The "cost" of the space depends on what return the investor will have in the future. If he/she is able to resell the space next year for what he/she paid for it (300K), then the only money lost is the "opportunity cost" of tying up the funds for that period of time. If current returns of money market funds are 0.6% for a year, then the cost will have been $1800.

Of course, when it is resold, there could be a profit to make the net cost lower - or a loss. It's an investment decision.

A similar singalong-with-karaoke occurred in Trafalgar Square two years ago and set a Guiness record for the world's largest coconut orchestra

Perhaps DaveL would prefer to hear the Flight of the Bumblebee played on the tuba!

Detailed refutation here

I wonder if she's enjoying it...

Here's a better link for the product. It goes to the manufacturer, not to Hammacher:

http://www.brinno.com/html/product02a.html

There's a wealth of data at the manufacturer's site.

No. THIS is what Shakespeare looked like -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Edward-de-Vere-1575.jpg

It's working now, including HQ at fullscreen.

There are five videos with this lady. The other four can be accessed at this link:
http://www.greatdepressioncooking.com/Depression_Cooking/Episodes.html

There is another way to carry beer (or wine) - in a formfitting garment variously dubbed the WineRack or the Beerbelly; it was posted in Neatorama in November:
http://www.neatorama.com/2008/11/22/beer-belly/

Re trivia, the symbol for Ballantine beer is formed of Borromean rings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borromean_rings

This should be even better than the Top 10.

For "B" I would suggest "Bicycle". Or "Brassiere". (Anything but bacon...)

I believe the original credit belongs here -

http://carmina.ytmnd.com/

To really appreciate the humor, open this link in another window while watching the video -

http://www-astro.physics.ox.ac.uk/~rejs/carmlyr.html#track25

The Latin lyrics are there (this is the closing piece, section 25).

It seems to me the reason the queue was devised was to ease the burden of the admins in creating content. In the classic model, the admins sought out and wrote up material, or received suggestions which could then be written up. The queue removes one step by encouraging the great unwashed public to submit copy-ready content which can then be moved in toto to the main page.

What seems to have distressed the long-timers here is not the EXISTENCE of the queue, but its implementation - particularly the automatic bumps to the main page. That could be overcome by letting votes be cast, but have them not be sufficient for promotion - let the latter be purely an administrative decision.

It's true that the current system can be gamed, but I doubt anyone will go to that trouble just to procure a Neatorama t-shirt (however handsome they may be). The only practical reason to get ten friends to vote your submission up is for blogspam in an attempt to gain Technorati authority. That sort of thing should be detectable by the admins, who can deep-six a submission even if it has 20 upvotes.

Thank you so much for the endorsement, Alex.

Another way it could be 'shopped would be to selectively dredge/fill the lakebed to create depths appropriate to the shape you want them to form. Call it "geoshopping."