Article written by: Andre Sanchez
Posted on: December 22, 2009
I’ve been laughing for the past 3 minutes about this. SoJones family, if your sibling gets on your very last nerve and you have some juicy blackmail material on them, what do you do?
The picture below explains everything, but let me tell you what happened in short:
Chris hides beer in his bedroom (we assume he’s underaged). Sister snitches on him. “asian parents are [f*ing] strict” as he explains, and they subsequently ground him for three months.
Infuriated and looking to get back at his sister, Chris subsequently discovers her very graphically detailed notes entitled “My hook up list” which describes her goals and aspirations for getting down with 10 different individuals, some of whom are crossed off aka “mission accomplished”. So what does dear brother do with this scandalous material?
He of course scans and posts it on his Facebook account. Tags hella people on it, including named “targets” who quickly find and comment on.
By MIKE CIDONI, Associated Press Writer Mike Cidoni, Associated Press Writer – Fri Dec 11, 9:28 am ET
LOS ANGELES – The star may be Pee-wee, but his new live stage show is absolutely huge.
"The Pee-wee Herman Show," opening next month in downtown Los Angeles at Club Nokia theater, cost millions to mount. It boasts 11 actors, 20 puppets and marks the show's first production since 1982.
So, why now?
For some, $21,000 covers college tuition or helps buy a house. Unfortunately, for an unemployed father from Hayward, this is the amount he owes Verizon. According to Ted Estarija, his 13-year-old son racked up those surreal charges after being added to the account. Estarija claims he had asked Verizon to place limits on the son's plan, reports KTVU.
"This is not completely his fault, I put more blame on Verizon than anybody. They shouldn't allow this to happen."
Estarija's story, while extreme, is a familiar one. Other consumers have been slapped with heart attack-inducing bills. In Denver, a girl's 10,000 texts cost (OMG) $4,756.25. She was, like, grounded for life and her dad smashed her phone. A Portland family was dumbfounded by a $20,000 bill. An infuriated young woman showed her $14,062.27 bill on YouTube (see video below), while a Canadian man was told he owed ... $83,000.
Estarija is trying to console his son who he says was devastated by the bill. Verizon is apparently working to resolve the issue soon.
San Francisco really represented today by robbing former NBA All-Star and current Mayor of Sacramento, Kevin Johnson. Nice move San Francisco, nice move.
Is it a little bit of kharma for his steals in the NBA? Ok, sorry that was lame...
TLC's 'Jon & Kate' is soon to be 'Kate Plus Eight'
NEW YORK – "Jon & Kate Plus 8" will soon be simply "Kate Plus Eight." That's the word from the TLC network, who announced Tuesday that its hit reality show is adapting to changes in the Gosselin household, which has been disrupted by the split up of Kate and Jon.
The renamed "Kate Plus Eight," which begins Nov. 2, will continue to chronicle the lives of the Gosselin kids (5-year-old sextuplets and 8-year-old twins) but will also focus on Kate's role as a single mother.
Chinese teen dies at Internet addiction rehab camp By HENRY SANDERSON, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, August 6, 2009
(08-06) 07:33 PDT BEIJING, China (AP) --
China is investigating the death of a teenager who was allegedly beaten to death in a camp designed to treat Internet addiction, state media said.
Deng Senshan, 15, died Sunday, less than a day after his parents sent him to the camp in southern Guangxi province, Xinhua News Agency reported.
The case has led medical experts to call for laws regulating centers that treat obsessive Web surfing. Concern over such behavior is so widespread in China, and demand for rehabilitation is so great, that some camps now advertise on television, the report said.
Deng was found vomiting and was taken to a clinic where he died. Fellow students said a teacher beat him, Xinhua reported.
The report quoted the local government as saying several marks were found on the boy's body. It said four trainers from the Qihang Salvation Training Camp in Nanning city have been detained.
Police and government authorities in Nanning could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Controversy over the methods used in addiction-treatment camps led the Ministry of Health to issue a notice last month banning the use of electric shock therapy on Internet addicts at one hospital in eastern China.
