Clipmarks | ouyangwulong's Laughing collection

Case in point: Messed Up British People

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:27:16 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: So, this guy is addicted to sex and drugs and doesn't know when to draw the line? And he's British? Hey, I bet he would love a nice vacation in Greece!

But seriously, his perspective at the end, about comics helping the audience to empathize with something strange, is really insightful and good advice to all artists and writers.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Russell Brand, who will host the awards on Sept. 7, is a 33-year-old British comedian whose sartorial sensibility favors snug leather pants, unbuttoned shirts, a manly bit of eyeliner and shaggy, Amy Winehouse-style bouffants.

in a scandalous autobiography titled “My Booky Wook,” he has made no secret of his addictions to sex and hard drugs like heroin and crack

as an adolescent he attended (and was expelled from) a series of increasingly prestigious theater schools, where he was introduced to an array of increasingly potent controlled substances. In his 20s he became a popular host for British MTV, only to be fired from that job for showing up at the studio on Sept. 12, 2001, high on drugs and dressed as Osama bin Laden.

If the job of a comedian is to find common ground with his audience, Mr. Brand said in a recent telephone interview, “it is also to make things that are uncommon seem accessible and empathetic. That’s something I sometimes struggle with, because of the life I’ve led.”

Tags: sex, addiction, heroin, crack, bouffant, mtv, osama bin laden

Screaming, Vomiting, Cross-Dressing, Stripping: Vacation British style...

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:30:15 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Oh my goodness gracious! This is a funny funny article about bad bad people. I have to admit, even jaded party animal that I am, born and raised in the liberal Sodom and Gomorrah of left-coast America, EVEN I WAS SURPRISED AT HOW OUT OF FREAKING CONTROL THESE BRITISH ARE!

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

“They scream, they sing, they fall down, they take their clothes off, they cross-dress, they vomit,” Malia’s mayor, Konstantinos Lagoudakis, said in an interview. “It is only the British people — not the Germans or the French.”

They are the ones, the locals say, who are carousing, brawling and getting violently sick. They are the ones crowding into health clinics seeking morning-after pills and help for sexually transmitted diseases. They are the ones who seem to have one vacation plan: drinking themselves into oblivion.

“The government of Britain has to do something,” Mr. Lagoudakis said. “These people are giving a bad name to their country.”

They are also hurting themselves in the process. A recent report published by the British Foreign Office, “British Behavior Abroad,” noted that in a 12-month period in 2006 and 2007, 602 Britons were hospitalized and 28 raped in Greece, and that 1,591 died in Spain and 2,032 were arrested there.

Tags: vomit, nudity, cross-dressing, alcohol, birth control, sexually transmitted diseases, brawling

Please Get Laid

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:23:04 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

This week, while you were distractedly waiting for one of the presidential candidates to just go ahead and pick Michael Phelps as his running mate, a Manhattan lawyer sued Columbia University for discriminating against men.

Roy Den Hollander, who's best known for suing Manhattan nightclubs because they offered free or discounted Ladies Night drinks to women, claimed the university could not use government money, such as federal financial aid, to fund its Institute for Research on Women and Gender.

Two questions come to mind (and, for the record, I have a degree from Columbia). First, how did an institution that kept its undergraduate women in a separate college across the street (Barnard) until 1983 manage to become a "bastion of bigotry against men" in such a short time? Second, when did women's studies gather enough steam to pose a legitimate threat to men?

And Now, The Honeymoon

Fri, 16 May 2008 23:17:33 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: "Either way, when it comes down to it, equal rights should always trump politics in my book. The "right of two adults who share a loving relationship to join together to establish an officially recognized family of their own—and, if the couple chooses, to raise children within that family—constitutes a vitally important attribute of the fundamental interest in liberty and personal autonomy that the California Constitution secures to all persons for the benefit of both the individual and society."

Clip Source: www.motherjones.com

Most people aren't alive for their parents' wedding day, but I was. The date was February 16, 2004, four days after Mayor Gavin Newsom announced that San Francisco would issue marriage certificates to same-sex couples.

