Doing Time - a Prosiac Prison Memoir

Doing Time is memoir of a Manga artist's period in jail. This memoir was also made in to film. The mnga artist Kazuichi Hanawa was originally arrested on a bullshit gun possesion charge, there is nothing wrong with people having guns only the wrong people having guns, people who kill can use lots of other methods beside guns. Hanawa memoir of prison life has none of the violence or oppression we can expect from worksd from The Gulag Archipelago and other politaical- sociological works. Instead prison is depicted as living with your parents, forever with petty ante and contradictory rules. Both Clockwork Orange and The Blues Brother has a scene where our hero, degenerate con, has to sign an form while keeping his feet a prescribe distance away. The harsh rule based system is what to gives inprisionment its sting.

Doing Time is an enlightening tour through the Japanese system, well worth the read.

The Human Flip Book

A Midwest sandwich chain has created a human flip book using t-shirts as the drawing surface. Although there has only been less than 5000 viewings of this ad it has been listed in 2 different blogs that I follow, Ads of the World and Cartoon Brew, and animation and an advertising blog. Here is the making of video below.

High Praise for New Mexico from Californian

In the commenting on an hokey western themed election ad that Bill Richardson made for his reelection campaign one viewer, starman2006, has this high praise for New Mexico.

This is a great ad, makes me want to vote for him, but I live in California, I've heard good things about New Mexico, like there the Rent is very cheap and the Single Women have Low Standards.

The Travails of Old Time Computing

And uphills! Both ways, to and from work, too! And we didn't have those fancy things called shoes, today you wouldn't go into a server room without your boots, we went in there barefooted. And did it harm us? When we wanted to know if a computer is on, we had to touch its wire, no fancy flashing lights and all the other goodies you have today! When the modem died, I had to sit there for hours and whistle in 300 baud what was on the screen! Yes, 300 baud, and we were GLAD we had that kinda speed! And no fancy debuggers either, we just watched the code fly by and we knew EXACTLY what it did. Wasn't that hard when your whole code has to fit into less than what you got as cache on your CPU today. Oh, and there was only ONE program running at a time, and you had to wait for yours to run. What do you mean "on my machine"? You didn't have one, there was ONE machine for the company, and it was in the basement. Rather, it WAS the basement! When it was cold, and it was often cold because we couldn't afford heating EITHER, that was just after the war, remember, we had NOTHING (ok, except kickass expensive computers)... where was I? Right, when it was cold, we'd huddle together between the tubes (no, Timmy, not the Tubes of the Senator, that Senator didn't exist... ok, he did, but at least he kept his yap shut back then) to stay warm.

Hey. HEY! Where d'ya think you're going? (muttermutter) Spoiled brat...

Opportunist on slashdot discussion about old DOS upgrade video.

Cardinal Wosey's Political Advice

If you want to keep the love of a prince this is what you must do, be prepared to give him the thing you most care for in all the world.

Cardinal Wolsey in The Tudors

The Difference Between The Russian and Swiss Armies Illustrated

from Dark Roasted Life

A History of Editorial Cartoons by an Editorial Cartoonist

Choose The Lower Road

Your eminence, don't be eagle, they soar too high. Be a pigeon and shit on everything.

Logistical Troubleshooting

In the 1st book of the Raj Whitehall Chronicals there is this "recommendation" for straightening out transport difficulties.

"We gots a bit a of problem, like. The other civvie stuff, its moves aside, but this bastard won't." The sargeant brightened, and dropped a hand to his sabre. " kill hem sor?"

The guards stirred, and the dogs of the two parties exchanged tail down snarls. The civilian opened his mouth to protest, looked up at the sargeant and suddenly realized there was real hope behind the request.

Studying Evil

He who studies evil is studied by evil.

Old Bajorian Saying

The Riot Act

After reading latest chapter from one of my favorite authors I looked up the full text of the original "riot act". Here are words that must spoken to use the riot act. Say it next time someone gets out of control.

Our sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God save the King.

Wikipedia Reality

What I love about Wikipedia is that it lets democracy determine reality.

Neoplatonist Philosopher Stephen Colbert,
August 21 2007

Differerent Religious Extremists

"Christian warriors" - no drinking on Sunday.
"Jewish warriors" - Just leave us alone dammit
"Muslim warriors" - insert latest violent mass murder here, daily

obscured by clouds in Little Green Footballs
thread CNN Moral Equivalence Marathon.

Pro Booze, Anti Torture Motto from Tom Waits

"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal labotamy"

Tom Waits on Fernwood 2Nite
after playing The Piano Has Been Drinking.

Headache Ad from Horror Fan

President, a Title for Thieves and Murders, Mostly

Harper should be insulted at being titled "president". As I argrued earlier, "president" is mainly used for the head gangster in cruel despotic regimes, like President Saddam Hussain (whacked) and President Robert Mugabe (at large).

Bad Weddings

HA HA. From The Guardian.

How to make the best of your best man's speech

Tim Dowling
Wednesday August 15, 2007

Guardian
No wedding is complete without a best man - although we might perhaps extend this sentiment to "no wedding is completely ruined without a best man", courtesy of a case currently being heard by a jury at Preston crown court. According to the prosecution, the trouble started when the best man at a wedding reception in Yorkshire misjudged the mood of his audience, and decided to expose himself in the name of entertainment. He then allegedly went on to batter a guest who upbraided him for this behaviour.

There are no doubt weddings where this sort of thing is positively encouraged, but herein lies the dilemma for any best man: it is impossible to gauge the mood of a group made up of two different sets of friends and family.

Best man speeches come in three basic varieties: pompous and lawyerly; shambolically ribald; and inoffensively boring. There are "good" best man's speeches - well judged, amusing, moving and brief - but they don't appear in sufficient quantity to constitute a separate category.

At the diabolical end, you have best men who employ PowerPoint and the odd one who thinks it's a good idea to recount the bride's sexual history in song while accompanying himself on the guitar. If you spot him at the rehearsal dinner scrawling on a napkin and asking people for words that rhyme with "venereal", replace him with a second cousin immediately.

Never, under any circumstances, have two best men (as happened at the Yorkshire wedding). If there's one thing worse than a loudmouth who can't wait to tell the family of the bride what a drunken, sexually incontinent no-mark her future husband is, it's two loudmouths trying to outdo each other.

And if you should ever be asked to be a best man, just remember that your main obligation is to thank the bridesmaids, and that anything else you say is liable to offend somebody. And when in doubt, don't get your penis out.

Acton's Dictum Updated

Power corrupts. Powerpoint corrupts absolutely.

JeanBaptiste in a slashdot discussion about Karl Rove.

The Gourmet Anarchist

I like the French though, they make champagne and they burn McDonalds.

Shimbo in a Alternate History discussion
about redoing Verdun 300 style.

Don't Be a Good Dog

Being a great employee is like being a great dog; at the end of the day, they'll still euthanize your ass when you're no longer of use.

SatanicPuppy in a slashdot thread
about hiring programmers.

When Gamers Breed

(From TechEBlog)

Safety Adage for Subway Riding

Man who go through turnstile sideways, is going to Bangkok.

UbuntuDupe in slashdot discussion
about harnessing energy from crowds.

300 Movie Mashups

These are all mashups from the trailer to the movie 300.

The 300 trailer staged in Counter Strike.


Lego 300


Simpson 300


PG 300


And Its Raining 300 Men

Ultra Nerdy Movie Poster

A Cold Hearted View of Human Life

Cost of treating wounded gunshot victim: $25,000

Cost of burying dead one: $18,750

Help the economy - shoot to kill.

The Sandman,
Signature of a poster on
AlternateHistory.com

Odd Life Affirming Animation

Wild Police Chase

Fashion is Evil

Nazis really knew how to dress - proof positive that fashion is evil.

Sam Handelman in a
slashdot thread about
Games Workshop mistreatment of fans.

Behind A Coke Ad, Inside The Happiness Factory

This is follow up documentry to Coke ad from the SuperBowl, The Happiness Factory. In the original ad the inside of a Coke machine was represented as some magical world. (Adfreak where I got this link noted that the documentry was still silent on the issue of Snowman murder.) In the followup documentry different characters explain their part in whole production. These parts are voiced by actual Coke employees. The effect is something like Nick Park's Creature Comforts. On a related note here is assembly of quotes about the Iraq War set to Creature Comforts.

Stupid Ciminals and the Reasons they agree to be on Camera

Transformarama

Transformers the movie is coming out in a week so now is a good time to look at some and nerdy ways people have reinterpreted and re imagined the whole concept of robots transforming out of of other things. For me Transformers didn't do anything for me, besides a line from the theme song, Transformers - robots in disguise.

Transformer costumes


Transformer as used car


Working robot transformer

Reasons for Suicide Bombing

Rick McFee of the
Augusta Chronicle,
Found on Cagle

Exciting New Game Enviroment

Frank Varvel of
The Indianapolis Star-News
found on Cagle.

Missing Masterpiece

This was part of campaign by an architectural preservation group in Chicago.

Open Pit Sandbox

From Ads of the World

Spam on the Eastern Front

Let us look at the email inbox for General Erich Manstein on 3/2/42, when he was engaged in the Crimea:-

Sender.....................................Subject

HeiniKreditAnstalt...............Get the cheapest motor insurance quotes from us

Adolf Hitler.........Why did Lt Schmidt take one-and-a half hours for lunch yesterday?

Mrs Manstein....................He's your son, too. What are you going to do about the gum disease?

Adolf Hitler........................Why are the water cooler maintenance people late?

Bill from Sonnenliebe...........Have you made pension plans? Try us!

Colonel, 541 Infantry...........Regiment will be at start-line 12 am.

Adolf Hitler....Transfer Corporal Schultz & his 6 men from Kerch to the Tartar Ditch.

As you can see, of all these messages, only one is relevant to the matter in hand.

From Johnnyreb on the thread Modern (2006) computers and the internet in WWII on AH.com. For the record Hitler was into to giving detailed and mindless tactic instructions. This tendency can be seen as this clip of Hitler as a gamer.

Apocalypse Now / Real Life Mashup

Capt. Frank Willard, US Army Special Forces, Caguyen River, The Philippines:-

At first I thought they handed me the wrong dossier. I couldn't believe they wanted this man dead. Third generation West Point, World War One, the Battle of the Beltway, about a thousand decorations. Like they said, MacArthur had an impressive career, maybe too perfect. He was being groomed for one of the top slots in the Corporation, four-star, Chief of Staff. Then things started to slip. Leaving the bombers on the ground to be blasted by the Japs. That gold the Philippine President gave him. And this guy was still in the field, commanding American troops. LOVED YOU IN WALL STREET.

The last comment, screamed out loud, caused the boat's crew to look up in surprise. Then they shrugged their shoulders. Willard was a spook: Those guys were nuts.

From Modern (2006) Computers and the Internet in WWII
on the Alternative History Board.
This was written by Johnnyreb.

Bad Booze From those Crazy Anti-Castro ex-Cubans

Here is an interesting ad from Bacardi. Bacardi used to make rum in Cuba and now makes weak watered down booze in an anonymous international setting, Havana Club is much better. The family that founded Bacardi like many rich Cubans chose to leave Cuba. The anti-Castro ex-Cubans are in a word crazy. They often wish to appear sane and well adjusted like in this passage in a blog I found.

The msm press would just ridicule as another one of those crazy anti castro Miami mafiosos, discredit him, and negate any effectiveness he does have...

Unfortunately this was from a blog on killcastro. The mission of this site is to encourage murder. The weasel word this site uses to excuse murder is that they do not "advocate the illegal execution of Fidel Castro." You can never trust a crazy ex-Cuban.

Cool Engineering

This is from a campaign in by a Norwegian utility to encourage more poeple to study engineering.

(from Adfreak)

How To Sell The Exotic Bananas

Is Political Reform Taking the Fun out of Politics

“It’s funny how when you take away the free booze and take away the babes, people just aren’t as interested in hanging out.”

NY State Lawmaker who understandly
wishes to remain anonymous, in
In Albany, Life Has Seeped Out of Night Life,
in the NY Times.

Robot Coke Machine Cadging Coins

Here is a Japanese Coke ad from Japan. A Coke Machine springs to life as a Giant Robot. What is amusing the the over the top dramatic intro, something appropriate for a cheesy robot TV series and quotidian story of a day in the life of a giant Coke machine robot. More videos can be seen here.

Monster with High Approval Ratings

In in a slashdot discussion about another Bush League scandal, this time the use of outside email accounts to shelter official activity from scrutiny, there were many despairing comments.

Whitney Mac Fanboy asks:

Just how obvious does the corruption in the White House have to be before you demand a change of government?

That's the problem with presidential systems, which is why it is government system of choice for the new tin pot banana republics , is that it can be auitocratic autocratic. Presidents don't lose non confidence votes.

Sheldon offers this bit of possible political theatre.

Bush could have a live press conference where he bites the heads off kittens, and nobody would care. The 28% who still support him would claim he was showing true leadership by biting heads off kittens. The news media would report both sides of the story as if they had real credibility.

I don't know if this was planned, or just accidental, but basically after all the false scandal coverage during the Clinton years people have learned to just tune this shit out.

Lawpoop also thinks that scandal fatigue from the 90's republican witch hunts against Clinton is helping people overlook Bush's notable failures.

Talkshow host Tom Hartman said that he can't help coming to the conclusion that the endless investigations into Clinton's Christmas card lists, travel agent's activities, and sexual peccadilloes was an effort to sour the public on the process of impeachment, and make whatever crimes the next president would do seem like partisan politics. It's hard not to start thinking this way.

