Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Too many twits might make a twat
The recording studio at Absolute Radio erupted in giggles when Mr Cameron used the T-word on the breakfast show thus:
"The trouble with Twitter, the instantness of it - too many twits might make a twat," he said.
According to presenter Christian O'Connell, press secretary Gabby Bertin ticked the Conservative leader off as he left the studio for using a swear word. He thought at first that she meant another segment of his interview.
Read more here.
"The trouble with Twitter, the instantness of it - too many twits might make a twat," he said.
According to presenter Christian O'Connell, press secretary Gabby Bertin ticked the Conservative leader off as he left the studio for using a swear word. He thought at first that she meant another segment of his interview.
Read more here.
Swedish couple find maps and road signs too difficult
A Swedish couple in search of the isle of Capri drove to Carpi, an industrial town in northern Italy, because they misspelt the name in their car's GPS.
Read more here.
Read more here.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
North Korean beer
Not content with inflicting pain on its own people, Kim Jong has now released this visual nightmare on the rest of the world.
Paul Stanley: Hypocrisy Marches on
A Tennessee lawmaker resigned from the state Senate on Tuesday after his extramarital affair with a 22-year-old intern was revealed by an investigation into an extortion case...
...Stanley's legislative proposals were largely focused on pro-business issues, but he also sponsored failed measures to ban gay couples from adopting children. He also spoke out against funding for Planned Parenthood because he said unmarried people should not have sex.
"Whatever I stood for and advocated, I still believe to be true," he said during an interview Tuesday with Memphis radio station WREC-AM. "And just because I fell far short of what God's standard was for me and my wife, doesn't mean that that standard is reduced in the least bit."
Shut the fuck up. Do these people really have no idea what they sound like?
Read more here.
...Stanley's legislative proposals were largely focused on pro-business issues, but he also sponsored failed measures to ban gay couples from adopting children. He also spoke out against funding for Planned Parenthood because he said unmarried people should not have sex.
"Whatever I stood for and advocated, I still believe to be true," he said during an interview Tuesday with Memphis radio station WREC-AM. "And just because I fell far short of what God's standard was for me and my wife, doesn't mean that that standard is reduced in the least bit."
Shut the fuck up. Do these people really have no idea what they sound like?
Read more here.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
America is sick
Why would anyone in their right mind want to live there?
After weeks of secretive talks, a bipartisan group in the Senate edged closer Monday to a health care compromise that omits two key Democratic priorities but incorporates provisions to slow the explosive rise in medical costs, officials said.
These officials said participants were on track to exclude a requirement many congressional Democrats seek for large businesses to offer coverage to their workers. Nor would there be a provision for a government insurance option, despite President Barack Obama's support for such a plan.
Read more here.
After weeks of secretive talks, a bipartisan group in the Senate edged closer Monday to a health care compromise that omits two key Democratic priorities but incorporates provisions to slow the explosive rise in medical costs, officials said.
These officials said participants were on track to exclude a requirement many congressional Democrats seek for large businesses to offer coverage to their workers. Nor would there be a provision for a government insurance option, despite President Barack Obama's support for such a plan.
Read more here.
Monday, July 27, 2009
The Mysterious Downfall of the Neandertals
Some 28,000 years ago in what is now the British territory of Gibraltar, a group of Neandertals eked out a living along the rocky Mediterranean coast. They were quite possibly the last of their kind. Elsewhere in Europe and western Asia, Neandertals had disappeared thousands of years earlier, after having ruled for more than 200,000 years. The Iberian Peninsula, with its comparatively mild climate and rich array of animals and plants, seems to have been the final stronghold. Soon, however, the Gibraltar population, too, would die out, leaving behind only a smattering of their stone tools and the charred remnants of their campfires.
Read more here.
Read more here.
Apple joins forces with record labels
Quit selling "CD-length music" that isn't crap, that might help too...
Apple is working with the four largest record labels to stimulate digital sales of albums by bundling a new interactive booklet, sleeve notes and other interactive features with music downloads, in a move it hopes will change buying trends on its online iTunes store.
The talks come as Apple is separately racing to offer a portable, full-featured, tablet-sized computer in time for the Christmas shopping season, in what the entertainment industry hopes will be a new revolution. The device could be launched alongside the new content deals, including those aimed at stimulating sales of CD-length music, according to people briefed on the project
Read more here.
“It’s all about re-creating the heyday of the album when you would sit around with your friends looking at the artwork, while you listened to the music,” said one executive familiar with the plans.
Will the new downloads come with drugs? That's the only reason there was a "heyday"...
Apple is working with the four largest record labels to stimulate digital sales of albums by bundling a new interactive booklet, sleeve notes and other interactive features with music downloads, in a move it hopes will change buying trends on its online iTunes store.
The talks come as Apple is separately racing to offer a portable, full-featured, tablet-sized computer in time for the Christmas shopping season, in what the entertainment industry hopes will be a new revolution. The device could be launched alongside the new content deals, including those aimed at stimulating sales of CD-length music, according to people briefed on the project
Read more here.
“It’s all about re-creating the heyday of the album when you would sit around with your friends looking at the artwork, while you listened to the music,” said one executive familiar with the plans.
Will the new downloads come with drugs? That's the only reason there was a "heyday"...
A.P. Cracks Down on Unpaid Use of Articles on Web
Easily cured, just avoid the A.P.
Idiots.
Taking a new hard line that news articles should not turn up on search engines and Web sites without permission, The Associated Press said Thursday that it would add software to each article that shows what limits apply to the rights to use it, and that notifies The A.P. about how the article is used.
Read more here.
Idiots.
Taking a new hard line that news articles should not turn up on search engines and Web sites without permission, The Associated Press said Thursday that it would add software to each article that shows what limits apply to the rights to use it, and that notifies The A.P. about how the article is used.
