World of Suck

There are a few states that have laws pertaining to "fetal homicide". I agree that assaulting a pregnant woman in such a way as to intentionally cause a miscarriage is awful and more insidious than merely assaulting her. However, a "fetal homicide" law in a country where abortion is still legal seems odd. Homicide should pertain to a human, one that has been born. Perhaps assault with mitigating factors might be in order.

A case in Michigan, a man snuck a RU-486 mickey to his pregnant girlfriend, the man is being charged with "fetal homicide".

( http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,313882,00.html )

I think this lout had more than enough criminal charges lodged against him that the "fetal homicide" was not needed. He's a bastard and a criminal, but homicide? Since it was premeditated, maybe it should be murder?

That's right they came back after I'd missed their delivery. Not only did they come back, they came back in an hour or so. Amazing, and completely unexpected, although appreciated.

I'd been tracking a package, and mind you their tracking is pretty damn nifty. You can sign up for email updates (to multiple addresses) on a number of conditions, including any change in package location/status at all. I saw that they were on their way to deliver and I dashed home... only to miss the delivery van by 10 minutes.

I called DHL and the lady said "Oh would you like him to return?" I was just speechless. Return? You mean today? Because I missed it? Well heck yeah!

I hardly see DHL, compared to UPS and Fedex, but they have my vote as the best commercial package delivery service. Next time I see their delivery as an option I won't hesitate to select it.

In Sudan, an English teacher asked one of her students what they should call a teddy bear that is as part of a class project. The 7 yr old student thought his name was a good name and so did most of the class. The problem is the student's name is Muhammad. The religious in that wing-nuts in that country have a problem with this since it just happens to be their prophet's name as well and they want the teacher punished with 40 lashes - For naming a bear - Some one's got their rag on a bit too tight.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,313426,00.html

P.S. It was reported that her sentence is 15 days and deportation. She has already served 5 so she has 10 more remaining.

I've had a Visa card with Chase for twenty years. That's a long time to be with any one credit company. Personally I don't like having a huge fanfold of cards. I know plenty of people that do - they have one for Paypal and one for Amazon, one for Ebay and one for Shell, an American Express and maybe a department store or two... who knows? I don't know if many people realize it, but the more cards you hold, the less actual credit you can draw. Thus if you make, lets say 40k per year, and have lets say seven credit cards with a $5000 limit, that means you only have 5k worth of borrowing power (add in rent and other things like car insurance means you actually have less). So when you go to buy that new car chances are you won't get a great rate (not to mention if you want a mortgage).

I know people are fascinated by getting the nth of a percent back here and there but I don't see the value. Oh wow - so Discover gives you 5% back for gas purchases... up to the first $100. Well considering the cost of gas these days is the five bucks really worth it? Actually, if you don't e-pay them, and you extract the cost of postage then you're only getting a whole 8 cents (since a year's worth of postage is $4.92). Eh.

Back to Chase however, some of the highlights of the positive experiences I've had with them includes:

• Calls when they suspect fraudulent activities (hasn't ever happened, but I appreciate their concern)
• A one day replacement of my card when I had to take a flight and had left my card at a mall
• Copies of actual receipts when a transaction was in question
• Excellent customer service - all well spoken, intelligent individuals who were willing and able to help me
• Being amenable to changing my credit limit down (or up) as I liked

My one and only beef with them is that I have called repeatedly to have the extra crappola and advertisements that come with my bill removed. Typically this lasts for about six months and then I start getting the junk in my bill again. I've decided to put up with it because I do appreciate their service and plan on being their customer for a decent long while.

It amuses me when people come up to a cashier and then have to pick and choose amongst their cards... how much on this or that they have left. Sounds like a disaster to me, if you have only one it's much easier to be aware what you've spent and what you owe.

It should not be my responsibility to drop every fucking thing I'm doing and try to troubleshoot/support HTML, Javascript and Flash material that YOU had developed by a third party freelancer. Just because THEY couldn't get the job done right or because YOU weren't concise enough to know the requirements of the project, I SHOULD NOT have to clean up YOUR mess.

That is all.

For now.

With the upcoming primaries, elections and other various assorted money-wasting, carbon footprinting, and human excrement-slinging blow hard politicians all gathered in mostly one place we need to discuss perhaps this decade's greatest threat to mankind.

Its not border security, Iran, Iraq or Afghanistan, not religion, not Roe vs. Wade, not democrat or republican, not even our French speaking friends in Montreal....

ELDERLY DRIVERS

Now I have yet another friend whom has either lost limb or life in a motor vehicle at the hands of some wrinkled prune who cant see 10 feet in front of their face or the bluehairs whom can see fine but get mentally confused about how to get up out of bed in the morning.

GET THESE BASTARDS OFF THE ROAD. I would personally vote for the next Gubernatorial candidate here whom MANDATES driver testing and real-road-driving test accepted standards for any person over 55 yrs old. Yes it will cost more money, tax me, I'll gladly pay it. Yes it will be an administrative nightmare to oversee, what could be worse than our welfare system already?

I am in serious doubt of the NTSA's finding on the number of accidents of our young, middle aged and elderly. I'm all about real-world facts, figures and findings. Every accident I see along the side most ALWAYS has some wrinkled up prune whom is obviously lost standing amongst the other victims waiting on a cop to take the report.

To any bluehairs reading this:
*Please drive within 5mph of the speed limit.

*Please do not drive at night if you have trouble seeing in the daytime.

*Push the turn signal lever down for left, push it up for right.

*Please do not drive between the hours of 7:30-9:00am and 4:00-7:00pm.

