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http://www.slightlydisgruntled.co.uk/iknow/
iknowyouknowiknowV2. Like the old one, but better.
This place... well, it'll be here, but it's old and it's time is done. G'night old girl.
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I know it's not funny. Not at all, but I can't help but grin when I read "suspected of having wanted to blow herself up".
There is something wrong with me.
Listening to: The Great Escape from the album "With Love And Squalor" by We Are Scientists
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On the Writer’s Guild demanding a slice of product-placement payments:
It’s not an unreasonable request to expect to be compensated for the little part of a writer, actor or director’s soul that dies each time they get a memo from NBC’s Strategic Corporate Partnerships asking them to make sure that this week’s Law and Order: SVU victim is prominently drinking a Pepsi right before her fatal violation.
I hate you all and want you to die. Motherfuckers.
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Link (via Fortean Times)Among a fringe community of paranoids, aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either directions (either emanating from an outside source, or emanating from the cranium of the subject), certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified. These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government's invasive abilities. We theorize that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason.
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1. You'll only see porn when you want to.
Sick of seeing pornographic pop-ups all over your computer while you're helping your daughter with a research project? Since Firefox blocks pop-ups, you won't get tons of porn in your face when you're least expecting it. On the flip side, since Firefox stops spyware from taking over your computer, there will be nothing to slow you down when you go and look for porn.
2. Your kids will only see porn when they want to.
Sorry, buddy... the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
3. Your computer won't spend its free time telling the world about Viagra soft tabs.
Experts say 80% of spam comes from hacked PCs. Firefox has much better security, so your computer will get hacked less. Do it for the children, the children! (caveat: reducing Viagra spam may also reduce total number of children.)
4. Mozilla doesn't inflate prices and use the money to vaccinate children in Africa.
Uhh... wait a second. Maybe Microsoft's monopoly hasn't been all bad. Better donate to Oxfam. Seriously, you should.
(via EFF Minilinks)
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src="http://img.engadget.com/common/images/9928248614747883.jpg?0.425865541413504" width="225" align="right" vspace="4" border="1" />
Warcraft? Kuro5hin user Metavisual has detailed his experience with addiction to World of Warcraft and
his run-in with a cyber vixen who was looking for a fix to her self esteem by snaring the love of a married dude
online.
At one point, Metavisual purchased plane tickets and laid plans to visit his online lover. He packed a suitcase
(and probably some birth control) and was just about to head out the door when his wife sniffed something rotten and
left the house first, trapping him between his desire to consummate his digital relationship and his duty to make
sure his young children had supervision (he couldn’t leave the house if his wife weren’t there).
This tale isn’t uncommon. You may have heard it before if you’ve been playing MMOGs for a while, but what makes
this interesting is the engaging style of it and the implication that WoW is the most popular MMOG ever,
therefore this story must be playing out in countless marriages across the land. A whole new population of players is
learning to come to terms with an incredibly seductive virtual world.
Many years from now, just about everyone will have been exposed to a virtual world and will have learned to find
balance between the seduction of those worlds and the realities of meatspace. Parents will have talks with their kids
about the proper way to balance the two. Support structures will be in place and everyone will be given tools to
understand how it all fits together. Until then, virtual world newbies will have to figure it out on their own. Many
of them will make mistakes.
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SPONSORED BY: Fable: The Lost Chapters. Now On PC. Enter a world where every choice changes your fate. Enhanced graphics, new journeys, good or evil-how will you choose to play?
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A Lincolnshire mum has been left "annoyed" and "gobsmacked" after her 10-year-old daughter returned from school with a bag of amphetamines - courtesy of the local Old Bill.…
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Dean Koontz is finally getting called on his racist bullshit. The Guardian picks up the story of Koontz's anti-Japanese remarks at a recent luncheon, which was initially reported by authors Lee Goldberg and Tod Goldberg. (The Los Angeles Times reported on the story earlier this week.)
Koontz is a regular donor to the Republican National Committee — he donated $1,500 to the RNC on June 27, and has given to President Bush before. You think they'll return the donations? Ha ha! Me neither.
At any rate, I'm happy to announce Bookslut's First Annual Man, Is That Dean Koontz a Prick or What? Contest. In 250 words or less, write an erotic, tender-yet-sexy story about Dean Koontz having some sort of hot, life-changing physical encounter with a Japanese guy. Send your stories as plain text in an email to mschaub at bookslut dot com, with "Man, Is That Dean Koontz a Prick or What?" in the subject line. All entries should be submitted on or before Friday, November 18.
Whoever writes the best/hottest/funniest story will receive a copy of Tod Goldberg's Simplify (read Bookslut's review here) and a copy of Lee Goldberg's Unsold TV Pilots: The Greatest Shows You Never Saw, as well as whatever Dean Koontz book is cheapest at the used bookstore. Also, I will sign the Koontz book, possibly as "Mr. Teriyaki."