Read more here.
Yonge and Bloor public square would be 'amazing'
So would everyone having wings...and just as likely.
The mayor is holding out for a "magnificent building on the site."
That's as unlikely as a square.
No doubt a condo will appear. Like dozens before, it will be tall, square and made of glass. By the time the dust settles, Bloor and Yonge will look just like any other corner in the city.
Condo owners don't give a fuck what the city looks like, as long as they get theirs inside...
Read more here.
The mayor is holding out for a "magnificent building on the site."
That's as unlikely as a square.
No doubt a condo will appear. Like dozens before, it will be tall, square and made of glass. By the time the dust settles, Bloor and Yonge will look just like any other corner in the city.
Condo owners don't give a fuck what the city looks like, as long as they get theirs inside...
Read more here.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Ancient Roman shipwrecks found
Underwater archaeologists in Italy have discovered the wrecks of five ancient Roman ships in the Mediterranean, with their cargo still largely intact.
Read more here.
Read more here.
Friday, July 24, 2009
UK's oldest Roman Coin found
Imagine finding a 2,000 year old Roman coin near the ancient path of the Ridgeway that had slipped from the fingers of a Celtic warrior in 207BC. Thatcham metal detectorist Malcolm Langford has discovered the UK's oldest Roman coin.
Read more here.
Read more here.
Senator Paul Stanley: Hypocrite of the Day
Reliable...Honorable...Conservative...
Meet Tennessee state senator Paul Stanley. He's a solid conservative Republican and married father of two, who according to his website is "a member of Christ United Methodist Church, where he serves as a Sunday school teacher and board member of their day school."
Stanley recently sponsored a bill designed to prevent gay couples from adopting children. And when a Planned Parenthood official recently sought his support for family planning services for Memphis teens, Stanley told her, according to the official, that he "didn't believe young people should have sex before marriage anyway, that his faith and church are important to him, and he wants to promote abstinence."
So far, so far Republican. But you can see where this is going...
In a sworn affidavit, a Tennessee state investigator has said that Stanley admitted to having a "sexual relationship" with a 22-year-old female intern working in his office, and to taking nude pictures of her in "provocative poses" in his apartment.
His website is worth a visit, if just for the animated banner...
Read more here, which includes blackmail and assault.
Countdown to teary-eyed "I'm soooo sorrrry" press conference in 3..2..
Meet Tennessee state senator Paul Stanley. He's a solid conservative Republican and married father of two, who according to his website is "a member of Christ United Methodist Church, where he serves as a Sunday school teacher and board member of their day school."
Stanley recently sponsored a bill designed to prevent gay couples from adopting children. And when a Planned Parenthood official recently sought his support for family planning services for Memphis teens, Stanley told her, according to the official, that he "didn't believe young people should have sex before marriage anyway, that his faith and church are important to him, and he wants to promote abstinence."
So far, so far Republican. But you can see where this is going...
In a sworn affidavit, a Tennessee state investigator has said that Stanley admitted to having a "sexual relationship" with a 22-year-old female intern working in his office, and to taking nude pictures of her in "provocative poses" in his apartment.
His website is worth a visit, if just for the animated banner...
Read more here, which includes blackmail and assault.
Countdown to teary-eyed "I'm soooo sorrrry" press conference in 3..2..
Why Brüno bombed
People have brains? Whatever the reasons, I couldn't be more delighted.
Nothing about Brüno is modest, so it makes perverse sense that the film's failure would be flamboyant.
The year's most hyped movie has become the summer's most conspicuous bomb. After opening to No. 1 at the North American box office two weekends ago, the Sacha Baron Cohen comedy dropped to fourth place last weekend and will slip further this weekend.
Read more here.
Nothing about Brüno is modest, so it makes perverse sense that the film's failure would be flamboyant.
The year's most hyped movie has become the summer's most conspicuous bomb. After opening to No. 1 at the North American box office two weekends ago, the Sacha Baron Cohen comedy dropped to fourth place last weekend and will slip further this weekend.
Read more here.
Russia says: Ignore the Hitler behind the curtain
President Dmitry Medvedev recently announced the setting up of a commission to counter the falsification of history. He said this was becoming increasingly "severe, evil, and aggressive"...
...what appears to anger today's Russian historical establishment: accounts of Red Army crimes on the march to Berlin; assertions by the Baltic countries and others in Eastern Europe that Soviet forces came as occupiers as much as liberators; any suggestion that Stalin's Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were anything but complete opposites and bitter enemies.
So 1939-1941 didn't happen?
Read more here.
...what appears to anger today's Russian historical establishment: accounts of Red Army crimes on the march to Berlin; assertions by the Baltic countries and others in Eastern Europe that Soviet forces came as occupiers as much as liberators; any suggestion that Stalin's Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were anything but complete opposites and bitter enemies.
So 1939-1941 didn't happen?
Read more here.
UK ISP Karoo overreacts
Two years? These people have too much power.
Web users suspected of file-sharing are being cut off without warning by internet service provider (ISP) Karoo, based in Hull.
Karoo, the only ISP in the area, makes customers sign a document promising not to repeat the offence in order to get their service restored.
Some customers have had their accounts suspended for more than two years.
Read more here.
Update: They reversed this policy...
Web users suspected of file-sharing are being cut off without warning by internet service provider (ISP) Karoo, based in Hull.
Karoo, the only ISP in the area, makes customers sign a document promising not to repeat the offence in order to get their service restored.
Some customers have had their accounts suspended for more than two years.
Read more here.
Update: They reversed this policy...
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Yonge-Bloor site sold
Toronto is now gripped with fear, as the threat of wealthy rioting Prada clad ex-condo buyers filling the garbage ladened streets, demanding justice...or perhaps just another neighbourhood to bull dose.
