land of odd
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Visitors to Mike Woods' law practice are greeted with a sight not often found in legal offices: a jail cell.
The office for Woods and Woods is located in the old Vanderburgh County Jail - an 1890 downtown building honoured Tuesday with a historical marker from the Indiana Historical Bureau.
The old jail was modelled after a German castle and in 1903 was the site of a race riot in which 12 people were killed and many more injured.
The jail sat empty from 1967 until 1994, Woods said, and was full of weeds and trash before being renovated. Woods and Woods moved its offices into the building in 2004 and continues to lease the second-floor space from the county.
"Through the years, the old jail has received minor repairs and updates, a few new coats of paint, and thousands of visitors, but it hasn't lost its intrigue," Woods said.
"Preserving this history is important because it allows community members to reflect on the past, to learn from and appreciate those who came before us."
The building still has bars over the windows, which provides an interesting atmosphere for the firm's 30 employees.
"They are always joking they can't get away, or saying we're slave drivers," Woods said.
Visitors can see one of the original cramped jail cells, complete with four metal bunk beds, a sink and a toilet.
The office's employee break room is adjacent to a door leading to a tunnel that connects the old jail with the old county courthouse. Woods said the tunnel was used to transport prisoners between the two facilities.
"Both these buildings were once on the verge of being destroyed," he said. "Now, they are saved." by land of odd
Pastor’s Ex-Wife Wants Part Of The Church After Divorce
Halo 3 player punched mom after she took away game
Land of Odd: Law firm converts old jail to office space
Land Of Odd: Stupid Mistakes
land of odd
Discovering what others have done makes it easier to accept the mistakes we've made. We're all human!
When Adolf Hitler saw a pile of bricks near the church of St. Matthew in Munich, Germany, he said, "that pile of stones will have to be removed." Someone misunderstood him, thinking he was referring to the whole church. The church was demolished...
When Thomas Edison was twelve years old, he had a job selling newspapers on a commuter train. He had set up a printing press to make his own newspapers, and thereby increase his profits. He also set up a chemistry lab, to indulge his already well-developed scientific curiosity. One day, as the train went around a particularly tight turn, some of Edison's phosphorus fell on the floor and started a small fire. As the train came into the station, and the conductor discovered the problem, Tom tried to run away. The conductor pulled him back up into the train by his ears. "I felt something snap inside my head," Edison said. From that time until his death, he was hard of hearing.
Firdinand Raimund was bitten on the finger by a dog. He was so worried about what might happen that he shot himself to death.
The 7,000-ton cargo ship, Fort Stikine, sailed into crowded Bombay Harbor, India. It was loaded with a mixed freight ranging from fish to cotton to explosives. A sailor noticed smoke coming out of a ventilator that serviced one of the ship's cargo holds, but since it was close to lunch time, he did not mention the problem. The fire in the hold was discovered after lunch, but by then it was raging out of control. Authorities suggested sinking the ship, but because the harbor was crowded and shallow, it would have to sail out to sea to be scuttled. No problem, but first the captain wanted to phone the ship's insurance company to see if they thought it a good idea. While he was on the phone, the ship blew up into a million pieces, sinking 27 nearby ships, raining junk all over downtown Bombay and killing well over 1,000 people.
I’m from Amsterdam though and English is not my native language so if you spot any stupid mistakes, forgive me.
A few years ago, when I was walking down the street, I passed a police control. They were stopping seemingly random cars to check them out for defects, outstanding tickets, etc. Since I was on foot, I had of course nothing to worry about so I passed them casually and continued my way around the corner of the street. There, after a couple hundred meters, I came across a car that was standing beside of the road. The hood was open and a man was half visible beneath it.
Being the nice guy I am, I walked up to him and said “hey man, if there’s something wrong with your car, don’t go that way. There’s a police control.” For a few seconds nothing happened. Then the man raises his head from beneath the hood and stares right at me and while I notice the police radio in his hand he says “Yes, I know .”
A Japanese priest set a kimono on fire in Tokyo because it carried bad luck. The flames spread until over 10,000 buildings were destroyed and 100,000 people died. (Year: 1657)
A medical curiosity was David Kennison, who was born in 1736 and participated in the Boston Tea Party. At the age of seventy-six, serving in the War of 1812, he lost a hand to a gunshot wound. Later, a tree fell on him, and fractured his skull. Some years later, while training soldiers in the use of a cannon, something went wrong and an explosion shattered his legs. He recovered. Yet later, a horse damaged his face. He died peacefully in 1851 at the age of 115.
