This is Troy.
He is 39 years old.
His wife’s name is Paige.
They have three kids.
They live in Alabama.
Troy is a Republican Attorney General.
Troy has been very outspoken against homosexuality.
Paige recently caught Troy having sex with his male assistant in their bedroom.
Way to live the stereotype, Troy.
(via Susan, de la Wonkette)
The Wall Street Journal reports: Hasbro Games is taking its products to Hollywood with the intent of making feature films based on their acclaimed boardgames - such as Monopoly, Ouija, and Candy Land.
Casting Suggestion: Monopoly’s Rich Uncle Pennybags should be played by Wilford Brimley. And yes, this also counts as a Blogadilla Look-Alike.
Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Bonus Round: A Monopoly themed Reebok Reverse Jam Mid, coming out in late August 2008.
(not actual photo)
Yesterday, around 10:40 AM, several residents of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties (California) reported seeing a large ball of fire falling from the sky. No FAA reports of missing aircraft, etc.
If you personally saw this or you have photos, please let us know what you saw.
(via Susan)
Fellow Californians: starting tomorrow, your cellphone conversations are going to be interrupted by driving.
As of July 1st, it will be a state law: your cellphone must be hands-free while driving. And if you’re under 18, no phone for you.
Further information: L.A. Times.
(photos from Fishki and Andrea Harner)
First American president George Washington has a phallic national monument, a post, a state, a Sweat-Hog, and a Denzel named after him.
Current president George W. Bush may soon receive an equally appropriate honor:
The Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is proposing a vote for this November’s ballot - to rename San Francisco’s “Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant” the “George W. Bush Sewage Plant.”
God Bless America.
Though China has five Olympic mascots (”The Fuwa”), several others never made it past the drawing board.
A Blogadilla exclusive: rejected Chinese Olympic mascots.
Maomao - Lil’ Mao Zedong.
Melmel - The Melamine Cat.
I take pleasure in knowing that I’d be shot for doing this if I lived in China.
The pattern of recent disasters in China has had many superstitious people concerned about the Olympic Mascots (the Fuwa) - claiming that each of the five reflects/predicts a particular disaster. According to Reuters, Chinese censors have made efforts to remove posts about the Fuwa superstitions, struggling to keep the air of the upcoming Olympics at a rosy-fresh note.
Recently, the fifth and final Fuwa prophecy has been supposedly fulfilled.
Huanhuan - The Olympic Flame - (“The Bearer of Incendiary Strife”) Starting in March 2008, this Olympic Torch Relay may go down in history as one of the most protested and problematic.
Jingjing - The Giant Panda - (“The Lord of Angry Earth”) The panda patron of Sichuan Province has been associated with the disastrous 7.9 May 12th earthquake that occurred there, which left 69,000 dead and over a million stranded or homeless. The epicenter of the earthquake was near the Wulong Panda Research Center.
Yíngying - The Tibetan Antelope - (“The Creature of Righteous Unrest”) On March 10, 2008 - the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising Day - demonstrations began in China. By March 14th, destructive riots ensued in several regions of China.
Nini - The Swallow/Shayan Kite - (“The Bearer of Unfortunate Wind”) April 28, China Railway Train T195 crashed near the city of Zibo in Shandong Province, killing 72 people and injuring more than 420. The nearby city of Weifang has had a long association with Shayan kites.
Bèibei - The Chinese Sturgeon - (“The Bringer of Torrent and Flood”) Over the last month, flooding in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan Provinces has displaced thousands of people and over 1,000 people are missing or dead.
A West London Burger King franchise is now offering the world’s most expensive burger - known as “The Burger” - for a whopping $200.00 (proceeds go to charity).
Check out the recipe:
Wagyu beef, white truffles, Pata Negra ham, Cristal onion straws, Modena balsamic vinegar, lambs lettuce, pink Himalayan rock salt, organic white wine and shallot infused mayonnaise in an Iranian saffron and white truffle dusted bun.
