Category Archives: Culture

Why Your State Sucks – ouch!

Culture, Humour, Life, Society

Ouch! Talk about cutting to the quick. TIME magazine has an article “Why Your State Sucks: The Great American Map of Fail” with a map of the 50 states and one simple fact about them. The thing is, the fact is something awful about each state! Having lived in Massachusetts for 13 years, it comes as no surprise that we’re famous (notorious?) for bad drivers. And it should be no surprise to anyone that Hawaii is the most expensive place to live.

Some of them are quite ironic. California with the dirtiest air (I said ironic, not bewildering) and Utah with highest porn usage (and all those Mormons, many of whom are not even supposed to own radios or TVs!).

But Rhode Island with the most drug use? Washington and bestiality? (How do you even begin to measure that? never mind, I don’t really want to know.) Maine the dumbest? But I think the most shocking ones are tornadoes in Minnesota and ugly people in North Dakota. I can’t recall ever hearing of a tornado in Minnesota. Blizzards, yet, but tornadoes? Actually, I’ve never heard that North Dakota is brimming with ugly people either.

Here’s a link to the map directly. Maybe you’ll learn something too!

Not the center of the universe

Culture, Life, Logic, Science

This is amazing: http://primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe/. After it loads, move the gray-square-button-slider under the picture to the left to see smaller, and to the right to see larger.

Looking at something like this really makes me appreciate how vast everything is, also puts into perspective how minor my problems and worries are. A teeny blip in the grand scheme of things. How lucky we are, with everything out in the universe (or multiverse) to have things in our world that are so pleasant, like music.

Speaking of music, careful, there’s music on the site! It’s not loud or annoying, but be aware in case you are at work and decide to peek.

Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell is no more

Culture, Life, Politics, Society

?By ending ?Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell,? no longer will our nation be denied the service of thousands of patriotic Americans forced to leave the military, despite years of exemplary performance, because they happen to be gay,? Mr. Obama said in a statement after the cloture vote. ?And no longer will many thousands more be asked to live a lie in order to serve the country they love.? – as quoted in the New York Times.

How wonderful is this news!? Now gay people can serve in the military, just like everyone else.

Next up: let’s let them marry as well!