Marlene Wyatt of Yellville, Arkansas, was just looking for a Halloween costume... So she visited a newly opened second-hand store... And there it was: her hand-made prom dress from 33 years ago!!!

"I thought, this material looks familiar," Wyatt said... "Then I thought, 'Surely not' and finally, 'That's my dress!'" Wyatt had sewed the white, double-knit polyester dress when she was in high school... "We come from a large family, 12 kids," she said. "There were five girls at home at the time, so sewing my own clothes was helpful, but I always loved doing it."

Melissa Martin, owner of The Fashion Exchange, said she knew something special had happened because of the look on Wyatt's face... "This is amazing," she said. "What are the odds of something like this happening?" And while she can't remember where she got the dress, Martin does know she had it filed in the "Way Retro" section...

(And you thought the phrase about fashions coming around again was a figure of speech!)

The city of Malibu, California, apparently thinks some of it's population need to be reminded the obvious now and again... Take the latest tsunami safety brochures being passed out as part of an emergency preparedness campaign... After warning that tsunamis often follow large earthquakes, it goes on to state, in all capital letters, "NEVER GO TO THE BEACH TO WATCH FOR, OR SURF, A TSUNAMI WAVE!"

Malibu's emergency preparedness director, Brad Davis, said "Some people may feel that we are stating the obvious and some people may not... We want to encourage people to move away from the coast rather than towards it."

Don't like your job? Ever think things couldn't get worse at work? Ever been peed on by an Orangutan? Then it can't be that bad, can it? And just to prove it, Popular Science has just released their top 10 list of the Worst Jobs in Science for 2005... And they are:

10. Orangutan Pee Collector - More formally known as the noninvasive monitoring of Orangutan health through urine sampling...
9. NASA Ballerina - Of course, your partner is going to be a big robot...
8. Do-Gooder - Apparently Earthwatch Institute allows everyday people to pay them to pitch in on scientific expeditions to some of the people-unfriendly places imaginable...
7. Semen Washer - Someone has has to clean up the samples at sperm banks, right?
6. Volcanologist - But be prepared to rush into an erupting volcano!
5. Nuclear-Weapons Scientist - Not as exciting as it used to be...
4. Extremophile Excavator - Collecting microbes from some of the "most putrid, nauseating, arsenic-saturated mud on Earth..."
3. Kansas Biology Teacher - Think of it as teaching by committee...
2. Manure Inspector - Quality is job #1...
1. Human Lab Rat - Makes you think more about those "side effects" listed on those commercials, now, doesn't it...

(I love my job... I love my job... I love my job... I love my job...)

Working for a large, multi-national corporation, it always amazes those of us at work how close Scott Adams' Dilbert cartoon is to our every day lives... Like this one on Company Values from 2 weeks ago... It's like he works there! (Of course, he doesn't, but man it seems like it sometimes!)

And now Dilbert has his own blog! So if you are looking for something more than your daily three-cell cartoon fix, check out the Dilbert Blog... And if you are wondering whether you should visit the Dilbert Blog from work, consider the beginning of this entry from the 24th...

The City Council of Rome, Italy, has banned spherical bowls commonly used for goldfish... Apparently, according to animal rights activists, the bowls caused fish to go blind... "It's good to do whatever we can for our animals who in exchange for a little love fill our existence with their attention," said Monica Cirinna, the town councilor behind the by-law... "The civilization of a city can also be measured by this," she said...

We're back! In case you didn't notice, the big Error Message that occured if you tried to visit yesterday or today was not our normal content... It could be, but several surveys suggest people would like something else... If nothing else, while we were hunkered down for Hurricane Wilma, Tropical Storm Alpha made an appearance! So this hurricane season goes in the record books as both (A) the busiest season on record (beating 21 storms in 1933) and (B) the first time they ran out of hurricane names and had to start using Greek letters!

(Oh, and if you really liked the error, you can always see it again here... If you really like it, feel free to bookmark it or set it as your home page...)

