Lost Luggage – Where does it go?
Posted on February 2, 2008
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I’m sure you have heard pretty horrific stories about lost luggage; or maybe you have experienced this first hand. It’s surely something on my mind every time I have to wait in front of the carousel and my bags seem to take longer than usual to show up.
According to the department of transportation a total of 10 thousand bags do not reach their destination each day. Of this, 99% is returned to the owners within 5 days, leaving us with a 1% that gets “lost forever”. It doesn‚Äôt sound like much, but if we do the math, it equals to almost 37 thousand bags each year!
But where exactly does all the “lost” luggage go?
The answer lies in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Alabama, in a store called “The Unclaimed Baggage Center”. Over one million items pass through this store annually. It stocks more than 7 thousand new and pre-owned items daily Рdesigner clothes, jewelry, electronics, cameras, sporting goods, among other.
Airlines state they put a lot of effort into tracking down the owners of lost luggage. They typically hang on to baggage for 90 days while they try to find the owners. After one hundred days they will usually reimburse passengers for their loss, and sell the “unclaimed” bags to the Unclaimed Baggage Center, by the truckload!
Check out some of the stuff this store has found:
- A huge 40.95-carat natural emerald.
- Egyptian artifacts dating back to 1500 B.C., including a mummified falcon and a shrunken head.
- A complete and neatly packed parachute.
- A special camera designed for NASA’s Space Shuttle.
- A guidance system for an F16 fighter jet valued at a quarter of a million dollars belonging to the US Navy.
- A rattlesnake, found alive by the staff.
It seems to me that airlines put so much effort in tracking down the owner‚Äôs luggage, that they actually forget to open the bags to try to find who they belong to. Next time your luggage gets lost, make a quick trip to one of Alabama’s top attractions (with your airline’s reimbursement), you might get lucky and find your stuff still on display.
Whatever happened to Dick Van Patten?
Posted on January 28, 2008
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Born in 1928, Dick Van Patten started his career as a child actor on Broadway, he later moved on to television and movies. Of course he is most famous for his role as Tom Bradford on the TV series ‚ÄúEight is Enough‚Äù that ran from 1977 to 1981. Dick Van Patten has always shown he is an actor with a sense of humor, he has appeared in films like Spaceballs and Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and if you are a product of the 90‚Äôs, you might remember seeing him on “Weird Al” Yankovic‚Äôs “Smells Like Nirvana” and “Bedrock Anthem”.
But what is Dick Van Patten up to these days? Well, this might sound harsher than it is, but he is literally eating dog food. Van Patten is the chairman of Natural Balance Petfoods, a company that distinguishes itself by inviting employees to bring their dogs to work. Their pets are usually the first to sample product prototypes. The company sells high-end dog food that is apparently as good as eating stews and other food that is normally intended for human consumption. Dick has showed this by eating his own brand of dog food on a few occasions.
The actor suffered a diabetic stroke in 2006, luckily he made a full recovery, but his doctors have advised him to cut back on the dog food cans.
Not the Texas UFO story I was suppose to write
Posted on January 24, 2008
Filed Under Science | 1 Comment
What is a UFO? According to Wikipedia, “any real or apparent flying object that cannot be identified by the observer and which remains unidentified after investigation.” No matter what your position regarding UFO’s is, I think we are all pretty familiar with the term. From the moment we come to this world, we are exposed to pictures, and more recently, videos of flying saucers, tales of abductions and of little green men with big heads (or any variation thereof). They are everywhere, on TV, the movies, magazines, newspapers, online, etc. Some people even claim they have been raped by extraterrestrials (I believe Clay Aiken was a product of this). UFO’s are part of our culture, they are part of who we are and somewhat describe our view of the world.
The best UFO movie I‚Äôve seen is called ‚ÄúFire in the Sky‚Äù, a movie from the early nineties which is supposedly based on a real story. It‚Äôs a chilling tale about a guy, Travis Walton, who is abducted by a UFO while working on a logging crew in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona. When he vanished, all his co-workers were questioned and all passed polygraph exams; five days later the guy appeared in the middle of nowhere. I read “few abduction reports have generated as much controversy” as the Walton case. I really really freaked out the first time I saw this movie.
Personally, I have my days where I believe that there has to be someone or something else out there, this is just too big of a universe to consider ourselves the only ones (why am I hearing in the back of my head a Backstreet Boys tune?). Are we that cool?
