Friday, November 13, 2009

Misc. Headlines

Artist Jack Daw's Golden Penny is Found
"Two years ago, Seattle artist Jack Daws made a penny using about a hundred dollars' worth of gold. It was a counterfeit. A good one, barely noticeable unless the patina wore down and the gold showed through, or unless somebody put it on a scale. (This is not a crime.) He put it into circulation at LAX while buying a Hustler. Essentially, he gave away a hundred dollars in gold. It was entirely possible that nobody would ever discover the sculpture in their chunk of change. But somebody did—...."
NC school officials nix cash-for-grades fundraiser
The school was offering 20 test points to students in exchange for a $20 donation. Rosewood principal Susie Shepherd had said that she approved the idea after a parent advisory council presented it as a way to raise money. Shepherd rejected the suggestion that extra points on two tests could make a difference in a final grade.
Wedding ring found amid 10 tons of trash
PARSIPPANY, N.J. - Sanitation workers sorted through 10 tons of trash to recover a wedding ring accidentally thrown away by a New Jersey couple. Bridget Pericolo had placed the ring in a cup that her husband, Angelo, threw out with the garbage before leaving for work Monday morning. When he realized the mistake, he contacted the town's sanitation supervisor, who suggested coming by the Parsippany dump.
Mystery of Argleton, the 'Google' town that only exists online
The town appears on Google Maps in the middle of fields close to the M58 motorway, just south of Ormskirk. Its 'presence' means that online businesses that use data from the software have detected it and automatically treated it as a real town in the L39 postcode area. An internet search for the town now brings up a series of home, job and dating listings for people and places "in Argleton", as well as websites which help people find its nearest chiropractor and even plan jogging or hiking routes through it. The businesses, people and services listed are real, but are actually based elsewhere in the same postcode area.