] INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (AP) -- Eat your way to the bottom
] of almost any bag of popcorn and there they are: the
] rock-hard, jaw-rattling unpopped kernels known as old
] maids.
]
] It's long been known that popcorn kernels must have a
] precise moisture level in their starchy center -- about
] 15 percent -- to explode. But Purdue University
] researchers found the key to a kernel's explosive success
] lies in the composition of its hull.
]
] Unpopped kernels, it turns out, have leaky hulls that
] prevent the moisture pressure buildup needed for them to
] pop and lack the optimal hull structure that allows most
] kernels to explode.

Finally! The mystery is solved! I, for one, can die happy.

CNN.com - Scientists solve unpopped popcorn - Apr 21, 2005

] What's nerdier then Nintendo? How about Acapella
] Nintendo?
]

Fucking awesome.

CollegeHumor.com : New Funny Pictures, Funny Movies, and Funny Hotlinks Daily!

Is it Georgia? Is it Alabama? No! It's Pennsylvania's first cousins that are taking a stand against fundamentalists who respect marriage yet deplore its implications. Take this, gays! Take that, Micheal Shiavo! First cousins are the wave of the future!

//

Bennett led a 2002 study on risks of genetic problems in children born in such marriages. The study found that children born to couples who are first or second cousins have a lower risk for birth defects than commonly perceived.

On average, an unrelated couple has an approximately 3 percent to 4 percent risk of having a child with a birth defect, significant mental retardation or serious genetic disease.

Close cousins face an additional risk of 1.7 percent to 2.8 percent, according to the study, funded by the National Society of Genetic Counselors, and the U.S. Health and Human Services Department.

Christie Smith, 40, founded Cousins United to Defeat Discriminating Laws through Education, in 2002 to overturn laws banning such marriages. So far, the group hasn't found much success.

"People don't like what they don't understand," said Smith, who fell in love with her husband after seeing him at a family reunion.

//

See article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/04/05/cousins.marriage.ap/index.html

] Some of the many fascinating things that you might find
] obstructing my view of the road inside of Alexi. In case
] you have not guessed it already, Alexi is by no means the
] safest vehicle on the road. Between the 5% tint on the
] windows, the gas masks and wires blocking my front view,
] the highly questionable steering, and the 35 pounds of
] liquid propane on the roof, I pretty much have my bases
] covered in the "constant rolling threat to all things
] living" department. The IV drip bag is real, although the
] blood is actually Mountain Dew and cherry pie filling.

These are just the inside pictures...the outside coolness is at http://66.34.10.12/aaamembersnew/zac/external.htm.

Enjoy!

-janelane

Flamethrowing Hearse

] Capt. Tom Tennant with Charlie Company of the 1st
] Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, said one of the biggest
] challenges was transitioning from viewing Iraqi men as
] possible suspects to viewing them as respected heads of
] households.
]
] He said most of the feedback he got from residents was
] positive, and people seemed happy the Marines were in the
] city.
]
] But their needs are immediate and basic. Tennant said the
] most frequently asked question is when power will return.
]
] South of Dave's Field, in Falluja's Shuha'daa
] neighborhood, residents sifted through rubble and swept
] up broken glass as children darted around.
]
] Abd El-Rahman Al-Zobari, surveying the damage to his
] house, said he and his friends are not going to vote on
] Sunday. "Is this what they call democracy?" he said. "We
] don't want democracy that comes on the back of a tank."

{speechless}

CNN.com - Election leaves war-weary Fallujans cold - Jan 24, 2005

] BENNINGTON, Vermont (Reuters) -- Students occasionally
] parading buck naked around Vermont's Bennington College
] campus has been a tolerated, if peculiar, part of the
] university's student culture here since the 1960s.
]
] Now Robert Graves, hired this year as Bennington's dean
] of students, has embarked on a crusade against public
] nudity -- one that has run afoul of the school's
] free-spirited students.
]
] Students have long enjoyed an informal policy allowing
] them to go naked on campus. Whether it was as a topless
] sunbather lounging on the lawn or students running naked
] at an annual bonfire party, college officials turned a
] blind eye.

You won't see such a policy in a school full of engineering and CS majors, I can tell you that much.

...unless, of course, the ratio considerably improved. ;-)

-janelane

CNN.com - Students fight for right to bare all - Dec 9, 2004

] WASHINGTON (AP) -- Terrorists may seek to down aircraft
] by shining powerful lasers into cockpits to blind pilots
] during landing approaches, U.S. officials warned in a
] bulletin distributed nationwide.
]
] The memo, sent by the FBI and the Homeland Security
] Department, says there is evidence that terrorists have
] explored using lasers as weapons.