But then, there are the days when I‚Äôm really not that sure. What makes me doubt is to think about all these decades of UFO sightings and still, not a really convincing pic or video of a UFO, and I mean 100% convincing. Sure there are a few pics and videos labeled genuine and unexplainable that look really cool. But that‚Äôs it. Are these UFO‚Äôs really from outer space? Do they carry extraterrestrial life in them? If so, why haven’t they made any contact with us? Are these military experiments? Do we have the technology to create such things? I could go on and on‚Ķ
Don’t get me wrong, I want to believe in UFO’s so bad, but hey, what about showing me a pic of “C3PO” waving from the darn window, or at least give me a picture of a huge saucer-like craft that landed on a desert somewhere and all the cows and snakes around have been fried by its power. Where is all the Roswell evidence? Are governments around the world powerful enough to vanish all UFO evidence?
I want to believe, but I’m also eager to see some real proof. I know this is probably too much to ask, but I know that until this happens, I’ll be having the same internal conflicts each time a new video comes out or I hear about news of UFO sightings somewhere, just like the one in Texas last week. Some days I’ll be sure this is all true, and that they are already living amongst us, and some other days, like Mulder, I will be thinking that the truth is still out there.
What do you think?
Not Quite The MacWorld Keynote I Was Hoping For
Posted on January 18, 2008
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I must admit, I was just a tad disappointed with the announcement of the new MacBook air last Tuesday. I don’t mean to complain. The MacBook Air is definitely a really cool product, but I was hoping for something more.
I had heard rumors that the whole “Air” thing was going to be a notebook with some sort of “wireless internet anywhere” built in, and was really hoping to see something like that, but I guess the “There’s something in the Air” hint meant that there was a 3 pound notebook .78 computer coming, that could be blown away by a strong gust of wind.
The MacWorld Keynote I Was Hoping For
A new case for the MacBook Pro
When the MacBook came out, I had a choice of getting that or the MacBook Pro. I chose the MacBook, strictly because of the amazing case design. Mainly, it’s small and light (Very thin and sleek), and it has magnets that hold it shut (instead of the metal hooks and spring locking system)
I know 3 people who have either PowerBooks or MacBook Pro’s with broken latching mechanisms. They won’t stay shut anymore.
So I’d like to see a new case for the MacBook Pro. And of course, I want to see some sort of built in 3G or 4G “High Speed Wireless Internet Anywhere” connection that would just be included in the bill that I already pay AT&T for my iPhone for an additional $20/month.
Mac Desktop
Yes, the Mac Pro desktop machine is great, but who can afford it? If you want a desktop Mac, you are forced to buy either the iMac or the Mac Mini, both of which are really cool looking, but they really compromise on performance and lack the ability to really upgrade or customize them.
Give us a plain old Mac. I don’t care if it doesn’t have an 8 Core Xeon processor. I also don’t care if it’s more than 2 inches thick. I just want a normal tower. Just stick a Core 2 Duo in it. Give me the option to put a big hard drive in if I want. Or a nice graphics card.
Apple TV + HDDVR
Yes, I thought Apple did a great job with the Apple TV update, but still. That’s only because you can now rent movies from iTunes, which really has nothing to do with the Apple TV.
I’d like to see an Apple TV + HDDVR with a built in tuner, or ability to actually watch and record tv shows. And since it’s already connecting to my mac, why not allow my mac to broadcast a High Def signal that lets me use my HDTV as a wireless monitor.
That would allow me to watch shows like LOST on ABC in full streaming HD, right from my computer, on my HDTV screen.
This video by jacksfilms pretty much sums up my feelings about the new MacBook Air
World’s fastest man on no legs is just too darn fast
Posted on January 15, 2008
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Oscar Pistorius, a 21-year-old athlete from South Africa, was born without fibulas and had both legs amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old. In spite of this, he has set world records in the 100, 200 and 400 meters. He is called the “World’s Fastest Man On No Legs”.
Oscar Pistorius dream is to compete in the Olympic games, but he is not eligible to compete in the Olympic qualifying events. According to the International Association of Athletics Federations, an independent scientific study showed that Pistorius’s state-of-the-art carbon fiber prosthetics “should be considered as technical aids which give him an advantage over other athletes not using them.”
The I.A.A.F. had originally cleared him to compete last June, pending further scientific examination of his prosthetic blades, known as Cheetahs. “I feel that it is my responsibility,” Pistorius told The Associated Press, “on behalf of myself and all other disabled athletes, to stand firmly and not allow one organization to inhibit our ability to compete using the very tools without which we simply cannot walk, let alone run. I will not stand down.”
Go Pistorius!