*Please stay home on the weekends. Leave the roads to us whom work during the week that are trying to get all our errands done unencumbered. Drive during the hours of 9:30am and 3:30pm Monday-Friday only.

*Please do not take your Chihuaua, Pekingnese or other small animal on your lap while driving.

*Please do not use the left lane unless you're ready to turn left, not right.

*Please consider hiring someone to do your running for you, its cheaper - especially when you consider my rates won't go up when you wreck, not to mention all the people who you're going to put in the hospital.

*Please consider giving up your drivers license if you have trouble remembering your children's names.

*Please consider giving up your drivers license if you own more than 5 cats.

Get better Gary Mount, We're all praying for you.

D.
========

There are those people you are born related to and those you chose to be with. I for one am not terribly close to those I was born related to. I gave up long ago on trying to have a relationship. I think the following from USA today sums it up nicely (link: http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/11/lifes-real-boun.html#more)

'Our chosen family'

Everyone has gathered best friends — an old school chum here, a trusted colleague from work there, or some wonderful person met by pure happenstance. These friends are people we can confide in, speak our hearts to — and to whom we listen intently for solace, inspiration and advice. They are our chosen family — the brothers and sisters of our souls — who clarify and define who we are, what we are doing. And these friendships never change: To speak after a decade's separation is the same as speaking just yesterday, time and distance rendered meaningless in our life journey together.

When we sit down to our feast of Thanksgiving this year, we should give thanks for that other family, that chosen family — our human harvest of enduring friendships. And they're easy to name, too. They're the ones who made a difference. "No love, no friendship," wrote Nobel Prize winner Francois Mauriac, "can cross the path of our destiny without leaving some mark on it forever."

So who says you can't pick your family?

A couple weeks ago I posted about a $1000 bagel. Some commented about a $25,000 dessert. This a follow up on that cool 25 big one dessert:

Bad week for: Hubris, after a Manhattan restaurant that introduced a gold-laced, $25,000 dessert as a publicity stunt last week was shut down when health inspectors found the kitchen infested with live mice, flies, and dozens of cockroaches. A red-faced Steven Bruce, owner of Serendipity 3, said, “We’re rectifying it as quickly as we can.”

Just cause ya pay more, don't mean its clean!

No, not really.

So, in May 08, scientists are hoping to start up the Large Hadron Collider in France. Basically, it's a particle accelerator. A really BIG one. It's going to be used to investigate things like dark matter, the god particle, antimatter, and such things. Nifty things that all would help up understand how the universe works. Because you know, we're kinda curious.

Anyway, that's the short version. It's a big new toy for scientists to play with. Is that the end of the story? Course not. That would be a crappy rant, wouldn't it? The rant comes next.

So, if you were going to guess, how do you think the nutcases would portray this type of thing? If you guess Doomsday machine, congratulations. Let me tell you, they didn't skimp out on the crazy here either.

They feel that colliding particles like this has a number of major risks not only to the entire planet, but potentially the entire universe. Oh yeah baby. The whole fucking universe. Really incredible that we can do that with just a couple miles of magnets lined up properly. You see, they think we're going to do one of a couple things. First, we could create a black hole. Obviously the black whole would consume the entire earth and solar system. Second, we could tear a hole in the fabric of space and time. Finally, they give a nod to other conspiracy groups. This machine could be used to create anti-matter, which could then be used by Al Qaeda to create massive anti-matter explosions.

I mean, just... wow. I don't care how bad you are at physics, that's some crazy shit right there.

First off, we're talking about particle collisions, not stellar ones. If, by some highly unlikely chance, we created a black hole, it's only the sum of it's parts. It would be a super condensed, micro black hole with a mass of... well.. a few particles. It's gravitational force would be... exactly the same as those few particles normally have. Just really condensed. the diameter for that colossal gravitational force would be about the same as an electron's orbit around a helium atom. So long as you stay outside that event horizon, you should be ok. Seriously, it would take a lot of luck for it to attack nearby air particles. Especially inside of a magnetized accelerator. Oh, and black holes evaporate. It's slowly based on their mass, but with so little, it would be nearly instantaneous in this case. Color me not scared.

As for ripping space time, that's so crazy you can't even quantify it. The statement doesn't even make sense outside of a star trek episode. The worse part is that we're trying to study cosmic radiation with this thing. Stuff that hits the earth hundreds of times a day with FAR more energy than we can generate. But since we can't predict when/where such rays will hit, we wanted this little toy in order to do so reliably.

And then we have the concept of anti-matter explosive devices. These are good. I'm sure we'd like that. But we're not talking about significant amounts of anti-matter. And it only exists for a few fractions of a second inside the chamber. It's not like we have portable containment units. If anti-matter touches matter, they collide and destroy each other. So... lets just say, this is not really possible and leave it at that.

So why do people (read as: nutters) think this? Because scientists tend to be truthful when they're asked questions. Even if the question is... shall we say... leading. So, when a reporter asks something like "what is the worst case scenario?" or "could this conceivably create a black hole?" a truthful person going on record might say "theoretically it could create a black hole, but that's unlikely." Then some dirt bag reporter could just trim the last 3 words off and he's got himself a headline!

People at the facility who have to talk to the press are now told to be more careful in choosing their words. Take a few crappy articles citing the same source and add a few hyper-phobic people that are bad at science.. and you've got a recipe for crazy.

MTV Arabia has been launched! They are obviously limited on the music videos they can show considering the amount of sinful female flesh is shown in most music videos.

Hmmm, I can just see Shakira gyrating in a burka now . . .

I needed cat food so off to my favorite pet store I go. Its Saturday and they are having an adoption clinic and it is wall to wall dogs and corner with a few cats. A woman is talking to the lady with the cats and I over heard most of the conversation. The woman is taking issue with adopting a pet from or donating money to the organization the lady is with because they kill too many cats. She eventually leaves in a huff.

