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"It's too bad stupidity isn't painful."
Volume 15, Number 7, February 14, 2010
Greetings, and thanks for joining me for another week. Starting us off are a few news stories you may have missed. First,a moment of silence if you would. Walter Morrison, the 90-year-old man who invented the Pluto Platter, has passed on. Actually, Morrison sold the production and manufacturing rights to his "Pluto Platter" in 1957. The plastic flying disc was later renamed the "Frisbee," with sales passing 200 million discs. It is now a staple at beaches and college campuses across the country and spawned sports like Frisbee golf and the team sport Ultimate. An official disc golf course at Creekside Park in the Salt Lake City suburb of Holladay is actually named for Morrison.
Next, another moment of silence, please (or keep the last one going). Millions of young girls used one to bake their first cookies, cupcakes and brownies because of Ronald Howes Sr., the inventor of the Easy-Bake Oven. As director of research and new product development for Cincinnati-based Kenner Toys in the early 1960s, Mr. Howes created what would become a household name and one of America's most iconic toys by drawing inspiration from a Kenner salesman who had just made a trip to New York City. Upon returning, the salesman wondered aloud whether Kenner could develop a toy version of the chestnut roasters seen on many New York City street corners. With that remark, the proverbial light bulb clicked on over Mr. Howes' head. "He started thinking about…how to create a safe version of that for kids," recalled Nancy Howes, his wife of 47 years. Much of his experimentation was conducted in the Howes' own kitchen before he finally settled on the concept that made the idea both safe and practical by deciding to use a light bulb to heat the oven. And the rest is toy industry history. (news.cincinnati.com)
Finally, Stupid Bank Robbers – A man, wanting to rob a Bank of America, walked into the branch and wrote, "This iz a stikkup. Put all your muny in this bag." While standing in line, he worried that someone had seen him write the note and might call the police before he reached the teller, so he left the Bank of America and crossed the street to Wells Fargo. After a few minutes in line, he handed his note to the Wells Fargo teller. She read it and, guessing from his spelling that he was not the sharpest knife in the drawer, told him that she could not accept his stick up note because it was written on a Bank of America deposit slip and that he would either have to fill out a Wells Fargo deposit slip or go back to Bank of America. The man said "OK" and left. The Wells Fargo teller then called the police who arrested the man a few minutes later, as he was back waiting in line back at Bank of America. (buzzle.com)
This next Bit is DISTURBING and UNBELIEVABLE!!!! Parents in Pennsylvania have accused a school of spying on children by remotely activating webcams on laptops. A couple from Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit against a school district which gave laptops to its 1,800 high school pupils. They say their son was later told off in school by teachers for "engaging in improper behavior in his home" and that the evidence was an image from his webcam at home. Lower Merion School District says the security feature was only used to track lost, stolen and missing laptops. The district said it was deactivated and would not be re-instated without informing students and families. I’d really believe that!!! (BBC) The school has since denied blah, blah, blah….
Saying that body scanners violate Islamic law, Muslim-American groups are supporting a “fatwa” – a religious ruling – that forbids Muslims from going through the scanners at airports. The Fiqh Council of North America – a body of Islamic scholars that includes some from Michigan – issued a fatwa this week that says going through the airport scanners would violate Islamic rules on modesty. “It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women,” reads the fatwa. “Islam highly emphasizes haya (modesty) and considers it part of faith. The Quran has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts.” The decision could complicate efforts to intensify screening of potential terrorists who are Muslim. After the Christmas Day bombing attempt in Detroit by a Muslim suspect from Nigeria, some have called for the use of body scanners at airports to find explosives and other dangerous materials carried by terrorists. Some airports are now in the process of buying and using the body scanners, which show in graphic detail the outlines of a person’s body. But Muslim groups say the scanners go against their religion. One option offered to passengers who don’t want to use the scanners would be a pat down by a security guard. The Muslim groups are urging members to undergo those instead. (www.spokesman.com) (Speaking of fatwahs, CBSNews.com mentioned another: Indonesia's leading clerics are considering a religious edict against riding a motorbike without a crash helmet to promote safety on the chaotic and deadly roads of the world's most populous Muslim country. Such a fatwa would not carry a penalty for those who ignore it, but advocates said Sunday making road safety a moral issue could be more effective than the law.)
Thought of the Day from Thought of the Day: "There is something even more valuable to civilization than wisdom, and that is character." H.L. Mencken.
Mostly real headlines (one is phony – guess which – answer below): (1) “Lunch Lady, Fifth-Grader Food Fight Ends In Punches, Criminal Charges.” (2) “In Focus: Antique Dealer Sick Of Appraising Smurf Collections.” (3) “Sports Illustrated models baffled by swimwear” (4) “Indiana College Lifts 116-Year Ban on National Anthem.” (5) “Out the Back Door Dalai; don’t slip on the garbage…” (6) “Forbes Lists 'Most Miserable' US Cities.” (7) Village secrets: 100,000 condoms at games... (8) Kristie Moore, Pregnant Olympian! Plus Six MORE Athletes To Play Pregnant (PHOTOS). (9) “Cat food latest weapon against Australia's cane toads.” (10) “Caddie to protect Woods from hecklers on return.”
Something to Ponder: "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within." Will Durant. As long as you are pondering, a few more great quotes exported from the frozen north (Trois-Rivières, Quebec – merci, mon ami!): (1) "Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever." Napoleon Bonaparte. (2) "Old age is like flying a plane through a storm. Once you're aboard, there's nothing you can do." Golda Meir. (3) "Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” Warren Buffet.
GMA Weekend passes along the following valuable information: “If we've learned anything this winter, it's that touch-screen phones are impossible to operate while wearing gloves. And you can't use a stylus writing utensil because the screen doesn't recognize metal or plastic. Thankfully, South Korean iPhone users came up with a solution ... using sausages! Because they're electrostatically compatible, you can tap away with your "meat stylus" while your hands stay toasty. Best part? After hitting send, you can enjoy a delicious snack!” (Must be fun cleaning the screen…. Maybe a good lick or two?)
The NYT carried a story about the legal system that raised even my eyebrows: “Some of the courtrooms are not even courtrooms: tiny offices or basement rooms without a judge’s bench or jury box. Sometimes the public is not admitted, witnesses are not sworn to tell the truth, and there is no word-for-word record of the proceedings. Nearly three-quarters of the judges are not lawyers, and many — truck drivers, sewer workers or laborers — have scant grasp of the most basic legal principles. Some never got through high school, and at least one went no further than grade school. But serious things happen in these little rooms all over New York State. People have been sent to jail without a guilty plea or a trial or tossed from their homes without a proper proceeding. In violation of the law, defendants have been refused lawyers, or sentenced to weeks in jail because they cannot pay a fine. Frightened women have been denied protection from abuse. These are New York’s town and village courts, or justice courts, as the 1,250 of them are widely known. In the public imagination, they are quaint holdovers from a bygone era, handling nothing weightier than traffic tickets and small claims. They get a roll of the eyes from lawyers who amuse one another with tales of incompetent small-town justices. A woman in Malone, N.Y., was not amused. A mother of four, she went to court in that North Country village seeking an order of protection against her husband, who the police said had choked her, kicked her in the stomach and threatened to kill her. The justice, Donald R. Roberts, a former state trooper with a high school diploma, not only refused, according to state officials, but later told the court clerk, ‘Every woman needs a good pounding every now and then.” The whole story can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/nyregion/25courts.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
(The fake headline is #2.)
Later.
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