It’s time for another Tuesday Turnip wherein I type a random phrase and we see what kind of interesting factoids “turn-up.”

Today I typed in “longest prison sentence” unearthing the following:

• Marking the longest sentence ever handed out in a federal environmental crimes case, a Florida man today was sentenced to 13 years in prison for intentionally dumping toxic waste into Tampa’s sewer system and waterways, the Justice Department announced.
• Former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham began his first day in prison after being sentenced to eight years and four months for taking $2.4 million in homes, yachts and other bribes in a corruption scheme unmatched in the annals of Congress. Cunningham’s sentence Friday was described by attorneys for both sides as the longest prison sentence ever given to a member of Congress.
• The largest custodial sentence ever to be imposed by a UK court for games piracy was handed down by Cardiff Crown Court yesterday, with a man being sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment for a counterfeiting offence. South Wales man John Lamb (45) of Llanharan, near Bridgend, pleaded guilty to 30 counts of trademark and video recording offences, covering games, films and business software

And then from trivia-library.com, we get these, which may or may not be accurate:

• “The longest recorded prison sentences were ones of 7,109 years, awarded to 2 confidence tricksters in Iran (formerly Persia) on June 15, 1969. The duration of sentences are [sic] proportional to the amount of the defalcations involved. A sentence of 384,912 years was demanded at the prosecution of Gabriel March Grandos, 22, at Palma de Mallorca, Spain, on March 11, 1972, for failing to deliver 42,768 letters.
• “Richard Honeck was sentenced to life imprisonment in the U.S. in 1899, after having murdered his former schoolteacher. It was reported in November, 1963, that Honeck, then aged 84, who was in Menard Penitentiary, Chester, III., was due to be paroled after 64 years in prison, during which time he had received one letter (a 4-line note from his brother in 1904) and 2 visitors, a friend in 1904 and a newspaper reporter in 1963. He was released on December 20, 1963.
• “Juan Corona, a Mexican-American, was sentenced to 25 consecutive life terms for murdering 25 migrant farm workers he had hired, killed, and buried in 1970-1971 near Feather River, Yuba City, Calif., on February 5, 1973, at Fairfield, Calif.”

When I used to look for summer jobs, I always thought it would be instructive, if not entirely profound, to drive truck. I knew a few kids who had satisfied the CDL paperwork and suddenly boasted routes up and down I-5 transporting garlic and tomatoes. But the convenience of service jobs abounded, and I never got around to climbing aboard a rig; however, the romance of the job lingered until various high school classmates and then a member of my family joined the fleet and could properly devastate my illusions of the itinerant life. I had envisioned my career on the road as similar to an Altman film (more Nashville than Short Cuts), but the reported facts held me in a snare… (more…)

(Note: NO SPOILERS in this post!)

I’m a latecomer to this whole Harry Potter thing, but am no less enthusiastic about the recent release of the final volume. Last Fall, I got into the series by buying The Complete Harry Potter (also: currently-nonfunctional iTunes link), a then-$249 collection which included the first six audiobooks, expertly narrated by Jim Dale. Yes, this is crazy expensive for any digital purchase. But according to iTunes, this is 3.9 days of narration, comprising 1.34 GB of data. That’s a heck of a lot of audio! It took me months to get through the first six books via iPod. And for what it’s worth, Dale’s performance is the best I’ve heard for an audiobook.

To seal the deal for iPod owners like me, iTunes is the only digital option for Harry Potter — Audible and competitors don’t carry the Harry Potter series at all, presumably due to the high royalties (and thus high sticker prices on the audiobooks) that are involved in this hot commodity. Yes, you could buy the CD audiobooks and import them if you had a lot of time on your hands, but it could take a while — the unabridged series should just about fit on 76 CDs. (Note: Audiobook Builder helps.)

So when the final Harry Potter book was released, I wondered: will it show up on iTunes at one minute past midnight, just like the physical books? Well, the short answer was: no. Leading up to the book’s release, fans speculated about when the audiobook would hit iTunes. They (and I, ever-refreshing in iTunes) took note when The Complete Harry Potter was pulled from iTunes on Saturday, though the books were still available (and topping the audiobook charts) individually. Would the new audiobook come Sunday? No. Monday? Um, not so much.

As it stands now, audiobook fans can pick up the 17-disc CD set for nearly $50 on Amazon. There is no word from Apple on when the audiobook will hit iTunes, but you can join in the speculation if you’ve got an idea. As for me? I bought the “old fashioned” book — yes, made out of ANALOG PAPER — and starting churning through it on Sunday. And as I read, all I hear is Jim Dale’s voice narrating in my head! (Though I should note that seeing the spelling of terms like “accio” and “veritaserum” for the first time is a bit of a shock.)

Oh, and please no spoilers in the comments!

