Clipmarks | sobriquet2's clips

Funny stereotype essay on our visiting German market

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:05:05 GMT

clipped by: sobriquet2
clipper's remarks: You know those dystopian films that speculate about what England would have been like if the Germans had won the war? Well, they’d have made it into a theme park. Winter Wonderland, in London’s Hyde Park, is precisely what occupied Britain would have felt like if the EU had turned out to be the Volksunion. They try to tell you it’s a traditional Bavarian winter market transported to London with fraternal greetings for our edification and jollity, but oh, ho, ho, ho, it’s not. It’s the Santa has landed. It’s Blitz Noel. From a distance, it all looks like a regular fair: the carousels and Ferris wheels and a V-2 launch pad, the flashing lights and the colours, the familiar screams, the perennial Chrimbo game of spot the paedo with his festive sack and gaffer tape. But it’s not what it seems. I don’t like it, sergeant. The shifty young gypsies working the rides are just too blonde. Too disciplined and polite. They don’t smirk or stick their hands up your girlfriend’s frock on the dodgems.

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

AA Gill reviews Winter Wonderland

This season has been the best that anyone can remember for white truffles. All the Italians in London are waxing lyrical — actually, the Italians don’t do lyrical, they wax prepubescent, then they wax hysterical, and finally they wax sentimental. Nothing brings on the sad pleasure of Latin morbus domi like a vivid seasonal taste. They start falsetto whining about their mothers and aunts, the steaming pots, the smells of home, the delicacies passed to bare-legged children at kitchen doors, the scent of pine and lemon in the evening air, the uncles and cousins out in the fields kidnapping industrialists and keeping them in caves with a goat’s cheese, their dark-eyed sisters singing sad love songs in cypress-inky alleys, turning tricks for American airmen, and the communist mayor taking bribes from German homosexuals who want to turn ancient farms into holiday homes.

Six Word Stories

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:24:39 GMT

clipped by: sobriquet2

Clip Source: www.sixwordstories.net

Awoke from dream; still living nightmare.

24/11/2009

—Kathleen A. Ryan

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Artistic Civilization: Accountant cuts off ear

23/11/2009

—Ken Krimstein

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Ahh. Another case of whiskey… solved!

23/11/2009

—James Hazelden

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Peter Piper’s proposed ‘pepper pick’, postponed.

18/11/2009

—Joe Ghattas

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Her laughter. His embarrassment. A gunshot…

18/11/2009

—James Hazelden

No Comments

Man finds immortality. Names it Abigail.

18/11/2009

—Amit Kapoor

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Weakth warning of next bubble...

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:37:27 GMT

clipped by: sobriquet2

Clip Source: business.timesonline.co.uk

Dollar carry trade could herald the next global crisis, analysts warn

The trade allows investors to borrow dollars at near-zero interest rates, which they use to fund asset-buying sprees around the world, and has been possible since the collapse of Lehman Brothers last year and the extreme monetary response to its aftermath.

Analysts believe that it was the sudden unwinding of the yen carry trade — immense pockets of investment funded by cheaply borrowed yen — that sent the destructive ripples of the Wall Street crisis around the world last autumn.

Hong Kong is perhaps closer to the new asset bubbles than others: house prices there have risen 28 per cent this year and new records for land price sales have landed with thudding regularity over recent weeks.

Here we are in Russia, so let's cross the road...

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:22:24 GMT

clipped by: sobriquet2

Clip Source: acidcow.com

Very funny Willaim Hague video re Tony Blair for President

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:06:18 GMT

clipped by: sobriquet2
clipper's remarks: Viewers abroad should be aware of the bitter enmity between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair who were once alles and the time Brown waited to assume the role of Prime Minister... British politics at its best

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Everybody will need paedophile checks....

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:21:33 GMT

clipped by: sobriquet2
clipper's remarks: Yet another example of new labour and the law of unintended consequences. Bring in a law with little thought to gain the headlines and spend the next decade living with the appalling consequences of mission and functional creep....

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Paedophile checks even for those not working with children

Employers will come under pressure to register staff with the Government's anti-paedophile database even if they have little contact with children, the head of the scheme has said.

An estimated 11.3 million people – including parents who join school rotas to take pupils to sports events – already face having their backgrounds checked to allow them to work with children.

But Sir Roger Singleton, the chairman of the Independent Safeguarding Authority, said the scope of the database could increase significantly because companies would fear losing business if they did not have their employees vetted.

Sir Roger also disclosed that the sensitive information gathered about those on the database would be kept indefinitely, even if they left the relevant professions, because it could be useful for any subsequent applications.

Best of Wikipedia - great source for time wasting...

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:35:09 GMT

clipped by: sobriquet2
clipper's remarks: May be old hat but new to me!!

Clip Source: bestofwikipedia.tumblr.com

Best of Wikipedia

A twice-daily updated collection of some of the best reading on Wikipedia.

Tim Berners-Lee original proposal for the World Wide Web...

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:39:53 GMT

clipped by: sobriquet2
clipper's remarks: History in the making...

