This entry was posted on
Wednesday, October 1st, 2003 at
9:17 am and is filed
under Uncategorized.
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Date
20031001
The Passive Resistance Movement
Time
09:17
OK… I want to think this last bit out loud, so please bear with me.
Protesting simply isn’t doing us any good. Too many media networks deliberately ignore the action, downplay the numbers or skew the intended purpose.
I want to set up a new location, a nice, tidy and effective .org, where we run maybe one major campaign a month and a few fun activities on the side.
The central principle behind each campaign will be as follows: simple actions, undertaken in a devastatingly coordinated fashion.
Each activity will be clearly linked with a problem we think should be acted on, and a sense of humour will be employed wherever possible. That makes the activity more fun. It also makes us harder to demonise.
Here are a few draft ideas I’ve been knocking around over the last couple of days…
Banks take the piss. 7 days or more to clear cheques when they have the technology to do it immediately? (They don’t check most signatures anyway, they just like playing with our money for a few days.) So… what do you think would happen we all withdrew a significant amount of money at the same time?
Not everybody has cash to withdraw, but that’s fine too. Perhaps this will make them wonder why that’s the case and how it’s restricting their freedom.
Given that they don’t properly check the details that protect our assets, perhaps we can instead have a special day where everybody signs their cheque/cards with ‘Mickey Mouse’ instead of their name.
Guantanamo Bay. Sorry, but terrorists or not what is being done to these suspects is against the rules. I think an International Lock-Up Day would be nice for this one. Everybody takes one padlock or similar security mechanism and locks something up nice and tight. This may restrict a few people unfairly on the day, but at least we’ll all feel a heck of a lot more secure.
UPDATE – A fine thought occurs: many of us will get a good result merely by hiding keys.
I hope you can see what I’m driving at. Identifying clear problems that concern us all and mobilising en masse to give a swift, sharp warning that we’re less than happy about it.
Some activities will involve action; some will involve the spread of information.
Media control is a big issue. I’d like to warm up on the soft underbelly of Richard Desmond (local pornographer and Labour Party donor) before moving on to a cracker of a campaign against the Murdoch juggernaut.
There’s more, but I don’t want to ruin any surprises.
Right, down to business…
We need a central web presence with a range of interactive capabilities.
This takes money. I’m sure there’s a few ways we can bring it together, but we need someone who can handle the cash properly.
It will require technical knowledge – for design and back-end. I’m sure Movable Type will be able to handle the bulk of it, but we’ll be needing a few added bits and bobs here and there.
The put it simply; I cannot do this alone, and I will be asking for your money, support or involvement.
Still think it’s a good idea?
Think we can pull it together?
You know what to do; get in touch.
“They got the guns, but we got the numbers.” – Jim Morrison
“If you tolerate this, then your children will be next.” – Nicholas Jones
Boomshanka.
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Date
20031001
Time
09:55
What the **** does she think she’s doing? Madonna busted stealing images (via TTR2).
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Date
20031001
Time
09:56
“I’ve not got a reverse gear.” – Tony Blair
If you’re like me, you had this exact same thought.
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Date
20031001
Christianity Watch
Time
10:00
Hooray for Fish Wars (link via The Ultimate Insult).
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Date
20031001
Time
10:02
Tony Blair says we should be listening to what the Iraqi people are saying. I already am, and wonder if he is.
This post from several weeks ago still haunts me, but this alternative voice also provides pause for thought.
Another blogger you should be watching today is Atrios. He’s all over the Plame plume. In fact, even Matt Drudge considers the content to be worth ripping off.
Finally, you’ll definitely want to drop by Hanging Day today. This post on the recent writings of Douglas Rushkoff is a gem:
“It isn’t just that it lacks any expertise, or real engagement with ideas: it also has no sense of urgency or practice. Right now, we don’t need someone telling us about the the way the internet is making ideologies obsolete. We need people to say that if there is no open consultation on the creation of standards for, say, voting machines, and if we cannot scrutinise these standards to be sure of their security, then electronic democracy might be fucked, on a very basic level.”
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Date
20031001
Riding High on Blogdex
Time
15:14
Watch the trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and read Moby’s post suggesting he may decide to get himself sued by the RIAA. For having illegal MP3s of his own songs.
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Date
20031001
Time
15:57
Who would you trust to provide you with premium image supplies?
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Date
20031001
Time
16:04
Oh dear.
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Date
20031001
Time
17:03
The conference speech Tony should have made.
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Date
20031002
Time
09:35
To: The London News Review
From: Tim Ireland
Dear Sirs,
I have just received my copy of Issue Zero of The London News Review.
For a first-time publication, I found it to be extremely disappointing.
There was a disturbing lack of font variety and the use of clip-art & decorative borders was close to non-existent. Additionally, I found a typo on Page 20 and the cartoon by Matt Groening appears to be ten years out of date.
Were I a teacher, I would mark your efforts with a terse ‘must try harder’.
Yours Sincerely,
Tim Ireland
UPDATE – Ooh, look… FunJunkie have a few complaints as well.
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Date
20031002
Only Interesting to Bloggers
Time
09:36
Dave Winer: The Rule of Links
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Date
20031002
She Who Shall Not Be Plamed
Time
09:37
Amusingly many journalists have started avoiding the use of the named agent – about two months after the horse has bolted and galloped for the scrub. Oh, and Karl Rove looks to be nailed. Atrios has the poop.
Here, it’s not being treated as much of a story. Everybody’s too busy trying to shame-without-naming over an alleged rape. A crime of violence trotted out as titillation. And it’s got football! Seriously, how can anybody pass that up?
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Date
20031002
Spam
Time
09:48
Meet Andy Markley, who nailed notorious spammer Eddy Marin for illegally using his domain name for fake addresses in the ‘From’ field:
Markley believes that Marin didn’t single him out, but suspects that his domain was chosen because it appeared at the top of some alphabetical list that Marin works from. He’s heard from others who have domain names starting with the letter “A” who have also been victimized.
I got a bunch of ‘failed message’ alerts in my Inbox yesterday. Someone has been using randomised letter/number combinations in front of the bloggerheads.com domain as the ‘From’ address in a campaign to shift shifty shit.
Looks like Eddy is deep into the B’s already.
UPDATE – Did anyone else notice how few spams were flying about when SoBig was on the loose? Given that SoBig had the capacity to harvest addresses and most spam comes from maybe half a dozen operators, well… I don’t really need to finish that sentence, now do I?
