75¢ / INT'L EDITION
By now we've all seen the list of those webmsites who didn't give enough thought to their URLs.
whorepresents.com
expertsexchange.com
penisland.net
therapistfinder.com
powergenitalia.com
molestationnursery.com
ipanywhere.com
cummingfirst.com
speedofart.com
But here's a brand new one on me: NY's Top Child Porn! ((via dive into mark ))
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No doubt RTÉ, BBC and others will be providing us with special TV and radio reports on the U.S. elections but for the genuine immersive American experience, the internet is your best bet.
There are plenty of online talk shows but National Public Radio (NPR) should have the most sober discussions.
Those pranksters FOX News have an interactive map tracking votes as they come in, which will undoubtedly show whatever the McCain campaign decides may be useful.
The CNN map might be more trustworthy and there is plenty of information on their election centre.
You can see some limited live coverage on TV websites like MSNBC and ABC. But for Al-Jazeera, BBC, CSPAN, ABC, CNN and others I recommend Livestation.
This requires registration (simple email and password, no activation or fees) and a download but there are about 1,500 channels, at least 20 of which are worthwhile.
The video quality is excellent and the user interface is intuitive and minimal–just how I like it.
Also, please remember to keep your fingers crossed until the final tally is in. Of course, this could take three weeks and a supreme court hearing.
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You may be aware that, because of a striking physical similarity, Tina Fey has returned to Saturday Night Live from her own successful series 30 Rock, specifically to impersonate vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
Last week's skit (featuring Hillary) was priceless. This week's one is a little more ominous. Why? (Continued)
I splashed out on a little toy recently, a Garmin GPS navigation device. Pretty nifty. 3-D maps for all of Europe and a nice voice that says 'Turn Left Now' and that kind of thing. It'll come in handy for those gigs booked for hotels in the middle of nowhere–takes the pressure off.
Ingo suggested another use: as you fall out of the pub (stocious, of course) you can hold it up to your ear like a radio, as it says 'Turn Right Now' etc. and brings you in home without having to expend any brain cells.
I'll be trying it out later on. Any other ideas?
Om du är fascinerad av lokala traditioner i Sverige, då den traditionella kön part kallas Bjäggenswämmker kommer utan tvivel att vara av stort intresse för dig. Det är praxis att täcka någon i honung innan du bjuder in dem för kommunala bad. Det innebär vanligtvis samlag med flera medlemmar av det motsatta könet.
- Svenska Rekord av Tillfälliga Möten (Dec 2009)
This will come as somewhat of a disappointment to anyone who received this hospitality, thinking he was the only one!
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Homeland Security claims that the famous 'no-fly list' has only about 2,500 names on it. The ACLU has estimated that the Terrorist Watch list now has more than 1M names attached. Somewhere in between is the number of people who get hassled at the airport for no good reason–other than their name being, say, 'Robert Johnson' or famously 'T.Kennedy.'
A couple of years ago, the current White House Cheif of Staff Rahm Emanuel made this call during a speech at the Brady Centre. (About a minute in.)
I've never understood the legality of these lists: if you pose a danger to the public, you should be arrested and in jail. If not, you should be allowed to go about your business unimpeded. The mythology of this whole system has been exploded convincingly by security expert Bruce Schneier.
It reeks of Orwell, McCarthyism, and Dick! Philip K. Dick that is, whose Pre-Cogs in the film Minority Report were able to predict murders, thus allowing the police to arrest people who hadn't yet committed any crime.
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If they can do it, we can to. Let's break the cycle of abuse–the abuse of reason that is.
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Thousands of these Mickey Mouse devices have been ordered by various security agencies, at a cost of up to $60, 000 each. Boy, are we in the wrong business!
It seems absurd that these contraptions are still finding buyers in the form of official government contracts, especially in the wake of the Dept. of Homeland Security's embarrassing Sniffex debacle–a useless box which is alarmingly still being marketed as the Sniffex PLUS. The absurd MOLE, nowadays masquerading as the GT200, is also still trumpeting its own awesomeness, despite being discredited by Sandia Labs five years ago.
According to the ADE 651 website: (Continued)
Phone: Bringgg!
Me: Hello?
Guy: Hey, it's me [Guy] from [pub].
Me: Hi.
Guy: Listen, I have a band coming in the week your band is off.
Me: That's great.
Guy: They're coming up from Cork.
Me: Yes, well I'm sure we're all sick of local acts by now.
Guy: They need a PA system.
Me: I'll be using my one. I know a few guys who rent stuff like that.
Guy: Well, I thought you might know someone who had one.
Me: Sure, I've got about 200 band numbers in my phone, and they all have PA's. I suppose I could find out whether they're off that night, and are willing to rent…
Guy: I'd be looking for a favour on this one.
Me:…
Guy: They'll need about 4 mics.
Me: So…I should call some of my business colleagues and ask them to deliver and set up a full PA rig with speakers around 9pm, then collect it around 1am, for a band they never heard of, in a bar they don't get gigs from–as a personal favour to me, for free, all because you booked (and are paying for) an out-of-town band that apparently comes without any amplification? Correct?
Guy: Yes.
Me: Yeah, I'll let you know how that goes…
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Everywhere you go, at every party, there's at least one person in attendance with a camera-phone who wants to immortalise the moment, however mundane, and immediately upload the evidence to their Facebook page around 3am that morning.
You wake to find your sordid adventures chronicled at every unflattering angle. You know this because someone tag-happy clown has made their mission to put a name to every single face. Just great.
Then, after requesting the untagging (and removal) of the worst offenders, and regardless of the shame, you end up cruising all of the photos and all their other albums too. Why? Curiosity, spite, boredom, who knows.
But what happens when you don't recognise some of the (possibly attractive?) people in the photos, but annoyingly they're not tagged with any names? (Continued)
When translated, the message is this:
Mental retardation among adults is now running rampant in Russia.
See video at Discover Magazine.
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I usually take a contrary view whenever newspapers get all 'Daily Mail' over an issue like this. I try to see behind the posturing and finger-pointing, to the underlying story, then come up with some posturing and finger-pointing of my own.
This time I'm stumped. According to the Limerick Leader, our local TD's claimed about €1M in OPM ((Other People's Money.)) expenses since the 2007 election.
When asked to comment on his expenses, Kieran O'Donnell said that as a first time TD he had incurred additional costs in setting up his full-time office in Limerick city. He added that as the party's deputy finance spokesperson, he was a member of two finance committees and had been travelling to Dublin frequently for meetings since the economic crisis took hold.
The amount claimed by O'Donnell was €128,977. Now, call me Judy, but that seems like a lot of money to 'set up an office' and travel to Dublin, however 'frequently.' (Continued)
