Plug: Check out Writer's Block, the new webcomic by Rob and Liz, starting Tuesday (tomorrow)! Their first (?) comic, Self Insert was a lot of fun, so I'm sure this will be too!
Oh the Irony
Maybe I'm just a nerd, or strange, to have been amused by these two separate headlines--in the same section and page--in today's Metro Today, but I was. =Þ First one (the italics are my emphases):
Insulin sprays, pills working
Insulin shots may go the way of blood-letting leeches as medical science closes in on ways for diabetes patients to simply swallow or inhale the human protein, researchers said yesterday.
The second (there was a spelling error, which I corrected):
Le[e]ches could suck away arthritis
I'd say that the analogy between insulin shots and "blood-letting leeches" was pretty ironic, wouldn't you? ^_~ Perhaps this means that we shouldn't prepare to give up insulin shots just yet?
There were actually quite a few interesting things in today's paper, so I hope you'll bear with me as I share a few more.
This one is so strange that I simply have to quote it in its entirety:
Teacher suspended for streetwise test
MANITOBA A Canadian teacher has been suspended after shocking a small northern Manitoba school by distributing a math exam that included questions about pimps, prostitutes, machine guns, cocaine trafficking and getting "knocked up."
The math proficiency test included questions such as: "Rufus is a pimp for three girls. If the price is $65 per trick, how many tricks per day must each girl turn to support Rufus' $800-per-day crack habit?"
And, "Hector knocked up three girls in his gang. There are 27 girls in his gang. What is the exact percentage of the girls in the gang that Hector knocked up?"
Parents of the 13- and 14-year old students who attend Juniper School in Thompson, Man., said they were outraged.
The test seemed like an exam found on an Internet joke site.
It's amusing, but horrifying at the same time. I mean, I'm sure we all secretly agree that kids are losing their innocence, being exposed to mature subjects, far too early nowadays, but isn't this a bit much?
Then, there's this one:
'Martyrs' cards fad grips refugee kids
MIDDLE EAST Fourteen-year-old Saleh Attiti has replaced his once-precious Pokemon cards with a less innocent craze that has swept up children in the West Bank's Balata refugee camp - necklaces with pictures of "martyrs" of the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
It's difficult to find a child in this teeming camp of 20,000 people who isn't wearing at least one necklace with a picutre of a shahid, or martyr - mostly militant gunmen killed or suicide bombers blown up. The children use them the way they once used cards of Pokemon or sports heroes. They spend their meagre allowances to collect and trade them, constantly hunting for prize shahid pictures that excite like a vintage baseball card.
What type of world have we created when children revere death and war? Sure, here in Canada I am only remotely touched by war, but for others, it is a daily reality. Knowing this makes me feel so sad and helpless.
Closing Plug: Check out my friend Ben's blog, the brain drain. I may be "a nerd or strange," by my own words, but reading this will convince you that I'm not the only one! ^_~ Just kidding, Ben! =Þ
