In the town of Quilmes, Argentina, there is a house made of empty glass beer bottles. 6 million of them, to be exact.
TIto Ingenieri didn't have any other way to make his house, so he began collecting plastic beer bottles from all over the town. Locals began giving their bottles to Tito as well, and over 19 years, he accumulated 6 million bottles for his empire.
The size and scale of this house is what is so astounding about it, and we applaud Ingenieri's ingenious reusing of bottles.
The web is abuzz with a new viral video featuring an all-star roster of Saturday Night Live presidential impersonators, from Fred Armisen's Barack Obama to Chevy Chase's Gerald Ford. In the Funny or Die video, directed by Ron Howard, the presidents visit Barack and Michelle Obama (Maya Rudolph) to endorse the proposal for stricter regulation of credit card companies and banks. The cast: Chevy Chase (Gerald Ford), Dan Aykroyd (Jimmy Carter), Jim Carrey (Ronald Reagan), Dana Carvey (George H-W Bush), Darrell Hammond (Bill Clinton), Will Ferrell (George W. Bush) and Fred Armisen (Barack Obama).
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Can't we just [eff]? I'm a 19-year-old girl, what's wrong with you?"
Former Warrant vocalist Jani Lane is in trouble with the law after failing to make two court appearances last month.
Lane was due in court on February 23 to show the judge that he'd successfully finished community services and alcohol classes (we assume these don't teach you how to get drunk). All this relates to his arrest and conviction on a drunk-drive charge after Lane drove into a parked car last June in LosAngeles.
When he failed to make the above date, this was then put back 24 hours. But again, Lane didn’t turn up.
Now a warrant has been issued for his arrest, even though his lawyer claims the singer's in hospital.
You've heard of a wedding registry — well, this is a divorce registry.
Divorce can be liberating for some. But starting over can be emotionally and financially taxing, as well. One British department store chain hopes to ease the transition for the recently divorced by launching a specialized gift list that family and friends can use to help newly single loved ones stock up on things like sheets, towels and appliances for their new home.
"Obviously divorce is quite an expensive time with legal fees and it can be quite busy; there's lots of stuff to think about," says Ruth Attridge, spokeswoman for Debenhams department store, which has more than 150 outlets across Britain and Ireland. "So we thought well, we'll set up a divorce gift list and maybe it'll be a way for friends and family to help that person on their way a bit." She says several customers turned the company onto the idea last year when they inquired whether there were divorce gift lists similar to the ones the chain offers for weddings, anniversaries and birthdays. Since the program was unveiled in January, calls have flooded in from curious prospective clients.
Setting up a divorce gift list is simple. Customers book an appointment at a store to pick the items they think they'll want in their new place, with or without some help from the staff (a divorce registry specialist, if you will). Afterward, the selections are posted online for family and friends to browse and buy. Based on market research, Debenhams expects most divorce gift list recipients to be men, for the simple fact that more women tend to remain in the marital home after a breakup, especially if the couple has children.
The British chain is believed to be the first to launch such a program. However, given the proclivity of Americans for divorce — recent statistics put the U.S. divorce rate at about 3.5 per 1,000 people, or roughly half the marriage rate — it may only be a matter of time before the concept makes the jump across the pond.
Products like greeting cards, sponge cakes and divorce-themed books are all the rage now in the U.S. and Europe. Christine Gallagher's book The Divorce Party Planner includes a "full party plan," with advice on gift ideas, games and appropriate divorce party music. But a divorce gift list isn't just about stocking the new bachelor (or bachelorette) pad with cool stuff; it's also about making a fresh start. And not having to dig out that makeshift milk crate coffee table from your old college days.
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The social networking site, which connects old friends and allows users to make new ones online, is being blamed for an increasing number of marital breakdowns. Divorce lawyers claim the explosion in the popularity of websites such as Facebook and Bebo is tempting to people to cheat on their partners. Suspicious spouses have also used the websites to find evidence of flirting and even affairs which have led to divorce. One law firm, which specializes in divorce, claimed almost one in five petitions they processed cited Facebook. "I had heard from my staff that there were a lot of people saying they had found out things about their partners on Facebook and I decided to see how prevalent it was I was really surprised to see 20 per cent of all the petitions containing references to Facebook. "The most common reason seemed to be people having inappropriate sexual chats with people they were not supposed to."
Flirty emails and messages found on Facebook pages are increasingly being cited as evidence of unreasonable behavior.
Computer firms have even cashed in by developing software allowing suspicious spouses to electronically spy on someone's online activities.
One 35-year-old woman even discovered her husband was divorcing her via Facebook.
Conference organizer Emma Brady was distraught to read that her marriage was over when he updated his status on the site to read: "Neil Brady has ended his marriage to Emma Brady."
Last year a 28-year-old woman ended her marriage after discovering her husband had been having a virtual affair with someone in cyberspace he had never met.
Amy Taylor 28, split from David Pollard after discovering he was sleeping with an escort in the game Second Life, a virtual world where people reinvent themselves.
Around 14 million Britons are believed to regularly use social networking sites to communicate with old friends or make new ones.
