Arnold Schwarzenegger's .... wow

9-02-10 day is here

Today is the day that the entire 1990s waited for: 90210 day. It's the one moment this century that the dates align to bless us with the glory that was Beverly Hills 90210. So come on America, dawn your vest and v-necks and celebrate.




For more awesome clips, check out Celebritology.

Pentagon brownie recipe, all 26 pages of it

In case you've ever wondered how the military packs so much delicious into its sweet, three-year shelf life brownies, now you can know.

Not satisfied with the simple mix, pour, bake approach to cooking, the military's recipe is a 26-page culinary tour-de-force. Here's MIL-C-44072C, and here's to making things more complicated than they ever needed to be.

Road signs you won't believe

(A new sign in Treviso Italy warns about prostitutes)

(Spain)

(Christmas Crossing in England)

(Advertisement for the Bunny Ranch in Nevada)

(Romania: sign reads "Attention Drunks")

How much is your Nintendo worth?

A Nintendo Entertainment System sold on e-Bay for over $13,000 this week. The reason why? The game system came bundled with a hard-to-find game called Stadium Events that collectors drool over. Only ten copies of the game are thought to exist.

More so, the game had its original cardboard packaging, alone valued at $10,000 in collector's circles. For comparison purposes, that's more than the average annual income of Mexicans ($8,950 USD).

While it appears Nintendo nerdome is recession-proof, it's not clear if the buyer will have to blow on the cartridge to make it work.

SnOMFG 2010: The Snowiest DC in History

SnOMFG 2010 as defined by the Urban Dictionary:

The massive snow storm that hit the Mid-Atlantic region of the US, specifcially
Northern Virginia, D.C., Maryland, West Virgina and Pennslyvania.

The first wave hit Feb 6, Saturday Morning, dropping a record 32.4 inches at Dulles
International Airport in a two day period. The second wave fell on Feb 9,
Tuesday morning and brought another 10-20 inches to the effected areas.

Yes, the mid-Atlantic region of the United States, namely, the Fourth Corner world headquarters has been socked by snow, yet again. As previously reported in December during the Great Virginia Blizzard of 2009, it's been a wholloping season for the DC region as we break record after record of snowfall. December 2009 hit the record for most snowfall in that month
since the record books existed. February is shaping up to be no different.

As reported by the micro-blog Outside the Beltway this winter the Washington DC region has had more snowfall than the past four winters combined. If we get hit again tonight with another storm in DC, then we'll have broken every single snow record on the books since, well, ever.

America's oddest campaign commercial

The Congressional election year kicks off with what can only be described as the single greatest campaign commercial of all time. Found on the Washington Post's site, Republican Carly Fiornia has attacked her democratic opponent, Tom Campbell ... by calling him a sheep. Or is he a wolf in sheep's clothing (with demon eyes) and she's the sheep? Aren't sheep followers? Wait, she's saying Californians are sheep. Did anyone think this out? Pigs! Sheep! Sheep! Pigs!

Punxsutawney Phil feels pinch of recession

Punxsutawney Phil, that groundhog in Pennsylvania who is endowed with the gift of prophecy, has seen his shadow. Six more weeks of winter are due.

But humans aren't the only species desperate for work this year. With the recession in full swing, other animals around the world are vying for the top spot of ma' nature meteorologist. A short tabulation of other animals that predicted how long winter would last in 2010:

* Punxsutawney Phil of Pennsylvania - Saw his shadow

* Dover Doug - Saw his shadow

* Richard of Quarryville - Did not see his shadow

* Octoraro Orphie - Did not see his shadow

* Jimmy of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin - Did not see his shadow

* General Beauregard Lee of Snellville, Georgia - Did not see his shadow

* Malverne Mel of Malverne, New York - Saw his shadow

* Chuck of Staten Island NYC - Did not see his shadow

* Willie of Woodstock, Illinois - Did not see his shadow

* Willie of Wiarton, Ontario - Saw his shadow

* Joe of Spanish, Ontario - Saw his shadow

* Dave of Dunkirk, New York - Did not see his shadow

* Buckeye Chuck of Marion, Ohio - Did not see his adumbration and endure but not the least

* Sam of Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia - Saw his shadow

And then there is Groundfrog Day, in Snohomish, Washington. As far as I can tell, Seattlites are promised eight more weeks of soggy weather if, on Groundhog day (sorry, Groundfrog day), they rub the belly of a frog. Snohomish Slew, the "meteorologist frognositcator", also predicted six more weeks of winter, and that the silvertips would win at the Western Hockey League this season (check out the Snoho paper for more details)

Whoever you rely on in these tough times to predict your winter weather--whether it's a groundhog, or groundfrog--one thing is certain: the jobs of strange men in top hats will persevere.

