Farmville infanticide

Recently, the Supreme Court has been debating suppressing violent games. There is clear evidence that they should be taking a closer look at the "innocent" Farmville (or, better yet, do nothing). We’re looking not only at Farmville, but also at South Korean game addictions and Supreme Comedy.

We do not believe that violent games cause violence anymore than so-called “click-games” the epitome of boredom and addiction on Facebook. As if to prove this assertion in the most vile manner, a Jacksonville Florida mother entered a guilty plea in the death of her son:

Alexandra V. Tobias, 22, was arrested after the January death of 3-month-old Dylan Lee Edmondson. She told investigators she became angry because the baby was crying while she was playing a computer game called FarmVille on the Facebook social-networking website. She told investigators the baby cried loudly as she played the game, which prosecutor Richard Mantei identified as FarmVille, a simulation game in which players raise crops and livestock with the help of Facebook friends.

Furthermore,

Tobias then put the baby on the couch and stepped out for a cigarette to regain her composure, the arrest report says. When she came back in, the family dog knocked the baby off the couch. The crying started again and Tobias shook the baby a second time before calling for an ambulance, the arrest report says. (..) She told the judge she'd graduated from high school. Court papers say she went to Samuel W. Wolfson Senior High School in Jacksonville. The paperwork also said Tobias did not have a job. (..) According to court records, her child abuse arrest violated a six-month probation she began serving just a few weeks before after pleading no contest to a domestic battery charge.

Farmville may have had other, even more counterintuitive effects. A story from just a few days ago in SeattleWeekly suggests that 27 y.o. Gary A. Veldhuizen from Ferndale, FarmVille player, pleaded guilty to raping a goat (i.e., bestiality):

The billy buggering took place at a farm near Enterprise Road at Willeys Lake Road in May. Apparently a family member caught Veldhuizen in mid-shag and called sheriff's deputies who came and arrested him. Veldhuizen's Facebook page shows the pudgy Ferndalian's love of ranch life extends to the virtual world as well, as he is a big fan of the game FarmVille. One of the more recent posts says he wants to "share some grape bushels with you."

Incidentally, Farmville has also other similar “click” games, one involving Mafia and organized crime, but that game has yet to result in someone’s death.

South Korea Online

Sad as it may be, this is not the first time addictive, non-violent games were involved in the death of children. Only a few months earlier, in February-March 2010, a South-Korean couple was arrested for starving their 3-month-old prematurely born daughter.

Once a day, between 12-hour stretches at a neighborhood Internet cafe, they fed their baby.  Instead of nurturing their own daughter, they became obsessed with raising a virtual child in the popular role-playing game called Prius Online. The couple were arrested in Suwon, a suburb of Seoul, 5 months after reporting the death of their baby.  The baby’s autopsy showed that she’d died due to a long period of malnutrition. (..) This is the dirty underbelly of South Korea’s fast and cheap Internet connections.  Over the last ten years, there have been many stories of Internet addiction and compulsive gaming leading to serious consequences and even death. In 2007, South Korea established an Internet addiction camp to help people overcome their addiction to the Internet.

According to PBS, in the more than 20000 Korean “PC Bangs” (i.e., Internet cafes), the more time you spend playing, the less you pay:

• Roughly 50 percent of South Koreans play games regularly, and 75 percent of gamers prefer online games
• Currently, the most played game in Korean "PC bangs" (Internet cafes) is Aion, a massively multiplayer online role playing game. It is due for release in the U.S. in fall 2009.
• In December 2008, the Korean government announced it would invest $237 million in the game industry to help expand gaming exports, which topped $1 billion for the first time in 2008.
• The South Korean online games market is expected to exceed $1.7 billion by the end of 2009
• Korea hosted the first Global Online Game Awards in 2008
• One-third of South Korea's population of 48 million has registered to play the game KartRider at least once
• Video game consoles, such as Sony PlayStation or Nintendo Wii, are less popular than PC games, in part because of widely available broadband Internet and a previous ban on Japanese cultural imports.

In 2005, a 28-year-old Korean man died after playing Starcraft almost non-stop for 50 hours. He inspired (or was he inspired by) the South Park WoW episode. He had just been fired for playing games too much. The government solution is Jump Up Internet Rescue School, a boot camp to cure online gaming addiction. According to New York Times,

South Korea boasts of being the most wired nation on earth. In fact, perhaps no other country has so fully embraced the Internet. Ninety percent of homes connect to cheap, high-speed broadband, online gaming is a professional sport, and social life for the young revolves around the “PC bang,” dim Internet parlors that sit on practically every street corner. (..) Up to 30 percent of South Koreans under 18, or about 2.4 million people, are at risk of Internet addiction, said Ahn Dong-hyun, a child psychiatrist at Hanyang University in Seoul who just completed a three-year government-financed survey of the problem. (..) To address the problem, the government has built a network of 140 Internet-addiction counseling centers, in addition to treatment programs at almost 100 hospitals and, most recently, the Internet Rescue camp, which started this summer. Researchers have developed a checklist for diagnosing the addiction and determining its severity, the K-Scale. (The K is for Korea.)

NYT offers even insight into how such addictions get started:

One participant, Lee Chang-hoon, 15, began using the computer to pass the time while his parents were working and he was home alone. He said he quickly came to prefer the virtual world, where he seemed to enjoy more success and popularity than in the real one. He spent 17 hours a day online, mostly looking at Japanese comics and playing a combat role-playing game called Sudden Attack. He played all night, and skipped school two or three times a week to catch up on sleep. When his parents told him he had to go to school, he reacted violently. Desperate, his mother, Kim Soon-yeol, sent him to the camp. “He didn’t seem to be able to control himself,” said Mrs. Kim, a hairdresser. “He used to be so passionate about his favorite subjects” at school. “Now, he gives up easily and gets even more absorbed in his games.” Her son was reluctant at first to give up his pastime. “I don’t have a problem,” Chang-hoon said in an interview three days after starting the camp. “Seventeen hours a day online is fine.” But later that day, he seemed to start changing his mind, if only slightly.

