A Canadian court ruled last week that the father of a 12-year-old girl had no right to ground his daughter for disobeying orders to stay off the Internet.

The girl had taken her father to Quebec Superior Court after he refused to allow her to go on a school trip for chatting on websites he tried to block, and then posting "inappropriate" pictures of herself online using a friend's computer.

I have a hunch that most people (and parents, especially) would disagree with the court's ruling in this case, given how ingrained in legal precedent is the idea that adults are responsible for the welfare of their children (parents have actually been arrested for leaving sleeping children alone in a car within sight for mere minutes). And at minimum, it's generally understood by most folks that if two people bring a child into the world, it's their responsibility to care for it. Just as there are different political philosophies, there is any number of child-rearing philosophies available to parents. Some work, some don't; but one would be hard-pressed to allege reasonably that parents should not have the right to instill within their own children values of their choosing so long as they cause no harm in the process.

I think things have gone a bit to far if this is true.

Child sues father for grounding her

MIT professor and Web star Walter Lewin swings from pendulums and faces down wrecking balls to show students the zany beauty of science.

Walter Lewin is not merely dangling at the bottom of a 15-foot pendulum. He is swinging high and wide, his rapt audience of 300 counting off each cycle.
At 71, he's likely missed his window for a shot at Cirque du Soleil, but the Netherlands-born MIT physics professor seems happy with his own high wire act -- revealing to students, in the most unorthodox ways, the beauty of science.

MIT professor Walter Lewin's elaborate physics demonstrations are a hit in the classroom and online.His pendulum ride comes at the end of a lecture on Hooke's Law, in which he proves the pendulum's period, or time that it takes to complete one cycle, is not affected by the mass at the bottom -- in this case, his own body.
He will also, on other occasions, suck helium and continue his lecture sounding like a Dutch Daffy Duck to highlight the differences in the speed of sound in certain gases. He'll shoot across the classroom stage astride a bicycle mounted with fire extinguishers to demonstrate a rocket's change in momentum.
"It took me a decade to come to the realization," says Lewin at his MIT office, "that really what counts is not what you cover, but what counts

High Wire Act

Funny shit!!

Overheard in New York

Every relationship goes through some bad times. Certainly, though, the most awkward and uncomfortable time in a relationship comes at the very end of it - the time when the two of you (or at least one of you) decides it's time to divide the iTunes account and move on.

No break-up is easy, and many guys resort to some old standards when it comes to conversational gambits in the final moments. This will help you decode what his cutting lines truly mean.

"It's not you; it's me."
Translation: "It's not me; it's you."

One-third of men admit that they're lying when they blame themselves for the demise of the relationship. Of course, they're trying to soften the blow a bit - to ensure that you know you're a great person, a caring person, a person who's perfectly right... for someone else. After all, if you were the right one (for him), it wouldn't matter whether his mind was somewhere in Iceland; he'd find a way to make it work.

"I'm not ready for a relationship right now."
Translation: "Whoa baby, slow down!"

Most guys - though they can come off as more desperate than a brewhound in a dry county - take their time testing the relationship waters. If a woman comes on too fast - with talk of futures, or of how she's never felt this way before - then the man often will be likely to retreat. Fast. It's not that he's not ready for a relationship; it's just that he's not ready to decide whether "Mony Mony" should be in the second or third set of the reception playlist.

"Can I call you sometime?"
Translation: "If you're ever lonely at 3 a.m. on a Saturday night...."

Well, he may or may not be that crass, but he is trying to keep the door cracked. If he's the one who's doing the ditching, then he's (unfairly, mind you) trying to lead you to believe that a break will strengthen the possibilities of some kind of rekindled romance in the future. If he's the victim, then he's trying to hang onto any slim chance he may have in the future with you (or possibly one of your friends). Either way, check out this story and beware the drunk-dialing ex; professors have actually studied this and concluded it's not without its pitfalls.

"I still care about you."
Translation: "Please don't tell your friends I'm a jerk."

Truth is, he probably does care about you. Still cares that you do well, that you find someone, that you get what you want in life. But what he's also saying is, please don't tell all your friends to cross me off their lists. The relationship may be broken, but it's a pretty big concern that his reputation remains intact.

To be fair girls use the same phrases and prob mean similar things when saying them.

What Breakup Lines Really Mean

"Actor Patrick Swayze has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and is currently undergoing treatment," a rep for the actor said in a statement released on Wednesday. "Patrick is continuing his normal schedule during this time, which includes working on upcoming projects. The outpouring of support and concern he has already received from the public is deeply appreciated by Patrick and his family."

According to the statement, Swayze's physician Dr. George Fisher said, "Patrick has a very limited amount of disease and he appears to be responding well to treatment thus far. All of the reports stating the timeframe of his prognosis and his physical side effects are absolutely untrue. We are considerably more optimistic."

Despite the encouraging words from Dr. Fisher, oncologist Maurice Berkowitz told Access Hollywood the outlook for patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer is generally not good.

