Archive for December, 2008
Hamas, Israel, and the Gaza Situation
If you are looking for up-to-the-minute details about the conflicts in the Middle East, go to CNN.com or some other news website. They have fantastic maps, interactive displays, and plenty of updated reporting. Here’s the extremely simplified version for those trying to get in the know: The Gaza Strip is a heavily populated area in [...]
iPhone: Unofficially Uncool?
As of 12/28/08, Wal-Mart began selling iPhones. That’s right, after picking up some sweatpants, Cap’N Crunch, and perhaps a couple radial tires, you can load Steve Jobs’ former wonder gadget into your cart. I’ll leave the snarkiness to the other blogs, but there’s no denying that offering a product at Wal-Mart certainly takes the mystery [...]
Prescription Strength Anti-Perspirant
Walk down the deodorant aisle of any Walgreens nowadays, and it’s as if we’ve all become a nation of sweathogs. Suddenly the ol’ Right Guard stick just ain’t enough anymore, because companies are touting “extra protection,” “longer lasting,” and now “prescription strength.” Prescription strength deodorant (or anti-perspirant, to be more correct) usually contains up to [...]
Marley & Me – Book, Movie, TV Series?
Ok, I made the TV series part up, but with Jennifer Aniston recently appearing half-naked on magazine covers and showing up on just about every talk show to spout off about how she doesn’t want people talking about her, you had to have heard a promotion or two for her newly released movie Marley & Me, [...]
First Christmas Tree
Looking for a bit of trivia to use as the kids are tearing open their gifts around the tree? Tell everyone about the first Christmas tree. According to History.com, the Christmas tree tradition started in Germany in the 16th century. Martin Luther (the Protestant reformer, not MLK) supposedly was the first to light up a Christmas [...]
Record Setting Celtic Pride
If you come from a family of sports fans, there’s a good chance that some NBA might be on the tube on Christmas Day. Among the many games scheduled is the feature game pitting the Lakers against the Celtics. While the Lakers have been dominant in their own right, the real story of the NBA [...]
Gitmo Location
Gitmo (the short pronunciation for GTMO, or the naval facility in Guantanamo Bay), still in the news on occasion, is a controversial detention center run by the United States. A future post will discuss the center in depth, but I promised some geography lessons in these posts (mostly for my own sake), so the point here [...]
Rock On, Video Game Style
Even if you don’t own an XBox, PlayStation, or a Wii, you have probably heard others talking about the phenomenon known as Guitar Hero and now Rock Band. These are video games that require special video game attachments shaped like instruments (usually sold with the game) in which you attempt to “recreate” famous songs. As Yahoo! [...]