The Supremes

In USA and especially California, addiction is not seen as a problem. The “problem” is solely violent games. Recently, the Governator signed a strict law to control game violence, a law eventually appealed by a Game producers association all the way to the Supreme Court. The hearings were, according to the Hollywood reporter, cause for comedy:

1. Justice Alito getting a sly dig at his colleague over "original intent" in the U.S. Constitution: "I think what Justice Scalia wants to know is what James Madison thought about video games. Did he enjoy them?"
2. Justice Kagan, the junior member of the high court, trying to show she's hip: "You think Mortal Kombat is prohibited by this statute? It's a candidate, meaning, a reasonable jury could find that Mortal Kombat, which is an iconic game, which I am sure half of the clerks who work for us spent considerable amount of time in their adolescence playing."
3. Justice Breyer creating, excuse the pun, a tortured metaphor about a 13-year-old playing video games depicting violence: "I have tried to take as bad a [scenario] as I could think of, gratuitous torture of children. OK. Now, you can't buy a naked woman, but you can go and buy that, you say to the 13-year-old. Now, what sense is there to that?"
4. Justice Scalia muses about whether it would be a good thing to let juries act as censors: "Juries are not controllable. That's the wonderful thing about juries, also the worst thing about juries."
5. Just about anything out of the mouth of Justice Sotomayor, including these questions:

• "One of the studies, the Anderson study, says that the effect of violence is the same for a Bugs Bunny episode as it is for a violent video. So can the legislature now, because it has that study, say we can outlaw Bugs Bunny?"
• "Could you get rid of rap music? Have you heard some of the lyrics of some of the rap music...?"
• "Would a video game that portrayed a Vulcan as opposed to a human being, being maimed and tortured, would that be covered by the act?"
• "So if the video producer says this is not a human being, it's an android computer simulated person, then all they have to do is put a little artificial feature on the creature and they could sell the video game?"
• "What happens when the character gets maimed, head chopped off and immediately after it happens they spring back to life and they continue their battle? Is that covered by your act?"

It seems to me that Schwarzenegger, though not a big fan of such a law, signed it stating “children must be protected” not because he believes that, but rather because he thinks that reason is unconvincing for parents. All hopes that such ill-conceived legislation will be stopped so that it does not push game development to Asia rest now with the Supreme Court.

Video: PBS: Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier, 1 Game Too Many, sp-mlnw, sp-s10e08-inside

Sources / More info: [yt-fv-parody], [yt-fv-tr], [yt-h8-fv], [yt-h8-fv], [yt-h8-fv], [yt-fv-prblm], [yt-h8-fv], [yt-h8-fv], [Supreme Court], SC-hearing, Jacksonville-mom, jacksonville-sentencing, huff-j, /.-exodus, /.-sc, atlantic-arnold, nxtwb-sk, st-kd, nyt-kbc, gzm-bsy, Kogia-study, wiki-lv,notwc, sw-veldhuizen, fb-veldhuizen, bbc-spanish-piglet

VerbaVolant, farmville, violence, game, games, online, online games, supreme court, supremes, mmog, mmorpg, massive multiplayer, massively multiplayer, schwartzenegger

Having a baby vs Starting a business

Our favourite hermit has come up with a list of reasons why having a baby makes more sense than starting a business. Not only that we agree, but we have an even better idea.

the OK song

I'm gonna plant a 90s song in your head. It's made mostly by Kevin Krakower aka Kevi, and his "band", 1000 Clowns, which I keep remembering (when I do) as 10000 Clowns. Big difference between 1K and 10K, though the song can still be found, together with the history of it all.

Tennis Girl poster creator dies

Let's be honest! The only reason why this is news is that it gives us a new opportunity to display the poster.

Though it certainly is sad news to learn that someone died, let’s face it: most people care only about the poster!

Captured on a tennis court at Birmingham University in the summer of 1976 – using a Nikon F camera and Kodak film – the image attained iconic status when it was made into an Athena poster. The girl in the picture was the photographer's then girlfriend, Fiona Butler. Apparently, she couldn't even play tennis at the time.

Elliott said about the photo that “It is not a picture I would buy”, but on his own website, he called it "the most published photograph in the world".

This "schoolboy's fantasy" was a money-maker for him and his widow Noelle; they are still receiving royalties. Fiona Butler was not paid for her work and maintained she will never be embarrassed by the photograph.

But(t) if Tennis Girl dominated the 80s, the 50s and 60s flowed under the sign of Jimmi and Audrey:

"because it's everything your parents didn't want you to have anything to do with. The long hair, spaced-out expression, the fag. Youth culture was about identifying with something your parents thought ridiculous."

The 80’s belonged to the (NEW) Man and Baby:

If the Tennis Girl was made for the boys, the Man & Baby poster was definitely made for the ladies. Gone are the days of the mythological Greek Gods, who always tried to kill their offspring. The New Man for a New Era was strong and dependable, caring and washed the dishes too. And just like the Tennis Girl, he was to remain a fantasy. He does not exist, or if he did, he was surely gay, for no woman would find such a man attractive.

Until today, I had not seen the Tennis Girl before. I like it for the “morning feeling” it conveys so well.

Sources / More info: amateur-tennis-girl, bbc-elliott-dies, bbc-posters

 

VerbaVolant, tennis, tenis, poster, photo, photography, photographer, commercial, image

Closet-minded people

1). So what really happened?

The thief forced his way into her apartment, she made him a cup of tea, then listened sympathetically to his life story for about 20 minutes. Entertained, she gave him 10000 yen ($100) then ran outside to call the Police from a pay phone, presumably leaving the baby with the thief. I am just as confused as you are.

This is not the only time Japanese has been in the news with a woman in a very strange situation. At the end of May, 2008, we learned about a 58 y.o. woman who lived hidden in a small closet in a 58 y.o man’s house FOR A YEAR (2). That man became suspicious after food disappeared from the fridge, so he installed a surveillance system, filming her as she walked around his house in his absence. I always suspected that that Japanese horror flick with the house that kills, taking the shape of a woman, was based on reality. Was that woman also living a secret fantasy? Were they, unbeknownst to him, masturbating simultaneously? Hard to tell. Still, old people in Japan have significant difficulties surviving. Their society sees people who have to depend on others as deadweight, and being unable to provide for yourself is a great shame. Many people die of hunger rather than apply to be on welfare and when they apply they are often rejected (3).

If you think that only Japanese women can inspire horror movies, you’re wrong. David Joe Limones (4), 27, from Newburgh, NY, carved a hole into a 22 y.o. woman’s couch and hid in it, waited for her to come home, to emerge from there as she sat on him, while talking to a friend on the phone. Apparently, she was on the phone with a friend because she felt he might be hiding there and she had filed a complaint about him before (???!!!).

This reminds me of one of my favourite beer commercials. At a costume party, a sexy blonde sits on a comfy couch. Two weirdoes in costumes sat by her side, trying to seduce her. She’s not interested, and changes positions several times. Eventually, she stands up departing, leaving the two bozos behind. As she goes, we see that the couch was actually some happy dude in a couch costume. He then opens up a beer, the source of all his power, intellect, inspiration and creativity.

Feeling the couch moving underneath you is bad enough, but having a baby bat in your 34FF bra could make you feel sorry for disturbing it. At least that’s what Abbie Hawkins, 19, of Norwich, UK said.

“It looked cosy and comfortable and I was sorry for disturbing it,” she said.

She was sitting at her desk at work when she decided to investigate the strange movements in her underwear. “I put my hand down my bra and pulled out a cuddly little bat. Perhaps I should have left it there and given it a good home.”

“That shocked me very much at the time, but it scuttled off under the desk into the dark. I was shaking from head to toe.

“It looked quite cosy and comfortable in there so it was quite rude of me to take it out.

“When I realised it was a bat the first thing that occurred to me was how did it get in there.

“I felt quite sorry for it. Perhaps I should have left it there and given it a good home.

“I did not notice anything as I put my bra on. The night before I had had one or two drinks and I was getting ready quickly.

“The bra was in my drawer but it had been on the washing line the day before.

“When I was driving to work, I felt a slight vibration but I thought it was just my mobile phone in my jacket pocket.”

The bat was captured by one of her colleagues and released.

Sometimes, it’s news like this that make you want to use the toilet. And if you’re in southern India, in the Tamil Nadu state, the government will pay you to use the toilet (5):

It pays to use a toilet in southern India, as residents are earning close to a dollar a month by using public urinals, a scheme launched by authorities to promote hygiene and research in rural areas.

Dozens of people are queuing up to use toilets in Musiri, a remote town in Tamil Nadu state, where authorities have succeeded in keeping street corners clean with the new scheme, The Times of India newspaper said on Sunday.

“In fact, many of us started using toilets for urination only after the ecosan (ecological sanitation) toilets were constructed in the area,” said S. Rajasekaran, a truck cleaner.

The urine was also being collected and tested for its efficacy as a crop fertilizer, an official of the state’s agricultural university added.

People relieving themselves in the open is a common sight in India’s rural towns and villages, as basic sanitation still eludes millions.

Sources
1. http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0818516620080708
2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7426950.stm
3. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/world/asia/12japan.html
4. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080620/ap_on_re_us/man_in_couch
5. http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSDEL30766120080707

Cracanel, closed-minded, closed mind, absent mind, humour

Japanese Boyfriend Pillow

The latest news from crazy Japan is a Boyfriend pillow, targeting single women and their need for a partner to "cuddle up to".

Japan is a land of wonders but also of rapid change and ensuing alienation. The marriage rate has dropped and the birth rate has plummeted. Sex toys are so advanced that many men report not being able to ejaculate in human vaginas any more.

Therefore, the launch of the “Boyfriend’s Arm Pillow” should not surprise, since women have unmet needs as well.

Shaped like a man's torso with one sturdy arm, has been on sale since December and has so far been snapped up by 1,000 singles. Manufacturer Kameo said the pillow's shape also keeps the body balanced. One woman, Junko Suzuki, told AP: "It makes me relaxed... I can hold the arm and feel something warm at my side". The pillow is only available in Japan, where it costs about 8,500 Yen (£40, $80), and is available in blue, pink or green. Ms Suzuki, who is separated from her husband, says the pillow has other advantages. "It keeps holding me all the way through. I think this is great because this does not betray me," she told AP.

Child rearing is a problem, as people work for too long:

Japanese Health Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa visited the city of Matsue to talk to party members about the falling birth rate. Arresting the decline would be difficult, he said, because "the number of birth-giving machines and devices is fixed". "All we can ask for is for them to do their best per head," he said.

Such comments are bound to create a stir. The following, however, are not:

According to a lifestyle survey in 2001, married men only spent about 30 minutes each day on household tasks or with their children. This is partly down to traditional attitudes - Japanese men tend not to cook, clean or change nappies. But another problem is a culture of long working hours, followed by compulsory after-work socialising. "My colleague's wife has just had a baby, but he has to work until 11 o'clock every night," said one Tokyo businessman. "He only ever sees the baby when it's asleep."

Dr Inoguchi says the government needs to spend more on helping young families. But she says there also needs to be social change so that both men and women have a better balance between work and family. And the population crisis is helping to highlight where the problems lie. "This very dramatic changing demography and the alarming view that we may not be able to sustain the greying of the population is now leading to - belatedly and reluctantly - the mainstreaming of gender issues," she said.

Have a cuddly new year!