/me hums theme to Dirty Dancing

Patrick Swayze Fighting Pancreatic Cancer

Radical cheerleading is a form of cheerleading that originated in Florida, but has now spread across the United States as well as Canada, Europe and beyond. The idea is to ironically reappropriate the aesthetics of cheerleading, for example by changing the chants to promote feminism and left-wing causes. Many radical cheerleaders are in appearance far from the stereotypical image of a cheerleader.

Radical cheerleaders often perform at demonstrations. They also often perform at feminist and other radical festivals and events. Radical cheerleading is used at demonstrations to promote a radical message in a media-friendly, people-friendly way. It is also used to support the actions of other activists who are put themselves at physical risk and to denounce infiltrators and opponents.

This is more wide spread then I imagined

Radical cheerleading

Doors @ 4pm
Game 1 @ 5pm, Game 2 @ 7pm
New Location - IN TOWN! Yaarab Shrine Center on Ponce de Leon!

March 8
Denim Demons vs. Toxic Shocks
Apocalypstix vs. Blue Ridge Rollergirls
April 12
Toxic Shocks vs. Sake Tuyas
ARG All-Stars vs. Tampa Bay Derby Darlins
May 10
Apocalypstix vs. Sake Tuyas
Denim Demons vs. Inland Empire Derby Divas
June 14
Sake Tuyas vs. Denim Demons
Toxic Shocks vs. Visitor
July 12
Denim Demons vs. Apocalypstix
ARG All-Stars vs. Fort Wayne Derby Girls
August 9
Toxic Shocks vs. Apocalypstix
Sake Tuyas vs. Hard Knox RG (East TN)
September 20
Grudge Match: Battle for 3rd & 4th
Home Teams Championship

Atlanta Rollergirls 2008 schedule

An article by Caroline Kennedy

Over the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.

My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.

Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.

We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn’t that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we did in 1960.

I have a problem with this article. It is meant to play to the baby boomers warm fuzzy feelings about JFK. My outrage about this article is also tied to another headline I saw this weekend entitled "Barack Obama is the next MLK". I have nothing against Obama but these are ridiculous comparisions. They are not the same. While Obama is a great guy he is not MLK or JFK. This is notnessisarily a bad things. I am not trying to put him down. I wouldn't want him to be either of those people because I don't think it would make him a good presidential candidate in 2008. I am not going to go into my rant about this but I think both of these article are way off base.

A President Like My Father

The phones were quiet Wednesday morning at the narrow office of Bio-Recovery Corporation, in a sign-less brick building opposite Calvary Cemetery in Long Island City, Queens. Every so often, a dot-matrix printer with a bad ribbon ticked off a bulletin from somewhere in the region — “*Overturned Auto* Linden Blvd and Kings Highway” — but these weren’t the kind of calls that Ron Gospodarski and Manny Sosa were waiting for.

In the bluntest terms, they were waiting for someone to die. Mr. Gospodarski, the president of Bio-Recovery, and Mr. Sosa, his only full-time employee, spend much of their time cleaning up trauma scenes, places where people have been killed, or killed themselves, or just died in a messy way. After the police have left and the body has been removed — or, as Mr. Gospodarski put it, “the big part is gone” — is when they go to work, cleaning up whatever is left.

On Jan. 1, a new city law took effect that requires first responders to tell the often-shocked people at a home or another trauma scene about clean-up methods, and to refer them to a Web site for information about financial aid and about companies like Mr. Gospodarski’s.

Owing, perhaps, to a certain voyeurism in human nature, Bio-Recovery has had much attention from the news media. Nevertheless, when people need help, they often think they must tackle the grim cleanup themselves, and Mr. Gospodarski hopes the new law will change that.

“All I wanted from our perspective, honestly, was to make the city agencies inform people that there’s people out there who can help them — if they choose,” he said.

His company, which also cleans up mold, human waste and the like, used to advertise in the Yellow Pages. But the work is hard to describe. “We listed ourselves under housecleaning,” he said. “And to this day, we get calls, people saying, ‘Do you do housecleaning?’ And I say, ‘What kind of housecleaning do you mean?’ ”

I had no clue this type of buisness existed. I have wondered in passing what happens in these situations once the investigation is over. It is good to see that people can reach out for help in the clean up process.

After the Tragedy, the Tidying Up

On Sunday, February 3, television viewers will be checking their volume controls when PepsiCo airs a 60-second commercial filmed in American Sign Language (ASL), with open-captioned text for the benefit of all viewers. The spot was created by and features PepsiCo employees who are members of EnAble, an employee network whose mission is to promote a more inclusive environment for people with disabilities. Slated to air on the pre-game show on FOX, the commercial features Pepsi-Cola and Lay's Potato Chips, but its real mission is to bring awareness of the American deaf community to a wider audience. PepsiCo also will sponsor the closed captioning of FOX's entire Super Bowl broadcast.
"The outpouring of support for this ad, both internally and externally, has been overwhelming," said Clay Broussard, PepsiCo employee and project lead on Bob's House. "This is one way we can give back through what we call Performance with Purpose. It's part of a larger effort to make PepsiCo the defining corporation of the 21st century. By bringing the world an ad performed by deaf employees in ASL, we feel like we've already scored the upset on Super Bowl Sunday."

PepsiCo Brings Silent Ad to Super Bowl