Hot Accessory for 14-year-olds: A Real Baby!

"When my friends see my bump they say they wish they could have a baby, then three weeks later they're pregnant and don't know what to do.

"Teenage girls think babies are cute, but they forget the physical side of being pregnant, then having to give up your own childhood to look after a baby.

"It seems to be fashionable to get pregnant."

Family campaigners said her comments showed how the Government's sex education policy had left teens with the "ridiculous but extremely worrying" misconception that having a child was no different to getting a new handbag.

The father of the pregnant British 14-year-old quoted above blamed the rise in underage pregnancies on "gang culture", media influence, parents, schools and the local authority, concluding that "it's a social problem". The mother blamed her daughter for the situation.

It seems to me that we should spend less time teaching children to "be true to themselves" and more time teaching kids the difference between right and wrong, healthy and unhealthy, and smart decisions and stupid ones.

click above for the full story...

Little Dancer Boy

This one is for the Official Sister of the Brink, a player of Dance Dance Revolution and a pincher of the cheeks of five-year-olds.

Texas GOP Seeks National Voice

This one goes out to official Friend of the Brink Tom, as pertaining to our conversation about party politics and the fact that it has no direct connection with actual legislative action.

The article describes a new event to be held this summer and open to past participants in Republican State Conventions. These former delegates will gather, listen to GOP presidential candidates, and then vote on them in a completely meaningless election--except to the candidates, who will surely trumpet a positive finish in the "straw poll" to residents and media on other states to bolster their campaigns. It is an attempt by the Texas Republican Party to influence a national election.

Like the conventions themselves there is no legislative significance to this event, but there will be plenty of political significance if it leads to a change in the national perceptions of candidates jockeying for the highest office in the land.

click the headline above for the article...

Bible, Meet Web

Speaking of the Bible, here's a cool, free site that has the whole thing--readable, searchable, and in several versions. So the next time you need to know if a phrase like "Spare the rod, spoil the child" is from the Bible you know where to turn. (It isn't.)

Click on the title above to go to the site...

Longevity and the Bible

An interesting article here positing the theory that, as God decreed the maximum age of humanity to be 120 years in the book of Genesis, the ages given in subsequent genealogies drop significantly (but not immediately) due to a supernatural adjustment to their DNA which is still measurable today.

Notable for, if nothing else, the ages compiled from the Bible showing spectacular lifespans (900+ years) of early humans dropping significantly toward more familiar lengths.

click on the title above for the full article...

What Science Doesn't Know

Wired Magazine's current issue (February 07) has a very interesting cover story about the limits of current scientific knowledge. As I read it I realized that the gaps in our scientific knowledge receive very little press, while scientific achievements are shouted from the mountaintops. While this is certainly understandable, it's good to realize the very real limits of what we know.

click the headline for the full story...

Secular Humanism: Defined

Secular Humanism is the dominant western viewpoint of our day--but what is it, exactly? This question is answered in detail, with quotes from humanists and a bibliography, by the attached article.

click the title above for the article...

Dolly The Cloned Sheep Died Young

Am I the only one who missed this? Dolly, the famous sheep product of cloning, died young of a disease that usually afflicts older animals and was found to have aged prematurely... Hmm. Maybe cloning is still a bit more complicated than we thought.

click on title for the full story...

This Just In: President Found on Dollar

After two failed attempts to interest the American public in dollar coins, the U.S. Mint is getting away from female/native American empowerment icons (Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea) and going back to the well with two proven formulas: 1) A huge series of collectible designs and 2) dead presidents.

Will it work? Will America make room in its pockets for a different type of change? Will we flip for this new coin? Only time will tell.

Click on headline for the full story...

Cat Nurses Puppy; Nature v. Nurture Debate Erupts

A 6-day-old Rottweiler puppy rejected by its mother and taken in by the Humane Society has been adopted by a family of cats. Treated as a brother by the kittens and a kitten by their mother, we here at The Brink hope that little Charlie will become a powerful advocate for his adopted species and known across the planet as the world's largest house cat. Alternatively, he will grow up to be a dog.

click headline for the full story...

Paradigm: The Story of the Creationist/Evolutionist

A very interesting story here, and with some personal relevance: Dr. Michael Dini, who made national news for refusing to write letters of recommendation for graduate study for creationist students, is referenced in this story and has come up in discussions with friends recently.

KINGSTON, Rhode Island : There is nothing much unusual about the 197-page dissertation Marcus R. Ross submitted in December to complete his doctoral degree in geosciences here at the University of Rhode Island.

His subject was the abundance and spread of mosasaurs, marine reptiles that, as he wrote, vanished at the end of the Cretaceous era about 65 million years ago. The work is "impeccable," said David E. Fastovsky, a paleontologist and professor of geosciences at the university who was Ross's dissertation adviser. "He was working within a strictly scientific framework, a conventional scientific framework."

But Ross is hardly a conventional paleontologist. He is a "young earth creationist" — he believes that the Bible is a literally true account of the creation of the universe, and that the earth is at most 10,000 years old.

For him, Ross said, the methods and theories of paleontology are one "paradigm" for studying the past, and Scripture is another. In the paleontological paradigm, he said, the dates in his dissertation are entirely appropriate. The fact that as a young earth creationist he has a different view just means, he said, "that I am separating the different paradigms."

For the rest of this story click on the headline above...

Underwater Logging

It turns out logging has sunk to a new low, literally speaking: harvesting underwater trees. Turns out that there is billions of dollars of lumber preserved under lakes made by dams, and one company has designed an underwater remote-controlled logging robot to go get them. As an added bonus, there is no forest wildlife or neighbors to disturb, and since the trees are dead anyway it's a home-run with conservation activists. The wood can be sold for a premium as "green", environment friendly, and it turns out it's actually cheaper to harvest this way. Gotta love free enterprise. (Click the headline above for the full story.)

Dilbert: The Knack

I think I have a light case of The Knack. (Thanks to David for the Dilbert email)

Update: Sony made YouTube take the video down, but you can still see a longer version here...

Ladies Love Donuts

I have previously featured a column by The Sports Gal, the long-suffering wife of super-fan and ESPN.com writer Bill "The Sports Guy" Simmons. He writes a weekly column, and she writes a smaller one to go with it every week. Here's another of her works I thought was hilarious. As a bonus, click on the title above to see all of her columns for the year.

We've been driving to the Staples Center for Clippers games for three seasons and Bill is constantly trying to figure out the quickest way. Each time he finds a better route, he spends the next three trips fine-tuning it and timing himself. I'm usually sitting in the passenger seat feeling nauseous from the quick turns, stop-and-go traffic, brake-slamming and swearing. But one day, Bill's quest for the fastest route paid off: we passed the motherload of donut shops, California Donuts. I've always loved donuts even though they're evil, but there aren't any good places out here -- we don't have a Krispy Kreme near us, there's just a Winchell's (generic) and a place called Yum Yum (which sounds like a place I'd find Bill reading porn in the curtained-off section). We desperately need a Dunkin' Donuts in L.A. but you knew this already.

The reason California Donuts caught my eye was because it had one of those really cool retro California signs. (I've always had good luck when a restaurant has a good sign, with one exception: Bob's Big Boy, which apparently serves prison food.) So one night I telepathically convinced Bill to think it was his idea and he stopped at California Donuts. When we got up to the window (yes, there's a window like at an ice cream shop) we were speechless. There was this huge deli case display of at least 30 different donuts that all looked like gourmet treats. I actually gasped out loud when I saw it. We opted for two apple fritters, a buttermilk and two glazed. They were so good that even the Olsens would have eaten them. I ripped through two and a half in about 10 minutes and then felt like I was pregnant for the next 36 hours. That was when I decided we could never go there again unless we were having a party and I wanted to serve them as dessert and pretend I made the fritters myself.

About three weeks later, Bill came home from a Clippers game with someone else and had six California Donuts with him. I was furious at him -- again, donuts are pure evil -- but that didn't stop me from shoving down a buttermilk in five bites like a hungry "Survivor" contestant who just won a food reward. Then Bill got mad that I was mad and said he'd throw the rest out, but we decided he should hide them instead so I couldn't find them. I couldn't bear the thought of those beautiful donuts sitting in the garbage. It just seemed wrong. The next day, I started thinking about the donuts and within a few minutes I was ripping apart the kitchen like a cop during a drug bust. I looked for them for a solid hour and a half in every part of the house. When Bill came home, I was completely frantic and screamed, "WHERE ARE THE DONUTS!" at him and I think he thought I was going to attack him.

