The Daily What

The Daily What

Lunchtime Links

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 12:02 PM PDT

Lunchtime Links

Today on The Daily What Geek: The Avengers come together for the first time, to fight KISS

Elsewhere on the Internets:

  • Opened: The first medical marijuana machine, in California
  • Good to Know: Why we scream “Geronimo!” when jumping from things
  • Possibility: A conspiracy theory against Planned Parenthood may be in full swing
  • Disgusted: Bill O’Reilly, with the Simpsons‘ dig at Fox
  • Horrifying: Brian McKnight’s new song, “How Your Pu**y Works”
  • Confirmed: Lindsay Lohan will play Liz Taylor (cringe)
  • Raised: $400K for charity, after a London marathoner died just before the finish line
  • Protested: Abercrombie & Fitch, by well-heeled chaps on Savile Row

Lunchtime Leisure: Dash’n Knights
Lunchtime List: 10 Fictional Characters You Probably Didn’t Know Were Based On Real Characters

[image: johnny hanson / houston chronicle via bestweekever]

Better Late Than Never of the Day

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 11:32 AM PDT

Better Late Than Never of the Day

To mark the two-year anniversary of the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, an arrest has been made linking BP to the horrific aftermath. Kurt Mix, a former BP engineer, has been charged with two counts of obstructing justice for deleting from his iPhone hundreds of text messages he exchanged with a co-worker and a contractor, according to a criminal complaint unsealed today.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The deleted messages, some of which were recovered forensically, included sensitive information about the failure of one of the efforts to stop the flow of oil, known as the “top kill.” This includes a May 26, 2010, message from the first day of the top-kill efforts that said, “Too much flowrate—over 15,000,” indicating the flow from the well was three times higher than the company had said was the official rate of flow.

In related news, BP posted a 2011 profit of $26 billion; former BP exec Tony Hayward, now chief executive of oil venture Genel Energy, received in a merger this year shares worth $17 million.

[consumerist]

Say What Now of the Day

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 11:18 AM PDT

Quote of the Day

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), talking about the Colombian Secret Service scandal on Radio Iowa today:

"We're looking at something that is very, very serious when national security might not be protected properly. Who knows who might be using prostitutes? The Russians are famous for that to get information out of us.”

Really, Senator? This isn’t 1959.

[mediaite]

Flash Mob of the Day

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 11:05 AM PDT

All we’ve ever wanted was a Carlton Dance flash mob. Fortunately, Alfonso Ribeiro recruited a bunch of fans to try for the record for the most people in North America flash mobbing at the same time. No word on whether they pulled it off, but really, who cares? We’ll always have this video.

[tmz]


Tagged: video

Movie Trailer of the Day

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 10:52 AM PDT

In which Pixar gives us our first animated ginger heroine, Princess Merida (Kelly MacDonald), who displays quite the archery prowess while attempting to escape marriage change her fate.

[ew]


Tagged: video

Everybody Needs a Hobby of the Day

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 10:26 AM PDT

- Everybody Needs a Hobby of the Day


New Yorker Zack Hample‘s collection of more than 5,800 baseballs, both home runs and fouled balls, is the largest in the world. “Yes, I’m obsessed,” admits Hample, who’s snagged balls since 1990. His only goal during baseball season is to hit as many Major League stadiums as possible and snag at least a thousand balls — and his success relies on a carefully honed combination of preparation, ingenuity, and pure dumb luck.

“If the White Sox come out early for batting practice, I’m going to throw on my White Sox gear and start shouting at them,” he says. But he’ll happily switch gear depending on the team. Some of the players make a game out of throwing him the ball: “It’s cool to be connected to all these guys. It’s my own version of fantasy baseball, where I get to interact and play with numbers and feel like I’m a part of it somehow.” Hample also has a rigged mitt, and he yells at foreign players in their native languages.

If you’ve read this far and consider Hample a Major League distraction, or just a jackass ballhawk, take note: He’s written three books about baseball, and he’s also started an initiative through which people pledge a dollar amount for every ball he collects. He donates the proceeds to Pitch in for Baseball, a charity that provides baseball equipment to underprivileged kids around the world. “I just love baseball,” Hample says, “and I feel like I would be going to games regardless and just being obsessed with the sport.”

[neatorama]


Tagged: baseball, Everybody Needs A Hobby

Mother Nature Win of the Day

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 10:00 AM PDT

Mother Nature Win of the Day

Andrey Pavlov‘s photographs are so legit, they should be included in Barney Stinson’s office collection of motivational posters.

This one would be captioned: “Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone.” ~Charles de Gaulle

[mentalfloss]

Marketing Campaign of the Day

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 09:02 AM PDT


French Socialist presidential candidate François Hollande — who leads incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy after the first round of voting — has co-opted Jay-Z and Kanye West’s anthem “Ni**as In Paris” for his latest campaign ad. The song backgrounds footage that shows Hollande campaigning in the outer Parisian suburbs among people of various ethnic backgrounds, as they hold up their voter registration cards. And Slate helpfully points out: “Creil,” one of the suburbs Hollande campaigns in during the ad, is pronounced “cray” as in, “That sh*t Creil.”

Despite the perhaps questionable song choice, Hollande’s general play is a smart one — Sarkozy has a lousy history with the outer regions of the Paris metro area, where a high percentage of racial minority and immigrant populations live. The next round of voting is May 6.

(Not Safe For Work, Kanye and Jay-Z)

[crushable]


Tagged: Jay-Z, kanye, Marketing Campaign

Delaware’s Suddenly Become Very Important of the Day

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 08:31 AM PDT

And Then There Was One of the Day

And so it’s come to this: Unless he pulls off an upset in today’s Delaware primary, it looks like Newt Gingrich will leave the Obama fight to Mitt Romney. “I think we need to take a deep look at what we are doing,” Gingrich said Monday, adding that he would have to “reassess” his campaign based on the results in winner-take-all Delaware, which has 17 delegates at stake.

In other news, Romney STILL HAS 698 out of 1,144 delegates needed to clinch the GOP nomination.

[shortformblog]

Kickass Dad of the Day

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 07:39 AM PDT


When Stuart Chaifetz learned that his 10-year-old son, Akian, was being violent and disruptive in class, he was puzzled. He knew Akian, who has autism, to be mild-mannered and sensitive, and had a hunch that something more was going on. But after several meetings with a team of school officials created to help special-needs students, nothing changed. So Chaifetz did what any concerned parent would do.

On the morning of Friday, February 17, 2012, I wired my son and sent him to school. That night, when I listened to the audio my life changed forever. I heard my son being bullied by his teacher and aide. The six and a half hours of audio I had proved that my son wasn’t hitting the teacher because there was something wrong with him — he was lashing out because he was being mocked, mistreated and humiliated. His outbursts were his way of expressing that he was being emotionally hurt at school.

The New Jersey father has since launched a website full of damning evidence and a Facebook page, and he is petitioning the state to change legislation so that teachers who bully children are immediately fired. The aide has been fired, but the rest of the staff have merely been relocated.

“I seek a full and public apology from all those adults who were in my son’s class for what they did to him,” Chaifetz says. “It is also far past time that these issues are allowed to be hidden from public view.”

[vvv]


Tagged: kickass dad