The world according to Americas

Europe according to Germans

This ain't your grandfather's maps! In the series Mapping Stereotypes, Designer Yanko Tsvetkov of Alpha Designer created maps that lays bare the racists and stereotypical views of a number of nations (us Yanks included): Link

So. Do you carry reusable bags to shop at the grocery store? Do you sort empty plastic containers into the correct recycling bin? Did you trade-in your gas guzzler for a well-worn pair of sneakers?

Do you think that all those enviro-goody-two-shoes things you did matter? Think again.

No hate mail, please! That's what economist Gernot Wagner at the Environmental Defense Fund said. He argued that in order to save the planet, we need much more than environmentalists. Instead, we need smart economic policies.

Here's an interesting interview at Co.Exist:

Co.Exist:What does the average environmentalist get wrong?

Wagner: Environmentalists, all too often, think that the best way to go about solving the problem is to get everyone to do as they--we, I included--do. I don’t eat meat. I don’t drive. But individual do-gooderism won’t solve global warming.

And it may actually be counter-productive, for two reasons. First, there’s a well-documented psychological phenomenon called “single-action bias.” You do one thing, and you move on. You carry your groceries home by foot, in a cotton canvas bag, and you think that single act of environmental kindness makes up for other sins.

Second, you spend all your energy thinking about these tiny things. Should you buy the local apples that have been stored for months in a cool house somewhere, or should you buy the fresh apple flown in from across the world? Or should you not buy apples at all when they are not in season and risk not getting enough vitamins?

You’d go positively crazy trying to figure out what to do, and you’d miss the big picture: That, at the end of the day, none of that really matters.

So what should we do? Read on at Co.Exist: Link

Did you hear the one about the jokes inscribed on ancient Babylonian tablets?

No, that's no joke: researchers studying a 3,500-year old tablet from ancient Mesopotamia have intepreted riddles and jokes about (surprise!) sex, politics and beer.

Some of the decoded riddles are crude and sexual, while others are complex and metaphorical. One of them reveals what appears to be a bit of political humor, albeit with a dark, violent twist.

He gouged out the eye:
It is not the fate of a dead man.
He cut the throat: A dead man (-Who is it?)

The answer is a governor.

"This riddle describes the power of a governor namely to act as a judge who punishes or sentences to death," write Streck and Wasserman in the journal article.

Wasserman has seen examples in other Akkadian texts of people criticizing their leaders. "We have some interesting traces of political criticism, and [I] might say even say political anger," he said. "It could be a kind of political humor expressed in this governor riddle."

While the governor riddle reflects a sort of gallows' humor, others are much lighter.

In(?) your mouth and your teeth (or: your urine)
constantly stared at you
the measuring vessel of your lord (-What is it?)

The answer, it appears, is beer.

Link

Previously on Neatorama: World's Oldest Joke Traced to Sumeria in 1900 B.C.

Dear Sirs and Sirettes,

Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow (ABTT) would like it entered into the record that as of January 30th, 2012, the sum total of our donations was $1,023,121.24.

Stephen Colbert, President of ABTT, has asked that I quote him as saying, ”Yeah! How you like me now, F.E.C? I’m rolling seven digits deep! I got 99 problems but a non-connected independent-expenditure only committee ain’t one!”

I would like it noted for the record that I advised Mr. Colbert against including that quote. Sincerely,
Shauna Polk Treasurer Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Inc.

Read more details at the New York Times. Link

(YouTube Link)

When you actually believe that The Muppets movie might be pushing some sort of communist, anti-oil agenda on our kids, you’ve got problems, but when you are called out by Kermit and Miss Piggy, two fleece-skinned superstars that aren’t afraid to tell it like it is, your claims start to look like utter hogwash. Watch as my favorite frog (sorry Frogger!) and pig (sorry Babe!) put the commie claims to bed via press conference.

–via Comedy Central

Talk about preparing kids for the real world. Four public high schools in Detroit have partnered with Walmart to train 60 students to work at its stores:

Advocates say with Detroit's unofficial unemployment rate nearing 50%, jobs at Walmart are a golden opportunity. Sean Vann, principal of the Frederick Douglass Academy for Young Men, has 30 students in the program. He told the Detroit Free Press he's enthusiastic because along with earning money, since the schools are in the suburbs, the students will be around people from different cultures.

Not everyone, however, is convinced that it's such a good idea:

Donna Stern, a representative of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights And Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) is outraged. "They're going to train students to be subservient workers. This is not why parents send them to school."

What do you think, Neatoramanauts? Better a crappy job than no job at all?