There are so many in the rescue world who are "no-kill" and sit on their high mountain tops looking down their noses at the rest. It must be nice being so sanctimonious when you leave the dirty work for someone else. Furthermore, for every "difficult" case you take in that may never get a proper "forever" home because they are so screwed up, there may be two well-adjusted very easily adoptable pets in the shelter that may get put down because no one wants to go to the death house.

Fact is, you can not blame shelters for euthanising unwanted cats, dogs and other creatures. They are not the idiots who didn't spay or neuter their pets before they could produce large quantities of cuddly kittens and puppies who then become cats and dogs no one wants. They are just the ones left with the unpleasant task of killing the ones that no one wants.

It's one of those times of the year when it becomes a necessity to grocery shop in volume. The supermarket I generally visit seems to hire a better quality of teenager to check and bag my goods. They're also 5% to 7% more expensive than the grocers at the other end of town. Thus, for volume days, I go to the cheaper store. While smaller, and more tightly packed, the kids there are reasonably fast on checkout. The baggers, however, are markedly different.

I usually ask for plastic bags. When I'm done I ball them all up and put the bags into recycling. Seems ok to me. Sure they're less durable but for the 12' walk from the car to the house it's not really a big deal. Well, that is when things are bagged with some sort of logic. There's variants on the theme of bagging, and some of them really make me wonder:

Burgeoning Bagging: Let's see just how MUCH stuff one bag can hold shall we? Chances are it won't...

Military Bagging: Only items of like size and shape can be placed in the same bag. If you only have one item of a size and shape it gets to wallow in the bag alone.

BioHazard Bagging: Meats with meats. Dairy with dairy. Frozen with frozen. (I'm actually ok with this since I prefer to keep the meats in the bag even when I stuff it in the fridge. It keeps leaks from becoming catastrophic.)

Demonstration of Entropy Bagging: This usually happens with the fastest baggers. Anything and everything goes into a bag until it reaches capacity. When you get home you'll need to go through 75% of the bags to find that last strawberry yogurt...

Criminally Insane Bagging: This was what I was a victim of last night. Honest to gods the kid put every single item, regardless of size, shape, color, texture, temperature, into its own separate bag. Loading it into the car I just reached into the cart and grabbed fist fulls of plastic and hoped the right end was up. When I got home the volume of plastic was roughly the dimension of the giant bubble that chased Patrick McGoohan down the beach in the opening scene of 'The Prisoner'.

There is one more type of bagging - and that's the Guilt Complex bagging you get when visiting the natural grocers. "WHAT?!?! you didn't bring handmade, earth-supporting, eco-friendly, hemp and cat-gut, Birkenstock-certified bags of your own? Oh the SHAME! We will grudgingly give you paper ones, but keep in mind we shall glare at you with pure contempt for your wastefulness in the process."

Yeah I don't shop there often, but they are open on Thanksgiving.

I resent having to deal with the 'Great Unwashed Masses' for almost anything. Supermarkets, theaters, malls. I just am not keen to deal with humans when they are not bent on a specific errand. Train stations, bus terminals, airports, not a problem. People rush hither and yon, with the occasional bump and "Oops, Pardon me." The difference is in the dawdling. I can't stand people who stand, oblivious to all the traffic they're causing about them, as they ponder this item or that thought.

I was at Costco which is, to me, a mix of train station and shopping. Most people are there for a specific reason and there isn't a lot of choices to be made. Do you want 50 rolls of Bounty or the generic brand? The price difference is a buck. Really not many people need to think about this. The only clots of humanity are clustered around the sample vendors who are giving away tidbits to taste. Usually those people are located in an area with ample room to support the ravenous hordes.

The exit, however, is a nightmarish hell. People with their carts loaded to the gunnels will actually stand stock still and read their receipt while people pile up behind them. With little or no concern they now need to check the price of this or that item, rather than having paid attention while being checked out.

I see the same idiotic behavior in malls - someone will suddenly stop at random, causing a multi-person pileup behind them. And unlike hubs of transportation, if you bump someone the "Oops, Pardon me" generates virulent hostility rather than a humorous look of understanding.

And people wonder why brick and mortar establishments are going the way of the dinosaur...

Time recently ran an article written by a doctor about people who do research before going to the doctor - he calls them "Googlers" and "brainsuckers".

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1681838,00.html?imw=Y

On one had, the patient he decides to use as an example is an extreme case. However, I am sure his condescending attitude is not reserved for pushy, mouthy patients.

Every doctor knows patients like this. They're called "brainsuckers." By the time they come in, they've visited many other docs already — somehow unable to stick with any of them. They have many complaints, which rarely translate to hard findings on any objective tests. They talk a lot. I often wonder, while waiting for them to pause, if there are patients like this in poor, war-torn countries where the need for doctors is more dire.

Does this imply that we should all be grateful for a doctor's care and shut-up and take anything they dish out, like they do in third world countries?

Nurses are my favorites — they know our language and they're used to putting their trust in doctors. And they laugh at my jokes.

Ah, he prefers complacent bobble heads. I'm sure if a nurse questioned him, he'd be equally annoyed at having his authority questioned.

But engineers, as a class, are possibly the best patients. They're logical and they're accustomed to the concept of consultation — they're interested in how the doctor thinks about their problem.

As long as the engineer sits in rapture on every word, too, I'm sure.

I'm a Googler and damn proud of it. I'm not in-your face like the woman he critiques, but I go in doing my homework. I may not dismiss the doctor out of hand if I disagree, but I will come home and research what I have been told to see if it makes sense. I realize medicine is an art - something I think was missed by the pompous egomaniac.

