Category Archives: Interesting

This Story Is Oh So Onion-y

Truth really is stranger than fiction, and this story that I would swear came from The Onion (but apparently didn't) is proof:

Enter "Waterworld" star Kevin Costner, who has invented a device that cleans oil from sea water.

British Petroleum - desperate for ideas – gave the okay to test six of Costner's gizmos Wednesday, after the Army Corps of Engineers gave the machine a thumbs-up.

Costner's $24 million centrifuge machine has a Los Angeles-perfect name, "Ocean Therapy."

Placed on a barge, it sucks in oily water, separates out the oil and spits back clean water.


Have a Little Hitch in Your Giddy Up? Blame the Economy.

As if losing jobs and nest eggs isn't bad enough, apparently the Great Recession is also killing the libidos of the grey haired set:

Americans 45 and older are far more open to sex outside of marriage than they were 10 years ago, but they are engaging in sex less often and with less satisfaction, according to a major new survey by AARP.

What's the problem?

AARP's sex and relationship expert, sociologist Pepper Schwartz, thinks that financial stress is a prime culprit.

"The economy has had an impact on these people," she said. "They're more liberal in their attitudes, yet they are having sex less often. The only thing I see that's changed in a negative direction is financial worries."

Apparently in Mt. Airy Wine Ain’t Christian

From a story on WXII's site about some Baptists in Mt. Airy getting ready to work a local wine festival:

A group of about 100 Baptists from 10 to 15 local churches plan to stand at four intersections in town to express their opinion to those who will be attending the Budbreak Wine Festival on Saturday.

Tim Crotts, pastor of Beartrail Baptist Church, is heading up the group.

“We are taking an opportunity to proclaim Christ. We will be holding signs and banners so people driving in and out from the event can see our message — Jesus saves,” Crotts said…

Crotts said drinking wine is “not a Christian thing to do.”

That last one has me scratching my head a little for a couple of reasons.  Namely the whole water to wine thing and the fact that Catholics (and some other mainstream religions) serve wine in church.  I do believe that Catholics count as Christians.

Sociopathic CEOs

Lex has linked to a very interesting piece that provides the following quote:

But what part of being a CEO could be so difficult — so impossible for mere mortals — that it would mean that there are only a few hundred individuals in the United States capable of performing it?

In my humble opinion, it’s the sociopath part.

CEOs of community-based businesses are typically responsive to their communities and decent people. But the CEOs of the world largest corporations daily make decisions that destroy the lives of many other human beings. Only about 1 to 3 percent of us are sociopaths — people who don’t have normal human feelings and can easily go to sleep at night after having done horrific things. And of that 1 to 3 percent of sociopaths, there’s probably only a fraction of a percent with a college education. And of that tiny fraction there’s any even tinier fraction that understands how business works, particularly within any specific industry.

Thus there is a shortage of people who can run modern monopolistic, destructive corporations that stockholders have to pay millions to get them to work. And being sociopaths, they gladly take the money without any thought to its social consequences.

This makes it much easier for me when I read business news and ask myself the question, "How do these people sleep at night?" The answer, of course, is "quite soundly."

I'm not a big believer in generalizations, so I my knee jerk reaction is to say that this description probably only fits the vast majority of the CEOs of the world's largest corporations. 

Spike Lee Says I’m a Dream Killer

Spike Lee made an appearance at Wake Forest University last week and among his comments was the following:

Quite often, young people allow themselves to be influenced too heavily by their parents, and wind up having life choices made for them, Lee said.

“Parents kill more dreams than anybody,” he said.

One of my oldest and closest friends has for years been called the "funsucker" by his wife and kids.  Personally I just see him as a proponent of reality-based parenting, but of course I've been accused of being a funsucker too so what do I know?

Now I can add "dream killer" to my resume.

The $9 Million (Other) Woman

Did you know that in North Carolina you can sue the other woman (or man) if your spouse is cheating on you?  Believe it or not you can, and it can even work.  A woman just won a $9 million verdict against the younger woman with whom her husband was fooling around.  From the story:

On Tuesday , a jury awarded Cynthia Shackelford  money for alienation of affections, criminal conversation (legal speak for adultery) and intentionally or recklessly causing severe emotional distress.

North Carolina remains one of a few states that allow someone to sue the person who interferes in a marriage — called alienation of affection. More than 200  such cases are filed statewide in an average year, according to the Rosen  law firm in Raleigh.

Shackelford, 60 , now of Raleigh , sued Lundquist in 2007 , charging that the younger woman’s affair with her husband ruined their marriage.

Alert to Fellow Fathers of Teenage Daughters

We might be washed up old men who's memories of adolescent amore are but distant memories, but we forget the motivations of young men at our peril as evidenced by this story of a young British POW during WWII (h/t to Lex for the lead):

Within a few weeks Greasley and Rosa were conducting their affair in broad daylight and virtually under the noses of the German guards – snatching meetings for trysts in the camp workshops and wherever else they could find. But at the end of a year, just as he was realising how much he cared for Rosa, Greasley was transferred to Freiwaldau, an annex of Auschwitz, some 40 miles away.

The only way to carry on the love affair was to break out of his camp. From Silesia, bordered by Germany and German-occupied countries, there was little hope of escaping back to Britain…

Greasley reckoned that short absences could be disguised or go unnoticed. Messages between him and Rosa were exchanged via members of outside work parties, who then handed hers on to Greasley, the camp barber, when they came to have their hair cut. When, with the help of friends, he did make it under the wire for an assignation nearby, he would break back into the camp again under cover of darkness to await his next opportunity.

Sometimes, Greasley reckoned, he made the return journey three or more times a week