Link (Photo: GeneralCheese/Wikipedia)

Photo: Sergey Teplyakov/vkontakte

Russian police does not take kindly to protests, even those carried out by toys and dolls:

Police in the Siberian city of Barnaul have asked prosecutors to investigate the legality of a recent protest that saw dozens of small dolls – teddy bears, Lego men, South Park figurines – arranged to mimic a protest, complete with signs reading: "I'm for clean elections" and "A thief should sit in jail, not in the Kremlin".

"Political opposition forces are using new technologies to carry out public events – using toys with placards at mini-protests," Andrei Mulintsev, the city's deputy police chief, said at a press conference this week, according to local media. "In our opinion, this is still an unsanctioned public event."

Link - via Metafilter

This incredibly cool sculpture is brought to you by the twisted mind of Ron English, an artist known for warping iconic figures into ironic statements (see Fat Tony and Dead Mickey), and who previously brought us an Obama-Lincoln mashup that was all the rage a few years back.

This time, Ron has brought us Obama hulking out, as he prepares for the upcoming election by saying “You vote for me or OBAMA SMASH!”

Link  –via AnimalNY

Over at USA Today, Don Campbell is hoppin' mad about the economic injustice, nay reverse "ageism" that is the senior citizen discount. He opines:

... the question is, why should someone who is 50 or 55 and likely to live to 85 or 90 be considered a "senior citizen" worthy of special treatment?

I've now passed all the age benchmarks for senior status, and I'm committed unequivocally to a free market, but I think that such discounts are absurd, illogical, and helping fuel the growing economic divide between struggling younger generations and a self-obsessed, mostly well-to-do, older generation. To me, these "deals" add insult to injury to the very people who are being saddled with trillions of dollars in debt to support entitlement programs for the elderly, such as Medicare and Social Security.

I also find them to be a delightful source of amusement when they pit vanity against financial self-interest as cashiers try to guess your age and customers ponder admitting in public that they're a certain age in order to save a few nickels.

I was in line behind a woman at a grocery checkout in Atlanta a couple of years ago on a Wednesday, the day the store gives people age 60 and over a 5% discount. When the cashier said to the woman, "And are you taking our senior discount today?" the woman exploded: "Don't insult me like that! I'll have you know I'm 54 years old!" (She looked closer to 64 than 54, if you ask me.)

More recently, I was in one of those trendy organic food stores when the checkout clerk said to me with a big smile: "May we offer you our military or wise-man discount?" I had no idea what defined "wise man," so I just smiled back and said, "Ma'am, I am wise beyond my years." (I later found out you became "wise" at 60.)

What do you think? Should senior citizen discounts be banned? Answer after you get off Don's lawn: Link - via Moneyland

Photo: Older Than Dirt T-Shirt from the NeatoShop

When Beck Laxton and Kieran Cooper had an offspring, they decided that their Baby Sasha should not be influenced by society's prejudices and preconceptions when it comes to gender:

They referred to their child as "The Infant" and only allowed him to play with "gender-neutral toys" in their television-free home.

For the first five years of his life Sasha alternated between girls' and boys' outfits, leaving friends, playmates and relatives guessing.

But the couple have finally revealed his sex after it became harder to conceal when Sasha started primary school.

Yesterday Miss Laxton, a web editor, said that she thought gender stereotyping was "fundamentally stupid".

"I wanted to avoid all that stereotyping," she said.

"Stereotypes seem fundamentally stupid. Why would you want to slot people into boxes?

The gender of Sasha was finally revealed (he's a boy) when he started school: Link - via Arbroath

So far, three Republican presidential hopefuls have won one state primary or caucus each. Eventually, only one will be selected for the presidential race. Mental_floss looks back into previous election races for today’s Lunchtime Quiz. You will be given ten politicians who ran for president unsuccessfully in the past, and you try to recall whether they ever won a state primary race or not. It’s not easy! I was surprised to score 60%. Link

Oh, you've got to love gub'ment. Here's a story of how the Environmental Protection Agency made companies that supply motor fuel pay fines because they failed to deliver alternative fuels.

The companies did have a good reason, which the EPA rejected, as that kind of fuel actually doesn't exist yet:

When the companies that supply motor fuel close the books on 2011, they will pay about $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law.

But there was none to be had. Outside a handful of laboratories and workshops, the ingredient, cellulosic biofuel, does not exist.

In 2012, the oil companies expect to pay even higher penalties for failing to blend in the fuel, which is made from wood chips or the inedible parts of plants like corncobs. Refiners were required to blend 6.6 million gallons into gasoline and diesel in 2011 and face a quota of 8.65 million gallons this year.

