I was coming around a corner and….
Comments »FLASH: People are Even Bigger Passive-Aggressive Scumbags When Texting
Story here
Comments »Late Night Fun: Eugenics Programs Fail
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRAcYy7JSYk 450 300] [youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KTsXHXMkJA 450 300]
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Lunch Break: We Are Kevin Bacon
This guy is funny…
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX3mb67Hyns 450 300] Comments »FLASH: ZYNGA COLLAPSES AFTER POP
Now flat for the session at $10, after jumping 13% on the open.
UPDATE: NOW DOWN 5% TO $9.5.
Comments »Jacques Chirac Found Guilty of Corruption
Apparently he inflated budgets by hiring for non existent civil jobs and embezzling the money. Good job idiot. Wat to be a role model.
Comments »Hilarious: Dubai royals were held up for euro2 million in London
Comments »Members of an armed gang are on trial after they’ve been charged with stealing millions from the Dubai royal family. The £2million heist ($3,099,000) was the royal family’s “holiday spending money” set aside for its visit to London on June 24.
Royal aide Abdullah Shakeri, who testified from behind a protective screen, said he thought members of the gang were only joking when they first approached him outside the Emirates Bank in Knightsbridge, West London with the demand to “put the cases down or I’ll shoot you in the face.” The Daily Mail reports that the robbers then repeated their threat and told Shakeri he would be shot if he did not flee the scene.
Prosecutor Alexandra Felix said the money was divided into £50 notes, held in two suitcases. “The royal family were in the UK and required money for their stay here,” Felix said. “Mr Shakeri had made arrangements to collect the money. He and the manager went into a room to count the money. The cash was in £50 note bundles which was placed in suitcases.”
Shakeri described the man who held him at gunpoint as a young Middle Eastern man with short dark gelled hair and a leather jacket. “He had a gun. I think it was a black automatic handgun. He pointed it at me,” Shakeri said. The man then shouted for an accomplice, whom Shakeri described as a black man wearing a white hard hat and a “high visibility jacket.” The accomplice reportedly told Shakeri and the other royal family staff to run into a nearby shop. “We did as we were asked so we went into a H&M just next to the bank,” Shakeri said.
After the robbers fled, the royal family staff radioed the diplomatic protection group, who pursued the suspects. A man fitting the description of the first suspect was spotted just 300 feet from the crime scene but escaped and has yet to be found.
An officer spotted the suspect throwing a metallic object under a car, which he thought was a gun but turned out to be two mobile phones.
However, police were able to apprehend getaway driver Johnathon Haynes, 36, along with the royal family’s stolen cash. They also found the hard hat, the high-visibility jacket and a passport for Trevor Mair, 46, inside the car.
When Haynes was handcuffed, he reportedly told the arresting officers, “Yes, OK, fair enough. Are you going to take me to the police station now because I’m a bit cold.”
Ahmadinejad speaks about captured drone (I’ve included remarks for you)
I will interpret for you:
(CNN) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that his country has “been able to control” the U.S. drone that Iran claims it recently brought down, Venezuelan state TV reported.
They have figured out how to turn it on.
“There are people here who have been able to control this spy plane,” Ahmadinejad told VTV. “Those who have been in control of this spy plane surely will analyze the plane’s system. Furthermore, the systems of Iran are so advanced also, like the system of this plane.”
This is the most complicated thing they have ever seen. It is blowing their collective mind.
Ahmadinejad did not elaborate or specify what precisely he meant when he referred to people “who have been able to control” the drone. He spoke in Farsi, which VTV translated into Spanish. The Farsi portion of the interview was not audible.
President Barack Obama said Monday that the United States has asked Iran to return the drone aircraft that Iran claims it recently brought down in Iranian territory.
“We’ve asked for it back. We’ll see how the Iranians respond,” Obama said.
Our president is a huge pussy.
Will Iran share stealth tech with China? Ahmadinejad’s comments to VTV seemed to suggest that Iran did not plan to return the aircraft.
