Another Summer Weekend

Scarlett has yet another friend's bachelorette soirée this weekend, so I guess that leaves me time to knock out this week's last post. I going to have at least three or four of my own, so it's okay.

Best of the week: Never one to let lack of plot or character development, it's satisfying to see Micheal Bay also get called out on another shortcoming - originality.


Even with more than $150 million in budget, he wasn't able to make Transformers: Dark of the Moon look the way it should? So how do you get those shots that your movies has to have? Recycled them from your other films! Bay has used stock footage in several of his movies (which directors are want to do since there's plenty of aerial shots of cities or traffic), but there's no denying he recycled shots from The Island in the new Transformers. He also used shots of an aircraft carrier from Pearl Harbor in this film, complete with CGI modern fighter jets on deck. I guess his movies need parts of the others to offset how bad they are.


Best bonus links:


• What Do The Chinese Characters On The Computers In Serenity And Firefly Actually Say? - I'm not gonna tell you...follow the link!


• Painted People Pics From The World Bodypainting Festival - Naked people in pretty colors!


• Spanish Anti-Piracy Execs Busted For Ripping Off Artists - When "the man" really is the man.


• 'Sunny' Star Charlie Day Steps Into Limelight - And one day, he'll bring his denim chicken with him.


• Macedonia’s Bloodiest Slam Dunks - In the Greek league, it's to the death!


• His Parents Said, 'Not With A White Girl' - I have no idea what this is about, but with a title like that, have to add the link.


• Patton Oswalt's Rejected Pitches For Batman Comics - Hopefully they rethink it and these will become accepted pitches


• Intoxicated Men Take Dead Alligator Off-Roading - If there's a dead alligator and off-roading involved, you can bet there's been drinking.


• Things Exploding In Slow Motion, Set To Classical Music - There's a certain elegance to blowing things up with a classical soundtrack.


• Human Skeletal Remains Found Behind Lancaster Business - Which would have been okay if it was Tom's Body Drop Shop.


• Why Mike Commodore Must Wear No. 64 With The Red Wings - Even if you're not a Detroit fan, that's awesome.


• Anonymous Hacker Group Hits Apple, Publishes Data - No, not an anonymous hacker group, the Anonymous hacker group. Third base!


• South Los Angeles Girl Blinded In Right Eye By Illegal Fireworks - Was it in slow motion, set to classical music?


• Suspects At Large In Daytime Robbery At 98-Cent Discount Store - How are detectives going to recover that $3.94 they stole?


• Potato Chips: The Other Natural Way To Get Stoned - I know Pringles were a gateway food. Once you pop you can't stop!


• Unsettling Photos Of Monkeys Wearing Masks - But at least not unflattering.


• Man Killed By Grizzly At Yellowstone National Park - Damn it, Yogi! Now the ranger is going to come down on your ass hard!


Worst of the week: A Hermès scarf is generally overpriced to the tune of $430 per silk square, but this Ascher scarf by Henri Matisse (that was originally intended to be used as a wall panel) just made it look like used toilet paper.


Christie's sold it for $4.8 million, It is an original from the 30-piece limited run, and clear proof that we can not roll back the Bush-era tax cuts on the top 1% in the country. Items like this can not go unpurchased!


Worst bonus links:


• Boy, 6, Molested In Park Bathroom Stall In Pico Rivera - I don't know what's worse, the molestation or that it happened in Pico Rivera.


• Seeds Blamed For Europe E. Coli Still On Sale - Because the annual summer heatwave doesn't kill enough people there.


• July 27: Take Your Houseplants for a Walk Day, Creme Brulee Day - More like Assholes Celebrating Stupid Things Day.


• Rotting, Abandoned New Orleans Theme Park - No, no Bourbon Street in the off-season.


• 1879 London Murder Mystery Solved - Tell those people's great great grandchildren they can have their closure.


• Exxon Oil Spill In Montana River Prompts Evacuations - Finally, a Exxon environmental problem in the lower 48!


• Radiohead Ventures Into Chinese Social Media - The untapped realm for being cryptic and confusing. Even the language barrier isn't a factor.


