Please note that I am not saying all of these dumb laws are still in effect (or even were). But they’re examples reported for various states in the U.S. and some international laws as well. Maybe they’ll make more sense to you than to me. Or perhaps you’ll also find them good for a laugh.

1. In Pennsylvania it’s illegal to have more than 16 women live in the same house — doing so makes it a brothel.

I wanted to kick things off with an example of a dumb law from my own home state. I’m not sure if the specifics reported are right, or if it’s still the case (as opposed to an old law). But I do remember the topic coming up periodically when I was in college. It was a concern for sororities where groups of “sisters” would share a sorority house.

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2. In Sweden it’s claimed that it’s illegal to paint a house without a painting license from the government.

Well, if that’s the case I’m glad I don’t live in Sweden. I just painted my place this spring, and am planning to do some more paint touch-ups soon. While this sounds like a pretty stupid law, I could maybe understand it if it’s outdated and became law out of concerns over lead-based paint or something.

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3. It’s reported that in San Antonio, Texas it’s illegal to use your eyes or hands while flirting.

Why not just ban flirting altogether? Outdated, still on the books — I don’t know. But this is one where I can’t even begin to understand the logic if it’s true… not even in a historical context. You?

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4. Don’t send the kiddies trick-or-treating on Halloween in Virginia.

It’s reported that doing so is illegal. Again, I’m not sure if this is legit or current. But the idea doesn’t really surprise me. I know where I live Halloween trick-or-treating is very different than it was when I was a kid. They’ve put strict limits on the time kids can go out, and I seem to remember them deciding trick-or-treating should be a different day at some point — maybe if Halloween was on a school night. So no, if this is true, it wouldn’t really surprise me. Just for curiosity’s sake, have you seen changes in trick-or-treating since you were a kid too? Or do I just live in a dud of a town?

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5. In Singapore, oral sex is illegal (unless it leads to the real deal).

Let’s be honest here. Sex laws can sometimes be the funniest. It’s usually a case of them being outdated, based in times when public opinion was quite different. And when it comes to international sex laws, I’m pretty “forgiving,” because I certainly don’t understand every culture out there. What sounds crazy to me might be perfectly normal there. But this one? I really hope it’s just a joke or at least off the books now. Oral sex is illegal, unless you use it as foreplay. Why do I suspect only a man could come up with that idea?

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6. While we’re talking about Singapore, tourists take note: it’s also illegal to pee in an elevator.

Because apparently we need a reminder….

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7. Way to go Fairbanks, Alaska! (They cleaned up filthy moose sex on city streets!)

This is one of those reported laws that’s so incredibly stupid I can’t help but hope it’s true (because that makes it all the funnier). As if animals give a moose’s behind what our laws say. If it works, maybe my local officials can write a law that would stop those damned birds from crapping on my car.

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8. In Canada, it’s reported that it’s illegal for clear and non-dark sodas to be caffeinated.

Ironically, just this morning I was talking to someone about caffeinated beverages (yes, my life is so relevant to my work!). I never actually knew that Mountain Dew had caffeine (haven’t had it in years either). It was pointed out to me that it’s indeed one of the most caffeinated sodas here in the U.S. So when I saw this stupid law I immediately thought of Mountain Dew. And I just had to look it up — is Canadian Mountain Dew different from “real” Mountain Dew? And it seems that it is (or at least was)! I don’t understand why the law was created in the first place, but I found it to be one of the most interesting. Yes. I find soft drinks fascinating. Shut up.

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9. In Washington State, it’s illegal to use x-ray machines to find the perfect shoe fit.

The hilarity of this dumb law is in its specificity. Sometimes when you read about stupid laws, they’re actually just taking general laws and twisting them to sound silly (like a ban on large animals such as big dogs on a beach being twisted to say you can’t take a polar bear to the beach). But this one isn’t one of those. The law specifically mentions shoe fittings, and you can see the actual text of the law in the source for this one. I could completely understand a law banning any non-medical use of x-ray equipment because of the radiation involved. But to specifically call out shoe fittings? What were they thinking? I just can’t imagine so many people in Washington State trying to do this that they felt it necessary to make it illegal.

[source]

10. In New Jersey, it’s illegal for a murderer to wear a bullet-proof vest while committing that crime.

Well, I guess if you can’t get him on the other charges….

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Slang is defined as an informal nonstandard vocabulary composed typically of coinages, arbitrarily changed words, and extravagant, forced, or facetious figures of speech, according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary.

In other words, slang can be “a dope spin on a sick word that deserves props for being mad fly, yo.”

