Trainspotting Recruitment Ad Mashup

I came across a bunch recruiting ads tonight on Youtube. This one is a mashup between a Royal Marines ad and the opening words of Trainspotting. Trainspotting is a movie about heroin and nihilism of choosing drugs over life is actually a good fit with the standard recruiting ad of danger and honor.

Other recruiting ads, official and otherwise that I came across tonight.
A NSFW US Navy ad put together by some sailors that emphasizes the congenial "cruise ship" lifestyle in the Navy.

A comparison between Japanese and American Navy recruitment ads. The Japanese ad, official ad, has bright colors and uptempo. If anything it is like that old song, In the Navy, only with more dancing.

There were also a number of vile anti-militaristic ads out there. Often it is claimed that activists who have the objections to the various wars going on in the middle east are in favour of peace. Many of the same groups and individuals also support the activities of the many and varied moslem terrorist groups in the same area. Not the work of peaceniks but traitors who will always side with our enemies.

Finally check out this low key Russian recruiting ad. It is not a recruiting ad per se, the Russian army relies on conscription not just to fill its ranks but also the NCO slots. However since the collapse of Soviet order there has draft evasion on a large scale with parental approval and help. In this ad a young man packs some clothes, hugs his mother, leaves his apartment building and gets the quiet approval of old men playing chess outdoors.

Sylar's Personal Ad

Sylar, everybody's favorite brain scooping psycho from Heroes is looking for love. Or rather a fan with the Trenchcoat Mafia has cut together a charming little ad for Sylar. If the name of the editor rings a bell the gang that couldn't shoot straight at Columbine High School also called themselves the the Trenchcoat Mafia.

Most of Doctor Who's "Travelling Companions"

(click to enlarge)

I forget where I found this illustration except that it was on a nerdy bulletin board. See how many of the Doctor's companions you can name and/or recognize.

Where to Hire a "Gun Wrangler"

While idly Googling around I came across a Canadian company that is set up to provide rentals and services to film and TV production companies. A&A Airsoft is willing rent weapons, equipment and the trained soldiers to operate it all along of with the services of a gun wrangler. From this company's name it probably started off selling Airsoft guns and then branched out into equipment and services and military surplus. The one book they sell, Once Upon a Wartime: A Canadian Who Survived the Devil's Brigade, is a memoir from a member of the Devil's brigade with a custom inscription from the author.

The Problem with Short Sellers AND Long Buyers

(click on image to enlarge)

Many people have an instinctive horror of short sellers. When markets are down the short sellers are ofter blamed. When a posted a jokey defense of short sellers from the Daily Show back in March, A Defense of Short Sellers, one of my faithful readers objected. Timbo motalized, "But if you short a stock, that can be a knife in its back. That can be the tipping point." It is a problem when anybody manipulates markets in any direction. This is why there are often special rules and disclosures for financial journalists and advisers. The problem is neither short selling and long buying, you can get regular reports on both activities through curiously the shorts report that the Globe and Mail's Report on Business publishes in hard copy is not available online. The problem is at the extremes. Pump and dump schemes can temporarily inflate stocks. And persuasive bears can talk down individual stocks for the bear's benefit. That is a manipulation however under normal conditions many companies like the attention of bulls who talk up hem up. Short sellers perform a reality service for many a company as it wanders nonchalantly off a cliff. Sometimes big dumb companies can exhibit the Wile E Coyote effect until short sellers point out the gaping chasm beneath their feet. At which point the stock falls to earth not through the "evil" designs of the short sellers but through the incompetence and bad luck of it own management.

Cool Names for ROK Military Units

I was reading the manga Cat Shit One, also called Apocalypse Meow. In one of the historical sidebars listed some of the ROK divisions that participated in the Vietnam War. The Yellow Tiger, Blue Dragon and White Horse or Stallion divisions were South Korea's contribution to the Vietnam War. Some of the other names for ROK units are Iron Wall, Golden Bat, Angry Wave, Pegasus and Eagle. In the case of the White Horse division the name cane be traced to a battle in the Korean War where the 9th div was able to beat back an assault by chi-com troops. You can read the history of the Battle of White Horse Mountain here. Below is a photo of White Horse Mountain.

Man on the Moon - As It Would Be Reported Today

Cry Havoc and Release the Fluffy Bunnies of War

For more information on this anime and the manga that it is based on check out Cat Shit One at wiki.

Bruce Lee versus Iron Man

This cool stop motion animation was produced by Patrick Boivin, check his page at his agent's.

Even More Chainsaw Bayonets/Swords

Some days internet produces the same stuff everywhere you look. Yesterday I had a post about working chainsaw bayonet, today it is also on AH.com. In a thread, Things that look like alternate history, but aren't, the above image was posted. Below are the best comments on AH about this invention.

