European MEPs from Greece, the Czech Republic and Germany have submitted a declaration opposing ACTA, the secret copyright treaty that is the first piece of global Internet law to be negotiated in private, without participation from poor countries, the public, or the press. Now they have 90 days to get their fellow MEPs to sign onto it, and if they make it, the opposition will be formally adopted by the European Parliament.

If you're a European, please write to your MEP (contact info here) and ask for their support for the "Written declaration on the lack of a transparent process and potentially objectionable content concerning the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) from - Zuzana Roithova (CZ, EPP), Stavros Lambrinidis (GR, S&D), Alexander Alvaro (DE, ALDE) and Françoise Castex (FR, S&D)."

Sometimes right, sometimes wrong, always interesting.

Rachel Anne Maddow (pronounced /ˈmædoʊ/; born April 1, 1973) is an American radio personality, television host, and political commentator.^[1][2] Her syndicated talk radio program, The Rachel Maddow Show, aired on Air America Radio. Maddow hosts a nightly television show, The Rachel Maddow Show, on MSNBC.^[3] She was also a guest host of Countdown with Keith Olbermann and Race for the White House. Maddow is the first openly gay anchor to be hired to host a prime-time news program in the United States

The Ghost Army was a United States Army tactical deception unit during World War II officially known as the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops. The 1,100-man unit was given a unique mission within the Army to impersonate other U.S. Army units in order to fool the enemy. From a few weeks after D-Day, when they landed in France, until the end of the war, they put on a traveling road show, using inflatable tanks, sound trucks, phony radio transmissions and even playacting. They staged more than 20 battlefield deceptions, often operating very close to the front lines. Their mission was kept secret until 1996, and elements of it are still classified. <more>

Should they report the real news for April Fools?

Honestly. I am not.

The trouble started when Raj Patel appeared on American TV to plug his latest book, an analysis of the financial crisis called The Value of Nothing.

The London-born author, 37, thought his slot on comedy talkshow The Colbert Report went well enough: the host made a few jokes, Patel talked a little about his work and then, job done, he went back to his home in San Francisco.

Shortly afterwards, however, things took a strange turn. Over the course of a couple of days, cryptic messages started filling his inbox.

"I started getting emails saying 'have you heard of Benjamin Creme?' and 'are you the world teacher?'" he said. "Then all of a sudden it wasn't just random internet folk, but also friends saying, 'Have you seen this?'"

Who’s top dog in your office kingdom? If you’re convinced that the office would devolve into mayhem without your team’s contributions, you’re not alone–in thinking you’re the most important, that is. <more>

Via: Online Schools
So there.

A dog. Holding up a kitchen Floor. Nice touch.

This and other nightmares featured this week in This Old House

Those who like the services teh Internet provide - no not those services - I mean the ones you don't have to get concerned about your wife finding, can stream legal music into your ears via this selection of music services. Grooveshark came out best, although there are now so many out there it's difficult to make a choice.

"The government will not exempt universities, libraries and small businesses providing open Wi-Fi services from its Digital Economy Bill copyright crackdown, according to official advice released earlier this week. This would leave many organizations open to the same penalties for copyright infringement as individual subscribers, potentially including disconnection from the Internet, leading legal experts to say it will become impossible for small businesses and the like to offer Wi-Fi access. 'This is going to be a very unfortunate measure for small businesses, particularly in a recession, many of whom are using open free Wi-Fi very effectively as a way to get the punters in. Even if they password protect, they then have two options — to pay someone like The Cloud to manage it for them, or take responsibility themselves for becoming an ISP effectively, and keep records for everyone they assign connections to, which is an impossible burden for a small cafe,' said Lilian Edwards, professor of Internet law at Sheffield University."

There's a professor of Internet Law?

A very interesting site about ancient entertainment establishments around the world.

Is a great site for Muppet fans.