And yet, in the age of Twitter and instant messaging, it feels like today’s slang has lost some of its flair. Most of it is boiled down to quick-hit acronyms and shortened terms. Totes (totally), TTYL (Talk to You Later), ridonk (ridiculous)—fun, sure, but while it’s clever to be the force behind “LOL” (laughing out loud), it’s an entirely different level to create a whole dialect ending with “-izzle.” (Thank you, Snoop Dogg.)

Coining original jargon that’s able to catch on with the masses is a feat not just accomplished through popular and hip-hop culture. There are a slew of phrases that have become so commonplace, it’s easy to forget that they’re inherently slang. Here’s a look at some of these words, new and old, that have had an impact on our vernacular.

Dude
So popular it hardly seems like slang, Merriam-Webster defines “dude” as a city dweller unfamiliar with life on the range, an Easterner in the West, and a fellow or guy—sometimes used informally as a term of address. This jargon dates back to the 1880s, according to an article in the New York Times. The article, itself dating back to 1900, states, “Considering the number of German immigrants into the United States, we naturally suspect it to have been suggested by some German dialect. It can hardly be other than an abbreviated form of duden-pop, a blockhead, a common term of depreciation in many parts.”

Bling-Bling
Initially, it was little more than a written sound effect that reflected a shine. But the term was later born out of the hip-hop culture to represent garish jewelry worn in the late 1990s. Members of the Louisiana-based Cash Money Millionaires, a group of rappers from the same label known as Cash Money Records, were among the first to use the phrase in their music. Rapper B.G. used “bling-bling” in a song title as did Lil’ Wayne in the song “Millionaire Dream.” Lil’ Wayne also recorded with Cash Money Records. Since its acceptance, the term has arguably peaked in popularity. I mean, when Mitt Romney starts using “bling-bling,” it reeks of overexposure.

Yo
The phrase was made popular as a sailor’s or huntsman’s call circa 1420, according to Dictionary.com. It gained popularity during World War II as a common response at roll calls. Today, however, it’s more likely you’ll hear it in the following examples: “Yo, what’s up for tonight?” or “Yo, just do your homework, yo!” Ah, the beauty of versatile slang.

Hipster
Currently referring to a lifestyle usually defined by skinny jeans, ironic T-shirts, and some sort of artsy or nomadic background, the term itself actually sprang out of the 1940s in reference to those into the jazz scene. Nowadays you’d likely find hipsters hanging out in coffee shops feigning aloofness (especially in places like the Mission District in San Francisco, Silver Lake, California, and/or Brooklyn), though it wouldn’t be so surprising to find them in a jazz club either, for the cool factor and all.

Gnarly
Sean Penn’s “Jeff Spicoli” said it best in the 1980s classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High, bringing the term originally stemming from the word “gnarl”—meaning contorted or twisted—from the confines of surfer culture into the mainstream of pop culture. Its slang version now refers to something that’s cool or lame, depending on the user’s preference. The online etymology dictionary dates “gnarl” back to 1814, stating that the 19th century romantic poets picked it up and brought it into currency.

Geek
Another popular term derived from German, the slang version refers to an enthusiast or expert, particularly in a technological field or activity, according to Merriam-Webster, but it has since expanded to everyone from your comic book aficionado to that over-informed music lover. It originated in 1914, deriving its etymology from the English dialect geek, geck (fool) and “geck,” from Middle Low German. Of course, seeking the origin of such a word is, in fact, pretty geeky in itself, which is why it had to make the list!

Phat
Back in the 1990s, this slang phrase was all the rage as a way to point out something or someone who was “pretty hot and tempting.” Its origin is not entirely clear, though the online etymology dictionary says the hip-hop acronym used to express “great” or “excellent” goes back to the late 1980s, initially meaning “sexiness in a woman.” The spelling is attested as far back as 1678, as an erroneous form of fat (a classical over-correction). While it’s fallen out of favor in the new millennium, you might find yourself hearing it thrown around these days for kitsch sake, like “rad” or “fly.”

Groovy
In its heyday, “groovy” was the word. If it was cool, it was groovy. If it was fun, it was groovy. If it was excellent, it was groovy. Its popularity soared during the 1960s, only to lose its groove by the 1980s. Merriam-Webster’s dates it back to the 1930s. Supposedly, it came out of the Jazz culture where the word was used to describe the groove of the music.

Cheesy
Yes, the base of the word itself is derived from everyone’s favorite dairy product (sans you lactose-intolerant kids), but it refers to something that’s trite, cliché, or of poor quality. Example: “That romantic comedy was so cheesy; I saw the ending coming a mile away.” Its etymology stems from the Urdu word chiz, meaning “a thing.” By 1818, the British in India picked it up and used it in the sense of “a big thing,” according to the Online Etymology Dictionary. By 1858, cheesy had evolved a slang meaning of “showy,” which led to the modern, ironic sense.