Emperor Norton I

And that's why you don't let rednecks in the army.

Petike

As I already said : Every period of history apparently has it's own Warhammer 40K fanboys...

LordMoogi

That is so completely stupid, that it loops around the other direction and becomes awesome. I feel conflicted.

All Hail the Green Giant

Working Chainsword

Warhammer 40K has a weapon called the chainsaw sword. Above you can see a Space Marine holding chainsaw sword. This crazy weapon has inspired lots of nerds.

The guy who made the chainsaw bayonet, pfcthiel, has other test videos of his working chainsaw bayonet at his youtube page. He is also willing to build these small rifle mounted chainsaws for $300. Here is a picture of another working chainsaw bayonet.

Star Wars Whisky Ad

Canadian Club's current campaign is aimed aimed at young non-whisky drinkers. Many of advertising campaigns use young pretty people. The twist with this campaign is using retro images of young people in the past. The faded color photos give the impression of old amateur snapshots. At CC's website you can make your own mock ad. Here, Fun With Canadian Club Ads, is a collection of more "user created content" at Something Awful.

Here is another one that could be a motivation poster.

Zombie Cat

In a forum on Something Awful, Dress up Your Cat. This is not a retouched photo. It is a cat named Chase or Chase no Face. The cat had a horrible accident and lived.

How To Get Ahead in Politics and Publishing

In an AH.com there was an argument over SM Sterling, My opinion of Stirling's ISOT and Emberverse Series. Sterling is contentious figure who has been banned from AH.com after getting into an discussion about containing moslem terrorism. On the other hand he is very influential on the entire genre of alternate history. Many topics discussed on AH.com are derived from concepts and scenarios that Sterling first developed. When the the entwined concerns of literary and commercial merit came up, with the usual slagging anything that is popular,the conversation deadened until Tom Kalbfus brought up too subtle slagging of a successful politico/author.

I think time and only time is the true test of a classic work. If someone writes a book and many copies are sold and 50 years later people are still buying many copies of that book, that may be a classic.

There are of course other reasons people might buy many copies of a book, for instance the writer happens to be a politician, maybe a Senator for instance. The Senator does one of his constituents a favor, but he doesn't want to be seen accepting kickbacks, so what does he do? He writes a book, not a particularly well written book, but somehow it still sells lots of copies, imagine that, in fact the author makes $6,000,000 from the sales of his book, and then just as mysteriously the book sales plumment, but the Senator is still happy, he deposits his money in his bank account, and then asks other wealthy and influential constituents if there is anything he can do for them, and then he mentions the book he has written.

I have no one in particular in mind, its just a hypothetical example of how someone may well many books without being a good writer.

The Civil Service - a definition

The civil service, the cockroaches of government.

One civil sevice lifer to another civil sevice lifer in Torchwood S03E01

The Indignity of Performing in "Bear Face"

Don't Let This Happen to Your Brain

Would You Like To Buy A Monkey - Explanation of a Joke

Today I confused some people with the reference to a 15 year old comedy bit. I saw a sock monkey and repeated the immortal, if misremembered phrase, "do you wanna buy a monkey?" Here below is the clip of David Letterman in the Chris Elliot movie Cabin Boy. Below is a clip supposedly of other people auditioning for the same cameo part.

China - Canada Uranium Deal

China seeking supply deal with Cameco


And Japan was buying scrap metal from the US until they attacked Pearl Harbor.

Band of Brothers (Pacific)

In the wikipedia entry for With The Old Breed there is a reference that the same crew/production team that created the miniseries Band Of Brothers has been filming a new series, The Pacific, partially based on this book. I haven't finished reading it, With the Old Breed, beyond knowing the author survived WWII, thank you Atom Bomb, I don't how it turns out.

Free DNA

Today at Mininova one of the featured torrents is human DNA, Homo.sapiens.DNA.NCBI36.53.Fasta.Gzip-Ensembl-OpenSci. Download and be the first on your block with human DNA. It is quite amusing that what is now available for free right now a generation ago or so was out of reach of evil geniuses, James Bond villians and the KGB. It was only possible for ET, Dr Who and the Federation to mess around with genetics.

Those Devilish Canadian Sheet Music Pirates

slashdot has a story, originally from BestActEver, originally from a New York Times report from 1897, about Canadian sheet music pirates. The current concern that Americans have about IP is ironic since for much of the 19th it was place that observed no foreign, no non-American, copyright. The slashdot commentators outdo themselves in making comments as if this was contemporary news report.

mangu points out the damage that Canadian pirates have already done to the music industry.