They were like two teenagers in love for the first time.

This morning, when the California Supreme Court handed down its decision to overturn a 2000 ballot measure that banned gay marriage, I called my moms to deliver the good news.

They were thrilled, and immediately started planning their next wedding ceremony—which they'll need to have, because a court in August 2004 nullified their first marriage. This time, they said, I would be there to give them both away.

It's ironic that today's decision comes six months before Californians will vote for a new president, and also on a second gay marriage ban.

Some say gay marriage will again be a wedge issue that galvanizes the conservative base this fall

Flight Of Fancy

Fri, 16 May 2008 11:41:38 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: I was just thinking about putting my feeder out this weekend so I could watch them. Aren't they simply amazing?

Clip Source: ngm.nationalgeographic.com

A flash of sapphire, a flutter of wings, and the tiny bird—or was it an insect?—vanishes, the briefest mirage. Moments later it reappears, this time at a better angle. It's a bird all right, a thumb-size dervish with hyperkinetic wings that can beat 80 times a second, producing the faintest hum.

Even reserved scientists can't resist such words as "beautiful," "stunning," and "exotic."

A greater wonder is that the seemingly fragile hummingbird is one of the toughest beasts in the animal kingdom.

Its cranberry-size heart, which averages 500 beats a minute (while perching!), would have thumped four and a half billion times, nearly twice the total for a 70-year-old person.

Yet these little birds are durable only in life. In death their delicate, hollow bones almost never fossilize.

"They're a bridge between the insect and bird worlds,"

Ouyangwulong's Travel Plans

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:08:35 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Okay, so on my next bit of vacation, Marszal and I are going from Hotan, in Xinjiang, accross the Taklamakan Desert to Kashgar on the Pakistani border. We'll cross the Karakorum Pass, over the Pamir and Karakorum mountain ranges north of Nanga Parabat and K2, then chill out along the North West frontier by Afghanistan.

That at least, was the plan, untill I checked the local news, and HOLY COW!

I mean, I can deal with terrorism and anti-government riots, but dude, wolves eating children? That's just messed up!

By the way, does anyone have any good restaurant recommendations in Northern Pakistan?

Clip Source: www.iht.com

"Their goal is pretty simple: They want to overthrow the rule of the Communist Party," said Hong Xiuhua, a 50-year-old retired local party official who said her husband had been briefed on the arrests by the local party secretary. "They claim that Xinjiang belongs to them and want to drive all the Han people out."

Clip Source: www.iht.com

One Uighur demonstration, which appears to have been quickly suppressed, took place in the town of Hotan on March 23

Clip Source: blog.dawn.com

Taliban “love” Pakistan

Maulana Faqir Mohammad declared that the United States is “the biggest terrorist in the world,” while Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar were “not enemies of Pakistan.”

We don’t need Baitulla Mehsoods, Faqir Mohammads, Mullah Omers,Aiman Zwaherees, Osama Bin Ladens, among us. We don’t need their love. Please, just get out of our country, we don’t want you and you are not welcome in Pakistan. Yes, you heared it right. Just leave us and go. Do it now.

Clip Source: www.dawn.com

CHITRAL, Jan 31: A young boy was killed by wolves at Attoni village, sources said on Thursday.

Tags: travel, pakistan, xinjiang, eaten by wolves, overthrow government, communist party, taliban, terrorism, vacation

Lame Duck, or Just Lame?

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:55:01 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Okay, so there have been people like me on the left, saying that Bush is ruining the economy, and there have been people on the right saying the economy is great for the last 7 years.

Very rarely has history been so swift to vindicate a particular side.

What amazes me is that there are still people out there who are using the same rose-tinted glasses, taking the rose colored pills, and then drinking the rose-flavored kool-aide as the economy goes down in flames.

And you know what bugs me? Even after all of this, unmitigated disaster, there are still going to be people who argue with me that Bush's economic policies have helped the country.

