Entries Tagged 'News' ↓

George W. Bush to meet with the Dalai Lama

Ok, now this is interesting.  In an apparent first, a US president is going to meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama where he will be presented with the Congressional Gold Medal (His Holiness, not Bush).  This is sure to piss off China, who basically runs around the world behind the Dalai Lama saying "No more toys with lead paint for you if you invite him to tea.  We don't like him."  Bonus points for the spokeswoman who said that such a move "hurts the feelings of the Chinese people."  I wonder if in a statement like that she's counting the Tibetans as Chinese people?  Because I'd be willing to bet they're very happy when their leader (both politically and spiritually) gets a little respect.

Perhaps they can talk about Burma while they're at it?

Seriously, if Bush manages to have a respectful meeting with the man, if it's more than just a photo opportunity, and Bush manages not to say anything stupid, I will be very pleased.

This week in my news headlines I saw something about "The number of Lefties on the rise in the US." I figured it was a political story about increasing liberal identification in the polls.

Same story was on the news this morning. Turns out it's about the number of people who are left handed. D'oh!

("Ambisinister", by the way, means "left handed in both hands").

I had not heard about, as my dad put it, the dip from MIT who walked into Logan airport with a fake bomb. So apparently she's both an electrical engineering student as well as an "artist" who wanted to "stand out on career day."

Thoughts: Ok, she's an idiot. That's obvious. Anybody who walks into an airport with a fake bomb is asking to get shot. She's probably disappointed that she didn't get injured, she would have gotten more press that way.

Thought #2, does anybody besides me think that the quotes from the police actually sound disappointed that they didn't get to shoot her. The officers are like, "Yeah, well, good thing she totally cooperated with what we said to do, you know, otherwise, we would have had to shoot her….yeah…." I get the feeling there's an airport full of guards this morning who were hoping to get their own tasering video posted on YouTube. I find that even scarier. There will always be stupid college kids (particularly those that wish to push the boundaries of "art"), but trigger happy police are worrisome. Those taser videos are coming out of the woodwork now.

Update: As people that know this person check in, they're basically saying that the sweatshirt in question (with the circuit board and wires attached to it) is indeed an art project that she wears all the time. And that, "since MIT students don't do mornings, and don't particularly care what they wear", she made a mistake. Does it bother anyone else that kids who are supposedly the smartest people on the planet make such stupid decisions? A few years back an alarming number of MIT kids were drinking themselves to death. Now we've got one who is so clueless that she almost got gunned down for failing to realize that her sweatshirt, deliberately made to look like a bomb, would not go over well at the airport.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2512486.html?menu=news.quirkies

This story is so silly is seems like something out of Weekly World News.  A husband and wife are both engaging in online affairs, only to find out that they've been speaking with each other.  How romantic!  Just like that song that my wife likes!  Well, not so much.  They're getting divorced, each citing the other's infidelity.  Apparently they missed the point of the song.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/17/flamingo.stuck.ap/index.html?eref=rss_us#

First of all, when you see the headline "Jack Hannah, Flamingo Trapped In Airport Turnstile" don't you immediately expect (nay, hope) to see video? 🙂

Second, you have to love this line from the article, which sounds like the start of its own "Guy walks into a bar" joke:  "Hannah was returning from a zoo fundraiser with a mongoose, a small leopard, and a flamingo."

Sounds like that joke from Breakfast Club ("A naked blond walks into a bar, with a poodle under one arm, and a two foot salami under the other. She lays the poodle on the table. Bartender says, "I suppose you won't be needing a drink." The naked lady says…")

PS – Since I've been asked, there is technically no known answer to the joke. The actor has said that he was making it up as he went. The original scene was supposed to have him tell a joke where the punchline was "Forgot my pencil" (the line he says as he walks back into the library after crashing through the ceiling), but no one could think of a joke with that punchline.

There are sites dedicated to coming up with a punchline for the joke, though. My favorite is this one:

Naked lady says, "Why do you say that?"

Bartender says, "I was talking to the poodle."

I can't stand cheaters. I can't I can't. He was cheating and he knew it. "My interpretation of the rule" my foot. That makes him a smug cheater. If you know where the rules are, and you risk stepping over them, you are basically saying "I don't have faith in my team to win within the boundaries of the game." Nice coach.

Here's my problem – now every game we've ever won, every game we ever will win, somebody will be able to say "Yes, but you're cheaters." And they'll be right. Just because we got caught once (twice, even!) what are we gonna say, "Oh,yeah,we promise, we weren't cheating this time?" You've lost all integrity. You'll never be able to look an opponent in the eye and say that you played a fair game, and expect to be believed. That includes our SuperBowl wins.

