Travels with Family!

I'm traveling to San Francisco August 31 - September 5 with the family! I'm super excited - I've always wanted to go there. So I'm soliciting you, dear readers, for fun things to do! Give me the inside scoop! Who's been there? Who's lived there?

Touristy, I know...but I want to ride a trolley. When I was little, my dad would take me to work with him on occasion and we'd ride the trolley from the parking lot to his office. It will bring back fun memories for me.

Chinatown looks like fun.

I don't think the trip would be complete without a tour (the Night Tour - take a gander - Mom just bought the tickets!) of Alcatraz.

I foresee a trip to the wine country...either Sonoma or Napa Valley...

Obviously, the Golden Gate Bridge is a must.

I don't know much about this area...but maybe North Beach?? Thoughts?

Pacific Coast Highway would be beautiful!!

Anyway, give me your advice! I gotta know! :)

Why some guys suck...

I might never feel the same about Maroon 5's catchy lyrics and beats after reading this quote from lead singer Adam Levine:

“She wouldn’t make any noise during sex. I can’t tell you how disappointed I was. I really thought, like a lot of guys, that she’d be the loud screaming type. But instead, she just lay there like a dead frog. She even got angry if I started to moan, said it ‘ruined her concentration.’ It was so disillusioning that I went on Paxil for a month afterwards. Really, it was much more of a shock than when I found out there’s no such thing as the Easter Bunny.”

Who was he talking about? Well, I've never been one to spread gossip...

You'll have to click the link to find out. Assuming this is true...what a jerk!

They all look alike, right?

Most likely you've been embarrassed about it before...but you don't necessarily have to be anymore.

New research shows that it is difficult for people to distinguish faces of different races (he. he....faces...races...that rhymed). Anyway, the research indicates that it's not because we are racists, it's the in-out syndrome.

In a series of experiments, Miami University undergraduates were led to believe that they would view the faces of fellow Miami students (the in-group) and students from Marshall University (a perennial football rival, making them the ultimate out-group) on a computer screen.

In reality, none of the faces, all of whom were white, were students at either university. By merely labeling them, however, the participants better recognized faces that they believed were fellow Miami students.

It is believed that the findings suggest "recognition deficits" can occur "without the need for race or different physical characteristics, arguing instead that there is more than just unfamiliarity with other races at play in the cross-race effect."

According to the researchers, "people frequently split the world up into us and them, in other words into social groups, be they racial, national, occupational, or even along the lines of university affiliation. Our work suggests that the cross-race effect is due, at least in part, to this ubiquitous tendency to see the world in terms of these in-groups and out-groups."

Tagged, I'm it!

Michael just tagged me in the Face Behind the Blog meme.

While I am into my anonymity (though I have been known to post some pictures of myself), I can be persuaded to post more than the one blurry picture of myself in the top right corner.

Here are the rules.

1. Post a short blog article that includes a photograph (or a series of photos) showing the face behind your blog. If you already show a photo somewhere on your site, then make your post more interesting by choosing a photo that’s not currently online.

2. Include links to other people who have displayed a photo.

3. Link back to the original post.

4. Tag as many others as you like.


So, here they are...and here I am.




Tagging: Patrick, Kerpupples, and Soledad.

Thanks, Perez...

For this truly bizarre great video. Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to Bearforce 1.

China Bridge Collapses

Kills 29. Injures at least 22.

With America's recent obsession with all things structural, the question is, will we care about China's recent tragedy?

And in other news:
9th body found at MN bridge collapse
South Asia's flood death toll has reached 2,000
Cracking down on crack...
1,340 (367 whom were handicapped) rescued from slave labor in China
Cho may have made a practice run at Norris Hall (Virginia Tech)


And after that, I'm starting a new thing right now. Only good news from now on. I have to start slow....it's a different way of thinking. Here's my first. Yea!
Amazon deforestation reduced dramatically over the last three years

Time - Photo Essays

Tying into my post about perspectives, these photo essays put images to two tragedies - the Minnesota bridge collapse and the monsoons in India.

The first, entitled the Worst Bridge Collapses in the Past 100 Years, is a photographic journey through the heartbreak that surrounds senseless tragedies.

• Photo 3, The Skywalk collapse in Kansas City
• Photo 6, Rainbow Bridge collapse in Qijiang county, China - A government official who ignored signs of decay was sentenced to death.
• Photo 10, Bridge in Bihar, India

The second, entitled Asia's Monsoon, takes you through the affected region. "Though the monsoon is an annual event, this is the heaviest season Bihar has seen in 30 years. The Indian government reports this year's rains have killed over 1,200 since June and displaced some 14 million people."

• Photo 4, Heartbreaking
  
• Photo 7, Waiting for the flood waters to recede, India has yet to see the worst.
• Photo 9, Sad subject - beautiful composition.
• Photo 10 and 12, Nothing but water as far as the eye can see.
• Photo 11, Nowhere else to go.
  

Oh my!

Pregnant 10.5 years of her life? Jim Bob Duggar's wife has been.

Read about her and her 17 children here.

Gaining Perspecitve

Ever noticed how something horrible can happen a world away...and "it sucks", "gosh that's terrible".

But if this event were to happen, say in your own country, it would occupy the minds and hearts of all citizens...thousands of newscasts...countless of hours of television...and journalist efforts devoted solely to what happened...

Big or Small.

Let's take, for example, the floods that are currently happening in India. Gosh, that sucks, doesn't it? Millions are marooned and the current death toll is over 1,000.

1,000!

But in Minneapolis, 4 people are dead and 20 are missing. Let's just assume for a moment that all of those 20 missing will turn up dead (that sounds callous, I'm sorry). Even still, that makes the death toll from a bridge collapse possibly 24 people.

24!

Can we gain a little perspective here?!

Technoriti is telling me that 170,529 people linked to this one article about the MN bridge collapse. That's just one article of the thousands that have been published, printed and reported.

One person, one, linked to the article from ABC World News about the floods that are currently killing thousands in India.

Me.

The bridge collapse is also mentioned three times in Technoriti's top searches.

But there's not one mention of the devastation in India, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Now, don't get me wrong. I feel for the families that have lost loved ones in the bridge collapse and I know the reason we obsess over needless tragedies such as this is for the simple fact that they are close to home.

And maybe those countries, so far away, don't seem real to some. But they are very real. Those 1,000+ people included in that death toll were mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and children...just like the ones in Minnesota.

Sometimes, I just feel that we, as Americans and as inhabitants to the world, need to gain a little perspective.

This enrages me...

May I have an abortion, sir?

To think that some people think this is a viable means to control women getting abortions...a signed consent from the fetus' father.

Awesome.

Awesomely ridiculous.