Weekend Open Thread

Filed in National by on December 12, 2009

Only two more weekends until Christmas! Have you got your Christmas shopping finished? I’m definitely not finished.

I think ‘Bulo is not the only listaholic around here. I found this through Facebook: The 10 Least Successful Holiday Specials Of All Time. Here’s my favorite:

Ayn Rand’s A Selfish Christmas (1951)

In this hour-long radio drama, Santa struggles with the increasing demands of providing gifts for millions of spoiled, ungrateful brats across the world, until a single elf, in the engineering department of his workshop, convinces Santa to go on strike. The special ends with the entropic collapse of the civilization of takers and the spectacle of children trudging across the bitterly cold, dark tundra to offer Santa cash for his services, acknowledging at last that his genius makes the gifts — and therefore Christmas — possible. Prior to broadcast, Mutual Broadcast System executives raised objections to the radio play, noting that 56 minutes of the hour-long broadcast went to a philosophical manifesto by the elf and of the four remaining minutes, three went to a love scene between Santa and the cold, practical Mrs. Claus that was rendered into radio through the use of grunts and the shattering of several dozen whiskey tumblers. In later letters, Rand sneeringly described these executives as “anti-life.”

What a genius parody. (It’s not real, folks.)

The News Journal does some good journalism sometimes. The NJ examined some claims by Reebok on their popular new EasyTone shoes. The claims came from a study by Associate Professor Todd Royer at the University of Delaware, but the study was on a very small sample, not enough to be statistically significant.

Reebok — a unit of Adidas — says in advertisements that EasyTones work women’s gluteal muscles 28 percent harder than regular walking shoes. It also says they work hamstrings and calves 11 percent harder.

But the data — based on results of a study performed last summer at the University of Delaware — may not be as definitive as it sounds.

Even the researcher who conducted the study said it wouldn’t be considered scientifically reliable because only five people were used to test the shoes.

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Opinionated chemist, troublemaker, blogger on national and Delaware politics.

Comments (20)

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  1. The AP analyzed the so-called “Climategate” (SwiftHack) emails. They found what we’ve been saying all along – they don’t show any data manipulation. They also show they think their critics are stupid and don’t want to give them their data. No doubt the scientists were worried about have their data cherry-picked. I wonder where they got that idea?

  2. jason330 says:

    Science question…Coke has a new plastic bottle coming out with 70% of the material is plant based. They claim it keeps all the good qualities of regular plastic bottles that we are familiar with. Does that mean, like regular plastic – it never really breaks all the way down?

  3. Jason,

    It depends on what type of plastic it is. There are two types of bio-based – those that are from natural polymers and those based on feedstocks from plants. The first type should break down, the second type would have the same properties of regular plastic bottles.

  4. I found this article searching around. The bottles are made from PET, a common polymer for this application. One of the monomers is made from Brazilian sugar cane. This means the bottle is 30% bio-based feedstock. The PET would have the same properties of regular PET, but it is fully recyclable.

    Some of the packaging material is made from PLA, which is a natural polymer and is compostable.

  5. jason330 says:

    That’s all good news for me, because when the Plastic Pacific Gyre gets big enough (in a few weeks) I am going to claim it as a country and it is going to be like that Bacardi rum commercial and “Taking Care of Business” is going to be the national anthem and the only news stations are going to be 24/7 celebrity gossip and it is going to be all supper models partying on a big floating island of garbage. I’ll call it “America II”

  6. nemski says:

    Apparently, South Carolina doesn’t have no-fault divorce, so Jenny is divorcing Marshall Sanford on the grounds of adultery. TMZ provides the divorce papers online, http://www.tmz.com/2009/12/11/south-carolina-governor-mark-sanford-divorce-papers/

  7. Jason330 says:

    Christine O’Donnell has dropped out I don’t mean to brag, but I called this weeks ago. The impotent Delaware wingnuts now (heart) Mike Castle.

  8. nemski says:

    Jason330, how do you get that O’Donnell has dropped out from this article? I mean her name isn’t even mention in the post. At most, this is supposition.

  9. jason330 says:

    1) Her name is not mentioned. 2) Pete DuPont says that there will be no primary from the right. 3) Mike Castle says that there will be no primary from the right. 3) Celia Cohen says that there will be no primary from the right.

    Your honor. I rest my case. I think Christine thought that Castle (being 90 years old) might not run. With Castle in O’Donnell knows she is beat and so do all 200 of her loser followers. She had dropped.

  10. cassandra_m says:

    I suspect that rather than O’Donnell dropping out now, the message being sent is that no one is paying attention to her and they can afford to not pay attention to her. I think that the overall message being sent here is that they are not feeling threatened by the purity testers or by the teabaggers.

  11. jason330 says:

    Sixty-one..half dozing are the others. The media team (Castle, DuPont, Cohen) have decided that O’Donnell is out. While she may not have had a press conference to announce that she has dropped out – she has dropped out.

    Your honor – I rest my case again.

  12. nemski says:

    I wonder what the true Republicans will do if O’Donnell doesn’t run?

  13. Geezer says:

    Rick Jensen is a valuable weathercock here, since all his sources are Republican, and he hasn’t had two words to say about Christine O’Donnell in months.

    All the Delaware GOP’s energy and resources have been diverted to forward shields — um, I mean, defeating Beau Biden. Any of you who stop by conservative sites have seen the ads from the Delaware GOP headlined “stop the Biden dynasty.” If that’s Castle’s idea of nationwide fund-raising, I have a feeling the red tide won’t be rising very high in Delaware next November.

  14. Geezer says:

    “it is going to be all supper models”

    What are supper models — the women in weight-loss ads who are clearly not heavy enough to need the product being pitched?

  15. cassandra_m says:

    Sanctimony is a Force That Gives Us Meaning

    This very astute article probably deserves its own post. But it is true that those nurturing their ideological purity and raging away at everyone who doesn’t have it doesn’t leave much room for either a compromise to build on or for political nuance.

  16. MJ says:

    O’Donnell is really Protack in drag.

  17. nemski says:

    That’s gross on so many levels.

  18. Christine IS running, contrary to the falsehoods told by the State GOP party.

  19. Geezer says:

    “Running” might be the wrong word for it. “On the ballot” is not the same as “running,” which requires actually, y’know, raising money and making public appearances.

  20. anonone says:

    At least D. Jackson is running! And how about McNubbies last night, J330?