Wonder Brad

Bald May Not Be So Beautiful

2008-07-31T00:05:00.001-04:00

I was reading sories today about Stacey Fearnall, a 36 year old waitress who was fired for shaving her head. She wasn't really fired, but what mother of two working three jobs can afford to take a summer off to allow her hair to grow back?

She was taking part in the cancer fundraiser Cops for Cancer. Participants get people to pledge a certain amount per person, and in return they have their head shaved in public to raise money and awairness. Stacey Fearnall Raised 2700 dollars (presumably Canadian) through her pledges, but upon returning to work was informed that she would not be needed for the summer.

Make no mistake, I think that was a horrible decision on her employer's part. At the same time, I think that was their right. The restaurant has a dress/appearance code for employees that she was well aware of prior to participating. They also offered that she could wear a wig to keep in compliance.

I think she did a good thing, and the restaurant missed a great opportunity for good publicity, but the owners have every right to run the business as they see fit. What do you think?

Shadow Puppets on Steroids

2008-07-31T00:01:00.001-04:00

I'm probably late to the rally on this one, but this is just amazing to me.

Charity Starts at Taxes?

2008-07-29T00:05:00.001-04:00

I was watching a show on TV today. I don't remember the show, but it was one of those where some politician is going on about the importance of government programs for the poor and underpriveleged.
I pay my taxes, and donate time and money to charity. I don't need the government telling me I need to help MORE. When was the last time any of them spent an entire week helping build a playground for neighborhood kids?
It got me thinking. Do you think the government should be involved in charity? Maybe you think it's great. Maybe you think the money is just mismanaged. Let's hear it in the comments

A Few Simple Things Anyone Can Do to Make a Better World

2008-07-29T00:04:00.005-04:00

Sometimes it can be hard to find the time/money to give to charity. It can be tough enough keeping our own lives in order sometimes, so I thought I would list a few ways that we can all help out, even save some money, and hopefully have a little fun too.

1) Check Online Charity Auctions Before Ebay

Sites like shopgoodwill.com may not be as big or well known as Ebay, but they do have a decent selection of items at a good price. Besides, knowing that "Proceeds from shopgoodwill.com enhance mission-driven services provided by Goodwill Industries " kinda makes you feel good about your purchase.

2) Buy Products that Donate to Charity

Products like Newman's Own donate huge chunks of money to charities, and are often as good, or better than their name brand counterparts. It's a small way that you can make a difference in the world without making a huge dent in your wallet.

3) If You Have a Blog Provide Free Ad Space

I'm just getting started here, but you see to the right, one of the first things I did was place a banner for FreeRice (we'll get to that in a sec). I don't get anything for that, but I support their cause, and even if I just send one person their way, I have made a difference. Do you have just one spot you can spare on your site or blog for a charity you support?

4) Play a Game!

This one is my favorite. I mentioned FreeRice on number 3, and the link is to the right. It's a word game you play online where every time you get an answer correct, they will donate 20 grains of rice to starving people. It doesn't sound like much, but I did the math, and last month users donated over 100,000 pounds of rice.

The concept is so simple it is amazing. The game, through a system that keeps the words at the correct level for each person, is designed to help people learn the english language better. It works whether you are in preschool, harvard, or just learning english as a second language. The money comes from sponsors ads on the site that change with each new word. The UN distributes the rice.

There's a video here that shows the distribution of the rice.

A Bit of Eco Fun

2008-07-29T00:01:00.001-04:00

Today's posts have been a little more serious than I like, so here's a bit of fun. Most of it is geared towards kids, but is amusing enough for the adults as well. So here's a few links to some sites with games that will not only keep you entertained, but maybe help broaden your understanding of the environment.

ecogamer games A decent collection of games centered around the environment. Mostly geared towards school aged kids, but still some fun to be found.

Environmental Games For Kids The name says it all. Some amusing games here, but some I tried did not work.

WolfQuest Probably the neatest one of the bunch. You play the part of a wolf, and can join a pack made up of your friends, or computer controlled wolves. "Designed for players age nine to adult, WolfQuest will teach wolf behavior and ecology through its exciting gameplay and intense social interactions." The video below is corny as anything but the game isn't bad, especially for kids.

Some People's Parents

2008-07-28T00:04:00.006-04:00

This is one of the most bizarre things I have ever heard. new Zealand is seeing a rise in strange names for children. No I don't mean names like Shequanna, Seven, Apple, or any of the other names we hear and think "that's odd". Those all sound normal compared to Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii. Yep, that was her name.

Nine year old Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii is the subject of a custody dispute, and has won the right to change her name due to social stigma. That's not the only strange name either. Others include Number 16 Bus Shelter, Violence, and twins named Benson and Hedges.

