Is this Email Necessary? - Flowchart

During WWII railroads were militarized. At the same they were allowed to continued operating under existing management. The nationalization the British railway companies happened after not during WWII. Rail companies were placed in a ticklish spot, they were still private corporations, they didn't want to complete annoy the traveling public who were past and future customers. So advertising was done by both government and railways to discourage consumer traffic.

Here is a flowchart that discourages email. It is not that email is such a bad thing but because it so useful. But too much email is sometimes worse that no email at all.

 (Alex 9/29/2000)

Flow chart after the jump.

Star Wars Yoga

Not everybody wonder what types of yoga poses various Star Wars characters. practice. Rob Osborne has wondered that.Found at The Laughing Squid. Found after looking at alternate route designs for the Bay Area's BART.

Front Organization Leader for a Terrorist Group Says Sorry but Cause was Righteous

Sinn Fein chairman: IRA should say sorry for hurt caused

Belfast Telegraph Saturday, 3 March 2012

Shameless 

Chicom Hothead Defines the Rule of Law

Peking University professor Kong Qingdong is being interviewed after a video of a mainland Chinese woman eating  in Hong Kong subway went viral. Apparently it is against the rules to eat in the Hong Kong subway and many in subway car were appalled by her bold faced misbehavior and this led to flame war between Hong Kong and the chicom netizens.  

The good professor rants on about all the things about Hong Kong that he hates. But then he shows an interesting insight in the thought process communists. Western businessmen should remember that China is not Hong Kong writ large. Communist China lacks the rule of law. For Kong Qingdong this is okay because the rule of law is only for degenerates. 

At the  5:55 mark

• Interviewer: But I heard that the environment of hpng kong is cleaner than us [Beijing].
• Kong Qingdong: That is because the rule of law, not because of (human) quality.Just like Singapore the fine for smoking is 5000. That is rule of law, right. The reliance on rule law shows the people have no quality.

(taken directly from the English subtitles) 

(from a link at China Droll)

Pop Culture Knowledge or My Lack Thereof

For me it is the other way around. I have no idea about the American pop culture "characters" mentioned with out googling I have to have to assume they are made up names.

These are my guess for the meanings of the names/nonsense terms mentioned in panels 3-6.

• Tiger Woods: Protected forest game reserve with large cats, usually tigers. As opposed to Lion Veldts, protected grassland game reserve with large cats, usually lions.
• Snooki: Common name for a toy poodle.
• LeBron: Brand of baby shoe. Name derived from the concept of bronzing shoes, the "ze" was dropped and the "le" added for some sort of pseudo foreignness, see Häagen-Dazs. 
• Lady Gaga: Childhood nickname of some aristocrat.

The cartoon is by Jen Sorensen, her weekly comic is Slow Poke.

Flying Robot Musicians

Three years ago I came across a video of Mario's Theme done with beer bottles and a R/C car. The music was "programed" by varying the spacing and liquid level of the bottles. In the above case it was created by programing robot quadrotors to interact with modified musical instruments. Bond's and Mario themes have seeped into pop culture's unconscious so need no introduction.

Why Some People Don't Like FPS's

"Build Your Skills to Fit Your Preferred Form of Violence"

Ad copy for the game
PAYDAY™ The Heist, on Steam.

This may some people ask, "won't somebody think of the children". This phrase is a "thought-terminating cliché", a term coined by Robert Lifton in his Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism. A book I am going to look up after discovering it wiki link.

Beautiful Mathematics

At Random Website  I came across a site called uncontrol. Uncontrol is dedicated to mathematical image creation. That is images that are created by formulas. The above is part of an experiment in making a "wormy shape".

Broadcast Engineers Get Higher (video is available again)

One time in my youth my friends and I climbed a tower, that is to say they climbed a ladder contained within the tower and I didn't. I am not ashamed to write that this video made me scared, and physically sick. At the thread at AH.com where I got this video, This guy gets so high it has me scared, the link to the video merely said, "This link may not be suitable for all viewers". I was expecting something about Charlie Sheen, like the very funny Charlie Sheen Quotes As New Yorker Cartoons.