Oh, and this is supposed to help, but I’m not holding my breath. BTW, if we know who the spammers are, why can’t we have them arrested or file a civil suit?
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Date
20031002
Time
09:59
Thank you, David J. Bradley!
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Date
20031002
Time
10:03
Dog owner forced to pay for abortion after helping to lead neighbour’s dog astray.
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Date
20031002
Time
10:07
Homeless man finds little joy in $10,000 duck-money.
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Date
20031002
Time
10:09
Feel like climbing the walls today?
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Date
20031002
Time
10:11
Doctor accused of sewing woman’s anus shut. I’d be more impressed if he put a watch in there first.
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Date
20031002
Time
10:16
Remember having Sex-Ed in school? The guy in charge of (ahem) ‘Personal Devlopment’ at our school was afraid to spell the word s-e-x, and had a nasty habit of taking another question to avoid having to answer a tricky one in full.
We had this nailed pretty quickly, and when he wasn’t as helpful as he could be, we peppered him with countless bizarre/stupid/inane questions just to watch him sweat.
One day, the girls got to leave class and watch a film. Probably this one.
The boys were left behind with little more than a moral-dilemma colouring challenge, so the teacher really shouldn’t have been surprised by the peppering he got when he refused to answer a simple question regarding the subject matter of this top secret film.
From the ensuing exchange was born the quick-fire classic:
Student 1: Mr B, do you have a bone in your dick?
Mr B: Why, er, no. Yes, you at the back with a question?
Student 2: Then why is mine hard right now?
(Cue hasty exit by Mr B)
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Date
20031002
The Passive Resistance Movement
Time
10:27
We need a name!
The central site (probably about two or three weeks away) needs a snappy, descriptive and phonetic name. Well, that’s just my opinion, but I do want to make us easy to find when people see a stunt and/or the result of it (and there simply may not be the time to write ‘passive-resistance-movement.org’ on the wall before fleeing into the night).
There are other ways to get the name out, but it needs to sell the idea of what the movement is about, even when seen all by its lonesome.
I have a boring/sample version of a name for you, complete with the planned tagline for the site, just to give you a feel for it:
organised.org :: globalised. mobilised.
Can you do better? Can you sex it up so it sells? When you’re done, can we do lunch, darling?
You can check availability of .org domains here. Suggestions should be sent to the usual address.
Cheers all.
UPDATE – Kevin is suspicious. He wonders if I’m any relation to Inspector Tim Ireland, of t’South Yorkshire Police.
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Date
20031002
Flash Thingies
Time
14:01
An awesome Japanese website for you to enjoy. It’s pretty top-heavy and incomplete in places, but… wow!
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Date
20031002
Anyone but George
Time
14:57
I (heart) NY!
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Date
20031003
Riding High on Blogdex
Time
08:52
This is a very long and technically very good essay on the subject of power, why America currently has so much of it, and why they should – for all their faults – be trusted with it.
It’s worth reading in full, but the guy who wrote it has his head on backwards.
America can be trusted with power because they have no imperial ambitions? Pardon me if I choke on that ‘comforting’ thought.
“I am not one of those rare experts. I am certainly not Mark Twain. But I do grasp what he is saying here, and it bears repeating: Those foreigners who see in American power imperial ambitions do not know the soul of this country. They see mechanisms and potentials, they see through the eyes of their own histories and cultures.”
Our own histories and cultures? Well, I don’t know about you, but most of my history has been steered (or revised) by America in one way or another. And culture? It’s awash with American dross. I’m sure you can see what I’m getting at here…. why invade when you can simply incorporate?
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Date
20031003
Time
09:04
The Onion: 48-Hour Internet Outage Plunges Nation Into Productivity
Heh. BBSpot also has a cracker this morning:
United States Postal Service sues email users for damage to the letter-writing industry
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Date
20031003
Time
09:07
Are you large and loving it? Then Big Boxers of Brooklyn want you to send in a photo of you modelling their underwear. They offer a mighty 10% discount (on your next order) for each photo published.
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Date
20031003
OK, So I’m a Lego Geek
Time
09:09
American brick-shifters! Stand ready to give it your all for a chance to join the LEGO Master Model Builder team.
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Date
20031003
The Californian Recall
Time
09:13
Arnie apologises for groping women. He thought it was all good, clean fun – but now he realises that it was wrong to grab their boobs/bums and deliberately humiliate them in public. Well, I’m happy. This pretty much settles the issue for me. Gosh, don’t you think he would make a good president? Etc.
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Date
20031003
Time
09:18
Penis? Looks more like a squid to me…
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Date
20031003
She Who Shall Not Be Plamed
Time
09:20
Washington Post: Nearly seven in 10 Americans believe a special prosecutor should be named to investigate allegations that Bush administration officials illegally leaked the name of an undercover CIA agent.
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Date
20031003
It’s War! And Somebody’s Telling Porkies!
Time
09:39
Blair asked us to wait. We waited. The report’s in: No WMDs found in Iraq. None. Zip. Zilch.
Both sides are now coming forward claiming the report backs their case, but in the press and at the Labour party conference there’s been a lot of focus on the need for regime change for humanitarian reasons. Blair first started to trot this dross out in earnest following the million-strong march (he needed something to win over us poor, misguided peaceniks).
People were suffering under a cruel dictatorship, of that I have no doubt. But it’s not the only cruel dictatorship in the world, so why Iraq? Why the urgency?
No matter what Bush or Blair may suggest, the wording of the UN resolution did not call for armed conflict following non-compliance.
OK, so there’s this guy down the street from me who I think may be dealing drugs. Heck, I know he deals drugs. To kids! And I think he may have guns. The police have placed him under house arrest, but I think me and a few mates ought to go charging in and shoot the place up, just to be sure. The police can come in and help clean up later, but it’ll be on our terms dammit! Oh, and we may not find any guns in the house, but anything else we find, we get to keep. Heck, we’ve earned it for making the neighbourhood safer.
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Date
20031003
Time
09:42
It’s World Smiling Day. Cheer the fuck up. That’s an order.
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Date
20031003
The Passive Resistance Movement
Time
09:43
Some good suggestions are coming in for a name for our passive resistance movement. I can’t trot out any of the good ones just yet, but later today I’ll post a few rejects for you to chew on.
Want to make a suggestion? Keep in mind that the brief is as follows:
This needs to be easy to write, easy to read, and easy to remember. Ideally, it should be phonetic.
