Alien Cicadas

Chinese Man Mauled to Death by Tigers

Japan

The Boston Globe always has phenomenal photos of world events, from the Gulf Oil spill, the Middle East protests and the Haitian earthquake to the World Cup and Carnival.

This photo from Japan is one of the most striking photos I've seen from The Big Picture:

A photograph amidst rubble in Higashimatsushima City, Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan, March 14, 2011. (Reuters/Kyodo News) #

The gays killed our fish & wildlife!

I've heard a lot of wacky conspiracy theories recently, but I think this lady makes the most sense........



Just kidding! Hoo boy, nation, you have screwed up. As if Arkansas needed more punishment for being Arkansas.

T.G.I.Def.Leppard

IF YOUR WIRED YOUR FIRED [sic]

Roomba, Meet Scooba. Humans, Meet your End

Happy 2011 everyone! We should all resolve to watch more The Jetsons.

It seems that the future is now and we're all going to die after watching 2012.

Up first: Tom Selleck and AT&T tell us how it's gonna be, and they're usually right.

Then, take a look at this insanely low-tech solution for a high-tech lifestyle.


Finally, and I'm talking to you, Real Housewives of Orange County, Atlanta, New York City, New Jersey, Beverly Hills, DC and Miami:

THE SCOOBA 230


Why did it take so long to make a Roomba for hardwood floors?

Also, when am I going to get my Rosie?

Worst rap....or best rap?

I was relieved a little early for my lunch break today, so I caught the tail end of WKNC's Local Lunch, and boy did I find a gem. You could say I'm not very up on the local hip-hop scene. I only know about Endless Mic (because I know them) and Mosadi Music (because Blaze and jtan's band will be covering them at the rescheduled Band Swap Night 3).

But, LET ME TELL YOU that I was mostly put off by the following chorus by locals Kooley High:

"The sun never goes down when I rhyme/ cuz this is eastern standard time"

In a recent study, 2 out of 2 participants asked if these lyrics corresponded to Sesame Street.

The "emcees" go on to say

"3 hours in front of LA, 24 behind a new day"

and

"Just pause for a second/ because our record/ make y'all wanna slide like a card on credit"

They even fit in a reference to Bobby Boucher!

I need to know: is the current trend in popular music, ie. leaving out the rock and bringing in twee folky tunes about nice, innocuous and/or silly things, infiltrating even the hip-hop sphere?

Back in the day (circa 2000) when my friend Tim tried to make me appreciate rap music, lyrics were a little deeper, less obvious, more intense. Case in point, "Twisted Heat" featuring Drag-On and Twista: "Cuz the only mother fuckin' magazine that I read/ is the one I buy my guns from/ How many bullets you could digest in that one stomach/ I suggest y'all run from it". Full lyrics here (though slightly inaccurate).

Twista and Drag On - Twisted Heat - MyVideo Österreich

So honestly, am I to believe that Kooley High is as good as all the press says (wicked word play?), or are they just the new hipster "I-like-rap-when-it-is-intellectually-punny-and-only-chummily-combative" darlings?

Follow-Up: Why The Large Hadon Collider Might Kill Us All

This probably won't happen. But it could. Maybe. Probably not, though.

During the Manhattan Project, there was a substantial number of scientists that thought splitting an atom would create a chain reaction that would ignite the atmosphere and extinguish life on Earth. They were wrong, but it is good to have a few haters around to at least make you consider the possibility that pressing "that" button might be a really, really bad idea.