(Keep an eye out for hot, hot news pornography at the end of the clip, laugh about Australia, and then visit us over at The Dingo.)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

(Photo credits: Top photo from Doug Ramsay in the Tribune)

Dr. Breedlove to unveil Apple's tablet at State of the Union following the Toyata Recall

Yes, according to Google Trends, this headline should be the most popular search item of the past few seconds prior to posting. Google Trends monitors what the world wants to know, and what the world wants to know right now. The list changes dramatically over the course of seconds, minutes and hours as each day unfolds. However, over time statistics can be drawn from the ever-changing trends. For instance, Google's most searched term of 2009? The word "Twitter." The fastest falling (increasingly less-searched) term of 2009? "John McCain."

As for now, 2010 remains a mess of words, and today is no different. The world awaits two announcements today: Steve Jobs on the release of Apple's new tablet, and Barack Obama on the State of the Union. People are also pretty curious about Dr. Breedlove, who is, as far as I can tell, a psychologist who deals with transsexual mental problems.

As diverse as the human race may be, we all go to the same key words when we have a similar problem. Google.org, the altruistic side of the search giant, realized this and partnered with the CDC to track the spread of the flu. In areas where people searched for "H1N1" there were higher instances of the disease (when considering internet access, etc). As Google puts it:

We have found a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms. Of course, not every person who searches for "flu" is actually sick, but a pattern emerges when all the flu-related search queries are added together. We compared our query counts with traditional flu surveillance systems and found that many search queries tend to be popular exactly when flu season is happening. By counting how often we see these search queries, we can estimate how much flu is circulating in different countries and regions around the world. Our results have been published in the journal Nature.

So, while Dr. Breedlove might not provide vaccines to H1N1 or know the cure for AIDS, every search for him (or her?) paints a clearer picture of who we are as a nation, what our preferences are, and what's going on around the world. Now if he would only show us that Apple tablet...

The Crayola Conspiracy: Crayon colors, unhappiness, doubling every 28 years

It began with eight colors. When we were children, the red and blue and black evolved slowly into magenta and cobalt and midnight grey. The box got bigger. Then a crayon sharpener was added to the deluxe boxes. Yes, the number of colors in a Crayola crayon box is a benchmark for measuring the finest traditions of capitalism: more is better.

Or is it? A Psychology Today report indicates that having too many choices inhibits and exhausts the decision-making parts of our brains. In some instances, it's even proven to downright dumb us down a bit. The results, achieved through a series of bizarre tests, indicate that having more choices slows down making the most basic decisions. This may sound obvious--more choices requires more time to make a decision--but the results are quite paralyzing.

Barry Schwartz, author of the book The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, argues that too many choices may be a hallmark of capitalism, but it's not a hallmark of either happiness or productivity. Faced with choice overload, people typically respond in one of three ways, Schwartz says. We freeze and make no choice. We make the wrong choice. Or we make the right choice but question our decision. "Even though you have no reason to be displeased, you're just sure you could have done better," Schwartz told USA Today.

While this may not affect how many colors crayola puts out, it might explain why in the midst of two wars, multiple year-long deployments, and increased casualties, job satisfaction in the military remained at 86% from 2002-2006, according to the Military Times. Civilian workers showed the same level of satisfaction, though they weren't being shot at and were experiencing the most successful economic times in modern history. The difference may be that military personnel are provided only a set number of choices in their daily routine. Not so with the civilian sector where job mobility, commuting options, and geographic selection are up to the worker. Since the recession, civilian job satisfaction has slumped to 45% while job satisfaction in the armed forces has remained relatively steady.

This might also explain why when it comes to measuring gross national happiness, countries with the most wealth (and, by extension, the most choices) tend to flop: the tiny island nation of Vanuatu ranked number one in a recent survey, America ranked in the bottom 10.

The point of all this? It turns out less really is more when it comes to choice. Having a few varied choices is key, but selecting between midnight grey and black can be downright miserable. Best stick to the box of eight.

What brands does Kraft own? More than you'd think

In an age when mergers and acquisitions happen right in front of Justice's blindfolded face, company brand names are becoming increasingly meaningless.