Of course the appeal of politicians who don't do appealing things, who have the courage to do crack the eggs to make the omelets explains why some still admire Stalin the Murder. When Sideshow Bob was mayor and a criminal he said the people need evil. People like him or Francis Urquhart people who are willing to "put a bit of stick about".

Because you _need_ me, Springfield. Your guilty conscience may force you to vote Democratic, but deep down inside you secretly long for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king. That's why I did this: to protect you from yourselves.

Drunk Cat

Globalization in Food Ingredients

The NY Times on Saturday had an interesting story about how food processors have been sourcing their ingredients world wide, Globalization in Every Loaf. What is mildly disturbing, and this article was in the business section is this paragraph. It is rare for business journal to not sing the Internationale in favor of the wonders of free trade.

The lowering of trade barriers more than a decade ago has pushed food companies to scour the globe for more exotic — or the cheapest — ingredients to compete in a more global marketplace, not unlike automakers shipping in parts from all over. But with America’s relatively permissible food-import rules and weak inspection regime, is the trend to assemble food from so many far-flung locations heightening the risks of contamination?

Unemployed Robots

On slashdot there is this slideshow of a visit to a motherboard factory in Taiwan, or as I like call it Free China. Many, especially those who have seen electronics factories over the years noted how unautomated the factory is compared to Califronian or Japanese electronic factories in the '80s. Many blamed globalization for making people cheaper than machines. Mechanization has historically happened when the capital and running cost for a machine is cheaper than the extra hands it replaces.

Animats pointed how the decline of low skill wages because of illegal immigration has deautomated some service jobs in the US.

It's discouraging. I've watched America go from robotic car washes to "100% hand wash" over the last 25 years.

The assembly line for the Macintosh IIci was more automated than this one. Back in the 1980s, when consumer electronics came from Japan, the Japanese makers were frantically trying to automated enough to keep their labor costs down. Seiko and Sony developed some beautiful technologies for making small consumer electronics items untouched by human hands.

Now everybody has those long lines of low-paid women in some low-wage area.

But denoir points out the dimishing return of automation.

Many of the things don't have to be made by hand, but it is simply cheaper. And it's not just in Taiwan.

A few years ago I worked on a project at ABB Robotics (largest maker of industrial robots) and had the chance to often see their production lines. Once upon a time their assembly lines were automated to a large degree, until they realized that their throughput wasn't big enough to benefit from robots doing the work. People were cheaper and needed less maintenance. When you built a new robot model, you could use the same people - with little extra education required. Robots on the other hand required expensive reprogramming and testing for each small change.

When I was there they were just dismantling the last robot in the line - the one that painted new robots. Instead they outsourced it and now three guys in gas masks spray paint them manually.

Explosions are Cool

Prank a Funeral

Nothing wrong with a little bad taste to remember a friend. As John Cleese said at a memorial for Graham Chapman "anything for him but mindless good taste".

Chinese Ad Suggests Ad World full of Aliens

Doesn't this image of an Art Director for an ad for Chinese Campaign Brief Magazine, also here and here.

Look alot like this image from the documentry Men in Black.

Ahmadinejad's Demons

In line with Golda Meir's depressing view of Arab and Moslem family values, “We will have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us”, is this report on the actions of the Basij in the Iran/Iraq war. In that war the iranians religiously conscripted teenagers to clear minefields. Iran current civilian, not religious leader, Mr ImATuxedo was in this organization training teenagers to willing clear minefields with their bodies. Here is a disturbing report of Ahmadinejad's demons and his world.

At one point, however, the earthly gore became a matter of concern. “In the past,” wrote the semi-official Iranian daily Ettelaat as the war raged on, “we had child-volunteers: 14-, 15-, and 16-year-olds. They went into the minefields. Their eyes saw nothing. Their ears heard nothing. And then, a few moments later, one saw clouds of dust. When the dust had settled again, there was nothing more to be seen of them. Somewhere, widely scattered in the landscape, there lay scraps of burnt flesh and pieces of bone.” Such scenes would henceforth be avoided, Ettelaat assured its readers. “Before entering the minefields, the children [now] wrap themselves in blankets and they roll on the ground, so that their body parts stay together after the explosion of the mines and one can carry them to the graves.”

What Money Can't Buy

Money can buy everything, except civilization.

Anonymous
said about Saudi Arabia
and all the rich Arab sheiklets

An Interrogator's Story

Tony Lagouranis joined to the army to learn Arabic so he was trained to be an interrogator. His training stressed the importance of rigoriously following the Geneva Convention and fobeying its rules and regulation with everyone an interrogator comes in contact with. Then he was sent Abu Graib and was told to not follow the Geneva convention and to use harsh measures. The newly authorized techiques didn't work.

