I'm assuming the story is not true because of the wooden iPad replica. Why bother making a wooden replica? They could just as well have put a brick in there. Not unsurprisingly it's called the "brick in a box” scam btw.

The wooden replica however makes it newsworthy. Therefore as far as I'm concerned this is guerrilla marketing: you get coverage in a ton of newspapers and websites (this one included) for the price of one women willing to lie and a piece of wood.

Elements of violence, cruelty, and abuse in Grimms' tales.

For many years children have grown up with this stuff. Does not seem to have done them too much harm.

This however is a bit more worrisome imo: An average American child will see 200,000 violent acts and 16,000 murders on TV by age 18.

http://www.ted.com/talks/svante_paeaebo_dna_clues_to_our_inner_neanderthal.html

Send this to Larry David. ;)

Also; maybe the Surfs are not so innocent as we may think:

The Smurfs Are Racist, Anti-Semites, Antoine Buéno Suggests In 'Le Petit Livre Bleu'.

(PS: Just using the huffingtonpost because their article is concise, this story has been covered all over the place.)

While we're at it:

"Belgium has three official languages, which are in order of native speaker population in Belgium: Dutch (59%), French (40%) and German (1%)." (from Wikipedia.)

It's not a trivial matter because the reason why it's taking more than a year for the country to form a new central government after the elections is because of conflicts between the Dutch and the French speaking parts.

Belgium explained.

I dunno. I don't have a problem with pumping air into a tire. I have a problem with tires springing leaks.

>> "We are moving very quickly into a police state."

Moving? I would say you're already there.

The funny thing (not really) is that most are so brainwashed with patriotism or fear of terrorism that you don't realize it.

Saw this article about the recent earthquake: "The earth trembled for 40 seconds."

Second sentence: "Could it be a terrorist attack?"

So far everybody is saying this is ridiculous.

Never the less: "Many studies have shown that being ugly is actually an economic disadvantage."

So you are ok with discrimination then?

And in the meantime they don't have enough money for health care or to fix the budget.

Can't Touch This

Not the biggest fan of psychiatrists, psychologists or therapists either. (Whatever you want to call them.)

Quick google: Depression drugs don’t work, finds data review.

And who prescribes all these drugs?

If I want help from another person, I don't want them to tell me: here take these drugs and everything will be just fine. Not only do I not want that, it's also proven that the drugs don't even work. FAIL. So wtf are these people good for? (Making money for themselves?)

Not everything is acceptable "for the greater good of the tribe".

For example one might sacrifice a virgin for the greater good of the tribe.

The question is: how much will the children suffer. Their society is not comparable to ours and I suspect they raise children slightly different than we do.

The safest bet is to say "No; I don't agree." But who knows, maybe the children are perfectly happy with it.

Kirk Huffman, an anthropologist who has studied the clans of Vanuatu: "The children involved often benefited from the arrangement because they could remain in contact with their family, while gaining a new extended family."

Ooh, ze germanz are being bad to facebook.

The problem is data harvesting and privacy, but in the US they don't care about that anymore apparently.

Personally I think that by now it's too late to stem this tide but there's nothing lost in trying.

Right; like the spell checker poem.