We don’t want anything that will cause someone who is exposed to the name to make any dismissive assumptions about the group (activist-like names like wageslave.org could prove to be counter-productive).
Make it short, make it clever, make it suitable – and make sure it’s available as a .org domain name.
When you’re done, send your suggestions here.
Rejects to follow.
UPDATE – As promised, here are some of the rejects:
I delved into a bit of Latin yesterday. Being the root of many modern languages, I was hoping it would deliver something descriptive, emotive and more or less universal.
Only problem was, most of the relevant words that cropped up where either taken as a .org or sounded like some wanky Potteresque spell (Reluctor! Resisto!)…
If we decided on the Latin word for our status as a collective, then our address would be cunctus.org
(ahem)
So much for Latin…
There were dozens of ‘does what it says on the tin’ names. Descriptive, certainly, but names like standupandfight.org and fightback.org are too militant. Goodfight.org is taken (and quite amusing if you’d care to peek).
I was warming to peskykids.org (think ‘they would have got away with it if it weren’t for…’) but I’m not sure if ‘childish, but effective’ is a solid enough mission statement.
Andy was playing with a few promising acronyms:
Movement
United
For
Freedom
I reworked one of his, but was less than happy with the result. Acronyms and overuse of the word ‘freedom’? That’s George W. Bush’s department, surely?
Electronic
Networking
Um
Forget it.
Some suggestions were amusing, but less than helpful. I’m no sure how far we’d get with freedumb.org or penismightier.org
Still, no need to be downhearted. There were quite a few excellent suggestions as well – most of which are available as a .org (but we have to stay quiet about these for a bit so they stay available).
I have a few in particular that I really, really like and will be emailing everybody who’s made a suggestion to see what they think of what we have so far.
Cheers all.
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Date
20031003
Time
12:01
Another version of the eBay scam is on the loose. I’m sure you don’t need to be told that companies like eBay and PayPal do not email you to ask for your password… just as your bank doesn’t call you up to ask for your PIN number.
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Date
20031003
Viral Marketing
Time
12:18
I won’t be participating unless they let me run a ‘Lycos is Shit’ page.
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Date
20031003
Can Weblogs…? – Baring Your Bum at Bush
Time
12:29
Bush will not be permitted to speak to the House of Commons, after fears of a massive boycott by MPs. Big fancy dinners are going to be short of a few politicians and celebrities who don’t want to be seen with George W. Bush. Here’s that article in full, folks. Looks like we’re winning.
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Date
20031003
Flash Games
Time
14:49
Alien Abduction (found via FunJunkie) is the mutt’s. At first, the puny humans don’t do much to prevent a potential anal probing (maybe it’s just one of those neighbourhoods) – but they are tricky to find sometimes and some challenges will come your way. Eventually.
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Date
20031003
Time
17:27
We’ve got a great show for you today, including Christian Punk Rock (woo)… the Amazing Rolf Harris Jukebox (yeah!)… and the music of Senator Orrin Hatch (wtf?)…
But first, here come the Solid Gold Dancers!!!
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Date
20031006
Time
08:51
Derren Brown’s cunning stunt last night began with the following dual warning:
Viewers should be advised that this stunt is being done by experts in controlled conditions and should in no circumstances be attempted by viewers at home. (pause) There will be strong language.
UPDATE – Oh, and good timing on Channel 4’s part. Putting a Russian Roulette stunt on immediately after a documentary on the suicide of Dr David Kelly. Tasteful.
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Date
20031006
Time
08:54
McDonald’s are opening their doors so you can see into the kitchens and ease your mind about silly notions such as human phlegm in the burgers and chicken fat in the shakes: Australia | UK
They’re doing this because their profits are finally under threat. Before now, they really couldn’t give a damn. Think about that.
Oh, and you may wish to leave a review for The Fast Food Song by the Fast Food Rockers. I know the song has been around for ages (I first heard it being used to teach potential teachers how to play the guitar) but in its new form it’s positively obscene (especially when they play it again and again on children’s television). Oh, and Burger King may not get a mention, but the producers of the music video have been very careful to include a BK-esque logo on the flying drink cup that floats in front of your eyes every ten seconds.
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Date
20031006
Riding High on Blogdex
Time
09:09
Bloggercon has been and gone. See what people are saying about it.
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Date
20031006
The Californian Recall
Time
09:11
Forget Nazis and nipple-gripples… here’s something serious Arnie wants to hide.
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Date
20031006
Time
09:13
Laura Bush: “President Bush is a great leader and a husband, but I bet you didn’t know he is also quite the poet.”
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Date
20031006
Time
09:16
Sick of reading news about the Siegfried & Roy tiger-mauling? Read an online discussion instead.
UPDATE – The related Fark thread is even longer, but is sure to tickle you in places.
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Date
20031006
Can Weblogs…? – Baring Your Bum at Bush
Time
09:21
Michael Moore: I have seven questions for you, Mr Bush…
There will be a significant update/addition to the BYBAB campaign page in the next few days. A full plan has been formed.
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Date
20031006
The Passive Resistance Movement
Time
09:31
More details on the upcoming movement for you:
I was brought up in an educational environment, and learned pretty quickly how important sparks and nuggets are. Many that hit me 20+ years ago are still with me.
The central purpose of this movement isn’t to replace ‘traditional’ forms of protest and activism; it’s meant to be an introduction to them.
Unlike some online campaigns, the trail will not end with you simply clicking a button or signing and online petition, it will culminate in an action that involves you getting out and actually doing something.
This action will be simple, fun, and relatively risk-free. Some campaigns will involve the spread of information, some will involve symbolism, some will involve action; but all will involve you getting off the couch at least once.
The effectiveness of your individual action will be enhanced by co-ordination (i.e. there will be many people doing the same thing at the same time), so you will be making a difference; but the main aim is to make you wonder what you could achieve by doing something more.
Keeping that in mind, we now enter the last round of suggestions for a name for our movement.
Make it short, make it clever, make it suitable – and make sure it’s available as a .org domain name.
When you’re done, send your suggestions here.
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Date
20031006
Tony Blair’s Email
Time
09:42
Heh. Someone’s been busy optimising the page where you can now email Tony Blair. Oh, and his communications office still owes me £2000 or some sodding credit for the format of the solution. Can this not be arranged as part of the new touchy-feely “we’re ready to listen” regime?
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Date
20031006
Time
09:56
My thoughts exactly.
