How is this news?

First of all, why did this past week have saturation coverage of Anna Nicole Smith’s death? Why the hell do people care? She was a gold-digging, attention-whoring, train-wreck. It’s too bad when anyone dies, but it doesn’t deserve blanket news coverage. At least I can be amused by the increasing number of men who say they might be her baby’s father. Of course the perfect ending to sordid, asinine tale would be paternity tests that show her dead 20 year old son is the father of her new baby. That’s my pick in the father pool.

New research!
Another study was just released saying that we may be getting fat because of our high calorie drinks.. Wow, that’s news! I thought I could suck down all the sugary goodness of a twice daily Super Big Gulp and never, ever gain weight! Why thank you, Captain Obvious! I’m in luck though. I limit my intake of regular soda and reach for a beer instead. Whew!

Surprise, surprise, here’s some more research suggesting that Freud had major issues. Among the study’s conclusions are that most people are appalled, even at a subconscious level, at the idea of sexual relations with close family members. Suck it, Oedipus!

More news:
I’m going to watch the documentary Jesus Camp tonight. I’ve heard people describe it as downright scary, but I’d prefer to see for myself. I’ll let you know if I think it should be considered a horror movie.

Next up, take a look at another whacky cult leader. He’s Paul! He’s Christ! He’s the anti-Christ! It’s the amazing morphing cult leader! To be fair, adding dissociative identity disorder to a Messianic complex is an intriguing combination.

Some crazy guy is planning to swim the length of the Amazon river. Hey, good for him, but one of the dangers he faces is about the scariest thing I’ve read. His assistants will have buckets of blood with them to dump in the water in case the dreaded toothpick fish is nearby. This little bastard likes to swim into small umm… orifices… erect its spines, and feed on blood and tissue. Note to self: no matter how unlikely it is that this horror could happen, never, ever go swimming in the Amazon.

There’s news that Bulls great
Scottie Pippen wants to come out of retirement for an NBA playoff run. Yeah, because that worked so well for Michael Jordan….. and keep in mind that Pippen’s skills had already gone downhill quite a bit by the time he retired in 2004. Don’t do it, Scottie! You were great, but it’s over! Don’t be “that guy” who’s always trying to get back to his glory days.

Film - It's All Gone Pete Tong

I just finished watching a film called "It's All Gone Pete Tong". The title is a phrase which wikipedia tells me is cockney rhyming slang for "It's all gone wrong". It certainly has as this movie develops. The film is a mock biopic of fictional DJ Frankie Wilde. Shot on location in Ibiza, the sights of Pacha, Amnesia, and I believe the patio of Space brought smiles of recognition as I thought back to my nights at these super-sized nightclubs.

Early on, Frankie Wilde is on top of the world of techno music DJing. He's living it up on Ibiza with women, drugs, money, and anything else he wants. Then he starts going deaf and the movie chronicles his fall. The scenes of a man losing everything and sinking further and further into drugs and despair manage to be both tragic and comical. Watch out for the coke badger! The story isn't over though, and surprisingly, the movie ends up being, dare I say it, rather heartwarming.

For the music and for a little taste of Ibiza, I'd recommend the movie who like electronic music and the club scene. Even if you're not into the music though, consider watching it for the story of a man who rises, falls, and rises again.

Colts

Most important issue of our time?

I just finished watching the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth". Put simply, this is an important film. This is an important film about perhaps the most important issue we as a society face. That issue is global warming and the consequences are catastrophic.

There are many facts and study results presented in the film, but to me one of the most interesting was this: there is no controversy among scientists about whether human beings are causing global warming. We are. A survey of all peer reviewed articles in scientific publications in recent years turned up 928 articles. How many of those articles expressed doubt that humans were causing global warming? Zero. Absolutely none. Nada. Zilch. The consensus in the scientific community is strong.

Yet in a survey of popular media articles, these are non-peer reviewed, non-scientific publications, fully 53% expressed doubts that humans were causing global warming. Those opposed to making the changes we must make to curb global warming have succeeded in manufacturing this non-existent controversy in the minds of millions of people.

One of the other really interesting slides presented in the film shows a graph of 650,000 years of CO2 levels and average temperatures. Both are known by studying drilled ice core samples and what the graph shows is an incredibly obvious and consistent correlation indicating that higher CO2 levels means higher temperatures.

Besides showing much of Al Gore's presentation on global warming, the film looks at Gore's life and how he became involved so heavily with this issue. Those parts of the film are interesting, but the real focus stays on the issue, as it should.

I think everyone should see this film and really think about the implications. If you don't like Al Gore, watch it anyway. Stop focusing on who's presenting the information. He's acting as a messenger. Focus on the facts.

Behold the face of TERROR!

Here's the video of those dastardly Boston terrorists making and planting their Aqua Teen Hunger Force "bombs".


Boston authorities shut down large parts of the city because they were afraid that these devices could be bombs. They even had the bomb squad blow up at least one of them. CNN coverage is here.

You may recognize these two guys in the video from various news stories.


Enjoy your 15 minutes of fame, mates!