Listen to him in discussion on NPR. During the program a more senior interrogator talks about techniques that sound wishy washy but actually work.

Spooking Airline Travellers

This is a varriation on the trick that Bart pulls on Moe, force someone to announce something weird over a public address system.

Industrial Film as Video Game Ads

Roger Heddon has kindly given me a link to a Sega site promoting a new racing game. The site and associated videos are done as industrial films. The new game technologythat is being highlighted is quite cool. Instead of things just "blowing up real good" with some standard animation. Sega has examined that way things blow up in real life.

AK-47, a History

AK-47 is a history of the famous Soviet assault rifle. Here is an ad for this book that is found on the author's website. The book covers the life cycle of the gun from its creation by a soviet tanker to its use in the various "wars of national liberation" of the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's down to the present day. Now the Russian have a new generation of assault rifles and have begun to replace the AK-47 at least in the Spetsnaz and other elite units. In the history of the Ak-47 is the the history of the world for the half century after the atomic bomb. A period of the Cold War and many, many small brushfire wars. In the small wars AK-47 shone in the hands of the badly trained, half trained and completely untrained "innocent bystanders". It is not a weapon for the professional millitaries with their detailed training schedules and maintenance rules.

The problem of creating an infantry weapon is different than a hunting rifle. A hunting rifle is used for a small number of shots a few days a year. After a small degree of use the hunting rifle is cleaned and put away. The infantry rifle might be used continuely. It cannnot be cleaned after each use. In the Great War Canada was saddled with the Ross Rifle because of the mendious incompentency of the Minister of Militia Sam Hughes. The best weapon isn't some panglossioan ideal. The best weapon is the one right right here, right now, working.

The safest times in history is when weapons and weapon systems are expensive and scarce. The dangerous times in history are when weapons and armies are cheap. In expensive days armies are few and small and precious. When weapons become cheap and easy small freelance armies spring up otherwise know as brigands. When the State no longer has the monopoly of force the State disappears. In one history there was a mention of the democratic nature of the Cowboy or Gaucho in the sense instead of being a "man on a horse" a phrase that has been applied to the officer/knight/squire the cowboy was a man on a cheap horse. The horse in some times and places in history are cheaper or more expensive to keep. When horses are expensive they are reserved for knights and officers. When horses are cheap and available cowboys and huge mongol armies are possible. What military resources are available dictate what tactics are available be it a small elite or some sort of Levee en Masse. A small professional army is given the best weaoins and training money can buy. A revoltionary situtation much like the French Revoltion means near total mobilization of the population resulting in ill equiped untrained parttime soldiers. The AK-47 is perfect for a Levee en Masse.

Aircraft Beauty Contest

Here is a story of a guy who entered his homebuilt airplane in the huge air show/convention/beauty pagent of Oshkosh. The article for Air&Space has a drawing of his entry and the more typical winning entry. I love the way the slob airplane builder is being penalized for "mustache improperly alligned".

Police Recogition Poster

This is an ad from VW that mimicks the identification posters that were used in WWII, look at one below as an example. It also replicates the posters that shows the different marking and heraldry that is found on identical units from diferent counties. For both of all pictures click on for larger image.

Albanian Pimps and Thieves Looove Bush

Graphic evidence that war to conquer Serbia for the benefit of Albania was a very bad thing. I think it was the worst thing that Tony Blair did, right up with there with coddling Irish terrorists and calling it peace. This still is from an article on Jihad Watch, this has also come to the attention of Boingboing, link has video of theft in action, which normally doesn't comment on Muslim criminial activity.

I call Albanians pimps but a better word is slavers just like the founder of their cult Mohammed. Here is an unflattering view of Albania land of Scum is from Anti-Slavery International.

Ronald McDonald Worship

It looks like Ronald McDonald is having a better time in Japan than he had in Pakistan.

We Have ways of Making you Talk

This is a mash up of the Monty Python Spanish Inguistion sketch, a Tony Robinson (Baldrick) sketch and current news clips discussing torture. If torture worked as a way to win hearts and minds and information John McCain today would be a fervent communist. John Mccain and his history prove the pointlessness of torture. However interrogation is ok and asking after name, rank and serial number is given is part of the dance. I once saw a Brittish movie that explored interrogation techniques used on spies in WWII. Instead of using goodcop/bad cop it was very, very sympathetic civilian employee (not cop) which caused the subject to react and become very helpful at same time being angry at the good cop.

