Dive into the archives.
- Remember that antiquated old thing called Abstinence?
Well apparently it’s gone for good.
Some folks just insist on pissing in the gene pool. A group of high school girls in Massachusetts may have decided to make a “pregnancy pact,” because nothing goes with an eigth grade reading level quite like the responsibility of raising a human being:
“Some girls seemed more upset when they weren’t pregnant than when they were,” principal Joseph Sullivan told Time.com.The pregnancy rate at the 1,200-student school is four times higher than the previous year, and officials were shocked to learn that men in their 20s had fathered some of the babies, Time.com said.“We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy,” Sullivan told Time.com.
Enjoy the full story here. What the hell has this country come to?
On a side note, I just thought you might like to know that I beat ol’ Kottke to the punch on this story. I posted it last night, and then I was checking kottke this afternoon, and he just posted about it. I feel pretty special about that.
Jun 20, 2008 · category: Articles
Posted by Tom Collins
- Really?
Another reason to hate dirty hippies. This might be the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. Peep it here. This requires reading. It’s not a video. But if you don’t like to read it’s ok because you can see what I’m talking about. I really don’t like hippies. West west yo.
May 18, 2008 · category: Articles, random
Posted by Captain Obvious
- Wikipedia…loved, hated, but no longer ignored
Thought I’d share this article about Wikipedia. I’ve been using this site for years now. At first Wikipedia had a bad taste to many professors and universities because of its open-sources and references. But after many years, it finally getting some positive attention.
Hope you enjoy the Article.
May 12, 2008 · category: Articles
Posted by Bourbon Overby
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Cookie Monster searches deep within himself and asks: Is me really monster?
Me was thinking and me just don’t get it. Why is me a monster? No one else called monster on Sesame Street. Well, no one who isn’t really monster. Two-Headed Monster have two heads, so he real monster. Herry Monster strong and look angry, so he probably real monster, too. But is me really monster?
Me thinks me have serious problem. Me thinks me addicted. But since when it acceptable to call addict monster? It affliction. It disease. It burden. But does it make me monster?
Apr 17, 2008 · category: Articles, Humor
Posted by Tom Collins
- 41 Hours Stuck on an Elevator
This video from the New Yorker of a man stuck in an elevator car for 41 hours is surprisingly difficult to watch. The accompanying story about the man’s experience — and then, more specifically about elevator safety is quite intriguing. I never thought I’d think about elevators for so long in one sitting.
Two things make tall buildings possible: the steel frame and the safety elevator. The elevator, underrated and overlooked, is to the city what paper is to reading and gunpowder is to war. Without the elevator, there would be no verticality, no density, and, without these, none of the urban advantages of energy efficiency, economic productivity, and cultural ferment. The population of the earth would ooze out over its surface, like an oil slick, and we would spend even more time stuck in traffic or on trains, traversing a vast carapace of concrete. And the elevator is energy-efficient—the counterweight does a great deal of the work, and the new systems these days regenerate electricity. The elevator is a hybrid, by design.
Apr 16, 2008 · category: Articles
Posted by Tom Collins
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I noticed that my Starbucks cup had a different logo on it today – a black logo with a different ‘mermaid’ in the middle. Turns out that for the next few days they’ll be using their original logo to publicize the introduction of a new type of coffee bean. Interesting.
Apr 11, 2008 · category: Articles
Posted by Tom Collins
- Separation of Church and State…
So much for free speech and religious tolerance.
Many people don’t realize that the separation of Church and State was not a way to keep Christianity or other religions out of schools. In fact, it was meant to have quite the opposite effect. The founders of this country had just come from a very religiously oppresive country, and they wanted to live in a country where anyone of any religion could practice freely.
The separation of Church and State was, therefore, a way to make sure that no goverment agency could infringe on the religious rights of others. It was an effort to make sure that what happened in England wouldn’t happen in America.
Over the years, however, the idea has become so twisted and misinterpreted that the Separation of Church and State actually does exactly what it should not. It puts limits on how a student may and may not express his religious beliefs at school. Well, if you’re a Christian that is.
A high school student in Wisconsin was "expelled" after he drew a cross for an assignment in art class which, it seems, infringed on the rights of the other students.
