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Below are 25 friends' journal entries, after skipping by the 625 most recent ones.
| Monday, July 10th, 2006 | ||
| thenulldevice | 12:49a | Can't sleep... clown'll eat me Organisers of the Bestival festival on the Isle of Wight asked attendees to come dressed as clowns, but have had to change the theme after a number of ticket holders said they had a fear of clowns: Organisers have suggested people instead turn up in "bunny ears, a Spam tin outfit, an astronaut's helmet, a witch's hat or just a plain old Buzz Lightyear lycra all-in-one" for the concerts which include performances by the Pet Shop Boys and the Scissor Sisters. Coulrophobia - fear of clowns - can cause panic attacks, shortness of breath, rapid breathing, irregular heartbeat, sweating, nausea and overall feelings of dread.What I'm wondering is: did anyone suffer from coulrophobia before John Wayne Gacy and the emergence of the modern psycho-killer-clown meme? |
| Saturday, July 8th, 2006 | ||
| thenulldevice | 6:10p | AV Voice Changer Software Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. And the latest invention is a voice changer for female video gamers, allowing them to contend in the macho culture of online games without fear of harrassment or inappropriate sexual attention from prehensile, undersocialised geeks. According to research conducted by the company, "The number of female online game players is not small", would you believe. In fact, "Many of them have reached the highest level of some very difficult games such as World of Warcraft (60th level), which is considered the game for men only." The software comes with presets which turn lady voices into big deep Blessed-esque ones. You can also create your own new voice by mucking about with pitch and timbre settings, and other features include advanced tune and noise reduction.Given that it is adjustable, I imagine it could also be useful in the other direction; from now on, a voice call is no longer a guarantee that your new online friend "HotBiBabe18F" is not a sweaty 41-year-old man. (via Boing Boing) ¶ [2 comments] |
| thenulldevice | 12:34p | Playboy in Indonesia A furore has erupted with the publication of the Indonesian edition of Playboy. While it is a lot tamer than Western editions (the excuse of buying it only for the articles would probably be more plausible there), Islamists are still calling for severe punishments for all involved, and the editor and centrefold model are facing imprisonment: The magazine has been targeted by opponents as a symbol of Western decadence and the row has led to calls for tough anti-pornography laws outlawing "sensual behaviour", revealing clothing, even kissing in public. It is part of a concerted push to impose sharia law throughout Indonesia, a campaign that Abu Bakar Bashir, the former spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist network, vowed to spearhead on his release from prison last month. Rock-throwing protesters tried to ransack Playboy's Jakarta office when the first edition appeared in April, so Arnada relocated to the more tolerant island of Bali. He published a second edition last month, with numerous blank pages after advertisers withdrew their support following threats by the Islamic Defenders Front.Meanwhile, feminist groups there have spoken out in the defense of Playboy. |
| Friday, July 7th, 2006 | ||
| thenulldevice | 4:16p | The Eraser The Graun on Thom Yorke's solo album: But The Eraser is no more experimental than the average Radiohead album. In fact, it sounds exactly like you would expect a Thom Yorke solo album to sound: twitchy electronic beats, doomy washes of synthesizer, backing vocals that are invariably high, wordless and ghostly, except on Skip Divided, where they literally involve whimpering. The lyrics are one long defeated sigh, interrupted by the occasional tut and roll of the eyes. We are variously informed that there's no light in the dark, time's running out for us, things are fucked up, it gets you down and people get crushed like biscuit crumbs. Even the guitar on The Clock sounds like it's grumbling. At its worst, The Eraser brings to mind the unlikely image of Autechre fronted by Private Frazer off Dad's Army: thump, bleep, splonk, we're all doomed, I tell you. |