"They all do it," you'll say. "Why do coaches cover their lips when they give calls?" Maybe that's true. Maybe every team does what they can to get an advantage. But as of right now, all those other teams are working within the rules, and you can't prove otherwise. Belichick was so arrogant about his chances that he flaunted the rule multiple times.

Personally I'd fire the guy. Demonstrate to the league and to all the fans that you don't do cheaters. Get back some integrity. The only problem with that plan is that some other team, one of the ones right now who is screaming "He's a cheater!" would be right there in line to say "He needs a job? Call him!"

There's a complete cloud over this weekend's game now. I wonder if it will last all season? It's a shame.

Chris Benoit's diary shows just how seriously depressed he was, ever since the death of his friend Eddie Guerrero. He even says things like "I'll see you soon", suggesting that he was considering suicide previous to the night where he took his own life and those of his family.

It also appears as evidence for his growing dementia, as he comments about starting to forget things. His rapidly increasing paranoia was seen and commented on by many people. The example shown includes how he would never take the same route to the airport twice for fear he was being followed.

As with so much other evidence it does not justify or excuse what he did. But for those of us that cannot accept that he was a monster, it makes things a little easier to come to terms with. I'm going to keep reporting news like this whenever I find it.

Apple has a new feature for the iPhone. See a song on iTunes that you like? Click and turn it into a ringtone! The only problem is that you have to pay 99 cents for the song, and then another 99 cents for the privilege of making it a ringtone. Who is the ad wizard who thought that one up? Or was that one for the "We'll give it a shot and see how many people actually do it before the bad press gets too overwhelming" pile?

Naturally this has started up a flurry of "How to get free ringtones for your iPhone" articles, which in turn has spawned articles for "Get free ringtones even if you don't have an iPhone."

Over a year ago I simply got a phone that actually supports MP3 ringtones (a Motorola v360, to be specific). And then it was a simple matter of getting them on the phone. Easy easy. My ringtone is Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day…") as sung by David Gilmour, of Pink Floyd. The uber-cool thing is that my 5 and 3 yr olds can now both sing that song, referring to it as the song that Daddy's phone sings.

I suggested that my 5yr old sing it for her new kindergarten teacher, but then it dawned on me that her teacher would probably have no idea what she was hearing.

Making the rounds this morning is the story about how to piss off the Shaolin monks. Apparently somebody got on a bulletin board someplace and started spouting off the old legends about how a ninja could walk into the Shaolin Temple and kick some serious Shaolin behind. The monks are quite upset at this besmirching of their honor, apparently not getting the joke, and have demanded an apology.

Personally my feeling is this. If *you* are not the ninja in question, then why in the world would you want to piss of the Shaolin monks? Have you ever actually seen this guys in real life? It doesn't really matter if a ninja could take them or not, it only matters if you could. After you've insulted them, how about inviting them over to dinner?

The new Dancing With Stars cast list is up! Let's play the "fill in the blank" game:

• Mark Cuban – Internet billionaire and generally loud sports personality. Could he be the one to go on the first episode?
• Floyd Mayweather, Jr – Boxer. There's always a boxer.
• Wayne Newton – Charismatic old guy.
• Melanie Brown, aka "Scary Spice" and Mel B. – What category should we put her in, does she still count as singer? These days it seems like she's most famous as the Eddie Murphy's baby mama. Maybe Heather Mills created a new category last year with "person famous for a controversial relationship?"
• Sabrina Bryan of Disney Channel's "Cheetah Girls." – I could call this the Disney category since we had Hannah Montana's dad last year, but she also doubles as a pop singer. We've had plenty of those.
• Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves. Young and exciting athlete, ala Anton Ono.
• Actress Jennie Garth ("Beverly Hills, 90210"). Maybe we can have a 90210 category? I don't know what else to say about this one except "C-List, washed up actress."
• Model-actress Josie Maran.There's always a model.
• Soap star Cameron Mathison ("All My Children"). There's almost always a soap star.
• Singer Marie Osmond. I had to call Marie Osmond "old", but she's no Cheetah girl anymore. She'll be the Leeza Gibbons contestant who the over-50 crowd gets to cheer.
• Model Albert Reed. Never heard of him, can't stereotype him.
• Actress Jane Seymour ("Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman"). Maybe her and Marie Osmond can fight it out for the audience's love?

You would have thought that as the show grows in popularity, the "star" power would get better (like American Idol, for instance). Doesn't seem to be happening.