US Americans don't have maps

Ah, America's youth. Here is a fine example in this year's Miss Teen Intellect Contest, er Beauty Pageant...

Miss Teen South Carolina answers "Why do you think a fifth of Americans can't find the US on a world map?"

Now, she was probably very nervous at the moment, but even if you don't have an answer, you can spin this into some practiced speech about education. But hey, at least she is pretty.

Dolls, animatronics, pricing practices

Hello,
I'm back from a nice vacation in Florida to find that Minnesota was buried in snow while I was gone. It was nice to avoid the huge storms that hit the Midwest in the last week and a half.

Anyway, I'm watching "The Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll" as I write this; I am further convinced that this country is retarded. The "contestants", the dolls themselves, everyone involved, they are all vapid, clueless, two-dimensional people. There is so much focus on the veneer and none on the substance.

A couple quick links:

• Disney reanimates theme parks with "free-roaming, interacting audio-animatronic Muppets capable of 'seeing' and 'talking' without a human puppeteer in sight". Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker are the first up. Please, oh please tell me one of these will be running for president in '08!
• Best Buy web site pricing probed. Apparently there is an in-store employee site that looks like BestBuy.com but with different pricing. I'm a Best Buy shopper (use the RewardZone program) but this sounds awfully shady.
  

Books and other links

Hi,
I'm giving an online site called LibraryThing a try. It is essentially a tag-based online cataloging tool for your books. You can then share links, review, get recommendations, and so forth. I've been plugging in my books (far from over) before realizing there is a 200 book limit for free accounts. If I like it enough, the lifetime membership only costs 25 bucks, so that's a pretty good deal. You can find my library by following this link.


Other stories:

• The big story today is Anna Nicole Smith's death, I guess. It's sad, but I'm not quite sure if I'm watching a soap opera or not at this point.
• The CSPI picks the best and worst fast foods. Bad news, Burger King. Not only is your mascot creepy, your food is dangerous too.
• Now that the Super Bowl is over, what happens to all those losing team championship shirts and hats? I've actually wondered about this in the past, so I was pleased to run across this article about it.
• And finally, for you deep thinkers, the 11 most important philosophical questions. Why eleven? Good question... think on that.
  

Idol authenticity?

I'm watching "American Idol" as I write this (please forgive me), and something about it has bothered me (past seasons as well). And maybe I should say there are many things about it that bothers me, but I'm going to bring up one in particular. In the later half of the show, they show a little bit of strung together clips of losing auditioners singing the same song (tonight's was Lionel Ritchie's "All Night Long"). This montage includes some of the losers that stormed out in high emotion or in a rage. So I'm to believe they were willing to come back to sing a little bit for comedic purposes? Or do they film that song before the people audition? It all seems a little phony to me. I don't doubt that there are people so delusional that they think they've got a chance when they can't sing, but I suspect that a lot more of them are phonies or plants.

Plus, I think that Ryan Seacrest might be a muppet.

Saddam spectacle, fringe economy, apple suits, back taxes

Last post of 2006! Hope you all have a fun and safe New Year's celebration!
A few items to read when you have the day off work tomorrow:

• Saddam execution shown on tv and web (links to a story about this; I'm not linking to any execution footage). I hope I'm not the only one that finds this absolutely horrendous. I will not be looking for this footage. I don't care what you thought of him, I think it is disturbing that anyone would want to watch footage of someone dying. It is vengeful thinking or extreme morbid curiosity. For it to be shown on CNN and Fox is no better, in my opinion, then terrorists floating around videos of killing captives. (And yes, I know those were available on the web too, and that people here would want to watch that makes me sick.) The trial and fact he was executed is certainly news, but that can be covered adequately without showing this footage. I fear it is only a few years before real executions are part of America's reality tv culture. Time to rebuild the Coliseum for gruesome entertainment!
  
• Millions living in America's "fringe economy". Read this if you get a chance, because it was fascinating and sad. It is amazing to think about how much money these people are losing, just in order to survive. It also will further divide the rich from the poor in this country.
• Apple facing more lawsuits: Is iTunes/iPod an illegal monopoly? Does the iBook G4 logic board fail at an unusually high rate? Does the Nike/iPod infringe on patents? Stay tuned in 2007 for the exciting answers!
• Mystery billionaire pays $200M in CA back taxes, almost single-handedly closing their revenue shortfall. That's a lot of tax, and my question is how did the state not know someone owed $200 million?