The Birth of the Freaking Awesome News Thread Begins

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Comments

  • edited April 2009
    This is clearly a move to gain favor with the ninja. The pirates on the other hand have been discussing possible mutiny.
  • edited April 2009
    But this is only going to increase global warming!
  • godgod
    edited April 2009
    As a Pastafarian, I feel obligated to say that not all pirates are so... zealously evangelistic as to kidnap people just to convert them. Religious extremism often leads to violence, no matter what faiths are involved. I can only hope the international community can look past this, and judge pirates not by this small minority, but by the teachings of Captain Mosey, Bobby Henderson, and the other prophets of the Spaghedeity. The fact remains, however, that these men were pirates, and as such, their deaths may further global warming, as shown by this graph.
    fsmpirates.png
    I truly hope that this can all be resolved before any more damage is done.

    Edit: Hmm, hitting my refresh button may have been in order before posting.
  • edited April 2009
    I doubt the validity of the pirate graph. I need to see sources on those pirate numbers.
  • edited April 2009
    Obama's record is terrible if you look beyond the 20th century:

    6a00d83451c45669e20115701d788e970b-.jpg
  • edited April 2009
    Hey now, Obama's only been in office for three months. Gotta give him time!
  • edited April 2009
    Porn Film To Be Shown On CMU Campus
    PITTSBURGH -- A movie being shown to Carnegie Mellon students on Sunday is causing controversy around campus.

    "The New Devil in Miss Jones" is hardcore pornography and it’s being presented by the Student Activity Board in the Student Union Auditorium.

    "I think it's simply entertainment. I know that they show one each semester,” said student Robert Rugart.

    "I think it's a stress reliever. They always show one the last weekend before finals," said student Maddie Stearns.

    So is showing hardcore pornography higher learning, art, or cheap thrills? That depends on whom you ask.

    "What would be the purpose of that, what good? What purpose does that serve?" said Father Andrew Fisher of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

    CMU responded by saying, “A decision was made to allow this programming choice to continue. Our policy does not prohibit organizations from screening adult films."

    The x-rated screening came as news to one parent scouting CMU for her daughter.

    "Maybe showing a film like this is a way to get people to debate and discuss," said parent Quita Mullen.

    But for some, like Fisher, who enjoys a daily walk on the CMU campus for his spiritual duties, the question remains: How does hardcore porn equal education?

    "To be showing this on Sunday, what is that saying? As we might say in Pittsburgh, it makes it more worse," Fisher said.

    Awesome.
  • edited April 2009
    Oh come on, who doesn't watch porn with a group of their friends every now and then? That's some real entertainment right there!

    Wait... no one?

    I think it's a funny idea though. I think it would relieve some stress if I went to see it, as long as I went with a friend and we were allowed to comment on it. It'd make me laugh, and it'd be harder to think of anything else while in a movie theater watching something as awkward as hardcore porn.
  • edited April 2009
    That's our Pittsburgh!
  • edited April 2009
    I thought you hated Pittsburgh?
  • edited April 2009
    I have forgiven Pittsburgh.
  • edited April 2009
    Isn't Pittsburgh the ketchup capital of the world or something?
  • edited May 2009
    Humans have been making porn for 35,000 years!

    Palaeolithic pornography
    Smut carved from a mammoth tusk

    2009ST2.jpg

    From photography to the internet, a characteristic sign that a new medium is going to succeed is that it is exploited by pornographers. And that, it seems, is not a recent phenomenon. A find reported in this week’s Nature suggests that sculpture, too, brought the smut-makers in early. Nicholas Conrad of the University of Tübingen, in Germany, describes what is probably the oldest human statue yet discovered. It is 6cm tall. It is carved from a mammoth tusk. It dates from about 35,000 years ago. It was found in a cave in south-western Germany. And it is, not to put too fine a point upon the matter, obscene. As 35,000 years ago is reckoned the moment when modern man, Homo sapiens, arrived in Europe, this discovery adds to the evidence that human thinking—or male thinking, at least—has hardly changed since the species evolved.
  • edited May 2009
    Oh come on, there's no proof that those are meant to be titillating excitement for cavemen. They could just as easily be fertility totems for women to carry around. Fucking mainstream media.
  • edited May 2009
    Who would carve a rotisserie chicken from a mammoth tusk?
  • edited May 2009
    I prefer to think of it as pornography, regardless of how valid your point may be Jakey. Because when I first started puberty I made something just like it out of putty. It was nowhere near as talented or intricate as that, but the boobs were about the same size.
  • edited May 2009
    Looks kind of like Baubo to me.
  • edited June 2009
    'Gay penguins' rear adopted chick
    Two "gay" male penguins have hatched a chick and are now rearing it as its adoptive parents, says a German zoo.

