Dept. of It's Ugly But It's On-trend

A Marimekko-upset?

As I have somewhat fell into working with brands and such strange virtual values one stumbles over strange things. One of the most peculiar brand stretchings I´ve seen recently is the TV-sets with Marimekko-pattern on.

And in the press release one surely is stunned of all b*llsh*t that the agency hired is coughing up:

"The televisions will adopt the familiar look of Marimekko textiles. Different kinds of patterns can now be used to alter the feel of a home as required. Television will become a visible part of the interior design, be it the living room, children's room or even the summer cottage. There are three different Marimekko designs to choose from, besides classical black and white. In the future, further models can be added to compliment the current trends.".

Much one should have to see...

Dept. of Getting A Life

Post the script

In the everlasting series "How-To-Waste-Time" this is surely one of the most geeky ways: to write the classic Game of Life in PostScript... a codebase that usually is used to make printers work as one want.

Dept. of Silly Excuses

SMS is wrecking the moviebiz

The dramaqueens of the moviebiz in Hollywood is trying to explain why so many new flicks is doing badly in their premieres. The Hulk, Charlie's Angels II and X-Men II is according to the movieCEOs gone down the drain because of the youth who sends SMS to eachother and tells eachother that the flick is bad.

One can wonder if they haven´t thought of doing better movies? Probably someone should tell them that doing remakes of old movies and/or make scripts from Marvel-comics is not the brightest idea the have had.

Dept. of Not Having All Goats In The Cage

Pimps and prostitutes

Scandinavian Airlines is throwing a party for it's flight-crews and other personnel and the theme on the masquerade is Pimp N Prostitutes.

The head of the partycommitée is trying to put it down when the newspaper Expressen: "you're not gonna write about this?". And the Swedish police thinks it is rather strange way to glorify pimpin' which is forbidden by law in Sweden.

Dept. of Sometimes Things Backfire

Fun to hear nerds fighting

In Sweden we're in the end of the campaign before the election whether we should be in or out of the European Monetary Union. The discussion is heated but surely dull.

More fun is the discussion whether SCO owns code that are used by IBM's UNIX (and in Linux). The Nerd of Nerds Linus Torvalds, Linux first maker have totally degraded SCO in an article in E-week.

"They are smoking crack." is his statement about the SCO. That's fun. One could wish that politicians should use more flesh in their discussion.

Dept. of Bad Education

The education in GB

Somehow it seem like the education in the schools of Great Britain misses some facts: *you can't live without food*. The street-magician David Blaine will be inserted in a plastic box 40 feet above London and be there for six weeks.

This truly proves the Warholesque - everyone wants their fifteen minutes of fame.

Dept. of Small Minorities (really small ones)

I wanna be a minority

Have you heard about the Cornish? They're a ethnic minority in Great Britain.

There is a history of some people in Cornwall that are upset that their children won't be counted as a minority at school. They claim racial discrimination because these kids speaks Cornish and do want to be seen as Cornish rather than English. Authorities say that it wouldn't be healthy for them to see themselves as a minority.

In my book there's much more unhealthy to have this kind of parents. In Sweden I think it's time to claim the Skåningar to be a ethnic minority - noone understands what they say.

Dept. of Granny Goes Basic Instinct

Don't give grandma an icepick

This article learn us not to give the older people such things as ice-picks. They did watch Basic Instinct in the nineties.

A 77-year old Sharon Stone-wannabe stabbed her 84-year old sister. The article do not really point out if it was because of a man, a mental meltdown or a final clearance sale gone bezerk.

Dept. of The Second Coming

A quiet night

A older Vietnamese man was declared dead and sent to the morgue but when the daughter did visit his body the last time she did see how he moved under the cover.

Seven hours among the dead bodies did Quan, the 73-old resurrected man, spend at the morgue. Talk about having peace and calm.

Dept. of Good Music

No saucy lovesongs

The culture department of Thailand have banned three songs which the think is immoral. No content which can be about the more fleshy sides of life.

Somehow the moral crusade of Thailand is rather doubtful until they do something about the childprostitution. But ain't it always like this - let's wipe out the cultural stories but keep the things that we gain financial upon.

Dept. of Friends Forever

With a little help from my friends

In this piece from the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet there is a story of a man who have confessed to the killing of another man, but his explanation is that the shooting was agreed - the other man had somewhat hired his friend to shoot him. In the back.

Ignoring the fact that it sounds really moronic one can start to philosophise about friendship: with a friend like that one surely don´t need no foes. And if his confession is true: how fatalistic is it to agree to shoot one's friend? "Hey, dude! Look, I've bought a gun - can you shoot me?".

Dept. of Over-doing Things

The Domino Effect

Listen now: A 24-year-old Chinese woman did take the record on the world´s longest solo domino topple. 300k bricks that woman had put up around the Singapore exhibition hall. The bugs and rats was bought by the former record-holder (a german guy) so they did the life rather nasty for the hard working Chinese girl. But as she puts it, explaining how she could go on thirteen hours à day in seven weeks: "There was a time when I was not feeling well but I had a goal to achieve so I continued to persevere,".. is this sane? Only for getting as a short newsticker in The Charlotte Observer.

