Blog Archives
More Halloween-y lists
Thank you, Cracked.
- The 7 Most Ridiculous Ghost Stories From Around the World
- 7 Creepy Urban Legends That Happen to Be True (Part 4)
- The 6 Creepiest Places on Earth: Part 1 and Part 2
- 6 Real Islands Way More Terrifying Than the One on Lost
Happy Halloween.
Halloween-y lists, thanks to Cracked
Macabre, eerie, scary…and just plain odd. Enjoy.
- 5 Works of Art That Could Possibly Kill You
- The 5 Creepiest Urban Legends (That Happen to be True), 6 MORE Creepy Urban Legends (That Happen to be True), and 6 Creepy Urban Legends That Happen to be True (Part 3!)
- The 6 Most Terrifying Things People Actually Collect
- 7 Horrifying Moments From Classic Kids Movies
- The 7 Most Terrifying Disney Movie Deaths
- The 7 Most Horrifying Museums on Earth
- The 13 Most Unintentionally Disturbing Children’s Toys
- The 6 Creepiest Things Ever Slipped Into Children’s Cartoons
Family as question on Jeopardy!
My father-in-law’s cousin was the subject of a Jeopardy question on tonight’s show! She was the first United States Secretary of Education.
“If you play it safe in life, you’ve decided that you don’t want to grow anymore.”
–Shirley Mount Hufstedler
- bio at her law firm (extended version)
- bio @ national federal judges’ directory
*waves to Mrs. Hufstedler from the opposite coast*
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Originally published at The Haunted Palace. Please leave any comments there.
Chris Hansen is punk rock.
Twitter: 2008-06-09
- I want this shirt when I become pregnant: http://moourl.com/zmp7r #
- One of the many reasons I love our new home: daily deer in the yard. http://tinyurl.com/6k6otv #
Originally published at The Haunted Palace. Please leave any comments there.
Whoa! Dream big!
Juno: [yelling through the house] Dad?
Mac: What?
Juno: Either I just peed my pants, or, um…
Mac: Or…?
Juno: THUNDERCATS ARE GO!
After reading the entire quotes list at imdb, I am convinced of one very important truth:
I must see Juno.
Paulie Bleeker: You’re being really immature… You have no reason to be mad at me, I mean, you know, you broke my heart. I should be royally ticked off at you. I should be really cheesed off, I shouldn’t want to talk to you anymore.
Juno MacGuff: What? Cause I got bored and had sex with you and I didn’t want to like marry you?
Paulie Bleeker: Like I’d marry you! You’d be the meanest wife ever, okay? And I know that you weren’t bored that day because there was a lot of stuff on TV, and then The Blair Witch Project was coming on Starz and you were like ‘I haven’t seen this since it came out and if so we should watch it’ and ‘but oh, no, we should just make out instead la la la’
(I am also pretty certain that I must read the autobiographical Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper, by the writer/director, Diablo Cody. It has to be an unintentionally fascinating counterpoint to the last unusual memoir I read, O The Glory of It All * Sean Wilsey.)
Originally published at The Haunted Palace. Please leave any comments there.
The Real World, after 20 seasons
Yes, I’m 36 years old, but I still watch The Real World. Why?
Well, one: I like learning how other people live; and, two: I have a nostalgic investment in the show. I have been watching the show since the first season.
I do believe that this is the first time that a current Real World cast member has already been on a reality television show: Brianna was an American Idol contestant. There’s some commentary about the changes that have occurred in our culture since 1992 buried in that truth, methinks.
Originally published at The Haunted Palace. Please leave any comments there.
expert reversal in MA v. Louise Woodward
In 2007, Dr Patrick Barnes, the prosecution’s star medical witness, reversed his opinion. He concluded that death could have been caused by an old injury, as argued by the defense. In a scientific paper he states: “The science we have today could, in fact, have exonerated Louise. There is certainly, in retrospect, reasonable doubt.”
Dr. Barnes’ new opinion, however, is not shared by a majority of his medical colleagues, including some of the country’s leading medical authorities on shaken baby syndrome. One such expert, Dr. Robert Reece of Tufts University, is a pediatrician and one of the nation’s most respected authorities on shaken baby syndrome. In a 2007 interview with The Boston Globe he stated, “The information that was presented at trial on the prosecution side was correct”.