I consider any doctor a service provider - he/she provides a service. If I do not like the service I go else where. I have found through word of mouth good doctors. I may not always agree with their approach or they with my opinion, but they are willing to try my suggestion if it will do no harm. Sometimes I'm right, sometimes they are.

We do not live in a third world country. Medical expenses are high and even for those of us with insurance less and less is covered. We should demand good service for our hard earned money. Too many doctors treat patients like petulant children who need to be kept in line. Doctors have the right to be treated like professionals, and we as patients deserve to be treated like valued clients.

Most teenage girls are stressed. Between school, boys, hormones, parents, all the emotions being heaped on them or self-inflicted there's not much of a break. Megan was 13 who, in addition to all the things a new-teen has to cope with, was also ADHD and struggling with depression. She killed herself because the boy she'd falled in love with online turned out to be a cruel joke played on her by a former friend's Mom. One that was even a neighbor.

This Mom said she wanted only to win the girl's confidence to learn about her own daughter, but instead teamed up with a few other people to build a romance and then smash it to pieces. "Josh", the puppet boyfriend, turned on her suddenly - posting mean messages - calling her "fat" and "a slut".

Of course Megan never found out this was all a sham posted by someone she knew. She killed herself instead.

Eventually her parents found out when another girl, a schoolmate, told them about it.

The adults who did this haven't been charged with a crime because it doesn't "fit" within the existing laws.

It doesn't take much to decide if it a crime to drive a thirteen year old to her death after breaking her heart... Not to mention destroying her parents lives. They now plan to divorce. And the Mother who started it? Well she says she doesn't feel all that guilty, since Megan had tried to commit suicide once before.

Gj Lori Drew.

Sometimes you have to admire the Muslim code of justice. They really know how to get the point across. For example, take Saudi Arabia. They catch a group of guys that raped a girl. They throw them in jail. An not a nice jail, a Muslim style fuck you very much jail. Hoo-ZAH!

Of course, there is always the flip side. They sentenced the victim, a 19 year old girl, to 90 lashes. Oh yeah, she gets raped, and then BEATEN for it. Quality justice they got there. Her crime? "Being in the car of an unrelated male." Doesn't matter that the male was raping her.

But wait, it gets better. I know, it's hard to imagine how they could fuck up even more. The appeals court DOUBLED it and then some. 200 lashes. AND six months in jail! Because the media caught on and bitched about it. Additional lashes for her "attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media".

Fucking priceless. I'm glad these guys are on our side, right? Sigh.

"So this is the kind of management we have to deal with: Nobody is calm, nobody is objective... Everyone is just freekin' Nuts."

-Roger

Do you want to know a sure-fire way to ruin Thanksgiving? Serve up a "new" and "exotic" recipe instead of a "classic". Just about any and all newspapers are carrying guaranteed ways to make your family go "WTF were you thinking?"

Take mashed potatoes for example. Pretty simple stuff really. Get potatoes. Boil potatoes. Add salt, pepper, milk and butter. Voila - done. I promise you adding blue cheese or fresh lavender will probably make most people wrinkle their nose and wonder why you decided to deviate from the traditional.

Thanksgiving is all about tradition really. Making the same, fatty, yummy dishes your great-grandparents made and throwing all health concerns to the four winds. Screw the nouvelle, it's the tried-and-true, Better Homes, Fanny Farmer, Joy of Cooking time of year. Chances are if you decide to substitute wheat-germ for flour and tofu for cheddar you will get a reaction, only probably not a good one. During Thanksgiving you can't get too Americana or too gauche.

Yes, marshmallows are just fine on sweet potatoes, no one cares - Grandma used to make it that way and she'd have smacked you with an iron pan if you dissed her cooking anyway...

I'm curious... why do you believe I am a multi-billion dollar search engine? Do I look like a search engine? When I speak, does it sound like I'm rattling off information about the last words you spoke?

Then, pray tell, why do you keep coming to me with requests more easily found through Google? We're both at work. We both sit in front of computers all day long. We both have degrees in computer science. I presume you know how to use the internet. It's pretty easy. My grandmother does it.

So I'm confused when you get out of your seat, walk over to my desk, and ask me things like "How many feet in a mile?", "What are the names of New England Patriots wide receivers?", and "What time does Best Buy close?"

These are things that I don't know off the top of my head. Even if I did, a quick entry into Google will get you the answer several orders of magnitude faster than I will. Additionally, I don't have to be bothered by your request. Instead, you will only require the assistance of a tool specifically designed to fill your request.

So, fuck off. K? Thanks. Buh-bye.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/11/the-consumer-pa.html

Researchers have found that low self-esteem and materialism are not just a correlation, but also a causal relationship where low self esteem increases materialism, and materialism can also create low self-esteem.

I've never understood why traffic lights, the ones that are triggered by pressure or magnetic sensors, need to be programmed to be so fucking retarded. There's no reason in the world that a traffic light needs to be triggered when someone is making a right turn.

I see it all the fucking time. Driving along, the light is green. Way up ahead someone on a cross-street makes a right turn. As I approach the light it turns red for me, because the right-turn triggered the light for the cross street only now there's no one there.

It's fucking simple, just put in a timeout. If the car isn't there after, oh say three seconds, don't trigger the damn light.

It's not even rocket science...

Last year around this time, I made a post called "Radio Free Santa". In it, I complained about a local radio station which plays nothing but Christmas music for 6 weeks.

Today is 6 weeks before Christmas. In the car on the way home from work, I clicked through the radio stations. There are now 2 stations playing nothing but Christmas music. For 6 weeks.

I do not enjoy the Christmas season.