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Date
20031007
Weblog Marketing
Time
09:18
Following on from last month’s Barney Gumble is this cheap little stunt:
The Rise of Comment Spam
You may have noticed a few weblogs with a ‘most recent comments’ list presented as a sidebar. Well, a few so-called marketers have, too. Here are a couple of guilty parties:
http://www.1viagra.com/
http://www.discount-life-insurance.us/
As you can see from this range of screengrabs, the discount-life-insurance.us site has actually charted at No. 4 on Blogdex this morning because of comment spam posted at these weblogs – but what these dickheads are really chasing is a range of keyword-rich inbound links to boost their search results in Google.
Badly Dubbed Boy has noticed this at his own blog and commented on it. To answer his question; looking across the spectrum of comments you can clearly see that they’re simple cut-and-paste one-word comments, and their purpose is not to enrich your weblog, but exploit it.
Delete the comments, block the IP address.
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Date
20031007
Time
09:25
Presenting the world’s first ‘scratch and sniff’ site. You know what’s coming, don’t you? (Link via TTR2.)
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Date
20031007
Only Interesting to Bloggers
Time
09:27
Andrew Orlowski continues to troll the weblog community. If The Register made any reports on weblogs that weren’t by this idiot, I’d be more inclined to believe that it’s all a bit of a laugh.
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Date
20031007
Telemarketers
Time
09:30
Ahahahahahahahahahaha *(breeeeeeeeeeeeeeath)* ahahahahahahahaha!
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Date
20031007
Time
09:33
Damn and blast it, I missed the blessing of the pets.
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Date
20031007
It’s War! And Somebody’s Telling Porkies!
Time
09:34
The reporter who was busted for faking a cruise missile launch as part the super soaraway Sky News coverage of the Iraqi war has committed suicide.
You’ll have to excuse me for thinking this out loud, but I can’t help but wonder which politician will complete the trifecta.
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Date
20031007
Christianity Watch
Time
09:41
Armageddon Books claims to be ‘the world’s largest Bible prophecy bookstore featuring books, videos, and charts on Armageddon, Antichrist, 666, Rapture and Revelation’. Do take the time to review the 21 signs of Christ’s return; you’ll want to know when to look busy.
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Date
20031007
Time
09:44
FunJunkie is running a weblog for the Italian Job Rally. They also dropped by to visit David Blaine the other day. Both are worth checking out. One stunt has little cars; the other has little merit.
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Date
20031007
Photoshopping
Time
09:48
Theme: Cheap ways to keep a moron occupied. Quite a few in-jokes, but some crackers are hidden in there. Somewhere. No, honest…
UPDATE – This new thread is much funnier. Enjoy.
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Date
20031007
Time
09:50
Brownie troop leader arrested for stealing cookie money.
Teacher throws rowdy students out of first-story window.
Leadership. Discipline. That’s what it’s all about.
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Date
20031007
The Californian Recall
Time
09:55
The professional smearing of Arnold Schwarzenegger is part of a vast and well-coordinated liberal conspiracy.
You know it to be true.
You also know in your heart of hearts that – while Arnie may have restricted his campaign to a string of film cliches – that he has a foolproof top-secret plan to revive California’s economy. He just can’t tell us about it yet in case robots from the future get wind of it. Or something.
Californians: Please do try to vote sensibly today; and if you can’t, please vote for Gary Coleman. He needs your love.
UPDATE – Isn’t interesting that Jill Stewart’s article, masked as a valid point, has the timing of last-minute mud-slinging?
Consider this: her ‘proof’ is an assertion, nothing more. It may very well be revealed to be true. Or false. Or somewhat misleading. Tomorrow. When it’s too late.
All sexual allegations aside, Arnold Schwarzenegger is an unashamed, ruthless manipulator. His priority always has been, and always will be, what is best for Arnie.
I don’t see that changing in a hurry.
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Date
20031007
Can Weblogs…? – Baring Your Bum at Bush
Time
13:35
Oh dear. Go to Google and search for ‘bum’…
Traffic spike! Traffic spike!
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Date
20031007
Time
16:38
Bård Torgersen beaten up over article about how to get sex from Muslim women, written by an entirely different Bård Torgersen. Well, it did happen in Norway. Perhaps ‘Bård Torgersen’ is their version of ‘John Smith’…
Oh, and here’s an article about the offending article. In Norwegian, of course.
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Date
20031007
The Passive Resistance Movement
Time
17:52
I think we’ve got the name nailed, boys and girls. I’ll tell you all about it once we have it secured.
Oh, and I have a full campaign plan for Bare Your Bum at Bush in my head – but I need a few cartoony cliparty type images to make it work. It needs to be neat and instructional style. Any volunteers?
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Date
20031008
Time
08:52
Jesus H. Christ on crutches. I think I’m going to fucking cry.
I don’t think there’ll be much bloggage today… blame 50% of the population of California.
UPDATE – Graham Pond over at Hanging Day is equally shell-shocked. More thoughts are being expressed here at the BBC website.
Also, this not-at-all-suprising petition is doing the rounds.
Oh, and collating your press releases and presenting them in weblog format does not make your site a weblog.
George W. Bush’s election campaign ‘weblog’, therefore, is not really a weblog.
Nice touch with the ‘posted by GeorgeWBush.com’, though. It feels almost real.
More from Blogdex:
Another feelgood proclamation that means sweet bugger all.
FFS, it makes me want to vomit. Repeatedly. Copiously.
I can’t stand it.
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Date
20031008
Can Weblogs…? – Baring Your Bum at Bush
Time
09:28
George W Bush will not be visiting Scotland. Kilts must make him nervous for some reason.
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Date
20031008
Photoshopping
Time
17:32
This did cheer me up. A bit.
Then Jon brought this to my attention.
I’m back at square one. Time to go home and crawl under my rock.
See you tomorrow.
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Date
20031009
Time
09:33
The London Underground: sometimes it’s faster to walk. Good advice for newbies. FunJunkie also has links to loads of useful information on the Tube this morning.
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Date
20031009
The California Recall
Time
09:37
Now I know there’s something fundamentally wrong with the universe: Larry Flynt got more votes than Gary Coleman! Oh, and Paul spotted the same comment over at the BBC website that made me chuckle yesterday.
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Date
20031009
Time
09:40
Raelian clone a hoax? No! I refuse to believe your liiiiiiiies!
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Date
20031009
Time
09:43
TV star Linda Robson (who?) mugged for plastic bag of dog poo.
