Utah Idiots Charged With Felonies

Often, stupidity is only punished when it actually hurts someone. I'm happy to learn that ignorance and stupidity in it's purest form is being punished this time, simply for the sake of it. The two men who pushed over an ancient rock formation in Goblin valley have been charged with felonies.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/02/01/269926160/men-filmed-toppling-ancient-rock-formation-are-charged-in-utah

I was in the boy-scouts. One of the key rules about trips like this is "Don't disturb mother nature". These jackasses did it gleefully. They've been quoted as saying they just did what made sense at the time so that nobody would get hurt from the rock in the future. If these half-wits had remembered anything about their grade-school geology education, or maybe just stopped and thought about it for a minute, they would have realized that this structure took millions of years to form and isn't going anywhere any time soon. Unless some jackass pushes it over. I don't accept ignorance as an excuse here. Nobody should have needed to tell them specifically not to disturb the rock formations.

"Slovenly" is a great word.

Hanks

It seems as though Tom Hanks is perpetually living 50 years in the past.

In the age of smart phones I enjoy fact checking the random bullshit overheard in public places.

Noise

Summary of my life 24/7: Attempting to read a book (or some other activity which requires concentration) while simultaneously being hyper-aware of the the humming of the refrigerator, the ticking of the clocks, the movement of traffic outside, and the extremely faint sound of my neighbors television downstairs. All the while trying to also shut out the noise of my brain thinking about 10 other distinct things at the same time.

Issac Asimov

Quote by Isaac Asimov I've always liked:

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”

I kinda wish there was a penguin channel on TV.

The mere existence of Jose Cansaco is amusing to me.

This appeared on reddit recently and has been circulating social media. Click for larger view.

I'm pretty sure a choice of ignorance is what gets us into these kinds of messes to begin with. If something terrible happens, you aught to find out why. This includes understanding the motivations of criminals sometimes. All this person on reddit did was take a holier-than-thou / "won't somebody please think of the children" attitude in order to make him/herself seem noble. No, we don't need 24 hour news yammering on and on about irrelevant details about the person; but who they were and what might have led to this? I think we can sacrifice a few a synaptic connections for that. Sad as it is, remembering the names of the victims isn't going to help prevent something like this in the future. They have families, and people who knew and loved them personally for that. Let THEM do the personal grieving and spare me phony sentimentality.

2012 Movie List

 Movies seen for the first time in 2012.

1. The Debt (***1/2)

2. The Expendables (**)

3. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (***)

4. The Ides of March (***)

5. Haywire (***)

6. Winter’s Bone (***)

7. IP Man (****)

8. Underworld: Awakening (***)

9. The Descendants (***1/2)

10. Ip Man 2 (***)

11. Heathers (***1/2)

12. Hugo (****)

13. The Adventures of Tintin (***1/2)

14. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (US) (***1/2)

15. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (****)

16. Casablanca (****)

17. Strangers with Candy (*)

18. Jaws (****)

19. Young Adult (***1/2)

20. The Hunger Games (***)

21. The Avengers (****)

22. The Secret World of Arrietty (****)

23. A Dog Eat Dog World (*)

24. Ghost Rider (**)

25. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (***)

26. 21 Jump Street (***)

27. Magic Mike (***1/2)

28. Moonrise Kingdom (****)

29. Larry Crowne (***)

30. Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter (**)

31. Safety Not Guaranteed (***1/2)

32. Jeff, Who Lives at Home (***)

33. Vanishing of the Bees (***)

34. Anatomy of a Murder (****) <--That might be my new favorite movie.

35. Your Sister’s Sister (***)

36. 12 Angry Men (****)

37. Le Circle Rouge (***)

38. Crazy, Stupid, Love (***)

39. Dark Knight Rises (****)

40. Cedar Rapids (***)

41. Bernie (***)

42. Lawless (***)

43. Woman in Black (***)

44. The Birds (****)

45. Indie Game: The Movie (***)

46. Looper (****)

47. The Amazing Spider-Man (***)

48. Skyfall (****)

49. Hellraiser (***)

50. Beavis and Butthead do America (***)

51. Carrie (**)
52. Premium Rush (***)

53. Ted (**)