I have mixed feelings about this (and not just because it's from Jezebel).

Two girls, aged 12 and 14, were arrested because their cyberbullying prompted a 12-year-old girl, Rebecca Sedwick, to climb to the top of a water tower and throw herself off. The unnamed girls are charged with felony aggravated stalking.

On the one hand, this is a huge First Amendment issue. This "bullying" as they call it, amounts to nothing more than words on a webpage, not the acts of battery or other assorted crimes that we've come to associate with bullying.

On the other hand, the fourteen-year-old's lack of concern about having driven someone to suicide is a little disconcerting. She plainly admitted to bullying Rebecca and that she didn't care that her victim had killed herself.

It was this Rhoda Penmark-like indifference that instigated Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd to arrest the fourteen-year-old in the first place: "We decided that we can't leave her out there. Who else is she going to torment, who else is she going to harass?"

At the very least, this wasn't the kind of automatic response that decided that since someone being bullied killed themselves, arrests must be made. It was a calculated decision that was based upon the perpetrator's reaction. "Who else is she going to harass?" is a very good question. My guess would be, probably a lot of girls.

Smart characters.

Good decisions.

HELL NO: The Sensible Horror Film

I read the AP version of that story yesterday, Patrick. The Jezebel link you provided had some interesting comments, though. My first reaction was how rare it is to see evil presented in such a pure form as the 14-year-old showed, but as some of the commenters on your link point out, it may be a little more complicated than that.

Kids can be cruel monsters, though, and we've all seen it. Maybe it's just easier now.

Gog, I like it. Of course it would never be successful. Horror movies depend upon clumsy characters who can't outrun a lumbering oaf with a chainsaw and a pronounced limp.

And of course, idiot girls who hear the sounds of a gruesome murder in the next room, and ... go to investigate, usually wearing nothing but a pair of panties and an oversized football jersey. Most people would lace up a pair of running shoes and get the hell away.

And one part that this clip touched upon...

Person A: We know that the murderer is somewhere in this house.

Person B: Should we split up?

Here are some awesome animal photos, winners of the Natural History Museum's Wildlife Photographer of the Year for 2013.

The sea turtle in the eighth photograph is the Very Essence of Cool.

This T-shirt is cool (if you're into pugs, that is. And I know we have a few people here who are! PJ, Ppen, I'm lookin' at you!).

o.O

Huh. I KNOW I put in the right code:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/163c/?cpg=56727064&msg_id=56727064&et_rid=702745258&linkid=56727064_headline_163c

Try this.

As I read the story, Patrick, Rebecca threw herself from the top of a silo of an old concrete plant. I hope her tormenters get the max (juvy for 5 years or until each one turns 19, whichever comes first).

In the meantime:

City Government: Your "God Bless America" Sign on Your Own Property is Illegal

There was an old SNL skit (back when it was funny) that parodied horror-movie trailers. It showed a young woman in a nightgown, walking around a house doing the various actions that the spooky-sounding narrator was telling the audience not to do: "DON'T get out of bed! DON'T go down the stairs! DON'T look out the window! DON'T answer the phone! DON'T go to the kitchen! DON'T make a peanut butter sandwich!"

The cook-your-own movement has graduated from meth to heroin, it seems, with the first wave coming in from Russia.

As soon as they get the eats-your-flesh problem solved, I'm sure the kids will love it.

I recently saw a photo spread of krokodil users in Russian hospitals and prisons. The effects make Hollywood (special effects makeup) look tame. People with arms and legs where entire sections of flesh have rotted away to the bone.

Warning: extremely graphic:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/26/krokodil-images_n_3996325.html

While I'm pretty sure I've still got some Legos lying around in the shed somewhere, my skills are nothing like these people's. Link courtesy of my office mate, who's almost as productive as I am today...

Also from Wired: What your kitty sees (as far as we can tell), and why.

At least krok isnt illegal like that more dangerous than heroin drug weed, and its non dug cousin hemp. Those are far more dangerous according to the government