spot_the_dog temporarily relegated to bench-warmer

Seeya later, alligatorJust a quick note to apologize for not having been around so much lately.

Although the Cubbies managed a glorious win on Opening Day (EAMUS CATULLI!), Fortuna has slipped spot_the_dog one of those crazy curve-balls she’s so famous for and he’ll  be more or less stuck warming the bench for the next little while.

Will still be checking in now & then as time and circumstances permit, though – I’m not that easily got rid of. ;-)

Have laptop, will blog.  Any time, any place.

Have laptop, will blog. Any time, any place

Keep calling “Bullshit!” to idiocy, incompetance and dishonesty wherever it manifests itself; keep calling attention to the various shenanigans and machinations of politicians and fellow bloggers alike; and most importantly of all keep your sense of humor.

I said SIT! (dog cartoon)

doggy bones
http://condron.us/ http://condron.us/ http://alphainventions.com/ http://alphainventions.com/ http://condron.us/ http://condron.us/ http://alphainventions.com/ http://alphainventions.com/ spot_the_dog spot_the_dog

Bucking the trend

Paul “PJ” James is eating burgers and cake towards a goal weight of 120kg, a far cry from his days of strutting US catwalks at 80kg.

Gallery here.  Hey, Paul! Some of Tizona’s delicious Sunday brunches or other tasty treats should do the trick…

The Bustling Metropolis of New York, Circa 1664

This is pretty cool:

“AMSTERDAM – To see some of the most important documents in the early history of New York, you need to go to Amsterdam.
The Rijksmuseum, the Netherland’s national museum, put those documents on display Friday, including early maps and the only report of the purchase of Manhattan by Europeans…

A detailed 1665 painting by Johannes Vingboons is also on display, portraying the early city like a small Dutch village of the period. A windmill stands out in the background, and the town’s gallows are prominently on the coast in plain view of arriving ships.”

Yes, the gallows were on the waterfront to warn sailors to behave themselves while in port. I’s built for four, so it must have seen quite a bit of action.

gezichtopnieuwamsterdamjpg

Here’s the full rez version at Wikipedia.

They’re back!

Just when you thought it was safe to give the Hammer pants away to charity and throw out the suitcase full of hair products (in an environmentaly responsible manner, of course), Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer are embarking on a world comeback tour! Yep, both of ‘em in one mega, er, hip show! And just in case you’ve forgotten the magic…

Ice Ice Baby

Sunday Brunch

‘Twas a rough night…

soju antidote

soju antidote

A lighter view of the financial black hole we’re in

Funny but the facts are spot-on.

Part 1 of 5.

The Poms have a knack, don’t they?

Michelle Obama. Style Icon.

What can I say? She’s even got a blog devoted to her sense of remarkable style.

The above picture is from Getty Images and shows Mrs. and Mr. Messiah (sorry, Kev). If you look carefully, you will note that the eyes truly are the window to the soul, and you can see the brimstone simmering away under the surface.

This woman ought to be arrested for crimes against fashion, rather than being lifted up as a fashion plate to aspire to.

Sure, I get around in daggy clothes most of the time, but I’ve got an excuse. I don’t have much of a social life, and I am not one of the pre-eminent women on the planet courtesy of being married to a handbag who happens to have lucked into the Presidency of the USA.


If we check out this lovely (*snicker*) ensemble from different angles, we can see the wonders of photography and why it is rightly considered to be a Fine Art.

On the left, with the soft backlighting softening the lines of her figure, it looks almost decent.

On the right, we change angles just a touch, and the skirt and cardy combo look oh, so bogan.

In the interests of full disclosure, please note that I am not a cardigan fan. I loathe them with a passion and can’t remember the last time I owned one. I would rather my arms froze off.

Of course, I’m a bit inflexible that way. Same with shoes. Michelle appears to prefer flats, which is understandable because she’s rather tall, and with decent heels, she’d tower over Barry.

For my shoes, I’ve got Redback workboots, trainers, a pair of flat sandals, or a pair of these for going out in:

Okay, I can’t help it – I love shoes. I also love decent shoes, and I’d rather go barefoot than wear crap. Michelle’s shoes just don’t do it for me.

Mind you, if someone could scrounge up a photo of her in either New Rocks (think the boots in the Matrix) or something from Shoecraft, I’d have a whole lot more time for her sense of “style” as it stands.

The twin sets are boring, and suggest a bit of time spent at Egglestone Hall instead of summer camp.

The way she walks, like she’s spent the last 8 years playing basketball, suggest she didn’t pass deportment with flying colours.

I just can’t believe she is being touted as some sort of model material.

No, she’s not. She’s a woman in the public eye, and while I suspect she’s the head of the household, she’s still only human and not the vision of grace and loveliness that so many are bleating on about. I’m looking at you, Oprah.

I’ll leave the final word to the Godmother, who took one look at this and said, “Oh my God, she dresses like a primary school teacher from the 80s!”

Well, I guess that’s one way to impress the leaders of the Free* World and their spouses.

*And the Not So Free World.

What Would Falling Into a Black Hole Look Like?

Well, it would look like this. The dial on the lower left is your trajectory into the black hole, while elapsed time is displayed on the clock on the lower right. Note that there is a “real” time and the “warped” time as you experience it: What’s on your watch and what’s in your brain. The multi-colored photons-in-orbit effect is the point at which you pass the event horizon. Pretty freakin’ cool!

The entire article is here, with additional links to even more video variations on this theme.

Hat-tip to Johnah Goldberg at The Corner.

