Clipmarks | ouyangwulong's Running Scared 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

THE 6 CUTEST ANIMALS THAT CAN STILL DESTROY YOU

Thu, 22 May 2008 06:06:21 GMT

clipped by: tanyamm
clipper's remarks: They seem so sweet, some are cuddly some are big but sooo.. adorable. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Go to the sight to find out why.

Clip Source: www.cracked.com

The 6 Cutest Animals That Can Still Destroy You

If animals could talk, they would spend most of their time calling us dicks and telling us to get off their land. The traits we think of as "cute" are often simply tricks animals have developed to get tourists to throw them food.

Here are six animals that you'll probably want to steer clear of, no matter how adorable they look on that wall calendars.

Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius)

Duck-Billed Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus)

Dingo (Canis lupus dingo)

Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)

Swan (Anatidae Cygnus, dozens of subspecies)

Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)

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,"

Police-State Style Olympics

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 06:54:51 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: You know, it's a surreal sign of our times that the procession of the Olympic torch becomes a quasi-military exercise, where the flame passes through hordes of protesters only by police force of arms, with tear gas and hand-to-hand combat.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Torch draws protest fury in London's Olympic run

the torch completed its eight-hour, 31-mile, or 50-kilometer, journey from the new soccer stadium at Wembley in west London to the principal site for the 2012 summer Olympics at Stratford in east London. But along the way, numerous protesters who broke through police barriers were wrestled to the ground as they sought to grab the torch, and the police said one man was beaten back as he ran toward the flame

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Olympic Torch Put Out 3 Times Amid Paris Protests

In various locations throughout the city, activists angry about China's human rights record and repression Tibet carried Tibetan flags and waved signs reading "the flame of shame."

Riot police squirted tear gas to break up a sit-in protest by about 300 pro-Tibet demonstrators who blocked the torch route.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

PHOTO IN THE NEWS: Torch Protestors Climb Golden Gate

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Three activists climbed the cables of the famed Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to hang Pro-Tibet banners

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

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

Stop Cat Poaching Now! A Cause We Can All Support!

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:44:25 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Okay, so I think this will be my least controversial clip ever.

I believe that the time has come to stop shooting other people's pet cats.

You may call me closed minded. You may call me a radical. But is say there is right and wrong, and if you shoot other people's cats and then make clothes out of them, then you are wrong.

Further more, from now on, I promise to boycott all Swiss garments made from cat fur, and I hope you all do the same!

By the way, I'm dying to know the link between this and traditional Chinese medicine! Are they sure they didn't mean Cantonese cooking?

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Switzerland likely to outlaw cat fur trade

Had just one of her cats disappeared last October, Isabelle Nydegger would simply have assumed it had lost its way

But

All were gone within the first couple of weeks of the fall hunting season

The cats, Nydegger and others are convinced, were shot by hunters near this central Swiss city and sold to tanners for their fur, which is used in garments and blankets in the last West European nation where such a trade is still legal.

That the first country to outlaw it, Italy, did so only six years ago reflects the long European history with cat fur and how quickly the public has soured on its use in the face of an international campaign to redefine a centuries-old practice borrowed from traditional Chinese medicine.

While it is legal in Switzerland to shoot feral cats as well as domestic ones that stray more than 200 yards from their homes, it is not clear how many cats are hunted every year

Tags: cat, poaching, switzerland

The Rise of Fascism in the 21st Century

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:19:05 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Jim Yardley is a very astute China observer, and this article hits the nail on the head. Surging Chinese nationalism is reaching frightening proportions.

We seem to have forgotten that communism hardened by nationalism turns into fascism. I believe the current political climate in China of frustration, insecurity and aggressive racial pride is very very similar to the agitation for Fascism that took place in Europe and Asia in the 1930s.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Nationalism at core of China's angry reaction to Tibetan protests

"We couldn't believe our government was being so weak and cowardly," said Meng, 52, a mother and office worker, who was appalled that the authorities failed to initially douse the violence. "The Dalai Lama is trying to separate China, and it is not acceptable at all. We must crack down on the rioters."