• The more things change, the more they stay the same. Did these "evil pirates" kill the music industry, as was proclaimed they would?

They sure did! In the 1890s there was a great market for piano rolls [wikipedia.org]. Where can you buy piano rolls today? Conclusion: pirates killed the music industry.

sakdoctor complains about the marketing tactics of printer makers.

I hate the way they sell those Gutenberg presses as a loss leader, then gouge you on printing plates and ink refills.

Finally HungryHobo gets to problem that improved communication technologies pose to existing media companies.

I think these PaperSharing M2M(Mailbox2Mailbox) systems which allow just anyone to swap files, folders and even whole books should be banned immediately before they destroy all that is good and pure with our country!

Mediocre But Arrogant - The MBA

ABC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, has a new documentary about the uselessness of the MBA, MBA: Mostly Bloody Awful.

Madness from the Fans of the ChiComs and other Commie Bastards

What is with Adrienne Clarkson? In the Globe and Mail on Friday she pens praise to the crazy madman commie Norman Bethune; Remember Bethune? Apparently not. In the Sunday Toronto Star, Let's elect our head of state; she is positively referred to in an op-ed by a committed Canadian republican, in other words in the writings of a traitor. Let us leave the case of the madness of republicanism, if the fact that "el presidente" is a the title that most despots of the last 50 years have held cannot convince such ideologues.

Norman Bethune was a great man. He pioneered the technology of mobile blood banks. He was in the Spanish civil war on the side of legitimate government. I myself attended school in the same building that he was educated. Yes, he was a great man. But to turn to communism in the age of Stalin shows a distinct lack of sanity. Because of WWII many remember Stalin somewhat positively. He helped the west defeat Hitler and Nazis and the then occupied most of Hitler's Eastern European conquests. Except we, in the west allied with a regime that had killed 20 million defeat another regime that was going to kill 10 million. In China there was another dilemma. Norman Bethune and other commies helped to replace a corrupt and incompetent regime with an incorruptible and competent tyranny. Mao eventually, after the death of Bethune, went on to kill 20 million plus people. Like Stalin. Like Stalin his name is not a curse of the world's lips. Instead, like Stalin, Mao corpse squats in the centre of his conquered capital.

Evil Paleontologist Robber Baron

The Times of India business section has a slide show of the worst American CEOs. Unfortunately they confused Stephen Jay Gould with Jay Gould.

Some Things are More Precious Than Life

You shot my car You BASTARD!

Gene Hunt, Ashes to Ashes S01E01
after renegade police constable
shot out driver side door window.

Gun Criticism from a Mob Boss

An Uzi! I'm not from South Central fuckin' Angeles. I didn't come here to shoot 20 black ten year olds in a fuckin' drive by. I want a normal gun for a normal person.

Harry the Mob Boss in In Bruges to
Uzi the gun dealer of Bruges

Test Your Nerd Level

On AH.com someone posted a link to a questionnaire on Asperger's Syndrome. Most of people on the thread at AH.com scored around nerd, or 22. A few outliers scored either very high or very low. I scored a little over borderline into Aspereger territory.

Weird New Ways to Make Music

Gizmodo has found ten ways using as instruments things varied as scanners, phones and buildings. The music above is made with water filled beer bottles and a R/C car.

Somalia - The Self Failed State

(Brian Gable of the Globe and Mail, April 14, 2009)

Many sensitive well meaning people wonder that if we could just address the grievances of criminals crime would disappear. Well no actual. Very little crime is the hungry stealing bread. Some theives might start that way but mostly crininals is the well fed stealingf luxaries. The Somali pirates style themselves as a coastguard of a failed state. The rewards of piracy is seen as proper repayment for depleted fish stocks. Fishing can provide a hard dangerous living, piracy on the other hand is hard and dangerous but could provide fortunes. The other point about the sheen of legitimacy when Somali pirates style themselves as a "coast guard". Yes Somalia is a Failed state. Failure wasn't thrust apon Somali, Somalis in all walks of life worked hard to fail as a country.

The MBA / Preppie Indictment

Andrew Lahde is a retired hedge fund manager who in last year earned 1000%. For his success he thanked:

"The low-hanging fruit, ie idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking," he wrote. "These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government," he said.

"All of this behaviour supporting the aristocracy only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America."

This list also describes the credentials of the last 4 US presidents. At this point one should be leery of any "leader" from Harvard or Yale.

There is a Reason Why They are Called REDS

(from Jeff Danziger 03/03/2009)

Wile E. Coyote and Death Metal

Get a Car So You Don't Have to Discover Fire

The Evil of Vacuum Cleaners

(from Overboard 11/04/2009)

A Very Silly Blog on Bathroom Humour

The Poop Report is a blog that is dedicated to "intellectual appreciation of poop humor".

