September 2010

Ikea: Herding Cats -- the Making of a Viral Video

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Ikea UK created a new commercial, featuring 100 house cats, many from employees, that were released into an Ikea store, in Wembley, England, at night after customers had left. These cats are not stunt animals, and the point was to see how, and where, in the Ikea store, loaded with Ikea home furnishings, would make themselves "at home." They had the owners on site, five camera teams (including an infra red camera), vets and professional cat-wranglers, all on hand, and they blocked off parts of the store. The music in the commercial is "Pianni," by Mara Carlyle. It's quite interesting to watch the difference between the cats as individuals, and the extreme difference in behavior between the adults cats, and the kittens. There's a second video embedded below with a behind-the-scenes look at the actual filming.

OMG! Her Majesty Tried To Rob The Poor!

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The Queen of England Tried To Rob The Poor Box?!

It is a sad day. The Associated Press is reporting that her gracious majesty, the Queen of England, the most noble lady, tried to rob the poor. Goodness mercy! What is happening to the dear lady? Has advanced age caught up with her? She is behaving like a Republican! An American GOP- Republican?!

From the Associated Press --"Queen tried to get UK poverty fund to heat palace."

Dear me.

Paris Hilton Dissed by Japan

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Item from the Associated Press -- " Paris Hilton canceled her Asia tour and returned home when she was denied entry at Tokyo's airport Wednesday following a drug violation in the U.S. - running afoul of strict Japanese laws that have tripped up celebrities from Paul McCartney to Diego Maradona. 'I'm going back home, and I look forward to coming back to Japan in the future," a smiling Hilton told reporters before departing on her private jet.'"

Good manners, please.

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A lady who owns a restaurant in North Carolina restaurant has put a sign on the front door saying, Restaurant Bans Screaming Kids. Good for her.

Ban unruly children, unruly parents, unruly people in general. Why would any parent want to bring their screaming child into a restaurant and embarrass herself? Unless she can't be embarrassed? Okay, why would a responsible parent want to bring her screaming child into a restaurant and disturb the patrons with the noise?

Some parents are so clueless that they can't see the point. All they see are their needs, and so they bring their unruly kids into public spaces to share the misery of listening to a screaming child.

Lady Gaga's just cause

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Item from ITN News --"Singer Lady Gaga wants the US military to ditch their policy of 'Don't ask, Don't tell' in regards to gay people." See the video.

Lady Gaga has taken up the cause for equality and justice, and for the Constitutional right of gay and lesbian Americans, who choose to serve their country in the armed forces, to be allowed to do so. She is working hard for the repeal of the military's 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy. She is holding tallies and lobbying lawmakers. And she is urging American officials to uphold the Constitution, and even to dismiss homophobic soldiers who won't accept the rights of gays to serve in the military.

Paris Hilton Gets A Break, Another One

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Paris Hilton and the Vegas D.A. have struck a deal: No jail time for Ms. Hilton. Just one year of probation.The Paparazzi won't get to watch another duck walk.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger said yesterday, Friday, that Ms Hilton has agreed to plead guilty Monday to two misdemeanors: drug possession and obstructing an officer .

Paris Hilton got busted Aug. 27 inside the Wynn resort, Since her arrest she's been barred for life from all Wynn Vegas hotels, though she remains welcome at the Hilton.

Vegas police "say a small plastic bag containing 0.8 grams of cocaine fell out of (Ms Hilton's) Chanel purse as she reached for a tub of lip balm in front of a police lieutenant."

Oh, careless Paris. Or is she fated to stay in trouble and in the news?

Lindsay Lohan: The drama doesn't stop

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Item from the Associated Press --"Lindsay Lohan has failed a court-ordered drug and alcohol screening test and could face a probation violation that might throw her back in jail. A person familiar with the case confirmed the positive test results Friday." See the video.

What has it been? Six weeks? Six weeks and more Lindsay Lohan drama?

 

From TMZ -- TMZ broke the story that Lindsay tested positive for cocaine last week. Sources connected with the case tell us Lindsay failed another test as well -- we're told it was not for cocaine, but they would not be more specific.

And our sources say ... the tests were both conducted within a short span of each other.

Lindsay could face 30 days behind bars for each failed drug test.

Jon Stewart To Rally On The Mall

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If Fox right-wing talk show dude Glenn Beck could hold a rally featuring Sarah Palin on the mall, why can't  Comedy Central's comedy entertainers Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert do the same? They've booked  the National Mall for a rally in Washington just before the November elections.

Jon Stewart announced last night on The Daily Show, a Rally to Restore Sanity on Oct. 30. Mr. Stewart said, his rally is for "people too busy with their normal lives to go to other political rallies. We're looking for people who think shouting is annoying ... who feel that the loudest voices shouldn't be the only ones that get heard," Stewart said. "Think of our event as Woodstock, but with the nudity and drugs replaced by respectful disagreement."

Unholy Spin

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Pope Benedict XVI is in Britain, shortly before his plane landed, he made a statement concerning the international scandal of widespread abuse of children by pedophile Catholic priests. He said that, "'authorities in the church have not been vigilant enough' in combating the problem." See the video.