• Zookeeper Advertising Inserted Into ‘How I Met Your Mother’ Reruns - The melding of something awful and the misuse of technology.


• Casey Anthony Found Not Guilty Of Murder / Casey Anthony Has Porn Offers Already - So you're not a convicted baby-killer...what can a party girl do?


• Three California Moms Accused Of Using PTA In Ponzi Scheme - I knew there was something funny about that bake sale.


• Teen Faces Prison After Sex Doll Prank Goes Awry - But she looked 18 PSI!


• Rupert Murdoch Supports Executive Rebekah Brooks / Murdoch Stuns Critics, Shuts Down Scandal-Hit Paper - Guess it was just a little support. Ballsy move, but when you have that much money and clout, you just shut down newspapers when their integrity is in question, rather than deal with it. I think he relaunches it next year.


• Meet The $100,000 Zafirro Iridium Razor - And then shove it up your ass, if you buy one. You don't even need a $100 razor, let alone this one.


• Musical Parody Of The Silence Of The Lambs Ready - I'd say ready for what, but it's more like ready for why.


• Southern Swamp Holds Clues About Runaway Slaves - The clues are the bodies found. They tell me they died there.


• Marcia Clark: Casey Anthony Verdict, Worse Than O.J.! - And she should know, since she was part of the team that blew it.

• An Entire Taiwanese City Does Lady Gaga Cosplay For Lady Gaga Day - An entire city doing ladyboy-pop-dress-up to make me roll my eyes.

Saturn's Answer To Jupiter

I can't always post about folks not getting what they deserve, but getting exactly what they deserve, so here's a little sidebar about things that are much big than us - namely the 6,200 mile wide storm happening in outer space about 821 million miles away.

The Great White Spot on Saturn is currently being photographed by the Cassini spacecraft, which has been orbiting the planet since 2004. The thunderstorm is nearly as wide as Earth, and began forming in the northern hemisphere in December, which is a decade earlier than expected.  See, even weathermen screw up the forcast on other planets! The Great White Spots usually recur about every 30 (Earth) years, when Saturn's northern hemisphere tilts most toward the sun.

Radio waves emitted by electrical discharges show nearly continuous lightning that can flash 10 times or more per second when the storm is peaking.  That's not good if you're this guy. Researchers are still uncertain where the storm gets it's energy from. Though the spots seem to occur "seasonally", it may be the 155 miles thick layer where the main clouds reside which does not get sunlight that may create an internal heat source as the power for the winds.

Other than the superstorm, I'm sure it's a lovely place to visit...

Haboob!

Texecution!

Don't mess with Texas. And certainly don't molest and murder a teenager there.

Humberto Leal, a Mexican national, was executed today for the "rape-slaying" (AP's term, which is awesome) of 16-year-old Adria Sauceda. Her nude body was found hours after she left a San Antonio street party with Leal in 1994, and she had been bludgeoned with a chunk of asphalt.

Before his lethal injection, Leal repeatedly said he was sorry and accepted responsibility. "I have hurt a lot of people... I take full blame for everything. I am sorry for what I did," but then he ruined it as the drugs began taking effect by shouting, "Viva Mexico!"

His attorneys made citizenship a key element of their defense effort to win a stay of execution, saying the police never told him following his arrest that he could seek legal assistance from the Mexican government under an international treaty. Yeah, Mexico has such a good handle on their cartel war that they are going to worry about the criminal acts of one of it's citizens abroad.

The U.S. Supreme Court turned down a last minute appeal supported by both Mexico and the White House, which would create time for Congress to consider a law requiring court review in cases where condemned foreign nationals did not receive help from their consulates. I don't know why they would claim that this case would affect Americans detained in other countries, since foreigners are subject to sovereign laws. But the Supreme Court did not believe executing Leal would cause grave international consequences, and did not believe "that it is ever appropriate to stay a lower court judgment in light of unenacted legislation."

What a shame he didn't get to have the consulate loophole to keep him alive, which is why I like tho quotes from opposite camps. Leal's uncle criticized the U.S. justice system after the execution and said, "There is a God who makes us all pay", which did not have the same ironic impact for him. The other comes from Sauceda's mother, who correctly noted, "A technicality doesn't give anyone a right to come to this country and rape, torture and murder anyone."

Down On Genius Street

Sad as I may be to not be able to make yearly mention of the local fuck show, at least I still have those thousand pound bulls steamrolling idiots!

Thousands of runners crowded Pamplona's streets in the first bull-run of Spain's San Fermin fiesta, and four of them had to be carried away from it.  The three Spaniards and a Panamanian were taken to a hospital, and only suffered light injuries. Of the dozen animals in the run, only one steer smartly separated from the pack and charged back toward the starting gate for his unfinished business, which doesn't make up for the other one who stopped and laid down near the end of the course. The six bulls in the run were eventually being guided into the bullring, where they were later killed in the afternoon's bullfight.

Every year, between 200 and 300 participants in the run are injured, which means there's a lot of ground to cover to keep those numbers up! Most runners are hurt after falling, but the ones who are trampled or gored by the bulls are the injuries I look forward to. There's still time, so maybe we'll be treated to something more sinister than fractured ribs this year!

Puppetbound

Withholding Sex

Pulling out is not one of the things normally associated with porn.

Organizers of Adultcon, one of the local porn conventions, are pulling two of their shows from the Los Angeles Convention Center. C'mon, isn't this town big enough for everybody's stable of dye-blond whores with implants and oversized cocksmen?

The rumor is the convention hall refused to bar other sex-themed gatherings within three months of the event. Are they not counting on chronic convention-ators? Close to 30,000 perverts people are expected to attend the three Adultcons this year, but next year there will be only one (like the Highlander, but with less money shots).

The Convention Center also booked the Exxxotica show, which also charges an entrance fee to meet porn stars and purchase exhibitor's wares, and the Everything To Do With Sex Show, which offers speakers, seminars alongside sex toys. That last one sounds boring without the porn stars.

Adultcon Vice President Renaud West (I was surprised they have a vice-president, but then I'm not when his name sounds like a Eurotrash gigolo) says too many shows confuse the public and are bad business, because flat out calling porn enthusiasts stupid idiots could negatively effect their attendance. What, consumers can't distinguish between two different shows selling the same giant plastic dildos? Convention Center managers naturally disagree, and believe there’s enough demand for all three shows. That, and it breaks up the boat and car shows.

Erotica LA, Los Angeles' largest adult show for 13 years running (which is longer than most careers in the industry), canceled 2010 show and did not return in 2011. Damn it, I will certainly miss making my annual reminder post that the show is in town.

Real Bad Teachers

Cheaters never prosper...if they can't keep their cheating secret!

The award-winning gains by Atlanta students were actually based on widespread cheating by 178 teachers and principals. A report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (sounds important) has 82 of those educational professionals confessing to what is potentially the biggest cheating scandal in US history. Well, outside, all the relationships effected by Rehab in Las Vegas.

Not directly implicated (yet) is 12-year Superintendent Beverly Hall, who may have been named US Superintendent of the Year in 2009 largely because of those test results. Investigators say Hall likely knew, or should have known, what was going on, and point to her farewell address to teachers in June, when she acknowledged wrongdoing in the district, but cleverly blamed "other administrators". The report also claimed the district repeatedly refused to properly investigate or take responsibility for the cheating, and that principals were told not to cooperate with investigators.

In the spotlight now is the high stakes system of testing. Ten states now use test scores as the main criterion in teacher evaluations, while others reward high-scoring teachers with up to $25,000 bonuses. Get a low score? Principals could lose their jobs or entire schools can close.
If you're going to pay bonuses to educators who improve test scores in their classes, what lengths do you think they'll go to to succeed? This may have been the biggest, but only so far...

A Year In A Day

The Hidden Graphic Novel

Buy SVK and you'll get two comic for the price of one.