Schlock
It’s not just the hip-hop culture we tend to borrow from when it comes to our slang. There are lots of slang words that are little more than twists on Yiddish terms, and that includes schlock. Spelled “shlak” (meaning evil or nuisance) in American Yiddish, we have come to know it as meaning “of low quality.” Merriam-Webster dates it to 1916, but you’ll likely hear it these days when someone is referencing a B-movie or the latest by Quentin Tarantino, who actually strives to put schlock into his work for that cult classic effect.

Cracking into the cultural zeitgeist with the right slang word isn’t always easy, but when it hits, it can explode, as evidenced above. And if and when the sun finally sets on a favorite phrase, you can be sure there’s bound to be another “dawg” or “jiggy” right around the corner.

Here is a list of 5 such technologies about which people have misconceptions.

1. Use of Cell Phones is Dangerous At Gas Stations
We’re sure you have received a lot of emails and messages that say don`t use mobile phones at fuel pumps and gas stations because It could be explosive. Such message were purported to have been sent by Shell Oil. But they have been questioned about it, and they denied it. There has never been a case of explosion due to cell phone usage at Gas stations. Even though it is scientifically impossible, many gas stations around the world have the signs to switch off your cell phone while fueling. Its just a misconception.

2. Web Cookies Are dangerous For Computers
Its a common misconception that web cookies are very dangerous to your PC and should be avoided and deleted immediately. In fact, these cookies are helpful for internet users. unless there is some weak point on your web browser’s security side, these cookies do not harm your computer files. They help you to be logged in to your sites every time you visit. You don`t have to enter your usernames and passwords every time.

3. Apple`s Mac Are Totally Virus-Proof
Although it is true up to great extent but not as a whole. As Microsoft Word and Excel are available on Macs they can be infected by some Macro Viruses. Macs are based on Unix subsystem which are highly virus resistant. But Apple also points out several types of viruses which can be found in Macs. There’s a reason companies make anti-virus software for Macs.

4. Pong, The First Ever Video Game
Computers are a wonderful invention by human and The Video games are one of the most entertaining applications of computer. It’s commonly believed that the first ever video game was PONG designed by Atari in 1972. But there is another game made by Alexander Douglas of Cambridge University some 20 years ago of PONG in 1952. Its a OXO a Tic-Tac-Toe type game.

5. The web is the Internet
A common misconception of today is that web and internet are the same things. In fact, the first internet technique was used in 1983 as a TCP/IP system. Which is still in use. The Web was invented in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee. Internet is a set of different technologies. It enables the web to exist. If there is no internet, the web can not function. But if the Web didn`t exist, the internet can still perform its functions.

“I love you!!” one coder told Google. “This couldn’t be better!!”

“Ooh, I hope it’s not April 1 today. *calendar check* Wow, nope!” said another. “There goes my Friday evening.”

“Effin amazing” said a third.

Google CL is a Python application that uses the gdata Python client library to make Google Data API calls from the command line. Currently, it supports Blogger, Picasa, YouTube, Google Docs, Contacts, and Calendar.

Just think of it. You can update your blog or browse a list of web videos or update your online calendar – all without stooping to the level of a GUI interface.


“Ever wanted to upload a folder full of photos to Picasa from a command prompt?” Google said in a blog post. “We did, a lot, last summer. It made us want to say:

$ google picasa create –title “My album” ~/Photos/vacation/*.jpg

So we wrote a program to do that, and a whole lot more.”

The open source Google CL is hosted on Google Code, and you can browse the project here. Once you download the application, you too can enjoy such command line orgasms as:

$ google blogger post –blog “My blog” –tags “python, googlecl, development” my_post.html

and

$ google calendar add “Lunch with Jason tomorrow at noon”

and

$ google docs edit –title “Shopping list” –editor vim

The project is geared towards Linux. Google offers a Linux .deb package and a tar archive for download. But independent developer Isaac Truett is offering instructions for using the tool on Windows. And Google points to some Mac tips here.

Example scripts are available here.

Several U.S. groups, including consumer watchdog Public Citizen and Vermont-based Democracy for America, have called for a BP boycott. And social networking sites are becoming a place where consumers can speak out against the situation or join groups advocating for boycotts and other causes, the report stated.

“People are posting their anger and frustration on their own personal newsfeeds,” Karen North, director of the Annenberg Online Communities program at the University of Southern California, said in the report. “But in terms of people coming together as part of a collective effort, if it’s there, I haven’t seen that much of it. And that might be because people aren’t sure what the right bandwagon is to join.”