Looking at this I know how right I was to have some fear of heights. Acrophobia is not an irrational fear when you see the climbing conditions that these engineers have to deal with. A couple of years I blogged about a guy walking the Caminito del Rey, Extreme Hiking. That was pretty scary but this is worse. The other video was about an amazing trail this many people walk once as an adventure from their regular lives. This video is about guy doing something as part of his "regular life".

Video from Russel Brown of/at TheOnLineEngineer.Org.

Update 2012/2/11
Unfortunately the video is offline.
The image above is a frame grab from the video
showing the curve of the earth.

Update 

I have rediscovered this video, only the video,
 somebody took it and added "Spirit in the Sky".

Pejorative Terms for Geologists

Gravel Monkeys
and
Geo loving Feldspar Jockeys

Dr Sheldon Cooper,
The Big Bang Theory S05E17

Alternative Washingtons

In the movie Fatherland 1960's Berlin was furnished with buildings designed, but not built, by Speer. Not to compare the two capitals but here is alternative but here is a short video of alternate designs for Washington.

(link from oshronin in AH.com in 

Things that look like alternate history, but aren't)

Learn English or be Exiled to Hell

(from Engrish Funny @
the Cheezeburger network)

Rick Santorum Promotes Heavy Metal to Today's Teens

News reports, actually one blogger,  have him denouncing heavy metal as "satanic".  He goes on to condemn "new' bands such as Black Sabbath (founded 1969). This is probably satire, highly plausible satire. However Santorum (NSFW) is known for taking extreme positions. 

This is the best thing that has happened to Heavy Metal for a long time.

Modern Day Russians Build German Panzer

When WWII war movies were made in the immediate decades afterwards there was enough existing materiel to provide for many movies. Catch-22, filmed in the late '60s, found enough working, flyable B-25, to fill a squadron. This was beyond military surplus that dressed their set. Other movies were made with authentic equipment to save money not stress realism. Now such film must be shot as period pieces with nearly everything reproduced at enormous cost and bother. 

A Russian film about the Great Patriotic War/Eastern Front is being made, here is their webpage in Russian. They can find enough T34s to use, 90K were built. But only a little more than 1300 Tigers were built. They had to build their own Tiger I. They built a panzer.

Dancing as Athletics

Here is a spare little ad highlighting the principal dancer at the National Ballet of Canada. This ballet company like many other national institutions in Canada is from Toronto. The late animation touches and the subject matter brings to mind Norman McLaren's Pas de Deux.

(from Ads of the World)

Silent Movie Star Wars

Grant Snider - Cartoonist of Whimsy

I came across this cartoonist on Lovely Listing.

From The Highlands of Qo'noS

It's Sean Khaaaaaanery.

Emperor Norton I of AH.com
not Gold Rush San Fransisco
at Things that look like alternate history, but aren't

Steve Jobs in Hell

Friends and Allies

Are we to be friends then?

Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham

We are allies, my dear. Which can be a good deal more effective.

Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham

The Darkest Ted Rall Ever Gets

That was depressing.

One Line Description of Jobs the Monster

...Jobs could be charming to people he hated as easily as could be insulting to people he liked.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Bad Pun from Romney

“I saw the young man over there with eggs Benedict, with hollandaise sauce,” he said. “And I was going to suggest to you that you serve your eggs with hollandaise sauce in hubcaps. Because there’s no plates like chrome for the hollandaise.”

from Dana Milbank article in
The Washington Post,
A day of awkwardness with Mitt Romney.

God Bless the Internet

It giveth and taketh away.

Ray Sullivan, West Wing S07E010

Subtle dig at Woody Allen

Are you a big Rob Zombie fan?

Matt Santos

I prefer his earlier, funnier, movies.

Josh Lyman

The West Wing S07E05

Dog's Eye View of Dogs at a Dog Park , Not shot at Isle of Dogs

Video was shot by a Kelsey Wynn. At his site he states the slow motion effect was done by, "[shooting] at 60fps and [slowing] down to 23.976". Original link from The Washington Post.

"What Is the Internet, Anyway?"

This was linked from the comment thread on Boingboing about some painfully out of touch comments from some flack from Hollywood, MPAA's number two admits industry "not comfortable" with the Internet. This mashup was produced by a a site called Urlesque. in the cooments at Urlesque blackbelt_jones mentions:

The thing that struck me as hilarious was "the internet yellow pages" Right in
the beginning, I paid about 20 dollars for that book. It seems like a joke now:
a search engine in book form!

