Archives for June 2013

My uncle Gary was a decorated pilot in the Viet Nam war. My uncle Gary was a homosexual. My uncle Gary was a pilot for Flying Tigers after the war. My uncle Gary made the best Bloody Mary you ever could have tasted, had you been honored to know him. My uncle Gary loved me and let me stay with him one summer when I was having severe, teenage, emotional problems. I was not a perfect kid. Actually, looking back, I’m glad I was raised by Hillary Clinton’s proverbial village because anything else would have resulted in a prison sentence. Our lives diverged as I got older and the last time I saw him was a couple of years before he passed away due to AIDS. But I was always in his heart just as he was, and is, always in mine. His true love, Joe, was with him until the end and, last I checked, has not been with anyone else since Gary died. If you read this and the most important fact you glean was that my uncle Gary was a homosexual then you have severe problems. You’re a stilted, broken, human being. You want to take the Christian attitude? Please do. Jesus hung out with 12 sailors and a hooker. You could do well to follow His example.

I am not gay and, despite the demise of DOMA, have not been offered gay marriage. Not even a gay one night stand. Given the phobia surrounding the decision I’m mildly disappointed.

I mean I’ve lost weight, have a job, most of my own teeth … you could do worse.

Moving on.

If you read the title of today’s blog you either realized that it’s not today’s date or one of the most significant dates in LGBT history. The fact that both are true shows you how little facts mean taken out of context.

In 2009 About.com memorialized the Stonewall riots, also known as the Christopher Street Uprising. Since they did such a good job I’m going to share their efforts with you today.

The Stonewall is an unassuming little bar in Manhattan’s West Village that has become a true landmark in gay history. Forty years ago, the New York gay community rose up here in a riot that sparked the modern gay rights movement.

The Stonewall Riots

In the summer of 1969, the New York gay activist movement was born when a group of gay New Yorkers made a stand against raiding police officers at The Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Village. In those days, gay bars were regularly raided by the police. But on June 27, 1969, the patrons of The Stonewall Inn had had enough.

As the police raided the bar, a crowd of four hundred patrons gathered on the street outside and watched the officers arrest the bartender, the doorman, and a few drag queens.

The crowd, which eventually grew to an estimated 2000 strong, was fed up. Something about that night ignited years of anger at the way police treated gay people. Chants of “Gay Power!” echoed in the streets. Soon, beer bottles and trash cans were flying.

Police reinforcements arrived and attempted to beat the crowd away, but the angry protesters fought back.

By 4AM, it looked like it was over. But the next night, the crowd returned, even larger than the night before. For two hours, protesters rioted in the street outside of the Stonewall Inn until the police sent a riot-control squad to disperse the crowd.

On the first night alone, 13 people were arrested and four police officers were injured. At least two rioters were said to be severely beaten by the police and many more sustained injuries.

The following Wednesday, approximately 1000 protesters returned to continue the protest and march on Christopher Street. A movement had begun.

The Stonewall Legacy

Stonewall turned out to be a pivotal moment in the gay rights movement. It united the gay community in New York in the fight against discrimination. The following year, a march was organized in commemoration of the Stonewall Riots and between 5,000 and 10,000 men and women attended the march.

In honor of Stonewall, many gay pride celebrations around the world are held during the month of June, including New York City’s Gay Pride Week.

Today, the Stonewall bar is once again a popular gay night spot in New York City. Occupying part of the original Stonewall Inn, the bar attracts plenty of locals and out-of-towners aiming to pay tribute to a gay New York landmark.

Here’s the deal; homosexuals bleed red, just like you, love freely, just like you, shop at the Jewels, just like you, have friends, just like you and want to be treated fairly, just like you.

Simply put, you are one night of gay sex from being just like them.

And they are one night of straight sex from being just like you.

Since no sane person defines themselves solely by the sex they had let’s just admit we’re alike.

I know an old man named Joe who would approve of that thought.

The Fortune Teller: 50 Yrs of Gay in 5 Mins, By Leo Herrera from Herrera Images on Vimeo.

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You’re an adult. I make that bold assumption based on the fact that kids don’t wander over here. At least not on purpose. Which, given the numerous references to boobs and penises that festoon this site, I find kind of perplexing. I guess they’re getting their boob and penis needs fulfilled at some younger, more hip, site. Besides, the one time a teenager did send an email to me it was to complain that I used too many words. In other words, this is probably all for the best. Nevertheless, as I noted before, you’re an adult. You do adult things. You have adult needs. If you want a bourbon fro breakfast then, BY GOD, you’re putting away the pop tarts and having at it. Lord knows you deserve it. In fact, go ahead and pour another, I’ll wait. Because when you read today’s blog you may need it and more.

For those who have missed the last 20 or so years, allow me to fill you in. In Asia there is a phenomena called Hello Kitty. It is a mouth-less toy that has no special skills whatsoever. The creators license the cute image to anyone with money, so you can buy a Hello Kitty 9mm Revolver, a Hello Kitty Vibrator, a Hello Kitty Wedding Dress, in case the vibrator isn’t satisfying enough, and, of course, a Hello Kitty Vajazzle Kit. Before you click that last link, note that the word Vajazzle is a blend of Bedazzled and Vagina.

Think Amanda Palmer without the sense of humor.

But, for whatever the reasons, the damn thing is wildly popular over there.

Another thing that is popular over there is McDonald’s.

So, naturally, these two evils needed to be marketed together. And the result was predictable.

Riots and violence.

Eveline Danubrata reports from Singapore.

Singapore residents braved hazardous air, bid hundreds of dollars and queued for hours to lay their hands on a special Hello Kitty stuffed toy, swept up in a craze for the mouthless Japanese cat that peaked this week in the city-state.

The frenzy began at the end of May, when U.S. fast food giant McDonald’s began selling the toys in outfits inspired by fairy tales, such as “The Ugly Duckling”. The six toys were released in phases, at S$4.60 ($3.63) each with a meal, or S$10 on their own.

But it was the final offering, the “Singing Bone” toy – a black Hello Kitty with a white skeleton and pink bow, based on a German tale – that set the hearts of Kitty lovers pounding.

Hundreds lined up to get first crack at the midnight launch of the toy on Thursday, with police called in to control shouting and queue-jumping, but stocks ran out in a day.

“I am speechless,” said university student Quek Hui Ying, 22. “In some cases it turned quite ugly and people argued with each other.”

On McDonald’s Facebook page a customer lamented his failure to get one of the toys for his 3-1/2-year-old grand-daughter.

“I am one unhappy grandfather! I had deliberately taken public transport in the haze to buy the ‘Ugly Duckling’,” he wrote, referring to hazardous levels of smog from Indonesian forest fires that recently wreathed Singapore before scattering.

“I tried 3 outlets without success.”

With all versions now sold out, a market in the toys has flourished on the Internet, with some sellers demanding hundreds of dollars on auction sites. One fetched S$126,000 on eBay, but it is not clear if the bid was genuine.

In a statement, McDonald’s said the demand had exceeded its expectations and it would take steps to improve its services.