Tao Ran, director of the country's first Internet addiction treatment clinic under a military hospital in Beijing, told The Associated Press that such deaths are bound to happen because few camps employ scientific methods, with most opting for crude military-style discipline.
Tao said 40 percent of those addicted to the Internet suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and find it difficult to obey orders at training camps.
"They are only one-fourth or one-fifth as efficient in their academic life," he said. "Once you put these kids to the training camps or schools, they are bound to have problems with the teachers, because ... they can't be still, while the training is all about keeping still."
Internet addiction is a big problem in China because 200 million Internet users are between the ages of 15 and 35 and many lack self-control, Tao said. Students at high school and college also face enormous pressure from parents to succeed academically.
Tao's clinic has treated about 5,000 Internet addicts since 2004.
Xinhua said the numbers of treatment facilities and addicts treated have soared in the past few years in major cities.
China's National People's Congress has estimated that 10 percent of China's Internet users under age 18 are addicted. Chinese psychologists say symptoms include being online more than six hours a day — playing games or looking at pornography rather than working or studying — and getting angry when unable to get online.
Deng's father told Xinhua his son spent all his time on the Internet. He said he sent his son to the camp after seeing an advertisement on television.
To be serious for once. Chinese-Americans are finally getting an apology for the past racism during the Gold Rush Era in California. California approved a bill that will formally apologize for the racist laws during that time and also recognize the contributions of Chinese immigrants to the state of California.
During the Gold Rush Era, Chinese immigrants were forced to risk their lives building the Transcontinental Railroad that we still use today. All the while not having the same rights to own property, work in public, or marry whites.
To finally receive a formalized apology can start to bring some sort of closure and recognition to what our great great grandparents went through so that we can have the lives we have now.
California Apologizes to Chinese Americans By LING WOO LIU Ling Woo Liu Tue Jul 21, 5:05 pm ET
What's in an apology? Some expressions of remorse are commonplace - we hear them on the playground when kids smack each other on the head, or they land in your inbox after a friend forgets your birthday. It's the grand-scale apologies, it seems, that are harder to come by.
On July 17, the California legislature quietly approved a landmark bill to apologize to the state's Chinese-American community for racist laws enacted as far back as the mid–19th century Gold Rush, which attracted about 25,000 Chinese from 1849 to 1852. The laws, some of which were not repealed until the 1940s, barred Chinese from owning land or property, marrying whites, working in the public sector and testifying against whites in court. The new bill also recognizes the contributions Chinese immigrants have made to the state, particularly their work on the Transcontinental Railroad. (Check out a story about the Asian-American experience in late[EN]20th century California.)
The apology is the latest in a wave of official acts of remorse around the globe. In 2006, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a similar apology, expressing regret to Chinese Canadians for unequal taxes imposed on them in the late 19th century. Last February, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized to his country's Aborigines for racist laws of the past, including the forced separation of children from their parents. Five months later, the U.S. Congress formally apologized to black Americans for slavery and the later Jim Crow laws, which were not repealed until the 1960s. And most notably, in 1988 the U.S. government decided to pay $20,000 to each of the surviving 120,000 Japanese Americans imprisoned in camps during World War II. Says Donald Tamaki, a San Francisco–based attorney who helped overturn wrongful WWII-era convictions of Japanese Americans: "Part of what a humane society does is recognize past injustices and address them."
The California resolution moved quickly through the state legislature since it was first introduced in February. "It's symbolic to recognize that the state made mistakes," says assembly member Paul Fong, who co-sponsored the legislation with assembly member Kevin de Leon. "These laws reverberate to this date because racism still exists." (Read about a new Asian-American stereotype in TIME'S 1987 cover story.)
Most of the direct victims of the laws in question have already passed away. Fong's grandfather was held for two months at Angel Island, an immigration station near San Francisco that targeted and detained several hundred thousand Chinese immigrants from 1910 to 1940. Dale Ching, 88, arrived at Angel Island from China's Guangdong province in 1937 at age 16. Though his father was an American citizen, immigration authorities detained Ching for 3½ months. "My intent was to try to have a better life, better than in China," says Ching. "But at that time, they didn't want you to get ahead."