“It belies logic,” Charles T. Drevna, the president of the National Petrochemicals and Refiners Association, said of the 2011 quota. And raising the quota for 2012 when there is no production makes even less sense, he said.

Matthew L. Wald of The New York Times explains: Link (Photo: David Eggen for The New York Times)

In 2012, and Keith Pariat is fighting for equal rights for men in Meghalaya, India. You read that right: men. See, in that part of the world, women rule:

Mr Pariat, who ignored age-old customs by taking his father's surname is adamant that matriliny is breeding generations of Khasi men who fall short of their inherent potential, citing alcoholism and drug abuse among its negative side-effects.

"If you want to know how much the Khasis favour women just take a trip to the labour ward at the hospital," he says.

"If it's a girl, there will be great cheers from the family outside. If it's a boy, you will hear them mutter politely that, 'Whatever God gives us is quite all right.'"

Ever get a headache from smelling someone's overly-strong perfume? Well, then you'd probably appreciate what New Hampshire state representative Michele Peckham is trying to do. She has introduced a bill to ban state employees from wearing perfumes while on the job:

State representative Michele Peckham is sponsoring House Bill 1444 which hopes to ban state employees who work with the public from wearing perfume. Apparently a constituent with extreme allergies approached Peckham with the proposal. "It may seem silly, but it's a health issue," Peckham told the Union Leader. "Many people have violent reactions to strong scents."

Link

Previously on Neatorama: Should Wearing Pajamas in Public Be Banned?

President Obama welcomed Rev. Al Green to a fundraiser at the Apollo Theater in New York yesterday with a few notes of “Let’s Stay Together.” It sounds like this was the result of a dare, but it’s still nice to know our Commander in Chief can carry a tune for at least a short time. Link -via Buzzfeed

Got vacation days saved up? Not as many as the French workers, that's for sure: at one hospital in Paris, workers have accumulated over 2 million days off!

Here's the story of how a law mandating 35-hour work week backfired:

French workers get comped vacation time added to their base five weeks of annual leave if they work longer than the mandated 35-hour work week and apparently even the French can't take all of that time off in a year. Nevertheless, "By law, they must take those days off by the end of this year, but that could mean closing hospitals for months."

Just to put 2 million days into perspective, that's 5,475 years of vacation time. There's no indication of how many employees are sharing that pool of vacation time, but if it were just one, they'd just be finishing a stint of paid time off that started in B.C. 3467, that is just around the time when the Sumerians invented writing and the Sahara started turning into a desert.

Link

Yesterday, thousands of websites (including Neatorama) protested against SOPA and PIPA, the two Internet censorhip bills making their way through the US Congress.

The effect was immediate - the bills quickly lost support in Congress. Jonathan Weisman of The New York Times reported that a growing number of members of Congress announced their opposition:

First, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a rising Republican star, took to Facebook, one of the vehicles for promoting opposition, to renounce a bill he had co-sponsored. Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who leads the G.O.P.’s Senate campaign efforts, used Facebook to urge his colleagues to slow the bill down. Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina and a Tea Party favorite, announced his opposition on Twitter, which was already boiling over with anti-#SOPA and #PIPA fever.

Then trickle turned to flood — adding Senators Mark Kirk of Illinois and Roy Blunt of Missouri, and Representatives Lee Terry of Nebraska and Ben Quayle of Arizona. At least 10 senators and nearly twice that many House members announced their opposition.

Yay us! Or, as comic Jon Stewart says, "angry nerds." Jon went on to ask whether any of the congressional committees in charge of regulating the Internet actually know what they're talking about (3:30 mark on the video).

Ask a nerd? What a great idea!. They should ask a nerd, so we can tell them how bad SOPA and PIPA are. The precursor to the current version of SOPA was actually even worse. It has a provision that require changes to the Internet's domain name system to "blacklist" rogue websites. That, according to web experts would break the web.

Here's the story by Jennifer Valentino-DeVries of The Wall Street Journal of how the controversial DNS-based blacklisting scheme got dropped in the rise of "nerd lobby" in Washington, D.C.:

Late last fall, a select group met in the White House Situation Room to discuss U.S. Internet security and how it might falter if two anti-piracy bills being debated in Congress were to pass.

The attendees included veteran Washington policymakers and cyberdefense experts. But one person – an engineer named Dan Kaminsky who specializes in an arcane set of rules governing how people connect to the Internet – stood out.

“I’ve never seen anyone in the Situation Room without a tie before,” said one of the Washington policymakers who was there.

