Once again Xanga makes me want to scream.

Date rape drug detectors are NOT news, people.  They have been around for almost a decade (I seem to recall hearing about them in 1999; this 2002 article indicates they were already being sold at that point.)  Yet datingish is now getting all kinds of kudos for featuring one in an article.

What's next?  In 2019, will Xanga have an article on how surprised they are that Obama won a Nobel Prize?  Will it be filed under "breaking news"? Will it garner hundreds of comments on how it is "so cool" and the readers "never knew about that?"

I'm distressed by the way people clap every time age-old content is offered, instead of stepping up and demanding professionalism.  Then again, I suppose I shouldn't have expected more from a crowd that made a big deal out of the term "narutard" about eight years after it first rose to prominence.

How would you respond if someone said that to you?

This was written by a friend of mine:

I wound up listening to Rush Limbaugh rant the other day.

He was going on about the New York Times, and how liberal it is.  For those of you unaware of Mr. Limbaugh, he is a right-wing commentator and frequently perceives "liberal bias" in the media.  The topic Mr. Limbaugh was nominally addressing was the declining readership of the New York Times.  The two facts he repeatedly brought up were its liberal bias and its declining readership.

This is pretty much everything that is wrong with American politics.

Mr. Limbaugh either could not or would not look beyond politics at the real reason for declining readership.  If he were familiar with media, he would realize that nearly all newspapers are in decline, as they are being replaced by new media.  Given that he now makes his very living off media, I think it startling if he really does not know this, but I suppose stranger coincidences have happened.  The point that strikes me, though, is that real underlying causes do not stir people up and excite them as much as politically-based arguments.  Therefore there is very little incentive to go into the boring, factual analysis of things, and every economic incentive to substitute sensational or political statements.

This tendency to politicize rather than examine is a travesty, and I do not know how we will fix it.

Here's a picture from the Unification Church's latest mass wedding.

Some of the men and women here are quite attractive.

Why do they need to be thrown together with a random stranger to find love?  I'm sure they don't.  I'm sure people have offered it to them in the past, perhaps even many times.

And yet, they have no trust of these random encounters.  They would rather let some other authority take the decision away from themselves entirely.

What does this mean?  Do they not trust themselves?  Do they not trust strangers?  Do they want to voluntarily surrender control of their lives?

If you're going to fail, fail with excess.  Or, as the case may be, with tastelessness.

How would you react to this?

I have written articles on the American otaku identity. Briefly, in America anime otaku may be considered a subculture, just as punks, goths, and the like are.  In Japan, being an anime otaku is more comparable to being a leper.

 "One. Certain."  Her voice was cool and melodic in the afternoon summer heat.  The blade missed her by millimeters, and I held my breath, not daring to disturb the combatants.  The slightest push could disturb their struggle, and I dared not push it the wrong way.  Why was she only dodging?

"Two. Scientific." She leaned backwards as the silver length passed over her head, close enough to kiss.  Behind her, an elbow stretched, and in front, her hand, index and middle finger extended.

Stupidly, he fell for it.  "And three?"  The blade went up, poised for the killing stroke.

I knew what was coming next, so I turned away.  There was a violent shriek as the air was torn asunder, and I felt the flash even despite my closed eyes.  When I thought it was safe, I ventured a look.

The smell of cooked meat mingled with the odors of dust and ozone.  Two cauterized stumps, shoelaces still neatly tied, lay on the ground.  Behind them a blackened trail led to the stone wall, which had been pulverized, and behind it a black furrow stretched back as far as I could see.  Smoke rose in the distance from what was probably the terminus of the shot.

Northernskylights posted some pretty shocking photos alongside a story of US abuse of Iraqi women.  I was all set to write my local representatives, but since I know some photojournalists, I thought I'd ask around first to see if the story could be corroborated.

As it turns out, panda-dono knew of the images in question - they were already used years ago in a hoax.  They were originally posed photos for some kind of pornography site.

It is really easy to believe this kind of thing could happen.  Vietnam taught us too well of the horrors of war, of the human spirit sundered by constant stress.  Men who were once good gave in to drugs, to rape, to murder, and of course we fear the same thing happening over again.  That there was a false report does not mean we should necessarily relax.  It does, however, mean that we should think about how we accept information.  Being too cynical about human nature makes one just as easily gulled as being too innocent.

[02:52] moritheil: I don't know why, but a lot of these girls combine sexual voraciousness with cluelessness.  It's kind of bizarre.
[02:53] akhalde: i don't understand that.
[02:53] moritheil: If they're clueless and they know it . . . isn't it a bit like going to black diamond trails right when you've picked up skis?  Or attempting a risky jump right when you've learned how to wear a parachute?
[02:54] moritheil: I think, sometimes, it's the expectation that they will be interested or obsessed with sex.
[02:54] akhalde: that is really a lot of the issue, especially in teenaged/early 20s females.
[02:54] moritheil: As if they grew up in circles where everyone was mad with lust between the ages of 12 and 24.
[02:55] akhalde: agreed.
[02:55] akhalde: and, really, that's a stereotype perpetualized by popular media.
[02:56] moritheil: When I examined the male stereotype I asked the question, "But surely we aren't all that dumb; who doesn't realize stereotypes exist?"
[02:56] akhalde: girls are expected to whore around, now, because of shows like the hills, dawson's creek and god forbid, the OC. on top of that, there are the mass media outlets pimping the idea that sex is cheap and easy, but risky--and then dropping details from there.
[02:56] moritheil: Then I got comments telling me no, people around really don't realize it.
[02:56] moritheil: I facepalm for the future; I facepalm for humanity.
[02:57] akhalde: i facepalm my ass straight to a new planet.
[02:57] moritheil: I dub thee Captain Facepalm.
[02:57] akhalde: *tips hat*