History of Underwear

This is part of a promotion of a advertising agency to sugest there alwyas is a perfect fit. The Institute of Practical Underpants is a fake research institute into underwear. I can just see the latin motto for the group as Semper Ubi Sub Ubi.

Gordon Brown as Vader

In a thread Clone War on Terror on AlternateHistory.com Sargon makes this comparison between Gordon Brown and Vader

Gordon Brown certainly seems to breathe a bit like Vader...just watch whenever he speaks and pauses to suck in air!

"You cannot defy the power of the treasury...., soon all your cash will be in my grasp (suck).... I shall drain it out of you....".

Jose1337 chimes in:

"never underestimate the power...of trade deficits!"

and the great Thande adds:

I find your lack of financial prudence...disturbing."

Cat Photography

The above is a photogragh from the daily rambling of a German cat named Mr Lee. Mr Lee kept disappearing at times so the person who fed him rigged up a camera for him to wear. Here is the technical details so you too can make a cat camera. A friend of Mr Lee an actor cat Squeeky in California also kept disappearing, he was fitted with a video camera. Watch here for Squeeky movie.

The Latest Giant Walker: ChairBot

Here is a Walking Chair prototype that some lab has created. It is very cool lokking and impractical like BattleTech itself. Over at slashdotm where I got story, many were inspired by the sheer nerdiness of this project.

Creimer wanted a toll to make gaming easier.

I just can't wait for the model with integrated gaming computer, toliet and soda dispenser for those long deathmatch games where it can walk you home after you pass out from playing too much.

Bughouse wanted a fanboy toy.

I'll take one with 6 Medium Lasers, an AC/20, a PPC-10, and an LRM-6 please.

Dr Memory expressed a fear that these could be widely adopted.

Heh, that was my first thought: "Jesus, how soon before I see these things stomping around Wal-Mart?" I swear, I go there about five times a year, and every time it's like Bloated Freaks on Wheels week.

cephal0p0d includes links to many more walking robot sites.

http://www.plyojump.com/ [plyojump.com]

Favorites:
BigDog http://www.bdi.com/content/sec.php?section=BigDog [bdi.com]
RHex http://www.rhex.org/ [rhex.org]
ZMP, Inc. http://www.zmp.co.jp/e_home.html [zmp.co.jp]
RiSe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzfP0Ig7eVQ [youtube.com]

How Some Police View Police

In a segment on informers on the program On The Media there is this horrifying insight in how some from disenchanted communities view police.

There was a session at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice a week or two ago, which is a school of higher education that trains law enforcement officials, and there was an open session about whether it's appropriate to snitch.

And among the students, among the students being trained in law enforcement, some of them took the position that it's not appropriate to cooperate with the police because the police can't be trusted. And this manifests itself in rap music. It manifests itself on tee shirts. And it does seem to be a societal movement or feeling with some force.

It brings to mind Kipling's line "lesser breeds without the Law".

Nazism and Office Politics

"Showing an interest in Nazism [was] a career-wrecker in Germany"

German Ambassador in the ISOT Second Chance,
a story on the Alternative History Bulletin Board

Be Afraid of the GUM

from Newgrounds.

Photos from a Gunship

A helicoptor pilot in Vietnam has created this slideshow from the photos of his tour.

A Logo for Christ

Snowman Hit and Run

From an ad for brakes.

"Maximum Booze to the Beer Community out There

This is from an upcoming Norwegian TV show which is going to be an interview show animated. There is also a followup video done in amateur Youtube fashion, there are interruptions, background noises, doorbells, airconditioning hum and framing problems. The followup video includes the disclaimer that "beer is good in moderate amounts". NSFW

Low Corporate R&D Spending, Huge Corporate Resources

In a thread on slashdot about recent advances solar cell technology thpr has this insight into a lack of R&D spending by oil companies in particular and large companies in general.

I'd note that most oil companies do have lots of research into alternative (non-oil) energy. It's just hard to see in their financials because oil is so lucrative. The major one that realy gets criticized for its lack of investment in areas like solar is ExxonMobil - and the reason they don't is probably the same reason that Cisco doesn't tend to develop most of its revolutionary technology inside the company. XOM and CSCO both have tons of cash, tons of cash flow and a well-priced stock giving them the ability to simply buy a producer of new equipment if it becomes a valuable market. Why bother to spend tons of money on basic research when you can let the newcomers fight it out in the market and just buy the leader when the time is appropriate? As strange as it is, that's R&D economics at many large industry-leading corporations. It's "efficient outsourced innovation" [businessweek.com].

Geographic Instructions

Yes, England boy. England, a big damn foggy island nor noreast of Usher.