How times have changed. In the throes of huge budget cuts, California is wooing cash-flush mainland Chinese tourists to its sun-kissed coastline and world-famous theme parks. So far this year, the state's Travel and Tourism Commission has opened offices in three Chinese cities. In 2005, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger toured China on a six-day trade mission to peddle his state's produce, technology and raw materials. China is now California's fourth largest export market, after Mexico, Canada and Japan. In 2008 California exported $10.9 billion worth of goods to China, up 40% since 2005.
With the California bill in the bag, Fong now plans to take the issue to Congress, where he will request an apology for the Chinese Exclusion Act, the only federal law ever enacted to deny immigration based exclusively on race or nationality. Passed in 1882, the law was not fully repealed until 1943, after China and the U.S. became allies in WWII. Given President Obama's decision to appoint Gary Locke as Commerce Secretary and Steven Chu as Energy Secretary, Fong says he's confident of the bill's passage. "As a person of color, President Obama would understand these issues," he says.
Fong does not plan to press for financial compensation for the surviving victims of the state and federal laws in question, despite the Japanese-American precedent. More important than individual compensation, he says, is to help educate younger generations about the mistakes of the past. That said, Fong may ask for funding to help preserve the Angel Island immigration station, dilapidated after decades of neglect. To complicate matters, the station is located within a state park that, along with several others, may be shut down to help balance California's budget shortfall.
Not long after his father helped negotiate his release, Dale Ching joined the U.S. Army and fought Japanese forces during WWII. He went on to become an electronics technician, but after retiring, he began volunteering as a docent at Angel Island in hopes of drawing more attention to that moment in history. "We've been fighting, but nobody would listen," he says. "Finally someone has said sorry."
Bolivian police say that a 42-year-old man who fell asleep under an ant-infested tree has been killed by insect bites.
Beni city Police Chief Rolando Ramos says that farmworker Santiago Ortiz apparently had been drinking before sitting down beneath a Palo Santo tree — a type noted for its aromatic wood and for hosting a particularly aggressive sort of ant.
Ramos said Tuesday that when police reached the scene, the man was already dead, but swarms of ants were still crawling across his body.
Hey there, SAPL Readers! This week’s post is based on Dustin’s observation about Asian people putting up advertisement calendars. He asks: “Have you ever noticed that whenever you go to some Asian person’s house, they have one of those calendars on the wall? *Like the ones from the bank with that part for the days that you could pull out that’s all perforated?* My dad’s family friend loves those. I also went to my other friend’s house the other day, and he had one on the wall too!”
Right when you walk into an Asian household, you can tell a lot about their buying habits and preferences. No, it’s not from the shoes they wear, paintings that adorn their walls, or the size of their television screens. It’s actually from one of the simplest forms of advertising: Free Promotional Calendars.
As long as shops have been around in Asia, shop owners have been giving out free calendars. Bank owners do it; Supermarkets embrace it; butchers, bakers, farmers and even tailors partake in this century old advertising scheme.
Allow me to explain: When an Asian goes into a supermarket, they expect a bonus when they leave. These bonuses are determined by how much money they have spent in that one outing. For example, if they’ve purchased 100 dollars worth of groceries, they should receive something to the extent of a 25-40 lb. bag of rice (and if you know bags of rice, they can get pretty pricey). I savor all those times I spent with my mom at the “giver’s” station (which was right before the supermarket exit. That is where we would receieve gifts ranging from calendars; to gas stoves; to even soy milk at our local ABC supermarket).
At a Traditional Tailoring Shop (which is the case with my family), clients would also expect a calendar around Lunar New Years (peak time for a traditional Vietnamese dress to be worn). I can also recall a number of disgruntled Asian women walking out of my mom’s store without calendars because they were out of stock. Why were they all pouting?