Written by the legendary Warren Ellis, with art by Matt "D'Israeli" Brooker, and collaborating with London design firm BERG, SVK is unlike any other comic that has been released before. The story is about a disgraced spy who has to recover a top-secret package lost by a military contractor, but it's the second story revealed in ultraviolet light that sets it apart. A small, wallet-sized UV flashlight is provided to reveal the comic-within-a-comic.

There are hidden joke ads in the real ones, as well as essay on comics as an art form (by William Gibson), augmented reality (by Jamais Cascio) and the history of novelty comics (by Paul Gravett) in SVK. It will cost you more than $20 to get the book outta England, and the first run print run is sold out, but it is unlike any comic you've seen before.

Leno Still Has A Show?

For the first time in a decade - or 40 consecutive quarters in TV terms, NBC's "Tonight Show" has not won the coveted adults 18-49 demographic. Q2 2011, hail the conqueror...Jon Stewart!

Stewart's margin in the demo was slim, but a victory is a victory: "The Daily Show" averaged 1.295 million viewers compared to Leno's 1.292 million. Usual runner-up "Late Show with David Letterman" had 1.096 million viewers.

It is the one-two punch of The Daily Show and "The Colbert Report" were the top-rated late-night shows on television among viewers 18-34 and male viewers (both 18-24 and 18-34). The Daily Show averaged 2.2 million total viewers, up 9%. The Colbert Report averaged 1.5 million total viewers and gained of 6%.

Interim Former Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien took the third spot for overall viewers in the quarter.  It's surprising that Leno isn't on CBS, home of the dull, but I'm sure that would be his next stop if Letterman quit.

Split Screens

You'll also like this scene fromThe Rules Of Attraction.

Parade-triots

While underage drinking by boys is said to double over this holiday weekend, and the beach cities to my south are expected to have nearly 400,000 flocking to festivities, there's one 4th of July report I'm not so quick to believe...

A recent Harvard study asserts that attending Fourth of July parades makes you more likely to identify as a Republican, vote Republican, vote period, and give money to political causes.  So now celebrating your nation makes you a conservative? 

The researchers noted that "the political Right has been more successful in appropriating American patriotism and its symbols during the 20th century" - which is pretty obvious, considering Republicans and conservatives grandstand on iconic, historical elements as part of their unchanging support of what they consider traditional values. There's a reason they're touted as the party of rich old white men - they keep it old school. But they suggest "there is a political congruence between the patriotism promoted on Fourth of July and the values associated with the Republican Party." Hmmm, why don't you ask a guy born on the fourth and we'll see...

The study postulated that Republicans tend to be more invested in the celebrations, and that GOP-dominated areas have "more politically biased" parades that "socialize children into Republicans." Well, you would expect a political faction that has attempted to co-opt patriotism as an extension of their their own to be more adamant about using that concept as tool to shape young minds to their cause. And I have no doubt that they have overt bias towards Republican rhetoric in their parades. I won't try to describe the bizarre way they've tied rain (which can cancel or diminish attendance at parades) into their unsound equation, but they claim children who attend at least one rain-free Fourth of July parade before age 18 are:

• two percent more likely to identify as Republican in adulthood

• four percent more likely to vote Republican by age 40

• about one percent more likely to vote at all

• three percent more generous with campaign contributions

But if July 4 celebrations appeared to have "a permanent impact on political beliefs and behavior", why are the numbers almost spilt between Democratic and Republican sides? If the authors claim, “In 2010, an estimated 144 million Americans age 18 or older celebrated Fourth of July by attending a barbecue. Another 98 million watched the fireworks or went to a community festivity, while more than 28 million saw a parade,” then surely a significant number of those people had done the same before they were 18 in the years prior. Yet there's only a negligible, single digit increase in Republican identification and behavior.

Yes, the 4th of July is a wet dream for God fearing, gun loving, red state Americans, but fireworks and waving flags is not a sign of right-leaning political tendencies...unless the same folks who continue to make patriotism solely their own say it is.

Making A Point

On special days like these, sometimes there is a story that just puts me in a good mood. Like the one about Philip A. Contos.

