It's Painfully Obvious Headline Day

In the spirit of William's blog on useless studies, it seems that several major news outlets are being really, really lazy. Instead of doing some actual investigating, discovering ground breaking truths that will alter the course of human history, they're just writing stories about stuff we already know. Interestingly enough, one of the other authors on this blog does pretty much the same thing with his "Random Wikipedia Article" entry. How lazy is that?

Anyway, here are some prime examples of just how lazy these "reporters" are:

- The Washington Times reported that, according to the CIA, Al Qaeda is planning attacks on the U.S. This is a double whammy. Not only is the Washington Times repeating something that has been common knowledge for the better part of a decade, the CIA is putting this information out there. What's next? Iran doesn't like the U.S. Thanks, CIA. I'm glad we're torturing people for key intel like this.

- Roger Freidman at Foxnews.com felt it was necessary to tell the world that Paris Hilton cannot act. Stop the friggin' presses. Is Roger trying to tell is that someone who is famous for making a sex tape (and bad one at that) has no acting ability? Someone get the Pultizer Prize committee on the phone.

- And another gem from Foxnews.com: Al Qaeda is training kids to be terrorists. Yeah, we've seen the Hamas pictures of little kids with suicide vests and AK-47's. It warms the heart.

- CNN.com felt it was necessary to repeat these words of wisdom from the UN: UN: Afghan Opium Growth is 'Alarming'. When is opium growth normal? Isn't this kinda like saying UN: Fire is 'Hot'.

There's plenty more out there, but I must do some work.

Another List That Means Nothing

While walking around the Denver airport this weekend (which is a great airport) I stumbled across this doozy of a list. Details Magazine had their list of most powerful people under the age of 45. We are getting to the end of the year and magazines are running out of things to write so what does any decent editor do...they come up with a stupid list. You might think that I am a little harsh on the editors of Detail Magazine...just wait till you see who their most powerful people under 45 are. When I think of powerful people I think of people who change the world (good or bad), have a impact on humanity and overall exerts some power. For the most part...Details disagrees.

Lets go through some of the people Details thinks are powerful:

#49 Kelly Slater--he surfs for a profession. The reason he is on the list...because he is the rebound for hot chicks (Cameron Diaz, Pam Anderson and Bar Refaeli)

#42 Andrew Speaker--he was the dude with TB. Not sure how that makes him powerful...he was locked up in a Denver hospital for 10 weeks.

#41 Harry Potter--he's not even real.

#35 "The Vocal Vets"--those vets that are against the war. While I can see their spot on the list...where are the vets that quietly go about their lives when they come home. The vets that do hero's work and don't ask for anything in return. Details didn't feel that they were powerful enough to be put on the list. There is more on this later in the list.

#29 Iggy--the dog Ellen gave away. ARE YOU SERIOUS. You cant put military heroes on your list but you can put a dog.

#7 Kevin Federline and Larry Birkhead--WHAT?? What did they do except impregnate trashy rich women. Details...any credibility you had is now gone.

#2 "The Surge"--Here is the first line of their description, "What do you call 20,000 soldiers sent off to fight a war that’s long since been lost? In George W. Bush’s politics of denial, they get a clever name: The Surge." Wow...I don't know what to say.

#1 Zac Efron and Shia LeBoeuf--Disney kids. All they do is act...how does this make them powerful?

So what have we learned from Details Magazine...they really have no clue about what they are talking about. It was like they did a Google search and picked some names, mixed that with the Democrat talking points...and BAM got them a list.

Don't worry though, this is only the start of list season. We had Barbara Walters list now this and pretty soon we will have plenty more. Don't forget that we still have Times' Person of the Year to look forward to. How much do you want to bet it will be Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?