“The North Americans at best have decided to give us this spy plane,” Ahmadinejad said. “In the unpiloted planes, we have had many advances, much progress and now we have this spy plane.”
Good luck with that.
More importantly, the Iranians should be very cautious about trying to steal technology they aren’t experienced with. A friend of mine once told me a story about a certain Soviet country that stole a certain pipeline pressure regulator from the U.S. during a certain Cold War.
What this country didn’t know was that the U.S. was very much aware of Soviet thievery, and intentionally planted a flawed plan, which the Soviets, in copying, then applied to their entire system.
Ka-BOOM!
I would love nothing less than for Iran to mass produce drones which the U.S. has the ability to seize control of at will. Let the tech games begin.
Comments »Las Vegas Marathon Runners Get the Runs
*Note* They were drinking out of garbage cans…
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Some runners who participated in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in Las Vegas say water passed out during the race made them sick.
The Las Vegas Sun reports that health officials are investigating at least 10 claims of intestinal problems following the Sunday night marathon. They also have posted a survey to pinpoint a possible source for illness complaints that have been posted on Facebook.
Race organizers filled lined buckets or trash cans with hydrant water, which was used to fill cups offered to racers along the course.
Some runners complained that the water tasted odd or unclean.
Race organizers say the hydrant water was tested and found to be safe.
The event drew some 44,000 racers who paid up to $179 to run a half or full marathon.
Comments »WARREN BUFFET WANTS HIS IDIOT FARMER SON TO BE CHAIRMAN OF BERKSHIRE
EURO TRASHY MOVES: Sarkozy Snubs Cameron
TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: Hill Staffers Gone Wild
Staffers of Rep. Rick Larsen boasted over Twitter that they were drinking and otherwise goofing off on the job, according to a story in the NW Daily Marker.
The website said the tweets gave off the impression of “a staffers-gone-wild bash” in the Washington Democrat’s office, including insults lobbed at the congressman himself.
“My coworker just took a shot of Jack crouching behind my desk,” one staffer tweeted, apparently referring to Jack Daniel’s whiskey.
Later, the staffer tweeted that he “couldn’t pass a field sobriety test right now.”
Bryan Thomas, a spokesman for the congressman, said that the office became aware of the tweets at noon Thursday and that all three staffers involved were fired a little more than an hour later.
“Neither Congressman Larsen nor his other staff were aware of the actions by these three staff members before today,” Mr. Thomas said. “Congressman Larsen is disappointed by their actions and takes this very seriously. He has made it clear that he will not tolerate this kind of behavior.”
The three staffers were a legislative correspondent and two legislative assistants, according to NW Daily Marker.
In other messages, staffers called the congressman everything from “my idiot boss” to unprintable derogatory terms such as the one George W. Bush used to refer to a New York Times reporter in 2000.
Your Tax Dollars @ Work
Pump it up, pump the jam, keep it pumping
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EcjWd-O4jI&ob=av3e 450 300] Comments »YOUS GUYS SEPARATE THE TRASH OVA HEAH: Organized Crime Gets Into Recycling
Mobsters have a long history of making a killing in the garbage-hauling business, but a New Jersey commission says they have gone green by infiltrating the commercial recycling business.
The New Jersey State Commission of Investigation reported Tuesday that organized crime continues to find and exploit holes in a regulatory system that hasn’t been updated in decades. A law adopted in 1983 that was designed to keep criminals out of the solid waste business isn’t properly enforced and commercial recyclers remain largely unregulated.
“The integrity of this industry remains in peril,” the commission wrote. “The industry today remains open to manipulation and abuse by criminal elements.”
Organized crime’s ties to garbage hauling reach back at least half a century.
The New Jersey commission first uncovered significant criminal intrusion into solid waste disposal in 1969. The infiltration was most prominent in the 1980s, when organized crime had a stranglehold on the industry, forcing out legitimate operators through extortion. A string of prosecutions and new regulations , licensing requirements and background checks , helped weed out underground operators.
