his 1989 arrest for weapons charges. The next year, he was arrest on a probation violation and a year after that he was arrested for dealing crack. The third time, he spent nine months in jail. Much later in his career, he was arrested in 1996 outside of a New York club for threatening to kill two fans, punching one in the face and smashing the windows of their taxi cab. That same year, he was arrested again for drug and weapons charges. In 1997, he was ordered to pay $41,000 to someone who claimed to have been beaten and robbed by Biggie and his entourage in 1995, but the criminal robbery charges were dropped.


• After his 1991 release from prison, B.I.G. decided to release a demo tape under the alias “Biggie Smalls,” the name of a gangster in the 1975 movie Let’s Do It Again. He later discovered the name was already in use and decided to change it to “The Notorious B.I.G.”


• In 1992, The Source featured Biggie in their “Unsigned Hype” column, dedicated to unsigned rappers brimming with talent. This helped him get the attention of the A&R department of Uptown Records and one of their producers, Puff Daddy. He signed to Uptown, but almost immediately left to join Puffy’s brand new label, Bad Boy Records.


• Biggie’s big break came when he added vocals to a remix to the Mary J. Blige song “Real Love,” which reached #7 on the charts.


• In 1994, Notorious married singer Faith Evans only nine days after meeting her at a photo shoot for Bad Boy Records. Only four days later, he had his first commercial success with the song “Juicy,” which reached #27 on the charts.


• His first full-length album, Ready To Die, was released at a time hip hop was dominated by West Coast artists. The album reached #13 on the charts and was certified four times platinum. Rolling Stone said the album "almost single-handedly... shifted the focus back to East Coast rap".


• By 1996, he was the top-selling male solo artist and rapper on the US pop and R&B charts. He also won the award for Best New Artist, Lyricist of the Year, Live Performer of the Year and Debut Album of the Year at the Source Awards. The Billboard Awards named him Rap Artist of the Year.

• Unfortunately, his success peaked at the same time as the East Coast vs West Coast Rap feud. A former associate of Biggie, Tupac Shakur, accused him of involvement with a November 1994 robbery that left Tupac shot and out of thousands of dollars in jewelry. Notorious said that he was near the scene of the accident, recording an album but was not involved with the crime.


• Tupac soon signed with Death Row Records in L.A. and the two labels became wrapped up in an intense rivalry. Tupac’s song “Hit ‘Em Up” involved claims that he was sleeping with Biggie’s wife and that Biggie stole his style and image. Biggie did not respond to this, saying it wasn't his style to respond.


• During all of this drama, Biggie was trying to record his second album. It took over 18 months to complete, between interruptions from the hip hop wars, legal problems and an injury he sustained during a car accident at the time. The accident resulted in the use of a cane for the rest of his life.


• On Sepember 7, 1996, Tupac was shot and killed in a drive by in Las Vegas. The murder remains unsolved, but reports detailing Biggie’s involvement sprung up immediately. Notorious denied the rumors, saying he was in New York working on his album at the time.


• Lil’ Kim had a working relationship with Biggie for a few years and when he helped direct her 1996 debut album, Hard Core, the two became entangled in a love affair. She became pregnant with Biggie’s child, but had an abortion.


• After the events of 1996 unfolded, Biggie claimed he wanted to focus on obtaining a “peace of mind.” "My mom... my son... my daughter... my family... my friends are what matters to me now," he explained.
  

  Photo Via mcbill [Flickr]



• On March 8, 1997, Biggie flew to L.A. to present Toni Braxton an award at the Soul Train Awards. He was booed by some of the audience who blamed him for the death of Tupac. After the award show, the entire entourage attended a Vibe magazine party at the Petersen Automotive Museum. When the Fire Department closed the party early, the streets became crowded with people leaving. Biggie rode in a GMC Suburban when a black Impala pulled beside his vehicle and the passenger, neatly dressed in a blue suit and bow tie, shot him multiple times with a 9 mm pistol. Biggie was pronounced dead at 1:15 and the murder remains unsolved.


• While many murder suspects include members of the West Coast hip hop family, one of the more popular theories was detailed by Randall Sullivan in his book LAbrynth. Sullivan’s thesis is that both Biggie and Tupac were murdered by Marion “Suge” Knight, co-founder of Death Row Records, and retired LAPD officer David Mack. His book supposes that the hip hop war was trumped up to make the murders easier to cover up. He backs up his assertions with the fact that the LAPD did not fully examine murder links to Death Row Records. This theory is further examined in the documentary Biggie & Tupac by Nick Broomfield.


• Based on the evidence by LAPD officer, Russell Poole, and the book by Sullivan, Biggie’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the LAPD in 2005. Their claim accused the department of having enough evidence to arrest the murder, but failing to do so. The case was declared a mistrial after the judge worried the police were withholding evidence. The family attempted to expand their lawsuit, but failed, this was enough to get the case reopened in July 2006 though. The family filled a second wrongful death suit in April of 2007.