If anyone checked, his vaunted "business experience" consisted mostly of driving profitable companies into Chapter 7. Guess what? He did the exact same thing with our country! Maybe next time we can pick a SUCCESSFUL businessman for president!

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Bush appears out of touch on U.S. economic woes

The first hint that President George W. Bush might be detached from the nation's economic woes was in February, when he conceded that he had not heard about predictions of $4-a-gallon gasoline.

Then Bush went to Wall Street to warn against "massive government intervention in the housing markets," two days before his administration helped broker the takeover of the investment bank Bear Stearns.

For a man who came into office as America's first MBA president, Bush has sometimes seemed invisible during the housing and credit crunch. As the economy eclipses Iraq as the top issue on most voters' minds, even some Republican allies of the president say Bush is being eclipsed and is in danger of looking out of touch.

"I think for the most part the administration is doing the right thing in addressing the economic problems we have," said Representative Peter King, Republican of New York.

Tags: bush, bankruptcy, delusional, disaster, economy, failure, cult suicide, kool-aide

Taiwan's Interesting Democracy

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:03:33 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: A democracy, you say?
One where the people are concerned about the appearance of impropriety, you say?
Impossible, I say, impossible!

But it's true! And it's in Taiwan. They actually raise valid concerns about conflicts of interest in high government officials - before the corruption scandal, not after!

How come we never thought of that?

This blows a giant hole in the "Asian Values" argument, that dictatorship and corruption are inherent elements of "The Asian Mind" that cannot be changed. (Go suck on that one, Lee Kuan Yew!)

But seriously, given the track record of the current Taiwanese first-lady, I would say it's better that Chow keeps her job, because this way she won't have to embezzle from the government when she wants to buy new earrings!

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Taiwan's prospective first lady sets example

the public was focused not on how Ma would tackle the economy or relations with China - but whether his wife, Chow Mei-ching, should quit her job.

Analysts debated on the air whether Chow should keep working at the bank, where she has worked for more than 20 years and is now director of the legal affairs

working might pose a conflict of interest for Chow: "As a director, she must negotiate what's best for the bank, but that's not necessarily what's best for the country."

Chow would be the first Taiwanese first lady to hold a job, something that is also rare in Asia or other parts of the world. Chow's predecessors did not, including Wu Shu-chen, the wife of the current president, Chen Shui-bian

Wu is better known for her penchant for expensive jewelry and her indictment in an embezzlement scandal involving a discretionary presidential fund

Tags: taiwan, democracy, lee kuan yew, asian values, corruption, kmt, wu shuchen, chen shuibian

Steamy Scandal in Finland

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:23:01 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: In the torrid sauna of filth and depredation that is the Finish Parliment, Prime Minister Ilkka "Lady Killa" Kanerva has finally crossed the line and Finance Minister Jyrki "the Beef" Katainen isn't going to take it anymore!

What I love, other than names with funny consonants, is that Kanerva tried to claim that the text messages were "work related."

Now working for the Finish National Coalition Party as Prime Minister has become my life's ambition.

Also, apparently, this is a common occurrence for Kanerva.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Finland's foreign minister ousted over scandal involving exotic dancer

The scandal, which had been making headline news for weeks, had eroded trust in and respect for Ilkka Kanerva, said Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen, chairman of the National Coalition Party, which holds the Foreign Ministry post in the coalition government.

He said he had discussed the matter with President Tarja Halonen and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, who was traveling abroad.

Kanerva, 60, initially denied reports in Hymy — a gossip magazine — that he had sent about 200 messages by mobile phone to the dancer, Johanna Tukiainen. But last week he apologized publicly, acknowledging he had sent some messages but insisting they were all work-related.

In the messages, Kanerva proposes meetings and dinner with Tukiainen and her sister, asks whether he would be allowed to touch her at a nightclub and discusses women's clothing

"He promised he would not repeat" such a scandal, Katainen said, "but he did not keep that promise

Tags: finnland, exotic dancer, government business

Political Junkies: Why it Feels Good to Be an Extremist

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 02:28:12 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks: In The Political Brain, psychologist Drew Western summarizes fMRI experiments exploring the neuro-psychology of systematic bias and rationalization in the brains of political extremists. Finding ways to dismiss contradictory evidence triggers pleasant emotional releases in partisans' brains, eventually becoming a pleasurable, learned behavior.