How to make money

Sometime you think we could just hit em over the the head, rob em and throw throw their bodies in the creek.

Al Swearigan, Deadwood S01E05,
talking about proper customer relations.

I am watching Deadwood new for the first time.

Extreme Sheep Herding

Migrating Penguins

Frank Miller's Peanuts

Traced back to Cinematical

Site Devoted to Abandoned Places

Artificial Owl is a site "dedicated to provide on a daily basis a selection of the most fascinating abandoned man-made creations". They also provide exact locations of these sites. The above is a US antiballistic missile site that was built but never used.

Newgrounds and School Violence

The big story yesterday in the Globe and Mail about how a Montreal student foiled an arson plot in the UK, Overseas arson plot foiled by Canadian who logged on - and 'did the right thing'. The Montreal student was on a forum at Newgrounds when a disgruntled 16 year-old expressed an interest in firebombing his school. The irony is that the mascot of Newgrounds is Pico. Pico is in an early flashgame called Pico's School where he, Pico, has to fight his way through a school after a shooting.

The Live Stereo System

Star Trek and The Holy Grail

WWAZD - What Would A Zombie Do

This chart at graphjam, Things a Zombie Would Do, suggests that zombies would be very likely to dance with Michael Jackson. Zombies maybe soulless killing machines with a hunger for human brains however recent surveys indicate that zombies no longer want to hang out with Michael Jackson. There are also the issue of appropriation since Jackson took a traditional zombie folkdance and made it his own.

Working for The Rat

In a thread at Failblog.org NeenerNeenerNeener has some wonderful unsubstantiated stories about working for Disney.

I did some work for Disney, in the offices at the fabled Disneyland (behind the scenes, so to speak). I think the company motto is “The beatings shall continue until moral improves.” Ah, Disneyland. 1 security guy for every 5 tourists.

And DisneyWorld! My sister goes there a lot. They have 4 kids and one time she was there a security type told her to keep a close eye on her kids because at any one time there would be 3 child abduction rings working the park. If your kid comes up missing they usher you into a room with like 50 security monitors so you can try to spot your kid being whisked away.

I went to the Disney store in W. L.A. one time, and asked the girl behind the counter, “What’s it like working for the rat?” She looked around furtively and asked, “Which one?” True.

What If No Newspapers

This editorial cartoon by Gary Varvel supposes that the lack of newspapers in history would leave the guilty go unpunished. However the guilty have also used newspapers for their own ends. Lenin, Mao and Hitler all had newspapers to promote their twisted ideologies. One of the worst US president, Harding, rose to fame while running a small town newspaper. Press lords like Hearst, Black, Beaverbrooke and Murdoch have all been aggressive little shits intent on their own power. The rise of mass literacy and national newspapers in the late nineteenth century made the outbreak of The Great War an outbreak of mass patriotism and mass hysteria.

Yes, I read newspapers in the original finger blackening form. However technological systems, like the daily newspaper, are value neutral and can be a force for good or evil or profit. Good newspapers uncover lies but bad newspapers spread them.

Project Grizzly Guy Now Designing Military Armor

Great Canadian Troy Hurtubise has now designed a military version of his famous anti-bear suit. Where can I buy this suit?

A Defense of Short Sellers

Just because you robbed the grave doesn't mean you killed the guy.

Samatha Bee, of The Daily Show
Talking to a short seller,
March 20, 2008

Personally, I have no particular problem with short sellers.

The True Anarchists - Shipowners

In a story about Somali pirates, William Langewiesche, points out that ship owners and the Somali pirates are similar in that both live beyond the nation state.

Moderate Scumbags

Canada's Science Minister is an Idiot (Creationist)

Canada current Science Minister, Minister clarifies stand on evolution, for the current and temporary Deformed government is revealed be a creationist, . In the last 8 years Canada was able to recruit brilliant researchers fleeing America and their, at the time, creepy anti-science attitude. Now Canada is saddled with a chiropractor who thinks science is a religious issue.

Abandoned Buildings - The Ohio Edition

Illicit Ohio is a site devoted to photo explorations of abandoned buildings in Ohio. I came to my attention after Boingboing linked to images of a derelict mansion supposing owned by noted criminal Mike Tyson. However the site has images have some other logo than the original phototographer pasted over Illicit Ohio watermark. A very sleazy practice.

Number Magic from Abbot and Costello

Here is a prospective banker demonstrating his mathematical prowess.

From a post by Guzzo the Contrarian attempting to show that Wall Street can always find incompetents willing to work for $100K rather than $1M.