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Date
20031009
Time
09:44
The Straight Dope reveals the purpose of the Scroll Lock key.
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Date
20031009
The Political Weblog Movement
Time
09:47
Blogger who blogs for Dean blogs that Bush’s blog isn’t really a blog. With me so far?
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Date
20031009
OK, So I’m a Lego Geek
Time
09:49
Mathematical LEGO Sculptures! Mobius strips! Minimal surfaces! I ask you; could life get any more exciting?
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Date
20031009
Christianity Watch
Time
09:53
The Catholic Church is telling people in countries stricken by Aids not to use condoms because they have tiny holes in them through which the HIV virus can pass.
UPDATE – ‘Elect Pope George Ringo’ jokes are due any time now. Stand by.
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Date
20031009
Time
09:55
Do you spend a lot of time wishing that George W. Bush would hurry up and die? Reading his medical history may provide a glimmer of hope.
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Date
20031009
Time
09:59
Heh. Did you ever wonder what Shaggy got up to in the back of the Mystery Machine? The time displayed on this clock may provide a small clue. (If you don’t get it, this should clear matters up for you .)
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Date
20031009
Time
10:03
Vice-narcotics web pages uses logo of National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws as a background image. Why blame theft and ignorance when you can scream ‘hacker’?
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Date
20031009
Time
10:14
Andra Ferguson and Brandon Kivi (both 15) use the same type of asthma medicine, Albuterol Inhalation Aerosol. They’re boyfriend and girlfriend, so we can probably assume that they also share spit from time to time, too. So, if one of them has difficulty breathing but doesn’t have their medication with them, surely it’s no big deal for the other to simply pass the inhaler, right? Wrong.
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Date
20031009
Anyone but George
Time
10:16
George W. Bush attempts self-fulfilling prophecy; says he doubts CIA leaker will ever be caught. Well, that’s good enough for me. Time to move on.
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Date
20031009
The Passive Resistance Movement
Time
10:17
The name we wanted appeared to be free in one database, but turned out to be taken. Damn and blast it. A modest offer has been made. I’ll get back to you shortly.
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Date
20031009
Media Fun
Time
12:06
Networks play ‘peek-a-boo’ with exit-poll data.
Also, ‘we can name this footballer as a rape suspect, but we can’t show you his face’. FFS!
I was a naughty monkey and used a search engine – but when I arrived at this page as a result, I was confronted by a rather interesting interstitial pop-up thingie for Reebok’s latest and possibly ill-fated clever-clogs campaign.
A good thing I’ve been practising my quickfire screengrab technique…
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Date
20031009
Stuff I Didn’t Do Today
Time
14:13
I need to do an update to the Bush campaign pages. It’s coming. Soon. Trust me.
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Date
20031009
Time
14:21
Doll Offers Modest Image for Muslim Girls
“The main message we try to put forward through the doll is that what matters is what’s inside you, not how you look,” said doll creator Ammar Saadeh.
What a load of old rubbish. Everybody knows that what really counts is eagle-eye vision and kung-fu grip.
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Date
20031009
Can Weblogs…? – Baring Your Bum at Bush
Time
18:57
OK, ladies and gents, I have what I think is a pretty good plan for the Bush visit with something for everyone.
(Myself, I’ve booked the entire week off work and yes, I do still plan to bare my bum if the opportunity arises.)
Keep a sharp eye out for typos. I built it in a bit of a hurry.
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Date
20031010
Time
09:13
Noodles the Clown pleads guilty to child porn charges. I’d be willing to bet that at a few Ronalds have been led astray, too. I wonder who’s in charge of hushing this up?
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Date
20031010
Time
09:37
Not the best domain name for a ‘quit smoking’ site. Perhaps they’re trying to be clever by catching people who navigate by domain names. Which almost nobody does.
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Date
20031010
Media Fun
Time
09:38
From the New York Post of all places comes this ‘well duh!‘ admission:
“One of the whopping lies of our time is that journalists are simply innocent bystanders with no responsibility for the outcome of events… The truth is that today’s media shape reality – often for the worse.”
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Date
20031010
Time
09:40
Ooh-ahh or ewww-ah? Your call. (Link via Ultimate Insult.)
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Date
20031010
The California Recall
Time
09:42
Hmmm. Is it just me, or are intelligent Californians being driven into the sea?
Somewhat related: Alec Baldwin offers box of dog biscuits to redistricting Republican Rick Perry. Quote: “I wanted to give this to Tom DeLay’s lap dog…”
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Date
20031010
Search Engine Optimisation
Time
09:43
MSN dumps Looksmart. Another signpost on the road to two new search databases that – unless Yahoo and MSN are complete fools – will follow the basic principles of Google.
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Date
20031010
Time
09:45
What does $87 billion look like? Ripped off from the Megapenny Project, but still interesting.
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Date
20031010
Time
09:47
Siegfried: Tiger was confused and trying to ‘help’ Roy. By tearing him a new cakehole?
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Date
20031010
Can Weblogs…? – Baring Your Bum at Bush
Time
09:54
Again, it just makes me want to cry. Chris from TTR2 brought this to my attention last night, but I could swear that I’ve blogged it before. No matter. Metafilter are onto it, too and the related thread mentions the Bare Your Bum at Bush campaign, which now has an exciting new page for you to enjoy. With me so far? Good. Meanwhile, the blood-red carpet is being rolled out for Bush in Australia. Hmmm, a blood-red carpet. Not a bad idea…
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Date
20031010
Time
09:57
I wish I were a big-time Hollywood producer. And writer. And director. And editor. And bottle-washer.
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Date
20031010
Riding High on Blogdex
Time
09:59
Fellatio reduces risk of breat cancer. Oh dear, it’s a parody. And it’s been removed. No problem, you’ve still got a few hours to catch it in Google’s cache.
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Date
20031010
Time
10:01
Holly Valance admits she needs to get naked to keep her music career alive. Also, Cheryl Tweedy of Girls Aloud is in court over the little adventure she had in my local nightclub. I still don’t get this story. Why would anybody want a lollipop – free or otherwise – that had been sitting in a toilet?
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Date
20031010
Time
10:05
FunJunkie is planning a Christmas party for bloggers! I not only plan on attending, I’d like to make a fool of myself on the decks if they’ll let me.