From their March 1 news page:
That Grover is such a trend-setter!  First he appears as Sesame Street’s resident cute and furry monster, and then Elmo steals that mantle from him.  Grover becomes a superhero, and then Elmo wants to be a superhero.  Grover delivers telegrams, and then Elmo wants to deliver telegrams.  And most recently, Grover appeared on Dr. Oz and now Elmo is going to appear on Dr. Oz!  It’s a conspiracy, I tells ya!

Man Ettiquette

Every guy makes several trips to the urinal throughout the course of an evening, and there is a ...   more »

Apparently. I mean, the guy looks pretty rough.
From Here

So much for aging gracefully.

Emmy-winning actor Rip Torn was arrested Saturday for allegedly breaking into a bank in Salisbury, Conn., where he's a resident.

Police described the incident as a booze-inspired bank job. In a statement, cops say they responded to an alarm at 9:40 p.m. Friday and found Torn "with a loaded revolver, and was highly intoxicated."

The many charges against the 78-year-old Men in Black star include carrying a firearm while intoxicated, carrying a pistol without a permit, first-degree criminal trespass, first-degree burglary, and third-degree criminal mischief.

Torn has had several brushes with the law over the past few years, including a dismissed 2004 drunken driving charge and a 2007 guilty plea of being "ability impaired" while operating a vehicle.

He is currently being held on a $100,000 cash bond and is set to appear in court Monday.

He looks very sober, you have to admit.

Advertise on my Double D's in Las Vegas


Doesn't mention postage.

Presenting When You Marry, a 1962 textbook for...health class? Sex ed? Home economics? Relationships & Traditional Gender Roles 101? Some unholy (but Jesus-based-religions-approved!) combination of all of the above?

As far as I can tell, this book was intended for a high school course in "Family Life Education," a White-House-encouraged initiative to strengthen future American families against the corrupting forces of communism, feminism, interracial dating and heavy petting. We're going beyond the flour-sack baby, here, people, we're going to bring down the national divorce rate through our ability to make high school students squirm in their seats. It's outdated! It's offensive! It's adorable! It's all this, and more. Much, much more.

You can find out much more here...

More here.

As you do.

There's nine more here

I posted this because...because....because...oh, I'm a man. Ok?


Obviously she is a serious actress, and does not want to be judged on her looks. her calender, which features a range of serious acting poses, most of which involve deep psychological and sociological comment on the morays of society whilst in swimwear, is here

See how you get on with this. It's a puzzle game which initially seems simple, but then evolves into a complex fist mashing nightmare of complexity and mental skill. Like opening a jar of Gherkins

Just print the PDF version onto full-sheet sticker paper, then cut out disclaimers and apply to books. Give some to your kids to take to school. Leave some next to the appropriate books at your local bookstore. And for extra good fun, sticker your friends' books when they're not looking.

In case you're curious, wording for the top left disclaimer is taken verbatim from the sticker (view) designed by Georgia's Cobb County School District ("A community with a passion for learning" is their motto). Really! Their school board actually plagiarized Alabama's evolution disclaimer (view). The other disclaimers are my variants that explore the real the motivations of the delusional, anti-science folks who tend to migrate to positions of power on school boards across the country. My naive hope is that the above stickers might deter other school districts from using disclaimers to shield children from developing a science-based view of reality. It's at least worth a try. More

Nice animation outlining, maybe, unsurprisingly, the principles of fun.

If you can stand the 60k shock, it'll save you money in lighting bills.


More at National Geographic

- I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.
 
-More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can
think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell
my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves
me.
 
-Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you
realize you're wrong.
 
-I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to
have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and
sticks when they've invented the lighter?
 
-Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're
going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to
be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the
direction from which you came, you have to first do something like
check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to
yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're
crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.
 
-That's enough, Nickelback.
 