| thenulldevice | 1:36p | LiveJournal goes IM LiveJournal (which was something like the MySpace of the 1990s, only not owned by the forces of evil and not spammy with ads) is testing its own instant messaging service. The service is technically a Jabber/XMPP server connected to LiveJournal, and using authentication and social-network data from LiveJournal's database. And, being XMPP, it can communicate with other open XMPP networks, such as Google Talk. -- your Jabber Roster ("buddy list") is integrated with your LJ friends list. If you friend bob and bob friends you, both of you can see each other online. It has to be mutual. Friends that haven't friended you back show up as "pending subscription" in your jabber client, kinda grayed out, depending on the client.According to the comments, once the server works, there are plans to add an AJAX messaging interface, sort of like GMail's Chat mode. |
| thenulldevice | 10:22a | Bush's brain age When George W. Bush, Leader of the Free World, turned 60, Nintendo gave him a DS and a copy of Brain Age. The jokes write themselves. (via Gizmodo) ¶ [no comments] |
| thenulldevice | 12:22a | Berlin Anti-Football League Police in Berlin have arrested two men on suspicion of placing cement-filled soccer balls around the city, along with spray-painted messages reading "Can you kick it?" The two are accused of causing serious physical injury, dangerous obstruction of traffic and causing injury through negligence, police sai |
| Thursday, July 6th, 2006 | ||
| thenulldevice | 5:01p | Fire-eating war junkies The Guardian's Timothy Garton Ash ponders the question of why America thinks of itself as at war, while Britain doesn't, despite having been attacked by terrorists more recently: The evocation of war is omnipresent in the US. Turn on Fox News and you find a war veteran recounting his experiences on Hill 805 in Vietnam. At one point he says: "I had the privilege of storming the machine gun". The privilege. Walk into the Stanford University bookstore and you find a special display marked "Salute Our Heroes. 20% Off Select Patriotic Titles". Imagine that in your local Waterstone's.(Australian bookshops, meanwhile, have displays labelled "Salute Our Heroes. 20% Off Select Sports Titles"; but I digress.) When I wrote in this column a few weeks ago about the conundrum of suicide-bombers, the eminent military historian Michael Howard dropped me a line to remind me that European soldiers had been sent into battle in the first world war with the message that there was no higher honour than to die for your country. Not to live, to fight, to kill for your country - to die for it. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. In this respect, conservative Americans are closer to the mental world of pre-1914 Europeans or ancient Romans than they are to that of most contemporary Europeans. |
| thenulldevice | 10:30a | DIY railways in Cambodia Cambodians are making the most of their country's dilapidated, partly disused railways by building and running their own trains. The "bamboo trains", comprised of little more than bamboo platforms on wheels, have been running up and down the decaying tracks, helping locals get around. A tiny electric generator engine provides the power, and the passenger accommodation is a bamboo platform that rests on top of two sets of wheels. A dried-grass mat to sit on counts as a luxury. It would be a white-knuckle ride - if there were actually anything to hold on to. Low fares add to the appeal, but the service is not without its quirks. There is only one track - so if two trains meet, the one with the lightest load has to be taken off the rails so the other can pass.The authorities have been discouraging this unorthodox form of transport, though without frequent proper train services (Cambodia's tracks are often in too poor quality to support heavy trains and/or rolling stock is in short supply), there is little they can do to stop it. I wonder whether the model could be adapted to other countries; what if happened if someone in a rural community in, say, Britain or Australia, campaigning for the reopening of passenger rail lines, took the law into their own hands and run guerilla very-light-rail services over the rusting tracks. They'd probably get shut down by the police in short order, though it could make an amusing story. (via Boing Boing) ¶ [no comments] |
| thenulldevice | 12:47a | Commocoffee 64 You can do a lot of things with a Commodore 64. Some people make music with them. Meanwhile, in the mid-1980s, the Italians adapted this versatile workhorse of a computer to the task of making a cup of coffee: From what I gather, the Commocoffee 64 was basically a coffee maker without a built-in timer, which could be plugged into the cartridge port of a C64, using the machine to do the timing. Which, of course, is not the most efficient use of a then expensive computer which could only do one thing at once, though that was probably not the point. (via Boing Boing) ¶ [3 comments] |