The commission found that the aging regulations, funding and staffing shortages and inter-agency communication problems “aren’t working as well as intended to keep criminal elements out of the industry,” said commission spokesman Lee Seglem.
The commission said it was particularly bothered by evidence of organized crime’s infiltration into commercial recycling, which has become lucrative in the 25 years since New Jersey adopted a mandatory garbage separation and recycling law.
New Jersey requires background checks for “key employees” involved in solid waste hauling. New York’s tougher licensing laws , it requires checks for consultants and sales associates in solid waste and for recyclers , encourage organized crime to set up shop across the Hudson River in New Jersey, investigators say.
One example cited in the report is Joseph Lemmo Jr., whom the commission called a “poster boy” for gaps in the state’s solid waste licensing law.
Despite multiple criminal convictions and ties to the Genovese crime family, Lemmo made more than $1 million a year operating within plain sight for more than a decade, the commission said. Though his criminal convictions should have barred him from the industry in New Jersey, he found a back way in through a truck-rental company that supplied trailers to a waste-hauling company owned by his cousin, the report said.
Lemmo did not reply to a notice from the commission inviting a written response. A phone message left with his former company, which he sold two years ago, was not immediately returned.
People also have gotten around the law through front companies or by having relatives with clean criminal records obtain licenses, the commission found.
The commission recommended several changes, including stronger laws and more money and manpower for enforcement. It said the state’s solid waste and disposal licensing requirements should be extended to recycling. Recognizing that government budgets are being stretched thin by the recession, the commission also suggested charging licensing fees to haulers to generate money for enforcement.
Additional concerns were raised concern about potential environmental consequences of a waste-hauling industry running amok, including midnight dumping, the mixing of hazardous and solid-waste material and the resale of junked computer components.
The governor’s office said it was reviewing the report. Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie, said the governor is confident in his administration’s ability to manage available resources to properly regulate the solid waste and recycling industries and enforce criminal laws.
The three-member commission said similar recommendations have been made before.
“In 1969, the commission revealed that organized crime rooted in New York was spreading into commercial garbage collection in New Jersey and warned that the industry was at dire risk of becoming rife with bribery, extortion, price-fixing, collusive bidding and other forms of corruption,” the commissioners wrote.
It issued additional warnings after the 1983 legislation required garbage haulers to be licensed, saying the new law was being improperly enforced.
“That the commission today, more than 20 years later, must repeat some of the same general findings and recommendations is a testament to the price of warnings ignored, opportunities lost and legislative intent undermined,” the most recent report states. “The ability of mob-affiliated entrepreneurs to continue profiting from the system even after they have been unmasked reflects a fundamental flaw.”
Read more: http://trade.cc/ojx
Watch sports videos you won’t find anywhere else
Comments »Euro falls verse dollar as hope for Europe deal fades (humor)
Just for the record, I know this post from an hour ago is outdated. I’m putting it up here purposefully, as a joke/warning to journalists about what happens when you infer causality.
If they don’t rush to cover the story, it can be read here:
The euro is falling against the dollar after Germany dashed hopes that European leaders would agree on a new plan to stem Europe’s debt crisis by the end of this week.
A German official said it could take until Christmas for the new plan to be agreed upon. Traders had expected some sort of solution by Friday when European leaders meet.
The euro fell to $1.3391 in midday trading Wednesday from $1.3414 late Tuesday.
The British pound rose to $1.5682 from $1.5605. The dollar fell to 77.68 Japanese yen from 77.70 Japanese yen and to 0.9251 Swiss franc from 0.9257.
As of the time of this writing, the euro is trading up for the day against the dollar at 1.314.
Quit trying to outlogic the markets, you pen monkeys.
