It's News to Me

You'd be hard-pressed to ever find someone ignorant enough to say that research is not necessary. Some great things have come from studies throughout history.
However, while browsing through news from all across the Internet, I found results from dozens of studies, a few of which (see below) elicited the general response, "No Sh*t."

Now, for this week in No-Sh*t news:
- Women love men with muscles. (Who knew?)
- President Bush named most disliked world leader by Arab nations. (Stop the presses!)
- Kids who have late classes on Friday are more likely to drink on Thursday. (My mother was right, after all!)

Coming from research university UCLA, David Frederick lets college males everywhere in on a little secret: chicks dig chiseled dudes. Despite what you might have been going for, beer guts just aren't nearly as sexy.

Frederick spoke to 99 males and 141 females to learn about the correlation between a hot bod and sexual activity. But fear not, love-handled-men of America, more women said they avoid the muscled men for long-term relationships.

Researchers from University of Missouri-Columbia surveyed college students to find out that students who had classes after 11 a.m. on Fridays drank about twice as much as those with earlier classes.

I'm not sure what the nightlife is like in Missouri, but every student, faculty member, police officer, local official and their mothers could have saved the researchers a ton of time and money before they ran the survey.

Penn State knew this years ago and acted accordingly with LateNight Penn State and alcohol intervention programs.

Although this last one is months old, it was too good to pass up once I read the headline, "Polls show Arabs dislike Bush."

In February, 38 percent of almost 4,000 people surveyed (from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates) said they disliked Bush more than any other world leader outside of their own country.

Imagine that. The man whose face the Middle East connects with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would be on the naughty list for their neighbors. Shocking.

I'm neither a statistician nor an expert on foreign relation with the Middle East, but honestly, no sh*t.

Chicks dig chiseled dudes.
Students with later classes on Friday drink more.
Polls show Arabs dislike Bush.

Michael Moore is not an easy guy to like. He has an aggressive personality, he can be outright rude sometimes, and he's not exactly easy on the eyes. I would like to say that he's probably a teddy bear on the inside, but I honestly doubt that as well.

Over the past week or so, Moore has given CNN a few gray hairs. As a promotion for his new movie, "SiCKO," Moore joined Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN July 10 on Larry King Live. As per any conversation, a few errors were made throughout the segment, errors that challenged the accuracy of the documentary's reporting.

As "The most trusted name in news," CNN was wise to correct an error. However, the ever-eccentric Moore was not satisfied. He demanded that the network apologize for its mistakes, of which he claimed there were many more than the one.

What began was an eight-day battle between the two, armed with open letters posted online and thousands of supporters' phone calls and e-mails. Both groups demanded that the other cite its sources, and both Moore and CNN wrote long, detailed statements, citing sources for nearly every fact uttered on the show.

Moore was vicious and would not accept anything less than a full apology from CNN. Network executives must have doubled the headache medication market. But Monday, CNN admitted that every one of Moore's facts were backed accurately. Some were based on a different source than what CNN used, but all were backed up.

Moore might not be the kind of guy you want to go out to the bars with, but the last week has shown that the man deserves some respect.

The week's battle between Moore and CNN has accomplished Moore's goal even more than his documentary could have done alone -- it stirred up discussion among Americans about the troubling status of healthcare in the nation.

By challenging one another on accuracy, both were forced to double-check, triple-check and have someone else check every fact. The news finally reported more about Paris' healthcare system and less about Paris' jail time.

You might not like Michael Moore, and that's fine, really. But, if you want to see a man stick to his cause and demand thorough reporting, check out his Web site and CNN to see the back and forth from the week. They're simple enough: michaelmoore.com and cnn.com.

Keep an eye on CNN tonight, too. Moore has taken up Wolf Blitzer's invitation to return, and I can promise you it will be an interesting sight.

When it comes to crimes and criminals, the general public can be really quite forgiving most of the time. Penn State students, for example, see very little wrong with underage drinking and minor drug law infractions. However, when it comes to sexual crimes, the same forgiving public becomes one of a damning force.

One needs to simply watch the Law and Order: Special Victims Unit introduction to understand the public's view: "'In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the special victims unit.''

That's why a time.com article posted Monday caught my eye. Rather, the headline, "Putting the Term 'Rape' on Trial" caught my eye.

The case in question was a "he said, she said" argument over consent to sexual intercourse. Because the jury's task was not to establish if intercourse occurred, the defense attorney asked the judge to ban the term "rape" from being used in court, according to the time.com article.

It stated the ban brought protest from the rape victim advocacy group Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment, which in turn led the judge to declare a mistrial because of the excessive publicity.

Mistrials have got to be frustrating to victims in any case, but especially when the mistrial follows your being censored, it must be painstakingly frustrating. The victim said she found it extremely difficult to explain what happened the night of the alleged incident without using the banned word.

At the same time, though, Nebraska law says "evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed," according to the article. And it would be foolish to say that the word "rape" does not make even the purest juror judgmental.

That's what they said. But just because the case occurred 1,200 miles away doesn't mean it is all that distant from State College. What do you think?

It's a familiar feeling -- You shuffle into the cafeteria freshman year after a long morning of classes (or a dozen pushes on the snooze button), looking forward to your quality meal. But alas, they don't have any green beans, your favorite!

The common reaction? Moaning to your friends about how "Mom always had fresh green beans" before heading back to sleep. But a recent CNN article showed that, once again, a group of second graders are better than you.

The kids William V. Wright Elementary School didn't like the veggies they were given either, but these kids didn't just complain, they practiced democracy. In a letter to the lunch lady, they expressed their concerns as true poets would:

"Dear Mrs. Duits, The food is so yummy and yummy. But there are one proplem. It is the green beans."

"We love the rest but we hate the green beans."

But, in the words of Adam Sandler,

"In Lunch Lady Land
Your dreams come true;
Clouds made of carrots and peas
Mountains built of shepherd's pie
And rivers made of macaroni and cheese."

After the letter, the school district had about 24 students try out different veggies that could be offered in the cafeteria. After the students filled out a survey, the district began to adjust the menu.

Although the orders of "stake," lobster and "chocolate filled panda cookies" will likely be passed over, a handful of second graders will grow up knowing that sometimes all you have to do is ask.

Maybe it's a little idealistic, but it's nice to think that they'll never "know" that they "can't make a difference" and maybe, just maybe, they'll react the same way to social injustice and such when they grow up.

And to think it will have all started with taking on the lunch lady.

Cool.