Good Fun: With associations for everything from motion pictures to rock-paper-scissors, it is not surprising to hear some of the odd tournaments there are in the world. One such tournament is a Pen spinning tournament in Tokyo, Japan. The tournament is sponsored by—who else—the Pen Spinning Association Japan. Contest organizers viewed 276 videos of spinners before choosing 16 finalists. These finalists didn’t just pass a pen around; each incorporated their own barrage of tricks into their 30 second routine. A winner soon emerged, 16-year-old Ryuki Omura, a high school student. Omura and his fellow competitors used pens from Tomy Corporation, who manufactures pens just for this purpose. Interested in spinning? See the video at the end of this post.

Scary Fun: Hillary Duff has been playing around in a new film. Duff stars as young pop star in the political satire War Inc. Hillary blows away her past role as Lizzy McGuire on the Disney Channel, and is now a foreign bombshell. Hillary’s scary fun? As part of her role, Duff takes a live scorpion and puts it down the front of her pants. That’s right, a LIVE scorpion. During filming, Duff wore slightly large pants and dropped the animal down them five times before the perfect shot was achieved. While the acts that follow, her grinding with the scorpion in her pants, was preformed without a live scorpion, the act of putting the stinging animal in her clothing alone is enough for me to deem this scary.

Note to devoted readers: This just goes to confirm my theory that Disney pollutes young stars.

The Good: A horrible twister hit Greensburg, Kansas last year, destroying nearly the entire city. The tornado left the town in ruins, and decimated the John Deere dealership, the largest business in the city. When the town had to think about rebuilding, the mayor decided that they needed to do something to make an impact. Rebuilding the small city wouldn’t be enough to satisfy this battered and bruised community, so their ideas got bigger and greener.

The mayor and nonprofit worker Daniel Wallach pitched an idea to the residents of the city: a completely green community. The conservative city was reluctant to make the change at first, but with some guidance became impassioned with the idea. A wind turbine popped up at the John Deere dealership, reclaimed wood was being brought in to build houses, and the residents pitched in to help. Now, a year later, the town is well on its way to becoming GreenTown Greensburg, a move that residents hope will attract new green businesses to employ and retain the local teens that would normally leave for jobs out of the city.

The Bad: A month ago college student Brittany Zimmermann was found slain in her apartment. The girl was found by her fiancé after what was believed to be a robbery gone wrong. The University of Wisconsin-Madison mourned Brittany’s death as a horrible tragedy, but their sadness turns to anger with some new information that has come to light. Madison Police Chief Nobel Wray announced that there had been a phone call from Brittany’s phone to 911 prior to her death. They have yet to release the call’s content, but police have said it indicated that there was a serious problem with Ms. Zimmermann.

But Ms. Zimmermann was not found by the police responding to her call; instead she was found by her fiancé. The reason police were not at the scene? The 911 operator hung up. According to police, the 911 dispatcher asked many times if there was an emergency and got no answer. The dispatcher than hung up and did not follow the normal procedure of calling back. No help was sent. It is times like these that really show how adamant you have to be at your place of employment. A decision that takes you a split second to make can affect society more than you could ever imagine. Please do your best at your job and help prevent this from happening again.

The Good: The Dutch are at it again! A talented Dutch researcher, Alina Weffers-Albu, has created a mathematical model that knows the minimum amount of memory you need to get maximum results. We have all experienced those horrible “buffering” moments where our YouTube video de jour becomes horribly paused in the middle of the best part. This mathematical formula would help to reduce these horrible buffer moments. Weffers-Albu also designed a way for computers to plan how its data will flow and allow it to create a buffer zone where data would be temporarily stored in event of system overload.

So, what does this mean for you? This means that when you buy your next computer in a year or so you won’t have to spring for a computer with larger chips just to get more memory. Your larger chips can now hold more memory than you ever thought was possible. While this sounds like an obscure piece of news, you will be happy when you new computer doesn’t get as hot and stores so much more.

The Sickening: This next story deals with one number, 42. This is the percentage of people in the United States that live with high levels of pollution. Sounds like an old problem? You’re right, it is an old problem, but some big contenders are making a change to lose the top pollution spot. Los Angeles, the traditional winner of the “sootiest in the nation” rank has finally shed that label. Thanks to aggressive energy regulations, L.A. has pulled back and made an astounding change. The new number one? Pittsburgh.

42% is still too high a number. A high level of pollution can harm not only you, but your children and your pets, and let’s not forget some of the hardest hit, senior citizens. Please do all you can to change this statistic. 42% is still way too high.