Category Archives: Blogroll

TWAT roundup

Posted on by

Just a quickie roundup of TWAT news buzzing around the blogosphere.

Yes, I've used this before, but it just keeps on applying

British schoolchildren are being fingerprinted without parental approval, and on pain of suspension for non-cooperation. So Guido was late to it; I’m later than anyone, but not too proud to post!

Ah yes, and they’re being fingerprinted by the same corporation that trains interrogators for Abu Ghraib and Gitmo. We all love a strong corporate culture, don’t we? Mind you, this isn’t the same company that’s being sued by all those war widows for the wrongful deaths of their husbands. I know, it’s just so hard to keep them straight!

A Florida company is looking for permission to stick RFID chips in all service personnel in the US. Look for legislation making it an offence to remove these chips, if such legislation’s not on the books already. And don’t expect an out when you retire. We’ve already covered in this blog the fact that there IS no meaningful retirement anymore.

VeriChip Corp, based in Delray Beach, Fla., and described by the D.C. Examiner as “one of the most aggressive marketers of radio frequency identification chips,” is hoping to convince the Pentagon to allow them to insert the chips, known as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chips under the skin of the right arms of U.S. servicemen and servicewomen to enable them to scan an arm and obtain that person’s identity and medical history. The chips would replace the legendary metal dog tags that have been worn by U.S. military personnel since 1906.

And if they can’t get your children or yourself, they’ll at least get your garbage cans. Fighting TWAT in the back alleys, in the Rubbermaids…Churchill would be so proud.

 Half a million household wheelie bins have been secretly tagged with hidden electronic “bugs”, it has been reported.

The tiny devices identify each bin so that records can be kept on the waste disposal habits of its owners, and up to 500,000 bins in council districts across England are thought to have already been fitted…

A similar controversy also emerged in Ryde, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, earlier this week.

Residents accused the local authority of acting like “Big Brother” after workers suddenly began fitting the devices to the rims of an estimated 90,000 bins.

The devices use Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology which have also been used to identify objects as diverse as animals, vehicles and expensive goods.

Like cannon fodder units.

Survivor: South Park Tribes

Posted on by

South Park Tribes

From Defamer, cuz you just knew they were gonna be all over this story.

So it seems that the Australian genius behind Survivor isn’t completely immune to stereotypically uh…Australian behavior. He and his flying monkeys at the prodco have decided that what Survivor really needs is blatant racial conflict, and who among us can say they’re wrong?

I’m of the opinion that what it needs is a swift dose of euthanasia, but that’s just me…

Yes, this year for Survivor: Cook Island, they’re dividing the teams up by race. Simple, efficient, and already worth about 30,000 words of press.

The Defamer commentors have all the best lines in this case, not to mention the best illustration, which I stole and posted above.

BoHan says:

Scientology vs. Kaballah. That would rock. Plus you wouldn’t have to search to hard to find the token gay person. I’ve heard of one Scientologist today whose dance card is now wide open.

and the immortal:

Toothy_Tile says:

Welcome to CBS’ “Fun with outdated stereotypes and gross generalizations!” This will be a difficult one to handicap. With no cars to drive on the island, Team Asian‘s traditional achilles heel will be out of the picture. Team Latino will be pretty good at gathering the fruits and vegetables, no doubt. Team African-American will of course sweep the athletic challenges.

Team Whitey can go a few different ways, of course. If the team is mostly Jewish, it’ll waste its time starting conflicts and lending conch-shells-as-currency to the other teams, which will distract it from the challenges at hand. If the team is mostly Italian-American, expect the other teams to suffer random kneecap injuries, and lots of impromptu ways of cooking maggots and cockroaches in marinara sauce. And if the team is WASPy, expect it to get ahead by hacking into the other teams’ Sidekicks, spewing racial epithets all around, opening an outdoor nightclub or boutique hotel on the Westside of Cook Island, and gaining extra boosts of energy by doing lines of coke off of stray coconut husks.

never argue with a woman

Posted on by

From Mistress Cowfish:

Never Argue with a WomanOne morning the husband returns after several hours of
fishing and decides to take a nap. Although not familiar
with the lake, the wife decides to take the boat out.
She motors out a short distance, anchors, and reads her
book. Along comes a Game Warden in his boat. He pulls
up alongside the woman and says, “Good morning, Ma’am.
What are you doing?”
“Reading a book,” she replies, (thinking, “Isn’t that
obvious?”)
‘You’re in a Restricted Fishing Area,” he informs her.
“I’m sorry, officer, but I’m not fishing. I’m reading.”
“Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you
could start at any moment. I’ll have to take you in and write you
up”. “If you do that, I’ll have to charge you with sexual
assault, “says the woman.
“But I haven’t even touched you,” says the game warden.
“That’s true, but you have all the equipment. For all
I know you could start at any moment.”
“Have a nice day ma’am,” and he left.

MORAL: Never argue with a woman who reads. It’s likely she
can also think. Send this to four women who are thinkers.

multiculturalism in action: stealing Japadog post!

Posted on by

I’m simply stealing this from Raj, cuz he stole the idea from me. Thus, the Internet comes full circle; no longer a series of tubes, it’s become a series of hula hoops. And I’m not apologizing for the hotlinking, either. At least not till he’s bought me one.

Famous Japadog

Japanese hotdog? Sound appealing? Well it is! On Lorraine’s reccomendation, I took a chance at the hotdog stand on the corner of Smithe and Burrard, close to the Sutton Place Hotel.

So what’s in a Japadog anyways? There’s two varieties that this particular stand sells.

The Terimayo which hosts Teriyaki Sauce, Mayo, Japanese Seaweed and Fried Onions on a 100% beef hot dog.

The Oroshi is composed of special Soy Sauce, Oroshi Daikon Radish, Green Onions on a Bratwurst (white pork) sausage.

I tried the Oroshi on my last visit and look forward to trying the Terimayo next time. Delicious! The Daikon made the bun a bit soggy towards the end tho but upon comment to the ‘chef’ she said that she’ll endeavour to squeeze the radish out a bit better next time. Photos posted below.

TWAt: bloggers as enemies

Posted on by

Say hello to Josh Wolf, the second American I know of to be jailed for blog content (the first was a hapless Middle-American who blithely snapped a photo of the hotel in which Cheney was staying, several years ago. He has since been sprung). Let’s go to the ever-reliable BoingBoing for the report:

Earlier this month, San Francisco-based blogger Josh Wolf was jailed for refusing to hand over video to the federal government. He shot the footage at a 2005 G8 protest in San Francisco.

Details about the video, why authorities wanted it, and why Wolf declined, are here. The incident is the first I know of in which a blogger has been jailed for not relinquishing content on demand.

Violet Blue writes,

There are two benefits coming up; one is this Saturday the 19th at Cafe La Boheme and another is Thursday the 24th at House of Shields — and if you can’t make it to either, donate to his legal fund. Our local politicians are fumbling around with little more than two hands and a flashlight trying to figure out what to do, and SFMike is all over it in his deatiled Civic Center post about the supes trying to pass *something* more than gas in Josh Wolf Rules (Kimo Crossman points us to video of this session here). Interesting to note that the SFPD didn’t bother to show up for the hearing, isn’t it? In case it wasn’t obvious, Josh is still in jail for refusing to hand over the video he shot — but he’s not silent, as pal Jackson West is exchanging letters (analog email) with Josh and transcribing Josh‘s mail into blog posts over at The Revolution Will Be Televised. There’s a wiki, too. Josh would love to get mail, so if you still remember what a pen is, drop him a line at:

Federal Correctional Institution – Dublin
Joshua Wolf 98005-111
5701 8th St. Camp-Parks, Unit J2
Dublin, CA 94568

Link. Photo of Josh Wolf by punkmonksf.

Previously on BoingBoing:

Videoblogger’s protest footage demanded by FBI

Blogger jailed for refusing to hand over video