Author: Kirstin Fawcett

When a senior looks back on his or her life to assess their triumphs and regrets, “not getting arrested” typically falls into the former category. But according to the BBC, a 99-year-old woman in the Netherlands wished she had spent time in the slammer. To help her achieve this unconventional bucket list dream, law officers let the woman, named Annie, hang out in a jail cell—with handcuffs on—at the police station in the eastern Dutch town of Nijmegen-Zuid.

Annie has her family to thank for the experience. “Her niece came to us with this request,” a police officer told the BBC. “When she was reporting a crime, she told the police officer about Annie’s ‘bucket list.'”

“You get many unusual requests with this profession,” he added. “We thought it would be nice to do something special for Annie.”

As you can see in the photos above, Annie’s brush with the law was a blast. However, she isn’t the only senior who has wondered what life is like behind bars. Last year, a 102-year-old woman named Edie Simms from St. Louis, Missouri was faux-arrested per her own bucket list request. Police teamed up with a local senior center to make Simms’s dream come true. “She was so excited that she can ride in a police car and she said, ‘Do you think you could put those handcuffs on me?'” Michael Howard, executive director of Five Star Senior Center, told KPLR. Talk about centenarians gone wild!

[h/t BBC]

In today’s Internet-obsessed age, some mobile users need a digital detox, but they still want a phone that’s both functional and stylish. Enter the Talkase T3, a sleek, credit card-sized device that Mashable spotted at last weekend’s Mobile World Congress tech show in Barcelona, Spain.

I want this credit card-sized dumbphone more than I want the Galaxy S8: The Talkase T3 costs about $33 https://t.co/nwbcuNAnlO #Technology pic.twitter.com/ZYuAs0Pp47

— Forgettable Feed (@forgettablefcts) February 28, 2017

The Talkase T3 is a new, improved version of a mini GSM phone that its maker successfully funded on Kickstarter in 2014. Its design is akin to a retro calculator, with large, square buttons and a rectangular digital screen. The Talkase T3’s main selling point, however, is its size: It’s slim enough to slip into a wallet, making it a great on-the-go device. Plus, it’s cheap, retailing for just $33.

That being said, if you purchase the Talkase T3, you’ll be forsaking a lot of features that, by now, are standard on most cell phones. A so-called “dumbphone,” the device lacks a camera, and it doesn’t have apps or games. And while there’s a built-in hotspot feature that allows you to turn its 3G connection into a Wi-Fi hotspot, it’s definitely not ideal for hours of Internet surfing. But if you’re looking for just the basics—i.e. calling, messaging, an alarm clock, and a music player—the phone’s minimalism might just be the thing for you. The tradeoff? Even though you’ll sacrifice bells and whistles with the Talkase T3, you’ll score an incredible battery life: 72 hours from only one charge.

[h/t Mashable]

If the pricey, complicated smartphones of today have you yearning for simpler times, Nokia may have the solution. Their popular 3310 was discontinued in 2005, but earlier this month, news broke that a new-and-improved version of the old-school device would debut at the Mobile World Congress tech show in Barcelona. 

As CNET reports, the rumors are true: The 3310 is back, with a sleek redesign and a few technical upgrades.The phone’s relaunch comes courtesy of HMD Global, a start-up formed by former Nokia executives. They acquired the necessary intellectual property (including branding and technology) to make the Finnish company’s iconic phones, according to CNBC.

“We were interacting with consumers and asked what was the best ever Nokia device that you have ever had and out of that questionnaire it was the 3310,” HMD Global CEO Arto Nummela told CNBC. “And then we thought, ‘OK, what the heck, let’s have some fun and create this.’”

The original Nokia 3310 was beloved for many reasons: It entertained us with games like Snake II, came equipped with a stopwatch and calculator, and was impressively durable and long-lasting. For the most part, the new 3310—an Android device—is similar to its predecessor (there’s even a new version of Snake), but with several key improvements. For example, the phone now has 22 hours of talk time—10 times more than the original—and its battery lasts a whole month on standby mode. The device also has a tiny, 2-megapixel camera, and a thinner, rounder design. You can purchase it in the original midnight blue and grey color schemes, or opt for a bright red, yellow, or grey phone. (Sorry, you can’t swap the case with one you purchased from a mall kiosk.)

What the Nokia 3310 isn’t is a smartphone. It’s 2.5G, so you can technically get online, but if you’re obsessed with apps and social media, it likely isn’t the phone for you. On the other hand, it may be your best friend if you’re looking to disconnect from the digital landscape but don’t want to forsake the convenience of owning a mobile device.

The new Nokia 3310 is priced at around $50, and is slated for release later this year. Get an up-close look at the revamped device below.

