The Weekly Six – 9/17/10

A quick hit on this week’s hottest topics: The Weekly Six. If you missed out on what’s been going on this week, tune in to read about the hottest topics on the net – or at least the hottest topics to us. This is your chance to feel free to agree or disagree. And without further ado, in no particular order, behold the six!

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Rare Asian Unicorn Found

Yes, it’s true.  The news reported a rare “unicorn” was found in Laos.  And no, it didn’t look like the one pictured here.  It looked a lot like an antelope with TWO horns.  What?  That’s not a unicorn!  That’s a two-nicorn.  Which makes no sense at all.  Unicorns are supposed to be white and fly and…I dunno, propel themselves through the sky by farting rainbows.   Disappointed?  Me too.

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Joaquin Phoenix Comes Clean

As some of you might have been aware, Joaquin appeared on the David Letterman Show a couple of years ago to announce his retirement from acting so that he could pursue a career in hip hop.  Yeah.  Sure.  So it was a big surprise when Joaquin finally came clean to announce that it wasn’t real.  He was….wait for it.  He was ACTING!  (Insert the sound of crickets.)  Yup.

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Zombie Buildings In Spain

So I came across this article on the net all about the housing crisis in Spain due to harsh economic times.  But all I could keep thinking about as I read the article was this image here.  Is there something wrong with me?  I mean, sure the housing crisis and bad Spain economy actually has more to do with the global recession than most people realize, BUT what about the zombies?  Where will they live now that Spain, as a country, can no longer afford the upkeep on existing buildings?  Is this really foreshadowing a future that looks less like an empty building and more like what we see here?  You tell me.

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L.A.: 110 Million In Government Aid = 55 Saved Jobs

I would say that this is a pretty good number when you consider that we’re talking about the City of Los Angeles.  I mean the quick math would reveal that the cost to save one government job in Los Angeles only costs the tax payers 2 million dollars…give or take a penny.  If you’ve never had a government job it breaks down like this: in order to hire anyone at the city you have to fill out an application.  This application is processed by a receiving clerk, a filing clerk, a supervisor for each clerk to approve the application and properly file the application, their supervisor to approve the supervisor’s work, a program manager to go over that application, the work and all the statistical data regarding said work, a regional director to go over that statistical data, client complaints about the lack of timeliness on the work etc, issues with the supervisors and the program manager concerns etc.  Then that data goes to a department director who interprets that data goes back to the regional directors with their suggestions who then go back to program managers with their input that goes back to the supervisors with the suggested input and then this goes back to the line staff who then adjust to policy accordingly…except they are currently on their (cough cough) fifteen minute break…and well, you get the idea.  It’s a very long assembly line of red tape.  Now imagine the confusion that occurs if someone fills out an application using the wrong colored ink!

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Twitter To Look Like Facebook

In social networking news, Twitter has announced that it’s changing it’s layout to include inline photos and videos.  The translation, Twitter is trying to be the new Facebook.  I suppose this is a good move since anyone I ask about Twitter always says that they use Twitter, but they don’t understand Twitter.  And of course this logic only makes sense on the internet since we’re all trying to stay viable and up to date on the latest trends in tech.  But while we’re at it.  What other tool do you know of where someone tells you that they use it, but don’t understand it?  We’d be interested to know some of your thoughts in the comment section below!

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Joe Penna aka Mystery Guitar Man Pops the Question

We had the opportunity to talk to Joe a few months ago (our conversation with the Mystery Guitar Man) is still one of the most read on our site.  Congratulations to Joe and Sarah on this very creative proposal.