Seize BP, a campaign urging the U.S. government to seize BP’s assets and redistribute them to those damaged by the spill, is planning a week of demonstrations in all 50 states at gas stations and BP offices, according to the Reuters report. The campaign is gaining ground on Facebook, where at least five groups with a total of more than 8,000 members were advocating this cause as of Thursday.

A spoof Twitter feed, BPGlobalPR, meanwhile, purports to be the oil company’s online persona. The satirical feed has more than 114,000 followers, compared to the official BP_America feed, which had less than 10,000 on Thursday, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, the unrest over the failed cleanup efforts is hitting the convenience store industry. Philipsburg, Pa.-based Snappy’s Convenience Stores decided to debrand three of its BP-branded stations in Bald Eagle, Philipsburg and State College, and switch to an unbranded banner, the Altoona Mirror reported.

“We are debranding BP. We will no longer be associated with BP by the end of the month. We are doing this because of the backlash and bad publicity from the handling of BP’s catastrophe,” Sean Lay, vice president of operations, said in the report. “We don’t want to be associated with them any more. We’ve had enough.”

The chain has noticed a slight drop in business at the locations that sell BP products, he said.

“We want people to know we don’t own BP. We want to make sure we are politically correct, and that is why we are separating ourselves from BP,” Lay added. “We want to focus on the positive things we have done over the past 15 years.”

And Snappy’s is not the only fuel retailer to feel the heat.

“We are starting to see some impact so far, and a percent of decline or two can have a dramatic impact,” Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the independent New Jersey-based Oil Price Information Service, said in the Reuters report. “Unfortunately, it has an impact on what you might say are the victims: the marketers and the dealers that made commitments to fly the BP flag.”

He noted that historically, energy boycotts have had minimal impact on the parent companies’ revenues.

In other BP news, a group of BP gas station and convenience store owners in Massachusetts are dealing with two blows to their business — high prices and consumer fallout due to the spill — and are considering filing a lawsuit, the Patriot-Ledger reported.

Station owner Maurice Succar noticed fewer drivers pulling into his location before the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“I’ve been running the station 15 years. I can’t last anymore,” Succar said in the report, noting his station pumped half its usual volume last month.

The root of the problem stems from the fuel’s price per gallon, according to the report. The retailers are required to sell the company’s fuel at prices too high to be competitive, Warren Kirshenbaum, an attorney hired to represent the station owners, told the newspaper.

Fifty to 75 Getty, Lukoil and BP stations have partnered and they have instructed Kirshenbaum to file a lawsuit. The attorney blames BP’s local fuel distributor, Green Valley Oil, for setting prices that average 10 cents to 15 cents per gallon higher than what competitors are charging, the report stated.

“I think they’re trying to manipulate the market,” Kirshenbaum said in the report.

Green Valley, a limited-liability company located in Providence, R.I., reached a deal with BP Products North America Inc. to convert 235 Getty stations in New England into BP stations, with Green Valley paying a commission to stations that sell its fuel. Succar’s station, though, has seen its commission payments plummet along with its sales volume, according to the report.

In a letter to Green Valley, Kirshenbaum accused the company and its partners of “price manipulation” and said Green Valley was “protecting its own revenues” by requiring set monthly lease payments based on “pre-contractual volume estimates.”

In a May 12 response, Green Valley denied that it had manipulated prices. In the letter, Green Valley attorney Gary W. Smith stressed that gasoline prices are constantly in flux and vary from company to company.

“Contrary to the suggestion in your letter, Green Valley has no incentive to limit the sale of its gasoline at the retail level,” Smith wrote in the letter cited by the paper. “As a distributor, Green Valley is in the business of selling gasoline and it has every incentive to sell more gasoline.”

In Massachusetts, the price of unleaded regular gas averaged $2.76 per gallon, according to a survey by AAA Southern New England that was cited by the Ledger. Succar’s BP station was charging $2.85 for regular last week, while down the street, a competitor was selling a gallon for 11 cents less.

“If they say $2.85 and I put $2.84, I have to pay that other penny from my own pocket,” Succar said in the report.

His station usually sells 140,000 to 170,000 gallons of gas a month, but in May, it sold only 78,000 gallons, he told the paper.

Two Green Vally executives, Edward J. Janoski Jr. of Sandwich and Joel A. Despres of Providence, did not return phone calls to the paper. Smith declined to comment as well.

Now that McCrary is the proud owner of the site, http://www.bluffcitypd.com, the Gray, Tenn., computer network designer has been using it to post links about speed cameras – like the one on U.S. Highway 11E that caught him – and how people don’t like them.