The point is, I can't handle myself around these donuts. Now we've settled on establishing a "donut night" once a month so we don't end up weighing a combined 400 bills. And the reason I'm telling you this is because Donut Night is coming up next Wednesday. In my opinion, this is much more exciting than the Patriots-Colts game.

Run, Boy, Run!

This one goes out to David and Curt, who believe I should be posting more =-)

Check out the new version of Honda's ASIMO (pronounced Awesome-O). He runs, with his feet actually leaving the ground for 0.08 seconds on each stride. A great technical achievement to be sure, but watching this little guy go I can't help but feel that the state of the art in modern robotics surely would be a disappointment to all the little kids in the '50s who envisioned aircars in every skygarage and robots in every home by now.

It's Not WHAT You Know...

Ah, politics. Here's an update on the goings-on in our nation's capitol as the Democrats start the new session in control of Congress...

Sorry, Charlie!

By Denise McNamara, Republican National Committee

It was a simply a mistake, said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as she was confronted regarding the curious omission of the U.S. territory American Samoa in the new minimum wage hike legislation. Never mind that all of the other U.S. territories were included in the bill. Never mind that StarKist employs 75% of the residents of American Samoa. Oh, and it’s sheer coincidence that the owner of StarKist, Del Monte Foods, Inc., just happens to be in Nancy Pelosi’s congressional district. Sorry, Nancy, but we aren’t falling for that one hook, line, or sinker.

Democrats, who are fond of accusing Republicans of being in the pocket of big corporations, should be ashamed. Americans, who are tired of scandal and corruption and politics as usual, should be outraged. And Pelosi, who pulled this stunt in her first week as Speaker, should apologize to the hard-working people of American Samoa.

Speaker Pelosi has looked into the cameras and denied, with a straight face, that this legislation was purposely written to exempt American Samoa. Charlie, the iconic cartoon tuna in the ‘60s StarKist commercials was known for saying that he had “good taste.” Unfortunately, this type of behavior from the Speaker of the House does not leave a good taste in the mouth of voters.

State of the Nation

Here's an interesting take on the pre-election mood of the country.

Despite their dreams of recapturing one or both houses of Congress this November, the Democrats seem determined to reprise their poor showings of 2002 and 2004. Now, as then, they are dozing in the campaign's homestretch, like Aesop's hare, lulled by rosy predictions and the premature applause of Hollywood and the mainstream press. Soon, however, they may awake to discover that while they snoozed before the finish line, George W. Bush hunkered down in his tough shell, kept his slow legs moving and inched them out.

Chicago Tribune: The Tortoise and those Democratic Hares

The Old News Cycle

I'm always fascinated by the following cycle of events:

1. Media focuses on victims, activists and media hounds making shrill cries for government intervention in the crisis of the day
2. Events run their course and the problem fades away
3. Complete lack of apology or correction regarding overreaction on the part of the media, which is back to step 1 on the new crisis of the day

I found a great article that gets into this phenomenon in detail. Here are some excerpts:

The Dow’s up and oil’s down. And it all seems to have happened so quickly. Just a few weeks back the talk was of doom and gloom, as the price of gas kept inching up above 3 bucks a gallon? Funny how quickly those who swore that the bad days had arrived for good have disappeared from sight! (Well, maybe not so funny if you believed them and sold your stocks before the rally.)

It also talks in depth about the cycles in today's public arena:

It has to do with cycles. There are generally three time cycles that compel political action: Economic cycles, political cycles and news cycles. Each cycle has its own momentum and its own set of consequences. When something shocking happens, like a war or a natural disaster, politicians and the media usually panic. And at no time in our history have news cycles and political cycles moved faster than they do today.

Good stuff.


Fox News: The Free Market Knows Best...Again

League of Dorks

In a previous post about fantasy football I wrote about some of the joys of fantasy football. However, those of us who play fantasy football know the dark side of the game: wives and girlfriends tend to hate it with the heat of a thousand suns.

