Morning News - Susan Boyle Comes in Second

Brett Singer — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:00:00 GMT

So you know that Susan Boyle person? Scottish woman, has a really big singing voice, knocked people's socks off on "Britain's Got Talent", which is sort of like "American Idol" but with weirder acts, like a guy who dances like Michael Jackson while dressed as Darth Vader? (No, really. That's true.) Anyway, everyone thought Susan would win contest. (My money was on Darth Jackson. Which is why I don't gamble.) But she came in second. First place went to a dance troupe called "Diversity." Maybe in England hip-hop dancing is still hip. Or people just got bored with Susan Boyle. Or maybe it was something else. Anyway, she lost, but like Clay Aiken before her, I bet we'll hear from her at some point. Sometimes second place isn't so bad. (Ask Ruben Studdard. Although he does have a new album out, so maybe he'll stage a comeback. Wow, I think I don't care about this topic. Moving on.)

Well, I'm not moving on quite yet. Apparently Susan Boyle needed a team of psychistrists to get ready for the big TV finale. I have to admit that if her story is true -- never performed anywhere but her church, shot to worldwide fame in a matter of hours, on a TV show watched by millions -- then I can't blame her for being nervous. And maybe I'm wrong but to me, it's impressive that she got as far as she did. Not because she isn't talented. But she was completely unknown a few weeks ago. Now she's very very "known." Sounds like a victory to me.

Now on to science news. Everybody has a cell phone these days, and your plants want in on the fun. Yes. That's right. Your plants. The Discovery Channel has a story about a chip that would allow plants to "call" for water when they were, like, thirsty. "The farmer would just need their regular cell phone service, and the plant would send a text message when it needed water." Neat. Although I'm not sure why you can't just water the things on some sort of regular basis. Then again, I've never owned a plant that didn't die within a month. So maybe I'm not the right person to ask about this.

This headline form the Wall Street Journal is both completely sensational, but also accurate. Here you go: Lawmakers Bill Taxpayers For TVs, Cameras, Lexus. It's accurate. I hate reading stuff like this. Some of the item, like a digital camera, I can see as being needed for a lawmakers' job. But a Lexus? Times are tough, drive a crummier car.

Republicans, Let's Play Grown-Up
Sticking with the Journal, one of their columnists says that the GOP should "play grown-up" with regard to Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court. Political commentator Ellis Henican says that if Republicans keep attacking Sotomayer, "they might well achieve a rare double fiasco for the Once-Grand Party - pursuing a doomed campaign against a highly qualified Supreme Court nominee and guaranteeing that Latinos will vote Democratic for the next 30 years." I guess we'll have to see how this one plays out.

Cuba's gonna talk to us! Wow!

A group of scientists in Houston, Texas are working on a cancer vaccine. I will now make the understatement of the year -- hey, that'd be cool.

Finally, "Up" ruled the box office this weekend by taking in almost $70 million. "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" came in second place, and has already broken the $100 million mark. "Star Trek" broke $200 million. There were some other movies in the top ten that I don't care much about. A few words about "Up" and their box office total: the number is somewhat artificially inflated because of the $3 per ticket surcharge for 3D (or "RealD" as they call it these days). Not every theater is showing "Up" in 3D, but a lot are, and that makes the total dollar figure larger. It also means that in Manhattan it costs $55 to take two adults and two kids to see the movie. Which, for the record, I thought was really good. But I could do without the extra cost.

Image: Wikipedia

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Your baby is ugly

Brett Singer — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:30:00 GMT

CBS News sent correspondent Steve Hartman into the field to ask people if they thought his baby was cute. But Steve did something tricky: he used a distorted image of his offspring (not the image at the right; that's Baby-faced Finster from Bugs Bunny). The idea was to see if anyone would say, "Dude, what an ugly kid."

Of course, no one did. That's generally not the way polite folks behave, especially not on camera. Steve's not-exactly-Earth-shaking conclusion: "cuteness is relative ... if the baby's your relative, it's cute." (Maybe CBS' abysmal news ratings aren't all Katie Couric's fault, hm?)

What would have been more interesting would be to have two sets of parents explain why they found their baby to be cuter than someone else's. Personally, I prefer my children to other people's children, and I think most parents feel the same way. That said, some kids, like some people, are cuter than others. Angelina Jolie is more attractive than, say, Bea Arthur. It would therefore stand to reason that some babies are cuter than others.

But when it's your kid, you think they're beautiful. Which is the way it should be. The only time this belief becomes potentially problematic is when you force that opinion on other people, ad nauseum. There are times when parental worshipping at the altar of adorableness can become utterly unbearable.

This might just be me, or maybe not. Have you ever wanted to tell someone to just shut the hell up about their baby? Does "aw, isn't my Susie gorgeous?" ever start to sound like "isn't my Susie way more gorgeous than that little monster you have?"

(For the record, I find my children cute -- most of the time, anyway -- but I try to keep that to myself as much as possible, at least when there are other people around. Do I pull out photos for folks to admire? Of course. But that's only because MY children are OBJECTIVELY cute. Ba-dum-bum.)

image: heo.com

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Your baby is ugly