I love the Marky Mark...but I do believe that is a mood ring, and I do believe that the movie is so terrible that I have to watch it again and again.

I liked him better in Boogie Nights even if it was a stunt weiner at the end.

But it looks like when The Happening is happening he is relaxed and calm and loveable. That's what all the mood ring charts say, based on the deep blue.

The new Yahoo format is a little, uhh, well...:

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I also ran across this nugget:

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That, my friends, is a salesman!

Awesome. That is the ultimate goal of all religious officials, and this man has cut out everything superfluous and gotten right to the point. Something about God, some book/scroll or something, fill in the blanks with some other crap, and basically suck my penis. That's patricarchal monotheism.

What better way to get your wang slobbered on than to equate it to some religious bullshit which was bullshit to begin with?

The real genius here is that he has connected the supernatural event to the actual cumshot.

I wish I had a photo. I would have, if I'd remembered this thread existed.
I'd have bought the paper just for you and scanned it in.

Channel Four are broadcasting a call to prayer at 03.00 every morning during Ramadan.
For some reason, minor noise-making groups are up in arms about this, suggesting it threatens community cohesion or somesuch waste of words.

The Sun's sensitive headline for the story?
"Ramadan-a-Ding-Dong"

I laughed all the way home.

DNA, evidence, and, apparently, Lisa Marie Presley.

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DNA and evidence?


Wot, no ouija boards or "cop-hunches"?

Not a headline, but, still, questionable.

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Also, BJ Upton is not Caucasian.

Also, he's clearly bunting, probably as a sacrifice, but at best for a single, who ever he is.

This "news" article could or maybe should go in the "Faux Science" thread...

ABC News
SYDNEY LUPKIN
July 31, 2013

Top Hospitals Fall Flat in Contested New Report

Remember all the "radial keratotomy" business ?
Our Medical School's Dept of Ophthalmology did not do them at all,
but instead treated all the cases with bad outcomes...
It was a very steady business.

Sounds like how charter schools often have better scores than the public schools that feed them.

:rolleyes: Also, it is exactly like how charter schools often have worse scores than the public schools that feed them.



Charter schools in Texas, classified by type: in the greater Austin area, there are 30 charter schools.

--4 are non-members and thus unclassified, but I happen to know that two are for special needs kids, one is for delinquents, and one is an alternative Montessori-style curriculum where you don't get grades
--12 are "college preparatory"
--7 are "dropout recovery" or "RTC/JDC" (meaning a judge ordered attendance)
--7 are "specialized mission" (this includes those with a narrowly focused curriculum, like professional-level fine arts or vocational skills, as well as the school for extracurricular prodigies that compacts bare state requirements into a 4-hour day so the kids can spend the rest of the day playing violin or doing gymnastics or whatever thing they do.)

Based on the above, I believe you could make the claim that no more than half of the charter schools are likely to have higher-than-average test scores. The others will be lower.

But there's no need to derail the thread, it's all been said before, anyway.

That's a lot of charter schools. Maybe if you have too many charter schools in a given population, then the charter school self selecting magic doesn't work.

I don't know, as a percentage it's not really that high. Not all of them serve all grades. There are 120 schools in just Austin ISD, and the greater Austin area includes Round Rock ISD, Leander ISD, Georgetown ISD, Pflugerville ISD, and Manor ISD as well. I know one family that even commutes from Elgin (30 minutes outside the city, where there are zero charter schools of any kind.)

Plus, they really do all serve different needs. There's only one of those 30 I would consider putting my kids in. Not because they're all bad schools, but because they're not appropriate for my particular kids. Charter schools most definitely should not replace the public school system; they are by definition meant to serve a minority, not the majority. But there are children who don't fit the mold of the public school system either, and they should be given an alternative.

I got too curious, and we are kind of in a hippie/alternative area, so I counted the rest of the schools:

Round Rock ISD: 51 schools
Leander ISD: 38 schools
Georgetown ISD: 18 schools
Pflugerville ISD: 28 schools
Manor ISD: 12 schools

So 30 compared to 267, total percentage 30/297 = 10.1% of schools in the area.

Just FWIW, from Clod's link above...

Clod, there's a couple of somewhat ambiguous remarks in this quote.