Sources / More info: bbc-pillow, bbc-wed, bbc-confessions, bbc-births, bbc-demography, bbc-kyoto-geisha, bbc-osaka-homeless, yt-japan-tv

VerbaVolant, japan, japon, nippon, nipon, chipango, japonnaise, japonia, japanese, single, women, marriage, cuddle

seks bomba surveys

Two studies came out in the past few days that managed to combine sex and stress reponse for both men and women. We think it might be worthwhile to delve into the depths of these issues.

In the chronologically first such study to hit the press, University of Valencia researchers find that just five minutes alone with an attractive female raise the levels of cortisol, the body's stress hormone; the effects are heightened in men who believe that the woman in question is "out of their league".

Researchers tested 84 male students by asking each one to sit in a room and solve a Sudoku puzzle. Two strangers, one male and one female, were also in the room. When the female stranger left the room and the two men remained sitting together, the volunteer's stress levels did not rise. However, when the volunteer was left alone with the female stranger, his cortisol levels rose.

"In this study we considered that for most men the presence of an attractive woman may induce the perception that there is an opportunity for courtship. While some men might avoid attractive women since they think they are 'out of their league', the majority would respond with apprehension and a concurrent hormonal response. This study showed that male cortisol levels increased after exposure to a five-minute short social contact with a young, attractive woman."

Cortisol can have a positive effect in small doses, improving alertness and well-being. However, chronically elevated cortisol levels can worsen medical conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and impotency.

Is this really something new? Jimmy soul was singing about marital bliss with an ugly woman a few decades ago:

If you wanna be happy
For the rest of your life,
Never make a pretty woman your wife,
So from my personal point of view,
Get an ugly girl to marry you.
A pretty woman makes her husband look small
And very often causes his downfall.
As soon as he marries her
Then she starts to do
The things that will break his heart.
But if you make an ugly woman your wife,
You'll be happy for the rest of your life,
An ugly woman cooks her meals on time,
She'll always give you peace of mind.
Don't let your friends say
You have no taste,
Go ahead and marry anyway,
Though her face is ugly,
Her eyes don't match,
Take it from me she's a better catch.
Say man.
Hey baby.
Saw your wife the other day.
Yeah?
Yeah, she's ugly.
Yeah, she's ugly but she sure can cook.
Yeah?. Okay.

This may seem like an attack on women, but women have a few complaints of their own. More to the point, Bayer published research that finds the following:

• 28% of women claim that email and internet are disrupting their love lives, with hand-held devices particularly to blame
• other mood-killing factors: long working hours (cited by 55% of women), tiredness (83%) and being too busy (74%)
• 1/10 women say their fear of pregnancy inhibits them in the bedroom, with 1/5 women admitting they shun contraception
• The survey found that on average British women have sex 1.4 times a week, but 6/10 women aged between 25 and 34 would like a more active sex life.
• 51% of women believe they reach their sexual peak in their 30s, but 66% say they had their most sex during their 20s.
• 65% say their partners do not make enough effort in the bedroom, however, 1/3 women never initiate sex and always let their partner make the first move.
• 4/10 women say it only takes a compliment to put them in the mood for sex, while 1/3 saying having more time to themselves would boost their sex life.
• more than 1/3 of women say they have not felt sexy for at least a month and 14 per cent claim they have never felt sexy.

Right said Fred: Let’s talk about sex, baby. If you wanna be happy 4 the rest of your life, that is..

P.S.: But seriously, seks bomba is a real band!

Sources / More info: telegraph-women, telegraph-men, yt-jimmy-soul

VerbaVolant, survey, study, research, psychology, gender studies, gender, sexually, sexual, sexuality, men, women, gender wars

Y Vadim is not leaving

Inspired by greater bloggers, I've decided to make a short top of reasons why Corneliu Vadim Tudor does not vacate his former office, despite his landlord trying to evacuate him for the past year or so.

How Travis the Chimp went kookoo

Recently, we learned that a movie star chimp was killed by the police. Here we take a look at the story behind the story.

Here’s a list of edifying video clips:

What has really happened (our comments in red, Travis’ in italics):

• Travis was 15 years old, suffered from Lyme disease and had 200 lbs (90 kg) – trait Bush was treated of Lyme disease a few years back (wp, cbc)
• In his youth he appeared in ads for Old Navy and Coca-Cola, at the Maury Povich Show and a TV pilot – cultured and with a penchant for the finer things in life
• Travis would go for rides in his owners’ cars and trucks (they had a towing business), opened doors, dressed himself, brushed his teeth, was toilet trained, would bathe, eat at the table and drink wine from a long-stemmed glass, surfed the ‘net for porn and watched TV with the remote – if he kept the toilet seat down, he was certainly the ideal mon! 
• His owner was Sandra Herold and her 55 year old friend Charla Nash – There are a few documentaries around the sex trips taken by old, rich white women to Africa (reuters, ipinions). There’s even a German tourist who went berserk in Kenya in a similar episode (indy).
• Travis also went kookoo in 2003 when he escaped from his owners’ car and roamed the streets of downtown Stamford. He was caught only when he got exhuasted. – Travis : We goin’ downtooown, baby! Let good ol’ Travis show you a goooood tiiiime!
• The day of his death, the owner had called her friend for help. She could not manage him, even though she had given him Xanax. – Travis : Bitch, what did you put in my tea, I feel funny?!? NOOO! We ain’t gonna talk about our relationship again! I don’t luv u, can’t you get it through your head?!?
• When her friend arrived, Travis attacked her as she was getting off the car. - Travis : What don’t tell me that you thought bringing a 2nd old, useless pussy will make me happy? I liked to screw you when you were younger, now you’re like used tires! Take your pussy off my face, you make me sick! Let me just go away, fo’ Chris’sakes! Gimme the key, bitch! JUST GIMME THE FREAKIN’ KEY!!!
• The owner came back with a butcher’s knife and started to stab him (numerous times) – Travis : Oh, no. Not again. You wanna stab me cuz I won’t pleasure u no mo’?!? And what is that? You call that a knife?!? THIS is a knife!! And I won’t stab u wid it no matter how well u beg!
• Police and an ambulance came to care for the owner’s friend, then Travis attacked a few policemen. As they ran to their cars, Travis went after them, and opened the door of a cruiser. The police officer inside shot Travis numerous times. - Travis : Ye freaks! I’ll show you who’s the King of this castle! What’s that, mon? Drop the gun, let’s fight it out, mano a orangutano!
• Travis ran away and seeked shelter in his cage, where he died. – Travis : Checkmate. ‘Tis a good day 2 die.

