Are You In The Loop? The Vice Presidential Debate, the Nobel Prize Winners, and Lady Gaga’s visit with Julian Assange.
Sunday (October 7th, 2012)
It was Vladimir Putin’s birthday. The Russian president turned 60 on October 7th. [Source]
In creepy and frightening news from Texas, Jake Evans, a 17-year-old boy from Texas, killed his mother and sister on Friday, October 5th, 2012 around 12:30 A.M. Following the murder, he phoned 911 and confessed to his crime, telling the dispatcher on the phone, “I am pretty, I guess, evil… whatever.” [Source]
A man in the UK defaced a multi-million dollar Mark Rothko painting by tagging the bottom right corner with black ink. The man, later found to be a Russian man named Vladimir Umanets, did to “improve the value of the painting.” [Source]
Google is planning on expanding into the financial sector by opening a credit business in the United Kingdom with plans to expand into other countries too. The program will let businesses take out credit to spend on Google’s AdWords program and will also begin to issue credit cards as part of this new program. [Source]
Hugo Chavez won another term of presidency in Venezuela. This election was actually one of the closest for Chavez, with him winning 54.4% of the vote and the other candidate, Henrique Capriles, winning the other 45.6% of the vote. [Source]
In last week’s debate, Romney scored the strongest debate win in history with 72% of all debate watchers declaring him victor while only 20% thought Obama won (the rest did voted both, neither or did not have an opinion). [Source]
Monday (October 8th, 2012)
As many people following the presidential election know, Ohio is a very important swing state. As many people who follow Big 10 sports, or even college athletics in general, Ohio State has an intense rivalry with Michigan. Mitt Romney, having grown up in the state of Michigan, has confessed in the past to be a Wolverines fan. Banking off of this, Ohio Democrats put in a full-page ad in The Lantern, Ohio State’s student newspaper, in an attempt to try to swing student voters towards their side. [Source]
In Arkansas representative Jon Hubbard’s book Letters to the Editor: Confessions of a Frustrated Conservative, he presents an argument that slavery was actually good for black people and offends people even more by implying that black students are inferior to white students. Needless to say, his thesis is not popular at all with many news outlets.
South Korea and the United States have reached an agreement to allow South Korea to double their missile range in order to properly protect themselves from North Korea. However, this may also raise concerns with Japan, China, and Russia as those three countries are now also within range of South Korea’s missiles. [Source]
Scientists may have developed a type of injection that would allow people to lose fat in a targeted area without affecting the rest of the body. That means that in a few years, dieters could easily lose their double chin just by using this injection. [Source]
Lena Dunham, creator and one of the stars of the HBO show Girls, just signed a book deal for $3.5 million dollars. Her book is an essay collection called Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s Learned and has been compared to Tina Fey’s Bossypants. [Source]
Tuesday (October 9th, 2012)
Lady GaGa may have dined with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, and singer M.I.A. might have been there too. [Source]
One Maine Democratic candidate’s hobby has been turned into a campaign against her. Colleen Lachowicz is an avid player of World of Warcraft and Maine Republicans have created a webpage with details about her behavior in the game. Claims about how her tendency to backstab and use poison in the game may make her unfit for office. [Source]
For the first time in the history of the United States, the country does not have a Protestant majority. Reasons include there being more non-denominational Christians and more and more agnostics. The news is not too surprising considering there are currently no Protestants on the Supreme Court or on the Republican ticket for presidency. [Source]
Wednesday (October 10th, 2012)
Due to Romney retracting his statements about the 47% and calling them “completely wrong”, it was found that searching “completely wrong” on Google Images led to pictures of Mitt Romney. [Source]
Gerard and Lily Chow of Hong Kong reportedly paid their consultant over $2 million for their son to get into Harvard. They’re now suing the man, Mark Zimny, so it can be assumed that the $2 million did not pay off. [Source]
A squatter has been living in a Detroit woman’s home and until the woman’s lawsuit is settled, she cannot force the squatter to leave. [Source]
Thursday (October 11th, 2012)
Mo Yan received the Nobel Prize for Literature, making him the first Chinese citizen to win this prize. [Source]
The Vice Presidential debate was held on Thursday in Kentucky. The general consensus is that both Biden and Ryan did enough for their respective party so that it wasn’t clear which side won. Biden did what he needed for the Demorats to bounce back from Obama’s lackluster performance last week although his laughing, jeering and sneers are probably equally as memorable as his performance. Ryan gave a good performance, making it hard to decide a clear winner. [Source]
What appears to be a giant eyeball recently washed up on shore in Florida. The eye is about the size of a softball and scientists think that the eye may have belonged to a swordfish. [Source]
Friday (October 12th, 2012)
A huge planet twice the size of Earth made of diamonds was recently discovered. [Source]
The European Union was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for building peace and reconciliation among the 27 states represented. [Source]
A new study shows that mice appear to learn how to sing from other mice, similar to how humans learn. Previous studies have shown that mice make “song-like vocalizations” as part of their mating rituals but until recently, scientists did not think this was a learned behavior. [Source]
Saturday (October 13th, 2012)
Congratulations, Philadelphia! You wear sweatpants more often than any other city in America. [Source]
The war on drugs has been costly and new research shows that it is not working. [Source]
Advanced Placement courses in high school have a lot of critics and increasingly people are noticing it to be “a scam.” This author argues that AP courses are not what they claim to be, which is a college-level course that adequately prepares students for higher-level courses. [Source]
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