Police say Contos, a motorcyclist participating in a protest ride against helmet laws in upstate New York, died after he flipped over the bike's handlebars and hit his head on the pavement. The 55 year-old was driving a 1983 Harley Davidson with a group of bikers when he hit his brakes and the motorcycle fishtailed. The bike spun out of control, and Contos toppled over the handlebars. He was pronounced dead later at a nearby hospital.

Naturally, state troopers say Contos would have likely survived if he had been wearing a helmet.

Happy 4th Of July

The Birth Of A Long Weekend

Let us celebrate a three day weekend of great importance and the many wonderful things that have fallen on these historical days!

Best of the week: When Soul Daddy — the business started by “America’s Next Great Restaurant” winner Jamawn Woods, closed its doors in New York and Los Angeles to focus on “building the brand and developing operations” at its remaining location at the Mall of America, what do you think the outcome was going to be? If you guessed the Minnesota restaurant would shut down this week after less than two months of operation, congratulations - you've won a free dinner for two at...oh, never mind.


Fortunately, Woods is still an employee (technically) at the Chrysler automobile assembly plant in Michigan. When Woods made the finals of the reality TV show, Chrysler granted him a one year leave of absence to pursue his dream. The company intends to hold up their side of the bargain, if Woods wants to come back to work as a fork lift operator. How many entrepreneurs can operate heavy machinery after spectacularly flaming out?


Best bonus links:


• Old Fear Factor Host Will Host New Fear Factor - Nobody can encourage hot girls to eat horse chode like Joe Rogan!


• David Cameron's Friend Found Dead At UK Music Fest - How do I not link an article that opens with, "A close friend of the British prime minister was found dead in a portable toilet at one of the country's leading music festivals Sunday, authorities said."


• Brady Bunch Mom Got Crabs In Affair With NY Mayor - There's likely a joke about stuffing the ballot box in there somewhere...


• Ballpoint Pen That Draws Electronic Circuits - Now you can flick your Bic on and off!


• SC Police: Baby Died From Morphine In Breast Milk - That's why I always drink 2% morphine breast milk.


• Kim Hyun's Dice Figures - This show will not be on display in Las Vegas, for obvious reasons.


• 25 Of The Worst Celebrity Tweets Of All-Time - They're all bad, but here's 25 of them.


• Foursquare Application Turns New York City Into A Giant Game Of RISK - Hopefully they'll find a way to make the boroughs battle for real.


• A Field Guide To Musical Typography - For those about to rock, we Sans Serif you.


• Ranking The Top 10 Hockey Fights Of 2010-11 - Like a typical boxing match, but no fixed outcomes.


• Octomom Hates Each Of Her 14 Kids - So do I. And her for good measure.


• Transformers 3 Is Down 40 Percent From 2 - The public has spoken, "Fool me twice, shame on you..."


• Gilbert Arenas Really Loves Planking - Not bad for a guy who brought firearms to his locker room.


• Does This Look Like The Face Of A Woman Who Beat Up Her Husband Then Sprayed Her Tit Milk All Over The Cops Face? - Lucky for them, there was no morphine in it.


• Glenn Beck Has Last Fox News Channel Show / Glenn Beck And Family Encounter Hostility In NYC - It's called reaping what you sow, asshole. Your welcome has completely worn out.


• The Bizarre Musical Instruments Behind Classic Sci-Fi Movie Sounds - Learning to play them is harder than it sounds.


• Are Major Gay Pornstars With Trannies The New Trend (SUPER NSFW and hardcore) - Um, is this a question that requires answering? Who is asking, anyway?


Worst of the week: Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone has called his county and 12 others to secede from California. Only the word "shithole" would miss being associated with Riverside.


Stone said in a statement late Thursday that Riverside, Imperial, San Diego, Orange, San Bernardino, Kings, Kern, Fresno, Tulare, Inyo, Madera, Mariposa and Mono counties should form the new state of South California. Ah, the gems of the south! The creation of the new state would "allow officials to focus on securing borders, balancing budgets, improving schools and creating a vibrant economy", he said. As the dingleberries of the southern part of our state, without the rest of the state propping you up any longer, how are you going to accomplish that? Your meth output is not enough to support you (though it is a major influence in your communities).