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Date
20031010
Updates
Time
11:44
Follow Me Navbar:
1. The link to Blogdex has been given a long-overdue update to the new core URL at blogdex.net
2. Hanging Day has moved to http://journal.lnreview.co.uk/, link updated
3. LinkMachine Go added.
4. TTR2 moved to brand-new Blogroll
The Blogroll will only appear on the front page for now. It’s my first one, so there may be some changes and additions as I get used to using it.
The Blogroll is a mix of political blogs, industry blogs, and people blogs. Have a poke around and let me know what you think. Too long? Too short? Am I missing anyone?
Cheers all.
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Date
20031010
It’s War! And Somebody’s Telling Porkies!
Time
12:31
The full text of IDS’s Tory party conference speech.
Michael Billington in The Guardian – “…what depressed me was the assumption that all politics is now a branch of showbiz.”
‘Following his speech to Party Conference in Blackpool, Ladbrokes have lengthened the odds on Iain Duncan Smith leading the Conservative Party into the next election from 1/4 to 2/5.’
A few things struck me:
1. Some of those hand movements and gestures were distinctly Blairesque.
2. That Charles Kennedy comment? Cheap shot.
3. The ‘that was a lie’ sounded like a strong challenge, but is quite misleading. IDS is using the Kelly affair to attack Tony Blair without really acknowledging the central issue – the illegal war that made such actions and lies a strategic necessity. The illegal war that the Conservative Party rubber-stamped right along with the Blair regime. The illegal war that everybody with a brain knew was bogus.
The speech contained the following quote:
“…I believe the world is better off today because Saddam Hussein is no longer running Iraq. I’m not going to twist or turn with the prevailing wind. I won’t play games with the defence of Britain. We’ll leave that for the Liberal Democrats.”
Another cheap shot – and pretty wide of the mark, at that. The prevailing wind was and is against the war (it’s not over yet, folks) or at least it would have been had democracy and the media not failed us.
Where were the responsible actions expected of an opposition party in the lead-up to this conflict?
The Conservative Party failed to acknowledge the alarm bells. The Conservative Party did not ask the hard questions when the chips were down.
The Lib-Dems did.
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Date
20031010
Only Interesting to Bloggers
Time
13:27
The Guardian are indeed running another blog competition and, as predicted, ScaryDuck will be one of the judges. FunJunkie has the poop.
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Date
20031010
Photoshopping
Time
18:14
I’ve just now finished a nifty new image to help with the protest effort during Bush’s visit to the UK.
I know it’s a bit obscene, but then again, so is napalming Iraqis.
You can access a mighty big A4-sized version suitable for printing at the second page of the ‘chase Bush out of Britain’ campaign.
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Date
20031013
Time
09:51
Morning all. Apologies for the single post, but I woke up with this idea and thought you’d find it entertaining. If you require further distraction, you may wish to cast your mind back to the day I received an email objecting to the Bush/Britain campaign. Over the weekend, I tripped over the thread this email originated from. Mental giants one and all – and it’s worth noting that their outrage resulted in one single email of complaint. It’s also worth noting that, as a group, they seem to have trouble grasping the basic principles of copyright. And apostrophe placement.
Oh, and if you missed it on Friday or over the weekend, you may wish to catch the new poster featured in Part II of the Bush/Britain campaign.
UPDATE – OK, OK, OK! Increasing outbound linkage in 5, 4, 3, 2… This is fun. This is interesting. Happy now? Good.
Anyway, on with today’s main feature – an email that has just been sent to two competing TV bods. One can only wonder what they’ll come back with (if, indeed, they choose to get back to me at all). Actually, let’s assume they won’t. How about you send me some feedback instead?
Cheers all.
UPDATE 2 – Some related bloggage from Steve shows that I’m not the only person eating too much cheese before bedtime.
—
To: Nav Raman, Commissioning Editor (Channel 4); Glenwyn Benson, Controller of Factual TV (BBC)
From: Tim Ireland
Dear Nav and Glenwyn,
I’m writing to you today to propose the next logical step in reality television.
My elevator pitch is as follows: ‘Pop Idol’ meets politics.
Over a 12 week period, we run an online forum that allows members of the public to propose and vote on articles that will form a draft manifesto for the Working Title Party. We also call for participants in a first stage of auditions to find this country’s next great political leader.
As with Pop Idol, this first stage of auditions will make for the best TV; as it is sure to bring out the nutters and present you with something akin to the best and worst of Speaker’s Corner.
The obligatory panel of judges should include:
– a politician or ex-politician
– a political commentator (television)
– a political commentator (newspaper)
– an image consultant
The two political commentators will need to have well-established and opposing right and left wing views to provide balance (and an entertaining level of conflict).
Initial auditions will be based on the participant’s own views and proposals (we want maximum nuttage to keep those ratings ticking over); if they make it to the next round, their material from this point on will be based largely on articles drawn from the draft manifesto.
At this next stage, we have a round of heartless eliminations driven partially by the decisions of the judges, but also by the manoeuvrings that result from group interaction (basically, we’ll want to prompt some serious backstabbing).
The semi-final round will be based on short speeches or presentations that the public can vote on by text, interactive TV, or premium rate phone line. The final round itself can be run much like an election, with short films based on public appearances by candidates, and perhaps even a live debate.
Viewers will be allowed one vote and one vote only for their favourite candidate based on their charisma, leadership potential and/or the policies they support.
I know what you’re thinking and it’s not a problem, believe me.
The winning participants can be awarded prize money on a sliding scale. With this funding, the outright winner will have the freedom to begin his own party based on their views and/or the views of their competitors. Recruiting less-successful participants to form a cabinet after the series will be the true test of this individual’s leadership. In fact, the outright winner may not be the person who brings this together – there could very well be a political Darius waiting in the wings (‘I will be the leader of a political party and win an election by the age of 35!’).
So they may as a group choose to form an actual party, or they may not. That party may be led by the outright winner of the series, or it may now. Some participants may actually choose to use their funding and fame to begin a political career in existing parties.
In short, no political party will be promoted during the series, as it will not – or even may not – exist until well after the series has concluded.
The educational value of such a series should be obvious. If the views of candidates and their popular support leads to perversity, we will have made a salient point about the state of populism in politics. If it leads to diversity, we will have made a valuable contribution to the political spectrum.
Either way, to me it sounds like a ratings winner (and a nice little earner) and I’d love to hear your thoughts on its potential development.
Regards,
Tim Ireland
www.bloggerheads.com
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Date
20031013
Time
16:58
Ha! How Rush Limbaugh would have reacted to Bill Clinton admitting drug use.
