Foucault is the one reason people hate France.

Look at him.
Don't you hate him?

(Shiznas will return in May.)

Jesse James

Wow. In terms of the bad karma all the shiznas put together will receiver, this incident beats out anything we've done. If our instant-messaging follies were the Spanish-American War, this was the Holocaust:

...Janna knows this guy named Jesse, and she thinks he and Audrey would get along. She “introduces” them online, and they hit it off. Jesse is an amazing dude, a volunteer fireman, a cowboy, a tortured poet, a man with a past. He has an ex-wife he speaks of fondly, and a son. He lives on a ranch with llamas. He’s got posttraumatic stress disorder from having been in New York on 9/11. He knew some of the firemen who died, or something. An exceptional man. He and Audrey just click, in that special way we all hope can happen someday.

This article is by far the most interesting example of the shear terror of the reality of online "hook-ups" I have ever read. Best of all, I guess the writer of a History of Violence suffered from bad-movie-karma and decided to write this fantastic article up.

I'll let it speak for itself:

Link, via BoingBoing

Suicide Rate Among Teens on the Rise: Emos to Blame

An article by Medical News Today states that the suicide rate among teens (10-24) has been on the rise and was the highest jump in the last 15 years. No doubt Emos are to blame. This quote demonstrates this theory eloquently:

Dr. Keri Lubell, lead author of the study, said "It is important for parents, health care professionals, and educators to recognize the warning signs of suicide in youth. Parents and other caring adults should look for changes in youth such as talking about taking one's life, feeling sad or hopeless about the future. Also look for changes in eating or sleeping habits and even losing the desire to take part in favorite activities. [Another concern might be the wearing of tight pants, long, stupid hair cuts, and crying at one's own poetry.]"

Sounds like Emos to me.

Seriously, though. A rate increase such as this is only somewhat confounding. An extra two or three people per 100,000 is statistically significant, but creating a moral panic about this would be stupid. It's no different than saying that because Columbine happened in 1999 that violence in schools are on the rise. As we all know, violence in schools "declined" and then "dramatically rose" when he VA tech shootings happened. These suicides may not be isolated cases, but a spike is not continuous.

Now give me a longitudinal data-set that shows the suicide rate steadily rising and I'll call you the new Emile Durkheim.

Link.

By the way, on the topic of a lack of updates; just remember that getting out of prison is much more difficult than getting in.