Singapore’s previous mania for Hello Kitty, put out by Japanese toy firm Sanrio, was in 2000, when McDonald’s sold the toy in wedding dresses.

Really? A hundred grand for a freaking doll? If you’ve got that kind of money and you spend it on a doll you should be neutered immediately.

Never mind. That almost seems redundant.

And, McDonald’s has to be kidding. Having a business in Singapore and claiming not to know Hello Kitty is popular is beyond dense.

And I’m sure they were upset by all the free publicity this little stunt generated.

Not that I’m cynical when it comes to the motives of multi-national corporations.

But, before we condemn their faddish devotion to a soulless toy, keep in mind we have Honey Boo Boo.

Hello Kitty Little Taps from Hello Kitty Junkie

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I woke up this morning and noticed that ‎بشير غدير احمد was now following this blog and its Facebook page. He is from Algeria and now lives in Iran where this whole Facebook thing is new. This blog also has a bizarre, and yet beloved, small fan club in India. If you visit the Rob Pongi site in Japan you will find us mentioned from time to time. Also in Japan we get love from the glorious techno pin-up model Julie Watai. We get fan and hate mail from Africa, Egypt, Siberia, Australia, Finland, Russia, Canada, and, believe it or not, Chicago. I point all this out to remind you that the world is round and no longer are places as distant as they once seemed. When I was a young man being visited by, or even talking on the phone to, a relative from Ireland was a huge deal. Now there’s Skype and cheap air fare everywhere. Which means you have to watch what you say so that you don’t insult our international brethren.

The same applies to our fellow citizens. Each of us comes from a place and a generation that has had its own issues with relating to others. When I was about 4 my grandfather told a black man, and he meant this as a compliment, that “(he) was the nicest nigger (he’d) ever met.” I was too young to understand why the man was insulted but I never forgot that he was. For my grandfather, an immigrant with a limited education, that was an unfortunate incident. To his credit he did learn that that word was not acceptable and I can’t recall hearing him use it again.

If I was 4 at the time Paula Deen was 18. Old enough to see that the Old South was dying again and that the woeful and ignorant excuses for racism were dying with it. She has proven that she is capable of learning. After years of foisting lard based sugar bombs on unsuspecting idiots and pretending they were recipes she made adjustments to her cook books to reflect a healthier lifestyle.

Well, technically, they were recipes, they were just deadly ones.

And, let’s be honest, her idea of health food is like your Uncle Earl’s; it involves beer.

Still, it was a step in the right direction.

After the contents of her deposition got out Deen began being dropped by sponsors faster than limbs falling off a leper. David Bauder has been keeping score.

Paula Deen was dropped by Wal-Mart and her name was stripped from four buffet restaurants on Wednesday, hours after she went on television and tearfully defended herself amid the mounting fallout over her admission of using a racial slur.

The story has become both a day-by-day struggle by a successful businesswoman to keep her career afloat and an object lesson on the level of tolerance and forgiveness in society for being caught making an insensitive remark.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Wednesday that it ended its relationship with Deen and will not place “any new orders beyond what’s already committed.”

Caesars Entertainment Corp. said it had been “mutually decided” with Deen to remove her name from its restaurants in Joliet, Ill.; Tunica, Miss.; Cherokee, N.C.; and Elizabeth, Ind.

At the same time, Deen’s representatives released letters of support from nine companies that do business with the chef and promised to continue. There’s evidence that a backlash is growing against the Food Network, which tersely announced last Friday that it was cutting ties with one of its stars.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Deen had called him and he agreed to help her, saying she shouldn’t become a sacrificial lamb over the issue of racial intolerance.

“What she did was wrong, but she can change,” Jackson said.

During a deposition in a discrimination lawsuit filed by an ex-employee, the chef, who specializes in Southern comfort food, admitted to using the N-word in the past. The lawsuit also accuses Deen of using the slur when planning her brother’s 2007 wedding, saying she wanted black servers in white coats, shorts and bow ties for a “Southern plantation-style wedding.”

Deen said she didn’t recall using the word “plantation” and denied using the N-word to describe waiters. She said she quickly dismissed the idea of having all black servers.

Deen told Matt Lauer on “Today” on Wednesday that she could only recall using the N-word once. She said she remembered using it when retelling a story about when she was held at gunpoint by a robber who was black while working as a bank teller in the 1980s in Georgia.

In the deposition, she also said she may also have used the slur when recalling conversations between black employees at her restaurants. Asked in the deposition if she had used the word more than once, she said, “I’m sure I have, but it’s been a very long time.”

Her “Today” show appearance was a do-over from last Friday, when Deen didn’t show up for a promised and promoted interview. Deen told Lauer she had been overwhelmed last week. She said she was heartbroken by the controversy and she wasn’t a racist.

“I’ve had to hold friends in my arms while they’ve sobbed because they know what’s been said about me is not true and I’m having to comfort them,” she said.

Looking distressed and with her voice breaking, Deen said if there was someone in the audience who had never said something they wished they could take back, “please pick up that stone and throw it as hard at my head so it kills me. I want to meet you. I want to meet you.” It’s an apparent reference to the Biblical passage about whether a woman guilty of adultery should be stoned: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”

“I is what I is and I’m not changing,” Deen said. “There’s someone evil out there that saw what I worked for and wanted it.”
An uncomfortable Lauer tried to end the interview, but Deen repeated that anyone who hasn’t sinned should attack her.

Asked by Lauer whether she had any doubt that blacks consider use of the N-word offensive, Deen said: “I don’t know, Matt. I have asked myself that so many times, because it is so distressing to go into my kitchen and hear” what some young people are telling each other.

Deen said she appreciated fans who have expressed anger at the Food Network for dropping her, but said she didn’t support a boycott of the network. Through social media, the network has been attacked by people who said executives there acted in haste to get rid of Deen.

Save for the brief announcement late Friday that it wasn’t renewing Deen’s contract, Food Network executives have refused to discuss the case publicly, or say whether the network plans to address Deen’s fans. There have been online reports that the Food Network removed Deen’s programs from the air as early as Saturday; the network wouldn’t speak about what it has or hasn’t put on the air.

Starting last weekend, there has been a steady erosion of support for the network. The YouGov Brandindex, a measurement of how consumers perceive a particular company or product, said the Food Network’s score — which had been generally positive — had dropped by 82 percent in a week. The network has a negative image in the South and West, spokesman Drew Kerr said.

Deen’s case has also attracted some odd bedfellows. Conservative commentator Glenn Beck said the network has “contributed to the growing un-American atmosphere of fear and silence. Hello, Joseph McCarthy.”

Meanwhile, liberal HBO host Bill Maher also said Deen shouldn’t lose her show. “It’s a wrong word, she’s wrong to use it,” he said. “But do we really have to make people go away?”

The Food Channel, a food marketing agency based in Springfield, Mo., said it has been flooded with angry messages from people mistaking the company for the Food Network. There have been so many that the agency posted a message to Deen on its website that it would be happy to work with her if possible.

Among the companies expressing support for her via her representatives was Club Marketing Services in Bentonville, Ark., which helps companies sell products at Wal-Mart, and Epicurean Butter.

All well and good, let the discussion begin. But, and this is a BIG BUT (I cannot lie), this discussion must include the topic of hypocrisy.

Of the top 6 African American chefs in the media only 2 are employed by the Food Network, Patrick and Gina Neely, and they come as a husband and wife team. The Food Network web site lists only one other black man, Athen Flemming, who is not a chef but is, I kid you not, the guy who cleans the kitchens for the chefs and steps and fetches what they need.

He has a nice uniform.

I mention that in case you were wondering why Deen fit in so well there.

And how about those fun kids at WalMart?

I’m just going to limit myself to recent stories, you have a life to get back to.

They had a white man arrested for having biracial children. They assumed he was a child molester. You know, because all child molesters take biracial kids to WalMart.

Had a black teen arrested because she left her line to stand in line with her cousin. Of course the white people in the store who shoved and tried to beat her were never even mentioned in the police report. Of course, that makes sense when you learn the cops told her to “go back to the ghetto.”

Let us never forget this gem; “Attention Wal-Mart customers: All Black people must leave the store.”

I still think the lawsuit that eventually followed is frivolous, but that kid didn’t get the job without meeting with someone.

Of course any article about WalMart wouldn’t be any fun if I didn’t mention how it’s okay to smoke cigarettes and avoid work, but not to pray. Well, at least not to Allah.

Villainous NASCAR-branded trinket retailer and employer of last resort Wal-Mart is being accused of firing ten African employees in Colorado in order to give their jobs to “local” people (whites). Also, Wal-Mart hates god but loves cigarettes. Allegedly.

According to the NYT, “All 10 complaints also stated that West African workers, who are Muslim, were refused short prayer breaks. White and Hispanic workers, they said, were permitted unscheduled cigarette breaks.” Together Wal-Mart and the Marlboro Man will slay the Muslin terrorist “Allah.”

You still need more? Click here to wander through millions upon millions of dollars that WalMart has paid out in race based lawsuits.

That’s right, Paula Deen was too racist for them.

Sorry, not buying it. Deen’s firing just happens to be the first good PR they’ve gotten in years.

Just FYI, casinos, who are also dropping Deen, have been paragons of equal opportunity since the 80’s. They don’t care what color you are or who you sleep with, they just want your money.

I didn’t say they were saints, just that they are the most moral of the groups involved thus far.

Yeah, it gave me pause to write that too.

Anyway, I hope Paula learns from this and gets back to work. She’s dense and antiquated but she’s not a terrorist.

UNCENSORED – Put Em On The Glass by LittleGouda
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So, it’s Friday. Just like it is every seven days. And you, being a respectable member of society, decide to emulate the legendary Stephen Gough and rip off all your clothes and walk around in public. And because you’re a family person who has all the attenuate responsibilities that come with a spouse and children, you decide to spend your life in jail rather than put your clothes back on. And, somehow, if you click the link and read his interview, he makes it all sound like a rational choice. Seriously, here is his fist experience walking to town naked after his wife left him for breakfasting naked and he was staying with his parents. “Nothing really happened. There was one man who shouted, ‘That’s disgusting!’ but he was eating a sandwich so I think that’s why. I was about to go into the covered market when the police arrived in a big rush.” Ah yes, it was the sandwich that did him in. Just FYI, there are many places on our fun planet where you are welcome to be as naked as you want to be. Where I’m eating lunch isn’t one of them.

Laila Kearney says that a guy in Frisco wasn’t content to just wander around in public naked. Nope, he also had to do gymnastics and terrorize a subway station.

A trained gymnast whose naked acrobatics and harassment of passengers at a San Francisco public transit station were captured on video and circulated widely on the Internet is facing criminal charges over his antics, authorities said on Tuesday.

Yeiner Alberto Perez Garizabalo, 24, was caught on video doing handstands and contortions on turnstiles and front flips off a concrete newsstand – all in the nude – at a Bay Area Rapid Transit District station on May 10.

Video that drew more than half a million hits on YouTube shows dozens of people watching idly or ignoring Garizabalo as he accosted at least three passengers during his gymnastics routine, putting a man in a headlock and charging two women before being arrested by BART police.

Garizabalo was committed to a nearby hospital after his arrest but no police report was filed and he was released the following day, said Stephanie Ong Stillman, spokeswoman for the San Francisco district attorney’s office.

He was rearrested on Monday, more than a month after videos of the incident went viral, on charges including felony false imprisonment, misdemeanor battery and misdemeanor sexual battery. He was being held on $100,000 bail and was due in court on Tuesday afternoon to face the charges, Stillman said.

Garizabalo was a member of the ClownSnotBombs Circus, an acrobatic performance troupe in Berkeley. He dropped out of the group shortly before the BART station incident.

“(Garizabalo’s) memory of the incident … does not match what happened in the video,” Kristen Parks and other members of ClownSnotBombs said in an email to Reuters.

“When asked to describe what he remembers in his own words, he describes being in a play where everyone was actors. (He) does not remember attacking anyone,” she said, adding that the troupe believes Garizabalo may be suffering from a psychological disorder.

Parks said Garizabalo had since watched the video of his behavior at the BART station. “Now that he has seen the video and understands the gravity of what really happened he feels both guilty and horrible for what he has done,” Parks said.

Officials from the public defender’s office were not immediately available to comment, and the office could not confirm that his case had been assigned to one of its lawyers.

Okay, I have no idea what was going on in his mind or what wonderful substances he’d ingested to get to that happy state of being, but he really should have shared.

CBS News in Albany New York says that getting naked with adults is so passe. Aydrea Meyers upped the ante by getting naked while dancing with children at a school.

Police say Aydrea Meaders, a mother who allegedly got on stage and started to strip during a school assembly, is facing child endangerment and lewdness charges.

Albany police say the 24-year-old Meaders was arrested at North Albany Academy on Friday morning.

They say school staff told them the assembly was halted and the cafeteria cleared after Meaders began dancing onstage and took off some of her clothes.

She is charged with seven counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one count of public lewdness.

An Albany City Court clerk says Meaders was arraigned Friday afternoon and ordered held on $3,000 bail. She doesn’t have a lawyer yet.

The North Albany Academy is a prekindergarten through eighth grade school in the Albany district.

On the plus side, I bet that got kids to talk to their parents. On the downside, that conversation is going to redefine the word “awkward.”

But it’s still an easier conversation than the one our next story inspired.

Robby Soave reports that a teacher was conducting an experiment on the effects of sexual arousal and vocal chords.

However, since the experiment was limited to one student, he was fired and is being sued.

A vocal instructor at a community college in Washington allegedly asked a female high school student to remove her clothes during lessons, and later masturbated while she played the piano.

The woman, who was 17 years old at the time and earning college credit as a high school student, sued the teacher, Kevin Gausepohl, for taking advantage of her sexually. She also sued the state of Washington on the grounds that Tacoma Community College (TCC) failed to protect her.

Gausepohl claimed that he was studying how sexual arousal interacts with vocal range. The woman said she removed some of her clothes and touched herself upon his request.

