A Challenger Appears: Suicide Note Vs Death Note

On Saturday, a man shot himself before the Memorial Church in front of a tour group, shocking everyone in sight. He was Mitchel L. Heisman, a thirty-five year-old scholar who lived in Somerville. His alma mater expressed their standardized condolences toward his death. Evelynn M. Hammonds, the dean of the university where he attended, quickly disclaimed responsibility for his death and for all similar incidents that might happen or had happened to their graduates and students.

He was a native of New York. At young age he demonstrated his academic ability with his intense interest in math and science. He managed to graduate with a BS in Psychology from Albany University. In unfortunate irony, he knew about the workings of the human mind but unfortunately couldn't fix his own. Apparently he didn't have a job and had to rely on his large inheritance from his father to support himself. His mother didn't know about the actual content of the book until after his suicide. She was just estatic that his son was working on a project that he himself was proud of because he had nothing else to be proud about, not knowing that it was an epic-length suicide note. The content of the suicide note was all about death, drawing heavy references to nihilism, religion, and history, which are some of typical topics that madmen ramble about. Despite the subject matter he did a lot of research and interviews with professors in order provide material for his nearly two thousand page exposition. His mother wanted his son's work to be published in order to satisfy her son's wish of getting attention that he wasn't able to get while he was still alive. At the very least he deserves praise for being an hero.

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Katy Perry: Sesame to Simpsons

The people behind Sesame Street may be cold to Katy Perry's innocuous performance at Sesame Street, but another show welcomes her with open arms. Just as in her prior act, she will get to sing with a puppet, but not with just any group of puppets. It would be with the puppet versions of the characters from Simpsons. From the gist of it, it seems like her role in the new show is like a satirical parody of the Sesame Street blunder where she sang Hot & Cold with the well-known red muppet. Al Jean, the current producer of the Simpsons, says all of the people in Simpsons support Katy Perry, unlike the back-stabbing muppets where she was once friends with.

In the new simpsons episode, which has yet to be released, Katy Perry will sing "The Thirty-Nine Days of Christmas" and, in an apparent mockery of Sesame Street's Elmo, Katy Perry will the girlfriend of Moe (Elmo and Moe, get it?) Though Katy Perry's act in the Simpsons show was done earlier than her Sesame Street gig, it seems to be too much of a coincidence that the new Simpson's show involves puppets and singing. Maybe Katy Perry knew in advance that Sesame Street segment featuring her would get rejected as being too racy.

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Lindsay Lohan Bails Out with $300K

In a dramatic reversal of an earlier ruling, Judge Schnegg of the Los Angeles Superior Court allowed Lindsay Lohan to post a thirty hundred thousand dollar bail so that she could avoid jail. If it weren't for the reversal, she would have to spend twenty-eight days in the slammer. This was all thanks to her lawyer, Shawn Chapman Holley. She's lucky that she doesn't have to stay in jail for the month. The catch is that she will be constantly monitored for alcohol use and the police will be checking on her regularly. She also can't visit certain places, such as bars and other places where booze is sold. Drugs is also off limits to her. All this began from the mistake that she made in 2007 of driving under the influence. Everything went downhill from there with repeat violations and failed rehab. Apparently now she's still not sober enough to get her act together.

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Mark Zuckerberg Puts Other Billionaires to Shame

The Forbes of the richest four hundred Americans has been updated again and it's already released. Most notable of all the wealthy people on the list is Mark Zuckerberg, who is one of the founders of Facebook. Two notable things seperate him from other billionaires: Most financially significant is his dramatic increase in wealth last year. His net worth increased by two hundred and forty-five percent. That's a very a large increase in such a short period of time. This is of course due largely to the rising popularity of Facebook which practically omnipresent today. The other founders of Facebook also gained a lot of money but not as much as him. The second thing that makes him stand out is his willingness to give a lot of money to charity. He donated over a hundred million dollars to public schools in Newark, New Jersey. This amount puts other Forbes list billionaires to shame.

As for the list, Bill Gates is still number one. Other notable billionaires like the Waltons of Walmart more or less remain in the same positions as before. The lesser known ones got shuffled around. Michael Bloomberg still retains the title as one of the richest politicians. Fortunately for them, the recession in 2009 barely put a dent on their fortunes, but the same thing can't be said for the rest of us.

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Filthy Conditions at the Commonwealth Games

The whole area of the Commonwealth Games may look great at first, but upon further inspection one can unveil the horrors that lie within. Many of the common folk were hired to build the infrastructure for the games. Unfortunately the organization responsible for the work, the Delhi Development Authority, didn't care at all about the workers' living and working conditions. Unsightly chunks of feces can be found all over the Games village. The workers there lived in conditions not fit for human living. Almost everything and everywhere was unsanitary and unsafe to boot. Practically everything was bad: Bad hygiene, unclean environment, deficiency of modern sanitation. There weren't enough toilets and nobody cleans the toilets. Living quarters are also very cramped. Some may view this as typical because this is how most of the poor lived.

To keep the view of the games palatable to the foreign public, Indian officials are trying desperately to keep these issues out of the spotlight by declaring them as minor issues. The reponse of the officials and the deplorable conditions of the workers suggest that corruption might be involved. Regardless, there's a double standard, even amongst the poor workers. They worry more about the foreign athelete's safety than their own well being.


