The incredible entitlement of some people

never ceases to amaze me:

Christie Blatchford: Family of teen fatally struck by SUV sued by motorist for her ‘pain and suffering’

Yep. That is all.

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And everywhere else.

Just look at the proliferation of television series on North American television that deal with the supernatural...

Who you gonna call? Belief in ghosts is rising

"There may have been centuries of sightings with no proof of their existence, but a new study suggests belief in ghosts is growing in the UK."

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The downward slide...

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Marketing - evil?

13 Most Evil Vintage Ads in History

Free enterprise, scourge of the free world...

The McDonald's entry is great. The world’s largest purveyor of cardiovascular time-bombs indeed!

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More news

of the lengths that free enterprise will go to part you and your money.

For men:

New Yankee Candle Scent Smells Like a 'Man Cave'

I'll take '2x4'!

Good grief. I didn't know I needed this. I guess that's why I let business direct my life...

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Oh, yes...

...something else was pointed out to me. My friend Glen, who I sent an email wishing him the best on his birthday today, also reminded me that it is

Geek Pride Day

Of course it is. What better day to celebrate Geek Pride than on Towel Day?

Wikipedia describes it as "A non-denominational holiday to be celebrated by nerds and geeks who do not feel ashamed of showing their unconventional interests in public."

We wear our pocket protectors with pride!

Happy Geek Pride Day everyone!

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Probably not

Can ultra-orthodox Jews live with the web?

The Ultra-Orthodox can't live with many, many things that have come about since the industrial revolution, at least part of the time. I don't think that the internet will be that easy for them to open up to...

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This would be a change

Quiet Parties: Silent night out on the town

I don't object to a little noise. I do object to loud, raucous parties because they are usually the stage for ignorant, disgusting and sometimes violent behaviour. I stay away from those.

This would be an interesting thing to try. I'm not surprised that it really started as performance art. Those artists!

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I'm stunned

I was driving down a street today when a new car, Chrysler 300 Magnum, drove up in the lane beside me, then pulled a bit ahead in that lane. When I saw her signalling I slowed down and let her change lanes in front of me. I almost had to stop as her lane was backed up and stopped. She had a sun roof, and I saw her put her hand up through it. I thought she was going to wave to thank me. She gave me the finger! Then she pulled into the parking lot of a store beside the street and as she was pulling in she had her window rolled down and her other arm out giving me the finger. I slowed down as I got by her to see what was going on and she had the most ugly, rage-filled look on her face that I've even seen. Somehow I was responsible for something? Her children were late for soccer? Some sales clerk didn't recognize her special status as a young person and unique in and of herself? Perhaps once again the world conspired to NOT name her queen of the world? Perhaps I didn't intuitively know she wanted to be in the lane in front of me so it's my fault. I don't know.

That very ugly and nasty look, scrunched up, scowling, mouthing epithets, a look that I've very rarely seen, is the look of road rage on a person with an incredible sense of entitlement. The world is hers, you'd better not plan on being in her way...

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In other words

claiming to be an artist these days no longer means doing work of any lasting value. Or not. 'Twas ever thus...

When Bad is Good

"I think we need a new vocabulary, because now everybody wants to be an outsider,” he told the Financial Times. “When I was one, no one wanted to be one. Counterculture won some things a long time ago. Counterculture’s in control. I’m the insider. I’m the establishment." - John Waters, quoted in the article

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What you don't know,

or what you thing you know but are wrong about, may suprise you.

Amish 101: What You Probably Don't Know About the Amish

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It's the truth

A time of creeping, soft fascism...

Fascism Redux

"The increasingly fascist regimes of the 21st century are ‘soft fascist’—made up of ever-expanding thickets of regulations and ministry policies crafted by faceless nameless bureaucrats in back rooms and enforced not so much by prison camps and executions as by a system of punitive fines and fees and inspections that force us all to live our lives under the constant watchful eye of our state overlords."

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I don't doubt that they don't know how

How teens are killing the phone call: By the numbers

It's at the point now where some teens don't know what a CD us, apparently, so not know how to make a voice telephone call doesn't seem that far a stretch...

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Photographs of lonely people

CNN hosts a photo essay on how we communicate more with devices than eachother.

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Very impressive

A Dopey move? Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs fan gets ENTIRE CAST of Disney film tattooed on her back

She found s very talented artist to do the work (which seems to be the downfall of most people), but still, I don't know. A tattoo is forever, really, and certainly one like this. If its creation was painful, can you imagine what the laser treatments to remove it would be like? And how much scar tissue one would have?

Perhaps she's Yakuza?

No, I'll stick with my lily white untainted skin. Besides, how would they do any ink over all my wrinkles?

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What do you think?

Is the 'drive-through' funeral service inappropriate?

I think the drive-through era is over. The only drive-throughs that seem to exist now are bank machines and fast food services. I can't think of anything more disrespectful than not taking a few minutes, a half hour or an hour from the day to pay respects to a person who has died and their family.

A drive-through viewing implies that you haven't got a few minutes in your all-important day to give to the family of someone you died. I think it's disrespectful...

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For the ultimate believers

that death doesn't have to be the end.

Cryonics

This is a good little article. It discusses history, theology, philosophy and other issues that surround this somewhat fantastic idea. The biggest concern to me would be the necessary funds to keep this going for the, perhaps, thousands of years until the science may have progressed this far and the trust that people will really do as they say anyway. Plus my belief that everything is going to end in the not distant future, so what's the point?

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So very true...

Who, reading this out there, hasn't seen someone texting or doing something emailish walk straight into a parking meter or light pole? Eventually it will weed them all out, we just have to be patient.

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Scary in unexpected ways

10 Creepy Examples of Twilight Craziness

I think the one that bothers me the most is number 7. They all bother me, but number 7 really shows how much parents (and professionals) will do, how far they will go, to pander to the desires of their children today.

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As a fan

of the recreational use of guns, target shooting and shooting in general, part of me gets excited by something like this.

Shoot: An exercise in recreational destruction.

Then, after thinking about it for a minute, I wonder what on earth they were doing, and what good it served. My supposed knee-jerk lefty response takes a few moments to surface when I'm confronted with a childhood dream of shooting the sh*t out of inanimate objects.

Then I'm better again. *Whew!*

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