Kazakhstan-backed developer Michael Gold is selling his prime property at Yonge and Bloor Sts., signalling that his planned glass tower condo and hotel project may be dead.
Gold made the decision as part of his court-approved plan to keep the property out of receivership, where his main creditor tried to send him earlier this week.
Read more here.
Kazakhstan-backed developer Michael Gold is selling his prime property at Yonge and Bloor Sts., signalling that his planned glass tower condo and hotel project may be dead.
Gold made the decision as part of his court-approved plan to keep the property out of receivership, where his main creditor tried to send him earlier this week.
Read more here.
West Bend SS
These intellectual giants have obviously never opened a history book...ok maybe one, "A Child's Guide to Bookburning: How to silence anyone you disagree with".
A fight over books depicting sex and homosexuality has riled up a small Wisconsin city, cost some library board members their positions and prompted a call for a public book burning.
The battle has stirred much of West Bend, a city of roughly 30,000 people about 35 miles north of Milwaukee. Residents have sparred for months on blogs, airwaves and at meetings, including one where a man told the city's library director he should be tarred and feathered.
Read more here.
A fight over books depicting sex and homosexuality has riled up a small Wisconsin city, cost some library board members their positions and prompted a call for a public book burning.
The battle has stirred much of West Bend, a city of roughly 30,000 people about 35 miles north of Milwaukee. Residents have sparred for months on blogs, airwaves and at meetings, including one where a man told the city's library director he should be tarred and feathered.
Read more here.
Pigheaded Police: Sgt. James Crowley
A white police sergeant accused of racism after he arrested renowned black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his home insisted Wednesday he won't apologize for his treatment of the Harvard professor, but President Barack Obama said police had acted "stupidly."
And that's only words that begin with S....
Read more here.
And that's only words that begin with S....
Read more here.
Ive got better things to do @God
Judaism's holiest prayer site has entered the Twitter age.
The Western Wall now has its own address on the social networking service, allowing believers around the globe to have their prayers placed between its 2,000 year-old-stones without even leaving their armchairs.
Read more here.
The Western Wall now has its own address on the social networking service, allowing believers around the globe to have their prayers placed between its 2,000 year-old-stones without even leaving their armchairs.
Read more here.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Harper Government homophobia cont.
The Harper Goverment, with a heart so small the Grinch would be jealous, has done it again.
The fate of this year’s Divers/Cité festival in Montreal was up in the air on Wednesday after the federal government said it would not approve funding for the event.
Divers/Cité, Montreal’s gay pride arts festival, was counting on $155,000 in new funding from Ottawa.
In an email from Industry Canada, spokeswoman Christiane Fox said there are just too many worthwhile events to allow government funding for all of them.
Bullshit, the FrancoFolies just got 1.5 million.
Harper, you are a piece of work. It's times like this I miss Trudeau. The Harper Government's idea of global influence is tallied by the number of Afghanis they kill.
Read more here.
The fate of this year’s Divers/Cité festival in Montreal was up in the air on Wednesday after the federal government said it would not approve funding for the event.
Divers/Cité, Montreal’s gay pride arts festival, was counting on $155,000 in new funding from Ottawa.
In an email from Industry Canada, spokeswoman Christiane Fox said there are just too many worthwhile events to allow government funding for all of them.
Bullshit, the FrancoFolies just got 1.5 million.
Harper, you are a piece of work. It's times like this I miss Trudeau. The Harper Government's idea of global influence is tallied by the number of Afghanis they kill.
Read more here.
Human Stabbed a Neanderthal, Evidence Suggests
Newly analyzed remains suggest that a modern human killed a Neanderthal man in what is now Iraq between 50,000 and 75,000 years ago. The finding is scant but tantalizing evidence for a theory that modern humans helped to kill off the Neanderthals.
The probable weapon of choice: A thrown spear.
The evidence: A lethal wound on the remains of a Neanderthal skeleton.
Read more here.
The probable weapon of choice: A thrown spear.
The evidence: A lethal wound on the remains of a Neanderthal skeleton.
Read more here.
Asif Zardari *is* a joke
Should he have himself arrested?
Pakistanis who send jokes about Asif Zardari by text message, email or blog risk being arrested and given a 14-year prison sentence.
The country's interior minister, Rehman Malik, announced the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had been asked to trace electronically transmitted jokes that "slander the political leadership of the country" under the new Cyber Crimes Act.
Mr Malik, said the move would punish the authors of "ill motivated and concocted stories through emails and text messages against the civilian leadership".
The step, which was described by human rights groups as "draconian and authoritarian", came after government was particularly riled by a barrage of caustic jokes being sent to the presidency's official email.
Read more here.
All he will succeed in doing is opening the world's humour floodgates...
"Terrorists have kidnapped our beloved Zardari and are demanding $5,000,000 or they will burn him with petrol. Please donate what you can. I have donated five litres."
What's the difference between Musharraf and Zardari? Musharraf enjoys collecting jokes people make about him, Zardari enjoys collecting people who make jokes about him.
Asif Zardari is so stupid it takes him 3 hours to watch 60 minutes.
- What do you call an honest Pakistani president?
- Asif
Pakistanis who send jokes about Asif Zardari by text message, email or blog risk being arrested and given a 14-year prison sentence.
The country's interior minister, Rehman Malik, announced the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had been asked to trace electronically transmitted jokes that "slander the political leadership of the country" under the new Cyber Crimes Act.
Mr Malik, said the move would punish the authors of "ill motivated and concocted stories through emails and text messages against the civilian leadership".
The step, which was described by human rights groups as "draconian and authoritarian", came after government was particularly riled by a barrage of caustic jokes being sent to the presidency's official email.
Read more here.
All he will succeed in doing is opening the world's humour floodgates...
"Terrorists have kidnapped our beloved Zardari and are demanding $5,000,000 or they will burn him with petrol. Please donate what you can. I have donated five litres."