For the same reason metrosexual people purchase GQ and dads, Home Improvement magazines, Asian people can’t get enough of free business calendars. My mom’s shop, for example, relies heavily on this because the calendar would sport pictures of Ao Dai models and the various styles offered there. They would also provide customers with important information: the date and days of the week (hehe). Furthermore, they would also have our phone number in handy. Why pay for a 12-month magazine subscription when your calendar lasts 12 months and has new dresses every month? This brings us back to one of the core Asian principles…
Asians are Cheap. When will you find an Asian that would pass up something free? It doesn’t matter if it’s a calendar’s from a little-known bank or tailoring shop. The main point is that the item is free. In the end, life is so monotonous and boring. Free things give life a much-needed zest. In fact, I’m staring at a Vietnamese “Bank of the West” calendar as I type this post. (The odd thing is that my family has never even opened an account at Bank of the West). Walking down my hall, there is a Korean Drama Calendar and Christian Verses calendar; both compliments of our church and the local video rental store. Free Calendars are just good business practice in Asia.
TIP: I hope you enjoyed this post about Asian Promotional Calendars. The next time you go to an Asian store, keep a lookout for free calendars. Also note that they are seasonal (we all know no one needs a 2009 calendar in December of 2009). Other places to look are bakeries and restaurants.
Avaste ye, matey! The Pirate Bay, just sold out today. They were bought out by Global Gaming Factory X and they plan to make The Pirate Bay a pay site... Totally gay.
To add to the recent slew of high profile celebrity passings this month (David Carradine, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson), another legend of television has passed...
Billy Mays, the man that can sell ice to an eskimo passed away in his home today 6/28/2009. Some of you might not know Billy Mays by name, but the man who brought you Oxiclean, Orange Glo, KaBoom, and Mighty Putty is a definite fixture of television today.
I feel like I am melting... It was over a hundred degrees yesterday and it's in the 90's today. I am more of a cold weather type of dude. You can always bundle up in more blankets and sweaters. You can only remove so many layers of clothes until you are naked.
Amongst all of the other important issues going on in the world today (i.e. Michael Jackson's death, Iran election protests, swine flu, etc.). This article is the "Most Popular" on Yahoo! News.
Makes you go hmmmmmm...
The Most Dangerous Sport: Cheerleading LiveScience Staff
Cheerleading safety efforts have led to modest reductions in the number of serious injuries in recent years, according to a new report about college and high school sports and cheerleading mishaps.
But cheerleading continues to cause more serious and deadly injuries by far than other sports.
Researchers have long known how dangerous cheerleading is, but records were poorly kept until recently. An update to the record-keeping system last year found that between 1982 and 2007, there were 103 fatal, disabling or serious injuries recorded among female high school athletes, with the vast majority (67) occurring in cheerleading. The next most dangerous sports: gymnastics (nine such injuries) and track (seven).
Today, the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill released its 26th annual report on the topic. The latest figures are from the 2007-2008 academic year for college and high school sports, male and female. The report defines catastrophic injuries as any severe or fatal injury incurred during participation in the sport.
The new numbers are for the 26-year period from the fall of 1982 through the spring of 2008:
There were 1,116 direct catastrophic injuries in high school (905) and college sports (211). High school sports were associated with 152 fatalities, 379 non-fatal injuries and 374 serious injuries. College sports accounted for 22 fatalities, 63 non-fatal injuries and 126 serious injuries. Cheerleading accounted for 65.2 percent of high school and 70.5 percent of college catastrophic injuries among all female sports.
The number of cheerleading injuries fell slightly in the 2007-08 academic year.
"Progress has been slow, but there has been an increased emphasis on cheerleading safety," said the study's author Frederick O. Mueller. "Continued data collection on all types of cheerleading injuries will hopefully show that these safety measures are working to reduce injuries."
Jive-talking twin Transformers raise race issues By SANDY COHEN
LOS ANGELES – Harmless comic characters or racist robots? The buzz over the summer blockbuster "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" only grew Wednesday as some said two jive-talking Chevy characters were racial caricatures. Skids and Mudflap, twin robots disguised as compact hatchbacks, constantly brawl and bicker in rap-inspired street slang. They're forced to acknowledge that they can't read. One has a gold tooth... Article continued here.
This is just dumb. They are robots. Plus, one of the actors who plays one of the twins is the voice of Spongebob.
People need to relax, enjoy movies, and not get so offended by everything.
Transformers 2 was an awesome flick and I don't care what any critics say.
