What Caught My Eye Today

Dallas - The Dallas school system was rocked by allegations that staff members at an inner-city high school made students settle their differences by fighting bare-knuckle brawls inside a steel cage. Strangely, or better still, sadly, this doesn't surprise me all that much. This is Texas we're talking about, right? The report describes two instances of fighting in an equipment cage in a boys' locker room between 2003 and 2005. It was not clear from the report whether there were other fights. In it, a teacher was quoted as saying the principal told security personnel to put two fighting students "in the cage and let `em duke it out." Well, heck, if the students were fighting already, why not get some entertainment value out of it? Good grief.

New Jersey - The New Jersey State Board of Cosmetology and Hairstyling is moving toward a ban on genital waxing after two women reported being injured in their quest for a smooth bikini line. Waxing is serious business. Why do you think that only women do it? Men just don't have the pain thresholds that the ladies do. Technically, genital waxing has never been allowed — only the face, neck, abdomen, legs and arms are permitted — but because bare-it-all "Brazilians" weren't specifically banned, state regulators haven't enforced the law. Genital waxing can be dangerous in that the hot wax can irritate or tear delicate skin in the bikini area, resulting in infections, ingrown hairs and rashes, according to skin care experts. All joking aside--and believe me so many things come to mind--is this something that lawmakers should be wasting a lot of time on. I'm thinking anyone willing to have hot wax poured on their "hoo hoos" have some idea of the risks involved.

Tonga - I'll give you three guesses why this made the list...but you'll probably only need one. A major earthquake struck off the coast of Tonga. The USGS recorded the quake as 7.9 magnitude; the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said it was 7.7. There were no immediate reports of damage or death. At a depth of just 6.2 miles (10 km), it is considered a shallow earthquake. Typically, the shallower the quake, the more destructive potential it carries. The tsunami center issued the regional tsunami warning for parts of the Pacific near the quake's epicenter but cancelled it shortly thereafter. The earthquake struck a few hours after a volcano erupted off Tongatapu, Tonga, about 200 km away. Earthquakes are probably the next curiosity that intrigues me. Don't ask me why. On this particular occasion, I could not resist a story about the Ring of Fire and the tie-in to the last item on today's post.

Internet - It all began 20 years ago with a frustrated 29-year-old programmer who had a passion for order. How sad. We should all be passionate about something, but order? Dude, you have got to get yourself a hobby. Tim Berners-Lee, now famous as the founder of the World Wide Web, was working as an obscure consultant at Cern, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, in the suburbs of Geneva. Berners-Lee felt he was was stymied by the lack of institutional knowledge. So he proposed adding "hypertext" to the Cern network, basically embedding software in documents that would point to other related documents. And thus was born the Web, a global communications network that has shaken up industries, created enormous wealth and transformed the way ordinary people live their lives. Berners-Lee wrote his software in 1990 and put up the first Web site in 1991. And the world has not been the same since. One could argue whether or not this was a good or a bad development for civilization as we know it, but that's an entirely different philosophical discussion.

March Madness - Seems like a recurring theme. I start off well on Day 1 and proceed to have all my hopes and dreams shattered by the end of the weekend. Nevertheless, I must boast while I still can. Mid way through the first day of action, I'm seven out of eight. Yeah, baby.

American Idol - Just so you all know, I have completely forgotten about American Idol. I know its on. I just don't care about it anymore. Still I did watch country night, and there was this dude that did a bizarro take on Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire." --and there is your tie-in--scared the piss out of guest mentor Randy Travis. And here's another interesting observation. There are 10 finalists left, only 3 of whom are female. Fascinating.