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26 December 2010

Putin Rips off Yngwie Malmsteen

Look who got your mullet!



The next step, of course, if for the Neo-Soviet Russian strongman to appear in a gold lamé unitard.

17 December 2010

Fake Crisis Grows Complex

Connecticut AG Demands Google Street View WiFi Data
eWeek


Google Faces German Complaints in EU Antitrust Probe
BusinessWeek

There also has been criticism from French, German and UK data protection regulators over Google's Street View service

16 December 2010

News Digest from the Fake-Crisis Management Center, no. 2010\12-D

Tech chiefs prepare to spend big on staff as skills crisis grows
The Australian
The survey found [that] support for the government's National Broadband Network was divided, with 50 per cent welcoming it, 33 per cent undecided and 17 per cent opposing it.
Sure sounds like a crisis to me.

15 December 2010

News Digest from the Fake-Crisis Management Center, no. 2010\12-E

Belief in Progress vs. Rational Uncertainty
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
It can be found in New Age beliefs: the world is headed for a for a millennial age, and in techno-optimist futurism.
Others share an unwitting agreement with those others who tacitly think that ecological radicalism offers a set of virtues around which a body of faith can be built around.
While some transhumanists still press for technological innovation on all fronts and oppose all regulation, others are focusing on reducing the civilization-ending potentials of asteroid strikes, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence and nanotechnology.

12 December 2010

One Fake Crisis is not Enough

Experts Link Economy And Broadband Adoption
National Journal

"I think this country has an education crisis," Michael Powell, former FCC Chairman said at a forum convened by the Internet Innovation Alliance.

11 December 2010

So Long, and Thanks for (Buying) All the Fish

Seeing the EU for all it’s glory and efficiency, the Nordic nations want to Federalize.

Without them. And they actually want to FEDERALIZE:
The United Nordic Federation would only have powers that are expressly ceded to it by its members. Foreign and defence policy would be federal matters; economic and labour-market policy would need to be co-ordinated; and research policy would probably also be best served at federal level.
Thism in a sharp contrast to the EU which, any time anyone asks, says one shall renders anything unto Ceasar that ain’t bolted down, even if the real outcome is that there isn’t much of an effective defense or International Affairs structure to centralize anyway.
The Federation would work in the same way, as an arena for comparisons and co-ordination, without the need for decisions to be unanimous before they can be implemented. Most taxation would remain at national level, as would most social services, perhaps including social security, unless it is generally agreed that a joint system would be more beneficial.
Which in it’s original intent would make it look a lot more like the United States than Switzerland, as the author suggests – but then again, there subjects that are still taboo to discuss in a favorable light.

However, in one strange twist alluding to the idiotically unrealistic self-regard the EU sees itself in, we find this bit of rayonnement.
Nordic co-operation can function as an example and a model for the wider European community.
How do you say “bureaucrottes zéropéens non-élus” in Finnish anyway?

10 December 2010

4 Measly inches of Snow

There’s much Spaßmachen among those hardy Berliners at present. They’re all rough and ready for the new literary season.



Pffft!!!

09 December 2010

News Digest from the Fake-Crisis Management Center, no. 2010\12-B

The Mystery of the Red Bees of Red Hook
New York Times

Finding some solution to the maraschino juice bee crisis — to all urban clashes of culture — is part of the project of New York, a wildly creative endeavor.

08 December 2010

With "Hype" Placed in Scare Quotes

What would we do without an 'action plan'?
The European Commission has published a new action plan intended to shed light on reports of declining honey-bee populations across Europe, key pollinators for many of the bloc's important crop species.

At the same time, one the Europe's top scientists in the field has warned against mass hysteria, pointing out that most species have experienced epidemics at one stage or another over previous centuries, ultimately with little long-term effect.

07 December 2010

News Digest from the Fake-Crisis Management Center, no. 2010\12-A

Germany unveils plans to tighten internet privacy
Monsters and Critics.com

Berlin - Germany unveiled plans Wednesday to regulate the internet, including opt-out rights from Google Street View.

Google Street View capturing child birth is a hoax
San Francisco Chronicle

That's what people were asking last week as this Google Street View< image capturing the birth of a baby in Berlin circulated around the Internet.


A law for every occasion, as usual:

'The Internet Is Not a Lawless Place'
Spiegel Online

06 December 2010

Doorbusting Geopolitical Events

Which is to say, the very opposite of the NorK condition, unless fascism becomes an Olympic sport.

Pyongyang, November 21 (KCNA) -- The Puebla State Branch of the Mexican National Preparatory Committee for Commemorating the Centenary of Birth of President Kim Il Sung was inaugurated on Nov. 13.

Arturo Mauricio Juarez Lopez, president of the Mexican Puebla State Association for Friendship with the Korean People, was elected chief of the branch.

The branch decided to briskly conduct colorful commemorations till 2012, centenary of birth of the President.
How very cosmopolitan. It’s almost like an Ice Capades of authoritarian leftism. They insist that a desperate world yearns for their wisdom! They will not disappoint!

04 December 2010

It's Probably a Political Statement

Purdue website calculates asteroid damage
Indianapolis Business Journal

...how much damage a comet or asteroid would cause if it hit Earth? ...You can customize your asteroid and pretend it's headed for the Windy City.
Dude, We're So Hosed!

02 December 2010

Help Us, O Leaders!

Even Games are in on the Game
Daily Shopper News

Fearing a planet-wide extinction from a massive asteroid headed towards Earth, world leaders are faced with the inexorable task of ensuring human survival.
What would we do without leaders?