May 31,2010: Walking On The Highway and Other Adventures

I've come across some pretty entertaining nuggets in the newspaper over the last few days, and some of these stories are just too good not to share:

First up is a story I read today about a woman who is suing Google after using their popular Google Maps feature (which I use all the time) for directions. She had to travel 3 miles, and when she entered both locations, decided to walk...even though the directions took her on a highway. Now, let's examine the different aspects of this ridiculous situation:

1) The directions on Google Maps clearly stated "Walking Directions - use caution. This route may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths." She claims that these instructions were not visible to her since she was using her blackberry. Let's give her a pass on this one.

2) Google Maps directed her to walk on a road called Deer Valley Drive, which is also State Route 224 in Utah. By name alone, I'll give her a pass again on this one, but looking at the map, it's clear by the yellow line, and the circled '224', that this is a highway.

3) Let's assume you get all the way to Deer Valley Drive/Route 224, and you see this (actual photo):
do you continue? I would say not. If you have come this far without realizing that this is a highway that you shouldn't be walking on, legally or with any shred of common sense, this is your giant red flag moment.
THIS IS A HIGHWAY...STOP WALKING!

4) But...instead of aborting this Walkabout, she decided to then cross the road, and walk along an unprotected part of the road without a full shoulder, and with a noise barrier wall so that she was even closer to traffic that normal.

And then she got hit by a car.

So now she's suing Google, claiming it is their fault that this happened. I would submit that this was Natural Selection at its finest, trying to do the world a favour.

The second story was from Hamilton, Ontario, where a year-long battle over a urinal has finally ended with the restaurant in question agreeing to remove the urinal. There were letters, and protests, and complaints that this urinal objectified women, and a presence from The Woman Abuse Working Group, who called it degrading. Oh...here's a picture of the urinal.
Now, I'll say it flat-out...I don't want to use that urinal. It's terrifying. And not in a degrading and objectifying way...but in a 'Mick-Jagger-as-a-Deranged-Clown' sort of way. To me, there's just something about a wide open mouth that size that says absolutely zero percent sexual in any way whatsoever. Seriously, the last thing I want to do when I see that is undo my pants? Am I wrong?

Third is a brief one, but I must give credit where it's due. Yes, I can see the intrinsic benefits of having a program that blacks out the words 'Justin Bieber' on your computer, but I think it's a little crazy for Bieber fans to be issuing death threats over it. I'm not mentioning it because of the death threats, I'm mentioning it because the program is called Shaved Bieber! How awesome is that? Greg Leuch, inventor of Shaved Bieber...I want to be your friend. Call me.

This story is a couple of weeks old, but I still can't believe it. A motorcycle enthusiast in Puerto Rico who was murdered...yes, murdered...was enbalmed in the position of riding his motorbike, so that his body could be on display for three days in that pose. And they did it right up, special clothing, brought the bike in and everything. Wow, that's commitment. Look at the picture of the deceased David Colon below, and remember...that's a dead guy!
And finally, I still don't fully understand what happened in this video, but this confrontation between a TV reporter and a hospital PR person is reality TV at its best...I can't look away. Why won't he stop touching him?