Comments »Howard Lindzon’s “Shitty Business” Commentary, Live, On CNBC
ROFL
The Unvarnished Truth About #OWS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJD8pZiRIzs&feature=youtu.be
Comments »Strip Clubs Find Female Dance Professor to Stave Off Government
Judith Hanna, a 75-year-old grandmother and anthropology professor, spent an afternoon in 2005 on a beach in Jacksonville, Florida, photographing women’s swimsuited backsides.
Hanna, who has spent almost 50 years studying the cultural expression of dance, called the fieldwork “interesting.” Her pictures, meant to demonstrate local enthusiasm for exposed flesh, became evidence in a nightclub’s fight against an ordinance requiring strippers to better cover their derrieres. Since 1995, Hanna, a University ofMaryland researcher, has helped clubs repel efforts to tax, regulate or close them, arguing more than 100 times that striptease is just as much an art as ballet.
Next year, her lap-dances-are-art argument will be part of an appeal before New York’s highest court. A stripper in heels is like a ballerina en pointe, she says, and her communication of feeling is no different than that of the New York City Ballet — and no less protected by the First Amendment.
“Patrons of gentleman’s clubs aren’t just there to look at nude bodies,” Hanna, who lives in Bethesda, said in a telephone interview. “They want to read into it. It’s not just the eroticism, it’s the beauty of the body, and the fantasy they create.”
Hanna says she has observed at least 1,500 ecdysiastic performances in her defense of the $12 billion U.S. exotic-dance industry, which comprises about 4,000 clubs. When a city or state passes a law to kick the clubs out of town, owners turn to Hanna. She sends clients an average bill of about $3,000, and estimated that she has 45 wins to 21 losses.
Voice of the Industry
Hanna “plays a really important role in letting people see our side,” said Eric Langan, chief executive officer of Houston-based Rick’s Cabaret International Inc. (RICK), which operates adult websites and clubs in Texas and Minnesota.
Opponents say her sophistry defends the indefensible.
“You can’t just trump the law by saying a naked dancer’s erotic message is protected by free speech,” said Scott Bergthold, a Chattanooga, Tennessee, attorney who helps municipalities craft and defend adult-business regulations. “We’re dealing with cases where cities are outlawing touching between naked dancers and customers that involve prostitution acts and she’s coming in with these opinions. It’s ridiculous.”
Hanna’s prominence has grown with the spread of stripping, Bergthold said in a telephone interview.
“The industry has exploded, and they’re now in towns and cities that 20 years ago didn’t have strip clubs,” he said.
‘Secondary Effects’
The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed crime rates around clubs to be used as cause for regulation. This year, the Missouri Supreme Court and a federal appeals court in Ohio upheld laws against touching customers. The Texas Supreme Court upheld a $5 per customer tax on nude clubs that serve alcohol. The so-called secondary effects doctrine, which allows laws restricting activities regarded as protected expression so long as they are aimed at deleterious side effects such as crime, was applied in all three.
At trial, Hanna’s testimony is often accompanied by that of sociologists who dispute crime data as the industry recasts itself as classy entertainment.
“Sex, drugs and heavy drinking have been replaced by good- looking women, $300 chairs and bright lights,” said Langan whose company has a market capitalization of about $77.6 million and whose stock has outperformed the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index by almost 1 percentage point this year.
And there is nothing new under the bustier, Hanna said.
“Exotic dance has nudity and is marginalized and stigmatized for it,” Hanna said. “It’s really old hat. It’s in musicals, operas, and theater.”
Grace and Violence
The New Testament tells of Salome, who “danced and pleased” her stepfather Herod, the ruler of Galilee, and then asked for John the Baptist’s head. Herod sent an executioner.
Vaslav Nijinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” ballet sparked a riot when its depiction of fertility rituals debuted in Paris in 1913.
“Exotic dance shares with virtually all dance genres the fact that it is a purposeful, intentionally rhythmical, culturally patterned, nonverbal, body movement communication in time and space,” Hanna writes in “Naked Truth: Strip Clubs, Democracy and a Christian Right,” to be released next year. It “conveys meaning by the use of space, touch, proximity to an observer, nudity, stillness and specific body movements.”