Northwest Airlines is no longer Northwest Airlines. Instead its Delta, though you wouldn't know that by looking at its website.

General Electric owns NBC and Telemundo. They also make tanks.

And in one of the most recent deals underway, an even larger portion of what you eat will now be controlled by one woman: Irene Rosenfeld. She runs Kraft Foods, who recently bid to takeover Cadbury. If the deal goes through, Irene will control the following brands:

• Oscar Mayer
• Philadelphia Cheese
• Oreo
• Maxwell House
• Nabisco
• A1 Steak Sauce
• Capri-Sun
• Ritz
• Chips Ahoy
• California Pizza Kitchen
• Crystal Light
• Cracker Barrel
• Honey Maid
• Jell-O
• Kool-Aid
• Cool Whip
• Miracle Whip
• Newtons
• Nutter Butter
• Nilla
• Planters Peanuts
• Premium Saltine Crackers
• South Beach Living
• Stove Top
• Tang
• Toblerone
• Tombstone Pizza
• Triscuit
• Velveeta
  
• Wheat Thins

Actually, Irene already controls all those brands. This is the quick list of the Cadbury brands she'd be taking over:

• Dentyne gum
• Halls Medicine
• Cadbury
• Bubaloo
• Stimorol
• Trident gum
• Sour Patch Kids
• Stride gum
• Swedish Fish
• Bubblicious
• Certs Mints
• Clorets gum
• Mentos

All told, you'd be hard pressed to eat a chip or chew a piece of gum that Kraft food doesn't make. How the two businesses are related, I'm not sure, but then again, I'm not sure what NBC has to do with manufacturing military equipment either.

Thankfully, there is still one company out there that isn't afraid to admit it makes nearly anything: Yamaha. It's a mystery why Yamaha makes everything from motorcycles and pianos, but at least its honest about it.

Woman craves sex all day every day in a freak accident

Those quirky British tabloids have picked up on one of the most peculiar stories of the decade: a British woman's pelvic nerve was struck in a 2007 car accident leaving her constantly sexually aroused. The damaged nerve was effectively left switched on.

The condition is known as Restless Genital Syndrome or Persistent Sexual Arousal.

As amusing as the condition may sound, Joleen Baughman, assures it's no laughing matter and has made her life miserable. "It's unbearable," she told the Mirror, "just my clothes rubbing gets me so aroused that I can hardly think straight."

The woman, married for 20 years, claims she can find no relief. "We'd have sex once and I'd feel no release at all."

"So we'd go again and then it would start really hurting but I would still want sex, even more than before.

"If my husband managed to go for a third time it would be agony but I would still feel no release."

'Tis the season for Top Ten Lists

As we prepare to exit the aughts and enter the tens, the blogosphere and all who come with it are scrambling to make their top ten lists. Top ten events of the decade, top ten songs, top ten movies, top ten karaoke songs. On par with them, and far more in line with the Fourth Corner's mantra, are the top ten oddest news stories of the decade.

From the Newsweek vaults: stoned kangaroos, impaled ninjas, zombie assaults, the bridal bouquet that caused a plane crash, and of course "Grandma Fights Off Bear with Pillow" ("I heard the door open, and I thought, 'It's got to be Yoo-Hoo, the dog.'") all made it into this line-up.

The IgNobel Prize: While not a decade-in-review, this list highlights the goofiest, yet oftentimes most practical inventions of the past year. Highlights include the bra that doubles as a gas mask, the discovery that named cows produce more milk than those without names, and a 50 year study that shows knuckle-cracking does not lead to arthritis.

With a quick look back:

• Y2K. The World was scheduled to end at the beginning of the decade. It did not.
  
• The Beatles were the top selling artist of the first decade of the 21st century. They haven't written a song in 39 years.
  
• We started the aughts with nine planets. We are down to eight.
  
• Passengers could be greeted at their arrival gates. Shoes could stay on.
  
• We started the aughts with four Star Wars movies. We are up to six, seven including Clone Wars. We've also added a fourth Indiana Jones, an entire Harry Potter series, rounded out the Matrix trilogy, put the Lord of the Rings on the silver screen, increased Ocean's gang from eleven to thirteen, and have remade more movies than in any other decade for reasons that remain unclear, but are often attributed to profitability.
  
• Stop-Loss was an unknown term. So was sub-prime. So were hanging chads.
  
