This was definitely amazing while it lasted. A 17-year-old boy from Glenbrook South High School in Chicago had been one of only a small number of people to still have a perfect bracket after all of the ridiculous, buzzer-beating moments in this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tourney. But unfortunately Alex Herrmann‘s bracket met the same fiery demise as most of the country’s NCAA picks last night after Butler pulled out an upset against Syracuse. While some believe that Alex and his family might have switched some of their picks after the games started to make it seem as if they have a perfect bracket, the insisted that wasn’t the case and that their son merely picked the winners.

While the likelihood of picking some of these upsets was really, really improbable, I’m inclined to think that Alex simply went with his gut on some of these pulled the winners out of thin air. Don’t hate on this kid since you’re out about $200 bucks in pool fees (or at least I am). Check out one of the reasons we all got screwed by the tourney after the jump.

Via: Chicago Sun-Times

Click here to view the embedded video.

What do you get when you mix gambling, horses and free beer? Utter awesomeness, that’s what! After a considerable drop in attendance last year, the fine folks overseeing the festivities at the Preakness are offering horse racing enthusiasts all they can drink beer. Yes horse racing suddenly became that much cooler. More after the jump.

Last year, the Maryland Jockey Club decided to ban outside drinks from Pimlico Race Course, a move that helped to decrease attendance by nearly 35,000, despite the addition of a bikini contest and other incentives. They were not about to let that happen again, so they found a way to bring the crowds right back: free beer. Well, sort of. After dropping the price of entry to $40, attendees can now pay $20 for a 16 oz mug of beer that carries with it unlimited refills. While horse race-loving lushes across the state couldn’t be happier with the news, some people aren’t too fond of the new policy, including David Jernigan, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“It’s a recipe for over-consumption. An awful lot of those people are going to leave the Preakness and get into cars. … There’s a middle way to go here, and they haven’t found it yet.”

Well thank you party-pooper David. While you may have a little bit of a point here, as long as everyone hops on the bus or decides to walk, we should all be just fine. Just enjoy the booze and use your head.

Via: The Baltimore Sun

Just another reason while you have to admit, regardless of your political leanings, that our president is pretty awesome. President Barack Obama is an avid sports fan, so he just couldn’t shy away from making a friendly wager with Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, over the US-Canada gold medal hockey game in Vancouver. Well by now you all know that thanks to Sidney Crosby and company, the US lost. So with his tail tucked partially between his legs, the Commander-in-Chief fulfilled his end of the bet, sending along some beer up North. A case of Molson Canadian beer was personally delivered by U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Jacobson. In goodwill gesture, the Prez also threw in the beer that he would have scored had the US taken the gold: a case of Yuengling.

The fact that Obama can still have some fun even though he has the weight of the world (or at least this nation) on his shoulders is pretty awesome.

I can’t wait to see what he has to pony up if his NCAA tourney bracket starts taking a nosedive.

Via: NBC Washington

The insanity defense is really the American legal system’s equivalent of trying to win Dancing With the Stars by being fat, clumsy, and involved in computers.  It is the “I am doing such a bad job at this defense that it is impossible I could even be serious, and therefore I should win” defense.  It’s also a pretty all-in move: when it fails, it proverbially falls on the proverbial dance floor and breaks multiple limbs and is put to death via lethal injection for doing such a bad job.  What I’m trying to say is, don’t throw poop at the jurors.  Really, do not bank on that working.  One Weusi McGowan, a home intruder and robber out of San Diego, found this out the hard way.

McGowan, who attorneys say suffers from mental illness, had asked for a mistrial because he believed jurors had seen him in restraints when he entered the courtroom.

Several days after his request was denied, McGowan pulled out a bag of excrement he had hidden in his clothing, rubbed it on his lawyer and tossed it at the jury, hitting one juror’s computer case.

The jury responded by throwing the book (not literally) at McGowan…  

Oh man, you got us good, the jury ruled.  We’re going to give you 31 years in prison to think about how good you got us.

Source: AOL News.

British person Callie Rodgers was the second-youngest individual in that country to win the lottery, at age 16.  1.9 million pounds was her payout (which is, I don’t know, maybe $4 mil?) and she successfully spent it all in only six years.

“My life is a shambles and hopefully now it has all gone I can find some happiness. It’s brought me nothing but unhappiness. It’s ruined my life.”

Indeed, she’s attempted suicide twice.  How did she blast her cash?  In the same way you or I would, of course: houses, cars, plastic surgery, and “partying” (drugs).  

She bought and furnished four homes for herself, her parents and her grandmother for £550,000, and spent £200,000 on luxury holidays.

Around £265,000 was blown on expensive cars, gifts and loans to family members.

She spent more than £450,000 on designer clothing, partying and having her breasts enhanced.

Damn, that is some luxury holidays for that money.  And some luxury parties.  And some luxury breasts.  Now she drives a used VW Golf.  One of her boyfriends stole from her and cheated on her with her sister, while the other peddled blow from her house.  As they say, money can buy you a million dollars’ worth of clothes and breasts, but it can’t buy you the ability to make decisions using an extremely basic amount of sense.  Or as they also say, money can buy you happiness, but only for six years, tops.

Source: The Daily Mail.

That Joe Francis!  He sure does know how to live it up at his many, many court trials.  He has a few of them in the mix right now, including one from Las Vegas’s Wynn Casino, which alleges that he owes them $2 million in gambling debts, and another from a group of girls who felt they had been exploited into going wild on Girls Gone Wild.  (Do people still watch those?  I feel like I haven’t seen a “Warning: This Commercial Is Not Suitable for Children” ad in awhile.)