Pope Benedict XVI is expected to be confronted on his visit to the United Kingdom by some of Britain's victims of the Catholic Church's child sexual abuse scandal. Pope Benedict XVI, when a bishop, and later a cardinal, took part in the covering up of many sex crimes against children committed by Catholic priests.

I thought that Britain has a law to keep child rapists and the rapists enablers out of their country. Huh, huh?

Edwin Newman, R.I.P.

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I remember seeing Edwin Newman covering the news for NBC, doing reports on the nightly news broadcast and working the national political conventions. Edwin Newsman, was one of greats. He was a TV journalists from the era when network television news programs tried to do good job, and there was a true attempt to be fair and balanced, and to provide a public service. In those old days of TV journalism, newsmen became well respected figures. Mr. Newman was with NBC News for thirty two years, from 1952 to 1984. He died in London, England, last month, on August 13th. He was ninety-one years old.

Mr. Newman is being remembered, according to the Associated Press, for his "literacy, wit and energy. He authored the best sellers "Strictly Speaking" and "A Civil Tongue."

Short-Sighted Brits

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Shortsightedness is a relatively new but growing phenomena and as urbanisation and intensive education levels increase it is reaching epidemic proportions in some parts of the world.  Around a third of people in Britain are short-sighted, but in the Far East it is an even bigger problem.....

 

I found this in an article about eyesight and found the wording absolutely delightful. Poor short-sighted Brits......

 

Mark Zuckerberg is a Cocky Mo-Fo With Little Respect for His Facebook Users

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Can you say cocky? Can you repeat it over and over and think about it every single time you use Facebook? That’s what you and every person (whether they be man, woman, child, or other) on the planet should be using as a mantra whenever logging onto Facebook because Mark Zuckerberg, the president and founding CEO of Facebook, thinks that you are a Dumb Fuck- to be fair to Mr. Zuckerberg, the capitals are mine, not his.

In a recent interview, Zuckerberg said that his millions of users (who transformed him from a measly pip-squeak Harvard undergrad into “Young Geek of the Century” and one of the richest dudes in the United States) were Dumb Fucks for trusting him with their personal information.

Kevin McCarthy, R.I.P.

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The star of one of my favorite sci-fi movies of all time has died.

For those who are science fiction fans and haven't seen the original version of the; 1956 film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, I have one question: What are you waiting for? It is one of the most important science fiction films ever and is a genuine movie classic. It stars the Actor Kevin McCarthy, who plays a bugging (bugged-out) doctor, who tries and fails to save his friends and neighbors from a being replicated and destroyed.

Mr McCarthy starred in many films and was a regular on television for many years. He died Saturday. He was ninety six years old.

Gaga Got The Wins; West-Swift Took The Night

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Lady Gaga Wins Big, But It's The West and Swift Show

Lady Gaga won eight MTV Video Music Awards (VMA) in Los Angeles, last night, and that was/is big news in the music industry. But last night, the show belonged to the drama/soap opera, the saga of Kanye West and Taylor Swift. They were both nominated for awards, neither won, but both performed on stage and their performances took the night. Stole it away from Lady Gaga, and that is worth gaga-ing about.

Last night's theme was redemption for last year's uber dissing of Ms.Swift by Mr. West. Last night, Mr West dissed himself, calling himself a "jerk." Ms. Swift did not disagree, graciously.

A Brit To Replace Larry King

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The headline: Piers Morgan to Replace Larry King.

I don't know anything about this Piers Morgan dude, other than what I read on-line. He's a Brit. That means he's from England. That means he is not from the USA. My question is: Couldn't CNN find somebody from the states?

This choice seems to fit right in with falling ratings. This is walking backwards with ones eyes closed. The program Larry King hosted for so many years was an American talk show. Larry sat down behind his suspenders and asked the questions of guests that a whole lot of people wanted to hear asked. He asked those questions and he let the guests answer them. This is a skill, which he acquired from many years on talk radio, back when talk radio was noted for interesting talk and not for shrill politics,

A new study: Fat Men Sex Machines?

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News giving one to the heavy set, the weight challenged, the fat guy.

I guess this is another example of science working to discover -- what? Anyway, Salon reports that a new study by Erciyes University in Turkey concluded that men of larger size last longer in bed. Larger size in body weight that is.

Will women shun the lean buff gym dudes for the diet and exercise challenged fat dudes? The study found that "lean jocks are prone to premature ejaculation," and that fatter men last longer in bed.

On TYT, The Florida Pastor, the Media at-large

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Yesterday's web cast  TYT , with Cenk of the The Young Turks, gave one of the best run down on the issues involved in the Pastor Terry Jones stunt. TYT is a good web news outlet. The folks at TYT do a good job.

Mr. Jones is the pastor of a tiny Florida church (membership all of fifty people) who has drawn mucho attention to himself, by saying that he is determined to go ahead with a plan to burn the Quran, despite opposition from around the world, and warning and threat from wack jobs, some even more wacked than himself. See the video.

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