The characters on the CSI TV shows have all sorts of neat stuff... Fingerprinting kits, footprint casting kits, luminol (for showing latent blood stains), UV lights and more... Most people have probably thought to themselves, "Wow, I wish I had one of those!" Which is where the Crime Scene web site comes in... They have an online store that allows you to buy all these things and more!

The "more" part is where I start having questions... One of the items they have for sale are body bags! Do you think they wonder why people buy those?

(I know I would wonder why people bought those... Especially if they buy in bulk!)

You always thought of that special loved one as a gem. Now the metaphor can take on a whole new meaning.

According to an Oct. 6 news story, a company called LifeGem can take eight ounces of human remains, subject them to super-hot ovens -- turning them into graphite -- then press the stone into blue or yellow diamonds. The cost of producing the finished gems ranges from $2,200 to $20,000, depending on the size, quantity and quality of stones produced.

A LifeGem spokesman assures that the average set of human remains can produce up to 20 gems, with "several pounds of ashes left over to display on the mantelpiece."

The arguments over who gets to wear Dad today are up to the individual family.

Like to take pictures of animals and exotic locations? Your picture could be worth $1,000,000 (about 835,000 Euro) if it meets one condition: it leads to the live capture of Bigfoot, the abominable snowman or the Loch Ness Monster! Loren Coleman, a professor at the University of Southern Maine, will be announcing full details at a cryptozoology symposium at Bates College over Halloween weekend... [Cryptozoology is the scientific study of hidden, rumored or unknown animals] "It's the time for something like this," Coleman said. "Back in the 1960s, hardly anybody was talking about this. Today, it's phenomenal." And while you may think the sightings are hoxes or frauds, the reward is real! "It's a very specific bounty that depends on the permanent capture of a live specimen, with emphasis on 'live'," Coleman said... "The company that's behind this really understands the situation," he said... "They understand the interest in the creatures and monsters that are really out there and they are willing to step forward..."

(So get your cameras ready! This could be interesting...)

Some thieves care more about their victims than others... Take for example the two people who robbed a St Anne Pharmacy in Marsascala, Malta, yesterday... The two burst into the pharmacy wearing crash helmets and waving pistols... After stealing 600 liri (about $1,667 U.S.), they grabbed the purse held by the elderly woman who was waiting to be served... When she complained that it contained all her money to buy her medicine, they gave it back!

Apparently there are some really rough stuffed animals down in Monroe County in South Florida... How do we know? Because "Juan Llama" showed up on the Monroe County Sheriff's Office daily online arrest registry... Supposedly he was arrested for a misdemeanor "loitering-or prowling" charge at Key West High School... The occupation of the 19-year-old Llama was listed as "stuffed llama"... When questioned, a sheriff's spokesperson said that an employee was improperly "messing around" on the sheriff's site and the entry had been removed (although you can still see it at the link above)...

Don't avoid this because it looks weird. Believe it or not you can read it.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt.

Brett Backwell really likes Australian rules football... He likes it so much he plans to have one of his fingers amputated in an attempt to improve his game! It all stems from when he broke his left ring finger 3 years ago while playing for Glenelg, a suburb of the city of Adelaide in South Australia state... Ever since then he says he has suffered from pain and restricted movement... Doctors had suggested fusing the bones in the finger, but he rejected the proposal... He said he believed that amputating the finger was the only way to stop the pain and allow him to keep playing... "To chop a finger off, that's a bit drastic," Backwell said, "but I love my footy [football], and love playing sport, and if that's going to help me to succeed at this level then it's something you've just got to do..."

Imagine walking into a store and seeing a whole new line of Barbie fashions: jeans, shirts, pants, handbags, jewelry, and more... And all of the items are designed by well-known fashion designers and clothing lines like Anna Sui, Anya Hindmarch, Citizens of Humanity, Judith Leiber, Nickel, Not Rational, Paper Denim & Cloth, Stila, Tarina Tarantino, and Benetton... Now imagine that you can buy and wear all of them yourself! That's right: you can be Barbie!