[h/t CNET]

Bill Harding may be gone, but a group of real-life storm chasers want to be sure he isn’t forgotten. After news of Twister star Bill Paxton’s passing broke over the weekend—he died of a stroke following surgery February 25—nearly 200 weather-loving adventurers collaborated on Sunday to spell out the late actor’s initials on a map using GPS coordinates.

Spotter Network, a nonprofit group that tracks tornado chasers’ positions and provides storm information to the National Weather Service, arranged the tribute on Facebook. Participants were instructed to enter their coordinates on a map depicting Tornado Alley, a particularly storm-prone region in the southern plains of the central United States. (The town of Wakita, Oklahoma, which served as a backdrop for most of Twister’s scenes, sat in the map’s center.)

Some storm chasers traveled to designated points on the map to mark their dots, but many entered their GPS coordinates manually. The project took place in real time; as the day went by, Paxton’s red-dotted initials covered swaths of Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

Folks are getting their dots into position pic.twitter.com/vnq9rZNKY9

— Jeff Frame (@VORTEXJeff) February 26, 2017

The letters “BP” coming together on storm chaser GPS coordinates for actor Bill Paxton. #Twister #RIPBillPaxton pic.twitter.com/GXLlWVSfFV

— SevereStudios (@severestudios) February 26, 2017

It just keeps getting better! Hundreds of storm chasers honoring Bill Paxton in KS and OK. Each dot is one person’s GPS. #RIPBillPaxton pic.twitter.com/z14XQ9msPR

— Aaron Brackett (@Aaron_Brackett) February 26, 2017

Spotter Network president John Wetter told the AP that the group had previously performed tributes like this for people who have “made a significant contribution to the field.”

“This is the first time we’ve gone way outside of that. There are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of meteorologists today—myself included—who were impacted by the movie Twister and the role Bill played in that,” Wetter told the AP. “Twister was kind of the first time in a mass media marketplace the meteorologist became cool, if only for a little while.”

[h/t Associated Press]

In Japan, some truck drivers transform their gritty rides into glitzy works of art. Dekotora—which means “decorated truck”—is the practice of adorning one’s rig with colorful neon lights, paintings, and chrome fixtures. Each truck is highly personalized, and owners often spend millions of yen (or thousands of dollars) embellishing them exactly to their liking. “You can express your way of life, your hometown, your family, all through the decorations,” explains Junichi Tajima, the leader and chairman of Utamaro Kai, a national association of dekotora drivers.

Learn more about the sparkly subculture in the video below, courtesy of Great Big Story.

[h/t Great Big Story]

At the McDonald’s restaurant in Frattocchie, Italy, patrons can enjoy fast food with a side of history. While digging for the building’s foundation in 2014, workers unearthed a swath of Roman road—and McDonald’s agreed to sponsor its excavation. The fast food chain partnered with archaeological authorities to incorporate the ancient thoroughfare into the restaurant’s design; earlier this week, The New York Times reports, the site opened to the public.

At this @McDonalds, the Roman remains comes with … https://t.co/PO8wDRsQMD via

— Steven Moore (@MrStevenMoore) February 23, 2017

The stone street is protected in an underground gallery beneath the McDonald’s, located south of Rome. The gallery has a glass roof, so visitors can see the site from inside the restaurant. (There’s also a separate entrance, accessible from the parking lot, so non-customers can view the road up close.) As for the road itself, it stretches for about 150 feet, and was constructed between the second and first centuries BCE. It likely connected a villa or important estate to the Appian Way, the famous ancient highway that once connected southeastern Italy and Rome.

Grooves—presumably left by cart wheels—indicate that the road was used for hundreds of years. However, archaeologists also discovered the skeletons of three men, suggesting that it eventually fell into disuse by the second or third century CE. (The real bones weren’t left on-site; instead, experts replicated them using resin casts.)

McDonald’s contributed around 300,000 euros (nearly $318,000) to the project, and they will also pay to maintain the site. “This is our first museum-restaurant,” said Mario Federico, the head of McDonald’s Italia, according to The Telegraph. “We’ve been able to return a stretch of Roman road to the local community and to the whole of Italy. The project is a good example of how the public and private sectors can collaborate effectively on reclaiming cultural heritage.”

[h/t The New York Times]

Dungeons & Dragons enthusiasts may soon be able to bring their campaigns to life, LEGO-style. Laughing Squid reports that a fan of the fantasy tabletop role-playing game has designed a D&D-inspired set, allowing players to build their own dungeons and lairs from the tiny toy bricks.