Dept. of Silicon In The Army Now

Better boobs in the war

Wuz the fuzz from the marines? The Marine Corps Sgt Sherry Pierre charged breast implants on the Military plastic card - don't ya understand that she gotta look good when going on the ship? There's a truth in that the bigger boobs you have the more respect you got... or not.

She's sorry and trying to improve herself during time in the slammer. A long and sometimes rather boring analysis have Phil Carter done on his blog where he takes such stupid acts serious. That´s almost as moronic.

Dept. of Time And Date

The week

Somehow I reckon this calendar...

Dept. of Not Being Irish

A cold beer whatever it takes

This guy takes the cold beer serious. So serious that he invent an electric beer-cooler.

That's not too weird (well, yes it is) but to use Guinness in it is rather moronic since that beer do taste the best when served in a 'not-a-american-beer-chill'.

It doesn't surprise me to see that the domain is .no... that guy is Norwegian...

Dept. of Catch-A-Cache-Can

Moronic sport

The most moronic sport must be geocaching. Someone is placing a cache in the wilderness and then the hunters should find them - via GPS both the hunter try to find the place and the others can follow the hunt via Internet.

Department of Deconstructing

The job you want

Do you sometimes feel the urge to break things? Or have you wondered about who the f... is testing all that stuff so it won't break and make the company up for grabs?

Here he is: Chuck Cramer have broken more things than the worst rock-star. And looking at the pic of him one couldn't believe he is the real Demolition Man.

Dept. of Noize-makers Unite

The sound of silence

It's really A Car Stereo That Can Kill You. Although the car is undrivable it's probably would be hard to steer when booming all the 72 speaker with some drum'n'bass? No, not that either. Cuz the system is built to play just a single frequency... as loud as it ever can be.

It's all about the great sport of dB-racing. Where the record of noize is 177,6 dB. And with the deep frequency this is not a sound system but a dangerous weapon: the sound of 74 mHz in 177 dB would totally degrade your brain into small pieces of mud. Not to say who it would effect the other internals.

Dept. of Deadly Serious Tourism

The deadly places

People are fascinated of celebs and of death. Of course those together will be a way to communicate with others. At Where the Stars Died it's surely a way to get all the morbid facts and even to find ones way.

Some sort of biz-op: The Death Row - visit the places where your favourite star took the last breath. All the gory details included.

The site-owner is also afraid of being sued by people who visit the places and have marked some places with an asterisk (7047 Franklin Avenue, Hollywood is one of the places - where Janis od'd 1970) since those locations "are located in high-crimes areas and may not be safe to visit".

Of course the guy with the site also have the Hollywood scandals in the same site and the most strange thing is his collection of Hollywood Ghosts and Haunted Houses. Did you know that some freaks believe that Marilyn Monroe is haunting The Roosevelt Hotel, and she's not alone: Montgomery Clift (some actor back in the 50's) is said to haunt room #928 of the 9th floor of the hotel, playing a trumpet, and pacing the hallways while reciting his old lines. And as if it wasn't enough for the market-division at the hotel there is a "cold spot" in the ballroom.

Jeeez...

Dept. of Work And Subpoema

The solution of unemployment?

RIAA will take 2191.78 years to sue everyone. Yeah, right. The record industry is behaving like they have been educated in the former CCCP or in the Castro school.

The Inquirer have just done their maths and just show that the threat from RIAA is rather empty. If they don't do a coup d'etat and shoot people off without juridical obstacles.

Dept. of Flight Safety

Non-famous last words

Some of my friends at the net thinks I'm disgusting thinking that sites like this is sort of fun. But I can't help I sort of fascinates by the things that is surely strange and sometimes also a bit pulp. Last words from the cockpits just before they go down is a site which tickles my feeling of disbelieving what I hear but also fascinates me both as a behaviorist.

Another of this sites which people tend to think as awful is Plane Crash Info.com where a guy truly have dig deep into the stories of planes going down.

Dept. of Motorized Moneymongers

A combi for the rich

When the rich brats get old they need more place in the car. But surely they'd hate to not driving their Ferrari's.

So, when Muhammad don't come to the mountain the mountain comes to Muhammad - Ferrari 456 GT Estate. Taking the kids for a ride in 300 km/h, why not? (My son usually thinks that I drive too fast when I go in 50 km/h).

Dept. of Living Things Living In Strange Places

A vulcano-living rust monster?

Not really but scientists have found a microbe in the volcanic vent of the Pacific Ocean and it can multiply and survive in 121ºC (249,8F). That's a new heatrecord for a living organism to survive in (even though some Finnish hardcore-sauna-fanatics would strive to say that they bathed saunas hotter than this).