Mattel Inc is introducing a new line of high-end designer clothing and accessories for women named Barbie Luxe... "When a teen or 20-something is carrying an Anya Hindmarch, Barbie bag it'll reinforce Barbie as relevant, cool brand for little girls," said Richard Dickson, senior vice president of global consumer marketing and entertainment for Mattel Brands... "Little girls are growing up faster than ever and looking to adults and teens for inspiration, and Barbie is their aspiration," he said... "Our target market is the fashionista... From teens through adults in their 20's and 30's... It's not Mattel's usual target audience..."

And it's not Mattel's usual price point either... Jeans are priced at $176 and a 3/4 sleeve hooded sweatshirt at $140! Dickson said Mattel is making a point to keep Barbie Luxe as a specialty collection and the prices a bit out of reach as this would help add to the cachet of the brand, which is designed to be "aspirational..." "Barbie has a special relationship with women," said Dickson... "It takes them back to being a little girl and fantasizing about what they're going to be in the future..."

(See, that's the difference between Barbie as "aspirational" and Barbie as inspirational... Mattel marketing overpriced clothing that is "a bit out of reach" is apparently "aspirational..." If they were going for inspirational, they would get successful women - women at the top of their field - to lend their name to a Barbie or to an outfit for women... Ah, well, maybe next time...)

A man joins a monastery and takes a vow of silence... He’s allowed to say two words every seven years... After the first seven years, the elders bring him in and ask for his two words...

"Cold floors," he says...

They nod and send him away for another seven years... Then they bring him back in and ask for his two words...

He clears his throats and says, "Bad food..."

They nod and send him away... Seven more years pass... They bring him in for his two words...

"I quit," he says...

"That’s not surprising," the elders say, "You’ve done nothing but complain since you got here..."

Melbourne, Australia, has a new statue... The 5 meter (16.4 foot) statue of Victoria state's first Lieutenant-Governor, Charles La Trobe, has been installed at the new City Museum as part of the Making Melbourne exhibition... Although made of plastic and fibreglass, it was made to resemble a 19th century bronze statue of the man who helped to establish the Royal Botanic Gardens, State Library, Museum of Victoria, National Gallery of Victoria and University of Melbourne...

Except for one thing: The statue is upside down! Artist Charles Robb said the inversion of La Trobe questioned the purpose of public monuments and their meaning in contemporary society.

(Or it was just an attempt by someone to see if he could get the city to display an upside down status... The world may never know...)

Seems like everything old is new again... Clothes from the 60s and 70s... Muscle cars... Even architecture... Consider Ashtabula County in Ohio - they're planning to build the longest wooden covered bridge in the United States! At 600 feet long, the bridge would surpass the nearby 228-foot Harpersfield Bridge as the longest covered bridge in Ohio and the 460-foot Connecticut River bridge between Windsor, Vermont, and Cornish, New Hampshire, as the nation's longest... Plus, the two-lane bridge will have a windowed walkway on top (with elevator access) to give pedestrians a spectacular view of the Ashtabula River valley...

In fact, the bridge will actually be better than the steel bridge that used to be there... Steel bridges get rusty from the road salt each winter, while a wooden bridge is preserved by the salt... And its cover provides protection from the weather and bracing for crosswinds, county engineer Tim Martin said... In fact, the county has built four covered bridges since the early 1980s, all of them meeting modern safety codes and strong enough to support tractor trailers and fire engines...

And if you need further incentive, check out the annual Covered Bridge Festival! Held each October, this year's is this weekend...

Typically, the only thing most cars have that dogs find canine-friendly are the windows: they roll down and let the dog hang his head out the window... Honda wants to make the rest of the car just as doggie-riffic! This month at the Tokyo Motor Show, they plan to introduce the Wow concept car - a car developed for people whose primary passenger is their dog... So what makes a car canine friendly?

