On a Friday evening in October 1999 Nicholas White, a production manager, was working late and decided to take a smoke break.  Little did he know it would be the longest smoke break of his life.

The magazine’s offices were on the forty-third floor of the McGraw-Hill Building, an unadorned tower added to Rockefeller Center in 1972. When White finished his cigarette, he returned to the lobby and, waved along by a janitor buffing the terrazzo floors, got into Car No. 30 and pressed the button marked 43. The car accelerated. It was an express elevator, with no stops below the thirty-ninth floor, and the building was deserted. But after a moment White felt a jolt. The lights went out and immediately flashed on again. And then the elevator stopped.

White was stranded in the elevator for 41 hours.  In that time White tried everything he could do to escape and even imagined his death.  Not having any way to tell if it was day or night or even what time it was would drive a person insane. 

Up and Then Down - New Yorker article by Nick Paumgarten
Trapped in an elevator for 41 hours - time elapse surveillance video of Nicholas White

Ahhh, you've gotta love the old days when it was okay for women to douche with Lysol and their only purpose in life was to serve their family and please their husbands.  So, how do you think women were treated in the work force?

In July of 1943, Transportation Magazine listed 11 Tips on How to Handle Women Employees.  These tips were meant for male supervisors who employed an influx of female employees during WWII.  Here are a couple tips to get you started:

3. General experience indicates that "husky" girls - those who are just a little on the heavy side - are more even-tempered and efficient than their underweight sisters.

8. Give every girl an adequate number of rest periods during the day. You have to make some allowances for feminine psychology. A girl has more confidence and is more efficient if she can keep her hair tidied, apply fresh lipstick and wash her hands several times a day.

Joe Clark wrote an interesting and extensive article, Inscribed in the Living Tile - Type in the Toronto Subway, on the history and degradation of typography in the Toronto Subway. 

The Toronto subway has a typographic heritage all its own, starting with a unique font. But, with renovation after renovation and after a series of new station additions, signage and wayfinding in the system are a total mess. The latest “standard” in Toronto subway signage uses fake Helvetica and is a clone of Massimo Vignelli’s work from 40 years ago.

It's a long read, but an interesting one.  [via digg]

Ben Jones and colleagues from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland conducted a study in which they showed 28 men and 28 women pairs of male faces and asked them to rate their attractiveness.  The photos were pre-rated by 40 women and were rated equal in attractiveness. 

After the initial rating, the same men and women were presented with the same photos, however, this time the pairs of photos included a female face in profile.  The female was positioned to be looking (smiling or not smiling) at one of the men.  What were their results?

Women found the men who were being smiled at suddenly more attractive, while men who apparently elicited no such smiling approval were pronounced less attractive.

Men, meanwhile, behaved in a strikingly different manner. They rated men who had been smiled at as less attractive. ”Within-sex competition promotes negative attitudes towards men who are the target of positive social interest from women,” the researchers conclude.

Read the full article here.

Pro-Life blogger, Pete, obviously must believe in aliens and sasquatch if he believes everything he reads in the popular magazine, The Onion.

On his blog, Pete responds to The Onion article, "I'm Totally Psyched About This Abortion", by writing:

Miss Weber, you have killed your child, which you admit is a baby/human being, intentionally. That does make you an admitted murderer. I'm not going to "condemn you to hell", I'm going to pray for your forgiveness and for the suffering which you will endure when you realize what you have done. Every baby you see from that moment on is going to wake you up to the realization that you killed your child.

(You can read more of Pete's comments on his blog, March Together for Life: Murder with conscience.)

Here are some other abortion articles from The Onion:
Christ Kills Two, Injuires Seven In Abortion-Clinic Attack
Recreational-Abortion Enthusiasts Applaud Repeal Of Partial-Birth Ban