Friday, February 20, 2009

Friday Morning Filing

File under "horrifying": The Palm Beach County Courthouse in West Palm Beach, Florida, has such a bad mice problem that they've been seen falling from ceiling tiles and staffers have to check their handbags for "stowaways" before leaving for the day.

Under "invasive": Passengers at Tulsa International Airport are among the first in the country to go through full-body scanners instead of metal detectors.

From USAToday: "The machines use electromagnetic waves to create pictures of energy reflected off people. The metallic-looking images show outlines of private body parts and blur passengers' faces. Two Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners in a closed room near the checkpoint view the images on computer monitors and relay information on radio headsets to checkpoint screeners."

Under "off-beat" or "ouch": A dispatch from the international yoga championship — who knew there was such a thing? — where yogis trash-talk, young girls arch back and put their toes in the mouth, and the goal is enlightened bliss.

Under "red wrigglers": About composting in New York, or any place, really, where you compost inside.

Under "stimulus package": States will be responsible for doling out federal stimulus funds and that could slow down the process (especially if local elected officials call for rejecting said funds). Highway building funds must be deployed within 120 days or they are sent back to the federal government. But other funds just need to be spent by 2010.

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