Run for the hills, ya'll! Them terrorists is using lasers! They must be in league with some of them aliens from New Mexico!

CNN.com - U.S. warns of terrorist lasers - Dec 9, 2004

] LOS ANGELES (AP) -- All too often, the ring of Debi
] Faris-Cifelli's cell phone means there is another
] abandoned newborn at the morgue, another forsaken child
] for her to name and bury in a shoebox-size coffin under a
] white cross in the California desert.
]
] The money could not come at a better time for
] Faris-Cifelli and her Garden of Angels, the tiny cemetery
] in the town of Calimesa where she has buried dozens of
] tiny children whose mothers didn't hear -- or didn't care
] -- about California's safe-haven law.
]
] Under the 2001 law, parents have three days to abandon
] infants without fear of prosecution. California is one of
] 46 states with such a law.
]
] Faris-Cifelli helped win passage of the law and has made
] it her life's work to spread the word that scared and
] confused parents should drop their newborns at firehouses
] and hospitals -- not in trash cans and alleys. She
] lobbies in states without such laws, talks to teens and
] police and has attended 12 trials of mothers accused of
] abandoning their infants. She also lays the dead to rest.

This story is really amazing. I had no idea that that kind of charity still existed or that there were laws like that in existence. The money certainly couldn't have gone to a more deserving person.

The cause, too, is worthwhile, however I can't help but wonder how much more/less effective a campaign for birth control methods (and NOT, thank you Bush, archaic abstinence) would be.

-janelane

CNN.com - Baby rescuer hits $27 million lottery - Dec 7, 2004

] NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Burger King really wants its
] SpongeBob inflatables back, and the burger chain is even
] willing to offer a one-year's supply of free Whoppers,
] salads or any other item on its menu as a reward for
] information leading to their safe return.
]
] Miami-based Burger King has been inflicted with a spate
] of "Spongenappings" that began Nov. 11 in which vandals
] made off with several gigantic blow-up SpongeBob
] Squarepants figures that were perched on rooftops of
] different restaurants across the country.
] ...
]
] "Burger King Corporation does not condone and strongly
] discourages anyone from going on rooftops or doing
] anything illegal to swipe a SpongeBob SquarePants
] Inflatable," Klein said.

How in the hell would you say that line with a straight face?

:-)

-janelane

'Whopper' of a reward for stolen SpongeBobs - Dec. 3, 2004

Now for your choices for the 15 Tackiest Entertainment
Celebrities of 2004:

1.) Britney Spears is the 2004 winner by a wide margin. As Nataliah of Virginia Beach, VA, pointed out, "In only a year, she has managed to achieve what it takes other celebrities YEARS to do such as: 1.) Having one of the shortest marriages, 2.) Beginning a world tour, then ending it with a screeching halt due to the "broken leg" excuse…and less than 2 months later she was 3.) Getting married yet again! However, this time it was to her EX-BOYFRIEND'S backup dancer. She couldn't have Justin, so she settled for a lesser...much lesser version."

3.) Paris Hilton: Munnett in Los Angeles opined, "Paris might as well be a porn star," and added that the private sex video star/hotel fortune heiress is "a slut and stupid to top it off. Lucky for Paris most people are not normal any more, we are all a bunch of pretentious idiots. Yes, I include myself, I like that stupid Fox show Paris is on."

15.) R. Kelly: "I nominate R. Kelly for tacky and disgusting and scary entertainer of the year. Honestly, no one is more deserving. In between making endlessly cheesy songs chronicling his sex addictions and comparing women to cars, he finds time to stockpile enough child pornography to last through Armageddon." -- Melanie, Washington, DC

Just for the record, since these Awards are limited to Entertainment Personalities, we didn't include votes for politicians in our Top 15 tally. If we had, President George W. Bush would have come in 7th, ahead of Courtney Love, with Senator John Kerry in 13th place - behind Lil' Kim. And that would have been ridiculous!

////

[Grrr...memestreams quoting problems....]

Love that last paragraph. GWB is only twice as tacky as John Kerry -- {cough} Lurch from the Addams family {cough} -- but, upon reflection, that sounds about right.

-janelane

What a Year for Tacky Taste in Tinseltown: Beck/Smith Hollywood's 2004 Tacky Taste Awards