Welcome to the world of the nerd lobbyist.

In his defense, Kaminsky said "he didn’t wear a tie because he didn’t know that the meetings would be taking place in the 'actual White House.'"

Working on the web is hard, which is why Fark has decided to take a brave stand, going against the grain to support SOPA and PIPA. This way, if the site gets shut down under the ridiculous censorship bills, the company won’t have to do any more hard work.

While a bunch of other sites are going “dark” to protest SOPA/PIPA, we’re over the moon about the whole thing. Why? Honestly, we’ve been bringing you the latest news happening across the internet for 12 years, and we’re tired. And SOPA/PIPA is the perfect excuse to quit.

While SOPA might be “almost dead,” it’s not quite all the way there, and under various drafts of both SOPA/PIPA, Fark could have its DNS assignment (the thing that turns an IP address, like 10.0.0.1, into words like Fark.com) revoked without notice simply for linking to content that could come under foreign copyright claims. This means, even if it is actual news in and of itself, if we link to it, we can be shut down. And thank God, cause we’re about ready to crack under the strain of being on top of the news all the time.

The post isn’t up anymore because the blackout day is over, but you can read about it over at the link from The Consumerist.

Link

Blogging regulations require that we post this notice about how the great state of Florida now requires vending machines to have this self-referential notice.

Kudos to the bureaucrats of Florida, who came up with such ingenious plan to create regulations, seemingly for regulations' sake. On another note, how would people know who to call to report a missing notice, if the phone number is on the notice itself? Link - via The Agitator and Metafilter

By now, I’m sure you have all heard about SOPA and PIPA being as how every blog in the world has been talking about them as of late. Even those that are usually apolitical (like Neatorama) have taken a stand against the legislation, but despite all the talk and Wikipedia’s many messages warning about their upcoming blackout, some people still didn’t get the memo.

That’s where Herpderpedia comes in… chronicling the Tweets of people freaking out over the Wikipedia blackout despite the many warnings on the site and the fact that its blackout message clearly describes what’s going on.

Sure the Twitter account will only have one good day, but it’s certain to bring endless enjoyment for the internet snobs around the country.

Link Via Laughing Squid

A song from LaughPong about the SOPA and PIPA bills now before congress. While many sites have simply gone down for today in protest, Consumerist has a list of posts about the bills you can access to catch up on how the bills came about, why the internet is protesting, and what you can do. Link  -video via The Cheezburger Network

Do you like to go about town wearing comfy pajama pants? Not in Shreveport, Louisiana, you won't ... if a local parish commissioner has his way!

Caddo Parish District 3 Commission Michael Williams said it was an incident at a local Walmart that offended him and some elderly customers that spurred him to push for an ordinance that would prohibit wearing pajama pants in public.

"I saw a group of young men wearing pajama pants and house shoes," he said. "At the part where there should have been underwear," his private parts were showing through the fabric. [...]

"Pajamas are designed to be worn in the bedroom at night," Williams said. "If you can't (wear pajamas) at the Boardwalk or courthouse, why are you going to do it in a restaurant or in public? Today it's pajamas," Williams said. "Tomorrow it's underwear. Where does it stop?"

Don't worry people, there's always Pajama Jeans!

So, what do you think, Neatoramanauts? Should wearing pajamas in public be banned? The Shreveport Times covered this important issue: Link (Photo: Mike Silva/The Shreveport Times) - via The Maddow Blow

Previously on Neatorama: In Pajamas? No Tesco For You! | Planet Shanghai

Italy (basil, pasta, and tomatoes)

To promote the Sydney International Food Festival, ad agency WHYBIN created a neat series of flags made from the countries' traditional food. Some examples:

Australia (meat pie)

Brazil (banana leaf, limes, pineapple, and passion fruit)

India (curries, rice, and a pappadum wafer)

South Korea (kimbap and sauces)

Lebanon (lavash, fattoush, and a herb sprig)

More at The Kitchn blog: Link - via Good

What do you think your country's food flag should be made out of? The American flag's red stripes should definitely be made out of bacon!

Not if you're a member of Congress, they won't!

No surprise there - politicians haven't been highly regarded for their honesty and ethics by John Q. Public for decades, but the 7% ratings in this recent poll by Gallup is a new low.

The most honest professions? Nurses and pharmacists topped the poll.

Link - via AQFL

That, Neatoramanauts, is the 2,065 miles-long border fence between India and Pakistan:

A striking feature is the line of lights, with a distinctly orange hue, snaking across the center of the image. It appears to be more continuous and brighter than most highways in the view. This is the fenced and floodlit border zone between India and Pakistan. The fence is designed to discourage smuggling and arms trafficking. A similar fenced zone separates India’s eastern border from Bangladesh (not visible).