Jon Stewart Makes Jim Crammer Drown in His Own Flop Sweat

Here (pt 1, pt 2 and pt 3) is the slap down of Jim Cramer and by extension the vacuity of TV business journalism. I don't have a problem with business journalism. Much of its content can be best parts of the newspaper with long and detailed articles by knowledgeable beat reporters. But that is written journalism. Much of live TV "news" shows are merely a display of stream of conciousness. When not giving updates the hours are filled with rambling mumblings of touts, cheats and hacks.

As way of explanation to the problem of filling time in the exchange on thursday night between Cramer and Stewart.
Jim Cramer: ...we[meaning CNBC] have 17 hours of live TV a day to do.
Jon Stewart: maybe you could cut down on it

All Hail Our New Animal Overlords.

Our President, by Tyson Hesse.

How To Kill the T-62

If you have wondered how to destroy a T-62 and its crew of 4 "commie pinko swine" here is the coloring book for you. This booklet is a pleasant relic of the cold war.

(Link from Timbo)

Vending Machine as an Alternative Reality Portal

Something called The SCP Foundation is dedicated to chart objects that don't belong on our universe. Above is the listed as SCP-261. For further reports check out this discussion, The Crosstime Vending Machine.

The Alien as a Counter-Strike:Source Skin

From FPSBanana in a skin for Counter-Strike:Source of the Alien.

The Watchmen as a Saturday Morning Cartoon

Saturday Morning Watchmen by Happy Harry on Newgrounds.

Mercenaries as Additional Horseman of the Apocalypse

...private armies, the hired defenders of property, the sure precursors of anarchy.

W S Churchill on problems
in England after the Black Death in
The History of English Speaking People

Mashup of The Watchmen and 1984

General Mung Beans on AH.com has a new thread that is a mashup of The Watchmen and 1984. If you are a fan of both or either classics check it out.

Update
For more reworkings of The Watchmen, Slate has a slide show of The Watchmen by different directors.

US as Zimbabwe

At worst if the States really had problems they would descend to level of Brazil, a country that should be rich. But to be compared to the basket case Zimbabwe, or as I like to call Rhodesia stupidified, is a terrible fate.

Peace in Our Time - Photo Mashup of Obama and Chamberlan

Russian Business Associates

In yesterday's Globe there was a story on the slaying of Glen Davis, Loans that 'went south' shed light on Davis killing. Apparently his nephew who is implicated in the murder has "Russian business associates". I would trust someone with "Russian business associates" about as much as someone with a "Colombian import/export business". In many countries when businesses and indivioduals have disputes they get what is called a "hired gun", a slang term for a lawyer. However when "Russian business associates" have business disputes they engage "hired guns" who really are hired guns.

So You Wanna Whack Hitler - Exciting Offer Enclosed

Here is short story, Missives from Possible Futures #1: Alternate History Search Results by John Scalzi, in the form of an advertising circular from an time travel company. Since Hitler is such a popular target the company offers a number of prearranged assassination methods.

Speaking on the unpopularity of Nazism coupled with odd popularity of communism (see past post Cheney Less Popular than a Pedophile, Murderer or Tyrant). Neo Nazis in this day and age are vanishingly rare, thank god, but people who can argue with a straight face that you can't blame the buckets of blood that Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot shed on communism because theoretically none of these psychos practiced communism. Their definition is that "communism" is a state of bliss that has been worked towards but never achieved. Today I talked to guy carrying his cat home from vet who argued with a straight face about the need for revolution. Commies, especially those you gloss over the 20th century, should be treated with the same contempt and derision as Neo Nazis, merely the fanboys of murderers.

TV and Other Fiction Tropes

TV Tropes.com are compendium of a different wats and techniques of telling stories. In the words of TVTropes.com:

Tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations. On the whole, tropes are not clichés. The word clichéd means "stereotyped and trite". In other words, dull and uninteresting. We are not looking for dull and uninteresting entries. We are here to recognize tropes and play with them, not to make fun of them.

Wander around in this site and recognize all the parts of your favorite stories you have loved and enjoyed.

How To Be On Jeopardy

Josh Fruhlinger, the curator of Comics Curmudgeon blog recently was on Jeopardy. Read his thrilling account of the nerve wracking spectacle that is Jeopardy.

Trivia Question #2

What is the one award that is one award that has been awarded to Lawrence Welk, Eric Sevareid, Louis L'Amour, Peggy Lee, Warner Christopher and Master Sergeant Wilson Keebler? I mean what does a band leader, a newsman, a writer, a singer, a beltway insider and a WWII senior NCO have in common?

Manitoban MLA from Riding Named After Convicted Traitor Wants to Change This Flag

Manitoba flag outdated, says NDP

WINNIPEG -- Manitoba should adopt a new flag, because the current one - as well as that of Ontario - is an archaic symbol of British rule, say some grassroots members of Manitoba's governing New Democrats.