Francis is known for his courtroom antics, but during a 2007 trial, his lawyer said that “he has put a lot of this foolish behavior behind him.”  He went back and grabbed it for this year’s trial, though.  Some of his more ridiculous misbehavior in court, after the jump.

First, Joe Francis, who has been to jail and – one would think – does not want to go back, pretends not to know what a prisoner is.

Q. Have you ever been convicted of a felony?

A. I don’t understand what that means.

Q. You don’t understand what being a convicted felon is?

A. No. Can you explain it to me?

Q. Did you serve any time in jail?

A. What do you mean “serve”?

Q. Do you know what a prisoner is?

A. No.

Q. Do you know what a cellmate is in jail?

A. No.

Q. Do you know what a jail is?

A. Sort of.

Then Joe Francis took the video camera from the court videographer and began taping the female lawyer on the plaintiff side.  She lifted her shirt up and Joe Francis threw her a bead necklace.  (Actually not though for the second part there.)  In his other trial going on right now, he made “repeated attempts to disrupt the deposition with flatulence.”

LOL I guess?  Good story to tell your grandkids, I guess, Joe Francis?  I mean, there’s like the Constitution and laws and such, but at the end of the day, it’s people who decide what punishments you get and if you go out of your way to make those people hate you, then you will probably get a worse punishment, ya know?  I really don’t understand why he pulls this fourth-grade stuff.  Is it supposed to be civil disobedience or something?  Like, my other Gandhi is Joe Francis.

Source: Lowering the Bar.

Hilarious prank, psychological experiment, or just a crazy guy doing crazy guy stuff?  A man in L.A. drove down the freeway throwing money from his car.

About ten people ran into the street to grab it because, cash flying everywhere!  It’s a magic day!  They caused a traffic jam.  And yet it was the driver/rainmaker who was committed to a mental hospital, not the people who ran onto the Los Angeles freeway.  On the other hand, he was tossing out Serious Money…  

Officers recovered about $1000 but “authorities asked anyone who picked up the man’s money to turn it in so it can be returned.”  Haha, I don’t think so!  I ran into L.A. traffic to earn that cash for my family.

Source: AOL News.

Dinosaur Adventure Land: The Place Where Dinosaurs and the Bible Meet!  That is their slogan, in point of fact, but sadly, it’s about to be the place where dinosaurs and the Bible met. Because the Lord has decided to work in mysterious ways once again by allowing the IRS to seize the park, whose proprietor, Kent Hovind, did not believe in paying taxes to mortal authorities.  Hovind was imprisoned for our sins, plus also tax evasion.

The conviction culminated 17 years of Hovind sparring with the IRS. Saying he was employed by God and his ministers were not subject to payroll taxes, he claimed no income or property.

Learn more about the joyful mission of Dinosaur Adventure Land through this video, after the jump.  

It has a “creation center,” where you can learn about the story of Noah and the Pterodactyl or the temptation of Christ by the Tyrannosaurus (“You could be king of all the dinosaurs,” tempted the Tyrannosaurus, but Christ turned him down cold) or, for children ready to learn the more difficult truths, the crucifixion of Christ by the Jewsauruses.  But the park also has a “science center” with, as the narrator emphasizes, “two floors” of science.  So if you were thinking they wouldn’t have science, well, they have science.  Alas:

Rodgers’ 16-page order released late Thursday gives the government the green light to divide up the nine properties in and around the 5800 block of North Palafox Street and begin to sell them until the $430,400 forfeiture amount is satisfied.

What is the government going to do with half a million dollars worth of life-size plaster dinosaurs high-fiving various Old Testament heroes?  Probably hold the awesomest fire sale in Florida history.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Source: PNJ via BoingBoing.

Whoa, holy sheet!  I CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT I’VE BEEN HEARING.  After listening to an entire city counsil meeting in Santa Cruz I am ready to agree that everyone in that city is out of their frign’ mind and I haven’t ben there longer than a few days.  You’d agree with me if you’d have seen this insane video of real people attending Santa Cruz City Counsel meetings.

Check out the video after the jump>>>

Click here to view the embedded video.

An interesting phenomenon has been identified and it’s not even Swine Flu, which one of my friends contracted!  Actually, it’s called The Quarterlife Crisis and afflicts many overindulgent, self intitled brats in their mid-to-late twenties and early thirities.  These people have most things in life, but find that they are entirely unhappy because they want to be able to have the financial and career their parents and grandparent’s had while living the life of a rock star celebutant!

To hear more about it keep reading after the jump>>>

The Quarterlife Crisis was coined by authors Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner in their New York Times best seller The Quarterlife Crisis:  The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties. It highlights the indecisive nature of twenty somethings as they find themselves lost and unfillfilled by a lifestyle they chase and detest.  Interestingly enough, it seems as though these people are caught up in a lifestyle delimma, as they’re trying to aspire to nightly partying, a shopping habit that is leaving them broke and relationships that are unfullfilling and lead to nowhere.  As their peers settle down, getting married and starting familiar the Quarterlies are marred by indecision and social strife, as they look for ways to escape from their life.

Basically, it’s a bunch of spoiled children that do not want to growup and face the fact that they need to become responsible for themselves.  As they’re faced with the decision to let go of their party lifestyle or mature they become more apathetic and indulge in partying, drugs and illicit sex.  Oh apathy, could you look any sexier?

I cannot even believe that my generation has coined the term Quarterlife Crisis.  We’re even more pathetic than Baby Boomers who didn’t even bother to become angsty until their 40s.  We do it at 25 because life is just so hard.  Boo hoo, I suppose we could all grow up and realize life isn’t a Bret Easton-Ellis novel, but if we did that, we’d put people like Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner out of business.

If you want to read more about the Quarterlife Crisis check out the article at Eye Weekly.