Author Archive

5-year-old wants job before marriage

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In a time when universities are full of girls who are — self-admittedly — working on their M-R-S degrees and women think the ideal age to be married is 25, is it refreshing to see this 5-year-old YouTube sensation who “wants to do something special” before marriage?

Or maybe it’s disturbing that a girl so young is already thinking about her marriage and career at the age most girls are thinking mostly about swings and ponies (or at least I was when I was five). Either way, you have to admit that this sassy kid has a point.

Facebook bans breakup notifier

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It fell as quickly as it rose. The explosive new Facebook app, Breakup Notifier, was banned from the social networking site Wednesday morning.

Only released early this week, Breakup Notifier allowed users to receive alerts the moment any of their friends changed their relationship statuses from “in a relationship” to “single.”

You can blame the over-aggressive Facebook stalkers for this one. Though Facebook was unclear about the reason for the ban, it hinted that the large volume of users had something to do with the decision, International Busines Times reports. High traffic to one app can cause technical problems on the website.

And since the app had more than 100,000 users within its first twenty-four hours, you can’t deny that there are a lot of lonely people in the world.

Now, it looks like you’re going to have to monitor your crushes the old-fashioned way: through obsessively refreshing their Facebook profiles.

Or, maybe instead of wishing a break-up on the object of your affection, move on to someone else. Don’t panic: with all the online dating services out there, you can probably still avoid actual face-to-face interaction.

Pageant queen loses crown for ‘eating too many tacos’

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The former Miss San Anontio has been stripped of her crown in preference of a more virtuous beauty.

Domonique Ramirez, a 17-year-old who was crowned Miss Antonio last year, sued the Miss San Antonio organization for stripping her of her crown — and lost. Her offense? Weight gain, tardiness and taking unsanctioned modeling jobs.

Wait, let’s go back to that first thing again.

The pageant’s president, Linda Woods, said Ramirez didn’t live up to her job as beauty queen partly because she gained weight from “eating too many tacos,” according to Reuters.

Part of Ramirez’s duties were to remain the same weight as she was on the day of her coronation: 129 pounds at 5’8″.

Now, the pageant’s First Runner-Up, Ashley Dixon, will be the reigning queen of San Antonio. The perks include a scholarship and the chance to compete in the Miss Texas pageant.

After the judge’s ruling, Woods said “In Miss Dixon we have a talented, mature young woman who will encourage and serve as a positive role model for our youth.”

It turns out weight gain makes someone a poor role model. This sounds all too familiar: A year ago, a New Zealand beauty queen lost her crown for the unforgivable offense of dyeing her hair brown.

But losing the Miss San Antonio crown has some benefits: at least now Ramirez can model at her leisure and eat as many tacos as she wants — which sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

Schools use GPS trackers to stop class skipping

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Stay in school, kids. If you don’t, your school will find a way to make sure you do.

The Anaheim Union High School District is considering using GPS tracking devices to clamp down on notorious class-skippers. In a six-week test, 7th- and 8th-grade students with four or more unexcused absences from this school year were given the trackers, OC Weekly reports.

Five times a day, students are instructed to punch in a code that tracks their location: when they leave for school, when they arrive at school, at lunch, when they leave school and at 8 p.m. Students in the program also receive phone calls every morning to remind them to go to school — because I’m sure most kids skip school because they forgot all about it, right?

School officials insist this system doesn’t liken kids to criminals, but fosters a sense of responsibility in them. The six-week test cost about $18,000 and was funded by a state grant. If its results are favorable, Anaheim schools and others may adopt the program permanently.

Skipping class has always been a problem, but now sites like the Skip Class Calculator (aimed at university students but also useful for high school students) make the practice even more expected.

But GPS tracking hardly seems like a plausible solution. The program is very expensive — not to mention invasive. And it probably won’t take kids long to realize they can give their tracker to a friend who’s at school if they want to skip. Whatever happened to good old-fashioned roll call anyway?

