He might not be the beneficial addition to a home, but Larry the Robot was designed to do one thing really well: vomit. Larry is designed to keep vomiting until we learn how to deal with norovirus, the illness causing diarrhea and vomiting. (I shudder to think of an additional robot to address the the former symptom).
There is an interesting case out of Reykjavik, Iceland where a 15-year-old girl is suing Iceland for the right to legally use the name that her mother gave her and the name that she prefers. While most Americans would be outraged, Iceland is one of the countries that requires all names of children to come from an approved government list. Since Blaer (Icelandic for “light breeze” is not on the approved list) she cannot go by the name given to her.
Continue reading “Icelandic Teenager Sues For Right To Use Name Given To Her By Mother”
There are two interesting scientific and historical discoveries this week. Researchers have identified remains from both French King Louis XVI and Henry IV. The discoveries began with a handkerchief found in a gourd found in Italy . . .
Continue reading “Researchers Identify The Remains Of Two Luckless French Kings”
We have previously seen absurd examples of disciplinary actions taken under zero tolerance rules for drugs and guns (here andhere and here). This includes cases involving kids using finger guns (here). Now Roscoe R. Nix Elementary School in Montgomery County has joined these ranks by suspending a six-year-old boy for making a finger gun with his hand and saying “Pow.”
Continue reading “Terror Tots III: Maryland Student Suspended For Use Of Finger Gun”
It appears that not all apples are alike when it comes to food stamps. Tracy Browning, 38, of Louisville has been arrested for trying to buy several iPads with food stamps. After she was turned away by the Apple store and fled, she then tried to make the same purchase at a second Apple store.
We have another lap dance accident (here and here and here). The latest injured party however is the stripper herself. Lauren Block was giving a lap dance on the second floor of Christie’s Caberet in The Flats in Cleveland when she reportedly tried to do a flip on the customer’s lap. It took her over the balcony and she landed on the first floor on her head.
John Cusack and I had a dialogue last year about civil liberties and other issues. John has now run a second interview (actually half of a second interview) on Huffington Post. This interview focuses on the case of Julian Assange.
Continue reading “What Is An Assange? My Interview With John Cusack”
You will never see this on the Nature Channel. It is time to tell the truth about bears.
Continue reading “New Video Reveals Truth About Bears In The Wild”
We have been following cases where sperm donors have been held for child support or alternatively sought parental rights. The latest such case is out of Kansas where the state is pursuing a sperm donor for child support. William Marotta responded to an advertisement by a lesbian couple to donate sperm, but, after the couple split up, the state insisted on being given his name as the father and pursued him for monthly support payments.
Continue reading “Kansas Demands Child Support Payments From Sperm Donor”
Muhammad al-Arifi, a Wahhabi religious cleric, is being widely quoted on web sites like Salon as issuing a fatwa that allowed jihadists in Syria fighting the government to enter into “intercourse marriage” that has been taken as authorizing the rape of Syrian women. Al-Arifi is quoted as expressing concern that Saudis fighting with the opposition have not been with a woman in two years and must be allowed to take care of their “sexual problems.” [One supporter has insisted the fatwa was not issued].
Continue reading “Saudi Imam Reportedly Issues Fatwa Allowing Jihadists To Rape Women In Syria”
We have often discussed the continuing crackdown on student free speech in high schools. The latest such case involves Courtni Webb, a seventeen-year-old student at California’s Life Learning Academy who was suspended for writing in a poem in a personal notebook that she “understand[s] the killings in Connecticut.”
New Year’s Eve I wrote about my shock in watching the crude and often unhinged conduct of Kathy Griffin on CNN with Anderson Cooper. We switched over to the networks due to her bizarre behavior, but it appears it got worse as the night went on. Griffin followed her juvenile antics with a simulation of giving Anderson Cooper oral sex on national television. CNN’s response to this controversy is rather muted. While a “wardrobe malfunction” in the Superbowl merited weeks of discussion, simulated oral sex on a host appears to merit a return for Griffin to CNN the next day to joke around with Cooper about their wild time in Time Square.
Happy New Year’s Eve to all of our blog family. We will be spending New Year’s Eve at home this year — preparing for our annual New Year’s party on January 1st. I will be toasting to everyone on our extended blog family.
We have had a great year on the blog and passed the 14 million view mark as well as the 10,000th blog and 300,000 comment. We continue to experience remarkable growth both domestically and internationally. That success is due entirely to our growing ranks of regular bloggers and commentators, including but not limited to our weekend guest bloggers David Drumm, Mark Esposito, Gene Howington, Michael Spindell, Eliane Magliaro, Mike Appleton, and Larry Rafferty.
The Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) has filed a lawsuit with the Internal Revenue Service that raises an interesting question. The group challenges the government’s different treatment of religious and non-religious non-for-profit organizations. While tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations must file a detailed application form, fee and annual information to obtain and maintain their tax-exempt status, churches and other religious organizations are exempted from the requirement to file the reports and fees. The lawsuit alleges that the added expensive and detailed paperwork is a form of discrimination against non-religious groups.
Continue reading “Group Challenges Different Treatment By IRS of Religious and Non-Religious Groups”