Christmas Blues from Piano Playing Cat

Vince Masuka, Romantic

In matters of the heart, always follow your dick.

Vince Masuka, Dexter S06E09

Super Villain Putin

Here is a man who deserves his own Theme Music. He is listed on TV Tropes as a real life Memetic Badass, where there is also a discussion that he is James Bond. This image was posted on AH.com by Alternatehistorybuff5341, with this comment, "I swear no matter how I look at it, Vladimer Putin looks like a criminal mastermind or a 007 Villain." others also commented.

He isn't one?

Iserlohn

If you ask me, he looks more like a modern-day Russian Emperor.

SavoryTruffle

...you're implying he isn't?

Nietzsche

Building churches to spread his word. He is starting a whole new branch of Christianity.

Opunium

Well, he is the reincarnation of St. Paul.

Polish Eagle

Well, he already IS a saint.

Marc Pasquin

I know who that is, it's the infamous Dr. Nyet!

Letterman

Fake Ad for Somali Pirate Safari/Cruise

After a couple of links and a couple of links more I ended up on a blog page, Somali Coast Cruise Package, that purported to be about a tropical cruise. It turns to be a vessel set up to lure and ambush Somali pirates. I have no problem with that, pirates need to be killed.

New Car Kills Driver of Old Car

This is the first time have seen a car crash test with a antique car. When tests are done are done with production models or prototypes nothing much is lost. But this test has flushed a little piece of the past down the memory hole.

The Counter Strike Player

Gamer Tonight uses the Talk Show conventions to examine different games and gamers who play them. Check out the interview with the Counter Strike player. This player is solely dedicated to the game to point of being only vaguely aware of any other game, "source?". Check out some of the other bits to see how your psychosis is depicted.

A Short Film on Urinal Etiquette

My bad public bathroom habit is to sing a version of this song as:

A place to stand
And a place go
A place we call
AAAA Urinial

According to this instructional film, Male Restroom Etiquette, this violation of social norms could lead to the destruction of civilization. I know better now

The Social Media Decison Tree

(the Smoke-Filled World)

Why I Hate Facebook

I am not on Facebook. I will never be on Facebook.

Cat Videos and the Studio the Produces them

A Groovy Warning of Nuclear War

Link from Orville Third on AH.com's Things that look like alternate history, but aren't.

Johnny Drama's Philosophy of Life

You see, life is a big jerk. It punches you in the face over and over again. You have fight back or it will knock you out.

Johnny Drama, How to be a Gentleman S01E01

For those unfamiliar with the character of Johnny Drama here is collection of Johnny Drama's best moments from some suspiciously no-name news site (World News).

Not All Canadians are Canadiens Fans

I went to Firefox today to needless mess around with my extensions. Then I found the above suggestion. I stopped looking for amusing time wasters like Play Your Piano and went looking for useful extensions like Aviary which is how I screen captured the above image.

I was appalled (mildly) that Firefox assumed that I would support a Montreal team. Looking a little more deeply through the choices only a 7 NHL teams are listed as having "official" themes, including the zombie franchise Phoenix.

Still I'm not a fan of the Habs despite how many of their "ethnically cleansed" fans I meet in Toronto.

How to Win Reunions

1. You've had a personal tragedy.
2. Unlike everybody else you look better than you did 20 years ago.
3. And you have a cool job.
4. Put all those things together and it makes you...
   

Ghost dad Harry Morgan

Popular

Dexter, Dexter S06E01

Education (institutions) and its Discontents

High school, a small world unto itself combining all the warmest elements of a federal work camp with those of a third world poultry farm.

Dexter, Dexter S06E01

Why No Halloween Leads to Very Bad Things

Children must know fear. Without it they won't know how to behave, they'll try frenching grizzle bears, or consider living in Florida.

Sue Sylvester, Glee S02E05

Definition of "Executive"

It's a meaningless title but it helps insecure people feel better about themselves.

Hermes Conrad

I feel better about myself.