Captain Pellew

Pokemon of the Sea

A Dumbo octopus.

from a slideshow on deep ocean ecology.

Memories of Kenora Canadian Sherry

I came accross a horriblle website called Bum Wines. Alos today in the Washington post is a lifestyle featuree called beer vs wine.

Even Supervillians Have to Deal with Customer Service

from Cold Hard Flash.

One Drug Smearing Another

A Norman McLarenish Car Ad

Norman Mclaren was an noted animator at the NFB who broke boundaries by doing new and differnt animation. There was a compendium of the Best of Norman McLaren released that has highlighted some of his work. Here is ad from Audi that begins him much to mind. Thias is one the first car ad I have seen that has left the car in the dark. Very cool.

Liberia 1990

From Ads of the World.

Tortured Baked Beans

From Adfreak

God to Bush , "I didn't Vote for you"

Microsoft Hates iPod, Microserfs Like iPod

Photo courtesy of Fimoculous

A recent Wired article highlighted the antipathy that feels for Mac and all it works. It was about the Microsoft Zune division. Zune is trying to rallly its troops by givving a free Zune in exchange for a iPod. Much joyful schedenfreude ensued on slashdot, where this story appeared and on flickr where the photo above was posted

Space Cowboy on slashdot chimes in with this marketing insight.

...If MS can only get 0.1% of their *own* people to switch, they ain't gonna make it too big in the far more neutral marketplace...

blastcap on flickr has this comment on the success of Microsoft marketing to Microserfs.

If it is a morale-boosting exercise for the Zune folks, wouldn't you think that the bin would be filled to the top with iPods? I count seven iPods in there. Not a great morale-booster. It totally misses the mark and instead reinforces what most of us already know...that the iPod is king and the Zune is never going to seriously compete with it.

...unless it was filled with iPods initially and all the Zune people have been taking them home.

The Epitaph for Teachers

Nothing would ever deflect Professor Binns, for example, from plowing on through his notes on goblin rebellions - as Binns hadn’t let his own death stand in the way of continuing to teach, they supposed a small thing like Christmas wasn’t going to put him off.

Harry Potter on Professor Binns

Famous Writers as Reporters

Yes I know that many famous writers have been reporters and have honed their craft in the daily grind of deadline writing. A Blogger Iowahawk has this entry of famous writers manning desks and filing copy, Raymond Chandler reporting on crime, Sylvie Plath on weather, Bill Shakespear on wedding announcements and Hunter S Thompson reporting on community sports. All the reports are very funny. Here is a snippet of Hunter S Thompson report on TBall.

When we finally got to Wayzata we made our way to the baseball complex, built in ’76 by the crewcut fascists of the local American Legion to dull the pain of the Vietnam horror. The parking lot was crammed with every manner of minivan – Caravans, Voyagers, Windstars, Siennas, the bloated metal three-row-seating carcasses of a filthy cul-de-sac world driven half insane by rot, hate, and juice box schedules.

Deport the Rich

Robert Reich former American Treasury Secretary has some interesting ideas. In a recent opinion piece on a Marketplace Money he suggests that the income that hedge fund managers get, the 8, 9 and sometimes 9 figure income be taxed as income at 35% rether than capital gains at 15%. Many in the business community are shocked, shocked to think that the wealthy should pay taxes at the same rates as everyone else. Some suggest that money would just move off shore. Reich says great you can leave with your money and only come back to visit, if you can get a visa.

Brakes are VERY Important

Concorde Remembered

On Alternative History in a discussion about the Concorde one of the posters Ramp Rat gave us his memories of working and flying on the Concorde.

As probably the only member off this forum who has both flown in and worked on Concorde, hers my two bobs worth.

Concorde was to high speed commercial flight, what the Comet 1 was to jet powered commercial flight, a nice first try but not the answer.

She was far too small, at 6’3’’ when I sat in the window seat; I had my head cocked to one side at all times. There wasn’t much room between you and the seat in-front, which meant that you were having a tray services like in economy, but paying more then you do in first. So even though the food and drinks were stunning, they were only doing about 250 covers a day, the feeling of luxury just wasn’t there.

To work on she was a bitch, the forward hold was so small that the only way I could work in it was to lay on my side, not fun when you are stacking bags. Also she was very tip sensitive, there was a strict order off loading, or she would sit on her tail. I have seen it get close to doing this; we ended up with a large number of ground staff standing in the cockpit area to stop her going over. The nose wheel was just beginning to turn on its own, as she was on the point off tip.