At the end, a few clips from Monkeybone – watch it, if you’re in the mood for a weird and krazy comedy.

Sources: ng, ap, msnbc, cnn, cnni, bbc, mw, register, torstar, gm, lyme, xanax, yt

Overheard,chimp, idiocy, rage, peta, animals, pets, wild, call of the wild, dementia, monkey, bonobo, chimpanzee

Mica rugaminte! (Sergiu feat. Andrei)

I’ve recently discovered a Romanian song. I have a feeling I’ll be referring to it later, so I am posting it here together with its lyrics and Romanian translation.

Top 10 Basic News Stories

In a recent article, a management consultant opines that the "so-called Third-Wave age of information, as futurist Alvin Toffler named it, the commercial news process is actually imprisoned in a Second-Wave model, i.e. an industrial model of news production". We are quoting at length from this captivating article.

Some – well, pundits as well – believe that the relationship between pundits and the media is symbiotic at best, if not far more intimate and polarized. Rarely do we see pundits biting the hand that feeds them, like Dr Karl Albrecht does:

Any subject expert who is regularly called upon to appear in news cameos (such as I am, as a business consultant) soon discerns the unmistakable factory-like hum of the news operation. The process by which video editors interweave the live performances of news readers, the cutaways to remote units at the crime scene or the lawn of the White House, the obligatory establishing shot of the professor walking across campus to the laboratory, and the stock footage (the Rodney King beating, the Clinton-Lewinsky hug, or the lab technician testing the DNA samples) pays little homage to Toffler's Third Wave concept. Instead, it's straight out of the Industrial Age. Probably the closest product analogy to the news is a fast-food operation, something like making hamburgers or baking pastries.
Each little piece of news rolls down the line like a tidy, production-controlled PopTart (with due respect to Kellog's popular product): flavored, sweetened, glazed, and baked to perfection. Whatever the sacrifice in depth or insight, the fast-food news model is undeniably efficient and remarkably cost-effective.
What makes any industrial production process efficient and cost-effective is the use of standard products. In the news industry this translates into a few well-proven, reliable story structures. A basic inventory of about ten standard news stories makes the process of baking the news easy to manage.

Here’s his top 10 cookie cutter news report phenotypes:

1. Shock and Horror. ..Murders, especially multiples, acts of unusual violence, brutality, or sadism, shark attacks, and the carnage left by explosions..
2. Tragedy. ..natural disasters, airplane crashes, and hotel fires..
3. Hot Sex. ..It ranges from the intimate lives of celebrities to "socially responsible" stories about teen-agers having oral sex. It also includes derivative pornography, such as stories about the exotic dancers at the local club who are fighting to unionize..
4. Scandal. ..misdeeds of government officials or corporate bigwigs..
5. The Fall of the Mighty. ..powerful people get knocked off their high horses..
6. Conflict. ..whether in the schoolyard or in Taiwan's Parliament chamber, conflict and the imminence of physical violence will always arrest attention.. War.., conflict between political parties, or among advocacy groups pursuing various social agendas..
7. Worry. Journalists seem to suffer from a constitutional aversion to being perceived as naive or overly optimistic. As a result, they seem compelled to find the dark side of just about any issue..
8. Voyeurism. The bizarre, the perverted, the weird, the sick and twisted, and the deviant, ..suicide jumper, the hostage standoff, the execution, and the demented old lady living with the 300 cats..
9. Dilemmas. ..conflicts that can't be solved. The abortion issue, cloning, capital punishment, euthanasia, and the right to die, all arouse strong feelings and polarize opinion.. The frequent use of two-sided moral Dilemma stories helps perpetuate the myth of "objective journalism."
10. Gee-Whiz Stories. ..usually has to be a novelty segment, a curiosity piece, or a heart-warmer. The local spelling bee, the dog that rescues the baby, astronauts in space, the Olympic athlete's mom crying tears of joy, and the President's hemorrhoids..

It’s not enough that journalism is dieing. We now have a vivisection!

(Or was that death followed by autopsy?)

Sources / More info: ka, pt

VerbaVolant, news, media, mass-media, newz, network, top10, top 10, top ten, journalism

the way we cheat

There is something weird about the way women cheat, something I can't figure out. Men know when they cheat, things are simple and obvious, though they might lie about. When women lie about it, they somehow seem to believe their own lies.

When men cheat, their only defense (and it actually works) is to deny it:

Women, on the other hand, might call you when you’re away to tell you that they’ve been “out”, but no matter what has happened, you are the one. They seem to genuinely believe that their cheating is different than yours and that when they can “give in” to another man while staying true to you, while you could never do that for them. I’ve never had this song sung to me, but at least once I had the feeling that it’s been implied: 