• Of course, the pendulum swings both ways, and Tyruss Himes, a.k.a. Big Syke, was implicated of the murder by tv channel KTTV and XXL magazine and filed a suit against them for defamation. His case was later thrown out of court.


• Fifteen days after the Death of Biggie, his double disc album, Life After Death, was released and hit #1 on the billboard charts. The album was later certified Diamond. The first two singles from this album, “Hypnotize” and “Mo Money Mo Problems,” were both #1’s and Biggie was the first artist to do this after his death. Spin magazine named him Artist of the Year and made “Hypnotize” its Single of the Year in 1997.


• Since his death, Biggie’s vocals have been sampled in songs by many artists, including Ashanti, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, Usher, Lil Wayne, Nelly and Michael Jackson.


• He was named the greatest rapper of all time by both The Source and Blender magazines. MTV listed him as the third Greatest MC of All Time.


• This year, a biographical film, Notorious, was released by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Producers of the film include Puff Daddy, and Biggie’s mother, Voletta Wallace. The film raised over $42 million worldwide. Unfortunately, the violence of hip hop continues. On opening night, a fan was shot by another film-goer in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Source #1, #2, #3

Pit bulls have a pretty crummy reputation these days. Between the myth of a pit bull’s “locking jaw” and the constant news stories depicting the dogs as ruthless-attackers of innocent children, it’s no wonder that many people have grown afraid of the breed. The fact is these dogs are no more evil than any other breed. Indeed, pit bulls usually score very high on dog temperament testing, they have a passing rate of 84% compared to the average dog score of 77%, and their sweet disposition around children has earned them the nickname of “nanny dog.” Sharky, shown below, is an internet sensation that shows the loving side of the American Pit Bull Terrier.

Video Link

Many famous people, alive and dead, have had the dogs as loving pets, including Mark Twain, Helen Keller, Humphrey Bogart, Jessica Alba, Michael J. Fox and more. One of the most adored dogs in film history, Pete the Pup of Our Gang, was a rescued pit bull terrier. Even most of the notorious Michael Vick dogs have forgotten their ugly pasts and become loving family members.

War Dogs:

There are a number of famous pit bulls that have served as members of the armed forces, and, despite the fact that the army and navy have outlawed pits on base, at least one marines squadron still has a pit bull serving as their mascot. This is nothing new, pit bulls have been serving in the armed forces for hundreds of years. A pup named Jack Brutus (shown at left, photo Via The Smithsonian Institute) served as official mascot of Company K, First Connecticut Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War. While Jack was merely a mascot and never actually served in the action, other war dogs have.

The most notable of these dogs is Stubby, the most decorated dog in American military history. Stubby was a stray dog that wandered into the U.S. encampment of the WWI 102nd Infantry. He befriended the soldiers and was sent out to France. Stubby served to brighten the men’s spirits while they battled in the trenches. He warned the troop of gas bombs and German attacks in the middle of the night. Stubby once found a hiding German spy and bit him in his pants until U.S. soldiers came to capture him. At one point, Stubby got too close to a grenade and his front leg was injured, later he was gassed.

Photo Via The 102nd Infantry Regimental Museum

After he returned home, he became a celebrity and was made a lifetime member of the American Legion, where he took part in every parade and every convention until his death in 1926. Stubby met Presidents Wilson, Harding and Coolidge. He received a special golden hero dog medal created by the Humane Education Society (later the Humane Society) that was attached to his jacket, sewn by ladies of the rescued town, Chateau Thierry. Other medals he received include the Purple Heart, a New Haven WWI Veterans Medal, 3 Services Stripes and many more.

An interesting side note, some people credit Stubby with creating the halftime show at football games. When his master attended Georgetown University to study law, the pup became the football team’s mascot. Between the two halves, he would play with a football on the field to entertain the crowd.

There are other wars that pit bulls have been noble fighters during wartime, including the war on drugs. Popsicle was found in a freezer on a drug dealer’s porch in New York. He was starving and almost frozen to death. To make matters worse, officers assumed he was used in an illegal dog fighting ring. But Popsicle was destined to do more with his life and was soon enlisted in a drug-dog training school in Virginia. The class was notoriously hard and of 500 dogs admitted the year before, only 4 dogs passed. The Popsicle proved to be smarter than average though, and graduated first in his class.

Within only two months, Popsicle took part in the largest drug bust ever made at the Mexican border. He sniffed out over 3,075 pounds of cocaine from a pineapple truck. He was later featured on Oprah and received a Significant Seizure Award from the U.S. Customs Department. (Image Via James Tourtellotte, [U.S. Customs Website])

Source #1, #2

Rescue dogs:

Pit bulls are notoriously loyal family pets and there are many records of them risking their lives to save their owners. These dogs are great protectors from snakes, and rescuers in a variety of emergencies.