    The zoo, in Bremerhaven, northern Germany, says the adult males - Z and Vielpunkt - were given an egg which was rejected by its biological parents.

    It says the couple are now happily rearing the chick, said to have reached four weeks old.

    The zoo made headlines in 2005 over plans to "test" the sexual orientation of penguins with homosexual traits.

    Three pairs of male penguins had been seen attempting to mate with each other and trying to hatch offspring from stones.

    The zoo flew in four females in a bid to get the endangered birds to reproduce - but quickly abandoned the scheme after causing outrage among gay rights activists, who accused it of interfering in the animals' behaviour.

    The six "gay" penguins remain at the zoo, among them Z and Vielpunkt who are now rearing the chick together after being given the rejected egg.

    "Z and Vielpunkt, both males, gladly accepted their 'Easter gift' and got straight down to raising it," said a zoo statement.

    "Since the chick arrived, they have been behaving just as you would expect a heterosexual couple to do. The two happy fathers spend their days attentively protecting, caring for and feeding their adopted offspring."

    Humboldt penguins are normally found in coastal Peru and Chile, but their numbers have been dwindling due to overfishing, reports the AFP news agency.

    'Drive to mate'

    There have been previous reports of exclusive male-to-male pairings among penguins, some of which have also included the rearing of chicks.

    Homosexual behaviour is well documented in many different animals, but it is not understood in detail, says Professor Stuart West, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Oxford.

    Professor West says it has been suggested that homosexual activity could serve various purposes - for instance, it may relate to social bonding and establishment of dominance among bonobo chimps, while in some bird species, females may come together to rear young.

    Other animals may simply exhibit a "drive to mate", while others may, like humans, enjoy non-procreative sexual activity.

    "Homosexuality is nothing unusual among animals," Bremerhaven zoo said on Wednesday.

    "Sex and coupling up in our world do not necessarily have anything to do with reproduction."
  • edited June 2009
    Three pairs of male penguins had been seen attempting to mate with each other and trying to hatch offspring from stones.

    Oh God, I laughed.
  • edited June 2009
    The zoo flew in four females in a bid to get the endangered birds to reproduce - but quickly abandoned the scheme after causing outrage among gay rights activists, who accused it of interfering in the animals' behaviour.
    Oh God, I cried.
  • edited June 2009
    Hardly the first instance of gay penguin fathers. 'Course, the last pair I remember hearing of only lasted six years. They broke up after their chick grew up.

    Empty nest syndrome?
  • edited June 2009
    How can they prove the penguins are gay if they don't fly in females?
  • edited June 2009
    Because they engage in sexual activity with one another? I'd also assume that they were at one point living among females, as well.
  • edited June 2009
    What he said. Plus other mate-like behavior. The equivalents of humans holding hands and hugging or whatever. Keeping nest together?
  • edited June 2009
    Hmm. I must've missed the 'trying to mate with each other' part in my initial readthrough. I was only thinking of the 'thinking rocks were eggs' part.
  • edited June 2009
    Mostly they're referring to two males caring for an egg (or egglike rock), including one or both taking on the rearing roles normally reserved for the mother. This article didn't mention it much, but I've read other similar stories in the past. I don't think it generally involves mating, it's just two males caring for abandoned eggs.
  • edited June 2009
    I was hoping for hot penguin on penguin action. :-(
  • edited July 2009
    wrote:
    Stunning pictures of the volcano that blew a hole in the sky as astronauts witness eruption from International Space Station

    The article has too many pictures to quote really so just click the link
  • edited July 2009
    I went through the source code and pulled out a few of the images. Very nice find NoLonger, this is awesome SCIENCE!

    article-0-0575A7AC000005DC-176_634x422.jpg

    article-0-0575E5C2000005DC-99_634x474.jpg

    article-0-0575F83D000005DC-187_634x702.jpg
  • edited July 2009
    That looks like a very well constructed kindergarten volcano project eruption.