Okay, now I’m a believer. When some friends invited me to check out a tap dance performance at the Hollywood Bowl last night, I started thinking about all the half-finished projects I could be working on instead … but I acquiesced, they dragged me along, and my mind was blown. It was young tap legend Savion Glover, who at the tender age of 34 has been hailed as not only the best tap dancer alive, but according to the late, great Gregory Hines — his mentor — the greatest there has ever been. At 16, he starred in the movie Tap with Hines, then spent five years as a regular cast member on Sesame Street. He’s come light years since then, but we couldn’t resist posting this classic clip of a teenaged Savion tapping (and rapping) with Snuffalupagus: (more…)

If you’re looking for all the brains of a bartender combined with the good looks of R2-D2, mental_floss might just have what you need: the Asahi BeerBot. For a paltry $800, ThisNext is reporting that this child-proof mobile fridge will store up to 6 canned beverages for you, and will even open and pour them into glasses whenever you require it. Sounds like a neat party trick (and an easy way for a robot to make friends!). And while there’s no word on whether future versions will hold a beer funnel for you, subject you to peer pressure, or cut you off after a certain number of drinks, it is comforting to know that world’s top engineers are working hard to solve humanity’s biggest problems. Link via ThisNext.

Every time I wash my hands with our Dr. Bronner’s, I can’t help but think about some remarkable trivia surrounding its creator:

For instance, did you know Dr. Bronner was an escaped mental patient? (all those nutty messages on his soap bottles won him a ticket to an insane asylum.) And did you know several members of his family were killed in the Holocaust? Then there’s this, more pleasant piece of trivia: the new generation of Bronners, those who run the company now, donate a healthy portion of all the company’s profits to charity.
Lastly, a filmmaker named Sara Lamm has a new doc on Bronner called Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soapbox. Anyone see it yet? Worth shelling out $14.50 for?

Last week, police in Iran apprehended a group of 14 squirrels on, get this, suspicion of spying. Apparently the rodents had been outfitted with eavesdropping equipment and were picked up on a tip from foreign intelligence services. Now, it’s possible that this is all a stunt to show how tough Iranians are on crime, but if the squirrels really are enemy operative, they would join the historic ranks of cloak-and-dagger animals. Here’s a look at some other non-human spies, illustrated with help from our friends at the Image of the Day archive at The Cellar.

Pigeons are noted for their delivery skills and the appeal was not lost on troops. They were used since the 19th Century to transmit messages in the field until the walkie-talkie took that over. In World War II, British officials even awarded 32 pigeons the Dickin Medal for animal valor. Plans were even in the works to use pigeons to drop bacteria on enemy troops, though they presumably never got off the ground. Here we see a war pigeon in it’s natural environment- hunkered down in the trenches.

(more…)

I have twelve orange pumpkins in my garden (and a couple of green ones). I didn’t even plan to raise pumpkins this year! We had a bit of a warm spell in February, when I noticed there were some pumpkin sprouts in the compost pile, from the seeds of last year’s Jack O’Lantern (which came from our garden). I rescued the sprouts and potted them up, keeping them safe and warm til May, then transplanted them into the garden. With that head start, the pumpkin crop is already beyond my wildest dreams. What am I going to do with a dozen pumpkins?

Pumpkins have grown in North and Central America for thousands of years. Native Americans used pumpkins for several types of dishes, such as pumpkin bread, soup, and candy. They dried pumpkin flesh and ground it up to preserve it for later use. They even used dried strips of pumpkin shell to weave into mats. The early settlers, including the Pilgrims, made pumpkin pies by removing the seeds and pouring milk, honey, and spices into a pumpkin, then baking it.

More on pumpkins and what they’re for, after the jump.
(more…)

Can you spot which stories come straight out of the tabloids and which belong to your favorite Saturday morning cartoon? Click here to take our newest quiz from all-star intern Jason Plautz, and be sure to report your scores below when you’re done!

Maybe it’s just because I live on the West Coast, but the majority of the offices I’ve worked in here have been run by people–men and women–who’ve used feng shui in their offices–and if not the entire office, then definitely at least the desk. Full disclosure: I also feng shui my desk. Partly to avoid Irritable Desk Syndrome. And partly because yes, sometimes I have a sinking feeling that one of my baguas is deficient. Thanks to Mangesh, we know about websites designed in accordance with feng shui, and there’s another rather major office place that incorporated feng shui right into its blueprints: the Hong Kong Disneyland! Here’s how it played out (seemingly, with an emphasis on numerology, too):

• The main ballroom at the Disneyland Hotel at the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort is 888 square meters, because 888 is a “wealthy” number.
• Large rocks are placed throughout Hong Kong Disneyland park because they represent stability in feng shui. Two boulders have been placed within the park, and each Disney hotel in the resort has a feng shui rock in its entrance and courtyard or pool areas. The boulders also prevent good fortune from flowing away from the theme park or hotels.
• The elevators at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort do not have the number four, and no building (including the Hong Kong Disneyland hotels) has a fourth floor. The number four is considered unlucky in Chinese culture because it sounds like the Chinese word for death.
• No clocks are sold at the stores in Hong Kong Disneyland because in Chinese the phrase “giving clock” sounds like “going to a funeral.

Do you use feng shui in your work place (or theme park)?