Clip Source: www.w3.org

This document was an attempt to persuade CERN management that a global hypertext system was in CERN's interests. Note that the only name I had for it at this time was "Mesh" -- I decided on "World Wide Web" when writing the code in 1990.

A hand conversion to HTML of the original MacWord (or Word for Mac?) document written in March 1989 and later redistributed unchanged apart from the date added in May 1990. Provided for historical interest only. The diagrams are a bit dotty, but available in versioins linked below. The text has not been changed, even to correct errors such as misnumbered figures or unfinished references.

Brilliant summary of the development of the internet,,,,,,

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:14:54 GMT

clipped by: sobriquet2

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

A people's history of the internet: from Arpanet in 1969 to today

To mark the 40th anniversary of the first stirrings of the internet we asked you to tell us your experiences of life online. Hundreds of you responded, and here we present an interactive documentary of your stories and videos, alongside our own research and interviews with key figures (About this project)

Police surveillance revealed and lacks statutory accountability...

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:09:32 GMT

clipped by: sobriquet2
clipper's remarks: The continued functional/mission creep of the British police state

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Police in £9m scheme to log 'domestic extremists'

Thousands of activists monitored on network of overlapping databases

Police are gathering the personal details of thousands of activists who attend political meetings and protests, and storing their data on a network of nationwide intelligence databases.

The hidden apparatus has been constructed to monitor "domestic extremists", the Guardian can reveal in the first of a three-day series into the policing of protests. Detailed information about the political activities of campaigners is being stored on a number of overlapping IT systems, even if they have not committed a crime.

His inspectors, who were asked to review tactics in the wake of the Metropolitan police's controversial handling of the G20 protests, are considering a complete overhaul of the three Acpo units, which they have been told lack statutory accountability.

Another Gordon Brown gaffe...

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:51:10 GMT

clipped by: sobriquet2

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

'Great depression' gaffe lifted from Prime Minister's website

"Battle to stop depression is being won – PM," said the headline, beside a large picture of Brown looking even glummer than usual.

It is the latest in a series of public relations own goals since Brown became Prime Minister. Last year, he was pictured smiling next to a machine-gun while visiting soldiers in Afghanistan. There was also an ill-advised photo shoot of him walking along a Dorset beach with his wife while wearing a suit during the 2007 summer recess.

Don't peer in windows and you won't see a naked man...

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:50:13 GMT

clipped by: sobriquet2

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Man arrested for making coffee in own home while naked

An American man who made coffee in his own home while nude is facing charges of indecent exposure.

Eric Williamson, from Springfield, Virginia, was brewing coffee in his kitchen when a woman and a seven-year-old boy walked past the window and saw him.

"Yes I wasn't wearing any clothes but I was alone, in my own home and just got out of bed. It was dark and I had no idea anyone was outside looking in at me," he said.

The 29-year-old faces up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine if he is convicted. He is fighting the charge and seeking damages from police.

Police continue with functional creep...

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:43:21 GMT

clipped by: sobriquet2
clipper's remarks: Big Brother is alive and well in you area

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Police 'arrest innocent youths for their DNA', officer claims

Hundreds of teenagers are having their DNA taken by police in case they commit crimes later in life, an officer has disclosed.

The officer said: "Have we got targets for young people who have not been arrested yet? The answer is yes. But we are not just waiting outside schools to pick them up, we are acting on intelligence.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of the human rights group Liberty, said: "This is diabolical and proof positive that Liberty's fears are being realised.

"The current law has created an incentive for the abuse of police power so that youngsters are being targeted purely for the purpose of stockpiling their DNA for the future.

"Politicians can no longer demand due process for themselves whilst showing such contempt for the freedoms of others."

Mad Japanese sniper programme...

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:19:15 GMT

clipped by: sobriquet2
clipper's remarks: At last reality has caught up with art - there was a wonderful BBC play called "This is the Year of the Sex Olympics" when a jaded TV audience can only find humour in snuff movies...

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Japanese hidden-camera TV show Panic Face King fakes sniper attack for laughs

Panic Face King, a Japanese hidden-camera television programme, has faked a blood-soaked sniper attack to scare a contestant.

[Video]

I wonder where they got the idea of paying protection money from...

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:05:34 GMT

clipped by: sobriquet2
clipper's remarks: Full detail at article

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Italy denies report it paid off Taliban in Afghanistan

The Italian secret service paid Taliban fighters tens of thousands of dollars not to attack its forces in Afghanistan in a strategy that could have led to the deaths of ten French paratroopers, it has been claimed.

Military officials told The Times newspaper that the Italians had been paying the money to local insurgent commanders in Surobi, east of Kabul, to avoid politically-damaging Italian casualties.

A month after the Italian troops departed, a lightly armed French patrol was ambushed and surrounded by an estimated 170 fighters. Ten paratroopers were killed and 21 wounded in the bloodiest day for the French forces in 25 years.

According to the paper, US intelligence officials first discovered through intercepted phone calls that the payments had been made in Herat, western Afghanistan, then later discovered the tactic was being used in Surobi, 40 miles from the capital.