August 2007
normal service will be resumed shortly
The Feastingonroadkill family are going for this years annual holiday - au bord de la mer in sunny Nice. I confidently expect to be watching from the balcony as Audrey Hepburn lookalikes on mopeds, having just carried out audacious jewel robberies, are pursued by world weary Flics resembling Jean Paul Belmondo. We can but hope. More to follow in a week or so. In the meantime, enjoy the 21st...
Glasgow Hates Demos
See post below. Me, I quite rated the book. I’ve also worked with Demos in the past (on trust in public services), and do quite like them. I’m even more impressed now, by their ability to piss off politicians: from here ”How galling it was for Glasgow’s civic leaders to spend perfectly good council taxpayers’ money on a report about the future of the city and last...
Clips: Tears From A Clown →
aw crap! I’ve got coulrophobia (fear of clowns)! Thanks pica
Win New Lady Bumps
And a free pysch test thrown in. From here ”Surgeons have hit out at a Merseyside radio station for offering breast augmentation as a competition prize. A total of 40 women entered Juice FM’s phone-in contest to win the enhancement operation valued at about £4,000. However, the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons has condemned the competition saying it was...
Ladies, Enjoy your Coffee (2)
Or Maybe not.. From here: ”A teenager was taken to hospital after overdosing on espresso coffee. Jasmine Willis, 17, developed a fever and began hyperventilating after drinking seven double espressos while working at her family’s sandwich shop. The student, of Stanley, County Durham, was taken to the University Hospital of North Durham, where doctors confirmed she had overdosed on...
Work-Life Balance
Bush to Surpass Reagan’s All-Time Presidential Vacation Record
“…the swinging, pervasive confidence of that generation unsettled...”
– Al Qaida: All the fault of Hippies? From here
“Pop culture used to be like LSD – different, eye-opening and reasonably...”
– Peter Saville. From ICon Magazine’s ‘50 Manifestos for modern architecture.’
WatchQui Est Karaoke Anonyme? Just what is going on with my librarian colleagues? BTW: Note creative use of ‘Merrie Citie Beer Festival’ Glass - how very ‘Wakey’ (as we locals like to call it)
“My wife’s at far greater risk being a civilian in Washington DC than an...”
– ‘You Really Can’t Make This Stuff Up’ dept: continued. Wisdom courtesy of Senator Steve King (Rep. Iowa)
We Can But Hope
From here. Anyone who produces a video of women being led around by leashes really doesn’t deserve a career.. “American rapper 50 Cent has threatened to stop releasing solo material if his next album fails to outsell a new CD by rival star Kanye West. “Let’s raise the stakes,” 50 Cent said, as the pair prepared to launch rival albums on the same day next month. He...
“I always think that what Richard Boon and Howard Devoto did bringing the Sex...”
– Tony Wilson. Music and Cities visionary. RIP
Feral Cities
This from the US Naval War College here. Sums it up pretty succinctly. ”Imagine a great metropolis covering hundreds of square miles. Once a vital component in a national economy, this sprawling urban environment is now a vast collection of blighted buildings, an immense petri dish of both ancient and new diseases, a territory where the rule of law has long been replaced by near anarchy in...
“Fear of ‘failed cities’ thus seems to be even more powerful than fear of ‘failed...”
– Bryan Finoki. From here This is what those of us in city government have nightmares about.
Fun With Revolutionary Mathematics
How many protesters in the streets does it take to bring an authoritarian government down? What is more conducive to a democratic revolution’s success: the support of the majority or the decisive actions of a minority? Can an active but small group achieve change even if their support by the “passive” majority is very low? And - vice-versa - can a government stay in power even if...
C'mon Over Here Boy - It's Hot!
from here “Dangogi, meaning “sweat meat”, is the term used for dog meat in Korea. Dangogi-jang or Boshintang, also known as Dog Soup, is controversial, but the North Korean’s state media has been calling it a prized delicacy essential to coping with the summer heat. “These days workers sweating to taste boshintang can be witnessed in any Dangogi houses and traditional restaurants in the...
“The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other,...”
– Sir Elton John. You really, really can’t make this stuff up…
Ladies, Enjoy Your Coffee
It’ll do you the power of good - unfortunately it won’t prevent Ga-Ga partners of the opposite gender. From here”Caffeine may help older women ward off mental decline, research suggests. French researchers compared women aged 65 and older who drank more than three cups of coffee per day with those who drank one cup or less per day. Those who drank more caffeine showed less...
A Policemans Lot Is Not A Happy One
Especially if they’ve been naughty in Bangkok. From here ”Police chiefs in the Thai capital, Bangkok, have come up with a new way of punishing officers who break the rules - an eye-catching Hello Kitty armband. The armband is large, bright pink and has a Hello Kitty motif with two hearts embroidered on it. From today, officers who are late, park in the wrong place or commit other...
The Kids: One - The Man: Nil
Not the full time score - but promising. From here ”Illegal music downloading is at an all-time high and set to rise further, according to a report out today that urges the record industry to make legal buying easier and cheaper. Although social networking sites are boosting interest in music that translates into sales, a growing band of consumers are unconcerned about being prosecuted for...
“One can decide that the principal role of knowledge is as an indispensable...”
– Jean-Francois Lyotard
Serial Killers in Burquas
Isn’t globalisation really quite cool at times… from here ”A group of teenagers, en route to attend a rock concert, lose their way when their car runs out of fuel in the dead of night. They find themselves in an unfamiliar rural backwater where they are confronted by flesh-eating zombies and a psychotic cannibalistic killer dressed in a sheet. It could be the plot to a thousand...