At another session, he masturbated while she practiced the piano, she charges.

The college investigated accusations of sexual misconduct made by several students against Gausepohl in 2011.

“These students became concerned that defendant Gausepohl was sexually exploiting the plaintiff, and they reported it to TCC authorities in the spring of 2011,” the lawsuit says, according to The Bellingham Herald.

Officials concluded that he had likely violated the college’s sexual harassment policies, and terminated him. Criminal prosecutors agreed not to pursue charges if he broke no more laws for a year. Gausepohl complied with the orders, though he vigorously maintained that he was innocent.

Most students gave Gausepohl positive reviews on the teacher rating site ratemyprofessor.com, though one accused the vocal instructor of having “a problem with disciplining his class and being a friend instead of an instructor.” Several other reviews mentioned that he behaved more like a friend than a teacher.

Gausepohl is also a religious leader at Blaine Memorial United Methodist Church, according to The Daily Mail.

Seriously, don’t do it again and all is forgiven? Is the Washington State legal system run by demented howler monkeys?

Kids, a bit of advice from your weird uncle Big Bad. If an adult, who is not your doctor, asks you to remove your clothes, you are allowed to say no. If any one asks you to touch yourself, or to be allowed to touch you, then you are allowed to use that ubiquitous cell phone you use to pollute Facebook with duck face photos and call the cops.

Cops are happy to answer those calls. Really. That kind of stuff makes their day. So, avoid being assaulted by making a cop happy.

And happy cops mean less crazy naked people walking around your mall.

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If you search for the terms “Armageddon” or “Apocalypse” on this web site you will be reading for hours. Granted, it will be enjoyable reading, but it’s still going to take a while. And yet, somehow, the topics never really get old or go away. For example, biochemist from the University of Saskatchewan has recently released a hypothesis that says eating boogers may be good for you. If you don’t think that portends doom tell me what your mother would have done to you if she caught you eating your boogers. Or, if that’sn’t apocalyptic enough for you, what about UFO’s buzzing the Church of Scientology’s British HQ? Oh sure, the 3 UFOs were all reported by real pilots, who also reported they were probably toys, but that’s still kind of end of times kind of stuff. Keep in mind that pilots report these things because any idiot with an RC plane could fill it with explosives and crash it into the plane. They aren’t really saying there are aliens over Sussex. But alien invasion or home grown terrorists, the results could be the same; the end of all things.

Fortunately for you, assuming you have the I.Q. of a turnip and way too much money, there are people ready and willing to exploit you.

No, I’m sorry.

What I mean is they are willing to help you meet like minded people who want to live in tunnels. It’s like a very expensive version of EHarmony.com (these people don’t let gays hang around with them either).

Bill Draper says that Robert Vicino is the latest person who is willing separate the hopelessly paranoid from their money.

After most of the world’s population is wiped off the map by a wayward meteorite or hail of nuclear missiles, the survival of the human race might just depend on a few thousand people huddled in recreational vehicles deep in the bowels of an eastern Kansas mine.

That’s the vision of a California man who is creating what he calls the world’s largest private underground survivor shelter, using a complex of limestone caves dug more than 100 years ago beneath gently rolling hills overlooking the Missouri River.

“I do believe I am on a mission and doing a spiritual thing,” said Robert Vicino, who has purchased a large portion of the former U.S. Army storage facility on the southeast edge of Atchison, about 50 miles northwest of Kansas City, Mo. “We will certainly be part of the genesis.”

Before it comes time to ride out Armageddon or a deadly global pandemic, though, Vicino says the Vivos Survival Shelter and Resort will be a fun place for members to take vacations and learn assorted survival skills to prepare them for whatever world-changing catastrophe awaits.

Jacque Pregont, president of the Atchison Chamber of Commerce, said some people think the shelter plan sounds creepy or that Vicino has “lost his mind,” while others are excited because they will finally get a chance to tour the property.

Atchison is known as the birthplace of Amelia Earhart and one of the most haunted towns in Kansas, Pregont said, so the survival shelter is likely to add to the town’s tourism draw.

“It’s quirky, and quirky gets attention,” she said.

Recent Hollywood movies have done big business exploring themes about threats to the human race, either through climate shifts, meteor impacts or zombie invasions. And the National Geographic Channel show, “Doomsday Preppers,” documents the efforts of Americans who are preparing for the end of the world with elaborate shelters and plenty of freeze-dried rations.

Paul Seyfried, who belongs to a group that promotes preparing for manmade or natural disasters, said Americans have become complacent ever since the death of John F. Kennedy, the last president who urged people to build fallout shelters.

“There has been no war on our soil in over 100 years, so the horror of war is not stamped indelibly in Americans’ minds,” said Seyfried, a member of The American Civil Defense Association’s advisory board.

Ken Rose, a history professor at California State University-Chico, is an outspoken critic of underground shelters. Though he acknowledged that interest in underground shelters is growing, he called projects like the Kansas facility a “colossal waste of time and money.”

“Some people are just obsessed by this idea,” Rose said. “… Without minimizing the terror threat here today, the threats were much greater at the height of the Cold War. At least then anxiety was based on a realistic scenario.”

The Kansas caverns are 100 feet to 150 feet below the surface and have a constant natural temperature in the low 70s. They are supported by thick limestone pillars six times stronger than concrete and will have blast doors built to withstand a one-megaton nuclear explosion as close as 10 miles away, Vicino said.

Other than being surrounded by more than a mile and a half of 6-foot-high chain-link fence topped with sharp rows of barbed wire, the land above ground isn’t distinguishable from expanses of hills and trees that surround it. The proposed shelter’s entrances – nondescript concrete loading docks tucked discretely into the wooded hillside – are easily defensible against any potential intruders provided there’s not a full-scale military attack, Vicino said.

The Army used the caverns – created by limestone mining operations that started in the late 1880s – for decades as a storage facility before putting them up for auction last year. The winning bid in December was $1.7 million, but financing fell through and the site was put up for sale again.

Springfield, Mo., investor Coby Cullins submitted his winning $510,000 bid for the property in early April, and he immediately started looking for ways to use it. One of his ideas was to lease the land to a company that builds survival bunkers.

Vicino, whose company is based in Del Mar, Calif., said he received an email from Cullins and flew to Kansas two days later to check out the property. Vicino agreed to purchase 75 percent of the complex, rather than lease it, while Cullins retained the rest and is marketing it to local businesses.

The complex consists of two fully lighted, temperature-controlled mines with concrete floors. The east cave, which Cullins owns, encompasses about 15 acres and contains offices, vaults, restrooms and other developed work spaces. The much larger west cave, which covers about 45 acres, is mostly undeveloped and will be converted into the Vivos facility.

The shelter will have enough space for more than 1,000 RVs and up to about 5,000 people. Members will be charged $1,000 for every lineal foot of their RV to purchase their space, plus $1,500 per person for food. That means a person who plans to park a 30-foot vehicle in the shelter with four people inside will pay $30,000 for the space and $6,000 for food.

Actual sales won’t begin until a “critical mass” of reservations are received and processed, Vicino said, which hasn’t happened yet at the Kansas shelter.

