Hot off the Press: Information overload edition

I followed a LAT article about the thinner, cheaper PS3 to this little story. The Xbox 360 has a 54.2 percent failure rate: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/17/game-informer-xbox-360-at-54-2-percent-failure-rate/. Another reason why I'm still thinking about buying a PS3.

Parents are uniting against...the ice cream man?: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/dining/19soft.html?_r=1. I kind of agree. That annoying jingle (which seems to be ubiquitous in the US) needs to be stopped. The summer of '93 was when I first remember an ice cream truck prowling IC's southside, and it always stopped in front of our house. The kids down the block missed it when it passed and hustled up the street, while the kids up the street walked down to meet it. I once had a nightmare that the truck was chasing me. No matter how fast I ran it kept gaining on me, with that jingle becoming louder and louder as it closed in for the kill. I love this quote, too:

“There used to be this image that was wholesome and cool,” Mr. Semanko said. But these days, in Tacoma, there is a guy in an old mail van with no shirt on, smoking a cigarette, he said. “I heard one kid complain that the guy actually burped on him. That’s creepy to people.”

Fuck the ice cream man.

I got this from a stupid educational newsletter one of the journals receives (it's forwarded to my personal account). A recent college graduate is suing her college because she can't find a job: http://www.higheredmorning.com/new-grad-cant-find-job-so-she-sues-college. What frivolous shit. Obviously, the college did its job in educating her. She's the dumbass who majored in business IT. She's on her own, like everyone else.

The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA), voted best transit system in 2005, now faces a crushing deficit thanks to declining tax revenue and ridership: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-octa-woes20-2009aug20,0,2823781.story. I'm still riding it, though. Viva public transit!

California's unemployment rate hits 11.9 percent: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-caljobs22-2009aug22,0,6343107.story.

Iowa's unemployment rate hits 6.5 percent: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090821/BUSINESS/90821010.

The federal stimulus money California received is not being spent on life-changing projects. Twenty percent of the money is being spent on Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs projects: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cal-stimulus21-2009aug21,0,5590180.story.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is considering whether to ordain gay and lesbian pastors: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/us/21lutheran.html. Here's an odd thing the article brings up but doesn't dwell on: it quotes a gay man who is almost finish with his seminary education. If the church doesn't allow gays from becoming pastors, how come it allows them into seminary? That's like allowing people to go to law school but not letting them become lawyers when they graduate.

Here's a follow-up article about the church's decision (I'll let you read the article to figure out what they decided): http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/22/us/22lutherans.html?hp.

A DMR article on the new FieldTurf surface at Kinnick Stadium: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090820/SPORTS020502/908210334. Damn I want to go back for a game this year. I may splurg and may sign up for whatever online stream the BTN has.

State fairs, like Iowa's, are adding measures to protect pigs and people from giving each other swing flu: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/22/us/22fairs.html?_r=1&hp.

A swarm of bees decided to watch the Cubs-Dodgers game from the left-field bleachers at Dodger Stadium, prompting stadium staff to evacuate the section: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2009/08/swarm-bees-dodgers-stadium-manny-ramirez-.html. This is the second such baseball-bee incident in SoCal this year. A swarm of bees invaded San Diego's Petco Park a month or so ago.

Although caught in the grip of a bloody drug war, Mexico has decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, and even heroin and meth to allow law enforcement agencies to focus on major dealers and drug cartels: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-drugs23-2009aug23,0,6595161.story.

Colleges are telling students to prepare for swine flu outbreaks: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/health/23flu.html?ref=us.

Since Iowa raised the Interstate speed limit to 70 in 2005, state troopers have been giving out more and more speeding tickets: http://gazetteonline.com/breaking-news/2009/08/21/iowa-troopers-writing-more-tickets-since-speed-limit-raised.