The photo was taken by the crew at the International Space Station: Link - via TYWKIWDBI

President Obama, Mitt Romney, and the other politicians you see every day aren’t the only ones running for president in 2012. Vermin Supreme is one of the candidates who appeared at the Lesser-Known Democratic Candidates Presidential Forum held at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire on December 19th. -via The Daily What

You probably already know that China has a one child per couple policy, but you might not know how it is enforced or who is granted exceptions to the rule. The answers to these questions can be found over at Mental Floss and they are simply fascinating.

Provincial governments are responsible for enforcing the policy and do so through a mix of rewards and punishments doled out by local officials. In most provinces, having a an extra child gets you a fine, the amount of which varies across provinces. In some places, the fine is a set amount (usually in the thousands of dollars), and in others it’s based on a percentage of the violator’s annual income. In some provinces, policy violators can also have their property and/or belongings confiscated and lose their jobs.

Who knew they even can fire you from your job for having an extra baby?

Link

(YouTube Link)

I think the Cold War may have kept this game from arriving in America, either that or the manufacturer didn’t feel like the reference to Mikhail Gorbachev would help sell copies in the U.S.

Whatever the reason, Gorby’s Pipeline never made its way to the Nintendo Entertainment System, and that’s too bad because it looks like it would have given Tetris and Dr. Mario a run for their money! Anyone remember the old school video game Pipe Dream?

–via Kotaku

Obama wasn’t the only one making the otherworldly voyage. As “Barry Soetero,” the 19-year-old Obama was one of 10 youths selected to secretly teleport to and from Mars, forming a band of interplanetary Teen Titans. Regina Dugan, the director of Darpa, was another member.

Between 1981 and 1983, Obama is supposed to have visited Mars twice, by way of a teleportation chamber called a “jump room.” Basiago, a fellow chrononaut, told the website Exopolitics that he saw Obama “walk back to the jump room from across the Martian terrain.” To acknowledge his comrade, Obama is said to have told Basiago, “We’re here” — apparently, “with some sense of fatalism.”

It is not known what exactly Obama did on Mars. (Socializing Martian health care, perhaps? Building a birth-certificate printing press?) His mission was a perilous one, according to Basiago and Stillings. The CIA wished to “establish a defense regime protecting the Earth from threats from space” as well as a legal claim to “territorial sovereignty,” making Obama something of a Martian conquistador. Presumably, Obama’s CIA handlers needed him to “acclimate Martian humanoids and animals to their presence” in order to secure the U.S.-Martian alliance. (We’ll bet you weren’t even aware of Martian animals.)

“Simply put, your task is to be seen and not eaten,” an elder chrononaut, retired Army Maj. Ed Dames, is alleged to have told a young Obama.

A spokesman for the National Security Council says that Obama has never been to Mars. Link -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Arikia Millikan)

Photo: Ethan Miller

Are we any smarter in 2012? 60 Minutes and Vanity Fair decided to poll Americans to test their common knowledge and found some gems like this one above of presidential hopeful Mitt Romney ;) (His real first name is "Willard," despite what he told Wolf Blitzer)

Check out the rest of the poll results here: Link

In May, 1958, Coya Knutson was gearing up for her third term. Because of her unwillingness to fall in line with traditional Minnesota politics, the Democratic Party of in her home state would not formally endorse her, so she was forced into a primary—and it was then that a bombshell was released to the press in the form of a letter signed by Andy Knutson.

“Coya, I want you to tell the people of the 9th District this Sunday that you are through in politics. That you want to go home and make a home for your husband and son,” it read. ”As your husband I compel you to do this. I’m tired of being torn apart from my family. I’m sick and tired of having you run around with other men all the time and not your husband.” Andy pleaded with her to return to “the happy home we once enjoyed” and signed off, “I love you, honey.”

Soon, the front pages of newspapers, first in Minnesota, then across the country, bannered headlines of “Coya, Come Home.” Andy Knutson claimed that he was broke and that she “wouldn’t send me any money.” He sued Kjeldahl for $200,000 in damages, alleging that the young aide had “ruthlessly snatched” Coya’s “love and consortium” from a simple middle-aged farmer from Minnesota. Andy further alleged that Kjeldahl had referred to him as an “impotent old alcoholic whose departure from the farm to the nation’s capital would shock society.”

