No matter how overwhelming an event is it will always be discussed by individuals with their own point of view that may tend towards making fun of tragedy (‘gallows humor’) or simply refuse to let outside events take precedence over their own personal concerns. On September 7th, 2002 Salon.com ran a featured called Forbidden Thoughts in which ideas were retold that either were overheard on 9/11 or reported by others. Apparently Salon got such a response from viewers adding their own inappropriate comments that they ran a followup feature based on the feedback, and ran it on September 11th 2002.
So you’re saying that 12 x 0 equals less than 1 x 1? How revolutionary!
The Idiocy of Crowds. It turns out that collaboration and groupthink have no inherent efficiency and that a single competent individual produces better work than a stable-full of people with less knowledge… a development that many are calling “obvious”. Hell, anyone who’s ever been to a meeting populated by yes-men and time-wasting boardroom jockeys already knew that.
So, like, did we travel back in time to 1986?!?
Despite claims to the contrary the US negociated with and surrendered to the demands of Middle-East kidnappers who took two journalists hostage. Normally the hostages would have been left to rot, but this Administration pulls out all stops for the employees of its unofficial propaganda arm, a.k.a. Fox News Channel. I wonder if Shrub will claim, just like his dad did, that he wasn’t aware of the operation even taking place.
‘And on our next programme, we’ll be looking at Italians.’
Look Around You. A brilliant multi-episode parody of English pop-science shows from the 60s and 70s, made by the BBC, which is probably also responsible for a lot of the shows that are parodied.
I hear these guys are now working on a ‘watching paint dry’ site, too.
Watching Grass Grow. No, not even *that* kind of grass, just the stuff on a lawn. May be good viewing if you’ve had too much coffee this morning.
Should I drop BBC Canada?
I’ve had BBC Canada in my channel lineup for the past year, but it may be time for it to go.
The problem is the reason why I signed up for the channel in the first place, Top Gear. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very good car show and great fun to watch, but frankly I’ve already seen all the shows they seem to have. Several times, in fact. It’s kind of galling that they should bombard their viewers with endless repeats of “Best of” compilations when the adverts they put between shows continuously promise “all new episodes every weekend.” If you can’t deliver on that, at least stop running those ads.
That’s a whole ‘nother kind of ‘snake on a plane’.
You can now take up to 4 ounces of KY Jelly on American airliners again. It appears the terrorists haven’t completely won after all!
On the plus side, this means less demand for air conditioning.
You gotta hand it to Ryan Air — they have a sense of humor about the new UK security measures. Now you can clearly see who’s “first class” and who’s “coach”, if you know what I mean.
Filthy book-on-book action!
Hot Library Smut! for the bibliophile in you. I’m glad to see that my particular favorite (Trinity College, Dublin) is there. Not that there isn’t already plenty of book porn on the internet! Just look at all these books living in sin on that bookshelf, some of them without as much as a dustcover! Some will argue that it’s only love, but without protection they could catch something.
‘The clue is in the title. It’s not that difficult.’
John Cleese on real football vs. American football. Brought to you by the letter ‘C’… for creativity!