• A woman vice-president was just something grown-ups said. Same with a black president.
• Reality TV did not exist on the networks. Survivor aired in 2000.
• There was a hurricane. There were no iPods. There was a tsunami. There was Michael Jackson.
  
• There were Chia Pets. There were no Snuggies. There will always be Chia Pets.
  

For the non-readers: the decade in seven minutes.

Mail by Missile

Last Saturday marked the busiest day of the year for the Post Office as people scrambled to get packages to people they love in time for Christmas. But despite the long lines and more expensive stamps, one might not notice that there are fewer Christmas cards getting sent this year, 11% less in fact. Some blame the recession, others blame e-mail.

But in the Post Office's heyday, it wasn't e-mail or a bad economy that troubled your local mailmen. It was the Soviet Union. Sputnik had been launched, and every angle of the Federal government clambered to make their department relevant in the upcoming space race, the Postmaster included.

Postmaster Arthur Summerfield proposed that America display its missile prowess by showing that it could so accurately fly a missile that it could do something as simple as delivering mail. This is why, in 1960, a Regulus 1 missile was loaded onto the USS Barbero and launched toward Florida with 3,000 pieces of mail in it.

While missile mail made the delivery (after the letters landed, were offloaded, and taken to a regular post office), the concept never quite caught on. It could be that folks didn't like the idea of missiles hurtling toward their local PO Boxes, or that the costs were too high, or that it was a tragically knee-jerk reaction to something the Ruskies had done.

Whatever the case, mail missiles (mail bombs?) failed to detonate as an idea in the 1960s, but its that sort of thinking the Post Office may need to stay relevant in the years to come.

Angry American: Who Owns My Mortgage?

It's been just over two months since the Fourth Corner relocated from Washington, DC to Alexandria, Virginia. A first home was purchased, tax breaks obtained (god willing), and mortgages packaged and sold. Then sold again.

To understand where our mortgage is requires an economics degree. Our mortgage rate was handled by First Savings Mortgage. Through them we negotiated the interest rate, worked with a person we could actually get on the phone, and felt pretty content that if there was ever a problem, we knew who to call.

A week after the house purchase, First Savings Mortgage sold our mortgage to Wells Fargo. You may wonder how Wells Fargo could afford to purchase our mortgage, considering they still owed the government $25 billion dollars in TARP money (to be paid back this month, they are the last big bank to do so).

We now write our checks to Wells Fargo. We know no one at Wells Fargo. We have never banked there. The only indication of this was a letter in the mail, that offered us the ability to set up automatic payments on Wells Fargo website, where the only payment option was "pay full amount first day after due date". I still don't know what that means.

So, today, I opened up another letter, this one from Freddie Mac. I don't know who the fuck Freddie Mac is, but he's the guy that now owns my mortgage. I don't pay him, I still pay Wells Fargo, but apparently Wells sold Freddie my mortgage. All I know about Freddie and his girlfriend Fannie is that they were behind the recent recession (along with Wells Fargo), and frankly I'm miffed that nothing has changed.

I understand banks need liquidity. I understand credit is essential to a healthy market. But does it not stand to reason that First Savings Mortgage should be inheriting all the risk? It's a localized bank, meaning that if it went under, only Alexandria residents would be in the tank. They are the 'closest to the ground' and did all the assessments to determine if I was good for the loan they gave me.

Wells Fargo and Freddie don't know anything about me. All they know is that First Savings said I'm a good bet, and that they should bet on me, too, thus freeing up First Saving's capital to make another loan. Why not sell straight to Freddie? Why have an intermediary? Why disassociate the risk on a national level where we as a collective whole are putting our eggs in one national basket? Pardon moi, but does that not seem like a dumbfuck thing to do?

States and counties stand to gain the most from a healthy real estate economy, not the federal government. It's states who impose property taxes, and as such, it's local governments that should be moderating how their lands are bought and sold. Similarly, it's local banks that should be inheriting the risk. Credit can still be bought and swapped at a more localized level without jeopardizing the entire system. Yes, the profit margins won't be as high, but it will also deny banks the ability to corral so much credit and capital that they become "too big to fail."

So First Savings Mortgage, take my mortgage back. I'm good for it. If you had kept my mortgage I'd be paying you a sweet penny every month. Instead you blew your wad and went for the lump sum by selling it to Wells Fargo, a too-big-to-fail behemoth that fucked us all in the first place. And instead, now I'm paying Wells Fargo who I'd really prefer not to. You've taken the customer out of the equation, which is pretty impressive, but you've managed to take logic out of it, too. Here's to another go around!