Philip J Fry

Futurama S06E17

Alignment Inspection

Inspection at an assembly line in in Hell in Ugly Americans S01E11 to determine the D&D alignment of new demons.

The Black Market Burgers of Connecticut 1963

The above is a screen capture from the new TV Show Pan Am, S01E02. For 1963 the price for a onion-less, chili-less, cheese-less burger costs somewhere between $10 to $40 in today's currency, according to Measuring Worth. It seems a little high.

Drinking, Smoking, Pregnacy

Boardwalk Empire S02E03

Business Opportunity 1920

We're thinking of getting into heroin.

Lucky Luciano

When you run the numbers it starts looking very attractive.

Meyer Lansky

The point of historical fiction is too insinuate a fictional character in to real events. Or in this case fictionalized conservation about getting into the drug business by two people who were involved in narcotics after the end of prohibition.

Dexter Inspired Music Video

Here is a music video inspired by the TV series Dexter. What I find interesting is that it depicts all of Dexter's "ritual". In this context "ritual" is a criminology term to describe way a common pattern that a murderer may show, (here for more details on ritual murder). I was looking for the teaser for the upcoming season and happened upon this and a lot less well crafted pieces of fan art. I like Dexter but some of the other fans have produced "art" that only functions as mental health diagnoses.

Bad taste can be a serious matter.

How the Military Values of Stuff Compared to People

Beans on toast for the human using thousands of dollars of tech in a squat.

Torchwood S04E01

A Short Formula of India

India = Silicon Valley + Africa

Anonymous

I don't remember where I got this.

Triumph of the Darth Vader's Will

Fear and Loathing of the Media

The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media from WW Norton on Vimeo.

Pinky und der Brain in German

Pinky and the Brain was is the greatest thing that Steven Spielberg ever made. It was a story about 2 genetically altered one simply who wanted to take over the world and the other just simple. The German version of the Pinky and the Brain theme song is below.

Here is a mashup of the above song with Rammstein.


Here is acoustic cover, the guitar tabs are here.

Mad Men Comparing Cars versus Trains

Mad Men On Trains from Rich Sommer

There is a theory that the only things that need to be actively and energetically sold are things that are bad deals. Another thought is that only things are profitable enough to support salesmen are going to sold by salesmen. I once knew a guy who made a good living selling cell phones back in the early '90's. Now cell phones are a commodity business and are not sold by salesmen. Mutual funds and whole life insurance

There is something else going on in this piece because companies may have different and mixed motives to be promote their brand, themselves or products. At such times companies may engage in advertising and marketing even when when they don't nurture a diverse ecosystem of commissioned sales.

Here is an interview with Vincent Kartheiser, Q&A: Mad Men's Vincent Kartheiser on High-Speed Rail, where he discussed the above piece. There is a great scene in Yes, Minister, where where he meets three different civil servants, who in case of regulatory capture all champion different modes of transport (road, rail and air).

Dwarf = Bastard

All dwarves are bastards in their father's eyes.

Tyrion Lannister, Game of Thrones S01E01

Rules For Pet Ownership from Game Of Thrones

You'll train them yourselves.
You'll feed them yourselves.
And if they die, you'll bury them yourselves.

Lord Stark, Game of Thrones S01e01, laying down the pet laws

Great Review of the Dear Leader's Film Criticism

My mind was simply blown away!!! The dear leader is an author par-excellence. Given that it was written in 6 hours flat, this book is nothing short of a masterpiece. It is sad that the biased western media has not recognised the great man's writing abilities. Nor have the reindeer eating ignoramuses in Sweden considered the master for the Nobel Prize for literature. Not that the great man needs one.

In this book, his greatness discusses, in depth, the fine intricacies of various aspects of film making from kidnapping directors and their wives, to ordering people in to movie theatres.

As the person who solely invented 3D cinema, digital projection and bullet time photography, his Kimness can teach a thing or two to posers like Speilberg. But his shortness's abilities are not limited to film production techniques. He directed what is the undoubtedly the greatest movie of all time, Dairy of a Girl Student and also lesser known movies like Star wars, Saving Private Ryan and God Father 1&2. Godfather 3 was not directed by Lil Kim and hence sucked big time.