Enter now! It's erotica with a cause. (The cause: my own personal amusement.)
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NO NO NO NO NO NO!
FUCK!
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I might go somewhere with this tomorrow. Not sure. For now, good night sweet prince.
Listening to: The Poison from the album "The Poison" by Bullet For My Valentine
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…an argument erupted between Mr Roughan and Shepherd and both fell to the ground. Mr Roughan then stood and stomped heavily on the teenager’s head, Mr Jones said. Shepherd was bleeding profusely and was making a “choking” sound.
Mr Jones said Mr Roughan then ran to the house, returned with a kitchen knife and stabbed Shepherd several times in the back. After severing the teenager’s head with a tomahawk, Mr Roughan wrapped the torso in a carpet, dragged it under the house and stabbed it repeatedly with the knife.
“The cunt’s psycho,” Mr Jones told the two detectives. “He was just so calm about it. It was nothin’ to him.” Mr Jones said that next morning, Mr Roughan hugged him, saying, “us Celts should stick together”, a reference to their Celtic ancestry.
Mr Jones said Mr Roughan laughed as he “bowled the head up the hill, like it was a bowling ball…”
Listening to: Rosenrot from the album "Rosenrot" by Rammstein
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That's some quality use of bandwidth right there.
So I was thinking about all of the stuff we lock ourselves into on the weekend. This little mistakes we make, and how there's never an Ackbar around when you need one.
I'd quite like a little fairy Ackbar to sit on my shoulder and shout: "It's a trap!" when I'm about to hit a problem. Think about it. Walking down the street, and some old guy in a car pulls up. Opens the passenger door, and leers at you suggestively, salivating while saying: "come in little boy".
He might be touching himself at the same time, I'm not sure because it's not happened to me.
Oh, and there are sweets on the seat. I know what you're thinking. Get in. Eat the sweets. I wass thinking the same thing. You'd be wrong though, and with your little Ackbar, you'd safely escape. He'd appear with a *pop* and shout "IT'S A TRAP" in your ear, and you'd be saved from a terrible fate as the old guy undoubtedly told you about his ship-in-a-bottle collection, or something boring for the rest of the journey to wherever you are going.
http://elitemrp.net/iat/ is some good fun. It is an "IT'S A TRAP!" image generator. Quality.
Here's one I made earlier:
And then there's this one:
I got a little more creative with that. Haha. False idols are funny.
Then I found this at the same site (someone else made it):
And THIS is way better, because it's a bit subtler:
So now little children, it's always a TARP!
This post, by the way, is funnier if you know me well, because Hun it's always a TRAP!
Listening to: Spit It Out from the album "9.0: Live" by Slipknot
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KH points us to this story on Singapore's executioner, who has "come to light because a 25 year old Australian Asian kid is going to be hanged shortly and the Australian media wants to 'out' the man who's going to do the deed." He is 73 years old, has been on the job since the 50s, and has killed over 500 850 people. He works "wearing simple casual clothes, often just a T-shirt, shorts, sports shoes and knee-length socks," and gets S$400 per kill -- he's a Manchester United supporter.
Journalists I spoke with in Singapore said that while some executions are turned into spectacles, many others are conducted quietly, with little or no reportage. The Singaporean government, which owns all the media in Singapore, has in the past prohibited the publication of some details of executions, and in one instance banned the use of an executed man's image in connection with fundraisers for his orphaned children.
(Thanks, KH!)
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This is just so fucked up. Like a Dario Argento movie starring Rowan Atkinson...
Man pays for sex with prostitute from King's Cross (£20) then they share some crack.
He kills her (now claiming self defense).
He leaves the body in his brother's flat here in London and sets off to Nottingham, Leeds and Wakefield.
Two weeks later he goes back to the flat, but the smell sends him off to Bournemouth to visit his estranged wife.
A week or so later he goes back again and this time cuts off the arms, the legs and the head.
Freezing the body parts now seems a good idea so he does that for a bit.
Next thing is to put the parts into a holdall (never has a name for a bag been so fitting) weigh it down with a handy piece of tarmac and dump it into the Regent's Canal at Caledonian Bridge.
That just leaves the torso which he shoves into a suitcase, but finds too heavy to schlep all the way to the canal.
So he catches the bus.
The case is then dumped into the canal at York Bridge, but fails to sink.
At this point he again gives up and heads back to Bournemouth.
Children find the case and its contents a little way down stream and ring the police.
Police find the man quickly enough because the case he used had his brother's name written inside it.
And if that's not enough the BBC are awash with London crime stories this evening:
Six men deny Mary-Ann's killing
Cabbie faces life for wife murder
Murder hunt for 'chav' daughter
Man gunned down on his doorstep
Makes you want to stay in and mess around on a blog or something...
