Baby Chickens

If current events are stressing you out, this magical video from Grillmaster33 will make you feel better. I know it worked for me, I've watched it twice this week:



Like Grillmaster33 says, I recommend this video to "anybody...no, everybody! Cause it was that amazing. Unless you're like, the proud parent of like, a human baby."

:)

Sued Over a Tweet

Last month I wrote about someone who lost their job due to poor use of GPS. Now, a woman is being sued over her tweet, which criticized Horizon and the mold in her apartment. The offensive part of the tweet read as follows; "Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon really thinks it's ok."

This is the first lawsuit based solely on a tweet. A lot of people consider Twitter more of a public forum then a publishing method, and public chatter is usually not grounds for defamation lawsuits. But Twitter is still a developing service, and a lot of Tweeters are still not sure what it is. Because it's multifunctional, and so easy to use, it has continued to be loosely defined since it's creation. But in this age of lawsuits, Twitter may end up being defined by an outside source.

Japanese Career Opportunity

The NYTimes just published an article on the glamorous life of hostesses in Japan. In this career, women can "earn money just by drinking with men" and make anywhere from $100,000 a year to $300,000. A hostess would work at a Gentleman's club, where her main responsibilities are pouring drinks, offering attentive conversation, looking elegant in an evening gown, and flirting in a nonsexual manner. Hostesses at each club are ranked according to popularity, and the top hostess at each location is awarded star status. But, it's not all glory. The main risk is "exhaustion from a life of partying."

So, on one hand we have an easy and fun way to strike it rich, open to any attractive young woman in Japan. On the other, we have a society where a woman's attention has now become a publicly accepted commodity.

Sarah Palin, Saving Alaska Money

Sarah Palin has already stated that she would hate to watch "valuable state time and money, millions of your dollars, go down the drain." (Resignation Speech, 1:22) So it only makes sense that she chose to pay her legal fees with private support through the Alaska Fund Trust. Alaska is actually lucky that Palin established this trust as the state legal defense fund. With all the ethical complaints filed against her, it would cost Alaska a lot of money to pay Palin's legal fees on their own. The thrifty governor states that despite her best efforts, she still owes more than $500,000 from all those peksy ethical grievances. And now, the State Personnel Board wants to slap another ethics charge against the governor for trying to save the state money!

Gosh, Alaska sounds like a pretty mean state to work for. No wonder Sarah Palin decided to resign.

United States of China

Apparently, it's not enough for China to own American companies like Hummer, or all the world's natural resources. Now China wants to own the American media too. Yes, China has begun buying and promoting English media to be published in our lovely USA.

Why would they do such a thing, you ask? Well, China already controls it's own media to the letter. And with all the US Treasury bonds they've been buying up, we might as well be called the United States of China. In our time of economic troubles, we are a great market for cheap Chinese products. So what if Chinese drywall releases sulfuric acid, or their toys are coated in lead paint? If these facts are hard to discover, all most Americans will see is a much lower price tag on Chinese goods.

Does this all seem a little farfetched? I too, had no idea China was investing in Western media, until I was reading the Onion today and noticed that every article had a decidedly foreign slant. Of course it's all a big joke to them, but when I start finding out about global events from a satirical paper, I have to wonder what the rest of the media is really focusing on.

German Internet Safe from Child Porn

Germany has successfully censored its internet~! The German Bundestag law passed on July 10th, intended to block child pornography, but politicians are already considering expanding it to include hate sites and violent video games. Internet Service providers in the country are now preparing to "create filters based on a secret list that is provided by the German Federal Criminal Office."

When a German tries to access one of these blocked sites, they will instead see only a STOP sign on the screen.

Glückwünsche, Germany. You could have fought child porn at the source, but this law quickly and totally protects your entire public from seeing offensive content instead. After all, who cares if people are really making child porn, so long as you don't have to look at it? Furthermore, Germany has now joined the other fine countries who censor their internet; including China, Iran and North Korea.

Shrinking Sheep

Climate change is now causing sheep to shrink, say scientists in Scotland. With shorter winters and more grass available in cold months, the winter isn't killing off small animals as fast as it used to.

The article doesn't say if shrinking sheep are a bad or good thing. But it does say it's possible that, "in 100 years, we will have chihuahuas herding pocket-sized sheep." And you know what that sounds like to me?

AWESOME.