Ever wondered what it’s like to chat with Liberian warlords, escape dangerous-looking crowds and visit a brothel in Monrovia? Well then, you should have a look at The Vice Guide to Liberia.
There’s low, and then there’s *low*
There are many, many questions regarding the police handling of the G20 summit that took place in Toronto recently, but this one takes the cake — a 57-year-old leg amputee had his artificial leg forcibly removed by Toronto police because “it could be used as a weapon”, and when he asked for it back he was told to hop. Since when is this in any way acceptable behavior for any human being? Also, when you consider that 700 people were arrested and released without charge, doesn’t that mean that there was little to no consideration of whether arrests were made with cause?
Who could have known?
23-year old man attending a showing of the new Twilight movie dies suddenly during the film. The details are not yet in, but it does now seem plausible that perhaps he was bored to death.
Making football enjoyable again
Like the World Cup but can’t stand the vuvuzela, that plastic horn that just fills the air with an indistinct drone for literally every second of the game? Lifehacker has you covered by showing you ways to get rid of that dread scourge while still enjoying some good football.
Something for today’s generation to think about
In today’s “upload to Youtube” world, many evidently need reminding that even though you can post it online, maybe you shouldn’t.
Fact checking… Investors’ Business Daily has heard of it.
In a spectacular outbreak of foot-in-mouth disease the right-wing newspaper Investors’ Business Daily avers that “People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.” Without realizing of course that Hawking IS in fact British and that the NHS didn’t just leave him on a mountaintop to be pecked clean by the crows, something which any American health insurance company would no doubt have done decades ago. This, I’m afraid, is typical of the level of debate in the United States about health care reform.
Note: I’m quite sure that the original article will be removed as soon as it starts getting a lot of traffic, so if you can’t find the quote I highlighted have a look at the article as it originally appeared (local cache).
Like 1994 all over again!
Ah, the good old days of dialup internet and restricted university access, a time when people started wanting to know what this “internet” thing was about… may they never come again, except perhaps in parody form: Mastering the Internet and Mastering the Internet Part 2.
Time for a Chrysler Death Watch?
I just went to the Montreal Auto Show this evening. All in all it was a fairly staid affair, but one shocker is the Chrysler display which, frankly, might as well have smelled of impending protracted death. Seriously, they have huge space, but couldn’t actually be bothered filling it, so that you have a few well-spaced-out cars, few visitors, and an atmosphere that fit a funeral better than a marketing event. Maybe Fiat can use that space to show off the 500 and their Alfa-Romeo line next year…
More documentaries…
Here’s what I’ve been looking at recently in my quest to seek out all the interesting documentaries on the web. Just three today, but they’re well worth it.
Documentaries to watch in 2009
I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries on YouTube recently, so I figured it might be a good idea to recommend a few. I think all of them are well worth seeing, if you haven’t viewed them already.