Do you have any feeling that the 80% means there are 20% more in open enrollment,
or, the 20 % are closed enrollment.
If the latter, what sort of schools are those ?

Also, what sort of situations are the "40% specialized mission" ?

I guess my (false- ?) impression here in Oregon is that most of our
charter schools are religious- or home-schooling types of schools.

"Charter" and "open-enrollment charter" are synonyms, at least in Texas. State law says charter schools are not allowed to hand-pick students, enrollment is strictly by a blind lottery among applicants. What they mean is that 80% of the existing charter schools in Texas belong to the Texas Charter School Association, which I believe is mostly a lobbying and resource organization, and the other 20% of charter schools aren't members. (Our school is one of the ones that does not belong to the organization, FWIW.)

It's a catchall designation. Locally, it includes:

1.) A school focused on professional fine arts performance--academic scores here are likely to be average. They are a mix of students who just happen to know they want to be professional singers, musicians, dancers, etc. Graduation requirements include many hours of classes in your chosen fine art field.

2.) A school for extracurricular prodigies--academic scores here are below average. The school makes it very clear that they are going to get you to meet the state requirements in as little time as possible, because the only thing you really care about is going to the Olympics, or whatever. They don't nurture the extracurricular, they leave that part up to you. Passing is all that matters.

3.) A school that is somewhat weighted towards STEM topics (Science/Tech/Engineering/Math.) Curriculum requirements are high overall though, and they could just as easily call themselves "college preparatory." Academic scores are going to be much higher than average. The school population is majority Indian, and most of their parents work in computers.

4.) A school that follows the International Baccalaureate curriculum, which is generally focused on critical thinking, diplomacy, and public service on a worldwide scale. In practice, the school encourages kids to study what they're interested in, and creates a "portfolio of work" rather than a graded report card. Tests here are average to slightly-below-average, because their whole deal is a rejection of standardized testing, so while they have to take it, they don't stress the kids about it and do basically nothing to prepare for it.

Thx Clod...

I'm going to see what I can find along those lines for Oregon's charter schools.

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That is a brilliantly dry headline.

The New York Post thinks North & South Carolina are the same state.

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Seattle food attacks
 

Seattle gets curiouser and curiouser.

He tried to contact her, in the arm!!:eek:

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This just in...

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Not really questionable, but, funny:

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With bonus 'Grav' points. Top right corner.

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Double points for a single-page two-fer:

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No wonder he collapsed... she tried to charge her own father after all the birthday and Christmas gifts, clothing, shoes, and food.

Whoops.

Again.

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*ponders the hole in a foam noodle*

Seems like there would be chafing.

He wasn't noodling a noodle, he was raping a raft... for the sixth time.

George ? Wouldn't that would be necrophilia.

Having googled the size of the hole in a foam noodle (about 3/4" diameter) ...

chafing seems guaranteed, if even possible. Unless the gentleman is a prodigy of nature in a negative sense.

@Bruce ... how does one rape a raft? Inquiring minds want to know.

Practice, practice, practice. :haha:
I read he was still humping the raft as he ran from police.

Now that takes talent ... or perseverance. Maybe both.

Raping a raft (George Raft, or any other:lol2:) isn't normal...


...but on meth it is.

I hope he was on meth, or something.

Oh, please...

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Ooh, snap!

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I walked to the bowling alley tonight.

This is a telephone pole on the way.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/11/21/a3y2ahuv.jpg

I wonder.

When you are flying a plane like this,
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that requires a long runway to take off, make sure when approaching Wichita, that you land at the Air Force Base below with the long runway instead of at the tiny commuter airport with the short runway (at the top)
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Or you might get a little press exposure when you can't take off again.

Whoops.

Hmm. I swear I put this in the Wtf thread.

:lol2: I was kinda wondering what the headline was...

Whoops.

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:facepalm:

Aaaaaaaaand another CNN intern bites the dust.

From the Halifax Courier:

"No criminal charges are expected"...:eyebrow:

Apparently it's an effective way to get rid of a hungry mouth to feed.

At 150k per, that may be my next business. And, apparently, it's legal in the UK.

Here's a groaner:

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YahooNews does it again:

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