Snake Attacks:
Weela was a rescue dog abandoned in an alleyway at only four weeks old. She was saved by the Watkins family of California. One day when the family’s son was playing in the garden, Wella ran across the yard and knocked him to the ground. Within seconds, Weela was bit in the face by a rattlesnake that was hidden in the garden, saving the boy. The dog made a full recovery and later received the Ken-L Ration’s Dog Hero of the Year Award in 1993 after she helped save 30 people, 29 dogs, 13 horses and 1 cat in a heavy flood. Reader’s Digest included a story about Weela’s heroism, but as is all too common when pit bulls do good deeds, they neglected to include the fact that she was an American Pit Bull Terrier. (Image Via Pitbull Advocate 101)

Dixie Butler had a similar story. On November 11, 1999, Dixie jumped between the her family’s children and a deadly cottonmouth snake. The snake bit Dixie many times in the face and eyes. She, fortunately, survived and went on to receive the Hero Animal of the Year Award and was inducted into the Georgia Animal Hall of Fame.

More recently, Chief, a pit bull pet in the Philippines saved his family from a cobra. On February 12, 2007, Liberata la Victoria and her granddaughter, Maria Victoria Fronteras, were watching tv on the sofa when Chief bolted up and alerted the pair to a cobra 10 feet away. Maria pulled her grandmother into another room, where they waited, hoping the snake would leave the way it came in. After a while, Maria decided to peek out and see if the cobra was gone –unfortunately, it had edged within two feet of her and her grandmother, and opening the door had upset the snake. The cobra exposed its hood and was poised to strike when Maria screamed.

Image Via Marc Sabelita [Dogs In The News]

That’s when Chief ran between the women and the snake, grabbed the cobra by its neck and killed it. Unfortunately, the snake delivered a fatal bite to Chief’s jaw and the dog soon collapsed. As the pup breathed the last time, he continued to wag his tail.

Source #1, #2, #3

Lassies Incarnate:
Marley is a three-year-old pit bull terrier who belongs to a family with the same name. When a fire started up, the babysitter focused on opening a stuck fire exit that was rarely used. When she turned around, she saw Marley pulling the youngest girl in the family from the burning trailer.

Foxy helped saved her 82 year-old master from death. When Joan Maguire slipped on the ice on her doorstep and shattered her hip, she lied there in six degree weather, hoping that her flashlight signals might get her neighbor’s attention. The flashlight didn’t help, but her pit bull, Foxy, did. The pup laid with her to help warm her up, while barking for an hour and a half until help arrived. Officers at the scene agreed that without the dog’s warmth, Joan probably would have frozen to death. (Image Via Long Island Press)

In fair weather, these dogs have served as Lassie, going to get help when someone is in need. That’s just what little Gabby did when she saw her neighbor, Jim Roach, fall from a twelve-foot-high ladder. While Jim lay on the ground unconscious, Gabby licked his face and barked. Soon, she sprang into action and got the attention of her owner, Jeanne Davis, who adopted Gabby after she was pulled from an abusive home.

"She's barking and then she looks at me and runs back," Davis said. "It's kind of like something Lassie would do." Jeanne got the hint and started to follow Gabby, who led her to Jim. As soon as Jeanne approached her neighbor, the dog immediately stopped barking. Upon entry to the hospital, doctors discovered that Jim had multiple injuries, including four broken ribs, a fractured clavicle and bleeding on his brain.

Jim works as a psychology instructor and now tells his students about the kindhearted side of pit bulls that never gets media attention. "They're just a terrier," he said.

As for Jeanne, who was warned by many people not to adopt an abused pit bull, she says, "A lot of people said to put her down, that she's going to do something bad. I'm so proud of my dog."

Source #1, #2, #3,

This is the world's largest hamburger. There is a whopping 80 pounds of meat and 30 pounds of bun. If you'd like to order one yourself from the Denny's it is offered at, it costs $379. If you enjoy strangely oversized things like this, be sure to click on the link for 14 other crazy, humungous objects.

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This video displays miniature knitting for the sweaters in Coraline. The detail is amazing. WebUrbanist has a great article about different miniature artworks. They're all really neat, but this knitting is just amazing.

Video Link Via WebUrbanist

This toy seems like one of the most fun toys ever made for noodles. Granted, it may be one of the only noodle toys ever, but how cool is it to eat your noodles from a water slide?

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I love this list of 10 gifts for the Obama family's new dog. This one is the best, every first dog needs some fine formal wear for those extravagant evenings with the leaders forgien countries. Some of the other toys and things are just neat.

http://inventorspot.com/articles/bo_26438

20 Reasons I Love Penguins is a blog post detailing exactly that. It has simple reasons why penguins are great, paired with really fantastic images of the birds. For example:

8. They'd make great punk rockers



(Photo credit: Jungleboy)

The whole post is funny and visually stunning. I highly recommend stopping by for a look.

http://www.disaboom.com/Blogs/hopefulnebula/archive/2009/04/06/20-reasons-i-love-penguins.aspx