Europe: give us money, give us more soldiers

Hey Strasbougians!


What? No good?

Hey, climate change! We care about that. We love you Europe!

Europe! Please help!

Bush couldn’t sell it, but you love me, right? Guantanamo? Torture? Aww shucks. I knew you’d come on board!

Right???

Lessons of the past? Naww, mistakes!

Young ignoram1, come to Obama!

PS I know half of you couldn’t understand me, but shucks I’m handsome… just ask the Korean girls!

Early Link (apparently he mentioned something about nukes in there somewhere)

Video will come when available – was just live on CNN

UPDATE

Good or bad, he HAS gone without the teleprompter in the Q & A section of this townhall meeting.

UPDATE

He finishes it up by again calling on the Europeans to step up to the plate with regards to Islamic terrorism.

Overall, I have to give him the thumbs up. Look, at the end of the day, he just might succeed on getting the Europeans on board finally with regards to Al Quaida.

Hey, he DID plead for cash re the economic crisis but his crunch definitely was terrorism. He’s selling it well.

Ooops, he’s one more point…

When that video’s up, it’ll be up here.

UPDATE

Gotta go out. Hopefully the vid will be up when I get back. In the meantime, enjoy the soothing sounds of Air Force One’s approach into Strasbourg.

Listen to the phlat bass

Gus, Dminor, heck, anyone out there, you might like this.

The Poms have developed a loud speaker as thin as a sheet of foil… and it’s flexible.

The US economy: then, now, and into the future

Peter Schiff makes a lot of sense in this video. It sounds like you guys are going to be in for a very long, rough ride. It’s over an hour long but well worth the watch.

H/T

Still, he has his detractors, too.

PS That last link is well worth the read in light of the video.

Watch This Guy

Although not given much attention by the UK Press, MEP Daniel Hannan’s recent speech in response to Gordon Brown’s address to the European Union is nearing 2 million hits on Youtube, and one can see why. Wish we had him.

The Obama Deception

Bush is out but the conspiracy folks just didn’t disappear as a result.

Whaddyas make of this? Heheh.

Evil Bush, you’ve just been out-eviled by evil Obama!

Props, though, on how short a time this vid took to emerge.

SOS BTW… Illuminati, Bilderberg, Rockefellers et. al….

Had a gut

Generally, I enjoy living and working in Korea. Sure the place isn’t as pretty to look at as back home and one has to be pretty careful when choosing a new job as there are plenty of unscrupulous employers out there. And sure, it’s different being in the minority, especially in such a homogenous, patriotic and somewhat insular country. But overall, teaching English over here has been a generally positive experience.

However, I have one pet hate. It bugs me every time it happens and it happens all too often. Koreans don’t just do it to foreigners (and I’ll always be considered one, even if I learn Korean, marry one and live here for 20 years), they do it to other Koreans, too. Kids do it, adults do it, even little old ladies do it. Well maybe Koreans don’t mind when it happens to them but I am bloody sick of it.

Pushing in. I swear pretty much every Korean either has no concept of or total disregard for the process of waiting in line to be served. Pushing in is so rude and disrespectful and reflects so poorly on Korea and Koreans.

I was patentiently waiting behind the person being served at a burger joint today. Just as the woman finished her transaction and I was about to step up, this grandmother, yes a grandmother, half-eaten burger in hand, just walks straight past be and starts mouthing off an order with some burger still in her mouth (another disgusting habit Koreans have is chewing with their mouth open and/or talking while chewing). What’s worse, the woman behind the counter, whom I’ve “known” for about a year and a half now, was quite happy to take her order even though she’d seen me standing there well before the old hag had even gotten up from her table. And that bugs me, too.

Of course, like all times I complain when someone pushes in, they just giggle and say sorry as if they hadn’t seen my six foot two frame standing there. Another time, a counter girl said sorry, she didn’t see me. This was moments after she began to serve two kids who’d pushed in whose heads barely made it above the counter.

Had a gut. I walked out this time. If you’re Korean, stop doing this! If you’re in Korea and know any Koreans, tell them to stop it!

PS And learn how to navigate a bloody rotary properly!

Russia Backs Return to Gold Standard

It’s sort of a modified, limited hang-out, but Russia is promoting at least a partial return to the gold standard for international currencies.

“Arkady Dvorkevich, the Kremlin’s chief economic adviser, said Russia would favour the inclusion of gold bullion in the basket-weighting of a new world currency based on Special Drawing Rights issued by the International Monetary Fund.

Chinese and Russian leaders both plan to open debate on an SDR-based reserve currency as an alternative to the US dollar at the G20 summit in London this week, although the world may not yet be ready for such a radical proposal.”

Too funny: Having money backed by real value is “radical.” No, it isn’t, it’s moral… but you can be sure the Russians and Chinese are not proposing this for positive moral ends, rather they have designs on taking advantage of the US mountain of debt that Obi-One has buried us under to weaken us economically. Still, I’m glad they brought this up, because it will strike fear into a lot of arrogant hearts, or it ought to.

If some countries return to the gold standard, international financiers and financial institutions will flock to those currencies and the US dollar and other unbacked fiat currencies will plummet into worthlessness. If that doesn’t worry you, it should. The US, GB, Australia and other western nations are in no position to return to the gold standard: Too much money in circulation and nowhere near enough gold to hitch to it.

Still, at some point this is going to happen, even if it takes a total global financial meltdown to achieve it… and it just might.

The choices will come down to this…

gold_bullionjpg

…or this.

dinar11

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