Joseph Carnevale a North Carolina student was arrested for vandalism after stealing three orange and white construction barrels to create a roadside monster thumbing a ride.

The student believed that he was creating a piece of street art.  Cops saw it differently.  The cops ruined the barrel monster and arrested Carnevale.  Online supporters in the hundreds want the charges dropped 
against the college student.  Apparently the construction company even wants Carnevale to create an exact replica of the first monster.

The college student had planned out his plot, and stolen the barrels near the North Carolina State University Campus.  The thought occurred to him during class and an hour after class he returned to start his masterpiece. 

The monster upon completion has an extended thumb.  Apparently he’s seeking a ride from passing cars.  The next morning the cops took apart the monster and collected evidence while they searched for the lawbreaker. 

Police were able to find Carnevale after a newspaper article gave enough clues that led them to a website identifying the student.  Carnevale has been charged with larceny and destruction of property.  Apparently this wasn’t his first encounter with barrels turned into street art.  He has  made other pieces with stolen barrels including an alligator. 

The construction company that owned the barrels does not wish to press charges.  They acknowledge that the publicity has been much better for their company than the cost of the damage of the barrels.  Since this incident didn’t result in anyone being injured, the company doesn’t want to press charges and the company wants him to make another one; let the kid go. 

In all honesty, I think it’s creative and I would love to see something like that on the street as I drive by.  It makes me think that cops in Raleigh do not have much to do; otherwise they would be looking for perpetrators that have committed serious crimes that have hurt people, rather than some student that made a barrel monster.

Nobody likes a party pooper. But I can’t see stupidity and just let it stand, especially when it’s going to mislead thousands of already disadvantaged job-seekers. The harmful stupidity I refer to is an article on CNN.com called Ten promising jobs for class of 2009 (but don’t go there just yet, I have some explaining to do). The article, written by Careerbuilder, is a blatant example of how some companies will spread misinformation just to sell a product.

What’s so bad about the article? I’ll tell you what. The article claims to compile a list of growing jobs for the year of 2009, saying:

“To help your search and calm your nerves, we’ve put together a list of 10 jobs that college grads should look for this year.” 

Then, claiming to compile data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ (NACE) Job Outlook 2009 and the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Occupational Outlook Handbook, they come up with a list of ten “healthy” job sectors. In reality, however, they flat out disregard data from NACE and quote outdated, pre-financial meltdown numbers from BLS (their handbook was written before 2006 and the world has changed considerably since then).

Let’s see what NACE really had to say about job prospects in 2009:

“College Hiring Flat for Class of 2009’
“Current projected hiring for the Class of 2009 shows very little growth over the hiring levels for the Class of 2008, but no expected decline.”

In fact, NACE found marked decreases in recruiting in business services (-3.1%) and only tiny increases in Professional Services (1.7%).

Then they use statistics from before 2006 to fabricate some sunny news. I mean, they used numbers created in 2005. In 2005, people still thought adjustable rate mortgages were a great idea. Americans liked George W. Bush enough to vote him in for a second term. People thought that in money markets, the stock market, and the real estate market the sky was the limit. Needless to say, things were different.

This should tick off anyone who knows anything about projections and the job market. There is no way these numbers are accurate for our times. There is no way the writer, Careerbuilder, or CNN actually thought this was based on solid facts. And yet, CNN has allowed Careerbuilder to slap this crap up on their page and pass it off as journalism, as advice to embattled job-seekers.

Kind of makes you sick, doesn’t it?

The writer of this article knows better. Careerbuilder knows better. CNN definitely knows better. Kind of makes you wonder what other crap they are feeding us.

Check out the crap for yourself…

Did you hear the one about the guy who coughed up a nail he’d swallowed thirty years previous? Yep, strange but true. The first question that came to mind was, “How did he swallow a goll darn nail?”

Then I started to remember all of the weird stuff I ate as a kid. How long does that stuff stay in there? I thought. Simultaneously intrigued and creeped out, I set out to get the answers… from Google.

Gum – Yeah, we’ve all been told 7 years. Turns out it’s not that much. Scientists insist that our digestive system is much too effective to let a piece of gum stick around for 7 years.

Dirt – I hope I wasn’t the only one who chowed down on mud pies as a little tyke. No, I mean pies made of actual mud. What? You didn’t? It turns out this disgusting practice is so rare that people don’t talk about it on the internet. They talk about horses eating dirt and dying from it. They talk about earthworms eating it and creating greenhouse gases. But nothing on kids. I suddenly feel very isolated and gross.

Coins – No one knows how long these could last in the stomach because they pass in a few days, albeit painfully. Word has it, though, that the stomach acids actually polish the coin to a sparkle. Better wash and disinfect it before putting it in the display case.

Plastic – All those plastic army men, rubber balls, and Barbie hands swallowed every year have no need to fear. The human stomach lacks the enzymes necessary to break down plastic. They get a free pass through the digestion roller coaster. But they’re on their own in the porcelain express.

Paper – You know, poor man’s chewing gum. The mouth makes a great disposal hatch in times of need, getting rid of naughty notes or crime scene evidence. However, as much as the paper seems to break up in your saliva and between your molars, your stomach can’t completely break down the cellulose the paper is made of.