Stone will present his proposal to the Board of Supervisors mid-July, but said his new state would have no term limits, only a part-time legislature and limits on property taxes. The reality is this came on the same day that governor Jerry Brown signed budget legislation that will divert about $14 million in 2011-12 vehicle license fee revenue from four new Riverside County cities (Eastvale, Jurupa Valley, Menifee and Wildomar). Nice stunt, but you've got a better chance trying to get absorbed by Mexico than splitting from the state...not that you'd be missed.


And: An Indiana doctor and his second wife were killed in a plane crash in northern Michigan, eight years he killed his wife and two other children in another crash. And I thought the only folks with that many murderous crashes were Kennedys.


Stephen Hatch and his current wife, Kim, did not survive, but his 16-year-old son, Austin, was seriously injured. Austin had survived the earlier crash near Fort Wayne, where they had been returning from the family's summer home on Walloon Lake — the same place they were headed to when their single-engine plane flew into a garage.


His medical practice partner said "He was such a strong proponent of flying and teaching people to fly...I think he felt compelled to continue his passion. He felt compelled to show people that accidents do happen. He didn't want people to look in the other direction." Ahhh, the hubris of a doctor, who felt his passion could overcome his shortcomings as an aviator.


A 2005 federal report on the September 2003 crash found inaccurate preflight planning resulted in the plane not having enough fuel, and the National Transportation Safety Board determined a utility pole the airplane hit during its forced landing (along with a low ceiling and dark night) also contributed to the crash. Hatch purchased Smith Field Airport, along with its service center and flight school, yet he should have attended, rather than owned. They could have shown him that medicine can help you play God, but doesn't mean you can play pilot.


Worst bonus links:


• RI Governor Pardons Irish Man Hanged In 1845 - C'mon, I thought you wanted to be taken seriously as a state?


• Slimy Invasion Plagues Jersey Shore - Looks like the cast of the MTV show is back from filming in Italy.


• Muslim Accuses Abercrombie Of Banning Head Scarf - It's a store for polos with popped collars, not political statements. Wear the attire or work elsewhere.


• Los Angeles Dodgers File For Bankruptcy - I don't even care for baseball and this bothers me. May Frank and Jaime McCourt die penniless.


• Mathematicians Want To Say Goodbye To Pi - Nerds, you give away the only interesting thing about your field, how else are you going to make double entendres?


• Abortion Clinics May Shutter Tomorrow In Kansas - You can't rely on tornadoes to get rid of your unwanted children.


• China To Launch Panda Census - How hard can it be to know how many of an endangered species are in captivity?


• 17 Infants Die In 48 Hours At 1 Indian Hospital - Or as they call it, Wednesday. Don't bathe in the Ganges!


• Zynga Files For IPO Of Up To $1 Billion - Your Farmville crops are not worth that much.


• New York Seeks To Lift Fracking Moratorium - Only because there is a BSG reference to be made do I link this. Who care about shale?


• NBA Lockout Looms As Sides Fail To Reach Deal - Y'all are going to find hockey real interesting once there's no football or basketball this winter!


• Co-founder Biz Stone Leaving Twitter - Wonderful, now we'll get another awful, unnecessary tech company.


• Authorities ID Man Fatally Shot In South LA - Finally, we can start referring to this black youth as John Doe.


• Newsweek Ages Diana To 50 In Ultimate Photoshop Disaster - Not just creepy, but a shitty job at it too.  At least it wasn't the car crash photo.


• Real World Star Puck Arrested In Domestic Violence Case - It was only a matter of time before he ended up in front of the camera again...for a mug shot.


• Young Female Journalist Embeds As Cosplay Maid To Cover Anime Convention - I gained and lost interest in this link twice as I read it through.

• Pond Insect 'Loudest Animal On Earth' - Looks like the Kardashians were bested again.

To Catch A Hypocrite

I don't source the National Enquirer as being too credible, but with other news organizations picking it up, I have to believe that it's accurate - perv baiter Chris "To Catch a Predator" Hansen has been played at his own schtick.

Hansen (51) has allegedly been having an affair with Florida journalist Kristyn Caddell (30) for the last four months, and last week the two were secretly filmed . His night ended at her Palm Beach apartment (bang!). Hidden cameras tracked the couple as they arrived at the Ritz-Carlton hotel for dinner, and later drove back to her apartment.  The pair left together carrying luggage, the following day.

Though spending time in South Florida investigating the disappearance of James 'Jimmy T' Trindade, Hansen has apparently also been investigating the privates of Kristyn Caddell. I hope it's true, just for the irony. Ah, if only she was 17...

Hating On Hairspray

How can  Toddlers & Tiaras become watchable? Slow that clip down!

30 Days Of Bean Juice

The One Cup a Day project was an experiment where a different coffee cup was designed, modeling and made available for production and purchase within 24 hours. You can buy any of these and the dozens of others here.

The Pool Is Closed

Marie Joseph's body might have been left in the cloudy water of a Massachusetts public swimming pool for more than two days, without lifeguards, health inspectors or other swimmers noticing it, said officials today. Well, at least they figured out why the water was cloudy...

The state medical examiner completed an autopsy, but the findings haven't been made public yet, as investigators are going through hours of video and conducting interviews. Joseph had gone to Veterans Memorial Pool on Sunday with a group of friends, and her body was found Tuesday night, when some trespassing youngsters jumped over a fence for a midnight swim.

So for 48 hours, nobody reported her missing? Her friends said they thought she simply walked away from the pool. Her boyfriend's calls went unreturned, but he thought she wanted to be alone. Shit, you got a crappy circle of support. After the discovery, state officials closed 24 state-run deep-water swimming pools for fear of additional bodies being lost in cloudy water, as well as suspended staff at the Fall River pool along with a pair of Fall River inspectors.

Joseph was a native of Haiti and had five children, though strangely, only an adult son lived with her. She worked as a housekeeper at a hotel in Rhode Island, and her boyfriend said she could swim.

The best part of the article I read was a quote from Tasha Stokes, who said she visited the pool on Monday, and noticed that the deep end of the pool was white and closed to swimmers: "It was white. We went swimming in that water. There were little kids drinking that water...I'm shocked. I was swimming in water with a dead person. I think I have a lawsuit on my hands."

How About A Bit Of The Old Ultraviolence

It makes GTA look like a PDA (and minors can enjoy it too thanks to the Supreme Court!).

Jihad On Deadlifts

A female Muslim weightlifter in Atlanta can now compete wearing a hijab and body-covering unitard, further ruining the chance that women lifters will be though of as sexy.

Kulsoom Abdullah began lifting last year at her gym, and her repressed anger at the male dominated Islamic ways helped her discover she was surprisingly good at the sport. She qualified for the American Open Weightlifting Championships last December, but USA Weightlifting, the event's sponsoring body, told her that she would not be able to compete in her modified uniform that covers everything but her hands, feet, and face.

Officials cited they had to blindly follow the guidelines of the International Weightlifting Federation, which mandated that elbows and knees be uncovered so judges could tell that athletes had fully locked them out when they lifted. Both the U.S. Olympic Committee and Abdullah petitioned the group, and at a meeting in Malaysia, home of ultra-conservative Muslims, the IWF determined a tight-fitting unitard would be acceptable.

Abdullah has a PhD in electrical computer engineering from Georgia Tech, and still does research at the university, but enjoyed lifting because it "gave me confidence". Yes, and those dorks in the lab will never try and but a move on you again at the annual White Coat Mixer.

EndSpace

After slashing half their staff earlier this year to present a leaner profile to potential buyers, Myspace has been sold (and it wasn't for 60 bitcoins and a Subway foot long Italian as rumored).

The proud new owner of that cyber graveyard is Specific Media, an advertising network who had a spare $35 million laying around. News Corp. will still hold onto a stake of less than five percent for nostalgia. The deal includes another halving of Myspace’s staff of 400, and a limited run for Myspace CEO Mike Jones and other top personnel. The sale comes just before the end of the fiscal year (tomorrow!).

