(NEWSER) –7:15a Tues 8-31  As internships get harder and harder to come by, forget the idea that you’ll actually get paid for one: Increasingly, college students are the ones paying for the internship. The Washington Post investigates the phenomenon in DC, where the supposedly nonprofit “internship program” industry has been thriving (millions of dollars in revenue, six-figure salaries for top employees) for years. For anywhere from $3,400 without housing to $9,000 with housing, students get a guaranteed summer of work experience, night classes, and tours.

Many of these programs claim to have connections, including the ability to place students at federal agencies. One website shows students in front of a State Department sign, but a rep for that agency claims prospective interns can only apply through an internal process. Despite some doubts about the concept of paying to do work, students who’ve been through the program see it as an investment in their future. Says one, “Living in the real world, even just for two months, is critical.”

Mike’s Thoughts:  My kids are still pretty young so maybe there’s something I’m missing here, but this seems like a scam to me.

Unless you can prove to me (beyond a reasonable doubt) that sinking between 3 and 9 thousand dollars into my kid’s internship opportunity will result in them seeing that extra money in their first paycheck out of college, no way.

I think Internships are a great idea.  But the trade is “experience” for “time”.  No money needs to change hands to keep that model working.

(Newser) – The number-one brainiest city in America is a university town that major science research centers have made home and whose tech-friendly business culture draws start-ups: Boulder, Colo. Writing in the Daily Beast, Richard Florida ranks the country’s 20 brainiest metro areas, as determined by things like number of adults with PhDs and master’s degrees. Boulder is followed by:

1. Durham, NC: Almost 20% of residents have graduate degrees in this high-brainpower Research Triangle town, home to Duke and North Carolina Central University.
2. The DMV: Is it all the politicians that make the Washington, DC, area so smart? Probably a bigger factor is the city’s wealth of think tanks and science institutions.
3. Boston-Cambridge, Mass.: On one side of the river you’ve got MIT, Harvard, and Tufts. On the other, Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, Emerson, and lots more.

Click here for the complete list.

Mike’s Thoughts:  Clearly the folks who compiled these results have never been in Boulder on a Saturday night after the CU Football team has won a big game at Folsom Field and 96% of everyone walking the streets is hammered out of their gourds just half a drink shy of slobbering on themselves.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that…..

(NEWSER) – Some 30% of UK parents think playing with their children is boring, a new poll finds. The poll, commissioned by Disneyland Paris, looked at how parents spent recreational time with their children. More than a fifth hadn’t played with their kids in such a long time that they had forgotten how, the Independent reports. The kicker? Many kids aren’t fooled—15% said they realized their parents were bored while playing with them.

Mike’s Thoughts:  See, it’s stories like this that really bug me.  Here’s why:  these are essentially useless findings because you can’t do anything positive with them.

As a parent, what are my options?  Should I not spend any play time with my kids?  Should I all of a sudden figure out how to get really interested in playing with dolls?  Should I do a better job of hiding my bored face?

Come on.

If I make the time to play with my kids, even if they know we’re doing something I’m not really all that interested in, it shows them that I care enough about them to spend time with them. 

Sounds like a win to me.

(NEWSER) – For the past 50 years or so, architects, proctologists, and wacky inventors have argued that the human body wasn’t built to sit on toilets. The anti-porcelain throne contingent has long pushed the idea of squatting as the optimal defecation position—and though it may sound like quackery, research suggests they may be right, writes Daniel Lametti for Slate. While some of the more extreme benefits of squatting (prevents cancer!) haven’t been proven, getting your bum off the toilet could help the 50% of Americans who have, at some point, suffered from hemorrhoids. So Lametti decided to test it out.

It comes down to geometry: Squatting straightens the 90-degree bend between the rectum and the anus, allowing for “complete evacuation” of the colon; using conventional toilets produces a less-desirable angle, meaning we may have to strain to, well, go. So each morning, Lametti squatted on his toilet, precariously holding on to a towel rack “pushing through the week—or, as it turned out, not pushing: Bowel movements just seem to happen in a squat. My 10-minute routine dropped to a minute, two at the most, and within a few days my knees stopped complaining.” His experiment is up, but he’ll try to again, though he doubts it’ll become the next big craze. “Americans, now fatter than ever, are having trouble standing up from a sit, never mind a squat.”

Mike’s Thoughts:  But I do most of my quality reading on the john.  How am I supposed to read when I’m squatting?  I guess I shouldn’t worry.  I imagine Steve Jobs is working on the “I-Squat” as we speak.

NEWSER) – A North Dakota teenager is in serious legal trouble, accused of using an improbably shallow ruse to trick his ex-girlfriend into having sex with him, the Smoking Gun reports. Police say Ryne Anderson went to his ex-girlfriend’s house bearing a tall tale: drug dealers were stalking him and his “life was in danger,” he told the 17-year-old girl. They were under surveillance and would be murdered if they didn’t meet “certain demands.”

You can guess what at least one of the demands was. Anderson showed up at a later date saying “they better do what they needed to do.” They did, and he faces felony counts of sexual imposition and terrorizing. Luck has dealt him a further blow: though originally charged as a juvenile, he’s turned 18 since his case was transferred to district court and will be charged as an adult.

Mike’s Thoughts:  Wow.  This could be an all-time low in desperation……and of course, gullability.

According to Cracked.com, here are some amazing (yet uninspiring) feats of human endurance:

 Most Piercings in 24 Hours — The record stands at 1,055 piercings in just under eight hours. Anybody want to make a run at a new record?

 Achieving the Perfect Pac-Man Score — Billy Mitchell, known for being the “King of Kong,” is also the first person to ever get the highest possible score in Pac-Man, at 3,333,360 points.

 Visiting Every Starbucks in the World — Rafael Antonio Lozano Jr. has spent the past 12 years drinking coffee from every single Starbucks on Earth. He’s traveled all over the world, and as of last year, had spent over $100,000 on his quest.

 Memorizing Pi — The number 3.14 is good enough for most of us, but not Akira Haraguchi, who has apparently recited Pi to 100,000 digits.

#10: “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”

The lyrics for George Harrison’s first truly great Beatles song began with him choosing the phrase “gently weeps” from a random book. It wasn’t until Harrison pulled Eric Clapton in to play guitar that the arrangement was finished.

#9: “Come Together”

Originally intended by Lennon as a campaign song for LSD guru Timothy Leary when he ran for California governor in 1970, this became the last song all four Beatles cut in the studio together.

#8: “Let It Be”

McCartney channeled Aretha Franklin’s soul in “Let It Be,” recorded during the peak of the Beatles’ troubled times. A month after its 1970 release, McCartney announced the band had broken up.

#7: “Hey Jude”

McCartney’s lyrics for “Hey Jude” were inspired by John and Cynthia Lennon’s five-year-old son, Julian — but Lennon first thought McCartney was singing to him about his relationship with Yoko Ono.

#6: “Something”

Before it became the second-most-covered Beatles song behind “Yesterday,” Lennon said this unexpected Harrison track was “the best track on [Abbey Road]” and McCartney called it “the best song [Harrison has] written.”

#5: “In My Life”

“In My Life,” featuring Lennon’s most personal lyrics up until that time, is one of only a handful of Lennon-McCartney songs where the two strongly disagreed over who wrote what.

#4: “Yesterday”

The most covered song in history began as something called “Scrambled Eggs.” It also began in a dream of Paul McCartney’s.

#3: “Strawberry Fields Forever”

Lennon once said growing up “was scary because there was nobody to relate to.” Strawberry Field, a Liverpool youth’s home near where Lennon grew up, represented those haunting childhood visions. With this song, Lennon conquered them forever.

#2: “I Want to Hold Your Hand”

“I Want to Hold Your Hand” was the first exposure most American had to the songwriting magic of Lennon and McCartney. It set off Beatlemania, and represented what producer George Martin calls “the apex of Phase One of the Beatles’ development.”

#1: “A Day in the Life”

The ultimate Lennon-McCartney collaboration, “A Day in the Life” wasn’t recognized as the band’s masterwork until the Eighties, after Lennon’s death. It pairs lyrics inspired by the newspapers and Lennon’s own life with McCartney’s idea to have classical musicians perform what producer George Martin called an “orchestral orgasm.”

-The Rolling Stone Magazine Edition with the Top 100 Beatles Songs is now available at fine booksellers and magazine racks everywhere!

NEWSER) – Introducing a budding new career choice: Internet Reputation Manager. If you’re worried about what people will find when they Google your name, there’s a growing number of businesses ready to polish your digital image, the Boston Globe reports. The fees run from $2,000 to $10,000 at one such firm, while another charges a monthly fee for constant vigilance in counteracting the negative.

One of the professional tricks of the trade is making sure that if any unwanted material does surface on a Google search, it doesn’t show up on the first two pages. Another is to work with the various personal search databases out there to remove clients’ names and personal info. Why does this matter? Because employers check out social media profiles when hiring.

Mike’s Thoughts:  At first this seemed like a ridiculous notion to me but just out of curiosity I googled “Mike Casey” to see what came up.  Here’s what I found:

1.  Apparently there was a Mike Casey who was a legendary college basketball player at the University of Kentucky.  Not me, but I can live with that accidental association.

2.   There’s a Mike Casey somewhere in New England who’s trying to raise money for a sex change operation.

3.  Turns out there’s also a Mike Casey currently serving time in the state of New York for moving stolen merchandise.  Yyyyyyes….

4.  And last but not least, there’s also a Mike Casey somewhere in the world who fancies himself a budding “home porn” star.  Nifty.

All of a sudden, it feels like I need an Internet Reputation Manager.

(Premier Radio)- Billy Joel will submit to the Glee treatment this coming season when the popular show does a show devoted to his music. Joel tells Access Hollywood, “I said, ‘Yeah! Go ahead. Use my stuff.’ I was in a chorus when I was in high school, why not?” Neil Patrick Harris sang duet with show regular Matthew Morrison on Joel’s “Piano Man” last season, an appearance that won Harris an Emmy.

Mike’s Thoughts:  Everyone I know is raving about this show but I just haven’t been able to get excited about a bunch of geeky kids doing chorale versions of popular songs.  Feels too much like High School to me.

 (NEWSER) – Before Khurram Syed Sher allegedly began plotting a terror attack in Canada, he wanted to be a singing star and auditioned for Canada’s version of American Idol. Sher, 28, sings a horrifically clunky version of Avril Lavigne’s Complicated, complete with arthritic moonwalk, in his 2008 audition tape, reports AP. The Pakistani tells judges that he likes music, acting—and hockey. He was one of three men busted this week after investigators said they linked the trio to some 50 circuit boards and plans to make explosives for terror attacks in Canada and elsewhere around the world.

Mike’s Thoughts:  I honestly think the biggest advantage right-minded Nations have in the War on Terror is that from what I can see, most terrorists just ain’t all that smart.  The story above is Exhibit A.