Study claims: Possible cynicism link to dementia

I better get positive quick..

Though I think this study is a little quackery.. 

Study claims: Possible cynicism link to dementia

OOOH SNAP

Snapchat founder is ‘mortified’ over leaked emails that he wrote..  Even Spiegel wrote emails referencing cocaine, binge drinking, and urinating on women. Snap.  They were the frat days..

Just for fun, I logged into AOL IM tonight..

It was like an immediate blast from the past! The noises.. the messages.. the away messages. Just brought my back to a simpler time.

Remember those days? You’d post the away messages featuring some song lyric that symbolized your mood.. others would ponder its meaning.. you’d slam that ‘door shut’ noise when you offline.. how many fights between couples ended with that AOL noise? And the AOL chatrooms? My God.. those bizarre and weird chat rooms, making friends with people who you’d never see..

I actually made a few real friends on AOL believe it or not.. some are actually now “Facebook” friends.. So that’s the real internet now, right?

One shocking thing I noticed tonight: People are still on AOL, including MDrudge, who I think is the actual Matt Drudge. He messaged me once on there years ago a night before he was going to appear on CSPAN. He confirmed the air date .. I think I may have framed the conversation screen shot.

I also thought back to my original internet exploration.. besides that ridiculous ICQ program, I frequented the world of CHAT1.COM .. check that website, it still exists.. but the chat portion has some error that forever will stricken it from the net..

The good old days. Dial up—you could unplug yourself for a while when you were done online.. 

Now we are always connected everywhere. Then we chose when to be, and decided what others would hear. 

Which time was easier? Which would you prefer?

The world of the net has changed.

I just wish those old AOL sound files would still be used somewhere ..

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjvspeLgeww?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=374]

This is music from the TRUMAN SHOW by Phillip Glass.. It’s the sort of mood I’m tonight. Slightly Beethoven-ish but with more of a modern edge. It gives me the feeling of peace and security.. it’s as though you’re sleeping in safe quarters while fires of hell and scourge of war rages outside your window. And when you wake up, in the pile of your nightly drool, trying to remember what your last few seconds of your dream excursion was, you’ll have to face the day again. And you won’t like it at all..

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Pay-to-potty: Teacher's bathroom policy causes accidents, outrages parents

A “pay to potty” policy at a Vancouver elementary school is being called “inhumane” by outraged parents.

How disgusting and humiliating for a child.. 
How horrid of a teacher.

I am not in favor of torture, but I would be fine with forcing this woman to stand in a classroom and not use the bathroom unless she pays for every child’s lunch for the next year.. 

Sick..

Pay-to-potty: Teacher's bathroom policy causes accidents, outrages parents

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixXberGwzM8?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=281]

You heard this right.. a CNN anchorwoman thinks that Michelle Obama can sign bills into law. Her the script writer does.. 

CNN needs to go back and try to find that airplane.. it obviously cannot grasp the basic concepts of  the three branches of government.. 

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

DAILY BEAST gets an exclusive: Texas VA Run Like a 'Crime Syndicate,' Whistleblower Says

It would seem that state by state this scandal is only intensifying.

But we knew this—people have known this for years.. And people inside have known even longer.

Promises broken..

And the bottom is falling out..

What else will we learn?

DAILY BEAST gets an exclusive: Texas VA Run Like a 'Crime Syndicate,' Whistleblower Says

For those in the service industry (as I once was) .. here is a handy list if you’re a bar going drunkard: These are the things NOT to do or say at a bar .. and certainly a list of comments NOT to say to your bartender.. My personal favorite: Don’t hold your dollar up ..others have it too.

I never liked the bartender gig as much as I enjoyed serving tables in restaurants..

Male bartenders are treated differently than female.. I frankly think that bartenders are expected to be women, and when men see other males serving their drinks to them, the tips are much worse and the patrons leave much sooner. But on the flipside..

Grief: Maybe you should just avoid your pastor

I am not certain if I published this before, but I have become addicted over the past few months to a website written by Caleb Wilde, a Philadelphia-based mortician who mocks death and ads humor to the dying process..

He has written a new blog post about dealing with death and grief.. He argues that if you are going through rough straits, seeing your pastor should be secondary to seeing a therapist.  

A good read.  And something sadly that every human on this planet will face or has faced already: Grief about death and losing someone close..

A true icon is gone.. Maya Angelou has met her final fate in his lifetime on earth.. Thanks to her, we will always know why the caged bird sings.. 