The latest effort from The Ministry of Truth, Justice and the American Way: “Letters from hometown soldiers describing their successes rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers across the country as U.S. public opinion on the mission sours. And all the letters are the same.“
Oh, and I made this picture. Cheered me up no end.
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Date
20031014
Flash Music Video
Time
09:00
This is just brilliant. One day soon the music industry will take their damn blinkers off and realise that presenting singles on the web inside a Flash show will allow people to discuss new songs in the open – instead of exchanging them in private.
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Date
20031014
It’s War! And Somebody’s Telling Porkies!
Time
09:02
John Scarlett, the intelligence chief in charge of putting together everybody’s favourite dossier has admitted to removing a key piece of information that would have diluted the case for war. He did so because of pressure from Downing St. Oh, and according to Sir Kevin Tebbit, Tony Blair chaired a crucial meeting which agreed how Dr David Kelly’s name would become public.
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Date
20031014
Only Interesting to Bloggers
Time
09:12
An MT-Blacklist is on the way to help bloggers fight the increasing threat of comment spam.
SixApart is also throwing some ideas around.
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Date
20031014
Time
09:16
Lenin to get fashion makeover. Sadly, it won’t be done live on TV with Susannah and Trinny.
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Date
20031014
Time
09:18
Waste-of-space ‘rebel’ Angle Grinder Man makes the New York Times. BTW, NTK revealed his secret identity a few weeks ago, but nowt has happened as a result. Just goes to show that he can’t even get himself arrested in this town.
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Date
20031014
Time
09:24
Planet Earth is blue and there’s nothing I can do…
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Date
20031014
Spam
Time
09:25
Some tips for fighting spam. As usual, it mostly involves filters and controls at your end, which means there will still be a bunch of lost or bounced messages clogging the network. It doesn’t matter if you hide your email address, as spammers have no compunmction about simple using automated guesswork and sending crap to everythingunderthesun@yourprovider.com
FFS, we know who the worst offenders are, when will someone in authority actually take to these guys with a big stick?
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Date
20031014
Can Weblogs…? – Baring Your Bum at Bush
Time
09:34
The Finger: a comprehensive guide to flipping the bird. Giving the finger is one of the Lightweight options presented in Part II of Can Weblogs Chgase Bush Out Of Britain?. These pages are now responding very well to a variety of searches queries relating to Bush’s visit to the UK in November. Amusingly, Part I is also the No. 2 search result for ‘bum’ in Google.
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Date
20031014
Time
09:40
Watch some free videos or cool sparkly patterns inside your eyelids.
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Date
20031014
Time
09:43
Parents struggle to explain to children why Mr Gosnell isn’t their teacher anymore. Dennis William Gosnell, a fourth-grade teacher, was advertising sex for sale on websites. He was arrested last week after he allegedly agreed to perform a sex act for money with an undercover officer.
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Date
20031014
Time
09:48
No response yet to yesterday’s email about the Working Title Party, but I have heard from somebody interesting today regarding an unrelated (but equally misguided) proposal. I’m keeping it under my hat for now. Deal with it.
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Date
20031014
The Impeachment of George W Bush
Time
09:52
Heh. The Plame Affair finally has a cool name – ‘Intimigate’.
Serious probing has begun, but the widespread media blackout will probably continue until it’s all but over.
lalalalalalalala-thisisn’thappening-lalalalalalalala
BTW, Bush claims that the situation in Iraq ‘is probably better than you think’. Of course it is. That’s why there are so many positive letters to newspapers back home. It’s not like stress is a major issue and soldiers in Iraq are committing suicide or anything. Damn it, we have a country to rebuild!
*ahem*
The Independent: “US soldiers driving bulldozers, with jazz blaring from loudspeakers, have uprooted ancient groves of date palms as well as orange and lemon trees in central Iraq as part of a new policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas attacking US troops.”
lalalalalalalala-thisisn’thappening-lalalalalalalala
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Date
20031014
Time
10:16
An Appraisal of the Utility of a Chocolate Teapot. (Link nabbed from Al.)
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Date
20031014
The Passive Resistance Movement
Time
10:29
A .org domain name has been secured for the movement. After a week or so of trying to blend a call-to-action with an identity, I stumbled across something quite nifty and more universal. In the next week or so, I’ll be lining up a secret-squirrel meeting of founding members in and around my neck of the woods so we can lay out plans for approach and content (focus will be as important as functionality).
Put simply, the movement will be a starting point for budding activists, prompting them to take one (collective) action a month.
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Date
20031014
Photoshopping
Time
10:35
Ahahahahahaha! They’ve been enjoying a bit of a Kill Bill bandwagon over at the B3ta messageboard. So far, this is the silliest, this is the sickest and this is the slickest.
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Date
20031014
Search Engine Optimisation
Time
11:46
Andrew Orlowski really should try switching medication. For once, he has a valid point (some automated aspects of weblog linkage should and probably will be discounted by Google) but that point is lost because he still sounds like some poor sod whose mother ran away with a weblog. That, and his ‘reference’ links mostly point to his own bloody articles (but, thankfully, not his own websites, which are the very definition of empty and useless space).
Own up, El Reg… this has been a wind-up from start to finish, hasn’t it? There comes a time when a troll goes beyond a joke, and that’s pretty much now. We’re bored. It’s over.
Related:
Andrew Orlowski is a weblogger – and not a very good one.
Andrew Orlowski not only misses the point, he quotes conveniently anonymous readers and fails to give valid examples.
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Date
20031014
Time
13:29
Isn’t it interesting that, just as we’re learning how to plug monkey brains into robots, a new kind of robot is developed that’s able to do complex martial arts moves? They’re developing giant monkey-driven warbots, people! With a nuclear arsenal and a hankering for bananas! Life as we know it is over…
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Date
20031014
Anyone but George
Time
14:28
A number of recent mid-term elections in the US saw sudden and unexpected swings in favour of Republican candidates when voters actually went to the polls. On electronic voting machines developed and provided by companies that are all prominent Republican Party donors. With vote counts that were not conducted by state elections officials, but by these same private companies. On machines that, under the contract of provision, cannot legally be checked for accuracy and – conveniently – were set up in such a way as to totally rule out any kind of recount.
Read this article at The Independent or check out the mirror at commondreams.org
Show it to an American who thinks that their vote is worth a damn.