Vivos also owns a shted bomb shelters is becasue freaking Russia had elter in Indiana with room for 80 people to live comfortably for up to a year. There, members pay $50,000 per adult and $35,000 per child, so a family with two adults and two children would have to come up with $170,000 to be part of the post-apocalyptic generation.

Purchasers will be required to pay for the full balance before taking possession of their shelter space, though the company has offered limited financing in the past with a sizable down payment.

Vicino says he won’t say specifically where the Indiana shelter or any of his smaller facilities are located because he fears there would be anarchy in the event of a world-changing catastrophe.

And it doesn’t matter who comes knocking at the “moment of truth,” Vicino said, they’re probably not getting in.

“I’ve heard people say, `I will just show up at the door,'” he said. “Our response is, `great, where is the door?’ At our secret shelters, you don’t know where to go, and your cash will be worthless at that time.”

Keep in mind that you would spending a lot of time with people like that.

Also, as noted above, the reason Kennedy advocated bomb shelters is that Russia was trying to store nukes in Cuba (which is close to us for you Fox viewers) and had a intercontinental missile program that could wipe out Chicago. The still do in case you’re curious.

If you’re not sure what it was like to live in those times, see the movie Fail Safe.

It’s not like that now.

Terrorists, as evil and scary as they are, can only harm a location or two at a time. They do not have, and are nowhere near even imaging having, the capability to take on a country in any meaningful way. Yes, Oklahoma, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Olympic_Park_bombing>Atlanta, 9/11 and Boston were all terrifying, but they did not destroy our country. They didn’t even destroy the cities they occurred in.

Let me put it this way, if you don’t like the way the country is being run, find a viable candidate who doesn’t talk to the imaginary toenail people for medical advice and run him or her out there. That’s one of the joys of living in a constitutional republic. You can overthrow the government by voting.

Because, aside from saving me from having to deal with your brain crushing stupidity, you aren’t really accomplishing anything else.

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Have you ever been naked with another person? Of course you have. Odds are you enjoyed the experience. I am excluding prison showers and other related experiences. I am also excluding any visit you may make to Tulsa, Oklahoma where robbers tend to steal your pants as well as your money. Okay, so, yeah, sometimes being naked with someone else isn’t all that fun. Still, overall, it’s a positive experience. You and your special someone get all giggly and warm and then you find a private place or, if you’re me and in a bit of a pinch, the top of a police car and have at it. Then, once you get out of jail, you get to smile and have memories that will last you a lifetime. Also, getting naked with your special someone, even if that special someone is someone you just met, is a time honored way to get to know them better.

But, in Florida, it only seems to lead to trouble.

David Moye is reporting that Shaun Paul Williams met his special someone and, before he had an ounce of fun, found himself beaten, robbed and stripped naked.

A lot of guys would love to end up stripped naked on the first date, but not in the way experienced by a man in Florida.

Shaun Paul Williams, 34, told deputies in Flagler County, Fla., that he was beaten, robbed, forced to strip naked and abandoned on the side of a road Friday evening during a first date with a woman named “Tree.”

Authorities found Williams nude and bloodied walking on the shoulder of a road in Bunnell, Fla., late Friday near a cow pasture, NBC News reported.

According to the police report, Williams met Tree two weeks ago and they set a date for June 14. When she picked him up, there were two other men in the vehicle and Tree explained that one of them was her brother and she was going to drop him and the other guy off at his home.

Instead, the brother asked to stop at a cow pasture and Williams chose to jump out and urinate. At that point, he said he was hit in the head with a hard, metal object while one of the men yelled, “Give me all your money and your clothes,” RawStory.com reported.

Williams looked up and saw a semi-automatic pistol pointed directly at his face, so he took off all his clothes and gave his assaulters $200 in cash, a cell phone, his Florida driver’s license, a gray tank top, a pair of black Dickie shorts and a pair of gray and black DC sneakers. The two men — who were both described as being around 30 — then fled with Tree, FlaglerLive.com reported.

Williams, a professional painter, told the Daytona Beach News-Journal that, unless he gets surgery, he could lose his right eye and that his cheekbone and jaw are fractured.

He’s also expressing regrets at how the date turned out.

“I was going to take the girl on a nice dinner, trying to be a nice guy and next thing I know, I got beat up over a couple dollars,” Williams told the Daytona Beach News-Journal. “Basically, it was my stupidity,” Williams said. “I should have realized there was something funny about it.”

Police are looking for an African American woman and two African-American men in a late-1990s model dark blue four-door sedan.

Her name was “Tree?” That is never a good sign. Willow I could understand, but Tree? And, yes, first dates that include two armed chaperons rarely turn out well unless your dating the president’s daughter.

Also in Florida, a nice man went to a nice motel with a nice young lady who only cost a nice $500 and she, much to his surprise, turned out to not so nice after all.

A Florida woman and her buddy were arrested Friday after attacking and robbing a man who thought he was going to have sex for money, police said.

Jennifer Leigh Robbins, 20, lured the victim to a Melrose Super 8 motel room at about 6:30 p.m., according to the Gainesville Sun. The victim placed $500 in $20 bills on the microwave and closed the blinds, but when he turned around Robbins allegedly attacked him with pepper spray.

Moments later, Robbins’ alleged accomplice, Matthew Stuart Pauley, 24, entered the room. The three started fighting, and the melee spilled out into the hallway. Other hotel guests separated the two men. Robbins and Pauley then fled.

But they left some of the cash and a motel key card, which led police to the suspects, the Sun-Sentinel reports. Robbins and Pauley were arrested after police interviews.

Theft and sex never mix.

Nobody knows that better than Chelsey Coutts, whose $500 worth of sex toys were stolen from the trunk of her car earlier this month. The hot-and-bothered victim had been saving the toys for a bachelorette party in Oregon.

Okay, let’s recap; both thefts involved $500. The first with cash in a microwave (??) and the other a box full of sex toys that this woman was planning on sharing with a room full of other women.

Okay, yeah, I want to party with her.

So do you.

Now, what have we learned here today? Probably nothing you didn’t know already.

Yeasayer – Ambling Alp from Spy Films on Vimeo.

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The science, if I may use that term here, behind Star Wars is about par with asking any random six year old to explain quantum mechanics. In fact the six year old might be more accurate. But just as a blind squirrel can occasionally find a nut sometimes even the most pathetic scientific nonsense can prove to be true. No, there is no such thing faster than light solar sails. Nor will there ever be. There is also no need for a space craft to have extendable wings in space. I could spend hours lamenting the idiotic notions those movies have put forth but will, instead, focus on the one they got right. In a week that has seen the Chinese government forced to admit that one of their fine citizens hadn’t really electrocuted an alien and kept it in his freezer, which was probably made by Kenmore, we need to have some actual facts to work with.

Nola Taylor Redd, from Astrology Today, says that the world of Tatooine, which orbited a binary star system, could be the template for for where life would prosper.

Planets orbiting binary star systems have to deal with the stresses of more than one star. But new research reveals that close binaries could be as good as singles when it comes to hosting habitable planets. Low-mass twins could make the best hosts, because their combined energy extends the habitable region farther away than would exist around a single star.