But Finnish don't live from iron. This micro-organism does. Luckily it dwells only on the bottom of the Pac Ocean and ain't big enough to eat a Volvo.

Dept. of Handy Man

The art of doing-it-yourself

Haven't you longed for a CD-changer?

This model is truly a piece of art (well - art don't always need to be beautiful, y'know). It look a lot like a spinning wheel and truly it ain't mobile for sure. But it does what it's built to do - and that's more than one could say about other more hi-tech-hardwares bought for an extensive amount of dinero.

Dept. of Russkij Goes Bad

The Wild Russian Politics

The Deputy Communications Minister Andrei Korotkov did use the old skills of the regime to give back on spammers who did send numerous of unsolicitated emails to the ministry.

By using the phone#s in the spammails and fire back with automated phonecalls where the minister have taped a message of threat.

"Kolesnikov said there were no more plans for using phone calls to annoy people out of spamming.

"This isn't 'The Empire Strikes Back,'" he said.

He just made a statement...

Dept. of High'N'Dry

The modern Icarus

Felix Baumgartner is a modern Icarus who did a daredevil-skydive across the Channel.

He' jumped the plane at 9000 metres and reached speeds of 360 km/h when freefalling.

To be sure not to repeat the Icarus-mistake Baumgarten decided to do the jump in the morning. And one of the exercises he used to train was to strap himself upon a Porsche.

Baumgarten do prove my private thesis that Austrians is mad (my neighbor use to climb the trees in clogs). Baumgarten have been base-jumping both from the statue of Christ in Rio and off the Petronas Tower in Kuala Lumpur.

I say that Baumgarten is an accident waiting to happen.

Dept. of Sweaty Hands

Sweaty hand on the mouse

More strange mods. This one have put a fan into his mouse.

Dept. of HomeImprovement

Amusement at the backyard

Be the hero of your community: build your own rollercoaster...

There are a couple of lunatics (or people with too much time at hand) who has built their own personal rollercoasters. Jeremy Reid is one of them. And another bloke have built one into the woods. Look at the kid - no safety or helmet or something - if fallen of there would be a real wooden crash.

Dept. of Size-Do-Matter

The bigger penis the lesser brain

One can wonder what nutcases there are who are stupid enough to buy things from these biz who send all those "DoYouWantABiggerPenis"-emailspams? Is there anyone who really believe in this bullshit?

Apparently. In the Wired piece: Swollen Orders Show Spam's Allure they found out that one of the suckers who poison our inboxes make somewhat half a mil on their herbal mumbo-jumbo. And there are people from the upper-part of the society who is buying.

The most intriguing of it all is the fact that there is numerous of women on the buyers log - so much for the "the size doesn´t matter".

Dept. of Clothing Your Dude

Hearts alike

This is a a swedish article about the strange ways the couple Posh/Beckham is dressed. As a joke the swedish custom that owners of mobile homes use to be dressed in the same boiler-suits; often cheap, from the mail order catalogue. Is it a new trend for couples; to be dressed in the same fashion? Hope not.

Dept. of Stubborn As An Ass

The geek who didn´t give up

This geek don´t give up even if his harddrive seem to be dead. No wonder this guy got a Slashdot-article. My dead hard drive story is really a story of a guy who don´t take a down-turn.

Dept. of Modding The Ride

Fish in the net

Do you want to mod your comp? This is truly some sort of 'hardcore'-modding... to make a running computer into an aquarium.

This is truly mad. And one can wonder if the fish are bug-free. And I can say that in Sweden the animal protection would never let this go - since the fish surely is on the verge of being boiled alive.

Dept. of Skilful Youth

21 and prof.

Everything is turned upside down when the geeks rule the world.

Erik Demaine didn´t finish school but was appointed as the youngest assistant professor in modern times.

Where? On the geekuniversity #1 MIT of course.

Dept. of Using Plastic Instead Of A Brain

Cellophane dreams in 3D

When color-TV was new in Sweden the public service channel drove a April the 1st-hoax where they told the audience that one could have color on the black and white set after putting over a woman´s stockings.

This story feels like the same thing - making a 3D-visualization from the laptop-screen with the help of cellophane...

The emperor of the sunny state...

The New Governor of the California?

I rather choose her...

Georgy - a geek. Georgy Russell For California Governor

A virus checked the porn

"there was no one in the blinking house,". Isn´t it really truly more a saying about the man who was acquitted with child porn in his computer and told that someone had placed it there? At his computer the police found 172 pics of child porn... and he manage to plead not guilty telling that it was a trojan-horse. Man... and when they checked the comp they found a dozen of Trojans. Jeez... that guy must have been a hardcore porn-surfer being able to have such a numbeer of worms.

Virtual(ly) nothing

- Julian Dibell is trying to make a living from selling gear for Ultima-users. Check for yourself at his own site.

Another piece about the Virtual Gamer Economy you find here.

And before you start cast spells and shoot me with virtual poisoned arrows... I'm no gamer. I don't understand. I just find it... strange.