My nephew had a birthday last week. I am surprised by how many people have birthdays these days. For his birthday I gave him an orange.
If it was a lemon it would be a sour pus
The orange I gave him had, “Orange you glad it’s your birthday?” written on it. In addition to the scurvy fighting ascorbic acid contained in every orange, it also had a 20 dollar bill inside. The banknote made its way inside the same way it does in the following magic trick.
When was the last time you had a 20 dollar trick? My nephew had one last week.
On January 18 of 2012, Reddit, Wikipedia, and a handful of other websites are going offline to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Without Wikipedia, many students will have to actually do research. Some may even learn what a library is. I know I will actually do my job rather than read about zebras.
Google and its services will remain online. This a shame because some institutions would be utterly lost without Gmail and its services. It is also a shame because this is the one chance for Hotbot, Lycos, and Ask Jeeves to make a comeback.
Across the nation, select parents are avoiding immunizing their children and electing to use a variant of a pox party. Parents are using a sucker licked by a sick child to introduce the disease to their child. It should be noted this action is not condoned or recommended as it would likely be detrimental to the child’s health. Furthermore, it is illegal to mail a biological substance without safe packaging. If you are curious as to the requirements, here is a 54 page document detailing how to mail a biologic entity.
Before the chicken pox (Varicella) vaccine there was rationale, albeit incredibly weak, to exposing a child to chicken pox. After all, isn’t that what we do now with a vaccine – expose a person to a disease to build immunity? Yes and no, but mostly no. The lollipox may transmit chicken pox, but at an unknown dose. The child could receive a mild infection or incredibly strong one resulting in dangerous complications. It could also transmit any other disease the person had when they licked the sucker. A vaccine has a measured and specific dose with known ingredients and risks.
Quality assurance aside, chicken pox is egregiously considered a childhood rite of passage. Although complications are rare, it is still a very serious disease. Vaccination is required for children to attend Indiana schools if they have not previously contracted the disease. Immunization is recommended because the risk is low for serious complications (2.2 per 100,000 people). The child and parent may need one day off of school and work to receive the vaccine. If the student contracted the disease they may be absent and require care for 1 – 2 weeks. Complications like pneumonia could also result.
Sasha Grey, a former pornographer, read to children in a California school. Some parents were outraged. I imagine the parents found out about her when a dad said, “She’s a porn star. So, I’ve heard . . . from a church group”.
While Grey is very intellectual and a proponent for reading, I do wonder why she was selected because it seems pretty obvious there would be calamity. My presumption is that all the firefighters who would read to children were busy making a booster calendar.
I'd like to read to kids, but I have a kitten to rescue and January to spice up
That said, the logic is faulty behind not wanting Grey to read to children. She has had sex, sometimes on camera and sometimes with multiple people, which I would argue most of the staff of the school has done as well. There are worse people to read to her, like the firefighters above; they’re not wearing their personal protective equipment properly.
An iPhone developer anonymously recorded iPhone users’ numerical passcodes. Using statistical analysis i.e. mode and average, he created a list of the ten most common PIN.
Because I am concerned about unintentionally selecting a number or password with meaning I use a random number generator to create a PIN. I still have a bias; however, because I dismiss numbers like 7777 or 1234 even thought they arise randomly. The most common numbers are listed below. Every phone, GPS, and garage keypad I come across will experience me entering these numbers.
1234
0000
2580
1111
5555
5683
0852
2222
1212
1998
Also of note, 1990 – 2000 were in the top 50 passwords and 1980 – 1989 were in the top 100.
Incandescent light bulbs will not be phased out. While most people have no opinion on this matter there were large celebrations from bakers who strictly use an Easy Bake Oven. The Energy Independence & Security Act of 2007 called for incandescents to be phased out in favor of more efficient bulbs. Rep. Joe Barton (R) introduced the BULB Act and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R) introduced Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act, so people have the freedom to purchase what they want. Meanwhile, homosexuals cannot marry in 44 states, but they can screw whatever bulb they want.
The band from Boston, Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, created a shot for shot remake of the Prisoner’s opening title sequence in their music video, “Arrival”. They also have a six track CD, but the second track frequently changes.
I have fond memories of my dad reading stories from Childcraft Encyclopedias before I went to bed. I am not sure it helped me sleep, but it did cement my love for reading encyclopedias. I likely would have slept better if there was more swearing like in Adam Mansbach’s book, Go The F**K To Sleep.
If you are too lazy to read it to your child, you can always have Samuel L. Jackson read it to them. The only way to improve this book is to have Morgan Freeman read it. The audio book is available for free from Audible. It can also be viewed on YouTube.
Mike Rowe, of Dirty Jobs and various QVC sales pitches, told Congress that America needs to produce more tradesmen and encourage learning how things work. If there is one thing I learned in economics, it is that butter and guns can be plotted on a graph. If there are two things I learned, it’s that having an active workforce, blue & white collar, are imperative.
While I see a very obvious need for skilled labor (robots cannot do everything), I would push the task of teaching how things work. Rowe mentioned to Congress that as a young boy he spent a day with his family to repair a pipe after a volcanic episode with his toilet. The repair was not complicated, but how many people have the knowledge of how to repair it? Granted there are some caveats with DIY. A task may be too great or too dangerous and truly require a professional. But for many tasks a simple visit to Wikipedia, HowStuffWorks, or YouTube will explain the principles of a device and how to repair it.
Posted by sleuthmilanowski 