Manitoba's flag "is outdated and a relic from the days of our former British colonial heritage," reads a resolution by the NDP's Riel constituency association in south Winnipeg. The resolution is on the agenda of the provincial party's annual convention next month.

"Manitoba's flag is often confused with Ontario's flag, with the only difference being a bison ... instead of three maple leaves."

Both provinces' flags are similar to the Red Ensign that Canada used as a national flag prior to adopting the maple leaf design in 1965. There is a red background, a Union Jack in the upper left corner, and a provincial symbol toward the bottom right corner.

In 2001, a U.S.-based volunteer group of flag enthusiasts called the North American Vexillological Association ranked the flags of 72 states, provinces, territories and districts. Ontario and Manitoba placed 43rd and 44th respectively.

The group criticized flags that were not distinctive, and praised those with simple, bold designs such as Quebec's fleur-de-lis, which ranked third behind Texas and New Mexico.

The Riel constituency association is proposing the government hold a provincewide public contest to develop a new flag. But any change is likely to be an uphill battle.

Manitoba's opposition Progressive Conservatives say the current flag is an important symbol of the province's roots.

"Certainly many of our traditions came here as a result of the British democratic parliamentary system," Tory Leader Hugh McFadyen said.

Premier Gary Doer did not comment. A spokesman for the Premier's office said Mr. Doer attends conventions to listen to debates and "not prejudge what [the] convention may or may not pass."

Student Loan Scams

Student loans are often the one type of loan that can't be discharged in bankruptcy. Here is an angry discussion on this issue from On Point, The Dark Side of Student Loans. The cartoon above is Fighting Words by Abell Smith. This cartoonist is part of Cartoonists with Attitude the same group that Ted Rall belongs to.

Risk and Reward for Bankers

From Alex a wonderful argument on risk and reward.

Ad for for the Giant Hitachi Dash-6 Excavators

(From Mining.com)

Old Photograph of Serra Pelada.Open Pit Mine

The photos yesterday of the gold mining in the Congo, Men Who Moil for Gold, reminded me of the Amazonian gold rush in the early 1980's where at Serra Pelada a mountain was leveled and then turned into a 100 metre deep pit by hand. The photographer Sebastião Salgado made his name with images from this mine. There was a documentary made of this gold rush but I can not find it. Maybe the other mining fans know the name of it. Here is a long (90 minutes) discussion of his work from the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

For even more information about Sebastião Salgado here is a documentary, Looking Back at You, on him and his work, (pt1, pt2, pt3, pt4, pt5 and pt6). In this documentary an art critic say that photos like the one above give him an idea what the construction of the Pyramids must of looked like.

The US is Undertaxing Itself to Bankruptcy

Chart from an NY Times article about the book, The Tyranny of Dead Ideas.

Men Who Moil for Gold

Great pictures of Congolese artisanal hydraulic miners from Reuters' Finbarr O'Reilly.

"Men who moil for gold" is a quote from Robert Service's The Cremation of Sam Magee.

Punchcard Art

The above image is from an exhibit of art made on unpunched punchcards from 1965, Do Not Fold, Bend, Spindle or Mutilate: Computer Punch Card Art - Virtual Exhibition. Recently on Boingboing there was an article on the worth of old and sometimes rare things, The Trough of No Value, that suggests objects travel through. After looking at this I wonder if there are more boxes of unused punch cards out there. Will there be enough examples left for future historians or archeologtists of mid twenith century computers to study. Will there be preserved data centres in the same way there are preserved railway lines where hobbyists work hard to recreate the technology of a vanished era.

Computers Blown Up Real Good

Today's slashdot has a story, When Servers Explode, about poor hard hardworking computers being bent, spindled and mutilated unto to death after years of faithful service. "Blown up real good". The article has links to many, many horrible tech snuff films.

Short Term Thinking in Business and Politics

(click on comic strip for larger image)

Prince of Slaves Probably was a Slave Owner Himself

Because of comment in an NPR segment about on black history month, Do We Need A Black History Month? someone mentioned an actual West African price who was a slave. Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori was a prince of Kingdom of Fouta Djallon in the highlands of Guinea, which oddly enough had as a capital a town/city called Timbo. As a teenager he had studied in Timbuktu. In his twenties after leading his father's troop to defeat was captured and sold into slavery.This was a personal tragedy for him it must be asked if previously he had sold POWs into slavery. Slavery was practiced by moslem kingdoms in West Africa. The slave trade in West Africa and East Africa was only wiped by force of arms. However slavery is still "popular" in muslin Africa. One of the motives of the Sudanese government forces in Darfur as well as in Sudan's Christian south was enslavement. The final little kicker is that Wiki ascribes the downfall of Timbuktu with competition from European trading ports on the coast:

The city began to decline after explorers and slavers from Portugal and then other European countries landed in West Africa, providing an alternative to the slave market of Timbuktu and the trade route through the world's largest desert.