I remembered this when I saw a sidebar of a Sports Guy article written by his wife, the Sports Gal. She has taken the general disgust shared by most wives and girlfriends toward fantasy sports (in this case fantasy baseball) and expresses it in one handy package. I present it here for three reasons:

1. To show the Wife of the Brink that I understand how she feels, since I am featuring a story that perfectly communicates her thoughts.
2. This guy is totally obsessed, so I think she'll be impressed with how reasonable my fantasy habit really is.
3. It's pretty funny.
   

Here it is:

Bill and his friend Hench own a fake baseball team together. I call it the League of Dorks. It's hard to say how much time they spend on it, but I'd guess five hours a week, maybe more. Hench is one of Bill's nicest friends, but he's even nuttier about this stuff than Bill. One time, I peeked over Bill's shoulder as he was reading a bullet-pointed e-mail from Hench about their fake team. It was like a legal document, I couldn't believe it. Hench used to leave messages and not identify himself, you'd just hear, "message No. 1" and then Hench complaining about something that happened with their fake team. He wouldn't even say, "Hey, guys, this is Hench" first. So I made Bill get a second phone line just for Hench's calls -- they call it the "Bat Phone." I can't believe I married someone who needed a second phone line to talk about a fake baseball team.

You'd think the extra line was enough, but no. A couple of weeks ago, Bill and I were driving home from somewhere and trying to figure out something. Bill said, "I bet Hench knows," and before I knew it, he was calling Hench and they were talking about the League of Dorks. And I was trapped in the car listening to them. It was like being at the nail salon when everything's quiet and relaxing, then something happens and the nail ladies all start screaming in another language. I have no idea what they're talking about, but they're agitated and talking in annoying voices and it's not relaxing at all. That's what Bill and Hench sounded like. Actually, this was worse because I can understand the language and still can't understand them. Finally, I got mad and told Bill to hang up or I was going to jump out of the car.

This week, I noticed playoff baseball started, so I asked Bill, "What happened with the League of Dorks?" Bill said they won first prize. He didn't even seem happy about it. He was just relieved that they didn't lose. Then he said he's having a celebratory lunch with Hench next week. I said they should order a bottle of fake champagne and fake pour it on each other. I hate the League of Dorks.

I have to say a couple of things about this. First, husbands spend plenty of time listening to their wives talk about things that don't make sense to them. In fact, I have written this whole post while my wife talked with other women about weddings.

Secondly, just because something doesn't seem important to you doesn't mean it's a waste of someone else's time. For example, many men don't value crafts, decorations or talks about feelings very highly. By that of course I mean other men--I myself like to sit amongst decorations whilst making crafts and talking about my feelings and those of others.

But I'm just saying...

Fly Your Flag

I'm not usually a big forwarder of emails, but this one is worth your time:

Email immediately to everyone in your address book asking them to also forward it. We have a little less than one week and counting to get the word out all across this great land and into every community in the United States of America. If you forward this email to least 11 people and each of those people do the same...you get the idea.

THE PROGRAM IS THIS:

On Monday, September 11th, 2006, an American flag should be displayed outside every home, apartment, office, and store in the United States. Every individual should make it their duty to display an American flag on this fifth anniversary of our country's worst tragedy. We do this in honor of those who lost their lives on 9/11, their families, friends and loved ones who continue to endure the pain, and those who today are fighting at home and abroad to preserve our cherished freedoms.

In the days, weeks and months following 9/11, our country was bathed in American flags as citizens mourned the incredible losses and stood shoulder-to-shoulder against terrorism. Sadly, those flags have all but disappeared. Our patriotism pulled us through some tough times and it shouldn't take another attack to galvanize us in solidarity. Our American flag is the fabric of our country and together we can prevail over terrorism of all kinds.

Action Plan: So, here's what we need you to do...

(1) Forward this email to everyone you know (at least 11 people). Please don't be the one to break this chain. Take a moment to think back to how you felt on 9/11 and let those sentiments guide you.

(2) Fly an American flag of any size on 9/11. Honestly, Americans should fly the flag year-round, but if you don't, then at least make it a priority on this day.

Thank you for your participation. God Bless You and God Bless America.



filed: etcetera