Tuesday various

  • J.R. Blackwell on high school:

    If my life now was like high school, if my “real life” as they say, was at all like the lack of freedom and harassment I experienced while in high school, then things wouldn’t be going well for me at all. Perhaps then, that is how high school prepares you for real life – but showing you what you have to work hard to stay away from – how your earning power gives you freedoms that if you lost, you would lose your freedoms as well. Perhaps high school is a warning for the young mind – fail, and you will go someplace very much like here, except in that place, there isn’t a prom.

  • Frederik Pohl, who at 89 was just awarded his high school diploma would seem to agree:

    Pohl speculates that perhaps, if he had finished high school, he might have gone on to spend the rest of his career at American Car and
    Foundry, instead of writing multiple science fiction classics.”

    Just quit school, kids!

  • A contest to pick the funniest joke and, surprisingly, none of them are terrible? What are the odds? Obviously your mileage may vary, and some — like the winner, I think — are maybe more drolly amusing that laugh-aloud funny, but in any “ten best” list, you expect at least some real clunkers. [via]
  • Just how ridiculous are the “birthers”? Well… [via]
  • And finally, while I debate buying this
    G.I. Joe Complete Collector’s Set
    (no, seriously. I am honestly tempted), here’s…