They Were Where
What do you do when you get lost in a storm drain? Call for help... by updating your Facebook status. When two girls, ages 10 and 12, lost their way in a storm water drain in South Australia, they used their cell phones to access their Facebook page and updated their status to being lost in the drains. Luckily, a friend online saw their post and called the police for help.
“If they were able to access Facebook from their mobile phones, they could have called 000 [the equivalent of our 911],” said Glenn Benham, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Fire Service. Benham explained that storm drains are prone to flash flooding and are very dangerous. “They could have called us directly and we could have gotten there quicker than relying on someone being online and replying to them and eventually having to call us via 000 anyway. It’s a worry for us because it causes a delay in being able to rescue the girls.”
People are increasingly choosing to communicate through social networking sites. For many younger generations immersed in this technology, their first thought is to communicate through sites like Facebook. The “natural way to send a message out to their friends and others is via Facebook. Unfortunately in this case, the message was that they were stuck in a storm drain,” said Terry Flew, a media professor at Queensland University of Technology in Australia.
Rogue Staples
A Queens, New York Supreme Court judge dismissed a motion for default judgment partly because of a law firm’s bad stapling technique. “The poor stapling of the papers was so negligent as to inflict, and did inflict repeatedly, physical injury to the court personnel handling them.” During this case, the hazardous staples drew blood twice.
Jeffrey Hirsh, the attorney assigned to the case cited that he and his wife, who run their office out of Cedarhurst, Long Island, have never had this problem before. Handling over 5,000 cases together, no one has ever complained about their stapling. In his own defense, Hirsh told the New York Law Journal that this was an “isolated occurrence.”
A clerk for Judge Markey said that the staples twice drew blood. “Such negligence on the part of the counsel shows lack of consideration,” wrote the judge.
That’s One Big Hamster
Did you ever look at a hamster and wonder how it would feel to live like one? Well now you can find out when you stay at a hotel in Nantes, France. Owners of the hotel, Frederic Tabary and Yann Falquerho, specialize in providing experiences to guests who want to try something different. The two architects designed “The Hamster Villa” to provide a special experience for that special customer.
Dressed in a hamster costume, Falquerho said “the hamster in the world of children is that little buddy animal. Often, the adults who come here have wanted or did have hamsters when they were small.”
Guests who stay in the suite have the opportunity to stay in a room that resembles the inside of a hamster’s cage, run on a giant exercise wheel, eat grains and seeds, and sleep in piles of hay.
The cost of staying at the Hamster Villa runs $148 per night, although the cost will likely rise shortly due to the need to provide wireless Internet access and a large screen television for the modern hamster.