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Date
20031015
The End of Democracy
Time
09:03
I’ve been following reactions to this article in The Independent on the subversion of the democratic process in the US (via dodgy electronic voting systems provided and administered largely in secret by pro-Republican companies) and thought I’d share a couple of interesting posts with you.
Frank over at exit.com (that’s a cool domain you’ve got there, fella) noted in in his post on the subject that:
“These companies have an obvious conflict of interest, given that they have political interests in the outcome of elections and they provide the mechanisms by which the government conducts those elections. Further, they have managed to hide the evidence of their malice and dishonesty behind draconian ‘trade secret’ agreements that forbid anyone from auditing their devices.”
Billmon noted in this post, as many did, the wider implications of this story being reported in the UK, but not in the US. Thank Dog we have blogs:
“The fact that such an important and thoroughly researched story appeared in The Independent, and not the New York Times or the Washington Post, is a pointed comment, I suppose, on the long decline of American journalism.
“It seems voting machines aren’t the only democratic devices in danger of failing.”
Tom Watson’s post drew a few comments, most notably this one from Neil Walshaw:
“Thats one of the scariest political stories I’ve ever heard. It broke on Salon.com a couple of weeks ago with a run through of the software problems and I have been waiting for it to become a scandal and so far very little.
“America (has) been America though and the mainstream media hasn’t picked up on it. There’s a surprise.
“It raises the question – what ever happened to paper and pen? Americans should keep their voting like they keep their President – Simple.”
A quick search revealed the Salon.com article he mentions. It requires subscription if you wish to read it in full, but if you’re interested in seeing the opening shot you can find it here:
If you’d like to track comments and reactions right along with me, you can see the Blogdex link cosmos here and here or the Technorati link cosmos here and here.
UPDATE – The London News Review is onto it, too. Check it out.
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Date
20031015
Time
09:19
This is cool stuff: see the Third Reich in ruins (link via Ultimate Insult).
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Date
20031015
Tony Blair’s Email
Time
09:21
Heh. Voidstar thinks that Tony Blair should have a blog. A real one, not a bullshit collection of press releases like Dubya has.
I’d be happy to design and produce such a thing, but I’d want to be paid this time, damn it!
Oh, and regarding the issue of Downing St ripping off my specifications for a viable email facility for Tony Blair?
A thought occurred this morning (mornings are a dangerous time for me). It wasn’t until the exchange of emails with Cherie Blair that my existence was finally acknowledged (at least in part) by Tony’s IT team. Before I talked to Cherie, I couldn’t get past the switchboard or the press office. After talking to Cherie, it was; ‘Hello, IT department!’
I also made Cherie aware of the relevant specifications during this exchange of emails (all the way back in February), so it should be clear to her that I have a case.
I’ll let you know what she comes back with.
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Date
20031015
Time
09:30
FunJunkie have picked up on the cybernetic killer monkey threat:
“The monkeys will come, and then we will die. Its as simple as that.”
You have been warned.
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Date
20031015
Christianity Watch
Time
09:36
The Vatican may claim that condoms have tiny, invisible little holes that let the HIV virus through, but if condoms can’t stop AIDS, then Christian Panties sure as heck will. The Best Caption on a G-String Award goes to:
“Remember: you pray with that mouth!”
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Date
20031015
Time
09:41
Oi! Canadians! Stop being so damn smug. You too are under threat of psychic attack.
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Date
20031015
Riding High on Blogdex
Time
09:43
Bush bypasses ‘biased’ national media; courts regional media. Because it’s easier to corrupt.
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Date
20031015
The Working Title Party
Time
09:45
The BBC are first out of the gate with a response to The Working Title Party. The proposal has been officially logged and added to a document queue somewhere in the system. That’s one in the pot…
UPDATE – The following clipping was spotted and scanned by Wibbler….
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Date
20031015
Pluggage
Time
09:59
Steve’s mate Paul Wagner is performing a one-man play entitled God, Inc!
It’s on in London on Oct 14th and again from the 23rd-25th at the Hen & Chickens Theatre at 8pm
Margaret Ishola and Zoe Philpott didn’t think much of it, but Toby Fox did. As with any corporate religious experience, I think it’s important that you attend and make up your own mind.
UPDATE – Sara Daniels writes:
“I’ve seen some bad shows at the Edinburgh Fringe in my time, but this one really took the biscuit. The two jokes just went oooooon so long, used over and over again. I don’t know who put up the good review at Chortle but they must have been a plant. There were only 15 people in the show I went to and 5 walked out before the end (a couple of them were quite near the start, actually). Fucking dire, in all honesty. It was at times like watching the death of a comedian.
“Does it tell you something that 2 months later I’m still angry about the hour and a half of my life (he overran, forgivable in a good comedian but unforgivable in a shite one) that this puerile crap took away?”
Hmmm. Your call, gang. See it or don’t. Me, I’m not in any position to judge as I haven’t seen this show, and a proposed one-man show based on The Star Wars Photoshopping Project has been rejected outright by a number of venues. Presumably because they think it would be equally crap.
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Date
20031015
Time
10:07
What do Eighty-Seven Billion, Eight Hundred Seventy-Eight Million, Seven Hundred Eighty-Seven Thousand, Eight Hundred Seventy-Eight Big Macs look like? (Link via everlasting blort.)
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Date
20031015
It’s War! And There’s Money To Be Made!
Time
12:43
The Guardian: About 100 private companies, mainly from Britain and the US, gathered in London yesterday to discuss investment opportunities in post-Saddam Iraq. Even McDonald’s was in attendance, because they don’t have an outlet in Baghdad. Yet.
More from what is obviously a misleading pinko broadsheet:
Lord Alexander, a leading legal peer, accused the attorney general last night of “scraping the bottom of the legal barrel” to give legitimacy to the war on Iraq.
One can only wonder why Blair forced/cajoled us into giving crucial legitimacy to the ‘coalition of the cowed’. Perhaps he needed Bush’s support in the war on Spam.
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Date
20031015
Time
13:31
Chris Eubank has been arrested after a one-man protest against the military presence in Iraq. He turned up outside Downing Street (that’s the place with the big bloody gates) inside his vehicle of choice (which happens to be a big bloody truck).
Sadly, all that was damaged was a delivery van.
Fun activities follow:
Read this same news article in authentic Eubanksian.
Email Chris Eubank and thank him for being one of the (very) few celebrities with the guts to speak out and take action.
(I’m planning on doing the latter in 5, 4, 3, 2…)