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Kate Perry: Sex and the Sesame Street

Kate Perry's segment in a recently made episode of Sesame Street won't be aired due to her sexual suggestiveness. Her gold colored top was apparently too revealing and therefore inappropriate for children. It wasn't a problem until the people responsible for the show received a lot of complaints after they released it on Youtube. In the episode, Kate Perry sang Hot and Cold and played tag with Elmo. It's most likely just a handful of complaints from a minority of overreacting people. Any reasonable person can see how utterly ridiculous this is. Compared to that segment, what you see in the city, beaches, and swimming pools is even worse. This is America, not some conservative Muslim country. No word from Kate Perry yet.

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Stuxnet: Cyber Super Weapon

The terrifying new malware that heralds the dawning of the age of cyberweapons was found in June. It had already infected 45,000 computer systems around the world but mainly in Iran, India, Pakistan, and Indonesia. Iran's computer systems took the bulk of the infections. Computer security experts have painstakingly dissected and analyzed the exotic and highly dangerous piece of malware. Apparently it was designed to attack a specific computer system at a specific time, much like the viruses and trojans in the old days. It's target appears to be some unknown industrial complex such as a factory or power plant. In a way Stuxnet is like a cyber saboteur. It can exploit the vulnerability of the industrial software and destroy the physical location itself.

It's the first of its kind, a completely different breed of malware that most people encounter on a daily basis. One of the special features is its ability to attack only a specific target and leave non-targets alone. Its method of attack is through a usb drive, possibly that was designed especially for this purpose. It immediately infects the computer system when the usb drive is inserted to the usb port without the user doing anything. Because most of the infections happened in Iran, experts suspect that the politically-hot Bushehr nuclear plant is the target. It might have already been infected, but they're not certain. Creating malware of such sophistication would require vast amounts of resources and access to uncommon knowledge regarding the weaknesses of industrial software. This suggest the government of some unknown country was responsible. Suspects include the US, Israel, and Russian contractors who built the power plant. US and Israel already admits that they have such terrifying weapons. Experts believe that it might already be too late for Stuxnet's target.

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Growing Weed Amongst the Rhinos at the Zoo

The 59 year-old worker who was responsible for the rhinos for a number of years wouldn't have been busted if it weren't for tip to the police by one of his disgruntled customers. Sabine Grebner, who managed the Salzburg Zoo in Austria, was absolutely appalled and was quick to condemn the heinous crime, saying that the worker's actions don't represent the zoo and it was an isolated incident. Apparently he had been growing weed inside the rhino corral for several years without anyone noticing. The cannabis farm was well hidden from visitors of the zoo and his coworkers. No one had suspected a thing. His special access to the rhino corral contributed to the success of his crime. When he was busted, the police found thirty three weed plants. Imagine what would happen if the rhinos had ate them. Stoned rhinos would've put on quite a show for the public. Criminals never stop in thinking up more creative ways to commit crime.

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Titanic Tragedy Happened Because of Stupidity

The tragedy that happened on April 10, 1912 was all due to two entirely preventable mistakes that could've averted or at least minimize the impact of the tragedy. Louise Patten, daughter of Charles Lightoller who worked on the Titanic at the time, finally revealed the secret that she held for a long time in order to keep his grandfather's reputation.

When the iceburg was first sighted, a stupid steering mistake aimed the ship right at the iceburg. Hitchens was at the wheel and was responsible for the mistake. He confused the difference between the steering directions of sail ships and steam ships. Instead of steering to the left, he steered to right. Another officer tried to steer the ship back in the correct direction, but it was too late.

Lightoller was at meeting where they decided to coverup to mistake in order to keep the business' reputation intact and keep their jobs. But that alone wasn't enough to cause so many deaths. J. Bruce Ismay told them to continue sailing, sealing the fate of many aboard the ship. They would've had hours remaining, enough time for the rescue ship to come, if they had remain where they were.

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Trolling at Women's Races

Trolling offline takes a lot of guts. Jonathan Mederos, a philosophy teacher in his twenties, got first place at the Disney Princess Marathon last year with a time of one hour, sixteen minutes, and seven seconds. Everyone was dead silent when he passed the finish line. Rick Codes also got first place the Nike Women's Half Marathon where he was one of the 700 men who participated alongside 12,700 women. Despite being constantly insulted by the crowd, he managed to win.

Women-themed races became more increasingly common in recent years, encouraged by the rise in the number of professional female atheletes. Men, either for one reason or another, are allowed in such races to prevent the possibility of lawsuits. Some may view this as spitting feminism in its face. Despite being able to participate, most of the men will have to endure the derisive comments from the crowd.

To discourage such trolling, some planners made the races more female-oriented by giving only prizes suitable for women such as tight-fitting pink t-shirts. The prizes are also awarded by semi-naked men. To guarantee that men never win, some would go as far as giving women an advantage of several minutes by placing them ahead of men at the start of the races. Despite all these precautions, some men are unfazed. They went ahead with winning the race, and then going as far as trying to wear the female clothing that were awarded.

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Too Stupid to Do a Head Shot

On Wednesday morning, a good samaritan notified the local sheriff's at Alahua County office through a call that a dying deer was found on the road. Apparently it had been injured severely in a car accident. Under official policy, the police at that area were allowed to do humane killings on animals that are critically injured and suffering. A sheriff's deputy was dispatched to the scene and, in an great act of stupidity, shot the deer 17 times in the stomach, contrary to the seargent's instructions on the phone to shoot at the animal's heart. How the deputy could be this stupid is beyond me. Regardless of whether or not the deputy received the appropriate training for such a killing, he should've known that a head shot would kill the deer instantly instead going trigger happy with 17 shots in the stomach. In spite of this folly, the deputy received no action against him, but training in killing humane animals properly is now required for all officers.

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