Even though today is not a particularly slow news day...

p k 03:52 PM Friday, 23 Apr 2010 ago

the top story on CNN.com is a tribute to those greatest of early adopters, pornographers:

"From the printing press to the instant camera to the VCR and the new iPad, the pornography industry often leads the way in figuring out how to turn a big profit from high-tech."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/04/23/porn.technology/index.html?hpt=C1

What if the Super Bowl ere directed by . . .

p k 06:40 AM Friday, 05 Feb 2010 ago

This is pretty cute. It really picks up toward the end with its speculation about what Werner Herzog would do ("Grizzly Man" remix!!!).

Crazies

p k 10:01 AM Monday, 04 Jan 2010 ago

Opening ceremonies for the new tallest building in the world were set for today. The Burj Dubai dwarfs it nearest competitor for the title, Taipei 101.



There's more. Scroll across the diagram on this page (http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=23) and look at how many projects under construction would be right around the height of the Willis (nee, Sears) Tower (http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=4).

Let the Traitor of His Homeland Be Damned: Communist-era National Anthems

p k 12:04 PM Wednesday, 30 Dec 2009 ago

I hope I'm not the only one who finds these amusing. Some of these are real collar-tuggers.

Yugoslavia

Hey Slavs! our grandfathers' word still lives,
As long as their sons' heart beats for the people.
It lives, the spirit of Slavs lives, it will live for centuries,
The abyss of hell threatens in vain, the fire of thunder is in vain.

Now let everything above us be carried away by the bura.
The rock cracks, the oak breaks, let the ground shake.
We stand steadfastly like cliffs;
Let the traitor of his homeland be damned!

Romania

The heavy chains are now a thing of the past
And powerful leaders the workers are.
High we are getting through fight and sacrifice
While their own masters the people are.
Forever may our beloved republic live.
Workers and farmers and scholars and soldiers
In an overflowing torrent work together
Romania's blooming new republic to build.

Ukraine

Live, Ukraine, beautiful and mighty, -
In the Soviet Union you have found happiness.
Equal between the equal ones, free between the free ones,
Under the sunrays of freedom you have bloomed as a flower.

CHORUS:
Glory to the Soviet Union, Glory!
Glory to the Motherland in the eternity!
Live, Ukraine, soviet power,
In the united homeland of fraternal nations.

In battles for people’s fate
Russian people were always our friend and brother.
Lenin led us in a victorious campaign
Under October’s banner to brilliant heights.

We fame our mighty Fatherland with labor,
Affirm the truth of immortal ideas.
To the shining communism – the great future -
Lenin’s party wisely leads us.

Belarus

We, the Belarussians, together with the fraternal Rus',
Looked for roads to fortune.
In struggles for freedom, in struggles for fate,
We have gained our banner of victories.

CHORUS:
We were united by the name of Lenin,
The Party leads us in the quest to happiness
Glory to the Party! Glory to the Motherland!
Glory to you, Belarussian people!

For Dylan

p k 01:24 PM Wednesday, 23 Dec 2009 ago

From Salon.com:

"Of late, in the quirky camp, there's cartoonist Jeffrey Koterba's 'Inklings,' about growing up with Tourette's syndrome and a father who not only had it too, but also filled the house with broken TV sets. . . Neither memoir is particularly exceptional."

Full article:
http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/index.html?story=/books/laura_miller/2009/12/20/happy

Bling on the gold rings!!!1

p k 04:04 PM Sunday, 20 Dec 2009 ago