5 Interesting n Recent National and World News Events

These news events didn't make it into the November issue, so I figure why not post them here so they don't go to waste?

In the Hillsdale bubble, you don't keep track of news. I say that's a good thing. I was looking through the news for interesting events for the November issue, and it really made me realize, "holy crap the world is messed up." It's bad enough to think about how America is on the verge of collapse, and then when you look at the rest of the world, it gets even bleaker.

Also, I don't know how I feel about having so much world news at your fingertips. It's so easy to browse around and instantly find out what's going on in places (well, if you don't use U.S. news sites, that is, which is a sad commentary). I don't like William Wordsworth, but I'm reminded of one of his essays where he talks about the effect newspapers have on how you perceive information and the instant-gratification it promotes. Nicholas Carr is right, technology does change your brain.
Anyways, now you don't have to look through the news, you can just see these 5 not-so-bleak events which were kind of interesting:

Raunchy Women Popular

Success of “Bridesmaids” movie prompts new wave of sitcom shows featuring females who curse, talk about sex, sleep around, and drink too much. One such sitcom, “New Girl” starring Zooey Deschanel, drew 10.1 million viewers and was the most popular show of its night among younger viewers when it premiered Sept 20.

 

Gay Going Global

Sept. 21, Obama to UN: “We must stand up for the rights of gays and lesbians everywhere.” The UN’s “High Commissioner for Human Rights” has been on the job since June of this year, preparing a global study outlining discrimination against gays and “recommending” how to stop this.

Speedier than the speed of light?

Over a period of 3 years, scientists sent 15,000 neutrino particles from Geneva to Rome. Now, measurements show the neutrinos travelled 60 billionths of a second faster than the speed of light. This has now been confirmed, though some scientists think something must have gone wrong in the experiment. These findings undercut Einstein’s laws and make it theoretically possible to send information into the past. 

Lupita the Ketchup Woman

Brazil: angry wife hires hit-man to take out her husband’s lover, Lupita. Hit man agrees until he sees Lupita and realizes she’s his childhood friend. Hit man douses Lupita in ketchup and puts knife under her arm, takes picture and sends via phone to angry wife. Angry wife pays him, later sees hit man and supposedly-dead Lupita canoodling in market, presses charges. All 3 face charges: angry wife for death threats, hitman and Lupita for extortion. Lupita is now a local celebrity known as “the ketchup woman.”

China

Study finds 57% of men and 27% of women in China are binge drinkers. People drink as a way to develop business relationships and advance in their careers. It’s normal for bosses to order associates to drink, and some companies list being able to hold your alcohol as a job qualification. Chinese police caught half a million drunk-drivers last year.

Russia

Vladimir Putin, former president and lieutenant in the KGB, is running for president. There is no rule of law in Russia (Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, Russia’s richest man, was jailed and re-jailed for opposing Putin) so Putin is basically guaranteed to win the vote in March and be in president until 2024.