| thenulldevice | 12:01a | Liberty, Memphis-style This past Fourth of July, a megachurch pastor in Memphis, Tennessee, has given the Statue of Liberty a faith-based makeover:
As the congregation of the World Overcomers Outreach Ministries Church looked on and its pastor, Apostle Alton R. Williams, presided, a brown shroud much like a burqa was pulled away to reveal a giant statue of the Lady, but with the Ten Commandments under one arm and "Jehovah" inscribed on her crown. And in place of a torch, she held aloft a large gold cross, as if to ward off the pawnshops, the car dealerships and the discount furniture outlets at the busy corner of Kirby Parkway and Winchester that is her home. A single tear graced her cheek. In "The Meaning of the Statue of Liberation Through Christ: Reconnecting Patriotism With Christianity," he explains that the teardrop on his Lady is God's response to what he calls the nation's ills, including legalized abortion, a lack of prayer in schools and the country's "promotion of expressions of New Age, Wicca, secularism and humanism." In another book, he said Hurricane Katrina was retribution for New Orleans's embrace of sin.On a tangent: I am amused to read that, apparently, atheists in the US are technically a "fringe religion" alongside Satanists, Scientologists and Druids. (via |
| Wednesday, July 5th, 2006 | ||
| thenulldevice | 9:18p | In Stores Now A new advertising agency in the Netherlands has started offering advertising on zoo animals and hookers' thighs. The agency instoresnow.nl also offers advertising iin religious establishments and huge floating billboards off popular beaches. Unfortunately for those willing to buy, the agency doesn't actually exist, but is merely a satirical project by a design student, Raoul Balai: "I was getting sick and tired of advertising everywhere," Balai told reporters. "But I don't want to preach, and I thought satire would work better." Prospective customers phoning his fake agency are kept on hold and bombarded with sales pitches until they give up.Not all are amused, though; an Amsterdam zoo has threatened Balai with a defamation suit after Balai's site showed fish at the zoo inscribed with the brand name of a frozen fish company. |
| Tuesday, July 4th, 2006 | ||
| thenulldevice | 10:07a | Underground deathtrap London's mayor, Ken Livingstone, now claims that global warming may soon make the Tube unusable in summer, with temperatures in the uncoolable, Victorian-era system becoming threatening to life: Ken said "You reach a point where the underground will become literally intolerable and you could face the prospect of loss of life." Although he's offered hundreds of thousands of pounds as a reward to find workable air conditioning for the underground, it sounds like the heat will eventually defeat the system. He believes we will have to resign ourselves to closures "if the temperature goes up faster than we fear it's going to". (via london-underground) ¶ [no comments] |
| Monday, July 3rd, 2006 | ||
| thenulldevice | 11:12a | Breakfasters I tuned into the 3RRR Breakfasters this morning (streamed over the internet and time-delayed) and found that sometime Rocknerd columnist Clem Bastow is now reading the news. I wonder whether she (being a coolsie chat and all) was responsible for the Mid-State Orange song being played after the news. Anything that breaks up the monotony of the Breakfasters playlist is, in my opinion, welcome. |
| Sunday, July 2nd, 2006 | ||
| thenulldevice | 12:27p | 50 worst video game names of all time A list of the 50 worst video game names of all time. All of these are names of actual games. This includes the likes of Princess Tomato in Salad Kingdom (NES, 1990), Tongue of the Fatman (PC, 1989), Sticky Balls (Gizmondo, 2005), Nuts & Milk (NES, 1984) and the inexplicably titled Irritating Stick (PlayStation, 1999). (via /.) ¶ [no comments] |
| thenulldevice | 1:24a | 1/7/2006 in news This evening, I tuned into BBC News 24. The intro ran, and on came the newsreaders, informing the audience of the big story: the English football team was beaten by Portugal, and was out of the World Cup. The report played a clip of the goal that ended it all, and the Portuguese player's triumphant expression. Then they crossed to England supporters outside the stadium in Germany, with the reporter asking them how they felt. Not surprisingly, they were disappointed. Then the report crossed to Lisbon, where fans were partying. The reporter asked a few how they felt; they were elated. This just in: Portuguese football fans celebrate when their team wins. This went on for 20 minutes, discussing the mechanics of the game, the hopes and dreams of various fans, and so on, after which they briefly crossed to the rest of the day's news. And in other news: 60 people were killed in a bomb blast in Iraq, as sectarian violence threatens to escalate further. Presumably things are also happening in other parts of the world (such as, say, the Gaza Strip and Somalia, to name two recently newsworthy locations), though one can't be sure because there wasn't time to mention them. Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this? |