The Kim man also reveals in the book, his dabblings in alternative cinema, directing and starring in masterpieces like Kim goes South, Interracial Kimming and Kimm until she's Ill, which although is widely considered to be the greatest adult movie ever made, is not available outside due to privacy concerns. Fears of leaking these masterpieces to the western devils is rumoured to be the reason why North Koreans don't have access to the internet. But the movies can apparently be bought on BetaMax in North Korea for an average monthly salary of a North Korean or 1 piece of bread.

To summarise read this book or face the firing squad when the revolution comes.

Mark Twang's review of this book, On the Art of the Cinema: April 11,1973, has been able to capture the stilted rhetoric of a Red Guard. Admittedly we have fewer examples of North Korean communist rhetoric but this seemed as similar to Maoist writing for one person to consider this review "racist". Proving to me at least to me that those who charge "racism" are the true morons of our age.

I found this in a Foreign Policy article about the lousy literature that dictators inflict on the world, Bad Politics, Worse Prose. The article examines the conditions that prevents dictators from producing good work, namely a subservient, adoring public and a complete lack of professional editing. This is also a good explanation for how the Star Wars prequels were just so lousy. The generalissimo Lucas may have been a great director in his day.

A Tankful of Gas in 1932 - Mildred Pierce

	$20.70	using the Consumer Price Index
	$17.90	using the GDP deflator
	$51.60	using the value of consumer bundle
	$63.80	using the unskilled wage
	$77.40	using the Production Worker Compensation
	$129.00	using the nominal GDP per capita
	$317.00	using the relative share of GDP

That's not too bad.

Cool Looking Fire Fighter Tool

This is the SP16 SPAX, a fire fighter tool. It is an ingenious combination of a machete and various wrenches to open/close various valves. It is made by the Ontario Knife Company, from Ontario county in Northern New York.

I came across this company because of odd turn of phrase by stalkere in an AH.com post.

I still think it's going to be a desperate fight. But 5.56 only? That's going to be sporty. Mighty sporty. In my opinion, more than a few of the Marines are going to go "All the way to Ontario" - a saying we had - the M-16 bayonet was made by Ontario Cutlery Company.

How Nerdy is Alternative History?

The fact that we're arguing 5.56 wound ballistics on Orcs and Orc armor brands us as incurable geeks-a-zoids, you do realize that?

stalkere commenting on AH.com thread,
US Marine Battalion ISOTed to Helms Deep.

Students, Dumb

Well, well, if it isn't Tweedledum and Tweedle fake boobs.

and that's how Sue "C"s it, Glee S02E16

Dog, A Graphic Short Story

Found linked on AH.com, you will cry. There is no source discernible for this comic strip, one long scroll to the bottom.

Wilhelm II, The Cosplay Soldier

...The irony was having avoided - courtesy of his mother - the years of strict military training that a normal Hohenzollern might expect, Wilhelm had none of the disciplined mental habits of a Prussian officer. Or rather , he looked and played the part - perfectly turned out, moderate if not ascetic in his eating and drinking - but he had no habit of application. Just as he had been a dilettante student, so he was a dilettante soldier. His adjutant, Adolf von Bülow, the experienced soldier seconded to see him through the army, admitted that after five years in the 1st Foot, Wilhelm had completely failed to learned the true values of soldiery.

Miranda Carter in,
George, Nicholas and Wilhelm:
Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I,
describing the "martial" qualities of WIlhelm II.

Batman Playing Video Games...Badly

Who's The Biggest DICtator, Jerks with Power Face Off

People often argue, I for one, about who is the worse tyrant. I have argued in the past That Stalin was a worse murder than Hitler. My argument is that Stalin killed longer, he killed more people, he killed people, he killed his friends, he died in bed. Stalin had a wide range of people who worshiped him. Paul Robeson had some of his friends killed by Stalin and his minions, some of his friends were Stalin's minions. Despite these killings Robeson remained a committed communist and an admirer of Stalin.

Since it all a matter of a degrees of dark gray the Dictators Contest was created. The Dictators Contest and Secound Dictator's Contest are in a playoff system. So that the ultimate outcome depends on the bracketing of the various contestants/perps/criminals.


There is no credit as to the creator of these contest, the home page of the for the site is disabled. The link came from Jokerang on the AH.com thread Dictator Come Back.