• A glove box that converts into a kennel for smaller breeds
• A middle row of seats that converts into pens to hold larger dogs
• Water bowls mounted much like cup holders
• A wood floor to make cleanups easier
• A rear door has a compartment that is designed to keep accessories such as leads, brushes and a pooper-scooper

"Dogs have come in from the garden so it is only natural for them to move to the car," said Beverley Cuddy, editor of Dogs Today magazine... "People want to know the dog will enjoy the journey... It would make sense that instead of being part of the luggage they have their own space..."

And if you can't wait for the Wow (it is a concept car, after all), Honda is already introducing a line of Travel Dog accessories for its current models, including built-in water bowls, front and rear seat harnesses, electric blankets and special blankets to mask the odor of smelly dogs... "With these kinds of accessories we are recognising people love their dogs," said Paul Ormond, a Honda spokesman...

(Woof!)

Olavi Niikanoff, a professional Santa from Copenhagen, recently sued the Danish air force after an F-16 fighter jet frightened one of his reindeers to death. Niikanoff complained that the reindeer died with fright when a jet roared over the field where his animals were grazing, according to a Sept. 30 Reuters story.

Santa won $5,000 in the lawsuit. An air force spokesman noted that they regularly paid out sums of money to compensate for animals that die of fright when planes boom overhead.

Meanwhile, the Easter Bunny is filing suit against the Crest toothpaste people.

Each year, the Nobel Prizes are awarded to those who "conferred the greatest benefit on mankind..." The Ig Nobels, on the other hand, are awarded to people to do something that first makes people laugh, then makes them think... And this year's ceremony was held earlier today at Harvard University... Some of this year's winners:

• Medicine - Gregg Miller for creating Neuticles... Neuticles are prosthetic testicles for neutered dogs
• Physics - A group of researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia who have, since 1927, been tracking a glob of congealed black tar as it drips through a funnel... At a rate of one drop every nine years!
• Peace - Two researchers from Newcastle University in England who monitored the brain activity of locusts as they watched clips from the movie "Star Wars" to explain how their eyes worked
• Chemisty - Edward Cussler and Brian Gettelfinger from the University of Minnesota, who experimented to see whether people can swim faster or slower in syrup than in water as an option to help train professional swimmers
• Fluid Dynamics - Benno Meyer-Rochow of the International University of Bremen in Germany and Jozsef Gal of Lorand Eötvös University in Hungary who developed a theoretical analysis of penguin poop propulsion to explain how they are able to poop away from their babies without leaving their nest
• Literature - Any and all Nigerians who too part in creating a "cast of rich characters ... each of whom requires just a small amount of expense money so as to obtain access to the great wealth to which they are entitled"

Apparently someone wanted a rematch... According to University of Florida wildlife professor Frank Mazzotti, there have been 5 known case where an alligator has gone up against a Burmese python... In the first four, the alligator either won, or the battle was a draw... In the most recent battle this last week, they are still trying to figure out who to declare the victor...

The Champion: a 6-foot (1.8m) alligator... The Challenger: a 13-foot (3.9m) Burmese python... The python has been trying to overthrow the alligator as the most fearsome predator in the Everglades National Park for the last 20 years...

This time, it came close... "They were probably evenly matched in size," professor Mazzotti said... "If the python got a good grip on the alligator before the alligator got a good grip on him, he could win..." The python had managed to incapacitate the alligator and tried to swallow him head first... Then it exploded! Rangers found the remains with the alligator's tail protruding from the burst midsection of the python... Professor Mazzotti said the alligator may have clawed at the python's stomach, leading it to burst...

(Understatement of the year: "Clearly, if they can kill an alligator they can kill other species," Professor Mazzotti said...)

Brigitte Kanatschnig would like to see the men of Austria (Not Australia!) a little more domesticated... Specifically, she'd like their clothes to be well pressed and neat... To wit, she is helping to teach a one-day class on how to iron clothes... And it's not just her, these classes are being set up all over Austria! Advertised with the slogan of "A real man knows how to iron," the classes are mainly aimed at 3 types of men: confirmed bachelors, those who want to impress their wives and girlfriends, and those who have just split up from their partners... The classes start at 10:30 in the morning, include breakfast, cover all the elements of ironing different clothes, and end at 7:30 that night with a wine-tasting... "I try to make the classes as fun as possible to show them that ironing isn't just a chore," Brigitte Kanatschnig said... "Once they have got the hang of a shirt, I start timing them and they love trying to beat the buzzer."