| Friday, June 30th, 2006 | ||
| thenulldevice | 6:21p | Early Bengali scifi Something I didn't know until today: not only has India had a film industry since the 19th century, but it also had literary science fiction since the 1880s: Asimov's statement that "true science fiction could not really exist until people understood the rationalism of science and began to use it with respect in their stories" is actually true for the first science fiction written in Bangla. This was Hemlal Dutta's Rahashya ("The Mystery") that was published in two installments in 1882 in the pictorial magazine Bigyan Darpan, brought out by Jogendra Sadhu. The story revolved around the protagonist Nagendra's visit to a friend's house, a mansion completely automated and where technology is deified. Automatic doorbell, burglar alarms, brushes that clean suits mechanically are some of the innovations described in the story, and the tone is of wonder at the rapid automation of human lives. Sukumar Ray (1887-1923) was probably inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World when he wrote Heshoram Hushiyarer Diary ("The Diary Of Heshoram Hushiar").... It is a spoof on the genre because Sukumar is poking fun at the propensity of the scientist to name things, and that too in long-winded Latin words. He seems to be playing around the fact that names are arbitrarily conferred upon things by humans for their own convenience, and suggests that the name of a thing may somehow be intrinsically connected to its nature. So the first creature that Heshoram meets in the course of his journey through the Bandakush Mountains is a "gomratharium" (gomra in Bangla means someone of irritable temperament).And Bengali science fiction didn't end there, by any means: </blockquote> The article goes on, mentioning stories about the fictional inventor/adventurer Professor Shanku, quoting from one in which he builds a rocket to go to space and invents a "fish-pill" that his cat Newton can eat whilst in space, and then mentions a few items from a catalogue of Professor Shanku's inventions, such as the "Miracurall", a drug capable of curing any ailment except for the common cold, and an "air-conditioning pill", which keeps the body temperature normal in extremes of climate (which could be a very Indian fictional invention). (via Boing Boing) ¶ [no comments] |
| thenulldevice | 3:09p | Grass-roots disestablishment in Finland In Tampere, Finland, an atheist group has set up a website to help people resign from the church. Easy resignation through the web site has increased the rate of resignations in Finland. Resigning through the web site only requires filling a short personal information form, after which a local city council will receive an email about the resignation. In cities where the city council does not accept email resignations, Freethinkers will pay the postal fee. The rate of resignations from the Evangelic Lutheran state church of Finland has increased rapidly in recent years. 27009 people resigned from the church in 2004. 33043 people resigned in 2005, which is 22% more than in 2004. There are approximately 5.26 million people in Finland, which gives a proportion of people resigning from the church of 0.6% in 2005. The most common reasons cited for resigning from the church have been saving church income tax (1.3% on average), lack of religious beliefs and belief in another religion. A person can avoid church income tax by resigning before a new year begins. Increased resignation rates in November and December (shown in the figure) supports the theory that the most common reason for resigning is avoiding the income tax.Finland is officially a Lutheran country, with everyone belonging by default to the state church unless they submit a resignation form. Mind you, one could argue that a universal state church is just another implementation of a secular society; the levels of zeal one can expect from such an organisation make the Church of England look like Branch Davidians by comparison, and many of those who do belong to the church see the inside of one about three times in their lives. (via /.) ¶ [no comments] |