Ok so it's time for ole bman to buy a new truck. I've been doing some research over the past few months and decided to buy a new Ford F-250 Diesel. Why? Well, I haul a ton of things around including trailers AND this new 2008 diesel has the 3 diesel exhaust scrubbers! Yes, you can start it up and go around to the tailpipe and there is absolutely no smell whatsoever - much less than a passenger car from what Im told and what I researched. Ford says that this new exhaust system is cleaner than any other passenger car gasoline engine on the market and the EPA mandated a fuel change for all diesel last year. New diesel cannot contain more than 15ppm of sulfur for anything refined after 2007 - regular gasoline has sulphur equivalent of 550ppm. Wow.. my new truck is really green - Ok so this is cool! I can have the truck I need and help keep the planet greener by having the latest greatest state of the art in exhaust emissions reduction PLUS I can run biodiesel which is made from either used fryer waste oil or corn.

So I'm ready for my 2nd tank of fuel and I head on over the local biodiesel supplier. Hey this biodiesel is only $2.79/gallon! Wow, regular cruddy ole petroleum based diesel is now $3.25/gallon. Im gonna save a ton of money. Just as I start to put some in the tank the attendant stops me and says:

You'll ruin that state of the art EPA regulated exhaust emission system by running this very very clean and green biodiesel."

"What? What do you mean? I'm doing my part by buying this super clean fuel.." I said to him.

He told me to look again and read my owners manual on the engine. So I did. Apparently the oils contained in the new biodiesel are not able to be collected and broken down by my state of the art exhaust system. Ford says that I can use no more than a 5% mix of biodiesel and regular petroleum based diesel. According to Ford, The EPA specs mandated for all trucks as of 2008, very very specific things to scrub petroleum based fuels but will clog with the use of any other fuel - including biodiesel mixtures over 5%.

Any bets that the petroleum refiners had any lobbying interest in this law?

So in short, the EPA has caused all diesel truck owners as of 2008 to be forced to only run mixtures of 5% biodiesel in their vehicles. IF memory serves me right the president, congress and a variety of other 'green' speakers including Al Gore all advised us all to run as much biodiesel and biofuels as possible to reduce our dependence upon petroleum based oils.

Well, now everyone will just remove all the exhaust scrubbers and head over to the biodiesel depot and fill up. They're not paying $3.25/gallon for fuel. Besides, biodiesel without the scrubbers is still cleaner than the petroleum based fuels with the scrubbers.... until the demand for biodiesel goes up forcing the price to be over the price of the petroleum based fuels in which case I'll go back to those.. but wait.. it wont be clean anymore.. oh well, who cares.

So I guess the system is once again fighting itself.. go figure.

It's funny in a sad way that probably every sick-o on campus (any campus, pick one) is probably trying to get their hands on the Aqua-Dots toy since it was publicized as being coated with a substance that decomposes into the Date-Rape drug

I can understand the need to announce the fact that the toy is harmful in the wrong hands, but wouldn't it have been smarter to just say the content was toxic rather than going into the details? It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the demand for this item will skyrocket with freaks.

Of course the toy was never meant to be toxic(although I'm a little perplexed as to why the toy is listed for 4+ years, since just about any kid under 6 will still be shoving stuff into their mouth). Instead some dickhead at the factory in China that manufacturers the product substituted the toxic chemical for the non-toxic substance that had been approved. Why? Well because the actual chemical is four times more expensive.

Deja-news.

Chinese manufacturer substitutes cheap, lethal ingredients for legitimate ones and pockets the leftovers. People (or pets) die. Chinese government shrugs and it's business as usual.

So... who's ready for a little Olympics?

Oh and for those looking? While Ebay and Amazon have yanked it, the "toy" is still available online for around $30.

SOUTHWORTH, Wash. (AP) -- A man trying to loosen a stubborn lug nut blasted the wheel with a 12-gauge shotgun, injuring himself badly in both legs, sheriff's deputies said.

How exactly *do* you come up with the idea to loosen a lug nut with a shotgun? When I first read this I thought the individual had used the shotgun as a lever. But no, he actually shot at the wheel. With a gun.

Honestly I think this was the better possible ending, considering that there was probably a 50% chance he'd have held the gun by the barrel instead of the stock.

Well, and maybe smokers, too.

Some people seem to think that junk food it the sole reason for obesity. From the Los Angeles Times - "Forget Smokers, Tax Snakers", by Tina Dupuy.

Americans get really weird when we talk about obesity. We treat fat people like anorexic teenage girls. We don't want to freak them out or hurt their feelings. It might turn them into cutters.

Not from my account. Tina is obviously some skinny bitch who doesn't think that fat people see the disdain in her eyes - we ain't blind bitch.

I have a better proposal: a snack tax. We had one for about 18 months in the early 1990s. Granted, it was shot down in the polls by a huge margin, but that never stopped George W. Bush or Richard Nixon, or Dennis Kucinich for that matter, from making a comeback. In fact, a tobacco tax also was voted down here last year. So we're clearly not afraid of reruns.

Bring it on. For the amount of junk food I eat, this might increase my monthly budget by, oh I don't know, $5? I admit I'm not a saint - I love chocolate. But not all fat people sit eating cheese doodles and ring-dings all day.

But it's really unpopular to bring that up. We can sin-tax smokers all day long. Don't let them smoke in public areas; don't let them smoke in their apartments. Fine them if they smoke in their cars when there are minors riding with them. Shame them into being social pariahs.

I detect a bit of sensitivity here - Think Tina might be a smoker? I do agree that the politicians have grown a bit too fond of bitch slapping smokers around. They tax the shit out of cigarettes and most states slip that money into the general fund rather than smoking cessation and health care - where it belongs.