I dunno. I think it's the parents' right to name their kids what they like. I can see the point that these are over the top, but is it really so bad that the child should be placed in the guardianship of the court?

Einstein is an Illusion

2008-07-28T00:03:00.002-04:00

Albert Einstein Marilyn Monroe Illusion
This is a really cool illusion. At first glance it is obviously Einstein, but as you step back (or squint and kind of blur your vision) it changes.

How many people can you identify here? Now look here and see how many you got right.

Einstein Mask

A Little Mosquito Told Me,,.

2008-07-28T00:01:00.001-04:00

this is really cool. These are ringtones that you can download for your phone that we older people can't hear.

Mosquito Ringtones

As we get older the range of sounds we can hear gets narrower, and we start to lose the ability to hear certain sounds. The ringtones on the site are neat, but even more interesting to me is seeing how far down the list I got before hearing nothing.

Sunday Funnies

2008-07-27T11:55:00.021-04:00

Since it's Sunday, let's have some comics.

nataliedee.com

toothpastefordinner.com

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Something Cool From Google

2008-07-26T00:00:00.005-04:00

I know I know, what a shock. This is one of the coolest things I have seen in a long time.

Google Base is a new beta product on the Google site. It uses dropdown menus to search given topics. My favorite is the recipes section. It makes it easy to find recipes based on what you are craving, and what you have on hand.

Looking for a car? No worries. Just enter the criteria at the top and you have a list of vehicles matching what you want.

It's really a neat feature. Give it a try.

My 5 Favorite Conspiracies

2008-07-26T00:00:00.004-04:00

Conspiracies are fun aren't they? Sometimes you have to wonder how the people that make them up are still able to breathe and blink at the same time. These are 5 of my favorites in no particular order.

1) Marlboro is owned by the KKK

I really love this one. Smokers come in every race, but if my personal experience is any indication, more white people smoke Marlboro brand cigarettes than anyone else.

Marketing to your target audience is good, and I could understand the logic if they said the KKK owns the patents on mayonnaise because everyone knows that we white folks love some Mayo. KKK members, and white supremacists in general, may be dumb, but do you think they are dumb enough to market a product to "their people" that will kill them?

On second thought, let's keep this one going. Then maybe more Klan members will take up smoking to help "support the cause". That would be natural selection at its finest.

2) KFC Makes Black Men Impotent

Apparently the Klan is pretty business savvy because now they own KFC too. Not only that, but their top scientists have found a way to formulate a substance that only makes black men impotent. somebody is giving them way too much credit here. You really want me to believe that a group of men who run around in pointy hats while not being The Pope, are actually intelligent enough to pull this off? Riiiiiiiiight.

3) Wingdings Font Contains Hidden Messages

The theory is that the Microsoft font Wingdings contains anti semitic messages. If you type NYC in WingDings, you get the symbols for skull and crossbones, Star of David, and a thumbs up. Microsoft of course says it is coincidence and not done on purpose. Although I doubt that they actually intended an anti semitic message, I did find some neat items while playing around with webdings (another Microsoft font). for NYC you get eye, heart, and a city scene. Coincidence?

4) Social Security Numbers Are Assigned Based on Race

Where do people come up with this stuff? Apparently the government decided that white folks have an even 5th digit in their SSN and everyone else gets odd numbers. I'm guessing that this is so their partners at Marlboro and KFC can screen applicants based on the application alone.

5)Reptilians are running the world

I wish I could make this stuff up. There are people who actually believe that shapeshifting reptilian lifeforms are running things here on earth David Icke "...contends that most of the world's leaders, from Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton and George W. Bush to members of the British Royal Family, are in fact related to 7-foot (2.1 m) tall, blood-drinking, reptilians from the star system Alpha Draconis." The sad part is, that's not even his most far fetched theory. His site is good for a laugh or two....or at the very least, a raised eyebrow and sigh of concern for the poor man's mental health.

Shortest Movie Ever

2008-07-25T00:00:00.002-04:00

Not much going on today. I just watched a few movies.

You ever watch a movie and think "wow they are duuuuuumb". It could be the greatest movie ever, but in the back of your head you can't get over the fact that none of this would be happening if you were there. This happened to me today.

I think everyone and their dog has seen The Mummy by now, and that is the movie that got me thinking about this. Maybe it's just me, but whenever I find an ancient book that is sealed with a device that requires a key that is obtained from another site in another remote location I think twice about opening it. Call me superstitious if you like, but there's just something foreboding about that.

Let's say I do go crazy and open it, when a guy says "What's it say?", I am certainly not reading aloud from The Book of The Dead before I even translate it. Especially after thinking about the aforementioned locks.