| thenulldevice | 9:41a | Wang Guangyi An interesting article about the history of Chinese Maoist propaganda poster art, and the contemporary artist Wang Guangyi, whose work includes the "Great Criticism" series, juxtaposing Maoist poster imagery with Western lifestyle product brands. (via Boing Boing) ¶ [no comments] |
| Thursday, June 29th, 2006 | ||
| thenulldevice | 3:23p | Wake up to reality, expect criminality In London, there are official notices everywhere from local councils and the Home Office warning the reader to beware of the criminality of their fellow man: Momus, who is currently visiting London, has not failed to notice this (and, indeed, being an Emotional Communist, he sees it as evidence of the vicious winner-takes-all culture of Thatcherite-Blairite Britain): It seemed to chime with the odd attitude expressed in an article I read in a British newspaper about an elderly couple who'd been murdered by robbers in their home. While everybody interviewed said what a sweet old pair they'd been, walking into town arm in arm, they were unanimous: these were people you'd almost expect to get robbed and killed, considering what an affluent area they lived in and how old and sweetly defenseless they were. It was almost some sort of Darwinian inevitability that such folks would get chopped up.Momus picks up on the slogan "leave it on show, expect it to go", and suggests some additional rhyming slogans warning people of the ubiquitous danger around them, whilst at the same time making it clear that they have only themselves to blame if they're insufficiently paranoid: Walk visibly breasted, get quickly molested.And in the comments, others make their contributions: peace, love and understanding? we're going to a hangin'Though not all take as gloomy a view of contemporary British life as Momus does. His old foil, Rhodri Marsden, has a different take: Get on the bus - you'll have no fuss! (via |
| Monday, July 10th, 2006 | ||
udod99
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3:51a | Тупые итоги Ну да, итальянцы, за ними французы. А ЧТО ЕЩЁ УМЕЮТ НЫНЕШНИЕ РОМАНСКИЕ НАРОДЫ? (кроме зрелищ довольно низкого уровня, конечно) |
vele_ss
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6:55a | Кремлядь vs. Соплядь В продолжение моего предыдущего поста. Само собой, пьяную выходку зайца не простили в последнем прибежище негодяев. И написали статью, в которой помимо самого зайца обосрали походя всю русскую нацию целиком и русскую интеллигенцию в частности. На зайцев мне, собственно, похуй, но вот за все остальное несколько обидно. Феерически мудацкая статья Смысл, собственно, в том, что периодам "стабильности" и "экономического развития" непременно сопуствует тотальный упадок культуры в сторону мещанства и эдакого сытого обывательства (гопничества и мажорства). Исходя из этого, сей выдающийся социолог предлагает читателю два варианта - либо сытое брюхо, но уебищная морда Эти мудрые выводы он подкрепляет довольно таки примитивным пропагандистским финтом. Используя пару общеизвестных примеров аффтар выстраивает ложные исторические параллели. Мол, если в случае с A и B имело место быть экономическое развитие, симптомом которого было "омещанивание" культуры, то в случае с C (Россия) наличие на телеэкранах Дома 2 и уебищной морды Делить культуру исключительно на декадентскую сопутсвующую катаклизмам и мещанскую сопуствующую вкусному жору - вообще, изрядная ограниченность. В здоровом спартанском обществе Законы Ликурга - это и есть культура, своеобразная, но не имеющуая отношения ни к декаденсу, ни к мещанству. Но дело даже не в этом. На самом деле, в России сейчас как раз бурный расцвет всевозможной декадентской культуры. Цветет буйным цветом, очень шумно и очень обильно. Но аффтар этого нихуя не знает т.к. живет в США и смотрит, вероятно, ОРТ. А телевизор он на то и телевизор, чтобы по нему Брежнева да Ксюшу Собчаг крутить. ( но самое охуительное ) Current Music: Alan Stivell |
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vele_ss
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5:18a | Соплядь vs. Кремлядь Ну, так сказать, следуя моде. Есть некий юзер ![[info]](../IMG/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} olshansky - он написал статью про Гламурную Кремлядь, за которую его выгнали из последнего прибежища негодяев, а "оранжевая" общественность теперь дружно целует его в жопу. Впрочем, может и раньше целовала. Интересную версию событий можно найти у pioneer_lj. Особенно хорошо стихотворение про зайца, жизненно так. [Типа] Настоящий Русский Интеллигент (только на юзерпике почему-то еврей), честь и совесть в продажном мире. Если почитать его журнал можно узнать много интересного - о том, как его страшно напугал некий гопник из администрации президента обещанием дать по роже и вообще, что мир делится на людей интеллигентных и быдло-гопников. Последних надо отгородить от первых колючей проволокой, чтобы они не били первым рожи (гопники живут только для того, чтобы бить интеллигентам рожи, вы не знали?). Даже конфликт НАШИ против НБП и то "гопники vs. интеллигенция". По мотивам этих прекрасных интеллигентских откровений можно составить еще один опус - "Либерастская Соплядь". И такой сопляди вокруг пруд пруди, и вся она хочет во власть, чтобы отгородиться кремлевской стеною от "гопников" (т.