January 30, 2005
Swearing Jesus
Swearing Jesus - Is that what you got, pendejo?
The Future of time
The Future of time "Designers from more than 72 countries explored and visualized personal and portable timekeeping 150 years into the future" (via Gravity Lens)
canada does it again
these must be the First Variety
Movie-haulic?
filmaffinity.com looks like another useful tool to get recommendations for your viewing pleasure-once more of us start rating! It's in English and Spanish now (with more languages yet to come). Movielens seems promising as well. IMDb Pro looks cool too, though I haven't gone that far. However, this guy says beware!!
Why Rebels Must Be Middle Class
Israeli Pro-Palestinian activist Tali Fahima to remain in custody. Tali Fahima grew up in a conservative desert town in Israel and voted Likud for years. As the second intifada erupted she read about the brutality of the occupation on the Internet and eventually travelled to Jenin refugee camp where she met Zakariyeh Zbeideh, a local leader of the terrorist organization and Fatah offshoot, Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade. She was arrested and jailed in Israel, accused of translating a document for Zbeideh into Arabic. that allowed him to warn fighters marked for Israeli assassination.
Fahima has been under arrest nearly six months. Her case has gained prominence not just because she is an Israeli Jew supporting Palestinian resistance but because she is a Mizrahi, a Sephardic or "Arab" Jew. This group has historically formed a solid bloc of support for aggressive policies against the Palestinians. [MI]
Fahima has been under arrest nearly six months. Her case has gained prominence not just because she is an Israeli Jew supporting Palestinian resistance but because she is a Mizrahi, a Sephardic or "Arab" Jew. This group has historically formed a solid bloc of support for aggressive policies against the Palestinians. [MI]
Getting inside Movie Fan's heads
"Unsatisfactory movie viewing can only be attributed to human error." The Denver Post examines the way technology can help viewers find their next favorite movie.
Unemployment Benefits & Brothels
“If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits”
Prostitution was legalized in Germany just over two years ago, and brothel owners, who must pay tax and employee health insurance, have been granted access to official government databases of jobseekers and have equal status with any other employer. As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse. Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job or lose her unemployment benefit.
“There is now nothing in the law to stop women from being sent into the sex industry. The new regulations say that working in the sex industry is not immoral any more, and so jobs cannot be turned down without a risk to benefits.”
Prostitution was legalized in Germany just over two years ago, and brothel owners, who must pay tax and employee health insurance, have been granted access to official government databases of jobseekers and have equal status with any other employer. As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse. Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job or lose her unemployment benefit.
“There is now nothing in the law to stop women from being sent into the sex industry. The new regulations say that working in the sex industry is not immoral any more, and so jobs cannot be turned down without a risk to benefits.”
armchair excursion to the Alps
I came upon an enchanting gallery of Lac Léman ice storm photos via presurfer today, which then led me to some rather beautiful scenes of the the Alps. There was also an amazing shot from space, and a link to another site where I followed hikers to les Massif de Bauges and le Massif de la Grande Chartreuse. OK, I didn't get my work done today, but I had a marvelous trip to the Alps.
WE WANT YOUR HEART!
Everybody At the Beach! (.mov, slightly NSFW) - Need New Body's music has been described as psychedelic, unnerving, and all-out spastic. But really, what's not to love about a band with lyrics like "Pen pen pen! Where's my pen?!"
Star Wars fun
What Star Wars SHOULD be. Because parody is GOOD.
Alex Grey
Alex Grey's Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. Grey has been around for a long time but hasn't been linked here before. He has a new DVD out called World Spirit, which you can watch clips from online. [Via Future Hi.]
Quebec plans to butt out...
It's only a matter of time before Canada's last bastion of smoke-filled cafes frequented by tortured artists succumbs to the trend sweeping the nation, and the world. The real question is: do they care about our health, or are they trying to stop a conspiracy?
As long as they don't ban poutine, I think we'll be okay.
Bosnia's horrific war memories
Bosnia's horrific war memories There were countless horrors in the wars which led to the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. A Serbian army general has now surrendered to the authorities and will go to the United Nations tribunal in The Hague to answer war crimes charges dating back to 1999. But what happens once camp guards have served their sentences?
Dragan Kolundzija (Kole) stood trial in The Hague in Holland in 1999
Dragan Kolundzija, Kole to his friends, is sitting at the bar of the Hotel Prijedor when we enter....
Squared Circle
Flickr-related projects like this depend on licensed photos. The red bands on this image show unlicensed photos, and how much the project could grow. Also of interest is Color Fields, and the Squared Circle Color Picker.
Trapped by the Three Dustbins of History
Fred Halliday sets out an alternative thesis on the forces behind our historical era. Are we trapped by ‘Three Dustbins’ left over from the Cold War: Deep-frozen dictatorships and ethic conflicts, an arrogant and unreflective West and finally a disorganised and sometimes ill informed opposition to all this? I don’t know – but it’s an interesting idea.
Iraq Votes
Shame on you all
Blackface
Blackface : From mainstream entertainment to (nearly?) being considered a hate crime. Do we still have 21st century minstrel shows? Can one "plainly see similarities between the insulting stereotypes acted out by blackface minstrels like Al Jolson in the 19th and early 20th century and today's actors who play exaggerated, cutesy roles of gay people in the 21st century" ?
Here is a larger question: Is humor and ridicule a necessary first step down the path to eventual acceptance? Is that what Spike Lee is saying in Bamboozled or is he saying we haven't progressed as far as we think?
And I thought a few hours of jet lag was bad.
For 170 years, crossing the Channel from the UK to France would have brought you 11 days forward in time, and crossing back would have brought you 11 days earlier. Why? Because the Church of England wasn't about to adopt a new Calendar instituted by a Catholic pope. After all, if the old style was good enough for Caesar.... In fact, it took over 300 years for the new Gregorian Calendar to come into use throughout Europe, causing, no doubt, more than a few missed lunch dates as people forgot to convert between them as they traveled.
There are, of course, many other calendars in use around the world, and no shortage of people suggesting that let's do the time warp again.
Make sure it's clean!
Beyond boxers or briefs: Undergarments vary much more than the current styles we find in the nearest haberdashery department or at Victoria's Secret. Mormons have the temple garment. Suffragettes invented bloomers, the next bold step after pantaloons. But throughout modern Western history, women tended to wear dress-like undergarments, (with or without accompanying drawers) though both 19th century men and women wore the union suit, an earlier type of long-johns.
Of course, there's always the earliest of them all, the loincloth, worn by the ancient Egyptians and Tarzan. Similar is the malo worn by some Pacific Islanders, the Japanese fundoshi (warning: excess of manflesh), and the more elaborate Indian dhoti, the male companion to the sari.
And we mustn't forget the bra! Though not a lower-body garment, it has had a long--if tumultuous--history worthy of quick mention.
Of course, there's always the earliest of them all, the loincloth, worn by the ancient Egyptians and Tarzan. Similar is the malo worn by some Pacific Islanders, the Japanese fundoshi (warning: excess of manflesh), and the more elaborate Indian dhoti, the male companion to the sari.
And we mustn't forget the bra! Though not a lower-body garment, it has had a long--if tumultuous--history worthy of quick mention.
Lehitraot, Ephraim.
Estonian soviet-era TV-ads
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