LEAD STORY: “Genetic modification” sounds like frighteningly complicated lab work, but amateurs are routinely doing it in garages and dining rooms across the country, according to a December Associated Press report. Hobbyists (some terming themselves “biohackers”) are busy creating new life forms and someday, observers say, may turn up a cure for cancer or an accidental environmental catastrophe. The community lab DIYbio in Cambridge, Mass., has patrons who typically work on vaccines and biofuels, but might also whimsically create tattoos that glow. One amateur bought jellyfish DNA containing a green fluorescent protein (for about $100), and built a DNA analyzer (less than $25) so she could alter yogurt bacteria to glow green when it detects melamine (the substance recently discovered in deadly Chinese baby formula and pet food).
I have chosen to live a more bizarre and exciting life, and all exciting lives include an arch nemesis, to keep you on your toes day to day.
Not the kind of nemesis that blows up buildings or kidnaps people that I’ll need to save, more like the kind that we can exchange prankish sort of things, like hide in the bushes outside my house and spray me with a fire extinguisher on my way to work, to which I retaliate days later with something equally silly.
There are some requirements:
must have a handlebar mustache
must be able to speak with an east European accent
must wear a top hat or bowler
must own a cape
must have some basic knowledge of bizarre sciences
must have title starting with “Dr.” “Prof.” or “Mister”
must have scar on face
must have an “evil” pet or pets, like tigers or alligators or robots or homeless minions
must laugh with fists clenched
If you fit these requirements, lets set up an audition, and hopefully you we can start our epic nemecy.
The students of Atlanta’s Ron Clark Academy keep true democracy in mind with their remix of T.I.’s “Whatever You Like.” It gets a little hard to figure out the “arguments” toward the end, but I’d want to be in this class. CNN captured the video.
Thanks to the efficient and helpful staff employed by the Mexican airline Aeroméxico, I had an 18 hour layover in Mexico City over the weekend. (more…)
Short on cash? Can’t get a loan? Want to sell that stereo, television, or peg leg? There’s always the pawn shop. Stop by Jerry’s Pawn Shop on the corner of Prior and Decatur. Dave Adelman owns Jerry’s Pawn Shop at the corner of Prior and Decatur streets downtown.
Where are you from originally and how did you get into the pawn shop business?
Originally from New Haven, Conn. I moved here in the 1970’s. How I got into the Pawn business was I got married in 1975 to my present wife, and her father was in the pawn business. But I never thought about getting into the pawn business — I had never been in a pawn shop before. I was in between jobs, and we were offered jobs in other cities but we wanted to stay here. So he had an employee in the hospital, and he needed somebody in the store just to help him out. So he asked me to come down and help him in between my job search and the rest is history. I kinda just fell in love with it. That was 30 years ago. It will be thirty years in ’09. (more…)
How many words is this worth? More than a thousand, but, really, it’s unquantifiable genius.
AccessNorthGa.com’s best news graphics don’t just illustrate or elaborate a story — they become the story. Using a complex graphical algorithm that attracts, confuses, amuses, delights and then intrigues readers, these bizarre Photoshop Frankensteins can add surprising appeal to a small-town news story. They’re the only reason I followed this summer’s rabies outbreaks in Hall County or knew about various North Georgia manhunts and car crashes.
And I keep coming back to AccessNorthGa.com for more. The creative flow has slowed considerably the last couple months, although the site does still occasionally reuse some classics. But since this is Best of Atlanta week, let’s review ANG’s hits of 2008. The top 15 are after the jump, in very little particular order.
For those of you who are early-to-rise, or just late-to-sleep, I’ll be on 92.9 Dave FM’s Zakk Tyler Morning Show Wednesday morning during the six o’clock hour.
I’ll be talking about our Best Of Atlanta 2008 issue, which hits the streets and the Web tomorrow.
Before it publishes tomorrow, anyway! Make sure to check out the special pullout section in tomorrow’s paper, or go to creativeloafingbestof.com to see who won in this year’s Raging Election!
Speaking of that theme, here’s this week’s question … And don’t forget to leave your e-mail in the comments section for a free Best of Atlanta 2008 T-shirt.
Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.