LOIS: Oh, Bill,
Why can't you behave?
Why can't you behave?
How in hell can you be jealous
When you know, baby, I'm your slave?
I'm just mad for you,
And I'll always be,
But naturally
If a custom-tailored vet
Asks me out for something wet,
When the vet begins to pet, I cry "Hooray!"
But I'm always true to you, darlin', in my fashion,
Yes, I'm always true to you, darlin', in my way.
I enjoy a tender pass
By the boss of Boston, Mass.,
Though his pass is middle-class and notta Backa Bay.
But I'm always true to you, darlin', in my fashion,
Yes, I'm always true to you, darlin', in my way.
There's a madman known as Mack
Who is planing to attack,
If his mad attack means a Cadillac, okay!
But I'm always true to you, darlin', in my fashion,
Yes, I'm always true to you, darlin', in my way.
I've been asked to have a meal
By a big tycoon in steel,
If the meal includes a deal, accept I may.
But I'm always true to you, darlin', in my fashion,
Yes, I'm always true to you, darlin', in my way.
I could never curl my lip
To a dazzlin' diamond clip,
Though the clip meant "let 'er rip," I'd not say "Nay!"
But I'm always true to you, darlin', in my fashion,
Yes, I'm always true to you, darlin', in my way.
There's an oil man known as Tex
Who is keen to give me checks,
And his checks, I fear, mean that sex is here to stay!
But I'm always true to you, darlin', in my fashion,
Yes, I'm always true to you, darlin', in my way.
From Ohio Mister Thorne
Calls me up from night 'til morn,
Mister Thorne once cornered corn and that ain't hay.
Aha!
But I'm always true to you, darlin', in my fashion,
Yes, I'm always true to you, darlin', in my way.
From Milwaukee Mister Fritz
Often moves me to the Ritz,
Mister Fritz is full of Schlitz and full of play.
But I'm always true to you, darlin', in my fashion,
Yes, I'm always true to you, darlin', in my way.
Mister Harris, plutocrat,
Wants to give my cheek a pat,
If the Harris pat
Means a Paris hat,
Bébé, Oo-la-la!
Mais je suis toujour fidèle, darlin', in my fashion,
Oui, je suis toujour fidèle, darlin', in my way.

As a believer in freedom, I've never been a sucker for fidelity. I do appreciate honesty, however. How about you?

Sources / More info: flickr, yt-wasnt, yt-always

Cracanel, cheat, cheating, cheating heart, inselat, insela

The human-faced lamb and bestiality

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Funniest jokes in the world from RD

To be honest, not only that most jokes found by RD to be funniest were rather old, but I felt I know quite a few much funnier. Yet this is rather a confirmation / sign that my sense of humour is off-the-wall. Something I already knew. Recently, Readers Digest completed its top of the best jokes in the world. Though you might have already heard most of them already, here they are..

WINNER

SWEDEN
Visiting the countryside on a hunting trip, the well-dressed man from Stockholm takes aim and shoots a duck. But the fowl drops into a farmer's field, and the farmer claims it. Since both want it, the farmer suggests settling the dispute with an old fashioned hick-kick. "I kick you as hard as I can in the crotch, then you do the same to me," he explains. "Whoever screams the least gets the bird."
The city man agrees. So the farmer winds up and delivers a crushing blow to the man's privates, and he collapses to the ground. Twenty minutes later, when he finally manages to stand, he gasps, "My turn."
"Nah," says the farmer, turning away. "You can keep the duck."

RUNNERS UP
ARGENTINA
An elderly couple goes to Burger King, where they carefully split a burger and fries. A trucker takes pity on them and offers to buy the wife her own meal. "It's all right," says the husband. "We share everything."
A few minutes later, the trucker notices that the wife hasn't taken a bite. "I really wouldn't mind buying your wife her own meal," he insists. "She'll eat," the husband assures him. "We share everything."
Unconvinced, the trucker implores the wife, "Why aren't you eating?"
The wife snaps, "Because I'm waiting for the teeth!"
AUSTRALIA
A polar bear walks into a bar and says, "Give me a scotch and … Coke."
"Why the long pause?" asks the bartender.
"I don't know," says the bear. "I've always had them."
BRAZIL
Tired of waiting in the back of the line to get on Noah's Ark, a flea jumps from one animal to another as she moves closer to the front. She leaps and leaps until she lands on the back of an elephant. The pachyderm turns to its mate and says testily, "I knew it! Here they go with the pushing and shoving!"
CANADA
A man says to a friend, "My wife is on a three-week diet."
"Oh, yeah? How much has she lost so far?"
"Two weeks."

CHINA
My cousin always "borrows" money from her older brother's piggy bank, which drives him crazy. One day, she found the piggy in, of all places, the refrigerator. Inside was this note: "Dear sister, I hope you'll understand, but my capital has been frozen."
CROATIA
A concerned police officer approaches a boy crying in front of a newsstand.
"What's wrong?" he asks.
"Superman isn't out yet!"
"I'll handle it," the cop assures him. "Hey, Superman!" he shouts. "Come on out! We won't hurt you!"
CZECH REPUBLIC
A man calls a radio deejay and says, "I've found a wallet with a hundred thousand koruny inside. There's also a card that says ‘Jan Ziegler, Seifert Street 3, Prague.' " "So?" says the deejay. "What do you want us to do?"
"Would you be so kind as to play the man a song?"

FINLAND
Hannu wants everything to be perfect for his anniversary trip to the hotel where he and his wife honeymooned 30 years earlier. So he gets there a day early to make all the arrangements. That night, he e-mails her but misspells the address and it goes to a recent widow. The next day, the widow's son finds his mother passed out in front of her computer. On the screen is this e-mail: "My darling wife, I've just gotten here and everything's set for your arrival tomorrow. I hope your trip down here will be as pleasant as mine. "P.S. It's really hot!"
FRANCE
President Sarkozy visits a steel factory. To the boss's surprise, the president greets an employee, Morton, with a warm hug. The same thing happens when Barack Obama visits, and again during Vladimir Putin's tour. Unimpressed, the boss says to Morton, "I bet you don't know the pope."
Morton shrugs. "We play golf together."
The gauntlet has been tossed, and the boss pays their way to the Vatican. During the Benediction, Morton slips away. Sure enough, he reappears—side by side with the pope. Two Chinese tourists tap the boss on the shoulder and ask, "Who's the guy in white standing with Morton?"
GERMANY
Wandering around a fairgrounds, a man enters a fortune-teller's tent for a laugh. "I see you're the father of two," says the seer, gazing into her crystal ball. "Ha! That's what you think," says the man scornfully. "I'm the father of three."
"Ha!" says the fortune-teller. "That's what you think."

