Day: August 11, 2014

I like to think of myself as a well-informed consumer of media. I don’t always trust a news source just because it is able to put words on a page. Instead, I read a lot of news and then draw my own conclusions, as any thoughtful citizen of the world should do.

It’s because I am so versed in media literacy that I feel especially good when I work myself into hysterics because of a handful of incidents happening around the world at any given time. That’s why I’m here to plead with you: Please stop taking selfies. Not because it might make you sad if people don’t like them, not because your lady friends will judge you, and not even because it’s a fake word that is now treated like a real one in Scrabble.

Your selfie just might kill you. Continue reading The McBournie Minute: Dying to take a selfie

For but a brief moment in time, Bruno DiFilippo was a god among men. In a world where an eidetic memory is probably the closest we have to real life superpowers, DFilippo shot sparks of lightning from his body. Take that, knowing what you had for dinner for the entire month of June when you were 8!

DiFilippo was standing outside his home, holding a hose, when a lightning bolt struck his shoulder. Now, for those keeping score, here are the superpower formulas when lightning is involved:

• Lightning bolt + wall of chemicals in beakers = speed powers
• Lightning bolt + a hose = ankle sparks
• No lightning involved whatsoever + machinery = becoming living lightning

Sadly, his lightning powers were short-lived. On the plus side, he had no injuries. So he has that going for him.

According to a recent survey presented to the American Psychological Association, parents who text and call their teenagers while said teens are driving have children who text and use the phone while driving. Of polled teens, 53 percent of polled teens who talked on the phone behind the wheel talked to a parent. 

‘Teens told us parents really expected to keep track of them, and they are expected to answer the phone if the parent calls. In some cases, the parent might continue to call until the teen answers,’ says Noelle LaVoie, a psychologist in Petaluma, Calif., whose private research firm conducts corporate and government studies.

So, the next time a teen dings your ’04 Sentra, send the bill to their parents. After all, they’re the ones who can afford the helicopter they’re using to keep constant tabs on their offspring.

The Holy Grail maybe missing, but at least we now know that it’s not somewhere in an English pub.

Bobbies searched a village pub in Herefordshire, England, trying to locate an old wooden cup believed by some to be the cup that Jesus sipped from at the Last Supper. The cup, which spent centuries in a Welsh mansion by monks to hide it from King Henry VIII, had been stolen about a month ago. Authorities had a tip that it might be in the bar.

Or maybe Robert Langdon just got a little thirsty.