My version of The Mummy would have been

other person: "What's it say?"
me: "I dunno lemme translate it first....oooooohhhhh it resurects an ancient evil. Let's get back to the museum."
Other Person: "Ok. Good call not reading that to me right away"

If I had been Frodo in The Lord of The Rings I would have just said "Screw you Gandalf you're a wizard, get one of those big eagle things to take me to Mordor. To heck with all that walking. Better yet, just zap me there with your abra cadabra."

That's all I have for today.

Have you ever had a moment like that in a movie? Tell me about it. What movie were you watching when you realized you were a fictional genius?....or at least smarter than that dolt on the screen.

PS in case you were wondering. The answer to yesterday's riddle is a coffin

Green is the new black?

2008-07-24T00:04:00.000-04:00

So a lot of people are going "Green", and that's a good thing right? One of the biggest trends is alternative fuel vehicles. They sound great on the surface, but Hydrogen actually uses more energy to extract than it creates for a vehicle. Hybrids/Electric are much more efficient, but considering that they seem to be a fashion statement I am sure we will be seeing many trade ins as trends in style change. What happens to the batteries? Maybe we should just work on a more efficient combustion engine.

What do you think? Is this green trend just a fashion statement that will pass, or is it here to stay? Are electric cars going to be our saviors, or do they just transfer pollution from the air to the ground? Let me know what you think in the comments.

what could it be

2008-07-24T00:03:00.000-04:00

The man who made it doesn't want it. The man who bought it doesn't need it. The man who uses it doesn't know it. What is it?

Yesterday's answer:

inkstand

Oh the stupidity!

2008-07-24T00:02:00.004-04:00

Now 3 prime examples of what not to do.

1) I'm sure when you were a kid your mom taught you to look both ways before crossing the street. Patrick Meier's mom probably did too. She probably should have mentioned for him to look straight in front of him as well. Mr Meier stepped off the curb and straight into the side of a moving bus. The police report indicates that he is fine, but I imagine that if he had been there a few seconds sooner he could have earned one of these

2) In Cookville Tennessee, a group of thieves decided to steal from a goodwill store. A chair dropped off outside the store caught their eye. The threesome loaded it up into the back of their truck and sped away. You may be asking, what kind of person would steal from a goodwill shop? Well the kind that can't afford gas for their getaway car. Although the getaway probably started out well enough it soon sputtered to a stop at the exit to the shopping center where the truck ran out of gas. The three were later arrested when the police were called to check on a "suspicious vehicle" in the parking lot only a few yards from the site of their grand heist.

3) If you are going to fake your death, don't make jokes about it. I'm sure many of you remember the tv show M*A*S*H. If you do, you will get a kick out of this next one. It seems Samuel Israel found himself in a spot of trouble with the law, so he drove his car onto a bridge on the Hudson River where it was found abandoned. He was hoping people would think he just offed himself, but the message "Suicide is painless" written in dust on the hood of his car put a kink in his plans. It wasn't long before Samuel Israel realized he wasn't getting away, and turned himself in.

For those of you that don't know the song "Suicide Is Painless" was the theme song from M*A*S*H, and was first used as a ballad sung while performing a wake of sorts for a person who had been fooled into thinking his colleagues were helping him kill himself.

yahtzee!

2008-07-24T00:01:00.000-04:00

Just something fun I found on the intertubes. If you like games, or satire, or humor, or funny animated videos making fun of things, then check out Zero Punctuation. If you don't like any of those things then you must be my boss. Hi Mr. Boringston

Something to Consider

2008-07-22T23:56:00.000-04:00

Conservative talk show host Michael Savage is in hot water over comments made about autism. He reportedly called it a fraud and a racket. here's the audio clip

A link to the audio is here

I think his comments went over the line, but on the other hand I can see his point. Medical professionals, and society at large love to peg people into categories, and some people take advantage of this.

Enough about what I think. What do you think? Do you think his comments were on the mark, or do you think he went over the line? let me know in the comments

Riddle of the day

2008-07-22T23:41:00.001-04:00

What 8 letter has kst as the middle, in the beginning, and the end?
Answer tomorrow

How Stupid Can You Be?

2008-07-22T23:04:00.000-04:00

This one comes to us from Fox 17 in Nashville Tennessee.

Fred Green, a 28 year old man reminds us that no good deed goes unpunished. At least this time it was deserved.

When an officer in Nashville arrived at the scene of a call, he found that his car would not start. A friendly samaritan helped him out and the officer was on his way. Bout that t went straight back to the scene. There he found our helpful citizen at the same house trying again to to steal copper from the air conditioning unit at the residence.

Mr Green says he figured if he helped get the car started, the officer would leave, and he could get back to his dirty work.