Wharton Study: The Sky Is Freaking Blue

Wharton went out and and spent your application fee on a study that proves men like men’s stores and women like women’s stores.

Well, pretty much. The study, by Wharton’s Jay H. Baker Retail Initiative and Toronto consulting firm Verde Group reveals women like to shop for female things and browse around all the time, while men like to get in, get out and get home and use it. No, really.

The article on Wharton’s website about the study goes on for approximately 57,000 words, so I’ll just shoot right to the best part:

Erin Armendinger, managing director of the Baker initiative, puts it this way: “Men and women are simply different,” she says.

Wharton’s next study will be about men and how they like girls’ breasts.

‘Men Buy, Women Shop’: The Sexes Have Different Priorities When Walking Down the Aisles [Knowledge @ Wharton via Reason]

The Best Headline You’ll See All Month

3 Arrested In Europe For ‘Dirty Bomb’ Fixins [AP/KYW 1060]

New Rambo Poster: Uh, I Actually Like It

I had to ride the El to Kensington for a story, and this poster is at the Spring Garden stop.

We are less than two months away. Also, apparently the movie’s now just called Rambo. Guess Stallone didn’t want to do the same exact thing once again. I dunno; I think John Rambo was fine. It’s not like Rocky punched anybody’s head off in Rocky Balboa.

Barack Obama Taking Ideas From Jack Kelly

Looks like Jack Kelly isn’t the only one attempting to use the love of four-legged friends. A friend forwarded me a piece of the latest Obama email, which details Puppies 4 Obama, the latest presidential campaign website which is the latest in cutting-edge non-blimp campaiging.

We are trying to develop a web page to involve kids, and people generally young at heart, in the election process. We plan to have a mock election for dogs in December. Voting begins December 3, 2007 so hurry if you want to participate. It should be fun.

Ahh, yes. It should be fun. Also, what would a good presidential campaign site be without an Ann Coulter screed to inspire you to back Obama. As if puppies weren’t enough. Also on that page, there’s a link that says “I Have No Cash,” which seems to explain the (poorly-designed) website a bit better.

WWW.PUPPIES4OBAMA.COM
Oct. 19: Puppies 4 Jack Kelly!
[Cuteness via Flickr user vzabalza]

Abridged Daily News Columnists

Stu Bykofsky: I love dogs Verizon is like Michael Vick only worse and oh no the city is out $150 what ever will it do?

Michael Smerconish: It’s about 9udy Gu11ani. I’m not reading it.

John Baer: Hey, politicians are playing politics!

Ronnie Polaneczky: “Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Zack told the court that the children are revictimized each time their images are viewed[.]” Wait, how do they know?

N.J. Bans Sex Offenders From Social Networking Sites

New Jersey’s parole board yesterday voted unanimously to bar those convicted of sex crimes from using the Internet to network. That this will do very little to help public safety means nothing; N.J. could pass a law requiring registered sex offenders to chop off their own hands and the majority of the public would probably cheer.

There are some questions, of course; where does the law stop? It’s targetd at Facebook and Myspace, of course, but what about YouTube, which has commenting and community? Are registered sex offenders allowed to comment here? Are the New Jersey police going to ask me for the server logs so they can comb through for sex offenders? (Okay: No, but you see where I’m going with this.)

Apparently, the rule is you can’t post a profile. And sex offenders can still use email. Hey, a feel-good solution that does nothing to actually prevent underage sex solicitation online!

But I think my hypothetical pales in comparison to that of a poster on the always incredible Courier-Post forums.

This is like saying you accosted a Orange once; now you’re forbidden from buying oranges. So are you going to have a cop at every venue that may sell oranges?

Please, won’t someone think of the oranges?

N.J. bans sex offenders from networking sites [Courier-Post]
N.J. to sex parolees: Keep off MySpace [The Star-Ledger]

Santa’s Elves Need A Better Union

Every year, children write letters to Santa Claus. Santa’s too busy making presents (or, rather, making plans to outsource it to Chinese elf labor) to respond to all the letters, so post office workers do the deed for him.