Knutson lost her third congressional campaign, but the story does not end there. The real truth behind what happened came out later, and you can read it all at the Smithsonian’s Past Imperfect blog. Link

Got a criminal history and can't get a job? That's discrimination, according to Washington D.C. council member and ex-Mayor Marion Barry (he would say that now, wouldn't he?):

“The idea of the criminal justice system is, they send you to jail for rehabilitation and punishment, and once you have served your time, it seems to me, your debt has been paid to society,” said Barry, who has had several run-ins with the law, including a 1990 conviction for misdemeanor drug possession.

In recent years, as officials have grappled with the city’s unemployment rate of nearly 12 percent, Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) and the council have pledged to reexamine the treatment of ex-offenders trying to reenter the workforce.

As Barry noted, about 10 percent of D.C. residents have a criminal record. People with such records, advocates and city leaders say, are far less likely to be hired — which is one reason the jobless rate exceeds 20 percent in Ward 8.

If Barry’s legislation is adopted, an employer would be allowed to inquire about a criminal record only after a “conditional (job) offer” has been made. If an employer rescinds the offer based on a past arrest, he would have to submit documentation explaining why the applicant could not work in that job.

Link (Photo: dbking/Wikipedia)

Remember AIG, the insurance company that had to be bailed out to the tune of $182 billion, the biggest federal bailout in US history?

Well, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, the ex-CEO of AIG is back, and this time he wants $25 billion for his troubles:

Former American International Group CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg thinks he got a raw deal, and he wants the government to pay up. Greenberg filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims asserting that the government bailout and takeover of the insurance giant was an unconstitutional seizure of private property, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Greenberg's Starr International Co., which used to be AIG's biggest stakeholder, is seeking $25 billion in damages, based on the value of the 80 percent stake in AIG the government took after providing it with an $182 billion bailout.

Raw deal, eh?

Link (Photo: Choi Jae-Ku/AFP/Getty)

Can drinking water prevent dehydration?

Before you laugh at the ridiculousness of such question, let me tell you that European Union bureaucrats in Brussels conducted a thorough three-year investigation, and found that there's no evidence to prove that claim:

Producers of bottled water are now forbidden by law from making the claim and will face a two-year jail sentence if they defy the edict, which comes into force in the UK next month.

Oh, Europe. Link - via Metafilter

In the new Super Mario 3D Land game, Mario has special abilities when he wears the Tanooki Suit - but think about it. Where did he get such a suit? From a dead Tanooki, a Japanese raccoon dog, of course!

PETA, understandably, is upset over the unnecessary killing of an imaginary videogame character and has made its displeasure known by releasing this fun little Flash game: Mario Kills Tanooki - Thanks Jay!

I know we tend to overlook politics here at Neatorama, but when they are so well combined with comic book art, it’s hard to ignore. Whether or not you agree with what they say, it’s easy to enjoy the art itself.

Link Via BuzzFeed

via Buzzfeed and Geekosystem

Can a Catholic university that's so Catholic that it's actually called Catholic University of America, be too Catholic?

That's what law professor John Banzhaf thought and he's filing a human rights complaint against the school:

A lawyer has filed a human-rights complaint against Catholic University, on the grounds that the prevalence of Catholic imagery there violates the rights of Muslim students. Catholic University admits students of all faiths, but attorney John Banzhaf says there is almost nowhere on campus where Muslims can "pray without having to stare up and be looked down upon by a cross of Jesus."

Link - via The Week

Tired of incessant yapping of your neighbor's dog? Well, the city of Los Angeles is on your side: they've decided to levy fines on the owners of dogs that bark excessively (and if that doesn't make 'em silence those pooches fast, I don't know what will).

Under the changes, dog owners would face fines starting at $250 for a first offense, $500 for a second and $1,000 for a third if a hearing conducted by the Department of Animal Services determines that a dog barks too much.

But exactly how much barking is too much?

The changes approved in the 12-0 vote would make that clearer to animal services officials, Assistant City Atty. Dov Lesel said.

A dog's barking would be considered excessive if it continued for 10 minutes or more, or intermittently for 30 minutes or more within a three-hour period, Lesel said.

I sympathize with those harrassed by barking dogs (one of my neighbor has a dog that barked all night for years) but ask any dog owner and they'll tell you that dogs are dogs and they will bark. Sometimes they bark a lot, especially if something unusual is up. And what happens if you're not there to silence your dog, say if you have to work and the dog is in the back yard?

Will the new rule penalize those in working-class neighborhood, who keep dogs for protection against break-ins? Or will it finally give peace to sore ears?

