[WILT] Where confiscated items go
Apparently, when you forget to take a corkscrew out of your luggage and the airport security guards take it away from you, they don’t just chuck it into the nearest bin. Though it varies from state to state, most often those contraband items are auctioned off or sold in storefronts. And according to this MSNBC article, you can get some serious deals on huge lots of knives and…okay, mostly it looks like you can buy tons and tons of knives.
But at least you have options. Check out this auction lot from the the Texas State Surplus ebay store:
In tangentially-related news, William Gibson shared earlier this story about cigarettes manufactured in Russia specifically to smuggle into Western European countries with high tobacco taxes.
Jin Ling, virtually unknown to the authorities three years ago, has grown so rapidly that law enforcement officials say it now rivals Marlboro as the top smuggled brand being seized in the European Union.
[WILT] Chefchaouen
When I was in high school, I went on a school trip to Spain, during which we took a day trip to Morocco. I remember the dust, and the bustle, and winding our ways through tiny alleys with overhanging buildings, and Coke bottles in Arabic. But I was about thirteen years old at the time, so I would like to experience it again, with adult eyes.
If (when) I do go back, I’m definitely going to Chefchaouen, a city notable for being almost entirely blue.:
Found via the always excellent Keri Smith.
[WILT] Space pee
“After the astronauts on the International Space Station finished up their communications with Space Shuttle Atlantis yesterday, the crew on the Space Station did something that no other astronaut has ever done before — drank recycled urine and sweat. The previous shuttle crew that recently returned to Earth brought back samples of the recycled water to make sure it was safe to drink, and all tests came back fine. So on Wednesday, the crew took their recycled urine and said ‘cheers’ together and toasted the researches and scientists that made the Urine Recycler possible. After drinking the water, they said the taste was great! They also said the water came with labels on it that said ‘drink this when real water is over 200 miles away.’”
(via someone Twittering a link to Slashdot)
[WILT] Thoreau’s dirty pants
From a Salon interview about a new anthology called “Dirt: The Quirks, Habits and Passions of Keeping House”:
What was your favorite story to read or edit?
I really don’t have a favorite, but there is one piece that absolutely doesn’t fit but was just too good not to include. It’s an imaginary conversation by Richard Goodman between Thoreau and someone who’s interviewing him for a job as a housecleaner — apparently he needs a day job. Did you know that Thoreau used to bring a bag of dirty laundry for his mother to wash when he’d go to visit her?
Well, no, I did not.
Neither did I.
[WILT] Conrad Schumann
Reading this piece in the New York Times by Christoph Niemann:
“In the first days after it went up, the wall was a barbed wire barrier. Conrad Schumann, a 19-year-old soldier in the East German army, was standing guard on the corner of Ruppiner Strasse and Bernauer Strasse. He was taunted and insulted by passers-by from the West and, on a whim, started running and hurdled the barbed wire into the West, thus becoming the subject of one of the most dramatic photographs of the time. Only recently have I realized that I often go jogging up that very sidewalk.”
“On 15 August 1961 he found himself, aged 19, guarding the Berlin Wall, then in its third day of construction, at the corner of Ruppinerstraße and Bernauerstraße. At that stage of construction, the Berlin Wall was only a low barbed wire fence. As the people on the Western side shouted Komm rüber! (“come over”), Schumann jumped the barbed wire and was driven away at high speeds by a waiting West Berlin police car. Photographer Peter Leibing captured a photograph of his escape on film and it became a well-known image of the Cold War.” (via)