This Prince of Slaves lived in countries that enslaved, probably owned slaves, probably enslaved those he captured and studied in fabled Timbuktu which had along with its cattle, camel, salt and gold markets also had a noted slave market.

The comment made by Eve Sander (evergreeen), which she triple posted, is taken by as a bad example of "celebrating" history as a means to personal affirmation and self esteem. History shouldn't make you feel better, that is what beer is for, it should inform, enlighten and even disturb the reader.

GINI Ratios Since WWII

For more information on GINI ratios here the Wiki page for GINI Coefficients, where I also got this graph.

The Bottom of Top 1% of US Households not that Well Off.

From the blog Visualizing Economics comes this graph of the top 1% of US households. Instead of viewing this group as a whole it divides them into 4 groups: the 99% to 99.5%, the 99.5% to 99.9%, the 99.9% to 99.99% and the top 0.01%. One can sort of understand the anger of the top investment bankers demoted from the top 11,ooo families down to the "proles" with as many as half a million households above than them "earning" more money.

The problem with the cost of living in certain areas like New York, LA and Washington is the high concentration of billionaires and multimillionaires. This expands service industry for the wealthy but causes psychic pain to the the merely well off. The lower edges of the top 1% who would feel wealthier in other communities if not for the competition with many more people that have 5, 10 , 50 and 100 times more money. In other times and places it was colonels being outbid by generals when on campaign the supply of luxuries and even necessities was limited. Whereas in their regitmental depots colonels could feel wealthier.

On a related note here is a an article by Michael Lewis, The Mansion: a Sub Prime Parable. Michael Lewis has been a successful writer and commentator for 2 decades. He has reached that pinnaclethat many aspire, where he can make a living and even a a good living writing. The impression in this article is that he is in the top 1%. However when he moves back to New Orleans he rents a house that could only really be afforded by someone in the top 0.01%, that is by someone truly rich.

Scene Almost out of movie The Day After Tomorrow

The above looks like a giant ice stalagmite formed when a pipe burst in a abandoned shopping mall. In reality this is a mass of ice purpose built in a Swiss stadium for Ice Cimbing championships. If you look at image below you can see a climber and tiers of spectators.

(from Pruned)

Coffee For Zombies

It Isn't Easy Being A Flower

It isn't easy being a flower as this animation, Such is Life..., by DHaynes, shows.

The End of The News

For more fun and depressing news about the death capital N News here is a radio discussion, The Future of the News.

(Cartoon by Ted Rall)

Higher Costs and Less Value

In the recent controversy about the US government forcing pay ceilings on bailed out bankers and the UK enacting similar punitive schemes on banks they bought many have complained that banks will be unable to recruit or keep the talented, see Living On Half A Million In NYC. The apologists for the corrupt and/or incompetent bankers complain that quality has a price and no one is willing to work for nothing. However when one looks at the sweep of history this is not quite clear.

There have been jobs and sectors that in the past were much more remunerative. But today we see that these jobs will not longer a path to riches can attract as good or even better people. When some jobs are so rewarding a couple things happen society as a whole over invests in these type of jobs. Second such overly rich posts attract people more interested in the the pay than the work or vocation .

Up until recently, less than 200 years ago, there are two types of "public sector" jobs that used to be much more highly rewarded. In the past senior religious and military officials used to be better paid in both relative and absolute terms. Bishops would and could build palaces, administer trusts and sometimes rule in their own right as temporal rulers. see The Barchester Chronicles. Popes used to be able lay up fortunes for themselves, their clans and their "nephews". When the Papacy was rich and powerful the only type of person who crawled his way upwards was someone dedicated to the pursuit wealth and power 24/7. Clerics still aspire to sees and bishoprics however they do so knowing that the reward will be mostly be in heaven then on earth. Successful generals and admirals could make fortunes large enough to keep their families rich for generations, see John Churchill). That was then now senior officers can only make a fortune if take over their governments, like Nasser, Gaddafi, Idi Amin, the Burmese Junta and other assorted thugs and malcontents. However at this point they are no longer strictly military officers and in the case of Nasser not even competent ones.

The message of history is paying fortunes means getting aggressive and ambitious losers.