There were several other bidders recently, including separate efforts by the two co-founders of Myspace, Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson. The most recent lead suitor was a group including Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, but the deal fell apart, leaving Specific and private equity firm Golden Gate Capital. Specific Media was founded in 1999 and helps marketers buy digital ads for the interweb, online video, and mobile devices. The company now ranks among the largest online advertising networks in the country, reaching 170.9 million or about 79% of the U.S. internet users just last month.

While the company gets data about Myspace users which can be used for ad targeting, it's still pouring a lot of money into a domain that is losing attention and members to Facebook on a daily basis. But hey, it's their money to waste, and they can try to make it back

Florida, The Final Frontier?

Magic Accounting

Behold how a multi-billion dollar film franchise can still lose money!

This balance-sheet (or "participation statement") came out last summer, but given the final instalment of the Harry Potter goldmine comes out in a few weeks, it's worth pulling the curtain back to show the shady way studios can make a billion dollars on a film and impossibly show they're $167 million in the red. Maybe they shouldn't have spent so much on advertising and marketing...but fortunately they paid themselves the majority of that budget.

Tech Legs

This year, Apple launches the latest iteration of their OS X (that looks frighteningly the same over it's 10 year run) and 2012 will herald Windows 8, but there's still a lot of retro-love for the old systems.

As of last month, 40% of Windows users are still running Windows XP on their computers.  Hard to believe, given the advances on computers in the last decade, but it's been stable and yet to be outdine.  Hell, I'm still rocking the XP!

XP was released way back in October 2001, and is just barely less popular than the two proceeding Windows Vista and Windows 7 versions combined . By comparison, OS X has about 8 percent of the market share.  There's an extensive graph of the Microsoft / Apple here, which not only covers their company rivalry, but also their saw-saw dominance over each other.

This Resonates With Me

Bonus Video:

Oreo Cameos

I have to admit that seeing Judith Klausner's art made me want a cookie.

Game On, Kids!

It's official - the Supreme Court said states cannot ban the sale or rental of ultraviolent video games to children. Seriously, what kind of future can your child have if they can't get good at Grand Theft Auto IV?

On a 7-2 vote, the court threw out California's 2005 law covering games sold or rented to those under 18, calling it an unconstitutional violation of free-speech rights. Pussies Justices Stephen Breyer and Clarence Thomas dissented from the decision. Breyer said it makes no sense to legally block children's access to pornography yet allow them to buy or rent brutally violent video games.

"What sense does it make to forbid selling to a 13-year-old boy a magazine with an image of a nude woman, while protecting the sale to that 13-year-old of an interactive video game in which he actively, but virtually, binds and gags the woman, then tortures and kills her?" Well, maybe you should read Justice Antonin Scalia's majority opinion!

He said that video games, fall into the same category as books, plays and movies as entertainment that "communicates ideas — and even social messages" deserving of First Amendment free-speech protection. And non-obscene speech "cannot be suppressed solely to protect the young from ideas or images that a legislative body thinks unsuitable for them. Even where the protection of children is the object, the constitutional limits on governmental action apply."

This decision was the latest in a series of rulings on on First Amendment cases, with the justices throwing out attempts to ban animal cruelty videos, protests at military funerals and political speech by businesses.

If California's 2005 law was upheld, it would have prohibited anyone under 18 from buying or renting games that give players the option of "killing, maiming, dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being." What, do they want everyone to go back to playing only Pac-Man? Under that model, even Mike Tyson's Punch Out would be covered - an he doesn't even bite any ears in that game! Parents would have been able to buy the prohibited games for their children, but retailers who sold directly to minors would have faced fines of up to $1,000 for each game sold.

Thankfully, the law never took effect, as lower courts have said that the law violated minors' constitutional rights, and the state lacked enough evidence to prove that violent games cause physical and psychological harm to minors (like when David Cross asked what those video games where that Hitler gave to the Germans). Courts in six other states reached the same conclusion in striking down similar bans.

So rejoice, children! You may not get to see a tit in real life, but at least you can play a game where you cut them off someone...

A Little Shredding