bad ideas: ShortFormBlog

00:01 • 11 months ago

captain-bubblebeard asks: Do you guys feel that the amount of gruesome stories that have appeared this week is a trend that news outlets are latching on to - or is stuff actually getting go-buy-a-shotgun-and-build-a-bomb-shelter weird?

» SFB says: Some have suggested “zombie apocalypse,” but my personal guess is this — the story out of Miami was so weird and disturbing that it created a bit of an “audience” for the other ones. There are other stories from this week we hadn’t even covered in that post that easily could’ve gone there. If you ask me, it’s pretty likely that stories like this happen more often than you’d guess, but don’t “surface” in the mainstream. To put it simply, I’m hoping next week comes very soon. — Ernie @ SFB

20:56 • 11 months ago

Tags: sugar fights sugar high fructose corn syrup corn sugar corn syrup nutrition health bad ideas food and drug administration fda 129 • Permalink

What’s going on here is basically a con game to suggest otherwise. What do con men do? They normally try to change their name. The FDA has thankfully stopped that.

Sugar Association lawyer Dan Callister • Praising the Food and Drug Administration’s rejection of an attempt by the Corn Refiners Association to rename the recently-controversial “high fructose corn syrup” to something a tad less innocuous — “corn sugar” to be specific. Let’s face it — when giant agricultural industry groups fight in public, everyone wins.

16:35 • 11 months ago

Tags: los angeles memorial coliseum porn pornography bad ideas porn shoots usc football la los angeles usc football 32 • Permalink

I was just in awe that we were at the Coliseum. I’ve made movies for about 20 years and I’ve done a lot of things, but that one really stands out.

Porn star “Mr. Marcus” • Discussing his 2001 adult video shoot on the floor of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum football field, where the USC Trojans play football and two Olympics were played (among other things). Officials are unaware of how the production company, Anabolic Video, managed to get approved for the shoot, which featured 40 minutes of explicit scenes under the lights of the same stadium where Pope John Paul II once held mass. Yikes.

01:06 • 11 months ago

Tags: mitt romney amercia bad ideas oops 158 • Permalink

Bet Mitt wishes the App Store worked like an Etch A Sketch right about now.

11:52 • 11 months ago

Tags: barney frank hubie jones university of massachusetts dartmouth bad ideas trayvon martin awkward 21 • Permalink

Barney Frank’s failed Trayvon Martin “hoodie” joke: When making a commencement speech at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth on Sunday, he made a botched joke directed towards civil rights leader Hubie Jones, who earned an honorary degree: “You now have a hoodie you can wear and no one will shoot at you.” Frank later clarified his statements to the Associated Press, which noted Frank has made the joke at other graduation ceremonies (directed at himself), and that it was intended to ”ridicule the notion that a hooded sweatshirt is somehow sinister.” Jones wasn’t offended, for what it’s worth.

10:12 • 11 months ago

Tags: facebook phone facebook bad ideas cell phones smartphones from reuters 96 • Permalink

cnet:

This new Facebook phone: Why would anyone want one?

Rumors have it that the social network is again working on some sort of phone. But what could Facebook put into that phone to make it a must-buy?

What would you like to see in a Facebook phone?

A screensaver with Mark Zuckerberg’s face constantly staring at us.

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10:01 • 11 months ago

Tags: thaddeus mccotter congress republicans it's a wonderful life bad ideas write-in campaigns 2 • Permalink

Now I feel like George Bailey after Uncle Billy admitted he lost the money. Like George, knowing my misplaced trust has negatively impacted so many people is heartrending. Unlike George, I am not tempted to jump off a bridge. Instead, I remember my late father’s rule: ‘You clean up your own mess.’

Republican Rep. Thaddeus McCotter • Writing, in an op-ed piece for the Detroit News, about his plans to run as a write-in candidate for his own seat after failing to secure enough signatures to run for a sixth term. The guitar-slinging McCotter made a pretty major tactical error last year, choosing to run for president at a time when his national profile was very low and the candidate pool was already very large, and making it barely three months on the campaign trail. Now he has just $200,000 to run a write-in campaign for Congress — to put it simply, his odds don’t look very good. (The full letter is worth a gander, by the way … it’s a lengthy riff on “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which starts with a quote from John Lennon. See, this guy knows his pop culture!)

14:23 • 11 months ago

Tags: mobile alabama press register journalism exciting changes for our readers bad ideas headlines newhouse 8 • Permalink

One of the papers that’s shrinking, the Mobile, Alabama Press-Register, had an, um, unusual take on the paper losing four of its daily editions. Our pal Charles Apple took a little time to poke fun at the crazy amount of spin happening in this headline.

19:15 • 12 months ago

Tags: anderson cooper Charles Worley homosexuality pastors bad ideas religion 8084 • Permalink

Today in Anderson Cooper making people look stupid simply by asking questions: This lady. It may be the best entry in this subgenre of news since this video. (via pbump)

10:48 • 12 months ago

All hands on deck: Police chief deployed ten officers to find son’s iPhone

Tags: bad ideas berkeley california controversial Michael Meehan missing iphone missing phones wtf 39 • Permalink

cause In January, a freshman at a California high school found that his iPhone, which had Apple’s Find My iPhone software installed, was missing from his locker. He informed his father, who happens to be the Berkeley police chief.
reaction Chief Michael Meehan put ten officers on the case, four of which logged two hours of overtime knocking on doors. The phone was never found, and a police report was never written. But a reporter caught wind weeks later.
response Meehan has faced significant controversy for weeks over the issue — including wasteful spending related to the case — and recently talked to a reporter about the January incident. “I think it was worth it,” he said. source

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Obama administration, Sheriff Joe Arpaio go after each other

Tags: arizona bad ideas birther controversial maricopa county obama sheriff joe Sheriff Joe Arpaio 9 • Permalink

DOJ A couple weeks ago, it was announced that the Department of Justice would sue the police department headed by Maricopa County, Ariz. Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose practices were seen as abusive towards Latino inmates. It’s the second such investigation his office has faced.
Sheriff Joe Meanwhile, Sheriff Joe Arpaio is, over a year after Obama released his birth certificate, spending taxpayer dollars on a deputy who will focus on the cold case of whether or not Obama was born in Hawaii. ”It’s one deputy, so what? We have security issues, too, that I can’t got into,” Arpaio said. source

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