After modeling a variety of binary systems, two astronomers determined that stars 80 percent as massive as the Sun, if close enough together, could allow for conditions that would be ideal for hosting habitable planets.

“Potentially, life could exist even more in binary systems than it does in single systems,” Joni Clark, an undergraduate at New Mexico State University, told Astrobiology Magazine. Clark worked with astrophysicist Paul Mason of the University of Texas at El Paso.

Pushing the boundaries

Low-mass stars are two to three times more common than the Sun. Their sheer numbers may give them greater odds forhosting planets. But their smaller size also means they have more ultraviolet radiation early in the life of the star and dangerous solar winds in the habitable zone, both important when it comes to maintaining a niche for life to exist. Planets must lieextremely close to small single stars to reap the benefits, a position that brings a number of challenges. Such planets are more prone to be tidally locked, with one face permanently turned toward its sun, and to receive the brunt of any stellar activity. [9 Exoplanets That Could Host Alien Life]

Binary system Kepler-47 contains at least one planet in its habitable zone. The two stars have different masses, however, and so the habitability of such planets is limited by the shorter lifetime of the larger and more massive star.
CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle

But when two such stars are closely paired, their combined energy extends the habitable region farther away and makes it larger, minimizing some of the threats faced by planets orbiting low-mass stars.

“We have much more room here for planets to hang out,” Clark said.

Not just any binary system will work, however. Habitable zones receive the best effect when the low-mass stars are close together, circling each other every ten days or less. Radiation of all types coming from two such closely bound stars would be more consistent, and the planets orbiting them would resemble that of a planet orbiting a single star.

But when the stars are farther apart, the planet’s orbit is more likely to be unstable as it feels the tug of gravity stronger from first one star and then the other. When stars are spread out over a distance, orbiting planets would experience significant changes in temperature. With a large enough gap, planets would travel around only one star, with the possibility of occasionally entering the danger zone of the other.

“There are many regions around binary star systems where having a stable orbit simply isn’t possible,” said Stephen Kane, of the California Institute of Technology. Kane, who studies the habitable zones of planets orbiting binary stars, was not involved in Clark and Mason’s research.

Living conditions

Living conditions on the planets would vary based on cloud cover, which could help to both insulate the planet and shelter it from ultraviolet radiation. Such cloud cover could help to protect the planet from the changes it would encounter as it orbits closer first to one star and then to the other.

“How the temperature at the surface of the planet will vary depends on the properties of the atmosphere and its ability to absorb this flux and temperature variation,” Kane said.

Clark and Mason simulated a number of close binary systems, calculating the temperatures and radiation that could exist for planets in orbit over the lifetime of the star. They presented their results at theAmerican Astronomical Society meeting in January. After factoring in cloud cover and flux from the stars, they determined that the steadiest situations would come from binary twins, stars of approximately the same mass. Of these, a pair of stars 80 percent as massive as the Sun would hit what Clark called “the sweet spot,” though a range of twins and other special combinations would also work well.

 

Mergers between stars, the ultimate fate of around 20–30% of O-type stars, are violent events. But even the comparatively gentle scenario of vampire stars, which accounts for a further 40–50% of cases, has profound effects on how these stars evolve.

CREDIT: ESO

For close twin stars, “because they’re similar masses and so close, it is very likely that they were, if you will, born at the same time,” Clark said.

Such stars would have similar lifetimes, dying out in approximately the same time frame, but have a habitable zone 40 percent farther away than the single star counterparts.  In the case of the lower-mass stars, such periods could far supersede the Sun’s lifetime, lasting as long as twenty billion years.

“Other groups have recently shown that planets close to stars of any type suffer water loss, like Venus, and atmosphere erosion, mostly early in the star’s life. These effects may occur even for planets with magnetic field protection,” Mason said.  “The beauty of close binaries is that their habitable zones are located farther out.”

Tatooine system

Kepler-47 provides a different system with fascinating properties. Instead of twins, the famous “Tatooine” system contains one star as massive as the Sun, and another only a third the size. A single planet orbits in the habitable zone, though it is too massive to be considered a good candidate for life. Eventually, the larger star will suffer the same fate as our Sun, swelling up into a massive red giant and changing the survivability for the planets orbiting the pair. The smaller star would live on, scant comfort for the planets that saw their habitable regions shift. Still, over the lifetime of the more massive star, the smaller star would provide extra light and heat that could be a bonus to potential life. [How 2 ‘Tatooine’ Planets Orbit Twin Stars (Infographic)]

Because low-mass stars are so pervasive, and because most stars in the galaxy are locked in binary pairs, the chances of finding close, low-mass binaries is high, according to Clark and Mason. Though they caution that they haven’t run the exact numbers, Mason says that such systems would be “not uncommon at all,” potentially ranking such pairings as numerous as Sun-like single stars.

“I can imagine that a 0.8 solar mass binary, with a separation of less than a tenth of an astronomical unit [the distance from the Earth to the Sun], would have many possibilities of stable orbits within the habitable zone,” Kane said.

Thewerer was a story written by a guy named Frederic Brown called Placet is a Crazy Place. In it he made some humorous observations on what could happen to a person’s vision when two suns emitted conflicting gravity fields. Think wild hallucinations every other day. You know, talking gorillas, laughing bananas, that sort of stuff. His story also has a plot which may confuse Star Wars fans.

But my regular readers should like it.

One thing we have learned from the many amazing discoveries that the Kepler Telescope has given us is that there is less and less chance that we are alone in the cosmos.

Now, what our neighbors will look like will be a discussion for another day.

Cortana Halo 4 Cosplay Body Paint NSFW from Roustan

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Now seems like as good a time as any to address this subject. Because somewhere between the crushing pressures of rampant xenophobia and the blindly encompassing embrace of egalitarianism, we live in the real world. And that world includes more than Boise. Nothing against Boise, but there’s more to be seen. As someone who has traveled further than the end of my block I have encountered people from foreign lands. Often while in those self same lands. You learn a few things rather quickly when you travel; (1) The English put mashed potatoes on pizza; (2) the French put Mayonnaise on everything, including pasta; (3) the Chinese will want you to eat goat’s eyes with them (not bad); (4) you cannot out drink an Australian, and (5) stuff that means one thing here may mean something very different there.

For example, if an English person asks you if you want a fag he is not getting kinky with you. He is asking if you would like a cigarette. If a French girl offers to “buzz your handy” you will not be getting lucky. However you will be getting a call on your cell phone. Which, if you work things right, could lead to you getting lucky.

As it turns out you not only have to be careful what you say to people of different cultures, Gayle Cotton says you have to be EXTRA careful what you gesture.

Success leaves clues, or in some instances, the lack of success leaves clues! Gestures are one of the first things to come to mind that can cause a major cultural faux pas. They can quickly sabotage anyone, including the most savvy business professionals. People from every culture, including various country leaders and several U.S. presidents, have been guilty of unintentionally offending people from different cultures through the use of inappropriate gestures. When it comes to body language gestures, the wisest advice might be to keep your fingers to yourself!