A nearly six-foot-long Black Headed Python appeared in the toilet of a 10th floor apartment in Darwin, Australia.
The likeliest explanation: it is a pet that escaped through sewer pipes.
The second likeliest explanation: someone pooped a python.
(photographed by Philip Gostelow for The National)
The South China Mall:
1,500 spaces, only ~10 functioning stores.
“. . . the mall entered the world pre-ruined . . . “
(via The National, via BLDG Blog)
According to a recent study by the Dutch Center for Insurance Statistics, traffic accidents and incidents such as fire and theft actually occur slightly less on Friday the 13th (in the Netherlands).
Ironically, there are also less incidents of killing sprees involving the undead in hockey masks.
This month’s issue of Wired magazine ran an article about MegaPhone - turning big-screen billboards into giant game screens, your cellphone becomes a game controller, and all you have to do is call the phone number posted on the screen and you’re playing video games on the side of a building.
Recently, Palo Alto based product engineering firm MindTribe has placed a 65″ plasma screen in a front window with the same idea in mind. You dial the phone number on the screen and you are now playing a version of Tetris while standing in the middle of the sidewalk (and it’s free). Bonus: if you get a high score, your snapshot goes up on their website.
In the 7th century BC, Sappho - poet and resident of the Greek island of Lesbos - wrote of her great love of women, and thus the term “lesbian” was born.
As well as the ancient Greek sport of hot girl-on-girl pillowfighting.
The 100,000 current residents of the island of Lesbos are now taking it back - citing that the use of “lesbian” to denote female homosexuality violates their human rights, as the “original Lesbians.”
There’s a bad “Who’s on First” comedy dialogue waiting to be written about this - it starts with “Where are you from?”
As many of us had wished-upon those (bastard) classmates who were “successful” in high school: a recent study showed that 29% of high school seniors who were “doing well” failed to become financially independent by age 26, and 20% failed to meet their expected life goals at age 26.
Dr. John Schulenberg, professor of developmental psychology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor:
“We used to think that if things were going well in high school, they’d continue to go well.”
Ha. Ha.
(via Susan, via Psychology Today)
(photo: AP)
Though technically they aren’t “lost” - they know exactly where they are - this population near the Peruvian/Brazilian border has had no known contact with the “outside world” until last month. Recent aerial photos taken in May 2008 offer the first proof of their existence and provide some clues to their way of life.
Some new facts about this recently discovered tribe:
• They don’t like airplanes.
• They aren’t very good at hitting airplanes with spears or arrows.
• They aren’t interested in maintaining front or back lawns.
• They believe that orange bodypaint is “the new black.”
(via Neatorama)
These days, with the proliferation of the internets, libraries and all things bookish have had to get creative to keep readers interested, let alone attract new readers. Enter the New Zealand Book Council. In what can easily be described as, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” logic, the NZBC has created www.readatwork.com
It’s a website that displays a windows desktop, except all the folders are filled with literature in PowerPoint format. You can literally read Animal Farm on PowerPoint slides. Now you can stick it to your boss and actually claim to be productive at the same time!
Mark Twain anyone?
Instead of just 1 mashup this month, you instead get 7. That’s right, seven. I present to you The Shoot Back Mixtape - a collaboration with troublmedia.com.
Three police officers shot Sean Bell 50 times, killing him on the eve of his wedding night, and wounding his two passengers, later determining that all 3 men were unarmed. From the night of this social atrocity to the not guilty verdict 10 days ago, emotions have been fierce. Sadness. Anger. Frustration. Disgust. Fear.
Download The Shoot Back Mixtape, a collection of voices and speeches that convey the public discontent following the not guilty verdict awarded to the police officers who killed Bell.
Here’s the first track to whet your appetite. In the words of a protester speaking for Sean Bell: “It’s not about what you do today, but what you do tomorrow.”
Not Guilty - Johnny Haze: