Tag: news

some people lack common sense

Sometimes you have to wonder about the intelligence of some people.  In the news recently, a man in Zimbabwe stole a bus to go pick up his driving license.  He admitted this in court.  You would think that at some point while devising this plan that common sense would kick in and say, “This might not be a good idea.”

Here in the U.S., a guy in Texas called a guy in the Navy a nerd over the Internet, so the Navy guy looked up his name and drove to Texas to get him.  He took pictures of himself at every state border from Virginia to Texas and posted them online, to show how serious he was.  When he got there, he burned down the man’s trailer.  He drove 1300 miles to do this, over being called a “nerd”.  Granted, there was some more teasing done online, but the “nerd” comment was what pushed him over the edge.  This guy is 27 years old, yet he still did something so stupid.  (Can you say “insecure” and “emotionally unstable”?)

As part of a radio contest, an Ohio State man stripped down to his underwear and jumped in a pool of manure.  The prize?  Free Ohio State football tickets.  I realize everyone likes winning contests and prizes, but in this case I think it would’ve been better to just buy the tickets.

Can you believe it?

people who eat massive amounts of food at one sitting

I saw a news article where someone called “Eater X” ate 12 pounds of burritos in 12 minutes.  After his victory, he said, “I love Mexican food.”  Obviously!  He was competing for $3,000 in prize money.  He said he prepared for the contest by eating candy the previous day.

That news led me to the Major League Eating website, where I saw a profile for someone who is amazing when it comes to eating, who demolished the hot dog eating record.

Many consider Takeru Kobayashi the most dominant living athlete.  His feat on July 4th, 2001, of downing 50 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes doubled the previous record and left entire continents agape with disbelief.  Since that fateful day, his gurgitating prowess has gone almost uncontested and his feats have left people shaking their heads.  In a televised Japanese contest known as “Weight Crash”, Kobayashi once gained a staggering 27 pounds in 45 minutes.

I wouldn’t consider him the most dominant living athlete — especially after eating like that! — but I must admit that is impressive.  I’ve been at a party where some friends had a hot dog eating contest, and I think the winner got to about 8.  (I didn’t participate; if only it had been back in my high school days when I still had a metabolism…)

Imagine how big 50 hot dogs with buns would be in a pile — it would be several feet high!  Then imagine someone eating all those!  That is a LOT of bread to consume at once.  I don’t see how someone can do that… it’s like eating is his super power…

Stephen Colbert is now a presidential candidate

We now have a new presidential candidate in the race : Stephen Colbert.  This week he announced it on his show, The Colbert Report, and on Larry King Live.  Here’s how he declared it :

“After nearly 15 minutes of soul-searching, I have heard the call. … I am hereby declaring that I will enter the presidential primary in my native South Carolina, running as a favorite son.”

He’s going to run as both a Republican and a Democrat, to let the people decide which party he belongs in.  (So I reckon he’s an Independent.)  While his views on the major issues may not yet be clear (not that they are for all candidates anyway), at least he’s really funny and says some things that real candidates are scared to say.

I’m curious about how many votes he will get in the South Carolina primary…

You can see some video of when he was interviewed by Larry King at this link : Colbert announces bid for the White House.

Are greenhouse gas emissions beyond “worst-case” scenario?

In the news today, one of Australia’s leading climate change experts said global greenhouse gas emissions are already beyond the “worst-case” scenario.  He’s referring to a scenario defined by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) back in 2001.  For one thing, I thought they just met again this year in some big conference to discuss global warming and all that stuff, so why haven’t they updated their models with current data?  And another thing, the weather here seems mostly normal, so their “worst-case” scenario wasn’t well thought out, in my opinion.  Go outside and observe your weather, then consider if it’s anything near “worst-case”.  It’s not here.  If it is elsewhere, maybe more folks ought to move to Arkansas, because we’re having good weather right now.  (Just don’t bring your greenhouse gas emissions here!)

In fact, I was standing outside after lunch today, talking to some friends and enjoying the good weather.  I had no idea we were in the “worst-case” scenario!  Perhaps I should join the IPCC and explain what “worst-case” really means.  Have these people never seen the movie The Day After Tomorrow?  I’m thinking that would be worst-case.  Or, if you want to be really pessimistic, worst-case would be the Earth becoming uninhabitable.

Now, I realize I’m no important scientist, and sometimes we should leave stuff up to the “experts”, but I think they really dropped the ball on this one.  Are they just trying to scare us with these climate forecasting models and subsequent news releases?  It sure doesn’t sound like they’re downplaying it, because it’s all over the news, but today’s news release really has me befuddled.  It looks like they’re crying “wolf”.  And anybody who knows their children’s stories should realize that’s a bad strategy.  If we’re now beyond the worst-case scenario, it doesn’t seem so bad.  So is all their ballyhooing for naught?  I don’t know. I think we do need to reduce pollution and quit burning so many fossil fuels, but I don’t see how we’ve went beyond the “worst-case” scenario…

If their worst-case model shows some drastic changes over the next few years, like billions of people dying, then they should let us know.  But the news release said nothing about such things.  Perhaps they just don’t really know what they’re talking about…