The popularity of the Friends Reunited website several years ago was also blamed for a surge in divorces as bored husbands and wives used it to contact old flames and first loves.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
1. THIN LIZZY - Live and Dangerous | 21. LYNYRD SKYNYRD - One More From the Road |
| 2. DEEP PURPLE - Made in Japan | 22. MOTORHEAD - No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith |
| 3. UFO - Strangers in the Night | 23. HUMBLE PIE - Rockin' the Fillmore |
| 4. THE WHO - Live at Leeds | 24. URIAH HEEP - Live 1973 |
| 5. AC/DC - If You Want Blood, You Got It | 25. LED ZEPPELIN - How The West Was Won |
| 6. IRON MAIDEN - Live After Death | 26. QUEEN - Live at Wembley '86 |
| 7. PINK FLOYD - Pulse | 27. ASIA - Fantasia |
| 8. PETER FRAMPTON - Frampton Comes Alive | 28. RORY GALLAGHER - Irish Tour '74 |
| 9. KISS - Alive | 29. WHITESNAKE - Live in the Heart of the City |
| 10. GENESIS - Seconds Out | 30. ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND - Live at Fillmore East |
| 11. STATUS QUO - Live! | 31. SLADE - Slade Alive |
| 12. YES - Yessongs | 32. METALLICA - S-&-M |
| 13. JETHRO TULL - Bursting Out | 33. ROLLING STONES - Get Yer Ya Ya's Out |
| 14. HAWKWIND - Space Ritual | 34. FREE - Live |
| 15. CHEAP TRICK - At Budokan | 35. RUSH - Rush In Rio |
| 16. WISHBONE ASH - Live Dates (1973) | 36. THUNDER - 20 Years and Out: Hammersmith Apollo July 2009 |
| 17. LED ZEPPELIN - The Song Remains the Same | 37. RAINBOW - On Stage |
| 18. QUEEN - Live Killers | 38.Woodstock |
| 19. RUSH - All the World's a Stage | 39. DAVID GILMOUR - Live in Gdansk |
| 20. RUSH - Exit Stage Left | 40. JUDAS PRIEST - Unleashed in the East |
The original postal service motto, "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these courageous couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" - may have to be amended to exclude Saturdays now.
The U.S. Postal Service is increasing the pressure for dropping Saturday home delivery as it seeks to fend off massive financial losses. Postmaster General John Potter, who has a speech set for later Tuesday on the future of his agency, will also raise the likelihood of higher postage rates. The agency was $297 million in the red in period from October through December, usually its best season because of holiday mailings.
The post office's problems stem from a sharp decline in the number of items mailed, resulting from the recession and the movement of things like bills and bill-paying to electronic communications.
There's a new sheriff in town and his name is John Doe. And he may be in the cubicle next to you. Under a newly amended rule from the Internal Revenue Service, ordinary citizens can help the tax man cometh, or at least collect. The new Whistleblower Office is the IRS's attempt to give incentives for you to rat out the tax cheats you know.
That's right. If your employer, co-worker, landlord, neighbor or father-in-law is raking in fistfuls of cash and bypassing Uncle Sam, you can anonymously report the abuse to the IRS and snag a windfall from their dishonesty.
As long as the total amount of tax fraud comes out to at least $2 million (including penalties, interest, and whatever else the government ultimately collects based on your report), you can get a 15 to 30 percent cut.
The IRS modeled the new program on the Department of Justice's successful False Claims Act, which has been in place since the Civil War era and attracts tips about fraudulent claims against federal government programs. In 2006 alone, the government recovered more than $1.4 billion through that law.
Ratting on your boss or ex-husband might sound sleazy, but whistleblowers have taken on a more venerable image in recent years. That's especially true since the Enron era, when the few employees who spoke up about the company's misconduct were seen as turned from Cassandras to folk heroes after the full extent of wrongdoing came to light.
Late last week a 38-year guessing game seemed to have come to its end when Carly Simon released a re-worked version of her hit song "You're So Vain." Fans, media outlets, mystery lovers, and even people who weren't alive when the song was first released all joined the conversation when it was revealed that the subject of the song is music mogul David Geffen.
Or was it?
Over the weekend, Simon, who was en route to the U.K. to promote the album that contains the new version of "You're So Vain, dashed off an email to Showbiz 411's Roger Friedman, exclaiming: "What a riot! Nothing to do with David Geffen!" Friedman, who is a writer for The Hollywood Reporter blog, says Carly didn't even know Geffen in 1971, which is when she wrote the song.
The whole "So Vain" brouhaha began when British newspaper The Sun jumped to conclusions after playing the new version backwards and hearing what they claim is the singer clearly saying "David." That David, according to The Sun's logic, had to David Geffen, the head of Elektra Records at the time. The announcement was easy fodder for bloggers, and the mystery was considered solved (after all, what other David besides David Geffen had a private jet in 1971?).
Still, Carly's denial in and of itself is intriguing, as she also confirmed that the song is full of clues.
Simon told Friedman:
"What a funny mistake! Someone got a clue mistaken for another mistake!"
So the hunt continues for the mystery jet-setting man, who may or may not have something to do with the name "David." Past guesses have included Carly's ex-boyfriends Mick Jagger, Warren Beatty, Cat Stevens, and Kris Kristofferson.
"This is just liquid nitrogen, so it alone won't hurt the computer. But this will."
