People That Can't Spell + People Clueless About Geography + GPS = Hilarity

From Chron:

ROME — Officials say a Swedish couple looking for the pristine waters of the popular island of Capri ended some 400 miles away in the northern industrial town of Carpi after misspelling the destination on their car's GPS.

Angelo Giovannini, a spokesman for the Carpi town hall, near Modena, said Tuesday the couple drove into the main square last week and asked the local tourist office how to reach Capri's famed Blue Grotto sea cave.

Giovannini said "we thought they might mean a restaurant. Capri is an island, they did not even wonder why they didn't cross any bridge or take any boat."

He said the couple, who were not identified, arrived from Venice and later set off to their planned destination at the other end of the Italian peninsula.

I liked the part where they didn't even wonder why they didn't cross a bridge or take a boat to get to an island. Couple of winners there.

If You Don't Like The Answer, Withhold The Statistics

I guess it was just found out that a report a few years ago once again confirmed that cell phone drivers are killing people and causing hundreds of thousands of accidents. Unfortunately, the Government apparently did not like the findings of the study and suppressed the statistics. The NHTSA didn't want to anger cell phone lobbyists, Congress, and voters who like to multitask while driving.

The highway safety researchers estimated that cellphone use by drivers caused around 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents over all in 2002.

The researchers also shelved a draft letter they had prepared for Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta to send, warning states that hands-free laws might not solve the problem.

That letter said that hands-free headsets did not eliminate the serious accident risk. The reason: a cellphone conversation itself, not just holding the phone, takes drivers’ focus off the road, studies showed.

The research mirrors other studies about the dangers of multitasking behind the wheel. Research shows that motorists talking on a phone are four times as likely to crash as other drivers, and are as likely to cause an accident as someone with a .08 blood alcohol content.

I say that if other people are allowed to jabber away on their phone and text to their friends then I should be able to have a few beers while driving on my commute home. Cell phone drivers all say that they can handle it. I can handle my beer. Not letting me do so is hypocritical.

Here's the story.

1 Out Of 4 Isn't Bad

Well at least "EXIT" is correct.

More from Wisconsin.

Helen Keller Simulator

I thought this was a fascinating look into what Helen Keller must have gone through. I always knew about her from stories and campy 70s made for TV shows but this site really shows you a lot.

Helen Keller Simulator page

Photoshopped Diversity

I found this cool posting at 11points.com. It shows the lengths that people will go to to show that they are "diverse". Even if they have to make it up. Of course, this points out the hypocrisy of most diversity programs. Most of these companies only see diversity in terms of race and skin color. In the case of these jokers in the post diversity means "having enough black people in the photo."

I'm sure I'm wrong but to me diversity means having a collection of people with diverse ideas and thoughts, not that 23% of every photo or group must have a person with a different skin color. Stupid me.

Here is the actual posting. It's pretty funny. He has a cool site.