The Magic Key From Doctor Who to The Secret Diary of a Callgirl

Every London's girl dream, my own front door.

Rose has the same bright, light emitting key
as in Dr Who ,
Secret Diary of a Call Girl S04E01

The Latest Star Trek Movie is not REAL Star Trek

According to Memory Alpha, wiki site for Star Trek, see wiki article for Memory Alpha, the latest Star Trek movie is not real Star Trek it is instead an alternate time line. As proof see the Memory Alpha page for James Kirk as he appeared in the latest movie, as listed in Memory Alpha as James T. Kirk (alternate reality).

Ikea Kit for Stonehenge

From How To Be a Retronaut via Adfreaks.

Machine Gun in Logging

American Dialect Maps

The fictional character Henry Higgins is an expect of of different British dialects and combination thereof. Here is series of American dialect maps derived a survey of internet users in 2002 put together by some linguists then at Harvard. Although it is a billed as a survey of "North American English" only the locations of American participants are mapped. The survey has asks participants questions of pronouncement and usage. The map above is one map for the question "What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?".

Personally, I heard/read of liquid sun(shine) as a metaphor for nuclear fire.

National Stereotypes Displayed on Maps

We all have to deplore national stereotypes these days or be branded as bestial racists. However there are some truth behind such crude caricatures. The above image is from a map Asia Accord to the USA. The designer at Mapping Stereotypes has also made enough maps to fill a calendar highlighting the prejudices of the Swiss, Russia and Poland among others.

I got this link from a thread in AH.com, Maps Of Stereotypes. Naturally some more biased maps were created my favorite of which is Beedok's Canadian view of Europe which lists the Ukraine as Old Saskatchewan and Russia as Hockey Enemies.

The Professional Trolls Who are Congressional Critters

Does anyone else just feel worn out by all political BS in the U.S these days? I mean, it seems like Congress is nothing more than a group of professional trolls at this point. They never, ever seem capable of doing anything useful, or beneficial for the citizens of this country anymore. It's exhausting. Every single time a story pops up (on Slashdot or anywhere else) that involves politics or a political decision, you can basically just assume that it's going to screw over everyone in the country that isn't already a politician.

Being a U.S. citizen today feels just like playing the role of Sisiphus [wikipedia.org], consistently pushing a boulder uphill (trying to improve the world by being a responsible citizen, voting, jury duty, etc.) only to realize that you have to push it up again when you reach the top (Congress critters keep passing bills that fuck things up even more). It's exhausting, to keep reading about how those folks we elect to power just stumble around and fuck things up so badly....It's so consistent that it very nearly serves as a dataset to debunk that old meme of, "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence."

Our leaders are just fucking terrible. It's exhausting.

Bradley C Jackson posting as
BJ Covert Actionin
slashdot thread
House Passes Amendment
To Block Funds For Net Neutrality.

Traveller (De)motivational Posters

As I am getting back into the game Traveller a Traveller fellow traveller Timbo sent me a link to this and other motivation posters based on the Traveller role playing system. The above refers to technique of space travel, low berth, that is about the equivalent to riding under a railway car. The odds of survival is a little less then 3 out of 4, with medical assistance 5 out of 6 passengers survive this sci fi steerage. The scary thing is that from reading accounts of the Atlantic slave trade that this, 3/4 and 5/6, was about survival rate most of the time.

The drawing are from a set from clement777's account, Traveller Motivational Posters.

Here is another one of clement777's Traveller drawing that gets appeal of the game.

In Traveller Earth/Terra is "Earth Like"

Following some of the links at Traveller Map I came across a database of Treveller sectors, subsectors and planets, an Interactive Atlas of the Imperium. When I looked at the entry for Earth/Terra I got the above result as well as a completely different solar system. Admittedly this game is set several millennia in the future.

Home Appliances Fed On Rotting Flesh.

Carnivorous Domestic Entertainment Robots from Auger-Loizeau on Vimeo.

Years ago there was a bug zapper ad featuring Vincent Price. As the bugs were consumed he would chortle an evil laugh. Unfortunately I can't find it on Youtube. These innovative designs are part of an experiment in "predatory cyborg furniture". The only design that seems really gross is the coffee table that eats mice.