The 3000-piece LEGO set is called Dungeon Master. It isn’t officially affiliated with D&D. Instead, an internet user who goes by the name of Ymarilego posted the idea onto the LEGO Ideas website. For the uninitiated, the site is an outlet where LEGO fans can share mock-ups of potential designs. If 10,000 people like a design, it becomes eligible for review to become a licensed LEGO product.

Dungeon Master recently reached the coveted 10,000 number, so LEGO hobbyists may someday be able to purchase a real-life version of Ymarilego’s set. He explained how it works on the LEGO Ideas site:

With this set you can create your own dungeons and lairs for the heroes to investigate. There are dozens of possible layouts and setups. You can place the rooms in any sequence desired to create the lair you like.
Six minifigures of different monsters/villains can be placed in your dungeon for you heroes to combat. There are also several smaller creatures already in the rooms that can of course be placed where desired.

Check out some pictures of Dungeon Master below.

All images courtesy of Ymarilego//LEGO Ideas

[h/t Laughing Squid]

Connoisseurs of fine Asian art travel to Washington, D.C. to visit the Smithsonian Institution’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Together, the conjoined galleries house countless artworks and objects imported from the Far East, ranging from richly drawn Islamic manuscripts to paintings from India’s Mughal Empire. When items from the collections aren’t being shown to the public, conservationists prepare them for display and study old artifacts for new historic clues. Watch those pros in action in the video above, which features Paul Jett, former head of conservation and scientific research at the Freer and Sackler.

[h/t The Kid Should See This]

Banner image: Quadell via Wikimedia Commons//CC BY-SA 3.0

David Bowie’s London birthplace may soon be home to a new piece of public art commemorating the late singer, NME reports. Fans have launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for a giant lightning bolt statue, resembling the one painted across Bowie’s face on the cover of his 1973 album, Aladdin Sane.

Before he became a global superstar, Bowie grew up in Brixton, in south London. Today, there’s no shortage of local tributes to the glam rocker: Pop culture pilgrims flock to Brixton to see the three-story yellow Victorian where Bowie spent his childhood, and to view a nearby mural of the rocker, completed by Australian artist James Cochran in 2013.

If it’s built, the lightning bolt statue will likely become one of the neighborhood’s most visible Bowie-themed attractions: Mock-ups of the artwork depict a nearly 30-foot tall, bright red lightning bolt, embedded in the pavement. (The Crowdfunder project poetically describes it as “a nine-metre missive from another dimension, hurled from afar.”) The statue would stand five streets away from Bowie’s birthplace, right next to Cochran’s mural.

This Ain’t Rock’n’Roll, a U.K.-based artist collective, collaborated with members of Bowie’s team to design the statue. According to The Independent, the project already has the local government’s seal of approval; now, all it needs is money. Organizers hope to to raise more than $1.2 million by March 21, 2017. You can donate to the project online, or learn more about it by watching the video below.

[h/t NME]

Members of Ohio’s Marion Police Department recently went above and beyond the call of duty, brushing up on their elementary school math skills in the process to help a fifth-grader with her homework.

As ABC News reports, 10-year-old Lena Draper was stymied by problems that involved a combination of addition and multiplication, so she sought assistance on the local police department’s Facebook page. The student left a message, along with a few questions that left her scratching her head, including “(8 + 29) x 15.”

The police messaged Draper back, and briefly explained the mathematical order of operations to her (refresher: PEMDAS, which stands for “parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition and subtraction”). “Do the numbers in the parenthesis first so in essence it would be 37 x 15,” they instructed. Draper followed up with a more difficult question—”(90 + 27) + (29 + 15) x 2″—and the officers gave her additional help.

While their hearts were in the right place, their numbers weren’t: Draper ended up getting the second problem wrong, her mother later noted, as her math mentors mistakenly instructed her to solve the addition problems in both parentheses, and to multiply that answer by two. (Instead, she should have added the numbers in the second parentheses, multiplied that answer by two, and then added the result to the numbers in the first parentheses.)

The jury’s still out on how Draper did on her homework overall, but the Marion PD received props for their willingness to assist with community issues big and small. They received the praise with modesty, and in a Facebook statement, explained that they try to give back to the community in whatever way they can. This type of incident is “really just who we are as a Police Department,” the statement noted. “We are deeply connected with our wonderful citizens and they are incredibly supportive of their Police.”

“We really wondered what first made this child think to call upon us for help with homework,” the Marion PD continued. “We don’t mind and it’s not unheard of but still pretty rare. I believe the answer is simple … she was made to believe that we are good people who are worthy of her trust and who will be there for her in a pinch. That kind of thing does not happen by accident.”

You can hear an account of the story in Lena’s own words below, courtesy of Inside Edition.

[h/t ABC News]