Get Cynical

I think this is from Ed Sullivan.

PVC encouraged me.

From CNN:

The key to his escape was a safety pin that was holding together a rip in Clay’s jacket, Kelle said.

While his abductor was driving Clay away from the bus stop, the boy took the safety pin off his sleeve and nervously played with it, Kelle said.

When Clay was taken from the truck into the woods, he put the safety pin in his mouth, his stepfather said. Asked later by his parents why he did that, he said he “just thought it would be helpful,” Kelle said.

The abductor tied Clay up with duct tape and gagged him with a sock, Kelle said.

When the boy was sure the man had left, he spit the sock — and the safety pin — onto the ground. With his hands still bound in front of him, Clay used a stick and his mouth to get the pin back.

“He used the safety pin to free himself by picking at [the duct tape] and more or less untying what was binding him,” Kelle said. “And then he used that and his mouth once he was free to pull the duct tape off.”

Clay estimated the process took as long as an hour, his stepfather said.

The boy then walked until he found a farm worker with a cell phone.

I think he was high.

Wait, politicians now have campaign headquarters in Second Life?

Shortly before midnight (CST) on Monday, February 26, a group of republican Second Life users, some sporting “Bush ’08″ tags, vandalized the John Edwards Second Life HQ. They plastered the area with Marxist/Lenninist posters and slogans, a feces spewing obsenity, and a photoshopped picture of John in blackface, all the while harrassing visitors with right-wing nonsense and obsenity-laden abuse of Democrats in general and John in particular.

(via Oliver Willis)

From Geekologie:

For the ultimate in lazy, this is a mini-fridge that launches beers so you don’t have to get up off the couch. I’m just glad there’s somebody out there focusing their energies on the important stuff.

(Thanks Dave)

Flying a kite in Pakistan seems to be an extreme sport:

At least 11 people died in an annual two-day kite festival in Punjab Province. Officials said two died after their throats were cut by kite strings made of wire, used to damage rival kites. Five died after being hit by celebratory gunshots, and two people were electrocuted trying to untangle kites from overhead power cables. Two others fell from roofs. The police arrested more than 700 people for using sharpened kite strings or firing guns. The authorities had temporarily lifted a ban on kite-flying that was imposed after deaths at last year’s festival.

(Thanks Markus)

Everybody altogether now…. Awwwwwwww:

Blockbuster Inc. says it is in discussions with its chief executive over his 2006 bonus, as it reported a 28 percent drop in its fourth-quarter profit, which took a hit on store closures.

Blockbuster’s board said in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it awarded CEO John Antioco a $2.28 million bonus in January, in addition to his 2006 salary and deferred compensation of $2.5 million. However, Antioco said that based on the company’s 2006 senior bonus plan and performance goals, he is entitled to a $7.65 million bonus.

The company said it will reserve $4.5 million to deal with the discrepancy over the payout.

Thousand-Hand Bodhisattva Masterpiece