Category: In the News

How was the end of the world for you?

Did you know the world ended last Saturday?  I heard it was guaranteed.  Apparently God didn’t get the memo.

So basically there’s a “preacher” named Harold Camping who uses mathematical calculations supposedly based on the Bible to figure out when the Rapture and Apocalypse will happen.  He figured it would be May 21, 2011.  He’s not just your average garden-variety fruitcake, though.  He is rumored to have spent about $100 million advertising his “prophecy”.  He promoted it on 55 radio stations and 2000 billboards, plus all the free news coverage he got for it.

As you might have noticed, there was a lack of end-of-the-world events last weekend.  Seemed quite normal to me.  I thought maybe I just slept through it, but it seems like it would’ve been on the news had something of such epic proportions actually happened.  So it’s probably safe to say this guy was wrong.

In this day of extended news coverage, of course reporters asked this guy what happened.  How do you think he responded?

A) Admitted his mistake and apologized.
B) Said it was (another) miscalculation.
C) Blame it on Global Warming or Bush.
D) Pretend he was still right.

Well, A would’ve been the ideal thing to do, but that didn’t happen.  B is what he’s done before.  C is what some people do on all kinds of topics, whether it applies or not.  D is the craziest option, though that’s exactly what he did.  Camping said his dates were correct, that it was “an invisible judgment day” and the final judgment and destruction will happen on October 21, 2011.  He also said we cannot understand the Bible, which I thought was really ironic because he claims to be basing his “prophecies” on the Bible.  (Never mind that his prediction is unscriptural; he must have missed that verse.)

I heard of a humorous tweet about the whole thing:

If this Rapture doesn’t get started soon, my rental Ferrari demolition derby last night wasn’t as fun as I thought. ~ David Burge, 5/21/11

My favorite response so far to all the hullabaloo is this billboard that someone made after the doomsday prediction was proven false.  This is awesome.

Well played…

you’re no better than rocks

What would happen if “Mother Nature” had the same rights as humans?  There are some people trying to find out.  Van Jones, former “green job czar” of President Obama, is working with various obscure groups to give plants, trees, rocks, and such the same legal rights as humans.  Van Jones is also associated with a thinktank supported by George Soros, if that means anything to you.

Supposedly Bolivia has already given the rights of nature equal status with human rights in its legal system.  The President of Bolivia has often said “the central enemy of Mother Earth is capitalism.”  That sure makes this sound political…

Some constitutional amendments being pushed for are provisions that “Nature has a right to be completely restored”.  So does that mean any building can be torn down if nature was destroyed to build it?  Wouldn’t that include everything man-made?  If you take the concept far enough, the Earth was 100% nature before we built anything.

But even ignoring the worst-case scenario with that, it would mean that you could be sued for kicking a rock, or stepping on grass, or using firewood in your fireplace.  I know, it sounds silly.  But try to convince me there aren’t people stupid and greedy enough to do it…

Why can’t we all just get along?  I don’t have any beef with plants.  I’m even okay with eating less plants (except potatoes).

I wonder what vegetarians / vegans think about this legislation?  Some of them get mad at people eating animals, but what if people get mad at them eating plants?  This could get interesting…

Where is the common sense in all this?  Be responsible with the environment, but don’t give sticks and rocks the same rights as humans.  Is it really so difficult?  Sometimes I wonder what this world is coming to…

the Royal Wedding needed more bacon

I’ve tried my best to not hear about the whole Royal Wedding celebrity real-life soap opera.  I really do not care, and I figure many of my regular readers don’t either.  I wasn’t planning to write anything about it, even if it might bring in more traffic.  (I’m not selling-out, if you’re wondering.)  But I did happen across an angle to the story that includes bacon, which does interest my readers.  Curious?  Read on.

Pippa Middleton, sister of Princess Kate Middleton, has created controversy by wanting to change the royal wedding reception traditions.  They normally serve champagne and some dish that I don’t know how to spell, but she wants to have a disco ball and serve bacon sandwiches.  She is a part-time party planner, so she does have some experience.  Plus, how can you go wrong with bacon sandwiches?  (I should’ve had those at my wedding!*)  I don’t know if she was successful on her quest — I’d guess not, since they probably serve only fancy food with foreign names.  I’m sure I could find it online, but again, I don’t care enough to look.  What they ate is their business, though it could’ve been even better with bacon.

* So why did I not have a buffet of bacon at my wedding?  It would’ve been one of the best wedding receptions ever!  (If you’re married you may already know the answer.)  Well, it wasn’t my day, and I didn’t plan that stuff, nor would it have been “appropriate” — there’s something about traditions and what’s normal.  I don’t know about all that stuff… Being the guy, I just put on a tux and showed up.  It is her day, after all.  I have lots of ideas to make a wedding ceremony and reception much more awesome, but they’re not “storybook” type things.  They would be worth writing a story about, perhaps, but they didn’t fit into my wife’s storybook.  I let her have her day.  It’s one of those compromises you make in a relationship.  Since, I’ve hosted numerous “Buffet o’ Bacon” outings, and there are more to come.  (They are all documented on this blog, if you want to search for them.)  My wife had her day, so I’m having mine.  And to be “fair”, I figure I can have a few hundred of my outings before I catch up with the cost of her very special day.  🙂

pro golfing gone wrong

I don’t know much about golf, except that you hit the ball into the hole in as few shots as possible.  I am somewhat familiar with the scoring, from video games.  I do know that taking 16 shots on a par 4 is extremely bad for a pro.  (FYI, par is what’s normal/expected.)

Last week a pro golfer named Kevin Na shot a 16 on the ninth hole in the Texas Open, for the second-worst score on a single hole in PGA Tour history.  This is what you would call a debacle.  This video is a summary of it from SportsCenter on ESPN.

Is it bad when your caddy lost count of your score?  And then during the shot summary your caddy says, “You whiffed at 8.”  I understand amateurs swinging and missing, but it’s got to be rare for pros to whiff.

If you want to see how Kevin Na dealt with it between shots, here’s the full telecast of just that one hole.

It’s funny that at 0:47 in the video he says, “What are the chances of me getting out of here?”  He’s likely talking about hitting the ball out of the extreme rough / deep woods.  You don’t want to hear that.  But in the back of his mind he might be wishing for an escape tunnel, so he can get out of there before this makes all the sports highlights for the wrong reasons.  (This did make #1 on ESPN’s “not top ten” plays for the week.)

John Daly holds the record for the highest score on a single hole at a PGA Tour event, with 18.  That was a par 5.  I heard he hit several in the water.  I wouldn’t mind seeing a video clip of that one, but a quick glance online didn’t find it.

I’ve heard there’s a 5 minute limit to find your ball or you’re penalized.  It would’ve been better for Kevin Na if he had never found his ball…

On a related note, a while back we had a caption contest about golf featuring an animal hazard by the green.