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10 Things Book

The Top 100 Banned Books, 2000-2009

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

The American Library Association (and the nation’s libraries in general) have a tough job – they need to make available practically every book ever written, yet they get yelled at for making certain books available.

Unfortunately, books don’t come with parental ratings guides. The best that a parent can hope for is that a particular book has been classified correctly into “children’s”, “young adult”, or “adult” material – but even then, there’s rarely a problem with a youngster deciding to read at a level above their head. It’s oft viewed as a sign of advanced brain development.

So when it comes to deciding what books their children should read, it really should be up to the individual parents to determine.  Parents have control over what media their children have access to at home, so books should be included in that material. 

There’s nothing wrong with a book being written and made available in a library or local bookstore. If you don’t believe that a particular book is for your child, then take the book away from them – but don’t force the issue by making those books unavailable to everyone else who may be interested (or not offended) in reading the same material.

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10 Things Music

You can’t be a successful musician until you’ve gone bankrupt at least once

The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop
The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop

There are lots of financial obligations when you’re a solo musician or in a band.

You have to worry about getting gigs, writing music, obtaining copyright or other legal paperwork.  Then there’s the infighting, splitting appearance fees, and paying for samples in your hit song that borrowed liberally from clips you found on YouTube.

Yeah – music royalties may not pay a lot, but they do end up paying something.  But sometimes, what you get from those royalty checks isn’t enough to make ends meet.

But all is not lost if you have to file for bankruptcy.   All sorts of extremely successful and well-respected artists have had to make that financial sacrifice in order to continue their careers later.  If you end up having to file bankruptcy, at least you’d be in good company.

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News

Underpants sales are up! (How does this affect the economy?)

Nice Underwear welcome mat
Nice Underwear!

You may recall a few years ago when Web Watch told you about the Hot Waitress Economic Index and the Underwear Economic Index

That’s right, folks – if you’ve been following along with Web Watch over the years, none of today’s post will be news to you.

CNBC is reporting that now,  UNDERPANTS SALES ARE RISING.

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Science Websites

If you had to do just one exercise for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

The Luscious Bellydance Workout for Beginners
The Luscious Bellydance Workout for Beginners

The NYTimes recently posed the question, WHAT’S THE SINGLE BEST EXERCISE?

The writers spoke with physicians, physiologists, and even a professor of sport and exercise science (and also a past Olympian) for their opinions, and they were able to come to a single conclusion.

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Funny Science shopping

The latest perfume scents: bacon, poo, and semen. Luckily, not all at once

Scent of a Woman
Scent of a Woman

Who doesn’t like the smell if bacon?

Okay, besides most vegetarians and perhaps some religious folks — who doesn’t like the smell of bacon?

Well, Web Watch is still unsure about this new perfume, interestingly enough, entitled “Bacon” (pronounced bay-cone) – and it very well may be a prank product right now.  But perfume maker FARGGINAY has gone ahead and created just that.  A bacon-scented perfume.

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Science Websites

Should women be astronauts? Sure – just be sure to drink their pee

Astronaut Barbie
Astronaut Barbie

There are some people who say that women shouldn’t be astronauts. 

It really doesn’t matter who those idiots are, because we have people like Dr William Rowe, and his website FEMALES IN SPACE, which offers many scientific and medical reasons why women are superior astronaut material.

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10 Things Funny Music

The Top 100 Greatest Jewish Songs (by Jews, as Jews, for Jews, etc)

Neil Diamond - The Jazz Singer
Neil Diamond – The Jazz Singer

When you think Jewish musicians, you may think of the obvious: Barbra. Dylan. Sandler.

But Jewish music is much more than that.  According to Curt Sachs, “Jewish music… is music created by Jews, as Jews, for Jews”.  In other words, to qualify as Jewish music, it wasn’t necessary to have Jewish musical roots as long as the feeling and intent – or the performer – was there.

So with that in mind, you may be interested in this list of THE TOP 100 JEWISH SONGS OF ALL TIME.  Sure, we won’t list all 100 of them here, and the descriptions of what makes each song inherently Jewish are awesome — but you may be surprised at what songs are considered great Jewish classics.

Maestro?  Hit it…

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10 Things How To Websites

25 Manners Every Kid Should Know by Age 9 (reminder for adults, too!)

Good Manners
Good Manners

Do you have friends whose kids are properly adorable and polite when at events when adults are present?  Or do those parents just tell the kids to go “play in the basement” where they can raise all the hell they want?

Are the kids able to hold a reasonable conversation and behave themselves?  Or is it like a living version of RUFUS & GALLANT, with Gallant nowhere to be seen?

If so, then you may want to check out these 25 MANNERS EVERY KID SHOULD KNOW and be sure that YOUR kids (or your friends’ kids) are following these as best they can.  Here’s some of those on the list: