...This might be old news to some, but did you know that you can get the remains of your loved ones turned into a diamond?! The point is a matter of simple physics. After cremation, you have a decent amount of ash left over, which is carbon-rich. All you need is to extract that carbon, and turn it into diamond a matter of changing the crystal structure from one form into another under high temperature and pressure.
There is a company (or companies, e.g Life Gem) that does this for you, and sends you a nice piece of jewelry made out of your dearly departed. There are slight variations in colour of the finished product . depending upon the non-carbon impurities (if you pardon the term) associated with the source material. So it is very personalised indeed.
You don't need Channel 4's five months of undercover filming to find out that Ryanair takes a hard-nosed attitude to its customers. Just try claiming for a pair of missing prescription sunglasses.
On the journey home from a family holiday in Italy, my prescription sunnies vanished from the zipped outer pocket of my bag after I had checked it in at Rome Ciampino airport for the Ryanair flight to Stansted. I did not notice they were missing until unpacking at home that night.
I reported the loss the next morning, via expensive phone calls (RyanairÂs number is a premium-rate line) and then faxes. Ryanair refused to consider my claim, aiming a double-barrelled shotgun at me. Bang: I had not filled in a Property Irregularity Report at Stansted, detailing my loss. Bang: I should not have packed Âvaluable spectacles in my checked baggage...
I filed a compensation claim against Ryanair online....
some months later that I finally got my day  well, my hour  in the county court at Hastings. I represented myself. Ryanair sent a solicitor from London on a 100-mile day return. Expensive, but he looked young enough to pay half-fare...
It took the judge less than 10 minutes to rule in my favour. The specs had gone missing while in RyanairÂs care.
Truth: "People are our most worrisome and unpredictable asset. Our most important assets are really our financial assets."
B.S. Detector: This may be the leading lie of our times. "When management starts talking about how important people are," LaFontaine says, "you can bet there is going to be an unpopular human resources decision coming soon." Lie: "This was a rational decision."
Truth: "I wanted to do this."
B.S. Detector: People "want what they want just because they want it," says LaFontaine. Lie: "We judge people by their performance."
Truth: "I judge your performance based on how much I like you."
B.S. Detector: "Why do most people who keep their jobs keep them?" LaFontaine asks. "Because the people they work for like them. And you get fired when the people you work for don't like you anymore. Lie: "This is business, it isn't personal."
Truth: "Everything's personal."
B.S. Detector: "As people, we get mad at each other," says LaFontaine. "Attempts to avoid it are cowardly. So get mad. Then get over it and move on." LaFontaine believes that any disagreement can be handled with an honest conversation. Lie: "The customer comes first."
Truth: "I come first."
B.S. Detector: "More often than not, 'the customer' is an abstraction," LaFontaine warns. "People take care of customers when it benefits them and ignore customers when they can get away with it. Nobody says 'I come first,' which is what's usually going o
Declared the oldest known working lightbulb by Guinness Book of World Records. Ripley's Believe-It-or-Not in 1972 researched it and declared it the oldest...
Made by the Shelby Electric Company, a handblown bulb with carbon filament. Approximate wattage-4 watts. Left burning continuously in firehouse as a nightlight over the fire trucks.
The speech is in three parts so follow the links to part 2 and part 3. He speaks his mind with a very acerbic humor. Your Tube
update: NYT finally notices Colbert's White House gig Well, it only took four days, but the NYT finally noticed that Stephen Colbert delivered a ground-breaking, witheringly sarcastic attack on the President and the press at the White House Correspondants' dinner.
I thought you might like to know that Crooks and Liars still has the video of Colbert's speech on Saturday night. Here's the link. Both of the video links were up and working as of 5 minutes ago (12:31 MT on 5-4-06). I hope YouTube will have it back up soon.