HUNGARY
Doctor: Have you taken my advice and slept with the window open?
Patient: Yes.
Doctor: So your asthma disappeared completely?
Patient: No, but my watch, TV, iPod, and laptop have.
INDIA
A business executive visits his dear Chinese friend in the hospital. "Li kai yang qi guan," says the sick man feebly. The executive desperately wants to help him, but he doesn't speak Mandarin. "Li kai yang qi guan!" says the patient, as he draws his last breath. Later that year, the executive is in Shanghai on business when he finally learns the meaning of Li kai yang qi guan: "Get off my oxygen tube."
KOREA
A fortune-teller advised me, "Do everything your boss says." Sage advice, I thought, as I was working on an important project. As if I needed more proof of just how good the psychic was, that night, as I read the newspaper, I noticed my horoscope: "Do everything your boss says."
MEXICO
Indians ask their new chief whether the winter will be cold or mild. Since the young chief never learned the ways of his ancestors, he tells them to collect firewood, then he goes off and calls the National Weather Service. "Will the winter be bad?" he asks.
"Looks like it," is the answer.
So the chief tells his people to gather more firewood. A week later, he calls again. "Are you positive the winter will be very cold?" "Absolutely."
The chief tells his people to gather even more firewood, then calls the Weather Service again: "Are you sure?" "I'm telling you, it's going to be the coldest winter on record."
"How do you know?"
"Because the Indians are gathering firewood like crazy!"
NETHERLANDS
A starlet is seated next to a lawyer on a long flight. She craves her sleep, but he keeps waking her up. "Let's play a trivia game," he suggests. "If I answer wrong, I'll pay you $50. If you answer wrong, you owe me $5." The starlet agrees, and the lawyer goes first. "What's the distance between the earth and the moon?"
The starlet hands the lawyer $5. Now it's her turn. "What goes up a mountain on three legs and comes down on four?"
The lawyer is dumbstruck. He scans the Internet, flips through his pocket encyclopedia, and texts every scientist he can find. No dice. Hours later, he wakes up the starlet, hands her $50, and asks, "So what's the answer?" Without a word, she hands him $5 and goes back to sleep.
NORWAY
A woman rubs a lamp and out pops a genie. "You're a kind lady, so I'll grant you one wish," the genie tells her.
"See this cat? I'd rather have a strong, handsome man," she says.
The genie agrees and—poof!—the cat turns into a Brad Pitt clone. The woman leaps into his lap.
"Do you have anything to say before we make love?" she asks.
"Yes," he says. "I bet you wish you hadn't had me neutered last week."
PHILIPPINES
Joe, Mike, Mary, and Tom were talking about their dream jobs. "I want to be a lawyer," Joe began, "so that I can defend my countrymen."
"I want to be a congressman," said Mike, "so I can draft laws to benefit my countrymen."
"I want to be a doctor," said Mary, "so that I can cure my countrymen."
"How about you, Tom? What would you like to be?" asked Joe.
Tom thought a moment and replied, "I'd like to be a countryman."
POLAND
Nearing the end, Stanislaw is surrounded by loved ones. As the final moment approaches, he gathers all his strength and whispers, "I must tell you my greatest secret." His family urges him to go on.
"Before I got married, I had it all," Stanislaw explains. "Fast cars, cute girls, and plenty of money. But a good friend warned me, ‘Get married and start a family. Otherwise, no one will be there to give you a glass of water to drink when you're on your deathbed.' So I took his advice. I traded the girls for a wife, beer for baby food. I sold my Ferrari and invested in college funds. And now here we are. And you know what?"
"What?"
"I'm not even thirsty!"
PORTUGAL
A man is visiting an old friend when a little girl races through the room.
"Diploma," the friend calls after her, "bring us two cups of coffee."
"Diploma? What an odd name," says the visitor. "How did she get it?"
The friend sighs. "I sent my daughter to study at the university in Lisbon, and that's what she came back with."
ROMANIA
Vlad gets pulled over after a high-speed car chase. "I'm going to help you out," says the police officer. "Give me a good excuse and I won't write you a ticket." "Three weeks ago, my wife left me for a cop," Vlad explains. "So when I saw your car coming, I thought you were trying to bring her back."
RUSSIA
Due to the recession, to save on energy costs, the light at the end of the tunnel will be turned off.
—God
SERBIA
A neighbor finds a young boy sitting on the stairs crying. "What's the matter, honey?" she asks him. "It's my father," the boy sobs. "He hit his finger with a hammer."
"Then why are you crying?"
"Because first I laughed!"
SLOVENIA
As they leave the courthouse, a lawyer turns to his grim-looking client and says, "Janez, what's wrong? You were acquitted." "I know, but now I'm really in trouble," says Janez. "I just rented out my apartment for three years."
SPAIN
A beggar approaches a grandmother at the beach with his hands out. "Please, señora," the poor man pleads, "I haven't eaten all day." "Good," says the grandmother. "Now you won't have to worry about cramps when you go for a swim."
SWITZERLAND
Wife: Honey, did you notice? I bought a new toilet brush.
Husband: Yes, I did. But I still prefer the paper.
TAIWAN
Papa Turtle is telling his son a bedtime story. "Once upon a time, there was a white bunny."
"Aw, c'mon, Dad," says the boy. "That's kid stuff. What about some science fiction?"
"All right. Once upon a time, there was a bunny in outer space …"
"Dad! Make it more grown-up."
"Okay, okay. Promise you won't tell Mom."
"I swear."
"Once upon a time, there was a naked bunny …"
THAILAND
"Hurry up or we'll be late!" shouts a teacher to her kindergarten class.
"What's the rush?" a tot asks coolly.
"If we're late, we'll miss your next class!" the teacher reminds him.
The kid shrugs. "If you're in such a hurry, go on without us."
UNITED KINGDOM
"About a month before he died, my grandmother covered my grandfather's back with lard. After that, he went downhill very quickly."
--Comic Milton Jones
UNITED STATES
A priest, a minister, and a rabbi want to see who's best at his job. So they each go into the woods, find a bear, and attempt to convert it. Later they get together. The priest begins: "When I found the bear, I read to him from the Catechism and sprinkled him with holy water. Next week is his First Communion." "I found a bear by the stream," says the minister, "and preached God's Holy Word. The bear was so mesmerized that he let me baptize him." They both look down at the rabbi, who is lying on a gurney in a body cast. "Looking back," he says, "maybe I shouldn't have started with the circumcision." --Submitted by Mitchell Hauser

How did RD choose these jokes? Good question.