The poet was 86.. 

She posted one final tweet (amazing, think her life.. from the old days of racism to being able to freely speak to millions of people on Twitter) said this:

Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.

Regardless of our religious beliefs, it should be our collective hope that Ms. Angelou has met God.. and that he welcomed her gracefully into Maya

Snoopin' Snowden: He was a spy before he was a leaker.

NBC News’ Brian Williams scored a major interview when he landed Edward Snowden.. the ads have been nonstop on all of the NBC stations for the event—it is an event and truly important that Americans get to see and hear what Snowden is about, and why he says he did what he did in revealing some of the deepest secrets from the spy underbelly ..

On that same note, he apparently also told Brian Williams that he was not just a low-level contractor as the American media (and government) has previously said.. 

According to Snowden, he was trained as a spy and worked under cover for the US’s biggest alphabet agencies..  

The wide-ranging interview will air on NBC Wednesday at 10pm.

It should be something watched by the entire nation..

GlaxoSmithDecline: Some interesting headlines about the big drug company

GlaxoSmithKline is under investigation in the UK by the Serious Fraud Office (real name, seriously) ..

The criminal investigation is into the drug maker’s commercial practices, according to reports.. 

The New York TIMES details some more in its reporting on the matter, but neither the drug company nor the Fraud office are providing any more background on what the fraud accusations may be..   but we do know this from REUTERS: The drug company already is facing claims of bribery in China and four other countries.  

Shares are falling in the stock market..  

But across the world today, vaccines are still being administered to crying children in pediatricians’ offices en masse.

So Glaxo still has that going for it. Bribery or not.

Marshall Fine Journalist, Movie Critic, writes: Farewell to horror films

He is done with them.. He makes a few points I can agree with.. for example, this: 

Vampires? Werewolves? Zombies? Again, sorry — it’s less that I don’t believe in them (I don’t) than that they have become such tired concepts or conceits, full of familiar tropes. I simply can’t summon the energy to care about them.

Even those, however, are preferable to the kind of torture-porn that seems to dominate the genre. Special effects have evolved so far that you can find a way to graphically depict any sadistic act you can imagine, from disembowelment to decapitation, and worse.

I have found a few gems that actually are good stories mentally scary.. One movie recently I saw was HAUNTER.. I am not in favor of the sadistic torture porn, and have written a number of articles against it over the years..

Fine also writes that age itself may have done in his horror experience.. he opines:

When you’re young — which I’m defining as under 30 — you crave sensation. It can come from thrill rides or extreme sports (participating or watching) or horror movies. The more exaggerated the sensation, the better — it’s a way of expanding your boundaries, testing yourself against extremes, figuring out your own limits.

After 30, however, there’s an increasing awareness of just how brutal, random and arbitrary life can be. Bad things do happen to good people; there are people out there who do commit these acts and you simply hope you never cross paths with them.

I fondly recall long summer nights with my friends all together mocking and jesting about badly made B horror films.. we laughed way past midnight and often saw the sunrise after a night of  movie watching.. And in a sense, I’d like to do that again.

I don’t quite think I ever watched horror movies for the storyline.. There have been a few ‘paranormal’ entries into the genre that have thrilled me for other reasons—SIXTH SENSE, SIGNS, THE RING, JEEPERS CREEPERS (1) and even the CONJURING were all good for the right reasons.. other films were good only because they were fodder for the teenage sense of humor..

Now, as I crossed into the my 30s three years ago, I can attest to with Marshall Fine is saying. Horror sort of comes and goes.. I am more afraid of reality than fiction—bloodbaths in real life happen every day.. 

Fine writes in his conclusion:

Yes, yes – I can hear the arguments already. Horror films allow us to confront our fears and, perhaps, deal with them in a non-threatening way. Or: Horror films serve as metaphors for (A) our lack of control over the world at large or (B) specific real-life horrors like nuclear holocaust, racism, environmental catastrophe, etc. Or they’re a harmless diversion, a catharsis in which the powerless ultimately overcome the powerful.

I get that. But I don’t need horror movies to make me think about those things. And really, only critics parse horror films in that way. Most of the mass audience is simply looking for a cheap thrill.

I suppose that’s all true.