If the tough tactics have startled the outside world, the Communist Party for now seems more concerned with rallying domestic opinion by using and responding to the deep strains of nationalism in Chinese society. Playing to national pride, and national insecurities, the party has used censorship and propaganda to position itself as defender of the motherland - and block any examination of Tibetan grievances or its own performance in the crisis.

Tags: fascism, communism, nationalism, china, tibet, riots, police, brutality, racial supremecists, asian values

Salvador Allende's Sinister Sibilant Cyber-Socialist Experiment

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 14:22:43 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: The interesting question this begs is:

A computer with vast communications network, bringing up-to-the-minute information on the economy to facilitate centralized control was the goal of Allende's project.

However, is our current economy, highly sensitive to trends or fears, expedited and exagerated by the speed of cyber communications, any different?

With the centralization of information, won't this also inevitably result in the centralization of control?

The internet has long been seen as democratizing, but isn't it really a far more ideal tool for breaking down regionalism in favor of centralized global control?

(The Chinese Government certainly sees it that way... which is why I haven't been clipping for a little bit.)

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Before '73 coup, Chile tried to find the right software for socialism

When military forces loyal to General Augusto Pinochet staged a coup here in September 1973, they made a surprising discovery. Salvador Allende's Socialist government had quietly embarked on a novel experiment to manage Chile's economy using a clunky mainframe computer and a network of telex machines.

While the operations room never became fully operational, Cybersyn gained stature within the Allende government for helping to outmaneuver striking workers in October 1972. That helped planners realize — as the pioneers of the modern-day Internet did — that the communications network was more important than computing power, which Chile did not have much of, anyway.

Cybersyn was born in July 1971 when Fernando Flores, then a 28-year-old government technocrat, sent a letter to Beer seeking his help in organizing Allende's economy by applying cybernetic concepts

Tags: cyber, socialism, sibilance, salvador allende, chile

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

The Truth Behind Bush's Tax Cut Plan: Korsakoff's Syndrome

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:48:47 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: Bush proposes tax cuts to save us from a recession. Apparently he doesn't remember that he's been cutting taxes for the last 6 years, and that's what brought us to the brink of recession in the first place.

If six years of consecutive aggressive tax cuts won't save our economy, then wouldn't it seem obvious that one more year of aggressive tax cuts isn't going to either?

In fact, I can make the argument that the tax cuts are actually causing the recession, due to our staggering deficit.

Doesn't he have any other ideas? Doesn't he remember saying the same things over and over again as things get worse and worse?

Korsakoff's Syndrome is what the guy in Memento had, where he couldn't remember what happened 5 minutes ago. One of the causes of Korsakoff's Syndrome is a depletion of Thiamine (Vitamin B1) caused by substance abuse and alcoholism. Given Bush's history, this clip is only half joking.

Clip Source: www.answers.com

Korsakoff syndrome

Neurological disorder marked by severe amnesia despite clear perception

Persons with the syndrome typically cannot remember events in the recent or even immediate past

Confabulation (recounting detailed, convincing "memories" of events that never happened) sometimes coexists with the syndrome

Clip Source: www.whitehouse.gov

January 18, 2008

To keep our economy growing and creating jobs, Congress and the administration need to work to enact an economic growth package as soon as possible

This growth package must be built on broad-based tax relief

Clip Source: www.whitehouse.gov

May 17, 2006

President Bush Signs Tax Relief Extension Reconciliation Act of 2005

This is a good day for American workers and families and businesses. You have passed a bill that will keep our taxes low and keep our economy growing

Clip Source: www.whitehouse.gov

June 7, 2001

Remarks by the President in Tax Cut Bill Signing

Tax relief is the first achievement produced by the new tone in Washington

Today is a great day for America. It is the first major achievement of a new era

Tags: bush, tax cuts, economy, recession, quotes, stupid, crazy, korsakoff's syndrome, broken record