If you’re a numbers person set on having a baby with a 11-11-11 birth date, today is the day to get started. (Or, you know, this weekend. These things aren’t timed too specifically.)
I’m not sure if a baby with a binary code for a birth date, or the fact that it is Valentine’s Day weekend, is reason enough to conceive a child, but if you are that big of a geek you could also choose one of these names for the kid:
Geek baby names:Click on the picture above for a look at the best in geek baby names from Perl to Tiberius.
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.
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.”
Fort Wayne, Ind. A city of history. A land of opportunity. A people proud of their Harry Baals.
Fort Wayne’s new government center, in the heart of downtown, needs a new name. So an online poll was set up at the city’s website, FeedbackFortWayne.org, where people could vote on some possibilities.
There’s “Chief Little Turtle Center,” named after a Native-American chief. There’s “Heritage Square.” There’s “Citizens Plaza.”
But the namesake with the most votes is former Fort Wayne mayor Harry Baals.
Baals — which he pronounced “balls” but his descendants pronounce “bales” — served three years as mayor of Indiana’s second-largest city, and died during his fourth term in 1954. He’s a respected historical figure in Fort Wayne, though the street Harry Baals Drive has been renamed H. Baals Drive. Nevertheless, his name is unlikely to be picked for the new government center.
“We love Fort Wayne, too,” she told the newspaper. “We’re not going to make any decisions that look bad.”
But “Harry Baals Government Center” had more than 16,000 votes on the city’s website Thursday morning. It seems the American public has now hijacked the poll; a day earlier, the Baals entry had fewer than 900 votes, according to the Journal Gazette. Thursday morning, “Thunder Dome” — an obvious joke — was in second place with more than 1,000 votes. “Chief Little Turtle Center” was in third with just over 600.
The poll gained national attention when TV host Jimmy Kimmel joked about it on “Late Night” Wednesday night.
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.
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.
I have a thing for Mark Sanchez. I’ve said it before, but I fell for him after he demonstrated a moment of frugality when on the phone with Domino’s during this past season’s “Hard Knocks” trying to get them not to charge him for sides of ranch dressing.
I was such a fan that, a few weeks back when we were at Del Frisco’s, I ordered the bone-in filet (a supposed Sanchez favorite that was not on the menu). Ridiculous, I know.
Today’s story, though, has me switching teams. The Jets quarterback, who is 24, hooked up with a 17-year-old Connecticut high schooler in his New Jersey home, according to a story in the New York Post.
“Sexy rich girl Eliza Kruger not only bragged on Facebook about “MARK F–ING SANCHEZ” texting her after they flirted at a hip Manhattan nightclub on New Year’s Eve — she also took photos of a mussed-up bed in his boudoir as ‘proof’ of their huddle just days later,” according to the piece.
Several media outlets have reached out to the young woman, and she hasn’t hesitated to share her story. She even went as far as to tell Deadspin.com that the legal age of sexual consent is 16 in New Jersey, adding, “I checked.”
Read the full story on Sanchez’s alleged romp — and check out the blond coed — here.
Aiming to make streets safer and bedrooms spicier, an Alabama sex shop is offering a handgun- for-sex-toy promotion for Valentine’s Day.
Sherri Williams, the owner of Pleasures, says it’s her “contribution to making love, not war here in Alabama, where guns are legal and adult toys are not,” so you might need a doctor’s note for that vibrator (seriously).
Williams grabbed headlines last year when she opened a sex toy drive-thru and tried to take a challenge to the state’s sex-toy ban to the Supreme Court in 2007. They declined to hear the case.
