Chinese citizens using body doubles to avoid jail

…the most stunning allegation was that the man appearing in court and serving the three-year sentence wasn’t Hu at all, but a hired body double.
The charge isn’t as far-fetched as it may sound. The practice of hiring “body doubles” or “stand-ins” is well-documented by official Chinese media. In 2009, a hospital president who caused a deadly traffic accident hired an employee’s father to “confess” and serve as his stand-in.

via Slate Article about the practice of wealthy Chinese citizens using body doubles to avoid jail

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Stuff makes us sad

In the Boston Globe, Beth Teitell discusses Life at Home in the Twenty-first Century: 32 Families Open their Doors, an accessible, illustrated text that summarizes the research of four archaeologists and anthropologists who did a long, deep study of 32 middle-class LA families, and who report that nearly everything that these families had striven for — material possessions, good jobs, extracurricular enrichment for their kids — made them wholly miserable.

via boingboing

The World has one less awesome person now…

Can’t add much to what we all already know: That there’s something missing now. A creative genius and a force of nature passed away and I think most of us feel a little empty about it. I posted his amazing speech to a college graduating class previously in this blog. One that could inspire anyone no matter how jaded. Here’s something new I just read in this recent, very well done, eulogy on WIRED:

Jobs usually had little interest in public self-analysis, but every so often he’d drop a clue to what made him tick. Once he recalled for me some of the long summers of his youth. I’m a big believer in boredom,” he told me. Boredom allows one to indulge in curiosity, he explained, and “out of curiosity comes everything.” The man who popularized personal computers and smartphones — machines that would draw our attention like a flame attracts gnats — worried about the future of boredom. “All the [technology] stuff is wonderful, but having nothing to do can be wonderful, too.”

“Euro Coin Scam” is just an intriguing set of words

I mean, you would think they would have punched holes in them, no? SEPTA in Philly used to do that to my freakin’ monthly train pass.

Via onefoottsunami

Steve Jobs vs. Snooki

I’ve been thinking about Snooki giving the commencement at Rutgers. I think Steve Jobs would be my first choice. Here’s part what he said to Stanford in 2005, which gives me the chills:

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

So cool.