In January, RD localized editions from around the world asked their readers to submit their favourite jokes, which were then trimmed to 10. Then readers voted the best. Hopefully, the elections weren’t stolen and / or run on Diebold machines.

In USA, the jury was comprised of:

• Sid Caesar: His 1950s TV hit, Your Show of Shows, introduced America to Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, and Woody Allen.
• Monty Hall: Television producer and host of Let’s Make a Deal.
• Arthur Hiller: Directed comedies like The In-Laws and Silver Streak.
• Rocky Kalish: Wrote for All in the Family, Maude, and Good Times.
• Hal Kanter: Bob Hope’s chief gag writer. Wrote Road to Bali for Hope and Bing Crosby.
• Gary Owens: The voice of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.
• John Rappaport: Writer and producer for M*A*S*H.
• Matty Simmons: Founder of National Lampoon; producer of Animal House and Vacation.

Here are the top 10 clean jokes in the USA, chosen using a similar approach:

Winner: A Priest, a Minister and a Rabbi
A priest, a minister, and a rabbi want to see who’s best at his job. So they each go into the woods, find a bear, and attempt to convert it. Later they get together. The priest begins: "When I found the bear, I read to him from the Catechism and sprinkled him with holy water. Next week is his First Communion."
"I found a bear by the stream," says the minister, "and preached God’s holy word. The bear was so mesmerized that he let me baptize him."
They both look down at the rabbi, who is lying on a gurney in a body cast. "Looking back," he says, "maybe I shouldn’t have started with the circumcision."
Submitted by Mitchell Hauser
Crime and Punishment
A man, shocked by how his buddy is dressed, asks him, "How long have you been wearing that bra?" The friend replies, "Ever since my wife found it in the glove compartment."
Submitted by Braeden Silvermist
Conflict
A ventriloquist is performing with his dummy on his lap. He’s telling a dumb- blonde joke when a young platinum-haired beauty jumps to her feet.
"What gives you the right to stereotype blondes that way?" she demands. "What does hair color have to do with my worth as a human being?" Flustered, the ventriloquist begins to stammer out an apology.
"You keep out of this!" she yells. "I’m talking to that little jerk on your knee!"
Submitted by Nancy Gomes

New Lease on Life
In surgery for a heart attack, a middle- aged woman has a vision of God by her bedside. "Will I die?" she asks.
God says, "No. You have 30 more years to live."
With 30 years to look forward to, she decides to make the best of it. So since she’s in the hospital, she gets breast implants, liposuction, a tummy tuck, hair transplants, and collagen injections in her lips. She looks great!
The day she’s discharged, she exits the hospital with a swagger, crosses the street, and is immediately hit by an ambulance and killed.
Up in heaven, she sees God. "You said I had 30 more years to live," she complains. "That’s true," says God.
"So what happened?"
God shrugs. "I didn’t recognize you."
Submitted by Hank Chawansky
Vow of Silence
Every ten years, the monks in the monastery are allowed to break their vow of silence to speak two words. Ten years go by and it’s one monk’s first chance. He thinks for a second before saying, "Food bad."
Ten years later, he says, "Bed hard."
It’s the big day, a decade later. He gives the head monk a long stare and says, "I quit."
"I’m not surprised," the head monk says. "You’ve been complaining ever since you got here."
Submitted by Alan Lynch
Talking Dog
A guy spots a sign outside a house that reads "Talking Dog for Sale." Intrigued, he walks in.
"So what have you done with your life?" he asks the dog.
"I’ve led a very full life," says the dog. "I lived in the Alps rescuing avalanche victims. Then I served my country in Iraq. And now I spend my days reading to the residents of a retirement home."
The guy is flabbergasted. He asks the dog’s owner, "Why on earth would you want to get rid of an incredible dog like that?"
The owner says, "Because he’s a liar! He never did any of that!"
Submitted by Harry Nelson
Making Sure
Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He’s not breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls 911.
"I think my friend is dead!" he yells. "What can I do?"
The operator says, "Calm down. First, let’s make sure he’s dead."
There’s a silence, then a shot. Back on the phone, the guy says, "Okay, now what?"
Submitted by Gerald Doka
Power of Perception
A turtle is crossing the road when he’s mugged by two snails. When the police show up, they ask him what happened. The shaken turtle replies, "I don’t know. It all happened so fast."
Submitted by Debby Carter
Ghostly Music
A man is walking in a graveyard when he hears the Third Symphony played backward. When it’s over, the Second Symphony starts playing, also backward, and then the First. "What’s going on?" he asks a cemetery worker. "It’s Beethoven," says the worker. "He’s decomposing."
Submitted by Jeremy Hone
A Dog's Life
A poodle and a collie are walking together when the poodle suddenly unloads on his friend. "My life is a mess," he says. "My owner is mean, my girlfriend ran away with a schnauzer, and I’m as jittery as a cat."
"Why don’t you go see a psychiatrist?" suggests the collie.
"I can’t," says the poodle. "I’m not allowed on the couch."
Submitted by L. B. Weinstein

As we know from Jean de Santeuil (not Moliere), castigat ridendo mores, which could be the slogan of Satire, Inc.

Sources / More info: rd-bj, rd-bj-ch, rd-t10-usa, rd bj @ scribd, flags from google

VerbaVolant, humour, humor, fun, joke, jokes, hilarious, hillarious, funny, ha-ha, collection, rd, readers digest, reders digest, reader's digest