"Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy." - Edgar Bergen

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Men's Magazine's Gal Pals - "Why do women read men's magazines? According to a recent GQ poll of 30 female readers, some read them for the narrative articles; some, because their husbands subscribe; others want tips on men's fashion and health — or just to ogle fashionable men. “The articles are generally interesting to me even though they aren't specifically geared to me,” says one female reader. “I also love all the eye candy!”"

The Straight Dope: Going postal: Are employees of the United States Postal Service more likely to be violent towards coworkers?

Straight Dope Staff Report: Can a sperm donor be forced to pay child support? - "In other cases women have inseminated themselves with sperm from fellatio or from a condom (or so their male acquaintances alleged), then sought child support – and won. That's because the paramount consideration in child support cases is providing the child with support from two parents. Wisely or not, courts traditionally have defined parents as those who contributed the gametes that made the baby. In most cases, courts will overlook the adults' agreements or despicable conduct in the interest of providing for the children."
!@#$

The Austrian Economists: The Paris School of Economics: Will it be Say or Walras? - "The main reason why graduate education in economics is a disaster in France is because of the state control of universities (see here an article on the subject in The Economist). Exceptions to this rule include the University of Dauphine with Pascal Salin and a few other pockets with good people (e.g., the Universities of Toulouse and Aix-en-Provence, Science Po Paris) but by and large the teaching of economics is terrible, which explains why France is the only place where economists are more to the left than the general population."

Swearsaurus Swear Words: Swearing, Cursing, Cussing and Insulting! - Wah, I almost thought I'd lost this URL. It's even longer than the last time. The French ones are the best of course, but I remember them being more stylish last time.

The Straight Dope: Can opera singers shatter glass with their high notes? - "I dunno--you ever buy whole-life insurance? Now _there_ was a hoax. Shattering glasses, on the other hand, is entirely legit. Enrico Caruso and Italian opera singer Beniamino Gigli are said to have managed it, and I seem to remember Ella Fitzgerald doing it once in a Memorex commercial."

Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda wearing 666 tattoo claims to be Jesus on Earth - "A heroine addict De Jesus, 61, grew up poor in Puerto Rico and said that he learned that he was Jesus reincarnate when angels visited him in a dream."

The Straight Dope: Did a state legislature once pass a law saying pi equals 3? - "Just as people today have a hard time accepting the idea that the speed of light is the speed limit of the universe, Goodwin and Record apparently couldn't handle the fact that pi was not a rational number. "Since the rule in present use [presumably pi equals 3.14159...] fails to work ..., it should be discarded as wholly wanting and misleading in the practical applications," the bill declared."

People are getting bit by freaking rattlesnakes at Wal-Mart - "John Page never expected that a trip to the garden center of his local Brevard County, Florida Wal-Mart to shop for potted plants would end in getting attacked by a rattlesnake. But that’s exactly what happened, and a bite from a pygmy rattlesnake screwed up his pinky finger badly. Now he’s demanding that Wal-Mart protect its customers from poisonous snakes that are invading its garden centers."

German police rescue 91-year-old man glued to roof - "A 91-year-old German sparked a rescue operation when he slipped mending his roof and got stuck fast in tar "like a beetle on its back", police said on Tuesday."

tgs: On Female Mediocrity - "I also know of girls who list their hobbies on Facebook on Friendster in the following fashion: "Wakeboarding, Shopping, Chillin', Sleeping, EATING (haha tho I can't do this so much these days, getting fat!), Watching TV (I heart Kwong Sang Woo!!), Tennis and Golf (juz started but quite fun!)". There is a common thread to all of this. These girls are mediocre, in every sense of the word. I will not say that they are lousy; just mediocre. They expect little from themselves"

Threat for Big Media: Guerrilla Video Sites - "The men, Sam Martinez and Billy Duran, use two low-end desktop computers to run a Web site that offers a remarkably broad menu of television shows and movies free of charge. They provide online access to 17 episodes of NBC's "Heroes" TV series, 49 installments of ABC's "Desperate Housewives," more than 70 feature films and hundreds of other videos. Within four days of Walt Disney's theatrical release of "Meet the Robinsons," the men had the movie available for viewing through their site, YouTVpc.com."

Store gets egg on its face over Christ’s Easter ‘birth’ - "A supermarket chain got itself into a huge muddle over the meaning of Easter yesterday in its attempt to sell more chocolate eggs. “Brits are set to spend a massive £520 million on Easter eggs this year — but many young people don’t even know what Easter’s all about,” said the press release from Somerfield after a survey. It then went on to claim that the tradition of giving Easter eggs was to celebrate the “birth” of Christ. An amended version changed this to the “rebirth” of Christ. Finally a third press release accepted Church teaching that Easter celebrated the resurrection of Christ."

Doctors in trouble for not giving man cervical smear - "A family doctor has been summoned to a formal hearing over his refusal to put a 34-year-old male patient on the list for screening for cervical cancer... She said her husband, who has been a GP for 30 years and who trains young doctors would be "pleased to hear from anyone, medical or otherwise, who could teach him the correct way to carry out a cervical smear on a 34-year-old male"."

Found in India: the last king of France - "This Indian father-of-three is being feted as the long-lost descendent of the Bourbon kings who ruled France from the 16th century to the French revolution. A distant cousin of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, he is alleged to be not only related to the current Bourbon king of Spain and the Bourbon descendants still in France, but to have more claim than any of them to the French crown."

Ignorance of the Good Book reaches biblical proportions - "For a country so religious, many know little about the Good Book. Ten percent of Americans believe Joan of Arc was Noah's wife -- according to Christian pollster George Barna -- and only half of American adults can name even one of the four Gospels. Many can't name the first book of the Bible, according to a Gallup poll... Does it matter if a student knows what happened on Easter? Yes, say those who support studying the Bible, considered by many the most influential book in Western civilization. They say it's important not only for a well-rounded education but to understand global events... William Shakespeare alone has more than 1,300 biblical references in his work, says Weber. Knowing what he is referring to gives students an academic advantage."