What's the difference between Musharraf and Zardari? Musharraf enjoys collecting jokes people make about him, Zardari enjoys collecting people who make jokes about him.
Asif Zardari is so stupid it takes him 3 hours to watch 60 minutes.
- What do you call an honest Pakistani president?
- Asif
East Sussex Police™
The East Sussex, UK Police are attempting to have speed camera photographs removed from websites by claiming they represent copyrighted material. In particular, the police are targeting a set of images taken in June 2008 that motorcyclist Peter Barker used to prove that a radar device that clocked him at 38 MPH must have been wrong. Based on measurements of the photographic evidence, a Brighton Magistrates Court judge agreed and threw out the case against Barker.Read more here.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Density Idiots
Defenders of the now threatened Bloor 1 project are a curious lot.
...traffic congestion in the city is primarily a result of low, not high, density planning. The only way to reduce congestion is to allow for mass transit and other forms of transportation (walking, biking, scooters, etc…). And the only way to make these work are to have appropriate (ie. high enough) density levels...
...if there is one intersection in Toronto that can be called the centre of this fine city, it’s this one, Yonge & Bloor. It’s at the intersection of two subway lines and it’s one of the most desirable areas in the city. Come to think of it, 80 storeys may not even be tall enough.
The torrent of illogic exhibited in those 2 paragraphs is entertaining enough, but read more here, and wonder no longer why Toronto is the soulless beauty it is today.
...traffic congestion in the city is primarily a result of low, not high, density planning. The only way to reduce congestion is to allow for mass transit and other forms of transportation (walking, biking, scooters, etc…). And the only way to make these work are to have appropriate (ie. high enough) density levels...
...if there is one intersection in Toronto that can be called the centre of this fine city, it’s this one, Yonge & Bloor. It’s at the intersection of two subway lines and it’s one of the most desirable areas in the city. Come to think of it, 80 storeys may not even be tall enough.
The torrent of illogic exhibited in those 2 paragraphs is entertaining enough, but read more here, and wonder no longer why Toronto is the soulless beauty it is today.
Comet Killed Ice Age Beasts
Space rocks that slammed into the glaciers of eastern Canada some 12,900 years ago likely helped wiped out mega-animals like woolly mammoths and possibly the continent's first human inhabitants called the Clovis people, according to a new study that adds to evidence that a trio of factors were involved.
Read more here.
Read more here.
Yonge and Bloor
Good news for Toronto's wealthy, as Bazis has unleashed the lawyers to fend off the creditors (until August).
Good news for our little Veronika Belovich also, as she can go back (perhaps temporarily) to pulling the wool over the eyes of the gullible rich. Let the sound bites return!
The rest of us in the teaming masses, we can rest easy knowing the rich will be properly housed, not roaming the streets "hey buddy, can you spare $50,000?" We'll just go back to the fields, repeating "condos are good, Yorkville is the core of the city, 2 million for a shoebox is reasonable"...eventually we might even begin to believe it.
Lawyers representing the owner of 1 Bloor reached a deal with creditors yesterday, holding off receivership proceedings on the landmark development until mid-August.
Bazis International has not made payments since December on the $46-million dollar loan it received to build an 80-storey tower, what was to be the largest residential building in Canada, at the southeast corner of Yonge and Bloor streets.
Read more here.
And from the land of barking mad, this article daring to suggest the space might be used for the general public. Raving lunacy to be sure, but entertaining...
No one takes joy in the misfortune of others, but the apparent bad news about the proposed condo at Yonge and Bloor could be great news for Toronto.
We know, we know, the chances the city will take advantage of the situation are remote to non-existent, yet the opportunity to wrest the now-derelict site from its squabbling owners and turn it into something worthy – a public square, say – will never come again.
A dream, a fantasy. Toronto will never ever make room for a space that is purely for the public, not without a corporate stamp on it.
But one can dream....
Read more here.
Good news for our little Veronika Belovich also, as she can go back (perhaps temporarily) to pulling the wool over the eyes of the gullible rich. Let the sound bites return!
The rest of us in the teaming masses, we can rest easy knowing the rich will be properly housed, not roaming the streets "hey buddy, can you spare $50,000?" We'll just go back to the fields, repeating "condos are good, Yorkville is the core of the city, 2 million for a shoebox is reasonable"...eventually we might even begin to believe it.
Lawyers representing the owner of 1 Bloor reached a deal with creditors yesterday, holding off receivership proceedings on the landmark development until mid-August.
Bazis International has not made payments since December on the $46-million dollar loan it received to build an 80-storey tower, what was to be the largest residential building in Canada, at the southeast corner of Yonge and Bloor streets.
Read more here.
And from the land of barking mad, this article daring to suggest the space might be used for the general public. Raving lunacy to be sure, but entertaining...
No one takes joy in the misfortune of others, but the apparent bad news about the proposed condo at Yonge and Bloor could be great news for Toronto.
We know, we know, the chances the city will take advantage of the situation are remote to non-existent, yet the opportunity to wrest the now-derelict site from its squabbling owners and turn it into something worthy – a public square, say – will never come again.
A dream, a fantasy. Toronto will never ever make room for a space that is purely for the public, not without a corporate stamp on it.
But one can dream....
Read more here.
Radu Mazare: Idiot of the Day
An anti-Semitism monitoring organization in Romania has filed an official complaint with prosecutors against a mayor for taking part in a fashion show dressed as a Nazi officer and wearing a swastika.
Radu Mazare, the mayor of Constanta city, is no stranger to showmanship. He once appeared at a public event dressed as James Bond, and he has done fashion magazine spreads
Read more here.
Radu Mazare, the mayor of Constanta city, is no stranger to showmanship. He once appeared at a public event dressed as James Bond, and he has done fashion magazine spreads
Read more here.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Announcing the iDont
The iPhone has applications for almost everything, from helping people to choose the best wine for a meal to locating supermarkets in Holland. Now there is one to help them to stay chaste until marriage.
For just 59p, consumers can download an application that allows them to take a purity pledge and then display a silver ring on their phone to prove their commitment to abstinence.
Read more here.
For just 59p, consumers can download an application that allows them to take a purity pledge and then display a silver ring on their phone to prove their commitment to abstinence.
Read more here.
Toronto's Ugliest Building in Receivership
The billboard that adorns the front of Toronto Life Square this week couldn't be more appropriate.
The Ugly Truth , a soon-to-open film starring Katherine Heigl, is exactly what lies beneath this year-old development that was supposed to herald the final piece in the never-ending reconstruction of the Yonge-Dundas area.
Toronto Life Square, home to the massive 24-screen AMC movie theatre, Future Shop and an Adidas flagship store, has been placed in receivership, making it the city's first major casualty of the commercial-real-estate crunch and a sign of things to come.
Read more here.
Moronic UK Police bust "rave"
Why you may ask? Because these idiots read it would be a "all night" party on Facebook...
Action to prevent an "illegal rave" in Devon last week has been defended by police, despite claims the event was merely an organised birthday barbecue.
Locals feared a rave was to take place at Sowton, near Exeter, on Saturday and called the police, who closed the event down. A force helicopter was deployed.
Andrew Poole, who was celebrating his 30th birthday, claimed police riot vans turned up before any music was played.
But police said it had been advertised on the internet as an all-night party.
And we can't have people having a good time, now can we?
Read more here.
Action to prevent an "illegal rave" in Devon last week has been defended by police, despite claims the event was merely an organised birthday barbecue.
Locals feared a rave was to take place at Sowton, near Exeter, on Saturday and called the police, who closed the event down. A force helicopter was deployed.
Andrew Poole, who was celebrating his 30th birthday, claimed police riot vans turned up before any music was played.
But police said it had been advertised on the internet as an all-night party.
And we can't have people having a good time, now can we?
Read more here.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Ohhh, that's why Bush went to the Olympics
A fight is brewing between Capitol Hill and the Pentagon over allegations that Chinese government agents were allowed to interrogate some detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Jay Alan Liotta, principal director of the Defense Department office responsible for detainee policy, told a House subcommittee on Thursday that he would not publicly comment on whether officials from China or any other nation were granted access to foreign citizens held at the detention facility.
He offered to release that information to the committee during a closed, classified session.
Read more here.
Jay Alan Liotta, principal director of the Defense Department office responsible for detainee policy, told a House subcommittee on Thursday that he would not publicly comment on whether officials from China or any other nation were granted access to foreign citizens held at the detention facility.
He offered to release that information to the committee during a closed, classified session.
Read more here.
Bloor 1, Bazis 0
 |
| Dear God, where will the rich live now? |
Bahhhhhhh....
The gleaming 80-storey condominium tower that was to lead the revitalization of the Yonge-Bloor intersection in Toronto is teetering on the edge of extinction.
On Monday, the Toronto lender that advanced a $46 million loan is going to ask a court to put the Kazakhstan-backed project into receivership and sell off the now-vacant land its international developer boasts is the "best address in the world."
Read more here.
The court documents are peppered with international intrigue...
Friday, July 17, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Willis Group Holdings and pissing territorial markings
Screw history, we bought it, we get to piss our name on the side....
Welcome to the Big Willie.
The Sears Tower, one of the world's iconic skyscrapers and the tallest building in the U.S., was renamed the Willis Tower on Thursday in a downtown ceremony, marking a new chapter in the history of the giant edifice that has dominated the Chicago skyline for nearly four decades.
Mayor Richard Daley unveiled the tower's new name on a large black sign in the lobby with the help of Joseph Plumeri, the Chairman and CEO of Willis Group Holdings, the London-based insurance broker that secured the naming rights as part of its agreement to lease 140,000 square feet of space in the building.
Read more here.
Welcome to the Big Willie.
 |
| Joe Plumeri of Willis Towering Corporate Douce Bag |
Mayor Richard Daley unveiled the tower's new name on a large black sign in the lobby with the help of Joseph Plumeri, the Chairman and CEO of Willis Group Holdings, the London-based insurance broker that secured the naming rights as part of its agreement to lease 140,000 square feet of space in the building.
Read more here.
Cave record of Britain's pioneers
The Cheddar Gorge in Somerset was one of the first sites inhabited by humans when they returned to Britain towards the end of the last Ice Age.
New radiocarbon dates on bones from Gough's Cave show people were living there some 14,700 years ago.
The results confirm the site's great antiquity and suggest human hunters re-colonised Britain at a time of rapid climate warming.
Read more here.
New radiocarbon dates on bones from Gough's Cave show people were living there some 14,700 years ago.
The results confirm the site's great antiquity and suggest human hunters re-colonised Britain at a time of rapid climate warming.
Read more here.
Paul McCartney Get Back @ Broadway NYC
Sheesh with the roofs again. Everybody copies The...oh yeah right.
Tim Hortons expands their crap south
At least you can ask for a coffee there without resorting to pretentious fake Italian...
Microsoft's Coming, there goes the neighbourhood
Microsoft, always the innovator...soon they'll be claiming it was all their idea and Apple copied them...
Here’s a tale of bad neighbors waiting to unravel: Microsoft is planning to set up shop right next to its worst enemy, Apple.
In a keynote speech at the Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner told partners that the corporation is planning to open the first of its retail stores next to existing Apple stores.
Read more here.
And read 10 Ways Microsoft's Retail Stores Will Differ From Apple Stores here.
3) Instead of a "Genius Bar" (as Apple provides) Microsoft will offer an Excuse Bar. It will be staffed by Microsofties trained in the art of evading questions, directing you to complicated and obscure fixes, and explaining it's a problem with the hardware -- not a software bug.
Here’s a tale of bad neighbors waiting to unravel: Microsoft is planning to set up shop right next to its worst enemy, Apple.
In a keynote speech at the Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner told partners that the corporation is planning to open the first of its retail stores next to existing Apple stores.
Read more here.
And read 10 Ways Microsoft's Retail Stores Will Differ From Apple Stores here.
3) Instead of a "Genius Bar" (as Apple provides) Microsoft will offer an Excuse Bar. It will be staffed by Microsofties trained in the art of evading questions, directing you to complicated and obscure fixes, and explaining it's a problem with the hardware -- not a software bug.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Hamas accuses Israel of dumping aphrodisiac gum on Gaza
Double your pleasure, double your fun...
Hamas suspects that Israeli intelligence services are supplying its Gaza Strip stronghold with chewing gum that boosts the sex drive in order to "corrupt the young," an official has said.
Read more here.
Hamas suspects that Israeli intelligence services are supplying its Gaza Strip stronghold with chewing gum that boosts the sex drive in order to "corrupt the young," an official has said.
Read more here.
Nokia loves them some despots
The mobile phone company Nokia is being hit by a growing economic boycott in Iran as consumers sympathetic to the post-election protest movement begin targeting a string of companies deemed to be collaborating with the regime.
Wholesale vendors in the capital report that demand for Nokia handsets has fallen by as much as half in the wake of calls to boycott Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) for selling communications monitoring systems to Iran.
Read more here.
Wholesale vendors in the capital report that demand for Nokia handsets has fallen by as much as half in the wake of calls to boycott Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) for selling communications monitoring systems to Iran.
Read more here.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Israel, advertising and propaganda
Skin crawling.
ABC reports that the commercial closes with a voiceover saying, "We all just want to have fun."
So have fun, just stay behind the fucking wall.
Olympus and the corporate rip off
The original.
Olympus rip...
They only got around to crediting the original after "Some of the comments we have read here suggest that we should mention the creator of "A wolf loves pork", Mr Takeuchi Taijin...We didnt mention his name because we did not want to do so without his prior agreement."
So, stealing his concept, okie dokie, crediting him, not so much.
story via youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com
Cats 'exploit' humans by purring
Cat owners may have suspected as much, but it seems our feline friends have found a way to manipulate us humans.
Researchers at the University of Sussex have discovered that cats use a "soliciting purr" to overpower their owners and garner attention and food.
Unlike regular purring, this sound incorporates a "cry", with a similar frequency to a human baby's.
The team said cats have "tapped into" a human bias - producing a sound that humans find very difficult to ignore.
Read more here.
Researchers at the University of Sussex have discovered that cats use a "soliciting purr" to overpower their owners and garner attention and food.
Unlike regular purring, this sound incorporates a "cry", with a similar frequency to a human baby's.
The team said cats have "tapped into" a human bias - producing a sound that humans find very difficult to ignore.
Read more here.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Fucking Hell. Ireland passes blasphemy law
I'm not sure which piece of unpopular Irish news is being buried by which: the announcement of a second referendum on the Lisbon treaty, or the shuffling through of a law creating penalties for blasphemy, an offence that has never properly existed in the Irish state.
Funny how this comes on the heals of a massive abuse scandal involving the Catholic Church there...
Set the clock on the Wayback Machine way way back Sherman, we're off for a ride!
Read more here.
Funny how this comes on the heals of a massive abuse scandal involving the Catholic Church there...
Set the clock on the Wayback Machine way way back Sherman, we're off for a ride!
Read more here.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Psychiatrist Mark Goulston: Idiot of the Day
Now the studios are hiring quacks to tell us what is funny and what isn't?
On the other end of the spectrum are those viewers who don’t like Bruno, who typically feel victimized by the world and who take themselves very seriously. Their core identity is that of a victim, Goulston says.
"Show me someone who’s really offended by Bruno and I’ll show you a highly self-righteous person," he says. "These people feel that the world already treats them the way Bruno treats people.”
The movie tends to bring out the adolescent rebel in us, Goulston says.
The "adolescent" part, he's dead on....
Read more here.
On the other end of the spectrum are those viewers who don’t like Bruno, who typically feel victimized by the world and who take themselves very seriously. Their core identity is that of a victim, Goulston says.
"Show me someone who’s really offended by Bruno and I’ll show you a highly self-righteous person," he says. "These people feel that the world already treats them the way Bruno treats people.”
The movie tends to bring out the adolescent rebel in us, Goulston says.
The "adolescent" part, he's dead on....
Read more here.
Mystery of the Queen's stolen silver
This democracy thing's just not working out.
There was a time when an invitation to a Buckingham Palace garden party was the imprimatur of respectability. But not any more.
Proof of this? The Queen's sadness - and dismay - at the disappearance of irreplaceable pieces of her personal crockery and cutlery from her private tent which, I can reveal, followed the deluge that washed out Tuesday's tea party.
Read more here.
There was a time when an invitation to a Buckingham Palace garden party was the imprimatur of respectability. But not any more.
Proof of this? The Queen's sadness - and dismay - at the disappearance of irreplaceable pieces of her personal crockery and cutlery from her private tent which, I can reveal, followed the deluge that washed out Tuesday's tea party.
Read more here.
Brüno, the World's Most Accurate Village Idiot Detector opens today
"Brüno is funny" - village idiot
"Brüno is an embarrassing piece of crap" - normal sane human being.
"Brüno is an embarrassing piece of crap" - normal sane human being.
Cretaceous and Cambrian news
The great explosion in flowering plants during the Cretaceous period is one of the great enigmas of evolution.
Charles Darwin had no explanation, calling it an 'abominable mystery'.