Preparing Temptation
Stripping can transcend the carnal, said Toni Bentley, an author who danced for choreographerGeorge Balanchine’s New York City Ballet before a hip injury ended her career.
“It’s hard to make the argument that just thrusting your pelvis is art,” Bentley said in a telephone interview. “You have a much better chance at doing something beautiful with work and preparation.”
The key to eroticism is careful planning, said Jennifer McCumber, 28, a retired stripper who runs a website from her Houston home where she teaches business concepts to dancers.
“To make a lap dance work, I had to combine concepts from gymnastics, things I learned from pole dancing, belly dancing I learned in college and even martial arts,” McCumber said in a telephone interview. “You have to have physical and mental agility to perform, while also making it seductive and alluring.”
Choreography is at the heart of the case in New York, where a club in Latham, near Albany, is arguing that most of its sales should be tax-free because of the state’s exemption for entrance fees to “dramatic or musical art performances.”
‘Stunningly Sweeping’
Andrew McCullough, a lawyer for Nite Moves, gave the court videos that dancers use to “adapt new techniques into their choreography.” And he hired Hanna to “get the message across” to the Tax Appeals Tribunal, he said.
It didn’t get there.
“To accept Dr. Hanna’s stunningly sweeping interpretation of what constitutes choreographed performance, all one needs to do is move in an aesthetically pleasing way to music,” tribunal Commissioners Carroll Jenkins and Charles Nesbitt wrote in their April 2010 ruling against the club.
The case is headed to the New York Court of Appeals, which said in October it will hear arguments next year.
In 2002, Bentley, the former ballet dancer, published “Sisters of Salome,” a study on early 20th Century strippers. As research, Bentley did a striptease of her own at a New York City club.
“There’s no definition to art and it’s eternally debated,” Bentley said. “Like the Supreme Court with obscenity, I know it when I see it. And from going to all kinds of strip clubs, some of it is and some of it is not.”
Comments »This Will Surely Give You Landscape Envy
A wealthy Swedish businessman was surprised to learn on Wednesday that the grounds near his luxurious home appear to feature a giant penis visible only from the sky.
“It may be distasteful, but it’s not illegal,” Nicholas Rundbom, a spokesperson for Hitta.se, the Swedish directory and map website which published the phallus-filled aerial photograph, told The Local.
The picture came to Rundom’s attention when he was contacted by a reporter with business news website Realtid.se who was writing a story about a posh villa belonging to Swedish business icon Per-Olof Söderberg.
Söderberg, founder of the Söderberg & Partners insurance brokerage and board member of the Ratos private equity firm founded by his grandfather in 1933, had put his home up for sale, prompting the news website to take a closer look at the property using Hitta.se
Much to the surprise of the journalist, the grounds near Söderberg’s home featured a symbol in the shape of a massive penis, as well as a star, mowed in the grass.
Söderberg, whose home is adjacent to the tennis-court-sized penis, was also clueless about the sex-themed shape in the grass surrounding his compound.
“I didn’t know anything about it,” Söderberg told the Expressen newspaper in reference to the newly-discovered phallus.
Following the report, technicians with Hitta.se contacted Metria, the company that supplied the images, to verify that the image, which was taken on April 18th of this year, had not been doctored.
“All six experts said it was clearly real grass and they all used the word ‘boyish prank’,” Metria spokesperson Johanna Ahlmark told Realtid.se.
“Someone was clearly having fun when mowing the lawn.”
Rundom from Hitta.se marveled at the coincidence that has resulted in the penis-prank being given a long-lasting afterlife on the internet.
“It’s highly improbable that those who came up with this creative stunt and cut the grass in that way did so just before a satellite flew overhead and snapped a picture,” he told The Local.
Read the rest here.
Comments »LMAO: Zimbabwe Cautions Bernanke on Inflation
Things may be bad when Zimbabwe notices something.
They say the U.S. may be on the wrong path…
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