… Dad’s a Diamond, Dog Dislodges Apple, Grand Canyon Engineering (again) and MORE!

Dead Dad Diamond
A family in the UK has created a “fitting memorial” to deceased dad Mick Egan — by converting him into a synthetic diamond, reports BBC News (via The Register).

After Egan died of a brain hemorrhage last year, his wife Susan decided to preserve her husband’s memory in a novel way. A U.S. company extracted carbon from Egan’s ashes, heated it to create graphite and then compressed the result to create a rough diamond, which was then cut to the family’s specifications.

The memorial arrived the day before daughter Celeste’s wedding, according to The Register, “allowing dad to accompany her down the aisle.”

Must Love Dogs
A dog has saved its owner by giving her the Heimlich maneuver. No, really.

Debbie Parkhurst couldn’t breathe after a chunk of fruit became wedged in her windpipe. She then began beating her chest, which might have attracted two-year-old Toby the golden retriever’s attention.

“The next thing I know, Toby’s up on his hind feet and he’s got his front paws on my shoulders,” she told the Cecil Whig newspaper (via The Associated Press). He pushed me to the ground, and once I was on my back, he began jumping up and down on my chest.”

The apple was then dislodged.

‘Generous Executives’ Not an Oxymoron
Among all the commotion over corporate pay these days, it’s nice to hear about some executives doing something good with their ridiculous amounts of riches.

For one, Japanese developer Genshiro Kawamoto made good on his promise to help needy families last week by turning over the keys to three multi-million-dollar homes to three families. The flamboyant Japanese billionaire announced in October that he would rent eight of his homes to low-income families for $150 a month. As he handed over the keys and $1,000 in spending money to each family, however, he announced that the families will be allowed to live in the homes for free.

He confessed to The Honolulu Advertiser that he had in fact never intended to charge a dime in rent.

Also worth noting is news earlier this month that Delta Air Lines CEO Gerald Grinstein is refusing any stock, stock options or cash when the carrier emerges from bankruptcy. Grinstein, who has led the U.S.’s No. 3 airline since January 2004, said he wants Delta instead to invest what he would have gotten in post-bankruptcy bonuses, to be used for scholarships and emergency hardship assistance for Delta employees, families and retirees.

Under a post-bankruptcy compensation plan recently unveiled, Grinstein could have been expected to net about $10 million, including such bonuses, over about three years.

This Wine Tastes Like Ladybug Pee
If you have a bad bottle of wine, it might be because there are ladybugs in it.

ScienceDaily reports that a growing number of winemakers say that their wines have an abnormal aroma and flavor known as “ladybug taint” because it resembles the polka-dotted insect’s characteristic foul-smelling odor. Winemakers report that there are more ladybugs in vineyards and on the grapes during harvest. Experts believe that the bugs can be inadvertently processed and fermented with grapes and taint the aroma and flavor of wine.

Now chemists at Iowa State University, led by university agricultural engineer Jacek Koziel, Ph.D., say they have identified several compounds that are responsible for the ladybug’s noxious odor, according to ScienceDaily. The finding could lead to new strategies to detect and eliminate the offensive compounds, thus leading to better tasting wine.

$1 Parking Ticket from 1980 Finally Paid
A parking ticket for $1 issued in 1980 showed up at the police department over the weekend, leaving police dumbfounded. The scofflaw tossed in a $3 late fee.

“It’s kind of cool that someone took the time to take care of their obligation after 26 years,” a police captain, who doesn’t know who mailed in the payment, told the (Milwaukee) Journal Sentinel.

The return address on the ticket reads, “Someone who keeps way too many old papers way too long.”

10 Best April Fool’s Day Media Hoaxes
The tradition of April Fool’s Day stories in the media has quite a history. To wit, here are the top 10 such pranks ever pulled off, as judged by the Museum of Hoaxes:

1) In 1957, a BBC television show announced that, thanks to a mild winter and the virtual elimination of the spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a fantastic(al) spaghetti crop. Footage of Swiss farmers pulling strands of spaghetti from trees prompted a barrage of calls from people wanting to know how to grow their own spaghetti at home.

2) In 1985, Sports Illustrated magazine published a story that a rookie baseball pitcher who could reportedly throw a ball at 270 kilometers per hour (168 miles per hour) was set to join the New York Mets. Sidd Finch was said to have mastered his skill in a Tibetan monastery. Mets fans’ celebrations were short-lived.

3) In 1962, Sweden had only one television channel, which broadcast in black and white. The station’s technical expert appeared on the news to announce that thanks to a newly developed technology, viewers could convert their existing sets to receive color pictures by pulling a nylon stocking over the screen. In fact, they had to wait until 1970.

4) In 1996, fast-food chain Taco Bell announced that it had bought Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell, a historic symbol of American independence, from the federal government and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Outraged citizens called to express their anger before Taco Bell revealed the hoax. The White House press secretary at the time (Mike McCurry) was asked about the sale; he said the Lincoln Memorial in Washington had also been sold and was to be renamed the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial after the automotive giant.

5) In 1977, British newspaper The Guardian published a seven-page supplement for the 10th anniversary of San Serriffe, a small republic located in the Indian Ocean consisting of several semicolon-shaped islands. A series of articles described the geography and culture of the two main islands, named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse.

6) In 1992, National Public Radio announced that Richard Nixon was running for president again. His new campaign slogan was, “I didn’t do anything wrong, and I won’t do it again.” NPR even had clips of Nixon announcing his candidacy. Listeners flooded the show with calls expressing their outrage. Nixon’s voice actually turned out to be that of an impersonator.

7) In 1998, a newsletter titled New Mexicans for Science and Reason carried an article that the state of Alabama had voted to change the value of pi from 3.14159 to the “Biblical value” of 3.0.

8) In 1998, fast-food chain Burger King published a full-page advertisement in USA Today announcing the introduction of the “Left-Handed Whopper,” specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the ad, the new burger included the same ingredients as the original, but the condiments were rotated 180 degrees. The chain said it received thousands of requests for the new burger, as well as orders for the original “right-handed” version.

9) In 1995, Discover magazine announced that a highly respected biologist, Aprile Pazzo (Italian for April Fool), had discovered a new species in Antarctica: the hotheaded naked ice borer. The creatures were described as having bony plates on their heads that became burning hot, allowing the animals to bore through ice at high speed — a technique they used to hunt penguins.

10) In 1976, noted British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on the radio that at 9:47 a.m., a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event — in which Pluto would pass behind Jupiter — would cause a gravitational alignment that would reduce the Earth’s gravity. Moore told listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment of the planetary alignment, they would experience a floating sensation. Hundreds of people called in to report feeling the sensation.

Marvelous Eyesore?
Earlier this week we posted a piece about the Grand Canyon’s Skywalk, a U-shaped and glass-bottomed walkway that rests more than 4,000 feet above the canyon floor — and is considered both an engineering marvel and a distasteful eyesore, depending on who you ask. Here’s some more visual stimuli.

Conception and Construction

The Controversy

Visit Tuesday’s “To the Edge and Back: Grand Canyon Engineering” to weigh in on the million-pound construct.

**BONUS**

Here is a flying lawnmower:

Just ‘cuz. Hey, it’s Friday.

Cheers.