But now scientists think they've solved the riddle of how flowers came to dominate the conifers and ferns that preceded them.
Read more here.
Earth's 4.5-billion-year history is filled with several turning points when temperatures changed dramatically, asteroids bombarded the planet and life forms came and disappeared. But one of the biggest moments in Earth's lifetime is the Cambrian explosion of life, roughly 540 million years ago, when complex, multi-cellular life burst out all over the planet.
Read more here.
Charles Darwin had no explanation, calling it an 'abominable mystery'.
But now scientists think they've solved the riddle of how flowers came to dominate the conifers and ferns that preceded them.
Read more here.
Earth's 4.5-billion-year history is filled with several turning points when temperatures changed dramatically, asteroids bombarded the planet and life forms came and disappeared. But one of the biggest moments in Earth's lifetime is the Cambrian explosion of life, roughly 540 million years ago, when complex, multi-cellular life burst out all over the planet.
Read more here.
Copernicus Had Blue Eyes
Nicolaus Copernicus, the father of modern astronomy, gazed at the sky through bright blue eyes, according to genetic research that has identified the scientist's remains.
Published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research -- announced last November -- details the identification of the remains, while also suggesting that Copernicus most likely had blue eyes, fair skin and light hair color.
Read more here.
Published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research -- announced last November -- details the identification of the remains, while also suggesting that Copernicus most likely had blue eyes, fair skin and light hair color.
Read more here.
Buckingham Palace not Twittering, they're PRing
Buckingham Palace has revealed that the Royal Family has now joined the Twitter micro-blogging revolution.
The Twitter account @BritishMonarchy has just gone live, following several weeks of testing...
...But the spokeswoman said neither the Queen nor other members of the Royal Family would be tweeting personally.
"The intention," she explained, "is that it is a news service rather than a personal voice."
The "tweets" provided by the PR Machine 2000™
Read more here.
The Twitter account @BritishMonarchy has just gone live, following several weeks of testing...
...But the spokeswoman said neither the Queen nor other members of the Royal Family would be tweeting personally.
"The intention," she explained, "is that it is a news service rather than a personal voice."
The "tweets" provided by the PR Machine 2000™
Read more here.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
The Valley Swim Club: Throwbacks of the Day
More than 60 campers from Northeast Philadelphia were turned away from a private swim club and left to wonder if their race was the reason.
"I heard this lady, she was like, 'Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?' She's like, 'I'm scared they might do something to my child,'" said camper Dymire Baylor.
The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club. The Valley Swim Club is a private club that advertises open membership. But the campers' first visit to the pool suggested otherwise.
"When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool," Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. "The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately."
The reason given you might ask...
"There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club," John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club said in a statement.
Welcome to 2009.
Read more here.
"I heard this lady, she was like, 'Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?' She's like, 'I'm scared they might do something to my child,'" said camper Dymire Baylor.
The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club. The Valley Swim Club is a private club that advertises open membership. But the campers' first visit to the pool suggested otherwise.
"When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool," Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. "The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately."
The reason given you might ask...
"There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club," John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club said in a statement.
Welcome to 2009.
Read more here.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Neanderthals killed off by H1N1
Yet another theory.
Scientists seeking to uncover the mystery of what happened to the Neanderthals should look to the modus operandi of another great die-off 30,000 years later, argues a Danish expert in an article submitted to the Journal of Archaeological Science.
In the article, professor emeritus Bent Sørensen of the University of Roskilde wrote that disease carried by Homo sapiens migrating out of Africa was responsible for the gradual extinction of our prehistoric cousins in the same way that European illnesses ravaged Native American populations in the sixteenth century.
‘Modern humans brought illnesses they could survive themselves, but for Neanderthals they were deadly,’ Sørensen said.
Read more here.
Scientists seeking to uncover the mystery of what happened to the Neanderthals should look to the modus operandi of another great die-off 30,000 years later, argues a Danish expert in an article submitted to the Journal of Archaeological Science.
In the article, professor emeritus Bent Sørensen of the University of Roskilde wrote that disease carried by Homo sapiens migrating out of Africa was responsible for the gradual extinction of our prehistoric cousins in the same way that European illnesses ravaged Native American populations in the sixteenth century.
‘Modern humans brought illnesses they could survive themselves, but for Neanderthals they were deadly,’ Sørensen said.
Read more here.
Is the Harper Government Homophobic? (shock horror!!)
Small minded, petty, anti science mean spirited bigots yes...those are a given.
A Conservative MP says federal funding for Toronto's Gay Pride parade may be responsible for junior cabinet minister Diane Ablonczy losing a key part of her portfolio.
Brad Trost, the MP for Saskatoon-Humboldt, said Ablonczy's decision to use $400,000 for the popular parade that celebrates homosexual, bisexual, and transgendered culture was not supported by most of the Tory caucus.
Read more here.
A Conservative MP says federal funding for Toronto's Gay Pride parade may be responsible for junior cabinet minister Diane Ablonczy losing a key part of her portfolio.
Brad Trost, the MP for Saskatoon-Humboldt, said Ablonczy's decision to use $400,000 for the popular parade that celebrates homosexual, bisexual, and transgendered culture was not supported by most of the Tory caucus.
Read more here.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
NYPD: There was a video? Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn!
I tell ya folks, police everywhere want taking video of them made illegal. It takes all the fun out of work.
A cyclist knocked off his bike by a rookie cop last summer is suing the NYPD for $1.5million on Tuesday for trying to cover up the shocking attack, which was taped and put on YouTube.
Lawyers for farmer Christopher Long, 30, are charging inpapers to be filed today in Manhattan Federal Court that former Police Officer Patrick Pogan, 23, tried to conceal the truth about the July 2008 tackle.
Read more here.
Marketing fools at the Sci Fi channel go ahead with name change
To one of the more pretentious names in TV history.