According to the lawsuit, the student’s art teacher asked his class in February to draw landscapes. The student, a senior identified in the lawsuit by the initials A.P., added a cross and the words “John 3:16 A sign of love” in his drawing.
His teacher, Julie Millin, asked him to remove the reference to the Bible, saying students were making remarks about it. He refused, and she gave him a zero on the project.
Millin showed the student a policy for the class that prohibited any violence, blood, sexual connotations or religious beliefs in artwork. The lawsuit claims Millin told the boy he had signed away his constitutional rights when he signed the policy at the beginning of the semester.
The boy tore the policy up in front of Millin, who kicked him out of class. Later that day, assistant principal Cale Jackson told the boy his religious expression infringed on other students’ rights.
You can read the rest of the article here. My only question is simple. If he had drawn a picture of the Koran, do you think the teacher would have given him a zero? My guess: No.
Apr 2, 2008 · category: Articles, politics
Posted by Tom Collins
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The Guardian has an interesting series of photos taken of people before and after they had died. By German photographer Walter Schels. Sort of morose, but note-worthy none-the-less.
(via kottke)
Apr 2, 2008 · category: Articles, photography
Posted by Tom Collins
- BBC tries to erase their obviously blatant attempt to ridicule President Bush
There is something fishy going on at the BBC:
Exhibiting a thoroughness worthy of Orwell’s Ministry of Truth, the BBC has been busy erasing all traces of the corporation’s blatantly dishonest reporting of President Bush’s speech on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion…
…On Wednesday the BBC reported the speech under the headline ‘Bush speech hails Iraq “victory”‘. The headline was supported by the following sentence in the story:
He said recent troop reinforcements had brought about “a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror”.
However, this isn’t what Bush said. What he said was:
The surge has done more than turn the situation in Iraq around – it has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror.
Mike, over at The Monkey Tennis Centre, first blogged the incident on Thursday and emailed it around, namely to Little Green Footballs. After showing up on LGF, and getting a little press covereage, the BBC apparently realized that the public weren’t as stupid as they thought, and began quickly changing the quote anywhere they had referenced it (which, apparently, was in a lot of places.)
Mike documents, with screen captures, all of the sly (or not-so-sly, depending on how you look at it) changes the BBC made to their website. It’s really quite an interesting read.
(via Little Green Footballs)
Mar 25, 2008 · category: Articles, politics
Posted by Tom Collins
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Will this Judd Apatow Movie Be Any Good? Vulture section of New York magazine does the math for us in this nifty article.
I have to admit that I kind of disagree with at least one bit of their math. I happened to love Anchorman. I think it’s one of Will Ferrell’s best. But hey, that’s just me.
Update: Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks that Anchorman is awesome. It seems that quite a few people wrote in the comments of the last article voicing their love for Anchorman:
The comments section of our Judd Apatow math-o-matic post has been buzzing with readers — including some Benedict Mathis-Arnolds on our very own staff — politely calling us idiots for calling Anchorman just an okay movie. In the comments, the Will Ferrell comedy gets called “classic,” “classique,” and “fucking incredible,” and the thread has become something of an Anchorman quote-o-rama.
Of course, they still aren’t admitting that it’s an awesome film, but at least they’re pointing out that most of their readers do.
Mar 24, 2008 · category: Articles, Films
Posted by Tom Collins
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Novelists strike fails to affect nation whatsoever…
The strike kicked off last fall when the NGA announced it had hit a roadblock in negotiations with the Alliance of Printed Fiction and Literature Producers, failing to resolve certain key issues concerning online distribution, digital media rights, and readers just not getting what writers were trying to do with a number of important allegorical devices.
Mar 17, 2008 · category: Articles, books
Posted by Tom Collins
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Good news for all you MJ lovers out there (are there any of you out there?), through the miracles of refinancing, Neverland Ranch has been saved from auction. I know I’ll sleep better tonight.
Mar 13, 2008 · category: Articles, random
Posted by Tom Collins
- Vatican Lists Seven (NEW) Social Sins, Including Drug Abuse
The Vatican has put together a list of seven new so-called “social” sins that includes excessive wealth, drug abuse, littering, genetic tampering and creating poverty.