Once partisans had found a way to reason to false conclusions, not only did neural circuits involved in negative emotions turn off, but circuits involved in positive emotions turned on.

The partisan brain didn't seem satisfied in just feeling better. It worked overtime to feel good, activating reward circuits that give partisans a jolt of positive reinforcement for their biased "reasoning."

These reward circuits overlap substantially with those activated when drug addicts get their "fix," giving new meaning to the term political junkie.
Clip Source: daily.sightline.org
How is it that even smart people can ignore a pile of evidence that contradicts their deeply-held beliefs. Why is it I get a rush when I'm making fun of a politician I don't agree with -- even if it's his flubs or quirks I'm mocking, not necessarily his ideas?
According to the research of Drew Western, political partisans -- and especially the smart, well-informed ones -- not only feel better when their brains downplay contradictory political information, they actually get a little emotional "high" when the brain (unconsciously) rejects evidence that contradicts their deeply held political beliefs.
In a series of brain scans of political partisans asked to consider contradictory statements by the politicians they supported, Western found that the brain reverted to the comfort zone of its long-held biases -- and doing so actually made people feel good.

Tags: science, politics, neuroscience, psychology, brain, reason, extremism, bias, beliefs

The Problem With Communism: From Monty Python to Nepal

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:16:53 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: In my opinion, the global failure of Communism can be attributed more or less directly to the fact that Communists have a unique propensity for murdering each other.

Almost all communist thinkers of any note were inevitably murdered, executed, or exiled to some frozen hinterland by their fellow communists. I am hard pressed to think of any other ideological movement that so consistently kills all it's most talented proponents.

It is striking, the extent to which these dogmatic idealists are themselves fatally venal, intolerant, capricious, and transparently greedy.

It is too bad to see this sort of thing still going on, and threatening the fragile new Nepali government. What is more, it is shocking that in the 21st Century there are still those who are naive enough to subscribe to such an ideology.

I have to admit, while I think I can understand terrorists, I don't know if I'll ever figure out Communists. Therefore, I resort to the Life of Brian for further analysis.

Clip Source: www.satp.org

Nepal

10 persons injured in clash between Nepali Congress and the MJF

Maoists attacked a group of Communist Party of Nepal – Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) supporters when they were returning from an election rally at Khurkhure in the Chitwan district, Nepal News reports. According to reports, Maoists severely assaulted three CPN-UML supporters while five Maoists also received minor injuries in the scuffle. The Maoists reportedly attacked the CPN-UML men, accusing them of attempting to defame the local Maoist leaders.

Clip Source: www.mwscomp.com

Are you the Judean People's Front?

Judean People's Front. We're the People's Front of Judea! Judean People's Front. Cawk.

Listen. If you really wanted to join the P.F.J., you'd have to really hate the Romans.

I do!

Right. You're in. Listen. The only people we hate more than the Romans are the fucking Judean People's Front.

Splitters.

And the Judean Popular People's Front.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Splitters. Splitters...

And the People's Front of Judea.

Yeah. Splitters. Splitters...

Tags: communism, threat, nepal, communist, monty python, maoists, marxism, lenninsm

How To Tell If You're Being Followed

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:24:33 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks: Are you being tailed? How do you know what to look out for? Use this handy guide to see if they're really watching you or if it's all in your head.

If you want to identify a tail, look at their shoes: they are hard to change. Move frequently between crowded and empty places: this forces them to keep closing for fear of losing you, drawing back, then closing again. This makes them conspicuous. But don't jump on or off trains just before the doors close--that's for the movies; and anyway, a good surveillance team will already have someone on the train, as well as on the platform.

(Via Jason Kottke.)