I am 28 going on 29 and as long as I have known, I have watched "Professional Wrestling."
It's my dirty little secret, well I guess it's not really a secret since everybody who knows me knows. I guess it's more of my guilty pleasure. I don't know why more people I know don't still follow wrestling. There was a brief period in time during high school (mid through late 90's) that everyone I knew watched wrestling. Yes, I know that during this time period, wrestling had hit a masterful era. The Monday Night wars, nWo, Degeneration X, The Rock, Austin 3:16, The Wolfpack. I remember watching Superbrawl as it rolled into town in the Oakland Coliseum. We saw it live and we were so far up in the nosebleeds that we couldn't see anything. Hellova night though. That was the night that Rey Mysterio and Conan were de-masked!!! Yet the refuse to mention that in any WWE storylines today.
Well I still love wrestling. Yes, it has changed a lot since the 80's til now but it's still some good entertainment. It's more of America's past time then baseball. Arenas are still sold out nightly when WWE comes to town. That more than I can say for any recent A's games.
If you are ever bored on a Monday or Friday night, I urge you to turn on Monday Night Raw on USA or Friday Night Smackdown on MYTV and you might be surprised on how nostalgic you feel and how easy it might be to get back into.
So I've been eating 98.9% veggies in the past month and it's almost as if I don't miss meat at all. I've found that eating strictly vegetarian at some of my fave places tastes just as good as if I ate some meat stuff.
Some things I've been eating: Taco Bell - 7 Layer Burrito, Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes, Cheese Quesadilla, and Nachos. Chipotle - Veggie Burrito Bowl Subway - Veggie Delite Cafe Gyro - Falafel Plate Indian food - Veggie Curry and Naan Thai - Pad Eggplant Chinese Food - Veggie Fried Rice Nation's - Grilled Cheese
See, not bad. I still can eat fairly tasty stuff.
People can't believe that I am (part-time) vegetarian, just because of my well known carnivorism. They also ask me what made me do it. My reason is simple, "the mirror". I need to drop some lbs. and I figured that changing my diet would be the easiest way. I've dropped 5 lbs. so far.
WTF is up with her hairstyle? She looks like an 80's Emo Tranny (no offense to the 80's Emo Trannies out there).
Ugh, total fail. Her stylist needs to get fired, WTF were they thinking? Who seconded the opinion that it looked good?
And what happened to the cute show that showed everyday normal life? The newer shows all have to do with celebrities and doing expensive, extragent events. No more going over to Aunt Jodie's and dressing up like ducks.
Watching Jon and Kate's marriage fall apart is kinda awkward too.
I just watched Hook for the millionth time today on DVD. It's one hellova movie. I would have to say a top 10 on my list of top 10 movies. A great story of based on the premise of Peter Pan growing up and forgetting about Neverland.
How can you not love it?
I totally forgot about Gweneth Paltrow playing the young Wendy.
Like many many millions in the US, you might be having trouble paying your mortgage. Don't blame yourself. Blame the lenders. If you purchased or refinanced your home in the last 10 years, you most likely were a victim of mortgage fraud.
What I mean by that is that millions of home owners who got home loans in the last 10 years most likely didn't even qualify for the loans that they are in. Do you remember the term "stated income"? That just gave your lender the privilege of putting whatever income and job on your loan application that they deemed necessary so that you can over-qualify for the loan that you are in now! People who were making $3000 per month became owners of web design firms with over $15000 per month incomes! That's why you are having problems paying your mortgage! Because you never realy qualified for it in the first place. And that is why the economy is the way it is now! The lenders created the mess and now it's time for them to fix it! But they don't want to. Have you tried asking your lender for help? Yeah right. They put you on the back burner for months just like everybody else and then claim you don't qualify!
Well now you can fight back! A forensic loan audit is what you need. A forensic loan audit will pick through your loan documents and find all the fraud and lending violations in your documents. With this, an attorney can take this to your lender and rescind your old contract and demand more favorable terms for you! Terms based on what you actually qualify for and not what they put together. Find a company that can help you do this if you really want to help your own situation. If you want to save your home and your money, do something now!