е. народа). В Кремль или к "оранжевым". Похуй куда, собственно, лишь бы от "быдла подальше".Дело в том, что, сколько бы подобные типы не пыжились, но к русской интеллигенции они ровным счетом никакого отношения не имеют. А являются хрестоматийными образчиками интеллигенции Советской. В стране советов, видимо, памятуя о том, кто закидывал бомбами столпы старого режима, интеллигенцию прессовали всеми возможными способами. Само слово "интеллигент" на советском армейско-тюремном арго стало синонимом слова "пидорас". Пытались создать на замену класс советской "красной профессуры", штампуя на конвейере толпы никчемных тупых "образованцев". Бяка в принципе прижилась (яркий пример, недавно обсуждаемый tarlith), но лишь частично - полностью искоренить интеллигенцию никак не получится, она формируется естественно в условиях современного общества. А вот довести сам класс до состояния "мыши дрожащей под веником" оказалось очень даже можно. Когда русского интеллигента перманентным прессом довели до состояния никчемного малохольного неврастеника, способного лишь тихим кухонным шепотом песдеть на власть, тогда он и стал интеллигентом Советским, красою и гордостью СССР. Нынешний либерас - это и есть тот советский интеллигент, который оказался в непривычной обстановке "швабоды слова" и может теперь не бояться страшной кровавой гэбни. Но в ночных кошмарах ему все также мерещится страшный призрак народного морлока. Только морлок теперь не носит широкие люберецкие штаны, он носит имперский флаг и кричит "Россия для русских". Поэтому советский интеллигент ставший либерасом выступает против "руSSкого фашизма" и льнет к власти, чтобы за нее широкой спиной спрятаться от морлоков. Из нынешней власти эту визгливую пидорась погнали (Кремлядь естественный враг Сопляди) и она скопом ломанулась в оранжевые, в надежде на власть следующую.В принципе, если ты умен от природы, но бледен и слаб, есть другой, правильный путь. Которым шел один из величайших героев и писателей современности:( Read more... ) Current Music: Alan Stivell |
iris_sibirica
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8:49a | Тук да тук! http://noctu-vigilus.livejournal.com/10 Дышали ли Вы во время следственного эксперимента в бассейне? http://cat-noire.livejournal.com/13 Услаждающие слух вокзальные объявления (взял у dimndroll). http://www.dsp.sut.ru/rus/products/dict 1)Фильма Вуди Аллена Match Point. Это как бы "Американская трагедия" Теодора Драйзера наоборот. Там герой замочил свою любовницу и его за это казнили. А здесь герой двух тёток убил и всё у него сложилось удачно. Жертвы решили являться ему во сне, но он послал их и дальше стал спать. 2)Фильма Люка Бессона "Ангела". Про то как маленький жуликоватый араб полюбил ангела женского рода и она из-за него осталась на Земле. Забавна первая треть фильма. А дальше идут такие слащавости и сиропности, что даже интересно - кого они могут растрогать? Люк Бессон в каком-то своём интервью глубокомысленно сказал, что не верит Бога, но верит в ангелов. Мыслитель. 3) Дождливое лето! Дожди, дожди каждый день... 4) Сходил на презентацию диска Якова Афанасьева "Сияющая в ночи. Тюмень". Фотографии понравились; непонятно, правда, зачем Я.Афанасьев называет всё это "трансметареализм". Потом мы весёлой гурьбой пошли в кафе. ( См. http://noctu-vigilus.livejournal.com/10 А дальше начались наши с Аркадием Кузнецовым пьяные похождения. Повеселился я очень уж сильно на этот раз... |
dolboeb
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5:31a | Боян про Буффона В комментах к моей записи про финальный матч Италии с Францией запостили текст, предположительно оправдывающий неспортивное поведение дедушки Зизу. Звучало так: На фоне всеобщей радости тиффози и коллег по команде диссонансом прозвучал голос итальянского вратаря Джанлуиджи Буффона: он, успевший переговорить с Зиданом, сразу после матча поставил тренеров перед выбором, заявив, что не намерен более играть в одной команде с Матерацци. Цитата разлетелась по разным русским блогам со скоростью пожара, причем цитирующие не особенно заботились о ссылках на первоисточник. Где ссылались указывали источником ленту Росбалта за 02:05мск. А напрасно, поскольку Росбалт всего лишь ( Наш человек в раздевалке Сквадры Адзурры ) |
