Saturday, May 29, 2010

Oil Slick in the Gulf of Mexico

This image certainly puts things into perspective.
Oil Slick in the Gulf of Mexico

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Would you rather be a famous musician or a famous actor?

Er, actor - but only for the cushy travel arrangements.

(Is that all there is?)

Screwing it up since 1877

So here's what my Useless Knowledge feed had to say this morning:

"The first operators employed by the Bell Telephone Company were young boys who worked standing up. Only after several years did it occur to anybody to provide them with chairs."

The Telephone History Timeline Page, which - thankfully - has an annotated bibliography for further verification, states that "commercial telephone service begins" in 1877 and that "[s]witchboard operators were no longer necessary to make a telephone call" as of 1891.

If we assume that switchboard operators were required from the start then Bell has been in the business of technological innovation at the expense of actual people - evidently its employees, in particular - for over 125 years.

I wonder if I'll take any comfort from that fact the next time I have to talk to Bell Canada's "automated operator", Emily.

At least she doesn't need a chair.

20,000 Views and Still Pretty

A little follow-up for those of you who saw my previous post regarding a fan-made video for Emilie Autumn's "Thank God I'm Pretty":

Thrilled by the more than 15,000 pageviews the video has received this week, Miss Autumn appealed to her Twitter followers yesterday for contact info to the little nippers responsible.

Not one to rest on her laurels Autumn wrote, "Let's go for 40,000!!"

Well? You heard the lady, go watch!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Who was your first crush?

Helen. She was 4 and my best friend's little sister. I was 5 and completely smitten.

(Is that all there is?)

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Sunday, May 16, 2010

If you could have a super power, what would it be?

I think omnipotence would suffice.

(Is that all there is?)

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Blog Apocalypse

Holy crap, either I really need to keep up with all of my RSS feeds or I should cut back on my blog subscriptions/followings: the "Reading List" on my dashboard is acting like a waterfall, what with the perpetual cascade of updates. :S

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

If you could choose, how would you want to die?

I could have sworn I answered this recently..?

Anyway, given the choice, I suppose I'd want to die painlessly and/or quickly. Suffering and terminal illness would kill me. Twice.

(Is that all there is?)

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Nope, Not This Time - No Sale, Hollywood!

I just saw an ad for the Batman franchise on Bluray, each film selling for $24.99, and I remembered that that was exactly where the average DVD pricepoint was hovering when I got my first DVD player almost ten years ago.

Here we are, I thought, ten years later and the same damned films that I bought on DVD (actually, not Batman - I never saw the point of purchasing anything but the first Burton one and even that I didn't bother with - but you get the idea) have to be paid for - AGAIN - if I want them on Bluray?

I give up. I don't have a strategy or a plan yet, but I've decided that I'm never going to buy another film on disc ever again. Sayonara, major studios, networks and production companies - you're screwing consumers for whatever they're willing to pay - and I'm not going to accept that anymore.

There really ought to be an "F-you" emoticon, i.e. the Finger-Smiley, although having said that I guess I'd better hurry up and copyright the idea.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Footage of suspect in New York's Times Square car bomb scare caught on video

NEW YORK - NYPD reported that a suspect in Saturday night's Times Square bomb scare has been singled out from recordings by on-site cameras. A spokesperson for the police said, "we have obtained some clear images of the suspect abandoning the vehicle and fleeing the scene."

Although it was initially reported that smoke rising from the vehicle had tipped off police a number of eyewitnesses have since rebuked this claim.  Oscar Fuentes, a Brooklyn convenience store owner, had just exited one of the theatres with his wife when, he said, "there was this flash and...I know it sounds weird, but the guy jumped out, waving his arms around and when he ran off I saw the smoke and that his pants were on fire."

Police are asking that anyone who saw the suspect running from the area with smoke trailing behind to please contact them immediately.  No link has been found to connect this event with "Umar-pants", the failed Detroit suicide bomber of December 2009, but police have stated that, "we are working with Homeland Security to investigate any potential affiliation between Umar and our suspect in order to get to the bottom of this incident as soon as possible."
x