This is also got a mention on NPR, Meat-Eating Furniture, and slashdot, Designers Create Meat Eating Furniture.

War is Hell part MDMXVII

They say you find what something is worth when you pay for it. Well, la Difensa was ours now. Not much of a mountain, really. But I never knew a mountain could be so tall or plain rock cost so much.

William Holden as Robert Frederick in 

The Devil's Brigade

People often complain that triumphalist nature of war films of the 50's and 60's encouraged a pro war mentality. People who say his have never seen these films. These are film that were made generation that was scarred by their experience in the WWII, or failing that that Korean War.

How TV Ruined Your Life

I have been on a Charlie Brooker kick lately. He is a TV critic late of the The Guardian who has made some penetrating and insightful TV programs on TV itself. His latest documentary series is How TV Ruined Your Life. Here is the first episode on Youtube. Watch it before it is pulled by the lawyers.

Musicians and Debt

It looked like the kind of music emporium which doubles as a pawnshop, since every musician has at some time in his life has to hand over his instrument if he wants to eat and sleep indoors.

Soul Music, Terry Pratchett

See also Ray's Music Exchange in the Blues Brothers

On the Rarity of Highwaymen

"... This is civilization. They don't rob you on the road in civilization." He glanced down at the satchel again." They wait until you've got into cities. That's why they call it civilization."

Dwarf Horn Player Glob in Soul Music, Terry Pratchett

NASA Needs Cash

"NASA has released plans for a manned mission to Washington D.C. by 2017, in order to beg for funding for manned missions to less toxic locations."

Polish Eagle on
Things that look like alternate history, but aren't
at AH.com

Rome in Histrorical Fiction and Sci Fi

Rome has show up in many different kinds down through the ages. This is not meant to be a complete list but merely my favorites and highlights.

Historical Fiction

• I Claudius/Claudius the God: These are written in the form of the autobiography by the emperor Claudius. The first book is life up to be acclaimed as emperor by soldiers. The second book is his life as emperor as well as the telling of the life of friend Herod Agrippa. Well worth reading.

Sci Fi and Alternative History

• Lest Darkness Falls: An American in Rome stumbles through a hole in"the space time continuum" as they would say and ends up in a post imperial Rome of the 6th century.

How to Survive in Bad Parts of Baltimore

You got to be very polite. Social skills is mandatory. Social skills is MANDATORY.

Inhabitant of a bad part of Baltimore.
In the documentary by Charlie Brooker
Tapping The Wire promoting the worth
of the TV show The Wire.

Upstairs, Downstairs Economics: Junior Maid

What do they pay you?

dissolute artist

Mind your business.

Sarah

₤10 a year and a bed in the basement.

dissolute artist

No, its twice that much and and a room in the attic.

Sarah

Upstairs,Downstairs S01E02

The cost of employing a junior maid in 1904 for a year plus room and board in today's values:

£8,550.00
using the average earnings

£10,100.00
using the per capita GDP

£14,800.00
using the share of GDP

Life is Hard, Get Used to it - Sue Sylvester

Lady, I can't suspend a student because he scares you. High school is a dry run for the rest of your life. Its rough. People can be mean.

and that's how Sue "C"s it, GleeS02E08

Claymate Yourself

Hotels.com is featuring claymation characters in their latest advertising campaign. Now they have created a site to help you clay yourself at a site called http://clayyourself.com/. Found at Ads of the World.

The Reason Why This Blog Exists

This is small detail of a flow chart created by Rosscrott, so you found interesting on the internet. The chart stresses the important of crediting the creators of whatever cool thing you found online. This little detail illustrates the primary reason why I ever blog anything.

Logorama - Animation Through Logos

Logorama from Marc Altshuler - Human Music on Vimeo.

Logorama is a short film made up entirely of logos. The landscape, the flora, the fauna, the people the world are all made up of different logos. In the opening sequence there there is a pan over the city where every building is logo shaped. Most of the story has many pulp fiction elements from both the movie or the genre.

This was posted on Adfreak last February. I only noticed it today.

A Warning from Beyond the Grave

From a link at AH.com.

A famous actor appears in a PSA urging viewers to help donate to research the disease that killed him...while making jokes at his own gravesite*!