Friday at the Movies

Hot Tub Time Machine:
Like another Ski Patrol movie, except with time travel.



Iron Man 2:
Normally I don't like sequels. But normally Mickey Rourke doesn't have electrified whips.


Bitch Slap:
This movie stars "Stripper" and "Psycho Slut". I'm not sure it has a plot. I'm not sure it matters.

From Caves to Crunk

It was an average day for Zsolt and Geza Peladi, that is, until the social worker approached their cave. The two homeless brothers had been living in a cave outside Budapest, Hungary, scavenging for food and doing what they could to get by. And then they inherited $6.6 billion dollars.

The two didn't know their mother that well. And their grandmother was so difficult they severed ties with her some time ago. Then lawyers tracked down the brothers and, through the social worker, informed them that their grandma had died. Without a will, German law states the inheritance would be passed to the next of kin. With their mother dead, the fortune would go to the two middle aged cave dwellers and their long-lost American sister. All that's left is to produce their mother's death certificate, and the money is theirs.

Reported across the spectrum, the brother's tale has shown up in all four corners of the interweb: from the Weekly World News straight on to MSNBC and the London Telegraph where it was initially reported.

Both brothers are anxious to use the money to impress women, and hopefully find wives. "No women would look at us living in a cave," Geza told the London Telegraph.

The 20 Weirdest Headlines of 2009

In a rare upfront endorsement of strange news, Newsweek has posted the 20 oddest headlines of 2009, including the one about the opium-addicted wallabies in Tasmania, the woman who fought off a bear with a pillow, and of course, the classic story of the Seattle ninja who impaled himself on a fence.


For all this and more, check out Newsweeks latest.

Your Weekend Entertainment

While your winding down over the weekend, why not do it to some classy tunes. Better yet, forgo church for this religious experience: David Hasselhoff. Keep in mind, he's a judge for a multi-million dollar talent show on NBC.

Signs Your Homeowners Association Has Gone Too Far

A homeowner's association in Virginia was recently scolded by none other than White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, for threatening a lawsuit against a resident World War II Medal of Honor winner.

The Sussex Square homeowner's association said the 90 year-old's flagpole wasn't aesthetically pleasing, and threatened a lawsuit if the 21-foot pole was not removed by this Friday at 5pm.

The resident in question, retired Army Colonel Van T. Barfoot served not only in World War II, but also in the Korean War and Vietnam though he is most famous for his efforts in the second World War. As excerpted from his Wikipedia page:

During the Italian Campaign, Barfoot participated in a series of amphibious landings: the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943, the invasion of mainland Italy at Salerno in September, and finally the landings at Anzio in late January 1944. His unit pushed inland from Anzio, and by May 1944 had reached the town of Carano. They set up defensive positions and Barfoot conducted patrols to scout the German lines. When his company was ordered to attack on the morning of May 23, Barfoot, now a technical sergeant, asked for permission to lead a squad. Because of the patrols he had made, he knew the terrain and the minefield which lay in front of the German position. He advanced alone through the minefield, following ditches and depressions, until he came within a few yards of a machine gun on the German flank. After taking out the gun with a hand grenade, he entered the German trench and advanced on a second machine gun, killing two soldiers and capturing three others. When he reached a third gun, the entire crew surrendered to him. Others also surrendered and Barfoot captured a total of seventeen German soldiers. He had killed 8.^[4]

When the Germans launched an armored counterattack later in the day, Barfoot disabled one tank with a bazooka, then advanced into enemy-held territory and destroyed an abandoned German artillery piece. He returned to his own lines and helped two wounded soldiers from his squad to the rear.

Every morning Colonel Barfoot raises the flag in his front yard. And every evening he takes it down in proper military order, folding it in a regulation triangular pattern.

The disagreement caught like a wildfire in Virginia's capitol, being picked up by major news stations and, yes, even catching the ear of Gibbs, who called the homeowner's request "silly." The association has since dropped its request.

One other individual, this one an Indian Harbor, Florida resident, also took up arms against her homeowner's association this week by spray-painting the following onto the front of her house: "Hitler would be a welcome neighbor here. Stop the harassment to my family." The Washington Post reports Sheila Jones had been repeatedly mocked by her neighbors because she can't pay the $120.00 a month homeowner's fee. It's unclear whether the homeowner's association had also killed 6,000,000 Jews and leveled most of Europe.