LEAD STORY: Italian and U.K. legal authorities have recently discarded rule interpretations based on embarrassingly anachronistic stereotypes of women. In July, Italy’s Court of Cassation reversed a 1999 ruling creating a legal presumption that a woman wearing tight jeans could not be the victim of rape because such jeans would be impossible to remove without her assistance. Coincidentally, at about the same time, the British government formally removed the special, ameliorating defense of “provocation” for husbands charged with murdering their wives, thus putting domestic homicide on the same footing as other homicides. (Some husbands had received lesser penalties by claiming that their wives’ affairs had provoked them to murder.)
Over the years I’ve noticed a variety of siren sounds for emergency vehicles. Is it true siren sounds have to be changed periodically, particularly in urban areas, to prevent drivers from getting used to a particular sound and not paying attention?
— Dylan, Chicago
Varietywise I don’t know that siren sounds are in the same league as ice-cream flavors, or for that matter the olive department at Whole Foods, but there are more than there used to be. Two are reliably found in just about all U.S. emergency vehicles: 1) the wail, the traditional “Dragnet”-type siren whose pitch in olden days rose and fell with the vehicle’s speed; and 2) the yelp, whose pitch rapidly alternates, reflecting the frantic pace of modern life. Other common sounds include 3) the European-style high-low or two-tone siren, which nowadays is often interspersed with whoops and other noises; 4) what’s sometimes called the “phaser” siren, which does sound a bit like something you’d use to take out the Klingons; and 5) the braying “air horn” (actually an electronic reproduction of an air horn), admittedly not a siren in the strictest sense, for when you can’t get the attention of space cases at intersections any other way.
LEAD STORY: The Other “Fight Clubs” Are for Sissies: At the August Dog Brothers “Gathering of the Pack” in Southern California, it was “[A]nything goes,” according to one warrior (looking to fight with “blunted knives”). A Reuters reporter witnessed two men without padding beat each other with heavy sticks and two others fight with electrically charged knives. The latter duel ended when, during a wrestling hold, one slipped a hand free and planted a 1,000-volt surge. The action seems exhilarating. Said one, “I’ve never felt better than when I’m doing this.” Another: “Honestly, I wish I could find a church with the same spirit of support and love [as I feel here].” Said “Crafty Dog” Denny, it’s “higher consciousness through harder contact.”
We know you are anxiously anticipating the results to drop on Sept. 24 — it’s coming up soon! — so until then, take our latest Best of Atlanta poll to tide you over. Keep checking back to CLFreshLoaf.com, where you can take a new poll every few days. After picking your fave, leave a comment with your e-mail address to win a free CL Best of Atlanta T-shirt — while supplies last!
The ballots are in, but the polls haven’t closed! We know you are anxiously anticipating the results to drop on Sept. 24, so until then, take our latest Best of Atlanta poll to tide you over. Keep checking back to CLFreshLoaf.com, where you can take a new poll every few days. After picking your fave, leave a comment with your e-mail address to win a free CL Best of Atlanta T-shirt — while supplies last!
The ballots are in, but the polls haven’t closed! We know you are anxiously anticipating the results to drop on Sept. 24, so until then, take our Best of Atlanta poll to tide you over. Keep checking back to CLFreshLoaf.com, where you can take a new poll every few days. After picking your fave, leave a comment with your e-mail address to win a free CL Best of Atlanta T-shirt — while supplies last!
The intersection of Adair Street and West Howard Avenue in Decatur is so dangerous, there were three city employees directing traffic there this morning: two school crossing guards and a police officer yelling at drivers through a megaphone.
How much do traffic lights cost? Are they less than the cost of putting two crossing guards and a cop and an intersection twice-a-day for an entire school year?
The ballots are in, but the polls haven’t closed! We know you are anxiously anticipating the results to drop on Sept. 24, so until then, take our Best of Atlanta poll to tide you over. Keep checking back to CLFreshLoaf.com, where you can take a new poll every few days. After picking your fave, leave a comment with your e-mail address to win a free CL Best of Atlanta T-shirt — while supplies last!
The ballots are in, but the polls haven’t closed! We know you are anxiously anticipating the results to drop on Sept. 24, so until then, take our Best of Atlanta poll to tide you over. Keep checking back to CLFreshLoaf.com, where you can take a new poll every few days. After picking your fave, leave a comment with your e-mail address to win a free CL Best of Atlanta T-shirt — while supplies last!
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