Syfy, making the channel Syfylous.
Make you want to cry doesn't it?
"Perhaps the most ill-advised branding move since New Coke," wrote CNet's "Digital City" blogger Dan Ackerman.
Even some of Sci Fi's own SciFi.com commenters were dismissive.
"This is a terrible idea," Grateful Josh wrote.
"You mean the announcement wasn't an April Fool's joke?" Sue Lee asked, adding that the channel should have changed its name to "FRAK," a common expletive on Sci Fi's popular "Battlestar Galactica." Some critics have taken to pronouncing the new name "Siffy."
Read more here.
Syfy, making the channel Syfylous.
Make you want to cry doesn't it?
"Perhaps the most ill-advised branding move since New Coke," wrote CNet's "Digital City" blogger Dan Ackerman.
Even some of Sci Fi's own SciFi.com commenters were dismissive.
"This is a terrible idea," Grateful Josh wrote.
"You mean the announcement wasn't an April Fool's joke?" Sue Lee asked, adding that the channel should have changed its name to "FRAK," a common expletive on Sci Fi's popular "Battlestar Galactica." Some critics have taken to pronouncing the new name "Siffy."
Read more here.
Monday, July 06, 2009
The first video game
The first video game invented in the United States was not Pong, but it was similar! Invented by William A. Higginbotham, it was called 'Tennis for Two', and it was played on an Oscilloscope.
Clueless Republicans: Audra Shay
The joy of the Internet is that it enables people like this to become idiots on a global scale.
Note to Republicans: Racist “humor,” the Internet, and political ambitions don’t mix. Audra Shay, vice chairman of the Young Republicans and the leading candidate to be elected its chairman on Saturday, is now the latest in a growing list of GOP officials learning this lesson the hard way, based on pictures of a now-deleted Facebook page obtained by The Daily Beast.
Read more here.
Note to Republicans: Racist “humor,” the Internet, and political ambitions don’t mix. Audra Shay, vice chairman of the Young Republicans and the leading candidate to be elected its chairman on Saturday, is now the latest in a growing list of GOP officials learning this lesson the hard way, based on pictures of a now-deleted Facebook page obtained by The Daily Beast.
Read more here.
Jeff Heinrich: Idiot of the Day
Journalism hits a new low with this juvenile piece of crap.
My high-school jazz band was never conducted by a woman, let alone a middle-aged American blonde with a penchant for sleeveless black tops that show off her Pilates-styled arms. But then, again, if my high-school jazz band had been conducted by such a woman, I might have been too distracted and never become a gifted clarinet player.
The comments after are far more entertaining.
Read more here.
My high-school jazz band was never conducted by a woman, let alone a middle-aged American blonde with a penchant for sleeveless black tops that show off her Pilates-styled arms. But then, again, if my high-school jazz band had been conducted by such a woman, I might have been too distracted and never become a gifted clarinet player.
The comments after are far more entertaining.
Read more here.
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Saturday, July 04, 2009
The Ukraine: Idiot Nanny State
Possession of pornography is now a criminal offense in Ukraine, Lenta.ru reports, after Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko signed a law to that effect today. Human rights activists and members of the Ukrainian artistic community had asked the president to veto the law.
The draft of the law was prepared by the Ukrainian government. It was passed by the Ukrainian parliament, the Supreme Rada, on June 11.
Now pornography can be kept only “for medical purposes,” according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice.
Let's play doctor..
Read more here.
The draft of the law was prepared by the Ukrainian government. It was passed by the Ukrainian parliament, the Supreme Rada, on June 11.
Now pornography can be kept only “for medical purposes,” according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice.
Let's play doctor..
Read more here.
Friday, July 03, 2009
Scary Christians: Time for a Christian Revolutionary War
It is time for a new Christian revolutionary war. It is time for Christians all over the United States to stand up for our Judeo-Christian heritage....The true church of Jesus Christ must arise in this desperate hour and storm heaven with our prayers. We must not relent until our Christian heritage is established again in every aspect of society.
Run!
Read more here.
Run!
Read more here.
Via Aurelia: The Roman Empire's Lost Highway
At first glance, it didn't appear that impressive: a worn limestone pillar, six feet high and two feet wide, standing slightly askew beside a country road near the village of Pélissanne in southern France. "A lot of people pass by without knowing what it is," Bruno Tassan, 61, was saying, as he tugged aside dense weeds that had grown over the column since he last inspected it. Tassan was showing me a milliaire, or milestone, one of hundreds planted along the highways of Gaul at the time of the Roman Empire.
Read more here.
Read more here.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Cartoon Network: Bad Marketing of the Day
Cartoon Network's ham fisted attempt to deflect criticism that they are dumping cartoons.
Cringe worthy.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Fort Worth Police: Throwbacks of the Day
They raid a gay bar on Pride, beat up on some people, breaking the skull of one. Their defense?
You're touched and advanced in certain ways by people inside the bar, that's offensive,' he said. 'I'm happy with the restraint used when they were contacted like that.'
Idiot (yet depressingly enlightening) statement of the day.
Almost as alarming is the fact the police think they're attractive enough that anyone would *want* to touch them.
What would they say if they raided a lesbian bar?
You're not touched and advanced in certain ways by people inside the bar, that's offensive,' he said. 'I'm happy with the restraint used when they were not contacted like that.'
Read more here and here.
You're touched and advanced in certain ways by people inside the bar, that's offensive,' he said. 'I'm happy with the restraint used when they were contacted like that.'
Idiot (yet depressingly enlightening) statement of the day.
Almost as alarming is the fact the police think they're attractive enough that anyone would *want* to touch them.
What would they say if they raided a lesbian bar?
You're not touched and advanced in certain ways by people inside the bar, that's offensive,' he said. 'I'm happy with the restraint used when they were not contacted like that.'
Read more here and here.
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