No iPhone confession for Catholics

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Technology is leading us to the mindset that our smart phones can do anything. “There’s an app for that,” right?

Wrong, according to the Vatican. A recently released app that allows Catholics to confess their sins via iPhone is invalid, a Vatican spokesperson said Wednesday.

Confession: A Roman Catholic App was created to be “perfect aid for every penitent,” according to its producers. The app guides believers through the Catholic sacrament of confession and even offers “a personalized examination of conscious for every user.”

But Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told AFP “It is essential to understand that the rites of penance require a personal dialogue between penitents and their confessor… Under no circumstance is it possible to ‘confess by iPhone.’”

With that in mind, it’s hardly appropriate that Confession’s Web site proclaims in large, bold letters that the app is “Catholic Church approved.”

Of course, Catholic authority hasn’t exactly been clear: a spokesperson from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales told BBC that the app was a useful tool and the church supports new technology.

But the Vatican has the final word, and it says no to digital confession if it’s used as anything more than an aid to Catholics before they confess. Perhaps an e-reader Bible will be enough to satisfy believers’ technological cravings.

Detroit may get its RoboCop statue — all thanks to Twitter

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It’s remarkable enough when a jocular tweet becomes a national sensation. But when that tweet also leads to an effort to raise $50,000, it’s downright phenomenal.

It all started when Twitter user @MT proposed that Detroit’s mayor erect a statue of RoboCop in a tweet that read, “Philadelphia has a statue of Rocky & Robocop would kick Rocky’s butt. He’s a GREAT ambassador for Detroit.”

Mayor Dave Bing didn’t  like the idea. He tweeted, “@MT There are not any plans to erect a statue to Robocop. Thank you for the suggestion.”

But that wasn’t the end of it. Residents retweeted the exchange, Facebook groups erupted and finally, local artists developed a scheme to bring the ‘Cop to their city.

Now, you can make a donations at this Web site to fund a statue of RoboCop that will, in the words of RoboCop himself, “Serve the public trust, protect the innocent, uphold the awesome.”

The statue will cost $50,000, and at time of writing, just over $4,000 has been collected — and with every page refresh, that number rises.

As for @MT, he tweets, “I honestly never wanted to waste the Mayor’s time. And I’m sorry if any of this Robocop stuff did.”

Nina Explains the Situation in Egypt

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Navigating the bulk of media coverage about the conflict in Egypt can be daunting. But if you’re feeling lost, fear not: 4-year-old Nina can explain things for you.

It’s simple, it’s cute and it’s surprisingly savvy for a 4-year-old.

Now if only all of our news could be delivered by a newscaster wearing a pink Minnie Mouse shirt.

No Facebook for the Obama kids

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Having a Facebook page is about as canonical as having a phone number these days. It’s getting to the point where we expect to hear, “Can I have your Facebook URL?” instead of , “Can I have your number?”

But Michelle Obama says that Facebook is unnecessary, not only for her children, but for young kids in general.

NBC’s Matt Lauer asked Michelle Obama in an interview this morning whether her daughters have Facebook. Her response? A sonorous, drawn-out “no.” And it’s not just because their father is the president.

“I’m not a big fan of young kids having Facebook,” she said. “It’s not something they need… It’s not necessary.”

The first lady may be on to something. According to a University of Haifa study, adolescent girls who spend more time on the social networking site are more likely to develop eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia.

That’s an alarming correlation, considering comScore’s report that last year Internet users spent one minute on Facebook for every eight minutes they were online. And with teenagers spending more than 30 hours a week online, it’s clear that adolescent girls are thoroughly exposed to the Web site.

There’s no denying Facebook is useful: The site makes sharing photos and organizing events easy, allows old friends to reconnect and, honestly, has saved me from countless forgotten birthdays.

But as Michelle Obama points out, we need to learn where to draw the line — both for ourselves and for our kids.

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