At Home: Toasty Texting
Let’s face it: we’re a nation of addicts, addicted to our portable technology. When we want to check our smart phone’s email app or send a text, nothing can stop us?not courtesy, not safe driving practices, not the law. Not even, apparently, the winter’s chill.
As the Toronto Star reports, a London, Ontario man has come up with a new invention: Twittens, a glove uniquely suited to both texting and staying warm.
Last winter, Lincoln McCardle was ?growing tired of struggling to use his iPod while wearing winter gloves.? But fingerless gloves are a bit of a fashion statement and don’t appeal to everyone?plus, they’re cold! With a friend, McCardle developed the concept of gloves with a ?removable hood on the index finger . . . [and] on the thumb, too.?
Now his so-called Twittens, fleece gloves which allow for easy texting, Tweeting, and iPod manipulating, are available for purchase, with interest growing rapidly. Impacto, the company manufacturing the product, ?plans to make more sizes and colours for next season? if the Twittens sell well.
They’ve already got the thumbs-up from McCardle himself. As he told reporters, he ?[wears] them all the time,? adding that he’s ?convinced this was exactly what [he] wanted to begin with.?
Around the World: Jaws II (or III, or IV, or V)
Shark attacks beach, inducing panic. Shark attacks again and again. Authorities are in denial. A brave crew must go out and confront the killer head-on. It’s the plot for classic thriller Jaws, and It’s become so ingrained in the cultural psyche that just about every shark sighting inspires a reference to the film. But in reality, It’s just a movie?right?
Or maybe not. As The Daily Telegraph reports, a series of shark attacks at a beachfront resort on the Red Sea has ?even the experts . . . drawing parallels with . . . Steven Spielberg’s 1975 thriller.?
The shark began by viciously attacking a beachgoer. But although It’s very unusual for a shark to attack more than one individual, it then mauled two more?and returned the next day for a fourth. After the beach reopened, the shark once again returned, this time killing a fifth victim.
Because of the ferocity and frequency of the attacks, even ?experts have been left at a loss to explain them.? But some have noticed uncanny similarities to the plot line of Jaws.
It’s not just the nature of the attacks that have given rise to the allusions. The erroneous belief that the shark had been caught and the unwillingness of officials, who ?fear[ed] . . . further bad publicity,? to keep the beaches closed closely ?mirror . . . the plot? of the film.
To date, though, the real culprit appears to be still at large. To catch it, they might need a bigger boat.
