Scary Clowns

Scary clowns are terrorizing France!

"The threat of neighborhood clown gangs has provoked a grassroots response of teenaged self-styled clown hunters (chasseurs de clown), who have organized vigilante resistance groups, both online and in the streets. Some of these groupes d’auto-defense have themselves run afoul of police.

When five teens in Mulhouse attempted to organize an anti-clown resistance group⎯armed with a tear-gas canister, a baseball bat, a telescopic baton, and brass knuckles ⎯they were promptly arrested."

That's right, it's almost exactly like Gotham City Imposters (video at YouTube), "Countdown to Clown Beatdown!" or "Let's Kick Some Bats in the Balls!"  If you've never played the game, you can customize the catchphrases to your language, French or otherwise.

Mystery humans spiced up ancients’ rampant sex lives

I enjoyed this article.  It says something about my opinion of people that I have no doubt that most humanoids would mate with most other humanoids given half a chance and that it hasn't changed since, well, ever.

My favorite quote was this back-handed attempt to upsell the excitement of our randy predecessors, "“What it begins to suggest is that we’re looking at a ‘Lord of the Rings’-type world — that there were many hominid populations,” says Mark Thomas, an evolutionary geneticist at University College London who was at the meeting but was not involved in the work."

Hobbits (well, that one is sort of true), orcs, goblins!  All getting it on in a big pre-historic orgy.  No wonder they needed a full team of female spelunkers.  They probably spent most of their time just shaking their heads and untangling the bones.

Beer...

There's a bit of a ruckus going on lately with Surly's plans to attach a brew house to their brewery. I don't see a problem with it, despite the desire of Minnesota middle men to maintain their hold on distribution no matter what common sense dictates. Many breweries outside our state have a similar set up such as Goose Island and Sierra Nevada (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) and there's no appreciable impact to beer sales I suspect. It wouldn't surprise me if having a local brew house doesn't contribute to beer loyalty in the area and more sales. Just moving a tavern down the street is silly.

I did enjoy that the MLBA states that they oppose lower BALs for DWIs and smoking prohibitions (as if that has anything to do with them if they truly embrace a three part system). And they've already updated their site to reflect that they, "Fought back attempts to weaken the “Three-tiered” alcohol system."

That said, I DO see the advantage of not selling beer in grocery stores. I've been to Tucson several times, and finding a good liquor store can be a bit of an effort. If you allow grocery stores to sell liquor, then you get grocery stores that sell Miller and Bud and cheap wine and completely ignore variety. The end result is to take away the primary revenue stream from small liquor stores that helps fund their interest in variety. You lose the likes of Blue Max and The Cellars and are faced with nothing but beer from major breweries and only the most mainstream of local beers (Summit - which I like, but I want a choice). You're not robbing from grocery stores, they can still set up a liquor store if it's separated from the main store by a wall (Kowalski's and Byerly's), or by a parking lot (Cub Foods), and the separation forces them to compete in variety.

Favorite Stories Posted by a Few Friends

My friends have been posting a few news article links lately. These are my favorites:

Klund, Anti Christian Bigotry at the Hedonist (original list) - I like the Curb Your Enthusiasm concerns.

Wali, Beautiful People.com Axes Holiday Weight Gain Members, "As a business, we mourn the loss of any member, but the fact remains that our members demand the high standard of beauty be upheld," said site founder Robert Hintze.

Dan, Human Sacrifices on the Rise in Uganda as Witch Doctors Admit to Rituals. "We also have about 120 children and adults reported missing whose fate we have not traced," he added. "From the experience of those whom we recovered, we cannot rule out that they may be victims of human sacrifice." [I think they were kidnapped by seasonal santas who are out of work and hoping to start a real toy factory at the North Pole elved by Ugandan children. The experience just as likely supports that thesis. You may find that cruel, but I point to a shared belief in parts of Africa and Asia about koro or penile retraction syndrome leading to mass hysteria, mass laughing hysteria in Uganda proper, and mass execution of witches based on hysteria in Gambia.]

Bleacher Failure

I'm glad this happened after our visit to Circus Juventas. Eryn would have disliked this immensely (courtesy of Ming):

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Seven people were taken to the hospital after bleachers collapsed at circus school performance in St. Paul.
Police say there were multiple injuries, but most appear to be minor. Sgt. Paul Schnell says there were about 450 people on the bleachers when the structure collapsed at the Circus Juventas event Sunday about 10 p.m.
Witnesses say the crowd had just stood up to cheer when the bleachers gave way.
Circus Juventas is a performing arts circus school for children. The collapse happened during the final show of the season.

*%#'@$$^& - Carlin's Dead

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