More on Land of Odd:
Drunk Builders, Or What ?
Who Could Possibly Live In This House...
Land of Odd: Typing
Increase your typing speed while having fun with free typing games. That really works
Land of Odd: So That's What $100m Looks Like
land of odd
You might like to look at this photograph before filling in your lottery numbers.
It's what £100 million looks like in cold, hard cash.
The money pile is even bigger because it is in US dollars, currently worth about two to the pound. But it serves the same purpose when you're daydreaming about winning the jackpot.
However, nobody is going to be spending this $207 million in $100 bills very soon. The US government yesterday called the windfall "the largest single drug cash seizure the world has ever seen."
Here is a link to the article...
Land of Odd: Show House Cubed
What If You Had A Gun To Your Head And Had To Make $1000 In 48 Hours Or...
land of odd
In Gurgaon, India, a fast-growing suburb of Delhi, an unusual house has just been erected. Designed by architect Ganesh Ganapathy, the building is a glass cube seemingly balanced on one vertex. Its uniqueness is admired by neighbors and passers-by, but working out the details of fitting a functional, stable house into such a form proved a formidable challenge.
The owners, the Mahatta family, participated in, and indeed insisted on, the challenges of such an attention-grabbing form. They own the locally prominent construction firm, Mahatta Towers Pvt. Ltd., and they wanted the structure to boost the visibility of their company's capabilities.
[Here is a link to the article...]
Land of Odd: WTF Is Zorbing ?
Land of odd
From the folks who brought you bungee jumping (sort of) and glow worm cave tubing, not to mention Kiwi fruit and the knock your socks of scenery of the Lord of the Rings, now comes Zorbing.
Huh? What's that you say? Zorbing? WTF is that? Well, imagine yourself taking momentary leave of both your senses and the little cubicle you call your office, and harnessing yourself into a VW-sized, transparent ball of plastic. Then imagine someone rolling you down a steep hill at 25 mph. You are the boy in the plastic bubble, on steroids.
Well, the whole Zorbing thing started in New Zealand, but it has now rolled its way to the United States, and like any good fad, has attracted a legion of Zorbing fans…call them Zorbians, like some race of mega-cranium aliens from Star Trek. The fun begins this December in Boulder City, NV where the first official Zorbing park will be set up. Knowing my fellow Americans, I can only imagine where the Zorbing trend will head. Zorbing meets, Zorbing marathons, crash Zorbing where teams of Zorbians roll into each other on the field of battle, perhaps with knives affixed to their Zorbs. Perhaps even a Zorbing Olympic event someday.
Hail hail human ingenuity and, well, human weirdness.
Here is a link to the article...
Land of Odd: The 10 All Time Best
Land of odd
Americans use enough toilet paper in one day to wrap around the world nine times. If it were on one giant roll, we would be unrolling it at the rate of 7,600 miles per hour - roughly mach. 10, ten times the speed of sound.
Try to say the alphabet without moving your lips or your tongue. Every letter will sound exactly the same.
The world's largest flower is also one of the worst smelling flowers. Rafflesia Arnoldii is often over 3 feet wide and its petals are almost an inch thick. You wouldn't want it in your garden, however, because it smells like a rotting animal. The flower is attempting to attract flies for pollination.
Approximately one out of every ten people who ever lived are alive today.
Nine out of every 10 scientists who ever lived are alive today.
There is a bird in Antarctica that repels threatening animals in unique ways. The bird throws up in the enemy's face. If that doesn't work, it blows snot at them with enough force to bowl a human over.
The FDA considers chocolate acceptable for public consumption as long as there are less than 60 microscopic insect fragments per 100 grams (four ounces, or approximately one candy bar).
A Japanese priest set a kimono on fire in Tokyo because it carried bad luck. The flames spread until over 10,000 buildings were destroyed and 100,000 people died. (Year: 1657)
Some dinosaurs had two brains! Since nerve signals move from one part of the body to another relatively slowly - it takes 1/50 of second to notice a pain in your foot - and since these beasts were so large, a second brain was at the base of the tail to maintain control of the creature's backs. Interestingly, the rear brain was bigger than the one in their heads.
The Largest dinosaur, Brachiosaurus, weighed as much as 800 people, was taller than a four-story hotel, and was as long as two of the longest school buses.