Since junk food may be contributing to health problems, maybe it should be taxed more heavily (many states already tax snack foods and soda). However, it is doubtful that the revenues will be put into health care. Rather it will be yet another way to give a slush fund to the politicians.

There is one big difference between cigarettes and junk food. One does not need to smoke - one does need to eat. It is simply a matter of what one chooses to eat that makes the distinction here. And lets not forget that the ingredients in the junk foods can be used to make healthful foods - so this tax would in no way help the Betty Crockers of the world. I may have to pay a tax on chocolate chips, but not on the flour, butter, baking soda, and sugar. Unless of course you tax the offending ingredients as well.

So, go ahead, bring on a snack tax. It will matter little more to me than the cigarette tax. However, if anyone thinks this will be a panacea for obesity they are fooling themselves. Are there people who eat themselves into oblivion? Sure. Does every fat person? No.

**Note** This is not my work, but I'm reproducing this here because of the relevance of the content. I have copied it here as it was forwarded to me, as such I have no ability to credit the original author but to whomever... props.

-u235

The Dunning-Kruger effect is the phenomenon wherein people who have little knowledge think that they know more than others who have much more knowledge.

The phenomenon was demonstrated in a series of experiments performed by Justin Kruger and David Dunning, then both of Cornell University. Their results were published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in December 1999.

Kruger and Dunning noted a number of previous studies which tend to suggest that in skills as diverse as reading comprehension, operating a motor vehicle, and playing chess or tennis, "ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" (as Charles Darwin put it). They hypothesized that with a typical skill which humans may possess in greater or lesser degree,

1. Incompetent individuals tend to overestimate their own level of skill.

2. Incompetent individuals fail to recognize genuine skill in others.

3. Incompetent individuals fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy.

4. If they can be trained to substantially improve their own skill level, these individuals can recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill.

They set out to test these hypotheses on human subjects consisting of Cornell undergraduates who were registered in various psychology courses.

In a series of studies, Kruger and Dunning examined self-assessment of logical reasoning skills, grammatical skills, and humor. After being shown their test scores, the subjects were again asked to estimate their own rank, whereupon the competent group accurately estimated their rank, while the incompetent group still overestimated their own rank. As Dunning and Kruger noted,

“Across 4 studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd.”

Meanwhile, people with true knowledge tended to underestimate their competence.

A follow-up study suggests that grossly incompetent students improve both their skill level and their ability to estimate their class rank only after extensive tutoring in the skills they had previously lacked.

Daniel Ames and Lara Kammrath extended this work to sensitivity to others, and the subjects' perception of how sensitive they were.

Some more work by Burson Larrick and Joshua Klayman has suggested that the effect is not so obvious and may be due to noise and bias levels.

Dunning and Kruger won the 2000 Ig Nobel prize for their work.

So remember Kiddies! Next time you meet a Prime Example of the DKE don't forget... there's a scientific foundation for your annoyance. Letting others know that there's a DKE around -before- they encounter them is a boon to all! Help your peers and they'll help you.

I find it more than a little odd that a teacher would try and make a school, no actually their school, the target of the gun lobby. It seems that Ms. Katz is demanding the right to carry a semiautomatic on school grounds. Because she's afraid for her life. In 2004 she claims her ex-husband made threats during their divorce. Uh hello? That was almost four years ago... so why do you need a gun now?

It was always my thought that a teacher would put the lives of the children around them first, but I guess in this case Shirley doesn't give a crap. She wants to do her job and she wants to carry a gun in the process. Could she have an accident with the gun? Could she also be the target of someone in the school who wanted to take the gun from her? If her ex-husband did come after her, he would most certainly be carrying one, so that would make two guns in the school. Maybe probability and statistics aren't her thing but Shirl - the very fact that you have a gun with you increases the chances you (or someone around you) will be shot with one, trust me on this. Do you really want to be responsible for the death of a student?

I'm pretty sure most of the kids in her class probably don't give her too much grief, I know I wouldn't. On the other hand would I have my kids in her class?

Hell no.

Does everyone have a "right" to have fun? What if you're not capable of having a certain type of "fun" is it discrimination on the part of the provider? Let's take a hypothetical example of a tour service that offers climbs up Mount Everest. Is it discrimination that the service require that you be physically fit enough to climb? What about a scuba tour? Is it discrimination to require a person be able to swim?

I don't often side with Disney, but in this case they're being sued by people who "can stand but can't walk". These people prefer (note the word "prefer" here) to use a Segway rather than a wheelchair. They're suing Disney for this preference. Disney claims that since Segways can go up to 12 miles an hour that they're too dangerous in an environment filled with toddlers and little kids running amok. For once, I agree with Disney.

To the plaintiffs in this case: Mahala Ault, Dan Wallace, and Stacie Rhea - if you want to go to Disney so damn badly - do what other disabled persons do... use a wheelchair. No one is actually preventing you from visiting and enjoying the theme park. It's fucking greedy and self-centered to force the proprietors to accept the risk of your being able to safely operate your device in a crowded environment. Personally I wouldn't want you behind my children in a line.

The Week Daily - FROM THE MAGAZINE

Good week for: Grotesque excess, after Manhattan chef Frank Tujague unveiled his version of a bagel with cream cheese. Topped with white-truffle cream cheese and gold-leaf-flecked goji jelly, the bagel is on the menu at the Westin New York hotel for a mouthwatering $1,000.

And he chose this combination because ....?

He wanted to make the most weird and disgusting combo he could manage on a bagel?

He wanted to be able to justify selling a bagel for a grand?

beats me. All I have to say is ewww.

