The Sochi Games: What's Hot and What's Not

Are you au courant?

Movie Madness: 5 Annoying Habits Hollywood Needs to Break

To these spot-on complaints and critiques, I simply say, "Ditto."  The Cine-Sib and I especially hate the 3D-that-isn't-really-3D.  (And, yes, "Clash of the Titans" looked awful in its fake 3D.)

Nerd News: Bizarre Teacher Trend

Three instances makes a pattern!

Observe the latest scary trend -- teachers in the news for all the wrong reasons:

1. The New York computer science teacher who barricaded himself in his classroom.
2. The University of Georgia marketing professor who is now a suspect in three murders.
3. The Bucknell University economics professor who denies he was involved in an Ethiopian uprising.
   

Nerd News: French and Israeli Students Versus Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

French students just took on Iran's Ahmadinejad at the UN's Durban II racism summit (a disgraceful event I won't even dignify with a description). Here's a quote from one of the students:

"We wanted to do something meaningful, and we took advantage of Ahmadinejad's speech. We dressed as clowns because we wanted to show that his speech and the entire conference is a joke. We were very happy that so many people walked out afterwards."

OK, since three instances of anything makes a trend or pattern, I'm now calling a trend of feisty student action in 2009. You can refresh your memory with instance #1 and instance #2. (The silly NYU cafeteria stunt does NOT count.)

Score thus far: Feisty Independent Students 3, World-Class Jerks 0.

UPDATE: Video!

Nerd News: Undergrad Economics = the New Campus Hotness

Via blogging Hahvahd econ prof Greg Mankiw comes this link: undergraduate students are flocking to economics classes!

Here is a blurb:

At Ohio's Oberlin College, registration in undergrad economics classes is up 25 percent this year, and the chair of the department says he's never seen anything like it.

I guess it's an unintended consequence of the current GLOBALECONOMICAPOCALYPSEWE'REALLGOINGTODIEOMG. I guess it would take a crisis to make econ classes "sexy"!

Geek Fun: Hacking Road Signs + Velociraptors

I'd thought that the zombie alert road signs from Austin, Texas, had been hilarious, but this one from Carmel, Indiana, might be just as amusing.

Fair warning.     

Those velociraptors, man.  As any fan of "Jurassic Park" can tell you, they are nasty!  

Velociraptor.  Or me in the morning before the first cup of coffee.

Either way, you're dealing with an apex predator, pal.

Oh, and lest I forget, check out the (giggle) American Society for Velociraptor Attack Prevention.

The hacked road sign phenomenon is now a Geek Fun trend.

Scary Trend of 2009: Knife-Wielding Asian Maniacs

All right, this is now becoming ridiculous, as three news stories have emerged in as many weeks.  Three instances of anything makes a pattern, and right now we're seeing a trend of knife-wielding Asian maniacs.

Here's the trifecta of slasherrific news:

1.  The sushi restaurant waiters who took up sashimi knives against robbers.  OK, of the trifecta, this part is the only one that's even remotely justifiable (self-defense), even if it is (a) Tarantino-esque and (b) just plain crazy.

2.  Next: the sushi chef road rage incident in New York City.  It's one thing to yell obscenities or make rude gestures while driving, but hauling out a knife and assaulting  another driver?  The sushi chef got arrested.  The other guy got 100 stitches to close up his wounds.  Ouch.

3.  This is an unspeakably terrible news story from Virginia Tech, where one Chinese grad student murdered another with a kitchen knife.  Even worse: he then beheaded her corpse.