Clip Source: www.moreintelligentlife.com

So, you think you're being followed.

Two questions: first, who do you think you are? Are you really so secret and important that someone is prepared to spend time and money watching where you're going?

Second, is there someone out there who very badly wants to know what you're doing, who believes that surveillance is the only way to find out, and who is able to follow you themselves or pay someone else to? Unless such a person or organisation exists, forget it.

But if all that does apply to you, how might you tell you're being followed? Don't bother looking for men with turned-up collars, who peer round corners or keep tying their shoelaces. Real surveillants will never be seen doing anything odd; they are chameleons who strive to look ordinary, matching whatever environment they're in.

f you must check for surveillance, don't keep glancing over your shoulder. Appearing to suspect you're being followed suggests you're doing something to merit it.

The Threat of Evil Robots from Space

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 04:35:24 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: I'm glad that when the Canadians put a giant robot on the international space station that they are able to assure us that it won't "turn evil."

They know this, apparently, because they have read the instructions manual which assures us he is to simple to "run amok and take over."

That's a relief!

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

"Now I wouldn't go as far to say that we're worried it's going to go run amok and take over the space station or turn evil or anything because we all know how it's operated and it doesn't have a lot of its own intelligence," Reisman told the Associated Press last week.

Tags: evil, robots, space, station, nasa

Coffee Corrupts America's Youth

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:05:26 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: We can all laugh at Starbucks' typically popmpus token gesture of contrition. (Yeah, blame the barristas! Not whatever idiot designed all those weird factory-made collage panels on the walls of every Starbucks from Timbuktu to Taipei!)

But what really frightens me is that American 16 year olds are using words like "stigma" while lamenting the metaphysical condition of the chain-cafe that provides the fix to keep their caffeine addiction at bay.

Shouldn't they be busy drag racing hot rods around Dead-Man's-Curve? Or Rebelling without a Cause?

Is the "stigma of commercialism" now one of the many bewildering social concerns brought on by puberty?

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Starbucks Takes a 3-Hour Coffee Break

At Starbucks stores across the country on Tuesday night, it was time for the corporate version of re-education camp.

In its campaign to revive the intimate, friendly feel of a neighborhood coffee shop, Starbucks orchestrated the closing of 7,100 of its American stores at precisely 5:30 p.m. for a three-hour retraining session for employees.

Told of the company’s plans for rejuvenating its brand, one Manhattan resident said he was unimpressed.

“Honestly, I just want the coffee fast,” said Cameron Kemal, 16, a student at nearby Regis High School. “The stigma of a big chain doesn’t go away by making coffee slower.”

But a friend of his said the brewing techniques could make a difference. “When you see them pull a carton of something out of the refrigerator, it reminds me I’m paying $5 for a squirt of liquid and milk,” said Hannah Boyd, 16, who lives on the Upper East Side.

Tags: coffee, starbucks, youth, philosophy, cafe culture, cerebral, addiction, puberty, teen

Inside the Actor's Studio: Chuck Norris

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:07:22 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Chuck Norris gives his fine opinion on the craft of acting, in the form of his Huckabee endorsement. Apparently he acknowledges that his acting skills are on par with the likes of Mit Romney.

Actually I have to say, I agree: Romney and Hillary (the depressingly presumptive nominees) deliver their platforms from B-rated scripts from hackneyed writers with roughly the same native talent for acting as Mr. Norris. To make up for their lack of appeal, they kick around whoever is within easy reach.

If the shoe fits!

Clip Source: www.iht.com

To Norris, Huckabee is authentic. "Many of the candidates talk from the head on a prepared script, like I did as an actor," Norris said in an interview this week. "When I look at Huckabee, he's talking from the heart. That impresses me. He doesn't have a speech prepared."

And Norris, a retro icon of virility and heroic violence against Communists and terrorists, is giving a jolt of testosterone to a Republican who is widely perceived as likable and witty - but also weak on national security experience.

Tags: chuck norris, action, acting, huckabee, romney, hillary, clinton