thedailywhat:

Flash Mob of the Day: All we’ve ever wanted was a Carlton Dance flash mob. Fortunately, Alfonso Ribeiro recruited a bunch of fans to try for the record for the most people in North America flash mobbing at the same time. No word on whether they pulled it off, but really, who cares? We’ll always have this video.

[tmz]

Did anyone catch the group doing this at Quadmania? 

ohgeography:

My friend Morgan made these adorbs Mean Girls buttons for the I ♥ Mean Girls event on Wednesday at my school. They’re absolutely beautiful. 

This Wednesday!

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April 21, 2012 | Baltimore, MD

Quadmania fun.

After the unproductive volley of criticism between the Obama and Romney camps during the “Mommy Wars,” who has any right to be surprised that the current fuss is all about the presidential candidates and their snacks.

Yes, the entertainment of the hour, brought to you by the heirs of Athenian democracy and Enlightenment republicanism, is about snacks. Such patriotism does all this inspire within us that we struggle to keep our right hands from covering our hearts as we type these words.

Add “dog-eating” to the long tail of modifiers attachable to President Obama, somewhere between “basketball-playing” and “Jay-Z-listening.” What conspiracy theorist needs to slander the president with false labels like “Muslim” or “communist” when “dog-eater” says so much more — and has the added advantage of being true.

Liberals have gotten plenty of mileage from the story about Mitt Romney’s poor dog Seamus, strapped to the top of the family automobile during a road trip and responding — quite understandably — with a torrential bowel movement that forced Mitt to pull over, check his hair, and hose down the soiled car (hopefully not one of Ann’s Cadillacs).

Now supporters and opponents of the president alike have seized on a somehow ignored yet insignificant passage from his 1995 book Dreams from My Father in which he recalls chowing down on a little canine barbecue as a child in Indonesia.

That’s horrifying! isn’t it? Would you trust a man who had eaten a dog at the age of six or seven to run the executive branch of our government? Do we really want this dog-eater as the commander-in-chief of our military? Has Bo been given a Secret Service detail yet? (If so, Bo might be in for a good time.)

This has got to rank up there with George Washington’s chopping down the cherry tree and Calvin Coolidge’s running a brothel out of his parents’ house a la Risky Business as one of the great childhood indiscretions of presidential history.

National Review Online gave Romney the chance to reinforce his credentials as a normal-eating person (NEP) on Thursday, challenging him to name the strangest food he had ever consumed: “Ahhh . . . You know, I don’t recall eating anything particularly bizarre,” he replied. “I can’t think of anything particularly surprising that I’ve had the occasion to eat.”

Really? Hold that thought.

On Tuesday, Romney made another small contribution to the public’s perception of his own awkwardness after he needlessly and unknowingly maligned a tray of cookies from a bakery in Bethel Pa., comparing them in appearance to what a chain convenience store might offer:

The table was filled with snacks, like potato chips and pretzels. But for whatever reason, Mr. Romney zeroed in on the colorful collection of cookies. “I’m not sure about these cookies,” he said, looking at one of the women. “They don’t look like you made them. No, no. They came from the local 7-Eleven, bakery, or whatever.”

No points won with Mamaw and Pap Pap there.

How Romney manages to create these minor PR disasters for himself unprovoked isn’t altogether clear, but we do know that he should have told National Review Online that the strangest food he had ever eaten was cookies from 7-Eleven.

That way, he could’ve turned Tuesday’s gaffe into a joke at the expense of 7-Eleven, whose endorsement Romney hasn’t counted on since the Blue Raspberry-Dog Meat Slurpee was introduced a few months ago. An opportunity wasted, to be sure.

This Spring brings news not about love in the air, but oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

We’ve come to the second anniversary of the tragic BP oil spill and the ramifications are still revealing themselves.

The latest is lesions and missing eyeballs from fresh catches off the coast. According to news investigations and passionate work done by the Louisiana State University’s Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, these deformities are unheard of.

“There is lots of circumstantial evidence that something is still awry,” said Christopher D’Elia, dean of Louisiana State University’s School of the Coast and Environment. “On the whole, it is not as much environmental damage as originally projected. Doesn’t mean there is none.”

The value of these findings could also influence the latest settlements on what BP will pay to the locals.

Many Americans are distraught with the deformed catches, which can still be put on the market. Other experts are less worried:

“I don’t see this changing the ecosystem of the north-central Gulf,” says George Crozier, former director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, south of Mobile, Alabama, “I don’t see it tipping something into catastrophe.”

The consequences of the limbless crustaceans leave scientists scratching their heads over correlation and causation, fishermen having to sacrifice themselves with longer trips, and us in fear of shrimp scampi.

“Some of the things I’ve seen over the past year or so I’ve never seen before,” said Will Patterson, a marine biologist at the University of South Alabama and at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. “Things like fin rot, large open sores on fish, those were some of the more disturbing types of things we saw. Different changes in pigment, red snapper with large black streaks on them.”

So, tell us, why are you concerned or unconcerned about U.S. seafood? would you eat eye-less shrimp??

survivor Adrian Vasquez (left) ,image of boat from cruise (right). Photo cred:AP photos/ Tito Herrera, Jeff Gilligan.

Stories of people lost and surviving at sea for days or weeks have gripped human consciousness for millenia.

This recent story has a particularly sad and unfortunate twist.

Three Panamanian fishermen castaways were lost and listing at sea for over 14 days. When they saw a modern cruise ship approaching they must have thought their prayers were answered.

Several passengers on board the Star Princess Cruise ship spotted the tiny vessel. Despite having alerted a crew member with instructions to contact the captain, the boat sailed on without pausing to save the three unlucky fishermen.

Two of them would die as a result.

The cruise liner’s excuse for not rescuing the stranded fishermen? A breakdown in communications.

A statement issued by Princess Cruises stated:

“The preliminary results of our investigation have shown that there appeared to be a breakdown in communication in relaying the passenger’s concern. Neither Captain Edward Perrin nor the officer of the watch were notified… Understandably, Captain Perrin is devastated that he is being accused of knowingly turning his back on people in distress.”

18 year-old Adrian Vasquez was the only survivor of the three fishermen that set sail from the Port of Rio Hato, Panama. Vasquez reports that the other two passengers, Oropeces Betancourt, 24, and Fernando Osorio, 16 passed away from dehydration after the cruise liner had spotted them.

Vasquez was later rescued by the Ecuadorian navy after 28 days at sea.