Only, uh, now the post office is making everyone who answers letters for Santa provide photo ID and sign a liability waiver because it’s worried about sexual predators. While the waiver is also to absolve the post office of any liability in case of a lawsuit — maybe if little Johnny didn’t get that Nintendo Wii he wanted, he’ll sue Santa — apparently the whole thing is for, uh, protecting the children.

A corporation or nonprofit must promise not to hold the post office responsible for legal action that might result from “authorized or unauthorized handling, use and response to the subject Letters to Santa by any person.” [...] Worries about sexual predators, identity theft and frivolous lawsuits make it imperative that the names and addresses not fall into the wrong hands.

“Protecting our children is our No. 1 concern, so we want to know who is requesting the letters,” [Doylestown Postmaster Eileen Wilkinson] said.

More »

Inquirer Decides To Print Some Lies

A potent type of marijuana known as AK47 - so strong that some users are treated in emergency rooms for overdoses - has hit the Philadelphia area.

In order to overdose on marijuana, you’d have to smoke several hundred pounds all at once. Several hundred pounds. All at once.

Police seize high-potency marijuana, arrest 2 men [Inquirer]
A brief history of the criminalization of cannabis [Drug War Rant]

Leftovers: Phillyblog Alert Level: Comedy Gold

• Thanks to commenter friendlynerd, I was notified of this thread on Phillyblog. It’s in its infancy, but is sure to be absolutely incredible with this first post: “I work at the corner of Broad and Locust, and often eat lunch in the area, but every time I go outside I feel that I am accosted by dozens of strange homosexual men. Men seem to be more interested in me than women are when I walk in this area (I am attractive).” I’ve been in Woody’s without being accosted by strange homosexual men, and I’m effing Adonis. [Phillyblog]

• Penn State’s student paper notifies us that more and more people are breaking up online. Despite being Adonis, I have been dumped several times over email or IM between the years of 1998 and 2006. Hmm. [Daily Collegian]

• First sentence of a Broad Street Review article: “It’s not my imagination, is it, but the less we see of real gore, the more addicted we seem to be to the cinematic kind.” Mmm-hmm, this has nothing to do with my looks, as far as I can tell. Unless you consider my hand injury earlier this year. That looked pretty disgusting. Somebody ought to make a movie about it! [BSR]

• Hey, Pennsylvania’s records are about to get a bit more open. No, they still won’t release the information about the State Senate’s secret orgy room in the basement. [KYW 1060]

CBS 3, 6 ABC In Dead Sweeps Heat (I Guess)

Have the rumors of Alycia Lane bikini photos brought Alycia Lane and Larry Mendte — the photos are of Alycia — to the top of the news charts? Laura Nachman has the preliminary sweeps numbers as of Tuesday and CBS 3 trails 6 ABC by just 1 share point (whatever that is) on the 11 p.m. newscast.

Action News — who seems to have been amping up its Erin O’Hearn commercials recently, if you’ve noticed — leads in the 11 p.m. ratings with an 8 rating/16 share, while CBS 3 trails just behind with an 8 rating/15 share. (Each ratings point equals one or two old people falling asleep after the weather. Each share equals nothing.) NBC 10 has a 5 rating/10 share. (The lead-ins are important, too, with CBS beating ABC beating NBC. I’m pretty sure the Peacock doesn’t even have a prime-time lineup anymore; it just runs infomercials.)

At 6 p.m., Jim Gardner (6 ABC) is way ahead with a 12 rating/22 share; Tim Lake (NBC 10) has a 4 rating/8 share and Mendte and Lane have a 4 rating/7 share. Obviously, viewers know if Alycia’s going to show her bikini, it’ll be at 11 p.m.

The Nach Attack: NBC 10 Muffs 11 p.m. Sweeps [The Daily Examiner]