Eighteen

Craigslist.org has gotten a lot negative press over the past several years.  There was the "Craigs List Killer" which certainly brightened the spotlight on Craig's dark side.  There are scams galore, mostly in the for sale section, not too unlike the penniless stranded emigrants who email you asking for bank account numbers.  So, in efforts to vet the thousands of postings that come through the Craigs platform on a daily basis, they've upped the anty on some of the requirements to do so.  For example, if you wish to post to the employment section, you may be charged a small fee.  Or, if you are seeking a roommate, your pre-version of the posting may have to jump through a text or phone call hoop before it's official.  You'll also have to agree to a nondiscrimination clause before proceeding with any posting.

Craig is based out of San Francisco which is neither here nor there (actually, it is there if you really want to split toothpicks), but it adds the right rainbow glow to the whole clause thing.  Immediately following the nondiscrimination clause, which holds the same standard equal rights details as any of its ilk, is the box where the user selects to be notified via phone call or text message of the approval code they will have to enter [on the final level of Angry Birds (talk about hoops)] in order to fulfill their posting. 

So below the nondiscrimination clause are two boxes.  You can check either for telephone call or text message--O.K.; beside this are two more options.  You can check to receive the communication form that you just selected in either English or French.  English stands to immediate reason.  The other begs the obvious question: Are there that many berets using Craigs?  And speaking of nondiscrimination, that seems like a bit of a catch, a catch-18, if you will (or as Heller settled on, catch-22).  Flabbergasting, the whole of it, the parts of it, and the sum of it.  How do you say arbitrary in French?



Life sometimes can be eighteen.

Eighteen: --noun

  the number immediately following seventeen and immediately preceding nineteen; otherwise meaningless

Surprising

Look who decided to pop up in Borneo.  If you're not familiar with this bad boy, you're not alone.  The rainbow toad has been MIA (i.e., thought to be extinct) for over 90 years.  Scientists at the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) discovered three of the "long legged" toads after having spent months scouring the surrounding forest area.  Previously, the aptly named amphibian had only been seen in drawings based on specimens collected in the 1920's by Europeans (who until just now must have looked like gumball popping liars).



The rainbow toad showed up for his fifteen minutes (and would make for a charming Warhol) after having topped Conservation International's "top 10 most wanted frogs" list in their Global Search for Lost Amphibians 2010.  Cue goldstars for the tenacious scientists who continue to be thrilled by the fact that "nature still holds precious secrets that we are still uncovering."

Life sometimes can be surprising.
Surprising: --adjective
  causing surprise, wonder or astonishment

Swedish

Sometimes even iTunes can't traverse the Atlantic, and this blog kinda digs that.  Sometimes, you still have to work a little harder than the insta-search/immediate-find virtual world typically leads us to believe.  Ok, so you can find Swedish pop artist, Erik Hassle on iTunes, but there's something satisfying about the fact that they don't have his latest single.  If you want to add this to your (more than likely Apple) mp3 device, you have to take a couple of steps to get there and be willing to convert currency out of Euros (gasp! (ok, PayPal does the convesion automatically)).  This blog loves the song, and the fact that the world is so not as flat as the internet has rethunk us into thinking was an inadverent boon.