But ‘horror movies’ aren’t the only torture porns out there.. PASSION OF THE CHRIST was almost as bad as HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES.  Which is why I have long thought the new breed of sadism in some films need their own genre—and I don’t think fans of that sort of movie would disagree. I argue that they’d be much happier going to a Rob Zombie section of Netflix and finding all of the blood and gore that they yearn to consume.. 

Horror movies can still be new and fresh, inventive and scary. 

Where Mr. Fine is right is in his broad perception that most horror movies are not good and fresh.. instead sadistic and without merit. 

Thoughts anyone?

Marshall Fine Journalist, Movie Critic, writes: Farewell to horror films

The Gamma Ray burst that may be. Or may not be.

Amazing news from beyond the Milky Way galaxy today.. There may have been (and may NOT have been) a Gamma Ray burst in the Andromeda Galaxy..

Scientists say that if one did actually occur, it’s far away and will not destroy the planet earth. Data is still coming in—scarce at this point, reports say..

It was apparently either a Gamma Ray burst or an Ultraluminous X-ray object.  Either way the idea of both are complicated to contemplate and require brain power.. Either save it for something else or try to manage a way to think about what this is or means.. So amazing, isn’t it?

It may be worth remembering during Art Bell’s brief Sirius stint, he interviewed Michio Kaku on his first program. Among the many topics discussed: What a Gamma Ray burst would do the planet earth should one occur close enough to hit..

Looking good after all these years.

This is the GERBER BABY at 87 .. her name is Ann Turner Cook.

And I am not being sarcastic about her appearance at all.. She looks fantastic! As adorable as the image which first appeared in 1931. 

One baby’s image became the timeless symbol of infancy and innocence.. Amazing.

'Asteroid to hit Earth' story goes up on CNN

A user posts a fake news piece to CNN’s iReport news hub. It stays live for 22 hours before someone realizes it must surely not be true.

CNN is really red-faced about this one.. A user posted a fake news piece about the end of the world coming in the 2040s.. the fiction: An asteroid will hit earth on March 35, 2041. 

March 35..
And people believed it..

I am not sure what CNN should be more ashamed at: It’s false asteroid report or its real months’ long reports on flight 370..

I also thought this, though: While March 35 may not be a real date, nor will this 2041 asteroid be a real threat, others are very true and very real. 

For example, the planet earth may face a brush with destiny in 2032. That is if the 2029 "Friday the 13th Asteroid" doesn’t hit first..  and if we make it through all of these dangers, the next lurking possible life altering rock from the sky comes in 2036, about when I will hopefully start contemplating a late-life retirement. 

And they are the big ones we know about.. 

Obviously, proven by the Russian meteor impact in 2013, we don’t know all of the space rocks around.. we rarely see them incoming more than a day or two in advance.

And while the 2041 asteroid story was fake, ironic twists and turns occur in our news cycles. What’s fake today is history tomorrow. 

Either way.. CNN needs to figure a better way to exist online than this.

'Asteroid to hit Earth' story goes up on CNN

New details emerge about HUNGER GAMES KILLER Elliot Rodger

The plot may have been years in the making, but the killer gave just minutes’ notice before he rained terror across a Southern California community.

We know Elliot Rodger used a gun—but he also slaughtered three with a knife—his roommates. 

We know from allusions made that he seemingly was hooked on video games—presumably shoot-em-up games …

We also know that he has been seeing a therapist since the age of 8. Though a list of medication he was on has not been released, it is more than likely that he was on something. Apparently a family friend said that Rodger was seeing the therapist ‘almost every day.’

New details emerge about HUNGER GAMES KILLER Elliot Rodger

This is Chervony Lloern. She really isn’t there, it’s just her body. Her lifeless corpse.. she is making headlines across the Netland because, in death, she got a wish: Being propped up in a red rocking chair, surrounded by flowers and plants, and wearing her wedding gown..

Just another day at the Marin Funeral Home in Puerto Rico, as the WASHINGTON POST reports in full here..

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF7EpEnglgk?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=281]

Kids reacting to old computers..

This is the current generation gap.. the ‘old folks’ who used the mainframes.. the new kids who use the cloud..

It’s actually quite fun to have lived through the evolution of computers from the floppy disks of THE OREGON TRAIL to the new age of apps on demand..

Everything has changed.

And as for homework before the internet? I suffered that age for most of my schooling… And it was rough.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Median CEO pay crosses $10 million in 2013

Lifestyles of the of the rich and rarely seen..

Median CEO pay crosses $10 million in 2013