Link

Can you imagine Saddam Hussein campaigning to Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love you?” Now that’s just plain weird.

Link

Did Occupy Wall Street cause gun crimes to jump higher in New York City? That's what the NYPD is sayin':

Four high-ranking cops point the finger at Occupy Wall Street protesters, saying their rallies pull special crime-fighting units away from the hot zones where they’re needed.

Since Occupy Wall Street took over Zuccotti Park on Sept. 17, the NYPD has relied heavily on its borough task forces, the department’s go-to teams for rowdy crowds.

But such protest duty takes the special units away from their regular jobs -- patrolling public housing and problem spots and staking out nightclubs plagued by violence, supervisors said.

“Normally, the task force is used in high-crime neighborhoods where you have a lot of shootings and robberies,” said one source.

“They are always used when there are spikes in crime as a quick fix. But instead of being sent to Jamaica, Brownsville and the South Bronx, they are in Wall Street.”

Link (Photo: David Shankbone/Wikipedia)

Wait, let me check my calendar. Yup, 2011. So it's surprising to read about a New York public bus line that still forces women to sit in the back.

Here's what happened when Melissa Franchy boarded the B110 bus in Brooklyn and sat down near the front:

For a few minutes she was left in silence, although the other passengers gave her a noticeably wide berth. But as the bus began to fill up, the men told her that she had to get up. Move to the back, they insisted.

They were Orthodox Jews with full beards, sidecurls and long black coats, who told her that she was riding a “private bus” and a “Jewish bus.” When she asked why she had to move, a man scolded her.

“If God makes a rule, you don’t ask ‘Why make the rule?’” he told Franchy, who rode the bus at the invitation of a New York World reporter. She then moved to the back where the other women were sitting. The driver did not intervene in the incident.

The B110 bus travels between Williamsburg and Borough Park in Brooklyn. It is open to the public, and has a route number and tall blue bus stop signs like any other city bus. But the B110 operates according to its own distinct rules. The bus line is run by a private company and serves the Hasidic communities of the two neighborhoods. To avoid physical contact between members of opposite sexes that is prohibited by Hasidic tradition, men sit in the front of the bus and women sit in the back.

Is it gender discrimination or a reasonable approach to accomodate religious rights?

Sasha Chavkin of The New York World reports: Link | Follow up at The New York World and The New York Times

If a girl wants to dress like a boy this Halloween, that seems like a good lesson in busting gender stereotypes learned. But what if your boy wants to dress up as a princess?

That's the dilemma facing one family in Glendora, California, this Halloween:

"My first reaction was 'He wants to be a princess? We're there!' " said mama Anna. But almost everybody she talked with about Luc's intention told her, "Whoa; that's a bad, bad, bad idea."

For a girl who grew up wanting to dress like a boy, Luc's choice felt like a blow against stereotyping. "But I'm trying to leave my inner activist at home," she said, "and just do what's best for my son.

"It's one thing to say 'Son, you can be anything you want. Our society needs to be less uptight.' "

It's another thing entirely to consider how a boy in a princess dress will be treated when all the other boys are trick-or-treating in Superman or Power Rangers costumes.

"I want to encourage him to stand up and be himself," she said. "But my 4-year-old is too little and too fragile to know where the social boundaries are. And I don't want his feelings hurt on what should be one of his happiest nights."

Oh, did I mention that the parents are two gay moms?

Anna and Louisa remember the sea of "Yes on 8" signs that sprouted around them in 2008, when the measure banning gay marriage was on the ballot. Gay marriage was rejected that year by voters, just months after the couple officially wed on June 17, the first day gay marriage was legal in California.

Now, Anna envisions those folks snubbing her trick-or-treating princess-boy.

"I imagine that when those Glendorans shut their doors, they're going to say 'See, that's why lesbians shouldn't raise children.' "

Regardless of your personal political affiliations, I think this is a movement we can all get behind. Geeks Are Sexy has other funny, geeky Occupy Wall Street parodies at the link.

Link

Image: Robert Burns/LA Times

The stimulus didn't work. The bank bailouts didn't work. Homeowner assistance and refinancing didn't work. So could the key to solving the US housing crisis be letting foreigners buy real estate for visas?

The bipartisan proposal, part of a package that also would make it easier for international tourists to visit the U.S., is similar to an existing program that puts foreigners on a fast track to a green card if they invest at least $500,000 in an American business that creates at least 10 jobs.

"Many people want to come and live in the United States," said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who introduced the legislation Thursday along with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). "They will be here spending money and paying taxes, and the most important thing is they'll sop up the extra supply of homes we have right now compared to demand, and that's what's dragging our economy down."