In Brazil, Germany, Russia, and many other countries around the world, the OK sign is a very offensive gesture because it is used to depict a private bodily orifice. The OK sign actually does mean “okay” in the United States, however in Japan it means “money,” and it is commonly used to signify “zero” in France. Clearly the OK sign isn’t offensive everywhere; however, it is not OK to use in many parts of the world, nor does it necessarily mean “okay”!

Most people are aware that the V for victory or peace sign was made popular by Winston Churchill in England during WWII. However, it’s important to take heed of where you are in the world, because if you make this gesture with your palm facing inward in Australia, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and several other countries throughout the world, it in essence means “Up yours!”

On Inauguration Day 2005, President George W. Bush raised his fist, with the index and little finger extended, to give the time honored hook ’em horns gesture of the Texas Longhorn football team to the marching band of the University of Texas. Newspapers around the world expressed their astonishment at the use of such a gesture. Italians refer to it as “il cornuto,” which means that you are being cuckolded (that is, that your wife is cheating on you!). It’s considered a curse in some African countries, and is clearly an offensive gesture in many other parts of the world.

The thumbs-up gesture is commonly used in many cultures to signify a job well done. However, if it is used in Australia, Greece, or the Middle East — especially if it is thrust up as a typical hitchhiking gesture would be — it means essentially “Up yours!” or “Sit on this!” The thumbs up gesture can also create some real problems for those who count on their fingers. In Germany and Hungary, the upright thumb is used to represent the number 1; however, it represents the number 5 in Japan. Take heed all you global negotiators: there is a big difference between 1 and 5 million!

As a professional speaker, I am all too aware that simply pointing with the index finger at something or someone can be offensive in many cultures. It is considered a very rude thing to do in China, Japan, Indonesia, Latin America, and many other countries. In Europe, it’s thought of as impolite, and in many African countries the index finger is used only for pointing at inanimate objects, never at people. It’s best to use an open hand with all your fingers together when you need to point at something or someone.

Curling the index finger with the palm facing up is a common gesture that people in the United States use to beckon someone to come closer. However, it is considered a rude gesture in Slovakia, China, East Asia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and many other parts of the world. It’s also considered extremely impolite to use this gesture with people. It is used only to beckon dogs in many Asian countries — and using it in the Philippines can actually get you arrested! The appropriate way to beckon someone in much of Europe, and parts of Asia, is to face the palm of your hand downward and move your fingers in a scratching motion.

The open hand or “moutza” gesture is insulting in parts of Africa and Asia, Greece, Pakistan, and in several other countries. It is formed by opening your palm with your fingers slightly apart and extending your arm toward someone, much like a wave in the U.S. This may seem harmless enough to many Westerners, however if someone does it with a more abrupt arm extension, its meaning changes to, “Enough is enough,” or “Let me stop you right there.” In other words, “Talk to the hand, because the face isn’t listening!”

When it comes to body language gestures in the communication process, the important thing to keep in mind is that what we say, we say with our words, tonality, and body language.

Our body language often conveys more than the words we use. At times, it can completely change — or even nullify — our words’ meaning.

Almost every gesture using fingers is sure to offend someone, somewhere, at some time. As a rule of thumb (no pun intended!), it is best to avoid using any single finger as a gesture — unless you are absolutely sure it is appropriate for a particular culture or country. Open-handed gestures, with all fingers generally together, is usually considered the safest approach.

There are countless additional gestures that mean something different in every culture. Gestures have such a profound influence on communication that it really is best to keep your fingers to yourself!

I have, over the course of my life, managed to offend someone from every continent. It is very easy to do. Let’s face it, American idioms are confusing enough for Americans, adding in alien cultures just makes it harder. So keep your hands to yourself, your mouth shut and just smile.

Unless you’re in Bangok. It seems that a single man smiling is an open invitation to have strangers do bad things to his bung hole. Of course, if that’s what you’re in to, have at it.

Grubby Little Hands – Unring A Bell (NSFW) from Brian Melton

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If you’ve ever been to a bar at 3:00 AM, you know the intelligent discourse that abounds. You’re laughing at me but you shouldn’t be. No great ideas ever started with a refreshing glass of water. A while back I wrote about how beer was the first step towards peace in Pakistan. Well, nothing else has worked and, at least, this has the benefit of bringing a frosty cold beer to the table and not sizzling hot semi-automatic weapons. I have also written about many great religious moments and scientific discoveries; all of which are all attributable to alcohol. As you can see there is plenty of empirical data to suggest that society has benefited from alcohol. But why? After all, it’s no secret that alcohol doesn’t make you a good dancer or an Irish tenor. It does, however, make you drunk. And, if you’re not careful, it makes you a danger to the safety of yourself and others.

As always, science has the answer. Satoshi Kanazawa from Psychology Today says it’s because smart people are more attracted to alcohol than others.

Drinking alcohol is evolutionarily novel, so the Hypothesis would predict that more intelligent people drink more alcohol than less intelligent people.

The human consumption of alcohol probably originates from frugivory (consumption of fruits). Fermentation of sugars by yeast naturally present in overripe and decaying fruits produces ethanol, known to intoxicate birds and mammals. However, the amount of ethanol alcohol in such fruits ranges from trace to 5%, roughly comparable to light beer. (And you can’t really get drunk on light beer.) It is nothing compared to the amount of alcohol present in regular beer (4-6%), wine (12-15%), and distilled spirits (20-95%).

Human consumption of alcohol, however, was unintentional, accidental, and haphazard until about 10,000 years ago. The intentional fermentation of fruits and grain to yield ethanol arose only recently in human history. The production of beer, which relies on a large amount of grain, and that of wine, which similarly requires a large amount of grapes, could not have taken place before the advent of agriculture around 8,000 BC and the consequent agricultural surplus. Archeological evidence dates the production of beer and wine to Mesopotamia at about 6,000 BC. The origin of distilled spirits is far more recent, and is traced to Middle East or China at about 700 AD. The word alcohol – al kohl – is Arabic in origin, like many other words that begin with “al,” like algebra, algorithm, alchemy, and Al Gore.

Human experience with concentrations of ethanol higher than 5% that is attained by decaying fruits is therefore very recent. More importantly, any unintentional, accidental, and haphazard consumption of alcohol in the ancestral environment, before the advent of agriculture about 10,000 years ago, happened as a result of eating, not drinking, whereas alcohol is almost entirely consumed today by drinking, not eating. (Deep-fried beer is a very recent exception.) The Hypothesis would therefore predict that more intelligent individuals may be more likely to prefer drinking modern alcoholic beverages (beer, wine, and distilled spirits) than less intelligent individuals, because the substance and the method of consumption are both evolutionarily novel.

Consistent with the prediction of the Hypothesis, more intelligent children, both in the United Kingdom and the United States, grow up to consume alcohol more frequently and in greater quantities than less intelligent children. Controlling for a large number of demographic variables, such as sex, race, ethnicity, religion, marital status, number of children, education, earnings, depression, satisfaction with life, frequency of socialization with friends, number of recent sex partners, childhood social class, mother’s education, and father’s education, more intelligent children grow up to drink more alcohol in the UK and the US.

