The videos are, fortunately, complete fiction.
Thanks (sort of) to Out of the Ether for this one. It’s a blonde with a chess set.
Marshie, spokesman for Fluffy Puff Marshmallows.
Why not to scuba dive alone. The girl adjusting her bathing suit while “struggling” to get back to the surface kills what little realism existed in the first place.
Consider whatever gender you’re attracted to. These are things off the top of my head that are instant turn-offs. What about you?
(BTW, I still have to respond to the most recent set of comments. Unlike this post, my responses will actually require time and effort.)
The commenteers reacting to this story favor sniping terms, ie, stereotypical shots at “the other side” which add nothing but grief and eyerolling to the debate. (Some of these guys have to be trolls, right?)
Examples:
“left wing coward”
“Patreaus [sic] and GWB are the only one who thinks Iraq is funny.”
“RIGHT WING HATE MONGERING WAR MONGERS OF THE BUSH / RUSH EXTREMISTS”
“Simpering, bony, pasty, apologetic, white-flag waving, appeasers, who fight battles using opinion polls.”
Generally, it makes me want to give them a (metaphorical) punch in the face. Or maybe write them an e-mail asking if they want to get surgery for an independent thought implant.
The plus side is that I get to feel superior because I don’t stoop to their level. Sometimes..
Last night, after picking up the rental car, I drive to the Dallas tollway to get to my friend’s place. The entry sign clearly said “Change Made”, so there shouldn’t have been a problem with me having naught but a $10 bill.
The sign should have said “Change Made only if you have a $1 or $5 bill”. Instead of an actual person manning the booth, there was a change machine that worked for $1 or $5 only. Seeing the cars pile up behind me, I desperately slipped in the $10, but no dice. Panicked thrashing through luggage wasn’t any help either. Left with no choice, I meekly crawled through the booth, well aware of the behemoth camera recording the scene of rental car’s license plate in conjunction with a red light indicating an unpaid toll.
The next booth actually did have a person; with relief, I got change and asked for the NTTA’s number (North Texas Tollway Authority).
Cool! The NTTA’s homepage already has a picture of me running the red light.
This morning I tried to call them to do a little preemptive action. After jumping through several voice menus, I managed to get to where a violation number had to be entered to go any further.
Not having one (yet), I attempted to call them a second time. After pressing “1″ for English, the system started spewing the second voice menu. Apparently, a defeated sigh is a valid option, because that took me to the Tolltag customer menu.
Time for attempt #3. I hate this.
(UPDATE: Spoke with a representative who said if it was only that one time when that happened, there won’t be any problems. NTTA is now off my archenemies list, bringing the total to zero.)
Australia’s gravediggers give thanks Manuel Uribe is Mexican: Obese corpses are straining Australia’s mortuaries and creating safety hazards. Terms from the article include “major logistical problems”, “significant occupational health and safety issues”, and “more robust equipment”.
Survival of the fittest: according to this study, bosses who crush their fellow humans’ souls have a good chance of getting promoted.
Then again, why the mushroom is an online poll of 240 people making news? Online polls are well known to have potentially horrible samples, and people will more likely answer yes when they don’t like their boss or job, even when their boss is not particularly cruel.
They consider it permissible: The Taliban are still planning on kidnapping civilians. It’s almost as if they have nothing to lose or something. Amnesty International, please remember this next time you negotiate with an extremist jihadist organization: they don’t care if their actions are considered war crimes.
Big money: Between movies like the Transformers, the Simpon, and the Bourne Ultimatum, there hasn’t been much talk this summer about the alleged demise of the theatre. Theatres have really big screens that can’t be duplicated at home, and plenty of people will still want to go.
Courage. It might defined as the ability to do what most people would be too scared to try. Firefighters, soldiers, and policemen* are common archetypes. But it could be as simple as a kid telling his parents the truth about something naughty he did. Or an office worker bucking the crowd to explain why project Q will be a failure, thus requiring a change of course.
In contrast, any courage I demonstrate is a complete accident due to ignorance of why the action required bravery.
So the Liquid Egg Product tends to salute–and be envious–of anyone demonstrating a modicum of courage. Enter Scott Olsen, a pitcher for our popular local baseball team, the Florida Marlins. (The number of fans at any given game can approach five digits). On Saturday, he certainly did have the ability to try what most people wouldn’t:
He also now knows what it feels like to be tasered. Assuming he wasn’t too drunk to forget.
Insight into ancient warfare: Why javelineers were more useful than long jumpers.
100 feet from disaster: Two planes almost collided yesterday at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport.
It didn’t fit in the trunk: A wrecking ball snaps loose from a crane, smashing cars and injuring people. Zero deaths.
Perhaps Overly Worried Father: Definitely. (See the last letter)
Over the past few decades, China has gone through a lot of changes. The economy’s freer, they’ve got nukes, and people are liking their cars. And they still execute people.
Now they’re starting to emulate the USA in other ways: bad lawsuits.
A Chinese smoker has sued a tobacco company for giving him yellow teeth. Liu Shengjiang, the law professor suing, argues “The producer only said ’smoking is harmful’ on its package, but we consumers don’t know what harm it will cause us.” He also managed to dragoon some students at his university to help him create legal cases (probably for extra credit on their next exam).
It’s very interesting that Mr. Liu was willing to smoke the cigarettes knowing they’d cause harm without trying to find out how they’re harmful. Or maybe Nanjing brand cigarettes are just that good.
Everyone prefers to eat fresh food, and most people need some sort of assurance that their food isn’t rotten before they’ll eat it. (My personal threshhold is making sure it’s mostly mold- and maggot-free.)
A Taiwanese chef is “under fire” for going the extra mile to demonstrate he uses only the freshest ingredients. The chef served a delicacy known as “yin yang fish”: a deep-fried fish that’s served with its head still twitching.
Deep frying conscious animals…yeah, that’s no good. Definitely smacks of a lack of compassion. Restaurants and chefs should be zealous to demonstrate the quality of their food, but they don’t need to serve their food with an extra dash of torture. As long as they can honestly say they don’t purchase their seafood from a roadside vendor, they’re probably on the right track.
The site was down earlier today, due to some database issues. Apparently, they had to do some sort of roll back, because all the stuff from earlier today is gone. Grrrr.
Yes, this is the second time it’s happened in two days. Time to place a call…
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