“It’s kind of surprising that they’d just let it lapse like that,” McCrary said, adding that the new site has logged 1,200 unique visitors since he took it over May 22. “I figured they would be aware [it was about to expire] and renew it on their own.”

Domain names – such as the one for the Bristol Herald Courier’s website, http://www.tricities.com – serve as an easy-to-remember substitute for the numerical Internet Protocol addresses that direct people to specific locations (or websites) on the infinite landscape of cyberspace.

Domain names are bought and sold on a subscription basis through hundreds of website hosting companies, such as Go Daddy, which according to a company spokesperson currently manages more than 41 million domains including “www.bluffcitypd.com.”

When someone buys a domain name they can do whatever they want with it for the year that it’s registered to them. They can sell it, use it to keep someone from making a website, or use it to host a site that makes fun of or attacks a company with that name.

But at the end of that year-long registration period, the web hosting company regains control over the domain name and has the option of cancelling it and effectively taking down the customer’s website or selling the domain to someone else.

Go Daddy Domain Services Director Camille Ede said her company tries to avoid either option by sending its customers an e-mail letting them know about the domain’s status 90 days before its expiration date, 60 days before the expiration, 30 days before, 15 days and again five days before the expiration date.

Once the expiration date arrives, Ede said in an e-mail she sent the Herald Courier on Friday, the company replaces the website’s content with a special warning notice letting the site’s visitors know the domain has expired and will be deleted or sold in 42 days.

McCrary saw this notice when he had some questions about a letter he received in the mail letting him know he had to pay $90 because he was caught driving 56 mph through the 45 mph zone that Bluff City’s speed camera has actively patrolled since Jan. 1.

The camera issued 1,662 citations for speeding during its first six weeks on the job, according to an investigation conducted by Herald Courier staff. It issued another 541 citations from March 19-22 when fans for the Food City 500 were in town.

Each one of the citations comes with a $90 speeding ticket that Bluff City splits with American Traffic Solutions, the Scottsdale, Ariz., company that operates the speed camera and dozens of others like it across the country.

“I was going to give [the police department] a call and noticed their domain was about to expire,” said McCrary, who sat back and waited until the 42-day window was over. “As soon as it expired I went ahead and bought it.”

While McCrary was pondering his purchase – something that cost $80 because he signed up for a few services Go Daddy offers along with its domain registration service – the web hosting company made two final attempts to reach the police department.

In accordance with its policy, Ede said, Go Daddy sends its customers an e-mail five days after a domain name expires and 12 days after a domain name expires, bringing the total number of e-mails a customer receives to seven – five before the expiration and two after.

“With more than 8 million customers worldwide,” Ede said in her e-mail, “Go Daddy must rely on its customers to take an active role in monitoring their account information.”

During a Friday interview, Bluff City Police Chief David Nelson admitted that he did not play the “active role” that Ede recommends her customers take when it comes to monitoring their websites.

“It just slipped my mind,” Nelson said, adding that he knows little about computers and the more technical aspects of running a website. “If you open up a website and let it go down, somebody can buy it – I did not know that.”

Because he’s not that familiar with computers, Nelson said, he let one of his officers manage the site and handle its domain registration. That officer, he said, has been out on medical leave, after he came down with a bad illness a few months ago.

“It’s just one of those things that happen,” Nelson said, adding that he turned the matter over to the town’s manager and attorney to see if there was anything they could do with it.

So far, McCrary said, he hasn’t heard anything from either town official about taking over the website. However, he has heard from a lot of people who have run across his new site and have e-mailed him their thoughts about it or the stories he links to.

“Most of the people think it’s a speed trap,” McCary said of the feed back he’s received from the website, something he admitted took him only 15 minutes to put together on a Saturday afternoon. “In my opinion, it looks like this camera thing will come to an end.”

As for Nelson, the police chief is now at the point, two weeks after losing his website, where he can laugh about the situation. He said he has learned his lesson.

The police department is now working with different company to host its website, Nelson said, adding that this company won’t sell the new domain name to someone else.

“We’ll have more control over [our new website] than we did with Go Daddy,” he said. “And this one will be a lot better,” than the one the police department had before.

The ads have already been removed from Apple’s site, and have been replaced by the company’s “Why you’ll love a Mac” promos. The “I’m a Mac” campaign launched in 2006, and has been one of the company’s most successful marketing efforts (at least when it comes to raising its brand recognition). Last month, Justin Long signaled the end when he told an interviewer: “You know, I think they might be done. In fact, I heard from John, I think they’re going to move on.”

Fortunately, nothing really disappears on the internets, so go ahead and get your Hodg on with this collection of the ads: