Overnight Open Thread (2-15-2014) - [Niedermeyer's Dead Horse]

CDR M is off this evening pursuing his dream of becoming an Olympic ice dancer. He claims he was inspired, not by the strength and grace of Olympics-quality competition, but by Johnny Weir's flair for fashion. Who can blame him? Johnny is f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s!

He did however, drop by to remind us that Curling is too a sport, and provided a video of some of the most tension-filled moments of icy shuffleboard Curling ever witnessed.

Behold the magic:

Speaking of fashion, Rodarte's Fall 2014 ready-to-wear collection just kills it. It draws from the designer's own individual creativity and is designed for only the most discriminating of tastes.

I say this with my tongue planted firmly in cheek.

These ready-to-wear dresses, intended to be accessible to a larger-than-couture consumer market, defy logic. The kind of woman who might wear such a dress, hoping to make a statement, will certainly feel less an individual when several other such rebels show up in the same, or similar, dress. A gimmick such as this only works once: Perhaps on a red carpet or at a movie premier.

But. Wait. They aren't for sale? You mean they showed dresses at a RTW fashion show that won't even be available for purchase? So, the one measure of success of this gimmick is exactly what they anticipated: A massive amount of press coverage. It seems the press never tires of being manipulated. Slow clapping here, Rodarte. Slow clapping, indeed.

Beware the Mexican flavor rice. And the chicken, garlic, cheese, and Spanish infused rice products as well.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating the illnesses of children in three states in recent months that have been linked to Uncle Ben's infused rice served in schools.

The cluster of illnesses have affected children in Texas, Illinois and North Dakota. At three schools in Katy, Texas, 34 students and four teachers experienced skin reactions, burning, headaches and nausea last week after eating Uncle Ben's "Mexican flavor" infused rice.
The symptoms lasted about 90 minutes, officials said.

Crocodiles can climb straight up trees! Except that, yeah, they don't. I am a native Floridian and have seen literally hundreds of alligators in my lifetime of which probably half were perched on low-lying limbs or fallen trees. So, upon seeing this headline I was SHOCKED to learn that they can climb-straight-up-trees. Holy crap! This means that when boating in the local rivers and streams I mustn't just scan the water and the banks, but the ckufing tree limbs above me too?!

It turns out that this Herpetological study was a product of the Psychology Department of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, so... Huh? Secondly, despite their claims that small Crocodilians can climb "straight up a brick wall" the only photos the study offers to prove their climbing prowess are those that myself and thousands of others have taken throughout the years: Alligators on low-slung or horizontal branches.

The difficulty of climbing something is proportional to the steepness of the slope, the smoothness of the surface being climbed, the agility of the animal to help direct the body upwards and secure a grip, and the strength of the animal relative to its weight. Climbing a steep hill and climbing a tree branch are mechanically similar assuming the branch is wide enough to walk on, and especially if that branch grows at an angle, as those of certain tree species tend to be when overhanging water. In theory a wide range of animals can climb trees if the branches are wide enough and the angle is shallow enough. Juvenile crocodilians can do not just that, but also climb on relatively thin, vertical branches that have to be gripped from the sides, or even across multiple branches using them as a ladder and lifting the body vertically. The ability to climb vertically (as long as footholds are available) is a measure of crocodilians’ spectacular agility on land and their ability to pull the body along an angled surface…

Beware the dreaded tree-climbing alligator.

Paula Deen looks to make a comeback from that unfortunate PR debacle last year and it seems that someone believes in her enough to sink a hefty sum of cash into her enterprise. Here's to a brighter future.

I-Pads for all... students. Los Angeles Unified School District has launched a massive, and controversial, $1B program to outfit 749 schools with wi-fi and provide a shiny new I-Pad to each student in the district. Thus far, it's gone about as well as you might expect: cost overruns, delayed implementation, and questions as to whether the students will even be allowed to take the devices home with them at the end of the day. Folks are, understandably, upset:

But it’s easy to understand why so many administrators, teachers and parents aren’t iPad fans yet. Some mistakes are inevitable in a venture this new. But the number and types of mistakes have been discouraging, perhaps even somewhat alarming. The district was paying too much at first, and for curriculum of uncertain value. It hadn’t nailed down what would happen when Apple rolled out newer iPad models, which the computer company did only months after the first phase of the rollout began. It didn’t examine whether high school students might be better off with laptops, or take a comprehensive inventory of existing technology at its schools. And now the Wi-Fi part of the project might cost $300 million more than expected?

It's no secret that Miley Cyrus is a little bit screwed up. Her recent interview in 'W' magazine is certainly something to behold. I learned that she has 21 tattoos, likes being seen as a provocative, although she claims it is calculated and she, uh, likens herself to Madonna, Blondie, and Joan Jett. Oh, yes she did! Unfortunately, that segment of the interview is so fraught with the language of drunken sailors that I might lose my blog privileges if I excerpt it here. Instead, there's this:

But fame brought increasingly harsh judgment. In 2008, a 15-year-old Cyrus scandalized her audience by wearing what appeared to be nothing but a sheet in photographs shot by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair. (“I feel so embarrassed,” Cyrus said at the time. “I apologize to my fans, who I care so deeply about.”) The following year, a video of her pole dancing at an awards show prompted a collective clutching of pearls. Not long after, she found herself in the headlines again when a videotape of her taking a hit from a bong made the rounds online.

BUT WAIT!

I think we might have found the source of Miley's screwed up sense of self-esteem and longing to be viewed as a sexual being.

I present, dear old dad:

How to become a professional complainer: Ya know, sometimes, it just isn't worth time and effort but, you go girl! You get your complainin' on.

Tonight's ONT brought to you by a girl who knows there is no substitute:

posted by Open Blogger at 09:57 PM

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