The legislation would create a new homeowner visa that would be renewable every three years, but the proposal would not put them on a path to citizenship. To be eligible, a person would have to buy a primary residence of at least $250,000 and spend a total of $500,000 on residential real estate. The other properties could be rented.

Jim Puzzanghera and Lauren Beale of The Los Angeles Times report: Link

Disneyland may be the happiest place on Earth, but it's no walk in the park for its hundreds of laundry workers.

Steve Lopez of The Los Angeles Times wrote about the "electronic whip" that hotels at Disneyland installed to spur productivity:

In the basements of the Disneyland and Paradise Pier hotels in Anaheim, big flat-screen monitors hang from the walls in rooms where uniformed crews do laundry. The monitors are like scoreboards, with employees' work speeds compared to one another. Workers are listed by name, so their colleagues can see who is quickest at loading pillow cases, sheets and other items into a laundry machine.

It should come as no surprise that at the happiest place on Earth, not all the employees are smiling.

Isabel Barrera, a Disneyland Hotel laundry worker for eight years, began calling the new system the "electronic whip" when it was installed last year. The name has stuck.

"I was nervous," said Barerra, who makes $11.94 an hour, "and felt that I was being controlled even more."

Link

Previously on Neatorama: Neatorama Facts: Closed Disney Rides | The Early Days of Mickey and Minnie Mouse | The Dark Side of Disney

Diane McEachern has something to teach all those people at Occupy Wall Street protest: you have to come in with overwhelming force that's no match for the local opposition. Like how she did it at Bethel, Alaska, with a one-woman army that is now the de facto occupier of the Tundra!

Link

Do you love treehouses? Of course, you do. Who doesn't like treehouses, especially one as great as this one by Mark Grapin of Falls Church, Virginia.

Well, actually, the county officials don't:

First, Grapin checked with the county’s building department. A friendly employee told him that, no, he did not need a building permit and to have a nice day.

So off he went to the hardware store for the materials to construct a 58-square-foot treehouse — painted red, with a pitched roof and orange window shutters and braced with stilts — around the only sturdy tree on their Falls Church property.

What Grapin did not realize was that because he lives in a corner lot at Marc Drive and Parkwood Terrace, he would need a variance to build any such structure in what the zoning code considers a front yard. Responding to two anonymous complaints, a county inspector went around to have a look. Soon, the Grapins received notice that they were in violation of Section 10-104 (12C) of the county zoning code.

Now, after an exhaustive battle against the local bureaucracy, Mark Grapin would have to tear down his sons' treehouse: Link

Fat in Denmark? You may want to think twice about drowning your sorrow in a pint of Chubby Hubby as it's going to get a bit more expensive.

Though less than 10% of Denmark's population is obese, the Danish government ain't takin' the chance that they're becoming like Americans - so they're instituting a "fat tax":

Starting Oct. 1, Danes will see a price increase in products that are high in saturated fats, which researchers at Denmark's Institute of Food and Resource Economics have attributed to the cause of 4% of the country's premature deaths.

Butter, oils, and high-fat dairy products will see the biggest price increases; products with more than 2.3% saturated fat will be taxed 16 kroner per kilogram ($2.90 USD) of saturated fat. Shoppers should be ready to pay up to 30% more for a pack of butter, 8% more for a bag of chips, and a liter of olive oil will cost 7.1% more than usual.

Link

Previously on Neatorama: Hungary's "Fat Tax"

The Euthanasia Coaster, designed by London's Royal College of Art's student Julijonas Urbonas, lets you ride the last ride of your life. Literally.

The three-minute ride involves a long, slow, climb -- nearly a third of a mile long -- that lifts one up to a height of more than 1,600 feet, followed by a massive fall and seven strategically sized and placed loops. The final descent and series of loops take all of one minute. But the gravitational force -- 10 Gs -- from the spinning loops at 223 miles per hour in that single minute is lethal.

According to Urbonas, the "Euthanasia Coaster is a hypothetic euthanasia machine in the form of a roller coaster, engineered to humanely -- with elegance and euphoria -- take the life of a human being." [...]

Euthanasia Coaster isn't simply meant to be about death. Urbonas sees it as both an intellectual and artful departure from the world, one that isn't about the paperwork and medical issues of the current euthanasia system. The few places where voluntary euthanasia is legal include: Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington.

"There is no special ritual, nor is death given special meaning except that of the legal procedures and psychological preparation. It is like death is divorced from our cultural life…" Urbonas writes. "…But if it is already legal, why not to make it more meaningful?"

Link