Jessie

only in china would you find people with english names like "smacker" and "samanfar." ;-) - Jessie

and then there is Lanceral! - Anne Bouey

@anne, followed shortly by "miguel," "alegra," and half my other classmates from NCKU, though my personal favorite was "tomhanks" the high school student. - Jessie

"In fact, said his co-author, James Fowler, an associate professor of political science at the University of California at San Diego, their research found that "if your friend's friend's friend becomes happy, that has a bigger impact on you being happy than putting an extra $5,000 in your pocket."" - Jessie via Bookmarklet

"Because most of the Y chromosome remains unchanged from father to son, the proportions of Sephardic and Moorish ancestry detected in the present population are probably the same as those just after the 1492 expulsions. A high proportion of people with Sephardic ancestry was to be expected, Ray said. "Jews formed a very large part of the urban population up until the great conversions," he said. Ray raised the question of what the DNA evidence might mean personally. "If four generations on I have no knowledge of my genetic past, how does that affect my understanding of my own religious association?"" - Jessie via Bookmarklet

"A U.S. attorney in Los Angeles went after a misdeed in Missouri—when state and federal prosecutors there didn't think Drew's actions constituted a crime—with a crazy-broad reading of a statute written to punish computer hacking. Just about every single law professor and editorial writer to weigh in has condemned the prosecutorial overreaching. But the failure to make a valid case against Drew begs a larger question: Is there a better way to go after cyber-bullying? Or is this the kind of troublemaking, however nefarious, the government shouldn't try to punish?" - Jessie via Bookmarklet

love it! - Anne Bouey

"Squeezed by classroom budget cuts, the Rancho Bernardo High School teacher is selling ads on his exams to cover the costs of printing them." - Jessie via Bookmarklet

That is awesome! What's interesting about that, however, is that Poway is one of the wealthiest school districts in Southern CA. Perhaps the spate of recent state supreme court lawsuits the district has faced is what is really draining the cash? - Soup

""There is no reason not to be a pirate," according to Vice Admiral William Gortney, who commands the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet. "The vessel I'm trying to pirate, they won't shoot at me. I'm going to get my money." Even pirates who are intercepted have little to fear. "They won't arrest me because there's no place to try me."" - Jessie via Bookmarklet

@soup, put down the dr. pepper and back away slowly. ;-P - Jessie

@Jessie, NEVAH! - Soup

""I thought I was being original," said Oliphant, now in her third year at the University of St. Andrews. "But my high school class president came here, too. And when I got here, it was all 'Hi, I'm from Massachusetts,' 'Hi, I'm from New York.'" - Jessie via Bookmarklet

It's even cheaper to attend Canadian universities like I am doing now. - Soup

i would've gone to school in scotland or some other place if i had given it more thought and consideration. totally - Cee Bee

"When Donna Campiglia learned recently that a genetic test might be able to determine which sports suit the talents of her 2 ½-year-old son, Noah, she instantly said, Where can I get it and how much does it cost? "I could see how some people might think the test would pigeonhole your child into doing fewer sports or being exposed to fewer things, but I still think it's good to match them with the right activity," Campiglia, 36, said as she watched a toddler class at Boulder Indoor Soccer in which Noah struggled to take direction from the coach between juice and potty breaks." - Jessie via Bookmarklet

Forgetting one moment the (silly) idea that physical talent is all in the genetics, and the idea that you can ignore personality and temperament - even accepting those (I wouldnt) this is still flawed. The test it is likely to only cover a small number of outdoors activities and sports - perhaps as low as 10. So it will try to tell you your child is better for track or tennis, when it could be that your child would also love climbing, or rowing, or hiking, or water polo, dog running, or any number of activities not in the test's list. - Joelle Nebbe

Let me know where they develop a test that will tell me what types of sports I'll like enough to bother getting out of bed for. - Soup

"After interviewing several representatives of AIDS groups on Thursday, Belgian journalist Tom Van de Weghe and his production team from Flemish public television VRT were beaten and robbed of cash and equipment by 12 men recruited by authorities in Henan province, a VRT spokesperson said." - Jessie via Bookmarklet

"The boys and girls leaping and spinning here on a hard linoleum floor are the children of Cambodia's underclass, like thousands who fill the slums and back streets of Phnom Penh - children who spend their evenings, as K.K. put it, "begging and digging through garbage to find food." K.K., whose childhood was not so very different from theirs, says he teaches them to find pride in who they are. One wall of his center is marked with small graffiti from his students: "I want to be a rapper," "I want to be a D.J.," "I want to be a doctor."" - Jessie via Bookmarklet

"The Giant Gummy Bear on a Stick represents the most delicious candy confection that man has ever produced. Hand made (with gloves on) in the US, the Giant Gummy Bear is 88 times larger than a standard gummy bear. Each Giant Gummy Bear weighs half a pound and comes on a stick for easy, mess-free snacking." - Jessie via Bookmarklet