The following graph shows the association between childhood intelligence (grouped into five “cognitive classes”: “very dull” – IQ < 75; "dull" - 75 < IQ < 90; "normal" - 90 < IQ < 110; "bright" - 110 < IQ < 125; "very bright" - IQ > 125) and the latent factor for the frequency of alcohol consumption. The latter variable is constructed from a large number of indicators for the frequency of alcohol consumption throughout adult life and standardized to have a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1.0. The data come from the National Child Development Study (NCDS) in the United Kingdom. There is a clear monotonic association between childhood intelligence (measured before the age of 16) and the frequency of alcohol consumption in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. “Very bright” British children grow up to consume alcohol nearly one full standard deviation more frequently than their “very dull” classmates.

The following graph shows the association between childhood intelligence and the latent factor for the quantity of adult alcohol consumption decades later among the British NCDS respondents. Once again, there is a clear monotonic association between childhood intelligence and the quantity of adult alcohol consumption. “Very bright” British children grow up to consume nearly eight-tenths of a standard deviation more alcohol than their “very dull” classmates.

The following graph shows the association between childhood intelligence, measured in junior high and high school, and adult alcohol consumption seven years later in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) data in the United States. The association is clear and nearly monotonic. The more intelligent Americans are in their childhood, the more alcohol they consume as young adults.

It is important to note that both income and education, as well as childhood social class and parents’ education, are controlled in multiple regression analyses of these data from the US and the UK. It means that it is not because more intelligent people occupy higher-paying, more important jobs that require them to socialize and drink with their business associates that they drink more alcohol. It appears to be their intelligence itself, rather than correlates of intelligence, that inclines them to drink more.

Indicators of alcohol consumption in the Add Health data include the frequency of binge drinking (drinking five or more units of alcohol in one sitting) and the frequency of getting drunk. That such behavior is detrimental to health and has few, if any, positive consequences, is irrelevant for the Hypothesis. It does not predict that more intelligent individuals are more likely to engage in healthy and beneficial behavior. Instead, it predicts that more intelligent individuals are more likely to engage in evolutionarily novel behavior. Since the consumption of modern alcoholic beverages – including binge drinking and getting drunk – is evolutionarily novel, the Hypothesis would predict that more intelligent individuals are more likely to engage in it, and the empirical data from the UK and the US confirm it.

She was kidding. Al Gore isn’t really Arabic.

Also, drinking is, largely, a social activity. Yes, there are the lonely drunks who drink at home or in solitude at the bar but they are the exception, not the rule. Intelligent people like sharing ideas. Alcohol is a relaxant that makes people more comfortable talking. And a free exchange of ideas is good for all of humanity.

Thus, as noted in the title, you can’t lose with booze.

Margaret – Thank You Very Much from Extensive Music on Vimeo.

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Modern Russia is a country coming to terms with a modern world. Or, more accurately, it has a plethora of citizens who want to know what they need modern stuff for. Much like here they have people who resist change. Any change. They would march against light bulbs if they were presented anew. And, just like here, the dichotomy between what’s coming and what came before grows wider and more ominous. In parts of the US, for example, they are testing driverless cars. Here in Illinois we can’t even make a road stay flat for an entire winter. I can”t wait to see one of those wonder cars hit a Chicago pothole. In Russia the differences are even more stark. While the country is not as religious as America they are rabidly anti-gay. When you ask why you will get the following answer; “Why? Because …. (screw) you!” They are very puritanical, if I may use an Americanism here, but cheered on wildly when Vladimir Putin appointed Maria Kozhevnikova, a former Playboy model with no political experience, to a sensitive ambassadorial post. Since war hasn’t broken out I guess she’s done okay but how would you like to be the country on the receiving end of that gesture? Especially since her claim to fame before getting naked was doing low brow comedy on TV. Doesn’t that just scream respect?

Russians always talk about how their country deserves international respect and then they announce the Krivovo cow dung tossing festival. Now, normally, quaint rural customs can be fun. See the entire life of Route 66 here in the U.S. as example “A”. But if that’s your “go to” event, you’re in trouble.

RiaNovosti, an English language Russian site notes some more fun.

Elsewhere in Russia, the tiny town of Kologriv in Kostroma Region is known for its Goose Day, and select cities across the country hold regular Monstrations, or public rallies marked by absurd slogans such as “In Sex We Trust,” “Do You Know How Squirrels Sound?” and “Eyjafjallajökull for President.”

And, yes, this is the same county where Pussy Riot was jailed for chanting “Punk Prayer – Mother of God, Chase Putin Away!” So that chanting thing still has some bugs to work out.

Russia, pre-freedom (such as it is), used to be known for its art, culture, circuses, vodkas and cutting edge space program. Now? Not so much.

Sure they were a totalitarian regime, but they were a totalitarian regime that offered the world something. And they made great villains in Tom Clancy novels.

Now? I’ll let RiaNovosti tell you what’s new and exciting.

Russia never sanctioned a gay pride rally, but maybe it is because those just are not quirky enough: After all, this is the country that is about to hold a celebration of its flying pests, with an “army of blondes” to support it.

The first Russian Mosquito Festival will take place in Perm Region’s town of Usolye in the Urals on July 19-21, organizers said on their website, Ruskomar.ru.

The program will include a mosquito-catching competition, an enigmatic event titled “The Tastiest Girl,” a children fashion show and contests for the best mosquito-themed song and the tastiest shashlik, or meat grilled on skewers – a prerequisite of Russian outdoor parties.

Alcohol will be banned, but organizers plan to enlist a volunteer “army of blondes” to make the event more entertaining.

In 1998, in an effort to promote family values, Russia lowered the age of consent to 14. There were lots of good reasons that all made sense if you weren’t paying too close attention. In 2003, after a spate of VERY young girls turned up in “naturist” videos designed to entice older men to spend their money at nudist resorts, and that’s the polite stuff that happened, they raised the age back to 16.

Oddly, while the age of consent law protects any one of any gender identity, the same people who wrote it voted 436-0 to outlaw “gay propaganda” or pride rallies.

I noted above that the majority of Russians are not religious. The same can not be said of Russia’s current political elite.

A widespread hostility to homosexuality is shared by much of Russia’s political and religious elite. Lawmakers have accused gays of decreasing Russia’s already low birth rates and said they should be barred from government jobs, undergo forced medical treatment or be exiled.

The State Duma passed another bill on Tuesday that makes offending religious feelings a crime punishable by up to three years in prison. The legislation, which passed 308-2, was introduced last year after three members of the Pussy Riot punk group were convicted of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” for an impromptu anti-Putin protest inside Moscow’s main cathedral and given two-year sentences.

Thank God there will be an army of hot blondes to keep me on the hetero path at the mosquito festival.

One thing that is the same the world over is this; people who are afraid of human sexuality are big fans hyper-violence and female exploitation.

Biting Elbows – ‘Bad Motherfucker’ Official Music Video from Ilya Naishuller on Vimeo.

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