Good and Bad Exemplary Druggies

...that as Chancellor of Germany Adolf Hitler made some very poor policy and strategic decisions, at least some of which might be attributed to the daily injections of amphetaimes his doctor had him on after ’42 or so, and that the bad end to which he ultimately came was a direct result of his own poor judgment. Among others, he committed the most famous of the classic blunders: Never Get Involved in the Land War in Asia. A textbook meth-head move. In a clichéd denoument straight out of so many drug education filmstrips, he ended up shooting his wife and himself in an underground bunker while the Russian army closed in around his crumbling empire and his body was doused in gasoline and set on fire, and now he is the most hated person in world history. "You see? You see what happens, Larry? This is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass." -Walter Sobchak.

Tim Kreider explaining his cartoon, What Can You Do On Drugs?, that while Michael Phelps, William Faulkner and Miles Davis were able to perform under the influence Hitler did not quite succeed when high on amphetamines.

Muslim Ban on Yoga

So several Muslim authorities have banned the practice of yoga, by Muslims because of its Hindu or Kaffir origin, see report by The Guardian. I am surprised that other Muslim authorities and propagandists haven't claimed that Yoga is a purely Muslim invention like the zero another ancient Indian invention.

A commenter, xyberia, on one of The Guardian reports on this laughable story calls the MUI, the Indonesian Ulema Council, the Indonesia governmental Muslim "brain trust" as Many Unintelligent Individuals.

UPDATE

Here is an old but relevant story on anti-yoga activities in Malaysia from my friend's blog The Eleventh Hour.

The Day the Muzak Died

According to reports the Muzak Corporation has filed for Chapter 11. In rosier times bankrupt companies were found it easy to borrow new money and to refinance their debt. Currently in the states even people and organizations with good credit are having problems borrowing money. What hope does a zombie corp have in getting brains, sorry I mean refinancing.

The Destructiveness of Swords

The Destructiveness of Swords

In this day and age of age of cheap semiautomatic weapons we forget hiw effective swords can be. Swords can be effective at close range (>1 metre) and in enviroment where it is difficult and impossible to shoot more than 3 rounds a minutes. Here and above is concise demostration on the power of the sword. When I first saw this I realized, if anything, that Dungeons & Dragons underestimated the the damage that a single sword can inflict.

Remember, go to cold steel for all your blade needs.

Animals who Butcher and the Humans Who Excuse Them

Christie Blatchford latest piece comes down hard on Taliban murderers who saw the heads off their victims, Sanitizing atrocity serves only Taliban's interests. In the comments section most were more offended by our own armed forces who are combating the Taliban, then by the Taliban / Moslim / Al Queda /islamically motivated murderers / terrorists / bandits / jihadi shits who find religious justifications to blow up schools and rape 8 year-olds. Unfortunately in the same way that fanboys of Stalin could be found while he was straving the Ukraine lots idiots / fellow travelers / true believers / adventurers / traitors / thrill seekers / sincere patsies /conspirators can be found to cheer on the people who want to kill us.

Newsweek Praises Canada - Trolls Reacts

The editor of Newsweek has a piece in his latest issue about Canada's good fiscal management, Worthwhile Canadian Initiative. The piece points out our the lack of a banking crisis, a decade long record of of trade, current account and federal government surpluses.

The comments are filled with the kind of badly spelled knee jerk reaction that one can expect on the web. Following are some of the more insightful and stupid comments to this piece.

Insulting
harrylogy: Frozenbutts,your banks don't fail for the same reason that dwarfs don't fall out of windows...They both r not big enough...

Illiterate and illogical
harrylogy: u pose as a doctor & u cannot even write " colleagues " correctly...

Crazy Anarchism
plinius_caecilius:
The real "success" of Canada isn't that they had more regulation, but that they had less government distortion of the market. If Canada had unregulated banks in addition to not distorting the home market they'd be doing even better than they are now. This merely illustrates once again that government isn't the solution to our problems, government is the problem.

Finally a Canadian reaction to being noticed.
weilim: I think the article is a bit overboard with the beaver loving.

Bad Project Mangement

Some engineers and astronauts at NASA have produced a short video about the bureaucratic barriers to good engineering. Here also is a NPR story about this short video.

The Uses and Abuses of History on TVO

Here is a panel discussion between some professional historians. The program repeats at 11:00 PM EST.

Phelps Likes Pot and Who Cares

There are two issues with the big stupid fake controversy about Phelps taking a bong hit. First can we just get away from the concept of "role model". If the last US El Presidente could be an alcoholic coke head what is to stop an athlete to from being normal. This issues goes back to the sometimes disconnect between professional and personal ethics. If Phelps was found to cheating with performance enhancing drugs like steroids that would be a much worse offence because of the long term nature training with steroids. In the same way I would consider a hitman with a long and successful career to be worse than a one time "civilian" murderer.