-I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

Full List :http://www.ruminations.com/site/index.php?sort=mostgourmet&range=0
From : http://melon.posterous.com/random-thoughts-from-25-35-year-olds

Interesting article about how women are portrayed in films

Excerpt:

There's not much that's more irksome than clichés -- the flesh-eating fungus of Hollywood, the virus that makes Tinseltown's already rampant repetition all the more tiresome. They're completely trite and overused, but the cinematic machine clings to them like they're energy-giving oil.

More here

There's a moment at every event where you say, no. No thank you. No. Put the cake away. This is a collection of these moments...
The Rickroll cake is a must.

Oh yes, the big little man has joined the throng

Dear Cecil:

Do mosquitoes favor certain blood types over others? I have noticed while out working that mosquitoes love me while my brother never gets bit. Why is my blood so tasty?

— Brian Q.,Huntsville, Alabama

The answer to this vital question is here.

Everyone appreciates a nice FB Comment

They repossessed your house, charged you for advice they forced you to take, bankrupted you, didn't reply to letters, charged you through the nose and transferred you to a call centre in India which may as well have been manned by an elephant

But hey...


They've made Cockney Cashpoints so that makes up for it. Bastards.
More here.

Plus you can build it yourself!

More here.

Yes, it's that time again, whereas the normal Olympics are every four years, rednecks Olympics happen every time Bottoms Up has a half Price sale.


I think I've been out with his uglier sister.

This is a collection of badly spelled / forged products from our friends in China. Some of them are quite interesting, especially the Ball Star trainers, two words which I tend to associate with entirely another industry.

And intesting game combining Maths and Asteroids in one easy to lose interest in package. It's a clever game, but I'll stick with me building blocks.

Here's a nifty download site for comedy buffs. But hush. Don't tell 'them'.

Fantastic.

The heady days of the Sinclair Zx81? Tiny keys, 1k of memory. It was the first real home computer, and many times myself and my friends would pretend to be programmers, typing

10 PRINT "Ed Is A Twat"
20 GOTO 10

Ah. That's about all you could do on there without upgrading it to a mammoth 1Mb of computing power.

Your kids may never know these and other joys.

If you spend your life pissed out of your mind, why not get al lythe and svelte into the process?

Yoga for drunks. Excellent.

The article relates to the increasing violence of the Gameboy, father of the Wii.

Oh yes. Men have many secrets, some of which are disgusting. Actually, all of them are disgusting. Actually, all of them are pretty gross. Gay men have the edge on us. They tend to be tidier, in better shape, better dancers, more focussed. This may be an illusion, but frankly it always seems they are doing better with women than me.

Having said that, A kangaroo with halitosis stands more chance of pulling than me.

A frankly Brilliant collection of comic store guy (from the Simpsons) quotes. I once had a hat with him on, and wore it when I was pitching an idea to a company. I didn't get it through, mainly, I believe, because the guy who was receiving my pitch look EXACTLY like him.

Despite being outlawed by Saudi Arabian clerics, the camel pageant in Abu Dhabi is a popular annual event lasting nine days, with feasting at the end.

Find out more here, and let me know what you thought of the swimsuit round.

If you are in the market to meet a whole lot of really suspicious people who, from my experience of these things, will assume you are either a Government agent, a MIB or possibly an alien in a latex costume, you may want to consider this...

You know those guys (and gals?) who are just, like, super proud of their farts? Thanks to this cool guy and Twitter, these assholes can indulge their disgusting habit without wrecking our noses.

Known Gentleman Randy Sarafan decided to make this office chair to help "accurately document and share [his] life as it happens," which is as admirable a cause as there ever has been to open a Twitter account. The setup is surprisingly complex: A natural gas sensor does the sniffing; an Arduino does the thinking; an Squidbee wireless module does the communicating; Twitter does the sharing. It's a feat, to be sure. <<<MORE>>>

From Gizmodo

Yes, you heard right.

from 22.15 - fifteen minutes!

Radio2xs

I hate banks. I hate this sort of stranglehold they seem to have over not only people but Governments.

Here ...   more »