Pop quiz time for sanctimonious pricks out there.

Can an atheist behave morally if he doesn't believe in a supreme being?
A)yes
B)no

If you said B, you can feel free to go throw yourself off the nearest convenient tall building. Atheists aren't automatically devoid of moral structure just because they don't believe in God or take Jesus Christ as their savior. Just as Christians aren't always moral titans. There are good and bad in just about every group.

But just so you know, let me explain to you how a non-denominational, entirely secular moral structure might look.

Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself.

Confucius said that sometime around 500BC, but there have been a number of variations of it, both earlier and later. It doesn't require worship or fear of a deity to be true. It's not right to do something to someone else that you wouldn't want done to yourself. Simple. Elegant. Timeless. All five of the major religions have some version of it. I imagine most of the minor ones do as well. I happen to like the way Confucius phrases it.

Secular morality stems from the concept that doing positive things improves society and doing negative things harms society. If this world is all there is, than it's in our best interest to improve it.

Moral value is not a religious monopoly. If you stopped acting as if you were a direct conduit to the Lord Almighty, you might have realized that.

Advil is not a snack food.

I read today an article about our troops in Iraq. For the most part is was a fairly masturbatory view of the war. The US is right. The troops are amazing. The strategy is sound. That sort of thing. Then he goes a little further.

He says that anyone who enlists in the military is automatically a hero.

See, that just pisses me off. It's just not true. And it detracts from those people that have actually done something heroic, in or out of uniform. I don't want to bash our troops. I'm proud of our troops and I think they are some of the best soldiers anywhere in the world. My attack here isn't on them, it's on a dumb ass author.

It's not heroic to enlist. It takes than committing four years to the military to become a hero. It takes more than serving in a combat zone.

I read a story today about a hero. 14 year old kid jumped off the station platform and onto the tracks after a man he didn't know fainted and fell down. He pulled the man back under the platform and out of the way of an on-coming train. He was in no personal danger, but he placed himself in harms way to protect another person. He displayed courage and strength of spirit to save a person he didn't know. That, sir, is a hero.

Soldiers in combat have many opportunities to become a hero. There are long lines of men in uniform that have gone above and beyond their duty to help their comrades in arms or to vanquish their foes. Men who have put their lives down to do what they knew what right. Maybe they carried wounded men out of harms way. Maybe they held their position longer than was safe because to fall back would mean death to their friends. That, sir, is what it takes to be a hero.

Being a hero is more than a simple platitude we throw down for anyone. It's means something. It's a choice made by a person that 'good enough' doesn't apply to them. That they accept the risk because the benefits are worth it. Or maybe they choose to do something dangerous because they just don't think they can live with themselves if they did nothing. Whatever the reason, they choose to do more.

This article cheapens that. It makes the very act of enlisting into a sacrifice. The act of going off to war into heroism of the finest sort.

But heroes do more than just put on a uniform. It takes more.

Ah November. The sweet spot for video game publishers. Games have gone gold and are being released at record pace for the holiday season. Gamers flock to stores to grab the latest new releases. Parents run out to grab little Johnny's top Christmas gift. My credit card screams out for mercy. Life is good in the world of gaming.

Honestly, this may be one of the better years in recent memory. Unreal Tournament 3, Assassin's Creed, Hellgate: London, Call of Duty 4, Mass Effect, Crysis, SimCity Societies, Rock Band, Half Life's bundle of games, and a huge number of expansion packs. And those are just off the top of my head.

So, if it's so great to be a gamer, why am I posting here?

Because quite frankly, I'm sick of retail stores. Is there a good place out there to buy games? I don't think so.

EB Games was bought by Gamestop. The conglomeration should have been a good thing, but instead left us with a steaming pile of dog shit. I'm so fed up with the place that I will never, under any circumstances, give the company money again. I recommend you do the same. I will not be held hostage by a company that makes the consumer feel like a beggar. If I want a game, I should be able to buy it at GAMEstop. But more often than not, that's not the case. I have to pre-order or special order or reserve or whatever the fuck the game I want ahead of time. Otherwise, they don't fucking get enough in. How a company focused on games can not have games on demand is beyond me. I've heard the drivel and frankly, they can shove it up their ass. 'We have too many stores to have multiple copies available everywhere'. That tells me you HAVE TOO MANY FUCKING STORES. Maybe if you'd consolidate them you would have more than 1 copy of each game at each store. And hey, you know what else would be nice? If that one copy wasn't already opened. I know you want to prevent theft. I get it. But you know what? When I buy a game, I expect it to... I dunno... NOT have fingerprints on it. Or worse, already be scratched because one of your employees took the game home to try it out.

Oh, and Mr. Gamestop worker, No, I don't want to reserve a game. No, I don't give a fuck if you didn't like the last game this publisher put out. No, I don't want a copy of your shitty magazine. No, I don't want a mother fucking game guide. I want to give you my goddamn money and have you give me my fucking game! I don't have any idea who came up with this model of retail store, but they should be take out, shot repeatedly in the legs and left in the Florida Everglades so that nature can dish out a fitting punishment.

That's not to say the box stores are much better. They rarely ever get games on the shelves the first day. And if you want a new game, their prices are competitive. Circuit City is pretty good about having sales on games within two weeks of release. The problem is the older games. They never seem to come down in price. A game that's over a year old is still marked at $49.99 just like the day it was released. Also, CC is famous for pulling bait and switch ads. For example, Call of Duty 4 was marketed as giving the buyer a free copy of Call of Duty 3. But the stores didn't honor it and claimed it was a typo. And heaven fucking forbid you ever want to return or exchange a game, even if it's defective. You might as well pull out all of your own teeth with a pair of pliers.