This opinion is shared by the vast majority of doctors who study shaken baby syndrome. Moreover, none of the prosecution’s other medical experts have changed their opinions. — answers.com
I don’t know what happened.
I know that the sexism and classism that emerged during this trial was appalling. The backlash against Dr. Deborah Eappen, Matthew’s mother, was so hateful; so many callers to Boston-area talk radio shows and letter writers to the local newspapers claimed that Dr. Eappen was a bad mother because she chose to work. Nothing was said about the other Dr. Eappen, her husband and Matthew’s father.
I know that Louise Woodward’s behavior while testifying was also appalling. She smiled and giggled on the witness stand, while discussing Matthew’s death.
I know that Woodward’s attorney, Elaine Sharp, also changed her mind, and came to believe that her client was guilty of killing Matthew Eappen.
I also know that I am alarmed to read this phrase for the fourth time today:
…state medical examiners said Matthew hit the floor with the “force equivalent to a fall from a second-story window.” (CourtTV report)
I have researched four cases of suspected shaken baby syndrome. In four out of four cases, the same phrase was used to describe the injury, almost in the exact same words: once by an emergency room nurse; once by a doctor; once by a prosecutor; and once by the MA ME’s office. I want to know what peer-reviewed article, or magazine article, or newspaper article is this phrase’s Ground Zero. This source desperately needs to be refuted.
Also, professional individuals and members of the public need to be properly educated on the nature of “shaken baby syndrome”. In order to shake a child to death, one must shake the child for an intense duration—one to two minutes. That does not sound like a long period of time at all, but do your own experimentation: clasp a pillow in both hands, and pull it towards you then thrust it away, and repeat this motion for two minutes. You will realize what an incredible amount of time must elapse during the assault. Also, other injuries will be present, beyond contre coup brain injuries and damage to blood vessels in the eyes. Bruising and fracture will also occur at the site of placement of the perpetrator’s hands; you must have a firm grip on the child in order to do fatal damage, and that grip alone will cause injury. Furthermore, there will most likely be severe injury to the neck; I am highly suspicious of any claim of shaken baby syndrome when the child’s neck in undamaged, since the alleged violence is akin to repeated whiplash.
I know that professionals are mistaking passion for professionalism. That’s an honest mistake, and one for which I have a great amount of sympathy. I want individuals in the helping, legal, and medical professionals to care passionately about the protection of the public. That desire cannot risk others’ lives, however, by ruining reputations and placing innocent people in jail.
People shake children. Sometimes older youths and adults put their hands on the bodies of infants and children, and those victims die. But I want to know when violence occurred, and when it did not, or when it occurred earlier, at someone else’s hands, rather than at the accused’s. I want the truth, no matter how complicated or messy it might be. I hope we all do.
Originally published at The Haunted Palace. Please leave any comments there.
Country Boys: Teenagers in Appalachia
Filmed over three years (1999-2002), “Country Boys” tracks the dramatic stories of Chris and Cody from ages 15 to 18. With the same intimate cinematic technique and sound design that distinguished “The Farmer’s Wife,” Sutherland’s new film bears witness to the two boys’ struggles to overcome the poverty and family dysfunction of their childhood in a quest for a brighter future. This film also offers unexpected insights into a forgotten corner of rural America that is at once isolated and connected, a landscape dotted with roughshod trailer homes and wired with DSL. (more)
The story behind “Country Boys”:
…And so, originally, I had wanted to do a portrait of a small hollow. But I was so struck by the sophistication level of the high school kids, and by their media perceptions of themselves through the outside world, that I shifted my focus entirely. I guess I was most interested in the commonality between Appalachian kids and kids all over the U.S. I never have an agenda, and I knew that the social issues raised in an area with drastically limited opportunities would resonate with people from all walks of life.
When I decided to film at the David School, I needed the type of access where I could film the classroom scenes close up and intimate like in the TV series “My So-Called Life” — except that was fiction and this film is real life. Chris Johnson and Cody Perkins both had strong personalities and strong voices — they were able to speak clearly and effectively about what was going on in their lives. I always trust my instincts, and when I found them I knew they would be in it for the long haul…— David Sutherland
- PBS Frontline: “Country Boys”
- Chris Johnson’s story
- Cody Perkins’ story
- Discussion at pbs.org
- David Sutherland Productions
Originally published at The Haunted Palace. Please leave any comments there.