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“It’s about drawing people in. It’s about creating a tone, and slowly tuning it so that everything becomes threatening,” said Ellis. “It’s hard to do the sharp-shock of horror in comics, but it is possible to create a real miasma of disturbingness (which may not be a word). Bit by bit, you can worm your way into a reader’s head and, not outright scare them, but disturb them… create genuine revulsion, so that they feel like they need a shower afterwards.”
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GoGoGoGo
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Of interest because work sends people to france often, and it's always interesting to see something rise up.
Listening to: Stricken from the album "Ten Thousand Fists" by Disturbed
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There comes a point in every child's life when they look upon the toys they once cherished and decide that they've outgrown them. We've all done it: Star Wars figures given away to ungrateful siblings; Action Men forced to retire and return to civilian life; comics left uncerimoniously at the local dump (this is before the days of enforced recycling you understand).
We still remember the day that we condemned a huge archive of pristine 2000 ADs, dating back a good three or four years, to a bonfire in the back yard. In the foolishness of youth we thought we'd have no use for them, but now we'd give anything to flick through those dusty pages and relive our childhood adventures alongside Dredd, Slaine and Strontium Dog...
..all of which is an overly-nostalgic way of letting you know that next month, Londonist favourites Playlounge will be presenting an exhibition of original artwork by contemporary artists and designers celebrating the characters of 2000 AD.
The exhibition, titled Zarjaz!, will feature works by forty big names including James Jarvis, Will Sweeney and Pete Fowler who have all been asked to "create their own interpretations of 2000 AD characters."
The exhibition has been put together in partnership with Puma so as well as the paintings there'll also be the added bonus of five limited edition T-shirts designed by some of the artists available to buy at the exhibition.
Zarjaz! opens at 11 Shorts Gardens in Seven Dials, WC2 on 10 December 2005 through to the 10 January 2006. Entry is free.
I'd like to go. People please come with me.
Listening to: Stricken from the album "Ten Thousand Fists" by Disturbed
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According to today's Times a 'suspect sample' of the avian flu virus "went missing" for a day or two at Heathrow airport recently.
The sample, which was taken from "dead Romanian birds" was flown into the airport by BA but when security couriers arrived to collect the package they couldn't find it.
The Times article is sketchy on details. There's no indication of exactly when this happened and all we're told is that the sample went missing for "at least 24 hours and possibly two days".
Does that mean they found it? And what does "BA began an investigation and said there was no health risk" mean exactly?
Did they check the baggage carousel? We bet it was on there along with a pram and a set of skis.
Listening to: Stricken from the album "Ten Thousand Fists" by Disturbed
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For nearly two weeks now, [riots / civil unrest / uprising / your term here] have spread throughout France. Link to one of many news accounts.
As Boing Boing reader David says,
Most of those involved are of African or Arab Muslim origin. The riots have reached Paris, and some out spreading outside of France to Brussels. The rioting stems from the inequalities toward the French Muslims, where they have a very high unemployment rate. President Jacques Chirac doesn't seem to want to try to change something to make the people happy, instead it's just concerned with putting down the riot, and probably pretending nothing happened afterward.
Here, a Parisian blogger shares observations from his aunt, who lives in an area where this activity is taking place. Some are calling it "Baghdad on the Seine".
Her building suffered a fire yesterday night, started by the usual suspects in the neighborhood (they blew up two motorbikes in a local on the ground floor), ignored for almost one hour by the police and firemen. The solidarity of the inhabitants helped to evacuate everybody, and provide temporary shelter while the fire raged. Most people went back home the same evening as the fire was doused eventually.A few cars were also burnt in the neighborood, but hardly more than usual. It's one of those things that happen and that you don't really worry about if you live there. This week, it goes on TV if you do it, so of course more are tempted to do so (last night saw 1300 cars burn, up from 900 the previous night), including in provincial cities. There is no coordination of anything, it's just mostly copycats by bored kids who are suddenly getting a lot of attention.
(...)[T]hese neighboroods are not ghettos. My aunt lived there most of her life, she was a teacher in a nearby pre-school and has a mostly normal middle class life. There are lots of minorities, lots of kids with dysfunctional families, an obvious lack of jobs, and decrepit buildings, but it's not a rundown place, it's not cut off from the rest of the country, and there is a lot of solidarity between the inhabitants.
This is not to deny that the situation is tense, and that the events of recent nights don't signal some real problems in these neighboroods, but it's not like it's war, ot the "end of France" or a crippling crisis for the country. What it is is a real political crisis for the government...
Local coverage in English can be found on Parisist blog, and French-speaking readers will find even more coverage here. (thanks, Jake)
Snip from one wire service story:
"What we notice is that the bands of youths are, little by little, getting more organized," arranging attacks through cellphone text messages and learning how to make gasoline bombs, said a national police spokesman, Patrick Hamon.