Honestly, can you imagine if all retail businesses operated the same way video game stores do? I swear there would be riots. Try telling some woman that her makeup was opened and tried on by employees. Or that you can't buy those jeans unless you pre-ordered them. Hey, we only got one iPod in stock and the manager earmarked it for himself.

The only real alternative is to order games online and have them delivered. That costs a bit more and it has the same underlying problem as Gamestop's pre-ordering bullshit. I can't just go get a fucking game. I have to know I want it in advance.

This is a great time to be a gamer. Except for the bullshit you have to go through to get them.

Are you a Cell-phone Sufferer? Do you grind your teeth as people in the restaurant, museum, or theater yak on obliviously less than two feet away? What about having to squelch the urge to reach in and snatch the phone from the jerk who suddenly realized he was passing his turnoff and yanks the car over three lanes?

The NY Times went over this topic just the other day in an article discussing the merits and implications of devices to squelch cell phone communications. Either handheld or building-wide, the "cure" to the common angst is available for purchase. Letter writers responded with three types of comments: 1) Outrage - "How dare anyone interfere with my ability to use the phone when and where I want to" 2) Approval - "Where do I buy one?" and 3) Wry amusement - "Just shout 'SHADDUP' in their face... it's more satisfying and costs less."

The Times being more politically astute didn't comment on gender or age in terms of who is more annoying in their use of cell phones. But of course none of that applies here...

Women. Honestly I see more women on the phone in their cars, and more men on the phone when walking in public. Women scare me more than men however, since a 90lb woman behind the wheel of a mammoth SUV is far more lethal than a 250lb guy not looking where he's walking. Nothing fucking frightens me more, than seeing some teased, blonde, business-suited bitch gabbing away while peering at herself in the rearview all the while tailgating me on the highway. I just begin my mantra of "SUV Rollver, SUV Rollover" but thus far the affirmation hasn't worked, well as far as I can tell. Everyone knows phones are a major source of distraction leading to accidents, plenty of them fatal for the people who weren't on the phone, but only a few states have gone so far as demanding hands-free operation.

People under the age of 35 and over the age of 20. It seems that a certain etiquette is being established by the newer generation. Perhaps having it drilled into them from an early age, they understand that specific areas such as schools, hospitals, libraries, theaters, and so on are not appropriate for loud conversations. It's the later adopters that seem to have a complete disdain for any sort of restraint.

In response to the rabid woman who went berserk over the idea that she might have the electronic umbilical cut for even an hour... gosh whatever would she have done twenty years ago? Sit there in school next to them? Follow the kids around from class to class in college? Get a grip bitch, your kids can survive being out of communication with you, and even if something does happen chances are a responsible person will manage it just fine. If it's such a freekin issue try home schooling instead.

About cell phone signal silencers, well I don't have an opinion one way or another. I do own and use a cell phone, but I don't think I annoy anyone with it because I like to have my conversations in private. Am I annoyed with other people and their lack of consideration? Often. However I would rather just silence specific offenders than catching bystanders accidentally. Now if they made a targeted device, well... yeah that would be tempting.

I don't like frozen food in general. Well, let me amend that, I think freezing is a fine way to preserve raw ingredients like peas and parsnips. I'll freeze some leftovers, like lasagna, from time to time or maybe leftover soup-stock, but in general I detest (with rare exception) pre-prepared meals and "entrees".

Ugh. "Entree"? Come on, that's just a nice way of saying - here's some almost edible content with the consistency of mushed styrofoam with a double helping of salt, and preservatives. Enjoy.

I do buy a few of these packaged and frozen meals for work expressly for times when I'm too rushed to go out, or am bereft of some tasty leftover from the previous nights dinner. I mentally call these "White-Collar MREs", a last ditch act of desperation to prevent foraging in the vending machine. And while I only buy meals that are preservative free, dairy free and all-natural it invariably comes down to a battle of the carrots.

I suppose carrots are the single most freezer-worthy vegetable. Pile that on top of, cheap, easy to handle and "colorful" there's always more frozen carrots in a meal than I'd ever want to consume. It's almost charming the way they take on the texture consistency of a 'Pink Pearl' eraser, melded with a bland and almost carrot-like taste (actually I think I imagine that last part, because if I were fed some blindfolded I would probably punch the person for trying to pass off silly-putty as food).

On the other hand, if you removed carrots as a fundamental freezer-food building block, what would be left? I imagine a desiccated wasteland of bland rice, dilapidated psudo-meat-like cubes and clots of gummy noodles in some sort of flavor (gravy, sauce, whatever). It would hardly be better or more palatable, and certainly less colorful so I guess, in the end, carrots have their place even if they don't retain their crunch.

There must be an equation - a formula - some sort of calculation that will tell us the optimal number of times needed to repeat something to someone based on the density of their fucking skull.

Britney's mom is writing a book on parenting. Lynne Spears has signed a deal with Christian book publisher Thomas Nelson Inc. to co-write "Pop Culture Mom: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World" with author Lorilee Craker. The memoir is scheduled to come out on Mother’s Day 2008.

This is priceless - and bound to sell many books. Just due to the name alone will put it in the best seller list. I can just see the chapters now: "Taking your daughter from virginal good girl to cheap slut in six short months", "Mixing meds", "Helping your daughter find a loser to marry", and "dressing skimpy with baby fat" and many other captivating topics.

Several things are amusing - first, a Christian publisher???? Next, not only is her daughter a train wreck, she's bad at it. Paris and Lindsey know how to party hardy and not completely dissolve into a puddle (yeah, yeah - rehab, jail, I know)- Britney crash landed and disintegrated. You know its bad when you even fuck-up being a fuck-up.