The engines drank fuel like there was no tomorrow, and if she had to cross a sub-sonic speed it was very hard for her not to need refueling to make it to London, she lacked legs as we say.

Had there been a follow up, same speed, twice or more the capacity, and double the range, cut fuel consumption by 30%, and the engine noise by about the same, all do able. Then you would have had a real going concern, as it was 9/11 was the nail in the coffin off the old girl, that day killed off the top 100 passengers for the lady, and with that she died.

Do I miss her you bet, she was beautiful to look at, better in the air than on the ground. Her undercarriage always made her look slightly ungainly on the deck. But just knowing we had her and the yanks didn’t, well I made you feel proud. When we were still in Terminal 3, and surrounded by other airlines, unlike in 4. You would see large number of foreign pilots just hanging around her to have a look, their faces green with envy, especially the Pan-Am and TWA boys. I know showing my age there, but they were the American airlines in those days. And none off this dam security, you could pop over the arrivals bar and get a tray of beers and bring them back out to the ramp, nice on a hot summer evening. Are the good old days, when most off the pilots could tell tales off night time trips to Berlin, drop off ten tons off load and back for breakfast.


Regards RR.

March of Penguin Dressed Bunnies

Lastest episode from Bunny Theatre retells March of the Penguins in 30 Seconds.

Link from Cold Hard Flash.

The Poetry of Nighttime Driving

Ah, Smoke

Like most adult pleasures cigarettes are a mixed blessing. We spend our lives, particularly our teenage lives, learning to deal to adult pleasures.

Richard Klein
author of Cigarettes Are Sublime

Batman Goes Shopping

Even Superheroes need milk and toilet paper.

Kitchen Appliance Conversation

From Cold Hard Flash.

Odd Expertimantial Cartoon from Chuck Jones

From Cartoon Brew

Change and Who Benefits

In a thread on slashdot discusing the oracular abilities of the mob boss Bill Gates some posters refined the distinction beween the first to discover, the first to use and the first to turn a profit.

Goombah99 gives us the relationship between the pionner and settler.

"Pioneers get the Arrows, settlers get the land". Gates has always been a settler. They take proven technologies and ideas, copy cat them, and then try to inflate them to one way standards (embrace and extend). Settlers are useful. Microsoft created the low end PC vendor market by taming all sorts of diverse bios, video cards, disks and peripherals.

Gates would not look like such a stogy inept prognosticator if it were not for a few brighter lights and pioneers like Jobs and the Google boys. Even Michael Dell gets some credit for being a sort of henry ford at one time but that was sort of a one time flash.

Sure you can say Jobs did not invent Postscript or the WIMP interface or word processing in full-time graphic or music players or any number of things. But he was such an early and wholehearted adopter of nascent technologies that he is a pioneer. Pioneers did not invent the conastoga wagon or canoes they set forth in but they used them to blaze trails and set up the future.

Whereas Daniel Dvorkin points out the sad fate of the first people to discover anything.

Sure you can say Jobs did not invent Postscript or the WIMP interface or word processing in full-time graphic or music players or any number of things. But he was such an early and wholehearted adopter of nascent technologies that he is a pioneer. Pioneers did not invent the conastoga wagon or canoes they set forth in but they used them to blaze trails and set up the future.

You know, I really like that analogy, and I'll extend it one step further: the people who actually invented those things were explorers, and some explorers come back rich and covered in glory, but most die miserable deaths a long way from home. The pioneers are a bridge between exploration and real settlement.

Self Effacing

I believe you have an exaggerated sense of my importance.

Damar

Taliban Ambush

The Globe and Mail's corespondent Graeme Smith in Afghanistan was caught in some bang bang. Read his account of Taliban ambush and look at his pictures.

Aspirational TV

There is a new series at BBC4, Charlie Brooker's ScreenWipe that takes very jandiced eye towards TV. In this segment he very angry about programs, not advertising, that makes us all feel very bad for not being movie stars.

Banking Woes

Better to have loaned and lost than never to have loaned at all.

Leon Fraser, US banker at the time of the Crash of 1929.
From an Economist article about finance.

Ned Flanders on Internet Pressure Campaigns

I am imploring people I've never met to pressure government with better things to do than to punish a man who meant no harm for something nobody even saw.

- Ned Flanders

Black Doctors and Asian Doctors

I watch television, not a lot just the average. When the series Grey's Anatomy debuted I noticed something new. Grey's Anatomy was one the first hospital dramas with an major Asian doctor character. This show has 3 black doctors to 1 Asian. In reality there are 3 times as many Asian doctor as black doctors in the US, see study.

Maybe TV doctor demographics are more a reflection of actor demographics than a reflection the US doctor population.