The seven social sins are:
1. “Bioethical” violations such as birth control
2. “Morally dubious” experiments such as stem cell research
3. Drug abuse
4. Polluting the environment
5. Contributing to widening divide between rich and poor
6. Excessive wealth
7. Creating poverty
The original deadly sins:
1. Pride
2. Envy
3. Gluttony
4. Lust
5. Anger
6. Greed
7. Sloth
BuzzFeed has also picked up this story.
Mar 11, 2008 · category: Articles, Religion
Posted by Tom Collins
- Mastercard Wedding…priceless!
One of my managers told me about this today while at work. I did some research about it and found it online. This story even made it to Jay Leno. Guys, if you’re out there…take a card from this guy because Revenge is sweet sometimes.
MasterCard Wedding
You got to love this guy…
This is a true story about a recent wedding that took place at Clemson University . It was in the local newspaper and even Jay Leno mentioned it.
It was a huge wedding with about 300 guests.
After the wedding, at the reception, the groom got up on stage with a microphone to talk to the crowd.
He said he wanted to thank everyone for coming, many from long distances, to support them at their wedding.
He especially wanted to thank the bride’s and his family and to thank his new father-in-law for providing such a lavish reception.
As a token of his deep appreciation he said he wanted to give everyone a special gift just from him.
So taped to the bottom of everyone’s chair, including the wedding party was an envelope.
He said this was his gift to everyone, and asked them to open their envelope.
Inside each manila envelope was an 8×10 glossy of his bride having sex with the best man.
The groom had gotten suspicious of them weeks earlier and had hired a private detective to tail them.
After just standing there, just watching the guests’ reactions for a couple of minutes, he turned to the best man and said, ‘F—you!’
Then he turned to his bride and said, ‘F— you!’
Then he turned to the dumbfounded crowd and said, ‘I’m outta here.’
He had the marriage annulled first thing in the morning.
While most people would have canceled the wedding immediately after finding out about the affair, this guy goes through with the charade, as if nothing were wrong.
His revenge–making the bride’s parents pay over $32,000 for a 300-guest wedding and reception, and best of all, trashing the bride’s and best man’s reputations in front of 300 friends and family members.
This guy has balls the size of church bells.
Do you think we might get a MasterCard ‘priceless’ commercial out of this?
Elegant wedding reception for 300 family members and friends: $32,000.
Wedding photographs commemorating the Occasion: $3,000
Deluxe two-week honeymoon accommodations in Maui : $8,500.
The look on everyone’s face when they see the 8×10 glossy of the bride humping the best man: Priceless.
There are some things money can’t buy, for everything else there’s MASTERCARD
Thanks for Playing!
Mar 8, 2008 · category: Articles, Humor, news
Posted by Bourbon Overby
- Pornography…
Found this week in the National Review:
New Republic contributor Debbie Nathan offers the following career update on her blog: “I’m presenting my new book Pornography. It was published late last year by Groundwood, a Canadian children’s press.” Children’s press?
Mar 4, 2008 · category: Articles, books
Posted by Tom Collins
- Meltdown
There was an interesting article in this month’s GQ on the merits of Nuclear Energy. The article is based around the 1979 meltdown at the TMI Plant at Three Mile Island. And, more importantly, why that single event shouldn’t shape our view of Nuclear Energy. But unfortunately it does.The author, Wil S. Hylton, spends an extensive amount of time touring the Plant:
The inside was like nowhere else in the world. It is tempting to say that if you were to wake up inside, without ever having seen a power plant, you would know instantly where you were. Pipes the diameter of a Volkswagen bus and painted in glossy primary colors stretched along the walls and the ceiling, springing into the room at ninety-degree elbows before shooting upward to the floor above or down to the one below. Hoses the size of anacondas coiled their way around corners and over door headers, and stop valves that looked like nautical steering wheels were strapped to the walls with tags to identify them. Everything was polished and reflective under bright lights, and the air seemed to shiver from the pipes’ vibrations. It was like being trapped inside a giant air conditioner.
The most interesting part of the article, though: The carbon footprint of a nuclear plant is precisely…nothing.
Mar 3, 2008 · category: Articles, political
Posted by Tom Collins