*want* - Jessie

"An eight-year-old German schoolboy who wanted to complain to his mother about being sent out of class took his teacher's car and crashed it, police said." - Jessie via Bookmarklet

"Now the Czech Republic is about to assume the rotating presidency of the European Union and there is palpable fear that Klaus will embarrass the world's biggest trading bloc and complicate its efforts to address the economic crisis and expand its powers. His role in the Czech Republic is largely ceremonial, but he remains a powerful force here, has devotees throughout Europe and delights in basking in the spotlight." - Jessie via Bookmarklet

A sobering and refreshing change - Henry Winckelmann

"You earn gold by "farming," which is the slang term for the monotonous quests players slog through each day, that generally involve killing X monsters, or collecting X items and getting gold in return. Over and over and over again. For hours. Active players will need to do this tedious farming about two days a week, to fund the actual fun part of their game. So basically not only do you have to work a day job to pay for the game, but your character also has to have a day job to pay for his raiding." - Jessie via Bookmarklet

"Three Norwegian tourists came under fire and one was shot after the satellite navigation system in their car guided them straight into one of Rio de Janeiro's most dangerous slums." - Jessie via Bookmarklet

"You’re going to see this a lot in the next couple minutes: a whole bunch of guys hanging off the back of nearly every god damned vehicle. I don’t know why – nowhere in the Joe canon does it specify why they’ve taken their design cues from a Central American public transit system." - Jessie via Bookmarklet

Now i don't feel so bad my parents never bought me any GI Joe stuff. I'm pretty sure my star wars guys could have kicked their asses anyway. - Steve Craft

"Imagine showing up for war one day, and they tell you to get in this thing. The helmet this guy is wearing is going to serve about the same purpose as aluminum foil on a baked potato" - Steve Craft

"THE PATIENT POOPS A LUNG" - Jim Norris

Love House. Hugh Laurie makes me want to contract a rare illness so that I can get treated at his fictitious hospital. *sigh* So brilliant, so emotionally unavailable. (Sorry Tudor, don't read this. Oops, too late!) - Jeanette Martinez

This is so awesome and true. FADE TO AWESOME indeed. - Chieze Okoye

"Almost a fifth of Amsterdam's popular marijuana-selling coffee shops will be closed down because they are too close to schools, the city council said Friday." - Jessie via Bookmarklet

That was the funniest thing about Amsterdam... You went to a cafe if you wanted coffee and a coffe shop if you wanted weed :P - The Last Sound You Hear

WTF! Time to close the schools then.. Weed before education!! - L0GiX

"Jackson, whose once-amazing career has been eclipsed in recent years by reports of bizarre behavior, as well as legal and financial troubles, is said to have changed his name to Mikaeel and taken the shahada -- or made a declaration of belief -- as part of his conversion to Islam, Al-Arabiya said Friday." - Jessie via Bookmarklet

really, steve? no comment? ;-) - Jessie

There were too many going through my head at once Jessie, my brain temporarily exploded. Sorry to dissapoint. :) - Steve Craft

This is very strange, and wholly unexpected. - Jamelle

""Yang Yang was so cute and I just wanted to cuddle him. I didn't expect he would attack," the 20-year-old student, surnamed Liu, said in a local hospital, according to the official Xinhua News Agency." - Jessie via Bookmarklet

Whaaaa? "It was cute so I hugged it"? That's the stupidest logic I've ever heard. - Soup

this reminds me of the idiots who stole a koala from the sf zoo a few years ago because it was cute and one of them wanted to give it to his girlfriend. - Jessie

"Obese people have the right to two seats for the price of one on flights within Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Thursday." - Jessie via Bookmarklet

i have a problem with that. a "right?" - Cee Bee

interesting in light of the difference with u.s. airlines, whose perspective seems to be that the ticket price entitles a passenger to a certain amount of space (one seat) and if a passenger can't fit in that space, he/she needs to buy another ticket. - Jessie

Hm. So the article says it's seen as a disability that the airline has to accommodate. I understand it from that perspective. What if the person has some other kind of disability that causes them to take up a lot of space? They need to bring multiple oxygen tanks, have to have their leg stretched out straight in front of them, etc. Do people in those situations have the right to multiple seats for one ticket price, too? - Rochelle

"An Australian outback mayor's plea for lovelorn female "ugly ducklings" to move to a remote mining town to reverse a shortage of eligible women has won him the country's yearly award for outrageous sexism." - Jessie via Bookmarklet

"Disney movies always make sure the villain gets what they've got coming to them in the end. And, sometimes, Disney gives them what they had coming, and then way, way more. Here are seven Disney villains who got dispatched in (sometimes literally) gut-wrenching ways sure to keep the kiddies up for many nights." - Jessie via Bookmarklet