Want to quit smoking? Tried everything but nothing works? Maybe you should visit more German bars! German beermaker Nautilus GmbH Laboratoriumsbedarf, seeing a growing number of bars going smoke-free, decided to fight smoke with beer! NicoShot adheres to the German Purity Law of 1516 and contains 3 milligrams of nicotine in addition to its 6.3% alcohol... "It can help you make changes in your lifestyle without having to walk out of the bar for a quick smoke to deal with sudden withdrawal symptoms," a Nautilus statement said... "Over time, when you are more comfortable being a non-smoker, the use of nicotine beer can be reduced and then stopped..." The beer is already in several bars for "testing" purposes and Nautilus is hoping to have it approved for nationwide distribution within a few months...

It struck me today that we need more significant figures!

The local gas station got new pumps this week... They now display the gallons used out to the 4th digit past the decimal... So I added 14.3251 gallons to my tank... Which made me notice what I had always taken for granted before - the price to pay stopped at 2 digits after the decimal even though the price per gallon went to 3 digits ($2.859 dollars per gallon)...

Which got me thinking... In this world of electronic billing, wire transfers, debit and credit cards, and online banking, isn't it time we added more significant figures? Stopping at the penny is fine when paying with cash, but why stop there when paying with electronic money?

The banks don't stop there... Interest rates often result in figures out past the 5th or 6th digit, but the bank always round down - meaning they keep the difference! Same thing with stock prices and mutual funds - you can buy shares out to the 4th decimal place, but when you sell them your broker rounds the value down to 2 decimal places and keeps the rest! Check out your electric bill and you'll see they already charge fractions of a penny in their bill per kilowatt hour! And credit card, phone, electric, water, and other companies often have clauses in the fine print saying that if a the actual price is out to a half-penny, they round up! (Check your fine print, I bet you .001 cents that you'll see this on at least one of your bills)

Is this fair? No!

We live in an electronic world fully capable of handling as many decimal values as we would like to use... And it could all happen with no additional work on our part as the computers would (and often do) handle them all behind the scenes... So let's use them! If you pay electronically, the dollar value paid or owed should have as many significant figures as everything else... If the gas price is 2.859 then you should be able to pay $31.449 for 11 gallons of gas... If your banks pays you 2.09% interest on $50 then they should give you $1.045... And so on...

Before you laugh, think about how those extra digits really add up... Take my own personal electric bill, for example... The electric company charges me $0.043020 dollars per kilowatt hour (out to the 6th digit!!!) in non-fuel charges... Last month I used 1817 kilowatt hours... That works out to $78.16734 (out to the 5th digit!)... But I end up paying $78.17... Which means I overpay by $0.00266... Add this up for 12 months and I am out $0.03192...

That doesn't sound like much, but my electric company serves 8 million people and that adds $255,360 to their bottom line! Now add that to the 5 cents your credit card company overcharged you and the 7 cents your bank failed to pay in interest, etc... Look at the millions and millions of people this happens to and you are talking about a lot of real money! Money others are keeping because we only use 2 figure after the decimal!

(You know, it's never going to change unless people start complaining about it...)

Devender Harne of Nagpur, India may have been born into the record books! Why? Because he has 6 fingers on each hand, 6 toes on one foot and 7 toes on the other foot - 25 digits total! And while they do tend to attract attention, he takes them in stride... "I do everything on my own... From my homework to waking up early in the morning to doing my yoga routine, brushing my teeth, taking a bath and so on," he says... Plus, he and his parents say the extra fingers give him an advantage over other people... "It feels nice that God has given him twenty five fingers... I feel that he should make more progress in life that people with twenty fingers are not able to achieve, " said Uma Harne, his mother...

(The Guinness Book of World Records has already contacted him saying he may have most fully grown and usable fingers and toes of anyone ever)