Chemistry Kit Chemophobia - via Chemical & Engineering News - Meet the Chemistry 60: 60 Fun Activities With No Chemicals.  That's right.  It's a chemistry set.  With no chemicals.  The article says it best - "chalk up another victory for mass hysteria".

No Hit Pinatas: The Key to Raising Psycopathic Kids - via thestir.cafemom.com - Ladies and Gentlemen, you are raising a generation of sheltered pussies.  Congratulations.

Teen suspended for outing porn star school secretary - via thestar.com - Other than refuse to take the site down, which the school should have no jurisdiction over anyway, I don't see what the kid did wrong here.

I see this story as proof that all of the "security" at international airports is just for show.  You see, the two guys in this photo are actually the SAME GUY!  An old white guy gets on a plane in Hong Kong, presto-chango, a young asian dude arrives in Vancouver and wants to claim refugee status.  That's a pretty good costume.  Not sure why they decided to do the "black bar over the eyes" thing, but you get the idea.  You can read the whole story over on AOLNews.com

Student, 20, named Mexico police chief - via News.com.au - I hope I'm wrong, but my crystal ball is telling me that this girl is going to wind up getting herself killed.  The idealism of youth is unfortunately not bulletproof.
 
Man facing 10 year prison sentence for downloading Simpsons porn - via Nerve.com - Child pornography is disgusting and those who produce and distribute it deserve every friend they make in the prison showers.  That said, since the Simpsons is a cartoon then no actual children were victimized or abused in the production of the images in question.  I don't understand how this guy could have been prosecuted on child pornography charges, let alone how his lawyer could have allowed him to enter a guilty plea.
 
Woman stabbed classmate in anger management session - via SeattlePI.com - You know you shouldn't laugh, but you also know you want to.  It might be time to fire the person teaching conflict resolution here.
 
Physicists Discover Universal "Wet-Dog Shake" Rule - via TechnologyReview.com - You can sleep a little easier tonight, one of the greatest scientific mysteries has been solved.  According to this article researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a mathematical model to solve for the ideal frequency of oscillation for a wet dog to shake itself dry.  Who funds this shit?

Interview: Trent Reznor discusses The Social Network soundtrack - via DrownedInSound.com - Interviews with Trent Reznor are always interesting.  If you can get past the (very) many spelling and grammar mistakes in the transcript you won't be disappointed with this one.  Among other things, the interview touches on the creative process of scoring the movie, the philosophy behind free (and pirated) music, and my personal favourite, the concept and implementation of Facebook itself.  It's a bit out of context but here's a quote - "I don't think it's actually executed that well.  The layout's kind of foolish and the processing is terrible...he [Zuckerburg] was in the right place, at the right time, with a functional tool."  Hit the link for the whole transcribed interview.

Outrageous School Punishments - 10 Examples of Punishment Gone Too Far - via DegreeScout.com - I've commented here before about disciplinary actions taken by school officials.  Here's a list of 10 that are notable for how far overboard they went.  To reiterate what I've said before - Schools have no business interfering with what their students do outside of class time and off school property.  School officials have no right to physically repremand or punish a child.  Strip searches?  Nope.  Last but not least, this "Zero Tolerance" bullshit has to stop...see number 3 where a six-year old boy was suspended for making a gun shape with his thumb and index finger.

Race China to the Moon, Stop '1000 Pearl Harbors,' Says Controversial Candidate - via Wired.com - Yup, another interview but a completely different topic.  Here a political candidate argues the extremely alarmist idea that China could use Cuba to stage a second "Cuban Missile Crisis" resulting in the "1000 Pearl Harbors" from the title.  He also states that a new moon race is necessary to maintain technological superiority over China.  The bit about "1000 Pearl Harbors" goes too far, but I'm with him on the moon race part.  Diverting the money that would be necessary for such an undertaking into the branches of science involved would be hugely beneficial to everybody.  Think about it - A Second Space Age.  Why does it have to be a "race", though?  The benefits of sharing the research burden with China seems to be a better plan.  Draw your researchers from the best and brightest of a larger candidate pool and split the costs between the two countries.  Even better, let any country that wants to shoulder some of the cost participate.  Science doesn't care about borders.

Voodoo Software Removes Objects From Video In Real Time - via PopSci.com - Take a look at this video.  I'm still skeptical.  If it's real you can never believe anything you see on TV ever again. 

The changes to the video shown wouldn't be that impressive, except this apparently works in real time.  I need to see this for myself. 

Maybe they can use it on the "footage" from the new moon landings...

Just kidding.

What little faith I have left in humanity is waning fast.  The yearly consume-a-thon ominously called "Black Friday" has come and gone, this year with at least one directly related fatality.   A 34 year old worker at a Wal-Mart store in Long Island was trampled to death when the group of shoppers gathered outside burst through the doors as the store opened.  One account I read stated that "A metal portion of the door was crumpled like an accordion." 
Folks, I know times are tough and money is tight but a man was killed so you could save some money on a fucking plasma TV or whatever other bullshit widget you absolutely needed to have.  Words fail to express how profoundly grotesque this behaviour is.
I used to think that the blame rested solely on corporate marketing and the news media for convincing the masses to consume beyond their means.  I used to blame television networks for running ads trying to whip consumers into such a frenzy in the days leading up to the sales.  Now I'm not so sure.  Yes, the Media is partially to blame for this situation but I've begun to think that there is a fundamental problem with peoples morality and system of values.  I recognize that everybody loves getting a good deal on something, and paying the least amount of money possible is fiscally responsible behaviour especially given the present economic climate.  The problem is the lengths people are willing to go to in order to get said bargain.  Common sense would dictate that the line be drawn far before killing a person.
Obviously no one intended to kill this man; it was an accident.  The problem now is to get people to learn from this tragedy and think about their actions.  Mob mentality is a dangerous phenomenon capable of making otherwise intelligent people do very stupid things.  People need to recognize this and not go all bat-shit insane every time there's a big sale on at the local Sprawl-Mart.

I recently saw an article on time.com asking a question that struck me as somewhat bizarre; "Is Cheaper Oil A Good Thing?" "Cheaper Oil"? Cheaper how? Define your terms. Sure, a litre (welcome to Canada) of gas costs less than it did last week, but does John Q actually perceive this slight drop in price as "cheap"? Apparently so. The opiated public has become so conditioned to rapid, seemingly arbitrary fluctuations in prices at the pump that they lose sight of the fact that it's been two-steps-forward-one-step-back for a very long time now.

I took this picture in June of 2003. I found the numerological irony in the price that day amusing because at the time $0.666 per litre was high. It would be about two years later that gas stations would start changing out their signs to be able to display an extra digit and shift the decimal point to the left, forshadowing the price increase above $1.00 per litre.
So the price has more than doubled in less than five years. So what? Well, how many people do you know whose income matches that increase? I'll assume "not many" and continue.